100 through 91 here.

90 through 81 here.

80 through 71 here.

70 through 61 here.

Top 100 Games 2022 Edition – 60-51

60. Long Shot: The Dice Game

First of two roll and write games on the list, Long Shot: The Dice Game is a horse racing and betting game. It reminds me of Downforce, expect a roll and write. In this game you are buying horses, betting on horses, and completing other things which will get you money at the end of the game. The person who wins the most money, or has the most money, at the end of the game is the winner.

One aspect that I really like is how you can improve the odds of a horse moving forward. The lower number horses are on more cards so that they can move. But if people start to get behind a long shot, you can add movement to other horses cards for that long shot. So they start moving more consistently than other horses and have a shot. Mechanically, though, not the easiest to teach which keeps it lower on the list.

Buy on Barnes & Noble

59. Trek 12: Himalaya

The other roll and write comes up immediately, and one of the other new games on the list, Trek 12 is a mountain climbing roll and write. But really, it is a game of creating runs and sets to score points. It scores in a really clever way and has you placing numbers in a clever way as well.

The scoring is pretty simple, you score each set of a number and each run you have. But you take the highest number in the run or number in a set and that’s your base score. So a set of five twos scores as 2 (the number in the set) + 1 + 1+ 1 + 1. That’s not nearly as many points as a set of three with 9 (9+1+1). So it makes you want the higher numbers. But you also get a bonus for your largest set or longest run.

Then placing the numbers is interesting. You either take the highest or lowest value on the dice, or the difference, combined total, or multiplied total. And you have a limited number of each so you start to lose options as you go. It allows you to get numbers you want and higher numbers, but sometimes that locks you out from other things.

Buy on Miniature Market

58. The Night Cage

I’m doing the list in October, so have to call out the spooky games on the list. The Night Cage is a game where you are stuck in a labyrinth. Everyone in there is trying to find keys and get to the exit portal. But your candle just barely lights your way, so the labyrinth disappears behind you. And if you go back, it’s going to be different than before.

All of this which isn’t too hard, but then you have monsters who might pop up and want to eat the wax of your candle. If they do, not you can’t see around you at all. Or maybe it’ll it get more than just you. And as you use tiles your supply, represented by a candle, slowly burns down. It’s a very fun and stressful game as the candle burns down. But in a good way.

Buy on Miniature Market

57. Meadow

Another new game to the list, Meadow is a game about observing nature. You are in a meadow or building up a meadow or observation. The theme really doesn’t matter that much. But the artwork takes what could be an abstract only game and makes it very pretty to look at.

In Meadow you build up a tableau in front of you. As you play down cards you cover up some symbols, so I need to match a tree to a tree, but my card that needs a tree now has a bird symbol on it. And you create this growing series of symbols that give you more points as you go. Also trying to take scenic pictures to remember where you’ve been. Basically everything gives you points but it’s fun to manage your tableau.

Buy on Cool Stuff Inc

56. Galaxy Trucker

Galaxy Trucker has been on the list for a while. It is a real time game, for part of it. And it’s a real time game without a timer. I never feel the time crunch because you flip tiles and build your ship. Only for the final person who is trying to get that last piece is there a time crunch. Otherwise the building is just done in real time as long as the group takes.

Then you fly off into space with your junky ship and watch it fall apart. But if you built it well you get points for picking up cargo. And you don’t lose parts of your ship to meteors, pirates, or anything else. It’s a lighter fun game, but it does give you that good real time puzzle as you build your ship.

Buy on Cool Stuff Inc

55. Pandemic

Pandemic is on the list as a placeholder for all of the Pandemic games. I personally prefer Season One of Pandemic Legacy, which keeps it higher on the list. I haven’t played Season Zero yet, which I want to. But all Pandemic falls into this one, because all version of legacy I’ve played and base pandemic are fun.

Pandemic is a game where you play as doctors cooperative trying to keep diseases in check and find a cure for them. On your turn you move around the world, trade information with other players, and remove disease cubes from cities. Then bad things happen, diseases spread and outbreaks might happen. It’s a good puzzle of a game. The legacy versions of the game just add great story, and I’d play them again gladly even though I know that story.

Buy on Miniature Market

54. Blood Rage

Pandemic, which I didn’t mention, was high on my list when I started and dropping. The same with Blood Rage which was one of my top games. I clearly like it less than I did before. But I’ve also played more games that I did before. Blood Rage is a fun drafting and area control game. It looks like it should just be Vikings and monsters on a map fighting but there is more going on.

What lowered it slightly is some experiences can feel similar. And some strategies even seem to be better that don’t lean into fighting. But it is fun to think about how to break up those strategies. Such as the Loki strategy where that person wants to lose fights and send everyone Valhalla. Or when to hate draft a card and block someone from getting a quest that they are setup for. There is a good amount going on, but not too much in this game.

Buy on Amazon

53. Root

Root also has dropped some from it’s highest. But Root tends to bounce around a bit more. Mainly it’s how excited I would be to play it again. And that’s because Root is a game that is hard to get to the table. There is a lot to learn in Root because each faction is different. And you need to know each faction to keep them in check during a game.

Root is basically an asymmetric war game. One faction is all about area control, another might be about completing little objectives or a grass roots uprising. All of this with cute animal artwork on it. The game is a lot of fun and is big in what it can do. One that I want to play more but you need a dedicated group to play it really that know the factions.

Buy on Cool Stuff Inc

52. Draftosaurus

This isn’t a roll and write game, but it does feel like one. Draftosaurus is a drafting game where you are putting dinosaurs in pens. And you have a handful of dinosaur meeples to pick one from. The game is really easy, light, and fun to play. It just works for the type of game that it is.

