I have a few companies like that where I generally will pay attention. And for me, that doesn’t mean back or buy everything. But it does mean that I will always check it out in detail. Rarely, if ever, will I just gloss over a game from these companies. So here are my Top 10 companies I’m always interested in

Top 10 Board Game Companies

10. Fantasy Flight Games

Fantasy Flight Games is probably a company that’d have dropped off for a lot of people. They used to come out with a whole lot more games and a whole lot bigger announcements. But I still am interested. When I saw a Twilight Imperium Roll and Write, I was interested, even with a long play time. And Marvel Champions I still buy everything for that.

I wish they would come out with something more. A new version of Star Wars Imperial Assault? I would love to see that. Or something more original from them. Maybe a smaller version of a Descent 3.0 to go along with Descent: Legends of the Dark.

9. Thunderworks Games

Thunderworks is also just on that edge if I check everything out. I will look at any announcement because I am curious about anything set in their Roll Player World of Ulos. However, anything, like Tenpenny Park, those I’ll look at, but generally aren’t what I’m interested in. But I see them because I am curious if it is more stuff for Roll Player, Roll Player Adventures, or Cartographers.

8. CMON

CMON is either on your list or not. There is no in between I feel. Some people wait anticipating what CMON is going to announce next. Other people pledge $1 so that they can complain. That is basically how it goes on everything that CMON does. And I understand some of the complaints, I also don’t care on some of the complaints. They end up being complaining for the sake of complaining. But that isn’t the point of this article.

I wait to see what CMON comes out with next. And there is no company where they can announce a game and I will always back it or buy it. But when CMON announces a Stranger Things Game, see here, I get really excited. On the flip side, I like the idea of a big Dune battling over the planet game, but it is not one that I will back.

7. Chip Theory Games

Chip Theory Games is moving up the list for me. The more I see and mess around with their games, the more interested I am in their games. I enjoy Too Many Bones, and I think the more I dive into it the more I will like it. Then I almost backed Hoplomacus Victorum because it was a solo version of a game that I thought looked cool. And Burncycle, after watching a Brother’s Murph play through, see below, I really want to get it. Their games aren’t cheap though, so I need to pace myself.

6. Horrible Guild

Probably the biggest break or one of them, from the big games on the list is Horrible Guild. Horrible Guild does some campaign or legacy games with King’s Dilemma and then Queen’s Dilemma coming to Kickstarter. But I like their small games. Stuff like Potion Explosion, Railroad Ink, I’m so excited to be getting Tiny Turbo Cars, stuff like that.

They make games with amazing toy factor to them. And I just really enjoy sitting down and playing them. They also make games that are accessible. Railroad Ink is a bit challenging for a roll and write with Railroad Ink Challenge, but it’s not hard to teach. Same with Potion Explosion or Similo. Plus with so much fun in their games, I always want to see what they make.

5. Mythic Games

Getting back to big games, we have Mythic Games. Mythic Games has made such games as Reichbusters and Solomon Kane, but the one of theirs I play the most is Super Fantasy Brawl. I really love that game, but I mainly pay attention to their big games. Now, with that said, I don’t back a ton of their games on crowdfunding. I have backed Super Fantasy Brawl and HEL: The Last Saga, but that is it.

One of the reasons is that their rule books first time around tend to be poor. You need to get, and they do send out, a new rule book. But also because their games are big and epic and tend to have a lot with them. They are like CMON in some ways, I might want to back all of them, but I certainly don’t have room to back and store all of their games. Just between Super Fantasy Brawl and Solomon Kane that takes up a lot of space on top of a Kallax shelf.

4. Roxley Games

Last game on the list that makes that many smaller games. Though, when you get everything for Dice Throne, it certainly isn’t that small. And Dice Throne is the reason Roxley is so high on the list. They have some heavy euro games, I am not interested in those. But I want more Dice Throne. And their lighter games, I am interested in.

I really only own two games from Roxley, Dice Throne and Radlands and I need to play Radlands still. But when Santa vs Krampus came out, I backed immediately. When Marvel Dice Throne was announced, I knew I’d be all in. That is going to be case whenever they come out with anything new.

3. OOMM

OOMM is a very new company to the list. And honestly, I should likely keep them lower on the list, but we’re not talking about backing everything, we’re talking about being interested. I bought Stars of Akarios because of what it looked like after the fact. I backed Mythwind because the game looked so different.

OOMM really does something that I love in creating games that feel unique. Mythwind seems really different than anything else out there. Stars of Akarios is a big space campaign game. Do I need more space campaign games, not really but I want them. And the new legacy game they announced looks very cool as well.

2. Awaken Realms

Awaken Realms maybe could be #1, but it’s at #2 because there is Awaken Realms Lite, technically it’s own company I believe, but a lot of the same people and process. But the last two on the list, I will always look and almost always back whatever they do.

