2023 Games of the year
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 ส.ค. 2024
- A reminder that only our reviews are 3 and bit minutes long.
To support us on Patreon please head over here www.patreon.com/user?u=9257332
And, if you just want to buy us a coffee for a good job, pop over here ko-fi.com/B0B27OIZ
3 minute board games theme Music by Vic Granell
boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3...
Sound effects from www.zapsplat.com
"Shiny tech" "Shiny tech 2" " (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
"Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act
1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use." - เกม
A big thank you to the 3 minute board game patrons for making another year of making content possible. It really helps keep the channel honest that we can be customer driven and sponsored rather than doing ads for publishers and games. Help keep these awards and many other things "unpaid for" by supporting us on patreon. I can think of 7500 reasons to keep your board game media independent of asking for money from publishers, heres hoping some folks who read this agree with this philosophy and come support us on patreon. It's always appreciated.
I absolutely love Heat and my one nitpick is the lack of an orange car when one of the cars on the cover was clearly based on Bruce McLaren. Other than that, it’s damn near perfect.
That was the final line of my original review, where's my damned orange McLaren.
I’ve purchased a number of games during the past year. Heat Pedal to the Metal is the game that keeps coming back to the table on game night! Our game group has grown larger with a variety of player abilities, so up to 6 players works great for us. A race car theme wouldn’t normally be my theme of choice but the theme fits the game really well, and it’s a fun game! Other contenders Beer and Bread (a great 2 player game), Planet Unknown (might be a 2022 game), and Earth are great games I got this past year too.
I think that mine are
Knarr - small box game, Viking themed engine building and engine breaking. Neat package all round.
Perspectives - innovative co-op deduction game, maximises player communication and eliminates alpha-gaming by spiltting the info (provided on very nicely illustrated cards) between the players. People who enjoy stuff like Chronicles of Crime should like this.
Hegemony - it’s really too much game for me and I may never get to play it again, but it does such a good job of nailing its hugely ambitious scope, mechanisms and theme.
Your comments about Circadians: Chaos Order are spot on Jay, especially as someone who played the original Dune to death b/c we only had a handful of decent games. I so want a few people in my group to take to this one and play it through on a regular basis, that means having time I just don't have.
It is a freaking legend of a game. No doubt about it.
I love the risk/reward push-your-luck aspect of USING Heat cards. that element alone is what makes the game great to me
Heat is fantastic. I played it with my wife, which turned out in a tense duel. I also played with four players and added the car upgrades, which massively changed the experience. Can't wait to organise a championship.
I discovered Heat at the beginning of this year and it clicked really hard for me. Was happy to see so many people liking it as well as upcoming expansions.
Used to hate racing board games because they were turn based, but this game is so much more dynamic than the ones I've played. Also inspired to make a tournament at my local game club.
...Now I'm surprised I didn't see Arkham in the list, but considering you made entire extended videos about that, all is forgiven.
Arkham just didnt fit any of the categories. All the awards are for games that only came out in the last year or so. If you check my top 100 games video instead, Arkham features highly.
@@3MBGThere is a new pnp for 2nd edition that is near ready to launch into the horror scape. Designed by the fanatics of the game, play tested insanely and it should blow one’s world! 😊
My new game to me, of 2023 was (shortlist…. Heat, Radlands, Ark Nova, For Glory, War of the Ring the card game) and the winner is “For Glory” deck building into gladiatorial arena fighting for survival, casting you as the Gladiator School owner needing political support to sponsor your organisation to build a better stable of fighters, and then training them better (tactics cards) to out manoeuvre your opponent across 3 arena fights. Wow, it’s good!
I agree Star Wars Deck Builder is a solid little game. I feel Bonsai is a great foundation game that came out late in the year.
I wish your videos where longer. You always leave us wanting more 😊
Circadians: Chaos Order is a masterpiece. It came to me as a huge surprise, I never expected a game from eurogame designers to challenge the supreme state of Dune (2019) and Kemet on the area control side. The game has crisp mechanisms, rock-solid gameplay, limited loss factor (far easier to come back than in Dune), clear (if complicated) rules, a very good amount of asymmetry and a simply genius mechanic with Relic board control (built-in round timer, game-ending condition, objective worth fighting for from the first turn to the last all in one). Game plays equally challenging with 3, 4 or 5 players, every decision counts, every part of the round counts, resources matter, placement matters.
