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Everyone has their own beginnings in this hobby, and they all have different experiences with their collection whether large or small, focused on one type of game or buying anything that catches their eye. Every person’s collection is different and tells a story about that person. Whether you are already in the hobby, or looking to join, hearing about other people's collections can be a great way to discover new games or find more about who plays them. So I invite you to discover where my collection began and what my collection contains now. I hope it helps you discover a game you may not have heard about or gives you that push to try one you’ve been eyeing for a while.
Humble Beginnings
Throughout my childhood, my collection resembled most households in the UK, the standard affair monopoly, cludeo, etc. Though my parents occasionally found lesser-known gems such as The Scrambled States of America board game which I credit as why I sometimes know more about American geography than British geography, and Rush Hour which I think was my mum buying something for both of us disguised as a present for me as she loved it just as much as I did.
At university, I got a small taste of modern card games, yes through cards against humanity but between me and my friends, we owned a few of these sorts of card games. I managed to nab an early copy of Super Fight while on holiday and this is technically the first game in my collection as an adult.
COVID and Finding a Community
In early 2020 I found some creators I watched playing Villainous which led me down the rabbit hole on YouTube, if you are familiar with how much board gaming content there is on there you can probably guess where I ended up. This opened my eyes to how big the hobby is and resources like Board Game Geek. I started having ideas of the collection I could buy and the gaming nights I could host. Then COVID struck and those ideas went the same way as with the plans for my holidays.
Around the time of the January lockdown, I started exploring solo board gaming, seeing if it was a thing and if it could work for me to give me a screen break. And thus Cartographers was brought, with its engaging gameplay and seemingly endless replayability I dove straight into building a collection.
My early collection focused on board games that were Solo games or had a Solo mode, I was being good with my collection trying to buy games that could be played no matter the situation. But the longer I spent reading reviews the more I yearned to play other games. Not long after a Gaming Bar near my work restarted their Tabletop nights, it seemed like fate so I plucked up my courage and popped along.
Honestly, one of the best decisions I made. It allowed me to try games before I bought them and gave me a reason to buy those games I wanted but couldn't justify before. This community was also great for recommendations and advice. After a little while in this community, my collection was sitting around half its current size.
Then the fates aligned. I met my amazing partner with an interest in the hobby, and my best friend and his partner (now wife) moved back round to near me and they both had an interest in the hobby. None of these three had a collection of their own so mine became the library that started our board game nights. My collection and my mates started growing quickly. And that brings us up to today where my collection sits at 108-ish strong (and my mates is now 20 strong). So let us delve into some of what sits stacked on my shelves.
The Cooperative Collection
The easiest group to talk about, as I don’t have many. This is the newest type of game I have introduced my group to. As much as being competitive can be great, occasionally it's nice to sit down and focus on a shared goal rather than beating everyone else.
Me and my partner have worked our way through Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion, using it as a break once a week or so doing two scenarios at a time, it's a great way to unwind. Stardew Valley was the first cooperative game I have played with my regular gaming group, it went extremely well nothing too complicated a good introduction to this sort of game and as we only played it recently I have been looking at other games in this category to introduce them to.
Nature and Pretty Games
I lump these two types of games together as they cross over a lot and my partner isn’t always the best at remembering game names so when it comes down to his descriptions it these two categories sound very similar. “The one with the trees” could be like three or four games.
This category has a surprising number of games that are easy to bring out, nature games especially are normally an easy theme to sell people on. Most people like nature and have some connection to it, but some are a bit more difficult Wingspan I swear my spiel is “The game is about collecting birds, but I swear it’s a lot of fun.”
Sagrada was an early purchase for me as I heard it had a solo mode, though I didn’t have a lot of fun with its built-in Solo mode I have found a fan-made one since and had a lot of fun playing with friends. It’s a great dice drafting pattern-making game that looks gorgeous..
Bosk would be my hidden gem in this category. People seem to have either never heard about it or a rare few will swear by it and be excited you know about it. It’s a game of two halves, placing trees in the first and dropping leaves in the second. The board always looks pretty while playing this game.
Everyone and their mother is talking about Cascadia and I honestly didn’t get on the hype right away, mainly because I never fully investigated it until I saw it in a live play where it looked fun. So put it on my maybe I get it in the future list as it hit a few things I was looking for. The literal next day I was in a local bookshop with my partner and there it was on a shelf, it was a sign. Now I get the hype it's got a lot of variation within the main box and quick to play, it's become a regular game for me and my partner.
Roll ‘n’ Writes
Roll ‘n’ writes had an explosion in the last few years, and my collection contains a few of these as a good number have a Solo mode. Also, you rarely feel guilty having lots of these as they are usually (not always) smaller boxes than other games so can justify them as you can have more in the same space as other games.
