Top 10 Sneaky Party Games

10. Criss Cross

First of only two roll and write games on the list. And both of them are pretty similar in some ways. In Criss Cross you want to fill in a grid so that you score the most points in your rows and columns. This is done by filling in symbols on two dice that are rolled. The more like symbols in a row or a column, the better you do.

The twist on the game comes in that each time the dice are rolled you treat them like a domino. That means that the two faces of the dice always need to be played adjacent to each other. If you aren’t careful you might lock yourself out of being able to completely fill in your board.

The nice thing about this one is that it’s a short and simple. It is the type of game that you are apt to play a few times in a row which is a nice thing for a party game.

9. Knister

Knister is a fair amount like Criss Cross. You want to basically create Yahtzee style groups of five dice in rows and columns and on the diagonal as well. And this is done by rolling two dice and you place the combination of two wherever you want on your board.

This one I put slightly above Criss Cross for a party style game. Mainly because while both of the games are going to work great in a larger group, Knister is a bit easier to teach. Though the game itself is a bit harder to come by. But more people understand the concept of creating runs and pairs with numbers than doing so with symbols or pairs and sets. Plus there is not the domino type rule that people need to internalize.

8. PitchCar

I might have put more dexterity games on the list, but I wanted to keep it away from just being a list of that for alternative party games. PitchCar is the one I picked. It might be easier to get two copies of Ice Cool and play up to eight that way, it’s cheaper for sure. But I think that PitchCar is easier for players to understand.

This is a car racing game where to race you car you just flick it along the track. If you fall off, you go back to where you went. And when there is traffic you might run into traffic and push someone forward or off the track or into a spot where they don’t want to be.

The great thing about PitchCar is how everyone is engaged. In between your turn sure you are chatting, which is great for a party style game. But if someone makes a great shot, or falls off the track for the fourth shot in a row, everyone reacts. Especially for a great shot.

And there is a ton of PitchCar stuff you can get. If you play it a lot as a group, you can add in things like ramps and jumps, narrower tracks, or even a loop. Of course all that adds up and makes it even harder to store.

7. Strike

Strike is an obvious one for the alternative party games list. Mainly because it’s nothing more than rolling dice and taking pairs. Now, this is a game that only plays up to five. But if you want to play with more you can do like I did and buy another set of the game.

But the great thing, like some other push your luck games higher on the list, this game is simple. It is all push your luck. How many dice do you roll to get a pair? Okay, you didn’t get a pair or set of dice with the same number. Do you roll again or pass and not risk losing more dice. It has that egging people on, and those moments where you clear everything out that is exciting, or those moments where you roll a bunch of dice and somehow manage to get no matches.

6. Unlock Games

This does not need to be only the Unlock escape room style games. I think that Exit games work well as well. I will caveat this a little bit though. If you pick an escape room style game, it should be for when you need a party game at a lower player count. This one makes it on the sneaky party games list because it’s easy to get to the table and everyone generally understands the concept of puzzles and escape rooms. It’s just at higher player counts not everyone can see everything as easily.

The other nice thing is that you can scale or tailor multiple things to your group. Some of it is scaling how hard the puzzle is. They generally give you an idea from easy to hard. But you also can pick a theme. If you know you want to do this with a more casual group but they like The Pirates of the Caribbean movies, there is a pirate themed one. Or maybe they love Lord of the Rings, there is an Exit Game with the Lord of the Rings theme. It will all depend on your group.

5. Deception: Murder in Hong Kong

Now, a lot of social deduction games could go on the party games list. I think that most social deduction games are just party games without much actual game behind it. Deception: Murder in Hong Kong is going to give you both deduction and social deduction as you try and figure out who the murder is.

But this game has a great twist on the normal social deduction games. Each player has four murder weapons and four clues in front of them. And the murder is going to, during the eyes closed time of the social deduction part of the game, pick one murder weapon and clue in front of them.

So how do the players know, the players can figure it out, with deduction, kind of, through reports sent up by the forensic scientist. Of course, the report might lead them in the wrong direction because they don’t know who the murderer is, so everyone is now suspicious.

It’s a great game to get people talking and engaging with each other. Even if it is just in the game it’s simple enough to keep things moving and works really well.

4. Fiction

People like the game Wordle online or at least they did. I don’t think it’s that people don’t like it anymore, I think that it’s more a lot of people just let it fall by the wayside. Fiction, though, is a one versus everyone Wordle style game. And that works as a party game because you can rotate who is the one. That one person is the keeper of the word. And everyone is going to be the guessers of the word.

Now, does that sound like too many guessers? Yes, it probably does. But there is a nice little twist on the game. The person who is the keeper of the word can also lie. Yup, you heard that right, they can lie. But when they lie, they need to be consistent about their lie. So as you go you might be able to track down or figure out what the lie is in what they are giving you as a clue. then when you either win or fail, you pass that keeper of the word role along and keep playing.

3. Push

The next two games are both of the same type. They are push your luck games. And both of them work well. I put Push slightly below the other one because the other one is easier to learn. But I think I like Push as a better game.

Why does Push work as a party game? I know there is an upper limit of six players, but I’ve played with more. So it works well for that larger group. And with a good party style game people need to be invested or engaged in egging others on or giving them grief. And with Push, you are invested. You want the player to stop if you might get something ideal for your collection. Or you want them to push because if they bust, well that is great for you.

2. Flip 7

Flip 7 has many of the same attributes as Push. But it is simpler in what you do. There isn’t the three piles, you just decide on your turn to draw a card or bank the points that you have. That is as simple as it gets. But it still has the same fun of egging someone on to draw one more card. And if they manage to pull that off, then do they push their luck again. And the same goes for your turn. It’s simple but it works really well as that bigger group party style game.

1. Ready, Set, Bet!

I debated about putting it on the list at all, but if it’s on the list, it’s #1. This is a betting game where a horse race is happening in real time and players are throwing down bets in real time. It’s a chaotic time and you would think that watching two dice being rolled over and over again would keep people engaged. But every time I play the game people end up standing and are highly invested in those two dice roles.

The reason it almost didn’t make the list is that it can have a bit more going on in it. There are prop bets that players can bet on and you need to know how those work. But if you don’t want to learn how those work, that’s okay, you can do great by betting on the right horse at the right time to win big.

What Are You Playing?

Now all of these games are going to have different results for you. So I think you need to know your group. Some of them are going to be better for different player counts as well. But all of them will move you away from those more traditional party games.

Is there one that stands out that you’d love to play with your group? Let me know that down in the comment section below. Or do you have a game that you go to that aren’t traditional party games when you need a party game?

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How to Play Captain Tsubasa

Captain Tsubasa The Card Game is a back and forth card playing game where players take turns being on the attack or defending to score goals. Determining if you score a goal or not comes down to comparing numbers. But how do you get those numbers?