What really stands out, though is the tactile nature of holding the dinosaurs and then picking one. Like I said, how you score, it reminds me of a roll and write. But holding and drafting from those dinosaurs is unique to the game. And the closest thing you get in most roll and write games is rolling the dice.

Buy on Game Nerdz

51. Homebrewers

Finally, to round out the bottom half of my Top 100 Games, we have Homebrewers. Homebrewers is an engine building game where you are a homebrewer brewing your beer at home. You get different ingredients, flavors, to add to your beers that push you up on tracks. All in a goal to be the highest and score points at Summer Fest and OktoberFest.

I really like this one for the theme. Yes, there are a few things that are a disconnect in the game. That you never lose an ingredient that you’ve added to the beer. But it gets so many things right about homebrewing, it’s great.

Buy on Amazon

Upcoming Stream

So what is coming up next. I do plan on Wednesdays soon to start playing Chronicles of Drunagor. However, I am not quite ready to get that one to the table this week. Instead, it’ll be a smaller solo game. I have a few roll and write games that interest me, or maybe it’ll be Root on the app or Slay the Spire. You’ll have to tune in Wednesday at 8 PM Central to find out.

And then coming up next Monday, I have 50 through 41 in my Top 100 coming up. You can click the notification bell to know when I’m going live on the video over here.

Plus, I might have a surprise unboxing this weekend. I believe I have two different games coming in on Thursday and Friday this week. So maybe, if I have time, I’ll unbox them. Or it’ll be a bonus Monday video, we’ll have to see.

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

Pop-Up GenCon Itself

Honestly, it was just fun to game with strangers again. Yes, it wasn’t the same as GenCon, but I got to sit down on three separate occasions and play games that were new to me with complete strangers. And not only that but to play out at a game store again was just fun.

It’s one of those things that I don’t think I’d completely realized how much I missed. There is just a level of excitement and fun being around people who are excited to be gaming. They are excited to try new stuff, see new games, and just have a good time. The energy is infectious in a good way. And I’m someone who really loves being around people so just being around excited gamers is amazing.

The Games

Don’t worry, I’m going to talk about all four of the games that I played there, plus the ones I saw, but I didn’t want to make them each their own thing. Because I got to play four new games to me.

My Farm Shop

This is one I actually knew about because I’d seen it on the Dice Tower. They played through it live and did a review of it. The game looked fun to me so when that was one of the official Pop-Up GenCon games I wanted to play it. And I have to say it is a very good game. I actually ended up picking it up.

The game is a style that I like, which is in the veins of Machi Koro. If you’re not familiar, each turn you roll some dice and activate something. Your opponents also activate stuff on your roll as well. In Machi Koro what activates is limited. But for My Farm Shop you always activate something. So you roll three dice, one determines what card you get and two determine what is activated. The turns go really fast and you are always engaged doing something.

Unfathomable

Another one that I knew about but I hadn’t seen played. This game I know I’ve talked about before because it’s the new version of Battlestar Galactica. It’s a big game and also a hidden traitor game.

Normally I don’t gravitate towards hidden traitor games. Not because they can’t be fun, I do like Dead of Winter and BSG. But something like Shadows Over Camelot I thought was just okay. I want more game going on with it, otherwise it feels too close to social deduction.

Because Unfathomable builds off of what was done in BSG, I thought I’d be interested. We got to play a whole game, the hybrid won. But it was a blast. The core of the game is very similar to BSG, but I felt like it make a ton of sense how it worked. With BSG, there was just more going on with two expansions making the game very big. This keeps some of the expansion stuff, but trims off some of the fat.

Catan (Yard Game)

This one is not a real game. Well, it kind of is one but not really. It plays like bags but you are aiming for areas to get resources. Then you use resources and are racing to 4 points. The person at the end of the round when someone makes it to four who has the most points wins.

Super simple game, but it is fun. They have little figures for wood, wheat, brick, ore, and sheep, as well as the robber. So you get double resources if you throw the right figure into the right spot. And the nice thing too is that the game maybe took 15 minutes, maybe 20, with four players. But it’s more a convention game versus a real game, not one you can go out and buy.

Descent: Legends of the Dark

Finally, I got to play a game I already own. Descent: Legends of the Dark is a big dungeon crawl, app assisted, adventure of a game from Fantasy Flight. I unboxed it a bit ago on the Malts and Meeples YouTube Channel, which you can see here. But I hadn’t gotten around to learning the rules or getting to the table.

It was a great way to learn the game, I will say. That’s one of the best things that I really like going to conventions. Even with games that aren’t new you can get to see them and play before you buy them. Now, some games, Descent, I knew I wanted to get. But it was fun to actually play it. I really like the mechanics of the game, we definitely got some things wrong, but I can see bringing this game to my table pretty soon here.

World of Warcraft Pandemic

This, I thought, is an odd mash-up. But I thought it was really interesting to learn about it. Because it’s kind of like Pandemic Legacy Season 2 feel to it. And because while it feels like a Pandemic game from the mechanics it is going to play differently. In this game you are trying to survive and complete quests.

I think that’s the really interesting part, from what I remember some quests were in Pandemic Legacy Season 2, basically paying cards into completing things in specific orders. It makes a lot of sense for a World of Warcraft Game. Eventually you need to go fight a big boss as well. Very clever looking game and very accessible.

I also like it made the lose condition easier to track. The game funnels everything into the “outbreak” track. If you can’t place a figure, that’s an outbreak, your character dies, advances an outbreak, and outbreak happens, advances the outbreak. It’s only when that track, which is still short, hits the end that you lose. It’s one of those simple things that to me makes it more accessible for new gamers. You still need to pay attention to everything, but only the one spot causes the game to end.

