Top 10 Favorite Components in Games I Own (Sunday Sitdown)

[@daem0nfaust]

"It doubles the amount of replayability that you get out of these sheets" - This is the reason I believe Stonemaier is the smartest game publisher out there! Yaaaasss!!

[@Roundtablist]

This list is one of your best, Jamey. I love Gaia Project and the Taklon's Brainstone is just one of the many features that stand out. Fantastic. Also, I recently taught my sister how to play Splendor and happened to have a generic play mat with me - we started off playing on a wooden table and trying to use the chips was just not fun. The play mat was quickly brought out and it made a world of difference. It actually made the game more fun to play.

[@SilentBob1219]

All my favorite components come from Stonemaier games and all the component upgrade chests!

[@jameystegmaier]

Thanks Matthew!

[@JonathanA]

Thanks for your videos, Jamey! Each one of them gets me to thinking about my lists and it sure is fun. Some more I would add to this list is the incredible spinning board in Daedulus Sentence, the cool little dice in One Deck Dungeon, the "jewels" in Das Amulet, the box for Hostage Negotiator: Crime Wave (where the original game box fits nicely inside) and the easels in The Gallerist.

[@emmanuelcabuena9486]

Great episode! Mine will be (or course only the games I own so far): The Reckoners. I love the miniatures and the custom individual special dice that goes with each characters, the health and research markers. They put a lot of effort on all of the components. Forbidden Island treasures. They really don't serve any purpose during game play but they're really nice and we'll thought of.

[@ZakiJeppe]

Cool topic. Some great components on your list. Some of the great componentes from my collection: -Metal Coins from Charterstone -Mechs from Scythe Okay, enough pandering. Now on to the real list :D -The Death Star(s) from Star Wars Rebellion, cause DEATH STAR -The plastic tray lanes from Battle at Kemble's Cascade -The Dice from Dice Forge -The first player moose from A Feast for Odin, cause that's a funny first player token -The small metal suitcases from The Godfather: Corleons Empire -The Box from Mafia de Cuba, which you use during the game -The book from Near and Far which becomes your player board -The gears from Tzolk'in -The bags from Sheriff of Nothingham

[@Stephen-Fox]

10. Forbidden Desert Airship - Huge toy factor of , looks great and you're physically building an airship as you thematically build an airship which just puts it a step above the other 'they're cool because they look cool' components for me. 9. Scythe: The Wind Gambit Airships - Having these things flying above the board with the bits they're carrying in them just makes that mechanic feel a lot easier to read on the board, and a little bit less abstracted (particularly with how they're literally flying way above the board due to your engineering them to be higher than all the mechs. 8. Viticulture glass beads - Nice to look at, nice to touch, makes the constantly changing values easy to keep track of, and the way it gradually moves up. 7. Mansions of Madness app - Makes a game that wouldn't have been soloable otherwise soloable, and a lot more convenient to play - and increased replayability - multiplayer. Gives a lovely soundscape, also. 6. Arabian Nights book - Something about seeing a nicely printed book in a game just gets me excited by the possibilities, and this is a very large printed book. This excites me a lot more than it would have done as an app or deck of cards. 5. Charterstone - I laughed when I saw it, providing a unique mechanism in a way that couldn't be done without it. 4. Scythe Dual Layered boards - Tells you exactly where to place everything, while facilitating changing costs and rewards from upgrades, all while acting as an anti-bump mechanism. 3. 1st and Goal magnetic football - Another anti-bump mechanism. This one makes it a lot easier to get this one component exactly where you want it and for it to stay there, which when you're tracking a frequently moving, in two directions, component across 100 lines? Kind of important. Also the little clicks as you place it down feels and sounds quite nice. 2. Thunderbirds Thunderbird 2 - All the Thunderbirds in Thunderbirds operate like the Scythe airships - they represent carrying things without the need for a seperate mat making the board easier to read and the game feel fundamentally less abstracted, but childhood nostalgia boosted them and especially Thunderbird 2 for me over the Scythe Airships - This is basically the Thunderbird 2 toy I'd have wanted as a kid, you can put the pod vehicles into it and then fly it around with the pod vehicles inside. 1. Tzolk'in Gears - Gives a neat tactile element, while communicating the core mechanism really easy to players and making it a loss less fiddly to play than it otherwise would be.

