GameNight! 2024 Spiel des Jahres Special

Tonight on GameNight! Nikki, Tashi, Mike, Brian, Dave and Lincoln discuss the games nominated for the 2024 Kinderspiel, Kennerspiel & Spiel des Jahres and give you our picks for the awards and what we think the Spiel des Jahres jury might pick. Watch us play these games here:
The games nominated for the 2024 Kinderpiel des Jahres include:
Grosse Kleine Edelsteine - • Grosse Kleine Edelstei...
The Magic Keys - • The Magic Keys - GameN...
Taco Kitten Pizza - • Taco Kitten Pizza - Ga...
The games nominated for the 2023 Kennerpiel des Jahres include:
Daybreak - • Daybreak - GameNight! ...
The Guild of Merchant Explorers - • The Guild of Merchant ...
Ticket to Ride: Legacy - Legends of the West - • Ticket to Ride Legacy:...
The games nominated for the 2024 Spiel des Jahres include:
Captain Flip - • Captain Flip - GameNig...
In The Footsteps of Darwin - • In The Footsteps of Da...
Sky Team - • Sky Team - GameNight! ...
Congratulations to all involved with these games!
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[@sonyal3212]

Who else wants to see a full playthrough of Ticket to Ride Legacy? Also, thank you for posting the links to all of the playthroughs!

[@mikeymill-0]

Yes please

[@richardred4396]

No thanks What a boring game Ticket to right is fun. But not as a legacy game. I played it at the spiel23 and it was just unfathomably boring.

[@skitch76cd]

I would watch that. And I’d be excited for Dave and Mike at least, who mentioned the lack of game group, to be able to finish it out

[@SunfallTE]

I was surprised to see Tashi sticking around past the KinderSdJ discussion, and then delighted at that decision. Her insight on "In the Footsteps of Darwin" was actually something no one else brought up, and something that was *absolutely* true, even if no one else at the table would have necessarily expressed it as "a game moms would like." It's been fun watching her grow up playing the KinderSdJ games, and bringing a young person's insight to the table was great. Also, someone definitely needs to make the Linc "this choice is hard" supercut. That might be an hour long by itself. 😀

[@teen-at-heart]

Re ‘Daybreak’: Shout out to Matteo, as he was pretty much overlooked when you guys talked about the game (only mentioning Matt Leacock). Because actually, Matteo came to Matt with the original idea. So, they definitely deserve the same credit. Just as a reminder….sometimes we all are glued to already known names and overlook others. :)

[@AADRisk]

Thanks for the video. I do always like seeing these and the play throughs of the nominees each year.

[@hailmary2411]

I have been eagerly awaiting your SdJ discussion. Thank you for all your interesting and entertaining thoughts. Greetings from Germany!

[@dandurkin9735]

Thank you for highlighting the games and for your discussion! I got especially excited learning about this year’s SdJ nominees and acquired all three, with Captain Flip the last to arrive on Friday. I love this group of games - my plays mostly with my 19 year old daughter. We think this is a strong crop! We agree that Sky Team sits more between SdJ and Kenner and love the challenge of communicating just by the timing of dice placement. I think Darwin is being passed over too quickly - the game is driven by the paucity of tiles (with apologies, I think your play-through was non-optimal and reflected a first time play). Darwin is also a wonderful educational package, which no one appears to be highlighting. Captain Flip is definitely a potato chip game - at first sitting, we played it 7 times! That’s a great indicator of fun. I think they are all winners and I’m thankful the committee brought them to my attention. If I had to choose, I’d pick Captain Flip. Who will the committee select - I look forward to discovering later today!

[@tabletalkreviews]

My first instinct is Sky Team wins, but it is true the 2 player aspect hurts it a bit. My pick would be for In the Footsteps of Darwin. I really enjoyed playing that, but to be fair, I've only played Captain Flip online and was being plied with candy at Gen Con when I played Darwin. There is no wrong answer this year, which is great for the hobby.

[@hansaugustsson7288]

Dave, invite them to your place and ask them to bring the game! DaveLand, haha!

