Top 15 Campaign Games I Still Need to Play

15. Ticket to Ride: Legends of the West

I know that I’m going to like this game. So why is Ticket to Ride Legacy lower on the list? Some of it is because it is a legacy game. The two “legacy” games that I have on the list are the bottom two. But also because while I like Ticket to Ride a lot, it’s not a game that I play all that often. I think that the legacy version will likely breath new life into the game for me. But it’s more of a comfort food pick than a really exciting new bite to try. And for that reason it’s lower on the list.

14. Clank Legacy 1 & 2

The other legacy game is actually two legacy games. So did I cheat, I’ll let you decide. But this one is lower on the list because I know that I love Clank! already. And I really like the Acquisitions Inc guys as well, so that is a great theme for me. But it’s like I said for Ticket to Ride: Legends of the West, this is more comfort food. I already know that I will like both of the games. But it’s higher on the list because I like Clank better than I like Ticket to Ride, and because I think the writing is just going to be a great time that’s a ton of fun.

13. Tales from the Red Dragon Inn

Speaking of fun writing, I expect that Tales from the Red Dragon Inn is going to be another game with fun writing. This one is supposed to be a simpler, or less in depth dungeon crawler game and there are some good playthroughs of it. I’d recommend checking otu the playthrough that was done done on Meet me at the Table. They’re one of my favorite channels, and it shows how fast it is to get the game to the table and get playing.

12. Kinfire Chronicles

Speaking of another campaign game that I’ve heard a lot of good things about, we have Kinfire Chronicles. This is again supposed to be a friendlier and easier to get into campaign game than some. I like the look of the aesthetic of the game. And it’s not a mini heavy experience which might make it easier to get to the table. But it’s probably easier to see what it’s like at the table. I really do like how the cast of characters looks like a ton of fun and familiar fantasy but not the completely normal fantasy.

11. Tidal Blades 2

For this one I’ll add a video from Man vs Meeples. But I know more about this one. Some of the previous ones I just went on theme. This one is a dungeon crawler or adventure style game with scenarios where you are in this beautiful world dealing with monsters who attacked a festival and more in the story.

But the mechanisms got me to pick up this game. I like how you add in cards to a grid and then you activate a row or a column. But once every spot in a row or column is filled and you activate it, it wipes. And you have basic actions on spots without cards, but it’s a rising and falling action as you try and play through the scenario and defeat the monsters.

10. Etherfields

Now we’re onto Etherfields. The only campaign game from Awaken Realms that I haven’t gotten to the table. And this one actually left my collection for a very short time. But as I said, I love campaign games so I got it back. I put this one where because I love the theme of it. I have heard that it is rough around the edges but the theme gets me.

You are exploring dreams and each dream is going to be a little bit different. Some of them might be more dream like, but the fun of dreams, at least in a board game is that they can be nightmares as well. And that means that the game is going to have twisted and crazy and surreal scenarios and that sounds amazing to me. I know one element was a bit of a grind, but I believe that there are rules out there now that help fix that.

9. Kingdom: Death Monster

Then we get to one that maybe should be higher on the list. Kingdom: Death Monster is not the grand daddy of all campaign games, that’s Gloomhaven in a lot of ways. But this one is one of the games that really showed what you could do and create a massive game with a ton of expansions and a ton of minis in it. I only have the core box and there is a ton in there.

In this game it’s a boss battler campaign. You start at no one, really you don’t even have language yet. But as you play, you grow you tribe, figure out new things, like ways to make weapons and armor, develop language and more. All that while sending out your hunters to try and defeat boss monsters who are sometimes going to take out your hunters. And that’s why you need to keep growing your village. But Meet Me At The Table has great videos on this as well.

8. Divinity Original Sin

This is a game that I need to play through both as a video game but also as the board game. I had fun watching Felicia Day an Ryan Day play through it on their streams back in the day. So it is a game that I have played some, in the video game. But the board game sounds great for it as well. The theme definitely helps with that as does the fact that this isn’t a grid movement map but more of an area movement game. And I really like how there’s that campaign element and adventure element to it without purely being a dungeon crawler game.

7. Dragon Eclipse

Alright, I kind of lied about having played all of the Awaken Realms campaign games. This is one that might actually get to the table sooner because I think it might be easier to get to the table. I didn’t think of it though, because it just got in. In this game you are collecting dragons and battling dragons. Does that sound a bit like Pokemon, that makes sense. But it’s a game with a fun theme and compared to some campaign games, it’s a campaign game that you can play true solo which is great for me.

6. Nova Aetas Renaissance

You’ll notice and probably already have noticed a trend of the videos that I share here. A ton of them are from Meet Me At the Table. A lot of these games I had already backed before they played them. But this is one that I tracked down because of the channel. I love the 3D nature of the experience for this game. And how, in one of the scenarios a house that is 3D can be taken apart and flattened. But there is more than that as well.

The story of the game is fun. It feels like it mixes up a few things from historical to make fantastical. And then it uses a fun mechanism for whose turn it is. You spend you action points and move around a time track. Whomever is at the end of the track is going to be who activates next. There are some other rules for it as well. So you can’t just stack up turn after turn after turn before the bad guys go, but it’s a fun element to the game.

5. Agemonia

Then we have Agemonia. This is a rare campaign game that I didn’t back right off the bat on crowdfunding. Or I should say a rare one that I looked into a lot and didn’t end up backing. This game seems to have a fun world and setting to play in and that’s some of what drew me in right away for it. But there were other elements that kept me coming back for it as well.

I liked how the maps were in books and that felt different. But also beyond that, as more places are doing that now, the world would change. You draw out a card after interacting with a point and cover it up. That might create a different point of interaction or it might be nothing to do there anymore. And the game play just seems simple enough to be easy to learn and play, but offer some solid choices in combat as well.

4. The Elder Scrolls

Next is another new one to come in. But it’s a fun theme that a lot of people are going to be drawn to. For me it’s less the theme and more that it’s a shorter campaign based off of the Too Many Bones system that I really am excited for.

If you’re not familiar with the system, you level up after missions. Or you can anyways. And as you spend your points to try and level up you get better or unlock new abilities. You can add to base stats, which can be good, or you can add to the specialty dice that you roll. And while this streamlines it a bit from what it was with Too Many Bones, I’m excited for it and the world that the game is set in certainly helps.

