Topic of the Week: Five over 500

Boardgames
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I’m porting things into BGStats and just saw that I last played this in 2017. I’d really like to do this again.

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Nice topic!

This was way easier than I predicted. Just ranked my bgg list by score and voila! Easily done.

In no particular order:

Battle for Rokugan: Probably of what I have played, my second favourite turn based strategy game after Root. Plus probably one of my favourite game cover art designs. Shame I don’t get to play this more, I think it is a great game, if a tad flawed. The flipping real size army tokens mechanic I think is genius.

Hero Quest: Advanced: I know it is flawed, I know it has not aged well, but for the countless hours I spent with this game in my teens, it should make the list.

Thurns and Taxis: Shame of avalability for this game, I think it s a great networking game. Still one of my most memorable games was playing this, and it was with me finishing second.

High Society: My first Knizia. Such an enjoyable little filler, great auction little game. Thank you Secret Santa.

Tales of Arabian Nights: I loved the Choose your own adventure books while growing up, so of course I love this. It should hit the table more often… even solo.

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23

Times Up: Title Recall 578
Still the best party game

Loopin’ Louie 1300+

Stick em 1200+

Tindahan 6500+

Paint the Roses 1500+

Not got spot on rankings because switching tabs on my phone is a pain and it keeps resetting my filters

I seem to either really like the big games, niche tricktakers or party games.

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24

A few years ago I read an article on competitive barbecueing, which is apparently A Thing. Basically it’s not at all the same process as cooking a burger or a rib or whatever that you’d actually like to eat; it’s optimised for the judge who’ll only take a single bite, so the entire experience has to be in that bite and presented up front.

And I think some games are trying to do a similar thing—not just the Essen test but the harassed reviewer test… You can have a great time in your first game even with experienced players, but there’s not much depth of gameplay, so by your tenth game you’ve basically seen the whole thing and it’s time to move it on. Obviously not every game has the same amount of “goodness” to spread around, but I think developers can and sometimes do choose to emphasise the first bite at the expense of the whole plate. And if you know your buyers are only going to play it five times anyway, why not?

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25

Guys, we’re turning into the OG Games Discord here…

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26

Well, read the above in the context of my loving Xia and Rallyman and Flash Point and Onitama, to pick some examples of games that maybe don’t have a whole lot of depth to them. :slight_smile:

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27

I feel like I am out of the loop. What is the OG games discord?

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Old School German Games Discord.

Basically people who like games with simple rules and lots of interaction rather than a “newro” of beating a system.

Most of the discussion reflects what @RogerBW said but it never ends. I don’t disagree, I think lots of games are now designed to be good on the first play and have a system that you beat rather than a player.

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29

It’s tricky for me because I tend to be a game dilettante—I have a large collection, and certainly I play some more than others, but I spread my playing time over a bunch of different games. So someone who’s played a particular game a lot will generally do better at it.

I think my ideal game has enough depth that if it turns out to be one I love (like Rallyman GT, which to be fair also arrived at the exact right moment to get a lot of my BGA play in 2020) I’ll still enjoy it after 300+ games, but at the same time I don’t want it to be like chess or go where you need rating systems and handicaps just to have an enjoyable game in the first place. One way I do this is to look for games that are enjoyable when I’m losing.

(Games I’ve liked but later burned out on: original Pandemic, which Flash Point displaced for me, but particularly after PanLeg Season 1 I feel I’ve seen the tricks it has to offer; Letter Tycoon, where I realised that both I and regular opponents had got to a level of skill where how well we did depended mainly on when the B and J cards came out.)

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30

I can’t say I’d necessarily recommend all of these to people, but it turns out we do have five games which we/I enjoy that are a very long way below the top 500. Some are well below the top 5000.

Madame Ching 3851
Bring Your Own Book 3853
Shephy 5195
Travel Blog 6658
The Romans 8654

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31

Topical on repeatability. Space Biff jumps past the topic of whether games are becoming less repeatable to ponder how essential it even is as a criterion. Interesting.

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32

As always, I’ll return to the article several times

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  1. Whitehall mystery (657) I prefer letters from Whitechapel, but still love playing this when I don’t have enough time for the larger experience.
  2. Paint the Roses (1558) probably my most played game last year. Still comes out on a regular basis.
  3. Caper: Europe (529) not played this nearly enough, still got one of the cities to try out. But it’s a fantastic game.
  4. Sub Terra (730) Great, thematic co-op. Can’t believe it’s ranked so low for 2017 game.
  5. Burgle Bros 2 (1634) ridiculously low ranking. Only negative is there’s quite a bit of setup, but it’s such a fun and thematic co-op. Lots of silly moments.

Cockroach poker, Rajas of the Ganges dice charmers and Mysterium Park narrowly missing out.

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34

I’m treating this a bit like Your ideal 3-game collection in that I’m trying to cover a range of options with my selections…

Gut feeling for right now, and ordered purely by BGG ranking:

(Ugh, that was brutal. I started with a short list of 10, and didn’t want to lose any of them.)

Bonus Chudyk (the only one I own, but a neat little game):

My biggest surprise sorting my collection by BGG ranking is that The Hobbit Card Game (2012) is the second-lowest ranked game that I own, which is insane because it’s a lovely little card game. I have no problem at all with it being outside the top 500, but its rating is super close to that of Cthulhu Dice (2010) which is something I bought purely as an object – a weird custom die which I occasionally use as a decision-maker in RPG sessions – and which does not even qualify as a game IMO. (The respective rankings are 25728 and 25792, which is a crazy juxtaposition.)

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35

Nice topic!

I don’t have to look outside my top twenty to find (more than) Five over 500.

KeyForge 700 / 1409 / 2058 / 2853 / 4166 / 6910 (set dependent)
My favourite game. A nutsy and original sci-fi fantasy world, unique decks with no need to deck build, and enjoyable gameplay with a lot of depth.

Werewords 922
One night ultimate werewolf with words. Always a hit.

Lady Richmond: Ein erzocktes Erbe A lowly 21,080
This came to me in an otherwise disappointing mystery box and, while not the flashiest looking title, causes much hilarity and has every group asking for just one more game.

Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig 691
I mostly play this solo with the Secrets & Soirees Expansion and find it nice and calming placing the colourful squares of entertaining rooms. Who wouldn’t want a castle with a Puppy Room, a Spy Room and a Hibernation Chamber?

Myrmes 734
Who knew programming ants could be so fun?

Honorable mention to Lovelace & Babbage 4514, a game that gets the brain firing and revives your maths skills.

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