Best New-To-Us Games We Played in 2025

[music] >> How's it going everyone? I am Dylan and this is my cousin Carlo and today we are talking about the top new to us games of 2025. We when we came back in December, we kind of talked about our 2024 year in review because we were at a period of time where we were away. We haven't spoken a lot about 2025.

You've heard about games we've talked about, you've heard bits and pieces, but we thought we would just sort of summarize that year, but not the games that came out that year, the games that were new to us, the games that we played, especially because there's a lot of stuff that shifted for us and our taste over the last little bit, especially in the time that we were away.

We do have our top 50 coming up this summer and so we thought this would be a nice way to sort of give you some more information about where some games have ranked for us before we get to that more official ranking. >> Yeah, the last time we did our top 50 games of all time was the end of 2023. So by the time we release our new one this summer, we'll have been, I guess, 2 and 1/2 years.

And yeah, things have changed quite a bit and just we've played so many games we can't even keep up with covering them all on the channels. This is sort of giving us an opportunity to put out there some of the ones that have really, really stood out that maybe we it it might be a while before we're actually able to like review these in a proper capacity.

So >> Yeah, exactly. So five each. Yeah, five each. We'll give some honorable mentions at the end cuz there's a lot of stiff competition for these. There's some that I wish I would could put on here, but we're not going to be able to. So I'm going to kick it off So wait, quickly, how many do you expect to have overlap on in our five?

I'm going to guess two. Two is my guess. Uh you know what? I am going to guess just one. >> I thought it was going to be two after, but one of the ones slipped into an honorable mention for me and I I bet you I know which one you're thinking of. >> [laughter] >> So yeah, yeah. All right, I'll I'll kick it off to you for number five.

>> Okay, so my number five new to me game is Medici. So this is a 1995 auction game by Reiner Knizia, one that I was obviously very, very late to the party on. And without getting too, too into the rules here, it's basically it goes up to six players. Um, think it's from what my plays so far, it's probably going to be best with five.

But you basically each player has their own little board where you're kind of like collecting these uh these cards that you each have like a ship. And there's going to be cards like there's a deck of cards with different colors of a kind of goods. And um when it's your turn at the start of the round, you're going to start by flipping a card from the deck.

And it's kind of this like push your luck thing. Everyone's ship has five slots uh for goods that are going to be able to fill up throughout the round. So you'll flip a card and then you'll decide, do you want to hold an auction just for that one card or do you want to turn over another card from the deck and then hold the auction?

And so what you eventually you decide, do I hold the auction off? But sometimes once you turn over you're like, I didn't want to do that because I wanted what was I wanted those first two cards, but now I flipped. I don't know if I really want that other one. And then you go around the table, you each get to bid only once, which is awesome.

You have to be really really selective with your bids as a result because you know it's not going to come back around to me. And if I really want that, I don't want to overpay too much, but I also don't want to sit here and then have someone immediately outbid me and go, "Oh, I would have been willing to pay that.

Why didn't I just make the higher bid?" Um another thing I love is that your money in this game, your currency are is are your points. So everyone starts with what is it like 20 points on the board or something like that or whatever. 20 30 points. And so when you're bidding, you're just taking points off of your score on the score track.

So it's a really interesting decision all the time of how much do I think I'm going to be able to get back from this. And the good the things that you're acquiring don't always score immediately. Like at the end of the round, you're going to compare um things like who got the most of each color of good, but you're also going to look at who on their who got the highest total value of goods on their ship and that person's going to get a separate reward.

So it's kind of have this majority thing where you're comparing the different colors of goods with the other players around the table. If you play at the max six-player count, which we actually haven't, you can kind of there there can be card counting because every card is in the deck and there's this one special gold card and everyone's kind of like waiting for this gold card to come up.

And so that's why when we played with five, you remove I think it's like five or six cards from this deck, and then you don't know what's actually in there for those auctions, which is actually really compelling. I really like that aspect of the game. There's been some issues with the actual like production of the game.

We won't get too into that here. You can go read up about I mean Medici has a history of this, but it's just been a really interesting auction game. And as we continue to play more of Knizia's auction games, it just blows me away that this one feels so different from the other ones. You see elements of things like Ra with the push-your-luck, the flipping of cards.

There's There's a little elements of that in some of them, but yeah, a really strong first impression of this and one that I'm really eager to play a lot more. And I will also be interested to see if it is anywhere near as good with like four or six players. I don't know if I'd want to try it with like three or two, but Yeah.

