I got my Hansa T preorder a few months ago. I’m picking at a spreadsheet to facilitate PBF. Keep watch in a couple weeks!
3 Likes
Veering to a tangential topic…
I love this one too. But, the more I play in general, I have this sneaking feeling that Pfister doesn’t have good playtesters? Like Chvatil and Lehman are pretty open about creating computer simulations and running everything thousands of times then sanding down the corners. For Pfister, apart from Isle of Skye (which I think was a collaboration?) all his games come out like they were playtested by an insular group with an established meta and come out lopsided.
GWT - there’s a tilt toward a rush strategy and builders are comparatively weak (unless the random setup comes out just so. The game seems to end a few turns early. Then Rails came out and overcorrects so that builders are now overpowered.
Broom Service - Haven’t played, but online discussions suggest that the game is biased toward NOT going brave, or brash, or whatever it is. Basically, the winning strategy is opposite the fun strategy.
Oh My Goods - again, I love the concept but in actual play the game nudges you toward a rush strategy, opposite of what is “fun” about the game which is building production chains. Follow-up with a rules re-write to weaken rush and strengthen production, and then a series of expansions trying to shore up the production strategy. Even with Longsdale, the game doesn’t seem to allow you to play it the way it would be fun.
All in all, it feels like his playtesters are slow, deliberate completionists that take their time, so the games come out with a loophole on the rush strategy.
That said, GWT still sits at a ‘9’ on my list. I love playing it. And yet… every time… I just feel like the pacing and the role balance are somehow off and the winning strategy somehow diverges from the intended strategy.
3 Likes
GWT is the only game I’ve read strategy threads for on BGG because I felt it was out of balance. Strangely enough, in the base game, building is now seen as the dominant strategy.
However, it’s always situational. I think the variety in setup is the thing I like best about it.
1 Like
This sounds like the people who complain about Sheriff of Nottingham, saying the winning strategy is to go legit every time.
The answer to that is: the player who smuggles once (or goes Brave at an opportune moment) will win.
And then, the meta will shift… and the player who smuggles twice (or takes a second gamble on Brave) will win.
Broom Service is more about reading your opponents’ intentions, guessing which cards they will have (and which they won’t). It’s a big favorite of mine… but it’s definitely a licorice/marmite game; it seems about half the people I’ve shown it to absolutely love it and the other half wouldn’t save it from a slow tide. I was a little surprised it only ranked #13 when I went through PubMeeple.
4 Likes
Good to know. Those shifts suggest the gap is in my comprehension rather than in the design. Unless the shift is due to Rails to the North 
Yeah, this is what I love about Coup. The meta / winning strategy chase each other like a cat and mouse. Haven’t actually played this one so it’s good to know.
Maybe, MAYBE I’m really just upset at Oh My Goods and it’s spilling over to Pfister in general.
2 Likes
Alright. I went ahead and did it. Funny how, once I start, I treat this with the same imperative importance as I might bestow on, say, my next job. Keep telling myself it’s ok if it is not exactly right.
Happy to discuss any of these at length! And happy to provide a .csv for collation purposes.
50 Blokus
49 Neom
48 Bruxelles 1897
47 London 2e
46 Pictomania
45 Schotten Totten
44 Hive
43 Anomia
42 Love Letter
41 Azul
40 Codenames
39 Ethnos
38 Istanbul
37 Star Realms
36 Lowlands
35 Quest for El Dorado
34 Risk 2210 (don’t hate me. It’s actually quite good and patches the Risk model.)
33 Wits and Wagers
32 Jaipur
31 Babylonia
30 Mottainai
29 Nations
28 Patchwork
27 Concordia
26 Flamme Rouge
25 Coup
24 Settlers of Catan (Fight me.)
23 Architects of the West Kingdom (Eagerly anticipating Viscounts)
22 Troyes
21 Empyreal
20 Great Western Trail
19 One Night Ultimate Werewolf
18 Telestrations (always just pen and paper, though. We called it Telephone Pictionary.)
17 Gaia Project
16 Castles of Burgundy
15 Mysterium
14 Skull
13 Air, Land, & Sea
12 Neuroshima Hex
11 Keyflower
10 El Grande
9 LOTR: The Confrontation
8 Memoir 44
7 Cyclades
6 Agricola
5 Isle of Skye
4 Innovation
3 Tichu
2 Race for the Galaxy
1 Tigris & Euphrates
And I should note - I’ve probably have ratings for about half my collection? Half still needs more play or exposure before I know what I think about it.
5 Likes
So according to The System™, these are my favorite games:
1 Dominion (Second Edition) - Not really sure it’s number one, but I have played it more than anything, and it is responsible for all the other deckbuilders, so… it’s number one.
