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What was the 2025 game that would have made the list?

Interesting that you said this was a really good year but even a game as high as #7 on your list was “only” a 7/10. Do your ratings skew a little lower? As an Uwe lover, Nusfjord: Big Box and Black Forest were also probably my #1 and #2, respectively. I also quite enjoyed LotR: Duel, Everdell Duo, and Fishing. Didn’t play as many new games this year though as I moved last year and didn’t have a dedicated gaming group or partner anymore until recently (other than my wife who will tolerate games but she’s usually not in the mood). Also, I personally like how the jobs work in Black Forest but have you tried any house rules to change up how they work and maybe reduce their luck factor?

I have become so exasperated with the dice tower. They don't like anything unless it's 'colorful', stupid, and from some designer you've never heard of.

Just finished my second 2 player game. Fun factor is easily a 9 for me. In both games so far I flipped Insight to level II to be able to produce 6 ideas. I did this once each game and it really helped mitigate bad dice rolls. If you upgrade research, you can look at 4 cards. These two simple upgrades really give you the agency you need to play the game you want. I absolutely love this game and can't wait to play it many many times. I rate Castles of Burgundy and Trajan as his best, but this might top them both. Time will tell, but it's so good, I wouldn't be surprised to prioritize it every time. I sincerely don't think it's even close to it's BGG weight rating. Maybe a 3.9. My two cents.

Thanks for the deep dive. Black Forest looks like it can be quite compelling. I'm a fan of Glass Road; looking forward to trying this one.

I bought the original version when it first came out and then bought the expansion soon after. Was only able to play with the expansion once. I Absolutely love this game. I just picked up an opened but never played copy of the monumental edition a few days ago and can't wait to dive into it asap. An expansion has been in the works for about a year now but it's hard to find any info on it, drives me crazy....

I love this DEEP Dive Review style. Really awesome man!

Appreciate you highlighting and diving deeper into the game. Have gotten increasingly excited to play this, looks gorgeous and I prefer worker placement to Glass Road’s action selection system. Haven’t tried it yet but got a 4p game scheduled next week and really looking forward to it even if it might take a while. I haven’t played Ora et Labora so the first comparison I thought of outside of Glass Road for this was Caverna. Seems like they improved on Caverna here in that there’s both a variety of large buildings and the small buildings are double-sided. I wonder if this would be a candidate for a “more buildings” expansion as he has done with some other games, or if instead it won’t be touched much/at all as he has with some others. One last thought - if you found the jobs to be problematic as implemented, wonder if possibly another houserule might be in order such that you put a set number of face-up jobs out at the beginning of the game and don’t replenish them at all during the game. So, like the buildings, players know what is available and have a sort of goal to choose for. Alternatively, maybe drafting them (from a subset of randomly chosen ones) at the start of the game in reverse player order and they become personal jobs only you can fulfill once you get to the appropriate spot of your resource wheel (or maybe the resource wheel tracker can trigger the draft? Idk).

Okay. Okay. Love discovering those hidden gems!

Can’t stand Uwe games from a solo perspective because they’re all a beat your own score affair. No automa. Horrible.

I was pretty excited for this game and I've enjoyed it pretty well so far. However, one aspect I don't enjoy is having to re-evaluate action pairings and proximity every game. I know it's supposed to add to the variety but I just find it kind of annoying to figure out every time things change.

As someone who loves game design but focuses on TTRPGs, this was a fascinating listen! Much of it went over my head of course, due to... not actually playing board games, generally. Although there is some overlap, and points to compare and contrast, so stumbling in here was well worth the hour for me. I do have one relevant question though, on a bit where my experience does apply: Could the swingyness of the jobs be mitigated by declining selecting on in favor of a more universal resource? My Two Cents on this: 1.) Mechanically: It looks like an awkwardly skewed opportunity cost. One that seems to sometimes Feel Bad, which is not typically a game design goal. 2.) Thematically, I feel choosing to not take any job should offer some form of recovery or increase in other gains or opportunities. Abstracting from that a bit, choosing not to pull a card once could allow drawing an extra one later? My brain jumps at the chance to house rule ANYTHING, regardless of knowing what I'm doing, so sorry in sdvance if this came across as sorta nonsense. Followed, and cheers!

Excellent list. Our tastes seem to line up quite closely. I'm going to have to check out Jeffrey CCH, I haven't really had any experience with his games but based on your recommendation and our similar tastes, I need to give him a look.

