Top 10 Games Everyone Should Play at Least Once

featuring top tens live plays contests and more [Music] good afternoon everybody and welcome to the last thing from the dice tower spring spectacular i'm tom vassell i'm roy kennedy i'm chris yee i'm mike delecio and i'm here too i'm z garcia folks today we're talking about our top 10 games everybody should play at least once so i think you know we talked about this a little bit but how our definitions and how we applied it because i don't think anyone here is going to apply it exactly the same way so i throw it to you roy how did you decide what went on this list so for me i just picked games that i think are really good and games that are really enjoyable and you should try it at least once so that way like you might like it more but even if you're not sure if it's a game that you would like you should try it because it could be a thing that you would enjoy from here on out all right chris i think for me some of these are going to be very light some of these are going to be very heavy right and when we talked about this this is not literally everyone i think that our audience is basically people who watch the dice now right did you read did you read the thing it says everyone everyone should try it at least once and so i know that these aren't going to appeal to everyone but these are in my mind exceptional games that really bring out a lot of fun experience at the table not necessarily just because it's a good game and so i wanted to focus on that table experience that i think everyone should get to have mike i looked over chris's shoulder and just took his list now what i did was i went for experiences all of my games when i when i described them are going to be a particular type of experience that i think would be something everyone should try to experience at least once they're all exit games so you can only play them once correct you all destroy them at the end z i see you've been shaking your head what did you do i don't know i shake that shake my head that's what i do i actually wrote down like when i started the list uh started thinking about the list i wrote down some some sort of rules i wanted to follow and different things i wanted to end up on the list and i broke it down into three things that i think should be featured on a list like this the first one is classic games you should know if you're going to be a gamer if you're going to want to have some sort of idea of what gaming is why it's where it's at all of that there's some games on this list that fall into that category category two games that are that greatly represent whatever it is they do and so this is you know the the first one could be seen as like you know this is kind of best of the best the first one sort of like first of the best right and then the third one is games that do something so different that are so neat that are so unique that you should try them these those are the ones i don't necessarily think you'll play more than once but i think you should play them once that's kind of where i'm at my process was the same as z's but he said it better than me i'm gonna say a little bit more succinctly i think i picked games that will make you a well-rounded gamer what are you trying to say is that a fat joke yes and since you are you know we talk about these games so very often i think that a lot of these games are games that you know and have heard about but there's a chance you haven't played them i think you should try them at least once to a then again go back to being a well-rounded gamer the game pyramid four square games a day something like a round pyramid lately i don't understand the the analogies here tomorrow technically we're two rectangles and three squares so we're already let's just get on this list so that we can properly acclaim each other on our wise choices let's go um great all the numbers aren't in here because we moved them number ten roy the audio is off roy the audio's off and you need to start over i will unmute myself hey everybody so this is a social deduction game um basically you guys all see that is deception murder in hong kong the reason that i picked this one is because i really thought there should be a social production game on here but even if you don't enjoy the social reduction genre this is a game that i've had wide success with a wide large variety i played with friends i played with family members i played with aunts and uncles who wouldn't normally like this sort of thing and it works out very well and the fact is even if you don't like social deduction um this is a game that you could play the forensic scientist and maybe lead other people to who the person is that is the murderer that you try to figure out and there's a lot of people out there that find that i guess that crime scene investigation theme intriguing so i think deception murder in hong kong is a game you should play at least once um to see if that it's a theme and a the mechanisms are something that would jive with you so that's my number 10. very good very good that's what i haven't played right and so if you have to play at least once you're not a well-rounded gamer this is outrageous i'm very round but i'm i'm interested in it my number 10 i'm going to use this fancy official dice tower top 10 clipboard i'm very excited to do in fact i don't actually have a list written on here you got my favorite game on there my number 10. my number 10 is a two-player head-to-head card game called mandala this is a game that i think you're going to hear this phrase i'm going to try not to say it repeatedly ad nauseam but it's a game that does a lot with very little and i think that this is one of the best two-player experiences that you'll have with the card game there's you know 120 cards in the game and they're all just colors you place the card into one of three different spaces and what you do wildly affects what the other player is going to do and you will stare at each other multiple times throughout the game and say no don't place it there why did you put yellow in the middle you know oh now i need to place reds i wish i had more reds i could place in a different area and it's it's to me an incredible example of elegant design and a really nice experience where you and the other person are creating a very unique weird time together that you're going to remember you're going to have stories and talk about later so for that reason i think everyone should try at least once mandala you think mandala is going to create stories well you know the the the stories of like not wanting to play an abstract game it was fun well i mean yeah there's i think of moments i think a very specific moment in this game where i had a handful of yellows i need to add them to one particular area and that card gets added to a different part of the circle i can no longer play yellows where i want them to and i'm i just i don't know it's it's you walk away from it and you think oh if this had come out a little bit different i would have so much more you know i would have had a different time and um i don't know maybe story it's not this is not some sort of you know epic space theme game i'm sorry z but i have fun with it wait do you know z um he's trolling i'm glad you like it chris i also like it i know you do you could criticize me for stories though i also like many other card games exactly like this one [Laughter] all right come on mike once upon a time i led the trick with the green no all right um you're such a mean person why not be nice to mike nope there you go all right my number 10 is my uh dexterity game experience i i said i was coming with experience this is my dexterity game experience my number 10 is crocodile and the reason why i think it's on this list is i don't think everyone's going to want to own this because these are big boards that you have to buy they're not cheap but they're great games to play like at conventions or if you have a friend that has a crocodile board this game reminds me of when i was a kid in elementary school during recess we would all kind of race to get to the carom boards where you would be you'd have a little q-stick playing carom right and when i first saw a crocodile board i was like man it brought back all these great memories when i was a kid of playing those karen boards so i think crocodile is a game everyone should at least try once whether it's at a convention or whatever it may be even if you don't necessarily have the space in your house for one i feel like it does a really nice job of kind of giving you that dexterity experience so that's my number 10 crocodile should we say that is a really good pick should we say if there's games on other people's lists that we haven't tried at all because i've never played crocodile oh you should try it i agree with mike that it's an experience you should be aware of you know what that's like yeah you got one in the library baby oh snap to the ketchup palooza list let's go it's me great um okay let's go my number 10 is chess i think everybody should play chess at least once i know chess can be intimidating i know that if you watch a tv show perhaps on netflix about chess and how extremely seriously it's taken that can also push you away from even giving it a try but i think it's something you should be familiar with again lots of the games on my list are not games that i think like roy say at the beginning at the beginning that you should try because you might love i think a lot of these games unless you are i mean like the truest definition of an omni gamer i think a lot of these games will be at one play you should play them once and i think chess could be that for a lot of people but you should still try it just don't try with like a grand master that's not going to be fun but but you know learn it try it without so my true skills haven't really been tested that's true absolutely so there you go number 10 chess for me thank you amelia she says she loves mandela and she's super glad that wayne that chris yee is weighing in on these there you go all right i agree with zee a lot chess was on my short list actually so was crocodile um my number 10 though it's a little i didn't know what to put exactly for this one i almost put hearts but i'm gonna put diamond and the reason i'm putting diamonds here is because i think everybody should play a trick taking game at least once and diamonds is i think the most accessible of the published ones yes you could you know play with a regular deck of cards hearts spades etc but so that's the reason i'm picking diamonds but you could put in here any trick taking game but i think there's a lot of people who have never played one and we talk about them a lot and you may not like it not everyone likes trick taking games but i think you should try one and then it just it's helpful later on when someone says trump you when in regards to games you know what's being talked about or suits of cards or following the color that's led look knowing how to play one of these games really opens up the whole world to you so again that's why i picked diamonds i just thought it was of all the ones out there i think it's the most accessible if you've never played one a trick-taking game before that's also not insane like you know the dwarf king and all those i mean those are silly but they're also can you think of a more a better one to put on i actually i did the same thing with this category as you did with chess it would just be like right off the list i don't have a trick taking game on my list but um diamonds is a good pick i might have gone for like a traditional one but barring that yeah diamonds is a really solid pick i was this close to putting