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

20. For Northwood! A Solo Trick-Taking Game

Published By: Side Room Games
Designer: Wilhelm Su

Buy For Northwood!

A solo trick-taking game seems like it shouldn’t work. But For Northwood! works really well. It’s a simple trick taker, you need to follow suit if you can. But the twist is that you need to win a specific number of tricks each time. You play over eight rounds and need to win between 0 and 7 tricks, exactly. That sounds impossible, but you get powers that help you manipulate your hand. It’s always a question of, which one do you go for, in terms of tricks to win, and as you get further along, can get manipulate your hand to make it work.

19. Marvel Champions: The Card Game

Published By: Fantasy Flight Games
Designers: Michael Boggs, Nate French, and Caleb Grace

Buy Marvel Champions

I love Marvel and this is the game that gives me the Marvel feel to it. You are a superhero and you want to stop the bad guys scheme and defeat them. But, thematically, when you are in your hero form the bad guy is going to fight you and you take damage. So you need to manage going between your superhero and alter ego form so you don’t get hit. Of course as your alter ego, the villains are going to be scheming away. And you can create all sorts of fun combinations of heroes and villains to face off.

18. Floriferous

Published By: Pencil First Games
Designers: Eduardo Baraf and Steve Finn

Buy Floriferous

This game is one that I think is really overlooked in the gaming community. It’s a clever drafting game that does two very interesting things. The first thing is how scoring works. You don’t have much scoring that just happens, instead you draft your scoring cards. So there is always a choice between, do I draft more flowers or do I draft scoring cards. The other is how the drafting works, and this it maybe a bigger twist. You draft from a column, how high you are in the column determines when you draft next round. So it’s very possible you want to draft a less ideal card to get a perfect card.

17. Stars of Akarios

Published By: OOMM (Open Owl Studios)
Designers: Brendan McCaskell, Jonathan Thwaites

Buy Stars of Akarios

I love my big campaign games, and Stars of Akarios is one of my favorites. This one works so well for me with the tactical space combat, the planetary exploration, and a story that doesn’t take itself too seriously. The tactical space combat really shines in the game as you use your dice to position your ship, attack, and avoid the enemies the best you can. And the exploration is a bit like The 7th Continent/Citadel where you flip over cards and create a map and really explore as you go.

16. Clank!: Catacombs

Published By: Dire Wolf
Designer: Paul Dennen

Buy Clank! Catacombs

While i just did sell all of my other Clanks, this Clank! Catacombs spot is for all of them. Clank! is a push your luck game where you build up a deck of cards to get into a catacombs, in this case, and get out with the most points and best treasure that you can. Of course, if you are too noisy doing that, you clank, and when the enemy activates it might knock down your health. So it’s this push your luck in making noise, and going deeper. I like, too, with Clank! Catacombs, the map gets built as you go, so the board really is different every time.

15. Roll Player Adventures

Published By: Thunderworks Games
Designers: Keith Matejka, James William Ryan, and Peter Andrew Ryan

Buy Roll Player Adventures

Another big campaign game here with Roll Player Adventures. This one is all about dice manipulation and a fun story. I had a great time playing through the first campaign, and the additional one that I have, I need to get to the table. The system works well, though I will say, with four players it becomes a bit easier than at lower player counts. But the simple map movement, the story, the skill checks and of course combat and leveling up make this a fun time.

14. The Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game

Published By: Office Dog
Designer: Bryan Bommueller

Buy The Fellowship of the Ring Trick-Taking Game

I like trick-taking games. Not a ton make it to my Top 100 games mainly because a lot feel similar. The Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game is one that is different. Yes, it leans into a lot of standard things, but it’s also cooperative and story based. There are other cooperative ones out there, but the story based feels unique. Especially because this closely follows the books, so you get to chapters with Goldberry and Tom Bombadil as required characters which is fun. And the cooperative elements are challenging for the game.

13. Pirates of Maracaibo

Published By: dlp games
Designers: Ralph Bienert, Ryan Hendrickson, and Alexander Pfister

Buy Pirates of Maracaibo

The second of three new games on this part of the lit in a row. Pirates of Maracaibo is a pirate resource management game. I normally would want it to have more adventure, but this one is a ton of fun. I love building up my ship and seeing what strategy of building up ship, getting treasure, exploring, and competing quests can lead to victory. And it is great because all of them feel good to do. It isn’t a game where I feel like I need to go one way, though, I think some ways are more consistent.

12. Mistborn: The Deckbuilding Game

Published By: Brotherwise Games
Designer: John D. Clair

By Mistborn The Deck Building Game

Another deckbuilding game on the list here with Mistborn. And I like Mistborn just a bit better than Clank! because of a little more pure deck building. But also it has a lot of fun elements to the game. It leans into Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn world and let’s you burn metals to play cards. I also like the turn track, you always bump up in power as you go up the track. This makes for a really great experience of feeling like the game is ramping up.

11. Sleeping Gods

Published By: Red Raven Games
Designer: Ryan Laukat

Buy Sleeping Gods

The final game on the list is another big one, though not a campaign game. Sleeping Gods is a sand box story game where you are dropped into an unknown world and need to find and deal with totems. Of course, it’s a new land, so you don’t know where those are. And there are monsters and other interesting things to deal with. You need to control 9 crew, but really, it’s one turn and you just need to remember a few key abilities as you play. So it sounds like a lot, either cooperative or solo, but it’s not too bad.

