What’s Deck Building and List Criteria

Deck building is when in a game you are adding cards to a deck or cards that you then draw and play from. IT is not a game where you build a custom deck to start and no cards are added during the game to that deck of cards. This eliminates games like Arkham Horror The Card Game, Marvel Champions and Star Wars Unlimited from being on the list.

For this list, one of the important elements is that it needs to matter in the game. There are some games where you maybe add a card or two during the game. Those aren’t going to be making the list. I’ll talk in each about how much the deck building matters in the game.

Top 10 Deck Building Games

10. The Quest for El Dorado

The Quest for El Dorado is the only deck building racing game that I have on the list. In fact, I’m not sure that I can think of any. Heat can have a drafting element before the rest to kind of create some deck construction, but that’s it.

This one is all about getting to El Dorado as quickly as you can with your explorer. You play out cards matching terrains to be able to move along. And there are big blocks of different terrains, so you build up your deck one way and then you need to be able to pivot away from that or not get so deep in that because you need to get cards for the next terrain type as well.

One of the cool thing about this game is that as you empty out piles or cards, the next player picks what new stack of cards is going to go into that pile. It creates this interesting element where the players are the ones who set the market.

9. Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle is the one campaign game on the list. Though there are two more that offer campaign modes. But this one is only a campaign game where you play through the books of the Harry Potter series. It’s a fun game as you add new spells to your deck and you balance getting cards to get better spells and getting spells to help deal with the threats that can start to pile up.

There is a negative to this game. While it does offer cool unlocks of new things that are added for each book, there are also the same bad guys. So each time you play there are more and more bad guys. Now your deck should be getting more powerful because of the added cards, but you don’t carry anything over. So while I enjoy this game, it’s not one that stuck in my collection because it’s not too fast.

8. Knights of the Hound Table

Knights of the Hound Table is a game that I need to get played again. After playing it at Gen Con I decided I should pick it up. This game is an interesting little game where you are adding dog knights to your deck and them facing them off against your opponent.

You play out three cards each turn and depending on how the fight goes, that is going to determine who gets to buy first and who is gaining points in the game. Each card is going to give you something special. The ones on either end of the three you play give you attack and defense, respectively. Then the one in the middle is going to give you a special power of some sort (I believe I have that order correct). So it becomes an interesting little game of how you can manipulate your hand of cards to get a winning combination out there.

7. Hero Realms

Hero Realms is another two player head to head game, or it can be solo/cooperative against a boss/enemy deck. But I like this game a lot as a two player head to head game. You are trying to whittle down the other players health.

To do this you are playing out troops and they can either attack your opponent, assuming there is no enemy troop who forces you to attack them first. Plus there are other cards that offer more than just troops. Some of it might be money to buy more cards. Or you might be healing up and keeping ahead of your opponent that way.

The game also has a lot of expansions. I really like to use the characters for the game. Each character is going to provide a slightly different starting set-up and some powers that you can use throughout the game. It is going to give you a bit more of that asymmetrical experience while keeping the goal the same.

6. Ascension

Ascension is the most straightforward of the deck building games on the list. It is about grabbing cards, fighting monsters, and getting points. It’s one of two deck building games that I would consider great spots to get into deck building that I’ve played. The other being Dominion. But I don’t like Dominion that well and I think that it struggles more disparity in player experience.

There are three big things that I like better about Ascension. Firstly there are monsters. So it is not just about buying cards to get the victory point cards, you also want to buy troops to fight the monsters and get victory points from killing them. You also have a changing market. By that I mean that when a monster is defeated or a card is bought a new random one is flipped out. Finally are the constructs which stay in play. They give you a bonus that keeps going from round to round, unless your opponent destroys them.

5. Mistborn

Now we move onto the newest game on the list. Mistborn is a competitive deck building game to see who can be the best Mistborn. Or you can play it cooperatively against the Lord Ruler. You can see that cooperative style of game on the Malts and Meeples YouTube and down below.

Both ways work well for the game. And while it is a deck building game, the game offers some very unique things. The big one is that it pulls in burning metals like they do in the Mistborn books. And as you go through the game you get better at burning metals. That means that you can burn more on your turn which means that you can play more cards.

I also like that you can burn the metal on a card to play another card. It offers just a little bit more strategy. And I mentioned leveling up. The game is great with that because you level up each turn. And sometimes you can play cards to make that move faster. But it means that you feel more powerful and also can push the end game faster as you get further into the game. So it doesn’t stagnate in what you can do.

4. Clank! (All Versions)

This spot on the list includes Clank! The Adventure Deck Building Game, Clank! In! Space! and Clank! Catacombs. I recommend if you are starting out, get Clank! Catacombs. That is the newest one but all of the games generally follow the same system. The system is get into the dungeon/spaceship, grab a big treasure and get out.

Clank! is a deck building game that is competitive again, I have one more competitive one on the list. But what you can do to mess with other players is limited. Instead, your big concerns are making too much noise, clank, and then the monster drawing them out of the bag and damaging you and knocking you out before you can get out.

The deck building is all about pushing further into the dungeon. You want to grab cards that are going to let you move. But you also need cards to deal with the monsters or get coins to buy from other markets and grab points that way. The game gives you a lot of ways to get points while also giving you a very nice push your luck feel as you try and race back out once you’ve gotten your treasure. Because when people grab treasure that is going to push the game closer to the end.

