I really enjoy gardening; there are few things as satisfying to me as growing my own vegetables. I always find it weirdly fascinating that Uwe Rosenberg seems to share that sentiment, wanting to simulate that very feeling in his games. The main reason I'm particularly fascinated by that is that he's Frisian, and so am I. It makes me think maybe this feeling is something we both grew up with, which caused our shared craving to see this simulated.
Nothing gives me a warm fuzzy feeling quite like unboxing and organising a new Uwe game! I’ve not played everything on the top 10 so really enjoyed watching this. Thanks Richard!
Agricola is still my favorite game. The pressure to get your family fed, to get an engine going for later, and then pulling it all off is such a great release both at harvest time and at the end of the game. You never get to do everything you want to do, but the ending is always satisfying. The last many years it seems like it gets hammered by certain boardgame tastemakers for its engine building, the tension in each turn, and that you lose points at the end if you don't have a certain minimum of everything...but that's all part of the fun for me. And then the cards just send it over the top making each game unique as your meeples grow up and get jobs on top of the farm work. The games where you just do whatever you want with no pressure and have many paths to victory just doesn't have the same release or satisfaction. Everything feels the same because the choices didn't matter too much. Win or lose in Agricola, you still feel like you accomplished something in the end. Thanks for being the voice of reason on Ewe Rosenberg and games in general, Rahdo!
Sam Sasmon with my knowledge of agricola/farmer so far, i can say that Zee is right for saying that this game plays you all players doing the same thing over and over again, and you also pick what to play every game in the exact same phase of the game so you really get the feeling the game plays you instead of you playing the game for example playing race for the galaxy you always using some different cards and different strategy to score points, its nothing like the strategy you used in previous few games while in agricola you are doing the same thing over and over again with help of the cards to only speed up those same things you gonna do
Rahdo, with the Norwegians expansion, now you can get rid of occupation cards (instead of playing them) for victory points! it does help with that factor in the game, plus the board has been tightened for lower player counts and some strategies (such as farming) made more feasible! I don't own Agricola but Glass Road is my favorite Uwe game!
WHAT?! why was i not told of this?! i have to admit i completely ignored the expansion because i figured no one besides us cared about the randomness of the cards! thanks for the heads up :)
@@rahdo I had the same concerns as you, regarding the cards in A Feast For Odin, but I have to say, the expansion takes care of all of them. For me, at least. :) Great video, as always.
@@rahdo oh no, there are others that definitely dislike the randomness with both the weapons and occupation cards. I have followed house variants proposed by users at BGG for both. I've only played the expansion once but it does improve upon some of the flaws you mentioned in the video. I mostly play it solo though, it's such a big hog that it gets quite cumbersome to play at high counts or even convince my companion to play it with me!
I think there's also a space that uses 3 of the 4 weapons (all but sword?) so if you aren't getting a lot of something more specific, you have a strong use for them. As a general note when you add the other elements, for me, AFFO goes from an 7.5 to a 9 as a 2-player game with Norwegians.
@@ChrisSmithSmooth yes you are correct, in the new 5th column slot but you have to be trikcy as it would be the last action you would play in that turn :) I do like the expansion a lot and it does improve some of the things I disliked, I still wouldnt' rate it as high, although it is prob my favorite bigger game of Uwe that I own. Setting out the game takes soo long!
so very tiny! comparing our top10s for 2018 Yours: 10. Pyramid of Pengqueen 9. Blue Lagoon 8. Railroad Ink 7. Pandemic: Fall of Rome 6. Spring Meadow 5. Chronicles of Crime 4. Western Legends 3. The Mind 2. Mother of Dragons Expansion 1. Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game Mine: 10. Teotihuacan 09. Rise of Queensdale 08. Underwater Cities 07. Carson City: The Card Game 06. New Frontiers 05. Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig 04. Gugong 03. Forum Trajanum 02. Pandemic: Fall of Rome 01. Carpe Diem overlap: 1 :)
I get the Caverna/Agricola conundrum....however for me, I am happy to play either and they both deliver a different yet equally memorable experience. Caverna is a must especially with the Forgotten Folk expansion. Fields of Arle is also a tremendous game for 2 players. Also a game whose expansion gives it added variety.
Same here, just got Forgotten Folk. Right now, that's my top Ewe, with Nusfjord second, Glass Road third, Ora et Labora next and Agricola: ACBAS fifth. Wanted to like Merkator, but sometimes the synergies come out, and a lot of times they don't, leaving multi-player solitaire. Still need to play AFfO, Loyang and Arle.
Caverna with expansion goes a long way to throwing new wrinkles in that make it interesting. I like Agricola. MAYBE even like it more than Caverna woth Farmers of the Moore. But I find its a much more punishing game the first few playthroughs. And...thats not gonna work for my players. Either I'm introducing something new or it my gf who tends not to like games with a steep learning curve.
@@rahdo Funny that you should mention statistical odds, as Uwe Rosenberg has a degree in Statistics (and that's why I'm aware of his birthday: we overlapped at (the small-ish) statistics department in Dortmund and I follow hin on FB, and got a notification of his birthday)
It's a sign of a great designer that they can design games that look on face value to be really similar to each other yet cater to a wide variety of tastes and preferences. I don't wish to rehash the (predictable) arguments, but I did want to mention an off the wall title that hasn't been mentioned yet. I'm keen to seek out "Mamma Mia!" as it looks like the sort of silly fun card game that my friends would really enjoy.
Merkator is the only Uwe I've played and also owned. Finally picked it up last year; my family loves resource collecting and conversion. After our first play, I asked my dad what he thought. With a stern contemplation, he said "I'd say it's a... uhh.. 10." "Out of 10??" "...yeah" While not a permanent rating, I was very pleased to see my pick for their tastes pay off haha.
