17:00 Tom's epiphany that Sam indeed fails to invite him over :(

With 2015 being such a great year for games, maybe you guys should do something special and have Top 20, or at this point, a "Top 10, the sequel", and give us your 11-20.

I love how these videos just really illustrate how much they enjoy, not only playing games, but playing games - and just generally hanging out - with each other. Thank you, guys at +"The Dice Tower" , for a great year of reviews, live plays, and everything else gaming-related. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

This was such a fun top 10 video to watch. Full of great interaction and surprises. Well done guys.

Thanx guys. Only just started to get into serious board gaming and you have certainly given me some food for thought.

Hahaha, I haven't watch you guys in about a year. You didn't change at al. Which is great. Awesome channel for al my board game info! Keep it up.

Just came from your essential games list from a few years ago. Wow! Well done guys, you have really refined these videos. I love the game title text while you guys talk about it. I love the new and improved countdown animations. I love how you didn't hold back when your lists crossed over and just went straight through (definitely flows better!) I still feel like there is a little more distilling to do. These videos are just a bit too long! Cutting them back to half hour at most. I also think the most images and diagrams the better! Especially helpful for people who don't know all the games too well. I would love to see images that are more than just complimentary, but are actually showing us some of the specific components you are referring to in the reviews. All in all though, great work you guys. Keep it up, and keep improving!

hey guys, just want to say that dice Tower is reference for me. I just started at the modern board game activity and i use this reviews and top ten videos to guide me. I had great games expiriences this year, playing power grid, King of Tokyo, takenoko, and Pandemic legacy. It's not easy to find friends that are willing to try havier and harder games, especially if there is no one that know how to play some of the games. So I'm that person now, gratfully because of all your help, I can teach to everybody. I'm also playing Robinson Crusoé, solo. What a game! super fun! Thats it, thanks again! Greetings from Brazil!

Thanks for the lists guys. Helps making my christmas list!

I too played Tom's game of trying to guess everyone's top 10s. I got 6/10 for Sam (thought he'd have Steampunk Rally, Mage Wars Academy, Forbidden Stars, and XCOM), 7/10 for Zee (thought he'd have Gold West, The Bloody Inn, and Nyet) and 8/10 for Tom (I put down Mage Wars Academy and Specter Ops). I love this little mini-game!

I will be listening to this while I work, awesome!

Raptor is probably going to seem like a 2016 release for most people but GOOD LORD is that game great. What a fantastically themed game. 2-player, assymetrical, cool theme, dinosaur babies, under 30 minute game time, unique action mechanism? Yes please!

just got Blood Rage cant wait to try it thanks for the review guys

Thanks guys. Love the list!

Hey guys, you should have those games boxes with you. i simply loved the way you did with 2010, 2011, 2012 , etc, showing the boxes, etc. i enjoyed a lot that format. Have a great time!

CMON + Eric Lang for the second time in a row for Tom. Nice job!

Love TIME Stories! Thanks for the recommend!

I missed Shakespeare when it came out, but it sounds like a game I would really love. Thanks Zee for brining it to my attention!

I'm in the midst of my second play through of Legacy too, so you're not alone Zee :)

Whoa, this is early. Awesome!

Finally the wait is over!

Wow, surprised at all the love 7 Wonders: Duel gets here.

Great lists guys! glad to see sam and zee pick raptor, looks like a great game. sadly not released in UK yet, but when it does its one I will be looking to pick up! btw I was not suprised at the amount of crossover you guys had on your lists.

Darn it Dice Tower. Watched the xmas videos and ordered Jamaica and Welcome to the Dungeon to play with the family. And now I have to have flick 'em up as Dad and I love Spaghetti westerns.

Great to hear your thoughts on the year, as always! I was kind of hoping to see The Bloody Inn on Zee's list. For me, it is definitely top 3 material, though I haven't played TIME Stories yet (is it worth to do so if English isn't my first language??). Blood Rage is my number 1 game for this year as well! I agree entirely that it combines what's best about Euros and Amerit(h)rash. :-)

Was surprised that Codenames didn't make it onto this list or the 2015 surprises list. Actually, a strong, popular game from CGE is not a surprise. But it has been such a big hit with so many different players that I was expecting to see it mentioned here at least once. Just one more indicator of a strong year.

Fantastic year!

If Tom likes flicking games he could try Subbuteo! (after learning rules of European Football :P )

Great video guys, next year can you do it at the start of December to help with the Christmas list.

Ketchup is for kids? Wow Tom, wow... Totally get what Sam is saying, ketchup lover and not ashamed...

Zee's 1 and 2 I agree so much...I could interchange them any given day for 1 and 2. Blood Rage for some reason fell very flat for me. I can't even put my finger on it as to why it didn't fair well. It seems like I am the only one in the world though.

Glad to see Dead Men get some love! I feel like that game is still a bit under the radar, hopefully this will get some more people to pick it up!

Tom really should have guessed Dead Men Tell No Tales for Zee, he's mentioned it a million times in the videos alone.

