I definitely prefer having only three people for the top 10. When there are 4 or 5, the lists feel too rushed. I really enjoy when they riff with each other and go off on tangents. It feels a little hampered because of time constraints with more people.

I never tire of watching The Dice Tower videos after all these years. Tom Vasel opening up my world with a video on Cosmic Encounter! To this day that game has given me my best experiences in gaming, even though I don't get it to the table that often anymore. Obviously miss the days of Sam, but love the addition of Mike. Always have a lot of laughs with you three! Keep up the excellent work :)

I have found forbidden island at a rural gas station as a game to play in campgrounds.

I would love it if you guys posted your list topics 7 days before! That way we can make our own and watch it like 10000x more invested!

I actually just rewatched the Top 10 where Tom needs to be recognized yesterday. It’s one of my all time favourite live shows by the Dice Tower!

Expressions of this top 10: "Put them on the map" and "powerhouse"

LOL, yes I remember that Live Top 10 Things a Game Store Must Have/Do - "I want to be recognized..." TOM VASEL!!!"

I laughed a lot watching this one. Thanks, guys!

Mike saying 2016 is "top-heavy" or not as deep as 2014 is wild... terraforming mars, star wars: rebellion, great western trail, scythe, feast for odin, arkham horror: the LCG, mansions of madness 2nd edition, mechs vs. minions, aeon's end, clank!, yokohama, captain sonar, santorini, secret hitler (controversial but VERY popular), roll player, kingdomino, exit games, harry potter: hogwarts battle, quadropolis, imhotep, icecool, insider... give me a breeeeak! ...also, "2012 is my dark horse"... I'm liking Mike more and more but he needs to be more self-aware when he makes some of these statements. haha

1999: Paths of Glory (which Tom has marked as a 5.5 at 32:44) has had a huge impact in both the CDG wargame space and it also created a renaissance in theater-level WW1 games, an era which was basically dead for decades due to memories of AH's 1914/Guns of August depressing and unplayable 20 counter-high static front. Paths of Glory is still the #3 war game on BGG, after only Twilight Struggle and War of the Ring.

1:08:50 I love how Tom is trying to hide his smile when he heard that Mike's no2 is his no1.

Great to you see guys back together in person. Video just that much better because of it. 😊

Mike really is crazy!! 2008 is more "top heavy" than 2016, it really showed after a few scrolls while 2016 stayed strong all the way

I love to see you guys back in the same room again :) I think Bus by Splotter is considered the first Worker Placement, if I'm not mistaken.

2008, 2012, 2016, 2020... Ever four years seems to be an amazing year for games. Looking forward to 2024.

The energy, right from the get go, was contagious: I had a grin on my face the entire time. You guys made my day, haven't had that many belly laughs in quite a while. I'm glad the band is back together!

Ok, now I am waiting for a “Top 10 Worst Years in Board Games” list!

So great to see you doing this in person. Love the chemistry!

Mike really needs to get Knizia's phone number and call him live while they make a video. It would be glorious if they managed to ask Knizia, "is the reason you can make so many games because you are a creature from beyond time and space?"

2004 was an important year for me because of Betrayal 1st Edition (and also Heroscape). We had a group that mainly played RISK variants and playing Betrayal opened my world to what board games *could* be. I returned to the hobby when I found out that Betrayal was getting a 2nd Edition in 2010 and then jumped into Pandemic, Ticket to Ride, Dominion, King of Tokyo, etc. Betrayal hasn't aged that well and has very big highs and lows. It can be amazingly fun or boring...but it got me into the hobby and I'll always be grateful for that. Rob Daviau is why I'm a gamer.

For me 2016 was absolutely amazing and would be my #1. However, 2014 would be a close 2nd.

51:53 I’m with you, Zee. I think there should also be an option for games you have played, but might not own (because your friend/brother already owns it and you always play it together)

Ha! I totally remember Tom saying he wanted to be recognized. Then explaining he wants someone to say hello when customers walk in.

1:17:50 actually almost all those games from 2008 won the Spiel des Jahres, since they have come to Germany in different years (keltis won 2008, dominion won 2009, dixit won 2010)

I had a suggestion for a "list". I'm new to board gaming, and i end up getting a lot of classics, because they've built up so much success and that's where a lot of suggestions end up coming from, BUT a lot of times i hear you guys mention that things have progressed and there are better versions of mechanics from this classic game in 'newer' games that are less popular. For example, i like Catan, Carcassonne, Splender, Lords of waterdeep, but what would you suggest being an alteratives that may push gameplay 'forward' since their release that would have similar flavors. I'll try to pose this question in a Q&A if it isnt seen here. Thanks for all the content, have a great week

I can't get enough of Zee and Mike both being hilarious.

