TCbH's 20 Favorite Games in Under 20 Minutes (Up through 2018)

0:00 look if I know two things it's that one I love board games and two i'm absolutely terrible at committing to my favorites but in an exercise of complete self defiance i'm going to be putting down and arranging my top 20 favorite games of all time only to immediately feel like I'm betraying the other 19 and want to rearrange the list tomorrow but that will have to wait till next year because I know how these things work and I respect your time I went ahead and put a spoiler list as well as timestamps in the video description so without further ado here is my top 20 favorite games as of 2018 in under 20 minutes number 20 Star Wars Imperial assault if I'm being honest this is a stand in for - Soulja of hero quest which I couldn't justify putting on listen list because it's a super clunky by modern standards and be completely and utterly unavailable new but the closest I've felt to hero quests particular brand of 1/v all dungeon crawling with suspenseful highs and lows unique characters branching upgrades devious machinations and finely tailored adventures full of wondrous discovery is Imperial assault and to the fact that you can now play solo and co-op with an app that receives a healthy amount of updates and this is both my favorite tabletop adaption of Star Wars and my favorite traditional dungeon crawl in existence number 19 the tale of Ord the Daboo game by post curious tale of Ord

1:31 is a narrative puzzle adventure spanning four chapters well as some of the most cryptic and rewarding puzzles I've ever solved I played through this over several sessions with my wife and the result was one of the most memorable gaming experiences of our lives while I won't spoil any of the surprises I will tell you that some of the handmade physical components will astonish you the fantastic online hint system will keep you on track and perhaps most impressive the story that unfolds both on and beyond the table involving symbology astrology archaeology technology and tons of other ologies is really really well-written number eighteen ethnos being a Tolkien guy I am a sucker for John house art and forge for me ethnocentrism below mining several different races together ethnos is addictive beautiful easy to learn and the sheer number of combinations makes it incredibly replayable oh also I really dig the hyper colored tokens against the muted backgrounds sorry haters ethnos is one of the best looking games in the biz number seventeen seven wonders dual I don't know that there is any better two-player game or better two-player improvement over a parent game than seven wonders dual due to the military science and prestige victory conditions this game is a 3-way tug of war that is tense aggressive and full of options also dual showcases one of my

3:02 favourite khatallah isms which is to always emphasize opportunity costs few games have me wishing so badly that I could just take back-to-back turns because I know that whether I'm choosing from among the available cards or revealing more for my opponent to grab there are always tough decisions in this game number 16 Eclipse Eclipse is way better than Twilight Imperium and you know it oh yeah onward to number 15 ok ok ok fine look Eclipse feels like Star Trek experience of exploratory and diplomatic yes there are fights that happen but the drama comes from between the fights and go shading territory and engaging in future tech arms races with tons of asymmetric powers branching paths and an incredible sense of discovery by flipping tiles Eclipse is without a doubt my favorite 4x game and I will gladly Agni Kai across the stars to defend my interstellar honor any day of the week number 15 code names code names has allowed raucous and hilarious party game but it's also a deadly serious contemplative game of wits and cunning but no matter how you slice it this is one of the best games for a party because it works equally well as a game that you are playing as it does a spectator sport people can't help but be glued to the tension as players delicately guess their clues and are always ready to laugh along and at you it when it goes awry even better it breaks everyone into team so new gamer's who might be shy about playing a game largely based on shared knowledge and in jokes have the comfort of knowing

4:34 that they have a team behind them number fourteen Lords of Waterdeep Lords of Waterdeep is a now classic worker placement game about acquiring and spending people for your own personal game well by people I mean adventures and personal game I mean political clout in the D&D port city of Waterdeep well I think the secret roles in the base game have grown a little stale by modern standards the gameplay is still incredibly solid both perfect as a gateway game and fully satisfying as a mid-weight strategy sash also it trades on D and E's unique flavor of fantasy beautifully while still keeping things approachable for people who might not otherwise like fantasy just pretend you're in Victorian England domesticating particularly stubborn sheep instead of ferocious owl bears number 13 Game of Thrones second edition number 13 is a strange game on my list because it's hard to get to the table and I have more fond memories of playing it in the past so then I have Drive to force people to join into a game but every time that I get together with my old group having largely separated our different ways due to schedules jobs families and other commitments nothing really compares with the experience a claustrophobic game Thrones forces you to make alliances to succeed with all parties knowing full-well betrayals inevitable strategic thematic merciless this is my all-time favorite big box stompy strategy war game number 12 slum Rouge I promise I'm typically a mechanic's first guy but number 12 maybe

