Saw this in BGG: 20 games collection | BoardGameGeek
What would be your 20 games?
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Oh, I wish I found it possible to actually have only about twenty games! It’d be ideal. You could play a couple most weeks and thus easily play them all a few times every year, so you’d never forget the rules for any of them, you could just get them off the shelf and start playing. But it would be enough to give you some choice over what to play, so there would be no need to be stuck playing the same things over and over again as if you’re eight again and all there is is Risk, Ludo, Cluedo, Scrabble and Monopoly.
As for what they’d be… Hmmm…
Carcassonne and Spirit Island would be there. And Love Letter. Concordia. Flamme Rouge, probably, and Galaxy Trucker.
Then there are about forty games I’d struggle to say goodbye to, which is why I don’t have about twenty games…
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That’s a fascinating page on BGG seeing people’s favourites. Not at all what I expected. So much Concordia on there.
Okay, so I don’t OWN all of these, and it’s not a top 20 but rather a list of 20 that cover all the main types you want, but here’s what I want mine to be:
Cascadia
Santorini
Crokinole
Heat: Pedal to the metal
Ready, Set, Bet!
Viticulture Essential Edition
Everdell
Marvel Champions
Obsession
Lost Cities
Dune (70s)
Fortune and Glory
Earth
Parks
Broom Service
Beyond the Sun / Horizon
Pax Pamir 2nd ed
Inis (or El Grande or Iwari or something)
I’ve bought Unmatched: Tales to Amaze but not played it yet, I suspect it fills that gap
I’ll never own it, but: Chaos in the Old World
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I do actually have a copy of Chaps in the Old World that I’m contemplating selling. Would be open to offers.
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Sadly it’s also the case that I will just not get 3 folks who want to play it enough 
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There’s a reason I’m contemplating selling it… 
but it does make me happy looking at me from my shelf.
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I would definitely play an RPG called Chaps in the Old World, what?
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- Spirit Island (solos, my favorite)
- Cascadia (solos, plays with anyone)
- Sprawl*-opolis (solos, travels well)
- Terraforming Mars (solos, my friends love this as well)
- Oranienburger Kanal (solos, if I can only keep one big Uwe solo it has to be this one: resource wheel, expansion decks, worker placement, spatial puzzle, no sheep multiplication but …)
- Hardback (solos, wordgame, deckbuilder 2 player)
- 7 Wonders Duel (2 player)
- Tash Kalar (patterns, Vlaada, 2 player)
- Codenames (words, Vlaada, Party)
- Detective Club (Dixit+, Party)
- The Crew 2 (coop cards)
- Bohnanza (cards, there are too many good card games to go here, so I am choosing the one we have a history with)
- Winter Kingdom (the gamers version of a great family game)
- Pandemic Iberia (best iteration on a well-loved formula and it has trains)
- Clank! Catacombs (best multiplayer deck builder for my table)
- Robo Rally (old-school-chaos)
- Star Wars Outer Rim (it’s Star Wars, duh)
- Pax Pamir 2 (ambitious but I need one ambitious game)
- Planet Unknown (good with 6)
- Frosthaven (big unwieldy campaign game du jour)
What this list has taught me: I need to order the 30st anniversary edition of Robo Rally NOW. I recently had a couple of plays that reinforced what I kind of knew: a certain group among my friends still loves this and I want to play it with them.
Note: this is not a list of my favorite games but of a feasible 20 game collection that does as much as it can within the limit and is in many ways optimized for my personal table and who plays with me. The only aspirational game here is Pax Pamir 2 and I have put it on the table with my friends. It’s one that suffers from “too many choices on my shelves”.
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Some are really easy to add to such a list, as they are games we play very often, and a game which you enjoy and play a lot makes more sense to keep over a game you like more but never play.
Lords of Vegas
Lords of Waterdeep
Lost Cities
Star Wars the Deckbuilding Game
Ethnos
Quacks of Quedlinburg
Taverns of Tiefenthal
Tyrants of the Underdark
Spirit Island
Marvel Champions
Everdell
Ghost Stories
Batman Love Letter
Jaipur
Chinatown
Concordia
Istanbul
Isle of Skye
Azul
Orleans
There’s wiggle room in there, as I could see having a Pandemic or Ticket to Ride game of some kind, or Ra or Sheriff of Nottingham. And my beloved Unmatched, but it’s one my wife doesn’t really care for, so doesn’t get played as much as I would like.
