The Meeple Like Us Top Ten Best Board Games 2019 Edition

Number Seven on the Meeple Like Us Ten Top Best Board Games 2019 Edition!

Past the sad and broken houses of the village lie the city walls. They’re damaged and burnt, having picked up the scars that are inevitable on a road so dangerous as this. Guerrilla games, grown hard and cold by the constant war for survival beyond the edge, occasionally conduct raids from their hidden bases in the bleak oblivion that surrounds the Path. The walls here are guarded by steel-eyed games, eyeing the horizon for the slightest hint of aggression from beyond. The flickering torchlight occasionally catches on a sword, and it glints with a sharpness that tells a story of its own. Every weapon you see here is a tool, well-cared for and immaculately maintained. There’s not a decorative dud in the lot.

Michael Picks: Innovation (Up from #8)

[ Review | Teardown ]

Blimey, I have never encountered a game before that made such a powerfully positive first impression on me. Innovation gives you a generous deck of cards and bids you to build an empire with them. As it does it whispers gently in your ear that your civilization would be doing so much better if you could just destroy every other sign of progress you could see. ‘Everything the light touches’, it promises in sweet, unguent tones, ‘could be your kingdom’. Its design is so sharp that even the edges of the cards can draw blood. It’s quick paced, incredibly clever, and as pointed as a barbecue fork. Last year it slipped a place down the charts, and this year it reclaims its footing. That’s why it’s a watcher on the walls – it has a grip in my affections that few games can match.

Pauline: Wow, we’re in alignment here. This is my #7 too!

Michael: Spoilers!

Pauline: Come on! It’s on the very same page! You can’t possibly not see it if you’re reading this.

Michael: I suppose. I guess there’s are limitations on how you can complain about spoilers. It’s not like that time some assholes spoiled the final episode of Game of Thrones for me.

Pauline: That’s a shame. Was that someone on Twitter?

Michael:  Nah, it was David Benioff and DB Weiss.

Pauline Picks: Innovation (Stable at #7)

[ Review | Teardown ]

I think you get an awful lot of game in a very small box with Innovation. It’s amazing how tightly packed it is, and how many interesting decisions it puts in your way. Unlike Michael, I haven’t played a lot of civilization games but when I did I always went for the most obvious and convenient win. I don’t have the same fixed mindset of ‘science at all costs’. He works away building the intellectual bedrock of a society run by philosopher kings, and that rarely works in his favour. I’m happy to win Innovation in the most thuggish way the game will permit. Michael is the textbook nerd, and I spend my time repeatedly kicking over his sandcastles until he literally goes nuclear. I’ve come to realise over the past few years that the fun isn’t in proving how much smarter I am than Michael, but rather in making sure everyone else around the table has the most fun they possibly can. Innovation isn’t really that kind of game, but it’s a game that feels very accommodating when you’re used to it. That’s why it’s staying where it is.

Michael: This little mini-review is clear evidence of bullying. Look at what you’re saying here. I could use this as evidence for divorce in any court of law and you’d be done for.

Pauline: Except of course that we’re not actually married so I don’t really see that happening.

Michael: Okay, that’s a fair point.

Pauline: Besides, you’d never survive on your own if we broke up. Do you even know how to work the washing machine?

Michael: It’s one of those automated ones. You just leave it to its own devices and it does it all for you. Picks all the stuff up, puts it in the machine, dries it, and then hangs it up. It’s great.

Pauline: …

Michael: …

Pauline: …

Michael: What? Have you not worked out how to make it do that yet?

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