As usual as the year comes to an end i present a renewed list of my all time favorite games. Though Top 10 hasn’t changed that much, but the list of played games grows every year. This time i gave a try to Pub Meeple’s board games rating system. Which shows you a few games from your list and you have to pick which of two is your favorite and it slowly builds your list this way. This year there was 91 game on the list. Maybe next year i will be able to do Top 100 🙂
10. Santiago de Cuba (new) – i’ve been playing this game for maybe 5 years, but only recently i started to appreciate it more, so it managed for the first time get to Top 10. Simple euro style game, in which you constantly have to decide whether to benefit you or harm your opponent 🙂
9. Cacao (+1) – last year it has dropped one step and now it is back to 9th place. Mostly because of new expansions that have appeared in Yucata. Which was a refreshing wind for this simple, but pleasant euro game.
8. Guildhall (new) – new game i have experienced this year and already managed to get its spot in Top 10. Unique and interesting card game with some interaction and often unexpected ending.
7. Carcassonne (-3) – an old classic on my list, dropped a bit as i haven’t played it that much this year. But i remember the last play of it, when i managed to steal a win with a huge farms score 🙂
6. Ticket to Ride (-) – the thing that it hasn’t changed it spot only shows that this game will always has a place in my collection and will be high on the list. One of the best “gateway” games to introduce new players to the hobby and lure them into modern board gaming world.
Playing this game over 5 years now and i still don’t get bored of it. It’s one of the first games i have tried on Yucata. Some players blame it for being to dependent on luck of card draw. I agree partially, but i think the game has enough mechanisms to balance it out. There are always 4 locations to place your cards. If you don’t have the right card tight now, you can always play a weaker card somewhere, where it won’t mean much, won’t give too much to an opponent. There is enough space for tactics in this game. Which cards to keep for later, when to play your best card and when a medium card is enough to claim a spot. When you play this game for a long time, you start to see every minor aspects of it. You feel when it is better to skip the spot with 4 cubes and better take 3 cubes. when you don’t have goo play, give your opponent one cube spot and hope you will have better chance on an additional turn. The game is very simple mechanically and therefore attractive to new players, couples. There are 4 locations with cubes and you play cards with numbers on your or opponent’s side trying to get more in total (or less, depending on requirement). At the same time you are racing to get enough cubes of a particular color to claim cups which give you points to win the game. There are some aspects of the game though i have only learned after a few years of playing it. Such as a possibility to change cubes of a not needed color to one of needed one. Yucata’s implementation is clean and simple, although maybe lacking some visual cues about some rules (such as mentioned option to swap cubes for another cube). My rating for this game is 8/10.
Wanted to try this game since it was nominated for the Essen Spiel awards. I also like some of the other designer’s Phil Walker-Harding games (Sushi Go!, Cacao). First suspicion appeared after watching people playing it on video. Recently this game has been added to Yucata library, so i rushed to try it out. And, sadly, confirmed my doubts. Although the game has some interesting mechanisms, as when players in order put cubes on boats and then one of the players decide where to sail one boat. Although every points generating board has two sides and provides some replay value. And the game is oriented to families based on its weight. All in all it lacks long term strategy planning and even ability to have some short term tactic. Because there is very little control of what is happening every turn. It is hard to explain with words. This is better seen when playing it. Say you want to add a few cubes in a row to one scoring board. You put one cube on some boat, but on the other player’s turn anything can happen. He may add his cube right after yours or sail the boat or anything else. There are special cards that lets you play around this a bit, but to get them you have to spend cubes and sail a boat to the place with them and someone can beat you to that and sail the boat first to gain the right to pick cards first. Although many games doesn’t have an absolute control, this one has too little of it for my liking. I have only played it with two players, but i somehow feel it should be even more chaotic with more players. Maybe this game is better suited for family play evenings or playing during a party not paying attention to strategy or tactics. But this is not what i like in games usually. 6/10