Top 7 Board Games | With Designer David Thompson

[@davidthompson7233]

This was so much fun! Thanks for having me!

[@whiteaburger]

Thank you, David, for putting so much effort into our hobby.  Your designs are fantastic.

[@davidthompson7233]

@ thank you!

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks for taking the time to visit and chat. I really enjoyed doing this with you. :) I was also impressed with the time and thought you put into crafting your top seven before we talked. As an aside, I just used Pub Meeple's ranking tool for another project, really helpful!

[@ThePettho]

Thanks for your games!

[@MeanderingMikesManCave]

Great interview ... thanks!

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks! Happy you enjoyed it. It was great fun having David on the channel. :)

[@tomharding4095]

Thanks for having this conversation. Appreciate the positive enjoyment both of you share on screen for the boardgames that inspired David Thompson. You both truly show enthusiasm and passion for the wargames discussed.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks very much for the kind words. David's enthusiasm for his designs and board games in general is contagious, I always leave a conversation with him feeling more positive and energized than when I started. :)

[@ParkeraNZ]

Really enjoyed this Zilla. Love your interview style overall and it comes through again here. Some games that even peeked my inteest here and knowing he is the man behins Bu Stealth and Sea is a bonus as thats one of my favs you have covered on this channel. Great work!

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks for the kind words Parkera! I'm glad you enjoyed it and let me know if you want to play one of his games. Undaunted is on Steam. :)

[@ParkeraNZ]

@@ZillaBlitz oh it is?

[@ZillaBlitz]

Whoops. I take that back, looks like it got removed from Steam about a month ago. Bummer.

[@WouterSchoutteten]

I agree, Zilla is a great interviewer

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thank you. :)

[@IronHamR]

Great one Zilla. David is one of my favorite designers. Great to hear his list.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Yes, I really enjoyed hearing David share his best games too. I learned more about games and design and gaming. :)

[@robertdelaney4332]

This was a great conversation. Good questions and interesting answers.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks so much, I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[@Olabid]

Great conversation, and fascinating to see the thought process and person behind such great games. Thanks for making the video, hope you do more discussions with designers like this.

[@ZillaBlitz]

I really enjoyed hearing about the connection between games played and games designed too, and why certain games ended up on this list. It's always fun to talk about games with David. :)

[@justbank5007]

I absolutely love these types of conversations: musicians discussing their favorite albums, movie directors and actors having conversations about their favorite films, etc. His list was a refreshing, against-the-grain (read: wasn't focused on cult-of-the-new titles) collection of gems! Thank you for this!

[@ZillaBlitz]

I'm glad you enjoyed it. It was just as much fun to make too. That's also one of the things I'm hoping to do more of this year, is focus on a broader range of games to include some of the older classics too. :)

[@Socialdogma]

This is a great interview. I would love to play a game with David Thompson.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks. It was great fun talking with him. :)

[@kevinbertram4828]

What a treat - two of the absolute nicest people in our hobby/industry chatting about some awesome games.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks Kevin! I'd love to have you on for a similar episode in the near future. :)

[@Tomas-pm7mn]

Great idea with these designer's top games. Cool 👍

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks, this was really fun to do and now I have another handful of games I want to play. :)

[@nathanielmerchant3286]

What a great interview and a great list! Love it!

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks, I really enjoyed hearing David's list and talking with him. :)

[@MattWhiteWargames]

Great list - and some games I have never played, so will check those out. Having worked with David on a couple of his games I can honestly say he is one of the nicest and collaborative people in the business.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks for stopping in, and most definitely all the nice things you said about David +1!

[@davidthompson7233]

Thanks, Matt. Same goes to you, my friend! Absolutely love working with you!

[@WouterSchoutteten]

great interview and nice work on the montage. Always love to hear David's stories and insights. Played Maria 2 weeks ago, coincidence. Yes, that's a keeper and happy to hear it's available on RTT

[@ZillaBlitz]

I'm very excited to try that one and yeah, thrilled to hear that it's on Rally the Troops. I also want to get a physical copy, it'd be great if it becomes readily available again.

