Catch Up on the Top 100 Games

100 through 91
90 through 81
80 through 71
70 through 61
60 through 51
50 through 41
40 through 31
30 through 21
20 through 11

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 Edition – 10 through 1

10. Rebel Princess Deluxe Edition

Published By: Bezier Games
Designers: Daniel Byrne, Jose Gerardo Guerrero, Kevin Pelaez, Tirso Virgos

Buy Rebel Princess Deluxe Edition

The top trick taking game on my list is Hearts. Well, not completely Hearts, it’s Hearts with shenanigans and that is the element that makes it amazing. If you are familiar with Hearts, you know you don’t want to win the hearts because they are worth points. In this game, you are doing the same thing, but as princesses trying to dodge the proposals of the princes and of course the very dangerous frog princes.

But let’s talk about the shenanigans because that is where the game separates itself from Hearts. In Rebel Princess you each get a princess with a special power. It might be to force someone to lead a suit, or you take over the lead of a trick even if you didn’t win the previous one. They are once per round. The bigger shenanigans comes from the rule for each round. It tells you how to pass cards, but also then something special that round, like the number furthest from the led card wins the trick, to make the trick taking different.

9. Zenith

Published By: PlayPunk
Designers: Gregory Grard and Mathieu Roussel

Out Of Stock Currently

Zenith is the new one on the list, and it blew me away on BGA so much that I knew I needed to pick it up when it came out. Zenith is a two or four player, but really two player game where you are having a tug of war over different planets. When you get influence on a planet all the to your side, you get a token, and you win with three from one planet, four different ones, or five total.

But let’s talk about winning influence. The simplest way is to play a card down on your side of the table, that’ll move it one towards you and give you some other bonus. But to do that you need to pay the cost, so sometimes you need to do other actions to get more money. One of them is to discard a card for a bonus. Depending on the type of card, you get a different bonus for it, and you gain the leader token which means you get an extra card in hand. Finally there is technology which you use to gain bonuses but also move influence on planets.

8. Slay the Spire: The Board Game

Published By: Contention Games
Designers: Gary Dworetsky, Anthony Giovannetti, and Casey Yano

Buy Slay the Spire: The Board Game

You know that I love Slay the Spire the video game and the same is true for the board game. In the board game it’s the same thing as the video game, but everything is scaled down. This is a very smart decision because I don’t want to do a lot of math, but I still want to play the same game I love. So you climb the tower, you fight normal and elite monsters, and you rest and add cards, everything that you love about Slay the Spire the video game.

But there is an extra twist for the board game as well. In the board game you also can play it cooperatively. And I love that for the game because there is no reason that you shouldn’t be able to. It levels up how much health the boss has, and each character gets their own row of normal monsters to face. The cool thing about that row is that I can help you attack your row if your monsters are attacking for too much. Or you can help with mine, but whichever row you attack, you get attacked by your row. So there is a strategic puzzle to figure out as a group.

7. Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game

Published By: Portal Games
Designers: Jakob Lapot, Przemyslaw Rymer, and Ignacy Trzewiczek

Buy Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game

I might be the person in the world like Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game the most. But I think it is worth talking about and I think at least the core box is one that more people should play. The core box is a series of intertwined cases that you need to figure out the leads and what to track down. The best way, and I mean this as compliment, I can describe the game is that it’s like NCIS or CSI but fun because you are the detectives.

The game has so much going for it. You need to figure out what lead you want to track down, you need to take evidence to the lab and get your results, or you need to spend resources pressing people for more information. All of that is going to cost time, so you need to get it done before time runs out.

And all the cases are different. Even in the core box where they link together, they are all unique. And the one off cases are all different as well and set in different time periods or different locations. Even the Batman version of the game is a ton of fun.

6. Dice Throne

Published By: Dice Throne Inc.
Designers: Nate Chatellier, Aaron Hein, and Manny Trembley

Buy Dice Throne

Dice Throne is probably always going to be game in my Top 10. Mainly because they keep on coming out with more Dice Throne and I keep on buying it. But the game is a great plug and play game that can be described as battle Yahtzee. But that is not fair to the game because Dice Throne is more than that. Yes, it uses the Yahtzee style rolling to deal damage to your opponent, but the cards, and dice manipulation and how you work that together is where the game is so fun.

Plus, each character in the game is unique and does something different. Whether that is with Marvel and Gambit who has his aces that he can play, Doctor Strange who has spells that he can cast, or Scarlet Witch who can swap out the dice that her opponent roles. Or it is unique for the non-IP characters as well with the Gunslinger having a showdown type of defense, the Treant having sapplings that do unique things, or the Pyromancer building up their flames.

5. Aeon’s End

Published By: Indie Boards & Cards
Designers: Jenny Iglesias, Nick Little, and Kevin Riley

Buy Aeon’s End

I love deck-building and Aeon’s End is my favorite mainly deck-building game. I put it that way because I have another game that uses deck-building, but it is less of a deck-building game. This one is great because it gives you a boss battler as well as you play the game. You need to cast spells to deal with the bosses actions, minions, and hopefully knockdown the boss, the nemesis, if you can.

The game does a couple of fun things. Firstly, I like the turn order in the game, though I will say, I think that it makes it a two player game. The turn order is randomly drawn from a deck, so you might go twice in a row, if you have two of your number in there, or you might have the nemesis get multiple turns in a row. It keeps the game feeling tense and stressful. But I think it works best as a two player game because otherwise you might have a long time between turns.

Then the deck of cards. As you add cards and you need to draw again, you don’t shuffle the deck. Instead you just flip it and you draw from that. If you are smart, you can set it up so that you are drawing a strong hand. It is tricky, but it’s also a ton of fun when you get it right.

4. Lost Ruins of Arnak

Published By: Czech Games Edition (CGE)
Designers: Elwin, Min

Buy Lost Ruins of Arnak

This is the other game that has deck-building, but it’s less of the game. Lost Ruins of Arnak is a deck-building, worker placement and resource management game that I just love. The theme really helps sell me on the game where you are exploring the jungle and trying to become the most famous explorer. Yes, that theme is hiding behind the mechanisms in some ways, but it’s there.

The game is really a great puzzle as you need to figure out how to explore new locations, defeat those monsters, and go up a research track. But they do it thematically in some areas, and I love that. You can buy new gear with money, but when you do that, it goes to the bottom of your deck of cards. Why, because it needs time to ship over. But if you buy a relic, that’s there, and you can use it immediately. Or on the research track as you advance, you need to discover, magnifying glass, before you can write about it, journal.

And the Expedition Leaders makes the game even better. It means that each player is starting at a unique spot. And it helps shape how you want to solve the puzzle. I thin the game is a 9 for me without this, but with it, and it’s an easy addition, it’s an easy 10 and in my Top 10 of all time.

3. Tainted Grail: Fall of Avalon

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

Buy Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon

Now a game that has been in my Top 10 for a long time with Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon. I still think this game has the best story and writing of any game that I’ve played. It does an amazing job of weaving together a narrative over three different campaigns. And you want to explore and read all the story. It’s so good and the storymode fixes the issue, that even though the regular game is a grind when it comes to resources, this is still a game that I love.

I think that the game works so well too in what you are doing. The combat and diplomacy checks you come across offer interesting puzzles of card play. And then when you go to a new card and you find new choices, it’s really interesting. I also should mention with combat, I like how you sometimes just want to runaway. A combat is going to be too hard for you and instead of taking a ton of damage, if your draw bad cards, you should just run.

As an aside, I can’t wait to play the new game in the series. But it’s being waited on because of other campaign games to play. I’ve heard it is less grindy, so if you are worried about that in the base game, maybe check out that version.

2. Arkham Horror: The Card Game

Published By: Fantasy Flight Games
Designers: Nate French, MJ Newman

Buy Arkham Horror: The Card Game

At number two is a return to glory in some ways. I think that Arkham Horror: The Card Game was in the Top 3 or so when I first started the list. But it is back here because I’ve gotten to play more over this past year. I’ve done the story in the core box and started on another one. And I built my own character for that which is fun to do as well.

The game is just impressive with how it uses cards in such an interesting way. I love how they become a map for the house, city, or whatever you are in. And how they use simple symbols to help you know what connects to what in the game. And each campaign feels different. I played the Arkham Nights one at a game store, and that was super unique and fun, while the base box felt like a great introduction, and the Scarlet Keys is already shaping up to be different.

