And if you want to know the criteria that I’m using, or the conversation starting point, you can read that article here.

Set Collection Games I Own

As normal, two lists one for set collection games that I own and have played another for set collection games that I own and haven’t played. Because that latter group is likely going to be kept completely.

Set Collection Games I Own and Have Played

• Ticket to Ride
• Ra
• Five Tribes: The Djinns of Naqala
• Sagrada
• Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition
• Flamecraft
• The Isle of Cats
• The Lord of the Rings
• Sushi Go Party
• Forest Shuffle
• Roll Player
• The Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-Earth
• Arboretum
• The Castles of Burgundy
• Calico
• No Thanks!
• Biblios
• Meadow
• Faraway
• Nidavellir
• Imhotep
• Canvas
• Century: Golem Edition
• Potion Explosion
• Yahtzee
• Aquatica
• Point Salad
• Creature Comforts
• Daftosaurus
• Let’s Go! To Japan
• Jump Drive
• Castle Combo
• Parade
• River of Gold
• Rock Hard: 1977
• Paper Dungeons: A Dungeon Scrawler Game
• Circus Flocati
• Archeos Society
• Ohanami
• River Valley Glassworks
• Comic Hunters
• SpellBook
• Floriferous
• Astra
• Ecosystem
• Call to Adventure: The Stormlight Archive
• Marrying Mr Darcy
• Stonespine Architects
• Quiddler
• Pixies
• The Isle of Cats Explore and Draw
• Via Magica
• Tesseract
• Charcuterie
• Butterfly
• Metrorunner
• Gasha
• Trinket Trove
• GAP
• Ramen! Ramen!
• Birds of a Feather: Western North America
• ICECOOL Wizards
• Chop! Chop!
• Featherlight

Set Collection Games I Own and Have Yet to Play

• Ark Nova
• Everdell
• Star Realms
• Tokaido
• Endless Winter: Paleoamericans
• Targi
• Clank Legacy
• Abyss
• Mosaic: A Story of Civilization
• The Vale of Eternity
• Distilled
• Wonderous Creatures
• Cockroach Poker
• Fireball Island: The Curse of Vul-Kar
• Tidal Blades: Heroes of the Reef
• Monumental
• Fantastic Factories
• Deep Regrets
• Eleven: Football Manager
• Trio
• QE
• Cities
• Blue Prints
• Silver 7 Gold
• Oak
• Spirits of the Forest
• Skulls of Sedlec
• Books of Time
• Isle of Trains: All Aboard
• Maple Valley
• Four Gardens
• Marvel: Remix
• Pokemon Splendor
• Santa’s Workshop
• Cascadia: Rolling Hills
• Fika
• Goblin Vaults
• Jurassic Parts
• Longboard
• Senshi
• Boomerang
• Paper Safari
• Zoo-Ography
• Isle of Night
• Properitea
• Sunrise at the Studio

What Set Collection Games Are Leaving

Firstly, the list is massive. I will not mention them all. In particular with the stuff that I have yet to play. I likely should get rid of some of those, but there are ton in there. And I should mention too, I removed some from the list because they aren’t really set collection or because I talked about them before.

Now that we know that the ones I haven’t played are staying, let’s see if there are any that are easy to say they are leaving. I suspect it is going to be tricky because so often set collection is a secondary mechanism in the game. You might score your points off of that, but it’s how you get the sets that is the interesting element of the game.

To highlight this element, we have Sushi Go Party! and Ecosytems. Both are drafting set collection games. But Ecosystems uses a tableau building element for it as well. So they both stay as they do different things.

Easy Leave

The first one leaving is ICECOOL Wizards. This is a fun game, but it’s just less fun than regular ICECOOl. So that one is easy to get rid of because I’d rather play regular ICECOOL.

Another one is going to be Circus Flohcati. The issue with some of these games leaving is more that while they are fun, I’m just less apt to play them. I like Circus Flohcati, it’s just not likely to get played.

Another one is Charcuterie. Again another game that is fairly fun, but it’s almost more hassle to teach the rules than it is to play the game. And the game is extremely light when you get down to it. So the scoring and rules don’t feel like they match up with the game.

Archeos Society is on the pile to leave as well. It is a game that I’ve played at two and I thought it was fairly boring at two. The whole question is when do you collect your set and give the other player access to more cards. And then which tracks do you go up on. But neither of those things are all that interesting as you play it.

Finally, Astra is leaving. It is one that I’ve played on BGA a few times now and it is always just okay. I think the concept is cool, you fill in stars, but the actual execution of the game is meh. It doesn’t feel like fun actions when you take them.

Easy Staying

A number fall into the category of easily staying. You can look at my Top 100 Games this year and last year to see some of the games that I love. But maybe some less obvious ones, Draftosaurus is just a fun game that I enjoy. And there are a lot more, Ohanami, Let’s Go! To Japan, Arobetum and a ton more that I don’t want to list them all. Though I know I should.

What About The Rest?

But let’s instead talk about some that are at the edge of this list. Mainly I want to talk about any set collection games that are similar in their other mechanisms. That is the area where I think I can find games to get rid of potentially. Because while I might enjoy them if they do the same thing, is there one that I want to play more than the others.

And honestly, that is something that I’m finding hard to keep track of right now. Mainly because there are so many differences in how the games play. The one that is probably the biggest maybe for me right now is SpellBook. And the reason that it is a maybe is that while there are a bunch of different sets of cards that you play with, the plays actually seem to be pretty similar as you go. I wish it felt like a more interesting variety in what you were doing. So I think it’s going to leave.

Two others are Biblios and Faraway. Faraway is because I don’t know when I’ll play it in person. I say that, but I like it two player, so I think that I can get it to the table. For Biblios it is more about I haven’t played it in a long time. I like the game quite well, but is that enough to keep it around. Mainly, is it a game I am apt to play again. So while Faraway is going to say, Biblios is going to leave.

Final Thoughts

With how long that list of games is, I was hoping it’d be fewer games to keep. But there is such variety. Some mechanisms are more similar in their games. And while set collection is just set collection, how you do it is very different a lot of the time. And for that reason it is easier to justify keeping a lot of them. How you collect a set is not all equal.

What is your favorite set collection game?

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Five Types of Board Games To Play With Non-Gamers

Now, I am going to skip a bit one, mainly because some of these will fall into that same category or they can. But cooperative games are always good. Often times people don’t like games because they played Monopoly and Risk as a kid and had bad experiences with that. So competitive games are kind of a trigger for a bad time, but turning it on it’s head and everyone working together is great.

Escape Room Games

Let’s start out with board games that are escape room or puzzle games. These are going to feel really unique to players. And this is a situation where the games are cooperative as well, so players are going to like it for that, potentially. But it is also going to feel not like a normal experience. A game like Micro Macro Crime City where you explore a map and spot a criminal or crime across a map in a “Where is Waldo?” style experience is going to be unique.

Or there are the Exit and Unlock games. These are going to give you more of the puzzle feeling that an escape room might be. And there are a lot of people who do escape rooms who might not board game. So it’s a good branch between an activity that some people might like and a board game. Or even things like Sudoku and Crosswords and Cryptograms that people do for a brain teaser activity daily will help them be interested in an escape room style of game.

Trick Taking Games

Next up for a type of board games is trick taking games. This one makes a lot of sense because even if people don’t play too many games, they often at least know Hearts from the computer. So trick taking games are a nice safe and soft entry into more board games.

Now it might seem like this isn’t really an entry point, but it is. It is because there are so many variations or board gamer type things done with trick taking games. Things like The Crew make it cooperative, so that is interesting. Or there is Schadenfreude where you want to come in second to score points, but you also don’t want to go over forty points. And Rebel Princess which is just hearts, but there are powers and rules change each round. So it is going to feel familiar but there are a lots of trick taking games that add in more.

Dexterity Games

Next up is Dexterity Games. These are great board games to use when you have a variety of ages and a variety of interest. Why, because they can become a funny good time or a really tense time, it’s up in the air, literally, depending on the game that you decide to play.

A game like Ice Cool or Pitchcar are going to be more on that funny good time as you either have Penguins who are skipping class to get a fish snack and trying to avoid the hall monitor as you flick them around. Or you are racing around a track in Pitchcar. Either way it’s lighter and more of the excitement comes from someone making a great shot.

Then you have a game like Menara. This is going to be a stacking game, but unlike others, say Jenga, where you are removing things and the person who knocks it over loses, this one you are building up the tower, kind of like Jenga, but it’s cooperative. So you want to complete a target objective before it gets knocked over. And that is going to provide that cooperative and dexterity that can make it easier to play.

