The Crux of the Problem

So, I say problem, we can determine if it’s actually a problem or not. But let’s talk about the big reason why I’m talking about this in the first place. For a lot of people, myself included, board games are a social activity. When you add in a solo mode it takes a game that is that social activity and makes into an activity of solitude.

Some board games, as I hinted at in the introduction, rely on that interaction and shared nature of board games. When I attack another army, it isn’t the games army, it is your army. We make alliances and then break them depending on the state of the game. Yes, all of these examples are from Risk, but it’s true for a number of games.

Yet, even games where there can be large amounts of interaction are getting solo additions to them. Sometimes it comes later, but sometimes it’s out of the box when you buy it. Let’s look at Root for example, that game is a war game. Yet there is a way to play it solo. Is that a good thing to have in the box?

Board Games Doing Solo Well

On the flip side of the problem I laid out is that a lot of board games do allow for playing solo well. When I sit down and play a game like The 7th Citadel or Stonespine Architects, they make solo game play simple. I intentionally did pick one that is a cooperative game but also one that’s competitive. They make solo work smoothly and easily.

Some board games, though, do end up with clunky systems or systems that don’t make that much sense. I think of Roll to the Top which isn’t that complex a system but is basically playing the game a second time to get it to work. That isn’t that fun, the gratification of playing the game is reduced because the solo mode doesn’t work well. The same can be said for Trek 12. And now Trek 12 is a game that I like a lot, but the solo mode out of the box with an opponent to beat is clunky and slows down the fun.

So Why Offer Solo Modes?

The first reason is that for some people board games are more of a solo activity. It is hard for them to get out and play with other people. And while it’s fun to have a big campaign game, or a small solo game to fit in your pocket, sometimes they want to experience other styles of games. So offering a solo mode opens up games to a lot more people.

It also offers gamers a chance to game more. For me this is a big one. I try and sit down at least once a week on Wednesday and stream a solo game. I will get back to doing Mondays more often once school has started for my kid as well. But I get to experience games, a lot of the time campaign games, and decide if they are for me. Though, I’ll caveat this for myself, I stream games because it gives me some of that social aspect of gaming to share the game with others.

Another, possibly overlooked, reason is that it allows for a gamer to learn and play a game prior to needing to teach it. I think this one is very important, though does have a caveat as well. If I sit down and learn the game it is way easier to teach. I deal with questions prior to ever teaching someone. I learn some of the pitfalls of the game. The caveat is that the solo mode needs to be similar enough to the actual game play.

So Keep Solo Modes for Board Games

I think, and I think you all knew, that board games should keep solo modes. I also think that more board games should have solo modes. But as always, the caveat, they need to be done well. And from what I see, not all designers know how to create a good solo mode. This isn’t a bad thing, it’s more a statement around game design how designing for solo is different than for multiplayer.

That said, that’s not an excuse. This reminds me of film when a writer comes in and does that final polish on a film. They aren’t rewriting the whole thing, instead they have a particular skill where they can polish up a script to make it work the best it can for film or television. It’s something that the original creator might not have or might have a hard time doing. A solo mode creator is very similar to that. The great ones channel an ability to create that, not to rework the whole game, but to take what is there and make the best possible solo mode.

So enjoy solo modes. If you don’t want to play solo, don’t play solo. But there is a great reason for them to be in the box if you don’t love solo modes. And for board game companies, keep on putting them there. Even if they rarely get played, but make them good. Don’t add them just to sell to a few more people, add them because they make it easier to learn and teach the game later. And because they stay true to your game.

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I’ve already talked about culling games, and it is something that I do fairly often, I should look to play more new ones again and do another cull soon. But this article is about how you can maximize the amount of games that you can have in a space.

Step 1: Combine

Now, don’t worry, I am not talking about combining a game like Five Tribes into the Ticket to Ride box and having both in the same box. I don’t like that. But I like to look at a game and go, can I fit the expansion into here. Is there some way that I can make it work. Some games it works well for, Marvel United for example, others, you can free up a little space, like with Root. But how can I free up that space by putting an expansion into the base box.

Step 2: Throw Out Inserts

This ties directly into the first one, but throw out inserts, and this is really for games with expansions. There is an exception to this rule. If the insert makes the game easier to get to the table, keep the insert. For example, if Stars of Akarios comes out with an expansion, I am not going to get rid of the insert in the base game to get it all into one box. Why, the insert makes the game easier to table. But on the flip side, Reichbusters had a big insert to house one giant mini. I don’t need that, so let me remove that and get my four boxes, and four big boxes, down to three.

Step 3: Organize

Then organize your space, and think about how you want to organize. Because of my streaming, I want some of the bigger titles behind me. But you can also do it by size of the games, types of games whatever it might be. I have three cubbies that are full of roll and write games for example, just not on the side on camera. But organizing helps you gain space in two ways. You can optimize how you place your games and you might find a few to cull.

Step 4: Organize Less

Now, this flies in the face of Step 3. But organize less. We are talking about fitting a lot of games in. Some games just won’t fit in a good spot. I have Hadrian’s Wall down below, why, because I am out of room. I really should play a couple of roll and writes and decide if I can get rid of a few. But if I tried to cram them all into one spot or keep them sorted too neatly, I’d have four semi-full cubbies for of roll and writes. Instead I have three jam packed ones and one that is in another spot.

Final Thoughts

Now, this might not be easy for you to do. I know of gamers who really want their games to be like they were when they got them. Keep them as new looking as possible, keep the expansion boxes if possible and some of that is because they might want to sell them again later.

So, it is something that is personal to the person doing it. It might be easier for you to sell games than to condense a base game and an expansion into a box. Or easier to sell a game than have a roll and write not with the other roll and writes. It depends on you, but if you want to get more games, the tips above or steps above will create more room.

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100 through 91 here.

90 through 81 here.

80 through 71 here.

70 through 61 here.

Top 100 Games 2022 Edition – 60-51

60. Long Shot: The Dice Game

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

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

Buy on Barnes & Noble

59. Trek 12: Himalaya

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

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

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

Buy on Miniature Market

58. The Night Cage

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

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

Buy on Miniature Market

57. Meadow

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

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

Buy on Cool Stuff Inc

56. Galaxy Trucker

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

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

Buy on Cool Stuff Inc

55. Pandemic

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

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

Buy on Miniature Market

54. Blood Rage

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

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

Buy on Amazon

53. Root

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

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

Buy on Cool Stuff Inc

52. Draftosaurus

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

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

Buy on Game Nerdz

51. Homebrewers

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

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

Buy on Amazon

Upcoming Stream

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

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

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

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The Games

So let’s talk about everything that has come in that I need to find room for on the shelf. Some of it, though, I do have a creative solution for. So the big game that I unboxed was obviously Marvel United X-Men. And that, as well as Marvel United, have a ton of minis in those boxes.

So while the game isn’t huge, it is a lot to store all of the minis. So to store them, I picked up some make-up holders, wall mounted ones, that will fit the minis in quite nicely. I’m hoping that I can hang them and fit almost all of them in there and keep Marvel United and Marvel United X-Men down to one Kallax shelf, but we’ll see if that is possible.

