10 Medium Weight Board Games that We Love
Before You Play
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Join us as we discuss some of our favorite “medium weight” board games from our personal collection.
JUMP:
Start – 00:00
Honorable Mention- 02:06
10 – 04:44
09 – 07:39
08 – 11:01
07 – 14:18
06 – 16:49
05 – 20:08
04 – 22:26
03 – 25:33
02 – 28:16
01 – 32:48
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22.05.2022
Really enjoy all your content guys keep it up!
Have you guys done a list of games that are out of print? Maybe a "bring it back" list?
Holy Cow. Yellow and Yangtze and Tigris are my favorites. Didn't expect that. I love older style euros that aren't point salad and multiplayer solitaire, I wish there were more. Hansa T is great. Other favorites that are comparable in game style and board game time period are Clans, Terra Nova, Bridges of Shangri La, Carolus Magnus, China/Han/Web of Power. These are usually upheld titles by the older style board gamers.
Glad to see the spotlight on Dead of Winter, it is so good! Team Naveen all the way here lol. Love the hidden traitor mechanic, it makes it so fun being suspicious of everyone around the table since even non traitors can have some shady feeling personal goals 🙂 One of the best implementations of the Walking Dead theme. I wish I could play it more often, still haven’t broken out the DoW: Long Night yet!
Also love CoMKL, I have it but still went in for the deluxe KS version 😅
the list started great: five tribes, deus, gold west. all games I have and love. and something went south and I didn't like none of the remaining games
I wouldn't have thought Hansa Teutonica would be a mid-weight – it seems so simple with the things you're allowed to do. The decisions can be pretty tough sometimes though so that's probably where the weight comes from.
HT is a top 5 game for me. Really love that one. There's a lot on this list that I haven't played though – I'll have to check them out.
Dead of Winter is still in my top ten. Sp good!
My dad and I used to play a game called Oh-wah-Ree, which is basically Mancala. As a grown up, I searched and searched for the game, because it was so much fun. The set we used had polished stones in a beautiful wooden board that was round with the bowl indentations. One day a friend wanted to play mancala, and I was so excited. It was pretty much the same as Oh-Wah-Ree! I have yet to find a beautiful board with those polished stones though… Love Carpe Diem!
The Castles of Mad King Ludwig are acutely based on King Ludwig the 14th, who built Versailles in France. Neuschwanstein was built by the Bavarian King Max, but was acutely inspired by Versailles. Just wanted to mention that.
I like Deus alot. A lot of similarities in the card play to Wingspan. (Also its on BGA if you want to try it out)
"Medium". 😛
And please could palyers stop saying things like "deeper into the hobby' when talking about going into "medium" or "heavy" games. You don't NEED medium and heavy games to get "deeper" into the hobby!
Some really great games in that 2.5-3.25 weight bracket, looking at the list, The Voyages of Marco Polo is probably one of my favourites.
Great list! I need to get some of these to the table again (and buy the rest!).
Love Gold West getting some attention. Great game and one I would never part with.
Haven't played any of these, but Mad King Ludwig seems fun!
My medium top 5 are:
1. The Castles of Burgundy
2. Everdell
3. Dune: Imperium
4. Lords of Waterdeep
5. Rococo
Looking forward to your next playthrough and I hope it will be A Feast for Odin! (Btw. you guys made me try Lisboa (finally!), everything looks so simple when you explain it !)
Carpe Diem…what is that? Fish…fish bait?
The Networks works fine with 2, played it multiple times, there's a mechanic that removes cards automatically and there's less cards overall I think, so it's pretty tight.
Castles of Mad King Ludwig was one of the first games in my collection and it is still greatly beloved. It always makes us laugh.
The 1st and 2nd ones are really interesting. Love to have them for my groupmates, but they’re kind of hard to find.
Tigris and Euphrates is the one I prefer but I freakin love it. But it does melt your mind by the time you are done lol.
I also love dead of winter. I got an amazing wooden insert that makes set up so nice and easy kol
I’ve never played Deus, but programming games commonly have two phases. A programming phase (where you write your program) usually by playing cards; not unlike building a tableau. An execution phase where you run the program that you built. If Deus don’t have those two distinct phases then it’s difficult to say it’s a programming game.
I was initially put off by Y&Y due to the combat but the game has definately grown on me after repeated plays. There's just so much strategic depth there! Also wrt Carpe Diem, this is a game in our wheelhouse (a mid weight euro that plays well w/2) that I've had my eye on for awhile. I just can't decide which edition to get ie., 1st edition, 2nd printing of the latter or the newest (2nd edition w/white box). Frankly, they all appear to have different production issues. Five Tribes was one I looked into but it appeared wouldn't be a good fit for us….the two of us can be a little AP prone at times.
Love those classic Euros. Tigris Euphrates. Yes. Princes of Florence, Tikal, and El Grande too.
Absolute big fan of Deus. Not the most attractive game, with a collection under 20 I like good looking games.
I was a pleased when they announced a reprint though missed opportunity not to update the art.
It's ok Wingspan gives me that tableau feel, just without the area control.
5 Tribes was one of the games that got my wife and I to start trying heavier (more strategic) games too👍 I got to play Tigris & Euphrates this year and really enjoyed it. I hope it eventually gets a reboot like Ra.
No Rococo? Voyages of Marco Polo? Castles of Burgundy? Russian Railroads? Village? Rajas of the Ganges? Heaven and Ale? Stone Age? Haha all quintessential mid-weight euros for me.
