Top 100 Games (of all time) 100 through 91

100. Ecosystem

Published By: Genius Games
Designer: Matt Simpson

Buy Ecosystem here.

I like drafting games a lot and I think that is what keeps Ecosystem on the list. It is a good drafting game with then a good puzzle as you create your tableau of cards in front of you. There are three version of Ecosystem all of which are great though I’m only going to be keeping the one that I show in the picture. That is because that one is easier to teach and learn and play. But any of the versions are pretty easy to learn and all offer their own drafting and tableau building puzzle.

99. Aquatica

Published By: Arcane Wonders
Designer: Ivan Tuzovsky

Buy Aquatica here.

Can you develop the best underwater kingdom is the theme of Aquatica. But the game is really about one central mechanism for me and that is enough to get it onto the list. I wish that the characters were more fun and diverse, but I love the card sliding. When you slide a card up to gain more resources and combo it into a big turn, it just feels good. And the puzzle of optimizing that on each turn is amazing.

It’s worth nothing that I love the puzzle in person but I find it not that great on BGA (Board Game Arena). Mainly, I think on BGA you lose that tactile nature of sliding up cards and seeing how you can work everything together. It makes a tactile thing seem a lot more mechanical on BGA and more interesting when it is in person.

98. Perolga

Published By: Rebel Studio
Designers: Michal Golab Golebiowski and Przemek Woljtkowiak

Buy Pergola Here.

Do you want to make a pretty garden? Perogla is game off set collection and creating a beautiful garden to play in. I like the action or item selection process for the game. The trowels are a fun way to do it, but also the changing extra bonus, depending on where you pick from, really adds to the game as well. Because of that, I think the game offers a bunch of different ways to score points and feels different when I play it

97. Crokinole

There is no designer or publisher on Board Game Geek to post because this game is from 1876 or around then.

Pledge for Crokinole Board Here.

I love Crokinole as a flicking game where I can build up skill. There are other higher flicking and dexterity games on the list, but Crokinole has some things I love about it. In particular that skill level that you are more apt to develop. But it is also a great game for a whole evening, you just sit around, flick discs, have a drink and chat to create a fun activity and casual time. The game is all about scoring points by getting into that center hole, but then strategy as you try and knock your opponents discs off the board.

96. Fleet: The Dice Game

Published By: Eagle-Gryphon Games
Designers: Ben Pinchback and Matt Riddle

Buy Fleet: The Dice Game Here.

Do you want a big roll and write game with two sheets? Then Fleet: The Dice Game might be the roll and write game for you. I like this one because it offers a lot of combos and a lot of paths to scoring points and possible victory. You want to get fish because that is going to give you points, but you also want to get licenses that are going to give you powers. Or maybe you are all in on the market or all in on building the different shops at the wharf. Whatever it is, there is a path for you to try and combo in the game.

95. The Castles of Burgundy

Published By: alea and Awaken Realms
Designer: Stefan Feld

Buy The Castles of Burgundy Special Edition on Miniature Market.

Can you build up the best area of Burgundy to get the most points? That’s what this game is about, getting points in any and every way that you can. Whether it is by adding to flocks or filling an area or delivering goods, you are going to get points. And the dice management in the game is what really makes it work for me. I like figuring out how I can optimize my two dice for a great turn. Or maybe I can’t do that, and now I need to figure out how to pivot to something new.

94. Comic Hunters

Published By: Arcane Wonders
Designer: Diego Sa

Buy Comic Hunters from Amazon here.

Do you like comic books and do you want to have a massive comic collection? That is Comic Hunters in a nutshell as you draft comics to add to your collection. Then you need to determine which ones get added and which ones you spend from your hand putting back into the pool. Plus this game offers multiple different drafts. That sounds like a lot to teach and learn, but it isn’t bad because it’s possible to teach just one draft at a time. And the final bonus is great Marvel comic covers in this game.

93. Dungeon Kart

Published By: Brotherwise Games
Designer: Michael Xuereb

Buy Dungeon Kart here.

Do you want to play Mario Kart but you also want to play a board game? Dungeon Kart is going to let you do both of those things with Boss Monster characters, special powers and spells. This is not my favorite racing game, but it is one that gives me that Mario Kart feel. And the game itself is not too slow in how it plays which I really like.

92. Ace of Spaces

Published By: Devir Games
Designer: Benjamin Amorin

Note: This game is getting an art update after less than welcoming art was included in the game. A new version to buy will be coming.

This is Balatro the board game. Now that isn’t 100% right, but there is similarities between the two. In that you want to beat a boss in this game and you do that with poker hands. In fact you do that several times. And the different bosses you defeat will give you one off or permanent bonuses. There is a bunch of luck in the game, but it’s fast to play, fast to learn, and just a good time for a solo or two player game, in particular solo.

91. Railroad Ink Challenge

Published By: Horrible Guild
Designers: Hjalmar Hach, Lorenzo Silva

Buy Railroad Ink Challenge here.

This is a great roll and write game where you are creating rail and road routes. As you create the routes the more exit points you connect, the more points you get. And longest road and rail routes are going to give you points as well. I like both the Challenge and non-challenge version of the game. But the Challenge version gives you some challenges to go for as well which just adds in a little that I really love for the game.

Join Next Week

Next week I am going to be continuing the list. The plan is 9 PM Central time every Wednesday until the list is done and you can click notify on the YouTube channel (Malts and Meeples) to know when new videos are going live. I also have put up links to some of the upcoming videos already there, so you can click notify on those. What games are going to be in my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 edition next week as I do 90 through 81.

Thanks so much for checking out the article and the videos. I hope you have fun with them. I know I have a ton of fun making the list every year.

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That one is trickier, in some ways, to pick out games for. Because, it isn’t like I can pull out a heavy board game off the shelf to play with. It is often too many people to do that with. And I need to think about the different levels of gamer and numbers as well. I like to theme the nights, as well, so people know what they are getting into.

Top 5 Themes for Board Game Night

5. Racing Games

Kicking off this board game theme list is racing games. And this actually catches some games in other categories that I came up with as well. But racing games work well because racing is a theme that people understand. I want to finish the race first. Or, a lot of racing games, I want to win the most money because I bet best on the racing games. It might be more about the betting than the racing, but people understand it either way.

