Catch Up on the Top 100 Games

100 through 91
90 through 81
80 through 71

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 Edition 70 through 61

70. Meadow

Published By: Rebel Studio
Designer: Klemens Kalicki

Buy Meadow Here

This game is a beautiful nature game. It’s all about creating a meadow and stacking cards on top of each other really. Each card you select is going to have requirements as to how to place it. To go along with that, the selection process is great. I like how you place a token on a row or column and that token determines which thing you take. So you need to plan that out and sometimes make due with the limited placement access you have.

69. Mountain Goats

Published By: Allplay
Designer: Stefan Risthaus

Buy Mountain Goats Here

Mountain Goats is a little, simple, climbing game. All you do is roll your dice and decide how to split them up. Then you move your mountain goat up the tracks that are those numbers. If you reach the top or are at the top, you gain those points. If someone else is at the top when you get there, you knock them down to the bottom again. The game is so simple, but it works really well

68. burncycle

Published By: Chip Theory Games
Designers: Josh J Carlson, Shannon Wedge

Buy burncycle Here

Now we move to burncycle which is a much bigger game. In this game you complete one off missions as robots. I like the theme of the game, robots took over and now big corporations and people have taken it back and are out after the robots. You need to sneak around to complete missions both in buildings and on the network. And the burndown of the cycle is a great tool for the game as well. Just a lot of really fun elements into a big game.

67. The Lost Expedition

Published By: Osprey Games
Designer: Peer Sylvester

Buy The Lost Expedition Here.

The Lost Expedition is back on the list. This game is a great cooperative game. And I always like to mention, it is a good one for not having too much alpha gaming. The players all make their card choices with no input. And it changes up from morning trek to evening trek, I like that about the game as well. The former is playing cards in numerical order, or they slot in that order, while the other you just play out cards. So it changes up the strategy and sometimes you just end up stuck.

66. ISS Vanguard

Published By: Awaken Realms
Designers: Andrzej Betkiewicz, Krysztof Piskorski, Marcin Swierkot

Buy ISS Vanguard Here.

Now to another big campaign game. This one is all about exploring space and figuring out the mystery of why a message brought humanity out here in the stars. The game is also interesting because it’s split into two parts, the planetary exploration part and then the ship management aspect. I like both parts and it makes for a fun campaign, one that I need to get back to, ideally in a group.

65. Mansions of Madness

Published By: Fantasy Flight Games
Designer: Nikki Valens

Buy Mansions of Madness Here.

Now another scenario based game, Mansions of Madness is a classic at this point. Do you want to go on some big Lovecraftian adventure, but as a one off? This game is going to give you that. I like how grand it is, I like how the app lets the scenarios be different each time (albeit just slightly), and I like how the scenarios you play are so different. This is a good beer and pretzels type of game when you want a big game for an evening.

64. Sonora

Published By: Pandasaurus Games
Designer: Rob Newton

Not Available Currently

I like my roll and write games. And Sonora is a great one for that and it has a fun twist with it. Yes, you get all the combos that you get from a lot of roll and write games. But you also get to flick discs. So instead of rolling dice you are flicking discs with numbers to see what areas you activate. It’s fun to knock someone off a spot that they really wanted. And then, like I said, you go heads down and get to combo as many things as you can.

63. Lands of Galzyr

Published By: Snowdale Design
Designers: Seppo Kuukasjarvi, Sami Laakso

Buy Lands of Galzyr

Lands of Galzyr is an interesting game because it’s really different than most games that I’ve played. This one is all about going on adventures and completing quests. But the stakes, while often cool and interesting, are never that high because what quest you go on, that’s determined by whatever shows up. I like as well how you can rotate your skills, so you might start out sneaking and then end up with great lore, it’s up to you and the quests you take.

62. Kohaku

Published By: 25th Century Games
Designer: Danny Devine

Not Available Currently

I like games where you can draft. And Kohaku gives you that as well as being a beautiful game to play. The copy as own has the acrylic tiles which give it a depth from the surface of the water to the bottom which looks amazing. But the game play is good as well. You pick out a koi and a scoring tile and they need to be adjacent to each other. Then when you play them out, you can never put a koi orthogonally adjacent to another koi and same with scoring tiles. So it’s a bit scoring tableau that you create.

61. Nidavellir

Published By: GRRRE Games
Deisgner: Serge Laget

Buy Nidavellir Here

Finally is Nidavellir. This is a game that I actually got rid of at one point. But then I decided to hop into a three player game on BGA. And I realized what I had not liked about the game before. Nidavellir is a great bidding and dwarf set collection game, but for me, only as a three or more player game. It’s fun to try and get your bids just right and still upgrade your coins. Plus you need to diversify what you collect so you can get the bonus powerful dwarves.

