Crowdfunding Honorable Mention

So many different ones much like that Board Games, see those here. Tiny Turbo Cars because it just like so much fun. Real time little bit and then everyone races around a map trying to avoid other people. Canvas, an amazing looking game of making pictures by layering cards. Spire’s End: Hildegarde a solo story game. Really, I’m excited for everything in my Crowdfunding round-up, here, but let’s get to the Top 5.

5. Primal: The Awakening

Primal, aka Monster Hunter the Board Game, though there was a Kickstarter for a Monster Hunter board game, so Primal isn’t that, but it is? And it got there first, and I think looks cooler. So many massive monsters to fight and campaign but you don’t need to do campaign.

I also like that this isn’t your typical boss battler game. But it is purely a boss battler. Normally you pull out some tiles, get them set-up and move around the board counting how many hexes or squares you can move in that type of game. I love that, but I don’t always need that. In Primal there are four zone, front, back, left and right. You need to play where you attack from to do damage, but isn’t not counting spaces.

Plus, did I mention that this game has amazing minis? And there are 13 different monsters in the base box. That’s a ton of content. I didn’t go all in on the expansions to get even more monsters, though I was tempted. 13 will last me a long time.

4. Chronicles of Drunagor

Oh hey there massive dungeon crawling game. Chronicles of Drunagor looks really interesting for a few different reasons. Firstly you don’t see all the map. You see doors and those doors tell you what to set-up next. I like unfolding maps, granted it does cause a pause in the middle of the game.

The other things is the action system. You play down colored cubes to activate things. When you are out of them or when you want to, you pull them back. But you get a black cube that you need to cover up one spot with. So the longer a session/scenario takes the more you limited in what you can do. It’s like an exhaustion taking over.

And finally, I like that you don’t need to win every battle. Sometimes the monster needs to be defeated, and sometimes it’s just there to see what you do. And later it might be a villain who will show up again and remember your first encounter. I love it when games give the campaign a memory of what has been done before.

3. Marvel United X-Men

First of two Marvel games, this one I already know I’m going to like. Why, because I already really like Marvel United. Now you are going to give me the X-Men, I’m here for that. Marvel United is a simple cooperative game where you are a team of heroes trying to defeat a villain.

But before you can deal with the villain you need to deal with their henchmen or rescue enough civilians, or deal with their schemes in some way. And each villain does different things, some of them might just run around and try and smash you. Whereas MODOK, for example, is messing with the cards you’ve played. And the Green Goblin is more chaotic and doesn’t start with schemes on the board.

Beyond all of that, though, with the villains and with the heroes, I like that this game is so easy to get to the table. I pull it out grab some heroes and a villain and start playing in a few minutes. And if I want to play as Thor instead of Spider-Man, that’s a very fast swap. Plus, it’s Marvel.

2. Marvel Dice Throne

Hey, here’s more Marvel. And this one I rank higher because, again, it’s a game system that I know I love. In fact it’s very high on my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2021 Edition. Dice Throne works well for me as a head to head two player fighting game, or a free for all with the king of the hill rules.

Now they are going to give me the game with Marvel characters. This is a game that when it shows up, I’m going to try and get someone over that day to play it. Thankfully with shipping notifications and tracking that can be done. Why, because I have a number of friends who already know the game, at least regular Dice Throne. That means we can pull it out and get it to the table without needing to look at rules, and that’s rare for a crowdfunded game.

1. ISS Vanguard

Finally the first one I backed in 2021. Well, technically, I think I backed it in 2020, but the campaign didn’t end until 2021, so it counts for this year. ISS Vanguard is not the latest game for Awaken Realms, they did Lords of Ragnarok a month or so ago, but it is my most anticipated.

I’m not even going to talk about mechanics, just about the theme of the game. A message has been picked up by satellites around Earth. It’s coded and when it is decoded it’s coordinates to a spot in space that looks like nothing. A crew is put together to travel out there and a sphere is discovered.

The story unfolds from there, and I know a bit more about what might be going on, but how cool a premise is that. And the game, said I wasn’t going to talk about mechanics, but one thing, is played in two parts. There is a ship phase where you can upgrade your landing craft or deal with problems on the crew, or research new technology. And there is a planet phase where you go down the planet, explore, and try and figure out what is going on.

