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With board games coming in bigger and bigger boxes, space is definitely becoming an issue in my life. My husband and I are currently moving to a smaller flat and the luxury of walls of shelves are now gone. So the last few months I have been looking at my collection and starting to consider which titles deserve the prime real estate. Don’t get me wrong, I have relished the Tetris-like challenge of reorganising everything to utilise every inch of space, like the true gamer I am. But of course size isn’t the only consideration, these hefty cardboard monoliths come with an equally hefty price tag. All these big boxes can’t surely be worth it? Well here is a selection of costly shelf hoggers that may well be worth splashing out on.
Nemesis/Nemesis Lockdown
I have a number of big boxes in my collection, each of which were bought when I had money to burn, something that really doesn’t happen much any more. But they remain in the collection because they offer incredible gaming experiences time and after time. You see, I love emergent storytelling. The thrill of losing yourself in a game so immersive that the stories live on for years is something that doesn’t come up a lot. However, there is one game series that seems to have cracked the code. Awaken Realms’ Nemesis hit tables in 2018 with a real bang. This Alien inspired game saw you and your team try to survive creatures that hugged your face and (maybe or maybe not) burst out of the chest whilst trying to complete a set of hidden goals. What made this game fun though is there were two ways to play. You could choose an objective that didn’t interfere with anyone else or you could decide to work for the unnamed corporation and turn traitor against your fellow crew members. This hidden/possible traitor mechanism in a horror game really added an exciting tension that made you question who you could trust. This along with big beautifully sculptured (not so small) miniatures that chase you around the board make for an incredible experience. Moments of survival followed by one last traitorous action can end the game with squeals of laughter and frustration as well as scenes of one crew member in the lab surrounded by three adult creepers, a monstrous breeder and the queen herself with nothing to defend themselves with other than a roll of duct tape and an empty flamethrower live on in our groups memory. I prefer the sequel, Nemesis Lockdown which adds a really fun yet annoying mechanism of failing power, knocking lights off every few rounds leaving you prime for picking off! Nemesis is not most expensive game on this list but averaging at around £100 it is a big old chunk of change, but with all the replayability in the box as well as the endless stories to be told, I think it absolutely deserves a place in the cargo bay!
Gloomhaven - Luke Griffiths
If there is a game that is most certainly worth your money, it has to be Gloomhaven. With an RRP of £164.99, though you can get hold of it for less, it certainly costs “a lot”. With a Zatu review score of 97%, however, there is a definite pedigree to this game. What makes it worth the money? Components: You get what you pay for with Gloomhaven. Modular board pieces with overlays, standees for the monsters that you will face. Lots of cards, Character cards, combat decks, event cards, item cards and action cards. Add in miniatures for each character, rule books, quest books, stickers, maps… the list goes on and on. Game Time: My friends and I started playing Gloomhaven over two years ago, we have played once or twice a month ever since and are still going. This is not a game that you are going to feel short-changed by on the longevity front. Should you buy it? This will ultimately depend upon what you want from a game for such an outlay. Gloomhaven is a dungeon crawler style adventure. It offers some element of roleplay but is not demanding in terms of player storytelling. It plays in a unique way; each turn you will play two cards. From these cards, you decide which initiative value you will act on and, when your turn comes around, decide how to use your actions. It also manages to play without you picking up a dice at any point, something that I have not seen as a feature of any other dungeon crawler; this is a huge piece of individuality in the game. Gloomhaven offers not only a lot of game for your money but a play experience that is not replicated anywhere else. If this appeals, and you are able to commit the expense, Gloomhaven is definitely worthy of consideration.
Xia - Roger Bell-West
Xia is a huge table hog of a game in which you take a ratty old ship and proceed to trade, mine and fight to become the most famous ne’er-do-well in space. But it’s not the only one: there’s also Firefly and Star Wars: Outer Rim, and they’re both great fun too. Why choose Xia? Mostly it’s the flexibility. You can make big money trading; or you can go out and mine (especially Ember, with the expansion); or you can do missions; or you can hunt pirates; or indeed you can turnpirate. Each of these needs a slightly different ship setup and tolerance for risk, and each of them will pay off better or worse depending on how the map turns out and what the other players do. Does a map that’s generated randomly as you fly into it make thematic sense in a space game that’s set in a single solar system? Probably not. But it’s great fun when somebody blind jumps into the sun, which has happened in most games I’ve played, and that’s worth it. It’s impossible to take yourself too seriously. You get a whole lot of bits for your money: in the main box alone, 21 ship miniatures painted on flight stands (in a style that makes it easy to get attached to them—hands off my Puddle Jumper!), metal coins, hundreds of cards, plastic cubes for trade goods, polyomino ship components. Even with a custom inlay the box is well filled. This is a glorious sprawling multi-hour game that’s still fun to play even when you’re losing.
Hegemony - Dan Hilton
When you immerse yourself in the vast worlds, settings and mythos (mythi? Mythoses?) that board games can offer I am sure you have your favourites. Maybe it is the more traditional fantasy settings that games like Gloomhaven can offer. Or maybe the vast expanse of space takes your fancy that the likes of Xia can offer. Maybe you like something unusual like the dreamscapes of Etherfields, or the terror of being hunted in Nemesis. But hear me out: what about a gaming night in the immersive world of American politics? Hmmm? I know! Hegemony is probably not a game you were expecting to see here. But honestly, the game took me by surprise. I was expecting to bounce off the game due to the theme; that if you want to play as certain political parties you need to play at a certain player count; that if you want to get the most out of the game, you need to play it at its full 4 player count. But all these things ended up being the reasons why I love Hegemony. I adore how the asymmetrical play wraps around the theme of taking control of different political parties. And I love how thematic that ends up making the experience. The working class is all about worker placement, employment levels and rioting if things don’t go your way. The capitalist is all about setting up businesses (for other classes to send workers), dodging taxes and accumulating wealth. The middle class combines elements of both and need to keep a middle ground to win. And finally, the State is trying to keep everyone happy to work towards their own agendas. The most satisfying part about this game is how all of the parties are taking advantage of the different aspects of the main board and how they all work in conjunction with the other parties in play. Each party will be trying to earn the most votes in certain policies that will benefit them the most, adjusting taxations, the labour market, foreign trade etc etc. Whilst Hegemony may be a little more expensive than the majority of board games available, I would argue that there is no board game out there quite like Hegemony. Playing it genuinely gives me such a unique gaming experience and I highly recommend this game to anyone who enjoys the heavier games out there. Be warned though, it is one of the biggest table-hoggersin my collection!
It’s not easy to fork out a huge amount of money on big games but the beauty of all of the above games is just how replayability comes in the box and for the cost of a family ticket to go and see a film in the cinema, you really can’t beat just how much game you get. Just make sure you also invest in a bigger table!