[@MarkJohnson-hw2xo]

Always a fun episode. I haven't played any of the Kinderspiel noms, so can't offer any predictions or favorites for those. Among the Kenners, I didn't get to try TTR Legacy, but have figured out that Legacy games just don't work for me. I love the idea, but I never play titles often enough, and with the same group, to make headway with them. Some of you had similar reactions, although I guess this Legacy game has some new ideas about how to help that? Still, not my pick. I enjoy Guild of Merchant Explorers, a lot more for that clever mini-customization mechanism for the card decks than for the boards with their tiny features and cubes that can shift. (I also don't love the successive "resets" of the board-state, though I know that's a feature of the design, not a bug.) I'm glad Dave mentioned Voyages, which I think is a similar but superior game. My favorite of the Kenners is Daybreak, for all the reasons Brian explained--a wonderful mix of gameplay, relevant and meaningful theme/subject, and a superb production in multiple ways. I know it won't be for everyone, so perhaps not what the jury is after...? But it's my clear pick. On the Spiel des Jahres, I've played them all and think they all "make sense" for this award. In The Footsteps of Darwin (which I've only played on TTS) was just ok for me. I love the theming, including the artwork, but the gameplay felt very conventional MPS to me, nothing too exciting. Captain Flip has turned out to be a delightful surprise. Just like you said on the video, the game seemed perfectly fine when I played it online, but came alive when we played in-person. It's very light (as have been a lot of recent SdJ winners), but definitely fun, easy to teach, and with some variation in the box. It would be a fine SdJ. However, my pick for the big award is Sky Team. Yes, it's quiet, a little thinky, and exclusively 2-player. I half-expected it to be a Kenner nominee, not SdJ. However, here it is and I think it's great. A delightful production that is still affordable, easy to teach, and very evocative of its theme...whether or not brewing coffee is really how pilots land planes. There's a lot of game in the base box, all similar but with fun enhancements and variation (not to mention challenge) of the advanced airports. Especially with its modest box size, this game has become an instant keeper for me, one I can imagine playing for many years. I can't wait until the next time I see my brother--it'll be a perfect game for us. Likewise with my daughters and nephews. And THAT sounds like what the SdJ is all about.

[@stefanmem6296]

Fun group, good composition of ages and tastes :)!

[@ryangrace8576]

Ticket to Ride Legacy was a great experience!

[@Vaaluin]

When I was growing up in Germany, we would frequently play board games. It'd just be 3 kids (myself, my brother and my cousin) as well as a bunch of adult family and adult family friends. 98% of the time we just played Kniffel (Yahtzee) and the other times we'd play Scrabble, Chess, or Monopoly.

[@pterrok5495]

Ya know, didn't think of this on the Sky Team vid, but you made me realize that Bridge, for example, bidding was just a team making up their own rules to try and show their partner what they had. Which became known by other players and 'standardized.' So Linc and Nikki can just talk BEFORE ever playing that if you play your first die of your turn on Coffee--whether you are playing 1st or 2nd--that means you have a DUPLICATE of that die. So then the other player KNOWS one die you have and can do something accordingly. Then try and make rules if you play your first die in the attitude section, etc. Like that's a 'middle' die for you, maybe. But I have no clue what rules you would do--BUT, if the BGA community that plays thought about it, they could probably make rules that would reveal a lot of your dice in that initial play by each player.

[@mjnickoloff]

I probably didn't say it: I agree. Sky Team needs a bridge-like communication system which is why it's not my fav (like Bridge, or The Crew, or Tichu).

[@SASReacts]

Would the US version be Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza? Or is that a different company/game?

[@boardgamegeek]

This is the newer children's version that will hopefully come out from Dolphin Hat Games at some point. There is an English version from Blue Orange but not in the US. Thanks for the note and for watching. -Lincoln

[@nagredmoonstriker252]

Don't know enough about the Kspiels to comment, but Sky Team is the only of its three that was a groundbreaker. Same for Daybreak. I think the only reason TTR got in was because it's TTR. Guild of Explorers is just a roll-and-write with pieces instead of pencils and pads. This may finally be the year for me where a Spiel award will be a reason NOT to buy a game.

[@berndwinkler1677]

25:45 I never put my playing cards in card sleeves. Traces of use on my games don't bother me. Games are for playing and not for collecting!

[@machineFa8]

Really not impressed by the nominated games for this year.

[@joeferreti9442]

Pretty weak candidates this year. The SdJ and KdJ become weaker each year.