Appraisal

 Every once in awhile we get someone wanting us to look at a collection of something and tell us how much it is worth. If we are interested it in buying it from you, we will gladly do so.  However, in general the only things we are currently interested in purchasing are RPGs (role playing games) , boardgames, comics, and Magic cards and not bulk collections of the last two.  For Pokemon cards, we will only offer store credit.

If you want us to look over your collection and tell you what it is worth, we charge $50 per hour to do so.  Going through a collection and determining its value is time consuming and the time we spend doing so is worth something.

We will gladly look at a few cards or comics and tell you what, in our opinion, they are worth for no charge but collections are a completely different matter.

Hummingbirds

 Hummingbirds is a new boardgame from The OP. Designed by Jason Tremblay, the designer of Tacta, Hummingbirds is a resource and time management game. Players move their birds to perch on hidden sand timers, attempting to collect the most nectar.  If you check the timer on which your bird is perched and it has run out, you gain a token.  If the time is still running, you lose a token. You may think you know how long 30 seconds is but are you sure?

Hues and Cues

 Consumer Reports recommends the Hues and Cues boardgame

When it comes to mental wellness, one of my favorite things to recommend is playing a good board game. Hear me out: It’s a ready-made excuse to gather with both longtime friends and new ones (it’s a great way to skip past awkward small talk), and it forces you to stop your doomscrolling. Hues and Cues is a great option for board game enthusiasts and neophytes alike, involving guessing colors from a wide palette of options from a player’s one- and two-word clues. It takes just a few minutes to learn, and I can guarantee that hilarity will ensue.

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Interview with the Owners of Runaway Parade Games

 Interview with the owners of Runnaway Parade Games on the effect Trump's tariffs are/will have on their boardgame company. It's not positive.

Castle Short 3/31

Ajay discussing Tsuro

A Gentle Rain

We got in a Gentle Rain this week. It is a $20 cooperative tile laying game in which players lay tiles linking flowers in order to create a spot for one of the flowers to bloom on the lake. The object to to cause all 8 flowers to bloom. Good for 1+ players and takes about 15 to 30 minutes to play.
 

Apiary

 We just got in Apiary, a resource management game from Connie Vogelman, the designer of Wingspan and Wyrmspan, so if you like her game designs, you will probably like this one. In the far future, sentient honeybees have taken over the planet and you must manage their resources and workers in order to build the strongest hive. $79.99.

Gnome Hollow

 Gnome Hollow was one of the hottest games at gencon, promoted heavily by the balloon gnomes and gnome house on display. The balloon gnomes actually wandered the convention where they could reasonably go.

Gnome Hollow is a tile laying game, with elements of both Carcassonne and Takenoko . Players lay tiles in order to build and expand and move gnomes around the garden to collect wildflowers, sell mushrooms and use signpost actions. Harvesting mushrooms allows the player to activate bonuses and collect treasures.

Cost is $49.99. For 2-4 players, taking 45 to an hour to play.

Dark Tower

 Thinking about electronic games from the last century reminded me of probably the most storied of them, Dark Tower. It sold for about $40 back in 1981, which was quite a high price for that time. Over the next 30 years, complete working copies of the game got very hard to find with working ones selling for over $500. Resurrection Games reproduced the game a few years ago and even that version is selling for $220-$300.

Omega Virus

 Picked up a working copy of Milton Bradley's Omega Virus talking electronic game. Electronic talking games were very popular during the 1990s, with Dark Tower the most sought after, still commanding a price close to $400 for a working copy. Omega Virus was available at the 1992 Gencon and I remember seeing dozens of people walking the halls of the building with a copy of the game. It was the first mass market game I recall seeing a publisher bring to Gencon.

