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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What Is A Legacy Game?

A legacy game is a subset of campaign games so let’s start off with the question, what is a campaign game? A campaign game is a game where you what you do in the previous game chains into the next game or carries over in some way. Often times there is story in a campaign game, but not always a ton of story.

Now, keeping campaign games in mind, what is a legacy game? A legacy game is a game where you make permanent changes to the game during and between plays. This might include, writing on elements, destroying elements, adding stickers to elements and more. A legacy game is generally not replayable as the legacy experience after you play it once. But the big element is those permanent changes.

Top 5 Games That Should Get a Legacy Game Version

So what are my rules for the list. The first thing is that I need to have already played the game. So no game that I know would make a solid legacy game even from theme or mechanisms if I haven’t played it. The other is there can’t be a legacy version of it already. In this case the example would be, I can’t ask for Pandemic Legacy Season 3, three legacy Pandemic games already exist.

5. Mansions of Madness

This one maybe should be my #1 for a legacy game. But Mansions of Madness or really a lot of the Arkham Games from Fantasy Flight Games would be perfect. But I love Mansions of Madness a ton and I want a campaign for it, so why not legacy. In this game you play as investigators trying to stop some Eldritch ritual from happening or horror from coming through.

So create an adventure that is going to tie things together, that is more of a campaign than a legacy game though. What do you do for legacy elements? I think player stats and making those improvable throughout the game would be really interesting. My lore is bad at the start, but I can spend some resource to level that up. Or maybe you fail a mission. Instead of playing it again fail forward. But destroy a location that you might have been able to go to and lock out a benefit.

One element I don’t talk about too much is adding in new rules. But I think this game is one where you could easily add in more rules. You create different types of challenges for the players to face and that’s a new rule. Or you unlock new monsters and new bad things that can happen within the game. There is so much in this game as it is that it’s hard to come up with everything that could work for a legacy game.

4. Lost Ruins of Arnak

Now, they did make a campaign game for Lost Ruins of Arnak, but I think a legacy game would be great as well. This is a worker placement and deck building game. In it you explore ruins, gather artifacts, research and note discoveries and more. The player with the most points wins.

As you explore the game, some sites you explore become tapped out. Or you set that something is always going to be at a location that you can get. And as you play through games, you can upgrade items and artifact cards you can get and lock some of them into your starting deck.

Since Arnak is a competitive game, I think adding to those starting decks and improving those cards would be important. If you lose, you get to sticker a card or cards in your starting deck or on your board to give you more starting resources or more flexibility in the cards you have.

Finally, I think that unlocking new research tracks could be interesting so you explore new temples and that changes up the game. As well as new artifacts and items that you can buy would be great as well for options for a legacy game. And possibly even remove/destroy some. Or make some artifacts or items truly one time use.

3. T.I.M.E. Stories

I want to see someone take a run at this one. T.I.M.E. Stories is a time travel game where your consciousness is sent back into the past and you need to complete a mission. If you fail, your consciousness comes back to the future and you loop and try again. There is supposed to be a story that goes through it all, but it only kind of is there.

But I think there are some interesting ways that you could make this a legacy game. The first being that when you go from the past to the future after failing a mission, let’s say by dying, nothing really changes for you. So instead I think it could be really cool to give out scars there. And each person you jump into has a positive and potentially negative thing you need to deal with. Why not give that to the person who jumps into them as well.

Plus there is a lot of story that can be done as well. And I think, something maybe interesting, would be limiting how you can jump back in. Nothing should lock you out of completing the story, but the more you jump back and forth the more the villains notice you, so you keep track of that as well. And the more you do it, maybe the more you change up a scenario, such as you sticker up to hide some bonus that you could have gotten, or destroy that item card that you could find.

2. Xenoshyft: Onslaught

One of my favorite games, another one that I think would be easy to do as a legacy game. This is a deck building tower defense game where players are dealing with waves of bugs attacking the base. You need to build up your deck and your troops to stop the wave of bugs that’s coming to your side of the board, but you also cooperatively help the other players as well, because any weak side is going to let damage through.

There are a few things that I think make sense for a legacy game. The first thing is your side of the base generally has some special abilities. Start with generic ones and as you unlock the game players sticker on new abilities. You also could add abilities and unlock special versions of cards, or change up your starting deck of cards with stickers.