Yeah, great pick. If we had done a top 10, it might have snuck in to my top 20, but I think you like it more than me. And I think Ra and Modern Art just sort of like overshadow it. And I will say those are I I definitely prefer those more as well so far, especially Modern Art. But yeah, I I've really enjoyed that the couple plays of Medici so far.

Nice. My number five, after bunch of deliberation, I landed on Rebirth. So Rebirth, and I think it's because I just played it again recently two players, and I just got my appreciation back for it. So it's a it's a Reiner Knizia game as well. And it's a is a tile laying game. It has two different sides of the board, which offer the same foundation of rules, but two different versions of playing the game.

One's the Ireland side, one's the Scotland side. I think I like the Ireland side better, but I really do like both sides. And it's just one of those simple games where you just have a single tile. You're not choosing which one to place. You know what you're placing. You have to place it. There's some restrictions on the board on this map that you have to follow, but otherwise you have a bunch of freedom of where you're placing.

You don't have to put it adjacent to things you placed before. You can pretty much go anywhere. You're [snorts] going next to castle spots to erect castles in your color. As soon as someone beats you with the amount of tiles that are surrounding that castle, then they take it over. Castles are worth five points at the end of the game.

There's like 12 castles or 10 castles on the board, so you're fighting a lot for that. There's different on this Ireland side, there's different like tower abilities that when you go next to them, they get revealed and they'll give you opportunities to place extra tiles, to look at three tiles and choose one to place instead of just having to place one, to get you know, additional big sums of points.

There's there's a bunch of different stuff that comes into play that way, but ultimately, this is just such a I've been talking about this before in the review, but it's such a great gateway game. But, there is the more I play it, there is depth here, but the depth I will say comes from you have to be all playing with someone else who is also getting deeper and deeper into it.

Because that's where the opportunity for challenge like and more complexity comes from is knowing when to abandon like one of the ways you score is like food farms and electricity farms. The more you put adjacent, the more it completely ramps up your score. The first tile you place is worth one point, but if you put a second one of the same type next to it, now you get an additional two points.

Then you get an additional three points. By the end, if you have like 11 in a row, you you putting down one gets you like 11 points. That's huge. But, you have to know when depending what's in your hand, when you're blocking your opponent from doing the same thing. You can't let them run out of control.

And so, being aware of this huge board, cuz it's a very big board, where you're blocking, especially if you're playing two players, then it's even more open. But, that's another great thing about it is that all the player counts I've enjoyed it at so far. Like I have my favorites. I think it's better as a three or four player game, but I've really enjoyed it as a two player game.

It almost has a bit more relaxing feel while still being competitive. Scores are high. They go into the two to 300s, and so you have this large variability of score, but when it's closer, it feels more interesting and better. Yeah, I'll leave it there. I just I really I really like it. I don't know where it'll shift as the years go on and because not only are Knizia games competitive with each other, but tiling games all that kind of stuff, gateway games, but this is one I just keep thinking about, and it gives me a great feeling when I play it that I want to keep playing it.

So, that's number five, Rebirth. Solid pick. Um just if I had to guess that there's probably I probably played like 50 or 60 somewhere in that range new to me games in the calendar year of 2025 and this would have probably been like around the 10 or 12 range. So, definitely like among the better newer games I've played just didn't quite make my my top five, but it's solid.

>> Yeah. Solid game, but I have only tried the Ireland side. >> Yeah. Yeah. We'll play it again soon. >> Yeah. All right, number four on my list is uh Sardinia. This is a game that So, we played this now it was I've only played it the one time and it was probably a good seven or eight months ago now.

Um so, it was initially published as Kreta like k r e t a back in I think it is like a 2000 or 2003 or something. Um so, this is Stefan Dorra, same designer as For Sale. So, this is the it's kind of re-implementation by Plata which comes in this awesome box that kind of unfolds in the box becomes the board.

Um the basic pitch of the game is that it's basically like a fairly simple strip-down area majority game on this map similar to like you could lump it in with games like El Grande and that kind of thing, but much much much simpler, much more distilled. But, the main driving force there's two things that stand out about this game.

One is it has a card system very similar to games like Concordia and Century uh Spice Road or Century Golem or whatnot. Um or Fayum where you basically all start with the same hand of cards and you play the card, you do what it says, the card stays down, next player goes, you go around the table playing cards and there's one card that you play that gets all your cards back in your hand.

