This simple
innovation means that two games of Cosmic Encounter never play out the same
way, as swapping out one players Alien power for another changes the game
balance. And, after 40 years of publication, there are scores of alien powers.
This simple concept has an ongoing legacy, and now days many games have “power
selection” as an intrinsic component to the gameplay, where all things in the
game are even, asides from the cool stuff your faction or character does.
2.)
Check out the bling! The Gamemaster
series (1984-86)
This is
less about game innovation in regards to rules, and entirely about production
values and how games could look. The five games in the series set new ground
for how cool games could look, and how many bit and plastic parts could come in
a box. All five were dripping in theme, and many are considered modern, if
slightly flawed, classics. As a kid, there were few things I wanted more than these games.
But check out the pictures, for 1984 this was unheard of production levels. Quality plastic pieces, tokens, box storage, non-standard dice.
Axis
and Allies – World War II, with hundreds of little men, ships and planes (picture is a later edition, my painted anniversary edition)
Shogun
– War in Japan during the feudal period, with Samurai, turn order swords,
player screens, and bidding on ninjas
Fortress
America – A “red dawn” scenario, where one player plays the USA defending
against invasion from three fronts.
Broadsides
and Boarding parties – a two player pirate game….. with massive model pirate
ships
Conquest
of the Empire – 6 roman generals fight for control of Rome.
The game
master series defined the term “Ameritrash”, and led to US game development
focussing on components and theme over core game mechanics. Their legacy is
best exemplified by the modern Fantasy Flight games production values, and is
really where games moved on from just counters and cardboard.
3.)
Against the board – Arkham Horror
(1987)
Most
boardgames until this point had one winner or you won and lost in teams. A few,
like the innovative “Scotland yard” had one player against everyone else.
But Arkham was the first big fully “co-operative” game, where you won as a
team, or you lost as a team. Set in the HP Lovecraft universe, the players must
work together to stop unspeakable horror from spilling out into the world,
risking insanity and death to do so.
Arkham
Horror’s 2005 edition is my most played game by a considerable margin. I own
all 9 expansions; have all 48 painted investigators, custom gate holders, and
an ornate Egyptian vase for my monster bag. I've put serious time into this one.
The legacy
of non-competitive boardgaming inspired by Arkham horror can be seen in
Pandemic, Space Alert, Space Cadets and other co-op games. While the first
edition of Arkham does not compare favourably to the 2005 version, the concept
of “us against the board” is an enduring one.
4.)
I can’t play, I’m painting –
Warhammer 40,000 (1987)
Love it, or
hate it, no game has done more for the quality of miniatures and improving the
hobby side of boardgaming than Warhammer 40,000 and it’s brutish British owners,
Games Workshop.
When 40k
came out, model painting looked very different, enamel paints were used mostly,
and people painted low detail figures for wargames, or made dioramas.
Warhammer
40k made the hobby aspect of gaming king and gaming has never looked the same.
GW and their in-house artists pushed the limits of model painting and sculpting
and really made it into an art form.
And while 40k and GW may not be the same creative force they were in the late 80’s
and 90’s, the influence of 40k can be seen through the sheer number of high
quality miniature games on the market like Warmachine, Infinity and Malifaux.
Not only
that, but the idea of taking a boardgame, and painting the figures, or building
custom scenery and parts, harkens back to GW’s hobby focus.
 |
| Probably my best paintjob ever. |
5. I Use my
Broadsword! – Heroquest (1989)
It’s sad
that this game is out of print and almost an abandoned IP, as I think it is one
of the most influential games in history.
Firstly, it
defined the dungeon crawler genre, best typified by modern games like Descent
and Imperial assault. It took concepts from Dungeons and Dragons, and other
RPGs and boiled them down into a simple game that kids could play.
And most importantly, it got sold EVERYWHERE, and exposed an entire generation
to table top gaming that involved magic, orcs, demons and barbarians.
It was the
first, and only modern style boardgame I recall seeing a national television
advertising campaign for. The lines “I use my broadsword!” and “fire of wrath!”
are iconic catchphrases my gaming group still uses whenever we roll out a
dungeon crawler to play.
 |
| The lads acting like they are in a early gaming ad while we play descent |
Few games
can claim to have gotten more people involved in gaming than Heroquest, the
true “gateway game” of the late 80’s and early 90’s.
6.) Wow! Nice combo, you win – Magic the
Gathering (1993)
I’ve
already written about how MTG is evil. It’s CCG business model is designed by the
devil himself to suck every single dollar out of your pocket, but it’s not the
CCG model that defines MTG to me, It is deckbuilding.
MTG allowed unrepresented freedom to design and build your own play style, to explore within a
games mechanics and come up with combinations and ideas that worked.
Deckbuilding, the idea that there is a pool of hundreds or
thousands of cards,
and you can only have 60 or so in a deck, is a powerful one.
MTG created
a new level of “game think” about a single game, and no game, not even chess,
has had more written about strategies and how to play and build a deck than
magic. And now, after 23 years, the combinations of cards in a deck are
approaching infinite, or certainly infinite by a humans natural life span.
MTG’s
legacy is huge, so many CCG’s and LCG’s exist these days that it’s considered a
separate genre. I’ve played many of them, from the sublime Android:netrunner,
through the good V:Tes & the Star Wars LCG, to the mediocre Rage and the
abominable Spellfire.
