Catch Up on the Top 100 Games

100 through 91
90 through 81
80 through 71
70 through 61

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 Edition – 60 through 51

60. Trinket Trove

Publisher: GameHead
Designer: Rocco Privetera

Buy Trinket Trove

I love how Trinket Trove has pretty simple rules. But it is a game that offers more than just simple game play. You collect cards in your hand that will be your score at the end of the game. There is a twist, though, as those cards you also use to bid on other cards. So you need to bid to get more cards or get cards that you want, but that means you mess up your hand. I think that little twist is clever as well as being able to take the cards others have bid to make for a really fun game.

59. Vampire: The Masquerade – CHAPTERS

Publisher: FLYOS
Designers: Thomas Flippi, Gary Paitre

Buy Vampire: The Masquerade – CHAPTERS

Now to another one of those big adventure games that I love, we have Vampire: The Masquerade – CHAPTERS. This is set in the World of Darkness/Vampire: The Masquerade RPG setting. And it is a scenario driven adventure game. Now all the scenarios chain together, so it is meant more as a GM-less RPG sort of setting. I like the simplicity in which it plays. And I think balancing things like hunger and abilities is interesting in the game. The story is the element that really gets me though, as the combat itself is pretty simple.

58. Five Tribes: The Djinns of Naqala

Publisher: Days of Wonder
Designer: Bruno Cathala

Buy Five Tribes is Not Available Currently

This mancala style game is going to give you a ton of ways to score points. And I like that tension of trying to figure out a good move on your turn. Now, I know for some that might introduce some analysis paralysis and there are people I won’t play it with. But I like that puzzle of figuring out what I think is a good move for me and dropping off workers until I get to that last spot. I also like that everything gives you points in the game as that makes even a less than perfect turn still give you something.

57. Too Many Bones

Publisher: Chip Theory Games
Designers: Josh J Carlson, Adam Carlson

Buy Too Many Bones

Another adventure game on the list, I own so much stuff for Too Many Bones. This one is about the Gearlocs that you have and leveling them up. Each one is going to play differently. Some of them might let you level up archery as you unlock new dice, others might start to build bombs that you can use in combat. But this game is one with a great flow. You do an adventure piece, you fight some bad guys, you level up and then you repeat. You do that until you feel that you are ready to face off against the boss, and if you are lucky, you are ready and can win.

56. First-Class Letters

Publisher: GameHead
Designer: Peter C Hayward

Buy First-Class Letters

I love roll and write games, and I like word games. This one is a bit of both. You roll letters and you need to come up with words that use them. But there is a twist to that because there is a letter that you can’t use as well. And of course that is going to be a common letter to make it tricky. To add to that, there are some spots where they set the letter the word must start with. And all the words at the end need to be in alphabetical order. There is a bunch going on, but not too much to ruin the fun.

55. Super Fantasy Brawl

Publisher: Mythic Games
Designer: Jochen Elsenhuth

Super Fantasy Brawl is Currently Unavailable

I don’t love all fighting games. There are a few that I find great, and Super Fantasy Brawl is one of them. This is a game of fighting against an opponent to knock out their characters and complete objectives. But what I love about the game is the simplicity of the play. I play three cards a turn and do their actions, one for each color. Or, if I use a color for a reaction on my opponents turn, then it’s two cards on my turn. I also like that you score objectives at the start of your turn. So you need to hold that spot through your opponents turn.

54. Century: Golem Edition

Publisher: Plan B Games
Designer: Emerson Matsuuchi

Buy Century: Golem Edition

Century: Golem Edition is a great hand management engine building game. Each turn is simple, but the better you are at figuring out how to create a combo with the cards in your hand, the better you’ll do. It’s all about getting games and leveling up those games to get Golems, who are points, in the game. You can get the regular version of this as well, it’s the same game, but I love the Golem artwork and the gems in this are just more fun.

53. Pandemic Legacy Season 1

Publisher: Z-Man Games
Designers: Rob Daviau, Matt Leacock

Buy Pandemic Legacy Season 1

This one is for all the Pandemic Games. I love the Pandemic System, though I haven’t played base Pandemic in quite a while. Mainly because I think that Pandemic Legacy Season 1 and Season 2 are so good. The system just works and the story that you get within the legacy games is great. I even played Pandemic Legacy Season 1 solo on Malts and Meeples early on. So you can see that there, if you want to see how it went for me. I almost feel ready to play it again. If legacy isn’t your thing, than maybe Star Wars, Warhammer, or Lovecraftian horrors will work.

52. Mesozooic

Publisher: Z-Man Games
Designers: Florian Fay, Alexander Ortloff-Tang

Mesozooic is Currently Unavailable

Back to back Z-Man Games on the list, but Mesozooic is very different from Pandemic Legacy. This one is a small little drafting game where you draft eleven cards to make your zoo. But those cards, you don’t get to decide where they fit in your zoo. Instead, you shuffle them up and then then a sliding puzzle, you race to get them in place in 45 seconds. You do that draft and slide puzzle three times and whomever has the best zoos at the end of that is the winner of the game. It’s silly fun and I like it as something really different.

51. Deception: Murder in Hong Kong

Publisher: Grey Fox Games
Designer: Tobey Ho

Buy Deception: Murder in Hong Kong

Finally wrapping up with #51 we have Deception: Murder in Hong Kong. This is the one social deduction game that I like, and that is because there is deduction as well. You start to piece together the clues from the Forensic Scientist to figure out the murder weapon and clue. Of course the murder and accomplice are trying to keep you away from that, and the witness is trying to subtly point you in the right direction. It’s just a great time and there is always a story in this game.

Join Next Week

Just as a reminder, I am streaming my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 Edition every Wednesday night at 9 PM Central Time. The next few videos have their links up, so you can click notify on them to know when I go live. Or you can subscribe to the channel and click notify to know whenever a new video comes out. Currently I am playing through Legendary Kingdoms on Monday and then my wife and I are playing Baldur’s Gate 3 on Fridays. So join us for those videos.

And thank you for checking out the video and articles. Let me know what your favorite game from this chunk of 10 is and which one you would love to get played.

