Catch Up on the Top 100 Games

100 through 91
90 through 81
80 through 71

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

70. Meadow

Published By: Rebel Studio
Designer: Klemens Kalicki

Buy Meadow Here

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

69. Mountain Goats

Published By: Allplay
Designer: Stefan Risthaus

Buy Mountain Goats Here

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

68. burncycle

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

Buy burncycle Here

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

67. The Lost Expedition

Published By: Osprey Games
Designer: Peer Sylvester

Buy The Lost Expedition Here.

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

66. ISS Vanguard

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

Buy ISS Vanguard Here.

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

65. Mansions of Madness

Published By: Fantasy Flight Games
Designer: Nikki Valens

Buy Mansions of Madness Here.

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

64. Sonora

Published By: Pandasaurus Games
Designer: Rob Newton

Not Available Currently

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

63. Lands of Galzyr

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

Buy Lands of Galzyr

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

62. Kohaku

Published By: 25th Century Games
Designer: Danny Devine

Not Available Currently

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

61. Nidavellir

Published By: GRRRE Games
Deisgner: Serge Laget

Buy Nidavellir Here

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

Join Next Week

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

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

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Top 100 Games (of all time) 100 through 91

100. Ecosystem

Published By: Genius Games
Designer: Matt Simpson

Buy Ecosystem here.

I like drafting games a lot and I think that is what keeps Ecosystem on the list. It is a good drafting game with then a good puzzle as you create your tableau of cards in front of you. There are three version of Ecosystem all of which are great though I’m only going to be keeping the one that I show in the picture. That is because that one is easier to teach and learn and play. But any of the versions are pretty easy to learn and all offer their own drafting and tableau building puzzle.

99. Aquatica

Published By: Arcane Wonders
Designer: Ivan Tuzovsky

Buy Aquatica here.

Can you develop the best underwater kingdom is the theme of Aquatica. But the game is really about one central mechanism for me and that is enough to get it onto the list. I wish that the characters were more fun and diverse, but I love the card sliding. When you slide a card up to gain more resources and combo it into a big turn, it just feels good. And the puzzle of optimizing that on each turn is amazing.

It’s worth nothing that I love the puzzle in person but I find it not that great on BGA (Board Game Arena). Mainly, I think on BGA you lose that tactile nature of sliding up cards and seeing how you can work everything together. It makes a tactile thing seem a lot more mechanical on BGA and more interesting when it is in person.

98. Perolga

Published By: Rebel Studio
Designers: Michal Golab Golebiowski and Przemek Woljtkowiak

Buy Pergola Here.

Do you want to make a pretty garden? Perogla is game off set collection and creating a beautiful garden to play in. I like the action or item selection process for the game. The trowels are a fun way to do it, but also the changing extra bonus, depending on where you pick from, really adds to the game as well. Because of that, I think the game offers a bunch of different ways to score points and feels different when I play it

97. Crokinole

There is no designer or publisher on Board Game Geek to post because this game is from 1876 or around then.

Pledge for Crokinole Board Here.

I love Crokinole as a flicking game where I can build up skill. There are other higher flicking and dexterity games on the list, but Crokinole has some things I love about it. In particular that skill level that you are more apt to develop. But it is also a great game for a whole evening, you just sit around, flick discs, have a drink and chat to create a fun activity and casual time. The game is all about scoring points by getting into that center hole, but then strategy as you try and knock your opponents discs off the board.

96. Fleet: The Dice Game

Published By: Eagle-Gryphon Games
Designers: Ben Pinchback and Matt Riddle

Buy Fleet: The Dice Game Here.

Do you want a big roll and write game with two sheets? Then Fleet: The Dice Game might be the roll and write game for you. I like this one because it offers a lot of combos and a lot of paths to scoring points and possible victory. You want to get fish because that is going to give you points, but you also want to get licenses that are going to give you powers. Or maybe you are all in on the market or all in on building the different shops at the wharf. Whatever it is, there is a path for you to try and combo in the game.

95. The Castles of Burgundy

Published By: alea and Awaken Realms
Designer: Stefan Feld

Buy The Castles of Burgundy Special Edition on Miniature Market.

Can you build up the best area of Burgundy to get the most points? That’s what this game is about, getting points in any and every way that you can. Whether it is by adding to flocks or filling an area or delivering goods, you are going to get points. And the dice management in the game is what really makes it work for me. I like figuring out how I can optimize my two dice for a great turn. Or maybe I can’t do that, and now I need to figure out how to pivot to something new.

94. Comic Hunters

Published By: Arcane Wonders
Designer: Diego Sa

Buy Comic Hunters from Amazon here.

Do you like comic books and do you want to have a massive comic collection? That is Comic Hunters in a nutshell as you draft comics to add to your collection. Then you need to determine which ones get added and which ones you spend from your hand putting back into the pool. Plus this game offers multiple different drafts. That sounds like a lot to teach and learn, but it isn’t bad because it’s possible to teach just one draft at a time. And the final bonus is great Marvel comic covers in this game.

93. Dungeon Kart

Published By: Brotherwise Games
Designer: Michael Xuereb

Buy Dungeon Kart here.

Do you want to play Mario Kart but you also want to play a board game? Dungeon Kart is going to let you do both of those things with Boss Monster characters, special powers and spells. This is not my favorite racing game, but it is one that gives me that Mario Kart feel. And the game itself is not too slow in how it plays which I really like.

92. Ace of Spaces

Published By: Devir Games
Designer: Benjamin Amorin

Note: This game is getting an art update after less than welcoming art was included in the game. A new version to buy will be coming.

This is Balatro the board game. Now that isn’t 100% right, but there is similarities between the two. In that you want to beat a boss in this game and you do that with poker hands. In fact you do that several times. And the different bosses you defeat will give you one off or permanent bonuses. There is a bunch of luck in the game, but it’s fast to play, fast to learn, and just a good time for a solo or two player game, in particular solo.

91. Railroad Ink Challenge

Published By: Horrible Guild
Designers: Hjalmar Hach, Lorenzo Silva

Buy Railroad Ink Challenge here.

This is a great roll and write game where you are creating rail and road routes. As you create the routes the more exit points you connect, the more points you get. And longest road and rail routes are going to give you points as well. I like both the Challenge and non-challenge version of the game. But the Challenge version gives you some challenges to go for as well which just adds in a little that I really love for the game.

Join Next Week

Next week I am going to be continuing the list. The plan is 9 PM Central time every Wednesday until the list is done and you can click notify on the YouTube channel (Malts and Meeples) to know when new videos are going live. I also have put up links to some of the upcoming videos already there, so you can click notify on those. What games are going to be in my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 edition next week as I do 90 through 81.

Thanks so much for checking out the article and the videos. I hope you have fun with them. I know I have a ton of fun making the list every year.

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This War of Mine 2nd Edition

I owned this game for a little bit. But I knew it was challenging with the rules and kind of a downer of a game. So I sold my copy. I expect I’ll be backing this. And I expect that Awaken Realms is going to have improved upon the game play and the rule book. T

he game still looks beautiful and challenging and something that I enjoy. Plus I love solo games and this being that is definitely catching my attention as well. The main question I have is do I want a game that is this heavy in terms of the story? And it sounds like they know they can improve the experience and have plans to make it easier to get into and play.

You can follow the campaign here. It’s coming in Q2 of 2025.