[@danielkeim8558]

Also the D4s in Kemet give it a cool table presence as well, functioning as the pyramids. Helps add to the epic feel

[@davemagrum]

Really enjoy seeing your enthusiasm many years after the fact, especially now knowing you've integrated some of these into your games. Asymmetrical piece = Red Rising Sovereign token. Ink wash minis = Apiary workers Detailed minis = Tapestry pieces

[@jameystegmaier]

Thanks for sharing some of your favorites, Dave!

[@willbeplayin]

Dual-layered mats/boards. I love the 3rd party meeple upgrades for Lords of Waterdeep. I also quite like the resources from Feast for Odin too, much better than say Lorenzo il Magnifico. Yokohama Deluxe edition deserves a mention. The older Tigris & Euphrates tiles looks awesome. The dice in Champions of Midgard. Root's animal meeples. Brass: Birmingham's board is amazing and so are the ironclay chips.

[@jimtompkins9946]

Chip Theory Games: components in both the Too many Bones games and in Trip Lock are great

[@jameystegmaier]

Sorry, I accidentally pressed the thumbs down button, but I like this--it's meant to be a thumbs up! :)

[@nickhayes1626]

Of the games that I own: Colt Express: That 3D train just serves to bring the game to life more than just playing on a regular flat board ever could. Catan Starfarers: The rocket ships just scream table presence and it’s so satisfying to be able to snap the components onto them and then have additional abilities at your disposal. Stone Age Anniversary: Having a double sided board with different aesthetics and different ways to play is such a nice touch. One that I don’t own but I think has great components is Trogdor. The minis or even the meeples that allow you to set things in fire are such a unique touch that I haven’t seen in any other games.

[@ArcadEdio]

Chip Theory Games: Neoprene playmat - Check, quality poker chips - Check. Custom 6 sided dice - lots of checks. But the most amazing of all, the custom steel dice for Hoplomachus. So amazing.

[@DerekEskens]

The cards in Jamaica that printed in landscape with the icons on the top so you can hold them in a stacked view and know what all your options are. As a cool bonus, the art on all the cards in your player deck combine to make an amazing panoramic.

[@taoptimusprime]

I really like the 3-D Cardboard Constructs in Heroes of Land, Air, and Sea, Everdell, Rajas of the Ganges, etc.

[@falconashek8913]

I know play mats are a luxury to play, they do help so much like you said. I have a play mat themed for most of my games. Boss Monster (Brother Wise game) makes their own. I saw they have a four player mat out now. I use one with a Golem theme for Century: Golem edition. I have a wide variety of deck builders as well, so they help there. Sorry Jamey, I had to upgrade my iron/metal bits to silver wooden cubes. They're the same color as the blue players components, my wife was placing iron cube instead of her player markers. I also bought small translucent pumpkins from the craft store, to replace the other orange bits. It is the season to find them. I like the bits in First Martians, the boards also help. Knock free zones. Dice Forge is a nice component full game. Last but not least Quarriors/ Dice Masters... Nuff said.

[@eltcommonplace]

The components I really like from games are: Manhattan Project Energy Empire: Resources (plastic & iron) they look so cool. The Gallerist & Vinhos: Insert tray that has space for everything and looks amazing. Takenoko: Bamboo pieces and the panda & Gardener. Clans of Caledonia: Tokens of each player ( cheese, bread, whisky, etc). They are the first thing that players look when playing it. Century: Cups for the resources used in game.

[@OddHawk]

The Panda and Bamboo fro Takenoko is pretty cool. The snap bags from Sherriff of Nottingham The lasers from Khet in combination with mirrors I don’t have all that many games... but they are certainly me favourites so far.

[@bobnetherton4957]

I am really happy to hear a game publisher paying attention to component storage and the ease of getting a game to the table.

[@jameystegmaier]

Thanks Bob!

[@danielkeim8558]

Love those minis in Kemet. So gorgeous!

