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.

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

Catch up on previous videos here

100 through 91
90 through 81
80 through 71

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.

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

Top 5 Easy to Learn and Play Board Games

5. Gasha

All of the games are going to be small on this list. Gasha is one that has a fun theme because you are just doing basic set collection. But the set collection has an element of push your luck to it. You know what you might get, but it’s a few different options. So when you are pulling two cards, will you get what you want. And will they help you complete a set to be able to start scoring points.

But Gasha isn’t a push your luck game. You make a decision based off of what is available to you. There is some risk in that, but it’s minimal. And the game is light fast and fun, so if you don’t draw what you want, you might find that you just play it again.

4. Lucky Numbers

Have you played the classic game Rack-o? Lucky Number is kind of like that. In Lucky Numbers you want to get your numbers going low to high all four of the columns and rows. You either draw a tile and add it to your board or discard it. Or you take a discard tile and add to your board. This game is lucky, but it’s fun because it’s so simple and it feels like a nostalgic game in what it does.

I already taught you how to play Lucky Numbers. And each game only takes a few minutes, especially at lower player counts. More players it is going to take longer. But that is going to be true for a lot of these games on the list.

3. Point Salad

Point Salad falls into this category as well. This one I feel like has a bit more going on with it, mainly because you get to choose a lot. You decide to either take two cards to use in your scoring tableau or a card to use for scoring. But that’s the complexity of the game. The trick comes in that the scoring is on the back of the vegetable cards for your tableau. So if you pick a card it’ll flip over scoring cards. So when do you just need to take that scoring card because it won’t come back around again?

This one probably has the biggest brain burn element to it. And because of that at higher player counts it won’t be the fastest game. Two and three players it’ll fly by. But with more it’s going to slow down and the luck element of the game is going to go up.

2. Mind Up

Then we have Mind Up. This one is working for me consistently. I like it because it’s simple, play down a card and get a card from the middle. But everyone plays down a card at the same time. And then in numerical order you get the card that matches your spot.

The game adds in a bit of complexity with it’s scoring and set collection element. But not so much that it isn’t a five minute or less teach. But as you collect cards they go into scoring slots. And they go from left to right. So if you grab a blue card on the first turn it’ll always go in the first spot whether it’s worth one point or five points. And each card in that spot scores that number of points. It’s very easy to show with the game so I love that about it as well.

1. Mountain Goats

Finally is Mountain Goats. This is one that I learned to play on BGA (Board Game Arena) but now love to play in real life with people as well. The game play is so simple, roll four dice and move up on the mountain. You do that by combining or using dice to move up on columns from 5 to 10. So it’s harder but a shorter path to get to the top with 10 and start collecting points. Of course, if another mountain goat makes it to the top as well, they are going to knock you down. So you may need to start that climb over again.

There is a fair amount of luck in this game. And the game tries to mitigate that some. If you roll more than one die landing on the one face, you can change them so you only have one die on a one. Otherwise it could get really punishing. You might even want it to happen so you have less luck. But the overall game is a nice balance of luck and seeing how long you can stick at top of a column and score points.

Final Thoughts

I see more games on my shelf that would fit into this category as well. Things like Cafe Barras and Draftosaurus are great in this category as well. And then others like Skyrockets, Ecosystem, and a ton of roll and write games would work as well.

I did intentionally skip all my roll and write board games. While I own more complex ones as well as easy to learn and play ones, a lot fall into that category. So I think that I talk about them enough when I talk about board games because I do a lot of roll and write talk. And roll and writes are one of the more common games that I play on Malts and Meeples YouTube, so you can check them out there.

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

Benefits and Drawbacks of Board Game Arena

Let’s start with some of the basics on stuff. I think that there are some benefits and drawbacks that are pretty consistent across the board. That being that the game doesn’t let you do a move that you can’t make. So when I come along, it tells me if I’m doing it wrong. So it is a solid spot to learn a game and solidify the rules. It is also good for playing games that are harder to consistently get to my table.

