I like the "Best and Worst of..." series idea! It will make a nice change to the top 10 format which is honestly getting a little stale (over saturated across all board game youtube channels). Having both rants (negative) and raves (positive) in the same video sounds fun!
Interesting comment about Top 10's getting stale. I wonder if that's a shared view among many. Definitely getting some positives about the Top/Bottom 3.
In the Footsteps of Darwin's is a cute entry level board game that can teach several board game mechanisms to kids and first time players. I really like it for what it is. Nothing revolutionary but it will stay in my collection for now.
Re: Everyone loving everything, my big gripe is with binary opinions: "It's good / bad". Any reviewer who sets out to inform viewers with enough to help them decide, is a lot more helpful than anyone who aims to argue why their opinion is FACT. Never lose sight that your opinion is just that - the opinion of one person. It doesn't make Paladins the 'bad' game in the West Kingdom trilogy, but rather for you it misses the mark. That said, yes too many influencers in our hobby are over the top in enthusiasm / urging people to buy games, and that does rub off on ordinary punters who subconsciously emulate that instantaneous and OTT enthusiasm. Re: Hate action/moves, I was surprised when I first played Raiders of the North Sea, that take that actions were a significant option for players to use, and that it could stuff players for multiple turns after they'd taken 2-3 turns to set a big raid up. At least in Architects of the West Kingdom, it offers up a reward for capturing (and allows everyone to judge when that pinch point is). If players are happy playing area control games, they'll probably be more comfortable with 'King of the hill' as a concept, but that's not a genre I like.
I don't think I can be accused of liking everything; I have played Windmill Valley twice now, and it is *definitely drinking in the Last Chance Saloon. Meanwhile both Wayfarers AND Scholars were probably above my tolerance for complexity, so it was probably a mistake backing Inventors :(
Speaking as a typical eurogamer, I absolutely hate blocking strategies in games. It just feels like the antithesis of fun. Natural blocking is fine, like I have two options that are good for me and one of them is better for you, then obviously I will choose that one as it makes strategic sense. But ignoring my own engine just to deny someone else something, it just isn't fun for me. I'd much rather lose a game where I felt I did good on my own engine, than win just because I screwed over someone else. If I play with someone and they show themselves to be a hate drafter/active blocker/etc. all it really does is make me not want to play with them again, because I don't like those styles of play at all and it actively ruins my own fun when I do.
You are not a typical Eurogamer. Blocking is an essential part of gaming. I am glad your fun is "actively ruined" by this integral part of gaming. Don't play Caylus.
@@e.talbot9675 I did not realize there was an authority on what makes someone a eurogamer. Here I thought it signified a gamer that primarily or exclusively played eurogames... my mistake. And thank you for taking such an interest in my enjoyment of gaming, it's really heartwarming. I have tried Caylus once, several years back. You're right, it wasn't a favourite, nor did I hate it. It was okay. I imagine it was the provost mechanism you were thinking of. But I didn't find using it for blocking purposes to be integral to playing the game. And at least there was a payment to using it, so players weren't incentivised to screw each other over freely. As I wrote in my comment, blocking being a natural consequence of actions is fine with me. But games that uses blocking as a feature will never become a favourite of mine. I get no enjoyment out of denying something to other players, but I get enjoyment out of grabbing something I want before someone else can. It's a distinction between doing an action for my own benefit and doing an action that does not benefit me outside of stopping someone else. If those two are the one and the same, then it doesn't bother me one bit to take it. Like I'm fine with stealing as a mechanic, as it's an action that benefits the player that takes it directly. But an action that only forces an opponent to discard something and nothing else is simply not fun for me to take. It does nothing to advance my own game, and only functions to slow someone else down. I get that there are players who find enjoyment in that, but I just don't.
It's a fair point, and the reason why having the defence of "people should be blocking others" doesn't work in Euros' - there's no incentive. Hell even in non Euro style games it's a problem. I love Living Forest and that is a race to a victory condition. The other players HAVE to slow down whoever is in the lead, but which one does it? Both? Or does one assume the other will? And if they don't, have I got to go out of my way to do it? These problems always arise.
I remember when I got into the hobby in 2019 I used to think that the spiel des jahres was so prestigious, but now it skews so light that even the kennerspiel feels like mid-light games. Almost all the games the last 5 years have been of no interest to me.
Skyteam has a fan made solo variant which is super simple and a ton of fun. Daybreak on the other hand has that pandemic feel where the players as a group are trying to overcome bad things continually thrown at you. The action mechanism of this game is where it shines as you are playing cards on top or under each other card in your tableau to create combos using the tags on cards much like terraforming mars. These two games were the only standouts to me out of the nominations for Spiel this year.
How could one not click on the video with a title like that? :) I agree with you on the meh SdJ nominations, except for Sky Team which I personally love because I enjoy co-ops and almost exclusively play 2-p with my Dad :)
The Meeple is only trademarked in the EU for anything APART from games and toys. The only full trademark HiG has is in Germany. Simple solution, don’t bring it out there or make a special box for Germany. So they could go after someone selling Meeple socks in Essen or somewhere in the EU (not UK).
