Top 10 Games That Keep Getting Better

[Music] hey Tom Basso I'm Zhi Garcia hello notice from this angle I look like I'm twice as big as you I guess I don't get to introduce myself hi I'm Sam continuous improvement we don't need you to introduce yourself we got gravis but if you don't come if you don't start watching right away you don't know who anyone is no we should probably say our names every now and then like after the top five let's say like the fifth one baby if you're just tuning in now alright so what are we talking about your boss today we're talking about top 10 games that keep getting better so mm-hmm we were talking about this yesterday differentiating this from top 10 games that got better over time these are games that continuously I'm finding maybe new strategies I'm finding that at each other played I like it a little bit more each time maybe or at least it stays in a high level I feel like I haven't discovered all there is about these games right that there's more and sometimes these games I'm like yeah I think it's good than I played again I'm like what still really liking this yep it's different from our list that we were sort of a little we were looking at our list thinking isn't this kind of like this other list we did talking about what do you call kangaroos that's what I call kangaroos yeah which is a game you did not like and now you like or a game you liked and then you loved right that's the idea correct these are games that have developed sort of evolved and like you said they kind of pull that mind trick on you where you don't play for a while and you remember it as being pretty good bring it back and it surprises you again yeah that's a good word for you know what I mean I think there's a few game out there that managed to do that to me all the time this idea of like I played this to prep I liked it like I really liked it I play it I really liked it six months go by and I remember being alright you know but then you finally play it again like this happened to me on the cruise I played the the augustus game rise of Augustus I remembered have been pretty good played it again I was like that's really good fun goo you know this right this does happen a lot for me with Gateway style games because I won't plan for a while then some new people might call yeah you bet you guys won't like this we play it I'm like this is a great game yeah I'm so glad I'm here playing this even though I knew that and I told him it was a great game halfway through I'm like I wasn't lying it really good surprises you with how good it is against all right that's what we're talking about where it surprises you that you didn't lie the first time yeah I just said you you enhanced I grew as a cell salesperson all right this first is it Sam it is Sam let's do it number 10 no he didn't do nothing don't don't don't let him fool you he'd like hey lion never did not lie he enhanced the truth all right what's your number 10 bold-faced lie number 10 is not alive my number 10 is king of Tokyo and I do not play king of Tokyo a lot but every time I come back to it I am refreshed with how simple it is and yet how fun it is yes and it's just one of those games that is like an evergreen for me and I kind of I kind of think that that's what this list is all about is those games that continue to be evergreens and they just keep getting greener no matter how much you play them whereas some games they can kind of start you know going downhill after a while you get tired of them you get kind of just done king of Tokyo is one of those games that you can always come back to and you can always have fun with it and the dynamic that changes between whether or not you're gonna go for points are you gonna go for just outright mayhem in Tokyo that type of thing changes with the people you play with because you kind of have to adapt to what everybody else is doing it's one of the games that I can change tactics midstream sometimes you have to and nope you never stop getting people and that's how you lose sometimes so that is king of Tokyo minor brain I might lose but at least I my dignity okay I might not my dignity but at least I had my honor I have something you killed at least one other person you trophies it doesn't even always have alright my number 10 is a two-player game that is inspired by some classic games such as I always forget the name of games chess the one crow could not Croghan oh well you roll the dice and move along the thingies backgammon why do I always forget those two words together Bagon not cultured gamet I'm not gammon isn't a word it's back if I got the back part I'd remember the rest Tatsu is this this is one that when I first saw it I wasn't sure what to think of it some of the same makers as hive very good abstract game this is not that this is a lucky game you are rolling dice and it is sort of like backgammon plus you have three types of dragons and those are the pieces well each one has a special power and some of the stronger ones you have fewer of them on the board but they have really cool abilities like not gonna dragon out or just burning one up the fire dragon just burns one out every time I play I am surprised by how fun it is to take turns in this game you're rolling two dice you're either putting dragons into play entering them into the board or moving some around that's simple huh and to the dress you enter the Dragons yes but but those simple sorry butterflies get low and the very you know just roll a couple dice and use those pips it really gives me a fantastic experience every time I've never had a bad game of this every time I play it I teach it to someone I kind of go into it thinking you know I hope they don't feel this is too silly too basic it's always fun so I didn't know you even liked this game this was the one I thought Sam liked oh I know Sam likes code incas what you're thinking they look the same because it's happy and it's saying the same same kind so the people made the blessing flicking dice game my game is yes this is not it's your key anyway my number 10 pick they're really underrated Tatsu happily the internet has said that gammon is a word it's a smoked or cured ham like bacon yeah the back gammon of of a piglet yeah like you knew that yeah of course that's what the game is based on you're supposed to the original game back in I'm never playing in medieval times they would play upon the backs of hogs and with crawled dice and you hope the pig doesn't move it's dead oh you took Danny worse log so I grow some dice peel off the strip that's how you get salmonella especially your dad I'd cooked pig while is cooking you better it's what the doubling cube originally is a temperature would dump and your feet are where please either in the coals please start your number 10 my number 10 hanko is the newest game on my list hasn't been caught yet no I'm just saying most of the days unless can't vert by virtue make this list because for this to happen you must have owned it for a while later for but this one I got in September of last year or so but I played it probably 20 times since angry no vindication that's a lot for me man indication he loves that game yeah I was funny because I saw my Dysart West I said I went there and I played all these old games I was like a point of indication too but I played it I was enough now that I'm treating it as a game but I for a while yeah it's just every time I play vindication I try a different strategy I'm like ah this time I'm gonna do this this time I'm gonna do and I'm enjoying it I just every time I go I like doing that that was fun this time I played with another one of the many modules in the box it's like that was another fun module to play with I just again it's this is number 10 on my list for a reason because it's the newest right so it has the least of this still finding stuff in it but I still that I had to play that game you keep dude you definitely bring it and I know you're playing it and didn't like it so much right like that there's gotta be some sort of in-between sound like great game just vomit like an in-between moment where you can be like for this is not in between yeah there's there's there's a moment where you like [Music] 1 to 10 this gets a salvage the spew 2.7 all right vindication by number 10 watch my number 9 my number loves scary deception murder in Hong Kong specifically and I didn't have I didn't give Roy this graphic but specifically the undercover a lies with the expansion undercover I was because it is just that great with the expansion it gives you I think 4 