To Be Played Board Games I Own Ranked

1 ISS Vanguard

This is one that I really want to play. It’s Awaken Realms and they make giant and amazing games, I really like all of theirs I’ve tried. And this one is a massive space adventure sandbox game. You can pick where you go as you try and figure out the mystery of why humanity was signaled about this information and what is going on. It sounds amazing. It sounds highly impressive and ambitious so I want to give it go. It might be one I stream, but I kind of want to do this in a group.

2 Lands of Galzyr (Already Played Since Writing The List)

Lands of Galzyr is one that I will be playing soon, I might even have played it by the time this article comes out. January 4^th is going to be the first day on Malts and Meeples. So if you are reading this after that, you can checkout some game play. I’m planning on doing a few sessions of what feels like a nice relaxing board game. And one that has a story that you can play through without being as much of a campaign game. It’s more bits of story that happen over time versus a massive overall story .

3 Middara: Unintentional Malum – Act 1

But speaking of massive overall stories, we have another campaign game in Middara: Unintentional Malum. Just Act 1 is out now, but I have the other two pre-ordered. This like I said is a campaign and it’s set on another planet but is more fantasy. It’s a mix of both fantasy and sci-fi and real world which is interesting and probably best described as an anime setting. The game play looks fun, and it’s so big that I’m not sure it’s a candidate for Malts and Meeples. But I can’t want to get it to the table.

4 Clank!: Catacombs

A new game, just about arriving, or should be in the next week. Clank! Catacombs is just another version of Clank! But this time it has a map you build out as you go. I think that’s a cool twist, so I want to get it into my collection, give it a try and see if I keep all of the versions. But I love Clank and this isn’t the only time you’ll see it on the list.

5 Cthulhu: Death May Die

Another bigger game, this one is a cooperative adventure to defeat a great old one. But it isn’t a campaign game, this is a one off scenario game which is interesting and I want to get it to the table. This one might not be too hard to table because of that. But I need to learn the rules still. Plus I want to do the push for madness so I grow stronger, but not too mad so the character is eliminated.

6 Deep Madness

To add to that, another one that’s been in my collection for a bit, and I think this is kind of a campaign and kind of not. You’re exploring an under water base where everyone has gone missing. A distress signal came through but what is going on. Of course there are monsters coming from a rift and now you’re fighting Lovecraftian monsters hoping to complete your mission and get out of there. There are a number of scenarios which is fun as each gives you slightly different things to do.

7 burncycle

Another one off game, kind of like the previous two. burncycle is a Chip Theory game that looks really interesting. You are robots trying to into a corporation, hack the network, complete objectives and do all of that without being seen. The story of the world is great too, robots took over, then humans made a comeback, and now you’re the robots trying to survive which I think is just fun.

8 My Father’s Work

Yet another big game, there are some smaller ones for sure on the list and some coming up, but you know me. My Father’s Work is a worker placement game where you are ty ring to complete your father’s work in some experiment that is suspect at best. Think like making Frankenstein’s monster. It’s played over three generations which is cool because you can take some stuff forward but not everything. And there is a ton of story in the game as well.

9 Clank!: Legacy – Acquisitions Incorporated

The other Clank! Game on the list, this one is the Legacy version. It maybe should be higher, but I don’t know when I’ll get to it. I love Clank! In general so I want to get it to the table. But because it’s a legacy game, I need to find a group and time to play it with. I will get it played eventually.

10 Etherfields

Another big Awaken Realms game. I didn’t go all in on it, but I still have a lot to play. You are in a dream world, diving into different dreams to complete objectives. And from what I’ve heard the dreams are nice and different so the game gives you a good variety of what you are doing. Which I mean, they should be, because some dreams are nightmares and others are fluffy bunnies, so you want a good mix.

The Rest of the List

And I’m stopping writing up on them, but you can see the rest down below. There is a wide variety of games. And some of them are more kids games which I’m going to be most apt to play as my kid gets older. So stuff like Rhino Hero Super Battle, though that might get played with adults. Or Coconuts and Hey That’s My Fish are all examples of ones I’ll get to eventually.

11 Hadrian’s Wall

12 Solomon Kane

13 Cat in the Box: Deluxe Edition

14 Uprising: Curse of the Last Emperor

15 Welcome to the Moon

16 Aquatica

17 Sea of Legends

18 Terraforming Mars

19 Nemesis

20 Bullet

21 Riverside

22 Get on Board: New York & London

23 Betrayal Legacy

24 Tiny Turbo Cars

25 Forgotten Waters

26 Descent: Legends of the Dark

27 Astra

28 Everdell

29 Maximum Apocalypse: Legendary Edition

30 The Ratcatcher: The Solo Adventure Game

31 Hanamikoji: Geisha’s Road

32 Bargain Basement Bathysphere (Played)

33 Ghosts of Christmas

34 Set a Watch: Swords of the Coin

35 Spirit Island

36 Folklore: The Affliction

37 Call To Adventure: Epic Origins

38 Imperium: Legends

39 Massive Darkness 2: Hellscape

40 New York Zoo

41 Chronicles of Crime

42 HEXplore It: The Forests of Adrimon

43 Tidal Blades: Heroes of the Reef

44 GROVE: A 9 card solitaire game (Played)

45 Abyss

46 Western Legends

47 Mechs vs. Minions

48 Heroes of Land  Air & Sea

49 Radlands

50 Horizon Zero Dawn: The Board Game

51 18 Holes: Course Architect (Played)

52 Cascadia

53 Bloodborne: The Board Game

54 Fantastic Factories

55 Escape the Dark Sector

56 Valor & Villainy: Minions of Mordak

57 Dungeon Party: Starter Pack

58 Escape the Dark Castle

59 Zombicide: Undead or Alive

60 QE

61 Furnace

62 Space Base

63 Doodle Dungeon

64 Vengeance: Roll & Fight – Episode 2

65 Three Sisters

66 Formula D

67 Menara

68 Splitter (Played)

69 Welcome to Dino World

70 Marvel: Remix

71 The Bloody Inn

72 Zoo-ography

73 Via Magica (Played)

74 Arcadia Quest

75 Flick of Faith

76 Adventure Land

77 Alien Frontiers

78 Time of Legends: Joan of Arc

79 Mythic Battles: Pantheon

80 Black Rose Wars

81 Catacombs & Castles

82 Kabuto Sumo

83 Shakespeare

84 The Dragon Prince: Battlecharged

85 Champions of Hara

86 Loup Garou

87 Boomerang

88 Wingspan

89 Chronicles of Avel

90 Camel Up (Second Edition)

91 Thornwatch

92 Pioneer Days

93 Cowboy Bebop: Boardgame Boogie

94 Tannhäuser

95 Crash Octopus

96 Mariposas

97 Dragonscales

98 Paper Tales

99 TAGS

100 The Faceless

101 Jamaica

102 Reichbusters: Projekt Vril

103 6 nimmt!

104 Heaven & Ale

105 Periodic: A Game of The Elements

106 Silver & Gold

107 Star Realms

108 Dinosaur Island: Rawr ‘n Write

109 Blueprints

110 Codinca

111 Can’t Stop

112 Rhino Hero: Super Battle

113 Longboard

114 Kingdom Rush: Rift in Time

115 Vault Wars

116 Descent: Journeys in the Dark (Second Edition)

117 Cockroach Poker

118 Danger Park

119 Summer Camp

120 WWE Legends Royal Rumble Card Game

121 Papillon

122 Palm Island

123 Starship Samurai

124 KeyForge: Call of the Archons

125 Escape the Room: Mystery at the Stargazer’s Manor

126 Fireball Island: The Curse of Vul-Kar

127 Journey: Wrath of Demons

128 Coconuts

129 Hey  That’s My Fish!

130 My Hero Academia: Plus Ultra! Board Game

131 Boy Band Builder: The Card Game

132 Dinosaur Tea Party

133 In a Flash Firefighters

134 What Do you Meme?: Family Edition

How Many Will I Get To This Year?

That’s a great question. My hope is to get my unplayed games below 100, that was my goal last year. And this is where I was at the end of 2022. So clearly I didn’t do that. Some of it is that I buy games as well. Some might leave never having been played. But I really do want to play most if not all of them. And some of them lower on the list will get played before ones higher on the list.

Do you have a favorite from this list that you think I should get to? Or which one of your to be played games do you want to get to first?

