Top 10 Solo Only Board Games

Almost all of these games are ones that I’ve featured on the Malts and Meeples YouTube channel. I will put out videos for all of them that I have one so you can find them all here.

10. Snowfall Over Mountains

This one is a nice and peaceful board game. Snowfall Over Mountains is a card laying game, and you will see a lot of these. You create a layout of cards that score for different types of terrain. You score rabbit tracks one way, ponds another, trees another, and so on, and this scoring can change. But you want to get as high as score as you can and that’s it for the game. It is fast, it is easy to shuffle up and play again.

9. Cursed

This one is all about trying to defeat a curse before time runs out. You need to defeat a certain number of monsters before the deck of cards runs out, or the witch gets your soul. The game play is all about pushing your luck and deciding how many cards to use to try and defeat the monsters. I like how all the cards have a few things on them. They might have special rules or treasure, but they can all be used for attacking and they are all monsters.

8. Numbsters

Why is six afraid of seven? Because seven eight nine. Yes, that is the basis for this game, and it it works. You want cards to eat each other and you want to end up with as few cards as possible. So you create a line of cards (or you can play it in your hand) and you need to use the rule at the front to eat cards, or just to eat cards that are one higher. It’s a little game, part of the Button Shy Line of games, and it works better than a lot of them for me.

7. Relics of Rajavihara

Maybe you remember the video game Chips Challenge. If you are like me, you loved that game growing up and trying to figure out every puzzle you could. Relics of Rajavihara gives you some of that same feel in a board game. You need to manipulate blocks in ways that let you get to the relic on each level. If you get stuck, you just reset the board and try again. It is one that I owned, played, sold, and now I got it back because I just want to go through them again.

6. Bargain Basement Bathysphere

This is a crazy game when it comes to board games names. But Bargain Basement Bathysphere is a fun campaign roll and write game. It is meant to be solo and it’s campaign only in the loosest terms, less of a campaign than Welcome to the Moon for example. But it’s fun to play and it’s fun to figure out how to manipulate the dice and get down to the bottom of the sea and get back out before your oxygen runs out. There is just a little bit of tension in the game, and that works well.

5. Grove/Orchard

Yes, this is two games at once on the list. But Grove and Orchard are very similar in what they do as board games. I could also add a game like Sprawlopolis to this, but I like what Grove and Orchard do better. In this game you are trying to grown the most fruit that you can. You gain fruit by overlapping cards so that matching fruit symbols cover each other. And that’s the majority of the game right there. Grove adds in some extra scoring challenges which are fun to play with as well.

4. Under Falling Skies

Have you ever wanted to play space invaders with Independence Day? For me, that is what the game Under Falling Skies feels like. At it’s core, it is a dice placement game where you want to get big numbers so you can fight the aliens, drive them back, and research how to stop them. But the higher number you use the faster the smaller alien ships descend. And if too many of them make it into the Earth’s atmosphere, well, that’s game over, man.

3. Final Girl

Final Girl is the one game on the list that I haven’t played yet on Malts and Meeples Youtube. I need to refresh myself on how to play it and then get it to the table. Though that might wait until the fall because Final Girl is all about horror. Every game you play takes you into the setting of your choice and you are the final girl. You need to survive and beat the killer or other things as you play.

And there are really a ton of different options as to what you can do. I love the mix and match nature of the horror setting your are in with the variety of final girls who you can play as. And it is all time management and resource management to try and win the game. Of course, the longer it goes, the scarier it gets. Can you find what you need, rescue others, and defeat the scenario?

2. Kingdom Legacy: Feudal Kingdom

This is the one with the most recent playthrough on Malts and Meeples. And I blame Meet Me At The Table for getting me into this game. This is a legacy game, which is a bit odd to put on the list. But it’s a game all about managing a deck of cards to build up your kingdom and get as many points as you can. I love how streamlined it is and how almost all cards throughout the game can be upgraded as well as be resources that you use to upgrade other cards. So the decision how to use a card is always a challenge.

1. For Northwood

Finally, we have For Northwood a solo only trick taking game. And you might think, like I did, I like trick taking but how is it going to work solo? Well, it is my number one, so I think that it works well solo. In the game you need to win at each grove. When you win at a grove you get access to a leader who can help you in future rounds and you get points. But it is hard because each grove needs an exact number of tricks one.

I love how the game gives you powers and abilities that you can use. Though, you are only allowed to use them once per hand of cards. So if you need to spend it early, well that might be rough if things start to go sideways. But it just works and the challenges work well as well for once you have conquered the base game.

Final Thoughts

Now I know I have a lot more solo only games that I’ve played. There are a ton of Button Shy Games like that and only one of them made the list. Why is that? I think it is because a lot of them feel similar and they are all very small games. That isn’t a bad thing because for the most part I enjoy them a lot. And I know that I have a lot more to play from littler games like Friday and Palm Island to bigger solo only games like Mr President, Hallas of Hegra, and Hoplomachus: Victorum.

