Probably the last one, as 2016+ is already discussed to death in our Last Game you Bought/Played threads, but maybe we can hit that era too with some questions that give it an angle worth discussing.
Same basic question - Games you owned/sold/played from this era and thoughts where interesting.
We are also getting recent enough that we might be able to either:
Sorry: List
Really surprised at how many of those are still the top of their field today, given the time period is 7-18 years ago. The first page of my search was full of big names.
Viticulture and Netrunner for me.
There are a few huge boxes Iâd love to try like Chaos In the Old World, and Fortune and Glory (reprint is on the way) and War of the Ring 2nd.
Favourite games that I played on release or soon afterwards, and still rate highly:
Games of the year that I only discovered a few years later:
Top three games? Ouch. Leaving Earth, Xia, Flash Point?
I just stumbled across FireDrakeâs review over on BGG two weeks agoâŚ
Looking at my owned list this is teh era of expansions for me!
All the Power Grid maps. My all time favourite game Race for the Galaxy is form this period.
Patchwork and 7 Wonders Duel are the two player survivors in my collection and theyâre both from this period.
A âquickâ rundown turned up over 100 titles Iâve owned, played, or have notable thoughts on from this period. Definitely a time for summarizing rather than listing⌠Four titles in each of '06 and '07 up to fourteen by '12 and twenty one by '15.
I will say, though that 2009 and 2012 absolutely killed it while 2013 is an odd wasteland. Not empty, just⌠comparatively desiccated.
Geekgroup says I have played or recorded plays of a total of 118 games from that era. I currently own 37 games from that decade. And 50 I previously owned. One I almost rebought today (Hana-Bi)
Some notable exceptions: War of the Ring, FCM (I have a copy), Caverna (a notable omission especially given my penchant for Rosenberg games), Keyflower, Hansa Teutonica (I own this, too)
So this lacks recorded plays nevertheless I am going to list them by most-played because this means I still like the games:
So this is my Top 10 of games from the era I still played in recent enough years (Vanilla Pandemic must have had its plays tracked back then I think, because itâs been ages but it is a worthy part of that list as I play various iterations still)
Here my highest rated games I still own and did not make the previous list:
Also because I was playing more, I have seen more of the SdJ Winners from the decade. So here are my thoughts on those:
But SdJ had some really solid winners in those years with a lot of staying power.
Good decade.
And last but not least the latest game from the era to join my collection I just finished playing today: Cuba Libre
Top 3: Terra Mystica, Codenames, Tash Kalar
PS: also it is the CGE decade⌠not just Tash Kalar & Codenames, but Galaxy Trucker, Through the Ages, Space Alert, Tzolkin and Alchemists. Ergo Designer of the Decade: Vlaada.
Oh I missed that one on my list because I gave my copy to friendsâafter⌠guess what playing it too much. I miss it sometimes. Because it is really good.
2006: Thurn & Taxis for the table. Neuroshima Hex for the old Big Daddy app. New app is a frustrating step down. Mr Jack, ok, Blue Moon City I didnât like.
2007: RFTG for the win. OG Brass goes here as well. Never really hit with Galaxy Trucker and two plays of Parade havenât worked out, though I remain optimistic that it was group and player count issues.
2008: Dominion. I want to say Le Havre but Dominion has definitely been the winner on the table. I didnât like Dominion until 2019 or so, though, despite owning it since '09. Pandemic isnât my thing, Cosmic Encounter redux hasnât gotten enough play to say. Winning Ghost Stories (twice) (on easy) is still one of my greatest achievements.
2009: Agricola. But this year. This year. Hansa Teutonica, Jaipur, Cyclades, Steam. Small World was one of my first culls.
2010: Troyes or Innovation. Honestly canât say and I technically donât have to choose? 7 Wonders taught me I donât like drafting. Alien Frontiers remains a game I wish Iâd played more. Lords of Vegas, looking forward to having my own copy.
2011: Castles of Burgundy, though it is starting to stale. The games feel samey. Skull is here, and Lancaster, and Pictomania has given me good times. Finally played Eminent Domain and didnât like it.
