Shipwreck Arcana is beautiful! But also, it's not that difficult for deduction. Definitely not a brain-burner, but worth playing every so often for the looks and quality components.
@@jameystegmaier and thank YOU, good sir. And that theme, that world.. one could write books about that stuff! Or comics. Anyhoo, I'm fanboying here. Looking forward to playing much MUCH more 😊
Villages of Valeria at #968 an engaging city/tableau builder with interesting player interaction. Dead Man's Draw at #988 great push your luck fun in a little box. Some "take that" player interactions. Optional trait cards add unique player abilities. Variant cards enhance replay value. Kahuna at #1006 this one is my #2 all time of Kronos' excellent two player game series. Edged out only by the nearly perfect Targi.
Great video Mr. Stegmaier! I looked at 900-4000 to compile my top ten list, I do have a couple honorable mentions though. First, I felt these might be too new to include as they're both 2019 games, but I really enjoy both Cartographers and Lockup. I'm surprised they're both still so far down, as they're both probably in my top ten of the year that I've played as of now. The other honorable mention is Gearworks, mostly as it is the game that was furthest down out of all the games I like. It ranks at 3811, but I think it's a pretty funny game that shouldn't be as low as it is. I'm doing mine in order of how much I like the game, not how far back on the list it is, so here we go! 10. Dicemasters: Amazing Spider-Man (ranked 1953) There might be other Dicemasters versions higher up above this that break into the top 900, but this is my preferred version and the one I have (almost) everything for. It's a fun game and one of my personal favorite 2 player only games. 9. The Chameleon (ranked 2012) This is the Spyfall killer for me, I think Spyfall is too easily broken and haven't had nearly as much fun with it as I have with The Chameleon. Having one word instead of a picture is so much more enjoyable for me. I played this earlier this month at my birthday celebration with my game group and all my friends and it went over really well, the people who had never played before all said they hope we can play again soon. 8. Artifacts Inc. (ranked 1125) My only complaint with this game really is that I would like an expansion! I played it a lot and it doesn't have the best replayability outside of maybe playing it with new people, but it is really fun and a really small game that offers the feel of something bigger. 7. Gloom (ranked 1578) One of my favorite storytelling games. I'm not sure if it's in the actual rules but it's the way we've always played it. I really wanted to like Once Upon a Time but felt it was a storytelling activity with no game, this (at least the way we play it I've never read the rulebook!) It's a fun storytelling GAME. I love making up my own story while playing a game and this provides both. Telling your story to the other players as you take your turn is very fun imo. 6. Micropolis (ranked 2202) I'm surprised this is so low, this is a really fun game that I think works great as a gateway game, that is also fun for gamers. Lots of interesting ways to go for points, or you can do a little of everything, plays very smoothly and pretty quickly, I'm surprised it didn't get more love. 5. Treasure Hunter (ranked 1333) This is a fun card drafting game with a twist I thought was unique and fun, the fact that the person with the highest and the lowest of each color gets something each round, is really interesting. So in a 3 or 4 player game, you want to have the most or the least (usually) you just don't want to be in the middle! I love card drafting games and I thought this one was a really solid design. Granted it's from Richard Garfield who also gave us Bunny Kingdom, a card drafting game in my top ten of all time, so it's not his best card drafting game in my eyes, but still a very solid one. 4. Livingstone (ranked 2336) I believe this game is out of print. I was lucky and found a copy for $20 in a discount bin at our local game store, and was very happy with the game. Everyone has a chest that they can deposit coins into to "donate to the glorious queen" which you have to announce you're donating every time that you do, but you don't announce how much you're donating. At the end of the game, whoever donated the least to the queen, loses immediately, then whoever has the most points of the remaining players wins the game. You use your coins for everything else in the game though that do score you points, such as building up tents, buying cards that give you some interesting actions/choices, etc. It's a really fun game and revealing how much each player donated is always tense. Just because you dominated in points, doesn't mean you've won, it's very interesting. 3. Empires of the Void II (ranked 913) The highest ranked of my top ten under appreciated, this is a really fun game that offers a lot of different choices and ways to play, but I usually go the pick up and delivery route. You're flying in space from planet to planet, you can either attack planets (for points) or make peace with the inhabitants of the planet to gain a benefit (and points) but there's also cargo you can pick up and deliver (for goods and points) but other players can still your cargo and deliver it themselves, and there's a few other twists and turns in here that make this a unique, fun experience. 2. Lost Cities: Rivals (ranked 2369) Possibly because it's being ranked in comparison to original Lost Cities, but I like this variant much better personally. This is one of my favorite quick filler bidding games. My game group loves For Sale, I think For Sale is okay. I'd much rather play this. 1. Palace of Mad King Ludwig (ranked 2040) This is the saddest entry for me, as I love this game. Again, probably ranked unfavorably compared to Castles of Mad King Ludwig, but this is just a completely different game. Granted I also rank Castles slightly higher, (Palace was my #11 in my top 100 games at the end of 2018, Castles was #7) but I've played Palace a lot more than Castles, and this is one of the few games that I find fun at every player count. This game is just as fun at 2 players, as it is at 3 or 4. I ranked this a 9.5 (and I've played it 21 times) but it's BGG score is 6.0. That's crazy to me! Anyone reading this who might try this game, just don't expect Castles, go into it expecting it to be its own unique experience, and this game shines. A lot of fun, I would recommend it to anyone.
Hi again Jamey! As we previously discussed.... Here is the link showing off my solo variant for the game: ua-cam.com/video/uDCqyylxRwA/v-deo.html You can play with or without the Recon expansion. Enjoy! PS: I'm currently working on a homemade co-op version for the game... Coming soon! :)
I finally bought Arctic Scavengers after um-ing and ah-ing about it, as you’ve mentioned it a few times as one of your top 10s. Thanks, feel happy about the purchase and look forward to playing it! 🙂
Ok. Made my list. I could NOT believe that some of these were so low! 1. Kingdoms 1178 2. Dragonheart 1484 3. Greed 1529 4. Boomtown 1643 5. Prophecy 1682 6. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Deckbuilding Game 1818 7. Resident Evil Deckbuilding Game 2244 8. Sharp Shooters 2640 9. Allegiance A Realm Divided 2841 10. Warband: Against the Darkness 4529 Some of these are pretty slick games that fly under the radar for some reason or another. It's a shame. At least a few of these i feel are top 100 material if anyone had ever played them. Oh well. I have them and my group enjoys them very much. Cheers.
If Jamey can say Poker then I can say Spades, BGG 1506. It's one of the easiest classic trick taking games to teach and it's one of the post popular card games in the US. Three-handed spades is quite fun as well, especially when played in a tournament with smile stickers as victory markers...Playing for Smiles :)
I recently picked up Rise of Queensdale for $30 at Barnes and Noble. Looking forward to getting it started. Hocus is an underrated game for me. I hosted poker games in college, and I agree that playing without money makes the game less interesting. The base game of Hocus does a great job of giving the poker feel without putting money on the line. It is however one of the few games I have played where I advise people to stay away from the advanced game. Still underrated thought!
Andy Looney's Pyramid Arcade is one of my favorite underrated game(s). In the box is actually 20+ games that use his pyramid pieces. But the game that truly makes is stand out is Homeworlds. Homeworlds is an abstract game of intergalactic conflict. Upright pyramids represent star systems, flat pyramids are your ships. The four different colors of pieces provide you with the different actions needed to maneuver your way to your opponents home system. In my opinion, the definitive "space chess."
