It’s time to continue our series detailing our favorite games from notable designers. Today, we look at Antoine Bauza, Rob Daviau, and Martin Wallace. 64 people participated in these selections.

Antoine Bauza
Bauza announced his presence on the gaming scene in 2008, with the hit cooperative game Ghost Stories. Two years later, he made it clear he was here to stay, thanks to that game for the ages, 7 Wonders, and he’s still cranking them out.

After thinking it over, I decided not to group any of the 7 Wonders games together, as they seem to be fairly different experiences. I did consider combining 7 Wonders Duel with LotR: Duel for Middle-Earth. I eventually decided to keep them as separate games, but it was a close decision and I’m not completely convinced it was the right call.

In any event, here are the results. 9 of Bauza’s games got at least 4 votes and they are listed below.

1. 7 Wonders – 45
2. Hanabi – 26
3. 7 Wonders Duel – 17
4. LotR: Duel for Middle-Earth – 16
5. Ghost Stories/Last Bastion – 14
6. Tokaido – 9
7. Takenoko – 6
8. 7 Wonders: Architects – 5
9. The Little Prince (both) – 4

The top game for Antoine Bauza was hardly a shocker. 7 Wonders received 19 more votes than any of his other titles. Hanabi finished second, well ahead of the remaining games. Three other designs also had strong support, with at least 14 votes apiece. The question is, if I’d grouped together the two “Duel” games, would that tandem have finished ahead of Hanabi in second? It’s entirely possible, since I suspect a lot of the voters were like me and only voted for one of the two games (they do have a lot of similarities). But it wouldn’t surprise me if some voters listed them both. The voting for Bauza was pretty top heavy, as the totals for his top 5 games represented over 75% of the total votes. 15 of his games got at least one vote and there were a total of 154 votes cast for his designs.

Rob Daviau
Daviau got his start at Hasbro in 2000 and was part of the teams that produced many of that publisher’s early hits. He’ll always be remembered as the creator of the Legacy game concept, but he’s designed a host of other titles over the past quarter century and continues to be one of the leading thematic designers in our hobby. Here are his top 10 titles:

1. Pandemic Legacy (all) – 28
2. Star Wars: The Queen’s Gambit – 13
3. Downforce – 12
4. Thunder Road: Vendetta – 9
4. Unmatched (all) – 9
6. Cthulhu: Death May Die – 8
6. Return to Dark Tower – 8
8. Betrayal at House on the Hill – 7
8. Ticket to Ride Legacy – 7
10. Heroscape – 6
10. Risk Legacy – 6
10. Star Wars: Epic Duels – 6

We grouped all three of the Pandemic Legacy games together, as well as all of the many Unmatched titles. Pandemic Legacy was the easy winner, with more than twice as many votes as any other design. Two other titles reached double digits: the enduring Queen’s Gambit (one of Rob’s earliest games) and Downforce, a redesign of Wolfgang Kramer’s classic Top Race (one of Daviau’s many retoolings of popular games from the past). All told, 21 of Rob’s games got at least one vote and they received a total of 136 votes.

There’s a number of ways we can slice these results. One third of the votes went to Daviau’s Legacy games (including the votes for Betrayal Legacy, which just missed the top 10)—that’s a lot, but maybe not as many as you might have expected, given how closely this concept is identified with him. Over half of the games in the list came from Rob’s early work with Hasbro, although Queen’s Gambit is the only one of those near the top of the list. 4 of the top 7 games, were published by Restoration Games (Daviau is that company’s lead designer). All in all, the results show the continued popularity of games from different times, different publishers, and different styles. Most impressive.

Martin Wallace
Wallace, an ex-schoolteacher, began releasing games through his company Warfrog (which eventually renamed itself Treefrog) during the early 90’s. His designs do an excellent job of merging strong themes (often, historical ones) with solid Eurogame mechanics. He remains a popular and productive designer.

I grouped together a lot of Martin’s games. As I mentioned in the introductory article, it made sense to combine Age of Steam, Railways of the World (and therefore, Railroad Tycoon), and Steam into one entry. There is an argument for making those separate games, but I decided they had too much in common to do that. Similarly, Brass: Lancashire, Brass: Birmingham, and Age of Industry are all grouped together. Other groupings include both London games, both Study in Emerald titles, and all of the Runebound designs. Here are the vote totals for Wallace’s top 10 games:

1. Age of Steam/Steam/Railways – 40
2. Brass (both)/Age of Industry – 37
3. London (both) – 15
4. Automobile – 12
5. Tinners’ Trail – 7
6. Anno 1800 – 6
6. Discworld: Ankh-Morpork/Nanty Narking – 6
6. Princes of the Renaissance – 6
9. Struggle of Empires – 5
10. Runebound (all) – 4

Unlike Bauza and Daviau, Martin has two dominant games and their totals were almost the same—Age of Steam barely beat out Brass, but both of them had two and a half times as many votes as any other game. London and Automobile still wound up with double digits. Interestingly, the voting for Wallace was both extremely top-heavy (almost half of the votes went for two games) and had a very long tail (lots of games got 1 or 2 votes). 26 games got at least 1 vote; so far, only Knizia and Kramer have had more games receive votes.

