Catch up on previous videos here

100 through 91

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

90. Project: ELITE

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

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

Not Currently Available

89. Lands of Galzyr

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

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

Pre-order Lands of Galzyr

88. Kohaku

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

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

Buy Kohaku

87. My City

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

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

Buy My City

86. The Isofarian Guard

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

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

Buy The Isofarian Guard

85. Super-Skill Pinball: 4-Cade

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

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

Buy Super-Skill Pinball

84. Crokinole

• Created in 1876
• A competitive flicking classic

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

Pre-order Crokinole

83. Clever Cubed

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

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

Buy Clever Cubed

82. Furnace

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

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

Buy Furnace

81. Yggdrasil Chronicles

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

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

Buy Yggdrasil Chronicles

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

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

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

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

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

Quick disclaimer, I use the term roll and write for all sorts of “blank” and write games. This can be a flip and write or a flick and write and or whatever mechanic is chosen. Roll and Writes were just more of a thing first, with Yahtzee so the term got coined that way.

Cartographers

Cartographers might be my favorite roll and write game. It’s a bit more complex but not that hard to play. The basic idea is that you are creating a map, putting in forests, lakes, villages, and fields. But the game really shines with how you score points in it. The game has a creative way for it with playing four rounds, and each rounds scores differently. Spring scores A & B and Summer B & C and so on but Winter then scores D & A, so each scoring things gets scored twice.

Plus there are monsters in the game. When you draw a monster, you pass your sheet to someone else draws monsters in the least useful spot. The game plays fast that is a lot of fun and you get to draw a map. This might seem more complex when you start but it’s really not that hard to play.

Railroad Ink Challenge

Railroad Ink Challenge is a route connecting roll and write. You try to get as many of them connected as possible. There is Railroad Ink where that is about it, but Railroad Ink Challenge adds in, well, a challenge. And I think the challenge is more fun because it gives you something more specific to go for.

This game comes with really nice components. The box has a magnetic clasp, the dice are really nice, and the boards are dry erase. This is a bit more of a brain burner, I would say, of a game. Getting all the routes connected and optimizing your scoring can be tricky, but it’s a lot of fun.. And if you want to give it a try, there is an app.

Second Chance

Second Chance is the easiest of the games on the list. All you are doing is filling in shapes on your board hoping to have as much filled in as possible by the time you can’t place another shape. That’s all there is too the game, but it’s really a relaxing game to play.

Plus, it’s a game, like Cartographers, that allows you to be creative. As you play and fill in areas, a lot of us like to doodle in the different shapes. If you don’t rush through it and just enjoy that process, it can be a very relaxing game to play with anyone.

Super-Skill Pinball: 4-Cade

Now we’re onto the most thematic of the list, I’d say. This one feels like you are playing pinball as the ball moves in certain ways around the board as it bounces off things. It also is probably the longest of the roll and writes, but the different boards, pinball machines, you play on are a lot of fun.

The game basically has you picking dice to use to bounce off of different bumpers, knock down targets and score points. You can get a bonus ball in play or score double points. It’s another game that works great solo and there are a lot of different maps, four in the base box, that are a really fun time to play.

Ganz Schon Clever (That’s Pretty Clever)

We go from the most thematic to the most abstract. Ganz Schon Clever is all about maximizing the points that you score by filling in spots and numbers. This game shines with the combos that you can create though. Filling in a spot in one section can link to another section so you fill in there, and you can fill in a lot of things.

The game play is pretty easy, but compared to some of the more thematic ones it might be harder to teach. Still, it’s a great puzzle for players to try and figure out. And even when you figure it out, you still want to optimize the puzzle so you can score the best you can every time. Plus there are two more games in the series once you feel comfortable with this one.

These are just some, I wanted to give a good variety. I have 28 different ones on my shelf and I want to get and play around with more. So there are ones for everyone. Love cats, Cat Cafe, Jurassic Park, Welcome to Dino World, build a house, Floorplan, and more. So pick your favorite theme, so some are better than others, I will say. What is your favorite roll and write? And which one would you give or want to get this Holiday season?

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

Super-Skill Pinball 4-Cade

Like I said at the beginning this is a very fun game and a thematic roll and write. A lot of times roll and writes end up being very mechanical. There might be some theme wrapped around them or it might be completely abstract like Ganz Schon Clever.

