What sort of Board Games do you Play (1 Viewer)

[BobO'Link]

My nine year old son loves board games. I taught him to play chess when he was four years old and a highlight of our trip to London last month was a trip to Hamleys and the board game section. He then taught my brother how to play Risk when we got home. View attachment 60666 View attachment 60667

It's sad that a shot of the "gaming" section looks like it could have been taken at any US Big Box store... Is that all they have any more?

I see that's also the new 5 Army version of Risk. I like the looks of that one. My grandson (now age 15) loves the game so 4 years ago I caved and purchased a used "vintage" 1998 version to get the standard, old rules, game and plastic armies.

I think we've had it on the table 5 times since it was purchased and we've never had more than 4 players - usually 2 or 3.

My son has a Lord of the Rings version. It, like the original, suffers from the "Australia Syndrome" (see "Rohan" at the bottom of the board) which is a bit sad as I like that one just a bit better than the classic world version. It has a more interesting map.

 

[BobO'Link]

One of today's Amazon "Deal of the day" offers is a selection of board games.

I picked up the "Surburbia, Inc." expansion for Suburbia. Not a great price at $19.99 but a buck or two less than other places I use (miniaturemarket.com and gamenerdz.com) and a few $$ less than Amazon's normal price. Of course by the time you've done an order from one of those places, add shipping, average it out (because you've ordered several things to justify the flat shipping rate), the price will come out about the same.

There are several interesting titles - but nothing I don't already own that I want. I guess that's good (OK... I *know* that's good and I won't have to listen to my wife complain that I already have too many board games).

 

[Sam Posten]

Pearlbrook in the haus!

3 of us did an Ikea expedition yesterday. One guy bought 2x 4x4s, another a 4x4, and I got a 4x2 to go under my kitchen counter. Gencon is next week, I have 5 games preordered from Miniature Market, including Machi Koro Legacy.

 

[BobO'Link]

My son and daughter-in-law are wanting to get me a game storage solution (it's going to be several in different unit configurations to fit the spaces around/under a window - right now they're just piled under/around that window on a very long brick fireplace "seating" area that's essentially wasted space otherwise). I mentioned the Ikea Kallax is what I've had in mind. I've seen those used many placed for game storage and they look like they work quite well with little wasted space and easy access. He's countered with a similar shelving unit from Target. They're about the same price and size (specs show them to be a bit smaller but not enough to matter) - but in the online photos the shelves look cheaper/thiner than the Ikea ones. I'm planning a trip to Target to look at them and see - don't have an Ikea close enough for that - before I give the go-ahead. Does anyone use those Target shelving units? Opinion?

 

[Sam Posten]

I'd definitely go with Ikea over those, ymmv

 

[BobO'Link]

That's my thinking too - especially at the same price. He's also talking about just building something in place... we'll see.

 

[Sam Posten]

#TeamKallax

 

[BobO'Link]

I *really* like the look of those shelves. The interior shelves look thick and sturdy.

I see that you have a larger number of unopened games too. Makes me feel not too bad about all my unopened ones.

Most photos of gaming shelves I've seen, Kallax or other, have the games stored on their side. I've always somewhat liked that idea as it looks like it's easier to get a game out (no pulling it off the bottom of a stack or taking the entire stack out to get to one lower down). Is there some reason you have yours stacked - or are *not* putting them in sideways?

I've not yet made it to Target - in looking at their version online again yesterday it shows they're *not* in stock here, and my first look a couple of days ago seemed to show they were.

 

[Sam Posten]

Sideways storers are monsters. Shit falls out that way! =)

 

[BobO'Link]

That's always been my impression - I'd planned to try it and add extra bags/plastic boxes as needed should it happen. Right now everything's piled up like yours - just with no real storage solution. I may take a photo of how mine are "stored" when I get home - it's quite unwieldy and sometimes puts far more weight on the bottom boxes than I think is "safe."

 

[Sam Posten]

My games are meant to be played, not an investment. Stuff breaks, gets spilled on, lost. I'm not worried about the weight of other games on top of games. They ship a dozen to a carton and sit that way for years in warehouses.

 

[BobO'Link]

I really wasn't too concerned about the weight until I got one off the bottom of a stack and the sides of the lid were a bit bowed. I like to keep the box in as good shape as possible and try to avoid things that'll cause split corners or crushing of the box. I just moved the heavier boxes to the bottom on that one - but my stacks are just too tall for ease of access. That's a large part of why I'm looking for some type of manageable storage solution.

 

[Sam Posten]

The Kallax is certainly sturdier and more cost efficient than my Box Throne. The Thrones just look so cool tho =)

 

[Mike Frezon]

FWIW, Peg and I needed some shelves to organize the various stuff we've gathered for when the grandkids come to visit.

We went with two of the taller (2x4) Target units in Weathered Gray:

They are more than adequate for our purposes. And they went together easy.

 

[BobO'Link]

Thanks for the photos guys! Using the games and Dr. Seuss books as size reference it looks like the Target shelf thickness is identical, or very close, to the Ikea ones. That's been my big holdup... I'm still going to run by Target this afternoon to see if they have them on display (any variant).

At this point it's going over the shelving sizes and area to fill to see just what combo works best. If I calculated correctly it'll take 30 squares to store everything (with a few oversized games that'll have to sit on top).

 

[BobO'Link]

Just got an email from Barns & Noble that my order of Barenpark (from their sale a week or two back) has been cancelled due to unavailability. Bummer...

 

[Sam Posten]

 

[BobO'Link]

Wife bought Castles of Burgandy. Nothing else on sale to blind buy.

Already have Patchwork: great two player game.

I like SmallWorld, but my wife doesn’t like all the pieces and fussiness so it never gets brought to the table.

Hmmm... Smallworld has too many pieces and some fussiness... you may be in trouble with Castles of Burgundy. It's a very fun game - but has lots of pieces and some fussiness. It takes longer to get set up than Smallworld The two oldest grandkids like the game but the set up time is what keeps it from hitting the table much at my house. I purchased some cloth bags for the bits to help with that but it's not made it to the table since then to be able to find out. We wish there were more tile reference cards (like any) included as it's a pain to constantly pass around the manual to look things up. I keep meaning to print some myself but haven't yet. If we played enough that wouldn't be an issue as we'd remember from game to game.

 

[BobO'Link]

I picked up a copy of "Ticket to Ride: London" at WM yesterday.

They have an exclusive on it for a while (don't know how long). We really like Ticket to Ride: New York, saw this, and thought it would be fun too. It has a bit of a different scoring system in how the locations are scored and a score track - something we wish they'd done for "New York." They have a score pad (I *hate* score pads) for "New York." We don't use them but just do the math in our head at the end.

 

[DaveF]

Played Castles of Burgandy a week ago. Initial play didn’t impress me. It feels “old”. The quality and aesthetic of components feels like a Euro from 1995, not 2012, let alone attractive against games in 2019.

And the gameplay has the feeling that it could become a slog with four players.

But I’ll give it another couple plays to see if it grows on me.