The downside to some racing games, Formula D for example, is that they can take a while. But then there are other ones that are fast and action filled. You might even decide to play a dexterity game like Pitchcar in this as well. And that one might take a bit, but it has some other benefits which we’ll talk about coming up. But racing games often play a number of people, you just want to make sure they are fast moving ones, as a race should be.

4. Roll and Writes

Roll and write style games work well for a board game night as well. Mainly, again, a lot of them play higher player counts. It might be a bit solitaire in what the players are doing, but it works because everyone is playing off of the dice on their own sheet of paper.

I think of games like Cartographers, or Paper Dungeons, though, that offer a little bit of interaction that makes it work. Or other games, though, like Trek 12, Welcome To… or Railroad Ink that offer less. So you can choose between a few options, but generally you’ll find that you play a few more of these that work well as competitive but non confrontational games.

3. Dexterity Games

Now, this type of board game might seem odd to be in there for an adult group playing games. But dexterity games really do work great for a board game night. They provide a party game atmosphere without having to play party games every time. And some of them definitely handle a high player count well.

And for me, one thing that I really love is that they are light and silly, but they offer feel good moments. For example, with Pitchcar, a game of racing disc cars around a track, when someone makes an amazing shot, everyone is excited. Why, because it is an amazing shot. And even if you play the game a lot there is an element of luck to pull off an amazing shot.

2. Drafting Games

Next I want to talk about drafting games, because they are an interesting sort of game for a game night. A good drafting game is going to stand out in that it can handle a lot of people. Why, because a lot of the drafting games are fairly simple and they keep everyone engaged at the same time.

I think of games like 7 Wonders, Sushi Go Party! or any of the Ecosystem games. They all run off of a similar systems. When I am drafting a card, so are you. Everyone is involved at the same time. And 7 Wonders and Sushi Go Party! both work with a higher player count. The others could as well, it’s just fewer cards, so that limits the player count. But because you all play at once, there is no downtime which makes it easier.

1. Party Games

This is an obvious one. However, I will say, this doesn’t mean Taboo, Balderdash, Catch Phrase, and Cards Against Humanity. Thankfully, now is a good time for party games. And it is also a time where there are several cooperative ones, so it’s easy to sit down with a group and enjoy without it becoming too competitive. Which is something that is needed for some groups.

When we play party games, I think of games like Doodle Dash, Just One, Blank Slate, Medium, and So Clover that top the list. All of these are solid games with solid theories behind them as to how they work. And they provide humor and a good time through the players versus something like Cards Against Humanity which tries to add that via the cards only.

Final Thoughts

There are a ton of different themes. And often times i look at it and I think, I could mix in another type of game, or it might change based on player count. If we end up with just a few people, sure, I’m going to pull out a couple of heavier games, or even a couple of games that play at a lower player count. We get ten players, it might pivot to party game night, or we might split into two groups. It is about knowing your group for a game night.

At the same time, it’s fun to give a theme or an idea of what games are coming. Why, because then people can decide if it’s a night for them or not. Maybe you don’t like roll and write games, that is fine, you skip the board game night where it is roll and writes. But as someone coming, you now know what is coming to help you make a decision.

Do you find that your game group gravitates towards different types of themes in board games?

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Top 5 Nature Themed Games

5. Arboretum

I’m going to start off the list with the meanest of all the nature themed games. And no, it isn’t because your animal might eat my animal because wolves do that to rabbits. Nope, instead it’s all about trees and building out your most beautiful arboretum. To do that you’re trying to create paths of trees that go from a low number to a high number. And the paths need to start and end with the same types of trees.

That doesn’t sound too bad. Where it gets mean is that in order to score your row of trees, you need the highest total of that tree in your hand as well. So not only are you playing them out to get points when you score them, you need to hold them back as well. And if I see you going for maple trees, I can just hold a 5 and a 7 in my hand and probably block you from scoring them.

But the game itself is a lot of fun. It plays fast and the blocking and meanness isn’t really about me doing something mean in the moment. It’s more a cat and mouse game of how much will you hold back in order to be able to score. So I like that tension a lot in the game.

4. Floriferous

Now Floriferous doesn’t have that much tension. And it’s a nature game because it’s about flowers. But I still really love the decision space in this game. It offers just enough choices to make it challenging and not so many that you feel stuck in them.

Floriferous is a game of drafting flowers to score points. You mainly score points for having a lot of a color of flower, or all the colors, you typical set collection type of things. But you aren’t passing around a hand of cards, you’re drafting from an open grid of cards that everyone can see. And you aren’t just drafting flowers, you also draft the point scoring cards you’ll use. So it’s always a tension of, do I take this flower, but if I do, then I won’t get that scoring card, so which is worth more.

And the drafting system works well. Like I said the cards are in a grid. So you can only draft from the column that is coming up. And which row you draft from, that determines turn order. The higher in the column the sooner you’ll be going next round. And sometimes you might have a perfect card in that following column, so you pass on the previous one. It’s a fun twist and challenge.

3. Forest Shuffle

Now we’re going back into the trees with Forest Shuffle. Forest Shuffle is a tableau building game where you’re building out a forest. In this forest you are growing trees and then putting flora and fauna, mainly fauna around it. And each tree has four spots, top, bottom, and left and right sides where you can add in these animal cards but generally one per side.

The game is a nice balance of playing out cards, and discarding other cards from your hand to pay for them. And then collecting back up and repeating that process. It’s a push and pull of how long do you collect cards to maybe get all the ones that you need for better scoring. But at the same time, the other players are now playing out points, so you’re getting behind that way. And when the game is getting close to ending, well, it’s going to end quickly. So how do you squeeze out a few more points?

2. EcoSystem

Next up is another drafting game. And EcoSystem is a more traditional drafting game. In EcoSystem you have a hand of cards that you are picking a card from. And then you build out a four tall by five wide grid of nature. That’s it, it’s not a complex game. You build out your grid over two hands of ten cards, and that’s kind of it.

But EcoSystem for me is a lot of fun because of how everything scores. And everything does score. Deer want to be in separate rows and columns, basically creating their paths. Bears want to be next to bees and trout, trout, obviously want to be in streams. Everything meshes together in a unique way that you are trying to optimize.