I'm surprised Le Havre wasn't on the list. Easily one of my top games. I hear it compared to Ora et Labora, and it does have some variability with setup (order that buildings come out, and Special Buildings are randomized). Also it plays great great great at two!
Uwe is, by far, my favorite designer and I own most of his big box games. My wife is not a big gamer but, to my surprise, her favorite Uwe games is Merkator.
The Norwegians expansion for AFFO does address some of the randomness of the cards by now drawing three cards and keeping one and also letting players that have accumulated cards dump them for significant points. If you want to push it even further you can take out the weakest cards (ranked on bgg).
WHAT?! why was i not told of this?! i have to admit i completely ignored the expansion because i figured no one besides us cared about the randomness of the cards! thanks for the heads up :)
Actually, that wasn’t quite right. There is now a one Viking space that lets you exchange one card for three new cards or two silver. Also any time you can play an occupation, you can receive a points token (which diminish for each player separately in value but start at 4). The board is also a little tighter, there is more balance, players start with a special shed... yeah, it’s pretty great. The designer is really active on BGG and working on another expansion already.
We are shocked that Fields of Arle and Caverna didn't make your list. As a couple playing board games together, we're struggling to understand how Agricola can top Caverna on so many lists. And Fields, even without it's Tea and Trade expansion is an amazing game that we feel really captures the best of Uwe's "shackles" but still leaves you with a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction at game end. In addition, Patchwork is a perfect little two person game that I missed seeing your views on.
They are much more forgiving and that's why they are lower. Listen to Rahdo as he explains why he so loves Agricola. ;) I personally loves sandbox-like games more, like Caverna, but it's not who Rahdo works.
Whenever I see people put Agricola above Caverna, I also see a tendency towards snobbery about other games as well. As if they have better taste in games because they refuse to see how Caverna fixes Agricolas problems
Caverna actually doesn't surprise me. While it and Agricola share a lot of the same mechanics, the differences are such that in some ways it's the opposite of Agricola. It's a much more forgiving game, where feeding your people really isn't too difficult. The other reason I'd guess it didn't make his list is that it completely gets rid of the cards that he likes so much in Agricola. While the rooms you can buy essentially replace them, it's a very different experience since everything is the same every time. Personally those are the reasons I prefer Caverna, but given his tastes I guessed early on that I wouldn't see Caverna on this list.
i had no idea it was his birthday when i posted this. crazy awesome coincidence, and i love it! i just wish i'd known so i could have wished him a happy b-day in the video!
I missed Le Havre from your list. I just played this, and like it as much as I like A Feast for Odin. And no mention of Caverna. Very interesting. Thanks for putting together the great list.
Hi Rahdo! Totally agree with your 1st pick. Much like yourself, Agricola continues to be one of my all time favorites. Just an awesome game of worker placement and hand management that holds up to the mass of new games that are released these days. Love it! :)
I own Indian Summer and Patchwork and love both. Part of me wants to get the other Rosenberg polynomino games, but I'm not sure if it would be redundant. Does Spring Meadow bring anything big to the table that Indian Summer lacks? I pretty much went with Indian Summer because it's gorgeous and has cute animals.
well, IMO sping meadow is the best of all of his polyomino games (putting aside feast for odin). i think it's better than indian summer because it's more tension filled and challenging. there aren't special bonus things you can do to make it easier to fill in the grid, and the tetris style "you must slide your pieces in from the top, rather than putting them in however you like" is what makes the game for me, and it's why i wouldn't go back to any of his others. but this year he's got New York Zoo coming, and maybe that'll top all of his previous polyomino games! he seems to love making them! :)
On Glassroad, one part I did not really care for was the market, which has a quite random way to bring up buildings for one to buy... Sometimes those buildings will do nothing for you and will just clog the market. I like the wheel and the cardplay but the market felt quite underwhelming...
For A Feast for Odin they're testing different ways to make drawing occupation cards less random. I tried a variant where you display three and either draw one of them or a random one, and then discard the rest and show three new ones. It vastly improves the feeling. With this variant you have to really think when you want to play an action to draw cards, because if someone else does it all the other displayed cards go away. That just leaves the military card randomness, but I'm much less bothered by that.
@@rahdo , well, whenever you're in Romania you can play with mine. ;) Also, if you decide you want to get a new copy, I really recommend you get the Norwegians expansion as well if you haven't tried it. It trims down some of the "easy" actions, and introduces some very cool stuff (like an additional column where you can go only as your last action, personal sheds that you get at the start, improvements for animals and boats, etc.).
I am probably being presumptuous, but I suspect you got somewhat better luck of the draw when playing Nusfjord with Jen and (untypically) ended up winning the game and had to take off some points because of that :) You play over 7 rounds and get your C-cards after round 3, so I think there's plenty of time to adjust your strategy or even try to deduce what does your opponent have. It's not like you see those cards only in the last round...
I would've thought Patchwork might be in there...too light for you guys? Possibly at #10 instead of the kinda repeat Agricola experience? Maybe you mention this in the next episode. Please let me know if that's been posted already! Thanks :)
In the merkator, part, I had this strange moment when you say "central conceit" as you pull out the "Cc" tile. And seconds later, you pull out the same tile as you say "Cardboard chit". Synchronicity?
Really good list - it's a shame Merkator doesn't get more love on BGG. It's so underrated, and I'd likewise consider it one of his best designs. If not for the box cover art... Richard's made it evident over the years that Le Havre, while an excellent game, just isn't one of his favorite from Uwe. Personally, I'd rank it up there with Merkator, Nusfjord, Glass Road, and Caverna. And it won't be too long before you'll be able to come up with a list for Vital Lacerda, Alexander Pfister, and Mac Gerdts. They are fantastic and continue to churn out great games. Wonder if we could see a Martin Wallace or Riener Knizia list.
