Catch Up on the Top 100 Games

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

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

50. Welcome To…

Published By: Blue Cocker Games
Designer: Benoit Turpin

Buy Welcome To

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

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

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

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

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

48. Heat: Pedal to the Metal

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

Buy Heat: Pedal to the Metal

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

47. Ohanami

Published By: Pandasaurus Games
Designer: Steffan Benndorf

Buy Ohanami

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

46. Mind Up!

Published By: Pandasaurus Games
Designer: Maxime Rambourg

Buy Mind Up!

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

45. Schadenfreude

Published By: Studio Turbine
Designer: ctr

Buy Schadenfreude

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

44. The Great Split

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

Buy The Great Split

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

43. ICECOOL

Published By: Brain Games
Designer: Brian Gomez

Buy ICECOOL

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

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

42. PitchCar

Published By: Ferti
Designer: Jean du Poel

Pre-Order PitchCar

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

41. Metal Gear Solid

Published By: CMON Global Lmtd
Designer: Emerson Matsuuchi

Buy Metal Gear Solid

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

Join Next Week

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

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

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Top 10 Games To Take Along Traveling

10. A Gentle Rain (Solo)

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

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

9. Hanamikoji (2 Player)

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

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

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

8. Arboretum (Multiplayer)

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

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

7. Schadenfreude (Multiplayer)

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

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

6. Ohanami (Multiplayer)

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

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

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

5. Orchard/Grove (Solo)

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

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

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

4. Point Salad (Multiplayer)

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

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

3. Super Mega Lucky Box (Solo and Multiplayer)

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

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

2. Castle Combo (Multiplayer)

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

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

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

1. For Northwood! (Solo)

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

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

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

Final Thoughts

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

What games do you find work well when you travel?

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Top 10 Overlooked Games

The criteria for this list is pretty simple. I went through the games that I have rated on Board Game Geek. I sorted them by how I rated them, and then also looked at how many rating total they had. And with that I then created the list. It is not purely the highest rated for me, or the fewest ratings. Because some games I don’t think are super overlooked, they just won’t work for some people instead. And some games are so new the number of ratings is lower so they don’t count as they are going to go higher in terms of total ratings.

10. The Night Cage

There are so many games that I could put on the list, but I want to go with one that is dark and feels different to kick the list off. In The Night Cage players work together to escape this every changing labyrinth before the time runs out and there are no more tiles. But it’s dark, you can only crawl around and there are monsters.

On a turn players move looking for exit points and keys. Each player needs a key and then all the players need to be at the exit at the same time. As you move you illuminate the spots adjacent to you. This might cause a monster to appear. And monsters will blow out your light, or kill you if you have no light. And if your light goes out, well, then you can’t see the spaces around you so you move blind.

Plus, there is a timer in the game, the timer being the number of tiles. So while you want to stay separated to not potentially cause monster problems, if you stay separated, you are more apt to burn through tiles too fast. It’s a great game with a great theme that I think more people should play. It’s really a press your luck game, but if you play it Halloween with some spooky music on, candles, and dimmed lights, it’s great.

9. First Rat

In 2022 this game flew off the shelves at Gen Con. And content creators consistently had it as a high game on their anticipated list. But now, it’s still sitting under 5,000 ratings on Board Game Geek three years later. And I think that more people should play this game because it’s a ton of fun with the theme and with the game play.

In the game you are rats who want to build a spaceship because they believe the moon is made of cheese. First off, how can you not like that theme. Then the game play is really interesting. You collect goods by moving up a track. These goods you use to build your rocket. And you get points for completing parts of them. But there are other elements on the track such as lighting up your way. When you do that, you get more goods.

The game while keeping turns pretty simple offers a lot of fun choices. And while it looks like there is a bunch going on, it isn’t too bad at all. Maybe it’s because they didn’t have enough copies at Gen Con in 2022 that it kind of fell off when people couldn’t buy it. But more people need to checkout First Rat.

8. Medium

This one surprises me that people haven’t rated it more. Yes, I’ll talk about it more but Board Game Geek often times has more ratings for bigger games and non-party games. But Medium is a pretty simple party game was relatively available for a little bit. It even had an expansion. And it is a game that I think more people should try, because it’s silly and fun.

Now maybe the reason it’s less rated is that if you learn the rules you don’t really need the game to play it. The game is very simple in two people go at a time. Each plays out a word and then they come up with a word that connects to two words. If they get it right, they get some points. If not, they try again with the two new words. And if they get that right, it’s fewer points but they get points. And finally you get one more go for the lowest point total, always off of the new words.

I think if more people played it, they would enjoy it as a fun time. And it’s a great icebreaker sort of party game. Because who cares if you get it wrong, it’s always going to lead to conversation around “why did you say that word” or excitement if you get it on the first try.

7. The Reckoners

Why is this game not more rated and more popular? I really like that The Reckoners is a great cooperative game. Plus the theme is fun. Though that is probably some of the reason that it is less popular or rated as well as it being a crowdfunding game mainly.

In this game you play as The Reckoners. A team of humans who are going up against the epics. These are superpowered individuals. But there is a trick, every superpowered individual, when they get their powers, turns bad. So you need to take them down. You complete this in two ways, by damage and by research to find their weakness.