3. Lost Ruins of Arnak

Lost Ruins of Arnak is the game on the list that is way more than just a deck building game. And you don’t always draw a ton of cards in the game. So as you build your deck, you might find that you only see cards one or two times. But the deck building is important in this game, as is the worker placement and resource gathering.

Let’s mainly talk about the cards. The cards are always going to augment what you can do in the game. There are two different types that I like as well. There are goods cards which you can buy, and they go to the bottom of your draw pile. So for a game with only a few turns it means that you see those cards quickly. And then there are relic cards that you get to use immediately, without paying their cost and then discard.

I had someone explain them to me this way. Relics are things you find while you explore the Lost Ruins. So it makes sense you can use them right away. The goods, though, are being shipped over to your expedition. So they take a bit more to get to you.

2. Xenoshyft: Onslaught

Xenoshyft: Onslaught is one of my favorite deck building games and just games overall. The first part I guess I didn’t need to say, really. But I love how cooperative this game is. And the final two deck building games on the list are cooperative.

In Xenoshyft, you are battling waves off bug aliens who want to destroy your base. So it is really a tower defense game. And each player has their own side of the tower that they defend against. But the total health of the tower, that is shared across all the players and all sides of the base.

There are a few things that make me love this game. Firstly, the game feeds you money. For each wave you get through you get more and more money. And that corresponds with unlocking better and better troops. So you are always able to buy troops.

I also love how cooperative this game is. I use my cards like grenades or healing on your turn defending the tower. In fact, we talk through that and work through that all together. But there is more than that. Maybe you didn’t draw enough troops because you have a lot or armor. Well, I can just play a troop your side of the base and now that is your card. Or maybe you have an extra weapon. You can equip that card to one of my troops and now that stays in my deck.

1. Aeon’s End

The final game on the list is cooperative and it has a campaign. I love Aeon’s End, and there is a ton of it to choose from. This game is all about surviving a big boss fight. And the bosses, called nemesis, all are slightly different. And the mages that you play, they are all slightly different as well. So your strategy each game is going to change depending on the mages that you play with and nemesis that you are going up against.

One of the big unique things for Aeon’s End is that you don’t shuffle your deck. That seems like one of the standards for deck building, but it’s a negative to shuffle your deck. When you buy cards they go to your discard. And after you are done buying and playing cards, you take those cards that would go to the discard and put them into the discard in the order that you want. So you can try and split-up cards if you get too many spells by each other, or you can create combos in your funding to really optimize your money.

Finally, I like how the spell and turn systems work. Though, the turn system make it so that I think Aeon’s End is a two player game or solo. The turn order is random and you draw a card to see who goes. With more than two, it can be a long time between turns. But with two, players get to go twice in a shuffle of turn order cards with the nemesis going twice as well. And that works well because you play a spell one turn and shoot if off the next. So you feel like you are doing stuff each round.

Final Thoughts

I managed to get 13 games into a Top 10 list. I like deck building and I think there is a ton of fun going on with it. There are other games that I want to play that have deck building in them, or ones that just missed the list. Shadowrun Crossfire is one that I enjoy but I need to play more of it. And Etherfields has a deck building component to it. So does Dune Imperium, which I own but have yet to play. And I suspect that if I were to think about it, there are a few more as well that could have made the list, or have that element that I need to play.

What is your favorite deck building game?

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Clank! Overview

Clank! is a deck building game. In every iteration is going to remain the same. And it is also a press your luck game. The main core of the game is going to be around building up your deck of cards and getting a treasure and getting back out.

There are a few other things that are consistent across the games. The first is that there market isn’t fixed. That means that you flip over cards so what is available is going to change after someone has made a purchase. There are going to be monsters in this section of the cards as well. And there are a few fixed cards that always give you a chance to buy attack or movement. But they don’t have points on those cards.

The treasures are going to be consistent as well, at least in terms of you can only carry one, with a couple exceptions and you want to get the ones with the most points on them, but they are also the farthest into the dungeon or spaceship.

There is also a secondary marketplace you can buy from in all of them. These credits or coins are harder to come by. But they often give you a benefit when you get them or additional points for the game.

Finally, you need to get in and get out with the treasure. But there is an area of the board you can make it to and be safe. It’s just that if you don’t make it the whole way out, you miss out on some big bonus points.

Clank! Deckbuilding Adventure Game

This is the original one so I’m going to say that there isn’t a ton to say. Everything about the game I mainly covered in the first part as to how you play the game. But there is one main difference about the original Clank and that is how the game ends. We’ll talk about it’s way here and then what the newer versions of the game do with the other ones.

The big thing is that when you escape, or the first person escapes that starts a timer for the game. There are four rounds left at that point and if you don’t get out you don’t get out. So you need to be booking it back to the safe zone at that point and you need to make sure you have a treasure. There is a downside to this, though, because someone can pop in with a lot of movement and grab the cheapest treasure and just try and take everyone out quickly.

Clank! In! Space!

Clank! In! Space! has a few different elements to the game. The first one is around the end game. And this carries through into Clank! Catacombs as well. But on the players turn they now draw a number of cubes from the bag. So the game might go longer than four rounds if someone can manager their noise (Clank) well. But on the flip side, it can end faster for people as well if they put too much. The big benefit of this is that it keeps the player who escaped more engaged in the game.

