Board game shelves around the world #2

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 Mandi from Canada!

Hi Mandi, please introduce yourself.
“My name is Mandi – aka the Board Gaming Pinup Girl and as my alias states, I love pinup fashion and culture as well as playing and promoting the joy of board gaming. I am Canadian, a Financial Officer and I also own my own business as a Make up Artist. My life is crazy busy between my business, day job and many activities, but I always make time for board gaming. I used to be a teacher, so I can’t help but introduce and teach board gaming to all the people I meet!”

How did you get into this world of non-digital games?
“My family always promoted doing activities together and board gaming was a huge one. We played the usual suspects: Monopoly, Clue, Pictionary, Yahtzee, and Risk and added a few new ones along the way such as Catch Phrase and Taboo. My brother, in particular, always made each game entertaining. When playing Catch Phrase, he would give the most random clues and descriptions that we rarely guessed what he was trying to describe. When playing Monopoly, he would give my mom money under the table when she was on the brink of bankruptcy. It would drive us all crazy, but it made it fun and it created good memories, as I am now talking about it with you :)”

How often do you play?
“I would say that I play often! I have introduced my coworkers to some newer board games so; I play with them during lunch breaks on most work days. The games we play are usually lighter fare games which can be explained and played within an hour (i.e., La Isla, Mysterium, Paperback, Mission: Red Planet etc…). I also have a game night every Thursday with my local board gaming group. This is where I play my medium to heavy games or new games that I haven’t had a chance to bring to the table. Sunday afternoons are usually reserved for game play with my close friends and we play a mix of everything. I love having the variety of friends and board games. It usually means that I rarely have non-played games on my shelf for long periods of time.”

Can you tell us something about your shelves?
“My game shelves are a good representation of my eclectic personality. Albeit, I don’t have a large collection, but I tried to choose different types of games which will fit any of my moods or that of my friends! I don’t tend to buy a lot of heavier or more intricate games as I can borrow them from my game group library (i.e., Terra Mystica, and Firefly). Essentially, I want people to come to my home and be able to have one or two games from my collection that they are interested and excited to play. ”

What is your favorite game at the moment?
“My all time favorite game is Caverna, but I think that I currently have a small obsession with Orleans. I definitely had a love at first sight moment with this game. I actually don’t own the game because everyone I know owns it, but I need to play it at every opportunity. I especially love the mechanic of the game. Just when I have my strategy all planned out, I pull the wrong ‘person’ out of the bag and I have to change my strategy. I love a game where everyone is in the same position and has to continuously change their train of thought and it isn’t entirely based on other people’s actions. There are many options and each player has several ways in which to accumulate points. The game gives everyone a chance and this is usually reflected in the final scores which are usually pretty close. It’s either that or we are just amazing board gamers. ;)”

What is your most special or obscure game?
“My most special game is Mille Bornes. When I moved from the west of Canada to the east, I had to learn French. It was very difficult and at times extremely frustrating. One day my teacher decided that we needed to make learning more enjoyable so she purchased a copy of Mille Bornes for me to play. We played that game for weeks, speaking in French, until I felt comfortable enough to explain it to other students. It certainly made me more confident in my French speaking and comprehension abilities and it allowed me to play games every day during school hours!”

Thanks a lot! Something you would like to add?
“I would like to thank you for allowing me to discuss and share my board game collection with the gaming world! Additionally, I will be starting a YouTube channel called To Die For Games with my friend Matt Lorz, aka Starlorz, where we will be reviewing and discussing games, talking strategy and even have guest appearances from other bloggers and/or board gamers. Look out for us in early to mid-February!”

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