Creating Your Hand

At the start of each round players draft cards from a center row. These are your first half strategies or second half adjustments as you look at them. So it can be things like a yellow card or a coaching decision of some sort. Starting with the defending player they select a card to add to four cards from their deck. And each deck is one of the teams of the Captain Tsubasa anime. Then the attacking player selects a card to add to their hand.

Card Play

Then starting with the attacking player they play out a card and activate abilities. Cards generally have a few different things on them. Shooting, passing, and defending are the main stats on the card. And those will help determine how well you do your action, passing or shooting when you are the attacker, or defending when you are the defender.

Cards also have special powers. Some of these are play an extra card or draw a card. Or you maybe remove that card from your deck. Some cards also let you get tokens. These tokens persist and you use them throughout the game when you want to alter the value of your action.

Resolving Actions

Once nine cards have been played or both players pass players then total up their value for their action. Tokens can be spent to increase the value by one per token. And finally, both players roll a die and add that to their value. Whomever is higher is the winner and in the case of the tie the attacking player wins.

The attacker does have a choice. When they select their action they pick either pass or shoot. If they succeed or fail when shooting the ball the opponent becomes the attacking player. But if they choose to pass and successfully pass, then they maintain the ball and are the attacker.

Special Cards

Some cards do have special abilities. Some of these can be one time use. It is the anime-esque special shots where players pick a card and compare. If you select the same card the shot is blocked if not the shot is saved.

There are other cards that are one time use as well such as yellow card. That card is going to give a player negative one to all their values until they can deal with it. This comes in form of a card that you can draft which is going to be eliminated but thematically is substituting a player off the pitch who has that card. And there are more of these special cards an powers as well to learn as you play.

Winning

There are six rounds per half. So twelve total rounds in the match with the possibility of overtime if the game ends in a tie. Once overtime is done if the game is still tied players share the victory. Otherwise the winner is determined by who scored the most goals in the game.

What Doesn’t Work

The game is limited in variety, now that is just the base way of playing the game. It is possible to play in other ways where you play with a bench and can substitute your players. That is going to provide some variety. But for me, I wish there was a touch more variety in the cards that you pick for your extra cards for first half or second half. Second half cards are generally better but often times the same for the most part.

What Works

Game Length

The game play is nice and tight in this game. The decisions are more impactful than I actually expected them to be. And you need to think about what cards make sense. The fact that it is only nine cards total per round means that you can create situations where you play six of those nine cards. But is it going to be enough?

The game is also the right length. I think in person it is not going to be too terribly long. The rounds go quickly and while there is a bit to do, because of the low scoring nature of the game, you feel invested the whole time.

The Dice

I like the little bit of randomness for the game as well. There is a card you can select that lets you reroll that die. But that little bit of randomness, a random bounce in a game of soccer keeps the scores more soccer like. And that helps with the tension of the game. Sports games are often hard to do because you lose the pace and tension, but that die roll that happens a few times a game helps keep the tension in the game.

Shooting or Passing

The choice of shooting or passing works as well. Sometimes you feel like you might be able to get a shot through but you need the die to do the right thing for you. But your passing score is higher, in which case, you might want to just pass the ball. Or late game, can you maintain the ball as the attacking player if you are in the lead. That is truly thematic to soccer so I love that element for the game.

Card Play

Finally, I think that the card play works well. Nothing is too much on the cards and if often makes you think about what you want to do. One strategy I haven’t messed around with too much is thinning out your deck of cards. But I think that is a very viable strategy. There are players who are maybe a one for everything, shooting, passing, and defending, but also let you draw a card and then lose that card from your deck. So it is a strategy to clear out some of those cards if you’ve built a different or better deck.

Who is Captain Tsubasa The Card Game For?

This is maybe the most challenging question. Captain Tsubasa is not a new anime so I don’t think it’s for anime fans. Not a ton of people will go back and check it out. So maybe for people who already love that anime or already love soccer. But sports games generally find a more limited appeal for board gamers. I think it is good enough of a game that people who want a different feeling two player game should check it out, but the theme might be a harder sell.

Final Thoughts and Grade on Captain Tsubasa

I love trying new two player games on Board Game Arena. And I honestly went into this game with low expectations. A lot of anime based games are not that great. Though, I think that is an area that if it can be opened up to a larger publishing front it can improve. But Captain Tsubasa really works as a game and while it isn’t a perfect one to one with soccer, I think it hits some key elements.

The biggest being that the score is almost always low. That is going to be what gives it that best soccer feel. And even when you set yourself up for a great opportunity to score, you still might not. Again that is that soccer feel.

When I rated it on BGG (Board Game Geek), I looked to see if there is going to be an English version. Right now the only way to play it in English is to play it on BGA. And yes, one is coming. So I think I want to pick it up because it is that enjoyable a game and something that to me feels different in the space of a two player game. Yes, it is that normal two player back and forth thing, but it works really well.

My Grade: B+
Gamer Grade: B-
Casual Grade: C
Strategy (out of 10): 7
Luck (out of 10): 5

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How To Play Rallyman Dirt

Rallyman Dirt is a rally racing game. What you need to know about that is that it’s not like Nascar or F1 where you have all the cars on the track at the same time. This is still about going the fastest, but blocking people and passing isn’t a part of what you’re doing.

Plan Your Route

On your turn you plan out your route. This means that you lay out your dice from gears 1 through 6 and two for coasting. You decide how many you want to use to create your route. You probably won’t use all of them because you need to hit certain speeds at certain corners otherwise you go out of control. And you still might go out of control because once you plan out your route you have a choice on how to roll your dice.

Rolling Your Dice

You either roll all out or you can roll a bit more safely and strategically. Why might you not want to do the safer option? Well, because you get a bonus if you go all out. When you go all out you grab all the dice from your route and roll them all at once. If you get three (or more) hazard symbols you’re going to lose control. So you plan back out your route, figure out where you lose control and draw negative things, which might be using fewer dice. But you get negative seconds for going all out.

Or you can roll more safely. That involves rolling one die at a time. So you decide when you want to stop and that means that you can stop before it goes out of control, but if you get two hazards early, you might still choose to push yourself further so that you can get a higher speed, because of your time, which I’ll talk about next.

Your Time

After you roll your dice, you get your time. This time card is going to give you a time that you add together at the end of the race. As well as it lets you know what gear you finished in. The faster you go, the shorter the time. In fact, if you’re in sixth gear, at the end, and you go all out with five dice, you get a 10 second card, for sixth gear, and negative five seconds for going all out.

Each gear is going to give you a different amount of time. But if you lose control, they are all (kind of) the same. If you lose control you flip over the card, from the gear you were in, and you get one minute added to your time. And then you draw out some tokens that might have negative effects.

Game Structure

The structure of the game is pretty unique. If you are the first player, you go twice in a row. That means that you should be far enough down the track that other people won’t catch you. Then the second player goes, but they go once. If you play with more than two people, turn order then goes back to the first player and then the second player before the third player. This is so everyone stays evenly spaced on the track.