The downside is that it’s sometimes tricky to remember where you are in a game. And we’ll get to which ones it is trickier. But you might be playing a number of games, or even if you aren’t, you might be a bit of time between turns. That time makes you want to have a number of games going on Board Game Arena, but also means that you’re refreshing your strategy often.

The Games

Castles of Burgundy

This one is the one that I spent the most time learning the rules of the game. It is solid for that and as you play more games you get a better idea of that. I think for a heavier game, Castles of Burgundy is one where it is easier to see your strategy so easier to pick it up if there is a day or more delay on when you take your turn. So it doesn’t suffer as much from that asynchronous delay.

Slide

Slide is so simple that it works well. I’ll say this once here, I haven’t played it in person, but I think I’d like it better in person. That can be said for all oft he games on the list. Slide, though, works well because there is a fairly high amount of luck to it. As you flip tiles over, you don’t know what you’re going to get. So you react to what is available on your turn or what pops up when you flip. There is strategy as to where you flip tiles, but it’s really simple to pick-up.

Mind Up!

Mind Up! is one that I’ve played a lot on Board Game Arena and I’m not sure that I’m playing it right there. What do I mean by that? I think that Mind Up! is one that can be broken the most by playing it on Board Game Arena. When you play in person you kind of try and remember who has what. Well, I can take notes in BGA and know exactly who took what. Or, I can have a lot of time between turns and remember none of that. So it breaks one element of the game which makes me want to play it less. Or I want to take notes, which feels like cheating.

Cartographers

Cartographers is one that is pretty fun to play on Board Game Arena. It is up there with Slide in some ways. There is less luck to it, and I need to look at the scoring each time I pull of the game. Those are the downsides. But Cartographers is more reactionary to what is flipped, so it works well. And it is fun to play a large group game of it. Not as smooth or as fast as in person, but I’m trying not to say that every time.

Forest Shuffle

Forest Shuffle is one that I think works pretty well. It got it to hit my table in person again, so that is nice. But as far as one to play on Board Game Arena, I think it is good. The biggest struggle is remembering your strategy for the next turn. Forest Shuffle is the game that I’ll use the note feature on most often because you need to optimize your turns. So it helps to write notes about what to do next and help you remember your optimized scoring. It’s good, though, in the implementation and a solid way to learn the game and learn the cards.

Planet Unknown

I am in my first game of Planet Unknown. Playing this way is not as good as the regular game. I think they did a solid job with the digital implementation, but it still isn’t as good. Mainly because this game requires that you remember some things between turns, like what your strategy is. And you likely want to set-up people to take certain tiles or not take certain tiles. That is harder to do in the digital version. But as far as just playing the game, it does work. The complexity level and the fact that it’s pretty fast in person mean that it isn’t my favorite.

Lost Ruins of Arnak

Finally, Lost Ruins of Arnak, this is one of my favorite games of all time. It is okay on Board Game Arena. Take everything I said about Planet Unknown and place it here as well. I think you need to use the notes a fair amount in this one, which I haven’t done. And it is trickier to just look at everything and take it all in as to how you’ll optimize future turns. And when the game really focuses around that in person, I feel like I’m missing some in the game playing online.

Now, I say that, but I also have played once where the whole game was a quick back and forth over a day, that makes it a whole lot better. But that is not my most common way to play it, so I think it does lose some and that is worth calling out.

Final Thoughts

The more I play Board Game Arena, the more I want to play these games in person. So I don’t think it does what it is setting out to do for a lot of these games. They almost all would be better in person. The downtime is higher. And I think that makes almost all games suffer. They do offer the note taking, and I should use it more often, but it still isn’t the same. And that is inherently going to be the issue.

