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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And if you want to know the criteria that I’m using, or the conversation starting point, you can read that article here.

My Tableau Building Games

As normal, we split it into games that I’ve played first and then games that I haven’t played yet in my collection.

Tableau Building Games I’ve Played

• 7 Wonders Duel
• Lord of the Rings Duel for Middle Earth
• 7 Wonders
• Splendor: Pokemon
• The Castles of Burgundy
• Arkham Horror The Card Game
• Marvel Champions
• Dwellings of Eldervale
• Forest Shuffle
• Res Arcana
• Meadow
• Space Base
• Faraway
• Castle Combo
• Furnace
• Aquatica
• New Frontiers
• Jump Drive
• Ancient Knowledge
• Starship Captains
• Village Rails
• Call to Adventure: Stormlight Archives
• Cafe Baras
• Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition
• Pixies

Tableau Building Games I’ve Yet To Play

• Everdell
• 3 Ring Circus
• Ark Nova
• A Feast for Odin
• Revive
• Beyond the Sun
• Targi
• Endless Winter: Paleoamericans
• Vale of Eternity
• Expeditions
• Fantastic Factories
• The Bloody Inn
• Raising Robots
• The Witcher: Path of Destiny
• Andromeda’s Edge
• Earth

What Stays and What Leaves?

This is a tough list to really do because they are so unique. A lot of the time there is a pretty big difference between a scoring tableau game and an engine building tableau game. So as I’m looking at the list, it’s hard to say that I should keep this one or another one. Plus sometimes they didn’t really do a great job of putting like games on the BGG list. For example, Terraforming Mars, on the list, Ares Expedition, not on the list. New Frontiers is a tableau building game, but Jump Drive wasn’t part of that list. So I hope that I caught everything, but I’m sure some where missed.

What Is And Easy Leave?

So when we look at the list the ones that I have yet to play, those are generally going to stay. That means that we’re looking at what I’ve played for easy games to leave the collection. It’s not an easy list to pick from. I only have one that is an easy leave from the list. And that is I’m going to be getting rid of 7 Wonders Duel. Mainly because I own Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle Earth. Yes, they are different, but I’m most apt to pick the Lord of the Rings themed one to play.

The other one that is going to leave is 7 Wonders. Now that might be surprising, but I bought I copy and I just don’t play it. If I want a big group drafting game, I go with Sushi Go Party! For that reason while 7 Wonders offers something quite different, it just isn’t going to stick in my collection.

What Is An Easy Stay?

Now for easy stays, I definitely am keeping Lord of the Rings Duel for Middle Earth and then both of the LCG’s on the list from Fantasy Flight Games. I know that I want to keep one of Dwellings of Eldervale and Andromeda’s Edge, but having not played the latter, I don’t know which I want to keep. I’ve heard the latter is the better game, but I like the theme for the former more so.

Space Base, Forest Shuffle, Castle Combo, Castles of Burgundy and Ancient Knowledge easily make the list as well. As does Call to Adventure: Stormlight Archives.

Everything Else

Now let’s touch on everything else and this is where I need to find a few to cut. Do I need Jump Drive in my collection if I play it on BGA so much? I had actually put it in the too sell pile but then I brought it back. And I want to keep it and New Frontiers because I really like both of them. So they stay, though with Jump Drive, it’s tempting because of BGA.

One that it tough for me is Meadow. I like Meadow a lot, but it’s also one that I play less often. I think that this means I just need to play it more to keep it in the collection. The same can be said for Res Arcana. I need to play it more because I really do love that game.

Furnace is going to leave the collection, I’ve decided. Mainly because it’s okay at two players. And I think that I am most apt to play it at two players. Because of that it should leave the collection I think. Another one that I love the theme of but thought the game play was okay so it’s going to leave is Cafe Baras. Mainly it’s super cute, but a bit too simple for my tastes. Even as a game to play with my kid, it’s not quite interesting enough.

So The Tableau Games That Are Leaving

Just to recap we have Furnace, which I really enjoy but less so at two. Cafe Baras is a bit too simple and 7 Wonders Duel is a game that has been replaced by Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle Earth. And 7 Wonders is getting kicked out because it’s the secondary drafting game for big groups for me.

I think that there will be others to leave once I play more. But it’s tricky getting all the tableau building games to the table. Some I maybe shouldn’t keep, like Res Arcana just because when will I play it again.

What is your favorite tableau building game?

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Campaign games are board games where it remembers or something persists throughout it. Probably an easier example of this would be Dungeons and Dragons. You play as character and that character levels up and gets better. Or in video games, Baldur’s Gate 3, Dragon Age: Origins, or even games like Halo campaign demonstrates what that is. It’s a story where it remembers where you are in a story and you continue playing through that story.

Campaign Games

Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion

Let’s start off with the small version of one of the biggest and well known campaign games. Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion has you leveling up your characters and fighting through a twenty mission campaign of Gloomhaven. It uses the same mechanisms, but it gives you a nice five scenario tutorial and then lets you explore the rest of the story and game with unique characters.

The game is a dungeon crawler as well as a campaign game. That means that you’re moving around a dungeon and fighting monsters, or moving around a location and fighting monsters tactically on a board. And it uses Gloomhaven’s great card mechanism of using two cards to activate your character. Top of one card and bottom of the other for movement and attack and how you play around with that is great.

Arkham Horror: The Card Game

Next up we’re going to go with a card game. Arkham Horror: The Card Game is a great cooperative game, as are all of these campaigns, but it’s just cards. So no minis, standees really anything like that. In this game you’re trying to solve cases and figure out what is going on through several scenarios.

This game is great because there is a ton of content for it. And because there is interesting deck construction and hand and resource management going on. But let’s talk about the content. You can buy the main box and have a short campaign to play. If you like the game there are more campaigns, more investigators, and more cards to play with. So you find that you can dive deep into what Arkham Horror: The Card Game has to offer.

Aeon’s End Legacy

Another card game for the campaign games. I wanted to try and do a few different types. Plus I wanted them to be available. The next one is maybe the hardest to get. But Aeon’s Legacy builds on the Aeon’s End system, and really is a great spot to jump in and learn the system.

You are breach mages who are protecting the town of Gravehold against a nemesis. In the Legacy version you don’t start with a character, you build that character throughout the game. You get new cards and you make choices to unlock some cards and not others and add some abilities and not others to characters.

Plus you get a new nemesis to face off against each time. And that is a great element of the game. Because not only are your mages unique, the nemesis is going to give you a different experience each time. And they give you a lot of fun options to deck build as you play.

Sleeping Gods

Sleeping Gods might be the hardest of the campaign games to find. But there are a few different versions out there, so hopefully it won’t be too bad. This is a game of exploring a new world that was created, written, and illustrated by Ryan Laukat, mainly, and his wife.

So you find as a crew that you’re dropped into a new world. It is a world where the gods are sleeping, and you are tasked with waking them, or at least finding totems, so you can get back home. But it’s not an easy task and you are only given some vague leads to go on.

This one is less of a campaign than some of the others because as players you have more freedom in what you are doing. You explore the world and decide which direction you want to go. But there are stories and quests that will persist between times playing the game. Because the game is too big to play over just one sitting.

Finally, I know you play as nine different members as the crew. And that is intimidating to play with all of that in front of you, or in front of multiple people. But I think of it as you have a whole team of people. They work and act as one. You need to know what they do, but it’s not like one crew members takes a turn and then another. The ship, and the crew as a whole are what take the turn.

