OG SDJ Week – Favorites

Posted on June 18, 2024 by Talia Rosen

Spiel des Jahres Week at The Opinionated Gamers continues today with discussion of our favorite winners of the award of all time.  Since the first SdJ was awarded to Hare & Tortoise in 1979, there have been 45 games to win the award so far.  To evaluate those games, 23 members of the OG each picked our three favorite games to have ever won the award.  We present to you our most loved SdJ winners:

No Love

As it turns out, fully 21 of the Spiel des Jahres received no votes as favorites of any OG members.  Those 21 games were (in chronological order): Rummikub, Focus, Sagaland (aka Enchanted Forest), Scotland Yard, Dampfroß, Heimlich & Co., Auf Achse, Barbarossa und die Rätselmeister, Café International, Adel Verpflichtet (aka Hoity Toity), Drunter & Drüber (aka Wacky Wacky West), Um Reifenbreite, Bluff (aka Perudo), Villa Paletti, Alhambra, Thurn & Taxis, Keltis, Colt Express, Kingdomino, Cascadia, and Dorfromantik.

However, to complicate the picture, while we only let each person pick their three favorite SdJ winners of all time, we also let each person pick as many other games that they liked or enjoyed and would like to play again sometime.  A few of these games that were nobody’s favorite, were in fact enjoyed by many folks who want to play them again in the future.  In fact, Alhambra and Thurn & Taxis each received 15 votes, meaning over 65 percent of voters are fans of these two games.  Not far behind were Keltis and Um Reifenbreite (13 votes each), Kingdomino (12), Cascadia (11), and Bluff, Adel Verpflichtet, and Scotland Yard (10).

  • Talia Rosen: My favorite of these 21 least loved SdJ winners is definitely Cascadia, followed by Alhambra, Kingdomino, and Um Reifenbreite.  I held off on even trying Cascadia for a while because of all the criticism I heard, but I eventually checked it out from my local public library and really enjoyed it.  I think the decisions on each turn of which tile and animal to take are interesting and often difficult.  I’m looking for games with challenging and meaningful decisions, and I think this game delivers that remarkably well.  None of these are my all-time favorite SdJ winners, but I think they are solid games that I’m happy to own and play from time to time.
  • Dale Yu: My favorite of the unloved would be Scotland Yard, but I think that is a lot of nostalgia as it was one of my first “euro-games”.  Well, when I first got the game, I had no idea what Euro-games were; this was an American version.  Of the rest, Thurn and Taxis would be my pick, narrowly missing my top 3 choices. 
  • Mark Jackson: I’m torn – I find both Um Reifenbreite and Colt Express delightful if imperfect. Both suffer from needing a full contingent of players to really enjoy the game experience – but both offer lots of moments of surprise and fun amongst the chaos. (I will note that Colt Express: Armored Train is an expansion that kind of went under the radar… it creates a really enjoyable team game and even has a “bot” for when you find yourself with an odd number of players.)
  • Larry Levy:  None of these games rank as particular favorites of mine, but there are four that I at least have fond memories of.  I agree with Talia that the game of these I’m most likely to play is Cascadia.  It’s very easy to teach, but there’s a reasonable amount of stuff to think about. It’s gone over well with folks who want a simpler game–in fact, I view it as an ideal SdJ-style game. Of the others, I like Thurn and Taxis as a 2-player game (I find it has too little control with more players, but it works well with 2).  We also used to have a lot of fun with Barbarossa back in the day–not sure how well it would work now, but it was quite enjoyable back then.  Finally, like Dale, I really enjoyed playing the Milton Bradley version of Scotland Yard when it came out in the mid 80’s.  It’s a great family game and it probably holds up well today, 40 years after its release. 
  • Tery Noseworthy: I have great memories of playing Rummikub with my family, and am happy to have inherited our copy with high-quality tiles and a storage crate. It doesn’t hit the table much these days, but I would still enjoy playing it. I also love Alhambra; it has a nice balance of strategy and luck and works well with varying player counts. As of late I have been enjoying this one on Board Game Arena.
  • Ben Bruckart: I’ve only been boardgaming since the mid-2000s so I hadn’t tried many of these. I did like Cascadia and Kingdomino because they did exactly what they set out to do. I really disliked the chaos of Colt Express and have not great feelings about Dorfromantik.
  • Brandon Kempf: Chris Wray and I went through a couple years ago and created a podcast where we played all of the SDJ winners and talked about them. I remember from that list that there were a lot of games that just kind of were okay, they didn’t really age all that well. This list kind of encapsulates all of those thoughts on the games, with the exception of Cafe International (in spite of its obviously horrid choices in graphic design) and Kingdomino. Those are two games from this list that I would still play. Alhambra might make that list as well, but it’s a certain group I really like to play that with, it’s not a game that I enjoy with just anyone. 
  • Matt Carlson:  First off, I haven’t played many of these games. Of those I have played, they all seem to fall into a category of “fine” games. They didn’t manage to hook me in tight enough for me to keep them around. I’d be willing to play, but have already passed on my copies of Thurn & Taxis and Colt Express. I would think Colt Express would be right up my alley but it was just missing something for me. Alhambra is another “fine” game and I’ll play Perudo if pressured into it by a gung-ho group (my non-gamer wife likes it at least.)  I need to play Kingdomino again to give a verdict there. The only standout not for me was Keltis. It’s a great 2 player game that lost a lot trying to go multiplayer.

