I haven't yet played Paladins. Hopefully in the next few weeks, and solo. Of the other two, Viscounts. I love the slow motion deck-building and crunchier decisions. My ratings are based on solo play.
We have the same list! Paladin, viscount then architect. But overall a really good trilogy games that I think everyone should give them a try. Great to see we have the same list and you loving paladin as much as I do! 😁
When I saw the Paladins play through, I never thought I’d make it through a two-hour video. I ended up watching the whole series though, and the Lacerda series... I have been glued to your channel for weeks now. Sadly, I have to pace myself in buying the titles, but until I collect the silver I’ll continue watching. Thank you for doing what you do!
Thanks for posting your thoughts on all 3. My ranks and thoughts are quite similar to yours. #1 - Paladins - The mechanism of choosing 3 Paladins, pick one, place one on top of your deck, and the last on the bottom which you may or may not see again later is my favorite aspect. If you have the 4 extra paladin promos, a variant where you draw 4 and do the above but lose one completely where you'll never see it again is so darn fun. The solo mode is fantastic! #2 - Viscounts - This one may overtake Paladins at some point. The solo mode offers 4 different personalities and is quite challenging I thought. Love the Deck-building aspect of it. #3 - Architects - As most mentioned, it is better with more than 2 players. We only play 2 and have to use the bot in order to give some tension on the board as in most cases, you'll have to 'arrest' your opponent or he/she can get a lot of resources. The Bot gives that uncertainty where you need to be cautious on how many workers you have at one spot. The expansions makes the game a bit better with more options.
I really enjoyed watching you play through the trilogy. Great job you guys! I couldn't wait for this video to hear what you think. I love Paladins, have Viscounts on my shelf but haven't played it yet. Can't wait to play it and then do the co-op version.
Hi Marta, thank you so much for following along with us! We really appreciate hearing from people like yourself. Hope you can get Viscounts off the shelf and played soon!
Love this! I have a similar ranking to you guys, but Architects creeps up above Viscounts when played at 4! It just gets SO FUN with all the player interaction. Can’t wait to play the Tomesaga- it’s on our list after we finish up our Gloomhaven: Forgotten Circles campaign. Especially since all three of these are on our 10x5 challenge for the year! I’d love to know if you guys have seen the new Paladins expansion that was on Kickstarter a couple months back- we’re pretty excited for it!
We love this trilogy and playing the Tomesaga. Almost always competitive, and really looking forward to the new expansions coming. I'd probably rank them the same as you did.
Thank you for the great video. I love these games and need to check out the Tomesaga. Looking forward to you video on Anachrony. Thanks again for the great content!
Thanks for your excellent content. I've played Architects(25 times) and Paladins(22 times) but all solo. Once I hit 25 times for Paladins I'll get Viscounts. Looking forward to it. You didn't mention the art, but for me that is a huge part of the attraction. If the art was bad or unattractive, I'm sure I'd not have gotten into the games. The boxes are not just the same convenient size but have a "feel" that says "play me". Excellent work by the artistic directors. I plan to buy all expansions and Tomesaga.
Really enjoyed watching your playthroughs of all three games in the trilogy. After playing Viscounts late last year, I finally jumped on board with Architects, and really liked Paladins a lot, as well. I'd probably rank them the same as you, but they're all great. Look forward to adding the Tomesaga sometime.
Fantastic series of videos great job! I’ve only played viscounts and loved it. Looking forward to playing the other two. Garphill games is definitely one of my favourite publishers.
I still have to play viscounts. The other two. Architects was fun. It was a 3 player game. But I lost the 2 times we played because I didn't build enough and was too invested into sending the other 2 players to jail. And paladins we didn't actually finish, bit I am 100% sure I would win. I will come back to this video once I play all of them including the Tomesaga. Thank you so much for getting me into this series. 🙂🙂🙂
Hi, as much of those games seem good, this review is near perfect, well done and thank you! Have you tried Champions of Midgard and does it compare to Paladins? It seemed to me they have a rather similar worker placement/taking system, but I might be wrong.
Champions of Midgard is a fantastic game, but it's pretty much completely unlike Paladins of the West Kingdom. They're both basically worker-placement, but beyond that they don't have much in common. Champions has dice-rolling randomness and a decent amount of player interaction (mostly taking things before other players can get to them), whereas Paladins is more about optimizing resource conversions and is largely multi-player solitaire. Some of the mechanics of Paladins remind me a bit of Orleans, but for my money, Orleans is an infinitely better game. Paladins didn't really sit right with me at all.