Paper Dungeons

And now for a finale one that is really different. This one is just in the campaign games category because of the story that it has. But I really think that Paper Dungeons is a fun game. So I want to get it into this group for your consideration.

This is a roll and write game. That means that you roll dice and use those dice to fill in spots, the write part, on your sheet. Paper Dungeons is about leveling up your heroes, delving through a dungeon, crafting loot, and beating the boss monsters. All of this is done through die rolls which is a simple mechanism.

I like how this game makes you think on your feet. And how you can get combos and really explode with some great exciting turns to level up quickly, fight a lot of little monsters, or whatever it might be. The campaign part is lacking, though. It’s just a loose story that holds it into a campaign. But the game itself is fun, and it’d be a nice one to play a game every once in a while without needing to remember as much from other campaign games.

Final Thoughts

I kept the campaign games on this list smaller rather than larger. I love campaign games, and a lot of them are very large. That isn’t something that is reasonable for everyone to ask for or give. So what I put on the list is much more reasonable and sometimes even budget friendly.

If you want bigger games, tracking down things like Tainted Grail, Gloomhaven, or ISS Vanguard are going to provide those big box options. And there are a ton more I could mention as well. Those games are going to provide a much longer and more in depth campaign. So if you want to jump in at that point, or you know you already love campaign games, than those will be great options for you.

Do you have a favorite game in the campaign games genre? And are you putting any on your holiday list this year?

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Medium Games

Meadow

Meadow is amazing nature game, but for being a cute game it’s actually very thinky. It’s about building up a meadow with different animals building out kind of an ecosystem and building it up. But compared to Ecosystem which was on the welcoming list, Meadow is a more complex game. And a lot of that comes from how you get the cards to build up.

Meadow uses a four by four grid of cards that you get to take from. But to take one, you need to place a marker at the edge of the board. And once a marker is placed there, no other one can be placed. So it’s possible that the one card you really need isn’t going to be available to you, if you don’t plan out your moves or other people move into the wrong spot.

Then it’s all about layering the cards to get up to scenes and score. But it’s really about balancing the picking of your different cards to add to your hand and how efficiently you can build up to point scoring cards. Plus there are a few extra powers or actions to take that can really change up what you’re doing or giving you flexibility. The game play is simple that way, but can cause turn angst as you try and find the best play.

Ascension

There are two deck building games on this part of the list. Ascension is the easier one. Ascension is what I’d call a pure deck building game. You score points for adding cards to your deck or defeating monsters, but all you’re doing is playing out cards from your deck and adding in more of them.

It is a game about combos and that is another part I like about the game, but part of what pushes it past just being a good welcoming game. Plus the artwork is not the best, but that’s a side point. The game really shines as you start to know how it works as well because turns become fast in terms of knowing the cards. But they can still take a bit if they end with a lot of card draw and combos, which it should.

Ascension is on the lighter side of medium weight. But for people getting into the hobby it’s going to seem different and there is going to be a learning curve. And if you mix in a lot of the expansions or pick any of the standalone expansion boxes to just play with, it can cause more complexity as well.

Sagrada

Another one on the lighter side of medium weight games is Sagrada. Sagrada is a die drafting game of making a stained glass window. This one again could fall into the simple games or welcoming games. There are a few elements that can add to the complexity of the games.

The main mechanisms of the game are simple, though. You pick a die and you place it on your board adjacent to another placed die. There are rules, though that you can’t have it adjacent to the same number of the same color. That’s not that hard to avoid, except that some of the spots need to be specific numbers and colors. So now that becomes more of a puzzle to figure out.

The more complex side of things is that there are some powers that you can activate. Those powers let you break the rules, some of them are pretty simple. You might draft two dice in a row, that one is easy to understand. But moving two dice of the same color or breaking placement rules around number of color placement rules. But in the simplest terms, this is dice drafting game that people will pick-up easily.

Clank! In! Space!

The other deck building game is definitely a heavier medium game. Clank! In! Space! isn’t just a deck building game, it’s also a push your luck game as you try and get an artifact that’s worth the most points and get out.

I really like that Clank! In! Space!, and I could have picked other deck builders, offer a deck building plus experience. It actually has a board, it’s not just cards that you’re building up. And you use those cards to navigate the board because some of them have movement. You also need to deal with guards and be able to attack them which is also on your cards.

Of course, all of this you’re trying to do while avoiding making noise, your clank. Because you make noise and the boss, Lord Eradikus gets activated, he’s going to to start dealing damage and try and take you out before you can escape. Because you only can win if you make it back to the cargo bay before you’re knocked out. If you don’t, well, you risked too much. So there is a nice balance of that push your luck for more points, but not too much.

Lost Ruins of Arnak

I need to have a worker placement on the list, it’s one of the most common types of games. And I think there are a lot of good games in the worker placement mechanism that make for fun medium games. Lost Ruins of Arnak is about exploring jungle, working your way up a research track and a lot of fun elements to it like that.

The main mechanisms int he game are actually two fold. There is the worker placement where you go out and gather resources to either be able to go and explore or go up the research track. Otherwise you are also buying cards and building a little deck of cards. So there is deck building in there as well. It’s not like a big deck building game where you end up with a ton of cards, but the cards you do get help power your other actions or get more resources.

I think that the Expedition Leaders is almost a needed expansion for Lost Ruins of Arnak, though. Why, because it makes you a bit more unique. Each leader has something special that they do with their camp. IT adds a bit more variety to the game and a bit more complexity. If you want to work up to it, I think it’s a great option to add in, but for me, I played it without and wanted a bit more but with it, it’s one of my favorite games.

Arkham Horror: The Card Game

Finally we need some sort of story and thematic game on the list. Arkham Horror: The Card Game is going to be that. This is a card driven story game where you are an investigator in Arkham or another New England coastal town where there are cultists and old ones and plenty for you to deal with and hopefully not go insane from.

And it is really just a card game. Though there are a few tokens for resources and then for when you do a challenge. But with the cards they manage to create a good variety of locations and investigators and story that you play through. And it is a bit of a campaign as well, though it tends to be arcs that you can play through that go quickly. It isn’t a thirty session campaign, it might be six.

Each investigator is going to be a bit different as well. Some of them are honestly not that good at investigating. But that is okay, they are good at dealing with the monsters and horrors that are going to try and take you out. You need that balance of characters as you play and it makes for a fun deck construction as you try and bolster what your character is good at and upgrade them to make future challenges easier.

Final Thoughts

There are so many games that I could put in this section. Games like Ra is great. Aeon’s End and XenoShyft are great deck building options. Dwellings of Eldervale and Asking for Trobils would be other worker placement. There is a ton, like I said, that I can pick.

For me, I really like this weight or type of game because they are pretty easy to learn but have a lot of decisions. Some might consider those light, and we’ll get to heavier games. But I like that combination, especially to bring in people who I’ve gotten into gaming.

If you’re looking to dive into more and deeper games, which one looks the most interesting to you or do you want to try?

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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
50 through 41
40 through 31

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition – 30 through 21

30. Icecool

I love my dexterity games, so a number have made it on the list. This is my highest pure dexterity game, though, there is dexterity in another game coming up. But Icecool is just about flicking your penguins around a board trying to get fish. Or you’re a hall monitor penguin who is trying to catch the penguins who are skipping class for a fish snack.

This game has a cute them, but I like how simple the game is as well. It is easy for anyone to play from adults to kids and everyone can do about as well. I might plan my shots more as an adult, but will that work better than the kid who just goes on instinct, who knows. Though, that is a nice element of the game as well, Icecool is not just a brainless flicking game. You can plan shows, figure angles and hope it goes your way. It won’t fairly often, but when you pull of an amazing shot, it feels great.

