Really helpful for you to go through the BGG top 100 for the year. I really appreciated the comments about games being too light, too heavy, too dark, and too cut-throat because our tastes in games are pretty similar. Having you suss out these sorts of things and tell me of such issues will help save me from finding out first hand after spending money on a game! Thank you.
Trickshot is about hockey. It's a great 2-player game that simulates a hockey game really well in a relatively short game time. I would recommend it if you like the theme.
What an amazing year! I've added basically every game from your top 10 into my "want to play". Ever since I stopped buying games and only trade them, I am finding it very hard to play new games (I haven't played a single one from 2024!). I need to find additional gaming friends with large collections. I also really appreciated your overview of the BGG top 100 of 2024. I found that segment to be one of the most informative ones you've done yet. Keep up the great work!
Richard, you remain one of the most important voices in board gaming for me. Thanks for this amazing video, so much info. Hope you and Jen had a great holiday season!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on all those games! And for the regular run throughs and reviews during the year as well. I really appreciate the positive attitude you have/show about most of the games you film. It makes it much more fun and less stressful to watch your channel :)
Thank you for taking time from your holiday to share your annual top 10 list with us, Richard. I hope you and Jenn have a wonderful holiday season and safe travels!
yeah, it drives me nuts when other channels don't do this, so that they can get more "engagement". honestly i should do it too so that you're forced to click over and over throughout the video to find out everything, so that youtube thinks there's more interest and will push the video harder, but i just think it's lame so i don't do it. hopefully folks appreciate the way i go and that means more thumbs for the videos so that offsets the drop in the suggestion algorithm that i end up suffering! :)
Castle Combo is published by Catch Up Games. I figured I'd mention it because they've been putting out fantastic games lately (Faraway, Mind Up!, Courtisans). Appreciate the list/end of year round up, Rahdo! :)
So good to see Shipwrights there! This is so underrated, I think a lot of people overlooked it because the previous version was rated so lowly. But it’s such a fantastic game! I absolutely love it!!❤
Colab was my #2 new to me game for the year, #1 if I just look at 2024 games. I was really happy i was actually able to get it to the table this year, after receiving it in February.
Here's my top 10 for 2024 the year with the relative spot for the new to me list. 10 Odin (19) 9 Festival (18) 8 Harmonies (16) 7 Architects of Amytis (14) 6 Botanicus (8) 5 Castle Combo (7) 4 River of Gold (5) 3 Draft & Write Records (4) 2 Fromage (3) 1 Colab (2) (1) Cosmoctopus
Thanks for including the solstice/Yule in your "Happy Holidays!" 😁 I never thought I'd hear Rahdo call anyone a dick, but it's so true. I feel you on "Hans im Glück is dead to me." It would be fun if someday you ranked all the new Star Wars content, but I know you're busy with actual board-game-related content! 😆
Top Five for me this year: Windmill Valley Wyrmspan Cities Ziggurat River of Gold River of Gold wasn't as fun as I was expecting, mostly because I fell for the 'Lords of Waterdeep' comparisons which turned out to be pretty misguided. I'm not a big co-op fan, but Ziggurat has been fun to play with my mom and sister as a kind of 'entry legacy' game. Cities was such a fun new design from one of my favorite designers, a good bounce back from the lackluster Spellbook last year. Wyrmspan ecplises Wingspan in nearly every way for me, all of the extra crunchy decisions with the caves, guild board, luck of the dice removal for food, and so much more. But above all, Windmill Valley, second year in a row my favorite game was from Dani, such a fun combo tastic experience that I live for.
I would not put Kelp in the dueling wizards category. It's a very clever completely asymmetric game. Trickshot is a push your luck hockey game - interesting decisions to make in both of those games!
I enjoyed your breakdown of the top 100 BGG games. I enjoyed that you were more critical of games you didn't enjoy and the reasons why. I know you like to be positive, but I like the negative insights because that makes the positive things you say stand out more and carry more weight about a game. It helps in making some good objective choices in games.
1. I'd love to see Civolution on your channel. I watched it only on Paul's. It was no1 most anticipated game of 2024 for you and I remember your excitement for it. 2. Maybe I can give you a tip how to extend your table in your RV? Maybe you could extend it twice by installing another one on a hinges. Extended one could lay on your current one and could be opened for your runthroughs. You could still eat and sit with Jen while it is closed and film epic games while it is opened. I am sure you could find good technical solution how to implement that. All the best cheers.
yup, still excited to play, but we've made a set of travel changes and are now going to be heading back home way early, so i decided to wait and play & film it on my table since that would make it a lot easier! i do have a side table here in the RV that i have used on some games so i could have made it work in a pinch :)
Interesting how the top 10 of BGG are mostly Previous Owned for you lol I usually don't go through games that are under rank 2000, so your list is the one that is actually helpful for me XD
You might like Heroes of Might and Magic III. It is impressive how they managed to distill the feeling of the video game while making smart choices to keep it manageable. Worst rulebook of the year contender though (much better fan-made version on BGG) and quite table hog (not RV-friendly). Great video!
You might want to give Altered a second look. You aren't attacking or fighting your opponent. You are racing to have your Hero and their Companion meet before the other player does. Love the channel!
not direct dueling, but still we're trying to tug of war every round beating each other on the landscape values, and me beating you prevents you from advancing, and that's the equivalent of me taking life points away in an attack. plus there are enough cards like spy craft and sabotage effects where we're screwing with each other. so yeah, i like the concept, but still too "interactive" for our tastes :)
Out of the New to Me games for 2024, Odin made it in my top 20. It's a good filler - card shedding/ladder climbing game. It's not one I would add to my collection, but I will occasionally play it on BGA and I would gladly play it in person, if I played games with other people that bought games.
Loved the video! Windmill valley is my fav new euro I’ve tried this year, and I really appreciate the look on lighter, less viral games. Speaking of which, we bought AI after seeing your pre Essen video and the game has been a huge hit! Great at all player counts, and even the art design has even grown on me :). I see you have not ranked it yet, might it go somewhere there in the updated list?
Great list. My number one game now is Virtù from Pascal Ribrault. And top games for 2024 that I have played so far are these:. Endeavor Deep Sea SETI Wyrmspan Unconscious Mind Dune Uprising Best games with new expansions: Small Samurai Empires: Rise of Tokugawa Gaia Project: The Lost Fleet Apiary: Expanding the Hive Forest Shuffle: Woodland Edge Still waiting to play: Men-Nefer Arcs Black Forest Windmill Valley Phoenix New Horizon Tea Garden Minos: Dawn of the Bronze Age Galileo Galilei Disappointment: Civolution Andromeda's Edge
Merry Christmas! Top 10 Garphil Games is a great idea! But you should try Inventors of the South Tigris first because your top gripe with other South Tigris games with influence may be solved (depending on exactly what bugs you most about influence…at least, no increased cost for other players to take a card).