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Top 10 Campaign Games

10 – Marvel Champions: The Mad Titan’s Shadow

I had to put one of the campaign boxes onto this list for Marvel Champions. There are a number of them, a Spider-Man one, a Red Skull one, Guardians of the Galaxy, soon to be Mutants as well. But I went with The Mad Titan’s Shadow just because that box feels the most epic. And I can take anyone into that one and it makes sense thematically.

I’ve heard that these are lighter campaigns which is not a bad thing. It means that I could and maybe will, set it up sometime and just play it over a few evenings. And you know I’m going to be running Thor up against them, or maybe Doctor Strange. There are enough characters know that it might actually be a tricky decision.

9 – Massive Darkness 2

I picked this one up because it did have a campaign. And I want to get it to the table, at least for scenarios fairly soon. I like that you level up a lot in this game, and the minis are cool, the classes are cool, the weapons are cool.

Plus, this is also a lighter game. You don’t need to know nearly as much how to play it as some of the other games on the list. That means that even if I don’t play it as a campaign soon, it’s probably one I can sit down and knock out a scenario with some friends easily in an evening.

8 – Reichbusters: Projekt Vril

One that I also need to sort some more, which is why I haven’t played it yet. Reichbusters came out with an errata pack for improved card wording and rules. But because that was coming, I waited on playing it. Now I own it and, well, I need to sort the cards in.

This is going to be a game of sneaking into enemy base and trying to stop their experiments. Think kind of Howling Commandos vs Hydra, if I were to take it over to Marvel. There are crazy experiments going on, and monsters you need to fight. But every mission has an objective and if you’re too noisy, well, things are going to go sideways for you fast and you’ll get swarmed. So it’s not a guns blazing game, which I think sounds interesting.

7 – Betrayal Legacy

I did put a few legacy games on the list. Legacy games are campaign games too, and it surprised me a little bit, but the one at the bottom of that is Betrayal Legacy. I love Betrayal at House on the Hill, even with it’s wonky scenarios and problems with sometimes the traitor being too strong, sometimes the other characters. And I want to see what the legacy one has to offer.

I am really curious about the legacy aspect of it. You play as a family versus a character coming back generation after generation. I want to know how that plays out in the game. I think it could offer some cool game options and ways to progress and tell a bit story.

6 – Descent: Legends of the Dark

Moving back to just a campaign game, we have Descent: Legends of the Dark from Fantasy Flight Games. This is going to be their Descent, but not third edition, game, of exploring tiles, fighting monsters, and interacting on the map.

Like a lot of bigger Fantasy Flight games in recent history, Mansions of Madness, Journeys in Middle-Earth, and Star Wars: Imperial Assault, there is an app piece. I like it for this game, it was a bit much in Journeys in Middle-Earth, but in Descent it offers some fog of war. It is in that category of games like Massive Darkness 2 for me. It looks like a blast to play as a fun dice chucking game.

5 – Folklore: The Affliction

Now moving into another bigger game, and I think the top 5, with the exception of the legacy ones, are the heaviest of the campaign games that I own, at least right now. Of course there are more coming in. But Folklore: The Affliction is going to be a game that borrows a lot from pen and paper RPG’s. You roll more than a standard six sided die. And that is intriguing to me.

Plus, I like that it’s a darker setting. I don’t need all my fantasy to be grim and dark, but sometimes that is what I want. And since I always am the Dungeon Master for D&D, I believe that it’ll give me that RPG feel without me needing to be in charge of everything. Though, if I paly it solo, I will be, but I’ll be doing the same thing as the players.

4 – Aeon’s End: Legacy of Gravehold

Another Legacy game and this one just came in from Indie Boards & Cards. I played through the first Aeon’s End Legacy on stream. And I had a blast with that game. Plus, just in general I really like Aeon’s End, so much so that I keep on backing and tracking down everything for it.

Legacy of Gravehold is going to be another legacy campaign. Where I knew a little bit of the campaign for the original Aeon’s End Legacy, I know nothing about the story this time. I just know that the box is bigger and heavier. That probably means more cards, but I’m hoping for more story as well.

3 – Clank! Legacy

And the other legacy game is Clank! Legacy. This one is higher for me just because I want to play it with some friends. I love the Acquisitions Inc theme on it as their game play is hilarious. And I suspect that the humor in the game will be great as well. Plus, I like the system that it is built upon. I prefer Clank! In! Space! to Clank I think, but the legacy version with the fantasy theme, I’m still there for it.

This is a deck building push your luck game. You are going into it trying to complete missions and get treasures. And it’s competitive in that you are trying to be the best so that you can end up with the franchise within Acquisitions Inc. I have to imagine that the whole of the story is going to be goofy, and it sounds like there is a lot to unlock so that is exciting as well.

2 -Middara: Unintentional Malum

A huge box with two more huge boxes on the way. I give that as my excuse for not getting it to the table sooner, I want Acts II and III to show up as well. But really, it’s just such a table hog and such a big game, I am not sure that I want to play it solo, but I really do want to play it.

Middara has more of an anime style to it’s game look. The artwork, and from what I can tell, the world building and story look fairly anime. It is going to be a leveling up, dice chunking, monster fighting, dungeon crawling game. And I think it’s going to be one that I find to be a lot of fun to get to the table and play. But like I said, I suspect the game would work best with four players, or two players controlling two characters each.

1 – Stars of Akarios

Call me cult of the new if you want, and it’d be fair in this case. But I am excited to plays Stars of Akarios. This is a big space exploration and adventure game. What really intrigues me is how it is split into two parts. There is that space exploration and then you can be down on an planet as well. That is intriguing.

It also looks like it uses a combination of cards for modifying your attacks and things but also uses dice. And just the production quality on the game is great. While it is a big game, compared to some of the others, it looks like it should be easier to play solo. And I want to get it to the table and play it on Malts and Meeples.

Final Thoughts

I say this almost any time I talk about a campaign game. And I feel like I can redo this list in different ways pretty often. But I have a lot of them coming in. 15 more campaign games in fact, which is a lot. Now some can be played as more of a one off situation such as Primal: The Awakening. Otherwise might be smaller sit down and play a campaign of it in a sitting, Spire’s End: Hildegard. But most of them are going to be much much bigger than that.

Just to show everything that is coming, and there is a lot, in alphabetical order, we have:

1. The 7th Citadel
2. Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread
3. Chronicles of Drunagor
4. Divinus
5. Ehterfields
6. Frosthaven
7. HEL: The Last Saga
8. ISS Vanguard
9. Mythwind
10. Oathsworn: Into the Deepwood
11. Primal: The Awakening
12. Sleeping Gods: Distant Skies
13. Spire’s End: Hildegard
14. Valor & Villainy: Lludwik’s Labyrinth
15. Vampire: The Masquerade – Chapters

What campaign games do you own, if any, that you want to get played?

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124-101

100 – 76

75 – 51

50 – 26

Unplayed Board Games – 25- 1

25: Folklore: The Affliction

Folklore is a campaign game that’s been on my shelf for quite a while. It’s one that I know I’ll likely need to play solo to get played so it might show up on the Malts and Meeples YouTube channel coming up here. But it’s basically an RPG type game in a box. Like a HEXplore It, it is going to give more of that die rolling feel you’d expect from a pen and paper RPG. Plus it’s about vampires, werewolves, and ghosts, fun stuff that I like.

24: Fox in the Forest

The smallest game in this section, Fox in the Forest is a two player trick taking game. I recently played the cooperative version of it and had a lot of fun . Fox in the Forest is competitive but one that works really well with two. I believe it balances out some of that by making taking all of the tricks a bad thing, so no shooting the moon. Or it needs to be done in a specific way. I like trick taking, just need to figure out which trick taking games will stick in my collection.

23: The Quacks of Quedlinburg

Another not huge game, The Quacks of Quedlinburg has been a really popular game over the past few years. It is a bag building game, by that I mean you add things to a bag, in this case cardboard tokens. And then you draw them out, and you are trying to make your potion grow. But if you get too many bad ingredients in there, it explodes and you get fewer rewards. But the further you push down the track of adding ingredients, the more points you get.

22: Res Arcana

Res Arcana is an engine building game. It’s a smaller one though with a limited number of cards and the main goal of the game is to figure out how to turn out points. You do that through artifacts and spells and things that you might get out in front of you. The question of the game is, who can get their engine running the best.

