Part of what I do at Gen Con every evening, though, is go through a list of everything that I played. I log those plays and see how many games I played. This year, over Gen Con, I believe it was 42 or 43 different games. So let’s look at the games played, ranked, but we’re starting out only with day 1’s recap of gaming so far because 42 is too many for a single article.

Day 1 Gaming at Gen Con

13. Invincible: The Dice Game

I know that Tom Vasel of the Dice Tower did not like this game. I’m with him a bit on it. I think it’s a perfectly fine beer and pretzels type of game. But I already have a game, Zombie Dice, that does the same thing, and I think it does it better.

It’s a dice chucker where you allocate dice and push your luck to try and beat bad guys. The bad guys give you damage and they can knock down your “health” to take you out of a round if you push your luck too far. One of those, there isn’t too much to the game sort of games. It’s one I’d play again, but I don’t need two games like that in my collection.

12. Beacon Patrol

This one I accidentally slept through the event for the following day, but Beacon Patrol with the demo I got was simply fine. It has that Carcassonne style placement of tiles. It turns it into a cooperative game, but without that much game to it. I also think that it bogs down because if you get bad tiles, as a group, you might not be able to place them. They give you minor ways to deal with it, but it’s not that exciting.

And the scoring is pretty simple, surround a tile on all four sides. It gives points depending on what’s on it, but there’s just not that much going on, which is why it’s lower on my list. I feel like over a longer game it wouldn’t be any more interesting than a few round demo, it might make it worse.

11. Scram!

This is team Silver. I like Silver, but I sold my stuff. It’s a game that I played a number of times, so I don’t feel the need to come back to it again. Scram! Is simpler, but it’s for teams. I think I like it better than Silver just because of that simplicity, the weird animal theme, and the teamwork. The change is that you can play and get rid of a card of your teammates as well when you get rid of cards of the same number. Very much the same thing, but still enjoyable. Not one that I’m going to get back in this form, most likely, as it’d be harder to play.

10. GAP

I did buy this one and it’s fairly low on my list. I got it because it’s a small game and one that is pretty simple and fun. You just play out card and take cards of the matching numbers or an adjacent number. And you are trying to collect a lot of one color and a little of another color so that you get the biggest gap, hence the name. I like a little card game like this one, and it reminds me of some other ones, a bit like Hats a bit like Parade. I’m not sure it’s better than either of those, but it’s easier to teach, which I like as well.

9. Secrets of the Lost Tomb: Epic Edition

This demo was pretty light, which is a shame. I think sitting down with this game for 30 minutes or so would have been great. But this is basically a cooperative Betrayal at House on the Hill. It is a remake and reworking of an older game. I like that in theory, it’s more of an adventure and it’s one shot adventures. So it is a bit more text than Betrayal and a bit more story because of that. However, it feels a bit old in what it’s doing, do I need a second game like Betrayal?

8. Cytosis: A Cell Biology Board Game

A game that’s been out for a bit, this is one of those games that I just sat down to randomly play. And I think it’s a solid worker placement game. You need to plan out what you do well, but it doesn’t feel that exciting compared to other games.

I think I mainly compare it to Asking for Trobils, that weight of game, and Asking for Trobils is more fun. Cytosis is a great game, though, if you want an interesting way to teach Cytosis and that science because it does a great job of that. There is great value in that, in my opinion, because it’s a fun game that teaches you.

7. Age of Wonders: Planetfall

I have two things that I think are interesting about this game. Age of Wonders: Planetfall is a game about building out your factions powers to get the most points as you spend resources, get resources, fight battles, get cards.

I think that it’s a very cool game, I have it low on the list because I don’t think there is enough. It’s 7 planets you go to per game, but it’s the same seven planets. And it needs to be because cards build like they do in 7 Wonders where you have a card that is easy to get if you own a previous card. But the variability I feel like is pretty light. So I think I want it, but I’d play it 5-6 times and then be done with it.

6. The Fox Experiment

A game that’s been out for a few years. I don’t think I realized fully how it worked, now that I do, I really want the game. This is a game about Russian experiments for breeding foxes, kind of that actually happened.

You breed foxes and get new trait based off of roll and write mechanisms. And then those new foxes are placed into the breeding pool so you build out the ones that you already did. It’s a fun system, it’s not a heavy game, but I want it. I like the roll and write random element to it. I like the upgrades and things you can do to improve your fox, so very fun.

5. Ecosystem

This is one that was a surprise hit for me. The game is a pretty simple tableau building drafting game. You draft animals that score in different ways. The bear wants to be near rabbits and trout. The trout the streams and dragonflies, the foxes don’t want to be near other predators. All of those things give you points and you draft over two rounds. The upside is it can play a pretty solid number of players and it plays fast. I picked it up because it’s going to be one of those games, I can tell, that is going to be consistently played with my group, that easy to play but offers some good fun.

4. SpellBook

SpellBook is one of the bigger releases, I think, at Gen Con because of the designer. Phil Walker-Harding is known for creating lighter, easy to play games that are very popular. And I think that SpellBook hits that as well. You are trying to cast spells and give energy to your familiar. All of those things give you points and the spells give you power.

But you can only cast spells once per games of the various colors. So as you cast them, you need to decide to what level you want to push them to. The higher the go, they better they are, but the game ends when you’ve cast them all, or when your familiar is maxed out, so someone can rush those ends if they want, it’s a fun balancing act.

3. Dungeon Karts

This one is great, it’s a multiplayer racing game that is very much a Mario Kart style of game. The game play is fast and pretty straight forward in what you are doing. There are special powers, and you get spells that you cast against your opponents. This reminds me a bit of Tiny Turbo Cars but without the real time, more just that fun that you have in a game where you can blow someone else up. It definitely leans into the goofy and will be coming to Kickstarter soon which I’ll want to checkout.

2. Ticket to Ride Legacy: Legends of the West

This one is hard to rank, but it ranked high. Mainly, what I saw I liked a lot. But what I saw was mainly Ticket to Ride. When you start this legacy game you only play on the East Coast and the density of locations is a whole lot higher. There are elements that give you a bonus in the game. And what I saw that is mainly new is that you get events. Those events might give you  more victory points or potentially bad things. I’m really excited for this legacy game to come out.

1. Lost Ruins of Arnak: The Missing Expedition

I already like Arnak a lot already. The Missing Expedition expansion adds in a few things. There are two new research boards, we didn’t play with those. Two new characters I thought that both of them were very interesting. The big thing is I got to play the campaign in the box. This is a solo or two player campaign where you unlock new cards as you go along. And there is a story with it, more than I thought, which is cool. I wasn’t sure if it would work cooperatively, but it does. And there are good challenges in it and twists in the first chapter. I bought it, so I will play through the whole campaign, probably solo.