The other thing it introduces is the idea of the locked treasure vault. So you need to get a treasure, but it’s locked. So you go around first to a couple of terminals and once you have gone to two you can access the vault. Basically, you hack your way in. This means that you just can’t find an optimal path and go as fast as you can.

Then there is the lift. This allows you to move around faster. But at some point in time the lift is going to get closed down and you need to make your way through the halls like normal. It’s just a small tweak but something that can make a pretty big difference at times.

Plus there is board that can change. Now we’ll talk about a truly open board concept in Clank! Catacombs. But in this case you can flip tiles and place them in different spots to create the space ship. The shape of the ship is always the same, but what’s in the different areas can change and change up the game.

Clank! Catacombs

Clank! Catacombs offers a few new changes to the game. There is one very large one though, and that is that there isn’t really a board to the game. There are tiles, but it’s a catacombs so as you go around you explore and create different pathways. You do this by drawing tiles and you determine how you want to orient that tile so that it works out best for you. This means that you could create a looping path to move around or branch out in one direction, it is up to the players.

There are also new shrines. These shrines do have a couple of benefits to them. One you can trade in a minor secret of the puzzle box type for a major secret. But the main thing that you can do is place a cube there and then for each one you visited you get a gold coin for the marketplace.

Finally, there are locked things. There are three different types of things that you can unlock. The first is a treasure chest which is where you get your major secrets. The next is a library which allows you to get a secret tome. And finally a prison cell where you get two helpers. These helpers are new to the game as are the lockpicks. So while in Clank! In! Space! you hack everything, here a lockpick is a one and done item.

Best Elements Of Each

For the main Clank! Game it’s tricky because I think that the other two improve upon it. So it doesn’t always have something that stands out as that much extra about it. But with that, I will say there is a bit more simplicity to the game. Each subsequent version is going to add in another challenge that you need to deal with while you play the game.

For Clank! In! Space!, I really like the addition of going around and hacking before you can get the treasure. That slows down that rush in and rush out mindset of the game. And of course the new game ending mechanism when someone escapes is something that I like better.

And for Clank! Catacombs, of course it’s going to be that modular board. But I thought about the prisoners as well. It just means that you never are going to play the same game and that makes for a fun experience. And it means that the game is going to be easier to expand.

The Battle and Winner

For me it comes down between two. Unfortunately base Clank or original Clank! is just very good, but doesn’t take that extra step. And that makes sense because it’s the one that started it all. So it’s going to come down between the other two. And yes, I might redo this when I eventually play Clank! Legacy.

But for the other two there are elements that I like a lot about both. Clank! In! Space! makes sure that you know this is a silly game. It parodies a ton of different things in the Sci-Fi realm which I enjoy. Clank! Catacombs is still light and fun, but isn’t so much of a parody of anything in the game. I think that parody element for some people might be a turn off, though for the game.

On the other hand, Clank! Catacombs offers more flexibility and that promise of the game being different every time. I really enjoy how you build out the map and as I said, it is going to make it really easy to expand. Add in more tiles that do different things will be easy to do in the game, but that’s in the future. Mainly because I don’t have the first expansion for the game yet, it’s on its way. And the expansions for Clank! In! Space! are fun as well.

That said, I do think that Clank! Catacombs is the better game. The addition of the lock picks and that extra resource and the prisoners that you can free and get a bonus are great. And they are such minor additions that they don’t add much to the complexity of the game. So Clank! Catacombs is our winner.

Final Thoughts

I love this series of games. In fact, I own all three versions that battled here plus the two legacy versions of the game as well. And the legacy ones I suspect will be my favorite as they are Acquisitions Inc themed and I love Acquisitions Inc. But right now, obviously, they can’t be on the list and a legacy game is always going to be a somewhat different animal.

Now, do I need all of the versions of the game. No, I do not. But I do own them all because it’s such a fun game. And I can see, after playing Clank! Catacombs with the expansions that I might get rid of original Clank!. But even that is a fun game still to play as well.

What is your favorite version of Clank!?

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Five Board Games I Really Need To Play

5. Robinson Crusoe Collectors Edition

I owned Robinson Crusoe for a while. And I owned the sequel to it, First Martian. I did play First Martian which I enjoyed. There were some elements of it that weren’t amazing, but the theme also interested me less. Now I own Robinson Crusoe again, with the collectors edition, and I need to get this one played.

There are two reasons why I think I’d like this game. Firstly, it’s a cooperative game and I enjoy a good cooperative game. And the theme for this type of game works as well for me. So theme and cooperative nature. But I want to talk about the type of cooperative game that it is. It’s supposed to be a very difficult one. And some of that has been a bad rulebook in the past, possibly, but also just hard to beat in general. I love a good cooperative game where I feel like I’m struggling with it.

4. Lord of the Rings Living Card Game

Lord of the Rings LCG is another one of those board games that I’ve had in my collection now twice. I got a copy of the old version and when the new version was on a good sale somewhere, I picked it up. But this is another one that I need to try. And I know a friend who would gladly teach and play it with me, I just haven’t gotten to it. And he and I are playing through Scarlet Keys Arkham Horror LCG right now so might not get to the Lord of the Rings one soon.

But Lord of the Rings is a theme that I like, hence why I keep on getting it back. It is also a one off scenario game which is nice. Yes, there is still that deck construction that you expect in the LCG’s that Fantasy Flight Games puts out so there is going to be some time there. But I don’t need to plan a few sessions of it like I do with the Arkham Horror LCG and that is certainly a benefit.