I also like that each character you build is going to be good at different things. So you need to balance the party. But you might want a challenge and create a different and unique combination of characters to go with as well.

1. Frosthaven, Gloomhaven, Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion

Published By: Cephalofair Games
Designer: Isaac Childres

Buy Frosthaven

The final spot on the Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 Edition is the same as it’s always been. This is Gloomhaven, or Frosthaven, or Jaws of the Lion. They are all the same game, though Frosthaven does add in a city management phase which is very fun for the game as well. This is an amazing dungeon crawler game and very worth checking out if you haven’t played a dungeon crawler before. Especially Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion as a starting point for the game.

In this game you play different scenarios and you need to figure out with your unique character how to defeat the enemies and complete the objectives. In Gloomhaven a lot of the objectives are defeat everyone. But Frosthaven adds in more variety, so you need to figure out the puzzle.

And how do you do that? You do that with playing cards from your hand. Each card has a top action, a bottom action, and an initiative on it. You pick one of the two cards to set your initiative and then generally you have a plan of which top of a card and which bottom you want to use. But, if the board changes, maybe the enemies move on you, you can adjust which top and bottom you want to use from the cards you play. And did I mention that each character is unique and feels different in how they play, because they do. And you get a try a lot of them.

Thank You For Joining The Journey

I hope that you’ve had fun with my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 Edition. I always have fun putting together this list. And I apologize for it being a bit delayed in when the article came out as compared to the video on Malts and Meeples YouTube channel. My schedule has been weird as of late.

So with that, be aware I will be streaming as I can. I still want to go through my 101 through 200, aka the games that I still love but couldn’t crack the Top 100. And really, I love a lot more games than just 200. But that video is going to come out when it can. And it might not come out live depending on what my potential filming schedule looks like. The same with other streaming like Legendary Kingdoms and Baldur’s Gate 3. And then I have other games I want to play too, like Regicide Legacy that are going to stream well.

So all of that is to say, thank you for watching. And subscribe and click the notification bell to know when new videos come up on the Malts and Meeples channel.

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How To Play Tikal

In Tikal you want to get the most points. You get points for having treasures and majority at temple locations on scoring rounds. At the end of the game once all players take a scoring round the player with the most points is the winner of the game.

Two Part Turn

Turns are split into two parts, though the second part is where the majority of the turn is. So let’s talk quickly about that first part. On your turn the first thing you do is place a tile. It must be connected to another tile and accessible. To be accessible there must be a stone connection to another tile. If you draw a volcano you do a scoring round which we will talk about in the next section.

Once you place a tile you are able to do up to 10 action points of actions. The different actions cost different action points. I won’t go through all of them, just some highlighted ones.

• Place a worker
• Move a worker paying action points for stones that you cross
• Uncover part of a pyramid
• Find a treasure

Like I said, there are more, but these are some of the highlighted ones. When you uncover part of a pyramid you make it taller. The taller it gets the more points it is worth in a scoring round. And when you find a treasure, it is set collection. The more of a type of treasure that you have, the more points they are worth in a scoring round.

Scoring Rounds

The other big element is the scoring round. When a volcano tile is going to be placed each player takes a scoring turn. On your turn you don’t draw and place a tile. Instead you just spend action points to take the actions defined above, plus any of the others you want.

At the end of your scoring turn, you score points for temples that you own the majority at and for treasures you have. Then the next player takes a scoring turn. So it is possible that multiple players might score a temple as majority changes as they move workers.

What Doesn’t Work

No real complaints for this one. Because of how scoring works the area control is not too in your face. But you do need to pay attention and manage a few things based off of what your opponents are doing. Probably the biggest thing that might get some people is when placing tiles you can maybe mess or block off areas temporarily to limit how your opponent can build out. That is the most negative interaction in the game and it’s not very negative.

The other slight negative is that the treasures are less impactful in scoring. Having a lot can help, but scoring temples that are worth a lot of points is just better, for the most part. But some of my negative opinion with them might be me messing up my scoring in the first game. Still it is more luck based to see if you can create sets because sets are worth more points, if it’s just a one off, that is a wasted action to get it in some ways.

What Works

Firstly, I really like how the Tikal scoring works. I messed that up big time in my first game. That’s not an issue to mess it up in a game as long as you learn from it. But I like that it isn’t just straight area control. If I take control of an area I get the points for it. Then if you score after me, you can move in and gain control of that area. Now I might block that if I can cap it off so that the temple is completed, an action I didn’t mention, but that is limiting points in the future for me as well.

Let’s talk about that capping off action. You need majority. And it is going to cost you all of your workers there. And they don’t go back into the worker pool, they are just gone. So that is a nice tradeoff as you decide what to do. Do I want to have a ton of workers available further into the game, or if we fight over a spot is it worth spending a number of workers to lock in that scoring every scoring round?

I like the action point system in Tikal as well. I think that it’s pretty slick and easy to understand. Once you take a turn you generally know the actions. There is also nice strategy in figuring out how you want to spend your actions or when you should put out a tent, an action that costs five action points, to help you get into the further reaches of the jungle.

Who Is Tikal For?

I think that Tikal is a game for people who like that action point management and that feeling of exploring while optimizing your scoring. Now that is saying a lot. It is less of a puzzle than some games, say Lost Ruins of Arnak, with a similar theme. So this one is pretty welcoming game and easy to understand and play.

It is not going to be a game that I’d introduce someone to as their first game. It is also probably not going to be a game where heavy euro gamers are going to feel like there is enough going on. But it’s that nice welcoming action point game for people who have played a few games, like Catan and Carcassonne, and they want a bit more.

Final Thoughts and Grade on Tikal

I really enjoy this game and system. I was not sure I was going to when I started, but it is easy to learn and play. Like I said the one thing that tripped me up was that I score at the end of my turn on a scoring turn. I easily could have gotten more points the first game had I remembered. That is a rule that I would drill into the heads of people I play with at the start of the game and then remind them at the scoring round. It is something unique about the game, so something to remind about.

This is a game that I want to add to my collection. Now, I know there are a lot of games like that which I play on BGA. I think that Tikal is a good one because there is a bit more going on to it and some things that make it feel unique as compared to other games in my collection. And I like it because it is quite easy to teach. Even with all the actions, I assume there is a cheat sheet like on BGA, that the players can see what everything costs. So it makes teaching the game faster and easier to get Tikal to the table.

My Grade: A-
Gamer Grade: B
Casual Grade: B
Strategy (out of 10): 6
Luck (out of 10): 2

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How To Play Toy Battle

Toy Battle is an area control game where you seek to beat your opponent by either gaining dominance in an areas and points for that, or by reaching your opponents base. That is pretty standard, I feel for a game like this.

The actions are very simple for your turn. You either draw two troops to add to your troops in hand. Or you play out a troop. Most troops are going to give you an ability on them as well. When you play out a troop it needs to be adjacent to your base or connect to it by other troops. You play your troop either in an empty spot that meets those criteria or on top of an opponents troop that has a smaller value than your troop. You go back and forth taking turns until one person hits one of the win conditions for the game.

What Doesn’t Work

It’s not a major negative for the game, but this game feels like things that have been done before. I said League of Legends, and I really get that feel. And the toy theme works, but it’s a theme that I’ve seen done before. Mainly it feels like it’s a familiar idea with the lane battler and does it do enough to stand out from other games like that.

What Works

I like the speed of the game. Some games drag out when you play them on BGA. But Toy Battle hasn’t thus far. It helps that it’s a two player game, but even with that you need responsive players. And maybe I’ve just been lucky with responsive players, but the game moves quickly. I think the two options for your turn really help make this game accessible for a lot of players. And the two player limit also makes it go very quickly.

I enjoy how each toy has a different power. I think the lowest number has no power, but otherwise they do. Some of them let you break the game in terms of where you place out another character. Or they might let you pull back a troop who has a power you want to use again. While they are not complex, it adds in some fun strategy to the game that way. And I think it’s an area where the game could expand in the future, give another set of troops for players to swap into the game.

And the two ways that you win work. I’ve lost to someone reaching my base. And I’ve won by just controlling enough areas. Each of them seem doable in any game. And you need to consider the troops you are drawing, or the paths your opponent is building to determine your strategy. While the game isn’t super tense when you play it on BGA, I think with the two win conditions it would be a lot more tense in person.

Who is Toy Battle For?