Join Next Week

Just as a reminder, I am streaming new videos most Wednesdays. Let me know what you want to see me play next on Wednesdays after this list is done. You can subscribe to the channel and click notify to know whenever a new video comes out. Currently I am playing through Legendary Kingdoms on Monday and then my wife and I are playing Baldur’s Gate 3 on Fridays. So join us for those videos.

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

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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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Top 10 Games of 2024

10. Dungeon Kart

Do you want to play Mario Kart? Do you want to play a board game? Why not do both and play Dungeon Kart from Brotherwise Games. This is a racing game where you play as the characters from Boss Monster, those bosses who are trying to build up their dungeon, well, they want to blow off some steam. So hit the track and use their abilities and their cars to the best of your abilities to get around the track first. If you fall behind, don’t worry. You get spells and blast away at your opponents to slow them down so you can get back into the race.

I like this one because it is a fast game and a theme that people like. I like Mario Kart a lot, and I know that a lot of people do. So Dungeon Kart is an easy one to recommend. Add in that the game is simple to play, and it is even easier to recommend. There are a few things that you need to know, but overall, not a complex or difficult game to learn. And the fact that the characters and cars are different, that’s fun as well.

9. Snowfall Over Mountains

Snowfall Over Mountains is one of a few smaller games on the list, but the only one that is only solo. I enjoy this game for the solo experience because it’s one of those calming and relaxing solo games. You are drawing cards and trying to build a snowscape around you that is going to score the most points.

You score points for different things like rabbit tracks or trees. And there are a few different scoring cards for each of the elements. That is good because it means you can mix and match and get a lot of different combinations for a lot of good variety in what you are doing.

The footprint isn’t as small as some solo games, but it’s not huge. And the box that the game comes in is a nice and small box so if you are traveling and want a solo game to take along this is a solid one.

8. Star Wars: Unlimited

Next up, this game could have been higher, I think. I really like Star Wars Unlimited and I really enjoy the TCG aspect of it. As I say in the video, without the theme I’m not sure I’d be as excited for it. But being able to build a deck with clones, droids, Mandelorians, rebels, whatever factions they have thus far, that’s a lot of fun. And there are a number of aspects that also help the game.

I want to focus on one aspect here. I really like that you always have a leader in this game. The leader is going to give you an ability that you can use, even when they aren’t in play, and that ability is going to give you a focus for your deck. There isn’t just throwing your favorite cards into a deck, you need to think about synergies as well between your characters.

Okay, one more aspect that I really like, and I promise that is it. I appreciate that the game doesn’t let you run out of energy. There is no card draw and hope you get credits or whatever so you can play out cards. Instead, it uses this great system, you draw two cards and, if you want, put one into play as a resource. I love that decision space as I need to decide, do I want this card or do I want the resource, and that is often times a very tough call.

7. The Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-Earth

Now for another theme that I really like, we have The Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-Earth. This game reimplements 7 Wonders Duel, but it’s not just a straight reimplementation. And for me that is a good thing. I like 7 Wonders Duel a lot. But I think that I like Lord of the Rings Duel (as I’ll be calling it) more. And of course, the theme is a great reason for that.

I also like that the game doesn’t end with scoring. Yes, I’m not 100% sold on how it does end, but there are a number of ways for it. There is only one way that I have an issue with or wish there was a bit more. The first way is that the ringbearer makes it to Mount Doom and chucks in the ring, or the Nazgul catches the ringbearer. Or if you rally the support of the different races of Middle-Earth that’s another way too. Finally, if you take control or have a piece of control in every area. If none of those happen it’s whomever controls the most areas, and that’s okay.

But if you like Lord of the Rings, this is a great two player head to head game that I really recommend. If you don’t like Lord of the Rings, it’s still good. Especially if you want something with a bit of theme in it compared to 7 Wonders Duel.

6. Castle Combo

Now for a game without much theme but that’s still a lot of fun. Obviously Castle Combo is a lot of fun, it’s in my Top 10 Games of 2024 and at #6. But this is a game about building out the best scoring grid that you can. The game is simple, you play it in nine rounds, and at the end, you have a 3 by 3 grid of 9 cards.

But there are elements to the game that offer a great challenge or some good fun. I like how the cards are all divided into three things. The first element is the cost, you need to be able to pay that coin cost to get it. The next is an instant effect. It might be that all cards of a certain type cost 1 less now. Or it might just get you coins or keys. Finally there is the scoring, and that is going to happen after all your grid is full. So you need to figure out how to optimize that scoring while still getting coins and keys to get more cards.

And I really like the key mechanism in the game. The keys either let you wipe the row of cards you are on. Or you can use the key to move you to the other row so you can buy from there. But, it won’t less you do both in one turn. I really like that challenge element of the game because I could wipe, but will I get something good. Or I could move, but maybe wiping will give me something better.

5. Let’s Go! To Japan

Next up is one that didn’t make my Top 100 Games because I hadn’t played it yet. But I really love Let’s Go! To Japan. This is a game about planning out your itinerary for going to Japan. And you need to plan out three things to do each day in Tokyo, Kyoto, or both.

Each day has a particular theme that it wants you to go for as well. It might be that you want to get food one day and go to a nature sight another day. That order changes for every game, but the different symbols remain the same. The fun thing is that you need those symbols to score your cards each day, well to score the one that you can see the end game scoring on anyways. So if you need food and it’s before the food day, you probably need to get some food in a less than optimal way.

