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100 through 91
90 through 81

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition – 80 through 71

80. Flamecraft

• Published by Cardboard Alchemy in 2022
• Deliver on the most goals and score points as you play out adorable little dragons who help around the town

This game immediately grabs you with the artwork. The dragons are amazing, and Sandara Tang gives each of them such great personality. Beyond that the game is simple but fun, you go to a location and are either activating the cards and dragons there, or adding some, or spending resources to complete goals. As the locations get more and more dragons the more powerful they become. It’s a great ramping mechanism for a simple game. Though the game is not fast one, which might be my only knock on it.

Buy Flamecraft

79. Just One

• Published by Repos Productions in 2018
• Work together to get the guesser to the right answer with just one word

A party game on this section. I’m not sure, I expect that there are two more party games on the list, but we’ll see. I honestly have forgotten. But Just One is a great cooperative party game. One person is the guesser and everyone else needs to write down a one word clue to get the guesser to guess their one word. Sounds simple, right, but if you double up with anyone, now both those words are gone. That means that an easy clue can become very hard very fast. So you want to be obscure with your clue, but not so obscure that it won’t lead the person to the right answer.

Buy Just One

78. On Tour

• Published by BoardGameTables.com (AllPlay) in 2019
• Create the best route for your band to tour the map going from low to high numbers

This one is a fun roll and write. While I love a ton of roll and write games where they have a lot of combos, this one is a different type of puzzle. In On Tour two dice are rolled and players each place the numerical combinations on two spots on their board. But there are rules as to where they can go. And you may want to watch the city to gain bonus points, but if it won’t connect well to your route, is it worth it to push your luck?

Buy On Tour

77. Mythwind

• Published by Open Owl Studios in 2023
• Build up your settlement and play your mini game in this cozy gaming experience

Open Owl Studios went into making Mythwind with the plan of making a cozy game. So something that works well like a Stardew Valley or an Animal Crossing. They do that by creating a peaceful story world to play in, there are interesting elements to it though. And then each person plays their own little minigame. I demonstrate what the minigame for the farmer looks like. And One Stop Co-op Shop and Meet Me At The Table play some of the other ones. It’s just a unique feeling game that is fun, and relaxing to play.

Preorder Mythwind

76. Betrayal at House on the Hill

• Published by Avalon Hill in 2004
• Explore a haunted house but beware, someone is going to be come the traitor

This is a game that I still love though I haven’t played it in a few years. I fully recognize that the game has issues. When you sit down to play you know that the haunt may not work as planned because either the traitor is going to be overpowered or the other survivors will be. And the haunts themselves have janky rules. But I still love the game anyways because it’s thematic, silly, and just a fun time.

Buy Betrayal at House on the Hill 3rd Edition

75. Clever 4Ever

• Published by Schmidt Spiele in 2022
• Another combotastic game in the Clever line of roll and writes

I don’t know what else to say about this one. Clever 4Ever offers a ton of fun combos and a few different feeling sections of your sheet. How Wolfgang Warsch keeps on coming up with different and interesting ways to handle rolling five dice, using one, getting rid of lower ones and then rolling them again, I don’t know. But he does and this one is great, I especially like the sections where you can fill in different shapes depending on the number rolled. That element really feels different.

Clever 4Ever is either new to my Top 100 Games (of all time) this year or it just made the cut last year. I know I hadn’t had the game for long.

Buy Clever 4Ever

74. SpellBook

• Published by Space Cowboys in 2023
• Learn spells and feed your familiar to get the most points

This is a really simple game. All it is when you boil it down is set collection. You collect materia, you get enough of a color, you learn that spell. Then you use that spell you learned to collect more materia or learn new spells easier. Each spell you learn gives you points, or you can just feed the materia to your familiar for more points as well. The is fast, and there is a fun puzzle as to how you can optimize your spell usage as you get into the game.

Buy SpellBook

73. Century: Golem Edition

• Published by Plan B Games in 2017
• Get crystals, upgrade crystals and get golems to give you points

Another engine building game. Century: Golem Edition again, like SpellBook, has quick snappy turns. In this game it’s all about hand management and using those cards in hand to get more and upgrade crystals. Then you use those crystals to grab Golems that are going to score you points. But you literally just play a card, trade crystals for a golem, pick-up all your cards, or buy a new card. One of those things on a turn and the game just flies.

