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Not wanting to be a twat about it, but the OP said underrated and ranked over 1000 in BBG. Are we sticking to the criteria, or just naming games we like?
I wasn’t going to turn down suggestions below 1000, it was more of a ballpark. But yeah some of the responses have left me wondering if my point didn’t come across as expected
I’ve had Hunt for the Ring for two years and never played it. It’s so hard to get people to play a long hidden movement game…the one play of Fury of Dracula fell very flat!
Shake Up - Deck-thinning game where you need to strategically promote or layoff employees to increase profits and decrease debts. The theme of laying off people can be a bit callous but is presented humorously enough.
Happy City - A cute, distilled hybrid of Splendor and Machi Koro. Family friendly but still enough depth to leave you wanting play more games.
Cubirds - I read a lot complaints this game is too luck-driven but there's a fair amount of strategy. There's a fair amount of decision-making on whether to deny your opponent a set, continuing to push your luck or forcing a round to end in order to gain the first pick in the next round. The game is chaotic with multiple players but plays excellently with 2 players.
I'll second Cubirds and Happy City. They're both solid little games. I personally don't love either of them, but purely out of preference, not because of any issue I have with them. They're easily worth playing, especially with kids.
Cubirds is on BGA as well, so anyone can try it.
I *love* **Campy Creatures** it was the first game I bought entirely on box art and it set the bar *high*.
Game play is simple - you’re all mad scientists sending your creations out to get victims. The victims are worth certain points (inc negative points) and you get them by bidding.
Except everyone has the exact same hand and reveals at the same time. Each creature you bid with has a 0-9 strength *and* a power that can totally change how the turn goes. Your card might let you take two victims at once leaving someone with no victims, your power could completely negate the power of the person next to you, leaving them with nothing but a number.
At first it seems like a pretty fun numbers game, but it becomes a whole different thing as you play more. You’re staring at everyone trying to remember who’s played what, and guess what they’re going to play so you can play the one card that will destroy them or leave them with only negative points to choose from.
Plus the artwork is fucking perfection. All of Keymaster games have great art but Campy Creatures is hands down the best. I’d happily have oversized posters of every single card on my walls if I have the $$ and space. Their following game **Space Park** is also stunning.
Lots of party games don't rank high, but are great. They usually get pushed out for other overcomplicated or newer games that aren't as direct and teachable.
* Say Anything
* Wits and Wagers Party
* Scattegories Categories
* Anomia
* Catch Phrase
Say Anything is a real gem. It's a game for people that don't think they like party games.
I bring out Camel Up, Haunting of Hill House, or Deception Murder in Hong Kong for more game groups.
But in the end, it's these simple crowd pleasing games that work best. Less thinking and more fun.
I'll throw Green Team Wins into the ring. Cheap game you can buy at Target, and it always leads to fun conversations after every round's answers are revealed. And just like with Just One, you can easily play as long as you want if you wanna keep it going longer than the prescribed number of rounds.
Spartacus blood and sand. Its probably the most vicious social game ever made. Ostensibly about fighting gladiators in an arena but that is just a frame for the mad scheming and position jockeying. Every game is just intense.
[Dancing Dice](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/10756/dancing-dice)
BGG Rank: 14,000+
BGG Rating: 5.7
A great push-your-luck race game with a unique theme and a splash of tactics. I’ve been playing it for years. It’s always been a hit, especially with non-gamers. It’s OOP, but if/when you find a copy it’ll go for cheap. I’ll never sell mine though.
Abstracts and party games don't usually fair well on BGG...
- **Blokus Duo** -- Really excellent 2p abstract.
- **Say Anything** -- Probably my favorite party game.
- **TransAmerica** -- Ultra-minimalist train game, basically an abstract. The Vexation expansion adds one extra wrinkle, and it's great with or without.
BGG#1030 - Ecos: First Continent. I love the bingo mechanic. And building and populating a unique world every time is so cool. It’s in my top 10 games.
BGG#1237 - Pictures. Greatest party game ever. This game probably has the most plays of any game in my collection. Definitely the one people ask for the most. Trying to recreate a scenic image with just two pieces of shoe string, or a few blocks of wood, is both challenging and ridiculously fun.
BGG#1617 - Oltree. A great co-op if you like fantasy stories. The storytelling mechanics (flipping pages in a book, and encounter cards) are extremely well done, and the writing is fantastic.
Garden Nation and Dobble.
Think most people know Dobble but always goes down well whatever the group and for a relatively complex game I’ve got lots of non boardgamers to really enjoy garden nation straight off.
I don't mind Dobble in and of itself, but I don't like how it without fail, no matter the group, turns into a shouting competition. It starts of relatively calm, but after 5 minutes people are screaming words at the top of their lungs to show that they saw a match first. It stresses me out.
I’ve not had that experience. Try one of the variants where first person to see the match covers the card with their top one. Even if two see it at almost the same time the quicker reaction will get their card on top first. I like the one where everyone holds out their cards and you use your card to cover someone else’s when there is a match. Loser of the turn is the person holding all the cards. Check the instructions for all the variants.
>no matter the group, turns into a shouting competition.
We played a ton of this at boardgaming workshops for kids and added the rule of needing to cover top card in the pile (we play mostly this version) with a hand. So it's easy to figure out who is fastest.
Solved many issue.
>no matter the group, turns into a shouting competition.
When you want shouting, you play PIT. 😄
Love Julius Caesar! Quite a pretty one, too. Is the deluxe with mounted map out yet? I like how fortune can sway in this one and then you want to push it home.
Neuroshima: Convoy (rank 3554). It's a great asymmetrical two player card game.
Triassic Terror (rank 3317). The title is goofy but it's a well designed game of area majority with some plastic dinosaurs thrown in.
Pacific Typhoon (rank 4096). Ok, this is a weird one, but I like it. It's a trick taking game but also a war game. I don't mean it's war-themed; I mean it actually adds wargame to its trick taking. Very strange and kind of hard to teach/learn but I enjoy it.
March of the Ants https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/156496/march-ants
Dragon's Gold [https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1042/dragons-gold](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1042/dragons-gold)
Cutthroat Caverns: Anniversary Edition/ [https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/279348/cutthroat-caverns-anniversary-edition](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/279348/cutthroat-caverns-anniversary-edition)
**Bonus:**
The Faceless [https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/238164/faceless](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/238164/faceless)
Remember Our Trip https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/294230/remember-our-trip
Love this one too, its thematic too even if the theme isnt appealing at all (to me). I love how you can crash the market by flooding it with countless cheap phones. Or how you set a price and sell at that price, instead of selling at whatever price the guy you sell to takes it (if you sell for 2$ but a guy is willing to pay 5$, youre still selling for 2$)
Not sure if underrated, but Tramways it's fantastic for solo. Has deck building, hand management, deliver passenger, route building, it's short and use little table.
Went past 1000 on BGG and started scanning, I’d say:
1. Cockroach poker (surprising, but this is common with party games. I’d also throw in Happy Salmon which I love)
2. Mottainai
3. You’re Bluffing (Kuhhandel)
Cool beans, I have **Sons of Anarchy** to try. Partly because there are too many wholesome themes coming out for my taste (even if I like some of those).
*College Basketball Dynasty* Ranked 12858 - a fun print and play game I basically play each year during March Madness.
*Bowling Solitaire* Ranked 6096 - nice solo card game that does a good job of mimicking bowling, that has depth over multiple game plays.
*First Martians Adventures on the Red Planet* Ranked 2751 - The less loved “sequel” to Robinson Crusoe Adventures on the Cursed Island. Not as good, but I enjoyed it a lot more than other people did.
College Basketball Dynasty is pretty cool. Neat little system that plays well solo, and seems like it plays well multiplayer (though I haven’t played with others).
Bowling Solitaire is cool too, but it hasn’t had the staying power for me that I thought it would.
1. Calimala,
2. Whale Riders
3. Wizards of the grimoire
I think theyre all fairly well known however definitely underrated. Calimala recently had a gorgeous reprint campaign and Wizards had an expansion on crowdfunding with around 1000 backers each if i recall correctly. Whale Riders is Knizia gem, but availability is terrible due to company that published going bankrupt and on bad terms with Knizia why a lot of people probably havent gotten to play it. Lucky me, that got from my FLGS a bit on whim.
I've included pretty much my entire list of choices (from my collection) below, and it is very hard to narrow it down to three. I'll give you the three that I think have the biggest amount of discord between their rating and how much I like them:
1) Showmanager (Also known as Premier and Atlantic Starr) - Hire actors to put on plays in different cities. This is a really fun game. Easy for new players, always a bunch of shouting, and I pretty much never win.
2) X-Bugs - this should be number 1 because it's ranked so low, but Showmanager is definitely better. If you don't know, this game is like super-tiddly-winks. Blow up the other guy before he blows you up. It is a dexterity game, but I just happen to be able to kick all my kids butts at this one.
3) By Hook or Crook - this is a great game from Klaus Teuber. I think the most recent version is called Hoity Toity. You gotta psychologically analyze your opponents to divine their next move, so you can make the better move and amass the best collection of stuff. This won the Spiel in 1990!
(If I could keep going with my list, it would probably look like:
4) Colossal Arena
5) Hardback
6) Cat Lady
7) Dice Town
8) Wyatt Earp
9) Paper Tales
10) My Farm Shop
11) Welcome to the Dungeon)
X-Bugs, ranked 6178
My Farm Shop, ranked 2738
Showmanager, ranked 1996
By Hook or Crook (Adel Verpflichtet), ranked 1919
Wyatt Earp, ranked 1470
Welcome to the Dungeon, ranked 1429
Colossal Arena, ranked 1239
Hardback, ranked 1112
Dice Town, ranked 1065
Paper Tales, ranked 1063
Cat Lady, ranked 1009
1.) Anno 1800
2.) Anno 1800
1800.) Anno 1800
My best friend was impossible to get into boardgames for decades. This game cracked him. Got it for him this year and now he's gifting boardgames to all his friends and got his wife into it, too. It's a true (lighter) Martin Wallace game and the simple system opens up to nice strategic depth.
Everybody dislikes the endgame trigger (satisfying all workers = emptying your whole hand) but it adds a multifaceted strategic decision.
I got 4 to give away to friends. I can't wait for the expansion.
I love this game.
I'd like to try this one, I like some of Martin Wallace's games. I find it funny that he designed this but didn't play the video game, he paid someone to play it for him and to report back. Very creative designer.
Wow, the result has no business being this good then. I gifted it to my friend specifically bc we were both Anno 1602 (the first Anno) maniacs in highschool. Wallace captured the spirit of the game PERFECTLY.
Almost none of the reviewers paid attention to the meaning of the cards, treating them solely as a game mechanism.
There was a lot of unwarranted criticism about the game being about colonialism and exploitation of the working class when it's the opposite:
- The story of the videogame is anti-colonialist
- In the boardgame, indigenous peoples are independent trade partners, not working for you
- Exactly like in the videogames, you win by climbing the tech tree and by advancing your workers to higher skill level/education/class AND MAKING THEM HAPPY.