@@chrishillery Thanks for that insight Chris. I thought worker taking and manipulation was kind of similar. Lately I noticed the similarities to Orleans as well. I believe I will like Paladins though, I am more kind of "I like everything if made good" kind of guy, but I understand you.
my ranking would be exactly flip of yours. architects has the least weird mechanisms but still very thinky and interactive. it has the best balance of ruleset, game play and strategy. Viscounts has lots of symbol matching and funky mechanisms like the castle. and paladins i just felt i was primarily running a spreadsheet puzzle, focusing basically on meeples and their colors and putting them in the best spots. wasnt tooo exciting.
We played Architects a while ago and really liked it, but still have to replay it and get it on our own. We just played Palladines a few days ago, first game was a bit clunky, but improved vastly in the second. We will definitely go for Viscounts and we're also hooked on the Tomesaga. We like the take on the worker placement mechanic in all the games, something we also really enjoyd in Raiders of Scythia, as far as this can be compared. Also the box size is great, no useles space. And since Naveen stopped mentioning the Klingon subtitles we will stop mentioning how much we enjoy the content (we do though, every time) ;)
I have Paladins and I love it! I love the videos I've seen of the other two games and they're on my shopping list. I play solo, and I really appreciate the fact that Shem doesn't just use a copy/paste system for the solo variants, each is different and each really fits with the game. I have a question about the Tomesaga though, are you able to integrate it into a playthrough of all 3 games as a solo player?
Your rankings and your thoughts on each game pretty much exactly echo my own. They're all excellent in different ways, but Paladins is my favorite - it's an especially good solo game, too. Viscounts is also pretty good solo, and Architects is an okay but not great solo (which largely comes down to it not being a great two-player game in general). You two should definitely try some of the other games in Garphill's lineup, though! Raiders of the North Sea and its more recent spiritual successor, Raiders of Scythia, are on the lighter side, but are very good, unique takes on worker placement. North Sea really shines with the Hall of Heroes expansion incorporated; Scythia, being the follow-up, has elements of the North Sea expansion content worked right in to the base game. Explorers of the North Sea is also a very good game. It's a tile-placement game, with a smattering of other mechanics (like set collection, area majority, and pick up and deliver). It's much lighter, but also a very relaxing sandbox to play in. I'm also a HUGE fan of Circadians: First Light, which is a moderately heavy worker placement game with dice as workers. A lot of people are, I think, put off at first by that game's art, but I 100% recommend that you try it! It's great at two players, and I think you'll love it.
This was a really nice overview! I have been interested in these games for a while but since I primarily play heavier games at 2 players I was unsure if any would be worth it - sounds like Paladins is definitely the way to go 👍🏻
Haha, we didn't want to give away anything in our post game reviews, but Paladins is just so dang good! We really enjoyed all 3 titles, hopefully you can try the 2 you haven't played yet soon!
I want to buy either paladins or viscounts. i mostly play with my girlfriend or my parents. So i'm guessing viscounts would be the better chocie since it scales good with both 2 and 3 players right?
For me, Architect's #1 is so much fun ( solo is great also ) then Viscounts a close #2 and finally Paladins. I also own the North Sea Trilogy. Raiders #1, Explorers #2 and Shipwrights #3. Where does Shem go from here?
I agree with everything you said and your ranking. For a solo player the ranking is the same but architectes is very less interesting alone. Thanks a lot from Paris.
I love your videos! I hadn't heard of these games before but I think I'm going to have to get at least one of them. We play mostly at 2-players or solo. You've mention that Architects plays better at higher play counts and that the castle portion of Viscounts plays better with a 3rd player. I was wondering if you feel Constantine fixes this issue at 2-players and/or if there's a possibility of a second bot so that you could play architects with the chaos of 4 players but with just 2-players? Even if there's not a second designer-made, do you think it could work to photocopy Constantine's deck as a fan-made addition? Also, does Viscounts come with a Constantine-like bot? I would think that that might fix the castle problem at two-players. With our focus on solo & 2-player - we'll probably start with Paladin's, but thought we'd ask about your thoughts on the other two games
Great video! I would swap Architects and Viscounts but agree that all 3 are really great. I've only played architects with 4 players and the amount of interaction was great. Viscounts is lowest for me precisely for the reason you stated, the length, but still a great game.