I guarantee you have the most unique top 10 of the year among popular content creators, love it. Shipwritghs - only the second Garphil game I sold. Not bad but won't see the table. Wonderous Creatures - I need to check this out! Colab - not interested. Castle Combo - played it, didn't click with me. Phoenix New Horizon - I need to get this! Cities - mildly curious, might check it out in 2025. Blueprints - on my shelf, need to play it. Windmill Valley - not a bad game but ended up selling it. Spectacular and Saltfjord - love both, top 10 for me or 2024. Although Santa Maria is still better imo.
Nice list. White Castle is still my #1 game from 2023. Really want to try Saltfjord (and Men-Nefer) though. I've been a bit worried about Saltfjords replayability though after some reviewers complaining about it not being that high. You putting Saltfjord as your #1 might be the thing that push me towards actually getting it though. Will be interesting to see if it can hold its place next year.
who in the world would suggest lack of replayability! that's mind boggling to me! i've played the game a half dozen times now and had a fantastic time every time. i don't remember seeing anyone ever accuse santa maria of lacking replayability!
@@rahdo rewatched the review. He said that it could hold for maybe four plays. There are not that many video reviews on bgg so you can probably figure out who. But I decided to buy it as a late xmas gift to myself today! And hope it will be here in time to be the first game I play next year.
It's really not always easy to differentiate between board games and expansions. Because technically, if they're standalone, they're games and not expansions. They have started to introduce systems or families but these objects don't work yet with most of the other features. Mainly because the majority of games are a family of one. But yes, I would really welcome if they invested more into that.
yeah, 'systems' isn't bad, but i'd still just rather they have a different category of item. to boardgame and expansion add a third "boardgame/expansion" category. there's probably not more than a couple hundred of these in the entire database, and it would be a quick afternoon to get those tagged correctly :)
I've onyl played Shipwrights a couple times and really want a few more plays before making a decision on where this ranks for me among the Garphill games. #10 for 2024 is definitely high praise! I will be interested to hear your thoughts once Inventors gets to the table. Haven't played 9 or 8. Castle Combo is a nice simple and fun puzzle. Not my top 10 for 2024, but a solid game. Saltfjord is high on my listof 'want to play' games but sadly, no luck getting it in yet. Undergrove? River of Gold? Lure? River of Gold is one I'm most surprised to se missing as it is a very stream-lined game.
i mentioned river of gold and undergrove in the bgg top100 section... both are potential top 30 candidates. i have to admit i find recreational fishing to be a major turn off theme-wise, so i've never looked at it very closely
I got Saltfjord on your recommendation and really like it. I worry it won't have much replay value as I always feel like I manage to do "everything" each play.
well you must be much better gamer than us! if we've completely filled the village, we probably haven't done much shipping. if we're shipping magnates, we probably haven't done much fishing. we generally only make it to the top of one or two of the progress tracks. every game i've had has felt different with different things focused on, after about a half dozen plays. so like i said, you'd probably kick our butts if you are literally accomplishing everything every game! :)
@rahdo I'm definitely not an expert and I could be playing wrong potentially. But in our three plays we have focused on maxing out all 4 tech tracks and the power upgrades mean we end up fishing and shipping a ton as a result, giving it kind of a "samey" feeling already.
well maybe we're playing something wrong, maybe you're playing something wrong, or maybe you're the best of all time or we're the worst! you might want to post to the forums on bgg and see if others have the same experience. i took a look and didn't see anyone posting a thread like this, and those tend to come up a lot on games where this happens: boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/422674/saltfjord/forums/0 :)
I hear you on the Unmatched as I don’t want to consider new ones for top 10 of the year or anything, but they are actually stand alone. That’s typically the way I try them first and then integrate later. Expansions should have their own top 10 or whatever and it seems like more and more expansions come out every year too.
yeah, it's totally reasonable for the system to be like it is, i just wish BGG had a 4th classification for items: * game * expansion * accessory * game/expansion so that i'd do a search only for games and avoid stuff like all the unmatched things when making lists like this. of course, that's a pretty edge case issue, so no surprise there's no functionality like it on bgg! :) (also it's super annoying that you can't advance search for only expansions as well!)
I wish there would be more attention on Fall of Lumen, not so many videos about so many people would, will miss it. Fall of Lumen is imho absolutely best board game with deck building mechanic I've seen, played in history and one of the best which came out in 2024. Anyone who loves deckbuilding mechanic should look on this game.
alright, let's do this! 9. bethel woods 8. architects of west kingdom 7. paladins of west kingdom 6. raiders of north sea/scythia 5. ezra and nehimiah 4. hadrian's wall 3. viscounts of west kingdom 2. circadians first light 1. shipwrights of north sea redux inventors of south tigris would fit in there somewhere, but i'm not sure where as i haven't played it yet! :)
Surprised not to see Captain's Chair in the top 30 - I could tell from your review it wouldn't make the top 10, but I thought the theme would carry it up there for you.
i was surprised how much i enjoyed it and would happily play it any time, but in the end i'm still put off by the roll to resolve stuff so that's what's keeping it out of my collection
I don't know, besides Saltfjord it feels like a slow year for me. It's the only game I'm mildly interested in. And windmill valley but that's only because I'm dutch 🤣 Thanks for the video though.
Happy holidays Rahdo and family! Is Adventure Ink: Five Factions of Filligre still being developed, or is it no longer a thing? It sounded very interesting when you talked about it years ago, just wondering if you had any info. Cheers!!
it's defintely on hold for the foreseeable future :( plunderous has to get done first, and it's suffered so many setbacks. maybe somewhere in the future, but hard to see that happening at this point, tbh!