[@Moxbox99]

You’re a “stand up” kind of guy Jamey! 😎🐈

[@cameronart4863]

The double sided board in Charterstone! I thought that was a brilliant inclusion to a legacy game and have always been surprised that it hasn't been done before. The ability to replay a legacy game completely from scratch while still having your original campaign to play post-campaign (also a lovely addition) by simply buying a recharge pack that is considerably cheaper is wonderful.

[@jameystegmaier]

Thanks Cameron! That was actually the idea of some Stonemaier fans soon before we went to print. :)

[@TabletopGamesBlog]

As always, that's a great video. Thank you. I never thought about having a unique component that gives one player special power, but I guess some games do something similar with the first player marker. Everyone competes to be the first player, which is fine, but if you gain an actual item as a result and not just the privilege of going first, it does indeed make it more special. I guess for me, minis are great components, and there has been a surge in minis recently, especially in games from CMON. Minis don't make a game better, but they do make the experience somewhat more special.

[@billyguinigundo4849]

I do love the glass beads in Viticulture, they feel luxurious and have a satisfying clink about them in the bowl. Love the chunky dice in King of Tokyo and the heavy duty (and aesthetically preferable) tiles of Hive Carbon. Favorite non-standard component: ebayed some øre for replacement gold in Nusfjord.

[@evanezradc]

I loved the sticker cards from Charterstone - the buildings in particular which then serve as crates to unlock! Also the 3D train in colt express and the trees in photosynthesis really add to the aesthetics of the game and really make the whole production pop. As many people have already mentioned, but I’ll chime in as well - I have yet to introduce anyone to scythe and not hear compliments on the indented player mats. Truly an incredible component (among all the other fantastic components that SM games have become known for) that is practical, functional and attractive!

[@jameystegmaier]

Thanks Evan! I'm happy with how the sticker cards turned out as well. Panda had to invent a new procedure to make them, so I'm hoping other designers put them to use in the future. :)

[@shawnclouthier7548]

Samurai edition Tokaido has phenomenal components, yes the painted minis are awesome, but even better is the multi colored changeable bases so you can readily keep track of which player is which. Pandasaurus’ Dinosaur Island has pretty awesome Dino meeples. The pyramid dice shaker in Camel Up is pretty innovative, immersive and actually functional. The Viti Lira and Scythe coinage serve admirably in many, many games (great denominations, size and color). Meeple Realty makes some really exceptional themed inserts including the Yokohama Deluxe component boats. The multi sculpt metal ships and the oversized neoprene mat for The Pirate Republic are outstanding.

[@arcubal]

I'll tell you what my favorite component is of your show...the cat! Man, it's fun to see/hear what your cat is doing in the background! ^_^

[@jameystegmaier]

Thanks! Both Biddy and Walter were having very good naps. :)

[@richardshort2001]

Sometimes it's the little things: The tile "cards" for the event deck in Rise of Tribes. The big chunky dice in King of Tokyo. The mountain tiles in Small World helping to remind you that you need an extra guy there.

[@livingstorytelling]

I also adore the SM components. I own the coins for Viticulture which really complete the high quality of VC. Want to have the extras for Scythe as well. Love the miniatures on Mythic Battles Pantheon where the gods and titans are that much bigger than the heroes or the units. The idea to have exosuit miniatures for your worker in Anachrony (expansion) is really neat. :) just that little bit of immersion on top. The tree, board and the resources in Everdell are one of my favourites. It's that bit of extra not needed fluff that makes it a great experience on the board. Tabletop Golf Mars Open got my attention bcs of the cool components. It uses these somewhat peripherally bent paper balls to flip with your fingers 😀 Don't know if know Mage Wars. You choose two from your spell cards every round out of an actual spell book with nice art on the covers. Really great idea to a game that takes the concept of MtG and takes away the randomness of the draw. So far from some of my games :)

[@clintonjeffrey6699]

Big fan of bags in games...not just bag builders like Orleans, but any time a bag can be used to hide VP tokens or as a randomizer. The crystal balls in Mysterium. The Castellion in El Grande--so satisfying to drop meeples in. Any custom die. Metal coins. The chips in Splendor. And the cup in Stone Age.

