What's the most unique game in our collection? It's got to be Animal Circus, because not only is it one of the few copies in Australia, it also came to us in a most unusual (and incredibly generous!) way.
We first played it back in 2019. A local game store owner used to run these awesome events where he'd go to Essen, buy a huge pile of games, then hire a hall for the day where you could go and try them out. He'd sell off any he didn't want for his personal collection at the end of the day via silent auction too.
We tried a heap of games that day, and bid on three. We got the other two but sadly missed out on this one. It didn't bother us at the time though, because we thought "Hey, no worries. We’ll get it when it comes to the shops".
Guess what? It never did, at least over here. It also proved impossible to buy in English anywhere online, new or secondhand. I gave up trying after a few years until something reminded me about it, and as a last ditch effort I contacted the designer on BoardgameGeek asking if they knew where to find it.
Next thing I know there's a copy from his personal stash on the way from the Netherlands. He wouldn't let me pay for the game or even the postage, all he wanted was to know that someone was enjoying the game.
Enjoy it we have, as it's a really clever mix of trick taking, action cards, and take-that. We got it out again over the weekend and there was lots of back and forth, messing with each other and pulling off clever moves. We're very grateful that we've had the chance to add this to our collection, and to the designer for the lovely gift.
So that's the story of the most unique game in our collection. We'd love to hear what yours is!
#boardgames
Mark Burton
Suzan 
Simpike.instance
Mondriter
Daniel Behnke
Tabletop Sentinel
Iain Cheyne
Brooke Beard
CarcBot
A Tale of Two Meeples