Did you say Rock Hard was lighter than Ticket to Ride? It seemed to have a lot going on to me. Certainly it is not heavy once I got the hang of how it played, but there are a lot more choices to make than a game like Ticket to Ride or 7 Wonders. I haven’t played a lot of 2024. A couple of them were BGA only: Pixies and Draft & Write Records. I’ve played Endeavour Deep Sea and Rock Hard and enjoyed them both. I just got LOTR Duel, and am looking forward to playing that as 7 Wonders Duel is one of my favorites. Probably the favorite new game I played this year is listed as a 2025 game: Diatoms.
wow, you're right, no co-op in the top 10! the closest co-op to the top 10 is currently the excellent co-op mode of endeavor deep sea at #13 (i'd rather play it co-op than competitive actually). then leviathan wilds at #20, then landmarks at #28! other good co-op games of the year that didn't make my top 30: the gang (3p minimum so i can't try it) slay the spire (jen and i didn't like it but a lot of folks LOVE it) kinfire delve (a nice series) thorgal (love the mechanisms, but adventures were a bit pu&d) urbion (best co-op oniverse game in awhile) runemasters (needs more than 2p to be at its best) a few i liked but jen didn't: primal dungeon legends some that i only played in prototype form but liked: hacktivity rone fategorge and here's a few i want to try but haven't had a chance to yet: the mandalorian invincible hero building game defenders of the wild mistborn deckbuilding game clank legacy 2 star realms rise of empire harmony ecosfera over 700 new co-ops came out according to bgg, so there's probably a bunch more hidden gems as well: boardgamegeek.com/search/boardgame?sort=rank&advsearch=1&q=&include%5Bdesignerid%5D=&include%5Bpublisherid%5D=&geekitemname=&range%5Byearpublished%5D%5Bmin%5D=2024&range%5Byearpublished%5D%5Bmax%5D=2024&range%5Bminage%5D%5Bmax%5D=&range%5Bnumvoters%5D%5Bmin%5D=&range%5Bnumweights%5D%5Bmin%5D=&range%5Bminplayers%5D%5Bmax%5D=&range%5Bmaxplayers%5D%5Bmin%5D=&range%5Bleastplaytime%5D%5Bmin%5D=&range%5Bplaytime%5D%5Bmax%5D=&floatrange%5Bavgrating%5D%5Bmin%5D=&floatrange%5Bavgrating%5D%5Bmax%5D=&floatrange%5Bavgweight%5D%5Bmin%5D=&floatrange%5Bavgweight%5D%5Bmax%5D=&colfiltertype=&searchuser=rahdo&nosubtypes%5B0%5D=boardgameexpansion&playerrangetype=normal&propertyids%5B0%5D=2023&B1=Submit
@@rahdo Bomb Busters is an awesome logical deduction co-op game. Similar to The Crew, it has missions that introduce and build up the difficulty and mixup the setup.
Small kickstarter release, but Helionox:Chronicles also released this year. Rahdo seemed to like the preview, but the game changed a lot since then. I really enjoy it.
Great list! But how does Blueprints elevate the gameplay from Castles aside from the open draft? It feels like the other elements (objectives, room scoring, etc.) are in the original game too.
besides dropping the variable cost setting portion of the game (which over time became a real turn off for us), there's a bunch of other changes and improvements. no more hallways means harder choices for how to expand. new tricks like being able to add secret passages are a more fun way to give you flexibility. The building space expanding over time becoming a touch choice to make. and the powers for rooms are much cooler, taking advantage of the roll&write format like letting players literally change where doors appear in rooms and such. the only thing that the original has over blueprints is that the are on the tiles is nice looking. but that's it, imo :)
Regarding Shipwrights Redux, how do you compare it to It's a Wonderful World? The first time I'd heard about it was in someone's top 10, (maybe Kovray?) and I'm curious to check it out. Wonderful World is top 20, maybe top 10 for me.
they've both got similar structure (draft to collect final hand, and then use that hand as best you can with multi-use cards), but WW is an engine builder, while Redux is a recipe fulfilment game. to be honest, described liek that i would have said WW, but the ways you can combo cards in Redux is so satisfying i think i have to give it to garphill. i'll have a runthrough for it up soon :)
t comes about because i'm slipping a game between two others. so if i had two games ranked 8.736 and 8.737 then got another one that i like inbretween them, i've got to go 8.7365. over a decade, more and more games slip between the others :)
i am certain there must be other games that have done it, but i can't think of any (my brain doesn't work that way). you should post to boardgamegeek.com/forum/8/bgg/recommendations and i guarantee within an hour you'll have some solid answers! :)
it's excellent. will be talking about it in more detail in the monthly roundup (on the 31st i think) but it's another great addition to the cats family. it's the lightest one, and the hate drafting is stronger here than any other version, so it's my first that doesn't make my top10 of the year (unlike draw & write and the original) but it's still in my top20 for the year :)
The more games come out each year the more i end up only buying 1 or 2. Nothing new under the sun in the last 5 years or so. Always appreciate the reviews though.
it comes about because i'm slipping a game between two others. so if i had two games ranked 8.736 and 8.737 then got another one that i like inbretween them, i've got to go 8.7365. over a decade, more and more games slip between the others :)
@rahdo I heard you mention that after I already posted my comment. You may want to give them a mulligan with this one. I think it's a game you and Jen would really enjoy. What's the statute of limitation for their indiscretion? I hate to see you deprive yourself.
It is notorious how Rahdo's taste began to lean "light" over the past years, probably a function of the load of games to review so no time to go too deep but also, as he mentions a couple of times, it seems the typical medium elegant Euro vanished, now it is either a light game or a 3.8+ with a thousand pieces, 5 different mechanisms screaming "look at me, I am unique" and very verbose rulesbook.
I'm sorry but I don't understand this choice, I watched your videos and it appeared from several that in the ranikng of the best for 2024 will also include Minos: Dawn of the Bronze Age, Men Nefer and daitoshi and yet here they are not. Why ? on your videos about the above mentioned games you praised them highly , even announcing that they will be in this ranking
minos is #14 on the list, and almsot every game that is higher on the list than it is something that i played after it, so i didn't know how they'd rate at the time. if you go back and check out my men nefer final thoughts, you'll see how i talked about how disappointed i was that the game was longer than it should be, and that i might decide to accept that, or that might be why i get rid of it. in the end, i decided the length was too long, so i got rid of it. same thing with my daitoshi video: i talked about my issues with it as a 2p game, and that's what led me to get rid of it as well. if you go back and check the videos again, you'll see i talked aobut this stuff, both in the runthroughs and also in the monthly roundup video where i revisited them: th-cam.com/video/NKXxTzf0hTA/w-d-xo.html
sorry i don't remember seeing your comment... tbh one of my biggest complaints about youtube is that it's incredibly easy to accidentally delete comments in the "administration" interface, with no way to recover them and no warning. maybe that's what happened with your earlier post? if so, my apologies! i'm happy enough to talk about the HiG situation though!
