I’ve been noodling over my game collection the past few months as the time nears to move houses.
Then I saw Dean Essig’s post, and was saddened to see how ill he is. At one time or other I have owned 70 of his games or systems. Sad indeed. It made me think of just how many of his games I am yet to play!
Life is short we need to #rolldice .
That and Its been a frustrating couple of yrs moving and being on limited space with so many larger games.
One good side benefit is I cranked through a lot of smaller games, I might have put off until ‘later’.
I took to BGG to update my collection of stuff. I updated some recent acquisitions. Bad idea. Damn I am up over 300 games and nearly at 400 – 394 to be exact. The good news is I have played 69% of those titles.
Of the 424 games I have previously owned I have only played 53%. About 59% overall. Not including the mounting number of role playing games I seem to be accumulating. Why is that folks?
I suspect I have about 100-150 titles I will want to be rid of once the move happens sometime in Feb.
I’m seriously thinking about culling my ACW titles, dropping all the Gettysburg titles bar AMFS. Potentially letting GCASW go, it really needs a hidden movement system does it not?
Purging most if not all magazine games played or unplayed unless I am really committed to the game. By that I mean it will hit the table at least once or twice more.
Then trim GBOH, down to Roman Empire and classical Greece once I take the Chariots module for a spin.
Ditch Combat Commander. Sell Carthage, and RRR.
Let the OSG titles at all scales go. Release all the La Battelle and Vive l Emperor, even Rising eagles system etc to be free of me.
OCS, some just have to go. Do I really care about Beyond the Rhine? I don’t think I do. BCS – Panzer Battles, Arracourt and the maybe even the two Africa titles for BCS could be jettisoned. Do I need to keep every SCS title?
I do not need to be series whore, a series completest. Enough.
East Front, I love you but somethings need to be moved on, my various copies of The Russian Campaign. Do I really need 3 versions? How many Korsun pocket, Kursk, early war titles do I need? Do I really want to play the Late War on the entire front, to a foregone conclusion and a billion counters? Maybe.
Same goes for the Bulge.
There are some over wrought, titles that will get a quick burial too, along with some ‘un playable’ [at least solo] monsters.
I’d love to get down to just one WWII tactical squad level game, but I cannot see that happening really.
Lots of older SPI stuff that I really should purge, I have scans of most of them to look at in any case.
Some of these adjustments would make more room and more sense and allow me to focus on my core interests, while leaving mental and physical space for new titles, new designers, new publishers and new systems.
There are a lot of great things happening in our wargame hobby, This new house might just be the catalyst for a fresh approach to gaming for the last decade or so that I have to get after it and explore with friends, online and solo.
I’ll post a bit about what I hope to focus on in the new digs in a few days or a week or so.
I’m doing the same. I’m running at 45-50% played and started selling last September. From a peak of 433 games, which cost me CAD $36,000 . USD $27,000 over 30 years, I’ve sold off 84 and plan on going down to about 90 games, my personal favourites and eclectic titles. Some old, some new.
Wow.
I sold about 200 games before moving two years ago, and wish I had sold 100 more. My advice might be to keep at least one game in each series just in case, but at same time agree that sometimes you just gotta let it rip.
:). Getting close to that. Let it it rip that is.
Funny that the first game on your list is Autumn for Barbarossa. I just played that for the first time. Good little game, but the supply rules are too generous. Easy fixes for that. Still love my old copy of PGG though!
Like you, there is a move in the wind – about 18 months to get up over to the northern hemisphere. My collection is nowhere near as large when compared to others – around the 120 mark but I have begun to sell them off. Looking at magazine games at the moment and so far have filled three boxes (50 litre size) with games ready to go. My preference is to find the ‘one game to rule them all ‘as far as each area of interest is concerned – WWI a/c, WWII a/c, modern a/c, tactical WWII and tactical moderns, WWII naval and a couple of space ones. What will swing the balance is when the board and the game itself is open to the use of minis – 2mm/3mm and 6mm. I’ve found that a couple of games purchased like Pavlov’s House I can enjoy better as an ASL module, so I’m always looking at what can be scanned and used in another system. Still early days yet and the scythe continues to sweep.