maybe 5 new roles that you can add into the game you can have a no it's just so much fun and the dynamic of the game again like king of Tokyo changes every single time but it's still really fun every single time you play it it's probably my favorite social deduction game maybe I think so well do a top 10 Sochi deduction games at some point we'll find that then but it is it is just great fun I love the the the different teams and now they have to work together I with the with the undercover allies it actually brings into this idea where the forensic scientist can actually switch teams what yeah this forensic scientists can actually pull off yes and you're trying to help the murderer an accomplice get away and could you possibly win them like a I'm gonna grab that person I don't remember exactly because I haven't read the rules and in a while but yes there is a point there's a card where you flip but it's one of the event tiles where you flip them over and if it's a clue tile then you have to put a clue out there but it might be an event tile and if it's an event tile it says something to the effect of you are now working for the murder accomplice and now your people know that you're doing no I would be weird yeah but how do you know then I mean that's a good guys win at that point I'd be at that point all they need to figure out is if that person turned yeah yeah I mean if you start giving you know if you started giving weird clues people are gonna think you know every time you turn on event table and I can he changed well yeah that's that's the whole that's the whole dynamic that it introduces into the game but it's really fun it's really fun so every time I play this game I'm just reminded about how much I like it and this is one of the games where I actively look for as many people who can play the game as possible because it just it's so much better with a great number of people if you have just the bare minimums it's not as fun because you want more of those different roles that are in the game so that's my number 9 deception deception murder in Hong Kong specifically with undercover alleys all right all right all righty my number 9 is paper tails is that what it is yes it is all right you're pulling one of mine now one of yours that I don't know what it is I'm just making sure I did not organize the list but it's all on here all right so I know when I paper tails the expansion certainly helped to exam some expansions will do that for games but it's a game that this is not like Tatsu in that when I teach this it's about a 50/50 split that the people playing and learning it for the first time will walk away from the table underwhelmed because the game is extremely short it's for four rounds and it to many people those four rounds don't feel like enough development they start to kind of get it out by the third and then by the fourth round they're like okay so the game is over that didn't feel like enough time that that goes away with knowledge of the cards and more play but even so I'm still finding fun combos in the game I definitely have my preferred ones but if they don't come up in what you draft you have to adapt and you can find some really neat stuff in that adaptation you know you can really pull off some Sonique concepts that allow you to keep cards in play for longer than a couple of rounds which normally is not the case you can find ways to utilize things that are normally negatives like the aging tokens and make them into positive things that give you more combat more points I like that I like a mechanism that seems like a negative thing yet there are cards powers whatever that turn that on its head make it a thing you should pursue I really enjoy that and this game continues to impress me the expansion is great and it has a solitaire mode in there that is fantastic but even just the base game continues to impress me so my number 9 pick the fantastic card drafting games paper tools my number 9 you would not guess I don't think so let me help you out again clues no way you wouldn't guess this it is a 5 ladder game there's only 5 letters to the letters do not appear next to each other and any other word in English language because the author of this game just randomly puts letters together and names his games after that it is you know those up here next to each other it is divine it is Devon that was pretty strong clue Devon nowadays is a weird one because I distinctly remember when I first saw this it won Game of the Year from games magazine and I was incensed at the time I was like game of a year by the way still wasn't game of the year but every time I play this i find more depth and interest in this game than say chess I know that that's an ass mother the chess fanatics watching the theme of a anything but Devon is such a really deep game with some really it's simple because you can only have it you can only move piece on the outside of the board and you can only move them the exact distance of the stack of that piece but deceptive because the board changes so dynamically I move a piece here suddenly I'm threatening this I move a piece here suddenly you can move a piece away and five pieces on the board died at that point in time that's really only think the ultimate twist to this game is those three red pieces right that if you are have a piece on the board I mean at any point become detached from a red piece somehow they're dead right wiped off the board that's it that's the lifeblood of the game right and you're right it is it's a brain melter in many ways but it's like the simplest brain melter to play I've ever seen this one is getting close to passing Inge for me really inches more it's five in a row I do love you a lot though my only reason I don't like to von Maur the set up is long well you can't play random setup yeah you can just Blake put the pieces out put the red pieces in the three center spots or you know three central spots and you can play sure it might favor one side slightly more than the other but I think it makes the game what it's faster it's when it's was thinking right off the bat yes but man this game just consistently shines for me Devon I'm surprised by this one the only abstract per se on my list the only game shipped as an abstract pretty sure in two ends are in more than just one word in English I meant DV move on move on [Music] now this game that I'm about to save hang on isn't a shoehorn Oh somebody's like a lot now it is lower on this list than it would be on normal top-ten lists a lot lower adventure guests usually around the first or second their mind it's just what he means is this is on a lot of his lists no it's my favorite game of all time blood rage that's my number eight the reason it was my on my list is because each time I go into this game I'm expecting to enjoy it I know it's evergreen and it is always going to be evergreen for me so the level of how did you say surprise is lower which is which is what how I kind of ordered my my list okay the number 10 was you know the the least amount of of surprise sure I can see that yeah right so that's why it's number eight but I am still amazed because we I played this I think three times at diced our West and even in those three games the most recent ones that I played I still saw combinations that I hadn't seen before yes absolutely statistically impossible no seriously it I I think I saw one combination I don't even remember what it was but I saw a combination that I did not I had not seen before and I liked that about this game there are just so many different things and the drafting is so important the different combinations that come out some of them are just like wow hadn't seen that before other ones like oh he has that I need to make sure that he's not able to pull off whatever he or she is trying to do I just really enjoyed this game I don't care I just really enjoyed this game because I don't care if I'm teaching it I don't care if somebody else is teaching it I don't care if we use all of the expansions I don't care if we use none of the expansions every single time I play this game I'll love it and that's my number eight so what's your new number one what's your number eight game of all time now before we get to the eight yes adventure Advent advance advantage advocate I'll have DV next to each other so you were wrong that's what you're saying well you didn't think of them I didn't care I was thinking about the joke I made about I guessed I guessed the game so I'm happy about that all right my number eight pick is the newest version of Arkham