Well we've made it into the Top 10, and there are some new entries on the list for sure. You will also notice that there are some similarities between a lot of coasters on this list and I think it just kind of dials in what I really love about riding these gigantic machines. So without further ado, let's jump into the list.
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The last time I did a Top 10 Coasters List was in 2018 when I had ridden somewhere around 65 coasters. Since then, my count has almost doubled up to 125 unique rides. Since I've added a lot of big hitters, I thought it would be fun to revisit my rankings and talk about what makes them so unique and interesting and just a freaking blast to ride. On this specifically I am focusing on one thing only: How much I enjoy the ride, not how "objectively" good it is to the public at large. In cases where I was torn, I did try to defer to only having one of each "type" of coaster Here we go!
This post was inspired by a friend of mine sending out a fairly random message asking about Colt Express, which is a game that is certainly known for its table presence. The large 3D cardboard pieces and the card art piqued his interest, so I decided to do a post about some of my favorite art in games. For this particular installment, I'm going to be looking at 3 examples of standout art rather than doing any sort of ranking. The categories I'm going to be focusing on are: Box Cover, Card Art, Game Board, and Table Presence/Components. Each game can only be in one category, so no double-dipping. Here we go!
Cedar Point is one of the premiere destinations in the world if you are a roller coaster junkie with 17 currently operating coasters. The park typically gets a new roller coaster every few years, with Steel Vengeance being the most recent in 2018 as a ground-up renovation of the old and busted Mean Streak. With 2020 celebrating the 150th anniversary of the park, no announcements have been made regarding their next roller coaster so I am going to speculate as to why there wasn't a coaster for 2020, when the next coaster will arrive, where it will go, and what type of ride it will be.
Worker Placement might be my favorite mechanic in board games and I will probably give any game with it a shot. For this list, I did not include games in which Worker Placement isn't the main focus, like Mombasa. Also, I decided to include Dice Placement games in this list because I think they are close enough to warrant inclusion. Enough of the babble, let's get to my list! #10: Caverna: The Cave FarmersI'm not going to dilly dally with some witty intro this time, let's finish the list! #5: The Incredible HulkI tend to run through hobbies like nobody's business and my current flavor of the month (in addition to board games) are Roller Coasters. Now I'm certainly far from a hardcore enthusiast, but I do have almost 70 roller coasters under my belt so I thought it would be fun to explore them. If there's one thing I love doing on this blog, it's doing Top 10 lists... Before we begin, a few caveats. I tried to rank these as pure roller coasters, so you won't be seeing heavily themed rides like Expedition Everest or some of the other Disney rides close to my heart. Also, as usual, these are rides I have personally ridden and as such many will be missing as I can be a pansy about certain rides. #10: Ravine Flyer IIThe long awaited continuation of my Top 10 Games of 2017 is here! If you missed part one, you can find it here. I don't have a long-winded introduction this time, so let's just get to the list! #5: YamataïDays of Wonder game? Check. Designer of Five Tribes? Check. Yamatai should have been everything I could desire in a game, but here it is at #5 of the year. Don't get me wrong, it's a super solid game and has some similarities to Five Tribes, but this might be my disappointment of the year. It's just...fine. The mechanics are interesting, but it borrows a bit from Five Tribes and it just feels kind of same-y.
I know you're thinking, "Scott, why is it #5 on your list then?". Good question. It's still a good game, better than Azul by my standards, but probably not better than my #7-#10. Difference? I've played this 3 or 4 times, I know it's solid, I don't know if the others hold up. They probably do, but we'll see. What I do like about this game is the different paths to victory, similar to Five Tribes. Want to focus on building? Cool. Want to focus on recruiting specialists? Cool. It offers some fun and interesting choices 2017 was another solid year in gaming with more than 3400 games being released (according to BoardGameGeek). While I didn't play even 1% of those games, I played quite a few of the new hotness games and have compiled a list of them here. As a note, my #10-#7 are games I have only played once, and as such might rise higher as I play them more often. Without further ado, here are the Top 10 Games of 2017...that I actually played. #10: LisboaBy far the heaviest game I played this year, with a whopping 4.47/5.00 weight rating on BoardGameGeek, Lisboa is the latest in designer Vital Lacerda's repertoire. Lacerda likes to design crazy deep, yet thematic games like The Gallerist, Vinhos, and Kanban, and Lisboa is no exception. This game is a bear to learn, but once you get the hang of the turn structure it really shines. The way the actions and sub-actions interlock in this game is a master class in heavy game design, but your head will certainly be burning afterward.
So this past weekend I had the pleasure of attending a small board gaming convention in Hudson, OH called the Groundhog Day Gaming Retreat. This was my second time in attendance and I got to meet up with quite a few friends and strangers to do what I love most: play board games. In this brief post, I'm going to talk about the games that I got to play and offer some mini-reviews of them. I'm going to restrict this post to some of the "lighter" games that I got to play as opposed to the super complex games I usually adore. Here we go!
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AuthorScott Marshand: Engineer, Board Game Enthusiast, Roller Coaster Addict. Archives
February 2021
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