20:05 That's funny, Richard. Because I just finished watching you on a Dice Tower Top 10 Pick Up & Delivery list (back in 2016) and you had put Merkator as your #3 on that list (and I found your arguments back-and-forth with Jason Levine amusing). I know a few years have passed since then. Have you changed your mind on it being/not being a pick up & deliver game since then?
I just watched his review of "Fields of Arle," and the rationale for his dislike of the game stems from how open it is. ruclips.net/video/qOp32VPu9UY/видео.html
Opinion of course, but Le Harve is my least liked Uwe game, and amongst the least like games I’ve ever played. I can appreciate the design, but boy, that game is definitely not for me...
Love me some “Patchwork”, would probably be my third pick on a list like this (behind Agricola and Agricola: ACBAS). Le Harve, wouldn’t scratch my top 10, and I’ve only played 11 games by this designer......
Interesting (though not surprising) he eliminates the "take that" cards from "At the Gates of Loyang" but won't do a simple house rule on "Nusfjord" where you get the 3rd age (phase?) cards at the beginning of the game, but are still not allowed to play them until they would normally be played. This would fix the whole "I got lucky and was able to play a great card without doing anything" syndrome. This was discussed immediately after the game was released. And he must not be bothered by having to fix the infinite combo in Glass Road as well, so I don't understand the logic.
Just getting into Rosenberg games. We play At gates and we have a blast, really great game. If I were to get Agricola, should I get classic edition or revised edition? What's their differences?
I’d head to BGG for that one; however I have the Revised Edition (there are, as always, unboxing vids to check out) and it’s had a board, card, and Meeple update. I suspect the Revised is the only one available at retail. If you see the Big Box of All Creatures grab it quick! We are playing it at the moment and it’s a joy with plenty of building variability to keep us interested.
yeah, as i understand it, the revised is max 4p instead of 5p, and 20% or so of the cards that came in the original game aren't there (but some others are). i'm not an expert though... i've never seen the revised edition IRL (though the boards and overall presentation seem much improved)
Regarding Ora et Labora: I am in total disagreement with you. I am not a fan of randomness in board games and I fin that OeL is the perfect game for me: zero randomness and 100% open information. I never feel like I am playing against the game myself as much as I am against my opponents and I think that's fantastic. This isn't just my number one Rosenberg game, but it's my number one game period.
actually, "all creatures great and small" is a quote from an 18th century poem which the writer of the book (which became a show) liked enough to use as his title (the sequels to the book were also named after different lines from the poem). so the title is public domain
well, they'd have a hard time making the claim, since the show (and original books) took the line from a poem from the 1800's en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Things_Bright_and_Beautiful :)
I wish I could play feast for Odin before buying because I’m worried it’s too overwhelming for me. Caverna I disliked because of the sandbox nature of it but mostly because how many buildings are on display
odin doesn't quite suffer the same "OMG where to start" overwhelming issue that caverna does. in fact, you end up getting special power cards that help focus your overall goals. that said, it can be almost as overwhelming being introduced to all of the worker placement spots available. but it's not quite as bad because even though there are so many, they're all categorized into just a few types, with variable power levels of those types :)
i played bohanza the duel on my phone and it dawned on my what a good game it was. so i got regular bohnanza assuming it was the same but higher player count and sadly it's a simpler not as fun game IMO
Will you be reviewing or have you played the new Forgotten Folk expansion for Caverna? I would be curious to hear your thoughts. While adding some setup variability and variable player powers, it still puts all options on the table rather than a select few in your hand, so I would imagine you would still miss that aspect from Agricola. Do you and Jen usually play Agricola with FotM? Do you use all the cards or just the occupations?
i would happily cover FF + caverna and i asked the publisher to send out a review copy, but they haven't so cest la vie. i'd be keen to give it a go for sure. we used to always play with FotM, but we eventually settled down to 50% of the time we do, 50% of the time we don't.
rahdo Ha! That’s literally the exact opposite of how I’d order his games. I’m guessing you wouldn’t put Charterstone so high if you’d only played it at 2 like my wife and I did, but I could definitely be wrong.
rahdo sure Mr Rahdo. I’m very deep in this hobby after watching your runthrough 3 years ago :)). I’m your fan and agree almost about everything however I love those 3 game so much. How painful it was when not seeing them in your top 10!
1. Feast For Odin 2. Ora et Labora 3. Caverna 4. Patchwork 5: Le Havre Feast for Odin is without a doubt the best game he's ever done, especially with the new The Norwegians expansion. I've yet to play Fields of Arle and Glass Road though. Agricola didn't really do anything for me tbh, sorry for all the fans of that game. But even still his worst game ever has to be Bohnanza.
Since you like AFFO so much, I think you’re in for a treat with Fields of Arle. The games are definitely different but have a very similar “feel” to each other.
I'm right with you on this designer in every way. Agricola is his best and one of the best ever. The random stuff in his games is annoying and poorly considered. We are not alone they added an action to trash useless cards for VP in the expansion of feast for Odin. It makes the game better but is very much a blatant cop out mechanism lol.
Well, life can be very unpredictable and I think that's why there are small luck factors in some of the games. I think it fits in with the theme and idea behind the games. They aren't meant as just some puzzle, but as something of a look into some way of life represented as a board game. Or that's what it seems like to me anyway.
Yeah, I don't understand his point here either. If he really is just talking about the cards, there are some very simple house rules that mitigate much of that (small) problem.