The Ones & Twos

There are 17 games that received one or two votes as someone’s favorite Spiel des Jahres winner of all-time.  The games favorited by a single person are: MicroMacro: Crime City, Pictures, Camel Up, Dixit, Niagara, Torres, Elfenland, Mississippi Queen, Manhattan, Sherlock Holmes Criminal-Cabinet, and Hase und Igel (aka Hare & Tortoise).

The SdJ winners that are favorites of two OG voters were: Just One, Hanabi, Kingdom Builder, Qwirkle, Zooloretto, and Tikal.  On top of that, 18 of the 23 voters noted that they liked Just One and want to play it again (followed by 15 for Hanabi).

  • Talia: I am honestly shocked that Dixit did not do better in this poll.  It was an easy choice for me as one of my all-time favorite SdJ winners.  I’ve played Dixit on 37 occasions, and I expect to play it many more times in the decades ahead.  I think that Dixit is both brilliant and gorgeous.  The gameplay has proven so successful with so many different groups, and it’s an obvious go-to game for family holidays like Thanksgiving.  I love Dixit so much that I’ve framed several of the cards and hung them on my wall as art.  My other two votes (El Grande and Carcassonne) did better, but I do wish Dixit had found more success here.  Then again, Dixit seems to be one of the games that helped launch the Asmodee machine that consumed Days of Wonder, Fantasy Flight, and more, so perhaps nevermind.

Larry: I’m the one who gave the thumbs up to Hare & Tortoise (aka Hase und Igel).  I guess I’m not too surprised that it didn’t do better, even though I think it’s still a great game.  It is 50 years old, after all, and there aren’t many titles of that vintage that the gamer of today falls in love with.  Plus, it’s a bit mathy and not everyone likes that.  But it remains one of my favorite 6-player games and is one of the few racing games I love.  It’s just so clever and was a fantastic choice by the SdJ jury for their inaugural award.  And I’ll point out that, despite only getting one “Top 3” pick, H&T is still well liked by the OGers.  Of the 20 folks who’ve played it, 75% say they like it, which is a very good percentage (the highest, in fact, of all the pre-Settlers games).  So I’m not the only one who likes to spend some time munching on lettuce!

