Essential Boardgames Every Hobbyist Should Know – Board Games & Coffee Ep. 3

hello and welcome to board games in coffee today we're talking about the essential board games that every hobbyist should know so to get the conversation started I asked my subscribers what makes a board game great let me show you what they said uh there so what contributes most to the greatness of a board game and 68% of people said that above everything else Awards number of copies high ratings it's an innovation that inspires other games there so I thought it was important to start with a good idea of what the expectation was because this topic is one of the most common topics it's also one of the most clickbaity topics how often do you see like greatest board games of all time we played the BGG top 100 in fact I I've even done this before I've already have two videos at least two videos that are kind of along these same lines I've got one called the 18 most influential games of all time and if I could choose only 10 games from the BGG top 100 now if you're interested in that I've left links in the description I would like this video to be different so uh if you'd like a nice history of board games I highly recommend the 18 most influential board games of all time if you're a hobbyist the way I want to approach this is I want to get essential games that every hobbyist must know they must know it why must they play these games because these games tell the story of board games so here we go the first game that the hobbyist must know hear me out because this is a weird one the first game that a hobbyist must know shoots in ladders hold on I'll explain why shoots in ladders if you look at uh the history of any art art begins with religion or it begins with teaching Snakes and Ladders is rooted in a morality instruction game where in Shoots and Ladders uh you're rolling on bone dice or something and every space is telling you like a lesson about life so you do good things you move up on each space you do bad things and you move back down this is like where the idea of Shoots and Ladders originates so for like the significance of where board games May originate you start with Shoots and Ladders maybe you don't need to love it but I think you need to know it because this is part of like the origin story of board games if you will all right I need to turn on my hair all right but moving on next game the next game is for uh Kings and Nobles so there's an issue here it's a game for kings and Nobles at least that's how it starts the game chess of course now chess is a war game chess is a competition of war strategy but the first people who played it weren't board gamers the first people who played it were Kings and Nobles they were they were competing with wit or not wit strategy uh tactics so it goes back to an Indian game called shikimate uh but you got to no chess right so the next game though the the problem with chess is that it's not an every man's game it's a game for like a select I mean eventually it becomes an every man's game but not originally so when when is it that board games really become accessible to everyone in order for that to happen you need a revolution because people can't play games if they're busy harvesting in fields or if they are working in factories all day long like like Civilization needs to advance to a place where people have free time and disposable income once you have free time and disposable income then everybody can start playing so this is where you have to play Monopoly why Monopoly you have to know Monopoly have to play in Monopoly because Monopoly isn't just a massively success ful game that sold millions and millions of copies to people of all ages for years and years and years but it even represents something why was Monopoly successful now I could go into the history of Monopoly like the the where the board game came from that's actually a neat topic on its own I could do an entire video just about Monopoly and where Monopoly came from but the reason that Monopoly is successful is arguably because everyone enjoys playing the role getting rich everyone loves getting the money it's so much fun to get the money in Monopoly that even though it's you know it's it's luck based you're rolling the dice to move around the track and everything even though it's luck based even though it's horrible experience to lose that money it's so much fun in the beginning isn't it so you got to play Monopoly but there's another problem with that not only do you need to know Monopoly because of the historical impact of Monopoly you need to know Monopoly because you need to understand how bad Monopoly is you need to understand why board game hobbyists hate Monopoly because that gives the appreciation of where we go next the next chapter in the board game story is agency so the first game that gives players like a degree of agency like strategic agency like chess but ties in like the luck element to to make it compelling to make it accessible so that anybody can win is of course Katan which came out in 1995 now Katan another game that a lot of people don't like anymore it was a craz in the late '90s and even for couple decades but it sort of died out now it does have the invitation of more agency um but it also it also suffers from a few other other problems which I think are one games at this time have a lot of like Vengeance in them in Katan you can play Katan by the rules and you can say no I will not trade with you because you didn't trade with me and it doesn't matter that that person is 10 points ahead of both us I'm not trading with you I like I'm not going to let you forget what you did to me right so like Katan creates fights Katan creates fights and Katan you can play the game strategically perfect and the luck can not work out for you so we go to the next one which is like which is where I think the the rise of the Euro game actually happens people think the rise of the Euro game happens at kitan because Katan comes from Germany in 2002 a game come comes comes out Puerto Rico Puerto Rico not only does it does it not have a take that mechanic but Puerto Rico breaks away from like area control games and track movement games right so Monopoly track movement um area control is even even carcassone has some area of control but I I me even think about games like Risk and