Catch Up on the Top 100 Games

100 through 91

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 Edition – 90 through 81

90. Wandering Towers

Published By: Capstone Games
Designers: Michael Kiesling and Wolfgang Kramer

Buy Wandering Towers.

This is just a fun simple game of trying to remember where you wizards are hiding and get them to the main tower. I like how easy it is to make it work. You play out two cards and if you have potion bottles filled you can cast a spell. The spells are simple, the cards are simple, you choose to either move a wizard or a tower as far as it says on the card. But it’s still a lot of fun because of that memory aspect and burying your opponents wizards under a stack of towers.

89. Grove: 9 care solitaire game

Published By: Side Room Games
Designer: Mark Tuck

Buy Grove.

This one is two games in one really with Grove and Orchard. I put them together because the games are very similar, though I do slightly prefer Grove. In this game you stack cards to get matching tree types to overlap. As they overlap you tick up dice that are going to give you more points. The more points you have at the end of nine cards, the better you do at the game. Grove adds in scoring cards, and that addition is what pushes it over because it’s bonus scoring, but also how many points you need to beat to win the game.

88. Via Magica

Published By: Hurrican
Designer: Paolo Mori

Buy Via Magica.

It is weird to think that drawing chips out of bag and everyone getting a cube to add to their spells, basically bingo, can make a fun game. But it is great in Via Magica. This is a simple game with powers that you get from completing spells. It’s one of two games that actually has abilities or powers from completing spells on this section of the top 10. But it’s all about drawing those chips and hoping to get the right ones. Or then being smart about the spells you take so you can always use the chips.

87. No Thanks!

Published By: AMIGO
Designer: Thorsten Gimmier

Buy No Thanks!

This section of the list has a few push your luck games on it. No Thanks! isn’t a tradition push your luck game, but it does have those elements. In particular, you need to decide when it is worth taking a card. Cards are bad, cards give you points, so you want to say no thanks to them. But you need chips to do that, so No Thanks! is a game about determining when there are enough chips on a card to make it worth taking. Because, not only a chips needed for saying no thanks, they are also negative one point per chip at the end of the round.

86. Strike

Published By: Ravensburger
Designer: Dieter Nuble

Buy Strike.

Imagine a gladiatorial battle in the Coliseum. Actually don’t, this game is all about rolling dice to get pairs and knowing when to stop if you don’t get pairs. You just want to be the last one in the game and that’s it. It’s a simple game and simple system but it is always fun when it hits the table. I think everyone just likes to make a decision to roll a fist full of dice. And if you don’t get any matches, you can always roll more dice that you held back, but beware the one because when a die lands on that side, that die is gone forever.

85. Marvel United

Published By: CMON and Spin Master
Designers: Andrea Chiarvesio and Eric M. Lang

Buy Marvel United Multiverse Core Box.

Do you want to team-up as Marvel heroes to defeat villains in a fast and easy game? Marvel United is great for that. You pick your hero, the villain to go up against, and a few locations and you are ready to play. This game is all about managing what the villain is doing, and they do some fun stuff, and then chaining off of what your superhero teammates did, because you use the last card played, to have a great turn. This is a great game to teach people cooperative game play because you can really cooperate. And there is so much for it.

84. Homebrewers

Published By: Greater Than Games
Designers: Matthew O’Malley and Ben Rosset

Buy Homebrewers.

I like brewing beer, I did it for a long time. I’m not sure it’s hobby I’m going to return to. But I can still get my beer brewing fix with Homebrewers. This is about brewing the best beers you can. You brew a beer and you go up on a track, then you need to deal with the spent grains, sanitize, get more grains and brew again. All of that is like homebrewining.

But then the game offers different ingredients you add to your brewing. And these cards stick around between brews. So if you brew a porter with almonds, you now always will. And those ingredients give you brew something special that might be more money, or it might be that you move up on another beer. At the end, you just want to be the best homebrewer out there.

83. Chronicles of Drunagor: Age of Darkness

Published By: Creative Games Studio
Designer: Eurico Cunha Neta

Buy Chronicles of Drunagor.

