Catch Up on the Top 100 Games

100 through 91
90 through 81
80 through 71
70 through 61
60 through 51
50 through 41
40 through 31

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 Edition – 30 through 21

30. Space Base

Published By: Alderac Entertainment Group
Designer: John D. Clair

Buy Space Base

This is a game that I should have played a long time ago. But it is one that left my collection and then I played it on BGA. Once I played it on BGA, I knew that I needed it back in my collection. Much like other games like Valeria and Mochi Koro this one is about activating spots based off of dice rolls. And then building up those spots so that you can activate more things. Space Base just ramps up in a much better way than those and offers some interesting choices and an interesting moment of when you change from money to points.

29. Symbiose

Published By: Subverti
Designers: Jeremy Partinico and Christelle Partinico

Not Available Yet

Symbiose is one of the new games on the list, in fact, I’m not sure you can get it in the US yet. But this is one I’ll be getting for sure. It’s a simple game where you try and get a two tall by four wide grid full of cards. And those cards are going to score you points based off of the other cards in the grid. But there is a simple twist that makes this work. You score your grid with the central four cards. But the ones to the left and right score your opponents to the left and right. And that is enough to make this a very fun game.

28. XenoShyft: Onslaught

Published By: CMON Limited
Designers: Keren Philosophales and Michael Shinall

Out of Print

I love cooperative and deck building games. XenoShyft does both of those things really as well as you build up your deck to fight off monsters. On the deck building side I like how you always get money to add to your hand. That means that you are always able to buy something which is good and rewarding. The other part is I can just give you a card, you need more troops, I can give you one. It is now part of your deck, and it’s not to the discard, it is straight to your hand. A very tough and rewarding game.

27. One-Hit Heroes

Published By: Wiggles 3D
Designers: AC Atienza and Connor Reid

Buy One-Hit Heroes

This one is a theme that I like a lot with super heroes, but it is doing something different. You are heroes who are glass cannons, kind of. By that I mean if you take a hit you are out, but the game gives you tons of ways to avoid them. So you need to manage your hand and what the enemy is doing. And each enemy is different and each hero is different, so there is a ton of replayability in the box. Plus you level up, so to speak, as you play and get to add in new cards to your deck.

26. Planet Unknown

Published By: Adam’s Apple Games, LLC
Designers: Ryan Lambert and Adam Rehberg

Buy Planet Unknown

Planet Unknown is one of my favorite planet terraforming games. In this one I love how you are covering up the planet and activating locations to move up on tech, and other tracks. The tracks are such a fun part of the game. And as you play the game more you play not with the starting abilities but with special ones. They make you unique, and of course there is the lazy susan. Being able to spin that and then pick where you want to pick from is great. You can set yourself up well, or you can try and mess over your opponents plans or ideally both.

25. Paper Dungeons

Published By: MeepleBR
Designer: Leandro Pires

Out of Stock

I think that this is the highest roll and write game on the list and one of the most complex that I play. Paper Dungeons is a “Dungeon Scrawler”, as they call it, where you level up heroes and explore the dungeon fighting monsters. But there is more than that, you need to manage your heroes health, make adventuring gear and find treasure. Of course, if you make it to the boss monsters that is another way to get even more points, but hopefully not at the expense of too much health.

24. Kingdom Legacy: Feudal Kingdom

Published By: FryxGames
Designer: Jonathan Fryxelius

Buy Kingdom Legacy – note, there might be an additional tariff related shipping charge in the US.

I was not sure about Kingdom Legacy the first time I watched a video on it, but the more I watched the more I liked it. This is a legacy game of managing your deck of cards by destroying cards, leveling up cards, or even adding new cards. And as you go through, you need to decide which cards are best used for upgrading and points and when to use cards for resources to level up others. It’s a nice balance of multiuse cards, and a challenge to optimize your score.

23. Ready Set Bet

Published By: Alderac Entertainment Group
Designer: John D. Clair

Buy Ready Set Bet

I like betting and I like racing when it comes to games. Ready Set Bet somehow combines the two of them into real time fun and stand-up moments. Personally I like both parts of this game betting and being the person calling the race. As you call the race, it’s just to get into it and keep the race moving and watch everyone else stand-up. As a better it’s all about trying to make the right bets the fastest. If you wait too long the best spots are gone, and if you bet too quickly you’re more apt to make bad bets. It sounds chaotic, which it is, but it’s also so much fun.

22. Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition

Published By: Stronghold Games
Designers: Sydney Engelstein, Jacob Fryxelius, and Nick Little

Buy Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition

Another game about terraforming a planet, Ares Expedition is a big engine building game of, well, doing a better job terraforming Mars. In this game it’s all about the action selection and how that works. I pick an action, everyone gets to do it, but I get a bonus for it. It might be a bonus of drawing more cards or a discount on building something. But then again, if my opponent(s) pick the same action, we all only do that action, and the other possible actions are skipped. So it’s always trying to guess what your opponent(s) will do to optimize your actions.

21. Hanamikoji

Published By: EmperorS4
Designer: Kota Nakayama

Buy Hanamikji

Finally is one of my favorite two player games. Hanamikoji is a game of trying to win the favor of Geisha by giving them gifts. Each one wants a certain gift and there is a limited number of them. You want to win the favor of four or eleven points worth.

But the biggest draw of this two player game is the action system. You only have four actions and you do one per turn and only once per round. They are simple actions like discarding two cards that won’t be used facedown, or putting one facedown that you’ll score. The other two offer a bit more with the “I Split, You Choose” mechanism in play, and makes you think about what cards you show your opponent for that.

Join Next Week

Just as a reminder, I am streaming my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 Edition every Wednesday night at 9 PM Central Time. The next few videos have their links up, so you can click notify on them to know when I go live. Or you can subscribe to the channel and click notify to know whenever a new video comes out. Currently I am playing through Legendary Kingdoms on Monday and then my wife and I are playing Baldur’s Gate 3 on Fridays. So join us for those videos.

And thank you for checking out the video and articles. Let me know what your favorite game from this chunk of 10 is and which one you would love to get played.

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How To Play Schotten Totten

Schotten Totten is a lane control game for two players. In this game you want to either win three adjacent locations or five total locations. You win locations by playing better sets of three cards on your side than your opponent can on their side.

So What Wins?

In this game you are playing “poker” type of hands. At least you can think of that for rankings. If you play a straight flush (of three cards), that is the best, then three of a kind, flush, straight, and total value of the cards. So you can see the order is pretty similar to poker. But there is no pair options.

And when you win, for example, I play a straight flush of 9, 8, 7 – in any order, that can’t be beat. Even if my opponent plays the same thing, I did it first. So when I complete that, the token comes to my side. And at that point in time my opponent can no longer play there.

