Yesterday, we introduced the Designer Choice Selections—a list of the favorite games from a bunch of notable designers, chosen by the Meeples Choice Award voters and the OG writers. Today, we look at three more great designers: Stefan Feld, Uwe Rosenberg, and Sid Sackson. 63 voters participated in the voting.

Stefan Feld
Feld is one of today’s most distinctive and polarizing game designers. He launched his career about 20 years ago and he gained renown by releasing six consecutive titles in the highly prestigious alea big box game line. He continues to be very productive today, thanks to Queen’s Stefan Feld City Collection of games, and other designs.

We chose not to group any of Feld’s games together. Specifically, we kept the City Collection titles and the games that they were derived from separate, as there are invariably significant differences between the designs. Here are the most popular Feld titles, as chosen by our voters:

1. The Castles of Burgundy – 35
2. Notre Dame – 18
3. In the Year of the Dragon – 16
4. Civolution – 14
5. Macao – 13
6. The Oracle of Delphi – 9
7. The Speicherstadt – 7
8. Trajan – 6
9. Carpe Diem – 5
9. Luna – 5
9. Marrakesh – 5

Our favorite Feld is Castles of Burgundy, which is hardly a surprise, but I think the margin of victory is a bit noteworthy—it got almost twice as many votes as the second place game. In general, I didn’t expect the voting for Feld to be so top-heavy, given how many highly rated games he’s designed. Five games got double digit vote totals and Oracle of Delphi just missed. I was surprised and pleased by how well Speicherstadt did; I think it’s a superior auction game, but I had thought it was largely forgotten. On the other side of the coin, I thought both Trajan and Luna would perform a bit better, but both are difficult games to play well, so top 10 finishes are probably quite respectable. 26 of Stefan’s games got at least 1 vote.

The original discussion among the Meeples Choice voters which led to this exercise centered around whether we preferred “old Feld” or “new Feld” designs. The general consensus was that the borderline for old and new games for him was 2012. It turns out that our voters prefer old Feld fairly strongly. The top three games all came from his earlier period, as did 6 of his top 8 games. Civolution is the biggest exception, but it still only finished fourth, barely ahead of Macao. 4 of his top 5 games were part of that fabulous run of big-box alea titles, which I guess is more or less expected. Speaking of alea, I was a bit surprised that his most recent success, The Druids of Edora, only got a couple of votes. It’s well rated and has gotten a few award nominations, but it finished well down the list. New Feld still got some love, but as a group, we think he was best during his classic period.

Uwe Rosenberg
Rosenberg is next. His long and very varied career clearly marks him as one of the all-time great designers. He began as a card game specialist, invariably thinking outside of the box (his smash 1997 hit Bohnanza is a perfect illustration of that). Than, 10 years later, he recreated himself as a designer of heavyweight board games, with the brilliant Agricola leading the way. He continues to be popular and productive today. Here are his top 10 games:

1. Agricola – 32
2. Bohnanza – 28
3. A Feast for Odin – 15
4. Bargain Hunter/Schnappchen-Jagd – 14
4. Patchwork – 14
6. Le Havre – 13
7. Nusfjord – 11
8. Glass Road – 6
8. Mamma Mia! – 6
10. At the Gates of Loyang – 5
10. Caverna – 5
10. Ora et Labora – 5

Unlike Feld, two of Uwe’s games dominated the voting: Agricola and Bohnanza. The former is no surprise, but I think the strong support for The Bean Game was at least a mild shocker to me. I can picture quite a few readers who are similarly surprised that only 4 votes separates this former #1 design from what is sometimes viewed as a silly card game. I wasn’t really expecting a result like that either, but given Bohnanza’s historical significance and its continuing popularity, I don’t think it’s inappropriate.

A total of 7 Rosenberg games got double digit votes. These include heavyweights, card games, and polyomino-placers, illustrating the man’s flexibility. Back in the day, it always seemed as if he was ahead of the curve. For example, innovative trick-takers are the norm today, but almost 30 years ago, when literally no one was creating those kinds of games, there was Uwe with Bargain Hunter (aka Schnappchen-Jagd). The only one of those top games that surprised me a bit was Nusfjord—I just didn’t think it was that popular. I was pleased to see my favorite Rosenberg, Ora et Labora, sneak into the top 10. Another one of my favorites of his, Babel (a 2-player card game from 2000), just missed; it was nice to see that it’s still remembered. Overall, 25 of Rosenberg’s designs got at least 1 vote.