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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AllPlay

Alibis is going to be a thinky party game. Not much more information on it. But it is one of AllPlay’s square box game. They also reminded us of a few that are coming as well. Plus Twinkle Twinkle which is going to be coming out at Gen Con. It was on Kickstarter in January. They expect to fulfill it in July.

The next one they are talking about is Sail Legacy. I need to play Sail. And I definitely think I’ll be backing this one. It’s cooperative trick taking which is great. So I hope that it’s a great Legacy game and one that I can enjoy a lot. It’s coming on Crowdfunding on July 8th.

Terrible Quest is a tiny game that is coming out at Gen Con. You are tearing out things from a sheet of paper and racing against the time. This sounds like a pretty fun gimmick to checkout. You need to tear it out exactly, plus you want to avoid curses that are hidden on the back of the sheet of paper, and get bonuses. The game play looks hectic and silly.

Bitewing Games

They are talking about their Mythos Collection. These are two player head to head games. Iliad and Ichor are the first two from the line and they are fulfilling or they just recently fulfilled. So there are more games coming in this line of games. Now being added to the list of these two player games Moytura and Azure which are coming in Q3 of 2025 to Kickstarter.

Board and Dice

This is a game that starts with the Letter T and is an ancient civilization. So we have Tianxia coming. This looks like an interesting game to me, in particular with the artwork of the game. It sounds like a game where you want work with others, but you only want to work so much because there is only going to be a single winner for this game. I like the theme where it seems to be building a wall to prevent nomadic attacks. It seems like a resource management but one that seems to have a lot going on with it.

CGE

They are talking about the new version of Codenames. Is there much new going on, no there isn’t. It’s mainly just a rebrand and reminder that a new version is coming. I believe that the new versions do add in a few more cards, but no need to run out and replace the one you already have.

Elzra

A new Catacombs game is coming. I believe that this is meant to be a good jumping in point for people who have been interested in this flicking and dungeon battling game. It’s a game that I’ve owned, well, not this version of Catacombs Alpha the Catacombs that I need to get played. Because I enjoy a good flicking game and this one seems like it’s different.

Phantom Division

I’m not sure if the game or company is called Phantom Division or both. This looks like an epic dungeon crawling experience. And it has some interesting terrain. It isn’t a big minis game, though, this is a game where all the monsters and troops are discs. But it also isn’t a flicking game, or at least not completely. There are flicking elements to completing some objectives which is really odd and interesting looking.

Phantom Horizon

See what I said above about Phantom Horizon as well. This looks like a big epic space game and that’s something that I might be lacking in my collection. This one looks a bit less alien than some of the games, though there are aliens. And while there is a ton going on with the board and upgrading. There are again no minis for the game, so makes me think it’s the same company as the one above. I definitely like the look of both of them a lot. And diceless combat which is going to mean that you can plan out more which is cool.

Okay, this one is actually called Solarion: Foundation of Empires and it’s coming to Kickstarter.

Direwolf

Lightning Train is going to be at Gen Con. The Direwolf release. Plus there is more coming to Clank with Clank Catacombs and the expansion. So can we all guess what this is going to be, yup, they are announcing Clank Catacombs: Underworld. This is going to be an expansion for Clank Catacombs, and this seems like a whole new level to explore in which is cool. But it’s going to make your game even larger. A Kickstarter pre-order it seems and then coming out this fall, so do you want it slightly sooner?

Plus the digital release of Dune Imperium Immortality. Plus some content coming there first which is going to be intriguing. They do plan on releasing physically eventually, but not right away.

Everbeasts

This is a smaller little game. It’s going to be a strategy card game. I don’t know much about it, but it’s from an independent creator for the game. I like to see when people talk about stuff like that. And it’s going to be coming to Kickstarter in July. And learn more about Everbeasts that way. I very much enjoy how it looks in terms of the artwork and I hope that it’s a good game. It seems like a combo building game. And you download a free print and play demo to try it yourself.

Grail Games

There are two little announcements. Firstly their medium size game like Snowcrest and they just kickstarted Night Soil. Now they have a new game coming Fantasy Brewer. I do like beer. It’s going to be an Essen game. It’s a worker placement style of game. Seems like a worker placement game, though, where some workers are stronger than other workers. So what you get after the worker placement depends on who was there first and how had a stronger worker.

And an announcement for Age of Civilization. This game that is already out and now it’s coming out with Grail Games. Bigger box and new art.

Justin Gary

15th Anniversary edition of Ascension a game that I like. This is going to be a lot of new promo cards. So if you like Ascension, this might be for you. And they are going to be introducing a new card type which is interesting. And you’ll be able to get everything for the game again. Plus all of the cards can be gotten in foil which is unique. And that’s not all, a bonus promo if you follow on Gamefound.

Off the Page Games

Corps of Discovery is being talked about move. It’s a cooperative game which is really interesting and I think it sounds more interesting to me than other games. And they are talking about expansions for the game as well. So there is a ton of stuff coming out for Corps of Discovery. I haven’t gotten Mind MGMT or Harrow County but this one actually is more interesting to me.