Buy Icecool

29. Lands of Galzyr

We’re moving into a bigger game and a story driven game. You’re going to see a number of those as we move up higher on the list. Lands of Galzyr, though, is not a campaign game, it is more of a relaxed story game to play. The game is simple, and you don’t play through a connected story. I am actually hoping for some story modules you can mix in, as an expansion, to create more of that connected narrative.

In Lands of Galzyr, you are an animal and you’re going off adventuring. To do that, you grab quests from towns and head out to their locations. With it you are doing daily events, if you don’t do a quest, and rolling dice for checks. The game is simple that way in what dice it gives you, and I really like that about it. I see what I can do and I do it. Plus there are key words that give you bonuses which I like. It lets you feel like you’re doing something special while at the same time not making the game too complicated.

My one downside, besides that connection of story, is that you can play it in a series. I did so on Malts and Meeples. You can see the first video below. But sometimes you stop with a quest in hand that you really want to continue. And that quest can carry over to the next game, but if you decide to stop there and reset, well, it’ll be open ended. But, their timer system does keep the game from just going on and on until you want to stop.

Buy Lands of Galzyr

28. Paper Dungeons

Paper Dungeons is another game that I played on Malts and Meeples. I’ll add the video in below for you to watch as well. But this is a roll and write game with a lot going on. And it is a roll and write game that tries to do more than just be about the numbers on the dice. It is about going into dungeons, fighting monsters, getting treasures, leveling up, crafting items, a ton of different things.

And each time that you play it you can focus in on a different area. You might want to go after the big boss because that’s a good number of points. But that means that you’re probably spending more time leveling up your adventuring party and traveling through the dungeon. You won’t be spending as much time getting gems and crafting items. It is a balance that I really enjoy in the game.

Now, it isn’t a perfect game either. Mainly, there is a campaign to this game, but there really isn’t a campaign to this game. It just gives you a number of scenarios with a little story between them that doesn’t matter or make that much sense. And there is no carryover, so you just play the same game multiple times. The upside is that where the boss monsters go in these different scenarios does change up how you may want to attack things and what items you want to craft.

Buy Paper Dungeons

27. Arkham Horror: The Card Game

And now another narrative game, technically three in a row, though, Paper Dungeons is pretty light in that area. Arkham Horror: The Card Game is going to lean back into that campaign more heavily and offer a lot of different story and variety.

Fantasy Flight has a great game on their hand, which is played out by how long the game has been going. And it works because they are smart about how they use their cards. They create unique investigators with fun mechanics that are only for them. And the different scenarios use cards to create locations, missions and monsters in different ways. It is something that they really did a great job of building out.

The game is a game where you need to explore, gain clues, and fight monsters. Sometimes some of those matter more than others, and that is some of the fun of the game. You need to figure out how your character, who might be a fighter, can support. And how you use your cards matters a lot. If I play a card, that costs resources and that card is for it’s ability. But when I do a check, I can also discard cards with symbols of the type i need on them to make it more likely I succeed on the challenge. I like the tension of when to hold back a card or when you need to play it.

Buy Arkham Horror: The Card Game

26. Ohanami

Now we’re onto a much smaller game. Ohanami is a little card game where you draft cards and add them to columns keeping it in numerical order. That doesn’t seem like much, but it works for a very fun game because of how you need to play cards and how you score them. And I like the game at all player counts, that can’t be said for all the games on this list. But Ohanami is good at all of them, though the game does change.

There are a few things that work for me with Ohanami. Mainly how you draft, you pick cards and you need to add them to the top or bottom of your three columns. You can split them up, but if you don’t plan it right you’re going to create some big gaps in your numbers. So that’s an interesting challenge to the game.

But also the scoring is fun. The colors, there are four score different. Blue scores points all three rounds but fewer, and green scores only in rounds two and three but it scores more points and grey in only round three but is the most points. It’s a fun system. And then pink is going to give you more points the more of them you have, but it builds up so if you have two it’s only three points but three is six and so on.

Sold Out

25. The Isle of Cats: Explore and Draw

This game was kind of on the list last year. I forgot to separate it from The Isle of Cats so it was low on the list, but I prefer The Isle of Cats: Explore and Draw, at least until I can play Isle of Cats more. But the Explore and Draw, roll and write, version of The Isle of Cats is just easier to get to the table and simpler to play. That does mean that you are a bit more limited in strategy, but that negative is outweighed by the positives in my opinion.

In this game you are trying to rescue cats. To do that you need to fill in cats on your boat, and families (groups) of cats are going to give you points. But you can also get points for completing objectives, as long as you’ve gotten that objective checked off on your bonus scoring board. So it’s a balance of do you take cats, because you need them, or do you grab that bonus scoring.

And how you pick what to take is great as well. It is done in a four column by three row grid. And you pick one of those columns to activate. Everyone picks one of them in fact. And the one you activate, you use all three cards. So if you want to get that bonus scoring, you are picking a row with that in there. There are a few bonuses you can use to break those rules, but it’s a limited number and you can’t use them all, so when you use them is an interesting strategy to maybe grab an extra card for a bonus scoring or cat.

Buy Isle of Cats Explore and Draw

24. Metal Gear Solid

Now the one game on the list that is a bit of a cheat. I maybe should have taken it off, but I did play it a few times at CMON Expo is basically the final form. But Metal Gear Solid left a great impression on me, and I want to put it on the list. This is a game based off of the video game, so it’s not just a shoot the bad guys game, which is a lot of what CMON kind of does, but it’s a game of stealth as well because you’re not really equipped for all the bad guys to shoot you back.

The theme works well in this game and I do love a good game with theme. But the mechanisms of the game are some of my favorite. What I do on my turn is simple, I have action points that I spend on movement, attacking, interacting, whatever I need to do. Once I use my four action points my turn is done and there aren’t so many actions or special things that it’s hard to keep track of.

And the other thing that I really like is how they created the enemy AI. It’s again a pretty simple system that you go down and check a few things which tells you how the enemy moves. But there are special rules for if you made noise, so they think someone might be there, or if they can see you. If you made noise one of them will come and check on that noise. The others patrol like normal, if they can see you, they call run to you, so you better hope that you can shake them before they start blasting.

Retail May 2024

23. Clank! In! Space!

Now a game, like Icecool, that was in my Top 10 at one point and has now dropped a bit. 23 is still really good for Clank! In! Space! because I’ve played a good number of different games. But this is a deck building push your luck game and I really enjoy it. In fact, I enjoy both versions of Clank! that I’ve played, this and regular Clank! and I need to try Clank! Catacombs and Clank! Legacy as well.

Your goal is to get into the vault of the spaceship, grab a treasure and get back out. Of course, if everyone does that, how do you decide who wins. Well, on the cards you add to your deck there can be points. And the treasure or artifact that you’re grabbing, they give you points. The artifacts at the edge of the area, well, they give you a few points, but the ones further in, they are worth a lot more. Is it worth it to push further in?

And then there is the clank mechanic itself. Some of the cards that you play down are noisy. And those create clank which is basically health of yours in cubes. Those cubes go into a bag with Lord Eradikus’s cubes (it’s his ship you’re on) and when you cubes are drawn out it fills up your health meter. So just be careful, well, sometimes you don’t have a choice. And a lot of the time, it’s worth buying cards with clank because they are stronger/better than most.