It is also a good drafting game. I like how I get two cards, one Tokyo and one Kyoto. I pick one to add to my itinerary and give you the other, or person to my left or right. But not to use right away, to collect into a hand of cards that then you’ll pick from later in the game. So I can set you up with stuff you don’t want. Or I can just focus on what is best for me. But it’s a nice twist on drafting.

4. Mistborn: The Deckbuilding Game

Mistborn: The Deckbuilding Game was one of my most anticipated games for 2024, and clearly it didn’t disappoint. I really enjoy this game and of course, I love the theme and I love deckbuilding. But those two elements aren’t enough for me automatically love the game. I think the solo/cooperative play helps it as well, though I really do enjoy it as a competitive game too.

There are two elements I want to talk about that I really like. The first is the burning of the metals. I love how they make that a thematic part of the game. Pewter is going to give you more attack and healing. Things that help you sooth emotions or rile them up could heal or get people to be generous and give you more money. But they are thematic and I like that you are limited in how many you can burn, so there is a good amount of strategy in your deckbuilding.

I also like that the game has a leveling track. Each player levels up once per turn. That gives you new abilities that make you more unique and powerful in the game. And it starts to let you burn more metals. I think that combination just works well so that what could be a longer game, can’t be as long because you start to ramp and get stronger. And soon you might be buying and using cards with Atium and doing a lot of damage or leveling to win the game.

3. Rebel Princess Deluxe Edition

I never thought that I’d put Hearts on my top games list, but here it is, Hearts, albeit with shenanigans is my #3 game for 2024. I really like this one because it’s a familiar trick taking game. Instead of avoiding hearts and the queen of spades, you avoid the princes proposals and the frog prince and his proposal. That element is very much the same.

But it’s very different in a lot of other ways. You each have a princess and they have a power. You can use that power once per hand of cards. And then you, instead of passing left, right and then across, you pass however a flipped card tells you to. And that flipped card also has other things on it, like some special rules for that hand. It might be that the person furthest from the card that led the trick, numerically, is going to be the winner of that trick. It causes chaos but is so much fun.

2. Slay the Spire: The Board Game

The last two are ones that I’ve played on Malts and Meeples. First off we have Slay the Spire. I love the video game and the board game works just as well. In fact, it offers something that the video game can’t, you can play Slay the Spire: The Board Game multiplayer, and it’s amazing. In fact, I think I prefer it multiplayer, or maybe multihanded better than purely solo.

The game does a few things to make it work. While the core of climbing the tower, and adding cards to your deck, is the game, there are elements that are different. Firstly, it scales down the health and attack levels. I love this because it makes the math easier. Next you roll a die to determine the enemies attack and what relics that you have activate. This makes it simple as compared to keeping track that something goes off every seventh round or anything like that.

And I want to talk about multiplayer. Each player gets their own row of enemies that will damage them. But you are able to support your allies by attacking the enemies. So maybe mind are just playing defense for a round, that means that I can help wipe out your row of enemies and then you don’t have to worry about anything so you can go all out attacking. It’s a great addition to a great game.

1. The 7th Citadel

Finally, at #1, we have The 7th Citadel. I really love this game and it’s what I had wanted from The 7th Continent, though I do appreciate that open and very sandbox system in The 7th Continent. The 7th Citadel gives you that same sandbox to play in but gives you more specific and focused missions. I know that I need to find something southeast. I’m not sure where for sure, but I just know that I need to go southeast, and I really enjoy how that works.

But the game keeps some of the core elements to it that are great. I like that you still are spending cards from a deck. And while that deck isn’t your life and won’t just instantly kill you if the wrong thing is drawn, bit kind of is your life. You put cards back into the deck by spending hit points. So if I want to get 10 cards by in, that’s five of my life. And while the game isn’t always punishing you with combat and taking life that way, there are a ton of challenges that you need to deal with.

Final Thoughts

Like I said at the beginning, I’m annoyed I missed Rock Hard 1977. I really like that game, so it’s an honorable mention and probably would be in about the middle. And I look at my shelf and I see more 2024 games that I want to play. Bomb Busters is a big one as is Stamp Swap that I want to try.

It is always a good year for games. If you don’t find one that you love, it means that you either got caught up in the hype for some game or weren’t looking that hard. And I love that I can find amazing games all the time to try. I definitely want to spend more time playing 2024 games, and maybe late in 2025, I’ll look back again at 2024 and see what my Top 10 looks like then.

Let me know your favorite game from 2024?

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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
Thematic Games

Deck Building Games

Mistborn

Mistborn is the newest one on the list. And in fact, I played it solo the week of Thanksgiving. But this is a good new deck building game with a theme that I think a lot of people will enjoy. Brandon Sanderon’s series Mistborn is popular and this game does a good job of bringing in elements of that.

You get to play as a Mistborn and either battle other Mistborn and try and advance objectives to either win by completing those objectives or knocking the other Mistborn out of the game. Or you can play cooperatively against the Lord Ruler of the Final Empire. And you need to take him out, either as a group or in solo play, before he can squash the rebellion and take you out.

The standard mechanisms of get funds and spend those to get new cards in the same. But it does a few things differently. Firstly, you have a level up track and at the start of each turn you level up. So you ramp in power as you go. You also can’t just attack one person, no ganging up, and I like that as when you get close tot he end of the game it means everyone is low on health. Plus you burn metals, thematically, in the game, which works really well as well.

