No idea. I've never had the option to try it at 2. Maybe the next time it happens that we have 2 we can give it a whirl. 

Yeah I wanted to grab ecos ever since I saw it at SHUX last year. It's fun and you can play it without being too hard core and have fun but there is also some good strategy in there too.

Trickerion was interesting. Pretty tight play and a game where you always wish you had one more action all the time. 

The way the shows work is a bit odd but also very important to know to do well in a game. 

Mind you, I've only had the one play and I think it took one entire play to get the end to end flow even though I've played hundreds of different games. 

So really my opinion should be taken with a grain of salt. :)

I actually took a gamble on whether or not my fiancé would like it and so far so good! You can try it out online at http://play.boardgamecore.net. I taught my friend how to play this past week and it almost made me regret my physical purchase. I still much prefer my physical copy because it was difficult to see what everyone else is doing which is pretty important to keep up with milestones. I would say it's definitely worth the buy!

I love this.

Super curious about #Food Chain Magnate. It seems crazy expensive for the theme somehow, even though that's not logical. Would love to play but can't bring myself to spend the cash. 

Oh, I also got in #Mountaineers. Picked the game up on an auction for $15, but paid for shipping it bringing it up to $40. It ended up being the collectors edition from the Kickstarter which originally cost $115 plus shipping so I was pretty astonished.

Quite a fun game! Planning the routes and trying not to get sabotauged, plus managing resources and dealing with the 3D mountain, it was all really fun. It's a keeper.

I was surprised that I enjoyed #7 Wonders more than Duel at 2 players. Totally not the typical opinion but that was just how I felt about it. 

I don't particularly like Gaia Project at 2. It feels much harder to gaia-form planets since there's not enough time. Maybe I'm missing something though since everyone else seems to like it at 2?

What a great list of plays! #Ecos: First Continent has looked really neat, just waiting on a deal to come around.

I just bought #Trickerion used and am antsy for it to get here. So excited for that one. Any further thoughts on it?

+1 for Mindclash

GET OUTTA HERE WITH THAT ON MARS MESS!!!  (ok that was a bit aggressive!)

Out of the list of games you put I would guess Jaws.  For me personally, though I would have gone with #Merchants Cove, but I do not think it will actually deliver till 2021.  Some of the game that I have enjoyed that came out this year are

#The One Hundred Torii 

#Sorcerer City

#Tang Garden

#The Court of Miracles

But I do not think I would call them out as being game of the year...

Out of the games I have actually played this year I think my top at the moment, without deep thought is, Vast: The Mysterious Manor (if that is actualyl a 2020...it might be a 2019)

Anyhow for me the judging should be whatever you like it to be!  Just not voting by members of the site.

Well, I suppose I will maintain some sort of interest in it. 

I can empathize with playing next to none of these. I own Sorcerer City but it's definitely not a game of the year to me. As everyone else is saying #Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion seems the most likely based on accessibility and popularity alone.

Yes, so there are just requirements like being a certain level in potions and charms, for example. Some challenges also have additional costs like knowledge or magic tokens. If you have the requirements you can complete them in the challenge phase. You can do 2 of the simple ones or 1 hard and 1 simple.

Thanks! Glad to hear it :)

So far I've played #One Small Step since the kickstarter arrived. I really enjoyed it. Exactly the type of resource-management game I like and the theme with history is great.

Also played #Vindication for the first time. This one is a stunningly beautiful game. The art and components is top notch. Gameplay was alright. It just didn't feel as momentous as I was expecting so I'll have to give it another go.

This was a fun read! Thanks for sharing!

Of course FFG is the winner. Obvious choice. 

#Gloomhaven is a 12-course meal. At first you aren't sure which fork to use and by the end you are so stuffed full of goodness but have to keep going. 

Well, to each their own!

Lol I agree. Definitely made my choice for my game selection even harder. 

Yeah JotL seems like a good choice. But still nothing sticks out as a game most people would say is the game of the year. 

A lot of interesting games on the list there but nothing that screams to me "game of the year" for most people. I personally have played none of these so I can't even comment on if there are any good candidates or not. 

I actually quite like the solo play for what it is. Its a pretty short engine building puzzler. 

Super quick teach really. Probably a smidge quicker than 7 wonders

It all depends what sort of "game of the year" you are asking about. Are you asking for Dice Tower's game of the year? or the Spiel pick? or Heavy Cardboards golden elephant? or something else?