EcoSystem is definitely the breeziest game on the list but it’s still a lot of fun. And there is a Savanna and Coral Reef version as well. So if you feel like you’ve played one enough, get another one and keep playing with the same basic system but now different scoring challenges to figure out.

1. Meadow

Finally we have Meadow. Another nature game that can be a bit mean. But this is the most brain burning of all of the games. That is mainly because of the main mechanism of the game. In Meadow you are building out a tableau again in front of you. And everything you play out builds on top of what was there previously. A fox can be played out, but only if it’s on a rabbit, or a bug can be played on a berry. Those sorts of food chain type of things.

That is a challenge figuring out how to build it all up and get to the point scoring cards. But how you get the cards if the bigger and more brain burning part of the challenge. The game gives you a four by four grid of cards to pick from. But you have specific tiles you get to help you select your cards. How do you do that, well, you are placing your tiles around the edge of the board. Each tile has a one through four on it and depending on where you place it, that row or column, that number is the distance you can go.

So it offers a very big challenge in figuring out how you can get all of the pieces you want. You can’t just jump into it, always, and grab your preferred card. Your opponents might block you out from getting another one. I love that tension in the game, but also the puzzle in a lower player count game of how do I get everything I want. Or do I end up being blocked out somewhere.

Final Thoughts

Nature themed games are fun. I know when Wingspan came out a lot of people wondered, why would I want to play a game about birds. But nature themed games, in my opinion, are more welcoming than orcs and monsters in a fantasy themed game. Or going off into space in a sci-fi game. Now, I personally prefer those themes to nature, but I get why others don’t.

What are some of your favorite nature themed games?

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Next 5 Best Board Games of 2023

10. Ecosystem: Savana

This one is almost a bit of a cheat to put on the list. I got it in really recently and I have played it a few times. It’s more of a cheat because I knew I would like the game. I own Ecosystem and Ecosystem: Coral Reef, both of which I really like. So of course, a new version of the game I would like as well. It’d have been a surprise if I hadn’t.

Well, needless to say, I did. I think this one did some interesting things. It forces you to flip more cards down so by the end they are face down, but you still get to use them for scoring. So when you score a lion or a cheetah you flip prey cards face down. And I believe that the cheetah scores first, so it can mean that the Lion, which scores more points, isn’t able to score. The cheetah beats it to all the tasty gazelle.

9. Black Hole Buccaneers

This is one that I don’t even own. But for a game that I don’t own, I kind of wish that I did. The reason I don’t own it is that it’s a drafting game, which I love drafting games, but I own a lot of them. and Black Hole Buccaneers is a little bit more complex, which still having a light and goofy theme.

Mainly, it has a drafting element where you can be stuck with negative points just by a card that you’re given at the end. But otherwise it’s a pretty interactive drafting system. I need to know what you’re doing or what you’re taking. I can just ignore the one that I might bust on and hope it goes well anyways. And it would balance out with a lot of powers and scoring that stacks as you go along. But when it comes to drafting games, it won’t beat out others that I have already.

8. Cursed!?

Next up is a small solo game, Cursed!?. This one is a pretty simple push your luck type of game. You find that you’ve been cursed by a witch. To break the curse, you need to provide her with eight souls and quickly.

The mechanisms are basically flipping cards against monsters and seeing if your attack can add up to their health. The twist on it comes with the idea that busting is bad. You don’t want to overkill them, you just want to take them out. For each point under you are, you burn that many cards. So someone has eight health, I do six, I burn two cards. Well, if I flip and I go over, I remove the card I flipped and still burn two cards. So I burn extra cards. I like that bit of strategy to figure out when the push or not.

7. Skytear Horde

Next up a solo game that I played on Malts and Meeples, Skytear Horde. This is one that after I played it a few times, I went all in on the Gamefound campaign that happened this past year. It’s more content, which I’m not sure the game needed, but won’t be bad to have. And a better storage system for all of it.

The game itself is a horde battler. You need to wipe out a main boss, but a lot of what you’re doing is fighting against hordes. And you do that while also managing the hand of cards that you have, because you don’t get to draw new cards all that often, or all that many. So you need to set up your defenses to stop the enemy hordes while keeping enough back for what comes next.

This game can play solo or multiplayer, but I really like it as a solo game. The enemy system is simple enough that it’s fast to run and with that it makes it easier to table. It isn’t a small game or the fastest game to get originally set-up, but once it is, the game play works well and it’s easy to reset.

6. SpellBook

Finally, the best of the bottom half of my Top 10 of 2023, yeah, that’s long, is SpellBook. This one maybe could sneak into my top half with more plays. It’s an engine building spell casting game. You are learning spells so that you can cast them, and you can get each spell into your spellbook one time. Well, do you wait for the higher point scoring, better powered one, or do you hold off on it? There’s a timing and push your luck element to it.

And then there is your familiar. They should all be cats, but they aren’t, still it’s fun to play as they don’t really do anything. Your familiar is another way to score points and push for the end of the game. If you completely feed your familiar, you end the game there and all the spells cast and level of familiar are tallied up for points. Otherwise once someone has cast their final spell the game ends.

I like how you can push for the end of the game multiple ways. It isn’t just the end of the game, it’s that you can push for very different scoring. You might mainly ignore casting spells, just getting the one or few that help you add tokens to your familiar faster to push the end game that way. And there are different combinations of spells you can use, so as long as everyone has the same one, you can play around with that.

Final Thoughts

This was a fun year to play board games. I am pleased with the number of 2023 titles that I got in, and I know that I have more that I need to play. And I realized that there are two campaign games from 2023 that I hadn’t rated yet, but I’ll just leave them off as Vampire the Masquerade: Chapters and Isofarian Guard would definitely had made my Top 10, if not my Top 5. So it’s too late to go back and correct that.

So there are a lot of good board games this year and a lot of good ones that I want to play. Witcher the Old World, Earth, Thunder Road Vendetta and more all need to get played. That is some of why you’ll see a future article about how I want to work through my shelf of shame or opportunity or to be played. I just own a lot of board games that I’m excited to play, so I don’t need to buy more I need to play them.

What were some of your favorites board games from 2023?