Horror argument or third edition but they're just calling our Gomorrah Wow I thought you were gonna say I can part of the card game no no Arkham Horror third edition here is I wasn't sure what to expect before it came out I did not I've never played first edition I did not really like second edition very much it's a game that feels extremely bloated does not feel very thematically driven all those things the third edition uses this codex system to tell a much better story a much more cohesive story and even though there are only four stories in the core set that kind of long story I think I'm still a long game the combination of events you encounter around the city and baddies and the order they come up branching storylines in that scenario itself it all makes for really interesting diverse playthroughs and I'm still surprised every time I play with just how it gaped I engaged I am in the game it's a game that is longer than most games I like it's more involved maybe maybe not yeah this one's fairly simple but it's sort of outside of my usual realm of play but I've had a blast with it I've taught it I played it solitaire I just keep enjoying it I think with Viking for me Cthulhu is for you I think you're I don't I don't know I just don't I was underwhelmed severely by this game severely just felt like I was being played more than me playing the game I think for me it's not necessarily Cthulhu were just like beasties and monsters and stuff definitely doesn't hurt yeah yeah no I mean I'm agreeing with you but I don't think it's as narrow y'see hangs out with us though as you guys are animals I think we're ugly but the animals thing is a nicer way to put it yeah well that's what I meant too I still think it's weird that you were underwhelmed by second edition and third edition I feel like this I was not I was underwhelmed by a third edition not I'm saying yeah yeah yeah anyway my pic Arkham or third edition do like it I'm waiting for expansions bring it on you think they're coming out with expansions Tom I wonder [Laughter] would you like to take bets on whether they'll be expensive it's already hundreds of Wanek yeah anyway our Gamora third edition mine number eight pick what you got my number eight is an older game also I think it came out a decade ago from a company that's called with all this talent laying around let's put out a game why don't we put out a gamer so why don't I put anything like that but yes there's a drag does the game say door is the game's title two words and do they rhyme yes mud hut no it's jet-set I can't even think of two words that rockin some mud hut Jet Set this is a economic Ticket to Ride is the best way to describe it you're connecting different routes through Europe that you will connect them with your planes but you have to pull the planes off you can pay for the planes then you get income from connecting these routes and you got to try to set yourself up there's two big expansions for it I think the first is slightly better than a second they each add like five modules but there's so much every time I go back and play it I'm like oh I'm gonna try this this time I'm gonna try this sneaky move it just feels like there's a lot more strategy in the game every time I play it I really like it and I feel like I'm the only person playing it sometimes sure I I've played it I used to own it it's uh it's not much of a looker on the table I agree and the economy is actually really tight very tight it's hotter than it looks it's tight but it doesn't bother me much because it's tight for everybody and hard time getting money well so are you so I can go around a couple turns and get the money I need I just mean I'm usually teaching new games to new I'm sorry I'm usually teaching games to new people right this is God it's deeper than that you know I'm talking twice at dice our West I just I played it once and I was like happier and I in a nest of pros there the nest of pros yeah I'm usually teaching like you know people who like uno and cool garbage cool story bro let's go out at number seven [Music] my number seven I actually just to put up a review of the anniversary edition of it today is one o'clock this could be don't age anniversary and this is don't free sources what's up don't forget to buy the disadvantage of resource wrong oh yeah I know right I was just replying to somebody with that before we serve what somebody somebody posted who they forgot to mention the cons of the game that you have to roll for resources what would that be anyone's argument that's like that's like you saying the kind of a war game is the war part yeah exactly I don't like I just this game every time it hits the table I'm reminded about how much I enjoy it and it doesn't necessarily make me want to play it immediately again but the next time it comes up I'm thinking about how much I enjoyed the last time I played it it's a very familiar game it was one of my fans still is one of my family's favorite games to play and I think it's just because it became familiar to us everybody just enjoyed it and we continue to enjoy it we started to see you know at the first I can understand what people think about this whole rolling for resources or garbage somebody there's so many ways to get around not doing well at the rolling well there's like two ways but yes well there's a lot of ways you can mitigate it with the tool with the tools you can send more people yes you can send people down to the cards and you can send people down to the cards so if you don't have as many resources as everybody else because you're rolling badly you can use those resources for the cheaper cards and still do well I will say there are two and a half there are three at least and that's just from my making little brain juices so my number seven is Stone Age because it just continues to get better yes oh we played this recently and I still enjoy the game I think it's very fun but I don't know that it's gone up for me or down it's about the same as it was I don't know for me a little bit but I'll give it a score really yeah yeah I remember to you really dislike or I think ah and it went up to like a five point five or six after this play we had well that's so nice of you to say we helped make the game whether you know it was probably the ways to score points I liked that it's honestly been a really long time since I've played it before this play but no I was a little bit better it just doesn't games really simple for you it kind of became comfort-food kinda you know what I mean like you said and if you just if you already don't have that attachment there it's hard to cultivate that attachment I knew but you know it's alright anyway my number seven pick right yes yes my number seven pick is Austrailia with a big old Z in there in the middle Australia is this basically newest game I would guess there's one the slightly newer you're picking new games this world is topsy-turvy it's fairly how were my hat Australia is dark it's basically a railroad like tick HST me kind of map with Cthulhu stuff in it and you are trying to build farms connect routes to resources you can mind them out all while avoiding monsters showing up and destroying your stuff that's basically it and everybody should kind of kill the monsters but it's not cooperative if you kill if you deal the killing blow you do score it you try to get more points the baddies do score themselves at the end of the game so it's possible everyone loses it's more likely with fewer players and with more I haven't really seen it happen with you know three or four and I enjoy it it's it's a worker placement on it said it's an action selection rather it's an extra selection game does it look fantastic doesn't have a theme I necessarily like like 50% of that theme let's say I don't like but it's clean I don't know what you only like the Cthulhu part yeah the other things like come on building railroad track in Australia you've got come on man you are definitely opposed to train billing I don't like train games that's a really narrow thing that's like a real specific thing so let's go through he's a puffin chili yeah man perfect well pop abilities of people that enjoy a lot of chain games or they like chili because you cool on it just right yeah yeah that's right yeah is that a new thing we'll have like a an area Gillian bench where people just come there hey chill ease if anybody walks by with a train game you're like oh go buy stock somewhere I was gonna play a stupid train game anyway Australia is my number seven I dig my number seven is a slightly