Top 10 Board Games by Mechanic – Games You Should Own
Learn more about board game mechanics:
0:00 Start
3:02 Tile Placement
7:28 Worker Placement
12:31 Deck Builder
17:00 Area Control
22:38 Tableau Builder
29:10 Pick up and Deliver
33:08 Civilization Builder
37:59 Dungeon Crawler
43:48 Economic
47:31 Deduction
51:51 Wrap-up
#Boardgames #Top10 #Top10boardgames
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This is the exact same reason i can not bring myself to buy Harry potter, i hear all the time that it is a great game, but i can not stand the stock photo imagery.
Very inspiring 😊🙏👍 I haven’t played any of these, although I actually own Lost Ruins (and will hopefully get it to the table soon). Now I basically want to try out all of the games you talk about in the video. Some of them have been on my radar for quite some time, like Rococo and Everdell. 😊
Arnak is awesome. In my top ten!
I love this kind of content! It would be nice if you had set up examples as well, helps "sell" the game.
Nice list 🙂 I will play along using your categories with the idea of the mechanic being central to the game and not just one of many mechanics. Some of these categories definitely not my thing, but obviously still lots of great games in all categories. I need to give mechanics some through sometime.
Tile Placement – Castles of Burgundy
Worker Placement – Anachrony
Deck builder – Marvel Legendary
Area Control – War or the Ring
Tableau Builder – Suburbia
PU&D – Firefly
Civilization – Through the Ages
Dungeon Crawl – Gloomhaven
Economic – Gaia Project
Social Deduction – Decrypto
Thanks 😊 guys
Great video! I liked the format and subject!
I love your philosophy here with regards to buying games. Buy a few good games and play them a lot!
For Tableau Builders, I would pick Obsession. It has a great theme, the card-activated aspect is enjoyable, and it has worker enablement elements. At its core, building your manor is not only the way to win but is a real joy. For Pick Up & Deliver, I would select Xia with its expansion Embers of a Forsaken Star. It is also my favorite Sandbox game. The game has terrific replayability with the random tile placement, the Kiln, and the expansion's Economy mechanic. The ship mods mitigate much of the die roll randomness, but at a cost. It has a more challenging learning curve than Everdell, but it is worth it. Want a shorter game? Play to 5 or 10 Fame Points.
Interesting list! Here's mine: Tile Placement – Isle of Cats, Worker Placement – Dungeon Petz, Deck Builder – Clank, Area Control – Ginkgopolis, Tableau Builder – Obsession, Pick up and deliver – Vindication (sort of; I don't play this category so closest that I love) or Container (which is a little closer), Civilization builder – 7 Wonders (not my genre, so closest), Dungeon Crawler – Too Many Bones, Economic – Lisboa, Deduction – Decrypto
Really enjoyed the video! It brought a lot of insight to your gaming tastes…and definitely piqued my interest in a couple games I've never played. Looking forward to more…cheers!
Area control – my best of this category and all time favorite game is Photosynthesis. No take that, war, or randomness, just pure strategy!
i agree with Everdell for tableau building… my deck builder is Viscount of the west kingdom…the rest i havent decided yet
As far as Deck builders g, o I think Valley of the Kings is far too underrated.
Congrats on your new baby!!
Frances you look great. 😊
A Feast for Odin is my #1 worker placement game and my #1 game.
For tile laying, Foundations of Rome. Yes, it’s huge. But it’s sooo easy and accessible, and can be inviting to new gamers. Hard to find and buy though haha
My favorite tile laying games at the moment are streets and kohaku.
54:40 Your experience in the hobby gives your two the vernacular and perspective to judge wisely. Thank you for sharing your picks.
I so wanted to love Outer Rim, played it so many times, but the dice roll kills this game for me.
Great idea for a video! I enjoyed hearing your picks & why you liked each one. There were a couple I hadn't heard of or knew almost nothing about.
For Worker Placement I think Architect of West Kingdom not a bad choice as well
Best tile placement for me, Quadropolis
Best work placement Anachrony
The list:
1) Tile Placement – Neuroshima Hex
2) Worker Placement – Rajas of the Ganges
3) Deck Builder – Taverns of Tiefenthal
4) Area Control – Beyond the Sun
5) Tablou Builder – Empires of the North
6) Pickup and Deliver – In Too Deep
7) Civilization Builder – History of the World
8) Dungeon Crawl – Solomon Kane
9) Economic Game – Brass Birmingham
10) Deduction – Search for Planet X
I disagree Clank is pure deck builder, it’s what you do In the game. It’s not 1 of the mechanism as you are building your deck for those actions. It’s like saying in HP fighting enemies is not part of deck building. For me Arnak and dune is like a game with deck building mechanism not deck builders
I was listening to the video not watching and also have a new born baby so when the baby starting cooing I was rushing to check on the baby the when I looked at video noticed the baby cooing was from video… it scared the living soul out of me
Great video! Love your content. Some very good and interesting choices that are well thought out for each category. 👍
Beautiful people beautiful baby, fantastic selection and you have just sold me on Rococo x
Harry Potter deck builder is such an interesting decision. The theme send to have really brought it home for you.