It’s a bit of a simplification, but you can say that Rosenberg’s significant games fall into three categories: his card games (which represent just about all of his pre-Agricola output), his board games (most of which feature Worker Placement, including his celebrated Harvest games), and his puzzly tile-laying games, such as Patchwork. His board games dominated the top 9—5 of them, to 3 card games and 1 tile-layer—but perhaps not as much as those who aren’t acquainted with Uwe’s early work would assume. Again, I think this is an illustration of how veteran gamers view Rosenberg—he’s much more than just the guy who created Agricola.

Sid Sackson
Finally, let’s finish with the great Sid Sackson. There are many who feel he “invented” the Eurogame; there’s certainly no question that his designs were far ahead of their time. His first games came from magazine articles he wrote, including one from as early as 1946! When Acquire came out in 1964, suddenly people realized there was a market for games aimed at adults. He continued to be productive for the next three decades.

Despite Sackson’s long career, our voters didn’t find too many of his games they wanted to vote on. Only 12 of his designs got votes, with 148 total votes. Here are our 12 favorite Sackson games:

1. Can’t Stop – 54
2. Acquire – 38
3. I’m the Boss!/Kohle, Kies & Knete – 13
4. Samarkand – 11
4. Sleuth – 11
6. Bazaar – 7
7. BuyWord – 4
8. Extra!/Choice – 3
8. Metropolis – 3
10. Gold Connection – 2
11. Focus/Domination – 1
11. Monad – 1

Yeah, those top two games are a shock. Mind you, over the past 10 years or so, I’ve seen more and more people mention that they feel that Sid’s true masterpiece is Can’t Stop and not Acquire. Still, that’s been a minority view, so I wasn’t prepared for this result. Not only did Can’t Stop finish ahead of Acquire, it got over 40% more votes than the title that’s always been considered to be Sackson’s best. More than 85%(!) of the voters put Sid’s classic dice game in their top 3. Three other games finished with double digit vote totals.

Sackson was an amazing trailblazer and while he was active, no one else was making games remotely like his, but for many, his designs suffer in comparison to modern ones. I suspect this is the reason for the limited number of his titles which got votes. Still, I think our voters have been around long enough to appreciate Sid’s games and at least two of them received very high marks.

I just listed all of the Sackson games that got votes. Here is the full listing for both Feld and Rosenberg. And make sure to check us out tomorrow, when I tell you how the voting went for three more great designers: Vlaada Chvatil, Simone Luciani, and Alan Moon!

Stefan Feld
1. The Castles of Burgundy – 35
2. Notre Dame – 18
3. In the Year of the Dragon – 16
4. Civolution – 14
5. Macao – 13
6. The Oracle of Delphi – 9
7. The Speicherstadt – 7
8. Trajan – 6
9. Carpe Diem – 5
9. Luna – 5
9. Marrakesh – 5
12. Bruges – 4
13. Roma – 3
13. Rum & Pirates – 3
15. AquaSphere – 2
15. Bonfire – 2
15. Merlin – 2
15. Rialto – 2
15. The Druids of Edora – 2
20. Amerigo – 1
20. Amsterdam – 1
20. Bora Bora – 1
20. It Happens – 1
20. La Isla – 1
20. Strasbourg – 1
20. The Castles of Tuscany – 1

26 games; 160 total votes

Uwe Rosenberg
1. Agricola – 32
2. Bohnanza – 28
3. A Feast for Odin – 15
4. Bargain Hunter/Schnappchen-Jagd – 14
4. Patchwork – 14
6. Le Havre – 13
7. Nusfjord – 11
8. Glass Road – 6
8. Mamma Mia! – 6
10. At the Gates of Loyang – 5
10. Caverna – 5
10. Ora et Labora – 5
13. Babel – 4
13. Fields of Arle – 4
15. New York Zoo – 3
15. Oranienburger Kanal/Kanal – 3
17. Atiwa – 2
17. Black Forest – 2
17. Hallertau – 2
17. Klunker – 2
17. Nova Luna – 2
22. Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small – 1
22. Bali – 1
22. Merkator – 1
22. Sagani – 1

25 games; 182 total votes