Top 10 Games We’ve Cooled On
Intro – 00:00
Mike 10 – 03:40
Zee 10 – 06:18
Tom 10 – 08:15
Mike 9 – 10:34
Zee 9 – 13:03
Tom 9 – 15:03
Mike 8 – 17:12
Zee 8 – 19:28
Tom 8 – 21:33
Mike 7 – 23:54
Zee 7 – 26:09
Tom 7 – 29:10
Mike 6 – 32:15
Zee 6 – 34:18
Tom 6 – 37:52
Mike 5 – 41:11
Zee 5 – 44:26
Tom 5 – 46:53
Mike 4 – 50:00
Zee 4 – 52:05
Tom 4 – 54:31
Mike 3 – 59:16
Zee 3 – 1:03:01
Tom 3 – 1:05:04
Mike 2 – 1:09:25
Zee 2 – 1:12:37
Tom 2 – 1:15:22
Mike 1 – 1:18:24
Zee 1 – 1:20:56
Tom1 – 1:21:09
People’s Choice 1:26:04
Outro – 1:29:39
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Between Two Cities is great to play solo
I have cooled on Tekanoko a lot. It becomes reward spam at the end. I still like Quadopolis to teach to new players but my regular players have basically solved it. I didn't really like evolution but it does handle a lot of players which is a good thing. Photosynthesis never really got off the ground for me the issue was that if you make a mistake at the start you just can't win so new players just lose. (Note to self don't by the expansion)
Personal comments on games shown here that I have cooled on:
Dead of Winter: Basically I cooled on it after two plays back when it was new, because in both cases the traitor (not me) had a TERRIBLE time the whole game, since his / her options seemed so limited and in the end I decided: When I want a 3 to 4 hour hidden traitor game with resource management I'd MUCH rather play Battlestar Galactica again, because it's just so much better.
Also: Battlestar Galactica AND Unfathomable are bot AMAAAAAZING games! Shorter social deduction games are nice to have and I love many of them, but none of them get close to the 'experience' of BSG. (Though BSG needs at least the Cylon fleet board from the expansions, because the Cylon(s) don't have enough options in the base game.)
Legends of Andor: Yeah, at first glance it seems like a great idea … but at second glance it's a very static, heavily scripted thing … a puzzle with that one ideal solution that you have to recognize, pick and then roll dice to see whether it works. Side-note: I tried to get rid of it when I was selling other games in a local board game group and offering that someone buying ANY of my games could just take this as a free add-on. I had five people coming by and buy my games and no one wanted a free copy of Legends of Andor. A few months later I put it up on a flea market and no one wanted it. I really don't know what to do anymore.
What I also did NOT cool on:
Twilight Imperium! I prefer cooperative games most of the time, but this is still in my top-3.
(I DID cool on Eclipse. I thought that game was fine after my first play and after my second session I never want to play it again. Sure: It's shorter than TI4, but not enough to justify taking out EVERYTHING except the "build fleet and punch someone's face" part, which is all that Eclipse is. If I only have 4 hours I'd rather play Spirit Island … or BSG … or Unfathomable … or XIA … etc. etc. etc.)
I stopped using noise tokens after my first play of Black Plague, maybe I'm missing something but it seemed pointless and fiddley.
Is it just me or is the music in the 1-minute intro really good?
Takenoko is one of the few boardgames I am actually really good at, so I doubt I will cool on that. I play on BGA, which eliminates a lot of the set up fatigue. I love your channel even though I am not very good at boardgames!
My god…. Everdell similar to lewis and clark? I want what zee is smoking!!!
you mention all the games that I really like 🙂 but then I wouldn't be in the hobby if I didn't like many games…
Congrats, Tom! 🙂
I've cooled big time on Feast For Odin. I still want to play with the expansion, but as is, I'm good.
While having mindless minions marching to their death provide easy income and XP during the early game, their real value as a mechanism comes in the mid and late game when the meeting point of the two sides acts as a neutral tower of sorts, sliding back and forth in the lane. Pushing it towards your opponent provides resources, but also improves your vision and can passively pressure your opponent's buildings. This pressure forces your opponent's to show on the map to push it out, giving away their position, or giving away their lack of presence in the area if they don't respond to the pressure. It's a simple mechanism that adds a lot to MOBA game-play but maybe doesn't translate as well to board games.
I came here to hear that Duel of Ages in Tom's top three but I don't think there has been a top ten that I have agreed so much with Tom. Other than the ones I have never played, such as Duel of Ages, his whole list would overlap with my own.
Curious Tom didn't mention Codex. It was in his top 100 pretty high I think, but has completely disappeared. Still like it?
BSG is the epitome of compressing 35 minutes of awesomeness into 2 hours of gameplay.
(hint: that's the wrong way)
I really liked this vid especially the what does it better aspect. As a relatively new gamer this is helpful
TI3 would definitely top my list. used to be in my top 5 now it's not in my top 100.
15 years ago I was playing 20-30 board games a month. Now I'm playing maybe 5 games a month on a good month. My life schedule just does not make me interested in a game as long as TI3.
Tom looks like he's living in an Amish paradise.
Wingspan on the ppls isn’t to surprising as I was getting stale on it but Oceania expansion changed everything for me with the new boards. It has many paths to victory now
What's with the gray in Tom's beard. Is he really playing the grandpa part? Congrats!