Lot of whataboutery & cry me a river in the comments by people missing a certain Uwe collection-of-small-bits-stemming-from-wood on the list. rahdo, how dare you leave out a whopping 12 games from a top 10 list when you have 22 to choose from! Oh wait... :)
@@rahdo I'm not saying they're not important to win I'm just saying they're not a big enough Factor in the playing of the game... I wish they were a more upfront factor to the game that you got to play a card every round and it wasn't so hard to play a card ... It's like giving somebody all these pretty tools and saying you have to take such a big chunk out of your gameplay to even get to use them they should be easier to play in the game ... I love your stuff by the way great work
Agreed. I love Uwe games, but we bought and tried Agricola several times and ended up trading it because we just didn't get any satisfaction out of it.
yes, fun. farming. some people grow up dreaming of being farmers. it's actually very popular genre in boardgames with hundreds of games covering the topic: boardgamegeek.com/geeksearch.php?action=search&advsearch=1&objecttype=boardgame&q=&include%5Bdesignerid%5D=&geekitemname=&geekitemname=&include%5Bpublisherid%5D=&range%5Byearpublished%5D%5Bmin%5D=&range%5Byearpublished%5D%5Bmax%5D=&range%5Bminage%5D%5Bmax%5D=&floatrange%5Bavgrating%5D%5Bmin%5D=&floatrange%5Bavgrating%5D%5Bmax%5D=&range%5Bnumvoters%5D%5Bmin%5D=&floatrange%5Bavgweight%5D%5Bmin%5D=&floatrange%5Bavgweight%5D%5Bmax%5D=&range%5Bnumweights%5D%5Bmin%5D=&colfiltertype=&searchuser=rahdo&nosubtypes%5B%5D=boardgameexpansion&range%5Bminplayers%5D%5Bmax%5D=&range%5Bmaxplayers%5D%5Bmin%5D=&playerrangetype=normal&range%5Bleastplaytime%5D%5Bmin%5D=&range%5Bplaytime%5D%5Bmax%5D=&propertyids%5B%5D=1013&B1=Submit and there are lots of very successful videos games about farming as well: www.google.com/search?q=videogames+about+farming&rlz=1C1SQJL_enUS1056US1056&oq=videogames+about+farming&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIJCAEQABgNGIAEMgoIAhAAGIYDGIoFMgoIAxAAGIYDGIoF0gEIMjk5OGoxajSoAgCwAgA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 just because you don't like a thing doesn't mean others don't like a thing
I really enjoy gardening; there are few things as satisfying to me as growing my own vegetables. I always find it weirdly fascinating that Uwe Rosenberg seems to share that sentiment, wanting to simulate that very feeling in his games. The main reason I'm particularly fascinated by that is that he's Frisian, and so am I. It makes me think maybe this feeling is something we both grew up with, which caused our shared craving to see this simulated.
A "best of" designer series is something I would really enjoy.
Rahdo also did a Feld list awhile ago, in case you didn't see that.
@@c.w.2000 I did, that's what made this video a series. Lol 😉
Nothing gives me a warm fuzzy feeling quite like unboxing and organising a new Uwe game! I’ve not played everything on the top 10 so really enjoyed watching this. Thanks Richard!
Agricola is still my favorite game. The pressure to get your family fed, to get an engine going for later, and then pulling it all off is such a great release both at harvest time and at the end of the game. You never get to do everything you want to do, but the ending is always satisfying. The last many years it seems like it gets hammered by certain boardgame tastemakers for its engine building, the tension in each turn, and that you lose points at the end if you don't have a certain minimum of everything...but that's all part of the fun for me. And then the cards just send it over the top making each game unique as your meeples grow up and get jobs on top of the farm work.
The games where you just do whatever you want with no pressure and have many paths to victory just doesn't have the same release or satisfaction. Everything feels the same because the choices didn't matter too much. Win or lose in Agricola, you still feel like you accomplished something in the end. Thanks for being the voice of reason on Ewe Rosenberg and games in general, Rahdo!
the ending is always satisfying? you must be a great farmer then! My ending is always unsatisfying HAHA
Sam Sasmon with my knowledge of agricola/farmer so far, i can say that Zee is right for saying that this game plays you
all players doing the same thing over and over again, and you also pick what to play every game in the exact same phase of the game
so you really get the feeling the game plays you instead of you playing the game
for example playing race for the galaxy you always using some different cards and different strategy to score points, its nothing like the strategy you used in previous few games
while in agricola you are doing the same thing over and over again with help of the cards to only speed up those same things you gonna do
Totally agree. Well said
Rahdo, with the Norwegians expansion, now you can get rid of occupation cards (instead of playing them) for victory points! it does help with that factor in the game, plus the board has been tightened for lower player counts and some strategies (such as farming) made more feasible! I don't own Agricola but Glass Road is my favorite Uwe game!
WHAT?! why was i not told of this?! i have to admit i completely ignored the expansion because i figured no one besides us cared about the randomness of the cards! thanks for the heads up :)
@@rahdo I had the same concerns as you, regarding the cards in A Feast For Odin, but I have to say, the expansion takes care of all of them. For me, at least. :) Great video, as always.
@@rahdo oh no, there are others that definitely dislike the randomness with both the weapons and occupation cards. I have followed house variants proposed by users at BGG for both. I've only played the expansion once but it does improve upon some of the flaws you mentioned in the video. I mostly play it solo though, it's such a big hog that it gets quite cumbersome to play at high counts or even convince my companion to play it with me!
I think there's also a space that uses 3 of the 4 weapons (all but sword?) so if you aren't getting a lot of something more specific, you have a strong use for them.
As a general note when you add the other elements, for me, AFFO goes from an 7.5 to a 9 as a 2-player game with Norwegians.
@@ChrisSmithSmooth yes you are correct, in the new 5th column slot but you have to be trikcy as it would be the last action you would play in that turn :) I do like the expansion a lot and it does improve some of the things I disliked, I still wouldnt' rate it as high, although it is prob my favorite bigger game of Uwe that I own. Setting out the game takes soo long!