This game for me personally came out of nowhere. I ordered it just because I liked the both the North Sea and Western Kingdoms trilogies, but it skyrocketed in my top 5 of all time. It was very favorably accepted by our small community of area-control junkies, who are always keen on playing games like Dune, Kemet, Inis, Ankh, Mezo, Blood Rage etc, and it's always a delight to play. The only drawback is pretty wild color scheme and questionable art, which repels some random people from even trying it, but for us it's just a masterpiece; maybe not TI4 or Rebellion level, but right below them.
Yeah, it sounds like you have the right group for it for sure. As i said, with the right group it has all the makings of an absolute classic
Love that you have categories....thanks for the vid!
Like an old school award show. More fun than just a top 10
I would have liked to have 2 honorable mentions at least mentioned for every category.
Become a patron 😏
Sure, im not sure i had 2 honourable mentions in mind for many of the categories. Bollocks if i know what my 3rd placed innovation of the year was, nor small box game as i played bugger all of them. And for NZ games, I only played 4, lol.
First of all, a great set of games! I have Heat: Pedal to the Metal in shrink, ready to open, which is exciting.
Second, thank you thank you thank you for saying aloud what I have said hundreds of times in my mind over the years when reviewers and content creators almost always forget to credit Sam Macdonald for the games he designed with Shem Phillips. They're BOTH great and they make terrific games TOGETHER, as well as apart. Your shout out to Sam is so well deserved and you made me so happy that someone else gets it. Cheers!
Hey! That's so kind of you to say :)
As someone who recently started buying board games (Azul and Lost Cities) and played about 30 of them (most of them only once) and watched too many YT videos about this hobby, I have to ask you all some questions:
1. How often do you play board games (in person, online, on your phone...)?
2. How many hours a week do you spend playig?
3. How many new (for you) games you try out in a months time?
I'm just curious, so thank you for your time!
P.S. And thank you, 3MBG, for making really good instruction/review videos! Cheers! =)
1. Almost every day. I have 3 sessions with other people booked in each week minimum, and occasional pick up sessions
2. The above sessions are all 3-4 hours each. The rest varies wildly as i can do full day sessions on the weekend on occasion.
3. I don't try to overload myself, i aim to do new 2 games a week.
@@3MBG Thank you!
Star Wars TDG is great. The Leaders unofficial solo variant is the best automata I’ve experienced.
Ark Nova is my best new-to-me game. The official solo mode is so smooth. I didn’t think a long multiplayer euro could have a quick engaging solo mode.
Heat is good, but the Legends cars are all over the place. They are so much faster in the straights (move 19) that it’s like racing heavy 1000hp muscle cars against a Mazda Miata/MX-5. We average the same number of turns per lap, but get there very differently. I probably just need to play more of the campaign. I’ve only finished the 1961 season.
Sorry, but the champion for late arrivals is Brazil 😫 (and when they arrive, we have translation issues). Great video!
Ah yes, i have no doubt. I should really have said the champion of the English speaking world, because i have patrons in Brazil, Chile, Argentina and a few other places and they all have real trouble sourcing stuff.
btw small publishers e.g. Japan, Hong Kong, can’t reach mass retailers 😢 hopefully newer lighter bio compost components can make games more accessible to everyone. Btw New Zealand is on my travel bucket list
Heat is so easy to teach and replay-able even for non racing fans 😊
Love Heat, great game, have only played vanilla version, need to get the upgrades going etc. I still own Waddingtons Formula 1, that was soooo good.
Couldn't agree more on heat! The game is packed full of content, is really fun and even non racing fans can loke it
Thoroughly enjoyed the list! Thank you
Nice! I’ve been excited to see what your top games were for the year
Good stuff as always, Jay!
Thanks for sharing your picks.
I was really impressed with Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game too.
I got Scholars of the South Tigris on a bit of a whim (I've played Architects and love its worker placement but haven't tried any other games in their trilogies) during a holiday sale and played it for the first time this past weekend and super loved it!!
I picked Libertalia last year, and it's exactly what I wanted in terms of blending strategy and chaos for higher player count game nights.