7.
Lol, you have wood for sheep? Settlers of Catan (1995)
First off, I don’t like this game very much. I find it
dry, a bit dull, and it is very hard to win if people freeze you out of
trading. I own a copy, and while I’m not really a fan, I appreciate what it has
done for boardgaming in general.
The Euro school of game design was divergent to the “Ameritrash” school I mentioned
earlier. Euro games were mechanically clever, but normally thematically weak
and had low quality components.
Settlers was the first Euro game to crack American
markets, and it’s legacy has less to do with the game itself, but because it
helped start the merging of the two gaming traditions.
After this point, Euros began to improve their themes
and component quality, and American games looked more at the Euro mechanics,
and tried to modernize their games.
It’s commercial success also opened many people’s eyes
to playing games other than Monopoly and the Game of Life. It helped to mainstream
gaming and helped families get back around the dinner table.
And while it's far less influential mechanically than say, Puerto Rico or power Grid, it's it's commercial success that is important.
Without the crossover effect of Euro meets Ameritrash,
many of my favourite games would not exist. Chaos in the Old World and Lords of
Waterdeep are great examples of this blending of the two schools.
8.
Only a Cylon would say that! Battlestar Gallatica (2008)
While Shadows over Camelot was the first game I played
that was co-operative with a traitor, it didn’t have anywhere near the impact
on me as BSG did.
BSG is an important game for many reasons. Firstly, it killed the idea that western
games based on established IP’s were most likely going to be mass-produced
rubbish that stunk. For every “Dune” that was produced, you had a dozen “CSI
the boardgames”, established IP usually meant the game was going to be rubbish.
Secondly, it turned the co-operative genre on its head with it excellent take
on the traitor mechanic, making the traitor not just a problem to deal with
like in shadows, but the core of the game. No game produces the same level of
finger pointing and baseless accusations as BSG. It’s simply a joy to play.
Finally, it represents a great blending of the ideas
and concepts mentioned earlier. It has great production values, role selection,
euro worker placement and resource management, co-op game play and diplomacy.
It is literally an excellent amalgam of everything game developers have learned
over the last 40 years, distilled into what I consider to be a modern classic.
It’s also heavily influential on Dead of Winter,
another modern classic.
9. Crowdfunding - Zombicide (2012)
Zombicide might not be the first, but it is the successful
crowd funded game franchise of all time. Check out these numbers for the
Zombicide crowd funding.
·
Season 1 $781,597
·
Season 2 $2,255,018
·
Season 3 $2,849,064
·
Black Plague $4,079,204
Exploding kittens made almost as much with one game,
but that was more to do with “the oatmeal” than anything to do with the game
itself, so it doesn’t fit my point, which is, that Zombicide aptly demonstrated
that you can crowd source a boardgame, if that boardgame looks special enough
and enough people get interested.
As the sales figures show, each season has been more successful
than the last.
Zombicide showed how a company with a cool idea, but
without the funding to make it a reality, could reach an audience and obtain
funding. While this legacy is still unfolding, I like that companies can go
straight to the customer, and if they do release a fine product, customers
react accordingly.
10. Technology and gaming – XCOM (2015)
A lot of people did not like what XCOM tried to do but
personally, I loved it.
XCOM wasn’t the first game to use a companion app, but
it is the one game I’ve played where it is integral to the gameplay and it makes
for a unique gameplay experience.
The APP manages so much of the gameplay, and it makes
the game frantic and fast, as only automation can. I’ve never played a game
where you really feel the time pressure like XCOM, and I think that’s an
excellent use of technology.
There is romanticism with keeping boardgames distinct and different from
computer games, but I think XCOM showed how modern technology can be used
alongside a boardgame to enhance the experience.
I’m really looking forward to how other games utilize
technology like XCOM did to improve gameplay. Dead of Winters companion app is
brilliant as well.
Other honourable mentions
- Dominion – For introducing the deck building genre
- Twlight Struggle – For making card driven games accessible, and for it’s amazing theme and game play
- Pandemic legacy – For taking what began with risk legacy, and making legacy gameplay into a classic
- Warmachine – For making miniature wargaming into a pretty balanced competitive game and for its community focus
- X-wing – For making miniature wargaming accessible to people who aren’t as interested in the hobby aspect.
- Smash up - For the simple concept of combining two pre-built decks
- Dune - For taking cosmic encounters role selection, and adding it to strategy games.
I'm sure there are many games i've missed, but these are the ones that stand out to me.
 |
I like X-wing
|
 |
| And Warmachine too |
·
Bellowing forth a mighty, blood-curdling roar, the Exalted Deathbringer pierces his enemy with his enormous spear, lifting him high with a single, muscular heave. The weight of the unfortunate victim drives them further down onto the polearm, each agonised, twisting convulsion pushing the blade ever deeper. Soon (but not soon enough), they will perish, adding yet another grisly trophy to the Exalted Deathbringer’s ever-expanding collection
The Flesh Hounds of Khorne are savage beasts that relentlessly hunt down the enemies of the Blood God. Their razor-sharp teeth can shred armour and flesh alike and their claws are staunched in the remains of their terrified opponents. In battle, Flesh Hounds are unleashed against the enemy prior to the main attack, their bone-chilling howls heralding the doom of those stood against them.
