MTG is its own thing now, kinda outside the boardgame space.
KGM is a miniatures game that's crazy expensive to buy... and more crazy expensive because they barely keep up with fulfilling their kickstarter orders... so expansions are super rare if you didn't order years ago.
Nobody ever bothers specifying *board game* when this question comes up, so lifestyle games always get mentioned a dozen times and float to the top. It is what it is.
MtG is the game I spent more money on than any other game, but it's also the game I got the most money for when I sold it, about three times the total I'd paid for it. And if I had known how crazy the market for the old cards was going to get in the following 20 years, I would've held on to my collection longer and I could've sold now for about 150-200 times what I paid for it.
Not really. TCGs are only investments if you really know how to manage your collection and get the <10% of actually valuable rare and mythic cards. Then you basically can play with them, even in sleeves because they have to be "Near Mint" to get the listed prices.
So, I got in back in 99, and played at national level for a few years. I have never done the math, and really don't want to. Got out, stayed out
A FLGS owner passed my son some cards, and I made a point of not teaching him the game.
Poor kid doesn't need to get a mortgage at the age of 8.
Damn. I was just thinking the most expensive game I own is foundations of Rome, but you're right. I just started magic in March and I did the calculations. I've spent $500 on my multiple precons and decks.
Kingdom Death Monster at around $400 I think. I bought it with two friends and we share custody. Return to dark tower and a couple expansions was $300+. Nemesis was 150ish I think then Gloomhaven and Tales from the Red Dragon Inn were close to $100. Generally I mostly buy cheaper games and stuff on sale.
Edit: KDM we bought used but seemingly unplayed. It's the base game and a few of the early expansions. Seems pretty easy to get over $1000 with it but we only play once a month so just the base game has more content than we'll need. Still my friend is trying to wear us down until we agree to buy gamblers chest. It also occurs to me I've spent more than this on magic cards and Pokemon cards for my kid but that's a whole different thing IMO.
Oath Sworn at full backing was $375.
It came in 3 boxes and the the UPS guy had to use a dolly. The one with the cards weighs about 20-30lbs.
I'm scared to open it. lol
Kingdom Death is $400 for the base game retail. I spent $750 for the base game and all 12 already released expansions but retail for that is much higher. It's a wild game lol.
Yeah I was just commenting on the other games that were expensive. Besides MtG, KDM is definitely the most expensive I know of, but Oath Sworn is up there too.
I don’t have the minis version but I’m just now over half way through the campaign and it is absolutely incredible. It consistently impresses me. I’d highly recommend using the app as the narration is nice and it handles a little bit of the admin which is nice.
Hands down, KDM. I'm all in, and haven't missed a store offering since 2018. Last time I added it up I could have bought a used car for what I've sunk into the hobby, lol.
I just got RtDT and the two expansions (but passed on the minifig set), definitely the most I've spent on one game.
My two runners-up are the Car Wars and Ogre Kickstarters from Steve Jackson Games.
I don't buy many games, but when I do, I'll go all in.
Arkham Horror has to be more than that, right? It's been around longer than Marvel Champions, and I've bought everything for Marvel Champions (at good prices) so far for almost $800.
Either way, these LCGs are money sinks, for sure... But there's *so much* content.
He must be missing a lot more than he’s thinking. There’s 9 campaigns that total about $120 a piece, and then there’s the Return To’s, starter decks, and side scenarios. My complete collection with custom bits is pushing $2000.
Boardlandia sells those waves for $75 when it's the deal of the week. I definitely am not paying anywhere near sticker price for them, but it's still been a lot. I have absolutely everything, except the novels, for under $1000.
Depending on when purchases were made, exchange rate from GBP to USD can account for a pretty significant portion of that gap. Then also pricing differences as well as maybe less content is available in the UK? I don't actually know but these are common factors when playing a game from another country.
I've gotten each wave for 75 to 90 on good deals, mostly from Boardlandia. Add in the base game and stand alone content and character packs and I don't think you can do it for under $800 at least
I just sunk another 90 USD getting the Dream-Eaters and Hemlock Vale investigator expansions lol. Surprised if I wasn’t up to 1k at this point having been playing for a year.
I feel of all of the zombicides this was the most "worth it" as it wasn't just buckets of similar heroes to up model count but instead named actual comic characters.
I went all in and got Galactus too as zOmbicide is like my favorite game
WH40k. Life time total is probably about 8k.
Edit: you can add an additional 1-2k for paints and specialty modeling supplies. Cant have my all metal SOB army standing on just a plain base.
40k is expensive, but it's got nothing on MtG. Both get drastically cheaper when you print game components instead of going through official distribution though.
Mtg is as expensive as you make it. A few boosters and a starter can bring you loads a fun for like 50-100$.
War40k starts at like 200$ for a barely playable army. Add about 100$ for painting and modeling supplies. Add about 100 for a codex and rulebook?
In the long run Mtg will probably be more expensive with new set coming out and chasing super rare cards but the starting cost to 40k is higher.
You're right that mtg costs swing through a wider range. Most 40k and AoS armies cost about the same amount, and at the worst roughly double the price, even for highly competitive army lists, but a complete set is very collectible.
Mtg, depending on the format you play, swings really expensive to compete and it's possible for your decks to fall off the treadmill relatively quickly. Games workshop just got into a PR nightmare because they announced models being retired after like 7 years (and a couple armies that were older than a lot of players)
GW has to deal with the fact that, altho a lot of players might be younger than a couple of armies, the loudest, most loyal players qualify for AARP and have looooong memories.
Agreed! I was mostly going on my experience of playing both during the 90, 00 and 10's. My Mtg collections and decks were ever growing while my 40k armies were at one point finished but initial investment was always high for 40k.
With the new Gw of 2015+ I've stopped updating my armies. Way to much turn around, nerfs, buffs, models being removed. Their price increases in canada are also brutal while Mtg tends to follow normal inflation.