I own (and love to play) numbers 6, 5, and 4 on the list, so I agree with you there! My girlfriend and I like Scotland Yard with two. New York Slice is a great filler game at the end of a game night. Arctic Scavengers is highly thematic, but unfortunately, it's a bit hard to get to the table.
There's a 2-player card drafting game called "Caper" that my wife and I really like, and it's #3471. It only has 260 ratings, which is surprising, as I do see it in game stores and mentioned online every so often. It deserves to be more popular. I also can't believe that Raccoon Tycoon (#1371) and Paper Tales (#1054) are not even in the top 1000, two of my favourites at the moment. Rise of Queensdale really appeals to me, but we are currently playing through Gloomhaven and 7th Continent, and a friend of mine will probably be getting Clank! Legacy soon, so there's a lot of Legacy going on at the moment.
Let's add some perspective. There are 17,726 ranked games on BGG. 10% of that would be 1772. So essentially everything in the top 1800 games is top ten % (especially given there are actually 289777 items in the BGG database ... the last one entered being mystery dracula). So a game being rated 2000 or higher is by no means underrated, quite the opposite, those are FANTASTIC games. If anything one could probably argue that some of them might be overrated, as in my description of Dragonholt below. BGG user guantanamo does a list of game outside of the top 2000 that are being "played and enjoyed" that is worth looking up. My top ten games under 2K that I think are worth a look: 10. Bazaar (rank 2058) one of sid sackson's signature games. A game about currency conversion to collect points. If you like Century Spice Road, you will probably enjoy this game (which I actually prefer). 9. Crude (rank 2081) IMHO, the BEST market economy game ever published. In Crude your are an executive of an oil company trying to produce, refine and sell oil and gas products. The production component of this game published in the early 70's is found again in Catan. The game also features a strong simulation of supply/demand structures. If you want a great educational game about economics, this is one of the best choices (my second choice would be planet steam). 8. Rattlebones (rank 2585) to be honest, it's the theme that hits this one. This is a dice "building" game much like Dice Forge where you change the dice faces during the game. Its distilled nature makes this a very streamlined game and is an excellent entry for roll and move games. I think with a retheme and some balancing of dice sides this game could easily be top 10%. 7. Doctor Who: Time of the Daleks (rank 2619) a dice mission game similar to Elder Signs. The IP on this is probably more accessible to most. The initial offering was solid in design and presents an interesting overarching story making this a compelling game for Doctor Who enthusiasts. Unfortunately, there are two large flaws in this game which undoubtedly are the reason it ranks so low: a) the publisher withheld the necessary expansion characters to complete the game for too long and one they were published, little to any editing was applied to make them a finished product and b) there is a cooperative nature to the game, but it feels tacked on and isn't very interesting. If they fixed the problems with the expansions and addressed the cooperative nature of this game, I could easily see it in the top 10%. 6. Cubist (rank 2664) a very interesting spacial game where you use "powers" to alter dice to create dice sculptures to collect request cards. The combination of spacial sculpture and player powers make this a very interesting puzzle game. There is some player interaction through purchasable actions but the game is not very aggressive which is a plus in my book. Definitely an overlooked title. 5. BasketBoss (rank 3453) one of Cwali's best games (imho). A game about managing a basketball team. You draft players based not only on their ability to play now, but how they mature over time. The temporal component in this game makes it very compelling. Most of cwali's games go under the radar, unfortunately...and as I said, this is probably one of his best. 4. Familienbande (rank 3826) an intriguing card game about genetics and genealogy. Players are trying to "breed" traits into a family so that their trait is the most dominant overall. It is both education and highly strategic. I think this one suffers from never having been offered in the united states. It is a FANTASTIC game! 3. cornerstone (rank 4119) a "king of the hill" stacking game with strategic placement elements. Definitely worth hunting down. 2. Cat and Chocolate (rank 7901) a Haunted Mansion story telling game where players take turns finding MacGuyver like solutions to encounters. A great "party" game and even better for groups who love role playing. This is in my top ten of all time. 1. 15 aka Fiese (rank: 11742) If you like dice games, this is a very interesting one. You are rolling to match a sequence of dice in a "push your luck" dice fest. honorable mentions dexterity edition: Saturn (rank 4986): a dexterity game where you place balls on rings that are balanced very particularly. I really wish this one would get a reprint, which is why it probably doesn't rank higher. Stuff yer Face (rank: 11319): a dexterity game where you control puppet hands to grab marbles and shove them in a clown's face. Hungry Hungry Hippos only REALLY good! and one game between your bottom and 2k: Colony, a dice/card engine building game with interesting player interaction, DEFINITELY underrated, but the balancing on what it takes to purchase a card seems weird and if it were tweaked, I think this game could easily be top 10%.
"So a game being rated 2000 or higher is by no means underrated, quite the opposite, those are FANTASTIC games. If anything one could probably argue that some of them might be overrated, as in my description of Dragonholt below." Disagree with this. Underrated means exactly what it says; it's rating is less than it deserves. Technically the only game which is completely exempt from being considered underrated is the #1 game. The #2 game could be deemed underrated if someone determines it should be the #1 game. Naturally the ratings themselves and the determination as to whether a game is underrated or not is subjective, but the actual placement of the game and whether it is in the top 10% or not is irrelevant (or nearly so... an argument could be made that a game is less likely to be underrated the higher rating it has) with regards to it being underrated.
i respectfully disagree with your first statement. just because there are 17K+ games doesnt mean you can just divide into a percentage and everything above a certain percentage is good. I go off mainly the top 500 and even many of those are extremely mediocre games.
Here are my 10: 1. 938 Duelosaur Island 2. 946 Fireball Island: The Curse of Vul-Kar 3. 1059 Manhattan 4. 1145 The Castles of Burgundy: The Dice Game 5. 1288 Battle Sheep 6. 1415 Habitats 7. 1458 Cube Quest 8. 1473 Drop It 9. 1555 Bob Ross: Art of Chill Game 10. 1561 Illusion Honorable mention to Poker, Euchre, & Hearts.
I went through my top 50 games, roughly, and came up with a few that I feel are under rated. Most of my were published between 2015 and 2017. My oldest is from 1977. I've ranked them in order that I would most like to play them. 7) City of Iron 2nd Edition (2016) ranked 1484 6) Pie Town (2017) ranked 4019 5) Rummikub (1977) ranked 1634 4) Fool's Gold (2015) ranked 3092 3) Reworld (2017) ranked 3475 2) Simurgh (2015) ranked 2451 1) Steam Works (2015) ranked 1970 I thought about including two from 2018, but felt that was still too new. 2017 might have been skirting that line. One of those from 2018, Scorpius Freighter, came out after Thanksgiving in 2018, I think, and is ranked 900 higher than Pie Town. That is an interesting data point, but falls outside the acceptable range for this analysis.
