I was the original lead designer on Villainous and I totally understand it's fall to #16. I'm actually working on sort of a spiritual successor to the design right now. It won't have Disney, but I'm interested to see how people who loved Villainous will respond to it as sort of an evolved, more hobby-level strategy version of some of the same ideas.
Thank you for designing such a clean and engaging design. I’m a fan of much heavier games, but Villainous still gives me what I want out of my gaming session. Can’t wait to hear more about the follow up.
@@PhillipG34 Well, when Funko bought Forrest-Pruzan Creative in 2019, our team stopped being involved in Villainous and Ravensberger developed new sets in-house. So I haven't been involved in a new set in some time. But in addition I am also no longer at Funko Games either if that's what you were asking.
@@PhillipG34Prospero Hall designed the original Villainous and then got bought by Funko Games a few years ago, so they haven't been working on the last few Villainous releases. And then Funko sold Funko Games to Goliath and half of Prospero Hall was laid off. I just discovered that this past week, with all the news articles about the Funko Games sale
Viticulture was my first “hobby” board game and will always have a special place in my heart. I don’t know if it’s because of sentimental value, but it’s never left my top 5 games of all time.
I havent checked in with you in forever, but when u posted the top 10 I knew I had to check it out... But five seconds in i was like: They are so awesome, lets go back further, and here we are =)
I did enjoy it! also it reminds me to play Dominant species, among others. I think my favorite of these is probably Anachrony, or maybe Vitticulture. Both wonderful games.@@FostertheMeeple
If you enjoy Grand Austria Hotel at two players, you should try Hallton Palace from Iello. Same theme of putting guests in a hotel, but exclusively for two players and with a more fun, colourful, wacky approach. Maybe you’ll do a “who wore it better” kinda video with pairs of games with similar themes. 🤗😍 keep up posting amazing videos, can’t wait for the final 10-1 part of the top 50 🤩
Love to see the love for A Feast For Odin. About a year ago I found a copy and a copy of The Norwegians in my FLGS… had to drop $150 on it and it’s pretty much my #1. Don’t give up on the expansion Jeff, dive deeper!!
Great stuff, thank you. Wondered about yours or viewers thoughts on Grand Austria Hotel vs. Obsession. Are they comparable? My wife has banned me from buying any more board games but think I could swing one of these!
Jeff, I was all set to come in here and tell you that it hurt my heart to hear that Dice Throne doesn't crack your Top 50, but I actually got over it pretty quickly, haha. It's much higher for me, but everyone having different opinions is what makes lists like this fun in the first place. Plus, I agree 100% that there are just SO MANY great games now, and they can't all crowd into the Top 10 or 20 (or even 50) Looking forward to seeing your Top 10's!
Hi guys... thanks for this year's lists! You mentioned in earlier videos that you'd be publishing beyond your top 50 on Patreon. Or, at least, I think that's what you meant... maybe you're just going to talk more about your top 50s...? Anyway, have you already posted that? I don't see it there, but I'm relatively new to Patreon, so this could definitely be user error and me not knowing how to navigate the site. :) Thanks!
Wow. Too many bones broke the top 20. Came so far from when it was just a running joke of “more like too much money.” Another good list. Bones and planet unkown are in my top 10. The excitement for number 15 was very sweet
Just picked up Parks and im excited to play and possibly pick up the nightfall expansion down the road. We have trails and enjoy it so im sure i will enjoy parks even a bit more. What expansions do you play with?
I just love Parks and glad to see it on your list too. Played it 4 times this week with both expansions at the table (but now I am probably done playing it for awhile). It has been in my top 15 games of all time 4 years in a row. The Wildlife expansion is solid but that traveling Bison mechanic is just meh...I would prefer a choice of making a resource an animal or ability to purchase a gear card as those gear cards don't get purchased often in my games, and there are so many gear cards to utilize. Really hoping they continue to make more expansions and consider adding world national parks.
To make villainous more fun imo. Is to have multiple players instead of 1v1. Those 6 player games are fun if u get enough people. My game group enjoys the marvel one the most. Because we randomize the shared fate deck so it keeps us on our toes. That one only goes up to 4 but thats more fun too in our opinions cuz it adds more balance. We are also starting to enjoy the star wars one too.