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How Ecosystem Works

Let’s start out by looking at how Ecosystem, both versions work in similar ways. Both of them are tableau building and drafting games. You draft a card from a hand and you then put it into a five wide by four tall grid. The card must go adjacent to another card that you’ve already placed.

Each card that you place, animal or feature of your ecosystem provides points in different ways. Some of them give you points for being adjacent to other animals or terrain types. Others give you points for having the most of them or the size of group that you have. Whomever has the most points at the end of the game wins.

The Differences

I’m not going to go over similarities, I kind of already did. I’m going to focus in on the main differences of the two. And I think that there’s one main area where there are differences. But first, the minor area of differences. While some of the scoring is similar, it is not all the same. Some of the scoring is quite different and that’s expected as it isn’t clearly a reskin.

The one area where the games differ is how they encourage diversity in your ecosystem. Like in the real world, it’d collapse if the balance isn’t right. And both of the games handle it a different way. In Ecosystem, you want to have the biggest variety. That gives you points the more variety that you have. And it adds in a challenge for scoring because to get that diversity you won’t build an ideal tableau.

For Ecosystem: Coral Reef it is a bit trickier, but easier once you know what is going on. The scoring of all the cards is split into four categories. Three of them matter for this end game scoring bonus. The end game scoring bonus looks at the three categories of producer, prey, and predator. The one that you score lowest in gives you that number of points again as a bonus. So you want to make sure that none of the categories are ignored.

Should You Own Both?

I think this will depend on the group. I say that pretty often, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t true. With Ecosystem, it is basically the same game. But owning both offers more variety to the game. It is kind of like having an expansion for the game in some ways. I pick which set of cards I want to play with. But I don’t need to spend my time teaching a new game.

That said, that is how it works for me. It is very possible, and I’d say likely, that most people won’t need to own Ecosystem. It is only if it is a game that you play a lot, and a mechanism that you like a lot. If you find yourself feeling like you’ve played one enough, it might be worthwhile to add the second. Or to replace the first one with the second.

Final Thoughts on Ecosystem vs Ecosystem: Coral Reef

If you want to buy one, I’m not going to tell you which one is better. They are, when it comes down to it, basically the same game. I think that whichever you pick, pick the theme or ecosystem that you like better. It is a game, though, that I think a lot of people will like. The mechanisms of Ecosystem are simple, and the artwork is nice.

And I find that there are a lot of good strategies for the game, some more powerful than others. But that is on the players to make a balanced ecosystem and keep someone from running away with a strategy. Both of the games have a strategy like that, so there isn’t one that is easier or better that way. I know for some that might be a turnoff, and maybe it doesn’t make perfect sense for the ecosystem theme, but both games do try and balance that out with their ecosystem diversity scoring.

So, no, I think that most people won’t need both of them. But at the same time, if you want the variety and are like me, both do offer different scoring and a little bit of a different time while being very easy to swap between them as you play.

Do you like one better than the others?

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Stocking Stuffer Board Games

For Northwood

We’re starting off with the first and only solo only board game on the list. I’m going to do a list of solo board games, but that’ll be coming out in the next week or so. But For Northwood is a great stocking stuffer sized game and an interesting one in that it’s trick taking. Trick Taking isn’t something you often consider for solo because, well, you need someone to play against. In For Northwood, that someone is the deck of cards.

In For Northwood, you need to win a specific number of tricks, 0 through 7, for different parts of the woods. Now, just playing against the deck of cards, that seems too random. So they gave you some lords and ladies of the woodlands, the royalty, that offer you powers to use. You get three to use in the game, but you unlock new ones as you complete the objectives of the different parts of the woods.

These powers let you manipulate your hand. Draw more cards when you are on the seven to increase your chances. Or discard cards when you need to get zero because there’s a big risk that with any flip, any high number might win for you. Because, the trick is you need to win the exact number of tricks. So how do you make that work?

Ecosystem

Ecosystem comes in the biggest or tied for the biggest box of the group. This is a drafting tableau building board game. By that I mean that you are building out an ecosystem in front of you. And how you build it, where you place animals and terrain types, is going to give you points. To add to that, you are then restricted to a five wide and four high grid. So as you play you get more limited spots to play.

And then there is the drafting. You pick a card from your hand and you add that to your tableau. But what I love about drafting games is that everyone is picking at the same time. So I am always playing and so are you. It helps keep people engaged in the game.

The final thing that I think makes this game intriguing for a stocking stuffer is the diversity that you need from your ecosystem. If you only focus on two or three creatures, do you really have a ecosystem? Not really, it’s a small slice of what one looks like in real life. So they give you points for building that diverse ecosystem, like you’d see in the real world.

Birds of a Feather

Next stocking stuffer board game is Birds of a Feather. This one is maybe the meanest game on the list. It can be mean how you draft in Ecosystem, but the rest of the board games, not that mean. Birds of a Feather is all about bird watching and seeing how many you see. Because the person who saw the most and the rarest at the end of the time wins.

Each round you play out a bird card. And you see the birds from that terrain type that everyone has played. In fact, you see the ones from the previous day as well. So it’s a good thing to be just one day behind. Except for the raptors. If someone plays the raptor from that terrain type, well, that scares away all the birds that were there yesterday.

Birds of a Feather is a fast little game and one that is easy to teach. I think that it works well with almost all groups and you can decide how cutthroat you want to be when you play out those raptor cards.

Patchwork Doodle

Patchwork Doodle is the next game on the list. I needed to put in a roll and write game because, well, it’s a roll and write game and I like them a lot. Patchwork Doodle is one of the smaller ones which is why it can fit into a stocking. There are several others I could pick as well, but I like Patchwork Doodle for a bit more of a game than others that fit into this size.

In Patchwork Doodle you are making the biggest quilt that you can. A patchwork quilt is where it is getting it’s name from. To do that, you, and everyone else, fill in Tetris like shapes on your board. And at the end of each round, which consists of a number of cards, you find your biggest completed square and rectangle. The square part matters because it gives you the most points. A 5 by 5 square is twenty-five points. But a 7 by 5 rectangle is only 27 points, twenty-five for the 5 by 5 and then two more for the extra rows or columns.