3. Cascadia

This one I don’t know why I haven’t gotten it played. It’s not supposed to be a very complex game and it’s a nature theme. There are a lot of people in my game group who would enjoy this sort of game. I bought this one, again on sale, because it’s from the same people who did Calico a game about cats and quilts that I like a lot. And that one is tight and puzzly. This one is supposed to be freer and still a good puzzle as well.

I think that it’s odd as well that I haven’t played it because I think that my wife would enjoy it. Sometimes I buy games where I think, we could try this one and probably would go over well. But then I never get around to pulling them off the shelf. Not that I think many people would balk at playing Cascadia.

2. Spirit Island

Spirit Island is one that I’ve been very hesitant to play. I don’t know why, really. I know a ton of people love this game. And it’s supposed to be a difficult but worthwhile investment of a game. You play as spirits who are trying to drive colonizers off an island. That is a great theme, unfortunately while the cover looks good the board and components don’t really sell me on the game. I know that is the big reason why I haven’t played the game. In fact, I just ordered upgrades to encourage myself to play it.

But this game sounds really interesting. Each spirit that you play is going to play differently. And for a cooperative game, they spirits add in enough complexity that one person can’t really alpha game the whole game. At least that is what I’ve heard. So I want to give this one a whirl, both as a multiplayer game and as a solo game.

1. Clank Catacombs

I love Clank! In! Space!. I like Clank! Adventure Deck Building Game a lot. So it is probably natural that I am going to like this game. But I need to play it still. It is keeping that delving into a dungeon theme here. But instead of it being a fixed map, Clank Catacombs is going to build out the map as you go, and that is a cool element to the game. Why, because it means that the map is never going to be the same every time that you play it. And that sounds wonderful.

Plus it’s still what I love from the other games. You want to go into the catacombs, find treasure, buy cards, and get out before you are knocked out of the game. It’s that push your luck and deck building combined that really works so well for me. And based off of a system that I know I love, it’s not one I can go wrong with.

Which To Play First?

So which of these board games will I get played first. I have a friend coming over, likely, next Tuesday. So maybe it’ll be a situation where I can get one of these off of the shelf. Cascadia and Clank Catacombs are the two that I think are most likely. And I want to get Clank Catacombs played more because I like Clank so much. So I think that is going to be the game that I target for next Tuesday. And maybe I’ll find time to play Cascadia as well.

Some of the others, not the Lord of the Rings LCG, but the other two, I can play solo. So I think maybe once I finish off my Button Shy games on Wednesday streams I should jump into one of those. And Spirit Island is probably the right spot to start. Though, as I say that, I need to make sure that I have it on my shelf still, but I’m pretty sure that I do.

What is some game that you feel like you really need to play because of how it’s talked about in the hobby and because it sounds like one that you’d like?

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Catch up on previous videos here

100 through 91
90 through 81
80 through 71
70 through 61
60 through 51
50 through 41
40 through 31
30 through 21

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

20. Heat: Pedal to the Metal

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

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

Buy Heat: Pedal to the Metal

19. Planet Unknown

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

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

Buy Planet Unknown

18. Clank! In! Space!

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

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

Buy Clank! In! Space!

17. ISS Vanguard

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

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

Buy ISS Vanguard

16. Vampire the Masquerade: CHAPTERS

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

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

Buy Vampire: the Masquerade – CHAPTERS

15. Metal Gear Solid

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

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

Coming Soon

14. Lost Ruins of Arnak

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

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

Buy Lost Ruins of Arnak

13. XenoShyft Onslaught

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

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

Out of Print, but you can find it on eBay

12. Marvel Champions

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

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

Buy Marvel Champions

11. Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game

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

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

Buy Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game

Upcoming Streams

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

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

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

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And for other ideas check out the previous lists.

Two Player Games
Campaign Games
Solo Games
Party Games
Welcoming Games

Medium Weight Games

Now, I know that some of these games are going to feel pretty light to people who play heavier games. I mean Medium Weight Games as those next step level of game, where you know some games but you haven’t played a ton.

Heat: Pedal to the Metal

Let’s start out with a racing game for our medium weight games. While Heat: Pedal to the Metal follows a nice system of what actions you take, there are a number of actions to keep track of. That’s what kept me from putting it in my welcoming game list.

Heat: Pedal to the Metal, like I said, is a racing game. And it’s one that moves along pretty quickly as you gun it down straightaways, slam on the brakes and hit corners. You paly out cards for how far you want to go each turn, depending on what you have in your hand and what gear you are in. But if you blast around a corner, or need to accelerate or brake too quickly you build up heat in your engine. This clogs things up, and while you can drop down in gears and start to cool down, you’re costing yourself speed potentially.

This game is a great balancing act of trying to push it as fast as you can while managing the heat as well. And as you play more, you can do tournaments or cups through several races. It even has a solo mode which is fun to play as well.

Dice Forge

Dice Forge is a dice building game. There aren’t that many of that type of game out there. But you roll dice to collect resources and then spend those resources to buy cards or upgrade the faces of your dice so that they are better.

I like how this game has a nice pivot point. You want to improve your dice. But at some point you pivot to getting more cards for points. When do you pivot, though, is the question that determines how well you do in the game. And you also need to figure out the strategy that works the best with the faces of the dice you have. Some cards might be more unattainable than others, but you might be generating points in other ways.