And for the enemies you could unlock new enemies and destroy enemies in some ways to completely remove them from the deck. Of course that is going to come with some sort of cost to the players. But adding in elements like that would be interesting. And I think elements around succeeding or failing a mission and damage to your base or changing funding or cards that you unlock could be really interesting.

1. Burncycle

This game for Chip Theory Games is one of the first that I spotted on my shelf. Now this could be a campaign as well, but it is also one that could make a very good legacy game. The theme of the game is where that strong legacy and campaign element could really take hold.

The world went through a time where robots were in control or important. Then humanity took back over with mega corporations and now the robots are on the run sneaking into these corporations and trying to complete missions. That is what the base game is.

So how could this become legacy? First you chain the missions together. Next as you play, you create new abilities and sticker them on for your robots. Or you upgrade abilities that you already have and they are persistent through the game and you make them unique for how you want to play. I think also the corporations could also have legacy elements to it. You unlock new abilities that replace old ones as they get wise to your tactics. And if the players hack and deal with the right thing, maybe you remove abilities as well.

Final Thoughts

Those are just five games that I think could work well as a legacy game. What is a game that can be a campaign game already but would work well as a legacy game? Is there something that you look for when you see a legacy game?

Right now, though, I really don’t need more legacy games. I am looking at a shelf where I have a few to play. Like the second Aeon’s End Legacy, both Clank! Legacy, Betrayal Legacy, Ticket to Ride Legacy and more. But I always wan to find more and I’m always excited when they come out because they offer some of the richest overall experiences and let designers really play and change up a game.

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Highlights of Kingdom Legacy

Let’s talk about what stands out about Kingdom Legacy. This game by Fryxgames and Jonathan Fryxelius is not a big game. In fact, it is a quite small game that is just about 140 total cards. And in that, you don’t see all of the cards in the game. Because some of them you are going to unlock.

Ease to the Table

So that is the first element that works so well in this game. It is extremely simple to pick-up and play and to put down and put away. You just put the cards you’ve unlocked in one part of the box and use something as a divider, there is a first card that I use, to keep the deck separate from what you are already using. It’s just really easy to get to the table. So easy that I actually grabbed a second copy. I know what I’ll want to play it again.

Simple Game Play

The mechanisms work really nicely as well. When you play you are upgrading cards. So you draw four cards, and you can push to draw more, but the more you draw, the less you do in the game. Because, when you upgrade a card you get rid of the rest of the cards. So the more you push the faster you get through your deck and faster that you unlock more cards. So it’s this great push and pull of asking the question, can I do anything, if yes, is it worth it to do that and not push the game along further.

Legacy Elements

And I like the legacy elements of the game a ton as well. The first element is simply unlocking the cards. That is simple, you unlock two more each time through your play deck of cards. Sometimes it is more, and sometimes it gives you choices. And these will shape how you play the game. In particular with the end scoring of the game, when you pick those, it’ll shape what you want to upgrade.

But beyond that, you upgrade cards and keep track of extra goods to improve towers or sell trade goods. As well as then some stickers to add to different cards. That can increase your production of goods, or your attack and push you forward in the game that way. I think that each element is just enough to add a bit of flavor to what you are doing.

Upcoming Streams

So let’s just run through a reminder of the streaming schedule every week.

• Monday – Board Game Streaming around 8 PM Central
• Wednesday – Board Game Streaming around 9 PM Central
• Friday – Baldur’s Gate 3 Streaming around 9 PM Central

The best way to know when new videos are live is to subscribe and click that notification bell. You can do that here.

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Catch up on previous videos here

100 through 91

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition – 90 through 81

90. Project: ELITE

• Published by CMON in 2020
• Real Time Scenario Based Tower Defense

Normally this wouldn’t be my type of game. I love parts of it, like chucking dice, scenario driven play, and cooperative game play. But I don’t like real time. This balances that out by giving you real time in bursts and then a moment to strategize before the next wave of enemies comes out. That is real time game play that works for me.

Not Currently Available

89. Lands of Galzyr

• Published by Snowdale Design in 2022
• Relaxing story driven cooperative or competitive game

Lands of Galzyr is a game that feels like that kind of random D&D session. You stumble across missions but each mission is it’s own thing. And the whole thing is done in a package that puts story first and keeps the game play simple. And it’s a relaxing game to play. Not that some stories aren’t exciting or risky, but it never truly feels high stakes.