Is there one of the solo only games that you want to see me highlight on the channel? Let me know that down in the comment section or over on the Nerdologists Facebook page or on the YouTube channel.

Five Solo Board Games to Play on Malts and Meeples

But what are my Top 5 solo only games that I want to get played? Well, let’s do one last final list really quickly and in no particular order.

1. 20 Strong – This looks like a fun game and it’s from Chip Theory Games, but it’s small. And you decide what setting you want to play, so it can be their new one for the game or it can be one of their existing ones.
2. Mr President – This one would be a huge undertaking and that is why I haven’t played it yet. Have you ever wanted to be the President of the United States? I honestly can say that I don’t think I have, but in this board game, you can play as them and make decisions but you need to balance everything.
3. Forage – This is going to be the easiest to get to the table. It’s in the same line as Grove and Orchard, so I should just stream this one.
4. The Ratcatcher – This is the Pied Pipers story, in some ways, in a board game. It is one where you want to catch all the rats before they get too much cheese. I’ve heard the rulebook is tough but I still want to give it a got because of the theme.
5. Hoplomachus: Victorum – The second Chip Theory Games game on the list. This one is not small and it’s a campaign. But it is a short campaign. Can I build up my troops and combat prowess to get through the whole thing?

Which one of these should I play?

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

And for other ideas check out the previous lists.

Two Player Games
Campaign Games

Solo Games

Final Girl

Final Girl is not one of the solo games that has a great theme for the holidays, unless that holiday is Halloween. But for a person who loves board games and horror movies this is a great game. Because this game is all about being the final girl who survives or at least makes it to the end of the horror film. Can you survive to the end?

But there is more beyond that. This game has some really fun mechanisms to it. It’s all about spending energy to play out cards. Of course you spend too much you won’t be able to buy more cards and you’ll end up with a weak turn. It’s this really fun balancing act of actions you try and do, and then you hope that you roll successes.

The game also has so much variability in it. You don’t need to get it all, but you buy a base box, that is the core game for the whole thing. And you buy what they call feature film boxes. Basically boxes that have different final girls and horror bad guy tropes. So you can pick your favorite tropes or buy a bunch for a lot of fun variety.

Grove

Grove is a small game even when it comes for solo games. This one is about building up your best and most productive fruit grove. It does it by having you overlap cards. A lot of games do this and Grove, in my opinion does this best. Orchard is the simpler version, and Sprawlopolis does something similar, but it isn’t as small

Like I said, in this game you are trying to overlap cards so you get the right types of fruits covering the other up. In fact, you can’t mix fruits as you overlap. It’s a good and thinky puzzle that way as you play. And the game is done with only nine cards. So even for a solo game it goes fast. The game does come with 18 cards, though, so you can easily play twice quickly before you even need to shuffle up again.

For Northwood

From the same company as Grove and in the same size box we have For Northwood. As far as solo games go, this one is very unique. Mainly because it’s trick taking. How do you do trick taking as a solo game?

The trick taking is pretty simple. You play against a deck of cards, you know what cards aren’t in that deck because they are in your hand. And you need to win tricks like normal. You play the same suit, you win the trick if you have the higher number. A lot of the fun, though comes from the fact that you don’t want to win tricks sometimes. You activate a different location each time and that tells you how many tricks you need to win.

That sounds very lucky. But it’s less lucky because as you play you start with powers that you can use, and as you win at locations you activate and get the opportunity to bring in new powers to use. Some help you get that target of winning seven tricks I believe it is. Other powers let you dump cards and lose tricks when you can’t win any.

The Isofarian Guard

Now we’re into the big solo games. Though just for this one game. This also could cross over onto the campaign games list. But The Isofarian Guard is a big campaign game with a big footprint, voice acted (or might be just narrated) story, and it’s a fun time.

I have a play of the game, at least the start of it, you can checkout on Malts and Meeples. But the main mechanisms are around you exploring the map, going to locations and sometimes you get story, other times you fight monsters, and then you build up your home base as well. The combat can become a bit repetitive with you stumble across it too often. They might have changed that up in the 2nd edition or 1.5 edition they crowdfunded.

The story is the element that really drives the game. This is not going be one of the easier solo games to find. I suspect they might have a few around as they are fulfilling their latest crowdfunding campaign, but this is a good big solo campaign game that you can play. It also does work two players as well, but was built for solo because you can’t explore separately.

Snowfall Over Mountains

Snowfall Over Mountains is probably the best thematically for the holidays. This is about building out the landscape of the surrounding areas to a little log cabin. And that’s really how it works, you take a card and figure out where you want to place it around the cabin or with what you’ve already built out.

But I like how relaxing this game is as a solo game. It’s one where you don’t feel the pressure to do well because you are just seeing how many points you get. And you get points by completing objectives to the best of your ability. Each objective scores for a different thing, and there are multiple of each scoring so you can vary up how the game plays every time.