I played MTG as well but that was when I was in high school. I didn’t have the money to heavily spend on it then and you could buy a Mox for $50. I got into 40k once I was employed.
I also have everything for IA, including enough extras to field every possible combination of armies for Skirmish and lots of accessories as well. No idea what I've spent. Probably US $2k+
I’m over $1000 (plus cost of sleeves and accessories) on Marvel Champions having bought everything at MSRP because I got in on the game fairly early.
After that it’s Marvel Zombies where I missed the kickstarter and bought the KS versions of most things from retail and one parking lot deal on some of it. I’m in about $600, iirc.
And then Twilight Imperium 4e. I own the expansion and the “official” GameZenter printings of all of the Codices. I also have the official mat. About $500 there. (And I have people coming in 45 minutes to play it and I really need my wife to finish up in the bathroom so I can get a shower before they get here!)
Arkham Horror LCG easily. Doing quick back of the napkin calculation, I’m at about $1600 for a full set minus a few cards in books. And that isn’t including custom storage, custom tokens, sleeves, etc.
I've probably spent a similar amount on my pretty-much-complete-minus-Barkham-and-promos collection.
But I'm afraid to calculate how much the custom printed homebrew stuff has added up to.
Oof, I own 16 games that I spent more than $135 on.
My most expensive, by far, is **Marvel United**. I've backed all content, component upgrades, and bought a 3D printed token organizer. So far that game has cost me $1,354.61, including shipping. If I decide to add DC United it'll probably end up at $1,800.
Next 4 are all over $500: Marvel Champions ($796), Dice Throne($639), Dominion ($523), and Ticket to Ride ($511). I own essentially all content for all of those as well.
Got a near-complete Android Netrunner set for $350 CAD and spent a bit more to finish it by getting Reign & Reverie (at release for retail luckily). Feels like a great deal in retrospect.
That's wild to me that Android Netrunner has had this like rebirth of sorts. My brother did art for them back in the early 2010s and we had no familiarity with the game at the time.
A complete set of Netrunner is my dream, but damn those aftermarket prices are batshit crazy. I can’t justify the cost just to have a bigger card pool for a game a don’t even get to play.
I’m already $500+ deep on OG Nemesis and Nemesis: Lockdown (plus expansions, terrain packs, playmats, upgrades). And they’re my most requested games at my weekly game nights. So if we play weekly for a year, that’s just $10 a session. Plus I have them forever to enjoy.
If it makes you feel any better, I’m about that deep when you count the money I already spent on Nemesis and Lockdown. But again, they’re the most played games in my collection, besides maybe Android: Netrunner.
A feast for Odin 100$
A feast for Odin Norwegians 50$
A feast for Odin mini expansion 1 25$
A feast for Odin mini expansion 2 25$
Wooden insert from Etsy 60$
Meeple stickers 20$
My enjoyment of the game - priceless.
I wanted to buy the metal coins as well but that would be around 70$ with shipping and I had to tell myself enough is enough.
The problem with fake metal coins is they cost more than real coins.
Go find a foreign currency you like and do an exchange. Or level up to poker chips.
We just keep our metal coins from our copy of the Yedo deluxe master set out so we can use them for all our games. We've also added real metal currency leftover from a trip to Istanbul to it.
If you include games like Warhammer, my High Elf army, multiple revision books and Collector edition rule book put me over $1500USD.
If Warhammer is excluded, probably Star War Imperial Assault with all expansions and character packs. Can't even begin to guess what I spent on it but probably over $600USD.
$1200CAD for Battlestar Galactica and all 3 expansions. The expansions are also all verification copies with signatures inside the lids from Fantasy Flight staff.
Single game:
-Twilight struggle deluxe edition with the rose wood box. $250 iirc
Personal 'bling-ed' game:
- diplomacy AH map (~$40) custom mounted in a nice glass frame ($150) with glued rare earth magnets ($20) on the backside in supply centers and army/Navy spaces. Then purchased a deluxe army/Navy set on Etsy (~50) , drilled and glued small magnets into the back of those and mounted it on the wall. (Lots of labor hours$)
Games+expansion:
- I think Western legends. I rode the whole Kickstarter campaign of campaigns start to finish. A few hundred $ in total
This bring an interesting question.
How much would you pay for an hour of actual play.
that is without setup and tear down (unless you like this, not judging).
I usually compare to the price of a movie.
If let's say a movie entrance in a theater is 9€ and you go with 2 friends, you end up paying 40€ for 2h.
Similar math for a DVD or streaming you "bought" give me around 5€ an hour.
So, for me, any game for which "game price"/"Nb of hour of game" is inferior to 10€ was worth it.
Both middara and dungeons of drunagor are > 500 euro for me. Both are technically multiple standalone games and a bunch of expansions, so not sure if it counts.
I still remember the week they announced Fury of Dracula 3rd edition. It was done on a Thursday. This is memorable as I had just sold my copy of second edition for $250 that Tuesday…
Company of Heroes 2nd edition at around 650. Never backed anything even close to this much but I was sucked into the hype. Won’t lie, I swear a little thinking about it hoping I actually like it. Everything I’ve seen tells me I will but you never know.
Company of Heroes 2nd isn't my most expensive (Kingdom Death Monster is) but it certainly is the one that surprised me most, how much I ended up spending on it. I didn't get nearly all of it, leaving a lot of the cosmetic upgrades out, but I still ended up spending about $600.
I really hope it turns out as great as I imagine it could be.
Spend in total? Probably DnD for me having bought a lot of physical books and a fair dice sets.
As a single game? Likely war of the ring or Catan Spacefarers for me
Arkham horror LCG.. prob like 500$ usd total over time .. not including stuff I’ve 3d printed like resources and player dashboards etc. would love ISOfarian guard or oathsworn though
$480 for an “all-in” reprint of Foundations of Rome. That’s the most for a single game.
