I was just updating my BGG profile for secret Santa participation and redid my top 10 list. I’m quite surprised by the amount of movement between January and now.
November 2022:
January 2022:
13 Likes
Time for an update then
|1|Great Western Trail (Second Edition)
|2|Lost Ruins of Arnak
|3|Unmatched: Cobble & Fog
|4|Burgle Bros 2: The Casino Capers
|5|Letters from Whitechapel
|6|Viticulture Essential Edition
|7|The Castles of Burgundy
|8|The Quest for El Dorado
|9|Cascadia
|10|Clank! In! Space!: A Deck-Building Adventure
Very surprised to see Orleans drop off the list. No shock to see new entries at 1, 3 and 4 though. I’ve had El Dorado for ages, but it’s grown on me more recently since I cut out the Hexes expansion.
10 Likes
Pubmeeple making it so difficult to me:
“This negotiation game or that negotiation game?”
“This Pax game or that Pax game?”
7 Likes
| Rank | Game | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chicago Express | It’s solidly in the Top 3. Not a surprise |
| 2 | Stephenson’s Rocket | Previously on 10. Now at 2, beating Tigris |
| 3 | The Great Zimbabwe (RETURNING) | |
| 4 | Indonesia (NEW) | More plays with Wyvern propelled it to the top |
| 5 | The Estates (NEW) | It’s on the Top 20. Not a surprise. This is me sliding further into SICS games |
| 6 | 1860: Railways on the Isle of Wight (NEW) | |
| 7 | Food Chain Magnate (NEW) | |
| 8 | 1828 (NEW) | Big splash entry. Been into this title this year and it is also a “new to me”. |
| 9 | Imperial | |
| 10 | Innovation |
Top 20
| Rank | Game |
|---|---|
| 11 | Modern Art |
| 12 | Santiago |
| 13 | The Bridges of Shangri-La |
| 14 | Pax Renaissance: 2nd Edition |
| 15 | Pax Pamir: Second Edition |
| 16 | MarraCash |
| 17 | The King Is Dead: Second Edition |
| 18 | Ride the Rails |
| 19 | Age of Steam |
| 20 | Irish Gauge |
A lot fell off: T&E, Inis (something I’ve been suspecting), Cthulhu Wars, Dominant Species, and Keyflower. Bridges of Shangri-La fell to Top 20. I still rate these highly so nothing dramatic. Shows that troops-on-a-map games aren’t what I’ll be thinking in regards to a Top 10 or 20
3 Likes
I should probably have waited until after November 19 when I have a big game night (Post-SPIEL-meetup) coming up. On the other hand looking at my Top9 for the year, I doubt it would change a lot.
This time, I filtered my pubmeeple list for games that I played this year. This means some previous Top9 games didn’t even get ranked (Gloomhaven, Pax Pamir 2 and Inis). Ark Nova on the other hand I played a grand total of 1 (one) times and yet it came into the Top9. I don’t even own it.
I also removed almost all roll & write games and party-game-style fillery games because I find it hard to compare some of these games with the bigger games on my shelves.
My previous Top9 was: Spirit Island, Terra Mystica, Beyond the Sun, Oath, The Crew, Dune Imperium, Pax Pamir 2, Inis, Gloomhaven
This year we finished the Pandemic Legacy 2 campaign which was great. Season 0 is on the shelf waiting its turn.
There were 61 games total in my list at the end and it is quite interesting to see, that a game like Tapestry that I sold this year ranks on #42 over games that I have every intention to keep. There are more games that I only played 1 time. Ranking those is hard especially when that single play was in January. So those I play more end up near the top. Still Ark Nova is a surprise–or not. Seeing how much I like similar games.