Final Thoughts

I hope that they keep Pop-Up GenCons around. And I hope that I don’t go to one for a long time. Why, because this just makes me want to go back to GenCon. This year wasn’t the right year to go back for me for reasons I’ve talked about before. And it might not be right for you. Or maybe GenCon itself isn’t right for you. So I hope they keep the pop-up GenCons for the people who can’t make it to regular GenCon. And hopefully, next year, I’ll see you at GenCon.

Did you attend GenCon this year, let me know your thoughts. Or did you do a Pop-Up GenCon, how did yours go?

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.

Before we get to the list, let’s start by talking a little bit about how the list is made. You can see some of the process that I go through in this article earlier this week. But as to the games on the list, these are all games I’ve rated on Board Game Geek.

To go along with that, the games that are in my Top 100, I’ll have links to where you can buy them. I tend to do most of my board game shopping online through Miniature Market and Coolstuff Inc. I’m going to try and use their links over something like Amazon, but I do want you to be able to find these games if they look cool. Let’s get to the list.

Board Games 100-91

100. Skull

This is a great little bluffing game. Normally bluffing games aren’t my thing. I am not the best at bluffing in them, but this one works for me. It is small and it’s simple. When it comes down to it, I think the simplicity of what you are doing in the game is really what works for me. And I like the twist on it that when you bid to flip you have to flip your own stuff first. That means sometimes when you bluff you don’t have a skull in your like you’ll end up flipping our own and beat yourself.

Buy on Miniature Market

99. Takenoko

This game is just a really cute one. Takenoko has you trying to complete objectives to get the most points. The game is just maybe over a gateway game level but really good. The cute factor really sells this game for a lot of people. I like that you have three different ways that you can score points in the game. The fact you can go for panda, gardener or tile points is nice, allows for different players to have different strategies.

Buy on Miniature Market

98. Shadowrun Crossfire: Prime Runner Edition

This is one that I really need to play again. It’s a fun game where you are building out a deck of cards while trying to defeat different threats. You each also start out a different way, so like the RPG it’s based on, Shadowrun, you are building up special skills that only you have. A challenging game for sure, but I like it when my cooperative games challenge me.

Buy on Amazon

97. Photosynthesis

This is a game about trees. It looks like it should be a nice and friendly game, it is not. Photosynthesis is an abstract game where you are planting your trees, figuring out how to maximize your sun points, and blocking your opponent from getting their own sun points. It’s a good puzzle of a game though because the sun rotates around the board. That means you can set yourself up for some really good turns, but on the flip side you might end up with some turns with no points, if you aren’t careful. Fun game, but very mean.

Buy on Coolstuff Inc

96. Mysterium

Another game I haven’t played in a while, Mysterium. This one really is because of the pandemic because I think it works better at a higher count, and I don’t own the game. But in this game one person is a ghost trying to give everyone else clues so that they try and figure a murder, weapon, and location. We don’t play it quite right but we play it in a way that I think is more fun, and it keeps the base of the game the same.

Buy on Amazon

95. First Martians: Adventures on the Red Planet

This one I think would be lower on the list for a lot of people because of a bad taste from the app for the start. But the game itself is a good time and you can get it cheap now. The app is definitely better than it was, but you’re trying to survive on Mars. You station might be breaking down, the :44supply ship might have crashed, or something like that and now you are trying to survive the scenario. It’s a challenging game but it feels good when you win. Think of this as The Martian the board game.

Buy on Coolstuff Inc

94. Pandemic Legacy: Season 2

I like my legacy games, and Pandemic Legacy Season 2 is a very good one. The Pandemic games really do a great job of giving you tons of new stuff to unlock during the game. And the story in this one is good. I will say you do need to play the first season of Pandemic Legacy first. Also that while the mechanics are similar to Pandemic they feel different and the game feels unique as you play it and explore the world.

Buy on Miniature Market

93. The Lord of the Rings

Another very challenging cooperative game. The Lord of the Rings is a good book themed Lord of the Rings game that is pretty abstracted. But the artwork is great, the challenge level is great, and you feel the pressure of trying to get the one ring delivered. There was a new edition that came out not too long ago, but I prefer the older version without the extra plastic in it. And I like that you play only as the Hobbits because that’s fun as well.

Buy on Miniature Market

92. Wits & Wagers

The first party game to hit the list. This is my preferred trivia game to play because you don’t need to be great at trivia. Every answer is number based and that means that you are just trying to bet on the right number without going over. So if it’s something about a movie and you know the most about movies, maybe bet on your own, but if you know nothing about sports, bet the other person who knows sports answer. Being close is just as good as being right and knowing who might know best.

Buy on Amazon

91. Criss Cross

This one has dropped a long ways. A lot of that is that I’ve played a lot of roll and write games since I did the list last. There are games that I’ve played which has pushed this one down. That said, Criss Cross is still a really good game. It’s pretty lucky as to what comes up on the dice, but how you put in that combination of two really matters, since everyone is using the same dice. It’s a good quick game and one I wouldn’t say no to playing, but I might not pull off my self as much anymore.

Not on Amazon, Miniature Market, or Coolstuff Inc

There we have the first 10 games on the list. I really like all of these. I think on my list as a whole that 7 or 7.5 is about the lowest that can make my list in terms of rankings and most will be 8’s or higher. Let me know which of these games you like best or which one you want to try.

The Next Ten

And if you want to catch it live, you can do so over on YouTube. Checkout the Malts and Meeples like at the top of the article. I have the next four videos scheduled. So you can subscribe and click that notification bell to know when I’m going live. But if you’re catching this later, 8 PM Central Time every Wednesday from now until the week before Thanksgiving, November 17th to see what games make the list.

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.