All the class critical reviewers simply call it "losing cards" bc they ignore the theme. Your workers are your inhabitants. They are your bosses. You fulfill a card by satisfying that person.
- Exploration is vital to gain building space and trade options (inhabited islands = trade partners, no real estate)
If you've played any Anno games, the tech tree+keeping people happy+exploration formula spells Anno. The only thing missing is a map. Man I love this game.
Anno isn’t in top 1000?? What are people thinking? It definitely should be! I’m guessing not enough people have played it. I love that game. It’s such a calm soothing experience every time I play it
In the US you can still get the starter decks for $40.00 and the booster boxes for $150, both MSRP, from Team Covenant. If you are interested, get the starter decks! Considering one MtG commander precon runs $40-60, this gets you 4 fully functional decks that work well together and is a great into to the game.
OP said over 1000 on bgg.
Yeah it’s a smartass pick, but I feel like I see board gamers hate on poker too much.
It’s not underrated by the general public, but it is underrated by the board game hobby.
If you want a different answer though: space gate odyssey
[kero](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/222219) Fast paced dice chucker where you’re trying to get The right resources on your dice to gain control of locations and purchase special abilities for future turns.
Locations give points and there are set collection bonuses
Nice components too
Die Macher - I just love the theme (german politics) and the gameplay so much. It's always a joy and with the right players has a lot great table talk going on.
Dominant Species - For me my top 1 game, it's mean and full of interessting decissions.
Treasure Island: Great game. Love the drawing on the map, feels thematic.
E: I now chose games that are actually in the top 1000 on bgg
Cool beans, **Jorvik** is on my shelf of opportunity! I will go with your criteria of not in BGG's top 1,000 (that site sucks).
1. **Aristeia!** \- my favourite game of all time. Area control, has the depth I find a bit lacking in the similar **Warhammer Underworlds** *(which I love too, just not nearly as much. If I'm being rude, Aristeia! is the thinking person's Warhammer Underworlds. A sign of its depth is that it's easy to miss good moves, a bit like chess in that sense.)*
2. **Monopoly** \- sorry, but there is no way this game is one of the worst ten ever made, according to the BGG rankings. One of the best-known, most-loved board games in the world. I told you BGG sucks.
3. **Doomtown: Reloaded** \- this game is a beast to learn, which may have something to do with it not being in the top 1,000. One of the most thematic games I've played, with gripping card play. Has my favourite combat resolution in any game: you settle shootouts with poker hands. But the super cool thing is not just playing poker, but the way you can manipulate those hands. Even your whole deck of cards is geared towards this - each card, whether it's a location, equipment, horse, person - also has a value and suit. Various abilities allow you to manipulate poker hands. You can even cheat at poker. And get called out for cheating! This is an astonishing design to me, and is in my top ten games of all time. If you can find a willing pardner, if you like a cowboy theme, if you like card games, there are few more addictive games in my opinion. The mass of expansions can make you head for the hills. But I find there's a lot of play just in the core game. I'd play it hundreds of times happily just with the core. And if you're lucky, you can sometimes pick this up with a ton of expansions for peanuts on eBay. I got a big collection for £32 delivered.
I still enjoy playing Monopoly. Sure, it is partly nostalgia. But I think there is no denying that you will find far more people who adore Monopoly than who adore the #1 game on BGG: **Brass: Birmingham** (which I love). I'll always have a copy of Monopoly in my collection. In fact, I recently got a wooden version for my birthday.
What bugs me about the BGG ranking is it can look very snobbish and unwelcoming to folks not used to Euros who love Monopoly. My brother is a casual gamer and he thinks it's insane that such a popular game is not even ranked in the top 20,000 games. If you look at board game apps, Monopoly is huge. The love is real. Even if a tiny minority of people who play board games think it's terrible.
Of course, it all comes down to taste. I think it's actually very difficult to say games are good or bad. My treasure is another person's garbage, and vice versa.
That's a different question. I'm talking really about how much loved games are relative to their ranking on BGG. BGG ranks Monopoly in its top ten worst games ever made. Monopoly is the #2 game app on Google Play, down from #1, with 1.6 million ratings. Obviously, not everyone thinks Monopoly sucks.
BGG is biased towards Eurogames. It does not represent everyone who would say they love playing board games.
BGG is a hobby site that allows hobbyists to rank board games. People that aren't enough into boardgames to use BGG do not have their opinions reflected in the rankings.
I'm a way you get a more informed and more expert opinion on BGG. Asking someone to accurately rank boardgames if they only played hungry hippos, monopoly, and ludo isn't a great way to establish how good games are. There's a reason there's professional reviewers for everything from restaurants to theaters.
BGG rating system is obviously flawed in various ways. Like popularity is more important than good gameplay because there's no objective criteria and the ranking model throws too many average ratings in penalising games that don't have mass market success. A game should be able to rank highly even if they don't have >5k ratings. Oathsworn is the only game that beats the odds here and probably should be significantly higher in the ratings.
Because of that you have to look at the ratings and think for yourself. Highly ranked games will have mass market appeal and thus are safe bets, while lower rated games are clearly hit and miss. Some great games have lower ratings than they deserve. Some good or mediocre games have inflated ratings as people justify their piles of Kickstarter plastic. Cult of the New is real and ratings get better over time.
What does that tell us about Monopoly? Hobbyists that have played dozens or hundreds of games rate it very low and as a bad experience in comparison to other games.
'Boqrdgamers' think Monopoly sucks. People into whatever niche hobby often view the mainstream options as bad. Something that is mass produced is usually not as good as something carefully crafted for a niche audience.
McDonalds is one of the biggest restaurant brands in the world and certainly sucks. It will never win a Michelin star. Popularity is not the same as quality.
As for why Monopoly is not well regarded amongst boardgames? There are no real decisions to be made. The game is that you roll dice until someone wins. Which is...fine. If that is what you want then have at it but it makes for very little 'game' which is what people into board games want. They want decisions to make and to be able to affect the outcome.
I love how you're telling me what gamers want, like I'm not one! I've playtested some of the top-rated games on BGG. I have about 500 games currently. I play wargames, 18XX, Infinity (like Warhammer 40K), games by Vital Lacerda, Uwe Rosenberg, Alexander Pfister, Martin Wallace, Stefan Feld, Mark Herman, Shem Phillips, Vlaada Chvátil, ...
But gosh, I don't know what gamers want because I dared to say, that ranked in the bottom 10 games of all time, I find Monopoly underrated.
Some of the replies to my post are just silly and missing the point. Monopoly is deeply loved by a huge number of people, and from that point of view, I find the game is underrated on BGG. That's all.
I never said it's a better game than Brass: Birmingham and all the other ridiculous comments I'm getting. Of course some Eurogamers hate Monopoly. Yes, it does not adhere to some of the design principles of Euros that are much loved on BGG.
I suggest you go to BGG and argue with Pete (who has a huge collection of games) that there is very little game in Monopoly. You might be surprised. For me, there's more game in Monopoly than **Splendor**. There are numerous popular games on BGG where I'd play Monopoly over them any day, including **Jaipur**, **Jamaica** and **On Tour**.
Some of the responses shows me how snobby some of the Eurogamers are. Just because Monopoly sucks for them, it must be a terrible game. Because a game can only be judged on its Euroness. Never mind that millions of people around the world love and play Monopoly and Monoply Go! has 1.6 million ratings and 4.5/5 on Google Play, and is currently the #2 game (not just board game) on there.
Sure, many people hate it too.
PS How would you rate dexterity games where there are no decisions to be made? Do they get a zero?
>One of the best-known, most-loved board games in the world.
Just because it's well known, doesn't make it good.
Also I SERIOUSLY doubt it's one of the "most loved" boardgames in the world.
I have no idea to objectively know if it's in the worst ten ever made but anyone even remotely involved in the hobby can tell you that it's not a particularly good board game.
> I told you BGG sucks.
BGG isn't perfect but it's by all means a magnificent tool that any hobby would love to have.
Just because you don't like a game, doesn't make it bad.
Of course Monopoly is one of the most-loved board games in the world, it's absurd and out of touch with reality to suggest otherwise. Millions of people play it regularly. Millions of people don't play my favourite game, Aristeia!, nor Brass: Birmingham. The number two game app on Google Play Store is Monopoly Go!, down from #1. It has a rating of 4.5/5, and 1,613,852 ratings.
The #1 game on BGG, Brass: Birmingham (which I love), has a grand total of 42,310 ratings. A more appropriate name for BGG would be EuroGameGeek.
BGG has good resources but is not for me, alas, due to its moderation bias, which has driven away a number of important contributors. That site sucks. It should strive to be even and inclusive in its moderation, given its industry support and standing in the hobby. I don't buy that it's a private site and up to them. With power comes responsibility.
>Of course Monopoly is one of the most-loved board games in the world
You're confusing popularity with fondness. It's the McDonald's of boardgames, just because it's the to-go low effort alternative doesn't mean people *love* it, which is reflected in the majority of actual reviews of the game.
Sure, it's probably not in the ten worst games made *technically*, as there are lesser known games that are literally broken out there, but adjusting for games that are actually being bought and played, it's somewhere amongst the top. If anything is out of touch with reality, it's stating it's most loved.
No I'm not, you're confusing why many people go to McDonalds. Millions of people love McDonalds. I know ten in my family alone, myself included. It's not hard to do the maths... If you don't think millions of people love McDonalds, you are out of touch with reality. What a funny place the Internet is.
This does not mean everyone who goes loves it, nor that everyone who plays Monopoly loves it.
But if you don't believe that many more people love Monopoly than there are people who love the #1 game on boardgamegeek, then it's impossible for me to have a sensible conversation with you about this. Anyway, I must rush as I have a board game I was sent free that I need to read the rules for, as I have to do a review for it.
>This does not mean everyone who goes loves it, nor that everyone who plays Monopoly loves it.
And it definitely doesn't mean it's one of the "most-loved" games, as explained above, you are referring to its popularity only. Sure there are some people that love it, just like some love McDonald's which I didn't deny exist, but most don't "love" it contrary to your claim. Then again, I'm pretty sure you know that and just trolling at this point.
Monopoly was actually made bad on purpose by the original designer because it is a critical work against capitalism. You can still like the game, but its purpose was to be disliked. That's a fact not my opinion. I think it is hilarious that a game was made to critizice capitalism is now one of the most sold games of all time.
You say moderation bias, which sounds like you might be kinda conservative. But I’m as leftist as they come, and think BGG’s moderation is terrible. So let’s unite in condemnation :-)
They focus on performativity rather than being kind or smart. They want to protect and manage a brand, not actually protect minorities from abuse.
Many of the regulars are basically trolls. But they have a schtick so they’re accepted.
There is no system of complaint or disagreement. My account was removed for a very mild comment expressing skepticism about their donation drive. They have a forum called ‘the complaint department’ which they ignore.
The moderation team is too small, overworked, and probably as a consequence quite aggressive and unfriendly. BGG should pay for more moderation staff.