new game it's been out for a year and a half now this is one at Z that's just because he's not good at math this is fairly valid this is pulsar 2849 I love this game and every time I played I want to play it more yeah pretty good at math actually I just don't want to do it while I'm supposed to be playing a game a diver he's funny if I gotta think it's funny because I was really excited for this game kind of to come out back when they were billing it as just a sci-fi game yeah but when they were both same I saw and I was like oh my mother saw a fire game who cares impress me I was really excited about it and then he came out and they gave it an E pulsar 2849 I was like oh that's a cool name and he was he was just like just not not very interested because it didn't have a name yet I was wanna do I remember things that's probably a problematic thing when a game already gets announced and they haven't even titled it like hey listen it's a space it's space is super thematic get back this will tell you what that females yeah right yeah but I like all the different options as game I like to die I'm definitely a sucker for dice drafting the draft dice sure about that and I love the sandbox II games and this is very sandbox a year oh there's a ton of things to do so many you can't do the math it dries sandboxes Sam thought it was slightly better than you thought you know I like I like it I actually do enjoy it it just wasn't what you were expecting yeah Wow 2849 pulsar you wanna cry is my number I don't know whatever we're on today at 7-7 yep number seven but there was no seven in the name of the game which would have made sense more I'm sure you can add some but if you add all together divided by the same z23 altogether you get seven yes correct number six all right start about some good games now saying alright I gotta see come on baby rescue up six this game continues to get good for me because almost like it comes out with every every new war band that comes out for this game it's like the game gets better because there's another way to play the game that is pretty much different for them all the other ways that you can play the game and that is Warhammer underworld shade spire slash 9-volt oh oh now they're the same they weren't the same way when you're doing best of the year I said shade spider slash night bolt so Warhammer underworlds every single time I play this game it elevates itself from the last time I played it I try to not play the same faction back-to-back okay because I like that's part of the the coolness about the game is the I guess you guys the the diversity and play style that each new war band brings to it now some of them are similar you know the the Oryx play in a similar fashion to the oh goodness the nerd dorks no not the door the orcs or to the doors - smash up deck no dork but the storm casters sorry they they play very similar to each other because they're both tank ish type of war bands but then you have the the skeletons that play completely differently the Skaven that play completely differently than than any of the other ones and that's part of the draw for the game for me and that's why it continues to get better because you have two different factions going at each other almost every time you play the game and it's like a brand new game except you already know how to play you don't have to learn how to play again I just really enjoy this game it is it is a great 2 player game I have played at 4 player and enjoyed it but I've enjoyed it much much much much much more with just a two-player game and I think that's really where it sings I think what happened here is he married her okay the shade spires part one night vault he killed her she's coming back to get him from the grave and this is her dad underneath who's also helping her know that's him he's just aged yeah there's the same armor isn't it you're right you're right and so what's happening here if she's coming after him and he doesn't remember her she's like you remember our marriage he's like who and then she gets even matter because this is wife number four [Music] came back to us I kept talking here you click it over there when I get home oh my goodness my eggs I forgot what it was all right my number six is key Forge call of the archons maybe our John's but probably our cards anyway key Forge by its very nature is the kind of game that continues to evolve it's gonna continue to show you new cars to have an expansion coming out now there's gonna be a bunch more stuff there and I've really enjoyed it every time I play the little combinations the ability to pull off little things compounds for me into an experience that I'm really enjoyed yeah you can sometimes have a blowout victory I've seen it happen with decks that seem to just be beasts and I'm not tackling how haven't won yet I'm not you know I haven't tackled how I won one game of keyboards I'm sorry that's okay no serious no how many times have you played the tenor that's all right then oh boy a hundred times you haven't won once I would say squid gaming you know what I mean but right now I wouldn't worry about it it's all right I'll play with you and let you Wayne about that I don't need your charity or maybe I won't let you win I'll crush you this guy here oh no no okay no not a my number two you saved that garbage for Sam's pigs he's the child would be the Wyatt anyway keyboards it's good it's kind of like a CCG but not you know what it is why am I talking about it it's good I like it moving on yeah my number six is a game that I enjoy every time that the expansion certainly didn't hurt things but the base game I feel like this has a lot more legs than the game it's often compared to and that's role player the game it's compared to obviously segrada I found that Sakurada has kind of paled a bit for me as time goes by I feel like I'm playing the same game every time with role player just like with a real player is this guy here oh yeah take my story he's going out to vanquish some beasties but this dude even though he's supposed to be helping him look at his eyes right he's looking at it like I'm throwing shade upon you I shall betray you as soon as we enter the dungeon but then over here you think that'd be the traitor no that's his mom backing him up that's his lunch that's his bag to lunch yes she's actually just taking him to school for the first day but taking you to school when this is over so anyhow I really like the theming of this I like the different I love that every time you put a die in place it affects like six different things it just every time I play this I find it more enjoyable like different cards come out in a row and the expansion adds the variety a ton because you're not sure which cards are gonna be in any game and gives you more options I will say if that thing I was talking about games that somehow managed to put that spell on you and make you forget how much you enjoyed them role player might be my number one I don't care for this theme unless I'm playing it like the game I mean this game I'm like oh roll up a character in D&D or whatever I don't really like role-playing it looks like a mess you know I'm like this is the kind of game that while I'm playing I'm like this is awesome I'm having a great time if I haven't played it in two months I'm like yeah it's alright I still have a copy think I might let it go and then I play again like am I crazy it's awesome that's an interesting games that we forgot how good they are this one manages to pull that trick on me all the time man it's so good yeah that's a great pick yay by the way 28 and 49 if you add them together it gives you 77 someone said it online why does that matter because it was my number 7 I said you can get 7 from it somehow see that person enjoys pulsar I bet okay my number we need to have somebody come by and check the water in this house I think I'm just saying I'm the only one drinking the water - I think but this is straight water no ingredients carbonated water that's it what's the second ingredient natural flavours natural hue [Laughter] alright my number five my number five is is also on my on my top ten of all time I believe and that is my more forty-four memoir 44 every single time I play this game it simply continues up the way there is so many different reasons for it a lot of people poopoo the game because of first of all card draw rolling dice is too random card draws or are too random because this is that net I contest that an experienced memoir 44 player will always be in an inexperienced one always is pretty