I love that you agree that Spring Meadow is his best polyomino game. Let's have a party in this tiny Venn diagram of where our channels overlap. 🎉
so very tiny! comparing our top10s for 2018
Yours:
10. Pyramid of Pengqueen
9. Blue Lagoon
8. Railroad Ink
7. Pandemic: Fall of Rome
6. Spring Meadow
5. Chronicles of Crime
4. Western Legends
3. The Mind
2. Mother of Dragons Expansion
1. Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game
Mine:
10. Teotihuacan
09. Rise of Queensdale
08. Underwater Cities
07. Carson City: The Card Game
06. New Frontiers
05. Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig
04. Gugong
03. Forum Trajanum
02. Pandemic: Fall of Rome
01. Carpe Diem
overlap: 1 :)
I get the Caverna/Agricola conundrum....however for me, I am happy to play either and they both deliver a different yet equally memorable experience. Caverna is a must especially with the Forgotten Folk expansion. Fields of Arle is also a tremendous game for 2 players. Also a game whose expansion gives it added variety.
Same here, just got Forgotten Folk. Right now, that's my top Ewe, with Nusfjord second, Glass Road third, Ora et Labora next and Agricola: ACBAS fifth. Wanted to like Merkator, but sometimes the synergies come out, and a lot of times they don't, leaving multi-player solitaire. Still need to play AFfO, Loyang and Arle.
Caverna with expansion goes a long way to throwing new wrinkles in that make it interesting.
I like Agricola. MAYBE even like it more than Caverna woth Farmers of the Moore. But I find its a much more punishing game the first few playthroughs. And...thats not gonna work for my players. Either I'm introducing something new or it my gf who tends not to like games with a steep learning curve.
You probably weren't aware Rahdo, but you published this video on Uwe Rosenbergs 49th birthday. So "Happy Birthday, Uwe"!
WHAT!? oh wow, i had no idea. that's crazy, what are the chances of that! (1 in 365 i suppose).
happy birthday indeed, Herr R! :)
@@rahdo Funny that you should mention statistical odds, as Uwe Rosenberg has a degree in Statistics (and that's why I'm aware of his birthday: we overlapped at (the small-ish) statistics department in Dortmund and I follow hin on FB, and got a notification of his birthday)
What about "Fields of Arle"? I would have thought that it would be on your list because of its 2-player focus and expansion.
LibrarianChef not enough shackles for him.
need mo' shackles!
It's a sign of a great designer that they can design games that look on face value to be really similar to each other yet cater to a wide variety of tastes and preferences.
I don't wish to rehash the (predictable) arguments, but I did want to mention an off the wall title that hasn't been mentioned yet. I'm keen to seek out "Mamma Mia!" as it looks like the sort of silly fun card game that my friends would really enjoy.
Merkator is the only Uwe I've played and also owned. Finally picked it up last year; my family loves resource collecting and conversion. After our first play, I asked my dad what he thought. With a stern contemplation, he said
"I'd say it's a... uhh.. 10."
"Out of 10??"
"...yeah"
While not a permanent rating, I was very pleased to see my pick for their tastes pay off haha.
For me Nusfjord tops the lot! Favourite game designer by a mile.
I'm surprised Le Havre wasn't on the list. Easily one of my top games. I hear it compared to Ora et Labora, and it does have some variability with setup (order that buildings come out, and Special Buildings are randomized). Also it plays great great great at two!
Uwe is, by far, my favorite designer and I own most of his big box games. My wife is not a big gamer but, to my surprise, her favorite Uwe games is Merkator.
The Norwegians expansion for AFFO does address some of the randomness of the cards by now drawing three cards and keeping one and also letting players that have accumulated cards dump them for significant points. If you want to push it even further you can take out the weakest cards (ranked on bgg).
WHAT?! why was i not told of this?! i have to admit i completely ignored the expansion because i figured no one besides us cared about the randomness of the cards! thanks for the heads up :)
Actually, that wasn’t quite right. There is now a one Viking space that lets you exchange one card for three new cards or two silver. Also any time you can play an occupation, you can receive a points token (which diminish for each player separately in value but start at 4).
The board is also a little tighter, there is more balance, players start with a special shed... yeah, it’s pretty great. The designer is really active on BGG and working on another expansion already.
sehr interassant!
We are shocked that Fields of Arle and Caverna didn't make your list. As a couple playing board games together, we're struggling to understand how Agricola can top Caverna on so many lists. And Fields, even without it's Tea and Trade expansion is an amazing game that we feel really captures the best of Uwe's "shackles" but still leaves you with a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction at game end. In addition, Patchwork is a perfect little two person game that I missed seeing your views on.
i'll talk about the ones missing in the next podcast :)
They are much more forgiving and that's why they are lower. Listen to Rahdo as he explains why he so loves Agricola. ;)
I personally loves sandbox-like games more, like Caverna, but it's not who Rahdo works.
Whenever I see people put Agricola above Caverna, I also see a tendency towards snobbery about other games as well. As if they have better taste in games because they refuse to see how Caverna fixes Agricolas problems
what are those problems that needed fixing, asked the game snob? :)
Would you reconsider the position of Feast for Odin when considering the Norwegians expansion?
the norway expansion SOOOO improves the game, it would definitely make the top10 now :)
Wow! No Caverna or Le Havre?
i'll talk about the ones missing in the next podcast :)
Caverna actually doesn't surprise me. While it and Agricola share a lot of the same mechanics, the differences are such that in some ways it's the opposite of Agricola. It's a much more forgiving game, where feeding your people really isn't too difficult. The other reason I'd guess it didn't make his list is that it completely gets rid of the cards that he likes so much in Agricola. While the rooms you can buy essentially replace them, it's a very different experience since everything is the same every time.
Personally those are the reasons I prefer Caverna, but given his tastes I guessed early on that I wouldn't see Caverna on this list.