I love my big campaign games. And Chronicles of Drunagor is no expection. It is just lower on the list because one of them has to be and it is one that I haven’t played a ton of. There is so much in the game, but I highlight three things in the video. I want to highlight one here, the activation system. You use different colored cubes to activate abilities of those colors. But when you run out of cubes or need a specific ability, you need to pull back those cubes. Then you cover up a spot so you can’t use it. It’s a unique system that I find a lot of fun.

82. PUSH

Published By: Ravensburger
Designers: Prospero Hall and Brian Kirk

Buy Push Here.

I like simple push your luck games, and PUSH is my favorite of them. This one is just push your luck, but as compared to other simple push your luck games, this one offers just a few choices. Mainly you create three stacks of cards on your turn. But those stacks can’t have the same color or number in a single stack, aka you can’t have two blue cards in a stack. Well, that is easy enough, you could stop early. If you do that, then other players could push their luck for more points. And then there is the die, if you have the roll the die, you might lose cards. It’s all about balancing that risk for points.

81. Potion Explosion

Published By: Horrible Guild
Designers: Stefano Castelli, Andrea Crespi, and Lorezno Silva

Buy Potion Explosion Here.

If you want a game that feels like app game, Potion Explosion definitely meets that need. It is one of those games where if like colors are touching they explode, or in this case, you get them. And it’s all about chaining together colors of marbles the best you can, and then you use them to complete spells. And those spells give you points that you need to win the game, but they also give you one time abilities that you can use to chain together more marbles and complete more spells. This game is just tactile and fun.

Join Next Week

Just as a reminder, I am streaming my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 Edition every Wednesday night at 9 PM Central Time. The next few videos have their links up, so you can click notify on them to know when I go live. Or you can subscribe to the channel and click notify to know whenever a new video comes out. Currently I am playing through Legendary Kingdoms on Monday and then my wife and I are playing Baldur’s Gate 3 on Fridays. So join us for those videos.

And thank you for checking out the video and articles. Let me know what your favorite game from this chunk of 10 is and which one you would love to get played.

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Campaign Ideas

We are currently in the Campaign Ideas phase. You can see how I simplify that here. But right now I wan to come up with a few campaigns that could set-up for the next story. And in particular, I want to create the elevator pitches for them.

Now, when I think about coming up with an idea, there is an intimidation element to it. What is going to make a great epic story for a longer campaign? But I think it’s fair for people to borrow ideas from everywhere. So whether that’s a movie, an anime, a book, folklore, whatever it might be, borrow it to help generate ideas. There is a difference between weaving elements into a bigger narrative that show-up elsewhere.

So let’s get down to some ideas.

The End is Known

For ten years there has been war with the demons. No one knows how it started, but demons and devils poured forth from the hells working together. And now only a small band of heroes remains having battled and felt loss over the years. They face off against one last devil, Asmodeus stands before them, and they quake. Asmodeus speaks and it’s all over.

You awake with a new vague memory in your head. A voice that wasn’t there before. It says, something bad is going to be happening. It’s coming, the monsters are coming. But you look outside your window and it’s normal. It’s just another day in your life and nothing seems worse, except for this voice and this vague memory of a devil speaking some incantation. This one is inspired by a LitRPG book I listened to, couldn’t find the title of it, and A Returners Magic Should Be Special.

Notes: This is both the end and the elevator pitch all wrapped into one. The characters kind of know what the end is. But how will these characters now become heroes who can deal with what is coming. And what do they believe, do they believe that is coming or not?

The Puppetmaster

It’s a world of legends and stories. But new stories keep on popping up and they are similar to old stories that you’ve heard before. A magic lamp, three bears living in a house, and wolves, oh so many wolves. The stories are just that, though, right? They are just stories, it can’t be something real.

Notes: Short and sweet pitch here. Not much to set-up, the world matters less for this one, and I wouldn’t even use the title because it’s going to give away some of what the end might be. But this is a question of what if the fairytale world came to life and it wasn’t the happy stories that we know, but the bears, wolves, and everything is now out to kill you?