Buy Clank! In! Space!

22. Marvel Zombies

Now another game that I got to experience first at CMON Expo, I now have all my stuff for it as well. I think it’s 10-12 boxes of Marvel Zombies. This is a Zombicide game, but you don’t have to play as the heroes fighting against the zombies. In fact, the core box has you playing as superheroes who have been turn into zombies fighting against SHIELD agents, heroes, and gobbling up the brains of bystanders like J Jonah Jameson and Okoye.

This is definitely a dudes on a map dice chucking beer and pretzels style of game. But that is what makes it fun. You get to be a zombie superhero who is trying to complete your goals but sometimes you need to eat some brains as well. And each turn your hunger increases. Hunger isn’t the end of the world though, it might mean that you need to eat brains sooner, but it also means that when you’re doing attacks they hit for more because you’re rolling more dice.

Marvel Zombies isn’t going to be a game for everyone, but for me, I like the plug and play nature of the game and how you can pick different zombie heroes to play as or to play as heroes. Or you can pick random heroes to be the bigger bad guys you need to face in the game. Overall just a fun time.

Buy Marvel Zombies

21. Sonora

Finally a game that is half dexterity but I’d say is really a roll and write game. The dexterity element is that you’re flicking discs onto a board. And where they land on that board and the number on your disc determines what part of the roll and write area that you fill in, your own personal board, you’re going to work on, and how much you can do.

Each area plays differently, and there are four. One of them is about racing to fill in large areas first. Another you’re circling cacti as you fill in Tetris shapes. Another has you going down paths and where you end is the points or power that you get. And the last one is about closing off areas for points and again more cacti, the whole thing has a desert theme for no real reason.

That roll and write area is great, in my opinion, because everything chains into each other. As you work in one area you’ll probably get a bonus, or maybe two, for other areas, and you then might get a bonus in those. And I just like how all of that goes together and sometimes it’ll take four minutes just to fill in everything on a turn because you can combo so much. It’s rare, but it is possible, so if you like combos, Sonora is a great roll and write style game.

Buy Sonora

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 20 through 11, almost to the Top 10. 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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I bring this up now because I am getting near the point, in a few weeks, where Lands of Galzyr will come off the table. It’s a great gaming, sandbox, type of story driven game. Not a campaign, but campaign adjacent. So on my shelf, which game do I play next?

ISS Vanguard

ISS Vanguard is an epic space game. But different than some where it’s flying about and blowing things up. So for example, different than Stars of Akarios (also an option to revisit). That is tactical space combat. In ISS Vanguard, humanity has uncovered a string in our DNA that leads to coordinates in space. Those coordinates, well, we don’t know what we are going to find out there, but, with humanity coming together, we find a way to make it out there.

The game is basically split into two parts. The first generally is planetary exploration. You go down to a planet, interact with things, complete tests, try and research, whatever the objectives on the planet might be. You take down crew and explore with them. The other part is back on the ISS Vanguard where you are maintaining and improving your ship. You also deal with issues that arise. A fun spin on things.

Oathsworn

Another option is going to be Oathsworn. Like ISS Vanguard it is going to have two parts in what you are doing. The first part is an investigative phase as you spend time around town or some location interacting with story and characters on a map. Trying to figure out things that will help you out in the next phase.

The second phase is doing to be boss combat. Characters are taken into combat with an interesting card mechanic that you play with. Each card has a cooldown on it, and they don’t cycle down until you play other cards that push them down on the cooldown track. And another thing that I like, you pick if you want to roll die or draw cards to see if you succeed.

Middara

Middara is a game that has been on my shelf for a while. Part of me is waiting until the next two parts come in as well. But Middara is going to be a dungeon crawl style game set on an alien planet that has an almost anime feel to it. So big crazy monsters and adventure as you go and a ton of story. It’s kind of from the peak of dungeon crawlers on Kickstarter where everything is huge.

My concern about streaming this one is that the map changes or grows over time. So like Chronicles of Drunagor, a game that I enjoyed playing, it is not going to be the best for streaming. But it’s an option and there is a lot of content for it just in Act 1, and I have Acts 2 & 3 coming eventually as well.

SHEOL

SHEOL is an interesting game, darkness has taken over the lands. And now as humanity you are pushing back against the darkness and monsters with the little Lux, light, that you have. Can you complete your missions and survive through the darkness?

I think that this one is easier to see on the table than to really explain. But it’s one that I didn’t back on Kickstarter and then I needed to track down after seeing Meet Me At the Table play it. It’s definitely one that is harder to find.

Skyrim

One of the newer ones to come out is Skyrim. Skyrim is a campaign game, like the video game. But how much time you spend in a game on a main quest or when you stop, I think is a little bit more up to you. And this is less of a dudes on a map sort of minis and dungeon crawl game. There is a ton of adventure to it, versus just trying to kick down a door and fight the next thing. So in some ways a little bit like Lands of Galzyr, though, there is still combat, or more combat in Skyrim.

Etherfields

Etherfields is an Awaken Realms that I backed and did single wave shipping, so for me it took a long time to come in. Now, I am still interested in the game, just a little bit less than I originally was. Etherfields is a world of dreams where you are exploring different dreams or nightmares and completing objectives. I believe it is a game that has progression and story to it, but it’s less of a campaign game than some.

Aeon’s End: Legacy of Gravehold

I’ve already played regular Aeon’s End Legacy. Legacy of Gravehold is the newer bigger box and I won’t lie, it is tempting me. I love Aeon’s End solo. And to play a giant box, I want to know what legacy content is in there. There is something fun about a campaign where you are opening up and exploring new things.

On the flip side, I already have showcased Aeon’s End Legacy and I think played Aeon’s End: War Eternal before on Malts and Meeples. So that makes it a bit lower on the list for me. But I also know already that I really like the game. So that is what keeps it on the list.

Relics of Rajavihara

This one very well might end up being a Monday streaming game. It’s a pretty simple, from what I’ve seen, experience that is meant to be played quickly. It is basically puzzles that you are trying to complete to get the treasure and it’s done on different levels. It reminds me of, I think it was called, Chip’s Challenge. A game about sliding around blocks to open up areas and, well, complete challenges. So a smaller game, but one I want to try.

Yggdrasil Chronicles

A friend taught me this game recently and I loved it. Yggdrasil Chronicles is a tough game of trying to stop various Norse gods, like Loki or Hel from messing with the world tree Yggdrasil. You play as one of the good Norse gods, but you are trying to do so much to make it work. And the more the frost giants, or other things get out of control, the harder it is to win the game. So it’s about remediating, but seeing if you actually can make it through.

I’m not sure what the campaign element brings. It does have some story to it. And I think it could be one that is fun to play, though trickier to film. Mainly because you are playing on a 3D tree that rotates. I would likely need to film it from the side to make it work.

Hoplomachus Victorum

Finally, and I do have more, Hoplomachus Victorum. This one actually isn’t quite here yet. But it is on the way and should be here soon. From Chip Theory Games, Hoplomachus Victorum is a solo and campaign version of an earlier game of theirs, Hoplomachus.

In this game you take your hero, build up troops, and fight in contests to become a hero. So that you can be standing tall as you go through the different areas and face off against different bosses. The story is light on this game, it is more a campaign of just gaining things and making your own story, versus a narrative adventure. But it’s also one that might work well on a Monday, though, that depends on how much setup there is.

Which Game to Play?

Let me know which one you think I should get to the table. I think that I am probably the most excited to play ISS Vanguard. But ISS Vanguard is one that I might want to play with a bigger group. So that would put it lower to the list.