I also like this one because it has powers. Powers aren’t needed for a roll and write game, but I like the addition of them. Powers are going to give you little ways to tweak what shape you get or to fill in a single spot that is open. So a fun one with some good thinking to it.

SCOUT

SCOUT is a new game for me this year. But it’s one that after a single play, I found that I really like the game. Some games are about building the best hand of cards, SCOUT is about getting rid of all your cards. So it’s like a Phase 10 or Uno that way, but more game to it.

In SCOUT you get your hand of cards. And you need to play down runs or sets that are higher than what was previously played out. If you do, those previous cards go away to get added to your scoring. That doesn’t sound too hard. You start with a big hand of cards, just move things around until you get a great run. Just one issue with that.

The big hook of SCOUT is that you can’t rearrange the cards in your hand. So when you start playing, you decide which way your cards go, because they have different numbers top and bottom. And you decide that for the whole hand of cards. So, unless there is an amazing shuffle, it’ll never be in order. You need to play the little runs you have or a set of one card, to open up your hand and create those runs. And if you can’t play, you get a card from the previously played ones, making it easier to beat, and you put it anywhere in your hand.

SCOUT is a very good and clever game that way. One that I was hesitant to play, didn’t look all that fun, but it is great fun when you play it. And it is in a very stocking stuffer friendly size box.

Dandelions

Finally we have Dandelions. Dandelions is a game of area control. And in all fairness if you know what dandelions are, that is what it feels like with your yard. But this is with the dandelions here you are trying to compete with your opponents for majority.

You do this by playing out dice. That moves your dandelion pawn around and sees where you drop fluff. You want to have the most dice in areas because that is going to let you get their pip value. But you also get points for the dice you just have in areas, so the total number versus the pips. And some of the areas are worth more. That’s because they don’t have as many spots for the dandelion pawn to land.

Dandelions is a fun game and one where you get to start by rolling a handful of dice. I think the simplicity of how it works, you play a die, you move the pawn, and you place the die, is great with the strategy level of the game. In that it is more than you’d think to line-up your ideal turn and force your opponents dice out of controlling some of the areas.

Final Thoughts

These are only some of the stocking stuffer board games that I thought of, I actually have a whole shelf for small little games like this. Why, because they are great, not only for stuffing some stockings, but also for taking on trips, family vacations or up to the holidays. I’ll talk about some of those, though, later as we get closer to travel around Christmas time.

But just a quick hit one some other board games out there. Fox in the Forest Duet, for the person who like trick taking board games. Hanamikoji, for that one person who is always down to play board games so you play two player games. Or Medium for the person who really likes party games.

But which of these board games do you want to give or get this holiday season?

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

100 through 91

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition – 90 through 81

90. Galaxy Trucker

Galaxy Trucker is a fun fast paced game that you can’t take too seriously. It’s about building what you hope is a good space truck and getting across the galaxy, picking up goods, and well, hoping that your ship isn’t blown up by asteroids or pirates. Which, you can do, you can build a great ship. But the ship building is done in real time. So it is easy to mess up your ship and have half of it blown away because of a misplaced asteroid.

Normally I don’t love real time games. But Galaxy Trucker is not against a clock. Instead, you build as fast as you want, and the fastest player determines the speed. And, to add to it, that is only part of the game, the rest is seeing if your ship gets blown up. So the game gives you a breather between the real time elements which I think works well.

Buy Galaxy Trucker

89. Final Girl

Now we’re onto a horror film of a game with Final Girl. Final Girl is a solo only game about what it says it is, the final girl of a horror film. If you’re not familiar with this trope, most horror films end up with a final girl standing at the end of the film after all their friends have been killed. The question is, are they able to kill the bad guy (or deal with them) or will the get killed?

That is what Final Girl is all about. Can you manage your cards, rescue the characters that are not the final girl, and then deal with the bad guy at the end. Van Ryder Games has done a great job of giving you all sorts of films. There is a Hans the killer at a summer camp or you might be at a circus or dealing with a ghost. And they are adding even more with a third crowdfunding campaign going on now.

Buy Final Girl

88. Doodle Dash

Now we’re onto a party game, and I don’t have too many party games on the list. But Doodle Dash is one that I really like because it’s the type of party game I want for drawing. One where it doesn’t matter how good you are because, as the name suggests, sometimes speed matters more.

In Doodle Dash one person is the guesser. They want to guess the image as fast as possible or with as few clues as possible. Everyone else is drawers. And they draw as fast as they can. The first person grabs the first person marker, the second fastest starts rolling a die, and when that die hits stop, everyone else stops. And then in order, fastest, second, and everyone else, the pictures are revealed. More points the earlier on the guesser guesses it, but that is also the worst picture, possibly. So it’s a blast and one good for a lot of laughs.

Pre-order Doodle Dash

87. Calico

Going from something silly, we now have Calico, a game with a calico quilt on the front, not a calico cat, which is an abstract game about making quilts. Your goal is to get the most points by completing goals, matching colors to get buttons, and matching patterns (since cats are color blind or a number are) to get cats on your quilt.

This game looks all peaceful, but it’s a pretty intense game. You need to strategize well to complete the objectives. Because the objectives give you more points if you get both the color and the pattern to meet those objectives. It might be surround a spot with three of one type and three of another. But if you get three of one color and three of another, plus three of one pattern and three of another, that is how you get the most points. A tense game, but a fun one, and it’s pretty.

Buy Calico

86. The Night Cage

Another tense game, The Night Cage is a perfect Halloween game. You, and everyone else, wake up in a labyrinth with just a candle next to you. You know enough that you need to find keys and then all find a portal to get out. But the labyrinth is ever changing and there are monsters and your candle runs lower.

This is a game where as you move around the labyrinth you reveal new tiles, they might have keys, portals, just pathways, or monsters. And As you leave other locations your candle only lights up a space around you, so you lose the tiles before. You need to work together to get everyone a candle. But if you’re too close, the monsters might pop up and blow out someone’s candle, then they are moving blindly around until another player can relight their candle.

All of this is being done while the stack of tiles is getting shorter. There is no way to get tiles back, they represent your candles. And your candles are getting shorter and shorter. So as you watch that happen will you be able to escape The Night Cage?