Busy with Gaming

I play a lot of games at Gen Con. And Thursday is often the busiest day for me, like I said. And I think that it might have been the best day for gaming for me. Even my least favorite game in the group, I think was fun enough to play again. It’s a good “beer and pretzels” game.

If you’re not familiar with that term, think of a game that you can sit around playing at a bar or brewery. Or at your place when you want something to play, but it’s mainly about chatting, sitting around, and drinking. Actually a very good option for a place like Gen Con.

Then the list goes all the way up to bigger more complex games that are great. I’m not sure that The Missing Expedition is as good as Expedition Leaders for Lost Ruins of Arnak. But it adds in more cards and more expedition leaders even if you don’t want the cooperative campaign. So even if you do end up playing without the campaign you get good stuff in the box.

It’s been just over a week and I miss the gaming all the time already. Gen Con is great for that, and thankfully, I get a game night tomorrow night where we’ll play some of the these games that I bought at Gen Con. Often some that I did demo as well.

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This year we are digging deeper, or being a bit more thematic, depending on how you look at it, but what are the Top 12, you know 12 days of Christmas, for each category. I’m going to get through them all quickly over the next two weeks, so join with me on making your list and checking it twice.

Board Game Holiday List – Top 12 Stocking Stuffers

List is in no particular order.

12. Orchard

Orchard is the only solo only game on the list and a fun one. The game is pretty simple, you are taking two cards and stacking them onto an existing card. Where you cover up a card, matching fruit trees, you place a die. And the more layers you can get, the higher that die value goes. But because you are getting random cards, it makes it tricky to layer them too deep. Can you create patterns that are easy enough to build on. Because you can “cheat” twice, but that blocks off those non-matching spots from being built on.

Orchard is a great little solo game. And it does two things that I like. Firstly, it does make you think, because you want to figure out good ways to stack the cards and cover up parts of the other ones. But at the same time, you are limited in options, so you can’t over think it too much. And it is a fast game. You play out nine cards total, so you can sit down and play a number of times in a single sitting.

11. No Thanks

No Thanks is more of a classic game in terms of how long it’s been around. But it’s one that holds up really well. It is a push your luck game of trying to get cards with the fewest points possible on them. You have chips which you can use to say “No Thanks” to a card, so a 22 is flipped you pass on it, but then everyone else does too, and you keep on putting chips on it until someone takes it.

Why would you take it, a few reasons. You might be getting low on chips. All the chips on it come to you so that means you can pass on higher numbers. Or because there are enough chips on it, because chips are worth -1 points to your total at the end of the game. If there are 11 chips on it, now that 22 is only worth 11 points, when you take it. Also, it might be part of a run. If you have the 20, 21, and 22, you only score the first number of a run. So getting the 22 doesn’t change the fact you’re scoring 20 points, plus you got some chips.

It’s a light game, but really fun to play. And it is an easy one to pick up as well, which I really enjoy. Of course, it also comes in a really small box, just some chips and cards, so easily fits into a stocking.

10. The Crew: Deep Sea Adventures

The Crew, either version, is a great option, as it and the next one are both cooperative trick taking games. This works best if you are playing with more than two, the one is a two player game only. But The Crew: Deep Sea Adventures, is going to give you a series of challenges. It starts out easy and then builds up over time as you level up doing better, the challenges become harder.

The first game you might have something like, the person who takes the challenge needs to win the green four. That is pretty easy, but requires some thinking. It becomes trickier a few challenges down the road when a person needs to win the green four. Another person can’t win any pink tricks, and maybe a third person can’t win the first two tricks. How do you figure all of that out at once with limited to no communication.

9. Fox in the Forest Duet

The Fox in the Forest Duet is also trick taking, but for two players. Limited communication, you are trying to move a fox around a board and pounce on leaves. How far the fox moves is based on the difference in fox paws of the winning card to the losing card of the trick. And the fox always moves towards the winner. If you can collect all the leaves in three hands, you win the game.

Again, this works because of limited communication. It also works because if you go off the board, you block off a space on the board. Now you are even more limited in where you can move. So any mistake might push you off the board again, and too many times you lose. But until then the board becomes even tighter. That might seem very challenging, but you also can manipulate the trump suit and other aspects of the game with powers on the cards. So can you get that balance right?

8. Similo

Similo is one of two party games that work well as a stocking stuffer. In Similo one person is a clue giver to get you to narrow in on their card and eliminate the ones that aren’t their cards. But it’s not as easy as you think. If you get one pack, say historical figures, you are using other historical figures to say if your card is or isn’t like other historical figures.

And the first round isn’t too bad. The other players just need to pick a game to eliminate. But the next round it’s two, then three, and finally four. And by the time you eliminate four that is going to only leave two options. And the clue giver can just play down a card to say if their card is or isn’t like that figure. It can get even more challenging. Maybe you have historical figures out on the table, but now you give clues with animal cards. Is or isn’t Bonaparte like a bear?

7. Floriferous

Floriferous is one of a few very pretty games on the list. This is a drafting game and a bit bigger because of how it works. Now, don’t worry, it’ll fit in a stocking just fine, but in terms of what you are doing, you’ll need to think more. The game is set-up in columns and players are drafting a card from a column at a time. That might be a flower card, or it might be a scoring card. Say, a card that says I get 1 point per daisy at the end of the game. Each time you take a scoring card you pass on a flower, and vice versa.

Plus, there is one really cool mechanic in the game. The drafting isn’t too different from something like Point Salad, just missed the list, but as you draft you place your color on the column where you took the card. The higher on the column, the sooner you’ll be drafting next round. So maybe you take a flower that is just okay for you because the next scoring card is perfect for you. Or do you hope that you can draft it later? The game can be a bit mean, but mainly it’s pretty.

6. Arboretum

Arboretum on the other hand is a very mean game. You are picking up cards and then building out numerical rows of trees. It really only matters that you start with a low number of a tree type and end with a high number of that tree type. As long as the number in between count up, you are going to be doing great. But, of course there is a twist.

To score a type of tree you need to have the highest point value of that tree remaining in your hand at the end of the game. If you don’t, well, then you don’t score any points. So you have to hold onto cards, which means that you might not get as many points but you do that to guarantee that you can get any points. That is where the game is mean, you might have a great collection of trees of one type, but if I have the most at the end of a game, you can’t score it.