I think this is for people who want that high interaction and strategy in a game. It is about outthinking your opponent and utilizing the abilities to the best of your ability. But it’s kind of like Root, in some ways, or Critters at War. It is going to give you that tense war element of a game, really, but it has a cute theme on top of it. So, I think this is for people who want that interaction and area control and maybe have a partner or friend they game with often who doesn’t like that as much, but this theme just might work.

My Grade for Toy Battle

So, I compare Toy Battle to a lot of things. And as I was writing about it, I realized, I enjoy this game pretty well. Right now it’s just a pre-order, but I might grab this game when it comes out. Because, for me, it takes some things about lane battling that I enjoy and gives me a nice area control element with it as well. And it works well for two players. Often times area control at two players isn’t that interesting, but here it’s good.

And the powers and abilities of the troops that you place out is another big selling point. You need to figure out your strategy and break up your opponents. And sometimes that means playing out a troop just for it’s ability so that you can mess with something. And I feel like as I play more, the more I can mine the depths of different strategies with the troops.

That said, there are a couple of things that keep me from just gushing over the game as a two player game like I did Zenith on BGA. I think that’s because the game feels a bit more familiar than some. Now, it’s better than Gold’n’Crash where that game was too long for a two player game. This one gets the timing right, but as I play it more, I want to see if I feel like playing the game or if it just makes me want to play other two player games.

My Grade: B
Strategy: B+
Luck: C-

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How To Play Lord of the Rings Duel

The game is a two player back and forth drafting game. One person takes on the forces of Sauron and the other the Fellowship. But that’s mainly in name only. The game generally revolves around resource collection and then using those resources to procure other cards or fortresses.

As you play there are three end game triggers that you need to watch out for. If the Nazgul catch the Fellowship, they get the ring and win. If the Fellowship makes it to Mount Doom, they get the ring and win. Or if someone, either side, rallies all six different factions they win. And if either side has a presence in all the locations on the board they win.

That’s the basics of the game, I’m going to get into some of the differences between Lord of the Rings Duel and 7 Wonders Duel next.

What’s Different Between 7 Wonders Duel and Lord of the Rings Duel?

There are a few differences worth noting between the games. While the core loop of drafting cards remains the same between the two. It does vary in a number of different ways. Including a central board.

The Central Board

Let’s start with that central board. This is an area control battle between the players. It kind of takes the place of the combat track. But it’s also it’s own separate thing. There are a number, I believe 7, of locations on the map. If a player either gets troops or towers in all the locations they can win the game. But you battle with your troops, moving them around the board and trading them with your opponent one for one.

And the red combat cards are how you get more troops onto the board. And the purple cards that offer scoring in 7 Wonders Duel, now a lot of them are manipulating where you have troops on the board to help you push for that end game.

Factions

The game also has factions. These are going to be familiar to science cards. You collect them and when you get enough you can win the game. But that’s something that is blockable because you can see if a player is going after that. And there are six factions and two cards of each which might not all be in there.

But there is an additional benefit to factions. If you get two of the same faction you pull two tokens from that faction deck. You select one and that is going to be the one that you use. For some of them it’s a benefit for the whole game. For others Ents and Wizards which are only in the third chapter, you get a one time effect.

Fortresses

Another change to the game is the fortresses. These are basically replacements for the wonders in 7 Wonders and 7 Wonders Duel. So it’s kind of the same thing, a high cost for something but then it gives you a bonus.

The difference in Lord of the Rings Duel is that these are a shared pool. Three are available in chapter one and at the end of each chapter they are replenished. So you fight directly over who gets which one. And that can matter a fair amount. It’s a good way to push to gain that sixth faction with the powers of some of them. Or other win conditions as well.

What Doesn’t Work?

I think for me there is one element that I feel like doesn’t work super well. And I am sure it was done for a good reason. But that’s that I want more in the box. Just one little bit more variety. A bit more variety in the cards maybe? Or it might just be that I miss the final scoring of 7 Wonders Duel. Here there are the three different ways to win or it’s majority on that map. If you figure out that you can’t hit one of the other win objectives, you need to spend on that map in the third chapter.

Now scoring would be a large change to the game. And I get why they didn’t want to add it in. But I’d love to see a little bit of scoring in the game to end it otherwise. Or at least have you look at two or three different things. Like the majority on the map, majority in the factions and furthest to the ring goal. That’d be great for me, I think. And most of the time you should end up with a winner. And it gives players multiple things to push for in that final chapter.

What Works?

Much like 7 Wonders Duel, the card drafting works so well. It’s a great push and pull between the players. And I think the Lord of the Rings Duel even makes it better. Because you have the shared pool of fortresses you are now sometimes skipping a round drafting. It feels like a bit more control than I remember with 7 Wonders Duel, though I’m sure it’s minor at best. But I often sat there in the game counting cards and pushing to get exactly what I needed to buy a fortress to guarantee I got a card I wanted.

I also like the shared nature of the fortresses. Often time you want to fight over them and you look to see what your opponent might need. There was one time where I needed either Wizards faction card or the feather (Eagles) from the Hobbit tokens to win the game. My opponent smartly took the one that let me pull a card from the discard for the age, which did have a wizard. But then accidentally gave me the way to feather token. So you need to pay attention to a lot with the fortresses.

The game is also still really fast. Even with the added element of the area control board to watch, you get through a game in maybe 30 minutes. With learning the game and playing three times in an evening, we started at 7:30 and were done by 9:15 or so. And that’s nice for a two player game to get in a few plays in a single evening. If it was going to take much longer than that, it’d feel like more work than intended.

Who Is This For?

I think the Lord of the Rings Duel is for people who maybe aren’t drawn to the 7 Wonders Duel theme but are interested in the game itself. Lord of the Rings is obviously going to be a more popular them. And I think that as a game too, it’s easy enough to play that it’s that great play it with the Lord of the Rings fan in your life. Give it to them for a holiday or birthday, teach them to play and let them go forth from there.

But if you already really love 7 Wonders Duel and the theme doesn’t do it for you. I don’t know that you need this game. I think that they do enough different that I plan on keeping both. But that is a me thing and I’m not sure that everyone would agree with that sentiment.

Final Thoughts on Lord of the Rings Duel

I really enjoy this game. I do have that one negative. And I expect that an expansion might tweak that end game slightly. Though who knows if there is going to be an expansion to this game. If it does well I’m sure that they’ll make another one. But I also can tell that the game was very carefully curated to create a box that has everything you need for a consistently close and fun game.

I think that the tightness of the game and the closely curated card set also is one of the reasons that I do want an expansion. I think that you’ll get to know the cards very well very quickly. And depending what you see in the first chapter that might start to really focus players in on certain strategies in the future chapters. But there are ways without adding cards you can add more variability. Different and more fortresses or different and more faction tokens easily add in more variety.

My Grade: A
Gamers Grade: B+
Casual Grade: B+

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Catch up on my Top 100 Games (of all Time) 2023 Edition:

100 through 91

90 through 81

80 through 71

70 through 61

60 through 51

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition – 50 through 41

50. Homebrewers

Homebrewers is a fun game about a theme that I love, homebrewing beer. It is something that I did for year and would love to get back into. We’ll see if it happens some day. But this game is about trying to be the best homebrewer when it comes around to Summerfest and Oktoberfest. Will your IPA, Lager, Porter, and Stout be the best ones?

This is done by rolling dice and taking actions on those dice. And that sounds like a lot of luck, but you can spend a dollar to change the face of a die, and you can build up an engine that gives you money to keep brewing beer. But you want to add in ingredients so that your beer gets better, you get more money, and if you build your recipe correctly, it can help level up your other beers as well. This is a fast fun game with a fun theme to play.

49. Trek 12

Then we have Trek 12 a roll and write game about climbing up mountains. I like this game multiplayer or solo, but not solo with the official rules. The official rules have you play for another character as well and it’s not exciting to play twice to try and beat that score. Instead, I just try and beat my previous score.

To climb up the mountain you are rolling dice and everyone uses those dice to try and create sets of numbers or runs of numbers. To do that, you pick from five options which you can only use five times each of taking the highest number, lowest number, the added together pair, the difference, or the multiplied value, but not higher than 12. And as you go, your options get more limited. Can you not orphan numbers on the mountain but keep them a part of a group to grab as many points as you can?