I also voted for one of the 2-vote games:  Tikal.  No apologies here, as I’ve adored Tikal ever since I first played it a quarter of a century ago and it remains in my all-time Top 5.  The Action Point system is terrific and gives you a great mental workout without it being close to overwhelming.  Plus, it’s one of the most gorgeous games I’ve ever played.  The common complaint is that the game can lead to massive AP and enormous downtime.  I agree that there are some gamers who shouldn’t play this, but the vast majority of my 4-player games have lasted less than 2 hours, so with a little effort, downtime isn’t an issue at all.  It’s funny, the issues with AP didn’t seem to surface until after Tikal had swept the major awards (only 7 Wonders has matched that feat), and then they became a constant refrain.  But it was as if folks weren’t spending lots of time on their turns until they were told they should.  Anyway, I still love it and probably always will.  If any of you have the chance to play it, I highly recommend you do so.  I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised that it’s not the AP monster it’s often made out to be!

  • Ben: I voted for ‘Camel Up’. I was the one. I still think it is a criminally underrated family game. My dad taught and played with us a very old copy of Hare and Tortoise as kids and that is a fine game that still holds up today. But ‘Camel Up’ combines the tension of the dice, the camels riding each other and the push your luck element all in one! ‘Just One’ scratches an itch that my wife likes to play and does larger groups well so I can see it scoring well. Qwirkle seems to be the abstract game I see the most in my kids’ school and gifted classes.
  • Joe Huber: I’m the one person who voted for Mississippi Queen, which has always been an odd favorite of mine; there are very few race games I enjoy.  But to be fair, I really have two favorite Spiel des Jahres winners, and a whole group I also enjoy; Mississippi Queen is at the head of that list, but it’s closer to the next six games than it is to the top.  Still very enjoyable, though.  The one other game I considered which would have had one vote if I’d voted for it was Auf Achse.
  • Simon Weinberg: I love Pictures – novel, interesting, engaging, great for non-gamers and casual gamers, it’s a massive hit for me. I mix in the expansions for extra fun, choosing just some of the “tools” available. 

James Nathan: It’s me! I’m the lone MicroMacro-is-the-best voter! I’m generally not a person too interested in “is this a game?” type conversations – sure, maybe this is a puzzle. And sure, maybe it generally only works solo because oof how can more than 1.5 people look close enough at the map at any one time. Oh, and sure, some of the ★ and ★★ cases are umm a bit easy and – frankly – discouraging from getting to the good stuff later.  But AAA! It’s so fun! If we’re measuring my “favorite” as “the thing I’d most like to spend my time doing” and like, lol, YOLO why would you measure otherwise, this is a winner for me. I treasure the experience of playing this. Goodness how I love discovering “new” types of puzzles. Yes, let’s go on this tangent. I play…a lot of new games a year. And at some point, things are spiced a little differently, cooked in a different manner, but it’s rare that I try something and my brain gets all tingly as it’s discovered something wholly new (and look, I’m not a “woo innovation!” guy in general, I like things that trod where we’ve been before and do it radly, but there’s something delightful about discovery. It’s like when you first discover modern games and Everything Is Awesome. Or one of my favorite ways to play games – with folks that are dabbling a toe in, and I can sort of concierge and sommelier around. [Does anybody know how many parenthesis I need to close at this point in my tangent?]).) Puzzles have a way of illuminating that “woah, this is a fun way to think I haven’t done before” part of my brain in a way that games rarely do (these days?). (A new boss at an old job had us do this assessment quiz I hadn’t done before, and it, essentially, said I suck at math – hey, I have a degree in that! – but it also said I was great at recognizing patterns? And I imagine, up to a point, recognizing patterns covers up a lot of sins of not actually being good at math.  But also, probably why I love puzzles.) SO. Whether it’s slitherlink, killer sudoku, gogen, manifold, or even perplexus: this is a thing I’m into! The jury awarding MicroMacro gives me an opening to ramble about it as a cool new thing. There’s something pleasant about a puzzle that is just…looking. No notes. (No notes!) It’s a visual inspection. The remembering and the forgetting. The spoilers of it all – as you see something curious out the side of your eye in this puzzle and think “haha, I bet that’ll be important later” and then 6 puzzles from now “I knew it!…but now where was that…” Is it spoilers; maybe that’s foreshadowing. That “looking only” mode gives it such a childhood sense of wonder, as you don’t really interact with anything, you just….stare and admire, full of curiosity and exploration and discovery.