This one is really for that nice peaceful, maybe not your family or friends sending you away, but when you want to get away and do something that still stimulates your brain sort of games. And I enjoy that for a solo game because it gives a nice relaxing experience. And it’s another one that I’ve played on Malts and Meeples.

Final Thoughts

I really enjoy solo games. Though, I find that I like them best when I’m streaming them. Mainly because I like to have someone to talk to, so a camera does the trick for that. Let me know what some of your favorite solo games are.

And which of these solo games would you want to get or give?

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

Catch up on previous videos here

100 through 91
90 through 81
80 through 71
70 through 61

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition – 60 through 51

60. Medium

• Published by Greater Than Games in 2019
• How well can you and a partner connect two seemingly separate words?

This is a really fun party game. You are just trying to match up with your partner (for the round) on two words. But can you both land of the same word? If not, now you need to use those two new words. But, of course, those two new words might have gotten you further apart. This game is one of those party games that has a lot of great highs to it as people land on the same word. And also a lot of moments of just fun as you think it’s impossible to connect the words.

Buy Medium

59. Under Falling Skies

• Published by Czech Games Edition in 2020
• Battle aliens and defeat the mothership before it lands.

I love this as a solo game. I really enjoy the complexity and thought process of needing to manage how to alien ships are descending. Yet you also need to push to research. So it’s a balancing act of trying to get what you need done, but also not stretching yourself too thin that the smaller vessels are making it into the city scape and pushing the end of the game along faster. So the whole thing is a giant puzzle and a very fun one at that.

Buy Under Falling Skies

58. Final Girl

• Published by Van Ryder Games in 2021
• Be the final one standing in a horror film as you take on the roll of the Final Girl.

This is one that is perfect for the Halloween season so great for me to talk about it this week. It’s a solo only game where you are taking on a killer, a ghost, or whatever the story is as the final girl. The one who is standing at the end of the movie. And who knows if you will survive or not, but that is the fun challenge of the game. Plus the action system in the game is really good as you spend resources to succeed on checks, but also need those to replenish the cards and actions you can take.

Buy Final Girl

57. Stonespine Architects

• Published by Thunderworks Games in 2024
• Build out your best labyrinthian dungeon and show the you’re the best architect.

This is a really fun drafting and set collection game. And I think one of the elements that really stands out to me is how become unique in your scoring. You are able to stop buying stuff to grab a scoring card. And that scoring card is going to shape how you play the game, but you also don’t want to stop too early because you need to collect those tokens to bolster up how dangerous your dungeon really is. It’s a great balancing act and adds just a bit more choice to the game. Also this is a new one to my Top 100 Games list.

Buy Stonespine Architects

56. World Wonders

• Published by MeepleBR and Arcane Wonders in 2023
• Build out y our civilization and compete to complete wonders to make your lands the best.

I appreciate the ease of play. I say that knowing that World Wonders is not the simplest game to learn, but it is a game that as you get into it, to goes really fast. And I like the push your timing element of the game as well. I won’t call it push your luck, but you might be ready to build a wonder but have a lot of money to buy tiles left. Well, if you don’t build it now, someone else might snag it, but if you do, it might put you behind for the next round and the new wonders that come out. And I believe this is new, though maybe 2023, to my Top 100 Games.

Buy World Wonders

55. Homebrewers

• Published by Greater than Games in 2019
• Become the best home brewer and win awards at Summerfest and Oktoberfest.

This is a great little engine building game that I really like. I like it for the theme, but also for the game play as I always have fun with it. In the game you brew beer to get better at brewing beer. And some of how you do that is you get new ingredients to work with and add to your recipes for IPAs, Porters and more. Those ingredients are going to help build out your engine and might get you more money, move your up on tracks, etc. At the end, though, most of it just comes down to who is the best at brewing beer.

Buy Homebrewers

54. Potion Explosion

• Published by Horrible Guild in 2015
• Combo marbles together to create the most and the greatest potions.

This is almost an app game as a board game. And I mean that in the best way possible. There are a number of app games where you remove a “thing” and try to get matching “things” to touch because of it. Here you remove a marble and you want to get like colored marbles to touch. Because that cascades together and then you get to take those marbles. If you play it right you can create a bit change to get the marbles you need to complete a lot of potions in one turn. And that puzzle is the fun of the game to leverage your potions to complete more.

Buy Potion Explosion

53. Mansions of Madness

• Published by Fantasy Flight Games in 2016
• Investigate mysteries of the elder gods in this app guided game in FFG’s Arkham line.

This game is one of the first really big games on the list. And there is a lot that I like about it. But it did use to be higher on my list. I think it’s dropped because I haven’t played it as recently, and because I’ve played more story driven games. This one, though dynamically adjusts the story and the world as you play through multiple times and that is a fun element. But the different scenarios and missions are all fun, and I enjoy that variety in the game.

Buy Mansions of Madness

52. Ohanami

• Published by Pandasaurus Games in 2019
• Create your best Zen garden to score you the most points.