[@WouterSchoutteten]

@@ZillaBlitz It's a good looking game too, board and card especially. From the same company, I can highly recommend Wir Sind Das Volk, a 2-player fully asymmetrical card-driven game between East- and West Germany. A good history lesson but also a really fun game.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Hmmm. Isn't the company that made Maria out of business? I was poking about yesterday and I thought I read that. I've seen a playthrough of Wir Sind Das Volk, and yes, it looks quite good! So many games. :)

[@WouterSchoutteten]

@@ZillaBlitz That's possible, WSDV is not a new game. Would be a sad loss though, with such stellar good games in their line-up

[@Peng-444]

I finally got to play El Grande about a year or so ago- fantastic game and you can see how influential it is.

[@ZillaBlitz]

I'm going to try it again, and this time I'm going to read the rules first. :)

[@felipealvarez1982]

That was an interesting way to reveal "Top X". And nice interview.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks! It was great fun having David on the channel. :)

[@JoshuaLivie]

Great interview and very entertaining. Just picked up Witchcraft and it is very fun. I love Undaunted and Undaunted Stalingrad in particular. Thanks for having him on!

[@ZillaBlitz]

Witchcraft and Resist are both so good, too. And thanks, glad you liked it! :)

[@tamassmahajcsik-szabo6408]

Sekigahara is a masterpiece. My favourite boardgame ever. I almost always play the Mirsunari side (Western Army) - definitely a hard road. I like the assymetries in the game, the clean design, the tempo and pacing and of course, the art.

[@ZillaBlitz]

This is great to hear, thanks. I don't know why I was so unaware of this game before this.

[@TroyTempest777]

Fantastic interview! Thanks guys!

[@ZillaBlitz]

Glad you liked it, Troy, thanks!

[@the_Mike_d]

Great interview - always appreciate hearing some of the "inside baseball" with game designers, especially what they like to play and what might be influencing them. Still hoping to see a David Thompson game about the U.S. Army Rangers - maybe something covering Pointe du Hoc! Thanks to you both for this, regardless!

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks for the kind words and I'm glad you enjoyed it, Mike. :)

[@CopperFieldsGaming]

Thanks ZB! appreciate you bringing this to the us, the masses. Let us eat cake!

[@ZillaBlitz]

Ha! Thanks for the kind words, it was a fun mini-project to do. :)

[@Stumptonian1]

Very interesting to see David Thompson as both Designer and Gamer. Glad to see that of his top 7 I have (or have played) 3 of them. Maria is definitely a great 3-player game.

[@ZillaBlitz]

With all these good things being said about Maria, I'm going to have to try it. :)

[@mikeyoung9810]

I've been making games since I was 10 (now 69) but never seriously. I get an idea and I throw it together and see if I like it then I get bored and move on to the next idea. Of course, none of it matters as no one will ever see them but it's a great hobby. It keeps my brain busy and allows me control over how a game works and plays. They are mostly always solo since I don't have access to fellow game players. I say all this as I keep finding others who love games on this channel and others. I really enjoyed the video. It's a great inspiration to what you can accomplish if you keep focused (always my worst trait).

[@davidthompson7233]

Best wishes to you as you continue to explore designing! As you say, finishing the design is the most difficult part. But it can be very rewarding!

[@ZillaBlitz]

The biggest thing in my mind is that it's fun for you to do. It sounds like you've had a lot of enjoyment building these games. :)

[@jefft786]

Great show. Just picked up WAR STORY: France and looking forward to playing!

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks, and very nice re: War Story. I think that's one I should check out sooner than later as well. I'd be curious to hear how you like it!

[@jefft786]

Will do!

