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
Another GREAT video. 🔥 Regards from Dubai 🥳
Kraftwagen 2.0 is being developed – confirmed by the designer
It one hundred percent has a programming element to it.
Well just found out I'm not a medium weight player but instead light to maybe medium 😅
"This sort of star shaped grid…" Well then haha
Deus is engine building it's a great game
I would say a preselection of one action in a prior round doesn't qualify as programming. Needs to be a dedicated round with multiple potential actions to qualify for that mechanism as far as I'm concerned. Nice try Naveen, haha.Mancala really just refers to the board with the parallel rows of cavities, which is the oldest boardgame however it was originally played, and originates from northern Africa. Games of mancala often share the same mechanism mentioned here though, which is relay sowing and probably originates from the game being played with seeds in its earliest forms.
T&E is just a little heavier than medium, with its slightly finicky rules. So worth it, though. Babylonia is a good truly medium weight Knizia tile game.
Is Yellow and Yangtze good at three and four players?
Love your channel. Must say you are very respectful and calm when you disagree (re: Deus). If it's me and my SO then voices raise immediately. Even if we're not upset!
I have to agree with the title(s) occuping nr 1 spot. Literally yesterday we've played Tigris & Euphrates in a group of 4, and it was fantastic. One thing that wasn't mentioned tho, is that it benefits a lot from a higher number of players – it was much better for 4 ppl then it was for 3. It's getting way more tight, and conflicts become inevitable way sooner. Fully agree with recommendation for that game 🙂
Does anyone else have a crush on Navin.
Makes me sad to not see Concordia on here 🙁
Fun facts about Mancala:
– Mancala (or a progenitor of Mancala) is the oldest known game of which we have the rules. It dates back to 4000 BC in Africa.
– Mancala is a game about planting seeds.
– Mancala as we know it today popped up in East Africa around 700 AD.
– “Mancala” is got its name from the Arabic word “Naqala” (to move). Naqala is the name of the kingdom in which “Five Tribes” is set.
great selection! BTW Gold West is available in Amazon! Three of my favorites are Five Tribes, Architects of the West Kingdom and Champions of Midgard
Don't know if you've ever played Red Cathedral?
Istanbul BigBox/Grand-Bazaar is on the top of our list for mid-weight, esp at 2P. I would really like to try Hansa Teutonica, but it doesn't work at all for 2P.
I love Dead of Winter also! Now that Naveen mentioned it, I also don't recall anyone playing it at DTW when I was there. I may need to host a game of it next time I'm at a Con! And I also love the hidden traitor mechanic. Our game group at home as played (2) 5-player games and never had a Betrayer. But there was always that tension that one of us was and it adds a lot to the experience. And I also have the Folded Space insert for it, because I totally agree that if I had to bag all the different tokens and standees, it would be way more challenging to get motivated to get it to the table.
I really like these videos, but it would be great if you show us the games pieces and board and all while you speak about them.
i hadn't realized it is only a 2.38, but would also recommend Peloponnes. We find the auction system + 'only score your lowest best score' + basic engine building to be great combo.
Ahhh so happy to see Hansa on your list. Thank you again for teaching me how to play. I absolutely adore this game!
I really enjoyed the discussion. Thanks! We've enjoyed several of the games on your list, but the only one we own is Five Tribes. Also among the favorites we own rated between 2.5-3.25 are Roll for the Galaxy and Firefly, the Game.
Loved some of your other gameplay videos. However a top ten just showing boxes is not enough these days. I would like to at least see a board setup to get an impression.
Weight is very subjective, but I would say for me it boils down to a combination of time and rules complexity. The teach should not take more than, say, 15 minutes, and the game itself should last from maybe 1 – 2 hours. Significantly shorter than that is probably light and longer is veering into heavy territory.
I have to admit that I have not played a lot of the games on your list, but I really like the pricing mechanism as well as the castle construction aspect of Castles of Mad King Ludwig. I'm just hoping that Bezier will eventually reprint the game with the beautiful new art from the fancy KS version because I didn't want all the bling but the original art is pretty meh.
What do you mean you "got an insert" for Dead of Winter? We love this game, too, but agree there's so much to set up. Curious what this magical insert is. 🙂
I see the programming aspect of deus for sure.
Yellow & Yangtze is SO GOOD.
How well does Automania work at two-players? I'm very interested in the game, but almost always play my games at two players
My personal favorite for mid-weight euro game is Crown of Emara. I wonder if you guys ever tried it? Kinda want to know what your take on that game. Nice list btw, I have my eyes on Yellow & Yangtze and Carpe Diem but haven't got chance to play it.
Hi, I just want to say thanks to you two.
I'm french and i love board games and and try to improve my english comprehension. So your videos are just perfect for me.
Look forward to watch the next one 🙂
You guys are awesome. Love from India.
Naveen, totally love you, but Deus is definitely not programming haha
On a different front, I think the term weight isn't very helpful for most, but not because of the sometimes mentioned inconsistency of how people rate a game, but because I think weight really comes in two forms for most games.
First, you have the weight of the rules or maybe more accurately the rules overhead while playing. This is the ability of a player to accurately play their turn without making a mistake or missing out on an option available to them because of the complexity of the rules in the game. A key game to feature this would be MTG which has a lot of rules and timing windows that makes playing it many times very rewarding but can be difficult for new players.
Second, you have the depth of strategy, which is the linking of actions over many turns and their implications toward winning the game. Games such as Kanban or The Gallerist have a great depth of decisions, yet have surprisingly few actual actions. Finding an artist is not complicated in what you are doing in the Gallerist, but the ability to make that discovery worthwhile is because the interconnections can change your ability to increase the artists popularity.
I think that for some one of these items maybe mean very little, but the other may make or break the game for them.
Because a game can be ranked higher for either reason I often feel a game isn't that heavy when it comes across heavy for another, and vice versus too.
Great list! And keep making great content!
I wanted so bad to love Dead of Winter because it should be the exact type of game I love. However, I found it hard to win even when playing full co-op, and games with traitors usually ended mid-game with the traitor tanking everything beyond repair in a single turn. So, it collects dust in my closet now. 🙁
There's so many games that are on my list to try out one day! I especially have been wanting to try Castles of Mad King Ludwig for a while. Each time I see only good reviews from different kind of people, I am sure I'd love it.
For Five Tribes, just like Monique said, I think it was one of the first ones I've played in that weight category. I was playing much lighter games before and then I discovered Five Tribes and was like "Wow, games can actually be strategic and fun!" cause to me, back then, strategic games meant boring long games that would last for like 10 hours. That wasn't (and still isn't) my definition of fun.
When I discovered Five Tribes, it blew my mind! The game is visually stunning and it is so fun. You want to do the best move but don't want to give good opportunities to your opponent.
I personally love the game at a 2p count, not so much at higher. I do enjoy the bidding aspect but I prefer the control we get at 2 players. If you play at higher player count, the board might have completely changed by the time you get to your turn.