I haven't played any of these games but I did watch all of your playthroughs! Based on those, I would rank them: 5 - Cottage Garden 4 - Indian Summer 3 - Spring Meadow 2 - Patchwork 1 - New York Zoo
I’ve not played New York Zoo, but I’ve played the rest. Spring Meadow is my favorite. After playing (and owning) the rest so much complexity seemed unnecessary, to me, in Indian Summer and Cottage Garden. I like that Spring Meadow is distilled down to something clean. I also like Patchwork, but we have other two player games we like better so it would be a close second but not the top. Will have to try New York Zoo sometime.
I really love all of the Uwe Rosenberg polyomino games, but I also haven't played New York Zoo yet, so I wonder where that one would fall. I also haven't played Patchwork: Express, and the world is still waiting on Patchwork: Xtreme, so there's still lots to look forward to! My Ranking: 1. Second Chance. Fantastic flip 'n' fill that is just so simple and easy. One of my most played games ever. 2. Indian Summer. Having a giant turn where you get to spend a bunch of treasures to cover a ton of spaces is very fun. And the end goal is always very satisfying: fill every space on your board. And even that is divided into 6 mini sections to cover up. Good stuff. I think New York Zoom might fall below this one. 3. Spring Meadow. I actually like the setting of this one, where the pieces blend into each other on your board in a beautiful meadow. And scoring considerations are interesting on the main board too. 4. Patchwork. I feel like this one has depth I can't even begin to plumb, but I still enjoy playing it. The scoring system might be too harsh for a game about quilting, but everything else is fantastic. 5. Cottage Garden. The churn of the flower beds isn't my favorite. I made them all pretty and I just have to immediately tear them up again? But the split boards to work on is a fun puzzle to balance. The scoring system is clever too, but runs longer than I like. 6. Patchwork: Doodle. The weakest scoring system by far out of these games. If you didn't hit certain markers at the end of a round, you were toast. But being able to cut a patch is something I could do in the normal game, so there's still some fun to be had.
Fun video as always!! I haven't played the trilogy (and never had much desire to) but own and love the others and would rate them as you do: #1 New York Zoo; #2 Patchwork; and #3 (for now) Sagani. I haven't played Sagani enough to give it a definite rating so that could change. I see Rosenberg is releasing another game in the Sagani universe (Armonia) which sounds interesting. Also, I believe the Halloween-themed Patchwork (which I also want so badly!) has a few changes, prob minor. I think I've read that it will be balanced differently fwiw.
Loved this series! After your play throughs it was cottage garden I rushed out to add to my collection! I already had New York Zoo and loved it except I could never beat my husband. With the added point system in cottage garden I can finally take the win haha.
The Bell Curve description of Spring Meadow fits our feelings exactly; however, it is my MIL's second favorite game of all time, so we have to endure it once in a while. Her first, and high on our list also, is My City. We tore through My City so fast because it is so addicting; we plan on buying it again and going through the whole game again.
For the record, Patchwork: Halloween is the first reskin that will have rebalanced polyominos based on data collected from the Patchwork app! Officially 9 pieces have been announced as having been rebalanced, but a developer of the app claimed something like 14 pieces is the true amount.
I came to the comments to say the same as Richard! Indian Summer wins the beauty contest, but I actively disliked the actual game. In a perfect world I want to Play Indian Meadow where it's the mechanics of Spring Meadow with the wonderful look of Indian Summer. I can see your (M&N) point about enjoying the race of Indian Summer vs points, but in the actual feel of playing I found IS dull and I hated the bonus tokens. It's fascinating to see how games can have such different takes by people who share many interests. I'm honestly glad you enjoyed Indian Summer, makes me feel like that gorgeous art isn't going to waste for everyone.
@@JonGetsGames yup, if youy're looking for a race, IS is the way to go of all of these. tbh, that was a slight problem for us because i love racing while jen enjoys taking her time, so she can get frustrated when i zip zip zoom while she's still setting her big plays. but if everyones racing i can see IS being fairly nail biting. great video M&N as always! :)
With you on this one - apart from Cottage Garden being above NY Zoo. Spring Meadow packs a lot of subtle challenges into some some very simple and streamlined rules.
Dang, I disagree on New York Zoo. Especially at the higher player counts it is basically impossible to predict what pieces you will have access to. Indian Summer and Cottage Garden are far stronger in that aspect. The holes in the pieces in Indian Summer push that one over the edge to being the best for me.
I think that I don't really love Polyomino games that much tbh. I have played Indian Summer and Patchwork and they're ok, but not as exciting to me as some people find them. I did quite enjoy My City though, more for all the little surprises along the way.