[@joeyj6808]

Great idea for an interview with David. The man is crazy talented and prolific. Land and Freedom has been on my wish list since I first heard of it. I'm also avidly waiting for the Night Witches game, which I first heard about on this very channel.

[@ZillaBlitz]

I got a chance to play a prototype of Night Witches at SDHistCon last year. I think it'll be marvelous, especially when you combine it with Fort Circle's ability to shine a light on the history in the production end of things. It's also got a campaign too, which just checks off a huge box for me.

[@joeyj6808]

​@@ZillaBlitz Really looking forward to it. Again, thanks for the heads up!

[@Gitch_Games]

This might be the best video I have seen on KZbin. I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation between you two and found David's list and stories super interesting to listen to. Thx fellas, that was fantastic.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks so much for the kind words. Big smile on my face after reading this comment. :)

[@davidthompson7233]

@@Gitch_Games wow - thank you so much! I think a big part of it is that Mike and I are good friends. So having a chat like this feels super comfortable and natural.

[@ZillaBlitz]

+1 to that! :)

[@tommyr1501]

Very cool! Thanks to both of you.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Glad you liked it, thanks for stopping in. :)

[@jalalfiguigui7936]

I am a big fan of Sekigahara, for several reasons: Design, diceless, a small army can win a more powerful army, this game has a poker side, this dark side where neither side really knows what it is behind the blocks, sometimes we trigger a battle not by logic but by feeling!

[@ZillaBlitz]

This is great to hear, for whatever reason I had it in the Command & Colors category of games, and while I like those games, Sekigahara wasn't something I looked at that closely. I'm going to pick it up in the upcoming GMT sale. :)

[@jalalfiguigui7936]

@@ZillaBlitz You will definitely enjoy it 💯

[@ZillaBlitz]

It looks beautiful too. I'm looking forward to taking photos of it as I play.

[@andrewshaw7856]

I love it too. One novel item is the movement reduction once a road has been travelled which is perfect for the period.

[@coyi51]

Enthralling cha.t. Really like his game design and own quite a few, favourite game is undaunted Stalingrad. Many thanks.

[@ZillaBlitz]

I've been playing my way through the Undaunted series and have yet to reach Stalingrad, but I'm really excited to give it a shot. I'm wondering if I might find someone local to play the campaign with too. That seems like great fun.

[@normstewart546]

Very interesting.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks!

[@LordoftheBoard]

Love David! This is an amazing video idea too. Really great work. Also lemme know if you want to play some games on Rally! I’ve been playing Maria if you want to start an async game sometime! Also really hope to see you at Circle DC

[@davidthompson7233]

Yes - let's do it!

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it. I'd definitely be up for Maria on RTT ... in the very near future. I'm kind of maxed out on learning new games/ongoing games/video projects for a couple of weeks. Come February, I would be good to go. :)

[@andrewwalsh531]

Interesting to hear from one of the most successful & prolific designers of the past few years. I was surprised to hear him say he normally shies away from longer playtime in games, especially seeing that he named Sekigahara a favorite earlier in the video. The playtime of that one has always scared me off....I have found as I've aged I find myself preferring shorter gaming experiences ie., 2 hrs or less.

[@davidthompson7233]

Sekigahara is like Maria for me. The fact that it makes my favorites list, even though it can run longer than 2 hrs, is a testament to its awesomeness. :)

[@ZillaBlitz]

Nice observation on Sekigahara, and I can definitely relate to a game's length feeling longer or shorter depending on quality. I've got my eyes on Sekigahara, as GMT has mentioned they are going to have a winter sale in the next couple of months. I think I'm going to pick that one up.

[@WesCrawford]

This was awesome! SUPER curious about the ACW game!

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks, Wes! I'm very much looking forward to the ACW game as well. :)

[@Mark-jagger]

I love David Thomason’s designs and this was a fantastic conversation. I enjoyed David’s list. I own a few of them! Votes for Women being my favourite. I own A Few Acres of Snow but have yet to play it. Thanks for a great video.