  • Dale: Yeah, lots of these games are ones that I’d be happy to play again, but at the same time, I think it’s clear that I haven’t been the target audience for the award for at least the past 10 years?  Which is completely fine, and in no way meant to lessen the award nor its overall meaning.  Many of the older games on this list still remain in my game collection today, though not Niagara.  That’s one winner I just don’t get.
  • Mark: I’m one of the two folks who chose Zooloretto as a favorite – the combination of the mechanic of Coloretto (loading & choosing the trucks) and the building of your zoo is thoroughly enjoyable for me. (I also like to add in the Exotic & Boss expansions – they add a variety of interesting decisions to the mix. If you’re really brave, you can play what my boys & I call “Aquazoolorettopalooza” – where you’re playing Zooloretto & Aquaretto at the same time!)
  • Tery: I too am happy to play many of these, except Dixit. That game is just not for me; I love the art but the gameplay falls flat. I still play Hase and Igel at least once a year, usually at a con with a particular group of friends. It still holds up very well, and I am still terrible at getting rid of my carrots in a timely fashion.  I have to remember to ask Joe to teach me Mississippi Queen at some point, since I don’t think I’ve ever played it and I would like to. 
  • Brandon: I will unapologetically bring Manhattan with me to just about every gaming group I get an invite to. It’s such a great, easy game to try and get a group to get out of it’s shell and be a bit more aggressive without feeling like there is so much time invested that they don’t want to be mean to someone else, an ongoing problem with my groups. Seyfarth’s best game, by a long shot. Plus, with the new edition, even with it’s weird color choices (which I like, a lot), it looks fantastic on the table.

Ryan Post: I am the lone vote for Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective. It’s not just a top 3 SdJ vote, it’s my #4 game of all time. I entered the hobby 12 years ago, and most of the SdJ candidates pre-Catan have made no real impact in my world. I have never seen someone pull them out to play in any of my groups or talk about them much at all. Yet SH:CD is releasing new versions even as recently as 2020 and 2022 – its staying power is a sign of a true masterpiece. The crime-solving genre has exploded in the scene lately (maybe due to the escape room craze?), and yet SH:CD remains at the top of the pack in quality. This is because like any classic whodunnit, it all comes down to the creativity in the crime, and nothing can touch the creativity in SH:CD. The game can be an immense challenge at times, especially bonus questions, but therein lies the best part of SH:CD – you can’t push creative story boundaries and hand-hold at the same time. My #1 reason for board gaming is that I love puzzles – I appreciate a game that presents a thoughtful challenge, and cherish that euphoric sense of pride when I find the line. Sure a bad solve can make me feel stupid, but conversely if I made a top 10 list of my most proud gaming moments, half the list would be SH:CD. Most game sessions through the years fade from memory, but like a great film, nothing lives rent free in my head like the stories of Green Box case 5 or Brown Box case 10. If emergent gameplay is what you seek, SH:CD is the cream of the crop in my book. I’ll concede that the Sherlock scoring system is silly – if you’ve played, you’ll understand it’s really just the shortest solution path and not one you’d ever actually be expected to achieve. I consider getting the main questions right a win, and the bonus questions an uber win – score be damned. To any new players who are thinking about diving in, I would recommend starting with the Green Box as it’s the most consistent case to case and has added a new mechanism that I think is a home run. Also, I recommend 2 players exactly – cases are tough and need two sharp minds, like my partner Detective Greene. Natural police. With only 3 cases left to go in the whole series, I can see the end of the road. It saddens me to think of a time when I won’t have the option to pull out a case: here’s to hoping another box is on the horizon.

