Creating My Top 100 Games List

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

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

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

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

100. Ship Shape

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

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

Buy Ship Shape

99. Welcome To…

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

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

Buy Welcome To…

98. SCOUT

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

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

Buy SCOUT

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

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

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

Buy My City

96. The Reckoners

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

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

Buy The Reckoners

95. Clever Cubed

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

Buy Clever Cubed

94. Project L

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

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

Buy Project L

93. Super-Skill Pinball 4-Cade

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

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

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

Buy Super-Skill Pinball 4-Cade

92. Atlantis Rising (Second Edition)

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

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

Buy Atlantis Rising (Second Edition)

91. Vegetable Stock

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

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

Buy Vegetable Stock

Upcoming Streams (Top 100 and Game Plays)

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

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

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

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Find the campaign for Project L Pieces Missing Kickstarter Here.

Project L

Project L is a game that reminds me of the spatial puzzles that you maybe played as a kid. Though, this is much easier as thee is always a solution even if you don’t play in the most optimized way. Plus you mix in an engine building game.

In Project L you are placing down polyomino tiles onto different cards trying to fill them in. If you complete one it gives you or two things. You get a new piece to add to your collection to help fill in more tiles. And it might provide you points. The goal is to get the most points, but getting more pieces helps speed that along.

For more details on the game play, you can checkout my review here.

Why Back Now?

Normally I put my reasons not to back first. In this case, if the game interests you at all, back it. Mainly because of the tale that I’m about to tell of a board game company that came back from the dead. Details as to how, I don’t have all of them, but they don’t seem like malicious zombies or other undead.

Boardcubator’s Story

Boardcubator had good success with Project L. It is a very fun game that I enjoy quite well. I got in on the game during the second Kickstarter. But for them it was the first big hit and turned out to maybe be a one hit wonder.

With the funds that they raised, plus I’m guessing other funds they raised they started work on an ambitious project: Kingdom Come – Deliverance. This is based off of a video game by the same name. A very open world RPG system where you don’t start out as a class but can put stats into whatever you want and build up your character that way. Boardcubator invested heavily into developing this game and an app for it and went to Gamefound to launch it.

That’s where the issues started. The game gained some traction but not enough to make it financially feasible. That’s a secret, poorly kept one, of crowdfunding. Often the goal isn’t the goal. Mainly, it costs a lot to do some parts of games, and you need a certain volume to make it feasible. They didn’t hit those totals fast enough or were even on track to hit those totals.

So, they cancelled the project. But not only cancelled, the issue was, that ate up their money. They were developing this massive, ambitious game with an app. And they didn’t have more money to continue as a company. So they went again. Now, they are back. Don’t know the details, but they are back with a game that there is track record to show that this is a fun game.

What’s New

So, say you already have the game and you want to support Boardcubator, what is new in the game for you. You can get the Phoenix expansion. In that expansion it is just more tiles you play with and those give you additional scoring opportunities higher than any others in the game. But they are shaped in ways that you need to think about using the smaller pieces. So slower completion but a way to get even more points.

What Works?

This is a game that has nice slick actions to it. You do a few actions but they are all pretty easy to follow and understand. The hardest being the master build action where you add to each shape you are building. But even that isn’t too bad when it gets down to it, there are just a few times, early, when you need to figure out how you are trying to optimize it.

This is a very good engine building game for people who want that light engine building. I’d put it in the same weight as a Splendor or a Century: Golem Edition. And that’s a very nice thing about it. Those games give you engine building and something interesting, though hopefully not too repetitive, as you play. And while I find that Splendor plays out pretty much the same each time, I haven’t hit that point with Project L yet. And with the expansions, I’m not sure that I will.

Back or Brick

I telegraphed this one, it is a Back for me. I already talked about that I like the game. And I might even back for a second copy of the game to give as a gift to someone, it’s a game that I think is really accessible that way. But beyond that, the board game hobby has lost a few companies recently.

I am out a Kickstarter game, adventure puzzle book, potentially because money ran out. And another company as well had to close their doors with crowdfunding games unfulfilled. And Mythic Games, while still going, was touch and go there for a little bit. If you wonder why game prices are going up, why shipping is higher, don’t. If that means you can’t back or support as many, so be it, but these companies aren’t trying to rip you off.

Boardcubator, I am really happy, is back. But that is going to be the rarer story than those who are just gone forever. So, support a good company trying to do the right thing. Support a fun game that you can play with family and friends. But know if the game is for you. I back it because I like the game already. And I’ll share it because I think others will do.

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The $1 Crowdfunding Pledge

Let’s talk about the $1 pledge level. Why do I pledge at that level sometimes, and how often do I get more?

