Catch Up on the Top 100 Games

100 through 91
90 through 81
80 through 71
70 through 61
60 through 51

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 Edition – 50 through 41

50. Welcome To…

Published By: Blue Cocker Games
Designer: Benoit Turpin

Buy Welcome To

This one is a classic roll and write style game. I really like the decision space for Welcome To… of deciding what goals to go after and what combination of cards to write down on your board. The three choices of number and bonus works really well and has been fun in other games in the system, but the classic Welcome To is the best still.

49. The Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-Earth

Published By: Repos Productions
Designers: Antoine Bauze and Bruno Cathala

Buy The Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-Earth

Now, I like this and 7 Wonders Duel very similarly, but only one is staying in my collection and that is going to be the Lord of the Rings one. But both do similar things and are great games. This one, I find, cleans up some things like no end game scoring. And while I find the end game without the win in one of the three game ends if you get them situations isn’t 100% satisfying, going for those other goals is great. And they most of the time do pull of the win with them whether that’s getting the ring to Mordor or getting support from the various groups.

48. Heat: Pedal to the Metal

Published By: Days of Wonder
Designers: Asger Harding Granerud and Daniel Skjold Pederson

Buy Heat: Pedal to the Metal

Not my favorite racing game, but Heat: Pedal to the Metal is up there. I really like how the game works pretty quickly, so it has that racing feel, but you still make a lot of meaningful decisions in it. Heat is all about managing the heat on your engine so that you can push the corners at the right time. But the more heat you get, the more it clogs up your hand and then you need to back off and let the engine cool down. It’s just a clever and enjoyable system that’s easy enough to teach and gives you a great racing feel.

47. Ohanami

Published By: Pandasaurus Games
Designer: Steffan Benndorf

Buy Ohanami

Ohanami and the next game on the list are the two smallest ones. Ohanami is a great game for pulling out and playing a round or two of when you want a simple game to play. But it offers some fun with the twist that it provides on scoring and how you need to set-up the cards into the columns as you draft them. The drafting and adding always needing to be higher or lower than the top or bottom card in a column, at least if you want to play them, is fun as well. It’s not that common for someone to be stuck without something to play, but if you make that happen it’s fun.

46. Mind Up!

Published By: Pandasaurus Games
Designer: Maxime Rambourg

Buy Mind Up!

Mind Up! is another one of those games that just really works for me. There is so much luck in the game as you try and get the cards that you want, it kind of feels like it shouldn’t work. But at the same time, you always have a decision to make that matters and just enough knowledge. The fact that the order of the cards and how you want to fill in to get points changes each round while the cards in your hand don’t as much is a really fun system. Because, yes, I am guessing what is going to work to get the card I wanted, but I might remember a little what you have.

45. Schadenfreude

Published By: Studio Turbine
Designer: ctr

Buy Schadenfreude

I guess Schadenfreude is the third small game on the list. But it’s a pretty different game because it’s a trick taking game and it’s a trick taking game that does some really interesting things. Mainly it’s about not flying too close to the sun and getting burned as you try and get points. You get points and lose points based off of what is played into the trick that doesn’t match your suit. The other piece is you want to get as close as you can to 40 points. If you go over and everyone who goes over, that causes you to lose. But someone has to because that determines the end of the game.

44. The Great Split

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

Buy The Great Split

I like the mechanisms of “I split, you choose” in games, one of my favorite two player games has that in it. And The Great Split is primarily that in a game. Each round you are splitting up your hand of cards and then your opponent on the left picks one of them. You are doing that at the same time with the cards passed to you. Everyone is trying to optimize the contracts that they are getting the points from the various arts they are getting. But at it’s heart, the game is “I split, you choose” and it just works.

43. ICECOOL

Published By: Brain Games
Designer: Brian Gomez

Buy ICECOOL

Two dexterity games in a row and my two favorite dexterity games. First is ICECOOL, this is a game that was around my Top 10 for a long time because it’s just a simple but fun game. It’s been passed as my favorite by the other because that one has more customization.

ICECOOL is all about either being a penguin sneaking out of class to get fish or the hall monitor who is trying to catch them. The flicking works well and the ability to jump the penguin over walls is fun, assuming you don’t jump too far. Plus the box set-up and how it comes together is really fast and fun.

42. PitchCar

Published By: Ferti
Designer: Jean du Poel

Pre-Order PitchCar

PitchCar is the other dexterity game of the two and the one that I like just little bit better. PitchCar is another racing game as well,. This one is about flicking race cars, discs, around a track and being the first to cross the finish. It’s another game that is very simple to play but so fun. And this one gets the nod because of the track and how you make as hard or easy a track as you want. Do you want a loop or an overpass, you can do that, or you can just play with straightaways and some turns if you want the game to be faster.

41. Metal Gear Solid

Published By: CMON Global Lmtd
Designer: Emerson Matsuuchi

Buy Metal Gear Solid

Finally we have Metal Gear Solid a game that took a while to come out, but that is so worth it. Metal Gear Solid is a cooperative game where you want to sneak around as much as go in guns blazing. And that element is a blast for the game because it makes it feel different than a lot of games with minis. I like that the game also has a campaign, which I need to play, and one off scenarios that you can try and complete. And to add to that, while the enemy movement takes a moment to understand, the player turns are streamlined really well.

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

Set Collection Games I Own

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

Set Collection Games I Own and Have Played

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

Set Collection Games I Own and Have Yet to Play

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

What Set Collection Games Are Leaving

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

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

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

Easy Leave

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

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

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

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

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

Easy Staying

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

What About The Rest?

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

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

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

Final Thoughts

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

What is your favorite set collection game?

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Five Types of Board Games To Play With Non-Gamers

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

Escape Room Games

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

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

Trick Taking Games

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

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

Dexterity Games

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

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

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

Roll and Write Games

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

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

Drafting Games

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

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

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

Final Thoughts

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

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

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Games 20 through 11 of 2024

Now, first off, I do want to say, there are some games on the list that I don’t really enjoy. The bottom three I find to be poor or just okay, but let’s get to them.

20. Takenokolor

Takenokolor is a roll and write game where what you are rolling is the pens. However, the game itself is really simple and the choices are generally very obvious. They do have a few different “boards” that you can play on, but even the more complex ones tend not to offer that much more choice than the others. It feels like a very basic roll and write game with the gimmick that you are rolling pens. And even the added complexity doesn’t make the game more fun, it’s still very basic, just extra rules for the sake of extra rules.