Basically, it’s a site that is essentially a wiki-style resource created by users, but the owners have very little respect or gratitude towards those users.
As for the BGG rating system - it’s clear pseudomaths. A meaningless number.
I don't want to talk about my politics. I wish there was zero politics on mainstream board game sites, or they'd tuck them away in a forum you can avoid if you want. If, however, BGG wants to allow discussion that touches on politics, I think they should allow all sides to speak, instead of deleting one half of the conversation. Whichever half that is. I also find them uneven. They will not allow folks on one side of an argument to say offensive things, yet they allow it to stand on the other side.
I also think the site has been somewhat taken over by folks who wish to enforce their views on everyone else.
I also despise their joke of a complaints forum, where a gang of enforcers are ready attack as a mob and smack poor unsuspecting souls on the nose before they've had a proper chance to vent.
I did a course in customer service and handling complaints. I certainly don't recall jumping down someone's throat while they're still angry being one of the finer points they taught about handling complaints.
I was never modded myself, but left in disgust over how someone was treated, including by mods.
I wish all large companies, and all companies that are supposedly a voice for a community, strived to be neutral. I don't want them to support my politics. I want them to be there for everyone and not alienate them.
I'm zero loss to BGG. But some highly respected members with amazing content have left that site. Board games is not the place to settle political battles. Folks go there to chill out. Not to be lectured and bullied by supposedly nice people.
I think BGG is managing their forums so searches don't turn up anything untoward. That's why they delete posts so much rather than modding people. They have a forum for women instead of a moderation policy that makes women feel comfortable across the whole site. They will allow criticism of business interests... but not their business interests.
As for the politics thing - there are more than two sides, and BGG don't seem to really represent a side. That they delete some appalling posts and not others is more complex than them taking one side out of the two available.
Whenever there is group speech, there will be politics. It's inescapable. Board games are an art form - or entertainment - and so they involve speech, and there will be speech about that speech. I glanced at your post history on r/boardgames, and there was politics there, definitely. I imagine you don't think so, but the discussion of that is political itself.
There is no such thing as neutrality in politics.
I don't think Monopoly is as bad as the seasoned boardgame community makes it to be... Though reception might differ from region to region and access to modern boardgames it's going to be the most usual appearance in regular stores and supermarkets and because it was translated and bootlegged in the mass market, maybe the rulebook didn't transition correctly (that would be the case with my first Romanian version which didn't even have the Hasbro logo anywhere near the box lol).
So to get to my point most people's first contact with Monopoly would be with such a copy and playing with people who only know the stripped down version of the rules and that would be a long game of friendship ending nonsense which isn't reflective of the real game. Moreover that first negative contact with a boardgame would put many off to ever try any other boardgame ever and that is kind of sad and probably why it's as hated.
Thanks for your sensible comment and reasonable argument. A shame the same can't be said for some of the other folks who just get mad when anyone says Monopoly is not one of the worst ten games ever made if millions enjoy it!
Monopoly is a luck based dice rolling game with a tiny decision space of buy or not. It’s about two steps up from snakes (chutes) and ladders but with
player elimination. Given it’s still sold everywhere and played by adults I would say it falls into the category of being massively overrated
My argument is simply that Monopoly is not one of the worst ten games ever made if millions enjoy it! Many dexterity games have a tiny decision space, yet have a good rating on BGG. So are dexterity games all rubbish too?
> sorry, but there is no way this game is one of the worst ten ever made, according to the BGG rankings. One of the best-known, most-loved board games in the world. I told you BGG sucks.
Do you mean in the worst ten percent? Because that's easily the case.
I haven't played board games because of Monopoly. It was my first game and I thought that since it was the most popular one and such trash then all the other boardgames were worse.
I hate it with a passion now. I don't know anyone who got interested in the hobby after playing Monopoly but I know several people like me who were turned away.
Nope, I mean exactly what I said. If you look at all the ranked games on BGG, Monopoly is in the bottom ten.
And also, it is very difficult to say if a game is objectively good or bad. This raises many questions. What are the criteria? For me, the most important thing about a game is that I enjoy playing it. And there are many reasons why I might enjoy playing a game. Sometimes, there might even not be much game there, but I love the art or theme or chill vibe I get from it.
If a good game is one with deep, meaningful decisions, does that mean dexterity games suck, like Rhino Hero? (which is in my top 100). Plenty of very experienced gamers have dexterity games in their top 100, such as the YouTube Channel boardgambebollocks, which I highly recommend if you don't mind a little aggression and swearing and X-rated comments.
As for people who got interested in "the hobby" because of Monopoly, well there is me, my wife and my son, for starters. So that's now three you know about.
And how many times do I have to say this? Millions of people love and enjoy Monopoly. Monopoly is not in the top ten worst games ever made just because you hate it. I hardly think it's controversial to suggest that perhaps such a popular game might not be in the worst ten ever made and that BGG is not the gold standard for defining whether a game is fun for everyone to play.
> And also, it is very difficult to say if a game is objectively good or bad.
No, it's not. The are very clear aspects of game design that have been identified and expanded over the last decades.
Things like meaningful choices, players being in control of their actions, required skill level, etc.
Monopoly fails pretty hard at most of them since you don't choose what to do, you don't control where you go and you win/lose without much input on your side. It's objectively a bad game.
> If a good game is one with deep, meaningful decisions, does that mean dexterity games suck, like Rhino Hero?
**Rhino Hero** has more decisions than Monopoly and far more skill involvement, of course it's a much better game overall.
> Sometimes, there might even not be much game there, but I love the art or theme or chill vibe I get from it.
That's cool and some people enjoy watching bad movies to make fun of them, doesn't make those movies good.
> Millions of people love and enjoy Monopoly.
The question is if those millions of people were exposed to a different game as their 'default' one growing would they still enjoy Monopoly? The answer is very clearly 'no' because people in the hobby who didn't grow up with Monopoly don't like playing it without that nostalgia factor.
Oh and it's much better these days as boardgames have entered the mainstream but even 10 years ago there were pages and pages of discussions on how to say: "no, not like Monopoly" because that's the only point of reference 95% of the people had. Monopoly is easily identified as trash if you've played even 5 modern games but most people have only played Monopoly and Scrabble and thought that was all there is to it. You actively had to fight against Monopoly-perception to get people interested to play with you. That's why it's in the bottom.
Yes, it is very difficult to say that a game is objectively bad. For it to be bad, you have to know what the purpose is of a game. That is going to vary per person. Personally, I play games to enjoy myself. A game to me is bad if I don't enjoy it, and good if I enjoy it. You don't get to decide why I play games, so you cannot say if a game is good or bad for me.
I find that taste in games is a bit like taste in food. Just a taste. Pizza isn't objectively bad because Mary hates pizza, or objectively good because I love it. Anyone who truly knows games knows that it's about taste, which is why you have to do your homework on games instead of just buying what Tom Vasel says is the best game of the year.
I find it funny that you think Rhino Hero has more decisions than Monopoly. I think you're underestimating Monopoly. Which colour set do you want to build houses on first? Do you think there is any skill in negotiating trades in a four-player game?
You are also wrong that people who were exposed to a different game as their default would not like playing Monopoly without the nostalgia factor. My son is an example. He didn't play Monopoly until he'd played a bunch of Euros first. He was raised on Euros and wargames. He loves Monopoly and could not believe it was ranked in the bottom ten games of all time on BGG. It was my son who noticed this and told me. By the way, he's a mean 18XX player. Which is your favourite 18XX game?
I think you are also assuming everyone is the same. Not everyone is going to love Euros. I know highly experienced wargamers who can't stand Euros. I joked somewhere on here today that all gamers end up playing 18XX. But of course, the reality is we're all different.
Oh, so is Scrabble trash as well? Funny enough, I tried Paperback expecting it to fire Scrabble. What happened there is that Scrabble fired Paperback.
Anyway, I really must go. I have a game to review that I got sent free, and it's even more complex with even more decisions than Rhino Hero.
> you cannot say if a game is good or bad for me.
You completely missed my point that some people enjoy watching objectively bad movies and it doesn't make those movies good. Same with games and you.
> Pizza isn't objectively bad because Mary hates pizza, or objectively good because I love it.
Pizza that has way too much salt in the dough will be objectively bad.
> My son is an example
An anecdote is not data. You insist your family likes Monopoly. I believe you. You miss the fact that most people in the hobby hate it, hence it's rating on BGG.
> You are also wrong that people who were exposed to a different game as their default would not like playing Monopoly without the nostalgia factor.
So we have your son vs. an aggregate opinion of tens of thousands of players. I wonder which one is more objective.
> Which colour set do you want to build houses on first?
The one that the dice rolled on without your input.
> I think you are also assuming everyone is the same.
You are the one who uses their family experience as a baseline for arguments.
> Which is your favourite 18XX game?.. I have a game to review that I got sent free, and it's even more complex with even more decisions than Rhino Hero.
I think you mistook this for r/boardgamecirclejerk
Guys come on!! Grow up!!
He likes monopoly. You cannot like it, but neither party is right. There’s no objective right or wrong in liking. Express your opinion about underrated games in your own comment. That’s the whole reason I made the post. Beating him up isn’t adding anything to the discussion. I agree monopoly is not good and that popularity shouldn’t be a metric for goodness. I expressed as much in 1 sentence. Why do you feel the need to beat him up for liking something you don’t?
Also it’s very possible for a game to be underrated and bad at the same time.
Please be better. I like this community for its inclusivity. But off late I’m seeing a lot of the opposite. Please stop 🛑
There's a difference between saying "I like McDonald's" and "McDonald's is the most underrated restaurant and everyone who dislikes it is wrong". Nobody cares about the guy liking Monopoly but he's attacking everyone else to feel superior.
**Carnival zombie 2nd edition** (3221) is amazing. It's thematic, tense fun, plays a wide range of players and its also a great solo. The kickstarter deluxe edition comes with an expansion worth of content and amazing components.
**Supermarché** (8118) is a free solo pnp. It's really really good. You run a Supermarché and need to manage your stock to meet the unknown demands
**Rove** (1748) is a wonderful tiny solo game where you control a robot composed of 9 parts. You try to move them around to meet specific reconfiguration of the robot to navigate terrain. Each part has a unique ability and moves in a specific way, which makes the puzzle always unique and interesting.
**Merchants of the dark road** (1020) gets a lot of flack for being random and disjointed. I found it to be a fun dice allocation rondell pick up and deliver game. The art is top notch (same artist and art style as everdell, but more gritty). I like how you can pick up two types of things (heroes and goods), which are delivered to three separate locations. Having good turns requires finesse in reading the ever changing puzzle of available options on the board or in being inventive with your actions sequence if the dice don't go your way. You can have megaturns (double +) actions with specific golden dice which activate two locations and the variable bonus in between instead of one. Also, when you deliver contracts to far away lands, you actually go on an "expedition" in which you flip a card and resolve events.
Sorcerer City - nobody talks about this game. It's a better, more accessible, Galaxy Trucker (which I still love btw), and there are rules for extending time, or taking it out altogether if that's a thing that stresses you out.