Will you include Fields of Arle in your "bigger Uwe Rosenberg series"? Without it, it wouldn't be a worthy Uwe Rosenberg series. It is his masterpiece, his autobiography packed in a game. It is also his most thematic game. There is no other Uwe game where theme and mechanisms are in such perfect harmony. You can really tell that he put his whole heart and soul into this. No worthy Uwe series without Fields of Arle. I sure hope you include it. Many people even consider it to be the best among all heavy 2-player board games that were ever created.
I’ve only played New York Zoo. I’d say if you’ve ever wanted to play Patchwork with more than another person, it can fill that niche. But if I’m going to play with only another person, patchwork is simple enough and still scratches that itch.
I have only played Patchwork and New york zoo but the zoo is one of our favourite games! Barren park with its expansion is a little deeper so it always depends on what itch we want to scratch :)
AHHH I've been eagerly awaiting this video! We still really need to play the three Summer, Spring and Garden. However, I am surprised to see New York Zoo be the #1, we've played it so many times that maybe it's lost it's magic to us. I currently prefer patchwork to it but can definitely see your points. I will have to reply to this comment and rank these from our perspective once we do get to play the other three.
Interesting to hear your criticisms of setting up Patchwork. I find laying out the tiles very easy and quick. I just shake them out of the plastic bag and wherever they fall that’s where they live (splaying any tiles so they’re not overlapping) probably takes 10-15 seconds. I’m curious what your approach is.
I just played NYZ on BGA for the first time, and I do really like it! It feels like it has more momentum and excitement than Patchwork, so I get the appeal! However, I might stick to playing it on BGA, after what you said about the pain in setting it up. I have Barenpark, and one of the reasons I don't take it out much is because set-up is a bear!
We love New York Zoo! Would definitely be my #1 as well. I also agree about enjoying polyomino games more when they are a race. We play so many euros that are point salads so it's nice having a different end game trigger once in a while.
Thank you for the interesting video. I would rank Patchwork as #1, though - although NYZoo is a cute game, it is quite fiddly with the almost same colored tiles and the many meeples that are quite hard to handle without tweezers. 😅
I have been in the hobby for a couple of decades, but never hummed into the polyomino end of things until last year when I finally played (and loved) Isle of Cats. Patchwork was after that, and it keeps calling me back. After watching through this series, I really want to try New York Zoo and Cottage Garden! Thank you so much for yhe time and energy that you have put into different series like this. Best playthroughs available, hands down.
Man, I'm surprised you put New York Zoo as the first. I bought it on release and have played it a few dozen times with varying player counts, but I still don't really like it. Patchwork is the only other one I've played from this list and it's one of my all time faves.
This video is broken up into 2 parts, the exclusive tile-laying only and his wider Euro style games. Ranking Uwe Rosenberg's Board Games ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-bKPXvIYYcCQ.html
Loved this series! Thank you for the awesome look at this great collection of games! I definitely mostly agree with your rankings and comments! My ranking would likely be: 5. I would say that Spring Meadow was the only one that I just couldn't personally really get into. I found the win condition and the catch-up mechanism of adjusting for which player ends the round to be a bit odd, and didn't seem quite balanced. It's possible the strategy is more advanced in this game and the heuristics just didn't click on the first play for me... 4. Cottage Garden is lovely. It's accessible and light, but still has some really fantastic design elements going on. Don't love it as much as the others but do enjoy it quite a bit. The art and theme are lovely. 3. I have only played New York Zoo once, but I generally enjoyed it. I don't know that I like it more than any of the other 2 higher on the list. I think it might just be that I found that there was a bit more going on in it and that made turns take longer than the others. Overall, it's a great design that takes a lot of the lessons learned from the other games. It has great components, though I do agree the central board is a little awkward and the way you stack tiles/setup to be a bit confusing, at least for first-timers. 2. Indian Summer is my favorite of the series of three by far, though, and I agree with y'all that the race element is fantastic. I think the art is most appealing here, as well. I really enjoy the combos in Indian Summer and think it's a supremely underrated polyomino game. 1. Patchwork - hard to fault this game for much at all. It's brilliantly elegant. The economy in this game is outstanding and gives it such legs as a puzzle game - as you said, the depth of strategy is immense. The simplicity of rules to depth of strategy ratio (something that we at Flatout Games talk about a LOT :)) is off the charts. I think it's certainly one of the gold standards in this genre and certainly was an inspiration for companies like ours to make puzzly games that are so simple to get into, but take hundreds of plays to 'master'. One of the only real downsides is that once you have played it enough you start to understand which tiles are 'better' than others, but I am excited for the Halloween edition to see how the tile rebalancing works. The app is a fun way to experience it, and also to find out how not-that-good at the game you are against the new HARD AI. haha. I think I would place Nova Luna (I have not played Sagani, but they feel quite similar) at #3 right behind Indian Summer. It's close, and I like that game a lot, but I would give Indian Summer the slight edge. :)
Naveen can you tell me what camera you got for shooting gameplay from above? And how you keep that camera? :D I mean do you have some sort of construction that stands on table or maybe is hanging from the ceiling?