Obviously, this is imitating a pinball game. And that just works really well for me. You can see more thoughts on my TableTopTakes review of Super-Skill Pinball 4-Cade.I’m not sure where it currently falls in my Top 10 roll and write games, but fairly high again. I think that the basic machine is fun, but I do like the hacker one more just because it gives you more to do and more choices. The game does a good job of simulating a pinball machine while still saying mechanically sound.

The Beer

I believe that I drank before on stream, Fantasy Factory by Karben4 Brewing out of Madison, WI. It is a good solid IPA. A good one for hot days, which is what I want around this time of year, especially with it being in the 90’s. I give a little breakdown on the loose rules surrounding the different types of Pale Ales from Pales Ales to EPA’s to IPA’s and just what that difference means.

Upcoming Streams

Assuming no more migraines, I am going to be doing my Top 10 cooperative games coming out on Monday. And then with Loki probably streaming some shorter games, maybe more Marvel United or other roll and writes so that I can watch Loki on Wednesday evenings as well. Let me know if there is a roll and write that you’d want to see played, assuming it can be played solo.

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

How To Play

Super-Skill Pinball: 4-Cade is a roll and write pinball game where you are trying to get the top score on a table. You can play it solo, just seeing if you better a previous score, or you can play it multiplayer to see how well you do against each other. You shoot off your pinball and then are bouncing it against bumpers and targets and using your flippers to launch it back up again. You select a die, out of two rolled each turn to use. You can’t just go anywhere on the board though, you will either be moving clockwise through something, like bouncing off the bumpers, or it’ll drop down on the table, so down from the bumpers to the targets to the flippers. Each flipper can also only flip it to certain sections, like you’d see on an actual pinball table. You play through three balls, and you get points for doing things, pinging off the bumpers or getting all the targets down, and other special things on the boards.

The Components

The components are on this game are extremely nice. The boards are great and they are all dry erase with one pinball table on each side of the boards, so every single board has two tables on it. There are also scoring boards that go along with this and have additional parts of the table on them depending on which table that you are playing, so those pieces are really nice. The only ones that I wish were a little bit different is that the caps for the dry erase markers don’t stick to the end of them, so I feel like I’m always putting on and taking off the cap.

But beyond that there are pinballs, they are split into two so they don’t roll around on everything, but it helps keep track of where you are on the board. I forget this once and a while, but it really is useful for keeping track of where you are on the board and with bouncing around the bumpers. It could have been done with some punch out pieces of cardboard, but the pieces are well beyond that.

The Game Play

I think the question that people might want answered might be, “Does this feel like pinball?” Yes, yes it does. The game feels like it’s fast as you bounce around the board. The bumpers are the one area in a pinball machine that really rockets around ball and that is how it works in the game as well. Now, the flippers, definitely can keep a ball up longer in a real game, but it makes a lot of sense in terms of how it would work in a roll and write game.

The game plays quickly as well, sure there is a bit of down time if you lose your third ball while waiting for someone else to finish. But beyond that, everyone is always doing something, and because of how the ball can bounce, people will be doing different things. I really love that fact, so it doesn’t feel like there is a single optimized path for winning the game, so with one of the boards you can go on a hacking run, it’s extremely important, but getting targets down can cause your bumpers to score a lot more, and help you keep up if you aren’t hacking.

It also feels like it has more going on than some roll and writes. I talked about Deadly Doodles yesterday and that one is a very simple flip and write game. This one you can prioritize trying to hit specific areas which will get you specific bonuses. I think that I can try and optimize how I do that some, though you really don’t want to drop down to hit specific things too often.

Final Thoughts

This is a fun game, and while it’s not perfectly like playing a pinball machine, it certainly isn’t too far off of that in my opinion. And I don’t think, while this game has more going on, that it’s too complicated. I would say that it’s probably easier to understand, especially the most basic board, than something like Welcome To. There are a few more complicated things as you play it, but really a lot of fun. And I’m not sure that WizKids does much with IP’s but it really seems like if you wanted to, you could sell custom sets of it with specific IP’s, like you have IP’s for pinball machines in real life.

Overall Grade: A-
Casual Grade: A-
Gamer Grade: B

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

10 – Criss Cross

This was one of the first roll and write games that I picked up. I saw it on the Brothers Murph YouTube channel, found here. I really like the simplicity of this game, and how it plays so incredibly fast. All you are trying to do is get like symbols in columns and rows, which is easy enough to do in one of them, but in both can be a bit tricky. And the more you get the more points it is. The main thing you have to pay attention to is that you aren’t blocking yourself into a single spot in two places on the board because you have to place the rolled symbols adjacent to each other. This one also works really well over Zoom or some other meeting software. You can find my full review here.