The last two games on the list are small. This one is great though for me because it’s a chill game, for the most part, and easy to learn and play. You collect cards, drafting them two at a time. And then you add those cards to three columns. But you either need to add to the top, higher, or bottom, lower on the column. And things can never drop out of numerical order. Plus how the different color score, as you draft over three hands, makes the game even more of a puzzle. And there is a fourth color as well that can be huge, but you are giving up points elsewhere. Overall a really fun little filler game.

Buy Ohanami

51. Vegetable Stock

• Published by Good Game Studio and Arcane Wonders in 2019 (and 2024 for Arcane Wonders)
• Collect vegetables and be able to sell them for the most at the end of the game.

This is a stock market vegetable drafting game, and I love the absurdity and double meaning of Vegetable Stock. This is another small game that is more of a filler than anything. But it’s a really fun filler as you draft over six rounds. Each round you draft from N+1 cards where N is the number of players. That last card is then used to adjust the stock market. So you need to be smart in what you draft. Draft too much of one veggie it’ll never move up, but if it moves up too much the market might just crash and make them worthless.

Preorder Vegetable Stock

Upcoming Streams

Just a reminder on my streaming schedule. It’s not just all my Top 100 Games (of all time).

• Monday night, time varies, I play different small solo games, though I might be looking to start up a campaign again. Expect Final Girl next week for Halloween. And generally the streams do start between 8 and 8:30 PM central time.
• Wednesday at 9 PM central is going to continue my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition for another six weeks. After that expect this to be when I play my small games. Only 5 more weeks left of my Top 100 Games, then likely this will switch to smaller solo games and video games.
• Friday at 9 PM central my wife and I are streaming a playthrough of Baldur’s Gate 3. Join us for the adventure of Nina and Kaerok and see what choices we make.

The best way to know when we go live, though is to subscribe and click that notification bell. I can’t promise, and in fact it’s pretty unlikely, that I’ll have events to click on ahead of time. Though I do want to get better at it. I hope that you can join a stream and hop into the chat. And let me know what games in this list are your favorite or that you want to try.

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

Top 5 Boss Battlers

5. Marvel United

First of two Marvel games on the list. This one I think most people would overlook as a boss battler. I think it is even loose in terms of that. I go up against the villain with other players who are dealing with threat, rescuing bystanders and dealing with schemes from the villain. But it doesn’t feel like that traditional boss battler. Might be because you need to work up to facing down the boss.

But the game is great. And I like the variety in both the heroes and the villains. Each villain does things slightly differently, and it feels comic like in that. So when you face off against Red Skull or Ultron they feel different. And while the characters don’t massively change they play differently as well.

4. Final Girl

We’re going from Marvel to horror here with Final Girl. Final Girl is interesting because it really is a boss battler. If you’re not familiar with the concept, the final girl is the last survivor in a horror film. This is a very consistent trope, whether they make it out of the movie alive or not, well that is not guaranteed. But they are going to face off against the killer.

Final Girl the board game is going to lean into that trope. You are the last girl and you need to rescue people, find a weapon, and see if you can take out the bad guy. This is a great game and there are a ton of different girls you can play as and killers or bosses that you have to deal with. It’s a different feeling game, again, for a boss battler, but one that is a ton of fun.

3. Aeon’s End

One without minis, but Aeon’s End is definitely a boss battler. You face off as breach mages against a nemesis of some sort. This is a phenomenal game because each character does some things better than others. And each has a power that you want to use, but also that you need to balance against just doing damage and doing your deck building the most efficiently and effectively.

And then the nemesis is great as well. You need to worry about a number of things from them. The actions that are delayed that you can stop or the minions that are coming out that’ll keep on activating. This game just has that right blend of enough to always be interesting but not too much so it isn’t hard to play. And it is one that if you want to watch the legacy playthrough, I did one of those.

2. Marvel Champions

Second Marvel game on the list. Champions has you (and maybe one other) taking up Marvel heroes against a Marvel villain. This is one that was on the Dice Tower Top 10 list. And I think that it works, but it isn’t what I think of, traditionally, when I think of a boss battler. Mainly because there is no big mini that you are fighting.

But in Marvel Champions you take a hero up against a singular villain in a one off fight. You want to beat that villain and that’s your goal. Some villains might need to be beat in different ways but it comes down to that heroes versus villain. And that is what it is with a boss battler. Or at least part of what it is.

1. Oathsworn

Yes, this did end up on the list. Why, because I have played it, technically. It wasn’t a full playthrough of the game, but I got to do a combat at Gen Con in 2022. And I like Oathsworn a lot in what it does. The game uses a slick card management system where you are playing out cards to push others down to get them back into your hand. Cards only really flow as you play out more cards.

Each boss is also unique from what I’ve seen. I only have faced off against the first one, the rat on the box, but that one felt like a unique monster to fight. And then I’ve seen a tiny bit of the Meet Me at the Table gameplay that Bairnt and Colin did. But I didn’t want to watch much of that so I could avoid spoilers.