spades on my list for that reason and so yeah for someone who has experienced time with trick taking games would you still say diamonds you should try that one at least once no i don't think i would say necessarily diamonds in that case i don't know what i would pick i'm just saying i think everybody maybe i almost i thought about teach you briefly but teach use its own category yeah diamonds instead also teach you introduces you to people uh the same the same type of people who play teach you are were on that queen's gambit show yeah i think so are you saying thomas this is not a game for everyone to play once diamond says yeah yeah yeah not teach you though wow don't try to trick me with your logic chris objection leading welcome to the all right let's go to my number nine here so um for me i wanted to put a really solid abstract game on the list and so the one i decided to go with is oni tama i think onitama is a great abstract game that has some interesting concepts in it of it still has that movement on the board like the game that uh z mentioned chess but this basically has the moves you have for the different units are going to switch back and forth and i've had a ton of fun playing this game with like my kids and my friends and me and mike even played the app on a plane once um this game is a lot of fun to play and i think it's one that you should really try out at least one time just because if you're into abstract games this is gonna be one that's easy and accessible for you and if you've never tried that many abstract games before this is one that has a different feel to it that is really enjoyable so my number nine is onitama very cool that's good good pick i can't can't argue yes my number nine on my official clipboard is mike is dead to me that's better that's my number one that's very underrated play that board chris all right it's trying to be on bgg my number nine is a game that has very few components and the ones that it has are fantastic it is a almost party game and it's called skull skull to me is so fast it's very easy to teach and it's it's all of the joys of a game kind of like liars dice but with fewer components and less explanation i think that a table of people sitting around playing skull right you put a coaster down in front of you and you say you know does everyone have a certain number of them or or a certain number of them that have the skull on it or are most of them blanks and that number just has to keep going up as it goes around the table and something about that is just so simple and yet it it's a very great experience where you say there's no way that all four of us put schools down no i feel good about that and then you reveal it's something about that is so pleasant that even if i'm you're you're hardened gamer that only likes serious games you still giggle at it you still have fun and it's once again a game that's really about the joy of the people around the table and less so just the game itself but i think the game is still solid so for that reason that's my number nine skull hmm it's a good one i love skull i really do it's just like you said it's so simple it's a very condensed experience right i like it all right my number nine is what i'm calling my creative thinking experience game and this is dixit i think dixit is a game that lets you learn more about the people that you're playing with and i think that that's one of the great things that board games can do is that you can learn even if you're playing with people you've never met before it's a great way to kind of learn some things about them but even people that you have known for years family members good friends dixit is a way that you can kind of use that knowledge to your advantage perhaps uh or have it used against you and so dixon we just played it a version of it here live during the spring spectacular and i hopefully if you watched that you saw what a great experience could be had i mean and me and mike ran up the track we did we really did and all of us had i think all of us that were playing it had played it a number of times and they're still that game just evokes a feeling unlike any other game i ever play every time i play dixit it's a feeling of familiarity of comfort it's not this kind of backstabby hardcore gaming experience it's just pleasant it's fun and it really allows you to think creativity creatively uh which i enjoy so that's my number nine dixit it's a good pick too all right my number nine we are still in the classics category here for sure and my number nine is katan the classic for many people who play the kinds of games we'll be talking about mostly katan is a game that like many popular things that have now that that are a little long in the tooth let's say now gets a lot you know poo pooed on but it's it's uh a strong design it's perhaps not the latest and shiniest thing but it's one you should be familiar with if you have sort of a a certain appreciation of board gaming i you know i sort of hesitated to call it a certain respect of board gaming but maybe that too just because it is an important game in the in the you know in the little story that we have with with board gaming it's fun it's an interesting it's not a game that you would be playing i think merely as an exercise for familiarity i think it's one that could very well surprise you and uh you know hook you it certainly did for many many people so there you go katan i suspect it'll show up on somebody else's list so that's it for me my number nine i didn't put this or any of those other gateway games my list because i figured most people already play them so it didn't need to be on a list like this i don't need to persuade people to play katana or to give it a try i definitely play this more than that's a valid point i i disagree with you and i'll explain to you why when it may come up on my list later with me or tom no with with tom okay well then i don't care my number nine is the most maligned game on this list by the general public for sure i've heard many a sermon preached against this game um and this is dungeons and dragons my favorite board game yeah well whatever it says top 10 games than saying about board games but here even if you're a board gamer i think and again just like most games on the list it doesn't have to be this one exactly could be another role-playing game but i think you should give dungeons and dragons a shot there's a lot of stuff in our hobby that comes from this and even if it's a one-time role-playing experience you you hear lots of stories about it it's part of you know stranger things was part of the plot and all but there's so much caricature done on role-playing games that i think a lot of people think they know what a role-playing experience is like and haven't actually done it and it's a very different thing like i very rarely have seen any of those shows or movies or things about it where it was even remotely realistic at least i felt from my experience and i think that this is something that board gamers should try um so anyway dungeons and dragons so don't don't be afraid if your character dies you don't have to quit the group it creates such amazing stories and that's one of the main reasons that it's very interesting so all right dungeons dragons yeah [Music] all right my number eight so i like games where there's cards and combos and all of those things and there's a lot of collectible card games out there but this is the first game that took kind of like that building up of combos and deck building and put it into a game this is the first one and if you haven't played it there's tons of games that have spawned off of it my number eight is dominion i think dominion is a great game that is still a game you should definitely try even if you've played other deck building games you should still go back and try out dominion and see the game that started off the whole deck building craze and this still stands up super solid with a lot of the other deckboarding games out there you might think oh dominion started it all it's been surpassed by other things no there's tons of amazing and great combos and the way the game just all comes together in dominion is a great experience so i think everybody should play it at least once even if you go back to your other deck builders afterwards if you haven't played dominion you should definitely try it out so that's why it's my number eight very cool my number eight is a game called world's fair 1893. this game is gorgeous it has a really fun and kind of unique theme and it has very interactive gameplay i think it's area majority is one of my favorite mechanisms i think that this can appeal to tons of people because even though there's down times you're waiting for people to put up their influence cubes and get majorities in the different areas every card in this game has a different historical fact and you can say hey what are the different exhibits that were at the world's fair and i feel like this is something that people can look at and say what is meaningful flavor text and what is meaningful interactions with other players is you can you know vie for stronger influence move people's cubes around it's it's somewhat mean but it's not very it's mostly just very smooth playing and i think that you're gonna get an experience from this that is an amalgam of different things that makes for a very unique experience that's worth trying out so that's why my number eight's world fair 1893. wow that's a really it feels a little esoteric i think wow okay i think it's that good though it's that clean and that fun i'm gonna disagree on the everyone should play this at least once i feel like i like the game i just feel like there's a lot of other games that give you the same feel listen chris those cubes are really drawing me in you know i know you're a cute man [Laughter] i always feel like it tells a story my number eight is what i'm calling my z look you're being a little bit you're being a little bit harsh shut the clip we're not gonna call you out here z but this is getting a little ridiculous man my number eight is what i'm calling my team-based party experience uh my number eight is time's up are you running workshops what's going on welcome to the space experience i've look i've told you that all of these are what i'm calling experiences all of these are games i think that are the best example of what experience i'm trying to to describe that you know everyone should try at least once and so this would be like the party game where you're playing in teams so time's up to me this is the classic example as a matter of fact if i had just said team-based party game i have a feeling everyone would have guessed time's up right it's kind of no taboo so many party games for teams almost all of them are for teams please please in the vid diagram of games i'm good at this is not in it no no i'm not saying it's good and look i will tell you this this list will be the furthest from any of the lists i make of games that are necessarily games that i love that's not what the list was about to me this was about games i feel like people should try at least once i played time's up for the first time i want to say two years ago and i don't know that i really want to play it again but i felt like yeah i needed to play this i'm glad i played this i see what the fuss is about i get it it was very very unique to that experience and so that's why i feel like and just what you said z tons of games like this but i feel like this is the purest version of it to my mind that i've played that's why i'm choosing time's up as my number eight that makes sense i get that a game like this shoot and plus there's so many folks who actively