So what is a $1 pledge? It is basically a cheap way to get the updates on a Kickstarter campaign. With Gamefound you can follow along if you subscribe to it. But Kickstarter, is is $1 and often times it gives you access to the pledge manager as well.

The nice thing about a $1 pledge is that you don’t need all the money at once. If both Final Girl and Marvel Zombies run at the same time – they did – then you don’t need to give both of them a couple hundred dollars right at the same time. You back $1 now you can get one now and save up for the other one later.

But how often do I back for $1, once in a while, and I’d say maybe 2 out of the 6-7 that I did that with, I ended up adding in the pledge manager. One, for sure, that I did was The Witcher: Old World. And I believe there was another that I added. I don’t care enough, most of the time, to do $1 and get the updates.

The Drink

A Negroni again. It’s such a good drink, again a warm day and one that is nice to have on a day like that. But a good drink to have stuff around for. It is really one that I like to sip while grilling as well. On a hot summer day it is refreshing and with some ice in there, it doesn’t feel water down when the ice melts.

Upcoming Streams

Tomorrow I’ll be streaming, I think my plan is more Paper Dungeons. So join for some fun to play along. I’m still working my way through that campaign.

I talked about this on the stream, and maybe I’ll talk about it more tomorrow. But I am getting a gaming table with a topper. That will allow for me to leave a bigger campaign game set-up on the lower level and put the top on when I want to play something else. So once that comes, I am going to be getting back to streaming a larger game.

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February Board Gaming

Sleeping Gods: 3 Plays

Lots of Sleeping Gods plays, and one of five with three plays. If you want to know what the game is about, I play it weekly on Malts and Meeples YouTube channel. Still enjoying the story, and I wonder how it’s going to end for me, I’m guessing I’ll wrap it up this month.

Tainted Grail: 3 Plays

Tainted Grail is another consistent one on the list. The game is a ton of fun, and the Last Knight campaign feels different than the Fall of Avalon. It’ll be on the list for a while, we still have another one after that to play through.

Squire’s End: 3 Plays

So, I just wrote about Spire’s End. You can read that here. But this is a good solo game, one that I’m going to stream once I’m done with Sleeping Gods. The game play is simple, and the story is good, but combined together, it makes an experience that feels very unique. And I like the mechanics with resting, and how you use health to determine what attack you do.

Project L: 3 Plays

Another one that I wrote about, Project L is a Tetris like game. But it’s also an engine building game. You pick cards and then use little pieces to fill in shapes on them. When you fill in a shape then you get those pieces used back and a new shape that gives you. You eventually want to start getting points, but how can you optimize your turns and actions.

Super Mega Lucky Box: 3 Plays

Another one that I’ve played before, 12 plays in January. I can see Super Mega Lucky Box being like Ganz Schon Clever last year where I’ll play it most months. Super straight forward roll and write game but in a good way.

The Quacks of Quedlinburg: 2 Plays

I held off on playing The Quacks of Quedlinburg for a long time and even getting it. But I wish I had done so sooner because The Quacks of Quedlinburg is a fun game. It’s a good push your luck game and bag building game. Which I can see playing this one with a lot of different people.

I think with the set-up of everything and the variability in that, the game, just the base game, is going to have a lot of replayability. And the ease of play, it definitely makes it more accessible to a lot of different gaming groups.

Fleet: The Dice Game: 2 Plays

Another one that I talked about recently, honestly, shouldn’t be a surprise, there were a number of games games. Fleet: The Dice Game is a big roll and write game. I think that it is solid, I’m not sure if it’s amazing. Not because I wouldn’t play it again or it won’t make the Top 100 for me when I do that later this year. But Fleet: The Dice Game is a lot to learn, so I can mainly see it being a solo game for me.

The Fox in the Forest Duet: 2 Plays

The Fox in the Forest Duet is a two player cooperative trick taking game. And I figured I’d like it, but I wasn’t sure how much I’d like it. Trick taking is generally something that works well for me. The cooperative nature is something else that is interesting. I think the push and pull of trying to get the fox to land where you need it to is a lot of fun.

Imperial Settlers: Roll and Write: 2 Plays

Most disappointing game of the month, Imperial Settlers: Roll and Write is an okay roll and write. Mainly, it doesn’t feel like it gives you interesting choices. Even something like Yahtzee offers more choices because you can push your luck. Imperial Settlers: Roll and Write doesn’t give you that, so most, if not all the options are obvious.

Skull: 2 Plays

Skull is another push your luck game, between this and Quacks it’s something I played a fair amount. Skull basically has you bluffing to try and get people to flip over roses and not hit a skull. But then you also read what other people are doing and try and guess what you can flip without getting a skull. That’s very basic for what it is, but a good simple push your luck game.

