With all these mentions of me in this thread I could be seen as a bad influence on you. Last year I made you play Indonesia, this year Cthulhu Wars… I’m surprised you still talk to me. I won’t stop playing CW either, factions still to play, maps still to try, independent monsters to summon.
5 Likes
I knew I will like Indo, I just havent played it enough back then 
3 Likes
Dropped:
- Innovation - I still see it as a great game and can replace ZV or Intrigue. But there are only 10 spots
- Imperial 2030 - yes. The stock-holding gameplay but with global Great Powers is unique. But I now finding it too long to play.
- Cthulhu Wars - still great, but I’d rather want those games above and others like Fresh Fish over CW
Notes:
- I want to add Fresh Fish. I had amazing games of it with Wyvern and co.
- My Top 4 are really solid now. You can shuffle them around and that’s fine.
- Prussian Rails (aka German Railways) was a surprise. I thought the random turn order was weird at first but it’s great. The turn order. The alliance. When to connect what trainline to which other trainline is great. It’s great at 3 players, which I assume is the weakest player count. And it is great at 3. So I’m keen to see 4 or 5 player games and I would expect them to be even better.
- Culling giving me results. Shangri-La got several plays and remind me why it’s great.
- Intrigue is another result of the culling. Light small box game but gives you the experience of alliances and betrayals of Diplomacy/Game of Thrones/etc. As much as I love Fresh Fish, I have to give #10 to Intrigue
6 Likes
First entry from Mar 2021
Second entry from Nov 2022
New entry Jan 2025:
I went and selected some 60+ games again to see how much had changed. The main metric being “how much do I want to play this at the moment”
This is influenced my several factors:
- recent great plays
- having not played in a while can make me select a game over another.
The results are not totally different from last time. Interestingly no campaign game made the list this time.
- I could just as well run this list without Spirit Island in it because despite rarely finding the energy to put it to the table… I just like it too much.
- Same for Terraforming Mars (at least that one has an app I enjoy).
- (new entry) Unsurprisingly Daybreak managed to squeeze in between the two because of its excellent BGA implementation and my friend who keeps playing it with me and the fact that it totally is a 10/10 game
- (re-entry) I am surprised how high The Crew ranked here.
- (new entry) Less surprised about Robo Rally–we had a great revival of this somewhat recently and I have preordered the 30th anniversary (it is available already but I ordered from a place where it is almost a quarter cheaper than everywhere else… so I’ll have to be patient).
- (new entry) Harmonies is not surprising at all. I really enjoy this one a lot.
- Sprawlopolis is just never getting old it seems.
- The continued presence of both Ark Nova and Beyond the Sun are a bit on the surprising side. I have rarely had the opportunity for either lately. But I do like my big stacks of cards and tech trees… and the “want to play” factor is pretty high for both
The full ranking of 60 games I considered
I took Gloom/Frosthaven out of the ranking. I haven’t played either for over a year and I would really like to but it would have completely skewed the rankings because I like it a lot. As can be seen in previous years whatever campaign we play at the moment shoots up the lists
| Rank | Item | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Spirit Island | all time fave |
| 2 | Daybreak | combos all the way |
| 3 | Terraforming Mars | I like Mars |
| 4 | Ark Nova | Almost as good as TM but only almost |
| 5 | Die Crew: Mission Tiefsee | best trick taker there is IMO |
| 6 | Sprawlopolis | never boring, includes Naturopolis etc |
| 7 | RoboRally | Old but still oh so good, recently got back to the table |
| 8 | Harmonies | new but such nice patterns, it beat out Cascadia this year |
| 9 | Beyond the Sun | Tech trees ftw. I really want to play this more again |
| 10 | Revive | More tech tree goodness and multi-use cards and a nice color triptych |
| 11 | The Mandalorian: Adventures | filling a hole in my collection left by Zombicide falling out of favor |
| 12 | Oranienburger Kanal | The best Uwe there is. Spatial puzzle and resource wheel ftw |
| 13 | Beacon Patrol | Such beautiful tile laying |
| 14 | Clank!: Catacombs | My favorite deck builder |
| 15 | Cascadia | surprised this came in so low, I still ove building landscapes |
| 16 | The Gang | first plays impressed me a lot. really want to explore this more |
| 17 | 7 Wonders Duel | Revived interest after a series of games with a friend, just really good |
