My Ten Favorite Games

A new audio show, "The Tom and Joe Audio Show" featuring Tom Vasal and Joe Steadman has hit the Internet "airwaves." Looks like Mark Johnson's hope that his podcast "Boardgames To-Go" could get something started in terms of boardgame related podcast/audio shows is bearing fruit.

As is my nature, this blog entry is in response to the topic covered by Tom & Joe. (I can't think up of topics on my own. Sad, I know...) In this case it's "Top Ten Games." Well, I don't really have a list of Top Ten Games I can name off the top of my head. But, since I have begun to rate games I've played on BoardGameGeek, I should be able to look at the games I 've rated there and assume that the ten higest rated games are "My Top Ten Games", right?

I currently do not have any games rated "10" on BGG. I'm a "bell curve" kind of guy, and the extremes make me uncomfortable. I haven't yet found a game that is so good, I'll give it a "10" rating. (At least, not for long. I have initially rated some games a "10" but after some thought, I've changed the rating to a lower number.) I have rated games "9" and "8", so that is where my list will come from. Since I have rated multiple games "9" or "8", I'm not going to stick my neck out and say "this is my #1 favorite game, this is my #2 favorite game, etc." Rather, I'm going to change things up and call this my "Ten Favorite Games" list.

The first four games on the list are games I have rated as a "9" on BGG. These are currently the "cream of the crop" as far as I'm concerned. The next six games in my "Ten Favorite Games" list come from among the games I have rated as "8" on BGG. At last I'm going to make a choice and choose six games from the 22 games I have rated an "8".

So, without further ado, here are "My Ten Favorite Games":

• Memoir '44
• Struggle of Empires
• Ticket To Ride
• Ticket To Ride: Europe
• Age of Napoleon
• Around the World in Eighty Days
• Cosmic Encounter
• Pirate's Cove
• Twilight Imperium III
• Blokus

I like all of these games very much. Don't ask me to put them in order from 1 - 10. That would be too difficult and subject to change from day to day.

Something I notice right away is the four out of the ten games are published by Days of Wonder. Is that because the games are new and look neat, or because the games are just really good? (I think it's because the games are really good. But maybe I'm just dazzled by the pretty bits.)

So that's it for now. I expect this list will change shortly, as soon as I've had the chance to play Arkham Horror (the new FFG version), Shadows Over Camelot (another Days of Wonder game) and Louis XIV.