The french game your were thinking about is probably "It's a Wonderful World". The problem with the incentive to go against the strongest player is that it should also give you a decent advantage. I managed to do that with a few cards in my small deck building DeckHand with cards such as "Voodoo Curse" that gives you a chance to play and discard an opponent best card from their 3 top decks. Hate buying/refresh on the market is also a thing in this game.
I think you’ve been living under a rock regarding Guild of Merchant Explorers. There’s been a lot of hype around that game. And it’s not really a euro - more of a flip and write - but with placing cubes instead of drawing. It’s a good game.
Are you planning to review “Ezra and Nehemia” at some point? I played it recently and despite some massive hurdles (a dry, beige & brown Euro with a theme I couldn’t care less about) I was really impressed, what a great game ! Would be interested to get your views - it might be the best Garphill Game ?
I would like to try it, but the setting does nothing for me and it looks busy as hell! But then again so are other Garphill products. But it isn't on retail I don't think.
I don’t know if these terms are used but stopping the leader could be referred to as “Kingstopping” instead of “Kingmaking”, an issue that makes you not want to get the lead in control games like Cthulhu Wars because everyone will ensure you lose your lead and you usually end up in a terrible spot. Also sabotaging, players doing things in order to mess with other players in general. I generally don’t like games that incentivize sabotaging, and I prefer game design where sabotaging is very difficult to do with minimal effect.
I love Architects, Paladins, wayfarers and scholars, but passed on inventors. Inventors is too much for me and nothing in the playthrough appealed. I don’t want to learn another icon language.
A nice idea to counter the runaway leader problem is found in the still not published KS game 'Hike It!'... In this game, if you lose with your character, you suddenly get the opportunity to play the 'bears' in the game and attack the future winners 😅
Hating and attacking makes sense in a two player game. In three player maybe. Four or more, you're just hurting one person to probably help a different person and not yourself. In terraforming Mars, I will try to keep someone from getting the best cards if it's not hurting me to do so, and I will try to destroy those cards where resources or production are stolen. I don't believe in that kind of tactic in such a long game. I refuse to play with turmoil expansion. When given the option of destroying plants are taking resources, I will not do it unless someone else does it first, and then I will be in revenge mode. Oh you just wrecked my engine? I have a new engine which is just finding ways to attack you.
Meeple was only trademarked in the EU a few years ago - they didn’t come up with the term (they were followers not Meeples in Carcassonne) and it’s a land grab. The trademark doesn’t cover podcasts or channels anyway (our podcast in Aus is the Friendly Meeples Lounge and our no. Profit for running events is Melbourne Meeples and either would be fine even in Germany). Yes they do have to try and enforce it to keep it and yes that’s the excuse they’ve given re Meeple Inc. What they are after, I think, is making the distinctive shape of the Carcassonne meeple something that’s theirs. That is understandable. The rest though is a big publisher attacking others for registering a word created by the community not by them. Which is really bad form and on a personal level I’ve decided I don’t need to buy their games any more.
Hard agree about the Spiel des Jahres nominations. I regretted purchasing In the Footsteps of Darwin. Played it once and immediately culled it. Makes no sense to me!
Footsteps make perfect sense for the award. It's a family drafting game, easy to learn, quick to play and a competitive game. Sky Team is similarly a good fit for the award, easy to pick up 2 player co-op which is a revelation for people not fully into the hobby. I've showed it to several non-gamer friends and it's blown their minds. The Spiel des Jahres is an award for family games and I think people keep forgetting that, the award is not for us.
@@TheBrokenMeeple I never see anyone playing games really as I don't go to a gaming club but buzz among gamers at a gaming club isn't really a sign of a games value. i have a copy which we play with lots of people, my daughter and son bought themselves copies for their groups. My wife and I play heavy games a lot but most of the people we play with don't so I think this kind of gameweight is far more popular among the non-BGG crowd. The SdJ is to market games to those people not to us.
I have been tempted about doing one for "running a board game club" given that I have 3 main clubs around, 1 of which does things right, the other one has gone downhill a lot.
Excellent stuff as always Luke. Does that mean we are getting a livestream from the Artic Circle, where you play Ice Cool and Polar Bear Rescue? I like the idea of a Top 3/Worst 3 series. You said it Luke, your next livestream could be "Top ten games you don't like but everyone else seems to". The Meeple thing seems to be such nonsense and I think it will hurt them more than help if they make a bigger deal of it. Sky Team can be played easily enough solo, it's not a bad game.
There is an annual tradition on BGG where people post their top worst new to them games of the year. Many also participate in the best new to them list. So you can see both best and worst. As for SDJ, im still salty that Wandering Towers wasnt wven nominated this year or last. For me, its gone over i well both with the family and at game night. Check that out if youre looking fir a good SDJ alternative. Regarding euros, euro games used to be more interactive. Now theyre multi player solitaire games with personal player boards. I feel like most games nowadays are designed to make each player feel clever for a play or two before they move on to the next hot game thats "in my top 5".