2 Power Grid - “The oil barrels game”, this is my go-to game with the family.
3 Mare Nostrum: Empires - I don’t even own this game, but it’s always an epic. Better than TI? The system™ says I think it is!
4 Mysterium - Was hard to choose this over Obscurio, but really, this one is the classic. Haven’t had a chance for it to get old yet 
5 Fortress America - The stand in for the MB GameMaster series; while I like all of them for various reasons, this one has the cleanest play, and (fake) Saddam Hussein on the cover. What’s not to love?
6 Galaxy Trucker: Anniversary Edition - been really on a Galaxy Trucker kick lately, so this scored much higher than it would have a few months ago. Still, it’s probably my favorite Vlaada.
7 Tanto Cuore - It’s not problematic, I’m just accruing Quantified Love Units so that sexy girls can “serve” me! Completely normal-person stuff!
8 Sushi Go! - Best Quick game
9 Love Letter Premium - stand-in for standard Love Letter, which is (kinda) better, but this is the one I have due to some excessive generosity 
10 Galaxy Trucker - Again! Because get this, it’s almost as good as itself!
11 Shogun (1984)
12 Obscurio
13 Chinatown - Number 10, because the three above it are sort of included in earlier entries (?)
14 Carcassonne
15 Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game
16 Codenames
17 Railroad Ink: Deep Blue Edition
18 Axis & Allies
19 Carcassonne: The Discovery
20 Dominion: Adventures
And all the other stuff in the middle, before we get to:
21 The Quest for El Dorado
22 Pandemic Legacy: Season 1
23 Smash Up
24 Heart of Crown
25 Warrior Knights
26 Memoir '44
27 Archipelago
28 Patchwork
29 Antarctica
30 Machi Koro
31 Dominion: Seaside
32 Twilight Imperium: Second Edition
33 The Shores of Tripoli
34 Trains
35 FlickFleet
36 Tokaido
37 Star Trek: The Adventure Game
38 March of the Ants
39 Root
40 Acquire
41 Sidereal Confluence: Remastered Edition
42 Spyfall
43 Broadsides & Boarding Parties
44 Smash Up: Big in Japan
45 Conquest of the Empire
46 Dune
47 Entdecker: Exploring New Horizons
48 Smash Up: Science Fiction Double Feature
49 Dominion: Intrigue
50 Survive: Escape from Atlantis!
51 Suburbia
52 Machi Koro Legacy
53 Magic Maze
54 Smash Up: The Big Geeky Box
55 Dominion: Prosperity
56 Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: The Thames Murders & Other Cases