  • Matt: I’m one of the two Just One voters. I think that it arises out of all the gaming I do with non-gamers as entertainment rather than gaming. I can pull it out and get a game going for 20 to 30 minutes with just about any sort of person. I like how hints show a little bit of a person’s personality. It’s not something I’d play with strangers but with the youth group at church, my extended family, neighbors, etc…  each grouping has its own style to the game. (Or activity, if you prefer – I’m also a fan of The Mind.) As for the other titles, Hanabi just missed my top 3, and would have displaced Just One if I was going for games just for gamers. My wife loves Qwirkle (which is a good sign) and I think MicroMacro was really “cool”… I enjoyed Tikal but I’m very AP-prone in endgame situations so I should stay away from that one. I should play more Zooloretto though.

Middle of the Pack

Before we get to our podium, there were four SdJ winners that were the favorites of many OG members but that did not quite make the top of the charts.  Those four games were:

These are certainly four of the most famous and beloved Spiel des Jahres winners of all time, so it’s not surprising to see them recognized as favorites of so many folks.

  • Talia: I adore El Grande.  I still remember when I finally got my hands on a copy in July of 2006 after waiting almost a year for my pre-order of the decennial reprint to get delivered.  I had heard so much about this game, but it had been unavailable for years.  I played it so much in 2006 and 2007 because it was unlike anything I had tried up to that point.  The game had a level of interactivity reminiscent of Risk or Diplomacy, but it had the more peaceful core of games like Catan and Carcassonne.  El Grande blends those worlds brilliantly, and it stands up today.  I had the opportunity to play El Grande several times in the past year, and it is as great as ever.  This is really one of those rare games that benefits from additional players and that excels at its maximum player count of five people.  There are so many board games that can accommodate five players (such as Caylus or Through the Desert or more recently Wyrmspan), but that clearly excel with fewer players, so El Grande will always hold a very special place in my collection as the pinnacle of five-player board gaming (followed closely by Princes of Florence).
  • Tery: I am with Talia here; I love El Grande, and it has held up well for me.  It’s definitely a classic, but I think it compares favorably to many newer games, and perhaps has more lasting value than many, since it is still in my collection and still gets played, although not quite as regularly as I would like. I do still enjoy Settlers, although I rarely seem to play it. Azul and Codenames are just fine for me; nothing special, but I am willing to play – especially since Codenames is a big hit with many of my coworkers.
  • Ben: El Grande is a classic and I mean classic Euro. I can see why people think the dated art and simple but elegant game play is not for them (I am looking at you people who voted for Dixit and Hanabi!). Codenames is always appropriate to play in almost any setting and has really been played across the screens of covid by families who couldn’t meet in person. I like this list. No stinkers here. 
  • Larry: Guess I’ll be the curmudgeon (or, more accurately, the Cult of the New guy).  There are plenty of games from the previous century that I love (Tikal, for example), but Settlers and El Grande don’t rank among them.  There are too many periods of frustration in Settlers where the dice don’t love you and you pretty much can’t do anything.  And El Grande just doesn’t work for me; my feeling is it hasn’t aged that well (although it looks like Talia would disagree strongly).  I’m also not really a fan of Azul–it’s too abstract and too mean-spirited for my tastes.  The game of this foursome I do love is Codenames.  What a brilliantly simple design, and yet one that lets you be supremely creative.  And it works well with virtually every number and every group:  seasoned gamers, casual gamers, kids, families, mixed groups.  It’s easily my favorite SdJ winner from this century.