However, while I say that all of them are weaker, I still like them all on there. Lost Ruins of Arnak by far being the weakest. And I think that Slide is the best because you need to remember the least. What I think I should do is play more games and a wider variety. I think I should learn games like Ark Nova and Terraforming Mars on here as they will help me know how to play my copies. That is the best part of Board Game Arena, that and just playing more games.

What games do you find that work well on Board Game Arena, or ones that won’t work well?

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

How To Play Mind Up!

Mind Up! is a game of few actions, you don’t make that many decisions in the game. And it is a game where you are trying to collect colors of cards to score the most points possible. How this is done has a nice little twist or process on it.

Each player has a hand of cards, starts with 7 will be 9 by the end of the game. Players pick one of those cards to use to get another card. As there are “x” number of cards in the middle of the table where “x” is the number of players. Those cards are sorted low to high, and depending on what number you played, you get where you fall into order of the played cards low to high. Then you keep the played cards in the middle and now those are the cards you are trying to get when you play out your next card.

Simple thus far. Like I said, it’s a color set collection game and you want to collect the most of the highest scoring color. Which color is that? Well, five colors are in play and the color that you play on your five scoring spot is your highest scoring. But you need to add colors left to right. So if the five is in the second spot, that is where you want to put cards. And colors always match where you already played that color.

The Big Twist

Mind Up! does have one big twist that I didn’t mention in the how to play. You play Mind Up! over three rounds. At the end of each round, after you score, you collect your cards and draw one new one. Those cards you just scored, those are your new hand of cards. It is possible that you’ll want to take a less than ideal card because it is good for you in the next round.

It’s a little twist on the game, maybe more than a big twist. And remembering what numbers are out there, it’s somewhat useful. But the big thing is that you know what colors are out there after the first round. If there is a higher number of purples than oranges, you know you don’t want to have your oranges on your five scoring spot.

Scoring

And I want to talk about how scoring works for Mind Up! as well. I said, it is set collection of the colors and that is true. But once you get a card, it is worth noting, the number on the card doesn’t matter. That only matters for where it is in the line-up of cards to pick.

Scoring is instead multiplying the number of that color of cards that you got with the scoring position it is in. If you snag three blue cards on the three scoring spot, those are worth 9 points. If you get two oranges on the five, that is worth 10 points. Easy enough math to keep the game nice and simple as you play.

There is a minor twist on scoring. And that is that you also have +1 or +2 on some cards or -1 on some cards. This does not impact the multiplication. So with my two oranges on the five, they are still worth five. But then added and subtracted numbers get factored in.

And finally with scoring, the order of the scoring cards changes every time. You play with 1 through 5 as your multiplier. But between every round one person randomizes their cards and everyone else matches that order. So the five might be in the first spot or it might be in the last spot. So strategy on where you get a color changes every round.

Who Is This For?

I think that Mind Up! is kind of that mass market card game. And I mean that in a good way. There is an action in the game that you take. You don’t need to think about a lot of things, it’s simply play out a card to hope to get the card that you want. And then you add that card you get to your collection. But compared to something like Uno there is no take that or thing that can artificially lengthen the game. It is always fast.

So for that, I think people should look at Mind Up! as a filler game. And it does play like a filler. Everyone plays out their card at the same time. Everyone gets a card at the same time. And scoring, you guessed it, everyone scores at the same time. The game is made to play quickly no matter the player count. And I think that it does a good job of that.

Final Thoughts on Mind Up!

I enjoy games like Mind Up! And as it is small game, it is going to stick in my collection. I think that Mind Up! is a fun game though. Even with it being a small box, that is not the element that is keeping the game around. It is that I sit down and can play a game of trying to guess what your opponents are going to do that is always going to be fast.

It is going to be a bit random as to what cards you are able to get. At least through the first hand, after that you have more control and more knowledge. But again, it is a fast filler game, it can have a bit more of that as you figure out your strategy and how you want to play it.