2021 Crowdfunding Finale Thoughts

There are a ton of great games that likely will be coming soon for me. I believe from my Round-up that I did Project L, Aeon’s End Legacy, and Joan of Arc are all getting close to shipping. And by that, I mean shipping to me, not getting on a ship. Not a Kickstarter, but one that I picked up because of one, Spire’s End – I backed Hildegard – is also waiting to get off a boat to to me.

I’m going to need to play a lot of games this upcoming few months just to see what I want to keep and make room on the shelf for other games. And there are a few games that maybe could go into fewer boxes. I’m looking at you TIME Stories and taking up a whole cubby by yourself, or you Aeon’s end and your giant boxes.

What games that you have backed this year are you most excited for?

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If you want to join in on the live stream and see the games as I talk about them as well as comment on my choices, you can join on Wednesdays from now until November 17th. I stream over on Malts and Meeples on YouTube at 8 PM Central Time. And if you need to catch up on the list.

100 Through 91

Top 100 Board Games 90 – 81

90. Skulk Hollow

A fun and pretty simple and fast two player asymmetrical game. One person plays as foxes who are trying to take down the other players guardian. The guardian has it’s goal, to take out the foxes leader to some other objective. The foxes are trying to get onto the guardian and hit it, taking out all of it’s health locations and disabling abilities. This is all done through some pretty simple card draw that makes the game easy to play.

Buy On Miniature Market

89. Titan Race

This might be the first racing game that I ever got. It is a light and silly little one, which is what I look for in a filler. In this game you are racing across one board three times or three boards. You use special powers to stop your opponents, knock them off course, and get further ahead. The game play is fun too because you are drafting dice to figure out what your movement is. It’s a good game that can probably be played with all ages.

Not Available

88. King of Tokyo

A classic game at this point, King of Tokyo is about all those monsters you know the names of hitting each other to get into Tokyo. Granted none of the monsters are actually named right because of licensing costs. But this is a great game that uses the Yahtzee style mechanic of rolling dice, keeping, and then rolling up to twice more. You can win by knocking out the other monsters, the most fun way, or by points. This is a game I don’t always pull out, but when I do, it’s a good time.

Buy On Coolstuff Inc

87. Tokyo Highway

Keeping on the theme of Tokyo, we have Tokyo Highway. A game that is as much a piece of art as it is a game. Now, don’t get me wrong, there is a game there, but when you finish playing it looks amazing. In this game you build highways through Tokyo while going over and under other roads. The trick is you can only raise or lower your road by one each time, and can’t touch the table with your road. If you go over or under another road you get to put out cars, but that’s harder because you can’t touch the other roads or knock them over. A fun and beautiful dexterity game.

Buy on Miniature Market

86. Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle

Not even the first deck builder on my list, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle is one of the easier ones to teach. First there is the theme that makes it easier to get to the table, people know Harry Potter. And a lot of people love Harry Potter. So it’s something that people can jump into as they know the spells and characters you add to your deck. And the game grows and progresses the further you play into it. Even just playing the first book several times, it’s a fun game that is very accessible.

Buy on Amazon

85. Dead of Winter: A Crossroads Game

This is the zombie survival game in the lines of The Walking Dead. Yes, you have to kill zombies in the game, but it’s about how you can work together as players while still trying to complete your own secret objective. That part of the game is good, but where it really shires is the Crossroads cards. These offer you challenging decisions as to if you rescue someone or not because that means another mouth to feed. I do house rule this one by drawing two Crossroads cards. Only one can happen, but it means that they happen more often.

Buy on Miniature Market

84. Silver

This game is tricky to explain, but not that hard to play. In the game you are drawing a card and deciding what to do with it, do you add it to your village or discard it for a power. The interesting bit is that you have a village of five in front of you but the cards are face down. At the beginning of each of the four rounds, you look at two of them. So you need to figure out ways to see your other cards, or maybe swap them blindly. And to get rid of cards completely so you have the lowest score. Good little take that type of game.

Buy on Amazon

83. Hues and Cues

There are a few party games on my list, but this one wasn’t there last year because I had yet to play it. It’s a game about trying to get people to guess a color. But you first give a one word clue and then a two word clue. As the person giving the clue, you get points for more people getting close or the right guess. And for the guessers you want to get close because that gives you points. Giving clues to guess colors is definitely different and feels unique for a party game.

Buy on Amazon

82. Clank!: A Deck-Building Adventure Game

Clank! A Deck Building Adventure Game I own but I haven’t played my copy. I have played on Table Top Simulator on Steam and had a blast with it. It’s a great push your luck deck building game.