Agricola Special Edition

Thank you Awaken Realms for making these games. I did end up wanting Castles of Burgundy because I found I loved it. But I won’t lie, Agricola is one that I’m not that interested in. If someone were to get this, I’d play it for sure. But I know that it’s not going to be one that I’m going to back. I think that a lot of people are going to love this. And I appreciate that a lot of things they do for the game make it great looking but also make sure that it’s highly functional and be enhanced.

You can follow that campaign here. Launching in 2025 quarter 2.

Agricola Dead Harvest

This is a new Agricola game coming as well. And this one is coming in 2026. I’m not sure what it’s going to add in there and it’s going to add zombies in as well. They wanted to try and make it a bit more Awaken Realms like with the zombies. It’s going to be a standalone game that still have that farm management to it, but during a zombie apocalypse. Which, this is pretty wild, but I’m sure some people will love this game.

You can follow that campaign here, it’s coming in 2026.

B.E.L.O.W. The Asylum

Oh boy, this fourth one is definitely going to interest me. I love horror themes and Awaken Realms is going to make it dark with an asylum. So I’m not sure if this is Lovecraftian, yet, but it’s looking dark and gory and wonderful which I adore. And you are a group called BELOW who are going to be stopping this from happening, it’s 100% my jam. I’m going to say that about 100 times more, but oh boy this is amazing. And it’s designed by the designer of SETI a very popular game last year.

This is a cooperative game which is important for me. I don’t know that this is a campaign game, maybe a one off scenario or just face off against the game. It sounds like there is going a more horrific world and the real world and you work between the two. That sounds super awesome to me, like I said, I’d say it more.

You can follow the campaign here. This is a Q3 or Q4 2025 game.

Tainted Grail The Fall of Avalon Video Game

The video game is finally coming out in a full release. This is an open world game. And it looks amazing. But it’s a video game so I might get it eventually, but it also looks first person action game. They are going to release a special collectors edition as well, which is fun. It’s just going to give you stuff that you don’t need, but might want because they look very cool.

Follow the campaign here coming in Q1 of 2025.

Labyrinth Chronicles

This is going to be an combination of Ravensburger and Awaken Realms making a “deluxe” edition of Labyrinth. I have actually never played Labyrinth, but it looks fun as a mass market game. This is not just a straight reprint with Awaken Realms stuff to make it look fancy. They are still keeping it a lighter game, but it’s a bit more of a “gamer” game which a few more decisions. There is going to be a campaign more as well, which is a fun thing as well. I do enjoy a good campaign game. But it’s still going to be a family game as well. I might get this to play with my kid.

Follow the campaign here. It is coming in Q1 of 2026.

Dragon Eclipse Season 2

Yes, this game just delivered and is just delivering. But now there is another one coming out. And this one is called Dragon Eclipse The Grand Quest. I am intrigued by this because I got the game. But I want to get it played before I say anything more on it. There is an adventure mode which I should play and really see if this is a game for me. And you can play PvP and more on this one. And the aesthetic is great. They are smart with it, and it’s coming in Q4 of 2025 so people will have a bunch of time to play it. And even the language editions will be delivered.

Follow the campaign here.

Final Thoughts on Awaken Realms Next

Alright, let’s talk about what I’m likely to back. That’s what you want to know, I’m sure. And I think you can already start to guess. I think I’ll guess Dragon Eclipse The Grand Quest. I think it sounds like a ton of fun. And then the Labyrinth Chronicles sounds really fun. I think it’d be fun to do that as my kid is starting to get into games more. And he’ll probably be ready to play this by the time it comes in. And This War of Mine Second Edition as well, though I might wait on that. But finally, of course, then B.E.L.O.W. The Asylum which is 10000% my game.

But what game is the most interesting for you, let me know down in the comment section below.

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Top 10 Campaign Games I Want to Continue (Or Restart)

Let’s talk about why I stop campaigns sometimes. A lot of the time I do them for the Malts and Meeples YouTube channel. And with that, I like to have a mix of a few games that I’m playing throughout the year. But also, I’ve started some off camera, or I played through a first campaign and I’d love to come back again. But let’s look at what the list looks like. And too often, too, as I play solo, I really wish I had someone in the room with me to share the story.

10. Destinies

Let’s start out Destinies, this is one that I’ve just played the introductory game to it. And I really enjoyed the system. It’s a game that I could play solo, but you don’t get all the story that you’d get multiplayer. So for me, it feels like it should be a multiplayer game. BGG says it’s best at two, but I’d love to try it at three as well and see what player count I like it best at.

But the game is a really simple game when it comes to the system that it uses. And the narrative elements driven by the app work really well. It’s that type of app that supports the game well and doesn’t take away from playing at the table. I do think that Destinies is more of a beer and pretzels campaign than a lot of the other games on the list.

9. Isofarian Guard

Next up we have the Isofarian Guard. This one is meant to be played solo mainly or kind of two player. And I really enjoyed my time playing this game. There is an element of the game that didn’t keep me coming back is the grind. I think that it’s one with the upgrade/update pack for it, it’s going to make it better to play.

That said I like the systems and I like that it’s one big campaign but played with different characters doing different things at the same time. So as I play with one pair of characters the story is going to be continuing elsewhere. And the chip drawing mechanism for combat is a lot of fun as well and makes you think on your feet as you play.

8. Chronicles of Drunagor

I played one session of this one before I packed it up. And I regret that I only played one session. Part of the reason I did is because there is so much to put onto the table. And trying to stream it was a lot of work to set things up in the middle of the game and search for new bad guys and things like that. I know that I need to spend more time sorting it, and once I do that, it would be easier. And I want to play until I reach a door and not set stuff up on stream.

But that said, I really liked the mechanisms in the game. Especially how you activate abilities. You need a cube of the right color to activate an ability, and if you activated it, you block it off with that cube. That means that you lose actions as you go. Then you pull the cubes back, but you block off one of the actions, so the available actions become tighter and I think that makes for a great system.

7. Arkham Horror LCG

This one I could say I kind of have going right now. I am playing through the Scarlet Keys sporadically with a friend. And I really am enjoying this one. I did a play of some of the base campaign on the Malts and Meeples channel. As you can see from the videos that I did with a lot of these. But I find that I like the Arkham Horror LCG a whole lot better at two or more. There feels like more strategy to it and I like planning with other people.

That said, now that I am playing with two, I am loving the game. And the more I play it, the more it flies as I play because I know what I’m doing. It helps to spend some time with this game to get into the rhythm of how turns work and to learn what keywords on the cards mean, especially for monsters.

6. Roll Player Adventures

This is one where I’ve played the whole campaign. So do I want to go back and play it again, kind of. But what I really want to do is play the Gulpax’s Secret expansion that came out of it. It’s just more story and adventure for the game and I am really excited to get it to the table. The story in the first game does a great job of balancing adventure and plot elements in a fun way, not in a way that beats you down with a darker story, like some will coming up.

And I really like the systems in the game. Especially the dice manipulation and spending resources to get dice of various colors. It puts pressure on people playing the game in multiple ways. And it’s fun to be able to sit there and talk about how many resources you should spend, since it’s character life points, versus how many dice you can draw blind. And then once you roll those dice, how do you get them to the right face for either completing a challenge or stopping a threat.

5. Tainted Grail: Kings of Ruin

Another one that I’ve kind of completed the campaign for. I know that the new version of Tainted Grail does change up some things, so it’s a similar setting for the game, but not the same game. And I’m cool with that, though for me, playing the three campaigns of Tainted Grail has been so much fun. I love the story in the game and it’s just a great experience, in my opinion. I think the original campaign is one that I’ll revisit as well. But I want to spend more time in the world, so that’s the biggest reason it’s on the list.