21: Western Legends

Western Legends is back into the big games, not a campaign, but a massive sandbox game. In this game you play in the wild west and you can be a good guy bringing in trouble makers, delivering cattle, things like that. Or you can be a bad guy, rustle cattle, rob the bank, and things like that. And you can switch in the middle of the game. Western Legends lets you do anything in the pursuit of points and create your own wild west story.

20: Mechs vs Minions

Mechs vs Minions is an interesting game because it’s created by Riot Games. They are known best for League of Legends, and now Arcane a Netflix show set in that world. Mechs vs Minions is kind of set in that setting, from what I can tell. But it’s a programming wave where you set your Mechs on a path where they can take out the minions. The game plays in scenarios and it might be kill everything or it might be get this objective and get back out. It’s fully cooperative, and one that has been a grail game for me.

19: Cthulhu: Death May Die

I like Cthulhu, don’t know if he likes me. But Cthulhu: Death May Die is a game, kind of in the vein of Arkham Horror and Mansions of Madness, but this time from CMON. And it’s about investigating, fighting cultists and other horrors, and getting to be just insane enough that you’re powerful enough to kill the elder god at the end. Or maybe you’ll just go mad completely or die. I like the theme, and the difficulty level of the game looks really challenging.

18: Uprising: Curse of the Last Emperor

Speaking of a game that looks challenging, Uprising: Curse of the Last Emperor, is a 4x game in a fantasy world. I already had a game like that on the list, Heroes of Land, Air and Sea, but this has a twist on this. You don’t fight against each other. Instead, you all need to end with better scores than the two bad factions to win the game. This cooperative nature of the game really drew me to it. Because it’s not just everyone do better, but how do I do well enough but also don’t hinder your chances.

17: Black Rose Wars

Black Rose Wars is an intimidating game to get to the table. There are lots of cards in the game, and it’s actually another programming game. Like Mechs vs Minions you’re deciding what you do. But with this one, it’s a free for all. You are summoning monsters to the board, laying traps, slinging spells, and blowing up rooms. The first mage to a certain number of points, I believe, wins the game. But it’s more about the crazy and powerful things that you can do which makes me want to try it.

16: Descent: Legends of the Dark

Another big game, Descent: Legends of the Dark takes up basically a full Kallax cube by itself. And the box says Act 1 on it. This is going to be a story driven dungeon crawler of a game. But it’s from Fantasy Flight, so they used what they knew from their apps for Mansions of Madness, Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth, and more to make even a better app. This really helps with the fog of war or not knowing what’s behind a door as you play. I’ve done a demo, but not enough to count as a play.

15: Betrayal Legacy

Betrayal Legacy is a game that’s been on my too play list for a while. It has two great things about it, first it’s a legacy game, and I love legacy games an their progressing story. Secondly, it’s based off of Betrayal at House on the Hill. A game that I know isn’t balanced, but it is still a game that I love. Not too many games do horror too well, and Betrayal often feels like a horror movie in so many great ways. So I’m excited to see what can be done with a bigger story.

14: Loup Garou

Now we’re looking at a game that is a book. Loup Garou from Van Ryder Games is a game in that you go through and make choices. You play as a character and they have stats. But in a lot of ways, it’s a choose your own adventure. It’s a graphic novel, so you read the text, look at what you can do, and that determines where you flip to. I don’t know why, since I got this at GenCon in 2019, I haven’t just played this. It’s solo only and it’d be easy to get through, probably with dying. I need to play this ASAP.

13: Under Falling Skies

Another solo game, Under Falling Skies was added to my collection more recently. This is almost Space Invaders the game. But it seems really intriguing as a puzzle, plus there is a comic that comes with it and a mini campaign. You place down dice in the game to activate different things. The trick is that the weaker things won’t do as much, but the stronger things, alien spaceships descend faster. It’s finding when you’re perfectly ready to do that one big thing, from what I can tell.

12: Nidavellir

Another smaller box game on the list. Nidavellir is a set collection and auction game. And there is one reason it is so high, and it’s not the Norse Mythology. But it is because of how the auction works. You have five coins. You use three of them to bid and two are at the bottom. If you put a zero as one of your bids, you can trade in the higher of the two left over coins to get the value of the two left over coins. So you can upgrade your money as you go. When do you tank a bid, taking whatever is left, to do that.

11: Sea of Legends

I think from here on out is all big games, or mainly. It isn’t all campaign games, though. Sea of Legends isn’t a campaign game, but it is an epic story game of pirates. What drew me to this game, besides wondering about the story the game promises, is three things. Those three things set up your story, but at the start of the game, you pick a Captain, a Nemesis and a Lover. And that all determines your story. So you end up with a lot of variability. Plus it’s pirates and adventure on the seas, so it’s a theme that I love and look for in board games.

10: Middara: Unintentional Malum Act 1

This one could be higher on the list. Middara does a lot of things that interest me. It is a campaign game. It does fog of war well. There is massive amounts of story. The theming is crazy space, fantasy, anime, all things that I’m down for. And let’s face it, I could just say it’s anime because a lot of anime is space fantasy and crazy. But this one looks really cool to get to the table and massive to get to the table. I need to find a group to play this one with.

9: Deep Madness

Deep Madness is a game that I can blame on Rolling Solo. This is a game that is not easy to track down, mainly because it was just on Kickstarter. And I own almost everything for it, but I haven’t played it. The madness should give you some idea as to the sort of game, but what I like is that this is set on a deep sea base. And monsters are coming in and have wiped out everyone. The corporation who built the base is now sending the team down to figure out what is going on. It’s a theme and horror that I love so much, I just need to play it.

8: Lost Ruins of Arnak

Now we’re back from campaign style games. Though, Deep Madness can be played as a scenario, but they are kind of linked. Lost Ruins of Arnak is a deck building worker placement game. I like deck building, and worker placement isn’t my normal thing, but not bad. Lost Ruins of Arnak just has a cool Indiana Jones vibe to it that drew me in. And I think the deck building and theme will make it work well for myself and my group.

7: The Ratcatcher: The Solo Adventure Game

So when I said that there might be one smaller game left, this is it. It’s an interesting game in that it’s a solo only game, three of them on the list, but it’s a big box. It honestly feels like a bigger box than the game should have. In this you are trying to catch rats and get cheese. If the rats get too much cheese, now a big bad rat comes out onto the board, and things are going to get scary. It’s again a solo game, so one that I should get played.

6: Solomon Kane

Back to massive games, Solomon Kane is one that’s been on lists of games that I want to play for a while. But some of that was also that I wanted to buy it. It came and went on Kickstarter while I wasn’t too active there. And it’s been delivering last year and now wave two this year, and I managed to get wave one stuff for it.

In Solomon Kane you don’t play as Solomon Kane, you play as virtues guiding him. And I think that concept is interesting. You can play it solo with one super virtue, or each player gets a virtue in a multiplayer game. And then you take him through stories. Really interesting with how it works with not controlling the main character.

5: Roll Player Adventures

Kind of a cheat for the list, I really like Roll Player Adventures, but I’ve only kind of played it. Roll Player Adventures, I got to play a demo of it at GenCon in 2019 while they were still doing playtesting of the game. But the game is a blast, and the story, I like, because it isn’t too heavy. It’s a big story game set in the Roll Player world, but also a dice manipulation game when you drop into combat.

I know I’m going to be diving into this one soon. So I’m excited to get it to the table. I ordered the character backstory pack for it with the special quests that you can get from it for each character. I think that is going to make the whole thing even more immersive, which is great.

4: Nemesis

Another horror game, Nemesis is, from what I’ve heard, the closest you can get to Alien the board game. There is an alien infestation on your ship, and you need to complete your objective and then take out all the aliens or launch yourself out in an escape pod. But you don’t want the aliens to get to Earth, that’s for sure. But you want to end up there, so can you get the engines to launch you there.

3: Dwellings of Eldervale

Another non-campaign game, in fact a number aren’t in the top, but they are big games. Dwellings of Eldervale is that. This one really interested me because it has giant monsters, but also you are doing worker placement. But I really like how the worker placement works. You unlock new workers but also your workers become your dwellings. And when you pull back workers they do things as well, so it’s not a waste of a turn to pull back workers.

