>>97319529
>TQ
MPS auction game would do numbers with the Kickstarter crowd

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*ahem*
The autism has been rising, the spreadsheets call.
It is that time of year again!
/BGG/S TOP NINE

Use Pub Meeple's Top Nine generator and post your top nine games

https://www.pubmeeple.com/top-nine

Newbies and the forgetful can check out /bgg/s previous 'Top Nine' results in the OP survey results

Top nines will be collected over the next two weeks, sometime afterwards I will post the compiled data and we can compare to where the generals darlings lay a year ago.

VENERATE THE COUNT

off to a great start with ~20+ submissions. Will have one final call to action in the future thread next week, and then the counting shall commence in earnest

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Too early for Europe, too late for East coast, right in time for the Ozzies
Whats in the box?

>>97319529
>what is your stonemaier-tier concept for a sure money board game megahit?
Cute critters exploration game. A bunch of different small animals explore a farmhouse during nighttime, trying to scavenge food and dodging the sinister cat. Probably ending in them releasing all the animals because humans bad. I just nos realized I'm largely copying Mice&Mystics, so imagine it as a combatless almost purely narrative game experience ala vantage

Also, about "I probably need to try botc again"
>€162 without shipping
Lol
Lmao even

>>97320070
Ashes big box?

>>97320070
>Dinosaur butt plugs?
You're supposed to give a slight hint

>>97320413
ooooh I like what you are thinking.
there is some Plaid Hat in here, but it is not the bulk of the box content.
>>97320419
>hint
There are three different things going on in the box
But I've been waiting for months and months for one item to arrive before the order shipped out.

>>97320070
Elder scrolls?

>>97320445
Is it a new release?

>>97320485
All but one item are 2025 releases.

banti

>>97320070
Gloomhaven 2ed, because of the weight.

>>97319529
Is there a game that functions mostly similar to the Betrayal series, but with roles and goals set out from the beginning like nemesis? Ideally with no vitual assistant thing like mansions of madness.

>>97320070
My ass

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>>97320047

>>97320047
My top 9:
>Shards of infinity
>Sagrada
>Saboteur
>Dale of merchants
>Piña coladice
>KLASK
>Ashes
>Toy battle
>Sea salt & paper

>>97321021
hell yeah agent avenue

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I haven’t yet had the chance to play a lot of heavier titles that I think I would also enjoy like spirit island

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Ehh it is a janky-ass collection, but it is-a my collection.
Because of current life circumstances I played a fair amount solo. That and theme factor very heavily into my choices (though I dont like gameplay suffering in service of theme).
As a result I have a very small "collection" but each game fills a specific niche thematically or mechanically.
I play by far the most out of those KD:M and Windward.
(Windward with my brother when we meet up for a few weeks is an absolute blast and both of us love it. I'd love to get more people and have a proper many-player sky whaler showdown but even with two/three players the game is great fun.)

>>97320047
Anyone else having trouble getting the imagine? It's probably just my chromium, but all the site does is ask me for donations.

As a side question, why do you think we tend to rate heavier games higher than light ones? Not that it'd be wrong, heavier stuff when well done surely takes far more time and finetuning. But I just realized I only have one light game in my top9, despite liking a lot of them - but somehow they lack something heavier stuff has. Might just be time commited and my stockholm syndrom...but I've been far more picky when it comes to games length as of late. I am not clear about why I feel that way

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>>97321346
It was chromium indeed.

>>97320047
The absolute lack of WotR disturbs me

>>97321346
when doing my 3x3 i think of what games i most want to play. light games I can play easily enough that they never rank very highly on that metric for me. they're great, but i'm never going to be as excited about them

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>>97320900
>>97320583
>>97320485
>>97320413
>>97320419
Last clue

>>97321469
Spunktacular

>>97321489
Uhhhhhhh good guess, yeah I see it too
>>97321469
Spooktacular
had high hopes for the game but it kinda disappointed in the 'thinky filler' category, only played it 3 times though

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Ok tag team shill anon, you won. I still can't say that I think it's a very good game, but it sure is addictive in a pretty subitle way. Like getting a dopamin rush from drafting a team with a certain gameplan in mind and it working really well subtile. I now agree that mordred is "just" pretty good and firstpickable, but not overpowered. In fact I find him pretty boring to play with or against and either ban him or assume my opponent picked him. I think its a bid dumb to complain about imbalance in such a high variance game,but Shango in particular ALWAYS seems like a complete shitshow. Fei-hung and Bödvar aren't much better; bödvar being super high risk and medium reward and fei-hung taking forever to do stuff others do with ease. He might be more playable if he didn't eat the attacks he tries to cripplying touch.