This game is also great because everyone does stuff at the same time. You all roll dice at the same time to set your actions. Then you discuss what you want to do as you roll the dice. And you keep some and reroll, Yahtzee style, to see what other actions you get. Then when you take actions you all do it at the same time as well. It creates a game with almost no downtime, which I know a lot of people like.

6. Paper Dungeons

I don’t want to only put smaller games on the list or roll and write games on the list, but I think that it is pretty common. Why, because a small box game, it’s easier for people to overlook them. Though Paper Dungeons isn’t the smallest box game on the list and it has a pretty epic cover. But it’s probably overlooked because it is a roll and write game.

This game offers a campaign as well, but it’s really a one off game where you are delving into a dungeon and trying to build up your adventuring party through leveling them up, fighting monsters, crafting gear and more. You roll a bunch of dice, and you try and use them the best you can by filling in spots.

But this game is more interactive than some roll and writes. You can all fight the same monsters, but gems are limited to who gets them first. And who does the most damage to a monster, or if you even make it through the dungeon to fight the monster. And that’s a nice added element to it. Plus with Paper Dungeons the complexity is higher than some roll and writes. So that offers more of challenge as you play.

5. Ohanami

Some games are just probably too simple looking to get a ton of ratings. If you play games and rate them on Board Game Geek you probably play a lot of bigger hobby games. Ohanami is one of those small games that I think more people should play because it’s great for playing with people who play fewer games.

The game is pretty simple, you draft cards to add to up to three columns. There is a trick though as you draft the cards, you need to play them to the top or bottom of a column. Now it doesn’t need to be the same column for each card you draft, you draft two at a time, but they need to be higher or lower than the card at the top or bottom of the column.

Along with that, I think the scoring helps make the game more enjoyable for people who play a lot of games. You score different colors of cards different numbers of rounds. You draft over three rounds, but only blue is scored each round. Then green is scored two and grey is scored one. But the points get higher, so it creates a strategic drafting strategy as well as drafting for the numbers.

4. Sonora

This is one that I am very surprised didn’t catch on more. Sonora is a roll and write game, but instead of rolling dice, you are flicking discs. After everyone flicks their discs you use them and the number on the disc from the quadrant where the disc landed.

I kind of understand why some people might not love this game. But it is such a fun time as you play and I love how combotastic the game is. But that is the reason why people might not love the game. It is so combotastic that you might feel overwhelmed as you fill in that part. Or you might not like the randomness of the flicking. But the game, to me, is just a lot of fun. And with how popular roll and write games were, I think this game should have gotten more love.

3. Xenoshyft

This one I’m a champion of, but I think more people should play it. This is a cooperative deck building tower defense game. You play as marines, or something like that, defending a base against bugs. Is this game basically Starship Troopers, yes, and that is great.

The biggest thing I think more people should play this game for three elements that I like a lot. First, it is a very cooperative and collaborative in nature. You help people when they defend their part of the base. And this really leads into the second element of how you do that. You might give them a troop that you bought. They add it to their defensive line. And when it dies, it goes to their deck which is a fun twist. The final one is that you always can buy. This game gives you money and let’s you thin money out of your deck in a way that is great and helpful.

2. For Northwood!

This one is my #2 game that I think more people need to play. Now, I know why the game is on this list. For Northwood is a solo game, and solo games tend to have lower ratings. I skipped over a number of campaign games for that reason to make the list. But Forth Northwood is just so good that I think a lot of people would enjoy it and more people should check it out.

Like I said, For Northwood is a solo trick taking game. You play it over a number of rounds trying to win different numbers of tricks. You go to different forest locations and depending on where it is that sets the number of tricks you need to win, that number exactly, no more or less. Fortunately there are woodland creatures who help you. But that is limited and you need to figure out how to use them best to hit that number.

For Northwood is just such a great puzzle of a game. And each time can be different as you play. If you feel like the base mode of the game is too easy too, it offers you challenges to play. Plus, I think this is a great game for people who want to game but maybe travel a bunch for work as it’s tiny and easy to take with you anywhere.

1. Homebrewers

Homebrewers is easily my #1 game on this list. And it makes me sad that more people haven’t played it and loved this game. Now, I know that I’m also an outlier on rating the game and I’m not sure why. This is a very fun game about brewing beer and seeing who can be the best homebrewer. Now the theme is probably some of why it is less rated, but still, I think it’s a fun theme.

In this game you roll dice for actions and then you can trade dice with your opponents. You do this because you want to brew the best beers so you can score the highest ratings during Summer Fest and Oktoberfest. And you need to do all the steps to brew beer that you’d do in real life, or at least the board game version of them. Plus you add in flavorings to your beers as you brew, and these cards stick around. It allows you to create a brewing engine which is a lot of fun and you can create some crazy beers to drink.

This game, like I said, didn’t do well, and now it’s been six years, so I don’t think it’s going to come back. The upside is because it wasn’t super popular, people don’t sell it for a lot. So if it sounds fun and you can find it, it won’t be too expensive.

Final Thoughts

Now, I know not all games are for all people. But these are some games that I just wish more people would try or could have tried. Because some of them, like Homebrewers, it’s just not going to happen until someone new gets the rights to make the game. Others, I think they have a chance to have more people find them. But I do think that more people would enjoy all of these games.