Note: The game calls them color and runs for flush and straight.

Playing Cards

So I already mentioned how you can get locked out of playing in some spots. It is also important to know that you must always play. So as you play out cards or figure out what cards are left in your hand, you need to think about where you might play in the future. And the more your opponent wins the fewer options you get.

You also need to think about the cards available in the deck. Because there are six colors 1 through 9 in each color. What is the likelihood that you are going to get a card from a middle of a run that you are trying to create? Better if it isn’t a straight flush but not great. So it is possible that you might find your opponent or you win a location simply because they are no longer able to beat what you placed down. For example, if they need a six to beat your run and you play that six, you lock them out.

What Doesn’t Work

There is a level of luck to this game. And that is needed. If it were a zero sum game, by that a mean a game where you know all the information, a player with a better starting hand would win. There is no need to play it out. But depending on your preferences for games, it might feel like too much luck. But that is kind of the point of the game.

What Works

This game is simple to learn and play. It is just laying out the tiles, which don’t matter what order they go in just that they are in a line. And then you shuffle up and deal cards. I think that I could get a new player playing Schotten Totten in less than five minutes.

Hand Management

And there is a nice strategy to knowing when to pivot from a location or when to invest more at a location. That is where the meat of the game is, so to speak. You need to know when you can still dig for a card. And you need to play out cards onto locations you might not win.

Why, because you need to manage your hand of cards. You might get stuck with three ones that don’t go anywhere, and now those are dead cards in your hand if you wait too long. And three dead cards or cards you don’t want to play isn’t that bad. What happens when it is the majority of your hand? Can you figure out which spot to maybe throw a card and lose, or do you keep everything alive.

Tension

The final thing I want to talk about is tension. The tension of that choice when you decide to give up on a location. The tension of when you want to show that you’re strong at a location and when you want to hold back. Or even when it gets down to it, the tension of the draw to see if you can get the one card you need to keep your opponent from winning three adjacent locations. The game always feels tense at some point in time.

Who is Schotten Totten For?

This is a two player only game. So I think this is a good game for couples in an evening when they don’t have a ton of time. I put it in that range of a game like Lost Cities where it’s easy to get to the table and play. But it is not going to be your whole evening. That is probably a sweet spot for two player games most of the time, and where most of the ones I play on BGA land. But that is who that is for, you do need to like that bit of luck and very head to head game play.

My Final Thoughts and Grade on Schotten Totten

I like Schotten Totten a lot. I think the games in the two player realm that I’d compare it to most are Lost Cities and Hanamikoji. It is less thinky than Hanamikoji for sure. So it is more on par with Lost Cities in terms of weight. But I like the fact it is just win locations, not see if you can get points like Lost Cities. I think that is easier to learn and teach than the somewhat complex rules for Lost Cities in terms of points. Mainly the negative points. So I appreciate that ease to the table when teaching a new player.

I personally think I like it better than Lost Cities. But it is not up there with Hanamikoji which is one of my favorite two player only games. I think that one just adds in enough more puzzle that it’s more interesting. That said, I think that Schotten Totten is likely to end up in my collection. Why, because it is a small game and one that is easier to teach and play than Hanamikoji. And I really like it for that.

My Grade: A
Gamer Grade: B+
Casual Grade: A-
Strategy (out of 10): 6
Luck (out of 10): 4

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How To Play Lost Cities

Lost Cities set collection game. You want to collect the best cards of numbers in five different colors and have the most points after doing that a set number of times. It is possible to play it just once, but most of the time I think that three is what people play.

The turn you take is simple. You play a card from you hand to one of two spots. And then you draw a card to your hand from one of a few spots. You keep on doing this until the deck of cards, one of the spots you draw from, is empty. Then you tally up the points.

Scoring and Playing Cards

The main element of the game to know about is the scoring. In Lost Cities you score points for any of the colors here you play cards at. However, there is a penalty for playing cards at a location. The first card you play down sets that locations value to -20. Though, if you play a number card that negative value is going to be less.

There are two types of card for each number. The first is multiplier cards. These double, triple, or more depending on how many you play, the value of the cards. But it also doubles or triples the value of the negative as well. Then there are number cards. These number cards go from two to ten. And as you play out cards, the multiplier cards need to be played first, and then cards in ascending order. For example, if you play out a four or blue, it is no longer possible for you to play a two of blue or a three of blue.

Discarding and Drawing

So I mentioned that there are multiple places to play to and discard to. Let’s use the example of having a blue two after already playing out a blue four. That card has no value for you. So on your turn you might discard that into the blue pile between the sets you and an opponent are collecting. On the other hand, if your opponent were to discard, for example, a green multiplier and you hadn’t started scoring on green yet, you can draw from there. So you either play to the collection on your side, or the middle for that colors discard. And you either draw from one of those color discard piles or the main deck.

What Doesn’t Work

It’s an abstract game where it is possible to just be dealt a hand that is not great to start out with. It might either be so spread out across all the colors you don’t know what to go for, or it might be so high in numbers that your scoring potential is lower as you don’t want to toss those cards. It isn’t that it doesn’t work, it is just that sometimes you might feel like your starting hand is kind of dead, or you might think, with multiple multiplier cards going into a color is smart idea and then never draw that color.

What Works

Now, that negative I just spoke about, that is also a positive for the game. Lost Cities is all about figuring out when to get into a color so that you don’t end up with negative points. And yes, it is very possible to end up with negative points on a round. Lost Cities reminds me of Hanamikoji in that both of them you work off of imperfect knowledge. And you need to make the best decisions that you can.

Game Speed

I like the speed that the game plays at as well. Now, I say that, I play asynchronously on BGA, so some games do take longer than others. But when the players are on at the same time the turns are simple enough, play and draw, that it moves quickly. So the game speed is good, but to tie it to above, it doesn’t just play itself which means sometimes you end up with a turn that takes a bit longer when you aren’t in the middle of a series of plays.

It is also nice that Lost Cities is played over three rounds. Again, this ties into that negative and why it isn’t much of a negative. When you play Lost Cities over three rounds you get a chance to come back. That allows you to play with a bit more risk sometimes and less other times. But there is almost always the chance to recover.

Meanness and Tightness

Finally, as a two player game this is very back and forth. I know, generally, what you want to get. So that might mean that I hold cards in my hand to try and keep you from scoring as well. There isn’t take that, but I might ruin your plans for a round. But that is also true for what you are doing to me as well. So while the game has elements of being mean, it works, as that sort of thing does better at two players.