There are two exceptions for Awaken Realms. I didn’t back The Great Wall as it is a massive euro game. It looks cool, I’d love to try it, but I wouldn’t buy it. And I didn’t back Lords of Ragnarok from them. Why, because I already own and love Lords of Hellas. Lords of Ragnarok might be better, but I don’t need to own both.

1. Cephalofair Games

I doubt that this is a shock. I went all in on Frosthaven. And I love Gloomhaven. I never looked at Founders of Gloomhaven once I realized it was a euro. But Cephalofair announces something, I am interested. I hope it is more for Frosthaven, after that has been out for a bit. Or another big box game, but really, anything at this point. Even with my #1 company that I will be intrigued to hear whatever they announce, not every game will be for me.

Still, I can’t wait until Frosthaven gets here. And I even started a campaign of Gloomhaven Digital recently. It is just a fun experience to play that game and it is fun to dive back into it. And I will for sure dive heavily into Frosthaven almost right away when it shows up. I suspect we’ll be done with the final Tainted Grail expansion by then, but we’ll see.

Final Thoughts

Firstly, I’d love to know what companies you are generally interested. Which ones make games that seem fun to checkout or different. I want to know what gets you excited. And as I said, I don’t like every game from all of these companies. In fact, there are some that just miss completely for me, even though I love the company.

And that is very fair to not like everything. I talk about how CMON is polarizing, the people who love CMON don’t like everything from CMON. The people who dislike CMON will never know what they are missing out on. I think it’s more important to remember that some games are going to be for you and some won’t no matter the company. And even if you enjoy all of them, some will be better than others.

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Etsy Order

I’m going to start calling out upgrades that I’ve gotten from Etsy or other places. While they aren’t really board games, I think some people will be interested in them, and it’s fun to talk about how I’m making my games easier to get to the table or look prettier on the table.

Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition Boards

So, this is a game that I already own, but I didn’t get it on Kickstarter. On Kickstarter the player boards are double layer. That means that the cubes recess into them nicely. In the retail box version, the player boards are just thin cardboard. Thankfully it took weeks for people to get overlays up on Etsy. So I bought some acrylic overlays for the player boards. This will basically keep the resources locked into place better so you know how much you produce. I can either just set them on top of the boards, or I might get a clear drying glue and affix the overlays to the boards, we’ll have to see.

Board Game Geek Store

Railroad Ink Big Boards

So, I really like Railroad Ink, and I got to play Railroad Ink Challenge with a group of eight on Saturday night and it was great. The game is thinky but not too complex. This basically takes Railroad Ink and puts it onto a bigger board. Instead of being a 9 by 9 board, I think it might be 15 by 15. Thankfully you get more rounds to try and score as many points as possible. If you haven’t tried Railroad Ink I really do recommend it. These big boards will just be a fun add to the game for me.

Miniature Market

Like I said, Miniature Market gave me a $10 off code for my birthday month. So, not too shockingly, I bought a game. Well, I bought two games. I considered a few others, but the one game I wanted, Rise of Atlantis was sold out, which is okay. I am kind of waiting to find that one used sometime.

Root: Riverfolk Expansion

So, last Point or Order I bought Root. This Point of Order, I got the first expansion before I even played my copy of Root. Why, well, because I have played Root before. Sure, I will explore more in the base box, but I really liked it when I played. So more Root is good. The Riverfolk expansion adds in The Riverfolk Company, The Lizard Cult, another Vagabond and more stuff. So I’m excited to have that one come in and get added into future plays of the game. I need a group to learn the game and play often. Root is really a lifestyle type of game.

Flick of Faith

Awaken Realms is one of my favorite companies that makes board games. They have a sibling company, Awaken Realms Lite that makes, well, lighter-weight games. One of those games is Flick of Faith. I wanted to get this for a long time but could never find it. Flick of Faith is a dexterity game where players flick discs to score points. It almost has a crokinole type feel to it, from what I’ve heard. And Flick of Faith was $30-35 versus $150 for a crokinole board. Plus there are god powers which you use to change up the game. Seems like my type of game. And I want to pull it out at a game night.

Favro Games

Spire’s End

Almost missed this one but I recently talked about Spire’s End: Hildegard. This is a solo generally game where you are taking Hildegard through a story, fighting monsters and more. it is based off of Spire’s End. And while you couldn’t get Spire’s End on Kickstarter with this new one (besides 50 copies), but it just came back up for pre-order on the Spire’s End website. This one is a bit darker in nature, from what I can tell, but still has a chunk of the amazing artwork. So I am really excited to dive into that when it comes, though I suspect that will be a while before it does.

Which Do You Want To Play?

That’s the list for this bit, I don’t believe anything else has come in, though a new Marvel Champions expansion might be in soon, I’m not sure. I don’t know when the next one will be, there are some Geek Up Bits from Board Game Geek for Dice Throne Season 2 that I want to get, but they aren’t in stock yet. But let me know which of the games that you want to play?

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