And I also no the reason that some are passed is just because there are so many. Paper Dungeons and Sonora both came out in the height of roll and write fever. So it is easy to have either been burned out on roll and writes or just skipped them in favor of others that were more popular. But now it might be the chance to try and find them and play them.

What is one game that you’re a champion for that is less than 5,000 ratings on Board Game Geek and has been out for a bit?

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Catch up on previous videos here

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

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

60. Medium

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

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

Buy Medium

59. Under Falling Skies

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

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

Buy Under Falling Skies

58. Final Girl

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

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

Buy Final Girl

57. Stonespine Architects

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

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

Buy Stonespine Architects

56. World Wonders

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

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

Buy World Wonders

55. Homebrewers

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

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

Buy Homebrewers

54. Potion Explosion

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

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

Buy Potion Explosion

53. Mansions of Madness

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

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

Buy Mansions of Madness

52. Ohanami

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

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

Buy Ohanami

51. Vegetable Stock

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

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

Preorder Vegetable Stock

Upcoming Streams

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

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

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

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Top 5 Board Games That Feel Like Spring

5. A Gentle Rain

This one is available again, out of all of these board games A Gentle Rain was nearly impossible to get for a while. But it is back in stock or will be shortly. This game is a solo spring type of game for a relaxing and rainy day. All you do is build out a grid trying to get plants to grow. If you watch the symbols in the corners you get points. If you don’t, well, you just shuffle up the tiles and try again.

The spring elements for me, in the game, are the theme or rain which is very very loosely there. But it is more than just that, after coming out of winter, especially here in Minnesota, there is this idea of the first flower blooming as well. Things not being covered with snow or grime from the snow, but instead new life with the flowers and rain washing away that grime. So A Gentle Rain provides that feeling of spring for me.

4. Dandelions

Now we move on from a nice spring thing to another that could also easily be a summer theme in board games. Dandelions are a menace. But a lot of nature themed games seem to fit the spring theme.

Dandelions from All Play is clearly an abstract game with the theming of Dandelions. The closest thing that makes it feel like that is the artwork. But the game play you could argue simulates or works with the theme of dandelion fluff floating around as you try and collect the most of a number and the majority on tiles for the end game scoring. The game is simple and fun.

3. Meadow

Now we’re moving onto the biggest of the board games on the list. Meadow again has that nature theme to it that works well for summer. In Meadow you are building up your ecosystem of nature to score points. But as well shooting for certain combinations to take pictures and even get more points.

Meadow has some great mechanisms in the game. The biggest being how you get cards into your hand to play out. If you are familiar with Quadropolis, an older game, it does something similar. You play down a token that determines what row or column you’ll take a card from. So I might play a 2 down on the edge of column two. That means that I take the card that is two in from where I played my token. It’s a real puzzle to try and get what you want. And it can be prone, at times to analysis paralysis, especially towards end game.

2. Ohanami

We’re back into our simpler board games with Ohanami. This is a racko style game where you are drafting cards and then adding them to the top or bottom of three columns. The numbers always need to be in numerical order. Ohanami is a kind of cutthroat game at two, but a light fun game at four. Mainly because of how the scoring works where some cards score a few points every round and others score more in later rounds.

This one it is again that nature theme that makes it feel like spring. the flowering trees, the water, just everything gives it a spring feel. And like A Gentle Rain this is a relaxing game. Even with it being a bit more strategic and cutthroat in what you draft as a two player game, none of the decisions feel like they use too much brain space.

1. Floriferous

Finally we have Floriferous. This game is the first game I think of when I think of spring. It’s all about collecting beautiful flowers to get points. The main mechanism is an open drafting system where you draft from one column at a time. But you know what is coming up next, so that might impact how you draft one round. Because the row you draft in the column determines the order that you’ll draft in for the next column.

The game is one of those great balances of enough going on so it doesn’t feel like you’re just following a script. But there isn’t so much going on that you feel like you need your brain always engaged. It’s that good relaxing experience that I find I want with spring board games.

Final Thoughts

I’m sure there are other games that might make you think of spring more. But these board games on the list are some that I associate with spring. I think for me a lot of it is what spring in Minnesota is a nice time to get outside. It’s no longer 10 degrees, it’s in the 60’s and 70’s. And it is before it’s 90’s with 90% humidity. So it is that chance to comfortably go see nature again after it’s been hidden under snow.

And for me, coming out of winter, it’s nice to have that mind space that is freeing up in what I’m playing. Towards the end of winter, the last snow storm that happens at the end of March or beginning April, the snow gets you down. So my brain space can waiver for playing board games. I gravitate towards games that are a bit simpler. So a lot of the spring games don’t overwhelm you with rules.

What are some games that make you think of spring?

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

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

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

30. Icecool

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

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

Buy Icecool

29. Lands of Galzyr

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

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

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

Buy Lands of Galzyr

28. Paper Dungeons

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

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

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

Buy Paper Dungeons

27. Arkham Horror: The Card Game

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

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

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

Buy Arkham Horror: The Card Game

26. Ohanami

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

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

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

Sold Out

25. The Isle of Cats: Explore and Draw

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

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

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

Buy Isle of Cats Explore and Draw

24. Metal Gear Solid

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

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

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

Retail May 2024

23. Clank! In! Space!

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

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

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

Buy Clank! In! Space!