57 PitchCar
58 Machi Koro: Harbor
59 Arctic Scavengers
60 Xia: Legends of a Drift System
61 Watson & Holmes
62 WORDOS
63 Lowlands
64 Robotech: Attack on the SDF-1
65 Imperial 2030
66 Robotech: Ace Pilot
67 March of the Ants: Minions of the Meadow
68 Once Upon a Time: The Storytelling Card Game
69 Sword Art Online Board Game: Sword of Fellows
70 Smash Up: That '70s Expansion
71 Condottiere
72 Clank!: A Deck-Building Adventure
73 Comuni
74 Silk
75 Dark Moon
76 Smash Up: Awesome Level 9000
77 Smash Up: World Tour – International Incident
78 Conspiracy
79 Cowboy Bebop: Boardgame Boogie
80 Smash Up: Cease and Desist
81 Star Wars: Rebellion
82 Diplomacy
83 March of the Ants: Empires of the Earth
84 Monopoly Empire
85 Monopoly Deal Card Game
86 Axis & Allies: WWI 1914
87 Ploy
88 BANG!
89 The Starfarers of Catan
90 FlickFleet Expansion 1: Scenarios and Scenery
91 KLASK
92 The Estates
93 The Settlers of Catan
94 Ticket to Ride
95 A Few Acres of Snow
96 1812: The Invasion of Canada
97 Wingspan
98 Star Trek: Fleet Captains
99 Smash Up: What Were We Thinking?
100 Kingdom Builder
101 Smash Up: Pretty Pretty Smash Up
102 Blokus
103 Tragedy Looper
104 Trains: Coastal Tides
105 Warrior Knights: Crown and Glory
106 Trains: Rising Sun
107 Automobiles
108 Thunder’s Edge
109 Feudal
110 Kingdom Builder: Nomads
111 Kingdom Builder: Marshlands
112 Smash Up: World Tour – Culture Shock
113 Smash Up: Oops, You Did It Again
114 Sushi Go!: Soy Sauce Promo
115 Smash Up: It’s Your Fault!
116 Suburbia Inc
117 Smash Up: Monster Smash
118 Terraforming Mars
119 The Mind
120 Dominion: Intrigue – Update Pack
121 First Martians: Adventures on the Red Planet
122 Kingdom Builder: Crossroads
123 Kemet
124 Smash Up: Sheep
125 Twilight Imperium: Second Edition – Hope’s End
126 Love Battle! High School
127 Space Cadets
128 Puerto Rico
129 Secret Hitler
130 Smash Up: All Stars
131 Risk
132 Space Alert
133 Codenames: Pictures
134 Imperium: Empires in Conflict – Worlds in the Balance
135 Heart of Crown: Fairy Princess Elrune promo card
136 BoardGameGeek: The Card Game
137 High-Bid
138 Mogul
139 Urbanization
140 Skyline 3000
141 Twixt
142 Breakthru
The most anti-fun games ever crafted by human hands!
143 CrossTalk (do I really hate it that much? I’ve never played it, and probably never will, so I guess we’ll never know for sure!)
144 Point Of Law
145 Kitten Klash
146 Bacon-Opoly
147 Stocks & Bonds
148 Suburbia 5★ (It’s not that bad with the game, but considering that it only makes the game worse, I couldn’t rank it very highly, now could I?)
149 Chess - Can only be played when it isn’t Chess Month, therefore can never be played. And we can keep it that way.
150 Larry Burkett’s Money Matters
151 221B Baker Street: The Master Detective Game
152 Joking Hazard
There are some odd things, like it says I prefer Once Upon a Time over Ticket to Ride/Catan, which definitely isn’t true, but I guess because numbers? I feel like there must be some biases there. I also spent a lot more time shuffling through bad games than comparing good games. Could work in a more normal scenario, but a lot of these are either horrible, or I’ve never played, so the accuracy of their effect on the higher listings is questionable. Still, the results were pretty accurate.
5 Likes
Speaking as someone who loves Suburbia and Inc., I was desperately disappointed by this and basically never play with it any more. I think that introducing the stars starts to be one thing too many, and then they overpower everything else.
4 Likes
I find it interesting that two of your games in the anti-fun category were freebies at SHUX '18. 
I haven’t played either of them to either confirm or deny your claim on their quality.
2 Likes
That’s just the thing, I’ve never played them either I only have them cause they’re free; Kitten Klash does seem to be that bad, but CrossTalk is probably okay? I just don’t know why I’d play it instead of the legion of fantastic word games that people already know 
1 Like
It’s fun to see everyone’s lists 
Here’s mine:
#10: Werewords
Architects of the West Kingdom, Wingspan and Ex Libris just missed out, but may displace something once I’ve played them a few more times.
5 Likes
Thought I’d update my list, as this seems to be the time of year we see lots of lists coming out from various board game personalities:
|1|Lost Ruins of Arnak
|2|Viticulture Essential Edition
|3|Wingspan
|4|Letters from Whitechapel
|5|Orléans
|6|The Quacks of Quedlinburg
|7|The Taverns of Tiefenthal
|8|Carcassonne
|9|Rajas of the Ganges
|10|Hanamikoji
7 Likes
Writing updates to my Top 10 List is weird right now. In the last 22 months (or so), I have played basically nothing that I really love. I’ve enjoyed several of the games I have played, but I haven’t gotten a chance to play anything I would consider one of my favourites.
Do I write a list of “Top 10 Games I have Played Anytime since 2019”? Or “Top 10 Games I Think I Still Love”?
Sigh
Well, with that stated, as far as I remember these are (still) my Top 10 Games… if my house was on fire and I had to save exactly 10 of the games in my collection, the ones I am grabbing are:
- Twilight Imperium IV
- Galaxy Trucker 2nd Ed
- Scythe
- Journeys in Middle-Earth (plus expansions)
- Imperial Assault (plus expansions)
- Space Alert
- Dune
- Sleeping Gods
- Xia Legends of a Drift System
- Gloomhaven (plus expansions)
Honourable Mentions to Star Trek Ascendancy, which I have played several PBF games of in 2021, and Blackstone Fortress which I think is still the best GW-style RPG game they’ve ever made (low-hanging fruit, but still true). MicroMacro was a lot of fun, but it’s done now (same “problem” with Chronicles of Crime 2400, which while a tonne of fun, is really only a few playthroughs and then done), and there are a lot of games on my shelves that I would love to play a few times that have “Top 10 Potential” but I’m not sure yet.