Great birthday present. Happy birthday, Uwe!
i had no idea it was his birthday when i posted this. crazy awesome coincidence, and i love it! i just wish i'd known so i could have wished him a happy b-day in the video!
i tried learning agricola from the ios app and failed miserably. didn't make sense
Uwe's the man. I think everyone should have at least one Uwe Rosenberg game on their personal top 10 lists. :D
I missed Le Havre from your list. I just played this, and like it as much as I like A Feast for Odin. And no mention of Caverna. Very interesting. Thanks for putting together the great list.
i'll talk about the ones missing in the next podcast :)
Excellent! I look forward to it.
Hi Rahdo! Totally agree with your 1st pick. Much like yourself, Agricola continues to be one of my all time favorites. Just an awesome game of worker placement and hand management that holds up to the mass of new games that are released these days. Love it! :)
Delighted to see Middle-Earth Quest setup on the side of Ora & Labora. :)
I own Indian Summer and Patchwork and love both. Part of me wants to get the other Rosenberg polynomino games, but I'm not sure if it would be redundant. Does Spring Meadow bring anything big to the table that Indian Summer lacks? I pretty much went with Indian Summer because it's gorgeous and has cute animals.
well, IMO sping meadow is the best of all of his polyomino games (putting aside feast for odin). i think it's better than indian summer because it's more tension filled and challenging. there aren't special bonus things you can do to make it easier to fill in the grid, and the tetris style "you must slide your pieces in from the top, rather than putting them in however you like" is what makes the game for me, and it's why i wouldn't go back to any of his others.
but this year he's got New York Zoo coming, and maybe that'll top all of his previous polyomino games! he seems to love making them! :)
@@rahdo Thanks for the reply. Spring Meadow does sound a lot more challenging, I think I'll give it a try whenever I can.
On Glassroad, one part I did not really care for was the market, which has a quite random way to bring up buildings for one to buy... Sometimes those buildings will do nothing for you and will just clog the market. I like the wheel and the cardplay but the market felt quite underwhelming...
Thank you very much sir!!! This video is exaaaaaaaactly what I have been looking for! A gigantic help, thank you!
All Creatures Big and Small not being All Creatures Great and Small also drives me nuts!
One of my favorite pick up and delivery is Yukon Airways
that is a great one :)
For A Feast for Odin they're testing different ways to make drawing occupation cards less random. I tried a variant where you display three and either draw one of them or a random one, and then discard the rest and show three new ones. It vastly improves the feeling. With this variant you have to really think when you want to play an action to draw cards, because if someone else does it all the other displayed cards go away.
That just leaves the military card randomness, but I'm much less bothered by that.
boardgamegeek.com/article/31599333#31599333
i am now regretting having gotten rid of my copy of odin!
@@rahdo , well, whenever you're in Romania you can play with mine. ;) Also, if you decide you want to get a new copy, I really recommend you get the Norwegians expansion as well if you haven't tried it. It trims down some of the "easy" actions, and introduces some very cool stuff (like an additional column where you can go only as your last action, personal sheds that you get at the start, improvements for animals and boats, etc.).
I also love Glass Road, its an amazing game
I am probably being presumptuous, but I suspect you got somewhat better luck of the draw when playing Nusfjord with Jen and (untypically) ended up winning the game and had to take off some points because of that :) You play over 7 rounds and get your C-cards after round 3, so I think there's plenty of time to adjust your strategy or even try to deduce what does your opponent have. It's not like you see those cards only in the last round...
great list of games for me to re-consider. some i overlooked. thanks!
I would've thought Patchwork might be in there...too light for you guys? Possibly at #10 instead of the kinda repeat Agricola experience? Maybe you mention this in the next episode. Please let me know if that's been posted already! Thanks :)
yeah, patchwork is lovely, but it didn't resonate with us as much
In the merkator, part, I had this strange moment when you say "central conceit" as you pull out the "Cc" tile. And seconds later, you pull out the same tile as you say "Cardboard chit". Synchronicity?
21:22 and 21:44
Really good list - it's a shame Merkator doesn't get more love on BGG. It's so underrated, and I'd likewise consider it one of his best designs. If not for the box cover art...
Richard's made it evident over the years that Le Havre, while an excellent game, just isn't one of his favorite from Uwe. Personally, I'd rank it up there with Merkator, Nusfjord, Glass Road, and Caverna.
And it won't be too long before you'll be able to come up with a list for Vital Lacerda, Alexander Pfister, and Mac Gerdts. They are fantastic and continue to churn out great games. Wonder if we could see a Martin Wallace or Riener Knizia list.
Wow no Le Havre? So we’ll regarded at 2. I’m a little surprised.
yeah, not a fan of how loans work... too forgiving, imo
20:05 That's funny, Richard. Because I just finished watching you on a Dice Tower Top 10 Pick Up & Delivery list (back in 2016) and you had put Merkator as your #3 on that list (and I found your arguments back-and-forth with Jason Levine amusing). I know a few years have passed since then. Have you changed your mind on it being/not being a pick up & deliver game since then?
yup, that top10 required me to stretch what i consider a PU&D, otherwise i wouldn't have come up with 10! :)
I can't stand Agricola. Much prefer Fields of Arle. But I see where you are coming from with it. Very solid game very tight....very brutal.
Richard what's your quick opinion on Fields of Arle? Any strong reason why it didn't make the top 10?
I just watched his review of "Fields of Arle," and the rationale for his dislike of the game stems from how open it is.
ruclips.net/video/qOp32VPu9UY/видео.html
yup, it's an example of what i was talking about in the vid with the new 'shackles-free' uwe which doesn't work as well for us
Where is Le Havre??? The whole Trilogy is sacred.
i'll talk about the ones missing in the next podcast :)
Opinion of course, but Le Harve is my least liked Uwe game, and amongst the least like games I’ve ever played. I can appreciate the design, but boy, that game is definitely not for me...
I was pretty confident what you'd pick as #1. ;-)
Love me some “Patchwork”, would probably be my third pick on a list like this (behind Agricola and Agricola: ACBAS).
Le Harve, wouldn’t scratch my top 10, and I’ve only played 11 games by this designer......