And I like the element of figuring out how or if you want to go for getting cards on the five spot. If the five is in the fifth spot, you need to spend four turns hopefully getting cards out to there. If the four is a whole lot sooner can you load that up more than someone who is pushing out to the five. It’s an interesting puzzle to figure out each time.

My Grade: B+
Gamer Grade: C
Casual Grade: B+

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

The New Games

Thunderstone Quest

This is one of the games that was on a great sale. And when I say great sale, I mean about as amazing a sale as I’ve seen. I got a massive box, 16lb game, at basically a dollar per pound before shipping. Plus a few expansions for it. It’s a deck building game that I’ve been wanting to play for a long time. With that sale price point, it was easy for me to pick up. And if it’s not for me, I’ll move on from it, but I suspect that I’m going to like it, a lot.

Pumafiosi

This one came up, as two one more on the list, from The Dice Tower. Pumafiosi sounds like a great three player game, though it can be played two two or up to five. But at three I think it sounds the most enjoyable. In fact, it was on The Dice Tower three player game Top 10 that they did a week or so ago.

But this is a game where you want to play down the card that is in the middle. Then if you do, you get to score that card. So, that is the main reason why it sounds best at three players. You have three cards, but you want to mess with it, so that the right card gets played. Because you score points after each card play. And depending on where you play your card, if you win with the middle card, you can mess around with the points and give people negative points.

Jump Drive

Now, The Dice Tower isn’t the only YouTube channel that got me to pick up a game. Meet Me at the Table and Colin with two of his playthroughs got me to pick up games from the Race for the Galaxy line of games. Jump Drive is one of those games.

In Jump Drive you are building up an engine of cards. They mainly give you two things, more card draw, or more victory point, or ideally both. You play out cards by discarding other cards from your hand to get them into play. And the player with the most points at the end of a number of rounds wins.

I got this one for the solo play. The solo play is the same game, there isn’t interaction with multiplayer. But solo play also made the game look like about a 15-20 minute solo game with a bigger experience than some, though not too big that it’d be a massive table hog.

New Frontiers

The other one that Colin from Meet me at the Table showed off was New Frontiers. I’ve already played this one a few times. I won’t go into massive detail, but you can find out more on that game here.

Pre-Orders

Paper App Dungeons

The first of two pre-order games is Paper App Dungeons. This is a solo roll and write dungeon crawler campaign of a game. I expect a loose campaign, but it sounds like you can level up your character as you go. My one concern might be that the game is too simple, as it does sound really simple. But for a little roll and write game, I’m going to give it a whirl and see if it’s one for me.

Mind Up!

The other game in that pre-order is Mind Up!. This is one from the Dice Tower as well in terms of why I ordered it. Mind Up! is a filler type of card game, which I tend to enjoy. But one that has some interesting strategy going on. You are playing out cards to win other cards. And the cards that you win get added into scoring columns. The same color always goes in the same column, so you are trying to optimize getting cards in your scoring column that gives you the most points.

But, to go with that, everyone is playing out cards. So where your card falls in numerical order determines what card you get. So there is luck, and you might pivot because of that. It doesn’t stop there, though, because the cards that you just played out, those are the new cards that you try and get. And at the end of the round, you collect the cards you score with, and that makes you hand for the next round. It is going to be random, but it sounds like a ton of fun.

Crowdfunding Games

Aeon’s End: The Descent

Now we’re into crowdfunding games. And I’m going to be fairly brief on these. Mainly because you only know so much about them if they are crowdfunding. I know the most about Aeon’s End: The Descent because I love Aeon’s End. I am excited to get more of this cooperative deck building game. The basics are you are building a deck to be able to defeat a monster. But you never shuffle your deck so you can kind of try and stack it.

25th Century Games – Import Collection

This is the big crowdfunding game that I’ve done. I’m not going to go into all of the games because there are a lot. But 25th Century Games is doing something cool. All of the games exist that they are crowdfunding, but they haven’t had US releases or don’t have an active one. So they are bringing them all to the US. Let’s see what the big list looks like.

