Top 10 Games - Poll #1

[Decar]

If you've been following Carcassonne Central lately, you'll know I've been collecting nominations for the Carcassonne Fan's top 10 games (which are not Carcassonne).  Who better than to ask than you, members of the largest Carcassonne Community!

Nominations are now closed, with a whopping ~166 gaming franchises chosen by you all.  But that does leave us with a difficult question....Which are the top 10 games!

To be clear, I'm not going to attempt to rank all the games, just find those top 10 games we all enjoy.

I'll cut to the chase:  I've grouped the games up randomly into batches of ~20 games.  Every voter has 3 votes they may cast against any games.

You have 7 days to vote, voting will close and The top 3 games will be moved into the next knock-out round.  The other games, will be left forgotten.  Hopefully this will help us determine which games are our most favourite.

Here is today's poll - which will close on the 30th April. 

Don't vote hastily though, now is the time to persuade others to cast their votes wisely and back your game!

Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=3273.0

[dirk2112]

You didn't merge Zooloretto and Coloretto right?  I want to vote for the former, but not the latter.

[Decar]

It's times like this I realize how many more games I've got to play & there are 2 of my nominations here.  Habitats & 7 Wonders Duel.

Habitats, is a lovely game.  Thanks to a Mr Numbers tip off, at Essen 2016, I was introduced to the game by the designer.  Cwali is the publisher and it's a very well produced game for a small kickstarter project.  In the game, you're building a wildlife park with an amazing tile drafting mechanic where each player uses a lovely ceramic animal to select tiles from a tableau by physically walking the board:

Image courtesy of bgg.

Most of the tiles depict animals which require certain types of habitat (ie:grassland/desert/water) in adjacent tiles in order to be scored.
Some other tiles allow you to build observation towers, that score points based on what can be seen from them.
Tiles with roads, which can score you big points when they are connected to the park, but prevent you from playing tiles into adjacent spaces.
All in all, there's a simplicity in the rules, a diversity in scoring (including randomly selected objectives scored at the end of each game phase) and I don't find it irritating that the tiles edges don't have to match (I'm looking at you Isle of Skye).


If I could imagine a terrible world without Carcassonne in it, I'd be content knowing that Habitats was there to make tile-selection and laying a worth-while gaming mechanic.

As for 7 Wonders Duel - this is a tactical card drafting game for 2-players.  What's particularly neat, is the game is broken down into 3-drafts representing an age or epoch of your civilization.  The cards you select allow you to accumulate resources and develop your military, science or cultural advances.  I particularly like having to take a risk and allow cards which were hidden to be flipped, before your opponent's next turn.  Will an unwitting science discovery or military token lose you the game early, or can I build my wonder now and activate an extra turn, to mitigate the risk?  I also really enjoy the 2-player backwards and forwards nature of this 2-player game and its open nature.  There's no hidden information other than the cards neither player can see.

Image courtesy of bgg.

I think I must like drafting games!

[Decar]

You didn't merge Zooloretto and Coloretto right?  I want to vote for the former, but not the latter.

My question was: are these games of similar enough mechanic to be considered the same, or a variant?  I would have thought both games would do better if you unite your forces.

If a franchise makes it through to the final round, we can always have a vote off to determine the best; unless you really do hate one over the other.

[dirk2112]

My question was: are these games of similar enough mechanic to be considered the same, or a variant?  I would have thought both games would do better if you unite your forces.

If a franchise makes it through to the final round, we can always have a vote off to determine the best; unless you really do hate one over the other.

They share a mechanic.  Coloretto is a card game and Zooloretto is a board game.   I don't dislike Coloretto, but after getting Zooloretto,  I wouldn't go back to it.  If 7 Wonders Duel is different enough from 7 Wonders, I think these 2 are different enough to be separate. 

[Decar]

I see now thanks Dirk that makes sense!  Let's keep them different, it sounds like they are mechanically quite different; in much the same way you said 7Wonders and Duel are.

[Whaleyland]

I see now thanks Dirk that makes sense!  Let's keep them different, it sounds like they are mechanically quite different; in much the same way you said 7Wonders and Duel are.

I can confirm that Coloretto and Zooloretto are quite different games. I enjoy them both, but for very different reasons, and my partner only likes the former (despite liking animals and zoos a lot).

[Paul]

Ouch. Non of them are close to being a favourite of mine not to mention I've only played maybe 2 of these games.

[Whaleyland]

Ouch. Non of them are close to being a favourite of mine not to mention I've only played maybe 2 of these games.

I have only played five including Poker and Stratego.

[Decar]

Ouch. Non of them are close to being a favourite of mine not to mention I've only played maybe 2 of these games.

I have only played five including Poker and Stratego.

That leaves you with 3 to vote for

[danisthirty]

Ouch. Non of them are close to being a favourite of mine not to mention I've only played maybe 2 of these games.

Don't feel inclined to vote if it's purely for the sake of it. There will be more polls to come. A lot of them based on the number of submissions...

[Decar]

Indeed, people should be careful not to vote for a game, just because they know it.

The votes are extremely close at the moment; perhaps some people who nominated games will try to persuade you (better than I did) and you'll find a new game to try!

[jungleboy]

These were my votes. Here goes:

Coloretto
This is what a filler game should be - simple, easy to explain, nice artwork, clean gameplay. It's obviously not the deepest game in the world but it's not trying to be. Great fun, plays fast and is great at higher player counts.

Firenze
If you like the tower-placing aspect of the Tower expansion for Carcassonne, then drop whatever you're doing and do whatever you can to find this (out of print) game, because that's basically what the game is - building towers. This is a great Euro game that scales down to two players well (though is a bit long; I recommend using seven seals instead of nine even for two players). You're basically trying to build towers of certain colours at certain heights to claim commissions. There's lots of built-in replayability and it's a great tactile game with the tower-building. I need to play my copy more often.

7 Wonders: Duel
Not much to add beyond what Decar already said. I have put aside my aversion to games with abstract resources to get into the 7 Wonders world. Mechanically (card-drafting) and thematically (ancient monuments), it's right up my alley. I'm hoping to get the Pantheon expansion soon.

[chrismalenurse]

I agree totally with Coloretto, good game and easy to teach. One of the games that my non gaming wife will play.

Valeria card Kingdoms- my wife will play this as well. The play will remind you of Machi Koro, but for me this game is sooooo much better. I like the fantasy theme and the play seems smoother.  I feel this is probably the best game on this list.

Thurn and Taxis- to me this is a step up from Ticket to ride. Still pretty easy gameplay,  but has more thoughtful decision to make.

Many of the listed games I have never played, but from the ones I have played, these would be my choices.

[Decar]

Thanks everyone who's pitched ideas so far!  Hopefully those undecided or stray votes can be put to good use.

It's not too late to change your minds though; it's close at the top!