@rahdo ok :-) i hadn't heard of it, and was very surprised of you're reaction since you always try to give people the benefit of the doubt, and seem(?) to like playing devil's advocat? i looked up what happened, and it seems what hig did was within their rights since they have trademarked the term 'meeple'. the hig legal representative apologized for the too aggressive wording of the first notice, and the company in question is still allowed to release their game, just with a different name. having to change the name doesn't seem toooo bad, i dunno. also, it could be argued that hig is in general pretty relaxed when it comes to the trademark, since a lot of games with the word 'meeple' in them have been released since they trademarked the term. it's not like they're suing people all over the place. sure, it's an unfortunate situation that probably could habe been settled 'friendlier', but saying hig is dead to you also seems like a veeery strong reaction. so i was just wondering if there was anything i missed. thank you for any clarifications you are willing to give :-)
apologizing for wording doesn't change the fact that they basically attacked another company and put them at financial risk by forcing them to incur significant cost to rebrand their game and themselves. artists costs, changes to printing schedule, etc... these can be company killers for a small independent startup, and it's frankly disgusting that HiG as a prominent established company would do this. but that aside, the entire foundation of their claim is incredibly faulty and sets a terrible precedent for the hobby. it's worse even than the old WOTC "tap cards" thing. At least in that case, they had a valid claim. in the case of meeple, HiG didn't invent the term, only adopted it much later after it was invented up with by a player and many other companies were already using it. it was absurd on the face of it for them to try to "steal" common property of the entire industry, which is why the claim was denied in most countries. and then on top of it, there's being inconsistent with the usage of it... many other companies have used meeple in their games, game titles, etc., and HiG has let it pass because... reasons. but now they decide to hit some small indi. honestly, it makes my blood boil to think of it. it's easily one of the most despicable things i've ever seen in the boardgame industry. they may be legally within their rights to be a-holes, but it doesn't mean they're not a-holes!
@@rahdo hm, ok. i have to say i feel like the question if it's 'correct' that hig was allowed to obtain the trademark for 'meeple' is a seperate issue that shouldn't come into play here. is it weird? yes. is it stealing? maybe. should they have been allowed to trademark the term? probably not. but the fact is they have it, so it is their right to do something like this. they are protecting their business. again, is this an a-hole move? of course. but again, it can be argued that the fact that they are inconsistent about it means they are not a-holes about it in general, and probably felt that that in this situation there was a threat that is usually not there? i don't know, i'm playing devil's advocat here ;-) is a company suing another company really aware of the financial situation of the firm they are suing? i don't know, it feels like this could have gone down a lot more ugly than it did. but i understand your view and i don't want to argue :-) thank you for sharing your thoughts!
well since i'm not debating the legal merits of the case but the moral ones, i think the question of whether HiG should be enforcing a trademark on something they didn't create is 100% the central issue at hand. and it's then compounded by the "bullying" effect of them doing real harm and punching down on a small independent publisher but conveniently "ignoring" the other big publishers who could fight back, so they let them slide. did they go after AEG for meeples & mosters? no. did they go after cmon for meeple war? no. matagot for meeple circus? bezier for mutant meeples? final frontier for fistfull of meeples? repos for terror in meeple city? etc. there are many disgusting things that companies can do in the world that are totally legal. but it doesn't make them right. we generally don't see things like this in the boardgame industry, which make's HiG's action all the more reprehensible imo.
I really don't like those life is good shirts. I actually have no idea what the point is. To brag? I don't think you're a braggart. There is so much needless suffering in the world. Anyway ... it is likely a personality deficiency on my part. I'm not asking you to change.
the point of wearing them is a reminder to try to look on the bright side, to remember that in spite of all the problems we face, there's good in our lives too! :)
Really helpful for you to go through the BGG top 100 for the year. I really appreciated the comments about games being too light, too heavy, too dark, and too cut-throat because our tastes in games are pretty similar. Having you suss out these sorts of things and tell me of such issues will help save me from finding out first hand after spending money on a game! Thank you.
Trickshot is about hockey. It's a great 2-player game that simulates a hockey game really well in a relatively short game time. I would recommend it if you like the theme.
Wow what a loaded video! So generous with your time going through to the top 100 on bgg too. Happy holidays Rahdo and Jen!
What an amazing year! I've added basically every game from your top 10 into my "want to play". Ever since I stopped buying games and only trade them, I am finding it very hard to play new games (I haven't played a single one from 2024!). I need to find additional gaming friends with large collections.
I also really appreciated your overview of the BGG top 100 of 2024. I found that segment to be one of the most informative ones you've done yet. Keep up the great work!
Richard, you remain one of the most important voices in board gaming for me. Thanks for this amazing video, so much info. Hope you and Jen had a great holiday season!
Wohoo! Thank you Rahdo, this is great work. I’m so happy you keep this tradition alive. and happy new year!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on all those games! And for the regular run throughs and reviews during the year as well. I really appreciate the positive attitude you have/show about most of the games you film. It makes it much more fun and less stressful to watch your channel :)
Thank you for taking time from your holiday to share your annual top 10 list with us, Richard. I hope you and Jenn have a wonderful holiday season and safe travels!
Great to see you put the game titles on the chapters, and not just the numbers 👍👍😊 Thanks for a preliminary fantastic list.
yeah, it drives me nuts when other channels don't do this, so that they can get more "engagement". honestly i should do it too so that you're forced to click over and over throughout the video to find out everything, so that youtube thinks there's more interest and will push the video harder, but i just think it's lame so i don't do it. hopefully folks appreciate the way i go and that means more thumbs for the videos so that offsets the drop in the suggestion algorithm that i end up suffering! :)
Castle Combo is published by Catch Up Games. I figured I'd mention it because they've been putting out fantastic games lately (Faraway, Mind Up!, Courtisans). Appreciate the list/end of year round up, Rahdo! :)
yes, they've been on fire lately. and i'm embarrassed i forgot because i included them a couple months ago on a R&R list (best publishers)
So good to see Shipwrights there! This is so underrated, I think a lot of people overlooked it because the previous version was rated so lowly. But it’s such a fantastic game! I absolutely love it!!❤
The BGG Top 100 was worthwhile! Thank you for doing that.
Thank you for a great video, really looking forward to Jen’s Top 10👌🏼
Thanks for having both Saltfjord and Spectacular high on your list🥰
if was the year of svensson! :)
Colab was my #2 new to me game for the year, #1 if I just look at 2024 games. I was really happy i was actually able to get it to the table this year, after receiving it in February.
Glad to see I'm not alone! :)
Here's my top 10 for 2024 the year with the relative spot for the new to me list.
10 Odin (19)
9 Festival (18)
8 Harmonies (16)
7 Architects of Amytis (14)
6 Botanicus (8)
5 Castle Combo (7)
4 River of Gold (5)
3 Draft & Write Records (4)
2 Fromage (3)
1 Colab (2)
(1) Cosmoctopus
Going through the BGG list was absolutely helpful!
Thanks for including the solstice/Yule in your "Happy Holidays!" 😁
I never thought I'd hear Rahdo call anyone a dick, but it's so true. I feel you on "Hans im Glück is dead to me."