Pre-order Lands of Galzyr

88. Kohaku

• Published by 25th Century Games in 2020
• Build the best and highest scoring Koi pond

I really enjoy Kohaku for the simplicity and thoughtfulness of the game play. It’s a game where you need to plan out where you place tiles to optimize your scoring. But it’s not overwhelming. And the elements like drafting both a koi and a scoring tile each turn and how that works is really enjoyable.

Buy Kohaku

87. My City

• Published by Kosmos in 2020
• A fast, ever building legacy game

My City is one of those legacy games that is just simple and fun to play. Sometimes they get bogged down in trying to be too big, but not My City. The game is focused on adding a little bit each time and giving you a fun fast session as everyone builds out their city in hopes that it’s the best one at the end of each scenario.

Buy My City

86. The Isofarian Guard

• Published by Skykingdom Games in 2023
• A massive solo and two player story driven adventure

This is one that you can checkout a game play of on Malts and Meeples. I really enjoy this game, though it is a massive table hog. The game is an interesting story telling game that has some tropes, but quickly branches off into magic powers and interesting story. It’s one that I think works well solo but I’d prefer to play two player to keep the combat simpler and share that great story experience.

Buy The Isofarian Guard

85. Super-Skill Pinball: 4-Cade

• Published by WizKids in 2020
• It’s Roll and Write Pinball, can you get the new high score?

Super-Skill Pinball is truly a pinball roll and write game. I love how it simulates the game with the ball movement and how it launches up, can ping around in the bumpers or drop back down. It’s a great game for solo play and it’s fun with others, though it’s possible that one player will finish before the others. That’s the only downside to the game, but with all of the tables i never feel like I’m lacking in something to keep it being played solo.

Buy Super-Skill Pinball

84. Crokinole

• Created in 1876
• A competitive flicking classic

There’s no publisher for Crokinole, the game is public domain, but there are a lot of great spots to get boards and get spendy or fancy boards. I really like the simplicity of the flicking game. It works really well and smoothly and it’s one that you can definitely get really good at. I wish I had more time to get this one to the table, though, I could say that about all of them.

Pre-order Crokinole

83. Clever Cubed

• Published by Schmidt Spiele in 2020
• Another combotastic roll and write game from the Clever line

I really enjoy Clever Cubed because while some of the others have combos, Clever Cubed is the one that has even more combos. And while sometimes I really like a good straightforward roll and write game, I also love the ones that give me a ton of combos. No doubt that this the latter, and the core game loop of how you pick and eliminate dice on your turn is always good.

Buy Clever Cubed

82. Furnace

• Published by Hobby World in 2020
• Bid on cards and build up the best industrial engine you can

This is a great and simple engine building game. Everything works smoothly with gathering resources and turning them into points. But there is also a really fun auction as well. I love how it’s a single bid per person per card but if you lose the big, you get a benefit for bidding there. And how the benefits scale based off of the number you bid with is amazing.

Buy Furnace

81. Yggdrasil Chronicles

• Published by Ludonaute in 2019
• Defend the world tree from all the threats that abound

This is a really tough cooperative game and one that I really enjoy. I think it’s a fun push your luck as you try to power up while hoping that you can keep the enemies in check. Of course, there are so many enemies and they ramp quickly that it can be very challenging. Plus how the enemies activate or how it’s determined which ones do is really clever and fun.

Buy Yggdrasil Chronicles

Final Thoughts on Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition 90 through 81

What do you think of the list, is there a game that you want to try or that you love on it? I feel like I got a really big variety on the list this time. There are some lighter games, but then you have a game with a ton of minis like Project: ELITE and a big campaign game in The Isofarian Guard. The only thing I think is missing is a true party game from this section.

Just a reminder, join me next week on Malts and Meeples for the next 10 on the list. The plan is to go live around 9 PM Central time and it’ll be 80 through 71. The best way to know when I go live is subscribe and click that notification bell. That’ll let you know for sure when it’ll be happening.

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

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Catch up here:

Rogue Angels Mission 1, Mission 2, Mission 3, Mission 4

Rogue Angels – New Cards and Companions

This whole mission was about getting new cards to play with and then a new companion. The companion is in Part 6 versus the getting the cards in Part 5. But either way, it’s two new elements of Rogue Angels for us to talk about.

These are not legacy elements of the game. They are campaign elements but not legacy. Nothing about them is destructive in terms of a Pandemic Legacy or Risk Legacy. You just pick a group of cards that you get, and you don’t end up with the other. The same for the companion. Though, I suspect with the companion, you get them either direction that they go. They are a simple addition to a mission.