I also appreciate that you do something on your opponents turns. You don’t do much, but you roll your dice. So it’s not a slow resource generation. You can generate a lot of them quickly, and there are rules for two players to roll more so that it doesn’t slow down the game there as well.

Asking for Trobils

Next up we have a worker placement game. But this one is a bit friendlier and goofier than most. It parodies a lot of classic sci-fi stories and shows.

Basically, Trobils are causing troubles. So you need to catch them, and you get points. But of course you need to build the traps to get them. And everyone is racing around to do that. The worker spots are limited, but the number of ships you have to place out is limited as well before you need to pull them back. And you can recruit pirates or do other things to mess with players, but it’s not really a take that sort of game.

If the idea of this worker placement and almost contract fulfillment, building the traps to get the trobils, interests you, Asking for Trobils is on the lighter side of worker placement games, but will still feel like there is a bunch to do.

Clank! In! Space!

Now we’re moving to a slightly heavier game in Clank! In! Space! In this game you are racing around, building out a deck and trying to get treasure before the evil Lord Eradikus takes you out. But of course, the faster you go, the noisier you are.

I like this game a lot because it offers fun deck building. You buy cards that help you buy more cards, or fight bad guys, or race around the board. And I like how in Clank! In! Space! the board is modular. I know that Clank Catacombs offers that as well, but I need to play that one still. You compete with the other players to get in, get a treasure and get to an escape pod. But if you just get to the bay, you are rescued and can win the game. But you might not even make it out and will be out of the running.

Any version of Clank is good. Regular fantasy, Clank Catacombs with it’s even more modular board. Or Clank! In! Space!. And there is a good app for it if you want to try out the game because you aren’t sure.

Slay the Spire

Finally a cooperative game to wrap up the medium weight games list. I put this one on here because it’s cooperative, it’s based off of a video game, and it’s a lot of fun to play, both the board game and video game.

This is a rogue like deck building game. You battle against monsters to gain more and new cards for your deck. You heal up, upgrade cards, and buy more cards as well as you go along. Can you climb all three levels and win the game?

The game is also a ton of fun because it takes what’s a solo computer game and makes it multiplayer in a way that works really well. I love how it builds up towards that. And it still offers you the unlocking experience that you get in the video game as well. There’s so much going on and it’s just a very fun time for deck building. And you play three acts, but it’s easy to stop between and save if it gets too long.

Final Thoughts

These are just some oft he games that I could put down for next steps. The list is long and there are a lot of great classic games that could work on here as well, things like 7 Wonders would make sense, for example. But which of these games would you want to get and play or do you already have that you love?

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Medium Games

Meadow

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

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

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

Ascension

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

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

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

Sagrada

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

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

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

Clank! In! Space!

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

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

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

Lost Ruins of Arnak

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

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

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

Arkham Horror: The Card Game

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

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

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

Final Thoughts

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

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

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

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Catch up on my Top 100 Games (of all Time) 2023 Edition:

100 through 91
90 through 81
80 through 71
70 through 61
60 through 51
50 through 41
40 through 31

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

30. Icecool

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

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

Buy Icecool

29. Lands of Galzyr

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

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

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

Buy Lands of Galzyr

28. Paper Dungeons

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

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

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

Buy Paper Dungeons

27. Arkham Horror: The Card Game

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

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

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

Buy Arkham Horror: The Card Game

26. Ohanami

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

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

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

Sold Out

25. The Isle of Cats: Explore and Draw

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

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

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

Buy Isle of Cats Explore and Draw

24. Metal Gear Solid

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

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

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

Retail May 2024

23. Clank! In! Space!

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

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

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

Buy Clank! In! Space!

22. Marvel Zombies

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

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

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

Buy Marvel Zombies

21. Sonora

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

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

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

Buy Sonora

Upcoming Streams

Let’s run through the stream structure like I normally do. You might already know the schedule but in case you don’t. Wednesday at 8 PM Central I stream either a campaign game, or with this time of year it’s my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition. And join me next Wednesday for games 20 through 11, almost to the Top 10. It goes so fast, and now I have so many games that I want to play.

Then on Monday I stream at 9 PM Central time. It’s generally a solo game. Though I’ll also do pack openings for things But normally it’s a solo game and a one off for the game like a roll and write, or sometimes a game like Under Falling Skies or For Northwood, which was on the list today.

But the best way, if you want to know when I go live or a new video goes up (it’s basically always live), please consider subscribing. You can do that here. And click that notification bell on the channel and you’ll always know when I go live.

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Top 5 Epic Sci-Fi Board Games

5. Battlestar Galactica

Let’s start out with a different type of one. Battlestar Galactica (BSG) is a hidden traitor game. But it is built into an epic package where the humans are trying to evade the Cylons (robots) who have attacked. They leap from place to place and take actions around the ship to drive off the Cylons that seem to be one step ahead, in that they can always catch back up.

But throughout the game, it happens twice, players are given hidden roles. You might start out thinking you are a human and then half way through become a Cylon. And you are guaranteed that half way through the game, players might become Cylons, but at the start you might have none. And you still won’t trust the other players because they might be a Cylon.