Roll and Write Games

The next time of board games are roll and write games. Now, with this one be careful. There are roll and write games that are very complex. But there are a lot of easy ones as well. And you want to target those that are a step up from Yahtzee. That is why they are on the list. People know Yahtzee, so it is going to be familiar to them. And a roll and write will seem less intimidating.

I think that something like Ganz Schon Clever (That’s Pretty Clever) can be a great option. There is a bit to learn in scoring, but for the most part it’s a fast and easy teach. Or a game like Metro X where you fill in tracks, that could bed good. And Mind Space or Qwixx over simpler game play but with just that little bit more for it. There are a ton out there, so a lot of good options.

Drafting Games

Finally are drafting games. This, like Roll and Write Games, you need to think about a little bit. I don’t know that I’d jump straight into Seven Wonders. But there are great games out there like Sushi Go and Draftosaurus that work really well. And the themes help those games.

The reason I think these board games work well is that you all go at once. There isn’t that downtime. And you learn as you go, often times with these games. Often, I feel like, for a competitive game, you get the question, what’s a good strategy. Or, I don’t know what to do. Drafting games I often find you get the question, but the answer is pick something for the first card. And as options get fewer it is easier and becomes more reactive. So I say often times the first card doesn’t matter.

And because you play all at once it means that games are often shorter. A game of Draftosaurus, for example, is maybe twenty minutes if people are really slow. So it’s great to play once and then play again.

Final Thoughts

These are just some of the types of games. I think there are a lot of types of games that can work for people to try for a new game. One important thing, though, is to remember that not everyone is going to like every type of game. So try some things and see what works, and ask people why they maybe don’t like board games. And then if you want to try, try and find something that’ll avoid those things they don’t like.

What types of board games do you introduce to new prospective gamers?

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And for other ideas check out the previous lists.

Two Player Games
Campaign Games
Solo Games
Party Games

Welcoming Games

Bonsai

Bonsai is a pretty game about growing Bonsai trees. That’s a theme that is going to be a lot of fun for a lot of people and less “nerdy” which a lot of the games that are welcoming games try to be. That is, they are attempting to be less nerdy to be more welcoming.

In Bonsai you grow you tree by collecting pieces for your tree and then placing them out onto your tree. You pick either of those actions to do. Now it’s a bit trickier than that because as you play there are card abilities that let you hold more or place more tree pieces. Or you grab scoring cards to add to your end game scoring. There is a good amount going on, but it’s not too much because your actions are either take a card or add to your tree, meditate or cultivate as it calls them. And in the end you have an interesting looking bonsai tree.

Draftosaurus

The next fun theme for welcoming games is Draftosaurus, a dinosaur drafting game. In this game you build out your best dinosaur zoo for points, but you do that by drafting dinosaurs and placing them into different pens that will score in different ways.

On a turn the person who is in charge of the die, that passes each turn, rolls it and that determines where the dinosaur you pick has to go. Except for the person who rolled the die and can place it anywhere. Then you pick a little wooden dinosaur from your hand and add it to one of the pens. Some pens will give you points for pairs of dinosaurs, or maybe it wants all different dinosaurs or all the same. Each one is going to give you points in a unique but simple way.

Cafe Baras

Another welcoming game is new this year and it’s Cafe Baras. You are capybara baristas making your best coffee shop. There is cute artwork and some in jokes in this game about the different board games that the company has made. But it’s a nice easy game.

You either are adding more food and drink to your menu, which costs you money, or you are getting customers which gives you money. And you want to get the customers that give you the most points too, at the end of the game, because if you give the customer exactly what they want you can get a customer for life. Plus there are some other ones who will give you points at the end of the game if you have your menu built out in the way that they like it or your coffee shop set-up like they like it.

Cafe Baras is another game that really keeps it clean and simple and easy to play. And these first few have basically no reading to them which makes them quite language independent.

Castle Combo

Castle Combo is the first of our welcoming games that does have more reading to it. In this game you build out a three by three grid of point scoring fun. And all you do on your turn is buy a card and add it to your grid.

I love how easy this game is for being one that offers some good challenge. But each card tells you everything you need to know about it. First you know the cost of the card, how many coins it’ll cost you to buy it, then there is a bonus. The bonus might be getting you more money or keys. Or it might be a permanent discount on buying cards. And finally, there is the end game scoring, how you need to play it to get points. That is it.

Now, there is one last element, the element of the keys. The keys just allow you to change what you can buy. You either wipe all the cards in one row. Or you move where you can buy to the next row. The game is so simple, fast and friendly that it’s a good welcoming game experience.

Mountain Goats

Finally the lightest game on the list, Mountain Goats. This one is very simple to teach and play but also a lot of fun. Mountain Goats is a dice chucking game as you climb up a mountain to grab points.

The game has six different spots where your mountain goats climb. Each column has a different number and different points that match the number. You roll four dice and then you combine them to move mountain goats up towards the top of the mountain. When you get there, you get a point token. And you stay up there and can get more points if you roll that number or combine dice for that number again. But if someone else gets there it bumps you all the way to the bottom and you need to climb again.

That is all there is to the game. This one is again language independent and one that is going to be the easiest for younger kids to play as well. You just need to be able to think about the different combinations of numbers you make. Once a kid figures that out, it is easy to play.

Final Thoughts

You also can’t go wrong with the classics. Games like Catan, Carcassone, Ticket to Ride, and Small World are still great options. But I want to let you know there are new fun options as well out there. And this isn’t even a complete list, I know I could find a whole lot more.

Which of these games do you think a non-gamer or rarely gamer friend or family member would play out of the welcoming games?

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About This List

So how is this list made? I use the Pub Meeple ranking engine to create the list. This website creates your list by doing side by side comparisons. I explain how it works at the beginning of the video.

But basically if I compare “A” and “B” and I prefer “B” it puts them in the order “B”, “A”. Then if I compare “C” and “D” and prefer “C”, those go in the order “C”, “D”. Then I compare “B” to “C” to see which I prefer, if I prefer “C” then I compare “B” and “D”. So if I prefer “C” and then I prefer “D” it’ll give me a list of “C”, “D”, “B”, and “A”. I never need to compare “A” to anything after “B” because I know since I prefer “C” and “D” to “B” I like it better than “A” because I like “B” mor than “A”.

Also a small tweak this year. In my write-up, I’m going to write less about the games and give more bullet points to help remind you about what I talked about in the video.

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition – 100 through 91

100. Blank Slate

• Published by The Op Games in 2018
• Big Group Party Game

Blank Slate is a fun game where you are. filling in a blank on a card. It might be [blank] and then “Slate” you need to come up with a word. And you want to match with one person. That to me is the fun element of the game. You want to watch for points, but ideally with just one person to get more of them.

Buy Blank Slate.

99. Skytear Horde

• Published by Skytear Games in 2023
• Solo, Cooperative, and Competitive Tower Defense Lane Battler

Skytear Horde offers really good game play in the tower defense style of games. I find that it’s best as a solo game with one player playing as factions fighting against the waves of monsters attacking. But I like the puzzle in what you do to beat the bad guys. The feeling of being limited is an element of the game I enjoy, even though it means that it’s always a tough battle.

Buy Skytear Horde.

98. Marvel United

• Published by CMON Games in 2020
• Beat back the Villain through Card play and Cooperation

This one works well because you get to feel like a team of heroes. A lot of superhero games you might have them in the game, but rarely do you need to plan and work together. Marvel United, while being a very light game, gives you that cooperation and team-up feel you want from a super hero game. Plus it’s easy to swap in new heroes, villains and locations to set the game up and play again.

Buy Marvel United.

97. Tesseract

• Published by Smirk & Laughter/Dagger Games in 2023
• Save Humanity by Cooperating and Manipulating dice with Special Powers

Tesseract is a great puzzle of a game. You need to work together to get one die of each color set on each number before the whole cube crumbles away. And while I find that I’ve won more often than not, it’s always a rush to the finish. I love that about a cooperative game, I don’t want to win all the time, but if I feel like it’s close, that is what I’m looking for. Plus the toy factor on Tesseract is great, and that’s not something that can be overlooked.

Buy Tesseract.