You also can play a single race. But that generally puts the leader at a disadvantage. They go first to set the track, basically, and that means that their coasting dice are riskier than other players. So often you play a rally in several stages. Whomever has the fastest overall time at the end of a stage is the leader for the next stage and gets the riskier dice. This helps balance a couple of things. First it means you are less likely to get a runaway leader. But it also is meant to simulate how the first driver on a course won’t know it as well.

What Doesn’t Work

So, I think there are a couple of elements that might be a bit tricky for some players. First off the turn order is weird. It’s not a massive negative, but it’s an interesting thing to explain. I feel like it works best when I explain what rally racing is. Otherwise people thing racing, everyone is on the track at once. Nope, that’s not how this is going to work, and players need to understand that to some extent. It also means in a higher player count game, someone might be about finishing a leg of the rally by the time the last player is starting.

The dice are also a bit tricky to teach. Not too bad once you get into it, but there is a bit that needs to make sense about plotting out your path and seeing how far you go and how much you want to push your luck. And also the difference between the dice, or how you want to calculate the odds that you’ll crash or not.

What Works

Firstly, the push your luck works really well. I love to grab that handful of dice, probably five or six, and roll it and push my luck to get those negative seconds. Does it workout all the time, most certainly not. But I really like that element of the game because that’s where you get that high speed feel to the game.

I also really like how you need to plan out your movement. You know what the whole course looks like, and you know the speeds you want to hit. You want to go as fast as you can and as far as you can. But sometimes you need to think about how you can slam it into the corner, do you use the brakes to slow down faster? Of course, slamming on your brakes gives you more of a chance to lose control. It is important to figure out that rhythm for the track that is built.

The timing is another area that I like. I like how if you go out of control on a lower gear, it’s less bad. Sure it’s more time, but you draw out fewer potentially bad tokens. But even if you go far, ending in first gear as compared to even third gear is a difference of twenty seconds. So you need to play around with what gear you want to end up in, how far you want to go, and how it sets you up for future corners.

Who is Rallyman Dirt For?

Firstly, I think that people who like racing games will enjoy this game. But along with that, you can’t just like racing games, you need to enjoy push your luck. Yes, you might just be able to play it safe and get around without crashing. But if someone is pushing their luck and does that, they will have destroyed you with their negative seconds. So you need to be at least somewhat comfortable with that.

My Final Thoughts on Rallyman Dirt

I really enjoy this game. I want to quick talk about the BGA implementation of this. It’s great, with the caveat of it’s great on the computer. On a phone selecting which late you want to be in or if you want to be drifting when you can versus just driving hard into the corner, that’s hard to get clicked. But that’s only an issue with the game online and only on your phone.

In person the game is great as well. I do think that there are elements of it that are maybe slightly better online. Especially in a higher player count game, you might be sitting there for a little bit. But to race a whole rally, let’s say three games in a night, and determine the champion, that is a ton of fun. And Rallyman Dirt, while it gives you a lot of fun challenge with dealing with corners and other hazards, is really a beer and pretzels game. By that I mean you want to push your luck, you want to roll a big handful of dice and you want to see what happens.

My Grade: A
Strategy Grade: C
Lucky Grade: A

So I switched up my grading just a little bit. I am going from gamer and casual. While I like those metrics, not all people steeped in the hobby love heavy strategy games. Likewise, people who are more casually in the hobby might like strategy a lot. So I think that strategy and luck scores are better to let you know if it’s a game for you.

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Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition – Top 10

10. Aeon’s End

• Published by Indie Boards & Cards in 2016
• Defend the town of Gravehold against a Nemesis and their minions by slinging spells around

To kick off the Top 10, let’s talk about one that has been in my Top 10 for a while and one that I have basically everything for. I’m guessing I’m missing a few promo cards, but Aeon’s End is one of my favorite deck building games.

This is a deck building game, tower defense, and boss battler all wrapped into one. The name of the game in this one is variety. There are other elements I like too, but variety is huge. Each mage is unique, each nemesis is unique and the market of cards that you create is unique. Everything about the game can be mixed and matched and give endless replayability. I also like that this is a cooperative game.

And, finally, I like this game best as a solo or two player. I know that it can play more, but with the turn system, it works better at lower counts. You draw to see whose turn it is. In the deck there are two nemesis cards, and one per player at four players, or two at two players. So you get these fun moments where it swings from the players getting four turns in a row to the nemesis getting three and now things look dangerous. It makes the game feel more exciting, it just works best at two players though because of that.

Buy Aeon’s End

9. Roll Player Adventures

• Published by Thunderworks Games in 2021
• Explore the lands, beat monsters and complete skill challenges in a world that remembers what you did

Now to a really big game we have Roll Player Adventures. They took the Roll Player system, tweaked it and gave us a story and adventure game. And I think that it works really well as a game, clearly, as it’s my #9. Though, like Aeon’s End, I’ll give a caveat that difficulty changes based on player count, which, isn’t a bad thing, but it something worth noting.

In this game you play through chapters of an adventure. To do that you are fighting monsters, doing skill checks, and reading story. Whenever it’s a right or a skill check you are spending cards and resources, your health, in different stats to try and complete a dice puzzle. You need to get dice of certain colors and certain numbers into specific locations. But, the game is smart and it limits you in how much you can do that, and it is what they try and use to scale, but like I said, I think that it’s easier with more.

The story is also a lot of fun. There are games on my list that have a bigger and darker story. And I like dark stories, dark fantasy can be a lot of fun, but it’s also fun to have stories that are maybe a bit sillier at times. And, I will say, they manage to create a story where it feels like it matters and continues along with the choices that you make.

Buy Roll Player Adventures

8. Dice Throne

• Published by Dice Throne Inc. in 2018
• Fight in a Mortal Combat style tournament by chucking dice and leveling up attacks

My #8 is “Battle Yahtzee”. By that, I mean that it is Dice Throne. This is a game that is played either as a head to head battle or as king of the hill. You get a hero, or character, that you play as. And they have specific abilities that you can activate by rolling dice Yahtzee style. By that I mean you get three roles, you keep some dice each time, and you see what you get at the end.

But Dice Throne is more than just a lucky game. Yes, there is an element of luck with rolling the dice. But the game often comes down to how well you can mitigate that luck. If you manage to get off your ultimate attack, well there isn’t much your opponent can do, of course that does mean that you roll all sixes. That’s very unlikely to just happen. But with cards and your combat points you spend to play them, you are able to manipulate dice, turn them to different sides, or get rerolls to try and land those attacks.

Plus the game offers a ton of variety. The first set is more standard fantasy. But then you get into other characters like a Tactician or an Artificer who do different things. And I own the Marvel set and am waiting on the Marvel X-Men set to come as well. You pick your favorites to get, or if you’re like me, you get them all.

