I was really feeling the lack of Delphi there, here's my list: Delphi - S Amsterdam / Macao - A Trajan - A Burgundy (2 Player) - A Dragon - A / B Burgundy (3/4 Player) - B Jorvik - C
Great idea for a list. I don't know many other people on CZcams that have played as much stephen feld as you have. They aren't my favorite games but I'll give bora bora a go!
S Tier: Strasbourg, Macao A Tier: Bora Bora, Jorvik, Marrakesh, ITYOTD B Tier: CoB, Aquasphere, Bonfire, Notre Dame, Forum Trajanum C Tier: Amerigo, Delphi, Rialto, CoB Card, Luna, La Isla, Pillars of Earth Duel D Tier: Trajan, Bruges, It Happens, CoB Dice, Merlin F Tier: Spiel mit Lukas, Revolution 1828, CoT Unplayed: Kokopelli, Roma, Roma 2, Name of Rose, Rum & Pirates
A nice shortcut I use for Stefan Feld games is this. Everything by Alea plus Trajan and Bruges are his top tier games, best of the best and then there's everything else. I think that if you try original Bruges instead of the new City version you'll have it much higher. Not only is it far more beautiful but it's actually better without the ship expansion. And though I haven't played Amsterdam, I'd say Macao deserves a higher grade too.
Mr. Chairman... It's a shame you experienced your first try of Macao with the Queen reprint. The original does have text on the cards, and (truth be told) even with the text the game did require the use of a BGG document that PROPERLY explained each card's ability and interpretation of its use. The communal dice mechanic and rotating windrose is absolutely brilliant. Even after 80 or so games, our group still continued to discover new surprises! How crazy is that? That being said, it does take at least a dozen or so games to grasp the full balance of the city quarters and which cards are more valuable than others. In my early games, I previously thought it was "too difficult" to get multi-colored cards out. But with experience you absolutely learn how to navigate around these obstacles. Macao's wonderfully large deck of cards also makes the game HIGHLY replayable. Bora Bora and Macao are my 2 personal favorite designs from Feld. Many people consider Macao as his very best design (it's really hard to beat the advantage a large deck of cards brings to a game). But every person has their own favorites. Bora Bora was mine because of the amazing dice worker placement element. Trajan is amazing because of the Mancala mechanism. I am now experiencing Marrakesh, and am very excited to say this game is easily in his Top Tier creations. The cube tower would have a stronger impact if the pieces were cubes instead of octagon cylinders. By design, I think they WANTED the cube tower to have a more "tempered" impact on the action Keishes (maybe trapping or releasing just a couple occasionally rather than several). But there is a fabulous dynamic apart from the cube tower that presents itself... and that dynamic is quite a "hook"! I strongly encourage you to keep giving Marrakesh and Macao (or its reprint) several more tries before reaching a final verdict. I can't speak for the Queen tweaks to Macao, but the original is a masterpiece.
Great to see you so excited relating this list. Your genuine passion for the games by this designer is evident. Oracle, Carpe Diem and CoB are my favourite Felds.
Dan, I like this new format - do you have plans to cover other prolific designers? - I would like your coverage of my favorites: Knizia, Schacht, Mori and Colovini. Again, I can't put my finger on why I'm not drawn to Feld designs - perhaps, the point salad/pinball machine score frequency nature, or too much going on/multi mini games/lack of streamline. Thanks for your suggestions on Hamburg and Kokopelli - I do like multi-purpose card driven games, so perhaps I should give these a try.
Great list! I am right with you on almost everything except Bonfire. Definitely an A/S for me. I highly recommend giving that one some more plays. There’s much depth to be explored with the island system, card combos, and endless slat placemats in your magic circle. It flies under a lot of people’s radar, but I’m absolutely in love with it. I haven’t played YOTD, but when you said, “like draining blood from a rock”, I immediately thought of Bonfire.
Yeah I agree. Bonfire was a major grower for me. I started off being pretty disappointed and it has just kept climbing and climbing to now where it's one of my favorites of his.
Have a few Feld games, and recently bought Amerigo BB and fell in love with it. Cube tower works so well with the game, akin to Wallenstein/Shogun in how to effectively use this mechanism in a game. Great list and tier streaming btw.
Great list, my favorite designer. My tiers would be: S - Burgundy, Carpe Diem, Trajan A - Marrakesh, Bonfire, Notre Dame B - Merlin, Rialto, Oracle of Delphi, Castles of Tuscany C - CoB dice game, Macao, Forum Trajanum D - Amerigo, Bruges, Luna, Arena Roma II F - CoB card game
Ok. Close enough I suppose. I also think that Aqua Sphere is his other S-Tier. His most underrated design. So glad to see others appreciate it as well.