It’s a little odd that this video was made after 1 round of your first game lol

Just catching up on your excellent videos. It's always fun to see someone's top games list. Thanks for sharing. Here are some comments. 1. If you like Paladins, you should check out Viscounts of the West Kingdom. For me is the best in the series by far. 2. Agree about Nippon. Zhanguo (original and the new First Empire [best version]) and Madeira are two other superb WYG titles to consider. 3. Caylus 1303 in my opinion is a much better version than the already stellar original. Plays faster too! 4. Mombasa! It's stuck in my collection and is also my #2 Pfister behind Maracaibo. 5. Anno 1800 gets better the higher the player count. The strategy of trying to control the game's end is fantastic.

Have you tried Garcia's other design, Arborea? In my opinion it's clearly his best game and this was such a let down for me, considering I also enjoyed Barcelona. The water level thing felt so disconnected it simply ruined this game for me. The action selection and upgrading the wheel was however fantastic and I hope it gets used elsewhere.

Not a game for board game arena, this is a must play around the table. There is plenty of variety in the set up as you can replace some of the printed spots with overlays. I appreciate your video, but im not a fan of reviewing games withou playing the real thing multipke of times. This game averaged a 9.5/10 with our group.

Thank you so much for adding Biome to your list! Please come by booth 3A100 and we will gladly teach you how to play. :) Can't wait to hear what you think! 🐣

A game called "Smoky Valley" is up for demo at Essen. That's one I'm psyched about. Also, Speakeasy by Vital Lacerda should be available, too. #1 anticipated game of 2025.

Thank you for your video. I'm confused about how the dial works

I'm super happy to hear you enjoyed your experience. Thank you so much for the detailed first impressions, it was extremely entertaining to listen to. Subbed, and shared the video to our community : - )

Dude, yes!! 🙌🏼 Is it solo-able in Alpha??

Cosmic hunters looks interesting , thanks for the information!

Interesting thoughts on the buildings, and thank you for taking your time to make a tier list. And interesting how one can evaluate them so differently. I’ve played alot of glass road and its my favourite game. And I noticed that my generel score started to go alot higher once I started to evaluate the immediate buildings higher. Alot of immediate buildings coupled with 1-2 productions buildings gives you the ability to snowball into massbuilding, and I usually only build 1 or 2 endgame building. Might just be a prefered playstyle though, I like the dynamic and volatile playstyle of the immediate buildings instead of just building a contiguous end game building and zero in on that. Might also come down to playercount aswell, I play almost exclusively 2p and solo. Its also interesting that you put the private offers buildings in S tier. According to me they are at most c or b tier, mostly because I think the feudal lord is by far the worst specialist. But perhaps I need to reconsider and use them together. It would also be interesting to see a specialist tier list!

Glass Road is one of my absolute favorite games and I'm so glad I found someone who is (seemingly) as obsessed with the game as I am! Thank you for this deep dive into the strategy behind the game! 🧠

Amazing work!. Do you have this as a PDF?.

Thank you for being (apparently) the only TH-cam channel covering this game that I am SO excited about!! Subscribed!! 🎉

I am no expert at this game for sure but have tried the old version and the shot version of this one. It is not easy to learn and is VERY AP-sensitve. But It is good and looks great, the option to allow more wonders to choose from I Highly reccomend (it is like a mini market which helps if you can not get a certain resourse or do not want x).

All of your themes are pretty connected, even the honorable mention if you take a generous view of human society. Environmentalism, medical advancements, building cities, industry for products, farming for food, it all comes back to your top pick, Civilization. It's interesting how thematically they all come together. Clearly you are most engaged when you are building up a society of people from nothing to a booming society, which is cool.

I think you draw buildings until the board is full. Potentially could that mean there is 3 times the buildings we see in these pictures. But who knows 😊 Thanks for uploading. Probably a must buy!

I am a fan of Rosenberg, but have yet to play Agricola. Tried Caverna and unfortunately it didn’t quite marry with my expectations or the general praise. I feel now as though I should’ve purchased Agricola instead, which is a bummer since it’s 40% cheaper aha

Nice video. I own the German board game with the English rules, and just love it. We have yet to see the barrel strategy prevail over brewing. The game plays very snappy. I look forward to the Bier Pioniere: Bier Boom expansion coming out later this year.

Would love an expansion for Messina! I know a new standalone for brass is coming. I've heard rumors that it might be Ireland or a northern country in mainland europe. Brazil seemed like a cool game, but wasnt as intriguing to me when I hear it was similar to Scythe. Would be cool to see an expansion that sets it apart.

I also love Concordia Roma. You can start anywhere outside the city walls but then as soon as you’re inside, then adjacency matters as usual. Water travel is only in one direction down a canal, which gives you resources and achievements as you land on certain spaces. You can also score points mid-game, which is neat because you can apply a god’s scoring powers without actually having bought one of the cards. Very neat twists in the gameplay, which do more than simply give us a new map.