3. Middara

Now the top 4 are going to be ones that I really would love to play. Yes, you read that correctly, we’re on #3 and we have four games to go including this one. How is that, I couldn’t pick between my top two. But Middara is very safely into that group. And soon I’m going to be having more Middara come in. I say soon, I expect maybe this time next year.

But Middara is going to be a classic dungeon crawler with a ton of story and a ton of dice chucking. But I really like the theme and look of the game. You go to another world, chosen to go there kind of it’s weird to explain. But you are chucking dice to defeat monsters, level up and become awesome. But the whole aesthetic of the game gives me a really strong anime feel. I’ve heard that sometimes trips up the writing, but overall people really enjoy it. And to me that sounds exciting.

1c. Oathsworn

Next we have Oathsworn. And this, this is the three way tie for first place. Why did I not just remove the last game from the list, because I wanted to mention it too. Oathsworn is another boss battler game. But it is a game that is split into two parts. And that excites me about the game. You get a mystery or exploration phase where you experience a lot of story. And then you go beat up that boss. But if you do well on the story the boss maybe is easier.

And I really like the mechanisms in the game. I kept games that I’d really played off of the list. I did a short demo of this one two years ago at Gen Con and I adored it. There is this great card system where cards have to cool down before you can use them again. And then you decide how many dice you are going to roll, some are required, but the more you roll the more chances you to bust and miss, but the greater a hit could be. Or you could play it safer and draw cards, but eventually that deck of cards will run cold and do you switch to dice then?

1b. Primal: The Awakening

Next tied at the top is Primal: The Awakening. This one is another boss battler game. And this one I should probably get to the table sooner than some. A nice thing about Primal is that it doesn’t need to be a campaign, you can also play it as a one off. And that would definitely make it easier for me to get it to the table.

But this is a game that is all about the boss battle. There is a little story between scenarios and a chance to upgrade, but it’s not going to be nearly as much other stuff as just a pure battle. And the battle is different as well. You play on a tiny board with just four sides of the monster that you can be on. And depending the stance the monster is in, you need to be in specific spots to do damage. Add in card play for this which you can pull of powerful combos, that’s great. Of course, depending on what cards you play, you might trigger a lot of monster reactions.

1a. Arydia

And finally the most recent game to the campaign game collection. This one barely beat out Elder Scrolls for that title, we have Arydia. Arydia is another game that I passed on originally when it was on crowdfunding but then I went back and late pledged it. I just kept on being drawn into one part of the game.

The game is at three different levels. Now I don’t mean that you build stuff up on the table. I mean that you explore the world at three different levels. You explore at a high level where you get general encounters and interactions. Then you can dive down deeper and start to interact with specific characters or explore a location in more detail. Finally, you might then drop into combat which is tactical movement on a map. And that massiveness of the world really drew me to the game.

Final Thoughts

You might think that is enough. But there is going to be another list, probably tomorrow for games that I want to come back to or that are new editions or versions of games that I’ve already played as campaign games. I expect that is only going to make it to ten, but that’s a lot. And this list even didn’t include everything. The campaign in Solomon Kane could have made the list. And I know that I just didn’t see some games on the shelf that would have made sense for the list as well. And there are games that I likely missed too because I don’t think of them as campaign games.

What campaign games do you want to get played? And how do you find time to play them all? Or are you like me where you have more campaign games than you can play?

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Normally I’d add in a video here of the game play. But for Unbreakable, there really isn’t much game play. It’s an established system, so less new content on it. So let’s go back to an older Rolling Solo video to show off the game system of Too Many Bones in general.

Too Many Bones: Unbreakable – Crowdfunding

So, like I said this is the point where I jumped into the game. My first experience, though with the game was the playthrough above, and then playing a bit of a demo of it at GenCon in 2019. Let’s just say that GenCon and a bit of a demo really isn’t the way to try out the game. Chip Theory Games doesn’t make light games. So while I enjoyed it, I didn’t love it.

Fastforward to this crowdfunding campaign. And why jump in at this point. Well, it’s supposed to be the last bigger box expansion, possibly. But it is more because these characters sounded cool. I’ll get into them in more detail, so it seemed like a jumping in point that was nice and safe. Since then, of course, I own more and I’m ready to get it to the table.

The Level Up System

Let’s start by talking about Too Many Bones and the big thing that is really tempting about this game. As you play the game you get to level up as you go. That means unlocking new abilities or increasing stats. From what I’ve heard, often stats are just as good as abilities or better. Because survivability is important. But let’s talk about the abilities.

Each character has their own board and dice that they can use to level up. And each character levels up their own things. Let’s talk a bit about the characters here. Because that’s what is so key to the level up system.

Gale

Gale is going to use their mechanical abilities to manipulate the wind. This is all done in the standard way via the dice rolls. Generally around wind, she’s going to try and control the battle board to some extent that way, moving enemies

Figment

Figment is a time traveler. Coming to the past when the world needs them most, Figmant manipulates different elements of the game. Allowing turn order to change or messing with other elements of combat.

Compared to the original characters which were more standard fantasy tropes, Gale and Figment standout in what they can do. So their leveling paths are going to be interesting.

Campaign but Not

So, let’s talk about this as well because Chip Theory Games does this a lot as well. They create games that are campaigns but really aren’t campaigns. In this case it is and isn’t one at the same time. There isn’t that story progression that you are reading. It is the story of what your characters do, fight, and how they upgrade. But it’s not a specific narrative path. So that allows them to get it very generic and shorter.

But it is a campaign because you do level up. Your characters progress throughout the game. The whole last section that I wrote about, you can see how it would be a campaign game. Except for the fact that the story isn’t there.

High Quality

Finally, let’s wrap up by talking about how nice a game that Chip Theory Games makes. Everything that they do is very high quality. They don’t give you a dual layer or single layer cardboard player board, no, it’s a neoprene mat. They don’t give you generic dice that you need to match up to something, custom dice all the way. The poker chips for most things aren’t cheaper quality and even the more basic health chips are really nice.

Everything about the game is quality. And that has stayed consistent across all of their products. Now, that seems like a lot and it does make the games expensive. But they started that way and because it has stayed that way, nothing is incompatible which means that you can play with a lot of different characters that they have put out in Too Many Bones.

Final Thoughts on Too Many Bones: Unbreakable

Is this just an excuse to get into a game that I liked, possibly. But it is a game that I want to dive into. There are a lot of very cool elements and I want to explore this world. I know people love it as a solo game. So I want to explore it as that. I want to play it with friends, I want to see how all the different gearlocs play that I have.