Not sure where my other comment went but I've reworked my ranking into a tier list and it's cool to see we're pretty much in agreement. The biggest one I hope you can try soon is Strasbourg because it's just excellent! I haven't had a chance to play Marrakesh yet but I hope to finally play this week so I'm eager to see where it falls for me! S Tier - Castles of Burgundy, Trajan, Macao A Tier - Bruges, Oracle of Delphi, Strasbourg, Carpe Diem, Bora Bora B Tier - Notre Dame, Bonfire, Amerigo, La Isla C Tier - Aquasphere, Luna, Arena: Roma II, Kokopelli, In the Year of the Dragon, Pillars of the Earth: Builder's Duel, Forum Trajanum D Tier - Rialto, The Castles of Tuscany, CoB: Dice, Roma, Merlin, CoB: Cards F Tier - Rum & Pirates, Revolution of 1828, Jorvik, It Happens...
Feld is one of my favorite designers so obviously great list! I love the tier idea instead of ranking…. Here are how I’d categorize the Feld games I own: S Tier - Oracle of Delphi A Tier - Macao Trajan Castles of Burgundy Amerigo Bora Bora Forum Trajanum B Tier - Carpe Diem Rialto In the Year of the Dragon La Isla Jorvik/ Speicherstadt Revolution 1828 C Tier - Notre Dame Bruges Kokopelli Merlin CoB: the Card Game Castles of Tuscany Luna AquaSphere Pillars of the Earth: Builders Duel D Tier - CoB: the Dice Game Arena: Roma II It Happens.. Rum & Pirates
I really enjoyed this video as Some of Stevan’s games are among my favourites. For me: A games: Castles of Burgundy Trajan Carpe Diem B games: Bruges (I literally made my own copy) I am most keen on hunting down Bora Bora and Finding a reasonable price for Bonfire Thanks
The perfect list for #Felduary! My very favorite designer. Thanks for putting this list together. If you can hunt down Strasbourg, it is a real hidden gem.
Haha yeah we have some pretty different rankings. Trajan, Bonfire and Aquasphere are easily some of my least favourite Felds. Aquasphere in particular I thought was pretty terrible. Totally agree with your assessment of Castles of Tuscany.
I think Bonfire is slowly getting recognised as one of his best. I also think Forum Tranjanum is a fantastic game. A little inelegant, and I'm certain the weird cheap looking box art has done it no favours, but a really interesting spatial puzzle.
Thanks for this recommendation! I like Bonfire quite a bit. It's a Feld game that "hits the target" for me - even if it didn't quite hit the "bullseye". Sometimes an expansion takes a game that needs just a tiny bit of help to bring it into masterclass territory (i.e., Tzolkin': The Mayan Calendar with the Tribes expansion). Other times, it takes a game that's already near perfect and ruins it by bogging it down to catastrophic levels (i.e., Fresco with "The Glaziers").
Here is my top10. Stefan Feld. I generally like his cut throat/interactive games. The point salad ones are ok. I really hate the city line, they look awful and are just made more sprawling for no reason. 1. Jörvik/Speicherstadt 2. Strasbourg 3. Bruges 4. In the year of the dragon 5. Notre Dame 6. Amerigo 7. Carpe Diem 8. Trajan 9. Castles of Burgundy 10. Macao. I rate those games from 9 on top and 7 at the bottom.
Game length is just as much of a barrier to entry as game complexity, in terms of getting non gamers to play. So that's why I find Castles of Tuscany absolutely does have an audience. Us gamers have a harder time seeing the appeal at times. Though I myself find that I enjoy shorter simpler games with snappy turns more than I do the more complicated longer games with the slower paced turns.
