What Board Games Are Leaving?

There are four games that are kind of leaving, or potentially doing so, let’s go through those first. Mainly, I remember those off the top of my head. One for sure is leaving, but also staying. One might come to live at work. And two I need to check on to see if they will leave.

Boomerang USA

Boomerang USA is kind of leaving. I got it on a good sale and then realized I had Boomerang already for a roll and write game. I don’t need two copies of what are basically the same game. Just Boomerang USA is a US map and regular Boomerang is Australia, which makes more sense.

Quarto

This is the one that is going to work to see about. It is a solid abstract game. I like the concept of it when I played it. You pick the piece your opponent places down. What keeps me from loving it is that after two plays, the game didn’t feel like it’d be that different. I want to try it at work because it is a fast game. So might work better in that setting. I just know I won’t play it at home more.

Quoridor

This is a game that I have enjoyed. And I think Quoridor is one that is great for a lot of people. It’s a simple abstract game that gives you some real clever plays. The issue is my group has “solved” it. By that I mean we always make the last possible person block. And honestly, it is not that much fun when you stick the block with the last person. I could see it being better now at two than four, but not one that is going to stick around, I don’t think.

Second Chance

This is a game that has had a dramatic fall for me from my original top 100’s to being outside of it this past year. Second Chance isn’t a bad game. I suspect that it is one my wife is likely to save. My issue with it is that I’ve played it a lot. I’ve gotten my phone with it and I am ready to move on from it. Patchwork Doodle does something similar and offers more choices.

Deadly Doodles (1 & 2)

Deadly Doodles is a solid little roll and write game. It takes a dungeon crawl idea and makes it extremely simple. And that’s why it is leaving. I think the expansion adds in more, but it has a lot of expansion boards. And with those boards, you need to learn more and it is harder to get to the table. I would say, there are probably too many extra boards. Plus, Paper Dungeons has knocked this one down for me. Similar concept, but Paper Dungeons is a more interesting game.

Photosynthesis

This one was tough to say that it was leaving. I like it as a good abstract game, but I knew I was starting with that cube, and I knew it just wouldn’t make the cut. The game is gorgeous. 3D cardboard trees look amazing. And I like how mean the game can be. I am trying to get my trees to grow better and faster than yours and block your trees from getting light points to spend as action points. The game looks less mean than it actually is, and I am keeping another game like that.

Ascension: Immortal Heroes

I have three versions of Ascension. I thought that I’d maybe play them all more often than I do. And I guess, that is three versions of Ascension that I am keeping. But I can get them all into one box, so they are sticking around. Immortal Heroes, it seems fun, but higher player count doesn’t add much to me. And I don’t know that I need any more Ascension than what I already have.

Welcome To New Las Vegas

I own Welcome To, which I love. I own Welcome To The Moon that I want to try. But Welcome To New Las Vegas, I was really excited for. I am not so excited anymore. The game looks good, but it looks like too much to me. It’s a two sheet roll and write game, which I don’t mind. But it feels like a lot of busywork without the fun theme of Welcome To. So I don’t think I need all three of the games in the line. And Welcome To The Moon with it’s campaign, that is more interesting.

The Drink

Just an Old Fashioned again. This time, though, I made it with rhubarb bitters. Now, I am out of rhubarb bitters. I really like the flavor of rhubarb, it grapefruit, and lemon are probably the bitters that I always want to have on hand.

Upcoming Stream

So, next Monday, I plan on streaming. I will not be streaming next Wednesday. I have family in town so I won’t be around on Wednesday. Monday, I am planning on doing more of the Should It Stay Or Should It Go series.

And I have to say, I am pleased with the amount I found again for the chopping block. Granted, a few might be going back. I think there is a decent chance that Second Chance is saved because it is so accessible. And it is a fun game. For me, I won’t complain if it is, because I don’t mind it. It is just one that I like to play now versus one that I want to pull off the shelf myself and play.

Which one would you save? Which one would you get rid of?

Send an Email.
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.

Storage

Now this depends a whole lot on your space. There are a lot of good storage solutions out there. The most common one you’ll hear about are the Kallax shelves form Ikea. That is the cubby shelf that I have in the background on my videos and you’ll see them around a lot. But they aren’t the only option. Growing up we had games stored in a trunk. People put them in a closet or in a book shelf.

Another common solution is basically bakery shelving for bread. This works well if you have a lot of games, a hard floor, and maybe a little less room than you’d like. It’d allow you to roll them around. The rolling around means that you could keep them packed up tighter to only have to roll them out at times. Like I said, a good situation if you have less room to keep more games available.