strong I'm still pretty I'm still pretty solid on it well then I would say more because Rainer is a good player I was a rare say he is better than I am he's better game I destroy his army he's a better gamer than I am even though he is in his experience in memoir he made good choices you know whoop to me one time I think you should just leave now because he just said you were a better gamer than he is I don't think we can go up from that point I that's pretty awesome he didn't say about me I well you see speechless sorry but we still have a few more to get through then you may open leave I understand this in a bit I understand that the card draws and the and the dice rolls are definitely there that those are random elements I get it and I've been stuck where I didn't have the right card for the right field of battle but so I had to change my strategy and start working on the other on the other fields and start trying to gain points that way you have to abandon but with all of the different scenarios that are available with all of the different expansions I I am hoping sometimes beyond hope that the the fact that they have revamped the air pack and now that they've they're putting that out that other things are coming down the road I hope I hope I'll have more 40 maybe even a big one you just flip the board maybe it's a quick demonstration just reprint some of the stuff that's already available some of the stuff that's like way out of print way you can't get it anymore reprinting some of that stuff that would be great I'm really hoping but who knows but my number 5 min more 44 always always gonna be an evergreen for me all right my number 5 is the sequel to the beloved Azul this is stained glass of sintra and again this is a fairly new game yes but the more I play - the more I've enjoyed it it continues to move up for me it's it uses the core system of the original Azul yep and keeps surprising me with tactical choices that are interesting yes in the original one I felt like I had sort of plumbed those depths say for plays in okay and that doesn't mean that it's good that it's not good I'm still enjoying the choices but I can now spot pretty much all the time right way and anybody can once you've played a few times like I should take that set or I should not because you're gonna be stuck with it or whatever right Sintra has a lot more going on with it and it all comes down to the timing of turns makes the entire structure more loosey-goosey it's not so rigorous I like being able to pass even when you were not expecting me to pass because I have play range but I'm gonna pass anyway because I'm gonna stick somebody with something they don't want or I want to see what develops first or whatever even that which is a minor thing is going to add a lot of that surprise element that replayability that fun to it you know which windows you finish first and then continue to score if you if you play them you know deeper into your arrangement I like that a lot I think this one overall is just a stronger design no I think it might not have you know we might not love it as much maybe if we didn't have the first one already in play but I'm really captivated by it I'm like I said it just keeps getting better for me I'm fascinated by how many new games you have on this list right you're the king of the old games I love old man but sometimes you got to throw a little love on new - like the song says you gotta throw a little love on new century is definitely my favorite of the two it's not natural flavors that's the Cthulhu Drake did you get that as unnatural flavors all right for five it's from a few years ago a fairly simple game and yet I think the maps help out the different maps but in the expansions but even the base game I just keep them back and enjoying it and that's Clank I just keep loving how Clank feels it gets every time I play it it's more fun to me now I know you like Clank and space better and you really should play clinic at space apocalypse at some point you'd really like that but Clank just and I could have thrown Clank in space in here too you know they're both very two sides of the coin I'm just less colter than Earth and Z I love I love new games my favorite games are the ones that are not released yet actually I like the new a little better than the old one to see this Mary but Clank just a really fun game I every time I come into it I have a great time I remember just how much fun it is it it seems really fun anyway Clank 5 and my song does not exist yet I'm working out it's a lot of cranking it up I didn't know the room came with handles until you till yesterday go don't do it don't break it baby number four Quatro yow number four is a game that I actually got myself into a conversation about on Facebook a couple days ago okay I think we did it with a lot of games no no no I usually don't foray into the Facebook group very very often are you scared no because it blows up my phone with responses and all that other kind of stuff there's one of those phones I touch I come back and claw marks okay lots Sam champions of Midgard is my number four and every time I play this game it really sings and it just continues to sing and I just really enjoy it and it it's there the conversation we were having about champions of Midgard and I'm not gonna go too far into this but it does kind of play into this because I really enjoy the game because of the expansions now and it's not saying that the base game by itself is not good it's a great game in the core box it is a good game in the core box no it is a great game in the core box it is a greater game with the expansions it is a greatest game that's not true I like five other games better with the expansions yes I think we can agree on that right but people were saying in the company was a bad without that it was bad without it and that's what they get from if we say for example Tom and I say that this is an essential expansion oh it's that threat that's right winning that thread than I thought I will regret it yeah well I don't know if we say something is an essential expansion that therefore again means you must buy it now they're saying if you say a game if you say an expansion is essential you are by nature saying the game is bad without it yes which is what he was going to say I believe before equal and I agree before he said that he was gonna say something else I don't know what I was gonna say monster was probably say it but what we're saying is that if it's an essential expansion if you enjoy the game you will enjoy the game more with the expansion there it is there it is that's what you mean by essential to you now overall I say seneschal I mean seriously I'm not without joking because we've been doing a lot of that I mean I won't play the game without it again does not mean that's fine fair no but it means I think the game is but what is so much better with it if they don't have the expansion then I flat out refuse to play it Wow you do but it doesn't make the game bad test much how's that elitist snuffing your nose at someone who wishes to buy the space guy my nose then you said you want to play this as they did the expansion they say I say well I love to I don't have time so you live people eyes to you know guard will continue to grow I really enjoy the dark mountains expansion is that one's growing on me I really like it or leave it with me but the vowel expansion is really what really helps the game sing for me so that is champion submitter guard it continues to get better number four alrighty my number watch Row is five tribes gotcha pan your number five you keep my god it was and I moved it because I don't want to be that don't want to be that guy that guy besides there are six tribes now anyway so it's it was my number since original the expansion adds a 6-1 hours I'm gonna say what yeah that's true you can only play the game with four though and it was like anyway five tribes any more than its five tribes originally as a central expansions though out there some essential expansions that I would recommend and if walling without them the game is bad suddenly boy I just play with them and everything is fine I really enjoy five tribes play of both of them no I don't I'd never have actually you play pick one or the other pick one or the other or the base game I probably play the base game more than anything else cuz I'm usually teaching it I haven't played the newest one I really liked then it was Ray the genie one was fun they do I would say these are not essential actually an essential one to me almost