Floriferous: 2 Plays

Floriferous is what I’d call a relaxing game. The decision space is limited but not too limited. It feels like you do the right amount each turn. And I really like how turn order is determined. If you take something lower in a column, that means you’ll be going later. So there’s a decision that’s good, do you pick something high because you need a certain card in the next column and take a less ideal flower this turn. It falls into a nice and pretty style of game that is becoming more common.

Quoridor: 2 Plays

Good abstract game with nice pieces. I think that Quoridor works well with a lot of people, though, if everyone rushes across the board, it makes the game really odd. But, I think it works better when people meet in the middle and start blocking routes early. The game also falls apart a bit when someone is close to winning and you skip blocking them so the person before they needs to. Everyone can dictate who needs to block.

Aldarra: 1 Play

I got to play this one for the Kickstarter, you can see the play down below. And the play of another game as well. Aldarra launched and will be coming back, but I have to say, it is a fun game. It’ll feel different when it comes back at a smaller size, but that will make it cheaper which is good. It’s a nice area control game with a tight board, so you fight a lot. And you get knocked off the board, kind of, and then rebuild again. I like that Small World like feel to it.

Roll Player Adventures: 1 Play

I got to start Roll Player Adventures this month and I’m so excited. I had a chance to play this as a prototype at GenCon, as I always mention. And the game is a ton of fun, and that was my best gaming experience there. To now have it in my hands and for the expansion stuff as well, I’m so excited to play this. It takes choose your own adventure and then adds in some cool dice combat. The game isn’t that difficult, but the choices are really good.

Rogue Angels: Legacy of the Burning Sun: 1 Play

Another one that was on Kickstarter, and I was supposed to do a live stream while it was on Kickstarter. Rogue Angels launched the same time as Marvel Zombies and Final Girl Season 2 were finishing up. So it got lost in the shuffle. It is coming back. And I still played, and streamed it with the creator. Great game, I love the story and the differences in the scenarios. It does with the scenarios, something I think Frotsthaven is going to fix from Gloomhaven, where it isn’t so much just kill everyone.

Final Girl: 1 Play

When my local game store, All Systems Go, took in a trade of Final Girl, I was so excited. This is a game that I looked at on Kickstarter, but ultimately passed on. The backers started to receive their copies and people loved it. When it made it to my FLGS, I called immediately and had them set it aside for me, and I’m glad I did. I played once thus far, as you can see, but it is amazing. I love the theme so much.

No Thanks!: 1 Play

I enjoy No Thanks! a lot. Mainly because it is another one of those simple games where you don’t have a lot of decisions to make. But the decisions you do make, mainly take a card or pass on it, it matters a lot. I won’t say much more, it is one I’ve played and talked about before, but if you want a simple but difficult game, No Thanks is really interesting.

Year Totals

So, 34 plays in February, taking that with January’s 50 plays, I’m now at 84 (well, 86 counting two thus far in March). So it’s very strong in terms of a start and I hope I can end around 500 plays for the year, or maybe even higher.

And for the secondary goal of getting through a lot of my unplayed games, 9 of my plays were games on that list. Well, kind of, I don’t know that Project L was on the list, because I didn’t have it in yet. And Final Girl got picked up in February, so it wasn’t on the list. Still, the list is getting shorter, I do believe. And I actually knocked out another one last night.

Which is the most exciting game for you, or one that you’d want to play from my February list?

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How To Play Project L

Project L is a game about basically playing Tetris, or with Tetris pieces. You are trying to complete shapes by filling in pieces to it. At the start of the game, you have two pieces a single square and two squares, but you get more as the game goes along.

On your turn you have a number of actions that you can do. And you get to take three of them per round. You can pick up one of the shape cards that you need to fill in and put it in front of you. Next you can upgrade a piece, and they have different levels which determine how you can upgrade. Or you can take a basic piece. You can clear a row, or one important one is you can master. Master you can do once per turn, but allows you to put a piece in every shape that you have.

The game continues until you get down to none of the harder tiles left. After that you finish out the round plus one more. That way each person gets a similar number of turns. Then you count up points on your shapes, and most points wins.

What Doesn’t Work?

The base game is a lot of fun, and I have more positives than negatives. However, I am concerned about how the base game will play over a lot of plays. I expect it to stick in my collection because the game is very accessible, more on that later. But for me, without the Finesse expansion or Ghost expansion which I want to get, will it be interesting enough.

The game play itself is simple, and after a handful of plays. I feel like it doesn’t change up too massively. Now, I think it can change up with different players because if I go for the higher scoring cards and push the end game faster, that will make it feel different. But if I build up a really strong set of pieces and go from there, it’s going to feel like what I’ve done before.

What Works?