Anyway, while I'm still sceptical at how much arbitary placement plays a role in winning, I think there's suprisingly much to explore.

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>>97321513
>>97321489
Ding ding ding on the main event

>>97321567
why would i play this over shards of infinity?

>>97321579
You wouldnt, but I will

>>97321579
Haven't played shards but from what I know it's kinda like star realms? So a pretty different game. Would not call tag team a deckbuilder; it's one of these very quick (<5 min) games with huge variance. Essentially a RPS principle, you can play your best and still lose horribly because your opponent kept doing something unexpected. A game where you should play at least a Bo5 to have skill play a significant role. It honestly sounds pretty shit, just like agent avenue. In contrast to AA, I find tag team charming. I suppose the biggest question is if you like donkey space games (as in: games about double- triple- etc-think)

>>97321583
my fellow board game enthusiast, you can keep your character-based game with its laughably restrictive selection mechanism that shrinks the card pool into a strategic straitjacket decimating the very essence of deck-building creativity, why would i voluntarily submit to such a restrictive design that forcibly narrows my strategic options through such a limited card pool, no... i might give it a try on board game arena, but that's as far as i would go, i shall retain my current game with its glorious freedom of choice and unlimited potential, enabling emergent synergies that keep each game unique

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>>97321709
Tldr

>>97321709
Nta but the narrow decision space is kind of the point. As a one of play, it's kinda shit, hence a single play likely won't impress you. Honestly, I only kept playing it on bga because I was curious how much my decisions really mattered. You want to play it a bunch of times in a row. My experience is that the game seems very random until you roughly know each characters starting cards, strength and deck.
Only then does it open up. And suddenly, like in my case, mordred doesn't seem overpowered because you realize he needs a lot of time to power up, then does huge swings you can counter with the right characters. No idea why the game is popular though, I can't imagine a lot of people going as deep into it then I did, and before that it's kinda lolrandom trash

My board games group has never finished a game of arcs

>>97321346
>why do you think we tend to rate heavier games higher than light ones?
Because heavy games are something you get more invested in by their very nature. They have more rules, which demands more attention, and they take longer, which gives time to build a narrative and thus create memorable games.

Came up last thread so opinions:
STCC vs Unstoppable. They're too different of games that do their own thing too well. The biggest consideration is that Captains chair is much harder to find currently.
The only thing maybe you're hung up on is the deckbuilding but deckbuilding in the imperium system feels like a minimal piece of a much bigger system, vs in U where it is the entire system. And more, because of how you deckbuild your threats with the card layering system. It is the purest deepest hyperfocus on the deckbuilding ive seen in a game, not saying that is good or bad, but just having your card be an enemy card you can choose to power up both sides of is interesting

STCC is more of a narrative journey , U is an action packed brawl that feels FAST

>iron blood snow mud
I own it. I played a few times. I think its a fine wargame-imposter. It is something I bring out with casuals who want a warthemed hex kind of game. It makes me think of panzer general, unity of command... those pc 'wargames' that are really just goofy ass puzzle games and not really wargames. A lot of it is reductive in a way that is fine, it's not complex, it's also not particularly deep. I would say a good 7.5-8/10 kind of overall experience. I think for me as someone who enjoys Salerno 43 for instance I know what a light wargame feels like. IBSM feels like someone wanted to make a light wargame but then just couldnt help but keep adding random little things that didnt add meaningful choice or fun, but they needed to add complexity. It's not a very well thought out package tldr i guess, but fine for casuals

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What a sad year. These are pretty much the only games that got 3 or more plays.

>>97321354
how good is Hegemony

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>>97322884
Not that anon, but it's really good. I'd give it an 8/10. It doesn't break my top 10 nor was it the best game I played last year, but it was a highlight of the year. The cool thing about it is that it's very much a standard efficiency euro, but the resources you need are all either produced by other players or in contention for by other players. You're always questioning who comes out ahead on any transaction and whether raising prices or shutting down production will hurt other players more than you.