Cartographers, the game I often say is my favourite as it really did throw me full force into this hobby and not only was a love in Solo I’ve introduced my friends and family to this game and they all enjoy it too.
Welcome to, a game that the concept didn’t grab me at first. You are planning a 1950s neighbourhood, but it's done with this interesting three-deck card flipping mechanic that mixes in powerups and three choices for everyone each turn and takes a good amount of strategy to achieve a good score neighbourhood that meets objectives.
The Best Sellers
These are the games I say a lot of people either start the hobby with or are regularly in the best sellers lists. There’s usually a reason a lot of people seem to have these games and some I would suggest or try with people when they first are looking at the hobby.
Ticket to Ride seems to have a crowd that loves to hate on it, but it’s not deserved it’s a great game to introduce people to and works with people who don't want to play anything too complicated. An early purchase in the hobby for me and have got it to the table a good number of times, most people love it.
Dixit is one of the easiest games to bring everyone in, you have a hand of abstract art cards one of you has to play a card face down and say a word or phrase to describe it, and everyone else picks a card from their hand, you need to figure out which is the original card. We have fun playing without the scoring and have added a few expansions to make the deck huge, easy for a quick or long game.
Game Night Favourites
I am nearly a year into regular game nights with my group and we’ve started to get a sense of what games different people like most and what games we each excel at, this has led to a couple of games standing out as regulars for our group.
Castles of Mad King Ludwig, you are building weirdly laid out castles to score points and meet objectives, who doesn’t want to have to walk through three gardens and a basement to get to your bedroom? This game seemed to meet everyone's needs at my table enough that I was given the expansions as a birthday present by my mate so we would have even more to play.
Muffin Time is based on the ASDF movies from YouTube and has a very simple-sounding premise, start your turn with 10 cards in hand to win but with these sorts of games, it’s never that simple. I bought it fairly early on as it seemed appealing enough that most people I know would like to play and I was right. This should be a relatively short game however we are a group of people who don’t like to lose so can turn this into a multi-hour game pretty easily, a good laugh and kinda silly.
Clank has a few iterations but I would highly recommend Catacombs as the map changes every time you play without having to buy map expansions. The game is about pushing your luck to see if you can come out of the catacombs with the best and most treasure while avoiding being killed by a dragon. A really fun adventure game with good decision-making that not only affects you but can affect other players.
Who wants to play legally distinct Jurassic Park? Well, you are in luck cause that is exactly what Dinosaur Island is and the exact reason it was an instant buy after trying it once for me. A game where you research dinosaurs, manage your park, deal with hooligans, and try to stop guests from getting eaten. The game balances the organisation of the park with a good amount of fun and humour that it's always interesting to play, I will warn anyone who wants this game thought it is a table hog, with four players we have to play around my mates on their extended table and then it's only just enough.
Games I need to play or Play More
Every board game collector has their games that they haven’t played enough or bought and it hasn’t made it to the table even though you bought it a while ago. I’d say my collection currently has three that meet this category, mainly as my other not played only arrived a week ago.
Tapestry was on my wishlist for a while as it had a solo mode but was a little more expensive than I wanted to pay for a solo game. Then one Christmas I opened up a present from my sister's fiance with it in I was in shock as it's such a kind gesture. I’ve played it once solo and once with my partner, I really need to get it to the table with my group but it also isn’t the highest priority at the moment.
Skyrise I bought a few months back after watching videos on it with plans to play next board game night but it keeps getting bumped for other games, soon it will make it to the table but not next week as that's been filled with new games in my friend's collection.
Grand Austria Hotel first played it at a tabletop night and liked it. Bought it and played with my partner early on in his board gaming experience and he wasn’t too keen but said he would try it again now, I need to get it back to the table with him now and again with my full group.
What I want my collection to become
More recently I have been trying to think about what I want my collection to become and how best to grow it while focusing on certain games. Now my mate is making a collection we have agreed that we don’t need the same games, I trust him my my games and vice versa. His collection is more likely to be played with a larger player count so I’m leaving those games to him as he takes them to scouts for the scouts and the leaders.
Also with him making a collection for him and his wife, I can focus more on games that appeal to me and my partner first and them second. I am aware I will always be the main library but if there is a game whose theme is better suited to them I send the link their way or save it to gift them for a present.
I’ve also learnt that I don’t need every game people rave about and ended up selling a few that I made the mistake of buying due to hype rather than an actual desire to play, I have started researching games properly first and if I’m still not sure will try to get to a place to play them to get a proper taste.
Finally, I want to have my collection properly displayed with a gaming table. We are looking to move and want to make a more dedicated area for the games to make it more appealing to everyone who comes around and help make them more obvious so family and friends might be more willing to speak up about wanting to play as that has been an issue in the past.
I’m excited to grow my collection.