@@TeChNoWC7 It’s pure chaos. Tactical moves in order to maximize points. Board is always changing or getting worse as you go. Reliance on other players to clear squids. It just feels like you are playing against the board more than players. It is incredibly different in comparison to his other games. I wouldn’t claim it to be as ‘point-salad’ as his other games. And it’s the only game I appreciate the programming of the bots. Great thing is I bought it cheap. Idk. I have owned and played most of Feld’s designs, and I am trying to keep my collection lean, and of all the titles Feld has made, this one I can’t let go. I let go of Luna, IyotD, Rialto, Bonfire, Norte Dame, etc. Artwork is fun, many believe it to be too much. But it is unique. The worst part of the game that I can understand why people give negative vibes towards it is the beginning. It’s a gamer’s game imo. And you have to like Feld’s design of possibilities and paths. This game forces you to go with your gut feeling and go! If you are AP prone, this game is not for you. If you are out to only win all the time in games, this may not be for you. If you get upset when things don’t go as planned, then this game won’t work for you. But if you can appreciate moments of success and point grabs here and there, it really is an interconnected game of mechanics. You can get backed into a corner. You can ride a wave of points given in a nice passageway of little sneaky moves. Snag a bonus tile that can be used as a kind of ‘get out of jail’ card. The game ramps up in a unique way. It is what Pandemic should have been for me.
![Color Field, Rafter Five, Romi-Rami [TACTILE PLAY - GIGGLES & GAMES s2e8 (25)]](/img/n.gif)
So I somehow forgot two games.
Oracle of Delphi - A Tier
Notre Dame - C Tier
I was wondering where those two were?! 😂
I would put Delphi there, too! Love that game. Great video.
I was just going to ask what happened to Oracle. Love Felds and the list.
I was going to ask about Notre Dame
I was really feeling the lack of Delphi there, here's my list:
Delphi - S
Amsterdam / Macao - A
Trajan - A
Burgundy (2 Player) - A
Dragon - A / B
Burgundy (3/4 Player) - B
Jorvik - C
i hope you will do this with other designers as well. thank you for the video.
Great idea for a list. I don't know many other people on CZcams that have played as much stephen feld as you have. They aren't my favorite games but I'll give bora bora a go!
S Tier: Strasbourg, Macao
A Tier: Bora Bora, Jorvik, Marrakesh, ITYOTD
B Tier: CoB, Aquasphere, Bonfire, Notre Dame, Forum Trajanum
C Tier: Amerigo, Delphi, Rialto, CoB Card, Luna, La Isla, Pillars of Earth Duel
D Tier: Trajan, Bruges, It Happens, CoB Dice, Merlin
F Tier: Spiel mit Lukas, Revolution 1828, CoT
Unplayed: Kokopelli, Roma, Roma 2, Name of Rose, Rum & Pirates
A nice shortcut I use for Stefan Feld games is this. Everything by Alea plus Trajan and Bruges are his top tier games, best of the best and then there's everything else.
I think that if you try original Bruges instead of the new City version you'll have it much higher. Not only is it far more beautiful but it's actually better without the ship expansion. And though I haven't played Amsterdam, I'd say Macao deserves a higher grade too.
Mr. Chairman... It's a shame you experienced your first try of Macao with the Queen reprint. The original does have text on the cards, and (truth be told) even with the text the game did require the use of a BGG document that PROPERLY explained each card's ability and interpretation of its use. The communal dice mechanic and rotating windrose is absolutely brilliant. Even after 80 or so games, our group still continued to discover new surprises! How crazy is that?
That being said, it does take at least a dozen or so games to grasp the full balance of the city quarters and which cards are more valuable than others. In my early games, I previously thought it was "too difficult" to get multi-colored cards out. But with experience you absolutely learn how to navigate around these obstacles. Macao's wonderfully large deck of cards also makes the game HIGHLY replayable. Bora Bora and Macao are my 2 personal favorite designs from Feld. Many people consider Macao as his very best design (it's really hard to beat the advantage a large deck of cards brings to a game). But every person has their own favorites. Bora Bora was mine because of the amazing dice worker placement element. Trajan is amazing because of the Mancala mechanism.
I am now experiencing Marrakesh, and am very excited to say this game is easily in his Top Tier creations. The cube tower would have a stronger impact if the pieces were cubes instead of octagon cylinders. By design, I think they WANTED the cube tower to have a more "tempered" impact on the action Keishes (maybe trapping or releasing just a couple occasionally rather than several). But there is a fabulous dynamic apart from the cube tower that presents itself... and that dynamic is quite a "hook"! I strongly encourage you to keep giving Marrakesh and Macao (or its reprint) several more tries before reaching a final verdict. I can't speak for the Queen tweaks to Macao, but the original is a masterpiece.
Great to see you so excited relating this list. Your genuine passion for the games by this designer is evident. Oracle, Carpe Diem and CoB are my favourite Felds.
Dan, I like this new format - do you have plans to cover other prolific designers? - I would like your coverage of my favorites: Knizia, Schacht, Mori and Colovini.