5. Medium

The other party game on the list, Medium is in the biggest box out of all of these games, or at least the squarest box. In Medium you try and get the most points by matching words with the other players, on your round. But it’s not as easy as guessing what word they’d write down to a question. Now, instead you both play out a word, well, let’s give an example.

If I play out the word “stick” and you put out the word “wind”, we need to come up with a word, and the same word that links those two together. I might say “kite” if you say “kite” we both get a point tile from the highest point section. If I instead say “rustle” and you say “kite” now we try again with the new words. It’s a great party game that leads to a lot of laughs.

4. Ohanami

Ohanami is another drafting game on the list, but this one is more simple than something like Floriferous. In that one you think about how or when you are going to draft next round and when to draft scoring. Here you are just drafting two cards at a time to put them in columns in numerical order. You can only ever add to the top or bottom of a column though.

There are two areas that this game offers some really interesting fun. The first being the scoring. In the first round only blue scores and only a few points. But any blue you get scores each round those few points. Green scores more but only the second and third round. And grey only the last round. And finally pink only scores the last round, but the more you have the higher that they score.

The other area is when you “flip” columns. Now you don’t flip over the cards, but you want to keep numbers close together. But as one columns low gets closer to to another columns high when do you make the jump so that instead of going up 40, 42, 43, do you jump it up to 52 or even 62 going past a 60 in another column so you can optimize your points. Wait too long, you will score lower, do it too soon, you might lock yourself out of being able to play certain numbers.

3. Hero Realms

Hero Realms is another bigger game on the list, only in the number of cards that the game has. Size wise, it’ll easily fit into a stocking. Hero Realms is a deck building game and a head to head fighting game. You buy cards to either get money to buy more cards or to deal more damage to your opponent. Your goal, get them to zero health.

One thing I really like about Hero Realms is how quickly it ramps. You can play a strategy where you gain a lot of life to keep from dying, but you don’t take long to buy powerful cards. So even with health starting at 50 or 60, you can deal out 10-15 damage by turn five. And when you can deal 20% of someone’s life total in a turn, you need to build up fast.

It doesn’t do a ton unique. If you can combo factions you can get more money or damage. We see that in a lot of deck building games. But for a small one and a good two player one. Hero Realms is tough to beat. And I haven’t played Star Reams to compare.

2. Silver

Silver I think makes the list fairly often. This is a bluffing game, kind of, mainly it’s a hard to explain game. In Silver you have a village of cards in front of you. You know what two of them are to start the game. And you need to manipulate them to get as few points as possible in your village.

The fun bit comes from each card having it’s own power. It might be allowing you to peak at another card. Or it might be giving your opponent a higher value card into their village. The whole thing is that tricky puzzle to figure out. And the round doesn’t end until both 0 cards are face up in a village or someone calls for a vote.

To call for a vote you need to have less than your five cards in your village and the only way to get rid of a card from your village is to trade two of the same number. So there is some sneaky strategy with that as you might trade out two lower numbers for a slightly higher number if you can then trade out even more next turn. How you do that with all the cards is a lot of fun.

1. Age of War

Finally we have Age of War. This one is a die rolling game that has been out for a while. But it’s a good little game of set collection, push your luck and trying to get as many points as you can. In Age of War you roll dice to get symbols that match those on different castles. If you match all of the castle that you are going for, then you get to take it. However, even when you take it someone can steal it from you, it is just a bit harder.

But if you get all of a type of castle though, red, green, etc. you flip them over. That makes them worth slightly more points. But the big thing, is once they are flipped, they can’t be stolen. So that means that you end up with direction as to what you want to do in a good way. And it also means that you might really want to “fight” someone else on your turn to get their castle that’d complete your collection, of course they might do the same to you.

Happy Holidays

Hopefully this list gives you some ideas. There are a ton of good small box games out there that work wonderfully for stocking stuffers. I could have picked probably 12 roll and write games which is why I haven’t done that. Since I can pick 12, well that is going to be the next list that I create. A lot of those will work on both lists but it’s fun to split them up.

Let me know what sort of game lists you want to see covered. And my goal is to do a good 8-10 of them so you have a ton of options, probably around 100, for different games. But depending on who you are buying for, or asking for a gift from, you’ll be able to find a list that works for that.

Happy Holidays!

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Top 100 Games – 100 – 91

100 – Silver

Silver I believe has been on the list every year that I’ve made it. Last year it was on the list at #84 and now it is barely hanging out with #100. A lot of that is that I just haven’t played it recently. If I were to play it more, it might move back up.

But in Silver you are trying to get the fewest points possible in your village. The trick is that you have five cards, all face down, to make your village and you don’t know what they are. You look at two to start the game and then after that, you play down cards that allow you to look at and swap out your cards, or your opponents. Until someone calls for a vote and you see who is lowest. But that can only be done if you’ve got fewer than your five cards, which you can do if trade in two cards of the same number on a turn.

Overall a solid fun time. It’s one of the more take that sort of games on the list. You can put high number cards into your opponents village or steal cards from them. But it’s fast and offers a ton of variety, so I appreciate it a lot for that.

Buy on Miniature Market

99 – Merchants Cove

This one was much higher last year at #79. I played a lot of new games this past year, which is why we’re seeing some drop. Merchants Cove also suffers a little bit by being a really big game to table for a game I prefer to play with two players.

But the game does a ton of cool things. Each player has a mini game that they are doing, whether it’s a roll and write, spin and move, or playing with marbles. All of these mini games gives the players goods that they can then sell. And you want to sell for as much money as possible as the merchants come into the docks along the cove.

Each mini game is quite light, and how the merchants come in is about the most player interaction, quite indirect that there is in the game. But I found each mini game to be fun, and there is some strategy and puzzle for getting the merchants into the boats you want them in and getting those boats to the dock. Downside is for being light, it takes a while to play.

Buy on Final Frontier Games

98 – Quadropolis

New to the list in 2022, Quadropolis is a city building game from Days of Wonder. It’s not a heavy game but it does a lot of very interesting things. And that’s what really stands out to me about this game and got it to the list. Just how you get your buildings for your town and how you can place them in your town is really interesting.

You have tiles that you place along the edge of the board where you are getting the city buildings. It tells you how far in, the third tile for example, that you need to go and take that tile. So there is interesting strategy there. Plus, because I put down a three, now on my city board, I can only place in a row or column with a three.