I agree with your rankings 100%. I enjoyed AotWK the first several plays but after a bit I feel like it starts to play on rails. Maybe we need someone to shake up the meta for the game. I didn't like VotWK at 2 - I felt like there was no tension for any of the goals and we could both accomplish whichever ones we wanted to. PotWK was a tough efficiency puzzle that wrecked my brain (in a good way). Definitely my favorite of the three.
For now, my favorite is Paladins however I haven't played Viscounts yet. Despite looking forward to playing Viscounts, I will very likely agree with your rank. I agree with almost every opinion you guys have about board games :)
I've always found Viscounts to be iffy despite it playing so smoothly, & I think both of you nailed my uncertainty down - that being the Noble track. It always felt like that track had much better scoring potential than both building & monastery, to the point where it felt necessary to be involved in it to win. Yet the noble track rewards you most for putting it as your priority. This kind-of went against my expectations where you could specialize in any 1 track + split between trading or a 2nd track, whereas now it must be nobles + something else. Might be groupthink, might be just an issue with 2p games, but that alone made Viscount my "last" pick of the trilogy & Paladins 1st.
I've only played Architects so far in this trilogy, and I really love it! Hearing that it's your least favorite of the three really makes me want to pick up the other two.
This is just what I was looking for . How do you two remember rules for so many games, especially ones you haven't played more than a few times? Is this just about pattern recognition vis-a-vis game design, i.e. mechanics and balancing mechanisms? Are you both better at this than you were when you first started?
Great series. Thanks for sharing. Viscounts is our favorite, those mechanics are so unique and the game flows really well. Paladins a fine second, mainly due to its multiplayer solitaire and crunchiness. If you are not doing well, the game punishes you by making you feel kinda dumb. Architects is a good game, but i don't feel the architect cards add a lot. They feel underpowered in some way..
I've got Architects and Viscounts. Paladins looked too long for our tastes and we usually play with 3 or 4, so it seems to me we made the right decision to pass on it.
I'm still deciding which one to get. My wife and me do not like games that last more than 90 minutes. Ussually play at 2 player count. We love Castles of Burgundy, Viticulture-Tuscany Essential Edition and Wingspan.
I've been holding back on getting paladins and viscount cuz i have so many unplayed games still, but i loved architects and im sure ill love the others.. might have to splurge and get them with the two expansions haha
I love Architects and Paladins, and really want to try Viscounts. I think the tempo of architects is just awesome, the game can fly by! Paladins definitely makes my brain hurt a little, but I still love it
I haven't played any of these, I was thinking of getting Viscounts, but CO2 was in offer before and so, Vital got the alloted funds for boardgames this time.
We're not too sure how well it plays at 5, turns are snappy so I think the pace may only slow a little bit. We are interested in seeing how it plays at the full count.
Architects ranks the highest for me because of the player interaction. Paladins did nothing to me as It felt very multiplayer soltaire which is an auto-sell for me. I've only seen playthroughs of Viscounts, but it didnt seem to catch my interest. Maybe I'll get to play it someday. ;) Keep up the good work! Love your playthroughs!
I love paladins, even though is super overcomplicated with it's iconography. i don't like to play it with new players, because everyone is super dissapointed (so was I) and people don't get back to it gladly, but if you do, it's really rewarding
I'm only 2plays in on Paladins, lost both plays and it makes the front of my brain hurt, haha, I've just purchased Architects and watched your vid for run through, seem much easier, then obvs will have to get Viscounts just because.
Yeah Architects didn't work for me too with 2 players with 3 it's good but 4 is the sweet spot. I hope they do a digital adaptation for Architects, hard to fetch players these days to sit and play.
Interesting. Paladins is the one of the 3 that I ended up selling. I loved it the first time I played it, but then I discovered that by picking a few actions and repeatedly spamming them, ignoring the rest, breaks the game. It's almost always a winning strategy, leaving out more than half of the options available. Viscounts is definitely my favourite! The card play is exceptionally good. Thanks for this series. I really enjoyed it!
I would rank them as 1st paladins, architects and viscounts as last. I rank architects higher as we play it with 5 or 6 players. More chaotic and fun especially if you bring tons of meeples from different poeple to the prison. Although I like them all.
I really enjoy this trilogy and would rank them the same. I only played them solo though. You should check out Raiders of Scythia. I think it ranks up there with Paladins.
Love these series. For me it is. Viscounts: loved it super interesting giant rondel game combined with a deck-builder Architects: really like it at four but completely agree just isn’t as much fun with fewer players. Is a really nice game to introduce people to though. Paladins: was fine for me but ultimately just didn’t find enough there that made me want to play it over other heavy titles but still a great game I would play is someone wanted to
I would never play Architects with less than 4 players; 5 players is optimal. This coming from a person who rarely enjoys games at more than 3 players. It doesn’t bog down with more players and the game gets far more interesting and dynamic.