I'd like to try Art Society. Seems like it could be great for lighter game nights.
I've played Heat online on Board Game Arena and have enjoyed it, but it's one of those games where I don't understand why others love it so much, ha. I felt the same way about Earth and have only played that on BGA too.
Art Society is very whimsical fun to play 😊
heat was my best acquisition in recent years.
Thanks for making the video. Had not heard of Akropolis, so will check it out. Do want to also try circadians and Star Wars deck building game. From 20222023 have really enjoyed Beast, Deliverance, Distilled, Scout and Splendor Duel. With all that, picked up a used copy of Le Harve and ot lives up to the expectations set bu your better half😅
I jumped in on Architects, played Paladins five times, Viscounts still needs two plays, but Architects is the only one to stay. Wouldn’t mind going back to check the redux of the North series. Waiting for someone else to show me the South series but I’ll definitely check them out. Scholars looks interesting. Wayfarers looks more appealing. And Inventors, from descriptions and pictures looks to maybe the best if not second.
Stayed tuned, i have had a copy of inventors arrive in the last 24 hours
All super solid choices.
I got myself out of the rush for the newest games so this list resonates with me. I think Oath was the last hyped game I backed and really didn't enjoy- it is the board game craze, but really good games will always find a way to shine no matter what year they were published.
I'm always excited for something new for the Arkham Horror LCG and Detective: City of Angels. And there's a couple of games on my radar like In The Shadows (GMT) or Night Witches that are still to come probably next year. Still curious about Halls of Hegra for example, but glad I broke the board game spell so to speak lol
Halls of Hegra is coming to the channel real soon. Here's our public workflow board. trello.com/b/NTOjHZkj/3-minute-board-games
@@3MBG Very cool, thank you! Looks like there's good stuff coming our way.
I still wanted to add that while 'hotness' is a big factor in the community/industry and for content creators, I think it really is 3MBG's format that made me a fan. When I started to get into the hobby in 2018 and started to look at tons and tons of games most often 3MBG already had a review on it on the channel, covering a lot of ground. Black Orchestra, Bloc by Bloc and Obsession were games I found out about and got because of this channel. Did I mention Bloc by Bloc?
3 great games right there, all quite different too
Top games for me have been Heat, Guild of Merchant Explorers, Distilled, Ark Nova, Cubed, and Castles of Burgundy.
Libertalia is such a brilliant game. Another Stonemaier gem!
My new to me game of the year 2023 was TILETUM.
I had fun with that one, probably not a keeper for me, but would be happy to play again
Thanks
Dang. I think I need to get Heat
New to you game, from 2001 haha that would be funny. I didn’t play Agricola until 2022, so it happens.
Castles of burgundy was my new to me game from a few years back.
great video, great games. I’ve got another category: Best Small Table Game. A game that fits on a regular table. ☺️
lol
Keep up the great content bro
Cheers @krispe. Stay tuned for our innsmouth recap in a months time too.
@@3MBG Fantastic, looking forward to it!
Haha I JUST heard about the Hugo awards story this morning, I thought it was a weird coincidence until you called 'em out
The story there keeps getting worse.
Three minute board games? You must play them incredibly fast!
Not as fast as you are making love, but close.
@@3MBG😂
books of time mechanics + fit to print theme? 😊🎉
Maybe, i like the idea of spell books personally
Totally agree about Sam MacDonald!
i have always felt like i play heat wrong. I played two games with the standard/basic rules without the competition or extra cards, and it felt very "meh", play some cards, move the car, repeat. I also read the rules for the extra cards/deck building aspect, but that didnt feel like a real deck builder but more like 3 random upgrades
I think of it less as a deck builder and more of a card management game. Unlike most deckbuilders for example, you dont ditch your hand at the end of the turn. Perhaps approaching it from a different lens might help?
@@3MBG I hope so! Haven't given it a proper shot since then, "collecting" board games really takes its toll on what games do and don't hit the table🤣
Bang on with GOTY - also refreshing to not arbitrarily say you can't give the same game multiple awards.
Really think that HEAT does something special. The base game is good and so much more accessible and "grokable" to non gamers thanks to the theme. But that advanced game is mind blowing. Truly Days of Wonder back to (and beyond?) their best.