I know that for a lot of people it is a lifestyle game. And I know that it isn’t the easiest game to learn. But I’m excited to dive into it and see all that it has to offer.

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Crowfunding Isofarian Guard

Let’s first off start by talking about the Kickstarter campaign, which I actually didn’t back. Back around when it came to Kickstarter I had just backed a handful of campaign games, and when I say a handful, I mean a small moving truck full. And Isofarian Guard promised another small moving truck full of game. Though, in reality a lot smaller than a lot of those.

But the game itself was one that I was interested in. Rolling Solo had a game play of it to show off how it worked at least in prototype form. And the mechanics looked interesting to me, but I wasn’t blown away by it. The story, however, I knew that I loved the idea of it. So Isofarian Guard stayed on my radar.

The Prototype

Now, this is where it got interesting. I saw the prototype for Isofarian Guard on a video(s) that Quackalope and BoardGameCo did. And man, is there a lot in the game. In fact, there is so much in the game that I went back and looked at it again. Why, because I thought it might be worth it for the price point. And well, I was right.

Size to Cost Ratio

Let’s just talk about the size of this game, because it is huge. It is bigger than Frosthaven, a very big box and game. And it is cheaper. Now, there are elements in which it has less. But weight wise and size wise it is larger than Frosthaven, so Isofarian Guard is huge. In fact, it’s too large to fit in a Kallax cubby which means I’m heaving it to the top of a Kallax or a need to find another solution.

But that doesn’t cover the cost. The game is cheaper than Frosthaven as well. So larger box but cheaper overall. And it is a lot cheaper than more recent campaign games on crowdfunding. Even when I late pledged it after watching the BoardGameCo video, it was cheaper than the campaign games showing up at that time.

So for me, and where I was with what I had backed recently, I got the late pledge. Even if it is not a game that I love, I think mechanically more than story wise, it is a worthwhile investment.

The Mechanisms of Isofarian Guard

So let’s finish up by talking about the mechanisms in the game and then the story. But the mechanisms need to sell me on themselves for the game. Isofarian Guard is a story adventure game that has two parts. The first part is traveling through the lands. Then you go and have story phases, or more story focused phases in settlements. This might sound like another game, Oathsworn.

But the main mechanism that I want to talk about is bag building and pulling out chips for attack, defense, and other abilities. I think that looks interesting, but it didn’t sell me on it. Mainly, it seems simpler to me than a lot of other games. Let’s compare it again to Oathsworn. That has hand management with a cool down track, and a push your luck element. This is build your bag and assign the chips you pull. But I suspect that there is more than that from the taste I got.

The Story

And the story is something that sells me on the game. Again, this is what I remember, because the game has been in production for a while. The world is one where there really isn’t magic, or not much magic. Magic is something of the legends and when a group of the kings finest guard or at least trusted soldiers, become imbued with magic that might end a war, they think that is weird but great.

The king, when they return, he is not a fan. And if I remember again, he is listening to a character that I can best describe as a Wormtongue from Lord of the Rings. Someone who is poisoning the mind of the ruler and leading them into decisions that are not good for their kingdom.

That is a story that I am sold on. It is interesting, offers depth. And does a few things that are unique. In the box is a number of campaigns. But it isn’t like you pick one and play it and then the next one follows along after. I believe that they all happen at the same time as I you play different groups of the guard who split off to complete different objectives from the start of the story. That is a very interesting idea.

Final Thoughts on The Isofarian Guard

Let’s be fair, I late-pledged this game because I love campaign games. But there is another reason as well. While, Isofarian Guard looks like a table hog. It is a solo campaign game. If I couldn’t have played it solo, I wouldn’t have backed it. It is a game that I plan on playing on Malts and Meeples.

Of course, I need to play play other campaign games first. But most likely, not today, but next week I will unbox the game. Show off all the components because, it is a lot and there are some interesting things to look at in the game. I love a campaign game for that. And I want to play it as soon as a can. In fact, it might be the game that I play after ISS Vanguard, we will have to see. I own others like Oathsworn that are high on my list to play as well.

Did you back The Isofarian Guard?

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124-101

100 – 76

75 – 51

50 – 26

Unplayed Board Games – 25- 1

25: Folklore: The Affliction

Folklore is a campaign game that’s been on my shelf for quite a while. It’s one that I know I’ll likely need to play solo to get played so it might show up on the Malts and Meeples YouTube channel coming up here. But it’s basically an RPG type game in a box. Like a HEXplore It, it is going to give more of that die rolling feel you’d expect from a pen and paper RPG. Plus it’s about vampires, werewolves, and ghosts, fun stuff that I like.

24: Fox in the Forest

The smallest game in this section, Fox in the Forest is a two player trick taking game. I recently played the cooperative version of it and had a lot of fun . Fox in the Forest is competitive but one that works really well with two. I believe it balances out some of that by making taking all of the tricks a bad thing, so no shooting the moon. Or it needs to be done in a specific way. I like trick taking, just need to figure out which trick taking games will stick in my collection.

23: The Quacks of Quedlinburg

Another not huge game, The Quacks of Quedlinburg has been a really popular game over the past few years. It is a bag building game, by that I mean you add things to a bag, in this case cardboard tokens. And then you draw them out, and you are trying to make your potion grow. But if you get too many bad ingredients in there, it explodes and you get fewer rewards. But the further you push down the track of adding ingredients, the more points you get.

22: Res Arcana

Res Arcana is an engine building game. It’s a smaller one though with a limited number of cards and the main goal of the game is to figure out how to turn out points. You do that through artifacts and spells and things that you might get out in front of you. The question of the game is, who can get their engine running the best.

21: Western Legends

Western Legends is back into the big games, not a campaign, but a massive sandbox game. In this game you play in the wild west and you can be a good guy bringing in trouble makers, delivering cattle, things like that. Or you can be a bad guy, rustle cattle, rob the bank, and things like that. And you can switch in the middle of the game. Western Legends lets you do anything in the pursuit of points and create your own wild west story.

20: Mechs vs Minions

Mechs vs Minions is an interesting game because it’s created by Riot Games. They are known best for League of Legends, and now Arcane a Netflix show set in that world. Mechs vs Minions is kind of set in that setting, from what I can tell. But it’s a programming wave where you set your Mechs on a path where they can take out the minions. The game plays in scenarios and it might be kill everything or it might be get this objective and get back out. It’s fully cooperative, and one that has been a grail game for me.