Buy Dice Throne

7. Rogue Angels: Legacy of the Burning Suns

• Published by SunTzuGames in 2025
• Change the galaxy with a unlikely group of heroes in an epic sci-fi adventure

Now for a game that isn’t even out yet. Why do I have it on the list, because I have in my collection a prototype of the game. And I’ve even played it on Malts and Meeples. The game is basically set, through there are elements of the game that will change, but that’s mainly around components not around actual game play.

I love Rogue Angels. You know that by now because it’s on every list of Crowdfunding game that I’m waiting for. And yes, it will be again at the end of this year, most likely. This is another story, adventure, and combat game. And I really enjoy the story in it. I like having some campaign games that aren’t just another fantasy setting, and Rogue Angels gives you a good sci-fi setting. And I love how the combat, or mission element of the game works.

I want to say that this isn’t a game where every scenario is a go and beat someone up. No, this is a game where you might want to dive into combat. Or you might want to sneak through, and it all depends on the scenario. I love that for a game because I don’t always want to beat up the bad guys. And with how the game activates the bad guys, well, getting rid of the wrong bad guys at the wrong time just means you’ll be dealing with the other ones all the time.

Late Pledge Rogue Angels

6. Floriferous

• Published by Pencil First Games in 2021
• Create the best scoring group of flowers in this drafting game

Now we have the smallest game in my Top 10 list. But Floriferous was there last year and it is staying there again this year because I love what the game does. I enjoy a good drafting game, and I think that drafting makes sense in a lot of different games. But how Floriferous does it works for me because it combines drafting with building out your own scoring.

And the drafting itself is clever. You either draft a flower or you draft a scoring card from a column. The scoring cards are always at the bottom of the column, though, which matters for drafting the next column. Because the turn order for that next column is determined by the previous column you drafted from, aka, the higher you are up in the column the sooner you draft again. So yes, you need scoring cards, but that means you draft later next time.

I also want to call out drafting the scoring. I like it when a game does that because it offers a great decision point. When I draft, I might want that scoring card, but if you don’t have enough flowers, it won’t do much for me. And on the flip side, if I draft too many flowers I’m not going to be scoring anything.

Buy Floriferous

5. Slay the Spire

• Published by Contention Games in 2024
• Climb the spire, fight monsters and can you defeat them all in this cooperative deck building game

Next up is a new one to the list and it’s debuting all the way up at #5. Now it’s not the last new one to the list, there is one higher, though just barely higher. Slay the Spire is a video game that I love to play. In fact I’ve been on a kick of playing it recently. It’s a rogue like deck building game where you climb a tower.

The board game is the exact same thing. But it takes a solo video game experience and makes it multiplayer. In fact, while the solo is fun, I think that it’s even better two player or two handed. And I want to play it with more. Because you figure out a strategy of who wants to attack which enemies. Because each player has their own enemies that will attack them, but you can attack the other person’s enemies. So you might have more defense and handle it as well.

With all of that said, the game does change one thing. How some things activate is changed, so you’re not needing to keep track of “every seven turns” or “every three times you shuffle” but it makes it easy to keep track of. And they scale down everything. I like that because I don’t want to be keeping track of six enemies with 50 health each. So while the math is very much the same, the numbers are just lower.

Buy Slay the Spire

4. The 7th Citadel

• Published by Serious Poulp Games in 2024
• The Citadels are in ruins. How can you rebuild society and deal with the threats?

The other new to the list game and debuting at #4 is The 7th Citadel. I should have put it at #7 just to make it a bit more fitting. But I love this game and you can see me playing it for some sessions on Malts and Meeples YouTube.

This is an adventure game. These Citadels have fallen and now in a dangerous and post apocalyptic feeling world, though uniquely so, you need to survive. You play as leaders of a settlement has has formed out of the 7th Citadel. And now you need to deal with some threat that is coming.

The main mechanism is the same as The 7th Continent. You spend cards to try and complete checks, fight monsters, and deal with challenges. And the cards are going to be your life. Plus you are flipping over cards and exploring areas of the map and dealing with encounters that happen. But the game gives you more direction than the 7th Continent does as the threat gives you missions to go on as you build up your settlement for whatever that coming threat might be.

Late Pledge The 7th Citadel

3. Stars of Akarios

• Published by OOMM/Open Owl Studios in 2022
• Explore space, fight battles, and unravel the story of why you were attacked

This is the one that launched into the Top 10 last year and it’s sticking around. I love this game, clearly, but it’s another one of those big campaign games, and it’s one that’s set in space. But this game feels different than so many others. I don’t know why, but it gives me the feeling of stories like Ender’s Game and Space Dandy all wrapped into one with obvious nods to other sci-fi stories as well.

I really enjoy how they created a game that is split into three different element. The one, space exploration, is a bit weaker. There is some randomness to it, and I feel like I never found anything major on it. But I love the other two element. You get to have a 7th Citadel/7th Continent style exploration on planets. But instead of playing cards for checks you roll dice. And it’s a really fun time, but the biggest part of the game is space combat.

And I wasn’t sure how much I’d love the space combat. But I really enjoy it, it’s this great tactical puzzle as you use special abilities that you can only use so much. And then you spend dice to maneuver and you need to figure out how to even get into range to shoot the enemy and ideally in a flanking position. I love sitting there looking at the dice and trying to figure out how to make it work.

Late Pledge Stars of Akarios

2. Tainted Grail: Fall of Avalon

• Published by Awaken Realms in 2019
• The lands are returning to Wyrdness, you’ve been sent out to help Avalon survive, if you can

Now or one of a few campaign games that I’ve completed, at #2 we have Tainted Grail. And this is the base game and the two expansion campaigns. I love them all. I need to play Kings of Ruin as well, but I’m not sure when I’ll get to that because of, well, my #1 on the list.

But this game, let’s start off with the highest praise, has the best writing of any board game I’ve ever played. The story that it tells is amazing and for that reason we did play in story mode to be able to experience as much of that story as possible. I’ll talk about why in a little bit. This is a grim dark game, but it manages not to dwell on the darkness to the point where it’s overbearing but creates this amazing fantastical and dangerous world to deal with.

And let’s talk about that story mode and why we played that way. One of the criticisms of the game is that it’s too hard. There is too much grind and too much survival. That is what the game was advertised as, so why people thought it was bad, and not just not for me, when they got what they knew they were going to get, I don’t know. But story mode makes it easier, but not too easy. So you do need to engage with that survival aspect of the game, but you can delve into the story more so. If you find the game, get it, and I do recommend playing on story mode.

Buy Tainted Grail

1. Gloomhaven/Frosthaven

• Published by Cephalofair Games in 2022
• Battle monsters, explore lands, and build up the town in this epic campaign

Finally the number one stays the same. The #1 on the list is really Frosthaven, Gloomhaven and Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion. I don’t think it’s fair for them to be separate on the list. While Frosthaven does build on Gloomhaven and add in some elements like the town management, the core loop of the game is the same. I do think the added element of the town management would push it even a little bit higher than Gloomhaven for me though.

But the main part of the game is going into scenarios and trying to complete their objectives. This almost always includes killing some bad guys, and often times the win condition is kill all the enemies. Though in Frosthaven that is less often, though still the most common scenario goal.

