There is something about rarity and collectorship that, as people, we just enjoy. It is great to be the only person you know with something, maybe it’s a car, a sports shirt or, in this case, a board game. Of course the rarest board games would be games and prototypes that were never released, failed Kickstarter projects and ones that live in the creator’s attic. However, in this list of rare board games we will make sure to only discuss games that did have a public release.
Table of Contents
- What Makes a Rare Board Game?
- Ticket to Ride: Märklin (2006)
- Antiquity (2004)
- Star Wars: The Queen’s Gambit (2000)
- Fortress America (1986)
- Dark Tower (1981)
- Poisson d’Avril (1983)
- Understanding What Makes Rare Board Games
What Makes a Rare Board Game?
So, it begs the question, what makes board games rare? There are, of course, antique board games like Chaturanga – the Indian precursor to chess – that did not have the benefits of mass production to create large supply. In addition, games like Chaturanga or Xiangqi, in China, are really only widely played in their origin country and so they become relatively rare outside of them. However, this list will try to focus on games that did have major commercial release. There are a few core reasons that board games become rare:
- They go out of print – sometimes replaced by a newer copy.
- They had a limited print run – often smaller, independent board game companies cannot afford to print thousands of copies. If these companies later collapsed, the initial print one is the only one that exists. This is slightly different to “going out of print” because that is a genuine decisions of the publishers.
- Collectors editions games and limited editions – as the name implies these are designed to be limited
- Games based on other media, for example, a board game based on a stand alone film – when that media loses popularity, the board game will stop being published
Ticket to Ride: Märklin (2006)
Ticket to Ride: Märklin starts our list as a game that is a collector’s edition. It was a venture between Days of Wonder’s intellectual property, Ticket to Ride, and a German toy company that specialised in model trains – Märklin. It very much seemed like a match in heaven, but the 2006 game was short lived. While there seem to be some newer prints floating around these do not contain the original Märklin DVD promotional material and photographs of trains that the 2006 version had. Interestingly, Märklin also no longer appears on Days of Wonder’s website. The game has latterly been replaced by Ticket to Ride: Germany, but it is not a perfect replacement.
What makes Märklin Unique to other Ticket to Ride Games?
Passenger and Merchandising Tokens are the key mechanic in Märklin. Cities of varying size start with a number of merchandising tokens, Berlin, for example, being the largest city in Germany has to most tokens. Players have three passenger tokens which they can transport along the railway lines they create over the length of the game. The Merchandising Tokens act as victory points in the game making the win condition slightly different to other Ticket to Ride Games and they can be picked up by the player’s passenger tokens throughout the game.
Price: $150-$200
Antiquity (2004)
Antiquity is one of those classic board games that is out of print, driving up the price. It is a city builder based in Medieval Europe. The core to a city is its workforce and so for each house you build in Antiquity you get a worker who can activate other buildings or gather resources. When you gather resources with your worker you must put two tokens around each of the surrounding hexes. One signifies the resource and the other, pollution. When a tile is polluted it can no longer be harvested.
Throughout the game it is all about managing and trying to minimize the amount of pollution you are creating. This can be done with specialised buildings among other things. It is a really interesting mechanic and a shame that we cannot see more of it.
Price: $200-$300
Star Wars: The Queen’s Gambit (2000)
Queen’s Gambit was released as a tie in to the theatrical release of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. The film released in July 1999, with the board game following the year after. There are two key reasons that it has become so rare: First, it was tied to a film release and only two years after the games release Lucasfilm released Attack of the Clones. It made Queen’s gambit a more redundant game with publishers focused on board games for the sequel. Second, the Phantom Menace, while enjoyed at the time, is objectively considered one of the worse Star Wars films and so very little merchandise of that film saw reprints and reruns – it just was not that popular.
The game sees you fighting in the four key end battles of the film. The Droids versus the Gungans, Obi Wan and Qui Gon Jiin against Darth Maul, Anakin’s space battle against the Droid control ship, and lastly Padme storming the palace. There is a lot of content to get through and the game is mostly driven through a card based deck and dice throws.
Price: $300-$500 – Price is very much dictated by condition, it also has a state of collectorship amongst Star Wars fans.
Fortress America (1986)
Fortress America takes place in an alternate future (or past considering the game was released in 1986) where the entire world is attacks and invades the US. It is a one versus all type game where one player plays as the US and the others the invaders.
Ironically, this was Milton Bradley’s – the publisher – third most successful game in the game master series. The 1986 version’s rarity is likely down to its age. The older a game is the more time it has to be donated, sold, traded etc. Depending on the materials used it also has more time to break apart. In addition, it also came out during the height of US Cold War Rhetoric. The Soviet Union collapsed not too long after this game’s release, in 1991, and so its theme of the US against the world seems somewhat stranger to modern players.
Price: $50-$100
Dark Tower (1981)
Dark Tower is a fun little board game experiment from the 80s. Its gameplay was largely dictated by a small computer inside of the tower. As you journey around the board the computer decides whether or not you will face an encounter, such as brigands or a dragon. Encounters are not always against enemies though, sometimes the player will get lost, or their warriors plagued.
The ultimate goal of the game is to gather an army and three keys that are spread across the map – in a typical 80s board game style. You may then assault the dark tower where a fun array of clicks and beeps indicate a victory for the player.
Dark tower is a rare board game for a couple of reasons, both to do with the tower itself. First, it was reasonably expensive to produce and therefore purchase for the consumer. Second, technology was advancing so quickly towards the end of the 20th century that the computer and ideas used in the game quickly became redundant.
Price: $100 – $200 – there is also a good market for component pieces on eBay because lots of things can go missing/break in this style of game
Poisson d’Avril (1983)
Poisson d’Avril is somewhat of a holy grail when it comes to rare board games, its history is a mixture of twists and turns. The game is of East German origin, of which few board game memorabilia last to this day – nor does the country itself. What makes the game even rarer is that in 1983, shortly before its release, the publisher’s warehouse burnt down and unfortunately board games tend to be incredibly flammable. Only a few review copies survived of the initial which had already been distributed. The publishers decided to do another short print run after the fire, but they had already lost a huge investment and so the run was limited.
The game is based on magic and wizardry and sees players casting spells, collecting fish and beans. The rules simply state “You will know when you have won” which is cryptic enough. Some sources suggest that there was a print error for the rulebooks and each game only game with a fourth of the rulebook intact.
The game’s lifespan really was a series of unfortunate events, but a fun bit of board gaming history.
Price: Unknown – it is so rare we cannot find listings anywhere
Understanding What Makes Rare Board Games
There are many reasons Rare Board Games come about. It could be that they are very old, like Fortress America, and so as time passes editions get damaged beyond repair or lost. Perhaps it could be because the game was a promotional release, like Märklin or related to a film release, such as queens gambit. Truthfully, the rarest board games are prototypes that never saw the light of day and remain stashed away in the creator’s garage. The point is that there are many reasons why board games can be rare. If you happen to have one on this list, take care of it!