Buy Century: Golem Edition

72. New Frontiers

• Published by Rio Grande Games in 2018
• Build out the grandest space empire by doing the best action for you

New Frontiers is another engine building game. In New Frontiers you are doing it at a space level though, colonizing new planets, getting new technologies, fighting and conquering planets. All of that done through action selection where what action you pick gives you a bonus. But, everyone else is going to follow along with that action as well. So what is the best action for you and maybe not a great one for other players? I believe that New Frontiers is new to my Top 100 Games (of all time) as well though it isn’t a new game.

Buy New Frontiers

71. Meadow

• Published by Rebel Studio in 2021
• Create a beautiful tableau of nature through tricky card drafting

Meadow is another gorgeous game. I start out and end this section with beautiful games. In Meadow you want to score points by playing out creatures, taking pictures, and gaining trinkets. But to do that you need to build up your meadow from the land type up through bugs and maybe eventually all the way into deer, foxes, or other creatures. How you pick the cards you get is great. You use a fence post that tells you how far into a row or column you are picking. So you need to determine the best spots to play to get all the cards that you want and hope no one blocks you.

Buy Meadow

Final Thoughts

Firstly, let me know what your favorite of these games are. I obviously enjoy all of the tones in my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition, so Meadow needs to be my favorite. But in terms of easily getting it to the table, I’m kind of feeling a big old stream and playthrough of all the clever games on Malts and Meeples. And let me know if there is one that you would want to get played as well that you haven’t tried in my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition.

Join me next week for the next batch of games in my Top 100 Games. It’ll be starting around 9 PM Central on Wednesday if everything goes as planned. You can subscribe and click the notification bell to get notified when the video goes live. Thanks so much for watching.

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Via Kickstarter

Let’s start here because there are a number of note. A quick rundown on these will be good, but a number of them I already talked about in Back or Brick.

Once Upon a Line – The Butterfly’s Breath

This one I wanted to back because it looked incredibly different. It talks about how it is so new with it’s scratch off stuff for a board game. That isn’t “new” but to build a whole game around it is definitely is. This is an adventure game where you try and scratch off words or shapes to progress story. The concept just sounded fascinating, but also like it was pretty straight forward.

For that reason I didn’t go all in on this one. There is going to be plenty of content in the base game. But I didn’t have enough confidence in the game beyond the interesting mechanic to say that I wanted it all. But I also think that this game is unique, so I want to try it.

Marvel United: Multiverse

It’s more Marvel United, of course I backed it. Marvel United: Multiverse really describes the core box. But, the rest of the expansions, around events like Age of Apocalypse, Annihilation, or Civil War, and there are more as well, are very interesting.

Plus the game adds in a few news things as well. Mainly it adds in equipment cards that you can swap in generically or for specific characters. And then campaign decks as well which will change up how you can play a series of games. I like that idea for the game. And while I still want a dungeon crawl style game with these characters, CMON did a great job of offering so many fun things.

Catharsis Sagas: Nocturne

This, honestly, was not going to be a back because I have to play Catharsis still. The game does look like a ton of fun, so I want to get it to the table and chuck some dice. But do I need more, the answer is really no. But it is cheap, so I grabbed it. It is more adventure for Catharsis and new characters to face off against, or play as, I’m not completely sure anymore as this one has wrapped up. And when a crowdfunding campaign wraps up, I kind of forget about it between updates.

Fork

This is a small back, as was Catharsis Sagas. Fork is a trick taking game where Fork stands for Fox, Owl, Rabbit, and Kale. And depending on what you play down, it determines who wins. The concept seems simple, but like there is enough game there and enough different of a twist to trick taking that I wanted to give it a try.

Stonesaga

I am lucky enough to know one of the designers and game with him often. So this is one I got to playtest already and actually get to see the prototype this past weekend at The Source in Roseville Minnesota. But this is a fun survival exploration game as you build up your society, gather food, and try and survive.

It is played in a legacy type of experience. So you create your character(s) throughout the game and develop the society your way. I think that the mini games you play are good and easy to follow what is going on. It isn’t a cheap game, but the components are nice and there is a lot in the game.