Um and there's also the other thing is that you know which there's like there's a deck of cards that reveals which order these different territories are going to score in and you only have the the next two areas it'll say like number 11 and number 17 for example. Those are face up and then there's like nine face down cards.

So, you know that the next areas to score are region number 11 and then region number 17. You have no idea what's going to come after that. So, when you're playing your cards, you're trying to decide, do I want to try to have a majority in one of in this next region that's going to score? Do I want to plan for the next region?

Do I want to anticipate that I'm going to go to a different end of the board and hope that some of the scoring cards that are going to score later are going to be later in the deck cuz you don't know if all the like which regions will or won't even score during the game. And one of the cards, the sentinel, as soon as you play it, you score that region.

So, it's the pace of the game, when the scoring happens, when the majorities are determined, when the game ends, all that is all player driven, which is just amazing. And it's so interactive, it's so thinky, but the rules are very simple, and the way that the role cards all interact with each other with how you place things on the board and how there's certain ones that you know, you can only do this if you have something from this which was influenced by this other card you played.

It's just this really interesting interconnected system. That first play, I was just blown away by how much I enjoyed it. And yeah, I can't can't wait to play it again. Nice. This is what This is one I like I thought about, but I just I only played it the one time that I think, and [clears throat] I don't I didn't remember enough about it, and I didn't feel confident enough about my thoughts on it yet.

But, I would I remember liking it, and it is one that like when I see it at Victory Points and stuff here locally, I'm I'm always looking at it like, "Should I just get my own copy of it?" Like I I know I like it. I love the way it unfolds. Great back, yeah. >> play it again soon. Yeah, agreed. Uh number four for me, a game we've talked about lots here, so I'm not going to spend a ton of time talking about it.

That is Toy Battle. So, Toy Battle is uh a game that is I played it like 350 times now. It's grown on me uh more and more each time. I have annoyances, but there's things I don't like about it, but ultimately what matters is that the as a whole package, as an experience, as this game that I've been playing, it is just such an amazing game.

It is a great game. It is so tactical. It is so thinky. There's for the what it is and the way it looks and how it looks like a children's game at first glance, it's surprisingly mean and deep, too. And it really is like a MOBA style two-player battle game. Like you're just trying to place your toy tokens to be able to either place one on your opponent's HQ or to surround different star tokens to be able to collect an equivalent number of star tokens to pay on the map that you're playing.

But the have to highlight eight different maps come in the box which is an amazing amount of variety for a game it is not an expensive game. It gives you so much to to kind of work with. It's one of the reasons I can play it 350 times is that like again even though that's a lot, you split that even say I played each of the eight maps in equal equivalent amount.

That's that's like splits up and and you can kind of like there's maps that I haven't played enough to know how to play that map versus other ones I have. So you can even just play probably 50 to 100 games on one map and still get enough out of it. Let alone they gave you seven additional ones in there.

All the abilities are really interesting. None of them feel like too overpowered because you don't aren't guaranteed that you're going to get them on the game you aren't guaranteed when they're going to show up. You have games where you don't get any >> [snorts] >> of the captain I think it is or captain or whatever the army man where like those ones are so powerful in the sense that like you can do multiple plays on your turn.

If you don't get any of those and your opponent does, now you're kind of making up for trying to find ways to make up for the fact that they have this advantage in that realm. Versus like when we played on our two-player championship video, I didn't get any of the I can't remember the name of it but the number three where like that is such a crucial one and so I was having to come a way or approach that game in a way where I couldn't do moves I would normally do in every game I play where you you play something that you know is going to get covered because then you play your number three to take it off and you essentially have claimed two spots in a row and I couldn't do that, right?

So there's I'm not going to go to I've talked about this game so much in so many different videos but it's just a really really solid two-player battle MOBA game. Love it. Really interested to see how they you know what his next games are if he does more in this tactical space or how they expand this one with more maps, more troops, whatever.

Yeah. The only two things I'll say real quick. One is just to piggyback off what you said. If you're someone who's on a tight budget and you're looking for like one two-player game to buy, this is one of the best kind of like bang for your buck two-player recommendations I can possibly make. And secondly, yeah, I just this one was literally my number six.

This one I had in my number five spot until I remembered that Medici was one I played for the first time and so it went just ahead of that. But yeah, we've we've talked about a lot. You can go back and watch our two-player best two-player games video as well as the championship video. We've also talked about it on our podcast episode.