Hero Realms

Let’s now go to the smallest deck building game on the list, Hero Realms. This one is a two player head to head battling game. Though you also can face off against some solo options as well. This is another good game of building up your attack but also wanting to build up your resources so you can get stronger attacks. It’s a question as to when you flip from getting resources to getting attacking cards.

The ramp in this game is fast as well. By that I mean you start the game doing small amounts of damage to your opponent. But just a few turns in you’ll be able to swing for a lot of damage. That’s nice about the game because you are able to play a few times in a sitting instead of it being the game that takes all evening. And it’s small enough, just with the core box, that you can easily travel with it.

Lost Ruins of Arnak

We go from a small game to a very large game. Lost Ruins of Arnak is a deck building game but also so much more. In Lost Ruins of Arnak you are exploring, well, ruins. And you want to be the one with the most fame at the end of it. You do that by collecting resources, buying cards – the deck building part – and researching the ruins.

The game offers so much more, like I said. There is the worker placement element of the game. And there is the research track that you are spending resources you have gathered. But the main driving engine behind the whole thing is the deck building. Because as you buy cards they don’t go to the discard pile, they go to the bottom of your deck, and it’s a smaller deck, so you cycle through it fast.

Plus, there are two ways that you add in cards. Some being that you buy with gold. These are supplies that are shipped over to you for your expedition. So they go to the bottom of the deck. But there are artifacts that you find as well. You get to use the artifact immediately when you purchase it, but it’s at the cost of explore tokens versus gold, and explore tokens are used more often than gold is in the game. It’s a clever system and thematic as to how quickly found versus shipped items get to your hand.

Aeon’s End

Now for a cooperative game in this category we have Aeon’s End. A game of fighting against big monsters and hoping that you can outlast them or take them down before they take out the town of Gravehold.

This game has a ton of expansions and core boxes, and you will do find picking any core box. I like Aeon’s End Legacy, as well, as a way to jump in. In fact, I played through a full campaign of that on stream on Malts and Meeples if you want to check it out.

But this is a game that offers a ton of variety. While the cards in the market are fixed for a single game, you can change it up every game. Plus each Mage, the character you control and play as, has a special card and special abilities. And then each Nemesis you face off against, the big bad guy, is going to be unique as well. Some you can’t beat with damage, so you need to play it smart and outlast the smaller minions and attacks they throw out. Some are more straight forward and you’ll be attacking them a lot. They do a great job in being creative with the game.

If pure fantasy isn’t your style for this. There is also a newer, and slightly different version you can checkout called Astro Knights with more of a sci-fi and anime feeling theme.

Ascension

Finally, I think you need to put one of two games on a deck building list. I put the one that I like better, Ascension, as compared to Dominion. For me, Ascension’s theme and mechanisms for deck building are just a little bit better.

But it’s very much a straight forward deck building game, at least as you start. You certainly are able to buy expansions and change it up. But you buy cards that give you points and then either attack or purchase power. And your next turn with your next hand, you again buy cards, or you attack the enemies on the board gaining points for them.

One element I really enjoy is how everything kind of works together with synergies. Each faction in the game synergize a lot and you can lean into card draw or attacks if you want. You decide. And there are constructs as well, another element that I like. These are cards that just don’t get played, but they stay in play. Certain things will mess that up, but I love building up the combos and powers of those constructs as well, which can be game breaking if you aren’t careful and let someone get them all.

Final Thoughts

I want to add more games to the list. There are a lot of great deck building games out there. And I know people who their favorite game is Dominion. So while it isn’t on my list, or a deck building game that I love, it’s one that yes, you should checkout if you haven’t already. And I love how deck building can do so many things as well. Is there one of these games that you’d like to get? Or one that you’d think about giving to someone?

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Mistborn Solo vs Multiplayer

I won’t be doing a full review on Mistborn Deckbuilding Game yet, I need to play it more. Mainly, I want to play a couple more times solo, a time or two cooperatively, and of course some more competitive games as well. But let’s talk a little bit about it and how the cooperative/solo works.

Added Solo Mode

First off, it is more thematic for it to be a cooperative game. I found it odd that it was a competitive game to start. Kind of like Call to Adventure with the Stormlight Archives, though that one makes more sense. But with Mistborn and the characters you play, it always made sense to me that it should be a cooperative game.

The risk, of course, is that it is designed as a competitive game. So I worry about a game that has something tacked onto it. Is it still a good mode? Or is it something to get people who wouldn’t buy it to buy it? I feel like this solo mode is well thought out. As you watch the play through, I am sure you see that I was worried about if I would win or not. It wasn’t until very late in the game that I felt comfortable. And I like that about the game, it feels like an intended way to play it.

Combat

Now, I think that both ways are pretty different. The combat as a multiplayer game is part of the game. And I think in a two player game, the combat is going to be a key element to it. In higher player counts, you might lose the game because of combat, I’m not sure you win the game with combat. But the combat against the Lord Ruler is interesting mainly because he heals so much.

In fact, I feel like the game is almost split into two parts. The first part of the game is a race up the tracks to stop the Lord Ruler from healing. Next you want to deal out damage once the healing is gone. The constant part between that is that you need to heal a ton as well.