• Circus Flohcati
• Dracula vs Van Helsin
• Hamster Roll
• Jalape-NO!
• Jekyll and Hyde vs Scotland Yard
• Mojo
• Penguin Party
• Run Run Run
• Tasso Banaa
• Vampire Queen
• Witchcraft

When this comes in I’m going to have a lot of games to play.

Snowfall Over Mountains

Snowfall Over Mountains and the next one are from Pencil First Games. I tend to like their smaller box games. Snowfall Over Mountains is a path and route building game. It looks like a fun and I think I’d say peaceful little game. And that’s what I’m looking for from the Pencil First Games that I own. Floriferous is one of my favorite games.

Sunrise at the Studio

Sunrise at the Studio falls into the same camp. However, this one is going to have more set collection and some different mechanisms as compared to Snowfall Over Mountains. But I like the aesthetic of the game. And to me, it looks like another fun and smaller box game from Pencil First Games.

Final Thoughts

It hasn’t been that many games. And I’m trying to slow down even more. But I’m excited for most all of them. I know from the 25th Century Games bundle, not all of them are going to be for me. But I know that I’m going to find some that I love. And just finding and being able to get Hamster Roll, which I have played, that one is going to be worth it.

Of the ones that are already here, I’m ready to get Pumafiosi played. I think that is going to be a fun one. I’m not sure how often I have three players to play it, but I’m hoping that I’ll find enough opportunity to check it out. And I’ll try the two player version as well. But I expect that I’m going to like it best at 3 or at five. We’ll see how quickly I can get a review of that one up.

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

Top 10 Wish List Board Games

The list of board games is 1 through 10 instead of the other way around. This is a mistake, but how I wrote it, so I didn’t want to redo it.

1. Violet and the Grumpy Nisse

This one just sounds fun. It’s a two player trick taking game. I really love the sound of this as the two players kind of fight against each other for the tricks and each of them has some unique things for it. Right now it’s hard to get. I believe it was on crowdfunding, but I’m not sure it’s ever gotten a wide release.

One of the people is playing Violet, a girl who is on a journey to meet a friendly troll. Unfortunately she is going through the woods of the nisse, Torech who is not happy with that idea. He wants to stop her and get her light to go out and make her travel as hard as possible. I just love the idea and sound of that as a thematic trick taking game.

2. Nova Aetas Renaissance

This one I get to blame on Meet Me At the Table. I think that’s the only one that I can blame on them. There are others that will definitely get blamed on other YouTube channels. This one looks like a blast as you take a team of characters up against the enemies. I get a real Assassin’s Creed vibe to it, but it’s not that, there is an Assassin’s Creed Game. I like the story of the game and I like the “fun” that it looks like.

One thing that I really dig is how the action point system works. You move your characters along a rondel determining how many of their actions that they use. Some of it might be used on movement and some on fighting. They have to go up to the point where the next enemy is. But you can potentially work it to get a couple of turns pretty quickly. For me that’s a really fun concept and twist on a dungeon crawler. But it’s also still a dungeon crawler, tactical game, when it comes down to it.

3. Rove

This one I won’t be able to write much on. It’s still coming to crowdfunding and I’m very curious about it. What I know , and I don’t know much about the game play, is that it’s from a designer who made The Crimson Scales, a fan made expansion for Gloomhaven. They then built out something much bigger, their own epic campaign and fantasy game. How it is going to work mechanically, I’m not sure. But I think that this was supposed to fund on Crowdfunding last year, now it’s supposed to be this year. But I like it when companies are fine delaying to get it right.