The tech cards versus the weapon cards can help shape your group. Now some of them, one, can be used as a very effective weapon. But it works with a character at a cost. You spend one of your tokens. Now Tarira is heavily focused on damage so it’s going to be a great option for her. But it’s still a strong card for it’s basic ability. So I’m excited to see it in a mission and see what it can do.

I also like that with the cards it limits how many you can have. I might never get beyond two tech cards per player added. So it might be a moot point. But as the game goes on, you’ll unlock additional cards. And those cards are going to make you make choices. 7 starting cards plus two more cards is all that you can have. If you play with four players you’ll have more opportunities to bring more cards, but at two, I’m already maxing out both characters hands.

Upcoming Streams

On Monday I stream at 9 PM Central. That is sometimes a bit hit or miss, but that’s the goal. And I do small solo game plays. The schedule is, right now, going to look like gaming every other Monday. A chance to see people in person came up for Monday and as much as I like streaming, it’s good to socialize as well.

On Wednesdays, well, I said that I plan to play at least 10 games of Rogue Angels. This is going to continue how I play my solo campaign games on the channel. My goal, play four different campaigns 10 times each. It’s tricky, but I think that I can do it. That is at 8 PM Central time for the campaign games.

And if you want to know when I go live, the best way is to subscribe. When you subscribe, click that notification bell and you’ll get an alert whenever I’m going to go live. Follow the link – here – to subscribe.

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Catch up here:

Rogue Angels Mission 1, Mission 2, Mission 3

Rogue Angels – Legacy

I want to start by talking about Rogue Angels legacy elements because I’ve talked about the story and the characters. But I think that the legacy elements of the game are important to talk about as well. I know that on the original Kickstarter a lot of people were worried about how many times they could play the whole game. That is not a major concern to me, but if this is going to be someone’s favorite game that they get and play five times to see all the story, I get that.

Legacy Choice

Thankfully, though Emil Larson, the designer, didn’t look to remove the legacy elements from the game. It’s one of those things, you want your choices to matter and shape you. He and I definitely discussed this a couple of times as we did our playthroughs. And I believe that he is right, if the legacy element were removed to say, just a campaign sheet, it makes the decisions and weight of them feel less.

But beyond the fact it is a legacy game, Emil made the choice to make it more replayable. So it even though you likely wouldn’t see everything and you’d have character left to play, it’s still more able to be reset.

Legacy In Action

But I want to talk about the legacy choices still. You saw me kind of stumble through figuring out how to do them in this version. In the real game, the choices I made are stickers to put on the cards. It is easy, and right now I just need to keep track or keep an eye on them. But I like how different the legacy elements are. Tarira’s basic interaction upgrades were more combat. But Gia is all about gaining extra dice, more rounded in the approach.

And all of this ties into the other legacy elements. You improve your cards and that is probably the most obvious element to the legacy. But that isn’t the only element to the legacy. I already did one element as I filled in sections on the character boards and sheets. So what upgrades or bonus abilities are on cards I activate depends on the traits that I have increased. That is another very fun element.

Do you enjoy a good legacy game?

Upcoming Streams

On Monday I stream at 9 PM Central. That is sometimes a bit hit or miss, but that’s the goal. And I do small solo game plays. That is going to be interspersed with learning to paint. I am not going to be teaching you how to paint, I’m going to be learning myself. So join me on Monday for solo gaming or painting.

On Wednesdays, well, I said that I plan to play at least 10 games of Rogue Angels. This is going to continue how I play my solo campaign games on the channel. My goal, play four different campaigns 10 times each. It’s tricky, but I think that I can do it. That is at 8 PM Central time for the campaign games. The next part of Rogue Angels can be found coming up here.

And if you want to know when I go live, the best way is to subscribe. When you subscribe, click that notification bell and you’ll get an alert whenever I’m going to go live. Follow the link – here – to subscribe.

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Top 3 Memorable Games

3. Gloomhaven Days

You might wonder why this is lower on the list, but this is mainly because the list isn’t in any order. Also because we did this a few times. When we were playing through Gloomhaven we knew how long it would take us, the game has a lot. So we set aside a few Saturdays or Sundays to play Gloomhaven. It is harder now with Frosthaven, two of us have kids. Multiple times we sat down and played three or four scenarios of Gloomhaven on a Saturday.