uh even even Katana is area control like area control chess is area control area control is like one of the the most essential mechanics in board games and then and then Puerto Rico comes around and has action selection it has action selection in a way that influences your opponents but not in a way that is uh spiteful which is fantastic so Puerto Rico was a massively important game 2002 and here is where I have a struggle with like figuring out what happens next here's why I needed a little bit of help or actually you know what I've got this response so to my first survey somebody responded with this comment they said I think if we're going to go off of external metrics like Sales reviews designers or fans I'd have to say that what makes a game truly great is staying power a game with a Vibrant Community that talks about the game years after its release and his enthusiasm leads to tournaments community events fans Etc all of that makes the game really great and then he goes on um right now Arc NOA is popular well received and will probably Inspire other designers but time will tell if it's a modern classic oh I didn't click read more well I like the main point here staying power so what's neat about all all of the games that I've mentioned so far even Shoots and Ladders is that they all have staying power chess and shoots and laders have been around for hundreds of years or um Monopoly has been around for dozens of years Katana is coming up on dozens of well it's already been two over two dozen years for Kanan um but now at this point we have a board game Revolution on our our hands we're new and new oh you let me get rid of this thing sorry you can't even see me at this point we have a board game Revolution on our hands but who really knows whether or not a game has staying power so I asked the following question boom prove me wrong no board game from the last 15 years is influential enough to have changed the hobby forever now almost like I was hoping people would disagree with me because and most people did most people said absolutely false and I will provide a counter example in the comments n they're going to show me and then um but thank you thank you so much for your comments I really appreciate it thank you for putting something on there um yeah very few people agreed with me on that and I and I and I I this is not sincere I don't sincerely think that uh there's no board game in the last 15 years I do think it's really hard to tell and I didn't want to mess up on this I didn't want to say like oh this game is going to last forever and be wrong if somebody else didn't confirm at least my opinion so the first two three games uh that were already on my mind and then people themselves confirmed it they said hey you know this game belongs on the list or this game has staying power uh but but they also pointed out but it's not 15 years old it's 16 years old and I said yeah yeah that's right it is I didn't have any question about this game well let me jump over to Boom okay so uh all of these games this is kind of like I labeled it in my sections games that introduce mechanics or genres that people get excited about so in 2007 a grica comes out and and I think it's a groundbreaking worker placement game then in 2008 Dominion comes out and that is the the pioneer of Deck Builder games and also in 2008 pandemic comes out which is a Cooperative game which has been like the formula of which has been utilized in so many additional games since then the idea of players working together using cards and then using a card to to simulate the board and the actions that you're fighting against like absolutely groundbreaking Cooperative game not only that but I would also say that pandemic Legacy is another popular compliment to the new genre of Legacy games which by the way someone pointed out Legacy games don't start with pandemic although pandemic Legacy is arguably the most popular Legacy game started with Risk Legacy in 2011 which by the way I'm talking about games that the hobbyists have must play some of these games once I opened it up to discussion with my subscribers some of these games I myself haven't played yet I have not played Risk Legacy admittedly and I don't know if it's we're arguing that Risk Legacy is a game that you must play as much as you should at least recognize the impact that it's had on the board game hobby um but I haven't played it so um a few others that came up since then so AG gria is what is that 17 years old dominion and pandemic are 16 years old so after that this is what some other people responded with there is I really I'm so grateful for the one who uh who pointed out zombie side so zombicide was pointed out not because zombicide is a game that everyone needs to play but do you realize that zombicide came out in 2012 and was the trends Setter of kickstarters it was launched in 2012 and met its funding goal by 3,800 and since then we have a a culture of kickstarting games and a culture of the fear of missing out and excitement that gets generated for every new game that comes out like started with zombas side um in 200 15 this one was a cool one that someone brought to my attention I mean I I played it but I didn't know if I would put it on the list code names code names why because code names takes a party game now party games are generally very just easy to understand accessible to everyone and a lot of times they involve guess workor right just like oh and you know people are going to do this and then the person who guesses it gets a point like that there's so many party games are guessing games like you know Pictionary charades that's kind what this what I mean Apples to Apples but code names is a guessing game with a level of competition in strategy that just absolutely redefines what a party game can be and I I do agree with that party uh code names came out in 2015 uh then Campaign games Campaign games with Gloom Haven coming out in 2017 I have actually never played Gloom Haven still I I haven't even played jaws of the line to be honest one of the reasons I avoid it is because I I don't have time to do a campaign especially a long one but I will recognize I what Gloom Haven has done to the Hobby and then and then root which came out in 2018 why root because root set the standard for what an asymmetric game can be and I agree with