
“Spiel des Jahres” Game of the Year 2017 winners - bdbm
http://spieldesjahres.com/en/game_archive/2017
======
awjr
One of the more interesting games that, in the UK, had pretty much gone no
where, was "Settlers of Catan". Then, around 1998 IIRC, it got a 10/10 in a
gaming magazine and I think this, very much, spawned the revival of German
board games on the UK games scene.

Before then it really was mainly war games (warhammer et al), RPGs, and card
games (Magic TG from about 1993 onwards).

There are some absolutely fantastic games out there, but just don't buy from
the top X games. Know the size of your play group and buy to suit them.

For example Agricola is a great game, but works best with 3-4 players. My
group has 5 players so it's "ok"
[https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/31260/agricola](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/31260/agricola)

Recent games that have surprised us. If you like poker, Sheriff of Nottingham
and 5 players is exceptionally good fun in a group prepared to be able to put
on silly voices and get into character.
[https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/157969/sheriff-
nottingha...](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/157969/sheriff-nottingham)

Also Camel Up is great for parties (up to 10 people with the expansion) and
kids love it as well but is a lot of fun in groups of 5
[https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/153938/camel](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/153938/camel)

Group dynamic is important in buying the 'right' game but you cannot go wrong
with Settlers of Catan if you can get 4 players.
[https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/13/catan](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/13/catan)

If you have a local game shop, or even better, a local games cafe, you can
usually get a chance to try out a game. Just remember to buy from them. They
are your gateway to a whole new dynamic computer games has pretty much tried
to destroy.

Board games are so so so good these days, just avoid Monopoly. ;)

~~~
wolfgke
> Board games are so so so good these days, just avoid Monopoly. ;)

According to
[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Monopoly_(game)&o...](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Monopoly_\(game\)&oldid=789999945)
Monopoly was intended as a way to demonstrate that an economy which rewards
wealth creation is better than one in which monopolists work under few
constraints.

In other words and put much more harshly: Monopoly is played the right way if
after a short time one player is happily winning and all the other ones are
really angry.

~~~
TeMPOraL
This really should have been written on the box explicitly.

I didn't see the connection until someone pointed it out to me when I was
already an adult. All I have from this game is memories of boredom playing it
with family as a kid.

~~~
jjnoakes
If you were bored playing Monopoly, you were probably not playing with the
real rules (i.e. you had no auctions, you used free parking, etc).

Played correctly, Monopoly isn't a terribly long game, and (usually) once
someone gets ahead, it is a fairly quick steamroll.

~~~
PhineasRex
This comes up every time somebody complains about Monopoly but even with
auctions the game is still far too long and ends well after the winner is
apparent.

~~~
wolfgke
Then the players are probably much too nice.

------
XaspR8d
Kingdomino is perfectly fine, but I felt the SdJ nominees this year were all
pretty safe choices. If anything, I would've preferred Magic Maze, which seems
to be the most unique of the SdJ nominees. Plus, Honshu, which also came out
this year, is a much better bid-and-build-domino-cities game than Kingdomino,
but I understand it's a little more complex than the average SdJ winner.

Meanwhile, Exit winning the Kennerspiel frustrates me. It's a solid design,
and the escape-room-in-a-box can be quite fun, but it's hardly a gamer's game
and the other nominees were incredible.

I guess my takeaway is that the SdJ is built up too much and doesn't reflect
my segment of the hobby very well.

~~~
cableshaft
Honshu is good, but I actually prefer Kingdomino myself. The bidding for turn
order with the cards that form the pool of cards you get to choose from is a
little hard for people to wrap their heads around, and seems a bit arbitrary,
although it does work.

Magic Maze has the whole no-communicating bit going against it, although it
does look interesting and I would like to play it. I'm surprised it got the
nomination, and the nomination alone will bring a lot more attention to that
game, so that's cool.

~~~
XaspR8d
Funny, that is exactly what makes the game delightful for me: the dual-use of
evaluating whether I want to use a card for its bid or try to hang onto it (or
both). But yes, Kingdomino admittedly has a much simpler flow to it there, and
hence is better for a broader audience that the committee is targetting. Also
strictly speaking I don't know if Honshu had a German release this year
anyway?

I totally agree that non-communication is a disappointing game mechanic; it
almost always ends up being quite... _impure_ design-wise? It still ended up
feeling like the most dynamic of the 3 games for me, though admittedly my
opinion of El Dorado is only from one play and word of mouth.

------
peteretep
I'm a digital nomad. I'd like something a bit more exciting than simple card
or dice games, but space is at a bit of a premium. Any recommendations for
games that have a lot of depth (and thus can be played over and over), are
very quick to pick up the basics (so we can teach others), and are physically
tiny (or can be)?

~~~
cableshaft
An iPad. Seriously, most board and card games either have or are in the
process of getting an app nowadays. You can load that sucker up with hundreds
of deep complex games with good A.I. and play them to your heart's content.