Ryan: My other top 3 votes aside from Sherlock Holmes were Azul and El Grande, both falling just shy of the podium. I did try to vote for Dominion as well, but it was quickly pointed out that I don’t know how to count to 3. Area Control/Influence really is not my style, yet El Grande breaks through that bias. The card play system is solid, creating tension in deciding between turn order and extra units. I also love the Castillo reveal – the highlight of the game for me. I do think some of the scoring cards can be swingy in the early game, and there can be a king of the hill vibe, but hey that’s the genre. If only I ever had 5 players, I’d probably play this way more often. Azul was that game that mid-way through the first play at BGGCon, it had that je ne sais quoi of a winner. It’s clean, tight, clever, and deeply replayable. I’m not surprised I’ve heard of people with 500+ plays on BGA. The first time you calculate out how to force your opponent to take 5 penalty tiles is a memory of elation that will last a lifetime. For my tastes, it’s actually my 3rd favorite Azul at this point: Queens Garden > Sintra > Azul >>>>>> Summer Pavilion. Queen’s Garden feels like it really enhanced both the draft and the scoring over base game Azul. But if any of those 3 liked Azuls hit the table, I’d sit down and happily play, over and over again. Side note: what a year for Kiesling as a designer, it’s no wonder he won Opinionated Gamers Designer of the Year for 2017.

  • Brandon: Yeah, Azul, that would probably be my favorite of all the SDJ winners and the only game that I have played over 100 times. Absolutely a wonderful family game, hands down. While I like the games that came after, I don’t agree with Ryan above me that the ones that came after are better games, I love that they all do something a bit different and build off each other, but give me the original, any time, any where. Simple rules, fantastic table presence and enough interaction that it keeps you involved and watching the ever changing options on the table, hoping the jerk to your right doesn’t take the pile that you want. 
  • Joe: We’re coming up on 30 years of Die Siedler von Catan being my favorite game, period.  I think about the question every couple of years when I put together a list of my favorite games and every time it remains at the head of the list.
  • Mark: It’s no longer the number one game on my list… but I still love Catan in [almost!] all its variations. I’ve had the good fortune to play it twice in the last month – once with the Cities & Knights expansion and once with the Die Siedler von Catan: Der Schokoladenmarkt expansion.
  • Simon: I love all of these but Catan is very rarely played as it’s too long for my taste; and possibly a bit too repetitive.. Nevertheless the breadth of changes and ideas introduced in Catan wayyyy back when is simply breathtaking and I am so happy it exists and is enjoyed by so many. 
  • Matt: All four of these are solid games I’m willing to play. I was in love with Settlers of Catan when it came out. I even made a custom “travel version” using lamination and grease pencils so we could play at the beach. Now I rarely play it. It seems to last a bit long for the experience it delivers. It is particularly dangerous for new players. I feel that I need to push their decisions rather hard at the start of the game in order for them to not maneuver themselves into a corner. Then the new player sits and waits for it to end while the experienced players vie for the win. Azul is good, but dry. Codenames is great but I find it hard to set up at a party – there’s a danger for some of the non-hint givers to simply tune out. However, El Grande easily made it into my top 3. It’s part nostalgia and I’m aware of many of its foibles but I love the game. It’s one of my earliest (modern) game purchases and I’m always willing to play. I love managing my pieces – ones placed on the board, ones able to be placed, and ones not yet brought into my stable. There’s the ever present take-that of area control games but the fun Castillo gives everyone a way to mess with the results. I wish turn order on the last turn wasn’t quite as big a deal (something I always explain to new players) but that just means there’s jostling for position for the last few turns as everyone tries to set themselves up to go last.

The Podium

Bronze: Carcassonne (7 votes)