The element that is the best about the game is the characters though. I love how every character is unique. And from the cards that you get to play, it feels that way. Sometimes you want to be that tanking character, or a fast damage dealer, or a support or healer character. And the games offer all of those.

And then the card play where you might want to go fast, so you can get in and out dealing damage quickly, or maybe you want to go slow to draw the enemies towards you, there is a lot of great strategy. I love picking cards, too, where I might plan to use the bottom and top halves in one way but then give myself the flexibility to change it. Needless to say, I love my #1 game.

Buy Frosthaven

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 be my 200 through 101 next week. After that I’m going to do some videos looking back on 2024. So expect to see my Top 10 Games of 2024 and probably Top 10 crowdfunding games I backed in 2024 as well.
• 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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How to Play Mountain Goats

Mountain Goats is a simple game to play. You roll four dice and then you use those dice to go up the mountain. You move up your goat on columns of cards numbered 5 through 10. When you make it to the top of a row, you get a point card. If you are still at the top and play that combination you get another point card. But if an opponents goat makes it up to where you are, you get knocked down to the bottom again. This only happens if you are at the top. Then you start the climb again.

The game is over once all the complete set scoring tokens are gone or a number of piles are emptied. When that happens you complete the round and whomever has the most points wins. And that is basically the whole game. If you roll more than one one on the dice, you can pick a die face on those dice only needing to leave one of them as a one. That’s just to help balance it out and keep a bad roll from messing you up too much.

What Doesn’t Work

There is a lot of randomness in the game. You get a tiny bit of strategy as you roll dice and then figure out how to combine their numbers. However, what the dice are rolled to is completely random. Obvious if you get multiple ones it isn’t random, but most of the time it is. So I think a lot of people will find this too simple and too random as they play it.

What Works

I like the simplicity and speed that this game plays. The rules are simple to learn and I like that about it. I sit down and teach and play the game in a very short period of time. Which is something that I want from a very small game like Mountain Goats. I don’t want a hefty lift or long play time, especially with a game that is lucky.

I find that there is also an excitement to the game. It does come from the luck in the game. You roll dice and you might find that it’s exactly what you need to complete a set. Or sometimes even better, it might let you grab that last scoring tile in the tens spot to keep anyone else from getting it. On your opponents turn you hope that they don’t knock you down so you can keep getting more points. It’s a simple element to the game, but it works for generating excitement in a lucky game.

Who Is Mountain Goats For?

I think it’s for people who want a fast fun filler game. Yes, it might be a game night to play it three times with friends who aren’t gamers as much. But for a lot of people, I think this is that good sort of game to end or start a game night. Or even play between games when you want to break to something lighter. For most gamers with a large game collection it won’t be the focus of the night, but one that might come off the shelf often for what it is.

Final Thoughts on Mountain Goats

I enjoy this game. And I enjoy it for what it is, a light filler. But also because it feels exciting. If a filler game isn’t all that exciting it’ll get played some and then leave the collection. I think Mountain Goats is going to have that longer shelf life because I like and enjoy that little bit of an extra rush of fun from it.

It’s not going to be a game that I play every week. But it’s one that is just fun enough and does just enough that it’s going to feel good when I play it. And I do think that Allplay and Mountain Goats are great games for introducing to people. So simple, but something that feels different and fun if you don’t play a ton of games.

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

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How to Play Strike

Strike is a very simple game, where you are rolling dice and trying to get matches. But the numbers on the dice go from 2 through 6. The 1 is a strike, if you roll that, the die is gone forever from the game. If you are the last person standing with dice, you win the game.

The first person in the game, or if anyone rolls dice and clears out the dice tray, has to roll all of their dice. Otherwise you can push your luck by rolling any number of dice at a time to see if you get matches. If you do, you take the matches. If you don’t, you can either stop, leaving the dice you rolled in the tray or you can push your luck and roll in more dice trying to get a match. And that is the game, very simple and fast.

What Doesn’t Work?

Now, I say that the game is fast, and having played it a handful of times now, it consistently is. Because you can roll and strike and lose dice means that the pool is always dwindling of total number of dice. It is possible that it’d take a while to play because you are just rolling a die, getting a match, and no one is really building up a big dice pool.

It is also possible that your very first roll of the game that you are out. In a five player game you have five dice, there is no guarantee you get a pair. Even in a two player game with a lot more dice, there is no guarantee. You get enough strikes you are just out of the game.

What Works?

Now, I said that the game could go on for a while or you could just be out of the game, both are true. But the game works well and counters both of those, generally, by having great speed to the game. Turns are fast, you are invested in each roll of the dice, and it works that way. So through a handful of games I have yet to see the game take too long

It also reminds me of Icecool or PitchCar where you get excited when someone has a crazy roll. So it is a good group game that way where it’s less about winning and losing than it is about the fun of the game. Especially in something that is luck heavy you want to have people excited during the game.

Who Is It For?

I think this is a good filler game for a game group that is okay with randomness. Strike is just randomness as you play it. You roll your dice, you can knock into other dice and change their faces and you hope to get a match. There is no dice mitigation or anything like that. So if you want strategy or control, Strike will not be for you. If you are fine with some random dice chucking and a quick fun time, Strike works well.

I also think on the luck side that even if you don’t have deep strategy players it might not work. There are some people who will get frustrated by the fact it is random. So when the dice are rolled it feels like, because it is, that the game is deciding for them. The question with Strike is if you can handle losing because of a bad die roll or not?

Final Thoughts on Strike

I really enjoy when I play Strike. It gives some good laughs when someone rolls a handful of dice and it fails. It also gives great moments when someone rolls 3 dice and manages to clear the dice tray. Or when you bump a die and now the die you rolled and the die match.

And even the moments where you roll 6 dice and you come out with one match or no matches, those are fun. Because you know it is just random as you go. At the same time, and I talk about this in the who it is for, it does limit the game. Sore losers or people who want so much strategy, it won’t work for them. But if you can embrace the absurd it is a fun time.

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

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How To Play Foodies?

In Foodies you are building out a food court of five different nationalities of food. All in order to have your food court gain the most popularity. You start with nothing, but you add more and more carts to your food court as you go. Each of them being activated when their number is rolled and them helping you gain more popularity until someone passes 20 points (in a two player game) and you trigger end game.

Each turn the active player rolls a die to activate one of nine locations in their food court. Players then take their coin or popularity for activating that spot. But the player who rolled the die gets to spend their coins in order to get another cart for their food court. Then the next player repeats the process.

As you place down a cart, you want to consider what is around it. Carts have stars on some or all of the sides. And as you place them onto your three by three grid you want to line up the stars because when you activate one of them, you gain more popularity. So there is an element of strategy where you place the carts that you buy.