4. Star Wars Rebellion

Star Wars Rebellion is called Star Wars in a box and rightfully so. This is a cat and mouse game of the rebellion trying to gain enough support and take enough subversive actions to take down the empire. The empire is playing a game of hide and seek with the rebel base so they can destroy it taking care of those pesky rebels once and for all.

It’s truly a galaxy big game that feels like Star Wars. Your story might be a little different but it takes from the original trilogy and lets you play it out your own way. Does the empire capture Han Solo instead of Leia? Will Kashyyyk get blown up by the Death Star? You control that story as you play through the game.

3. ISS Vanguard

This one is more of that space grand adventure. And you can watch some of the game over on Malts and Meeples YouTube Channel. I’ll have the first video down below. But ISS Vanguard is about what’s out there in deep space.

Humanity has decoded a secret message buried deep in our DNA. It was coordinates for a galaxy that was cloaked. Hidden far away from Earth, humanity works together to find those coordinates. When you get there, it’s a dying galaxy, and you need to figure out what happened and why you were sent there. You do that by exploring planets. But at the same time you need to maintain and improve your ship so that you can properly deal with the challenges to come and explore everywhere.

2. Clank! In! Space!

Now back to a smaller game, Clank! In! Space! is a deck building game and push your luck. You are thieves breaking into the ship of Lord Eradikus. He has a lot of treasures, but he certainly doesn’t want you stealing them. So while you are racing in to steal them you make noise that will tip him off. And when you tip him off and he activates, he draws cubes from a bag. Those cubes might be his color, which nothing happens, or it might be dealing damage to you.

This game offers that epic feel as you try and figure out how noisy you want to be, noisy cards are better but the more likely Eradikus will draw your cubes and knock you out. But also with being how noisy, how far do you want to push into his chambers to get the best treasure. A close treasure is worth fewer points. But the longer you are in the ship, the more chance for clank and noise to happen.

1. Stars of Akarios

Finally, we have Stars of Akarios. This is another one that I played in Malts and Meeples. And you can watch the first mission of that below. But this is another big box space game. And it’s an interesting one because it is split into three parts. There is tactical ship combat, there is space exploration, and there is planetary exploration.

The big thing you do most of the time is the tactical space combat. That is a a puzzle of using dice to position your ship so that you can flank the enemy and hit for more damage or are more likely to hit. While trying to keep them from being able to do that to you so that you can survive. And how and when to best utilize some things that don’t have unlimited uses for their best effect.

Space exploration is simply moving from space location card to location card. You come across points of interest, and you maybe can interact with them. It’s not a major part of the game. But the planetary exploration is an interesting puzzle as your characters are spending energy to find new missions and new bits of story to interact with on a growing planetary board as you explore around.

Final Thoughts on Epic Sci-Fi

I know that I’m missing one game that would likely make the list. I need to play Nemesis still because I think that could be another amazing experience for this list. It offers the Alien movies in a box, which is great sounding. Or SHEOL I think is sci-fi in nature as well.

But there are a lot of good epic space games out there. Games that I’ve owned that I didn’t mention would be things like Star Wars: Imperial Assault. It offers a good Star Wars story adjacent to the original trilogy, at least out of the box. It’s down on the map versus bigger space picture like Rebellion. Or I thought of a silly game like Galaxy Trucker. It’s space trucking and hoping your ship doesn’t blow up. But it’s a fun time that can lead to great stories as your ship will blow up.

What are your favorite epic sci-fi board games?

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100 through 91 here.

90 through 81 here.

80 through 71 here.

70 through 61 here.

60 through 51 here.

50 through 41 here.

40 through 31 here.

30 through 21 here.

Top 100 Games 2022 Edition – 20-11

20. Lords of Hellas

Lords of Hellas is big game from Awaken Realms, and one of their first games. So that doesn’t mean it isn’t without some rough edges but it’s a game that I really enjoy. It offers so much for you to do, you can go questing, fight monsters, build temples and monuments, or try and take over area in the game. And all of them give you some benefit and can help you win the game.

And that is one of the really cool things with Lords of Hellas. The game gives you a lot of ways to win it. That means that every player isn’t going after the same objective, or they might be, but that’s not from lack of options. You can win by taking over two large areas. Or you win by holding five temple spaces. And if a monument if fully built, whoever at the end of three turns is holding it wins the game. Or, if you defeat three of the monsters you can win.

As you play, also, your goal might change. Because you get more powers and those help develop a strategy for how you want to play the game. The first time that I played, I think all the players were within a turn or two of winning.

Buy on Game Nerdz

19. Spire’s End

Spire’s End is a dark choose your own adventure game with combat. And really a pretty simple game as you make choices, you fight combats and you really hope that you don’t die too quickly. As it is a challenging game. But I really enjoy the story in the game. The idea of a spire showing up, town folks have gone missing, and now you need to explore this mysterious thing to see if you can find them is great.

Plus the dice combat works, it is not the most complex game. But the dice combat is fun as you try and figure out when you push, using energy which is your life, for a bigger attack in hopes that the enemy won’t be attacking you. And of course, there is still a chance that attack will just straight up miss anyways.

Buy on Favro

18. Paper Dungeons: A Dungeon Scrawler

Now we’re onto one of my top roll and write games, not my top one, but close. And this is one that I’ve played a lot on Malts and Meeples. Paper Dungeons is a “dungeon scrawler” their words not mine. What that means is that each player is delving into a dungeon, leveling up their adventuring party, crafting items, fighting monsters and everything you’d do in a dungeon crawler. And it even has a campaign.