Thanks for the video!
– Five Tribes was actually the very first game I played when I attended my first board game gathering. Great introduction for me to the hobby. 🙂
– I like Castles of Mad King Ludwig, but its big halting caveat is in the master builder role—looking at everyone's castles-in-progress and pricing the room tiles. A big game theory sort-of puzzle not for the AP peoples like me. Suburbia, also by the same designer and publisher, may be a better alternative for them.
– Time and again, I think of Hansa Teutonica and how I had fun playing it and wanting to play it again. How everyone is vying to expand their routes as well as improve their skills. And the hilarity of a few people trying to gain extra actions early in the game. I hope to play the game soon, post-pandemic. 🙂
– I'll also throw in Istanbul, Res Arcana, Orleans, Castles of Burgundy, and a few dice-worker placement games like Champions of Midgard, Alien Frontiers, and Roll for the Galaxy.
I really did not like your list… I don’t agree on any game… maybe on Five tribes… because between 2.5 and 3.25 of BGG in complexly there are way better games like: Orleans, Lost Ruins of Arnak, Viticulture, Castles of Burgundy, Architects of the West Kingdom, Marco Polo, Clank, and others…
Not a lot of overlap with my 10, at this stage which would be (in no particular order); Viticulture, Roll for the Galaxy, Rurik, Clank, Merlin, Concordia, Orleans, Raiders of Scythia, Hansa Teutonica, GlenMore II.
Honourable mentions to Five Tribes, Yellow & Yangtze, Castles of Mad King Ludwig, Castles of Burgundy.
But it’s pretty fluid and there are a lot in this category I haven’t played enough yet.
Castles of Mad King Ludwig was my favorite game for many years! I also like Gold West & would add Viticulture, Near & Far, Pioneer Days, & Shakespeare to your suggestions
What a nice list. I thought you two just played heavy games?
More cutaways to pictures of board and cards as you describe the game would be great, thanks.
Thanks for the video. Hansa Teutonica is the only one I've played (and that was just one game on Tabletopia recently). However, given that you say it's not a (ranked) top ten list, maybe it makes more sense to list them from 1 to 10 (so as to not suggest it's a countdown to the best).
Wingspan!
DEUS invented “tableauxgramming”..
Five Tribes is a good game; I like it a lot! I was wary because besides mancala/oware itself, the only game that I’d played with token dropping was Fistful of Meeples. Naveen said he’s never gotten tired of this mechanism? Well, for me, the affection for it was almost over before it began, because Fistful of Meeples is essentially Analysis Paralysis: The Game. Each station where you drop a meeple is activated as you go along, so you have to pay careful attention to the order in which you play the meeples. And all the stations are in a circle like mancala/oware and do different things based on the type of station and colour of meeple. The meeples don’t often disappear from the board, either (unless they are in a duel). So it’s just a brain burner. Thankfully in Five Tribes you only have to worry about the ending spot! Much better, IMHO.
Castles of Mad King Ludwig is great. I also love Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig (a mash-up game that I played before I’d tried either of the component games that were combined to make it).
The Networks is a brilliant game! I love it. I also don’t often gravitate to heavily themed games but this one works very well! I disagree about it not being tight at 2 players. Cards are being eliminated every few turns so I’d say it’s perhaps even more tense!
Haven’t played any of the others so I have some catching up to do! Thanks for the video!
This is one of my favourite complexity ranges. Here are 10 I like from 2.5 to 3.25 on BGG, plus a bunch of runners-up:
1. Gentes
2. Import/Export (or Glory to Rome)
3. Beyond the Sun
4. Concordia
5. Rajas of the Ganges
6. Lost Ruins of Arnak
7. Acquire
8. Village
9. Alubari
10. Forbidden Sky
Runners-Up: First Class, Container, Suburbia, Glen More II Chronicles
Awesome video guys. Please make more content like this!!!
Monique and Naveen, excellence again, you are such a great team and your game descriptions awesome.
Ive recently played a bunch of medium weight games new to me… Clans of Caledonia, Castell, Grand Austrian Hotel, and Great Western Trail.
I consider my favorite game, Scythe, medium weight as well
Out of curiosity, have you played Concordia? It's in this weight range and is one that we enjoy.
Power Grid just misses it at 3.26 but it's another favorite of my group.
I dont think you mentioned it, but one thing Hansa Teutonica does (and may have invented?) Is the uncovering of action spaces to form better and better actions. That is for me a selling point as great as the bumping. Great game.
i feel like yall have a really healthy way of disagreeing & i appreciate it.
I love Deus, have played it sooo many times. The Egypt expansion actually doesn't replace alllll the cards. You can pick and choose which ones to replace. So you can replace just the ships or just the military and production buildings.or you can change everything but I don't think I'd suggest that first time through. It's very modular
Thanks for mentioning Kraftwagon
Sweet shirt Naveen. Looking sharp, dude! 😁
Nice list! And it's good to know your new camera arrived. I love your videos.
Absolutely love dead of winter, top 5 for me. I think it gets a bad rap. The crossroad system is amazing, with or without the traitor, whichever you prefer. No lie, this is the game I teach most to new gamers to draw them into the hobby. Just my friend group loves he theme and tension, and all the craziness with the crossroad cards. I have all three and it will never leave our collection. Great vid!
Great list! Thanks as always!
Been wanting automania for awhile.. too bad out of print !
Mind MGMT meets your criteria!
My two most-played games fall within this range: Glory to Rome and Innovation