I think that it is possible to beat the Lord Ruler with just two of the tracks done. In my play, I believe I could get out damage quickly enough end game to make that work. If he is only healing ten, and not every turn I like my chances. But you definitely need to complete two of those tracks.

Variability

So is the solo mode going to be variable enough. I think there are elements that make me believe it will be. Firstly, the characters that you play are asymmetric. So Vin is different than Marsh who is different than Kel. But I think that difference is minor.

Next is the variable market. That element is going to change up the game each time you play. You might ramp slower to the big cards because of what is available. Or you might find that going up the tracks is harder because of the cards you are able to buy.

I also think those tracks provide variability to the game as well. I picked some with pretty consistent leveling up. The game is going to be different with the other ones. Some give you fewer bonuses. And things like less damage than I had, I think that would make the game a lot harder.

Finally is the Lord Rulers deck. Yes, the composition of that deck is not going to change. But when you draw cards, that is going to be an element that changes. I got lucky with the Kadra and House Lords at the end of the game. If I find an obligator or inquisitor that late, no chance that I win the game. So it is balanced on an edge there.

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. We will skip this Friday because of the Holidays.

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..

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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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Message me on Twitter at @TheScando
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How To Win the Mistborn Deckbuilding Game?

There are two ways in which you can win the Mistborn Deckbuilding Game. The first is fairly simple, knock out your opponents. If you take them out and are the last one standing, you win the game. The other is a bit more work, but gives you benefit as you go, you need to complete three missions. Each mission will give you rewards as you go up the tracks, but when you complete all three you win the game.

How Do You Play the Mistborn Deckbuilding Game?

This is a standard deckbuilding game in some ways. You get both attack and purchase power on your cards that you play about. And you use that attack and that funding to buy new cards and attack the other players. But how some of the cards work is very different than your standard deckbuilding game. So let’s look into some of those unique things that Mistborn does.

Game Play Highlights

Burning Metals

Yup, we’re already onto the highlights. Mainly because the basis of the game is that much of a standard deck building experience. But let’s talk about activating cards. I think that it is one of the most unique elements of the game. In Mistborn the characters burn metal that allows them to use abilities. They do that in the game. You are able to burn metal and that then let’s you activate some of the cards. Some are just basic funding that don’t require anything. But others you need to burn metal to activate.

And while you are limited in how much can burn, there are ways around it. I’ll talk about one in a second, but you can spend cards to burn additional metals. Each card has it’s ability, but there are pairs of metals that it has that you can burn. So it’s a way, if you can’t spend all your cards otherwise, to power up cards and play out as much or more than you could in the first place.

Finally, you can always burn an extra metal. But that metal is burnt out until you discard a card of that type to get it back. It’s nice mechanism to let you push early game, but it has a cost. Do you want the benefit now to need to refresh it later?

Unlocking New Powers

You also unlock other things. Each player starts out pretty much the same. The metals in the base deck vary, but that’s about it. As you go up in turns you unlock powers. And generally these powers are passive. If you burn something, you get a benefit. So as you go, you get more powerful, but also become more unique in what you can do or what you might want to focus on. And you gain access to Atium, something even more powerful to burn.

And the game scales with the burning of metal and unlocking powers. At the start of the game you can burn a metal per turn. But at the end of each turn you bump up on a track. That track gains you access to several things. But the biggest is that as you improve your deck of cards, you can burn more metal. So you go from one all the way up to four. It builds a great power ramp into the game.

Permanent Cards

I talked about how some cards, or most cards are ones you play out and burn metal for. But you also gain permanent cards. These cards go into play in front of you. I say permanent, but more so that they don’t cycle at the speed of others. They can be defensive cards that need to be taken out first. Or they can add offense or other abilities as you burn metals. It’s a nice way to potentially thin out your deck for a period of time before someone decides it’s too annoying at targets them over you. And it can even give you the benefit of burning additional metals.

Combat

Combat is pretty simple and I call it King of Tokyo style combat. There is one player who has the target. All the other players attack that player. If that player wants, after any attack, they can then pass that target off to another player. But if you attack while you have the target, you attack everyone. It makes it so that sometimes it’s worth it to hang onto it and have the damage in order to deal out a bunch of damage to everyone.

What I Want To See More Of

So we talked about a lot of highlights. In reality a lot of those highlights are how you play the game as well. But they work so well thematically that I wanted to cover them. I chose to end on combat, though, because it’s an area that I want to see more of. When we ended our demo, we had one player knocked out and the rest close. I like that balance of it being close there. But the winner won via going up on the mission tracks.

To me, it felt like it was more likely to end with someone going up on the mission tracks. I want to see someone win via combat and via knocking everyone out. It is going to be tricky, unless one person never the target in combat. Otherwise, everyone loses life so consistently. And there isn’t an immediate benefit, besides being closer to winning, of knocking someone out. In a two player game, I think it’ll happen often. But three or four players, it is likely better to go up the tracks and complete missions.

I also want to see how many people remember or how long it takes people to remember to move up their power level each round. So each player has that track that unlocks burning more metal and elements like that. It is a bit of extra house keeping that is going to take a bit for some people to remember. I don’t know how you’d make it easier to remember. I just know that it wasn’t always the easiest to remember.

Final Thoughts and First Impressions on the Mistborn Deckbuilding Game

I really like this game. I think that it adds in some fun additions to the game and to deckbuilding. The elements of the game like burning the metals are also very thematic to the books. I appreciate the attention to detail put into it because it offers something different that makes sense. And it’s an element of the game that is easy to teach and explain to people who know the game.