7 Likes
Consistency at the top here as I join in on ‘new year, new list’
|Rank|Item|
|1|Burano|
|2|Indonesia|
|3|Food Chain Magnate|
|4|1824: Austrian-Hungarian Railway (Second Edition)|
|5|IKI|
|6|Spirit Island|
|7|1870: Railroading across the Trans Mississippi from 1870|
|8|Teotihuacan: City of Gods|
|9|1862: Railway Mania in the Eastern Counties|
|10|Clans of Caledonia|
This ranking engine sometimes feels off, which is slightly mad as I made the comparisons. However it does also feel close enough. I suppose part of it is scope. Maybe it’s right for my mood while comparing but not an all time ever list which is even more odd conceptually and around time frames.
Top 40 for a broader look.
Top 40
|Rank|Item|
|1|Burano|
|2|Indonesia|
|3|Food Chain Magnate|
|4|1824: Austrian-Hungarian Railway (Second Edition)|
|5|IKI|
|6|Spirit Island|
|7|1870: Railroading across the Trans Mississippi from 1870|
|8|Teotihuacan: City of Gods|
|9|1862: Railway Mania in the Eastern Counties|
|10|Clans of Caledonia|
|11|Keyflower|
|12|18NewEngland|
|13|Noria|
|14|18MEX|
|15| Terra Mystica|
|16|La Granja|
|17|Hanabi|
|18|TOKYO METRO|
|19|1844/1854|
|20|6 nimmt!|
|21|Mottainai|
|22|Pipeline|
|23|Too Many Bones|
|24|Calimala|
|25|Chicago Express|
|26|First Class: All Aboard the Orient Express!|
|27|Lisboa|
|28|Kepler-3042|
|29|Sumeria|
|30|1882: Assiniboia|
|31|Agra|
|32|Anansi|
|33|Expedition to Newdale|
|34|Helionox: Deluxe Edition|
|35|1876: Trinidad|
|36|New Bedford|
|37|Love Letter|
|38|Little Town|
|39|The Great Zimbabwe|
|40|Quarriors! Qultimate Quedition|
6 Likes
What’s the draw with Iki? It’s available in a math trade near me, wondering if I should add it to want list.
3 Likes
I like that everything is opportunity costs. Working out your situation and how that’s shifting values while combining that with strategic choices is done nicely in the game. The thing that layers on that is the way your employees are used by other people so getting the lain out where they’ll get used makes it very interactive for a modern euro. Arguably a point salad but the puzzle isn’t static and player choices change it as much, if not more than the card draw sequence of the employees.
3 Likes
My update to this: Top 10 Games ranking - #45 by yashima
Again, I used pubmeeple to rank my games ranked on BGG higher than something. When ranking I asked myself this: if I had players who wanted to play this, would I want to play this more than the other. Because some of my favorites are HARD to get to the table:
- New on the top are: Beyond the Sun, Oath, Crew 2 has replaced Crew 1, Dune Imperium → they pushed out Clank!, Obsession, Leaving Earth and Dixit (which I merged with Detective Club as both scratch the same itch for me).
- Inis is only on here because I like the idea of it so much. I have not got it to the table much since my initial forays into it, due to pandemic reasons and few big boardgame nights.
- I realize now Dixit was up so high last time because of nostalgia. I had not played in a while and I really love it but it was mostly my desire to play again that pushed it high. Now I have played again with my original Dixit group and so it ranked a little lower without the nostalgia.
- I think I prefer Ares Expedition over original TfM
- On a different day Obsession or Hardback might have made it into the picture.
- Winter Kingdom really is the much better version of Kingdom Builder
- Five Tribes is as good as I remembered it
- Gloomhaven had digital help to remain on top
I began ranking with 98 games and eliminated 18 during the process either because they were basically duplicates like Imperium Legends, Original Crew, Space-Clank! or because I had decided they were not going to make the Top 50 anyway and would only prolong the process:
The Top 50
Rank Item
1 Spirit Island
2 Terra Mystica
3 Beyond the Sun
4 Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile
5 Die Crew: Mission Tiefsee
6 Dune: Imperium
7 Pax Pamir: Second Edition
8 Inis
9 Gloomhaven
10 Obsession
11 Hardback
12 Blood on the Clocktower
13 Leaving Earth
14 Clank!: Legacy – Acquisitions Incorporated
15 The LOOP
16 Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition
17 Five Tribes
18 Root
19 Winter Kingdom
20 Viscounts of the West Kingdom
21 Terraforming Mars
22 Roll for the Galaxy
23 Codenames
24 Brass: Birmingham
25 Antiquity (a single play put this here. Sadly haven’t found the energy for a return to it yet b/c as great as the mod is Vassal complicates things)
26 Imperium: Classics
27 Architekten des Westfrankenreichs
28 Viticulture Essential Edition
29 The Castles of Burgundy
30 Calico
31 Hansa Teutonica: Big Box
32 Menara
33 Detective Club
34 Flourish
35 Sprawlopolis
36 Burgle Bros 2: The Casino Capers
37 Merv: The Heart of the Silk Road
38 Race for the Galaxy
39 Concordia Venus
40 Nusfjord
41 Polynesia
42 On Mars
43 Gaia Project
44 Paladins of the West Kingdom
45 Innovation
46 Kemet: Blood and Sand
47 Space Base
48 Railroad Ink Challenge: Edition Blattgrün
49 Decrypto
50 Cryptid
No big surprises in all of my Top 80 games. Except maybe how low Nidavellir came in and Wingspan (that one really lost its shine with the expansions)
7 Likes
1.) Tigers & Pot - you can switch this and Chi-Ex and Inis and it’s still good.
