The SABG Top 50 Results!
Now that everyone who has promised a list has submitted it, the fine accountants at our firm have tallied the votes! Remember, each time a game appears on a list is 21-40 points.
The "Just Happy to Be Here" games (2 voters)
- Descent (49 pts)
- Nexus Ops (50)
- Smarty Party (51)
- Axis & Allies / Shifting Sands (52)
- Caylus Magna Carta / Junta (53)
- 1830 / Cosmic Encounter / Kingmaker (54)
- Taboo (55)
- Roborally / Poker (56)
- Dicke Kartoffen / Torres (57)
- Arkham Horror / Loopin Louie (58)
- Vegas Showdown (59)
- Crusader Rex (60)
- Twilight Struggle (61)
- Samurai / We the People / Yspahan (62)
- Colossal Arean (64)
- Cash N Guns / Keythedral / Werewolf (65)
- Perikles (66)
- Race for the Galaxy (69)
- Diplomacy / Dune (70)
- On the Underground (71)
- Phoenicia / Princes of Florence (72)
- Crokinole (73)
- Command & Colors: Ancients / Roads and Boats / Tikal (74)
- Shadowfist (80)
Coming in at #25 -- Seven Ages! (3 voters / 73)
#24 -- Memoir '44! (3 / 76)
#23 -- Acquire (3 / 80)
#22 -- Civilization (3 / 82)
#21 -- History of the World (3 / 85)
#20 -- Glory to Rome (3 / 86)
Tied at #18 -- Goa and East Front II (3 / 90)
#17 -- Stage II (3 / 92)
#16 -- Tichu (3 / 97)
Our top 15 games all clear the 100 point barrier, although just barely for our next entrant
#15 -- Bridge (3 / 100). I guess we really need a fourth.
#14 -- Notre Dame (3 / 101). A flash in the pan? Only time will tell.
#13 -- Magic the Gathering (4 / 115). I'd snark, but I voted for Shadowfist...
#12 -- Age of Steam (4 / 119). I may have lumped in a vote for Railroad Tycoon.
#11 -- Ra (4 / 122)
Isn't the tension fabulous? No?
At Number 10, we have Hammer of the Scots (4/124).
At Number 9, Settlers of Catan (4/130).
At Number 8, Celebrities (4/ 143).
At Number 7, Ticket to Ride is the first game to get five voters (5/ 147). (This had all the variants lumped into one title).
At Number 6, Battle Lore (5/150) completes the Command and Colors Trifecta.
At Number 5, War of the Ring grabs 171 points from five lists.
At #3 there's a tie! Tigris and Euphrates and Puerto Rico will have to duel it out in sudden death! They narrowly edged out War of the Ring by a single point (5/172)
Showing up shockingly high (in my mind) at #2 is San Juan. And this is no "almost tie" either, as six voters combine for 196 points.
And the winner isn't even close. It's a runaway winner, grabbing all the little SABG statues! Showing up on fully half of the submitted lists, with an awe-inspiring 244 points ... the winner of the Inaugural SABG Top 50-ish games (that we like) award is :
Power Grid!
I've created a geeklist that has all the results, so that we can comment on individual games there, or on the general thread here.
Labels: Top50
posted by Brian @ 10:13 AM
36 comments
36 Comments:
5 of my 20 missed. Most of those are not shocking to me but Roma not getting consideration from anyone else was surprising to me.
Lemme see if i can guess the people who voted for Junta....umm...Brian and Jon? Do I win?
I was only a voter on 1 of the top 5 and 2 of the top 10. I guess I'm an outlier.
I like Roma, but it's not a Top 20 game. Top 100, probably.
The bottom half of my list fits pretty well, but five of my top nine received no other votes:
#2 -- Blood Bowl
#3 -- Space Hulk
#4 -- Ace of Aces
#8 -- Talisman
#9 -- Modern Art
Dennis,
I've now officially played Blood Bowl - I haven't played any of the other four you listed, even the Knizia classic Modern Art. I need y'all to bring your favorites in so us new-ish to gaming guys can play the classics...
Ah, but I don't own Space Hulk (played a lot in college) or Talisman (foolishly gave it to my brother, who lost it). I can now replace the latter, and would give Michael's left arm for the former.
Celebrities? what da...
Heh...several games sneak into the Top 50 purely due to the power of the Clan Wiles groupthink.
Three of the BGG top-ranked games are in our top four. I guess any large enough sampling of boardgamers will eventually begin to mimic the BGG rankings, but who'd've thunk 14 was 'large enough'?