The Monster Within

The wrought iron gates clanged as a strong wind howled down from the north. It shook the window panes with an unsettling rattle. But neither the clanging of the gate or the rattle of the window were what drew your attention. On the wind there was a song of melancholy and despair. The words couldn’t be made out, but you knew that they came from the castle up on the mountain. There was a narrow cart path leading up there, and that is where you needed to go, because, there was a monster up there who needed to be dealt with.

Notes: This one is going to be a bit different. Clearly I’m going for a gothic horror vibe for it. But I want to go more monster of the week with it. I enjoy the monster of a week trope and it’s going to lean into that with beasts like werewolves, vampires, and other creations that are well fitting for a Curse of Strahd type setting. What does the end game on this one look like? Honestly, it could look like Strahd or some vampire lord, or even work up to a Lich lord who is controlling things.

Time of Legends

No one would mistake you for the heroes of old. They are now something of legend as were the monsters they faced. The demons of old were locked away. How do you know, because you live right outside one of those dungeons. Something strong is starting to happen around the dungeon though. The terrain is changing and you don’t know why. Some thing it is a sign that the seals are weakening. But if that’s the case, who is supposed to stop them. You are tasked to find those heroes from one of the larger towns and are sent out with provisions, a map, a well wishes.

Notes: The obvious thing here is that the seal is weakening on the dungeons. The second obvious thing is that these are the heroes who are needed. But while the players will know that I know that and you know that, the characters wouldn’t. Why think that they are heroes when they just lead normal lives? And the in the big town, that is there real heroes live and fight in wars for kings and defend against assassins and cast amazing spells. This one steals form a lot of anime. I’m not going full Last Dungeon Town (etc etc) where they are super powerful, but they might find that city heroes aren’t what they think.

What’s the Next Step for this Dungeons and Dragons Campaign?

The next step is pitching the idea to the players. We spun up a Discord Server to share links and notes from the last session. So I plan to drop all of the options in there today with any tweaks that I want. And then the players will get to decide what campaign sounds the most interesting to them. If I ran a game for you, which one would you want to pick?

As the Dungeon Master, I like the idea of them all obviously. But I think that if I were a player, I like the sound of the first and the last the best. The other two feel more monster of the week whereas the first and last feel like they are going to lead to a more epic end. But let me know your pick on the Facebook post or down in the comment section below.

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Streaming Schedule and Issues

The plan is to stream every Friday evening on this, generally starting around 9 PM Central, though that time is going to be flexible because it depends on our kid. And we might also stream other nights as well. So be aware that it’s just going to pop up when it pops up.

And you’ll also see that chunks are missing. Right now the computer that we’re using keeps on dropping wi-fi connection. When it’s connected it’s working great, when not, it happens randomly. And there is no good reason for it, as far as I can tell. I can reconnect no issues, it might just be the machine itself is going to struggle. We have another machine that we can try as well, and the possibility to hardwire that one into the internet to avoid the issue. So next stream might start even slightly later than normal but with that fix in place.

Meet the Baldur’s Gate 3 Adventuring Party

So let’s meet the party as it stands thus far. We might go back and tweak and replay some, TBD, because of a choice that we made. But let’s talk about the party.

I play Nina a Tiefling bard. We went with the two character classes who aren’t party members in Baldur’s Gate 3. Bard being one where if you play Durge it’ll be in the party so you can play with them. But there isn’t an option for it across the game even then. So let’s play around with that one.

My wife is playing Kaerok a half elf or elf, I forget which, monk. Another character that there is no companion who is a monk. This one there is no way to work in a character like that. So if you want to play with a monk, you need to play one on your own.

No plan to spoil who we are romancing. That will unfold as we play our characters. But we both have a plan/idea where we think it makes sense for our characters to go.

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How To Play Adventure Land from Haba

Adventure Land is a game of collecting items, whether those are swords, herbs, companions or gold. And then you fight monsters. In the box there are three different scenarios. But that basic element is true throughout the scenarios. The other rule is that you can only move your adventurers down and to the right. So as you play, swords, herbs, gold, any of them might pop up behind you and will you be able to get them?