So I'll leave it at that. But yeah, excellent game. Okay, my number three is Caylus 1303. So this one isn't quite as old as the first two I mentioned, but the original Caylus came out in 2005 I believe. This one was re-implemented. I think it was 2018 or 2019. And it's So the original Caylus I had only played on BoardGameArena and I liked it a lot.

And you can see the DNA from kind of some of these older games like Bus inspired Caylus which then inspired Agricola and then to have them kind of revisit Caylus and kind of modernize it. They slimmed down the rule set. They cut out a bunch of stuff, but they also added a couple of things. Basic quick pitch about it is that you have this kind of you're building this the town of Caylus together and this big castle.

And you it's a worker placement game where you have these kind of like this winding road that leads up to the castle. And at the start of the game only the first I don't know, maybe like 10 or 15 spots on the board have worker placement spots and they're fairly basic like gain these resources or whatnot.

There's a couple others I'll get to in a second. And throughout the game the players are together not only adding new spots to the board that go down this winding road as it progresses closer to the castle. But you there's also this and when you put your your workers out there, you don't take the action immediately.

It's sort of action programming. You're putting your pieces out there and then once everyone passes for the round, then you kind of resolve the actions in order from the beginning all the way leading up to the castle. They resolve, they trigger in order. However, here's the real hook of the game. There's this absolute jerk non-player character on the board called the provost, and everyone on in play can manipulate where the provost goes either forward or backwards.

So, not only is there an action that you can take to immediately move the or not immediately, again, when it triggers to move the provost forward or backwards, but then after the round ends, in turn order that you passed in, the players can also pay to move the provost back and forth in turn order there.

And wherever the provost is after that, that's where you stop. So, you go do these actions, and then as soon as you get up to the provost, even if there were other players' workers ahead, that's it. You don't resolve any actions. So, it can be absolutely cutthroat because you see it There's a bit of push your luck, too.

You're like, I really want that new, you know, the newest action spaces that become available are usually the best, the most tantalizing, but you know that if you commit one or two workers to there, the other players are going to conspire to be like, "Let's move the provost back so he gets nothing." So, you're kind of like, "Then do I go try to take the provost action early so that I'm more in control of where the provost goes?" But then if I do, then is someone else going to take the It's It's so brain burny, so interactive, so competitive.

I've played it twice. The first play was like incredible and blew me away. The second play was not quite as good, and I don't know if that was just a result of the setup of the board. The provost just didn't move as much in the second game. So, I don't know ultimately where it's going to land for me, but um yeah, I'm I'm sort of enamored with the game at first and can't wait to play a lot more of it.

It's definitely like already one of my top worker placement games. Not It's not on the level of like Agricola and Keyflower and another one I'll mention later, but it's it's in that next tier for me. Yeah, I thought this would be on your list. It hasn't I didn't play this version. I played the original Caylus.

It didn't resonate really with me, but I haven't played the physical version to be fair. I do want to try this version, and I want to play it at a table and see how I feel about it. >> you were there for one of the plays. I Oh, okay. We definitely need to play it together. >> Yeah, it it's it's like there's stuff I'm I'm interested to play more of, but I just it hasn't resonated with me quite as yet.

But I I'm not surprised to see it on your list. >> Yeah, yeah, that's fair. Number three for me, a game I've talked about not recently, but in the past, and that's Earthborne Rangers. Uh, so Earthborne Rangers is sort of in the um same realm as Arkham Horror: The Card Game, um in that it is a sort of adventure deck-building game.

You are going to have this deck that you start the game with. It's going to evolve the more that you play. Earthborne Rangers plays over like 30 sessions. Um what I really, really like about Earthborne Rangers is just that I find so much of what it does ambitious. It's such an ambitiously designed game.

It's such a interesting game that you I'm I'm just impressed constantly by how it's working. Like, every time you visit an area, it's like, okay, which path did you take to visit? Oh, you took a mountain path? Take all the mountain cards and put the mountain cards into this deck. Oh, you now take three of these random adventure or um valley people that can show up.

You put those into the deck. Put these story things into the deck. Shuffle it, and now this is just how these things that you're encountering in the wilderness are coming out. And they either come out in front of you, or they come out sort of a distance away, and you have to find a way to get to them.

And they Or maybe they'll move towards you. Maybe then when you want to leave the area, something's been flipped that's an obstacle for you. And so, you are now your gameplay, right now what you're focused on, is how do I get past this obstacle to travel to where I want to go. It's not like there's like this overarching At least at the point I played it, there's not this overarching thing where it's like, here's this villain.

