My Top 50 Games OF ALL TIME! | #30-21

0:00 hi everyone i know you've been waiting with baited breath for the next installment of my top 50 games list right well i'm happy to tell you the wait is over yeah baby that's what i've been waiting for today we're going to be talking about numbers 30 through 21 which means that we'll officially cross the halfway point so you should probably place your bets on what you think the top 10 are going to be anyways in addition to that i'll be announcing the winners of the last two giveaways and be giving you the details for this giveaway so you're going to want to stay tuned so if you want to know what the next 10 games are on my top 50 games of all time lists and you want to know how to enter yourself into the giveaway to win one of them then mind i suggest hi i'm alex from mine i suggested game a channel devoted to helping you find your perfect board game today we're going to be talking about the next 10 games in my top 50 games of all time list but before we jump into that let's pick those giveaway winners so without further ado ladies and gentlemen the comment picker

1:06 alright congratulations to user john ross for winning a copy of phantom inc and user gaming with santanas for winning a copy of concept please shoot me an email at my suggested game gmail.com so i can verify that it's you and get you your prize and if you're bummed that you didn't win this giveaway don't you worry there's gonna be three more chances to win as i finish off my top 50 list if you need a refresher on the rules here's how it goes step number one you gotta subscribe and hit that little bell button so you get notified when i post new content and step number two you just gotta drop a wine glass emoji down in the comments however you will get one extra bonus entry if you suggest a game to me based on my favorite games that i've been talking about and if you want to know what game i'll be giving away today you're gonna have to wait to the end for that one so let's get right to it will one of these next 10 games be the perfect game for you let's find out shall we all right number 30 on my top 50 games of all time list is charter stone from stonemeyer games now to be honest i was pretty surprised that this game was this high on my list and that's not to say it's not a good game in fact i've really enjoyed it but charterstone is a legacy game and i'm notoriously bad at finishing legacy games i hope this video really gives me some incentive to get it back out there i think part of it is that there's kind of a heavy mental load if you haven't played that legacy game for a while because you kind of have to remember all the things that you did to get there and sometimes that feels like it's just too much too much of it too much but i will say in the times that i have played charterstone i've been really enjoying the way the game has been evolving i guess it's kind of nice

2:37 that i haven't finished the game because i can't really give away any spoilers to you but it's also kind of hard to give a thorough review when i don't know where all the pieces end up either way though i'm determined to speak from what i know so here's what i like about charter stone charter stone is a legacy worker placement game and the more you play the campaign the more the board builds out to give you cooler actions and better abilities and i'll be honest that's been one of my favorite parts each of these character cards comes with a blank space for their name so you get to come up with whatever you want i really love the idea of creating a game that's unique to us i've always been a really big fan of creating your own characters in video games and stuff like that so charterstone feels like it really scratches that itch the gameplay itself is also pretty simple especially when you're first starting out so it feels like a pretty cool intro to worker placement that increases in difficulty as you go on i also gotta give a shout out to the production quality and all the really awesome art in the game the whole vibe of the game is very cute and whimsical so it really feels like a relaxing experience every time you play plus i like the campaign system that they've integrated that has different tuck boxes and one time used cards that give the game some really exciting moments when you get to dive into those anyways like i mentioned before we're not nearly as far as we should be on the campaign in charter stone but maybe it's placed on my top 50 list is aspirational and it's a sign for me to get that campaign going again so if you're looking for a really nice looking worker placement game that grows with you builds in difficulty and makes every decision feel like it really matters then might i suggest charterstone

4:08 the next one on my list is something a little bit lighter number 29 on my list is gudetama the tricky egg card game this super simple and colorful card game features one of the best sanrio characters of all time gudetama the lazy egg first of all gudetama is amazing and as an aging millennial i can really vibe with him but often times these cutesy license games don't usually hold up for me i'm happy to report though that gudetama is an exception to the rule gudetama is one of the easiest trick taking games to teach because your only goal in the game is to make sure you don't win the last trick now that seems pretty simple but there are a couple of rules that make that kind of difficult on your turn you can do one of two things you can either play a card that's equal to or higher than the highest card in the trick or you have to play your lowest possible card the tricky part is you really want to hang on to your low cards because you don't want to win the last trick and if you end up getting stuck with the last trick you get as many points as the value of the card that you won that trick with and in this game you do not want points anyways gudetama has a lot of really great things going for it it's got great colors it's got adorable art it's got a really easy rule set and it plays up to seven players so you can get everyone involved plus the box that it comes in is really small so it's super easy to travel with gudetama remains one of my favorite card games to introduce new people to the hobby it's super simple but it hides a lot of really interesting strategy that's just enough to get new people wanting more i bring this with me on almost every vacation and it's just a great quick card game to whip out when you're waiting for your kids to wake up from a nap or you're just trying to get people around a table to socialize this game is honestly so