| 18 | Dorfromantik: Sakura | Very cozy hex tile laying |
| 19 | Space Base | Want to finally play with ALL expansion materials |
| 20 | Dune: Imperium + Uprising | Easily beats Arnak |
| 21 | Imperium: Legends | I like it but can’t play often. It’s so heavy in all the senses |
| 22 | Just One | The best party game. Always on the table at parties here |
| 23 | Obsession | The newest expansion got this back to my table and I love it |
| 24 | Planet Unknown | My favorite polyominoes game. And the best implementation of tracks there is |
| 25 | Nusfjord | Second best Uwe even though it’s been ages since I played. Lots of variability |
| 26 | Star Wars: Outer Rim | Sometimes I need a space adventure and this one is the best |
| 27 | Winter Kingdom | I prefer this iteration. I thought I was done with this but I am not |
| 28 | Wonderland’s War | This is my version of Quacks. |
| 29 | Res Arcana | Need to try the new Duel content |
| 30 | Concept | Lovely party game. Would be played far more if not for the greatness of Just One |
| 31 | Hardback | My favorite small random market deckbuilder and word-game |
| 32 | Arler Erde | I am surprised this lost to Nusfjord in the Uwe Rankings. I recently played a series of this and it is just so good. |
| 33 | Red Rising | I know it’s just a fancy iteration on Fantasy Realms but I enjoy this one–solo |
| 34 | Roll/Race for the Galaxy | I like both Roll and Race a lot and since I can never decide… this means both |
| 35 | Tash-Kalar: Arena of Legends | If not for the fact that this game can give me headaches it would be ranked far higher. It is the best pattern game there is. But you have to spot them. |
| 36 | Evergreen | Very nice cozy forest building game |
| 37 | Detective Club & Dixit | I just like the cards |
| 38 | Everdell Farshore | This one is a major improvement over OG Everdell for me |
| 39 | Cryptid | Still my favorite deduction game |
| 40 | Factory Funner | Crazy routes, if I had played recently it would probably be ranked higher |
| 41 | Für Northwood! | Just got this recently, only played with beginners setup. But I doubt this will get higher. Very good though. Better on the table than on BGA. |
| 42 | Saltfjord | I like the dice puzzly thing here a lot. But I am not sure I want to force this on others |
| 43 | Die verlorenen Ruinen von Arnak | This one has fallen a lot. I played the whole campaign module last year and it still came out down here, maybe I just had enough of it compared to other games? |
| 44 | Terra Mystica | Oh how low my former favorite has fallen. This is a bit sad |
| 45 | Wingspan | This is not quite surprising. After the dragon iteration failed to convince my friends… |
| 46 | Black Forest | I have too many Uwe games, they can’t all be at the top. Still a good game |
| 47 | Kingdomino Origins | I am surprised this came in so high actually. |
| 48 | Pax Pamir: Second Edition | I love this game to pieces but the solo is unplayable for me, I can’t deal with Wahkan. I need people to read and anticipate and it is very difficult to bring to the table for me |
| 49 | Iberia | my very favorite pandemic iteration these days. But the mechanisms while not totally old is also not totally fresh |
| 50 | Mischwald | I do enjoy this with a small group |
| 51 | Inis | It’s been so long that I played. I almost don’t remember how it goes. I would like to get back to it though |
| 52 | Libertalia: Auf den Winden von Galecrest | Pretty good but also pretty stressful. |
| 53 | Legacy of Yu | I still have not finished my first campaign. I like this. It’s a good game but I have little patience for campaigns these days. |
| 54 | Leaving Earth | Such a great game but oh so heavy. Not for me at the moment. |
| 55 | Oath | Despite running an 8 game campaign last year… at the moment too hard to consider |
| 56 | Architekten des Westfrankenreichs | This is fallen waayy out of favor along with the rest of my Shem Philips games. This is still a very good worker placement but it gets beaten by a lot of other games on the way to the table |
| 57 | Ein Fest für Odin | AFFO is such a good game. And if Rosenberg had only made this one, I’d be up where Kanal is. |
| 58 | A Fake Artist Goes to New York | Such a fun little game. Definitely hilarious every single time |
| 59 | AI Space Puzzle | Pretty good deduction game. |
| 60 | Welcome to the Moon | This stands for all the various R&W games that have fallen out of favor with me. It’s probably one of the best I still own. |
For most game franchises I only considered a single game. So Sprawlopolis includes all the other iterations. Pandemic Iberia includes all the other Pandemics. Clank! Catacombs stands in for all the Clank!.