Ticket to Ride

Ticket to Ride is probably the most popular Modern Classic board game right now. I think that Catan, or Settlers of Catan, has fallen out of favor where as Ticket to Ride is generally better liked. Ticket to Ride is a route building game and a set collection game. Now, the game that I’m picking isn’t so much of a route building game, but it does have those goals that the players are looking to complete. And you are collecting things, but not cards, marbles. This game isn’t much more complex than Ticket to Ride, but Potion Explosion adds in a level of toy factor to the game. You are pulling marbles out of the tray trying to get like colors to hit so you can get those marbles as well so that you can complete potions. That level is basically the same level as Ticket to Ride, it adds in complexity by giving each potion a power you can use as well, so you decide when you need to get that triggered.

Potion Explosion

Catan

Catan is a game that is known for rolling dice, getting resources, spending resources building more things and repeating the process. You can block people from going places, you can trade things, and while the trading is important to how I play the game, it isn’t for everyone. So when I looked to pick a game, I picked a legacy game, actually, that can still be played after it’s done, and I went with Charterstone. Charterstone is a worker placement game where you get resources which you spend to build more spots to go. It has a similar feel to me as you build out through the legacy campaign. The fact it adds more slowly as well, seems like it’d be a good way to build from a pretty simple game to a game with a lot more going on in it.

Charterstone

Carcassone

Carcassone is one of those games that surprises people when they see it. If they just know classic board games, the idea of building the board as you go is so cool. And that’s the area that I really focused on. I could focus on the meeples and how you play them to get points and get them back. If you love that part but want more, see Charterstone above. But I went with Galaxy Trucker. This game has a real time element to it where you grab tiles and fit them together to make your ship. Then it flies along and you hope to get the most and best cargo and not have your ship be blown apart. It’s a very different theme, but if people love the tile placement, this game has it, just faster. Though, I should be clear, there isn’t a hard time limit for parts of the real time aspect, and the tile placement part is the main part of the game.

Galaxy Trucker

King of Tokyo

This one will probably be obvious to most people who read my articles what game I am going to pick. In King of Tokyo you roll dice to try and get points and energy to get cards, but mainly, you roll dice to hit everyone else trying to knock them out. A game that takes that combat and that dice rolling is Dice Throne. This removes that middle board and makes it so anyone can hit anyone whenever they want. I’d say it’s primarily a two player game, but it does work well with King of the Hill play for three players and keeps people from ganging up on one player. The dice chucking is great, and the unique characters are amazing. I always want the monsters in King of Tokyo to be more unique.

Dice Throne

Small World

A lot of the board games have been a small step up, for Small World, I am going with a bigger step up. Small World is an area control game that I say makes a great replacement for Risk. It’s Risk, but it’s fun and way faster. The game that I’d use as a next step up from it is my second favorite game of all time, Blood Rage. Blood Rage has more than just fighting and area control, there are missions you can do, you draft cards, and you upgrade your clan. I really like the game, and while there are a lot of moving pieces with it, the game just works really well. And if someone wants, they can really lean into combat for getting their points and win, just don’t let someone get all the Loki cards.

Blood Rage

Dominion

Dominion, this is a game that I can get why people like it, but I really don’t. Most of the time, if you have a good player who knows the combos, they will win. That’s no fun to know that you’ll lose before the game starts. You could just explain the combos and whoever has the best one wins without playing the game. Instead, I prefer my deck building games to have a variable market. And the game that I picked to be the next step has that. Clank! In! Space! is a deck building game with more. There is a push your luck element as you try and get as far into the ship as you can to grab the best treasure you can. But the deck building is the big part of the game. The market works great, and the game doesn’t have amazing artwork, just like Dominion, but it has a much more fun theme.

Clank! In! Space!

Pandemic

This is my copout one, what do you play if you like Pandemic but are done with the base game. Pandemic Legacy Season 1, then Season 2, then Season 0. You have three versions of Pandemic to continue with. Season 1 is similar to the base game but then adds more and more. Season 2 is a major twist on how everything works but still feels like Pandemic somehow. And Season 0, I have yet to play that one, but I’ve heard amazing things about it. Pandemic is a good game and a good system, so dive into the more complex version with Pandemic Legacy.

Pandemic Legacy

Five Tribes

Five Tribe is what is known as a point salad style game. You do something, you get points for it. It might be now, it might be at the end of the game, but it’ll give you points somehow. There are plenty of Euro games that do that, but I don’t want to dump someone into a big Euro after they have played Five Tribes. Five Tribes doesn’t feel that euro to me, it’s more puzzly. So I went with Dice Forge for the next game to play. In Dice Forge you are upgrading your dice by changing out sides. It has that cool toy element to it, you are buying cards to get powers and get points. And the big thing is, you are always getting something. You roll the dice for your resources, you roll your dice on your turn and your opponents. And you are always getting resources to spend on your turn, so no turn ever feels wasted, just like in Five Tribes.

Dice Forge

Splendor

Splendor is an interesting one, it really is an abstract game as it’s heart of collecting gems to get more gems to spend those gems to get more gems. And as you go, it gets easier to get more gems as you build out your tableau. The game I went with doesn’t have a tableau, but it does have you getting gems. In Century Golem Edition you are getting cards in your hand to convert your gems into more gems and better gems, but also the right combo of gems to get golems. On your turn you either play a card from your hand, get a card to add to your hand, spend gems to get a golem, or pick up the card you’ve played. It’s a very simple and fast game, but there is more of a puzzle to figure out than Splendor has to get your engine going.

Century Golem Edition

Cards Against Humanity/Apples to Apples

No shocker to the game that I’ll pick here. There are a ton of games that I could say fit into that Cards Against Humanity and Apples to Apples category. The game where you play down cards and someone picks the best. Well, the issue is that once you’ve seen the jokes, you’ve seen them. So how do you get around that? Cards Against Humanity tries to add in a million expansions. My pick, Stipulations, makes your write down your answer. I also like Stipulations because it is flexible for your group. If you want to make it dirty you can. If you want it to be clean, it can be. Plus the categories such as super power are a lot of fun. It’s trickier because it requires creativity of the players. But because it requires that, it makes it much more replayable.