And it’s another new game. This one is called Design Your Destiny. This one sounds weird. There is a story element to it and you travel through time as the characters. You come across games but they are broken. So it’s going to kind of teach you or tell you how to design games. I think that sounds a bit crazy.

And the next Kickstarter game. Grendel is a 1 to 4 player competitive game. It’s an asymmetric game and area control it seems. It sounds interesting but I’m not 100% sure that this is the type of game for me. But there are some very unique events occurring in the game. July 1st for when it starts crowdfunding.

NerdLab Games

There are a few things from next month to next year. First off they are sharing some news on Mind Bug. They are doing a crossover thing with Iello and King of Tokyo. Sounds like the King of Tokyo creatures are coming into Mind Bug. Plus it is going to have some King of Tokyo like things which will come at Essen. Plus the online version of Mind Bug and a rogue like experience is coming for it. I need to play Mind Bug, it’s one that I think that I should enjoy but I haven’t gotten around to it yet.

The next thing is Agent Avenue which are recommended for the Spiele. And there is now coming a little expansion for the game. Nothing to show yet for the expansion and the target is Essen again at least to show the game.

And there is Final Titan. This game is currently on Gamefound and I think that this one looks fun. It’s a draft battler game and I want to know more about it. Right now I’ve held off on backing it, but it’s the type one that I think would work very well with me. It’ll come out to release late next year.

Mindwork Games

This one looks like a skirmish game. Paradise is supposed to be between a combo of miniatures game and board game. I believe that I heard them call it wastepunk, which if I did hear that, I think that sounds great. The artwork looks good and it’s supposed to be a fast game which is something that sounds interesting. Not sure it’s for me, but one that I’d love to try it before I buy it. It really does look mainly like a miniatures game.

Mighty Boards

So some announcements, Red North. This is a concealed bidding game which sounds interesting. It’s a Viking theme, which is pretty common for games. The game sounds like a bidding and bluffing game and I think that sounds interesting. It was at Essen Spiele last year but updated rules and artwork. The other game they are talking about is a better version or more prestigious version of Art Society. If you want to get the deluxe edition it’s coming to Kickstarter this summer.

Mebo

Pyradice is a pyramid dice building game. I think that it looks like a fun game. In the US it is going to be coming from Arcane Wonders. The game is two player game out of the box but you can get a second copy to play with more. You take dice that are free, aka, three faces that are open, and add them to your pyramid. I really love the look of this game and the simplicity of the action of taking the dice, but then strategy as you place dice into your pyramid to build it up and activate abilities. The skills and objectives vary throughout the game.

IV Studio

Realm of Reckoning is the new game coming to Kickstarter. It looks like there is a ton going on on the game board. The game is taking place in the afterlife. I need to try more IV Studios games. I am not a fan of Mythic Mischief. This one being a card drafting game and how you place the cards is interesting. I’m not 100% sold on this game but the them is something that I really like. And IV Studios is great at making great looking games.

Final Thoughts

So that’s everything. There is a ton of interesting things. If you were to ask me the ones that interest me the most, I really like the following, Pyradice, Final Titan, Corps of Discovery, Sail Legacy and Phantom Division sounds really cool. I mean, there are so many interesting games. So let me know which one is the most interesting to you and drop that in the comment section below.

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Catch up on previous videos here

100 through 91
90 through 81

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition – 80 through 71

80. Flamecraft

• Published by Cardboard Alchemy in 2022
• Deliver on the most goals and score points as you play out adorable little dragons who help around the town

This game immediately grabs you with the artwork. The dragons are amazing, and Sandara Tang gives each of them such great personality. Beyond that the game is simple but fun, you go to a location and are either activating the cards and dragons there, or adding some, or spending resources to complete goals. As the locations get more and more dragons the more powerful they become. It’s a great ramping mechanism for a simple game. Though the game is not fast one, which might be my only knock on it.

Buy Flamecraft

79. Just One

• Published by Repos Productions in 2018
• Work together to get the guesser to the right answer with just one word

A party game on this section. I’m not sure, I expect that there are two more party games on the list, but we’ll see. I honestly have forgotten. But Just One is a great cooperative party game. One person is the guesser and everyone else needs to write down a one word clue to get the guesser to guess their one word. Sounds simple, right, but if you double up with anyone, now both those words are gone. That means that an easy clue can become very hard very fast. So you want to be obscure with your clue, but not so obscure that it won’t lead the person to the right answer.

Buy Just One

78. On Tour

• Published by BoardGameTables.com (AllPlay) in 2019
• Create the best route for your band to tour the map going from low to high numbers

This one is a fun roll and write. While I love a ton of roll and write games where they have a lot of combos, this one is a different type of puzzle. In On Tour two dice are rolled and players each place the numerical combinations on two spots on their board. But there are rules as to where they can go. And you may want to watch the city to gain bonus points, but if it won’t connect well to your route, is it worth it to push your luck?