My favourite games ranked 900+ on BGG are: Maximum Apocalypse at 1330 Renegade at 1312 Ascension: Realms Unraveled at 1305 Gloom of Kilforth at 1257 Timeline (Inventions, Music & cinema, Discoveries, Diversity and Events) ranging from 1235 to 961 Ascension: Immortal Heroes at 1005 Galaxy Defenders at 997 Legacy of Dragonholt at 992 Sub Terra at 991 Tiny Epic Zombies at 940
Hey Jamey, I've been watching your channel for sometime now and wanted to express my joy at Rise of Queensdale. In fact I created a group of friends and family members just to play Rise of Queensdale on your recommendation....(after said group played Charterstone!). My group enjoyed Charterstone and Rise of Queensdale and after we were done, we wanted another game to play. It saddens me each time you mention that you feel legacy games are on the decline due to people's lives/schedules.... And I believe it's because of this reason that more legacy games should be created. We were all genuinely excited to get together (when we could) and dive into the next layers of each game. With Charterstone you cleverly laid out effects that got uncovered, but couldn't be utilized till the next playthrough (due to when these elements got uncovered in game play). Anyway, thank you....this video inspired me to respond.
Good idea to put the focus on those games. I think the pizza game is a reboot of Aber Mit Sahne which was published mid 2000. And It was great. The same for me for Arctic Scavengers
My top 10 underrated: 933. Wildlands 1003. Sub Terra 1028. Medina 1091. Walnut Grove 1135. Indigo 1288. Battlesheep 1368. Good Cop Bad Cop 1815. Black Sonata 2009. The Blood of an Englishman 2021. Garden Dice
Oh my goodness! Numbers 10 and 1 just astonished me! I adore Treasure Island and Seikatsu! I run a board game Meetup monthly and both of those games are permanently on my sharing table! I can't believe they're rated so low!! The rest of the list is great too, but those two really really surprised me.
At 1190, Kashgar: Merchants of the Silk Road. This was on Rahdo’s list of underrated games, so I picked it up to check it out. It was a great recommendation. While on the surface it’s a resource management / recipe fulfillment game, the implementation of caravans, each containing various merchants or tradesman that you cycle through to gain those resources felt really fresh to me and was definitely unlike anything else in my collection. Bonus: it plays quick and is super easy to teach.
Way better than printed pages, Jamey! Good job! I'm very surprised that Rise of Queensdale is so low, it's an amazing legacy! Also, Poker is not underrated at all, it's just not a board/card game in the sense BGG is looking for. However, Poker is one of the highest rated card games of all times. I haven't played any other kind except Texas Hold'em, but I'm sure you know all types are highly regarded with world championships and all.
Beyond Baker Street (rank 1,309) is a cooperative game of blackjack in which you can see everyone else's hand of cards but not your own. Communication is limited as you give your teammates clues about their own hand, in an attempt to play the right cards and not bust. A very challenging co-op game that's impossible to quarterback, and it fits perfectly with the Sherlock Holmes theme. Castle Knights (rank 5,137) a cooperative dexterity game by Haba for ages 5 and up. Close out your board game nights with this and thank me later, especially if you've got some booze in you.
#2865 10 Minute Heist: The Wizard's Tower (2017) is criminally criminally underrated. Play with the optional Master Thief rules variant for the best experience. It's cheap and available, so give it a try.
Probably Empires of the Void, which is currently at spot #913. It might be due to the long setup time, but I think it's a really solid game with amazing art.
I really enjoy Habitats (ranked 1415). I love the theme and that you need to plan in advance what tiles you are getting because you move your ranger around a tile grabbing board and then also where it is going in your park.
Rise of Queensdale is still sitting on my shelf, just need to figure out what group to play it with. When I tried getting Charterstone played with a group, two of the players ended up backing out mid-campaign, so I need to choose more carefully with this one so I don't get that same situation again. I want to be able to actually get to the end of the campaign with this one, lol. As for my own picks for underrated, I just took a quick look (ignoring games that came out in the last year since they might still rise) and Kodama (1035) was surprisingly low for me, it's such a delightful game. Was also surprised that Keyper was at 1051. And La Granja: No Siesta deserves better than 1292. It's the only roll and write game I have played so far that has truly been enjoyable to me.
My 2 favorite underrated games that always come to mind are Dice Hospital (#1068) and Unfair (a little less underrated at #684). Going through my collection I noticed one that's way lower than I thought it would be, Burger Up (#2663).
#4116 SPQF, #3171 Captains of the Gulf, #1564 Citrus, #1272 Guilds of London, #1261 Seeland, #1160 New Bedford. All great games, all deserve more love.
#1041 Cat Lady, #1067 Luxor, #1073 Lost Cities, #1139 OGRE, #1177 Crown of Emara. Based upon watching your videos, I suspect you may like most of those games.
There are some games that I like quite a lot that I'd love that got more love: Colony (from Ted Alspach), it's ranked 1843 Waggle Dance (from Mike Nudd) it's ranked 1551 and Pixel Tactics (from D. Brad Talton, Jr.) it's ranked 1019
For me the most underrated game is Guards of Atlantis (#3413 on BGG): it 's a moba style game with zero luck which plays good with 4-8 players in teams. There is a variety of different heroes to choose from as well. If someone likes moba and team games as well as to outguess your opponents then it is an excellent game.
Always love to see videos like this! It's great to see some awesome games that just didn't quite get caught in the "hype feedback loop" that so often propels games disproportionately towards the top. I also fully approve of your inclusion of Poker on the list. I only have six picks here, but I haven't really played enough games overall to get a full 10 onto this list. -Cutthroat Caverns #1328 Okay, so I think this game might be described as a "cult classic." It is pretty well known and I understand why it's as low as it is. This is a great beer & pretzels game, though. Strategy ends up as a bit of a crapshoot but is amazingly entertaining. It's just a giant box (if you have the expansions, which are pretty necessary) of curiosities and new mechanics to constantly surprise you and create hilarious moments. -Dead Man's Doubloons #3137 A true underappreciated gem for fans of thematic Ameritrash. Great "take that" game that also falls firmly in the beer & pretzels category. Awesome, dramatic player interactions, and the theme shines through better than probably any other game in my collection. Gets some unfair criticism for random elements, but there are tons of interesting and impactful player decisions throughout. And for crying out loud, it's somehow 2,000 places below BANG! which is a game that feels entirely deterministic based on card draw. -Xi'an #3117 To be fair this only has 321 ratings as of now. Fantastic game! Really love the use of "choose one card for initiative order and the other for its ability." This is somewhat reminiscent of Gloomhaven's card-based action selection, and makes the game shine. Beautiful production as well, and the theme is somewhat significant to me. -La Cosa Nostra #1304 This has become pretty much THE mafia themed game for our group. Pretty simple euro style tableau-building-ish game that uses cards as a sort of worker placement analog, but often requires players to form temporary partnerships to fill prerequisites and be able to execute their desired actions. Great way to create tons of interaction and discussion around the table. Lots of entertainment to be had here! -Wildlands #927 This is a newish game and did get a decent amount of hype, but still falls within the cutoff. Basically another great beer & pretzels game. Easy to teach, flows quickly, creates lots of exciting moments. The entire game is just constant "take that" and winner is decided mostly by who decides to pick on who, but it's all thoroughly entertaining. -Transatlantic #1220 Sort of just overshadowed, unfairly, by Concordia. Yes it uses the same card-based action selection system that designer Mac Gerdts is known for. No, it's not the same game. Also, it's really fun!
I prolly couldn't give you 10 underrated games as I haven't played that many! But I wonder Jamey, have you ever considered buying the rights to a game that perhaps wasn't developed to it's full potential or from a publisher who went OB?
