YORKTON - One of the great things about yard sales and thrift stores is you are never exactly sure what you might find.
As a hobbyist that is always exciting, whether you collect Avon bottles, sports cards or comic books or board games.
To be honest the members of our modest little Meeple Guild are not exactly board game collectors. We are more correctly board game accumulators.
We acquire games with every expectation we will play them one day, although truth be told there are a growing number of games on our shelves yet to see our game table – the COVID pandemic making the problem worse as we have met to play games rarely in the past two years.
The situation has not meant we’ve quit buying games, there were a few passing from one guilder to another under the decorated tree in December.
And, there are regular visits to the local thrift store, where a perusal of the game shelf is a must.
It’s not too often the search has netted something great, but it has happened, Pylos and Pentago coming immediately to mind.
There has also been a rather great looking stone chess set, and a few backgammon games horded for the pieces which are useful when bodgering other games.
Recently, two finds came home, one a real win, one that shows you need to be careful because used games may not be complete.
The first was ‘The Game of Space’, which is a game using magnets. It was of interest because a recent acquisition Kluster has proven to be a lot of simple fun placing magnets within a defined area hoping they do not attract to other magnetic stones already on the play surface.
The Game of Space is similar, but comes with a ‘board’ in four sections, that can be arranged in different patterns. It looked different enough that for $5 I grabbed it.
But, half of the 20 magnets were MIA.
That would be a disaster if Kluster was already not on the game room shelf, where a few magnets can be borrowed from for TGoS.
It was a reminder to check boxes before you buy.
The second find was not one I worried was missing pieces, as it was simply a rather nice mancala board.
There are often mancala boards, the low-cost commercial sets that come with garish marbles, that while functional lack something aesthetically.
This board is a bit larger, with nice rounded cups, and even a bit of simple decoration.
It will need pieces, but that will be simple enough with some dried beans or chickpeas.
The chickpeas being round are nice, but kidney beans being red might look nice against the wood stain – oh the decisions we must make.
Now for some mancala is thought of as a children’s game, and while it is a great one to teach youth some simple math, it has numerous variations which can be played at a very high level.
The games of mancala are good for older players too, as they do require thinking on every play, and the maneuvering of pieces has to be good for the muscles in the hands too.
So it’s never too early, or too late to learn to play and appreciate mancala in its varied forms so grab a board – they are low cost at thrift stores – and be ready for a life-long game experience.