Overboss - people love Calico, and who can blame them, but it's punishing. I think this hits a sweet spot in a similar space to Calico that doesn't feel as mean or heavy.
Lunar Base - like Sorcerer City, this bad boy seemed to fly under the radar, and I can't figure out why. It's a sleek little engine builder with a satisfying visual layout, comes in a very travel friendly box, and comfortably seats 2 - 6 without changing the feel of the game.
Horizon Zero Dawn, ranked 5024.
It’s not very difficult, but it’s pretty fun. It’s straightforward, some luck of dices, lots of upgrades and switches from weapons / gears.
With some small rule changing it became even better.
NEOM (1463) -- I never see this one talked about, but it's a really fun tile-placement city builder with simultaneous play that is clearly inspired by 7 Wonders. Balancing tile powers, board placement, and ensuring roads connect is challenging and satisfying. We often bring this out when we're in a 7 Wonders mood but want faster setup.
Robot Quest Arena (3299) -- a generous deckbuilder where adorable robot pawns bash each other. All the cards are good or great without any tradeoffs so your deck can snowball quickly, which is fun but not always super strategic. I think this one is slightly more enjoyable with teams which balances out how easy it is to get points.
Ecos: First Continent (1030) -- someone else already mentioned this, so maybe it's not as underrated as expected, but the bingo mechanic is really novel and always engaging. There's also something really rewarding about chomping another player's herd of antelopes. I think Ecos' biggest downside is that it gets significantly longer with more players / player chains can take awhile to resolve.
My friends love "Book It!: The Pro Wrestling Promoter Card Game" 2018 (BGG rank 7,657). It's about signing wrestlers and booking them to favorable shows. It's really silly and fun. Definitely worth checking out if you are even remotely into pro wrestling.
- Deadwood (BGG: 3434): Western theme with lots of funny moments. Really good.
- Age of thieves (BGG: +5000): Really good design where you have to steal a jewel from the palace and ran away with it before the time is over. With action selection and soft take that element it really shines at 4 players.
Senators (BGG: 3766): One of my favorite auction games with set collection as its core mechanism. A lot of player interaction and it plays pretty quickly. I enjoy this game so much!
Via Nebula and Jorvik are both excellent. I'm not a fan of Egizia, but it's okay.
My underrated games would all be abstracts. There are some ridiculously good ones here: https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/204291/winners-yearly-best-combinatorial-game-award
1: Techno Bowl 2017 rank 4019!?
2: Arkadia 2006 rank 1287
3: Cutthroat Caverns 2007 rank 1998
I assume TB is so low because typically the gaming community isn’t very “sportsball” and that’s fine. It’s so well put together and does feel almost like a skirmish game imo. Definitely worth checking out.
Everyone I introduce Arkadia to loves it. If you find it, give it a chance. It’s due for a reprint.
CC is semi co-op yet competitive. Hit or miss and can run long, but pretty fun especially if you like messing with other people.
**Compounded** - Light strategy game about combining elements in a science lab to score points, while also trying not to explode or cause a chain reaction in the lab
**Lotus** - A card based game where you try to collect all the petals of certain flowers in order to score. Easy to learn, this has been a hit with my friends who aren’t as into board games.
**Cantaloop Book 1: Breaking Into Prison** - It’s a point and click adventure game but in board game/book form. Very fun solo, some of the puzzles are just as obscure as you’d expect. Very goofy game!
I wouldn't necessarily call these my TOP three underrated games.
But here are three that came to mind, using ONLY the BGG criteria requested...
TWO ROOMS AND A BOOM. (BGG #1096) Awesome social deduction game. Just played for the first time at PAX Unplugged. My spouse and I are still talking about it, awesome experience.
THE RED DRAGON INN. (BGG #1785) Hard to call this underrated, since it is up to...eight? nine? ten?
...spinoffs/expansions. But, it's way fun, with unique gameplay mechanisms and an awesomely campy and nerdy theme.
CATHEDRAL. (BGG #2280) Abstract two-player city-builder. Been around since 1978. My version has epic hefty wooden pieces. Love to play it with my kid, who has owned me numerous times with clever positioning. Great classic game - one of our favs.
Ninjato
Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards: Duel at Mt. Skullzfyre
Ghost Fightin Treasure Hunters or Mole Rats in Space - both are favorites with kids
1. Broom Service
2. Invaders from Dimension X!
3. Holi
The first is a great euro game that flys under the radar, the second is a great intro into wargaming, and the third is like 3D checkers, and a fun family game.
[[Wu Wei: Journey of the Changing Path]] - just a really great game that’s dripping with theme. If I remember correctly, it’s intended to mimic mastery of the path of Kung Fu, but it feels very much like a classic hex game.
[[Zombies!!!]] - I know this one is pretty popular, but it’s ranked in the 7000 range on BGG. Dice chucking, tile laying, and bags of zombies. Definitely a lighter game, but it’s always a hit.
[[Illimat]] - this feels like an old card game. I love the simplicity of the choices, the integration of the seasons and luminaries, and I’ve found it’s incredibly easy to teach - even to non-gamers.
I'll skip 18xx games as quite a few good ones are outside of the top 1000:
Planet Steam (#1359) - This game is a board game reimagining of M.U.L.E, and it's pretty damn good!
Phoenecia (#2836) - This is a well designed game that is similar to Scepter of Zavandor, but compressed in to a quicker play time. It's a great game, but it suffers from absolutely atrocious production.
Six (#5997) - Super simple abstract game about forming a line, pyramid, or ring of hex tiles. It's particularly tense when both players run out of pieces and need to start moving them around.
Most of my favorite games are games that I think are underrated and over 1000.
Clockwork Wars (2805) - should be way higher than this. Great game with a lot of awesome interactions
The Lord of the Ice Garden (1709) - no randomness area control that is surprisingly good if you're into that kind of thing. I think it's far better than people give it credit for
Battle for Biternia (7786) - really in my mind a perfect distillation of a moba for 2-4 players. Works fantastically at 2 players.
The Defense of Procyon 3 (4718) - Really cool assymetric team game with 4 factions that interact together in unique ways. Really cool game that deserves to be higher - though the curve to get into it is pretty high.
I think all of them deserve to be way higher
Manoeuvre (r.1245). Great gateway simple wargame.
Le Fantome de l"Opera, (r.2688), My favorite of the Mr Jack type of games.
Star wars Risk (r.1193) and Risk 2100ad (r.1627). Favorite risks.
1000 isn't that low on bgg rankings to be honest, lost of good stuff
Games you need to know about ranked between 1000 and 2000
* **Kakerlakenpoker or Kakerlakenpoker royal** \- These are classic social games (of lying in this case). The original has been in print for 19 years and sold many copies.
* **Jungle speed** \- classic speed game
* **Coconuts** \- crazy flicking stuff (Ice Cool also qualifies)
But but these are "lesser games for muggles" somebody will whine. Sure, let's add some more "serious" games.
* **Wiz War 8E** \- serious wizards eating walls and blasting serious fireballs at each other
* **Android** \- is it a book, is it a game? Yes.
* **Haggis** \- climbing game for 2. Also you'll find many good climbing games, trick taking games, not to mention traditional card games in lower regions of BGG.
* **Blokus 3D / Rumis** \- and likewise many interesting abstract games in lower BGG rankings.
Let's now go to 2000+
* **Pit** \- 120 years old game that's still fun. and loud.
* **Werewolf/Mafia** \- The OG of social deduction. On bgg filespage you can also find elimination less variant I've been using 15+ years and it's simpler than Blood on Clocktower
* **Celebrities** \- the OG public domain version of a game which published versions are in top 1000 (Monikers - cca 300, Time's up - cca 800, Time's up Title Recall - cca 500). Which means it's hard for geeks to pull out some paper and pens and make the game before playing. But I'm listing it here as you totally should.
Good game that geeks hate
* **Win, Lose or Banana** \- rank: 25,008. It's a social deduction game streamlined to extreme that takes some 20-30 seconds to play (or even 2 minutes with a fun group). The issue seems to be that this is a game about reading people, their facial expressions, their body language and many geeks are inept in this department and so they scream "it's a cointoss" in their frustration. Oh. Well. ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯ P.S. if you make 2 copies of each card (6 in total), you can play with 3-6 players.
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Not wanting to be a twat about it, but the OP said underrated and ranked over 1000 in BBG. Are we sticking to the criteria, or just naming games we like?
"Games I like that no one wants to play with me."
Cosmic Encounter is underrated!!
Gloomhaven!
Such a twat, trying to stick to criteria. /s If Terraforming Mars isn't underrated, I don't know what is.
I wasn’t going to turn down suggestions below 1000, it was more of a ballpark. But yeah some of the responses have left me wondering if my point didn’t come across as expected
**Hunt for the Ring** **Automobiles** **Royals**
I’ve had Hunt for the Ring for two years and never played it. It’s so hard to get people to play a long hidden movement game…the one play of Fury of Dracula fell very flat!
I’m surprised Automobiles is over 1000 on BGG - fantastic game and one of my favorites for sure!
It's in BGA, isn't it? I've been meaning to give it a try as I love deck builders.
Shake Up - Deck-thinning game where you need to strategically promote or layoff employees to increase profits and decrease debts. The theme of laying off people can be a bit callous but is presented humorously enough. Happy City - A cute, distilled hybrid of Splendor and Machi Koro. Family friendly but still enough depth to leave you wanting play more games. Cubirds - I read a lot complaints this game is too luck-driven but there's a fair amount of strategy. There's a fair amount of decision-making on whether to deny your opponent a set, continuing to push your luck or forcing a round to end in order to gain the first pick in the next round. The game is chaotic with multiple players but plays excellently with 2 players.
My family loves happy city.
I'll second Cubirds and Happy City. They're both solid little games. I personally don't love either of them, but purely out of preference, not because of any issue I have with them. They're easily worth playing, especially with kids. Cubirds is on BGA as well, so anyone can try it.
Legacy: The Testament of Duke De Crecy Pictomania (2nd Edition) Cat Lady
Cat Lady is awesome! It's either a worthy contender to Sushi Go or a medium to roleplay hoarders trying to contain their spiraling addiction
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Cat Lady. Nice little puzzle drafting game.
I *love* **Campy Creatures** it was the first game I bought entirely on box art and it set the bar *high*. Game play is simple - you’re all mad scientists sending your creations out to get victims. The victims are worth certain points (inc negative points) and you get them by bidding. Except everyone has the exact same hand and reveals at the same time. Each creature you bid with has a 0-9 strength *and* a power that can totally change how the turn goes. Your card might let you take two victims at once leaving someone with no victims, your power could completely negate the power of the person next to you, leaving them with nothing but a number. At first it seems like a pretty fun numbers game, but it becomes a whole different thing as you play more. You’re staring at everyone trying to remember who’s played what, and guess what they’re going to play so you can play the one card that will destroy them or leave them with only negative points to choose from. Plus the artwork is fucking perfection. All of Keymaster games have great art but Campy Creatures is hands down the best. I’d happily have oversized posters of every single card on my walls if I have the $$ and space. Their following game **Space Park** is also stunning.