The ease and time of play are great on this game. In a two player game, turns are snappy. And while there is decision space with what shapes you take, how you allocate your pieces, things like that, it isn’t daunting. I felt like I could sit down and play this game with anyone.

The game also looks great on the table. The bright colored pieces that you are fitting into the black and white cards makes the game pop. It makes it feel easy to get to the table and play. And the pieces are a lot of fun, very high quality game.

Who Is This For?

I think that this is a great game for gamers to teach people getting into the hobby. Or to teach players who gravitate towards that Splendor, Ticket to Ride, and Smallworld weight of game. I don’t know that this will work for a group of heavier gamers. It might work a few times but it won’t be one that sticks around because the decision space and strategy for the base game is a bit limited.

But more casual gamers, I highly recommend this game. Project L is a game that should be in Target and sell a million copies or at least one hundred thousand, because it is fun, it is easy to learn, and it looks great. Put this on a shelf next to a lot of games and it’ll stand out.

Project L- Final Thoughts

I think that this is going to be one that sticks around in my collection. And I think that even though it won’t be one that I always want to play. Because while the game play is fun and easy, I’m not sure the base game has the level of strategy that I want.

I am hopeful, with looking at the expansion, that will improve the game for me. This is a game that should have staying power on my shelf for a lot of people I game with. And I don’t think it is going to be a game where I will turn down playing it. I also think that the expansion is going to make that even less likely that I’ll turn down playing it. Mainly because it looks to add to the puzzle of the game.

Finally, this isn’t part of the review, but there is a insert or Game Trayz for Project L. I’m not sure if it’ll be something you can buy later, but man, is it nice. Takes what could have been a bit of a messy table and a slower set-up and makes an easy game easy to get to the table.

My Grade: B
Gamer Grade: C-
Casual Grade: A

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So, with that said, let’s look at the list of games. Just one extra note. I’m going to start to talk less about games that show up every month, and really focus on the new to me games, or games that are getting back to the table.

January Board Gaming

Orchard: 18 Plays

Not much to say on this one right now. It’s my favorite solo game. Super fast, but great puzzle to it. Plays super fast and I think for a solo game, it’s one that a lot of people could get into.

Super Mega Lucky Box: 12 Plays

Bingo, kind of. You fill in cards and as you complete rows and columns you unlock bonuses. I thought that the game might be too simple, but it’s a ton of fun. And it’s a super accessible game.

Village Green: 6 Plays

Another one where I didn’t think that it was going to be a great game. And honestly, the solo mode is just okay. I think that it needs a bit of tweak, more green and scoring cards available to pick from, but it’s still fun solo. Two player the game is a great puzzle of when you push for more points or when you push for the end game so that your opponent can score fewer.

Sleeping Gods: 4 Plays

Sleeping Gods is a great adventure game. You can see my play it every Wednesday over on Malts and Meeples. Last week’s audio got messed up, but if you just want a taster of the game, you can watch it below. I really like the story and open world nature of the game.

Tainted Grail: 4 Plays

Tainted Grail, still going through the Last Knight story and having a very good time with it. We’re cruising through it. Now, the advantage to that is we get through more story and campaign. Disadvantage, I don’t think we’re quite as leveled up as ideal right now.

On Tour: 2 Plays

On Tour, I’ve played this as an app before, but I like the physical version. The game play is a nice amount of choice, but not too much. And as the choices become more limited later in the game, they become tougher to make, but it doesn’t slow the game down.

Spire’s End: 1 Play

Just played around with this one a little bit. Great little story adventure game for one or two players. I think it’s mainly one player, but you can split up the characters. Easy to play, nice system for learning the game.

Catapult Feud: 1 Play

A fun game, was going to say little, but it’s simple and fairly big. You build a castle, the opponent does as well. And then you take turns trying to shoot rocks from catapults and other siege weaponry to knock down your opponents troops in the castle. There are cards too and they add to the game, but not needed.

No Thanks!: 1 Play

Great push you luck game. You don’t want points, so you can pass on a card, but you give up a chip. Those are worth negative points at the end of the game. And if you run out of chips, you are forced to take the card. There’s a puzzle to the game and a great group dynamic with it as well.

Let’s Go Fishing: 1 Play

This is a kids game. Toddler got it for Christmas, so it’s in the collection and I got a play of it. For a kids game it has a cool concept. You try and catch fish as they open their mouths. The downside is that the mechanics on this version of the game to rotate the fish are horrible. So you kind of have to help it along, but the toddler likes it.

Year Totals

So we’re up to 50 games played, over that now actually, but 50 in January. It’s a strong start. And seven of the games were ones that came off my shelf of unplayed games. That’s a fairly strong start. If I keep that up I should be good.