But with that comes a fun part of the strategy or something you’ll stumble across. As I play out cards and you collect what I might want, you find that you all of a sudden can get a positive score in that color. So it is possible to pivot in the game like that. But with the deck running out as the timing mechanism you can’t overextend yourself because you might not have enough turns to play everything you need. That challenge and balance works very well.

Who Is Lost Cities For?

Obviously this game is for two people. But I think that this is the sort of game that works well for couples even if both of them maybe don’t love board games. The game is easy enough to learn, there is strategy so it isn’t too light, but it’s simple to play. So it’s a good game for couples and you can play a round in a short time, so it is that evening game as well for when you want to do something and not watch TV.

My Grade and Final Thoughts on Lost Cities

Lost Cities definitely impressed me more than I thought it would. I want to compare it to Hanamikoji because there is that element that I don’t know what is in your hand and you don’t know what is in my hand. It is only based off of what we play that we gather information about the other players hand. And that is true for both of the games, plus the row in the middle, but that is not actually similar in how it is used.

I think that Lost Cities is a game where it is possible to really do poorly at, though. But it is a game that is simple enough to learn. I feel like since I enjoyed the premise at the start it was fine even with my first game going poorly. If I hadn’t, I’m not sure I would have loved it as a concept for a game. Mainly because it is possible to get stomped. So if the puzzle doesn’t draw you in, Lost Cities is unlikely to work. Because the theme is not going to draw you in.

My Grade: B
Gamer Grade: B
Casual Grade: B
Strategy (out of 10): 7
Luck (out of 10): 3

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Top 10 Games To Take Along Traveling

10. A Gentle Rain (Solo)

This is a good game for a number of different locations for gaming. First off the packaging is quite small for the game that is going to make it easy to take with you. The game is also cardboard tiles and wooden pieces. The good thing about that is that it means it works well outside. So it’s very portable, it does take up a bit of space though, as you lay it out.

So let’s talk about how the game plays. A Gentle Rain is a matching game where you want to complete a square of four tiles. When you do you can place a flower matching the colors of the matched flowers that created the square. The goal is to get rid of all of the flowers to win the game. It’s very simple, flip and see where you can match flowers. But it is meant to be a calming and chill game and it is that.

9. Hanamikoji (2 Player)

Now we’re onto a two player game. Some of the other multiplayer games work well at two, but this one is specifically a two player game. And it is going to give you that ideal two player experience in a small package and some interesting game play.

In Hanamikoji you are playing down gifts to win the favor of Geisha. Your goal is to, after all the gifts have been played, have the favor of four Geisha or eleven points worth of Geisha. But how you play out cards is what really is interesting. Each player has four actions that they are going to do once. You decide which order to do them. You either save one gift hidden from your opponent to use in scoring. Save two gifts hidden from your opponent that are discard. Or you either give your opponent the choice of one of three cards or one of two sets of two cards.

I love how the game creates these mind games. You need to play what you have in your hand and try and understand what your opponent is trying to hide from you based off of what they are giving you as options.

8. Arboretum (Multiplayer)

Now we’re onto a multiplayer game that is a bit mean. Arboretum is a game of creating an Arboretum and connecting paths between types of trees going from low to high. But as you play out you are also adding more cards to your hand from the discard piles out there. And you can pull from your opponents piles and your opponents see what you are building out.

So how is it mean. There are two ways it can be mean. Players can block you from scoring a type of tree. If you don’t have the most points in your hand of a tree type, you don’t score that tree type. They can also hold back cards in their hand that you need to create your paths of trees. But the game is a lot of fun because it offers a lot of tough choices and for being on the list is one of the most interactive.

7. Schadenfreude (Multiplayer)

I can put a lot of trick taking games on the list. And I maybe should pick something else, so here are some bonus games. The Crew is a great cooperative trick taking game, same with The Fellowship of the Ring trick taking game. Fox in the Forest is a good two player trick taking game. But now let’s talk about Schadenfreude.

Schadenfreude is a different trick taking game where you want to score points, but not too many. The game ends in the hand where someone goes over 40 points. But 40 points isn’t the winning total. No, it is the total that guarantees you won’t win. So you want to get as close to 40 points as possible without hitting it or going over. Because whomever is the closest to 40 when someone goes over 40 is going to be the winner of the game. It’s a fun twist and not the only one in the game.

6. Ohanami (Multiplayer)

Now we go from two more interactive games to a more laidback game again. Ohanami is a drafting game where you want to create your best garden. And it is a game for travel that comes in a tiny box. So it is very easy to travel with because it is just cards. Now it does take up a bit of room as you play, but not too bad, you just create three columns of cards.

Like I said, Ohanami is a drafting game. You pick two cards from the hand each round. And each card you pick needs to be added to the three columns of cards you can create. You also need to play it above the highest value card or below the lowest value card in a column keeping it in numerical order. It’s not complex, but it works well.

And the scoring is fun as well. When you score, it changes each round. The first round you only score one type of card. They give you the fewest points but they score each of the three rounds. Whereas others score more but in fewer rounds. That little twist gives you direction when drafting as to what to take or not take.

5. Orchard/Grove (Solo)

Orchard or Grove are little card games that either of them work great for travel. Now they won’t work as well out in nature as some games, like A Gentle Rain, but they do work well overall. And they play very quickly without taking up much table space.

Both of these games are card layering games. As you play down cards you play matching symbols over each other. And the more you overlap the better you are producing fruit of various types. And your goal is to just see how high a score you can get with nine total cards played out. You can break the placement rules in both games, but it always costs you something.

Grove also adds in some scoring objectives that you can go for. I think that both of them are great games. Grove is probably a bit better because of the scoring objectives, in my opinion. But I think either will work for you if you sound interesting.

4. Point Salad (Multiplayer)

Now another multiplayer game and one where you can get the salad themed version of this game or an Eevee themed version if you’re fine ordering it from South Korea and paying some shipping costs. But this game is all about creating a salad that is going to give you points.

The game is pretty simple but it has a fun twist to it. On your turn you either take two vegetables or one scoring card. The twist is that when you take vegetables you are flipping down cards from a pile. And on the back of those cards is where the scoring is. So when you flip a card down that scoring is gone away forever. A simple twist but one that makes for some tough turns or gives you a way to block an opponent from getting their perfect scoring card.

3. Super Mega Lucky Box (Solo and Multiplayer)

I only put one roll and write game on the list and that is Super Mega Lucky Box. There are a lot that could go on the list, much like trick taking games. And a lot of them play solo or multiplayer. But I like Super Mega Lucky Box a lot and it is one that is pretty easy to teach which makes it nice for travel. Especially if you are traveling with or to meet up with non-gamers or more casual gamers.