22. Marvel Zombies

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

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

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

Buy Marvel Zombies

21. Sonora

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

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

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

Buy Sonora

Upcoming Streams

Let’s run through the stream structure like I normally do. You might already know the schedule but in case you don’t. Wednesday at 8 PM Central I stream either a campaign game, or with this time of year it’s my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition. And join me next Wednesday for games 20 through 11, almost to the Top 10. It goes so fast, and now I have so many games that I want to play.

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

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

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Top 5 Quick and Cute Board Games

5. Gasha

Gasha is some of the reason that I’m thinking of this topic since I played it earlier this week. This is a cute set collection game about getting toys from a Japanese vending machine. You can see my whole review of it here.

This one definitely makes the list because the mechanics or action on a turn is very simple. You draw two cards or you trade in a matching set of cards for a scoring card. That is it. But there is some fun to what you do. You need to decide when to try and match up tickets, if you should push for that bigger scoring card, or maybe if you collect for a little bit so you can knock out scoring cards and maybe surprise end the game.

But mechanically it is simple and offers choices and fast choices. And theme wise it is very bright and welcoming. But because it comes in a small box and has kid like artwork (for kids not by kids) it is going to be apt to looked over.

4. Ohanami

In even a smaller box is Ohanami. This one is even simpler in how it sounds, you draft two cards and you add them across three columns. The columns go from highest to lowest, and you always add to an end, either higher or lower. That is very simple.

Where this game stands out, though, is in the scoring. It is not a simple game of just see how many you can get in a row. No, the first round the blue cards score, then green and blue, and finally pink, grey, green, and blue. So blue is the fewest points, but if you get them in the first round, the most points. So it does become a puzzle of how to maintain your columns to be able to play cards, but not take too many cards that won’t score many points.

I sometimes forget that the artwork is really pretty in this game. Why, because it is fast and fun to play, so I draft and go. But if you want, you can spend time to study and enjoy this peaceful artwork in Ohanami. Again, the small box and pretty artwork is going to hide the interesting decision making in the game.

3. Century: Golem Edition

This one I almost didn’t put on the list as I wonder if it might be a little big. But I again played this one recently, and Century: Golem Edition has snappy quick turns, great and cute artwork, and at two players, especially, doesn’t play in much time at all.

This is a hand management game as you manipulate the gems that you have in order to get golems, for points. But building up a hand of cards that you can play out and pick up to manipulate your gems is all of the game. It fits for this list, though, because you do one of four things on your turn, play a card, pick up your cards, get a new card, or get a golem.

It is that simple and while there is great strategy, for some it might seem at first look the game is going to be targeting a younger audience. But it also fits for this list because it is that quick game to play. No one said it needed to be too light, it just needs to be quick and cute.

2. Via Magica

Via Magica is kind of gamers bingo. Super Mega Lucky Box could make the list as well, as a gamers bingo. But Via Magica is cuter as you collect different elements to open portals. When you open a portal it gives you some bonus and some points.

What is going to trip up most gamers is that this is a bingo like game. By that I mean, I draw a element from a bag and everyone covers up that element on one of their portals. And you need certain elements to come up to complete those portals. The mechanics of the game are simple. But if you plan it out well, you get some good benefits for completing a portal. If I complete one that allows me to cover up two water on another one immediately, I want to make sure I have something to cover.

There are a few things that will get this one skipped over. The small box, the cute artwork, and this idea of bingo. It sounds like it is going to be random. But I think it is on par with randomness for something like Quacks of Quedlinberg, which is a bigger game, but doesn’t offer that many more choices.

1. Floriferous

Finally we have a game that might be a bit slower with more people, but it is a fun drafting game. The pretty flower theme and small box, you see a theme here of small boxes being overlooked, are going to be why gamers would skip it.

But Floriferous punches way up with the amount of game in the box. It is a drafting game where you are not only drafting flowers and things for your guardian, you are drafting your own scoring. So if I draft a scoring card, that means, for that round, I didn’t draft a card that would score. But draft too few scoring cards, you won’t score that many points.

Plus, the turn order adds to the puzzle of the game. When you draft a card, you are doing so from a column of cards. If I draft at the top of the column, I will draft first the next round. Likewise, if I draft from the bottom, where the scoring cards are, I go last. So sometimes you draft a bad card to get a card that would complete an arrangement and match up with two scoring cards for sure the next round.

This is one that I think if it had a playmat in the box, and was in a bigger box, people would be playing way more than they are. Which is a shame because Floriferous is a really fun game. And I hope that people will start seeking it out, because it is worth it.

Final Thoughts

Now, as I wrap up, I totally get why people often times will pass over these smaller games. Often times in a game store it is harder to see them all with how they are displayed. Or if it is a mass of small box games so it’s easier to overlook one game out of a group.

The box size also, so often, is a factor with that cuter artwork. But I encourage gamers to look at these games. And maybe it won’t be for you, maybe you really only play big box epic adventures or heavy thinky euro games. But I often make the argument, it is good to have some lighter games for when people wrap up and don’t have time for a big game. Or people finish a game and wait for others to finish another.