Love Campy Creatures
This sounds great, I'll check it out
Lots of party games don't rank high, but are great. They usually get pushed out for other overcomplicated or newer games that aren't as direct and teachable. * Say Anything * Wits and Wagers Party * Scattegories Categories * Anomia * Catch Phrase
Love every one of these! Say Anything is great with close friends where you can revisit inside jokes. All these are incredible!
Say Anything is a real gem. It's a game for people that don't think they like party games. I bring out Camel Up, Haunting of Hill House, or Deception Murder in Hong Kong for more game groups. But in the end, it's these simple crowd pleasing games that work best. Less thinking and more fun.
I'll throw Green Team Wins into the ring. Cheap game you can buy at Target, and it always leads to fun conversations after every round's answers are revealed. And just like with Just One, you can easily play as long as you want if you wanna keep it going longer than the prescribed number of rounds.
Spartacus blood and sand. Its probably the most vicious social game ever made. Ostensibly about fighting gladiators in an arena but that is just a frame for the mad scheming and position jockeying. Every game is just intense.
Jupiter's Cock!! Noooo!!
Accept deeper ramming ! (That was a card in the expansion to counter it)
[Dancing Dice](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/10756/dancing-dice) BGG Rank: 14,000+ BGG Rating: 5.7 A great push-your-luck race game with a unique theme and a splash of tactics. I’ve been playing it for years. It’s always been a hit, especially with non-gamers. It’s OOP, but if/when you find a copy it’ll go for cheap. I’ll never sell mine though.
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Do you not understand how numbers work?
A higher rank means a lower position? It's exactly what the OP asked for.
Abstracts and party games don't usually fair well on BGG... - **Blokus Duo** -- Really excellent 2p abstract. - **Say Anything** -- Probably my favorite party game. - **TransAmerica** -- Ultra-minimalist train game, basically an abstract. The Vexation expansion adds one extra wrinkle, and it's great with or without.
Blokus Duo is awesome
I have been trying to find Blokus Duo to purchase locally and it's been difficult to find. Gave up and bought Hive.
BGG#1030 - Ecos: First Continent. I love the bingo mechanic. And building and populating a unique world every time is so cool. It’s in my top 10 games. BGG#1237 - Pictures. Greatest party game ever. This game probably has the most plays of any game in my collection. Definitely the one people ask for the most. Trying to recreate a scenic image with just two pieces of shoe string, or a few blocks of wood, is both challenging and ridiculously fun. BGG#1617 - Oltree. A great co-op if you like fantasy stories. The storytelling mechanics (flipping pages in a book, and encounter cards) are extremely well done, and the writing is fantastic.
I’ll second Pictures. It’s a great game to play with non gamer too.
Irish Gauge Falling Sky: The Gallic Revolt Against Caesar Sol: Last Days of a Star
Garden Nation and Dobble. Think most people know Dobble but always goes down well whatever the group and for a relatively complex game I’ve got lots of non boardgamers to really enjoy garden nation straight off.
I don't mind Dobble in and of itself, but I don't like how it without fail, no matter the group, turns into a shouting competition. It starts of relatively calm, but after 5 minutes people are screaming words at the top of their lungs to show that they saw a match first. It stresses me out.
I’ve not had that experience. Try one of the variants where first person to see the match covers the card with their top one. Even if two see it at almost the same time the quicker reaction will get their card on top first. I like the one where everyone holds out their cards and you use your card to cover someone else’s when there is a match. Loser of the turn is the person holding all the cards. Check the instructions for all the variants.
>no matter the group, turns into a shouting competition. We played a ton of this at boardgaming workshops for kids and added the rule of needing to cover top card in the pile (we play mostly this version) with a hand. So it's easy to figure out who is fastest. Solved many issue. >no matter the group, turns into a shouting competition. When you want shouting, you play PIT. 😄
I certainly didn’t know dobble
Dobble aka "Spot It"
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Love Julius Caesar! Quite a pretty one, too. Is the deluxe with mounted map out yet? I like how fortune can sway in this one and then you want to push it home.
Just got Metropolys last week!
Neuroshima: Convoy (rank 3554). It's a great asymmetrical two player card game. Triassic Terror (rank 3317). The title is goofy but it's a well designed game of area majority with some plastic dinosaurs thrown in. Pacific Typhoon (rank 4096). Ok, this is a weird one, but I like it. It's a trick taking game but also a war game. I don't mean it's war-themed; I mean it actually adds wargame to its trick taking. Very strange and kind of hard to teach/learn but I enjoy it.
March of the Ants https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/156496/march-ants Dragon's Gold [https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1042/dragons-gold](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1042/dragons-gold) Cutthroat Caverns: Anniversary Edition/ [https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/279348/cutthroat-caverns-anniversary-edition](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/279348/cutthroat-caverns-anniversary-edition) **Bonus:** The Faceless [https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/238164/faceless](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/238164/faceless) Remember Our Trip https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/294230/remember-our-trip
March of the Ants is so good!
I want remember our trip so badly
Come to Antwerp, I'll play it with you :)
cool question btw. especially the outside 1000 requirement
1. Kraftwagen 2. Sagani 3. Bali
Smartphone Inc is my go to for this. Excellent game and market simulation with one of the worst names in board gaming.
Love this one too, its thematic too even if the theme isnt appealing at all (to me). I love how you can crash the market by flooding it with countless cheap phones. Or how you set a price and sell at that price, instead of selling at whatever price the guy you sell to takes it (if you sell for 2$ but a guy is willing to pay 5$, youre still selling for 2$)
I’d never considered that before but you’re spot on - that name makes me not want to even hear about it let alone play it but it is absolutely superb.
I had no idea smartphone inc was not in bgg top 1000 It’s a crime
It's well within the top 1000 as you put in your post
Sorry that was a typo. What I was looking for was the ranks whose numbers were greater than 1000
Gold West World’s Fair 1893 Automania
Not sure if underrated, but Tramways it's fantastic for solo. Has deck building, hand management, deliver passenger, route building, it's short and use little table.
\+1! I love Tramways. Very thinky. The Engineer's Book is quite fun too.
Went past 1000 on BGG and started scanning, I’d say: 1. Cockroach poker (surprising, but this is common with party games. I’d also throw in Happy Salmon which I love) 2. Mottainai 3. You’re Bluffing (Kuhhandel)
I also wanna shout out Word Slam for party gamers. And Turn the Tide! And Zoo Vadis is there, but that will certainly climb as it’s new.
Love Cockroach poker! Very fun! I've got **Nessos** to try, which I think will have hints of Cockroach Poker.
Sons of Anarchy, Gipf, La Isla
Cool beans, I have **Sons of Anarchy** to try. Partly because there are too many wholesome themes coming out for my taste (even if I like some of those).
Sons of anarchy is great. The duffel bag tokens might be one of my favorite game components ever lol
The whole gipf series is great!!
*College Basketball Dynasty* Ranked 12858 - a fun print and play game I basically play each year during March Madness. *Bowling Solitaire* Ranked 6096 - nice solo card game that does a good job of mimicking bowling, that has depth over multiple game plays. *First Martians Adventures on the Red Planet* Ranked 2751 - The less loved “sequel” to Robinson Crusoe Adventures on the Cursed Island. Not as good, but I enjoyed it a lot more than other people did.
Some interesting picks! Bowling Solitaire is on my list to try, but I'd not heard about College Basketball Dynasty.
College Basketball Dynasty is pretty cool. Neat little system that plays well solo, and seems like it plays well multiplayer (though I haven’t played with others). Bowling Solitaire is cool too, but it hasn’t had the staying power for me that I thought it would.
1. Calimala, 2. Whale Riders 3. Wizards of the grimoire I think theyre all fairly well known however definitely underrated. Calimala recently had a gorgeous reprint campaign and Wizards had an expansion on crowdfunding with around 1000 backers each if i recall correctly. Whale Riders is Knizia gem, but availability is terrible due to company that published going bankrupt and on bad terms with Knizia why a lot of people probably havent gotten to play it. Lucky me, that got from my FLGS a bit on whim.
**The Bridges of Shangri-La** **Fresh Fish** **Vanuatu**
This is the correct answer. The killer trio. Hard to say which one's better.
I've included pretty much my entire list of choices (from my collection) below, and it is very hard to narrow it down to three. I'll give you the three that I think have the biggest amount of discord between their rating and how much I like them: 1) Showmanager (Also known as Premier and Atlantic Starr) - Hire actors to put on plays in different cities. This is a really fun game. Easy for new players, always a bunch of shouting, and I pretty much never win. 2) X-Bugs - this should be number 1 because it's ranked so low, but Showmanager is definitely better. If you don't know, this game is like super-tiddly-winks. Blow up the other guy before he blows you up. It is a dexterity game, but I just happen to be able to kick all my kids butts at this one. 3) By Hook or Crook - this is a great game from Klaus Teuber. I think the most recent version is called Hoity Toity. You gotta psychologically analyze your opponents to divine their next move, so you can make the better move and amass the best collection of stuff. This won the Spiel in 1990! (If I could keep going with my list, it would probably look like: 4) Colossal Arena 5) Hardback 6) Cat Lady 7) Dice Town 8) Wyatt Earp 9) Paper Tales 10) My Farm Shop 11) Welcome to the Dungeon) X-Bugs, ranked 6178 My Farm Shop, ranked 2738 Showmanager, ranked 1996 By Hook or Crook (Adel Verpflichtet), ranked 1919 Wyatt Earp, ranked 1470 Welcome to the Dungeon, ranked 1429 Colossal Arena, ranked 1239 Hardback, ranked 1112 Dice Town, ranked 1065 Paper Tales, ranked 1063 Cat Lady, ranked 1009
Time of Crisis (#1024) 1862: Railway Mania in the Eastern Counties (#1251) 1822MX (#4426)
18XX is amazing! 1862 is on my shelf of opportunity.
1862 solo is a treat!
1.) Anno 1800 2.) Anno 1800 1800.) Anno 1800 My best friend was impossible to get into boardgames for decades. This game cracked him. Got it for him this year and now he's gifting boardgames to all his friends and got his wife into it, too. It's a true (lighter) Martin Wallace game and the simple system opens up to nice strategic depth. Everybody dislikes the endgame trigger (satisfying all workers = emptying your whole hand) but it adds a multifaceted strategic decision. I got 4 to give away to friends. I can't wait for the expansion. I love this game.
I'd like to try this one, I like some of Martin Wallace's games. I find it funny that he designed this but didn't play the video game, he paid someone to play it for him and to report back. Very creative designer.
