I wouldn't say I've done it a bunch of times. I've had to correct a couple of things we were doing wrong with #Evolution: Climate after a couple of plays. #Dune is notoriously unclear about a lot of rules, due to the wildly differing faction abilities, so I feel like every time we've played we get a little better about following the rules, haha. I'm not too worried about that one, as it's more of an "experience" game, if that makes any sense. Everyone in our group is pretty chill about the rules with that one.

Yeah I definitely still want to try them all! They were all kind of on the line of interested but not quite sold, so I doubt I'll purchase them unless I come across a great deal, but I'd love to give them all a try one day. I do actually have a friend who owns #Photosynthesis, so one day I'm sure I can try that.

I did my ranking and it was excruciating, haha. Here's mine:

1. #Oceans
2. #Evolution: Climate
3. #Dune
4. #Everdell
5. #Western Legends
6. #Santorini
7. #Concordia
8. #The Isle of Cats
9. #7 Wonders Duel
10. #Viticulture: Essential Edition

Honestly, any of the games in the top 6 could be my #1 on any given day, depending on my mood, haha. Possibly top 7. Perhaps with more plays of all of them, I'll get better at differentiating, but for now, I love them all equally and for different reasons.

#7 Wonders of course! Some other good ones are #Dune and #Evolution: Climate (personal favorites of mine). Most Stonemaier games play well at 5-6 too! #Sushi Go Party! is good for a light game for a bigger group.

It seems like you're into bluffing/hidden traitor/etc. type games, is that a fair assessment?

I mean North Star Games has produced 2 of my favorite games - #Evolution: Climate and #Oceans. You have already had an interview with Dominic from them before though, so I'm not sure how much you want to revisit them.

Another I'd be interested in is Renegade Games. I believe they have the Clank series, but they also have a ton of interesting one-off games, such as #The Fox in the Forest, #Castell, #Succulent, #Proving Grounds, #Wendake, and the one I'm extremely interested in: #Sentient.

A newer publisher that seems to be putting out quality games consistently is Pencil First Games, with #Skulk Hollow, #Herbaceous, and #The Whatnot Cabinet.

Looks like you have 2 Shem Phillips games! So that could work. I think for myself I've got a couple of sets:

• #Evolution: Climate and #Oceans
• #King of Tokyo and #KeyForge: Call of the Archons
• #7 Wonders and #7 Wonders Duel

If we did publishers it might be a bit easier to get sets - I've got 2 Stonemaier games, for example, but they have different designers.

I voted folding board. Neoprene is awesome for a game in which you are constantly picking up cards off the board/table or moving them around. I have the mat for #Century: Golem Edition, and it is awesome. However, the storage is an issue as you mention, and so is the cost.

A game for which a neoprene mat would be useful would be #Oceans or #Evolution: Climate, since it's pretty much all cards, and they're often moving around. Unfortunately the size of the tableau varies greatly, so a generic mat would probably actually be better for those.

@philryuh, on #Concordia, I think I'd still go board for the actual map, but neoprene for the market! On the newer boards (and all that came in the big Venus box), they come with separate market boards so you can put them wherever you want, so it would be easy enough to have a small neoprene mat for that and still use cardboard for the main board.

I can get them to play #Ticket to Ride: Europe, #Century: Spice Road, #Pandemic, #Sushi Go Party! and #Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle and #6 Nimmt! fairly easily.  My wife also likes #Splendor #Azul and #Alhambra. I'm always up for a game, my wife occasionally, and my son not so much. I'm hoping to get more game play with #Cartographers: A Roll Player Tale, #Istanbul: The Dice Game, and #The Quacks of Quedlinburg.

#Concordia and #Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization

Concordia is probably my 5th favourite game of all time, but someone in my game group already owns it and a lot of the additional content. I can guarantee that if either he or I move away (or leave the game group), it will be my first purchase. 

As for Through the Ages, I've played the physical version once and honestly it's a chore to play on the table. I almost constantly have a game going on Boardgamearena.com, which satisfies my desire to play it!

On my side of things I would have played Concordia a couple more times, from other collections, I have really wanted to try out #Evolution: Climate and #Power Grid but have not had the backing of other group members!

Not anymore but I had a lot of apprehension in getting #Dune to the table the first time. It's such a beast of a game that a bad first impression will likely mean that player will just not want to ever play again. Nobody wants to sit down to a 4 hour game they don't enjoy.

As for current games, I don't have anything on my "shelf of shame," but I do think I'll have a hard time getting people to vote for #Evolution: Climate now that #Oceans is on the shelf next to it, which is a shame, because Evolution is still a fantastic game. I may just make a game night to specifically play that game, haha.

Oh wow... that's a long time for the AI to finish a turn. Even when I play #Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization app, the AI's turns zip by quickly. Seeing that they're tough opponents, I'd assume their decision making isn't compromised either.

