Hey, you should do a list called 'top ten cheap games' covering games which are less than $20 or $30 on amazon (or even better, in shops!) for those of us who are building collections on a budget.

Kid vs Grandparent vs friends --- My introduction path for my 4 year old: 1) Hey, that's my Fish! 2) Splendor 3) Forbidden Island 4) Age of War 5) Lotus 6) Perudo Introduction path for my parents (60s): 1) Ticket to ride 2) Evolution 3) No thanks 4) Airlines europe 5) Lotus 6) Dixit Introduction path for my mates: 1) Citadels 2) Resistance 3) King of Tokyo 4) Among the Stars 5) Smash Up 6) bang! The Dice Game

In regards to Party games, I think The Resistance and Dixit might give people that "I've never played anything like this" realization. So I feel like some party games could work for this.

Yay! The first time I've seen a summary at the end! SO USEFUL! Please keep that feature! :)

Out if all of your top tens, this one had me laughing the most :) love you guys

I personally liked Sam's approach. In my opinion a gateway game doesn't have to be simple per se (although it definitely helps), but rather it just needs to showcase the best qualities about boardgaming in order to convince a non-believer that there is merit to the hobby. My most successful gateway games are Jamaica, Shadows Over Camelot, Jamaica again, Ticket To Ride: Europe, and Dungeon Fighter.

Great job guys! Every night i come home from work and watch a video or two (or five) and mark down all the titles of the games after i hear each person's explanations for their selections. Zee, Tom and Sam are definitely the pinnacle of gaming intelligentsia and i have gotten to the point where i can almost follow their recommendations blindly ......almost :)

Wow. Great job on this one all of you. Usually I don't tend to go toward Sam's game choices. For me Sam nailed this one. The way he created his list and the games he chose. Interestingly, my wife (high school) and I (elementary) are teachers and liked how Sam explained his choices. Both of us tend to approach our students as smart; we'd rather aim high instead of aiming low. Thanks for this Top Ten.

I am seriously suprised that no one had Sushi Go or Machi Koro on their lists. They are SOOO easy to teach.

Tom, your look when Sam is explaining his Top 10 order was hilarious.

You guy s rock. Enjoyed it a lot!

This was definetly one of the funniest top 10 list you've done. Awesome interaction between you guys. Want more just like this one ! :D

I prefer using Sushi Go instead of 7 Wonders to introduce people to drafting games.

I had luck with Lords of Waterdeep, Carcassonne, Colt Express, Ticket to Ride, and Cash & Guns. These are the only hobby board games that my family will play. My wife generally only likes the classics like Monopoly and Sorry, but she really likes Lords of Waterdeep, which really surprised me.

Love your videos guys especially your top 10s, I'm a new board gamer and learning alot, keep it up guys

No idea if you guys ever go back and look through these comments, but ... as someone who's just VERY recently thrown myself into this gaming thing (I'll soon be sidelined, convalescing, from a fourth kidney transplant, with my donor - and fairly frequent visitors - for three months and thought this'd be a fun distraction), I find your vids ridiculously informative, entertaining, and useful. So. THANKS!

Thank's for the video, as always some interesting new ideas for our collection. I want to add CACAO as an idea. It is a tile placement game, easy to teach, some nice mechanics, gorgeous artwork and with much less frustration potential than Carcassonne. That's the reason why I think, that this is a nice gateway game for this kind of genre.

Some games, that was not mentioned, but worth mentioning: Jamaica Memoir '44(BASE GAME!) The Adventurers: The Temple of Chac Star Realms River Dragons Madame Ching Libertalia Takenoko

I've found party games (I know, I know, dirty words...) like The Resistance, Say Anything, Dixit...etc to be a good way to show there are things much more fun than Monopoly out there. They're easy to play, easy to teach and good quick fun that makes people curious about what else might be out there. Or, you know - we could just say "Ticket to Ride" and call it a day. =)

Thanks guys for yet another great vid, I've been watching these Top 10 lists for past few days now. Good combination of humour, actual knowledge about the games and three different but equal viewpoints on each game/topic of choice! Me and my gf and a bunch of friends revived our interest in board games recently with King Of Tokyo (with Power Up!), 7 Wonders, Carcassone, Resistance and others.. ^^

I'm with Sam here. A good gateway game depends a lot on the people you're teaching, their skills and interests, so I don't think the order in the list matter. I just had an amazing example of a friend who got introduced to the hobby through BSG (which is already incredibly complicated, in my opinion) and then played TI 3 two weeks later... and she won the game. So, it really depends on the players.