19: Cthulhu: Death May Die

I like Cthulhu, don’t know if he likes me. But Cthulhu: Death May Die is a game, kind of in the vein of Arkham Horror and Mansions of Madness, but this time from CMON. And it’s about investigating, fighting cultists and other horrors, and getting to be just insane enough that you’re powerful enough to kill the elder god at the end. Or maybe you’ll just go mad completely or die. I like the theme, and the difficulty level of the game looks really challenging.

18: Uprising: Curse of the Last Emperor

Speaking of a game that looks challenging, Uprising: Curse of the Last Emperor, is a 4x game in a fantasy world. I already had a game like that on the list, Heroes of Land, Air and Sea, but this has a twist on this. You don’t fight against each other. Instead, you all need to end with better scores than the two bad factions to win the game. This cooperative nature of the game really drew me to it. Because it’s not just everyone do better, but how do I do well enough but also don’t hinder your chances.

17: Black Rose Wars

Black Rose Wars is an intimidating game to get to the table. There are lots of cards in the game, and it’s actually another programming game. Like Mechs vs Minions you’re deciding what you do. But with this one, it’s a free for all. You are summoning monsters to the board, laying traps, slinging spells, and blowing up rooms. The first mage to a certain number of points, I believe, wins the game. But it’s more about the crazy and powerful things that you can do which makes me want to try it.

16: Descent: Legends of the Dark

Another big game, Descent: Legends of the Dark takes up basically a full Kallax cube by itself. And the box says Act 1 on it. This is going to be a story driven dungeon crawler of a game. But it’s from Fantasy Flight, so they used what they knew from their apps for Mansions of Madness, Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth, and more to make even a better app. This really helps with the fog of war or not knowing what’s behind a door as you play. I’ve done a demo, but not enough to count as a play.

15: Betrayal Legacy

Betrayal Legacy is a game that’s been on my too play list for a while. It has two great things about it, first it’s a legacy game, and I love legacy games an their progressing story. Secondly, it’s based off of Betrayal at House on the Hill. A game that I know isn’t balanced, but it is still a game that I love. Not too many games do horror too well, and Betrayal often feels like a horror movie in so many great ways. So I’m excited to see what can be done with a bigger story.

14: Loup Garou

Now we’re looking at a game that is a book. Loup Garou from Van Ryder Games is a game in that you go through and make choices. You play as a character and they have stats. But in a lot of ways, it’s a choose your own adventure. It’s a graphic novel, so you read the text, look at what you can do, and that determines where you flip to. I don’t know why, since I got this at GenCon in 2019, I haven’t just played this. It’s solo only and it’d be easy to get through, probably with dying. I need to play this ASAP.

13: Under Falling Skies

Another solo game, Under Falling Skies was added to my collection more recently. This is almost Space Invaders the game. But it seems really intriguing as a puzzle, plus there is a comic that comes with it and a mini campaign. You place down dice in the game to activate different things. The trick is that the weaker things won’t do as much, but the stronger things, alien spaceships descend faster. It’s finding when you’re perfectly ready to do that one big thing, from what I can tell.

12: Nidavellir

Another smaller box game on the list. Nidavellir is a set collection and auction game. And there is one reason it is so high, and it’s not the Norse Mythology. But it is because of how the auction works. You have five coins. You use three of them to bid and two are at the bottom. If you put a zero as one of your bids, you can trade in the higher of the two left over coins to get the value of the two left over coins. So you can upgrade your money as you go. When do you tank a bid, taking whatever is left, to do that.

11: Sea of Legends

I think from here on out is all big games, or mainly. It isn’t all campaign games, though. Sea of Legends isn’t a campaign game, but it is an epic story game of pirates. What drew me to this game, besides wondering about the story the game promises, is three things. Those three things set up your story, but at the start of the game, you pick a Captain, a Nemesis and a Lover. And that all determines your story. So you end up with a lot of variability. Plus it’s pirates and adventure on the seas, so it’s a theme that I love and look for in board games.

10: Middara: Unintentional Malum Act 1

This one could be higher on the list. Middara does a lot of things that interest me. It is a campaign game. It does fog of war well. There is massive amounts of story. The theming is crazy space, fantasy, anime, all things that I’m down for. And let’s face it, I could just say it’s anime because a lot of anime is space fantasy and crazy. But this one looks really cool to get to the table and massive to get to the table. I need to find a group to play this one with.

9: Deep Madness

Deep Madness is a game that I can blame on Rolling Solo. This is a game that is not easy to track down, mainly because it was just on Kickstarter. And I own almost everything for it, but I haven’t played it. The madness should give you some idea as to the sort of game, but what I like is that this is set on a deep sea base. And monsters are coming in and have wiped out everyone. The corporation who built the base is now sending the team down to figure out what is going on. It’s a theme and horror that I love so much, I just need to play it.

8: Lost Ruins of Arnak

Now we’re back from campaign style games. Though, Deep Madness can be played as a scenario, but they are kind of linked. Lost Ruins of Arnak is a deck building worker placement game. I like deck building, and worker placement isn’t my normal thing, but not bad. Lost Ruins of Arnak just has a cool Indiana Jones vibe to it that drew me in. And I think the deck building and theme will make it work well for myself and my group.

7: The Ratcatcher: The Solo Adventure Game

So when I said that there might be one smaller game left, this is it. It’s an interesting game in that it’s a solo only game, three of them on the list, but it’s a big box. It honestly feels like a bigger box than the game should have. In this you are trying to catch rats and get cheese. If the rats get too much cheese, now a big bad rat comes out onto the board, and things are going to get scary. It’s again a solo game, so one that I should get played.

6: Solomon Kane

Back to massive games, Solomon Kane is one that’s been on lists of games that I want to play for a while. But some of that was also that I wanted to buy it. It came and went on Kickstarter while I wasn’t too active there. And it’s been delivering last year and now wave two this year, and I managed to get wave one stuff for it.

In Solomon Kane you don’t play as Solomon Kane, you play as virtues guiding him. And I think that concept is interesting. You can play it solo with one super virtue, or each player gets a virtue in a multiplayer game. And then you take him through stories. Really interesting with how it works with not controlling the main character.