4. ISS Vanguard

Back to back Awaken Realms campaign games with ISS Vanguard. ISS Vanguard is a blast when I played it. And I like the combination of planetary exploration and ship management in the game. Each element felt like it mattered, the reason I stopped this one when I did is that I want to share the story and decision making with more people, in person. Sure I do it online, but unless someone is in the chat and ready to chat, I kind of just make decisions myself.

This game also feels so huge that I really want to share that element with other people as well. Granted, I have two more large sci-fi themed games. This one does give me some other elements to that sci-fi that I like a lot though. Mainly that it’s a crew from Earth. So while it is the best and brightest out there who were sent on this mission, they are still people.

3. 7th Citadel

Not one of the sci-fi campaigns, we have The 7th Citadel. And this game I was having a lot of fun playing. I just needed to keep it set-up to keep up with it. So it’s one that I might revisit anyways at a later time. But it’s also one where I was enjoying the story and experience of the game a lot that I wanted to share it with others, in person.

I really like the challenge system in the game. Whether it’s combat or it’s searching or anything else that you need to do a check for, you are flipping cards. And you need to create stars from those cards. But flipping a lot of cards also means that your deck is running out faster and the only way that you can get cards back is to spend health. It is really just a great balancing act of spending health, but not too much health and spending cards, but not too many cards.

2. Rogue Angels

Now a game that I’ve talked about a long time and that I’ve played with others as well. I have loved this campaign game even though it’s not out. I’ve gotten to play the TTS (TableTop Simulator) module a few times and I have a chapter one prototype that I showed off on the channel. This game just works for me from a fun story that feels epic to great characters and legacy elements to it.

But if it was just that without great mechanisms it’d not be that great. I really like how you play out cards and they go onto a cool down track for actions. Sure, you can always do a basic action, but those aren’t as good. And then, if you get wounded, you start to fill up that track with wound cards, and now you need to rest, or you’re giving cards a bigger cooldown than they should have. It’s just a great puzzle of a system that is easy to play.

1. Stars of Akarios

Finally for my campaign games is a game that I want to share this story and experience with someone in person so badly. It’s just a blast of a game and does so many things in amazing ways that I love. One of the coolest elements is that you get three different experiences throughout the game. There is space exploration, and that is fine. But then you get tactical space combat that is amazing. And you get planetary exploration which is a ton of fun as well. They pack a lot into the game and it works for me.

I could go on about this one a lot. The tactical space combat definitely seems to be the largest part of the game and it’s my favorite. I love how you spend dice to activate abilities. And you need to balance that with repairing your shields, possibly, or dealing with hull damage. Plus you need to line up your big abilities and you need to figure out if you can get into a flanking position to help do more damage. Plus the missions feel different, from fighting two factions to an escort mission and more.

Final Thoughts

Needless to say, between this list and the 15 campaign games that I still need to play, it’s going to keep me busy. I’m also going to go through and probably start of next week do a Top 10 List of Campaign Games that I have Backed that I need to get still. I think I can do a list like that, and yes, that’s too many campaigns to reasonably play. But my hope is to get to most of the campaign games eventually. Does this mean I should stop backing and buying more campaign games, yes. Does it probably mean that I should make more time for them as well, definitely.

Which of these campaign games between the two lists should I play next on stream? I know that I’m doing Gloomhaven right now as a digital campaign. But once I’m done with my Button Shy Solo Games (still a few more weeks of that). I want to get a game set-up on the recessed part of the gaming table and start playing through it. So which one do you think that I should play? I might do a video and ask for people’s opinions on which one I should do.

And do you have a problem with campaign games, mainly buying them, like I do?

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Top 10 Crowdfunding Games I Backed In 2024

10. Luthier

This one I knew I was going to be backing. I’m pretty sure I met the designer who is friends with a good friend of mine years ago at this point. But the theme is fun as well, and from Paverson Games the company that made the hit game Distilled, I’m already intrigued. Luthier is about crafting instruments which is a unique theme as well. And the production, at least the renderings of it, look gorgeous and the whole aesthetic is great. It’s not my normal type of game, but with a cool theme and a great look, I’m very excited for it.

9. Floe

This game intrigued me for a lot of reasons. Mainly, the Brothers Murph had a great playthrough of the prototype. While the game has changed some, from the sounds of it, I’m still definitely excited for it. This is a travel the map, collect goods, fulfill contracts and do it again sort of game. And that is a fun type of experience to play. This is also a game with great artwork, so I’m excited to get something to the table that isn’t just a giant adventure of a game, but still has that sense of discovery with it as well.

8. Storyfold: Wildwoods

This is lower on the list than I thought it might be. Some of that is because it is a solo story adventure game. That should be higher, but it’s one that I know I won’t get for a while. I’m still waiting on Stonesaga from Open Owl Studios. And this one just wrapped up it’s crowdfunding in December. So my expectation for a timeline for the game is that I’ll get it in May or later of 2026. But the artwork, the card play, and just the overall aesthetic of the game is one that I’m really excited to get to the table and play and see what it’s all about.

7. One Hit Heroes

This is the first of a couple of superhero games that are on the list. This one Meet Me At the Table had a great playthrough showing how the game worked. I am excited for this one because it looked great on the table, but also easy to learn and play with a good amount of strategy. The strategy comes from how you make everything interact versus a lot of rules, and I love it when a game can pull of that. Plus it’s a boss battler game but one without a lot of minis to set-up, though it is a progression of games, and I have a boss battler on the list that isn’t coming up soon.

6. Super Squad High

This is one that I doubt is on many peoples lists of one that they anticipate from 2024. But I am excited for this game. It is about being a superhero, so that is fun. But it’s not just being a superhero. You are a superhero at a high school and you need to balance your real life of school, dating and more with dealing with a villain and figuring out who that villain is because it might be a classmate of yours. The whole theme sounds like a show that I’d watch and to get to play that game also sounds like a lot of fun.

5. Grimcoven

An Awaken Realms game, this isn’t the only one on the list. But I am very excited to get Grimcoven in, whenever it comes in. I don’t expect it for a little bit, I just got Dragon Eclipse which was a 2023 game. But Grimcoven is a boss battler game. But unlike a lot which are campaigns this one is only for that one shot game. The gothic horror look to it is awesome as well. So I suspect this is going to be one of those games I’ll stream from time to time and pull out for the game group when we want to just fight a monster.

4. Flash Point: Legacy of Flame

I love legacy games, and this is one that feels cool to be getting one. Flash Point is a game about stopping fires. Well, now they are making a legacy game about that. And I’ve held off on getting the base game because it’s kind of Pandemic like. And I find that I want more in that sort of game now, though I’ll gladly play them, so when they announced a legacy game, I was super excited. I hope that it’s going to be an awesome game with great story going through it and some fun twists along the way. But mainly, it needs to keep that game play that makes the regular game good.

3. Rove

Rove is another one of those big campaign games. There are certainly going to be a few of them on the list. And Rove is one that I’ve known about for a while and that it was coming to crowdfunding. This game is from the person who designed the fan expansion for Gloomhaven, which I still want to get my hands on. So when they branched out into something new and something they had designed I was curious. And the game looks like it’s going to be a cool campaign game. I hope that it’s a good design since the previous work was based off of something else.

2. Enormity

It’s a big campaign game, another shocker there, I’m sure. But Enormity is one that I had kind of glossed over until the Dice Tower crew was talking about it on Crowdsurfing. This one looks fun because it isn’t the normal. It is more sci-fi and horror, two things that I like. And it is supposed to be more modular as well as you play. I assume kind of like Shadows of Brimstone. You know your objective, that stays the same, but as you explore out the map could be different every time. And I like that for a game, though it does add to some set-up in the middle of the game.