Architect is number 3 for me but if you add the expansion it becomes number 2. The main issue with Architect is that if you focus on the Cathedral you are winning the game. Ornaments in the expansion correct this issue giving more points to buildings
I own architects and have played several times, but paladins and viscounts look a bit too complex for what my game group enjoys. Architects seem to be our sweet spot
Of the two I played Architects and Paladins I have to say Paladins all the way. I really dislike the taking players to jail in Architects. Looking forward to the City of Crowns Expansion 😁.
I suggest you try Raiders of Scythia instead of the North Sea games. Raiders of the North Sea is by far the best of the North Sea but only once both expansions are mixed in. Raiders of Scythia is very similar to Raiders of North Sea with the expansions but trimmed down and streamlined.
I've never had any interest in these games for some reason. I think I have a hard time getting these types of Euros to the table and I (against popular opinion) don't like the art style. Great overview though! I'm going to go back and watch the Paladins playthrough. I always enjoy a Euro that plays well at 2.
Which West Kingdom game is your favorite?
Viscounts. I prefer the complexity over Architects, and the player interaction via castle and collisions over Paladins.
I don't have enough plays of Paladins or Viscounts to choose yet so at this point my fave is yes. Correct. Oh, of those three?...Yes.
I haven't yet played Paladins. Hopefully in the next few weeks, and solo. Of the other two, Viscounts. I love the slow motion deck-building and crunchier decisions. My ratings are based on solo play.
We have the same list! Paladin, viscount then architect. But overall a really good trilogy games that I think everyone should give them a try. Great to see we have the same list and you loving paladin as much as I do! 😁
Paladins is my favorite, followed very closely by Viscounts.
When I saw the Paladins play through, I never thought I’d make it through a two-hour video. I ended up watching the whole series though, and the Lacerda series... I have been glued to your channel for weeks now. Sadly, I have to pace myself in buying the titles, but until I collect the silver I’ll continue watching. Thank you for doing what you do!
Thank you so much for spending your time with us! So glad you found us and enjoyed the videos 😊
Looking forward to your playthrough of Feast for Odin. Throw in The Norwegians for the start! Don't neglect Arle or Le Havre!
Love the Norwegians expansion/base upgrade!
This lets play trilogy has been one of my all time favorite playthroughs. Well done guys.
Aww thank you so much! We are so happy that you enjoyed it! ;-)
Brilliant series - it really helped me decided to pull the trigger on completing my trilogy! Plus a great watch and introduced the tomesaga 👀
Awesome! It’s such a fantastic trilogy!
This review is so awesome. Detailed but straight to the point.
Thank you for the kind words!
Our preferences and views on these 3 games are identical! Can't wait to see the Rosenberg and Mindclash series.
Thanks for posting your thoughts on all 3. My ranks and thoughts are quite similar to yours.
#1 - Paladins - The mechanism of choosing 3 Paladins, pick one, place one on top of your deck, and the last on the bottom which you may or may not see again later is my favorite aspect. If you have the 4 extra paladin promos, a variant where you draw 4 and do the above but lose one completely where you'll never see it again is so darn fun. The solo mode is fantastic!
#2 - Viscounts - This one may overtake Paladins at some point. The solo mode offers 4 different personalities and is quite challenging I thought. Love the Deck-building aspect of it.
#3 - Architects - As most mentioned, it is better with more than 2 players. We only play 2 and have to use the bot in order to give some tension on the board as in most cases, you'll have to 'arrest' your opponent or he/she can get a lot of resources. The Bot gives that uncertainty where you need to be cautious on how many workers you have at one spot. The expansions makes the game a bit better with more options.
Nice! Loved the wrap up and rankings. Looking forward to playing this series in the future! Another wonderful series done! Cheers!
I really enjoyed watching you play through the trilogy. Great job you guys! I couldn't wait for this video to hear what you think. I love Paladins, have Viscounts on my shelf but haven't played it yet. Can't wait to play it and then do the co-op version.
Hi Marta, thank you so much for following along with us! We really appreciate hearing from people like yourself. Hope you can get Viscounts off the shelf and played soon!
This was fun to watch. I loved watching your Tomesaga campaign, too.
Yay, thank you so much!
Thanks for doing this. Bought them all because of your coverage!