Now the campaign is nothing to write home about, but Paper Dungeons is a nice level of complex. Do you want to spend your time leveling up your heroes and just making it to the boss monsters to fight them that way, or is racing around the dungeon, taking damage and getting loot the way to go. Well that might depend on cards that you’ve gotten so the whole system just works. I just wish the campaign were a bit more.

Buy on Game Nerdz

17. ICECOOL

Icecool has dropped slightly on my list, but that’s mainly because there are so many good games. Plus, Icecool is my favorite dexterity game. You are flicking penguins around trying to get fish. And you are doing that trying to avoid the one hall monitor who is out to get you. The game is simple, flick your penguin, get them through a door and get points. But it is always a grand old time when I play it.

I also like that like Pitchcar you get excited when someone makes a good shot. So it’s never hyper competitive, well, maybe it was for a few people at the North American championships in 2019. But most of us even for a tournament with a pretty awesome prize were just having fun with it. It’s a great try to win game, but I never feel bad if I’m not winning.

Buy on Amazon

16. Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition

Now onto a bigger game, Ares Expedition, which they might just be calling it now, borrows from another game. But it’s a great pretty fast playing space epic game of terraforming Mars. All you are doing is building up a tableau of cards in front of you to then trigger things that raise the temp, oxygen level, and basically make the planet habitable by the end of the game.

But the cool thing is how actions are chosen. Each player chooses an action at the same time. And whomever picks the action, multiple people can, do it and get a bonus. If you didn’t pick that action, you still can do it, just without the bonus. So everyone is involved throughout the whole of the game.

Buy on Cool Stuff Inc

15. Hanamikoji

Now onto a two player game. Hanamikoji is a push and pull as players try to win the favor of either four Geisha or 11 total points worth of Geisha. All done through simple but fun card interaction. In fact, there are only four actions you do during the game, but it creates an amazing puzzle as you play.

You either pick a card to keep for winning favor, discard two that no one will use, put out three options and your opponent picks one. Or put out two sets of two options and your opponent picks one. So at the start of the game you are feeling out your opponent to see what they might have in their hand. At the end, you hope that you’ve saved the right action to give you a shot to win. I think it works so well because sometimes you might have to give your opponent what they need, but you get the information that you need.

Buy on Miniature Market

14. Railroad Ink

Final roll and write game on the list and it’s easily my favorite. I really like Railroad Ink or Railroad Ink Challenge. And I need to play it more and more with the expansions for it. But Railroad Ink is a route building game where you are connecting road and rail connections at the edge of your board to complete massive routes and score points.

I know that some people don’t like the Railroad Ink Challenge version as well because it adds in some to the game. It gives you challenges that you need to complete, or should, for more points. Now they don’t always work out but it’s fun when they do. And I like it because it adds variety to the game without adding in a complete additional rule set with the expansions.

Buy on Cool Stuff Inc

13. Destinies

Now we’re getting into games that I’d consider my bread and butter. That is not a knock against the other games, I think that Destinies is just the type of game that I write about and talk about more. Why, because it is a bigger campaign feeling game.

In Destinies you are trying to complete your destiny faster in a story driven game. And that is cool and unique about the game as most story driven games are cooperative. But you are trying to get yours done first and shape the story around you, at least for that session. And then it strings together a series of stories, not too many, to tell a bigger experience in the game.

I also really appreciate the simplicity of the game. There is a great app that handles the story element. But beyond that, how you do and manage skill checks is great. You are spending dice, you always have two and can add more that refresh over time, to do a check. If you don’t get it, you lose out on information, if you do, it progresses. But it’s not just a roll to see if you beat a number it’s a roll to see how many success you get. Because you have markers on your stats, and how every many you match or beat number wise, you get. It’s a simple system but one that works well.

Buy on Miniature Market

12. Sleeping Gods

And another big story game, and another one that shouldn’t work as well as it does. That is not a slight to anyone more so that the game is really impressive. Sleeping Gods is a story driven open world game. You go into it not knowing what to do, other than find some totems and that’s your quest. And to create a compelling story is tricky in a setting like that, but Sleeping Gods does that.

It also is not just a one time game because of it. I went off several different directions on the map. But I didn’t go anywhere to the east, I didn’t delve into the dungeons much and I didn’t go to the south much. In fact, I probably have 75-80% of the world left to explore. That makes Sleeping Gods an easy game to come back to and explore the story of it again and again.

Buy on Amazon

(or I’d recommend checking out Sleeping Gods over on Gamefound and getting it with the new version there)

11. Clank! In! Space!

And wrapping up this section before we get to the Top 10, we have Clank! In! Space!. A deck building push your luck game set in space. This also counts for Clank! as well, and I wish for Clank! Legacy, but that’s one I still need to get to the table.

In Clank! In! Space! you are building up your deck to move as efficiently around a spaceship as possible. All the while you know that you’ll be making noise, clank, so that when cubes are added to and pulled from a bag, you are going to start losing your health. Think the bad guys finding you when your color is pulled.

Plus the game has good humor in it. It knows that it’s a silly game and it leans into the space themes and tropes. So you’ll recognize the characters you are finding on the ship, or at least have an idea of some of the different sci-fi properties that it references. Clank! In! Space! is just a good deck building game that offers more to do than just deck building.