That’s the main hook of the game. You play a set of adventurers who only move in certain ways, down and to the right. But not all the items start out on the board. You flip out more cards throughout the game to place more items. So players have a changing landscape. And sometimes everything starts on the far side of the board, so what do you do there. Do you push an adventurer across the board to grab them knowing they won’t collect much more? Or do you wait it out scoring fewer points?

Are There Enough Decisions?

Let me start out by reminding people, this is a Haba game. Haba tends to make kids games in their yellow boxes. But also, this is a Kramer and Kiesling, the two designers, game and not a Haba yellow box. It is meant more as that family weight game. So it requires that it’s simple enough for kids, but not so simple that adults won’t find it interesting.

It’s more Land than Adventure

I’m not sure how well Adventure Land fits into that area. I think that it is going to be interesting to kids, and probably more interesting to people who don’t play a lot of games. For myself, I play a lot of games, so it is less interesting. It is less interesting because the decision space is very limited.

The decision around which adventurer I move and how far I go, I like it. But the decision around, is this a good thing to pick up or not. That is less interesting. The randomness as things come out, it could be interesting to adjust to, but it feels basic. I don’t feel like I am making an exciting decision in the game. I joked in the title it is more land than adventure, but it kind of feels like that. How do I use the land best to get points, not what adventure am I going on.

The decision around which adventurer I move and how far I go, I like it. But the decision around, is this a good thing to pick up or not. That is less interesting. The randomness as things come out, it could be interesting to adjust to, but it feels basic. I don’t feel like I am making an exciting decision in the game. I joked in the title it is more land than adventure, but it kind of feels like that. How do I use the land best to get points, not what adventure am I going on.

The Game Length

The game also has a 10 by 10 grid. I think all the spots have cards, so that’s 100 cards. That means as you flip out a couple at a time, it isn’t a fast game. It is a lot of turns and a lot of small moves that aren’t that exciting. If the game played with half the cards each time and you raced to grab the things, that’d be more intriguing. But because it plays with everything you know eventually cards will be flipped. So it is just a longer game, again, with more land than adventure.

What Works in Adventure Land?

But it isn’t all just okay. And I want to be clear, I think that the game is just okay with it’s decision making. I think I am just not the target audience. This, with a more interesting name and probably more interesting cover, would be a great game to sell in Target. It does what it should to create something new for a introductory game, down and to the right, while not being too complex.

I also like the scenarios in the game. They offer minor tweaks to the rules. It isn’t like any element of them is too complex, but they add just a little bit in. In a scenario you want to get to towns. Another scenario your goal is to fight monsters for your bulk of points. They aren’t massively different, but they are unique.

Who Is It For?

I think I’ve covered this, but I really want to lean into it. This game is going to be a solid game for people who want an introductory game. It should sit on the shelf with a Catan, Ticket to Ride, and be maybe even slightly more family friendly than those.

But I also think it has a shorter shelf life than those. The main compelling item in the game is how the tiles come out. Where are they going to show up on the board, and what strategy do I have for them. But there just isn’t enough variety to make games feel massively different. So it’s a game a family will play and enjoy for a year or two and then get set aside, in my opinion.

Final Thoughts on Adventure Land

This is a game that I wanted to like more than I did. Not just because Tom Vasel likes it, I got no issue with having a massively different take on a game than a review. Look at his review of Super Fantasy Brawl and my love for it. Instead, for me, I also wanted to like Adventure Land because of that main hook. Often times a hook of something like “down and to the right” movement is enough to make an interesting game.

I won’t belabor it, but it just doesn’t do enough with that. It’s about the spatial movement in the game, and that is it. For a family with a 7-9 near old, that might be enough. For me, it is just a bit dull, and I think with other Haba games out there, they are better. It’s not a bad game, it just doesn’t make me want to play it again.

My Grade: D+
Casual Grade: B-
Gamer Grade: D

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The 7th Citadel – The Basics

So what do you need to know about the game and how it works? I could dive into a complex, if something happens then another thing happens and go down that rabbit hole of events. But for the most part, The 7th Citadel follows some basic interactions.