You have to go track him down and beat him. You're kind of just exploring, and everything is emergent. And so, the things that you're dealing with might seem minor as I described them, but it's what makes the game so interesting and compelling to me. It's like the storylines are specific to me. I have an instance where I spent my entire time dealing with the fact that these wolves kept coming out, and then they were attacking these deer, and then I got involved in their battle.

And like, it's just like that is minor on the scale of like what you compare to the stuff happening in Arkham, but it's so much more compelling in the way it takes place that I it's and also just a relaxing type of style of game to play in that way. I think I described it in the solo video as like you're not fighting demons, you're you're you're delivering biscuits, which is just how the game starts.

That's not like the entire course of the game. >> Spoiler. No, I'm kidding. >> [laughter] >> But yeah, it's just it's really good. And like there's so much more I have not uncovered in this game yet. Like it's one I'm going to be going back to I think for years at this point cuz I also have the expansion which I haven't even gotten close to getting to yet.

But there's just it's it's hard for me to describe it without getting into spoiler territory. I would just say that as you see the game working and the gears turning and how things come out and how when you flip one of the modifier cards to see how you're modifying something you did that the world responds to an icon that's on that and you see everything around you sort of these these battle these make this that goes to a den.

This leaves this person comes and talks to you. Like it just works and it's just really interesting. I just I love games like this that find a way to take a board game and say we're going to make it work sometimes like a video game would but tactilely. And it does that so well. So, love this game. I'm super impressed by it.

I don't know where it'll land with me as I get actually eventually get through all 30 sessions and everything. But right now it's one that's like sort of always in the back of my head. Cool. Is this one you think you're going to prefer playing most solo or with two or three? Yeah. >> I I I I I I I I I I I it's I don't have like I'm not saying like I don't say that as like oh No, no, no.

My feelings aren't hurt or anything. Like >> feels like when I play it because of the the stakes being lower and because of the way that it's very narrative driven, it just I I think I I talked to a lot of people that don't like Oath Runes Rangers or have traded in their copies and stuff like that because they were trying to play it with two or three people and they're like my group just wasn't digging it.

And I really do think that whether or not it was designed primarily for it, it feels like this is made to set up on your table, take up your table, and stay there for a long time and play by yourself. Whether you're playing two-handed, whether you're playing one, like I play two-handed now. I started playing true solo.

I enjoy it now with having two different decks, two different characters that kind of work with each other. I really like that. It doesn't feel too overwhelming. But I That's how I very much prefer it. I would like I would love to try it multiplayer. I'm going to try it with my partner at some point.

I'd love to try it with you and Braden. But I just feel like it's going to be one that I much rather just be like borrow this and play it cuz you'll have a better experience. >> what I was going to say is if I ever decide I want to like get into it and give it a legitimate chance. Like I might be interested in like doing the one first play with you to learn it.

Um but I would probably also say like just lend it to me and I'll I'll try it solo. But yeah, I'm I didn't think you were going to put this ahead of Toy Battle. Yeah. So, I know that it takes a lot longer. So, I'm not going to say like if it was on BGA, would you also play 350 times? But would you spend that much time playing it as you have with Toy Battle?

I I think overall the hours I put in like I played 350 times for Toy Battle. But like some of those games are five minutes. Right. A single session of the War of the Ring Rangers could be taking like two hours. >> Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. Yeah. Nice. Nice pick. Okay. Uh number two on my list is Lords of Vegas.

So, this is a game that was uh originally released on even like early I think also like 2003, 2005, something like that. Maybe I'm a bit off. Um and there was a recent kind of re uh re-implementation or re- new edition that came out a few years ago by Lone Shark Games. Um man, this game So, I won't get too into it.

We talked about it um quite in depth actually in our second, I think, episode of Dig in or Move On Battle earlier this year. And since then I've had the chance to play it one or two more times. And I don't I can't really like the game continues to rise in my estimation. When I first played it, um I haven't played a ton of negotiation.

Cuz I remember the first time I played it, I thought, "You know what? After Zuwadis and Bonanza, this is probably my number three negotiation game." Then after a few more plays, I was like, "You know what? This is definitely ahead of Bonanza now, but I don't know if it's ever going to take Zuwadis." And based on my last couple plays of Zuwadis and my last couple plays of Lords of Vegas, this is now like I can comfortably say now that this is my favorite negotiation game.

And I just continue to love it more and more every time. The The amount of Dave always says too that it's a game where when you teach the rules and you explain it, it feels like it should just be a random luck fest and it feels like you're like are am I going to have a lot of control? Can I really have much of a strategy?