Ours would be Dale of Merchants. Such a clever, engaging and fast deck builder.
Some interesting ones on the list I wasn’t aware of. Thanks for doing this!
Really excited for the Outer Rim expansion next week.
Completely agree with Nations. What a great game.
Entering the world of lists. They aren’t my favorite to make, but they are helpful and viewers enjoy them. Well done. Glad to see Rococo. Anachrony is a a want to play for me
My top games for each category would be
Tile placement – Isle of cats
Worker Placement – Anachrony
Deck Builder – Obsession
Area Control – Rurik Dawn of Kiev
Tableau Building – Everdell
Pickup & Deliver – Star Wars Outer rim
Civilization Builder – Imperium Legends
Dungeon crawler – Cthulu Death May Die
Economic – Clinic
Social Deduction – Tortuga 1667
Wasn’t able to guess your area control game but agree it is a great choice and an excellent game! Great pick
The mechanics I know fix cars. Board games have mechanisms. 😊😊
tile placement: Heaven & Ale
worker placement: Viticulture
deck builder: Concordia
area control: Rex: final days of an empire / Dune
tableau building: Everdell
pick up and deliver: not really a fan of that mechanism
civ building: not really a fan, but I guess Tapestry
dungeon crawler: Gloomhaven JotL
Economic: Mombasa
social deduction: Resistance
'One person finishes and you get to keep playing until you are done' sounds like an argument AGAINST the game than for it.
Having said that, I haven't played Everdell, so maybe that works.
Your 'area control' pick completely took me by surprise. But right away as soon as you started to discuss it I had to agree. Great pick. (Have to disagree on the deck builder though. I just LOVE 'Trains' by AEG. I know it's a Dominion rip off, but the theme is so much better and I love the variety of maps.)
Great video guys, with some excellent picks, here are my choices.
Tile placement : Glenmore Chronicles 2
Worker Placement : Dwellings of eldervale
Deckbuilding : Direwild
Area control : The Godfather, corleons empire
Tableau Builders : Empires of the North
Pick up and Deliver : Star wars outer rim 👍
(Really keen for the expansion for this)
Civilisation : Tapestery / Imperium legends or classics
Dungeon Crawler : Descent Legends of the Dark. 👍
Economic : Brass Birmingham/ Smartphone inc
Social Deduction : coup / skull
So a couple of cross overs, you had a few on your list I haven't played as yet
Thanks guys
I really appreciate this style of "top ten" and definitely got some good ideas for games I'd like to try out. Where would barenpark rank in tile placement for you all? It seems like a pretty solid contender to me.
Always interesting to see personal curated lists as it gives the viewer an insight into how your tastes skew. Mine go towards mid/lite complexity games as they tend to be more inviting to family/casual players.
Great game choices! 3 of my favorite games are on your list: Lost Ruins of Arnak, Rococo, and Everdell.
As always great video some of the games you choose I haven't played yet so will have to check those out.. .Here are mine for your categories:
Tile placement : Glenmore Chronicles 2 and if it counts for this category Terraforming Mars for the ocean, greenery and city tiles
Worker Placement : ( 3 Way Tie ) Abomination The Heir of Frankenstein, Raiders of the North Sea, Russian Railroads
Deckbuilding : ( not a big fan of this mechanic so… ) Great Western Trail
Area control : ( not a big fan of this mechanic so … ) Twilight Struggle
Tableau Builders : Lewis & Clark The Expedition ( Everdell was second for me )
Pick up and Deliver : Western Legends
Civilization : Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization
Dungeon Crawler : Gloomhaven Jaws of the Lion
Economic : Brass Birmingham and Raccoon Tycoon
Social Deduction : Deception Murder in Hong Kong
I haven't played Harry Potter Hogwarts battle, but I do own/played the toy story re-skin of it. It is great, for prepping my five year old to play deck builders in a reasonably fun game. I would not paly it with adults, and I don't think a different theme would make a difference. I would rather play almost any other deck builder (including lost ruins of arnak), or a multitude of cooperative games.
That was a great list and it gave me a few games to check out that I had not considered before.
I don't know how you keep doing so much filming with a newborn but well done!
New York Zoo is great fun. Was a real sleeper hit for me. Good choice 🙂
For Worker Placement my personal pick would be Century: A New World (or the Golem equivalent). Very accessible, but very well integrated mechanism. Another one I really like is Pixie Queen. It adds enough twists to traditional worker placement mechanism to make it interesting. And the theme + other mechanics just make it a lot of fun.
I would have picked Arnak as the top deck builder though 😉 IMO it’s more prominent a mechanism on that one compared to worker placement. Star Realms Frontiers has also been a quick fun game to play every now and then. Would be nice to give Valley of Kings a try though.
There are two tableau builders that stand leaps and bounds above anything else I’ve tried (although I do love Kemet as well), and those are the second editions of Pax Pamir and Pax Renaissance. Definitely not accessible, but every game feels wildly different, tells an amazing story, and the amount of history in the form of flavor text is just staggering.