Designers' Best: Uwe Rosenberg

[@MashedEgg]

"We might mention Le Havre later..." Lol, you're not fooling anybody, Tom. We all knew Le Havre was your #1 before we even clicked on this video.

[@CapriciousIntent]

I realized just last night that, due to most of his boxes being the same width, I have a shelf that was fairly dominated by his games. I immediately rearranged my shelves to get even more of them on there. So now I have an Uwe fanboy shelf! And once again, At the Gates of Loyang gets no love. Such a good game that is constantly overlooked.

[@annjourney14]

Glass Road is my favorite Uwe. Love trying to work effectively with the buildings that come out on display in such a limited amount of time.

[@Ruffio58]

Another Uwe game I really enjoying playing solo and gets overlooked is At the Gates of Loyang.

[@StyxTBuferd]

I haven't tried that with two players yet, but I plan on making that happen. Solo it is an absolute gem.

[@linkforth]

I love At the Gates of Loyang too. Albeit a little luck dependent on your drafting, once you get your farm going, it just is sooo satisfying

[@bushibayushi]

Agricola with expansions is his best game to date

[@linusottosson5425]

Patchwork and Agricola are the two ones I’ve played. I love Patchwork! Straight forward but really amazing simple and elegant design, never boring to play.

[@ivanristov5835]

My favorite is Ora et Labora because of the thematic resource conversion. So many unique buildings so many options of scoring, not one game is the same. Also the 2 player variant can go on like forever so if you find yourself a like-minded friend you can literary spend hours and hours making all sorts of conversions until you run out of scoring goods and have like thousand points or something. which I think is very cool concept to have in a game.

[@TeChNoWC7]

I think it’s dishonest to say that Caverna replaces Agricola. I know that sounds harsh and that’s your opinion, but it’s kind of like saying ‘Eldritch Horror replaces Bonanza for me’, something you would probably call out a reputable board game reviewer for saying. They are both just so radically different and scratch a completely different itch. Caverna is sandbox happy happy, Agricola is tension filled build a different strat based on the cards every game. Like Chess compared with some of its light, fun silly variants. Both might be good in their own way, but not really comparable so directly as to be like ‘a replacement for Chess’. Anyway, my two cents.

[@AURAIIIIII]

For Days like this i love the Dice Tower so much! First 2 videos for Melody's and Jason's Top 100 and now another Top 10 Designers' Best whuaaaat :)

[@RaduGaston1]

10) Glass Road 9) At the Gates Of Loyang 8) Le Havre: The Inland Port 7) Patchwork 6) All Creatures Big And Small 5) Nusfjord 4) Fields Of Arle 3) Le Havre 2) Ora Et Labora 1) Agricola

[@Shishnut]

After seeing so many people, even when praising caverna, put Agricola above Caverna, seeing Tom consistently putting Caverna above Agricola makes me very happy. It's not a battle, in the end, and I actually love how Uwe could make such similar games that at the same time fill completely opposite points of view on what the game should be. That being said, the amount of people complaining of the amount of choices or the fact that the choices are open ends up making Caverna sound like a not-good-enough-imitation-of-the-oh-so-great-and-perfect-Agricola, when it's actually just looking at the theme from a different perspective and I love that. I think Agricola is an awesome game, but its "short blanket" and punitive style end up making me stressed as well, and I don't always want to feel stressed when playing a boardgame (sometimes I do, though, haha).

[@DerRentner818]

my favs are agricola and glass road :)

[@phillosmaster393]

If Caverna had something like Agricola's hand of cards to help diversify your starting starting position and force stubborn players to try new strategies I would agree. It is a wonderful sandbox game, but we felt it didn't stand up to the sort of repeated play Agricola did. For a while we were playing Agricola several times a week and it never got old. In every other regard Caverna is a straight upgrade.

[@sandywilson6103]

I'm hoping the Lost Races expansion adds some variety to Caverna, but I for one am glad they are *not* just giving it a hand of cards like Agricola. They are different games despite the similarities, and deserve to be treated differently.

[@TeChNoWC7]

They are two very different games.

[@scottcoz]

When I am faced with the choice between the two, I will ALWAYS choose to play Caverna - specifically because of the lack of Minor Improvement and Occupation cards. Generally speaking, I prefer asymmetrical games - but, Agricola, unfortunately, is very poorly balanced between the enormous variety in those cards, and it usually ends up being essentially pre-determined who will win, due to someone getting way more synergistic combos in their cards

[@tmcd5049]

As a newb drafted in to fill out Agricola games, I felt there was far too much reading to do on these cards, referencing parts of the game I just wasn't familiar with. And you are given too many cards, with too many combinations of those cards, to consider. This is not a good design, unless everybody learns the game at the same time. Otherwise, experienced players will win, newbies will flounder. Most newbies won't like that feeling for 2+ hours, and will find another hobby instead...

[@peterstedman6140]

@@scottcoz I mean, Agricola is balanced fine if you draft before.

[@ricke1732]

No way Wurfel Bohnanza is better than: Glass Road At the Gates of Loyang Merkator Patchwork Agricola: All Creatures Big & Small Cave vs Cave

[@geektome4781]

Ricky Eads Agreed.

