This week I want to talk about my game collection.  As I mentioned before, my collection has grown quite a bit since I started my collection.  I like to say that it is a carefully curated collection, but it hasn't been culled in a couple years.  I will say that there are only a few games in my collection that I do not like.  I only keep them because someone else in the family enjoys them.  The last time I checked, I had close to 300 games in the collection.  These range from small deck sized games to the larger ones that cover the table when played.

The size of the collection does lead to a bit of analysis paralysis when it comes time to play a game.  Sometimes choosing the game takes as long as playing the game.  I do have my favorites though.  I tend to lean toward the games with little to know randomness (minimal dice rolls or shuffled decks).  That's not to say I don't like randomness, but luck and I have issues.  It doesn't help me and I ignore it.  Either way, games with heavy luck and I don't get along.

That being said I do have a couple game publishers that I follow and have quite a few games from.  Stonemeier games (maker of Wingspan and Scythe) makes beautiful high quality games and I have enjoyed every game of theirs that I have played.  They tend toward straightforward mechanics and solid themes.  If anything, They can oversell a game and make it seem like you are getting more than what is really there.  Take Wingspan for example.  Wingspan looks like an epic heavy game with beautiful components. When it is really a simple tableau building game.  That is not to take away from its beauty and thrill of play. 

CMON games tend toward large over the top miniature games.  While they do have a few smaller games, they tend to have games with lots of expansions and miniatures.  They are known for the Zombicide series, as well as Blood Rage, Massive Darkness, Arcadia Quest, and the Marvel United Series.  The Marvel united series is a game that could have been done without miniatures, but that wouldn't be CMON.  Don't get me wrong, the miniatures are always well done and there are usually a lot.  They also tend to go overboard on their Kickstarters with a ton of KS exclusives.

Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG) is another company that tends toward card based games.  They also tend to the expansions and they usually have a lot of extras.  Again the quality is usually top notch and they tend to have a lot of cards.  They don't have any one game that defines them but they made Love Letter, Mystic Vale, Thunderstone Quest, and Space Base to name a few.

The final company I want to talk about today is Fantasy Flight.  Fantasy Flight tends toward licensed products.  By that I mean things like Star Wars and Dungeons & Dragons.  They do tend toward unique components and mechanics that don't cross over.  For instance, their Star Wars RPG required special dice only available from them.  This may have lead to it being discontinued as most role playing groups don't like having to buy dice that can only be used for one game.  Otherwise, Fantasy flight makes solid games including my all time favorite Twilight Imperium 4.  They also made Star Wars Outer Rim, Star Wars Imperial Assault, X-Wing, and Star Wars Armada.

 That's it for this week.  Sorry about it being a day late, life happens.  As always, thanks for reading.  See you next week.