5: Roll Player Adventures

Kind of a cheat for the list, I really like Roll Player Adventures, but I’ve only kind of played it. Roll Player Adventures, I got to play a demo of it at GenCon in 2019 while they were still doing playtesting of the game. But the game is a blast, and the story, I like, because it isn’t too heavy. It’s a big story game set in the Roll Player world, but also a dice manipulation game when you drop into combat.

I know I’m going to be diving into this one soon. So I’m excited to get it to the table. I ordered the character backstory pack for it with the special quests that you can get from it for each character. I think that is going to make the whole thing even more immersive, which is great.

4: Nemesis

Another horror game, Nemesis is, from what I’ve heard, the closest you can get to Alien the board game. There is an alien infestation on your ship, and you need to complete your objective and then take out all the aliens or launch yourself out in an escape pod. But you don’t want the aliens to get to Earth, that’s for sure. But you want to end up there, so can you get the engines to launch you there.

3: Dwellings of Eldervale

Another non-campaign game, in fact a number aren’t in the top, but they are big games. Dwellings of Eldervale is that. This one really interested me because it has giant monsters, but also you are doing worker placement. But I really like how the worker placement works. You unlock new workers but also your workers become your dwellings. And when you pull back workers they do things as well, so it’s not a waste of a turn to pull back workers.

2: Terraforming Mars

Super high on the list and a big game in how long it takes and how big it plays, Terraforming Mars is so high because I really like Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition. I know that the games are different, there is more take that or randomness, and area control and you have a much bigger board that you’re using in Terraforming Mars. But I really want to play it and see how I like the engine building that goes on in that game.

1: Destinies

Finally, we have Destinies. Destinies is a game from Lucky Duck Games where you are playing through a story, but unlike a lot of story games, this is competitive. And each of you is trying to complete a destiny of yours. And it is a race to see who can complete theirs first. What interests me are some of the mechanics a roll over a certain number to get successes is cool. Plus you can manipulate that. But also that you need to pay attention to the story on other people’s turns because they might find something to help you.

To me, that’s a good game in that it’ll keep you engaged with what everyone is doing. Even if I’m not taking my turn, I need to know what you are doing as well. I might not be actively interacting with anything, but I still need to pay attention. And if a game can do that, I really want to play it.

Final Thoughts

That’s the whole list, all 124 of them. I could have had one less if I counted my playtesting of Roll Player Adventures. But also, that is a game that’s extremely high on my list for wanting to get played. Definitely a lot more big games up here. Though, I think outside of the campaign games, most of them can get played. And I could see, if things fall right, even getting one or two of those to the table this year. Like I said, I think Roll Player Adventures will be getting played soon.

Which one would you play first?

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124-101

Unplayed Board Games – 100 through 76

100: KeyForge: Call of the Archons

KeyForge has been on my radar for a little bit, mainly because the concept sounded interesting. It’s almost a TCG (trading card game) but you can’t build decks. All of them are prebuilt but also are different. And it’s a two player head to head game, take out monsters, get keys, and first to a number wins. They were on sale around Christmas, so I figured it was time to pick up a few decks to give it a try.

99. Vault Wars

This is one that I backed on Kickstarter because I find the concept funny. And I suspect that the game play is going to be easy enough to get it to the table with my gaming group. Vault Wars is basically fantasy Storage Wars. You bid to get the best vaults to get you the most points or money by the end of the game. I hope it’s a goofy good time.

98. Mage Knight

Probably should be higher on the list, but I’m intimidated by the rules for this game. It is notoriously hard to get to the table and learn. But it’s also supposed to be one of the best solo games out there. And while big solo games can be tricky to get tabled for me. I feel like I need to give it a try.

97: Shadows of Kilforth

This one I bought because Rolling Solo did a play-through of the predecessor to this game, Gloom of Kilforth. It’s a fantasy game and one that kind of has a story emerge as you go. But you play as a hero going out into this dark fantasy world, fighting monsters, getting cards of companions and equipment to see if you can defeat the boss in the end. I like the ideas of the game, I just need to play it.

96. Sentinels of the Multiverse

Sentinels of the Multiverse is on the list for an odd reason, or this low on the list for an odd reason. In 2020 at the Holidays Greater Than Games had a crazy good sale for Sentinels stuff. So I got all of it, or most of it. And I think I paid $75 for all of it. So very cheap. But now I have all the stuff, and it’s a bit intimidating to pull off the shelf. I just need to do it and play it. Because super heroes and super villains are my jam for board games.

95. Narabi

This is a little card game that is hard to explain. You are trying to get all the cards into ascending numerical order. But with that, each card is only allowed to move in a certain way, or has a movement rule on it. So it becomes a puzzle where you can share limited information to swap cards around to see what they can do, until you get it into order. A cool puzzle of a game idea where you see how fast you can do it.

94: Quadropolis

This is an older game that I just got. But Quadropolis is one I’ve had my eye on. It’s a city building game that looks simple but intriguing. I really like the mechanics of how you determine what tiles you can get to add to your city. And Days of Wonder, while not everything is a smash hit for them, has made some of my favorite accessible games like Ticket to Ride, Small World, and Five Tribes.

93: Jamaica

Jamaica, when I heard about it, I knew I wanted to try. But it is not a game that has always been easy to get. When Fantasy Flight Game Center, now GameZenter, was clearing off their demo wall to rebuild it better, it isn’t better, they sold the games. So, I need to do a piece count and then play this, but it’s a pirate racing game, that sounds like a fun time, assuming the pieces are there.

92: Heaven & Ale

Normally I don’t get Euro Games, but again, a sale. Also, one of the reviewers I follow, Ryan from Man vs Meeple, is a big fan of this game. So that recommendation and a euro game about brewing beer, I was interested. And I say that I normally don’t get euro games, I don’t, but I don’t dislike them. So I need to do my best monk brewing beer impression sometime soon.

91. Silver & Gold

Silver & Gold is a roll and write game, another one that I need to try. And one that I think will be a lot of fun, because you get to fill out cards throughout the game. So like Super Mega Lucky Box, you get to use dry erase markers on the cards. And it has this treasure hunting theme, but is more of a shape filling in game. I think it looks like one that is easy enough to learn but still interesting to play.

90: This War Of Mine

I’m intimidated by this game, much like Mage Knight. I’ve heard it it hard to learn. But more than that, this is a game about a fictional war and trying to survive in it. The concept is cool, but also a dark concept. And it’s tough to want to sit down and play a game with story that you know you probably won’t survive. Especially if it’s a harder game to learn and get to the table. But the concept sounds very intriguing and different to try.