1. Lands of Evershade

This one is at the top of my list for two reasons. Firstly it is an epic campaign game, and I love epic campaign game. But it is also an epic campaign game from Awaken Realms. I love games from Awaken realms like Lords of Hellas and Tainted Grail which is sitting as my #2 game of all time right now. So when they offer me a game like Lands of Evershade, a big campaign style of game, I know I will back it. And it is one of the more recent ones that I backed. I plan to add more on in the pledge manager, but even just the core stuff is going to be a lot to play.

What Else to Say

It was a great year for games on crowdfunding. I suspect that creators might have found it to be down slightly, but if you wanted a project, there is a project, just in my list, probably for everyone. Though a lot of them are going to skew more towards those heavily thematic games out there that I really love. And I know that there are more I could be talking about. I backed and got already some Button Shy solo games, some solo only games that come in basically a VHS case, and more. And I need to get those played as well.

Plus it is a great year for more content on crowdfunding for games you might already have. I have Agemonia, I got more for it. Mythwind, I got more for that game as well. Same for Stars of Akarios, and really there are even more that I could mention on that list. Now I just need to find even more time to play games because playing games is probably my favorite thing to do, that are eat great food with great friends, but who says that after you eat you can’t play games as well?

What games did you back on crowdfunding in 2024?

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Top 10 Anticipated Crowdfunding Games Arriving in 2025

10. Knitting Circle

This one is lower on the list because it’s not as much my type of game. But I could say that about the predecessor to the game, Calico as well. And I really like Calico. Now the two games are quite different, one is about quilting and one is about knitting. But beyond that, there are more differences as well as you are trying to complete various scarves and things like that in knitting circle to score the most points.

One element that I do like is that it is thematic to knitting. I’m not an expert when it comes to knitting so I’ll get it wrong, just from what I know it is thematic. And I appreciate too, that it lets you “mess up” as that is also thematic. Now that sounds slightly mean, but to miss a stich somewhere, that might happen, so this game has that as an element to it. I find that just fun and unique.

9. FLOE

FLOE was one that I hadn’t originally planned on backing. But when I watched The Brothers Murph play it, I knew it was a game that I was going to like. There is a bunch going on, worker placement, adventuring, and more to basically get resources and turn in those resources to improve what you can do and get points, if I’m not mistaken. What drew me in with it is the fun theme for it. And that idea of the adventure in the game. Plus the artwork adds to that as well.

8. Marvel Dice Throne: X-Men

It might surprise some people that a Dice Throne game is so low on the list. And honestly, I am very much anticipating this one. I love Dice Throne, it’s a top 10 game of all time for me, but because that, I own everything for it. And because I own everything for it, I’m anticipating it just a bit less than I would be some others. Also, I could just put down Dice Throne, I backed the new one as well, and I expect that’ll come out in 2025 as well.

But for the X-Men I’m just really excited for it for the characters. Yes, there is Deadpool, and I get why they added him as an extra character. He is going to be a wacky one to play, once in a while. But I’m way m ore interested in the other characters. And I think it’ll be obvious why, if you listen to 10 Minute Marvel, you know that I love Gambit and Rogue, so two the characters, and then Psylocke in there is a great character as well. Sure there is Wolverine, who I know a lot of people will love, but he’s lower on my list to play.

7. Super Squad High

Now another one that is a bit out there. But this one really drew me in for some reason. I think it’s because you can set most stories in a high school setting and no matter who it is, vampires, wizards, or superheroes, it’s going to make an interesting story. And then of course, this is a board game with that theme, which is interesting to me.

I also like that there are some interesting ideas behind it. Yes, you play as heroes trying to figure out which one of your classmates if the villain responsible for the crime wave, that makes sense. But you need to do things like still go to school with it, so you need to balance your time between schoolwork, fighting crime and your dating life, because there is a dating element to the game as well. I hope it’s a fun, silly, and thematic game.

6. Spire’s End: Rangitaki

The next game in the Spire’s End line, and you’ve seen my play Spire’s End and Spire’s End Hildegard on Malts and Meeples before. This is one that I like how the designer keeps on taking new stabs at choose your own adventure story games with some combat and other mechanisms in them. Plus the artwork on all the games are just amazing.

I think some of it too is the thematic world of the game. It’s very deep in this shared world that has been created across all of the games. I want to know more of what happened before, and while it seems like Spire’s End might be the finishing point, there is a lot of story that can be told as to how the world got there. And Hildegard does a good job of telling part of that story, so I’m hopeful that Rangitaki will continue to tell more and build on it.

5. Dragon Eclipse

Next up is the one Awaken Realms game on the list. I am tempted to put down Grimcoven as well, but I think that could sneak into the start of 2024, which is why I didn’t. Plus I am also very excited for Dragon Eclipse. And I know that it has started shipping out, the date says 2024, but I think it’s really a 2025 game. Maybe, if someone is lucky, it’ll show up in 2024, but I don’t know that is even possible.

This is a one to two player card battling game where you get dragons and battle them to capture more dragons. Does this sound a bit like Pokemon, it should. But you get to build up a deck of cards and use your dragons. And while it’s not a narrative driven game, there is some campaign element to it or story element to it for the thematic setting of the world. This is totally one I plan to stream on Malts and Meeples, when it comes in.

4. The Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era

Chip Theory Games now almost always holds my interest. I like Burncycle and Too Many Bones from them a lot. And I want to get Cloudspire to the table, I’m just not sure when I will. So when they announced an Elder Scrolls game with the the Too Many Bones system, I was interested.

I am not a big Elder Scrolls gamer, so it is not completely the theme that drew me in. But as people spoke about it, they talked about how it took the Too Many Bones system and made it simpler. Plus there is a campaign element to it as well that I like. There is in Too Many Bones as well, but this one is going to show a bit more story around it I believe.

And from what I know the leveling up is going to be a bit more dynamic in how you do it. By that I mean that Too Many Bones you wanted to get base stats a lot. Here I think you can choose between base stats or abilities.

3. Witchbound

This is one that I got to demo at the very start of it. And I really like this game. It is a point and click adventure game about becoming a witch. I get a bit of Kiki’s Delivery Service, maybe a bit of 8-bit adventure games too. But it isn’t an 8-bit artwork game, the artwork in it is amazing actually. And there is a lot that you can interact with.

I think that some people are going to find this game too simple. You find numbers on the board and combine them with different lines of dialog or actions. That is about it, so you need to figure out the puzzles of how things work to succeed. There is combat, there are mini games of sorts, I believe, but it is mainly the setting. This world is vibrant and exciting to play in. And the theme that there were witches, but they are gone and you become one, it’s a fun story idea.

2. Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread

Next up is one that I know I am going to get this year. It is on the ships now and reviewers are starting to get some early copies. This is a game that was long in the making. And it is actually one that I didn’t even back at the beginning on Kickstarter. I like the looks of the game and I did back then, but it was competing with a lot.

There is one particular element that brought me to backing the game. Or really, I think I should say that it is three. It is the fact that you play the game at three different levels. There is this bigger world map where you travel around for your adventure. Story happens there, but it’s kind of on this grander traveling level. Then you get down to a ton or something like that. And you interact with people and things like that there. But finally, you get down to a tactical battle level. You interact with movement and enemies and do the standard dungeon crawl. But the three together is great.