Stipulations

Which of these board games if your favorite modern classic? Are there any that you want to try, or that you want to try the next step up from? What games do you recommend to people who want that next game after Ticket to Ride or Catan?

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.

How 2020 Went

Let’s start out with some statistical highlights this year. In 2020, we had 181,178 page views, this was up 16.45% from in 2019. We also saw a 15.11% increase in our numbers of users and a 17.37% increase in the number of sessions overall. The podcast also had 1,847 downloads during that time. So all of those numbers were nice size increases. I’m hoping in 2021, that we’ll be able to hit 200,000 page views, so please share articles, like them on FB or retweet them on Twitter.

As always when I look at those numbers I’m blown away how high they are for a website that primarily has one person writing for it. And I think about all the articles that I’ve put out and all the fun that I’ve had with it, I’m glad more people are enjoying it having fun with what I’m putting out.

Nerds Year Resolutions

Let’s dive into Nerds Year Resolutions. This is being split into two parts. The first what I want to improve for the site. The second, what I want to do for myself this year. When I look at what I want to do for the year, I want these to be objectives that are attainable for me. I don’t want to make it some goal that is very specific and makes it feel like work, I also don’t want it to be so nebulous that it’s impossible or feels never ending.

For the Website

• 10 Minute Marvel Every Week
• Play Through Pandemic Legacy Season 2 on Malts and Meeples
• Schedule Posts When I’m Gone – basically if I’ll miss time, I’ll write and schedule posts out over that time

For Me

• Five new to me movies, anime, TV shows, books, and board games this year
• Get through one legacy game (not counting Pandemic Legacy Season 2)
• Paint A Mini (and more)
• Finish Tainted Grail

For myself, by doing 5 that allows me to have enough for my Top 5 lists at the end of the year, I suspect I’ll see more movies than 5 this year but it’s a good goal to set all around and very achievable. I’m not sure what legacy game yet, I do have one that I can play solo that might end up being the pick.

What are your nerdy goals for 2021?

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.

The Collection

Numbers

A’s – B’s – C’s – D’s – E and F’s – G and H’s – I, J and K’s – L’s – M’s

N, O, and P’s

Not Alone

I am always looking for big group games that aren’t just light party games. And Not Alone definitely hits that where it has a one versus all. And I really like the one versus all aspect to it. I have a lot of fun playing both on the monster side and the crew member side. I think that I prefer to play as the monster as I keeping track of what everyone is playing down is a lot of fun and offers an interesting challenge. I also like that as the crew, though, you can talk amongst yourself, but the monster player always has to be able to hear it. So you can plan, and planning isn’t bad, but it lets the monsters know some of what is going on.

Status: Played

Onirim

Onirim is my go to solo game for one simple reason. It’s really small and doesn’t take up much table space. It was also the first game that I played solo, if I remember correctly. I’m not counting when I was a kid and I’d take stuffed animals through a game (can you tell I like board games). This game’s puzzle is really interesting, and I like the odd artwork that it has. If someone is looking for a solo game to try, this would be what I recommend first.

Status: Played

Pandemic

This is just base Pandemic, not the Legacy versions, which will be coming up next. Pandemic is a great game. It’s a gateway game that tells a story each time you play it, and while there is certainly a fair amount of mechanics too it, it is still an experience. I like in a cooperative game how you don’t have enough time to do everything. That’s really important because it keeps the tension for the game high and the replayability high because there is always more to do.

Status: Played

Pandemic Legacy (Seasons 1, 2, and 0)

I love Pandemic Legacy in each version that I’ve played. In fact I’ve played Season 1 twice and had a blast with it the second time that I played it as much as the first, and that was playing it solo. Pandemic Legacy games, while you can’t play them again once they are done, are just such amazing gaming experiences. They add in story to the game of Pandemic, and definitely have an evolving ruleset that you need to remember. If I could go back and play it again for the first time, I would because the twists and turns, while not that shocking always, are really good. And I’m excited to go and play Pandemic Legacy Season 0 sometime soon.

Pandemic Legacy Season 1 and 2: Played
Pandemic Legacy Season 0: To Be Played

Papillon

The second butterfly game on the list, this one also has you building a garden and amazing looking 3D flowers. This is an area control/area influence game, a drafting game, and just has a great table presence. I had a lot of fun punching out everything and putting it together. I picked this one up because when I can get it played, it’ll sell itself with the 3D flowers and with the butterflies that are on clothespins.

Status: To Be Played

Parade

A small game, this one is a great filler that has some strategy to it. In it, with it’s pasted on Alice in Wonderland theme, you are trying to get the fewest points possible. But you are taking cards that are lower number or the same color as the one that you play down, but only so far along the path. It’s an interesting puzzle that has a mechanic that I really like. If you end with the most of a color, those cards are worth 1 point each, instead of face value. So you can shoot the moon a bit in a color, as long as you don’t get too many and end up with a low score. So it adds in good strategy to what is a small game.

Status: Played

Patchwork Doodle

I love roll and write games (or flip and write) and this one is an interesting game about making a quilt. What is really interesting is that you score points based off of the largest solid square you’ve made in your quilt. So compared to some polyomino style flip and writes, this one has you really wanting to keep things tightly packed together. And you are moving around placing the different shapes to build your quilt in less of a flip and write way and more of a rondel, which is unique as well.

Status: To Be Played

Phase 10

A mass market game hits the list again. Phase 10 is a game that kind of has that got me into the hobby and one that I grew up playing. I know this game has issues, mainly that someone could get stuck on Phase 1 for 10 rounds, and lose the game just like that. Now, that’s almost impossible, but it could happen, and that’s no fun. The game that I don’t own, Five Crowns, does something similar to Phase 10 but fixes that problem. I still have it in my collection though because it’s a classic and it’s easy to pull out and teach.

