Alfred Wallace: Boxes Inside of Boxes

I don’t think any sane person actively enjoys moving, but for the collector (or accumulator) of bulky things, moving has its own particular problems.  Or, rather, packing has its own particular problems.

Most games—Tide of Iron excepted—are fairly light, but take up a relatively large amount of space.  My thousand games take up a lot more space than my thousand books, in other words.  Most of my boxes come from wine shipments, 18” x 16” x 14”.  That’s not a small box.  I’ve filled up about a dozen of them as of this writing—I put off the task as long as I possibly could, of course—and have cleared out, oh, three or four of the thirty-five shelves in so doing.  And I’m packing these boxes pretty creatively, too.  Meanwhile, four smaller boxes have soaked up about the same percentage of the book collection.

Complicating matters is that I have a smallish apartment.  The umpteen shelves, the game table, and the “normal” living room furniture are crowded enough; add in the numerous filled and empty boxes, and getting anywhere is like solving a Sixteen Puzzle.  I feel like eventually it’ll all “come together” somehow when I get to take shelves down, and it’ll get more compact.  That’s what I have to tell myself, anyway, to keep going.

The second half of this month, I’m “pre-moving.” I haven’t gotten everything packed yet (as mentioned…), but I have to pick up my keys and take care of some stuff.  This will involve a little bit of camping out, as it were.  Some people might wonder where I’ll sleep; personally, I’m trying to decide which books and games I’ll need while I’m there.  Supposedly there’s a game club that meets on the weekends; I’m not sure if they meet during the summer but I suppose I’ll find out.  I also figure that my time spent in State College will be good for miniatures painting; I have some WWII British Airborne to paint up for Flames of War.

Speaking of WWII games.  One of the big releases this week was Tide of Iron.  Metagames opened a copy as a demo, and it drew a little crowd as we pored through the material.  I haven’t gotten a chance to play it yet—nobody around here has—so I can’t really comment about the game itself.  Still, it’s a game I’m unlikely to buy.  First, it’s $80 for a kind of limited US and German arsenal.  Second, and more importantly, I have a lot of WWII tactical games.  I have ASL, Combat Commander, Lock ‘n’ Load, a Flames of War army, and a bunch more besides.  Reading over the rules, I couldn’t find a niche for ToI in my collection.

That said, I’m likely not the target audience.  My sense is that this was designed to appeal to people who don’t have a lot of wargames, and want something solid and visually impressive.  And I think there’s a market for that.  A tactical game for the Axis and Allies crowd?  A WWII game for the World of Warcraft crowd?  I think that could work.

With that, back to the boxes…

© 2007 Alfred Wallace

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Ahh, yes, moving the game collection.  When I last moved, from a small 2-bedroom apartment to my current house, I had 60-some “medium” size U-Haul boxes (18"x18"x16"). 45 ended up being labeled “games.” And it frightens me to realize that that was 3 years ago, when my collection was considerably smaller than it is now. Posted by Jon Theys on Jun 8, 2007 at 09:11 AM | #

Great article.  I’m in the process of moving too.  My biggest concerns?  How do I move the games with minimal damage… and will the gaming group in the area have similar gaming interests… I had the same opinion about ToI.  Of the tactical WWII games you mention, I have only two: Combat Commander, and Lock ‘N Load.  I am getting their expansions too, which will provide more than enough WWII tactical gaming for me.  I see ToI more as the next step for someone who wants to go beyond Memoir ‘44.  Or probably a wargamer who’s ‘stepping down’ from longer and more complex games. Posted by Robert Ramirez on Jun 8, 2007 at 09:33 AM | #

I would not have bought ToI for myself. I bought it because there are some gamers who will play it with me who would not touch ASL (or even AVL for that matter), and I want to play wargames with them. Memoir was ok, but it doesn’t cut it in the long run. The ToI system seems pretty solid. Also, you can get it for just over $50. Posted by Jim Cote on Jun 9, 2007 at 10:59 PM | #

When we moved from New Orleans to East Tennessee back in 2005, I was astounded—and my wife was appalled—that it took nearly 50 large boxes to fit my game collection.  Ouch! Regarding Tide of Iron, the influence of Squad Leader is clearly visible.  It is not as difficult, but it is considerably more advanced than Axis & Allies.  I think it will prove quite popular, expecially for those who still desire a wargame fix, but without the detailed, complicated rules of Squad Leader. Posted by Greg Schloesser on Jun 13, 2007 at 12:59 PM | #

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