Although it's in the Top 300 on BGG, I've always thought Tikal deserved to mentioned in the same league as Catan and Carcasonne in terms of its importance to modern board gaming. It did win Speil des Jahres when it came out in '99, so it's not completely overlooked. But it introduced the concept of action points and a menu of actions the players can order from. It also was the first game to put the scoring track on the board itself as a ring around the edge to track current score (known in German gaming circles as the "Kramer liste" in honor of co-designer Wolfgang Kramer). It was also the first game (I could be wrong about this part) that introduced a larger meeple that controlled more territory. It's innovative and elegant and I never tire of playing it.
@@bailarin8282 You know, that's a good point. It's been so long since I played it that I don't remember. In looking at pics on BGG I see a track, but it kinda doesn't look like a score track. But you're probably right, Kramer also worked on it so that's probably what I'm thinking of.
Starting at 900 (boardgamegeek.com/browse/boardgame/page/10) I have a few in the 900's Castle Panic - Simple game, but easy to play with any age group Xenoshyft: Onslaught - Cooperative and challenging deck builder Gravwell - Weird abstract puzzle game, can be a bit to wrap your head around it, but I really enjoy it for the oddity of it Legacy of Dragonholt as well Quoridor - Abstract racing game, I like it at 4 players for the randomness Betrayal at Baldur's Gate - Cooperative and then traitor, I prefer Betrayal at House on the Hill, but Baldur's Gate cleans up a few rules That goes through 1200.
Nice list, I need to check out Shipwreck Arcana soon, it sounds awesome! My top 3 games would be: Blue Moon (BGG rank 1022) Kodama: The Tree Spirits (BGG rank 1035) Paper Tales (BGG rank 1054) I'm shoked at how low these games, especially Paper Tales, are ranked :o
I'll throw in three that I own and are 1000+, Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards: Rumble at Castle Tentakill (really fun spell casting game with everyone making stupid voices xD and the art and card names are also a good laugh), Munchkin Apocalypse (everyone already knows munchkin :p) and Dungeon Mayhem (super easy pick up and play deck game, fast games, really fun as well).
dragonholt: my problem with this game is that it was clearly designed for one person (based on the paragraphs) and it steamrolls you into some decisions. Also some of the "rules" of how you play feel tacked on and don't work well for me.
I might come back and make another comment with my own list. But first: Editing! Is this going to be a new thing for your videos or is this a one-shot for some reason? Titles, pictures... Also I was really surprised how early this was posted. Must have been pre-recorded?
Well, I don't think my list would be very interesting. The biggest differences between me and bgg seems to be that I'm more likely to rate highly classic games or mass market games. So kind of like Scotland Yard for you, games like Stratego, Boggle, Taboo, and Scrabble. But I wouldn't say I'm "surprised" by how low they are - it's about what I'd expect given the bgg user-base. The only classic I'd argue is underappreciated is chess, which is ranked fairly strong, but is a top 15 game for me and I'm constantly impressed by how limitless that game is on a 64-square board. Another old-but-new-again game is Hnefatafl, which I had a blast playing recently with a friend - we kept trying again, trying to grok the best strategies. The newish game that surprised me was Arena for the Gods. That is only rated by 650 people, so I guess it didn't get the exposure I thought it had. I think there are some very fun features of that game - spatial puzzles and combo possibilities that make it more interesting than (the also fun) King of Tokyo. Of course, Scythe is under-rated by about 8 places. :)
Re: Treasure Island. The game is inspired by Jules Verne's novel of the same name. One player takes the role of Long John Silver a central character in the book, not Blackbeard, who was real historical figure.
I tried to stick with games below rank 500. I know they're not underrated by usual standards, but I still think they deserve more love: 10 Matcha ( 3728 ) 9 Masmorra: Dungeons of Arcadia ( 1087 ) 8 Panamax ( 525 ) 7 Ulm ( 915 ) 6 The Staufer Dynasty ( 932 ) 5 Gold West ( 710 ) 4 Otys ( 1361 ) 3 Carpe Diem ( 503 ) 2 Rex: Final Days of an Empire ( 692 ) 1 Middle-Earth Quest ( 500 )
Zoobaloo at 4359, is not the best game ever, but an easy to learn childrens game, it should be higher. Just wanted to beat you by a couple of thousands rankings!
I disagree that games ranked below 1000 are underrated. Those are just a small fraction of the games on the site. That said, in no particular order: Queen's Architect, Neolithic, The Boldest, Orcs Orcs Orcs, Mercante, Vampire Empire, Pergamon, My Village, Grog Island, and Reworld.
Going all out with the graphics this week, Jamey! Very nice! Totally agree with Shipwreck Arcana, great deduction game that deserves more love.
Shipwreck Arcana is beautiful! But also, it's not that difficult for deduction. Definitely not a brain-burner, but worth playing every so often for the looks and quality components.
Played Scythe for the second time last weekend. Jamey - you are an artist! Brilliant, brilliant game. Hats off 😊
Thank you! I'm glad you had fun with it. :)
@@jameystegmaier and thank YOU, good sir. And that theme, that world.. one could write books about that stuff! Or comics. Anyhoo, I'm fanboying here. Looking forward to playing much MUCH more 😊
About 100 plays into Scythe and still having a great time with it.
Villages of Valeria at #968 an engaging city/tableau builder with interesting player interaction.
Dead Man's Draw at #988 great push your luck fun in a little box. Some "take that" player interactions. Optional trait cards add unique player abilities. Variant cards enhance replay value.
Kahuna at #1006 this one is my #2 all time of Kronos' excellent two player game series. Edged out only by the nearly perfect Targi.
Great video Mr. Stegmaier! I looked at 900-4000 to compile my top ten list, I do have a couple honorable mentions though. First, I felt these might be too new to include as they're both 2019 games, but I really enjoy both Cartographers and Lockup. I'm surprised they're both still so far down, as they're both probably in my top ten of the year that I've played as of now. The other honorable mention is Gearworks, mostly as it is the game that was furthest down out of all the games I like. It ranks at 3811, but I think it's a pretty funny game that shouldn't be as low as it is. I'm doing mine in order of how much I like the game, not how far back on the list it is, so here we go!
10. Dicemasters: Amazing Spider-Man (ranked 1953)
There might be other Dicemasters versions higher up above this that break into the top 900, but this is my preferred version and the one I have (almost) everything for. It's a fun game and one of my personal favorite 2 player only games.
9. The Chameleon (ranked 2012)
This is the Spyfall killer for me, I think Spyfall is too easily broken and haven't had nearly as much fun with it as I have with The Chameleon. Having one word instead of a picture is so much more enjoyable for me. I played this earlier this month at my birthday celebration with my game group and all my friends and it went over really well, the people who had never played before all said they hope we can play again soon.
8. Artifacts Inc. (ranked 1125)
My only complaint with this game really is that I would like an expansion! I played it a lot and it doesn't have the best replayability outside of maybe playing it with new people, but it is really fun and a really small game that offers the feel of something bigger.
7. Gloom (ranked 1578)
One of my favorite storytelling games. I'm not sure if it's in the actual rules but it's the way we've always played it. I really wanted to like Once Upon a Time but felt it was a storytelling activity with no game, this (at least the way we play it I've never read the rulebook!) It's a fun storytelling GAME. I love making up my own story while playing a game and this provides both. Telling your story to the other players as you take your turn is very fun imo.