Final Thoughts

This is a trickier list, like i said. But I got to five and I like all five on the list. The one that I want to get to the table soon is Primal. But I am also painting the minis on that one. So I need to get a few more of them painted, and even consider which one I’ll face off against first. Once I do that, then I’ll be getting that one to the table, and likely streaming it.

Plus Kingdom Death Monster is sitting on my shelf waiting to get tried. And Catharsis is another boss battle that I should play. I’m guessing if I look around the game room more, I am likely to find more boss battlers that I need to get to the table. Like Wild Assent and who knows what else.

What are your favorite boss battlers? And which boss battlers do you think I need to try?

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

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.

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

Top 5 Upcoming Crowdfunding Games

Honorable Mention

The Isofarian Guard – This is an honorable mention because it’s a game that is already out. And one that if you want you can checkout my game play over on Malts and Meeples.

Note, I correct a rule mistake in future videos.

But this is a bit adventure of a game and a solo only game (though you can just make group decisions). It is played out over multiple stories that follow different members of the guard as, well, their lives change forever. It’s a fun bag building system with a little bit of a grind to it, but overall a good game.

The new crowdfunding campaign is going to give you an opportunity to pick it up again. Yes, the game price is much higher, but now you know what you’re going to get. It’s an honorable mention, though, for me because I can get an upgrade pack for it.

Stars of Akarios – Another honorable mention because I already own the game. Stars of Akarios is a fun space exploration and tactical space combat game. I compare it, story wise, to Ender’s Game meets Farscape. Which, I think works. It’s another one that you can checkout game play on Malts and Meeples.

This one is also an honorable mention because it has an upgrade pack. For me it isn’t a whole new game, it’s just what I need to hopefully tweak the game play and make it even better. But if you are just getting the game, it should be a better version of it without some of the rough edges. A game I love and highly recommend.

5. Final Girl Series 3

This one maybe could have been an honorable mention as well. But technically, each series is pretty new in what they do. Final Girl is one that I should stream because it’s a fun solo game of trying to win in a horror movie as the final girl.

And Van Ryder Games is building a very impressive collection of horror movies. This game uses a base box, which gives you some of the common pieces that you need. But then it’s about what final girl and what killer or enemy they go up against. You get some classic summer camp settings, or you might be dealing with a ghost in a house.

Finally, one nice thing about this game and the campaigns is that you can get what you want. If you get two of the “feature films” as they call them, you get 4 different combinations, you get 10, it’s 100 different combinations. So you get good combination value however you want and as much as you need.

4. DreamEscape

This one I only have higher because it’s new in terms of being a game. This, from what I can tell, is a Lovecraftian choose your own adventure style of game. I like that in terms of sounding like a story driven experience with fast time to the table and a lot of story.

What I need to see is how much it is going to cost. There are games higher on the list that I am more interested in. And if this treats itself like a big minis game in terms of cost, though doesn’t seem to have minis, or the cost to game time ratio seems off, it might not be one for me. But I like the setting and the premise, so I want to see what the whole crowdfunding campaign looks like.

3. Dragon Eclipse

Awaken Realms crowdfunding campaign is always interesting sounding. And this game is not like their normal main line Awaken Realms games. It almost feels more like that Awaken Realms Lite games, but without having that label on it. Mainly, there are minis, but it isn’t a ton of minis thus far.

Dragon Eclipse, from what I remember, is a deck building or deck management experience of a game. There is a campaign, I think, to the game, but it’s not going to be as massive and involved as other Awaken Realms titles. And I think the setting is really interesting sounding, which is why it’s so high on my list.

2. Dice Throne

We’re back to not a new game. But I love Dice Throne. And Dice Thone has been teased that something new is coming. If I had waited a little bit, it’d would have been announced as to what this is. But I know a little bit of what is coming to crowdfunding.

Firstly, new characters it seems. Is this Dice Throne Season 3? I hope so, but I’m not sure, it might be another property based thing like Marvel Dice Throne. But I think it’ll be Season 3. And also interestingly, a new way to play cooperatively.

I owned Dice Throne Adventures, but I never played it. The game system looked fine, but it also looked just fine to me. And for a game I really love with how it was originally built, just fine didn’t cut it. This time my hope is that it’ll maybe be a bit simpler and less work to get to the table so I can play those multiple different ways but without learning a whole new system.

1. Rogue Angels

This has been my #1 for a long long time. And it’s got prototypes out in the world, I’ve gotten to play it a handful of times on TTS. Rogue Angels is easily my most anticipated crowdfunding campaign coming up. And it’s coming up pretty quickly. In fact, follow it here.

This game is just amazing. It’s like Mass Effect as a board game. It’s a bit space adventure, fighting, story choices, factions that you can become friends with – or enemies, and so much more. And it’s now coming back to Kickstarter after an initial launch with more things out there, more game play and more to checkout.