Interesting (though not surprising) he eliminates the "take that" cards from "At the Gates of Loyang" but won't do a simple house rule on "Nusfjord" where you get the 3rd age (phase?) cards at the beginning of the game, but are still not allowed to play them until they would normally be played. This would fix the whole "I got lucky and was able to play a great card without doing anything" syndrome. This was discussed immediately after the game was released. And he must not be bothered by having to fix the infinite combo in Glass Road as well, so I don't understand the logic.
see faq.rahdo.com #24
Caverna is so good though... really wanted it to be on the list
i'll talk about the ones missing in the next podcast :)
I really do enjoy your videos I have learned a bunch of games cause of them. Keep up the great work!
I wish I could play more Uwe games, but I can't find people here in Cincinnati to play them.
Just getting into Rosenberg games. We play At gates and we have a blast, really great game. If I were to get Agricola, should I get classic edition or revised edition? What's their differences?
I’d head to BGG for that one; however I have the Revised Edition (there are, as always, unboxing vids to check out) and it’s had a board, card, and Meeple update.
I suspect the Revised is the only one available at retail. If you see the Big Box of All Creatures grab it quick! We are playing it at the moment and it’s a joy with plenty of building variability to keep us interested.
yeah, as i understand it, the revised is max 4p instead of 5p, and 20% or so of the cards that came in the original game aren't there (but some others are). i'm not an expert though... i've never seen the revised edition IRL (though the boards and overall presentation seem much improved)
nearly completely disagree. I would nearly turn around the list :-). 1-Odin, 2-Nusfjord.....
Well...You can't exactly disagree with his list, because those are HIS top 10 Uwe games.
@@humbertogzz Actually because it's an opinion that's why he can disagree
Wow, none of our favourites are on this list. The man makes a lot of games!
I am surprised Le Havre is not in the list! I wonder why?
not a fan of how the loans work, making 2p endgame play a bit on rails
Trick of the brick: no cave farmers out of Rahdio
I've never played an Uwe game which would you recommand as my first one ?
faq.rahdo.com #5 has the answer to your question (well my answer anyway) :)
LeHavre no 1.....imho
Regarding Ora et Labora: I am in total disagreement with you. I am not a fan of randomness in board games and I fin that OeL is the perfect game for me: zero randomness and 100% open information. I never feel like I am playing against the game myself as much as I am against my opponents and I think that's fantastic. This isn't just my number one Rosenberg game, but it's my number one game period.
i didn't say it wasn't a great game, just that for us the lack of setup variability limited it compared to others
Another great top 10 - but no Le Havre! That's sinful!
i'll talk about the ones missing in the next podcast :)
I think Le Havre gave me " Rinse & Repeat feeling", so I sold it.
All creatures great and small is owned by BBC it was a book then a TV series staring not yet the 5th doctor, Peter Davidson.
actually, "all creatures great and small" is a quote from an 18th century poem which the writer of the book (which became a show) liked enough to use as his title (the sequels to the book were also named after different lines from the poem). so the title is public domain
@@rahdo ah ha, well I don't know why it's not used then. I'm sure it's also a book my mom had it in her collection.
I assume they named it "big and small" because they were worried about getting sued over the books and tv show "All Creatures Great and Small"
well, they'd have a hard time making the claim, since the show (and original books) took the line from a poem from the 1800's
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Things_Bright_and_Beautiful :)
@@rahdo that is cool. Thanks 🙂
I have been gone to long. You moved back to the States? Welcome back.
check faq.rahdo.com #22 for more deets :)
I wish I could play feast for Odin before buying because I’m worried it’s too overwhelming for me. Caverna I disliked because of the sandbox nature of it but mostly because how many buildings are on display
odin doesn't quite suffer the same "OMG where to start" overwhelming issue that caverna does. in fact, you end up getting special power cards that help focus your overall goals.
that said, it can be almost as overwhelming being introduced to all of the worker placement spots available. but it's not quite as bad because even though there are so many, they're all categorized into just a few types, with variable power levels of those types :)
i played bohanza the duel on my phone and it dawned on my what a good game it was. so i got regular bohnanza assuming it was the same but higher player count and sadly it's a simpler not as fun game IMO
Will you be reviewing or have you played the new Forgotten Folk expansion for Caverna?
I would be curious to hear your thoughts. While adding some setup variability and variable player powers, it still puts all options on the table rather than a select few in your hand, so I would imagine you would still miss that aspect from Agricola.
Do you and Jen usually play Agricola with FotM? Do you use all the cards or just the occupations?
i would happily cover FF + caverna and i asked the publisher to send out a review copy, but they haven't so cest la vie. i'd be keen to give it a go for sure.
we used to always play with FotM, but we eventually settled down to 50% of the time we do, 50% of the time we don't.
Where is Le Havre? I am really surprised it didn´t make the list...
Le Havre is outside his list.
@@borreholic Yeah, obviously!
i'll talk about the ones missing in the next podcast :)
@@rahdo Nice! You got some splaining to do, Richard! ;-)
Next time you are at a con check out Bohnanza. It is a lot better game than Duel though it is a fairly different game as well.
someday perhaps, but it's rare i play with anyone other than just jen and me
@@rahdo If you make it to PAX Unplugged next year, come by my board game cafe Thirsty Dice. We will get a game together.
Top 10 Stegmaier next plz :)
or more like top5, Jamie hasn't done enough games yet for top10^^
@@AndreWDYounitedRevolution Hasn't he only designed 4 games? Viticulture, Euphoria, Scythe, and Charterstone.
he's only designed 4 games to date, so here's my stegmaier countdown:
4. Scythe
3. Viticulture
2. Euphoria
1. Charterstone
rahdo Going against the masses with that ordering, but when has that stopped you? 😉
rahdo Ha! That’s literally the exact opposite of how I’d order his games. I’m guessing you wouldn’t put Charterstone so high if you’d only played it at 2 like my wife and I did, but I could definitely be wrong.