[@jameystegmaier]

While I don't own it, I REALLY like the bags in Orleans. They have a nice stretch factor to them.

[@codydavis3100]

The kickstarter for Escape Plan had a stretch goal for double sided player scoresheets and dual layered player boards. Very happy those were stretch goals. I hope one day that dual layered player boards are a given in the games that uses player boards with tokens on the board. It just makes it so much easier to track. I don't know if you were the first to do this but it definitely made gamers think about how player boards can be optimized for ease of play.

[@mkitten13]

The dual-layered mats of Scythe is something I wish we found in more games. For some games there are obviously companies who make overlays for them and I've definitely picked up a few of those simply because bumping the boards can seriously mess things up in some games. One very critical game I can think of is Suburbia, where you have to keep track of your income and population growth rate, it's way too easy to bump things on there and it's a lot of work to calculate your way back to where you were at (even though it's techincally possible in that game). Thankfully the overlays for that one was fairly inexpensive to get. A much worse game to go without overlays is Terraforming Mars as you cannot recalculate where you were at as some increases and decreases depend on when a card is played and there are cards played by other players that might affect your board (thankfully I got someone to make indented boards for me with the same look to it as the regular boards, which allowed me to get both the practical use without having to go for plain plastic or wooden solutions).

[@jameystegmaier]

They're fairly expensive and complex to make, but sometimes I think they're necessary.

[@mkitten13]

Oh, I absolutely understand that they are costly and complex, but seeing a game come that way just makes me incredibly happy because it shows a developer who properly cares about the practicality of the game in question. Bling is great in games, but when the added measures also have real practical use, it just makes me feel extra happy :)

[@blanetalk]

I love the use of these in Scythe or Dinosaur Island. I also think another, nearly-as-good solution is the single-layer boards with cut-outs, like the ones included in Roll Player or Dice Forge.

[@jameystegmaier]

I agree, if you don't need anything printed under the mat, those mats work quite well.

[@Moxbox99]

Oh man, Azul could definitely use a double layered player board! The scoring cube always flies around it feels like 😭😭😭😂

[@richardd2217]

My favorite would have to be the statues in Tobago. The whole game has amazing production, except for the cubes. They stand out like a sore thumb in such a beautiful game.

[@jonathangrindstaff4619]

Jamey has gone down the rabbit hole to let us know how great the plunger feels, we love and respect him.

[@Straddllw]

Has everyone forgotten about the bamboos from takenoko? That was THE gateway game that turned my head because of how pretty it looked.

[@jameystegmaier]

Not everyone--someone else mentioned them in the comments. :) I don't own it, though, it it wasn't eligible for my list.

[@charlesdionne5500]

As far as tactile satisfaction, the chips in Splendor and the tiles in Azul are great to just handle. Mechanically speaking, I love the gears in Tzolk'in (as you mentioned) and I love the way the eggs are designed in Dungeon Petz to increase their needs and value as they age. As far as overall production quality, someone mentioned Energy Empire, which I think is about as close as it gets to Stonemaier-level quality with the quality resource tokens, custom dice, and thick cardboard workers/energy. Finally, I love a good tracker like the 1st player elephant in Rajas or the round tracker roller coaster cart in Unfair.

[@stephenwerness]

Had a feeling the iron clays would make it onto the list. They feel great!

[@martproduction]

From my collection i would say - Coins from Scythe - Commander pack from Anachrony to replace the token of the exosuit - The clickers from Who Goes There - Magnifying glass in 7th continent - UV flashlight in Sub Terra ( this one was not provided with the game but it adds so much to the theme) - Foam gun in Cash & Guns - Tower and other 3d token in Andor

[@j.prt.979]

I don’t own these games, but the War Suns from TI4, the meeples from Root, and the KS exclusive tortoise-temple miniatures from Rising Sun are all awesome!

[@nebelung1]

Some good ones here.. The favorite one in my collection is probably the insert for Elysium (and Kemet, but you already said that :) .