All 61 games
| Rank | Item |
|---|---|
| 1 | Spirit Island |
| 2 | Terraforming Mars |
| 3 | Beyond the Sun |
| 4 | Obsession |
| 5 | Pandemic Legacy: Season 2 |
| 6 | Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile |
| 7 | Die verlorenen Ruinen von Arnak |
| 8 | Planet Unknown |
| 9 | Ark Nova |
| 10 | Clank! In! Space!: A Deck-Building Adventure |
| 11 | Cascadia |
| 12 | Die Crew: Mission Tiefsee |
| 13 | Hardback |
| 14 | Dune: Imperium |
| 15 | Everdell |
| 16 | The Castles of Burgundy |
| 17 | Mage Knight: Ultimate Edition |
| 18 | Calico |
| 19 | Viscounts of the West Kingdom |
| 20 | Wonderland’s War |
| 21 | Architekten des Westfrankenreichs |
| 22 | Space Base |
| 23 | Roll for the Galaxy |
| 24 | Concordia Venus |
| 25 | Space Station Phoenix |
| 26 | The Red Cathedral |
| 27 | Petrichor |
| 28 | Sub Terra |
| 29 | Splendor: Marvel |
| 30 | Vengeance: Roll & Fight – Episode 1 |
| 31 | Terraforming Mars: The Dice Game |
| 32 | Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition |
| 33 | Art Decko |
| 34 | Dixit |
| 35 | Ein Fest für Odin |
| 36 | Factory Funner |
| 37 | Imperium: Classics |
| 38 | Flügelschlag |
| 39 | Décorum |
| 40 | Welcome to the Moon |
| 41 | Libertalia: Auf den Winden von Galecrest |
| 42 | Tapestry |
| 43 | Great Western Trail (Second Edition) |
| 44 | Kingdomino Origins |
| 45 | The Guild of Merchant Explorers |
| 46 | Iwari |
| 47 | Roll Camera!: The Filmmaking Board Game |
| 48 | Cryo |
| 49 | Paint the Roses |
| 50 | On Mars |
| 51 | Caper: Europe |
| 52 | Challengers! |
| 53 | Verdant |
| 54 | Schlafende Götter |
| 55 | Ghosts of Christmas |
| 56 | My City |
| 57 | Brew |
| 58 | Mind MGMT: The Psychic Espionage “Game.” |
| 59 | Marvel Dice Throne: Battle Chest |
| 60 | Bad Company |
| 61 | Spirits of the Forest |
3 Likes
I love how the German name of the game gives way more historical background to it. Hardly anybody has a clue that the West Kingdom was the western split of the Charlemagne Empire, mostly nowadays West and Central France
4 Likes
I decided to try this “Pub Meeple” thing everyone’s using. Then this:
YOU CAN’T $&%^$^ DO THIS TO ME
What’s next, a website where I can sort my children??!?
12 Likes
I had a few harsh ones. And a lot of easy ones. next time I do the ranking without Spirit Island. Them I can do a top 10 = 1 + 9
5 Likes
Yeah, it’s harsh but fun
1 Like
I did mine!
I don’t know if this is a real top ten or a top ten I convinced myself i wanted to have. It’s a weird process choosing the games and deciding between the games.
Here’s a top thirty four.
2 Likes
Some of the choices are very tricky. I’m not sure how to choose between, say, Just One and 1862 
6 Likes
Yeah I’m not sure how I’d pick between them. In the end I filtered between “which gave me most enjoyment” which obviously favours the smaller one. One of my big debates was the Mind - it’s a stand out game for me but one I think I’ve exhausted pretty much. It’s a ten out of ten design and maybe 4-5 plays. But is that better than something I have been playing for months but is more of an 8/10 in cleverness and stand out moments?!
———
Just one would be a weird one for me as we’ve been playing with a house rule where you have to use a word with a matching first letter with the answer. It kind of straddles the line between just one being the good game and a game we stole off the internet which happens to have the skin of Just One.
4 Likes
Which is the reason I eliminated party games, most Roll & writes and other „small“ games from contention for the list. (An idea brought to you by @lalunaverde who made a list without fillers). Obviously, what I eliminated and what I did not was completely my choice. I really enjoy party games but they have a different application than the games I wanted on this Top10/9 list.
2 Likes
I had this same problem to a smaller scope: do I want to play this 1 hour game that is great OR a 6 hour 18xx game that is great? IDK, man! I went for “which one of these am I eager to play?” Turns out being heavy doesn’t mean it’ll win the match. I have chosen the King is Dead over 1844: Switzerland as a result
4 Likes
The zippering algorithm they are using leads to some crazy results as well. Early on, if you, on a whim, put game A over game B, then later game A gets compared to another sorted stack. Everything below game A gets forced down. If you put game A in the wrong spot, a bunch of strong games below it will get shoved down with it.