1. Rogue Angels

Finally, I have hope that it comes this year, but it’s been so anticipated for a long time. And it is one that I know the work is happening, so I’ve never had a concern that it might not happen. I left a game off the list that I want to get, but it’ll get here when/if it gets here. But Rogue Angels is an amazing story driven tactical space dungeon crawler. So of course it is the top on my list. And the story in the game is great. You can see my play it multiple times on Malts and Meeples as well.

One thing that I really like about it is how you play out actions. You put out cards and they have a cooldown on them. So if I use my great gun, it might mean that I now need to wait a few rounds before I can get it back. But I can also rest to move things down faster, but that means giving up an action when I could be doing something else.

I also like how the enemies activate. It is simple to do. But with that said, the enemies are not easy and you can easily get swarmed under if you stay in place too long. And I like that there are yellow and red enemies, so two different groups that will activate. Yellow then red and back and forth. But if you take out all of one color, the other is going to go at double speed, so you sometimes want to avoid taking out one group completely otherwise the other might just come in and wipe you out because they’ll arrive faster.

Final Thoughts

Like I said, there are more I could put on the list as well. I won’t go into them, but it’s one of those things, it’s tough to wait for the games. I feel like I should give a reminder here. Crowdfunding games will get there when and if they get there. Very few, I’d say this even wasn’t Mythic Games intent, companies go out of their way to screw over their backers. But it is like anything that requires creative ideas, it’s going to take time to get right and to get it to where the person wants it to be.

And for me, it’s doubly so with the games I back. I back games that are big with lots of story. So it might be a nice long time before they come out like Rogue Angels, Witchbound, which hasn’t been that long really, or Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread.

What is the game that you anticipate most coming in from crowdfunding in 2024?

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Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition – Top 10

10. Aeon’s End

• Published by Indie Boards & Cards in 2016
• Defend the town of Gravehold against a Nemesis and their minions by slinging spells around

To kick off the Top 10, let’s talk about one that has been in my Top 10 for a while and one that I have basically everything for. I’m guessing I’m missing a few promo cards, but Aeon’s End is one of my favorite deck building games.

This is a deck building game, tower defense, and boss battler all wrapped into one. The name of the game in this one is variety. There are other elements I like too, but variety is huge. Each mage is unique, each nemesis is unique and the market of cards that you create is unique. Everything about the game can be mixed and matched and give endless replayability. I also like that this is a cooperative game.

And, finally, I like this game best as a solo or two player. I know that it can play more, but with the turn system, it works better at lower counts. You draw to see whose turn it is. In the deck there are two nemesis cards, and one per player at four players, or two at two players. So you get these fun moments where it swings from the players getting four turns in a row to the nemesis getting three and now things look dangerous. It makes the game feel more exciting, it just works best at two players though because of that.

Buy Aeon’s End

9. Roll Player Adventures

• Published by Thunderworks Games in 2021
• Explore the lands, beat monsters and complete skill challenges in a world that remembers what you did

Now to a really big game we have Roll Player Adventures. They took the Roll Player system, tweaked it and gave us a story and adventure game. And I think that it works really well as a game, clearly, as it’s my #9. Though, like Aeon’s End, I’ll give a caveat that difficulty changes based on player count, which, isn’t a bad thing, but it something worth noting.

In this game you play through chapters of an adventure. To do that you are fighting monsters, doing skill checks, and reading story. Whenever it’s a right or a skill check you are spending cards and resources, your health, in different stats to try and complete a dice puzzle. You need to get dice of certain colors and certain numbers into specific locations. But, the game is smart and it limits you in how much you can do that, and it is what they try and use to scale, but like I said, I think that it’s easier with more.

The story is also a lot of fun. There are games on my list that have a bigger and darker story. And I like dark stories, dark fantasy can be a lot of fun, but it’s also fun to have stories that are maybe a bit sillier at times. And, I will say, they manage to create a story where it feels like it matters and continues along with the choices that you make.

Buy Roll Player Adventures

8. Dice Throne

• Published by Dice Throne Inc. in 2018
• Fight in a Mortal Combat style tournament by chucking dice and leveling up attacks

My #8 is “Battle Yahtzee”. By that, I mean that it is Dice Throne. This is a game that is played either as a head to head battle or as king of the hill. You get a hero, or character, that you play as. And they have specific abilities that you can activate by rolling dice Yahtzee style. By that I mean you get three roles, you keep some dice each time, and you see what you get at the end.

But Dice Throne is more than just a lucky game. Yes, there is an element of luck with rolling the dice. But the game often comes down to how well you can mitigate that luck. If you manage to get off your ultimate attack, well there isn’t much your opponent can do, of course that does mean that you roll all sixes. That’s very unlikely to just happen. But with cards and your combat points you spend to play them, you are able to manipulate dice, turn them to different sides, or get rerolls to try and land those attacks.

Plus the game offers a ton of variety. The first set is more standard fantasy. But then you get into other characters like a Tactician or an Artificer who do different things. And I own the Marvel set and am waiting on the Marvel X-Men set to come as well. You pick your favorites to get, or if you’re like me, you get them all.

Buy Dice Throne

7. Rogue Angels: Legacy of the Burning Suns

• Published by SunTzuGames in 2025
• Change the galaxy with a unlikely group of heroes in an epic sci-fi adventure

Now for a game that isn’t even out yet. Why do I have it on the list, because I have in my collection a prototype of the game. And I’ve even played it on Malts and Meeples. The game is basically set, through there are elements of the game that will change, but that’s mainly around components not around actual game play.

I love Rogue Angels. You know that by now because it’s on every list of Crowdfunding game that I’m waiting for. And yes, it will be again at the end of this year, most likely. This is another story, adventure, and combat game. And I really enjoy the story in it. I like having some campaign games that aren’t just another fantasy setting, and Rogue Angels gives you a good sci-fi setting. And I love how the combat, or mission element of the game works.

I want to say that this isn’t a game where every scenario is a go and beat someone up. No, this is a game where you might want to dive into combat. Or you might want to sneak through, and it all depends on the scenario. I love that for a game because I don’t always want to beat up the bad guys. And with how the game activates the bad guys, well, getting rid of the wrong bad guys at the wrong time just means you’ll be dealing with the other ones all the time.

Late Pledge Rogue Angels

6. Floriferous

• Published by Pencil First Games in 2021
• Create the best scoring group of flowers in this drafting game

Now we have the smallest game in my Top 10 list. But Floriferous was there last year and it is staying there again this year because I love what the game does. I enjoy a good drafting game, and I think that drafting makes sense in a lot of different games. But how Floriferous does it works for me because it combines drafting with building out your own scoring.

And the drafting itself is clever. You either draft a flower or you draft a scoring card from a column. The scoring cards are always at the bottom of the column, though, which matters for drafting the next column. Because the turn order for that next column is determined by the previous column you drafted from, aka, the higher you are up in the column the sooner you draft again. So yes, you need scoring cards, but that means you draft later next time.

I also want to call out drafting the scoring. I like it when a game does that because it offers a great decision point. When I draft, I might want that scoring card, but if you don’t have enough flowers, it won’t do much for me. And on the flip side, if I draft too many flowers I’m not going to be scoring anything.

Buy Floriferous

5. Slay the Spire

• Published by Contention Games in 2024
• Climb the spire, fight monsters and can you defeat them all in this cooperative deck building game

Next up is a new one to the list and it’s debuting all the way up at #5. Now it’s not the last new one to the list, there is one higher, though just barely higher. Slay the Spire is a video game that I love to play. In fact I’ve been on a kick of playing it recently. It’s a rogue like deck building game where you climb a tower.

