Tabletop games 2022 pre-orders already selling out in the UK

Wayland Games is, they say, Europe’s largest independent retailer for tabletop hobbies. I’m an affiliate, so I was on their pre-order page to determine if any upcoming games are worth looking into.

It looks as if I may be too late; many of the big-ticket items to look forward to in 2022 have already sold out Wayland’s pre-order allowance.

That’s not to say the retailer can’t get more later. Still, it shows impressive demand. I worry about the twin impacts of more significant Brexit restrictions hitting (more come into force in January, although some have been delayed) and ongoing lockdown and logistics problems.

I think it’s more helpful to show what you can still pre-order now and then look at what’s sold out. It’s the latter that reveals the extent of the discussion.

Wayland’s still available pre-orders

This is a sample list, there are lots you can pre-order, but in particular, these are heavy-hitters.

• D&D Rules Expansion Gift Set: Dungeons & Dragons (DDN) – Good that D&D fans can still get this but other versions of the line have sold their pre-order allocations. I predict this will too.
• Frostpunk: The Board Game – I’ve heard quite a lot of buzz around Glass Cannon Unplugged’s board game, but, it seems, not enough for the pre-orders to sell-out.
• Harbingers of Cyriss – A battle force of Aeons for Warcaster. Privateer Press is usually transparent with any shipping and warehouse woes.
• Gargantuan Tarrasque – another WizKid’s model expected to be popular despite the price tag.
• MTG: Commander Collection: Black 2021 Premium Exclusive WPN – I had thought exclusive and collector editions would sell out first, which shows how little I know of the MTG trading world.
• MTG: Kamigawa Neon Dynasty Collector Booster Box – Cyberpunk does Magic: the Gathering, and still okay to pre-order.
• MTG: Unfinity Collector Booster Box – a Magic: The Gathering space carnival that’s still pre-order okay, but we’ll see trading cards have been prone to selling out.
• The Horned Rat Collector’s Edition – Enemy Within Campaign Volume 4 – Cubicle 7’s Warhammer FRP line has been making sure to produce collectable quality books.
• The Witcher: Old World Deluxe – The return of The Witcher to Netflix hasn’t had the latest board game’s deluxe version sell out. Not at the time of research, anyway.
• Ultimate Railroads – All the expansions and the core rules of Russian Railroads from Z-Man Games. It can be played with just one player, so it is a lockdown safe game and therefore popular.
• Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft Collector’s Edition Box – this is a huge D&D Icons of the Realm box.

Wayland’s exhausted pre-orders

Once again, a sample list shows what pre-orders have been fully allocated for now. These items are not even available yet, and if you didn’t pre-order them previously, the chance might have gone entirely.

• Ark Nova – Feuerland Spiele’s card drafting game, suitable for one to four players, looks like it’ll do exceptionally well.
• Brilliant Stars Booster Box: Pokemon TCG Sword & Shield 9 – A VSTAR evolution and, as we’ll see, one of many fully allocated trading card sets.
• Brilliant Stars Build & Battle Stadium: Pokemon TCG Sword & Shield 9 – As with all these pre-order sell-outs, it should be possible to get the set later, even if it is from elsewhere.
• Brilliant Stars Elite Trainer Box: Pokemon TCG Sword & Shield 9 – Plenty of Sword & Shield Pokemon sets are fully allocated. The game is booming.
• Cthulhu Wars: Bubastis Faction – Petersen Games will be pleased, but if you were hoping to boost your Cthulhu Wars with this faction, you might have to wait a little longer.
• D&D Rules Expansion Gift Set (Alternate Cover): Dungeons & Dragons (DDN) – This allocation sell-out will upset some readers, I know since we’ve had to wait for it already. Hopefully, the sell-out is due to that wait and isn’t an extra complication.
• Digimon Card Game: Tamer’s Set 2 PB-04 – The pre-order allocation for Bandai’s set is full, and it’s not the only one of the game maker’s 2022 releases to achieve that status.
• Dragon Ball Super CG: Booster Box UW07 (B16) – How popular is the Dragon Call collectable card game? This popular. Bandai’s latest booster box has had its pre-order allocation sold.
• Dumbledore with Hogwarts – Harry Potter – Funko POP! Town Vinyl (27) – How do you feel about buying Harry Potter stuff these days? Enough people overcame any concerns they may have for this pre-order to full up.
• Guns N’ Roses – Appetite for Destruction – POP! Albums Deluxe Vinyl (23) – Is demand for Funko Pops! beginning to drop? Perhaps, but not this for the particular set.
• HeroQuest – It’s been unnecessarily hard to get this old classic brought back. Surely Hasbro could have done better?
• Lord of the Rings LCG: Revised Core Set – Fantasy Flight Games’ parent company is Asmodee, will be bought for $3bn this year.
• Nemesis: Lockdown – The first expansion to Nemesis, the horror board game from Awaken Realms.
• Orlog: Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dice Game – PureArts and Ubisoft are making this Assassin’s Creed in-game game an actual game.
• Pokemon TCG: Jolteon VMAX Premium Collection – It’s not just the Jolteon set, Vaporeon and Flareon are also fully allocated.
• Stardew Valley Board Game – The relaxing computer game was a big hit on Twitch, so it’s no surprise to see Spiral Galaxy’s board game already doing well.
• Vagrantsong board game – Wyrd Miniatures’ action point and cooperative board game set on a ghost train.

I didn’t do this research last year, so I can’t contrast the state of these fully allocated pre-orders to what’s happened in the past. I’m not sure it would make sense to do so either; last year was also a lockdown year; before the lockdown, we didn’t have the surge of interest in tabletop games.

However, I can say that I was frustrated by some games already being impossible to add to my basket. Titles like the D&D alternative editions and HeroQuest were on my list, and I imagine it’s worse for card game collectors.

It’s not all retail gloom, though. In the UK it is Boxing Day, that’s traditionally a day of sales, and so you can find deals at places like Amazon and Audible, Etsy, Firebox and Audible.

Where Wayland Games might have sold out their pre-orders, there are alternatives like Zatu Games or BoardGame Guru.

Quick Links

• Wayland’s pre-order page.