I know this video is old, but I've been watching a lot of your content lately, and I like it a lot. So I just ordered 1 game from each of your lists. Sheriff of Nottingham, BANG! The Dice Game, and Forbidden Island. Thanks!

I love your friendly banters, that's what makes me watch your top ten (Y)

For whatever reason "Boss Monster: The Dungeon Building Card Game" was my gateway game. And I still love it.

This video has had me laughing almost all the way through. Your style is great and super enjoyable, not to mention really informative! Keep up the great work everyone! :)

Catan was my gateway game I quickly went out purchased seafarers with cities & knights and play them all together and I have gone on to introduce these to many different people, I still think its a really good gateway game(s).

Oh my goodness guys. I just realized you are the Top Gear of the board gaming world...great job keeping us entertained!

Mines are Yggdrasil, Ghost Stories, Descent and Twilight Imperium 3. And then we get to the big ones.

Tom... I also love the 10 Days games... (albeit I have only played the USA one)... it is easy to teach and the likeliness of winning off of the draw is slim to none... it also teaches people where places are and a gain of geographical skill... I have taught my kids this one at an early age and it works great... I am glad you put this one on the list!

This is a great segment for nubes that are trying to get started in gaming. I will pick up some games that I probably would never have tried without the advice. I want to have some of these so I can have fun gatherings that I can feel confident that I am able to include people. Zee's list is really good for me, but I look forward to adding more of the games from other lists, too,

I was thinking about gateway games just this week, this is perfect. Now, do a beer and pretzels list!

Great list, as always. Good job guys! I would have add The Resistance and I think Bang The Dice Game should be higher.

This was great information. As a non-gamer myself, i appreciate Zee's list especially, but what a wealth of juicy choices!

My new neighbour was intrigued by playing boardgames (although he still calls it, nurturing his inner child) and wanted to start playing them. So far I introduced him to: - Tokaido - Flash Point Fire Rescue - Animals on Board - Stone Age - Isle of Skye (Would have been smart to do a first play round and redo the first turn) Still on the to play list: - Robo Rally - King of Tokyo - Ticket to Ride - The Grizzled - Shadows over Camelot or Battlestar Galactica Still looking for a simple war game (I don't tend to like those games myself)

great video ! my top ten for beginners : 1. dixit 2. les aventuriers du rail 3. love letter 4. battlesheep 5. splendor 6. las vegas 7. hanabi 8. génial 9. tokaido 10. augustus

In order to introduce people to modern games I had success with Saboteur, Citadels, Sushi Go, Machi Koro, Rise of Augustus and Smallworld.

Get out of my head from two days ago!!! Thank you!

For me, in no particular order, would be: Dixit, Cammel Up, Mascarade, Catan, Ticket to Ride, Takenoko, Century: Spice Road, Survive (or The island), Dungeon Raiders, Jaipur

I love the way Tom just let Zee and Sam go at it, this was brilliant fun to watch

Shut Up and Sit Down has a series called The Opener that is precisely for these kinds of games. I suggest giving it a look.

"Why does Zee think I'm stupid?" -New Gamer

I think this list doubles as a Top Ten Games for Non-Gamer Wives. I've been waiting for something like this.

Oh boy does this top ten deserve an update!

Great choices guys! My personal list (in no particular order) of gateway games I love to teach are: Forbidden Island Carcassonne (base game only, maybe The River) King of Tokyo Ticket to Ride (USA) Dominion (using the base game, "First Game" setup) Sushi Go! Between Two Cities Love Letter Pairs Takenoko

First video I watched of you guys and loved it, funny and informational! I'll be watching many more! Do you have a list for the next step after starter games or next step after handling stuff like Talisman and Runebound. My family plays those two mostly and need some more in this realm but not super complicated for the less experienced players.

