The Big F:AT Hall Of Legends

I've never played a few of the big titles (e.g., T&E, Nexus Ops, Heroscape, Warhammer Quest) so I didn't list them, even though they obviously deserve spots. It's also not clear to me whether we are supposed to be listing our favorites or games we think are deserving of a Hall of Fame title. (Actually, I've been thinking about writing on article on the topic of "favorite vs. best" for quite some time. maybe I'll sit down and do it this week)

1. Cosmic Encounter
2. Arkham Horror
3. Magic: The Gathering
4. Magic Realm
5. Blood Bowl
6. Clash of Cultures
7. Cave Evil
8. Wiz-War
9. Merchants and Marauders
10. Warrior Knights (GW)
11. Acquire (Is this not AT? Don't care)
12. Spartacus
13. Space Hulk
14. Twilight Imperium III
15. Battlestar Galactica
16. HeroQuest
17. Talisman
18. Imperial 2030
19. Conquest of the Empire
20. Blue Moon Legends

Tough thing to do here. Lots of ties to be broken, somewhat arbitrarily. I am also realizing how few of these classics I have played. I have skipped a lot of the last 5 or 6 years I guess. Without going too much into it, I am ranking these games based on how much I want to play with with a group of cool folks I don't need to to teach and we have a nice long afternoon and evening set aside. The games should be thematic--I love CRIBBAGE and all, but it's not thematic, and a game gets bonus points if it evokes that theme well. REX and DUNE are the same game, but DUNE is much more evocative.

1. DUNE
2. TITAN
3. NEXUS OPS
4. ARKHAM HORROR
5. RISK: LEGACY
6. WIN PLACE & SHOW
7. BATTLESTAR GALACTICA
8. TWILIGHT IMPERIUM 3
9. COSMIC ENCOUNTER
10. ANDROID: NETRUNNER
11. MAGIC THE GATHERING
12. CHAOS IN THE OLD WORLD
13. ECLIPSE
14. TWILIGHT STRUGGLE
15. MERCHANT OF VENUS
16. WIZ-WAR
17. MERCHANTS & MARAUDERS
18. SURVIVE
19. HEROSCAPE
20. CITIES AND KNIGHTS OF CATAN

Consolation prizes (no order): AGRICOLA, MAGE WARS, MAGE KNIGHT, CONFLICT OF HEROES: AWAKENING THE BEAR, THE FURY OF DRACULA, STARCRAFT, CYCLADES, CLASH OF CULTURES

Legomancer wrote:

Chapel wrote: I'm just impressed to see Euphrat und Tigris on so many lists. I didn't think I'd see a quintessential euro on an AT list.

Man, today's euro crowd would flip their shit at T&E. Too random! Too much confrontation! You can mess with "my" stuff!

It was #1 on BGG when I first joined. I don't think it would crack the top 100 now. Too many elegant worker placement games with interesting decisions.

I don't know! Yes, it is not as dry euro-y as those multi-player solitaire's of a couple few years back, but I think the pendulum is swinging back this way for more player interaction. I think if T&E was released today, it might have gone gang busters just because it had a little luck and was highly interactive.

Cambyses wrote: I've never played a few of the big titles (e.g., T&E, Nexus Ops, Heroscape, Warhammer Quest) so I didn't list them, even though they obviously deserve spots. It's also not clear to me whether we are supposed to be listing our favorites or games we think are deserving of a Hall of Fame title. (Actually, I've been thinking about writing on article on the topic of "favorite vs. best" for quite some time. maybe I'll sit down and do it this week)

1. Cosmic Encounter
2. Arkham Horror
3. Magic: The Gathering
4. Magic Realm
5. Blood Bowl
6. Clash of Cultures
7. Cave Evil
8. Wiz-War
9.Merchants and Marauders
10. Warrior Knights (GW)
11. Acquire (Is this not AT? Don't care)
12. Spartacus
11. Space Hulk
13. Twilight Imperium III
14. Battlestar Galactica
15. HeroQuest
16. Talisman
17. Imperial 2030
18. Conquest of the Empire
19. Blue Moon Legends
20. Android: Netrunner

Let me know when you've culled your list down to 20...

Mad Dog wrote: Let me know when you've culled your list down to 20...

Woops. I kept moving them around and I messed it up.

Well the top game was clear, and then after that it was totally ambiguous. I feel as good about this list as anything, but there are definitely some arbitrary rankings in here.