19. Landmarks

Landmarks is a party style of game where one person is “it” and they are giving clues to lead the other players around a map. And the clues they give are one word based off of other words on the board. Basically, there are hexes, three of them have words on them, to start the game, and the clue giver gives a clue and the other players need to figure out where it makes sense to place that new tile. Does it make sense to connect to two words, or is the clue giver trying to keep you away from some.

Now, I said at the beginning that I wasn’t a huge fan of the bottom three. I think I want to try this one again. My hopes are fairly limited that it’d be a consistent hit for me, but I do believe, in the right group, this could be a fun game.

18. Odin

Odin is a card shedding game. Probably the best known card shedding game right now is Scout, which just broke into the Board Game Geek Top 100. Odin isn’t that, it’s a solid but simple card shedding game that works on a more basic principle than scout. You play out cards either as a bigger number of one color or a bigger number of a set of one number than the previous person did. Then you take one card to add to your hand from what the previous person played.

I think that this one is probably a 7 for me at 2 or 3 players if I were to rank it out of 10. But it plays higher than that. And at higher numbers than that it’s just very random. And you find lots of turns where you aren’t able to play and that might happen several rounds in a row. In Scout at least you are picking up new cards when you can’t play, here you are just left stuck with what you have.

17. Icecool Wizards

Icecool Wizards is not as good as Icecool. But if you want a smaller box and a bit more game play, there is an option for you. The core mechanisms remain the same. You flick around a penguin, but now you are trying to get elements to cast spells, basically set collection. And you do that by flicking your penguin over the elements and then flicking them over spells to collect those spells.

The one thing that keeps it from being up higher is that there is almost more luck than the basic game. What do you flip out for a spell, who knows. Now that balances out somewhat over the course of the game, but it’s just an extra element to the game that isn’t completely needed.

16. Festival

Next up we have Festival. I like games with fireworks, fireworks are fun. But Festival is just fine for me because it’s basically a pattern building game. And while I think it works well, it’s very abstract, and I’m just okay with abstract games. You take one of two tiles that’s visible and you’re trying to complete goals. But, instead of taking tiles you can reserve a goal as well because you can only score goals that you reserve.

Honestly, I think it’s the reserving the goals that bugs me about the game. It’s an extra turn that you take, and generally you reserve and score it the same turn. Unless you spy someone else going for it, you’re not going to waste a turn grabbing it early to then never be able to score it. It might be more exciting of a game if you just scored if you were the first to get it, though maybe a bit more deterministic, I see you one turn ahead of me for a goal, I pivot goals, whereas now you can steal it out from under another player.

15. Metrorunner

Next up is Metrorunner. This is one that I got to play at Gen Con and it’s a fun game. You are going around a rondel collecting cubes and trading them in to complete missions. It’s not that super unique a game, but I like that rondel mechanism in it. It feels different while still being an accessible and easy to understand and play game.

But the game has an interesting extra element to it. In Metrorunner you also have a sliding puzzle game in the middle. It reminds me of I believe it was called Pipes Dream where you connect one side of the board to another specific side with pipes. You do that here, but you do it with limited moves and only a few special abilities to help you. I won the game because I am very good at figuring out those puzzles, and you can do it a lot in the game.

14. Captain Flip

This one is a game that I’d love to add to my collection. I own 15 & 17 already, but Captain Flip is maybe the last one that I don’t own on the list. This is a fun game of drawing a tile, you see one side and that tells you some of the scoring that might be on that tile. And it is scoring that you can use and add to your pirate ship. But on the flip side is some other scoring and that scoring might be better. But, once you flip you are locked in on that side of the tile. So do you push your luck or not. It’s a very light game but a good time.

13. Adulthood

Adulthood is a game with a fun theme of being an adult, though, I’m already an adult and I think the game is more fun than real life. You have less taxes that you need to do in the game. But the game is all about how you spend your time and money. And the artwork is great and goes well with the theme because it just creates this fun experience.

I love how you might lose your job but you find a new one easily. Or you fall in love and get married and how you have a new action spot to spend time and money on. Plus you also are trying to play out other cards that are life experiences. If you do well with those, they are great way to score points, but a lot of them require that you have other life experiences first. No going to the PTA meeting without having a kid first. And who knows if you find that kid because it’s a big deck of cards you dig through.

12. Cafe Baras

Cafe Baras is a game with a really fun theme. You are Capybara baristas and you want to make your best coffee shop. So you buy items to put on your menu. Then you bring in customers who will give you money. And if you match everything a customer wants, you can get a repeat customer, which is going to give you points. Plus there are special customers. They score at the end of the game and only if you cafe meets certain things.

The game is from Kids Table Board Games and it is light. But because o that it plays fast as well. And it’s a pretty easy game to teach. I don’t think with a silly cute theme I’d want it to be longer. So Cafe Baras is a very fun time.

11. Stonespine Architects

And just missing my Top 10 for 2024 is Stonespine Architects. Though it is one of my most played games in 2024, at least in person. I really like this game because it’s all about building out a dungeon. And you want your dungeon to meet certain things. If it does you are going to get points. But there is an element of drafting cards to add to your dungeon. And then buying items to enhance your dungeon.

I also really like that you draft some scoring objectives as well. Players add three to the game as they play, each of them unique to that player. So while there are shared scoring elements, your dungeon is going to become more unique. And when cards don’t quite fit perfectly, well that might work for a scoring objective that you have.

Final Thoughts

I’m sure that I’m missing games that I played in 2024. Some because maybe they didn’t get rated from a quick play at Gen Con. Or maybe I just missed that date, but 2024 was a year where I got in a lot of fun games. And I also know that there are games from 2024 that I haven’t gotten to that I really want to play. In fact, I see one from where I’m sitting with Stamp Swap, and I know there are more as well.

What are some of your favorite games from 2024? But not you #1 game, bring that to Malts and Meeples tomorrow night as I stream at 9 PM Central my 10 through 1.