Status: Played

Photosynthesis

This is an abstract tree growing game that I need to play more of. I love the way it looks on the table, you have 3D trees, and I like the that the sun rotates around the board. What drew me to the game, besides the look, is that rotating sun and the fact your trees cast shadows. So you get less points to use if your tree is being blocked from the sun by another tree that’s taller or the same height possibly. This means sometimes you end up with great turns, but if things go poorly, or I place a tree just right, you might get no points to spend on actions. It’s a mean game if you want it to be, but that’s a lot of the fun.

Status: Played

Point Salad

A point salad game is any game where you have a million different ways to score points. If you put a piece down in spot X, you get 10 points. This takes the concept and makes it into a little filler card game. On your turn you draft either a scoring card or two vegetable cards. The point card might say that you get five points per pair of tomatoes that you have. So you’ll draft a lot of tomatoes. But if another tomato scoring card comes up, I can take that, or I can draft a vegetable from that row, causing it to flip over. The game is clever, it scales well, and you do score a ton of points, especially possible at higher player counts.

Status: Played

So three letter there, but not a ton for each of them. You might be surprised that I didn’t add Q in as well. But that’ll wait for another day. What’s your favorite game starting with the letters N, O, or P? What game do I need in my collection starting with those letters?

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CL2tkJt8jVE" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I noticed while watching through it that there seems to be some issues with the video at the start, which I kind of have noticed, and I know there was a hiccup mid stream as well when the connection dropped for a moment to the streaming software. I’m going to be working on getting a better and more consistent experience for the stream over time as I try and debug what might be going on. But thank you for checking out the video.

Last nights beer was Maroon and Bold 2020 by Bent Brewstillery. They are a brewery and distillery located out of Roseville, MN. Maroon and Bold is a collaboration with the University of Minnesota in that Bent Brewstillery gets the hops for his DDH DIPA (Double Dry Hopped Double India Pale Ale) from the college, so every year the flavor is different on this beer. The 2020 version has a nice flavor to it, good hop forward while not being exceedingly bitter.

Bottoms up!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.

TIME Stories

Now, I already have T.IM.E. Stories, so I didn’t buy the base box again, there’s no reason for that. But some Target, somewhere, had some expansions for it, and while I have the first three, there are a whole lot more and a whole lot that I really want to play because I love that game a lot as it’s #12 in my Top 100 Games. Unfortunately, they didn’t have the next expansion that I needed but they did have the next two after that. So while I might no get them played for a little bit, it was a pretty easy decision to add those to the order to get it closer to $100 and that $25 back. Even with just the 25% off that was cheaper than most places have them, and while I would have paid full price eventually, it’ll be nice to have that backlog for the few people we do see for gaming, so we can schedule out a few times playing with them.

Pandemic Legacy Season 2

So, I already had Pandemic Legacy Season 2 and got rid of it because obviously you can play through the campaign game once. This is a legacy game, and does not leave you with something you can play again. And while it is in my Top 100, it isn’t my favorite Pandemic Legacy, currently Season 1, though Season 0 is coming out soon. So why did I pick it up, because I had a ton of fun streaming Pandemic Legacy Season 1 on Malts and Meeples, and while I remembered some about that game, I remember even less about Pandemic Legacy Season 2, so I want to stream that again, it was a good time and I know that I’ll have fun playing it again. So I’m really interested in seeing how much I remember and there’s something just about playing a familiar game, so again 25% off is basically what you can find it for all the time now, but was worth grabbing as part of this sale.

Hues and Cues

The last one, and I have to say I’m glad that this was the first one to ship because we used it for board game night and had a blast with it. In this game you are taking turn using a card (or for the people who didn’t have the cards just picking) a color on a grid of 30 by 16 and you try and get the other players to guess and for each guess that is either the color or around it, 3×3 square, you get 1 point, but the players guessing, they get points for not only being in that 3×3 square 2 points for being around the spot and 3 points for being on it, but going out one further, so a 5×5 square, they get a point. The clue giver firsts gives a one word clue and then a two word clue and players guess each time. It works well on Zoom or other streaming as long as you can show the board, so a fun game that can play up to 10 people.

That’s the latest order and probably one of the last point of orders for the year. I still have a pre-order that I’m waiting on from CoolStuffInc that is going to give a lot to play. I could see ordering the missing TIME Stories expansion but that’ll be about it. Overall, even without going to cons, a bunch of new games that year and a bunch of fun games as well. We’ll see if there are any announcements of anything exciting at this weeks Essen Spiel Digital that is happening that I might talk about.

Which of these games is the most intriguing for you?

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.

I got a few good ideas that I hadn’t thought of, and I came up with a few of my own, so for those who maybe have missed the bigger gaming via Zoom or are tired of just playing games like Scattergories, Codenames, or other more party style games via Zoom, here are some ideas that I was given and were given to me.

Charterstone

Now, this is a game that I was recommended and there is only one way to make this work and that’s playing it through the app. Everyone can connect to the same game and you just sit down and play it all together remotely on your device while chatting via Zoom. This is actually a really good one for a lot of people because all it requires is that you have a camera pointed at a board on a table or anything like that, this is done purely with digital gaming. Now, I have played through all but 1 game of this in the physical form, and one of the other people who I play with has played through it all, so it wasn’t the game for us, but for a lot of people, this is going to be a really good option.

Gloomhaven

Now, Gloomhaven can work two ways, if you are playing it with people near you, you can drop off their character and show the game on the board so that people can play with their own physical thing, one person will just have the duty of moving everything and doing all of that house keeping, which could be a lot. Though, with the Gloomhaven Helper App, someone else could be in charge of monster initiative and what the monsters are doing, so not the worst option and personally, I like playing with the physical components better than option two which is play it through the mod on Tabletop Simulator. Now, the base game is scripted, which means it helps with set-up, but there is still a lot of book keeping and if it seemed like a lot on the physical version, it is slower on the Tabletop Simulator version. This, obviously, also wasn’t an option for my group because that’s the game we’re literally finishing.

