Imagine that your friendly local game store has a sale and you see a great deal on a game by one of your favorite designers. You know nothing about the game besides the designer’s name and that it’s a decent price. You are in a hurry, no time to research, buy it now or miss out.
Which designer’s game would you most likely purchase blindly based only on their name?
Reiner Knizia.
Despite the huge respect I have for Reiner, I found many of his games have one single tiny mechanic that is often boring after the first play.
Guy is a legend
I mean it’s gotta be Vlaada Chvatil. God only knows what kind of game I’d end up walking out with, but I can guarantee it would be something interesting.
My picks: On the lighter side Phil Walker-Harding. The game might be end up being light but it will be very likely enjoyable. On the mid-weight side it’s probably Simone Luciani or Daniele Tascini or possibly someone else from the Italian-style euro designer group (T-series, Grand Austria Hotel etc). I’ve liked pretty much everything I’ve tried from them so far.
I would not say no to a Uwe Rosenberg game.
Carl Chudyk.
Each game of Innovation is a richly woven tapestry.
First to mind is Tim Fowers. I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve played by him. New game with his name on it? Gimme…
Christian Martinez because Inis is a lovely super replay-able game
Excellent choice. Last week at our game group, I was informed that he has a new design on the way, Galactic Renaissance.
Agreed about Inis and Cairn is decent too but it’s still a small sample size. Will have to see how Galactic Renaissance turns out.
Bruno cathala. I don’t remember any game that totally puts me off. Most of them can be played with kids.
I don’t think I have the gene which lets me blindly trust someone with a transaction, heh. I research every game I buy. My money is guaranteed to be worth something. I want to know my game will be worth something in exchange.
That said, Volko Ruhnke, Eric M. Lang, Corey Konieczka, Rob Daviau, and Vital Lacerda are some of my favorites who are still active.
Uwe Rosenberg. His worker placement games are just so well designed and scratch an itch not many other games scratch.
I don’t know about a lot of designers, but Jason C. Hill, I guess. Last Night on Earth is my favourite board game series, so I’ll try whatever he puts out there.
Has Flying Frog put out a new game since they released Shadows of Brimstone? I used to love their games but they seem to only focus on that games now.
Sadly, no. It seems like SoB has become their money maker. LNoE isn’t going anywhere, though, and I’m kinda happy with where it is. That being said, a new IP would’ve been nice.
@donio I think my best hit rate is with Cole Wehrle, but I’ve sat and thought about this for a bit and I think I run into the issue that I generally only bat about 50% on any designer that does more than a couple games. There always seems to be something that they do that makes me go “no, you sort of missed on this one…”
For example:
- I enjoy Roads & Boats, Indonesia, and The Great Zimbabwe, but Antiquity/FCM/Bus all fell flat to me after a play or two.
- I adore Root/Pamir/JC1 but An Infamous Traffic was not good, and Oath was not worth keeping (and I skipped JC2 after playtesting).
- Glass Road/Ora & Labora/Bohnanza/Patchwork I like a lot, but I got rid of Caverna, Agricola, and I’m still deciding on the new Canal game.
- Twilight Struggle/1989/1960 I adore, and a bunch of other Matthews games I got rid of.
-- Glory to Rome, Innovation, and Mottainai are respectable, but The Bird and some others just sort of miss the mark I’m after.
- John Bohrer is on a 30% hit rate and I think I still have like 3 or 4 of his Winsome games.There are some designers who I don’t bother with at all anymore, because their style just doesn’t mesh with me at all, and that’s great cause there are other people who like those, but if we’re talking about “who is your go-to” then that’s tougher to say.
My list looks similar. Splotter is at the top. I did preorder Horseless Carriage back before we had much info about it and don’t regret it. John Bohrer would be up there as well, but though various connections I’ve played enough Winsomes to know they aren’t an instant buy. (Iberian Railways, Italian Railroads, and 1836)
Tangent, but I’m very split on 1836. The opening is incredible, but once you get past the first stock round all the interesting decisions have been made.
@Profilename1 lol, yeah, Italian Railroads was… “not good” and would require more development and changes if it were to get licensed (IMHO). I did recoup my cash on that one at least. I actually *did* like Iberian Railways though, but it requires a very careful reading of the game and John’s explanation that you *want* to make and break ties as ties score for those tied in each category and you can even tie yourself in some categories and score extra points. That’s the point of the game, but it’s buried in an explanation note that I’m not sure many have caught. I actually pointed it out to Ken Hill and it was revelatory (and that was AFTER the licensed it and announced it on BGG). Southern Pacific is the one unlicensed Winsome I still have, and it’s about shuffling/suitcasing money to your advantage, but it has a very narrow “good” player count in my mind, and some terrible accounting…
I haven’t even cracked open Horseless Carriage yet. I have the errata package taped to the back side of the box currently… That’s a fall task I guess.
Horseless Carriage is great. SoPac is one I still need to try. There was a copy at DoamCon last weekend, but I didn’t get a game in. I did get West Riding Revisited in, which is excellent. It’s one of the few cube rails to have minor and major railways. I’d like to see it licensed, but it’s a little unlikely
@Profilename1 If you’re headed to #PaxUnplugged this winter, I’m happy to bring Southern Pacific and try and put together a 3 or 4p game. I know some other train gamers who are going so that should be doable.
Send me a DM if so.
Nah, I probably won’t make it to Pax Unplugged. I will be at Age of Steam Con, so I might get a play in there.
What are your thoughts on Jason Matthews’ Imperial Struggle?
@Repptar Had it and got rid of it (well, more accurately, a friend had it and got rid of it). Juice wasn’t worth the squeeze to us. It’s a big game, and I think the one piece of advice I’d have is to approach it more like you would Here I Stand where it’s going to take gobs of time and require a greater rules burden. This isn’t TS2.0 sort of thing, and it wasn’t intended to be.
I get really picky about my wargames, and this wasn’t a time period that I felt passionate about. That’s my fear with the upcoming Simmons game (which was BaM2e, now Triomphe à Marengo). I like Napoleon’s Triumph in part because it does a great job of helping create that immersion of “I’m a commander and here is the situation” given the presentation, but it’s not my time period so the rules burden and eccentricities are more of a burden than I normally want to put up with. I’m hoping this is an easier hill to climb as I do have some other fiends who jam on that era and it would be nice to have a game that meets my level of engagement with it that they are likewise interested in.
The question a few weeks ago was fave designer and then I went with Sackson. But Sackson does have his fair share of duds, and now that this time it’s more of a question of highest floor, I have to go with Richard Garfield, probably better known as Pheldagriff. Each of his games bring something new and interesting to the table.
Friedemann Friese. They’re not all great, but they’re all at least interesting.
It’s always good to see where his head is at and what rabbit hole he’s going down.
That’s a great pick! Yeah, it will be definitely interesting and green :)
Mac Gerdts, I own almost all of his games and it’s fascinating how elegant they are… most of the rules fit in an A4 paper, you can explain them in less than 15 minutes without ambiguities and the gameplay is really interesting, leaving you with a lot of decisions to take…