Are there interesting decisions to make throughout? But like somehow the game pulls it off. It feels a bit like a magic trick almost. And the negotia- Every time I've played it they were just laughing so hard. There's There aren't many games where I laugh this hard. I'm smiling the whole time. Doesn't matter if I win or lose.

And what kind of solidified it for me too is I know you missed the last play that we had of it. And I know like I love it, Dave loves it, Raj loves it. And we showed it to Kevin and Nathan them playing it for the first time. And they were both like texting me the next day being like we have to play Lords of Vegas again.

[laughter] That game was amazing. And I'm just I'm loving the kind of like excitement in our group. I know Braden really liked it as well, too. So it's one that I'm going to want to keep playing a lot just to see too like how much very like how different does it feel from one play to the next? Can you make a very small but very tall casino early and then just defend the onslaught?

Or can you like the negotiating the freedom you get in the negotiations and stuff? Like I'm just Can someone ever reach that 90-point mark where you just win instantly rather than having to actually go through the deck? All that kind of stuff. So yeah, I love love Lords of Vegas and can't wait to play a whole bunch more of it.

Yeah, this one hasn't landed for me the same way it has for all of you. But I I know it wasn't >> a fun for you. I know. Like I wonder if this is I've thought about it too like in my head I've compared it to Libertalia a little bit in the sense that like I Libertalia is like one of my favorite games.

But I if I'm not in the right mood for that type of game, I wouldn't enjoy playing it. And I And I've had that happen with other people that have played Libertalia and like I have been in the mood for maybe more strategy or whatever. And I wonder if the times that I played it are just like I was wanting something with less randomness, with more like create a strategy or whatever and and there's a little bit too much chaos for what I was hoping out of that session maybe because like I because I love it's because I love a game like Libertalia that I'm like why wouldn't I love a game like Lords of Vegas and I think ultimately I just have to play more of it and just kind of better understand what it is.

>> Yeah, and you know what I'll say we we have a habit of getting together and starting to play a game at like 9:00 or 10:00 p.m. at night and it's like if you've been awake all day and you're exhausted like the game asks a lot of you to be socially involved like you got to bring the energy and so you're absolutely right.

I think I think everyone at the table should be in the mindset for it if even one person is kind of like can we play something a little more chill where I can we don't have to talk as much or be as like amped up for but if you have the energy for it man there's very few games that give you this feeling.

Yeah. Uh number two for me I went back and forth with one and two switching spots but what I'm ultimately having landed on is number two is going to be Civil lution. I figured. So Civil lution is >> this would be your one. Yeah, it was real I mean it it's very close. Uh Civil lution is a Stefan Feld design very heavy game but not I would say not as heavy as as it'll look when you're first like setting up on the table like it it's deceptively actually more accessible than than it actually looks but it is a civilization style game with a weird theme of people being in school programming a imagine that you are playing the video game Civilization Sid Meier's Civilization and the game is about you playing Civilization.

That's basically what the theme is. It's the theme is you are someone playing a program creating a civilization. That's a way for them to sort of get away from being like this breaks the immersion breaks the theme. You can do things that or things get expedited that wouldn't happen as quickly in a civilization game because of that but ultimately there's just the reason I love this game is cuz there's just so many directions to go every single time I play I'm doing something a little bit different.

I'm like even if I'm touching all the same things I'm spending more time here. I'm spending more time here. I'm spending more time here. This time I'm not doing this and as someone who loves Castles of Burgundy and the dice system, the fact that dice system is in slightly different way, but it's present here, and you're having to like roll these dice and say, "How am I going to use them?

I fit like I have six dice. How am I going to use them all to make the most efficient use of them before I get to reroll them and get to do this again?" You can acquire more dice, then you're fighting for those dice with the other people at the table because they can you can start stealing them from each other if they all run out of the main board supply.

The way that you're programming your personal board with sliding these cards in, but when you slide a card in, it designates what that whole column is. If you can get to a certain height of the column, you can get more points. Like there's just it feels overwhelming the first time you play, but especially because of all my solo plays, this is one of my most played solo game, if not my most played solo game.

It's just it's become so intuitive to me that that is almost the most impressive thing to me is that this is the heaviest game I've played that I have no issues playing. Like that not only have I gotten the setup down, it's just like I set it up, and I haven't really forgotten any rules, or if I have, it's one that I find that as I'm playing, I don't have to like refresh beforehand.