Pre-order The Night Cage

85. Destinies

Another game that has some spooky elements is Destinies. A game where all the players are working against each other, but not getting in each others ways too much, to complete their destiny. Each of you know what you need to find, so can you figure out on the map where that might be.

Lucky Duck makes Destinies, and they have a great app for it which leads you through the story. And the story has some spooky elements and offers you conversations and challenges to do. And doing the challenges are simple. It’s rolling dice to see how many successes you get. But you can improve your stats as you succeed on checks and get XP to spend. So you can increase your odds. Plus you have extra dice you can roll, but they only come back so often. When do you want to push for that success or do you need to hold them back. An easy but fun story game.

Buy Destinies

84. Ascension: Deck Building Game

My favorite pure deck building game is Ascension. I know for most people it’ll be Dominion. But I like a few things better about Ascension. I like that you have a changing market, that means that I need to adapt to how I play. I can’t pick out a perfect strategy from the start.

Plus, I think that the combos in Ascension are better. You play with four different factions and all of them synergize a lot amongst themselves. So can you build up an engine that allows you to play a ton of cards and have epic turns. I think that is what stands out so much to me, when I get an epic turn, I can buy a lot and fight a lot of monsters which is why I like Ascension better.

Buy Ascension Deck Building Game

83. Canvas

Now we’re onto a game about making art. In Canvas you take art cards, that are clear, and layer them to create masterpieces. Really Canvas is a game about getting the right symbols at the bottom to score a lot of points, or get lot of ribbons that score you points. However, it does this with great artwork and fun pieces of art that you create. I almost like to see what cool art I can make more than get the points. But when you make a piece of art almost no matter what it is cool. Canvas is a fast and fun game for everyone.

Buy Canvas

82. Ecosystem

Next up we have Ecosystem the drafting game on the list. In Ecosystem you are building out, well, an ecosystem with animals and terrain types. Each of them scores differently. Wolves like to be in a pack, so the person with the most gets the most points on them. Rabbits teleport other tiles around, just like real life. But bear want honey and trout, trout want to be by the river.

And the game is fast. You draft a card and you add it to a 4 by 5 grid. That is all the area you have, so how can you pick cards that will optimize your scoring. But it’s also so simple that it’s not a stressful game. Once you have an idea of the scoring, and each player has a cheat sheet, the game goes quickly.

Buy Ecosystem

81. Star Wars: Unlimited

Finally, Star Wars: Unlimited, this game isn’t even out yet. But I got to play it twice at Gen Con and I really like this game. The Star Wars theme certainly helps. But for me, when I compare it and Lorcana to Magic the Gathering, this is the one that gave me more of a feel of being full of combos as you build out what you’re doing. The base decks only had some, but as they’ve revealed more cards, I see more possibilities.

However, like Lorcana it is built to be a whole lot faster. You play out a card or attack with a card on your turn. There aren’t really other options. It’s not do everything on a turn, and your opponent can’t really respond at all. So the game is straight forward and keeps moving fast. It’s something that I don’t always love about Magic, it takes a long time on the turn. Star Wars: Unlimited it’s a whole lot faster.

Coming in Q1 2024

Upcoming Streams

So, 8 PM Central next Wednesday the plan is continue with the Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition. It’ll be games 80 through 71. I don’t even remember what is on the list, so I can’t really tease it. Join me and see what makes it on the list, will there be new games? Will there be roll and write games? Is the first campaign game going to be part of that section?

And then the other time I stream during the week is Monday at 9 PM Central. Join me then as I play a solo game. I’m not sure what game I’ll be playing. Maybe more Trailblazers as I seek to break 50 points. Or it might be Number Drop. A roll and write game that I can play solo that I haven’t gotten to yet.

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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How To Play Forest Shuffle

In Forest Shuffle you are building out a forest in front of you of trees and creatures of all types. You might be getting butterflies and and beetles or foxes and rabbits, the choice is up to you. But you look to synergize what you are picking to score points.

To play out cards you are putting cards into a discard row and using them as resources. That discard row is filling up and wiping as the game goes along and as you draw cards. Drawing cards and reducing the draw pile is how the game ends. But back to playing cards, you pick a card to play from your hand and then discard the number of cards in the corner to be able to play it.

Trees you just add to your forest in front of you. But if you play down a creature or a feature of your forest, that attaches to your tree. And trees have four sides that you can attach cards to. The foliage, the base or roots and than either side. So you need to balance playing out cards to score with adding more trees.

Then you draw and play cards until you’ve hit the three winter cards. You won’t know when they show up. But once one or two of them show up, you know the game can end any time. When the game ends, everyone tallies up their points and whomever has the most wins.

Why Is It Getting Popular?

Let me start off and say, I like Forest Shuffle. So me asking this question isn’t me not getting why it is. And I think there are a few main reasons for it getting popular.

Firstly, a lot of people play board games digitally now. Not more than who play in person, but when you can play a game digitally, there is not as much of a time restriction. Especially if you can take your turn and then check later in the day to take your next turn. It doesn’t require you to just be sitting there. It is a chance for people

Another thing is that it is a nature theme. Nature theme games are very popular right now. The success of games like Wingspan and Meadow have shown that you don’t need a big nerdy fantasy theme to make people buy game. In fact, that is a turn off for some people. Nature is a more accessible and friendly theme. It might not be why some people game (or the only theme I want) but it does appeal to a broader audience.

Finally, Forest Shuffle is not a complex game. And I say that in a good way. It is one of two games I picked up with the same premise. It is play out cards to form a forest or tableau in front of you to score points. The other one is either version of Ecosystem, regular or coral reef. What you do on your turn is quite simple. However, what you do on your turn determines the points you get. So there are decisions to be made with how you want to score. It is a good game for simplicity of turns and decision making space.

What Might Not Work For You

But let’s talk about what might not work with Forest Shuffle as well. It is a similar mechanism to other games. I called out Ecosystem, but also Meadow you collect cards to build out a line of cards in front of you. Even Wingspan has you collecting birds and putting them into various habitats and scoring based off of that. So the mechanisms are not highly unique.

I think, for some the general mechanisms of those games across the board will not be what you want. For others, you like it, but the question is how many do you need. Do you need a third or fourth game that offers a similar experience to the other games. Now, it is a different complexity level than the ones I mentioned. Forest Shuffle is more complex than Ecosystem but less than Meadow or Wingspan. So it might fill a niche for you.