Though, here’s the trick with unplayed games. Right now I have Aeon’s End: Legacy of Gravehold and Project L arriving probably on Monday. Plus some that came in via orders or picking up at my FLGS. I’m still at 135, not counter the two coming. So I need to play 35 more games plus whatever else new I get to be at 100 or less.

Which of the games that I’ve played thus far would you want to play? What is your favorite?

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This is going to be a shorter Point of Order, but I wanted to write about it while it was fresh in my mind. And because the one game is quite unique on the list. And because I don’t really think I’ll get many new board games for a little bit because I know that Joan of Arc is arriving this week. I think that Uprising: Curse of the Last Emperor, Project L, and Aeon’s End Legacy of Gravehold are all getting ready to ship as well. So I need to play more games.

Boomerang: USA

A little roll and write game, I’m sure that no one is shocked that I’m picking up a roll and write. And don’t worry, there is a Boomerang: Australia that was out first. This looks like a fairly simple game where it has you flling in different locations on the map to complete sections of the USA. When you complete them you get points but then there are also other bonuses that you can go after as well. I’ve heard good things about this one and I hope that it’s a roll and write that I can get to the table pretty easily.

XenoShyft: Dreadmire – Kickstarter Card Pack

Needless to say, I really like XenoShyft, and I need to get Dreadmire to the table. I think, when I ordered this, I was thinking it was Onslaught, but it was $2, so I’m fine either way. If it isn’t for me, I can add it to the box and trade it in, if I only need one version of the game, which seems unlikely.

This looks like it’s just going to add in another role or two that you can play with and some more cards. And I like that about it, because it adds in a little bit, but not too much to make the game that much more complex. For me, I often want an expansion that just adds a bit more into the game, but more of what is already there, so it doesn’t make it harder to get to the table.

Floriferous

I almost backed this game on Kickstarter. It’s from the same company that did Planet Liftoff! and Skulk Hollow. And this game looked like it’d be a good fit for myself and for my game group. It’s a drafting, set collection game. Nothing too complex with really nice flower artwork.

If that was it for the game, I’d be not that interested in it. I have Truffle Shuffle, 7 Wonders Duel, Sushi Go Party!, and others that are drafting games I can play. But this one does two interesting things. Firstly, you have to draft scoring cards. So kind of like Point Salad in that way, and I enjoy Point Salad as a nice filler. The second thing is what you draft cards in turn order, from a display, again like Point Salad. But where you draft on the next row will determine the order for the next round. So a good card towards the bottom means that you’ll be drafting later next time.

That is just enough of a twist to make this game really interesting to me. It’s going to be an easy enough set collection game for my wife and others in the group. And it’s going to look good on the table. But like Ohanami, if you really want to try and math it all out or figure out your ideal strategy, Floriferous looks like it should offer some of that as well.

Catapult Feud & Siege Expansion

You’ve probably noticed that none of the other games are a dexterity game. So I left it for the very end, just to keep you waiting. This is a game, yes, a game, where you are shooting projectiles at another person’s castle. You are trying to knock down their castle and their guys and the first to do so wins the game. There are some cards, I believe, and that adds to the game side of things. But it’s all about the toy factor.

My reasoning for getting this one, I wanted it for the toy factor. The public facing reasoning for this is that it’s something my toddler son and I will be able to play sooner rather than later. At least with the toy element of it, can we can eventually start to play it as a game. He’s going to love seeing the whole thing knocked over, but I will also enjoy that a lot.

Which of these games would you want to play first? I’m really curious about Floriferous out of all of these, though, with the toy factor of Catapult Feud/Kingdom that one might need to get played first.

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Crowdfunding Honorable Mention

So many different ones much like that Board Games, see those here. Tiny Turbo Cars because it just like so much fun. Real time little bit and then everyone races around a map trying to avoid other people. Canvas, an amazing looking game of making pictures by layering cards. Spire’s End: Hildegarde a solo story game. Really, I’m excited for everything in my Crowdfunding round-up, here, but let’s get to the Top 5.

5. Primal: The Awakening

Primal, aka Monster Hunter the Board Game, though there was a Kickstarter for a Monster Hunter board game, so Primal isn’t that, but it is? And it got there first, and I think looks cooler. So many massive monsters to fight and campaign but you don’t need to do campaign.

I also like that this isn’t your typical boss battler game. But it is purely a boss battler. Normally you pull out some tiles, get them set-up and move around the board counting how many hexes or squares you can move in that type of game. I love that, but I don’t always need that. In Primal there are four zone, front, back, left and right. You need to play where you attack from to do damage, but isn’t not counting spaces.

Plus, did I mention that this game has amazing minis? And there are 13 different monsters in the base box. That’s a ton of content. I didn’t go all in on the expansions to get even more monsters, though I was tempted. 13 will last me a long time.