Send an Email
Message me on X at @TheScando
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Catch Up on the Top 100 Games

100 through 91
90 through 81
80 through 71

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 Edition 70 through 61

70. Meadow

Published By: Rebel Studio
Designer: Klemens Kalicki

Buy Meadow Here

This game is a beautiful nature game. It’s all about creating a meadow and stacking cards on top of each other really. Each card you select is going to have requirements as to how to place it. To go along with that, the selection process is great. I like how you place a token on a row or column and that token determines which thing you take. So you need to plan that out and sometimes make due with the limited placement access you have.

69. Mountain Goats

Published By: Allplay
Designer: Stefan Risthaus

Buy Mountain Goats Here

Mountain Goats is a little, simple, climbing game. All you do is roll your dice and decide how to split them up. Then you move your mountain goat up the tracks that are those numbers. If you reach the top or are at the top, you gain those points. If someone else is at the top when you get there, you knock them down to the bottom again. The game is so simple, but it works really well

68. burncycle

Published By: Chip Theory Games
Designers: Josh J Carlson, Shannon Wedge

Buy burncycle Here

Now we move to burncycle which is a much bigger game. In this game you complete one off missions as robots. I like the theme of the game, robots took over and now big corporations and people have taken it back and are out after the robots. You need to sneak around to complete missions both in buildings and on the network. And the burndown of the cycle is a great tool for the game as well. Just a lot of really fun elements into a big game.

67. The Lost Expedition

Published By: Osprey Games
Designer: Peer Sylvester

Buy The Lost Expedition Here.

The Lost Expedition is back on the list. This game is a great cooperative game. And I always like to mention, it is a good one for not having too much alpha gaming. The players all make their card choices with no input. And it changes up from morning trek to evening trek, I like that about the game as well. The former is playing cards in numerical order, or they slot in that order, while the other you just play out cards. So it changes up the strategy and sometimes you just end up stuck.

66. ISS Vanguard

Published By: Awaken Realms
Designers: Andrzej Betkiewicz, Krysztof Piskorski, Marcin Swierkot

Buy ISS Vanguard Here.

Now to another big campaign game. This one is all about exploring space and figuring out the mystery of why a message brought humanity out here in the stars. The game is also interesting because it’s split into two parts, the planetary exploration part and then the ship management aspect. I like both parts and it makes for a fun campaign, one that I need to get back to, ideally in a group.

65. Mansions of Madness

Published By: Fantasy Flight Games
Designer: Nikki Valens

Buy Mansions of Madness Here.

Now another scenario based game, Mansions of Madness is a classic at this point. Do you want to go on some big Lovecraftian adventure, but as a one off? This game is going to give you that. I like how grand it is, I like how the app lets the scenarios be different each time (albeit just slightly), and I like how the scenarios you play are so different. This is a good beer and pretzels type of game when you want a big game for an evening.

64. Sonora

Published By: Pandasaurus Games
Designer: Rob Newton

Not Available Currently

I like my roll and write games. And Sonora is a great one for that and it has a fun twist with it. Yes, you get all the combos that you get from a lot of roll and write games. But you also get to flick discs. So instead of rolling dice you are flicking discs with numbers to see what areas you activate. It’s fun to knock someone off a spot that they really wanted. And then, like I said, you go heads down and get to combo as many things as you can.

63. Lands of Galzyr

Published By: Snowdale Design
Designers: Seppo Kuukasjarvi, Sami Laakso

Buy Lands of Galzyr

Lands of Galzyr is an interesting game because it’s really different than most games that I’ve played. This one is all about going on adventures and completing quests. But the stakes, while often cool and interesting, are never that high because what quest you go on, that’s determined by whatever shows up. I like as well how you can rotate your skills, so you might start out sneaking and then end up with great lore, it’s up to you and the quests you take.

62. Kohaku

Published By: 25th Century Games
Designer: Danny Devine

Not Available Currently

I like games where you can draft. And Kohaku gives you that as well as being a beautiful game to play. The copy as own has the acrylic tiles which give it a depth from the surface of the water to the bottom which looks amazing. But the game play is good as well. You pick out a koi and a scoring tile and they need to be adjacent to each other. Then when you play them out, you can never put a koi orthogonally adjacent to another koi and same with scoring tiles. So it’s a bit scoring tableau that you create.

61. Nidavellir

Published By: GRRRE Games
Deisgner: Serge Laget

Buy Nidavellir Here

Finally is Nidavellir. This is a game that I actually got rid of at one point. But then I decided to hop into a three player game on BGA. And I realized what I had not liked about the game before. Nidavellir is a great bidding and dwarf set collection game, but for me, only as a three or more player game. It’s fun to try and get your bids just right and still upgrade your coins. Plus you need to diversify what you collect so you can get the bonus powerful dwarves.

Join Next Week

Just as a reminder, I am streaming my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 Edition every Wednesday night at 9 PM Central Time. The next few videos have their links up, so you can click notify on them to know when I go live. Or you can subscribe to the channel and click notify to know whenever a new video comes out. Currently I am playing through Legendary Kingdoms on Monday and then my wife and I are playing Baldur’s Gate 3 on Fridays. So join us for those videos.

And thank you for checking out the video and articles. Let me know what your favorite game from this chunk of 10 is and which one you would love to get played.

Send an Email
Message me on X at @TheScando
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Catch up on previous videos here

100 through 91
90 through 81
80 through 71
70 through 61
60 through 51
50 through 41

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition – 40 through 31

40. Cthulhu: Death May Die

• Published by CMON in 2019
• Defeat a scenario and an Elder God before you are driven insane

Cthulhu: Death May Die is one of those great beer and pretzels games. Meaning that it’s pretty straightforward but mainly just a fun time. Who doesn’t like sitting around chucking a handful of dice, hoping you don’t go insane, and probably dying to whatever great old one shows up. The game gives you some story as well, but the biggest story elements are when you get that amazing roll right before you go insane, or when you can’t quite make it.

Buy Cthulhu: Death May Die

39. burncycle

• Published by Chip Theory Games in 2022
• The robots are on the run, can you sneak around and infiltrate the evil human corporations?