The two failings of the game I see are the random chance of card draw, you will only see a fraction of your deck and you might hit key cards or never hit them at all. This only gets worse if you include the "take that" style cards from the KS expansion. The other issue is there is a lot of upkeep and overhead steps. As the teacher, I could barely keep track of my own game state let alone everyone else's, and I spent more mental energy keeping the game on track and constantly felt rushed on decisions. I call this the effect the "teacher's tax", but it felt 2-3x more intense on a first play of Hegemony. It's one that will really benefit from everyone knowing the rules ahead of time, which is roughly an hour long teach.

>>97321294
Based Windward chad. Do you have the expanded edition or the base game?

Top 9:
Bus
Zoo Vadis
Lost Cities
Mansions of Madness
Summoner Wars
Decrypto
Android: Netrunner
Race for the Galaxy
Through the Desert

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Scythe was the game for a couple of years. Immensely popular. I liked the idea of it but the gameplay fell flat.
Since the game was so popular did it spawn any imitations? A euro, resource collection mixed with dudes on a map, battles.
What games tried to immitate it, are there any that improved that formula?

>>97323151
>Through the Desert
Are there any problems identifying your pices on a full board? They look like they might be harder to spot with all the pastel colours and on a populated board.

>>97322695
>as someone who enjoys Salerno 43 for instance I know what a light wargame feels like
Is Salermo a light wargame? What light wargames would you recommend for someone?

>>97323297
i mostly play 2 player, so hard to say. i can't say i've had a problem.
would probably be tough if you're colorblind.
but your pieces are grouped together, not just a random piece here and there, so i feel like that makes it a lot easier. they did about as well as you could do as far as picking different colors - its just that the game needs a lot of colors.

>>97321573
Nice. I haven't tried the Isle Vekkid yet, but the cthulu looks fun. Filth is very, very cool.

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>Wow, barely used table golf association for only $15! Well that'll be great for the church game night coming up, then I don't have to worry about my own games possibly getting misplaced/damaged
>open the box and a game who's objective is "flick marble" has a gigantic manual, multiple instances of distance rules, the hex pieces don't have anything to hold them in place

>>97323297
Not in my experience. But I have missed a few strategies behind the plastic trees a few times kek

>>97323287
Voidfall might be a good "Scythe but better". It's a euro turn efficiency maximizer that pretends to be a space 4X and has combat that makes sense for the game but not for any other game. But it's better because the action selection mechanism is actually well integrated with the factions: instead of producing some combinations that are sometimes too good and have to be banned (Rusviet + Indust., Crimea + Patr.), the Voidfall factions just straight up upgrade or replace some action cards from the "normal set", though it might feel like a minimal change since there's only three game rounds (so you only use a card up to three times total) but it can make a lot of impact to have an extra Combat action for faster expansion and playing wide, especially with a good combat tech in the scenario.

>>97321573
>Compile
Is this actually good?

Anons that play(ed) Stationfall, how do you see all the different icons, items and tokens on the map? Is following the characters difficult? Are the minis needed to easily track where everyone is?

>>97322884
I can agree with what anon said >>97323068 but I rate it even higher. It's such a wonderfully interwoven economy, and everyone is codependent on everyone else in some way. Super interesting to pull levers and see what happens downstream. I don't think the carddraw is particularly problematic as you have your basic actions as well, mayyyyybe if the capitalist doesn't draw cards to get his money offshore before it's taxed. I see a bigger problem in the state as a player; it's a really cool role to profit most when everyone is on equal footing and help the faction struggling to keep the economy running (to your profit), but the most powerful thing by far is the two crisis (?) cards you draw every round; their bonus is practically essential and I feel restricted in the freedom of my state actions if 2 of my turns every round are already more or less reserved to solve these. People say the game is best with 3, I only played it at 4 and it was fucking awesome. But as anon said, it's a bit of a daunting teach and task to keep the game on track. Plus it runs long, +3h.

>>97323469
Each icon is fairly unique, and robots get their own shape compared to humans so it's even easier to tell them apart. I'd say it'll get more cluttered with minis but i haven't actually tried that so i don't know how it'll go.

Guy from last thread who was put off by Pax Em being a co-op, you should give it a try anyway. The whole co-op portion you're jockeying for the best position when it flips, but if you go full ham you just crash the whole game. It has a really well done grudging co-op aspect.
>>97323307
I think that guy has to be at least mildly autistic, I don't think any of those Simonitch games are light.