6. Micropolis (ranked 2202)
I'm surprised this is so low, this is a really fun game that I think works great as a gateway game, that is also fun for gamers. Lots of interesting ways to go for points, or you can do a little of everything, plays very smoothly and pretty quickly, I'm surprised it didn't get more love.
5. Treasure Hunter (ranked 1333)
This is a fun card drafting game with a twist I thought was unique and fun, the fact that the person with the highest and the lowest of each color gets something each round, is really interesting. So in a 3 or 4 player game, you want to have the most or the least (usually) you just don't want to be in the middle! I love card drafting games and I thought this one was a really solid design. Granted it's from Richard Garfield who also gave us Bunny Kingdom, a card drafting game in my top ten of all time, so it's not his best card drafting game in my eyes, but still a very solid one.
4. Livingstone (ranked 2336)
I believe this game is out of print. I was lucky and found a copy for $20 in a discount bin at our local game store, and was very happy with the game. Everyone has a chest that they can deposit coins into to "donate to the glorious queen" which you have to announce you're donating every time that you do, but you don't announce how much you're donating. At the end of the game, whoever donated the least to the queen, loses immediately, then whoever has the most points of the remaining players wins the game. You use your coins for everything else in the game though that do score you points, such as building up tents, buying cards that give you some interesting actions/choices, etc. It's a really fun game and revealing how much each player donated is always tense. Just because you dominated in points, doesn't mean you've won, it's very interesting.
3. Empires of the Void II (ranked 913)
The highest ranked of my top ten under appreciated, this is a really fun game that offers a lot of different choices and ways to play, but I usually go the pick up and delivery route. You're flying in space from planet to planet, you can either attack planets (for points) or make peace with the inhabitants of the planet to gain a benefit (and points) but there's also cargo you can pick up and deliver (for goods and points) but other players can still your cargo and deliver it themselves, and there's a few other twists and turns in here that make this a unique, fun experience.
2. Lost Cities: Rivals (ranked 2369)
Possibly because it's being ranked in comparison to original Lost Cities, but I like this variant much better personally. This is one of my favorite quick filler bidding games. My game group loves For Sale, I think For Sale is okay. I'd much rather play this.
1. Palace of Mad King Ludwig (ranked 2040)
This is the saddest entry for me, as I love this game. Again, probably ranked unfavorably compared to Castles of Mad King Ludwig, but this is just a completely different game. Granted I also rank Castles slightly higher, (Palace was my #11 in my top 100 games at the end of 2018, Castles was #7) but I've played Palace a lot more than Castles, and this is one of the few games that I find fun at every player count. This game is just as fun at 2 players, as it is at 3 or 4. I ranked this a 9.5 (and I've played it 21 times) but it's BGG score is 6.0. That's crazy to me! Anyone reading this who might try this game, just don't expect Castles, go into it expecting it to be its own unique experience, and this game shines. A lot of fun, I would recommend it to anyone.
Cool list. I'll have to check out some of these! Glad to see Arctic Scavengers (8:31) getting some love!
Hi again Jamey! As we previously discussed.... Here is the link showing off my solo variant for the game: ua-cam.com/video/uDCqyylxRwA/v-deo.html
You can play with or without the Recon expansion. Enjoy! PS: I'm currently working on a homemade co-op version for the game... Coming soon! :)
I finally bought Arctic Scavengers after um-ing and ah-ing about it, as you’ve mentioned it a few times as one of your top 10s. Thanks, feel happy about the purchase and look forward to playing it! 🙂
If you end up liking it, I would highly recommend Dune Imperium.
@@jameystegmaier thanks! Have had a brief look at it already, so will look into it further. 🙂
Ok. Made my list. I could NOT believe that some of these were so low!
1. Kingdoms 1178
2. Dragonheart 1484
3. Greed 1529
4. Boomtown 1643
5. Prophecy 1682
6. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Deckbuilding Game 1818
7. Resident Evil Deckbuilding Game 2244
8. Sharp Shooters 2640
9. Allegiance A Realm Divided 2841
10. Warband: Against the Darkness 4529
Some of these are pretty slick games that fly under the radar for some reason or another. It's a shame. At least a few of these i feel are top 100 material if anyone had ever played them. Oh well. I have them and my group enjoys them very much. Cheers.
Kingdoms DESPERATELY needs a reprint. I also actually picked up Warband against the Darkness at a 60% off liquidation sale.
Another co-op dexterity game is Menara. You might like that one!
love the cat behind you jamie 🤩... love this video too. Thanks for your list. 😊👍
sorry. I mean Jamey, not jamie. Sorry for my wrong spelling of your name 🤣
If Jamey can say Poker then I can say Spades, BGG 1506. It's one of the easiest classic trick taking games to teach and it's one of the post popular card games in the US. Three-handed spades is quite fun as well, especially when played in a tournament with smile stickers as victory markers...Playing for Smiles :)
I recently picked up Rise of Queensdale for $30 at Barnes and Noble.
Looking forward to getting it started.
Hocus is an underrated game for me. I hosted poker games in college, and I agree that playing without money makes the game less interesting. The base game of Hocus does a great job of giving the poker feel without putting money on the line. It is however one of the few games I have played where I advise people to stay away from the advanced game. Still underrated thought!
Andy Looney's Pyramid Arcade is one of my favorite underrated game(s). In the box is actually 20+ games that use his pyramid pieces. But the game that truly makes is stand out is Homeworlds. Homeworlds is an abstract game of intergalactic conflict. Upright pyramids represent star systems, flat pyramids are your ships. The four different colors of pieces provide you with the different actions needed to maneuver your way to your opponents home system. In my opinion, the definitive "space chess."
I own (and love to play) numbers 6, 5, and 4 on the list, so I agree with you there! My girlfriend and I like Scotland Yard with two. New York Slice is a great filler game at the end of a game night. Arctic Scavengers is highly thematic, but unfortunately, it's a bit hard to get to the table.
Crows is a great thematic strategy game. It's a fun combination of mechanisms with good player interactions.(Rank 3,999).
Jamey! Great video! Great job with the editing. Always watching but this was much more engaging 👍🏼
There's a 2-player card drafting game called "Caper" that my wife and I really like, and it's #3471. It only has 260 ratings, which is surprising, as I do see it in game stores and mentioned online every so often. It deserves to be more popular.
I also can't believe that Raccoon Tycoon (#1371) and Paper Tales (#1054) are not even in the top 1000, two of my favourites at the moment.
Rise of Queensdale really appeals to me, but we are currently playing through Gloomhaven and 7th Continent, and a friend of mine will probably be getting Clank! Legacy soon, so there's a lot of Legacy going on at the moment.
Let's add some perspective. There are 17,726 ranked games on BGG. 10% of that would be 1772. So essentially everything in the top 1800 games is top ten % (especially given there are actually 289777 items in the BGG database ... the last one entered being mystery dracula).
So a game being rated 2000 or higher is by no means underrated, quite the opposite, those are FANTASTIC games. If anything one could probably argue that some of them might be overrated, as in my description of Dragonholt below.
BGG user guantanamo does a list of game outside of the top 2000 that are being "played and enjoyed" that is worth looking up.