You mention that Grand Austria Hotel makes thematic sense. You know what game doesn’t? Parks! Hear me out. In Parks, you can’t stand next to someone unless you douse a campfire. You visit a park and no one else can visit it again. There’s only one camera in the entire world that everyone keeps stealing from each other, and the pictures you take are from the parks but are somehow taken on the trail when you haven’t even reached the park yet. You put water in a canteen and a baby animal pops out, etc. Nothing about that game makes any sense. 😂 It’s fun and it’s pretty, though!
Finally, yours top 20-11. Really enjoyed watching this morning. My Top's: 11 Abyss 12 A Feast for Odin 13 Fury of Dracula (Third/Fourth Edition) 14 Project: ELITE 15 Star Wars: Outer Rim 16 Lost Ruins of Arnak 17 Western Legends 18 Vindication 19 Brass: Birmingham 20 Empires of the Void II
It's so true.... So many good games! I really have to try Grand Austria Hotel. It's very much my kind of game. I haven't tried Planet unknown either, but just got World Wonders, which I discovered has an excellent solo. If P.U. 's solo is as good, I might have to check it out. Love them polyominoes! Also, I know this was in the last video, but yeah, Brian Both made your list! One of my faves too.😁
Anachrony is superb, so much going on and still not that difficult to learn. The expansions add a lot to the game, but they do add a lot of extra rules and setup. Feast for Odin is also my favorite Uwe. Grand Austria Hotel is a great game, amazing you only got to play this game now, it is been around a few years, the new expansion makes it even better.
There’s a new villainous with King Candy & Shere Khan. I’ve had similar experiences with certain games - burn out, but not because it’s been over played.
Hallertau and Feast for Odin are two Uwe's I still haven't tried. I've owned 3 different copies of A Game of Thrones and was never able to get it played. I think interest went down after the show ended.
WOW - Feast For Odin looks like a table hog! JAMIE! WHAT??? I will live - Villianous is still a part of your life! Hahaha Grand Austria Hotel - love your faces! Yup so many good games - I can't wait for the top ten - and NO IT WOULD NOT BE FUNNY! You must post!
We have really fallen for Anachrony like you pretty sure the more we play it the higher up our favourites list it will climb. Must confesss, have thought Villainous would have been higher.
@FostertheMeeple Same for Libby, was of course still in the top 50, but lower than we might have suspected. We found ranking harder this year in general, some of the games from our 50-70 odd are superb, but didn't get a mention! There is just so much good stuff out there
great list guys, love the variety of games. Would be interested to hear what your Top 10 played games of the year were, they often vary haha. Man, I wish we could table games like Vast, Pax Pamir, GoT, Dune, even Root, but it can be hard to get a core group of people to be invested in the asymmetry like Jaime mentioned. Excited to see yout top 10!
Good personality and chemistry between you guys. Good work. I can clearly see y’all are gaming maniacs like me! I need to go to more cons. Thanks for video. Subbed.
I KNEW you two would love GAH!! Jeff I too enjoy Great Western Trail. This game offers a ton of options for scoring points. There's quite a bit of stuff to keep up with but I like trying different "paths" each time I play.
The initial feeling if getting into villainous was an amazing feeling, but as the years went on and we knew all the ways to win easily or make it impossible for the other player it has fallen for me too, but there will always be something special about Disney villainous and the good memories will last forever
Yea, I’m not sure we are quite there yet as when we play the characters we love, it’s still incredible. It’s just some of the characters are a real slog at 2p
@@FostertheMeeple LOL as a a couple who has played all the characters at least 7 times each, we can say that there's just some impossible matchups. If you want a good laugh do evil Queen vs Scar....scar will cry lol. If you want a 2 and a half hour experience do ursula vs Cruella, we had to give up at one point lol
What do you use to get your rankings? You're shocked by some of the rankings so I'm guessing you use something that kicks out a list instead of you just picking your top 50.
We use pub Meeple. I don’t really know what you mean by we are shocked by our top 50 though. It’s not some random list. There’s for sure some tinkering that maybe could have been done but it’s for sure not random as your comment is inferring slightly.