that asymmetric board games root is definitely has had an impact so that's where I'm going to stop now I realize I could go a lot farther because I could do a a game for every mechanic that I can think of everything that set a new mechanic I thought it you know I'm not even going to mention if you want to go through the history of board games and all of the mechanics I put up the 18 most influential board games you can look at that one I do like this idea of board games that set a new genre so that brings me to questions so the first question that I want to address oh and as I'm addressing this one if you have a question be sure to put it in the comments right now on YouTube so the first question is how about exit exit the game if you're not familiar with exit exit is an Escape the Room in a box you open the pieces the hints are there people work together to escape the room you get a score based on how how long it takes you I really like exit games and I'm even how I say it exit games here's why I wouldn't put exit on the list because exit it's truly not it's not a board game and it's not even a game exit is a puzzle why what's the difference between a puzzle and a game after all if you go to the store and you're looking for board games they're on the Shelf next to puzzles right so like puzzle game same thing right no wrong here's why here's how you can tell because a puzzle is ruined if you're playing it you know putting it together with someone who's done it before if you are if you are doing exit the game and one person's like oh I love this one I'll do it with you they know all the answers you're just going to like H there's no there's no game there it the game is taken away when someone knows the solution now you could say like what what about jigsaw puzzles J jigsaw puzzles are a bit more of a challenge because they're skill-based they are puzzles but you know yeah I can put together the same puzzle the jigsaw puzzle multiple times but exit the strategy or exit the game is is a is a puzzle um card games though like oh man this is a card game card card games I I I do normally bring those in with board games all right so I'm going to jump over and see what other questions we have oh wow the first question from pugs Longs is thoughts on slay the Spire the board game wow excuse me thoughts on SL okay so I'm going to have to be honest I'm sorry I haven't I've played slay the Spire I've played slay the spire on my phone like most people who first exposure to slay the Spire I haven't even read the rules for the board game and the reason I haven't read the rules is because I I I really I got tired of that mechanic I could I kind of just want to do my review of like just what's what's my issue with slay the Spire there's a limit okay I don't know if this is the case in the board game all right I have no idea if this is the case in the board game I'm going to describe my problem with the video game my problem with the video game is that you hit a point where at least this is how I feel and maybe people are better at the game and they just think that I'm crappy at it like I'm so crappy that I always run into this problem but this is my problem you get a point in the game where your skill is capped by the cards that you get access to so if you are fighting a battle and you have access to a card that you can choose and they go together brilliantly with what you ever with with what you already have that's awesome but if you go through battle after battle and you're getting cards that don't work with your stuff your choice is okay I can either take a card that's good and put it into my deck and hope that I find some other you know sweet combination of cards or so that my deck doesn't get watered down by cards that don't work well I can like not take anything and I don't like either of those choices I play this game and it feels like I'm just rolling dice hey how successful am I going to be oh five I wish I had a six because then I would probably beat the game but at least I'll get to the final boss like I don't I I just feel capped off by the luck in the game and that annoys me and so I don't want to play the board game because I just feel like it's going to be the same thing but I haven't looked at the mechanics maybe it's not maybe it's more open-ended you know what's cool about Dominion in excuse me wow what's cool about Dominion is the same 10 cards are always there you can always buy all the cards and so there is no there is no like luck you can be strategic and you can save up or whatever you always have um the advantage of seeing what you get so I haven't played slay the Spire next question is afternoon I noticed you're talking mainly about longer games what about the lighter games that everyone has been talking about for years japer Bandido abandoned all artichokes And Hive interesting that you would pick those four games hm Cod names is a short game that's a good question this is from Brian Rollins okay so I guess one of the things that I would like to call games like that is like small boox games H okay this is this is a tough one to be asked on the spot what's the most influential like small box or short game oh I know what it is in my opinion and um okay I I really and someone actually brought this up earlier which is helpful the crew I think the crew is amazing um because the crew want it does a couple of things one it uh it brings in trick taking games I think the crew was really like the pioneer of like hey let's bring trick taking games to board game hobbyists now of course trick-taking games have been around forever in the form of a standard deck of cards but bringing it in and bringing it to the attention of of board gamers is sweet you know putting it theme on it um and then making it cooperative and making it super super short with rounds that are like 5 minutes or less and then kind of like the Legacy example you you can play it yeah you can but then you can just you can go to mission two and mission three and there's 50 missions in the book and then I think there's 50 in the under the c one too this the the c one but like that's phenomenal and now have even seen that in some of the other short games where the format is you can play the short game and then you's got extra stuff to like bring into it so the game just keeps getting more and more added into