6:04 strongly influenced by one of my largest non gaming passions which is cycling that said this is a breakneck game full of tension that captures the intensity and wealth cycle of cycling incredibly well with few cards few pieces and wonderful customizable board you are trying to jockey for position among all racers and capitalizing on their position constantly gauging how and when to conserve energy or throw the hammer down smart fast approachable and downright fun this is my favorite racing game of all time number 11 route is a new coming in 2018 and has won my heart the matically imaginative boldly asymmetric and in truth ultimately simple in scope the forest of root is the perfect area control playground for those overlapping systems unwind route can be janky it can be difficult to learn and it can be unpredictable in practice but somehow it remains strategic engaging and charming between Kyle Ferentz art and coal world's ability to tightly marry nuance theme and clever mechanics root has quickly become my go-to area control fave plus those meatballs are so damn cute number 10 caca zone of all the gateway classics like take it to ride Catan pandemic and Dominion Carcassonne is the one that I can still break out the vanilla game with completely experienced gamers and have fun incredibly simple in concept with immense strategic depth Carcassonne is equally fitting for a relaxing passive evening as it is suited for a full-on table and no good tricks he

7:36 cutthroat castle thieves what more can I say that hasn't already been said about this all-time classic Carcassonne is awesome number nine five tribes if seven wonders dual code designed by Bruno khatallah is a game about a few really good possibilities five tribes is all about all the possibilities set in a very westernized fictional Arabic desert similar to Disney's Agrabah five tribes has you migrating groups of people from tile to tile in a souped up version of Mancala with tons of special powers and multiple paths of gaining points five tribes looks like candy on the table and you'll feel like it too is you delightfully pick which color a meeple marshmallow that you want to activate fair warning though five tribes may be the most analysis paralysis prone game that I love so just be cautious when playing with someone who wants to calculate everything number eight viticulture I've said it before and I'll say it again viticulture essential Edition is one of the most perfectly crafted pieces of gaming awesomeness in existence the game is approachable yet satisfyingly complex thematic but mechanically rich beautiful components and illustrations but also understated and affordable it also combines the best aspects of original viticulture and Tuscany into a much more substantial and nuanced worker placement game with a rich engaging theme it's great for people taking their first steps beyond a gateway yet it still delivers a heavy weight feeling in a mid-weight experience number seven catacombs

9:08 third edition look if you were willing to dismiss this purely on the basis so that catacombs is a dexterity game then you more than anyone else needs to listen to this incredibly thematic and mind-blowing ly clever catacombs is able to convey complex ideas that would normally take endless explanation in intuitive ways merely by operating in physical space casting a freezing spell leave the frozen disk on the creature until it's knocked off hiding behind cover move your disk behind a pillar and use the one-inch marker to shoot around the corner while there is no campaign each session the catacombs encompasses several rooms where heroes face off against enemies controlled by the overseer gaining skills treasures and allies along the way making for one of the most imaginative dungeon crawl experiences I have ever played catacombs isn't just great for a dexterity game it is a great game made better by being a dexterity game number six caverna my personal favorite of avait Rosenberg's games caverna is empowerment and carnot you want to have a thousand sheep invest in sheep want to level up your dwarves and go on grand adventures sure why not while there are definite changes from game to game that will impact your decision-making caverna is about choice and opportunity a veritable sandbox to play in compared to its cousin and gree colas punitive futility don't get me wrong they're both great but the freedom and empowerment to explore the systems makes caverna one of my absolute favorite games number 5 suburbia never before has a game scratched such a

10:40 specific SimCity ish itch for me as suburbia though it's an abstract of macro look at city building listen incredibly engrossing and thematic game that feels like you are developing a new city full of history and personality every game with tons of synergies and some light player interaction through the tile availability is also a very strategic game where you are constantly balancing your a popular growth with your income if you want to achieve any sort of sustainability I love that suburbia is largest source of tension is keeping your own ambitions in check number four Kingdom milder suburbia may have been an abstracted game that is incredibly thematic but Kingdom builder is an abstract game with almost no theme though it looks beautiful and evokes a setting quite well what that setting is generic fantasy who cares while its entire premise on its face may sound simple where your turn consists of drawing a card then placing three houses on a depicted terrain adjacent if possible you'll soon realize that it's just a massive puzzle where you'll look for ways to gain powers capitalize on placement and interfere with your opponent's all game long but above all my favorite part is the replayability with three scoring conditions and four boards along with their special power tiles drawn per game makes every session fresh exciting and unique number three archipelago archipelago is by far the squishiest game on my list I would say about a good quarter of the rules in this game are virtually never applicable or too nebulous and their strategic significance that it's not worth the