[@ZillaBlitz]

I'm glad you liked it! I've got a few from the list I want to play as well. :)

[@dankone1289]

This was great! Pavlov's House is my favorite game he has designed.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks! Glad you liked it. I've really got to play some more of the Valiant Defense series. Lanzerath Ridge is the one I've played so far. :)

[@dankone1289]

@@ZillaBlitz I haven’t gotten ahold of that one yet. Castle Itter is great too. I haven’t played the Postman’s one yet.

[@ZillaBlitz]

I think Postman's is one of the best in the series too. :)

[@douglaspearson4853]

Great video. A Civil War game that plays like A Few Acres of Snow can't wait for that. I am a fan of AFAOS. Did you say Undaunted has solataire rules. That is a reason I never picked it up. Not have any family I got a kick out of the fact he plays games with his daughter. I think in the long run that will only make her closer to him. I am a little jealous of that. Maria & Friedrich are two games I wanted but never got.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks, this was a ton of fun to do, and yep, Undaunted Reinforcements has the solo rules/bot cards for Normandy, North Africa, and Reinforcements in it. Be sure to get the revised edition, as it corrects some errors in the first version solo cards: amzn.to/3PqPkJM I'm happy to say as well that I've been playing a lot more board games with my kids as well. (Both are addicted to Wingspan, and my son likes Undaunted too.) It's been a great addition to our family time together. :)

[@douglaspearson4853]

@@ZillaBlitz In Germany a lot of families have Game Nights where the families sit down and play games together as a family one night a week. Which I think is great. Cody from the Discrimating Gamer not to long ago got married they play Undaunted together. I think when you get a woman who plays a war game with you. You have a keeper.

[@ZillaBlitz]

My wife has a seven-minute rule for boardgames: we have to be playing the game within seven minutes of her sitting down to learn the game. I'm thinking ASL might not quite make it. :)

[@benell8178]

Such a great selection of games.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Isn't it, he's got some fun choices!

[@lonely_gamer_jonathan]

Maria is my all time top 2 game

[@ZillaBlitz]

It sounds like I'm going to have to give it a try on Rally the Troops. :)

[@davidthompson7233]

What's the other one?

[@ZillaBlitz]

Good question, yes! :)

[@lonely_gamer_jonathan]

@@davidthompson7233 My all-time top 1 is GMT's Sekigahara which is the 7th game of your list. I like its bluffing and card management elements. The design is so clean but surprisingly it's very balancing between abstract and thematic. Replayability is very high with the setup of blocks as well as the design of map.

[@lonely_gamer_jonathan]

@@davidthompson7233 While I have you here David, I'm looking forward to your upcoming games. Also, for your next design, please theme it with WW2 Pacific theater. I like naval battle so much, particularly I love managing aircraft carrier and naval search for my opponent's piece on the game board.

[@LeTrèsVilain]

Very interesting and instructive.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks! :)

[@jonlatino9964]

LOVE HIS GSMES !!!!!!!!!

[@ZillaBlitz]

Totally agree. :)

[@robertmoffitt1336]

💯 % Agreed about Noble Knight, great business. Legendary Tactics used that Pub Mepple ranking system, looked very fun and interesting! I think if I tried to rank my favorite games in a list, I'd have a different list everyday, lol. Undaunted Stalingrad is a masterpiece, plain & simple. Great video!

[@ZillaBlitz]

I just used the Pub Meeple ranking tool last night and it worked great. I got through a list of 13 games in about 5 minutes. Fun, too. :) And now that I'm playing my way through the Undaunted series, I'm really looking forward to both Stalingrad and Callisto. ... And Battle of Britain, too, who am I kidding. :)

[@robertmoffitt1336]

@ZillaBlitz After Undaunted Normandy, I liked it so much I started buying the follow ons sight unseen. I don't have Callisto; haven't gotten Battle of Britain played yet; but Stalingrad is absolutely brilliant.