Hahaha. Me to. 😄
Same here ha. They deserve a commission
Love this! I have a similar ranking to you guys, but Architects creeps up above Viscounts when played at 4! It just gets SO FUN with all the player interaction. Can’t wait to play the Tomesaga- it’s on our list after we finish up our Gloomhaven: Forgotten Circles campaign. Especially since all three of these are on our 10x5 challenge for the year! I’d love to know if you guys have seen the new Paladins expansion that was on Kickstarter a couple months back- we’re pretty excited for it!
Would enjoy seeing you guys doing the North Seas trilogy.
Meh.
If so it would have to be in the way distant future.
We love this trilogy and playing the Tomesaga. Almost always competitive, and really looking forward to the new expansions coming.
I'd probably rank them the same as you did.
Same here, we are excited to see what the new expansion brings!
Thank you for the great video. I love these games and need to check out the Tomesaga. Looking forward to you video on Anachrony. Thanks again for the great content!
Thanks for your excellent content. I've played Architects(25 times) and Paladins(22 times) but all solo. Once I hit 25 times for Paladins I'll get Viscounts. Looking forward to it. You didn't mention the art, but for me that is a huge part of the attraction. If the art was bad or unattractive, I'm sure I'd not have gotten into the games. The boxes are not just the same convenient size but have a "feel" that says "play me". Excellent work by the artistic directors. I plan to buy all expansions and Tomesaga.
The moment we've all been waiting for!!!
It has come!
Really enjoyed watching your playthroughs of all three games in the trilogy. After playing Viscounts late last year, I finally jumped on board with Architects, and really liked Paladins a lot, as well. I'd probably rank them the same as you, but they're all great. Look forward to adding the Tomesaga sometime.
Fantastic series of videos great job! I’ve only played viscounts and loved it. Looking forward to playing the other two. Garphill games is definitely one of my favourite publishers.
I still have to play viscounts. The other two. Architects was fun. It was a 3 player game. But I lost the 2 times we played because I didn't build enough and was too invested into sending the other 2 players to jail. And paladins we didn't actually finish, bit I am 100% sure I would win. I will come back to this video once I play all of them including the Tomesaga. Thank you so much for getting me into this series. 🙂🙂🙂
Great review! 110 percent agree with your observation.
Thanks Steve, hope you are gearing up for a fantastic weekend!!
Realy enjoyed your Unmatched play through. Hope you do more of them it was very well done.
Hi, as much of those games seem good, this review is near perfect, well done and thank you!
Have you tried Champions of Midgard and does it compare to Paladins? It seemed to me they have a rather similar worker placement/taking system, but I might be wrong.
Champions of Midgard is a fantastic game, but it's pretty much completely unlike Paladins of the West Kingdom. They're both basically worker-placement, but beyond that they don't have much in common. Champions has dice-rolling randomness and a decent amount of player interaction (mostly taking things before other players can get to them), whereas Paladins is more about optimizing resource conversions and is largely multi-player solitaire.
Some of the mechanics of Paladins remind me a bit of Orleans, but for my money, Orleans is an infinitely better game. Paladins didn't really sit right with me at all.
@@chrishillery Thanks for that insight Chris. I thought worker taking and manipulation was kind of similar. Lately I noticed the similarities to Orleans as well. I believe I will like Paladins though, I am more kind of "I like everything if made good" kind of guy, but I understand you.
my ranking would be exactly flip of yours. architects has the least weird mechanisms but still very thinky and interactive. it has the best balance of ruleset, game play and strategy. Viscounts has lots of symbol matching and funky mechanisms like the castle. and paladins i just felt i was primarily running a spreadsheet puzzle, focusing basically on meeples and their colors and putting them in the best spots. wasnt tooo exciting.
I’ve just bought this as my first as it seems the lightest
Yes! I think I am aligned with you guys on this - I love Paladins!!! Everything works together so beautifully!
We played Architects a while ago and really liked it, but still have to replay it and get it on our own. We just played Palladines a few days ago, first game was a bit clunky, but improved vastly in the second. We will definitely go for Viscounts and we're also hooked on the Tomesaga. We like the take on the worker placement mechanic in all the games, something we also really enjoyd in Raiders of Scythia, as far as this can be compared. Also the box size is great, no useles space.
And since Naveen stopped mentioning the Klingon subtitles we will stop mentioning how much we enjoy the content (we do though, every time) ;)
I own and have played Architects. Your playthrough of Paladins convinced to buy that too. I'm still skeptical on Viscounts.