Also, a lot of games have a lot of empty space in their box. I've been able to
fit 6 games in the space of a Targi box, for example (great 2 player game
that's deep but small, btw). I think I managed to put Targi, Tides of Time,
Lost Cities, a Smash Up expansion (playable at 2 players), and a couple others
in there.

I'd also recommend a 6 Nimmmt! or a Rage deck (has 6 suits numbered 0-15,
suitable for a lot of modern card games). There are a whole bunch of games you
can play with those decks and they take up no space at all. Also 6 Nimmmt! is
a blast with 6+ players, in my opinion.

Also I'm a game designer, and I find myself bringing out a Rage deck pretty
often to prototype new ideas. It's very versatile. Just did it again for a new
idea yesterday.

6 Nimmmt: [https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/24313/games-playable-
deck...](https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/24313/games-playable-
deck-6-nimmtor-category-5-please-ad)

Rage: [https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/1907/games-playable-
rage-...](https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/1907/games-playable-rage-deck-
not-ccg-please-add)

Some smaller footprint but deeper games I'd recommend are Arboretum, Akrotiri,
Kahuna, Targi, Bohnanza, Noir: Killer vs Assassin, Tichu (can be played with
standard playing cards and 4 marked up jokers, or with the aforementioned Rage
deck.. super deep partner game), Biblios, Armadora, 12 Days, R-Eco,
Condottiere, For Sale (playable with 6 Nimmmt! and some tokens), The Game
(playable with 6 Nimmmt! deck).

~~~
Splines
This is really anecdotal, and I don't have a ton of experience with iPad
versions of board games, but I've tried several on Android and it feels like
all of them are _just slightly_ rough around the edges. It's really hard to
put my finger on it but something about them is just slightly unsatisfying to
use. Maybe it's the performance or lack of snappy animations or sounds.
Hearthstone is one that feels pretty good to play.

~~~
c256
In my experience, this is one of the areas where iOS has a real advantage over
Android -- the iOS games are frequently better polished and put together.
(That's been true every time I've looked -- which I've done multiple times,
but not constantly, so maybe things have/will shift; I dunno.)

------
esquevin
I found TIME Stories to be an expensive box of disappointment. You can play it
only once since there is only one scenario in the box and you need to buy
others after that. You'll be done with it in a couple hours

~~~
splawn
We are in the realm of opinion, so I want to offer a contrasting one. We had a
great time with it, and yes, it was a one-off thing. The scenarios are about
$15 a pop which compared to taking the same group of friends to a movie is a
bargain. (and MUCH more engaging, imo) It is like a multi-player point and
click adventure with light roleplaying elements. I don't know if it should
have won the SDJ, but then again, it didn't. :)

EDIT: added more specific description of what I liked about it, in an attempt
to up the quality of my comment.

~~~
jobvandervoort
Same here, we loved it. Played it together with my partner.

We immediately ordered a second scenario after completing the first. The price
was worth it for us.

------
pfooti
Ah, kingdomino got an award. I got a copy last year from a friend who picked
it up at Essen. It is excellent. Pretty easy to learn, plays in 15 minutes,
hidden depths to strategy. Great gateway game, and not too expensive either.

My only house rules are to remove the bonus points for a full board and
centered castle, and to allow someone to declare a broken board and discard a
tile at any time (instead of discarding their last tile).

~~~
cableshaft
Yeah, I don't like playing with the full board and centered castle for bonus
points variants either. It seems unnecessary in most games, and just punishes
someone who has a slightly less optimal board even further (they're probably
not going to win it anyway).

------
cableshaft
I had a feeling Kingdomino would win it. It feels like a classic pretty much
right out of the box and is really easy to teach people, yet still provides
just enough decisions to engage the brain and be enjoyable. It also has nice
chunky components and a fun spatial puzzle to work out.

I think my copy is going to get played quite a bit in the years to come, and I
don't think I'll be getting rid of it for a long, long time.

------
soVeryTired
Anyone have suggestions for two-player games?

~~~
chryton
\- Jaipur (set collection)

\- Love Letter (any flavor; draw a card and play one)

\- Condottiere (bidding/bluffing game to take over italy)

\- Citadels (drafting)

\- Masquerade (hidden-ish roles; better at two than Coup is)

\- Portal of Heroes (scales well up to 5)

\- Star Realms (deck-building)

\- Splendor (similar to Jaipur but chips rather than cards)

\- Codenames: Duet

~~~
soVeryTired
Lovely, thanks :)

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freewizard
Link should be
[http://spieldesjahres.com/en/game_archive/2017](http://spieldesjahres.com/en/game_archive/2017)

~~~
dang
Ok, changed from
[http://spieldesjahres.com/en/awardwinners](http://spieldesjahres.com/en/awardwinners).
Thanks!

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falsedan
Title should say [2017], all of the winners are
[http://spieldesjahres.com/en/game_archive](http://spieldesjahres.com/en/game_archive)