Marvel United X-Men

I’ve got to talk about this first, because, well, it was the biggest thing that I unboxed. And I’m excited to get Marvel United X-Men to the table. Marvel United is a fun game that is great to pull off the shelf and easily get to the table. And for a game that has so much with it, that is great. It means that I can easily play it.

Actually, thinking about it, I might do what I did for Marvel Champions, get some extra boxes, clasp boxes, to store it so that it’s easier to get to everything. Though, I might need to get different dividers than what I have now. But it might be worth it because the actual boxes for Marvel United only work okay for storing stuff.

But if you want a good introductory game and you love Marvel, see if you can find a pledge. I love how I can pull it off the shelf, grab out a villain, a character, and really get to the table so fast. When I play it, it is two or three times in a row, each game goes faster, and you swap out characters each time. Plus, you do need more than the core box to really get the experience of the game.

Ghosts of Christmas

Ghosts of Christmas is a trick-taking game that I got interested in because of BoardGameCo. He put out a video with why he liked the game a lot as not a big fan of trick-taking. Ghosts of Christmas is going to be played as three tricks at one time. One is for the past, one is for the present, and one is for the future. And when you figure out the results the tricks, it goes in that order. But what the trump suit is can change, I forget how it works, but I believe based off of the previous trick. So that offers a unique challenge.

QE

QE is an odd sort of game where bid for businesses. But the weird trick is you can bid however much you want. I bid $200,000,000,000. Well, now you know what you need to bid in order to win any. However, the person who bids the most automatically loses. Even if they own all the businesses, in which case no one wins.

So I bid a massive amount, four times and I own those, you bid $1 than I do next time, now you’re in the lead. Then someone bids just under my total to get the next one. And all of a sudden the bidding continues to grow and goes crazy. I hope that this is a very fun game that has a good party feel for me. And I imagine that there will be a lot of laughing as we play and as bidding goes crazy.

Paperback

Paperback is a word building and deck building game. And I love my deck building games. As you can see, I kind of forget why I picked this one up. But I think it’s a deck building game, and from what I’ve heard not too hard of one, that my wife will like a lot. She and I are both big readers, and Paperback, about writing a paperback while deck building seems like it’ll work well for us. Plus our group of gaming friends likely will enjoy it as well.

Root Expansion

Just a little Root expansion. It swaps out some of the cards in the game. I don’t know how, but I needed something small to get to free shipping. And it is some of why I was talking about lifestyle games, though, let’s face it, I got very distracted. But Root, so me, is a lifestyle game because, well, you need to know the game. It’s not one that I pull off the shelf to teach just anyone, the game is too complex. So the group who knows the game is the one it gets played with.

Hadrian’s Wall

On my list as a roll and write games that I’ve wanted to try. I haven’t picked it up, though, because Hadrian’s Wall is not a cheap game. And that kept me from buying it for a while, but I finally caved. Why, everyone loves it as a solo game. So I’m in for that. Plus, I keep on playing more complex roll and write games and loving them. Paper Dungeons is fairly complex but is pushing to be one of my favorite roll and writes. Fleet: The Dice Game is one I want to try more.

I like light roll and write games for my gaming group. Stuff like Ganz Schon Clever, Welcome To… and others, which might actually be mid-weight roll and writes. But when I want to play solo, I don’t mind if it is a little bit heavier. And Hadrian’s Wall is definitely not a light roll and write game.

Riverside

Another roll and write game. And Riverside is definitely going to be lighter than Hadrian’s Wall. But I’m curious to see how heavy it is. There is an element of a river where the boat goes up and down the river. And you get passengers or items to take to certain stops. So you can push the boat down the river, but at the cost of passing some things up. I don’t know if that makes the game mean at all, but I’m curious. Plus, the game just looks peaceful to play with the aesthetic.

Doodle Dash

Doodle Dash is a party game that seems like a lot of fun. I get a bit of Just One as a drawing game. One person is it trying to guess a word. And players are drawing as fast as possible. The first person to finish drawing grabs a piece. The second person rolls a die until they get a stop, and that ends the drawing for everyone else. The first person wins showing their picture first. But it’s the fastest drawn picture, probably the hardest to tell what it is. But if it is guessed, they and the guesser get more points. Seems like extremely silly fun.

The Drink

Just a Negroni again. I really love that drink, very good for the summer too. I appreciate the bitterness of the drink. And because of that, and the grapefruit nature, I find it very refreshing.

Upcoming Streams

So what’s coming up. Next week I do want to do a Monday and Wednesday. On Wednesday, definitely going to be some gaming. And Monday, we’ll see, maybe Monday will be streaming some smaller games and Wednesday start my next bigger campaign game. See what looks good to get started. I want to play something bigger again, as long as I can figure out a fast way to get it to the table. Sleeping Gods is good that way that even as a big table hog, set-up and breakdown of the game is not that hard.

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Ranking My Fantasy Games

46: The Red Dragon Inn

This should be a game that I like more than I do, it’s basically a hand management game around drinking in a bar after you’ve been out adventuring and gambling to win money and getting in fights. And I suspect I do I like this game more than I think. I just don’t like it at high player counts. Most of the time when I play The Red Dragon Inn it is over the recommended player count, to me this is a 4 player game only. I don’t want fewer, I don’t want more. At four, it’d feel like good silly fun and not a slog.

45: God of War: The Card Game

God of War is another theme in a game that I should love, but the game around it wasn’t that great. The deck building was interesting in the game. But the card play and the monsters that you fight, those aren’t all that interesting. It feels like the game was meant for mass market without hitting mass market. Or it’s a weird area in between mass market and hobby.

44: Kodama: The Tree Spirits

This is one that barely falls into the fantasy area. Yes, it does have the tree spirits, but that’s barely part of the game. It’s more about building out trees trying to create runs of the different things that you want. In concept it’s not that bad, and in game play it is okay. Kodoma is one of those games where I think a lot of people will enjoy it, and it’s not a bad game, but it won’t be many people’s favorite game.

43: Stuffed Fables

This is a game, in Stuffed Fables, I should maybe have given more tries. The theme of a being stuffed animals and toys of a kid trying to get their blanket back that was stolen, super cute. And the game was cute when I played it, but also more complex than it should be. I get what Plaid Hat Games is doing with their adventure book games, but with changing rules it just made it more complex than I wanted.

42: SeaFall

SeaFall, people would probably put that to the bottom of their lists because it is not a good legacy game. Though, legacy games, to me, have higher standards than most other games. If I am only going to get a limited use out of it, it needs to be epic. I liked the mechanics pretty well though they needed to be less punishing. But the story was a bit too scattered, though, with some tweaking, could be made better.

41: Near and Far

Well, I just wrapped up Sleeping Gods, that isn’t on the list yet, so I like it better. For me, Near and Far is a cool concept, a cool world, and just falls flat. The game has story, and even vignettes of story like Sleeping Gods, but it’s more mechanics than anything. And I think since it’s competitive the game couldn’t get away from the mechanics as much as how you score points.