Of course I think that #Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion will win a lot of aclaim. As I believe #Fort will.

I am sure that there are other games, not yet mentioned, that will be in the running. But, I feel a little less confident about what games will be in the general running than I have been other years.

That does sound sort of weak. I know some people love it solo, and, I have always thought it looked just a bit weak for solo play. 

LOL. Good response.

That's disappointing :/

Of course I'd hope that my personal favorite, #Oceans, would win, I think it hasn't gotten the attention to win. Fort got the hype but I don't know if the reception has been high enough to win it. My money is on #Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion, with the combination hype, reception, and accessibility.

I will definitely do a write up when I get a play in! I'll try and do a solo and multiplayer first impressions. 

Congrats @nealkfrank! Hope to hear your thoughts on it after you get to play!

Dude so pumped for you!!

Wow, it's not too common to see a game hold an 8+ score. Nice!

It's recovered pretty well lately with the retail release. It's just outside the top 100 on BGG and 64 on the strategy side of things with an 8.1 rating. Not bad!

Dang, that's too bad. I hope you enjoy it!

It was a kickstarter game and they had quite a few quality control issues. Low quality cardboard, lots of warping, enough to really ding the games perception. Everywhere you look though people say "if that hadn't happened, this game would have blown up" type of statements. There's lot of pictures on BGG of the issues people had. 

Out of the loop...I gather there were quality control issues with the first printing?

I'm hoping to get atleast a solo play through in this week, potentially a 2-3 player game as well!

From everything I experienced unpacking and punching the game last night, they definitely fixed up the production of the game. The cardboard is nice, the wheels are definitely better production and so far nothing is warped/warping!

Congratulations 

Congratulations sir. 

Yeah, everyone I watch others top 10 videos it makes me want to try those games too. I would say these are the ones I keep coming back to though

:)

I think you should do the long game once to see how you like it for sure.  I'm just a bit older than you are and 14 hours straight is just not as enjoyable as it used to be.

Outside of one solo play, I've exclusively played it at 2. The main difference is you draw more cards and won't end up using them all. Off the top of my head, I think you draw 10, pick one and pass the rest until you both have 7 cards. I don't think the game would change much at all with higher player counts besides more competition for the bonus's and of course with fewer players you're going to see the same cards over and over. It has no interaction what so ever unless you want to hate draft, but that seems like a bad idea lol. We just like trying to see how many cards we can get into our tableau and most optimally use our resources.

* Awaken Realms
* Leder Games
* Mindclash Games

Cool, thanks for your perspective! Do you play it at 2 players much?

I think those are just stacks

The original game currently still appeals more than this at the moment but will be interested to see how it develops.

I like the resource cylinders that presumably represent more the taller they are. Not sure if they will be practical but look cool at least.

I had actually considered that one for my choice. :)

https://youtu.be/TrAyLSEsE-8

Indeed, bravo to them! 

We like to negotiate!

Oh for sure, I was just being silly. I imagine with my group the short version may be closer to 10 hours 😅

Maybe not, but I am sure games have suffered by designers trying to give it as large a player count as possible, so I could imagine it also happening in the other direction now that solo gaming is becoming more the norm.

Yep, and they're especially dirt proof.

That's good to know, how would you feel about it as a 3P game?

I wonder if the app uses a similar system if if they came up with something brand new for it?

Ah, I saw it on your owned list. But yes, I think it would make for a great video and is obviously not too complicated a game

Yeah, I can imagine them being hard to pick up if you have the ones with tiny square spaces

I would think #Hive would be another great outdoor game, particularly to bring on a camping trip. Those chunky pieces aren't flying away anywhere

By this analogy, I must really love wax apples! 

I played solo once. They try to fix not having the draft mechanic by having you make 8 piles of 5 cards each. If I remember correctly, you get 10 each round but have to deal with them 5 at a time. At any point you can discard 2 to draw 5 and keep 1 to help cycle the deck a little. I think the only other change deals with the supremacy bonus. If you produce 5 of any resource, you can collect the bonus for that resource.

I found it kind of bland and random. It's also just another "beat the score" type which I'm not a huge fan of. It's an excellent game otherwise. One I need to play more often for sure.

I own this and can definitely say the art is a little weird. Excellent game though, one of my fiances favorites that she always asks for!

My box would not close all the way with the insert in there so if you did not notice that then they probably fixed it!

OMG yes. That would probably be a deal breaker for me