[@hyperlitestud]

Its called an opinion mang

[@TheFilipFonky]

​@@hyperlitestud It's called not having played Gates of Loyang mang

[@JJ_TheGreat]

Glass Road just sounds like his best game! :-)

[@Metroidam11]

Don't own any Uwe games right now but am thinking about picking up one of his worker placements. If I were to chose one, you guys think I'm better off with Caverna or Feast for Odin?

[@tmcd5049]

I'M sure you've made up your mind by now but I highly recommend 'The inland port', a smaller box game. Similarly, baby 'gric AKA All creatures big and small.

[@moonzie1980]

Ora et Labora is definitely somewhere in the top 3 picks for me. While I like Feast for Odin, it seems a bit overwhelming as you spend 80% of the game developing your engine and only 20% using it to succeed. Le Havre - also in the top 3. Either Caverna or Agricola would be in # 3 slot - Caverna becomes a bit predictable over time (the most powerful buildings are very evident and always get taken), but Agricola holds more variety with the cards.

[@jankogo]

We might mention Le Havre later? :) That´s like saying Cosmic Encounter might be mentioned on my top 100- list....

[@tmcd5049]

Ora and Labora is amazing. I love it. Should be #1 in my opinion. But take that with a pinch of salt, as I haven't played all of them... Mama Mia is also fun, so quick and easy (yet hard!)

[@lystic9392]

Ooh cool idea for a series.

[@nakfoor1846]

I like Agricola because its balanced in terms of easiness-to-teach and quality of the game. I prefer La Havre but it seems more intimidating to new players.

[@TheBrokenMeeple]

Still prefer Patchwork to all his other tile games. Cottage just gets boring and is completely replaced by Barenpark. I used to love Le Havre but then I discovered that every game requires ships or you lose and the loans are exploitable as some crazy “free money” deal that’s easily made up for in the late game by buying one big ship. So Le Havre is gone for me now.

[@recotavo]

The Broken Meeple You only could take a loan if you dont have enought food at the end of the round or dont have money to pay the tax, you cant take loans to buy a ship or buildings

[@brianlelas172]

Agricola not being here is madness.

[@sad0happy]

1. Feast for Odin 2. Ora et Labora 3. Le Havre

[@LobBazar]

A Feast for Odin, Le Havre and Caverna are some of my favorites and I never realized Uwe designed all three of them.

[@tmcd5049]

You must be/ have been in a minority, as most players but the big boxes BECAUSE of his name on it!

[@Emsworth377]

1)has to be Agricola. Way better than Caverna (especially with farmers of the moor) 2) Agricola all creatures big and small 3) patchwork 4) ora et labora 5) fields of arle 6) at the gates of lo yang 7) Le harve 8) glass road 9) Caverna (an easier version of Agricola without the brilliant level of tension that made Agricola great.) 10) a feast for Odin.

[@grog3514]

Agricola is also, easier to explain, faster to play, more interesting decisions, more portable, and doesn't cost a small fortune.

[@geektome4781]

I think it’s “Ora et Labora,” not “Ora and Labora.” Then again, “et” means “and” and it is the source of the & symbol, so we’ll just call it Ora & Labora.

[@alicemoore2036]

Agricola, Agricola Family Game, Bohnanza, Bohnanza Wurfel, Glass Road, Mamma Mia!

[@Stepark28]

Is there a place to have caverna and cave vs cave?

[@castleandkaylin3193]

Thank you

[@Steve-L]

I have only played 2 games from this designer. And neither are on my top 100. Caverna was decent, played it twice, it's too long for what it is for me. I doubt i will ever play it again. Bohnanza was fairly fun, but only played it once, I would like to try it again.

[@billcook4768]

Agricola: All creatures big and small (with expansion). His big games are just too bloated for me, but ACBS captures the meat of Agricola without dealing with too much stuff.

[@TylerDeLisle]

Bill Cook I completely agree!

[@TheClootie]

I take it someone else will be doing the games you’ve missed.

[@melvinj.124]

Würfel bohnanza?? Really?

[@sybmike]

Ora deserves a higher ranking

[@evansayre6533]

No Love for Patchwork!!!! All his other tetromino based games but not his simplest and most elegant.

[@otarrecchannel710]

Indian Summer? Really? 😣

[@ForvoQuizlet]

One through ten - Le Havre all. Problem solved.

[@lordsplodge]

Caverna instead of Agricola and putting A Feast for Odin ahead of the sublime Fields of Arle is just wrong. So wrong... :-)

[@bastiv7806]

Glas Road

[@ryusorata]

Nothing to see here my dear gric friends

[@lukasklees3081]

Le Havre is incredibly frustrating I disagree. You are almost forced to do specific actions or your people starve. Id say caverna does that not Le Havre

[@gabrielmdemoura]

AGRICOLA????

[@Atlas-FM8]

I feel like Tom's just discriminating against Patchwork because it's two player only.

[@CapriciousIntent]

Atlas Films I think he just flat out doesn't like it. He's clearly in the wrong, but what can you do?