96. Starship Captain

• Published by CGE in 2023
• Travel across Planets, Deal with Pirates and Complete Missions better than anyone else

This is a game that I need to get back to the table. It has been too long since I played Starship Captains. I remember it being a fun game that gave you a lot of options but also limited them as you went. And I really enjoyed the system where you get three workers and then go back into a queue. So when they come out, you are able to determine the order somewhat. Forward planning, but it isn’t going to happen too quickly.

Buy Starship Captain.

95. River Valley Glassworks

• Published by Allplay in 2024
• Put glass into the river to Collect more Glass and score them by Color

River Valley Glassworks is new this year, and I really enjoy the game. I especially like the simplicity and strategy in what you do. You need to figure out how to best collect glass to score points. Because the points are scores in both columns and rows. And if you do well, you can score in both, but maybe you focus on one area more than the others. It’s a fast and fun filler experience.

Preorder River Valley Glassworks.

94. Atlantis Rising

• Elf Creek Games in 2019
• Push Your Luck to Gather Resources and then Build a portal to save the people of Atlantis Before it sinks

Atlantis Rising is another one of those really good cooperative games. You need to work together to figure out where to place out your workers. And you want to figure out good ways to keep them alive because each round you flip cards and sink more of Atlantis. Can you race against the clock to build a portal to a new world and get off of Atlantis before it sinks?

Buy Atlantis Rising.

93. Draftosaurus

• Published by Ankama in 2019
• Collect Dinosaurs for your Park and Place them to Score you the Most Points

This is a light filler game of drafting dinosaurs, hence the name Draftosaurus. You all want to collect the best parks, and it’s a great little light filler of a game. I don’t know that I’ve ever played less than two games in a sitting because each game takes maybe 10-15 minutes. And the simplicity of play and fun of scoring is great.

Buy Draftosaurus.

92. The Night Cage

• Published by Smirk and Dagger/Laughter in 2021
• Fumble your way through a Labyrinth, Avoid Monsters, Find Keys, and Escape Together

This is a fun cooperative experience for the spooky season. The game says, what if you’re trapped in an every changing Labyrinth with only a little candle. Can you get out in time? Because the candle only lights up the squares around you. So grab a key, help others find a key, and avoid the wax eaters so you can escape.

Buy The Night Cage.

91. Deception: Murder in Hong Kong

• Published by Grey Fox Games in 2014
• One of you is a Murderer and the Investigators figure out the Clue and Murder Weapon from the Forensic Scientists Reports

Deception: Murder in Hong Kong is the only social deduction game I have on my list. Mainly because it is also a deduction game as the Forensic Scientist is sending up reports. The investigators needs to figure out how those connect to one players murder weapons and clues. And then which murder weapon and clue were used. It’s a great game of talking and accusing and fun.

Buy Deception: Murder in Hong Kong.

Final Thoughts on Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition 100 through 91

A lot of lighter games in this section and a number of cooperative games. Some that even surprised me that they’d fallen this far. I think Deception: Murder in Hong Kong was Top 40 or so last year. But it’s one that I enjoy every time we play it. I probably just need to play it more for it to move back up. Other games have moved down or up as well. And I find that part of the fun of doing a list every year. My tastes in games are always changing, and I like this as a way to track the changes.

Just a reminder, join me next week on Malts and Meeples for the next 10 on the list. The plan is to go live around 9 PM Central time and it’ll be 90 through 81. The best way to know when I go live is subscribe and click that notification bell. That’ll let you know for sure when it’ll be happening.

What is your favorite game from the list and what is one that you want to try?

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Top 5 Games More People Should Play

I’m not going to speculate as to why these games are overlooked, though it might come out in why I think it’s worth playing. But I want to tell you why you should give the games a try as that’s more exciting.

5. Draftosaurus

Draftosaurus is a really fun drafting filler game where you are drafting dinosaur meeples which should be enough to get people playing just with that. But the game offers a really fast play time and a set collection, almost roll and write sort of feel to it. It’s one of those games that is easy to sit down and teach almost any group. And with a theme of filling up your dinosaur park, it works really well for that.

4. Letter Jam

For Letter Jam, I need to say, I think it’s less popular because it’s a word game. People see that, and for a lot of people that’s a turnoff. But it’s not like other word games. Which sounds like the pitch for a word game that is like others, but in this case it isn’t.

Letter Jam is a game where you are trying to figure out and unscramble the letters in your word. You can’t see them, and you don’t know what order they are in. But neither does anyone else. The twist, besides that big one, is that it’s cooperative. So no one person is going to be messed over, you need everyone to do well on getting their letters and word

The clue system is good as well. You pass out tokens to make words with the letters you see. But I don’t see my letter, so from what I see of everyone else’s letters is it enough for me to narrow down what mine might be?

3. Paper Dungeons

This game is one of my favorite roll and writes. You can watch me play through the whole campaign over on the Malts and Meeples YouTube channel, or the video below. But t his is a bigger and more complex roll and write game. Which I love for the game, why, because it does add in more complexity but it’s not too complex. And it works well with the theme. You need to balance your parties health with exploring in the dungeon and fighting monsters.

Plus there is a fun crafting system, a potion system and a character leveling system. All of those things sound like an RPG but not the dungeon scrawler part as the game likes to call it. So you have a map you go through as well and face off against monsters and fight boss monsters for glory and points. It just works well as a fun bigger but not too complex roll and write experience.

2. Hanamikoji

I talk about this one a lot. And whatever it is that makes it not show up on every list ever, I don’t know, but I love the game. In Hanamikoji you try and win the favor of Geisha by giving them gifts. If you play the majority of gifts of a Geisha on your side in a round, that’s how you win the favor. But the action system and win conditions are the best part of the game.

The action system is really simple. In the game you play four actions per round going back and forth with your opponent. You either split four cards into two groups and your opponent chooses which one they want. You give them the choice of three cards and they pick one. Or you discard two cards or keep one card. That’s it, super simple. But how can you make those tough decisions and make your opponent choose that works so well for this small game with a ton of decision space.

1. Floriferous

Finally another game that I talk about all the time. Floriferous is amazing. This is a flower drafting game with beautiful artwork. Which is one element that I love about the game, but also one that I suspect will keep some gamers or people from trying the game. But it’s so worth playing.

Floriferous is a drafting game. But how the drafting works for turn order is so much fun. So you randomly get placed out in rows of the first column to start the game. Depending on who is in the top row they go first to pick from that first column. But as you pick, the order in which you go will shift, because it’s always the pawn in the first row.

So the picking offers two interesting choices. Firstly, do I take a less ideal card to be able to get the card that is perfect for me next column? Or do I risk it that it won’t be snatched out from under me. And the other element with drafting is that you draft the scoring as well. So I might pass completely on a flower because I need to get some scoring. But scoring is always at the bottom of the row so you’ll be drafting last next time.

Which Will You Play?

Which of the games sounds the most interesting to you. I have more that I could put on the list, Ecosystem is a great drafting game that more people should play. It’s simple but fun. And I thought about Mesozooic, but I think the sliding puzzle element is going to be a reason it won’t and hasn’t worked for some people.

But from the list I put out which sounds the most intriguing? None of these games are super expensive or big. So is there one that you want to pick-up and give a try. I’ll even say, because they are overlooked, I think that they go on sale somewhat often which might make it more tempting.

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

100 through 91

90 through 81

80 through 71

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition – 70 through 61

70. Medium

I suspect that I am reaching the end of where I have placed party games. But there are a lot of good party games on the list up to this point, and Medium is one of my favorites. Medium is a simple word but it offers some good laughs, it offers chances to feel clever, and it’s an easy one for everyone to play.

In Medium you and your partner, for that turn, each play out a card with a word on it. And then, at the same time you try and come up with a word that connects the two. So if the words were “duck” and “goose” options like “bird” or “fowl” would make sense. If you don’t match the first time, then you try again with the new words that you said. And the faster you match, if you do at all, the more points that you get. You get three rounds to match.

This is a game where when it isn’t your turn, 75% of the time you immediately have the “perfect” word pop into your head. As soon as it is your turn, you’re hoping that if you play down “goose” your partner for the round doesn’t play down “taco” and when they do, your mind goes blank. It’s as fun to play in a round as to watch.

Buy Medium

69. Under Falling Skies

Under Falling Skies is the first of a few games that can be played solo and the only true solo game on the list. I think I said two, but it’s the one true solo. Under Falling Skies is a combination of Space Invaders with alien ships coming down and Independence Day of trying to take out the other mothership. All of this before the mothership comes to Earth and it is too late.