My top ten games under 2K that I think are worth a look:
10. Bazaar (rank 2058) one of sid sackson's signature games. A game about currency conversion to collect points. If you like Century Spice Road, you will probably enjoy this game (which I actually prefer).
9. Crude (rank 2081) IMHO, the BEST market economy game ever published. In Crude your are an executive of an oil company trying to produce, refine and sell oil and gas products. The production component of this game published in the early 70's is found again in Catan. The game also features a strong simulation of supply/demand structures. If you want a great educational game about economics, this is one of the best choices (my second choice would be planet steam).
8. Rattlebones (rank 2585) to be honest, it's the theme that hits this one. This is a dice "building" game much like Dice Forge where you change the dice faces during the game. Its distilled nature makes this a very streamlined game and is an excellent entry for roll and move games. I think with a retheme and some balancing of dice sides this game could easily be top 10%.
7. Doctor Who: Time of the Daleks (rank 2619) a dice mission game similar to Elder Signs. The IP on this is probably more accessible to most. The initial offering was solid in design and presents an interesting overarching story making this a compelling game for Doctor Who enthusiasts. Unfortunately, there are two large flaws in this game which undoubtedly are the reason it ranks so low: a) the publisher withheld the necessary expansion characters to complete the game for too long and one they were published, little to any editing was applied to make them a finished product and b) there is a cooperative nature to the game, but it feels tacked on and isn't very interesting. If they fixed the problems with the expansions and addressed the cooperative nature of this game, I could easily see it in the top 10%.
6. Cubist (rank 2664) a very interesting spacial game where you use "powers" to alter dice to create dice sculptures to collect request cards. The combination of spacial sculpture and player powers make this a very interesting puzzle game. There is some player interaction through purchasable actions but the game is not very aggressive which is a plus in my book. Definitely an overlooked title.
5. BasketBoss (rank 3453) one of Cwali's best games (imho). A game about managing a basketball team. You draft players based not only on their ability to play now, but how they mature over time. The temporal component in this game makes it very compelling. Most of cwali's games go under the radar, unfortunately...and as I said, this is probably one of his best.
4. Familienbande (rank 3826) an intriguing card game about genetics and genealogy. Players are trying to "breed" traits into a family so that their trait is the most dominant overall. It is both education and highly strategic. I think this one suffers from never having been offered in the united states. It is a FANTASTIC game!
3. cornerstone (rank 4119) a "king of the hill" stacking game with strategic placement elements. Definitely worth hunting down.
2. Cat and Chocolate (rank 7901) a Haunted Mansion story telling game where players take turns finding MacGuyver like solutions to encounters. A great "party" game and even better for groups who love role playing. This is in my top ten of all time.
1. 15 aka Fiese (rank: 11742) If you like dice games, this is a very interesting one. You are rolling to match a sequence of dice in a "push your luck" dice fest.
honorable mentions dexterity edition:
Saturn (rank 4986): a dexterity game where you place balls on rings that are balanced very particularly. I really wish this one would get a reprint, which is why it probably doesn't rank higher.
Stuff yer Face (rank: 11319): a dexterity game where you control puppet hands to grab marbles and shove them in a clown's face. Hungry Hungry Hippos only REALLY good!
and one game between your bottom and 2k: Colony, a dice/card engine building game with interesting player interaction, DEFINITELY underrated, but the balancing on what it takes to purchase a card seems weird and if it were tweaked, I think this game could easily be top 10%.
"So a game being rated 2000 or higher is by no means underrated, quite the opposite, those are FANTASTIC games. If anything one could probably argue that some of them might be overrated, as in my description of Dragonholt below."
Disagree with this. Underrated means exactly what it says; it's rating is less than it deserves. Technically the only game which is completely exempt from being considered underrated is the #1 game. The #2 game could be deemed underrated if someone determines it should be the #1 game.
Naturally the ratings themselves and the determination as to whether a game is underrated or not is subjective, but the actual placement of the game and whether it is in the top 10% or not is irrelevant (or nearly so... an argument could be made that a game is less likely to be underrated the higher rating it has) with regards to it being underrated.
i respectfully disagree with your first statement. just because there are 17K+ games doesnt mean you can just divide into a percentage and everything above a certain percentage is good. I go off mainly the top 500 and even many of those are extremely mediocre games.
Regardless of possibly questionable reasoning, thanks for your list, which introduced me to 3 games I want to play.
Here are my 10:
1. 938 Duelosaur Island
2. 946 Fireball Island: The Curse of Vul-Kar
3. 1059 Manhattan
4. 1145 The Castles of Burgundy: The Dice Game
5. 1288 Battle Sheep
6. 1415 Habitats
7. 1458 Cube Quest
8. 1473 Drop It
9. 1555 Bob Ross: Art of Chill Game
10. 1561 Illusion
Honorable mention to Poker, Euchre, & Hearts.
Battle Sheep! That will be in my list also.
@@ashrael37 Yes, similar to Hey! That's my fish, but way faster setup and better components by far (at least than the FF small box edition).
I went through my top 50 games, roughly, and came up with a few that I feel are under rated. Most of my were published between 2015 and 2017. My oldest is from 1977. I've ranked them in order that I would most like to play them.
7) City of Iron 2nd Edition (2016) ranked 1484
6) Pie Town (2017) ranked 4019
5) Rummikub (1977) ranked 1634
4) Fool's Gold (2015) ranked 3092
3) Reworld (2017) ranked 3475
2) Simurgh (2015) ranked 2451
1) Steam Works (2015) ranked 1970
I thought about including two from 2018, but felt that was still too new. 2017 might have been skirting that line. One of those from 2018, Scorpius Freighter, came out after Thanksgiving in 2018, I think, and is ranked 900 higher than Pie Town. That is an interesting data point, but falls outside the acceptable range for this analysis.
My favourite games ranked 900+ on BGG are:
Maximum Apocalypse at 1330
Renegade at 1312
Ascension: Realms Unraveled at 1305
Gloom of Kilforth at 1257
Timeline (Inventions, Music & cinema, Discoveries, Diversity and Events) ranging from 1235 to 961
Ascension: Immortal Heroes at 1005
Galaxy Defenders at 997
Legacy of Dragonholt at 992
Sub Terra at 991
Tiny Epic Zombies at 940
Thanks Jamie! Never played Arctic scavengers, excited to check that out. Btw anxiously awaiting my copy of tapestry! Hope all is well
Hey Jamey,
I've been watching your channel for sometime now and wanted to express my joy at Rise of Queensdale. In fact I created a group of friends and family members just to play Rise of Queensdale on your recommendation....(after said group played Charterstone!). My group enjoyed Charterstone and Rise of Queensdale and after we were done, we wanted another game to play.
It saddens me each time you mention that you feel legacy games are on the decline due to people's lives/schedules.... And I believe it's because of this reason that more legacy games should be created. We were all genuinely excited to get together (when we could) and dive into the next layers of each game. With Charterstone you cleverly laid out effects that got uncovered, but couldn't be utilized till the next playthrough (due to when these elements got uncovered in game play).
Anyway, thank you....this video inspired me to respond.
Flipships is great! I'm glad to see it get some love
Totally agree that Arctic Scavengers is underrated. Check out the Shut Up and Sit Down review.