48. Letter Jam

Now we’re onto one of two cooperative games on the list. Letter Jam is a spelling game that takes from Hanabi where it has cards facing away from you. These cards are the letters that make up your word. One is facing up away from you so you don’t know what it is. Players, all the players, go around and give clues by spelling out words with the letters that they see and wild card ones. Of course, as that happens, I still don’t know what mine is.

That is what makes the game clever. As I create my word that I want to give as a clue, I want to make sure the word is unique enough that it makes sense. If you have an “o” and I make the word “form” then you know your letter is one of “a”, “i” or “o” because you can see “f_rm”. But if I pick the word “from” you see “fr_m” and it makes a whole lot easier. Now you often narrow down your letter and call it good enough to hope that with the whole word together or all the letters you’ll be able to figure it out.

47. Blood Rage

Next up a not at all cooperative game, we have Blood Rage. Blood Rage is a game of card drafting, combat, and area control. But really, I think that this is a game that brings all of those things in, but the card drafting is what makes the game. The card drafting determines what upgrades you get. It might be bringing a monster onto the board, or upgrading your troops so that they are stronger, it could be giving you new ways to score points. And that is where the game is fun.

And there are a lot of strategies that you can employ. You can go after just winning battles. You get in there, you take powerful attack cards, you win, and that is how you get your points. Or there is the option to do the exact opposite, the Loki strategy. You go into battle, you die, and you make points because when your warriors come back from Valhalla you get points. So there are ways for everyone to play even within area control and combat.

46. Betrayal at House on the Hill

Now we’re onto the second oldest game on this part of the list. Betrayal at House on the Hill is not everyone’s favorite game. And I get why people don’t like it, some of the haunts are hard to figure out with the information that they give you. They try and hide some of it both ways from the betrayer and those who were betrayed. That allows you to find out how it works as you go, but it makes it harder to get the rules right or feel like you understand what you need to do.

That said, I still really like the game. Why, because the game just works as a horror film of a game. You go explore an old haunted mansion where nothing makes sense. And as you explore, you stumble across weird omens. One that eventually triggers the haunt and then someone will betray you in the group, the scenario you land on says who. Then it’s a game of trying to figure out the puzzle whether it’s Rocky Horror Picture Show or hunting down talisman or playing chess with death, the options are all there. And I think that makes it really fun.

45. Marvel Champions

Now we have maybe the biggest drop from last year, and thanks to the person in chat who looked this up. I went from #4 to #45 for Marvel Champions. And the big reason for that, and why you see games move, is what I’ve gotten played this year. I play around 150 games a year and a lot of new ones, so ones that don’t get played drop some.

But Marvel Champions is still a great game. I love it as a Marvel themed game that makes you feel like the hero that you’re playing. When you’re Spider-Man you feel like you do Spider-Man’s moves. Same with Thor or Captain America. And that’s something great about the game that way.

But it also does other very cool things. Like when you are Spider-Man the supervillain knows where you are, and he’s going to attack you. And might suck and knock your health way down. But you can always flip back to being Peter Parker. Now the supervillain doesn’t know who you are, so they go to work on their scheme. It gives you a chance to heal up. But when you do that you can’t fight the bad guy or stop their scheme either. So it’s this interesting puzzle that you play with which I really enjoy.

44. Super Mega Lucky Box

Now we’re onto the second roll and write game, Super Mega Lucky Box. Which, I just found out there is an app for, so a great way to check it out. This is gamers bingo where you combo completing rows and columns to finish off your whole bingo card. The fast you do that, the more points that you can get. It’s a really fun game that way and a simple one.

I think that it looks more simple than it is, though. When you fill something in, you need to ask yourself, does this combo into something I need. And as you get more cards, you need to look to make sure you have a good variety of numbers, or a lot of lightning bolts to be able to manipulate those numbers that are flipped up. It’s that combination of things, with easy to follow rules, that puts it this high on the list.

43. PitchCar

Next up we have our dexterity game for this part of the list. Now I don’t have one per section, but I really do like dexterity games. And PitchCar is great because it’s a racing game. And how you race is you flick your car, a disc, around a track, it’s just as simple as that. But if you go off the track, you go back to where you shot from. Flip upside down, it is possible, you go back to where you shot from.

And a lot of the fun comes from how you built the track. You can build a long track with lots of straightaways, or you can put in a ton of turns, it is all depending on what you want to do. In fact, there are even expansions that add jumps, bridges, or crazy loops that you can use as well. So I like to tailor it to how I want to play that night, is it just a quick warm-up game, simple track. Is it the big event, a crazy track.

42. For Northwood

Next up we have a solo only trick taking game. That is a concept that feels like it shouldn’t work. Trick taking games are a lot of playing off of what other people are doing, but For Northwood makes it work really well. Yes, you have no one to play off of, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a lot of good strategy in the game.

You play in different areas of the woods. Each of them with an animal ruler that you want to impress. To do that you need to win a specific number of tricks. So if I have to think about which section of the woods, from 0 to 7 tricks won, I want to go to with the hand of cards I have. Now, winning all of them is tricky, but you get assistance from the rulers. Some to start the game, others you get as you win locations. And they might add or remove cards from your hand to help you complete your goal. It’s a really good system of solo play and trick taking.

41. Sagrada

To round out these ten games, we have Sagrada. Sagrada is a game about making a stained glass window and one of the prettier games on the list. It’s also a game that has an app which is solid as well and does feel like you’re playing the game.

In Sagrada you draft dice to fill in your stained glass window. To do that, you need to the right colored dice or numbered dice in the right spots on the board. But it’s not just as simple as that. You also need to think about what is around that spot. What you can’t have happen is needing to place a six in a spot with a six to the left, right, above, or below it or the same with a color. And you don’t want empty spots because those are negative points.

The game also gives you goals when building your stained glass window. You might get points for the pips on all your blue dice. And then there are public scoring goals as well, like sets of 5’s and 6’s that you have, columns with no repeating numbers, or rows with no repeating colors. And that changes every time. And there are special tools that you can use which allow you to move dice or break rules in various ways. And those change each game as well.

Upcoming Streams

Let’s run through the stream structure like I normally do. You might already know the schedule but in case you don’t. Wednesday at 8 PM Central I stream either a campaign game, or with this time of year it’s my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition. And join me next Wednesday for games 50 through 41, so hitting the half way point. It goes so fast, and now I have so many games that I want to play.

Then on Monday I stream at 9 PM Central time. It’s generally a solo game. Though I’ll also do pack openings for things But normally it’s a solo game and a one off for the game like a roll and write, or sometimes a game like Under Falling Skies or For Northwood, which was on the list today.

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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Catch up on my Top 100 Games (of all Time) 2023 Edition:

100 through 91

90 through 81

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition – 80 through 71

80. So Clover!

So Clover! is a cooperative party game where players are working together to solve a puzzle. Of course, the puzzle is only as good as the person who created it. Now, that might sound mean, but everyone is put into the position of creating the puzzle.

Each player is given a two by two grid of cards that have words on each side of the card, top, bottom, left, and right. On each of the sides of that grid you’ll have two words. So each player writes down a word the best that they can which connects the two. So if you have “hot” and “dog” you might put down “ketchup” for example. Then the cards are removed and players need to try and put it back together.

That doesn’t sound too hard, but what happens if you have “dog” and “marshmallow”? How do you connect those two words? And that’s where the tricky nature of the game comes in. Plus, even if you got the perfect clue for that, there is a mystery card added in that the person writing the clues doesn’t know what that is. So your clue of “ketchup”, in the original example, is now way harder when randomly the new card has “mustard” on it. It’s a fun game which keeps everyone involved and working together.

Buy So Clover!

79. Small World

We go from a cooperative game to a game which is about taking your fantasy race or creatures and smashing your opponents. Of course, as you do that, they’ll be smashing you back in Small World. It’s an area control game where you are gathering gold from taking over areas and holding them. Of course, to get more areas, your friends need to take over your areas.

Now, it might get sucked getting your area knocked off the board. But unlike Risk, you don’t need to hide. Instead your fantasy race can go into decline and you can grab another fantasy race. Then with a new group of characters and a new special power, you can hop back onto the board taking over what your friends have built up.

The game is very in your face, but it makes it not bad because it is for everyone. And when you get beat down, you come back in with a vengeance. And, each fantasy race has it’s own power along with each special power to make them unique and different. So flying giants might work out great one game. And you’ll have underground halflings another time, or you might change from that into bivouacing trolls.