It would be fun if someday you ranked all the new Star Wars content, but I know you're busy with actual board-game-related content! 😆
you mean the live action shows? ask and ye shall receive! imdb.rahdo.com :)
Well, a lot of your Star Wars opinions are wrong (I kid, I kid), but we do agree on Andor. 😁
Merry xmas! Great list. Cant wait for saltfjord to show up in canada
Top Five for me this year:
Windmill Valley
Wyrmspan
Cities
Ziggurat
River of Gold
River of Gold wasn't as fun as I was expecting, mostly because I fell for the 'Lords of Waterdeep' comparisons which turned out to be pretty misguided. I'm not a big co-op fan, but Ziggurat has been fun to play with my mom and sister as a kind of 'entry legacy' game. Cities was such a fun new design from one of my favorite designers, a good bounce back from the lackluster Spellbook last year. Wyrmspan ecplises Wingspan in nearly every way for me, all of the extra crunchy decisions with the caves, guild board, luck of the dice removal for food, and so much more. But above all, Windmill Valley, second year in a row my favorite game was from Dani, such a fun combo tastic experience that I live for.
i was so excited about ziggurat, but i'm assuming it's too lightweight for me and jen, right?
@@rahdo Definitely too light for you guys, very much 'family weight'.
I would not put Kelp in the dueling wizards category. It's a very clever completely asymmetric game. Trickshot is a push your luck hockey game - interesting decisions to make in both of those games!
I enjoyed your breakdown of the top 100 BGG games. I enjoyed that you were more critical of games you didn't enjoy and the reasons why. I know you like to be positive, but I like the negative insights because that makes the positive things you say stand out more and carry more weight about a game. It helps in making some good objective choices in games.
well i do the same thing every month in my roundup, and also a lot more in my patreon exclusive rambles i do :)
@@rahdo Ah. that could be what i'm missing then. I don't usually watch the roundup. just a lot of the run-throughs and final thoughts.
Appreciate the bgg top100 round up!
1. I'd love to see Civolution on your channel. I watched it only on Paul's. It was no1 most anticipated game of 2024 for you and I remember your excitement for it.
2. Maybe I can give you a tip how to extend your table in your RV? Maybe you could extend it twice by installing another one on a hinges. Extended one could lay on your current one and could be opened for your runthroughs. You could still eat and sit with Jen while it is closed and film epic games while it is opened. I am sure you could find good technical solution how to implement that.
All the best cheers.
yup, still excited to play, but we've made a set of travel changes and are now going to be heading back home way early, so i decided to wait and play & film it on my table since that would make it a lot easier!
i do have a side table here in the RV that i have used on some games so i could have made it work in a pinch :)
we got Castle Combo for Christmas - can't wait to play that one!
Interesting how the top 10 of BGG are mostly Previous Owned for you lol I usually don't go through games that are under rank 2000, so your list is the one that is actually helpful for me XD
You might like Heroes of Might and Magic III. It is impressive how they managed to distill the feeling of the video game while making smart choices to keep it manageable.
Worst rulebook of the year contender though (much better fan-made version on BGG) and quite table hog (not RV-friendly).
Great video!
You might want to give Altered a second look. You aren't attacking or fighting your opponent. You are racing to have your Hero and their Companion meet before the other player does. Love the channel!
not direct dueling, but still we're trying to tug of war every round beating each other on the landscape values, and me beating you prevents you from advancing, and that's the equivalent of me taking life points away in an attack. plus there are enough cards like spy craft and sabotage effects where we're screwing with each other. so yeah, i like the concept, but still too "interactive" for our tastes :)
Out of the New to Me games for 2024, Odin made it in my top 20. It's a good filler - card shedding/ladder climbing game. It's not one I would add to my collection, but I will occasionally play it on BGA and I would gladly play it in person, if I played games with other people that bought games.
Flip 7 is definitely worth a try. It’s light and lucky, but a ton of fun.
BTW, Huang is a retheme/reprint of Reiner Knizia’s Yellow and Yangtze.
ah, jen LOVED tigris & euphrates back in the day when we first got into the hobby! :)
I’m surprised very few people are talking about Reef Project! It might be my top game of the year so far.
i never got a chance to try it. from what i've seen, i'm confident it wouldn't have made my top 10, but it might have made my top 30.
Loved the video! Windmill valley is my fav new euro I’ve tried this year, and I really appreciate the look on lighter, less viral games. Speaking of which, we bought AI after seeing your pre Essen video and the game has been a huge hit! Great at all player counts, and even the art design has even grown on me :). I see you have not ranked it yet, might it go somewhere there in the updated list?
i was pretty disappointed with the way they made drafting work for 2p and so we ended up not keeping it :(
Great list.
My number one game now is Virtù from Pascal Ribrault.
And top games for 2024 that I have played so far are these:.
Endeavor Deep Sea
SETI
Wyrmspan
Unconscious Mind
Dune Uprising
Best games with new expansions:
Small Samurai Empires: Rise of Tokugawa
Gaia Project: The Lost Fleet
Apiary: Expanding the Hive
Forest Shuffle: Woodland Edge
Still waiting to play:
Men-Nefer
Arcs
Black Forest
Windmill Valley
Phoenix New Horizon
Tea Garden
Minos: Dawn of the Bronze Age
Galileo Galilei
Disappointment:
Civolution
Andromeda's Edge
Merry Christmas!
Top 10 Garphil Games is a great idea! But you should try Inventors of the South Tigris first because your top gripe with other South Tigris games with influence may be solved (depending on exactly what bugs you most about influence…at least, no increased cost for other players to take a card).
yup, looking forward to giving it a go, even though it seems pretty intimidating as their biggest heaviest game ever!
I grabbed copy of colab after your commentary !)
Me, too!
I guarantee you have the most unique top 10 of the year among popular content creators, love it.
Shipwritghs - only the second Garphil game I sold. Not bad but won't see the table.
Wonderous Creatures - I need to check this out!
Colab - not interested.
Castle Combo - played it, didn't click with me.
Phoenix New Horizon - I need to get this!
Cities - mildly curious, might check it out in 2025.
Blueprints - on my shelf, need to play it.
Windmill Valley - not a bad game but ended up selling it.
Spectacular and Saltfjord - love both, top 10 for me or 2024. Although Santa Maria is still better imo.
Nice list. White Castle is still my #1 game from 2023. Really want to try Saltfjord (and Men-Nefer) though. I've been a bit worried about Saltfjords replayability though after some reviewers complaining about it not being that high. You putting Saltfjord as your #1 might be the thing that push me towards actually getting it though. Will be interesting to see if it can hold its place next year.
who in the world would suggest lack of replayability! that's mind boggling to me! i've played the game a half dozen times now and had a fantastic time every time. i don't remember seeing anyone ever accuse santa maria of lacking replayability!