implies you put it in there every time these I would add in after someone's familiar with the game you know what I mean so I play a base game a lot I really enjoyed and again every time I play I am captivated by the game turn after turn I am very engaged in what's going on conversation gets gets fun there's all you know teaching this game is fun which is a rarity for me not that I dislike teaching games but it's rarely I'm rarely am i excited to teach it's normal like all right let's do the teaching so we can play but I like teaching this game I actually enjoy it really I love teaching yeah you know that's that's pretty rare for me I just I'm fascinated by the last time I played that I remember no no I played a diced our West and at the retreat and both plays were really enjoyable everybody was fun at the table that's a big part of it but the game is just captivating and I love seeing people make clever moves I love being able to spot something great when I didn't expect it the game surprises me all the time that's what I like about it so five tribes my number four pick I'm captivated by that game too but in a bed like it holds you captive my brain locks up right like it heralds your brain in jail it does and throws away the key it does and then it pees in your food plate instead of giving you soup us debarked yeah what my number four away the key they stopped drinking my number four was good for you almost a tie between two games I just picked one of them the other one number three we were talking about essential expansions I would say every expansion for this game is not even remotely essential in fact if I never play with the expansions again I would be okay because I think this designer is great at games but not necessarily expansions what's the game graceful in Caly it is race for the galaxy what means II know how to give each other clues don't put us together in times up burning you up role for the galaxy here too okay because both of those I'm like I play tres and I'll be like a whole race that's the game and I go back and play role Michael role was the game and then I go back to play race when I go oh and that race yeah the board game is also good that new frontiers but that one hasn't go so I'm just putting up race for now both of these games have really held up well for me over the years every time I go back and play race I find some new kind of cool combo I like watching my opponent and what they're doing role is the exact same way but again seriously if I never play with the expansions for either of those games I'm perfectly fine right Wow yeah I'm perfectly fine so race for the galaxy my number four it's time for number three [Music] my number three I recently played a diced our West with Erato I think we're keeping up the taste our West mentions in this game hopefully it's not a drinking game for anyone out there they'd be drunk right now yeah you see one two three four four of my ten we're played at dice tower was my number three five attacks anyway yeah my number three is village attacks this is put out by Grimm Lord games I believe is the name of their company Toofer and it is a game that I normally wouldn't actually in this is a Z theme yeah it's it's a dark theme you're actually playing bad people you are taking control over you know a necromancer or bad people attacking your stronghold I will edit them yes excuse me I'm sorry interrupting are attacking your stronghold and you're trying to keep them at bay through a number of different devices outright attacking them setting traps for them to run into that push them out of the room or squash them or whatever it might be but there's a number of different ways you can keep them at bay but that's the whole point they're trying to destroy the heart of the castle and you're trying to keep them from getting there and it's it's very has a very similar feel to like a tower defense game I mean that's really what it is because they're going to follow certain paths and so forth and so on but every time I play the game I just enjoy a little bit more I like the the the different powers that each of the different bad guys can have and I like upgrading your person leveling them up and that type of thing cool it is yeah yeah I mean it's it's everybody's trying to defend from the nobody takes on the role of the buddy live villagers they are automated and you're all bad pushing up the correct humans the film very much so so I was just pleasantly reminded of how much ice game recently and and that's why it made my my list so uh village attacks my number three mmm alrighty my number three is the Manhattan Project energy Empire Wow give us a clue just went out and said it sorry uh you can guess it's a game about energy project no magic two minutes midnight no dice and you rolled dice to generate your energy you're kind of building up an empire nothing gosh some dance anyway bad project energy Empire now you go on go ahead there we go this one this one is a euro game I like the theme it's certainly outside most of the Euro games you know medieval times or Middle Ages or early man whatever those sort of typical euro game themes I like that this is different from that but so was the first Manhattan Project and that's not on the list with this one the reason this one's on the list for me is some of those mechanisms just continue to surprise me how they managed to bring so much to the table with a lot of simplicity and that's what I really enjoy rolling dice for resource production for making energy is what they are I love that you managing your environment and the pollution and drilling you know oil drilling and this and that on a board with a couple of tokens that's the job done grabbing cards by sending out a worker to out there and then the cards very simple they get the job done even the evolution of the passage of time those event cards I really like the way that works and again it gets a lot done it really puts me in that world with not a whole lot of moving parts at least in my opinion a lot of moving parts I got to play this again let's say five months ago or so loved it I'm just it really you know this game is one of those that again I forget how good it is till I play it boom I'm like men yes I look it up it's rated a nine out of ten I'm like yep nine out of ten I really really like this game so man that project energy Empire just a fascinating fun work replacement game with some fun dice rolling in the middle of it too you know so that's my number three my number three is a heavy euro game that just that an expansion come out but I don't I like it with or without the expansion just every time I play this I find more and more things to do mostly because there's 60 different things you could do every turn anyway that is feast for Odin there's just so much in this game every time I play it I'm like how can I build my Tetris shape what strategy why follow in this game so many choices and they're all fun I really like the game a lot sometimes I'll modify my choices based on what the other people are doing but usually I don't have to worry about it because they're probably doing something different than me there's just that many different things to do okay I like building that little board filling it up it's extremely satisfying every time and it's not just put shapes in it's working hard to get the different things to fill it up I'll bet fantastic game feast Rodan I should mention here before we go any farther that as I'm picking these on the list I'm not necessarily picking them how much I like the game I'm picky like how much every time I played it just surprise me at my continual enjoyment and it gets better form okay okay because my well then I think Sam has to be the same way since you've already done your number one game yeah yeah for me that's kind of bid - yeah [Music] my number two also got played at dice our West and I think dice Tyrell West was the floor time I've played the game maybe just a third but each play has been in almost an exponential liking of the game exponential Western legends really yes Western legends is and you know the last time I played the game a diced our West it was a real take that fest it really felt like that that's why and that's and so if you're gonna food just puts the same games as they thirty time yeah sure fine whatever but it fits because every it is so much better than the last time I played the game for example the first time I play the game I felt like I was being told what to do by somebody that was sitting at the table stop doing that it wasn't you it wasn't