Hey, hey, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here with another Top 5 Tabletop Games throughout the years. Today’s list features the best games from 2003. Unfortunately, 2003 gets sandwiched between two of the better years for board games, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have a handful of standouts this year. Almost every year has at least one or two stellar games. We’ll talk about 2003’s board game list soon, but let’s review the ground rules for which games make these lists before we begin.
1: Cultural relevance plays as much of a factor as overall quality. A game might make a list that doesn’t hold up to others of its type, but you must admit the game is everywhere.
2: Only one game from a franchise makes the list. This will become more of an issue the closer we get to games with expansions.
3: Longevity plays a role, too. A game doesn’t have to fly off the shelves today, but it had to have some widespread appeal for a decent time.
5: Reiner Knizia’s Amazing Flea Circus (2003)
Amazing Flea Circus is by no means one of Reiner Knizia’s best small card games. I much prefer Don’t L.L.A.M.A., but Amazing Flea Circus still deserves an honorable mention, because few games from this year have seen as many printings and editions. It’s a simple but fun game. Sometimes, that’s all you need. Spoiler Alert: Amazing Flea Circus won’t be the last we hear from Reiner Knizia on this list.
4: Coloretto (2003)
In Coloretto, players collect colorful chameleons. The rules are simple. Either add a card to a row or collect all the cards in a row. A row can only contain three cards, so eventually, players will be forced to claim rows. Players gain points for up to three colors. Each color beyond the first three costs players points. Wild (or Joker) Chameleons count as any color and +2 cards always help.
Coloretto proves you don’t need a complicated rule set for an engaging game. One can see its influence in games like River Valley Glassworks, where one only scores points up to a certain number of colors. Coloretto’s main game mechanisms center around set collection, but set collection works. I wouldn’t be surprised if Coloretto’s success as a set collection didn’t spawn other games that use a similar mechanism. Ticket to Ride (released the next year) also uses a similar system.
3: Yinsh (2003)
We’ve mentioned the GIPF Project series of abstract games on more than one of these past best of year lists. Yinsh is the highest-rated of these games. In fact, Yinsh is still a Top 5-rated abstract game on BoardGameGeek. The board game resembles the cover art (above). Like Othello, discs are dual-colored. Players try to make a chain of five discs in their color by jumping over discs with their rings, flipping over the disc. As soon as a player gains a chain of five discs, they discard one of their discs. The first player to discard three of their rings wins.
Yinsh has a clever, built-in balancing mechanism. Getting rid of a ring means a player gets closer to victory. But you’re making yourself weaker, because you have fewer rings. Brilliant! There’s a reason the GIPF Project is the highest regarded abstract game series. And Yinsh earns its place among the best.
2: Amun-Re (2003)
The top two 2003 games could be flipped. I went back and forth with these two titles. Both are great, but in the end, I chose the 2003 Spiel des Jahres winner as number one. Amun-Re was up for the Spiel as well. I’m telling you, it was close. Amun-Re is yet another Reiner Knizia board game to make one of these lists. It’s like Knizia makes a heap of great board games. In Amun-Re, each pharaoh wants to build the most pyramids. To accomplish this, they must first acquire a province where they can trade and farm. With their profits, they can buy new provinces and building-stones to erect pyramids. For all their actions, players must make clever use of their power cards and always offer appropriate sacrifices to Amun-Re.
Love the theme. Evidently, Reiner Knizia loves an Egyptian-themed game, because Ra also made one of these lists. I believe Amun-Re may be the only pyramid game Knizia ever designed. To be fair, I’ve lost track of every Knizia game. The man has forgotten more about board games than I’ll ever know. But Amun-Re holds another distinction; it’s one of Knizia’s more complex games. The two games on this list may be the polar opposites of what Knizia can do as a designer. Amazing Flea Circus is one of Knizia’s least-complicated games. Amun-Re is one of his most complicated. Both can be a lot of fun. And both came out the same year. Crazy!
1: Alhambra (2003)
In Alhambra, players are acquiring buildings to be placed within their Alhambra complex.
The money in Alhambra comes in four different currencies (of different suits) and is available in the open money market. The 54 buildings of six types become available for purchase in the building market four at a time; one building is available in each of the four different currencies. On a player’s turn, a player may 1) take money from the open money market, 2) purchase a building from the building market and either place it in his Alhambra or reserve, or 3) engage in construction and re-construction projects with buildings that have been placed in the player’s Alhambra or reserve. The game rewards efficiency, as when a player purchases a building from the market for the exact amount of money, the player may take another turn.
I don’t always agree with the Spiel, but I like Alhambra’s combination of set collection (yay, another set collection game), tile laying, and area majority. Alhambra marks the second time Dirk Henn made one of these lists. Wallenstein made the 2002 list. While I like Wallenstein more (in large part because of the cube tower), Alhambra does enough to take the top spot in a weaker year for tabletop games. That may sound harsh, but you haven’t seen 2004’s list. It’s a doozy. Still, I enjoy the heck out of Amen-Re and Alhambra. I struggled with which one to place at number one.
That’s our list of the Top 5 Tabletop Games of 2003. Let us know which game you like best. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.
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