I can not wait to get a copy of this game, when I do, it’ll be my top game to play. That doesn’t mean it’ll become my Number 1 game of all time, but I’m also not betting against it. Such a fun time and a campaign with enough branching and choices that it’ll be good to replay as well.

So Many Games

I honestly could have come up with more crowdfunding games to put on the list. And will I back all of these games, very possibly. But I plan on doing a “Back or Brick” article when they come out to talk through my decision process.

I’ll say this, I really can’t do justice to how excited I am for the top two. Those two I know that I love already. And more Dice Throne is amazing. Plus to finally be able to get Rogue Angels, I cannot way for that. It’s a system that I think works so well and a design that is intentional about being epic in what you can do but not bloated.

Which one of these campaigns sounds the most interesting to you and are you most likely to back?

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

00 through 91 here.

90 through 81 here.

80 through 71 here.

70 through 61 here.

60 through 51 here.

50 through 41 here.

Top 100 Games 2022 Edition – 40-31

40: So Clover!

So Clover is another party game on the list and another cooperative party game. In So Clover! you are trying to come up with a word that combines two. We’ve seen this before with Medium and Cross Clues. But in So Clover, each person fills out their grid. Then another card with more words is mixed into it. It’s easy to play, hard to explain without the game. But it is a step up of a party game but still not hard to play.

Buy on Amazon

39. First Rat

First Rat immediately stuck with me because of the theme. It’s about rats building space ships to go to space. But with that theme there is a really good and fun game. Mainly, a game of moving rats up a track, but it gives you different ways to do that. You move up the track collecting resources and getting what you need to build different parts of your rocket ship.

It has a cute theme and it leans into that. Plus it is a thinky game without being overly complex which I enjoy. I need to figure out my route but I can go a number of different ways. And how you build your route, while, we are fighting over scoring, so it will affect me, but not too much. And I went a very different strategy than the other players, and still ended up very close.

Buy on Miniature Market

38. Orchard: A 9 Card Solitaire Game

Next up one of two solo only games on this part of the list. Orchard made the list last year and it’s a great solo game because it’s extremely fast and just a lot of fun to play. In the game you are stacking, or layering, cards so that like fruit trees cover like trees.

The game is just nine cards per game. And the components and package are really nice. I like the game for the speed it plays. A game of Orchard takes me five minutes. If I’m bored or I want something fast to do, Orchard is a great option. Or if i want to multitask while watching a sporting event, that is great as well.

Buy on Miniature Market

37. Welcome To…

Welcome To has dropped some on the list but still a roll and write game that I really like. I say it’s about building your perfect Stepford neighborhood. All the white picket fences are in the right spot and it’s just set-up perfectly to build you little slice of town.

What makes this game work is that it scales to any player count. But also that with that, the game play isn’t too simple. You have three choices each round of what to fill in, and there is good strategy in that. Plus there are expansions of different maps that you can play with which are fun as well.

Buy on Cool Stuff Inc

36. Mesozooic

Mesozooic is going to be an overlooked game, and some of that is that it’s not going to be a game that works for everyone. It is a light drafting game where you are getting cards to build your dinosaur zoo, a theme that is really popular right now. The drafting part of the game is light, and then the other half of the game is a sliding puzzle. You move your cards around, like a sliding puzzle, to get the most points possible out of your zoo. It’s clever, it’s light, and it’s fun. And you can pick a more complex strategy in hopes you can slide it right, or go for the easy points.

Buy on Miniature Market

35. Potion Explosion

Another light and fun game, we have Potion Explosion. This game is all about cascading marbles so that like colors hit each other. You then use those marbles, you pick up all that cascade, to complete potions. Those potions in turn give you powers that help you get more cascading marbles and even more potions.

The game moves quickly, but it’s again one of those games that are simple to play, but you can master it. And that’s the fun of a game like that one, figuring out how you can best use your potions on a turn so that you can get more potions completed. Then use those potions to complete other potions the next turn. And when you can do that, the game clicks.

Buy on Miniature Market

34. Letter Jam

Letter Jam is an odd game on this list, now not like Mesozooic odd, but odd in that it’s a cooperative word game where you can’t see your word. In fact, you don’t know what it is or any of the letters, really any clue about it.

So, everyone is trying to give the other players clues. And the clues are done in a form of a word. So let’s say that my letter was ‘A’ and someone else gives the clue, each one corresponding to a letter in front of someone else of ‘F’, blank, ‘R’, ‘M’. It’s maybe a solid clue for someone, but for me, it could be ‘FARM’, ‘FORM’, or ‘FIRM’. It’s helped me some but not that much. Letter Jam gives you a chance to give really clever and good clues, which I like.

Buy on Game Nerdz

33. Final Girl

The other solo only game on the list is Final Girl. I won’t go into how it’s played too much, but the premise, along with fun game play, are what really sell it for me. In Final Girl you are the last survivor, or will be, in a horror film. Now, will the killer get you, the ghost track you down, the monster pull you into the swamp? Or will the final girl survive?