>>97323469
i wouldn't want to play with minis, the icons for characters are easy enough to track. items stand out well on the map. if you're not at too high a player count there isn't an overwhelming amount to track. it can be easy to forget some character abilities, but over time you'll learn them better

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>>97323452
Played it last night actually, was quite happy with it. Air land and sea with a lot more meat on the bones and some very fun assymetry. We witnessed some bullshit combos that will likely factor into how we draft in the future.

>>97323307
Fuck the other anon. Salerno is a light wargame period. Saying otherwise is fucking asinine. If you're lumping wargames into boardgaming as a whole then yeah no shit a traditional style hex and counter game is heavier than fucking carcassone dumbfuck

Salerno or Italy. Death of an army. Last Hundred Yards. Burning Banners, atlantic chase. Men of iron normandy.

Take your pick. If you are over 18 and passed high school (not everyone here I know) and have basic math and literacy skills and can handle making an effort then any of those are beginner level. You genuinely would need to have impaired cognition to struggle learning them, especially since burning banners basic rules are kid friendly and all the rest have encyclopedia style rulebooks that an esl could eaasily follow

Im harsh yeah because Im tired of people who are too stupid to follow rulebooks that dont baby you with a watchitplayed and learn to play books for simplistic games ruin newcomers who have an interest in hex and counter. They are not hard, even the hardest wargames are just simple flowcharts that are complex in their layering and number. Its just slow paced. And a lot of gamers are missing out on this whole side of the hobby for no reason because of dumdums

EGO feels like it should be a dice game.

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>>97320047
weee

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>>97323094
Expanded, which actually saved my ass in the game we played recently. I was going to be stuck out at sky and pinned in a corner by a red crester. After sitting and staring at the situation for a while I worked out I could use what movement I had to dip into the black market, hand in a contract, collect fancy coins, charge my morale with said coins to tank the hit for resting at the market, then rode the market around the map on its next rotation to where I could move freely back to port.
We were playing coop in that game and thanks to a couple of careless mistakes it was one more death to us losing, so it felt great to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

>>97324390
>the "i have friends that are fun" top9
This is a very joyful top nine anon, it seems like you must have a pretty positive time gaming!

>>97324557
Nice. I only have the base game, but it's good enough. I wish I had the collector's edition, but I haven't actually looked into getting it. What does it actually add to the game? Is it worth the ridiculous price tag?

>>97323068
>>97323474
I got my copy NIS for like 25 bucks at my LGS, I'll learn the game coming up just because of you anons. It's been collecting dust because I just dread learning/teaching it.

>>97324390
It'll never not be funny to me that the guy who made codenames also made Mage Knight.

Completely night and day game experiences.

>>97324795
He is one of the greatest. I wish he never started CGE. Now he just spends his time working on well done digital editions.

>>97323287
It is kind of weird there were not a bunch of clones with the success it had.
Or maybe they were just so forgettable. Rurik was sort of an euro doam mix, Brazil Imperial, Dwellings?

>>97324390
Based fun haver

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>>97320047
First time poster, long time lurker. I started getting into the hobby starting last year.

>>97325418
you're doing great

>>97325418
Two now in a row that make me think like other anon said, based fun haver. Good stuff anon, lovely collection

>>97325418
As long as you have some knizia, you'll always be welcome here

>>97325458
>>97325568
>>97325603
Thank you. Fun things are fun. Speaking of Knizia, I'm probably going to buy Ra.

>>97323287
It's such a dogshit game it's unreal, I feel like my friends are trolling me when they say they like it

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>>97325418
>Patchwork
Are you pro-balanced Halloween patches or against Halloween patches?

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No, I won't stand for another Knizia circlejerk. Yes he made fun games. 15 years ago.
For publishers to shit out his remakes of remakes that make the game worse is the reason the industry is going to shit. I've never met anyone play any of them that isn't a reprint and putting the burden on myself, all I ever ask is "why not just play the original"?
Gold Country does kind of look interesting tho ngl

i've been gone for the better part of a year, love the vibe change.

anyway i'm a fellow Knizia-enjoying fun-haver - is Arcs for me or not? Root's heavier than i want. i want to get into the fun pretty quickly. i like everything else i know about it other than the 3.42 weight.

also Hot Streak - is it going to be a flash in the pan or does it have any staying power? i get the goofy fun and i'm for it. but does the novelty wear off quickly? is there any strategy to the game? gameplay fun?