Since you score points by where you put buildings, the whole placement puzzle becomes really interesting. What you do on your turn is very simple, pick up a tile and place it onto your board. But there is a good amount of thinking that goes into what tile you pick and how you get to pick it so you can place it where it’s best for you.

Buy on Amazon

97 – Small World

Dropping from #75 last year, Small World is one of the few classic games, or modern classics left on the list. Ticket to Ride, Catan and Carcassonne are all off the list now. But Small World sticks around because of the variability to it. The combos or the races and powers make the game stand out.

This is a game that I describe as Risk, but fun. Small World has you conquering areas to score points over a number of rounds. But the board is so small that conflicts will happen. And when conflicts happen, you might get wiped off the board, nearly. So instead of being out of the game or in a horrible position, you go into decline and get a new race and power combo and come in and wreck everyone.

This is something that’d be a fine game if it wasn’t, though for the races and powers. Those combos really give each game a different feel. You might be flying giants or underworld halflings or wealthy tritons. And different combos each game mean that you’ll never play the exact same game.

Buy on Cool Stuff Inc

96 – Hero Realms

Another new to the list game, Hero Realms is one that I got to play for the first time at Gen Con this past August. Since then, I bought it and I have played it a whole lot more. There is an app for it as well, which is great. Hero Realms is a deck building game and one that pits you head to head against your opponent trying to knock down their life.

Like most deck building games, it works with factions and those factions play off the other cards in their faction. Some factions are better at maintaining your health, others are about getting more purchase power, others are all about combat. So you can really tailor how you build, but you need to build fast.

Hero Realms is not a deck building game that takes a while to build up your purchase power. You can buy powerful cards fast, and when you hit for 10-15 damage a turn after four turns, the game is going to be over fast. So it’s very much a race to build up as fast as you can, and because of that one you can play a few times in a row.

Buy on Amazon

95 – Ascension

Another deck building game, Ascension is my introductory deck builder. It does a lot of things well, gives you fun factions and combos that play off of each other while being fairly basic. Down from #53 last year, that is again because I haven’t played it as much recently. And probably because I played the app a ton for about a year or so, and it’s a solid app.

Ascension does what you expect a deck building game to do. You buy cards, and factions cause combos to happen. But as compared to Hero Realms, you fight monsters not your opponent and that fighting, which isn’t in Dominion, I think makes the game more fun. It’s, unlike Dominion, not about ramping purchase power only. You need to fight, but it’s not only about the fighting. You get points for killing monsters but also for the cards you buy. So it’s a nice blend of scoring.

Buy on Amazon

94 – Ra

Ra is a game that is on the list and then will drop off and come back on. I recently picked it up, so hopefully that’ll mean it gets more play. But it floats around because of how interesting the auction is for the game.

In Ra you are doing set collection, basically, to score points. But how you get those tiles that you collect is through an auction. And the auction is the meat of the game. When you bid on something in the auction, you use a tile with a number, not money. So if I someone has bid a 5 and I only have a 8 to bid higher, if I want it, I bid that 8 and there is no change back. But along with losing that 8 tile I get the number, left over bidding tile, in the middle. And that might take me from a 8 to a 10, or an 8 to 1. And that can determine if you want to bid or not as well.

The game is pretty simple, I feel. But the auction mechanic definitely creates a unique feel to the game. And the auction being the main focus is a lot of fun for the game.

Late Pledge on Gamefound

93 – Similo

Similo also has dropped on the list. Honestly, most will have unless they are new on the list. Similo is a party game that offers a solid cooperative experience. At #61 last year, it has moved down because party games tend to drop over time. The more you play a party game, or at least for some of them, the more they feel the same.

Similo, though, does a solid job of being different. In this game it is cooperative where one person is giving clues to the other players. Those players are trying to eliminate the wrong answers, until it’s down to two and then players pick between those. But the twist on the game is that you might have woodland creatures and use other woodland creatures to say if your creature is similar to dissimilar. And the more rounds players don’t eliminate your choice the more they need to eliminate with the clues. So you start with one and eventually are getting rid of 4 cards out of 6.

What makes it more fun, though, is taking woodland creatures, having them as the choices and then using monsters, or historical figures, or mythological creatures to give the clues. Is a bear more or less like Zeus? Or how do you keep a mummy around with the option of some woodland creatures? The mix and match part adds a lot of variety to the game.

Buy on Cool Stuff Inc

92 – Asking for Trobils

Another one that I got to try and Gen Con and got a solid play in, hence slipping onto the list is Asking for Trobils. Clearly new to the list with trying it this year, but Asking for Trobils is going to be a worker placement game. A genre that doesn’t show up too much on my list.

In Asking for Trobils you fly around space, go to different worker placement locations, build ships, get resources and ultimately are trying to trap Trobils. The Trobils that you are dealing with give you points for scoring at the end of the game.

I really appreciate the goofy nature of the game. But to go along with that, it’s also a fast worker placement game. There aren’t that many spots to place and when you do, there isn’t that much to do with it. Each action is simple and fast and I like that to just make a game a lot of fun.

Buy on GameNerdz

91 – Parade

Finally wrapping out this part of my Top 100, we have Parade. #65 last year, Parade is another one that I should really get played again. I like a lot how it works and how it’s this light but interesting puzzle. It’s one that gives you a bit of brain burn, though.

In Parade you are playing down cards and then based off of the number you played, you can ignore some cards, and take cards of the same color or equal or lower numbers. It’s a lot to think about as you try and get as few cards from the row as possible and as few points as possible. And that is a fun twist as well for shooting for low points.

One twist that I really enjoy in the game is that if you have the most of a color, the most cards not highest total on them, each card is worth one point each. So a 5, 6, 8, and 10 instead of being 29 points is 4 points instead. It’s one that’s been harder to find, but when you can, I definitely recommend grabbing a light card game. If it’s between prints, like it is now, probably wait to grab it until it’s cheaper though.

Buy on Amazon

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Well, Wednesday it’s more Stars of Akarios. You can click the notification bell for that one here. And join me for some planetary exploration as we have a pretty new bit of story and world to explore. We’ll see if I make a poor choice or not.

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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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Now, if you are in the market for board games, I will say that there are a lot of sales going on. A lot of board game companies or online board game retailers have been running longer sales versus a massive “Black Friday” sale. So there are still deals to be found, but let’s talk about what I found.

All Systems Go

I think I talked about how last time I was there, I got enough in store credit to get a free $100 game, but I wasn’t sure what game I wanted to buy. Ankh interested me, but I want to try it before I buy it. Well, it’s no longer the case that I don’t know what game I want. It’s also no longer the case that I have the credit or points to get a $100 game.