SHEOL is probably the most different theme, in my opinion. The rest feel like themes you see in more board games. Maybe Middara is different, but it is more of a dungeon crawl with a lot of familiar things, just a less familiar setting.

And of course, this doesn’t include more Pathfinder Adventure Card Game or Arkham Horror The Card Game. And I can see games like Shadowrun Crossfire, Solomon Kane, Folklore: The Affliction and more that would certainly be options to play as well. Let me know which game you think I should stream after Lands of Galzyr.

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The Issue With Big Epic Games

There are a few things that stand out to me. The big issues around big epic games are how long it takes to setup and tear down. How long playing through a scenario or piece of the story can take. Or how complex the rules are, and how much space it takes up on the table.

Each of these things can be valid. If it takes too long to setup that limits your playing time. And limited playing time in general for either setup, tear down, or playing is a real issue. I am lucky in that I have a game table I can leave games setup on. But for a lot of people that isn’t an option. And then the complexity of the game, for people who want that big experience, they might not be that deep into gaming. I know games well, but even I get bogged down with rules as I’m learning a game.

What Are the Replacements?

Setup and Tear Down are Too Long

Lands of Galzyr, a game that I just started is the one that I’d recommend. It does a great job of giving you a really short time to the table with a lot of story. It is a deck of cards, characters are cards, so you just slot everything into the save sections, and then pull them out when you are ready to get to the table. Now, I leave it setup on my game table all the time, but setting out a board and then a deck of cards is very simple to get going. And teardown, you slot your cards into your characters save spot and you are good to go with little else to pack up.

And Lands of Galzyr still is going to give you a ton of story. So it isn’t like you are missing out on that. Now, some of that is to be more split up, separate quests than a massive overall story, but it is good for that. And the whole point is a big game, still feels epic, but doesn’t take up all of your time.

Game Play Is Too Long

Now, Lands of Galzyr could fit into that. But I’m going with one that has a longer setup, but Sleeping Gods is going to be in this spot. The game play is long, for the whole, but you can save easily whenever you want and pick it up where you left it off. The reason it works so well is that Sleeping Gods is an open world game where you can do anything you want, sail anywhere you want, and explore the story you want.

That means that you can play as long as you want. If you stop you still keep the quest lines available for next time. And you can take notes on what you were doing. But if you have 45 minutes to play, you can play that quickly. Granted, you still need time for setup and tear down. But if you can leave it setup and you have 15 to 20 minutes to play each evening, you can play that little bit of time.

The Game is Too Complex

For this, if you want a very easy game to play, Legacy of Dragonholt. This is a box of basically choose your own adventure with small game play elements. You create a character and you then go on adventures. But the game play is simple, you reach a story choice point, make a choice, and go with it. But because you made your own character you might skills that open up different paths. Or you pick up certain things or certain keywords that allow you to go down a specific path.

The Game is Too Big For The Table

Now Legacy of Dragonholt can be played without a table. So that is an option, but wanting to present another game, I think that something like Betrayal at House on the Hill would work well. Each game is going to take up the space to build up the house and not that much for characters. It’s not going to be a campaign game, but you will still have that story.

But if you want something that is more of a story overall, Arkham Horror The Card Game is a great option as well. There is no board in the game. The locations are just cards and not big cards. You have your player area but that is also not all that large. So it’d give you that bit of story, bit of campaign in a small area on your table.

Final Thoughts on Small Epic Games

It is fun to see companies who are putting out these smaller games and the options out there. There is always the desire to play that big and story driven game, that is great to have options. I can come up with more as well, like the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game or the Marvel Champions Campaign Boxes as well for those smaller sizes. Will I get rid of games like Gloomhaven, Middara, or Tainted Grail, highly unlikely. But smaller campaigns might start to show up on Monday nights with stuff like Paper Dungeons, Bargain Basement Bathysphere, and Welcome to the Moon.

That said, smaller games will generally lack some of the feel. You give up something when it is a smaller game or faster to set-up game, or shorter to play. Often times it’s that table presence that makes the game feel grand just when you get it to the table. But not every game needs to be produced that much, so what I gave are some very solid smaller ones and some ones that I’d recommend for people who want to play an epic campaign.

What is your favorite campaign game? And which thing is the hardest thing to get the game to the table?

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Gloomhaven

Gloomhaven, and I’ll include Jaws of the Lion, is going to be a campaign game for the person who wants a lot of control over what they are doing. The card play in Gloomhaven is great and really smart. I love picking two cards, one to use the top of and the other to use the bottom. But if I’m slower than other players or the enemies, now I need to put flexibility into what I’m doing. Gloomhaven also provides great character progression. It isn’t too fast so you learn and can use and enjoy the new cards but then be gaining XP for the next new card.

I also think that Gloomhaven, the big box, works well for players who like the change it up. You retire a character after some time. You’ll hit your secret goal and it’ll be time to retire them and move on. If you get really attached to a character or a way to play the game, Gloomhaven won’t be for you. It is better for a game that changes everything up as you get new characters with how you play them.

Sword & Sorcery

As compared to Gloomhaven, Sword and Sorcery is light and small. Now it’s still a big box with a lot of minis in the box. But Sword and Sorcery is all about the dice chucking. The story is pretty light, the decision making space in where the story goes really doesn’t exist. But when it comes to optimizing how many dice you can have and roll, Sword & Sorcery does that.

Stars of Akarios

Stars of Akarios is an interesting hybrid. I would say that this game is for people who want something like Gloomhaven, though the game is very different, but set in space. You can watch game play here. But this is going to be your big space epic game, and probably the biggest space campaign game, at least until ISS Vanguard comes out soon.

But this is also the game for the person who wants a little bit of everything. There is some choose your own adventure. Tactical space combat and then space and planet exploration. So really a little bit of everything that you could do. And they manage to make all of them work, though you need to be in for the space combat because that is the biggest piece.

Pandemic Legacy

This is one I’d say three introductory campaign games. And Pandemic Legacy is a legacy game on top of that. This one, though, might be the best, because in Pandemic Legacy Season 1, if you’ve played Pandemic, you can basically jump in and play the game. If not, it’s an easy teach and a cooperative game.

This is really just a story driven version of Pandemic. It does introduce rules as you go along. But it ramps up players slowly. So if you know someone who is interested at all in gaming, this is a great option to start.

Tainted Grail

Moving to the other extreme, this is not introductory friendly. There are rules you kind of need to look up to figure out what is going on. And there will be situations where the rules maybe don’t explain everything. But Tainted Grail offers some of the best story experience I’ve had in a game.

The story is dark, the story is adult. And the game has a strong survival element as well. I really recommend this one on story mode. The game is still very hard at times. There are going to be combats where you just look at it and run away. But when you dive into the story, it is just so good. So much depth to the world and every expansion gives even more story that is just amazing.

Charterstone

Charterstone is a euro campaign game. It’s one that I think euro players will like, it is a campaign game, and it adds in things. I also think that Charterstone is also a good one for a budding euro player. It’s pretty simple to start and definitely adds in a lot as you go along.

The story for me on Charterstone is very weak, and I honestly thing it pretends too much with it. But the game play is solid. It is a good euro game. And for a legacy game, you can still it after. They even offer a recharge pack, as does the next one on the list as well. But I don’t know what I’d want it.

Aeon’s End Legacy

Aeon’s End Legacy is another one with a weaker story to it. But a story that I sound fun. You can watch the whole of the game over on Malts and Meeples, I’ll put the first part down below. But if you like deck building or are interested, this is a great spot to start.