They have the “remove” button but it would be nice to have a “reset” button where you can unrank an individual game when you see it’s clogging its stack and you don’t know what you were thinking.
4 Likes
Not a lot of surprises here. I think I kind of know my top 10 and ranked according to that. Lower down the list is where some things came in unexpected orders.
Notes of interest:
- T&E remains my favorite game but I think I’ve lost the last 20 straight games or so. At some point I became very bad at it; probably overthinking.
- DuneImp is the biggest surprise here. I hold it in high regard but haven’t played it enough to really put it here. Not sure what I was thinking.
- Next 9 were very usual suspects as well: Innovation, Coup, One Night Ultimate Werewolf, Skull (not sure all three of those go here but they hung together as a pack during sorting), Great Western Trail, Flamme Rough, Memoir 44, Hansa Teut, and Quacks.
More revealing perhaps was the bottom of the list.
- A couple games I really liked but am starting to realize I don’t want to play again: Space Base, Fantastic Factories, Tiny Epic Galaxies. Wingspan goes here too, as a game that is fine but too long for what it gives you.
- Welcome To and Railroad Ink. I’m not a R&R (edit: R&W? R&R sounds better) guy. These grabbed me for a bit but it turns out I’m still not an R&R (W) guy.
- I downvoted Parks hard. It’s a pretty and polished game. For some reason I just really don’t like playing it.
- San Juan just needs to go. Why can’t I sell it?
6 Likes
Not much point me even doing the pubmeeple thing again, except maybe to see where John Company comes in. Given that it is supposed to be a top 10, I can just add that in and not worry about the order.
5 Likes
Introducing some board gaming friends yesterday provoked another round of “what’s your top 10”, so I’ve been back to pubmeeple:
Limited to games I have played more than 5 times:
The more aspirational version:
9 Likes
Team Lancashire! 
5 Likes
| Rank | Games | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chicago Express | |
| 2 | The Great Zimbabwe | |
| 3 | Indonesia | |
| 4 | Stephenson’s Rocket | |
| 5 | The Estates | |
| 6 | Zoo Vadis | (NEW) What a surprise! Not really |
| 7 | Innovation | |
| 8 | Food Chain Magnate | |
| 9 | Imperial 2030 | |
| 10 | Cthulhu Wars | (RETURNING) |
The rest
| Rank | Games | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 11 | Pax Renaissance: 2nd Edition | Will Pax Ren enter the Top 10? |
| 12 | 1860: Isle of Wight | |
| 13 | Ride the Rails | |
| 14 | The Old Prince | (NEW) but not enough to enter Top 10 |
| 15 | Pax Pamir: Second Edition | |
| 16 | MarraCash | |
| 17 | Age of Steam | |
| 18 | Mottainai | (NEW) |
| 19 | Glory to Rome | (NEW) |
| 20 | 1828 | |
| 21 | Evolution: Climate | (NEW) |
| 22 | Irish Gauge | |
| 23 | GoodCritters | |
| 24 | The Bridges of Shangri-La | |
| 25 | The Rich and the Good | (NEW) |
| 26 | Pax Transhumanity | (NEW) enough plays have put this here |
| 27 | Modern Art | |
| 28 | Dominant Species | |
| 29 | Orongo | (NEW) Rare Knizia. Further plays made this way more compelling than I thought |
| 30 | Through the Desert | |
| 31 | Santiago | |
| 32 | Impulse | (NEW) |
| 33 | Race for the Galaxy | (NEW) RFTG have always been around this ranking, but I always cut off after 20 |
| 34 | Samurai | (NEW) found new love to Samurai. Can Allplay release it in a small box pls??? |
Seems very samey from last year except this influx of Chudyks in the rankings. Will Aegean Sea do the same??? And also some Knizias. Orongo was hard to find. Samurai was waaay more enjoyable with open scoring. Also added in fillers like Goodcritters which I have never accounted for when doing this
I have also becoming less enamoured with 18xx due to their duration. I’ve always been more into Cube Rails.
Playing CW with @EnterTheWyvern made me appreciate just how deep the game is.
I will not stop yapping about Zoo Vadis
4 Likes