Mythic Battles Pantheon + Pandora’s Box

I think it was early in this year that Mythic Battles Pantheon: Ragnarok came on Kickstarter. I backed it, but only at one dollar. And then I never upped my pledge in the pledge manager. I don’t regret that too much. I like the Viking and Norse theme a lot, but it is an expensive game. And there was a copy, I think all in on the Kickstarter, for Mythic Battles Pantheon that had been sitting in All Systems Go for a while.

Now, the base box was over $100, so I didn’t consider it for my free game. But on Small business Saturday, it was discounted by 20% off (as was Pandora’s Box), and that took the base game right to $100. So, it was time. I know I want to try this game. The concept is a lot of fun. You take gods or titans up against each other and see who wins in a fight. It comes with big minis and terrain or some sort, because you can pick up a tree and smash someone with it.

It just seems like a great big game that won’t get played too often, most likely. But when I do play it, it is going to be a lot of fun.

Marvel Champions: Hood Scenario Pack

It’s more Marvel Champions, but also a character that I don’t know a ton about when it comes to the comics. I know he’s a villain, scenario packs are for villains, and I think I’ve read a comic or two with him in it. But more Marvel Champions, what can I say, eventually I’ll have a full Kallax cube full of only Marvel Champions, but not quite yet. If I sleeved all my cards, I’d probably be there already.

Haba

Haba is running, or maybe was running, a by one get one sale on select games. And a few weeks before the toddler, who has been enjoying his first board game, Animal Upon Animal, we talked about a car game. He really likes anything with cars, or trucks, or construction vehicles. I asked on Facebook for recommendations in a board game group, the most common answer came from Haba, and was on sale.

Monza

One of two games for the toddler to play with on a theme that he loves. Monza looks like a simple racing game. And while he might just enjoy the cars right now, I want the idea of games and gaming to be common to him. He gets some of the ideas of Animal Upon Animal. This one looks like a game where you roll dice and move cars around the board.

But it is from Haba, so I expect there is a tiny bit more than that. But it will be simple and good for him eventually. I’m not sure when he’ll get the game, we already have a Christmas gift for him, or two, or three, but when something he’ll like is on sale, especially a board game.

In A Flash Firefighters

I know even less about this game than Monza. But he likes firefighters and there is one on the box. it looks like it’s maybe a speed based game, and a little bit more complex. Or at least smaller pieces, though, this is Haba, so will be good for kids I’m sure.

Now, it’s not rated as well as a lot of Haba games, so I’m guessing a bit more complex so doesn’t work as well with kids, but it is really just guessing. And, like I said above, Haba is doing a buy one get one sale. So that means, it is a free game.

Biffleys

You’ve never heard of Biffleys. That is okay. Biffleys is a use book, video game, DVD, and a board game shop. It is going out of business in my home town. Now, I don’t know if that’s because it didn’t have enough business, but I suspect because it was a lot of work. It isn’t a new business, so it’s lasted 20 years, or so. But 30% off games meant when I was in town for Thanksgiving, time to check it out.

Quadropolis

This is a Days of Wonder game that I wanted to try for a long time. Days of Wonder makes Ticket to Ride, Five Tribes, and games like that which are very accessible. Quadropolis is their take on town building. In typical Days of Wonder fashion, though, it isn’t too complex, but offers a challenge.

What I find really interesting, in theory, about this game is how you get city tiles. You place down markers and that limits rows and columns you can use in the future. At least, that’s how I think it works. It also doesn’t have some of the financial stuff that bigger games in the genre do, I’m excited to play it.

6 nimmt!

This game showed up the first time on After School Dice Club, an anime that I watched because, I like anime and board games. It isn’t super fresh in my mind, but I think it is basically a game of trapping your opponent into cards or points. It is only a card game, and I like that it’s in a small box.

I want to try this one because it was on the anime. I also want to see how tricky a game this is. If a game is very accessible, I can play it with my groups. And card games, especially those that feel a bit more familiar, are good options. I think 6 nimmt might be a game like that.

No Thanks!

No Thank! is a game that I don’t remember where I heard about it. But I like the concept for it. And I know they talk about it on the Dice Tower sometimes. You want as few points as possible in the game. To do that you are saying no thanks to cards with points. To do that, you put a marker on the card, but you only have a limited number of markers. Eventually you need to take something.

But the card you take, you get the markers on it. At what point in time is a 75 worth it to take? If you get 10 markers is it worth it, if you get 20 is it worth it? That is the question you are asking yourself. You get the 75 with 20 markers, now you can make people take lower cards and several of them. Or is it worth it to just take a 10 without any markers on it because it is a lower number?

I don’t know what strategy for this game. But the concept is extremely simple, so I’m excited to find out. This is one of those games that I think will work well in larger groups And I think it will work well with gamers and non-gamers.

Horrible Guild

Now, the most dangerous thing that happened was Horrible Guild opening a web store. I love their games. And in particular, Potion Explosion and Railroad Ink Challenge, anything for those I want. So now, because they opened a store, I own more for Railroad Ink Challenge at least.

Railroad Ink Challenge

I’m going to list everything I got here. They had a nice discount, not for Black Friday or anything, well, kind of, but for the web store launch.

• Arcade Expansion
• Eldritch Expansion
• Electricity Expansion
• Futuristic Expansion
• Sky Expansion
• Underground Expansion
• Additional Card Pack
• Collectors Storage Box
• Solo Board

That is a lot. All of the expansion ones are just small expansions that have 4 dice and some rules, maybe some challenges. I am curious and I really want to start diving into the expansions, probably will start doing that on stream. The additional cards I believe are additional challenges that can be added in. And the Collectors Storage Box just takes all my Railroad Ink and puts it into on box. Solo board is a board for solo game play, not sure what is different, but I want to see.

BGG Promos

This is kind of like Horrible Guild, Board Game Geek is doing a buy 4 get the 5th free for some of the promos they have. So I decided to grab a bunch of them, well, a few. I didn’t want to go too overboard, and I did find ones for games that I like, or that are just cool for games I have coming.

Aeon’s End: Thieving Spirits

I love Aeon’s End, we’ve been through that. This just adds in a new set of cards that you can play with. I need to, now that I’ve played through Aeon’s End Legacy, to get all my games into a single box, and then I’ll have a massive Aeon’s End experience to play around with, which is pretty exciting.