Again, I can't put my finger on why I'm not drawn to Feld designs - perhaps, the point salad/pinball machine score frequency nature, or too much going on/multi mini games/lack of streamline. Thanks for your suggestions on Hamburg and Kokopelli - I do like multi-purpose card driven games, so perhaps I should give these a try.
I'll definitely do more of these if I've played enough of a designer's games
Great list! I am right with you on almost everything except Bonfire. Definitely an A/S for me. I highly recommend giving that one some more plays. There’s much depth to be explored with the island system, card combos, and endless slat placemats in your magic circle. It flies under a lot of people’s radar, but I’m absolutely in love with it. I haven’t played YOTD, but when you said, “like draining blood from a rock”, I immediately thought of Bonfire.
Yeah I agree. Bonfire was a major grower for me. I started off being pretty disappointed and it has just kept climbing and climbing to now where it's one of my favorites of his.
Have a few Feld games, and recently bought Amerigo BB and fell in love with it. Cube tower works so well with the game, akin to Wallenstein/Shogun in how to effectively use this mechanism in a game. Great list and tier streaming btw.
Great list, my favorite designer.
My tiers would be:
S - Burgundy, Carpe Diem, Trajan
A - Marrakesh, Bonfire, Notre Dame
B - Merlin, Rialto, Oracle of Delphi, Castles of Tuscany
C - CoB dice game, Macao, Forum Trajanum
D - Amerigo, Bruges, Luna, Arena Roma II
F - CoB card game
Wish you would a summary at end like Brad m did.I am looking for games online and I would buy the top rated ones first.
Whaaaat
The dice game is one of the worst games I’ve ever played. The card game is so freaking good. Strange.
Just started watching this video and Bora Bora better be S-Tier😁. Will see how this plays out.
Ok. Close enough I suppose. I also think that Aqua Sphere is his other S-Tier. His most underrated design. So glad to see others appreciate it as well.
@@Agent_Pendergast wow, what am I missing? I was pretty shocked at how barren and incredibly bad Aquasphere is imo.
Not sure where my other comment went but I've reworked my ranking into a tier list and it's cool to see we're pretty much in agreement. The biggest one I hope you can try soon is Strasbourg because it's just excellent! I haven't had a chance to play Marrakesh yet but I hope to finally play this week so I'm eager to see where it falls for me!
S Tier - Castles of Burgundy, Trajan, Macao
A Tier - Bruges, Oracle of Delphi, Strasbourg, Carpe Diem, Bora Bora
B Tier - Notre Dame, Bonfire, Amerigo, La Isla
C Tier - Aquasphere, Luna, Arena: Roma II, Kokopelli, In the Year of the Dragon, Pillars of the Earth: Builder's Duel, Forum Trajanum
D Tier - Rialto, The Castles of Tuscany, CoB: Dice, Roma, Merlin, CoB: Cards
F Tier - Rum & Pirates, Revolution of 1828, Jorvik, It Happens...
I would be super interested on your take of an « Italian school euros Tier list »
It's on my to do list
Feld is one of my favorite designers so obviously great list! I love the tier idea instead of ranking…. Here are how I’d categorize the Feld games I own:
S Tier - Oracle of Delphi
A Tier -
Macao
Trajan
Castles of Burgundy
Amerigo
Bora Bora
Forum Trajanum
B Tier -
Carpe Diem
Rialto
In the Year of the Dragon
La Isla
Jorvik/ Speicherstadt
Revolution 1828
C Tier -
Notre Dame
Bruges
Kokopelli
Merlin
CoB: the Card Game
Castles of Tuscany
Luna
AquaSphere
Pillars of the Earth: Builders Duel
D Tier -
CoB: the Dice Game
Arena: Roma II
It Happens..
Rum & Pirates
The Queen reprints should not be bunched together with the originals, there are significant changes made. Often these changes are not well advised.
I really enjoyed this video as Some of Stevan’s games are among my favourites.
For me:
A games:
Castles of Burgundy
Trajan
Carpe Diem
B games:
Bruges (I literally made my own copy)
I am most keen on hunting down
Bora Bora
and
Finding a reasonable price for Bonfire
Thanks
I just played Marrakech tonight, and since you liked Amerigo, I wondered if you’ve gotten the chance to play it yet.
Yes I have. I own it and enjoy it a lot
I hope you end up giving Bruges/Hamburg an A tier. Such a good game!
A Tier for me: In the Year of the Dragon, Speicherstadt, Macao, and Castles of Burgundy
The perfect list for #Felduary! My very favorite designer. Thanks for putting this list together. If you can hunt down Strasbourg, it is a real hidden gem.