Guys i DO believe that you should do this list again, as you did with Essensials list.

10: BANG! The Dice Game (2013) / Cloud 9 (1999) / Quicksand (2003) 09: For Sale (1997) / That's Life! (2005) / Eruption (2011) 08: Keltis (2008) / For Sale (1997) / Survive! (1982) 07: Pyramix (2014) / Flash Point: Fire Rescue (2011) / Dice Town (2009) 06: 10 Days in the USA (2002) / Revolution! (2009) / Las Vegas (2012) 05: 7 Wonders (2010) / Forbidden Island (2010) / Shadows over Camelot (2005) 04: Catan Geographies: Germany (2008) / Medieval Academy (2014) / Hey, That's My Fish! (2003) 03: Sheriff of Nottingham (2014) / Ticket to Ride (2004) / No Thanks! (2004) 02: Alhambra (2003) / Incan Gold (2006) / King of Tokyo (2011) 01: King of Tokyo (2011) / Ticket to Ride (2004) / Mission: Red Planet (2005)

The Dice Bang is really excellent way to get people in to the good vibe for a game night even if they aren't gamers. Works from four to eight players too! It's played so often that i actually didn't take it with me last time we had a game night so that we would play something else at the start. :)

I experienced pandemic as a gateway, and it revitalised my gaming experience . So I'd say that's missing.

I played Bang the Dice Game for the first time today! Amazing! :) I completely agree, Sam!

Great list guys! Sam and Zee I'm surprised Jamaica didn't hit either of your lists. Sam I'm so happy you put Catan on the list, I don't really like it anymore either, but I think its a great gateway game!! Tom I thought you might put Dominion on the list, I would have liked to see that one. HAHA playing a heavy game with a non gamer is the easiest way to turn them off gaming forever :( My boyfriend tried to teach quest for middle earth to a few friends who were non gamers, they will now never ever play a game with us. Since then we have learnt to only introduce our friends to gateway games LOL! So excited for mission red planet reprint!! I can't wait to try it out.

I'm quite surprised that Tom did not include Jamaica. He's always touting how it's the game he likes to introduce new gamers to first, and then move onto something more complex.

I'm on the fence with 7 Wonders. It's always worked as a gateway game to me but I've only tried with certain people (people who play video games or IT people who are sort of used to figuring out complicated systems). I don't know that I'd try it with a random family or anything like that. There's SO much to explain. This is what a card looks like, with what it does here and the prerequisites here (sometimes running into trouble explaining that you're not spending the resource, you just need to have it and can use it once per turn), here's the difference between brown and gray cards, here's what a yellow card is and how you can buy stuff from your neighbor, here's what blue cards/victory points are, here's how science works, here's what military does, oh and on top of all of this, here's how you make wonders. None of those things, by themselves, are difficult to grasp for people which is why I think it usually ends up working out, but sometimes I feel myself losing people when I'm explaining the 5th or 6th concept. And sometimes people don't like it when I say "eh, you'll understand how it all works together at the end of the first game."

For me, my Gateway game was Betrayal at the House on the Hill. I was playing with an experienced group but I was totally new to modern board games. It went over just fine. My first pick-up for my and my wife to play was Elder Sign followed by Pandemic and Forbidden Island and Ghost Stories. Tsuro is also a super easy and quick game so for total newbies that can be a really fun one. Fuse is a super simple dice game that can be a lot of fun in a group. If you have only two players, Mr. Jack definitely should be included.

My gateway game was King of Tokyo! It's what introduced me to The Dice Tower, too. I think that Prospero Hall is the king of gateway games, with their use of IPs to ease newcomers into advanced mechanics.

I'm surprised that Quirkle, Tsuro, and Zombie dice were not on the lists. All so simple and easy to teach.

Sam i agree you have to anticipate what will work with your audience

Some games I have been using lately to introduce kids at youth groups have been Sushi Go, Jamaica, King of Tokyo, Machi Koro and Star Realms and it's been going over very, very well.