40: Legacy of Dragonholt

Legacy of Dragonholt is another one of those games that isn’t bad, but could have been better. The system for an RPG/Choose Your Own Adventure game is fun. The story is okay, and that’s what kept me from diving back into it. It wasn’t that the concept of the story wasn’t good, but the execution of it felt too YA (young adult) and not a well written YA story, but one that got published because other YA books similar were well done and popular. I’d love to see Fantasy Flight come back to this system, keep some of the ideas and just improve the writing.

39: Fae

Fae is a fantasy game in cover art only. It is really an abstract game where you are a fae creature who is then hidden from everyone else and you try and score the most points. The game is good, and I like the challenge of trying to score points but not make it too obvious so that people tank your fae’s scoring. A clever idea and very abstract.

38: Legends of Andor

Another game that was in my collection and then left. And another one that is fun, it is an efficiency puzzle of how you get through the story as effectively as possible so you don’t trigger end game too early. My issue with it is only a me issue, I have too many campaign games. I let it go when I realized I would only ever play the starting scenario at least for right now. When I have capacity for that campaign, then I might get it back.

37: Sword & Sorcery

Sword & Sorcery left my collection, but that’s because I did play through the campaign. It is a fun campaign but one that I knew I wouldn’t revisit. The depth of game play is fun for a lighter dice chucking game. And the story is also light, well, in terms of the decisions that you make. I wish the story branched more, and that your powers would change up more, because once you found a few good things, you just did those.

36: Shadows of Brimstone: City of the Ancients

Shadows of Brimstone is one that hasn’t left my collection as a campaign game, but maybe should. The only issue is that I need to glue the figures back together. My first gluing didn’t stick as well as it should have, because I didn’t use the right glue. But also, it’s a theme that I don’t have games for, the weird west. So monsters and other worlds all messing with the old west. I love that theme and there aren’t many games or good books that I’ve found with it.

35: Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-Earth

Another campaign game, and another one that left my collection just because I wasn’t going to get to it anytime soon. But it’s Lord of the Rings, and app assisted from Fantasy Flight Games. The story was fun that I did play through. The writing was well done, which I appreciated, and you can see is something that’s important to me. Definitely a good one for Lord of the Ring fans, which I am.

34: Krosmaster: Arena

This is a skirmish game with fantasy characters casting spells, summoning monsters, and hacking and slashing away. I like that you pick and build the teams that you play with. I like the dice rolling and how you can play with secondary objectives so it’s not just knock out your opponent. But you can play just with knocking people out as well. Krosmaster is one I would keep but I didn’t have people to play it with, and now I have another skirmish game or two that I put over it.

33: Too Many Bones

This one will probably move up the list when my Gamefound comes in for the latest expansions. Not that I own any other Too Many Bones, but that might start me getting more. This is kind of a short campaign game where you fight some battles and then fight against a boss. But where the game really shines is how you build up your characters. Each of them do different things, and how you level them up gives you room to explore a character multiple times. Plus it’s a different fantasy world than anything else out there.

32: Lord of the Rings: Journey To Mordor

This is a roll and write game, but it is a fun little one. Not one that I own or one that I’d go and seek out to add to my roll and write collection. But Journey to Mordor basically has you advancing your Hobbit on their journey to Mordor while trying not to let the Nazgul get you. Very simple roll and write but it has a little more player interaction, so it feels different than some.

31: The Hobbit

Speaking of Hobbits, we have The Hobbit. This is a competitive game about dwarves trying to get treasure, which is kind of what the book is as well. I like the mechanics where you are leveling up skills based off of cards you play. But you want to balance it so everyone levels up because you can’t defeat the monsters all by yourself. So it’s semi-cooperative, but not in a way that someone is working against the group, it’s just that sometimes you let another person get the better thing.

30: Deadly Doodles

Another roll and write game, and this one I think has dropped a little on my list. It’s a good simple roll and write where you are trying to get treasures, find weapons and defeat monsters. And what you do gives you points. There are some different dungeons which add in more things to do as well, which I need to play around with.

29: The Lord of the Rings

And even more Lord of the Rings, this is the classic Fantasy Flight Game. I like how it plays through the books. And you play as the Hobbits taking the ring to Mordor. It is fairly abstracted, but the locations you go and the scenes you play through are all very Lord of the Rings, so it feels more thematic than just with what you are doing. Plus it’s a really tough cooperative game and I like those.

28: Titan Race

Normally I don’t love games that have a lot of in your face, try and mess the other person over, but Titan Race is a lot of fun. This is a fast game and a silly game with great fantasy in it. Titan Race is very silly and I like how the tracks work. You can either do a race where you loop over the same board over and over again, or you can do a grand prix and go over three boards and each board does different things. And those things make the game even sillier.

27: Claim

Claim is a two player trick taking game which is odd. Plus the first hand you play doesn’t actually give you a score, it is how you build your hand for trick taking. It’s such a clever idea and I like that it plays really fast. The fantasy theme comes in that the different suits are fantasy races. And each of those fantasy races has it’s own powers, or they might. Some of them there are just more of, whereas others have powers. A knight always beats a goblin, for example. So it puts even more of a twist on trick taking in a way I really enjoy.

26: Paper Dungeons: A Dungeon Scrawler

I don’t know where this one will end up, so middle of the list is good for right now. I don’t know where it’s going to end up because I’ve only played this roll and write game once. And I liked it a lot, it’s a dungeon crawler as a roll and write. But as compared to Deadly Doodles where you go into a dungeon and cross over stuff, you do a lot more in this game. You level up your heroes, you have powers and abilities, you craft items and brew potions. And the better you do in other things, better you can explore. A lot going on, but not too hard.

25: Skulk Hollow

Skulk Hollow is a game of woodland creatures, the Foxen, fighting against a Guardian. It’s a two player only game and one that is very asymmetrical. As the guardian my goal might change from game to game, depending on which guardian I am. And the Foxen, well they always want to beat down the Guardian. And the Foxen can change up depending on who their leader is. Really cute game and fast to learn and play.

24: Silver

I think I say this every time I talk about Silver, but it reminds me of a game I played growing up with a deck of cards. In Silver you have a village in front of you and you want the lowest score possible. You know what two of the cards are in your village. You don’t know the other three. So now you swap cards out or play them for powers to get rid of cards in your village and lower your score. It’s simple, it’s fun, there’s a lot of take that, yet it feels nostalgic in a good way.

23: Clank!: A Deck-Building Adventure

Clank is a fun push your luck, deck building, dungeon delving game. You want to get the best treasure that you can, but as you get cards, make noise, and well, annoy the dragon because it’s their horde, now the dragon starts damaging you. So you could jump in, grab the first thing you see and run, but if someone else can make it out, now they have more points and better treasure than you. Really fun game and easy enough to play for most people.