What I Want To See More Of In Forest Shuffle

Now, I won’t give a full grade on this. I want to see more in this game and I want to know how it will play after a number of plays. I bought the game, so I like it. Let’s just put it at that. But I feel l like it isn’t one I can give a fully grade to yet.

Mainly, how is Forest Shuffle going to play after five plays? I set five a a number, that is just arbitrary. But what I want to see is, if I play it a number of times, how does my strategy change? Can I have a strategy, I think I did the first game, or is it just luck with cards that come out. How do you balance grabbing cards or passing on cards to play out. What is the tempo of that?

There are a good number of cards in the game. And Forest Shuffle offers a lot of different ways to score. My question and this is the case with any game like this, will I see all the cards, and will there be enough variety to keep the game unique? If the game isn’t unique, than is the game going to stay fun to play.

Forest Shuffle could certainly be expanded. I expect if it does well in retail, not just BGA, that it is going to get expansions. More cards to mix in, or like Ecosystem, another box to play with and vary up the scoring as a standalone game. But that is my concern right now.

Do you like Forest Shuffle?

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How To Play Ecosystem

Ecosystem is a pretty simple game and a drafting game. Your goal is to create the best five across by four down grid of animals to score the most points. This is done over two rounds, each round consists of a hand of ten cards.

Within those two rounds of Ecosystem, there are turns. On a turn everyone selects a card from their hand and puts it face down in front of them. That card is going to be added to their ecosystem in a way to optimize their scoring. Each type of animal or biome provides scoring in a unique way. Then you pass your hand of cards, first round clockwise and second round counter-clockwise, and receive a hand of cards.

Once all the cards are used from the two hands the game is over and scores are tallied. Each animal and biome scores according to it’s rules. And you score the diversity of animals and biomes in your ecosystem. If you don’t have enough you get docked points. Highest score wins.

What Doesn’t Work?

I think that there is one major thing that might be a turn off for some people. That is the diversity in the cards from game to game. I like Sushi Go Party better than I like regular Sushi Go, why, because it allows me to select what subset of cards I use each game, and Sushi Go does. Ecosystem is like Sushi Go in that it only comes with one set of cards. So if I play the game a number of times, I start to stumble across the same strategy, potentially. But, to mitigate that, Ecosystem is not a drafting game where you use each card, so there are always some cards missing from the drafted hands.

What Works?

One thing I enjoy about the game is that fact that you don’t use every card. I see how it would become an issue if you saw every card every time, but in Ecosystem you never will. And, you see 120 out of the 130 cards with six players. But if I play the game at two or three, we see forty or sixty cards respectively, which means we fail to see most of the cards. That is going to swing your strategy as you play.

I also enjoy how the scoring works in this game and how the diversity of creatures works. I think without that diversity of creatures it would end up being pretty standard across the board. But, because you want to diversify and they provide motivation to, I think it’s builds on the game nicely. When I need to think about not only my best scoring play, but how to avoid a 17 point potential swing, -5 points to plus 12 points, it adds a layer to the game.

Now, it doesn’t ratchet up the complexity of Ecosystem too much, and that is a good thing. Because, the last thing I like is that the game is a relaxing game. When I sit down and play a game like Ecosystem, I get to enjoy the artwork. I enjoy the puzzle of the experience, but it is not a stressful one. and with a game with pretty artwork, I think that fits what the game is going for. The game is not one that should stress you out as you play trying to get that perfect combination.

Who Is It For?

So, who is Ecosystem for? I think that this is a good game for a family with younger kids, not too young, though. You need to read your player aid when you draft the first few games. The scoring is not complex, but there are eleven things you need to think about as you play.

I also think that Ecosystem is a great game for that bit of downtime at a work lunch, or when you want to play a game but not think too hard after a long day or week or work. But one that offers just enough to keep playing it as that filler experience. It is like Sushi Go Party (or Sushi Go) that way. Though, those two are less filler games than Ecosystem is.

Final Thoughts on Ecosystem

At the start I asked the question, is this game too simple to stick in a collection? From my response I think you know my answer. I see why for some it might end up being that way. But for a relaxing filler game, Ecosystem is a great option. I play a game that offers some fun decisions or risks as I go, but not a game that offers too much.

I like to own games where I see them, and I think, this is a game I can play with most anyone. And Ecosystem is that sort of game. If I play this with my parents, it’ll work, and I played it at a game night, and it worked. That is a type of game that I enjoy to own because it’s not a party game, and it’s not Uno, but it is a game that I see most anyone playing.

Gamer Grade: B
Casual Grade: A
My Grade: A

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Part of what I do at Gen Con every evening, though, is go through a list of everything that I played. I log those plays and see how many games I played. This year, over Gen Con, I believe it was 42 or 43 different games. So let’s look at the games played, ranked, but we’re starting out only with day 1’s recap of gaming so far because 42 is too many for a single article.

Day 1 Gaming at Gen Con

13. Invincible: The Dice Game

I know that Tom Vasel of the Dice Tower did not like this game. I’m with him a bit on it. I think it’s a perfectly fine beer and pretzels type of game. But I already have a game, Zombie Dice, that does the same thing, and I think it does it better.

It’s a dice chucker where you allocate dice and push your luck to try and beat bad guys. The bad guys give you damage and they can knock down your “health” to take you out of a round if you push your luck too far. One of those, there isn’t too much to the game sort of games. It’s one I’d play again, but I don’t need two games like that in my collection.

12. Beacon Patrol

This one I accidentally slept through the event for the following day, but Beacon Patrol with the demo I got was simply fine. It has that Carcassonne style placement of tiles. It turns it into a cooperative game, but without that much game to it. I also think that it bogs down because if you get bad tiles, as a group, you might not be able to place them. They give you minor ways to deal with it, but it’s not that exciting.

And the scoring is pretty simple, surround a tile on all four sides. It gives points depending on what’s on it, but there’s just not that much going on, which is why it’s lower on my list. I feel like over a longer game it wouldn’t be any more interesting than a few round demo, it might make it worse.