9 – Metro X

The newest game to the list is Metro X, this one I just wrote my review about yesterday, you can find it here. I like how this game makes you think for something that is pretty straight forward in what you are doing. I think that it works well solo as the game is really a multi-player solitaire as a lot of these games are. Some of the excitement that comes from the game is seeing what cards are going to be flipped over, especially when you really need a skip or maybe that free space card to show up way more often than they do, or they show up at the wrong time where it really doesn’t help you that much. And the components are really nice for the game.

8 – Second Chance

Another one of the first roll and write, or really a flip and write, that I got. Second Chance is a lot of fun and a very peaceful game. I don’t think there are that many board games that I would consider to be really peaceful. Now that isn’t to say that I don’t fine most games to be pretty relaxing or destressing anyways, because I just love games, but Second Chance is really peaceful, which is great. You flip two shapes, and everyone places them on their board, and then repeat that. It is peaceful as you doodle on your board, filling in the shapes that you’ve placed, and while you can plan ahead a little, most people don’t too much. Just a good game overall that you can find my review of here.

7 – Twice as Clever!

There are going to be a number of games from this series by Wolfgang Warsch. While there are older roll and writes out there, Yahtzee missed my list but an obvious forefather, this line of roll and writes definitely brought them into the board gaming spotlight. You are rolling dice in all of them, picking one, setting aside anything lower, repeating the process until you don’t have any dice to roll or you’ve used three dice. Then the other players pick a die to use from those that you didn’t. This version is my least favorite just because I feel like it’s a bit more complex, but mainly for complexities sake. This one has combos but it doesn’t feel like the combos do as much.

6 – Super-Skill Pinball: 4-Cade

A newer game to me, though not as new as Metro X, this one has a theme that I was really excited for. I like playing pinball machines, though in 2020 it hasn’t happened as often. So when there was a roll and write pinball game coming out I thought it’d be interesting. I’ve written some opening thoughts on it here, but I want to play it more to give it a full review. What works so well for me is the flow of how you fill in spaces. There are the bumpers in the upper section that you can just ping around on for a while, but once the ball drops out of that, it will start falling, so you need to figure out, best you can, how to control that fall, hitting the sides along the way, before you flip it back up. Point scoring is nice and easy, for the most part, and the components are really good.

5 – Clever Hoch Drei

The next of the series by Wolfgang Warsch , and actually the most recent of the roll and writes, Clever Hoch Drei, which I’m getting from Germany, has been a blast to play. This one returns you to a ton of combos in the game, something I feel like is missing slightly in Twice As Clever. But it actually has some really interesting choices in it with how you fill in the sections. I like that this and Twice as Clever also incentivize going for specific things, like rerolls or plus ones, to get even more bonuses. The main mechanics stay the same as well, so it makes teaching it easy if someone already knows either That’s Pretty Clever or Twice as Clever.

4 – Cartographers

I almost missed this one when I was ranking my roll and writes because I have it on another shelf. This one is set in the Roll Player world, which really doesn’t matter. It’s about making a map, but that’s fairly weird how that works or doesn’t work, because there are monsters on the board. But it’s still a lot of fun. There are two things that stand out to me, the first being the scoring system where you play through four seasons and in the first season you are scoring objectives A and B, then in summer, B and C, but when you get to Winter, you are scoring D and A. So each thing gets scored twice, and you have to balance how much you go for scoring, because if you push hard for B in rounds one and two, you might not score as many points later. I also find the monsters interesting. It makes the game less multi-player solitaire because your opponents place the monsters (unless you’re playing solo) and they are going to try and place it in the worst spot possible for you. You can find my full thoughts on Cartographers here.

3 – That’s Pretty Clever

The first and my favorite for the roll and writes that are part of what currently sits at a trilogy of games. I fully expect that there could be more because they are certainly popular enough. I like this one for a couple of reasons better than the others. Firstly, it was the first that I really played of them, which there is a nostalgia factor. But I also like it because it is the simplest. It makes it the easiest to teach in a lot of ways, and playing it over Zoom works well because while it takes a minute to draw out the board, it can be done easier than the others. The dice mechanics are the same, and overall, just a game design that I really like. You can find my full review here for more information on the game.