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Catch up on previous videos here

100 through 91
90 through 81
80 through 71

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition – 70 through 61

70. Sagrada

• Published by Floodgate Games in 2017
• Build the most beautiful stained glass window

This game is just a great drafting game experience. The ease of play is wonderful as well because you draft a die and place it while other people are going on drafting their own dice. Especially with the 5-6 player expansion, which can be worked into the lower player counts, it makes it so you don’t need to spend time with what others are doing. But both ways to draft the dice and place the dice are mainly the same and really good. Plus the way you need to play the dice to not have colors or numbers adjacent makes a great puzzle.

Buy Sagrada

69. Mesozooic

• Published by Z-Man Games in 2018
• Slide your dino-themed park together in this light filler game

Mesozooic has a couple of great elements to the game. Firstly it’s drafting, and I really love drafting. But the game is more than that. You also need to complete a slide puzzle. You see you draft 11 cards and shuffle them up to create a 3 tall and 4 wide grid with an open spot. Then you slide them around frantically for 45 seconds like a slide puzzle to get the best dino-park that you can. It’s silly, light, and a very fun time.

Buy Mesozooic

68. 7 Wonders Duel

• Published by Repos Production in 2015
• Draft cards and build wonders in this head to head game

I like this game better than 7 Wonders. Mainly because I played 7 Wonders a few times at two and it isn’t a good game. 7 Wonders Duel is great that way, as expected. But the game is more than just a better version, I think that the drafting is very clever. I love the trying to avoid revealing a card that is good for your opponent. And some of the cards being face down so unknown until they are revealed. And the two side ways to win with science and military add in tension to the game as well. You can’t just draft your best engine, even though you want to.

Buy 7 Wonders Duel

67. Icecool

• Published by Brain Games in 2016
• Help your penguins sneak out of class and get fish in this dexterity game

Yes, the theme of Icecool is that simple and I love it for me. I love the flicking element of the game, it’s just fun. And I really enjoy the silliness of the game. This is one of my favorites for a late night of gaming. Just sit around and flick penguins and have a laugh. It is possible to get very good at the game, but it’s also a game where players can just have a great shot by pure luck. To me that is what makes it a fun game for all ages.

Buy Icecool

66. Super Fantasy Brawl

• Published by Mythic Games in 2022
• Choose your team and face off against an opponent in an arena

This game is coming back, kind of. I say kind of, I expect that most of the game is going to be the same, but CMON bought it from the now defunct Mythic Games. So I want to see what CMON is going to do with it. Because I love the simplicity of the game. Super Fantasy Brawl has you activate three different colors of cards each round. And you can do some on defense as well, but that means you won’t do as much on your turn. Then you either try to knock out your opponents for trophies or complete goals, or most likely, do both. The game is strategic but also fast and easy to play.

Follow Super Fantasy Brawl: Reborn

65. Trailblazers

• Published by Bitewing Games in 2023
• Create the best hiking, biking, and kayaking routes

Another drafting game on the list. This is the last one for this time, but there are four and possible five if you count drafting your team in Super Fantasy Brawl. In this one you draft cards to create trails. I love the trail creation aspect of the game because you really need to strategize as to how you’re going to do that. And I like how the game becomes more complex in your trail creation throughout as you add in other hubs that you need to start and leave from for each of the three routes.

Buy Trailblazers

64. Mind Up!

• Published by Pandasaurus Games in 2023
• Play the right number to collect and create sets of colors

This game is so easy to learn and play. I actually wrote about it yesterday in that exact context, so you can checkout the article after this. But it’s simply play out a card simultaneously with the other players. Then you look to see who played the lowest number, they get the lowest number from the middle. And after that it’s about trying to get the colors you want into the highest scoring column you have. The whole thing is just a really easy to play and simple time. I explain it better in the video, by the way.

Buy Mind Up!

63. So Clover!

• Published by Repost Productions in 2021
• Can you find the right pair of words based off of one word clues?

This game is always tricky for me to explain. Basically you have cards with four words, one on each side. And you have four of them making this little four by four grid. Each side is going to have two words, if that all makes sense and you’re picturing it. You need to create a one word clue so people can guess and put it back into that same order. Not that hard, well, it is when the words don’t connect at all. And there is going to be a mystery fifth card added in. But if you give the right clues you can lead people down the right path to recreate it.

Buy So Clover!

62. The Castles of Burgundy

• Published by alea in 2019
• Take a new kingdom and turn it into a bustling land

A game that I wouldn’t have expected that I like. But I really enjoy The Castles of Burgundy, a game of using dice to purchase and place new things into your land. As well as using them to sell goods, and get workers that let you manipulate your dice. There is a bunch going on and I feel like I need to nail down my strategy for it. But I really enjoy what this offers and it’s a new type of puzzle for me to spend time diving into as a game. I even have the fancy version coming that alea did with Awaken Realms.

Buy The Castles of Burgundy

61. Letter Jam

• Published by Czech Games Edition in 2019
• Work together to figure out what everyone’s letters are because you can’t see your own

If you know what Hanabi is that will help with it. But Letter Jam is a game where you can’t see the letters that form your word. Other players can see one of them at a time but they can’t see theirs. So you give clues to help people narrow down what their letters might be for their jumbled word. Of course everyone needs to get theirs figured out by the end of the game, but it’s cooperative so the challenge is great but fun to tackle.

Buy Letter Jam

Upcoming Streams

Just a reminder on my streaming schedule.

• Monday night, time varies, I play different small solo games, though I might be looking to start up a campaign again.
• 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.
• Friday at 9 PM central my wife and I are streaming a playthrough of Baldur’s Gate 3

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.

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How To Play Icecool Wizards

Immediately it’s pretty easy to see the differences between Icecool Wizards and Icecool. Icecool Wizards is adding in a new element to the game. You are still in a penguin school, but this time a school for wizards. And you are trying to collect resources or knowledge to be able to cast spells.

The basics of how you do that is similar to what’s done with Icecool. You flick your penguin twice each turn collecting resources. And no one is chasing you down. Instead, you and your opponents compete for the resources and the exams. You get both of them by crossing over them on your turn.

Then the game ends when all the resources are gone and players have an even number of turns. You score up the resources you haven’t spent on exams. And you get points for exams. The penguin with the most points wins.

Initial Reaction on Icecool Wizards

Let’s look into my initial reaction to the game here because I think it’s useful to compare it quickly to Icecool. I think that Icecool Wizards, for me, is a step down from Icecool. Mainly because Icecool is a pure dexterity game. There is some cat and mouse, but it’s all about flicking the penguins about.