Tom, Zee, Sam... In 2016 it's now time for a TopTen Best Pirate Games!! YES!!!!!!

Can you guys consider making a another video of your top 20-11 since this was such a good year?

thanks for the video

I hear you, Sam, I hate painting in bulk, feels like work. Whe that happens I usually just put a wash on the minis, maybe dry brush them and just coat them in mat varnish. Quick and dirty.

Interesting to see the absence of 3 very well received Euros. Signorie, Nippon, and The Gallerist were all great games in the Euro category, top 10 for me at least.

WHAT! Ok we need Jason to get in here and fix this list by the addition of Food Chain Magnate. That is my game of 2015.

I wonder if you should have done a top twenty rather than a top ten? Since, as you have all said, it was such a good year for board games. I'd like to know your eleven through twenty.

@36:28 Zee (on T.I.M.E. Stories) "It makes this amazing mixture, that could have gone horribly wrong..." And that is what we call FORESHADOWING.

I love me some Blood Rage....fantastic game! I'm thinking about getting TIME Stories but I also want to get Specter Ops.

16:50 poor Tom :( It's actually true... LOL

Quick lists at 46:53...don't forget to thank me ok...

no 'the grizzled' ? I assume that's one of many very good ones that didn't make the list?

Exciting!!!

Champions fo Midgard has been very difficult to find. but yes tom....great game!

No Forbidden Stars? Sam, Tom? :(

I don't get much opportunity to try new games, and so some of these rate fairly low on my Top 100 games of all time (and one is not even on my Top 100), but these are the best of 2015 I have played. Not counting expansions, but counting redesigned games. Also I am not counting 2016 games I have beta tested: 1. Mission: Red Planet (Second Edition) 2. Isle of Skye 3. Hoax (second edition) 4. Star Trek: Five-Year Mission 5. Artifacts, Inc. 6. Dead Men Tell No Tales 7. Love Letter: Batman 8. Warhammer Quest: The Adventure Card Game 1. I never played Mission: Red Planet previously, so it's brand new to me (and beta tested) 3. Hoax: Another Beta test I quite liked, and have not played the previous edition 4. I have a feeling further playings of Star Trek will lower it's position, and by quite a bit, but we will see 5. Artifacts, Inc: This game needs more replays, but not sure if it will go up or down, I did just buy the game, haven't played my copy yet 6. Dead men Tell No Tales: I knew this would be on Zee's list, not sure why Tom didn't know this. Zee loved on this game several times on videos in the year. As for myself I thought it ok. It's #68 on my Top 100. I expected more. 7. Batman: I got this for $5 very recently on a sale, mostly due to Tom's review. I find it ok, a nice quick game. 8. Warhammer Quest: another beta test for me, I thought it rather uninspiring. I love fantasy games and if this had come out 15-20 years ago it would have been a favorite. Too many other fantasy games that are awesome to make it higher. It may do better with solo players, those who wish to level characters between adventures, and those who like LoR card game or the like.

Ketchup is for kids, Tom? What??

guys, why not to do yearly's top-10 expansions ?

Sam - given that you love Vikings, and you're pretty hot on Worker Placement (Stone Age, Champions of Midgard), will we see you review Raiders of the North Sea, assuming that you ever get a copy? I do know it doesn't have wide distribution, but I quite enjoy it, and the worker placement mechanism is quite a different twist on the standard...

I'm really surprised that Fordidden Stars didn't make Tom's or Sam's top 10.

40:40 this was my point in making my copy of the game re-playable. The events you "Know" just become a mechanics of the game. Knowing what ya know does not == a win and depending where you decide to start the game (can be easily randomize to give a mid played game feel with some old school d&d type random tables, but that's getting a bit deeper than point) is still a great play. This game is not like T.I.M.E. stories knowing what ya know there i can see being a thing that "breaks" multi plays but i think it is pretty darn good system for home brew how they have the board set up. I can see making your own adventures being pretty fun and easy to do for that system. Anyway glad to see one of you admit to and not just poo poo the idea of legacy being a great game to not destroy even if you maybe did not say it in so many words its what i heard lol.

for 2016 you should all try to guess each others list.

No love for Magic: The Gathering Arena of the Planeswalkers... I really think this one will shine when expansions come out!

Blood rage, been temped in the past but no.1 for 2 dice tower meeples it's now moved to must have

Specter Ops takes 30 minutes!? My first two times it took 2 hours each time!

Specter Ops, 30-40 minutes? how are you managing that? are you just killing the agent right away? I've barely had any games go shorter than 90!

I wonder if anyone's game of the year is one of the games in 504

Love your vids! Keep up the great job! Tom looks pretty good as an Amish person, make Sam and Zee help you put up that barn afterwards! Just kidding.

Time Stories does have similarities with Sherlock Holmes though, doesn't it?

Ketchup?! Gotta agree with Vasel on this one. BBQ sauce FTW!