I just refresh as I go, and it you pick it up again really quickly. And and I've heard this feedback from you. I've heard this feedback from Dave that like it really once you are in it and playing it, it's the game even if it takes a long time to play, it's not because the game is too heavy, it's because you are thinking so much about your decisions because there's so much to consider.

And that's a good reason for a game to be long, not because it's too complex. And so, it's just it's just struck this amazing balance that I guess what I love about it, too, is just it's just been so long since it's really been since Feast in some ways that a heavy game that with this much of depth has landed for me so spectacularly.

And this this has. And so, you know, it would be up there with Feast and like Terra Mystica and stuff as those heavy games that really speak to me, but this one just even has more freedom. More I would say it has a lot more freedom than Feast, which is wild cuz I always talk about the freedom in Feist.

But, yeah, amazing game. Cannot wait to play more multiplayer. I played it mostly solo, but every play with multiplayer has been solid, as well. Yeah. I thought this was going to be your number one, honestly. Like, my one play of this with you, I loved. I know I was texting you the next day being like, I can't stop thinking about this game.

Um a couple things real quick. One is, yeah, I think this is one of the longest teaches I've ever experienced in a board game. Like, you did an incredible job, but like even if I was trying to like it takes probably 45 minutes to go over the rules. Like, no joke. Um but for such a long teacher, right?

Like, you internalize it. I barely had to ask many rules questions. The the reference guide or whatever is very good. And it's so exciting to feel like you've played a game like that. And I'm like, I've seen maybe maybe 1% of what this game has to Yeah, that's the real thing. >> infinitely replayable, and it has that big um front-loaded thing before the game starts.

It's that reminds you of the Agricola draft, where you get access to all kinds of cards, and you can make all these plans before you even take your first turn, and I just love that. So, >> Yeah. yeah, this might end up being my favorite Stefan Feld game after I play it a bit more. It was very close to even making my honorable mentions.

It's just it's been quite a while now since I've played it, and wasn't quite up there with these other ones, but yeah, really really impressed by it, as well. Yeah, it's it hasn't passed Burgundy for me, but and I'm not saying it can't one day, but it absolutely is my second favorite. >> Yeah. And of the Feld games we've played, it's probably one of his most interactive.

>> Yes. It's maybe not on the level of In the Year of the Dragon, cuz that's pretty brutal, but uh but yeah. Okay. I think we both have the same number one. So, we might as well just go to it was going to be like two or three for you, but I'm [laughter] thrilled. Okay. Uh I think we can say number one is Bus.

>> Yes. Speak to Bus. Go for it. Bus. Uh what can I say? There's been I said this when we covered it also in um um our our episode of Dig It or Move On, actually the same one where we talked about Lords of Vegas. It's rare to have this strong of a first impression from a for a game, where I play it, and immediately after the first play, I go, "This is one of the very best games I've ever played, and unquestionably a 10 out of 10." Like, that's maybe only happened two or three other times, maybe ever.

Um and it's a game that came out in 1999. The The I guess right now still the only Splotter game we've played. Um but it's just incredible what it does with a relatively streamlined rule set. The amount of player interaction, and we love worker placement games here. We talk all the time about, you know, Keyflower and Agricola and, you know, Fief for Roden, tons of tons of worker placement games.

Um but the way that this is like has been around for like, yeah, 25 plus years and gives you these brutal decisions where you have these 20 workers throughout the game. You have to place minimum two per round, but you don't know you can place as many as you want. Once you've placed your 20th worker, you're out of the game.

You can only score points in one way by taking this one single action where you actually deliver passengers. The game for a long time when I heard about it, it seemed so like dry and boring. It's like, "Okay, it's called Bus. There's a picture of a bus on the front. Yeah, I heard there's some weird time manipulation stuff, stopping time." I just never really thought it was going to be for me for whatever reason.

And I It's one of those ones again, it came out in 1999. I was 11 years old. Why did I not play this game until last year? Like I'm It Yeah, it's just an incredible game. We've already talked about it a decent amount of things, and if this is going to come up many, many times over the years, so I'm not going to say a whole lot more.

Um but it has that action programming thing that I talked about in Caylus 1303 where you lay out your plans, and everyone's getting in each other's way, and then once everyone's done, then you actually resolve the plans. And both phases, just the way that they blend together is just incredible. It's Yeah.

Yeah. It's It's I struggle [clears throat] sometimes to even decide what my favorite part of about the game is cuz I love the worker placement aspect where, like you're saying, it's you're programming these actions, but also like different ones resolve in different orders, and you're always having to factor that in.

