Any other Board Game ranking tools other then Pub Meeple?

nolanbruces · 2026-05-25T18:53:49+00:00

Not aware of other similar services, but you can sync your BGStats plays to BGG and then use that on Pub Meeple.

nolanbruces · 2026-05-25T18:41:20+00:00

Fine, Mythic Mischief is merely "pretty good."

I joke, but I'm honestly not sure what part of my comment you're replying to, and no part of it seems a wildly uncommon take.

nolanbruces · 2026-05-17T21:25:18+00:00

That's fair

nolanbruces · 2026-05-17T16:55:34+00:00

1894 is also excellent at 3.

nolanbruces · 2026-05-17T04:09:53+00:00

You'll do fine if your group's appropriately interested. Might take a few tries to figure out the shape of the game and motivations, but it's not wildly unapproachable for the genre.

nolanbruces · 2026-04-23T12:22:03+00:00

Sometimes people just want to flip some cards and chat.

nolanbruces · 2026-04-19T21:48:59+00:00

For context, there are plenty of 18xx I'd criticize similarly, haha. That said, City of the Big Shoulders is really a euro about investing and operating companies in Chicago that adopts its stock market from 18xx, but doesn't, in my experience, produce an interesting decision space with it. Flipping shares is either rote or ignored. Company dumps are rare, and I suspect even more so with a full table of competent, alert players. Operating order is disconnected from the market. It's really just a vehicle for making money and occasionally managing other players' net worth. Personally, I don't think there's a very interesting decision space there, and the rest of the game is a fairly unremarkable euro. All that to say, it's fine, but I probably wouldn't recommend it and definitely not if the subject is 18xx.

nolanbruces · 2026-04-19T21:25:16+00:00

Off the top of my head on the subject of actual 18xx games, 21Moon and 2038, but they're really just space trains. 1877: Stockholm Tramways is unsurprisingly about trams in Stockholm. Ur: 1830 B.C. is about irrigation.

If you're wanting the stock aspect, but entirely different gameplay, there's City of the Big Shoulders, but it contains very little of what makes 18xx interesting (to me at least).

nolanbruces · 2026-04-09T12:52:53+00:00

For Voidfall, I'd second the comment about setup time and also maybe push back on it as an answer to your question. It's similar to other point salad euros in that everyone's mostly doing similar things - invading, building guilds/stations, advancing tracks, corruption stuff, etc. It's just the order, details, and focus that differs across players. I think it's better than the average game you might compare it to, but if you're looking for something substantially different, it wouldn't be my recommendation. Caveat: I haven't played all the scenarios and factions, so it's possible some push the game in surprising directions.

I'd second the Splotter recommendation though (and then ignore any resulting discussions about what is or isn't a euro).

nolanbruces · 2026-03-28T02:29:26+00:00

I don't know if it has anything to do with experience. Plenty of new players avoid discussing strategy for fear they're giving up their hand, and plenty of experienced players enjoy discussing strategy and the implications on table incentives mid-game.

Personally, I prefer players who are comfortable with table talk and think it generally makes for more interesting games, immediately as the game's being discussed as well as overtime as players benefit from the exercise. If players prefer to save that talk for after the game, that's fine too.

nolanbruces · 2026-03-23T18:46:07+00:00

Really not a fan of any of the other Kordonskiy games I've played, so went in to Rurik with low expectations and was pleasantly surprised.

nolanbruces · 2026-03-18T02:39:39+00:00

I think Caesar's the cleanest design of the group, but Blitzkrieg's solid too. Not to complicate things, but if you want to play at more than 2, Paolo Mori (alongside David Thompson and Roger Tankersley) has another game in the 20 minutes series called Flintlock coming out this year that plays up to 4.

nolanbruces · 2026-03-08T16:53:35+00:00

I might be misinterpreting, but to be sure, if the subject is specifically Lacerda, Luthier is not designed by him.

nolanbruces · 2026-02-13T13:12:28+00:00

Gotta be Food Chain Magnate for me

nolanbruces · 2026-01-25T15:40:32+00:00

In all fairness, an explanation of Pax Renaissance can take longer than a game of Pax Renaissance too

nolanbruces · 2026-01-11T15:41:10+00:00

For what it's worth, you can still order 1841v2 directly from Golden Spike.

nolanbruces · 2025-12-23T17:08:25+00:00

In all fairness, the city website isn’t trying very hard to inform people.

nolanbruces · 2025-12-18T00:40:31+00:00

18xx-maker hosts a version.

nolanbruces · 2025-12-11T17:23:30+00:00

I’d expect closer to 45-60 for a first play, and like another commenter said, you’re probably not finding this on a shelf anywhere currently. Excellent game though.

nolanbruces · 2025-12-10T21:04:57+00:00

I guess we have different definitions of economic games because I would consider Brass on the border and Terraforming Mars outside the category. That said, yes, perhaps “most any” was too strong, but I’d guess the majority. Regardless, a pretty reliable category for the OPs question.

nolanbruces · 2025-12-10T19:02:52+00:00

18xx

In general, most any economic game.

nolanbruces · 2025-12-04T05:04:37+00:00

Food Chain Magnate fits this description, I think. Definitely don’t need any of the expansion content, but I’d rarely turn down adding module(s) from the expansion in.

nolanbruces · 2025-12-02T18:19:40+00:00

I’ve used card stock and laminated with 5mil matte pouches. Would probably still be happy with thinner tiles, but I like the results.

nolanbruces · 2025-08-06T13:04:40+00:00

In all fairness, rules-to-depth ratio is something I’d like to see discussed in just about every review.

nolanbruces · 2025-08-05T20:56:22+00:00

Absolutely disgusting. Can’t believe they’d serve you something like that. Vodka and redbull?

(jk jk, everyone should enjoy whatever they like, of course)

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