@@rahdo rewatched the review. He said that it could hold for maybe four plays. There are not that many video reviews on bgg so you can probably figure out who. But I decided to buy it as a late xmas gift to myself today! And hope it will be here in time to be the first game I play next year.
It's really not always easy to differentiate between board games and expansions. Because technically, if they're standalone, they're games and not expansions. They have started to introduce systems or families but these objects don't work yet with most of the other features. Mainly because the majority of games are a family of one. But yes, I would really welcome if they invested more into that.
yeah, 'systems' isn't bad, but i'd still just rather they have a different category of item. to boardgame and expansion add a third "boardgame/expansion" category. there's probably not more than a couple hundred of these in the entire database, and it would be a quick afternoon to get those tagged correctly :)
Phoenix New Horizon is my biggest surprise this year. What a blast of a game.
I've onyl played Shipwrights a couple times and really want a few more plays before making a decision on where this ranks for me among the Garphill games. #10 for 2024 is definitely high praise! I will be interested to hear your thoughts once Inventors gets to the table. Haven't played 9 or 8. Castle Combo is a nice simple and fun puzzle. Not my top 10 for 2024, but a solid game. Saltfjord is high on my listof 'want to play' games but sadly, no luck getting it in yet. Undergrove? River of Gold? Lure? River of Gold is one I'm most surprised to se missing as it is a very stream-lined game.
i mentioned river of gold and undergrove in the bgg top100 section... both are potential top 30 candidates. i have to admit i find recreational fishing to be a major turn off theme-wise, so i've never looked at it very closely
I got Saltfjord on your recommendation and really like it. I worry it won't have much replay value as I always feel like I manage to do "everything" each play.
well you must be much better gamer than us! if we've completely filled the village, we probably haven't done much shipping. if we're shipping magnates, we probably haven't done much fishing. we generally only make it to the top of one or two of the progress tracks. every game i've had has felt different with different things focused on, after about a half dozen plays.
so like i said, you'd probably kick our butts if you are literally accomplishing everything every game! :)
@rahdo I'm definitely not an expert and I could be playing wrong potentially. But in our three plays we have focused on maxing out all 4 tech tracks and the power upgrades mean we end up fishing and shipping a ton as a result, giving it kind of a "samey" feeling already.
well maybe we're playing something wrong, maybe you're playing something wrong, or maybe you're the best of all time or we're the worst! you might want to post to the forums on bgg and see if others have the same experience. i took a look and didn't see anyone posting a thread like this, and those tend to come up a lot on games where this happens: boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/422674/saltfjord/forums/0 :)
1:19:49 Did you ever play the video game version which it is based on? Many people are so happy to actually be able to touch the cards.
nope, i haven't played any video game since batman: arkham city in 2011!
agree 100% with Shipwrights, in fact, it was my first game of 2024
i was late to the party but i'm glad i got it to the table before the year was up!
Interesting top list! How many board games do you have?
somewhere between 4 and 5 hundred. i might be cutting that number in half in 2025 though...
I hear you on the Unmatched as I don’t want to consider new ones for top 10 of the year or anything, but they are actually stand alone. That’s typically the way I try them first and then integrate later. Expansions should have their own top 10 or whatever and it seems like more and more expansions come out every year too.
yeah, it's totally reasonable for the system to be like it is, i just wish BGG had a 4th classification for items:
* game
* expansion
* accessory
* game/expansion
so that i'd do a search only for games and avoid stuff like all the unmatched things when making lists like this.
of course, that's a pretty edge case issue, so no surprise there's no functionality like it on bgg! :)
(also it's super annoying that you can't advance search for only expansions as well!)
I wish there would be more attention on Fall of Lumen, not so many videos about so many people would, will miss it.
Fall of Lumen is imho absolutely best board game with deck building mechanic I've seen, played in history and one of the best which came out in 2024.
Anyone who loves deckbuilding mechanic should look on this game.
it seems like an interesting game for sure, but i passed on it because of the AI art :(
Top 10 Graphill Games sounds great!
alright, let's do this!
9. bethel woods
8. architects of west kingdom
7. paladins of west kingdom
6. raiders of north sea/scythia
5. ezra and nehimiah
4. hadrian's wall
3. viscounts of west kingdom
2. circadians first light
1. shipwrights of north sea redux
inventors of south tigris would fit in there somewhere, but i'm not sure where as i haven't played it yet! :)
Castle Combo goes with me everywhere that everyone really enjoys!
Have Faraway too.
What is another filler like CC you really enjoy?
point city, dice miner, nimalia, whatnot cabinet would be a few :)
Surprised not to see Captain's Chair in the top 30 - I could tell from your review it wouldn't make the top 10, but I thought the theme would carry it up there for you.
it's officially a 2025 game, so i'll be talking about it next year :)
After your review of Nassau, I'm surprised it's not at least in the top 30. Still, fun list!
i was surprised how much i enjoyed it and would happily play it any time, but in the end i'm still put off by the roll to resolve stuff so that's what's keeping it out of my collection
I'm wondering whether Civolution could sneak to your top 10 later in the updated version of 2024 top 10.
it seems a very good game
we'll find out soon! i had hoped to get it played before filming this, but it just wasn't feasible in the time i had :(
I don't know, besides Saltfjord it feels like a slow year for me. It's the only game I'm mildly interested in.
And windmill valley but that's only because I'm dutch 🤣
Thanks for the video though.
Happy holidays Rahdo and family!
Is Adventure Ink: Five Factions of Filligre still being developed, or is it no longer a thing? It sounded very interesting when you talked about it years ago, just wondering if you had any info. Cheers!!
it's defintely on hold for the foreseeable future :(
plunderous has to get done first, and it's suffered so many setbacks. maybe somewhere in the future, but hard to see that happening at this point, tbh!
@rahdo Yeah, that's understandable but unfortunate. Thanks for the info, and thanks for all the work you put in, it's very much appreciated!
Fishing is excellent (in my top 3 for the year), but it's minimum 3 players
ah well that's doubly good news (another great game for folks to enjoy, and one less for me to check out since it doesn't support 2p) :)
Did you say Rock Hard was lighter than Ticket to Ride? It seemed to have a lot going on to me. Certainly it is not heavy once I got the hang of how it played, but there are a lot more choices to make than a game like Ticket to Ride or 7 Wonders.