Icecool Wizards offers some of the same thing, but seems to have built on it in a way that doesn’t make it more fun. It doesn’t make it unfun, but it adds in some to the game. And some of it I think is the smaller board size. It’s meant to be more portable and take up a little bit less space, I guess, but it neuters the ability for some great shots.

I think the fact that it’s all players versus each other versus a one versus all style of game also hurts it. The tension is gone and the excitement of that will they or won’t they hit me is gone. Instead a lot of it comes down to luck so let’s get into some of this.

Luck vs Skill

So let’s talk about what I mean by this. I kind of touched on it above, but the original Icecool is the skill of a player versus the skill of the other players. Can I pull off better shots and avoid the hall monitor better than the other players.

Icecool Wizards is a bit more luck focused. Why, because what exams and resources come out are random. The resources always go into specific spots. And while the game tries to balance that out, with powers, if the resources available on your turn are better than the ones on my turn for completing exams, it’s an advantage for you.

Collecting Resources vs Using Powers

Now it’s time to talk about the powers in the game. There are two types of resources in the games. Ones that you get in the classrooms vs ones you get in the doorways. The ones in classrooms are worse in that they don’t add in extra powers. And the exams they are used in don’t offer higher points.

But the ones in the doorways are interesting. There are four of them, and they offer extra powers. An extra flick for one of them, or adding in more resources for another. You might trash an opponents card instead.

These resources offer the decisions that this game is trying to give you. Do you flip one of them over, it’s still worth a point at the end of the game, but now you can’t use it on an exam. But it’s only kind of a choice because if there’s an exam that needs that resource, I can likely get to it in the next turn and it’s unlikely that someone else will have the exact resources to get it. It might happen, but it’s not super likely.

Who Is Icecool Wizards For?

It’s a tricky question. I think that they were attempting to make a game that offers a bit more balancing of strategy with skill. But I’m not sure it hits on that. So that is making it hard to know who this game is for. In some ways, I think it is making the game for a market that doesn’t exist. If you like Icecool, like I do, I don’t think it’s better. If you don’t like Icecool, Icecool Wizards isn’t adding anything new that you need to play.

Final Thoughts

For me, what I’ll like about Icecool Wizards in the long run is if I can mix it in with regular Icecool. Why, because that is how I want to play Icecool. Either as a race or as the hall monitor trying to catch the students. But this one only works with the former, but I think I can make it work with the latter as well. It’s easy enough to keep track of the doors you’ve done through.

Now, if this is your first introduction to Icecool, I think Icecool Wizards is going to be fun. For me, it is still fun. But it isn’t more fun that I’d pull it off the shelf over Icecool. And when I play Icecool, I generally want to play it with a lot of people. So I think it’s a situation where Icecool Wizards adds in too little and too much all at once. It’s too little because the game is too close to Icecool, and I just want to play that one.

Have you played Icecool Wizards, do you like it?

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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

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition – 30 through 21

30. Icecool

I love my dexterity games, so a number have made it on the list. This is my highest pure dexterity game, though, there is dexterity in another game coming up. But Icecool is just about flicking your penguins around a board trying to get fish. Or you’re a hall monitor penguin who is trying to catch the penguins who are skipping class for a fish snack.

This game has a cute them, but I like how simple the game is as well. It is easy for anyone to play from adults to kids and everyone can do about as well. I might plan my shots more as an adult, but will that work better than the kid who just goes on instinct, who knows. Though, that is a nice element of the game as well, Icecool is not just a brainless flicking game. You can plan shows, figure angles and hope it goes your way. It won’t fairly often, but when you pull of an amazing shot, it feels great.

Buy Icecool

29. Lands of Galzyr

We’re moving into a bigger game and a story driven game. You’re going to see a number of those as we move up higher on the list. Lands of Galzyr, though, is not a campaign game, it is more of a relaxed story game to play. The game is simple, and you don’t play through a connected story. I am actually hoping for some story modules you can mix in, as an expansion, to create more of that connected narrative.

In Lands of Galzyr, you are an animal and you’re going off adventuring. To do that, you grab quests from towns and head out to their locations. With it you are doing daily events, if you don’t do a quest, and rolling dice for checks. The game is simple that way in what dice it gives you, and I really like that about it. I see what I can do and I do it. Plus there are key words that give you bonuses which I like. It lets you feel like you’re doing something special while at the same time not making the game too complicated.

My one downside, besides that connection of story, is that you can play it in a series. I did so on Malts and Meeples. You can see the first video below. But sometimes you stop with a quest in hand that you really want to continue. And that quest can carry over to the next game, but if you decide to stop there and reset, well, it’ll be open ended. But, their timer system does keep the game from just going on and on until you want to stop.

Buy Lands of Galzyr

28. Paper Dungeons

Paper Dungeons is another game that I played on Malts and Meeples. I’ll add the video in below for you to watch as well. But this is a roll and write game with a lot going on. And it is a roll and write game that tries to do more than just be about the numbers on the dice. It is about going into dungeons, fighting monsters, getting treasures, leveling up, crafting items, a ton of different things.

And each time that you play it you can focus in on a different area. You might want to go after the big boss because that’s a good number of points. But that means that you’re probably spending more time leveling up your adventuring party and traveling through the dungeon. You won’t be spending as much time getting gems and crafting items. It is a balance that I really enjoy in the game.

Now, it isn’t a perfect game either. Mainly, there is a campaign to this game, but there really isn’t a campaign to this game. It just gives you a number of scenarios with a little story between them that doesn’t matter or make that much sense. And there is no carryover, so you just play the same game multiple times. The upside is that where the boss monsters go in these different scenarios does change up how you may want to attack things and what items you want to craft.

Buy Paper Dungeons

27. Arkham Horror: The Card Game

And now another narrative game, technically three in a row, though, Paper Dungeons is pretty light in that area. Arkham Horror: The Card Game is going to lean back into that campaign more heavily and offer a lot of different story and variety.

Fantasy Flight has a great game on their hand, which is played out by how long the game has been going. And it works because they are smart about how they use their cards. They create unique investigators with fun mechanics that are only for them. And the different scenarios use cards to create locations, missions and monsters in different ways. It is something that they really did a great job of building out.