I like how simple this game is, but also how complex it is. What you try and do each turn is pretty simple. You are placing dice to slow down an enemies ships descent, gather more power, blow ships out of the sky, build out your bunkers, and research how to stop the mother ship. That is a lot, but it is all just dice placement. You place dice down and that determines how strong your plane is to blow up alien ships. Or you place a die down to add power so you can actually send out that ship.

But the game has a great twist on it. You want high numbers to make your actions better, but by doing so it makes the enemy ships come down faster. If the little ships reach Earth, then the mothership starts to come down faster, I believe. Or it is getting another end game trigger. So you need to be strategic in what you are doing, like a good cooperative game, to fend off your impending doom.

Buy Under Falling Skies

68. Blank Slate

Another party game for the list, Blank Slate is a newer one to me, though was on the list last year, and one that just always works. A good party game should always work, and it should be simple to sit down and start playing within a couple of minutes.

In Blank Slate you are filling in a blank around another word. It might be “truck [blank]” and you need to fill in that second word. Your goal is to match with one other person. Because, if you watch with one other person only, you get three points each, but if you match with more, each of you get one point. And if you don’t match with anyone, you don’t get any points. And that is the game, it’s the first to twenty I believe, and it moves fast.

So it is about being creative but not too creative. I like party games like that because, like I said, anyone can play them. And Blank Slate might not have as many “haha” moments, but it has some fun game moments that party games which are just there for laughs often don’t have.

Buy Blank Slate

67. The Quacks of Quedlinburg

Now we’re on to The Quacks of Quedlinburg, a push your luck bag building game. And this is one that has a number of things going for it as well. It’s not a party game, but it’s pretty simple. With it being pretty simple, brew your quack potion each round and try not to bust, there is strategy to it. Each ingredient that you get has a power to it that may or may not trigger depending on its condition.

So, the powers are one fun element. I also like that Quacks of Quedlinburg adds in more to the game to balance that push your luck. If you bust, you aren’t out in the cold with nothing to show for it. You get to pick either purchasing new ingredients or scoring points. New ingredients means that it’s harder to bust, theoretically, depends on how much you push your luck. But you get behind in points you need to catch up.

And I didn’t mention this on the video, but there is a catch-up mechanism in the game. The further you are behind the leader the more of a boost you get to start the next round of brewing your potion. It isn’t a massive catch-up mechanism, but it helps you get back into the game, and when you do, it goes away. A nice little piece to the game to make it more fun.

Buy Quacks of Quedlinburg

66. Pandemic Legacy Season One (and all Version)

Now the first game that is just a group of games, this is Pandemic. I put Pandemic Legacy Season One up as the picture because that’s been my favorite experience. If you’re not familiar with Pandemic, it’s a game about trying to control diseases until you can find a cure. If you can get the cure for all four diseases the players win, run out of cards, have too many epidemics, or run out of disease cubes, you lose.

The legacy version adds in some story and a campaign that you play through. That story adds just a enough new things from new objectives to new rules and components to make it a really fun time. Though, I don’t know that you can really go wrong with any version of Pandemic. The base game is a lot of fun as well, for me, I don’t know that I need to play vanilla Pandemic again because of Pandemic Legacy. And Pandemic Legacy, the story, is replayable with a new copy and as fun the next time.

Plus now they have World of Warcraft game in the system and a Star Wars version, so if they keep on doing that, soon there will be a version of Pandemic for everyone.

Buy Pandemic Legacy Season One

65. Skytear Horde

This is the other game that I accidentally called a solo game. And I do think I would lean towards playing it solo. Skytear Horde is a tower defense, lane battler game where you are trying to take out the horde and their leader before they can wipe out your base.

I really like the different factions you can have to play as. I also like that the hordes come in different power levels so I might go for a harder challenge or a harder combination sometime. So the game really does scale to the level of difficulty that you want to play at. And it also means that it won’t get stale.

For me, I do think it’s a better solo game. I look at it, and I want to control what is going on. Because while it does scale, the game is not that difficult to learn your faction and play them. Even playing two isn’t the hardest thing out there. So I look at it, and I think, might as well just play it solo and have more of the decision making on my shoulders versus spread out across the group.

Buy Skytear Horde

64. Marvel United

Marvel United is a really fast and fun superhero game. And that combination is what puts it this high on the list. You can grab a character to play as and a bad guy to play against and be ready to play in a few minutes. There aren’t that many games that you can do that with. Add in that I have about 200 different characters, slightly over, between heroes, anti-heroes, and villains to pick from, that is even more impressive.

The game play is quite simple. You try and beat up thugs, take down henchmen or schemes, and rescue bystanders. When you complete two of those three things, you can start beating up the bad guy. Of course, who the bad guy is might change up what you need to do, and the heroes you take in change up what you can do.

I also like a lot how the heroes work. Not that the heroes are always that unique, they get more unique with the X-Men expansion, but how they promote teamwork. What you play down for your actions is boosted by what the player before you played down. So maybe they take a less optimal turn to set you up for a great turn of beating down on the bad guy. I think that works super well in the game and is a ton of fun. It also feels so much like being super heroes or the comics which is great.

Buy Marvel United X-Men

63. Lords of Hellas

From a very simple game to a complex one and honestly one that is a bit messy. But that is some of what makes Lords of Hellas so good. In Lords of Hellas you can win in four different ways (possibly five if I’m forgetting one). You can control a certain number of temples, areas, or a statue after it’s been built, or you can defeat three monsters. And all of them are viable ways to win. But because of that, it adds complexity to the game design.

Then, not shying away from that, Awaken Realms put in a pretty simple but action selection. Mainly, you can’t repeat actions and need to clear them off to be able to do them again. But to add to that, the character you start as, your leader, has a special power. As temples are built, drafts are done for new and more special powers. It’s just a lot of special powers and great time, but, obviously, that makes it more complex as you play. But that doesn’t keep the game from being a blast.

Sold Out

62. SpellBook

A new game to the list, we now are back to a much more simple game. This is a game about set collecting spell ingredients to learn spells and add them to your spellbook. Then you use those spells to improve your future turns and either get more materials to feed your familiar or learn more spells.

This game has a good progression and good decision space for a pretty simple game. How you learn spells and chain them together is an interesting puzzle. You can only learn each spell once and they have certain points on them. So do you wait for better points, or do you grab one or two early that will help you do better on spells later. And the game ends when someone has cast all their spells, or when someone has fully fed their familiar. And both options work to win, which I appreciate as well.

This is a game that won’t be for everyone. And I think if it just had one set of spell cards, it’d end up being pretty standard. But the different combinations offer room for expansion but also offer room in the base box for different games and different experiences as you play.

Buy SpellBook

61. Draftosaurus

Finally we have Draftosaurus. This is the closest to a roll and write game on the list. That is what it feels like to me. And it’s a light and fast game that is just a fun time. In this game you are drafting dinosaur meeples and putting them into pens to build the best dinosaur attraction out there. The game is super simple with pens having simple scoring rules. But that is what makes the game fun, grab your dinosaur and go.

And the pens are all different. So some of them you want to get all matching dinosaurs, some you want all different and some you want pairs. The not so twisty twist for the game is that you are limited to where you can place them. A die is rolled and what determines where, unless you were the person to roll the die and then you can play anywhere. It just adds a little bit of strategy and random structure to the game without slowing it down. So a light fun, filler of a game.

Buy Draftosaurus

Upcoming Streams

Let’s run through the stream structure like I normally do. You might already know the schedule but in case you don’t. Wednesday at 8 PM Central I stream either a campaign game, or with this time of year it’s my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition. And join me next Wednesday for games 60 through 51, so hitting the half way point. It goes so fast, and now I have so many games that I want to play.

Then on Monday I stream at 9 PM Central time. It’s generally a solo game. Though I’ll also do pack openings for things, like I should have a Lord of the Rings Collectors box coming for the new cards. But normally it’s a solo game and a one off for the game like a roll and write, or sometimes a game like Under Falling Skies which was on the list today.

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

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100 through 91 here.

90 through 81 here.

80 through 71 here.

70 through 61 here.

Top 100 Games 2022 Edition – 60-51

60. Long Shot: The Dice Game

First of two roll and write games on the list, Long Shot: The Dice Game is a horse racing and betting game. It reminds me of Downforce, expect a roll and write. In this game you are buying horses, betting on horses, and completing other things which will get you money at the end of the game. The person who wins the most money, or has the most money, at the end of the game is the winner.