The board game is the exact same thing. But it takes a solo video game experience and makes it multiplayer. In fact, while the solo is fun, I think that it’s even better two player or two handed. And I want to play it with more. Because you figure out a strategy of who wants to attack which enemies. Because each player has their own enemies that will attack them, but you can attack the other person’s enemies. So you might have more defense and handle it as well.

With all of that said, the game does change one thing. How some things activate is changed, so you’re not needing to keep track of “every seven turns” or “every three times you shuffle” but it makes it easy to keep track of. And they scale down everything. I like that because I don’t want to be keeping track of six enemies with 50 health each. So while the math is very much the same, the numbers are just lower.

Buy Slay the Spire

4. The 7th Citadel

• Published by Serious Poulp Games in 2024
• The Citadels are in ruins. How can you rebuild society and deal with the threats?

The other new to the list game and debuting at #4 is The 7th Citadel. I should have put it at #7 just to make it a bit more fitting. But I love this game and you can see me playing it for some sessions on Malts and Meeples YouTube.

This is an adventure game. These Citadels have fallen and now in a dangerous and post apocalyptic feeling world, though uniquely so, you need to survive. You play as leaders of a settlement has has formed out of the 7th Citadel. And now you need to deal with some threat that is coming.

The main mechanism is the same as The 7th Continent. You spend cards to try and complete checks, fight monsters, and deal with challenges. And the cards are going to be your life. Plus you are flipping over cards and exploring areas of the map and dealing with encounters that happen. But the game gives you more direction than the 7th Continent does as the threat gives you missions to go on as you build up your settlement for whatever that coming threat might be.

Late Pledge The 7th Citadel

3. Stars of Akarios

• Published by OOMM/Open Owl Studios in 2022
• Explore space, fight battles, and unravel the story of why you were attacked

This is the one that launched into the Top 10 last year and it’s sticking around. I love this game, clearly, but it’s another one of those big campaign games, and it’s one that’s set in space. But this game feels different than so many others. I don’t know why, but it gives me the feeling of stories like Ender’s Game and Space Dandy all wrapped into one with obvious nods to other sci-fi stories as well.

I really enjoy how they created a game that is split into three different element. The one, space exploration, is a bit weaker. There is some randomness to it, and I feel like I never found anything major on it. But I love the other two element. You get to have a 7th Citadel/7th Continent style exploration on planets. But instead of playing cards for checks you roll dice. And it’s a really fun time, but the biggest part of the game is space combat.

And I wasn’t sure how much I’d love the space combat. But I really enjoy it, it’s this great tactical puzzle as you use special abilities that you can only use so much. And then you spend dice to maneuver and you need to figure out how to even get into range to shoot the enemy and ideally in a flanking position. I love sitting there looking at the dice and trying to figure out how to make it work.

Late Pledge Stars of Akarios

2. Tainted Grail: Fall of Avalon

• Published by Awaken Realms in 2019
• The lands are returning to Wyrdness, you’ve been sent out to help Avalon survive, if you can

Now or one of a few campaign games that I’ve completed, at #2 we have Tainted Grail. And this is the base game and the two expansion campaigns. I love them all. I need to play Kings of Ruin as well, but I’m not sure when I’ll get to that because of, well, my #1 on the list.

But this game, let’s start off with the highest praise, has the best writing of any board game I’ve ever played. The story that it tells is amazing and for that reason we did play in story mode to be able to experience as much of that story as possible. I’ll talk about why in a little bit. This is a grim dark game, but it manages not to dwell on the darkness to the point where it’s overbearing but creates this amazing fantastical and dangerous world to deal with.

And let’s talk about that story mode and why we played that way. One of the criticisms of the game is that it’s too hard. There is too much grind and too much survival. That is what the game was advertised as, so why people thought it was bad, and not just not for me, when they got what they knew they were going to get, I don’t know. But story mode makes it easier, but not too easy. So you do need to engage with that survival aspect of the game, but you can delve into the story more so. If you find the game, get it, and I do recommend playing on story mode.

Buy Tainted Grail

1. Gloomhaven/Frosthaven

• Published by Cephalofair Games in 2022
• Battle monsters, explore lands, and build up the town in this epic campaign

Finally the number one stays the same. The #1 on the list is really Frosthaven, Gloomhaven and Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion. I don’t think it’s fair for them to be separate on the list. While Frosthaven does build on Gloomhaven and add in some elements like the town management, the core loop of the game is the same. I do think the added element of the town management would push it even a little bit higher than Gloomhaven for me though.

But the main part of the game is going into scenarios and trying to complete their objectives. This almost always includes killing some bad guys, and often times the win condition is kill all the enemies. Though in Frosthaven that is less often, though still the most common scenario goal.

The element that is the best about the game is the characters though. I love how every character is unique. And from the cards that you get to play, it feels that way. Sometimes you want to be that tanking character, or a fast damage dealer, or a support or healer character. And the games offer all of those.

And then the card play where you might want to go fast, so you can get in and out dealing damage quickly, or maybe you want to go slow to draw the enemies towards you, there is a lot of great strategy. I love picking cards, too, where I might plan to use the bottom and top halves in one way but then give myself the flexibility to change it. Needless to say, I love my #1 game.

Buy Frosthaven

Upcoming Streams

Just a reminder on my streaming schedule. It’s not just all my Top 100 Games (of all time).

• Monday night, time varies, I play different small solo games, though I might be looking to start up a campaign again. And generally the streams do start between 8 and 8:30 PM central time.
• Wednesday at 9 PM central is going to be my 200 through 101 next week. After that I’m going to do some videos looking back on 2024. So expect to see my Top 10 Games of 2024 and probably Top 10 crowdfunding games I backed in 2024 as well.
• Friday at 9 PM central my wife and I are streaming a playthrough of Baldur’s Gate 3. Join us for the adventure of Nina and Kaerok and see what choices we make.

The best way to know when we go live, though is to subscribe and click that notification bell. I can’t promise, and in fact it’s pretty unlikely, that I’ll have events to click on ahead of time. Though I do want to get better at it. I hope that you can join a stream and hop into the chat. And let me know what games in this list are your favorite or that you want to try.

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Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition – 20 through 11

20. Heat: Pedal to the Metal

• Published by Days of Wonder in 2022
• Fly around the track and manage your engine so it doesn’t over heat to win the race

This is a great racing game. It is a nice blend of simplicity. You play cards equal to the gear that you are in for your movement. But also some complexity as you need to be smart with how you handle the curves, straightaways, how much you push your engine and when you cool it down. That cooling down part of the game is great as it really makes a difference in how you play and when you push it. Plus there are modules you use, like drafting some cards for your deck, that make the game even more fun, or you can do a series of races which is also great.

Buy Heat: Pedal to the Metal

19. Planet Unknown

• Published by Adam’s Apple Games in 2022
• Terraform your planet and increase your technology better than your opponents can

Planet Unknown is a polyomino game where you are terraforming a planet. You can play it in the basic mode where everyone is doing the same planet and same tech track, or you can do unique planets and tech tracks. I love the unique ones and I think that’s the way to go after the first game. But Planet Unknown has more than just laying out tiles, how you decide which tile is picked for you is amazing. Whomever is the leader that round turns a lazy susan full of tiles and whatever one is pointing to where you pick from, those are your options. So you can stick someone with something or sometimes get the perfect thing.

