Podcast #200 - The Top 10 Games You "SHOULD" Play!

Boardgames Shut Up and Sit Down
89

Clank! Legacy actually ends up as a personalized version of fantasy Clank! which we haven’t played a lot but we have done it and it’s a lot of fun.

After Pandemic Legacy 1, which we both loved precisely because it diverges from base Pandemic which we overplayed at some point, Clank! Legacy is really our favorite.

  • My City was okay.
  • Gloomhaven is less of a legacy and much more a campaign game though it has elements with stickers but as far as I know it can be reset and nothing is destroyed.
  • We really enjoyed the different path Pandemic Season 2 took but it cannot replicate the innovation of the first one–nothing really can (I know Risk came before but it was less popular by leaps and bounds)

Today we have tons of campaign games and very few legacy games. Most games opt for replayability after the first campaign even though most people will never play more than one campaign of most campaign games. (I know 1 person that played through Gloomhaven twice–once on the table and once online on TTS). 12+ games for Pandemic Legacy is a good number of plays on a game and maybe these forums are not representative and most of you get most of your games played more than that… I do not think that is true for the average boardgame customer. At the same time 12+ is achievable even for people who aren’t that deeply into boardgames.

I get the reasons for making such a game and there is a certain excitement in changing it, drawing on the map, ripping up cards (we did that a couple of times but most cards we kept until the end of the campaign)…

There needs to be a balance in a legacy/campaign game where you present players with a full game at the start but then evolve that towards something different and interesting which each step still being interesting. I think making a good legacy game is far harder to pull off than making a good campaign game or a good replayable game without any campaign elements.

3 Likes
90

IIRC Charterstone was meant to be playable once complete.

After Pandemic Legacy S1 and S2 we moved onto Charterstone but one of the regulars moved away and we didn’t continue without him. I’ve had it in storage for four years now. Probably should get rid of it, but recycling it seems like such a waste.

1 Like
91

This is fair.

(Checks my list of formerly-owned games)

Maybe I will only play The Captain Is Dead ten times and want to move it on… but what I’m moving on is a near-new copy of the game that someone else can have fun with.

I think Seafall is the sadly well-known example of putting too little of the game up front.

2 Likes
92

The my city permanent game is extremely disappointing at the time near completing the legacy game but is perfectly good for playing on boardgame arena.

What makes the permanent game of my city duff is that the legacy game doles and snatches cool bits but the permanent game just takes two of the least interesting variants from the middle of the campaign and just uses a plain version (unpersonal) of that.

2 Likes
93

Going a touch sideways here (call it a dogleg) I have sometimes thought about what games I want my children and friends to play because they teach actual life lessons. It’s like yeah, model UN may be a fun exercise but can it really teach you persuasion and diplomacy better than Diplomacy?

I love Science Fiction because of the Myth. One of my teachers defined Myth as “a story that communicates a truth so pure that it could not be expressed by a story from the real world,” which I think is true (and have since always taken umbrage at the use of Myth as a synonym for Falsehood). Good science fiction tells you truths about the world that would be hard to express without tugging at the variables of reality. Similarly, games can create a situation that, while made-up, excise little bits about how the world works and allow you to experience/learn them in a simulated environment.

Some games I wish everyone would play, from that perspective:

Innovation: How to not panic, not give up, even when you are knocked down and hopeless. Keep a cool head and find a way. There are usually more options than you at first see. Sometimes there aren’t and you lose, and that’s not the end of the world either.

Archipelago: (other semi-coop could go here but I like this one) Friends and enemies aren’t always clear cut. Cooperation isn’t a binary toggle. You need to find a way to work with people who may be working against you. ALSO, there are people not directly involved who will be affected by what you do. You have a choice to care or not. Who will you be?

Coup: How to lie, how to be lied to. Sometimes lying helps. Sometimes its the worst possible thing for you to do. It always attaches to your reputation. Morality aside, this is the reality of the world and it’s good to navigate that space and experience the wins and fallouts in a contained environment.

Celebrity/Monikers: This game forces you to step out in front of people and put yourself out there. It’s hard for everyone. It will eventually be necessary for everyone. Practicing stepping across that line is so invaluable - and Monikers provides a kind of safety net where it tends to work out.

Eat Poop You Cat / Telestrations: Never forget how good it feels to LAUGH.

Chinatown: You can nearly always win, but at what cost? “Winning” is often losing in disguise. (I got this from a business school exercise where we were all trying to grow our rental car business, but the exercise was engineered such that winning auctions nearly always bankrupted your business. And yet people just wanted to keep winning those auctions…)

I’m sure there’s others but I haven’t been keeping actual notes, just thoughts…

6 Likes
94

Separately - finally listened to the podcast. I don’t do that much but this one sounded too good to miss. I really enjoyed it. Got the sense they were looking for games that offered unique or archetypal experiences or stretched the boundaries of what a board game should be able to do.

That said, agree fully with:

  • Tigris & Euphrates (I think this is one of the only contemporary games that might still be played 1,000 years from now)
  • Skull

Haven’t played, but based on what I know are fully appropriate:

  • Pandemic Legacy (I don’t like Pandemic but it’s the Legacy bit)
  • Twilight Imperium

I get where they went with Roads & Boats but I think a broad Splotter* (*except these Splotters) may have been better. I also think Keyflower for this bit. Kind of a yes, you are playing a euro game and then suddenly realize that everyone can take your stuff - that’s the mindblowing bit and the bit that gives these games limitless life.

I feel strongly that Caverna is a better choice than Odin. I’m meh on Odin and like Agricola better, but Caverna is the archetype of this low key, pastoral worker placement writ large.

Other slots I would have liked to have seen:

  • Netrunner or X-Wing Miniatures or any deck/squad construction - this is another of those mind expanding things when the game leaves the table and follows you around all week, and half the game is just deciding how to play the game. It is so open. If you haven’t gotten lost in that rabbit hole at least once, you need to.
  • Mind MGMT or Whitehall Mystery: How amazing to hunt your friends. How amazing to be hunted. How amazing to recap afterwards and finally talk about that thing that was happening thirty minutes ago.
  • The Resistance: I haven’t gotten to play this. I’m worried that I’ve missed that chapter in life. I have it, but don’t have the people or the space. I feel the loss, so this needs to be on there. I have played One Night Ultimate Werewolf and loved it but it’s not the same stakes.
  • Furnace: This is my Bohnanza. No, it’s not perfect. But it does the engine building resource conversion thing well, and oh what a fascinating auction. Certainly not a top 10 game but a fascinating and unique game.
6 Likes
95

That’s a really interesting take.

I would go for Brass Birmingham instead of Archipelago because I found the latter too offensive to enjoy, let alone recommend. Hopefully the reskin changes that

1 Like