2 – Sonora

Now, for something completely different. Flipping cards or rolling dice to fill in stuff on the boards is common and normal, Sonora, by Pandasaurus Games, is a flicking game and then you fill stuff in. I think it might be possible to get good at the flicking aspect of it, but you don’t need to be great. No matter where you end up with flicking, you will score points, and that’s fun, and you can generally land it into the large area that you want, you might not get double the area if you can’t flick as well. This game is all about the combos when it comes to filling things in, and there are four areas to do it in. If you wanted, you can really focus on one area, or you can diversify to some extent, and the scoring seems really balanced in all of them. Definitely a really fun game to checkout, and you can find more about it here.

1 – Welcome To

Finally, my number one, still, though, I think that all of the top 4 could be my number one on any given day, is Welcome To. I really like this game, and I’m not even always that great at it. I like building my perfect Stepford neighborhood, with it’s white picket fences and most definitely not anything crazy that will go wrong there, but that’s for someone else to deal with, I’m just building Helmouth on a Hell Mouth, a pet cemetery and probably more cursed things, and that’s just the flavor I add to the game. This game has a lot of different ways to score points and you can push your luck as well, but there’s also strategy as you consider how many of each number have passed by, I always seem to find something else that I want to think about or try in the game each time that I play it. I’ve had this one in my Top 100 games since I’ve played it and it’s stayed strong, you can see why I love it so much here.

Now, I have a few more roll and writes on my shelf to try. I have the Red Box for Railroad Ink, Booomerang, Floor Plan, Welcome to New Las Vegas, and Patchwork Doodle all to try as well. And I had two, Cat Café and Yahtzee that just missed the list. Yes, I still do enjoy the original, Yahtzee, as well, though that game mainly plays itself now.

What is your favorite roll and write game?

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

Game Play

In Super-Skill Pinball: 4-Cade, you are rolling dice and filling in spots, hitting targets on a pinball table. You can nudge it to try and adjust where the ball is coming down, you fill in the bumpers so that you can unleash more points, as well as getting special bonuses for completing special challenges. You bounce around from place to place on the board, but you always end up going down, with the exception of the three bumpers in the middle where you can ping around inside of them, like you do in actual pinball. You have three balls in the game, so you score points over those three balls until you’ve lost the last one, and then that’s your end score. Each round the dice are rolled and everyone picks one of the two dice to use.

Game play for this makes a lot of sense. Of course your ball in a pinball game would drop further down. It makes sense that if you’re up in the three bumpers it can rattle around inside. All of it game play wise makes a ton of sense is really enjoyable. The scoring is also simple enough, when you hit things they show that you either get points or you get points if you fill in full sections, so that’s easy to track. The one thing that I did have trouble tracking was where my ball was on the table, now that was my own fault as they give you an awesome pinball to move around. I just did a bad job of keeping up with moving it around. That’s more on me than anything else.

The Components

This game has really nice components. I mentioned them above, but the pinballs that you love around to keep track of where your ball(s) are, that is amazing. It comes with four dry erase boards as well for each of the four pinball tables, as well as four dry erase scoring boards/bonus boards. Really nice components and very nice dry erase markers. The only knock that I have on the dry erase markers is that I want to be able to stick the cap to the back of the marker, and that really didn’t stick well.

Now, the rule books, the rule book is huge and is going to be a bit of effort to get through. This is because they have to explain how each of the tables works and what is unique about it. That is a lot to get through for what looks like it should be a fairly quick game to get to the table. However, they make it easier to get to the table by giving you a cheat sheet to get the simplest of the pinball machines up and going quickly. I like that more games are starting to have their tutorial or shortened rule book to get your going faster.

Roll and Write Comparison

This roll and write feels different than most other ones that I’ve played. Granted, I only played the first introductory machine out of the box thus far. But it feels like it does some fun things, and that it is one that people will find interesting as the table. The theme definitely works for the game. Most roll and write games are pretty themeless, even one of my favorites, Cartographers, that theme really isn’t that there that much.

It also does one thing that I expect in most roll and writes now, and that is limit the downtime. In Super-Skill Pinball: 4-Cade, downtime doesn’t exist. Well, it exists in one very specific spot. When the dice are rolled, everyone uses the dice. It isn’t one roll per person, it’s a roll for everyone and everyone picks one of the two dice. That means that no one is ever waiting during the bulk of the game. There is one time when you might be waiting. And that is at the end of the game. If you lose your ball before the other player(s) do, you might be sitting there waiting for them to finish so you can compared scores. This is a minimal issue to me because the game goes quite quickly, and it’s one that I have only played solo thus far, I can just see that downtime occurring to some extend every game.