The game play, like I said, won’t go into it too much, is a nice hand management puzzle of playing cards to get things done, having enough to get more cards and repeating the process. Van Ryder Games is really smart with how they made this game. There are elements that are consistent across the whole game. But then other things, their feature film boxes, that give you a new final girl and killer and allow you to change everything up.

Buy on Miniature Market

32. Lost Ruins of Arnak

Lost Ruins of Arnak another new to me game this year. Or I should say, one that I played for the first time this year. It’s nice getting taught a game by someone who already knows it well. And that was my experience at Gen Con. But I’ve played it more since then.

Arnak is a game where you are exploring locations, buying better gear, you can find artifacts, idols and more. Now that makes it seem thematic, and I think that the theme does come through. But Arnak is mainly a worker placement game as you send out your explorer meeples. And then deck building which is how you can get more and more actions to do and push up the tracks.

It would be lower, probably in the 60’s if it weren’t for the Expedition Leaders expansion, though. It makes it so each player starts with a different power. Some of them are easy than another, a third explorer to place on the map. But others then have more complex systems but when you leverage them it turns negative points into positive effects or things like that. The game is really fun with the expedition leaders.

Buy From Game Nerdz

31. Super Mega Lucky Box

Final game in this section of 10 is Super Mega Lucky Box. This is another roll and write game and one that looks really simple, because it is basically bingo. But while it is simple, Super Mega Lucky Box is a lot of fun. The game has you going for a “blackout” fully filled sheet to score it. But as you complete rows and columns you get bonuses.

Sometimes the bonuses are just cross off another number on one of your other cards, you have three. Other times you get lightning bolts. And lightning bolts adjust the numbers of the card flipped that you are crossing off. You don’t have a nine, well, spend a lighting bolt and make it an eight. Spend three and makes it a six. Or stars where the more you get a round the more they are worth. Or moons where the person who has the most gets a bonus 6 points, while the least loses 6. All of those bonuses just make for a really fun game with such a simple premise.

Buy on Amazon

Upcoming Streams

If you are following along with the Top 100, you already know that the next one is going to be coming out on Monday at 8:30 PM Central Time. But if you want the link or the video you can find that here. Chat along, talk about your favorite games with me. See if we overlap as I get closer and closer to my Top 10 Games.

Then on Wednesday, no link for it yet, we have Chronicles of Drunagor. I kept this evening free so that I would have time to get it set-up and ready to be played. I’m excited to get it to the table and I hope that you’ll join with me as I play a new campaign game. Chronicles of Drunagor is going to be a big game and one that looks like a ton of fun.

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

Top 10 Games to Buy at Gen Con 2022

10. Sagrada: The Great Facades – Glory

The only expansion on the list, I know that I’ll grab it. It is more fun for Sagrada and while I don’t play Sagrada a ton, it is a blast when I pull it out. Glory is going to give another twist on how to play it. And I like how they are doing the expansions. I wish that this was Sagrada Legacy but that wasn’t able to make it in time.

9. Scout

Scout is probably going to be one of the hot games. I say that because it just won the Spiel de Jahres. But I also am not sure how available it has been. Scout is a card shedding game where the cards have two numbers. And you decided at the start which set of numbers you want to use. But you can’t flip it to give you a perfect set-up, it is just how it is dealt. It seems light but intriguing.

8. Paint the Roses

Paint the Roses is going to be a bigger deduction game. Each player knows part of the puzzle to keep the Queen of Hearts from taking off their heads. But you can’t tell what that is, other players need to figure that out from what you are doing so that cooperatively you can get the garden painted and done. There is a deluxe version of this game that looks amazing.

7. Planet Unknown

Planet Unknown is another game that I expect to be flying off the shelves or from the booth. This is a game that was on Kickstarter and has a cool thing with a tile board that rotates. On your turn you rotate it to pick a tile that you want but everyone else gets to pick a tile from in front of them to add to theirs. A cool concept that I think could make for a fun game.

6. Nightmare Productions

Speaking of a fun concept, Nightmare Productions is a game about making horror movies. Now this is not a new game, but it is the first time that Trick or Treat Studios is putting it out and the first time that I know of with only a horror theme. The only horror theme makes it more interesting for me as you try and make your best movie possible. One that I want to checkout and because of the theme probably buy.

5. Marvel: Remix

Marvel: Remix is a reskin of Fantasy Realms with Marvel. I am interested in plain old Fantasy Realms but Marvel: Remix is a theme that I like better. This is basically a small combo building game to give you the most points at the end of the game. You do that by adding or removing cards from your hand. Not sure completely how it works, but looks like a good one.

4. Long Shot: The Dice Game

Another one that I guarantee will be hot. And one that is already out and has been for a little bit. But it hasn’t been consistently easy to get your hands on. This is a roll and write horse racing game where you bet on horses and it just looks like a nice light fast and fun game. I really haven’t heard anything bad about it, maybe some okay reviews but nothing bad.