Chomp, Sail, Couture, and Mind Space

Finally, from All Play (used to be BoardGameTables.com) there is a set of four small games. Chomp, Sail, Couture, and Mind Space. Each of the games looks interesting. And I backed it for all of the games. A couple of reasons for doing that, the games do all look interesting. I am least interested in Couture, but when you want to get three of them, it is better to get all four because you get the upgrades for free.

Chomp has a fun dinosaur theme. Sail is trick taking, and Mind Space is a roll and write game. So I am definitely interested in how all of those will work. And Couture is an auction game which might be very interesting. It just jumped off the page less to me than the other ones did.

Gamefound

Gamefound is generally slower than Kickstarter. Though there are some good projects on there that I backed as well.

Arabella

This is an interesting one for me to have backed. It is a roll and write game, I love roll and write games. There isn’t anything interesting about that. But it is an 18xx train, stock game as a roll and write game. I don’t play 18xx games. They don’t interest me that much because it’s really a whole system to learn and get good at. And the people who are good at them are very good at them. Plus, probably one that is harder to play.

But as a roll and write game. Now it is a more interesting to me. I like the idea of taking a big game like that and making smaller. It might still take a while, but it won’t take as long. And I hope that it offers a very big and different roll and write experience.

Witchbound

Witchbound is another one that I got to preview and one that I am very excited for. This and the next one are two similar games. But Witchbound is a game where you are the first witch on Coven Cove in over 100 years. And it is a point and click adventure as you interact with people and locations and solve puzzles, fight bad guys and more.

What I like about this one, besides the fun theme. Is that it is a simple gaming experience with a lot of story. So I can pull it out as a solo game and play around with minimal setup. Plus then a good amount of story with minimal setup which I think is a lot of fun and a sweet spot that not too many games are in, Lands of Galzyr being the best example I have.

Robomon

Finally we have Robomon. This is one that I almost backed when it was active and then I late pledged. But Robomon is basically a Pokemon game with robots instead of creatures. But it looks like a simple adventure game, and while there is more going on mechanically than Witchbound, my hope is that it’s not too much.

The style of game and the artwork in the game work for me as well. Again, I hope it is a sweet spot of story but also then good game play and ease to get to the table. Another game that I hope is a good easy to the table game with story that is fun to play.

Final Thoughts on Crowdfunding

I picked back up some of what I have been backing. A few reasons for that, but mainly, I knew there would be a few bigger games to start the year that I wanted to back. I know that in March there is going to be another one with the Chip Theory Elder Scrolls game.

What games will you be adding to your collection that you’ve backed in the past few months? Any ones that I maybe missed that you should I should checkout?

One that I had backed and dropped my pledge is Andromeda’s Edge. I want it still, but space Dwellings of Eldervale. While that sounds fun, and I am sure it is more than that, do I need two games that are going to be similar? I ended up deciding no on that one.

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Why I Wanted One

Besides the fact that a board game table just seems cool. I did have reasons that I wanted to get one. In particular with Malts and Meeples I want to stream campaign games. However, with my current set-up that means every time I stream, I set-up the game, set-up the cameras, set-up the lights. It isn’t too bad when I play something like Paper Dungeons, but with Sleeping Gods, I needed 25-30 minutes to rush to set it up every time.

And I don’t consider Sleeping Gods to be that hard when it comes to set-up. So other games that I want to try, things like Folklore: The Affliction or Solomon Kane or Middara: Unintentional Malum Act 1, those are much bigger. That means it’s going to be a whole lot more work to get it to the table. And some evenings with a toddler, I am rushing at the very last second to get stuff ready for the stream.

I could stream later, start at 8:30, buy an extra half hour. But that is not that useful for me a lot of the time. Mainly Marvel shows come out on Wednesday and I like to watch them without it getting late. So I like that start time at least for myself right now. And having a table with a topper would solve a lot of the problem.

What I Wanted in a Board Game Table?

So what did I want in a board game table? Firstly and most importantly, I wanted a table that I could get a topper for. So one with a decent recess to play at one level, and then the topper for normal gaming. I also wanted to get one that would fit the playmats that I already have.