And with the carts, you also consider the goals of the guest chefs you can get in. Some of them you can use any time 4 coins for a popularity. The others each player can score once. It might be four carts from one nation or three pairs of two carts from different nations. Each of those giving your three popularity. Until someone passes twenty popularity and then the round finishes so each player has the same number of turns.

What Doesn’t Work?

This is a very light game. Now, that is a negative because it’ll give the game limited shelf life, most likely. You roll and a die, get coins, by the thing that fits into your goal the best, and repeat the process. The biggest decision that you really make is trying to optimize a little bit of scoring. And making sure you line-up as many stars as possible. But those things are very obvious.

And another thing, while I like that you rotate the different nationalities so that you get different combinations each time you play, what you get from them is very limited. You basically have one resource in the game, coins, and you are trying to get two things, coins and popularity. The game would benefit from more choices around what you can get. There are menus, but your ability to get them is very limited.

What Works?

The speed that this game plays at is great. Turns go by really quickly. And with a few exceptions, I don’t need to think about what you are doing. The two exceptions are US and French foods where you want to have the most to get either money or popularity when you activate them. And that is barely glancing at what someone else is doing. But a two player game, taught and played two last night, took maybe just over and hour. So the game goes very quickly. But I suspect it might slow down a bit with more players.

I also think that while the variety of what the nationalities do work on a few basic things, I like that they give variety or variability. And it isn’t just the nationalities, you can swap out chefs as well. That does give you a lot of replayability before you repeat something. Now, on the flip side, it doesn’t actually feel that different, but for a gateway game, it is accessible and variable.

Who Is It For?

Foodies is for, well, a foodie who is interested in gaming. Or it is a good one for someone who wants to get into board games. If I were to compare this to other games, Machi Koro, Valeria: Card Kingdoms and My Farm Shop, I think it’s the second least interactive. Now, that can be a good thing with gateway games. It means that the player learning only needs to think about what they are doing.

And comparing it to My Farm Shop, also not interactive, I think that Foodies is a little bit simpler. And for some people that will work better. Plus, the theme, which I don’t think is bad on My Farm Shop, the Foodies theme is going to be more appealing. Most people like going out to eat, so it hits an accessible theme.

My Final Thoughts on Foodies?

Foodies is a fun theme for a game. And I think that it is a game a lot of people are going to enjoy. But like a lot of games in the genre, I think for me, I want there to be more. Machi Koro gave me good combinations and building up and engine but the engine was generally similar each time. And that had more cards to it, Foodies is going to do the same thing the more I play it. In fact, I don’t think it’ll be sticking in my collection.

Now, that isn’t to say that Foodies is a bad game, I find it fine. I think I probably prefer Valeria: Card Kingdoms out of all the ones in the genre that I have played. And Dice Forge for a game where I collect stuff on your turn. But in that case you are rolling your own dice. Foodies is going to, however, be a very good gateway game about engine building, and one that anyone can play. That’s what is tempting me to keep it in my collection.

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

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Why Might Dice Be Bad?

Dice add randomness to a game, that in and of itself isn’t inherently a bad thing. But where hobby board gamers often run into an issue with dice is when you can’t mitigate them. Let me explain that a bit more. In Monopoly when you roll the dice you move whatever amount you rolled. It could be two places, it could be twelve spaces. If twelve spaces ends with you on someone else’s property, there is nothing you can do to stop that.

Now, dice mitigation would say something like, pay $50 to the bank and roll the dice again, you must use that next roll. Or it might be something like pay $100 to the bank and increase or decrease the value of one of your dice by one. There is a cost, but it gives you more control over the dice.

So, the most common thing for hobby gamers is that they don’t like that a die roll can determine everything. In Monopoly, a bad roll or two could bankrupt you without you having choice over that. In Catan the statistically more probable numbers might not get rolled as often, it’s just the luck of the dice.

But Are They Bad?

I don’t think that rolling dice in a game is a bad thing. I don’t even think that sometimes just rolling a die and that being your result is a bad thing. Would I still play Catan? Yes, even though I might roll a three every time and give you resources, I would play it.

But I get why some gamers don’t like it. I generally do not want to play a game where dice determine everything. Monopoly, what you roll determines how well you do. I’d play it, but it wouldn’t be a high choice. Mainly because the decisions outside of do you buy a property or not, there aren’t that many. And generally you buy the property.

Most often though, hobby gamers want to have more control over dice rolls and there are a lot of good examples of games like that. Dice are not going away from games. It is often more about fairness in how you use the dice.

Hobby Games Examples

Let’s talk about a few games that use dice differently. I want to explain how different games might do this. And I think there is a good variety of ways and they often give some really interesting choices.

Ganz Schon Clever

Ganz Schon Clever is a roll and write. Roll and write games often try and deal with the randomness by giving everyone the same randomness. If I roll something, we all fill that in on our board. Ganz Schon Clever gives even more control than that.

When you roll and pick a die to use in Ganz Schon Clever, every die with a lesser value gets set on a silver platter. Your opponents will pick one die from that platter. To go along with that, you do that three times. So if I pick a 4 the first time and put two dice on the platter and roll again, I have eliminated dice that I can use. So yes, the dice rolls are random, but I pick what options I leave open for myself and what I give to you.

Dice Throne

Dice Throne is a head to head die combat game where you upgrade your character and can manipulate the dice. The character that you are using, generally, has upgrade slots. Before you roll for attack, you can pay for upgrades that might give you a better attack or, might give you more die combinations that work to attack with. That is one way you can mitigate a really bad roll, make those rolls harder to happen.

But you also have cards that allow you to change die values or reroll dice. They all cost combat points, the upgrades and the cards to change die faces, so that is the cost you pay to get more control. And I like the variety of ways you can change dice. You might get to reroll dice up to two times. You might be able to change a die to a six, or match another die, or increase or decrease a value by one. So there is a lot of versatility.

Plus, in Dice Throne, some of those cards work on my dice only. But sometimes, I can change the value of one of your dice. So I get a little control over what you roll as well. It adds to the strategy of do I want to play defensively a ruin your plan, or do I want to save it for a big hit?

Dice Forge

Dice Forge gives you control over you dice in a completely different way than anything else I’ve mentioned. You actually customize your dice in Dice Forge. Everyone starts off with dice that are the same. You roll your dice every turn, even your opponents, and you can buy cards for points or dice face one your turn. That then allows you to customize your die rolling engine.

Now, there isn’t anything that you can do to change your roll. But you are the one who built your dice the way that they are. If you still have rolls that go poorly, it probably means you need to upgrade your dice more and focus less on cards. If every roll is good, now you flip your focus, or at least every roll is better, and start buying cards.

Mansions of Madness

Mansions of Madness is a fairly basic way to mitigate dice. When you are doing checks there are success, there are almost successes and there are misses. When you roll and get say a success, two almost successes, and a miss, you can spend clue tokens. That turns the partial successes into fully successes.

So Do You Avoid Dice?

I think that some players have a really strong aversion to dice. They see a die getting rolled and they think that they roll poorly so it isn’t a game for them. I guess that could beg the question if some people roll poorly or not. I don’t think that players actually do or it does even out in the end.