I love the theme on burncycle. There are games out there were the robots or something is taking over and the humans have to stop them. Here it’s the robots who are sneaking around and having to infiltrate. And I really enjoy how the system works. I like how you program out your actions and that chain of actions you can take degrades over time. So you need to balance changing it up to just wiping it. But if you wipe it, that pushes it closer to the corporation winning.

Buy burncyle

38. Sonora

• Published by Pandasaurus Games in 2020
• Flick your disk and score in combo-tastic ways

This is a roll and write game where instead of rolling you are flicking disks around. That is a fun little twist on a standard roll and write. And then your sheet where you are filling things in, it’s combo city. You work in one area and you almost always are getting a bonus for another area. And as you get further into the game the more you can stack those bonuses and chain into more bonuses. Yes, this game has luck with the flicking and you might be knocked out of where you want to be, but it’s good chaos and combo fun.

Out Of Stock

37. Comic Hunters

• Published by Spin Master ltd, Arcane Wonders, and Bucaneiros Jogos in 2020 and 2024
• Can you build out the most interesting and influential comic collection

Comic Hunters is a unique game in that it gives you a number of things to do, but it manages to use so many different ways of drafting. That is one of the coolest parts of the game, along with the fact that it’s all Marvel comic covers and characters. But you score for collecting different characters, a lot of a character, first appearances, first issues, epic fights or even more. And it’s a good game to teach as well because you teach how you get comics into your collection and then when each draft comes up you teach it then and only then.

Buy Comic Hunters

36. Sushi Go Party!

• Published by Gamewright in 2016
• Draft the tastiest collection of sushi and other yummy foods to score points

Another drafting game, but Sushi Go Party just does standard drafting. And I like how it works in this one. The variety in the game isn’t from the drafting but how everything scores. Some things like dumplings want you to get as many as you can, or then there is tofu where you want two, no more. And in Sushi Go Party you can really change up the different combinations of foods so that the drafting experience is different each round.

Buy Sushi Go Party!

35. Trek 12: Himalaya

• Published by Pandasaurus in 2020
• Climb mountains as you create sets and runs of numbers in different ways

This game might feel like a pretty standard roll and write game. The idea of creating a set or a run based off of what is rolled, that isn’t that odd. But how you get to your numbers is where the fun puzzle of the game comes in. You might add the numbers together on both dice, you might pick the lower number, etc. But you only pick each of those ways to get the number a limited number of times. So you need to be smart how you manipulate the dice and build out your mountain.

Buy Trek 12.

34. Marvel Zombies: A Zombicide Game

• Published by CMON in 2023
• Fight as zombies and take a bite of Marvels biggest heroes.

Based on a comic run, Marvel Zombies has you play as the zombie heroes who have been turned. You try and complete objectives before SHIELD and the other heroes can take you out. Or you can flip the table and play as heroes against zombies, the choice is yours. This is another great beer and pretzels game. You ride that edge of trying to push your hunger up so you can roll more dice, but not get too hungry so that you become a mindless zombie for a little bit just caring about getting brains.

Buy Marvel Zombies.

33. The Isle of Cats: Explore and Draw

• Published by City of Games in 2022
• Can you rescue the most cats and score the most points in this roll and write style game?

This is the better version of Isle of Cats. I enjoy Isle of Cats and I know there is a duel version coming out which might make it better again. But the Explore and draw version is just so much fun. I especially enjoy the method in which you fill out your boat. There are columns of cards, some with more cats and some with more scoring objectives. You decide which column to use, but if you take too many cats, sure you get some points, but you miss on the scoring bonuses. If you just grab scoring, well, not enough cats and you won’t score enough points. It’s an easy roll and write to learn with fun complexity.

Buy The Isle of Cats Explore and Draw

32. Sleeping Gods

• Published by Red Raven Games in 2021
• Explore a mysterious new lands, find totems and try and wake the gods.

This is an amazing sandbox game of exploring a huge world, finding out the mysteries of the world, all while trying to find totems and get back to your own world. I love how this game gives you a whole crew to play with, but each crew member is part of the ship moving around. So there are unique things people can do, but you decide and build out so much of that. And the artwork and story are just great for this game. I want to play the sequel and the small version soon as well.

Sleeping Gods is sold out, but you can get Sleeping Gods: Distant Skies here.

31. The Great Split

• Published by Horrible Guild in 2022
• Divide up riches and try and end the game with the best collection

I Split – You Choose is a mechanism I didn’t know that I’d love so much as I do. And The Great Split is just an I Split – You Choose game. You get a hand of cards that have different things like books, artwork, money, and you need to decide how to split them up. You split them into two and then you pass it to the person on your left. They pick one of the two sides and you get the other. You do the same thing with the cards you just got passed. Then you just collect, try and get contracts, and push up the tracks the best that you can. It’s a simple but very fun.

Buy The Great Split.

Upcoming Streams

Just a reminder on my streaming schedule. It’s not just all my Top 100 Games (of all time).

• Monday night, time varies, I play different small solo games, though I might be looking to start up a campaign again. And generally the streams do start between 8 and 8:30 PM central time.
• Wednesday at 9 PM central is going to continue my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition for another six weeks. After that expect this to be when I play my small games. Only 5 more weeks left of my Top 100 Games, then likely this will switch to smaller solo games and video games.
• Friday at 9 PM central my wife and I are streaming a playthrough of Baldur’s Gate 3. Join us for the adventure of Nina and Kaerok and see what choices we make.

The best way to know when we go live, though is to subscribe and click that notification bell. I can’t promise, and in fact it’s pretty unlikely, that I’ll have events to click on ahead of time. Though I do want to get better at it. I hope that you can join a stream and hop into the chat. And let me know what games in this list are your favorite or that you want to try.

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Stars of Akarios – The Story

So I know a little bit further into the story than where I am at. And I won’t spoil any of that. I think that it’s worth it for me to show it. But let’s talk about how good, or not good, and how unique or not unique the story is.

