My 2013 Game Acquisitions

by sean johnson

This post is inspired by a similar post on the excellent blog The Everyday Gamer. In his post, Keith listed all of the games he had acquired this year. I was curious, so I did the same. I was a little shocked with the results. :blush::shake: It turns out that this year we either bought (or were gifted) items for 43 games. Here is what we got, when we got it, and a thought or two.

January
Federation Commander: In January I used an Amazon gift card I got for Christmas to buy Federation Commander: Briefing #2 and a couple of boosters. At the beginning of the year I had one base set and two of the attack expansions. I now have the entire product line. I will not list it by month, but there were multiple times this year where I ended up getting some unexpected funds, and I always used a portion of those funds to add to Federation Commander.

Warhammer: Invasion: Along with Federation Commander the other consistent purchase this year (like the three years before it) was Warhammer Invasion. Every time a monthly battle pack came out (and then the big boxes) I picked them up.

King of Tokyo : At the end of January I was facing surgery, and knowing that my wife was awesome and randomly surprised me with this game. It has been a big hit, and one our son likes to play as well.

February
Fleet: My birthday is in February, and one of the things that my wife did for that is drove me to a game store, and gave me a gift card for the store. This is one of the games I got that day. As an added bonus, we have enjoyed it as well.

The Hobbit Card Game: This was the other game I got from the game store on my birthday. While not bad, it seems that this this game either clicks with someone or completely misses.

Skagway: This was another game I got for my birthday from a list of Victory Point Games that I was interested in. Unfortunately, this game was a big bust. It was way to complicated for what it was, and we did not care for it all. We traded the game at Gen Con.

Core Worlds: Galactic Orders: My parents and in-laws have kind of given up on trying to figure out the mysterious world of hobby games, so they tend to just give me money on my birthday to buy the game I want. Along with Federation Commander expansions I also got this expansion for Core Worlds. Everything I read about how this expansion takes the game from being good to great are absolutely true.

Le Havre: The Inland Port: I added this to the same order (free shipping and all of that). My wife and I liked this two player game, but we found the replayability was really poor. After just a few games we felt like it was kind of played out, so we also traded the game this year.

March
The New Era: Every game we got in March was a direct result of attending IndyCon (a local convention). One of the local gamers was really kind to give this game to me because she was not sure if she could trade it (missing rules) and as a congratulations for the impeding birth of my daughter.

Escape: The Curse of the Temple: We had arranged to buy this game from someone for essentially half of retail price. After playing the game several times, we feel that was a good price and this is one of the few co-op games we really enjoy.

Escalation! and Malta!: At IndyCon this year everyone who attended was given a random small box game. These are the two we got. We still have Escalation, mostly because of the small box size. However, after reading the rules we traded Malta! fairly quickly.

Trainmaker: Locally IndyCon is known for their awesome raffle. They have so many games to give away that if often takes 30-45 minutes to do it all. I won a gift card to the The Game Crafter, LLC. I wanted it so that I could get this little dice game, which has been a good pick.

Tesla - Master of Lightning: This was the other game we got from the Game Crafter. We thought that the combination of a deck builder with trick taking sound intriguing. However, in practice we found this game did not just work well and we traded it.

April
Batman: Gotham City Strategy Game: This is one of the few games that I really wanted to get this year, and I got it essentially the week it was released because a local comic book store had it for $10 below MSRP. I do not regret getting this game. The two player game needs a little help to be fun, but a full four player game is really good and a lot of fun.

Guilds of Cadwallon: This was a game we backed on kickstarter. My wife was very skeptical of this game, but it turned out she liked it a good deal. My biggest regret about this game is that I did not spend the extra to add on the bigger box. It would be nice to have the base game plus all of the extras in one box.

Love Letter: After hearing good things about this game on podcasts, I picked it up at a local game store. This game quickly became the go to filler and game night ender. I am very glad to have this one.

Impact City Roller Derby: This is a game that we also backed on kickstarter that came in the same month. Unlike Guilds of Cadwallion, this is one that my wife was very excited about. We both enjoyed this game a good deal.

May
Empire Builder: In May we had one of our all day game days. As a way of saying thanks for hosting these twice a year, a guy who drives in for them kindly gifted this game to my wife and I. My wife, who loves these games, was thrilled!

Tahiti: My wife and I have an annual tradition that we buy a random game we know nothing about in the summer. We then spend the day playing it. This year, we went away for our anniversary and on our way out of town stopped at a game store to fulfill this tradition. We both thought Tahiti was fine, but neither one of us was blown away.

Iron and Oak: This game came at the tail end of May. It was the first game I backed on the P500. I am happy that I actually got my wife to play it this year, and a write up should be coming soon (after we play it a couple of more times).

I did not get any new games in June or July but we more than made up for that in . . .

August
Ingenious Challenges: Early in the month I found this game at a Barnes and Nobles for $2. I did not care much for it, but my mother in law enjoyed it.

