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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If you want to see the Top 10 games on the list live, click the notification bell on the scheduled stream. I hope that you can join me then and that you’ve enjoyed the previous parts of my Top 100 Board Games (of all time) 2021 Edition. Or, if you just found it, you can catch-up with the links below.

100 Through 91

90 Through 81

80 through 71

70 through 61

60 through 51

50 through 41

40 through 31

30 through 21

Top 100 Board Games 20 through 11

20. Super Fantasy Brawl

Super Fantasy Brawl is a two player (can be more but really two player) battling game where you are fighting to knock out your opponents characters and complete objectives to get trophies. The first player to get to five trophies wins the game.

This is not my normal type of game, two player only games tend not to hit my table as often. And head to head battling games are not ones I gravitate towards, but Super Fantasy Brawl is really good. All the characters play so differently, and you can create a team that does all sorts of different things. I think I have 9 or 12 different characters so you can have a ton of different teams of three.

I also like in this game that you can get trophies for knocking out other peoples characters, but they don’t go away. So it’s not too much of a blow. And you probably won’t win just be knocking out enemy characters. You need to deal with the objectives as well, if not to get them, to keep your opponent from getting trophies that way. And the game is easy to learn and play, which is great.

Buy On Miniature Market

19. Clank! In! Space!

A deck building game, Clank! In! Space! does a good job of not being too simple. In it, you are racing around a ship, hacking into consoles to get access to the treasure room, grabbing a treasure, running out, and hoping you don’t cause too much noise. Because Lord Eradikus is on the ship and if you clank about too much, he’ll find you and stop you.

This game works so well for me because there’s more going on in the game than just the deck building. How much do you push your luck and run into the treasure room. And some of the better cards you can buy in the game, that might combo with what you are doing can create more clank. When you clank you add a cube to a pool that Lord Eradikus will draw from when he actives. He might draw a neutral cube and nothing happens, but too many of yours drawn and Eradikus stops you.

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18. Deception: Murder in Hong Kong

I feel like I always put this disclaimer out there, I don’t love social deduction games, but I do love Deception: Murder in Hong Kong. Why, because it gives you something to talk about right away in the game. Most social deduction games build to the point where you are maybe hazard a guess as to who the “bad guy” is. Deception: Murder in Hong Kong does that from the start.

How? Well, the murder picks a weapon and clue in front of them. The forensic scientist knows what they are, but they can only send up reports to tell the detectives. So the report might be the murder location and the forensic scientist picks from a list on a tile which one makes the most sense. The game really starts and accusations start when that first piece of information is put out.

This is also a social deduction game where being in any role, forensic scientist, murder, accomplice, witness, or a just a regular detective is a lot of fun. Everyone is trying to figure out what the combo of clue and weapon is. And even the murderer, accomplice, and forensic scientist are trying to figure out the story either to direct people to the clue or weapon or away from it.

Buy on Amazon

17. Hanamikoji

We go from a big group game to a two player only game in Hanamikoji. I talk about this one a lot because I really love the game. It’s such a fast but thinky two player game. In it you are trying to win the favor of Geisha by giving them gifts. The game, however, is extremely clever in how you give them gifts.

There are only four actions you can do in the game and each player does all four once per round, alternating turns. You can save a card to give to a Geisha face down, you can discard two gifts face down, you give your opponent the choice of three gifts and they pick one, or you give your opponent the choice of two pairs of gifts, and they pick one. You are trying to win favor with four Geisha or 11 points worth of Geisha to win.

The game plays extremely fast, but the decisions are really tough. Giving something to your opponent is always a rough decision as to what you want to even let them pick from. I feel like what you do, though, is simple enough that I can pull it out with most people as a two player game.

Not Available

16. Welcome To…

The first of four roll and write games on this section of the list. Welcome To… has long been one of my favorites in the genre. In it you are creating your perfect neighborhood. You are getting all the house numbers ready, putting in pools and parks, and building white picket fences.

Every turn everyone is playing as well, which is really nice, so there is little to no downtime in the game. It’s also fun because you are trying to optimize how you are scoring points. And the three objectives that can give you points also gives you a good direction to go in the game. This one has a fair number of rules but that makes it interesting because it’s a bigger roll and write game.

Buy on Amazon

15. ICECOOL

This game is just silly fun. It’s one that I love to pull out for a game night because flicking penguin high school students around a board to try and get fish and avoid hall monitors is a lot of fun. The game is simple, get through doorways and get fish which are points. Or all the hall monitor, hit the penguins students to get their student ID and get points.

ICECOOL works with all ages and really with all groups that I’ve played with. It’s just a silly good time for people who have been drinking or for families to get to the table. And the board, which is the box, that builds out into this big 3D board is just great. Add in ICECOOL 2, which is the same game, you can now play on a massive board with eight people.

Buy on Amazon

14. Sonora

Another dexterity game, but also another roll and write game. In Sonora you are flicking discs onto a big board. The board is split into four areas, one for each part of the roll and write portion that you fill in. The discs have numbers which determines what number of things you fill in on that roll and write portion.

What I l love about this game is that it’s full of combos. If a fill in a spot in the upper right, that might then let me fill in something in the lower left, and that might let me fill in something in the lower right. So the whole filling in things is a really interesting and fun puzzle to optimize what you are doing. And it’s always fun to complete a combo and feel smart.