Thus far, I would say that the story in Stars of Akarios kind of falls into that pretty standard but well done category. I get little bits where it feels like other things we’ve seen. The planet getting blown up by a giant spaceship, that’s Star Wars. The whole cadets things reminds me of Ender’s Game. I know what is coming up and that reminds me of things as well.

But the story is being done in a way where it pays homage to those things. There are situations where writers just redo a story and it’s so heavily drawing upon other things, it feels like stealing. You want to walk that line, if you want to pull from previous Sci-Fi or Fantasy works, where there are nods, but it is that homage versus whole sale stealing. And so far, I think this walks the line.

I also think because I get the feel from a number of different Sci-Fi stories, it works better. When it is too much of a single thing, then that feels more like stealing. And it isn’t to say that there aren’t unique things in here as well. I think the combination of tactical game play with the story allows for different ways to tell story.

Upcoming Streams

So, there was no stream on Monday. I want to apologize for that. Life stuff came up and got in the way of me having motivation or energy to stream. Whenever that happens it means that I really should stream because it improves my mood to play board games and to hang out with everyone. But stuff like that will happen from time to time.

Next Monday, I keep on promising it, Trek12 will get to the table. My plan is to learn and play that over the next few days so that I’m ready. I might even learn another roll and write so we can get a couple to the table. Though, I believe with Trek12 there is a bit of a progression, so I might go through the different mountains.

And of course, on Wednesday, more Stars of Akarios. I can give you a little sneak preview as to what is coming up. We will be in space, but then going down to the planet for a mission. And the mission phase of the game is definitely different than the ship combat phase. Think more 7th Continent than tactical combat.

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The Game – Massive Darkness 2

Massive Darkness is a dungeon crawler game where generally you play through one off scenarios. You fight monsters and level up your character in their class as you go. It is different from a normal dungeon crawl game that way. Most of the time you level up between scenarios but because these aren’t tied to a whole story, you do it during the game.

However, the reason that I backed this one is the Heavenfall expansion. That expansion gives you a short campaign to play through. There are 14 different quests in the campaign. And you don’t play through all of them. It gives you branching options. It also gives you harder roaming monsters to fight and allows you to go up to level 10 instead of just level 5.

Upcoming Streams

On Wednesday at 8 PM central, I will be diving back into the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game to see how well I can do this time. If you want to catch up on what has happened before, you can do so here. My plan is to stick with the heroes that I have and take on that first scenario again knowing a bit more now.

And then next Monday, I will be streaming again. Target time is to start by 8:30, but last night it was 9. I did a GenCon video two weeks ago. And then this unboxing yesterday. Next week is going to be a Top 10 list. While my Top 10 roll and writes will have changed, I want to push that list out a little bit further. Instead, we are going to do one that BoardGameCo did recently, Top 10 Crowdfunding Games I’d Back Again.

What Top 10 lists would you like to see me do in the future?

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Pros

• Good Artwork
• No Minis

Cons

• Price
• Name
• Generic Fantasy
• No Minis

The Page

Now, I lean more into the cons for this game as I look at it but I do want to compliment it on a very nice page. I do have one major knock with it but generally, they nail a good Kickstarter page. I do want to talk about price here. For $82 USD and $18 shipping, I can get games that give me more. Now, Kickstarter prices are going up because prices on everything are going up, but for a game without a mini in sight, which is a good thing, the price is a bit high.

The name I’m also going to knock some because it is generic at best. At worst, and I’ve heard of this happening already and I warned the designer it might, people think it’s a Lord of the Rings game. That might get them some extra clicks, but it has also gotten them someone who left the page or felt the bait and switch. Shire is not only a Tolkien word, but, Tolkien and Hobbits are the first thing people will think of.

So, those are not the main thing I wanted to talk about. I want to talk about the character boards. They look good, but I don’t know what they look like in a game. There are sections that seem to be split up basically into little areas, what is that for? Is that for an upgrade? Is that for item storage, what is it? I want more shots of game in action, versus the production images.

The Game

The game itself seems pretty solid, but this is where I run into another issue. I don’t feel like it’s that unique. The game play seems pretty normal, the classes are normal as are the monsters. I like the idea of the trash mobs. It’s something that has a very RPG feel to it where you have your lousy monsters show up early in the day so that the players spend a few spells and abilities for when they finally reach the big boss for the day.

But generally, I just consider this game to be pretty generic. It’s generic fantasy and it’s a generic concept. I don’t see it setting itself apart from games with scenarios, and for less in terms of PvP you can get the Dragon Prince game or for basically the same amount you can get Super Fantasy Brawl.

Back or Brick

So no surprise this is a Brick for me. To me, I don’t see enough game to price point. Nor do I see the value of getting it now instead of maybe picking it up on retail. Now the game won’t exist without this Kickstarter but the funding goal have already been hit. If it’s good, someone will pick it up to publish. The art is solid, but the whole thing just seems too generic and not that great a price point to me. Add in the true solo play being an add-on, it makes it less likely to hit my table.

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The next 10 are going to be on Wednesday at 8 PM Central Time. You can join me over on Malts and Meeples YouTube Channel. You can flick the notification bell, here, to know when I’m going live. I hope that you can join as we get higher into the Top 100 list.

100 Through 91

90 Through 81

80 through 71

70 through 61

60 through 51

50 through 41

Top 100 Board Games – 40 through 31

40. Not Alone

This is a one versus all game, and normally I don’t gravitate towards that type of game. The one is either playing a different game orrunning the game. But in Not Alone, while the game they are playing is a little bit different, it is a lot of fun. The one is the planet trying to kill off the crew of a crashed spaceship before they can be rescued. Everyone else is trying to survive and signal the ship to get there faster. The group can discuss but it must always be done so that the one can hear. The card play works well, the game play fast, and overall a fun time as crew or planet.

Not Available

39. Downforce

I think this is the highest racing game that I have on the list, or at least racing themed game. Downforce has you bidding to get cars and race them around the board, as well as bet on who you think is going to win. The game actually is more about. how well you can tell early in the game who is going to win? because the betting is where you make the most money.

