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SABG Top 50 List
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Brian Bankler
United States
San Antonio
Texas
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After seeing Tom Vasel's Top 200 (and Snoop's Top 100, and the Hundred, and ..., and ...) I thought about Posting my Top 100. But, well, my ratings are pretty up to date. There are a few games that I rate highly because of nostalgia, and a few lower rated games that I should bump up, but for the most part my Top 100 would be games I rate 8 or higher. Boring. So I stole a cue from "The Hundred" and asked all of the San Antonio Board Gamers to send me their Top 20 games (in ranked order). A #1 vote is worth 40 points, and a #20 vote is worth 21. [So, appearing on two lists is worth slightly more than being on top of one list]. How small (10-20) person groups tastes play out is interesting. Most of the games on this list are common appearances in the group (and on BGG), but others are surprising, and a few omissions surprised me as well! The San Antonio Board Gamers normally meet Monday Nights (at a game store), but often people will host a game night on Friday, or a day on Saturday. San Antonio isn't one of those cities that has a game group for every night of the week, but you could usually get in three sessions a week. And Monday's "Game Night" often starts at 4pm, and sometimes as early as 10am. Unlike most lists, I'm going to start with the #1 game and work down. I find that the best games are usually pretty reasonable choices, and it's always the "just made the cuts" that are interesting! 14 voters submitted lists, with 163 unique games. You can read our blog at http://saboardgamers.blogspot.com/. Stop by if you are in town!
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Posted Fri Sep 28, 2007 4:15 pm
Edited Tue Oct 9, 2007 4:48 pm
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Brian Bankler
United States
San Antonio
Texas
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Power Grid shows up on half the lists to take first place honors. Runaway first place honors.
7 Voters, 244 pts.
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2.
Board Game: San Juan
[Average Rating:7.43 Overall Rank:74]
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Brian Bankler
United States
San Antonio
Texas
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A quick game to start or end a session. Still, San Juan isn't played that often, and I'm surprised its so high (even though I put it on my list).
6 Voters, 196 pts.
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Brian Bankler
United States
San Antonio
Texas
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Another "We don't play often so I'm surprised its so high" (but not nearly as much as San Juan. I guess more people would like to see it more often.
This brings up an interesting point in group dynamics. How often a game gets played is determined not by the vocal proponents, but by the opponents. We have one or two people who veto Puerto Rico, so it doesn't get suggested when they are around. (This applies to a fair number of games on the list).
5 Voters, 172 pts.
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Brian Bankler
United States
San Antonio
Texas
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(Tied with Puerto Rico)
This one surprised me. Not that it's a bad game, but that I've only seen it played once or twice over the last full year. I guess that will be changing now that this list has been published!
5 Voters, 172 pts.
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Brian Bankler
United States
San Antonio
Texas
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Just barely behind the Puerto Rico/ Tigris & Euphrates tie....
There's a reasonable contingent of Wargamers, so its no surprise that the leading hybrid Wargame/Euro/Ameritrash (however you want to classify it) appears.
5 Voters, 171 pts.
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Brian Bankler
United States
San Antonio
Texas
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I wouldn't say this gets played religiously, but a game splitting off outside the core group hours happens fairly often, or people will come early to play out a battle, then join the main group.
5 Voters, 150 pts.
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Brian Bankler
United States
San Antonio
Texas
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I lumped together all the variants. We're mainly playing Marklin recently, which is my personal favorite of the series, but others show up every now and then.
5 Voters, 147 pts.
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Brian Bankler
United States
San Antonio
Texas
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Party Games are well represented. Some members would play this every session, some never play, and most are happy to play every now and then. We usually play Celebrities, but Time's Up sometimes appears.
4 Voters, 143 pts.
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Brian Bankler
United States
San Antonio
Texas
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I haven't seen many plays of this game, but that's probably due to age.
4 Voters, 130 pts.
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Brian Bankler
United States
San Antonio
Texas
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A single-session wargame gets the nod. We sometimes get up a longer full-day multi-player titles, too.
4 Voters, 124 pts.
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11.
Board Game: Ra
[Average Rating:7.73 Overall Rank:28]
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Brian Bankler
United States
San Antonio
Texas
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Ra shows up from time to time. Nice length, handles 3-5 well.
4 Voters, 122 pts.
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Brian Bankler
United States
San Antonio
Texas
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Despite being on several lists, Age of Steam isn't played that often. This may just be the rush of new games (that always seem to push older games out of the way) or the length, or the fact that a few SABGers seem less than enchanted with this one.
4 Voters, 119 pts.
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Brian Bankler
United States
San Antonio
Texas
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No real surprise that this shows up, in any large group of gamers. That being said, when there are multiple people around it's never played.
4 Voters, 115 pts.
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Brian Bankler
United States
San Antonio
Texas
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A fairly recent game that pops up on a few lists and finds its way into sessions. No doubt that being a bit shorter than most Euros helps that out.
3 Voters, 101 pts.
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15.
Board Game: Bridge
[Average Rating:7.53 Overall Rank:128]
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Brian Bankler
United States
San Antonio
Texas
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I don't think this has ever been played at any SABG session ... but three of us are reasonable bridge players. (I think those two facts are related).
3 Voters, 100 pts.
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16.
Board Game: Tichu
[Average Rating:7.73 Overall Rank:38]
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Brian Bankler
United States
San Antonio
Texas
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A few of us have started playing Tichu recently.
3 Voters, 97 pts.
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Brian Bankler
United States
San Antonio
Texas
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Between the group, we've played every card.
3 Voters, 92 pts.
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Brian Bankler
United States
San Antonio
Texas
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Sometimes (not often, but sometimes) you'll wander into an SABG meeting and see a monstrous map spread out over the table. Many long (6+ hour) wargames got a single vote, but a few managed to pick up several proponents.
I combined votes for EastFront and EastFront II.
3 Voters, 90 pts.
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19.
Board Game: Goa
[Average Rating:7.82 Overall Rank:22]
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Brian Bankler
United States
San Antonio
Texas
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While it hasn't made an appearance in the last few months, when the group was growing (in the early/middle part of '06), Goa was the Euro of choice for a few months, and it went from my "played a few times" to a dime fairly quickly for me, and a few others.
3 Voters, 90 pts.
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Brian Bankler
United States
San Antonio
Texas
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I picked up a copy earlier this year, and I've played 25 times. Several others have ordered copies (pending the new release).
3 Voters, 86 pts.
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Brian Bankler
United States
San Antonio
Texas
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A longer game doesn't usually get many votes, and I don't think I've seen HotW played, but it has some devotees.
3 Voters, 85 pts.
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Brian Bankler
United States
San Antonio
Texas
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I played this for the first time early this summer and thought it was pretty good, but some SABGers really like this.
3 Voters, 82 pts.
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23.
Board Game: Acquire
[Average Rating:7.49 Overall Rank:62]
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Brian Bankler
United States
San Antonio
Texas
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I suspect that if we had done this list in a few months, this would move up. We just played this recently, after several people had turned in their list. (Although many SABGers own this, to some it was a fresh discovery). We'll see if this rises next year.
3 Voters, 80 pts.
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Brian Bankler
United States
San Antonio
Texas
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Well, I'm part of SABG too, and I proselytize. This hasn't (to date) been played at SABG, but there's a group that meets on Tuesdays to play 'Fist (and little else).
For the most part, where into "games that got two voters," so this makes the rest of the list ... eclectic.
2 Voters, 80 pts.
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Brian Bankler
United States
San Antonio
Texas
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I didn't lump together the various Command & Colors games ....
3 Voters, 76 pts.
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Posted Fri Sep 28, 2007 3:51 pm