This game has a blackout bingo style to it. You flip cards and each player is filling in a spot on one of their three bingo cards. As you complete rows and columns you get bonuses. Those bonuses might give you more points. Or they might let you fill in other numbers. And the more you fill in, the more points you get too as you get cards filled. The concept is simple but it has some fun interactions.

2. Castle Combo (Multiplayer)

Castle Combo is a newer game on the list, though a number are pretty new. This one is about building out a grid that can score you the most points. All of this will balancing your access to the two resources.

On your turn you buy a card to fill into a three by three grid. Depending on where it is in the grid, or sometimes the color of shields it has or color of card it is, that is going to be scoring you points. You want to optimize how it scores you points at the end of the game. At the same time you need to consider the ability that happens either throughout the game, such as a discount on a type of card, or happens when you play the card. Because that is how you are going to get more money.

Now there is a bit more going on in the game. But I think that gives you the general idea. This one is that nice balance of pretty easy to learn and play but it has good decisions in it. For people who like to game, there is probably going to be enough going on that you won’t feel bad about missing your bigger games at home.

1. For Northwood! (Solo)

Finally we have For Northwood! and maybe I should have put this in with the trick taking games. But I think it deserves it’s own spot on the list. While it takes up some room on a table, it travels in a really small box. And for a trick taking fan, you will likely like this game even when you don’t have people around to play a trick taking game with.

In this game you want to win a specific number of tricks depending on your location. Each location is going to have a critter by it and a number of tricks to win. The critter is going to determine what trump is. So after you draw you hand you need to decide which spot you think you can win at. Then you play against the remainder of the deck by flipping a card and going up against that.

Now that doesn’t sound like it would work too well That is a lot of luck. But you always have access to three critters with abilities. These abilities help you get more cards into your hand or discard cards and more to get that right number of tricks. Can you pull off a perfect game and win the right number of tricks at each location?

Final Thoughts

There are a ton of board games that work great for traveling. And depending on how you are traveling you can take larger games at times. What I wanted to do was keep it down to a lot of little games. Those are consistently going to be able to go with you. And what I put on the list, these are just a few small box games. I could list off probably 100 honorable mentions between trick taking games or roll and write games and then so many other little ones.

What games do you find work well when you travel?

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Catch up on previous videos here

100 through 91
90 through 81
80 through 71
70 through 61
60 through 51
50 through 41
40 through 31

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition – 30 through 21

30 – Hanamikoji

• Published by EmperorS4 in 2013
• Give gifts to win the favor of Geisha through tricky card play

This is one of my favorite if not my favorite two player only game. There are others on the list that I like at two a lot, but this probably my favorite pure two player game. In this one you want to win the favor of Geisha and you do that by giving them gifts. But it’s how you give them gifts that is so much fun. The four actions you take per round, and each them offers a good decision. Mainly because you don’t know what your opponent has, you don’t know what’s yet to be drawn, and of course you sometimes have to give the ultimate decision to your opponent.

Buy Hanamikoji

29 – For Northwood!

• Published by Side Room Games in 2021
• Try and win the favor of the woodlands rulers by taking the exact right number of tricks

This is a weird game. For Northwood! is a solo trick taking game. And that sounds like it shouldn’t work, but it really does. Mainly because of the powers and abilities and how all of those work. You play out eight hands and you need to win 0 to 7 tricks each time. But you need to decide how many tricks you’ll win before hand. So it’s using your powers and abilities to mitigate or push for winning those tricks and not getting too high or too low. If you can pull off all eight, that is going to be perfect win.

Currently Not Available But Could be through Gigamic.

28 – Arkham Horror: The Card Game

• Published by Fantasy Flight Games in 2016
• Investigate, fight, and solve the mysteries around Arkham in a Lovecraftian story

This is a fun game in Fantasy Flight Games Arkham Files line, in fact it’s my favorite of them. I really like how they use deck building and just cads to create an immersive narrative and experience for a game. It’s fun to play through the story, use your deck, and try the best you can to not fail the checks that you’re given. And it’s also nice because it is a campaign, you play through multiple scenarios, but it’s not a long campaign, so you can pick and choose which short campaigns that they’ve put out for the game that you want to play through.

Buy Arkham Horror: The Card Game

27 – Star Wars: Unlimited

• Published by Fantasy Flight Games in 2024
• Battle to beat your enemy by destroying their base with your dominance in space and on the ground

This is the only Trading Card Game to make the list. And you know I have some beef with Fantasy Flight and Asmodee around how they are handling sending out destroyed cards and basically saying it’s not their fault. But this isn’t for that.

Because, I love the game. The game is a ton of fun to play and I like the deck building for it too. It’s fun to always have a “commander” basically that helps determine what colors you should build it. And I like how the game play is simpler than that of Magic the Gathering. You never worry about running out of lands because your ability to play cards is just cards. Of course, it gives you a great decision as to which cards you put into play as resources or keep in your hand to play.

Buy Star Wars Unlimited

26 – PitchCar

• Published by Ferti in 1995
• Race around the track and be the first to cross the finish line in this flicking dexterity game

PitchCar is just a fun game. I love how simple it is to teach and play and of course how fun it is to set-up a track and build something crazy, if you want. You want a loop, you can build that. You can add in a jump or you can go up a level and have more track go beneath. Of course you need a buy a bunch of it to do that, but it’s worth it to build more and crazier tracks. At the same time, it’s also fun just to have the basic track as well to play with. And it is a good game for all ages.

Currently Not Available

25 – Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition

• Published by Stronghold Games in 2021
• Build up your card engine to be the most influential corporation in the terraforming of mars

This is fun card engine building game. You build out a tableau of cards that provide you resources, take actions, help you terraform. But there is more to the game than that. You need to pick what action you want to do, as do your opponents. You may pick the same one but whatever action you pick, you get a bonus doing that. But it isn’t just your action you take, you take your opponents action as well. So I love the strategy in what action do I take based off of what action I think my opponents will take. I might not get a discount or a bonus for doing it, but I do for the one I pick.

Buy Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition

24 – Forest Shuffle

• Published by Lookout Games in 2023
• Build up your forest and surround them with the nature that gives you the most points

This is such a pretty game. That is not the spot you’d thought I’d start most likely, but it is. And I like the game a lot for that, but also because it’s a really fun game. In Forest Shuffle you place out trees and then surround those trees with creatures and other plants to build out your forest. Each tree only is able to support a card per side, with a few exceptions. Every card you play is going to give you points in some way. I love it when a game is able to let you score points while still keeping the game simple, which Forest Shuffle does amazingly well.