4. Euthia: Torment of Resurrection

I passed this one by twice on crowdfunding, I kind of regret it. But Euthia looks like a lot of fun. It’s a competitive, cooperative or solo sandbox RPG style game. Competitive I don’t care that much about. But cooperative and solo, I care about those. Plus it’s now been picked up by Steamforge so that increase the chances that I might pick it up. It’s not a cheap game, but then again how many campaign games are. For me this would go onto a list of campaign games that need to be played.

5. Aeon Trespass: Odyssey

Aeon Trespass: Odyssey is another campaign game and another huge game. I want to find this one, but like Euthia, I’ve passed on it twice. It’s again one that I really want to play. From what I can tell it’s an epic boss battling style of game more than a dungeon crawler. Do I need another huge game like this, I don’t. But it’s one of those that if I find it used, I’ll pick it up. Right now I want to just get Kingdom: Death Monster started up or Oathsworn in that boss battler area.

6. Mind Up!

I watched this one played on The Dice Tower, so another one that I can blame on a YouTube channel. Mind Up! Looked like a lot of fun because it’s just a little card game that does some simple things. All your doing is playing out cards to get other cards. Which one you get depends on where your number falls into the order of cards played. After that it’s all about set collection and seeing how many points you get for getting cards of the same color.

I really want to get this one because I see it as a small and fun filler game. I love to find games like that, and it doesn’t eat up too much space on my shelf which is a good thing. As I’ve talked about before with Sea Salt & Paper, if a game is a small box filler game, it tends to stick around in my collection.

7. Café Baras

A coffee shop with capybara’s, I’m in. It is super cute sounding and from KTBG (Kid’s Table Board Games) it is going to look very nice. See everything I said about Mind Up being a small filler game, that is the same with Café Baras. From what I can tell, this is a hand management game about fulfilling orders. Cards are multiuse, which is fun and offers some solid tension, and well, did I mention that there are capybaras in the game?

8. Witchcraft!

This is a successor to a game Resist. Resist is not one that I’ve played, but one that looked interesting as a solid experience. Witchcraft, however, just sounds more interesting to me. And it is a solo only game, which I like as well. This one I can also blame on The Dice Tower for me being interested.

The mechanisms also sound interesting. I like the sound of doing some deck building and hand management in the game. But also with push your luck elements to it. I want to know more about how this one plays. Because how it looks, both mechanisms and aesthetically look intriguing.

9. Ancient Knowledge

Another one for the list of blame it on the Dice Tower is Ancient Knowledge.  Ancient Knowledge is a civilization building game. That’s an area of board gaming that I’d love to play around in more. Ones where you are building up tech trees and advancing what you are doing. And how Zee and others on the Dice Tower talk about Ancient Knowledge it just sounds really good.

A lot of these types of games you build to doing more and more and more. That’s the case here, but as time passes, some knowledge is going to be lost to the past. So the engine that you are building is always changing and you need to plan for those changes as the knowledge disappears. I like the sound of that so much, because it requires a good adaptive strategy and things move on.

10. Hoplomachus: Remastered

Finally, a Chip Theory Game, and I debated if this one would be my #10 on the list. Hoplomachus: Victorum is a game that I own. And it’s a solo only game, I need to learn the rules and play it. It’s kind of a campaign like experience from Chip Theory Games. And generally, I like the other Chip Theory Games that I’ve played. I really like Burncycle. And I think that Too Many Bones offers a ton of fun and is one that I want to dig into more.

Hoplomachus is more of a battling game and a battling arena for head to head combat. And on Board Game Geek, most people do prefer it at two. But it offers solo play and I want to try it. Unlike the others, because I own Hoplomachus: Victorum, it’s less likely that I’ll pick this one.

Final Thoughts

Right now, who knows when I might buy one of these board games. It isn’t high on my list to add in new games to my collection. Some of the small ones, or Rove which is yet to go to crowdfunding, are the most likely. But I want the chance to checkout any and all of these if I can over the next few years. For some of them, though, that might be a little bit.

Of these board games, which is the most interesting to you? Which is the one that you’d buy first and add to your collection?

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