  • Talia: Carcassonne was really my gateway into the hobby of modern boardgaming.  I had been played Catan for a few years, but I did not realize that there were more games along those lines.  I stumbled upon the Funagain website around 2002 and the site’s list of Spiel des Jahres winners, ordered Carcassonne, and fell in love.  I joined BoardGameGeek a few years later in 2005 and wrote one of my first reviews for Carcassonne in 2006 about how heavy I consider this classic when played right.  I still think that Carcassonne as a two-player games with the Inns & Cathedrals and the Traders & Builders is an exceptional board game.  I’ve played it that way in person over 100 times, and it easily stands up to that many plays and more, which is a rare feat in this hobby.  Carcassonne is one of the 1% of the over 2,000 games that I’ve tried that I rate a 10 out of 10, and it’s the game that inspired me to hang board games on my walls as art.  I will always gladly play this game, and I have recommended it more times than I can possibly count to introduce people to the wide world of modern board games.
  • Dale: Like Talia, this stands as probably my most recommended game, even more than Dominion.  It’s super easy to learn, accessible to nearly everyone, and has a really low price point which makes it reasonable for people to use as a gateway game.  There are a bunch of expansions, and as is my usual, I prefer Vanilla Carc.
  • Larry:  While I’m not nearly as enthusiastic about Carc as Talia and Dale are, I do think it’s a fine game for two.  With that number, the battles over territories, and, in particular, using your farmers to gain control over the highest scoring areas, makes for a nicely cerebral, but also relaxing contest.  My preferred version is with Doris’ original art, with the Inns & Cathedrals expansion, and using the original farmer rules.  3 player Carc is bearable, but with any more players, it’s torture, particularly if the players discuss the optimal way to place tiles (which I’ve experienced too many times).  It’s just not an involved enough design to deal with that downtime and lack of control.  But I do like it with 2.
  • Tery: Carc had fallen out of favor for me for a while. It’s not that I couldn’t appreciate that it was a good game, but I got distracted by the new and shiny games. I have recently been playing it in a tournament with some friends on BGA, and I am appreciating it again.  I do worry about potential downtime if played live with more than 2.
  • Ben: Carcassonne is a great game that passes the millennial take a picture of my map I built test. It has added game play through its dozens of expansions and it’s pretty and simple. Great game.
  • Brandon: I love Carcassonne, almost as much as I love Azul, but it definitely is my wife’s favorite game that we played a lot of. There is just something about building your map and watching the board grow, always looking for the most advantageous place for that next tile, but also watching for those places where you can maybe but into your opponents scoring as well. Honestly though, without Carcassonne, I probably would never have played any other “designer” board games. Also, I am an expansion and promo chaser with 2 different big boxes and a couple of the smaller vanilla editions. It’s a problem.
  • Simon: What’s not to love about this wonderful, fast, simple, clever, intriguing game? 
  • Matt: I have enjoyed many of my plays of Carcassonne, but rarely play it anymore as I have found other games I enjoy more. (Fun fact, I think I’ve visited the city of Carcassonne twice now since I last played the boardgame… goes to show you how little it gets played.) I suppose I should bring it out to see if the family enjoys it, as I’ve nothing particularly against it (other than how farmers are scored – I have never been able to grok which of the two rules I should be using…)

Silver: Dominion (8 votes)

  • Dale: I, umm, obviously voted for Dominion.  My most played game of all time – if you count my computerized games done during development, easily over 3,500 games by now  (also includes a lot of games recently with the really nice new implementation by Temple Gates).  But, I have a serious bias for it as you likely know since I worked on it.  But what’s not to love about a game that is so versatile.  Based on your kingdom card choice, you can suit just about any type of gamer.  Well, except those that hate fun :)   And FWIW, my top 3 picks are the three podium placers here.

  • Larry:  I guess I hate fun.  Actually, pure deckbuilders hardly ever work for me.  I assume it’s because I never got into Magic or any other CCG, so never really got into the habit of building decks for such games.  Whatever the reason, I have no real clue about what works well in Dominion.  Plus, for some reason, most of my games of it have overstayed their welcome (not because of me–I’m not good enough to spend much time on my turns!).  Anyway, Dominion’s always been meh for me, so I stopped playing it (along with most other deckbuilders) a long time ago and don’t miss it a bit.  Curiously, no one else in my games groups have been huge fans of it either, so it wasn’t that hard to avoid it.  Sorry, Dale, but I’m sure you can take solace in your continuing royalty checks!
  • Tery: I also voted for Dominion, and not just to kiss up to Dale. I am a huge fan of deckbuilders in general and Dominion is nearly perfect for me. It was the first pure deckbuilder that I played, and I still really enjoy it. I feel like it was the game that opened the door for so many other games with deckbuilding mechanics, and I greatly appreciate that. I don’t love every last expansion, but the base game plus one or two earlier expansions is perfect.
  • Ben: Dominion did it first and did it well but then overdid it and this game does not get my vote. After a few games with seasoned people, it becomes more a calculus than a game as people who have played all 9 thousand expansions do have a leg up on people who are new to the game. I don’t mind the game but seasoned players play faster than I can enjoy and so I pass on this one.
  • Matt: I voted for it. It has its drawbacks, for many years I called it “the shuffling game” but I love (well, loved) the diversity of it and how there was always a little puzzle to solve. It was the first deckbuilder and subsequent titles always seemed to be trying to be “Dominion AND…”  As a semi-completionist, I kept buying the expansions but it just got to be too much, even for me. I have enjoyed the digital implementations over the years. However, playing against the “strong” AI digitally has made me see how much the game is a puzzle to be solved and not a game to be played. More often than not, there is an optimal way to play a given layout and trying to do something different will usually spell a loss.