89: Boomerang

Not the last time you’ll see a Boomerang on the list. A roll and write game. Won’t say too much about it, looks like a good puzzle of a game, like the one you’ll see coming up. This version just doesn’t look at nice as the other.

88: Descent: Journeys in the Dark

Descent is an interesting one, and this isn’t the big box version of the game that just came out. This one has been out for a little while. But it’s interesting as I do want to play the game, but I mainly got the game so I could practice painting minis. That is something I that I need to get back to doing, and we’re getting close to the point where I might be able to prime them outside. But I do want to try the game, because fantasy dungeon crawl, I like those.

87: MonsDRAWsity

We go from a big fantasy game to a small fantasy game, a party fantasy game. MonsDRAWsity, has one person a monster that they look at and then describe. Everyone else draws the monster. And I believe, the person with the closest drawing wins. It’s a drawing party game, but one that looks silly and fun.

86: WWE Legends Royal Rumble Card Game

Speaking of silly and fun, I’m a professional wrestling fan. It’s true, I mainly just watch the pay-per-views with a group of friends. And the Royal Rumble is the best one. This one is a take that style game where you try and be the winner of the Royal Rumble. Your guy gets tossed out, you get a new one, and the last one standing wins. Clearly I already know the group I want to play this with.

85: Shadowrun: Sprawl Ops

I really like the world of Shadworun. This cyber-punk future where corporations run everything. And you go on runs, hacking into systems, and exposing dirty secrets, great idea. And I’d love to play in a Shadowrun RPG campaign. This is a board game version, and it’s about setting up for a run. I have a massive box of stuff, but how the runners of the Kickstarter handled distribution, there were lots of problems, I’m less excited to play it.

That’s probably not a great reason not to play it. I think that it looks like a fun game. I still love the theme. It’s just harder to get into wanting to play it. Though, I did get the cooperative expansion, so maybe that’d be an easier way to get it to the table.

84: Boomerang: USA

I told you Boomerang would be back. The first, more logically, it set in Australia, but using the system, the designer made more versions. This version just looks nicer than the version I own of Boomerang. Either way, I need to play one or both. And then decide which one I want to keep, if I keep one, because I doubt I’ll want both of them.

83: Palm Island

I don’t know why this one is still on the list. Mainly I think because I play Orchard most of the time when I want a small solo game. Palm Island is a solo game that fits in the palm of your hand. It’s a resource management style game, if I remember correctly. You are trying to build up your engine to get more cards flipped around to flip more cards. I need to give it a whirl.

82: Blueprints

Blueprints is one that my FLGS recommended to me. It’s an abstract game about getting dice to build buildings. This falls into that category of a game that looks like it’ll be an interesting puzzle every time you play it. And I like those games where there is a good puzzle to it. Will the puzzle last a long time for me, we’ll have to see.

81: Specter Ops

Specter Ops is a hidden movement board game. One player is infiltrating a base to get to different objectives and then get out. The other player(s) are trying to figure out where they are and take them down. I like the concept and the theme of the game. This one is just the matter of learning both sides so I can teach it.

79: Crash Octopus

From the company that made Tokyo Highway, a dexterity game that I love, Crash Octopus is another one. This one is about flicking treasure to your ships and balancing the treasure on them. It seems like a silly game and one that will, like Tokyo Highway, look cool on the table. I want to see if it works as well as Tokyo Highway does for my gaming group.

78: 6 nimmt!

I don’t think the first time I heard about 6 nimmt! was from an anime, Afterschool Dice Club, but that is where I learned the most about it. This is a card game about trying to avoid taking points. I picked it up on sale when I got No Thanks! and both of the games kind of fit into that same mindset of figuring out clever play. I hope that this one works as well for my group as No Thanks! did.

77: InBetween

Two of the last three I got because of Sam Healey liking them on the Dice Tower. His and my tastes in game often overlap because we both go towards bigger, Amerithrash style games. The two on this part of the list are not that. InBetween is a two player game that feels, from what I can tell, like Stranger Things. One player is trying to get everyone to one side, while the other player is trying to flip them into the “upsidedown”.

It’s not actually a Stranger Things game. But the theme definitely has that vibe to it, and I think it came out about the same time. So theme wise, I like it. And as a two player game, I should be able to get it to the table.

76: Heroes of Terrinoth

This is another game that I saw on Rolling Solo’s YouTube channel. And it also looks good, card play game from Fantasy Flight, I liked how you level up in the game. And I like that you can pick from a variety of heroes. It isn’t a dungeon crawl game, but it almost has that feel. You pick a scenario, you can move between places, and you fight monsters. Plus you level up to improve how you can do things, which was cool.

75: Codinca

The final Sam Healey recommended game on this part of the list is also small, and it’s abstract. So that’s probably why it hasn’t gotten played. I’m bad about playing my abstract games, even though I normally like them. Codinca is a game where you want to create a pattern.

Final Thoughts

We’re still not into a ton of the big board games. But I do think this will be a section where I can get a lot of games off of the list. Stuff like Boomerang USA and Boomerang, Silver & Gold, Codinca, and Blueprints, all of those shouldn’t be hard to table.

On the flip side, I’m also going to be a bit surprised if I do get This War of Mine or Mage Knight to the table as part of clearing off games. I am very intimidated by both of those rule books. And I’m generally the one learning how to play the games so I know I can. But those two look like beasts to learn and with not great rule books, probably tough to get rules right.

Which one should I play first?

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The Games

Well, no spoilers like last time, the list will be at the bottom for those who don’t have time to watch the whole video. But let’s talk a bit about how I picked these games. This is a bit different than a lot of lists. The other two I’ve done, they were cooperative games and small box games. A game is either in a small box or not, though small can be debated. And a game is either cooperative or not. Or at least it has a cooperative mode anyways. For this list, it was my choice of what I had on my shelf.

There was an even split of cooperative and competitive games on the list which surprised me. And if you know my taste in games, there were five campaign style games on the list. Though, that’s only half the list, I thought I might have picked more. And there were some games that I left off the list that definitely could have made it.

So they are honorable mentions that I didn’t mention, but Forgotten Waters and Dice Throne Adventures are two of the top ones on that list. Lost Ruins of Arnak , Yggdrasil Chronicles and Detective: City of Angels also could have made the list. I skipped games like Vienna Connection because while I haven’t played it, I have played Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game which is the same system.