Deep Madness – Magnetic Saw Gun

It’s a magnetic saw gun, I’m not even sure what that means. But it sounds dangerous and Deep Madness is on the list of games that I am going to play this year, well, maybe not this year but soon.

Downforce: Civilized

Downforce is a game that really became interesting for me as a racing/betting game. I want to play it more because I think there’s still strategy to be tapped into. And the different powers, like Civilized is, changes up the game. This one will add in more variety to the game. I think that the powers really do make an interesting difference, and could be leveraged more in my game play.

Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game: Ra

Ra is not a character in the Dresden Files, but it is more for the game. And characters are really easy to slot in. So while I normally play characters from the current book I’m playing in the game, I could slot Ra into the game. And this one might be a little bit of me being a completionist, I won’t like.

Icecool : Blocked Doors

This is what it says it is, it is a way to block doors. And I like blocking off doors, it’s just a fun thing to add to the game. It’s also one of those things that doesn’t change up the game too much or make the rules more complicated. Some expansions add more depth to a game, but for a simple game, I want it to stay simple. Just a few more cards, and that’s really it, doesn’t change up the game much.

Silver: Marauders

Like the Aeon’s End Expansion, Downforce, and Ice Cool, this doesn’t change up the game much, it is something that is easy to slot into what you are doing. With Silver you just play with any combination of 0 through 13. This just another set of cards to drop in at a number. I don’t know that I need more combinations of cards, but also, more combinations aren’t going to hurt. I think with 4 different combinations at each numbers, that’s probably enough for life.

Time of Legends: Joan of Arc: Sam the Blacksmith

This one is because I like the Dice Tower, and I like Sam Healey. He was a lot of fun when he was on the Dice Tower. And he loves Time of Legends and in fact now works for Mythic Games. This is just him in the game, as a Blacksmith. The card looks cool and it’s more content that I’m hoping can just easily be slotted into what I already have.

That is a lot that I picked up but a lot of it was quite cheap. Even Mythic Battles Pantheon and stuff from All Systems go, which would have been over $200 was just over $50, so a massive game with a ton of stuff, but pretty reasonable for me to pick it up. Did you get anything on Black Friday, Small Business Saturday or now Cyber Monday deals?

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Silver

This is an interesting twist of a game. In it you are trying to score as few points as possible. That isn’t interesting in and of itself, but how you do that is kind of cool. Each player has a village in front of them. A village is five cards all face down, and you know two of them. You try to get rid of cards and lower the value of the cards that are in your village. Eventually someone calls for a vote and you score.

This is played out over four different rounds of villages and at the end, the person with the fewest points wins. Some cool things are the powers that the cards have, and also that to call for a vote you need less than five cards in your village. To get rid of cards you need to trade in two cards of the same number for another card. So you plan out a lot in this game and hope for the right cards.

Cartographers

There’s a roll and write on the list, no shock there. A lot of them come in nice small packages. And Cartographers does as well, though now there is a big box. In Cartographers you are making a map, hence the name. But it is a heavier and more thinky roll and write than a lot of them.

The big reason is how the scoring works. You score for surrounding some things and getting coins, but most of your scoring will come from the scoring cards. Cartographers is played over four seasons and each season scores two of the scoring cards. Spring scores A and B, and then you wait all the way until winter which scores D and A before you score A again. So how much do you focus on A to start, and how do you balance the scoring. And there are monsters which are negative points and fun as well.

Ohanami

Ohanami is a great little game that is very simple to play. You draft two cards and you add them to any of three columns in front of you. The cards need only be higher or lower than the numbers in that column. While it might be very simple, there is some strategy in the scoring. Certain cards score in certain rounds. And the further you get into the game, the more cards score. So getting some cards early improves the value of them versus later in the game.

Ohanami plays well at all player counts, 2 through 4, but the game play does change. A two player game offers much more strategy in what you draft. You draft two cards out of a 10 card hand, then pass, and when you get your first hand back it’ll have six cards. So you can plan and try and strategize to take cards your opponent might want more. Versus with four players you get the first two and last two from a hand.

Medium

Medium is the party game on the list. And it is a fun one. You take turns and are paired up with another player. You play down a card each and then try and come up with the same word that goes between them. If they don’t match, then the new words are used to match.

The game is really clever and can be really tricky. Or you can try and play down two words, since it’s one person and then another person who picks their word, to make it easier. I like to make it trickier, but that’s just me. And it’s a good one for a lot of players because it pushes people to think about the other person they are playing it and leads to a lot of laughs.

Claim

Claim is the trick taking game on the list. The Crew is another one that people will think of, I just haven’t played it. Claim is a two player trick taking game that is played over two hands. The first hand is trick taking to build your hand for the second hand of the game. Then you are trying to collect majority in the different suits and whomever has majority in most wins the game.

Claim is a very fast trick taking game and it’s one with a few expansions to it. The expansions basically add more suits. Why, because suits are different fantasy races. And each has their own powers. The dwarves, for the second hand, the loser collects them. Zombies are used for scoring from the first hand. So it changes up the game a lot in a good way.

More Stocking Stuffers

There are a lot of great games. I have some on my solo list that can work as well. Especially stuff like A Gentle Rain or Orchard. But if the person already likes CCG’s (collectible card games) or LCG’s (living card games) packs for both of those would work really good as well, so Marvel Champions.

What are some of your go to stocking stuffer/small games? Are there any that you want to get?

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Marrying Mr. Darcy – With Zombie Expansion

If you aren’t familiar with it, there is a book called Pride Prejudice and Zombies. This takes the story of Pride and Prejudice and turns it into a zombie book while keeping the snark intact. There is also a movie on the book that is highly entertaining as well. But Marrying Mr. Darcy gets you playing as one of the Bennett sisters or other main characters trying to get enough wit, beauty, charm, or whatever it might be to get your perfect suitor. There is a small expansion for the game that adds in zombies.

This game is a lot of fun to play and is quite silly to play. It also handles a pretty large group. The game play is very simple but there are some good laughs in it as you play and decide if you want to get turned into a zombie yourself. The zombie expansion doesn’t add in all that much, and really doesn’t add to complexity, which makes it a nice easy option for Halloween.

The Bloody Inn

The Bloody Inn is an interesting one to put on the list because I haven’t played it yet. It’s theme also isn’t spoopy. You run an inn and it turns out that it’s more profitable to kill off the people who who up and hide their bodies and steal their stuff. But if you aren’t careful the police will show up and now you have to deal with them. The theme is just too absurd to be really horrific. Thus it makes it onto the spoopy list. You’re going to be telling stories about how you stuffed a body under a rug as the police showed up.