There is a reason why I do like them out of a closet. I have a few of them in the closet, but those are harder to see, that means that they’d get played less. I know I have a few games in my closet right now that I need to get played, and I even have a doors for the closet opened. But really, this article is about sorting, so let’s get to that.

How Do You Sort Your Board Games?

So, this is maybe a bigger question. For people, storage is often set with how your place is set-up, but sorting games is definitely it’s own animal. And there are a lot of different theories as to how to sort. Let’s run through a few of them.

By Color

This one is a little bit silly, but looks really cool. When you sort by color you get kind of a gradient that flows throughout your shelf. However, this is what I’d consider about the least useful way to sort your games. I think to actually use it you’d need to create an index book. So you’d need to create an alphabetical index to find where games are. That seems like unnecessary work.

By Size

This one doesn’t have a cool a look, but works well for some people who have to stack on shelves more. You want to put your larger stuff down lower so it’s both easier to get off the shelf and balance. This way again could use an index, but I remember the size of a game better than the color of the box. But with a Kallax shelf this doesn’t make as much sense. The cubbies allow you to store vertically or horizontally.

By Mechanics

This has been the one that I’ve kind of gone with, well this and the next one. But sorting by mechanic works pretty well because it gives you some flexibility for adding games. If there is room in the deck builder area, you don’t have to place it by a certain color, size, or letter. The downside is that some games use a number of mechanics. Dune: Imperium and Lost Ruins of Arnak are two examples of this. Those two games are deck building and worker placement. So which category do you put it in?

By Theme

Another way that I kind of do is by theme. So all the Lord of the Rings games in one area, all the Lovecraftian games in another. This is similar to the mechanics option, but depending on the type of gamer you are, this might work better. I tend to have a number of games for a given theme. So by theme works pretty well for me.

By Grouping/Expansion

This one is a bit like the previous two. But let’s think about it this way. Tainted Grail is an adventure game with a grim dark fantasy setting. I can fit all of it in a single Kallax cube. I don’t need it to be next to the other adventure games or the other grim dark games. Since it all fits by itself it goes in it’s own cube. Dice Throne doesn’t go next to King of Tokyo though the mechanics can be similar because I have a lot of Dice Throne, put it all together on a shelf. The downside is that you just kind of need to know.

By Alphabet

Finally, we have alphabetical. This one actually has some more issues than it might seem. Mainly that you need spaces around each letter. It ebbs and flows as I add and get rid of games what letter has the most games. So I’d need to keep a fair amount of space by most of the letters.

So What Will I Go With?

That’s the tough question. Probably some combination of, again, by mechanic, theme, and grouping. And even with that I’m going to then inventory where stuff are in terms of cubes. On Board Game Geek you can add in inventory notes, so I’ll make a system for determining which spot they are in. Why do it that way, because it requires the least adjustment over time. I can leave gaps where I want and create gaps as I sell and it doesn’t matter as much.

What is right for you though, that’s a good question that you’ll have to decide. I do think that theme or mechanic are really nice for giving you flexibility in how you leave space for a growing collection. It doesn’t have as much of a specific spot where to put stuff. You just have an area where the game needs to go.

But how do you sort? Are they just generally shoved into a closet or do you have a particular way?

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.

And I’ve been picking up games, I got a bunch of games at GenCon on August, I’ve gotten Lords of Hellas, Blood Rage, and Deep Madness from a local game store, used, to add to my collection. How can you keep a collection under control to have what you really want in it? And not to have games that are just going to sit around and never be played?

There are a few different factors that I look at when I consider what board games I want to keep or what games I want to get rid of. I think the mindset has to be there that you are looking for games to get rid of, not just games to keep, because I could make an argument to keep all of the games. Instead, look for the games that you can remove, not just to keep the collection smaller, but also to open up more room in your collection.

The first thing that I look at, and even though I find the extreme version of this dumb, is, does it give me joy. A lot of people take that to the extreme and end up getting rid of so much that they actually do miss it and realize it was and has given you joy. But, for a board game, I look at it this way, if I didn’t play it again, would I care that much? With the batch of culling that I’m doing right now, I considered the game Krosmaster Arena. While that game has adorable little figures, and I do enjoy the game, I won’t miss playing it. So, it doesn’t really bring me that much joy, but looking at another game I considered, Dead Men Tell No Tales. That game I’ve had more fun times with, and I would still pull it off the shelf and play it, even though I haven’t in a long time.