Buy Small World

78. Dice Forge

Now we’re onto a game that dropped a little bit. I think that this one dropped because I haven’t played it in a few years, but Dice Forge is a fun game. It’s a game where you are building out your own dice. Now, you don’t start from scratch you have basic things on your dice. But as you collect resources you can use them to buy cards, often how you get points, or add new sides to your dice.

Now that doesn’t take them from six sides to eight sides or mean that you get a new die. No, you remove the side of one of the dice you have and put a new side on it. It might give you more purchase power or more points, how you build it is up to you. And that is what makes the game fun, it’s a gimmick that really works. And there are a lot of strategies in what you can do.

Another thing that works really well is that when it’s not your turn you roll your dice. So on every other players turn you get a roll and collect resources. So it isn’t a slow build of adding sides. After a few rounds you can start to leap up in what you can buy. I also like that you decide where it goes on your dice. You might get more purchase power and ignore gold and point faces completely on the dice. Or you might load up one die so you always get something better.

Buy Dice Forge

77. Asking for Trobils

This is another one that as I talked about it, I want to play it more. Asking for Trobils is a pretty simple worker placement game of building traps to catch Trobils. All with a familiar but different sci-fi team on top of it. By that I mean that they take a ton of things from popular sci-fi culture and just tweak it slightly. You want classic UFO looking worker ships, you can do that. Or you can get Planet Express for the Serenity.

But I like how this game game is simple. What you do on your turn is place out a worker and take an action. Most of the time that is collecting a resource, like space carrots. Or you might trade in resources for credits or to get a trap that you need to help capture a Trobil. And once all your ships are out, you pull them back for at turn. But the game does add in theme with pirates or characters who you can hire that’ll help you and hurt your opponent. It’s not too in the face though, which is nice.

Buy Asking for Trobils

76. Just One

Now to another cooperative party game. I was going to say it’s the highest party game on my list, but I don’t think that’s right. I’m not sure if Just One is even my highest party game or not on the list. Just One, though, is the party game that I recommend most readily for people who maybe don’t like party games that well but have a group of people who like to enjoy them.

In Just One, one person is “it” they are trying to guess their word. Everyone else is going to write down a single word clue. And from the clues, the person is going to guess their one word. The twist to the game is that there can only be just one copy of a word for a clue. If there are two, or more, all of them go away and those clues will be lost. So you want to be creative, but if it’s too obscure, that might confuse things as well. It’s a great balance that way for the game that makes it better than other party games for me.

Buy Just One

75. Roll Player

Now we’re onto a competitive game where you’re trying to create the best RPG character. Roll Player is a dice drafting game where you use those dice to create the best character. Now, each character has certain things that they want. If you’re a rogue or a wizard, you wouldn’t want 18 strength now, would you? Or you might, but that’s not the stat that you care about the most and you get points for getting it in a range.

But it isn’t just about getting dice in the right places. Because sometimes you might not get the right number. You can also get points for getting the right colored dice in the right places. Or, you get money to buy equipment that gives you points. But some of my favorite is buying spells or traits to get your alignment to the right spot as well as to give you more control over the dice that you’re placing.

It does a good job of taking an element of making a character from the RPG and putting a fun game around it. So it’s two things that I enjoy.

Buy Roll Player

74. T.I.M.E Stories

Now another cooperative game, this section has a nice mix. I know for some people TIME Stories will be lower because they’ve played it all. I haven’t played all of the scenarios, but the ones that I’ve played I really like. TIME Stories is a time travel game where you’re an agent whose consciousness is sent back through time, or across the multiverse, or ahead in time to a point in time where someone is messing with time.

Yes, I said time a lot there. But in a lot of ways the game is like a puzzle or escape room that you can play through multiple times. And while you have to go back and collect items, because they drop you in at a point in time, that you’ve found before, the knowledge you gain stays with you. I really like how that works thematically.

Buy TIME Stories

73. Point Salad

All Eevee is the way to play this game, not really, Point Salad is a great set collection, open drafting game. And it’s really simple. On your turn you take two vegetables (or Eeveelutions) or a scoring card. And that’s the majority of the game.

What works well in the game, though, is that when you take your veggies (or Eeveelutions) those spots are refilled. And the cards that are used to refill it are the cards with scoring on them. The cards have scoring on the back and veggies on the front. So if you take from a column, there are three columns, it’ll flip down that scoring card. You can use that to get rid of scoring card someone else might need, but of course, they can do that to you. So when you take scoring and when you take veggies is an interesting puzzle for the game.

Buy Point Salad

72. That’s Pretty Clever!

Now we’re onto the roll and write game for the list. And the last one of the four Clever games to make the list. I’m not sure if Clever 4Ever will make the list, I need to play it more. But I really like That’s Pretty Clever as a roll and write game. It’s a good balance between a roll and write game that has enough in it and one that is too simple. It does give you a lot of combos to play with.

To me, I think that there might be elements of the others I like better. But in terms of being able to pull this game out and play it solo, That’s Pretty Clever! is the best. And I like that I can play it on an app but also that I can get people up and playing it quickly in person as well.

Buy That’s Pretty Clever!

71. No Thanks!

Finally we have No Thanks! a game about not getting points. You want to pass on the card, you have to put a chip on it, kind of a mini poker chip. But once you run out you can’t pass and you’ll have to take the card. Sot he game is a balancing act of when there are a lot of chips on a card, is it worth taking it?

The chips themselves are worth -1 point, so if you have a lot of them, you’ll counter some of the higher points. Or you can use them to avoid getting other higher cards when someone else might be stuck taking it. I really enjoy how each group sets this market, how many chips is enough to be worth taking a card that has a 30 on it, is it 10 chips or is it 20? That depends on the group you play with. You also can create runs which only score the first card in the run. But there is also a chance that the card you need in that run might not be in the round, so there is a push your luck element there as well.

Buy No Thanks!

Upcoming Streams

I’ll be doing more of my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition on next Wednesday and Wednesdays for a little bit. That is always going to be at 8 PM Central. Next week it’s going to be 70 through 61 and we’re getting close to the half way point which always seems like it’s faster than I expect.

And then I also stream on Mondays at 9 PM Central time. That is going to be for smaller solo games. I’m hoping to do Number Drop next week after opening up some Doctor Who Magic the Gathering packs last Monday. So what I stream on Monday is always all over the map.

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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Top 5 2023 Gamefound Campaigns

5. Vampire: The Masquerade – Milan Uprising

I want to be more excited about this one and I am excited about a lot of it. The part that I’m less excited about is that it uses the Teburu system. Now that technology I think is interesting and I likely will get it, eventually. But it’s not out yet and my rule of thumb is don’t buy the first generation of a tech project. This is the second campaign for a game for it, and I’m excited to see them adding more games. But while the game, a cooperative 1-4 player game set in the World of Darkness setting, the technology, I want to see an iteration or two of it first.

4. DANTE: The Invasion of Hell

What puts this one on my radar is that it’s from the same company as Chronicles of Drunagor. A game that I want to play more of, but I think it’s a group campaign game. I want to know if DANTE: The Invasion of Hell works better solo? And it does have a solo mode, plus, I like their other game, so this is going to be really interesting. And my guess is that this is going to be another big game. Campaign games are a weakness of mine, so DANTE also hit on that, if it looks like a good game to play on Malts and Meeples it is going to make it even more tempting to play.

3. Thorgal: The Board Game

Based off of a video game that I don’t really know, this is a cooperative storybook adventure game, much like my #4. This one looks much smaller which I appreciate. And I’m curious to know more about it. It’s from Portal games. I don’t always gravitate towards everything Portal does, but I’m also interested to see what they are going to try next. And Thorgal, this one is interesting me. Again it’s that cooperative adventure game that can be played solo, and we know I like games like that.

2. Witchbound

I really didn’t know anything about Witchbound going in, and now it is towards the top of my list overall. I’m going to do a list like that at the end of this post for Top 5-7 games. But it’s a solo story driven game about becoming the first witch in over 100 years. That is exactly my sort of game. I like the theme of the game, I love the artwork that I’m seeing, and overall, I think I’d really enjoy it.

Plus it seems like a shorter play time which if it’s a bunch of little bites of game play over several sessions, that’s great and what I’m looking for often versus the two hours of some of the bigger campaign games that can be played solo.