The card play in the game is very clever as well. You play down your cards and you have to move every car on the card in order from fastest to slowest. This can create bottlenecks and strategic card play. The game feels like a racing game, but it doesn’t take too long. Some racing games can feel more drawn out but Downforce doesn’t overstay it’s welcome. And keeps you engaged as other people are moving all the cars as well.

Buy On Miniature Market

38. Sushi Go Party!

Another good big group game, in fact all of these games work best, thus far, towards their higher player counts. Sushi Go Party is a drafting and set collection game as you build out your ideal meal to score points. All the cards score in different ways, and Sushi Go Party allows you to swap around the cards that you use every game. It means that you can create some very unique combinations that either give a ton of points or can cause people to go negative in points. And you can really tailor it to your group.

Buy On Miniature Market

37. Roll Player

A dice drafting game, in Roll Player you create a Dungeons and Dragons, or RPG character. The whole game is about how well you can build your stats for the character. I really like how the game works and I really like building up D&D characters. My one knock on the game is that you don’t do anything with the character, you just build it. Monsters and Minions expansion is supposed to help with that. Plus then Dice Throne Adventures is coming which I know helps with my issue.

When it comes to this or Sagrada, I do think that there is enough difference between to the two to keep both. Sagrada is more family friendly in how it plays in that it is easier to play. Plus the theme is much less nerdy, not that a nerdy theme is bad. Roll Player with creating a character for an RPG, that is a theme that specific groups will enjoy better but also one that some people won’t be interested in at all.

Buy on Miniature Market

36. Homebrewers

Homebrewers is a nice and fast engine building game. In it you compete to be the best brewer of beer at Summerfest and Oktoberfest. Mechanically this is a pretty simple engine building game. You roll dice and can trade them around to determine what actions you get to take in a round. You can brew, sanitize, add ingredients to your pantry or beers or use them to get an advantage.

For me the theme of brewing makes this game very appealing. I homebrew my own beer and it’s fun to come up with crazy ingredient combinations. Would I want to drink a full point of a smoked oyster porter, most certainly not, but I’d try it. And at the end of the game I like to look and see what is the best one that I’ve created, even though that doesn’t determine the winner.

Buy on Miniature Market

35. Clever Cubed

The only roll and write on this section of the Top 100 games, Clever Cubed, or Clever Hoch Drei, is part of the Clever trilogy of games. This one follows the same standard as the others with rolling dice, taking one and discarding all the ones lower. But this one gives you the most points as you play. It’s fun because the pink section really lets you lean into combos, filling in lots of other spots on the board. Yes, the game is themeless, but I really enjoy the puzzles that the Clever games bring.

Buy on Miniature Market

34. The Night Cage

If you want a game for Halloween, The Night Cage might be an ideal one for you. You are trapped, as a group, in an ever changing labyrinth that you can only crawl through. You only illuminate the spaces directly around you and if you go backwards to where you were before, the labyrinth will have changed. Plus there are monsters in there, and you need to avoid them if you can. You all are searching for keys and then a portal to be able to escape, but all of you need to find a key and get to the same portal to activate it. All this as your candles burn down.

This is really kind of an abstract game, but it is still thematic as you deal with the monsters and search for keys. The game also has a really nice tile holder which looks like a candle that is burning down, so as you put more tiles onto the board, the more that the candle will have burned down. It’s a very easy game to play, but it has an amazing tension as you get further into the game.

Buy on CoolStuffInc

33. Orchard: A 9 card solitaire game

I talk about Orchard fairly often, and I backed it’s successor Grove on Kickstarter recently. It’s still up for backing if you want to check it out. But Orchard is a great solo game. It’s a game that has you stacking cards and matching up fruit tree symbols to grow as much fruit as you can. The more you overlap cards, the more points you’ll get from the fruit you grow.

Orchard is an extremely fast play and generally I’ll play it several times in a single sitting. It also has a little footprint and easy set-up and pick-up. The game isn’t too mindless, but I call it a good mental reset game. I always feel like can refresh my brain and distract myself for a little bit while I play to then have fresh eyes to look at some work problem again.

Buy On Miniature Market

32. Ohanami

Ohanami is a very simple game. You draft two cards and then you put them into three columns split up however you like. But you always need to put down higher or lower numbers. The game is a lot of fun at it’s high player count of four or low of two and changes a lot as you play between those two. At two players it is much more strategic. At four players you only see two cards from that original hand come back to you. So drafting changes up greatly at higher player counts.

But there is also the scoring that keeps the game interesting. You draft over three rounds and score at the end of each. The first round you score for blue cards, the second blue and green, and the final, blue, green, grey and pink. Blue cards are worth less overall, but if you get them early, they can be the most lucrative to have drafted. So while the game is very accessible to any type of gamer, it isn’t too simple for heavy gamers.

Buy On Amazon

31. T.I.M.E Stories

The biggest game on the list T.I.M.E Stories is a campaign style game but also an escape room. You work together to try and figure out how to stop timing from being changed off of the proper flow that it’s supposed to be going. Your consciousness is sent back in time or across timelines so that you can investigate. If you can’t get it done in time, you can always restart armed with the knowledge that you now know.

I know that some people don’t love every scenario, and the scenarios aren’t always consistent. The game also promises are story throughout it linking each different scenario, and that doesn’t really exist. But the game is a lot of fun for me. I don’t mind going back and taking another run at things. The stories have all been enjoyable, some more so, but I’m always ready to see what the next puzzle or scenario is going to be when I finish playing.

Buy on Miniature Market

The Next 10

If you want to catch any of the remaining Top 10’s live, you can check them out and my normal streams on Wednesday at 8 PM Central time. If you subscribe and click the notification bell you’ll know whenever I go live or upload a new video to Malts and Meeples YouTube channel. When I’m not doing my Top 100, you can find me on Wednesday playing board games solo on the YouTube channel.

Now, I did say I wanted to talk about my streaming times. Through the Top 100 list, I am going to keep my 8 PM Central time on Wednesdays for streaming. However, this might be changing. A channel that I like to watch and be part of their live chat, the GloryHoundd channel is adjusting their schedule. And I know I have crossover viewers from their channel. If they take that 8 PM Central Wednesday spot, I might look at making my main streaming day on Monday. Be aware that change may come.

