Until a couple years ago, Concordia was my favorite boardgame. Nowadays, whenever I consider playing it, I end up playing something else.

I think it’s a great strategy game and it plays very smoothly. Easy to teach and satisfying to win. It’s just not exciting. And that’s the thing, now I tend to look for excitement in tabletop games.

Thematic games are more obviously exciting but come with so much more rules overhead and exceptions. They often take much longer to play, too.

It’s not a question of euro games vs thematic/ameritrash games, it’s a question of the game’s tension and dynamic range. I’ve had leagues more enjoyment out of Nusfjord than I ever did in Concordia, which I’ve played 10x more.

So these days I tend to prefer euro games with a meaner spirit and more interaction, like Troyes, Imperial 2030 or The Estates, and lighter thematic games that don’t outstay their welcome, like Root, DOOM and Bargain Quest.

There are of course favorite outliers like Vast, Batman GCC, Dune and Merchants & Marauders, and of course Twilight Imperium 4 - “event” games by complexity & playtime that nevertheless reward the time spent. These tend to be played with the same groups.