22: Deranged

Deranged might fall more into a horror game. But there is a magical gate and fantastical monsters who are out to get you. And you yourself can become one of those fantastical monsters if you don’t deal with your curses and get out in time, why, because you might become Deranged. The game has a lot going on, but I like the dual use cards and the theme of the game. A little horror I’m most certainly interested.

21: Village Attacks

Village Attacks is another darker themed game because you for sure are the monsters. And after a long day of terrifying villagers, you are ready to settle down. But nope, here some villagers to break down your door because clearly you’re the monsters, not the people trying to trash your place. That sounds light, and I find it silly, but it is themed dark. Still a very nice tower defense type of game.

20: The Grimm Masquerade

Themed with Grimm Fairy Tales, The Grimm Masquerade is a deduction game. You are each a masked party goer, one of the Grimm characters. You are of course looking for something, a glass slipper for Cinderella, but also have something you don’t want. Can you get what you need or make everyone else bust before they figure out who you are?

19: Ascension: Deckbuilding Game

Another deck building game, Ascension is fantasy themed. Really, like most pure deck building games, it’s about building up an engine that gives you points. I just like this fantasy theme and variability of it better than something like Dominion. But that’s not what we’re talking about. This lets you get heroes and casters and sages and constructions to fight monsters, get more income and buy more cards. I like that it offers a ton of different strategy for the game.

18: Res Arcana

Res Arcana is another in theme only fantasy games. You are basically building out an engine to get points and who can do it better to get points faster. I like it though with the theme of brewing potions and dragons and places of power. It makes it feel different, and I also like that you only have 8 cards to make your engine with.

17: The Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game

The Dresden Files are my favorite fantasy series. I love the world that Jim Butcher has created. The game, it does a good job of giving you the pieces of that world. But you need to know the world to connect them together. So it’s not the best fantasy game or story game for everyone, but if you know the series, it’s a lot of fun to play.

16: Small World

Small World is Risk with fantasy creatures, crazy powers, and well, a whole lot more fun. What really works is that this is a small board. The game is in your face, but it’s in everyone’s face. The option of hiding away in Australia is gone that you’d have in Risk. Plus, you get crazy combos. Flying Halflings, Seafaring Giants, Wealthy Trolls, all of them are possible. Really accessible game too for most new gamers.

15: The Lost Expedition

This one is on the list because of the expansions and promo cards. I don’t think in the base game there is anything too fantastical, but werewolves, fountain of youth, yeah, those are fantasy. This is all about surviving to get to the lost city of Z. The game is a really good cooperative one that if you have someone who is a alpha player, it keeps them from being too much of one.

14: Century: Golem Edition

This is another one where the theme is fantasy, but game play doesn’t really shine through on that. Still, the artwork and gem pieces are great, and I wouldn’t want a different theme. It’s a hand management game where you are building up cards in your hand to use them to turn gems into other gems until you get the right combinations to get golems. And the golems at the end of the game give you points. What is so amazing about this game is that turns are super fast, so while there are good decisions to be made, it doesn’t take long to get back to your turn.

13: Potion Explosion

We’ve all probably seen the app games where you get like colors to touch and that removes them from the board and if more hit, those are removed as well. That is what Potion Explosion is. You are making crazy potions by pulling dice and trying to get the like colors to hit. Light game with a great table presence.

12: Root

Root was one where I was thinking, is this actually fantasy. Well, let’s see, it’s animals fighting and building, so yes, that seems like fantasy. But really, it’s a confrontational game where you fight it out with your group trying to get points to win the game with everyone trying to keep everyone else in check. Great asymmetrical game, just know it’ll take some time to teach. And don’t let the artwork fool you, this is not a nice sweet happy game.

11: Roll Player

Roll Player is a game about making your Dungeons and Dragons (or Generic RPG) character. You draft dice to put them into various stats for your class. It’s a lot of fun as you try and match up colors and get the numbers right to score more points. Plus you buy up gear and abilities which can influence your stats or points as well. And that’s the game, it’s about building up your character.

10: Spire’s End

Spire’s End, coming soon to Malts and Meeples is a story adventure game. In Spire’s End you wake up to find a spire has appeared at the edge of your town and many people are missing. You and others go into the tower, fight monsters, make choices, and generally go on a weird and dark adventure. Really like this one as a solo game.

9: Super Fantasy Brawl

Super Fantasy Brawl, it’s in the name that it’s fantasy. Super Fantasy Brawl is a two player skirmish game where you are trying to complete objectives in an arena and knock out your opponents. Complete objectives, get trophies. Knock out your opponent, get trophies. The first to five wins. What I really like is the turn speed, you play up to three cards, one of each color and do what it says on the cards. And the cards you play determine who moves. Light game but very tactical in how you play.

8: Cartographers

The second game I have in the Roll Player world, won’t be the last. But Cartographers is a roll and write game where you are making a map of the land. And you get points for making it in certain ways. Forests surrounding mountains might give you a point or two, things like that. What makes it fantastical is that you put monsters on the map as well. And you don’t put your own down, you put them on your opponents board in the worst spot for them to make them score negative points.

7: Sleeping Gods

Sleeping Gods, well, you can watch me play this one I just wrapped it up over on Malts and Meeples. Sleeping Gods is a big adventure game where you, as the crew of the Manticore are transported to a new world. You want to get home, but in order to do that you must awaken the sleeping gods and all you know is that totems might help with that, not where to find them. So it’s really a sandbox game of exploring, finding quests, fighting monsters and more.

6: Roll Player Adventures

Roll Player Adventures, the final Roll Player world game, this is an adventure game set in the world of Roll Player, using mechanics or dice mechanics that feel like Roll Player, and it’s really good. I really like that Roll Player Adventures is an easy game to learn and a lighter game to play. A lot of the big adventure games can have a lot to keep track of and a lot of tokens. Roll Player Adventures has enough, but not too much. And the world you play in isn’t too dark.

5: Aeon’s End

Aeon’s End is another deck building game and the highest on the list. This is a cooperative game where you play as breach mages trying to fight off nemesis that come through. The game does two really interesting things for me. Firstly, you never shuffle your deck. So when you discard cards you can kind of put them in an order. And the other is that turn order is random. There is a deck, in a two player game, which has two activations for each character and two for the Nemesis. On a really bad draw you could go twice with each character and then two Nemesis turns, plus then shuffle that up again and two more Nemesis turns.

4: Lords of Hellas

Lords of Hellas is fantasy in the future, or mythology in the future. It’s a cyber world of Greek gods. An odd setting with some amazing miniatures and mechanical creatures. But a really good game with some rough edges and a lot of ways to win. To me that is one of the best parts of the game where you are able to win in a number of different ways. You might fight monsters or build and control a monument or take over areas, how you play is up to you and the powers you have.

3: Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon

Tainted Grail, if Roll Player is light fantasy or happy fantasy, Tainted Grail is very dark fantasy. The world of Avalon is falling apart, the Menhir that drove back the wyrdness are failing and you aren’t sent out to stop it. You are sent out to find out what happened to the people who are better equipped to do this than you. But the story in Tainted Grail is amazing and one that I highly recommend people track down, which can be hard. Also know that this is a survival game with a ton of story, if you want the story, play in storymode, I am.