Zee's #3 is a Must-Have for me chiefly due to IP, and it will remain so. Tom's #3 plays kinda like classic PC adventure games "Myst" or LucasArts adventure titles for me (I enjoy subtle clues in the art). I'm early into enjoying these titles, so time will tell if my experience tracks similar to theirs. Great video, TDT, and spot-on takes of the People's Choice selections – thanks for the perspectives in general. Ah, JJ Abrams dropping the ball in a series? Unheard of.
"There's a lot of games in the world, Garcia!" Needs to be on a shirt.
What happened to Tom's hair and beard? He looks like an Amish loan-shark.
Tom looks like an amish
what turned your hair grey tom ?
Instead of clutching at straws for new top 10 list ideas why not re-visit some lists done 5 to 10 years ago?
I haven’t watched in a month or two and seriously thought Tom aged overnight 😂😂😂
fantastic list
Tom has a huge tell…I knew DoW was on his list because he didn’t say a word when Mike brought it up.
At the end seeing Catan as people's choice as #1 makes so much sense to me. My game group used to love Catan when it was new. It didn't take many plays, less than 10 I'm sure, before it became a bad game for us. We pulled it out and everyone was having a terrible time so we just called it and agreed we're done with it. Reassuring to see we aren't the only ones to have cooled off on Catan.
The talk of tokens with Rum and Bones made me think of Cloudspire…
Spot-on regarding Dead of Winter. And that’s why I think New Angeles is such a genius design that brings about the same conflict organically. It’s a shame that it is such a long game which really limits its play.
i dont play any social deductions games, this is because i hate deduction games, they are always bad.
hmm cant say i have heard of a good 30 min game
1:14:15 “Simple and elegant design of 7 Wonders”… I disagree. The first time I played 7 Wonders with my family, they didn’t get it. It took a long time for them to understand the simultaneous selection mechanism – and they still don’t understand the intricacies of the game. However, my father STILL always wins because he picks up pure point scoring cards – which means that I find the whole game unbalanced – because the other (helper) cards don’t help you win as much as the cards that JUST GIVE YOU STRAIGHT-OUT POINTS. Therefore, I have definitely cooled on 7 Wonders since when I first played it (and I played it a lot when I had first gone to Game Night back in 2016 – since everyone was playing it back then. Now hardly anyone plays it there).
I also like the added strategy of how to develop your spaceship in Among The Stars – which you don’t have in the follow-up Fields of Green. I was disappointed when they decided to go more of the Fields of Green route, versus continuing and specializing in Among The Stars.
I don’t mind the meanness of Photosynthesis- it just adds to the puzzle and challenge, but I just think it’s a little too slow moving.
For me it would be Munchkin and Pandemic. I really think Pandemic was the first good coop and that’s what made it huge. To me it’s pretty easily replaced by other coops, Flash Point for example. I would also say Catan, but I still enjoy the Cities and Knights expansion and I would agree it’s a classic game at this point.
If I want the best Aliens experience, I play Legendary Encounters. If I want the best thematic semi-coop experience, I play Dead of Winter. Nothing else comes close and I've played Nemesis, BSG etc.
Drink more Ovaltine!
I still love bang and dead of winter despite some of the flaws. Really fun list. Thanks guys. Love the banter
Agree with Citadels, it can overstay it’s welcome.
Oh Dominant Species.. I still love you enough to keep you #1. *We always get the game done in under 2 hours. I dunno what we do differently other than keeping it moving.
Not for everyone, but this was the pinnacle of clashing worker placement/Action Selection. I try to get it played 1-2 times a year.
Tom is looking more and more Amish for each passing day.
Played Seasons once. HATED IT. Is bad design. SOOOOO many better games.
I sold 7tcC for the reasons you mentioned. Good points there.
dead of winter : the game where you pretend to be a good guy as a traitor, and then in the last turn you reveal yourself and it's too late for anyone to do anything and you win.
hooray.
That's just heresy what you've said about BSG. Expect the Inquisition soon.
Disagree about Among the Stars. Yes you have an organised system to have a quick set up, but that's not so hard, and I personally love the graphic design, it's much better than many space games like Race for the Stars. Also really recommend New Dawn, a streamlined 4X game in the same universe.
14:52 that's actually quite obvious after I think about it but still interesting and a bit surprising at first! Fun fact to know 🙂
I wasn’t sure what to think of this ‘Games I’m Cooling on’ idea, bit it was really good, except that I own four of the games named. I haven’t cooled on them, yet. Anyway, hearing your reasons for why you cooled was well, cool.
54:55 I've only played one Escape Room game and it was "meh". I'm however a huge fan of real Escape Rooms. I've been like 30 times or so, more to come. I recall Tom from recently Q&A session that it was too expensive for him to take his family/friends to spend an hour or so this way. Well, I live in Poland where 60..90 minutes experience in an escape room is like 30..50$ depends on how good/famous that particular ER is. They are quite popular here. It's an equivalent of a regular board game (Unmatched for example as I recently bought 4 sets so I can compare) BUT that price is divided into the whole team (usually 4 persons) so it's like 4..5 beers in the pub per each to have loads of fun with your friends.