Yeah I'm trying to find it
Strasbourg is phenomenal!
Haha yeah we have some pretty different rankings. Trajan, Bonfire and Aquasphere are easily some of my least favourite Felds. Aquasphere in particular I thought was pretty terrible.
Totally agree with your assessment of Castles of Tuscany.
I think Bonfire is slowly getting recognised as one of his best. I also think Forum Tranjanum is a fantastic game. A little inelegant, and I'm certain the weird cheap looking box art has done it no favours, but a really interesting spatial puzzle.
I think Trees expansion takes Bonfire from B tier to an A tier game.
Thanks for this recommendation! I like Bonfire quite a bit. It's a Feld game that "hits the target" for me - even if it didn't quite hit the "bullseye". Sometimes an expansion takes a game that needs just a tiny bit of help to bring it into masterclass territory (i.e., Tzolkin': The Mayan Calendar with the Tribes expansion). Other times, it takes a game that's already near perfect and ruins it by bogging it down to catastrophic levels (i.e., Fresco with "The Glaziers").
I still need to try Trajan. I have acquired it but haven't played it yet.
I only got one Feld: In the year of the Dragon, 10th anniversary ed.
Here is my top10. Stefan Feld. I generally like his cut throat/interactive games. The point salad ones are ok. I really hate the city line, they look awful and are just made more sprawling for no reason.
1. Jörvik/Speicherstadt
2. Strasbourg
3. Bruges
4. In the year of the dragon
5. Notre Dame
6. Amerigo
7. Carpe Diem
8. Trajan
9. Castles of Burgundy
10. Macao.
I rate those games from 9 on top and 7 at the bottom.
Game length is just as much of a barrier to entry as game complexity, in terms of getting non gamers to play. So that's why I find Castles of Tuscany absolutely does have an audience. Us gamers have a harder time seeing the appeal at times. Though I myself find that I enjoy shorter simpler games with snappy turns more than I do the more complicated longer games with the slower paced turns.
Die Speicherstadt + Kaispeicher / Jorvik, Strasbourg, Notre dame
AquaSphere is S Tier. Only argument in you rankings. Awesome vid.
Genuinely curious what you like about it?
@@TeChNoWC7
It’s pure chaos. Tactical moves in order to maximize points. Board is always changing or getting worse as you go. Reliance on other players to clear squids. It just feels like you are playing against the board more than players. It is incredibly different in comparison to his other games. I wouldn’t claim it to be as ‘point-salad’ as his other games. And it’s the only game I appreciate the programming of the bots. Great thing is I bought it cheap. Idk. I have owned and played most of Feld’s designs, and I am trying to keep my collection lean, and of all the titles Feld has made, this one I can’t let go. I let go of Luna, IyotD, Rialto, Bonfire, Norte Dame, etc.
Artwork is fun, many believe it to be too much. But it is unique.
The worst part of the game that I can understand why people give negative vibes towards it is the beginning. It’s a gamer’s game imo. And you have to like Feld’s design of possibilities and paths. This game forces you to go with your gut feeling and go! If you are AP prone, this game is not for you. If you are out to only win all the time in games, this may not be for you. If you get upset when things don’t go as planned, then this game won’t work for you.
But if you can appreciate moments of success and point grabs here and there, it really is an interconnected game of mechanics. You can get backed into a corner. You can ride a wave of points given in a nice passageway of little sneaky moves. Snag a bonus tile that can be used as a kind of ‘get out of jail’ card. The game ramps up in a unique way. It is what Pandemic should have been for me.
Cant´t wait for a Simone Luciani Tier List.
My favourite designer!
No one talks about it it, but have you played Feld’s Revolution or 1828 released by Renegade Games?
I haven't
Hello, plays Trajan well at two players as CoB does? It is also more complicated? Thank you!
Yeah it's great at 2. It is a bit more complicated but not loads more
@@ChairmanoftheBoard Thank you!
15:48 how does bonfire have a mini game element? Everything is intertwined. It’s just one whole game.
Yeah I suppose I meant there's an action token for each little part of the game.
@@ChairmanoftheBoardah yeah. That fate tile placement is analogous to the mancala mechanic in Trajan. Didn’t even look at it that way.
Okay you need to hunt down:
Notre Dame
The Oracle of Delphi
I can't believe I've left these off. I'll add a pinned comment
Thanks!
Surprised Bruges is b tier
No Norte Dame?
Check the pinned comment