I have Paladins and I love it! I love the videos I've seen of the other two games and they're on my shopping list. I play solo, and I really appreciate the fact that Shem doesn't just use a copy/paste system for the solo variants, each is different and each really fits with the game. I have a question about the Tomesaga though, are you able to integrate it into a playthrough of all 3 games as a solo player?
Your rankings and your thoughts on each game pretty much exactly echo my own. They're all excellent in different ways, but Paladins is my favorite - it's an especially good solo game, too. Viscounts is also pretty good solo, and Architects is an okay but not great solo (which largely comes down to it not being a great two-player game in general).
You two should definitely try some of the other games in Garphill's lineup, though! Raiders of the North Sea and its more recent spiritual successor, Raiders of Scythia, are on the lighter side, but are very good, unique takes on worker placement. North Sea really shines with the Hall of Heroes expansion incorporated; Scythia, being the follow-up, has elements of the North Sea expansion content worked right in to the base game.
Explorers of the North Sea is also a very good game. It's a tile-placement game, with a smattering of other mechanics (like set collection, area majority, and pick up and deliver). It's much lighter, but also a very relaxing sandbox to play in.
I'm also a HUGE fan of Circadians: First Light, which is a moderately heavy worker placement game with dice as workers. A lot of people are, I think, put off at first by that game's art, but I 100% recommend that you try it! It's great at two players, and I think you'll love it.
This was a really nice overview! I have been interested in these games for a while but since I primarily play heavier games at 2 players I was unsure if any would be worth it - sounds like Paladins is definitely the way to go 👍🏻
The background music is a good touch
Thanks, we are trying to still figure it all out. Sometimes we hear music we like and then realize it doesn't match with the tone of the video lol.
@@BeforeYouPlay yeah, haha good thought
Me and my wife agree with you thank your doing the tomsaga I'm still trying to get the base games down before going down the tomsaga path
I called it. Knew you’d pick Paladins as no1. I have all 3 but have only gotten Architects to the table yet and it was a great hit. Love your videos!
Haha, we didn't want to give away anything in our post game reviews, but Paladins is just so dang good! We really enjoyed all 3 titles, hopefully you can try the 2 you haven't played yet soon!
I want to buy either paladins or viscounts. i mostly play with my girlfriend or my parents. So i'm guessing viscounts would be the better chocie since it scales good with both 2 and 3 players right?
For me, Architect's #1 is so much fun ( solo is great also ) then Viscounts a close #2 and finally Paladins. I also own the North Sea Trilogy. Raiders #1, Explorers #2 and Shipwrights #3. Where does Shem go from here?
✌🏻I would love to play Paladins yet I’m unable to because of my group. We did played Architects and we loved it! Great video guys, keep it up!
I agree with everything you said and your ranking. For a solo player the ranking is the same but architectes is very less interesting alone. Thanks a lot from Paris.
Have you played Cerebria from Mindclash?
Which is the best for solo play?
I love your videos! I hadn't heard of these games before but I think I'm going to have to get at least one of them. We play mostly at 2-players or solo. You've mention that Architects plays better at higher play counts and that the castle portion of Viscounts plays better with a 3rd player.
I was wondering if you feel Constantine fixes this issue at 2-players and/or if there's a possibility of a second bot so that you could play architects with the chaos of 4 players but with just 2-players? Even if there's not a second designer-made, do you think it could work to photocopy Constantine's deck as a fan-made addition?
Also, does Viscounts come with a Constantine-like bot? I would think that that might fix the castle problem at two-players.
With our focus on solo & 2-player - we'll probably start with Paladin's, but thought we'd ask about your thoughts on the other two games
I completely agree with you guys
Great video! I would swap Architects and Viscounts but agree that all 3 are really great. I've only played architects with 4 players and the amount of interaction was great. Viscounts is lowest for me precisely for the reason you stated, the length, but still a great game.
I agree with your rankings 100%. I enjoyed AotWK the first several plays but after a bit I feel like it starts to play on rails. Maybe we need someone to shake up the meta for the game.
I didn't like VotWK at 2 - I felt like there was no tension for any of the goals and we could both accomplish whichever ones we wanted to.
PotWK was a tough efficiency puzzle that wrecked my brain (in a good way). Definitely my favorite of the three.
Isnt it great when these boxes line up nicely on the shelves? looks so nice
YES YES YES!!! Shelf space is a real problem in the hobby, love it when publishers keep it lean!