it I think that's so cool um and I don't know if it's accurate to attribute all of that to the crew but sweet game um I'm I am trying to keep my list as short as possible that's why I'm mentioning his few okay next one Apples to Apples May deserve a spot here from chillionaire um chillionaire 711 Apples to Apples May deserve a spot here DNA of that game has crept into a lot of games okay you're right chillionaire actually was on my spot um and I had to ask myself does every board game hobbyist have to like must play Apples to Apples does Apples to Apples tell the story of board games in such a significant way and what I ultimately decided is that board game hobbyists like that type of party game doesn't speak to the spirit of the hobby the same way um the same way what was the party game that I mentioned code names do like the the depth of strategy Apples to Apples is just like um uh just just just just guessing it's wild guessing too now you could say well what about Shoots and Ladders does Shoots and Ladders really speak to the spirit of board gaming no no no it doesn't speak to it it's like the origin story right like that's that's where you got to think of where board games started and then it became something from that but board games were already that and then apples apples came out right so not that Ura e urri what Ura Ura okay lost cities is the heavyweight champion of small box two-player card games I love the idea of including a small boox two player card game and I probably agree with you that's not only that but um oh shoot I'm on the spot the designer of Lost Cities he's oh he's a good one man I'm not going to like stutter over this I can't think I'm it's escaping me but yes I I think that's right Jaguar is a Bonafide classic really same person I I I actually don't know anything about Jaguar I will look into it thank you and I probably can do maybe maybe like three more three more questions here I I agree with the comment app to Apples is such a slight design that it's almost it's more of an activity than a game I agree with that shoots in ladders Monopoly those aren't games those are pure luck based activities okay thank you yes you're right I'm going to say it again Shoots and Ladders and Monopoly are pure luck based activities that's absolutely true but this is this is where this huge influence on getting people around the table remember go back to that story right Monopoly what's one of the things that makes it so it came out in 1935 right like after the Great Depression or under the Great Depression like it's amazing getting the idea of like Hey we're going to get together we're going to spend our disposable income on a game and then we're going to sit around the table and we're going to use our disposable time to play it and then we're going to play it for almost like n it's 90 years old that's amazing it's historically significant and you need to know what if you're in the hobby what you're in the hobby you're like oh yeah what what what's monopoly I I don't know what that is now I will but I do agree with you that shoots and ladders like it could probably be something else right like you could you could probably play sorry or Candyland or something like the idea of track movement it's just one of those classic before before we were creative we had crummy crappy games like that's my point you understand my point is we had crummy crappy games before this thing kicked off thank you reer kesia thank you for Lost Cities that's the designer of Lost Cities thank you chillionaire okay okay auctioning spaces that's true so so blue blue e Pearl says raw Modern Art and Chinatown which got re-themed as waterfall parks are solid Evergreen tiles in the auctioning space raw definitely like if I was going to add an auctioning game then raw would be it because raw came out like it's I don't know off the top of my head but it's an old one it's been around for a very long time and maybe one or two more any thoughts on an okay from trillionaire 711 any thoughts on an essential solo board game solo board gaming has really taken off in the past few years I think this is going to be my last question solo board gaming sometimes I have to look at my shelf to help me like like generate thinking so what's a most influential solo board gang it has really taken off you're right what a great question man like I almost want to say I almost want to say wingspan because what's cool about solo board gaming is the the um addition of a solo mode to a game that's not designed to be a solo game initially like what what I see more and more often even games like um Shipyard for example I've got ship yard here Shipyard came out it didn't have a solo mode and they added one in the new the second edition like the idea of like we're going to launch a great game let's be sure to include a solo mode that has happened recently and it's super cool um I and one of the reasons why I like mentioning wingspan is because it's kind of a twofer it has that solo mode but also the beauty of that game Drew in a lot of people and some people mentioned that I was like I don't know like do you need to do do hobbyists must need to know wingspan because it drew in new people because of its beauty I don't think they must need to know it but I I want to know did anybody else put a solo game in the comments here Spirit Island for solo huh oh anim for solo I really like that I really like that I used to play onum on my my phone I was like really big into finding games that I wouldn't have to set up so I downloaded it on my phone and like that was the board game that I played oh you know what Friday Friday for solo that's one of the best solo games now of course what Friday doesn't do is it's not a it's not a game that's designed for more people and then has a solo version I actually think that's a greater impact is adding solo versions to multiplayer games but uh Friday is a fantastic fantastic solo game so that's all for questions today thank you so much for the participation and the comments this has been a lot of fun and um don't forget there is also a podcast now so if you search podcasts for board games and coffee you'll find this audio recording there as well um and finally stay tuned if you subscribe to the channel you'll probably get alerts when the polls come out for the next episode so thank you again