Temple Run: Danger Chase: The same day I also found this game deeply discounted at Target. The game is surprisingly fun, but I have not gotten to play it as much with the church youth group as I had originally thought.

Ultimate Werewolf: Ultimate Edition: A member of my local gaming group was selling this as part of a Gen Con no ship auction. I put in a bid, but he decided to take the game down and just give it to me to use with the youth group.

Trains: This gets us to Gen Con where we got several games. Going into the Con, this was our most anticipated game. We had planned to play it in a ticketed event on Friday, but I jumped the gun and demoed the game on Thursday. After the demo, I went ahead and bought it and this has turned out to be a good pick up for us.

Maximum Throwdown: I got this game mostly because I saw a lot of potential of using this game with the teenagers I work with. We have played it some, but I have been a bit disappointed by its reception.

Star Wars: Star Warriors: This is a hex and counter, Star Wars, star ship combat game. It was also not terribly expensive, so this was an irresistible impulse purchase for me.

Blood Bowl (Third Edition): I got this game in a last minute Gen Con no-ship auction because it was a steal. I am still not sure if I will attempt to learn this game or just use the miniatures (about half painted) for ElfBall

Quicksilver: This was another Gen Con pick up. I really liked the look of this game, but my wife was skeptical. The game demoer/designer sold her on it. We both really enjoy this racing game and it is another one we are happy to have.

SET: This is another game where the demo-er really sold my wife. She bought it instantly, but when we played it at home found it did not quite work as well.

Helvetia Cup: I got this game on the last day of Gen Con when Asmodee was starting to discount their games. This turned out to be the game I have been looking for, and I hope to write our review about it this weekend.

Jungle Speed: I was given this game for free for buying Helvetia Cup. It has been fun to play with teenagers, but my wife has vowed to never play this game again.

September
Star Trek: Attack Wing: I played this game at Gen Con, and it felt very similar from what I remembered about X-Wing. That initially caused me to pass on it, but after thinking on it for a month I changed my mind. I do not own X-wing, and the capital nature of the ships means less will be fielded per battle. This has been on of my favorite games this year, so I am glad I picked it up.

Tribbles Customizable Card Game: To track down the original Enterprise I had to venture to some online retailers I do not frequent. One of them Troll and Toad had it, and they also had this game. I have wanted to play it for a while and it was really cheap. This is UNO for gamers, and we both like it.

Myrmes: This is a game that I was really interested in earlier in the year, but did not end up getting. A local game store had it for half price and I snatched it up. I liked the game, but my wife did not.

Star Trek Deck Building Game: The Original Series: A local store had this game for $15. During this month we had a stay at home date where we picked up some wings from Buffalo Wild Wings, played this game, and watched Star Trek Into Darkness.

October
Star Fleet Marines: Module I: Assault A kind user on this site ran a contest where he gave away games on his trade list to other users. He found my reason compelling enough and sent me this game. I have played it a couple of times, and I think it is a really good tactical hex and counter game.

The aMAZEing Labyrinth: In September, my wife and I played this game at a game day. In October she found a copy on a "virtual garage sale" facebook group and she initiated buying it.

November
Flying Colors: Since I got a P500 game delivered this year, I qualified for the legendary GMT 50% off sale. I used that great deal to get this fleet combat game. I have not played it yet, but soon (I hope!)

Island Fortress In November we held the first ever Game On! Game Con. As part of that event we had a silent auction to benefit a local charity. I won this game in the auction. I do not know much about it, but that is fine. I am looking forward to playing it.

December
Arcane Legions: Miniatures Market had this game on sale for unbelievably cheap on Black Friday. I was able to get everything I will ever need to play the game with full customization for less than the price of a new game. When I see how much stuff there is it still feels like a good deal, but I do worry how often I will get to play the game.

Ogre: Back in October I had the privilege of officiating a wedding. I received a thank you card from the bride and groom. The card also had a gift card for a local game store. I was floored when I went to the store and learned it was for $100. It just happened that a friend of mine was there at the same time. After browsing the shelves I mentioned to him, "it is a shame they do not have Ogre, because this would be my one chance to get it." I turned the corner in the miniatures area and on the floor the big box was sitting. I recognized this as a once in a life time opportunity to get a once in a life time game.

The Hunters: German U-Boats at War, 1939-43: This game, which I supported on the P500 just came today! I am already looking forward to commanding my own uboat.

I realize I am making this list a little early because Christmas is still coming. However, I have several other year end list I want to make so I got this one done earlier. There is a decent chance that I will be getting at least one game as a Christmas gift.

Trades
In addition to buying games we also traded for games. I will not make a complete list because there are some games we traded for in March that we then traded away in November. We also put a greater emphasis on playing bought games, so most of the unplayed games we have are games we traded for. Here is a snapshot of the game we traded for this year and still own: