100 through 91 here.

90 through 81 here.

80 through 71 here.

70 through 61 here.

60 through 51 here.

Top 100 Games 2022 Edition – 50-41

50. No Thanks!

No Thanks is a small box game with a lot of fun to it. I think that it is almost a small box classic at this point in time. In this game you try and get as few points as possible by saying “No thanks” to cards by putting tokens on them. But run out of tokens you can’t pass and you need to take whatever number comes your way. So it’s a balance of how many tokens, which are -1 point each, are worth it to take a higher number to avoid taking a really high number?

Buy on Amazon

49. Sagrada

Sagrada has been higher on my list before. I think it’s just dropped a little bit because I hadn’t played it in a while, but I’d also just played it a lot at the start. I still really like Sagrada and the dice drafting. It is also one of those games that I was talking about. It is a relaxing game for me to play. I like the puzzle of drafting and dice placement.

I really like the game as a teaching game as well. I can tailor the difficulty to of the game to different groups. There are expansions you can add in to ramp things up. Or you can up the difficulty with the scoring things you can add in or the tools that you can use. It means I use it often as more of a basic game to teach people and get to the table. I want to mix in more of the things soon.

Buy on Game Nerdz

48. Ready Set Bet

Ready Set Bet is a game that I got to play and learn at Gen Con this year. Ready Set Bet! is a real time horse racing and betting game. And it just has infectious excitement around it as you play it. One person is calling out the the races while everyone else is trying to get their bets. There is a hectic nature to it, but because there is the excitement of how the horses are doing, I feel like compared to a lot of real time games, it is much less tense. And it’s just a game about how well you can do with getting your bets in.

Buy on Cool Stuff Inc

47. Arboretum

Another one of the really pretty games, Arboretum is not one of the nice games though. It’s a mean game of trying to get your trees in a row. What makes it so challenging is that you need to play out cards of tree types. But to score those trees you need to have the most, value wise, of those trees left.

So, you can hold trees, high value trees, in your hand to keep your opponents from scoring. That can block them from scoring, which is very much part of the game. You also then need to consider keeping enough in your hand of trees so you can score yourself. It is a very interesting and mean balancing act.

Buy on Miniature Market

46. Ohanami

Back to a more relaxing game, Ohanami is a game all about collecting different things like stones or plants to give you points. All of the artwork is beautiful in the game. Though, sometimes I don’t look at it that much, at least not until I play out my cards.

Ohanami is a card drafting game. You pick two cards to add to three columns. Those columns always need to be in numerical order. So you are picking cards that you can add while trying to make sure you can always add to them as you’ll draft 30 cards. What makes this one so strong is that you score different colors different rounds. So when you draft cards matters for scoring as well. It’s easy to learn and play but has fun strategy.

Buy On Amazon

45. Floriferous

Floriferous continues that beautiful game trend. And also the drafting trend that is in this section of games. Floriferous is open drafting where you can see all the cards you’ll be picking from. And all you’ll be picking from for several rounds of drafting.

Floriferous does two things that I think are fun. First you draft your scoring cards. It is like Point Salad in that way where you have a choice. You can draft cards to score with, or cards to help facilitate that scoring. But the bigger thing is that you draft cards from a column. And the higher on the column you take, the sooner you go in the next round. So there is strategy if sometimes taking a less ideal card one time to draft the perfect card the next time.

Buy on Miniature Market

44. Res Arcana

Res Arcana is another pretty game, but not in the same way, it is more cool fantasy artwork in the game. But Res Arcana is a very different type of game, it is a tight engine building game where you are racing to 10 points. Why is it so tight, because you have a limited number of cards, 8 that you start with, to build your engine. And while you can add a few, sometimes, you mainly are working with that limited number of cards. So who can get their engine of gathering resources and turning them into points going the fastest?

Buy on Miniature Market

43. Paint the Roses

Paint the Roses is another new one on the list that I first played at Gen Con. It is a cooperative deduction game. Players give clues by placing down flower tiles into the Queen of Hearts garden. The clues are to give direction so players can guess a color combination on a card, or color or shape, or color and shape combination. All the while the Queen of Hearts is coming to lop off our heads.

This game is very clever in what it does, and while I have yet to win, I really like the pressure it puts on. Each turn when you play down a tile, everyone has to come up with a guess for someone’s card. If you get it right, the queen advances slowly, if you get it wrong, she advances faster. And the further you get around the track, the faster she goes, no matter what. So can you fill it up, which will make her happy, or lose your head, which will make her happier?

Buy on Miniature Market

42. T.I.M.E Stories

T.I.M.E Stories has been on the list since the beginning. It is an escape room style game, but one that has more story. Now, I’ve heard that the overall story doesn’t pay off. But I really like every scenario that we’ve played through. And I think that’s one of things that’s so interesting about the game. Each scenario of TIME Stories can be really different.

In this game your consciousness is transported into the past, future, or some other dimension. And you are trying to keep the timeline in order. I would say this is a bit like that TVA in Loki. The goal is to get the timeline back to where it should be, but that isn’t always easy. The downside is, you don’t make it the first time, you go back through and do it again which can get tiresome.

Buy on Miniature Market

41. Twilight Inscription

Rounding out this section, we have another new game to the list. I got to learn and play Twilight Inscription at Gen Con as well. This is the roll and write version, kind of, of Twilight Imperium. It might not quite live up to that, but it is still a long and epic roll and write game.

I can’t really go through everything on it to explain how to play. More, know that there are four different boards. And on your turn, you pick one you want to activate. If you want to be good at war, well, you can activate that board. If you want to gather resources, or explore planets, there are boards for that. Do you need to do a bit of everything, probably, but you can pick what you want to focus on.

Buy on Miniature Market

Upcoming Streams

On Wednesday, I’m going to be unboxing Chronicles of Drunagor, and probably ISS Vanguard. So two big games, and with the unboxing of Chronicles of Drunagor, I am going to be picking out the two characters that I’m going to start my solo campaign with. Join me for that and help me pick out what characters I should start with.

Then next Monday I’ll not be continuing the Top 100 Games (of all time) 2022 Edition. Mainly because it’s Halloween. I foresee not having the time with taking a kid out for that and needing to do the podcast. Even without the podcast, it’ll be a busy evening, and I might want to watch a scary movie or show as well. But I’ll start up again the following week.

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

Checkout 100 through 91 first here.

Checkout 90 through 81 here.

Top 100 Games 2022 Edition – 80-71

80 – Star Wars: Rebellion

Star Wars: Rebellion is a big Star Wars game with lots of fighting, dice chucking, but is really a game of cat and mouse. The empire is trying to find out where the rebel base is. The rebels are trying to complete missions and get the support of the people and undermine the empire. It really is a big game of cat and mouse which feels like the original trilogy.

The one downside to this game is how long it is. I do not mind that it’s two player only, you can play on teams but it’s two player only. But it’s a three hour game, now, that can be awesome a lot of the time. But you need to plan when you want to play Star Wars Rebellion.

Buy from Cool Stuff Inc

79 – Say Bye to the Villains

Say Bye to the Villains is an extremely tricky cooperative game. Players take on the roles of different Samurai who are preparing to takeout Yakuza. The plan is simple, but the game is tricky. It’s all about optimizing your character so that you can be the villain that you end up with. But you only have a limited amount of time and everything you do takes up time. Can you balance it building up your character, supporting the other players, and figuring out what the villains are up to. It almost comes down to the last villain and samurai being a coin flip as you just don’t know.

Buy from Amazon

78 – The Quacks of Quedlinburg

I like deck building and The Quacks of Quedlinburg gives some of that feel. But it is really a push your luck bag building game. You start out with your potion that you’re trying to make and it’s mainly lousy ingredients. You can’t push too far because you’ll bust. Of course, busting isn’t the end of the world, it gives you either money or points, you just can’t get both. As you get money you spend it to get even more ingredients to your bag which means that you can push even farther.

The strategy in this game is surprisingly good. And I really appreciate that about it because there is a lot of luck. But you can build up your bag so that it combos off each other. Where you can score more points if you don’t push your luck, just in case you bust.

Buy from Cool Stuff Inc

77 – Point Salad

Point Salad is another game that is pretty simple, you either take two veggies or a scoring card, but has good strategy. You need to pay attention to what everyone else is doing around you. Because as vegetables are taken, that flips cards off the decks. But on the back of those cards are scoring cards. It’s easy to play, but gives you that good decision of not knowing if you should risk leaving a scoring card, or will get get flipped. A nice filler length game at lower player counts. I think I prefer it at 2-4 and less often 4 because it makes the game longer and more random.

Buy from Miniature Market

76 – Metro X

I actually stayed at the table, after my stream last night, and played some Metro X. This is a roll and write game where you are filling in bus routes. But the bus routes cross each other, and that can be great. It means that you might fill in multiple spots on a route. Or it can be lousy, because you might want to put a big number onto a route, but you can’t as it’s been split.

Metro X is a good example of a puzzle roll and write. You need to figure out the optimal way to fill in everything. But also a roll and write that limits the complexity. You just fill in spots on the routes. Each bus can have a limited number of numbers used on that route. Because of the randomness it can be frustrating sometimes, but everyone is dealing with that.

Not Available

75 – Kohaku

Kohaku is a relaxing game of building out your Koi pond to score as many points as possible. You draft or select tiles form a pool of koi and scoring tiles taking adjacent ones. And then you add them anywhere to your koi pond. The only thing is koi can’t be by koi and scoring can’t be by scoring. I find this game to be relaxing. The tiles are beautiful dual layer that gives it that watery depth. And while I try and win, it isn’t a game that is so intense that it feels like everything is pressure filled each decision.

Buy on Miniature Market

74 – Calico

Another pretty game, Calico is not as calm as Kohaku. In fact, the puzzle of trying to play everything in is stressful. You need to think about scoring for buttons, cats, and your own objectives. And you really want whatever patch you’re adding to your calico quilt to help you in multiple ways. But as you play down and fill in your quilt, your options become less and less. And I like that tension of can you get the right tile to complete maybe two of your scoring objectives. Or will you need to settle or less?

The game is simple though. You play one of two tiles to your quilt. Then you replenish with one of three tiles, that is it. But each decision you make matters a ton in the scoring of the game.

Buy on Cool Stuff Inc

73 – My City

We’ll see how long My City sticks on this list, mainly because it’s a legacy game. And legacy games slowly drift down over time, I’ve found, the further I get away from playing them. But right now, I’m still in the midst of My City and it is great.

My City is a tile laying game where everyone is putting down the same shaped tile every turn. But there are new rules each time that come up. And you want to cover up open areas the best you can, but also build up groups of buildings that are the same type. And it adds more and more to the game without making it longer than a 15-20 minute game. Highly recommend this one as a light legacy experience.

Buy on GameNerdz

72 – Roll Player

Roll Player is another drafting game on the list. This one is dice drafting. And you are picking the dice to get them for your RPG character. The concept of the game takes one fun part of role playing games, building a character, and really focuses in on that.

Each attribute, standard ones for Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder, has a power that goes with it. It might make it cheaper to buy equipment. Or it might let you flip a die in order to push your stats higher. It’s a really fun game that I need to get around to building my insert for it. Because once you have everything, it is a bit difficult to get it to the table.

Buy on GameNerdz

71 – Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game

Wrapping up this section is technically two games. I went with my favorite/harder to find of the two in Battlestar Galactica, but this is also Unfathomable. Both of them are big hidden traitor, social deduction games of trying to get to some final location.

I do not like social deduction. In fact, I’d say with high confidence that there is only one other one on the list. But BSG and Unfathomable work because there is so much more game going on. You are fighting off monsters, whether it’s deep ones or Cylons. And there is just a lot going on with a lot of challenges that happen in the game. All the while trying to figure out who might be the one(s) who are traitors. And at the start of the game, it might be someone, but by the end, there will be for sure.

Buy Unfathomable on Miniature Market

Upcoming Streams

First off, reminder that there is no stream tomorrow. I am out of town so no stream happening. I think the following Wednesday will be the finale of my Stars of Akarios live streaming. With likely Chronicles of Drunagor hitting the table next.

And next Monday, the Top 100 games are going to continue. 70 through 61 in my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2022 Edition. You can find the link to that video below. Join me live, chat about the games hitting the list, which are your favorites, or which you want to try.

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

Sagrada Artisans Quick Overview

Sagrada Artisans is going to keep much of what you already know about Sagrada. It is a die drafting game where you are picking dice and placing them onto a stained glass window. But in this case, you are doing that by drafting a die and then coloring in and putting the number down on the spot. Creating your own permanent creation.

The better you do in the game the more that you can unlock. New powers or tools to use, as you advance in the game. And story that unfolds. I like that this appears to be setting it up, thematically as going through generations.

What Doesn’t Work?

The one thing that stands out to me as something that doesn’t work is a reason to back this game now. I look at the price point, with shipping, and it’s not that cheap. I expect that the MSRP on Sagrada Artisans is going to be $80-$90 which seems fair and in line for other legacy games. But with shipping on this campaign it’s $90.

Yes, I’ll miss out on some extra stuff, but do I need extra colored pencils? Not really. Is the pencil sharpener cool and same with the gold stickers, sure, but again not needed. Now, I’m not saying that I want an exclusive to be extremely important. I just don’t know that I see the exclusives or price point as telling me that I need to back it now.

What Works?

I love that they keep the core of the game. Dice drafting in Sagrada is fun, and because they are making it so that you fill stuff in, you see windows that are not just a grid. That’s going to change up a game. If a spot is now adjacent to more tiles those placements are going to be trickier.

And I like that it comes with a pack, built into the Kickstarter but available later, that you can continue the game. I know that BoardGameCo talks about how often people play a legacy game that you can continue to play after the fact. He’s right, it isn’t that much. But with Sagrada Legacy, I could see continuing that. And while it seems like you might not be unlocking stuff, it might be more that you can still gain more access to things.

Who Is It For?

This is for fans of Sagrada. I really don’t know that it has much appeal beyond that. I doubt it’ll be a jumping in point for Sagrada. And I don’t think that people who don’t like Sagrada will like this game. Now, that said, Sagrada is really well liked. So it will do well, and I think it will do well at retail as well as solidly well on Kickstarter.

Back or Brick Sagrada Artisans

I’m split on this. I don’t really feel like I need to back it now, and that is a problem. So right now it is a Brick. My negative or the thing that doesn’t work is purely in me wanting to back the game now. I know that Sagrada Legacy is a game that I want to play. And I could even see playing it with my wife if I don’t get a group together. That sounds weird, I mean that it’s a legacy game that she’s excited and interested in as well, so I could see playing it just the two of us.

But, the way that I’m considering backing it right now is if I can get another couple to buy in on it. If I do that, then I can see backing it. But stuff like colored pencils, fine, but we have more and exact colors don’t matter. I have a lot in Cartographers because I got the big box. So I don’t feel like I’m missing out on much. On the flip side, I do like to support companies on Kickstarter because a strong Kickstarter means that they can do a bigger initial release of the game.

How about for you is this a back or brick?

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

100 Through 91

90 Through 81

80 through 71

70 through 61

60 through 51

50 through 41

40 through 31

Top 100 Board Games – 30 through 21

30. A Gentle Rain

A Gentle Rain is what I call a pallet cleansing solo game. All you are doing is flipping tiles and placing them, trying to get four corners to meet so you can put down a disc. If you get all the discs out you win the game. It is pretty lucky, I have won, I’ve also gotten only 4 of the 8 discs out. But it is nice and relaxing to play. The whole point of the game is to have a nice relaxing time.

It’s also nice because while it might take up a bit more space than small solo games ideally do, it is a small box and it plays very fast. So it’s a good little puzzle to play through and have something to think on, but without spending a lot of time or brain power on it. Plus it’s pretty cheap and really good quality.

Out of Stock

29. Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition

I will start by saying, I have yet to play Terraforming Mars. It’s on my shelf and I want to get it played. But Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition drew me in because it looked better. The artwork was really good on it, and when I saw it played, I really liked the mechanics. In particular, I like the action selection, how fast that goes. Each player selects an action and everyone gets to take it but as the person who picked it, you get an extra bonus. Any action that isn’t used is skipped that round. Gives good strategy.

Now, I wish I had backed this on Kickstarter. I did end up buying board overlays because the cubes will slide on the board. That said, the quality of the game is nice and the more you play it the faster you go. I think my first few two player games took around two hours, but by the third, we had the game down to basically an hour. And adding in more people won’t really slow down the game. Really fun engine building board game.

Buy On Miniature Market

28. Aeon’s End Legacy

I really enjoy Legacy games, and Aeon’s End was no exception. I knew I’d likely like it a lot, but you can see how much over on Malts and Meeples. What I wasn’t expecting is how good Aeon’s End Legacy is at teaching you how to play Aeon’s End. The game play is just slick and really enjoyable. And they start you off easy and teach you the game.

In fact, that’s one thing I do and don’t love about the game. I already knew how to play Aeon’s End. So when Aeon’s End Legacy dumbed it down a little bit, there were things that I wanted to do that I couldn’t at the start of the game. But this is an amazing way to learn Aeon’s End. The story is solid and the game play is a ton of fun, plus it’s cooperative which is always a bonus.

Out of Stock

27. Potion Explosion

Now we move onto a game with a ton of toy factor. The main mechanic of the game is pulling marbles from a tray that they roll down. You pick one marble and then like colored marbles that hit you also get, and it can cascade into a lot of marbles. You use those marbles to brew potions that give you points and give you one time abilities.

This game when it’s on the table people notice because of the marble tray and just how different it looks. The game play is solid with more depth than it first looks. Optimizing how and when you use the potions means that you get can give you really powerful turns. So while it is light and fun there is strategy.

Buy on Amazon

26. Sagrada

Sagrada is another game with a great table presence. This one has you making stained glass windows. You draft dice which you then have to place into your stained glass window based off of number or color rules. The game play on this one is pretty simple but getting the numbers and colors you need can be tricky.

I like this game a lot because it works well with family. My parents play board games, but they don’t play a ton of them. A lot of modern board games are going to be too complex, but something like Sagrada they were able to get quite easily. So with it’s great look and ease but interesting game play, Sagrada is a great game.

Buy on Amazon

25. Metro X

New game to the list, Metro X is a roll and write I’ve played on the Malts and Meeples channel before as well. This is about completing bus routes the best that you can. The game play, for me, is a lot of fun because of two things. Some routes use the the same stops. So if I fill that stop in I’m working on completing two or more of the routes. But you always are starting from the earliest spot on a route when you fill in, and you can’t skip. It makes it a really good puzzle.

I also like that the game plays fast. This is a game that might trip some people up to start out with because it is doing some interesting things that might not be intuitive, but when you get into it, it’s quite simple to play. And it comes dry erase already which is a bonus. I wish that the expansion bus routes/maps would come to the US.

Buy on Amazon

24. Roll Player Adventures

This game is actually coming in the mail today. Normally I don’t like to put prototypes on the list, but I had such a great experience with this one at GenCon in 2019, that it has been on the list before. I think I dropped it last year because it was a prototype.

This is a more family friendly, from what I can tell, adventure game. It reminds me of Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon, not in game play, but in the idea that you are exploring at a higher level and then you drop out of that into combat, but it’s not a tactical combat. Plus you can bring your Roll Player characters into this game which I really like as a concept too.

Buy on Miniature Market

23. Letter Jam

Most word based games aren’t cooperative, but Letter Jam is. That is some of what makes it on the list. The game play is also really clever as you can’t see the letters that make up your word. They are facing away from you, so through clues you have to deduce what your letters are.

If I were to give the clue, and you can see the letter FR*M where the * is your letter, you can probably guess that it’s FROM so you letter much be O. But had I done F*RM now it could be FARM, FIRM, or FORM. So you need to be clever as you give clues because you want to limit how many letters it could be. And if you give a clue that means you aren’t getting helped so everyone needs to give clues.

Buy on Miniature Market

22. Betrayal At House on the Hill

Buy on Amazon

21. That’s Pretty Clever (Ganz Schon Clever)

Final one on this part of my Top 100 Games of all time is Ganz Schon Clever. This is the last of the Clever trilogy on the list, through the first one of them to come out. I really like Ganz Schon Clever because like Doppelt so Clever and Clever Hoch Drei, this game is all about combos. You fill in one thing, that unlocks something which allows you to fill in, in another spot.

This game also has an app that is really good. I do prefer playing the physical version, but sitting down and playing a quick game is a lot of fun on the app and it works really well. And while the game I think does take longer with more people, it’s still a really good multi-player experience and solo game.

Buy on CoolStuffInc

The Next 10

If you want to catch any of the remaining Top 10’s live, you can check them out and my normal streams on Wednesday at 8 PM Central time. If you subscribe and click the notification bell you’ll know whenever I go live or upload a new video to Malts and Meeples YouTube channel. When I’m not doing my Top 100, you can find me on Wednesday playing board games solo on the YouTube channel. I’ll be streaming next week but then a week off for Thanksgiving and Top 10 will be on December 1st.

Now, I did say I wanted to talk about my streaming times. Through the Top 100 list, I am going to keep my 8 PM Central time on Wednesdays for streaming. However, this might be changing. A channel that I like to watch and be part of their live chat, the GloryHoundd channel is adjusting their schedule. And I know I have crossover viewers from their channel. If they take that 8 PM Central Wednesday spot, I might look at making my main streaming day on Monday. Be aware that change may come.

But what game do you like best out of this part of the Top 100? Are there any that you want to get to the table that you haven’t played in this bunch?

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.

The next 10 are going to be on Wednesday at 8 PM Central Time. You can join me over on Malts and Meeples YouTube Channel. You can flick the notification bell, here, to know when I’m going live. I hope that you can join as we get higher into the Top 100 list.

100 Through 91

90 Through 81

80 through 71

70 through 61

60 through 51

50 through 41

Top 100 Board Games – 40 through 31

40. Not Alone

This is a one versus all game, and normally I don’t gravitate towards that type of game. The one is either playing a different game orrunning the game. But in Not Alone, while the game they are playing is a little bit different, it is a lot of fun. The one is the planet trying to kill off the crew of a crashed spaceship before they can be rescued. Everyone else is trying to survive and signal the ship to get there faster. The group can discuss but it must always be done so that the one can hear. The card play works well, the game play fast, and overall a fun time as crew or planet.

Not Available

39. Downforce

I think this is the highest racing game that I have on the list, or at least racing themed game. Downforce has you bidding to get cars and race them around the board, as well as bet on who you think is going to win. The game actually is more about. how well you can tell early in the game who is going to win? because the betting is where you make the most money.

The card play in the game is very clever as well. You play down your cards and you have to move every car on the card in order from fastest to slowest. This can create bottlenecks and strategic card play. The game feels like a racing game, but it doesn’t take too long. Some racing games can feel more drawn out but Downforce doesn’t overstay it’s welcome. And keeps you engaged as other people are moving all the cars as well.

Buy On Miniature Market

38. Sushi Go Party!

Another good big group game, in fact all of these games work best, thus far, towards their higher player counts. Sushi Go Party is a drafting and set collection game as you build out your ideal meal to score points. All the cards score in different ways, and Sushi Go Party allows you to swap around the cards that you use every game. It means that you can create some very unique combinations that either give a ton of points or can cause people to go negative in points. And you can really tailor it to your group.

Buy On Miniature Market

37. Roll Player

A dice drafting game, in Roll Player you create a Dungeons and Dragons, or RPG character. The whole game is about how well you can build your stats for the character. I really like how the game works and I really like building up D&D characters. My one knock on the game is that you don’t do anything with the character, you just build it. Monsters and Minions expansion is supposed to help with that. Plus then Dice Throne Adventures is coming which I know helps with my issue.

When it comes to this or Sagrada, I do think that there is enough difference between to the two to keep both. Sagrada is more family friendly in how it plays in that it is easier to play. Plus the theme is much less nerdy, not that a nerdy theme is bad. Roll Player with creating a character for an RPG, that is a theme that specific groups will enjoy better but also one that some people won’t be interested in at all.

Buy on Miniature Market

36. Homebrewers

Homebrewers is a nice and fast engine building game. In it you compete to be the best brewer of beer at Summerfest and Oktoberfest. Mechanically this is a pretty simple engine building game. You roll dice and can trade them around to determine what actions you get to take in a round. You can brew, sanitize, add ingredients to your pantry or beers or use them to get an advantage.

For me the theme of brewing makes this game very appealing. I homebrew my own beer and it’s fun to come up with crazy ingredient combinations. Would I want to drink a full point of a smoked oyster porter, most certainly not, but I’d try it. And at the end of the game I like to look and see what is the best one that I’ve created, even though that doesn’t determine the winner.

Buy on Miniature Market

35. Clever Cubed

The only roll and write on this section of the Top 100 games, Clever Cubed, or Clever Hoch Drei, is part of the Clever trilogy of games. This one follows the same standard as the others with rolling dice, taking one and discarding all the ones lower. But this one gives you the most points as you play. It’s fun because the pink section really lets you lean into combos, filling in lots of other spots on the board. Yes, the game is themeless, but I really enjoy the puzzles that the Clever games bring.

Buy on Miniature Market

34. The Night Cage

If you want a game for Halloween, The Night Cage might be an ideal one for you. You are trapped, as a group, in an ever changing labyrinth that you can only crawl through. You only illuminate the spaces directly around you and if you go backwards to where you were before, the labyrinth will have changed. Plus there are monsters in there, and you need to avoid them if you can. You all are searching for keys and then a portal to be able to escape, but all of you need to find a key and get to the same portal to activate it. All this as your candles burn down.

This is really kind of an abstract game, but it is still thematic as you deal with the monsters and search for keys. The game also has a really nice tile holder which looks like a candle that is burning down, so as you put more tiles onto the board, the more that the candle will have burned down. It’s a very easy game to play, but it has an amazing tension as you get further into the game.

Buy on CoolStuffInc

33. Orchard: A 9 card solitaire game

I talk about Orchard fairly often, and I backed it’s successor Grove on Kickstarter recently. It’s still up for backing if you want to check it out. But Orchard is a great solo game. It’s a game that has you stacking cards and matching up fruit tree symbols to grow as much fruit as you can. The more you overlap cards, the more points you’ll get from the fruit you grow.

Orchard is an extremely fast play and generally I’ll play it several times in a single sitting. It also has a little footprint and easy set-up and pick-up. The game isn’t too mindless, but I call it a good mental reset game. I always feel like can refresh my brain and distract myself for a little bit while I play to then have fresh eyes to look at some work problem again.

Buy On Miniature Market

32. Ohanami

Ohanami is a very simple game. You draft two cards and then you put them into three columns split up however you like. But you always need to put down higher or lower numbers. The game is a lot of fun at it’s high player count of four or low of two and changes a lot as you play between those two. At two players it is much more strategic. At four players you only see two cards from that original hand come back to you. So drafting changes up greatly at higher player counts.

But there is also the scoring that keeps the game interesting. You draft over three rounds and score at the end of each. The first round you score for blue cards, the second blue and green, and the final, blue, green, grey and pink. Blue cards are worth less overall, but if you get them early, they can be the most lucrative to have drafted. So while the game is very accessible to any type of gamer, it isn’t too simple for heavy gamers.

Buy On Amazon

31. T.I.M.E Stories

The biggest game on the list T.I.M.E Stories is a campaign style game but also an escape room. You work together to try and figure out how to stop timing from being changed off of the proper flow that it’s supposed to be going. Your consciousness is sent back in time or across timelines so that you can investigate. If you can’t get it done in time, you can always restart armed with the knowledge that you now know.

I know that some people don’t love every scenario, and the scenarios aren’t always consistent. The game also promises are story throughout it linking each different scenario, and that doesn’t really exist. But the game is a lot of fun for me. I don’t mind going back and taking another run at things. The stories have all been enjoyable, some more so, but I’m always ready to see what the next puzzle or scenario is going to be when I finish playing.

Buy on Miniature Market

The Next 10

If you want to catch any of the remaining Top 10’s live, you can check them out and my normal streams on Wednesday at 8 PM Central time. If you subscribe and click the notification bell you’ll know whenever I go live or upload a new video to Malts and Meeples YouTube channel. When I’m not doing my Top 100, you can find me on Wednesday playing board games solo on the YouTube channel.

Now, I did say I wanted to talk about my streaming times. Through the Top 100 list, I am going to keep my 8 PM Central time on Wednesdays for streaming. However, this might be changing. A channel that I like to watch and be part of their live chat, the GloryHoundd channel is adjusting their schedule. And I know I have crossover viewers from their channel. If they take that 8 PM Central Wednesday spot, I might look at making my main streaming day on Monday. Be aware that change may come.

But what game do you like best out of this part of the Top 100? Are there any that you want to get to the table that you haven’t played in this bunch?

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.

So let’s start with the two late backed honorable mentions:

Roll Player Adventures and Uprising: Curse of the Last Emperor

Now, these two are only on the list because they were ones that I backed later. Roll Player Adventure because I picked up everything for Roll Player on Black Friday deals. Roll Player is a dice drafting game that has you building up a RPG character, basically. It’s like you’re making a D&D character, you just have specific stats that you are going for. Roll Player Adventures takes those characters and runs them through a story. It’s basically a dungeon crawl for the characters you roll up.

Uprising: Curse of the Last Emperor, is also a cooperative game, but a very different type of one. It is a 4X cooperative game, in a fantasy setting. 4X cooperative games really aren’t something that’s heard of that much. What also drew me to the game is that this could have been a $150-200 game with minis, but instead they went with standees which look amazing. Finally, it has two bad guys that everyone in this cooperative experience is trying to beat. You don’t win unless everyone has beat both of them, that gives it a really interesting cooperative experience. And the two bad guy AI’s will fight each other as well as the players.

Alright, let’s get onto the list.

10 – The Night Cage

This one has me excited because I mainly back campaign games, but this one gives me a tense game in a small package. Big campaign games are the ones that I’m not sure will show up at retail. This one I know will, but I wanted to support it because of the tension that it has. You, and your fellow players, are lost in an underground labyrinth that is always changing around you. You are looking for keys and a portal out but trying to avoid monsters who will snuff out your candle and make it even harder to move around. It’s a cooperative game and everyone needs a key and to get to the portal before the tiles run out.

9 – The Reckoners: Steelslayer

Another cooperative game and one of two expansions on the list. This is an expansion for the Reckoners board game based off of one of my favorite series by Brandon Sanderson. In this game you are rolling dice to determine your actions and then researching and battling Epics, think evil superheroes, as the team of The Reckoners, not superheroes just regular people. This brings in the last two books of the trilogy and makes the game play a little less brutal in some ways and possibly more brutal in others.

8 – Project L: Finesse

Project L was a game that I had glanced at but wasn’t that interested in until I saw the Dice Tower play through. First, let me say that the game has some amazing pieces in it. The dual layered cards where you are filling in shapes with basically what amounts to Tetris pieces is great. But what really drew me in is the light engine building nature of the game. You fill in a dual layer card you keep the pieces you used to fill it in and get more pieces, or you can trade up and get better pieces using an old piece. The game is fast but has interesting choices but doesn’t look hard to play.

7 – Crash Octopus

Now for something completely different we are going treasure hunting while trying to avoid an octopus. To add in even more fun to that, we are getting the treasure by flicking it so it hits our boats. This game comes from the same company that made Tokyo Highway so the game looks amazing, and I do really enjoy flicking games or dexterity games quite a lot, though I’m not always the best at them. This just looks like a fun time and a silly time, and people are generally up for a light silly game.

6 – Hel: The Last Saga

Now we’re getting into more of my “normal” kickstarter game, the big epic campaign games. Hel: The Last Saga from Mythic Games really interested me because of the Vikings theme. Then the game play itself was quite interesting in particular how the story unfolded. I like games where you don’t always know everything about the game and what’s going on in a given chapter until you are part way through the chapter. I also like the religion in this game, I believe it’s Norse, Christian, and Druidic, and the characters can pray to only their deity for a boon, which I find really unique in terms of game play.

5 – The 7th Citadel

The follow-up to The 7th Continent, The 7th Citadel takes what they learned from that game and improves upon it, in my opinion. It is still an exploration and adventure game, but this one has more of a story that seems to be running through it. It also has improved upon the death where yes, going through the cards still matters for how long you can survive, but you have a health pool to go along with those cards that dwindles down over time. I like the idea of this game even more than The 7th Continent, because of the story that it tells and how that seems more straight forward in some ways, versus puzzling out how to solve a curse.

4 – Cartographers Heroes

A small box game, though I did get the big box. Cartographers Heroes is the follow-up to Cartographers a flip and write game that I like a lot. This adds in heroes that can help you defeat monsters. But beyond that it adds in new monsters that do interesting things and with the big box for it, that comes with three new maps that all work in interesting ways. Normally you can put your shapes anywhere, in those they limit you and give you restrictions on how to build. And it comes with colored pencils which is important for making it look pretty.

3 – Nemesis Lockdown

Now, I actually didn’t get Nemesis Lockdown, so why is it on my list? I got Nemesis instead. Lockdown is the planetary base version of Nemesis, which is a game where you are fighting off aliens who are trying to overrun your ship and get your ship back to earth. However, each player has their own secret objective as well. So it’s a semi-cooperative game, but one that works really well from what I’ve heard. Mainly because it isn’t like Dead of Winter where you’ll hold back something that could end up tanking the whole scenario for everyone. You more have a goal that you are trying to do, and it might be that crew member X doesn’t make it, but you can’t push them out the airlock.

2 – Marvel United

This was the first big Kickstarter I backed last year, and I’m really glad that I did, it’s also the only one to have delivered anything this past year. Marvel United is a card playing cooperative game where players battle a villain. I like how simple this game is for a cooperative experience. It’ll be one I can play with my kid when he gets a bit older. But I also like that it gives you a superhero team-up feel. I, on my turn, get to take my action as well as those of the previous card, so if someone plays down two punches, and I put down two punches, I can punch four times. Plus there are cute chibi miniatures in the game for the heroes and the villains. I’ll be backing more of this in 2021 as they come out with the X-Men.

1 – Frosthaven

Finally, no shock, Frosthaven is my #1. I am going to be really curious to see if I like Gloomhaven or Frosthaven better when I’ve played both. I think that it seems like Frosthaven will have improved upon a few things, and it adds in city building. But anything more with that dungeon crawl feeling and that great card play, I’ll be really happy. I also think that the starting characters sound really really interesting, so I’m excited for it when it comes out, most likely this next year.

That’s my Top 10 Kickstarters that I backed. How about you, what are your favorite Kickstarters that you’ve backed this past year? Are there any that you are waiting on from longer ago than that?

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.

Silver Dagger

If the name sounds familiar, that’s because I have Silver Amulet, Coin, and Bullet as well. This is a game that uses a bit of memory and a bit of push your luck and bluffing as you try and build up your lowest scoring village possible. To do this can be a bit tricky though, because you have five cards in front of you and they are all face down. At the start of the game you can look at two of them, so you know a little bit, but not that much. Each card has a number and an ability. The number is how many points they’ll be worth in your village. The abilities can be one time use when you draw it, or it can be an ability that works if the villager is face up in your village. So already having three of them, why would I need another game that does the same thing? Simply for the variety. You can mix the cards from Silver Amulet, Coin, Bullet, and Dagger together, you just need one group of cards from 0 to 13. Needless to say, I’ll have more combinations than I’ll ever be able to play, but it’ll be fun as I can make it more “take that” if I want, or more focused on your own cards.

Roll Player

I could have just done a whole order of Roll Player with the Fiends and Familiars expansion and the Monsters and Minions expansions, and eventually I’m sure that I’ll get them. But I thought, let’s just start with the base game. Here’s a little secret, I’ve played this game only once with a physical copy of the game. Now I’ve played it more than that this year because of Tabletop Simulator. But only once with a physical copy. I like this dice drafting game a lot, I think that there are cool things about it and I love that you’re rolling up a D&D character, basically, and seeing how good you can make them. The game play is pretty straight forward and I love the variety of strategy that you can have based off of your background, class, and race, that’ll make you want to target different cards. Plus the traits that you can get can massively change how you’re going to score at the end of the game as well. This game has a good amount of replayability, and while I do want to get Monsters and Minions, because the game does seem like it ends before it could, and I think that getting to use your character will get me to get the expansions, and eventually Roll Player Adventure and being able to take my character through a whole campaign. But even without that, the game is a lot of fun, and hence why it’s in my Top 100 so it is one that I have felt like I’ve wanted to own for a while, and now was the time.

Shadowrun: Crossfire (Prime Runner Edition)

Another one in my top 100 that I want to play more. It’s a deck building game, but I like the setting that it is in so much. Shadowrun is a cyber punk world, mainly known for an RPG, where you are going on runs, hacking into big corporations, trying to keep from being found out. This makes it into a card game where you are taking on missions, defeating bad guys, and it’s interesting, because you are playing cards to deal with your own bad guys but also others. You also, slowly, level up your character as you play through what is basically a campaign. The setting is what drew me in and I have Shadowrun: Sprawl Ops to play as well in the same world, but I’m excited a lot for this one, because I’ve played it before. It’s one that I think has been a hit or miss for some people, or because of the original having a fairly poor rule book might have just flown under the radar. I think this one might take more time to get to the table, but I know I’ll be glad to have it.

Those are the new games that I’ve ordered. I’m definitely excited for all of them, and I really think that there are some interesting games in there. One thing I forgot to mention with Silver Dagger, since each game is a standalone, I’ll be able to play it with a larger group, have a few groups playing the game at once, maybe do a mini tournament, something like that.

Which of these games seems most interesting to you?

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.Facebook 

100 to 91

90 to 81

80 to 71

70 to 61

60 to 51

50 to 41

40 to 31

30 to 21

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

20. Letter Jam

Most word games aren’t cooperative and they tend to be the person who has the biggest vocabulary or maybe in some games it’s pattern recognition. This one has some of that in it, but it isn’t based off of who knows more words since everyone is trying to use deduction to figure out what their letters are and then unscramble them to figure out what word they have. This game is really clever in that you can see one letter from everyone else but you can’t see yours. So you are having to deduce what letters you have based off of the words that people are creating and the letters you can see. For example, if I have a “Z” and I can see that other players have an I, Px2, E, and R, I can now slightly to narrow down what letter I have. Granted, that’s not a great clue because I don’t know mine so it could be a “TIPPER”, “DIPPER” or something of the like. Plus, not only am I trying to figure out my letters so I can unscramble them to figure out my word, I have to be helping everyone else doing that as well. The game just works really well and it’s very puzzly. I also like the game because it can handle a larger group of players without it feeling bogged down because hopefully, everyone is in on the clue word being given to help deduce their letters. Finally, I really like how this game forces you to think about the clue you’re going to give and give a good clue. You want to make it so that at least someone can basically lock in a letter or at least really help them narrow it down so they can make an educated guess.

Last Year: 27

19. Hanamikoji

The highest pure two player game on the list, Hanamikoji is a really fun and fast abstract game. In this game you are trying to win the favor of Geisha so that they will visit your restaurant. Do to this, you are giving them gifts and winning their favor. But how you give gifts is what makes this game really shine. Each player has four actions they can do a round, and they have to do each of the actions once. So they can discard two cards, face down, and they won’t be used for winning favor. They can put a card face down that will be used for winning favor. They can put out three cards face up and their opponent picks one and those are immediately used for winning favor. Or you can put out two sets of two cards, face up, and your opponent picks one and you get the other set for immediately winning favor. The game has a great push and pull feel to it as you fight for favor, and you use your cards to hide some information from your opponent as well as let them make the tough decisions for you when you split and they choose or they pick one of the three. It’s a very thinky game and really is wonderful as a two player filler game.

Last Year: 13

18. Sagrada

Some games just look amazing on the table, and Sagrada is really one of those games. The translucent dice really give you the feel of the stained glass window that you are creating. And the game itself is a great dice drafting game. In this game you are making a stained glass window, and depending on the difficulty of your window, you need some certain numbers and colors in certain locations. And you can’t have the the dice orthogonal to the one you placed match the number or color, that is up and down and left and right. So you have to plan things out, you can’t place in the orthogonal spots a three if you are locked into having a certain number, a three, in a location on the board. There’s some strategy to the game, some luck, and the luck is actually mitigated quite nicely by the fact that you every game you have some tools out, there tools can allow you to draft two dice at once, or maybe move a die after it’s been placed, draw out a new die and use that one, there are a lot of different things all which help you mitigate the luck. Plus, the scoring is variable as well. You don’t get points for completely filling in your window, but you do lose points for empty spots, and you have a secret scoring objective as well as three public ones, which might be no repeated colors in a column gets you 6 points, or something like that, and you can score each column. The game is very variable and works really well.

Last Year: 20

17. Arkham Horror: The Card Game

Dropping all of 11 spots, this is mainly because I haven’t gotten this game to the table in a little bit, I really do need to as every time I play the game I really enjoy it. In this game you are playing through linked scenarios that tell a larger story, campaign style. You have a deck for an investigator, that you’ve constructed based off of deck construction rules, that you are using to fight monster, get clues, and figure out what it happening in the story. What works so well in this game is that the scenarios can vary wildly. Even n the base box, in the first scenario you are going to be fighting some and looking for clues, second scenario, you don’t want to fight much and you are trying to find as many cultists are possible. And depending on what you do, you might get access to certain cards, scenarios might be harder or easier, the game is just really well designed that way. And you can also change your difficulty level really easily as there is a modifier bag, and you can scale how difficult or easy you want it based off of what is in there. And the story can branch based off of what you’ve done, now it might not branch massively, but you can make a difference in how easy or hard or where the story goes based off of what you do in previous scenarios. This is one that I really need to play more of.

Last Year: 6

16. Deception: Murder in Hong Kong

Now, I talk very often about how I don’t like social deduction games, this is one that I really like. There’s one huge reason that I really like the game and that’s because you can immediately start accusing people and trying to figure out what is happening in the case. In most social deduction games you’re basically taking a stab in the dark the first round or so as you guess who might be a traitor and who might not be a traitor. But in this one, the second the forensic scientist puts out the first report, you have something you can actually work with. In this game one person is a murder who picks from the four clues and murder weapons in front of them, one of each that they, the forensic scientist, and if there’s an accomplice know. The person playing the forensic scientist ends up then passing up reports, such as murder location, and with that, you can immediately start to talk and come up with what of all the clues and murder weapons would make sense there. So you are immediately doing something as players and immediately doing something meaningful. This game also lends itself to way more story that just comes naturally from the mechanics of the game which also make it more enjoyable. Dropped a little bit, but that’s more because other things have moved up, this is an amazing game for big groups.

Last Year: 10

15. Clank! In! Space!: A Deck-Building Adventure

Another one from the Top 10 that has dropped and this again has to do with it not being played all that often recently., I have an expansion for this game that I haven’t even used yet, so I want to get it to the table, but it’s been a hard year to play a ton of games, and deck builders are not games that work well via Zoom. in this game you are going into the most secure location on Lord Eradikus’ ship stealing his treasure. Along the way you’ll make noise, things will go clank, and he’ll realize someone is on his ship. Can you get in and out before he gets you and with the best and most valuable treasure so you will win? This game is an improvement, in my opinion out of the base box on the fantasy themed Clank!. The game definitely doesn’t take itself seriously, and it has fixed an issue I have with Clank! where you can rush in grab a treasure and leave and rush the end of the game, here you can do that kind of but not nearly as effectively, so it’s worth it to push for a better treasure, if you can. The theme is fun and they keep it super light, and I love deck-building, so an easy game to put high on my list.

Last Year: 9

14. Welcome To…

Highest roll and write or flip and write on the list. Welcome To… is just a fun game for me, I like the strategy that goes into it as you race for various scoring cards and you still building and upgrading your scoring the best you can. This game is all about building your perfect 1960’s neighborhood with white picket fences, 2.5 children and dogs, well, those last two aren’t in the game, but you are filling in streets, putting in house numbers, building parks and swimming pools. What makes this game really work for me is that you’re using one of three combinations of a house number and an ability on your turn. And you can see the upcoming abilities for the next turn, but you won’t know the house number. You’re trying to balance filling in streets, getting more scoring by having more parks or pools, but also getting the points from the objectives as well. There game isn’t complex, but it’s a good time and great for large groups.

Last Year: 12

13. XenoShyft: Onslaught

Another deck building game and another one that has dropped out of my top 10, does that mean I like them less? Nope, there’s just so many good games. I really like XenoShyft: Onslaught because it is a cooperative deck building game where you are fighting off wave after wave of bug monsters with your force of troops on an alien planet. What I like about this game is that you have your hand of cards, but you always get a free money card to add to your hand every turn, so you are never short on money. But to go with that, you also are able to help other people as they prepare their defenses, so if I have the armory as my location that I’m defending, it means I can get weapons at a discount, so maybe I have too many weapons and not enough troops to deal with a wave, so I might give someone else a weapon from my hand, and maybe that person has the barracks and has more troops and they will put a troop into my row. I like how each role a person can take feels different and can help the group in different ways. And I like that you can bolster someone else’s deck as well. Now, this is a tough game to win, but one that is a lot of fun and for fans of deck building is working quite well.

Last Year: 7

12. T.I.M.E. Stories

Another dropper from the Top 10, and this one I have actually played several times since last year’s list, I think this is dropping more because of other games moving up than anything I have an issue with. This is still an amazing puzzle game where you are trying to go through the story and figure out everything that is happening and how to stop the time incursion that is threatening to change up the world. They do a great job with just basically using cards of making the game feel really different depending on the scenario that you play. And while the story isn’t always the strongest on a given scenario there is basically always something unique and different to try. I also like how you do multiple runs, sure that means you are repeating stuff sometimes, but it allows you to really explore the world and it feels thematic to how the world and the technology works. I know a lot of people way that this drops off in some of the scenarios, but through five now, I’ve enjoyed them all, and while there could be a better and bigger story unfolding through all of them, I like all the scenario stories.

Last Year: 5

11. Lords of Hellas

New game alert, now this is actually a game that’s been out a couple of years, but I just got it last year and got it to the table in February of this year. Lords of Hellas is a big minis game, but actually plays really smoothly with some euro style mechanics being blended in with amerithrash. In this game each player has a hero who leads their troops and moves around the board building temples, fighting monsters, building statues, and conquering lands. In this game you have a number of different ways to win, you could fight and defeat three monsters, you could hold five temples, you could conquer two regions and all their territories, you could control a completed statue, the game gives you a lot of ways to win, and even with that, in a five player game, we had three of the five a turn away from winning when the game ended, and the other two players were two turns away from winning. The game has a lot of fun mechanics, and your hero has their own unique ability and as temples are built, your faction gets more and more unique abilities that helps you focus how you are going to play the game and how you might win. This is game that I want to play more, it’s just a bit of a beast to get to the table and it doesn’t really play over something like Zoom, so it might have to sit on my shelf for a while, because I feel like there is a lot of variability and a lot of cool things to be done in the game.

Last Year: Not Ranked

So, we have a bunch of movement here. 5 from the 2019 Top 10 are now in this section of the list, and we have at #11 a game that I hadn’t even played last year that has rocketed up the boards. This of course means with the Top 10, we have 5 new games to that section of the list, are they new games, or are they games that are just on the rise as I’ve played them more, we’ll have to wait to see. But your guesses for my Top 10 games in the comments below, and let me know your favorites on this part of the Top 100.

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.

So what is drafting, probably the easiest way to look at it is what is common in the rest of our culture. We have the NFL draft and NBA draft’s that are televised, people draft teams for Survivor or Fantasy Football. When you are drafting you are selecting one thing out of a pool of many things and that one thing is yours and no one else can have it. Game do something similar either with dice, actions, cards, whatever it might be.