1. Elder Scrolls

This one is pretty easy to pick because it’s based off of a system that I like, Too Many Bones, with a theme that I find interesting, and a company I really like. This is going to be a premium game with an IP so I expect a big price tag for it, but I’m going to likely back it, just to see if it’s for me. Chip Theory really doesn’t disappoint and they always have a strong fan base, so I’m excited for this game.

And I’m excited to see how they can bring as big a world as Elder Scrolls into a board game. It seems like it’ll be a campaign game, but one where you can mix and match different campaign elements together or go through different shorter stories, so not a massive campaign.

I find it interesting that with the five games from Gamefound all of them are cooperative games that have caught my eye. Really, it shouldn’t be a surprise, I love cooperative story driven games that can be played solo. All of these fall into that category, some of them are very big, and others less so, but at least I’m consistent.

Top 3 2023 Backerkit Campaigns

3. Leder Games Project

So like I said, it’s a bit thin on Backerkit. That means that we get from them. And one of them is this Leder Games project. It’s on the list because when Leder Games puts out a game, I am interested in it. Even if it isn’t going to be for me. I’m not that interested in trying Vast, but the game itself sounds interesting. And that means that I’m going to check out what this is when they announce it officially.

I think I’ve heard rumors, and I might be off on this, but an easier to get to the table Oath style game was in the works. But honestly, I might be making that up, there’s a lot of news and I’m just doing it off of memory. If it is, it’s maybe one that I’d pass on, but it could also catch my fancy if it’s easier to table.

2. Wild Gardens

One of the few out there that has any information on it. I’d probably have the Leder Games project above this one if I knew more about it. But Wild Gardens looks like a pretty game of resource collection and completing goals. I’m not sure what else is going on in it. But looking at the cover, it’s a pretty game, and the artwork throughout the game looks great as well. I hope that the game play matches the artwork and is a nice relaxing game to play.

1. Gloomhaven Minis and RPG

Easily my Top 1 over there. You know that I love Gloomhaven and I will say right now, I am not backing the minis. You can hold me to that, but I do not need the minis nor would I really  have use for a lot of them. It’d just make Gloomhaven and Frosthaven harder to play. But I want to know more about the RPG.

I haven’t looked into it too much yet. I know that it is built around card play, or can be, like you have in Gloomhaven. And I’m hoping that they give you tactical opportunities for combat and then a lot of theater of the mind and opportunities to role play as well. If it’s just mainly combat focused with a bit of role playing thrown on top, I’m less interested. But I’ll definitely be looking into this one more.

Top 5 2023 Kickstarter Campaigns

5. Crown of Ash

This is one that I keep on seeing advertisements for on Facebook and is one that definitely interests me. Crown of Ash is an area control and worker placement game. But it isn’t a game that is stuffed full of big minis or things like that, it looks like a more reasonably sized game. I’m not sure it’s one for me, but I want to learn more about it. The cover is striking and overall, if it’s a good area control game and the worker placement makes sense, it might be one that I want to play. Area control and in your face isn’t my normal style, but I am curious about it.

4. Rove

So there was a fan expansion that I want to get for Gloomhaven, The Crimson Scales. It’s something that was created, with the blessing of Isaac Childres to work with his system. And it sounds really cool. Rove is from that designer who is now branching out and making his own game. It’s a big box 1-4 player cooperative fantasy RPG in a box. I’m interested in that. No shock to anyone there.

And I want to know what someone who has done work related to Gloomhaven can come up with. Because I fully expect this isn’t going to be a dice chucking giant campaign like Sword & Sorcery, so how are the lessons learned from The Crimson Scales going to build into this new game?

3. Stonesaga

It helps to put this on the list having played it. And I believe the beta playtesting is going on right now, if people want to check it out. But this is a cooperative game where you are playing as cave dwellers who are advancing their society, building up, and well, dealing with giant monsters that are a threat to the board.

This is a legacy game, which is fun, and one that has story and campaign on it, but it reminds me more of the level of story of a My City or Charterstone. The story matters, and they integrate missions better and story challenges better, but it only matters so much. Plus the artwork on this one is just great and when OOMM Games puts something out I’m interested.

2. Marvel United Multiverse

Should this be number one? I don’t know. I don’t need more of the game. But Marvel United is such an easy game to get to the table that I definitely want more of the game. I love the IP with Marvel, it works well for the type of game it is. And it’s a good cooperative game that I can pull out and play with almost anyone. It isn’t too light for gamers because the game is fast. And it isn’t too heavy for non-gamers.

Plus it doesn’t matter if Groot is your favorite character, Wolverine, Iron Man, or whomever, you can sit down and play as your favorite Marvel character. And I think that’s great about it, this is just going to be even more. Like I said, I don ‘t need more, but it doesn’t make the game harder to table, which is great.

1. Rogue Angels

Again, this one hopefully will be coming back to Kickstarter or some crowdfunding platform in 2023. I put it here, I just got to play another scenario and I still love the game. The characters are so much fun, and while similar, different in what they can handle. We lost part of the scenario I played on Sunday but were able to be the overall mission. You fail forward into the story versus redoing a scenario over and over and over again.

And the game play, every time that I sit down and play it, I can pick it back up again, which is great. All of that while having a lot of story, being cooperative, you know I’m in. I think it’s one that would work well for Malts and Meeples as well. It’s a big campaign, but it isn’t a sprawling table hog like some big campaigns.

Top 5 Upcoming Crowdfunding Campaigns

Let’s face it, these are mainly going to be cooperative adventure driven games. But out of the 13 that I have, sorry Backerkit we couldn’t get to 5. Which ones are the ones that I am most interested in.

1. Rogue Angels
2. Elder Scrolls
3. Marvel United Multiverse
4. Stonesaga
5. Witchbound

What Crowdfunding Campaigns Are You Most Interested In?

Let me know which ones interest you the most? Are there any crossover, do you want to get all the minis for Gloomhaven, it would be awesome, or is that just too much? Are there any that I missed. I was trying to find everything that I could, but I won’t lie, it’s tricky.

And even some of them, like Crown of Ash is one that was supposed, I believe, to come out in 2022. Rogue Angels did, but then needed to relaunch. So it’ll be interesting to see what comes up and where everything lands. Checkout other creators, like BoardGameCo I think does a quarterly list of things, though might be doing a yearly list of Top 10 he’s most excited for across everything. So let me know what I missed that you think I might like.

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100 through 91 here.

90 through 81 here.

80 through 71 here.

70 through 61 here.

Top 100 Games 2022 Edition – 60-51

60. Long Shot: The Dice Game

First of two roll and write games on the list, Long Shot: The Dice Game is a horse racing and betting game. It reminds me of Downforce, expect a roll and write. In this game you are buying horses, betting on horses, and completing other things which will get you money at the end of the game. The person who wins the most money, or has the most money, at the end of the game is the winner.

One aspect that I really like is how you can improve the odds of a horse moving forward. The lower number horses are on more cards so that they can move. But if people start to get behind a long shot, you can add movement to other horses cards for that long shot. So they start moving more consistently than other horses and have a shot. Mechanically, though, not the easiest to teach which keeps it lower on the list.

Buy on Barnes & Noble

59. Trek 12: Himalaya

The other roll and write comes up immediately, and one of the other new games on the list, Trek 12 is a mountain climbing roll and write. But really, it is a game of creating runs and sets to score points. It scores in a really clever way and has you placing numbers in a clever way as well.

The scoring is pretty simple, you score each set of a number and each run you have. But you take the highest number in the run or number in a set and that’s your base score. So a set of five twos scores as 2 (the number in the set) + 1 + 1+ 1 + 1. That’s not nearly as many points as a set of three with 9 (9+1+1). So it makes you want the higher numbers. But you also get a bonus for your largest set or longest run.

Then placing the numbers is interesting. You either take the highest or lowest value on the dice, or the difference, combined total, or multiplied total. And you have a limited number of each so you start to lose options as you go. It allows you to get numbers you want and higher numbers, but sometimes that locks you out from other things.

Buy on Miniature Market

58. The Night Cage

I’m doing the list in October, so have to call out the spooky games on the list. The Night Cage is a game where you are stuck in a labyrinth. Everyone in there is trying to find keys and get to the exit portal. But your candle just barely lights your way, so the labyrinth disappears behind you. And if you go back, it’s going to be different than before.

All of this which isn’t too hard, but then you have monsters who might pop up and want to eat the wax of your candle. If they do, not you can’t see around you at all. Or maybe it’ll it get more than just you. And as you use tiles your supply, represented by a candle, slowly burns down. It’s a very fun and stressful game as the candle burns down. But in a good way.