BTW Derrick Rose could have been one of the greatest ever if he never tore up those knees. Guy played with too much 🔥
@@BeforeYouPlay for sure, all heart and still balls as much as he can. Definitely a "what could have been" scenario
For now, my favorite is Paladins however I haven't played Viscounts yet. Despite looking forward to playing Viscounts, I will very likely agree with your rank. I agree with almost every opinion you guys have about board games :)
Love all 3, but Architects is my favorite.
I've only played Architects and I love it, so maybe I should check the other 2! :)
Hi Jessica, hope you get to try the other 2! We were very impressed with all 3.
I've always found Viscounts to be iffy despite it playing so smoothly, & I think both of you nailed my uncertainty down - that being the Noble track. It always felt like that track had much better scoring potential than both building & monastery, to the point where it felt necessary to be involved in it to win. Yet the noble track rewards you most for putting it as your priority.
This kind-of went against my expectations where you could specialize in any 1 track + split between trading or a 2nd track, whereas now it must be nobles + something else. Might be groupthink, might be just an issue with 2p games, but that alone made Viscount my "last" pick of the trilogy & Paladins 1st.
I just noticed you have the exact same model of keyboard as mine!
Haha no way! Monique has had it for maybe close to 10+ years now ;-)
@@BeforeYouPlay
Me too! I think it was about 10 or 11 years ago that I got mine. That's crazy.
What is the music on the background?
I've only played Architects so far in this trilogy, and I really love it! Hearing that it's your least favorite of the three really makes me want to pick up the other two.
This is just what I was looking for . How do you two remember rules for so many games, especially ones you haven't played more than a few times? Is this just about pattern recognition vis-a-vis game design, i.e. mechanics and balancing mechanisms? Are you both better at this than you were when you first started?
Can’t wait for the expansion for Paladins! That one is by far a favorite.
Loved Paladins, very luke-warm to Architects and haven’t played Viscounts.
Haha very lukewarm!
This trilogy is great! I love that they are all different.
Look forward to the Uwe series!!
Are you planning on doing a similar video with the North Sea kingdom?
As of now we don't have plans. We will be doing a Mindclash Games series and starting the Uwe Rosenberg Designer Series really really soon!
@@BeforeYouPlay YES FOR UWE!
Wonderful video
Thank you!!
I loved architects at 4
The new series sound cool. 👍
Great series. Thanks for sharing. Viscounts is our favorite, those mechanics are so unique and the game flows really well. Paladins a fine second, mainly due to its multiplayer solitaire and crunchiness. If you are not doing well, the game punishes you by making you feel kinda dumb. Architects is a good game, but i don't feel the architect cards add a lot. They feel underpowered in some way..
I've got Architects and Viscounts. Paladins looked too long for our tastes and we usually play with 3 or 4, so it seems to me we made the right decision to pass on it.
I'm still deciding which one to get. My wife and me do not like games that last more than 90 minutes. Ussually play at 2 player count. We love Castles of Burgundy, Viticulture-Tuscany Essential Edition and Wingspan.
Will you do the same with the North Sea trilogy?
Hi Alex! As of now we don't have plans. We will be doing a Mindclash Games series and starting the Uwe Rosenberg Designer Series really really soon!
I’ve only player Architects, but I’m going to buy Paladins, Viscounts and Tomesaga based on your reviews 👍
We really hope you like them all as much as we do! It was such a fun experience getting to play them all back to back with the Tomesaga!!
I've been holding back on getting paladins and viscount cuz i have so many unplayed games still, but i loved architects and im sure ill love the others.. might have to splurge and get them with the two expansions haha
Just started architect. I heard paladin is the best ones, but i dont want to skip. Ill try Paladin after a few rounds on architect with my family.
I had the same feeling when I tried Viscounts, “this is the one!” But after the hyped I just wanted to play Paladins. Such a great game!
I’m waiting for Jesters of the West Kingdom, where it you fail to make the Paladins laugh, the Viscounts order the architects to design your crypt.
I love Architects and Paladins, and really want to try Viscounts. I think the tempo of architects is just awesome, the game can fly by! Paladins definitely makes my brain hurt a little, but I still love it
If you like the tempo then YES Viscounts is a must try for you!
I haven't played any of these, I was thinking of getting Viscounts, but CO2 was in offer before and so, Vital got the alloted funds for boardgames this time.
Naveen loves him some CO2, did you get "Second Chance"?
@@BeforeYouPlay Yes I did, played it solo last weekend. It is a beautiful game.
does architects play well at 5? we always have 5 players at game night.