avoid these kinds of games right you know they're sort of like it's almost like they're scared that they're it's going to stain their gaming record or something right it's a party game you know right play calm down it's a silly time yeah shut up about it anyway time's up time is up okay then i'm done that's my number eight tom oh no wait i gotta say it uh no my number eight is actually a crossover with roy for dominion the same number oh snap it'll be on everybody else's list higher they were way too quiet it's on everybody else's list higher uh roy already said it now again i it's not my favorite deck building game and this is on the list more of a it falls into my one category like a game that did something first you should play it out of again an understanding of where something came from i it might be your favorite but i you know i it's not for me certainly my favorite uh deck building game but it is one that is interesting to to try and and see what it did first and how it did it if you can remove your knowledge of you know so many other deck building games but yeah uh number eight dominion for me as well uh mike what was the category of your number eight again it was team-based party experience team-based party experience that should be the day that could be the title of a great game it could be a party game team based party experience all right well no that that's my number eight and so my number eight though is going to be code names okay and here's why i pushed code names on the list because i thought about dixit i thought about time's up and things like that but i feel like most people play or have played a party game code names is a different level it brings you into that more of a different kind of communication and yes i know password did it in the 60s but it brings it up a little bit more into that modern phase and so that's why i put code names on my list code names can then take you in an offshoot where you play games like the mind or it can take you you play more things like cryptic and games like that but i feel like code names is one everyone should try even if you're someone who disdains silly party games in which case i don't know that i want to game with you anyway but if you did you might like code names despite all that you should at least try it once right great the password is mike's pick is better time's up mike time's up it's not about the better game these are games people should try once mike's game was better than you're getting correct code names is better number [Music] [Laughter] [Music] hey i'll start now you guys are distracting me let me switch to my number here okay cool hey my number seven come on oh this is off the chain go ahead listen he's he's putting in a super hero level effort over there folks give roy some love my number seven is a game where there are cards out on the table and you're drafting those cards to try to set collect them and then play them out in different areas not roots but to control different areas this is ethnos this is a fantasy based game we're trying to do different sorts of area controls with all sorts of different fantasy races with different powers and i think this is a game that is really enjoyable and i think a lot of people haven't tried it i think this is a game that people might not have caught or might not have seen and i feel if you try it at least once you'll probably really enjoy the game because it just plays so quickly as you're drafting all these different sets of different characters or different like races that have different powers and then it's super simple area control as you're placing the different units on the board trying to figure out how to outsmart your opponents on where you're going and moving things around so you can win for each of the different ages so i think ethnos is a great game to try at least once and that is why it is my number seven what do you think chris oh that's um i disagree with this one i think it's a very good game but i think you don't have to play it you know maury would disagree who baltimore follow maury roy i think that's a dumb pick why don't you go ahead and skip my number seven then why number seven is that note in your face is that why you said what do you think yes i just noticed that it was right under mine so man my number seven is ethnos because as roy alluded to a lot of people were turned off to it by the art and if you weren't turned off by the art on the cover of the box you're turned off by what was actually inside the box because there was a disconnect between you know big epic final fantasy battle and then like putting like stacking little discs on regions the game somewhere between those two it's such a clean fun game and i think a lot of people yeah didn't give this one a try but i think it does some things that are really great you know use six different factions each game out of the ones that come in the box the game almost teaches itself and so people will come into it and say well how do you play you know play a group of cards or draw some on your turn i think that people should experience how fast this is i consistently play this game quicker than a game like ticket to ride and it's better than ticket to ride for this yeah for the purpose of this list i i i agree with royal full stop better than ticket to ride full stop i haven't played full stop is that a new map roy or it's an expansion it can't stop yes exactly full stop can't stop playing ethnos no it's great so yeah my number seven as well actually you guys have convinced me or chris convinced me um that no because he gave a good reason because a lot of people are turned away from ethnos you should try it despite how how bad it looks that's right thanks you just didn't listen to anything i said i think is what the the real truth is well once you start talking about this garbage that is better than ticket to ride i was out i said that after chris is pick i'm so confused i wasn't actually that interested in uh in playing ethnos but now i want to play it just because i wanted to teach it to i wanted to teach me the game by itself so i'm excited about that that's a new technology i wasn't aware of um i will never understand i will never understand the hate that ethnos gets for its look and its pieces it just baffles me it's like if people talk about it and hushed whispers like it's the hunchback of paula morgan like it's not that unattractive the pieces they're so garish i'm like you know they're plastic bits like no one looks a ticket to ride and they're like the trash these plastic trains are horrid it's like i i think it's mostly i truly don't get it the dark art mixed with the bright graphic design is the the juxtaposition of that is what throws people off it just looks a little it looks a little outdated to me that's the only thing it just looks like it came out maybe two decades ago but it doesn't look awful um my number seven is what i'm calling my social deduction experience roy actually picked a game that i like better than the one that i chose but the one that i think everyone should play at least once is werewolves um and this is a game that similar to kind of what zee was talking about before is that this is a game that scares a lot of people off and i know that because i was one of them and the first time i played an actual game of werewolf like a full game was moderated by tom on the channel and it's because i had been intimidated by it i've been intimidated by it feels almost like a world that you have to be invited to if that makes sense like i didn't understand it i didn't really know what it was about i felt like i would feel like i'm ruining the game for other people don't let that stuff get in your way because unless you're playing with jerks they're going to teach you the game they're going to give you a level of comfort and it is an experience that is unlike any other experience that you're likely to have you may not love the experience you may absolutely adore it and it might open up a whole new world for you but you should try it at least once there are little kind of gateway introduction versions of it that can kind of get you into it with like one night ultimate and that's fine but i think you should try an actual moderated game of werewolf at least once that's my number seven problem with werewolf is that it's such a dis it's going to be such a different experience based on that moderation i guess an rpg like tom said d and d so i guess that's yeah anyway my number seven is again falls very much into the classic category it also falls into my third category a game that does something so differently that you should try it and that's cosmic encounter cosmic counter is a game that doesn't get a lot of games are inspired by right cosmic and calendar but it feels like not a lot of games are really making the same stew it still feels different and it still feels like its own beast while being an early pioneer in the the kinds of games that are so popular right now you know having asymmetric powers and and having this uh you know negotiation being a part of something bigger and all of these other things so i think cosmic encounter is one that you should not write off because it seems chaotic which it could be but i think you should try it and sort of discover if that's you know something that you enjoy in it the self-correcting nature of the game it's one that uh there's just so much there and when you stop and think this game came out in the late 70s that's mind-blowing so how's my encounter my number seven my number seven i worry might be disagreed with heavily and i don't know about y'all but from at least the people watching because i think a lot of people refuse to play this because of how it plays but i think everyone should try it at least once and that's pandemic legacy because legacy games and everyone screams the the people who i've seen yell about legacy games the most have never tried one they just hear that you can only play it once they say as they play most of their games only once before they move on to the next one um and they'll say it has a limited number of plays i could not bear to destroy components in a game how you know whatever the excuses are and i'm telling you you gotta play it it is an experience and you will remember it for the rest of your life you really say it tells a story tom i think satisfiedly i could say that if mark it down of all games before on this list if you play pandemic legacy just once isn't that just playing like a regular game of pandemic though well i'm saying for this childish argument um so you should play through a whole ca so you should play gloomhaven once aka the entire thing of gloomhaven not only that roy i say that if you play pandemic legacy the first game once it will immediately after that first game you'll know if you'll like the experience or not i don't think you need to go through six seven games in to know that zero has been i would agree with season one because i said season one okay okay yeah season one i would agree with that right because it will do something in the first game to make you say i want to see more or no i hate tom bass yeah it's one of those two correct i want to keep going or tricked again by that hat wearing jerk once you start ripping cards you can't stop i don't pop see i i feel all that like people say stuff like that roy and it it gets people all the tizzy they're like ripping cards you have that big again it's something when you play it's a different thing than what you might think here's the unspoken truth about pandemic legacy season one here we go you don't actually have to rip up the cards just like put them away somewhere don't let them get mixed in with the