2012: Keyflower. But this is another year. Terra Mystica, Tzolkâin, Netrunner, Lords of Waterdeep, Kemet, X-Wing Miniatures, Love Letter, Great Zimbabwe, Ginkgopolis, Libertalia, Coup. OK, better than 2009.
2013: Nations or Concordia, I think in that order but Concordia is easier to table. Rococo, Glass Road, Battlelore 2e. Quantum is one of my greatest regrets; I bought (and later sold) Arctic Scavengers instead.
2014: Fields of Arle. Other favorites from the year: Star Realms, Istanbul, Patchwork, Roll for the Galaxy, One Night Ultimate Werewolf.
2015: Isle of Skye, which really is one of my favorites. But other than that, a lot of games and not many strong contenders. Grand Austria Hotel, Mottainai, and Mysterium stand out. Mission Red Planet and The Gallerist are high hopefuls but unplayed. Coffee Roaster and Oh My Goods are low points of the year. I never liked Marco Polo either.
Looking at my list, I am glad to say I have plenty to choose from of what I have scored 8 or higher.
So the highest on the BGG ratings are Brass Lancashire (0wned) and Concordia, followed closely by Viticulture (both I need to play more and might eventually get a copy of); no surprises there.
Going down the ratings, I can see some jewels like Pandemic, which I admit I am a bit meh about it now, but I recognise its merit; London 2nd Ed, Lords of Waterdeep (that I have played to death on Steam), Raiders of the North Sea (owned), Codenames and Telestrations as Party Games, Splendor (owned) which I have played to death with my better half (and I start to get the balanced tipping towards my side for victories), Love Letter and Arboretum (although my versions are newer now) and Firefly (owned).
Honourable mentions scrolling down the list a lot: Thurns und Taxis (I need to play it again), Age of Industry (I believe this Wallace game does not get enough credit), The Game and Thunderbirds, which is probably the hardest coop I ever played.
Nooooo!
I must admit my hatred for this game comes from a group meta-strategy established where I was being told off for playing or guessing in a way that was sanctioned by âexpertâ players. It actually has established itself as the Marmite game of the Geeks Guild. Either you hate it or you love itâŚ
Just realised that itâs thanks to this forum that Iâve played Xia, Flash Point and the very fun Colt Express.
And I own London 2nd ed and must get it out more often.
This period got a lot of good ones. My Top 3 are: Chicago Express, The Great Zimbabwe, Neue Heimat aka THe Estates
There was a golden age of 18xx happening here (before the modern golden age we are in today). I think the onset of a new wave of Internet-based hobby-specific functions opened up the sub-genre beyond the old BB systems and mailing lists.
For example, JC âclearclawâ Lawrenceâs 18xx weather forecast -- what is coming and why is it interesting? was created in 2010. That said, I didnât get involved with boardgaming (meaningfully) until 2012-ish, so that was all foreign to me during the 2006-2015 time period. And it wasnât until 2019 that I actually figured out what 18xx was and learned how to play.
Around the end of this timeframe, my collection was roughly:
A good portion of this collection was gifted to me for Christmas 2014, after my mother excitedly bought me too many gifts (for reasons). She printed off my wishlist and took it to a game store (the same game store she used to drop me and my best friend at after school or for entire days on weekends), and they were happy to sell her as many items on my list as they had in stock (and then some! Still havenât played IOTA or Gubs, but have heard good things about both of them).
(I have very little experience with some of these years)
2006: Shogun â I really enjoyed the one play I had of this; it stays on the table way longer than it deserves, sadly, but it was interesting the entire time.
2007: Chicago Express should probably get the win here, but I havenât actually played it yet. Notre Dame, I guess, since Iâve actually played it (and quite enjoyed it)
2008: Snow Tails is so good!
2009: Martian Rails? Maybe. Summoner Wars perhaps?
2010: Paris Connection or Troyes (maybe I should do two lists: one for train games, one for anything else)
2011: Village and Dungeon Petz are both great.
2012: I have a lot of potentials that Iâve had for a varying amounts of time but havenât had a chance to play yet. Of the ones Iâve played, Lords of Waterdeep is the best.