One aspect that I really like is how you can improve the odds of a horse moving forward. The lower number horses are on more cards so that they can move. But if people start to get behind a long shot, you can add movement to other horses cards for that long shot. So they start moving more consistently than other horses and have a shot. Mechanically, though, not the easiest to teach which keeps it lower on the list.

Buy on Barnes & Noble

59. Trek 12: Himalaya

The other roll and write comes up immediately, and one of the other new games on the list, Trek 12 is a mountain climbing roll and write. But really, it is a game of creating runs and sets to score points. It scores in a really clever way and has you placing numbers in a clever way as well.

The scoring is pretty simple, you score each set of a number and each run you have. But you take the highest number in the run or number in a set and that’s your base score. So a set of five twos scores as 2 (the number in the set) + 1 + 1+ 1 + 1. That’s not nearly as many points as a set of three with 9 (9+1+1). So it makes you want the higher numbers. But you also get a bonus for your largest set or longest run.

Then placing the numbers is interesting. You either take the highest or lowest value on the dice, or the difference, combined total, or multiplied total. And you have a limited number of each so you start to lose options as you go. It allows you to get numbers you want and higher numbers, but sometimes that locks you out from other things.

Buy on Miniature Market

58. The Night Cage

I’m doing the list in October, so have to call out the spooky games on the list. The Night Cage is a game where you are stuck in a labyrinth. Everyone in there is trying to find keys and get to the exit portal. But your candle just barely lights your way, so the labyrinth disappears behind you. And if you go back, it’s going to be different than before.

All of this which isn’t too hard, but then you have monsters who might pop up and want to eat the wax of your candle. If they do, not you can’t see around you at all. Or maybe it’ll it get more than just you. And as you use tiles your supply, represented by a candle, slowly burns down. It’s a very fun and stressful game as the candle burns down. But in a good way.

Buy on Miniature Market

57. Meadow

Another new game to the list, Meadow is a game about observing nature. You are in a meadow or building up a meadow or observation. The theme really doesn’t matter that much. But the artwork takes what could be an abstract only game and makes it very pretty to look at.

In Meadow you build up a tableau in front of you. As you play down cards you cover up some symbols, so I need to match a tree to a tree, but my card that needs a tree now has a bird symbol on it. And you create this growing series of symbols that give you more points as you go. Also trying to take scenic pictures to remember where you’ve been. Basically everything gives you points but it’s fun to manage your tableau.

Buy on Cool Stuff Inc

56. Galaxy Trucker

Galaxy Trucker has been on the list for a while. It is a real time game, for part of it. And it’s a real time game without a timer. I never feel the time crunch because you flip tiles and build your ship. Only for the final person who is trying to get that last piece is there a time crunch. Otherwise the building is just done in real time as long as the group takes.

Then you fly off into space with your junky ship and watch it fall apart. But if you built it well you get points for picking up cargo. And you don’t lose parts of your ship to meteors, pirates, or anything else. It’s a lighter fun game, but it does give you that good real time puzzle as you build your ship.

Buy on Cool Stuff Inc

55. Pandemic

Pandemic is on the list as a placeholder for all of the Pandemic games. I personally prefer Season One of Pandemic Legacy, which keeps it higher on the list. I haven’t played Season Zero yet, which I want to. But all Pandemic falls into this one, because all version of legacy I’ve played and base pandemic are fun.

Pandemic is a game where you play as doctors cooperative trying to keep diseases in check and find a cure for them. On your turn you move around the world, trade information with other players, and remove disease cubes from cities. Then bad things happen, diseases spread and outbreaks might happen. It’s a good puzzle of a game. The legacy versions of the game just add great story, and I’d play them again gladly even though I know that story.

Buy on Miniature Market

54. Blood Rage

Pandemic, which I didn’t mention, was high on my list when I started and dropping. The same with Blood Rage which was one of my top games. I clearly like it less than I did before. But I’ve also played more games that I did before. Blood Rage is a fun drafting and area control game. It looks like it should just be Vikings and monsters on a map fighting but there is more going on.

What lowered it slightly is some experiences can feel similar. And some strategies even seem to be better that don’t lean into fighting. But it is fun to think about how to break up those strategies. Such as the Loki strategy where that person wants to lose fights and send everyone Valhalla. Or when to hate draft a card and block someone from getting a quest that they are setup for. There is a good amount going on, but not too much in this game.

Buy on Amazon

53. Root

Root also has dropped some from it’s highest. But Root tends to bounce around a bit more. Mainly it’s how excited I would be to play it again. And that’s because Root is a game that is hard to get to the table. There is a lot to learn in Root because each faction is different. And you need to know each faction to keep them in check during a game.

Root is basically an asymmetric war game. One faction is all about area control, another might be about completing little objectives or a grass roots uprising. All of this with cute animal artwork on it. The game is a lot of fun and is big in what it can do. One that I want to play more but you need a dedicated group to play it really that know the factions.

Buy on Cool Stuff Inc

52. Draftosaurus

This isn’t a roll and write game, but it does feel like one. Draftosaurus is a drafting game where you are putting dinosaurs in pens. And you have a handful of dinosaur meeples to pick one from. The game is really easy, light, and fun to play. It just works for the type of game that it is.

What really stands out, though is the tactile nature of holding the dinosaurs and then picking one. Like I said, how you score, it reminds me of a roll and write. But holding and drafting from those dinosaurs is unique to the game. And the closest thing you get in most roll and write games is rolling the dice.

Buy on Game Nerdz

51. Homebrewers

Finally, to round out the bottom half of my Top 100 Games, we have Homebrewers. Homebrewers is an engine building game where you are a homebrewer brewing your beer at home. You get different ingredients, flavors, to add to your beers that push you up on tracks. All in a goal to be the highest and score points at Summer Fest and OktoberFest.

I really like this one for the theme. Yes, there are a few things that are a disconnect in the game. That you never lose an ingredient that you’ve added to the beer. But it gets so many things right about homebrewing, it’s great.

Buy on Amazon

Upcoming Stream

So what is coming up next. I do plan on Wednesdays soon to start playing Chronicles of Drunagor. However, I am not quite ready to get that one to the table this week. Instead, it’ll be a smaller solo game. I have a few roll and write games that interest me, or maybe it’ll be Root on the app or Slay the Spire. You’ll have to tune in Wednesday at 8 PM Central to find out.

And then coming up next Monday, I have 50 through 41 in my Top 100 coming up. You can click the notification bell to know when I’m going live on the video over here.

Plus, I might have a surprise unboxing this weekend. I believe I have two different games coming in on Thursday and Friday this week. So maybe, if I have time, I’ll unbox them. Or it’ll be a bonus Monday video, we’ll have to see.

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Games Played at Gen Con 2022

Lost Ruins of Arnak

There are a few games that I have had on my shelf where I need to play my copy. Lost Ruins of Arnak from CGE was one of those games. And I got to play two games of it at Gen Con, including one full game. Needless to say, and if you saw the video, I liked it. It is a good game with interesting worker placement, light deck building and a great theme. I was worried that it might be more worker placement than I want, and while everything is mechanical, the theme makes it fun.

Ready Set Bet

This is one that is new, not even out yet. Ready Set Bet is a real time horse racing and betting game. One person is the caller who rolls the dice and shouts out horses as they move forward. The other players, in real time, are putting down bets on horses and trying to make the most money. You can rotate who the caller is, but the game goes so fast, and it is a fun role, that when I played it one person called.

This is a great con game. Everyone is around the table getting excited and shouting or getting into it. And you almost need to stand around the table so you can toss in your bids. It’s clever and fun and plays fast. And I could see getting this one and playing it a few times in an evening and having a great time.

Jekyll vs Hyde

This one I played twice as well. Jekyll vs Hyde is a trick taking game but with a twist or two. Firstly, it’s two player with one person being Jekyll and the other Hyde. The person who is Jekyll wants to keep the number of tricks as even as possible. Win too many or lose too many and Hyde advances on the board to the monster side. The Hyde player wants to get that difference up to get across the board. It is a fun idea and feels different, plus who top suit is determined for a trick is interesting as well. Not a two player trick taking game I need, but one I’d gladly play.

First Rat

First Rat has a silly but great theme. The moon is obviously made of cheese and you are rats trying to build a rocket to get to the moon. It is an interesting game where you are pushing your rat meeples up a track. You can push one up fast, unlock more rats or you can go slower and try and combo getting resources to build your rocket.