Buy On Tour

77. Mythwind

• Published by Open Owl Studios in 2023
• Build up your settlement and play your mini game in this cozy gaming experience

Open Owl Studios went into making Mythwind with the plan of making a cozy game. So something that works well like a Stardew Valley or an Animal Crossing. They do that by creating a peaceful story world to play in, there are interesting elements to it though. And then each person plays their own little minigame. I demonstrate what the minigame for the farmer looks like. And One Stop Co-op Shop and Meet Me At The Table play some of the other ones. It’s just a unique feeling game that is fun, and relaxing to play.

Preorder Mythwind

76. Betrayal at House on the Hill

• Published by Avalon Hill in 2004
• Explore a haunted house but beware, someone is going to be come the traitor

This is a game that I still love though I haven’t played it in a few years. I fully recognize that the game has issues. When you sit down to play you know that the haunt may not work as planned because either the traitor is going to be overpowered or the other survivors will be. And the haunts themselves have janky rules. But I still love the game anyways because it’s thematic, silly, and just a fun time.

Buy Betrayal at House on the Hill 3rd Edition

75. Clever 4Ever

• Published by Schmidt Spiele in 2022
• Another combotastic game in the Clever line of roll and writes

I don’t know what else to say about this one. Clever 4Ever offers a ton of fun combos and a few different feeling sections of your sheet. How Wolfgang Warsch keeps on coming up with different and interesting ways to handle rolling five dice, using one, getting rid of lower ones and then rolling them again, I don’t know. But he does and this one is great, I especially like the sections where you can fill in different shapes depending on the number rolled. That element really feels different.

Clever 4Ever is either new to my Top 100 Games (of all time) this year or it just made the cut last year. I know I hadn’t had the game for long.

Buy Clever 4Ever

74. SpellBook

• Published by Space Cowboys in 2023
• Learn spells and feed your familiar to get the most points

This is a really simple game. All it is when you boil it down is set collection. You collect materia, you get enough of a color, you learn that spell. Then you use that spell you learned to collect more materia or learn new spells easier. Each spell you learn gives you points, or you can just feed the materia to your familiar for more points as well. The is fast, and there is a fun puzzle as to how you can optimize your spell usage as you get into the game.

Buy SpellBook

73. Century: Golem Edition

• Published by Plan B Games in 2017
• Get crystals, upgrade crystals and get golems to give you points

Another engine building game. Century: Golem Edition again, like SpellBook, has quick snappy turns. In this game it’s all about hand management and using those cards in hand to get more and upgrade crystals. Then you use those crystals to grab Golems that are going to score you points. But you literally just play a card, trade crystals for a golem, pick-up all your cards, or buy a new card. One of those things on a turn and the game just flies.

Buy Century: Golem Edition

72. New Frontiers

• Published by Rio Grande Games in 2018
• Build out the grandest space empire by doing the best action for you

New Frontiers is another engine building game. In New Frontiers you are doing it at a space level though, colonizing new planets, getting new technologies, fighting and conquering planets. All of that done through action selection where what action you pick gives you a bonus. But, everyone else is going to follow along with that action as well. So what is the best action for you and maybe not a great one for other players? I believe that New Frontiers is new to my Top 100 Games (of all time) as well though it isn’t a new game.

Buy New Frontiers

71. Meadow

• Published by Rebel Studio in 2021
• Create a beautiful tableau of nature through tricky card drafting

Meadow is another gorgeous game. I start out and end this section with beautiful games. In Meadow you want to score points by playing out creatures, taking pictures, and gaining trinkets. But to do that you need to build up your meadow from the land type up through bugs and maybe eventually all the way into deer, foxes, or other creatures. How you pick the cards you get is great. You use a fence post that tells you how far into a row or column you are picking. So you need to determine the best spots to play to get all the cards that you want and hope no one blocks you.

Buy Meadow

Final Thoughts

Firstly, let me know what your favorite of these games are. I obviously enjoy all of the tones in my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition, so Meadow needs to be my favorite. But in terms of easily getting it to the table, I’m kind of feeling a big old stream and playthrough of all the clever games on Malts and Meeples. And let me know if there is one that you would want to get played as well that you haven’t tried in my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition.

Join me next week for the next batch of games in my Top 100 Games. It’ll be starting around 9 PM Central on Wednesday if everything goes as planned. You can subscribe and click the notification bell to get notified when the video goes live. Thanks so much for watching.

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Top 5 Allplay Games

5. Chomp

This one is just a fun little game. I like the simplicity of picking a car and trying to create dinosaur herds. Of course you need your dinosaurs not to die off, so that is a whole element of the game. But the game is, like so many Allplay games, fast to play and easily to follow and learn. That’s a hallmark of their games, and I won’t mention it again because it’s true for all of them on the list. Chomp works because it’s a fun system with fun cards and a fun theme. It’s not the thinkiest, but not all games need to be.