Buy Planet Unknown

18. Clank! In! Space!

• Published by Dire Wolf in 2017
• Race through a spaceship but don’t try and make too much noise as you grab a treasure and get out

This is a push your luck deckbuilding game, and I enjoy both of those elements to the game. I find that pure push your luck doesn’t always work for me, but add in deckbuilding a mechanism I love, it’s great. You build up your deck to move and grab a treasure, fight monsters, and buy more cards that are worth points. But you also need to be aware of how noisy you are. If you’re too noisy the villain, Lord Eradikus will start drawing out your cubes, if you clank, and dealing damage to you. And you might not make it out before you die.

Buy Clank! In! Space!

17. ISS Vanguard

• Published by Awaken Realms in 2022
• Explore a new solar system while you manage your crew and your ship

ISS Vanguard is a big campaign game and one that I’ve played on Malts and Meeples. Not the whole way through, but far enough to give you an idea of how it plays. The game is interesting because it plays over two parts. Part of the game is exploring planets and discovering why humanity was called out to this location in the stars. The other part is managing your ship. I was worried that managing your ship wouldn’t feel important, but it’s a great element to the game and makes it feel even more thematic.

Buy ISS Vanguard

16. Vampire the Masquerade: CHAPTERS

• Published by Flyos Games in 2023
• Enter a world of vampires and darkness as you play across missions and try and figure out what is happening in Montreal

Chapters is choose your own adventure RPG in a box. I love how it gives you this great story filled with depth and grit. And it also gives you tactical combat and dice chucking. It feels like a great blend of things that I love in board games and in RPG’s. The story is well written and while there are definitely issues with it there is an app that should be helping fix that and an upgrade pack for it. But even without that, the game is fun, and the app is free so the few spots it’s really busted should be fixed. Plus, I want to play a dark vampire game, and this gives me that in spades.

Buy Vampire: the Masquerade – CHAPTERS

15. Metal Gear Solid

• Published by CMON in 2024/2025
• Sneak around the base and battle only when you need to complete missions

Yes, there is a game on my list that isn’t out yet. Spoilers, there might be another one as well coming up in my Top 10. But that is because I’ve gotten to play the final version of the game and I feel like I’ve had enough time with it. I love this game as it’s a tactical minis game where you can fight. But fighting generally is going to be noisy and messy and you’ll be swarmed. When that happens, well, it’s probably game over for you. So instead you need to be smart, sneak around, and try and avoid the guards the best you can or lose them. All while being a pretty simple game to play.

Coming Soon

14. Lost Ruins of Arnak

• Published by Czech Games Edition in 2020
• Explore the lands, find treasure, fight monsters and discover what adventure awaits you

Lost Ruins of Arnak is a deckbuilding game. It is a worker placement game, and it’s a exploring adventure game. For me all of those elements come through. And I love the puzzle of trying to manage your two workers you get place, knowing when and where to place them, buying cards, and risking fighting monsters. Because you need to do it all, and the game isn’t that long in terms of how many rounds it is. But if you’re smart, you can stretch it out for a lot of points and a lot of chaining actions. The Expedition Leaders even adds more fun to the game and more variability as well which I love.

Buy Lost Ruins of Arnak

13. XenoShyft Onslaught

• Published by CMON in 2015
• The base is under attack by bugs, you need to build up your defenses and work together to defeat them

I think I’m the champion of XenoShyft, but I really like the game. It’s another deckbuilding game, but it’s a cooperative one. And I think that cooperative element and how incredibly interactive the cooperation is, that is what makes the game stand out to me. Plus it does a clever thing where you’re never drawing dead with money, so you can always buy cards and bolster up your defenses. Because everyone needs to be able to defend their side of the base so the bugs don’t overrun it.

Out of Print, but you can find it on eBay

12. Marvel Champions

• Published by Fantasy Flight Games in 2019
• Heroes battle villains in this Marvel Superhero game

I love Marvel, we all know that. And Marvel Champions is one of my favorite, if not my favorite Marvel themed game. What I love about this one is that you feel like you are the hero. And not only that, you need to think about being the hero but balancing that with the alter ego. If you stay in hero form the bad guy will beat you up and probably take you out. But if you are in the alter ego side, they don’t know who you are, so they’ll go back to completing their scheme. And that’s not great as well because you can’t blow your cover in alter ego form.

Buy Marvel Champions

11. Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game

• Published by Portal Games in 2018
• Take on the role of detectives and work together, take the notes, and try and solve the cases

Detective for me is my favorite deduction game. I like deduction a lot, but Detective just makes it really immersive. In the box I’m showing it has five cases that all connect into something big and impressive. And you use information that you took notes on from one case and use it in another. I think by the end of all five cases I had between 12 and 15 pages of notes that we’d look back at. And it uses a computer system as well to let you do things like compare DNA, interview witnesses, and more. The game is just this great thematic detective game for me.

Buy Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game

Upcoming Streams

Just a reminder on my streaming schedule. It’s not just all my Top 100 Games (of all time).

• Monday night, time varies, I play different small solo games, though I might be looking to start up a campaign again. And generally the streams do start between 8 and 8:30 PM central time.
• Wednesday at 9 PM central is going to continue my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition. There is one week left, which is going to be two Wednesdays out. After that I’m planning on doing some look back and look ahead videos and smaller solo games or things like Balatro and Slay the Spire.
• Friday at 9 PM central my wife and I are streaming a playthrough of Baldur’s Gate 3. Join us for the adventure of Nina and Kaerok and see what choices we make.

The best way to know when we go live, though is to subscribe and click that notification bell. I can’t promise, and in fact it’s pretty unlikely, that I’ll have events to click on ahead of time. Though I do want to get better at it. I hope that you can join a stream and hop into the chat. And let me know what games in this list are your favorite or that you want to try.

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Catch up on previous videos here

100 through 91
90 through 81
80 through 71

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition – 70 through 61

70. Sagrada

• Published by Floodgate Games in 2017
• Build the most beautiful stained glass window

This game is just a great drafting game experience. The ease of play is wonderful as well because you draft a die and place it while other people are going on drafting their own dice. Especially with the 5-6 player expansion, which can be worked into the lower player counts, it makes it so you don’t need to spend time with what others are doing. But both ways to draft the dice and place the dice are mainly the same and really good. Plus the way you need to play the dice to not have colors or numbers adjacent makes a great puzzle.

Buy Sagrada

69. Mesozooic

• Published by Z-Man Games in 2018
• Slide your dino-themed park together in this light filler game

Mesozooic has a couple of great elements to the game. Firstly it’s drafting, and I really love drafting. But the game is more than that. You also need to complete a slide puzzle. You see you draft 11 cards and shuffle them up to create a 3 tall and 4 wide grid with an open spot. Then you slide them around frantically for 45 seconds like a slide puzzle to get the best dino-park that you can. It’s silly, light, and a very fun time.

Buy Mesozooic

68. 7 Wonders Duel

• Published by Repos Production in 2015
• Draft cards and build wonders in this head to head game

I like this game better than 7 Wonders. Mainly because I played 7 Wonders a few times at two and it isn’t a good game. 7 Wonders Duel is great that way, as expected. But the game is more than just a better version, I think that the drafting is very clever. I love the trying to avoid revealing a card that is good for your opponent. And some of the cards being face down so unknown until they are revealed. And the two side ways to win with science and military add in tension to the game as well. You can’t just draft your best engine, even though you want to.