>>97325789
2017 The Quest for El Dorado
2018 Blue Lagoon
2019 L.L.A.M.A.
2019 Babylonia
2020 My City
2021 Mille Fiori
2021 Witchstone
2021 Whale Riders
2023 Zoo Vadis (reimplementation but i'm listing it anyway)
2023 MLEM: Space Agency
2024 Cascadero
2024 Rebirth
2025 Iliad

>>97325789
>who cares about a legacy
Bow down to the king, anon.

>>97325729
I have only played the original but if i had to choose i would be against the Halloween pieces because my mom would dislike its theme.

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>>97325999
One could simply add stickers to change the default version's pieces. This is a question of purely gameplay perspective.

>>97325911
>2017 The Quest for El Dorado
overrated
>2018 Blue Lagoon
who?
>2019 L.L.A.M.A.
shit
>2019 Babylonia
worse Samurai, would literally play watered down T&E instead
>2020 My City
the most bland polyomino "games" I've ever played
>2021 Mille Fiori
genuine point salad slop
>2021 Witchstone
rehashed Ingenious now with more euroslop
>2021 Whale Riders
rehashed Beowulf (but slightly better)
>2023 Zoo Vadis (reimplementation but i'm listing it anyway)
heard the updates were nice, sans furshit
>2023 MLEM: Space Agency
rehashed Pickomino with more furshit
>2024 Cascadero
rehashed TTD
>2024 Rebirth
>2025 Iliad
both look so bland and boring I haven't even given an attempt to play either, Iliad made worse by the fact they just remade Kingdoms with Cosmolancer (whaleshit) and now they have this stripped down version

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>>97323469
The unpainted minis are worse than the cylinders
>>97324169
I take it back, you aren't mildly autistic whatsoever. My apologies.

>scythe
You gotta be trolling

>>97324613
A bunch of little modules that can be used as you like them.
>Pirate faction
Specifically hunts other players.
>black market
Another port that orbits the map, and offers mission contracts for a currency that can buy morale, cannon, or gas refils
>scouts
A new small boat for each player that flies at high (3rd) elevation. They're used to search:
>drift tiles
You can make custom map setups, and each tile has a backside thay may have treasure or crester ambushes on them. You flip them over with the afformentioned scouts.
>blue crester
A very rare crester that I guess behaves a bit like the snitch from Harry Potter. Scouts have to uncover it by searching drift tiles. Cool in concept but we found this one a bit dull.
>kolkra
The gigantic squid thing. You can find him under a drift tile or play a game mode where he acts like a boss.

Its a lot of extra stuff, some of it slightly undercooked, some of it great. Given my buying pattern I mentioned in my top9 post, the extra money was less of an issue because I dont buy a great deal of games at all; I snipe the few im confident I'll really like. If you really like windward and can aquire it responsibly, then it's certainly nice to have.

>>97326231
They think salerno is a complex game, yeah no shit theyre trolling

FUCKKNIZIA

>>97326101
Scythe made your top 9 games of all time?

>>97326627
Consensually?

>>97326630
My bad, I just put in my most played games of the year. My top nine would probably change that often anyway, but Scythe makes it most years, so sure, its in my top 9 of all time.
>>97326552
I could just be mistaken, I've never played Salerno. Is it really that much of a step down from Normandy? I'm thinking of all the dense info packed on a Normandy chit and then a chit in an average Berg game where a fuckin cartoon of the unit takes up 2/3 of the space, and wondering how those games are the same weight.

>>97321021
cult of chrome unironically fixes radlands by making it so the juggernaut can only show up in 1/6 games. good expac

>>97325825
i'm just going to assume arcs is too heavy for you if root is. i think they're pretty similar weights. maybe playing without leaders/lore is an easier onramp though?
hot streak has staying power as long as you don't expect it to change lanes. personally i think there's a scotch more depth than meets the eye, and i feel like i'm making satisfying decisions as i play

>>97325825
>does it have any staying power?
It's better than Camel Up and Camel Up has stuck around for 12 years now.
>is there any strategy to the game?
Close to none. You have a smidgen of information other people don't (the card that was dealt to you and the card you're throwing in) and you can see what bets other people are drafting.
>gameplay fun?
Yes.

>>97326753
Normandy 44 is about 20 pages of rules. It isn't a complex game it is just intentionally very long to play. Neither it nor salerno are heavy, the 19xx series and other of his games are only complex in that each one has annoyingly minor rules that are easy to forget, and maps that have more than enough space for a bit more small font to clarify some aspects of the ui.
They're complex the same way AMFS is complex. People see a game that takes 3 hours and balk when it's the same basic steps 1000 times