Shipping

Perhaps the hardest thing running a board games store is dealing with inventory.

The more we deal with this, the harder this seems to get. A lot of it has to do with how much stock to hold, of what games, in what amounts, during what periods. A lot of inventory management that seems to be run on the gut feel because other than a few popular games that continue to sell forever (Settlers, Ticket to Ride, Monopoly, Axis & Allies), the rest just go on a spurt and then seem to die down very much.

Even more interesting are the fact that some games, that would normally sell well in retail don't do well at all online.

Ah well. That's kind of life.

Technocrati post

Technorati Profile

Pillars of the Earth

Saturday was the first time I've played Games Magazine 2008 Game of the Year, Pillars of the Earth. Having come to it with really high expectations, I must admit to disappointment.

It's not to say that Pillars is a bad board game, it's just not great. I can certainly see the replay value in the game, with its multiple strategic options but it just seemed to drag. Mind you, it might just have been the company I had, and I will certainly give it another shot.

Pillars brings very much to mind Puerto Rico, another highly rated game that somehow just doesn't cut it for me. The mechanics in Pillars is definitely simpler (you only have to choose between a series of cards for your resource allocation of workers) but you do have to balance workers, gold and victory points again.

The choice of cards is very Princes of Florence as well, though it does lack the 'bidding' aspect of the game which might have made things more interesting. Perhaps what really gets to me is the lack of player interaction - you are building your own workers and choosing cards almost irrespective of the other players. Sure, their choices limit yours and vice versa, but otherwise, you cannot directly affect the players. And with so many things dependent on luck, it's hard to actually seriously affect your opponent.

As for fans of the book - there is some, but not a huge amount, of tie-in to the novel. The theme could really be on anything, the mechanics just don't seem to play in much to the actual novel itself.

Lastly, I will point out that players with more experience with Pillars of the Earth will definitely have an advantage. Knowledge of cards, resources available and the on-going improvement of characters all play into an advantage the veteran players have. Overall, for now, I'd have to rate it a solid 3 stars.

Time to update

Wow, time does fly. I haven't even looked at this site in years. So what can I say?

Well, for more regular content about life and what I'm blogging about, you should view my board games blog at Starlit Citadel.

I started the business about a year and a bit ago (the company was actually incorporated in April, the business began selling board games in August). It has been an interesting little experiment in business, working out the various methods to increase SEO by trial and error by writing board game articles, updating the blog and various other social media opportunities as well as more generic marketing opportunities.

Perhaps the most interesting development has been Google's release of actual keyword searches. Now I just have to get writing!