u/bukaroo12

I'm pretty frustrated! I feel kind of cheated. We have a couple gaming groups. One hops around to different games quite a bit, but still keeps it kind of tight, but one friend prefers to pick a game and grind on it for a while. The last game we did this with was Age of Innovation.

My wife and I have been excited to introduce him to Barrage. So, we got it to the table with him and he really liked it. After the first play he says, "Is this on BGA?". I said yes and was glad he liked it enough to check it out there. And I'm curious if you already have a guess of where this is going.

We played a few more times and he started stomping us. He says, that's kind of expected, I've probably played about 60 games on BGA. I had no problem with that at all. I'm fine getting stomped and learning from it. I figured, great, he loves it and I went out and bought some of the extra content for the game for more variety.

The 9th time we played, I had a great game (by my mediocre standards) and won by maybe 15-20 points. He says "I wouldn't mind trying it here and there a couple more times, but I'm kind of starting to be over this game. I'm not even playing it on BGA anymore." Two things miffed me: I went and checked his plays on BGA... 220 times! Of course he's getting a bit bored of it! We played 9 together, he has gone off and played 220 times. Second, he doesn't love losing and I think it hit his ego when he got beat after having play 211 times more than me.

So, I'm kind of bummed and annoyed that I'll probably have to pack this game up and put it back on the shelf, possibly to never be played again. He was our only chance of getting a significant amount of plays on this.

Solution: The next game we introduce him to is not going to be on BGA. Was wanting to do Ark Nova, but nope!

https://preview.redd.it/cdu79x9jp58h1.png?width=696&format=png&auto=webp&s=e576470127aef30b301226176eb8bfd2ee814aa1

I made a tuckbox generator web app to share with y'all. You can use it to create tuckboxes for your games/cards or whatever you want. I made it because I'm going to consolidate all of my games made of primarily cards into tuckboxes which I'll then put into one of those long card boxes for easy storage and transport to game nights.

You can try it out here: https://dprather12.github.io/tuckbox-gen/

The image is just to show a couple examples.

I'm a board game player, not a collector, although that's quite subjective. I love to grind on the same game for a while to explore its depths. I also have a group that likes to explore a wider variety of games, but we still keep that rotation kind of tight. Which I also enjoy.

I don't prefer to play a heavy game once or twice and move on. Assuming I like it, of course. I don't see much point. I hack around not having much clue how to play well and then move on to the next. It's not super satisfying. I don't mind doing this as much with light to medium games and they can be revisited on occasion and still enjoyed. Step away from a complex game and try to play a one-off game of it a year later and good luck!

To my point - I've realized I have enough gameplay in my current collection that could easily literally last me the rest of my life. That doesn't even include the games my gaming friends own that we play together. And that's pretty disappointing to me because researching, exploring new stuff to find what I like, finding deals, opening that new game and punching and organizing has all been a very enjoyable part of the hobby for me. And I can't really justify it any more. I'm grateful to own a nice collection of amazing games and to have good people to play them with, but I feel like a part of the hobby is sort of gone for me.

Thoughts? Solutions? Anyone else feel this?

I'm looking to pick up more content, but I want to avoid things that imbalance the game and that bloat the game. For example, I love the maps for Concordia and Power Grid. I have them all, only a few are bad. They don't drastically change or bloat the game, just offer some variance.

So, without a bunch of rules overhead, imbalance and bloat, what should I pick up to keep the game fresh?
How long do you think just the base game content will keep us going without it feeling scripted/samey?

Right now I'm looking at Colorado, all the Executive Office promos and Far Companies. Would love to hear your thoughts.