@@FostertheMeeple Thanks I'll have a look at it. In some of the other videos you said things like surprised games were as high, or that low or not in the top 50, or things to that effect. I wasn't saying it was random, but if you sat down with paper and wrote a list of top 50 you would put games where you wouldn't be surprised, which lead me to think you were using some other process to rank them. Which you were, Pub Meeple.
Jeff's slow reaction at 15 as he's realizing what's happening 😂😂😂😂😂😂
The beauty of not knowing our lists ahead of time
I was the original lead designer on Villainous and I totally understand it's fall to #16. I'm actually working on sort of a spiritual successor to the design right now. It won't have Disney, but I'm interested to see how people who loved Villainous will respond to it as sort of an evolved, more hobby-level strategy version of some of the same ideas.
Oh cool!! Looking forward to seeing what you come up with!
Thank you for designing such a clean and engaging design. I’m a fan of much heavier games, but Villainous still gives me what I want out of my gaming session. Can’t wait to hear more about the follow up.
Since u said was. Does that mean u are no longer there?
@@PhillipG34 Well, when Funko bought Forrest-Pruzan Creative in 2019, our team stopped being involved in Villainous and Ravensberger developed new sets in-house. So I haven't been involved in a new set in some time. But in addition I am also no longer at Funko Games either if that's what you were asking.
@@PhillipG34Prospero Hall designed the original Villainous and then got bought by Funko Games a few years ago, so they haven't been working on the last few Villainous releases. And then Funko sold Funko Games to Goliath and half of Prospero Hall was laid off. I just discovered that this past week, with all the news articles about the Funko Games sale
I love that for yall about the cross over! Jeff you was so excited❤❤ very much looking forward to the game a thon!
We are too!!
Viticulture was my first “hobby” board game and will always have a special place in my heart. I don’t know if it’s because of sentimental value, but it’s never left my top 5 games of all time.
Totally fair! There’s for sure some nostalgia picks that keep games up there for us too.
I havent checked in with you in forever, but when u posted the top 10 I knew I had to check it out... But five seconds in i was like: They are so awesome, lets go back further, and here we are =)
Woo!! Enjoy!
I did enjoy it! also it reminds me to play Dominant species, among others. I think my favorite of these is probably Anachrony, or maybe Vitticulture. Both wonderful games.@@FostertheMeeple
If you enjoy Grand Austria Hotel at two players, you should try Hallton Palace from Iello. Same theme of putting guests in a hotel, but exclusively for two players and with a more fun, colourful, wacky approach. Maybe you’ll do a “who wore it better” kinda video with pairs of games with similar themes. 🤗😍 keep up posting amazing videos, can’t wait for the final 10-1 part of the top 50 🤩
It’s coming soon!
Love to see the love for A Feast For Odin. About a year ago I found a copy and a copy of The Norwegians in my FLGS… had to drop $150 on it and it’s pretty much my #1.
Don’t give up on the expansion Jeff, dive deeper!!
No I want to try the expansion!! Just can’t find a copy around here (even of base game).
Great stuff, thank you. Wondered about yours or viewers thoughts on Grand Austria Hotel vs. Obsession. Are they comparable? My wife has banned me from buying any more board games but think I could swing one of these!
Pretty different games honestly. I’d do some research!
Believe it or not I don't own a single worker placement game, I wonder if I'd find any of em fun lol
Jeff, I was all set to come in here and tell you that it hurt my heart to hear that Dice Throne doesn't crack your Top 50, but I actually got over it pretty quickly, haha. It's much higher for me, but everyone having different opinions is what makes lists like this fun in the first place. Plus, I agree 100% that there are just SO MANY great games now, and they can't all crowd into the Top 10 or 20 (or even 50) Looking forward to seeing your Top 10's!
Yea someone else made a good point. Top 50 of 700+ games is a pretty prestigious spot to be in. Hard to crack!
I love Planet Unknown! Great one to have on your list!
Agreed!!
Hi guys... thanks for this year's lists! You mentioned in earlier videos that you'd be publishing beyond your top 50 on Patreon. Or, at least, I think that's what you meant... maybe you're just going to talk more about your top 50s...? Anyway, have you already posted that? I don't see it there, but I'm relatively new to Patreon, so this could definitely be user error and me not knowing how to navigate the site. :) Thanks!