So what is your favorite game that is quick and cute? Let me know in the comments below or on Facebook or Twitter.

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This year we are digging deeper, or being a bit more thematic, depending on how you look at it, but what are the Top 12, you know 12 days of Christmas, for each category. I’m going to get through them all quickly over the next two weeks, so join with me on making your list and checking it twice.

Board Game Holiday List – Top 12 Stocking Stuffers

List is in no particular order.

12. Orchard

Orchard is the only solo only game on the list and a fun one. The game is pretty simple, you are taking two cards and stacking them onto an existing card. Where you cover up a card, matching fruit trees, you place a die. And the more layers you can get, the higher that die value goes. But because you are getting random cards, it makes it tricky to layer them too deep. Can you create patterns that are easy enough to build on. Because you can “cheat” twice, but that blocks off those non-matching spots from being built on.

Orchard is a great little solo game. And it does two things that I like. Firstly, it does make you think, because you want to figure out good ways to stack the cards and cover up parts of the other ones. But at the same time, you are limited in options, so you can’t over think it too much. And it is a fast game. You play out nine cards total, so you can sit down and play a number of times in a single sitting.

11. No Thanks

No Thanks is more of a classic game in terms of how long it’s been around. But it’s one that holds up really well. It is a push your luck game of trying to get cards with the fewest points possible on them. You have chips which you can use to say “No Thanks” to a card, so a 22 is flipped you pass on it, but then everyone else does too, and you keep on putting chips on it until someone takes it.

Why would you take it, a few reasons. You might be getting low on chips. All the chips on it come to you so that means you can pass on higher numbers. Or because there are enough chips on it, because chips are worth -1 points to your total at the end of the game. If there are 11 chips on it, now that 22 is only worth 11 points, when you take it. Also, it might be part of a run. If you have the 20, 21, and 22, you only score the first number of a run. So getting the 22 doesn’t change the fact you’re scoring 20 points, plus you got some chips.

It’s a light game, but really fun to play. And it is an easy one to pick up as well, which I really enjoy. Of course, it also comes in a really small box, just some chips and cards, so easily fits into a stocking.

10. The Crew: Deep Sea Adventures

The Crew, either version, is a great option, as it and the next one are both cooperative trick taking games. This works best if you are playing with more than two, the one is a two player game only. But The Crew: Deep Sea Adventures, is going to give you a series of challenges. It starts out easy and then builds up over time as you level up doing better, the challenges become harder.

The first game you might have something like, the person who takes the challenge needs to win the green four. That is pretty easy, but requires some thinking. It becomes trickier a few challenges down the road when a person needs to win the green four. Another person can’t win any pink tricks, and maybe a third person can’t win the first two tricks. How do you figure all of that out at once with limited to no communication.

9. Fox in the Forest Duet

The Fox in the Forest Duet is also trick taking, but for two players. Limited communication, you are trying to move a fox around a board and pounce on leaves. How far the fox moves is based on the difference in fox paws of the winning card to the losing card of the trick. And the fox always moves towards the winner. If you can collect all the leaves in three hands, you win the game.

Again, this works because of limited communication. It also works because if you go off the board, you block off a space on the board. Now you are even more limited in where you can move. So any mistake might push you off the board again, and too many times you lose. But until then the board becomes even tighter. That might seem very challenging, but you also can manipulate the trump suit and other aspects of the game with powers on the cards. So can you get that balance right?

8. Similo

Similo is one of two party games that work well as a stocking stuffer. In Similo one person is a clue giver to get you to narrow in on their card and eliminate the ones that aren’t their cards. But it’s not as easy as you think. If you get one pack, say historical figures, you are using other historical figures to say if your card is or isn’t like other historical figures.

And the first round isn’t too bad. The other players just need to pick a game to eliminate. But the next round it’s two, then three, and finally four. And by the time you eliminate four that is going to only leave two options. And the clue giver can just play down a card to say if their card is or isn’t like that figure. It can get even more challenging. Maybe you have historical figures out on the table, but now you give clues with animal cards. Is or isn’t Bonaparte like a bear?

7. Floriferous

Floriferous is one of a few very pretty games on the list. This is a drafting game and a bit bigger because of how it works. Now, don’t worry, it’ll fit in a stocking just fine, but in terms of what you are doing, you’ll need to think more. The game is set-up in columns and players are drafting a card from a column at a time. That might be a flower card, or it might be a scoring card. Say, a card that says I get 1 point per daisy at the end of the game. Each time you take a scoring card you pass on a flower, and vice versa.

Plus, there is one really cool mechanic in the game. The drafting isn’t too different from something like Point Salad, just missed the list, but as you draft you place your color on the column where you took the card. The higher on the column, the sooner you’ll be drafting next round. So maybe you take a flower that is just okay for you because the next scoring card is perfect for you. Or do you hope that you can draft it later? The game can be a bit mean, but mainly it’s pretty.

6. Arboretum

Arboretum on the other hand is a very mean game. You are picking up cards and then building out numerical rows of trees. It really only matters that you start with a low number of a tree type and end with a high number of that tree type. As long as the number in between count up, you are going to be doing great. But, of course there is a twist.