Going back 10-15 years Days of Wonder were right up there with FFG for putting out the best looking best playing games. It's good to see them return to form
@3MBG lol well you've now you've mentioned FFG - we can hope to a return to form from them! It's telling that for as stunning a production as HEAT is, it no longer causes the jaw to drop as the DoW did back in the day (SmallWorld blew our minds). Which isn't to diminish HEAT, but more to say that production is one side of the hobby that is unrecognisable to 10-15 years ago.
I enjoyed Akropolis, but do retain reservations about games that encourage hate drafting to block the strategy of others / as a way of balancing unbalanced approaches (c.f. harbour building in Quadropolis). I much prefer better balance, where it's how well you execute it, not how much others block it. If Planet Unknown squeezes into this category, I'd probably have that as my suggestion.
I love that you've recognised the innovation in books of time, despite having issues with the actual game. I definitely value innovation, and conversely can get turned off a game if it feels like a bit of game A, a bit of game B, plus the rest from game C, all finished off with a generic or recently trendy theme... even if by borrowing so much, it plays very solidly. For me I'd choose Kutna Hora with its cardboard calculators. A solid attempt to represent a bi-dimensional economy. CGE put out a recent video that shows the original mad prototype attempt. Interesting insight into game design iterations.
Small box game for me this year would be the viking see-saw in the Itten fun brick series. Nothing innovative, but it absolutely shines for the quality of the components, usually inviting mocking comments about the cubes vs. those in terraforming mars.
Re: the chaos order comments, whilst I might bemoan the transient nature of boardgame hype/hotness, amongst content creators and boardgamers alike, I'm finding another influence personally that steers me away from games that come to life after repeated plays. Our gaming group is large and never pre-arranges games (to stop cliques building up). As a result we're invariably playing different games each week, with different players. Gone are the days where I'd meet with the same circle of friends every weekend. With such a transient grouping, it becomes a negative where prior experience gives a huge advantage. I've not played Scholars, but it definitely appeals more than Wayfarers, so I am looking forward to playing it.
Libertalia I'm reasonably ambivalent about. Not exciting, but I'd not turn down a game of it. One minor gripe was that the game is somewhat dependent on good combinations of crew coming out, as it's possible for dull combinations to come out (most notable in the 1st round).
Re: heat, my biggest gripe is that players can get shafted in the corners, and despite the catchup mechanism, can lead to players being dropped off the back. I though formula D handled that a little better, and kudos to it for making roll to move still work in the modern era.
One final honourable mention from me: Nova Roma. On one hand a points salad with a well-worn and light theme, but it's rock-solid as a game, with an appealingly different action selection mechanism (grid where you do the row and column heading actions). The icing on the cake being the clearest on board graphical design summary boxes for the actions. An absolute dream to teach (and learn).
Excellent post,
I for one love that people get screwed if they stuff up in HEAT, i even wish it was a little worse. The games are short enough that if you want to do hard out into a corner and fail, so be it. Glory or defeat.
For libertalia, never had that happen so far. I can see it happening, but i guess my group i play it with are such smack talkers i doubt we would notice.
And that gaming group, well, there is nothing wrong with cliques if people are enjoying their games. If one group of people want to play a game of 7 wonders every week, why does that need to be regulated. Very odd. I wonder if this is common because the "1 and done" mentality out there is not just board game influencers.
Motorsport and motorsport games are my thing. I have a very large collection missing only Formula 90 of all the must have games.
Chris Amon like Dan Gurney was always at the wrong place at the wrong time. Always going to a good team just as they faded to a mid pack status.
Aw man, sounds like i could spend a pretty fun weekend at your place.
I am quite hyped for Liam Lawson to get a drive, asides from Brendan Hartleys brief interlude in f1, it's been an age since kiwis had a real presence there. Scott Dixons been pretty dominant in indycars but i rarely watch them.
You either have a big influence on me, or we have a similar taste. Three games mentioned here are in my tiny collection.
Thank you for your work in 2023.
This year you can review The last Kingdom. I think it's pretty intresting boardgame.
No plans to review that one at this stage, will see how the year shapes up though
If you liked Libertalia have you played Oriflamme? Does a somewhat similar limited cards and those cards activate down a track type thing. Think I prefer it to Libertalia a bit but I've only played Libertalia the once.