ones you're using number seven will shock you you could light them on fire too my number seven pandemic legacy [Music] all right my number six my number six my number six is a game i really enjoy experiences um and this is a game that i put on the list because i think this is a great experience it's kind of interesting it might not be a game that works 100 of time for everybody but i think it's a game that you should try at least once because it's so enjoyable and this is mansions of madness second edition this game has some really unique and interesting things in it i haven't seen board games that have like puzzles that you work together on quite like this i know there's a lot of escape rooms that have some stuff but this uses an app as well and you're doing different sliding app puzzles and if maybe you're put off by the app thing try it at least once and figure out if it's something that works for you because the atmosphere that this game creates as you're working together exploring a mansion tile by tile uncovering clues about the story and the mystery of what's going on in the game it just invokes like this interesting crazy mythos world that you're going through as you're fighting off bad guys or maybe just questioning different people at a party to figure out who was the person that murdered the guy that's in the basement but there's all sorts of crazy things that happen and the scenarios are very different and you know what you did z it's time to fess up i think this is a great pick especially especially a good pick if you are also a video gamer right yeah because it's a nice in between yeah it's not too hard and i and there are still people who say that they're turned off by having to use an app in a game try it yeah i mean not every game has to be the game that you see yourself playing in 20 years in case the app is not supported then just play it now and enjoy it now speaking of games that i see myself playing in 20 years my number six is a game called dominion so dominion is my number six said no no wait i agree with everything roy says he's dead to me yes after his after his last jokes at my expense so i'm the body in the basement god [Music] this this this is unraveling the the caper of who did it all about the basement about the basement no garcia oh goodness so weak sauce i'm tired of talking about dominion medieval world no i i love dominion this is my favorite tech builder i'm one of those people that falls into that camp i don't think that there's a better deck builder out there because the genius of dominion is its restrictions you can only play one action card per turn you have to do things in a very specific order and i think there's something about that meticulous specificity that makes you have to play more clever and try and change things together and because of that i think it's the strongest game because it has the static markets that you purchase from and because of that it has nearly infinite replayability in my opinion i don't think it's better a deck a better deck building game out there and i think that even though it's kind of this grandfatherly game it still deserves that respect even if you don't love it so when we're sixth dominion wow that's i can't get behind that pick chris actually uh my number six is quadruple crossover and a double number crossover with mr christie my number six is dominion which i'm calling z get ready for it my deck building experience [Laughter] dominion dominion is a game that's a curveball i will disagree with chris i will say there are literally hundreds of thousands of better deck builders out there than dominion but this is the one that really started it all right you've probably if you're watching this video you've probably played a deck builder but you should play the one that started it you should play the one that is still fantastic you should play the one that has multiple expansions that don't feel superb z superfluous thank you this is a game that still has legs it still brings something to the table um it's definitely not my favorite deck builder i'm not kidding about that but it is a fantastic game it is an important game and i know that maybe it's silly to throw that word around but it is an important game they've all said wonderful things about it and i'm going to stop there that's my number six dominion it's good stuff i keep forgetting i'm after mike my number six is uh my if you want the economic experience i guess my number six is uh power grid now power grid again is not a game that i have anymore even but it's a game that i think is very uh very robust experience it's one of those games you should try to see if this is the kind of uh you know setting environment sort of a play play experience that you might enjoy because playing that i think is going to open a whole new avenue of game style to you if you find this is uh an interesting experience it's all about the economy in the game it's uh the math is is in there you have to be mindful of where you're spending your books what you are bidding on how you are managing resources to to fuel up your power plants and then uh light up these cities and another reason i think it's a good one to try at least once is because we within power grid i think there are different so many different mechanisms that even if you don't enjoy power grid you might come away thinking you know what i really liked was connecting the cities i liked that part of it great there's lots of games that do that with more specificity than power grid or i really like the bidding thing that was neat fantastic there's a whole world out there for you so i think this is a good launching enough point as well so there you go power grid my number six all right z is making me feel a little better here because this doesn't happen very often but i'm not sure about my number six pick like i i almost feel like i should take it off the lip i'm just gonna say it you may delete it so i can delete it real quick now number six is commands and colors ancients and i almost put i think maybe memoir 44 would have been a better pick but i think everyone should the problem with memoir 44 and the reason i picked commander cars ancients they're very similar games they're light war games and i think everyone should try one of these at least once the reason i didn't put memoir 44 is because there's still people who may have had relatives in uh that war and so that could be a personal thing and i would never tell you to play that game but other than mike none of us have relatives who were around in the command of colors ancient time frame so it's a little easier for us to do that you mean mike was there or he has relatives no no no it was his grandfather i wouldn't ever call mike old um no clearly okay but listen put it on your list because tom is great i'm also keeping a less mic i just don't put it up in front of the thing every time uh no but i think i think everyone should try some sort of war game out i know they're not everyone's style and some people again some people may even have a problem with the idea of war in general and i get that too but i i can't take that an account for every game here you might have a problem with something or other but i think we talk a lot about war games and this is the this is the one you should try to see if it's maybe your style or also the command card system and so that's why i put this one on here and um yeah command the color is ancient stick it with it yeah i like i like fence that that train of thinking makes sense you should i mean there is a there are lots of people who all they do is play war games you should dip a toe in that and see if it's uh see what you think of it you know see what they do and again they their experience is probably something more in-depth and heavy than that but you should tip a toe in i said yeah and all right good things about everyone this might be a little stretch but this is you know this is like the the simple of the block war game system right where you got blocks and people might even be more comfortable with that based on blank it still is it sounds stratego as a kid or something you know it kind of has a familiarity of moving blocks so i think it's a good pick i've not tried this one myself but i i'm interested in it when i and seeing that it's on your list i might be a little bit more inclined now this is a great support group thank you all terrible for my number five um this is a game that is just straight fun so for this one you're going to have to be like take off of your your gamer classes or your your snobbery of like i need heavy in-depth euros or all the combat in the world this is a game that's just silly and i wanted a good fun dexterity game on here this is a game you should try at least once and that is rhino hero you should play it at a con enjoy the stacking gigantic tower craziness that rhino hero is i think this is a fun interesting basically it's like the opposite of jingo where you're building things up instead of pulling things out and it's got interesting mechanics and i've had a blast playing this with a wide variety of people building gigantic towers as things go up and trying to not be the one that knocks it over and loses the game this game is a ton of fun and is super silly fun and you should try it at least once rhino hero man z's incredulous face is like he didn't take rhino hero is not the opposite of jenga okay the opposite of jenga is climbing up a tree removing its branches and then nailing the branches into the trunk of the tree that's the opposite of jenga i only hate snob now roy here's i disagree with you slightly but it's not for the same reason i think you can watch rhino hero none of them realize if it's for you or not it's not exactly we need to play it it's not the same holding your breath you know what to make sure two points for that track don't like fun we know we already know i just said the game is fun i think it's a game [Laughter] no i'm kidding i like it too i just i don't know if i would i don't think i would put it on this list um there's a lot of stacking kind of games you know pick one of them i guess best one all right all right so for my number five roy and i have crossed over on the same number with the same idea before here we couldn't be more polar opposites this is my heavy game pick for the list uh and it uh so my number five is mombasa this is alexander fister game i won't i won't do it nevermind roy you're good don't try it once bring back the rhino hero i'm not gonna try it once i'm just telling you here's why i think that this is a game that is complex in some of its upfrontness but once you start playing it the complexity goes away in some of the you know okay it's smoother than it seems like it should be this is a good step if you want to try and play more complex games that have a lot of different mechanisms you know max mashed up together these these uh and tom's incredulousness i had a peanut butter joke in my head when you said it's more smooth than you think it would be that's all i wanted all right it's a strange mix of worker placement and deck building game and area control on this map and i think that if you're at all familiar with those separate mechanisms putting them together into a single kind of more complex game works really well i think it's a game where you're playing the other players at the table as much as you are playing the mechanisms of it and i think that this is a good game to see if you really enjoy the idea of positive interactions where to to really advance how well you're doing in the game you're going to have to benefit other people as well you can share how well you're doing with the four different companies that are out