The game is a game where you need to explore, gain clues, and fight monsters. Sometimes some of those matter more than others, and that is some of the fun of the game. You need to figure out how your character, who might be a fighter, can support. And how you use your cards matters a lot. If I play a card, that costs resources and that card is for it’s ability. But when I do a check, I can also discard cards with symbols of the type i need on them to make it more likely I succeed on the challenge. I like the tension of when to hold back a card or when you need to play it.

Buy Arkham Horror: The Card Game

26. Ohanami

Now we’re onto a much smaller game. Ohanami is a little card game where you draft cards and add them to columns keeping it in numerical order. That doesn’t seem like much, but it works for a very fun game because of how you need to play cards and how you score them. And I like the game at all player counts, that can’t be said for all the games on this list. But Ohanami is good at all of them, though the game does change.

There are a few things that work for me with Ohanami. Mainly how you draft, you pick cards and you need to add them to the top or bottom of your three columns. You can split them up, but if you don’t plan it right you’re going to create some big gaps in your numbers. So that’s an interesting challenge to the game.

But also the scoring is fun. The colors, there are four score different. Blue scores points all three rounds but fewer, and green scores only in rounds two and three but it scores more points and grey in only round three but is the most points. It’s a fun system. And then pink is going to give you more points the more of them you have, but it builds up so if you have two it’s only three points but three is six and so on.

Sold Out

25. The Isle of Cats: Explore and Draw

This game was kind of on the list last year. I forgot to separate it from The Isle of Cats so it was low on the list, but I prefer The Isle of Cats: Explore and Draw, at least until I can play Isle of Cats more. But the Explore and Draw, roll and write, version of The Isle of Cats is just easier to get to the table and simpler to play. That does mean that you are a bit more limited in strategy, but that negative is outweighed by the positives in my opinion.

In this game you are trying to rescue cats. To do that you need to fill in cats on your boat, and families (groups) of cats are going to give you points. But you can also get points for completing objectives, as long as you’ve gotten that objective checked off on your bonus scoring board. So it’s a balance of do you take cats, because you need them, or do you grab that bonus scoring.

And how you pick what to take is great as well. It is done in a four column by three row grid. And you pick one of those columns to activate. Everyone picks one of them in fact. And the one you activate, you use all three cards. So if you want to get that bonus scoring, you are picking a row with that in there. There are a few bonuses you can use to break those rules, but it’s a limited number and you can’t use them all, so when you use them is an interesting strategy to maybe grab an extra card for a bonus scoring or cat.

Buy Isle of Cats Explore and Draw

24. Metal Gear Solid

Now the one game on the list that is a bit of a cheat. I maybe should have taken it off, but I did play it a few times at CMON Expo is basically the final form. But Metal Gear Solid left a great impression on me, and I want to put it on the list. This is a game based off of the video game, so it’s not just a shoot the bad guys game, which is a lot of what CMON kind of does, but it’s a game of stealth as well because you’re not really equipped for all the bad guys to shoot you back.

The theme works well in this game and I do love a good game with theme. But the mechanisms of the game are some of my favorite. What I do on my turn is simple, I have action points that I spend on movement, attacking, interacting, whatever I need to do. Once I use my four action points my turn is done and there aren’t so many actions or special things that it’s hard to keep track of.

And the other thing that I really like is how they created the enemy AI. It’s again a pretty simple system that you go down and check a few things which tells you how the enemy moves. But there are special rules for if you made noise, so they think someone might be there, or if they can see you. If you made noise one of them will come and check on that noise. The others patrol like normal, if they can see you, they call run to you, so you better hope that you can shake them before they start blasting.

Retail May 2024

23. Clank! In! Space!

Now a game, like Icecool, that was in my Top 10 at one point and has now dropped a bit. 23 is still really good for Clank! In! Space! because I’ve played a good number of different games. But this is a deck building push your luck game and I really enjoy it. In fact, I enjoy both versions of Clank! that I’ve played, this and regular Clank! and I need to try Clank! Catacombs and Clank! Legacy as well.

Your goal is to get into the vault of the spaceship, grab a treasure and get back out. Of course, if everyone does that, how do you decide who wins. Well, on the cards you add to your deck there can be points. And the treasure or artifact that you’re grabbing, they give you points. The artifacts at the edge of the area, well, they give you a few points, but the ones further in, they are worth a lot more. Is it worth it to push further in?

And then there is the clank mechanic itself. Some of the cards that you play down are noisy. And those create clank which is basically health of yours in cubes. Those cubes go into a bag with Lord Eradikus’s cubes (it’s his ship you’re on) and when you cubes are drawn out it fills up your health meter. So just be careful, well, sometimes you don’t have a choice. And a lot of the time, it’s worth buying cards with clank because they are stronger/better than most.

Buy Clank! In! Space!

22. Marvel Zombies

Now another game that I got to experience first at CMON Expo, I now have all my stuff for it as well. I think it’s 10-12 boxes of Marvel Zombies. This is a Zombicide game, but you don’t have to play as the heroes fighting against the zombies. In fact, the core box has you playing as superheroes who have been turn into zombies fighting against SHIELD agents, heroes, and gobbling up the brains of bystanders like J Jonah Jameson and Okoye.

This is definitely a dudes on a map dice chucking beer and pretzels style of game. But that is what makes it fun. You get to be a zombie superhero who is trying to complete your goals but sometimes you need to eat some brains as well. And each turn your hunger increases. Hunger isn’t the end of the world though, it might mean that you need to eat brains sooner, but it also means that when you’re doing attacks they hit for more because you’re rolling more dice.

Marvel Zombies isn’t going to be a game for everyone, but for me, I like the plug and play nature of the game and how you can pick different zombie heroes to play as or to play as heroes. Or you can pick random heroes to be the bigger bad guys you need to face in the game. Overall just a fun time.

Buy Marvel Zombies

21. Sonora

Finally a game that is half dexterity but I’d say is really a roll and write game. The dexterity element is that you’re flicking discs onto a board. And where they land on that board and the number on your disc determines what part of the roll and write area that you fill in, your own personal board, you’re going to work on, and how much you can do.

Each area plays differently, and there are four. One of them is about racing to fill in large areas first. Another you’re circling cacti as you fill in Tetris shapes. Another has you going down paths and where you end is the points or power that you get. And the last one is about closing off areas for points and again more cacti, the whole thing has a desert theme for no real reason.

