One of the priorities on our holiday was to stock up on board games because they are so very expensive here. I ended up doing quite a bit of running around to find many of them and later found some at local stores (to where I was staying).  Below is a list of games that filled our luggage on the homeward journey.

• Agricola-This was my top priority because it’s so expensive. I kind of wished I had ordered it by mail order because it was fairly expensive to buy in store. Also I had to make two trips to Dallas for this one because it wasn’t in stock the first time…and I later found it locally. Even though we’ve been home two and a half months, we still haven’t played this one. I’m sure it will be fine once we get going but because it’s supposed to be long and the instructions are rather complicated, we have put it off so far.
• San Juan- this is the card game version of Puerto Rico. It was fine but we didn’t like it nearly as well as Puerto Rico so have only played it once so far.
• Ticket to Ride Europe- This was another priority game and I found this the first time I ventured off to the board game shop in Dallas. So far we really like this one and have played at least four times. The really nice part of this game is that Lego Lover is able to play somewhat competitively and really enjoys it.
• Apples to Apples- I found this game just about everywhere I went and got it very cheaply in some place like Target. This is a very popular game for the family and it doesn’t take very long to play. This is one that is more likely to be chosen when it’s late and we don’t want to start a long game. Lego Lover may not have the knowledge of some of the pop cultural references but he’s been able to win this one at least once.
• Travel Blokus-I found this at Target and got it because it was ideal for our plane travel. We only played it once in-flight but it worked really well.
• Spongebob Monopoly-This was a had-to-have for Lego Lover, who also loves Spongebob. I played this with him while we were there and the family played again this weekend and it was a fun variation on the Monopoly game.
• Thurns and Taxis- I didn’t know much about this game but found it by chance in a hobby shop that also sold board games. I found the shop thanks to a coupon (20% off) and an article in a local advertising catalogue. We tried to play this once but it became obvious early on that it was another complicated and long game.
• Killer Bunnies Remix- I found this heavily reduced at Barnes and Noble just before we came home and debated about getting it. It’s a sampler of various versions of the game designed to be an introduction. The name sounds a bit violent but I’d heard this was a very funny card game. I bought it and we have kind of played it once and didn’t quite get the right idea about it. I’m sure it will be better with further study of the instructions but we haven’t revisited it yet.
• Eco Fluxx-I think we mostly just have the regular version of this available here but I found there were at least three or four variations in Texas. Lego Lover and I played a few times while travelling and enjoyed this but we haven’t tried it out as a family yet.

I’m not too worried that we haven’t played all these games yet. It’s a bit of a stretch to think we could learn them all and be playing competently when there are so many of them.

Another reason that I bought so many games overseas was the lack of access to them in local shops. We’d been purchasing games by mail order from the east coast because it was cheaper and included free shipping when we spent enough money. So lo and behold, we discovered a new shop called Mighty Dice getting ready to open in a brand new shopping center near us. It’s not that there aren’t games shops around. There is one independent store in Perth that is okay but they were unreliable the one time I tried to order something that was out of stock. Also, it’s a hassle going into the city just to visit one shop. There used to be quite a few stores from two different chains that sold games but they have been gradually disappearing over the past few years and one just closed in one of the local malls. That one was more expensive than anyone else so we never bought anything there so it wasn’t really a big loss.

Mighty Dice opened early in August and we’ve dropped in quite regularly as it’s where we now do most of our food and grocery shopping. The shop sells Warhammer, board and card games and some trading card games. We’ve already got started playing Magic the Gathering, thanks to an interest by Game Fanatic. I only just tried playing this past week and have a slight grasp of what I’m doing. We’ve also bought a couple more games -Alhambra, which we haven’t played yet and Munchkin, a card game which we have played and liked. The shop includes tables so that people can compete in Warhammer and other games while in store. I’ve noticed groups playing Magic the Gathering about half the times we visit, usually in late afternoon. It would seem a nice little community of game players is forming just down the road from us.

And as if these games were not enough, Pokemon the trading card game has been one more addition to the family games library. Lego Lover wasn’t interested in Magic TG and is still a bit young for it. Pokemon has become the alternative and plays similarly to Magic (but is easier).

I guess it would seem we are rather overwhelmed with the task of learning new games and I don’t think we’ll be adding anything new to our library of games for quite a while.