on the map because you don't control any company yourself i think that it does some very unique things that people are going to try once and say either yes bring on more or no that was good i'm going to go back to playing nothing but rhino hero and can you stack the buildings on a serious note but why this one over the other ones even like other fister games now when you say other ones tom do you mean every euro game ever made no come on i'm talking to chris not you um is that a bell sound i just i thought i heard a bell so weird like the round's over what other games do you mean tom no like even the other fister games why pick mombasa over like let's say great western trail or maracaibo i mean no i'm being serious i'm asking like why is this the game you picked i get that you think people should play a heavier game like this but why this one it's more interactive it's less about making your own little loop that works best for you it's more about the combined experience that you have with the other players the table where you push up against how other players are are pulling and i think that it it but and also i still do think that once you get past the rules up front the game plays smoother than those other ones oh goodness okay that's my controversial number five mombasa hey you know what else is controversial chris apps in board games roy was just talking about it my number five is my app integrated experience z my number five is chronicles of crime and here's the thing i get that there are a lot of people that don't want app integration with board games my personal opinion is you maybe need to get over yourself a little bit but i would say this if you're gonna have an app integrated board game it's best if that app allows the game to exist now roy actually mentioned mansions of madness second edition which you could argue you don't need the app because first edition didn't have an app they're completely different games that's what i'm good at was getting ready to say is that second edition is exponentially better because of the app because it creates an experience you couldn't have had without it you could not play chronicles of crime without the app it is something that is wholly unique in the board gaming sphere you may hate it i've heard people say it's an activity it's not a game well okay but you should try it you should try it at least once it is a an experience you've never had before i mean guarantee it i can't guarantee you'd like it but it is different this game could not exist without app integration i think it's a it's a neat uh thing to bring into board gaming you should try it at least once and and put away some of your initial fears of getting apps into your board games try it at least once chronicles of crime very unique that's a great that's a great pick for this list i agree 100 uh all right my number five is a crossover with i think earlier mike had it on his list uh my number five is uh crocodile i think again it's a it's a really formative dexterity experience it's one you should you should try even if you've even if you have tried other dexterity games most of them are not flicking games especially not in this format most dexterity games are about stacking something you know whatever you're doing jenga esque games i think uh crocodile and other games like it are a slightly different flavor you i could see you liking one kind of dexterity and not the other so you should try this one it's also a very social game i like that about it you know you're sitting around this beautiful board ideally everybody's laughing it up there's there's something electric and energetic about sitting around with three other people and playing crocodile i i love that experience actually i don't even feel like i'm playing board games it's a it's a different vibe like ping pong yeah yeah yeah yeah exactly it's a different thing it's a different get together and uh i think ping pong is a great example tom yeah i love i love that feeling so crooked try it all right my number five is i guess it's you can call it a classic now it's 20 years old and that is the grand old daddy of the euro games and that's puerto rico puerto rico now there's definitely a lot of talk about puerto rico's definitely been in you know on the message boards lately um the message boards the forums started wow you went back baby i went back 20 years um but there's so many things that this game does and i'm still amazed when i go to conventions and i offer teachers to people the number of folks who haven't played this the reason i mention this one is because it's 2021 and i find that there's a new generation of gamers who have not played this one and i think it provides both a good experience it gives you a unique look at a game that literally was a pretty big linchpin of the modern euro game movement and i think it's good for those reasons so my number five puerto rico all right my number four um i really wanted to add a game that was i felt decently accessible but also had a lot of cool engine building stuff in it and i think this is a game that if you're interested in crazy engine building at all you should try this game at least once because it definitely has engine building in spades and that is gizmos gizmos is a game where you're building up you have lots of simple actions but as the game progresses you your actions become more and more complex because you're able to combo lots of actions together so it's like at the beginning of the game you're just picking these cool little spheres and you're using those fears to buy different cards but now when you buy this type of card it lets you pick a sphere as well and now when you pick that color sphere you get to take another one and when you take that color sphere you get to build a thing and then it can just have these crazy combos and things that happen in the game that can help you build this efficiency engine to build up points and you're trying to build these crazy insane machine contraptions and even it just gives you like a solid engine building experience so if you're into a game that has just engine building and spades i think gizmos is one you should try at least one time to just get that experience of comboing all these cool things together i really enjoy games that have lots of combos in it so my number four is gizmos really good pick i agree with that is it your number four no unfortunately not my number four trades in those spheres for cubes my number four is a game called hanza tatonica it to me is kind of like how tom talks about puerto rico is as you know it's it's a an old dry euro theme and everything this game does so much with very few components you have a desk and you have some cubes and some discs the discs are the fancy part of it uh and it strikes z right in the heart i can see this game for me is the reason i would say that i think that everyone should try this is one it's not very appealing it has a horrible cover it doesn't have good aesthetic or anything to it but the play of it is very smooth and i think that people should experience one of these older games that maybe they never got around to trying kind of like a tom mentioned with puerto rico that is it it's flawless i think right there's not like a a part of it where i say that should be changed this should be you know updated or anything i just love this game it has positive interaction it has negative interaction you are not playing your own little game everything is out on this board together pulling it off of your player board and the players have to butt heads and you will and i think that it's a game that can make you angry at your friends and also pull off great moves so for that reason my number four hands it to danica you know what it is chris i think i finally figured out what why like i'm having a hard time with some of these pics i think it's because the way you understood the list correct me if i'm wrong but but it sounds like it's more top 10 games you should try at least once that you were definitely not planning on trying it's a mix of that yeah a little bit like so like ethnos people would look it over so you're saying no no no come back try it hands it to tonica definitely should look that over but you're saying no you should try it once you might like it i mean you might top right top ten list chris is having a really hard time talking people into playing once with him also welcome to the show chris i hope you enjoyed welcome chris trial by fire let me think that over z i think that might be an interesting point of how it could have colored my my picks okay all right well my number four is in a similar vein and it's also a crossover with one mr tom vassell this is what i'm calling my wait for it euro experience this is katan now i didn't say guitar you crossed over crossover told me you were going to yell at me at this point oh yeah no i'm not going to yell you but i'm going to disagree with what you said uh about about it i'm trying to remember what you said so i can just say i basically said that i think everyone's playing catan so no convince them okay no i disagree with that because while i think that everyone that's watching this video is aware of katan it's ubiquitous right it is ubiquitous in the hobby i don't necessarily believe that a lot of people that came into the hobby now were necessarily through katan they may have been playing other euro games and they've heard of katan they're aware it exists but they haven't gone back and play it now it does happen to be the game that got me into the hobby and i still vividly remember the mind-blowing aspect of i had never heard of a victory point the whole constant victory point was completely foreign to me there were so many aspects of what we take for granted as modern board gamers that were mind-blowing mind-shifting ideas when i played katan for the first time and i just think that it's a game that if you have not played it even if you've so-called moved on to the bigger and better games and don't get me wrong there were games released last week that are probably better overall modern designs euro designs than katan but see where a lot of these ideas really took root see what game brought in so many people into this hobby myself included again i know that it sounds maybe a little pretentious to call a game important but katana is important it's an important game i think it is still worthy of playing now at least once even if you came in through another game you know if everdell brought you in or if something else brought you in and you're really excited about the hobby now and you don't even want to think about katana because that's from 20 years ago try it play it at least once so you can get an idea of where the history came from that's my argument tom i i'm not gonna say you it's wrong you're fine okay all right guys the rest of my list takes a dramatic shift here from number four on and that is because this there's a strong move here from my first two talking points classics and great examples to just things that are different that i think are unique experiences you might really like you might absolutely despise but you should sample them and with that with that we begin number four here is time stories time stories is a game that makes an interesting first impression it certainly did more so back when it first came out than now especially if you're on the up and up with all of these escape rooms style games but i think time stories for what it does as a first impression as a sampler plate i think it's very interesting it's a gorgeous game it feels mysterious uh it it is captivating there is something about it where you feel you are taking part in something different and i like that