Ranking Every Stonemaier Game

Talking about and ranking all 17 of Stonemaiers Games that they have released to this date.

0:00 Intro
1:46 My Little Scythe
2:25 16
3:35 15
4:25 14
5:24 13
6:35 12
8:20 11
9:40 10
10:50 9
12:05 8
13:10 7
14:10 6
15:15 5
16:40 4
17:55 3
19:15 2
20:20 1
21:50 How Do You Rank Them?

[shayman]

1st off i love you said Amerithrash. 2cd I support your love of wingspan. I play a lot of games and that one has a special place on my list. Made some gamers with this one.

[jessbachman]

Thanks for putting this collection together. You can really start to see the gimmickyness of the ones lower on the list.

[johnathankokoski]

Interesting video! My top 5 would be Scythe, Viticulture, Tapestry, Wingspan, Red Rising.

[Amadre]

Scythe is my all time favorite game. I also have and love Wingspan, Expeditions, and Red Rising. I plan to one day buy (and thus try) Viticulture and Apiary one day, and I’m curious about Wyrmspan, too. Those all look like safe purchases for me.

Stonemaier is admittedly my favorite board game company. I like the middle-weight feel of their games, their productions, their looks/themes/and graphic design, and their automas are fantastic. I really respect that they intentionally don’t play into the FOMO that the whole industry seems to utilize. If it’s a Stonemaier game, you kind of know it’s a good package, even if the game itself may not be quite for you. I haven’t played one of theirs yet that I don’t like (but I’ve not yet gotten Pendulum to the table).

[BkMaidenMandy]

Red Rising is one of my favorite book series so naturally I had to get the game. I enjoyed the game so much that ive been searching for other games that I might also enjoy. Any recommendations?? "If you like red rising, then you might also like...."

[StevenStJohn-kjeb]

My top 2 are Scythe and Tapestry. My number 3 might be Wingspan or Euphoria. I like most of the games I've played from SM except perhaps Pendulum. I'm not a big fan of simultaneous play games (Earth, Ares Expedition). Can't say I feel a lot of interest in trying either Apiary or Wyrmspan. Well-presented list!

[Fahdingding]

I own 4 SM games: Wingspan (all expansions, Viticulture (with Tuscany), Red Rising and Libertalia... Just love them all.

[Sreehammer]

Why do you like Wingspan more than Wyrmspan?

[El-guhi]

haven’t played many stonemaier games. i like viticulture okay and i need to give wingspan another chance. i was interested in expeditions but it’s too big for my table, lol!

thank you as always for your video

[karenfischer]

I have all the games in your top 6 and Rolling Realms. I’ve enjoyed the solo challenge with viticulture and the 18 hole challenge with rolling realms.

[Ian-R-Wilz]

I wouldn’t necessarily describe My Little Scythe as a kid’s game. It’s a family game. It’s actually a really fun game. It’s the only SM game that I play multiplayer because I have it for my board game club at school and that’s where I play it.

The rest of my collection is solo play.
Apiary quickly became my top solo game of 2023. I got it back out a couple weeks ago after playing several games of Wyrmspan and it holds up. Wyrmspan is moving up my list as well. Viticulture is another of my favs.

Wyrmspan has passed Wingspan for me as far as solo play goes. The Automa is just better. Wingspan actually ranks pretty low on my SM list since I play only solo. Not that I think it’s a bad game. I enjoy it multiplayer on BGA but for solo play it’s in the middle at best of my 10 games.

[don_dad]

I own all of their games. Havent played Euphoria, Pendulum, or Between two castles. My favorite game of all time is Tapestry (with expansions), my 2nd favorite SM game would have to be Scythe, then Wyrmspan, Apiary and Viticulture.

[tzgardner]

Apiary and Viticulture are my favorites.

[MarkB-uuwe]

Good list, not so far apart from mine to be honest although I haven't played and wouldn't include the between two cities and castles of mad wing ludwig and their combined game. Not played Apiary yet but hear good things about it. Will never buy Wyrmspan until I play someone else's copy. Other than that as I said, similar list. I have Tapestry a little higher, I have always liked that game, not so much for theme etc but for its mechanics and later the balanced cards from expansions.

For me I would say it is 18 games. I treat Viticulture and Viticulture World as two different games. They are different enough to be separate games. Viticulture is my number 1 and I still play the essential edition never tiring of it enough to crack open the Tuscany box. I have to do it soon I think, but keep holding off thinking I would wait until the base game got too boring. But it just never happens, I enjoy the game every play. The visitor cards from the expansions really help too and have had some great memorable games with them all added in.

[CrystalsLife]

My favorite is Viticulture! I need to play Wingspan more, because it seems like a game I’d love, but it just didn’t click with me. I was surprised to see Wyrmspan come out because it didn’t seem novel and was piggy backing really. But this is a great list. I always respect a Stonemairer game even if it’s not for me.

[Jamehz]

I really like Apiary, was glad I got it while I could.
With a couple hundred games played, wingspan is number one for me but didn't really like the Asia expansion I didn't find that they worked as well with the other expansions

[martind]

No-one is legitimately giving Wingspan a 1. That's just their own hyperbole.
And I'm saying that as someone who isn't a fan of it.

[kirkbeiser]

Love Stonemaier Games also. My rankings are below. Top spot is easy and the rest are all really close.

Wingspan
Viticulture - such a smooth worker placement game. Grande worker is fantastic
Apiary - one play but really liked it.
Red Rising - only a few plays but it's so cool. Concerned that there could be loops or combos that become just too obvious to go after if certain cards end up in play.
Scythe - Love the action selection boards as a designer. Dislike the map territory because I won't see someone's move until they do it and it will be too late.