Pandemic Legacy Season 0, 1, and 2

Now, this one shows up and from here on out, you’re going to need a camera on the table. But Pandemic is a great game because there is no hidden information in the game. You play with the location cards out in front of you, so you can plan and worth together, your character is also open information as to what they can do. The only thing someone might need is a sheet of what the actions are that they can take, and that’s something that the person who owns the game can write up and add to as more actions are unlocked. Like Gloomhaven and basically anything that requires a camera pointed a the table, one person is going to have to do all the book keeping, but with Pandemic, that isn’t too hard, fairly often when playing Pandemic Legacy Season 1 & 2 with four players one person would be moving more of the pawns anyways just because of how it was positioned on the table. This again, though, for my group, falls into the category of games that won’t work as well because two of us have played them before, and I’ve played Season 1 twice now. And while none of us have played Season 0, that is one that I want to play with the people we played Seasons 1 & 2 with.

Folklore: The Affliction

This is one that I had recommend and I hadn’t thought of, but it’s actually one that wouldn’t be too difficult to do. Folklore is an RPG type of game in a box. You roll dice for your attacks, have a character sheet, and go through stories and scenarios. What I hadn’t thought about was the fact that beyond needing your own set of dice, which everyone in my gaming group has because they are all RPGer’s and of course they have at least one set of dice, I think one only one who doesn’t have at least five sets of dice is playing in my D&D campaign, and he probably has two sets of dice. But this one all you need is a camera pointed at a board, and sure, there are items and stats and things to track, but that’s like a regular RPG, so that can be done between sessions via e-mail or text messages without much trouble as players level up their characters. And, again, technically there is no or very little hidden information so that isn’t an issue with the game. Definitely one for people who want more of a pen and paper RPG feel. Might be one for my group.

Yggdrasil Chronicles

Now, I own this game, and I am excited to play it, I just don’t know a ton about it. But according to one person in our group who has the game as well, this is one where there is no hidden information in it, the god cards and their powers are out there. This is game that I hope would work well, my concern about this one is that because it has a 3D tree element you would need to know fairly well what is on all sides of the tree as things rotate and it changes. That for me would be the biggest challenge, granted, it wouldn’t be an issue for me because I have the tree in front of me, so I could see all sides at once, but for other people it might be a bigger deal if they get distracted or lose track of what is on what side and what is rotating which way. This one definitely interests me, but I’d want to play it in person a couple of times first so that everyone knew what was going on, it seems less intuitive than some others.

Tainted Grail

Now, I’m sure there are more but this is the last one that I’m going to talk about. In Tainted Grail you are exploring a large, about 50 hour, campaign as you explore through the lands of Avalon, journey to Kamelot, and keep Menhir lit to fight back the wyrdness that threatens to overtake the land. This is one that I’m definitely interested in trying, it’s already in my Top 10 games, and I’ve made it part of the way through, but to restart with more players seems like a lot of fun, though challenging in some other ways. This game would work if you could get the players their characters. They’d need both their character, the basic cards for their character and class and the upgrade cards as well. Items could be sent via text or e-mail between sessions. This is really such an exploration game, I think it would work well, the person who owns the game would just be reading the passages, which I actually like not the person who is doing the action reading the passages because it feels like there is more mystery in the choices. This is one that is definitely in consideration for our group as well, it’s one that I am enjoying already and I’m confident that our group would enjoy as well.

Now, I’m sure there are many a campaign game that I missed. Some of them, like Arkham Horror: The Card Game, could work as well, but people would probably need their own set of the base game to make it work. Forgotten Waters is another one that can work well, which I failed to mention, but see on my shelf, and because of when it got released, around May this year, I know they have focused on supporting it in a way that it can be played with more people. I’m hesitant to use that for my group, because I know my wife is interested in it, so I want to leave that free to play with her as well. Which would you try? Have you considered doing a bigger campaign game via Zoom, besides something like D&D?

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.

• These are my favorite, you want what people consider best, see the Board Game Geek Top 100
• If a game you love isn’t on the list, it might be be coming, I might not have played it, and if I have, it’s 101
• If a game looks cool, I have links to buy it from CoolStuffInc or Amazon, or you can grab most at your FLGS
• There are a few games, Destiny 2 Player versus regular Destiny where if they are basically the same thing, I only do one of them

80. Lift Off! Get me off this Planet!

This game has the honor of being the first game that I backed on Kickstarter. When I backed it, I did so without really having the gaming collection that I have no or the experience gaming, I just thought that the game looked fun, and, well, I was right. This game is pretty simple, you move around aliens to get them off the planet, but there is some challenge, because you need the right stuff to get them off the planet, and you need the moon to be in the right phase to get them off the planet at certain locations. So while the game is simple and very cute, there is some strategy, there is some timing, because if you don’t have enough resources placed at the right time for the launch, you might have to wait for the moon to travel around again. The game looks great on the table, and while it’s not one that I pull out and play a ton, it is a fun one to play.

Last Year: Not Ranked

79. Codenames: Pictures

Now, you will not see Codenames on the list, I’ve come around on it a little bit, but I don’t enjoy Codenames that much. Linking the words can be done, but there are some issues with it, people need to know all the words and all the possible meanings/slang for the words to really make it work. With Codenames: Pictures, there are just a whole lot more interesting ways to connect the pictures. It makes the game faster, a bit easier, but also has more memorable moments and memorable clues where you can get a lot of answers. Codenames: Pictures just has more of the party feel to the game for the weight that it’s at and I like it for that.

