Board game shelves around the world #17

Analog Games aren’t just fun. They also often come in interesting boxes featuring beautiful artwork. It’s no surprise that a lot of us love to proudly showcase our board game collection on a shelf. In this series, every week one of our fellow board game enthusiasts will exhibit their board game shelves and tell us something about their favorite board and card games. Today we are going to look at the board game shelves of Ertan & Mylene from Sydney Australia!

Hi Ertan & Mylene, please introduce yourselves.
E: “Hi my name is Ertan, and together with my wife Mylene we go by @Boardgamia on Instagram.”

M: “Happily married we live in beautiful Sydney Australia with our Frenchie Bullseye. Ertan and I work in IT and Finance respectively and to escape the daily grind we explore our passions of both food and board games by either going to new places to eat or delving into the world of tabletop games.”

E: “Our hobby of collecting and playing board games has grown to the point where we have frequent games night sessions at our place with friends.”

M: “One games night I was browsing IG on my personal account and thought about posting a game we were currently playing. I searched a couple of hashtags and saw for the first time a board game community on Instagram I never knew existed. Board gaming is still fairly uncommon in our circle and not a lot of our family and friends know about this world and it was a breath of fresh air to see other groups out there enjoying the same hobbies we do. With the amount of board games we own I thought it would be fun to join the IG community and share some great shots of our games. One of the things I love most about Tabletop games are how pretty and beautiful they can be. I wanted an outlet to show this and then just like that, Boardgamia was born.”

How did you get into this world of non-digital games?
E: “Well originally I would have classed myself as a digital gamer having gone through a long list of Video game consoles, with the first console I got from my parents after begging and begging, as only a 6 or 7 year old can. A NES bundle with Mario Bros and Duck Hunt with a light gun. So much fun.

E: “My first foray into non-digital games I guess would have started with some of my happiest childhood memories with my father teaching me Backgammon or Tavla as he taught me to say. We would play, I would learn, he would win. To this day, my Dad was the best dice roller I’ve witnessed with an almost magical knack for rolling precisely what he needed at the exact time he needed it. I recall playing some other board games here and there, Game of Life, Monopoly – of course we were playing with the incorrect rules which dragged on and on and on, and even a vintage copy of Scotland Yard. I really got into CCGs in early high school with Magic the Gathering and Star Wars taking up most of my time and most of my money and even though I’ve thrown out the majority of my collection now, I kept my main white and red deck Magic deck.”

E: “Now fast forward to around 4 years ago when a mate of mine emails me a link to a YouTube video. It was a guy from Star Trek and 3 others playing board games called ‘Tabletop’. I instantly fell in love and was hooked. I went out and bought Munchkin and Ticket To Ride. Invited my friends around, convinced my wife to give the games a chance and away we were. Now Munchkin did not go over very well, and to be honest, not a game I enjoy. However, I still remember a point where I made an alliance with a friend of mine in the game, then double crossed him. The look on his face was priceless and from that point I was hooked on modern board games. Ticket to Ride was an absolute smash with everyone and cemented my new found passion. I kept on watching Table Top and started looking for more and more ways to watch, read about and find more games to play. Dice Tower, Rahdo, Sit Down & Shut up, and Board Game Geek were my go to places for all things gaming news. Catan, Dominion and Pandemic came next, and from there, the collection grew and grew.”

M: “Played the usual board games as a kid, Junior Monopoly, Double Trouble, etc. and I mostly stayed at home playing games with sister, cousins and parents. I remember Hotels, Boggle and Game of the Generals being a favourite growing up.”

M: “During my high school to uni years I would play PlayStation/XBOX to pass the time. When Ertan and I first started dating 7 years ago we would play Call of Duty Zombies for hours. When we moved in together we continued our online gaming and I remember we would play either Battlefield or CoD online in separate rooms as split screen wasn’t an option for Battlefield, and we wanted bigger screens in CoD.”

M: “We still play on our consoles but not nearly as much, now that Ertan has discovered non digital games. He’s the one that got me into this world of board gaming. At first it was a couple of games here and there. I remember Munchkin and Ticket to Ride being one of the first few games we played. He invited a couple of friends over and had our first games night with 4 people. I wasn’t a fan of Munchkin but really enjoyed Ticket to Ride. I think since he thought we all had fun it was a sign for him to buy more. He started buying from Kickstarter and Amazon (since the AUD was so good at the time) and it was not unusual for us to always have a delivery from the post each month. IKEA shelves suddenly became a necessity.”

How often do you play?
M: “We try to play at least a couple of games each week. More if we have games night with friends.
I would love to play more than we actually do but then there’s this thing called eating, sleeping and working which I suppose is also important lol.”

E: “Well we do actually play a lot more now because of Boardgamia and with my wife getting more and more into the hobby. Maybe not as much as myself, but getting there. She is usually the one nowadays pushing us to play more, gone are the days where I had to really try to convince her to play games with me.”

Can you tell us something about your shelves?
M: “We have a broad selection of board games that cater for different occasions, moods and player counts. There are two player games for us to play, as well as party and light filler games for times when we have a high amount of non-gamers to entertain.”

M: “At the moment I’m really into Euro games, but due to player count and game duration they don’t seem to hit the table that often when friends come over. It’s usually just us two playing these medium to heavy games, and I would say we probably have more Euro games than Ameritrash. We have come to the point where we are running out of space so we are trying to be selective with our games purchases.”

E: “When I first started collecting, I was getting games that I wanted to play myself, which seemed to be more high fantasy and Ameritrash games, thinking that everyone else would also enjoy them as well. I made the oversight of not considering how complex these games might be for new gamers, games like Mage Knight and Descent. As you can guess they didn’t go down too well. So from there I focused more on gateway games and slowly introducing different styles of games and game mechanics.”

E: “Nowadays, we play almost all types of games, with probably the majority of the collection being medium weight Euros.”

What is your favorite game at the moment?
M: “I am really enjoying Orleans at the moment. I love the flow of the game, the amazing components and there are so many paths to victory to choose from.”

E: “I’d have to agree with my wife on Orleans right now, and more specifically Orleans Invasion. I love how it takes all the great things about Orleans and turns it into an amazing co-op experience. That and TIME Stories. It’s unlike any other game that we have and the way it can immerse you so much in the theme is what’s made it so special for me.”

What is your most special or obscure game?
M: “Ertan bought me Pret O Porter hoping the theme would catch my attention. It kinda worked.”

E: “To this day, the best gaming purchase I’ve made as it got her attention and got her more into the hobby.”

Thank you so much for sharing your story! Something you would like to add?
M: “The board gaming community on IG is amazing. I don’t know a lot of people in our area that is in to the hobby so it is so good to connect with everyone all around the world about board games. Thank you for everyone who has supported us thus far. We hope everyone enjoys our content as much as we enjoy sharing our experiences and perspective of the games we play. Let us know if you want us to post more in depth reviews or video tutorials, would love to hear your thoughts on Instagram.”

E: “We’ve also recently been part of some play testing of yet to be released games, which we thought was amazing. Being able to test prototypes, and being part of the process of tweaking and improving the way in which the game will be released is fantastic. We will also be happy to be of assistance and if you are a developer or need some games being play tested, please feel free to contact us here.”

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