I say that, and I also want to talk about how the game is pretty fast. We got through basically the whole game in an hour and a half. That is with the rules teach and with a few rules questions. Not to say the rules teach was bad, I think it was quite good, but we wanted to ask questions and clarify things as we went. And generally our interpretation was right, but it is good to clarify. So I think if people knew the game, a four player game could take an hour or so. Which is nice because it feels like the streamlined the game just enough.

Is the theme one that interests you? Do you like deckbuilding games? If so, I recommend Mistborn Deckbuilding Game.

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The Game – Slay the Spire

Let’s talk about why Slay the Spire has such a board game feel to it. The obvious thing is the deck building aspect of the game. As you beat each level in the tower, you are getting rewards. And among those rewards is the choice of three cards. You then pick one of those cards to add to your deck.

This isn’t standard deck building, in some ways. When I face off against a monster I get my choice of those three cards without thoughts on which one costs the most or anything like that. I just get to pick one and add it to my deck. The cost aspect has been removed from the game. Though, the cost aspect then exists again when you go to the market to buy cards, because it is outside of the combat missions.

I think it is a good set-up though for the game. The cost of getting a card, even if it’s a rare gold card, is that you’ve done battle. And sometimes it might be that you get lucky, or others getting a lousy card, if you decide to take one, comes from a hard battle. But, the deck building allows the dungeon to progress. The battles get harder, and the cards you get make you feel up to the task.

Upcoming Streams

So, this is coming out later than normal. I preferably put out this article on Thursday, the day after I stream, but I forgot. So, today, at 8:30 PM, I am going to be streaming some game. Now, my Monday streams are generally more conversation and a lighter game. So it’ll be some lighter solo game, and I had hoped to learn a new one but that hasn’t happened yet. Plus I need to test out the new equipment.

Assuming that the new equipment is working correctly, on Wednesday I am going to play Lands of Galzyr. This is a bigger campaign style game, though not as campaigned as something like Gloomhaven. So that’s going to be the one that I’m tackling next at 8 PM on Wednesday. I’ll know more tonight if the new equipment is working.

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Escape Room Games

With this, I’m mainly talking about Unlock and Exit, because I’ve played both of those series, and I really highly recommend Unlock. In fact, Unlock has a new Star Wars box that is out, so a theme that will even standout. These games are basically little escape rooms in a box. Now, that doesn’t mean that they are easier than an escape room since they are smaller, they can be really tricky with hidden clues and figuring out how to use the information that you’ve found together. But this is a great family activity sort of a game. You can only play each of them once, but they work really well for casual groups and are really engaging throughout. Unlock is nice because you could play it in your group and then pass it to another group because you don’t destroy anything. Exit you do often destroy part of the game to figure out a puzzle or two or three. I also like Unlock because while both of them are time based for how well you do, Unlock has an app with a count down timer that just makes it smoother, versus Exit where the time is counting up.

Draftosaurus

I’ve talked about a lot of roll and writes, and this actually isn’t one, but it has a bit of that feel to it. In this game, you are drafting a dinosaur meeple from a handful of them that you have, and then based on how a die is rolled placing it on the board into a pen. Some pens want all different dinosaurs, some want all of one type or pairs of dinosaurs. It’s a fast little game that works really well for drafting and is pretty easy to keep track of because everyone will end up with the same number of dinosaurs on their board. There are other drafting games out there that are solid as well. I always recommend Sushi Go Party! as well, but that one can, at times get muddled because if people don’t draft at the same speed someone can end up ahead or behind and it’s harder to count it out. Draftosaurus doesn’t offer the variety, but it is a very simple game that can be played with a wide variety of ages.

Splendor

I was torn on this one between Splendor and Homebrewers, I actually prefer Homebrewers by a fair amount, but it’s just a bit more complex and the theme won’t be for everyone. In Splendor, you are renaissance jewelers who are going out and getting the best jewels. You start out by taking one time use jewels, and then you can buy a jewel card for a cost of your one time use jewels. Those jewel cards then give you a permanent jewel of that color that you can use to buy more jewels. And your goal is to get the jewel cards that score points and be the first to fifteen. The game is simple and it works well. Generally, there isn’t anything that stands out as making this game amazing, but there is also nothing to knock about it. Something on par with it would be the city building game of Machi Koro that would work as well. If the people you know already have those games (or one of them) and might be looking for a step up, Homebrewers is great, or Century: Golem Edition, of the brewing theme doesn’t work.

King of Tokyo

Sometimes you just want some dice chucking fun, and King of Tokyo is that. In this game you take on being a Kaiju who is battle other Kaiju. Think Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Here, you are trying to be the king of Tokyo by either knocking out the rest of the monsters or by winning via victory points. While I have seen people win via victory points, most of the time, it’s smashing. If you are outside of Tokyo you can only hit the monster in Tokyo, if you’re in Tokyo you can hit everyone else. But the downside to being in Tokyo is that you can’t heal, so as you are getting hit by everyone, you need to know when to drop out and let someone else go into Tokyo so you don’t die. It’s a fun push your luck dice chucking game. You can also buy upgrades that allow you to do more damage, or a one time boost to victory points or something like that, so you have a lot of different strategies depending on what cards show up. They also have some expansions that add more monsters and more things to do in the game.