Wow, no one even spoke of Warhammer Quest for 1995. I get it's not for everyone, and probably not as big or well known in just the board gaming community, but it left quite a legacy in the dungeon crawl genre and for many miniature games.

-"Four for Blue Moon?" *updates ratings* Three. There I fixed it. haha =)

I really missed the energy of having the three people at the table together. It’s a whole other level of entertainment! This also included some of Zee’s best humor and maybe one of the worst jokes he’s ever told. Either way I loved it today!

Isle of Skye is very different from Carcassonne. The only similarity is that they use square tiles. By that logic Uno is the same as Arboretum.

Dwellings Ftw!!! My personal favorite of 2020! A fantastic year! Will certainly rise. Will be in Tom's top ten next time around, guaranteed.

A+ content! Really, really interesting look through the years

2016 for me My first Essen trip. The first 2 games I bought there were Terraforming mars and Great Western Trail. Currently my no1 and 5 in my all time list. Also 2016 was the first time I met the dice tower guys at UKGE

Mike lost all cred for not having 2016...you out!!!

I am pretty sure Mike totally forgot to look at all games of 2016! :D

FWIW, Mystery at the Abbaye was *not* a pnp game, but printed by a mostly rpg company called Multisim. Which, a few years later, published the first Citadels too. Quite well known at the time in France

22:06 There is a game which is similar to Carcassonne named Fjords. I would like to try it. Because it gets the bloat out of Carcassonne (No, I am not a big Carc fan) and focuses on what is important - Expanding areas (in the first part) and claiming territory (in the second).

+1 for “Top 10 things BGG has got to get on”. Would love to see what you all think needs to change/update/improve. I agree the collection tags would be my number 1

Looking at Tom's ratings makes my eye twitch. Wingspan: 8.5 Everdell: 7 Nemesis: 6.5 Brass: 5 Troyes: 5 Mysterium: 5 Arkham Horror LCG: 6 Inis: 6 Terra Mystica: 5 Five Tribes: 6.5 Those are some takes right there.

Thank you guys so much for doing your best over the past year, but I really did miss having three people at the table.

From Inigo Montoya to Mike; "You keep using the words Top Heavy. I do not think it means what you think it means."

For me, 94 of my top 100 games were published between 2011-2020. 2011 5 2012 5 2013 9 2014 5 2015 10 2016 14 2017 10 2018 17 2019 12 2020 7 My top three years were 2018, 2016 and 2019.

I was waiting for Tom to mention that 2018 was also the best year for kids games as he stated as much in his top 10 kids games of 2018 video. So many great titles that year.

All those years are really great ! Except 2003… anyway it was a great video again ! Thank you guys ! 😊

The biggest most significant thing that has ever happened to board gaming happened in 1998, when Avalon Hill went out of business. It was a time when people thought board games were on their way out, and computers would take over all gaming. AH committed business suicide by trying to make their games work on computers. AH's absence set the table for the explosion in Eurogames that soon followed. That event, plus the general improvement of desktop publishing has brought us into a golden age of gaming, that we have been in for 25 years now. I've been along for the ride, and the biggest surprise? How little computers have been involved. They are only needed for design, it seems. Still waiting on a decent AI.

@55:16: Zee pouting is hilarious.

2014 is my golden year of gaming...I have 5 titles which were either nominations or winners or recommendations in kinerspeil and speil des jahres

I agree with 2008 or 2012 being #1. Close call between the two I think

News flash: I knew what Zee was talking about. Gotta love a callback.

Because tom asked... No 1977? Ogre. (Steve Jackson’s first game). Cosmic encounter? Squad leader? Hell even Rummikub? And that’s not even the pen and paper RPG side of the house where it was madness.

Great discussion!

Agree with Tom... first year I thought of was 2012 too.

2016 is the absolute TOP!

One could consider other things besides board game releases too. For example the year Essen Spiel started or even sth mundane as the first dice tower.

A correction might be needed. In the page of the link "check if you won the contest" the end date is different than the end date here. Check to see what's wrong with it. Thanks for the contest guys.

"that's boring", Zee you are a treasure. A national treasure. Thanks.

Magic was 1993, but it is true that it REALLY got big in 1994.

2016. Easy pick.

For me the top year by far is 2011 - both games I like personally and games that I consider to be good despite not being good for me.

Honestly, I feel like 2012 - 2019 plus 2008 and 2010 (not in that order) are the best 10 years in my opinion. 2016 definitely #1.

I started painting with Blood Rage!