Holy moley, you and I have similar game tastes! Anyway, let’s talk about Yokohama, one of my favourite games of all time. There is a promo pack for it, which only does minor things: it gives you some 5-power tokens that have foreign agent tokens on them, and there are some tokens you can gain from fulfilling all three achievements. Besides that, there’s the Duel version and the Roll-&-Write version of the game, neither of which I’ve seen available anywhere. When TMG filed for bankruptcy protection, the rights ultimately got bought by a Canadian publisher called Synapses Games (publishers of Coatl and the Rallyman series), and that’s where the new art came from. The new version of Yokohama should be released to retail next month (August 2024). No word yet as to whether Duel and/or the Roll & Write are planning to get rereleased. Duel was published by TMG but the Roll & Write wasn’t, so I don’t know if Synapses even has the “Roll &” rights. 😉

For sure Messina!

Concordia Venus team play variant is amazing if you find yourself with 6 players. It essentially plays as a 3 player game since you and your partner are both playing on each other's turns.

Whenever I do Top 100s or Top 50s, I always rank them by “which game would I play if given both options”. Sometimes that means my favourites of all time make the top of the list, but some high ranking games are games I’ve only played once or twice but were such good experiences that I want to get them to the table again! Some people may find that disappointing, but I think it gives some underrepresented games some love. 10. I love Suchý’s games. Woodcraft one made my Top 50, but I did get rid of it because enough of my friends owned it. Great game, though! Also, Evacuation is one of my latest flames … I absolutely love it! 7. I have owned Village for years, and it’s become one of those classics that you play once or twice a year and it’s so satisfying, but it might not be a weekly game for me. I find it fascinating how it uses “worker displacement” rather than worker placement in order to take most of your actions; I’ve never seen another game do that before. I also am floored by how macabre this game is: you think it’s so quaint and pastoral, given the art and the theme, and yet there is so much carnage! 😂 6. I adore Nucleum. My only complaint is the fixed nature of the board. The southeast corner is usually in stiff competition because Praha is there, plus it’s where you can build most of the mines, and it’s not far from a power plant. Still, though, the game is amazing. I love how the action tiles work, and the engines you can generate are so interesting! 5. Haven’t heard of this game, but I like La Granja, so it may be worth checking out. Thanks for the tip! 4. GoME is popular in my group but I haven’t played it yet. 1. Caylus was a recent discovery for my group too. I got it in a local math trade. I haven’t played it with mean players yet, so I think that’s why I like it, but I have a feeling this would be an agonising experience if you played it with chaos monkeys who find it fun to mess with people for no personal benefit except denying another player. 😂 Great game, though! Haven’t tried the rest! Thanks for the video! I think we may have similar taste in games!

My family beat The Crew after forever in June too!

My "Only played once, really want to return list:" Mosaic, War of the Ring the Card Game, Voidfall, Tiletum, Smartphone Inc. and Star Wars Rebellion.

Keeping an eye out for this one. Great video, and I look forward to seeing more content. Cheers

Well I stumbled onto this and now subsided 249. You will go far. What fun and thanks. 😊

Hope the rulebook was clear :)

Good Luck on your journey

Looks like you were my doctor and I didn't know it until now! All of these picks I agree with are great games! Especially the one I worked on in some regard lol

Nice!

Never tried 2

It sounds like the Abundance expansion tries to address one of things that made me fall out of love with the base game (apparently after 100 plays on BGA, more than I thought), which is what happens when your draw doesn't intersect well with the race goals. I think it's worth comparing base game Earth to base game Wingspan and Terraforming Mars. Both of them build draw mitigation into their games (a card market in Wingspan, a draft in TM) and while neither assures a player will always get what they need, it makes it much more likely they will be able to say "I can't compete for this goal, but while other players use their opportunity to pursue race goals, I can use mine to do this other valuable thing." In Earth, the designers decided their mitigation would come from players drawing a lot of cards, which often leads to cascading advantages for the advantaged player. In TM, the fact that milestones can only be claimed by a single player, and that both milestones and awards need to be bought, means that it's very reasonable for a player to say "I will only compete for two of these." In Wingspan, the low threshold for qualification for end-of-round goals, as well as the small scoring delta, make it reasonable for a player to direct their efforts elsewhere. In Earth, every fauna you do not complete is a significant penalty. The problem is that in Earth it too often felt that my draw was the limiting factor, and because the goals have a very low opportunity cost, I couldn't create advantages by ignoring them while my opponents pursued them. I'm by no means an expert. I could very well be that I'm mistaken, but that feeling is what kept me from pursuing the game more seriously. Thanks very much for the video. I'm always interested to hear your opinions.

Thanks for covering this!

Loved Lorenzo, might have to give this one a try, thanks for posting!