This leaves out a bunch of games I do enjoy, but just don’t get to play that much, or games I think I will really like, but have not been able to get to the table yet.
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I’ve got a 30 game limit so it’s just a little bit of trimming for me to get down to 20. And yet it’s sophie’s choice at 21. Help.
Arboretum
Arkham Horror: The Card Game
Chinatown
Concordia
Crokinole
Cyclades
Dead of Winter
Decrypto
Flamme Rouge
Inhuman Conditions
Jaipur
Letterpress
Lords of Vegas
Memoir '44
Patchwork
Quacks of Quedlinburg
Rear Window
The Estates
Ticket to Ride Nordic
Troyes
Whitehall Mystery
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That’s really my favorite map. I don’t quite know why though. Do you?
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I’d love to tell you that it’s something to do with the tightness of the map, or the risk/reward of certain paths, but I’m fairly sure it’s because it looks ever so Christmassy.
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I know. I love the cover. I’ve been meaning to add this one to my collection. But since my partner hasn’t been able to continue the legacy with me, I am hesitant to put the game onto my shelves (I’ve been app-ing T2R for ages)
This is hard y’all!
The first 5 here are the “Eternal Five”. The 15 can be sorted in any way.
- Indonesia - is this it? The GOAT?
- The Great Zimbabwe - it’s really a toss up between this and Indonesia
- Stephenson’s Rocket - Knizia’s best
- Chicago Express/Wabash Cannonball - Like the others above, this is an eternal game
- Food Chain Magnate + Ketchup expansion - yes. It is snowbally compare to Indo and TGZ, but this is just damn good engine building game
- 1830: Railways and Robber Barons - still the best… by a short margin, as I’m going between this and Shikoku. And a realistic 18xx title to play on a Saturday games session. Might be replaced by the Old Prince
- Mottainai - best filler game and also now in contention with Innovation as the best Chudyk. So much game in such a small box
- Innovation - saem as above
- Bridges of Shangri-La - one of the best old school games. Mindboggling layers and layers and layers
- the Estates - I would rather have this than any of Knizia’s auction games
- Zoo Vadis - Perhaps my fave negotiation
- Pax Renaissance - if I can only have 1 title from the series, it’s this. Serious amount of depth
- Cthulhu Wars - Me and Wyvern keep yapping about this. I won’t say any more.
- Intrigue - alliances, screwages, betrayals - all in a small compact box
- Goodcritters - same as Intrigue but leans more on bluffing among players and a serious helmsmanship if you are the Don.
- Prussian Rails - the other Cube Rail in this list. The randomiser is really fun and interesting rather than something that arbitrarily throws the game to a player
- Age of Steam - snowball optimiser in such an airtight design. Other Euros seem pale in comparison
- Sidereal Confluence - haven’t played this much, but the recent play shows really good depth that is worth diving into. Not your typical trading game, folks
- Guards of Atlantis - the game that received the fewest plays. Serious depth on each characters and the team dynamics is superb
- Dominant Species - if it wasn’t for CW, this would be my best ToaM. This aint your dad’s El Grande
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Thats kinda Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay!
I would like to note that I am an expansion owner. So ALL the expansions of ALL the games
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The usual provisos: this is my feeling right now and may not be my feeling tomorrow, assumes a supply of willing players, all expansions included, etc.
Coldwater Crown
Crokinole
Deadly Dowagers
Flash Point
Illimat
Imperium
Kabuto Sumo
Leaving Earth
Lemminge
Nokosu Dice
Project L
Rallyman Dirt
Rallyman GT
Red7
The Resistance
Sea Salt & Paper
Sentinels of the Multiverse
Spirit Island
Tinderblox
Xia
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it’s sold here as Schwarze Witwen 
.
it looks interesting. what is the target audience/occasion where it hits the table?
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Like several games I love, it’s the theme more than the mechanics. But it’s a fast-moving game with enough choices to be interesting.
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I’m going to assume that all expansions are also included here.
Arkham Horror: LCG
Frosthaven
Brass: Birmingham
Gaia Project
Scout
Linko
The Crew: MDS
Decrypto
Cursed Court
Dungeon Fighter
Arcs
Cthulhu Wars
Concordia
Castles of Burgundy
Mandala
Cthulhu: Death may Die
The Resistance: Avalon
Azul
Hanamikoji
Age of Steam
The hardest game to leave off my list was No Thanks, which is a guaranteed hit everytime I bring it out, but I may be getting a little burned out on.
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