Yes, it might not feel like that when a roll and the end of the game causes you to fall just short. Or maybe it is Dice Throne and I get my ultimate and you can’t do anything about it. But dice aren’t bad for most gamers. And your rolls aren’t bad, no matter what it feels like.

The hobby gamer who should avoid dice are the gamers who want perfect information. What do I mean by that? Precisely what it sounds like, you know all that information. You know how everything will interact and there is little to no variability. It is about building your engine more efficiently than the other person. Or making the smarter moves in an abstract game. Chess is an example, you know all of your moves, you know all your opponents possible moves. If you need that, dice definitely aren’t for you.

Final Thoughts

This last bit is going to be more about what I like. Because I do like a little randomness in my games. I think that it can help keep the game fresh when it isn’t so much of a puzzle or a game where all the moves are available to see every turn. I like to react versus plan twelve steps ahead in a game.

So I like that I can save up in Dice Throne either to stop you from getting ultimate, if need be, or to shoot for one of my own. It makes for a more interesting decision making space for me. It is some of why I prefer Ascension to Dominion. With Dominion, yes shuffling is random, but it is more of a fixed puzzle in each game, versus Ascension which is more reactionary, like responding to a die roll.

That said, I am not going to go out of my way to find a random game. Something like Monopoly where you roll a die and then see what happens. That is not interesting to me. Like I said, I would probably play Monopoly if someone really wanted to, but I know I wouldn’t seek it out. So there is an element of control I want, but I don’t need that perfect control.

Oathsworn

I want to finish up by talking about Oathsworn to kind of demonstrate some of what I mean. In Oathsworn to make an attack or do a check you either roll dice, or draw cards. The cards give you the same randomness that the dice do. So if you roll dice you might get a 0, 1, or 2, let’s say. And the cards also have several 0’s, several 1’s and several 2’s. But the deck doesn’t reshuffle. So you can card count and either know that you’ve seen most of the 0’s so drawing cards and pushing luck that way is great. Or it might not have had any 0’s drawn so it’s cold.

To me that is a fascinating decision point of when you would push your luck with dice or with cards. The dice are always going to be more random. So on a fresh shuffle of cards, you might be able to get higher using the dice. But t here is also a better chance that you’ll bust and the check or attack will fail. It takes a push your luck mechanic and gives it so much more to be interested in the decision.

So to end on a question, do you like dice in games? And do you feel like you have good or bad luck rolling dice in games?

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But, like I said, the list is at the end, and I’m not sure how much I should stall before I get to the video and write-ups on the games. Streaming will continue next week, I’m not sure what I’m going to be streaming up until the new year. Probably some solo games and talking on some board gaming topics. But 8 PM Central will be when the streams continue, at least for now.

100 Through 91

90 Through 81

80 through 71

70 through 61

60 through 51

50 through 41

40 through 31

30 through 21

20 through 11

Top 100 Games 2021 Edition – 10 Through 1

10. Blood Rage

Higher on my list being as high as number two before, Blood Rage has slipped a little bit. The last time I played it, it was still a lot of fun, but didn’t land quite as well. Probably didn’t help with two new players and a four player game. I think I like Blood Rage best at 3, and I don’t mind it at two.

Still, I love Blood Rage because it has great action management, the area control is fun, but it’s the drafting that really makes the game. A different choice in drafting means that you score in a completely different way and have a different strategy. And, that might be some of it for me too, I just am used to drafting for a lower number of players, so I need to adjust my strategy, which is never a bad thing, when more emerges in how to play the game.

Buy on Miniature Market

9. Cartographers

The only roll and write in the Top 10, though, so many on the list, (stats coming later). But this one is my favorite for the theme, for the monsters, and for the scoring. It really does so many things in an interesting way. Cartographers is all about mapping out a section of a kingdom. You put in towns, fields, farms, rivers, and I feel like I’m blanking on one right now. But they all score differently and differently each game.

And the scoring is very good because you score four different things, but each of them only twice. So you build out your map to try and optimize that scoring depending on the season. So in spring you score something that isn’t then scored again until winter. It’s simple, but it’s clever, and then there are monsters. And monsters make Cartographers interactive. You put a monster on your opponents board in the least ideal spot to cost them as many points as you can.

Just that interaction is so different when it comes to a roll and write game. Most roll and writes can be played solo because what everyone else does doesn’t matter that much for you. With Cartographers, it doesn’t, completely, but that monster interaction is just fun to add into the game.

Buy on Thunderworks Games

8. Marvel Champions: The Card Game

Dropping slightly from last year, Marvel Champions has slipped just because I haven’t played it as much as I should. Marvel Champions is a life style game of battling your favorite Marvel heroes (X-Men eventually, hopefully coming), against your favorite villains.

I like that this is a deck construction game. I haven’t gotten too far into that, but it’s something that I miss from Magic: The Gathering. But for me, I think the game itself is more fun than Magic, Magic didn’t even make the Top 100, I don’t think, because I haven’t played it in so long.

The superhero/alter-ego thing also works so well for me. I like that I can play as Spider-Man and be flipped on the Peter Parker side and the bad guy won’t attack. Why, because Peter Parker, who is he? The villain just schemes away giving Peter a chance to recover. When you flip to Spider-Man, though, now the villain comes after you. But they scheme less, so it’s balancing the game in a very thematic way.

Buy on Miniature Market

7. Mansions of Madness: Second Edition

Another bigger game on the list, this one is all about exploring mysteries in an app driven game from Fantasy Flight games. Mansions of Madness delves into the world Arkham Files to deal with monsters, cultists, and Lovecraftian mysteries.

The app is great in this game, though, I know for some people that will be a turnoff. It means that everyone can be playing the same game, though, one person doesn’t need to run everything. The app keeps points of interest as mysteries as you unfold what happening in the mansion, town, or where ever you might be. And it means that they can introduce puzzles into the game in a great interactive manner.

It’s a fun game that has a lot of scenarios that you can play, and a lot of expansions that I’d like to own so that I can play any scenario out there. I like that it’s not campaign based but still gives me that immersive story feel that I get from some bigger campaign based games.

Buy on Miniature Market

6. Aeon’s End

Now, I already had Aeon’s End: Legacy on the list. To me, Legacy versions of games are different enough that they generally deserve their own spot. But as I play more don’t be surprised if Aeon’s End Legacy becomes lumped in with Aeon’s End and Pandemic Legacy becomes lumped in with Pandemic.

Aeon’s End is a deck building game where you are trying to drive back a nemesis from the town of Gravehold. Of course, that Nemesis isn’t going to be easy to beat as it attacks you, the town, and unleashes minions upon all of you as well.

The deck building aspect is a lot of fun. I don’t always love games with a fixed market, or at least competitive deck builders with that. It gives someone who can “solve” the buying puzzle the fastest an advantage. But in a cooperative game, that means that everyone can focus in on what they do best. And you need to, because, this is a hard game. If you haven’t played before I recommend starting with the easier version, Aeon’s End Legacy.