2: Terraforming Mars

Super high on the list and a big game in how long it takes and how big it plays, Terraforming Mars is so high because I really like Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition. I know that the games are different, there is more take that or randomness, and area control and you have a much bigger board that you’re using in Terraforming Mars. But I really want to play it and see how I like the engine building that goes on in that game.

1: Destinies

Finally, we have Destinies. Destinies is a game from Lucky Duck Games where you are playing through a story, but unlike a lot of story games, this is competitive. And each of you is trying to complete a destiny of yours. And it is a race to see who can complete theirs first. What interests me are some of the mechanics a roll over a certain number to get successes is cool. Plus you can manipulate that. But also that you need to pay attention to the story on other people’s turns because they might find something to help you.

To me, that’s a good game in that it’ll keep you engaged with what everyone is doing. Even if I’m not taking my turn, I need to know what you are doing as well. I might not be actively interacting with anything, but I still need to pay attention. And if a game can do that, I really want to play it.

Final Thoughts

That’s the whole list, all 124 of them. I could have had one less if I counted my playtesting of Roll Player Adventures. But also, that is a game that’s extremely high on my list for wanting to get played. Definitely a lot more big games up here. Though, I think outside of the campaign games, most of them can get played. And I could see, if things fall right, even getting one or two of those to the table this year. Like I said, I think Roll Player Adventures will be getting played soon.

Which one would you play first?

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This is going to be a list article, with all my unplayed games ranked. But before I dive into that, I want to talk about some of the terms that I just used. Mainly shelf of shame and shelf of opportunity. They are the same term phrased in different ways. Let’s dive into them and then the big list of games to play.

Shelf of Shame vs Shelf of Opportunity

This is a term that I’ve heard thrown around for a few years now. The idea that games on your shelf have this title. First off, I think this is kind of silly. Games that you haven’t played don’t have a special spot in existence. Now, maybe they do have a special spot on your shelf, but they aren’t held in any sort of light. They are just a board game.

But the first term I heard is Shelf of Shame. The idea behind this is that you feel bad since you haven’t played all your games. This is silly. I go back to my talk about collection versus a hobby. Know what you have on your shelf. For me, board games are a collection and a hobby. That means it’s fine to not get to every game quickly. They are part of my collection. But I play them, as they are part of my hobby as well, and hobbies get used or worked on.

Then came the term Shelf of Opportunity. Shelf of Shame is very negative, and opportunity sounds much better. But I, again, find this not much better. Yes, they are games that you play eventually. And yes, it spins it in a positive light. But both terms keep a focus on the fact the games aren’t played.

What Do I Call Them?

I call them what they are. Board games to be played. A board game is just an object. In labeling them either way, it places power on that object. Yes, one puts it in the light of a game being an opportunity for something new, and new exciting opportunities are good. But it leaves the pressure on actually playing the game.

Like I said, I play games. I buy games. Board Games are a collection and a hobby for me. I own games that might take a long time to get played. Campaign games where I play one at a time or two, and I am already playing two. Those wait for when I have time, and that is okay. I feel like the label places a cloud, no matter what label, over the games, and in the end of the day, games are just games.

If I never play a game in my collection and it collects dust for five years. I shouldn’t feel bad about leaving that opportunity out there. I most definitely shouldn’t feel shame. It is a game and I play games. So I play other games and not the game that is sitting there. I am still enjoying the hobby without playing every game I own.

So Why Write This Out?

I gave myself a challenge at the beginning of the year. Not because I feel guilt about games that I haven’t played. But because it is fun to play games. And I want to play games, I want to experience new games, and I want to cover new games.

For me, my challenge isn’t to get all the games off the shelf. It isn’t because I feel like I miss out on an opportunity. And I care not about shame from it. For me it’s about trying new things and almost making a game out of it. If I don’t make it by the end of the year, I don’t care. I play these for fun.

Unplayed Board Game List

Let’s Talk About the List

124 Games on it, and my goal is to get it down below 100 by the end of the year. You add in a bunch of Kickstarter games coming in, and you can see why it is a big list and also a challenge. And of course, then, there are campaign games on the list. If we look at campaign style games, I think we’re sitting at 14 on the list. And that is a lot of games to play through a campaign of, so that isn’t going to happen. Though, with Sleeping Gods coming off the list to start the year, it will some over on Malts and Meeples.

There are also some kids games on the list. Right now, I don’t think I will play those this year. Monza looks fun, but the toddler isn’t quite ready for it. But the toddler is also three, so who knows, maybe by the end of the year, we can play those games a bit more. But right now I’m not expecting to.

I also think it’s important to note that a lot of big games are at the top. Those are the ones that I’m most excited to play and cover. And some of them should be getting played soon. Probably after this weekend I’ll be lining up a time to get started playing Roll Player Adventures.

To go along with that, there are a lot of solo games as well. I could play, in the top 20, around 75% of them solo and some of them are solo only games. So I need to start knocking those out first, because they are high on my list. That won’t be how I get under 100, though.

Final Thoughts

I think that it is fine to challenge yourself to play your unplayed games. I think it is fine to limit how many unplayed games you own. When that becomes the focus or the obsession, I think that is when we start to lose the focus on what we are doing. Or when tie to it other emotions, like shame.

When I see people post about clearing their shelf of shame, I am sure it feels good for them. But on the flip side, in the comments, you see people feeling guilty about their unplayed games. I am not that way. I don’t feel guilt over that. And you shouldn’t either.

This is an odd article, I wanted to talk more about the games, and I will soon. But before I could do that, I think it is import to talk about the shame or guilt that can be thrown around in the hobby. Not always intentionally malicious but always harmful.

Also, let me know what game you think I need to try first. What is your favorite on the list that I have too low, or that you know I would like or should try?

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Today, though, I want to take a different tact. There is a lot about why you should get rid of games. But not all games fall into the category of play it, then get rid of it. Or why did you buy it in the first place, you already have 20 campaign games, you don’t need all of Kingdom Death Monster. I believe games can fall into three different categories in your collection. The games that you need to keep, the games you want to keep, and the games you should probably get rid of.

The Board Games You Need To Keep

Now, I use the word need here. There are no board games that you truly need. Board games are a hobby, and no hobby is a need. That said, there are some games that you will want to keep no matter what. These games fall into a few different categories or reasons why you keep them.

Firstly, you play the game often. So board games that you play a lot, you can most definitely keep those. You need them because you play them. That one is simple enough to grasp.

Next, you might keep a game because it’s a grail game. But even this is not a great reason to keep a game. If you aren’t playing a grail game, why do you need it on your shelf? Sometimes, though, a game is just so hard to come by that it won’t be worth the hassle of getting it back. Especially if it’s a game that you found before it was hard to get or just stumbled across. Also, if the grail game still brings you joy.

For example, I’ll remember stumbling across Tannhauser at a used book store, or getting the minis for Dice Throne Adventures off of Facebook Marketplace, as how I got the game. So there is joy of the hunt for those games. And having that on your shelf and reminding you might be enough.

That brings us to the final reason you might need a game, it brings you joy. This is a game that you look at, possibly a grain game, and you see it and it just makes you happy. You don’t feel regret that you aren’t playing it, you are just happy you own the game.

The Board Games You Want To Keep

Now, the final reason of need is also the main reason that you might want to keep a board game. The game brings you joy. But these are the games that bring you less joy than other games. An example for myself, owning Xenoshyft: Onslaught, and Dreadmire brings me joy. I don’t really need two things that are basically the same game. I should play both and pick my favorite.

So it is more of a want to keep both? They bring me joy. Another way to put it is that while you might have a lot of the type of game you love. I own a lot of deck builders and a lot of stuff for a lot of deck builders. Do I need Xenoshyft, Aeon’s End, Ascension, Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle and more in my collection? No, I don’t play all of them all the time. But deck building brings me joy.

This can also be the games that you maybe don’t love, but you play. Another example from my collection would be Splendor. I think it’s an okay game that I’d play but never seek out to play. I feel like I’ve played it and I don’t need to again. But, my wife likes the game, and she can pull that one off the shelf and teach and play it. That is a game I want to keep because other people like it and want to play it. This really works for games that people ask to play.

One important thing though is that games you want to keep shouldn’t be games that weigh you down. Some games when they are on the shelf, you look at them and you feel bad that you aren’t playing them. Those games fall into the third category.