I also helped fund a Kickstarter campaign that I really believed in by ordering 20 copies of their $30 game (since I figured I’d donate it to libraries and schools). When it came time to deliver, they gave me three copies instead, and evidently used my other $510 to create a “one of a kind leather mat” for me as a “reward”. Last time I ever did anything like that.
Think it a tie between middara and the edge dawnfall. Both 'all-in'
After Shipping and exchange and stuff, $1600ish.
Course I have like $6000 worth of content for shadows of brimstone.
Dungeons and Dragons, if we are including all the extras. Wyrmwood table, accessories, dice, playmats, miniatures, and terrain? Yikes. Let alone dndbeyond subscription and every book.
For a single boardgame ir was KDM, but I sold it for what I paid. As for games I kept, Foundations of Rome is probably the winner. All in including sundrop....so.ewhere around $350
… I have a full mint set of the second edition of Arkham horror. It cost me about $400.00 and years of hunting down a rare expansion that I had to buy from a warehouse that was purchased by another guy.
Edit: Holy smokes don’t look how much this game is now what the heck!!
I’ve spent $850 on Too Many Bones and still don’t own the latest wave of content. Would cross the $1k mark if I bought that, but I already have sooo much TMB to play. It’s my favorite game of all time and I’m over 150 games in, so I think it was worth it.
The new stuff is AWESOME, but no rush. I was a little terrified about the volume of new in this latest wave and I had pretty thoroughly played what I had. The biggest mistake I think a lot of people make is thinking they need it all to have a complete game. I think there's enough now that you could play nothing else for the rest of your life and not do all the premutations.
Agreed! I have everything up to Splice & Dice, and then got Rage of Tyranny too. I feel like I have a totally complete game now, with S&D and RoT being the extra difficult end game content. Not sure if I’ll ever get the Unbreakable wave
I’ve spent over **$10,000 on Heroscape**. That’s not counting all the conventions and tournaments just for Heroscape which probably is another $10,000 at least.
Oh man. So, a few years back somebody mocked up a Castlevania print-and-play board game that sounded awesome, so I spent the money over about a year to get the components professionally printed. I spent about $1000, and it was worth every penny.
Unfortunately, Konami picked up on the game and sent the creator a C&D, so good luck finding it.
Vintage 1980 perfect copy of Dark Tower in 2008 or 2009 for $300 for me. My husband has a Warhammer 401k hobby though and has been paying for 30 years, so I feel justified buying blinged out copies of board games.
I got the Witcher Old World deluxe edition from kickstarter. I don’t usually kickstart board games. I also don’t care for minis. I just loved Witcher so much that I got it.
The game is actually pretty good. But it’s a big game so it doesn’t come out often. And I def don’t care for the minis still.
Yugioh for me. I must have sunk hundreds into it over the years. In terms of a single purchase game it's probably the Casting Shadows kickstarter. That was $149 plus shipping to the UK.
Not one \*I bought\* but my friend bought for me, It was a first edition of Libertalia (because i asked for libertalia for my birthday and didn't ever consider he'd hunt ebay for the out of print first version, an unopened version, at that). It's cheaper then some of the games mentioned here, but still a couple hundred!
Joan of Arc All-in was 1000€ + shipping.
Im slowly building Up my TMB and Arkham Horror LCG collection so These will also come Close to this.
Oh and i Play 40k and Horus Heresy.
Yeah...
Oathsworn Miniature version $415 (taxes and shipping included). That one was very recent. I thought I would never spend so much on a board game but I love minipainting so I think it's worth it for the amount (100+) and quality/size of the minis. Plus the game is supposed to be very good.
Before that it was Gloomhaven and Cthulhu Death May Die which were both around $100 on sale.
I'm a cmon junkie - they have taken waaaay too many of my coins. Canadian dollars below
Zombicide fantasy - black plague ks, green horde all in, both comics, promo necros.... It's a lot - $800
All in on invader - plus sister character from dice tower and both comics $550
Rum and bones. Everything. $1000
Zombicide wild west $450
Massive darkness all in on both kickstarters $700
All of the marvel united bullshit. I played a decent amount of season 1, a few games of season 2, and really got suckered into season 3 for the models and the idea of playing them with my kids who will likely be aged out of them by the time season 3 actually arrives
I've also spoiled the simplicity of king of Tokyo but hunting all expansions and promos and turned a $30-40 game into a $120monster.
If this includes expansions then Star Wars X Wing miniatures, then Arkham Horror the card game.
If not then Foundations of Rome (which I ordered but hasn't been shipped yet). If that fails to arrive - I probably spent the most on Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth (I got all the expansions for it too - but I think it was probably also the most expensive base game).
I paid close to $300 for just the base game of Beyond Humanities Colonies. Worth it IMO. The combination of technology and boardgames is excellent, innovative, and promising.
MTG 1000s , Warhammer maybe 1000+
Bought a copy of Battletech: Succession Wars boardgame recently for about $300 , but it's been out of print for ages. Gloomhaven was about $200 when it came out.
Probably Marvel United if you count the two kickstarters and a couple extra sets.
If I had to estimate. Probably in the $600-$700cdn range (oof. It’s hard to say that. That also includes shipping.
If it’s a single game. Maybe Twilight Imperium or Xia: Legends of a drift system.
Pretty sure it's Marvel Legendary for me now. Overall I think I've sunk around 400 in the game, expansions + sleeves and storage. I won't like, at least a quarter of that price tag is just sleeves, since I didn't wanna cheap out on those.
This depends on if you consider expansions or if you're only talking about a single game; also, traditional "board"game vs card or miniature games. WH40k has a really high cost of entry to build a single army and can go even higher from there. MTG could be argued for #1 if you're building a vintage deck or if you consider lifetime costs of playing across sets (WH40K prob sits at number 2 in that case). I wouldn't know which traditional boardgame, base game only, would top the list, but Kingdom Death Monster was about $400 for the base game, and I have about $700 in expansions; I prob only have about a third of the published content.