The Beer

Last nights beer was a local one again. This time from Lift Bridge brewing, it was a Kolsh beer, Lemon Bar flavored. It is an okay beer. I saw lemon in the name and I was excited for it, but like the pink lemonade beer that I had from Tin Whiskers a stream or two ago. While a lemon bar should be sweeter, the sweetness basically overwhelmed the lemon flavor. The lemon should have been a stronger punch of flavor with a sweet finish versus what it was to make it a more enjoyable drink. Still, for a hot summer day, I think it’d be a solid option, just not the first one I’d reach for.

The List

1. Nemesis
2. Dwellings of Eldervale
3. Middara: Unintentional Mallum Act 1
4. Clank Legacy: Acquisitions Incorporated
5. Reichbusters: Projekt Vril
6. Solomon Kane
7. Deep Madness
8. The Reckoners
9. Kohaku
10. Heroes of Land, Air, & Sea

Upcoming Streams

So a few options for what’s coming up next. No Monday stream next week, but I’m thinking some reviews and maybe a topic instead of a Top 10 for my next stream. So let me know what topic sounds good.

And on Wednesday, I think my plan is to play Railroad Ink Challenge, but I had so much fun playing Aeon’s End last Wednesday that following that up, I mght actually start playing Aeon’s End Legacy two handed for a bigger playthrough. Let me know your thoughts on that, I as I learn how to play it, I might have some polls for whom I should play as.

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Publisher Portraits: Awaken Realms

Awaken Realms was originally founded as a game that made minis. This is pretty apparent if you look at the board games that they have put out. Granted, not so much with the first one they put out, This War of Mine. That game was based off of the popular video game. From there, they have branched out into a lot of other genres of game with Cyber punk in Lords of Hellas, grim dark Arthurian legend with Tainted Grail, ancient China with Great Wall, dreams with Etherfields, and most recently space with ISS Vanguard.

What Are Their Games Like?

Awaken Realms prides itself in making games that have great theme in them as well as amazing components. This really comes across in all of their games that I have played. They also try and give you an unique experience in all of their games. This can be pushing the story element or it can be creating interesting mechanics.

When I did my different types of gamer article, found here, Awaken Realms very much creates those experience games. Great Wall is basically a euro game, but it has minis and tries to immerse you in the theme. But Tainted Grail, the combat is a very interesting puzzle, but the story element just has you exploring and discovering so much in this huge world. This is really a hallmark of what Awaken Realms does. The knock can be that their games can be a little rough around the edges, but that adds into the immersion and the experience of the game most of the time.

Board Game Spotlight

Tainted Grail

I’ve talked about it some already up on what type of games they make, but Tainted Grail is an immersive story driven game. It really takes you on an adventure as you fight monsters, try and survive and deal with this grim dark Arthurian legend. This isn’t about nights in shining armor, it is about surviving and seeing if you can save the lands of Avalon. The game is really driven by the exploration and the story that you play through in 15 different chapters, but the combat and diplomacy mechanics are interesting as well. I like the card puzzle that you are given when fighting someone and trying to figure out how you can optimize it. I’ve done a lot of videos on Tainted Grail that you can see below.

This War Of Mine

This is the only Awakens Realm game based on an IP (Intellectual Property) that I can think of. Another survival game, this one I have picked up but haven’t played yet. You are trying to survive in a war torn land, build things, go out and find food, and survive another night as fighting can break out at any time. It’s a very depressing game, from what I’ve heard, but has a solo mode which is why I picked it up. Rolling Solo has a video that goes over the rules and how a day works in the game.

Lords of Hellas

Lords of Hellas is a little bit like a ton of other games but also like no other game I’ve ever played. In Lords of Hellas you get a hero from Greek lore and are fighting to complete various objectives to win the game. But how the game plays is just wild, you can win by conquering lands, building and controlling temples, fighting and killing monsters, and more. And each hero that you can play is different and you unlock other things that make you even more different as the game goes on. Plus, you are building minis in this game, there are towers that you end up building and those minis are amazing looking. This game really highlights that Awaken Realms is good at minis. The Dice Tower has a great play through of the game.

Flick of Faith

Now, for something completely different. Awaken Realms also has a line of lighter games. This is one of them. I haven’t played, but I really want to, because it seems like a ton of fun. You are flicking discs onto a board and trying to get them to stop in different areas to score you points. Now, the concept isn’t the most unique, but there are discs of different sizes and values. And there are special rules each round that the players can vote on which one they want. The game seems like a lot of fun, and when Man vs Meeple played it, well, you can see for yourself.

Final Thoughts on Awaken Realms

Like Mythic Games, whenever Awaken Realms puts out a game on Kickstarter, or now on their own Crowdfunding platform GameFound, I am going to be interested. The experience of playing an Awaken Realms game is truly hard to describe. There is something that makes it unique every time. Whether it be the story that they create, or the mechanics that they put together, it works. Now, I haven’t backed everything of theirs, I did skip their worker placement in Great Wall, but even that has more theme than most worker placements. If you want a game that will have interesting mechanics and be dripping with theme, Awaken Realms does that so well.

Which Awaken Realms game interests you the most? Or do you have a favorite already that you’ve played?

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The format is going to go along the lines of this:

• Company Overview
• Highlight The Feel
• Game Spotlights
• Final Thoughts

Let’s get to Mythic Games.

Publisher Portraits: Mythic Games

Mythic Games was founded in 2015 by Benoit Vogt and Leonidas Vesperini. Generally, Mythic Games has made very big immersive games, like their first game, Joan of Arc. This kind of set the tone for their company for a while as they have followed that up with massive games like Solomon Kane, Reichbusters: Projekt Vril, and a less story driven but still big game Super Fantasy Brawl. Recently, as of 2020, they announced a smaller line of games, their Phoenix Line, which started out with the game Enchanters. They have a few games, including one based off of a popular IP, Darkest Dungeon, still in the pipeline of Kickstarter having been funded and waiting to fulfill.

What Are Their Games Like?

The general feel I get from Mythic Games is that they generally produce epic and memorable games. Now, their Phoenix Line is a bit different from that. From what I can tell, the Phoenix Line was meant to bring in smaller and more accessible games versus their larger style of game.