Initial Thoughts

Not final thoughts because I need to play it more, but initial thoughts on the game. I like this roll and write. Now, I like most roll and write games so keep that in mind. But I think that I’ll like this one a lot. It has a good thinky element to it and some solid push your luck in terms of nudging the dice and trying not to get a tilt on the machine. It is also surprisingly thematic for a roll and write which gives it a whole lot more points in my book. I also was really impressed by the level of production in the game.

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 – Q and R’s

S’s

Sagrada (and Expansions)

I wish that I had backed Sagrada on Kickstarter, not because there is anything special with that edition really compared to what I have, but because I like the game that much. This dice drafting game just works and looks amazing on the table. The theme of stained glass windows appeals to most everyone, even non-nerdy gamers. And the concept of taking a die and placing it into your stained glass window makes sense. Add in that the dice look amazing in the windows because they are translucent, it sells the game even more on the table.

Status: Played

Santorini

I don’t always love abstract games. But Santorini looks great on the table, and that counts for a lot in a game, in my opinion. Especially for a game that is abstract. The simple game play helps the game be even more appealing. You are just moving a piece and building a level. The goal is to make it to the third level of a building, which is simple enough. And when the game becomes too simple, you can add in god cards which give players powers.

Status: To Be Played

Say Bye to the Villains

I like extremely tough cooperative games. Say Bye to the Villains fits that mold perfectly as I have yet to win it. But for me, I don’t see that as a negative, mainly because we are always close to winning. None of the games feel like we’re too far away which is saying something considering how many times I’ve played it. It also helps that the game play is simple enough. You are just playing cards that eat up time, and the game isn’t too long either. For some people it would be a negative, but for me, it’s a good thing. It feels like there’s always just one more thing to do in the Say Bye to the Villains than you have time for.

Status: Played

Scattergories

I have a game from 1988 on my list. And yes, I play Scattergories still. Scattergories is a party game that works well since it depends on the players creativity but not on in-jokes. It also works well over Zoom which has gotten it played several times this year. The game is simple and everyone understands what is going on when played. Scattergories isn’t a game that I’ll pull out all the time, but people have fun when it is pulled out. And it’s a game that everyone knows because it’s been around so long.

Status: Played

Scrabble

If you thought Scattergories was old, think again. I have Scrabble in my collection as well. Scrabble being published in 1948 might make it the oldest game in my collection. I still enjoy playing Scrabble, though. I prefer regular Scrabble to the “quick” Scrabble or Banagrams. The main reason is that Scrabble has more strategy and tactics than those do. In Banagrams it is purely pattern recognition and while I am good at it, it isn’t as fun. I prefer to think about how I might be setting up my opponent in Scrabble and the strategy that comes with that.

Status: Played

SeaFall

I wanted to like SeaFall so badly. And it’s funny that I do have a copy of it still. I was gifted a copy that a friend got for cheap. SeaFall promised that it was going to be an epic seafaring game where the story unfolded as you explored. Instead, we got a story that was a mess and complicated but only because it didn’t unfold in order. Compared to other Legacy Games, story happened much more randomly and the games themselves took too long. I wanted a game that told epic punchy story about adventure on the high seas. And, I think that is possible within SeaFall, how the story works, though, needs to be reworked.

Status: Played

Second Chance

I like flip and writes as I’ve said many a time before. Second Chance is a simple flip and write. You try and fill as much of your square as possible and that’s it. To do that you are putting in polyomino like shapes onto your board. If you can’t place one of the two shapes, you get a second chance card, a card only you can use. If you are able to use it, you stay in the game and continue playing. If not, you are out and count up the empty spaces you have left. The game is that simple. But it works well because it gives a chance for people to be creative in how they fill in the shapes. You doodle on them so you can tell what is filled and what isn’t, or create patterns. And that part of the game is really a lot of fun. Plus, the game works for everyone since it is so simple.