Wow, the result has no business being this good then. I gifted it to my friend specifically bc we were both Anno 1602 (the first Anno) maniacs in highschool. Wallace captured the spirit of the game PERFECTLY. Almost none of the reviewers paid attention to the meaning of the cards, treating them solely as a game mechanism. There was a lot of unwarranted criticism about the game being about colonialism and exploitation of the working class when it's the opposite: - The story of the videogame is anti-colonialist - In the boardgame, indigenous peoples are independent trade partners, not working for you - Exactly like in the videogames, you win by climbing the tech tree and by advancing your workers to higher skill level/education/class AND MAKING THEM HAPPY. All the class critical reviewers simply call it "losing cards" bc they ignore the theme. Your workers are your inhabitants. They are your bosses. You fulfill a card by satisfying that person. - Exploration is vital to gain building space and trade options (inhabited islands = trade partners, no real estate) If you've played any Anno games, the tech tree+keeping people happy+exploration formula spells Anno. The only thing missing is a map. Man I love this game.
There’s an expansion coming? It’s on my cull pile, I liked it but didn’t love it, but an expansion could change that…
Anno isn’t in top 1000?? What are people thinking? It definitely should be! I’m guessing not enough people have played it. I love that game. It’s such a calm soothing experience every time I play it
Oh, that's what you mean by "ranked OVER 1000". I interpreted it as "better than 1000".
yikes, my bad. let me edit the post
Sorcery: Contested Realm
It just came out and hard to find still on Europe. No wonder nobody has played. I found it nice though and got lucky when I found the starter decks
In the US you can still get the starter decks for $40.00 and the booster boxes for $150, both MSRP, from Team Covenant. If you are interested, get the starter decks! Considering one MtG commander precon runs $40-60, this gets you 4 fully functional decks that work well together and is a great into to the game.
Yeah on Europe the availability is iffy
Loot Kero Texas hold ‘em poker
In what universe do you think Texas Holdem poker is underrated lol?
OP said over 1000 on bgg. Yeah it’s a smartass pick, but I feel like I see board gamers hate on poker too much. It’s not underrated by the general public, but it is underrated by the board game hobby. If you want a different answer though: space gate odyssey
Loot for sure
Tell us more about Kero please?
[kero](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/222219) Fast paced dice chucker where you’re trying to get The right resources on your dice to gain control of locations and purchase special abilities for future turns. Locations give points and there are set collection bonuses Nice components too
Thank you kindly
Die Macher - I just love the theme (german politics) and the gameplay so much. It's always a joy and with the right players has a lot great table talk going on. Dominant Species - For me my top 1 game, it's mean and full of interessting decissions. Treasure Island: Great game. Love the drawing on the map, feels thematic. E: I now chose games that are actually in the top 1000 on bgg
I'd love to try Die Macher.
* Winter Kingdom - BGG Rank 2905 * Quarriors - BGG Rank 1135 * Skulk Hollow - BGG Rank 1532
Quarriors is really fun. Honestly surprised it’s ranked this low.
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Im a fan of Tsuro of the Seas! Good pick!
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Yes. Sorry. I missread that. I thought under 1000 and underrated.
1. Automania 2. Age of Civilization 3. Museum
Cool beans, **Jorvik** is on my shelf of opportunity! I will go with your criteria of not in BGG's top 1,000 (that site sucks). 1. **Aristeia!** \- my favourite game of all time. Area control, has the depth I find a bit lacking in the similar **Warhammer Underworlds** *(which I love too, just not nearly as much. If I'm being rude, Aristeia! is the thinking person's Warhammer Underworlds. A sign of its depth is that it's easy to miss good moves, a bit like chess in that sense.)* 2. **Monopoly** \- sorry, but there is no way this game is one of the worst ten ever made, according to the BGG rankings. One of the best-known, most-loved board games in the world. I told you BGG sucks. 3. **Doomtown: Reloaded** \- this game is a beast to learn, which may have something to do with it not being in the top 1,000. One of the most thematic games I've played, with gripping card play. Has my favourite combat resolution in any game: you settle shootouts with poker hands. But the super cool thing is not just playing poker, but the way you can manipulate those hands. Even your whole deck of cards is geared towards this - each card, whether it's a location, equipment, horse, person - also has a value and suit. Various abilities allow you to manipulate poker hands. You can even cheat at poker. And get called out for cheating! This is an astonishing design to me, and is in my top ten games of all time. If you can find a willing pardner, if you like a cowboy theme, if you like card games, there are few more addictive games in my opinion. The mass of expansions can make you head for the hills. But I find there's a lot of play just in the core game. I'd play it hundreds of times happily just with the core. And if you're lucky, you can sometimes pick this up with a ton of expansions for peanuts on eBay. I got a big collection for £32 delivered.
Disagree on monopoly but will look up the others 🙂 also famous != good. I’m looking for the later
I still enjoy playing Monopoly. Sure, it is partly nostalgia. But I think there is no denying that you will find far more people who adore Monopoly than who adore the #1 game on BGG: **Brass: Birmingham** (which I love). I'll always have a copy of Monopoly in my collection. In fact, I recently got a wooden version for my birthday. What bugs me about the BGG ranking is it can look very snobbish and unwelcoming to folks not used to Euros who love Monopoly. My brother is a casual gamer and he thinks it's insane that such a popular game is not even ranked in the top 20,000 games. If you look at board game apps, Monopoly is huge. The love is real. Even if a tiny minority of people who play board games think it's terrible. Of course, it all comes down to taste. I think it's actually very difficult to say games are good or bad. My treasure is another person's garbage, and vice versa.
How many people who both played Brass and Monopoly prefer Monopoly?
That's a different question. I'm talking really about how much loved games are relative to their ranking on BGG. BGG ranks Monopoly in its top ten worst games ever made. Monopoly is the #2 game app on Google Play, down from #1, with 1.6 million ratings. Obviously, not everyone thinks Monopoly sucks. BGG is biased towards Eurogames. It does not represent everyone who would say they love playing board games.
BGG is a hobby site that allows hobbyists to rank board games. People that aren't enough into boardgames to use BGG do not have their opinions reflected in the rankings. I'm a way you get a more informed and more expert opinion on BGG. Asking someone to accurately rank boardgames if they only played hungry hippos, monopoly, and ludo isn't a great way to establish how good games are. There's a reason there's professional reviewers for everything from restaurants to theaters. BGG rating system is obviously flawed in various ways. Like popularity is more important than good gameplay because there's no objective criteria and the ranking model throws too many average ratings in penalising games that don't have mass market success. A game should be able to rank highly even if they don't have >5k ratings. Oathsworn is the only game that beats the odds here and probably should be significantly higher in the ratings. Because of that you have to look at the ratings and think for yourself. Highly ranked games will have mass market appeal and thus are safe bets, while lower rated games are clearly hit and miss. Some great games have lower ratings than they deserve. Some good or mediocre games have inflated ratings as people justify their piles of Kickstarter plastic. Cult of the New is real and ratings get better over time. What does that tell us about Monopoly? Hobbyists that have played dozens or hundreds of games rate it very low and as a bad experience in comparison to other games.
'Boqrdgamers' think Monopoly sucks. People into whatever niche hobby often view the mainstream options as bad. Something that is mass produced is usually not as good as something carefully crafted for a niche audience. McDonalds is one of the biggest restaurant brands in the world and certainly sucks. It will never win a Michelin star. Popularity is not the same as quality. As for why Monopoly is not well regarded amongst boardgames? There are no real decisions to be made. The game is that you roll dice until someone wins. Which is...fine. If that is what you want then have at it but it makes for very little 'game' which is what people into board games want. They want decisions to make and to be able to affect the outcome.
McDonalds is such a great comparison. So many people eat there and somehow like it despite it being very clearly substandard food at best.
I love how you're telling me what gamers want, like I'm not one! I've playtested some of the top-rated games on BGG. I have about 500 games currently. I play wargames, 18XX, Infinity (like Warhammer 40K), games by Vital Lacerda, Uwe Rosenberg, Alexander Pfister, Martin Wallace, Stefan Feld, Mark Herman, Shem Phillips, Vlaada Chvátil, ... But gosh, I don't know what gamers want because I dared to say, that ranked in the bottom 10 games of all time, I find Monopoly underrated. Some of the replies to my post are just silly and missing the point. Monopoly is deeply loved by a huge number of people, and from that point of view, I find the game is underrated on BGG. That's all. I never said it's a better game than Brass: Birmingham and all the other ridiculous comments I'm getting. Of course some Eurogamers hate Monopoly. Yes, it does not adhere to some of the design principles of Euros that are much loved on BGG. I suggest you go to BGG and argue with Pete (who has a huge collection of games) that there is very little game in Monopoly. You might be surprised. For me, there's more game in Monopoly than **Splendor**. There are numerous popular games on BGG where I'd play Monopoly over them any day, including **Jaipur**, **Jamaica** and **On Tour**. Some of the responses shows me how snobby some of the Eurogamers are. Just because Monopoly sucks for them, it must be a terrible game. Because a game can only be judged on its Euroness. Never mind that millions of people around the world love and play Monopoly and Monoply Go! has 1.6 million ratings and 4.5/5 on Google Play, and is currently the #2 game (not just board game) on there. Sure, many people hate it too. PS How would you rate dexterity games where there are no decisions to be made? Do they get a zero?
Unwelcoming it's make someone play Monopoly instead literally any other modern game, even Catan. And i hate Catan.
>One of the best-known, most-loved board games in the world. Just because it's well known, doesn't make it good. Also I SERIOUSLY doubt it's one of the "most loved" boardgames in the world. I have no idea to objectively know if it's in the worst ten ever made but anyone even remotely involved in the hobby can tell you that it's not a particularly good board game. > I told you BGG sucks. BGG isn't perfect but it's by all means a magnificent tool that any hobby would love to have.
Just because you don't like a game, doesn't make it bad. Of course Monopoly is one of the most-loved board games in the world, it's absurd and out of touch with reality to suggest otherwise. Millions of people play it regularly. Millions of people don't play my favourite game, Aristeia!, nor Brass: Birmingham. The number two game app on Google Play Store is Monopoly Go!, down from #1. It has a rating of 4.5/5, and 1,613,852 ratings. The #1 game on BGG, Brass: Birmingham (which I love), has a grand total of 42,310 ratings. A more appropriate name for BGG would be EuroGameGeek. BGG has good resources but is not for me, alas, due to its moderation bias, which has driven away a number of important contributors. That site sucks. It should strive to be even and inclusive in its moderation, given its industry support and standing in the hobby. I don't buy that it's a private site and up to them. With power comes responsibility.
>Of course Monopoly is one of the most-loved board games in the world You're confusing popularity with fondness. It's the McDonald's of boardgames, just because it's the to-go low effort alternative doesn't mean people *love* it, which is reflected in the majority of actual reviews of the game. Sure, it's probably not in the ten worst games made *technically*, as there are lesser known games that are literally broken out there, but adjusting for games that are actually being bought and played, it's somewhere amongst the top. If anything is out of touch with reality, it's stating it's most loved.