1. Cosmic Encounter
2. Tigris & Euphrates
3. Talisman
4. Ra
5. Robinson Crusoe
6. Innovation
7. Dune
8. Wiz-War
9. Duel of Ages II
10. Twilight Struggle
11. Agricola
12. Merchants & Marauders
13. Nexus Ops
14. Settlers of Catan
15. Manila
16. El Grande
17. Power Grid
18. Imperial
19. Tichu
20. Merchant of Venus

Also receiving votes: Fury of Dracula, Clash of Cultures, Wrath of Ashardalon, Mare Nostrum, Battlestar Galactica, King of Tokyo, Small World, Five Tribes, Shadows of Malice, Dungeonquest, Mage Knight, Space Hulk

Lots of good lists so far. Keep em coming!

So I was thinking about this, and I was wondering if you were actually looking for more of an objective top 20 games, rather than a list of personal favorites. Or if you don't actually care very much and you just want a list of 20 games.

1)TI:3
2)Arkham Horror
3)Cosmic
4)Clash of Cultures
5)Merchants and Marauders
6)Eclipse
7)Chaos in the Old World
8)Twilight Struggle
9)Robinson Crusoe
10)Mage Wars
11)X-Wing
12)City of Remnants
13)LOTR Confrontation (Deluxe)
14)Waterdeep
15)Here I Stand
16)Caverna (better than Agricola, sorry)
17)Dominion
18)Imperial Settlers
19)Railways of the World (Railroad Tycoon)
20)Core Worlds

I'm specifically trying not to say what kind of games to list beyond thinking they should be in the Fort's Hall of Fame. The point system should (and going by current results is) account for favoritism versus objectiveness.

1. Dungeons and Dragons
2. X-Wing
3. Netrunner
4. Arkham Horror
5. Cave Evil
6. Star Wars: ARMADA
7. Mage Wars
8. HeroScape
9. Lord of the Rings LCG
10. Duel of Ages 2
11. War of the Ring
12. Dune
13. Cosmic Encounter
14. Runewars
15. Mage Knight
16. Phil Eklund Games
17. Battlelore Second Ed.
18. Wiz War
19. Magic: The Gathering
20. Twilight Strug

San Il Defanso wrote: So I was thinking about this, and I was wondering if you were actually looking for more of an objective top 20 games, rather than a list of personal favorites. Or if you don't actually care very much and you just want a list of 20 games.

I originally had some games that objectively deserved to be in my list, but they ultimately got filtered out as a matter of favoritism. The results are more interesting when personal tastes are a driving factor.

This is a great idea. I'd love for their to be some sort official F:AT Hall of Fame where the site awards certain games. So when I put my list together I put it together with some criteria. First if something is in a Hall of Legends or whatever, it can't be new. It has to prove itself over time to worthy. So my list is eschews recent greats. Honestly, I think I went back at least 10 years for all of these games except one (CitOW). So pretty much anything from 2006 and later didn't make the cut. Also, there were some really great games like Earth Reborn and Ascending Empires that are probably just a bit too niche for a list like this. I also really didn't put any Euro's on the list because those fucking games get enough recognition elsewhere. If I'm putting any Euro on my list it would be Catan and really that game doesn't need anymore awards or anything. Alright so here is what I came up with:

1. Cosmic Encounter
2. Fury of Dracula
3. Chaos in the Old World
4. Space Hulk
5. Wiz-War
6. Talisman
7. DungeonQuest
8. War of the Ring
9. Merchant of Venus
10. Heroscape
11. ThunderRoad
12. Nexus Ops
13. Doom/ Descent/ Imperial Assault System
14. Battlestar Galactica
15. HeroQuest
16. Survive: Escape from Atlantis
17. Twilight Imperium III
18. Arkham Horror
19. Dune
20. Betrayal at House on the Hill

I just realized that I have not yet issued guidance to the rest of you as to how this should go down.

If this is an inaugural Hall of Legends, you have to get the most IMPORTANT games in there first, and these are outside of what I would personally choose or not choose. And they are:

1. Risk
2. Diplomacy
3. Acquire
4. Advanced Squad Leader
5. Dungeons & Dragons
6. Cosmic Encounter
7. Civilization
8.. Titan
9. Dune
10. Magic Realm
11. Gunslinger
12. Ogre
13. Talisman
14. Survive!
15. King Oil/McMulti/Crude
16. Wiz-War
17. Merchant of Venus
18. Warhammer 40k
19. Settlers of Catan
20. Dominion

I dunno, I guess, this is too hard to think about.

wadenels wrote:

San Il Defanso wrote: So I was thinking about this, and I was wondering if you were actually looking for more of an objective top 20 games, rather than a list of personal favorites. Or if you don't actually care very much and you just want a list of 20 games.

I originally had some games that objectively deserved to be in my list, but they ultimately got filtered out as a matter of favoritism. The results are more interesting when personal tastes are a driving factor.

I actually just wrote a short blog entry on this very idea. Hopefully it gets posted some time soon, as I think the best-vs-favorite distinction is an important thing to remember when we are talking about what games are good and bad and what we are recommending to people.