Silver

This could be Silver Amulet, Bullet, Coin, or Dagger, you can take your pick. If you have a bigger group of people you can play with, Dagger would be very good, if you’d mainly just be playing with with two, I like Amulet and Bullet better for that. This game is a push your luck type and take that type of game, so it might not be for everyone. Everyone starts with a village of five cards face down in front of them. They can look at two of them, and the goal is to go down in the number of cards and have the fewest cards when a vote is called for. To do that, you will either draw a card or take a card from the discard pile on the turn. If you draw it and it has a flip ability, cards 5 through 12 have them in every game, you can either add it to your village or use that ability. Cards 0 through 4 have a flipped up ability, so if they are in your village facing up, you can use their ability. But how do you get down in cards, you can trade in two of the same number for another number. So you do try and rush that, if you can figure out you have decent cards so you can call for the vote before other people can change up their village too much. It’s a fun game, plays fast and all of them can be mixed and matched together, so get two and you have a ton of different combinations that you can play.

Now, there are a lot more games. I realized that I could have easily mentioned games like Marvel United, which I mentioned before by a list, Dominion or Ascension for a deck building game, Small World, Deception Murder in Hong Kong, a whole slew of roll and write games and more. There are plenty of really good options that can help encourage and engage new gamers to maybe look beyond the standard games that were a part of a lot of our youths, and that aren’t too intimidating.

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100 to 91

90 to 81

80 to 71

70 to 61

60 to 51

50 to 41

40 to 31

Plus a few notes on how I’ve put together the list:

• These are my favorite, you want what people consider best, see the Board Game Geek Top 100
• If a game you love isn’t on the list, it might be be coming, I might not have played it, and if I have, it’s 101
• If a game looks cool, I have links to buy it from CoolStuffInc or Amazon, or you can grab most at your FLGS
• There are a few games, Destiny 2 Player versus regular Destiny where if they are basically the same thing, I only do one of them

30. Homebrewers

This is one that I think is going to climb higher and higher over time because of how simple but fun the game is. And I have to say, I really like the theme of brewing beer. This game is basically an engine builder where you are trying to be the best at brewing beer and to do that you need to brew, and hone your recipes so that you can place well at Summerfest and Oktoberfest. To do this you get cards that are ingredients which you can use for a one time affect, like if you need an influx of money, get one that gives you some money, or you can add the ingredients to a beer, so maybe every time I brew my porter now it has oyster in it which gives me $1 versus a one time cash thing of $5. You can create some fun and crazy combinations, and in all honesty, I’d probably try them. I also like that in this game each character as a special power, so you can decide how you want to play the game and can do something different than everyone else. This is a fast engine building game, and definitely one that can work as an introduction to engine building.

Last Year: 45

29. Zona: The Secret of Chernobyl

This is a game that I need to play more, but it is a big game, so it’s hard to get to the table all that often. In Zona, you are trying to get into the vault at the heart of Chernobyl, but to do that you need to brave the wasted lands surrounding it where few go and where mutated monsters roam. You can play this game solo, or you can play it competitively, which I think is really interesting. So you are exploring, finding what you need to get to get into lesser locations and then fight monsters, survive, and get into these locations, get out with some new very useful cards and get into the heart of Chernobyl before everything falls apart and the game wins. I find that interesting where the game has a timer where it can itself win, in a competitive game, so it is possible that all the players will lose.

Last Year: 34

28. Just One

Just One is the top party game on the list, and I think that it’ll hold that spot for a while. The game is just clever and enjoyable to play. In this game one person is “it” like in so many party games, and they, instead of trying to get people to guess a word are trying to guess a word. Everyone else is putting down clues for them, one word clues, hence Just One. And everyone needs to write down a unique clue. If people cross over with each other, those clues are cancelled out. Again, hence why this is called Just One. The game works really well and it is a lot of fun. I also like that like Cross Clues, Just One is a cooperative party game. Most party games are meant to be silly, but if you are out of the game part of the party game, it just becomes purely silly, and for a game night, I like party games that can keep people in the game itself, and Just One does a great job of that.

Last Year: 22

27. Say Bye to the Villains

This game my record is probably 0-15, maybe 0-20 at this point, and it’s a cooperative game. This is not a game where you win 50% of time like a lot of cooperative games try to be, it is a game that is extremely hard to win, but clearly I still love it. In this game you are Samurai who are taking on villains. You are fighting honorably, so you know when the fight is going to happen, so you prepare. You do this by researching the villains, by increasing your stats and then eventually once you’ve used up all of your time, you select the villain who you are facing off against. The issue is that you need everyone to beat the villain they are facing off against, and you basically never have the time needed to completely research the villains or to get yourself completely prepared to fight. The concept just works really well for me, and the game play is very smooth. My only knock is that this game can play a lot of people, but it probably should max out at four or five, because otherwise it is a bit long.

Last Year: 43

26. Hats

I love this game as a different feeling card puzzle game. Like Parade, this game has been randomly given the theme of Alice in Wonderland. It could have been anything or nothing. In it you are trying to score the most points by having the best collection of hats. These hats have numbers, and you start out with a hand of them as well as some that are going to be determining what is scored on the table. The trick to this game, and I think what I like about it so much, is that you are trying to manipulate the table in such a way by playing down cards and then using the ones for scoring that you place in front of you, that when all is said and done the colors you have are scoring and they are scoring well and that whatever you opponent(s) were collecting doesn’t score well. It just feels like a twist as you have a set hand of cards and while you can change them up a little, it might not be enough to get it set-up as you want. This game plays fast and is a good thinky filler.

