When Enough Is Not Enough

I counted 19 in my collection. It comes with one. I printed another 3 (two are mounted and I will mount the third when I figure out how I want to do it). That's 4. I have (2 copies of) one from a spielbox magazine, but its supposed to be for 7 players (who would play 7-players?). That's 5. Then I have 7 expansions (each being two). Four of those are the "official" expansions and the other 3 are licensed. I have played a measly 8 of them. And yet... There are more out there. 30 official ones listed on the BGG. A LOAD of PnP ones as well. There are some I have little to no interest in and some I will NEVER bother trying to get because only a few hundred were printed for Essen each year. But, there are still more I'd like to add to my collection. I'm not sure why. Because I can?

I am of course talking about Age of Steam maps. This part of my game collection is probably the second most expensive part of my entire game collection (behind my stupid Heroscape collection). I finally ditched the AoS box (well, it sits on the shelf as I'm not just tossing it) and have a hanging file folder box I use to keep all the stuff in. All but one set of maps fit in it (the one being Ted Alspach's Disco inferno maps, which aren't creased and I haven't wanted to bend and rip them). At any rate, there is just something about these maps. I love looking at them. They really are not "artistic" or fancy or even attractive - at least not in any normal sense. Some games have great maps that you could easily frame and hang as artwork. Not these ugly things. And yet, I still need more. There is something of a debate in the AoS community about expansion maps and what they "should be". Some designers are using the AoS game as a framework and altering enough rules that their map is almost a re-design. Some designers are just putting out maps of areas that are either interesting to them or "their locale". I prefer the traditional maps myself, though I do like Ted Alspach's twists on the game as he doesn't tend to deviate really far away from the base game (Disco Inferno not withstanding). I played a prototype of Matthew Frederick's "Ants of Steam", which was fun and a bit different than the norm, but I think he's pushed that on the wayside. At any rate, there are a number of maps I'll still probably try and get (Steam Brothers maps). I can only hope I finally get to play them all at some point...