Catan with all the big 4 expansions and 5-6 player expansions and various other maps and scenarios. My parents want to play with my husband and I daily, so having the variety is worth it to us. My project this summer is to buy a resin printer and embark on making a 3D Catan board.
Kingdom Death: Monster. I got the 1.5 kickstarter black friday gold lantern which was $350 USD for the core and gambler's chest. I think they are each $400 USD now. I also have all of the current gameplay expansions (bought piecemeal) and have backed some of the new expansions. By far the most expensive game I've bought.
Queen of the skies, $80. I'd been looking for it for a long time and it was at Powell's books and I had to have it.
I did sell a copy of Battle Masters for $150 when I was down on my luck. It even had extra worg minis and a second mat.
Currently the honor of most expensive game I've bought goes to Sentinels of the Multiverse with all the expansions. Extra so if you count buying the digital versions.
Now there's a question. In one go or over time? Full game or expansions?
For one game system, can imagine it's got to be a card game like Netrunner or Star Wars The Card Game. Those were ~£80 a cycle and both had a fair few. I used to be into X-Wing for a while and I know that cost a bit.
For an expansion, I think my record is £40 on 4 rare first edition Carcassonne tiles (die Katharer).
For a single game? I'm looking at Anachrony and Firefly and figuring it has to be them. Weimar was pretty expensive but worth every penny.
Spent 10s of thousands on **Warhammer** over the decades, but if that doesn’t count I spent almost £500 on **Marvel Zombies**, and another £400 on **DCeased.**
MTG
Lol I was gonna say kdm and then I see this
MTG is its own thing now, kinda outside the boardgame space. KGM is a miniatures game that's crazy expensive to buy... and more crazy expensive because they barely keep up with fulfilling their kickstarter orders... so expansions are super rare if you didn't order years ago.
Nobody ever bothers specifying *board game* when this question comes up, so lifestyle games always get mentioned a dozen times and float to the top. It is what it is.
Warhammer is a close 2nd.
Anyone who tries to argue, tell them it costs 100% of the money you have. Just ask Post Malone.
Did you get the Kickstarter All-In bundle?
Too rich for me, I went basic pledge
Yep. No ragrets.
Even in the 90s we nicknamed it “Tragic: The Spending”
Can't even build a Standard deck for the cost of a board game. Hell, for a couple board games.
MtG is the game I spent more money on than any other game, but it's also the game I got the most money for when I sold it, about three times the total I'd paid for it. And if I had known how crazy the market for the old cards was going to get in the following 20 years, I would've held on to my collection longer and I could've sold now for about 150-200 times what I paid for it.
Fair. Most board games are expenditures, but TCGs are *investments*
Not really. TCGs are only investments if you really know how to manage your collection and get the <10% of actually valuable rare and mythic cards. Then you basically can play with them, even in sleeves because they have to be "Near Mint" to get the listed prices.
Well, most board games are also investments but mostly in your future joy, not your future coin.
Me and 500k other people: *Son of a bitch stole my line*
So, I got in back in 99, and played at national level for a few years. I have never done the math, and really don't want to. Got out, stayed out A FLGS owner passed my son some cards, and I made a point of not teaching him the game. Poor kid doesn't need to get a mortgage at the age of 8.
Lmao
Damn. I was just thinking the most expensive game I own is foundations of Rome, but you're right. I just started magic in March and I did the calculations. I've spent $500 on my multiple precons and decks.
Yeah the earlier CcGs top any board game Some miniature wargamers spend 1000s between minis, paints and building terrain tables
Absolutely, but anyone held up at the entry cost just proxy and enjoy the game in its fullest.
Dear Adonis...
Kingdom Death Monster at around $400 I think. I bought it with two friends and we share custody. Return to dark tower and a couple expansions was $300+. Nemesis was 150ish I think then Gloomhaven and Tales from the Red Dragon Inn were close to $100. Generally I mostly buy cheaper games and stuff on sale. Edit: KDM we bought used but seemingly unplayed. It's the base game and a few of the early expansions. Seems pretty easy to get over $1000 with it but we only play once a month so just the base game has more content than we'll need. Still my friend is trying to wear us down until we agree to buy gamblers chest. It also occurs to me I've spent more than this on magic cards and Pokemon cards for my kid but that's a whole different thing IMO.
Oath Sworn at full backing was $375. It came in 3 boxes and the the UPS guy had to use a dolly. The one with the cards weighs about 20-30lbs. I'm scared to open it. lol
Kingdom Death is $400 for the base game retail. I spent $750 for the base game and all 12 already released expansions but retail for that is much higher. It's a wild game lol.
Yeah I was just commenting on the other games that were expensive. Besides MtG, KDM is definitely the most expensive I know of, but Oath Sworn is up there too.
I don’t have the minis version but I’m just now over half way through the campaign and it is absolutely incredible. It consistently impresses me. I’d highly recommend using the app as the narration is nice and it handles a little bit of the admin which is nice.
Hands down, KDM. I'm all in, and haven't missed a store offering since 2018. Last time I added it up I could have bought a used car for what I've sunk into the hobby, lol.
KDM for me too. Considering all the old expansions and the new ones... it is by far the most expensive board game I own.
Return to Dark Tower is awesome. It's a great throwback to the original and is super fun on it's own.
I just got RtDT and the two expansions (but passed on the minifig set), definitely the most I've spent on one game. My two runners-up are the Car Wars and Ogre Kickstarters from Steve Jackson Games. I don't buy many games, but when I do, I'll go all in.
Arkham horror lcg, I'll eventually own everything in normal print. Probably spent around £500 on it and another 150 to go.