I remember those times because I like just having a day of gaming. And to play with a game the whole time is just great. I like days of gaming with a lot of different games. Gen Con is the main spot for that, but I’ve hosted days like that as well. But to pick one game, like Gloomhaven and have the group, drink beer, I think we’d order in pizza for dinner and just play the whole day is great. And it is one of those experiences where I know I can recreate it, but it is rarer or harder to do now.

2. Pandemic Legacy Season 1

I like legacy and campaign games. Oddly enough, I think everything on the list will be one or the other of those. But one is just a one off play. But Pandemic Legacy was a mind blowing gaming event. Or less of an event, but more a year of gaming. We got together once a month or so, and we’d play Pandemic Legacy. We would have a meal, sometimes, and play through the month or maybe a bit ahead if we wanted to get in two plays.

But it was great because it was the first time of having a group game like that. Also, when you play a legacy game for the first time, I think, unless you dislike the game, there is something special about it. I play as a character, I can die, and there is story and changes unfolding in Pandemic Legacy, that is great. And yes, it is hard to destroy the cards at first. But we got into it so we were in the experience. And, I think, it’s one of the first times where gaming was such an event and an anticipation with it. Yes, I did game nights before, but Pandemic Legacy felt different.

1. Roll Player Adventures at Gen Con

This one, I’m not sure I’d put it to the top of my list but it was one of the coolest events at Gen Con. And you’ll notice the only Gen Con related event. I thought about putting some other ones down on the list. But Roll Player Adventures stands out to me because I got to play it as a prototype. And I was there with a friend playing it with two other people. So it was a great group for it as well.

But it started off memorable when the designer/developer who was running the demo asks if we want to play the first or second scenario. If was just my friend and myself and we said second. Then we proceeded to take a stab at how well we did on the first scenario and picked all the options that were us doing it poorly.

So it was just a funny start, and then as the group dynamics were set-up throughout the game, we had a great time. And I started messing around with my character, not in a game breaking way but in a role playing way, to be the unofficial leader of the group, in their mind. It was just a blast and a silly and fun experience that playing through the whole game lived up to.

Final Thoughts

I think I could find more games that are great as I go. Playing Lords of Hellas for the first time. Starting up TIME Stories and that experience of just a different type of game. The Ice Cool Tournament at Gen Con, that maybe should have made the list. Or the games of Metal Gear Solid at CMON Expo really recently.

To a lot of other ones where it might be less about the game, but getting together with the Man vs Meeple crew twice at Gen Con and both times having the AC not working at the restaurant (and then we did game as well). And the first year I got to play Ready Set Bet for the first time and just falling in love with that game.

Or all the times playing Magic the Gathering with a group from work. We’d get together in the evenings, most of us were single and most without kids. And then playing during lunch as well, which morphed into lunch board games as well. That is when and why I got into Magic the Gathering. So many different experiences.

What are some of your best games and gaming experiences? It might even be for a mediocre game, but is the situation is right, that can still be a memorable gaming experience.

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Creating My Top 100 Games List

And that site is Pub Meeple. It’s a great site because it pulls in your Board Game Geek list and can use that to do a ranking. In the ranking you compare two games against each other. So let’s say Monopoly and Clue. You decide which one you like better, so Clue then Monopoly. Then you might compare Risk and Scrabble and decide on Scrabble. It’d then give you the comparison of Clue and Scrabble and let’s say I pick Scrabble, it’ll then have me compare Clue to Risk to determine which one I like better. If I pick Clue then Risk and Monopoly get compared. But if I pick Risk, then Clue and Monopoly just get slotted after.

Also, it’s worth noting a few other things I mention at the start. That’s how I eliminate some of the games. Each box of Dice Throne doesn’t count as it’s own entry. Every version of Clank, Aeon’s End, and Pandemic aren’t their own entries. Even Frosthaven, Gloomhaven, and Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion get lumped together. Why, because otherwise the list would be dominated by a few games.

Finally, last thing is that I do not put games that I’ve only played digitally. There are a couple of games, Rogue Angels being the big one, that will likely end up in my Top 100 Games (of all time) when I can play it physically, but I want to experience it that way as well to verify my feelings.

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition 100 through 91

100. Ship Shape

A new one to the list, this is an interesting little game that is kind of a party style filler. But not a party game in terms of a “haha” game. But it’s a light game of filling out your cargo hold the best that you can. You have three goods, cannons, gold, and contraband. You get points for gold, cannons compared to the person with the fewest, and your contraband, if you don’t have the most.