Actions

Firstly, if you interact with anything it’s almost always the same interaction. There is a minimum number of cards to draw, and you can draw more. But if you do, you are burning through your stamina faster. You need to, however, flip enough to try and get some successes. That means you flip and then combine the cards to get as many stars as you can. It’s a system that I like, good for push your luck, in my opinion.

Health

To go along with that stamina that you get from the cards, it also impacts your health. In The 7th Citadel when you run out of cards, or start to get low, you can spend health to get some cards back. It’s two cards per hit point that you spend. Or you might play on easier or harder modes which are 3 cards for every one or two life respectively. So you theoretically can get almost all your cards back twice. But there is damage that affects your health as well.

Random Events

Beyond that, the game is just about interacting with the different points. So probably the final thing to know of the basics is that you add events to the spots around you in the game. As you want to move from one card to another you add events. These are the random events that make your story different from other peoples who play The 7th Citadel. There are other choices as well, but these are some of the biggest that make a difference.

That is generally the basics of the game. There is more that goes on, but almost everything interacts with the core system of flipping cards and getting stars. I like how simple that system is as it’s one that is going to be easy to teach as I eventually want to play through this game two player or more. Because with three threat, there is a lot of story and choices to be made that I won’t see in a single playthrough.

Upcoming Streams

On Monday I play small solo game plays. The schedule is, right now, going to look like gaming every other Monday. A chance to see people in person came up for Monday and as much as I like streaming, it’s good to socialize as well. And I might do more deck construction with Star Wars Unlimited on Mondays as well or pack openings.

On Wednesdays, I play solo campaign games. I plan on playing a campaign game coming up. Right now I’m torn between two games. Well, more than that if you watched through the end of the video. The next game is the one that I just unboxed, 7th Citadel. So I plan to start playing it next week or at least do character building and then dive into the game.

And if you want to know when I go live, the best way is to subscribe. When you subscribe, click that notification bell and you’ll get an alert whenever I’m going to go live. Follow the link – here – to subscribe.

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Watch Spring here.

Mythwind Thoughts

I know one of the bigger review channels, the Dice Tower, just reviewed Mythwind. I haven’t gone through their whole review for it, but the reviews were mixed. And I think all three people who reviewed it like it less than I do. And I believe like it less than other people do who I’ve seen play it. That said, I’m not going to say that the Dice Tower crew were wrong. They always have reasons for their opinions on reviews.

So I want to throw some of my own thoughts onto it. I tend to be a positive reviewer. I like more games than I don’t, and that’s a good thing. If you review board games and find that you like fewer than you enjoy, board games might not be the right space. But a game like Mythwind is always going to be a tough sell. Mainly because it is supposed to be a cozy, relaxing, kind of a goal but not really a win condition game. And I don’t blame anyone for not wanting that in a game.

Mythwind is What It Says

What I’ll call out, and this is something I’ve seen with other games as well, is when someone dislikes a game for doing what it says it is going to do. Mythwind is a cozy game. That might not be what you want in a game, but that doesn’t make Mythwind a bad game. Or I see this all the time with Tainted Grail. The amount of complaining about Tainted Grail when all the information as to what type of game it was going to be was right there was astounding to me.

A game might not work for you. And that is a fine thing. No game should work for everyone. If a game does, that means that it probably works okay for everyone. No matter what it is, you can’t please everyone. So I’m glad to see when a game comes out that is great for some people and okay or not so great for others. It’s better to have a subset who love the game and will come back to it, than everyone saying it’s a 6.5 or 7 out of 10.

Mythwind is Relaxing

At no point in time do I feel rushed when I play the game. Yes, this is just me restating that Mythwind is what it says it is. But it’s worth talking about. I don’t feel rushed. I don’t feel like I need to make a perfect decision, ever. If it takes two turns to get what I want, well, that’s okay. In fact, I like that feeling because it adds to the game in multiple ways.