The Board Games You Should Get Rid Of

This is the hardest category, there are reasons to think you shouldn’t get rid of any game. What if someone wants to play that one game that has been collecting dust for years. You got a good deal on a game, so it’d likely cost more to get it back. Or it’s out of print, so it’ll be more difficult to track down later.

Before we pick apart some reasons to keep, let’s talk about some reasons to get rid of a game. The most obvious one is that you don’t play it. If you don’t play it, why do you keep it? Does it bring you joy? Okay, but does it bring you enough joy to eat up a spot on your shelf? Is it in a genre that you just adore, well, maybe keep it. But sometimes it’s better to know your putting a game into the hands of someone who will play it.

Honestly, that is the reason that you get rid of a game, you don’t play it. But to add another twist on that, it weighs you down. That’s the idea that you look at the game and you feel bad that you aren’t playing it. And it feels like it’s too much work to learn the rules and play it, but you feel bad you aren’t. Get rid of games like that. They are a mini black hole on your shelf and soon they’ll start sucking the joy out of other games around them, because you always see that one game.

But now let’s tackle some of the excuses that you might be using to keep games around.

What If Someone Wants To Play The Game?

This one is simple, they can buy it. Or we can make it slightly less simple, they can let you know they want to play it and you can buy it. This is something I want to work on this year, the idea of getting a game just in time. Some games I want to keep on my shelf because they get played, but if a new game comes out, let’s say So Clover as a party game example, I can buy that right before a game night. I don’t need to buy it two months or two years before I’ll play it.

It Was Such A Good Deal Though

So, what does that matter if you don’t play the game. Buying a game because it “was a good deal” still uses money that you could be spending on other things. Even non-board game related things. And if you sell the game now, or trade it, you’ll get money to buy a board game or part of a board game that you’ll actually play. Or something else that you actually need. If or when you want to play the game again, you can buy it again, probably on sale again.

It’s Out Of Print, It’ll Be Hard To Find Later

It might be hard, but it won’t be impossible. And if you are savvy with selling it, you will break even when you want to get it back. And this is still a game that you’re not playing. It might even be a game that you don’t like that well. So why would you want it to eat up some space on your shelf. Like the game that was such a good deal, this is money that is just sitting there. But in this case, it is more money that could be going into a game that you will play.

This is one that i really do see so often, it’s the idea that people don’t love a game, but it’s hard to find. That is a bad reason for it to be in your collection. Just because it is rare isn’t going to make you like it more. Let someone else who is having trouble finding a game that they like and want to play, get the game. Sell your copy, and then get a game you will play.

It’s My Favorite Type Of Game

But does it bring you joy? Or does it weigh you down? If it isn’t bringing you joy, that doesn’t matter that it’s your favorite mechanic. I don’t own Dominion even though I love deck building games. Now, in all fairness, I don’t like Dominion as a deck building game, it is a game that kind of plays itself for me. I do not need it in my collection because I won’t play it. The other ones I do pull off the shelf from time to time all of them.

Let’s Run Through Some Examples In My Collection

So, like that whole long title says, I want to use some games in my collection as an examples of different things.

Gloomhaven

When was the last time I actually played Gloomhaven? Well not this year, and not in months. I have beat the campaign and I don’t intend to go back and play it again anytime soon.

But it isn’t going to be leaving my collection. This is a game that I absolutely love. Even if I never come back to it again. I like having it on my shelf to think about all the great fun I had playing it. This is a game that brings me so much joy. Plus it’s marked up and has stickers, so while I’m sure someone would like a cheaper used copy, the return isn’t worth losing that spot of joy on my shelf.

Xenoshyft: Onslaught

This is a simple one, I play the game often. Now, what determines often might be different for different people. I think I played it 3-4 times last year, and when I played 70+ different games and 100+ were Orchard, that is pretty often.

The Blood Inn

Now this one is trickier. I haven’t played the game yet. Technically it is part of my goal to get down to under 100 games in my collection that I haven’t played. And I do want to play it, the theme is fun and I think I’d enjoy the game. I just need to play it and see if it is a game that I like.

Marrying Mr Darcy

This is kind of my stand-in for Splendor. This is a game that my wife backed on Kickstarter and I do like playing it. It isn’t that far off of my top 100. But it is a game she can easily pull off the shelf and teach and play with people. And that happens fairly often. So that one won’t leave the collection for that reason.

Betrayal at Baldur’s Gate

Finally we have Betrayal at Baldur’s Gate, and this one I think is actually going to leave my collection. You know I love Betrayal at House on the Hill. And Betrayal at Baldur’s Date is the same thing, just the fantasy version of that, the D&D version. And I love D&D. But if I were to pick one of the two games, Betrayal at House on the Hill will get played every time before Baldur’s Gate. And I have Betrayal Legacy that I need to play as well. So there are two games ahead of Betrayal at Baldur’s Gate.

But does it give me joy? Meh, I don’t feel like it’s a weight, but it also doesn’t make me smile every time I see it. It is just more of a game and game system I know I love in a package I like slightly less than the original version. And it’s a game that if I want to get it back, I can.

Final Thoughts

So we actually found a game during this that can leave my collection. Some people say that as you start culling it can be addicting. It feels like a weight leaving your shoulders because you don’t need to worry about playing that game. I can see that to some extent, but that’s not why I cull. And I think, to start, it doesn’t feel like that. It feels bad that you are selling a game that you didn’t play as much as you wanted to.

I cull games and sell games for a few reasons. When I sell a game it means that someone else can enjoy that game. If I’m not playing it, now someone who really wants it can play it. I’m passing on the joy of board gaming to someone else. Plus I get money or store credit, and now I can get a game I want to play even more.

And I really mainly do it for that last reason. I want to find a game that works better for me. If a game doesn’t get played or is just fine for me, why keep it in the collection. Instead, let someone else play it and quest for that next game that is great for me.

Do you find it hard to get rid of games? And do you have games that you love but you know you won’t play, but they still stay anyways? Let me know what those games are in the comments below.

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This also comes from DrGloryHoundd talking about the same thing when they, him and GloryHoundd, think about backing Kickstarter games. The question he asks quite often is when backing a game will it replace a like game on their shelf. They have their go to worker placement game(s). If the back another worker placement game, it needs to be better than the previous ones to stay on their shelf. But let’s get to the main question before we dive into some reasoning for adding or not.

How Many Board Games Do You Need Of Each Type?

This isn’t a number that anyone can really say. Now, that’s a cop out answer in some ways, but I think it comes down to the gamer. Lets say that someone only plays party games, they might want to have 20-30 different party games so they can have a big rotation. And that person only needs party games because they only play party games.

I, on the other hand, do not need that many party games. This is for two reasons, firstly, I don’t only play party games. I play all sorts of games and that means that I will buy and want a more diverse game collection. Secondly, since I don’t play only party games, that means that I don’t burn through the content on party games nearly as fast. So I don’t need all the content.

This is really true with how I game in basically any type of game. I don’t need a ton in any particular type because I play most types. That means that unless I really love a game, it’s going to take a longer time for me to fully explore it. But that’s getting beside the point, let’s talk about some of the reasons to or not to get some games.

Why Get More Or Not?

There are a number of reasons to get more in a type of game or not. Let’s start with the one thing to consider that I’ve already really touched on.

Is There A Spot on The Shelf Next To Other Similar Games?

This is the question that DrGloryHogg is always asking. And I think for a lot of types of games, this is something to strongly consider. Especially if you have a big game collection. My game collection is sitting at just over 400 with what I own for base games and expansions. That’s a lot of games, so I need to ask myself, if I get another deck building game will I play it over on Aeon’s End, Xenoshyft: Onslaught, Ascension, or Clank?

But not only if I’ll play it over them, but will it make it into the rotation. Does it do something that sets it apart so even if I keep and play all the others that I’d be playing this new deck building game? Which actually leads into the next question.

Does It Do Anything Different?

So you think that there might be a spot on the shelf for it. Not that it’d bump out a different game, but that it can get added. Why is that? Does the game just fit into that niche that you love so much, or, does it do something different?

I think when consider what game to buy if a game does something different or unique to what you’ve done before, that means that there might be room. If it’s just more the same type of game that you already have, then you have to ask will it replace the old favorites.