Status: Played

Sentinel Tactics: The Flame of Freedom

Honestly, I ordered this game on accident. I thought I was ordering another expansion for Sentinels of the Multiverse, but I ordered Sentinel Tactics. Thankfully I ordered a standalone game, not an expansion for Sentinels Tactics. Sentinel Tactics still takes place in the Sentinels of the Multiverse world, but is a tactical game, as the name implies. You move chits around a modular board playing through scenarios that have you trying to beat a villain. I hope it’s good, I know one person who said it was interesting, if not, I got it on a steep sale, so I can always use it to get store credit at my FLGS (Friendly Local Game Store) for a game I want.

Status: To Be Played

Sentinels of the Multiverse (and Expansions Galore)

What, this game comes after Sentinel Tactics alphabetically, who’d have guessed. I picked up the base game used from my FLGS. Sentinals is a game that I’ve wanted to try for a while because of the superhero theme. Then when Tom Vassal played it on a What’s Appening stream for the Dice Tower, I decided it looked good enough to pick up. Then, Black Friday rolled around and Greater Than Games had a massive sale. So I picked up a ton of expansions for it, almost a literal ton. I believe it was 17 expansions for it, plus Sentinel Tactics. I still need to get it to the table, and I plan on starting just with the base game, but I love the superhero world and the comics that come with some of the boxes.

Status: To Be Played

Shadowrun Crossfire: Prime Runner Edition

I picked this one up recently as well. Shadowrun Crossfire first came onto my radar when I played it at Fantasy Flight Game Center off of their demo wall. I knew when I played it that I’d pick it up eventually. I really like the world of Shadowrun. A world where big corporations are running things, and hackers go on runs to try and get data and take them down. The cyberpunk setting works really well for me. I know there are some knocks on the game with how slowly characters level up, but I am still excited to play through it’s campaign.

Status: Played

Shadowrun: Sprawl Ops (with Cooperative Expansion)

This game was a bit of a mess getting it from Kickstarter. The shipping company messed up royally, and while we did get cool extra boards, the creators who were doing updates were not professional about everything. I don’t have any issue with the publisher Catalyst Game Labs, but with Lynnvander Studios, I’d be hesitant to back any of their projects again. The game looks amazing and has a great cyberpunk aesthetic, though, so I am excited to play it. And the game comes in a massive box, where even the box looks awesomely cyberpunk.

Status: To Be Played

Shadows of Brimstone: City of the Ancients

I have some beefs with this game, though it is still on my shelf. The main beef I have is that it sucks to put together. All the little minis come in a lot of pieces and are not easy to put together. This sounds like it’s been rectified to some extent in other prints of this box. However, the game itself is a lot of fun. It’s a weird west game where you are pushing deep into a mine to try and complete objectives. But there are monsters in there, and you might stumble into a whole other world if you aren’t careful. I want more time to play it, but I have to reassemble my minis first, which might be a good winter project, assuming I remember how they go together.

Status: Played

Shadows of Kilforth: A Fantasy Quest Game

I have mentioned a few places that have caused me to pick up games and Shadows of Kilforth is one of those game. This fantasy game with an Eastern flare to it, was one that I saw the original, Gloom of Kilforth played on the Rolling Solo channel on YouTube. The game play looked interesting, so when a sequel showed up on Kickstarter, it felt like a good game to back. I still think it will be, I just need to get it sorted and ready for the table. This game is one that I should be able to play solo on Malts and Meeples in the new year sometime.

Status: To Be Played

Shakespeare

I’m ashamed of how long this game has been on my shelf without getting played. My wife picked it up for we as a gift, and as a game that she’d also like the theme of. But it’s euro game, so I don’t get those off my shelf as much. I am interested in it as I like the theme of putting on a play. Getting costumes, actors, sets, and more ready sounds like a lot of fun, I just haven’t played it yet. I am excited to try it still, I just need to sit down and learn the rules so we can get it to the table.

Status: To Be Played

The Siblings Trouble

I picked this one up off of Kickstarter because of how much I had enjoyed Lift Off! from the same design and company. This one is a light RPG like game that is targeted for families with kids. It is meant to be a way to get that RPG feel without having as much of a ruleset as something like Dungeons and Dragons does. I’m waiting until the toddler is old enough to play it with us because the game looks very cute.

Status: To Be Played

Silver: Amulet (and Coin, Bullet, and Dagger)

Silver: Amulet was a game that I got to try at GenCon in 2019. The game has a puzzle feel to it as you are trying to score the fewest points in your village. The twist comes with being able to swap out two cards for one card, if the cards are the same number. Add in a lot of powers on your cards, and you have an interesting puzzle. And then to top that all off, you don’t know what most of your cards are at the start of the game. The amulet, coin, bullet, and dagger all do different things, so depending on which version you play there will be a unique special power. And the cards you play with between the games can be mixed together, you just need one set of each number to make it work.