But what game do you like best out of this part of the Top 100? Are there any that you want to get to the table that you haven’t played in this bunch?

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Pros

• Thematic Game
• Time Travel
• Artwork/Aesthetic
• Cooperative/Solo

Cons

• Graphic Design
• Hero Drafting
• Player Count

The Page

This is a nicely done page. I like that they have a pretty big section on the game play, granted, it’s all snippets but it does lay out what is going on pretty well. Some of the wording on things has me a bit concerned though. They obviously have put a lot of effort into the game and gotten it into people’s hands, but some things make it seem like they don’t know board games that well. I put it as a con, “hero drafting”, I’ll talk about it more in the game itself.

It is interesting that this is a 1 & 3 player game. They make a point of saying that their “research” determined that 3 was the ideal player count. However, that makes it much harder to get to the table. If my wife and I want to game with another couple, this game is out. And really, since this is a game where you need to control 3 characters, it can be played with two just fine. You just need to know that someone will be controlling two character.

And finally, I do think that the art is good on this page. I like what they are doing and the feel of each separate piece. But I do not like the graphic design. While the graphic design does look functional, it doesn’t look modern. This again throws up a flag to me that this game is going to feel dated or limited in what it does. Now, I have no idea if that is actually the case, but the graphic design of the cards in particular, doesn’t instill confidence.

The Game

So, let’s talk about this hero drafting. There is no hero drafting in this game. You pick your heroes based off of the prophecies that you have. And the same with card drafting. You draw three cards and keep one. If I were then passing those cards on to someone else, that is drafting. I know I keep on harping on it, because the previewers seem to like it, but this game feels like the developers and designers need to play more games.

I am also worried about tracking everything for three characters. This seems, like I said, that it’d be a game that I play solo. And if my counting is right, I’d be keeping track of 39 different cubes on the players for different things. To me that sounds like I am doing some book keeping with this, which isn’t that fun. And I’m assuming these fluctuate some, otherwise why not make it simpler and just set numbers.

Back or Brick

You can probably guess, but this one is a Brick for me. It has a lot of positive comments from content creators who I trust to give a fair quote for a preview. But this just seems too busy for me and it has a cool concept but feels too small for everything it’s trying to do. If it weren’t for all those quotes, some of which are not really positive but just good sounding, I’d say this one gives me red flags. But, I think this will be a solid game, I’m just not sure it’s the right one for me.

How about for you is it 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

Quarto

This is a classic abstract game that has wonderful wooden components. And while I haven’t played it yet, I know that I need to, because I think it looks really interesting and smart. In the game your opponent is picking a piece for you to place. And you are trying to get rows or columns of four that match different criteria, or don’t. It reminds me some of the game SET, which I love and am quite good at, if I do say so myself. I like the idea of having to think about where you place so you aren’t forcing yourself to give your opponent the win, but also locking down the number of options that your opponent can give you, so it makes it more likely you win. A highly strategic game.

Status: To Be Played

Quoridor

Another game from the same company was Quarto, this one is a race across the board. Each player starts on their own side of the board and you either move your piece or play a wall piece on your turn. And you can’t do both on the same turn. I love this game for trying to let your opponent get as close as possible, block them, and make them backtrack in their race across the board. Or, in a four player game, I like making an opponent do that dirty work for me, so I can push ahead further. It’s a thinky little game and while Quarto is more strategic, this one can be very tactical.

Status: Played

Raiders of the North Sea

I like games with Vikings in them, but I normally don’t like worker placement games. Or, I should say, I’m normally not drawn to worker placement games. This one the theme pulled me in, and the simplicity of the mechanics. I like that you don’t have your own workers. Instead, you start with a worker and on your turn you start by placing a worker, and then you take one off of another spot. So you get two actions on the turn basically, and that’s how it works for everyone. You are fighting for places less than many other worker placement games.

Status: To Be Played

Railroad Ink: Blazing Red Edition

Most of the time when I say that I like a roll and write, I then add flip and write, but this one is a true roll and write game. You are building out roads and train routes on your map trying to connect as many as you can. I like that it’s a true roll and write, and that everyone can go at once. Games with little downtime are a very good thing in my opinion, this will only ever have you waiting for someone else to finish filling in their route spots. It also comes with laminated sheets which is great as well, means that I don’t have to, and it makes it so you’ll never run out.

Status: To Be Played

The Ravens of Thri Sahashri

I picked this one up because I was able to use a friends Fantasy Flight game center discount and it is a two player game that they sell a lot of. It’s an interesting game of kind of tableau building for one person and the other player removing cards from it based off of a rules. The one person who is removing cards is trying to do so in such a way to keep only the cards that they match the colors of the face down cards they have. It’s an interesting puzzle of an idea and works with the limited communication you see in a lot of cooperative games.

Status: To Be Played

The Reckoners

The Reckoners is one of my favorite book series of all time. So when a cooperative game came out for it, I knew that I’d get it eventually. I love the theme of being normal people trying to stop super powered bad guys. You research, and fight, all working to the big boss, Steelheart, trying to find his weakness and be able to take him out. It also has a nice dice rolling mechanic for the heroes, so that means it is more accessible to non-gamers. I am a bit concerned about how hard it is supposed to be, but the expansion is supposed to fix that.

Status: To Be Played

Reichbusters: Projekt Vril (and expansions)

Do you want to punch Hydra in the face? That’s what you’re basically doing in Reichbusters. This is a campaign game where you are fighting Nazi scientist, soldiers, and everything else crazy they are creating. This is a campaign game, but you don’t have to play it that way. That’s something other games claim to do. Now, Reichbusters won’t be for everyone. But I like dice chucking, big minis, and table hogs of games. It also feels like Captain America: The First Avenger in some ways, which is a big selling point for me. It also took me a few hours to punch and sort everything.

Status: To Be Played

Res Arcana

I was sold on this game by some friends. I like the idea of it as it’s a small engine building game. I hope that it’s very accessible as that will help it get to the table more. The card play seems interesting because you start with your hand of cards and that doesn’t change much during the game. I need to play this one as the standard first and then move onto drafting. The drafting of the cards to start seems really interesting and can make it a bigger game with more replyability. But it looks really enjoyable.