Good idea to put the focus on those games. I think the pizza game is a reboot of Aber Mit Sahne which was published mid 2000. And It was great. The same for me for Arctic Scavengers
My top 10 underrated:
933. Wildlands
1003. Sub Terra
1028. Medina
1091. Walnut Grove
1135. Indigo
1288. Battlesheep
1368. Good Cop Bad Cop
1815. Black Sonata
2009. The Blood of an Englishman
2021.
Garden Dice
10. Cheating Moth (1986)
9. Go Nuts for Donuts (2417)
8. Burano (2233)
7. Queen's Architect (1742)
6. World Championship Russian Roulette (2403)
5. Steam Works (1936)
4. Nyet! (1355)
3. Samurai Spirit (1142)
2. Anomia (1682)
1. Happy Pigs (1600)
Oh my goodness! Numbers 10 and 1 just astonished me! I adore Treasure Island and Seikatsu! I run a board game Meetup monthly and both of those games are permanently on my sharing table! I can't believe they're rated so low!! The rest of the list is great too, but those two really really surprised me.
At 1190, Kashgar: Merchants of the Silk Road. This was on Rahdo’s list of underrated games, so I picked it up to check it out. It was a great recommendation. While on the surface it’s a resource management / recipe fulfillment game, the implementation of caravans, each containing various merchants or tradesman that you cycle through to gain those resources felt really fresh to me and was definitely unlike anything else in my collection. Bonus: it plays quick and is super easy to teach.
Way better than printed pages, Jamey! Good job! I'm very surprised that Rise of Queensdale is so low, it's an amazing legacy!
Also, Poker is not underrated at all, it's just not a board/card game in the sense BGG is looking for. However, Poker is one of the highest rated card games of all times. I haven't played any other kind except Texas Hold'em, but I'm sure you know all types are highly regarded with world championships and all.
Beyond Baker Street (rank 1,309) is a cooperative game of blackjack in which you can see everyone else's hand of cards but not your own. Communication is limited as you give your teammates clues about their own hand, in an attempt to play the right cards and not bust. A very challenging co-op game that's impossible to quarterback, and it fits perfectly with the Sherlock Holmes theme.
Castle Knights (rank 5,137) a cooperative dexterity game by Haba for ages 5 and up. Close out your board game nights with this and thank me later, especially if you've got some booze in you.
I've had a lot of silly fun with Castle Knights! :)
@@jameystegmaier Together we are strong!
#2865 10 Minute Heist: The Wizard's Tower (2017) is criminally criminally underrated. Play with the optional Master Thief rules variant for the best experience. It's cheap and available, so give it a try.
Probably Empires of the Void, which is currently at spot #913. It might be due to the long setup time, but I think it's a really solid game with amazing art.
Treasure island looked very interesting and board game looked well done.
Thanks budd.
I really enjoy Habitats (ranked 1415). I love the theme and that you need to plan in advance what tiles you are getting because you move your ranger around a tile grabbing board and then also where it is going in your park.
Agree on Scotland Yard. I think a lot of it is that the box looks like an old mainstream game and doesn't fit "hobby game" for some people
Terrific list, a joy to watch!
Riverboat (944) best game from Kiesling in 2017, Castell (1148) great theme, Calimala (1204) fantastic action selection
Agreed with your list. Treasure Island to me is such an underrated awesome, fun game!
Rise of Queensdale is still sitting on my shelf, just need to figure out what group to play it with. When I tried getting Charterstone played with a group, two of the players ended up backing out mid-campaign, so I need to choose more carefully with this one so I don't get that same situation again. I want to be able to actually get to the end of the campaign with this one, lol.
As for my own picks for underrated, I just took a quick look (ignoring games that came out in the last year since they might still rise) and Kodama (1035) was surprisingly low for me, it's such a delightful game. Was also surprised that Keyper was at 1051. And La Granja: No Siesta deserves better than 1292. It's the only roll and write game I have played so far that has truly been enjoyable to me.
Classics like Chess and Go are the clearest examples of underrated games, but also some modern classics like Roborally, Halli Galli, and Set.
My 2 favorite underrated games that always come to mind are Dice Hospital (#1068) and Unfair (a little less underrated at #684). Going through my collection I noticed one that's way lower than I thought it would be, Burger Up (#2663).
I'm loving Shipwreck Arcana. It's one of my recent gems.
#4116 SPQF, #3171 Captains of the Gulf, #1564 Citrus, #1272 Guilds of London, #1261 Seeland, #1160 New Bedford. All great games, all deserve more love.
#1041 Cat Lady, #1067 Luxor, #1073 Lost Cities, #1139 OGRE, #1177 Crown of Emara. Based upon watching your videos, I suspect you may like most of those games.
Shipwreck, Scavengers, Flip ships, Scotland Yard are all great picks! Seikatsu is just amazing!
Fun list with many games I never heard of. I am also a huge fan of treasure island!
Love the editing! Love the list, too.
There are some games that I like quite a lot that I'd love that got more love:
Colony (from Ted Alspach), it's ranked 1843
Waggle Dance (from Mike Nudd) it's ranked 1551
and
Pixel Tactics (from D. Brad Talton, Jr.) it's ranked 1019
For me the most underrated game is Guards of Atlantis (#3413 on BGG): it 's a moba style game with zero luck which plays good with 4-8 players in teams. There is a variety of different heroes to choose from as well. If someone likes moba and team games as well as to outguess your opponents then it is an excellent game.
Always love to see videos like this! It's great to see some awesome games that just didn't quite get caught in the "hype feedback loop" that so often propels games disproportionately towards the top. I also fully approve of your inclusion of Poker on the list. I only have six picks here, but I haven't really played enough games overall to get a full 10 onto this list.
-Cutthroat Caverns #1328 Okay, so I think this game might be described as a "cult classic." It is pretty well known and I understand why it's as low as it is. This is a great beer & pretzels game, though. Strategy ends up as a bit of a crapshoot but is amazingly entertaining. It's just a giant box (if you have the expansions, which are pretty necessary) of curiosities and new mechanics to constantly surprise you and create hilarious moments.
-Dead Man's Doubloons #3137 A true underappreciated gem for fans of thematic Ameritrash. Great "take that" game that also falls firmly in the beer & pretzels category. Awesome, dramatic player interactions, and the theme shines through better than probably any other game in my collection. Gets some unfair criticism for random elements, but there are tons of interesting and impactful player decisions throughout. And for crying out loud, it's somehow 2,000 places below BANG! which is a game that feels entirely deterministic based on card draw.
-Xi'an #3117 To be fair this only has 321 ratings as of now. Fantastic game! Really love the use of "choose one card for initiative order and the other for its ability." This is somewhat reminiscent of Gloomhaven's card-based action selection, and makes the game shine. Beautiful production as well, and the theme is somewhat significant to me.
-La Cosa Nostra #1304 This has become pretty much THE mafia themed game for our group. Pretty simple euro style tableau-building-ish game that uses cards as a sort of worker placement analog, but often requires players to form temporary partnerships to fill prerequisites and be able to execute their desired actions. Great way to create tons of interaction and discussion around the table. Lots of entertainment to be had here!
-Wildlands #927 This is a newish game and did get a decent amount of hype, but still falls within the cutoff. Basically another great beer & pretzels game. Easy to teach, flows quickly, creates lots of exciting moments. The entire game is just constant "take that" and winner is decided mostly by who decides to pick on who, but it's all thoroughly entertaining.