Oriflamme? Nope, will add it to the list
Best Games of the 22/23 Financial Year
Enjoyed the vid. Looking forward to the new award in Feb 2025 ‘Best game I invented’ as long as GMT pull their finger out.
An exceptional idea for an award.
@@3MBG might well beat Cuba Libre off my COIN shelf of shame and become 1st COIN played👍
racing movies: Rush, Ford vs Ferrari 🏎️🏁🎉
Rush was amazing, I though FvF was ok, just a bit long
Do the advanced rules in Heat make a big improvement? I've only played the intro version and enjoyed it, but was a bit underwhelmed. Keen to give it another go sometime with the advanced rules, or the three game series.
I think its a step up, but i also liked the core rules a lot, so not sure if it will work for you
@@3MBG I'll definitely give it another go with the advanced rules. I love deck building and love racing games (Quest for El Dorado is a favourite of mine), so was disappointed that it didn't fully click with me. Perhaps I'd hyped it up too much in my own head?
Oh that happens to me a lot, a game will be all hyped up and then fail hard because it doesn't meet expectations. Dune Imperium was that for me, and its slowly grown on me over the years after bouncing off hard
@@3MBG I loved Dune Imperium from the get-go, and it's only grown on me. Again, deck building. Funny thing about Heat... I won the game and usually that biases me towards a more positive review. But in Heat it was the opposite. I spun out on one of the first corners and was trailing the entire game. Right in the last round or two I caught up and then absolutely catapulted to the front in the final turn. By rights I felt like I didn't deserve to win given my rubbish start.
Have you had the chance to play Stationfall? I love nemesis and stationfall might just replace it because of how chaotic and fun it is.
not yet. We were literally talking about it last night and one of my group has it, so "soon"
@@3MBG yay! Looking forward to your review!
Might not review it as such, will have to see.
When might we get a Red Dust Rebellion update?
Soon, GMT update us to final proofing last month, and hopefully we are going to the printers next month. That's when ill do a big announcement, once i know its off to print.
Great list of award winners. Now, Circadians… which is better First Light or Chaos Order, and why? Or, should you have both for any reason? Thx
They are so dramatically different. First light is very much a normal Garphill game, so people who like their stuff will see a lot of similar mechanics in there. I think its one of the best of their games like that. Chaos order is more in the Dune, Twilight Imperium, Eclipse and Kemet space. A real "in your face" game with a lot of fighting.
I prefer first light, but thats almost entirely because i get to table it a lot more
@@3MBG thank you
12:21 was that edit by design? im confused
Yes, the other awards interrupting were part of the presentation.
@@3MBG ah thanks, I though I was going crazy lol
So interesting... I totally get why people dig the theme (especially racing fans), but I bounced quite hard off Heat. Realjon has a review that pretty much echoes my feelings about it. Felt like the choices are pretty lacking, and most of the game feels like it plays itself.
Eh, i'm not gonna try and convince you otherwise. But i think the core idea that "the game plays itself" is a somewhat patronizing position in this context. I watched that guys videos and he was acting like he always had the perfect hand every single time and could always get to the right position without any effort. And yeah, that's just not my personal experience with the game at all. And that's fine, we all have different experiences with games.
oh no! my willpower to NOT buy Heat: Pedal to the Metal is now foiled by knowing it has a good solo mode. I blame you Jay
Fair. The solo is so damned simple to run. It's smart
I really do wonder how or why HEAT is so popular, when Flamme Rouge is so much better as a game. Flamme is smooth and polished, whereas HEAT just gets grinded down into a halt right from the start. HEAT for me is a 5/10, whereas Flamme Rouge is a solid 8/10.
F1 cars are cooler than Cyclists?
I like Flamme Rougue too, but its a very different feel with the two bikes and running out of resources. Not sure what you mean by heat having you halt immediately though
@@3MBG It's fiddly, is what I mean. Even after repeated plays each players turn grinds into a halt of rules checking. There's way too many steps into a turn and small rules here and there that stop it having a nice flow. Playing it on Boardgamearena eases it a bit since the site does all the rules stuff much faster.
First to say first