Next, when considering getting rid of a game, I also look at how much I have that is like it. Now, I have a number of deck builders, Xenoshyft: Onslaught, Clank! In! Space!, Ascension, and more, so I got rid of one of them? No, because I like all of those games and they give me joy, but when I considered the game Unspeakable Words, which the little chibi Cthulhu in it still entertain me, I realized that I have other word games, Quiddler and soon Letter Jam and I don’t think, when I want to play a word game, that I’d ever pull Unspeakable Words off of the shelf again. So there are times when a game might bring you some joy, but if you’re never going to play it again, it might be time to take it off of the shelf. This isn’t a hard and fast rule, because there will be times where you have some games that you just want to keep because of the memories that you have with those games.

I also consider if there is a new edition, and this ties into the previous point, but in some ways it’s a little bit different. For example, I am getting rid of Arkham Horror because I have the newest edition of Arkham Horror, and while I’ve had fun with the 5-6 hour game that the Arkham Horror was, I’m not going to get that to the table over a 3 hour or slightly less Arkham Horror 3rd Edition, or even a game like Arkham Horror The Card Game or Mansions of Madness. Or I’m getting rid of Machi Koro: Bright Lights Big City. Now, I don’t have another version or edition of that on my shelf, but I know that Machi Koro Legacy is out, and when you are done with Machi Koro Legacy, you still have a playable game of Machi Koro. So I’m not going to need both versions of the game in my collection, because they would fill the same need, and I can simply pull out the completed Legacy version.

I also ask myself if a game is still my taste or if I need a game like it still in my collection. Your collection can have only games that you love in it, and maybe only one type of game, but I personally think that you can have a breath of games and find some things out of your comfort zone that you kind of like, you should keep that in your collection or add it to your collection. Now, these games might not give you joy, but there are times and occasions to pull them out. I’m not a huge of Splendor, I think the game works decently, but it doesn’t excite me to play it. But that game came off the shelf a few weeks ago, because we needed a short game that is easy to teach. So sometimes you keep a game that you don’t love and you maybe have other versions of it that you like better, Century: Golem Edition scratches the same itch that Splendor does for me, but you keep the game because it is easy to get to the table in certain situations.

Finally, it might be a game that you’ve never played and never will play. Maybe there is a game so important to keep in your collection just to have collected it, that isn’t a thing for me, but sometimes, if a game has sat around long enough, it’s time to move on from it, because you won’t be able to play it. This is especially the case if you’ve tried to play it or tried to learn it and it just doesn’t look interesting or you can’t find the group. If you’ve tried to play it and you can’t find people to play it with, you have to decide if it’s worth keeping in your collection and if it’s stopping you from adding something you can play to your collection. Now, it might be that it is worth having it, and that is cool, because there will probably be a time, sometime in the future, where you find the right group to play it with, but if you don’t care that much, it might be time to move on from it instead of letting it eat up space.

So, let’s talk a little bit about what I’m getting rid of and why:
KrosMaster Arena: I think this game is the hardest to explain why. I enjoy the game, but I just know that I’m not going to consistently get it to the table again. And I think when it comes down to it, I have other dice chucking fighting games that I like better.
Rise of Queensdale: I was looking forward to playing this legacy game, because it’s a legacy game. With that said, the group I was going to play this with fell apart and I haven’t even removed it from the shrink, and that was about a year ago. So I don’t think I’ll find a group to play it and I have other legacy games, Betrayal Legacy, and probably in the future Clank! Legacy, Machi Koro Legacy, and Pandemic Legacy Season 3 that I’m going to prefer to play.
Unspeakable Words: This game was mainly kept around because the Cthulhu minis were cute. I have other word games that I’d pull out before it, and for me, the game is too random with it’s dice.
Forbidden Desert: A lot of people would keep this game as an introductory coop game in their collection. And I considered it for that reason, especially since I got rid of Forbidden Island before, but I have Pandemic, and I can teach and play that game as an introductory coop game.
Machi Koro: Bright Lights, Big City: Machi Koro Legacy is a thing that I’m going to want to play.
Albion’s Legacy: An interesting one to get rid of, because I haven’t played it, nor have I tried to play it. I got it for free at GenCon, and I wasn’t really that interested in it, but free things. So might as well get rid of it instead of having it take up space on my shelf.
Arkham Horror 2nd Edition: I have the 3rd Edition, and it just takes too long. I’m not going to get it to the table again over the 3rd edition because of the amount of time. I’d prefer to open up room for expansions for 3rd Edition.

That’s all of the games that are leaving this time. I could have maybe found a couple more small box games, but the small box game area still had room, so I didn’t look too hard at it.

Now, what I didn’t talk about was where to get rid of these games. I think that’ll be a separate post, but I sell mine for store credit, you know, to get more games.

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.