5:39 good and they also came out with a holiday version of it which would make a perfect stocking stuffer so if you're new to the hobby and you're looking for a great card game for everyone or if you're a board game veteran and you need a pallet cleanser to play in between big games then might i suggest gudetama the tricky egg card game number 28 on my list is a game that's super new but jumped way up on my list because it is just so dang fun it's decorum from floodgate games decorum describes itself as a game of passive-aggressive cohabitation and if that doesn't sound like your covet situation then you must have been living alone it's a really interesting mix of a cooperative game and a legacy game where there's a bunch of hidden objectives and a lot of unknown information at the beginning of a round of decorum everyone's going to be given a certain set of objectives and all you have to do is complete those objectives by placing the right items in the right spaces in your house now that might seem fairly easy on the surface but the tricky part is everybody's got sets of objectives that often compete with one another now for every round there is at least one solution that satisfies all the objectives but everyone on the team has to get there with very limited communication and when i say limited i'm not joking when someone places an item or moves something around in the house and if it's not your turn the only things you're allowed to say are i love it and i hate it this can be really tricky because sometimes all you do is feel meant about it but you can't say that but you don't say that so you have to work together to figure out what the perfect layout's going to be there are a few opportunities to communicate

7:09 throughout the game though at certain points you'll be able to pass one of your objectives to another player who you think might really benefit from knowing what you need to go for this opportunity to share information branded as a house meeting works really well to move the game forward and make sure everybody doesn't feel like they're banging their head against the wall i got a chance to play this game a few times at the last convention that i went to and really i couldn't keep my hands off of it we got to play it a few times with three players but i've heard it works really great as a two-player and a four-player game as well i'm really excited to dig a little bit deeper into decorum because from what i could tell the missions got tougher and tougher as he went on and the nice thing about this is even though it kind of has a legacy feel it's not as connected as something like charter stone is so there's a little less pressure when you start back up after a little while so if you're looking for a game with a really cool art style that feels like you're trying to solve an impossible puzzle until you get it and allows you to practice your conflict resolution skills at the same time then might i suggest decorum the next one up on this list number 27 is a game called witness from istari games now witness is a pretty obscure game and i was really surprised to see a copy pop up at one of my local game stores but when i saw it i had to grab it because i love deduction games and this one is one of my favorites the tricky part about witness is that you have to have exactly four players and you'll see why in a second each of the four players will play as a different detective on the case each of whom is given starting information that's different from everyone else then once

8:40 everybody has taken in the information for the case you'll have to whisper that information to players on your right or on your left this ends up being kind of like a game of telephone and there can be plenty of information that gets lost in translation not to mention the bunch of information that just doesn't make any sense now the person receiving all that information has to internalize it and remember it so that they can then pass that information on to another player the game of telephone is hilarious and the logic puzzles in each case get more difficult as you go on which makes this game just an absolute hoot i just love looking around and seeing everybody's absolutely baffled faces as they try to take in more information and try to remember the information that they got last turn it is truly hilarious then once all the information has been shared in some capacity around the table you'll go to the final page of the case which has a little bit of a questionnaire everyone will fill out the questionnaire to the best of their ability and you'll get points for each answer in the questionnaire you got right obviously you're trying to get the best score and hope that everybody gets all the answers correct but sometimes it's also pretty funny when someone gets none of them right either way witness is an absolutely underrated gem of a game if you're a fan of any deduction games at all you should definitely check this one out it reminds me a lot of those encyclopedia brown books that i used to read as a kid where you're just trying to solve these really funny logic puzzles the game somehow feels really nostalgic to me it could be because the art is based off the blake and mortimer series which was an old school comic strip that's kind of in the same vein as tintin so it really invokes a certain time period and i think that's really cool so if you're looking for a hidden gem of a deduction game that's half sherlock holmes half party game and all

10:11 super super fun then might i suggest witness next one on my list number 26 is parks from key master games now i have to admit with this one i am absolutely blinded by the production quality of this game the components the art the game trays the way everything fits perfectly into the box just put it on another level for me sometimes i just want to take it out and look at the game because it's just so beautiful now the gameplay itself gets pretty mixed reactions in the board gaming space but for me i think it's a great mix of the simple and the strategic the game is played over four different seasons and in those seasons you'll be moving your two hikers down the trail to collect different resources and visit different parks there's a really interesting puzzle you have to solve as you move down the trail because you can't be on a space with someone else so you have to decide where to jump forward and where to hold your ground one of the things i really love about this game is when you play it i feel like you get immersed in the game i'm always looking forward to whatever park is going to get flipped over next just so i can look at the artwork and imagine what it would be like to actually visit that park they really spared no expense when it comes to the amazing art on these park cards i mean almost every single one of them feels like it would be an awesome addition to your art gallery at home but aside from being mesmerized by the art this game has served me super well in my collection especially because i live in the pacific northwest as you may or may not know a lot of people here really love the outdoors the entire pacific northwest everyone's dressed like there could be an impromptu hike at a moment's