Gold: Ticket to Ride (10 votes)

  • Larry:  Ticket to Ride is an amazing achievement, the perfect gateway vehicle to introduce people to the wonderful world of gaming.  And I’ve used it for that purpose many times, with almost universally good results.  It’s also fun to play with folks who want to keep their gaming simple.  But I actually like TtR’s many spinoffs considerably more than the original game.  The added rules give the game the extra dimension I think it needs to appeal to me.  Plus, I don’t think the U.S. map is very balanced; the East-West routes are much easier to complete than the North-South ones, but don’t yield you more points.  Still, even vanilla TtR is a game I don’t mind playing and I’m very glad such a terrific entry into boardgaming exists.
  • Mark: 2004 was an amazing year for Days of Wonder… not only did they release Memoir ‘44 (the Command & Colors WWII game), but they also released the SdJ-winning Ticket to Ride. It’s been a staple in my household and game groups in many of its different forms: the base game, the plethora of expansion boxes (props to Switzerland/India & Pennsylvania/UK!), and even the little city boxes.
  • Joe: I really didn’t expect Ticket to Ride to become a favorite game of mine when I first sat down to play it.  But I really loved it from the very first play, and continue to enjoy it just as much twenty years later.
  • Ben: I am semi-surprised by the winner but it doesn’t upset me. I like and often teach Ticket to Ride to new players. I have mixed success with the latest legacy version of it but I do enjoy that this franchise continues to publish quality products with easy and clear rules and I like that is so widely available.
  • Tery: I still really enjoy Ticket to Ride. The base game is a solid game and I love that it is easy to teach newbies while still enjoyable for more seasoned gamers. Many of the expansions add interesting twists and keep it fresh while still maintaining the base game elements. I am nearly done with TtR: Legends of the West and it is reminding me how good the underlying game really is.
  • Matt: Not in my top 3 but up there nonetheless. I’m always gaming with less experienced gamers and this is a great fit. My one complaint might be that it can last  just a bit longer than is optimal for non-gamer types. Everyone I have shown the game has enjoyed it. I have most of the expansions, but unfortunately have not found the right time/group/place with which to explore them. I still have high hopes, though, and continue to buy them as they come out. I often give the small box city games out as birthday presents – kudos for that.
  • Simon: Wonderful game, one of my fondest memories is teaching this to my 80+ year old parents-in-law. By the end of the game Grandma was literally standing up in excitement. T2R has everything a winner should have – tension, simplicity, flexibility, variability. And the expansions and new versions are wonderful too. An amazing game. 
  • Dale: This is one of my favorite all time games; a little bit of planning, a little bit of luck, and that constant tension of whether or not someone is going to steal a route from underneath you while you’re busy trying to do other things.  Works well with beginners, though it shines with people who are familiar with the game and can make reactive defensive plays.

Check back tomorrow for Day #3 in the Opinionated Gamers Spiel des Jahres Week when we’ll flip things around and dish on our least favorite SdJ winners of all time!

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