What board games are you BUYING?

I'm roaring into 2016 it seems, with three games purchased in little over a month. That's a lot for me. I recently unloaded some old games and stuff on eBay and the money I made has been burning a hole in my pocket. So I'm achieving game equilibrium with some new acquisitions.

First, I bought Codenames, which people have said some good things about. And I like the idea. But once I read the rules and explained to the 3 people in my nuclear family how it plays, I became doubtful that it's the game for us. They seemed luke warm and while I can certainly badger them into playing, they aren't "spirit of the game" players and certain of them will quite likely bend the rules to their advantage. Then I will chastise them but it will do no good for the game will have become tainted. I think I really need a good-spirited gaming group to enjoy this one. (Read: it won't get played soon.)

Second, I found someone selling Lille (the old SPI siege game) and snapped it up. I have a few books on age-of-reason siege warfare and have toured a couple of forts here in North America and a couple in Europe. Last spring I spent two hours at the Musée des Plans-Relief. Lille is a bit of a grail game for me. Now it's all punched, the rules are read, and I am anxious to play it (solo).

Third and last: Battles in the Age of Reason: Fontenoy by Clash of Arms. This is a game I want to play in the next couple of years. I am in a "committed gaming relationship" via VASSAL and this is on our to-play list. It will be the most complex game I've played. But first I have to finished getting a beat-down in a few games of Kingdom of Heaven.

Picked up Space Cadets Away Missions. The game is pretty tough.

Still no-buy, but I went ahead and pre-ordered the new edition of 51st State. I'm a little wary of what I'm hearing about it, but come on, it's not like I wasn't going to get it. And pre-ordering directly from Portal means I put more money directly into Ignacy's hands, which is fine in my book. I think it's not out until August, so by the time it actually gets to me I should be done with my ultimatum list.

Opened and punched my copy of El Grande Big Box. I'm glad to have a copy of this game of my own now but man, this edition is kind of...I dunno. It uses person-shaped meeples instead of cubes, which normally I couldn't care less about, but for this game it's a little off-putting. And the castello just seems small and flimsy. I'll play it and I'm glad to have a copy, but man, I wish I had the old one.

I wonder if you could make a straight trade with someone for the old version? They might be way into getting the expansions, so could be a good for both of you.

Legomancer wrote: It uses person-shaped meeples instead of cubes, which normally I couldn't care less about, but for this game it's a little off-putting.

Maybe they should have used horse shaped pieces instead, such as the knights from Game of Thrones which are inspired by chess pieces. That's what caballeros are after all, right?

MEEPLES INSTEAD OF CUBES???????????

That is heretical!

After getting some birthday money I have set my sights on Acquire. I know what version is the "best" but cannot justify paying over 100 for it. Anyone have advice on which years printing to look for? There is a mint 1971 printing on BGG for $40.

Also Eagle-Gryphon has been turning out some great Sackson reprints. Anyone have insider info on them doing Acquire in the future. I can wait.

$40 seems a little high for Acquire, but maybe the market has changed. A quick look on eBay shows a huge range of prices, with several around $20.

I've gone through a lot of these games and I'd say there's no appreciable difference between any of the bookshelf editions. The most obvious one is the board: some earlier editions have a brownish-gold cardboard board with clear plastic overlay and white numbers; the majority have the familiar yellow plastic board with black numbering. This is purely an aesthetic choice, but I'd go for the more common (and thus probably cheaper) yellow board.

I have the AH big box edition, which is nice, but honestly I much prefer my old 3M edition. It's more compact so it travels better, the tiles are smaller and fit nicely on Scrabble racks, and I prefer the original names of the companies.

Columbob wrote:

Legomancer wrote: It uses person-shaped meeples instead of cubes, which normally I couldn't care less about, but for this game it's a little off-putting.

Maybe they should have used horse shaped pieces instead, such as the knights from Game of Thrones which are inspired by chess pieces. That's what caballeros are after all, right?

Cubes are better. When you're in a smaller province that's hotly contested (with a TON of units from 3-4 factions) the stacking capability is hugely important.

More importantly, the cubes are actually ICONIC and EMBLEMATIC of El Grande. It came out before there even were meeples. Do the pictures on the cards now have meeples instead of cubes?

WTF is this world coming to, an El Grande with meeples instead of cubes...I've half a mind to go into our review at Miniature Market (Kyle Mann gave it five stars and avoided getting fired) and add in an editors note about that.

Acquire...man, it used to be that copies were everywhere...but it is actually harder to find now. The old 3M/AH copies are cool, don't let the vintage fool you. They look like VERY SERIOUS business items from the 1960s, and that makes them really pretty neat. Regardless of the scarcity, I would still ballpark them around $25-$30 in good condition, If you are looking at an exceptionally nice/clean copy I would move that up to $35-$40. The yellow board one is definitely more common.

I have the AH big box one, and it is one of my favorite games. I would not have it any other way, I love it. But don't be discouraged by the older editions or even that most recent AH reprint (which was kind of chintzy)...the game is awesome even if you just draw it on paper and make the share cards out of post it notes.

After a year of staring at some games on my shelf which were seldom or never played, I traded them away for some exciting prospects. Sometimes I feel like an NBA GM presiding over one of those shitty teams that is so far from contention, all I can really do is acquire assets to setup future trades. That's a lot of shipping money down the toilet, but some of these look pretty good.

I picked up Polis and worked through the rules yesterday. It's pretty slick. I was warned that it was largely an economic game, but it's design seems to reveal a game with military conflict and an economic engine that can be used as a weapon against your opponent.

I also swapped for Race to the Rhine. I'm a bit less interested in getting this to the table. I traded it for a somewhat terrible game (Rex). It's a short 3 player game that fills a certain niche when I'm playing with some unwashed philistine that doesn't appreciate the greatness of Churchill or Maria.

On the bought front, I grabbed Guns of Gettysburg fearing the rulebook would be a terrible slog, but it was decent. I think it's much easier than Napoleon's Triumph, so it will have an easier time getting to the table.

Legomancer wrote: Opened and punched my copy of El Grande Big Box. I'm glad to have a copy of this game of my own now but man, this edition is kind of...I dunno. It uses person-shaped meeples instead of cubes, which normally I couldn't care less about, but for this game it's a little off-putting. And the castello just seems small and flimsy. I'll play it and I'm glad to have a copy, but man, I wish I had the old one.

I would have sold you mine. We need a What games are you looking for? thread I guess.

Mad Dog wrote:

Legomancer wrote: Opened and punched my copy of El Grande Big Box. I'm glad to have a copy of this game of my own now but man, this edition is kind of...I dunno. It uses person-shaped meeples instead of cubes, which normally I couldn't care less about, but for this game it's a little off-putting. And the castello just seems small and flimsy. I'll play it and I'm glad to have a copy, but man, I wish I had the old one.

I would have sold you mine. We need a What games are you looking for? thread I guess.

We do. Anybody have a Full Métal Planète at a friendly price? If push came to shove, I'm willing to trade my Pathfinder card game set for it.

I bought the expansion to Ancient Terrible Things. Really fun game, and I like that the expansion is more a "Travel Kit" than anything else...makes this game imminently usable at lunches and whanot.