I’ve talked about it being relaxing, that’s what this section is about. But that relaxed nature adds to the replayability of the game. My culture wasn’t high enough at times to unlock particular events. Will those events massively change the game, probably not, but they might tweak it. And what it’s like with more players, how much faster it can move, I’m curious about that. And because it is such a puzzle for each character, I can play it again with a new character and it won’t feel too much like I’m rehashing story.

It Might Not Be For You

And all of that said, I want to reiterate, Mythwind very well might not be for you. The game is something unique and specific in what it does. No win condition, no massive pressure moments, that is a tough sell. At the same time, I played and narrated my game for just over an hour yesterday to get through two seasons. This is a relaxing game where I can see, when not streaming, that a season will take me 20-25 minutes. And with 5-10 minutes of set-up and teardown combined, it’s a relaxing puzzle to play.

In fact, I think if you like small solo games, Mythwind is a good fit. The ease to the table stands out for the game. But it’s not just that, it’s the core loop for players. You get to really dive into one or two things that your character does well. And I like that a lot for the game. If that’s what you want, you’ll enjoy Mythwind. If you want a clear, well defined, end point, it’s going to feel lacking.

Upcoming Streams

On Monday I stream at 9 PM Central. That is sometimes a bit hit or miss, but that’s the goal. And I do small solo game plays. The schedule is, right now, going to look like gaming every other Monday. A chance to see people in person came up for Monday and as much as I like streaming, it’s good to socialize as well.

On Wednesdays, well, I said that I plan to play at least a few more games of Rogue Angels. This is going to continue how I play my solo campaign games on the channel. The reason for that is with how many campaign games I can play solo, I want to try more. That is at 8 PM Central time for the campaign games.

And if you want to know when I go live, the best way is to subscribe. When you subscribe, click that notification bell and you’ll get an alert whenever I’m going to go live. Follow the link – here – to subscribe.

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The Isofarian Guard – Boss Battles

A boss battle is part of The Isofarian Guard that I have had yet to play. And an interesting part, for me, in that I wasn’t sure how much it would differ from regular combat. The simple answer to it is that it didn’t differ all that much. But it is harder, which is what I expect from a boss battle.

I think it reminds me of how they recommend playing Dungeons and Dragons. The idea is what you battle a number of times throughout the day. I think it’s something like six times, so if you have a team that is loaded and ready to go a boss battle won’t be so bad. But as you fight throughout the day, a boss battle becomes harder and harder. You use more resources that would be useful.

The Isofarian Guard kind of feels this way. If I went into that fight full health, no negatives in my bag, I would have won. But because I went in down health with negatives already in one of my bags, it made it harder. I like that about it because I can’t just assume that I’ll win. There is a grind of the travel and combats leading up to the boss fight.

I also think that I could have been higher leveled. If you make it to the end of the fight, you’ll see how many chips I’m drawing for Grigory and how I am able to manipulate them. That offers an interesting shift from the faster battles. I can activate Grigory almost fully, but do I get the best benefit or, like at the end there, was it hurting me because I drew out a lot of poison. But it lets you ramp into bigger and better attacks.

Upcoming Streams

So, next Monday I want to play one of two games. I have Trailblazers that just came in what I want to learn. Or I have Cursed!? a little solo game that seems like a lot of fun as well. So that is what I am debating about for Monday. Monday streams happen at 9 PM Central time. And I will announce what game I plan to play, probably about thirty minutes before hand.

Then on Wednesday, it is time for more of The Isofarian Guard. This happens at 8 PM Central and I will be playing for two more weeks. After that, at the start of October, the focus will shift to my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition. I do that every year around this time and try and finish up before the holidays. So I hope that you will join for both more of the Isofarian Guard as well as my Top 100.

But the best way, if you want to know when I go live or a new video goes up (it’s basically always live), please consider subscribing. You can do that here. And click that notification bell on the channel and you’ll always know when I go live.

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Crowfunding Isofarian Guard

Let’s first off start by talking about the Kickstarter campaign, which I actually didn’t back. Back around when it came to Kickstarter I had just backed a handful of campaign games, and when I say a handful, I mean a small moving truck full. And Isofarian Guard promised another small moving truck full of game. Though, in reality a lot smaller than a lot of those.