You delve into a dungeon to steal a dragon’s treasure. But as you go through the dungeon you make noise and clank. When the dragon awakens he draws from a bag that has your clank and others. If too much is drawn you die. But if you can get in and then get back out with the best treasure and most points, or the other players die, you can win the game. It’s light goofy and fun. And I really need to play Clank! Legacy.

Buy on Miniature Market

81. Gravwell: Escape from the 9th Dimension

This is an odd game, it is fairly abstract but challenging and fun. Gravwell, I’m not doing the full title, has you sucked into another dimension and trying to escape back home before the portal closes. All while there is a black hole you don’t want to get sucked into. You are also out of your normal fuel, it’s not a good day. So you play down different elements as your fuel.

And this is where the game gets odd because some fuel pulls you towards the closest ship, some push you away and some draw ships towards you. Plus, every player plays down an element at the same time and they activate in alphabetical order. So if you play a later letter, like P let’s say, that might move you a long way towards the closest ship, but will that be the right direction when you get to activate. Silly game with a great and different mechanic to it.

Buy On Miniature Market

The Next Ten

So there we have it, we’re 20 games in between the two weeks. And every time I do the list I come up with a game I want to play And I come up with a game I think was too low.

If you want to join in on the next 10 live, you can do that on Wednesday September 29th at 8 PM Central Time. And then all the rest of the Wednesday’s up through November 17th. That’s over on the Malts and Meeples YouTube Channel. Subscribe and click the notification bell so you know when I go live.

And let me know which of these 10 is your favorite and which one do you want to try?

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Black Widow

Like I said, I hope the first one I see in theaters in a Marvel film, and hopefully all the Marvel films make it to the theater. I’m hoping that Black Widow will be as awesome as it looks. What I’m really curious is what the film will be setting up for phase 4. I think that it feels like it should have a lot that it sets up, I’m hoping hinting at a villain or a character or some sort, throughout the film.

Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

More Marvel, no doubt that was going to happen. When they announced more of the cast, I thought that it looked really good. And we know that the plot is going to be some sort of tournament, and if there’s a lot of awesome martial arts, that’s a great thing. I also like that it’s a completely new character to me. I know he’s in the comics, but I haven’t really run across him, so it’s cool to have something that feels so new.

The Eternals

I mean, even more Marvel, no shock there. And out of all of them coming out, I think I’m most interested in this one. Though Shang Chi is close. The Eternals has a massive cast, and a really interesting cast. I’m curious to see another team show up. And what Neil Gaiman wrote, I thought it was really interesting. I’ve checked it out a few times and it’s been really good each read with new things that I pick up. I don’t know what they are doing for the story as well, which is interesting, but I hope it brings in some of what Gaiman wrote.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife

I’m always interested in a Ghostbusters. I do need to see the last one, but I’m always just kind of interested in it. I like Paul Rudd, and it has a pretty unique looking cast. I hope that it keeps some of the awkward goofiness that the originals have. I mean, basically the first one is great, and the second one is good, but it is made by the actors. So I’m hoping this one will be as well.

Raya and the Last Dragon

An animated fantasy film from Disney, this one looks really interesting and unique. The clip that they showed for D3 was great. I don’t know a ton about it but interesting concept, some magic and fantasy, it is really interesting.

Morbius

My main question for this film is will Morbius show up in Spider-Man 3. It seems like they are sticking everything in there. I suspect that movie will be a mess, I have yet to see Venom either. but Morbius is an interesting for Sony to go with. This is definitely a checkout after the fact. I am not sure that this will be good, but it probably will be entertaining.

Tomb Raider 2

I loved the first Tomb Raider. I thought the story was good for a video game movie. Alicia Vikander knocked it out of the park as Lara Croft, and it had such a feeling of the video game, which has a good story as well. I am actually a bit shocked that this is getting a sequel and I wouldn’t be surprised if this one is pushed back from it’s March 19th projected opening.

Godzilla vs Kong

I like both of the Godzilla movies. I think that the first was better, but the second, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, wasn’t bad either. I love the idea of Godzilla and King Kong facing off, and then I’d guess teaming up against some other monster. Now, how crazy must a monster be if those two need to team up, who knows, but I’m excited to see.

Dune

Yet another film that got moved from it’s 2020 release date. I like the book, though I have trouble getting through it. And the cast looks amazing for Dune. I’m curious after several attempts at it being made before it if it will be as good as the trailer made it look, but I’m really hoping it will be epic and grand, like it looks like it should be.