Status: To Be Played

Rhino Hero: Super Battle

I got this one to play with the toddler. Now, I don’t think he’s ready yet. But this is a dexterity game about stacking a massive building and moving your character up on it. Any dexterity game works with adults as well. It’s a silly little game but fairly often you need fun filler like that.

Status: To Be Played

Rising 5: Runes of Asteros

This game is interesting to me because it was sold as a better version of Mastermind, a game that I liked, but that was too easy. Mastermind should be won in the game number of rounds every time. Rising 5 does a similar thing where you need to match symbols, but it has an app. So you don’t have one person running the puzzle. Now, that’s a turn off for some people, but it’s nice to take the game so it’s completely cooperative. I like games that make me have to figure out a puzzle.

Status: To Be Played

Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island

I love cooperative games, and I love hard cooperative games. This one is one of the hardest cooperative games. It is the precursor to First Martians. The one issue that’s kept this game off the table is that the rule book is not good. Unfortunately Portal Games does not make the best rule books. I need to watch a video on how to play the game to get it to the table. But I am excited because I like the theme, I like that you can play Robinson Crusoe, or maybe it’s a film crew filming Kong, or Swiss Family Robinson, and that’s in the box. So it has scenarios, but they aren’t a campaign.

Status: To Be Played

Roll Player (and expansions)

Dungeons and Dragons is my RPG of choice, and even though I’m always the DM, I do roll up character sheets. Roll Player takes character creation and turns it into a board game. You draft dice, put them in the stats, and do that until you get a character. The Monster and Minions expansion make it so you fight with your hero as well. And the Fiends and Familiars adds even more to the game. There is a lot for this game and eventually I’ll be able to use the character I create in Roll Player Adventures, which I’m looking forward to. This game grew on me, but now I really like it.

Status: Played
Expansion Status: To Be Played

That’s the letters Q and R. A number of games in R had some expansions. I really want to get Reichbusters to the table. Which is your favorite game in Q or R? What should I add to my collection starting with Q or R?

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100 to 91

90 to 81

80 to 71

70 to 61

60 to 51

50 to 41

40 to 31

30 to 21

Plus a few notes on how I’ve put together the list:

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

20. Letter Jam

Most word games aren’t cooperative and they tend to be the person who has the biggest vocabulary or maybe in some games it’s pattern recognition. This one has some of that in it, but it isn’t based off of who knows more words since everyone is trying to use deduction to figure out what their letters are and then unscramble them to figure out what word they have. This game is really clever in that you can see one letter from everyone else but you can’t see yours. So you are having to deduce what letters you have based off of the words that people are creating and the letters you can see. For example, if I have a “Z” and I can see that other players have an I, Px2, E, and R, I can now slightly to narrow down what letter I have. Granted, that’s not a great clue because I don’t know mine so it could be a “TIPPER”, “DIPPER” or something of the like. Plus, not only am I trying to figure out my letters so I can unscramble them to figure out my word, I have to be helping everyone else doing that as well. The game just works really well and it’s very puzzly. I also like the game because it can handle a larger group of players without it feeling bogged down because hopefully, everyone is in on the clue word being given to help deduce their letters. Finally, I really like how this game forces you to think about the clue you’re going to give and give a good clue. You want to make it so that at least someone can basically lock in a letter or at least really help them narrow it down so they can make an educated guess.

Last Year: 27

19. Hanamikoji

The highest pure two player game on the list, Hanamikoji is a really fun and fast abstract game. In this game you are trying to win the favor of Geisha so that they will visit your restaurant. Do to this, you are giving them gifts and winning their favor. But how you give gifts is what makes this game really shine. Each player has four actions they can do a round, and they have to do each of the actions once. So they can discard two cards, face down, and they won’t be used for winning favor. They can put a card face down that will be used for winning favor. They can put out three cards face up and their opponent picks one and those are immediately used for winning favor. Or you can put out two sets of two cards, face up, and your opponent picks one and you get the other set for immediately winning favor. The game has a great push and pull feel to it as you fight for favor, and you use your cards to hide some information from your opponent as well as let them make the tough decisions for you when you split and they choose or they pick one of the three. It’s a very thinky game and really is wonderful as a two player filler game.

Last Year: 13

18. Sagrada

Some games just look amazing on the table, and Sagrada is really one of those games. The translucent dice really give you the feel of the stained glass window that you are creating. And the game itself is a great dice drafting game. In this game you are making a stained glass window, and depending on the difficulty of your window, you need some certain numbers and colors in certain locations. And you can’t have the the dice orthogonal to the one you placed match the number or color, that is up and down and left and right. So you have to plan things out, you can’t place in the orthogonal spots a three if you are locked into having a certain number, a three, in a location on the board. There’s some strategy to the game, some luck, and the luck is actually mitigated quite nicely by the fact that you every game you have some tools out, there tools can allow you to draft two dice at once, or maybe move a die after it’s been placed, draw out a new die and use that one, there are a lot of different things all which help you mitigate the luck. Plus, the scoring is variable as well. You don’t get points for completely filling in your window, but you do lose points for empty spots, and you have a secret scoring objective as well as three public ones, which might be no repeated colors in a column gets you 6 points, or something like that, and you can score each column. The game is very variable and works really well.

Last Year: 20

17. Arkham Horror: The Card Game

Dropping all of 11 spots, this is mainly because I haven’t gotten this game to the table in a little bit, I really do need to as every time I play the game I really enjoy it. In this game you are playing through linked scenarios that tell a larger story, campaign style. You have a deck for an investigator, that you’ve constructed based off of deck construction rules, that you are using to fight monster, get clues, and figure out what it happening in the story. What works so well in this game is that the scenarios can vary wildly. Even n the base box, in the first scenario you are going to be fighting some and looking for clues, second scenario, you don’t want to fight much and you are trying to find as many cultists are possible. And depending on what you do, you might get access to certain cards, scenarios might be harder or easier, the game is just really well designed that way. And you can also change your difficulty level really easily as there is a modifier bag, and you can scale how difficult or easy you want it based off of what is in there. And the story can branch based off of what you’ve done, now it might not branch massively, but you can make a difference in how easy or hard or where the story goes based off of what you do in previous scenarios. This is one that I really need to play more of.