#Viticulture: Essential Edition is one of the most played games in my collection and the app looks well done. It's not likely that I'll get the app, but I hope they address the issue for the sake of leaving a good impression on newcomers

That's true, whereas right now workers are used for the science track. In #Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization, you have to use a worker whenever you're building a structure or the military. And whenever upgrading either, you re-allocate that worker to the building/military your upgrading to. And then the game has another layer of complexity where your workers have to be kept happy or they'll cause a riot, but that part certainly isn't needed in an accessible civ-like game.

It's not on the side of "pasted-on theme" kind of games but Real Estate theme wouldn't go too badly with this one actually hahaha, considering the spatial puzzle this game offers.

I love games in general.

Some of my most favorite games of all time are co-op games.

I like co-op games because they tend to make for good solo games. And since so much of my gaming is solo recently that’s really important to me. 

Top Tier co-op games include:

#Gloomhaven

#Star Wars Imperial Assault

#Pandemic

#XCOM: The Board Game

Im sure there are lots more but that’s what in the top of my mind right now.

Some of the most fun moments from co-op IA are:

Narrowly escaping Darth Vader on a transport ship

Laughing together as a group when the AI spawned Jabba on a random mission

1. Generally, I do not really care for coops.  For me the best aspect of a coop is that they are good games to play solo right off the bat.  I don't care for them because I like that impactful negative player interaction.  I don't mind playing cooperatively against another groups of coop people though.

2. I think there are many people who don't like to be "mean" to each other and so coops are appealing because they get to think strategically without being negative towards others.  Of course this is not the case for me.  But I do know some friends from college that would have week long spells of being mad at each other over board games.  I'm fine losing and losing because someone screwed me over because it's just a game.

3. I think Pandemic would be considered a top tier game in the sense that it's coop and also a Foundation game.  Another game that I think has elements of coop that I enjoy (although I always play the Empire) is #Star Wars Imperial Assault.  The rebels are essentially playing a coop game, although it's different from just playing against the board.

4. My daughter and I have played #Pandemic: Iberia together and I'd say that was the most memorable because it was just another opportunity to try to cultivate a love of gaming in her.

No surprises on this list, I own the first half of this list, the top 5 are all games that intrigue me to varying levels: very much want to play #Root and #Spirit Island.

It's almost a nice walk through of introductory games through to the big heavies. You start by playing #Pandemic with few mates, maybe crack out #Codenames at group hangout, nice cooperative/team games you can walk them through to begin with. A few people who are interested you introduce to #Wingspan or #Azul (have to start thinking of their own strategy but the cards/options are fairly self explanatory. Once they're familiar you throw them into #Viticulture: Essential Edition or again give them plenty of support with #Spirit Island introducing asymmetry as a concept (I find a coop can be heavier and remain accessible than equivalent competitive games). Then once they have been gaming for a little while and are completely hooked you give them a real challenge with #Root or #Scythe before losing them forever to an endless game of #Gloomhaven.

This is a great list! I agree about #Oceans, it's a really fun game. I actually enjoy it quite a bit more than #Evolution: Climate, but I think it's a preference debate between them; they're both great games!

I really didn't think I would have so many, as a lot of my games collection is curated to appeal to the four people I can actually play with regularly, which includes a 5-year-old and a 7-year-old. But here's my list:

1. #Wingspan
2. #Pandemic
3. #Carcassonne
4. #7 Wonders Duel
5. #Santorini
   
6. #Catan
7. #Kingdomino
8. #King of Tokyo
   
9. #Forbidden Island
10. #Clank!
11. #Coup
12. #Sushi Go!
13. #Ticket to Ride: Europe
14. #Dixit
15. #The Resistance
16. #Takenoko
17. #Mysterium
18. #Stone Age
19. #Hive
20. #Magic: The Gathering
    
    

I have:

1. #Azul
2. #Terraforming Mars
3. #Codenames
4. #Pandemic
5. #Pandemic Legacy: Season 1
6. #Catan
7. #Great Western Trail
8. #King of Tokyo
9. #Dead of Winter: A Crossroads Game
10. #Architects of the West Kingdom
11. #Coup
12. #Raiders of the North Sea
13. #Lost Cities
14. #Hanabi
15. #Hive
16. #Eldritch Horror
17. #Magic: The Gathering (I have some decks somewhere in my family home from when I was a kid)

Wow, that is more than I expected when I started making the list, maybe I am spending too much time on here and influencing the list too much! 😄

1. #Viticulture: Essential Edition
2. #Wingspan
3. #Azul
4. #7 Wonders (having issues getting this one to link)
5. #Carcassonne
6. #7 Wonders Duel (same issue ^ )
7. #Concordia (just ordered it)
8. #Santorini
9. #Kingdomino
10. #Jaipur
11. #King of Tokyo
12. #Everdell
13. #Sushi Go Party!
14. #Lost Cities
15. #Hive

So...most of my collection are in BGA's top 100, haha. I'm guessing #Tiny Towns will make it in there eventually (119 overall), and I wish #Evolution: Climate (181 overall) and #Oceans (not ranked yet) were in there, haha. Those probably don't have as wide appeal, though, so I understand why they're not. I think Oceans has the potential to appeal to a wider audience than Evolution does, so we'll see what happens there, as more people get the opportunity to try it, since it's making it to retail now.