Gloomhaven feels ten years old there’s such a furnitureness about it (and they kickstarted and released a sequel which also feels old)
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I wonder if they’ll go double pandemic!
Or chicken out with risk legacy.
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Of the list so far: played 8 (Acquire, CE, Magic, TTR, Caylus, Agricola, Race for the Galaxy, Dominion), owned 3 (Diplomacy, CE, Magic), currently own 0.
Still nothing here I love. But for “games that have been influential” I’d say it’s not doing too badly.
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List of games published through 2008 with at least 1k ratings
Any games you feel were missed so far?
I’m a bit curious (though I’ve done zero reading to find out if it is answered) what the criteria are. I assume it is collective personal opinion through voting?
Generally, I’d imagine the axes would be:
- General popularity / presence
- Longevity
- Influence over future games
- Absolute quality
And some minimum mental threshold has to be subjectively hit, summed across all four categories.
Something like that, at least, drives my gut for what feels right.
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Puerto Rico, War of the Ring, Lost Cities, Citadels, Roborally, Apples to Apples, Chinatown…
those are the ones that blip on the radar for me. But can’t say any clearly belong IN more than those that were selected. Puerto is the biggest surprise gloss. Lost Cities maybe as the other one that came in the room and just held its space for decades.
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Twilight Struggle: 20th Anniversary Hall of Fame Edition | Board Game | BoardGameGeek
It’s happening, folks
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Yeah, been hovering over the P500 preorder for that. But I suspect no-one would actually play it with me, so it would be a pretty pointless purchase.
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I have already determined from playing the app that I would never want to try managing the physical game. Just too much to deal with.
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Pandemic
7 Wonders
Castles of Burgundy
Terra Mystica
Concordia
I have played all of these and either own them all or own a successor (Pandemic: Rome, Cthulhu, Legacies and TM: Gaia Project). Pandemic and 7 Wonders I consider obvious choices. The others, I won’t argue with them but there are other choices I also wouldn’t argue with.
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Yeah, this tranche is much less obvious. More games, less variability in quality.
Pandemic was obvious due to its size and influence. Burgundy was inevitable. The other three probably could have gone a lot of ways. I was very curious to see if TM (likely) and Concordia (unlikely) got the nod.
Honestly I expected Resistance or Avalon, due to their impact on the genre and the modern glut of derivatives.
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From the influential side, Pandemic and 7 Wonders are good choices.
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That’s a lot of big, influential games on that candidate list.
Had to check that Dominion had already won earlier, because that’s an obvious one.
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7 Wonders? I suppose it’s fine. I think it has aged poorly and easily replaced with one of the casual drafting games that came in its wake.
Concordia? That one surprises me. Don’t get me wrong; it’s one of my favorite games. But… hall of fame?
The first tranche and the last tranche are worlds apart.
Played (and owned, unless otherwise noted) (updated):
- 1830
- Magic (previously owned… I suppose, as much as you can own (or previously own) MTG)
- Catan
- Ra
- Carcassonne
- Power Grid
- Ticket to Ride
- Agricola
- Brass
- Race for the Galaxy (only played solo, though)
- Dominion
- Pandemic
- 7 Wonders (on the sell/trade pile, and has been for a while because nobody wants to buy it)
- Castles of Burgundy
- Concordia
Owed but not played:
- Acquire
- El Grande
- Tigris & Euphrates
- Caylus (as Caylus 1303)
I sort of own Terra Mystica, but the box says “Gaia Project” instead.
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7 Wonders is influential even though I give it a 1/10 today. Concordia I can see included as part of the “Greatest Hits” album. It’s one of the quintessential mid-weight beige Euro that hobbyist will play today. Although, saying that, I’d like the HoF to be more diverse and less of a Euro wankfest. To echo Acacia: where’s the Resistance? Definitely influential
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Yeah, but by that logic, that would mean Machi Koro should be on the list
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Okay, so final tally.
Own and played:
Magic (in high school, still have some cards)
Catan
El Grande
Ra
T&E (played on app and BGA only so far)
Carcassonne
Ticket to Ride
Race for the Galaxy (played on BGA only)
Pandemic
7 Wonders
Concordia
Played:
Civilization (I think, once in college)
Cosmic Encounter
Diplomacy (in high school)
Twilight Struggle (app only)
Not played:
1830
Caylus
Acquire
Power Grid
Through the Ages
Agricola
Brass
Dominion
Castles of Burgundy
Terra Mystica
So played 15/25 of the list and own 11 of them. Of those I have played and do not own, Diplomacy is probably the only one I would consider, and even then I have no real urge to get it as I doubt it would get played. I’ve already mentioned there’s too much overhead with the physical copy of TS, so I don’t want that, Civ is just too big and long for what it is, IMO, and I really was not very impressed with Cosmic after the two games I played. It’s fine, but it just feels like another version of Munchkin to me.
Out of the games I haven’t played, I would like to try TtA, Gric, Brass (probably Birm at this point), CoB, and TM. The others don’t really interest me.
Out of what I own, I really doubt Catan will ever see the table again, and I have left Magic (and all CCG games) far behind. Pandemic, 7 Wonders, and TtR might hit the table if meeting up with new people who aren’t familiar with modern board games, or like if my parents are visiting (we’ve done TtR with them, and it goes okay). The rest I would happily play whenever.
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I had a quick look at games from 2008-2014 yesterday. Pandemic and 7 Wonders were the ones the jumped out to me. After that I had The Resistance, Mage Knight, Risk: Legacy and Android: Netrunner on my list as possible contenders from the games I’m familiar with.
Concordia and Terra Mystica I’ve never played but I’ve heard many people sing their praises. The Castles of Burgundy is very highly rated on BGG but I’m not sure I’ve ever heard anyone really gush about their love for it.
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That mammoth special edition of Castles of Burgundy isn’t coming out without people loving it imo.
They’ve even made a kids version of it now!
(Nobody is making Concordia kids I suspect)
There’s obviously a lot of games to come in the future iterations but twilight imperium feels like a big miss, the resistance too.
Also Brass feels like it’s there because of Brass birmingham.
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I’m not writing sonnets about it, but it’s an exemplar of euro-game design. Pledging for the Awakened Realms special edition was an easy decision (for me).
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100%. I love Concordia. But can’t say that it innovated, can’t say it defined a new genre or even archetyped its own. It feels categorically different than most of these others, just a “quite good game.”
I’d say it’s the archetype for dice drafting / pip constrained selection / point salad. Don’t know if it came first or last or did anything specifically different, but it’s the package you point to for defining a huge field of Euros and copycats. That’s the argument I’d make, at least.
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