11:42 notice well i'm going for uh coffee but you never know what a hike might break out parks has been a great gateway for those types of people especially if they haven't played games before because it's a theme that they can really dig into plus the game itself feels super thematic so everything feels like it makes a lot of sense my only knock on the game is that it does have a little bit of a long play time but i think depending on your player count and their familiarity with games you can start to cut that down pretty quickly i also was able to get the nightfall expansion for parks which i would highly recommend because it includes new park cards that in my opinion make the game more exciting anyways i've talked plenty about parks on my channel before so if you want to know more information about it you can check out my video here so if you're looking for a game with some absolutely beautiful art and you want a really thematic experience that feels like you're getting into the great outdoors that might i suggest parks we hit the halfway point number 25 on my list is a game called point salad from aeg point salad is an amazing card game and it's one of the most effective uses of multi-use cards that i've ever seen in point salad you have to pay attention to the front and the back of the cards on the front are vegetables that you'll use to build sets in your tableau and on the back are different objectives that you'll use to score those sets that you've built you'll be drafting different vegetables and objectives to try to create the highest scoring salad at the end of the game the tension in this game comes at every turn where you have to decide whether you're gonna draft two vegetables and put them in your salad or draft an objective card

13:12 that will score you points at the end of the game you have to really find that perfect balance between having enough objectives to score you a bunch of points and having enough vegetables to really multiply those objectives this is another great one to play with people that are new to the hobby especially because as an experienced player i lose all the time there's enough luck of the draw where anyone can win on their first game but enough strategy to make it hold up over multiple plays now i will note the base games cards are a bit flimsy so if you get this and play it a lot i would recommend sleeving your copy oh and i also have to mention that they just announced a version of this game that instead of vegetables it's different eeveelutions from pokemon and let me tell you when i saw that announcement i freaked out oh my god okay it's happening i gotta find a way to get my hands on that copy so if anyone has a plug let me know anyways point salad is a great five minutes to learn 10 minutes to play kind of game that travels well and plays up to six players what's not to like so if you're looking for a light and quick card game that's surprisingly strategic and will be a great reminder to eat your vegetables then might i suggest point salad the next one on my list number 24 is deception murder in hong kong now this one in my opinion is one of the greatest social deduction games of all time and if you haven't gotten a chance to play it i would really recommend this to anyone deception is one of the games that got me into the hobby and i think it's a game that a lot of social deduction games wish they could be deception has that classic formula of one person giving clues a bunch of

14:42 people trying to figure out what the right answer is and at least one person trying to sabotage the whole situation the person giving the clues is the forensic investigator and they'll be putting out vague information each round to try to get the detectives to guess the right clues now in front of every player there will be sets of potential murder weapons and potential evidence at the scene of the crime the beginning of the round the hidden murderer is going to choose one murder weapon and one piece of evidence to be the true answer everyone else's goal is to try to figure out that combination and of course the murderer and any accomplices are trying to throw everyone off the scent the game is super fun with smaller and larger groups and especially with people you've played it with before i feel like this is a game that gets better each time you play it and there have been some nights where i feel like we've played it a hundred times i've had a ton of fun times playing this game and teaching this game and i love seeing people's eyes light up when they finally get how the mechanics in the game work there are always some hilarious conversations as well that happen when people are trying to convince other people that it's not them and personally i live for that stuff deception murder in hong kong is just a classic social deduction game and it'll always hold a special place in my heart and in my collection so if you watch csi or listen to a lot of true crime podcasts or you just really like social deduction games and you want to try your hand out as a brilliant detective or a sneaky murderer then might i suggest deception murder in hong kong all right number 23 on my list is a

16:12 pretty new chunky rolling right called three sisters from 25th century game the first word that comes to mind when i think about three sisters is relaxing just relaxing the gameplay is super simple all you're really doing is rolling a handful of die seeing what they come up with and then picking actions based on their values now i'll be honest with you there have been a lot of rolling rights that have come out lately and personally i'm not a huge fan but to me three sisters is the perfect blend of that really simple concept combined with a little bit more complex strategy after you end up rolling those dies and choosing your action you're gonna be filling out boxes on your two separate scoring sheets these scoring sheets represent the different areas of your farm like the fields and the flower beds and your barn where you keep all your equipment etc etc your goal or at least my goal anyways is to try to make the best combos by filling out different areas of your sheet to get points you can go heavy in the garden and just try to grow as many plants as possible you could spend a lot of time in the barn trying to make your equipment better to make everything worth more points you can get some instant victory points from your fruit trees or you can stock up on goods which could give you actions which will make your combo even better when you first look at the scoring sheet it does seem a little bit overwhelming because if you took the art away it'd probably just look like a crazy excel spreadsheet but once you get into the flow of the game everything just seems to fall into place now i had played fleet the dice game before which is kind of the predecessor to this game and i liked it but i didn't love the theme and i think that's where three sisters wins for me is that farming theme really comes out in the gameplay every box that you check off and every action that you can take really feels like it makes