But let’s look at deck building again. Lost Ruins of Arnak has deck building in it. I bought it because Lost Ruins of Arnak is a worker placement and deck building game. I mention that I have Ascension, that’s just pure deck building, Clank is deck building and push your luck, Xenoshyft: Onslaught is deck building tower defense, and Aeon’s End is deck building, tower defense, and a boss battler.

Do You Need More Of Your Favorite Type Of Game?

I think one thing to consider is how much you like the type of game. I don’t need that many worker placement games in my collection. There’s a simple reason for that, I don’t pull them off the shelf because I don’t gravitate towards that type of game. I want a game with narrative and more high moments, in my opinion. Now, I don’t hate worker placement euro games, I am just never going to gravitate towards them. So I have a few that I like in my collection and it’d take something special, or the theme of beer, to get added to my collection.

On the flip side, I really love story driven and adventure games. That is why I am debating about Agemonia now. With games like 7th Continent, Midarra, Gloomhaven, Clank Legacy, Betrayal Legacy, Forgotten Waters, and more already in my collection, do I need another game with a lot of story? Add in the fact that I have Oathsworn, Frosthaven, ISS Vanguard, Etherfields, Isofarian Guard, and again even more, do I need another adventure game? This is really where I start considering differences as I mention above.

Can You Get It Later?

This one is fairly different but also an important consideration. Can you get the game later? This is something I talk about fairly often with crowdfunding games. And I won’t dive into all the details on it because, while, there are a lot and that is it’s own article. I talk about most of the points in my article on whether or not to late back a game which you can find here. But even for retail games it does matter.

Why, because over time games generally go down in price. I say generally because when a game gets extremely popular it can be more expensive on the second hand market. Everything for Battlestar Galactica costs $600+. Spire’s End was going for $150 for a $50 game. There are obviously exceptions but for most games you can get them water. So for a retail game, consider if you want/need to play it now. Or can you wait until you’ve played another game of it’s type enough times that you are done with it and then you replace it.

Final Thoughts

Like I said towards the beginning, there is no right number. But I think that it is something to be mindful about when purchasing a game. I keep on going back to how DrGloryHogg talks about it. Will it replace something already on my shelf. Because I might have room for more board games but how many do I have room for?

I think most hobby board gamers would be perfectly fine keeping every game we ever bought. Why, because there is an element of collecting that goes on as well. But we don’t, generally, have that room. And we don’t generally have that money. When I do a point of order/sale article it isn’t always because I’m 100% done with a game, it’s that I want to try something new.

How do you decide if you need to get another board game?

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Numbers

A’s

B’s

Betrayal at Baldur’s Gate

So the next one will be another game in the same family, but I wanted to keep them separate because while I like Betrayal at Baldur’s Gate and feel like it gets some things better, I prefer the other one. This one is a semi-cooperative (or fully cooperative) exploration game where you are taking Dungeons and Dragons type characters through Baldur’s Gate, a town, and exploring, finding items, omens, and events. Eventually there’ll be enough omens and a poor roll will happen and a haunt will begin. This will either be fully cooperative, 20% chance, or one person will be the traitor. The game changes to trying to stop whatever bad thing is happening to Baldur’s Gate.

Status: Played

Betrayal at House on the Hill and Legacy

This is the original, plus the newest all lumped into one section. I really need Covid to be over enough to get Betrayal Legacy to the table. But I’ve played the regular game a lot, and I really like it. It’s a janky, sometimes broken game, but I love it, because it’s a wonderful horror game that feels sometimes like a real horror film as you explore the creepy house and wait for the haunt to happen, and sometimes it feels like you’re the Scooby Gang in a bad horror movie because of how weird things are. There have been some scenarios that haven’t worked well, but most of the time people end up having fun with it, and I’m really excited to try Betrayal Legacy.

Betrayal at House on the Hill: Played
Betrayal Legacy: To Be Played

Blood Rage

This game was one of the earlier area control games that I played, Risk was the first, but most other games I had played up to that point from more modern board games weren’t area control. I love Blood Rage because it has area control, but that’s less of a thing for it. Instead, it’s all about figuring out that combo of upgrades, fighting, and quests that are going to get you the most action points and the most points overall so you can win the game. It feels like it should be a very confrontational game, but it always plays less like that and is really interesting as to what strategy you end up picking. This game also sells itself well too on the table because it just looks interesting and it looks as epic as it is. I like that it’s a game that is epic in a reasonable play time without being a campaign as well. I have the Gods of Asgard expansion that I need to play with sometime.

Status: Played

Blossoms

This is a primarily two player push your luck flower game. I picked it up because it looked simple and cute, and it definitely is that. The game you are basically pushing your luck to see how much you can grow your flowers before you cut them. The taller they are, the more points they are worth, but if you draw one of the flower types that you don’t have planted and can’t plant, then you bust and it’s the other person’s turn. So do you cut a decently tall flower or risk pushing just a bit further but also risk not cutting a flower on your turn. It’s an interesting choice that I think works well, it would work less well if the game took longer, it says 30 minutes, but I think it should go even faster than that.

Status: Played

Boomerang

This one you might have seen recently in a Point of Order. This is a draft and write game where you are drafting cards to fill in spots on your map of Australia to score points. It’s pretty standard roll and write in what it does on the sheet, but the drafting of cards means that you can be strategic, taking a card that might score someone else more points if there’s nothing that great for you. But because I just got this in, I haven’t had a chance to play it yet, of course, but it’s a roll and write style, and I tend to enjoy those a lot.

Status: To Be Played

Boss Monster: The Dungeon Building Card Game

This was a game that I originally played someone else’s copy while I was getting into the board game hobby. I liked it because it has some interesting strategy and I liked old computer games like this one portrays where you are going through a dungeon, fighting/dealing with whatever is in that room and going onto the next one. This is a twist on that in board game form, and one where you aren’t the heroes, but you’re the boss monster at the end of the row trying to create a dungeon that can do enough damage to take out heroes. My one knock on this game and that keeps it from being played that often is that it has “take that” elements to it. By that I mean that you might have something planned that’ll work out well for you and I can with a card just be like, “nope, not happening” and I might get more cards like that than you do or I might play them all on you so it doesn’t seem as fun. But one thing I really do like is that you are attracting different types of heroes, and the person who has the most of a symbol in their dungeon gets that type of hero, and you know which heroes are coming. But you might not be able to defeat that hero and too many wounds, you die and are out of the game. So you kind of have to get into the head of your opponents at times and create ties so that you don’t take damage.

Status: Played

Brew Crafters; Travel Card Game

I honestly don’t know a ton about this one, but I do want to play it. It was given to me as a gift, and it just hasn’t gotten to the table yet. But it’s about brewing beer and as a fan of both brewing and drinking beer, I am interested in the theme. It looks like it should be a fun little game, but I need to get it to the table.

Status: To Be Played

Bring Your Own Book

This was a game that Kickstartered pretty early on, I think it might have been game 3-4 that I backed. It is a party game where there’s a person who is “it” like in most party games who is going to pick their favorite. Everyone else brings (picks) a book to use. The person who is it reads a prompt and then everyone else has some time to dig through their book and try and find a sentence or part of a sentence for the response. There’s a limited amount of time, and who knows what book you decided to bring, so sometimes you can find the perfect thing, or thematic thing, and sometimes it is a dry bit of technical reading that is hilarious. This game suffers like the Apples to Apples and Cards Against Humanity types that you need to know your audience. How do I tailor my response for the person who is it. But like Stipulations, which I enjoy, this game changes, you might will eventually see the same prompts, but a line from a fantasy book versus a biography, versus a D&D adventure book versus a technical manual, those are all going to be really different.

As always, the two questions, which is your favorite from the B’s, and what, based off of this and my previous part of the list, should I look at getting or playing for the letter B?

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Let’s get to the list:

10 – Sword & Sorcery
This is a big dice chucking ameritrash campaign game where you take your group of heroes of old who have been brought back in the nations time of need. You get to level up, get new skills and attacks and generally be pretty awesome as you chuck dice and go through a pretty simple story. The game really gives you a lot of dice to chuck and a lot of cool abilities to use. Just in the base game there are plenty of characters to checkout and you can get a whole lot more in small character expansions or in the bigger box story expansions. This is probably one of the most classic in terms of story that you’ll find for a campaign. It is a bit fiddly, but the upkeep and monster actions are fairly simple and the story is small enough that you don’t feel like you’re spending all your time adjusting the board and looking up story elements in the book, but the initial set-up can be pretty slow.