What you do on your turn is simple. You move one rat up to 5 spaces, or two rats up to 3 spaces as long as they end on the same color. But just that is a great puzzle. Plus how you pick what you do and what you’re going for works really well. It is a game that I wouldn’t have tried if it weren’t for Gen Con.

Draftosaurus

A game I already know I love and I own everything for. This was later one of the days at the con. I wanted to play a game but most of the bigger ones were either shut down as they take too long or already in the swing of things. Draftosaurus was easy to just sit down and play. The game is so light, but still it’s a lot of fun to play.

NFL Five

One that I demoed and came home with because if you demoed you got a demo copy. This is basically a way to sell packs of football cards, and specific ones, for the game. I describe it was rock paper scissors but instead of there being a tie option, you just need to watch. So it’s a guessing game that you can mess around with a little bit. It’s very light and just fine, but it was free and it was open for demoing so why not give it a shot.

Catapult Feud

Another one I own, this was me wanting to set down my bag after I bought Burncycle. Catapult Feud is fun, it’s fun building the castles and launching balls to try and knock it over. The game is barely there, but the toy factor is so high, who even cares.

Fit to Print

This is one that I believe was on my too demo list. Fit to Print is about making your best front page for a newspaper and scoring points based off of that. It was fun, and interesting because of the real time aspect to it. You start out picking out tiles which are articles, pictures, and ads for your paper. Then when you’re ready you try and set-up your layout as fast as possible to score the most points.

The game is simple and fun, and the real time element that didn’t bother me. I think because the feeling wasn’t intense. I had three minutes to do everything. But I never felt like there is too much time pressure on it. Nor is it like Fuse where it is always counting down. It’s fast moving and light fun, but the real time doesn’t add stress.

Spicy

Spicy was a bit of a miss for me. This is a bluffing game where you put down cards of different spices and they need to go up in numerical order, though you can skip numbers, but always ascending. You need to call out when someone lays down a bluff. Playing with masks makes the game trickier. And at three it was just okay. For me, the concept of the game and what it pulled off was less interesting than a bluffing game like Skull.

Galaxy Trucker

Here’s another game with a real time element that I like. I wanted to demo the new version of it, which I did. And I don’t really feel the need to upgrade my copy. Nothing seemed to have changed too much, so might as well keep what I have. I enjoy Galaxy Trucker because again it’s a real time game or a game with real time elements, but one that doesn’t take itself too seriously. And then if you are lucky, you can build up your ship so it won’t blow up, if you are lucky.

Let’s Dig for Treasure

A push your luck game. This one is very simple, you pull cards until either an evil skeleton gets you or pull up two worm cards. But you can bank your points whenever you want. The artwork on the game is fun, and as the person who demoed it said, it’s a restaurant or bar game. One that’s small enough you can take it along and pull out and play easily. Not much thought or strategy to it, but it works well enough.

FYFE

This is a random game that I got to try because the table was open. It reminds me a bit of Village Green and Calico. You are putting down discs to complete different scoring objectives in rows and columns. But you need to think about rows and columns so that you can score as many things as possible. It gets tricky as you start to have limited options to fill in and now which thing do you think it’s more likely to be able to get and score. Not one I needed to add to my collection but not a bad game.

Knights of the Hound Table

This is a small game that I was tempted to pick up. Knights of the Hound Table is a head to head battler. You put down one hound as an attacker, one as your defender, and one for their power. Then you compare, take damage and buy cards to improve your deck of hounds. The artwork is cute on the game, the game play with picking which power to use is interesting. Better for a small box head to head game than I expected.

Village Rails

I mentioned Village Green, Village Rails is from the same company and it shows. You are making rail routes to score points. Keeping track of where the tracks are going is trickier than what is in Village Green. But you don’t have the column and row scoring in Village Rails. So it is slightly easier, I’d say, and just as fun. Plus the artwork on the cards is amazing and the game itself felt pretty relaxing. A small box game I’d want to add to my collection.

Coatl

Not a new game but Coatl is about building out your best Coatl to score points. The game play is fine, it is basically collect pieces then build out your Coatl. I wish that the game would move slightly faster than it does because of how light it is. The toy factor is fun, but that is not enough for me to really recommend this game. It is more going to be one of those fine gaming experience that I’d play again but wouldn’t seek out.

Flamecraft

Flamecraft was only there for demo, I was kind of hoping it’d be there for sale. But Flamecraft is a worker placement game with dragons. You are trying to collect resources to improve shops and end up with the favor in the end. How you play is simple, you either go to a place and collect resources or to fulfill a contract. What makes this game is the artwork. I wish I had backed it for that, and now that I’ve played it, at least a few rounds, I suspect I’ll add it because of how cute it is.

Starship Captains

A new game from CGE, I snuck my way into a game the first day. And I got to play the full game which is nice. It is an action selection game where you build up a little bit of an engine, fly around, and try and complete contracts and defeat space pirates. The game moves quite fast, I would say too fast, though that’s probably a good sign that it leaves you wanting to do more and to try again to do even more.

Meadow

Meadow is one that I knew I wanted to see because it’s pretty. But looking at it and watching the GloryHoundd play of it, I thought it likely wasn’t for me. You can watch their video below. But the game itself was fun to sit down and try. I’m still torn on it because it’s a very thinky and pretty game. I am worried that AP would set in too much if I picked it up. I even found myself having to think through what I was doing for a bit. It’s one I’d love to try again though.

Asking for Trobils

Another one that was played on the GloryHoundd Youtube channel. You can see that play below. A worker placement game that is very light but a good amount of fun. You are basically building up traps and things to get Trobils which are worth points. Two players was fine with the game, I feel like it’d do a bit better with more and with a tighter board where you bounce each other more.

Twilight Inscription

One of the big games I wanted to try out at Gen Con. This is a 2 hour roll and write game based in the world of Twilight Imperium. It delivers on what it promises. And I don’t think that the game is too difficult to follow. There is just a lot later in the game when you get a ton of resources to spend and figuring out how to do that in the most efficient way.

The game comes with four boards. So you activate one board each time, whether combat or exploration, or whatever else they might be. And you do need to do a bit of everything, but you can really focus in on how you want to score your points. A fun game that I want to add to my collection.

Dwellings of Eldervale

Another game that I own but I hadn’t played. Sitting down at Gen Con is a great way to learn a game that you don’t know or you want to know more about. Dwellings of Eldervale was a lot of fun to mess around with. The core game play is fun for it and I like that this is a worker placement game but it feels so much bigger than that. You can do a ton of big things and just have fun with it. And there is no trading in the Mediterranean.

Oathsworn: Into the Deep Woods

And yet another game that I own. Oathsworn just came in before I left for Gen Con. I was almost tempted to move it to the top of the queue but Stars of Akarios First. We didn’t do the city and story part of the game. I say city, it could be different map locations where the story is happening. But we got into the combat and that was fun.

What I really like is how you can push your luck. You can draw cards for hits and you can pick how many to draw. You can roll dice and pick how many to roll. The more you roll of the white dice the more damage you can do. But at the same time the closer you are to busting.

Hero Realms

Hero Realms is one that I played day one and bought day two. And I even got crushed when I played it. But I really enjoyed the lighter deck building of the game. And I thought that it worked well for what it is. Plus it’s a two player game and battler game that is easy to learn. And the deck building combos are not hard to understand. I picked up the cooperative expansion as well which will be fun to mess around with.

Batman: Everybody Lies

I actually got this to the table last night again. But I did a prologue for it at Gen Con at an event. I’ve written and talked about it twice before. See my Highlights here for more information. But this is basically the Detective system with Batman theme from Portal Games.

The biggest change to it is adding in hidden personal goals. It means you might advocate for something for your character that you might not otherwise think about. Or that you might suspect is a red herring because it’ll answer a question for your character. It still is not competitive and the main focus is on the main case. But because of that personal goal it makes it different to play via Zoom like I did last night.

Long Shot – The Dice Game

I almost forgot that this was at Gen Con. But I’m glad I didn’t. A horse racing roll and write game, Long Shot is a lot of fun. I even picked up a copy to bring home. In this game you roll dice and move horses forward around the track. At the same time you are putting bets on horses, filling in spots on your board, and trying to be the person who has the most money at the end of the game. The whole track and physical board element of the game makes it feel different and the game isn’t that complex.

Caesar’s Empire

This is another one of those sit down and play a game because I needed something to do. And Caesar’s Empire is a just fine game. You basically are building our routes to get to cities and score points. The two player game needs a slight rules clarification, possibly. But the whole idea is that you can build off of other people’s roads. Is it worth it to get some points if you are giving them more points. All you do is build onto routes each turn. The game is okay, not one that I’d recommend that highly.