Choose Your Own Adventure: House of Danger

You are a paranormal detective, as a group, going through this cooperative game. It is very much a choose your own adventure with a little game on top of it. You collect items, go into crazy rooms, probably die, and then continue on further into the story trying to figure out everything that is going on. This one barely qualifies as a game, but it’s a lot of fun.

The best way, I’ve found, to play this game is to just pass around the cards. So each person gets to read and gets to make decisions. You can make them as a group or discuss them, but the reader is the person who has the final say on what you do. It’s fun to just be surprised what happens when you’re not the reader.

Gloom

This one falls into the category with The Bloody Inn, if you actually think about it, it’s kind of horrific, but really it plays as spoopy fun. In this game you have a family and you are trying to get them to die as miserably as possible so you have the fewest points. You are playing cards on your own characters and narrating the miserable things that happen to them. And then you give your opponents good things, or at least maybe less miserable so they aren’t as negative in their points.

The game does require story telling. For some groups the game won’t work then because you do need to dive into the absurdity of the stories. Getting left at the alter and then stung by bees and chased by wild boars is all fun, but if you can narrate it well, it’s a grand old time with that horror them and also being very spoopy.

MonsDRAWsity

Another one that I haven’t played, but this is going to be party game and drawing game entry onto the list. You are all basically police sketch artists trying to get as close to what the actual monster looks like just from descriptions. IT’s a goofy premise, and one that is going to give you a lot of weird looking monsters and a lot of laughs.

If I were going to pick one game to pull out for a Halloween party, MonsDRAWsity is the one that I’d pull from my collection. some of the others would work as well, but this one is going to be maybe the lightest. Choose Your Own Adventure might be lighter, but this will keep people more engaged throughout.

Similo: Spookies

Okay, this one might also be one I bring along to a party. But for it to be really Halloween you need the Spookies which just came out. In this game one person is trying to get everyone else to eliminate the right monsters by giving clues based that the monster is either like or not like another monster. That can be trickier than you think. You might have great monsters to give a clue or a bad one, is a swamp monster similar or not to a vampire more so than a werewolf to get the right one eliminted.

I talked about this recently on my Top 100 games list as well. You can get multiple different sets of this, so you could mix in animals for the clues about the monster, or mythological figures with giving the monsters as clues. It makes the game really easy to expand and a whole lot of fun.

What Spoopy Halloween Games Do You Like?

Are there any on the list that you’d play of mine? I have a few others that just missed like Werewords which I don’t love but would work well. Or something like Silver: Amulet and it’s standalone expansions that have a werewolf theme on them without feeling like that. Definitely Silver: Amulet would be a good one as well.

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If you want to join in on the live stream and see the games as I talk about them as well as comment on my choices, you can join on Wednesdays from now until November 17th. I stream over on Malts and Meeples on YouTube at 8 PM Central Time. And if you need to catch up on the list.

100 Through 91

Top 100 Board Games 90 – 81

90. Skulk Hollow

A fun and pretty simple and fast two player asymmetrical game. One person plays as foxes who are trying to take down the other players guardian. The guardian has it’s goal, to take out the foxes leader to some other objective. The foxes are trying to get onto the guardian and hit it, taking out all of it’s health locations and disabling abilities. This is all done through some pretty simple card draw that makes the game easy to play.

Buy On Miniature Market

89. Titan Race

This might be the first racing game that I ever got. It is a light and silly little one, which is what I look for in a filler. In this game you are racing across one board three times or three boards. You use special powers to stop your opponents, knock them off course, and get further ahead. The game play is fun too because you are drafting dice to figure out what your movement is. It’s a good game that can probably be played with all ages.

Not Available

88. King of Tokyo

A classic game at this point, King of Tokyo is about all those monsters you know the names of hitting each other to get into Tokyo. Granted none of the monsters are actually named right because of licensing costs. But this is a great game that uses the Yahtzee style mechanic of rolling dice, keeping, and then rolling up to twice more. You can win by knocking out the other monsters, the most fun way, or by points. This is a game I don’t always pull out, but when I do, it’s a good time.

Buy On Coolstuff Inc

87. Tokyo Highway

Keeping on the theme of Tokyo, we have Tokyo Highway. A game that is as much a piece of art as it is a game. Now, don’t get me wrong, there is a game there, but when you finish playing it looks amazing. In this game you build highways through Tokyo while going over and under other roads. The trick is you can only raise or lower your road by one each time, and can’t touch the table with your road. If you go over or under another road you get to put out cars, but that’s harder because you can’t touch the other roads or knock them over. A fun and beautiful dexterity game.

Buy on Miniature Market

86. Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle

Not even the first deck builder on my list, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle is one of the easier ones to teach. First there is the theme that makes it easier to get to the table, people know Harry Potter. And a lot of people love Harry Potter. So it’s something that people can jump into as they know the spells and characters you add to your deck. And the game grows and progresses the further you play into it. Even just playing the first book several times, it’s a fun game that is very accessible.

Buy on Amazon

85. Dead of Winter: A Crossroads Game

This is the zombie survival game in the lines of The Walking Dead. Yes, you have to kill zombies in the game, but it’s about how you can work together as players while still trying to complete your own secret objective. That part of the game is good, but where it really shires is the Crossroads cards. These offer you challenging decisions as to if you rescue someone or not because that means another mouth to feed. I do house rule this one by drawing two Crossroads cards. Only one can happen, but it means that they happen more often.

Buy on Miniature Market

84. Silver

This game is tricky to explain, but not that hard to play. In the game you are drawing a card and deciding what to do with it, do you add it to your village or discard it for a power. The interesting bit is that you have a village of five in front of you but the cards are face down. At the beginning of each of the four rounds, you look at two of them. So you need to figure out ways to see your other cards, or maybe swap them blindly. And to get rid of cards completely so you have the lowest score. Good little take that type of game.

Buy on Amazon

83. Hues and Cues

There are a few party games on my list, but this one wasn’t there last year because I had yet to play it. It’s a game about trying to get people to guess a color. But you first give a one word clue and then a two word clue. As the person giving the clue, you get points for more people getting close or the right guess. And for the guessers you want to get close because that gives you points. Giving clues to guess colors is definitely different and feels unique for a party game.

Buy on Amazon

82. Clank!: A Deck-Building Adventure Game

Clank! A Deck Building Adventure Game I own but I haven’t played my copy. I have played on Table Top Simulator on Steam and had a blast with it. It’s a great push your luck deck building game.