4. Mind Space

Next up is Mind Space. One area that Allplay has only a couple of forays into is roll and write games. But The ones that they do are a lot of fun. Mind Space is about mapping your mind, though the theme doesn’t really matter. It’s about putting various colors onto the board to score points. Of course there are rules as to how you place and you get bonuses as some points in time.

One element that I really enjoy about the game is the flowing system of cards. Shapes hop onto the flow and then each round progress one spot further down. So you know that a shape might be getting close to going off the flow so you need to grab it now if you need that color. Of course, you also need to hope that the color you want is the one rolled there.

3. Mountain Goats

This one I need to play my physical copy, but I love playing it on Board Game Arena. The game play is simple, you just roll dice and climb up paths with your mountain goats. When you get to the top, you get points. When another mountain goat gets up to you, it bumps you back down.

This is just a filler game, but it’s one that’s fun. And I said I wasn’t going to mention it again, but that’s what Allplay does well. I think it works especially well here in Mountain Goats because there’s the excitement of how long can you stick at the top and keep getting points before you get knocked down. And you can stay up longer, because it’s a longer climb on smaller points, but of course, it might be better to grab the big points instead.

2. River Valley Glassworks

This one is new as of this year. But I really like River Valley Glassworks. I think that it works as a solo game. And I think that it works at two or at four or at five. Every player count works well. And that is not something that can be commonly said about games. Most of the time they find a spot they work the best, and there might be an ideal, but there isn’t a bad player count.

The game is simple, put down a piece of glass and collect adjacent glass. But it’s so much more than that as you need to plan out your scoring attack. You score columns and rows. But which you focus on, and how much you focus on both is the question. And the scarcity of glass colors as well is fun. Plus the shapes mattering to collect glass and colors matter when placing it on your board. There is a bunch going on for a fast game.

1. On Tour

My favorite is the other Allplay roll and write that I can think of. And this one is about making a route, low to high, for your band to travel. It’s a fictional band, but you’re basically trying to place dice combinations, 1 to 100, on your board so that you can make a pathway that is always getting higher. The concept is simple, but the game play and execution is a ton of fun.

It’s one of those games, too, that I like where at the beginning you feel like anywhere works. You place a number do, you feel like you can connect it. At the end of the game as decisions become tougher, you also have fewer spots to play. So it’s that nice balance of when the game could lock up, you already find yourself limited in options.

Final Thoughts

I really enjoy Allplay for the most part. A few games I find just to be okay. Kabuto Sumo is an okay game. Big Top, I think I could have fun with that, but it wasn’t my favorite. But games I like such as Pollen, Dandelion and others miss the list. And there are still others like Couture and Ghosts of Christmas that I want to play really badly. Or a whole mess of trick taking games as well from them.

Of course, not all their games are going to be for everyone. But for me, they are very consistent. And I think that consistency is going to tell you if you’d like them or not. Because once you play one or two, you’ll know what type of games they are. And you will find out if Allplay is a company for you.

What’s your favorite Allplay game?

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River Valley Glassworks Solo Game Play

Let’s talk a bit about how it works solo. I’ve already reviewed it overall, so let’s pay attention about what changes. Mainly each player board has a flip side that is a solo board of varying challenge levels. My play was against the easiest challenge board. And I think it is quite easy on that level. But each other opponent is a harder ranked board.

But let’s talk about how the boards themselves play. I want a solo game to be easy for me to sit down and play my opponent. And I, generally, want my opponent to be less than random. Especially if I fight over resources or anything. If my opponent is doing something that I can’t predict, then it’s hard to play against it or strategize. In River Valley Glassworks, all the opponents take glass in predictable ways. And they always take it in consistent ways, so I’m not needing to relearn or go through a list of actions or triggers.

Then, each AI opponent is going to score differently. And I think that is a fun challenge. They all take negative points in different ways. They all get positive points in different ways. The simple character, Otto, gains points from rows and extra pieces, as long as it’s not an 8th color. But each subsequent one is going to make you think more about where you are letting your opponent gain pieces.

I like the simplicity of it. I, as I’ve said, played the simplest one. But at the end of the video I wanted to look at the rest. And the rest still seem simple, just more aggressive in scoring. So even though they offer a great challenge, it is not a ton greater complexity.

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, generally, play solo campaign games. What my next campaign game is going to be is yet to be determined. My hope is to get one started soon. But more on that coming up as I have other solo games I might tackle as well prior to a campaign 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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How To Play River Valley Glassworks

How To Win

In River Valley Glassworks you try and collect the most glass, or really glass in the best columns to score the most points. Scoring is done in both rows and columns. When you score a column you score your two highest columns, and if there is a tie, the ones further left, because they give fewer points. And for rows, you score each row that starts on the left edge and then as far right as you can until you hit a gap. That’s mainly it for scoring, you might end up with negative tiles, but how you do that, we’ll talk about as I go through how you play.