2: Dice Throne

Odd one to put on the list but Dice Throne is very much fantasy. It is fantasy head to battling in almost a Mortal Kombat type setting but it is still fantasy. My Pyromancer is going to blast your Barbarian with fire or then there is a Seraph or a Treant or a Gunslinger, all sorts of things, and you can take any of them up against each other. I’m so excited, it isn’t that far out to when Marvel Dice Throne will be delivered, several months but not that far. And Marvel Dice Throne is compatible and can be played with everything else I already have.

1: Gloomhaven

Finally, my #1 game of all time, Gloomhaven, This is a massive fantasy game of dungeon crawling combat. It is amazing and what really makes it is the card play. You pick two cards to play, one will determine how fast you go. Then when you go you use the top of one card and the bottom of the others to move and attack, so you can set yourself up for some epic turns or make it flexible to cover a changing board state. And there are so many different characters that are interesting to play as.

Final Thoughts

I love fantasy as a theme. A lot of my favorite series are fantasy for books in particular. And for board games, there are a lot of games that use the fantasy theme. But when you get down to some of my favorite games of all time, the big fantasy games are hard to beat. I think that my Top 3 games are all fantasy games. And I even skipped some games, like stuff in the Lovecraftian Mythos because while they are fantasy, I feel they are more horror. Maybe I’ll do a horror game ranking soon.

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Tofu Kingdom, Brewcrafters Travel Card Game, The Mind & Cthulhu Fluxx

I lumped these together. They are all smaller games, I gave them a chance, and while they aren’t bad, I have a number of smaller games that I’m going to pull off the shelf before them. And often that’s why games leave, something like Cthulhu Fluxx was a great gateway game for me, but now I have others.

I think that most people might be surprised by the Mind. My experience with that was just okay at the best. The game with it’s, you can’t share information is fine. But also leads to long chunks of time of people not talking. I wish there was more fun and funny going on for a game that is so simple. The Mind is like Cosmic Encounter for me as well, where it is very group dependent.

Gloom

Gloom is a very fun game. It has transparent cards and you are trying to kill off your family with them having the most miserable lives possible. And you tell stories as you do it. It’s a blast to play, and I haven’t played it since before I was married. I was dating now wife but we were maybe engaged. That’s over 7 years.

So, you can guess why this one is leaving. I just don’t play it often enough, or at all anymore. If someone else has it and pulls it off the shelf to play, I will play it and love it. I might even buy it again at that point. But right now, even though it’s a small game, it opens up room for other small games to try and play.

Werewords

This one came into my collection not that long ago and now it’s leaving my collection. I am always trying to find a second social deduction game that I like. I even watched on Board Game Geeks YouTube channel Werewords played and thought that it’d be it. It’s a game of twenty questions with a traitor, the concept even sounds fun.

But it’s like so many social deduction games, when it comes down to it, you are just guessing. If you don’t guess the word you will take a random stab at whom the traitor is and probably be wrong. If you’re the traitor and the word is guessed, you’ll give a random guess on the seerer unless they were extremely obvious. I want more deduction in my social deduction is what it is, I guess.

Werewords is a solid game, it’s just not for me.

Onirim

This one might surprise people. I like Onirim as a solo game. But it’s going away for three reasons. The first being Orchard: A 9 Card Solitaire Game, then A Gentle Rain – another solo game, and finally, because I own the app. I can still play Onirim, but I’ll do on the app. And there will be much less shuffling.

I know that a lot of people even like the app better because it does all the shuffling. I still think I prefer the physical game, but if I’m going to play a solo game right now, it’s going to be Orchard or A Gentle Rain. They are easier to get out and play, so sorry, Onirim, you’re leaving the collection. Again another really good game and this one is for me, but I just have others to play now.

The Siblings Trouble

This is one that I never actually played. I picked it up because when it was on Kickstarter, I had backed the companies other game, Lift Off! and wanted to back another one of their projects. It’s a kind of RPG like game that is tailored for kids. But it came out at the same time as No Thank You, Evil! A kids RPG that has more support. And I likely would just play D&D with my kid eventually.

Hex Roller

I got this game quite recently, I played it, and I’m selling it. Hex Roller is not a bad roll and write. But it isn’t a game where what you do will change much. The dice rolls will change things up, but the mechanics don’t change. So I’ve played it, and I’m passing it on to someone else.

My knock on Hex Roller is that while the scoring is simple, the teach is not. The rules are a little bit weird for how you take dice and use them. It just teaches harder then a game that doesn’t have that much going on should. I understand that they wanted the game to be clever and give you lots to think about, but it’s just a solid game. Not good enough for me to come back to.

Choose Your Own Adventure: House of Danger

This is a really fun and goofy game. It is also a story game that has limited replayability. Now, I am not done with the story, so why am I getting rid of it. It’s easy, I know two maybe three people who own it. If I want to play it again or play it the whole way through, I can.

Choose Your Own Adventure: House of Danger is a great time. It’s goofy and fun to sit around and play. If you play lighter games, I definitely recommend it. But most likely, like me, you’ll end up selling it once you’re done with the story. The downside is I won’t get much for it, the upside is, someone can play it and enjoy it again.

Blossoms

Blossoms is a two player push your luck game. You are trying to grow flowers and then harvest them at the point that it’ll give you the most points. It’s a pretty little game, though in a larger box than really needed. But it is a two player game, so the question I asked myself, how many two player only games do I need?

The answer didn’t include Blossoms. When I look at my two player games, I would pick Hanamikoji before it, Skulk Hollow, 7 Wonders Duel, Fox in the Forest, Fox in the Forest Duet. All of those I’d play before Blossoms. Blossoms is just a little bit too simple for when I want to play a two player game. But if you have a parent or grandparent who likes more classic feeling games, Blossoms would be great.

Cry Havoc

This is a tough game for me to get rid of. I really like Cry Havoc. This is another situation where I just own other games I’m going to play before it. Cry Havoc is asymmetrical area control. If I want area control that’s pretty complex, Blood Rage. If I want asymmetrical, well I own Root now. Cry Havoc is leaving because I own enough other games that do similar things. And I own enough other games that I’d play before it.

It is a bit of a casualty of my Top 100 that I just wrapped up, actually. When going through the Top 10 and seeing games like Lords of Hellas and Blood Rage, th ose will get played before Cry Havoc. So even with Cry Havoc just missing at 103 and being there last year, it’s time for it to go.

Castle Panic

This is getting bumped because of a future Kickstarter that is coming. It’s also getting bumped because it’s too easy a cooperative game. Now, some of that is that I’m older than the target audience. This is a tower defense game for 10 year old kids or younger. It’s not targeting someone like me. Village Attacks as a tower defense game is.

