I got too many games. My wife tells me this and I actually agree, but the thing is, I love getting new games, learning new games and playing new games. I’m trying this year to get at least some of the games I really like back to the table a few more times than usual, but it still doesn’t change the fact that I have too many games and this situation is likely to only get worse as new games are arriving all the time at my house.

Unless I turn my office/game room into a Tardis (not likely) or get a storage space (which would only delay the issue instead of solving it), I need to get rid of some games. Now, this is something I tend to do annually, doing a small purge and getting rid of 10-15 titles. I’m also a regular participant in the local Math Trade, which actually doesn’t help as it only replaces games instead of reducing the pile. This year, I’ve decided to do something more drastic: I’m going to try and get rid of 10 games per month, for around 10 months. Yup, following the 10X10in2014 challenge, I’m going to do a 10outX10monthsin2014.

My rules

Before I start to list the games I’m trying to get rid of, let me tell you how I plan to do this. I don’t want to set a price for any of these games. I want to try something: I’ll put up the list of the games I’m trying to get rid of and let you tell me what you would like to give me for it. If I like what you’re offering, the game is yours. If I don’t, I’ll let you know.

Why do I want to do it this way? Because while I know what I paid for them, I don’t like making deals or estimating what things are worth in real life (love doing this in games, but it doesn’t feel the same in real life). And I want to let people stipulate what the game is worth to them. Also, I want to leave the door open to things like “I’ll play X game with you, the one you’re always bugging me about” or “you’ll never be able to give it away, so I’ll do you a favor and take it off your hands” or even “your website isn’t pretty, I can help with that”. In other words, money is not the only thing you can offer for the games. Go ahead, make me an offer I can’t refuse.

Every month, I’ll add another 10 games to the top of the list. If a game is listed for too long, I’ll simply give it to the Salvation Army or another goodwill organization. So, if you want something, let me know quickly.

One note: if you’re not in Montreal, I’ll have to ask you to pay for shipping, which might just be a good reason to take several games off my hands.

The first games

1. B-29 Superfortress (including Hell over Korea): Not a bad solo game, but it’s just that it doesn’t quite keep my attention. I had heard a lot of good things about it, especially it’s narrative power but in the end, that’s perhaps it’s greatest undoing. I’ve tried playing it a few times now, going through the rulebook, but the small decision space combined with the high number of rolls and tables has just failed to capture my attention. Oh, and yes that means my 10X10in2014 list will change…
2. Enemy in Sight: a nice little cardgame, but I simply have too many of these. While I’m sure plenty of people would love this game, there’s just too many games other games I’d rather play that fill in that same niche.
3. Panzer Grenadier: Battle of the Bulge: Meh. I’ve got both Combat Commander and Conflict of Heroes. This is fine, but a little bland. Nice big counters though.
4. Power & Weakness: Sounded good when I saw the description, but upon reading the rules, it just didn’t grab me. I’ve had this game for a few years and it’s never hit the table.
5. Roads & Boats (including & Cetera): I know, I know… it’s one of the early grails of eurogames. Played it a few times and it just… didn’t do anything for me. I can see where it has brought new interesting ideas into boardgames but I really don’t see myself going out of my way to bring it to the table.
6. Star Trek Red Alert: Got a few packs of this a few years ago and while the idea is quite interesting (and was re-used for FFG’s Warhammer diskgame), I just don’t care enough about Star Trek to actually want to keep this.
7. The Bridges of Shangri-La: I got this mostly because of Leo Colovini, who made perhaps one of my favorite abstract, the excellent Carolus Magnus. Bridges isn’t bad, but not quite as good as Carolus Magnus and again, too many games, not being played, yadda yadda…
8. The Last Crusade: The Russian Front: Yup, another game that looks interesting but which I haven’t been able to get to the table in 10+ years…
9. Trains and Stations: see my review…
10. WildLife: One of the first games I’ve purchased when I started to get into eurogames, I only remember that while it was interesting, it didn’t grab my then gaming group. Hasn’t hit the table since the original play, so off it goes.

Interested in any of these? Let me know by emailing me at genius (at) strawpixel dot com. Let’s see if we can make some sort of a deal!

Happy gaming!

UPDATE:

Well, so far so good. The following games have found a new home:

1. B-29 Superfortress
2. Trains and Stations
3. The Last Crusade
4. Roads & Boats

Any takers for the rest?