My person ratings, just from watching your playthrough: 1. NY Zoo 2. Spring Meadow 3. Patchwork 4. Indian Summer 5. Cottage Garden Cottage Garden and Indian Summer seemed a bit too finicky for my taste. I might have to go buy some games now. 😅
I've watched your gameplay of New York Zoo and loved it! I didn't know about this mechanic and I feel that I started at the right moment, NYZ is super fun and simple. I'm thinking about getting Isle of Cats as well, great visuals and nice theme.
Good call-out on patchwork’s tile laying. Not only is it very tedious but it also takes up more table space than you might assume from the box! My wife and I started playing it on BGA which removes the setup tedium, but when I bought the game I didn’t even consider the space. It had to be an oval to fit on our kitchen table 😂
I first learned about Sagani from your channel and purchased it last week. We played it last weekend and enjoyed it. I also like the look of Indian Summer, but don't own it.
I only have New York Zoo in my collecion and never played the other games. But NYZ is my #1 just from watching all the videos. Maybe Indian Summer is a possible canditade for my collection.
I have Patchwork on steam (bought it because of your review, actually!) it's very good, you get some of the reskins (dinosaurs!) and - this is the game changer - the computer lays out all the tiles for you :D I'll admit, much as I enjoy the game, I die a little inside at the thought of laying out all those tiles by hand. And I'm neurotic enough that every time someone took a tile I would NEED to re-adjust the positions of all those remaining. Nope. You might lose some of the fun, tactile nature of the game, but by heavens is it worth it to skip the setup phase!
Indian summer was a complete surprise to us and we loved it. At the beginning the topic was not really appealing neither the mechanic. We tried patchwork and found it way too abstract + just 2 players. Then we started to look a poli game to fill the gap in the collection, just one, because space. We were doubting because reviews lean towards the other two of the series or patchwork and there are very little reviews around.Also in the list was bären park. At the end indian summer was in a super discount and we got it, not disappointed and was gorgeous. BTW, We loved the racing aspect, do you have a ranking of this type of games?
Excited for the big box series. The only one I haven’t played is LeHavre…And Merkator. (Does that one count?) …and Fields of Arle is in shrink…and Hallertau is punched. Man he has a lot of games.
Have you ever tried Patchwork Doodle, perfect as a gateway game (I played it with my parents/aunts, and they wanted the copy of the game) and still fun as 'experienced' gamer. Also great as restaurant/pub game. Didn't expect Indian summer and Cottage garden higher then spring meadow (most reviewers put that one on top)... now I need to try them both to :)
Must be one of the few people that doesn't like patchwork. And as a result I've never played any of these other ones. However the big box games are fantastic.
Really enjoying your play throughs of these. Been looking for some relaxing/ easygoing games to play with the family when they visit and the more basic tile laying games look like just the thing. The play throughs were very helpful. Rosenberg should give you all a commission. 😄
I discovered patchwork rencenlty and I enjoied a lot. I didn't know about New York Zoo, I have to see your video about, but if it's better that patchwork has to be wordenful.
Haven’t played other of his games as his first game I bought is New York Zoo, and both me and my partner love it! Everything of it from game plays to mechanics and interaction is just nice for both of us. But we will still prefer the normal game instead of the faster option. Anyway, great content as I know I can skipped other of the similar games of his. Maybe time to move into FFO 😂
I love NYZ! So thinkey and plays well at all counts (I haven’t tried solo yet). Also it helps that it’s so attractive that it works well with beginners. 😊
We changed the rule for New York Zoo at 2P just a touch: each player can only move the elephant 3 spaces instead of 4. It feels more cruel, and we love it.
Thrilled to hear you are continuing with Uwe. I just bought and am trying my hand at one of his classics, Agricola! Not too hard to learn, but it's defiantly a challenge to do well! The struggle is real. lol Hoping it will be somewhere on your playlist. I'd enjoy watching that. Cheers.
Having seen all the heavy heavy games in your top 50 now, I feel you guys don’t take accessibility into account when ranking your games. And I think it should
Thank you for your feedback! I think the main reason for this is because we truly don't take that into account when talking about our own experiences but we know that others may feel differently. We will take this into consideration when we do our final Uwe Rosenberg ranking.
5. Patchwork (I don't like the theme, only 2 player), 4, New York Zoo (not big on the theme, I find it blah), 3. Spring Meadow 2. Indian Summer 1. Cottage Garden (Love the theme, love the point system, most visually appealing to me as well.)
I really like new york zoo it's cute and you need to balance the breeding and taking new tiles. I don't understand the popularity of patchwork, it's unbalanced in my opinion.