That roll and write area is great, in my opinion, because everything chains into each other. As you work in one area you’ll probably get a bonus, or maybe two, for other areas, and you then might get a bonus in those. And I just like how all of that goes together and sometimes it’ll take four minutes just to fill in everything on a turn because you can combo so much. It’s rare, but it is possible, so if you like combos, Sonora is a great roll and write style game.

Buy Sonora

Upcoming Streams

Let’s run through the stream structure like I normally do. You might already know the schedule but in case you don’t. Wednesday at 8 PM Central I stream either a campaign game, or with this time of year it’s my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition. And join me next Wednesday for games 20 through 11, almost to 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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How To Play Crokinole

Crokinole is a two player, mainly, flicking game. You can play with four on teams, but let’s talk about it in it’s primary form, with two players. You take turns flicking discs back and forth across the board. Ideally not the whole way, though, because, there are a few rules to think about with Crokinole.

Firstly, the first person to shoot shoots to hit the middle, 20 point, spot on the board. If they sink it, the next person can also shoot for the middle. But once one disc is left on the board, and stops in the 15 point circle, now the other player needs to hit that disc first before trying to bounce their disc into the middle, if they can. So basically, you shoot for the middle unless your opponent has a disc on the board, then you need to hit that first.

At the end of a round, and there are a few more rules as to when discs get removed, you tally up the scores in a chase to 100. But if I score 65 and you score 40, I get 25 points, the difference between the two. So it isn’t like, if I manage to land 5 discs in the middle, that it’s over already. The scoring is done on a difference basis. So if no one is at 100, you set-up, and now the other player shoots first.

What Doesn’t Work?

There is some minutia to the rules. And it isn’t that it doesn’t work, it’s just that it takes a simple flicking game and adds in more rules. I can still sit down and teach the game in five minutes. But there are going to be edge cases that I need to cover, either in the moment or when the situation arises. At the core, the game is simple, so those rules can seem out of place for someone who wants a really casual game.

The other thing, and this is true with most flicking game, if you get good at it, your skill level will be above your opponents. Now, Crokinole is simpler to get good at than something like Ice Cool in my opinion. That has more with how you might want to spin your penguins. Here you shoot in straight lines, but if I am better at that than you because I play more, I will win most games.

What Works?

Now, I complained about how there are some more rules, or at least called out how they exist. I think it’s worth noting, though, that for the most part Crokinole is a simple game. If one person knows the rules, they can mention them when a situation might occur. Such as, you need to land a disc in the middle or 15 point circle if your opponent doesn’t have a disc on the board. Or you lose discs if you hit your own and not your opponents on a shot. Things that I am hopefully playing right.

The speed of game is also really good. Each game is fast to play, and turns, for obvious reasons, you are flicking one disc, go fast. Sometimes you might need to double check an angle on a shot. But that is about it, normally you set down a disc and go.

Who Is It For?

This is a trickier question. I think for a lot of people because it is that pretty collection piece and abstract versus an Ice Cool it is going to be a whole lot better for them. On the flip side, Crokinole boards aren’t cheap. Mine is cheap and I paid $100 for it. You can pay probably over $500. And I think $300 is probably around the average. So if you get one, it is going to cost some money.

For that reason, I think the game play is for everyone. But the game itself, well, that is going to be harder to say. You almost know you need to like it in order to buy it. I assumed that I would, and I didn’t grab a high end board. So consider before you buy.

Final Thoughts on Crokinole

I really enjoying playing Crokinole. It has just enough rules to make it feel more like a gamers dexterity game than a lot of dexterity games. And I think it is a game that most people would try. Even if the game isn’t for them, it looks pretty and impressive.

That said, I also get why it won’t climb into the Top 10 on Board Game Geek ever. It’s hard for enough people to own and play a ton. And it doesn’t have that disadvantage of a skilled player will win. So the more you play, the bigger the gap between you and the people you play against.

That said, it is still a lot of fun. It is a good time challenging yourself as you game to improve. For some people, it might come to slowly, but for me, it’s that right weight of dexterity, like a PitchCar or Ice Cool. Is it better than them, the question I teased at the top, at two players, it is the best two player flicking game I have played. With more, I prefer the other two and both of those can play up to 8, so easy picks a lot of the time over Crokinole.

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

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100 through 91 here.

90 through 81 here.

80 through 71 here.

70 through 61 here.

60 through 51 here.

50 through 41 here.

40 through 31 here.

30 through 21 here.

Top 100 Games 2022 Edition – 20-11

20. Lords of Hellas

Lords of Hellas is big game from Awaken Realms, and one of their first games. So that doesn’t mean it isn’t without some rough edges but it’s a game that I really enjoy. It offers so much for you to do, you can go questing, fight monsters, build temples and monuments, or try and take over area in the game. And all of them give you some benefit and can help you win the game.

And that is one of the really cool things with Lords of Hellas. The game gives you a lot of ways to win it. That means that every player isn’t going after the same objective, or they might be, but that’s not from lack of options. You can win by taking over two large areas. Or you win by holding five temple spaces. And if a monument if fully built, whoever at the end of three turns is holding it wins the game. Or, if you defeat three of the monsters you can win.

As you play, also, your goal might change. Because you get more powers and those help develop a strategy for how you want to play the game. The first time that I played, I think all the players were within a turn or two of winning.

Buy on Game Nerdz

19. Spire’s End

Spire’s End is a dark choose your own adventure game with combat. And really a pretty simple game as you make choices, you fight combats and you really hope that you don’t die too quickly. As it is a challenging game. But I really enjoy the story in the game. The idea of a spire showing up, town folks have gone missing, and now you need to explore this mysterious thing to see if you can find them is great.

Plus the dice combat works, it is not the most complex game. But the dice combat is fun as you try and figure out when you push, using energy which is your life, for a bigger attack in hopes that the enemy won’t be attacking you. And of course, there is still a chance that attack will just straight up miss anyways.

Buy on Favro

18. Paper Dungeons: A Dungeon Scrawler

Now we’re onto one of my top roll and write games, not my top one, but close. And this is one that I’ve played a lot on Malts and Meeples. Paper Dungeons is a “dungeon scrawler” their words not mine. What that means is that each player is delving into a dungeon, leveling up their adventuring party, crafting items, fighting monsters and everything you’d do in a dungeon crawler. And it even has a campaign.