4. Chronicles of Drunagor

Oh hey there massive dungeon crawling game. Chronicles of Drunagor looks really interesting for a few different reasons. Firstly you don’t see all the map. You see doors and those doors tell you what to set-up next. I like unfolding maps, granted it does cause a pause in the middle of the game.

The other things is the action system. You play down colored cubes to activate things. When you are out of them or when you want to, you pull them back. But you get a black cube that you need to cover up one spot with. So the longer a session/scenario takes the more you limited in what you can do. It’s like an exhaustion taking over.

And finally, I like that you don’t need to win every battle. Sometimes the monster needs to be defeated, and sometimes it’s just there to see what you do. And later it might be a villain who will show up again and remember your first encounter. I love it when games give the campaign a memory of what has been done before.

3. Marvel United X-Men

First of two Marvel games, this one I already know I’m going to like. Why, because I already really like Marvel United. Now you are going to give me the X-Men, I’m here for that. Marvel United is a simple cooperative game where you are a team of heroes trying to defeat a villain.

But before you can deal with the villain you need to deal with their henchmen or rescue enough civilians, or deal with their schemes in some way. And each villain does different things, some of them might just run around and try and smash you. Whereas MODOK, for example, is messing with the cards you’ve played. And the Green Goblin is more chaotic and doesn’t start with schemes on the board.

Beyond all of that, though, with the villains and with the heroes, I like that this game is so easy to get to the table. I pull it out grab some heroes and a villain and start playing in a few minutes. And if I want to play as Thor instead of Spider-Man, that’s a very fast swap. Plus, it’s Marvel.

2. Marvel Dice Throne

Hey, here’s more Marvel. And this one I rank higher because, again, it’s a game system that I know I love. In fact it’s very high on my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2021 Edition. Dice Throne works well for me as a head to head two player fighting game, or a free for all with the king of the hill rules.

Now they are going to give me the game with Marvel characters. This is a game that when it shows up, I’m going to try and get someone over that day to play it. Thankfully with shipping notifications and tracking that can be done. Why, because I have a number of friends who already know the game, at least regular Dice Throne. That means we can pull it out and get it to the table without needing to look at rules, and that’s rare for a crowdfunded game.

1. ISS Vanguard

Finally the first one I backed in 2021. Well, technically, I think I backed it in 2020, but the campaign didn’t end until 2021, so it counts for this year. ISS Vanguard is not the latest game for Awaken Realms, they did Lords of Ragnarok a month or so ago, but it is my most anticipated.

I’m not even going to talk about mechanics, just about the theme of the game. A message has been picked up by satellites around Earth. It’s coded and when it is decoded it’s coordinates to a spot in space that looks like nothing. A crew is put together to travel out there and a sphere is discovered.

The story unfolds from there, and I know a bit more about what might be going on, but how cool a premise is that. And the game, said I wasn’t going to talk about mechanics, but one thing, is played in two parts. There is a ship phase where you can upgrade your landing craft or deal with problems on the crew, or research new technology. And there is a planet phase where you go down the planet, explore, and try and figure out what is going on.

2021 Crowdfunding Finale Thoughts

There are a ton of great games that likely will be coming soon for me. I believe from my Round-up that I did Project L, Aeon’s End Legacy, and Joan of Arc are all getting close to shipping. And by that, I mean shipping to me, not getting on a ship. Not a Kickstarter, but one that I picked up because of one, Spire’s End – I backed Hildegard – is also waiting to get off a boat to to me.

I’m going to need to play a lot of games this upcoming few months just to see what I want to keep and make room on the shelf for other games. And there are a few games that maybe could go into fewer boxes. I’m looking at you TIME Stories and taking up a whole cubby by yourself, or you Aeon’s end and your giant boxes.

What games that you have backed this year are you most excited for?

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This, however leads to a problem. There are a ton of games on Kickstarter, in fact they make Kickstarter millions of dollars. And now Gamefound is in the mix and that is where all the Awaken Realms games are and they are getting a lot of other really big games. So how do you decide what to back.

Only So Much Budget

I did a series of articles on Kickstarter 101. You can find the first one there and then I went into more details about what I look for. I generally follow my guide when it comes to backing games or talking about them in my Back of Brick Series. But one thing I don’t talk about is budget, or at least I don’t talk about it much.

Right now that is my biggest issue in getting board games, which is a good thing in a lot of ways. If I didn’t have a budget I would just have my game room stacked up with even more board games and no where to actually play them. Plus, there is only so much time to play board games in my life right now. I’d love to play more, but I’m generally playing once a week with people and once a week while streaming.

But That Means Hard Choices

As the header says, that means that I have to make hard choices as to what I back. Early in the year I tend to be a bit more free. By that I mean, if it looks really cool, I’ll back it and not think about it. But now, in the middle of the year, my budget is drying up, and we are getting a lot of cool games on the different crowdfunding platforms.