Paint the Roses

Paint the Roses is a great deduction game. It is hard to explain, I feel, without the board but with the board it is easy to explain. The general idea is that you’re trying to get the garden perfect and not have the queen of hearts take off your head. But each of you have a hidden (or multiple throughout the game) things that the queen wants. It might be two red roses next to each other or a diamond and heart shaped topiary next to each other.

You place a tile on your turn and then everyone puts down their clue tokens if it matches. So if I have two red roses and I place down a red rose next to two others. I put down two cubes. Basically giving information that I have two matches. And everyone puts down their clues. Then you need to make a guess on someone’s card. If you get it right you move ahead and the queen of hearts moves ahead one. If not, she moves head faster. Really great puzzle that I want to play again now.

Mythic Mischief

Probably one of the hotter games of the con, I got to play Mythic Mischief in a two versus two game. I suspect I’d like it better as a one versus one game. I also suspect I’d like it better in the blitz mode where you only can take so much time to do your turn.

Mythic Mischief is an abstract game with some fun powers and cool characters. But it’s also a game that induces a ton of AP (analysis paralysis) and for me that knocked the game a lot. The game just isn’t heavy enough to make it worth the amount of time and thought. If I want something like that, I want a big game, not this lighter heavily produced game.

Final Thoughts

I did what I wanted to do, I played a ton of games. I believe that is maybe up to 29 plays and 27 games? But either way, it is a lot and I had so much fun with it. I do want to do a Top 10 list of all of those games, see which my top ones were. So expect to see that tomorrow most likely.

What were the top games that you got to see if you went to Gen Con? And in particular, which ones were the top you got to play or demo?

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Miniature Market Orders

Yes, it is plural. Though two of them are closely tied together. And the latest one was because they had a very nice sale for the 4th of July week, or the week leading into it.

Massive Darkness and Expansions

This one you’ve already seen on the website because I did an unboxing of it on Malts and Meeples. You can checkout that video below. I didn’t get this one on Kickstarter but I was very interested in it. Any game with a campaign mode is going to interest me. Plus this is generally a pretty well rated game, even the original version. So it is one that has been on my radar for a little while. And I want everything for it, but I know I don’t need it. So I got two character expansions and then the core box and the campaign box because of course I want a campaign game.

Fireball Island: Wreck of the Crimson Cutlass and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Bees

This is part of the sale. I want to say that they were 33-50% off so a good amount. And this is just going to add in more content for Fireball Island. The Wreck of the Crimson Cutlass actually adds to the board this ship wreck area that is cool. And the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Bees is an expansion that adds a tiger that you launch as well as then a lot of bee marbles.

Once it is in, I am going to make it a priority to table Fireball Island. I think it’s going to be a fun one for a number of groups. Plus it looks great on the table and is a simple enough game for almost any group. That combination is always a good way to get a game played.

The Quacks of Quedlinburg: Herb Witches

I enjoy The Quacks of Quedlinburg a good amount, I think that the game play is simple and fun. And while you can plan, you are really just pushing your luck, which is fun. I do think that out of the box, since they want you to play specific combinations, it might end up being a bit limited. That is where the Herb Witches expansion comes in.

The Herb Witches is going to be an expansion that adds in two more ingredients, I believe, that you can use, plus more scoring combinations. And while the new ingredients will change up the game play. I don’t know how much I really need more of those. But more ways to score is interesting to me.

All Systems Go

All Systems Go, as a reminder, is my preferred FLGS (Friendly Local Game Store) though not the only one that I go to, as you’ll see. But I currently have had a bunch of store credit there, so it is a good spot to get some games.

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game

You know that I am playing the 2nd edition over on Malts and Meeples. But while I am getting into that, I bought up the first edition stuff. Someone had traded in the Mummy core box and the Wrath core box, including the Wrath with all the story expansions for it. So I grabbed that to go along with my Skulls and Shackles core box. Now I have basically all of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game that is out there. There is a 2nd Edition expansion that I kind of want to get.

Ra

Ra is a game that flirts with my Top 100 often. Why, because it’s such a simple game but with a good auctioning mechanic. I really like how there is a closed market and a loop to it. I bid, I win the bid, I get the bid token in the middle, mine goes into the middle. So if I bid with the 16, I think that’s the highest, now the next person to win a big will end up with a 16 to use the next round. It’s clever and it works well.

Zoo-ography

This is one that I don’t know too much about. It plays from 1-4 players and 15 minutes per player. So the game is going to be on the lighter end of things. But it looks like it comes with a lot of cool animal meeples, always a good thing. And it is a drafting game. I really enjoy drafting, see games like Draftosaurus, Sushi Go! Party, or drafting in Blood Rage. So this one with a lot of cute components really interested me.

New York Zoo

And sticking to the zoo theme and animal meeples, we have New York Zoo. This is a polyominal game where you are getting tiles to put into your zoo. Then getting animals and breeding more animals until you get enough to put in attractions. It seems like a pretty straightforward game like Zoo-ography, but one that will also get played. Plus much like drafting, I enjoy tile placement, and New York Zoo seems like a fun theme for that mechanic.

Target

So, every July, at some point in the month, Target rolls out some Target exclusive games. Most notably in that was Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion a few years ago and then Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition last year. I don’t know when that is happening this year or what the games are. But I do know that they often do clearance on games right before. So I picked up one new, and one clearance.

My Hero Academia: Plus Ultra!

I don’t actually know anything about this game. My Hero Academia is an anime that I enjoy but I struggle to watch consistently. Mainly the main character gets way to emotional way to often. But when they have action sequences it is good. Plus there is a really good story with it. I don’t know if this board game is going to be good. It looks like it just came out, but I figured I’d give it a whirl just for the theme.

Summer Camp

And from the clearance side of things there is Summer Camp. This is a deck building game about Summer Camp, oddly enough. You are trying to go up on three different tracks. From what I know of this game, it is a pretty light game but I figured I’d give it a go. Plus it was 50% off, so the price wasn’t bad at all.

The Source

This is the other local game store. But really it’s games, comics, manga, nerdy things store. And I mainly go there to pick up manga, which I’ll be writing sometime soon about the ones that I’m reading.

Dungeon Party: Starter Pack

This is a dungeon questing, monster fighting board game where you are bouncing a quarter onto a coaster. It is purely silly but I am down for that. I might even work it into my Thursday D&D game. Make that be part of what we are doing for fighting a monster this week. Bring the characters to another dimension or something like that. I haven’t worked it all out.

But this is a game that I want to own just for the goofy nature. You probably know by now that I like my dexterity games. And I’d love to find an evening to just have some beers and play this game coming up here. I think it’ll provide a lot of laughs and a good time.

Half Priced Books

HPB is a book store mainly for used books. I’ve picked up some fun series there. And they have a game section. That is where I’ve gotten games like Tannhauser before. This time only one game caught my eye.

Periodic

This is going to be a game about the Periodic table. I know of someone who might like the game better, they have Genotype as well from Genius Games. I’ve heard good things about Periodic, so when was used there, I figured that I’d grab it. I’m not sure it’s a game for me, but we’ll see. And like I said, I think I know someone who would like the game if it isn’t for me.

eBay

Stars of Akarios

I blame the GloryHoundd discord server for this. You can join me on that discord server here. But one of their members found it on eBay with a listing that had a number of the game as a slightly better price than going through the store.

But Stars of Akarios is going to be a game of fighting and exploring on the fringes of space. But it hits so many of the words that I look for in a game. This is a narrative-driven, cooperative, campaign game that can be plays solo. I don’t know why I missed this one on Kickstarter, but I’m glad to have grabbed it now.

Amazon

Yup, Amazon has gotten a little love too. Mainly I’ll toss on a cheap game from time to time. Or sometimes Amazon is the only spot I can find something.

Skull and Shackles Expansions

This is again more Pathfinder Adventure Card game stuff. The story expansions and I think two character expansions for Skulls and Shackles. The name might not imply it, but this is the pirate base game for Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. And that is a theme that I really like. So I am curious to see how they will make that game and story work. I always want to run a pirate D&D campaign, maybe this will inspire me.

Crowdfunding

Marvel Dice Throne

This is one that came in. And it’s already gotten to the table 3 times. The downside of it being 3 times is that I still have two characters I need to play. Black Panther and Captain Marvel are waiting for their shot in the sun. I’ll have a whole lot more on this probably around the end of the week.

Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread

This is one that I just late pledged. My curiosity for the game got the better of me. I again, am a sucker for a cooperative, solo playable, narrative-driven campaign game. And Arydia promises that for me, plus some cool minis that you can customize.

Overall, this is just one of those big box games that I’m going to have to start playing as a campaign. I really want to figure out some game to play as a campaign on my own, not stream. Or maybe one that my wife is interested in, and do that once a week just for a little time. I have half of the gaming table that should be free to play on a lot of the time.

Aeon’s End: Past and Future

More Aeon’s End, I am of course going to back this. It is an interesting project though, and it is available for late pledge. But Aeon’s End Past and Future is not a big box expansion like they normally do. Normally it is the next part of the story that they are going through. This actually goes back to the past and looks to the future and you need specific sets already to be able to play it. Of course it’s mainly just more content, so I am down for that.

Deathly Thrones

Deathly Thrones is the only print and play game on the list. This one is interesting, though because it’s not a roll and write game. It’s a solo print and play roguelike game where you use a deck of cards. I didn’t look into it too much, again it is one that was shared to me via the GloryHoundd Discord server. But I think it looks really interesting and unique. If it can pull off a fun game, I could see having this a smaller sized game to pull out and play.

GameNerdz

I said it was a big list and a lot of it is that it has been a while since I’ve done one of these. I don’t believe that I’ve written about this one.

Vampire the Masquerade – Chapters

This is another one of those games where I wish that I’d backed it on Kickstarter. The Kickstarter hasn’t even fulfilled yet and the regret got me, especially since I found it too late to late pledge. Or found it again too late to late pledge. This is going to be another one of those big story driven cooperative solo campaign games set in the world of Vampire the Masquerade.

What intrigues me so much about this one is that it has story and the story from Vampire the Masquerade where it isn’t just vampires chomping necks and sucking blood. But there’s this whole code of what you do. And then you get down to a tactical level map where you can interactions with people and battles that happen which is really interesting. I like that variety in what it does.

GameZenter

Another LGS (local game store) to go along with All Systems Go and The Source. All of them are very nice, I am lucky to have so many around me. And I like to buy something every time I go somewhere and play. And the GameZenter is my favorite spot to play out of the two that you can play at, GameZenter and The Source.

Spirit Island

Spirit Island is a game that I should have played sooner. And in all fairness I have yet to play it now. But it is a cooperative or solo game that has great puzzle elements to it. And it’s complex enough in what your spirit is doing to fight off the colonizers that are coming to the island. So I really want to give it a go and see how it plays. I suspect it’s going to be a game that is bigger that I really like to play solo or at two players.

Final Thoughts

That’s it, I think, that I haven’t talked about. It’s been a busy time getting in games, or getting them in soon. I need to start playing them. But I am close, still to that 100 game total which I wanted to get under for unplayed games. Granted, that number will go up a bit again soon with a few more big box games coming in. I know that Oathsworn is getting close, so I’m sure I’ll write about that in the next Point of Order.

And then other Kickstarters and Gamefound games are starting to get produced. There is a production copy that was unboxed for ISS Vanguard, so I expect that to show up October or November. And Grove is getting close as well as Tiny Turbo Cars. And I think even Spire’s End Hildegard just locked in it’s shipping addresses, though I might be off on that one. Oh, and Chronicles of Drunagor. So expect another big one coming, likely post GenCon.

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Ranking My Drafting Games

12. 7 Wonders

I know, this one is going to be very high on some people’s lists. And I get it, it’s a very solid drafting game and I like it a lot. But it doesn’t work great at two, and I have played it at that number a few times. I know, I need to play 7 Wonders Duel. For me, this game is a great pure drafting game, the theme doesn’t intrigue me that much, and often I want more going on.

11. Cat Cafe

This is another one that is just good, but it’s not a bad roll and write. In Cat Cafe, you draft dice to determine what you do. It’s a simple part of the game where you use the die you draft and one that is left at the end. It determines what cat feature you add as well as where on the cat trees you put them. It’s a nice little system and a cute game.

10. Magic: The Gathering

This one is tough for me to rank. Mainly because drafting in Magic: The Gathering, is a lot of fun, but I haven’t done it in ages. And I don’t plan to do it for a long time. It’s a good way to play some more relaxed magic, if you are playing with friends. I think that besides Commander, drafting or sealed are my favorite ways to play magic.

9. Truffle Shuffle

Truffle Shuffle is a board game that makes a good two player drafting game. It has the grid or layout for cards that you draft from, and you open up other cards. The game play is simple, take a card, and then you can put down a set of cards, kind of in poker hands. The poker hands give you points, plus there are some special power cards as well. If you want an easy game to play, Truffle Shuffle is a good drafting game.

8. The Isle of Cats

The Isle Of Cats really focused on drafting in a great way. Yes, it is a game about putting out cats onto a boat to rescue them, but the drafting matters so much. You draft scoring missions, you draft cards that allow you to rescue cats, and other types of cards as well. And what I like is that as you draft cards, you need to pay for them. So you wont keep all of them. But which ones do you keep, because you also have to bribe the cats with fish. It’s a clever system.

7. Draftosaurus

And in Draftosaurus, you are drafting dinosaurs, probably the most unique thing to be drafting. Especially because we see dice, and we cards, but these are dino meeples. You basically are building out a dinosaur park putting dinosaurs in spots that will give you points. In a lot of ways this feels like a roll and write to me, but with dino meeples. The game plays really fast and easy and is a lot of fun.

6. Sushi Go Party!

I thought that Sushi Go Party might be higher when I started ranking, and it’s not that I don’t like the game as much anymore, but it’s more that there are a lot of fun drafting games. Sushi Go Party is adorable, and a lot of fun. The anthropomorphic sushi and other foods are cute. And I like how the drafting works. That you draft over rounds, but you score and reset at the end of each. Except for desert, and those only score at the end of the game.

5. Ohanami

Slightly above Sushi Go Party! is Ohanami, another simple drafting game, but one that I love to pull out. The game is so easy to play. Ohanami has you drafting two cards and putting them into any of three columns. The trick is that the columns and cards added, always need to increase or decrease. It’s a really fun puzzle, not that hard a one, and I like how scoring works, in that scoring grows over time.

4. Roll Player

Now we have another die drafting game, but in Roll Player you are drafting dice in order to build out an RPG character. This is a theme that I really love. I don’t get to play D&D, but I’ve rolled up a lot of characters for fun in my time. I just get to run games. And Roll Player does a good job of simulating that and getting equipment and spells. It’s a cool idea that I want to play more of, and some good drafting.

3. Sagrada

But better die drafting for me is Sagrada. Sagrada is a little bit simpler but not too simple. You draft dice to build out a stained glass window. But you have specific scoring conditions that you are going for. And a hidden scoring condition. The game also scales well with some of the things that come in the 5-6 player expansion. So I like it can play that big a group.

2. Blood Rage

Blood Rage looks like a dudes on a map game. And there is that element to it, you are vying for control of areas to get increased prowess in combat, more action points, or to be able to put more dudes on the map. But the game shines when it comes to drafting. Drafting is how you determine your strategy. And it is how you become more unique as you go. You might focus on getting monsters. Or you might want to improve your troops or to let them die. A lot of great options and good decision making that comes from drafting.

1. Lords of Hellas

Finally, Lords of Hellas. The drafting in this game isn’t a huge part, but at the same time it is very impactful. You start out with a leader/hero power but otherwise you’re the same. Then as temples are built, you draft new powers. So being the one to build a temple gets you first pick, so there is a rush to get some of them built at times. And those abilities can really shape what you’re going to do, because they might make you better at defense, fighting monsters, or building more temples.

There are a lot of things that are cool in Lords of Hellas. And the drafting isn’t the biggest part. But it is a part that keeps the game feeling fresh. Everything feels powerful, and you kind of want to draft them all. But how can you draft what’s going to be best for you?

Final Thoughts

I really enjoy drafting in most games. Some of them like Ohanami, Sushi Go Party, and 7 Wonders mean that you’re all playing at once. That is one feature that I really like. Other times you go separately but then it creates tension for what is going to be left for you. And there’s probably one, maybe two things that you really want.

The downside to drafting can be that people hate draft. And I don’t think that hate drafting is bad, but if that’s all someone is doing, it can be an issue. Mainly because it can ruin the run of a game. But when drafting is done well, and people are trying to optimize their own score, it is great.

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