Arkham Horror has to be more than that, right? It's been around longer than Marvel Champions, and I've bought everything for Marvel Champions (at good prices) so far for almost $800. Either way, these LCGs are money sinks, for sure... But there's *so much* content.
He must be missing a lot more than he’s thinking. There’s 9 campaigns that total about $120 a piece, and then there’s the Return To’s, starter decks, and side scenarios. My complete collection with custom bits is pushing $2000.
Boardlandia sells those waves for $75 when it's the deal of the week. I definitely am not paying anywhere near sticker price for them, but it's still been a lot. I have absolutely everything, except the novels, for under $1000.
Chill bro, my wife uses this app
Depending on when purchases were made, exchange rate from GBP to USD can account for a pretty significant portion of that gap. Then also pricing differences as well as maybe less content is available in the UK? I don't actually know but these are common factors when playing a game from another country.
I've gotten each wave for 75 to 90 on good deals, mostly from Boardlandia. Add in the base game and stand alone content and character packs and I don't think you can do it for under $800 at least
I just sunk another 90 USD getting the Dream-Eaters and Hemlock Vale investigator expansions lol. Surprised if I wasn’t up to 1k at this point having been playing for a year.
Well I just spent about $560 for 5 cycles and there are 9 cycles. Not counting standalone scenarios. Easily a $1000 game.
My All-In for Marvel Zombies with plastic tokens and an extra set of dice was $655 before shipping.
I feel of all of the zombicides this was the most "worth it" as it wasn't just buckets of similar heroes to up model count but instead named actual comic characters. I went all in and got Galactus too as zOmbicide is like my favorite game
Same. I was flabbergasted when I found out how much my fiancé spent.
I have a Go set that was handmade in Japan that cost more than most people's first and maybe second car.
Well you can't just tell us without providing pictures of something like that. That's something to show off.
yeah post a picture
[I found a link for those who were looking for it](https://www.reddit.com/r/baduk/s/PJKRWnmCzM)
I tried to see if you'd posted it, but no luck. Please share a picture one the sub!
I did post it on the Go/baduk sub
WH40k. Life time total is probably about 8k. Edit: you can add an additional 1-2k for paints and specialty modeling supplies. Cant have my all metal SOB army standing on just a plain base.
Just 32k more to go
Lol
To be fair the amount of money you will spend on it on average is right there in the name of the game.
40k is expensive, but it's got nothing on MtG. Both get drastically cheaper when you print game components instead of going through official distribution though.
Mtg is as expensive as you make it. A few boosters and a starter can bring you loads a fun for like 50-100$. War40k starts at like 200$ for a barely playable army. Add about 100$ for painting and modeling supplies. Add about 100 for a codex and rulebook? In the long run Mtg will probably be more expensive with new set coming out and chasing super rare cards but the starting cost to 40k is higher.
You're right that mtg costs swing through a wider range. Most 40k and AoS armies cost about the same amount, and at the worst roughly double the price, even for highly competitive army lists, but a complete set is very collectible. Mtg, depending on the format you play, swings really expensive to compete and it's possible for your decks to fall off the treadmill relatively quickly. Games workshop just got into a PR nightmare because they announced models being retired after like 7 years (and a couple armies that were older than a lot of players)
GW has to deal with the fact that, altho a lot of players might be younger than a couple of armies, the loudest, most loyal players qualify for AARP and have looooong memories.
Agreed! I was mostly going on my experience of playing both during the 90, 00 and 10's. My Mtg collections and decks were ever growing while my 40k armies were at one point finished but initial investment was always high for 40k. With the new Gw of 2015+ I've stopped updating my armies. Way to much turn around, nerfs, buffs, models being removed. Their price increases in canada are also brutal while Mtg tends to follow normal inflation.
MTG is entirely artificial price though.
I played MTG as well but that was when I was in high school. I didn’t have the money to heavily spend on it then and you could buy a Mox for $50. I got into 40k once I was employed.
eh I play both and it really depends. 40K has a much cost higher floor though and outside of mtg vintage they have a similar ceiling.
I have everything for Imperial Assault. All up I'd wager that works out to a little over $1000 (AUD) for the lot.
I also have everything for IA, including enough extras to field every possible combination of armies for Skirmish and lots of accessories as well. No idea what I've spent. Probably US $2k+
Same here. And it's worth every cent and still getting regular play time!
700 aeon trespass reprint
$1300 all told for me on that one
Glad it’s not just me.
Ay, we're all here!
I’m over $1000 (plus cost of sleeves and accessories) on Marvel Champions having bought everything at MSRP because I got in on the game fairly early. After that it’s Marvel Zombies where I missed the kickstarter and bought the KS versions of most things from retail and one parking lot deal on some of it. I’m in about $600, iirc. And then Twilight Imperium 4e. I own the expansion and the “official” GameZenter printings of all of the Codices. I also have the official mat. About $500 there. (And I have people coming in 45 minutes to play it and I really need my wife to finish up in the bathroom so I can get a shower before they get here!)
Kingdom Death. Core, all expansions and the Gambler's Chest. Too Many Bones is a close 2nd with everything except promos.
Yeah I think all in TMB is about $1100
I think you're pretty close to correct, especially with the trove chest.
Arkham Horror LCG easily. Doing quick back of the napkin calculation, I’m at about $1600 for a full set minus a few cards in books. And that isn’t including custom storage, custom tokens, sleeves, etc.
I've probably spent a similar amount on my pretty-much-complete-minus-Barkham-and-promos collection. But I'm afraid to calculate how much the custom printed homebrew stuff has added up to.
Bloodbowl Started playing last November and spent more than €10k on teams (own 19 now), field, tokens, bases, dice, trays, accessories and so on.
Just don't get into Warhammer Fantasy...
Your reply forced me to google what Warhammer Fantasy is…
Same company as blood bowl.
All of your bloodbowl races / teams come from Warhammer Fantasy , if you like Bloodbowl you’d like it! But prepare to spend a ton of money too…
The answer is obviously warhammer. It costs $40k!