Spider-Man 3

Even more Marvel, I forgot that this is now slated for December of 2021. I am really looking forward to this movie. This movie seems like it is going to be nuts. We are getting so many actors reprising their roles, I talked about it on 10 Minute Marvel two weeks ago. I want to see what will happen with three different Spider-man actors on the screen, I’m hoping all at once.

Mortal Kombat

Let me be very clear, I expect that this film will be hot garbage. But I also expect that it’ll be really entertaining. I like that it’s not a big name cast, and I am interested in what influence James Wan will have on it, because of his involvement with the Saw franchise. But really, I just want this to be a dumb and entertaining film with some cool fights.

Now, besides the four Marvel films, probably won’t see any of those in theaters, but I do want to see them all. I’m hoping that there’ll be some other sleeper hits that I need to checkout. I still need to see the likes of Knives Out from this past year and maybe Tenet though anything that Christopher Nolan does I’m only kind of interested in, which I know is shocking.

What movie are you looking forward to seeing in 2021?

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The Runelords Board Game

This one has a launch on KS and then was taken down after it wasn’t funding well. It’s coming up again in January, this time with some tweaks to the game, and I believe some characters from the books, which the first one didn’t have. I have DrGloryHogg to blame for why I’m interested in this one, he was the one who was exited for it and talking about how it was books, so I checked out the first book of the series and really enjoyed it. I need to continue the series, but I like the idea of taking groups into battle and dealing with characters who are powered up with their endowments and how part of what you might be able to do is determine how to power up your character.

Marvel United: X-Men

Marvel United is coming back to Kickstarter from CMON. I love Marvel, I love the X-Men, and I got all the chibis coming from the first game, so of course I’m going to get the second one. I want my chibi Gambit and Jubilee! Plus this is such a nice family weight fast game that it’d be hard to pass on it, even though I know I’ll get everything again.

Epic Seven Arise

This is one that caught my attention because of the anime style again. The fact that it’s based off of an app is a bit weird, but I’m really curious about this game. I need to go checkout the coverage that Man vs Meeple has on it, because it seems interesting. I’m hoping that it’s a good game not just a game that looks good, but the minis definitely look cool.

Exile

This is a gaming coming from Ryan Laukat and Red Raven games, and it seems interesting because he’s made a lot of interesting looking games like Near & Far and Sleeping Gods. But this one seems a little bit different than some of his other games that are really story driven this one is going to be very strategic, competitive and not random. I like some randomness in my games as I’m more tactical than I am strategic, but I’m curious about anything Ryan Laukat puts out.

Quantum Shock

This is a campaign game, a cooperative game, and a horror sci-fi game, all things that I like. I’m worried that it’ll just be another minis fast, well, I’m not worried it will be, I know it will be. But that said, I’m sill curious. Looking at some stuff about it, being able to manipulate time and space seems fascinating and I’m curious to see how they could make that happen in a board game, mainly the time piece, how do you go back, or something like that.

Verrago: The Fantasy Globe Game

It’s a weird name, but what makes this one so interesting is that you play on a freaking globe. You have magnetic pieces and the whole thing can spin. I’m guessing that this game might be more gimmick than game, but the idea is so interesting that I’m going to have to check it out when it hit Kickstarter.

So, You’ve Been Eaten

This is a weird game because it’s technically 0 to 2 players. It says that because you can basically play the two different AI against each other. You’ve been eaten by a monster and you need to get out and survive, and come back with crystals that’ll meet your quota, or you can play as the thing that’s eaten you, or you can play with one or both as an AI. It’s a weird idea, and I just want to see some game play really, the artwork on it looks amazing. I believe it’s coming to Kickstarter as it’s sitting in Kickstarters upcoming projects.

Last Light

This one caught my eye when it was announced that Roy Cannaday, from the Dice Tower, had designed a 4x space game, but one that wasn’t supposed to take six hours like Twilight Imperium. He’s a big fan of 4x games, so I’m hoping that it’ll feel like that and be a way that I could get a 4x game to the table. I know he’s been doing a lot od demos of it, and I’m very curious about it.

Now there are more games coming out as well, CMON is also doing a He-Man game, but it’s a theme that I’m not as closely connected with. There’s season 3 of a Batman game coming out, but I’m not into that one yet nor do I have any plans to jump on it. I’m sure that there will be others coming out as well.