You can look at Wallace’s games as early and late ones and I think the best dividing point for that is when Warfrog became Treefrog (in 2008; Brass: Birmingham was the last Warfrog game). The groupings make this a bit challenging. For example, AoS and Railroad Tycoon came out before 2008, while Steam and Railways of the World came out after. Similarly, Brass: Lancashire is early Wallace, while Age of Industry and Brass: Birmingham is late. It seems fair to say that both those titles split the vote, timewise. The next three games in the list are all later ones, while three of the five remaining ones are early ones. So, there’s a fairly even divide between early Martin and later Martin.

Another division is what kind of game we prefer. I think you could say that most of Wallace’s games are either economic or combative (either outright war games or ones where you directly attack your opponents), with a few lighter titles sprinkled in. There’s a reasonable number of combative games in the list, but all of the big vote getters, including the top 5, are economic. So there’s a clear preference there.

All interesting stuff. I’d say there weren’t too many surprises, but I’m very pleased that Automobile finished with double digits. I’ve considered it his masterpiece for a very long time, but it’s not an easy game to get to the table, so it was nice to see that so many of the voters enjoy it as well. Anno 1800 is another of his titles that I was happy to see do well.

That wraps up the discussion for today’s trio. Here are all the games that got at least one vote for each of them. And be sure to check us out tomorrow, when we’ll be looking at the games of Matt Leacock, Michael Schacht, and the Splotter designers!

Antoine Bauza
1. 7 Wonders – 45
2. Hanabi – 26
3. 7 Wonders Duel – 17
4. LotR: Duel for Middle-Earth – 16
5. Ghost Stories/Last Bastion – 14
6. Tokaido – 9
7. Takenoko – 6
8. 7 Wonders: Architects – 5
9. The Little Prince (both) – 4
10. Draftosaurus – 3
10. Terror in Meeple City – 3
10. Welcome Back to the Dungeon – 3
13. Dead Cells – 1
13. Oltree – 1
13. Samurai Spirit – 1

15 games; 154 total votes

Rob Daviau
1. Pandemic Legacy (all) – 28
2. Star Wars: The Queen’s Gambit – 13
3. Downforce – 12
4. Thunder Road: Vendetta – 9
4. Unmatched (all) – 9
6. Cthulhu: Death May Die – 8
6. Return to Dark Tower – 8
8. Betrayal at House on the Hill – 7
8. Ticket to Ride Legacy – 7
10. Heroscape – 6
10. Risk Legacy – 6
10. Star Wars: Epic Duels – 6
13. Betrayal Legacy – 4
14. ShipShape – 3
15. Risk 2210 A.D. – 2
15. Stop Thief! – 2
15. The Game of Life: Card Game – 2
18. Axis & Allies: Pacific – 1
18. Buffy the Vampire Slayer – 1
18. Fireball Island: The Curse of Vul-Kar – 1
18. Risk: Star Wars – 1

21 games; 136 total votes

Martin Wallace
1. Age of Steam/Steam/Railways – 40
2. Brass (both)/Age of Industry – 37
3. London (both) – 15
4. Automobile – 12
5. Tinners’ Trail – 7
6. Anno 1800 – 6
6. Discworld: Ankh-Morpork/Nanty Narking – 6
6. Princes of the Renaissance – 6
9. Struggle of Empires – 5
10. Runebound (all) – 4
11. A Study in Emerald (both) – 3
11. AuZtralia – 3
11. Hit Z Road – 3
11. Liberte – 3
15. Last Train to Wensleydale/First Train – 2
15. Steam Power – 2
15. Volldampf – 2
18. …und tschuss! – 1
18. A Few Acres of Snow – 1
18. Moongha Invaders – 1
18. Perikles – 1
18. Rocketman – 1
18. Steel Driver – 1
18. Via Nebula – 1
18. Way Out West – 1
18. Wildlands – 1

26 games; 165 total votes