Buy 7 Wonders Duel

67. Icecool

• Published by Brain Games in 2016
• Help your penguins sneak out of class and get fish in this dexterity game

Yes, the theme of Icecool is that simple and I love it for me. I love the flicking element of the game, it’s just fun. And I really enjoy the silliness of the game. This is one of my favorites for a late night of gaming. Just sit around and flick penguins and have a laugh. It is possible to get very good at the game, but it’s also a game where players can just have a great shot by pure luck. To me that is what makes it a fun game for all ages.

Buy Icecool

66. Super Fantasy Brawl

• Published by Mythic Games in 2022
• Choose your team and face off against an opponent in an arena

This game is coming back, kind of. I say kind of, I expect that most of the game is going to be the same, but CMON bought it from the now defunct Mythic Games. So I want to see what CMON is going to do with it. Because I love the simplicity of the game. Super Fantasy Brawl has you activate three different colors of cards each round. And you can do some on defense as well, but that means you won’t do as much on your turn. Then you either try to knock out your opponents for trophies or complete goals, or most likely, do both. The game is strategic but also fast and easy to play.

Follow Super Fantasy Brawl: Reborn

65. Trailblazers

• Published by Bitewing Games in 2023
• Create the best hiking, biking, and kayaking routes

Another drafting game on the list. This is the last one for this time, but there are four and possible five if you count drafting your team in Super Fantasy Brawl. In this one you draft cards to create trails. I love the trail creation aspect of the game because you really need to strategize as to how you’re going to do that. And I like how the game becomes more complex in your trail creation throughout as you add in other hubs that you need to start and leave from for each of the three routes.

Buy Trailblazers

64. Mind Up!

• Published by Pandasaurus Games in 2023
• Play the right number to collect and create sets of colors

This game is so easy to learn and play. I actually wrote about it yesterday in that exact context, so you can checkout the article after this. But it’s simply play out a card simultaneously with the other players. Then you look to see who played the lowest number, they get the lowest number from the middle. And after that it’s about trying to get the colors you want into the highest scoring column you have. The whole thing is just a really easy to play and simple time. I explain it better in the video, by the way.

Buy Mind Up!

63. So Clover!

• Published by Repost Productions in 2021
• Can you find the right pair of words based off of one word clues?

This game is always tricky for me to explain. Basically you have cards with four words, one on each side. And you have four of them making this little four by four grid. Each side is going to have two words, if that all makes sense and you’re picturing it. You need to create a one word clue so people can guess and put it back into that same order. Not that hard, well, it is when the words don’t connect at all. And there is going to be a mystery fifth card added in. But if you give the right clues you can lead people down the right path to recreate it.

Buy So Clover!

62. The Castles of Burgundy

• Published by alea in 2019
• Take a new kingdom and turn it into a bustling land

A game that I wouldn’t have expected that I like. But I really enjoy The Castles of Burgundy, a game of using dice to purchase and place new things into your land. As well as using them to sell goods, and get workers that let you manipulate your dice. There is a bunch going on and I feel like I need to nail down my strategy for it. But I really enjoy what this offers and it’s a new type of puzzle for me to spend time diving into as a game. I even have the fancy version coming that alea did with Awaken Realms.

Buy The Castles of Burgundy

61. Letter Jam

• Published by Czech Games Edition in 2019
• Work together to figure out what everyone’s letters are because you can’t see your own

If you know what Hanabi is that will help with it. But Letter Jam is a game where you can’t see the letters that form your word. Other players can see one of them at a time but they can’t see theirs. So you give clues to help people narrow down what their letters might be for their jumbled word. Of course everyone needs to get theirs figured out by the end of the game, but it’s cooperative so the challenge is great but fun to tackle.

Buy Letter Jam

Upcoming Streams

Just a reminder on my streaming schedule.

• Monday night, time varies, I play different small solo games, though I might be looking to start up a campaign again.
• Wednesday at 9 PM central is going to continue my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition for another six weeks. After that expect this to be when I play my small games.
• Friday at 9 PM central my wife and I are streaming a playthrough of Baldur’s Gate 3

The best way to know when we go live, though is to subscribe and click that notification bell. I can’t promise, and in fact it’s pretty unlikely, that I’ll have events to click on ahead of time. Though I do want to get better at it. I hope that you can join a stream and hop into the chat.

Send an Email
Message me on Twitter at @TheScando
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Support us on Patreon here

Top 5 Anticipated Backed Gamefound Projects

5. Witchbound

Let’s start out with what is going to be a game that I stream. Witchbound is a light game with a click and choose adventure to it as you combine items to pass tests, read story and explore maps. But you see everything on the map so you can just try and go anywhere or do anything.

But the game play, while very simple, is a ton of fun. It’s really cool to just explore a world, not worry about a ton of difficult skill checks, more just figure out what you need to do to succeed. I’m hoping that the artwork and story are progressing well and that the game when I get it will be as good as the demo I played.

4. DANTE: Inferno

Inferno is another big game, and that is going to be common the this list and the Kickstarter one. I expect I won’t see DANTE: Inferno for a while as it was just crowdfunded this year. But what I saw from it I really liked. From the makers of Chronicles of Drunagor, this game is quite different. It is more of a bass battler versus a campaign dungeon crawler. I like the sound of that, though. It is still a campaign and you make choices for the adventure, but your combat is against a boss. The Dice Tower and others have playthroughs that really drew me into how the game works and how dynamic the actions can be.

3. Dragon Eclipse

Now from Awaken Realms, and is this the only one from them, though there’ll be one (maybe two) on the list of upcoming projects. Dragon Eclipse is supposed to feel some like a CCG/TCG and some like Pokemon (which is a CCG/TCG) but with a dragon theme. It looks really fun and the aesthetic works for me. That is true with basically everything that Awaken Realms does. I’m even considering the deluxe version of Castles of Burgundy, a euro game. But I haven’t said much about this one, just that I know that I’m excited for it.

2. Planet Unknown Supermoon

Another one that I don’t remember a ton about, except this one I know the game well. Planet Unknown is an amazing tile placement game of terraforming a planet and going up on tracks. The Supermoon expansion adds some moons you can terraform instead but doesn’t change up the game that much.

Now that I’m thinking about it, it is way to long since I played this game. I want to get it to the table again soon because the experience is just a lot of fun. And this is going to add more to the box without adding more to the game. And I get a cover for the lazy Susan that holds the tiles, which is going to be amazing.

1. The Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era

Finally we have The Elder Scrolls from Chip Theory Games. This is a new game but leverages their Too Many Bones system. I like that system and I like Too Many Bones, but the aesthetic isn’t my favorite. Here is a setting and aesthetic that I am going to enjoy more. And it does offer a bit of a campaign. Though, I think the campaign is more of some stories that you can string together to give you that short campaign and levelling experience. It isn’t a long 100 hour game or something like that which in theory should make it hit he table easier.

Honorable Mention

I got one of course, it’s common at this point. But Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread is a tricky one to place for me. I late pledged it through Gamefound, so I am putting it here. This is a big campaign game, which I know is a shocker. But I can’t wait for this one because it plays on three different levels. You play on a story map, that then you can drill into settlements and things like that, and then you go into a house and it can be a dungeon crawler. It is a long sentence to say that. I like that idea and just looking at playthroughs, I can’t see how it won’t be for me.

Final Thoughts

So what have you backed on Gamefound? Again, I can certainly do more than just five, but I wanted to limit it some. I’m going to sneak a couple more in here, but the CMON God of War game that I am excited for. There is Robomon, a robot Pokemon collector sort of game and adventure. I know that one has had a bunch of changes, so I’m tentatively excited for it. Oh, and lest I forget, The Witcher: Path of Destiny. I need more shelf space.

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