Status: Played

Silver & Gold

Roll and write, you know the drill. I like them, and this one does something cool. You fill in spots on cards, which seems bad. But the cards are dry erase, so you can play with them over and over again. It is a clever twist as you start to do set collection with them and score points off of which ones you have filled in. You still make combos though. If you cross of a treasure spot, that allows you to fill in another spot on any of your cards, and there are palm trees that are worth points as well. Super small sized game, but looks to pack a lot of game into it.

Status: To Be Played

Skip-Bo

The section of old games apparently. Skip-Bo is a classic game that I grew up playing less than I’d want in some ways. Fairly often for a simple card game Uno would be the game picked. But Skip-Bo had more interesting game play to it than Uno does. I like figuring out how to place your discards in the most optimal way possible, and sometimes stopping early to try and lock an opponent from being able to play easily. Now, the game can drag because of poor card draw, but it is generally quite fast.

Status: Played

Skulk Hollow

A two player game that was on Kickstarter. Again from the same company as Lift Off! Skulk Hollow is an asymmetric two player game. One person plays as the fox kingdom and the other as the old guardian that has awakened. The fox player needs to get onto the guardian, since it is to too large to beat otherwise, and take out it’s different actions. The monster generally has it’s own objective, but can by taking out the fox leader. The game has simple card play but is very tactical in nature and the box comes with multiple leaders for the fox and guardians for a ton of replayability.

Status: Played

Skull

The first time I played Skull, I wasn’t sure how much I liked it. It had weird coasters that you played with, and it was a push your luck sort of game. However, the more I played it, the more interesting it became, how did you successfully bluff someone into picking from your pile which has a skull in it, when that will bust you if you get stuck with the bid. The bluffing is what makes this game, it doesn’t have a lot of strategy to it, but if you can bluff and read your opponents you’ll do well in this game. And the coaster shaped “cards” are still weird.

Status: Played

Small World (and Small World Underground)

Small World was one of the gateway games for me that got me into the hobby. I like how it has Risk elements, but it’s actually fun. It has a lot of attacking and defeating your enemy, but in a fun way. You aren’t rolling die like in Risk, the battles are determined just by if you have enough pieces of cardboard to beat an area. The powers and races make this game work though, because something like undead ghouls or flying halflings are just silly, and you can get some great combinations, like commando elves or flying sorcerers that can put a bit of a target on your back. Game is a lot of fun every time I play it, which is about once a year.

Status: Played

Sonora

I’ve talked about roll and writes, and flip and writes, even a draft and write, but I haven’t mentioned my flick and write. Sonora is a combotastic [blank] and write game. To start your turn you flick disks around a board which determine who much you get to put in certain areas. Some of them are simple race to completion, others have you putting pieces in like they are Tetris, or filling in dots, or closing off sections of the board. It has a ton going on, and if you get the right things, you then get more to fill in other areas and it can repeat even more. It is extremely satisfying.

Status: Played

Specter Ops

A game that I picked up used, but that was on my radar for a long time. Spector Ops is a one versus all game, but the one is hidden. They are moving around to various objectives trying to get them all. The concept is so interesting to me. I want to play both sides of it, see how well I can hide where I’m at and see how well I can deduce where someone else is going. It feels like it should be a good and challenging experience.

Status: To Be Played

Splendor

Splendor is a light and small engine building game. You are collecting gems to get cards that have permanent gems and sometimes points. And you can use those permanent gems to get even more cards which games on them and the process repeats until someone has 15 points. The game is really simple to play, the theme is not there, but that’s okay. It is meant as an introduction to engine building and it works for that. Not one I want to play all the time, but I keep it on the shelf for what it is.

Status: Played

Star Wars: Destiny

Fantasy Flight Games foray into collectible card games. It was a fun game because it wasn’t only card it was nice chunky dice as well. And I like the Star Wars theme better than say, Magic the Gathering. The issue is that the game isn’t quite as good, and people didn’t get into it as much. Destiny is now a retired game, but one that had a good following and people were sad to see leave. What I think worked well was that none of the cards were rarer than the others. So you got good stuff all the time. That was part of what killed it as well, Magic works because it has a massive secondary market for it for FLGS’s, Destiny had none.