Buy Forest Shuffle

23 – First Rat

• Published by Pegasus Spiele in 2022
• The moon is made of cheese, so as rats you want to collect items, build space ships, and get to space

The game has a great theme, let’s start there. I enjoy the theme of First Rat and I’m sure that it does help push it higher. But I also like the diversity in what you can do in the game. You might rush to get pieces and shoot one of your rats way up the board. Or you may collect points in other ways, unlock more rats and get them onto the board or push the lights further so when you start to collect resources you get more. And each way is going to give you a good way to win the game. So fun theme, not too complex, but lots of good decisions.

Buy First Rat

22 – Ready Set Bet

• Published by Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG) in 2022
• Bid on a horse race in real time, can you make the right calls and win all the money?

This is a party game, kind of. I say kind of because it isn’t a party game in the traditional sense. Or what you think of a party game when you think of the mass market ones you find at Target or Wal-Mart. But Ready Set Bet is a fun, light betting game that is done in real time. I love this game for it’s stand-up moments. All the bets are down and all of a sudden the #2/3 horse is coming out of nowhere because you rolled it’s number twice and the race changes.

Buy Ready Set Bet

21 – Paper Dungeons

• Published by Alley Cat Games in 2020
• Roll the dice, level up your heroes, and explore the dungeon in this roll and write game

I suspect that this is my highest rated roll and write game on the list. I don’t know of one that I’d have put higher. But I like this one because it gives you a lot to do but not too much. You need to balance leveling up characters, getting health potions, moving around the dungeon, crafting items, and being able to fight the various bosses to score points. That is a lot, but it really comes down to rolling some dice and deciding how to use two of the dice rolled. And then, if you figure out what to do well you combo into a whole lot more.

Buy Paper Dungeons

Upcoming Streams

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

• Monday night, time varies, I play different small solo games, though I might be looking to start up a campaign again. And generally the streams do start between 8 and 8:30 PM central time.
• Wednesday at 9 PM central is going to 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.

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Two Player Board Games

Lord of the Rings Duel

First one on the list is for the big Lord of the Rings fan, but you don’t need to be a Lord of the Rings fan to enjoy this game. Lord of the Rings Duel is a really fun back and forth game as players act as either the Fellowship or the forces of Sauron.

There are a few great things about this game. Firstly, it’s a two player drafting game and it works really well. It uses the 7 Wonders Duel drafting system. Plus there are a few spots in the game that you are competing over. There is area control on one board. You want to gain the favor of all the people’s of Middle Earth on another. And you can also win by getting the ring to Mount Doom, or if you are the forces of Sauron catching the ring before it gets there. Really good two player game.

Hanamikoji

Now maybe you want something that’s a bit faster but still has a really good back and forth tension. Hanamikoji is a great game for that. In this game you want to win the favor of Geisha. To do that you need to bring them gifts. Whomever has the most gifts next to a Geisha wins that Geisha’s favor. And you win the game by either winning the favor of four Geisha or 11 points worth of Geisha.

But the game has a great and simple twist to it. You only play four actions per round. And the actions you can use each of them only once. So it is a real puzzle to figure out how to use those actions to the best of your ability. And that’s what I love about the game and why it’s such a good two player game. It is easy to learn but there is a lot of thinking going on in it.

Star Wars Unlimited

I only put one TCG (Trading Card Game) on the list, and it’s my favorite right now, Star Wars Unlimited. This is such a fun game and one that I think non-Star Wars fans can enjoy. But you probably need a passing knowledge of Star Wars which makes this one a bit more focused. Star Wars Unlimited is a nice tight back and forth game without the baggage that comes with some of the older and more complex ones.

You take your turns back and forth and it moves really quickly which is great. Plus you have a leader and that leader determines some of the cards you use, but also gives you an ability and idea to build around. And I find that to be great with how it works. And you never are short on resources, well you might not be able to play everything you want, but you never go turns without being able to build up to play your more powerful cards. That is what makes the game work really well.

Star Wars not your theme, there are other solid options like Lorcana (simpler), Magic the Gathering (more complex) or One Piece (similar complexity) out there as well that might fit your interests more.

Dice Throne

Dice Throne is another consistent one on my two player board games lists. This is back and forth battle Yahtzee style of game. But each character has their own unique powers and abilities. And there are so many characters out there. You can dive in and grab 2 or go all in and get 16+ if you want. And there is even Santa vs Krampus to fit that holiday theme.

Like I said this is battle Yahtzee. But each character does their own thing. The Barbarian heals and does a lot of damage on basic attacks. The Shadow Thief can dodge damage while the Pyromancer hits you back for more damage. And you can upgrade that as well as you go, so you get stronger as you play the game and try and knock your opponent out. Or you can just shoot for your ultimate ability and do a ton of damage that way.

The game is also great because of the different themes and packs. You can mix and match anything. So if you find you like the game it is easy to add in more. And there is Marvel content for the game as well which is a theme that likely works better for most people than the general fantasy theme.

Fox in the Forest Duet

Finally we have two player trick taking which is a unique idea. But I really enjoy this version, or the competitive version, or the other competitive two player trick taking game Macha. But Fox in the Forest Duet is a cooperative game which makes it even more unique for a trick taking game.

You play out tricks like normal, but whomever wins the trick, the fox, who is trying to collect leaves, moves towards them. But you don’t want it to fall off the board or it makes the board smaller and easier to fall off. Do that too much and you won’t be able to collect all of the leaves. But there are cards that offer ways to manipulate that that you play out as well. But can you get in sync with the person you’re playing with and how well do you know how to manipulate and fish for information in trick taking?

Final Thoughts

I love two player games. I don’t play all of mine a ton because a lot of the times I play with more. But all of the games on the list come out and get played every no and again. And I gave a handful of extra options as well in there.

Do you find yourself consistently playing games at two, then these are probably great options for you? And do you have games you already like at two players that I missed? Let me know what those games are. And let me know which ones are making your holiday list, for giving or receiving.

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Top 5 Games More People Should Play

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

5. Draftosaurus

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

4. Letter Jam

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

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

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

3. Paper Dungeons

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

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

2. Hanamikoji

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

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

1. Floriferous

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

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

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

Which Will You Play?

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

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

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

100 through 91
90 through 81
80 through 71
70 through 61
60 through 51
50 through 41
40 through 31
30 through 21

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition – 20 through 11

20. Hanamikoji

The list, this time, starts off with a two player only game and my favorite truly two player only game. Hanamikoji is an amazing game of trying to win the favor of Geisha by giving them gifts. There are seven Geisha and each of them has a point value and equal number of gifts assigned to them. If you win the favor, give the most gifts, to four of them or eleven points, you win.