aspect of it so i think you should try it out see if it's the kind of game that you like and again much like power grid if you do and you're not on board all of these escape room style games exit the game unlock all that then this might be a good avenue towards those games time stories my number four i wish i could go back in time and play this for the first time again if i if one of those men in black things to like erase my memory happened like this would be a game that i would be the first to go back in line and play again not knowing anything about so i think the first impression this one gives you is a lot of fun i would also like to erase roy's first time playing time's up from my memory time's up this is not time's up this is time stories or time stories my number four were you just not listening or no i got caught up in roy's going back in time sorry my number four is midi culture i'm just gonna jump right into it vinnie culture and this is why because i think everybody should try a work replacement game everyone should probably try a stone meyer game i know it sounds sillier to the company but they their games are a bit of events but i think i was thinking man what what's a good work replacement game to put on the list um and this one seems pretty solid because it includes a whole lot of different things it includes a little bit of an economy it includes some unique ideas it includes cards that change the game and i thought it has enough going on in there that it felt like if you're gonna play one of these games this one brings a lot of ideas to the table and then if you don't like it i would imagine there's a lot of work replacement games you wouldn't enjoy and if you do like it well then oh boy you got a whole world ahead of you so um so bitty culture my number four all right all right [Music] all right my number three so i really enjoy games and there are certain games that really got me into the hobby um i played a ton of role-playing games in ccgs but when i played several of these style games that were like teamwork cooperative with a traitor in it they really brought me into the hobby and my number three is shadows over camelot this is a game that is not super hard to play because you're mostly trying to go on these different quests and create different poker hands and working as a team um to keep the castle from being overrun and keeping bad things from happening but you're trying to fulfill all the quests but there could be a traitor hidden among you and there are several games that do this but i feel like this is one of the roots of where this whole concept came from it's definitely an enjoyable game to go back to and try at least one time just because it's so much fun to jump into a game of shadows over camelot so hey i know this game is hard to get a hold of but go to a dice tower convention and you'll be able to play shadows every camelot from our library and it will be with roy and i mean i'll play with you would you play this with everyone who wants to play i i mean bring on the line come on let guys let's do this but i really think that's a good chance overcame a lot it's a good pick roy and i think the fact that you are playing poker hands is another thing that would make it more accessible to people that's a really good pick i was throwing up in between this and ballaster galactica and i just think bowser galactica even though i enjoy that game more it's too long of an experience for people to say that people have to play at one time i think this gives you a lot of that feel but does it in a shorter and more accessible time frame it's also likely more of a divisive theme battlestar galactica some people are like i don't care for the show or sci-fi my only concern with this pick is it's not so easy to get a hold of this game right right that's why you should place a friend's copy once you know sure it's just harder to tell people they should play it if it's harder to get to but if you're using it to get people to come to diced out conventions roy good on you let's go retreat cruise west east i'll play it with you once at each of those all right my number three i'm actually gonna go ahead and i'll say that i will invite anyone to play this game with me because i love it that much and it's very fun my number three is a game called las vegas las vegas very simple dice rolling game you roll dice you assign all of a single number out to a different casino and you're trying to get majorities i love majorities i think this is one of the best games to teach that kind of concept there's a few little twists and and turns in it but it's very simple and i think z to your point of maybe the way that i approach this game is a little bit of more focus towards people who play games on the regular right so mombasa is not a game to bring to grandma's house and say grandma chris said you have to play this game but you know people who play games regularly i think that some people will thumb up their nose a little bit towards this game because it's so light because there's not deep strategy to it i think it does offer a bit more fun than it actually looks like but also if you're you know this is one of my games that i think has the most wide appeal if you you can play this with people who play nothing but yahtzee and people say i think that this might be like better yahtzee or anything so that's my number uh three pick las vegas or the vegas dice game or vegas royale or whichever edition you find i think they're all great is this why this is in the office i brought it by to see if anyone wanted to play it the other day because i want to play it it's been a long time since i played it got it i should maybe play this at least once i'm saying that you are yeah i've played it it's a good call all right so i took my own advice for number three this very week i am this is the game i knew this was a game i knew that i needed to play at least once and i had not played it until this week my number three you put a game on the list you hadn't played i absolutely did i absolutely did it's it's what i'm calling my asymmetrical chaotic experience my number three is cosmic encounter i was familiar enough with the game i had seen people play the game i had not played the game myself i feel like and this who else had this already on their list z did yeah no i put this on the list before i even played it but i absolutely knew me too no i knew without a shadow of a doubt i was going to be playing this game even if it hadn't been you know slotted during this event because i knew this was a game i needed to play and i feel like everyone needs to play it at least once it's a game that is very unique it has an experience like no other not just the asymmetrical nature of it the fact that you've got all of the interactions with the player the negotiations all of these things i think are something that is done better here you know or at least differently here the most the most pure version of it than anything i've ever seen anyway so i have no qualms at all about putting a game on this list that i haven't played before because look i knew beforehand that i had to play this at least once everyone said oh i taught him to talk about playing cosmic every time tom would talk about playing a game of cosmic what was the first thing came to my mind i need to play that game i know i need to play that game i need to play it and i feel that is the case for everyone else you should try it at least once you're making me think of an interesting alternate sister list which is instead of top 10 games everyone should play at least once it's top 10 games i should play at least once i can fill that list out it's a good list it's an interesting list tom think about it write it in a little piece of paper put it in your hat like you do i feel like mike rewrote the timeline here i was just shook i was like how was is this an error i was like did chris mess up the list i was so confused and i'm like there we go he put a game he hadn't played on the list absolutely absolutely i think for this list it works all right well my number three is a game that actually hasn't come out yet i'm doubling down there you go my number three is definitely going to be the one that i think most people are going to go what why would you put that on the list because it's bizarre and i doubt you're gonna play it very many times but you should play it at least once it's such a cool piece of tech i'm talking about drop mix from hasbro you should try drop me don't take the list out um drop mix is and i just played this actually it's it's just it's a strange thing you should mess with it's this apparatus that you play cards on and they have a near field chip whatever that's called is it rfid yeah there you go it has uh one of those and it'll read the card and play a piece of music from some popular song the the cards have like just the bassline or just the vocals or whatever and you are building music together the the software will incorporate these things into one another there's a few modes in there a couple of them are kind of lame there's a head you know head to head one which i think is an all-right card game i'm a mass market card game but it's neat and it's just mind-blowing the way this thing works i really i really enjoy it it's um again it's not the best game in the world that's not what i'm saying i don't think this is going to open new avenues there's nothing else like it not really but you should try it to see what it's like to to try something way outside the box drop mix my number three that is a that's super unique all right well now my stuff's gonna seem super mundane all right so i'm gonna put a heavier game on the list and i don't go with fister root i would think everyone should try a rosenberg game or an uve rosenberg game at least once because they are a big part of the hobby so i'm putting the easiest one i think for people to jump into and that would be caverna um agricola huh patchwork's not easier to get into than coming oh no the good games so um no patchwork is that's a different genre i'm talking about the heavier big more involved games i think it's easier than let's say agricola and feast for odin and lahab and all that i think caverna you you go to spots you get stuff and it's a big grandiose game and you know what it's very possible when you're done playing it you'll go that was too much fine but i think you should give it a whirl and i think if you play caverna and i'm not talking about the whole cabernet versus coricola type stuff you know maybe you'll like one better than the other but what i mean is i think if you play caverna you'll have an idea like hey i like these kind of big grandiose lots of resources lots of things going on games and maybe you'll play and go interesting but that's about as far as i want to go i feel like it's on that line like for example i know that z you you thought it was fine i don't think you you raved about it but you didn't hate playing caverna right right yeah i thought cover down i think everyone is pretty good but i i i do like it it's definitely a game i won't play often but i think you're right that it's right on that on that seesaw of i want to keep going heavier i want to back down from this i think you're right that it's it's near the middle there yeah and it's also a game you can play and while there's a lot of choices and stuff you can make wild choices and you might not win but you'll feel good about what you've done you're like i don't know what but look at all these sheep you know that sort of thing um so cabernet my number three [Music] all right my number two is a great cooperative game where everybody works together to get five planets and that is cosmic