The Yearly Cull

If you’ve been playing and buying board games consistently for a while, you’ve probably run into a familiar problem: NO MORE SPACE!

It’s one of the scariest thing you can run into in a hobby, especially if you cohabitate and can’t just leave stacks of boxes all over the place. It becomes necessary, at some point, to decide to part with some titles in your collection. It’s painful. It’s difficult. But it can also be freeing, satisfying, and clarifying.

Getting rid of titles can give you time to consider what about a game doesn’t work for you, which means more discernment in your arsenal when you’re buying new games (because, let’s be honest, you’re going to keep buying games). Culling can clarify and focus your interests.

Of course, it can also bring to light how much you spend on board games. Thankfully, I can assuage that guilt a little when I get rid of things. You see, every year in October, our local game store collaborates with a guy who runs the local Extra Life gaming marathon. They play 24 hours of board games to raise money for charity, and as part of that effort, they take donations for a huge auction they run each year. For the last five years I have donated titles to this auction to help raise money for whatever cause they’re supporting this time.

The auction is going on now, and I have 36 titles in the fray. It goes to the end of this week (Nov. 11), and so far I’ve raised almost $100, half of which will be matched by the game store in store credit. Last year I had 35 titles in, and I raised $339. I feel alright about that.

So what’s in the auction this year? I’ll tell you. And I’ll explain why I got rid of each title in as few words as possible. Check it out:

1. Forbidden Sky
Just not fun enough. We’d rather play Forbidden Island.

2. Alhambra
We’d rather play the smaller card game version. The wall scoring doesn’t add anything.

3. Cubitos
Not as fun as I wanted it to be. Too fiddly to play smoothly. No reason to grab upgrades instead of just run for the finish line.

4. Cities Skylines
Feels arbitrary and not satisfying.

5. Princes of Florence
Minimum player count is 3, and my group doesn’t love auction games. Also, fonts in game are nearly unreadable.

6. On Tour
Not that great of a roll & write. The cards/regions bit confuses people.

7. New York Zoo
Feels like you know who is gonna win about five rounds before the end of the game.

8. Letter Tycoon
Just doesn’t get played.

9. P’achakuna
Broken. Not fun.

10. Rollers Deluxe
We have other dice games we like better.

11. Takenoko
The irrigation turns people off. I hate the pattern scoring cards because you can draw cards and win with stuff you already have done.

12. Corinth
Eh. Not a winner, in my book. The dice selection is fun, but overall it’s just okay.

13. Machi Koro 2
I like the first one with the harbor expansion better.

14. Fantastic Factories
This was a huge letdown. Nothing compelling here.

15. Mombasa
The blood diamond theme is gross.

16. Santa Maria
The colonization theme is gross.

17. Onitama
It just doesn’t get played.

18. Mint Works
We have better worker placement games.

19. The Grizzled
Never got played.

20. Movie Plotz
Not an interesting premise.

21. Penny Rails
We have way better train games.

22. Quiddler
People would rather play 5 Crowns.

23. Cantaloop Book 1
Done with it.

24. Mazescape: Labyrinthos
Not a winner in my book. Sorta boring and one note. I have way better solo games.

25. Mystery Rummy Al Capone
Don’t know why we have this.

26. Sherlock Holmes the Card Game
Don’t know why we have this either.

27. Super Mega Lucky Box
Super didn’t inspire anyone. So random, which I knew going in, but I don’t like the way it feels at the end.

28. Cargotrain
Not a great game. We have way better train games.

29. Welcome To…
Can’t figure out what everyone likes about this one. It’s eh.

30. Harbour
Not that fun. Weird art.

31. Cartographers 
I don’t know why I got rid of this. I guess it’s just not making it to the table.

32. Pandemic Contagion
It never hits the table.

33. Project L
What a huge letdown this game was. No ramp up. No satisfaction.

34. Carcassonne New World
We have 3 others.

35. 7 Wonders + Babel and stuff
We have Duel and Architects, and they’re just better.

36. Santorini
Gave it a try. Not something we thought we’d play much. Got for free.

So yeah, there you go. That’s the list. There’s a lot of good titles in there, but I don’t feel too bad bout getting rid of any of them. Are there any here you can’t believe anyone would part with? Or do you agree? Next year I’ll post about the auction before it’s already half over, and maybe you can bid on something. My goal is to consider 40 games each year. I’m not necessarily going to cull 40 games, but I would like to pull 40 of them and examine them more thoroughly to see if they really fit in my collection.

I’ll tell you one thing. Even with 36 titles out of the house, my shelves are still full. There’s just no piles in the corners anymore. I’ll call that a success!

As always, I appreciate your eyeballs. See you next time for my 30-21 top games! It’s getting spicy!

~Justin