2.) Chicago Express (NEW) - long live Cube Rails, I guess
3.) Inis
4.) Cthulhu Wars
5.) Dominant Species
6.) Innovation
7.) Imperial 2030
8.) Keyflower (NEW)
9.) Bridges of Shangri-La (NEW) - This is what made me a Leo Colovini fan. He manage to create a spatial abstract game of placing and moving pieces, and achieve to create shared incentives without the need to add any kind of stocks holding mechanism. And like any spatial abstract, a lot of “hmmm… a fine move!” moments. I’m glad Shangri-La surprisingly made it.
10.) Stephenson’s Rocket - not shown.
El Grande, The Great Zimbabwe, and Container were pushed out. But they are still in my faves.
The rest of the Top 96 - all games I've rated 9 and 10
11 Babylonia
12 The Estates
13 The Great Zimbabwe
14 Medici
15 Monikers
16 Calimala
17 Container
18 1862: Railway Mania in the Eastern Counties
19 Indonesia
20 Santiago
21 Modern Art
22 Tikal
23 Food Chain Magnate
24 Paris Connection
25 Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization
26 1860: Railways on the Isle of Wight
27 1830: Railways & Robber Barons
28 GoodCritters
29 König von Siam
30 Napoleon’s Triumph
31 1844/1854
32 Terra Mystica
33 Wildcatters
34 Intrigue
35 Seasons
36 Summoner Wars
37 Web of Power/China/Han/Iwari
38 El Grande Big Box
39 Quartermaster General: 1914
40 Kingdom Builder: Big Box (Second Edition)
41 Brass: Lancashire
42 Tempel des Schreckens
43 Hive
44 Equinox
45 Rumble Nation
46 Razzia!
47 Bohnanza
48 The Crew: Mission Deep Sea & The Crew: Quest for Planet 9
49 1817
50 Terra Nova
51 Through the Desert
52 Age of Steam
53 Sidereal Confluence
54 So Clover!
55 Tzolk’in: The Mayan Calendar
56 Torres
57 Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small
58 Gaia Project
59 Pit
60 War of the Ring: Second Edition
61 Power & Weakness
62 PitchCar
63 Quo Vadis?
64 MarraCash
65 Pax Pamir: Second Edition
66 Coloretto
67 Luzon Rails
68 The Resistance: Avalon
69 Mechs vs. Minions
70 1882: Assiniboia
71 Yellow & Yangtze
72 Pax Porfiriana
73 Go
74 Clans
75 Strozzi
76 Irish Gauge
77 Q.E.
78 1846: The Race for the Midwest
79 Spectaculum
80 Little Town
81 Crokinole
82 Kemet: Blood and Sand
83 Hansa Teutonica: Big Box
84 Race for the Galaxy
85 Battle Line: Medieval
86 Samurai
87 The Gallerist
88 Air, Land & Sea
89 Tammany Hall
90 San Juan (Second Edition)
91 6 nimmt!
92 Polis
93 TOKYO METRO
94 Carolus Magnus
95 Ride the Rails
96 Just One
6 Likes
Here’s my formal top 10 for 2021 based on number of plays:
(Far and away my) #1:
The Fuzzies was shown to more people than any other game this year (my folks even went home with a copy), and it’s been a great source of intense duels with my partner. I don’t consider the count padded whatsoever, and our 30 minute epics would agree!
The remaining 9, in delightful grid format:
Big time honourable mentions to Praga Caput Regni, which surprised me by tying with Sheepy Time for 10th. This was traded as incentive for an OOP game well before I was done with it, so the fact that it was up there at all was impressive.
7 Likes