Buy on Miniature Market

57. Meadow

Another new game to the list, Meadow is a game about observing nature. You are in a meadow or building up a meadow or observation. The theme really doesn’t matter that much. But the artwork takes what could be an abstract only game and makes it very pretty to look at.

In Meadow you build up a tableau in front of you. As you play down cards you cover up some symbols, so I need to match a tree to a tree, but my card that needs a tree now has a bird symbol on it. And you create this growing series of symbols that give you more points as you go. Also trying to take scenic pictures to remember where you’ve been. Basically everything gives you points but it’s fun to manage your tableau.

Buy on Cool Stuff Inc

56. Galaxy Trucker

Galaxy Trucker has been on the list for a while. It is a real time game, for part of it. And it’s a real time game without a timer. I never feel the time crunch because you flip tiles and build your ship. Only for the final person who is trying to get that last piece is there a time crunch. Otherwise the building is just done in real time as long as the group takes.

Then you fly off into space with your junky ship and watch it fall apart. But if you built it well you get points for picking up cargo. And you don’t lose parts of your ship to meteors, pirates, or anything else. It’s a lighter fun game, but it does give you that good real time puzzle as you build your ship.

Buy on Cool Stuff Inc

55. Pandemic

Pandemic is on the list as a placeholder for all of the Pandemic games. I personally prefer Season One of Pandemic Legacy, which keeps it higher on the list. I haven’t played Season Zero yet, which I want to. But all Pandemic falls into this one, because all version of legacy I’ve played and base pandemic are fun.

Pandemic is a game where you play as doctors cooperative trying to keep diseases in check and find a cure for them. On your turn you move around the world, trade information with other players, and remove disease cubes from cities. Then bad things happen, diseases spread and outbreaks might happen. It’s a good puzzle of a game. The legacy versions of the game just add great story, and I’d play them again gladly even though I know that story.

Buy on Miniature Market

54. Blood Rage

Pandemic, which I didn’t mention, was high on my list when I started and dropping. The same with Blood Rage which was one of my top games. I clearly like it less than I did before. But I’ve also played more games that I did before. Blood Rage is a fun drafting and area control game. It looks like it should just be Vikings and monsters on a map fighting but there is more going on.

What lowered it slightly is some experiences can feel similar. And some strategies even seem to be better that don’t lean into fighting. But it is fun to think about how to break up those strategies. Such as the Loki strategy where that person wants to lose fights and send everyone Valhalla. Or when to hate draft a card and block someone from getting a quest that they are setup for. There is a good amount going on, but not too much in this game.

Buy on Amazon

53. Root

Root also has dropped some from it’s highest. But Root tends to bounce around a bit more. Mainly it’s how excited I would be to play it again. And that’s because Root is a game that is hard to get to the table. There is a lot to learn in Root because each faction is different. And you need to know each faction to keep them in check during a game.

Root is basically an asymmetric war game. One faction is all about area control, another might be about completing little objectives or a grass roots uprising. All of this with cute animal artwork on it. The game is a lot of fun and is big in what it can do. One that I want to play more but you need a dedicated group to play it really that know the factions.

Buy on Cool Stuff Inc

52. Draftosaurus

This isn’t a roll and write game, but it does feel like one. Draftosaurus is a drafting game where you are putting dinosaurs in pens. And you have a handful of dinosaur meeples to pick one from. The game is really easy, light, and fun to play. It just works for the type of game that it is.

What really stands out, though is the tactile nature of holding the dinosaurs and then picking one. Like I said, how you score, it reminds me of a roll and write. But holding and drafting from those dinosaurs is unique to the game. And the closest thing you get in most roll and write games is rolling the dice.

Buy on Game Nerdz

51. Homebrewers

Finally, to round out the bottom half of my Top 100 Games, we have Homebrewers. Homebrewers is an engine building game where you are a homebrewer brewing your beer at home. You get different ingredients, flavors, to add to your beers that push you up on tracks. All in a goal to be the highest and score points at Summer Fest and OktoberFest.

I really like this one for the theme. Yes, there are a few things that are a disconnect in the game. That you never lose an ingredient that you’ve added to the beer. But it gets so many things right about homebrewing, it’s great.

Buy on Amazon

Upcoming Stream

So what is coming up next. I do plan on Wednesdays soon to start playing Chronicles of Drunagor. However, I am not quite ready to get that one to the table this week. Instead, it’ll be a smaller solo game. I have a few roll and write games that interest me, or maybe it’ll be Root on the app or Slay the Spire. You’ll have to tune in Wednesday at 8 PM Central to find out.

And then coming up next Monday, I have 50 through 41 in my Top 100 coming up. You can click the notification bell to know when I’m going live on the video over here.

Plus, I might have a surprise unboxing this weekend. I believe I have two different games coming in on Thursday and Friday this week. So maybe, if I have time, I’ll unbox them. Or it’ll be a bonus Monday video, we’ll have to see.

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Top 100 Games – 100 – 91

100 – Silver

Silver I believe has been on the list every year that I’ve made it. Last year it was on the list at #84 and now it is barely hanging out with #100. A lot of that is that I just haven’t played it recently. If I were to play it more, it might move back up.

But in Silver you are trying to get the fewest points possible in your village. The trick is that you have five cards, all face down, to make your village and you don’t know what they are. You look at two to start the game and then after that, you play down cards that allow you to look at and swap out your cards, or your opponents. Until someone calls for a vote and you see who is lowest. But that can only be done if you’ve got fewer than your five cards, which you can do if trade in two cards of the same number on a turn.

Overall a solid fun time. It’s one of the more take that sort of games on the list. You can put high number cards into your opponents village or steal cards from them. But it’s fast and offers a ton of variety, so I appreciate it a lot for that.

Buy on Miniature Market

99 – Merchants Cove

This one was much higher last year at #79. I played a lot of new games this past year, which is why we’re seeing some drop. Merchants Cove also suffers a little bit by being a really big game to table for a game I prefer to play with two players.

But the game does a ton of cool things. Each player has a mini game that they are doing, whether it’s a roll and write, spin and move, or playing with marbles. All of these mini games gives the players goods that they can then sell. And you want to sell for as much money as possible as the merchants come into the docks along the cove.

Each mini game is quite light, and how the merchants come in is about the most player interaction, quite indirect that there is in the game. But I found each mini game to be fun, and there is some strategy and puzzle for getting the merchants into the boats you want them in and getting those boats to the dock. Downside is for being light, it takes a while to play.

Buy on Final Frontier Games

98 – Quadropolis

New to the list in 2022, Quadropolis is a city building game from Days of Wonder. It’s not a heavy game but it does a lot of very interesting things. And that’s what really stands out to me about this game and got it to the list. Just how you get your buildings for your town and how you can place them in your town is really interesting.

You have tiles that you place along the edge of the board where you are getting the city buildings. It tells you how far in, the third tile for example, that you need to go and take that tile. So there is interesting strategy there. Plus, because I put down a three, now on my city board, I can only place in a row or column with a three.

Since you score points by where you put buildings, the whole placement puzzle becomes really interesting. What you do on your turn is very simple, pick up a tile and place it onto your board. But there is a good amount of thinking that goes into what tile you pick and how you get to pick it so you can place it where it’s best for you.

Buy on Amazon

97 – Small World

Dropping from #75 last year, Small World is one of the few classic games, or modern classics left on the list. Ticket to Ride, Catan and Carcassonne are all off the list now. But Small World sticks around because of the variability to it. The combos or the races and powers make the game stand out.

This is a game that I describe as Risk, but fun. Small World has you conquering areas to score points over a number of rounds. But the board is so small that conflicts will happen. And when conflicts happen, you might get wiped off the board, nearly. So instead of being out of the game or in a horrible position, you go into decline and get a new race and power combo and come in and wreck everyone.

This is something that’d be a fine game if it wasn’t, though for the races and powers. Those combos really give each game a different feel. You might be flying giants or underworld halflings or wealthy tritons. And different combos each game mean that you’ll never play the exact same game.

Buy on Cool Stuff Inc

96 – Hero Realms

Another new to the list game, Hero Realms is one that I got to play for the first time at Gen Con this past August. Since then, I bought it and I have played it a whole lot more. There is an app for it as well, which is great. Hero Realms is a deck building game and one that pits you head to head against your opponent trying to knock down their life.