So I own three Watson sized playmats from Board Game Toppers LLC. They do some with great artwork. So I didn’t want to not be able to use that. I want a table that is going to fit it nicely on top or on the inside.

There are other elements as well that interest me. I wanted to work with a company that had stuff in stock. Too many companies run Kickstarters or Gamefound campaigns that are going to be delayed for when they ship them out. I also wanted one where they’d have accessories in stock later. Stuff like cup holders are very nice. I do have TV trays that drinks can be put on, but a cup holder is also very nice.

Jasper by Board Game Tables

So why did I pick this one?

Let’s start out by talking about price. Board game tables are not cheap and to get everything I wanted at once, and to get new chairs, it probably would have been $2000+. That is more than I’d be selling from my collection.

So I looked it down to more stripped down options. And I looked at a few different companies before landing on the Jasper by Board Game Tables. The big thing for me, like I said, is the topper and using the mats that I already had. I found a place that would do more custom work, but that was more expensive. No surprise there, really. But that is the only way to get the mats I had to fit in the recessed area.

The Jasper by Board Game Tables, on the other hand, comes with a mat. That means that I already had something that’d fit down in it. It with the topper fits, however, the Watson playmats from Game Toppers LLC just about perfectly. The width is right and the length is just the tiniest bit longer for the table, but that is the right direction to err.

So just with that, the shipping, table, and topper, the whole thing came to $1400, much better than a $2000+ bill for something custom. And the other companies out there, like Wyrmwood, they make amazing extremely high quality and hand crafted projects. However, that also made their base stuff more expensive, and less ideal for the playmats that I already had.

Final Thoughts on a Board Game Table

Board games are 100% a luxury item. And I am fine picking up something like that. On an average week, I would use the table three times, or two, for playing games. It’d also help make streaming easier for me.

I love to stream board games. But it becomes work towards the end of most campaign games. The amount of set-up as you unlock more things, that can be a lot. Even if a game is not a legacy game with unlocks, some games just have a ton. I don’t even know how to film something like Middara: Unintentional Malum Act 1 because of how much it has.

But a game table is going to help me out a lot. And I am excited to get it and get it set-up. I ordered the game yesterday and I know the shipping labels are printed already. I hope that it gets picked up today. If that is the came, sometime this weekend it’d likely show up. And when it does, I’ll be posting pictures on Twitter.

Do you want or have a specific table for playing games? Is it like my current one an DIY project and do you want a recessed one like I am getting?

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BoardGameTables.com Order

So this is the one that’s Foster the Meeple’s fault. Two games only, and that actually takes me to the point where I’ll have the games I want from BoardGameTables.com (which does make board game tables, but also board games, guess which one cam first).

QE

QE is a game where you are bidding however much you want to buy a company. The interesting thing about that is that you can bid however much you want. If I want to bid 120 trillion, I can bid that, if I want to go higher, I can do that. It does have a twist, though, in that the person who bids the most, well, they are automatically out of the running to win. So the prices are likely going to get crazy, but you can’t be too crazy. It seems like it shouldn’t work, but also, everyone who plays it likes it or loves it, so I want to play it.

Ghosts of Christmas

Foster the Meeple are the ones who pushed this over the edge for me, in terms of reminding me about it. But BoardGameCo was the one who brought it onto the radar. This is a trick taking game where you play tricks in the past, present, and future. And you can play to whichever trick you want in whichever order. Only once all are full does the winner get determined. And the trump suit can change on tricks, so it sounds mind bending but really interesting.

Kolossal Games Kind Of Order

So, I ordered these games from Kolossal because it’s about the first spot I’ve seen them available in the US. The games themselves aren’t put out by Kolossal, instead by Chilifox Games out of Norway. It’s a new game company, so limited distribution in the United States, but the two games I know of theirs are really interesting to me, so I wanted to grab them while I had the chance.

Riverside

Riverside is going to be roll and write game. But it has more going on than that. There’s not only the roll and write portion of the game, but also a little board that determines where the boat is on the river. Players are trying to take passengers on tours, drop them off at the right places, and score points. But that extra element of the river and boat position make it feel like a different sort of roll and write game than a lot out there.