And even what each one accomplishes, like the stop time thing is wild, and and people going and choosing to go into that really shifts the round and and what's happening in the game. The fact that there's only one thing that you're scoring for, and so when you see people going into that, you really that's signaling you whether like whether or not you're going to join that or what what's going to come out of it.

But then also just the fact that like the actual board where you're making the routes and you're trying to get passengers and you're trying to like decide where you're going to place pubs, where you're going to place uh offices and all that kind of stuff. Like you can never plan perfectly, ever. You're never going to get close to planning perfectly, but you're going to you're going to plan as best you can.

And so when you a plan like works, even if it just works well, in a lot of games the idea of my plan worked well it is it's not going to be enough to win the game, but in this game it is and so it feels exciting just to have like a good round. And it's not every game that you can just have a good round and be like that good round was better than an excellent round of like these other 10 games, right?

And so [snorts] it's I'm not We've talked about a lot how I'm not like I'm not the most competitive person, but Bus sort of is one of those games that brings it out of me and it's not and it takes like Toy Battle brings it out of me. Bus brings it out of me, but like it doesn't happen a lot and it happens when a game strikes the right balance between competitiveness and enjoyment and fun for me and Bus hits that balance better than a lot of games have, maybe one of the very best.

So and it's also I would I would say even though we like are giving it so high accolades, it's also still criminally underplayed for us. Like we need to play this a lot more. I'm going to be stuffing this in We're going on a trip to a convention in a in a couple of less than two weeks now. I'm going to be stuffing this into my bag to cuz I I feel like >> Seriously?

Yeah, we have to. Like we have to bring Bus like We just we need to. Like this needs to get played more and also just like yeah, like I don't know. I cannot wait to play this a whole bunch more over the next couple years and just like see where it ultimately lands with some of the other heavy hitters that we've talked about here, but also just like in our top 50s and stuff.

Amazing game. Would you agree that of all the games we play, this is one of the ones that's most uh like groan-inducing around the table? Like every player on the table multiple times per game is like ah, like [snorts] either after they play something and someone's like oh, look at so-and-so, we We to go here.

Oh, block them here." And it's like, "Oh, the round ends and I was going to do this and now I didn't Oh, it didn't work out." And like, it feels like everyone is always dissatisfied with how things are going unless at the end you win the game. You never are able to achieve what you want because there's always people in your way.

It's up there with like Lost Cities for me in terms of me like Lost Cities I'm I'm upset because I don't want to do any of the actions that I have to do from my hand. This it's just like, yeah, like everything that someone does usually affects something you were considering doing and because you've already sometimes laid out certain actions you're like, "Well, now how do I rebound from that?" And we didn't even talk about how you have a limited amount of actions over the course of the whole game, but when you play them and how many you use like like yeah, it's just yeah, it's great.

>> Yeah. Yeah, that's us. I'm I'm glad I'm surprised, but I'm really glad it was number one for both of us. >> Yeah. And it's appropriate the crossover is our number one. That's awesome. >> Yeah, yeah. Uh so those >> Okay, honorable mentions round them off. >> Okay, honorable mentions for me I had Clans, Big Shot, Flip Tunes, uh Chu Han, Disc World, Botswana.

All games that I really wanted to slide into the number five spot, but but ultimately didn't. Nice, okay. I had some of those as well. The only three I'll mention are Big Shot as well was on mine. That was so close to making it. Uh Toy Battle which I mentioned was number six. And the other one was Rise and Fall.

Rise and Fall I had a really strong first impression of, but I played it three or four times and I don't know yet if it's going to hold up to that first or second play. So, it needs more plays, but a very intriguing game that you'll definitely hear us talk about more on the channel. >> also odd ones.

Those are 2025 and you'd ask games tell us in the comment which are the new games that you played last year that uh you are still thinking about, still playing today. Um and which ones you are surprised we didn't include that maybe we we haven't played or maybe you just want to find out if we played them.

>> Toy Battle's the only 2025 release I think that made the video. That's true. Yeah. Um maybe one day we'll do Carl will do his like 2025 tier list, but we you Maybe after I do my 2023 and [laughter] 2024. >> Maybe one giant list. >> to Well, we'll see. I got some thinking to do. >> [laughter] >> Got to do many other videos to do first, but yeah.

Tell us in the comments which year you want to see Carl do a tier list for. [laughter] Anyways, thank [clears throat] you so much for watching and [music] we will see you next time.