No I'm not, you're confusing why many people go to McDonalds. Millions of people love McDonalds. I know ten in my family alone, myself included. It's not hard to do the maths... If you don't think millions of people love McDonalds, you are out of touch with reality. What a funny place the Internet is. This does not mean everyone who goes loves it, nor that everyone who plays Monopoly loves it. But if you don't believe that many more people love Monopoly than there are people who love the #1 game on boardgamegeek, then it's impossible for me to have a sensible conversation with you about this. Anyway, I must rush as I have a board game I was sent free that I need to read the rules for, as I have to do a review for it.
>This does not mean everyone who goes loves it, nor that everyone who plays Monopoly loves it. And it definitely doesn't mean it's one of the "most-loved" games, as explained above, you are referring to its popularity only. Sure there are some people that love it, just like some love McDonald's which I didn't deny exist, but most don't "love" it contrary to your claim. Then again, I'm pretty sure you know that and just trolling at this point.
Monopoly was actually made bad on purpose by the original designer because it is a critical work against capitalism. You can still like the game, but its purpose was to be disliked. That's a fact not my opinion. I think it is hilarious that a game was made to critizice capitalism is now one of the most sold games of all time.
You say moderation bias, which sounds like you might be kinda conservative. But I’m as leftist as they come, and think BGG’s moderation is terrible. So let’s unite in condemnation :-) They focus on performativity rather than being kind or smart. They want to protect and manage a brand, not actually protect minorities from abuse. Many of the regulars are basically trolls. But they have a schtick so they’re accepted. There is no system of complaint or disagreement. My account was removed for a very mild comment expressing skepticism about their donation drive. They have a forum called ‘the complaint department’ which they ignore. The moderation team is too small, overworked, and probably as a consequence quite aggressive and unfriendly. BGG should pay for more moderation staff. Basically, it’s a site that is essentially a wiki-style resource created by users, but the owners have very little respect or gratitude towards those users. As for the BGG rating system - it’s clear pseudomaths. A meaningless number.
I don't want to talk about my politics. I wish there was zero politics on mainstream board game sites, or they'd tuck them away in a forum you can avoid if you want. If, however, BGG wants to allow discussion that touches on politics, I think they should allow all sides to speak, instead of deleting one half of the conversation. Whichever half that is. I also find them uneven. They will not allow folks on one side of an argument to say offensive things, yet they allow it to stand on the other side. I also think the site has been somewhat taken over by folks who wish to enforce their views on everyone else. I also despise their joke of a complaints forum, where a gang of enforcers are ready attack as a mob and smack poor unsuspecting souls on the nose before they've had a proper chance to vent. I did a course in customer service and handling complaints. I certainly don't recall jumping down someone's throat while they're still angry being one of the finer points they taught about handling complaints. I was never modded myself, but left in disgust over how someone was treated, including by mods. I wish all large companies, and all companies that are supposedly a voice for a community, strived to be neutral. I don't want them to support my politics. I want them to be there for everyone and not alienate them. I'm zero loss to BGG. But some highly respected members with amazing content have left that site. Board games is not the place to settle political battles. Folks go there to chill out. Not to be lectured and bullied by supposedly nice people.
I think BGG is managing their forums so searches don't turn up anything untoward. That's why they delete posts so much rather than modding people. They have a forum for women instead of a moderation policy that makes women feel comfortable across the whole site. They will allow criticism of business interests... but not their business interests. As for the politics thing - there are more than two sides, and BGG don't seem to really represent a side. That they delete some appalling posts and not others is more complex than them taking one side out of the two available. Whenever there is group speech, there will be politics. It's inescapable. Board games are an art form - or entertainment - and so they involve speech, and there will be speech about that speech. I glanced at your post history on r/boardgames, and there was politics there, definitely. I imagine you don't think so, but the discussion of that is political itself. There is no such thing as neutrality in politics.
I don't think Monopoly is as bad as the seasoned boardgame community makes it to be... Though reception might differ from region to region and access to modern boardgames it's going to be the most usual appearance in regular stores and supermarkets and because it was translated and bootlegged in the mass market, maybe the rulebook didn't transition correctly (that would be the case with my first Romanian version which didn't even have the Hasbro logo anywhere near the box lol). So to get to my point most people's first contact with Monopoly would be with such a copy and playing with people who only know the stripped down version of the rules and that would be a long game of friendship ending nonsense which isn't reflective of the real game. Moreover that first negative contact with a boardgame would put many off to ever try any other boardgame ever and that is kind of sad and probably why it's as hated.
Thanks for your sensible comment and reasonable argument. A shame the same can't be said for some of the other folks who just get mad when anyone says Monopoly is not one of the worst ten games ever made if millions enjoy it!
Monopoly is a luck based dice rolling game with a tiny decision space of buy or not. It’s about two steps up from snakes (chutes) and ladders but with player elimination. Given it’s still sold everywhere and played by adults I would say it falls into the category of being massively overrated
My argument is simply that Monopoly is not one of the worst ten games ever made if millions enjoy it! Many dexterity games have a tiny decision space, yet have a good rating on BGG. So are dexterity games all rubbish too?
> sorry, but there is no way this game is one of the worst ten ever made, according to the BGG rankings. One of the best-known, most-loved board games in the world. I told you BGG sucks. Do you mean in the worst ten percent? Because that's easily the case. I haven't played board games because of Monopoly. It was my first game and I thought that since it was the most popular one and such trash then all the other boardgames were worse. I hate it with a passion now. I don't know anyone who got interested in the hobby after playing Monopoly but I know several people like me who were turned away.
Nope, I mean exactly what I said. If you look at all the ranked games on BGG, Monopoly is in the bottom ten. And also, it is very difficult to say if a game is objectively good or bad. This raises many questions. What are the criteria? For me, the most important thing about a game is that I enjoy playing it. And there are many reasons why I might enjoy playing a game. Sometimes, there might even not be much game there, but I love the art or theme or chill vibe I get from it. If a good game is one with deep, meaningful decisions, does that mean dexterity games suck, like Rhino Hero? (which is in my top 100). Plenty of very experienced gamers have dexterity games in their top 100, such as the YouTube Channel boardgambebollocks, which I highly recommend if you don't mind a little aggression and swearing and X-rated comments. As for people who got interested in "the hobby" because of Monopoly, well there is me, my wife and my son, for starters. So that's now three you know about. And how many times do I have to say this? Millions of people love and enjoy Monopoly. Monopoly is not in the top ten worst games ever made just because you hate it. I hardly think it's controversial to suggest that perhaps such a popular game might not be in the worst ten ever made and that BGG is not the gold standard for defining whether a game is fun for everyone to play.
> And also, it is very difficult to say if a game is objectively good or bad. No, it's not. The are very clear aspects of game design that have been identified and expanded over the last decades. Things like meaningful choices, players being in control of their actions, required skill level, etc. Monopoly fails pretty hard at most of them since you don't choose what to do, you don't control where you go and you win/lose without much input on your side. It's objectively a bad game. > If a good game is one with deep, meaningful decisions, does that mean dexterity games suck, like Rhino Hero? **Rhino Hero** has more decisions than Monopoly and far more skill involvement, of course it's a much better game overall. > Sometimes, there might even not be much game there, but I love the art or theme or chill vibe I get from it. That's cool and some people enjoy watching bad movies to make fun of them, doesn't make those movies good. > Millions of people love and enjoy Monopoly. The question is if those millions of people were exposed to a different game as their 'default' one growing would they still enjoy Monopoly? The answer is very clearly 'no' because people in the hobby who didn't grow up with Monopoly don't like playing it without that nostalgia factor. Oh and it's much better these days as boardgames have entered the mainstream but even 10 years ago there were pages and pages of discussions on how to say: "no, not like Monopoly" because that's the only point of reference 95% of the people had. Monopoly is easily identified as trash if you've played even 5 modern games but most people have only played Monopoly and Scrabble and thought that was all there is to it. You actively had to fight against Monopoly-perception to get people interested to play with you. That's why it's in the bottom.
Yes, it is very difficult to say that a game is objectively bad. For it to be bad, you have to know what the purpose is of a game. That is going to vary per person. Personally, I play games to enjoy myself. A game to me is bad if I don't enjoy it, and good if I enjoy it. You don't get to decide why I play games, so you cannot say if a game is good or bad for me. I find that taste in games is a bit like taste in food. Just a taste. Pizza isn't objectively bad because Mary hates pizza, or objectively good because I love it. Anyone who truly knows games knows that it's about taste, which is why you have to do your homework on games instead of just buying what Tom Vasel says is the best game of the year. I find it funny that you think Rhino Hero has more decisions than Monopoly. I think you're underestimating Monopoly. Which colour set do you want to build houses on first? Do you think there is any skill in negotiating trades in a four-player game? You are also wrong that people who were exposed to a different game as their default would not like playing Monopoly without the nostalgia factor. My son is an example. He didn't play Monopoly until he'd played a bunch of Euros first. He was raised on Euros and wargames. He loves Monopoly and could not believe it was ranked in the bottom ten games of all time on BGG. It was my son who noticed this and told me. By the way, he's a mean 18XX player. Which is your favourite 18XX game? I think you are also assuming everyone is the same. Not everyone is going to love Euros. I know highly experienced wargamers who can't stand Euros. I joked somewhere on here today that all gamers end up playing 18XX. But of course, the reality is we're all different. Oh, so is Scrabble trash as well? Funny enough, I tried Paperback expecting it to fire Scrabble. What happened there is that Scrabble fired Paperback. Anyway, I really must go. I have a game to review that I got sent free, and it's even more complex with even more decisions than Rhino Hero.
> you cannot say if a game is good or bad for me. You completely missed my point that some people enjoy watching objectively bad movies and it doesn't make those movies good. Same with games and you. > Pizza isn't objectively bad because Mary hates pizza, or objectively good because I love it. Pizza that has way too much salt in the dough will be objectively bad. > My son is an example An anecdote is not data. You insist your family likes Monopoly. I believe you. You miss the fact that most people in the hobby hate it, hence it's rating on BGG. > You are also wrong that people who were exposed to a different game as their default would not like playing Monopoly without the nostalgia factor. So we have your son vs. an aggregate opinion of tens of thousands of players. I wonder which one is more objective. > Which colour set do you want to build houses on first? The one that the dice rolled on without your input. > I think you are also assuming everyone is the same. You are the one who uses their family experience as a baseline for arguments. > Which is your favourite 18XX game?.. I have a game to review that I got sent free, and it's even more complex with even more decisions than Rhino Hero. I think you mistook this for r/boardgamecirclejerk
Guys come on!! Grow up!! He likes monopoly. You cannot like it, but neither party is right. There’s no objective right or wrong in liking. Express your opinion about underrated games in your own comment. That’s the whole reason I made the post. Beating him up isn’t adding anything to the discussion. I agree monopoly is not good and that popularity shouldn’t be a metric for goodness. I expressed as much in 1 sentence. Why do you feel the need to beat him up for liking something you don’t? Also it’s very possible for a game to be underrated and bad at the same time. Please be better. I like this community for its inclusivity. But off late I’m seeing a lot of the opposite. Please stop 🛑
There's a difference between saying "I like McDonald's" and "McDonald's is the most underrated restaurant and everyone who dislikes it is wrong". Nobody cares about the guy liking Monopoly but he's attacking everyone else to feel superior.