Your Actions

On your turn you place one tile from your bag onto the river. When you place the tile you place it on the tile with the matching shape. The only way to break this rule is place out two matching shapes onto any location. Basically, two for one for a wild resource. Then you take the glass from either of the adjacent river sections. You place those pieces onto your scoring board. Each new color goes in a new column, and a repeated color goes to the next highest available row for that column.

When you are down to one glass piece tile or out of glass piece tiles you take four of the five glass pieces from the lake. That’s your other option and then you continue playing as normal. And you keep track of your glass pieces until you get up to 17 on your board or someone else does. Then everyone completes the round and there is one more round after that.

One thing you need to be aware of is filling columns and rows. It is good to do because you gain more points. However, if you take a piece of glass you can’t place, that goes into your trash area. Your trash counts for negative three points at the end of the game.

What Doesn’t Work?

I find that most of the game works for me. I think there is one element that is trickier to remember. That is keeping track of the stones. They give you a nice spot to tick that up, but it is trickier to remember. So it is something that only works so well. It’s not a major negative. But I think it is a piece that is easy to forget. So when you play River Valley Glassworks, it’s a rule to be aware of.

The other rule to be aware of, and again not a major negative, is the row scoring. I try and explain the row scoring at least twice. Why, because it rarely gets understood the first time. Or it is rarely understood until you play a few stones out. Maybe that is the best way, don’t teach the rule until everyone has taken two turns. For some people that is going to work. For other people, they want to know it right away.

What I Like

River Valley Glassworks is good for me because it is a simple game. I wrote out the actions and that is it for them. There is not a more complex action that I skipped. You either play out glass or you take glass from the lake. And then as you place on your board, that part is simple as well. So I love how easy it is to teach and play the game, besides the rule for scoring rows.

To go with that, River Valley Glassworks is a fast playing game. This is definitely because of limited options. But once you know what to do, you just figure out your best play and go for it. Sometimes it might require a little math in your head, but never too much. And the number of options is small enough that no single turn is going to take too long. And the longest turns happen at the end of the game in those last two rounds when you know it will end soon and you want to get as many points as you can.

I also appreciate the balance of luck and strategy. Some of it is that you get lucky with what is one the river sections. But there is some thought and strategy as to how you place it on your board. Certain colors of glass are less common. So I want those earlier because the more common are better later. Why, because they give you more points if you get a taller column. But at the same time, you want them earlier because that might mean you get more rows filled in. So it’s a nice balance of figuring out your strategy for that game and the luck of the glass.

Who Is This For?

I think that this is a great family game and a great filler game. Because of the ease to teach the game, it can come to the table fast. And there is basically no language in the game that you need to worry about. So as long as a kid can understand the scoring, they can play the game. What I want to do soon is try this as a soli game and see how that goes. Because it’s easy to get to the table and a lot of fun to play with all sorts of different groups.

Final Thoughts on River Valley Glassworks

I enjoy this game because it is that balance of luck and strategy. You certainly can plan to go one direction in the game, rows of columns and find that you pivot part way through because things weren’t going your way. But if things really seem like they aren’t, that’s okay. The game is fast and you just play it again. It’s nice for being a filler that way, or one that you might play multiple times in an evening.

I want to explore the solo mode still as well. I think that it will be one that I stream maybe next Wednesday (8/21/24) on Malts and Meeples. Because I want to know if it’s as fun, or if it’s less fun, because I can see it going either way.

And while I expect it won’t be for some people because of the luck. I think that a lot of people will enjoy it. And with the nice tactile nature of the game, this is one that should be popular. The question will be, is it a game that will break into the masses. Because it has that mass appeal to it, I think, which a lot of more hobby board games, or especially crowdfunding board games, tend to miss.

My Grade: B+
Casual Grade: A
Gamer Grade: C+

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How to Play Chomp

Chomp is an open drafting, tableau building, feed your dinosaurs game. And that should explain what’s going on, not really. Let’s start out with the goal. In Chomp you are trying to score the most points for having fed dinosaurs and points from goal scoring cards that you draft.

The game has a Point Salad style drafting mechanism. You have an open group of cards. Three of them are on the dinosaurs and the land. The other three are on scoring mechanisms. On your turn you take one of those cards. And the cards need to stay on the side that they are on.

The ones with the dinosaurs you play out into your grid or tableau of dinosaurs. You are trying to place it so that groups of like dinosaurs are together and fed. The carnivores need to be near watering holes where there is meat or herbivores that are the same size or smaller than them. And herbivores need to be near plants. Neither of them want to be near the tarpits, because even if they are fed, if they are adjacent to tarpits, in they go. But if you get a tarpit or something that won’t score for you, you can always layer your next dinosaur card over it in your tableau.

