Here’s what I ended up getting this season:

• Winsome Essen set. Almost missed this, but fortunately everything’s now secure. I’m most interested in SNCF, which should be sweet, but Texas & Pacific is also interesting. West Riding Revisited less so, as I didn’t fancy the old West Riding and I don’t really need more long games (I still have Baltimore & Ohio from last year’s set untested).
• Railroad Barons. The concept sounds interesting, and even though I don’t play that much two-player games, this was still a must-buy. I hear the rulebook is a mess, which apparently isn’t a big problem if you know 18xx.
• Samarkand: Family Connections. I still haven’t heard a word what this expansion is about, but Samarkand is the best new game this year, so this is pretty much a must-buy.
• String Railway. Make railroads by placing station tokens on table and connecting them with strings. Well why not! The box cover is cute as a button, which is a bonus.
• Let’s Catch a Lion. I don’t really like shogi, but this very small shogi variant (3×4 board, four pieces per player) sounds interesting enough. An impulse buy if any, but not very expensive.
• 7 Wonders. Must-have, considering the buzz. Should be interesting.
• Dominion: Prosperity. I’m still buying Dominion expansions, even though I’ve only played Alchemy once.
• Cartouche. Deck-building (sort of at least) from Small Box Games. This already arrived and looks fairly amateurish. Box is shoddy and the cards are unfortunately too small. So far I’m not impressed, but if the game’s good, these things can be forgiven.
• Innovation. Still waiting to be played after the quick first go. A question mark — interesting, sure, but is there enough control? Is this fun to play? So far few of my friends have already decided they want no part of this.

I think that’s pretty much everything. I’ve got my eyes on some games in the Finnish Boardgame Society math trade, but that’s never secure. There’s stuff like Finca, Days of Steam, Roll through the Ages, Roqfort, Homesteaders, Santiago, Stephensons Rocket, Blokus… Games I wouldn’t buy, but wouldn’t mind getting from a math trade.

Rails of New England is still in and waiting for the game to be released.

What missed the cut?

• Poseidon. I thought this would be a must-buy, but it wasn’t. It’s a long game, I have very little room for those (I’m selling 1830 and 2038 to cull my 18xx collection, for example, because I just don’t get to play them enough). Also, this one isn’t going anywhere — if I want it later, I can get it without problems.
• Fresco. This would be on my math trade want list right away, but I’m not buying, at least not full price. Interesting, but necessary? Not.
• Stich-Meister. Seemed like an obvious purchase, but it’s a bit German and I’ve got enough trick-taking games (including the traditional games) already.
• Inca Empire. See the bit about long games.