Hey everyone, I’m really excited to be sharing my top 3 boardgames with you. This selection comes from my experience of playing boardgames for about 10 years and they all ended up being medium complexity games, all played in around 90 mins and play great at all player counts. I would never turn down an offer to play these games.
Number 3 - Orléans
Starting at number three Orléans is a wonderful game using the bag building mechanic and it does it exceptionally well. The decision making of choosing which workers to have in your bag and how you then allocate them when you draw is simply awesome.
Each game feels different due to the randomisation during set-up as well as the option of adding a number of expansions provides more variability and also a co-op mode. If you want to try the bag building mechanic then Orléans is a great place to start.
Number 2 - Tzolk'in: The Mayan Calendar
Tzolk’in is simply an excellent medium complexity worker placement game. You are a Mayan leader placing your workers on a number of interconnected gears that rotate at the end of each round, moving your worker(s) to the next space (how awesome is that!).
You either place workers on the gears or take them off, that’s it but it’s the decision making of when to place or remove that I adore!
Utilising your workers efficiently by forward planning your moves is incredibly satisfying, particularly when you pull off a lovely combo of resources.
With its gears and colourful components it always looks stunning on the table and even more so if you actually paint the gears (a friend is currently do this for me!).
While Tzolkin may not necessary be suitable for a new gamer just starting out I wouldn’t say you have to have that much experience to get stuck in. Give it a go and get turning those gears!
Number 1 - Viticulture
So my number 1 game is Viticulture but before I tell you why here is a little bit of info about the game.
Viticulture is a worker placement game where each round you are allocating your team of workers to help manage your vineyard to ultimately score the most points. You are developing your vineyard by building structures, planting vines, harvesting grapes, producing wine, and completing orders to ship wine around the world. It plays between 2-6 players and scales well at all player counts.
Viticulture has been my number one board game for many years, in fact I expect it’s held that slot since it was released in 2013. At that point I had been playing modern boardgames since around 2012, so relatively new but I had already started to fall in love with worker placement games. Since then I have played many worker placement games but Viticulture has always held its spot.
Viticulture is also a game that I have introduced to many of my friends, especially during the lockdowns in the pandemic (if you want someone to teach you then DM me on IG).
Viticulture as a base game is great but with the Tuscany additional modular expansions it’s simply outstanding. Depending on if you are new to gaming then Viticulture on its own will be a very enjoyable and certainly worth a space on your shelf. Tuscany is great to step into if you are slightly more experience gamer or want to expand your Viticulture experience.
What I find the most enjoyable is that the game is easy to teach, has lots of strategic choices, many routes to victory so it is always different and always joy to play level if I lose.
Viticulture comes highly recommended and is worthy to be in any collection.