Doodle Dash

This is a very different type of game than Riverside. Doodle Dash is going to be a straight up party game. In it, one person is the guesser and everyone else tries to draw a picture as fast as possible, based off of a word, for the guesser to get. But the fastest person gets to show their picture first, and then next fastest. And that second fastest player is rolling a die to limit how much time the rest of the players are going to get to finish their drawing. So there is a benefit to being fast if you can get the word across in a simple drawing. Seems like good chaotic fun for a party game.

All Systems Go

I like to call out the local game stores that I go to, and most of the time it is going to be All Systems Go. I generally trade in my games there, and while I didn’t this time. I did pick up one thing there.

Marvel Champions: Sinister Motives

I basically get all my Marvel Champions stuff from ASG (All Systems Go) and they know to set aside for me every time. Sinister Motives is going to give more Spider-Man characters, both heroes and villains to play as or against. And it’s just more content for Marvel Champions. Why do I keep buy it, because I love Marvel, I love the variety of characters you can play as and villains you can play against. And I really like the game. But it is one that I’m soon going to have to consider how much I want, because I don’t play it enough. The answer, though, is that I probably will want it all.

Miniature Market Orders

I will say, it wasn’t my plan to have two orders that were close to one another from Miniature Market. But it just happened to workout that way. In particular, I can blame another YouTube channel, Quackalope for me getting the second order. Jesse and Devon, from Devon Talks Tabletop, did a solo game list, and there was one I wanted to get immediately upon hearing about it.

Res Arcana: Perlae Imperii Expansion

This is more content for Res Arcana. I haven’t gone through all the content that I have for the game, but I already know that I want more. And the expansions are not always the easiest to find. Res Arcana is an engine building game where you are building an engine off of eight cards. And you don’t add more cards to your engine. Maybe you get a monument, but often those just offer a one time effect. So how do you build the most productive engine you can from those cards. Not sure that Perlae Imperii adds, but hopefully more of what’s already there.

Railroad Ink Challenge: Engineer Expansion

A mini expansion for Railroad Ink Challenge. This is basically some extra dice that you can use that mess up the board as you go. I don’t know specifically what the Engineer Expansion adds, it is just the last one that I didn’t have, so I wanted to grab it.

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game 2nd Edition

I’ve played the original version of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, and I want to try this new one. Plus, I might have picked up some of the 1st edition, so I can compare. But I’ll talk about that soon. I’m hoping that this makes the game a bit smoother to play, but we’ll see. And I just like the fantasy setting and the interesting cooperative nature and card play in the original game.

Radlands

This is one that I don’t regret but also slightly regret getting. I regret getting it because it’s a small two player game, will I play it over Hanamikoji. On the flip side, it’s from Roxley, I like their stuff. And the artwork on the game is amazing. But I don’t know if Radlands is going to be one that’s easy enough to table often. I am excited to try it though.

Clank! Expeditions: Temple of the Ape Lords

An expansion for Clank!. I don’t know what this one adds in exactly. I’m assuming that it’s just going to tweak how the base game plays and add in some apes. I need to play Clank! some more before I add any more expansions to my collection.

Black Sonata

This is the one that Devon was talking about in the video I mentioned. I love the concept of this game. It’s a solo only hidden movement, deduction game. That sounds so crazy to be able to do as a solo game, but it works well. I’ve already gotten my copy and played it twice. Plus I picked up the Fair Youth expansion as well, so that adds in more or a new way to play the game as well. But the base game is going to keep my busy for a little while.

Amazon Order

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: Skull & Shackle

I said I was getting some of the first edition of Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, and Skull & Shackles was the base set I landed on. This one is going to be a pirate based theme, which I like, and use the standard Pathfinder Adventure Card Game system. I picked this one up for comparison purposes, and I hope that I really like it because there are expansions I could get as well.

Coconuts

For something completely different, Coconuts is a dexterity based game. You use monkeys to launch coconuts into cups to try and get a certain number of cups stacked up. The whole point of this is to be a silly fun game. I had a chance to mess around with it a tiny bit at GenCon in 2019, and it’s a fun one. It’ll not get played for a little bit, unless I do it on the table, because kittens will most certainly chase and play with flying coconuts.