3. Cat in the Box

Cat in the Box is a fascinating sounding trick taking game. In this game you are playing standard trick taking, you predict how many tricks you can win, and you get points for that. But cards never have a color, at least not until they are played. Then all of a sudden they have a color, and you can declare yourself out of suit at any time, but be careful, because that might create a paradox.

2. Cartographers Expansions

I guess there is one more expansion on the list, Cartographers is getting three new maps. I think if you pre-ordered them they have already shipped. Do I need these? Probably not. Will I get them, most definitely. I love Cartographers, one of my favorite roll and write games, I think it got bumped to #2 or #3, but we’ll have to see when I do my Top 100 games of all time this fall.

1. My Father’s Work

Finally we have My Father’s Work. My Father’s Work is a big game, one of not so many big games on my list. Oathsworn isn’t on there because I backed the Kickstarter, otherwise it would be. But My Father’s Work you play as a mad scientist, but not just one, three generations as you try and pass down knowledge, deal with the villagers and complete your machines, monster, whatever it is. It is scenario based with an app, and while it is heavily Euro mechanics, I think it looks so fascinating. I could see this one being popular, but it is fairly expensive.

Do You Have Gen Con Must Buy?

Let me know what you want to buy. I do want to swing by the Shadowborne Games booth to see Oathsworn, of course my copy will be showing up today. And same with Batman: Everybody Lies, but I might wait on that one. And The Librarians just missed the list, I thought the game was fun, didn’t back it on Kickstarter, and now I want to see what the final production looks like. There are a whole lot more games as well I can imagine being hot, Final Girl and Ark Nova likely will move fast as well. But let me know what you want to pick up over on Twitter.

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

Games to Buy at Gen Con 2022

There are always a ton of games that come out at Gen Con and the Board Game Geek list tends to be pretty accurate, though not fully. I know the first year I was at Gen Con in 2019, there were some issues with it. Games that maybe weren’t supposed to be on there, Blueprint for example, made it onto the list somehow. But that was a few years ago at this point so I am hoping that it has been fixed up.

One of the really useful things about this list is trying to guess the hot games. There is always something every year that sells really quickly. So it is trying to guess what that might be. Games like Final Girl I’m sure will go fast with whatever supply Van Ryder Games has. Or something like Mission Catastrophe or Oathsworn which are getting buzz recently. My Father’s Work is the one that I am most interested in. But, the games that go fast, you don’t really need to run for. Most will be available later.

So is it worth diving into the mad rush at the beginning. Because that is part of what happens at Gen Con, when the dealer hall opens people are packed at the doors. I tend to think that it is not worth it. It’s a massive of humanity and while I love a good crowd, a crowd where everyone has very specific objectives, less so. Mainly because the feeling of that type of crowd is different. Plus, like I said, you will be able to find most if not all of the games later.

What would be your must buy game from the GeekPreview list?

Upcoming Streams

So, as I said in the last post, I have a week off coming up here. I stream on Monday and then on Wednesday, I am driving out to Gen Con. I might see about doing some short content or record some videos on my phone, but we’ll see.

Monday, though, I will stream and it’ll be a chill solo game play. Unless something happens, like Oathsworn shows up in which case I’ll do an unboxing. But most likely I’ll be playing Black Sonata. This is a solo hidden movement game that is a lot of fun to play and try and figure out the pattern as to where the dark lady of Shakespeare’s fancy is going and who she is.

Then the following Wednesday, so about a week and a half after, I’ll do a video either kicking off playing Stars of Akarios or showing off the games that were picked up at Gen Con. That Gen Con haul video, though, most likely will be the following Monday.

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

Top 10 Games I’d Crowdfund Again

So, you can really tell what sorts of games I tend to back on crowdfunding from this list. Though, it isn’t completely true. The big thing with making this list is that I know a lot of the smaller games I can pick-up at retail. So that definitely influenced my list.

I think if we were to talk about the games that might get played more often, it’d be a different list of my games backed on Kickstarter and Gamefound. But for the ones that I’d look at now and definitely go all in on, or go in heavily on again, definitely going to be those bigger campaign games.

As part of the conversation with the chat, join live and you can be part of it as well, we did end up talking about some of the smaller games that I backed as well. There are some that I’d be remiss if I didn’t want to back them again. And at the very end, even, I went and tracked down a few I know I will be keeping an eye on. So a lot of crowdfunding was covered but mainly about those 10 (cheated with an 11) games.

Upcoming Streams

Wednesday I am going to be playing the next scenario in Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. The video is already up so you can head over and click that notification bell to know when I am going live. The video is here.

As for next Monday, I am not sure what that stream is going to be yet. I think I might be looking to play a game of some sort. Most likely a smaller game so I can chat, but there are a number of games I am going to want to get to the table soon. There is also a chance that I will be doing an unboxing. I believe that I have Etherfields coming in soon as well as Marvel Dice Throne, and then not too long until Oathsworn. So I can unbox a lot.

What are your top games that you would back again on Crowdfunding?

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