An Arctic Circle trip sounds good right about now…Baltimore (near where I live) just set a June record high of 101 degrees F (38.3 C). Always wanted to visit Tromso too, it’s where the Bismarck’s sister ship, the Tirpitz, was sunk during WW2 after being hounded by the Brits for months. I believe some/most of the wreck still lies in that Tromso fjord. Btw have you considered just doing a ranking of all the games you’ve played from a publisher or designer instead of doing a top/bottom with an arbitrary number?
Sadly my Arctic trip isn't for right now! :P If I did "all" the games, it would work for maybe 5% of the time, but otherwise the video would be 5 hours long to cover them all.
One game example, we don’t hate this one but we just don’t get it and it hasn’t clicked for us is Scythe. We have tried it 3 times and just find it boring and meh. We have too many other fantastic games that we would never choose it and just don’t get the hype about it.
Best and worst sounds like fun. Garphil has gone too complex for me. I liked Raiders, Architects, and Viscounts, but all of South Tigris seems too complicated for my tastes.
I'm quite a beige enjoyer, but prefer this kind of eurogames solo. Or in small groups if downtime is not too bad. I often say they have "no interaction", while few actually have none at all. What I mean is does it matter if an automa takes a random option or a human takes it? Not because he was trying to block you, but just because he needed it? If there is no difference, then what's the point? A lot of games are cool solitaire puzzles, but become progressively more boring, the more players you add. Some designers add dumb "take that" cards in attempts to increase interaction and I always say these cards are stupid and lazy design: Terraforming Mars, Ark Nova, Ancient Knowledge. It's obviously a spectre. I'd say there is a lot of inbetween. Puerto Rico or Carnegie have personal player boards, but you often have control on what actions others take, so you are forced to look around. In Troyes you can literally buy out each other's dice if someone rolled better than you. In Vale of Eternity I like how you can hatedraft a perfect card for another player, because you still discard it for useful resources you want. Games need to be made like this from the beginning, which some designers forget. Finally, on the other side there are games you usually hate: Brass, Age of Steam, Power Grid, Keyflower, Splotter games etc. They rarely have your own player board, but are focused on the center map. Buying each other's resources, or blocking spaces, or auctioning turn order are key interaction points. I vastly prefer these in multiplayer and they rarely have solo options. They are interactive by design, you can't play your own little game. That's how it should be done to make a proper multiplayer game.
Ha, I found meeple in the online Oxford English Dictionary. What would that mean for the OED? It's a word on the OED -- so I think everybody should ne save from this crap. (Long live the [Broken] meeple!) For some new content I like the idea of "Top 3 -- Bottom 3". Other suggestions: Maybe more content for SI or Earth. Maybe a video on concrete set up and a round or two for a Solo-play. Also, on SI you haven't made a latest Spirit-ranking list -- I think we got more than 10 new spirits since.) Maybe another collaboration with 1Pip Wonder? Which content creators do you trust most? Hype and Over-hype are everywhere lately. I agree with you on Euro's and runaway problems. Architects is such a great game to counter this with the imprisonment mechanics -- not seen too often.
Spiel des jahres is German award and they have different publishing schedule than let's say USA. If the game was on crowdfunding it might never come out in Germany. On the other hand, some games do come out first in Germany and then in the USA. Spiel des jahres has a lot of attention because they started first, but last few years weren't that impressive so, maybe we should give them that much of attention? They had good credit, but they have already spend it. Remember Challengers?
It is not really a difference in schedule that’s the reason for some of the nominess, but rather that a game is only eligible when it is published in german language (and available in retail). That’s why cryptid was nominated in 2022… I agree that the relevance of the award is greatly exaggerated.
I respect that you do not like A Gentle Rain, I quite injoy it a lot not as thinky puzzle but because it is my chill game with tea in the mornings. I can see why people do not like it. There are many games i dislike a ton, most I know just from looking into them and can avoid them. This is mostly because i do not review or have a lot of money to buy buy buy, so i do research before i buy or try mostly. There are a few games i HATE: Hanabi, Spell Smashers, Star Trek Cryptic, Smash Up, and Machi Koro. I liked Space Base, so ot sire wy MK was su h as miss. But again not a reviewer.
There is a lot of publisher/designer bias. The example is give these days is Federation and Apiary. Imagine the publishers were opposite. Federation would be in the top 100 already and Apiary would've been forgotten.
Bias from whom? Federation had loads of coverage and rave reviews all over youtube and other socials. It's got 7.9 on BGG, the same as Apiary. Jamey Stegmaier is just great at marketing.
Mate, I have followed your channel for years and I want to continue, but it feels like you're on a negativity death spiral. It feels like things are getting more and more negative. I hope you can start seeing more good in life and in board games. Here's to your health and happiness.
@@TheBrokenMeeple I just really hope you have those things in your life that bring you peace, because it doesn't feel like either board games or the channel is bringing you happiness.
Guild of merchant explorers is actually not a bad game……apart from how beige it is. I really do not see a reason to try and block other people or hate draft if it’s going to affect you personally. God job btw