Status: Played

Star Wars: Imperial Assault

The Star Wars dungeon crawl. This game does one thing that I really wish the Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-earth did, and that is that it is adjacent to the main story and the main characters. But I can’t play as Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader, those are characters who just make appearances. But out of the base box, you are still playing around the original trilogy storyline. The game also has an app, so it can be one versus all, but it can also be fully cooperative. I need to play it more because I’ve liked the plays I’ve had.

Status: Play

Star Wars: Unlock!

The unlock games are basically escape room games in in a box. And the Star Wars: Unlock! game is a game that is an escape room in a box with a Star Wars theme. I like these games because they are very puzzly and can give you an experience while you play them. I’ve heard that the Star Wars: Unlock is a bit easier than some of the other ones, but I’m fine with that as it’ll be more accessible to more people. I want to play this over the holidays, and that’s the one downside, once you’ve played an unlock game once, you can’t play it again because you’ll know how it goes, still $30 for three hour long experiences in a group isn’t bad.

Status: To Be Played

Stipulations

I talk about this game a lot, mainly because I really like it was a party game. Stipulations asks the question, what horrible thing will your friends come up with. If you have the super power of flight, what’s the stipulation, or the dream job of being a movie actor, what is the stipulation. This game does what most party games do, it ends up with a lot of in jokes, but it is a fun time and compared to something like Apples to Apples which is basically always clean or Cards Against Humanity which is always dirty, Stipulations can be tailored to those whom you’re playing with.

Status: Played

Super Fantasy Brawl

I’ve decided that I really like games that Mythic Games puts out, or at least in concept. Reichbusters looks like a fun twist on a dungeon crawl, and Super Fantasy Brawl seems like a really accessible two player fighting game. The game has chunky minis that look great, and simple but interesting card play. I like that you play three cards on your turn and those cards have to be of different colors, but each character, of the three you have doesn’t correspond to a color, so if you get a red and a yellow card for one character, you can activate that character twice, from my understanding. I really want to give this one a whirl as it has an epic table presence for a fairly simple seeming game, rules wise.

Status: To Be Played

Super-Skill Pinball: 4-cade

You know the drill, I love my roll and write games. And I like the theme on this one a ton. I like the idea of playing a pinball machine and seeing what the high score is that I can get on it. I like the mechanics of how the ball can bounce around and how it will only bounce certain ways and generally down. You are also trying to bounce it up higher and complete combos on things, just like in real pinball to get even more points. And it’s called 4-cade because there are 4 different machines that you can play.

Status: To Be Played

Sushi Go Party!

This was another early game for my collection as it was on Wil Wheaton’s Table Top show. It is a card drafting game, a mechanic that I quite enjoy, with set collection as well. The game works well, even though with new players you sometimes have someone get off on what they are drafting. Sushi Go Party! also gives you ways to change everything up, so that you can have different combinations of foods on the menu. The game has a very cute table appeal and is just a hit basically all the time.

Status: Played

Sword and Sorcery (plus Expansions)

Sword and Sorcery is a classic dungeon crawl game. This one is pure Amerithrash dice chucking fun. I like how much mitigation you have, but only mitigation in having multiple symbols to use on the dice and being able to reroll dice. My knock on this game is that it is almost a little bit too easy at times. You get great weapons for completing things and now you are hitting really hard and can take down monsters fast. Granted if you roll poorly no matter what you’ll do poorly. I wish it had a bit more of a story to it, but overall, the story isn’t too bad and the game is meant to be mainly a dice chucking dungeon crawl anyways.

Status: Played

Sword Art Online Board Game: Sword of Fellows

I love Sword Art Online, one of my favorite anime, and I’ve watched it multiple times. I am also working on a game idea based off of some of the isekai themes from it. But this game is a bit sad, the anime is big and epic, this game is tiny. it does get some things right, mainly the combat of switching in and out and not letting the bad guy go feels like it matches the theme. I need to play this one not solo, because I think it might be better that way and have less upkeep for one player. I’m hoping some day we’ll get a truly epic Sword Art Online board game.

Status: Played

So that’s all of the S’s, there are ton of them. I hope that you were able to stick it out, hte rest of the list will be a lot shorter. There are so many good games in the S’s as well and a lot that I need to play. Which one should I play first? Do I have something that seems like it’s missing to you? I’m guessing people will say Scythe, which I owned, but got rid of.

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