Crowdfunding

So there are a lot to talk about, seven in fact. Most of them are going to be pretty small ones because, well, I’ve been trying to do some backing of little roll and write games that are print and play. When a game is $5, for a print and play, and I get it immediately, I want to support the creators because it’s a cool way to get games out there.

Kaikoro

Kaikoro is one of those print and play roll and write games. The game doesn’t seem too complex, you try and keep Kaiju from destroying a city. That theme and the artwork are the selling point, but it’s also a $5 game that I can print, laminate, and play as much as I want.

The Dark Quarter

The Dark Quarter is most definitely not a roll and write game or a print and play. You can see a lot of that here. I think the system is fascinating that it is using. And I really like the dark/mature supernatural, monsters theme that Van Ryder is bringing to the system. For me this was an easy back.

Fortress of Terror

Back to more print and play roll and writes. This one is another $5 that has a fair amount of content with it now. But it looks interesting, almost a bit of a dungeon crawl nature to it, or exploration, something like that. So I’m curious about it, and the system that is being used for the game, it seems like an interesting one that could be fun to play.

Paper Railroad

Another print and play, this one is going to be a route building train game, I believe, with some pick-up and deliver elements thrown in as well. The route building might be secondary to the farming and getting farm rewards and shipping out those things. So I’m curious to see how it is for a roll and write. But it was $6, so one to back that I want to mess around with.

Pestilence – Escape the Plague

The final print and play roll and write game on the list. This one has the most interesting theme for me, or up there with Kaiju. The black plague is rolling through, and you are trapped in the city. You need to make connections, build up reputation and avoid the kings guard to get out of the city. That just seems so different, there are other games about the black plague, but to do a roll and write on it, it’s a different than normal theme.

For Northwood!

Speaking of something that is a bit different. For Northwood! is definitely a unique game. For Northwood is a solo trick taking game. That immediately caught my attention. Add in that it’s pretty cheap, it’s just over a deck of cards, I’m curious about it. They company is also the one that has done or distributed other solo games that I like, like Orchard and Black Sonata.

Sleeping Gods: Distant Skies

Finally, Sleeping Gods: Distant Skies from Red Raven Games just launched this week. If you want to read more about it, you can do so here. But I loved my play through of Sleeping Gods, and Distant Skies seems to build upon that system. And while I didn’t have an issue with Sleeping Gods for solo play, this seems like even simpler solo play. Plus some changes to combat as well, which I was fine with combat. But I’m super stoked for this one.

Final Thoughts

So what am I most excited for, well, Sleeping Gods: Distant Skies and The Dark Quarter. But those two are coming in a while. Same with For Northwood!. So of the stuff that I’ve gotten, or is coming much sooner, what do I want to play? I really want to try and compared both of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Games. They can be played solo, so I think I’ll be tackling them soon. Maybe I’ll even stream some over on Malts and Meeples coming up here.

Which would you want to play first?

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How To Play On Tour

On Tour is a simple route building game. You roll two dice, and get two numbers. Let’s say a seven and a two. So on your board you put down 27 in one spot and 72 in another. And you try and build up a route as long as possible connecting numbers in ascending order.

There are two things to know about how you do that. Firstly, you connect your route at the end of the game. So that means you don’t need to put those numbers next to existing numbers. And secondly, and as importantly, there are three cards flipped per roll. This affects where you can place the numbers. In the maps, US and Europe, it is split into North and South, and East and West.

Each of the cards also has a location on it. Generally a country or state depending on the map. And if you put the number in that specific location, you get to circle it as well. What do circles do? Well, they get you a point if you route goes through there. So let’s talk scoring. You get one point for each stop for your band. If the location is circled you get an extra point. Most points wins.

What Doesn’t Work?

The game play might be too simple for some gamers. I personally like it because it kind of has a push your luck to it. But All you do is flip cards and roll a die to figure out a route. There are no combos, there is no clever game play. So for some gamers, On Tour is going to be too simple.

I also think for some people the route connections at the end might be tricky. There is a limited number of spots that you can go, so that helps. But you look at your board full of numbers and it can be hard to find all the connections and what is your longest. I think it is useful for a second player to look at it and see what they can find.