Last Year: 75

78. Dead Men Tell No Tales

I’m a big fan of cooperative games, and Dead Men Tell No Tales is a fun pirate themed one where you are going onto a cursed and burning pirate ship to try and grab all the treasure and leave before the ship burns and you get cut off from either the treasure or your escape. The game can get to you in a lot of ways with the fire, the guardians, the skeletal crew and just a nice challenging feel that has a bit more going on than base Pandemic, so is a bit less of a gateway game. But if you have someone in your life who likes games and pirates, and is even just familiar with modern gaming, this is a really enjoyable game. Not one of the cooperative games that gets played most often, but one I like quite well.

Last Year: 81

77. King of Tokyo

When we talk about gateway games, King of Tokyo has to be one of them that comes up. It uses a Yahtzee style dice rolling in a fun way as you all take on the roll of monsters who are battling it out over Tokyo. The game plays fast and you can either win by knocking out all the other monsters (the most fun way), or by getting points (also fun, but less punching). You can improve what you do by getting power and buying cards. And you can go into Tokyo where you can punch everyone, but the issue is everyone can then punch you. The game is fast, it’s pretty silly, and while there is player elimination, that rarely happens and then the game continues for a long time. Overall, just a fun gateway game that works best at the higher player counts.

Last Year: 37

76. Sword & Sorcery

I promise you this isn’t the only dungeon crawler on the list. It’s the first just because compared to some of the others on the list, the story isn’t as interesting. But there are some parts of the game that I really like. I like the leveling up mechanic and I like that you have two sides to each character. It makes the game feel like I could play it again with the same characters and it would play differently. And this is a true Amerithrash game where you have a big handful of dice for an attack or defense and you better roll well or you might be in trouble. And while the game has a massive rulebook and a few trickier rule things, like who a boss monster might target and how that changes, the game is actually pretty easy, you just move, explore, and fight basically, and fighting is done with the dice. I wish the story felt like it had more choices to it, but that’s about my only knock on it.

Last Year: 25

75. Skull

A very different type of game than most on my list, this is a push your luck bluffing game. Each player has a hand full of cards, a bunch of roses and a skull. Players take turns putting down a card in their own stack, face down, until someone bids on how many cards they can flip over without hitting a skull. The trick to it is that you have to flip over all of your own cards first. So if you’ve placed your skull in your stack, can you bid, just to push someone else’s bid higher so that they’ll hit yours and bust, or will you bust yourself because you’ll be stuck flipping over your own skull. There’s some interesting strategy in how you play and how you bid, but really it’s about reading the other players at the table to figure out what they’ve done.

Last Year: 99

74. Risk Legacy

First Legacy game on the list and just first overall legacy game in the hobby. While this game doesn’t have the story that the more modern ones do or try to have, the game play is still a lot of fun. It’s risk, but there’s more, you aren’t just fighting over the world, you’re fighting over bases and you’re trying to complete missions and if you can pull them off, you get victory points and the first person to hit the victory point threshold wins. Plus, all of the factions are different. And you get to decide how they are different as you add stickers to them, so you can make them better at attacking or better at defending, or maybe you get more troops to start. There’s all sorts of different strategies that you can take, but it still feels like classic Risk for the most part, it just goes much faster. Overall a fun time especially if you like Risk but can’t play it too often because it lasts too long.

Last Year: 79

73. Pandemic Legacy Season 2

Back to back legacy games, Pandemic Legacy: Season 2 is a bit further down on my list than Pandemic Legacy Season 1. I think that it tries to do a lot of new and different things, and while I think it does most of them well, it bogs down a little bit with all the new things you need to learn. That said, for being quite different than Season 1 and base Pandemic in what you’re trying to do, the mechanics seem really familiar and can get going on the base game quickly, there’s just a twist on to everything. So if you haven’t just gone from one type of Pandemic to the other, you’ll probably be able to pick up on those changes quickly. The story is very interesting, and there is a lot of legacy content in the game.

Last Year: 84

72. Betrayal at Baldur’s Gate

I like all of the Betrayal games, this one is just a bit further down on the list, because while I like the D&D theme to the game, it just doesn’t seem as epic and as good a thematic fit as horror does. This one does have some cool features though, class powers are awesome. I like that about 1/5 of the scenarios have no betrayer, there is just some monster or something that you have to do as a group, that makes it easier to keep track off since some of the haunts (betrayals) can be a bit tricky to understand and if you’re the betrayer you don’t have anyone to ask. They also fix an issue that can arise in the regular game where the haunt happens too fast. It’s still swingy and tricky to understand all the haunts, but I like it a lot and I like the silly random moments that you can have in the game, and the great rolls or the horrible rolls you can have.

Last Year: 35

71. Magic: The Gathering

By far the biggest game on the list, and actually a game that I have sold most of what I have for it, because I don’t have a consistent group to play with for the past few years. But I still really like the game. I especially like playing EDH (Commander). I never got into the competitive magic scene, but for more casual play and people not busting the bank buying stuff, I think it’s a lot of fun. I really can get into the deck building because you can come up with all sorts of odd and interesting combos and for me coming up with something odd and seeing if it can work is a blast. I like to try strange strategies and see if they’ll work or build a whole deck off of the concept of flipping and coin and see what happens with that and how well that’ll work. A few years ago this would have been higher, it’s just not one that I’m sure I’ll get to play that often anymore.

Last Year: 60

A whole lot of moving and shaking on my list. I think some of that is because, or the ones that are dropping, I like another game that does something similar that much better so it takes a bit of a hit. At least that is what I’m guessing. Still, I was a bit surprised to see a few of the games having dropped as far as they did from the 20’s and 30’s. Still really enjoy those games, just might not be the ones I pull off the shelf to scratch that game playing itch.

What is your favorite from this part of the list?

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.