Immersive and Experience Driven

With the larger games, though, they are extremely immersive, sometimes to a point where the rules don’t always work perfectly. That has been a knock on Mythic Games in the past, they make really interesting games, but he rules for those games can be a bit rough the first time around and generally they end up releasing either a 1.5 version of the game or just a new rules book. This is obviously a negative, but if you make it into the game, the experiences do hold up to the effort that was put into learning the game.

Board Game Spotlights

Super Fantasy Brawl

Normally I am not a big fan of skirmish games. Skirmish games tend to lend themselves to one person getting lucky in a lot of them. And because they tend to be 1 vs 1 battling, I find them harder to get to the table. Super Fantasy Brawl does a good job of giving more options than just to beat someone up. In Super Fantasy Brawl you are taking a team of three champions up against another team of three champions, so nothing that unique. What works so well for me, though, is the game play.

In Super Fantasy Brawl, you complete you actions by playing cards. Each card matches a color and a hero, you can play each color once per turn and that’ll activate the champion shown on it. The play is super simple, but gives you a lot of choices. And you aren’t just trying to knock out your opponent, though that is part of the strategy. You are going for five trophies, and you can do that by completing goals or knocking out your opponent. I find that you need to do both to be able to win. This is longer than how the game normally goes, but that is because GloryHoundd is talking with the chat which slows things down.

Reichbusters: Projekt Vril

You are the Allied Forces going on missions into Germany to stop the horrible experiments that are going on and the new soldiers that are being created. Honestly, this feels like you are taking the Howling Commandos from Captain America, and going up against Hydra and the Red Skull, to be honest. And I love that about the game.

I also like for a campaign style game with dungeon crawl, you don’t always just kick down the door and throw in a grenade. Most dungeon crawl games give you that option, but Reichbusters, it’ll go sideways fast if you do that as the more noise you make, the more bad guys can show up. I also like that even though this can be played campaign, it can also be played as a one off scenario. Gloryhoundd again takes on the game, so check out their playthrough below.

Solomon Kane

Another campaign game with dungeon crawling feel to it, Solomon Kane strives to be more than that. Solmon Kane has you playing through the story adventures of the Solomon Kane short stories and books but in a not so normal way. Normally in a board game you play directly as the heroes. In Solomon Kane, it is a bit different.

Instead, you are all playing a virtues, Courage, Prudence, Temperance, and Justice, all of which influence Solomon Kane on his journey. This makes it so that no one player is playing the main hero. This game also leans heavily into the narrative element as well. You can see me unbox everything for it over on Malts and Meeples below. Plus some solo game play from Rolling Solo.

Joan of Arc

Final one I’m going to be talking about as I’m still waiting for my copy to come in, Joan of Arc. I do also have HEL: The Last Saga, but no one has received that yet, so I don’t have any videos for it. Joan of Arc is not a game that I thought I was going to love. Mainly because it is a minis game, and who knows, I still might not. But it is a scenario based game that doesn’t just have you taking two armies up against each other.

Plus, I love the setting for Joan of Arc. It is the historical world, but it pulls from the history of that time and adds in fantastical elements that were presented in the history. So if something was eating sheep, it might have been werewolves, or some unexplained sighting, maybe a dragon. It takes those accounts from real history and adds it into the actual events that we know happened. The setting is just really interesting to me. And over on the Dice Tower they played through a scenario.

Final Thoughts on Mythic Games

I’m a big fan of theirs and their games. Mainly because they tend to have a great experience behind them, which you can see in the game plays that I have highlighted. Even something like Super Fantasy Brawl that doesn’t have an epic story behind it, it still has memorable moments and the game play is so light and fun that it works really well.

Have you played a Mythic Games game before? What is your favorite, do you have any that you want to try?

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Pros

• Theme
• Game Play
• Campaign
• One-off

Cons

• Price

The Page

This is a well laid out page, and it does a good job of highlighting the right things. By that I mean that it isn’t only just showing off the minis, sure we get lots of shots of them, but they do hit on game play as well, and they have play through videos up on their page as well. And it’s not just playthrough videos, they have previews, they have how to play videos, and they have them not only in English. Now, I watched some of the ones in English, but I like that they are reaching out to a larger audience by not just having it in English.

And it’s not just in video form, they also have a ton of details on game play on the page as well. It goes through how the boss battles will work. But not just the boss battles, but how character progression goes and more. Reggie Games has created one game before this, but that one clearly went well for them, on the second try and this one they look like they are a long time professional Kickstarter company with the layout of this page.

The Game

I hadn’t checked out much game play until I saw that the Rolling Solo YouTube channel had done a playthrough of a boss battle. That really caught my attention for a few different reasons.

Firstly the card play is very interesting. I like when what you play and what order you play it in matters. Not only can it matter for how you attack and how you do defense, but it can also matter for how the monster will react. The fact that there isn’t so much a monster turn, but monster reactions to what you do is great, it feels really dynamic in how it plays out. Yes, the characters will take some attrition damage at the end of their turns, but it isn’t a big amount of damage like the monster attacking.

I also found it interesting that this wasn’t on a big map, so no fighting through minions, but more than that, no hex or square based movement. It’s simply the monster in the center of the board and four spots around it that characters can move. But it doesn’t lose a tactical nature. Depending on the phase of the monster, you go through various damage tiers, where you can even deal it damage will change, it might be the front and back and then the back and sides.

The drawing of the monsters aggression was really interesting as well. It feels thematic as one character will do a massive amount of damage and the monster will focus on them, but then another player might and the focus will change as time goes on.

Finally, the characters also seem unique. In the Rolling Solo playthrough one of them had a bow and was ranged and could basically pepper the monster with some small bits of damage which adds up over time, whereas the other was more of a tank and drew the aggression. They were able to deal out some bigger hits but not always as consistent damage.

Back or Brick

Right now, I’m leaning towards this being a Back for me, but I’m only in at $2 right now so that I can get access to the pledge manager. What really sold me on this one was the fact that it’s a big boss battler but you can do it in a stand-alone fight as well as a campaign. I have a boss battler that is coming in Oathsworn, but that’s a big epic campaign that has a massive story section as well as boss battle at the end of each story. This one is all about the boss battle, I also am really interested in it because no dice that I remember in the playthrough so while there are random elements it isn’t a purely dice chucking Amerithrash game. The only thing holding me back is the price point, which I get because of all the massive minis in it, so I’ll probably just put more money in during the pledge manager.

How about for you, is this game a back or a brick?

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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.

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