Not Available. But Checkout Clank Catacombs coming soon.

Upcoming Streams

So, only planned stream and I know that this is late coming out because of the holidays, but tonight we have 10 through 1.

Join me live for this finale of my Top 100 Games. Let me know what games make it into your Top 10 (of all time) 2022 Edition. And just for a good time in general to talk about board games and what we love about them.

Then on Wednesday, we’re getting to the holiday season. So I am not starting another big box campaign until the start of 2023, but we’ll be highlighting some and then playing smaller games leading up to that. So join me on Wednesday as I start that process.

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Top 10 Board Game Expansions

10. Tainted Grail: Echoes of the Past

This one is lower on the list because it’s cool, don’t get me wrong, but not needed. In fact, it can make the game a fair amount easier at times because you get more powers. But getting those powers can be hard, because dying is not ideal or being near death. Still, it adds in good story and background for the characters. And you feel like as your character you are chasing something slightly different than the other characters.

9. Tokyo Highway: Cars and Buildings

Tokyo Highway is a pretty dexterity game where you are building out roads going over and under other highways and trying to get your cars played out and not knock anything down. The Cars and Buildings expansion just adds more cars and more buildings that you can use, and different shaped cars. I basically always play with those. And the buildings, why not throw all of them in there and make the Tokyo area as crazy as you can.

8. Welcome To… Maps

This one is a catch all, not the last on the list. But the map packs and season rules for Welcome To… are a lot of fun. They definitely add some interesting twists on the game. But they don’t really make the game harder to play. It’s just a new thing to think about but generally one that is simple. The ice cream, you want to go up in numbers to collect the ice cream on the road. The Easter one, you want to be able to circle the eggs on the houses with numbers like 6, 8, 9, or 0. So something more to think about, but not too much.

7. Small World: Be Not Afraid…

There are a number of Small World expansions, some of them like the modular map, not needed. But ones that are like Be Not Afraid… are good because they just add in more races/classes and powers. It just means that you get more variety in what you are playing and a lot of the time that is what I want in a game. Do you need to know what the new races and powers do? Yes. Is there only one sheet when there should be more? Yes. But it’s easy enough to mix in.

6. Roll Player Adventures: Nefras’s Judgement

At this point we’re getting close to what I’d consider to be a needed expansion. This does a lot of the things that Echoes of the Past does for Tainted Grail. But it gives you a few more fun choices of your own with that. With Tainted Grail, it’s about completing goals. Here, you just go places, you get story and you get to make choices that affect the alignment of your character. I like those extra choices you get to make in the game.

5. Marvel Expansions

This is a cheat one, it’s a catch all for Marvel Champions and Marvel United. All of th ese expansions are great. They either give you more characters to play as or more villains to face off against. Hard to go wrong with that. Even the campaign expansions for Marvel Champions, it’s mainly just more heroes and villains. You can take any hero through the campaign, and you can play those villains outside of the campaign.

4. Clank! In! Space! Apocalypse

Apocalypse takes a game that can be hard, if you push your luck too hard, and can make it harder. Normally there are black cubes you pull for Lord Eradikus from the bag and they do nothing. Now they are filling up a board that can power him up, potentially. And you can spend to remove them but that’s at a cost to doing what you want to on a turn, which is a fun balance for the game. Clank! In! Space! is great without the expansions, but this one adds in so little it’s easy to just drop in that one new mechanic.

3. Betrayal at House on the Hill: Widow’s Walk

This starts a run of ones that just add in more, it’s an expansion that adds in more content to the game but not more complexity. Widow’s Walk is just more haunts that can happen, more omens and items and things that you mix into existing decks of cards or tiles. Are the haunts balanced any better, not really, but it’s more and as a game that I’ve played a lot, I don’t mind having more.

2. Deception: Undercover Allies

This one mainly just adds in more to the box, but the new roles are fun as well. Deception: Murder in Hong Kong might not need it, as there is a lot of stuff in it, but it’s easy to integrate and makes for just more content to have mixed in. And as I said, the new roles are fun as well. One that I really recommend because of how easy it is to mix in.

1. PitchCar Extensions

I think that these are almost needed, at least one, or maybe two. Do you need all of them like I have, probably not. Do you need to get more like I want to? Definitely not. But is it a blast to have all of them. More just means you have more tracks you can build and bigger tracks that you can build. A lot of the time that’s just the fun that you can, to have a big track that you can play in an evening. So more is great for PitchCar.

Final Thoughts

There are a lot of just solid expansions or expansions that I don’t use that often. I liked Forgotten Circles well enough, but it was too fiddly for me to put on the list. Even though Gloomhaven is my favorite game. Or there are other ones, The Fountain of Youth for The Lost Expedition that I’d shuffle in sometimes. Same with for example Potion Explosions expansions. Some just don’t fit in the box and others might but if they are in the box, it makes it harder to play.

There’s even a situation, with Roll Player where my copy hasn’t hit the table. I have the expansions, I have everything in baggies, but I need to get an insert to make it work to be played. It’s just too much else in there otherwise.

I did skip too expansions that tended to just be another campaign for something. Sea & Sand for Destinies, just another game. The Signature Series cases for Detective, really it’s own game that you barely need the base for, if you do at all. They are kind of in a unique category. I love the stories for the Tainted Grail expansion games, but it’s basically a new game.

What expansion do you love in your collection?

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