Buy on Miniature Market

5. Lords of Hellas

A big game from Awaken Realms this is my type of thematic, mechanical and just a little bit messy. Lords of Hellas has you in a Greek Cyberpunk Future, fighting mechanical monsters, building monuments and temples and taking over lands. There is a lot going on in this game, but also I don’t find it that hard to play. They do a good job with the actions, once you know what the actions are.

One thing I really love about the game is that you can win in multiple ways. If you control two of the large land groups, you win. Defeat three monsters, you win. Control five temples, you win. Or, if a monument is completely built, whomever controls it at the end of the third turn wins the game. So it has a nice variety of ways to win, and in a 5 player game, four of us were one turn from winning and the other person two.

Plus, Lords of Hellas has variable player powers, and that becomes even more variable as temples are built. You draft different powers and that can shape what you are doing. And what you are doing at the end of the game to win might not be the same thing at the start.

Buy on Amazon

4. Detective: A Modern Crime Game

Do you like Detective TV shows? This is it, but good. I know that’s not a selling point but Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game is an amazing deduction game. And the base box ties together a really interesting story.

Another game that uses technology which can’t be avoided. But it helps with the thematic immersion of the game as you look stuff up in the police database, or through a librarian to help hide information from people and spoiling the game. Plus, sometimes you get to look stuff up online because they tied in real world history to the main box of the game at least.

I like deduction and puzzles in games, and Detective, for me, does them the best. Something like the Unlock or escape room style games, those are fun to puzzle out, but Detective gives me the puzzles and the story. And the story is just interesting and brings it up that whole other level.

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3. Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon

Speaking of story, Tainted Grail has the best story of a board game that I’ve played. Detective is close, but Tainted Grail, I think, is better. It’s a game that immerses you in exploring different parts of the world of Avalon and the legends of King Arthur all will a grim dark fantasy twist to them.

It is very much a survival game to go along with the adventuring, but it works so well. Now, I do recommend playing on story more. While the survival aspect isn’t bad, it can really extend your game if you need to maintain the Menhir as much and if the monsters are a bit more deadly. And like I said to start with Tainted Grail, I want the story from this game.

The card play in the game is fun as well. And when you get into it, it goes pretty fast. At the start, it feels like it’s a break from the story that you don’t always want to have. But it’s still a good time and it makes the world and the choices you make feel bigger as you go through diplomatic and combat encounters.

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2. Dice Throne

Now for a different type of game, Dice Throne is much lighter, though not much smaller in terms of how much I have for it. In Dice Throne you are fighting either head to head or in a free for all against your opponents. And this is done by upgrading abilities, playing down statuses, and then rolling dice, like Yahtzee, to do as much damage as you can.

The game sounds simple, but with 16 different characters, they manage to make each one of them feel different. The Pyromancer deals out a lot of damage and wants to keep the fires of their fire mastery going. The Shadow Thief is stealing CP, the thing that allows you to play cards. The Gunslinger is going to fight a duel with you to see how much damage they take and can reload to deal even more damage.

I like this game at two, and I know some people don’t like it with more, but I do and I’ll gladly play king of the hill style with three or four people. The game adjusts y our health, so it doesn’t add that much time to the length of what you are doing. And soon I’ll have Marvel characters as well, which I’ll never complain about.

Buy on Roxley Games

1. Gloomhaven

Finally at Number 1 we have the number 1 board game on Board Game Geek and what has been my number one board game for several years. I have a tough time imagining Gloomhaven getting displaced, though, maybe it’s sequel Frosthaven will do that.

I just love everything about Gloomhaven, how big it is, how the combat works, the story (even though it’s not the best) and the different characters. It’s also that first massive campaign experience I’ve had. I did play Pandemic Legacy Season 1 before, but Gloomhaven is just a different animal.

Let’s talk a little bit about combat. I don’t love combat where I have to roll dice as the only thing that determines combat. The card play of picking two cards and then using a combination of the top of one and the bottom of another is just so interesting. And picking cards that won’t run through everything too fast and knock you out is important. Also picking cards that allow you to be flexible as you don’t know the order you’ll pay in.

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Top 100 Board Games

But that’s it, that’s the whole of the list of my Top 100 Board Games (of all time) 2021 Edition. Let me know your thoughts on it down below. What games to I have too high or too low? What is your favorite from my list?

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Pros

• Marvel
• Company Track Record
• Proven Game System
• Price

Cons

• Price
• Exclusives

The Page

Roxley has some of the best pages out there. That’s do the artwork of Manny Trembley. His artwork is just amazing and I want to call that out because he got to draw the Marvel characters. Now, I think that Marvel is somewhat free with who can do artwork as long as they approve it because we have chibi Marvel characters in the CMON games Marvel United and Marvel United: X-Men. But Manny’s artwork really makes the game pop.

They also do a good job of showing off everything in the game. They even do what I want everyone to do. The how to play section is at the top of the page. It’s not that hard other companies, let me know how the game plays, unless you have 200 minis and I’m just going to paint them and not care about the game, I want a good how to play section.

The timeline is one last thing I want to talk about for this game. It is an aggressive timeline that I’m quite confident on. Roxley just delivered on Radlands, a head to head card game. I did not back Radlands, but that wasn’t on Kickstarter that long ago. While this timeline is aggressive, I don’t think it’ll be off or at least that far off. This is a finish product, so it’s less about needing the money to develop the game, more about needing it to make the game.

The Game

The game itself is one of my favorite games, it hasn’t shown up on my Top 100 yet, but I’ll give you a spoiler, it will at some point in time. This uses the same system as Dice Throne, but it’s done with Marvel characters. So I think it’s less important for me to talk about the game and how it plays on this one. Dice Throne is a game that is in the market already, so you can get your hands on a two character pack now to see if you want to try it.

I’d actually recommend doing that. If Marvel Dice Thrones interests you, get your hands on one of those duel packs now. You have a chunk of time before this Kickstarter is done. So you’d be able to play the game and see if you like it. Because, while the characters are different, the game play is the same. If you don’t like the game play, having your favorite Marvel characters will likely not change it for you. I will say, if you don’t like the randomness of dice, this does have some mitigation but might be too random.

Back or Brick

Let’s get down to this really quick, this is a Back for me. But today I want to ask, should this be a back for you? Because I think that is more of a question. Like I said, you have a chance to test out this game pretty cheaply if you buy a duel pack. But let’s even talk about price.

The Kickstarter does, kind of, have a discount off of MSRP. However, there are a few things to think about, a lot of online retailers you won’t have to pay shipping when getting everything. At that point with the shipping added to the Kickstarter the value is less there. So it comes down to if you want the extras. And thus far, the extras are mainly that it’s in a single box and a metal Mjolnir. Now, they are revealing more so the value should increase, but will the big box be better backing now, that’s a question you’ll need to answer.

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