I haven’t played a lot of 2024. A couple of them were BGA only: Pixies and Draft & Write Records. I’ve played Endeavour Deep Sea and Rock Hard and enjoyed them both. I just got LOTR Duel, and am looking forward to playing that as 7 Wonders Duel is one of my favorites. Probably the favorite new game I played this year is listed as a 2025 game: Diatoms.
rock hard has more complex rules, but the gameplay in ttr is deeper imo (especially something like ttr europe). and diatoms is on my wishlist! :)
So no cooperative games? Or did I miss one? Always a bit disappointed when that happens. Maybe a quick top 1 or 2 or 3 co-ops?
wow, you're right, no co-op in the top 10! the closest co-op to the top 10 is currently the excellent co-op mode of endeavor deep sea at #13 (i'd rather play it co-op than competitive actually). then leviathan wilds at #20, then landmarks at #28!
other good co-op games of the year that didn't make my top 30:
the gang (3p minimum so i can't try it)
slay the spire (jen and i didn't like it but a lot of folks LOVE it)
kinfire delve (a nice series)
thorgal (love the mechanisms, but adventures were a bit pu&d)
urbion (best co-op oniverse game in awhile)
runemasters (needs more than 2p to be at its best)
a few i liked but jen didn't:
primal
dungeon legends
some that i only played in prototype form but liked:
hacktivity
rone
fategorge
and here's a few i want to try but haven't had a chance to yet:
the mandalorian
invincible hero building game
defenders of the wild
mistborn deckbuilding game
clank legacy 2
star realms rise of empire
harmony
ecosfera
over 700 new co-ops came out according to bgg, so there's probably a bunch more hidden gems as well: boardgamegeek.com/search/boardgame?sort=rank&advsearch=1&q=&include%5Bdesignerid%5D=&include%5Bpublisherid%5D=&geekitemname=&range%5Byearpublished%5D%5Bmin%5D=2024&range%5Byearpublished%5D%5Bmax%5D=2024&range%5Bminage%5D%5Bmax%5D=&range%5Bnumvoters%5D%5Bmin%5D=&range%5Bnumweights%5D%5Bmin%5D=&range%5Bminplayers%5D%5Bmax%5D=&range%5Bmaxplayers%5D%5Bmin%5D=&range%5Bleastplaytime%5D%5Bmin%5D=&range%5Bplaytime%5D%5Bmax%5D=&floatrange%5Bavgrating%5D%5Bmin%5D=&floatrange%5Bavgrating%5D%5Bmax%5D=&floatrange%5Bavgweight%5D%5Bmin%5D=&floatrange%5Bavgweight%5D%5Bmax%5D=&colfiltertype=&searchuser=rahdo&nosubtypes%5B0%5D=boardgameexpansion&playerrangetype=normal&propertyids%5B0%5D=2023&B1=Submit
@@rahdo Bomb Busters is an awesome logical deduction co-op game. Similar to The Crew, it has missions that introduce and build up the difficulty and mixup the setup.
yeah, i really should add that one to my list. i have an inherent aversion to deduction, but you're right the crew is awesome :)
Thanks @rahdo!
Small kickstarter release, but Helionox:Chronicles also released this year. Rahdo seemed to like the preview, but the game changed a lot since then. I really enjoy it.
Great list! But how does Blueprints elevate the gameplay from Castles aside from the open draft? It feels like the other elements (objectives, room scoring, etc.) are in the original game too.
besides dropping the variable cost setting portion of the game (which over time became a real turn off for us), there's a bunch of other changes and improvements. no more hallways means harder choices for how to expand. new tricks like being able to add secret passages are a more fun way to give you flexibility. The building space expanding over time becoming a touch choice to make. and the powers for rooms are much cooler, taking advantage of the roll&write format like letting players literally change where doors appear in rooms and such.
the only thing that the original has over blueprints is that the are on the tiles is nice looking. but that's it, imo :)
1:15:51 I thought Skyrise was one which Kimberly covered!
yes you're right, it was kimberly on that one, not shea!
Star Tycoon and River of Gold are up there for me. Both excellent games
yup, RiG is high on my must try list. star tycoon i think i haven't heard of... will go check it out! :)
Regarding Shipwrights Redux, how do you compare it to It's a Wonderful World? The first time I'd heard about it was in someone's top 10, (maybe Kovray?) and I'm curious to check it out. Wonderful World is top 20, maybe top 10 for me.
they've both got similar structure (draft to collect final hand, and then use that hand as best you can with multi-use cards), but WW is an engine builder, while Redux is a recipe fulfilment game. to be honest, described liek that i would have said WW, but the ways you can combo cards in Redux is so satisfying i think i have to give it to garphill. i'll have a runthrough for it up soon :)
@@rahdo Thanks. I will try to watch for that run through.
8.51889 rating for Unconscious Mind, how do You come up with such numbers and why with so many after comma ? 😅
t comes about because i'm slipping a game between two others. so if i had two games ranked 8.736 and 8.737 then got another one that i like inbretween them, i've got to go 8.7365.
over a decade, more and more games slip between the others :)
Thank you for your list. I am surprised not to see Slay the Spire may I ask why?
i talked about it in the bgg100 portion of the video, but basically we thought the game was just "okay"
@@rahdo Thank you!
Thank you for this, could you please take a look at the link for phoenix? It’s actually linked to blue prints instead of
oh yes you're right! my mistake, fixed now, thanks for the heads up! :)
Help Rahdo!!! I’m looking for a game that does the same card tucking or playing on top of a stack like Daybreak. Any recommendations?
i am certain there must be other games that have done it, but i can't think of any (my brain doesn't work that way). you should post to boardgamegeek.com/forum/8/bgg/recommendations and i guarantee within an hour you'll have some solid answers! :)
@ thank you
Have you tried Fromage? It’s really great at 2, and it seems like one you’d like.
yup, i really enjoyed playing the prototype, never got a chance to try the final version. i think i mentioned that on in the bgg100 section :)
Please share your thoughts on isle of cats duel.
it's excellent. will be talking about it in more detail in the monthly roundup (on the 31st i think) but it's another great addition to the cats family. it's the lightest one, and the hate drafting is stronger here than any other version, so it's my first that doesn't make my top10 of the year (unlike draw & write and the original) but it's still in my top20 for the year :)
Odin is good, I've played it on bga. Probably too light for you.
ah i went and took a look... ladder climbing, which is why i've passed it by before
@@rahdo I had to look up what ladder climbing is, but yeh that's what it is. Fair enough.
The more games come out each year the more i end up only buying 1 or 2. Nothing new under the sun in the last 5 years or so. Always appreciate the reviews though.