With new gamers I usually bring out: Ticket to Ride, Alhambra, Catan, Incan Gold, Flash Point, Sheriff of Nottingham, Splendor, Zombie Dice, Poison (from Korea), No Thanks, Bang the Dice Game, Love Letter, King of Tokyo, Kingdom Builder, Revolution, and Carcassonne (not using farmers for the first round). All have worked well.

The gateway games I've used with my family and students that have worked out very well are: base settlers of Catan, coup, sheriff of Nottingham, condottiere, ticket to ride USA version, resistance or Avalon version of resistance, war of 1812. The new game from coolminiornot Dogs Of War has also been a big success. But thanks to you guys I think I have a few more games to pick up for introduction to board games purposes.

I've had good success both learning and teaching these to casual & new players + my 8 year old will play (and be competitive with most of these)... 10) Cacao - really nice tile laying worker placement. Fun, simple & clean. 9) Takenoko - love this, very pretty and easy to pick up. 8) King of Tokyo - my gateway, plays a good number of people, quick & fun 7) Royals - Crying shame this game doesn't get more love... Fabulous intro to area control, simple card draughting ( think ticket to ride ) but tactical enough to induce craftiness. We LOVE this. 6) Bang! The Dice game. Plays best with a larger groups, but is crazy fun. 5) Forbidden Desert - for me, the better instalment in the "Forbidden" series. Quality co-op. 4) Lords of Waterdeep - my groups favourite worker placement title. 3) Lanterns - wow, so so pretty, and really simple concept. Loves it. 2 ) Splendor - nice engine building game, with good components 1). Sheriff of Nottingham - we've had a scream with this

I liked Sam's approach on this one. Gateway games are quite hard to really order, as you need to take into consideration the target players, and what you want to introduce them to.

I haven't watched the full video yet so I might just be repeating what has already been said, but I highly recommend "Cosmic Encounters" as one for introducing to new players. I take out the box and it looks intimidating, but once you tell people "it's just like the card game war, but with a few extra rules and special powers", it makes a lot more sense to them and everyone has a blast playing it.

I actualy tried Imperial Assault's skirmish mode with the tutorial armies (mentioned in the skirmish rulebook) to great success. Reasonable amount of rules, simple cards, tremendous flow of gameplay.

The bad thing about Shadows Over Camelot is the game length, it can be long. Also, the problem with 7 Wonders are all the icons, it can be hard to remember what they all do & I feel there is so much going on that it can be difficult to teach.

my gateway game that brought me into the genre was Citadels

My top ten (the simpler the game the higher the placement): 10. Small World 9. Stone Age 8. Forbidden Island 7. Takenoko 6. Ticket to Ride 5. Carcassonne 4. Machi Koro 3. Hey That's My Fish 2. Tsuro 1. No Thanks!

100% agree with Sam "Dice Town" is a GREAT gateway game.

So many new family friendly/for new gamers games appeared in the last 3 years, so please do a new updated list.

A great gateway game I used for my parents is Ruin. Basically an upgrade from Sorry that allows for a few more choices and backstabbing. Plus, it's always fun to throw huge dice around!

Flash Point: Fire Rescue is designed by Kevin Lanzing, not by the two Brunos (Faidutti and Cathala)

I actually think 7 Wonders is best taught at first with Leaders. This is how I learned and it helped me to get a feel for how I wanted to make my city without already knowing the game.

You appear to have credited Flash Point: Fire Rescue to Faidutti and Cathala, rather than Kevin Lanzing.... (and put 2005, rather than 2011)

Games I would add to the list of gateway games: Castle Panic, Black Gold, Dominion (base game), Machi Koro, Pandemic The Cure, San Juan, Wasabi, and Star Realms.

Dominion - I taught my parents to play, and we play it every time we get together. I even taught my Grandpa to play it. Even the more complex cards really aren't that bad, especially because you can watch someone else use it to understand how it all works.

Thanks for some insights. As i may be playing with almost new players and i actually own some of the mentioned games (Keltis, Dice Town, Alhambra). Already tried Carcassonne and Ticket to Ride (Europe even) and it went fine. But i have some bad experience with teaching 7 Wonders. Though maybe it was just one person who couldn't grasp it till the end of the game, so it frustrated me and made me think i couldn't teach this game.. Also, i wouldn't teach Shadows to new players just because of so many rules and situations. I have literally written a little FAQ for myself to check with while playing it.

