PERSONAL DIARY (June 2019): Another month, a Kickstarter update, and no temptations at all? Wow!

June was a nice month…

This end-of-month update is a couple of days later than originally planned, but June 2019 has proved to be yet another month in which a Kickstarter project I backed last year came through (Space Explorers — more of which another time). Yay! If you’ve been following my Updates for this year, you’ll know that means I’ve had at least one KS project delivered EVERY SINGLE MONTH IN 2019… and truth be told I think this is likely to remain the case for the next few months at least, as well! Anyone would think I’d planned it like that, but honestly, that’s not the case at all, it’s just the way cards have fallen.

As it happens, there are at least 2-3 KS-backed games that are destined to arrive over the next few months, including the Snowdonia Deluxe Master Set, Barrage, Hero Master, and Nanty Narking, so I suspect that July, August and September are covered, too. I daren’t look beyond September, but Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon and Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea (a GMT P500 game) are both due after that date, plus a few other game-related KS projects, albeit they’re not actually new boardgames per se… Eeek!

I breezed through June with my resolve not to buy or back any new games on KS this year (which makes it SIX MONTHS now, btw — see my post: 2019: The Year Ahead some way down the page under “Looking Ahead”…), and I must say that it feels like an overbearing cloud has finally been spirited away completely… In the original post I wrote at length about suffering from ‘the cult of the new’ and the Fear Of Missing Out (aka FOMO), and think this is a subject worth revisiting, because this past month has seen me glide through it without the slightest temptation to purchase anything new, and I’m not entirely sure if this is cause for celebration or sadness, to be honest…

Now to be fair, that’s not to say that there haven’t already been some amazing games released this year, it’s just that very few have appealed to me enough to part with hard, ready cash for them! Indeed, looking over the first six months of my 2019 temptations, I suspect that 18Chesapeake and Gladiatores: Blood for Roses are the only games I might regret not backing at the time of their KS campaigns, but I’ll likely be taking a second look at these once this year is done and dusted. Proving Grounds is another one I’ll probably be considering for next year. As it happens, another title on my 2019 Temptations List (back in January) was Wingspan and it turns out my local gaming club here in York (Beyond Monopoly!) is buying a copy of that one, so that’s a title I can safely scratch off the list.

And it’s not just a case of being tight-arsed with my money either, if that’s what you’re thinking, but more a case of having very little time to enjoy the titles I already have — I finally got Fifth Avenue to the table t’other day, for example, despite owning this for months, and at time of writing I still have a few games from last year that haven’t got to the table in 2019 yet: Seafall, This War of Mine and Mythos Tales spring readily to mind… And I’d really like to get Transatlantic, Bunny Kingdom and Colony back out and onto the table, if only to see whether they’re titles I’d like to keep or not. I also planned to spend a lot more time on some of my own projects, but other than putting together issues of The SPIRIT, haven’t done as much of this as hoped. Not thus far, at any rate. Incidentally, I know I’m a tad biased because I do the layout/design work for them, but I think The SPIRIT is a great boardgames magazine, and it’s available to anybody as a FREE PDF too: The SPIRIT of Games and Gamers.

What have I been playing?

That all said, and much as I’ve enjoyed playing a number of games this month including the aforementioned Space Explorers (see pics above), and Ancient World (2nd Ed), Pandemic: Fall of Rome, 1066: Tears To Many Mothers, Fifth Avenue, Tokyo Highway and even Powergrid too; my favourite game this month (and a new one to me) was Black Orchestra — even though we lost, I really loved this, and I don’t know why, but it reminds me so much of Pandemic. Indeed, someone commented during the game that it’s “like Pandemic on steroids“, which I think is as fair and apt a description as you’re likely to find, but that’s no bad thing in my book. Colosseum was also fun, and more importantly I actually won that game (an increasingly rare happenstance), despite trailing behind the majority of the time both in points and ready cash — what this says about the game’s design I’m not entirely sure, but I’m very happy with it, at least… lol

Ooops! I almost forgot — I also made it to Nottingham for the ‘Industry Collective’ social meet in June, and have every intention of going to the July one, too. You can read more about my day and see lots of pictures and photos about it here: A Day in Nottingham…

I’ve also been playing a heck of a lot of MTG Arena this month, but I might come back to that another time…

Ahh yes, my temptations list for the month of June:

Well… it’s empty! Zero. Nada. Zilch. Move along. Nothing to see here…

‘Til next time!

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2 Comments on “PERSONAL DIARY (June 2019): Another month, a Kickstarter update, and no temptations at all? Wow!”

Guy
July 7, 2019

Loving the artivcles Alex, and I must admit you’re no buy policy is inspiring. I think you are 12 months ahead of me in your thinking. I too have a KS every month arriving and I am finding it as much a mental burden as I am exciting. Only backed 2 KS this year. I’ve done my buying for this year, so no new purchases for me between now and next EXPO*

* Apart from KS receipts obviously and the 3rd instalment to the West Kingdom trilogy. Oh and that game I have promised to buy from Chooi……oh and the games I get as ‘payment’ for some coaching I do…..damn thats already 6 games!

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@mangozoid
July 8, 2019

Thanks, Guy! Your comments are greatly appreciated, and I confess that as the months go by it’s getting easier to ignore a lot of new games: a lack of innovation and seemingly endless rehashes and ‘tweaks’ on existing themes is simply not appealing to me, frankly. On the flipside, I do believe this 2019 ‘sabbatical’ has provided me with enough breathing space to assess newer games with a lot more objectivity than perhaps I used to, which is a good thing, I hope.

Thanks again for your comments, and I’m glad you’re enjoying the updates!

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