We're not too sure how well it plays at 5, turns are snappy so I think the pace may only slow a little bit. We are interested in seeing how it plays at the full count.
Plays great at 5!
Architects ranks the highest for me because of the player interaction.
Paladins did nothing to me as It felt very multiplayer soltaire which is an auto-sell for me.
I've only seen playthroughs of Viscounts, but it didnt seem to catch my interest. Maybe I'll get to play it someday. ;)
Keep up the good work! Love your playthroughs!
I love paladins, even though is super overcomplicated with it's iconography. i don't like to play it with new players, because everyone is super dissapointed (so was I) and people don't get back to it gladly, but if you do, it's really rewarding
Raiders of North sea trilogy vs west kingdom video?
For my group 1.Architects 2.Viscounts 3.Paladins
(Paladins is only good with 2..., havent tryed it solo)
I'm only 2plays in on Paladins, lost both plays and it makes the front of my brain hurt, haha, I've just purchased Architects and watched your vid for run through, seem much easier, then obvs will have to get Viscounts just because.
Thx!
Yeah Architects didn't work for me too with 2 players with 3 it's good but 4 is the sweet spot. I hope they do a digital adaptation for Architects, hard to fetch players these days to sit and play.
Interesting. Paladins is the one of the 3 that I ended up selling. I loved it the first time I played it, but then I discovered that by picking a few actions and repeatedly spamming them, ignoring the rest, breaks the game. It's almost always a winning strategy, leaving out more than half of the options available. Viscounts is definitely my favourite! The card play is exceptionally good. Thanks for this series. I really enjoyed it!
I would rank them as 1st paladins, architects and viscounts as last. I rank architects higher as we play it with 5 or 6 players. More chaotic and fun especially if you bring tons of meeples from different poeple to the prison. Although I like them all.
Yeah that's a perfectly reasonable, how crazy does the Black Market get with the full 5 players?
I really enjoy this trilogy and would rank them the same. I only played them solo though. You should check out Raiders of Scythia. I think it ranks up there with Paladins.
YESSS! Team Paladins!
Yes! You told us we would love it a long time ago... YOU WERE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT!!!
Love these series.
For me it is.
Viscounts: loved it super interesting giant rondel game combined with a deck-builder
Architects: really like it at four but completely agree just isn’t as much fun with fewer players. Is a really nice game to introduce people to though.
Paladins: was fine for me but ultimately just didn’t find enough there that made me want to play it over other heavy titles but still a great game I would play is someone wanted to
I would never play Architects with less than 4 players; 5 players is optimal. This coming from a person who rarely enjoys games at more than 3 players. It doesn’t bog down with more players and the game gets far more interesting and dynamic.
Architect is number 3 for me but if you add the expansion it becomes number 2. The main issue with Architect is that if you focus on the Cathedral you are winning the game. Ornaments in the expansion correct this issue giving more points to buildings
I own architects and have played several times, but paladins and viscounts look a bit too complex for what my game group enjoys. Architects seem to be our sweet spot
Of the two I played Architects and Paladins I have to say Paladins all the way. I really dislike the taking players to jail in Architects. Looking forward to the City of Crowns Expansion 😁.
Paladins has the most interesting mechanic, but my favorite game is Viscounts. Arguably, the best "deck" builder game.
Paladins is my favourite also but in three/four player it can get really bogged down by analysis paralysis.
Totally! I think we will stick to only playing it with each other or if we really wanted someone to learn/play it.
Agree. #1 Paladins.
Is it weird that I have no want to play any of these games? And it’s almost solely because of the art?
I suggest you try Raiders of Scythia instead of the North Sea games. Raiders of the North Sea is by far the best of the North Sea but only once both expansions are mixed in. Raiders of Scythia is very similar to Raiders of North Sea with the expansions but trimmed down and streamlined.
I figured you guys would pick Paladins as #1. Paladins is a heavy one for me.
Haha you know us well!!
I’ve played Architects once and Paladins twice, and I definitely prefer Paladins but both were quite enjoyable.
Paladins is so incredible!
Love it so much, it's an instant classic for us!
I've never had any interest in these games for some reason. I think I have a hard time getting these types of Euros to the table and I (against popular opinion) don't like the art style. Great overview though! I'm going to go back and watch the Paladins playthrough. I always enjoy a Euro that plays well at 2.
I have played all three and for me by far Paladins was my favorite.
Yay, Uwe! Sheep, sheep, sheep! Wheat, wheat, wheat! Debt, debt, debt!
HAHAHA it's going to be so glorious going back to our farming roots!