11. Scram!

This is team Silver. I like Silver, but I sold my stuff. It’s a game that I played a number of times, so I don’t feel the need to come back to it again. Scram! Is simpler, but it’s for teams. I think I like it better than Silver just because of that simplicity, the weird animal theme, and the teamwork. The change is that you can play and get rid of a card of your teammates as well when you get rid of cards of the same number. Very much the same thing, but still enjoyable. Not one that I’m going to get back in this form, most likely, as it’d be harder to play.

10. GAP

I did buy this one and it’s fairly low on my list. I got it because it’s a small game and one that is pretty simple and fun. You just play out card and take cards of the matching numbers or an adjacent number. And you are trying to collect a lot of one color and a little of another color so that you get the biggest gap, hence the name. I like a little card game like this one, and it reminds me of some other ones, a bit like Hats a bit like Parade. I’m not sure it’s better than either of those, but it’s easier to teach, which I like as well.

9. Secrets of the Lost Tomb: Epic Edition

This demo was pretty light, which is a shame. I think sitting down with this game for 30 minutes or so would have been great. But this is basically a cooperative Betrayal at House on the Hill. It is a remake and reworking of an older game. I like that in theory, it’s more of an adventure and it’s one shot adventures. So it is a bit more text than Betrayal and a bit more story because of that. However, it feels a bit old in what it’s doing, do I need a second game like Betrayal?

8. Cytosis: A Cell Biology Board Game

A game that’s been out for a bit, this is one of those games that I just sat down to randomly play. And I think it’s a solid worker placement game. You need to plan out what you do well, but it doesn’t feel that exciting compared to other games.

I think I mainly compare it to Asking for Trobils, that weight of game, and Asking for Trobils is more fun. Cytosis is a great game, though, if you want an interesting way to teach Cytosis and that science because it does a great job of that. There is great value in that, in my opinion, because it’s a fun game that teaches you.

7. Age of Wonders: Planetfall

I have two things that I think are interesting about this game. Age of Wonders: Planetfall is a game about building out your factions powers to get the most points as you spend resources, get resources, fight battles, get cards.

I think that it’s a very cool game, I have it low on the list because I don’t think there is enough. It’s 7 planets you go to per game, but it’s the same seven planets. And it needs to be because cards build like they do in 7 Wonders where you have a card that is easy to get if you own a previous card. But the variability I feel like is pretty light. So I think I want it, but I’d play it 5-6 times and then be done with it.

6. The Fox Experiment

A game that’s been out for a few years. I don’t think I realized fully how it worked, now that I do, I really want the game. This is a game about Russian experiments for breeding foxes, kind of that actually happened.

You breed foxes and get new trait based off of roll and write mechanisms. And then those new foxes are placed into the breeding pool so you build out the ones that you already did. It’s a fun system, it’s not a heavy game, but I want it. I like the roll and write random element to it. I like the upgrades and things you can do to improve your fox, so very fun.

5. Ecosystem

This is one that was a surprise hit for me. The game is a pretty simple tableau building drafting game. You draft animals that score in different ways. The bear wants to be near rabbits and trout. The trout the streams and dragonflies, the foxes don’t want to be near other predators. All of those things give you points and you draft over two rounds. The upside is it can play a pretty solid number of players and it plays fast. I picked it up because it’s going to be one of those games, I can tell, that is going to be consistently played with my group, that easy to play but offers some good fun.

4. SpellBook

SpellBook is one of the bigger releases, I think, at Gen Con because of the designer. Phil Walker-Harding is known for creating lighter, easy to play games that are very popular. And I think that SpellBook hits that as well. You are trying to cast spells and give energy to your familiar. All of those things give you points and the spells give you power.

But you can only cast spells once per games of the various colors. So as you cast them, you need to decide to what level you want to push them to. The higher the go, they better they are, but the game ends when you’ve cast them all, or when your familiar is maxed out, so someone can rush those ends if they want, it’s a fun balancing act.

3. Dungeon Karts

This one is great, it’s a multiplayer racing game that is very much a Mario Kart style of game. The game play is fast and pretty straight forward in what you are doing. There are special powers, and you get spells that you cast against your opponents. This reminds me a bit of Tiny Turbo Cars but without the real time, more just that fun that you have in a game where you can blow someone else up. It definitely leans into the goofy and will be coming to Kickstarter soon which I’ll want to checkout.

2. Ticket to Ride Legacy: Legends of the West

This one is hard to rank, but it ranked high. Mainly, what I saw I liked a lot. But what I saw was mainly Ticket to Ride. When you start this legacy game you only play on the East Coast and the density of locations is a whole lot higher. There are elements that give you a bonus in the game. And what I saw that is mainly new is that you get events. Those events might give you  more victory points or potentially bad things. I’m really excited for this legacy game to come out.

1. Lost Ruins of Arnak: The Missing Expedition

I already like Arnak a lot already. The Missing Expedition expansion adds in a few things. There are two new research boards, we didn’t play with those. Two new characters I thought that both of them were very interesting. The big thing is I got to play the campaign in the box. This is a solo or two player campaign where you unlock new cards as you go along. And there is a story with it, more than I thought, which is cool. I wasn’t sure if it would work cooperatively, but it does. And there are good challenges in it and twists in the first chapter. I bought it, so I will play through the whole campaign, probably solo.

Busy with Gaming

I play a lot of games at Gen Con. And Thursday is often the busiest day for me, like I said. And I think that it might have been the best day for gaming for me. Even my least favorite game in the group, I think was fun enough to play again. It’s a good “beer and pretzels” game.

If you’re not familiar with that term, think of a game that you can sit around playing at a bar or brewery. Or at your place when you want something to play, but it’s mainly about chatting, sitting around, and drinking. Actually a very good option for a place like Gen Con.

Then the list goes all the way up to bigger more complex games that are great. I’m not sure that The Missing Expedition is as good as Expedition Leaders for Lost Ruins of Arnak. But it adds in more cards and more expedition leaders even if you don’t want the cooperative campaign. So even if you do end up playing without the campaign you get good stuff in the box.

It’s been just over a week and I miss the gaming all the time already. Gen Con is great for that, and thankfully, I get a game night tomorrow night where we’ll play some of the these games that I bought at Gen Con. Often some that I did demo as well.

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