Special Features 4 - Shut Up & Sit Down

Clutching at Bannisters: A Heartfelt Review of Fantasy Football

[Following in the tradition of Brendan’s Rooky Errors or Leigh’s Month as an Assassin, it’s time for another article on an unusual corner of gaming. This time, the ancient tradition of Fantasy Football.]

Gav: It’s 6:45 on a Friday night, I’ve just got off a flight from Cologne to London and I’m attempting to tether the internet from my phone to my really old, really rubbish and currently really unresponsive laptop. This would be annoying enough if I wasn’t also attempting to manoeuvre through some horrendous London traffic in a beaten-up old jallopy. I know even using your phone (no less a phone AND a laptop) whilst driving is reckless and stupid but there’s an excuse for my idiocy: it’s the evening of my NFL Fantasy Draft.

Before I lose you, let me just say I know how you’re feeling, but stick with me as I explain why game fans will find a fantasy football league interesting.

Quinns: It’s that time again! With a magnanimous gesture to the orchestra pit and deep bow to our incredible Gold Club members sat in the balconies, SU&SD exits stage left, pursued by a pear.

If you enjoyed literally anything we did this year, don’t thank us. Thank the people who support SU&SD’s ad-free status with donations and make our work possible. Or better yet, join the Gold Club yourself with that big button on the right! Every dollar makes a difference, and guarantees a uniquely British encounter if you meet us at a convention as we thank you profusely without managing any eye contact.

Following in the tradition of 2014’s roundup, after the jump you can enjoy a look back on the best, brightest and silliest work we did this year. Also, a tease of what to look forward to in 2016!

[We’ve told the story of a Netrunner tournament, but what about Fantasy Flight’s biggest-selling title, the excellent X-Wing Miniatures Game? PC Gamer magazine’s Chris Thursten has just started playing, and below shares the awesome journey of his first ever tourney.]

Paul: Aha! Did you think we were done? Did you think it was all over? The sad truth is that, in assembling our gigantic Top 50 list, so many games don’t quite make the cut. We shift them up and down. We debate their inclusion. We resign ourselves to seeing favourites fail to break the Top 50 by the tiniest of margins. That’s how it is, though. You stick in a Codenames and the whole list shifts. Someone has to be number 51.

All the games that follow are good games. We don’t want you think we’ve lost our love for them because they weren’t featured last week. These are our Honourable Mentions.

SU&SD's Top 50 Games Ever, 2015! #10 to #1

Operator: I WANT TO LOOK AWAY

Quinns: DON’T LOOK AWAY

Operator: IT’S… TOO… BEAUUUTIFUUUL

Quinns: We are entering the teens! Steady as she goes, operator.

Operator: Sir, the site was never built for this! She’s going to buckle under the pressure!

Quinns: There’s no turning back now. We’d never make it. The only way out… is through.

Quinns: Alright, we’re proceeding into the twenties. Keep your arms and legs inside the article at all times. If you feel sick stop reading immediately, make a cup of tea and add the Forgetful Mixture we taught you how to make in your induction.

Quinns: It looks like our Top 50 is maintaining its structural integrity, for now. At the first sign of trouble, it is of utmost importance that you all evacuate the website immediately.

I refuse to have any more dead on my hands.

SU&SD's Top 50 Games Ever, 2015! #50 to #41

Quinns: RETRIEVE YOUR OFFICIAL SU&SD-BRANDED MOIST TOWELETTES! It’s about to get hot in here.

Last year we presented something never-before-seen in board games. Our Top 25 Board Games, Ever was a list of our most favourite games ordered from least-most favourite to most-most favourite. Ever since then, the SU&SD Supercomputer has been calculating a method by which we could possibly top this. Last week, it provided a schematic for something… incredible.

The science behind the following Top 50 is complicated, but in layman’s terms we’ll be “publishing” “instalments” every day this week, and beyond(!).

Enjoy, everybody.

Paul: We’re back from Minneapolis! And what a trip it was. We had a terrific time at Worlds, Fantasy Flight Games’ annual championships, watching hundreds of skilled players compete to for the title of the best of the best in games like Netrunner, Imperial Assault and X-Wing. It was also our chance to get first-hand experience with Star Wars: Rebellion, Wave 2 of Armada and the latest editions of both Runebound and Fury of Dracula.

BUT ALSO it was a chance for other people to make videos about us (for a change!) and this week we want to link you to two interviews we gave.

Clutching at Bannisters: A Heartfelt Review of Fantasy Football

…And That’s it for 2015!

Stress & Focus: An X-Wing Tournament Diary

SU&SD’s Top 50 Games Ever, 2015! The Also-rans

SU&SD’s Top 50 Games Ever, 2015! #10 to #1

SU&SD’s Top 50 Games Ever, 2015! #20 to #11

SU&SD’s Top 50 Games Ever, 2015! #30 to #21

SU&SD’s Top 50 Games Ever, 2015! #40 to #31

SU&SD’s Top 50 Games Ever, 2015! #50 to #41

SU&SD on the spot: Two lovely interviews from FFG’s 2015 World Championships

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