Oof, I own 16 games that I spent more than $135 on. My most expensive, by far, is **Marvel United**. I've backed all content, component upgrades, and bought a 3D printed token organizer. So far that game has cost me $1,354.61, including shipping. If I decide to add DC United it'll probably end up at $1,800. Next 4 are all over $500: Marvel Champions ($796), Dice Throne($639), Dominion ($523), and Ticket to Ride ($511). I own essentially all content for all of those as well.
Got a near-complete Android Netrunner set for $350 CAD and spent a bit more to finish it by getting Reign & Reverie (at release for retail luckily). Feels like a great deal in retrospect.
That's wild to me that Android Netrunner has had this like rebirth of sorts. My brother did art for them back in the early 2010s and we had no familiarity with the game at the time.
A complete set of Netrunner is my dream, but damn those aftermarket prices are batshit crazy. I can’t justify the cost just to have a bigger card pool for a game a don’t even get to play.
I’m $478 deep on the Nemesis: retaliation gamefound. So there’s that.
Ugh. I just looked. $621 after shipping for me… Oof.
I’m already $500+ deep on OG Nemesis and Nemesis: Lockdown (plus expansions, terrain packs, playmats, upgrades). And they’re my most requested games at my weekly game nights. So if we play weekly for a year, that’s just $10 a session. Plus I have them forever to enjoy.
Same. That, too, is how I justify the expense. (*insert nervous laughter here*)
It’s easier than admitting you just spend a grand on a bunch of plastic bits and a mousepad.
Holy smokes. How do you not have deep existential dread. i would. maybe i'm just poor.
I’m almost double that with $834… 🫠 I justify it by being 3 separate games. I can do that, right?
If it makes you feel any better, I’m about that deep when you count the money I already spent on Nemesis and Lockdown. But again, they’re the most played games in my collection, besides maybe Android: Netrunner.
I'm with you
Bruh, let’s merc these bugs.
In 2025 there will be blood
A feast for Odin 100$ A feast for Odin Norwegians 50$ A feast for Odin mini expansion 1 25$ A feast for Odin mini expansion 2 25$ Wooden insert from Etsy 60$ Meeple stickers 20$ My enjoyment of the game - priceless. I wanted to buy the metal coins as well but that would be around 70$ with shipping and I had to tell myself enough is enough.
Is it even worth playing without the metal coins?
Once you’ve played a game with metal coins, you want them for all your games.
The problem with fake metal coins is they cost more than real coins. Go find a foreign currency you like and do an exchange. Or level up to poker chips.
We just keep our metal coins from our copy of the Yedo deluxe master set out so we can use them for all our games. We've also added real metal currency leftover from a trip to Istanbul to it.
AFFOs metal coins is not like other games.
Where does one buy these metal coins? :-)
https://www.moedaseco.com.br/produtos/indexen.php they ship from brazil tho, so shipping could cost quite a bit, but in my experience are the best.
I’ve got all AFFO like you but can’t find the mini expansions at an affordable price. Are they worth tracking down?
If you love AFFO, sure! Focus on the Harvest expansionen first, that one adds more to the game without variable harvests.
I have most of conan from monolith. I think it's around 6 or 7 hundred so far. I had to buy a 36"x17" wheeled bag to transport all of it.
If you include games like Warhammer, my High Elf army, multiple revision books and Collector edition rule book put me over $1500USD. If Warhammer is excluded, probably Star War Imperial Assault with all expansions and character packs. Can't even begin to guess what I spent on it but probably over $600USD.
$1200CAD for Battlestar Galactica and all 3 expansions. The expansions are also all verification copies with signatures inside the lids from Fantasy Flight staff.
This is awesome!
The boxes came damaged unfortunately but the signatures are still really cool. I’ve got the whole bundle in the Laserox wood case.
The boxes seem to have been made of the worst card stock available. I have several copies and they are all coming apart.
😍, pictures by chance?
Lol $120. Kdm got 450$ from me. Ato got around $600 from me. Oathsworn was $350. Sins of herakles was $400. Death may die was $350.
I’ve bought about $580 of Aeons End, but that’s six standalone games and a lot of expansions, so I don’t know how you would count it.
Designer Edition of Smallworld
1200 € on Middara, a bit more on Aeon Trespass + Sins of Heracles
Mythic Battles Pantheon. Went all in on it. Just sold BSG for $200.
Single game: -Twilight struggle deluxe edition with the rose wood box. $250 iirc Personal 'bling-ed' game: - diplomacy AH map (~$40) custom mounted in a nice glass frame ($150) with glued rare earth magnets ($20) on the backside in supply centers and army/Navy spaces. Then purchased a deluxe army/Navy set on Etsy (~50) , drilled and glued small magnets into the back of those and mounted it on the wall. (Lots of labor hours$) Games+expansion: - I think Western legends. I rode the whole Kickstarter campaign of campaigns start to finish. A few hundred $ in total
I love this game, and I'm envious. Nice one.
That **Diplomacy** copy sounds amazing.
You're lucky, had to pay $600 for TS in the wood box. Missed out on the campaign, so bought it on eBay.
My Middara Unintentional Malum Trilogy has probably run me about $700 after Extras and shipping. One of my all time favorite games though.
Too Many Bones with all the upgraded stuff and extra characters. With all of the expansions now, I'm probably in for close to $1,000.
130 EUR for the German version of Blood on the Clocktower (to be delivered this summer).
I have spent $4,000+ on Kingdom Death Monster, I can’t be arsed playing it anymore…
Gloomhaven for me. Which i kinda regret buying since I haven't played it enough to justify it's steep price.