I love dice and I like Champions of Midgard but it is so much easier than Lords of Waterdeep and has less options. I like it but I don't think it has the legs that Waterdeep has.

Lookin good with that beard Tom!

Wasn't that in A League Of Their Own? There are no cyborgs in baseball!

Sam got a one too, and Zee got a one two.

Blood Rage... only played it once and was pretty disappointed. The most succinct way I can explain why is simply to ask how a player wins? Well, score the most VP. How do you score victory points? Well, you can win battles, complete quests, advance a stat far enough, die in Ragnarok, or use any number of card with special conditions for awarding VPs. My goodness, this isn't a wargame, its a point salad with more in common with Trajan than Chaos in the Old World. My other complaints would be the abundance of take-that mechanics, such as the Troll which simply kills all warriors where deployed. If you're the player who happens to be where the owner wants to be, well, there isn't anything you can do to stop it. Your troops, and perhaps your careful plans to fulfil a quest are done with. Finally, this game just seems to put to high a price on failure. Fail to win a battle? All units wiped out. Fail to fulfill a quest? It is discarded. This game may not be random in the typical usage of the word, but it simulates the whims of fate.

Tom you're right about my list :) Coming in the next couple days (shot and in the middle of editing)

No forbidden stars...an incomplete list.:)

what about honorable mentions? Chaosmos, Among The Stars: Revival, Ashes: Fires of the Phoenixborn, etc.

No Codenames? That's the one missing that surprises me the most.

Please show a picture of the box when you naming your game.

Sam: Dunk French fries in ice cream and tomato sauce. Try it sometime!.

Is there a spot in the video that has the complete list on screen?

Surprised about no Fury of Dracula for Sam.

"Ketchup is for kids".....you are dead to me ;)

I tried to like Elysium but it was just so dull. Managed to sell it finally so at least some one will enjoy it for Christmas

Didn't Star Wars Rebel Assault come out in 2015? I'm shocked it wasn't mentioned at all.

why not put out a 11-20 this year as well? I would love to know

So was Potion Explosion released after this list was made? not even a mention. tom said it wasnt on his best of 2016 because it was technically released in 2015, but not a word here. what happened?

what was the original theme for Raptor? since you said the raptors vs scientists theme was pasted on

When I get to play Time Stories this Friday it had better blow me away the hype it gets. Same goes for Pandemic Legacy though I'm not a big Pandemic fan anyway. I look forward to doing my Top Ten soon but it's going to be a little different in places from this. I don't think BloodRAge will make it though , I liked it but it didn't have the variety in the upgrades other than the monsters. I didn't like how Age 2 and Age 3 cards were mostly rehashes of the first ones.

Forbidden Stars and Pandemic Legacy!

champs of midgard is far to expensive for euro distribution at the minute which I think is half the problem. It's the same price as blood rage. It might improve later

Probably my top games for the year have to be: Roll For The Galaxy Elysium 7 Wonders Duel Mysterium

my top ten would be: 10. cacao 9. lanterns 8. potion explosion 7.isles of skye 6. food chain magnate 5. mombasa 4. voyages of marco polo 3. pandemic season 1 2. Concordia : Salsa 1. Orleans: Invasion

Took me awhile to realize this was board games

Zee said he played Pandemic Legacy through two separate times. . . Did he use the same game, or did he have to purchase another box in order to play through it again? If it is possible to play the campaign through completely, and still use the legacy game to play with, that's awesome. Honestly, that's the biggest reason I haven't purchased Pandemic Legacy - I don't like the idea of not being able to continue to play the game after we do the legacy campaign once. Anyone is welcome to give me their opinion if they have any experience with this. . .

Ok, who ordered Blood Rage after listening to this ? (one thing to note the kickstarter has some very exclusive stuff that you can't get hold of easily / cheaply).

Tom, have you not played the newer additions of axis and allies? I think 1942 second addition is a great game and much better than the original. Plus 1941 is good for a under 2 hour game. Watered down yes, but still feels like axis and allies. My number one was Yahtzee, my family played that all the time as kids.

Awwwww you three!!!! 😍😍😍

Хороший топ. Спасибо, ребята:)

At the time of this comment, Pandemic Legacy is indeed number 2 at BGG

As much as I enjoy these videos is it at all possible to put the finalized lists in the description section? A lot of times I don't have 47 minutes to just sit and watch these all the way through and trying to scan through to find the lists is kind of a PITA..

Are any of you guys going to pax east?

Tom, if I never played Race for the Galaxy, should I get it or skip it and go straight for Roll of the Galaxy?

@Sam Haley: If you are into dice rolling (and BSG, as far as I know you are), what do you think about Dark Moon (BSG Express)?

What kind of watch is Zee wearing?

Probably my top games for the year have to be: Roll For The Galaxy Elysium 7 Wonders Duel Mysterium Sadly I have not played Blood Rage, Pandemic Legacy, or Champions of Midgard and a few others...but there are sitting in my cart and I'm hoping I get some cash from the family for Christmas to submit that order :)