Plus you are bidding on what tile you get to place into your hold. It might work out well, you win the bid, you get the top one, or you could get the second one. Of course, if you tie, then you don’t get any in order and have to rebid for your one once more a gone. So it’s kind of random, but a lot of fun with simple mechanisms.

Buy Ship Shape

99. Welcome To…

Welcome To has dropped on the list. I think that Welcome To is down on the list because I don’t play it as often because it isn’t my favorite solo roll and write game. But the game is still great as you try and build your favorite Stepford neighborhood. Can you build the best white picket fences, pools, parks, and get those house numbers in the right order?

Plus there is good variety with the different maps. So I likely need to play those more often so that I can get that variety. And one of the better things is that Welcome To is a great game for a larger group. There really is no upper limit, just sheets, as to how many you can play with. So that makes it a fun game to pull out when I want a bigger group game but not a party game.

Buy Welcome To…

98. SCOUT

SCOUT is another new one to the list and this was a big hit from last year in the US. I believe it was out in Japan prior to that, but I started hearing about it a ton last year and a ton at Gen Con in 2022. SCOUT is a card shedding game. That means that you have a handful of cards and you’re trying to get rid of yours the fastest.

To do that you are trying to play out card(s) in sets, runs, or a single card, that beats what the other person played. The trick of the game is that the cards have numbers on the top and bottom. And when you get your hand of cards you can’t rearrange it. So you’re stuck with what you had, that might mean that you can’t beat what someone else played down. Instead you take one of the cards they played and add it to your hand wherever you want.

Buy SCOUT

97. My City (My City: Roll and Build)

Next up is one of those combo of games. My City and My City Roll and Build. This is a game about building out a city in either a campaign or legacy game version. And one is a roll and write the other is a polyomino game.

I like each version. My City, the legacy version, is a good game that’s fast to play and works well with a group of people. My City Roll and Build is able to be played solo. It is still a very fast game, and fewer things carry over, but I like it a lot as a solo game. It is still extremely fast, probably 10 minutes for the roll and write game. The legacy version is probably 20-30 minutes.

Buy My City

96. The Reckoners

Now we’re onto a cooperative game on the list, The Reckoners. This is based off of a series from Brandon Sanderson that I really like. And this is a good cooperative game in that there is little to no downtime in the game.

How do they make that work? The game is in two parts, the first part is rolling dice to determine what actions you will do. And everyone does that at once, it’s kind of Yahtzee style in that you roll multiple times. But not completely because you always are keeping dice. Then everyone is talking as they roll to make sure it gets set-up right, and you go and do all your actions. Again it is done all at once. The only downtime is when you do the epics (super villains) actions to see what goes wrong.

Buy The Reckoners

95. Clever Cubed

Clever Cubed, another roll and write game and part of the Clever series of games with Ganz Schon Clever (That’s Pretty Clever), Doppelt So Clever (Twice as Clever) and a new game, Clever 4Ever. This one I really like how heavily it leans into combos. There are so many combos in the game that it’s just crazy with how things can connect together and how they just chain off of each other. Plus you get really high scores which is fun.

Buy Clever Cubed

94. Project L

A game that almost wasn’t around any more, as the company – Boardcubator almost went out of business. But Project L is a polyomino game where you are using Tetris like pieces to fill in shapes. As you get more pieces to use, you can start to grab in bigger ones and bigger pieces to fill in the shapes faster.

One of the cool elements of the game, besides the insanely high quality, is that there is a master action. It is an action that you can do one time per turn, but it lets you add to each of your shapes. So you can spend turns collecting more cards and then doing master actions to fill them up faster or all at once, so it’s very fun when you get that working well.

Buy Project L

93. Super-Skill Pinball 4-Cade

Another roll and write game, Super-Skill Pinball 4-Cade is not shockingly about Pinball. I like that you get a lot of tables to play so you change up what you want to play. And it isn’t hard to learn, though there are pretty simple rules for all the ball moves. The ball moves down and rotates clockwise, I believe, or counter clockwise, either way it’s always the same way.

And each table offers something new. I like the cyber hacking one where you can get into a special area of the board and score a ton of points. All of them have something unique and there are four tables in the main box. Plus there is an expansion box, a Star Trek box, and a holiday movie box, so a lot of options.