[@phantomcaptain13]

Great interview! So many people rave about Votes for Women, I have to pick up a copy!

[@ZillaBlitz]

Definitely recommended! I'm putting together a list of my favorite games played over the last year and it's there as well. David talked about broadening conflict simulation games to include non-military conflicts, and I think Votes for Women is a great example of this.

[@phantomcaptain13]

@@ZillaBlitz Excellent, I'm going to pick it up! I love the Undaunted series as well. David's cryptic talk of his new project in the ACW really intrigued me! I'm wondering if it has something to do with the Underground Railroad? Or maybe Robert Smalls epic mission? Looking forward to finding out!

[@MrChadbag]

I have the original? purple box Squad Leader as well as the orange box version. I bought ASL but have only played it a little. Want to get back into it. It’s the top for me.

[@ZillaBlitz]

I'm just learning myself too. :)

[@arekkrolak6320]

Sniper Elite was my number 1 game in the year it was released. Undaunted is great too!

[@ZillaBlitz]

Sniper Elite looks fun! I've not seen it played yet, though. One of these days!

[@lukec1146]

Maria is easy to buy in the UK from game shops.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Interesting, very nice! Simmons Games (the publisher) looks like it closed down a few years ago.

[@henriwhitehead]

Great video! always love hearing from the Lebron James of Boardgame design.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Haha! Funny! :) But I think David has another decade to go before he's Lebron? Maybe?

[@jumpmaster82nd.]

Liked Normandy but Battle of Britain is on the shelf of shame still. Got no opposition...

[@ZillaBlitz]

I hope you can get it to the table soon! Lots of gaming in the Normandy box too. :)

[@TheTheshadow32]

Mr. Thompson is not your typical historical wargame designer. He is the product of BGG. It is logical that he will leave wargame designs in the future as he mentioned in the interview. That being said, I like Undaunted, the solo design, which was a remarkable effort. The only other one I like is Pavlov’s House because it brought the State of Siege series to great heights. Normally the SoS systems are rather boring and soooo easy to design. PH is an exception because it has multi level thinking and boards. A great game indeed. But I would call mr Thompson not an historical wargame designer. He is a EURO designer with thin military elements. Who would I call true historical modern wargame designers? Dean Essig, John Butterfield, Kevin Zucker, Don Greenwood and a few dozen others you will find in the stables of the old Victory Games, GMT, MMP, Compass Games… This is NOT to say I only like hex/counter games, as I find Up Front incredible and … sometimes a great (solo) wargame like Conflict of Heroes SOLO eastern Front was published by a non wargame company (Academy games) , but I find that putting pure Euro mechanics into so called wargames is not really in the interest of HISTORICAL “simulations” as Jim Dunnigan used to name his superb company Simulations Publications Inc…back in the 70’s… A true historical wargamer is interested in military history, DATA, conflict management and … well history. While the great and certainly wider audiance of Mr Thompson is the board GAMER as such. The true BGG fan. To end with just ONE example… On a survey of top 100 solo games on BGG this winter, the first true historical wargame sat at position 115… I guess we are still very very niche.

[@davidthompson7233]

I definitely won't be leaving wargame design in the future. Or at least games with historical war themes (I'll let others debate whether those are "wargames"). I currently have 12 completed designs that are on contract with a publisher in the process of being published, of which 6 are historical war themes. Of the 6 designs I'm actively working on right now, 3 are historical war themed games. So roughly 50% of my work over the last two-three years, plus the work I'm planning to do for the next at least two years, is focused on historical war themes. And I have a looooong list of other historical war themes I want to work on when I have time. It's just that in addition to that, I want to explore other historical, non-war themes too.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, The Shadow. :)

[@JoshuaLivie]

@@davidthompson7233 We are glad to hear that and keep innovating in those war game designs! I truly appreciate war games that do things differently.

[@davidthompson7233]

@@JoshuaLiviethank you!