HeroScape this summer

 

We have been looking forward to the re-release of HeroScape, this time from Renagade Studios, who have happily gotten the rights to most of WotC’s boardgame catalog, allowing them to get games like Axis and Allies and Robo Rally back into print (See “Heroscape 2024 Product Release Calendar”). Unfortunately, Renegade, for whatever reason, has decided to release 2 different versions of the game, a Standard unpainted version which will go into distribution and a Premium Painted version available directly from the company for an extra $100. Unfortunately the first time Heroscape released, very few people bought it as a game. Customers bought it for the miniatures and terrain, both of which were painted, which was comparatively unusual for the time. I remember a number of buyers added the figures to their collections for use in various fantasy and SF roleplaying games while Battletech players, especially, glommed onto the terrain because it fit the scale of Battletech perfectly, allowing them, and other miniatures players, to create elevation in a way that flat hex maps did not. HeroScape Sets were a great deal for miniatures players 20 years ago. I will be interested to see how players respond to the new sets, especially the unpainted and more common version.

Frosthaven

 We have been waiting on Frosthaven, the sequel to Gloomhaven, for almost a year and our allocated copies arrived today. We also got two sets of removable stickers, allowing for replay of the game. Even at $249.99, we expect these to sell out soon as we have had customers waiting on the game for almost a year

boop

 If you are looking for a fun 2 player board game, I strongly recommend boop. A player wins by being the firt one to get 3 cats lined up on the bed. Of course, being cats, they are always pushing each other off the bed. Great game that sold out last Christmas so, if you are interested, pick up a copy soon.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom Boardgame

 Picked up a copy of the Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom Boardgame today. It comes from the era before multi-page rulebooks, when the rules were printed on the inside of the box cover and movement was determined randomly by the roll of a die or spin of a spinner. This style of game was quite common in the US until the late 1990s and often were produced to capitalize on a popular TV show or movie. Among the smaller number of strategy focused boardgames, these types of games were referred to as "Ameritrash" games, due to the high amount of luck required to win.

This game, and othe Temple of Doom items, will likely see a resurgence of interest due the re-emergence of the actor Ke Huy Quan, who played Short Round in the film and Data in the Goonies, only to drop out of acting when he could no longer find non-stereotyped parts. With the success of Everything, Everywhere All At Once and his nominations and awards, his early career is going to get another look.

Fuse

 For those of you who like fast moving games and dice games. Suitable for 1 to 6 players, each player pulls a set of cards with different alignments of dice on them. The object is to roll dice, attempting to mach the numbers and patterns rolled with the alignment on the card. Matching a card clears it from the set in front of the player. The players have to remove all of the cards within 10 minutes in order to defuse the bomb. 

The game does have a phone app that provides a snarky timer with sound effects, but the game does not need the timer in order play. Great replay value and a great little game at $29.99

Boardgames Overstock

 We are not currently taking any used boardgames until the end of the month or we sell down some of our current stock. We have too many for the shelf space and have run out of room to store them. 

Once traffic picks up again, we will start accepting them for store credit or cash.

Used Boardgames

We are holding off on buying or giving store credit for used boardgames for the next 2-3 weeks. We have too many in stock currently and need to sell down some in order to make space to take in more.

Used Boardgames

 We are overstocked on used boardgames at the moment so will hold off on buying large stacks of them for the next couple of weeks, uncil our quantities get to a slightly lower level. We will still be glad to purchase 1 or 2 at a time but not 10. Thanks.

Hobby Games

 

I am still not thrilled with using the term “hobby game” as a descriptor for the type of games most boardgame stores stock but it seems the best one we currently have. About twenty years ago, the accepted term was Eurogame or Euro-style game, but as more American publishing houses released games more reliant on strategy than the luck of a dice roll, that term fell out of favor (We did have a customer last year trading in some boardgames who did refer to his collection of “Eurostyle” and “Ameritrash” games). ICV2 defines “hobby games” as those games produced for the “gamer” market and primarily, although not solely, sold through tabletop game stores.

IDW Boardgames Closed

According to a careful reading of the 2nd quarter report for 2021 from IDW, the company appears to have closed up its boardgaming division 

The quarter’s loss was primarily attributable to non-routine factors including a write-down of capitalized expenses related to tabletops games, a line of business from which IDWP has exited,

Thanks to Boardgamegeek for pointing the above out

This, coupled with the cancellation of a number of IDW boardgames in the works, indicates the company will focus on the publication of comics and graphic novels for the forseeable future.