There are primarily two types of drafts, the first being, I have a selection of things to pick from, you have a selection, we both pick, we both do our thing, and then we pass selections and repeat until they are all gone. This is how Sushi Go Party! works. You have a hand of cards, you pick one card putting it face down, once everyone has picked, you put them face up at the same time, pass your hand of card and repeat. Once all the cards have been drafted, you score, shuffle the cards back up, and repeat, passing the other direction this time, and then you do that once more back the original direction. It’s very common to draft in rounds like this where it goes one way and then another.

The other type of drafting is from an open pool. This is how something like fantasy football works, items are just removed from a general pool. In board games, this is how Sagrada and Roll Player work. You grab a certain number of dice, generally number of players plus one or twice the number of players, so that no one gets stuck with a single item to pick. You roll the dice, that’s the pool to draft from, then one person picks, and so on and so forth until all of the dice, except for one, are picked. Or if you do twice the number of players for the dice, you start selecting down one way and once everyone has gotten a die, the last person to pick a die gets the first pick of it going backwards, so last to first to select their second die.

The big difference between the two is open information and hidden information. With the general pool of things, the information is open, you and everyone else know what is available. But either way can bring up another item that is a part of drafting, which is hate drafting. Hate drafting is the idea that you take something that might not be the best for you, but would have been really good for the next person picking from the pool. It’s a balancing act of taking something that will still potentially help you, but might potentially give your opponent more points. Now, good game balance should generally make it worth it for you, except maybe late game, to take what you need versus what would block someone else. And while hate drafting is certainly a viable move, most of the time as a complete strategy it won’t help you win.

So let’s look at some games that use drafting:

Intro/Gateway Game

Draftosaurous – I really like this little drafting game that is somewhere between a roll and write game and a drafting game. In it you are drafting dinosaur meeples and placing them on your board to either creates sets or get as many of a type as you can and then passing your fist full of dinomeeples to the next player and getting a new set from another player. So the main thing is drafting and you are just putting the dinomeeples down depending on what was rolled on a die and how it’ll help you with scoring. The roll and write aspect comes from the die roll that tells you were to place stuff, but also that the scoring is very similar to a lot of roll and write games as is the board. It’s a super fast and very fun little game.

Medium Weight

Sagrada – This is just a beautiful game where you are trying to make the best stained glass window possible. In it you are drafting translucent dice and putting them, based off of various color and number restrictions on your board. The trick comes that you can’t have the same number adjacent to each other, or the same colors, so you have to consider where you are placing dice. Now, this would get really hard at the end, but they give you tools that allow you to manipulate the dice, which adds to the complexity of the game. This game just looks great on the table and has a lot of replayability with all of the tools, the different scoring cards, and just how the dice roll.

Heavy Weight

Roll Player – Now, I don’t think that Roll Player is a ton heavier than Sagrada, and I could have picked some other games, like Blood Rage that have drafting as a part of the game and a whole lot more going on as well. But Roll Player is my choice because drafting is the biggest part of it. In this game you are building an RPG character by picking dice out of a pool and placing them in for one of your six stats, strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom and charisma. You’re also getting to manipulate those dice or already played dice by which score you put them into. Beyond that you are buying skills and traits and getting equipment, all of which can help you score more points. Along with that, based off of your class, you need your stats to be at a certain level, based off of your background, you need certain dice to be in certain place, and based off of your alignment, you can use traits to manipulate it and get it close as possible. The main mechanic of the game, draft a die, place it, and do what it says to do in that stat is very simple, but there’s a lot to keep track of.

Overall, I really like drafting games. Now, I only have one in my three suggestions where that has you pick at the same time, which makes a lot of drafting games very scalable, but there are a lot of out there like that such as Sushi Go Party!, 7 Wonders, and even Blood Rage. What are some drafting games that you like? Does drafting seem like an interesting mechanic to you?

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.

Roll Player

In Roll Player you are rolling up and drafting dice to try and create your best RPG character. You do this by selecting dice and placing them in the stats of Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. At the same time you are buying gear and traits in order to make your character even better. The game gives you stats that you need to target for your character, dice placement of color which can get you extra points, and an alignment that you are going for as your ideal. Plus, you have a character race with modifies your stats as well. In the end, the player who can match up their background and stats the best will get the most points and win.

Sagrada

In Sagrada you are building a stained glass window by placing translucent dice onto a grid. To get these dice you are drafting them from a pool that is rolled each round. You don’t get to just place the dice, you have to place them according to certain rules. The dice can’t be next to the same color or number on the top and bottom and left and right sides of them, the diagonal doesn’t matter. You also have to place a die so that it’s touching another die, this time it can be diagonally as well as orthogonally. Beyond that, certain spots on the board are going to tell you that it has to be a certain color or a certain number, so that limits what you can place around it. There are tools that you can use to manipulate your dice placement or the face or die itself. However, you have a limited ability to do that. The game is won by whomever has placed the most dice, how well you scored on three public objectives, and their private objective.

Comparison/Differences

The big area that these two compare is on the dice placement. Now, it’s done a little bit differently for that, because with Roll Player you’re just adding it to the end of a row of dice for the stat versus in Sagrada where you can branch out more so to fill in certain areas. This makes Sagrada a bit more strategic on that end, but not that much more, both of them are pretty straight forward with that.

Another area is dice manipulation, in this one Roll Player offers a considerable number of more options. Each time you place a die for a stat, you have a power that you can do, and all of them, minus Charisma, manipulate the dice, the side, the placement, whatever it might be somehow. So you’re manipulating your dice a lot in the game. Sagrada, on the other hand has tools that you end up using, but you have a limited number of times that you can use them. A hard stained glass window gives you five or six tokens to use, and after the first use of each tool it costs two tokens. So you’re manipulating the dice less, but also low numbers have more value if it matches a number requirement or color requirement on the stained glass window.

Battle…

Both of these dice placement, dice selection games look pretty evenly matched, with Roll Player using it’s weight advantage to push around Sagrada. It gets the early advantage with it’s simpler dice selection, but it tries for some complicated moves as it manipulates the dice. Sagrada starts to get in some quick hits and soon they are brawling again. Sagrada, knowing that Roll Player is going to come in for some bigger moves, starts to use it’s speed as it strings together move after move versus Roll Player who seems to be struggling at times to keep the momentum going. Sagrada eventually uses it’s speed to roll up Roll Player and the winner is…

Sagrada

For me, the game just plays cleaner. I do really enjoy both, but there book keeping aspect of Roll Player, having to refresh the market every turn, setting up the dice, it’s all just slower. Sagrada gives me a number of interesting choices still, and less downtime and just less overall time in the game. I can sit down with people who are familiar with Sagrada and probably knock out two games in the time of one game of Roll Player. Now, the length of Roll Player isn’t a bad thing, Sagrada is just easier and smoother to get to the table.

Which do you prefer, Sagrada or Roll Player?

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.