What Kickstarter coming in 2021, that is known, looks the most interesting?

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What Coming In The Mail

These are the games that I’ve kickstarted which should be getting delivered in 2021.

Etherfields

Technically a 2020 game, it is getting delivered now to backers, but I picked 1 wave shipping, which I’m fine with, because I have more than enough big games to get through, but this one for me will be coming in 2021. I am excited to dive into the dream world and see everything that Awaken Realms has to offer as I’ve really liked their other games that I’ve played, Lords of Hellas and Tainted Grail.

Frosthaven

This was targeted for a 2021 March release but is now probably mid 2021, which I’m fine with. My game group who would probably just jump into this once we wrap up our current game at that point in time is playing Tainted Grail now and hopefully we can do Apocrypha some as well before Frosthaven gets here. But I’m still really excited for it, for the new classes and the city building aspect of it.

Oathsworn: into the Deepwood

This Kickstarter had a target date of December 2020, which I knew was not going to close to being hit as this is a big game and it’s the first game for the company, I’m still stoked for this one and I’ve borrowed a few concepts for my own game design, though mine is different, with this game being split into two parts, an exploration/mystery part as you find your way to the boss monster and then fight that boss. I like the legacy, but not legacy feel to it with how the boss monsters are revealed but nothing is destroyed so you’d just know the boss monster when you play it again.

Hel: The Last Saga

This has a targeted date for 2021, and while I think that Mythic Games can probably hit that, I wouldn’t be shocked if this got pushed into 2022. I backed this one for a Viking campaign game with a theme that is dark but interesting. I liked the religion piece of it too how some characters can only pray to one god or another because of their background, but then some can pray to all of them to get their blessing. This seems like a good grim dark Viking game.

ISS Vanguard

Should be coming at the tail end of 2021, I think, though they are targeted earlier than that, This is something, depending on how much it’s been playtested before, that probably will have a slight delay to it, though Awaken Realms is pretty good with it. I like this one for the epic space nature of it and the less linear story that it tells.

Roll Player Adventures

This one was a late back for me, but I just like the Roll Player stuff well enough that I knew I’d want this lighter campaign game. Playing it at GenCon in 2019 was a blast and the size of the story just seems like a lot of fun. I like that it looks like it’s a few smaller stories that play through a few different scenarios and can be turned into an epic campaign, but doesn’t have to be.

Cartographers Heroes

This stand-alone expansion to Cartographers was an easy back. I really like Cartographers, and I think with more plays it might move up the list. This adds even more cool things, and the level I backed it at comes with the colored pencils to make it look pretty and a big box to hold everything, and three more maps besides the new one from the Heroes part of it. I’m really excited for this.

The Night Cage

GloryHoundd and DrGloryHogg sold me on this one, I’ve backed so many games that are campaign games that this one seemed like something smaller but a lot of fun. I then got a chance to play it at GenCon and was glad that I’d backed it. It’s a nice tense game but one that plays fast and has a lot of cool things around it. I like the every shifting maze, I like the push and pull of trying to find the keys as fast as possible but not reveal too many tiles at once, and I like the race to the end to see what can happen.

Crash Octopus

This one I got for the bright awesome octopus and the silly fun dexterity piece to it. Also because Itten has a good track record with with their game Tokyo Highway. That game is just great and this one looks like it has more game to it but more silliness as well. I love the idea of flicking things that are floating in the water trying to grab as much as you can before an octopus activates and gets you and steals some of your stuff. It’s a silly idea that seems like a ton of fun.

Marvel United

So, I already have the base game of Marvel United, but they just released pictures of new stuff for it, all the expansions and what not, and that’s going to be getting produced really soon. I’m excited to get that into my hands and just to play that game in general because it seems like it’s going to be so much fun. I need to play my base copy.

Midarra

I had this one on last years list, but turns out it’s coming out this year. They say that the 2nd and 3rd act will as well, I only got the first act, but I suspect that’ll be 2022 or 2023. This is a dungeon crawl with a ton of stuff, Gloomhaven style that way, but has more dice chucking and has a very anime theme. I’m excited to get this one to the table for sure just for the different theme that it has and some of the fun things it does.

Now that’s a lot of games that I have been excited about for this year and before with Kickstarter that’ll be coming. Next article I’m going to talk about games that are going to Kickstarter, maybe, in 2021 that I’m excited for. Expect it to be much shorter since that’s much harder to find out as a lot of companies won’t talk about Kickstarter plans yet.

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