12:12 bother but what it does it does so well emergent Maps set in a beautiful Caribbean archipelago where you're generating and trading resources what makes the game special aside from the look in the real PC turn-based strategy without fighting sort of vibe to the game is that every player has a card showing a game and trigger and global scoring condition so everyone is wondering whether the other players Church is trying to drive the end of the game score points at the end of the game or is just a church because churches are great to have speaking of which I really dig the tragedy of the Commons semi co-op aspect of the game if players act too selfishly harmony and archipelago goes awry and every player loses well as harmonious as Lara Cobell ago can be I can't talk about this game without talking about colonialism and there are some really questionable generalizations and downright offensive imagery in the game from the workers or happy natives having notably lighter skin and welcoming demeanor than the unhappy angry population symbol to the fact that population itself is tracked with the white people in the civil unrest that everyone is fighting against is black meeble but part of what makes archipelago so interesting to me is that it tends to comment on these things albeit in a pretty ham-fisted way exploiting the local population results in an uprising that the game seems to believe that the colonialist deserve whereas working collaboratively with the local population results in a happier workforce or maybe it's just more placated when you start digging into the

13:42 moral implications of what the game is attempting to say things unravel fast but is a good game and unlike many many many other games that just pretend that the exploitation of indigenous populations wasn't an aspect of westward expansion archipelago at least attempts to do something with it rant over let's move on with the list number two spirit island if archipelago is a bit ambiguous about its moral stance on its subject matter spirit island makes no qualms about putting players in the position of gleefully wrecking havoc on its colonial invaders spirit island is the perfect balance of strategic and thematic gameplay where the conceptual nature of the spirits is imbued into each of their mechanics like root spear island plays wildly different depending on what spirit you are but unlike root its scales spectacularly well from solo to four players and there is a depth of tactical gameplay that extends beyond the asymmetry spirit island is a cooperative game of mutual empowerment and delightful synergies what's more is that through the changing parameters like scenarios adversaries and difficulty level the game seems to have limitless possibilities sure it may drive AP players to the brink of insanity and yes sometimes there is a feeling of Perpetual struggling until suddenly you're not and then you just kind of go through the motions to finish out the objective but no cooperative game has ever given me such a sense of depth finesse and replayability number one terraforming freaking Mars

15:15 empowerment there are games I love with no progression and limited choices but if there's one thing I adore its empowerment which is the feeling terraforming Mars delivers on so well this doesn't necessarily mean an engine building game though it often does it's about the freedom and ability to pursue interesting choices and feeling successful in your endeavors if you want to be in the bacteria implant king of Mars man you got it you want to be the real-estate queen is synergizing on every new city on the board chances are you'll have the means to do so no it won't always be the winning strategy and no you won't always get the card flips that you were hoping for but no game goes as far as terraforming Mars and allowing you to hone your capabilities into an incredibly specific machine as much influence by your choice as it is the limitations presented to you by the cards you draw combine that with a game that capitalizes on its theme so incredibly well scales well has a killer solo experience and has options for faster tactical play versus longer strategic games and you have the game that for two years has been the one that I've wanted to play again and again and again and again terraforming Mars is far from a perfect game but its strengths are the things I look for the most and it is my favorite game well at least as of 2018 hurried everyone that is going to do it for our list who knows maybe my feelings on all these games will change next week but that will have to wait for next year you'll just have to stay tuned if you got questions about any of the

16:46 games we talked about you got beef with my list or you just want to tell me about your absolute favorite games of all time then please do so in the comments below also I'm only going post list to be GG as well as the cardboard Herald social media account so if you want to do me a favor than help spread the word about the cardboard Herald if you thought this had value you thought it was interesting you thought it was a conversation starter then please tell a friend tell the world get the word out so with that thank you so much for supporting the cardboard Herald over the last two years that we've been doing all the stuff that we've been doing and thank you for watching this video I've been jack and I'll see you next year if you enjoyed this video we have all kinds of other reviews interviews and recommendations via writing podcasts and video here on our Channel and website cardboard Herald calm our content is the audience supported so if you want to show your support please visit our patreon thank you so much for watching this has been the cardboard Harold