Last Year: 6

16. Deception: Murder in Hong Kong

Now, I talk very often about how I don’t like social deduction games, this is one that I really like. There’s one huge reason that I really like the game and that’s because you can immediately start accusing people and trying to figure out what is happening in the case. In most social deduction games you’re basically taking a stab in the dark the first round or so as you guess who might be a traitor and who might not be a traitor. But in this one, the second the forensic scientist puts out the first report, you have something you can actually work with. In this game one person is a murder who picks from the four clues and murder weapons in front of them, one of each that they, the forensic scientist, and if there’s an accomplice know. The person playing the forensic scientist ends up then passing up reports, such as murder location, and with that, you can immediately start to talk and come up with what of all the clues and murder weapons would make sense there. So you are immediately doing something as players and immediately doing something meaningful. This game also lends itself to way more story that just comes naturally from the mechanics of the game which also make it more enjoyable. Dropped a little bit, but that’s more because other things have moved up, this is an amazing game for big groups.

Last Year: 10

15. Clank! In! Space!: A Deck-Building Adventure

Another one from the Top 10 that has dropped and this again has to do with it not being played all that often recently., I have an expansion for this game that I haven’t even used yet, so I want to get it to the table, but it’s been a hard year to play a ton of games, and deck builders are not games that work well via Zoom. in this game you are going into the most secure location on Lord Eradikus’ ship stealing his treasure. Along the way you’ll make noise, things will go clank, and he’ll realize someone is on his ship. Can you get in and out before he gets you and with the best and most valuable treasure so you will win? This game is an improvement, in my opinion out of the base box on the fantasy themed Clank!. The game definitely doesn’t take itself seriously, and it has fixed an issue I have with Clank! where you can rush in grab a treasure and leave and rush the end of the game, here you can do that kind of but not nearly as effectively, so it’s worth it to push for a better treasure, if you can. The theme is fun and they keep it super light, and I love deck-building, so an easy game to put high on my list.

Last Year: 9

14. Welcome To…

Highest roll and write or flip and write on the list. Welcome To… is just a fun game for me, I like the strategy that goes into it as you race for various scoring cards and you still building and upgrading your scoring the best you can. This game is all about building your perfect 1960’s neighborhood with white picket fences, 2.5 children and dogs, well, those last two aren’t in the game, but you are filling in streets, putting in house numbers, building parks and swimming pools. What makes this game really work for me is that you’re using one of three combinations of a house number and an ability on your turn. And you can see the upcoming abilities for the next turn, but you won’t know the house number. You’re trying to balance filling in streets, getting more scoring by having more parks or pools, but also getting the points from the objectives as well. There game isn’t complex, but it’s a good time and great for large groups.

Last Year: 12

13. XenoShyft: Onslaught

Another deck building game and another one that has dropped out of my top 10, does that mean I like them less? Nope, there’s just so many good games. I really like XenoShyft: Onslaught because it is a cooperative deck building game where you are fighting off wave after wave of bug monsters with your force of troops on an alien planet. What I like about this game is that you have your hand of cards, but you always get a free money card to add to your hand every turn, so you are never short on money. But to go with that, you also are able to help other people as they prepare their defenses, so if I have the armory as my location that I’m defending, it means I can get weapons at a discount, so maybe I have too many weapons and not enough troops to deal with a wave, so I might give someone else a weapon from my hand, and maybe that person has the barracks and has more troops and they will put a troop into my row. I like how each role a person can take feels different and can help the group in different ways. And I like that you can bolster someone else’s deck as well. Now, this is a tough game to win, but one that is a lot of fun and for fans of deck building is working quite well.

Last Year: 7

12. T.I.M.E. Stories

Another dropper from the Top 10, and this one I have actually played several times since last year’s list, I think this is dropping more because of other games moving up than anything I have an issue with. This is still an amazing puzzle game where you are trying to go through the story and figure out everything that is happening and how to stop the time incursion that is threatening to change up the world. They do a great job with just basically using cards of making the game feel really different depending on the scenario that you play. And while the story isn’t always the strongest on a given scenario there is basically always something unique and different to try. I also like how you do multiple runs, sure that means you are repeating stuff sometimes, but it allows you to really explore the world and it feels thematic to how the world and the technology works. I know a lot of people way that this drops off in some of the scenarios, but through five now, I’ve enjoyed them all, and while there could be a better and bigger story unfolding through all of them, I like all the scenario stories.

Last Year: 5

11. Lords of Hellas

New game alert, now this is actually a game that’s been out a couple of years, but I just got it last year and got it to the table in February of this year. Lords of Hellas is a big minis game, but actually plays really smoothly with some euro style mechanics being blended in with amerithrash. In this game each player has a hero who leads their troops and moves around the board building temples, fighting monsters, building statues, and conquering lands. In this game you have a number of different ways to win, you could fight and defeat three monsters, you could hold five temples, you could conquer two regions and all their territories, you could control a completed statue, the game gives you a lot of ways to win, and even with that, in a five player game, we had three of the five a turn away from winning when the game ended, and the other two players were two turns away from winning. The game has a lot of fun mechanics, and your hero has their own unique ability and as temples are built, your faction gets more and more unique abilities that helps you focus how you are going to play the game and how you might win. This is game that I want to play more, it’s just a bit of a beast to get to the table and it doesn’t really play over something like Zoom, so it might have to sit on my shelf for a while, because I feel like there is a lot of variability and a lot of cool things to be done in the game.

Last Year: Not Ranked

So, we have a bunch of movement here. 5 from the 2019 Top 10 are now in this section of the list, and we have at #11 a game that I hadn’t even played last year that has rocketed up the boards. This of course means with the Top 10, we have 5 new games to that section of the list, are they new games, or are they games that are just on the rise as I’ve played them more, we’ll have to wait to see. But your guesses for my Top 10 games in the comments below, and let me know your favorites on this part of the Top 100.

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

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