9 – Risk Legacy
Probably the campaign that has the least amount of story in it. However, the board changes in a legacy style as you play and you can unlock things as new things happen in the game to create even more weird challenges. The story of this game really comes from the players as you face off against each other over and over again for points in this Risk based game that allows you to win not from taking over but by getting victory points for taking out your enemies bases and completing missions. Each game goes pretty fast, which is enjoyable, and you feel like you’ve gotten that Risk dice chucking combat done, but without it overstaying it’s welcome. Plus, unless an odd situation happens, you’re always going to be able to hope back into the game and possibly mess someone up and get back into contention, versus being eliminated. Not a ton of depth to this campaign, but a fun time.

8 – Star Wars: Imperial Assault
The Star Wars dungeon crawl, Imperial Assault offers you two ways to play. First, you can do it with someone running the empire and working within the game to create scenarios and a story that you play through. Or you can be completely cooperative and play through the game using an app that helps you with your book keeping as to everything the empire needs to do. This was the precursor to Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth in what it was doing with the app. The story is fun, and what I really like about this story is that it’s adjacent to the original trilogy story, at least out of the core box. So you don’t play as Luke, Leia, or Han, and you can’t kill of Darth Vader or the Emperor, but they might show up in your story as someone to help you or someone to run away from. It’s fun to see how they can weave that together and create a fun experience of a campaign.

7 – Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle
Another not that story driven one, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle, has you play through a campaign of the books, getting new threats that you’re raising to finish and new bad guys you’re trying to beat. This is a deck building game that builds on itself as you play more and more games of it, there are seven total games to play out of the base box, one for each book, and you gain new abilities and new cards to build you deck in each one. It starts out simple, but eventually has you focusing more into what you can do really well. You get to play the main characters the base box has Neville, Ron, Hermione, and Harry, and take them through their times at Hogwarts. A downside is that while the game is simple, the longer you go, the more bad guys you have to beat.

6 – Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game
One that I just got into recently but this game has so many things that I love. First, there is a digital component, not that that makes the game so amazing, but because it makes it more immersive as you’re trying to “solve” the case put in front of you. Then with that, you’re also using your own deduction skills, I really like using deduction and puzzling through things, even if I’m not great at figuring out the puzzle all the time, right away. There is so much going on in this game, story wise, that you feel like you’re in it trying to actually solve this case. It reminds me a bit of procedural crime TV shows, but you get to be the main characters. And while I’m not a huge fan of those shows, being a character in that show is fascinating. And while we were investigating, we were getting cards and things to be added into future cases because of what we’d studied before so out of the base box, with five cases, you develop a whole story as these cases tie together.

5 – Arkham Horror: The Card Game
Arkham Horror is an interesting one to put on the list, because as a Living Card game it’s getting new campaigns and parts to old campaigns pretty often. Out of the base box, you have a three part story where you do the first scenario and what you do in that causes changes for future scenarios. There is a lot that I love out of this game, first you get to play through a surprisingly immersive story for something that is done just with cards. You have interesting and different characters as well in the story. And even with just cards, they do wildly different things at times. Add in that you can do some deck building in this game, not during the game but before or between, you can develop the strategy that you want to take into a case, it might be a strategy of more fighting or more investigating, or blending and balancing the two depending on your style, and unlike some of these campaigns where eventually you’ll have played through it, this one is still getting new content all the time.

4 – TIME Stories
This one has less of a through story than a lot of the campaign games, but there are certain elements that tie it together. You are always worried about another time agency that is trying to mess with time and multiverse in it, and thus far, I’ve really enjoyed every scenario. I feel like they’ve managed to change them up a bit, and while you often have combat or things that are just rolling dice and hoping to get lucky, it does work very well. Each scenario has very strong story elements to it as well as you are trying to figure out a puzzle and an optimal path through the game to win, but with that, you’re exploring and uncovering elements of the story as well. I really like the fact that you are put into “vessels” and that’s how you time travel in the game, and sometimes, you don’t do well enough and your “vessel” dies, but jumping back into the past, you can join the game again and do another run to try and solve the puzzle. It can get a bit repetitive for some, but I haven’t found that to be an issue.

3 – Pandemic Legacy Season 1
Second Legacy game on the list, and I will toss in Season 2 as kind of continuation of this if you want more content. Pandemic is a great cooperative game where you are trying to cure diseases. Pandemic Legacy offers much of the same with that, but story and a changing and expanding rule set as time goes on. The game never feels too complex, but it is more challenging than the regular game. I really like how they manage losing in the game, you continue on if you lost twice in a month, and help you balance that out by getting more useful cards back in your deck that allow you to bend the rules. And the story, while not complex is good, and it has a nice twist to it. I don’t think that the twist was all that surprising, but definitely changes up the game.

2 – Tainted Grail: Fall of Avalon
This game just screams epic campaign game. You get to level up and improve your character and you get to explore a massive story as you travel through the lands of Avalon. There are some things I really enjoy about the game, first is the story element. You get to delve into so much of a massive exploration journal and find out so much about the world. This is a dark world as well, and I really appreciate that the storytelling is set in that and that there is a survival element to the game as well. This can be a punishing game that makes you travel around places and do the same things multiple times, but that’s kind of the point of the game as you are traveling through this grim dark Avalon facing off against monstes, trying to hold the Wyrdness at bay by keeping Menhir lit, and struggling to find food. It’s played out over several chapters and you definitely don’t see everything in the game, so it’s a campaign you can come back to again and explore more to see if you can do better.

1 – Gloomhaven
My #1 game of all time, no surprise it’s at the top of the list. Gloomhaven just is a wonderfully massive game. It tells a good story, I wouldn’t say as good as Tainted Grail, but beyond that, the mechanics are amazing, I love the card combat and movement that you have in each scenario as you try and puzzle out what is going to be the best and what the enemies might do. And there’s just so much content in the game, not just scenarios, but also monsters to fight and characters to play as. I love that you have to retire characters at certain points, and that then gives you a new character that feels different from other characters, there’s just so much interesting things going on in the game and there are apps to help make it faster to get to the table that are great. I’ve talked about this a lot, so I’ll stop there, but it’s amazing.

One thing I’ll point out about this list, with the exception of Risk Legacy, all the games on the list are cooperative. It’s fairly rare for there to be competitive campaign games, that I’ve seen, though there are some out there with the likes of Charterstone, which is fun, and Seafall, which is long. But most are going to lean cooperative, so think about that, if you don’t love cooperative games and you want to play a campaign game. And I have a lot more to play and coming than I’ve already played. I really want to get the likes of Betrayal Legacy, Clank Legacy! and Aeon’s End Legacy to the table as well sooner rather than later, because all of those are campaigns based off of games that I already love. Also, I left Dungeons and Dragons off the list, because, I want to keep it board games versus adding in RPG’s which are great but different experiences.

What are some of your favorite campaign games? What are some that I should checkout?

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Normal Games

It is what it sounds like, these are your normal games. The Tickets to Ride, Pandemic, Catan, Carcassone, Monopoly, and any game that you can sit down, you play it once and you get the full game experience. These games are meant to be played in a 30 minute to 6 hours, if you’re playing Twilight Imperium or other big 4x games. But even with those games, you get the full experience of the games without having to do anything else. These are the type of games you’re probably going to get to the table most often, though, you’ll probably play a specific game less than in some of the other categories. Even as someone who likes some of the other types of games just as well, most of my collection is made up of one off games that I use for board game nights and just pulling out and playing a game.

Story Games

This one is the next step in, in my opinion. The others are larger in terms of what type of game they are as I’m going to define story games as any game that tells a story. Now, that can encompass other games, Gloomhaven has story elements, but is primarily a campaign style game, but definitely fits in this category as well. But games like Near and Far, Above and Below, Arabian Nights, all of those games have story and you can play them as a one off game. The story doesn’t have to be the only thing in the game, but it’s going to be a heavy focus for the game. These games can take 200 hours, like Gloomhaven but Near and Far can be played in a couple of hours or less. This is starting to get into those bigger games. Whereas what I call normal games can have story, again Above and Below and Arabian Nights are played in a single sitting, they are more focused on the story and telling the players a story than something like Pandemic where the game has theme and story as it plays, but it doesn’t provide story beyond how the game mechanically plays out.