But where the game is amazing is how you hand out the gifts. Both players have four actions that they can do. And a round to see who has favor ends when both players have done all their actions. But the actions are what make the game shine.

Two of the actions are close to each other. One is to put a card face down to save it for the end of the round to give as a gift. The other is play two face down that won’t be used. Then the final two actions interact with your opponent. One is to play three cards face up and they pick one to put in front of a Geisha on their side and you get the other two. The final one is to create two groups of two cards and your opponent picks one.

Those choices are tough and I love that about the game. I even use what I play out as sometimes a way to let me opponent help me know what way to do. Or to gather information. Highly recommend this as a quick two player game.

Buy Hanamikoji

19. Cartographers

Next up is my second highest roll and write style game, and you’ll see the highest very soon. But Cartographers is a game about making maps and building it out in a way that scores you the most points. It’s odd, in theme, because you’d think you’d want all the maps to be identical, nope, not really.

But the game does two things that I really like. The first being that it has monsters, and why are monsters great, you might ask? Well, monsters are great because they are a negative to what you are doing. But it isn’t a negative that you control, it’s a negative that someone else plays on y our board. And I like that player interaction that often doesn’t exist in roll and write games. In Cartographers you got it because I want to add a monster that will mess you up.

Then the other thing is how Cartographers does the scoring. Scoring is done via seasons and each season scores two of the four areas. This isn’t that unique to Cartographers, but it is a fun twist to the game. It is also unique to roll and write games, at least the ones that I’ve come across. So in spring I score, let’s call them, A and B. Well, A isn’t going to come back around until winter when I score D and A. So there is a balance about which goals you are going for. And after summertime, B isn’t going to be scored again.

Buy Cartographers

18. Railroad Ink Challenge

And let’s go onto the top roll and write style game for me, Railroad Ink, though in particular, Railroad Ink Challenge. I love this game, and the app definitely helps, though I haven’t played it in a while. Railroad Ink is primarily about connecting railroad and road points around the edge of the board.

Railroad Ink Challenge builds upon that with a few different things. There are now stations where if you build a connection that connects roads and trains, which is a certain side of the dice, there, you get more points. And there are special sides of dice that you can use that often have those stations. Plus you get more points for traveling through the middle. And there are spots that when you cover them give you other bonuses as well. I like those additions to the game.

The one that I really like for the game, though, is the new challenge cards. The challenge cards offer different objectives on rounds three through five, that you can score. Now, you are able to score them later, but if you do that, they are worth fewer points. So it is a push to get those scores, but not too much of one to mess up your connections and longest routes because those are going to give you the most points.

Buy Railroad Ink Challenge

17. Xenoshyft

Now we’re onto the first of several games with deck building that make it towards the top of my list. I really like deck building and Xenoshyft is some of the best cooperative deck building out there. I love it for that, and for the theme which feels a whole lot like Starship Troopers as you’re fighting off wave after wave of bugs.

But let’s talk about what I really like about this deck building. There are a number of things that I cover in the video, but I’ll just hit the highlights. The first being that every turn you get money. So there is no hand where you’re not going to be able to buy a card. You will always be able to add a card, which is great because another thing I like, the cards you buy go to your hand, not into a discard for future rounds.

The other element that I really like is the amount of cooperation in the game. As you play and deal with the waves, you might end up with a hand with too many weapons or not enough troops. Well, someone can give you a troop if they have extra or to balance out the defenses better. You can pass off a weapon to someone else. They change decks they are in now. And there are consumables. I can use a consumable item, it stays in my deck, on the lane that you’re defending from the bugs just as easily as mine. So it’s a puzzle that all players work together on to solves very cooperatively.

Buy Xenoshyft

16. First Rat

Now we’re onto a game, two in row actually, that my first experience was at Gen Con in 2022. First Rat was one of the hottest games that year, and I got to play it, demo it, the very last day there. Since then it is one that has hit the table more times because of the fun theme and because it’s a thinky game, but it’s easy to play. For me, a game that makes me think but isn’t too complex to play is what I really like.

In First Rat you are rats who are trying to build rocket ships to make it to the moon, because the moon is made of cheese, obviously. To do that you need to collect resources, like baking soda, vinegar (propulsion), coffee can (fuselage), or a calculator (navigation) to build parts of the rocket. But there is more than just that going on because you are going up a track that only moves forward.

So you need to balance the speed that you go as well as pushing up other things, like lights. If you light an area that now offers doubles the resources for you. And you don’t just have one rat that goes up, you have multiple. Plus how the rats move is fun. One rat is able to move farther on a turn, but if you move two and land on the same color with both, you need to in fact, you get resources for both. It’s a fun twist and as you unlock more rats that is fun as well to figure out your engine for that game.

Buy First Rat

15. Ready Set Bet

Now the other game from Gen Con 2022 is Ready Set Bet. Ready Set Bet is not a game that immediately grabbed my attention. It’s a real time horse racing and betting game. That sounds like chaos, and in all fairness, there is a bit of chaos going on. But it is so much fun.

The game is pretty simple, one person (or an app) is calling the race. Rolling dice and moving the horses along the track. Everyone else is throwing down bets on horses to win, or get 2nd or 3rd. Plus there are other bets, that you can make. Those are going to be something like, if the 5 and 9 beat the 7 horse. Because rolling two D6, 7 is the most likely number to come up.

So how does the 7 not win the vast majority of the time? Well, because there are special rules for how horses move. All horses will move one if their number is rolled. But the less likely the number is to be rolled, the further the horse moves, if the same number is rolled twice in a row. So that can help one of those edge horses rocket up into the lead just because their number was rolled a couple of times.

I love Ready Set Bet because of that catch-up mechanism of balancing mechanism. The game is just a blast to play. And almost always a race or two throughout the game ends up with a late lead change and stand-up moments as players really want a horse to finish and with a couple of rolls they might be able to, as long as another number doesn’t come up.

Buy Ready Set Bet

14. Sleeping Gods

Now we go to a run of three bigger story driven games. The first being Sleeping Gods, and soon I’ll have Sleeping Gods: Distant Skies to add to the list as well. But this is an open world adventure and exploration game from Red Raven Games. In Sleeping Gods you can go anywhere, but you’re trying to find totems so you can get back to the real world instead of this one you blew into during a storm.

You play as the crew of the Manticore, or really as the Manticore itself. You travel around and then taking the crew to shore or other locations you interact with story. And Ryan Laukat and everyone involved did an amazing job with the story. You get to experience a chunk of it, but not too much so it’s replayable. And the story is not in any order, but the story all works because it’s exploring the world and there are a few spots where it pauses with big events no matter what.