Now the campaign is nothing to write home about, but Paper Dungeons is a nice level of complex. Do you want to spend your time leveling up your heroes and just making it to the boss monsters to fight them that way, or is racing around the dungeon, taking damage and getting loot the way to go. Well that might depend on cards that you’ve gotten so the whole system just works. I just wish the campaign were a bit more.

Buy on Game Nerdz

17. ICECOOL

Icecool has dropped slightly on my list, but that’s mainly because there are so many good games. Plus, Icecool is my favorite dexterity game. You are flicking penguins around trying to get fish. And you are doing that trying to avoid the one hall monitor who is out to get you. The game is simple, flick your penguin, get them through a door and get points. But it is always a grand old time when I play it.

I also like that like Pitchcar you get excited when someone makes a good shot. So it’s never hyper competitive, well, maybe it was for a few people at the North American championships in 2019. But most of us even for a tournament with a pretty awesome prize were just having fun with it. It’s a great try to win game, but I never feel bad if I’m not winning.

Buy on Amazon

16. Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition

Now onto a bigger game, Ares Expedition, which they might just be calling it now, borrows from another game. But it’s a great pretty fast playing space epic game of terraforming Mars. All you are doing is building up a tableau of cards in front of you to then trigger things that raise the temp, oxygen level, and basically make the planet habitable by the end of the game.

But the cool thing is how actions are chosen. Each player chooses an action at the same time. And whomever picks the action, multiple people can, do it and get a bonus. If you didn’t pick that action, you still can do it, just without the bonus. So everyone is involved throughout the whole of the game.

Buy on Cool Stuff Inc

15. Hanamikoji

Now onto a two player game. Hanamikoji is a push and pull as players try to win the favor of either four Geisha or 11 total points worth of Geisha. All done through simple but fun card interaction. In fact, there are only four actions you do during the game, but it creates an amazing puzzle as you play.

You either pick a card to keep for winning favor, discard two that no one will use, put out three options and your opponent picks one. Or put out two sets of two options and your opponent picks one. So at the start of the game you are feeling out your opponent to see what they might have in their hand. At the end, you hope that you’ve saved the right action to give you a shot to win. I think it works so well because sometimes you might have to give your opponent what they need, but you get the information that you need.

Buy on Miniature Market

14. Railroad Ink

Final roll and write game on the list and it’s easily my favorite. I really like Railroad Ink or Railroad Ink Challenge. And I need to play it more and more with the expansions for it. But Railroad Ink is a route building game where you are connecting road and rail connections at the edge of your board to complete massive routes and score points.

I know that some people don’t like the Railroad Ink Challenge version as well because it adds in some to the game. It gives you challenges that you need to complete, or should, for more points. Now they don’t always work out but it’s fun when they do. And I like it because it adds variety to the game without adding in a complete additional rule set with the expansions.

Buy on Cool Stuff Inc

13. Destinies

Now we’re getting into games that I’d consider my bread and butter. That is not a knock against the other games, I think that Destinies is just the type of game that I write about and talk about more. Why, because it is a bigger campaign feeling game.

In Destinies you are trying to complete your destiny faster in a story driven game. And that is cool and unique about the game as most story driven games are cooperative. But you are trying to get yours done first and shape the story around you, at least for that session. And then it strings together a series of stories, not too many, to tell a bigger experience in the game.

I also really appreciate the simplicity of the game. There is a great app that handles the story element. But beyond that, how you do and manage skill checks is great. You are spending dice, you always have two and can add more that refresh over time, to do a check. If you don’t get it, you lose out on information, if you do, it progresses. But it’s not just a roll to see if you beat a number it’s a roll to see how many success you get. Because you have markers on your stats, and how every many you match or beat number wise, you get. It’s a simple system but one that works well.

Buy on Miniature Market

12. Sleeping Gods

And another big story game, and another one that shouldn’t work as well as it does. That is not a slight to anyone more so that the game is really impressive. Sleeping Gods is a story driven open world game. You go into it not knowing what to do, other than find some totems and that’s your quest. And to create a compelling story is tricky in a setting like that, but Sleeping Gods does that.

It also is not just a one time game because of it. I went off several different directions on the map. But I didn’t go anywhere to the east, I didn’t delve into the dungeons much and I didn’t go to the south much. In fact, I probably have 75-80% of the world left to explore. That makes Sleeping Gods an easy game to come back to and explore the story of it again and again.

Buy on Amazon

(or I’d recommend checking out Sleeping Gods over on Gamefound and getting it with the new version there)

11. Clank! In! Space!

And wrapping up this section before we get to the Top 10, we have Clank! In! Space!. A deck building push your luck game set in space. This also counts for Clank! as well, and I wish for Clank! Legacy, but that’s one I still need to get to the table.

In Clank! In! Space! you are building up your deck to move as efficiently around a spaceship as possible. All the while you know that you’ll be making noise, clank, so that when cubes are added to and pulled from a bag, you are going to start losing your health. Think the bad guys finding you when your color is pulled.

Plus the game has good humor in it. It knows that it’s a silly game and it leans into the space themes and tropes. So you’ll recognize the characters you are finding on the ship, or at least have an idea of some of the different sci-fi properties that it references. Clank! In! Space! is just a good deck building game that offers more to do than just deck building.

Not Available. But Checkout Clank Catacombs coming soon.

Upcoming Streams

So, only planned stream and I know that this is late coming out because of the holidays, but tonight we have 10 through 1.

Join me live for this finale of my Top 100 Games. Let me know what games make it into your Top 10 (of all time) 2022 Edition. And just for a good time in general to talk about board games and what we love about them.

Then on Wednesday, we’re getting to the holiday season. So I am not starting another big box campaign until the start of 2023, but we’ll be highlighting some and then playing smaller games leading up to that. So join me on Wednesday as I start that process.

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May Board Gaming

Paper Dungeons – 10 Plays

This one you can watch over on Malts and Meeples and I’ll put the last video down below. But a dungeon crawl roll and write game. I really like it, and I want more. I want a bigger story, I want different sheets to play off of, more monsters to play around with. And just a few more things to change it up.

Biblios – 4 Plays

Biblios is one that I want to play more of. Four plays were fun and I’ve played it at 2 and 3 players. I want to try it at four sometime. It’s basically a set collection game where you try and get majority in different colors. I like it for that, it has some good choices but is mainly a filler game.