encounter this is a great game of working together as a team and trying to get five planets at the exact same time you're a troll you're a troll i love cosby encounter it has a great history and the game has been around since longer than i've been alive and it's a blast to play there are so many crazy powers this is basically the game that like started off asymmetrical starting points in games like this is a game that has lots of history behind it and it's a lot of fun with interesting negotiations and has alternate wing conditions and crazy fantastical things this game is always chaos but it's a blast to play and entertaining every single time i've played it that is cosmic encounter it's been a crossover with other people and i still think there's one more crossover left um and that is why it is my number two cosmic encounter roy would you call it an asymmetrical chaotic experience i would call it an asymmetrical cooperative game is what i would call it balderdash [Laughter] my my number two is going to be the most caveated game on this list right i'm just gonna go ahead and say it and i think i might accidentally cause one of you to rash my number two is a game called through the ages because it's it this is the heaviest game on my list this is it's it's giant it's a civilization game and it really is a civilization game it's not a civilization game distilled down to cards in an hour or a civilization game distilled it's just big and long but this is one of the best app versions of a game that's ever existed i think that everyone should try the game if you want to try it as the physical board game or if you want to try it as the app either way i think that it's an experience worth having it's a game worth playing where you get to see uh so to speak a bit of the human experience right there's a lot about the game that's very thematic despite that it's really just pushing cubes around but building up from a very simple kind of empire into a larger one competing with the other forces in choosing to invest in military to defend yourself or to attack other people or to just build up your your civilization more prestigiously there's so many tough decisions in it and i think that it requires that length for that all to that all investment to feel worth it i think people should try it my first experience it was with the app which after playing several times made me want to try the physical board game and that might not be for you but my number two is through the ages i think it's a solid pick chris yeah that's a good pick all right who did you think i was gonna give a rash to mike i said mombasa and one of you almost fell out of your chairs so oh that's well mombasa is just another euro game that's the problem with mobasa i could have said crown of amara i shouldn't put crown of amara on this list who cares about crown of amara just another euro game uh kind of feels to me i think through the ages stands out from the other year it's you know it's a different thing it's as big it's not about being big or being epic or whatever it's about being again i hate to say important but yeah that's true another word you know and through the ages feels important it feels like you're going to reveal something about yourself by playing it i think playing mombasa doesn't unless you just happen to get to it first before you did 800 other euros does that make sense i guess i could see that i'll mull that over no you won't sounds like you're trying to sell me life [Music] all right my number two is what i'm calling my cooperative experience and that is cosmic encounters pandemic now here's the thing tom's going to make the same argument that he did probably with katan which is that everyone's watching this is the same thing has played uh pandemic or some iteration of pandemic because there have been a number of different versions of pandemic out there and look that may be true i think that's probably more likely that everyone that's watching this has played some kind of pandemic because there's been so many versions rather than katan but if you have not you absolutely need to kind of see where the cooperative game revolution began and i really do feel that's what pandemic was it was a revolution in board gaming it went from no cooperative games to an explosion of cooperative games and it's hard to argue that that core system could be any more elegant than it is it is just a brilliant core mechanism to build a whole family of games around that core mechanic hasn't changed much you know why because it doesn't need to it's nearly perfect so pandemic is a game you really should play at least once and it really doesn't matter which version i mean i i say just go with the granddaddy go with the original but you need to try a panda game if you have not tom put you put legacy on there and i think that's a great pick for a different reason but i i'm just sticking with pandemic so that's my number two this one definitely just missed my list like this was on there and then it slid off but like this was one that i was definitely going to pick pandemic is a great pick mike thank you all right my number two again i'm if if you want more traditional picks you can flip the list over and then you end up at the bottom with dominion and catan and chess okay i'm doing this the other way uh my number two is cryptid it actually got mentioned earlier by tom he just said it off hand my number two is cryptid cryptid is strain it's a it's kind of clue-esque in which you are trying to figure out a specific spot where a monster lives or whatever on a board it's very abstract it's hexes colors and then uh you know denotations of things you know little pieces that are going to let you know that that are referential i think it's a very it engages a different part of the mind than a lot of games do it stands out from its uh uniqueness i think it's also a really interestingly designed game the fact that you can play so many different times and no matter like who you're playing with no matter how you set up the game as long as you set it correctly there's always one correct answer and every other space on the board is wrong like the the math behind that the logistics of putting that together i can't fathom but um i like the the discovery nature of it you know the the narrowing it down the asking somebody it could be here the monster they say yes or no and you're like um that eliminates this possibility my my area shrinks you know it's neat you should give it a go uh even if you don't necessarily like clue or like those kinds of games this one might activate a different part of the brain for you you might enjoy it cryptid my number two is there anyone here other than me that has not played this i haven't played this and i would actually really like to play it there should be a should be a catch-a-palooza this should definitely be a catropalooza list game because i i wanted to play this i want to play it as well it's added to the list all right my number two is the first in the history of the dice tower five-way crossover dominion yeah all right for the same reasons everyone else said except for the utter nonsense that mike spit out about there being 250 000 better versions in this game it is 100 still a great deck builder game um but yes it brought a new genre but again this is one i think a lot of people especially people who just got a hobby the past five years have missed i think and you're playing you play games that use deck building or have deck building in but dominion distills it down to its purest form and works really well still um grab one of the expansions out there stick it in with the base game and you had a really great experience so dominion my number two i'm the winner it was the highest all right my number one game that people should play at least one time um i really like this game i think it is a unique experience and that is blood rage blood rage is a game that uh basically you you're trying to draft stuff and i have no clue what's going on with my computer hold on just a second i'm super distracted okay um you're trying to draft cards and basically set up this entire engine of things that you're going to do on your turn you have like little bitty combos you're trying to think oh i need this kind of cards oh i need to complete these quests and just by the looks of it you might think that this is a game where you're just trouncing and trashing each other the entire time there is some trouncing and trashing but losing can be just as powerful as winning in this game and figuring out how to put all of your pieces in the correct place to score the most victory points or glory in the game um is very important so even if you're off put by the fact that this looks like a very head-to-head combative theme you might really enjoy the combos and and victory point gathering that there is in blood rage i think blood rage is a blast to play and even if it looks like something you might not be into you should try it at least once just because it is that solid of a game and it looks great and is great blood rage my number one yeah that's a good pick roy because a lot of people might have their expectations uh reversed with it so i i like that choice for that i agree i think this is one that where the looks are very deceiving there's a lot of miniature clashing kind of games that look like this one yet this plays nothing like those games probably there's no choking of dice this is a weird area control-ish car drafting game it's it's something else so yeah that's a good one all right my number one uh i've been thinking about what you said earlier z i think that there is there we go you know what i'd like to i to i want to offer a formal apology there we go for what i've said okay first of all okay this is the first thing i'm going to do i own the thing i get off my back about not liking mombasa i like my boss which is fine secondly i apologize to chris for everything i may or may not have said or implied and you should have seen what was happening when the numbers were playing no we're kidding what is it chris go ahead i think you're right i think that there is definitely a a a coat of paint on my list of games that i think people have missed or have misconstrued or uh you know i mean something to that effect where it's valuable i mean it's more valuable than me putting chess on the list who hasn't heard of chess right so it's just a different flavor look yeah and so with that in mind i didn't pick games with like major historical impact or anything because i'm gonna pick a game that i think is pretty overlooked and my number one pick is broom service this is a game that pushing this since you got it roof room service why has he had you have you brought it in chris i've not brought it in i've not brought it but it's not the first time he's brought it up oh okay okay because this is a unique experience this is one of the most interesting action selection drivers i've seen in the game that's almost a bit of trick taking type thing where you follow actions that other players lead out with and sometimes and but you get to choose which four actions out of 10 in the game you'll have therefore sometimes you want to pick things other people will pick sometimes you want to pick things that are unique i think it makes you think about your turns and the other players at the table in a different way than any other game does i i think that this game didn't get enough love it does bring something very interesting and original to the table so i would hope that everyone could play this game at least once so it's my number one broome service you're right that it got overlooked and this is like the third version of this game already um