Board Game Friday: Building a $100 Collection

Happy Friday, everyone!  For today's Board Game Friday post, I thought I'd do a fun thought experiment.  

What if I had $100 to build a board game collection from scratch?  What would I choose, and why?  

For pricing, I'm going to use Amazon.com prices that are accurate as of the time that I am writing this post.  I'm also providing affiliate links to each game on Amazon in case anything catches your eye!

Building a Board Game Collection with $100:

Game 1:

$7.97:  Flip 7

Running total:  $7.97

Flip 7 is a simple press-your-luck card game that can be played with 3+ players (you can play it with two players as well, but it's not nearly as good).  At only 8 bucks, this is a great start to our collection.

Game 2:

$25.00:  The Quest for El Dorado

Running total:  $32.97

The Quest for El Dorado is a deck-building game where you race your competition through the jungle, over rivers and lakes, and around mountains to win the game.  There is a new version of the game available (which is a bit more expensive), but I have the version shown above, and it's wonderful!  The jungle that you race through is made up of many boards, so you can have a different race each time (and you can control the length of the game depending on how many boards you choose to use).  The Quest for El Dorado has been a mainstay in my collection for quite some time, it's easily one of my favorite Reiner Knizia games, and you can't have a board game collection without at least one Knizia game in it!

Game 3:

$18.89:  Horrified:  Greek Monsters

Running total:  $51.86

Horrified:  Greek Monsters is a cooperative game, and every good game collection needs at least one good cooperative game in it!  Of the games on my list thus far, I own all three.  However, I'll be honest in that I haven't yet had the chance to play Horrified:  Greek Monsters.  I have opened my copy and read the rules, so the hard part is done.  Now all I need to do is find the time to get the game to the table.  Despite me not having played it, for under $20 you can't go wrong with this game for building up a new collection!

Game 4:

$20.99:  Ticket to Ride:  San Francisco

Running total:  $72.85

Ticket to Ride is a classic for a reason.  Unfortunately, the $100 budget limit for this exercise means I can't add in one of the "big box" versions (my pick would be Nordic Countries for 2-3 players), but I can add in one of the smaller city sets.  San Francisco plays quickly, but still provides that satisfying gameplay that Ticket to Ride is known for.  I don't own Ticket to Ride: San Francisco, but I have played the game at my local game store.  I do own two other city sets (New York and London) and would recommend either of those as well.

Game 5:

$27.99:  Dinosaur Island Rawr 'n Write

Running total:  $100.84

Dinosaur Island Rawr 'n Write is a (you guessed it) roll-and-write game all about making your own dinosaur theme park.  This particular game is more complicated than the others on this list, but still easy enough to teach someone (at least, once that person has mastered the first four games on the list).  

I will note that my running total is actually 84 cents over the $100 limit.  If you don't like that, then I'd replace Dinosaur Island Rawr 'n Write with Railroad Ink for $19.99 (another great roll-and-write game, albeit much lighter than Rawr 'n Write).

There you have it, five great games for about $100.  There are many different ways one could go about making a list like this. I'd love to hear yours!  If I were to do this again, I might try and start with one of my favorite big games (which would eat a huge chunk of cash), but then augment that with more smaller, cheaper options.  Maybe I'll try that someday down the line. For now, you've got five fun recommendations for starting a new collection.