2013: 1862: Railway Mania in the Eastern Counties is one of my favorite games period (but Iâve only played it as solo, which wasnât available in the 2013 edition). Coal Baron is such a good game, Iâd give the non-train award to it, but the competition is getting better as we go along in years. The solo-rpg-disguised-as-a-war-game award for 2013 goes to The Hunters: German U-Boats at War, 1939-43.
2014: Alchemists would be my pick. And, likely, 18OE would pick up the train award for this year (even though I havenât actually played a complete game of it)
2015: Broom Service and Isle of Skye will have to share an award (they share two designers!). Trans-Siberian Railroad for the train award.
So maybe I shouldnât have bought the hyoooooge box of everything Star Realms. Iâve played it (particularly the Frontiers box) quite a bit, but never done much with the expansions.
Fair, and itâs a âused to ownâ for me (along with On the Brink, but I quickly noticed that the more OtB roles were in play the more likely we were to lose), But Flash Point really displaced it for me.
Yeah, IMO the actual game is building the group-meta over one or more plays, and once youâve done it the game is complete. Similarly The Resistance, Iâve heard of groups that have rigid rules (âyou must always vote against mission 1 team 1â) and I can see why they might have burned out on it.
I picked up IOTA more recently but my overall feeling is an enjoyable early game, a middle game thatâs hard work, and an end game thatâs fun-stress, Cut out most of the middle game and Iâd probably play it more.
Gubs is an interesting one. Itâs not great, and probably a kidâs game. But it is great. Compared to similar fare, like Exploding Kittens, it has actual decisions to make throughout the game. Compared to something like Unstable Unicorns, it has a game timer and a shrinking decision space that gives the game an arc and ensures it doesnât bloat.
At the start, itâs all rock-paper-scissors. No card is better than another, thereâs no safe place for your Gubs (and having the most Gubs = Winning). As cards are played, bits of that Rock-Paper-Scissors wheel are shaved off, making some moves now safer and smarter than others. That continues to winnow and re-shape until you get an Ethnos-style end game that will be close to the end of the deck but not all the way to the last card.
So yeah, itâs a stupid little trinket. But itâs a stupid little trinket that had some actual thought and craft put into it, unlike itâs over-marketed brethren. It deserved better than it got.
First pass I just went down the lists on BGG but I didnât cross reference my own collection. Playing wise, this was something of a barren time. I did a lot of collecting up through 2005 or so and then started again in 2017. Games I actually bought during this timeframe may be limited to Agricola, Small World, Ticket to Ride, Nuns on the Run⌠Dominion and Pandemic were gifts.
But here are some of the lower ranked games in my collection from that timeframe. I mean, we all know Brass and Terra Mystica but itâs these down-catalog items that I love reading about as they are what sets us apart.
Big Red7 fan here, yeah maybe not ideal at 2 but lovely at 3-4. (I prefer the basic mode, but most people disagree.)
Mascarade: I donât get it. If Iâm bluffing I want to know Iâm bluffing. But finding out your role is an action, and by the time play has gone round the table you have no idea again. [Shrug]
I think of this type of a thing as a party exercise rather than a game. Get some people around your table and bluff if you want, but ultimately, each person knows about as much as you do.
I would say youâd need to have some extroverts in your group to keep it running and any introverts present would need to feel comfortable enough with the group to engage with the absurdity and nonsense.
This feels pretty much peak gaming time for me. Young enough to be happy enough, free enough and with enough different friends for lots of gaming. That being said most time in this era was spent playing Confrontation the mini game Iâve talked about previously so wonât rehash here.
First blush 2015 seems to be the year if I could only play games from one year it would be that one. Food Chain Magnate for starters and that has legs. Keyflower I often think of as the best designed game in my collection and itâs so good. La Granja is a top euro for me and could be played for a very long time. Iki is the apex medium euro in my mind, and 2015 has the original art. Burgle Bros Then thereâs the mighty Cthulhu Wars. Those 4 are a collection in themselves but the year has also rand I could play. The Gallerist, Raptor, Marco Polo, Grand Austria Hotel, Nippon, Steampunk Rally and no doubt others would give plenty of euros to churn through. Hopefully thereâs a reasonable 18xx from that year too but I wonât go further through the list for now