It is also a roll and write game that I like solo. Multiplayer it’s possible that one person will end much sooner than someone else. That can lead to downtime, and as you saw with The Reckoners, I like it when there is as little downtime as possible.

Buy Super-Skill Pinball 4-Cade

92. Atlantis Rising (Second Edition)

Atlantis Rising is a cooperative race against the clock (figuratively) as the island of Atlantis is sinking. And this is another game where there is little downtime. Everyone is working together and putting out your meeples to the board for collecting items. The further you are out on peninsulas it’s better, but because it’s sinking, you might lose a meeple, for that round.

With what you collect then you’re building up machines. The machines will open a portal that will allow you to escape. And they give you powers as well which might make it smoother to get what you need. Of course, by the time you’re doing that, the island is sinking fast, so it’s a race against time.

Buy Atlantis Rising (Second Edition)

91. Vegetable Stock

Next one is Vegetable Stock. A game that I wouldn’t have known about but for Chris Yi from the Dice Tower who likes this game. This is a small set collection game. And it is also a drafting game. As you draft cards that builds up your collection of card to give you points. And you draft from a pool of one more than there are people.

The card that is leftover affects the stock market. So what you take won’t push it higher, but what is left is going to be push it higher. If it gets too high it’ll bust and drop it down again, so you need to redo that work. Vegetable Stock is a light filler game and really fast. So one that will work well for a lot of groups just as that smaller group game that you can knock out.

Buy Vegetable Stock

Upcoming Streams (Top 100 and Game Plays)

Next Wednesday at 8 PM Central time I’ll be going through 90 through 81 of my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition. So join me then and let me know which are your favorites on that part of the list.

And on Monday I stream around 9 PM central time. Generally it is a solo game, though sometimes a topic or a list or Slay the Spire. But it’ll likely be solo games for a while with the Top 100 List going on. And normally on Wednesdays I stream solo campaign board games. So after I finish up my Top 100 Games I’ll be getting back to that, possibly more of The Isofarian Guard.

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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Top 10 Games to Demo at Gen Con

Let’s start out by cheating with two honorable mentions.

Honorable Mention:

Kinfire Delve – Kinfire is a game that I might pick up, it’s a big campaign game. Delve looks like a smaller game set in the same universe. But if it builds on that world in a fun away, even without being a campaign game, it is one that’s on my radar. And it’s still cooperative, so it might be more of a bite sized game.

The A.R.T. Project – Another cooperative game and another one that looks beautiful. I obviously like cooperative games, and I’m hoping that this one won’t be too complex. The idea of trying to figure out certain scenarios to stop an art thief, but again not be a campaign game, that sounds like a lot of fun. And with the look of the game, not a company I’m always drawn towards, but this game is.

Onto the main list.

10. Super Squad High

Let’s start out with the most important thing. There is a narrative dating mechanism. This is a high school for super heroes, of course there is going to be that. Plus it’s cooperative and it’s super heroes, and honestly, I don’t know what’s in this game not to love. Maybe the fact that secretly one of your classmates if the villains. But it doesn’t sound like a hidden traitor game, it sounds like one of the people you interact with through the game will be. So I hope I don’t end up dating them.

9. Spellbook

Phil Walker-Harding puts out good balances of interesting games, but not too complex games. This is fun that they are advertising there are 2100 different spell combinations. That means that the game is going to be and feel unique. And those spells are going to be unique and changing as the game goes on. Plus the whole main concept, feeding your familiar with the “materia” from the spells, that is interesting. Finally, you decide when you spit out those spells. Get an affect now, or you hold onto your spell and launch it later with more power.

8. Reign of Hades

Exploration, fighting monsters, dealing with whatever adventure is thrown at you? The only question is, why is this one not higher on the list for me? Honestly, it probably should be. It’s of course cooperative and hand management. I hope that it’ll be one that stands out as  unique and not too big, but one that I’m curious about as it’s a style of game I love.

7. Charcuterie

Build the best charcuteries board, that sounds fun. I do love a good charcuterie board. The downside I will want to eat charcuterie while playing Charcuterie. From the game side of things, it uses one of my favorite mechanisms. That being I split you choose, so I might want olives, but how do I make it so I give you something good enough that you’ll take it and leave me my olives? But I don’t want it to be too good so I make it harder on myself later on.