But this is a game that I win too often. And again, I think that’s with the target age. A 10 year old will want to win more often than they lose. I personally like to lose about 60-70% of the time when playing a cooperative game. In my Top 100 I have Say Bye to the Villains, I have yet to beat that game. I don’t think I’ve lost Castle Panic.

Lift Off!

I just talked about this one, it’s the first game that I backed on Kickstarter. I am greatly tempted to keep this one. I’ve played it a few times but it hasn’t been in years. It’s a fun little game, and I like some of their other games. I still have Skulk Hollow which won’t be leaving anytime soon.

This is one that I am tempted to keep to just play a few more times. It is also a game that isn’t going to come off my shelf all that often. It’s like Castle Panic in that it’s younger focused, not my gaming group, and there’s enough other games I’ll play before it.

Dicecapades!

For a mass market game, Dicecapades is generally a lot of fun. You get goofy things like stacking dice. Or you roll a die and need to do that many push-ups. Or you roll a die and there is trivia. Wait, there is trivia, what does that have to do with dice , the answer, nothing. And that’s why I don’t pull it out anymore.

Everything else in the game is fun, but you need to answer a trivia question on a random area that is determined by a die roll. If you get it wrong, you stay and then do it again next turn. Meanwhile, everyone else is doing goofy fun things, until they get stuck on trivia as well. And if I roll sports before you roll movies, because that’s what we know best, I get going faster just based off of luck.

It is a mass market party game, it is supposed to be lucky. But it’s just not that fun when you get to trivia. Remove the trivia from the game, I’d probably keep the game. It’s one that I can play with cousins and non-gamers. But with trivia, it’s annoying. If I want to do trivia, I own Wits & Wagers.

Star Wars: Imperial Assault

Now, this is the tricky one, and it might stay. I want to play this game. The intro scenario to teach you the game, I’ve played it twice. But it’s a campaign game, and it’s a campaign game with an app before apps were common. So the app itself isn’t great. Not bad, but not great. And I don’t have a group to play this game. So it’s a lot of work to play solo.

If I had a group, I’d play it. I might even play it solo, if I go through the introductory scenario again. But am I going to do that when I have Isofarian Guard coming sometime, Destinies coming that can be played solo, Middara, Roll Player Adventures, Solomon Kane, Deep Madness and more? I think it might leave like Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-Earth did. Not because it is a bad game, it isn’t, it’s a lot of fun, but because I own so many.

16 Games of Shelf Space

It’s a tough list to cut. I look at Star Wars: Imperial Assault, Cry Havoc, Onirim, and Gloom especially, and I really enjoy all of those games. But the question is, will I play them? Or am I just keeping them on my shelf because I like the idea of getting back to them sometime?

I think it’s more the latter than I’d actually get back to the games. And some of them, Gloom in particular, that depends on the group. If you like a tell a story, it works well, if you just play the cards, the game is fine. So, all of these are leaving, probably over the weekend, to get traded into my FLGS. And I’m looking at a few games, Escape The Room and Star Wars Unlock, that I need to play to then free up more space.

Which one, if you could get one of these games I’m trading in, would you want to play most?

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Here are theirs:

But what board games would I pick?

Frosthaven

Now, this game isn’t out yet. But it also is the follow-up to a game that I already love. So this one is a bit of a cheat, but I’ve already beaten Gloomhaven. It was the first game I thought of because of the fact that this is going to be another game that takes 200 hours to play and even when I’m done with those 200 hours, I’ll probably still have other things I haven’t seen in the game. I for sure won’t have played all the side scenarios or solo character scenarios yet.

Plus, Frosthaven builds upon Gloomhaven in that it adds in city building. City building is not something that I knew I wanted in Gloomhaven, there is a lot going on. And you do increase the prosperity of the town and you keep track of that. But being able to build up your town, upgrading buildings, I am sure that when you’re done with 200 hours of the main campaign there will still be more that you haven’t found yet.

Now, I could go with other Kickstarter games on this list. But I don’t want to do that, because I also have other games on my shelf that need to get played or that I’d add to the list.

Dice Throne Seasons 1 & 2

Yup, Dice Throne Season 2 is technically an expansion. At least, that’s what I’m going with, so it counts for the list. If not, then We’ll go with Season 2 and bring in Season 1 Pyromancer duel box. But I love Dice Throne, this is a game that I’ve probably played 30 times already and there are still lots of combinations that I haven’t played.

Plus, this one is also a game that I can play with a lot of people. Frosthaven is a complex game, Dice Throne, I can probably teach it to most people. But it is also a game that isn’t too light. So that means that I won’t, for a long time, get bored of playing it. And even with 10 characters, say that’s all I’m allowed in these made-up rules, repeating a character I play every ten games, yeah, I won’t get bored.

Lords of Hellas with Dark Ages Expansion

Another bit of cheat game here. The Dark Ages Expansion is the Kickstarter expansion, but I do own it. It takes all the expansions and puts them into a single box, which means that there is more content for the game. But this is my list, so my rules, and Lords of Hellas is on the list. Lords of Hellas is an area control, statue building, monster fighting game, and it’s a lot of fun.

Plus, this game has one important thing to it, variability. Whomever you pick for your leader, that is going to determine what you go after, at least at the start. They give you a special power. And then as temples are built, you draft more special powers. You could play this hundreds of times and never get the same combination. Plus it’s a longer game, but not a campaign game. Though, likely we’ll see more campaign on the list.

Middara: Unintentional Malum Act 1 & 2

This one is a tough one to put on the list. I own Act 1. Act 2 gives more story, and I have yet to play it. What makes it hard is the fact there is an act 3. So now I have limited myself by the rules of one expansion to missing out on the end of the story. With that said, it seems like act 1 is a great story anyways because people have beat it now and might want more but aren’t complaining about a cliff hanger.

This is a big dungeon crawl style game, box size is similar to Gloomhaven in terms of volume. But this game has more story to it. So while it doesn’t have the characters that Gloomhaven does, it does have a lot to play through. Assuming that this takes 100 hours maybe 200 with two acts, and Gloomhaven took my group 3+ years to get through, between Frosthaven and Middara I now have 6 or 7 years of campaign games on my list.

Root and Riverfolk Expansion

This is another game that gets onto the list because it’s bigger and longer and because each faction plays differently. So with Root there are four different factions in the base box, I believe the Riverfolk adds in two more. So while you need potentially four people to play the game, Root is going to be one that feels different as you play with the different combinations.

Each factions being asymmetrical to the others also means that each faction will feel unique when you play them. And it gives me something to master as well. Once I’m really comfortable playing the Eyrie I can move onto playing as the Marquise d’ Cat and then the Vagabond. Each of those plays differently and will take time to master. So a lot of game play and a lot of learning for this game.

Village Attacks and Grim Dynasty Expansion

So, this is a game that is also in that waiting on the Kickstarter category, and I only have the base game coming. But I have played this game, so its not kind of cheating like Frosthaven was. This is a tower defense game where you are playing the bad guys. There are a few reasons why this one would make the list.