I also like the game system. I didn’t talk about it too much in last nights video, but it is great. It’s simple in what you’re doing, spending icons, basically, a boost roles. Or some characters have icons built into them that you can use. And the combat mechanism is a bit odd, but I really enjoyed it as you try and figure out how to cover up damage spots on a monster.

Buy Sleeping Gods

13. ISS Vanguard

Now another one of the story games and another one that I played on Malts and Meeples. ISS Vanguard is an epic experience of a game. I don’t know, yet, if I can call it an adventure, but the experience of the game is amazing. Humanity has decoded coordinates hidden in human DNA for someone in the stars. So a crew has been put together to go out there, what will they find?

That’s the premise for the game and everything. Now the crew of the ISS Vanguard find themselves at those coordinates, and what they find is not what they expected. So you get to explore planets and find out what is really going on. And then you spend time maintaining and improving the ship, finding and researching new technologies and breakthroughs. Plus memorializing crew who have died and healing the injured.

I love that about this game. It offers two parts, planet and ship, and both are equally as important. When they announced the ship part, I thought it might be too much just maintenance. But there is story, there is progression and there are real decisions to be made. So I love both parts, in some ways, I almost prefer the ship part because it’s so interesting and smooth to play.

Buy ISS Vanguard

12. Roll Player Adventures

Now another campaign game, though this one shorter than ISS Vanguard. Roll Player Adventures is 11 chapters, I believe. And there is a side quest that you can do. But set in the world of Roll Player, a character creation game, and Lock-up from Thunderworks Games, this is the big adventure that you can take those characters you created or pre-generated ones on an adventure.

This game has a lot of story to it and choose your own adventure elements. But each map you play, each scenario you play, is going to continue that story. The main mechanism in the game is completing challenges or defeating monsters by dice placement and manipulation. And that is a fun element of the game. I think it’s a bit easier with more players though, so just note that.

I also like how you have three tracks in the game. That shows how much or little favor you have with a group. That is one way where the game is going to be vary variable. And I like it for the game because some elements of the map and how you interact are going to stay the same. But as your favor changes that’ll open up or close off some options to you.

Buy Roll Player Adventures

11. Aeon’s End

Finally we end with another deck building game, this one is also cooperative, and it is Aeon’s End. Aeon’s End is a game of defending the town of Gravehold from a nemesis that is coming through. Can the breach mages stand against it or will the nemesis and it’s minions overwhelm?

This is all of Aeon’s End stuff. I have played it on Malts and Meeples as well. So I’ll drop in the video below. But I love this game for it’s cooperative play and for it’s unique turn order. However, I think the turn order probably means it should be a two handed solo game, or a two player game. You put six cards, two for each character and two for the nemesis into pile at two players. Then that is shuffled and you draw your turn order randomly. Once all six are drawn, you shuffle it up again. I love that.

I also love how much the game offers for you to do with your money. You might want to buy more spells and more powerful spells to hit the nemesis or their minions. Or you might have a special power that you want to power up. But you also need to think about spending the money (gems) to open up more breaches. Because you are only able to prepare and cast spells for the numbers of breaches that you have. It’s a good system where you want to do everything but probably can’t quite, realistically.

Buy Aeon’s End

Upcoming Streams

Let’s run through the stream structure like I normally do. You might already know the schedule but in case you don’t. Wednesday at 8 PM Central I stream either a campaign game, or with this time of year it’s my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition. And join me next Wednesday for the Top 10. It goes so fast, and now I have so many games that I want to play.

Then on Monday I stream at 9 PM Central time. It’s generally a solo game. Though I’ll also do pack openings for things But normally it’s a solo game and a one off for the game like a roll and write, or sometimes a game like Under Falling Skies or For Northwood, which was on the list today.

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

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And checkout the Stocking Stuffer games holiday list as well.

Two Player Games

Hanamikoji

The only two player only game on the list, but Hanamikoji is the first one that pops to mind when I think of two player games. This is a game of influence as you try and win the favor of Geisha by giving of gifts. The theme might not be up your alley there is also Jixia Academy which is the same game and a different theme.

Either game, Hanamikoji or Jixia Academy, is simple to play. You get four actions and you do one each turn. After both players have done all four of their actions you see if someone has the favor of four Geisha or eleven points worth of Geisha.

So what are the actions? You either keep one gift hidden that you’ll use to influence favor. Or you’ll put two gifts face down that won’t be used. You give your opponent the choice of three cards, they pick one and you get two to give as gifts immediately (and revealed). Or you create two groups of two cards, and your opponent picks one. That’s the game, it’s about trying to get that combination right or letting your opponent make tough decisions that influence or show you what to do. Or trick your opponent into taking that you want them to.

Dice Throne

Now we’re onto Dice Throne, a game that some people might say is only a two player game. I think it works at higher player counts with the newer king of the hill rules. But Dice Throne, as a two player game, is a head to head battle game. And how do you battle, you roll dice. You are looking for straights or different combinations of symbols to do damage.

That might sound simple, and I think the first couple of times you play, it is easy to think it’s just the luck of the dice. But you get combat points to use as well. Those combat points (CP) are used to play out cards which is wherein your strategy lies. The cards offer different things, clearing off negative status your opponent might have placed on you, changing up your attacks, or manipulating the dice. So it’s a push and pull of how you try and hold back your cards and actions as you play the the game.

It’s not the thinkiest game, even with that, but there is more going on than you’d think of just rolling the dice and hoping to get lucky. And it’s also very fun because you get a lot of different characters to play with. There are your fantasy characters like dwarves or paladins. But you can mix that with the gunslinger or an artificer. And now they even have Marvel sets that you can play with as well.

Marvel Champions

Speaking of Marvel, this transition was not intentional, we have Marvel Champions. Marvel Champions, again, can be played with more. But I like Marvel Champions best as a solo or two player game. Why, too much downtime others. Marvel Champions is a game for the person who wants to play as a super hero and feel like their hero. There are other superhero games out there, but Marvel Champions, for me, captures it best.

In this game you try and stop a villains scheme. To do that, you need to be your super hero self, but when that happens they stop scheming. Instead their now trying to just knock you out. That means that you need to spend time going between being your super hero version, let’s say Spider-Man, and your alter ego, Peter Parker, so you can heal up. But when you are Peter Parker, you don’t want to blow your cover, so you can’t stop their scheming.

It’s a cool balance that brings in the super heroes moves as well as allies for them. I really like that balance of pushing to be the best hero and getting in their and just punching the villain down. But then also letting them work on their scheme so you can heal back up. It’s a good thematic element to the game.