Just what I know is coming up, there is Lords of Ragnarok from Awaken Realms, Divinus from Lucky Duck Games, Slay the Spire from Contention Games, and those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. Plus there is Middara acts 2 & 3. There is a Dune game based off of the Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game system, not Kickstarter from what I know. Plus I could still late back Deliverance or Witcher: Old World, and I’m actively backing Valor & Villainy, the cooperative legacy version that is out there now.

So how do I go about picking? Do I keep backing Valor and Villainy because it’s a known game? Do I save for other things that are coming in later? How much do I care about the CMON Masters of the Universe Game?

So How Do I Pick?

Compare to the Collection

Firstly, I think it’s important to look at the games in a vacuum. Well, kind of a vacuum. I don’t want to look at everything I know is coming to Kickstarter or Gamefound. It’s hard to compare games that are active to games that are coming. If a game is active and it looks amazing except for one little thing, I won’t be able to accurately compare it to the ones that have almost no information on Kickstarter or little on Gamefound.

Instead, I should look at it compared to what I have in my collection. So with Valor and Villainy, it’s a campaign and a legacy game. I have two unplayed Legacy games, well, 3 actually with Pandemic Legacy Season 0 that I just remembered. And I probably have 6-10 unplayed campaign games counting what is currently backed on Kickstarter. So do I need more games of that type? But also, does this one look better than the games of that type I own?

Who Would I Play It With

Is this a game for a small group? My campaign group? The board game club group? The game night group? Me? Or is it a game for a group that doesn’t exist yet?

If it’s the latter, do I want to put the effort into finding a group or a person to play it with. Let’s look at some things I’ve backed, Project L and Tiny Tubro Cars are for the small group and game night group. Primal is for small group, board game club group, and campaign group. Aeon’s End Legacy might just be for me. But does a game fit into any of the groups. If not, I have to put in the effort to get it played, and will I do that?

Retails vs Crowdfunding

Another thing I consider is, can I get it later. A crowdfunded game is a little bit of a risk. I’ve gotten a few when they came in they weren’t as good as I had hoped. Lost Woods was a simple game that wasn’t what I was hoping. Bring Your Own Book is a cool idea but doesn’t work as well as it sounds. Now the only way to get Lost Woods was via Kickstarter, but Bring Your Own Book went to retail. So I could have waited, gotten an uglier copy that was the same thing, or waited for reviews.

But there’s more to that, I could have gotten Marvel United at retail, but I’m glad I didn’t. So it’s the flip of Bring Your Own Book. With Marvel United I got way more characters because I backed it on Kickstarter. And basically none of the expansions are going to retail, so I’d have missed out on all of that content. So, is the value there to take the risk on the game on the crowdfunding platform?

So What’s Coming Up?

Out of everything I talked about coming up, I am confident that I’ll back Lords of Ragnarok. I like Lords of Hellas a lot and Norse mythology. Slay the Spire is also likely because I love that video game. CMON’s Master’s of the Universe game, probably not, it’s not a theme that I love as much, though the minis look amazing. Divinus, probably, though Lucky Duck Games also do come to retail.

How do you balance what you back or don’t? Do you just ignore Kickstarter or Gamefound? Or do you do less retail because you get most of your games are coming in via Kickstarter?

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So let’s start with the two late backed honorable mentions:

Roll Player Adventures and Uprising: Curse of the Last Emperor

Now, these two are only on the list because they were ones that I backed later. Roll Player Adventure because I picked up everything for Roll Player on Black Friday deals. Roll Player is a dice drafting game that has you building up a RPG character, basically. It’s like you’re making a D&D character, you just have specific stats that you are going for. Roll Player Adventures takes those characters and runs them through a story. It’s basically a dungeon crawl for the characters you roll up.

Uprising: Curse of the Last Emperor, is also a cooperative game, but a very different type of one. It is a 4X cooperative game, in a fantasy setting. 4X cooperative games really aren’t something that’s heard of that much. What also drew me to the game is that this could have been a $150-200 game with minis, but instead they went with standees which look amazing. Finally, it has two bad guys that everyone in this cooperative experience is trying to beat. You don’t win unless everyone has beat both of them, that gives it a really interesting cooperative experience. And the two bad guy AI’s will fight each other as well as the players.

Alright, let’s get onto the list.

10 – The Night Cage

This one has me excited because I mainly back campaign games, but this one gives me a tense game in a small package. Big campaign games are the ones that I’m not sure will show up at retail. This one I know will, but I wanted to support it because of the tension that it has. You, and your fellow players, are lost in an underground labyrinth that is always changing around you. You are looking for keys and a portal out but trying to avoid monsters who will snuff out your candle and make it even harder to move around. It’s a cooperative game and everyone needs a key and to get to the portal before the tiles run out.