But the game itself was one that I was interested in. Rolling Solo had a game play of it to show off how it worked at least in prototype form. And the mechanics looked interesting to me, but I wasn’t blown away by it. The story, however, I knew that I loved the idea of it. So Isofarian Guard stayed on my radar.

The Prototype

Now, this is where it got interesting. I saw the prototype for Isofarian Guard on a video(s) that Quackalope and BoardGameCo did. And man, is there a lot in the game. In fact, there is so much in the game that I went back and looked at it again. Why, because I thought it might be worth it for the price point. And well, I was right.

Size to Cost Ratio

Let’s just talk about the size of this game, because it is huge. It is bigger than Frosthaven, a very big box and game. And it is cheaper. Now, there are elements in which it has less. But weight wise and size wise it is larger than Frosthaven, so Isofarian Guard is huge. In fact, it’s too large to fit in a Kallax cubby which means I’m heaving it to the top of a Kallax or a need to find another solution.

But that doesn’t cover the cost. The game is cheaper than Frosthaven as well. So larger box but cheaper overall. And it is a lot cheaper than more recent campaign games on crowdfunding. Even when I late pledged it after watching the BoardGameCo video, it was cheaper than the campaign games showing up at that time.

So for me, and where I was with what I had backed recently, I got the late pledge. Even if it is not a game that I love, I think mechanically more than story wise, it is a worthwhile investment.

The Mechanisms of Isofarian Guard

So let’s finish up by talking about the mechanisms in the game and then the story. But the mechanisms need to sell me on themselves for the game. Isofarian Guard is a story adventure game that has two parts. The first part is traveling through the lands. Then you go and have story phases, or more story focused phases in settlements. This might sound like another game, Oathsworn.

But the main mechanism that I want to talk about is bag building and pulling out chips for attack, defense, and other abilities. I think that looks interesting, but it didn’t sell me on it. Mainly, it seems simpler to me than a lot of other games. Let’s compare it again to Oathsworn. That has hand management with a cool down track, and a push your luck element. This is build your bag and assign the chips you pull. But I suspect that there is more than that from the taste I got.

The Story

And the story is something that sells me on the game. Again, this is what I remember, because the game has been in production for a while. The world is one where there really isn’t magic, or not much magic. Magic is something of the legends and when a group of the kings finest guard or at least trusted soldiers, become imbued with magic that might end a war, they think that is weird but great.

The king, when they return, he is not a fan. And if I remember again, he is listening to a character that I can best describe as a Wormtongue from Lord of the Rings. Someone who is poisoning the mind of the ruler and leading them into decisions that are not good for their kingdom.

That is a story that I am sold on. It is interesting, offers depth. And does a few things that are unique. In the box is a number of campaigns. But it isn’t like you pick one and play it and then the next one follows along after. I believe that they all happen at the same time as I you play different groups of the guard who split off to complete different objectives from the start of the story. That is a very interesting idea.

Final Thoughts on The Isofarian Guard

Let’s be fair, I late-pledged this game because I love campaign games. But there is another reason as well. While, Isofarian Guard looks like a table hog. It is a solo campaign game. If I couldn’t have played it solo, I wouldn’t have backed it. It is a game that I plan on playing on Malts and Meeples.

Of course, I need to play play other campaign games first. But most likely, not today, but next week I will unbox the game. Show off all the components because, it is a lot and there are some interesting things to look at in the game. I love a campaign game for that. And I want to play it as soon as a can. In fact, it might be the game that I play after ISS Vanguard, we will have to see. I own others like Oathsworn that are high on my list to play as well.

Did you back The Isofarian Guard?

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The Game – Lands of Galzyr

I will be doing a review of this game coming out shortly, probably next week, so I don’t want to dive into that too much. Plus over the past couple of months I basically have written a review on it. But just some final thoughts after playing Lands of Galzyr weekly for 10 weeks in a row.