What Works?

On Tour plays in a great arc. What do I mean with that? When you start the game, you push for things, like maybe pushing to get more circles. And as the map tightens up, the tensions increases. Towards the end you need specific numbers, and about half way through the game, you know where you’ll need them. So the game feels like the tension is growing as you play it.

I also think that the simplicity of the game works. Like I said, for some people who really want combos, the game will be too simple. But the game plays in a very smart way. It gives you this balance of risk and reward, like of like No Thanks that I wrote about yesterday. It really asks you how much you want to push your luck. Because a shorter route will score you more points than the player who pushed for a long route but missed one connection they needed.

This game also plays fast and scales well. It is, like many roll and writes, a game where the difference between solo and multiplayer doesn’t exist. What I do on my board doesn’t affect what you do. But we all play at the same time, so that means the game moves along really well. Yes, choices can be hard and slower in the middle of the game, but they are still limited well by the cards and dice, so even then it doesn’t take too long.

On Tour Final Thoughts

I really enjoy On Tour. Clearly if I own the app and I still wanted to own the game. And I think for a lot of people On Tour is going to work very well. It falls into that category of Railroad Ink for me. It is a challenging game, but it also isn’t too complicated. The difference is in Railroad Ink you need to think about four dice placement, and in On Tour, it’s just two numbers. So the options are more limited in On Tour.

I also think that a lot of people will like how fast the game plays, it really moves along quite nicely. But it doesn’t feel like it is too short, it feels like it’s the right length and really does give you that arc of game play. Where the tensions builds towards the middle of the game and into the end game. But the game itself doesn’t drag out too long. No one can optimize their last few placements or turns, because the game limits them.

My Grade: A
Gamer Grade: C
Casual Grade: B+

I think this game probably skews a bit towards the more casual gamer. But I can see gamers liking this one as a palate cleanser between games. It is fast enough to be a filler, but for some groups it’ll be big enough to be the main course. For me, I know it’s a roll and write that won’t be leaving my collection.

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Now, On Tour is a game that I’ve only played in app form but one that I’m interested in getting a physical copy of. It’s a roll and write game where you are trying to plan out the best tour for your band across the United States. You can stop once in each state and to do so, you are putting a number of the states and you are trying to create a string of states where the numbers are increasing. That doesn’t sound too bad, but you have limiting factors as to where you can place those numbers, because you have cards that will determine what region that you can place the numbers, north, south, east or west. Along with that, the numbers can be pretty random. They are off of two ten sided dice, so each round those dice are rolled and you’re placing, if it was a 5 and 8 a 58 and 85 on the board. You can get bonus points if you place one of those numbers in on the city from the card that determines the region and it’s part of your route.

So the app itself, how is it. The App is pretty slick, it allows you to zoom on on the game board, so it works on a phone, it does all the end game scoring for you, though I have noticed that be wrong once, though, only once in 50+ games that I’ve played of it. And it gives you the ability to mark your route between places so that you can keep track of where you want to go and what numbers you need there. So I’ve only played this in the stand alone form because that’s what it was when the app launched. I know that there is some online play, but I haven’t dug into that yet. I like it because it’s so fast to play solo.

I don’t have any major negatives for the game. For me the whole game works slick as an app, and possibly better as an app. Now, obviously I said I haven’t played this in person. But with the scoring of the game, figuring out your longest and best route is not going to be easy. Just because this game, you’re going to have a ton of different options, so while you might know how the end route goes or the start, there are going to be spots where you have similar numbers by each other and circled cities that will give you the bonus points, so figuring out your path through that might be tricky. Now, with that said, I do want to get a physical copy of the game because I like the game a lot so I want to play it with more people.

Overall, if you’re looking for a good time filling app, this one fits the bill. On Tour is an enjoyable game that plays fast on the app. I will say, though, if you don’t like luck based games, this might not be the game for you. The dice rolls, while they are the same for everyone, and the card flips, give this game a high amount or randomness, because you might get the perfect roll but not be able to place the number or numbers where you need based off of the region. Since this isn’t a free app, it’s probably worth noting that before you pick it up. Personally, I like it quite well and it’s one that while I won’t play it all the time, I do always come back to it.

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