9 – The Reckoners: Steelslayer

Another cooperative game and one of two expansions on the list. This is an expansion for the Reckoners board game based off of one of my favorite series by Brandon Sanderson. In this game you are rolling dice to determine your actions and then researching and battling Epics, think evil superheroes, as the team of The Reckoners, not superheroes just regular people. This brings in the last two books of the trilogy and makes the game play a little less brutal in some ways and possibly more brutal in others.

8 – Project L: Finesse

Project L was a game that I had glanced at but wasn’t that interested in until I saw the Dice Tower play through. First, let me say that the game has some amazing pieces in it. The dual layered cards where you are filling in shapes with basically what amounts to Tetris pieces is great. But what really drew me in is the light engine building nature of the game. You fill in a dual layer card you keep the pieces you used to fill it in and get more pieces, or you can trade up and get better pieces using an old piece. The game is fast but has interesting choices but doesn’t look hard to play.

7 – Crash Octopus

Now for something completely different we are going treasure hunting while trying to avoid an octopus. To add in even more fun to that, we are getting the treasure by flicking it so it hits our boats. This game comes from the same company that made Tokyo Highway so the game looks amazing, and I do really enjoy flicking games or dexterity games quite a lot, though I’m not always the best at them. This just looks like a fun time and a silly time, and people are generally up for a light silly game.

6 – Hel: The Last Saga

Now we’re getting into more of my “normal” kickstarter game, the big epic campaign games. Hel: The Last Saga from Mythic Games really interested me because of the Vikings theme. Then the game play itself was quite interesting in particular how the story unfolded. I like games where you don’t always know everything about the game and what’s going on in a given chapter until you are part way through the chapter. I also like the religion in this game, I believe it’s Norse, Christian, and Druidic, and the characters can pray to only their deity for a boon, which I find really unique in terms of game play.

5 – The 7th Citadel

The follow-up to The 7th Continent, The 7th Citadel takes what they learned from that game and improves upon it, in my opinion. It is still an exploration and adventure game, but this one has more of a story that seems to be running through it. It also has improved upon the death where yes, going through the cards still matters for how long you can survive, but you have a health pool to go along with those cards that dwindles down over time. I like the idea of this game even more than The 7th Continent, because of the story that it tells and how that seems more straight forward in some ways, versus puzzling out how to solve a curse.

4 – Cartographers Heroes

A small box game, though I did get the big box. Cartographers Heroes is the follow-up to Cartographers a flip and write game that I like a lot. This adds in heroes that can help you defeat monsters. But beyond that it adds in new monsters that do interesting things and with the big box for it, that comes with three new maps that all work in interesting ways. Normally you can put your shapes anywhere, in those they limit you and give you restrictions on how to build. And it comes with colored pencils which is important for making it look pretty.

3 – Nemesis Lockdown

Now, I actually didn’t get Nemesis Lockdown, so why is it on my list? I got Nemesis instead. Lockdown is the planetary base version of Nemesis, which is a game where you are fighting off aliens who are trying to overrun your ship and get your ship back to earth. However, each player has their own secret objective as well. So it’s a semi-cooperative game, but one that works really well from what I’ve heard. Mainly because it isn’t like Dead of Winter where you’ll hold back something that could end up tanking the whole scenario for everyone. You more have a goal that you are trying to do, and it might be that crew member X doesn’t make it, but you can’t push them out the airlock.

2 – Marvel United

This was the first big Kickstarter I backed last year, and I’m really glad that I did, it’s also the only one to have delivered anything this past year. Marvel United is a card playing cooperative game where players battle a villain. I like how simple this game is for a cooperative experience. It’ll be one I can play with my kid when he gets a bit older. But I also like that it gives you a superhero team-up feel. I, on my turn, get to take my action as well as those of the previous card, so if someone plays down two punches, and I put down two punches, I can punch four times. Plus there are cute chibi miniatures in the game for the heroes and the villains. I’ll be backing more of this in 2021 as they come out with the X-Men.

1 – Frosthaven

Finally, no shock, Frosthaven is my #1. I am going to be really curious to see if I like Gloomhaven or Frosthaven better when I’ve played both. I think that it seems like Frosthaven will have improved upon a few things, and it adds in city building. But anything more with that dungeon crawl feeling and that great card play, I’ll be really happy. I also think that the starting characters sound really really interesting, so I’m excited for it when it comes out, most likely this next year.

That’s my Top 10 Kickstarters that I backed. How about you, what are your favorite Kickstarters that you’ve backed this past year? Are there any that you are waiting on from longer ago than that?

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