Well, the holiday season is upon us, and it’s time to start looking for gifts for loved ones (and assorted family members too). Gamers are notoriously hard to shop for because…. reasons. We’ve polled our writers here and we’ve come up with a few lists that might help you find some gifts for that special gamer in your life. With all these lists, we will use Amazon affiliate links (and if you buy things from clicking these links, we might make a commission that help us keep the proverbial lights on here)
You can check out our previous lists at: https://opinionatedgamers.com/category/holiday-gift-list/
In this third installment, we’ll focus on some big-ticket items – because sometimes you really want to make a big splash under the tree…
3D Catan – Catan is considered by many to be the grand-daddy of the current Eurogame culture. There is an impressive 3D version of the game, sure to be the talk of your game group
Big Boxes – One of the recent trends is to have a “big box” edition of a game – where many, if not all, of the extra pieces, expansions, etc are all contained in a single box. Here is a short list of some of the big boxes you could consider:
- Suburbia Collector’s Edition – https://amzn.to/3OmEX8v
- Castles of Mad King Ludwig Collector’s Edition – https://amzn.to/3goRfAH
- Quacks of Quedlinburg Megabox – https://amzn.to/3OkDGie
- Carcassone Big Box – https://amzn.to/3UTgyKe
- Everdell Collector’s Edition – https://amzn.to/3VbtI5b
- Terra Mystica Big box – https://amzn.to/3TSKd59
- Terraforming Mars Big Box – https://amzn.to/3XfceGN
- Fresco Mega Box – https://amzn.to/3hVTOe2
- Istanbul Big Box – https://amzn.to/3XjEmbI
- Escape Big Box – https://amzn.to/3TRMdKE
- King of Tokyo Monster Box – https://amzn.to/3TRxEa0
Crokinole board – Crokinole is one of my favorite dexterity games – with a high amount of strategy involved in every shot. Here is an example of a nice board from a reputable craftsman: https://amzn.to/3USWO9x
What about a blinged up Swarovski Monopoly board? Just short of 900 bucks – but you get 2000 crystals on the board! https://amzn.to/3hYZxjq
Magic the Gathering Boosters – you could look at this as either an investment or just a really fun way to convert your paper money into pieces of cardboard which are just about as valuable… Seems like a good use of 6 large – https://amzn.to/3ELAAkc
What about a gaming table which looks great as a piece of furniture, but also one that automates your Mahjongg games? https://amzn.to/3VcrH8N
If the Mahjongg table is too much; what about a premium set of tiles in their own rolling case? You would certainly be the only one in the neighborhood with one of these sweet wheeled sets. https://amzn.to/3TRNrWg
Did you or your loved one miss out on the Oathsworn KS campaign? Never fear – you can allay your FOMO on this game and buy it on the secondary market. Just leave the power off for a few months and save your pennies – https://amzn.to/3Xg2TP5
Tainted Grail is another KS campaign that you might have missed – but you can get it all here – https://amzn.to/3OkEtjg
That should keep everyone busy thinking about what could be…. Tomorrow we’ll return to some more reasonable gift ideas.
I think at $250 for the game, Frosthaven may be the next “big ticket” item on my list. It’s older brother, Gloomhaven has easily given me the best bang-for-buck of any game I’ve ever picked up. I’ve been playing regularly over the past 3 years with a buddy of mine, and he wants to restart it. (We’re about 2 scenarios away from completing every scenario we’ve unlocked).
To be honest, it’s incredible to see how popular (perhaps even “mainstream”) Magic: The Gathering has become. I remember playing that game with friends in middle school, over twenty years ago. It’s all quite amazing, if you ask me. Thank you for the links.