Like most deck building games, it works with factions and those factions play off the other cards in their faction. Some factions are better at maintaining your health, others are about getting more purchase power, others are all about combat. So you can really tailor how you build, but you need to build fast.

Hero Realms is not a deck building game that takes a while to build up your purchase power. You can buy powerful cards fast, and when you hit for 10-15 damage a turn after four turns, the game is going to be over fast. So it’s very much a race to build up as fast as you can, and because of that one you can play a few times in a row.

Buy on Amazon

95 – Ascension

Another deck building game, Ascension is my introductory deck builder. It does a lot of things well, gives you fun factions and combos that play off of each other while being fairly basic. Down from #53 last year, that is again because I haven’t played it as much recently. And probably because I played the app a ton for about a year or so, and it’s a solid app.

Ascension does what you expect a deck building game to do. You buy cards, and factions cause combos to happen. But as compared to Hero Realms, you fight monsters not your opponent and that fighting, which isn’t in Dominion, I think makes the game more fun. It’s, unlike Dominion, not about ramping purchase power only. You need to fight, but it’s not only about the fighting. You get points for killing monsters but also for the cards you buy. So it’s a nice blend of scoring.

Buy on Amazon

94 – Ra

Ra is a game that is on the list and then will drop off and come back on. I recently picked it up, so hopefully that’ll mean it gets more play. But it floats around because of how interesting the auction is for the game.

In Ra you are doing set collection, basically, to score points. But how you get those tiles that you collect is through an auction. And the auction is the meat of the game. When you bid on something in the auction, you use a tile with a number, not money. So if I someone has bid a 5 and I only have a 8 to bid higher, if I want it, I bid that 8 and there is no change back. But along with losing that 8 tile I get the number, left over bidding tile, in the middle. And that might take me from a 8 to a 10, or an 8 to 1. And that can determine if you want to bid or not as well.

The game is pretty simple, I feel. But the auction mechanic definitely creates a unique feel to the game. And the auction being the main focus is a lot of fun for the game.

Late Pledge on Gamefound

93 – Similo

Similo also has dropped on the list. Honestly, most will have unless they are new on the list. Similo is a party game that offers a solid cooperative experience. At #61 last year, it has moved down because party games tend to drop over time. The more you play a party game, or at least for some of them, the more they feel the same.

Similo, though, does a solid job of being different. In this game it is cooperative where one person is giving clues to the other players. Those players are trying to eliminate the wrong answers, until it’s down to two and then players pick between those. But the twist on the game is that you might have woodland creatures and use other woodland creatures to say if your creature is similar to dissimilar. And the more rounds players don’t eliminate your choice the more they need to eliminate with the clues. So you start with one and eventually are getting rid of 4 cards out of 6.

What makes it more fun, though, is taking woodland creatures, having them as the choices and then using monsters, or historical figures, or mythological creatures to give the clues. Is a bear more or less like Zeus? Or how do you keep a mummy around with the option of some woodland creatures? The mix and match part adds a lot of variety to the game.

Buy on Cool Stuff Inc

92 – Asking for Trobils

Another one that I got to try and Gen Con and got a solid play in, hence slipping onto the list is Asking for Trobils. Clearly new to the list with trying it this year, but Asking for Trobils is going to be a worker placement game. A genre that doesn’t show up too much on my list.

In Asking for Trobils you fly around space, go to different worker placement locations, build ships, get resources and ultimately are trying to trap Trobils. The Trobils that you are dealing with give you points for scoring at the end of the game.

I really appreciate the goofy nature of the game. But to go along with that, it’s also a fast worker placement game. There aren’t that many spots to place and when you do, there isn’t that much to do with it. Each action is simple and fast and I like that to just make a game a lot of fun.

Buy on GameNerdz

91 – Parade

Finally wrapping out this part of my Top 100, we have Parade. #65 last year, Parade is another one that I should really get played again. I like a lot how it works and how it’s this light but interesting puzzle. It’s one that gives you a bit of brain burn, though.

In Parade you are playing down cards and then based off of the number you played, you can ignore some cards, and take cards of the same color or equal or lower numbers. It’s a lot to think about as you try and get as few cards from the row as possible and as few points as possible. And that is a fun twist as well for shooting for low points.

One twist that I really enjoy in the game is that if you have the most of a color, the most cards not highest total on them, each card is worth one point each. So a 5, 6, 8, and 10 instead of being 29 points is 4 points instead. It’s one that’s been harder to find, but when you can, I definitely recommend grabbing a light card game. If it’s between prints, like it is now, probably wait to grab it until it’s cheaper though.

Buy on Amazon

Upcoming Streams

Well, Wednesday it’s more Stars of Akarios. You can click the notification bell for that one here. And join me for some planetary exploration as we have a pretty new bit of story and world to explore. We’ll see if I make a poor choice or not.

And then next Monday the Top 100 2022 Edition 90 – 81 is going to be streamed on the channel. Again, click that notification bell. And the rest of the videos through the bottom half of the list are up as well. So click on the notification bells for them. Right now the only Monday I’m not sure that I’ll be streaming this is Halloween, but we’ll see, it might be a stream just slightly later in the day.

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Top 5 Board Games I Want More Of

5. Blood Rage

Blood Rage is at the bottom of the list, even though I love the game. Mainly, because I have heard rumors that there is going to be more Blood Rage coming, and that is exciting. Blood Rage is an area control game that is really more about the drafting of cards and action point management versus the area control.

From what I’ve heard, this is going to be a 2nd Edition of Blood Rage. I’d love to see the game come with a bit more variety in it. While I do think that the drafting changes up each time, the number of cards is a bit limited. Maybe make the pool you draft from modular or something like that. Just something to make it a bit more replayable, even though I still generally want to play it. So even unique clan powers to start, something like that.

4. Roll Player Adventures

This is also lower on the list because I need to finish the whole game first. But I want more and I already know that I want more for this big box choose your own adventure style game. I’d love something that maybe even offers a bit more of that in the game. But I don’t want a whole new version of the game.

While I do not know how the story ends, I can imagine that it’d be somewhat easy to add in another campaign. Even if you wanted to add in more items, titles, secrets, bad guys, things like that, it’d be less than sending out a whole big box again. So an expansion with even more story would be great.

3. Dead of Winter

This, I think, might make a lot of gamers lists who have been in the hobby for a little bit. Dead of Winter is a game that really helped me get into the hobby. And I really like the crossroads system and the zombie survival nature of the game. However, no matter the length of scenario or which one you pick, the game is long and what you do isn’t that different.

So I would love to get a second edition of Dead of Winter. Streamline it a little bit, maybe even make it fully cooperative like they did with Forgotten Waters. And keep each game shorter. They’ve done more story driven crossroads systems games now, so it feels like Dead of Winter should be great to go again. But I doubt it will happen, or if it does, don’t know how it will as Plaid Hat left it behind at Asmodee.

2. Paper Dungeons

Probably one that makes a lot of sense if you’ve watched me play on Malts and Meeples. I really enjoy Paper Dungeons, but I just want more. I want a way to play more of a campaign. And I want my changes in the campaign to actually matter. Like, I want to keep some things that I leveled up or built, but the monsters to get harder.

I’ve talked about this one a lot. But the game feels like they took it down to just a little bit too little. Some extra piece of variability, especially for the solo game, would be fun. Or, even, with those personal goals that you go for, make them worth more. Maybe it could use a second edition, as well, but a bigger better campaign and expansion is what I want for Paper Dungeons.

1. The Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game

Another one that I really like, but it bounces around a lot for me. I understand why this is not a game that more people like, because it is highly mechanical. So while the theme is there, if you know the books, it makes it harder for a game for casual fans. You can tell that there should be theme there, but it isn’t that obvious.

What I want is another Dresden Files board game. It doesn’t need to use the same system, there is just a need for another game. One that really dives into the theme and world that is the Dresden Files. It doesn’t even need to be about Harry Dresden or the main characters from the Dresden File books. But a game set in that world of magic, crime, and monsters, that’d be awesome.

Final Thoughts

I probably could come up with a few more games as well. But these are the five that really jumped out at me that I wanted more of, or a newer version of. I think for the odd numbered ones, more, at least in their world, would help me get them to the table a lot more. And newer editions for games that might be modern classic, but could use a refresher. Then, there are some games that I just want more of.

But let me know what game you’d like to see get a 2nd Edition, or maybe a new game but in a world that you already know?

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