I also think that this is a great game for players who want to make their own character. As a legacy game it allows you to build up your breach mage with the cards you want the way you want. Other games allow you to customize somewhat, here you really get so much choice over that. Deck building helps provide some of that, but also with the powers you get, it works nicely as well.

My City

Another legacy game on the list and another one that is really easy to get to the table. It is a tile laying game where everyone has their own set of tiles and a card if flipped over to determine which one to put down. There are additional rules that are added as you play further into the game, but it is never too much.

This is also a great campaign or legacy game for people who don’t have that much time. Or don’t have a big block of time. It’s easy to pull out and play a game that takes maybe 30 minutes. Then you do that again two nights later, and so on and it’ll never take you that long to be back up and running.

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game

Another one that I played on Malts and Meeples. This one is kind of like Aeon’s End Legacy, but instead of deck building through game play, this offers deck construction. So if you like optimizing your character to be good at some things, Pathfinder Adventure Card Game is good for that.

I also think that this works well for maybe the person who doesn’t have time to play Pathfinder. If you’ve played Pathfinder and done the adventures, you’ll get more into the story, recognize characters and places. But it’s less of a commitment than jumping into another campaign and planning out 3 hours every week or two to play, at least.

Paper Dungeons

Paper Dungeons is an odd one on the list. It is technically a campaign game, you play through cards with monsters to fight. But it doesn’t need to be, it can be a one off. Nor do I think the campaign is all that great. But if you really like roll and write games, and Paper Dungeons is a very good roll and write game, this is going to give you a heftier roll and write to play. And also one that I played on Malts and Meeples.

Sleeping Gods

Alright, one more that is on Malts and Meeples. Sleeping Gods is for the player who wants a weird fantasy world but also wants to be able to do whatever they want. All the other campaigns on the list give you a general order of doing things. Some might have side missions but generally they’re about the main story that is going through.

Sleeping Gods gives you fun card play and a lot of interesting powers and decisions. Now, I’d recommend that you get the sequel one, it’s coming out sometime probably next year. It’ll make a few things cleaner, like not having to control as many characters. But the one you can get now is great as well and the story tends to be one of the lighter ones and more fun. And the story works as well which is impressive with no real direction.

Risk Legacy

Another legacy game on the list and only one more after this one before the list is finished off. But Risk Legacy is going to be for the person who likes that in your face game. But whereas Risk can be annoying and take forever. In Risk Legacy the games are much faster, so it’s also for the person who likes that in your face but finds Risk way to long. I’m one of those people, so this one is a lot of fun when you want something very competitive.

Seafall

Finally, I had to put it on the list because I technically did play probably half of it or a bit more. This one I don’t really recommend. I think that there are elements of the game that work but most don’t. If you go back to Sleeping Gods where I talk about open world, that one tells a great story in spite of that. Seafall is also open world but it doesn’t tell a good story.

Also the games are just too long, so I really don’t recommend it for that. The longer you play the higher the points get, plus you unlock things so that means there is even more to think about. I want this to be so much better than it is, it had potential and it just falls flat.

Final Thoughts

13 campaign games on the list. And I thought about adding in Arkham Horror the Card Game, and when I get around to a campaign box for Marvel Champions. So clearly I love campaign games, but like I said, not all of them are for everyone.

If you are looking to dive into a campaign game, I really recommend probably three games as my top choices. Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion is a great small box version of Gloomhaven. And it’ll give you the exact same game just with less stuff and less cost. Pandemic Legacy is a good one to jump into as well because a lot of people know Pandemic. Start with Season 1 and it’ll be an easy way to see how much you like legacy games and campaign games. And finally, I think that if you want something bigger and maybe a bit more challenging, I recommend Sleeping Gods. I like it solo, but I think most people will like it at three players.

But let me know what your favorite campaign games are? And how do you play them?

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124-101

100 – 76

Unplayed Board Games 75 -51

75: HEXplore It: The Forest of Adrimon

Yes, this moved up slightly. Mainly because I missed it and I didn’t want to go back and adjust it a few spots. But I do think it could be higher. HEXplore It is an adventure style game, so one that I think I’ll like. And the Forest of Adrimon is supposed to be one of the easier to get into. It has some feel like another game that will be on another list in that it’s an RPG but a board game.

74: Formula D

Racing games, I’ve really been digging them lately. And in general I’ve liked them. I have TItans Race which I enjoy as a silly racing game. And Downforce which is amazing for racing and betting. But Formula D is the most involved and I really want to give it a whirl. I think doing something that simulates racing a bit more might be cool, though possibly slower in terms of game play.

73: Arkham Horror 3rd Edition

I am surprised how far down Arkham Horror 3rd Edition is. I like Arkham Horror 2nd Edition but I got rid of it because it is too long. So I suspect I’m going to like this version of it as well, and a shorter play time. So I need to get it to the table. But I think because it is familiar and because I have games like Arkham Horror The Card Game and Mansions of Madness, I feel like I might not need to play this as soon,

72: Fireball Island: The Curse of Vul-Kar

I bought this one when it was cheap at Target. Well, the price hasn’t changed, but the version of the game now at Target is a cheaper one, and I think smaller. This is when shipping was backed up so Target bought a bunch of Restoration Games’ stock. This is going to be a good and silly time. But I just need to find the time to play it. I don’t think game play will last too long for it.

71: Everdell

Everdell for a lot of people, I’d guess, is higher on the list. I know this is a well loved game, and the tableau and engine building it looks to offer seems great. Plus then the artwork is amazing on the game. I definitely notice that I’m a big fan of engine building games, and ones where they have some of those more euro mechanics to them as well. It’s lower for me just because it is a bit less thematic.

70: The Table Is Lava

This is a silly game. The Table Is Lava has you throwing cards onto the table, placing down meeples to get points. But when you throw you try and knock down other peoples meeples which is hilarious to me. I’m going to turn off the fan in the game room when I play this one because that might interfere with throwing cards. Should just bust this one and have a good time with it some game night.

69: Star Wars: Unlock!

The last of the escape room style games that I own. It’s higher than the Lovecraftian themed one just because of theme and being three games in one box. My wife and I need to play these because we both like Star Wars. And after the Olympics and before Moon Knight comes out, it’d give us something to do for a few weeks. I’ve heard they aren’t too challenging, but it’s still Star Wars, so I’m sure it’ll be fun.

68: Cockroach Poker

And a small game in Cockroach Poker, this is almost a classic filler game, if not one, at this point. You either tell the truth about the card you pass or you lie. And you don’t want to get sets. If you call the persons bluff and they were telling the truth, you get the card. If you can call and they were lying, they get the card. Or you can peek at it and pass telling the next person who you think it is. Clever idea, seems like it should be fun with the right groups.

67: Drawn to Adventure

By the name Drawn to Adventure might sound like a roll and write, and it is a roll and write. It’s about adventuring the best that you can. And you do it over several maps. The production is great, but one thing keeps it down the list a bit. The several maps makes me wonder how long the game will take. If it’s interesting enough, it being a bit longer won’t be bad, but we’ll have to see.

66: Matcha

This is a little card game that I don’t know a ton about. But I like the tea theme and I like the aesthetic. So why so high on the list? It seems to do some things that I like, and it’s a two player game. That makes it easier to get to the table. I like set collection and hand management. It’ll be interesting to see how the bluffing works.