I belive Le Havre, Field of Arle and Caverna deserve a better place in this top 10
well, maybe your top 10, but seeing as how this is my personal picks, i'm pretty confident i know what i like more or less :)
rahdo sure Mr Rahdo. I’m very deep in this hobby after watching your runthrough 3 years ago :)). I’m your fan and agree almost about everything however I love those 3 game so much. How painful it was when not seeing them in your top 10!
This may not be the droid you are looking for, but this is the top 10 you were looking for
1. Feast For Odin
2. Ora et Labora
3. Caverna
4. Patchwork
5: Le Havre
Feast for Odin is without a doubt the best game he's ever done, especially with the new The Norwegians expansion. I've yet to play Fields of Arle and Glass Road though. Agricola didn't really do anything for me tbh, sorry for all the fans of that game. But even still his worst game ever has to be Bohnanza.
Since you like AFFO so much, I think you’re in for a treat with Fields of Arle. The games are definitely different but have a very similar “feel” to each other.
I love Uwe Rosenberg though I've only played his Ora & Labora which I Adora (haha). I put most of the games you mentioned on my wishlist :-)
I'm right with you on this designer in every way. Agricola is his best and one of the best ever.
The random stuff in his games is annoying and poorly considered. We are not alone they added an action to trash useless cards for VP in the expansion of feast for Odin. It makes the game better but is very much a blatant cop out mechanism lol.
Well, life can be very unpredictable and I think that's why there are small luck factors in some of the games. I think it fits in with the theme and idea behind the games. They aren't meant as just some puzzle, but as something of a look into some way of life represented as a board game. Or that's what it seems like to me anyway.
Random resources in A Feast for Odin??? What???
He's referring to both the Weapon cards and Occupation cards which drawn randomly.
Yeah, I don't understand his point here either. If he really is just talking about the cards, there are some very simple house rules that mitigate much of that (small) problem.
see faq.rahdo.com #24 :)
Lot of whataboutery & cry me a river in the comments by people missing a certain Uwe collection-of-small-bits-stemming-from-wood on the list. rahdo, how dare you leave out a whopping 12 games from a top 10 list when you have 22 to choose from! Oh wait... :)
Caverna: "Agricola" for creative people who don't need a hand of cards to give them a strategy! :P
oh snap!
Some great games missing. Caverna, Fields of Arle and Le Havre.
i'll talk about the ones missing in the next podcast :)
No Le Havre???
i'll talk about the ones missing in the next podcast :)
no le havre????
i'll talk about the ones missing in the next podcast :)
No bohnanza???
3p minimum means not for us
@@rahdo ahh true.....forgot that
Le Havre?
i'll talk about the ones missing in the next podcast :)
1. Agricola (it is the best WP game)
2. Glass Road
3. Le Havre
4. Cave vs Cave
5. Patchwork
6. Bohnanza
7. Reykholt
Wait Wait Wait, where's Le Harve?
i'll talk about the ones missing in the next podcast :)
Agricola wouldn't make my list.. Cards play too little role in the game
nope, the cards are everything. if you're downplaying their importance, you'll lose every time to someone who uses them well :)
@@rahdo I'm not saying they're not important to win I'm just saying they're not a big enough Factor in the playing of the game... I wish they were a more upfront factor to the game that you got to play a card every round and it wasn't so hard to play a card ... It's like giving somebody all these pretty tools and saying you have to take such a big chunk out of your gameplay to even get to use them they should be easier to play in the game ... I love your stuff by the way great work
Agreed. I love Uwe games, but we bought and tried Agricola several times and ended up trading it because we just didn't get any satisfaction out of it.
@@kristenparker8867 Agricola is best if you enjoy being beaten with sticks. Apparently I do.
Uwe Rosenberg : Boring, lackluster, outdated Euro Games with completely uninteresting themes. With early 90s graphics.
or alternately, uwe rosenberg: fun, engaging, innovative euro games with compelling themes. with clear & uncluttered graphics.
@@rahdo Fun what? Farming?
yes, fun. farming. some people grow up dreaming of being farmers. it's actually very popular genre in boardgames with hundreds of games covering the topic: boardgamegeek.com/geeksearch.php?action=search&advsearch=1&objecttype=boardgame&q=&include%5Bdesignerid%5D=&geekitemname=&geekitemname=&include%5Bpublisherid%5D=&range%5Byearpublished%5D%5Bmin%5D=&range%5Byearpublished%5D%5Bmax%5D=&range%5Bminage%5D%5Bmax%5D=&floatrange%5Bavgrating%5D%5Bmin%5D=&floatrange%5Bavgrating%5D%5Bmax%5D=&range%5Bnumvoters%5D%5Bmin%5D=&floatrange%5Bavgweight%5D%5Bmin%5D=&floatrange%5Bavgweight%5D%5Bmax%5D=&range%5Bnumweights%5D%5Bmin%5D=&colfiltertype=&searchuser=rahdo&nosubtypes%5B%5D=boardgameexpansion&range%5Bminplayers%5D%5Bmax%5D=&range%5Bmaxplayers%5D%5Bmin%5D=&playerrangetype=normal&range%5Bleastplaytime%5D%5Bmin%5D=&range%5Bplaytime%5D%5Bmax%5D=&propertyids%5B%5D=1013&B1=Submit
and there are lots of very successful videos games about farming as well: www.google.com/search?q=videogames+about+farming&rlz=1C1SQJL_enUS1056US1056&oq=videogames+about+farming&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIJCAEQABgNGIAEMgoIAhAAGIYDGIoFMgoIAxAAGIYDGIoF0gEIMjk5OGoxajSoAgCwAgA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
just because you don't like a thing doesn't mean others don't like a thing