him but stop doing that well second time I played the game was with the expansion a knee up and now that yeah so I have played it three times and then add I start west we just played a regular game of it and it just the Western theme so envelops every single time but on this game everything every single time we play this game in and that's one of the great things about it it's one it's probably my favorite western themed gaming there's why we're not doing the top 10 Western games anytime soon because it'd be like number one we're not just Western Legends yeah you know looking for the number two my number one that's why I didn't pick you because I wasn't sure but it would probably still be on your list five tracks the cowboy Barry I'm weird in the world where that would be was correct so you miss Western and it depends where you're standing that's true so that's my number think about it man Western geometry Sun no geography that one that one that one yes that one it was a joke hit it I know the difference I mostly my number two is quite quite the cultured game it's called seize the day son carpe diem carpe diem is my number two pick yes it's very new shut up Tom I like it it's ugly but it's good every time I play I feel like apologize that you pointed out I really do I think I do actually every time I pull this game out I'm like I know I know some very attractive let me teach you though this is one I enjoy teaching also this is the only other game from the list here that I did play it at that's our West the other one being five tribes which I mentioned I've been teaching this a lot actually lately and I've I'm just keep getting surprised by how you know what it is I think it's how easy it is to get into which I don't always expect from a Stefan Feld game I get that from Bruges from him and then I get that from some of his lighter stuff right and by that I mean that it's not that tactically interesting you know the lighter stuff mm-hmm this is does give you lots of think about I'm saying this is one of your favorite games from him it really is I think this is my number two well I like that it's an again I would it's just so ugly Oh anyway I like that it is a simple game to get into but there's a lot there to be mined there's a lot of tactics in this game this resource management there's city building but the scoring is extremely clever this idea of putting your token between two cards to score both and that spot you went on is blocked for the rest of the game that exact combination will not be scored again and you try to manage yourself on a track that lets you pick first on that scoring that's also very important there's so much gears within gears without becoming Trajan which where it's like he pulls back the curtain it's like look all the gears you can see the engine you can see it all working together and it's ugly and this one it's that's mask I expect that a little bit from a game that is just gears within years it's kind of your job as a designer to hide that from me otherwise I feel like I'm just turning a gear you know you got to give me something to mask it this one I think does that so that's what I like about it and it continues to grow on me carpe diem my number two my number two you know most of the time when a game comes out with a bunch of expansions that game bloats yes it really does that mean especially collectible card games they tend to blow aside goes by this is a game I don't actively play but I'm every time I do play it over the years I played multiple times over each year for whatever reason I find myself enjoying it just as much as the very first time and that's majid to gathering I got it I'm I know I'm not getting back into it I might actually we were talked about this yesterday because the new the new magic set has a planeswalker in every pack that's really tempting but the thing is is magic has all these mechanisms and stuff but it's so easy to jump in till you grab two decks the mechanisms are almost always explained right on the card sure if you already know the game you mean yes sure but the game itself isn't that hard to explain it sure I'm not talking about a picture in your collection no it's not I got rid of most of my cards I get when you get into the meta game there's that whole thing I don't even touch that game all right so I'm not talking about that I'm talking on the casual level every time I play magic I appreciate what an amazing design it really is and you know cuz there's games we go back to like monopoly I'm like all right let's try monopoly maybe we were too harsh on it no we weren't harsh enough okay not way needs to be beaten down with a stick sorry that's a spiked club but stick awfully anyway but magic is a game that I just every time I play time in I'm impressed with the game and I still enjoy it I stay usually arm's length away from it because of the money involved yeah even I thought it was a money sink and I was just buying the starter decks sure I'm not even addicted by the packs opening the packs that new transformers thing but liking that you you're into that wow I haven't played it you have based on something awesome Backson looking at the color you are well the newest set you can borrow it has all the combining robots and you get part of the robot and you got to get all the parts and what's it like I need to be a crackhead okay by magic man even wiping all those decks was just a started decks with the differences fun so I still like it a lot though and I'm gonna play these new planeswalker sounds cool yeah I'm gonna play it to [Music] [Music] was at the last time I played this was at the retreat one of the dice to our retreats and honestly before then I had nearly not completely but I had nearly written it off as probably not gonna be able to get this back to the table again Twilight Imperium full no Twilight Imperium 3 has an Irish theme to it while I British inish the sec erect finnish man the the level of enjoyment that I got from this game was amazingly high and the reason that it was is because we were all there we all except for one of the players I think all they're able to win the game and we were all being taking the impostor tokens and saying that we were going to win on the next game if you don't stop and it was just really tense because we really had to put a lot of thought into what cards are we drafting how are we gonna use those cards to make sure that these other people get stopped but I still need to you know make sure that that my claim to the throne is valid and it's just it was such a good game so much tension but it was so fun and my level of enjoyment just shot through the roof on this game and it when we started thinking about this this list I knew that was gonna be on the list that was one of the one of the first ones that I that I picked and so I just really think that it's a it's a great game it's it's it's not a it's not a normal kind of game and that you know you just you have this goal that you're reaching forward you have to tell people that you have accomplished that's the wish condition it's like saying check you guys I'm gonna win next there were like oh no yeah yeah exactly right so there aren't a whole lot of games I guess that do that and maybe not overtly but this one doesn't and pulls it off very well and I really enjoyed it so that's my number one finish my number one is also the first one I thought of when we talked about the list what the title was gonna be it was immediately apparent to me that I this was gonna be on the list I figured it might be near the top and indeed it is my number one give me a clue um Scrabble it's a card game oh okay Oh Scrabble the card game close cool newer than Scrabble is it a solitaire game this better not be that night out on the market on your own yes is it on Iram Oh against garbage Arkham are Arkham Horror gotta be see I thought you wouldn't put to Arkham artless that's a beta not to it the same the same game another night I can't even say that with a straight face there's so different basically this is the same game yeah as Arkham Horror 3rd edition I would argue that there's a high chance this will be Z's number one next year it's certainly in the running of all time the running is this my number two from last year I know but you talked about this morning pandemic these days though it sucks anyway Arkham Horror the card game by its very nature which is why I thought of it first and why it is this high on the list is a game that continually surprises me because there is a continual stream of new content and I am buying it am