Well, part of the reason for this list is so that you young 'uns can rectify the mistakes of the saddening foolish trends of modern education.
And, Tom Vasel notwithstanding, I still think that Talisman received one of the greatest disses ever written. It was fun when I played it last, but I've no strong desire to repeat. (Like Cosmic Encounter, a much superior game, it can be greatly burdened by numerous expansions).
No Twilight Imperium 3????
I suspect at least a couple people submitted a list of largely party games (..cough... Michael.... cough). Taboo higher than 1830 and Cosmic Encounter?
Brian, this is cool. Thanks for doing it. I refrained from voting because I don't have the collection of games that most of you do.
Ben, I would have voted for TI3.
Guilty to some degree. But it takes two to tango on this list and so there were other guilty parties for all of the party atrocities.
Also just to make it clear 13/20 of my games were games that are clearly "real" games. The other 7 are not all strictly party games:
1. Celebrities
2. Stage II
6. Big Boggle (5+ letters no plurals or (s) conjugations of verbs)
7. 25 Words or Less
8. Taboo
12. Loopin' Louie
15. Werewolf
Dennis: ten years ago Talisman would have made my list. We used to play a ton of that when I was an undergrad. I think if I included it on this list that would be nostalgia speaking more than anything else though.
I'm interested in learning Shadowfist at some point seeing that it was 1 on two lists. CCGs really scare me away though. In theory MTG booster draft is one of my favorite things to do, but in practice, I'm not the biggest fan on spending 10-12 bucks for what amounts to about 3 hours of entertainment.
In the interest of full disclosure, here's my list:
(I won't reveal other people's lists, although if they say it's OK).
1. Shadowfist
2. Race/Galaxy
3. Phoenicia
4. Celebrities
5. Bridge
6. Cash N Guns
7. Power Grid
8. Ticket to Ride
9. Titan
10. Age of Steam
11. 18xx
12. Glory to Rome
13. San Juan
14. Poker
15. Puerto Rico
16. Stage II
17. Cosmic Encounter
18. 7 Ages
19. Smarty Party
20. War of the Ring
Almost every game on that list has been played 25+ times (the exception being a few long games that have 25+ hours). But the real factor is that all those games have that "I should be playing this more often" feel after 25+ plays. (Although at one point or another I've burnt out on a few of them).
As for Shadowfist, I'm pushing 1,000 games (and it averages an hour). I've built a few teaching decks, and could teach it on a Monday, if people like.
Here's my list, a couple of which I'd probably move around a bit now, but I'm still happy with it in general:
1. Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition
2. War of the Ring
3. Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation
4. Commands & Colors: Ancients
5. Arkham Horror
6. Perikles
7. Wilderness War
8. Twilight Struggle
9. Colossal Arena
10. Power Grid
11. Dune
12. Struggle of Empires
13. Citadels
14. Blue Moon City
15. Heroscape
16. BattleLore
17. 1830
18. Descent
19. Runebound
20. Nexus Ops
We should do this once a year to see how our lists evolve over the coming decades...
Who has a crokinole board?
ME!!!
Oh, sorry....I read who 'wants' one.
Both Dennis and Simon have one.
Feel free to print my list, I can't recall which choices were made after much reflection and which were made after heavy drinking.
My list:
1. Diplomacy
2. Blood Bowl
3. Space Hulk
4. Ace of Aces
5. Ra
6. Crokinole
7. Settlers of Catan
8. Talisman
9. Modern Art
10. History of the World
11. Time's Up/Celebrities
12. Poker
13. RoboRally
14. Civilization
15. Bridge
16. Tigris & Euphrates
17. Magic: the Gathering
18. Junta
19. Taboo
20. Othello/Reversi
I'll try to dig up my list. I have it somewhere.
I did it pretty fast and didn't think much about it, so I'm sure it contains some "mistakes". A little noise in the measurements.
Brian, did you really say you're pushing a 1,000 plays of an hour long game?
I know the ratings at BGG are highly debated back and forth, but the interpretation that I like best is that the ratings reflect games that many people enjoy. Remembering that, it's not a surprise that San Juan would be rated highly. It's got a great combo of being simple, fun, and interesting. Almost anyone who plays games can pick that one up and enjoy it almost immediately.
My Top 20 were the games that are most likely to get my heart racing. In hindsight, I'm surprised Age of Steam and Stage II didn't make it. I'm sure if Brian had asked for lists a week earlier or later, mine would have been different. I was very surprised when composing my list that it does not match up to the twenty games I have the highest ranked.
We've discussed it before, and there was little interest, but seeing it on lists forces me to point out that if we ever SABG PBEM Dip, I'm in.
