Top 10 Engine Building Games

Spoilers below...
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Top 10 Engine Building Games:
Introduction (0:00)
10. Fleet (2:34)
09. Town Center (5:21)
08. City Council (8:23)
07. Prosperity (12:12)
06. Milestones (14:28)
05. At the Gates of Loyang (16:59)
04. Queen's Architect (19:40)
03. Kashgar (23:14)
02. Glen More (25:37)
01. London (27:33)

Jen's list (31:25)
Last Will (32:19)
Troyes (33:38)
Dominion (35:34)
Millennium Blades (39:54)

[PooManchoo]

Am I the only numbskull that came here looking to see Top 10 (Internal Combustion) Engine Building Games? haha

[Stephen-Fox]

So, what I'm getting from this is that Rahdo likes engine building games where he's building an engine where he's able to fine tune the engine to do exactly what he wants it to do, like a precision engineer. Jen, meanwhile, likes engine building games where she's building an engine that she's not entirely sure what it's going to do until it does it, like a mad scientist.

...Precise engineering vs mad science? I think Jen wins that arguement...

(Seriously, though, both are valid attitudes to what you're looking for in a good engine builder. What I like about Dominion specifically, which maybe London would provide based on what you said about it, is that running your engine to do it's purpose - gaining points in Dominion - inherrently clogs itself up, so you need to pick the point where you stop running your engine to build your engine, and start running your engine to get the output it's meant to be giving you so that it doesn't get overly clogged up to the point of coming to a halt)

[Atlasholy]

Splendor, Saint Petersburg and Imperial Settlers, Roll for the Galaxy and TTA is a couple of great engine building games! If you ask me...

[eladgoldsteen]

+rahdo: Thanks for including "City Council" in your top 10 list!
You made my day. You and Jen understand and appreciate how much this game mechanics are innovative and unique.

[shockmac]

Rahdo you are a beast bro! You do a lot for gamers around the world. Thank you so much for all Your videos. No have learned so much from them. Learning gaming and decision making. Keep it up please!!

[Atlasfilms]

Splendor is probably my favorite engine builder. I know Rahdo banished it from Malta because it's too dry but it's honestly one of the most effective gateway games I've seen in years.

[geoffreybalme]

Disapointed to not see Lewis and Clark in this top10 :)
For me it's a perfect exemple of engine building.

[wl]

Love both yours and Jen's definitions of Engine Builders. Naturally I love Dominion for the way it "sings" when it does actually sing, but I also agree with you that these misfiring engines are poorly built.
You've got me looking into those city builders which are ranked below 7 on the Geek. I do believe in diamonds in the rough though!.. 💕

[ryanmcgechaen]

you were a game designer and have now retired to Malta to play board games.  Thank you for proving I picked the correct vocation in life!

[bradonthefarm]

As deck building engines go, Eminent Domain: Microcosm would hit near the top of my list. You have significant control over how the engine functions as you build it.

[jyoung]

Enjoyed your explanation of the "terrible" engine in Dominion. Sounds like the AMC Gremlin we had back in the '70's! ;-)

[timothyiwan]

fantastic list and video. great job to both you and Jen :-)

[bijanajamlou]

Great video! Engine building is fun. Like your creative picks.

[pierrefr]

Hi Radho,

This is my first comment on your channel (or on youtube for what it matters) so bear with me! As you stated, this genre is pretty vague so I have no problem with your top 10. I was wondering if you could talk about 3 games (in no particular order) in your podcast.

1. Lewis and Clark. You build your hand (but unlike Dominon, you are always in control of what you play) until you have a perfect combo that allows you to rush through victory.

2. Le Havre. One of my favorite game (that I never see in any top 10 of anybody, I don' get that!). Yo start struggling to get two pieces of wood, 1 salmon and to feed 3 people and at the end of the game, you are cruising along, shipping steel and coal to the world, catering parties of 30 people on your cruise liner, grabbing 10 clays, etc

3. Maybe a weird choice but I always considered this game as a run engine game: Manhattan Project. You send your workers, to get cards that allows you to recruit more workers, that you can send dig for yellow cubes that you need to use to get other resources, etc. Once you have your engine build, ideal runs are usually send all your worker to your board to create either plutonium or uranium and next turn recall. Rince and repeat.

What do you think about it?

[glenjust]

Richard, at the end of the video you mentioned Race/Roll for the Galaxy, Puerto Rico/San Juan.  It made me think, what about a Top Ten Reimplementations?  Maybe there's not enough to come up with a good list of 10?

[davekoehnlein]

In the podcast, I hope you talk about why you didn't pick isle of trains for this list (I mean, there are literally engines in that game :)) great video as always Richard...you have piqued my interest for a few of these titles :D

[chrisschrader]

your thoughts on deck-builders: Is your issue that deck-builders are very tactical engines? IOW you must sacrifice your personal strategy to the tactics of your hand draw and response to opponents tactics. While I've not played many of your choices for engine building games, It seems that the mechanic connection amongst them is that they support player strategy more than in-the-moment tactics

An analog in the area control area would be Five Tribes. Five Tribes being almost entirely tactical tends to make it a very different experience than other area control games. For me, the tactical vs. strategic gameplay can change a game so much as to feel that it's a completely different genre.

[isaacthimbleby]

I kind of agree with you regarding Magic, except that I play by draft mostly now - and for me, the draft is at least half the game.

[Vedarta]

Well, how about Zhanguo and Bora Bora? With Zhanguo you have all the bonuses you want to activate when you play cards to the court that could move a lot of parts of the game for you. And you have men and women in Bora Bora, that plays a hugely important role if you want to get any bonus point in the end of the game. In Bora Bora maybe men and women are not as big of a part of the game to count as an engine, I don't know. What do you think?

[szajko]

I missed Imperial Settlers from the list (I know, I know, too much violence for you), but my ultimate pick would have been Progress - Evolution of Technology.