i playing it not necessarily nobody's saying that coming down but I am buying it and I'm storing it yes I'm just I was uncomfortable there for now I just had to situate myself kill heat okay Arkham Horror the card game is fun it always surprises me with new layout of the layout of the locations is a very clever thing to be able to pull off like for example it just played a scenario in which the locations sometimes a card represents a whole chunk of a city okay right and you go to that whole piece of city and then you travel maybe to a whole different area of town whatever and I just played us an area in which you put out nine cards and each one represents the center one represents the elevator at the first floor the second one above it elevator in the second floor third floor and the two on the sides rooms on that floor there is no fourth floor there isn't a fourth floor I knew it that four is the number of death it's just like Korea yep right exactly so I thought that was very clever finding you know you can always travel of course from the center one up one level the cards make all this possible and so far I have seen incredible amounts of creativity when it comes to making these scenarios it's unbelievable the stuff they've been able to pull off with building a story a scenario a mission if you would around a deck of cards you have your own right that's fine you built that but they and the woods where they tell you to put things and now move from here to here now flip this card now this whole thing changes it just became a game about running out of a place instead of a game about finding clues and it's like that's amazing it changes I really like that that's that's that's why it continually surprises me and keeps on climbing I could see this being my number one next year we just lost power it's like this happen it is colorful that was look at that it's blew out the generator y'all my number why I'm done son oh that we lose power in the computer yes give me your number one you feel like handing out orders Oh picture how am I suppose I end with this visual aid because I just blew this oh you're number one it's gonna pale in comparison to whatever the screen you can see all the stuff in the room Oh too late alright my number one also has a slew of expansions and we did all all show on this game and Sam it's not like it nearly as much as I do but I love this game every time I played I find new stuff Carlos Lee & Co because there are six kazillion combinations and that's Dominion no see cut the counters show cosmic we haven't done it as show on Cosmic Encounter we do please you won't miss you you won't remember in five minutes fire but don't minion just has so much involved with it there's just so many different things involved in the game itself I really like it I'm trying to talk today as the computer restarted yet no okay imagine a picture of a lot of Dominion cards here I'll diverse the artwork a wonderful the iconography in design iconography it so bad okay there's almost no I can I refer to it like the coins that's a coins anyhow so I really like Dominion that's my number one yes have some alright so that's a lot of years people do you what are games you thought we would put on so you need to type the name first so you could say like I thought Sam would say this I thought Tom would say this and then we can respond to you and say why we did or did not push the thing again I didn't pick my top ten games on purpose right you know Cosmic Encounter we mentioned I love Cosmic Encounter it doesn't keep getting better because I think it was always at such a high level for me like I always liked cosmic how much how hard was this list to put together for you it was a little tricky I went through my I was like my top 200 and then I started thinking you know we mentioned dice I West but that did trigger some stuff my hair or sure you know I thought about putting Puerto Rico on the list because I played there but then I thought wow I don't know if it keeps getting better at say this is a super subjective less as opposed to all our other object I wonder all the other ones are strong as a rock Z people thought you would say ghost stories I thought about it it was done and I played it I was just saying you just plated a dish and I won he said that when I say I I mean the other people at the table one but I was also there some people said that they thought I would say camo up it's gotten better for me for sure but I don't know that would say keeps getting better that would fit more than the list we did last year where my liking of it as going up that much I don't think it gets better everything Kamel up for me would definitely be a kangaroo or whatever you got some saying that's that that same here the first time I played I was really underwhelmed the new version and the more put the original but now the new version on top of that yeah nighttime date from my original experience also sighs I was in the running for sure again maybe is getting better giddy z pandemic no care for a Mars I'd like tear free Mars from day one no time then maybe 7th continent I didn't put that because I love seven continent and it just feels like I keep following his story so I don't know that gets better every time I play okay because I'm gonna start seeing some of this stuff over so maybe the enjoyment will go down slightly but I still love the game okay Sam Carcassonne hey Tom what was your number one I guess the thing with Carcassonne is that I like the around the world version of Carcassonne right better than the base game so I guess I like if you can put the whole family of games as a cat as a pig yeah sure yes why not but we don't do that sort of cheater ii around here Sam has never deviated from a very simple ten through one format yeah no tomfoolery always this is actually one to five and one through five oh I'm alternating between this list and a list I thought about but told nobody you know we don't do that kind of stuff around here we play it straight I might have had too much caffeine Zee Imperial cellars I also definitely thought of it and the latest expansion is fantastic that could have easily been my 11 or 12 I did not I didn't make an 11 or 12 but that and ghost or that someone mentioned definitely thought of both not pandemic I've always liked it and it's sort of settled for a long time now right there hasn't been a new expansion or anything in a while but ghost stories yeah and imperial settlers that they keep supporting yeah Sam rebellion I haven't played it in a while so that's I thought about it but I just haven't played it in a while I don't know that I like it more every time I play it I think it's more the whole idea of what you were saying earlier it just kind of stays the same with Puerto Rico [Music] that's what you're saying with Puerto Rico for me Star Wars rebellion I really enjoy it I get it you know but much more do we lose power again oh I'm so excited and you didn't used to have it plugged in how did he oh no it's a power thing yeah yeah okay well any held juice you'll notice that we talked about about dice our West and we talked about the retreat those things are possible diced our con is in July you can still sign up to come to that and play games with us there you definitely can have a really good chance playing games with us at the retreat you find more information of that they start retreat calm if you just want to come and play games we're about to go to the gathering and friends in a couple weeks and we're gonna talk about playing games and if you sit there and go I wish I go gather your friends you can't it's called diced our retreat it's gathering have the friendly your friends Wow I always say you might get this invited I might get sued well that's our top 10 list hey we'll be back one more time live this week tomorrow we're doing a back talk on something we're not quite sure but we'll see you then until then I'm Tom Bassett see Garcia thank you everybody Sam Dealey see you on the flip side folks take care yeah what are you throwing stuff for [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: The Dice Tower

Views: 187,841

Keywords: board game, board, game, dice, card game, cards, catan, monopoly, tower, dice tower, vasel, tom vasel, vassel, settlers, gaming, GeekUsername: TomVasel, boardgame, uno, ticket to ride, apples to apples, educational games, educational, top 10, Top Ten Games That Keep Getting Better, Sam Healey, Healy, Zee Garcia

Id: 4PzPqtFKYhs

Length: 81min 20sec (4880 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 28 2019