I love it at 22:30 - 22:57, Classic Tom, and why he should always sit between Zee and Sam. I always laugh and have a good time in those parts! and at 44:10 I couldn't keep from LOL!

Nice work guys!!! I find all your videos very helpfull. I'm a new gamer too but i think most of your mentioned games are lighter than the games i would use, to bring someone to board game's world. The games i started with were 7 wonders, Pandemic, Power grid, Avallon and The Manhattan project (Zee you are stupid :P ). What about making a top 15 of games with language independence. I suggest more than 10 because someone with a gaming group in which not everybody speaks english (mine is not that good either), would like to see 30-35 different games presented. Thank you for your help to me with your videos. Keep playing!!!

Of the games I own to teach as gateway games. 1) Zombie dice, 2) Catan the Dice game, 3) Dungeon Roll, 4) Boss Monster, 5) King of Tokyo, 6) Munchkin, 7) District-Z, 8) Zombies!!!, 9) Quarriors, and 10) Magic the gathering: Portal. Yes, there are lots of dice games out there. So fun.

Stone age is a really great intro game. Then follow up with Agricola! :D

Tokaido has worked really well for me to introduce board games to friends. Looks great and people catch on quickly.

Next on Dice Tower: "Tom Vasel's top 100,000 games of all time!"

Dominion, Jamaica, Auf Teufel Komm Raus, Ubongo, Survive, La Cosa Nostra, Room 25, Arcadia Quest, Blokus and Master's Labyrinth are my votes for top 10 gateway games. Love Letter might work too!

A few of my picks would be 6 Nimmt! (trick taking, plays many players), Tokaido (cute Japanese theme to rope people in), Love Letter (quick and portable), Hanabi (cooperative card game). There are a lot of other filler or quick games that are great gateway games for every type of potential new gamer. I agree with Zee though, most of the time gateway games should be much simpler. It isn't a matter of player intelligence, but of unfamiliarity with the concepts of games. 7 Wonders really is a next-step game since it features a lot of moving parts for someone who isn't a gamer.

The "Game of 49" is a very simple area control and auction/bidding game for up to 5 players.

anyone else feel that gateway games are simply the best of both worlds, simplistic enough for easy learning plus just enough quirks to keep them interesting - why do people assume that newcomers are going to play gateway game sthen suddenly become intersted in heavy long games?

2:38 I understand what you're saying, Sam, and I think that's cool :) Don't listen to Zee. He's weird. Oh, wait, I'm sorry, he's "esoteric." XD

I tried to use Carcassonne Hunters & Gatherers as a gateway at one point and it went over like a lead balloon. Would-be players immediately glazed over, seeing it as too complicated to figure out and decided to do something else...

Bang! the Dice Game was my entry game. :)

Can you please tell me where you get those amazing 20-sided dice from?

Here are my top 5 I think are great gateway games. 1. Smash up 2.Coup 3. King of Tokyo 4.Citadels 5. Guillotine

I think a great game that I consistently use for new players is Jamaica. First off it looks amazing, which will bring people and keep people at the table. Next it is a very simple racing game, with a few little strategy bits thrown in. A hit every time. Other games that go over well for me that weren't on your list is Sushi Go, Flux(whatever theme fits), and Tsuro

I always use Dixit, but I'm guessing you are considering that a "party game?" I guess Love Letter was not mentioned because it is a "card game?"

Carcassonne Beverage Coasters... Thats some kind of awesome

This was the most aggressive top 10 ever.

Zee should do a video review of Quicksand... because I can't find ANY reviews of it at all on KZfaq and I would love to see how it's played.

I would also consider Sheriff of Nottingham a party game.

Splendor, Augustus and Love Letter are also excellent gateways from my experience. +1 TTR, Incan Gold, Forbidden Island, Flash Point, King of Tokyo, No Thanks.

Can you do it again this list?

High time you guys did a top ten family games.