The List (in order):
Magic:the Gathering
PowerGrid
The Princes of Florence
Keythedral
Roads & Boats
Die Macher
On the Underground
Ra
Torres
Puerto Rico
Mississippi Queen
Smarty Party
Glory to Rome
Dicke Kartoffeln
Oltremare - Merchants of Venice
No Thanks!
Goa
Haste Worte
Hansa
Traders of Genoa
Jeff, just set up a game, and I'll join up.
This list shows we have a good mix of diverse tastes in the group. Perhaps we should better define what constitutes a "board game" next time?
Ted asked: Brian, did you really say you're pushing a 1,000 plays of an hour long game?
Yup. I've recorded my games from 2000 on, and I have 722 plays of Shadowfist. Shadowfist has been out since '95-ish, and I played it then (not as religiously, but I suspect I got 100-200 games in before I started recording. Even if I got in 0, I only exaggerated a little).
In NC, and for the first year I was in San Antonio, I usually had one "Shadowfist" game day a week, with 4-8 games, and averaged 150 games/year. Now I mainly make mondays as my designated game night, but still get in a 'Fist night every month or so.
Steve's List:
1 De Bellis Antiquitatis
2 Hordes of Things
3 War of the Ring
4 C&C:A
5 BattleLore
6 Hammer of the Scots
7 Crusader Rex
8 Queen's Gambit
9 Conquest ot Empire
10 Perikles
11 SW Epic Duels
12 Nexus Ops
13 Memoir '44
14 Warhammer Ancient Battles
15 Descent
16 Melee (1977)
17 Kingmaker
18 Cry Havoc/Siege/Outremer
19 Joan of Arc
20 Chainmail
DBA #1? I just finished a Later Crusader army, and it has yet to see the table (largely because the opposing Ayyubid Egyptians aren't done yet...I paint soooooo slowly).
The average of 150 games/year was only for the last 2-3 years before I left. It ramped up ...
Here's my list...
1. Power Grid
2. Ticket To Ride
3. Werewolf
4. Tichu
5. Vegas Showdown
6. Tikal
7. Traumfabrik
8. Samurai
9. Through The Desert
10. Kahuna
11. San Juan
12. Acquire
13. Mare Nostrum w/ Mythology Expansion
14. Memoir 44
15. Carcassone (w Inns & Cathedrals)
16. Bang!
17. Chess
18. Bid Whist
19. RA
20. Scrabble
Dennis, what scale? I have an assortment of 28mm Crusaders/Saracens that I use to build all manner of lists.
15mm.
Here's my list:
1: Puerto Rico
2: Tikal
3: Roads and Boats
4: On the Underground
5: Goa
6: Power Grid
7: Princes of Florence, The
8: La CittÃ
9: Traders of Genoa, The
10: Cribbage
11: Dicke Kartoffeln
12: Samurai
13: Keythedral
14: Java
15: Age of Steam
16: Torres
17: Notre Dame
18: Pueblo
19: Backgammon
20: Magic: the Gathering
I agree with Ben -- we should do this once a year.
If that diplomacy game develops please count me in. I would join the bridge group as well. I used to play lots of Talisman in college, not quite sure if I should have had it on my list since I haven't played since. Brian I have no problem if you want to post my list.
The games are whatever you want them to be. I haven't played some of the games on my list in years ...
Here's Scott's list. His was unordered, so they got 30 pts each.
Attack Sub
Hannibal: Rome vs Carthage
Settlers of Catan
Civilization
Diplomacy
Dune
Acquire
Kremlin
Kingmaker
Junta
Win, Place and Show
Cosmic Encounter
Up Front
Republic of Rome
We the People
Brittania
Speed Circuit
History of the World
Age of Rennaisance
For anyone who wants to learn Bridge, I suggest Richard Pavlicek's Bridge Basics page.
I made my list at work. Didn't save it anywhere
Rob's "Bored at the Hospital" List
1 Tigris & Euphrates
2 Notre Dame
3 San Juan
4 Hammer of the Scots
5 Caylus
6 Yspahan
7 East Front II
8 Pillars of the Earth
9 Scepter of Zavandor
10 Ra
11 Goa
12 Caylus Magna Carta
13 Twilight Struggle
14 Battle Lore
15 Crusader Rex
16 Shifting Sands
17 Here I Stand
18 Vegas Showdown
19 Arkham Horror
20 World of Warcraft
Indeed I was that morning.
Yes Ben, looking back at my list, I do prefer Pillars just a tiny bit more than CMC....and do prefer grand daddy Caylus.....although I do suck badly at it.
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