Village Green – 4 Plays

Another one that I believe I played on Malts and Meeples solo in an attempt to “fix” the solo mode. I think I came up with a good way to do that. Mainly, having cards fall off the rows so that the rows change up more as you play the game. Otherwise the solo experience is a bit boring.

Icecool – 3 Plays

Icecool, a game that I am always down to play. I brought it in to work one day and we had fun messing around with it. And all the players had a fun time with it. It’s a nice one as always to just sit around and play and have a laugh with.

Matcha – 3 Plays

Matcha is a fun trick taking game and set collection game. What is really interesting about this game is that some tricks it based off of number and some off of the suit that is played. And the fact that you can win by not winning tricks enough times is interesting. The game plays fast and it’s a solid two player trick taking experience.

Tainted Grail – 2 Plays

Oddly enough, I don’t think that there is any Tainted Grail for June, or there might be a play. One of the players bought a house and has been busy with that. But as always Tainted Grail has been a fun experience of exploration, fighting monsters, and finding out the story. Really it is for the story.

The Quacks of Quedlinberg – 2 Plays

Got to play Quacks of Quedlinberg again, and it was fun. We swapped up the ingredients powers which made it a different game in a good way. Obviously it’s set-up for that, and I’m glad that it does make that difference. I like the push your luck element to it and the catch-up element. I really want to try with more than two player, though it won’t make a massive difference to how I play the game, but it’s just a fun one I want to share.

Quadropolis – 2 Plays

New game off the shelf with Quadropolis. Though, it is one that was published a while ago by Days of Wonder. I really like how it works to put out places onto you board and the placement rules for it. And I think that while the game is pretty straightforward, there are a lot of good decisions that can be made in it. And how you take the tiles and place them just works well. Accessible but thinky is a good way to describe the game.

Incan Gold – 2 Plays

I want to find a push your luck game that I really like. I’m not sure that Incan Gold is going to be that, though I did have fun with it. I think that push your luck is a bit group dependent. Some people are too risk adverse so will drop out early. Others it’s less fun for because they push in too far. But I had a good time with it.

PitchCar – 2 Plays

More dexterity gaming with PitchCar. This one was fun because a couple of kids were playing as well. And they had a solid time with it. Also it was at the GameZenter so we had people coming over to see what we were doing.

Qwixx – 2 Plays

Qwixx is a nice filler roll and write game. I like how simple it is and that element of pushing your luck in hopes to be able to fill in more works well. I think I prefer it at two player just because closing off a row is so powerful, with three or four, whomever doesn’t close something off can’t win, it seems.

Deception: Murder in Hong Kong – 2 Plays

My favorite social deduction game. Won’t say much more on it, but it’s the only one that gives you something real to start talking about from the get go. I’m always down to play it, will hesitate to play any others.

The Table Is Lava – 2 Plays

Another game off my shelf of to be played. This is a silly game of sliding or throwing cards to score meeples. I really enjoyed the play of it, though. Another one of those games that is just a good time and some good laughs as you try and knock over meeples.

Similo – 2 Plays

Similo is a fun party style game of deduction. I like that it is cooperative, so while one person is playing the clue giver, everyone is on the same team. It almost has a little bit of a Codenames feel to it, but because it’s pictures, I think it’s more fun. Plus how do you give a clue if the Little Mermaid is like or not like a Ghost?

Destinies – 1 Play

I want to play more Destinies. I just did a two player game of the introductory scenario. And I loved what I played. The story element is fun, the app integration is slick and adds in good story and adventure to it. And I want to get into the bigger thing where it is all one giant story, with different characters, throughout 3 different parts.

Atlantis Rising – 1 Play

Atlantis Rising yet another one off my shelves for the first time. This one we got a rule or two wrong with it, but got the basic concept of the game right. I really liked it. Firstly, it looks amazing. But also the push your luck element of the worker placement, how far you place out, works really well. And I can see this being a cooperative game that I’d pull out before Pandemic a lot of the time.

Drawn to Adventure – 1 Play

I barely made it through a game of this. Drawn to Adventure, unfortunately, did not impress me. I think it’s cool to do an dungeon crawl or exploration sort of game. But it’s just too limited in what you can do. I wanted more decisions to make and it felt like the game almost played itself. Plus it isn’t a fast game either.

Terraforming Mars – Ares Expedition – 1 Play

I still really enjoy Ares Expedition and want to get it played every now and again. I do want to try, sometime, more than two player. But two player moves so fast, not that more would slow it down much. The card play in this game just works well for me. And once those expansions hit retail, I’ll probably pick up one or two.

XenoShyft Onslaught – 1 Play

XenoShyft is a deck building game that I really love. Again, did not beat the game, but got close. I am not sure if I’ve ever beat the game, maybe once. But I keep on coming back to it because we always get close. And getting close is enough for me to want to try it again and again.

Canvas – 1 Play

Canvas, another one that I’ve played a few times now and at a few different player counts. It’s such a pretty game and while it is very simple, I find it a lot of fun. I can see why some people want to just make the prettiest painting, and that is an option but won’t help you win. But even when going for the best score, it is fun and you get good artwork to look at as well.

The Fox in the Forest – 1 Play

Another trick taking game, this was playing with a different player than the first few times. I need to start adjusting my strategy because I keep on making moves too soon. But I really like this as a fast little filler two player game.

So Clover! – 1 Play

So Clover, amazing party game. Highly recommend finding this one if you like cooperative party games. It’s higher than either Similo or Just One for me. Mainly because while it’s not too hard, there is just a bit more going on with it.

Just One – 1 Play

Speaking of Just One, also got that one played. Back to back with So Clover actually. I still really enjoy Just One. The game play makes it very easy to play with basically anyone. And cooperative, for me, puts less pressure on. Though I know for some people with guessing the word the fact it’s cooperative adds pressure.

No Thanks! – 1 Play

Finally, No Thanks! got played again, and one of the people who played it I believe picked it up to play with her family. It’s a fun game and definitely a different bidding feel than sometimes I’ve played it. The players set the market for taking a higher value card lower than sometimes. And it paid off big time for one player.

Year to Date

So, I’m going to keep this a little bit shorter this time. Mainly because, well, I’m going to be doing this again next week. So all of June’s stats are mixed in now. But 8 new for me games were played in May. And 52 plays overall which is more than I thought there would be. May started out slower with plays, I believe, but then ended strong. So I am well on my way to 365 plays for the year.

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