Campaign Games

Next step up, and probably the second longest, or longest, of the games. These campaign games are going to be steeped in story. This is where a game like Gloomhaven or Sword and Sorcery falls. It’s going to be chaining scenarios together, telling you story as you go, and each time you play, you are possibly progressing the story and finding out more as to what is happening in the world and game that you’re playing. Some of them have simpler stories like the two I’ve mentioned, and some more more emerging stories like Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon, where you have some ideas of what you need to do at the start, but the ending of the game is less clear. This is going to push two things, first, you are going to see more character development and leveling up, so it leans into an RPG like feel. The other thing is that this is going to be more of a time commitment. Gloomhaven has been 200 or so hours for me, and Sword and Sorcery is probably nearing 24 hours or so of game play. There are going to be shorter campaign style games, Near and Far technically has a campaign of 6-7 games, I believe, never played it, but that’s 12-20 hours, let’s say for the whole campaign, but a lot of them are going to fall into that longer format because they want the RPG like feel for the game.

Legacy Games

This one is a sister to the Campaign Game. It is going to be a campaign game, but it adds in a destructive element. You are going to be adding stickers to cards, destroying cards, changing the map, and unlocking new things. Now, you might be able to go back and do it again, Charterstone, and play through the legacy experience again, but that requires an additional purchase. Legacy games are meant for you to play through the campaign once, generally, and then some of them allow you to continue to play the game without the legacy elements. Charterstone, Betrayal Legacy, and Clank! Legacy are all games that you can come back to and play again. Pandemic Legacy Season 1 and 2, however, once you’re done with them, you’re done with that game unless you put in a lot of extra effort to make it replayable. While campaign games raise the stakes because you are going further and further into a story so you don’t want to hit a point where you’ve lost and have to restart (and most do a good job of keeping you from having to do that), Legacy raises those stakes even higher. You’re probably always going to progress at some point in time in a legacy game, even if you didn’t win, but you don’t feel like you can go back and try again because of the legacy nature of the game, so even with less story the stakes can be higher. Charterstone is the only example, I have, of a legacy game where the stakes don’t feel that high.

RPG

This one I’m saving for last, because it moves away from a board game experience and into a role playing game. RPG is that step where you want that massive campaign, that massive legacy feeling and story experience. But you can also do a one-shot which would just be a 3-4 hour single sit down experience. So you can tailor and RPG to whatever you want, but, I personally prefer an RPG when it takes those bigger campaign, legacy and story elements and turns it into that epic experience which is guided by the GM and created by the GM and players. This can be the biggest time commitment of them all, because a campaign could, theoretically, take forever if you wanted to continue playing with the same characters in the same world and didn’t care about leveling up. But for me that’s part of the fun of the game is coming up with ways and reasons for your character to progress and grow through the game, and leveling up is part of that progression.

That’s an overview of what I’d consider to be the five types of games. As someone who likes all of them, I think that there should be a space for most of them on people’s shelves. If you haven’t jumped into RPG’s, consider it if you really enjoy campaign style games, because it’s a freeing experience in terms of being able to craft and create your own story with even less confines. If you love RPG’s, consider adding a campaign game, something like Aeon’s End Legacy or Clank Legacy would have that RPG bit of a feel to it as you level up characters (especially Clank Legacy which is based on Acquisitions Inc. a D&D game), but that would give you something new to try. And if you’ve only played that I termed normal games, try a story game, a stepping stone into a potentially more epic gaming experience and see how you like something that a little bit of that RPG flavor lightly added to it.

I don’t think that there’s a right type of game to play, or that you need to have all of them in your collection, but it’s certainly something you can consider for expanding your collection. I have something like 4-5 legacy games, 5-6 campaign games (which is a lot), 150 normal games, and probably a handful of story games that I’m forgetting about right now, and a ton of stuff for D&D. But that’s just what my collection is. Maybe you have a consistent group for D&D or any RPG so you just focus your collection on that, or maybe you just have changing groups over for playing board games, so you have more normal games, and that’s a great collection as well.

I’ll leave you with a question, do you have a preferred game style? For me, I love Legacy Games and Campaign games, though I play Normal Games more because we play more on a board game night, but I’ve played so much of some games. What do you play most of as well?

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Pandemic Legacy

As I have talked about it before, it’s the first to enter the ring for the board game throw down. Pandemic Legacy is a strong contender as it works in a great story line with nice cooperative play. Season 1 is very similar to regular Pandemic where each person takes on the role of a CDC member and you are fighting various outbreaks. However, soon after you’ve started, you get a lot of twists and turns. The second season is much the same continuing after the first game by a little ways and able to be played without having played the first, but you’ll appreciate it more if you have played the first season.

Seafall

Now, I’ve written about this game as well, and I will say that I haven’t played through whole game, and likely never will. SeaFall is an exploring sea faring game where you take on different tribes and try and expand explore the unknown. There is a story running through the game, though, it can be a bit tricky to find all of the story in the correct order or to feel like there is a ton of story to it.

Risk Legacy

This variation on classic Risk takes you to an alien planet, that somehow looks exactly like Earth, except that all the borders are made up of short straight  lines. At that start of every game you pick your group of people and where you want to start, but instead of it being a slog to total world domination, it’s a race to see who can be the first to the victory point total. This move cuts the game time down a long long ways and makes the game much easier to get to the table than regular risk.

Charterstone

The final game in the battle is a worker placement game where you are competing against others to win the favor of the king as you work and build up a town for him. You build buildings, use what comes out of them to build more buildings, and you can explore crates which open up more opportunities to build and develop your section of the town into something unique. The game board evolves as the buildings you place are stickers, so everyone’s game is going to be unique.

Let’s talk about the tale of the tape with these games:

Time: Seafall games are by far the longest of any of these games. I don’t think that any others come close, in fact, Risk Legacy, the next longest game time, is probably about half the length of a single game of Seafall. Charterstone and Pandemic Legacy both generally clock in at under an hour, and Risk Legacy is just over an hour, whereas Seafall is probably three hours per game.

Story: Only in one of these legacy games would I say that there is a ton of story. Pandemic Legacy is full of story and twists and turns. I might get some disagreement, but Seafall has the next most story. While the story isn’t told the best, and you can get story out of order, there is definitely story in Seafall, it just isn’t presented or paced all that well. Risk Legacy and Charterstone basically have no story. Charterstone has a story slapped on the game, but the game wouldn’t play any different without the story, so I consider it completely optional, though it does pace out better than Seafalls, seeing as the story doesn’t really make a difference, it goes lower on the tape.

Ease of Play: Risk Legacy is probably the easiest out of all of them to play because it is just Risk with victory points. There’s plenty of familiarity with Risk out there in the world, and while not everyone might like it, they can probably pick it up easily. Charterstone is the next easiest as the mechanics of the game, while they do grow more complicated, still basically always remain, place a worker, or pick your workers up, so turns go by quickly. Pandemic Legacy is next, while at the start of the game it might be easier to grasp than Charterstone, Pandemic Legacy quickly adds in a lot of rules that you have to remember. Finally, Seafall, to no surprise, is a beast when ti comes to play, you have a lot of hard decisions to make every turn, and there is a decent amount of luck involved. Add in a poorly written rule book, and Seafall is not a game to pull out with beginners.

Now, I think that all of these games can be okay games. I have plenty of issues with Seafall, mainly a horrible rule book, and a poorly paced story, there are some solid mechanics behind it, and a lot of interesting and tough choices to make. However, it’s also the only one that is prone to a ton of analysis paralysis. So it’s the first out of the match, which is a shame, because I had high expectations for the game, which is some of the problem, because the game didn’t align with those expectations at all. Next out of the match is actually a double count out, so we’re getting to the winner which is Pandemic Legacy. No surprise there, but Pandemic Legacy has the story element and thematic ties that I look for in games. I will say this, though, about Charterstone and Risk Legacy, if your group is going to play a couple of games of it every other month, they are going to be better games to play, because you aren’t going to add in rules that vastly change the game between plays. However, the speed of play of Pandemic Legacy, the cooperative nature, and the great story telling makes it the winner.

On the horizon I’m hoping to play Rise of Queensdale and Betrayal Legacy. And I have yet again massive expectations for a Legacy game with Betrayal Legacy.

How many legacy games have you played, are there some that you haven’t that look interesting to you?

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