-Transatlantic #1220 Sort of just overshadowed, unfairly, by Concordia. Yes it uses the same card-based action selection system that designer Mac Gerdts is known for. No, it's not the same game. Also, it's really fun!
I prolly couldn't give you 10 underrated games as I haven't played that many!
But I wonder Jamey, have you ever considered buying the rights to a game that perhaps wasn't developed to it's full potential or from a publisher who went OB?
I probably should consider doing that someday! :)
@@jameystegmaier Yeah a game like Straight 8 or something as an example. I realize technically all games are re-makes.
Although it's in the Top 300 on BGG, I've always thought Tikal deserved to mentioned in the same league as Catan and Carcasonne in terms of its importance to modern board gaming. It did win Speil des Jahres when it came out in '99, so it's not completely overlooked. But it introduced the concept of action points and a menu of actions the players can order from. It also was the first game to put the scoring track on the board itself as a ring around the edge to track current score (known in German gaming circles as the "Kramer liste" in honor of co-designer Wolfgang Kramer). It was also the first game (I could be wrong about this part) that introduced a larger meeple that controlled more territory. It's innovative and elegant and I never tire of playing it.
Didn't El Grande have that a couple of years earlier? (1996ish?) Kramer was of course also involved...
@@bailarin8282 You know, that's a good point. It's been so long since I played it that I don't remember. In looking at pics on BGG I see a track, but it kinda doesn't look like a score track. But you're probably right, Kramer also worked on it so that's probably what I'm thinking of.
I always enjoy underrated games list. I love Royals (926) and it always goes over well as a gateway game for me.
Starting at 900 (boardgamegeek.com/browse/boardgame/page/10)
I have a few in the 900's
Castle Panic - Simple game, but easy to play with any age group
Xenoshyft: Onslaught - Cooperative and challenging deck builder
Gravwell - Weird abstract puzzle game, can be a bit to wrap your head around it, but I really enjoy it for the oddity of it
Legacy of Dragonholt as well
Quoridor - Abstract racing game, I like it at 4 players for the randomness
Betrayal at Baldur's Gate - Cooperative and then traitor, I prefer Betrayal at House on the Hill, but Baldur's Gate cleans up a few rules
That goes through 1200.
Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game is in the 1600's and is one of my favorite games.
good list bud ty!!
Blackbeard? I haven't played the game yet, but with a title like Treasure Island, I assume you are dealing with Long John Silver.
Loved the images!
Nice list, I need to check out Shipwreck Arcana soon, it sounds awesome!
My top 3 games would be:
Blue Moon (BGG rank 1022)
Kodama: The Tree Spirits (BGG rank 1035)
Paper Tales (BGG rank 1054)
I'm shoked at how low these games, especially Paper Tales, are ranked :o
Can't believe I've only just noticed this, but "Mister X" = "misdirects"!
Great video, Jamey!
I'll throw in three that I own and are 1000+, Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards: Rumble at Castle Tentakill (really fun spell casting game with everyone making stupid voices xD and the art and card names are also a good laugh), Munchkin Apocalypse (everyone already knows munchkin :p) and Dungeon Mayhem (super easy pick up and play deck game, fast games, really fun as well).
Divinity Derby is loved by every single person I've ever played it with, yet it's only ranked 3662!
Not sure their rankings but:
Kingdoms
Drakon
Cave Troll
Lionheart
Battle Beyond Space
Starship Samurai
Massive Darkness
Just to throw some games in there... Akrotiri 618, Small islands 3929, Insider 1091, Adventure Land 1336, Treasure hunter 1333,
dragonholt: my problem with this game is that it was clearly designed for one person (based on the paragraphs) and it steamrolls you into some decisions. Also some of the "rules" of how you play feel tacked on and don't work well for me.
I might come back and make another comment with my own list. But first:
Editing! Is this going to be a new thing for your videos or is this a one-shot for some reason? Titles, pictures...
Also I was really surprised how early this was posted. Must have been pre-recorded?
Well, I don't think my list would be very interesting. The biggest differences between me and bgg seems to be that I'm more likely to rate highly classic games or mass market games. So kind of like Scotland Yard for you, games like Stratego, Boggle, Taboo, and Scrabble. But I wouldn't say I'm "surprised" by how low they are - it's about what I'd expect given the bgg user-base. The only classic I'd argue is underappreciated is chess, which is ranked fairly strong, but is a top 15 game for me and I'm constantly impressed by how limitless that game is on a 64-square board. Another old-but-new-again game is Hnefatafl, which I had a blast playing recently with a friend - we kept trying again, trying to grok the best strategies.
The newish game that surprised me was Arena for the Gods. That is only rated by 650 people, so I guess it didn't get the exposure I thought it had. I think there are some very fun features of that game - spatial puzzles and combo possibilities that make it more interesting than (the also fun) King of Tokyo.
Of course, Scythe is under-rated by about 8 places. :)
Flow of History (#1438) is a great little Civilization card game
I love Seikatsu for solo play.
Re: Treasure Island. The game is inspired by Jules Verne's novel of the same name. One player takes the role of Long John Silver a central character in the book, not Blackbeard, who was real historical figure.
Mimic that would be Robert Louis Stevenson.
Kreuz & Quer (Zig Zag) is very low rated (around 12,000 ranking) but it deserves a lot better as fun and speedy game
Have you played Cryptid? How is it compared to treasure island?
Nice, what software did you use to edit your graphics into the video?
I actually didn't do the editing (I don't know how). Alex Goldsmith took care of it.
I so badly wanted you to say “Obviously I didn’t pick any Stonemaier games...because c’mon, we don’t have any games rated that low.”
Let be the visuals Jamey!
Love*
I tried to stick with games below rank 500. I know they're not underrated by usual standards, but I still think they deserve more love:
10 Matcha ( 3728 )
9 Masmorra: Dungeons of Arcadia ( 1087 )
8 Panamax ( 525 )
7 Ulm ( 915 )
6 The Staufer Dynasty ( 932 )
5 Gold West ( 710 )
4 Otys ( 1361 )
3 Carpe Diem ( 503 )
2 Rex: Final Days of an Empire ( 692 )
1 Middle-Earth Quest ( 500 )
Samurai Spirit at 1142 is a great co-op directly related to the film the 7 samurai (with a bit of fantasy thrown in).
Look at you with your Fancy Video Graphics! LOL
Zoobaloo at 4359, is not the best game ever, but an easy to learn childrens game, it should be higher. Just wanted to beat you by a couple of thousands rankings!
I disagree that games ranked below 1000 are underrated. Those are just a small fraction of the games on the site.
That said, in no particular order: Queen's Architect, Neolithic, The Boldest, Orcs Orcs Orcs, Mercante, Vampire Empire, Pergamon, My Village, Grog Island, and Reworld.
ok so boardgame geeks don't play poker, but there's nothing else underrated about it due to the Chris Moneymaker effect.
Seikatsu is awsome.
Cmon Jamey, two copies of Tapestry behind you?? You really want people to feel the FOMO don't you? LOL
Haha scrolled looking for this comment, and was not disappointed! :)
the fact tha poker needs any amount of money is proof that it is a BAD game. any bad game can be good with money
The cat is unimpressed.
Legacy of dragonholt had an interesting skill system, but the writing was so generic and boring. Just an ok game in my opinion
Arctic complaints people have with Dominion without undermining the fundamental deck building mechanics.