6. Diced Veggies

While I prefer charcuterie, this game also looks interesting and it looks simple. Honestly, this is one I’d have over looked except that the YouTube channel Thinker Themer were in on it. And I like what it looks like, you are cutting dice off of a big block of dice. Always need to cut at the edge and no more than 10 pips worth. So can you setup some good cuts so you get great turns and don’t leave anything great. All the while using those dice to fulfill cards for points. Simple, but sounds like a fun time.

5. Defenders of the Dictionary

Cooperative word game, like I said, I like cooperative games. And this one sounds very interesting. You are working together against some force in the game that is trying to stop you. And you do that by building words and working with each other. They do a good job of making it sound really fun, and if it’s a strong word game then I’m very curious. It also talks about it being grid based, so I’m not sure if you’re building up words or not? I think that just sounds unique.

4. Weirdwood Manor

This game sounds really interesting because it’s a horror themed game. But not just a horror themed game, one with a haunted or weird house. And the house, from what I can tell, rotates, so how it’s setup at the start of the game might not be how it ends. Maybe should be lower on the list, but I like a cooperative game, and when you have a weird horror theme, that makes me quite interested.

3. Horror on the Orient Express

Have I said that I like horror. And then there is a whole lot more. It’s a cooperative game. There is story and adventure to it, you need to deal with cultists and really a lot of the standard Lovecraftian things. But that doesn’t stop me from wanting to play it. I like the them, I like the setting. And if it can have story and depth to the game, not just a simple dice chucker, I am excited to see what it can offer.

2. Ticket to Ride: Legacy

A legacy game, I love legacy games. Ticket to Ride, my favorite gateway game. What do I think this is going to offer, I’m not even sure. And what can you demo on it, I’m definitely  not sure. But I love the idea of it and I like the idea of it for being that gateway plus game. Kind of like Pandemic Legacy let me play Pandemic again and feel like there was more without being too much. I hope that Ticket to Ride Legacy falls in line with those.

1. Star Wars: Unlimited

This one no shock that it’s on my list. It’s a competitive trading card game. But it’s Star Wars themed, I really like Star Wars. And there is a collectible aspect and deck construction. But I like how they are doing a few things. Firstly, “rare” cards are less rare than you’d think to keep the game accessible. But alt art cards, or foil, those are going to be the chase cards in the set. And I like the deck building because you are battling on different fronts. So you might build a deck that is very focused on attacking and defending on the ground in hopes to overwhelm your opponent. Of course, that means that you are weaker in space, so there is going to be a lot of interesting strategy and deck theory crafting that I hope to dive into.

What Is Your Must Demo Game?

Let me know what game or games that I might be missing on my list. There are so many games, even more than I put up on video, which you can find below. But which ones stand out to you as games that you’d like to get demoed when you go, or ones you think should be on my radar?

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My City Roll and Build

This one is interesting for me in how much I like the game, at least right off the bat. Mainly because it’s very similar to My City, a game that I enjoy. The progression of what you are doing seems to be the same order. There is just a bit more randomness to it. I guess it shows the simplicity of the original design which is what I think makes it a fun experience.

My City Roll and Build keeps that design at it’s core, just makes it a bit more random with the rolling of the dice. In My City, it is an even distribution card flip. Here it’s randomized dice roll. So that means you end up with certain building types and shapes repeating more often. Now, the shapes are all simpler, they need to be with two dice. So I don’t think it makes it any more complex to learn and play.

But about the game a little bit. You build up your city trying to cover up stones, leave trees uncovered and cover up as much ground as possible. Open stones or ground give you negative points. Uncovered trees give you positive points. And as you play through chapters, there are 4, and episodes per chapter, there are 3, you learn more rules.

So in my play, first game it was the scoring above. Second game added in grouping house types together. So the bigger the group, more points you got. And third one added in wells. Which if you can surround them with four buildings, you get four points. So nothing is too swingy or complex, but it starts to add in more scoring options.

Upcoming Streams

This Wednesday I plan on wrapping up ISS Vanguard. Do a bit more exploring before launching into the next campaign experience. Still deciding on what that game is going to be. But most likely it is going to be Isofarian Guard. Which I unboxed on the channel a few weeks ago. If you want to join for the last ISS Vanguard play, you can find the upcoming video here. I will stream at 8 PM Central.

And then next Monday, it is more My City Roll and Build. It will be the game I play over the next three weeks to get through the whole experience. See if it’s a game that looks interesting to you. And if you already own it, you can play along with me and let me know your scores.

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