Hey!! It’s not posted yet but it’ll be coming after the entire list is live!
yay Merchants Cove! OMG I can't wait for the new stuff!!!!
Same!
thumbs up for TMB!
Wow. Too many bones broke the top 20. Came so far from when it was just a running joke of “more like too much money.” Another good list. Bones and planet unkown are in my top 10. The excitement for number 15 was very sweet
I’d still argue it’s too much money. But that likely applies to a lot of things in life haha
Her accent is so great ❤
Merchants cove is fun. I need to get it to the table more.
Agreed!! We also need to get it played again soon
Just picked up Parks and im excited to play and possibly pick up the nightfall expansion down the road. We have trails and enjoy it so im sure i will enjoy parks even a bit more. What expansions do you play with?
Nightfall!!
I always think the sign in the background says "painkillers" at first look haha
LOL
I just love Parks and glad to see it on your list too. Played it 4 times this week with both expansions at the table (but now I am probably done playing it for awhile). It has been in my top 15 games of all time 4 years in a row. The Wildlife expansion is solid but that traveling Bison mechanic is just meh...I would prefer a choice of making a resource an animal or ability to purchase a gear card as those gear cards don't get purchased often in my games, and there are so many gear cards to utilize. Really hoping they continue to make more expansions and consider adding world national parks.
To make villainous more fun imo. Is to have multiple players instead of 1v1. Those 6 player games are fun if u get enough people. My game group enjoys the marvel one the most. Because we randomize the shared fate deck so it keeps us on our toes. That one only goes up to 4 but thats more fun too in our opinions cuz it adds more balance. We are also starting to enjoy the star wars one too.
Appreciate the suggestion!!
I love Feast for Odin. Jamie try it again!
Yes!! Tell her!
Thanks!
Thanks so much!
What's A-symmetry mean?
It means not every player has the same abilities within the game!
@@FostertheMeeple oh, OK like they’re all playing the same game in a different way with different strategies, now I know it’s called that lol
@@ValorantRivals correct!
thanks so much
You mention that Grand Austria Hotel makes thematic sense. You know what game doesn’t? Parks! Hear me out.
In Parks, you can’t stand next to someone unless you douse a campfire. You visit a park and no one else can visit it again. There’s only one camera in the entire world that everyone keeps stealing from each other, and the pictures you take are from the parks but are somehow taken on the trail when you haven’t even reached the park yet. You put water in a canteen and a baby animal pops out, etc.
Nothing about that game makes any sense. 😂 It’s fun and it’s pretty, though!
Jamie is the cutest is she ever not "on"?
She’s dynamite!
Feast for Odin is not a game, its more of a tedious activity.
In your opinion.
i like.very good 🍒😃
You should put up a list of everything that dropped off your top 50, that'd be really fun!
Ohh maybe! Will see what we can do
I'd love to see this!
That actually sounds interesting
Finally, yours top 20-11. Really enjoyed watching this morning.
My Top's:
11 Abyss
12 A Feast for Odin
13 Fury of Dracula (Third/Fourth Edition)
14 Project: ELITE
15 Star Wars: Outer Rim
16 Lost Ruins of Arnak
17 Western Legends
18 Vindication
19 Brass: Birmingham
20 Empires of the Void II
Thanks for sharing!
Oh Jeffs magical face of realisation at 21:40
Both your number 20’s are by the same artist manny trembley
We know Manny!! Great human and incredibly talented
Woah. Jamie's #16 is a SHOCKER.
Whoa Jamie's 16 is more surprising than Jeff's Undaunted! This has been a wild ride! Can't wait for top ten.
The excitement of this list is quickly becoming out of control!
Glad you’re enjoying it!
Just got my copy of wonderland war 2 weeks ago! I can't wait to play it with some of my friends !
Hope you enjoy it!!
It's so true.... So many good games! I really have to try Grand Austria Hotel. It's very much my kind of game. I haven't tried Planet unknown either, but just got World Wonders, which I discovered has an excellent solo. If P.U. 's solo is as good, I might have to check it out. Love them polyominoes!
Also, I know this was in the last video, but yeah, Brian Both made your list! One of my faves too.😁
Jamie did a solo playthrough of PU over on the BGG RUclips channel if you wanna check it out before committing!