because it came out look if it's got overlooked three times i think we have to accept maybe it's not that great of a game it kind of it got a big award did it so did niagara tush [Laughter] all right um my number one when this list was proposed i don't remember whose idea it was but when this list was proposed this is the game that shot to my mind and so it's my number one this is what i'm calling my big epic experience roy this is twilight imperium 4th edition because that's the one that i've played it's the most recent version it's the one you can get right now twilight imperium to me i feel like typifies this list it's the type of game just by its very nature how big how long how grandiose that you probably aren't going to be playing every week you may only play it one time i've only played it once so far and i will tell you i'm not sure if i'll play it again i had a fantastic experience but just knowing my gaming lifestyle i don't know if i'll get a chance to play it again but boy am i glad that i did i'm really glad that i can now say i get it i get it now i know why this game is so popular i know why it has such an ardent fan base i know what sets it apart from other games in this hobby and so to me my number one choice for this was always going to be twilight imperium 4. it's something you should try at least once so just to clarify here if mike hasn't played a game and then finally plays it it makes this list no that turns right around and judges other people right because one of those guys was like i've never had a a shrimp uh po boy and then he buys into one he's like why aren't you people eating shrimp boys i played twilight imperium before i made this list thank you very much stop judging me mike i love twilight imperium i think twilight imperium is an amazing game and it's a ton of fun for people that are really big into the giant long epic games but i the the everyone part of this equation is not really there i think there's a lot of people that are not going to be able to enjoy this the same way that somebody that wants to sit around and have this huge long story play out and i don't think you should force those people into it i got your back z no but i guess what i'm saying is i do think that there's an underlying assumption i had that this is everyone who might be watching this video right everyone who might be watching this video should probably try it because so including the people in the video should try it i'm in the video i won't try it mike well you should and you know what you should do next z what you should eat a shrimp po boy that's what you need to do you know you know you said that z he doesn't even like shrimp listen he hasn't tried a po boy one time after he tries it i think what we're all going to take away from this list is that twilight imperium is no my mombasa one is again actually this is a big award winner why am i going into this being all apologetic try it because it's weird and different hanabi is my number one you should try hobby again you might hate it again you might think uh this is too outside the box for me i'm not really feeling the sort of topsy-turvy cooperation happening here the communication but it's neat it's a neat game you should give it a go you might discover something you really enjoy might open up other avenues towards other games with this limited communication aspect um it's a game that because it is a small game i think it's the history has done a great job of burying this one it seems to me in just a few years really even though it was not an overlooked game it was a like i said it was a game that was popular it you know it was out there people talked about it people played it and then promptly forgot about it if you haven't heard of it or you you know just doesn't come up in and uh your sort of circle of awareness for new games you want to give a go you should you should try somebody you know has it probably give it a go hanabi number one for me it won the spiel i mean and and it's a fantastic pick a fantastic pig z if i hadn't picked one other game as my cooperative game this absolutely would have been my choice great pick i'm not a as huge a fan of tsunami as as others but i think it actually does make this list because it is a game you should try it's different and unique it's really good i was a little worried about that mostly because my ranking is less meaningful on this one well yeah i'm saying i think your number one is what is yeah now well my number one is actually i felt pretty strongly about it i know that you all mentioned cosmic encounter and people are waiting for me to say that i don't know that cosmic is for everybody but i picked this game instead a descendant from cosmic encounter and that's magic the gathering see now here's the deal again this is something people make fun of all time you don't have to get into it you can play two star decks but i think everybody should try it at least once it's such a big part of the hobby you should know how this collectible card game works there are so many games that come from this there's so many mechanisms from board games that come from magic again the the thing here is once at least once i think you should give it a whirl it's not and you should probably not play not play from a competitive magic player well yeah from them sure learn from them really i mean like play with somebody who plays magic casually and they're not just saying that if that's the case i agree with you tom i think you should be aware of how magic works and how it plays this is kind of in my same group as early when i mentioned dungeons and dragons it's this it's the same thing again my whole point here was to make you a well-rounded gamer i think collectible card games are not for everybody for sure i don't play them much myself these days but i can't tell you how many games in board gaming that i immediately understand because i played magic the gathering and how much did my where i am at a board gamer has been influenced by that and you'll never find a game with a more willing fan base to teach you than that friend of yours who played magic eight years ago and has like five decks lying around it's like please let me play with someone i thought about putting that i learned from that guy exactly he's a terrible teacher i guarantee you that guy's gonna sit down at the table it's gonna be like oh you've never played match again let's try it out yeah you might like it here's a deck just shuffle that up and as soon as he puts that deck down on the table bam go i'm done i'm hitting you for 12. go all right i thought about it i thought about putting this on the list but i wasn't worried about them playing it once i was worried about them playing it two three four five a hundred million times and then leaving board gaming completely and having to put a second mortgage on your house and becoming competitive magic can get a very slippery slope stay away from the magic i play magic casually i play with commons all the time magic is fun um sounds like a recovering magic player what's wrong i totally would have had magic and d on my list too but i stuck to board games because you know board game channel but you know your first second magazine okay so imagine together it is a collectible card game it's a different if it's a different section of the hobby because if you play magic you can't afford to play anything else that is for sure that is not true if you get hooked on magic you can't afford anything really easy to happen i've been there you should try it out like you should be aware of how the game works all right let's gateway to other things i'm just telling you folks that's scary all right so i asked this question on our facebook group of the the top 10 games people should play and they went down the route of like gateway games so okay this is what we got uh we have in 10th place king of tokyo good ninth place quacks of quedlingberg eight seven wonders which was one i considered yeah i could see that seven azul wait i think i might account for that was six oh yeah i said set wait one two three four five six seven eight nine ten was splendor nine king of tokyo eight quacks at quedlingberg seven seven wonders six azul five dominion making it a six-way crossover i mean three carcassonne two pandemic and one ticket to ride okay sure definitely a gateway you should try these if you are not a gamer that's a you know at all or kind of want to get started which is again another way to kind of read the room with this list um all of our lists target something slightly different and i don't hate when we i i kind of like it whenever we interpret things like this slightly differently because then you get a wider range of stuff you know i agree well folks before we end here and this is the end of the spring spectacular let's end the spring spectacular with one last contest this contest is for two 15 gift certificates from gamenerds.com game nerds sponsoring a dice tower great place to buy online games all you do to enter this contest is email us at contest thedicetower.com in the subject line put the word nerds five n e r d z five all together and you'll have a chance to win answer in the body of your email just get tell us a game everybody should play at least once pick one put it in there and you have a chance to win if you're watching this later on this only lasted a week so you have a week to enter this contest thank you everybody i'm going to pick a winner myself and you're going to get a copy of ambassador i'm going to get shrimp po boy i just want to make sure contest at dicetower.com correct not the contest at dicetower.com yes that's correct sorry got it it's all right all right folks that's it for the spring spectacular now here's what we're going to do this is a lot of pre-work to make the spring spectacular and it's a lot of work to actually do it so we will be taking several days off here there'll be a few of our contributors putting reviews up over the weekend i'll be doing a q a on monday morning but we'll pick up again next wednesday with our crowd surfing but for now if you all don't mind we're going to take a little bit of a rest also we got to prepare to move at some point here so there's that um i don't know what else to say anyone else have anything to say before we leave thank you everybody for joining this whole thing it's been uh i've heard a lot of positive from folks that have been watching and um yeah i guess that congrats to you guys who are working from there for putting on an amazing show i've been watching myself from over here and you guys are knocking it out of the park so i once again want to say thanks to jimmy and lindsey for coming down they're super awesome so great to see them down here right quick shout out to all the live chat people thank you so much for your support and for having fun with us live thank you to all the sponsors and i'm gonna doubly thank lindsay because lindsay puts a lot of this together also we have amy running the contest and kenny who you all don't see very much but behind the scenes keeping us all sane and all that thank you all for watching we'll see you next week until then i'm tom vassell i'm roy kennedy i'm chris yee i'm mike delecio and i'm z garcia have fun gaming [Music] you

Channel: The Dice Tower

Views: 113,733

Rating: 4.8502202 out of 5

Keywords: board game, board, game, dice, card game, cards, catan, monopoly, tower, dice tower, vasel, review, tom vasel, vassel, settlers, gaming, GeekUsername: TomVasel, board game review, boardgame, uno, ticket to ride, apples to apples, educational games, educational, top 10

Id: Xn9vDc8jaf0

Length: 104min 53sec (6293 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 25 2021