Firstly, the bad guys who are in the tower, there are several different ones, add in the second big Kickstarter, now there are a lot of them. So variability as to what characters you play as. Plus, like Lords of Hellas, you get to add more abilities as the game goes. It might not be as variable but it is close. And this is scenario based, so I can play a scenario one time and then the same character and a new scenario and the game changes, slightly.

Other Board Games Considered

So, I think those are the four. On the Tablenauts list, they had Sagrada which would be another really good one, and I did steal Root from them, though I think I’d have landed on that as well. Sagrada makes sense because your window, the dice, the powers, scoring, all of those things are variable. And it’s one that you can teach everyone.

I also considered Western Legends, it’s a sandbox game where you could decide to just gamble the whole time to get points, go out adventuring or become a bad guy. Since it is so sandbox, it means that it’ll have solid replay value. But the game doesn’t force variability on you like Lords of Hellas or even Sagrada, so didn’t make the list.

Reichbusters was another one I considered ,it has a campaign, and you can play it as a one off. I could have just gone with campaign games though, and I didn’t want to do that, because I like to play one off games as well. And I think that Middara and Frosthaven are just better campaign options.

And no roll and writes on the list. As much as I love ones like Cartographers, Sonora, or Ganz Schon Clever, they tend to change less. And even Welcome To… and taking a map that is different, the game play changes somewhat but not completely.

And Kingdom Death Monster, I didn’t pick that one because I’d never buy that one. Yes, it is a massive game and a campaign game, but I don’t want to put the monsters together. And the whole thing costs so much. Maybe if I played it, I’d be saying differently, but I haven’t.

What six games (with one expansion per game) would you pick? Let me know in the comments below or on Twitter.

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If you need to catch up all the videos are over on the Malts and Meeples YouTube Channel. And The next part of the list will be live on next Wednesday, October 6th at 8 PM Central Time.

100 Through 91

90 Through 81

Top 100 Board Games – 80 through 71

80. Just One

This is an interesting party game in that it’s fully cooperative. A lot of party games have teams against each other, or everyone is vying for solo victory, but not that many are cooperative. In this game, one person is the guesser, the other people are giving clues for one word. The other people write down a single word clue. If they duplicate both those clues go away, and the guesser has less clues to guess from. So you want to give a unique, but meaningful clue, or maybe the most obvious one and hope no one else does. We do house rule it so you don’t get penalized for a wrong guess and the game is still great.

Buy on Miniature Market

79. Merchants Cove

It’s one of two highly asymmetrical games on the list, Merchants Cove has you taking on one of several different roles, building up your own engine of things that you do, to try and get goods to sell to merchants. The Captain uses a spinner in some of what they do, the Oracle does it as a roll and write, the Inn keeper is guessing how merchants are going to show up, the alchemist is playing a version of Potion Explosion. The game works well at 2-3 and the different characters are great. Not a complex game but a lot of fun.

Buy on CoolStuffInc

78. The Grimm Masquerade

I called this social deduction, but it’s more hidden role and deduction. In this game you are trying to collect your masquerade character’s gift. But there is a gift you don’t want to get because it’ll reveal who you are. The game is simple to play, you just flip a card and decide to keep it or give it away. You’re trying to get them to bust while getting your correct gifts. Once you’ve decide with your first card you flip and do the opposite with the next. So it might make you closer to busting, or help you, you don’t know. Plus you can guess who other characters are for even more points. Pretty simple game and great artwork.

Not Available

77. Dice Forge

Some games have a lot of toy factor and are just okay games. Other games have great toy factor and are really good games. Dice Forge is a really good game. It has really good toy factor too in that you change up the side of the dice. You build up an engine which allows you to get cards for points but also pull off a side of a die and get a new side. It’s fairly themeless but the artwork is really nice and game play is a lot of fun. What resources do you add to your dice, and how do you optimize to score the most points?

Buy On Miniature Market

76. Claim

I like trick taking games, I own a number of them, but I haven’t played a ton of them. Claim, though, is a really fun trick taking game. The game plays over two rounds, the first you’re playing to build your hand, and the second hand is your actual scoring hand. It is interesting because to build your hand you are trying to win or lose tricks based off of a card that is flipped up. So if it’s a low card of a suit you try and lose and get a blind card instead. Plus the suits have powers which are interesting as well. It also plays really quickly, which is what I want in trick taking.

Buy on Miniature Market

75. Small World

Small World is a game that I call Risk but fun. Plus Small World has you with special powers and fantasy races which let you be different than everyone else. And you are always fighting people, you can gang up on someone in a great position, but then they put their fantasy race into decline and come in with another and attack. There’s no getting stuck in a corner and just left alive in this game. It is faster than Risk, more entertaining and just a really good area control game.

Buy on CoolStuffInc

74. Star Wars: Rebellion

Star Wars in a box. This game is kind of the original trilogy where one player is the Empire and the other player is the Rebels. The Rebels are trying to complete missions to subvert the Empire to win the game. The Empire is just trying to find the Rebel base and wipe that off the map. The game has you moving troops, fighting battles, capturing enemy leaders, and more. It works well, it’s a big game, and even with dice combat it’s a whole lot of fun.

Buy on Miniature Market

73. Pandemic Legacy: Season 1

This is the game that has dropped massively. It was my #10 game overall last year, and honestly could probably be higher. This is how I want to play Pandemic, whatever Legacy season. The reason it’s dropped is that I’ve played through it twice already. So do I need to play it again, I could and I’d like it. But it’s also a legacy game, so I know a bunch of the story and the beats. The game I still highly recommend and if you’re looking for a fresh way to play Pandemic, it’s an amazing cooperative gaming experience.

Buy on Miniature Market

72. Root

Root is the more complex of the two asymmetrical games on the list. Each faction plays differently, but you need to know how the other factions work because that matters for how you play the game. You take on different groups of creatures in the woods from the Eyrie to the Marquise de Cat to a Woodland Alliance and more. The game has you fighting and trying to get area control in a lot of ways. Really smartly done game but harder to learn. I want to start playing it again more often because it’s really good.

Buy on Miniature Market

71. Medium

Another party game to wrap up this section of the list. Medium is amazingly fun. The game has you and a partner on a turn you try and guess the word between two words that you’ve played down. If you match up you get the higher point tokens, if not you try and come up with the linking word between the two that you just said. And now you see if you match again. It’s a good funny party game that has you thinking but it’s somewhat cooperative because matching helps you. And even if it’s not your go, you’ll be thinking of a word that connects just to see if you’d match.

Buy on Amazon

The Next Ten

The list is now 30 games in, and we’re getting close to that mid point. The disclaimer as always, while I like the games higher on the list more, the games on this list are all really good in my opinion. So if you want to see what the next ten are live you can join me next Wednesday. And in general to know when I go live, you can subscribe and click the notification bell. That’ll alert you when I am going to go live or when I put up a new video.

Thanks for checking out the list. Let me know which of these games you’d like to get to the table most? Any that you haven’t tried or that you know you already love?

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But there were some sales from different publishers and online retailers. And I did go to Pop-Up GenCon and while Dinosaur Island Rawr ‘n Write wasn’t available, there were some interesting looking games that I picked up.

