Board Game Friday: My September 2023 BGG Math Trade Haul!

Another month, another boardgamegeek.com Math Trade.  For those who haven't kept up with my board game trading, a math trade is basically a multi-person trade that is orchestrated by a computer algorithm.  The general idea is something like this:

• Person A wants game 1 and has game 2 for trade.
• Person B wants game 2 but only has game 3 for trade.
• Person C wants game 3 but has game 1 for trade.  

By doing a three person swap, all three people can be happy.  Person A sends game 2 to Person B.  Person B sends game 3 to Person C and Person C sends game 1 to Person A.  

Math trades allow for much, much more trading than your typical one-for-one swap.  I know that I'd love something similar for baseball card trading.  After all, I might have a semi-rare Jose Altuve card while someone else has a semi-rare Barry Larkin card that I want.  Unfortunately, unless the person with the Larkin I want happens to be an Altuve collector, we won't ever match up.  However, if we could introduce a potential third (or fourth or fifth) party into the trade, we could all end up much happier!

Anyhow, in September I did complete another round of board game trading.  This was a fairly big month for me in that I traded off three games (Quacks of Quedlinberg, Ion, and Cash & Guns) in exchange for three new-to-me games.  Here's what I got back:

Town 66:

Image source:  boardgamegeek

A 1-4 player small box game from publisher Oink.  I've had decent luck with many Oink games and I look forward to trying out Town 66.  From what I can tell, this game is best for two players which is great for me since that's my most common player count.  

Ticket to Ride Map Collection 4:  Nederland

Image source:  boardgamegeek

When I put forth my trade offers in early September, my son was still into Ticket to Ride so I figured another map pack would add some fun variety for us.  Of course, as young kids do, his interests have switched a bit lately and he's (mostly) not interested in Ticket to Ride these days (though we did play the OG version a few days ago so who knows, maybe in a few weeks he'll revert back to liking the game again)!  If/when that happens, I'll be ready with another map!

Paleo:

This is the game I'm most excited to try from September's trade haul.  Paleo is a cooperative adventure game set in the stone age.  I love cooperative games and this one has a rather unique theme (as opposed to the usual survive in space or survive in a dungeon).  

My backlog of games unplayed continues to grow so I really need to carve out some time to try some of my games!  It's tough right now since my son still can't read (and he's the one who most likes to play games with me).  I do think I can teach him Town 66 since there's no reading and he can definitely do Ticket to Ride so there's a chance by the time October is over that I'll have played at least two of the three games I traded for last month.  Currently, there is an October board game trade happening but I didn't list much for trade (I'm basically out of the "good" games that people want) plus my own list of wants isn't as large as it was in the past.  I won't be surprised if I don't end up getting a match in the algorithm for October, but that's okay.  After all, I've got plenty to keep me busy until November's math trade rolls around!