Magic the Gathering (or other TCG)

This one is a bit of a catch all and the example I give is one that I don’t mind at all playing at higher player counts. Magic the Gathering is a great trading card game. A lot of trading card games, I’ll put Lorcana and One Piece on this list as well, are two player games or best that way.

Most of them give you pretty simple objectives that might be similar in a few ways. It’s either reach a certain number before your opponent or take out your opponents health fastest. But there’s too much to go over for all of them, so I’m going to drop some links in for you to checkout.

Magic the Gathering

Lorcana

One Piece

Spire’s End: Hildegard

This is another game that can be a two player game or a solo game. It’s meant to be a solo game, but I think that it’d be very good two player as well. It’s kind of a choose your own adventure story experience. But done through a deck of cards that plays through chapters. Spire’s End is also another solid option for this.

The big reason that I think this would work is that I like my story games as a two player experience. Not all the time, but it’s very fun to share a good story with other people. Spire’s End Hildegard gives you a lot of story with some dice rolling and that’s basically the game.

This is going to be a good game if you and the person you’d play it with, or the people who would play it together really like story driven games. And the aesthetic, while unique, really makes the game pop. It’s what drew me to the game, and for a light, mechanism wise, but fun story wise game, Spire’s End Hildegard really works.

Ascension: Deck Building Game

Finally, another game that you can definitely play with more. But I’ll say this about Ascension, I really like it at two. Deck building games generally move pretty quickly if you know what you’re doing. So you can play with more people who know what they are doing. But when you have multiple people who are needing to learn every card, it can drag on.

That is much less of a problem at two players. The game goes fast with two players in a good way. You get your turn, you play out your cards and you go. Even if you need to double check everything, the downtime isn’t that bad.

I think you could substitute other deck building games in here as well. Dominion would be another one that I think works well, or Aeon’s End. Basically anything that keeps the game moving in terms of deck building. I think that Ascension is more interesting than Dominion and simpler than Aeon’s End which is why it’s the one that makes my list. But if you want to go cooperative, Aeon’s End is a great choice.

Final Thoughts

There are a number of two player games that I need to play. I own 7 Wonders Duel, the most popular two player only game and I just need to get it played. So I don’t think that you can go wrong with that.

I also think that there are a lot of games that work well at multiple player counts. You can see that on my list I have a number that can play at higher counts. But they might be best at two or, often times, they just work really well at two. So if you don’t want to lock yourself into a two player games that only play two, there are still a ton of good options out there.

Do you have one of those that sounds the most interesting to you? Is your favorite game to play with two on the list?

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5 Board Games to Bring to Gen Con

Each one of the games is going to be for a specific situation. Some might overlap what they can cover but you want a variety of games. The other big thing is that they need to be small enough. They might not all fit in a backpack at once. But if you know your plan for the day, you’ll know which ones to have in a backpack.

The Drop In And Out Game

This game is one that people can join or leave as they come and go between events. One that could really be set-up on a table and as people are able, it just continues throughout the day. But, again, it needs to be a small enough game to easily fit in a backpack.

My choice for this game is Just One. This is not the smallest box on the list. But, and this might be sacrilegious to you, you don’t even need the box. All the components could fit in a Ziploc bag half the size as the box.

But Just One works well for people to drop in and out of. You play cooperative in this party game of trying to guess the word. Rounds take three to four minutes. And at the end of the day you’d just have a pile of words that you got, or didn’t throughout the day.

Waiting by Yourself Game

Sometimes, though, you have a few minutes where you have downtime. Normally I just wander a random part of the dealer hall. But that’s not always an option. And you want to play a game that takes the five minutes between when one event has ended and your next one starts. That is what this game is for.

Grove is the solo game that I recommend. A lot of people would say any Button Shy Game as well. Which that’d be high up there for me because Sprawlopolis fits into a pocket better. But I always have a backpack at Gen Con, so Grove fits in there and it’s a fast solo game of layering cards. There are other small games, so it’s more, what small solo game do you like.

Everyone Can Play Game

Next up is a game that everyone can play. Doesn’t matter if you have two players or fifteen players or thirty players, everyone can play. For this I want a game that isn’t too difficult but there is no requirement that this game is short or just a party game. Something like Wits and Wagers works well as a team game. That is if you want to go the party game direction.

But I am think that Cartographers (though owning the big box makes it harder) is a great option. This is more of a game and a bigger roll and write experience. You are making a map, as the name would suggest, and scoring based off of the season that it is. The cool thing with this roll and write style game is that there is player interaction. A monster card is flipped, we all pass our sheets and you put that monster on my sheet. That way you can mess over your opponents as you can.

Brain Burning Filler

This category is probably an overlooked done. And I think some of that is for fair reason. But last year I got to play a game that probably should have been a crunchy filler length. This is a game that won’t take too long, doesn’t need to play a lot of people, but it has meaningful and tough decisions.

My brain went to a roll and write game where everyone is playing stuff out at once. But one with a higher complexity and shorter time than Cartographers. But I ended up with Hanamikoji as the game. This won’t always work as it’s a two player game, So an honorable mention is Ganz Schon Clever or one of the games in that type. But either game can play fast, there are good decisions. And with Hanamikoji it’s a ten minute game or a twenty minute game, rarely more. And it’s a brain burner with the amount to read your opponent and what they want.

The Let’s Play A Game Game

Now, the final category is a game where you just want to play a game. One that doesn’t need to take twenty minutes or less. One that doesn’t need to handle a large crowd of people. This is for when, in the evening, you want to play a game, you don’t want to learn new rules, so you pull this one out of your backpack and you’re good for an hour or so.

My choice is Floriferous a set collection, card drafting game. It’s a small game, smaller than some of the other ones on the list. In it, you are collecting flowers and scoring cards to see who can score the most points. It’s not a complex game, but there are some fun twists on it. When you draft a card from a row that determines what order you draft next turn. And you choose between drafting or maybe more when you draft scoring cards. So you might not have many and just flowers that work well, or will you get higher scoring?

Games at Gen Con

Now, you might be done with gaming by the time your day ends. So you might not need more games for playing at Gen Con. But I find that I often have that group to play with in the evening, though, not every evening. And some evenings are just earlier to bed, because, well, sleep is needed.

The other reason you might not want as many games is that you’ll buy games. Maybe this is more of a buy list for you at Gen Con to fill in those categories. That way, as the weekend goes along, you find more and more games to play with people. I know that’s some of what happened last year. I played Mythic Mischief was a game game because someone picked it up that day. And I played Ready, Set, Bet as a bigger group game as someone had that one.

So, determine what you need. Determine, if you meet up with a group who is bringing games. It’s a little bit awkward to be at a gaming convention and for no one to have a game on them.

What games do you find work well to carry and play at conventions?

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