You delve into a dungeon to steal a dragon’s treasure. But as you go through the dungeon you make noise and clank. When the dragon awakens he draws from a bag that has your clank and others. If too much is drawn you die. But if you can get in and then get back out with the best treasure and most points, or the other players die, you can win the game. It’s light goofy and fun. And I really need to play Clank! Legacy.

Buy on Miniature Market

81. Gravwell: Escape from the 9th Dimension

This is an odd game, it is fairly abstract but challenging and fun. Gravwell, I’m not doing the full title, has you sucked into another dimension and trying to escape back home before the portal closes. All while there is a black hole you don’t want to get sucked into. You are also out of your normal fuel, it’s not a good day. So you play down different elements as your fuel.

And this is where the game gets odd because some fuel pulls you towards the closest ship, some push you away and some draw ships towards you. Plus, every player plays down an element at the same time and they activate in alphabetical order. So if you play a later letter, like P let’s say, that might move you a long way towards the closest ship, but will that be the right direction when you get to activate. Silly game with a great and different mechanic to it.

Buy On Miniature Market

The Next Ten

So there we have it, we’re 20 games in between the two weeks. And every time I do the list I come up with a game I want to play And I come up with a game I think was too low.

If you want to join in on the next 10 live, you can do that on Wednesday September 29th at 8 PM Central Time. And then all the rest of the Wednesday’s up through November 17th. That’s over on the Malts and Meeples YouTube Channel. Subscribe and click the notification bell so you know when I go live.

And let me know which of these 10 is your favorite and which one do you want to try?

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The Problem

So, there is a reason that I want to talk about this. This is something that I’ve been harping on for a little bit with people who are entrenched in the hobby game scene. We often forget what it was like to start playing board games. I know that I don’t love a game like Splendor anymore. Why, because I’ve played it enough times and it doesn’t offer enough variety for me. But Splendor is a great game to introduce people to.

It’s common to kind of turn up a nose at Catan now. And I get it, there are a million different versions and expansions of games like Catan, Ticket to Ride, and Munchkin, all games that a lot of people got started. I don’t get excited when they announce a new version of Catan, but again, Catan is a game that got so many people into the hobby.

And all of those games, we played them a number of times. It wasn’t like we played them only once. I played Catan probably 20 times at least while I was getting board games. The same goes for Ticket to Ride. I can’t even begin to think about how many times I played games like Skip-Bo, Dutch Blitz, Uno, and more while growing up. But now that I’m a game, there is a temptation to push people along fast.

So What Is the Right Pace?

Unfortunately, that depends on the perspective gamer. Some people move through games like Catan really fast. Others never stop playing Catan. Now, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t introduce new games, but it means that there is no perfect formula.

How Do You Know When?

1. Ask the person
   It can be as simple as that and it should be as simple as that. The person you play the game with, ask them. They might say no, and that is okay. Play those introductory games longer.
2. How often do they win
   Not everyone knows when they are ready to try a new game. So another sign can be how often the other player wins. If the person wins most half the time or often enough, maybe introduce a new game. Ideally one with similar mechanics but I’ll get to that more.
3. Amount/how often you play the game
   This might be the biggest one. Now not everyone wants to play a game all the time. But if you go from playing a game a lot to playing a game less, it might mean that they are ready for another game. They know the game and now they want to try something new.

What Do You Play Next?

This is another big question that you need to answer. What game are you going to play with them next. Now, I’ll point you back to that Top 10 list that I linked at the top and streamed yesterday. I think there are a lot of good options in there. But that doesn’t answer the question fully.

To do that there are a few things that you need to think about, the most important being, what do they like about the games they know? Do they like being really competitive, work that direction. Maybe they like solving a puzzle, lean that direction.

Let’s actually take a dive and look at Catan. What all does Catan have in it? Catan has resource management. It has city/route building. It has a luck to it and probability. Which of those elements does the person like? Let’s work off of my list of games from yesterday.

Resource Management

Century Golem Edition would be my top choice. It has you manipulating your resources more than Catan does, but you are pushing for certain groups of gems to get your Golem. And there is more control over what you are getting as compared to what Catan does. This will cut down on the randomness and add in more strategy for a Catan player.

City/Route Building

I think that Draftosaurus would make some sense for this one. You are collecting different groups of things, but it is fairly different. I also think that Marvel United oddly enough could be interesting or The Lost Expedition. You aren’t building your own city or route. But working together you are creating a chain of things, either actions or a path you take. But Draftosaurus would probably be the best.

The Odds

Sagrada would seem like the likely option. It has the dice rolling in it, but I’m not sure I’d put that at the top. In think that Silver might actually be best. With that game it has a bit more push your luck to it. And I think that is what some people like with the odds. So both Silver and Sagrada would be great options for the next step on that side of things for Catan.

So you can see how different games might work better. I think the big thing is give options, but not too many. And talk about what they like or maybe don’t like as well about a game when picking the one for the next step. And expect to play that next game a few times. I have friends who I can pull out a new game with them every time I play, but new gamers, those aren’t the people to do that with.

What do you do to pick a game? Any tried and true tips that you have for helping new gamers try new games?

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Why No Modern Classics?

I talk about it some in the video, but a quick recap. Modern classics like Catan, Ticket to Ride, Pandemic, Small World, Carcassonne, and King of Tokyo are great. But you can find most of those without much problem. A lot of people who are interested in hobby gaming have already played the likes of Catan and Ticket to Ride, and the rest.

As a gamer, that means that I don’t need to do that work anymore. I don’t have to show people that next small step up from games like Clue, Scrabble, and more. People already know that next level of game, at least in name and a lot of time in play. So I wanted to make a list of other games you could get in front of people.

The Drink

So, from Sociable Cider Werks I had a dry apple cider. Now, it isn’t bad, but it isn’t great. Why, because it is too sweet for me. I went on a little bit of a rant how there are a lot of ciders out there that claim to be dry, but cider as a whole is so much sweeter now. I get that a lot of people like sweet ciders, but I like a really good dry cider that has a solid acidic bite to it. And this is a common issue, so not something that just Sociable Cider Werks has an issue with, but almost all cider companies do this.

The List

Alright, if you don’t have time to watch the video (please still give it a thumbs up), let’s see everything that made the list.

10. The Lost Expedtion

9. Homebrewers

8. Silver

7. Marvel United

6. Draftosaurus

5. Point Salad

4. Century Golem Edition

3. Potion Explosion

2. Sushi Go Party!

1. Sagrada

Which of these games would you use for a new gamer, or which one would you want to try?

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