To score a type of tree you need to have the highest point value of that tree remaining in your hand at the end of the game. If you don’t, well, then you don’t score any points. So you have to hold onto cards, which means that you might not get as many points but you do that to guarantee that you can get any points. That is where the game is mean, you might have a great collection of trees of one type, but if I have the most at the end of a game, you can’t score it.

5. Medium

The other party game on the list, Medium is in the biggest box out of all of these games, or at least the squarest box. In Medium you try and get the most points by matching words with the other players, on your round. But it’s not as easy as guessing what word they’d write down to a question. Now, instead you both play out a word, well, let’s give an example.

If I play out the word “stick” and you put out the word “wind”, we need to come up with a word, and the same word that links those two together. I might say “kite” if you say “kite” we both get a point tile from the highest point section. If I instead say “rustle” and you say “kite” now we try again with the new words. It’s a great party game that leads to a lot of laughs.

4. Ohanami

Ohanami is another drafting game on the list, but this one is more simple than something like Floriferous. In that one you think about how or when you are going to draft next round and when to draft scoring. Here you are just drafting two cards at a time to put them in columns in numerical order. You can only ever add to the top or bottom of a column though.

There are two areas that this game offers some really interesting fun. The first being the scoring. In the first round only blue scores and only a few points. But any blue you get scores each round those few points. Green scores more but only the second and third round. And grey only the last round. And finally pink only scores the last round, but the more you have the higher that they score.

The other area is when you “flip” columns. Now you don’t flip over the cards, but you want to keep numbers close together. But as one columns low gets closer to to another columns high when do you make the jump so that instead of going up 40, 42, 43, do you jump it up to 52 or even 62 going past a 60 in another column so you can optimize your points. Wait too long, you will score lower, do it too soon, you might lock yourself out of being able to play certain numbers.

3. Hero Realms

Hero Realms is another bigger game on the list, only in the number of cards that the game has. Size wise, it’ll easily fit into a stocking. Hero Realms is a deck building game and a head to head fighting game. You buy cards to either get money to buy more cards or to deal more damage to your opponent. Your goal, get them to zero health.

One thing I really like about Hero Realms is how quickly it ramps. You can play a strategy where you gain a lot of life to keep from dying, but you don’t take long to buy powerful cards. So even with health starting at 50 or 60, you can deal out 10-15 damage by turn five. And when you can deal 20% of someone’s life total in a turn, you need to build up fast.

It doesn’t do a ton unique. If you can combo factions you can get more money or damage. We see that in a lot of deck building games. But for a small one and a good two player one. Hero Realms is tough to beat. And I haven’t played Star Reams to compare.

2. Silver

Silver I think makes the list fairly often. This is a bluffing game, kind of, mainly it’s a hard to explain game. In Silver you have a village of cards in front of you. You know what two of them are to start the game. And you need to manipulate them to get as few points as possible in your village.

The fun bit comes from each card having it’s own power. It might be allowing you to peak at another card. Or it might be giving your opponent a higher value card into their village. The whole thing is that tricky puzzle to figure out. And the round doesn’t end until both 0 cards are face up in a village or someone calls for a vote.

To call for a vote you need to have less than your five cards in your village and the only way to get rid of a card from your village is to trade two of the same number. So there is some sneaky strategy with that as you might trade out two lower numbers for a slightly higher number if you can then trade out even more next turn. How you do that with all the cards is a lot of fun.

1. Age of War

Finally we have Age of War. This one is a die rolling game that has been out for a while. But it’s a good little game of set collection, push your luck and trying to get as many points as you can. In Age of War you roll dice to get symbols that match those on different castles. If you match all of the castle that you are going for, then you get to take it. However, even when you take it someone can steal it from you, it is just a bit harder.

But if you get all of a type of castle though, red, green, etc. you flip them over. That makes them worth slightly more points. But the big thing, is once they are flipped, they can’t be stolen. So that means that you end up with direction as to what you want to do in a good way. And it also means that you might really want to “fight” someone else on your turn to get their castle that’d complete your collection, of course they might do the same to you.

Happy Holidays

Hopefully this list gives you some ideas. There are a ton of good small box games out there that work wonderfully for stocking stuffers. I could have picked probably 12 roll and write games which is why I haven’t done that. Since I can pick 12, well that is going to be the next list that I create. A lot of those will work on both lists but it’s fun to split them up.

Let me know what sort of game lists you want to see covered. And my goal is to do a good 8-10 of them so you have a ton of options, probably around 100, for different games. But depending on who you are buying for, or asking for a gift from, you’ll be able to find a list that works for that.

Happy Holidays!

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What Is A Cozy Board Game?

Now, this is probably where we can get into a debate right away. Some people will have some idea, other people will think it means another thing. But I think cozy can encompass a lot of different things. But for a board game to be cozy, I think it needs a few different things to be true, or at least a combination of some of them.

1. Not Overly Complex
2. Aesthetically Pleasing
3. Short Length
4. Not Too Competitive

Not Overly Complex

This I think is the first point of contention. I think there are games out there that are more activities. Even one I enjoy, A Gentle Rain, is more of an activity because the decision space and rules space is so limited. It doesn’t have to be taken to that level. But it is a game where you can hold all the rules of the game in your head without that much trouble. Even if you don’t learn rules all that well, a time sitting down and playing a round or a hand, you know the game.