65: Mariposas

A couple games about butterflies on the list, but only one on this section. Mariposas is about generations of butterflies flying up north and then returning back to the south for the winter. I like the idea and it’ll be interesting to see how it goes over. The pieces are solid and the mechanics seems simple enough. It’s more about the puzzle of getting as far north as you can but then being able to go fast south again.

64: Tannhauser

A grail game for me, Tannhauser is lower on the list, just because I think it might take me a bit to learn. But I love the World War II theme of it, plus a bit of a weird world setting as well. Plus, it’s another game that Sam Healey was a big fan of, and like I said, his and my tastes generally match pretty well. It’s hard to find, though, because it’s out of print, so I’m glad to just own it.

63: Air, Land, and Sea

A little lane battling two player card game. I actually have this one sitting at work waiting to get played. Probably will happen next week. It’s a short little game where you deploy out troops to try and win three different theaters of war, air, land, and sea. I don’t know that it’ll be my go to two player game, but it’d be nice to have on in the mix.

62: Shakespeare

A Euro game at the middle of the list, Shakespeare is about putting on a play. You do different rehearsals, build sets, get actors, and get costumes to do the best performance possible. It’s been in my collection for a while, but I don’t want to get rid of it. Even with the fact it’s a euro, I like the theme a lot. And I( think that it’ll be a puzzle that works for me.

61: Foodies

Foodies is one of three games that I own where you roll dice and everyone can do something. Space Base, higher on this list, and My Farm Shop, already played, are the other two. I previously have owned Machi Koro, and I want to buy Machi Koro Legacy when I have a group for it. It’s a mechanic that I like, but will Foodies beat out My Farm Shop? And could Space Base beat out both of them?

60: Papillon

Another butterfly game, and this one is higher, slightly because the aesthetic is cooler. Plus, I like some of how the game works. You build out different patches of flowers, trying to close them off then place butterflies on locations And those locations are an area control/majority battle. So the game seems really cool and offers different areas to focus on for strategy. Diversify across all flowers to get some points in a lot of spot. Or go for a lot of points in a few spots.

59: Valor & Villainy: Minions of Mordak

This is another one versus all game like Descent. But this one is newer and I’m getting the campaign or legacy version of this via Kickstarter with Lludwick’s Labyrinth. I do want to try this version as well as both the villain and the heroes and see how it plays. Mechanically I think it is interesting and I like the leveling up that you do in just a single scenario.

58: Flick of Faith

Two dexterity games now in a row. Flick of Faith reminds me a bit of Sonora, but just with flicking being the focus of it versus the roll and write aspect. You flick discs trying to get control of certain spots. And you have bigger discs that are harder to knock out of the way. And then there are god powers that change up how you play the game each round.

57: Rhino Hero Super Battle

The other dexterity game is about stacking. Three on this section of the list with The Table Is Lava. And this one definitely needs the fan off as you try and be at the top of the tower, or at least the highest up when it topples over. Unless, you knock it over, and then everyone else wins. Simple game, but I like simple and fun dexterity games.

56: Doodle Dungeon

Doodle Dungeon is a roll and write game, but the biggest box I have, well, up there with Sonora, and I own the Railroad Ink big box. But this is a dungeon crawling or creating game, which I think leans into the Boss Monster side of things. We aren’t the heroes, we’re the monsters in the dungeon trying to stop heroes. I need to look into this one more, but I think it’s going to feel like a much bigger game than a normal roll and write.

55: The Bloody Inn

A game with a morbid theme but one that seems like a lot of fun. In The Bloody Inn, you run an inn. But you find out that it’s more lucrative to kill off the people staying there, hide their bodies, and take their money. Who can do that the best, and will the police crack down on you? Card game but one that the theme while morbid is also funny.

54: Wingspan

Wingspan is not a game that I thought I’d own. But a friend got an extra copy, so we traded games. And I do think that I’ll like Wingspan. It’s a tableau building game about bird watching. That theme isn’t that interesting to me, but everyone seems to love the game. Family weight plus game, it might work well for a lot of groups. I am excited to try it for that reason.

53: Welcome To New Las Vegas

Another roll and write, we have four on this chunk of the list, one more to come. And Welcome To New Leas Vegas is a harder. That’s kept it on my shelf. One thing that I like about it’s predecessor Welcome To, is that it’s easy to play. I can teach that game to basically anyone. But will this one be too hard for my group. I need to try it and see.

52: Welcome to Dino World

The other roll and write is Welcome to Dino World. I like the idea of a dinosaur park. I didn’t grow up watching Jurassic Park and the sequels, but the concept is still fun. This one looks like a good time and you can have dinosaurs escape which every good dinosaur park should have happen. Because I’ll never ask if it should be done, just if it can be.

51: Camel Up

Final game is another racing game. Camel Up is kind of a classic at this point in time. Mainly because the game is goofy. You bet on who wins and the earlier you bet on it, the more you can win. But it’s hard to know who can win. The camels, as they race, stack. And the camel on top is in the lead. But if a camel on the bottom moves, they move the stack. So a camel can get lucky, move up to land on someone and then bound ahead again when that came moves.

Final Thoughts

We definitely had a few bigger games this time. And four roll and writes. But we’re still not to the big ones yet. The top 25, for sure, will be a lot of big games. And I do think that the roll and writes will be played on this section of the list. Plus some of the games like Matcha and Air, Land and Sea should be easy to get to the table.

Which game would you want to play on this section of the list? Which one should I play first?

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Ranking My Solo Games

So, one thing that I haven’t talked about when ranking is how I rank them in each category. And that’s somewhat because this is the category that needs this explanation. In a lot of them, I can just pick my favorite game, which game is my favorite roll and write. Here, I am trying to factor in a combination of what my favorite is, but also what my favorites for solo are. So if something is harder to get to the table, I might rank it lower.

I think that is important because solo gaming is a different beast. I think that some very complex games might be high on the list, if I could leave them set-up all the time. So I could go and play them for thirty minutes to an hour in an evening every evening. But when it takes twenty minutes to set-up, that isn’t an option.

28. Sword Art Online Board Game: Sword of Fellows

This might be the worst game in the group, and I still own it. I have played it solo a few times and it’s a fun push your luck sort of game. But when you’re controlling three characters, or two, it isn’t as fun. And the theme of the game, Sword Art Online doesn’t come through.

27. Legacy of Dragonholt

I think I I had streamed Legacy of Dragonholt, which I had thought about doing, I might put this higher on the list. The game is fine, the mechanics are solid, but the writing on the story was just fine. And when the game play is solid and the story is fine, it wasn’t going to stick. I’d love to see Fantasy Flight use some of their IP’s and create a story in this vein. Or even an Arkham game that uses the same mechanic.

26. Second Chance

Second Chance is easy to get to the table, but the game plays out the same every time. And with roll and write games, when I play them solo, I prefer that I can then compare a score, or something like that. Second Chance you just see how well you do. Sure, you can use the empty spaces as a score, but it’s not that interesting solo.

25. Criss Cross

This one is also one where you can just see how well you can score. I have it lower on the list, even though it is easy to play, because I have played it a lot. I don’t think I’d pull out Criss Cross to play solo again. Other roll and write games, yeah, those are higher on the list, but Criss Cross I’ve played a lot.

24. Marvel Battleworld

This one is easy to play and has high toy factor. But it is barely a game, the rules allow you to play some sort of game, but they aren’t that clear. You really play Marvel Battleworld to open up the little “Thanos Stones” to get new heroes and do the blind buy. It’s not a great game, but fun toy value.