@@FostertheMeeple thanks for the heads up!😀
Anachrony is superb, so much going on and still not that difficult to learn. The expansions add a lot to the game, but they do add a lot of extra rules and setup. Feast for Odin is also my favorite Uwe. Grand Austria Hotel is a great game, amazing you only got to play this game now, it is been around a few years, the new expansion makes it even better.
Excited for your top 10 video!!
It’s coming soon!
There’s a new villainous with King Candy & Shere Khan. I’ve had similar experiences with certain games - burn out, but not because it’s been over played.
I'm Ready! Top 20, 50-21 were pretty good, no idea what's better
Hallertau and Feast for Odin are two Uwe's I still haven't tried. I've owned 3 different copies of A Game of Thrones and was never able to get it played. I think interest went down after the show ended.
It’s a great one!
Jealous that you guys were able to get Game of Thrones to the table - haven't been able to for years! What Houses did you play? 😁
We were: Starks, Lannister, Baratheon, Greyjoy, with the Baratheons winning by dominating the south
WOW - Feast For Odin looks like a table hog! JAMIE! WHAT??? I will live - Villianous is still a part of your life! Hahaha Grand Austria Hotel - love your faces! Yup so many good games - I can't wait for the top ten - and NO IT WOULD NOT BE FUNNY! You must post!
Hahaha don’t worry, we will
We have really fallen for Anachrony like you pretty sure the more we play it the higher up our favourites list it will climb. Must confesss, have thought Villainous would have been higher.
Villainous is likely gonna fluctuate at this point!
@FostertheMeeple Same for Libby, was of course still in the top 50, but lower than we might have suspected.
We found ranking harder this year in general, some of the games from our 50-70 odd are superb, but didn't get a mention! There is just so much good stuff out there
great list guys, love the variety of games. Would be interested to hear what your Top 10 played games of the year were, they often vary haha. Man, I wish we could table games like Vast, Pax Pamir, GoT, Dune, even Root, but it can be hard to get a core group of people to be invested in the asymmetry like Jaime mentioned. Excited to see yout top 10!
Agreed! They are so tough to table but some of the best experiences
Good personality and chemistry between you guys. Good work. I can clearly see y’all are gaming maniacs like me! I need to go to more cons. Thanks for video. Subbed.
Thanks so much for the kindness and sub!
I KNEW you two would love GAH!! Jeff I too enjoy Great Western Trail. This game offers a ton of options for scoring points. There's quite a bit of stuff to keep up with but I like trying different "paths" each time I play.
It’s so great!!
Great video, great choices. Btw any upcoming reviews on the rathskeller table?
Yes!!! It’ll be happening in the future
Sounded like you were channeling Buddy the Elf with the "I love it's" on Grand Austria Hotel 😂 Great top 20s!
Lol!
The initial feeling if getting into villainous was an amazing feeling, but as the years went on and we knew all the ways to win easily or make it impossible for the other player it has fallen for me too, but there will always be something special about Disney villainous and the good memories will last forever
Yea, I’m not sure we are quite there yet as when we play the characters we love, it’s still incredible. It’s just some of the characters are a real slog at 2p
@@FostertheMeeple LOL as a a couple who has played all the characters at least 7 times each, we can say that there's just some impossible matchups. If you want a good laugh do evil Queen vs Scar....scar will cry lol. If you want a 2 and a half hour experience do ursula vs Cruella, we had to give up at one point lol
Unacceptable. Villainous deserves to be on the next list, not this list!
Not on our list ;)
What do you use to get your rankings?
You're shocked by some of the rankings so I'm guessing you use something that kicks out a list instead of you just picking your top 50.
We use pub Meeple. I don’t really know what you mean by we are shocked by our top 50 though. It’s not some random list. There’s for sure some tinkering that maybe could have been done but it’s for sure not random as your comment is inferring slightly.
@@FostertheMeeple Thanks I'll have a look at it.
In some of the other videos you said things like surprised games were as high, or that low or not in the top 50, or things to that effect.
I wasn't saying it was random, but if you sat down with paper and wrote a list of top 50 you would put games where you wouldn't be surprised, which lead me to think you were using some other process to rank them. Which you were, Pub Meeple.