Aesthetically Pleasing

I think looks, generally, are a key part to this. A pretty game is easier to sit down and play. And a prettier game feels less mean. It actually surprises me when a pretty game is mean because I don’t expect it to be that. For example would be Calico which is so tight in how it plays and missing out on a tile can cause you to miss out on a lot of points. But a pretty looking game is definitely another element that is important.

Short Length

I also think it’s important that the game isn’t too long. A long game is going to feel like it drags. Especially if it hits on the first part, simple rules. Simple games generally do not provide the depth in strategy that a heavier game does. And because of this play time matters. But less that they are less interesting to play, but more that the longer they go, the less interesting they are. I enjoy a game like Criss Cross, but if that game was twice as long, it loses it’s charm. So short or at least the right amount of time for the amount of rules.

Not Too Competitive

By this, I don’t mean that it shouldn’t be competitive. I think that often times competitive games make better cozy games. Why, because the game trying to beat you generally is done in such a way to give good tension. In a competitive game you can lean towards competitive but solitaire or minimal player interaction. If I can focus on what I am doing and I do not end up in direct conflict with you, I think that makes a good relaxing experience.

5 Cozy Games

5. Ohanami

This is probably the first game that comes to my mind when I think of a cozy game, or at least high on the list. The game is simple, you draft two cards and you put them in three columns. You are picking cards to score points. And scoring is interesting, blues score every round but fewer points. Greys score the last round but more points. There is strategy, but it is all easy to keep in your head. And nothing I take is going to really mess you up too badly. I will leave cards you can use, most likely. Plus the artwork is good and play time is shrot.

4. Kohaku

Kohaku is another very pretty game, probably the prettiest on my list. It is a game about building out a koi pond and scoring points. You pick two tiles and decide where to place them in your pond. One is going to be a fish and one is going to be a scoring tile. Picking and placement rules are very simple but you end up with a very pretty game. Especially with the Kickstarter edition, or first print, where it has double layer acrylic tiles.

3. A Gentle Rain

A Gentle Rain, I already mentioned this one and how it borders on an activity. But in Gentle Rain, you are picking up a tile and placing it into a big pond where it is raining. A pretty look for the game. You are trying to complete groups of four completely getting the four corners to touch. You do that by matching the flowers on the tiles. When you do you put in a disc and the goal is to play as many of those discs as you can. The draw a tile, singular, limits your options, but there is strategy to how you place. And it’s a very fast game.

2. Sagrada

The biggest game on the list and some might disagree with me on this one, is Sagrada. To me, this maybe isn’t the coziest game, no real order to this list. But it is a cozy game. Building out your stained glass window is pretty. The dice, windows, everything about the game is pretty. And the rules are a bit heavier, which is okay the game is a bit longer. But the basics are pretty simple. You draft a die and place it so it isn’t adjacent to the same number of color. At the end it can be tricky to play, but it never feels stressful. Even if someone drafts what you want.

1. Canvas

Finally, we have Canvas. Canvas is a simple game of picking pieces of artwork, overlaying them, and creating the best image to score points. And I know the point scoring is what gets some people and probably takes it off the list. Mainly because Canvas can feel like there is a balance between trying to score points and wanting to make pretty artwork.

It becomes a cozier game when you realize that you can just create the pretty artwork. Sure, points do matter, but it isn’t everything in the game. Even if you just layer the artwork for yourself or to show it off and then go to the good scoring combination, it is fun. And it is fun to see what you create and at the end of the game to judge which is prettiest, even if that isn’t the point of the game.

Final Thoughts

Cozy games are fun. But like anything, a cozy video game or a cozy movie or TV show, I don’t want that all of the time. But I do want to have some games like that in my collection. If it was all I had, I wouldn’t feel challenged and stimulated. If I didn’t have any, I wouldn’t have games to play when I just want to relax and clear my brain.

But, your mileage might vary as to how cozy a game can be for you. I put it this way for myself, I try and win games but I don’t need to win a game. For other people without winning a game or trying so hard to optimize to win a game a game isn’t fun. So if a game is too simple, which a lot of cozy games are simpler, they aren’t as fun for them. So know how competitive you are in a game.

What are some of your favorite cozy games?

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100 through 91 here.

90 through 81 here.

80 through 71 here.

70 through 61 here.

60 through 51 here.

Top 100 Games 2022 Edition – 50-41

50. No Thanks!

No Thanks is a small box game with a lot of fun to it. I think that it is almost a small box classic at this point in time. In this game you try and get as few points as possible by saying “No thanks” to cards by putting tokens on them. But run out of tokens you can’t pass and you need to take whatever number comes your way. So it’s a balance of how many tokens, which are -1 point each, are worth it to take a higher number to avoid taking a really high number?

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49. Sagrada

Sagrada has been higher on my list before. I think it’s just dropped a little bit because I hadn’t played it in a while, but I’d also just played it a lot at the start. I still really like Sagrada and the dice drafting. It is also one of those games that I was talking about. It is a relaxing game for me to play. I like the puzzle of drafting and dice placement.