Then scoring cards will give you your own unique end game scoring. So you might get points for the big carnivores or the most dinosaurs at the edge of your tableau. Whatever it is, they add in additional end game scoring bonuses. And most points at the end of the game wins.

Dinosaurs vs Scoring

That, like in Point Salad, is the crux of the game. The difference is that Chomp is a much faster game. It is built to be a filler as you only draft nine total cards. So how many scoring cards do you want to take versus how many dinosaur cards.

The one difference between Chomp and Point Salad is that in Chomp you can still score points from the dinosaurs. It might be that you get most of your points from the dinosaurs if you can set it up so that your herds of dinosaurs are fed. I’ll talk about how that’s interesting soon. So it isn’t as much a cut and dry that you need to push for three to four scoring cards. That is about half your cards. Instead, you might build towards a couple of scoring cards and snag them when they score you good points.

Feeding the Herd

Another element of Chomp that I enjoy is how feeding the herd works. It makes knowing if a dinosaur is fed or not fairly easy. There is a hierarchy where if there is a tarpits, doesn’t matter if they are fed, they are dead. But otherwise if any dinosaur in a group of like dinosaurs is adjacent to the food source, the whole group is.

You might play a group of medium herbivores across five tiles or spaces, but as long as one is adjacent to food and they are all adjacent to each other, that whole group is fed. So it makes for a simple system. At the same time, if a carnivore is adjacent to a herd of herbivores and those are it’s food, it will make that whole herd extinct. So it makes for some good tableau building.

Game Speed

This is an area that I want to say is a bit more of a mixed bag for me. I like how quickly the game plays. When we sat down and learned it, we immediately shuffled up and played again. The game doesn’t take more than 15 minutes as a two player game. Longer with more players, but not long because while each player has options, they are limited and you don’t make decisions that many times.

That said, you also don’t make decisions that many times. Sometimes it is very obvious as to what the decision is that you should make. That isn’t to say that the game doesn’t offer decisions, but because it’s only nine cards and one of them is given to you at the start of the game, it moves quickly. And I like that about the game.

Who Is Chomp For?

Chomp is for people who are looking for a simple but fun filler game. It is fast, the decision making space is pretty light. But there is enough that it won’t be boring for someone who is looking for some decisions. I think it’s a good balancing act for that. And it’s a small box, as I’ve said before, if it’s a small box light, few decisions filler, it can stick around my collection.

Final Thoughts on Chomp

Firstly, I haven’t played it yet at all player counts. I want to play it solo and I want to play it at four. This isn’t a game, though, that I look at it and I think I must play it solo. Instead I look at it is a very fun filler experience which is honestly what I was hoping for from the game. The box is small, I didn’t expect something big and heavy. I expected something fun as I got to play out dinosaurs and have a good time with that.

And for me, the decision making space is just enough to keep the game interesting. You don’t know which scoring objectives are going to come up. But you might try and set-up some scoring objectives for yourself. There are decisions to be made in the game that it’s fun and it’s fast. And I don’t think I’d want much more to think about. I think the combination of the two things, feeding your dinosaurs and scoring cards, is enough to make it a unique puzzle every time.

My Grade: B+
Gamer Grade: C
Casual Grade: A

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Mind Space

The reason I enjoy coming back to a game after a bit is to refresh how much I like it or see how well it holds up. That is the case with Mind Space where I’ve played two games prior to this, both streamed previously. You can find that playthrough here.

Let’s tackle what has held up well and what I still think I’m tripping myself up on. I like the scoring in this game a lot. I think it’s smart in how it gives you various scoring options based on the different colors. Some, I think are better than others, but I might be wrong on that, I’m sure it is well balanced. Well, I say that, I think that with some smart play all of the scoring becomes an option.

The next thing I want to try with the game is multiplayer. What works well with this game as solo game is that you need set of dry erase markers. And this game comes in a small box. So if I play multiplayer, the markers will be shared. Now, Allplay did give an additional set of dry erase markers, but they don’t fit in the box.

But I do think there is some interesting options in multiplayer. Mainly the timing of competing for goals. That is one are, as I said on the stream, I think unless it’s easy you can kind of ignore them. Not to the point where you don’t complete them, but because you don’t know what is going to flip first. You can’t plan properly for them. With multiplayer, I can see if you’re closer than I am to a goal. And if you are, I might pass on that one.

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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How To Play: Roll to the Top!

Roll to the Top! is a simple roll and write game where you are trying to fill in the landmark to the top with numbers and be the first to do so. On each turn someone rolls all of the dice available and players fill them in on their board. You always fill in no matter who rolls and you can use as many dice as you want.

The conditions are that you need to add numbers that are higher or equal to the numbers on the lower level. Which means as you need to plan out how you place your numbers and not go too high too quickly. To get those higher numbers sometimes you need to add the dice together.