I enjoy this game a lot. It is a peaceful and relaxing game. And you can see how it speeds up over time as I play it. But with that said, I’m not sad to be putting it aside. Why? I think that Lands of Galzyr is probably best as a once every two weeks or once a month game. And probably even one that is done with a larger group.

Solo vs Group

The solo mode is good and easy to do. So don’t get me wrong, I like that. But I see the story that is missed and I want it. Plus there are times where it would be nice to have someone to help you doing stuff. So that is why I think it might work better with more. Basically, you share the experience.

Complexity

As for why less often, I like how I stream. But Lands of Galzyr is not the most complex game. In fact, it is always more reading than it is checks or moving on the board. Not a knock on the game, it is what it is. But because of that commitment to playing and reading, it is not one that works best to binge. The variety in the game is lower because of the type of game it is. The variety in the story is high, but in the decision making space is lower.

So that is sounding negative. When you read the full review, it is not going to sound that negative. I love the story and the world in this game. It’s engaging, it’s fun, and while I like dark, I don’t always need dark. So it is a nice refreshing experience that is relaxing to play. And that doesn’t sound like high praise, but not that many games can say that.

Upcoming Streams

So this is a weird week to talk about what is coming next. I don’t know what is coming next. I might decide what I want to play prior to next Monday. If I do, next Monday I plan to play a game. If I don’t, then I plan to go over five games and try and make a decision on which to play. Either way, I will stream at 8:30 PM Central on Monday.

Then on Wednesday, I hopefully will be playing a new campaign game. But that depends on me having time to learn the rules and mess around with the game. You notice that I read rules more to start, or check on them, before I am humming along towards the end of my streaming. That is going to happen, I want to know how to play but also show that not everything is easy. So I hope to play a new campaign game. If I don’t, expect to see a revisit of a roll and write or something like that. 8 PM Central time on Wednesday is when I will stream.

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Lands of Galzyr – The Story

So, I think it’s worth talking about the story of Lands of Galzyr. Because, it is not a campaign game, but it is played out, if you want, over a series of games. Each time, though, you pick the story that you want to engage with. Now, a quest might continue multiple times through multiple parts and multiple games. I pushed to get the “prince” quest taken care of this time. And I think with a character there is a timer on that one. But some quests, I could do part of it, then next session go and do more.

The story reminds me of what you see in Sleeping Gods, in a lot of ways. Sleeping Gods tells little bits and pieces of the world. And Lands of Galzyr, each quest is a little piece of the world. However, there is so much to this world that there is a lot of story. And that story is what keeps it engaging and fresh. Every event I pull, not even quest story, can be different depending on where I engage with it. So it will be fresh each time that I play it.

Vs Campaign

On the other hand, and this is picking at it some, it doesn’t tell as cohesive a story as a campaign game. Something like Roll Player Adventures, Tainted Grail, Sword and Sorcery, or Stars of Akarios all tell a specific story. That means what you come back to each time is a progression of a narrative. Lands of Galzyr is an emerging narrative of the adventures you go on. But, it is not a narrative game. You make the story around your character, not a game leading them into a story.

For that reason, I think, that it is a strong gaming experience but a good campaign game is better. For me, I want to in a game be able to influence it with choice. I do that in Lands of Galzyr. But in Tainted Grail, it is baked into the story that you experience. Yes, I see more things, same with Gloomhaven or Roll Player Adventures. But I tell the story and influence key parts with how I play. Lands of Galzyr, it is more of a series of events you follow.

Upcoming Streams

Monday is going to be back at 8:30 PM again. Last Monday was earlier because I needed to get my podcast recorded still. This upcoming Monday, I want to play a new game. It is a busy weekend, so I don’t know how much time I’ll have to learn. But my goal is to learn a new game to play. I have one I see that might work well.

And next Wednesday at 8 PM Central time is part 7, February, in Lands of Galzyr. The video is available here. Click the notification bell to know when I go live and join me. I hope that the game play is fun, and like I said, I want to play a few more sessions for sure of Lands of Galzyr. But after that, let me know what campaign game I should try next. I am tempted by maybe a smaller one like Adventure Realms, but I also want to play SHEOL as well.

Which should I play?

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