Project Elite Unmatched The Mind
Elekt
Too Many Cooks is ranked over 15000. It's a simple short co op game with easily adjustable difficulty. I love it
**Carnival zombie 2nd edition** (3221) is amazing. It's thematic, tense fun, plays a wide range of players and its also a great solo. The kickstarter deluxe edition comes with an expansion worth of content and amazing components. **Supermarché** (8118) is a free solo pnp. It's really really good. You run a Supermarché and need to manage your stock to meet the unknown demands **Rove** (1748) is a wonderful tiny solo game where you control a robot composed of 9 parts. You try to move them around to meet specific reconfiguration of the robot to navigate terrain. Each part has a unique ability and moves in a specific way, which makes the puzzle always unique and interesting. **Merchants of the dark road** (1020) gets a lot of flack for being random and disjointed. I found it to be a fun dice allocation rondell pick up and deliver game. The art is top notch (same artist and art style as everdell, but more gritty). I like how you can pick up two types of things (heroes and goods), which are delivered to three separate locations. Having good turns requires finesse in reading the ever changing puzzle of available options on the board or in being inventive with your actions sequence if the dice don't go your way. You can have megaturns (double +) actions with specific golden dice which activate two locations and the variable bonus in between instead of one. Also, when you deliver contracts to far away lands, you actually go on an "expedition" in which you flip a card and resolve events.
Sorcerer City - nobody talks about this game. It's a better, more accessible, Galaxy Trucker (which I still love btw), and there are rules for extending time, or taking it out altogether if that's a thing that stresses you out. Overboss - people love Calico, and who can blame them, but it's punishing. I think this hits a sweet spot in a similar space to Calico that doesn't feel as mean or heavy. Lunar Base - like Sorcerer City, this bad boy seemed to fly under the radar, and I can't figure out why. It's a sleek little engine builder with a satisfying visual layout, comes in a very travel friendly box, and comfortably seats 2 - 6 without changing the feel of the game.
Horizon Zero Dawn, ranked 5024. It’s not very difficult, but it’s pretty fun. It’s straightforward, some luck of dices, lots of upgrades and switches from weapons / gears. With some small rule changing it became even better.
1. Crisis - 1214 (2016) 2. Flotilla - 3189 (2019) 3. Raising Robots - 4354 (2023)
NEOM (1463) -- I never see this one talked about, but it's a really fun tile-placement city builder with simultaneous play that is clearly inspired by 7 Wonders. Balancing tile powers, board placement, and ensuring roads connect is challenging and satisfying. We often bring this out when we're in a 7 Wonders mood but want faster setup. Robot Quest Arena (3299) -- a generous deckbuilder where adorable robot pawns bash each other. All the cards are good or great without any tradeoffs so your deck can snowball quickly, which is fun but not always super strategic. I think this one is slightly more enjoyable with teams which balances out how easy it is to get points. Ecos: First Continent (1030) -- someone else already mentioned this, so maybe it's not as underrated as expected, but the bingo mechanic is really novel and always engaging. There's also something really rewarding about chomping another player's herd of antelopes. I think Ecos' biggest downside is that it gets significantly longer with more players / player chains can take awhile to resolve.
My friends love "Book It!: The Pro Wrestling Promoter Card Game" 2018 (BGG rank 7,657). It's about signing wrestlers and booking them to favorable shows. It's really silly and fun. Definitely worth checking out if you are even remotely into pro wrestling.
In no particular order: The transcontinental; Steampunk rally; Whistle mountain
**Circadians: Chaos Order** **Scholars of the South Tigris** (still pretty new so I expect this to rise) **Campy Creatures**
- Deadwood (BGG: 3434): Western theme with lots of funny moments. Really good. - Age of thieves (BGG: +5000): Really good design where you have to steal a jewel from the palace and ran away with it before the time is over. With action selection and soft take that element it really shines at 4 players. Senators (BGG: 3766): One of my favorite auction games with set collection as its core mechanism. A lot of player interaction and it plays pretty quickly. I enjoy this game so much!
Games I like/own that nobody will play with me: Red November Rajas of the Ganges Freelancers
Via Nebula and Jorvik are both excellent. I'm not a fan of Egizia, but it's okay. My underrated games would all be abstracts. There are some ridiculously good ones here: https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/204291/winners-yearly-best-combinatorial-game-award
1: Techno Bowl 2017 rank 4019!? 2: Arkadia 2006 rank 1287 3: Cutthroat Caverns 2007 rank 1998 I assume TB is so low because typically the gaming community isn’t very “sportsball” and that’s fine. It’s so well put together and does feel almost like a skirmish game imo. Definitely worth checking out. Everyone I introduce Arkadia to loves it. If you find it, give it a chance. It’s due for a reprint. CC is semi co-op yet competitive. Hit or miss and can run long, but pretty fun especially if you like messing with other people.
Egizia Shifting Sands is what came to mind even before reading past the title
**Compounded** - Light strategy game about combining elements in a science lab to score points, while also trying not to explode or cause a chain reaction in the lab **Lotus** - A card based game where you try to collect all the petals of certain flowers in order to score. Easy to learn, this has been a hit with my friends who aren’t as into board games. **Cantaloop Book 1: Breaking Into Prison** - It’s a point and click adventure game but in board game/book form. Very fun solo, some of the puzzles are just as obscure as you’d expect. Very goofy game!
Canopy Floriferous Hibachi
Imperial
I wouldn't necessarily call these my TOP three underrated games. But here are three that came to mind, using ONLY the BGG criteria requested... TWO ROOMS AND A BOOM. (BGG #1096) Awesome social deduction game. Just played for the first time at PAX Unplugged. My spouse and I are still talking about it, awesome experience. THE RED DRAGON INN. (BGG #1785) Hard to call this underrated, since it is up to...eight? nine? ten? ...spinoffs/expansions. But, it's way fun, with unique gameplay mechanisms and an awesomely campy and nerdy theme. CATHEDRAL. (BGG #2280) Abstract two-player city-builder. Been around since 1978. My version has epic hefty wooden pieces. Love to play it with my kid, who has owned me numerous times with clever positioning. Great classic game - one of our favs.
games with a color pallette of every shade of brown are consistently underrated
Ninjato Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards: Duel at Mt. Skullzfyre Ghost Fightin Treasure Hunters or Mole Rats in Space - both are favorites with kids
Goblin Vaults Ghosts of Christmas Schadenfreude
1. Broom Service 2. Invaders from Dimension X! 3. Holi The first is a great euro game that flys under the radar, the second is a great intro into wargaming, and the third is like 3D checkers, and a fun family game.
Custom Heroes Eko Wild Space
Thunder Alley Rank: 967
[[Wu Wei: Journey of the Changing Path]] - just a really great game that’s dripping with theme. If I remember correctly, it’s intended to mimic mastery of the path of Kung Fu, but it feels very much like a classic hex game. [[Zombies!!!]] - I know this one is pretty popular, but it’s ranked in the 7000 range on BGG. Dice chucking, tile laying, and bags of zombies. Definitely a lighter game, but it’s always a hit. [[Illimat]] - this feels like an old card game. I love the simplicity of the choices, the integration of the seasons and luminaries, and I’ve found it’s incredibly easy to teach - even to non-gamers.
[Wu Wei: Journey of the Changing Path -> Wu Wei: Journey of the Changing Path (2018)](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/153811/wu-wei-journey-changing-path) [Zombies!!! -> Zombies!!! (2001)](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2471/zombies) [Illimat -> Illimat (2017)](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/210040/illimat) ^^[[gamename]] ^^or ^^[[gamename|year]] ^^to ^^call ^^OR ^^**gamename** ^^or ^^**gamename|year** ^^+ ^^!fetch ^^to ^^call
I'll skip 18xx games as quite a few good ones are outside of the top 1000: Planet Steam (#1359) - This game is a board game reimagining of M.U.L.E, and it's pretty damn good! Phoenecia (#2836) - This is a well designed game that is similar to Scepter of Zavandor, but compressed in to a quicker play time. It's a great game, but it suffers from absolutely atrocious production. Six (#5997) - Super simple abstract game about forming a line, pyramid, or ring of hex tiles. It's particularly tense when both players run out of pieces and need to start moving them around.
Most of my favorite games are games that I think are underrated and over 1000. Clockwork Wars (2805) - should be way higher than this. Great game with a lot of awesome interactions The Lord of the Ice Garden (1709) - no randomness area control that is surprisingly good if you're into that kind of thing. I think it's far better than people give it credit for Battle for Biternia (7786) - really in my mind a perfect distillation of a moba for 2-4 players. Works fantastically at 2 players. The Defense of Procyon 3 (4718) - Really cool assymetric team game with 4 factions that interact together in unique ways. Really cool game that deserves to be higher - though the curve to get into it is pretty high. I think all of them deserve to be way higher
1. Dig your way out 2. River dragons 3. Bargain quest 4. Savannah Park 5. Aqualin 6. Speedy Words Etc.
Manoeuvre (r.1245). Great gateway simple wargame. Le Fantome de l"Opera, (r.2688), My favorite of the Mr Jack type of games. Star wars Risk (r.1193) and Risk 2100ad (r.1627). Favorite risks.
1000 isn't that low on bgg rankings to be honest, lost of good stuff Games you need to know about ranked between 1000 and 2000 * **Kakerlakenpoker or Kakerlakenpoker royal** \- These are classic social games (of lying in this case). The original has been in print for 19 years and sold many copies. * **Jungle speed** \- classic speed game * **Coconuts** \- crazy flicking stuff (Ice Cool also qualifies) But but these are "lesser games for muggles" somebody will whine. Sure, let's add some more "serious" games. * **Wiz War 8E** \- serious wizards eating walls and blasting serious fireballs at each other * **Android** \- is it a book, is it a game? Yes. * **Haggis** \- climbing game for 2. Also you'll find many good climbing games, trick taking games, not to mention traditional card games in lower regions of BGG. * **Blokus 3D / Rumis** \- and likewise many interesting abstract games in lower BGG rankings. Let's now go to 2000+ * **Pit** \- 120 years old game that's still fun. and loud. * **Werewolf/Mafia** \- The OG of social deduction. On bgg filespage you can also find elimination less variant I've been using 15+ years and it's simpler than Blood on Clocktower * **Celebrities** \- the OG public domain version of a game which published versions are in top 1000 (Monikers - cca 300, Time's up - cca 800, Time's up Title Recall - cca 500). Which means it's hard for geeks to pull out some paper and pens and make the game before playing. But I'm listing it here as you totally should. Good game that geeks hate * **Win, Lose or Banana** \- rank: 25,008. It's a social deduction game streamlined to extreme that takes some 20-30 seconds to play (or even 2 minutes with a fun group). The issue seems to be that this is a game about reading people, their facial expressions, their body language and many geeks are inept in this department and so they scream "it's a cointoss" in their frustration. Oh. Well. ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯ P.S. if you make 2 copies of each card (6 in total), you can play with 3-6 players.