There is also a die that determines if you add or remove dice from the pool. This gives you some choice as to how to setup the pool to get the numbers you need more likely to show up.

What Doesn’t Work?

This is a very simple game. So I think that it suffers in that area for both solo and multiplayer. There is no dice manipulation available. And everyone is doing everything on a turn. So it just depends, often, on who pushes their luck. You push your luck too far by getting high numbers, you will slow down and might lose. You push your luck not enough, sure you can place numbers but you’re behind on spots filled in.

The solo really doesn’t work for me. It is basically a board that fills up next to you and forces you to push your luck so that you can get everything in. But you roll an 18, doesn’t matter how good you are doing otherwise, you’ll skip it and now the opponent will catch up. And you get too high numbers and roll low numbers, it easily passes you.

The final issue is that there just isn’t enough variance in the game. It is a better multiplayer because you have a choice about how risk adverse you want to be. But the game is so simple that often times everyone just does the same thing. So it’s just a matter of a few times where you might consider pushing your luck throughout the game that makes a difference.

What Works?

I think that the changing up of the dice pool is interesting. Now it isn’t a standout item in the game but it isn’t bad. Because if I was risk adverse earlier I might have lower numbers. Now I toss the D20 out of the pool and that hurts you because that might be the high number option that you need. So there is a bit of strategy and decision making there. Of course, I might need high numbers and keep the D20 because a high number is bad for you and I roll a three.

The pool of dice is interesting as well. I like that you go from a D20 all the way down to D4 with a few stops between. That creates a fun combination and some turns where nothing really works out for you. So it is a balancing element to the game. Like I said, that dice pool can matter in the game.

The game is also very simple. I can have this as a negative and a positive. But for the most part this is a very easy to teach and play. The die that changes up the pool is a bit confusing, but only a tiny bit so once you are in a game it is easy enough to track. But Roll to the Top! is an introductory roll and write experience.

Who Is It For?

I think this is a decent gift idea for a person who maybe has only played a few games and wants to get some new easy games to play. The production quality is great and the game play is, like I said, easy to learn.

Final Thoughts on Roll to the Top!

For me this is a big miss and a flop. And I know that there are people who really enjoy the game out there. I think it is the push your luck element in the game that would make it interesting for people. And maybe it is just that I don’t love push your luck games, but this one just didn’t offer enough choices.

In my opinion, most of the turns the decisions are obvious and the push your luck is limited. So now if everyone is doing the same thing, everyone one will win at the same time. And if the rolls come out a certain way, it might be so obvious that no one changes up their strategy. I just want more decision making space in the game, but wit more than a handful of plays under my belt now, it just doesn’t feel different or like I have much choice in what I do.

And I think the big thing is that I own other games that I would teach people first. I own a lot of roll and write games and a lot of them are easy like Patchwork Doodle, Super Mega Lucky Box, Criss Cross, Qwixx, Railroad Ink that I’d teach first. And that is a lot of games. So each of those offers an interesting choice or few throughout the game that Roll to the Top! doesn’t.

My Grade: D
Gamer Grade: D
Casual Grade: C

Roll to the Top! by AllPlay

Let me start out by saying, sometimes it’s worth looking to see what Board Game Geek recommends for player count. I don’t know that I agree with their ratings, though it does ballpark how good a game is. But when it comes to player count, it’s generally pretty solid.

Roll to the Top! is recommended for 2-6 players through it plays 1-6. I went 0-5 with the solo version of the game. And I see why people don’t recommend it as a solo game. Now, is it because it is too hard, yes, but it’s also not that interesting.

There is luck and randomness in the game. You roll dice and are filling in spots on your board with numbers. The number above a previously placed number needs to either be higher than that one or equal to it. And the variety of dice go from a four sided die to a twenty sided die, or 1 to 4 compared to 1 to 20. You roll a 20 on the first turn in a multiplayer game, everyone skips it. You roll a 20 in a solo game, the game holds it against you.

So, my initial impressions are that the game is just okay. Why, because the solo mode is hard. But also because the solo mode isn’t interesting. It forces you to use everything. And I was trying to read through the solo rules again, but it feels like it misses something in what you are doing. It makes it too hard to beat, and maybe I need to review them again. But either way the solo mode just isn’t that interesting to play.

Upcoming Streams

So on Wednesday we’re back to ISS Vanguard where we are going to be tackling a new planet. Join me as I explore and probably crash and burn. I do need to make sure that I did one thing right as I get setup. And I’ll explain what that was on the stream. You can find that upcoming stream here. My Wednesday streams are at 8 PM Central time.

And on Monday, next week, I am not sure what game I will stream. I have a couple of solo roll and writes I’m considering. Motor City or Three Sisters. Plus I am tempted to get back to Planet Unknown again. I need to correct a rules mistake there as well. But it’s a big game that I really love and it’s a fun one to show off. Monday streams are at 8:30 PM Central time.

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