Monthly Rambling: The Missing Years
One of the popular types of boardgame videos are on top ten boardgames published in a particular year and since I have been in the hobby since 2010, I thought it would be interesting to review the top boardgame by geek rating of each year since 2010 and go through why these top boardgames are not in my collection.
2010: DOMINANT SPECIES (Not owned & never played)Dominant Species is a boardgame about species vying to be the top dog of 90,000 BC. The premise of Godzilla vs Kong vs Mothra vs Ghidorah vs Rodan vs MUTO vs Scylla vs Behemoth vs Methuselah might sound intriguing but sadly the artistic direction leaves much to be desired. The length of 2-4 hours and complexity are also factors that weigh against adding Dominant Species to my collection. This is not to say that Dominant Species is not a good boardgame, already in its 6th printing, clearly there continues to be strong demand for the boardgame in the boardgame community.
2011: WAR OF THE RING (SECOND EDITION) (Not owned & never played)War of the Ring reenacts the epic saga of The Lord of the Rings where Players can choose to be on either the side of the Free Peoples of Middle Earth or the Shadow Armies of Sauron. The boardgame also comes with miniatures to represent the various armies of Middle Earth to satisfy the minis painter boardgamer in us. Unfortunately there in lies the issue for me personally as I rarely ever purchase boardgames with miniatures, as I feel sad to play boardgames with unpainted miniatures and lacking the prerequisite artistic bones in my body, will need to incur extra cost to have painted minis in my boardgame. Additionally, War of the Ring is best played as a two player boardgame. Whilst I am not averse to two player only boardgames, I try not to have too many of them in my collection, especially pricier boardgames like War of the Ring.
2012: TERRA MYSTICA (Not owned & never played)There are boardgames that act as catalysts for the spawning of future boardgames with its "grandfather's" DNA. Boardgames like Dominion, Agricola, Settlers of Catan and Terra Mystica are such boardgames but I already own the Terra Mystica inspired boardgame, Clans of Caledonia, so I have generally held off against purchasing Terra Mystica, especially the big box version. The digital version is available for play on BoardGameArena and if I ever get around to playing it, I might be tempted enough to add Terra Mystica to the collection.
2013: CONCORDIA (Owned & played 5 times)Finally, a boardgame I actually own. I acquired this as a result of following the Essen Fairplay List at Spiel where Concordia was #1 until the last day when it dropped to #2.
2014: ORLEANS (Owned & played 4 times)Another boardgame in my collection. I really didn’t consider it a complete acquisition until I managed to track down and purchase the Trade & Intrigue expansion.
2015: PANDEMIC LEGACY SEASON 1 (Not owned & never played)One of the earliest legacy boardgames that came onto the market, I was very hesitant with the mechanic at the time as it seemed… wasteful to purchase a boardgame only to destroy portions of it. I still stick to legacy boardgames that don’t require a recharge pack to reset the boardgame or has permanent destruction of components. As good as Pandemic Legacy Season 1 is, it seems very unlikely that I will be adding this to my collection.
2016: TERRAFORMING MARS (Owned & played 2 times)Because of the artwork on the cards, I never would have purchased Terraforming Mars at full price. Thankfully the Big Box caused a lot of second hand copies to flood the market and I managed to snag a copy with acrylic player boards at a discounted price. Essential to be played with the Prelude expansion and drafting mechanic.
2017: GLOOMHAVEN (Owned & played 74 times)Gloomhaven was a big game changer in my boardgame hobby. For a season, it was the only thing I would ever talk about with friends who were also into the hobby. I prepared for the arrival of Gloomhaven like I was anticipating the arrival of a newborn child. Now, 6 years after it’s arrival, I might finally be finishing the campaign and padawanbabygeek’s interest suggests that a third play through seems very likely.
2018: BRASS BIRMINGHAM (Not owned & never played)A train boardgame! An area I have only gently forayed into. As I don’t have a strong attraction towards train boardgames, I find it strange to own one and try to convince others to play it with me. Currently the best boardgame in existence, yet I don’t have any compulsion to add this to my collection.
2019: CLANK! LEGACY: ACQUISITIONS INCORPORATED (Not owned & never played)I will say it upfront, Clank! Legacy: Acquisitions Incorporated is on my wish list. I really like and own Clank! In Space! and I am very curious as to how the deck building mechanic can be incorporated into a legacy style boardgame.
2020: DUNE IMPERIUM (Not owned & never played)I have had many opportunities to pick up Dune Imperium and came close a few times. However what has always held me back were two things. 1. The base boardgame feels incomplete with deluxe upgrade packs and expansions being released in quick succession. 2. Lost Ruins of Arnak is similar enough in gameplay and has production quality that is significantly better than Dune Imperium for the same price point. It is a toss up as to whether this enters my collection eventually, if so it would only be because of my love for the IP.
2021: ARK NOVA (Owned & played 5 times)I happily own Ark Nova and wish I could play more of it and can’t wait to include the new expansion Marine Worlds.
2022: FROSTHAVEN (Owned & never played)Frosthaven was a no brainer when it was kickstarted. Gloomhaven was already my most played boardgame in the collection and the release of a prequel with better campaign story on the same system just screamed take my money.
So I own 6 out of 13 of the top boardgames of each year which is an interesting statistic albeit not a very impactful one given that I don’t view dividing boardgames by published year as a factor towards curating my boardgame collection.
Another more interesting but rather complicated category to explore are the top boardgames by mechanic and if they are in my boardgame collection. That will probably be the next monthly ramblings.
Until next time, keep calm and play better.
No comments:
Post a Comment