My FLGS

Marvel Champions – Nebula

Yup, I am still keeping up to date with Marvel Champions. It is fun to do so and the game is still fun to get to the table. Am I getting it to the table as often as the content comes out, absolutely not. But am I still getting everything for the game, I most certainly am. That means that one of these days I’m just going to have to play through a number of the characters I haven’t gotten a chance to play with yet. And you can add Nebula to that list.

Catacombs and Castles

This is a series of games, Catacombs, that I’ve been interested in. Why, well, some of it is because it’s flicking. But it’s a flicking Dungeon Crawl game which is just really unique seeming. One person plays as the monsters and kind of sets up the dungeon for a scenario/battle. The players pick heroes to take into the dungeon. On your turn you flick, play down cards that allow you to flick special things and more. The example would be flicking some tiny discs as you unleash a volley of arrows. Cool idea, seems like silly fun.

Miniature Market GenCon Sale

I said that I could blame this on GenCon and this is only the first part of it.

Root Expansions

I’ve been tempted to dive into Root for a long time now. I have loved it when I’ve gotten to play it. And I hope that I can get a group, somewhere, sometime to consistently play it. Root is an asymmetrical war game of woodland creatures. The artwork is cute and the game play is challenging. What makes it so interesting is the asymmetry but also makes it harder to table. It isn’t like Merchants Cove where I just need to know what my character is doing. I need to know all of them. This means it takes a long time to teach.

Nidavellir

A game that I know about from a lot of hype, it is being added to my collection. Now, I know hype isn’t the only reason to buy a game. I own The Mind which was much hyped and it is not a good game, it is a fun activity/filler, but not a good game. Nidavellir, though, seems to have a lot of game to it. It is a bidding game with set collection. But it does an interesting thing where you start with the same coins, but instead of bidding, you can upgrade your coins. So now you might be the only person with a 10 coin. Do you bid with that or upgrade some more.

Pop-Up GenCon

All the pop-up GenCons took place in game stores. And the one that I went to was at the GameZenter. The GameZenter has a pretty odd name, but a nice game collection. Plus there were a few new games for GenCon.

My Farm Shop

This is one that was there especially for Pop-Up GenCon. The game itself was very interesting. It reminds me of Machi Koro with how it plays. You roll dice and things get activated for everyone. But you have more choice and can manipulate that. Two of the three dice will determine what is activated. The other one will determine what card you add to your tableau. Smart concept for a game that plays very fast.

Everdell

Another game with woodland creatures, this one is a bit nicer. You are building your engine to score points. Kind of like My Farm Shop you’ll have a tableau of cards in front of you that can reach a certain point. This game is not that mean a game though, which I like about it. At least in theory, because it really is not the type of game I normally gravitate towards. But the aesthetic has been drawing me in and I feel like it’ll be a welcoming game to play. I am excited to try it and see what it’s like.

Unfathomable

This one is just a pre-order at this point. But I believe that it is supposed to come out next month. I think it was even supposed to be out in time for this event. But of course, with shipping it got delayed. And that is okay for me because I don’t to have it immediately. The game, though, is a lot of fun. it is a good version of Battlestar Galactica, which it is based on and also is a very good game. It’s a pretty big game, but I’m excited to get it to the table when it does come in.

That’s All The Games

It is a number of games but I’m quite excited for all of them. I think that I’m most excited to get Unfathomable to the table. It was a ton of fun playing at the GameZenter with three of us, but I’d love to play with a bigger group. And also in a spot where it is a bit easier to hear everyone. Very good game that worked better than BSG did for me, maybe some because I was on a pretty equal footing versus playing with experienced BSG players.

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Etsy Order

I’m going to start calling out upgrades that I’ve gotten from Etsy or other places. While they aren’t really board games, I think some people will be interested in them, and it’s fun to talk about how I’m making my games easier to get to the table or look prettier on the table.

Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition Boards

So, this is a game that I already own, but I didn’t get it on Kickstarter. On Kickstarter the player boards are double layer. That means that the cubes recess into them nicely. In the retail box version, the player boards are just thin cardboard. Thankfully it took weeks for people to get overlays up on Etsy. So I bought some acrylic overlays for the player boards. This will basically keep the resources locked into place better so you know how much you produce. I can either just set them on top of the boards, or I might get a clear drying glue and affix the overlays to the boards, we’ll have to see.

Board Game Geek Store

Railroad Ink Big Boards

So, I really like Railroad Ink, and I got to play Railroad Ink Challenge with a group of eight on Saturday night and it was great. The game is thinky but not too complex. This basically takes Railroad Ink and puts it onto a bigger board. Instead of being a 9 by 9 board, I think it might be 15 by 15. Thankfully you get more rounds to try and score as many points as possible. If you haven’t tried Railroad Ink I really do recommend it. These big boards will just be a fun add to the game for me.

Miniature Market

Like I said, Miniature Market gave me a $10 off code for my birthday month. So, not too shockingly, I bought a game. Well, I bought two games. I considered a few others, but the one game I wanted, Rise of Atlantis was sold out, which is okay. I am kind of waiting to find that one used sometime.

Root: Riverfolk Expansion

So, last Point or Order I bought Root. This Point of Order, I got the first expansion before I even played my copy of Root. Why, well, because I have played Root before. Sure, I will explore more in the base box, but I really liked it when I played. So more Root is good. The Riverfolk expansion adds in The Riverfolk Company, The Lizard Cult, another Vagabond and more stuff. So I’m excited to have that one come in and get added into future plays of the game. I need a group to learn the game and play often. Root is really a lifestyle type of game.

Flick of Faith

Awaken Realms is one of my favorite companies that makes board games. They have a sibling company, Awaken Realms Lite that makes, well, lighter-weight games. One of those games is Flick of Faith. I wanted to get this for a long time but could never find it. Flick of Faith is a dexterity game where players flick discs to score points. It almost has a crokinole type feel to it, from what I’ve heard. And Flick of Faith was $30-35 versus $150 for a crokinole board. Plus there are god powers which you use to change up the game. Seems like my type of game. And I want to pull it out at a game night.

Favro Games

Spire’s End

Almost missed this one but I recently talked about Spire’s End: Hildegard. This is a solo generally game where you are taking Hildegard through a story, fighting monsters and more. it is based off of Spire’s End. And while you couldn’t get Spire’s End on Kickstarter with this new one (besides 50 copies), but it just came back up for pre-order on the Spire’s End website. This one is a bit darker in nature, from what I can tell, but still has a chunk of the amazing artwork. So I am really excited to dive into that when it comes, though I suspect that will be a while before it does.

Which Do You Want To Play?

That’s the list for this bit, I don’t believe anything else has come in, though a new Marvel Champions expansion might be in soon, I’m not sure. I don’t know when the next one will be, there are some Geek Up Bits from Board Game Geek for Dice Throne Season 2 that I want to get, but they aren’t in stock yet. But let me know which of the games that you want to play?

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