17:43 thematic sense so it's super easy to pick up even if you've never played the game before anyways this game has left a really great impression of me on the multiple times that we've played it and i think if you asked me to bring a roland right to game night this would be the one i'd pick so anyways if you're looking for a super thematic farming themed game or if you're just looking for a relaxing roland right that'll satisfy your need for endless combos then might i suggest three sisters okay we're almost there number 22 on my list is the quintessential worker placement game it's viticulture essential edition from stone meyer games now i didn't get on the viticulture hype train until very recently but let me tell you it is just so good i've been playing this one so much on board game arena that i figured i should just shell out and get the physical copies so i did viticulture essential edition is a game about wine making and right away i think that theme really brings people in winemaking is something a lot of people are intrigued by so the idea of getting to try your hand as a wine maker for a day seems like a pretty good deal in viticulture you'll be placing your little vineyard workers around the board in different seasons to plant harvest and process grapes in order to make wine and fulfill orders if i had to describe viticulture in one word it would be smooth the art is smooth the rule set is smooth the gameplay is smooth kind of like a fine wine i guess anyways every time i play this game i feel like it's very well crafted and well balanced the scores are usually really tight for new and veteran players alike and because everyone feels like they have a shot at winning everyone's really going for it

19:15 until the very end one thing that i will also mention is that viticulture includes two of the best board game components out there number one is the first player marker that's just a bunch of grapes love that thing and number two is the infamous grande worker i mean just look at that big hat it's amazing anyways a little while ago i did an overview of viticulture so if you want to know more about this game you can check out my video right here so anyways if you like to drink wine if you want to make wine or if you just want to play an awesome worker placement game that is smoother than a nice cab then might i suggest viticulture all right you made it to the last one on today's list number 21 is sherlock holmes consulting detective one of the most fun parts of counting down my list of my top 50 games is that every new game that i talk about i get even more excited about sherlock holmes consulting detective is one of those games that i feel like was made for me i love detective stories i love mystery novels i used to read sherlock holmes all the time when i was a kid and this game is one of the most thematic games that you will ever come across i mean even calling it just a game feels like i'm doing it a little bit of a disservice it's more of an experience and i'm here for it in sherlock holmes consulting detective you'll be working through a book of clues that correspond to different locations all around the map of london you'll be traveling to the pubs or to the opera houses or to scotland yard to try to gather clues in order to help you solve the mystery that was presented to you at the beginning of the case now the interesting part of this game is you could really investigate as long as you want there's

20:45 a really loose scoring system that you can use to grade yourself at the end but really if you're just in it to try to figure out the correct solution then you can get really deep into this one after you've checked out a bunch of different locations and gathered a bunch of information you'll turn to the back of the case book which has a little questionnaire for you to answer then once you fill all the answers out you'll open the solution and see how you did on the questionnaire then if you're really a masochist you can compare your score and the number of leads that you followed to sherlock's score usually i follow about 17 or 18 leads and sherlock solves the case in four leads so i don't really compete against sherlock anymore i just play this game to have fun solving an awesome mystery i mean it's just such a vibe to sit by the fireplace have a nice glass of wine and work together to solve a mystery i know this definitely makes me a nerd but i honestly can't think of a better way to spend a friday night when i play this game i feel like i get immersed into the world of sherlock holmes and i couldn't love it anymore i've played this game both solo and with my wife i think i prefer it at two players because you have someone to discuss with but if you try to play it with more there might be too many cooks in the kitchen anyways if you love mystery novels by authors like agatha christie if you love the idea of putting together clues to solve a mystery or even if you just like that bbc show with benedict cumberbatch i'm not a psychopath functioning so she both do your research then might i suggest sherlock holmes consulting detective thanks for sticking around for this next installment of my top 50 games of all time like i said before i'm really loving to count down all these games because it just gets me more and more excited as the list goes on anyways i know what you're waiting for i promise

22:16 you a giveaway didn't i alright well the game that i'll be giving away for this episode is drum roll please three sisters man i just love this game and i want more people to get their hands on it plus it's a pretty new game so i thought it'd be a good pick for this so anyways if you want to enter to win a copy of three sisters from 25th century games then all you have to do is subscribe to this channel and drop a wine glass and maybe a suggestion for a game that i'd like in the comments below anyways thanks so much for everyone who supported me so far please don't forget to like comment and subscribe so we can keep growing this channel and keep helping you find your perfect board game once again this has been a might mighty suggested game production and i'm alex your board game sommelier signing off