I really like the game as a teaching game as well. I can tailor the difficulty to of the game to different groups. There are expansions you can add in to ramp things up. Or you can up the difficulty with the scoring things you can add in or the tools that you can use. It means I use it often as more of a basic game to teach people and get to the table. I want to mix in more of the things soon.

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48. Ready Set Bet

Ready Set Bet is a game that I got to play and learn at Gen Con this year. Ready Set Bet! is a real time horse racing and betting game. And it just has infectious excitement around it as you play it. One person is calling out the the races while everyone else is trying to get their bets. There is a hectic nature to it, but because there is the excitement of how the horses are doing, I feel like compared to a lot of real time games, it is much less tense. And it’s just a game about how well you can do with getting your bets in.

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47. Arboretum

Another one of the really pretty games, Arboretum is not one of the nice games though. It’s a mean game of trying to get your trees in a row. What makes it so challenging is that you need to play out cards of tree types. But to score those trees you need to have the most, value wise, of those trees left.

So, you can hold trees, high value trees, in your hand to keep your opponents from scoring. That can block them from scoring, which is very much part of the game. You also then need to consider keeping enough in your hand of trees so you can score yourself. It is a very interesting and mean balancing act.

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46. Ohanami

Back to a more relaxing game, Ohanami is a game all about collecting different things like stones or plants to give you points. All of the artwork is beautiful in the game. Though, sometimes I don’t look at it that much, at least not until I play out my cards.

Ohanami is a card drafting game. You pick two cards to add to three columns. Those columns always need to be in numerical order. So you are picking cards that you can add while trying to make sure you can always add to them as you’ll draft 30 cards. What makes this one so strong is that you score different colors different rounds. So when you draft cards matters for scoring as well. It’s easy to learn and play but has fun strategy.

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45. Floriferous

Floriferous continues that beautiful game trend. And also the drafting trend that is in this section of games. Floriferous is open drafting where you can see all the cards you’ll be picking from. And all you’ll be picking from for several rounds of drafting.

Floriferous does two things that I think are fun. First you draft your scoring cards. It is like Point Salad in that way where you have a choice. You can draft cards to score with, or cards to help facilitate that scoring. But the bigger thing is that you draft cards from a column. And the higher on the column you take, the sooner you go in the next round. So there is strategy if sometimes taking a less ideal card one time to draft the perfect card the next time.

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44. Res Arcana

Res Arcana is another pretty game, but not in the same way, it is more cool fantasy artwork in the game. But Res Arcana is a very different type of game, it is a tight engine building game where you are racing to 10 points. Why is it so tight, because you have a limited number of cards, 8 that you start with, to build your engine. And while you can add a few, sometimes, you mainly are working with that limited number of cards. So who can get their engine of gathering resources and turning them into points going the fastest?

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43. Paint the Roses

Paint the Roses is another new one on the list that I first played at Gen Con. It is a cooperative deduction game. Players give clues by placing down flower tiles into the Queen of Hearts garden. The clues are to give direction so players can guess a color combination on a card, or color or shape, or color and shape combination. All the while the Queen of Hearts is coming to lop off our heads.

This game is very clever in what it does, and while I have yet to win, I really like the pressure it puts on. Each turn when you play down a tile, everyone has to come up with a guess for someone’s card. If you get it right, the queen advances slowly, if you get it wrong, she advances faster. And the further you get around the track, the faster she goes, no matter what. So can you fill it up, which will make her happy, or lose your head, which will make her happier?

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42. T.I.M.E Stories

T.I.M.E Stories has been on the list since the beginning. It is an escape room style game, but one that has more story. Now, I’ve heard that the overall story doesn’t pay off. But I really like every scenario that we’ve played through. And I think that’s one of things that’s so interesting about the game. Each scenario of TIME Stories can be really different.

In this game your consciousness is transported into the past, future, or some other dimension. And you are trying to keep the timeline in order. I would say this is a bit like that TVA in Loki. The goal is to get the timeline back to where it should be, but that isn’t always easy. The downside is, you don’t make it the first time, you go back through and do it again which can get tiresome.

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41. Twilight Inscription

Rounding out this section, we have another new game to the list. I got to learn and play Twilight Inscription at Gen Con as well. This is the roll and write version, kind of, of Twilight Imperium. It might not quite live up to that, but it is still a long and epic roll and write game.

I can’t really go through everything on it to explain how to play. More, know that there are four different boards. And on your turn, you pick one you want to activate. If you want to be good at war, well, you can activate that board. If you want to gather resources, or explore planets, there are boards for that. Do you need to do a bit of everything, probably, but you can pick what you want to focus on.

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Upcoming Streams

On Wednesday, I’m going to be unboxing Chronicles of Drunagor, and probably ISS Vanguard. So two big games, and with the unboxing of Chronicles of Drunagor, I am going to be picking out the two characters that I’m going to start my solo campaign with. Join me for that and help me pick out what characters I should start with.

Then next Monday I’ll not be continuing the Top 100 Games (of all time) 2022 Edition. Mainly because it’s Halloween. I foresee not having the time with taking a kid out for that and needing to do the podcast. Even without the podcast, it’ll be a busy evening, and I might want to watch a scary movie or show as well. But I’ll start up again the following week.

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