What do you think about creatures caravan and Gest of Robin Hood?
both got mentioned in the bgg top100 portion of the video. if you can't find it, CC = top 30, gest = not interested in coin games :)
Life of the Amazonia!
that's the one! :)
Phil Walker-Harding :)
i remembered it less than 5 minutes after i stopped filming! :)
@@rahdo Praise be
Where is Star Trek Captains Chair😢?
it's officially a 2025 game (i just got an early copy) so i'm sure i'll be talking about it next year :)
8.73647 how do you come to such a number?
it comes about because i'm slipping a game between two others. so if i had two games ranked 8.736 and 8.737 then got another one that i like inbretween them, i've got to go 8.7365.
over a decade, more and more games slip between the others :)
just for the record, you said "sort by number of votes" and then clicked on Board Game Rank... :)
hehe, i do make goofs from time to time :)
Try Botanicus with one change, roll a die for the dummy player.
@rahdo I heard you mention that after I already posted my comment. You may want to give them a mulligan with this one. I think it's a game you and Jen would really enjoy. What's the statute of limitation for their indiscretion? I hate to see you deprive yourself.
@@keith2570 if HiG ever about-faces on their horrible anti-industry meeple trademark BS, then i shall give it a try :)
ohh Rahdo. Don't sleep on Compile: Main 1 !
i've heard nothing but great things about it, but we're just not that into tug of war head to head style games :)
It is notorious how Rahdo's taste began to lean "light" over the past years, probably a function of the load of games to review so no time to go too deep but also, as he mentions a couple of times, it seems the typical medium elegant Euro vanished, now it is either a light game or a 3.8+ with a thousand pieces, 5 different mechanisms screaming "look at me, I am unique" and very verbose rulesbook.
i think my list this year (and most years) is full to the brim with what we've always loved the most: typically medium elegant euros :)
I'm sorry but I don't understand this choice, I watched your videos and it appeared from several that in the ranikng of the best for 2024 will also include Minos: Dawn of the Bronze Age, Men Nefer and daitoshi and yet here they are not. Why ? on your videos about the above mentioned games you praised them highly , even announcing that they will be in this ranking
minos is #14 on the list, and almsot every game that is higher on the list than it is something that i played after it, so i didn't know how they'd rate at the time.
if you go back and check out my men nefer final thoughts, you'll see how i talked about how disappointed i was that the game was longer than it should be, and that i might decide to accept that, or that might be why i get rid of it. in the end, i decided the length was too long, so i got rid of it.
same thing with my daitoshi video: i talked about my issues with it as a 2p game, and that's what led me to get rid of it as well.
if you go back and check the videos again, you'll see i talked aobut this stuff, both in the runthroughs and also in the monthly roundup video where i revisited them: th-cam.com/video/NKXxTzf0hTA/w-d-xo.html
shame you didn't 'approve' my comment about your hans im glück comment...oh well. i don't think i was being negative, just trying to make sense of it.
sorry i don't remember seeing your comment... tbh one of my biggest complaints about youtube is that it's incredibly easy to accidentally delete comments in the "administration" interface, with no way to recover them and no warning. maybe that's what happened with your earlier post? if so, my apologies! i'm happy enough to talk about the HiG situation though!
@rahdo ok :-)
i hadn't heard of it, and was very surprised of you're reaction since you always try to give people the benefit of the doubt, and seem(?) to like playing devil's advocat?
i looked up what happened, and it seems what hig did was within their rights since they have trademarked the term 'meeple'. the hig legal representative apologized for the too aggressive wording of the first notice, and the company in question is still allowed to release their game, just with a different name. having to change the name doesn't seem toooo bad, i dunno. also, it could be argued that hig is in general pretty relaxed when it comes to the trademark, since a lot of games with the word 'meeple' in them have been released since they trademarked the term. it's not like they're suing people all over the place. sure, it's an unfortunate situation that probably could habe been settled 'friendlier', but saying hig is dead to you also seems like a veeery strong reaction.
so i was just wondering if there was anything i missed. thank you for any clarifications you are willing to give :-)
apologizing for wording doesn't change the fact that they basically attacked another company and put them at financial risk by forcing them to incur significant cost to rebrand their game and themselves. artists costs, changes to printing schedule, etc... these can be company killers for a small independent startup, and it's frankly disgusting that HiG as a prominent established company would do this.
but that aside, the entire foundation of their claim is incredibly faulty and sets a terrible precedent for the hobby. it's worse even than the old WOTC "tap cards" thing. At least in that case, they had a valid claim. in the case of meeple, HiG didn't invent the term, only adopted it much later after it was invented up with by a player and many other companies were already using it. it was absurd on the face of it for them to try to "steal" common property of the entire industry, which is why the claim was denied in most countries.
and then on top of it, there's being inconsistent with the usage of it... many other companies have used meeple in their games, game titles, etc., and HiG has let it pass because... reasons. but now they decide to hit some small indi.
honestly, it makes my blood boil to think of it. it's easily one of the most despicable things i've ever seen in the boardgame industry. they may be legally within their rights to be a-holes, but it doesn't mean they're not a-holes!
@@rahdo hm, ok.
i have to say i feel like the question if it's 'correct' that hig was allowed to obtain the trademark for 'meeple' is a seperate issue that shouldn't come into play here. is it weird? yes. is it stealing? maybe.
should they have been allowed to trademark the term? probably not.
but the fact is they have it, so it is their right to do something like this. they are protecting their business. again, is this an a-hole move? of course.
but again, it can be argued that the fact that they are inconsistent about it means they are not a-holes about it in general, and probably felt that that in this situation there was a threat that is usually not there? i don't know, i'm playing devil's advocat here ;-)
is a company suing another company really aware of the financial situation of the firm they are suing?
i don't know, it feels like this could have gone down a lot more ugly than it did.
but i understand your view and i don't want to argue :-)
thank you for sharing your thoughts!
well since i'm not debating the legal merits of the case but the moral ones, i think the question of whether HiG should be enforcing a trademark on something they didn't create is 100% the central issue at hand. and it's then compounded by the "bullying" effect of them doing real harm and punching down on a small independent publisher but conveniently "ignoring" the other big publishers who could fight back, so they let them slide. did they go after AEG for meeples & mosters? no. did they go after cmon for meeple war? no. matagot for meeple circus? bezier for mutant meeples? final frontier for fistfull of meeples? repos for terror in meeple city? etc.
there are many disgusting things that companies can do in the world that are totally legal. but it doesn't make them right. we generally don't see things like this in the boardgame industry, which make's HiG's action all the more reprehensible imo.
I really don't like those life is good shirts. I actually have no idea what the point is. To brag? I don't think you're a braggart. There is so much needless suffering in the world. Anyway ... it is likely a personality deficiency on my part. I'm not asking you to change.
the point of wearing them is a reminder to try to look on the bright side, to remember that in spite of all the problems we face, there's good in our lives too! :)
@@rahdook thx for the response. I probably need to learn that lesson myself.