I just looked through my own collection to see which years stood out to me, so by games (not including expansions), my years this past decade (years before that had like 0-2 games lol) 1) 2019 (20 games) 2) 2018/2017 (14 games) 4) 2020 (12 games) 5) 2016/2015 (9 games) 7) 2013 (6 games) 8) 2014 (4 games) 9) 2012 (3 games) 10) 2011 (2 games)

I love seeing the ratings. Is there a way to filter a reviewer's ratings? I know you can see them all, but can you filter it?

Expedition Northwest Passage, a beautiful game that I unfortunately regret buying. It misleadingly comes across as a racing game but the winner is actually determined by who can excrutiatingly min/max their points not who gets through the Northwest passage first. Avoid at all costs.

Ha! When Go and Chess first "came out". So what year was the 1st edition of Chess published? How the heck did they get the following FAQ document out to all the fans?

For Mike! go on BGG and Help make Bootleggers hit the hot list!

Eric Lang was pretty critically well regarded for Chaos in the Old World. I know Tom doesnt rate it but its not like he was unknown before Blood Rage. Why didnt Tom rank the years by BGG rank when viewing them? It was grating talking about "still going through the list and theres still good games" when the list wasnt ranked by the games ratings.

This reminds me of the movie High Fidelity where the main character is constantly trying to organize his record collection throughout the story. Ultimately he decided that it was best to organize the collection by year as the music helped him remember those particular years as opposed to sorting by artist, or genre, etc.

No Dice Tower love for Brass or Terra Mystica! :(

“It’s a heavy bottom” and “we’re going to get passionate when the cameras go off” - Zee

I saw the title and i thought: "If 2012 is not in the top, these guys should be sued..." You don't dissapoint... thank you

2020 best year....mike....mike...

My concern is that the 2020 infirmities may have hindered design of new games and therefore 2021 and 22 may not have that many good games

So, filtering out the picks of these lists... From the past 20 years, these are the 'garbage years': 2001, 2002, 2006, 2009 and 2013.

Zee (4:53): 'So you would say that this is an important year because of X, Y or Zee'

2016 easy. I agree with zee

Wow! 2016 have 3 of my 5 favorite games!

Claiming that 2016 isn't a deep year is a very embarrassing take.

Tom - Monopoly Deal 1.5 Rating?! What?!

Love seeing the ratings! I can tell some haven’t been updated! 😂 #2 game of all time but rates it a 9 not a ten! And sorry Mike but 2020 wouldn’t make my list.....

They say one-two punch a lot :D Is this some new trend or smthing in the US?

for the joke its top 10 essentials for a good game store

What! What? WHAT!?! I was not aware of BGG's Ra tiles. Thank you once again for awesome news hidden deep in relaxing fun videos! Pause and shop...

How do you search BGG games by year released?

Bootleggers is massively underrated!

how can you sort games by year on BGG?

As soon as Mike said he loved Blue Moon, I looked at Zee to see his validated face. The jokes kept flying on this among the three and I loved it!

I feel like you guys are crazy not to have 2011 in your list... Eclipse, Game of Thrones, King of Tokyo, Mansions of Madness, Castles of Burgundy, Mage Knight... Just get these games and you've got yourself a banger collection full of varied classics still played to this day. How is that worse than 2020? I don't think Arnak and Dune Imperium will be played in 10 years. Viscount and Monumental are not even that good... All these are hyped games not important games.

2018, then I would have to research. I have 4 games rated a 10 in 2018. Every game I play from this year just about, is amazing

Isle of Skye and Carcassonne have almost nothing in common. Isle of Skye is primarily an auction game (of sorts) and the tile laying is really just there to make the auction more interesting. You could leave it out and just collec the tiles and not all that much would change.

Yes. Incorporate a list, or EVEN a number,.... multiplies views...

This video gets a like for being in person. Thank God you guys live in Florida and have a competent governor. Hell yeah for Blokus. I play that one with my five year old.

There is no doubt that 2017. is BY FAR the GOAT. Gloomhaven, Anachrony, Spirit Island, Charterstone, 7th Continent and Clank in Space, just to name a few.

Every time I play Agricola with a group, they all say that the game is Okay at best. Sad, because I spent over $200 upgraded my copy with beautiful components.

11:43 Tom rated Brass: Birmingham as a 5? Did Zee put something in Toms tea again? How is that even possible?

Man, that Caylus hate Mike... *sad trombone*

Why does it feel like rising sun has been out 5 years longer than quacks?

Tom, how can you give Tsuro a 3?!?! So unfair…

2003 looks like an awful year for gaming.

I think you didn't think much before making this list ;-)... why? Cus Top 5 would be enough. To be honest you all picked from 20-25 years, so you didn't have much choice. ;-P