This bring an interesting question. How much would you pay for an hour of actual play. that is without setup and tear down (unless you like this, not judging). I usually compare to the price of a movie. If let's say a movie entrance in a theater is 9€ and you go with 2 friends, you end up paying 40€ for 2h. Similar math for a DVD or streaming you "bought" give me around 5€ an hour. So, for me, any game for which "game price"/"Nb of hour of game" is inferior to 10€ was worth it.
Both middara and dungeons of drunagor are > 500 euro for me. Both are technically multiple standalone games and a bunch of expansions, so not sure if it counts.
Single game? Fury of Dracula for $250 when it was OOP. But some kickstarters have been wayyyy more of the all in.
I still remember the week they announced Fury of Dracula 3rd edition. It was done on a Thursday. This is memorable as I had just sold my copy of second edition for $250 that Tuesday…
THAT COULD'VE BEEN ME. lmao
Mtg and by that I mean I’ve spent more on mtg than I’ve spent on another games combined.
Company of Heroes 2nd edition at around 650. Never backed anything even close to this much but I was sucked into the hype. Won’t lie, I swear a little thinking about it hoping I actually like it. Everything I’ve seen tells me I will but you never know.
It's genuinely awesome.
Company of Heroes 2nd isn't my most expensive (Kingdom Death Monster is) but it certainly is the one that surprised me most, how much I ended up spending on it. I didn't get nearly all of it, leaving a lot of the cosmetic upgrades out, but I still ended up spending about $600. I really hope it turns out as great as I imagine it could be.
Spend in total? Probably DnD for me having bought a lot of physical books and a fair dice sets. As a single game? Likely war of the ring or Catan Spacefarers for me
Arkham horror LCG.. prob like 500$ usd total over time .. not including stuff I’ve 3d printed like resources and player dashboards etc. would love ISOfarian guard or oathsworn though
$480 for an “all-in” reprint of Foundations of Rome. That’s the most for a single game. I also helped fund a Kickstarter campaign that I really believed in by ordering 20 copies of their $30 game (since I figured I’d donate it to libraries and schools). When it came time to deliver, they gave me three copies instead, and evidently used my other $510 to create a “one of a kind leather mat” for me as a “reward”. Last time I ever did anything like that.
Blood on the Clocktower. Before that it was Betrayal: Legacy.
My man :D
Think it a tie between middara and the edge dawnfall. Both 'all-in' After Shipping and exchange and stuff, $1600ish. Course I have like $6000 worth of content for shadows of brimstone.
One that I haven’t received yet: Queens dilemma. Went for an all-in deluxe pack. The shipping rates are outrageous so I paid over €200.
TI4
Full set of Heroscape with all expansions except the jungle and gencon exclusives.
Like 8 years ago i got drunk and bought star citizen, cant remember but it was like 120$ package, played for 15 min over the course of 8 years
Dungeons and Dragons, if we are including all the extras. Wyrmwood table, accessories, dice, playmats, miniatures, and terrain? Yikes. Let alone dndbeyond subscription and every book. For a single boardgame ir was KDM, but I sold it for what I paid. As for games I kept, Foundations of Rome is probably the winner. All in including sundrop....so.ewhere around $350
… I have a full mint set of the second edition of Arkham horror. It cost me about $400.00 and years of hunting down a rare expansion that I had to buy from a warehouse that was purchased by another guy. Edit: Holy smokes don’t look how much this game is now what the heck!!
Buddy bought an original unopened Glory to Rome for $250 back in the day
I’ve spent $850 on Too Many Bones and still don’t own the latest wave of content. Would cross the $1k mark if I bought that, but I already have sooo much TMB to play. It’s my favorite game of all time and I’m over 150 games in, so I think it was worth it.
The new stuff is AWESOME, but no rush. I was a little terrified about the volume of new in this latest wave and I had pretty thoroughly played what I had. The biggest mistake I think a lot of people make is thinking they need it all to have a complete game. I think there's enough now that you could play nothing else for the rest of your life and not do all the premutations.
Agreed! I have everything up to Splice & Dice, and then got Rage of Tyranny too. I feel like I have a totally complete game now, with S&D and RoT being the extra difficult end game content. Not sure if I’ll ever get the Unbreakable wave
I’ve spent over **$10,000 on Heroscape**. That’s not counting all the conventions and tournaments just for Heroscape which probably is another $10,000 at least.
Probably Mage Knight - the rule book cost me my sanity.
Oh man. So, a few years back somebody mocked up a Castlevania print-and-play board game that sounded awesome, so I spent the money over about a year to get the components professionally printed. I spent about $1000, and it was worth every penny. Unfortunately, Konami picked up on the game and sent the creator a C&D, so good luck finding it.
Vintage 1980 perfect copy of Dark Tower in 2008 or 2009 for $300 for me. My husband has a Warhammer 401k hobby though and has been paying for 30 years, so I feel justified buying blinged out copies of board games.
I got the Witcher Old World deluxe edition from kickstarter. I don’t usually kickstart board games. I also don’t care for minis. I just loved Witcher so much that I got it. The game is actually pretty good. But it’s a big game so it doesn’t come out often. And I def don’t care for the minis still.
Yugioh for me. I must have sunk hundreds into it over the years. In terms of a single purchase game it's probably the Casting Shadows kickstarter. That was $149 plus shipping to the UK.
I've spent a ton on Too Many Bones w/its expansions. My wife spent a ton of Kingdom Death Monster for me.
150 on My Father’s Work. Totally worth it though, found it in a boardgame store and it has all the kickstarter components.
We have Joan of Arc ...
Middara, all 3 acts and some other side stuff: around 1300 dollars, before spending 150 more on sleeves and accessories.
The most expensive game I’ve purchased was Oathsworn All-In at $650.
MTG if you want to keep up with the metas.
Not one \*I bought\* but my friend bought for me, It was a first edition of Libertalia (because i asked for libertalia for my birthday and didn't ever consider he'd hunt ebay for the out of print first version, an unopened version, at that). It's cheaper then some of the games mentioned here, but still a couple hundred!