Last Year: 26

25. Point Salad

Another filler on the list up quite high. This must have just gotten played after I made the list last year, but Point Salad has been a game that has consistently gotten to the table and even 4-5 times in the past week. In this game you are building up the best salad possible to score as many points as possible. And that’s the joke, in a point salad style game, everything you do is going to give you some points, so AEG created a game where you are building up salads and everything might give you points. What determines if something gives you points though is based off of the scoring cards you draft. So this is an extremely simple game, you either take vegetables for your salad or you take a scoring card. But you have to pay attention to what is scoring for you and how. Maybe you have a card that gives you 4 points per tomato, but it probably also gives you -2 points per onion and carrot, so you need to build your salad right so that you scoring as many points as possible. The game is so simple and turns are fast, and while there is less depth than Hats, this is still a great filler with a bit of depth.

Last Year: Not Ranked

24. Aeon’s End: War Eternal

I love deck building games, and Aeon’s End: War Eternal is a very good one, in my opinion. And I would hazard to say, had I played more of the Aeon’s End games, I’d say all are great deck building games. Now, there are a ton of deck building games, so what makes this stand out. I like that you are facing off against a big boss, which isn’t unique, but you can start to whittle them down right away if you want, which isn’t always the norm. I like the breach system for casting spells. You can open up more breaches for your character and cast more spells per turn when you do that. And what really makes this different is that you don’t shuffle your deck. This is the only deck building game that I know of that you don’t shuffle. What happens when you run out of cards, well, you just flip your discard pile and you have your deck again. This means, if you are counting cards, you can set-up turns for yourself. You might want a turn with no spells just because with a lot of purchase power you can buy a better spell, or maybe you want a good mix so that you never have a turn where nothing happens. What also is interesting is that turn order isn’t set. The nemesis, monster you’re fighting, will have 2 turns for every six player turns. But you have a turn order deck that is shuffled, and in a two player game where are two player one cards, two player two cards and two nemesis cards. So the nemesis could go twice in a row at the start, then four player turns, you just don’t know. It makes the puzzle feel harder that way, but also can set-up some moments of calm.

Last Year: 16

23. Criss Cross

One of my top roll and write games. Criss Cross is very simple but so much fun. In this game everyone is playing at once, trying to place symbols rolled on dice adjacent to each other in rows and columns on a 5 x 5 grid. That doesn’t sound too bad, but you need to treat the two dice rolled each round as a domino, basically. That means if the symbols rolled are a circle and a triangle you need to place the circle and the triangle adjacent to each other on the grid. You need to also make sure that you don’t leave yourself with a single spot separated from everything else because it means you won’t be able to fill that spot. The game is super fast and very fun. Scores can and will vary wildly based off of how things are rolled, but it is fun crossing your fingers hoping that the write combo is rolled. I like that you are scoring both the rows and columns too, and in the expert version the diagonal, so you can’t just focus on rows or columns and expect it to go extremely well.

Last Year: 23

22. Deranged

This game, why isn’t this game out yet. It was so amazing playing at GenCon last year that it is on my list because I got the full game experience there. It should, fingers crossed be coming out yet this year, I have a preorder in for it, and it might, just might, be coming out this month, October, still. Which would be perfect because this is a horror adjacent game. In this game you are spending time and moving around trying to get rid of your curses and be the first player to get out of the town. The issue is the town is keeping you trapped in as long as you are cursed and there are monsters roaming around. Plus, the other players, they don’t mind if you get attacked so they might be encouraging that. And they might be deranged and attacking you themselves. This game has nice card play for determining what actions you are doing and how good they are. And then if you’re deranged, you flip the card upside down and use a similar but different set of actions. The game is just clever and while not short, turns play pretty fast. So much fun in this game and has a good theme that I like.

Last Year: 17

21. The Lost Expedition

Some games have a fair amount of alpha gaming in them if they are a cooperative game. That is to say that one person tells everyone what to do on their turn. The Lost Expedition is a game that has, built into it’s mechanics, ways to prevent that from happening. Players, without communicating, place down cards for both a daytime and evening hike as they work their way toward the lost city of Z, so no one knows what the other people are going to play. In the day, the cards are then sorted into numerical order and you’ll have to navigate them, and even the evening, they are played in whatever order they come out. And most of these cards don’t do good things. So no one can tell other people what to play, then collectively as a group, you decide how to spend resources and what actions to take, of the optional actions on a card. Sometimes it’ll be good like giving you more food or bullets, but most of the time you are hurting yourself as spending resources from your guides, from your food supply, or bullets, and if you run out of life on your guides you lose the game. The game is very clever and plays very fast. There’s always discussion around the table as you try and map out the best route of using and gaining resources and advancing closer to the Lost City of Z.

Last Year: 32

This is an odd section of the list because two of these games are still really high after mainly just playing them at GenCon last year. Deranged isn’t out yet in the US, I believe mainly because of Covid delays, but I had so much fun with it, I had to make the list when I have played it. I have it preordered, I’m just waiting for it to eventually come, I suspect that Deranged will end up moving higher the more I play it.

What is your favorite from this section of the list?