[@jonknight4616]

Xia has a lot of great components, from the painted ships to the unique metal triangle shaped coins. I just got in Tiny Epic Zombies, which has little zombie custom meeples, and the Itemeeples with little holes for putting in items and weapons. Also, I think wheels on boards can be nifty. In Battlestar Galactica, this is where you track your resources. In Chaos in the old World, it is something you can tick to get added benefits and even lead to a win if you can get it clicked all of the way. In Seafall, without getting into spoilers, there is a special kind of light that allows you to discover certain cards. The wheels in T'zolkin have intrigued me so, and I picked up a copy of the game, but have yet to actually play it. I also rather like the chips in games like Splendor, Fog of Love, and Brass Birmingham. Mexica, the really nice buildings have a certain texture and weight to them that is really nice. Really conveys the setting well.

[@maximilianberbechelov]

Grimm Forest, Everdell, Pioneer Days, Stuffed Fables, and my personal favorite for Production Quality - Yamatai! Always thought the glass beads are to represent half a grape. Also, practically I thought it's indented for them to magnify the number under them, will be very weird if it's accidental. :) Scythe's metal coins/realistic resources beat everything for me. Yes, the boards are amazing, but come on. Custon METAL freakin COINS.

[@gabrielrixmann2518]

Oh yes! yamatai is a beautiful game

[@JamesI88]

The component organizational trays included in Wasteland Express Delivery Service

[@geoffreyhawley503]

Jamey, I love that you didn't want to make your pet move. I am the same way. And people give me a hard time about it. They say, "Oh just make it move. And my thought is I wouldn't do that to a person - wake them from being sound asleep and make them go somewhere else just so I can sit where they were laying. I consider animals people, so it just seems rude and egocentric to disturb them

[@notthatseanbean]

Kind of beside the point of the video, but I wanted to mention how we reveal Telestrations whenever we play with a group. We actually start at the end, like "Pizza Trees?! Why would someone write that?" and then flip the page and be like "Oh, that's why" and the artist gets indignant, but we continue, "Why would someone draw that?" and then we see "Frisbee in a Tree", and we're like, what? and then the picture before that is a nest in a tree, and we go backward all the way to the original "Cuckoo Clock" and laugh that we got all the way to pizza tree.

[@jameystegmaier]

That's awesome, Sean! That's similar to how we do it, but slightly more comical.

[@martafdez6761]

For me, the best components, are, in Cleopatra and the Architects Society, and, overall, Heroscape and the 3D plastic terrain.

[@bailarin8282]

Here's another one: the pyramids in the new Super Meeple edition of Tikal! They give the game a great table presence, much better than the original recipe cardboard tiles.

[@samiamagaimagain]

Metal coins, metal coins, metal coins... that’s all I need. ;)

[@atreidestm]

If you are interested, we have a lot different models to choose. www.moedaseco.com.br

[@samiamagaimagain]

Claudio Villa yeah right, I’m gonna order something from Brazil...

[@atreidestm]

Yeah, I know this may look shady. But even though we’re small, we’re pretty legit :) We’ve been selling custom metal coins for boardgames for the last four years, with lots of satisfied customers from all around the world. You can check it out on this thread from BGG: bit.ly/2zvZEJd

[@samiamagaimagain]

@@atreidestm But shipping to Japan is going to cost quite a bit right?

[@atreidestm]

@@samiamagaimagain sorry for the delay. Actually is almost the same price as shipping to USA. The shipping cost will be around U$35,00 and the delivery time around three to four weeks

[@veerchasm1]

I wish Viticulture player boards had the Scythe dual layer feature. We played the other night and I bumped my wife’s board and we had to guess what her wine values were! (I think she cheated) 😊

[@Atlas-FM8]

Scythe’s double layer board has ruined me for other games.

[@jameystegmaier]

Have you played Summit? It has nice dual-layered mats too.

[@MarinerOrk]

video starts at 6:44

[@juanchizzz3]

Pinta el tzolkin jamey, no seas vago

[@kevinqueen6246]

I won't buy a game unless its production quality assures it will still be playable in 40 years