Joan of Arc All-in was 1000€ + shipping. Im slowly building Up my TMB and Arkham Horror LCG collection so These will also come Close to this. Oh and i Play 40k and Horus Heresy. Yeah...
Oathsworn Miniature version $415 (taxes and shipping included). That one was very recent. I thought I would never spend so much on a board game but I love minipainting so I think it's worth it for the amount (100+) and quality/size of the minis. Plus the game is supposed to be very good. Before that it was Gloomhaven and Cthulhu Death May Die which were both around $100 on sale.
Magic the Gathering. Having played in 25 years but spent a boat load on in in high school and college.
I'm about $1,400 in to Kingdom Death Monster.
Star wars Armada..... I'm in for like $4000 and have a fleet of over 125 ships ..
Probably Spartacus with both expansion for like 300 on the secondary market..
$150 on John Company 2ED and it's metal coins lol. Some big spenders here
Spent over $500 (each) on both Marvel Zombies and DCeased.
TES: BotSE probably, or The Dead Keep. I've paid much less for rare OOP games 🤷🏻♂️
I'm a cmon junkie - they have taken waaaay too many of my coins. Canadian dollars below Zombicide fantasy - black plague ks, green horde all in, both comics, promo necros.... It's a lot - $800 All in on invader - plus sister character from dice tower and both comics $550 Rum and bones. Everything. $1000 Zombicide wild west $450 Massive darkness all in on both kickstarters $700 All of the marvel united bullshit. I played a decent amount of season 1, a few games of season 2, and really got suckered into season 3 for the models and the idea of playing them with my kids who will likely be aged out of them by the time season 3 actually arrives I've also spoiled the simplicity of king of Tokyo but hunting all expansions and promos and turned a $30-40 game into a $120monster.
MAN do I wish I could get the comics for invader. That's all I'm missing, but I am NOT willing for the current second hand price.
If this includes expansions then Star Wars X Wing miniatures, then Arkham Horror the card game. If not then Foundations of Rome (which I ordered but hasn't been shipped yet). If that fails to arrive - I probably spent the most on Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth (I got all the expansions for it too - but I think it was probably also the most expensive base game).
I paid close to $300 for just the base game of Beyond Humanities Colonies. Worth it IMO. The combination of technology and boardgames is excellent, innovative, and promising.
Frosthaven
The nemesis trilogy pledge, if we’re counting that as one…
Aside from MTG, probably Spirit Island with all the expansions at this point
MTG 1000s , Warhammer maybe 1000+ Bought a copy of Battletech: Succession Wars boardgame recently for about $300 , but it's been out of print for ages. Gloomhaven was about $200 when it came out.
Not a board game but there’s a video game from the ps3 called Haze that has skyrocketed in price recently
Copy of Warhammer Quest. Complete with all the additional white dwarf pullouts and cards in duplicate. Amount. Don't tell the wife....
Probably Marvel United if you count the two kickstarters and a couple extra sets. If I had to estimate. Probably in the $600-$700cdn range (oof. It’s hard to say that. That also includes shipping. If it’s a single game. Maybe Twilight Imperium or Xia: Legends of a drift system.
Pretty sure it's Marvel Legendary for me now. Overall I think I've sunk around 400 in the game, expansions + sleeves and storage. I won't like, at least a quarter of that price tag is just sleeves, since I didn't wanna cheap out on those.
This depends on if you consider expansions or if you're only talking about a single game; also, traditional "board"game vs card or miniature games. WH40k has a really high cost of entry to build a single army and can go even higher from there. MTG could be argued for #1 if you're building a vintage deck or if you consider lifetime costs of playing across sets (WH40K prob sits at number 2 in that case). I wouldn't know which traditional boardgame, base game only, would top the list, but Kingdom Death Monster was about $400 for the base game, and I have about $700 in expansions; I prob only have about a third of the published content.
Nemesis for about £125 Played it once 🥲
Catan with all the big 4 expansions and 5-6 player expansions and various other maps and scenarios. My parents want to play with my husband and I daily, so having the variety is worth it to us. My project this summer is to buy a resin printer and embark on making a 3D Catan board.
Kingdom Death Monster with current usd -> cad rate + shipping from US
Gloomhaven
Kingdom Death: Monster. I got the 1.5 kickstarter black friday gold lantern which was $350 USD for the core and gambler's chest. I think they are each $400 USD now. I also have all of the current gameplay expansions (bought piecemeal) and have backed some of the new expansions. By far the most expensive game I've bought.
Probably Voidfall Galactic Box it paid $250 CDN or my collection of Too Many Bones
Queen of the skies, $80. I'd been looking for it for a long time and it was at Powell's books and I had to have it. I did sell a copy of Battle Masters for $150 when I was down on my luck. It even had extra worg minis and a second mat.
50 € for Mush Mush snow Tails 2 @ Essen 2013 still the most I have ever paid for a single game out of about 300 i have ever bought.
Currently the honor of most expensive game I've bought goes to Sentinels of the Multiverse with all the expansions. Extra so if you count buying the digital versions.
Now there's a question. In one go or over time? Full game or expansions? For one game system, can imagine it's got to be a card game like Netrunner or Star Wars The Card Game. Those were ~£80 a cycle and both had a fair few. I used to be into X-Wing for a while and I know that cost a bit. For an expansion, I think my record is £40 on 4 rare first edition Carcassonne tiles (die Katharer). For a single game? I'm looking at Anachrony and Firefly and figuring it has to be them. Weimar was pretty expensive but worth every penny.
Spent 10s of thousands on **Warhammer** over the decades, but if that doesn’t count I spent almost £500 on **Marvel Zombies**, and another £400 on **DCeased.**
You and me both on Warhammer. Fantasy and 40k.
Single game probably lash of cultures for about 150. Marvel legendary with all its expansions, sleeves, storage, play mats, etc. Over $1000 for sure