It is entirely possible that I overlooked a game during the preselection. But if I didn’t miss it during the ranking… it would surely not have made the Top 9/10 anyway.
8 Likes
Wow, I need to look more at Harmonies.
2 Likes
The implementation on BGA is pretty good.
While I bought it for the pretty cover and cards… it does have very nice flowy gameplay both solo and multiplayer. I have recommended it a lot to people recently.
It is a filler style game though, not evening filling. Also not necessarily for a lot of back to back repeat plays like some other fillers.
I noticed that of the games that would probably have made the Top 20, I forgot Trailblazers.
It would probably be right next to Beacon Patrol
5 Likes
From January 2022? Still pretty close… let’s see where we land 3 years later.
- Twilight Imperium IV plus Prophecy
- Galaxy Trucker 2nd Ed
- Descent Legends in the Dark
- Scythe
- Dune
- Xia Legends of a Drift System
- Thunder Road Vendetta
- Journeys in Middle-Earth
- Space Alert
- Brass Birmingham
Some big drops (I haven’t played Space Alert in… gods, it’s at least 5 years now), and the inclusion of Brass is probably long overdue. It’s real good. Gloomhaven and Sleeping Gods both drop by virtue of them being great games that I just don’t feel inclined to play ever again… no fault of the game, but I’ve kinda… finished them? We’ll see whenever we get a chance to dive into Frosthaven.
Eclipse and Star Trek Ascendancy continue to nip at the top 10, as does Sidereal Confluence. Oh, and Heat. My main criteria is somebody saying “Hey, would you like to play game X or game Y…”, and the higher on the list games will always overpower any lower games. Not exactly scientific, but hey, it works.
3 Likes
Could you elaborate on this one? Or did you and I missed it in Recent Games?
3 Likes
As usual, I haven’t had enough real pvp time to move my list around much. Most plays are solo, app, or BGA and I did get a lot of life out of those mediums but they are necessarily limited.
My “usual suspects” remain in place, in a rough order:
- Tigris & Euphrates
- Keyflower
- Race for the Galaxy (this one’s been on hiatus for about a year, but it’s ready to come back)
- Isle of Skye
- Cyclades
- Tichu
- Agricola
Other games (not ranked) that have delighted me enough to round out or even disrupt that list, though I’m not going to draw any conclusions right now:
- Kanban EV
- La Granja
- El Grande
- Great Zimbabwe
- Ginkgopolis
- Pipeline
- Furnace+Interbellum
- Sea Salt & Paper
- New Frontiers (This and Neom got a ton of online play this year, but NF withstands the beating and deepens over time while Neom had to go on hiatus at some point)
Generally, I’m finding I really like the 2012-2017 crop when “area control” was the rage and every euro needed an area control subgame. These days everything needs deckbuilding, or a playerboard with upgrades, and they just don’t have the teeth of a Troyes or Ginkgopolis.
4 Likes
I need to play Isle of Skye. And I believe it’s cheap and gettable.
I had the most miserable play of my life when I tried Pipeline!
I can’t really do a top 10 - too much recency bias.
Great Western Trail and Race for the Galaxy would be 1&2 though
5 Likes
The new Isle of Skye big box is a good buy. You miss the Journeyman expansion, which has been disowned due to unpopularity (though it’s still on my Pillbox award list, got to do it sometime), but you get the new borderlands expansion which seems like an excellent, simple module.
Pipeline is definitely not a good first impression game. I think I scored $550 in my first game, and then in the second had $700 in cash alone before end game bonuses doubled that score. To give a sense of the learning curve.
The system/economy is quite hard to grasp, though I had the benefit of cutting my teeth on Polis and Nations, which have similar loops. I have maybe 12 games between those two, and without that I definitely wouldn’t have unlocked Pipeline quickly at all.
Some games I like to learn with all newbies so we can make mistakes and explore together - Pipeline is a game to lose to a veteran.
4 Likes
I would love to!
At its core, it’s a pretty silly little racing game with a mechanic I usually hate: player elimination.
But the catch is twofold:
- The game moves at a very quick pace, assisted by the dice rolling which reduces the potential options nicely. Still gives you plenty of choice, but reduces the scope.
- It’s very silly. The weapons are unreliable, ramming is chaotic, and death comes quickly and unpredictably.
All it really needed was the ability to play with 5 (which I now have… i can theoretically play with 7, but I wouldn’t… might make the game drag, and that’s a no-no). Just a fantastic, fast to teach, end of evening game that I have pulled out way more than I expected.
6 Likes