23. Gravwell: Escape from the 9th Dimension

Gravwell is a game that generally would be higher in my Top 100 games but drops so solo, not because of set-up, but because the game is much more random solo. It feels like mechanically the game isn’t as good. So I don’t want to play it solo all that often. I’d play it with people, but solo is just okay.

22. Floor Plan

Floor Plan is another one where the solo seems added on and not fully planned. You get a certain number of rolls for solo play and see how well you do. But it lacks the tension of racing to complete different features that people want.

21. Pandemic Legacy: Season 1

This one I played through solo on Malts and Meeples, and it is a blast to play that way. Technically, it doesn’t have a solo mode, but no information is hidden, so you can easily play solo. But I wouldn’t play it solo again after doing that once. I would play it for the third time because the story and game are fun.

20. Marvel United

I was a little bit surprised that this one was lower on the list. But I prefer to play it with others. It again comes down to a solo mode that is okay. And you can play it solo like you’re playing multiple people, and it’s good. But the game is more fun with more players and working together cooperatively and discussing how you can set up the next player.

19. Tainted Grail

This is fun solo, and I’d love to have it higher on the list, but even three player, the game is a beast to get to the table. I’d maybe come back to it solo if I could leave it set-up. And I’d love to explore it again that way, which maybe I eventually will. But right now, three player play is great.

18. Onirim

Actually just got rid of this game, but I really enjoy Onirim and I still own the app. Onirim is a nice little puzzle of a game with a lot of shuffling. And I feel like the decision space is good. But as I get more solo only games, that are higher on the list, I know that I’m going to play it less and less. So the app is good enough for me, for now. I can always pick it up again.

17. A Gentle Rain

The first solo only game on the list. I think technically you can do two player, but it just means you split up half of the stuff, which means it’s less fun. The game is simple, but it is very relaxing to play. And for me, that’s nice. It comes in a small box, but plays large, in area, on the table. I wish it played a little bit smaller, so it was more portable.

16. The Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game

Now back to a bigger game, The Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game, I like to play that one at two best. But three is good as well. And the game while having a lot of cards, is pretty fast to set-up and get to the table. I think it works best as a game in general, if you know the books. The theme is there, but it’s hidden behind mechanics.

15. Arkham Horror: The Card Game

One that I’d love to play solo more. And I think the game works really well solo for keeping the game moving. But Arkham Horror: The Card Game, it takes effort to get to the table. There are a lot of cards, and setting up each scenario takes time. I’d love for a faster way to get it to the table so I could play it more often because the story is good.

14. Doppelt So Clever

We’re going to see a lot of roll and writes now. Which makes sense because they are easy to get to the table. Doppelt So Clever is on the lower end because while it is easy to play, it is less satisfying than some. Mainly because I feel like I’m not doing as well as I should be. That is a function of the game and scoring sections, but still, it’s less fun.

13. Deadly Doodles

Deadly Doodles is a dungeon crawler roll and write, kind of. I’d say it is a more like D&D where you go diving into a dungeon, get some treasure and be done. Maybe more of a classic thing, here you find treasure, get weapons and fight monsters. Very simple game, but a fun one to play solo.

12. Marvel Champions: The Card Game

Now back to a living card game that is easier to get to the table. Marvel Champions works very well as a solo game. I prefer it two player, but either works. You play as a hero trying to stop a villain and thwart their evil scheme. Deck construction is fine, but I just like that this is a mechanically fun game, simpler than Arkham Horror, but still thematic game.

11. Welcome To…

Back to roll and writes, Welcome To is a game that works as a solo game. Though, I will say that it is better with more players. And I’m not 100% sure, they might have improved the solo mode in a small pack. But base solo mode is go through the deck and eventually hit a point where it ends and see how well you did. It works, and the game play is still a lot of fun, just the overall experience doesn’t feel as robust.

10. Aeon’s End

Some people might disagree with me. You need to control multiple characters, I recommend only two. But I think this is fairly fast to get to the table. Use the randomizer, pick the market, grab two breach mages and a nemesis and get going. There is more than that, and there are tokens, but Aeon’s End is easy to control two at once. I think that’s a thing for a lot of bigger games, they might be better controlling two characters, but is that easy.

9. Clever Hoch Drei

The third of the Clever roll and writes, and the middle one on my list. It’s a good solo game and this one lets you feel like you can do everything. It is more rewarding than Doppelt So Clever, but almost too rewarding. You can do everything, like every track will be filled in a lot at the end. You can optimize it still, which is what I love about the game. But huge points.

8. Ganz Schon Clever

Last of the Clever trilogy or first if you read top down, Ganz Schon Clever is just fun. I still play it on the app. And I love the game two player. I think that it helps improve the game play and is less lucky than solo while still getting all the rolls and all the rounds. But at any player count, I always want to know what is going on during your turn. And the combos, it feels like the right amount.

7. Metro X

Metro X is a roll and write that has a great puzzle. It isn’t one that has many combos, but the game play feels so tight and restrictive. You try and complete routes, and as you fill in one route, it might help another route. But since you are filling in 4 spots, if you now only can do three before you hit a filled in spot, is that optimizing what you do. The game’s puzzle feels tense from the start.

6. Spire’s End

New to the list and new to me. When I did my cooperative games, I couldn’t put this one on the list. Since it technically is cooperative, though, it just splits it up so that a person controls each of the characters. I’ve even heard of three player with one person being the dungeon master. But Spire’s End, and I’ll talk about it more in the future, is a story driven game where you take characters into a spire for some reason. And you fight monsters in there, but game play is simple and smart.

5. Sleeping Gods

Hey, this is the one that I’m playing right now. You can what last nights stream here. For some people this might seem like a lot because there are nine crew you are in charge of. But you always control them as a group and I think makes it easier. Plus this game is so story focused that if you miss a mechanic, I don’t feel bad about it.

4. Super Mega Lucky Box

One that when I played it the first two times I thought might leave my collection quickly. But no, I really like this game. It’s basically binge, you draw a card, cross of a number. So roll and write mechanics with bonuses when you fill in rows and columns on your card. The game is very fast and so much fun. And there is depth to how you try and get combos working in the game.

3. Railroad Ink & Challenge

Another one that works well solo because you are just trying to beat your previous score. I like either version, so I think that Challenge adds some good stuff to the game. It’s mainly about connecting routes of rail and road. This one also has a strong puzzle to it and the right amount of luck, I feel. The app is a lot of fun too.

2. Orchard: A 9 Card Solitaire Game

Another true solo game, Orchard is amazing. Orchard is all about laying cards on top of each other and growing fruit. It hits that great spot of simple but interesting. The combination of layering cards, creating a few dead spots to try and score more, it’s interesting. And I can knock out games so fast while watching something from sports to cooking shows. If I don’t need to pay complete attention, Orchard is great.

1. Super-Skill Pinball: 4-Cade

Finally, Pinball. I love Super-Skill Pinball, I haven’t played multiplayer yet. But the roll and write works as a pinball game. It is maybe the most thematic roll and write game that I own. And there are a lot of boards, pinball machines, you can play on. The production quality is high and game play is so much fun, and I’ll 100% be getting the Star Trek version when it comes out.

Final Thoughts

Solo gaming is something I want to do more of. And I know it’s goin to be a way to help me get through my goal of getting under 100 unplayed games in 2022. Right now, the number sits around 130, and when I can learn and play it solo, it helps. I’m curious to see how two, Village Green and Floriforous play solo. Mainly because it’d let me learn the game to make it easier to teach to others, if I’ve played it.

What are your favorite games to play solo?

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