Buy on Amazon

13. Railroad Ink Challenge

Another roll and write game as well. Railroad Ink was already on the list, but I prefer Railroad Ink Challenge. Why, because of the challenge aspect. Much of the game is the same, you are trying to connect routes, get long stretches of road and rail and fill in the middle. But the challenges add in a nice twist and something to focus on.

The challenges are basically objectives. It might be something like, have a full row or column filled in by round 4, and that’ll give you 4 points if you’d done it by then, fewer the longer it takes you. Or fill in nine spots to create a square. It just gives you something else to go for and think about in the game. And it’s already fairly challenging even without the challenges. I just like the extra challenge, direction that the game gives you in this version.

Buy on Amazon

12. Super-Skill Pinball: 4-Cade

The final roll and write game in this section, Super-Skill Pinball: 4-Cade is the most thematic roll and write that I have played. It somehow manages to pull off the feeling of playing a pinball machine. You get points for bouncing off the bumpers and knocking down targets. If you knock down a full group of targets you get a bonus and you’re just seeing how high a score you can get.

I like that the game comes with four different boards, as well. There is a circus one that is just a simple pinball machine. The Cyber Hack board gives you a secret location where you are doing a run and hacking into the machine for more points, but also a press your luck for how long you stay up there. Each board feels different and really fun, and having little pinballs you move around the board to keep track of where you are at is great too.

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11. Xenoshyft: Onslaught

Finally, we have Xenoshyft: Onslaught. This is another deck building game and a tower defense game. I call it Starship Troopers the board game because you are defending your base from wave after wave of bugs. And you are doing that cooperatively, which is fun. And it does a cooperative thing that I don’t see in other deck builders or cooperative games.

You are all setting up your defenses at the same time. So, I might have five troops but only room to put out four of them, and you might have only a single troop in your hand. I can give you one to put in your lane of defense to stop the wave of bugs coming in that side. And you can use grenades from your hand to help deal with bugs on someone else’s lane as well.

Plus, you get money every single turn. So even if you shuffle horribly and end up with no money in your hand, at the start of each turn you get money to add to your hand and deck. So you are always able to improve and add to what you have. And what you buy that turn doesn’t go to a discard pile, you can play it immediately.

Buy on Amazon

The Next 10

So no stream next Wednesday. It’s the day before Thanksgiving, but to go along with that, two episodes of Hawkeye are coming out that day. That means that I have some TV to watch for the 10 Minute Marvel podcast. Instead, the Top 10 are going to be coming out on December 1st at 8 PM Central Time.

If you want to know when I am going live, you can subscribe to Malts and Meeples and click that notification bell. That’ll let you know whenever I go live. Once I’m done with my Top 100 list, my schedule might be changing, depending on a few things, so clicking the notification bell will let you know for sure when my streams are happening.

Which of these games do you like the best, or would you want to play?

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Pros

• Price Point
• Theme
• Aesthetic
• Minis or No Minis

Cons

• Stretch Goal Structure
• First Time Company

The Page

Now, I say that this is a first time company and I put that in the cons. However, that is a very minor con for me. I have been hearing about this game for a few years, I think first in 2018 from Sam Healey on the Dice Tower. So this is a game that has been on my radar for a long time and one that the developers are taking their time to get right before it goes to Kickstarter. Andrew Lowen also has been involved with other Kickstarters before so it is a new company, but not a new person to Kickstarter.

The page layout is what I consider the standard at this point. Laying out the pledge levels and everything works well, though, the images repeat a fair amount. So you have to scroll by a lot to get to the actual game play information, which is generally what I’m looking for. However, I do like that they’ve given a pledge level without minis in it.

However, that is going to lead into one of my negatives and this one bugs me. They have a level without minis so why aren’t there non-mini characters for those unlocks. Only the deluxe version gets extra characters and to me that’s a little bit off-putting. I know that it’s trying to create FOMO for the mini pledge level but I have a KS budget and for a game like this, I don’t know that I need the minis. If I get them, it means that I can support fewer Kickstarters later in the year.

The Game

The game itself looks interesting to me. I believe that it gives you one off battles as well as then a campaign that you can play through. It even looks like it has a campaign that teaches you the game, maybe, and then then another bigger one. I like it when games give a tutorial.

It is also a dungeon crawling game which I am always going to be interested in as well. Deliverance, however, puts a new spin and theme on it. It doesn’t look as story heavy as something like Solomon Kane but I feel like I get a little bit of that vibe from it. Or, more so this one really leans into that religious side of things for the theme. And I am actually surprised that this seems to be the first dungeon crawler to really use this theme.

The game play itself sounds interesting. I like that it isn’t just a straight up battle. You need to defend certain Saints to basically keep the darkness from piling up as quickly. The mechanics might not be totally unique, but if a game does them well for a dungeon crawl, I am interested in it.

Back or Brick

This game is a Brick for me. Mainly, the theme works for me. I don’t know why, it reminds me of Diablo for the them, but definitely very different game play. Just the theme being so unique has me backing it at the non-minis level. And that is my one main gripe with it. Backing with minis doesn’t just get you more because you are getting more minis, you are getting more characters to play. So by not getting minis I am going to be missing out on content in the game. Will that cause me to drop my pledge, probably not, but I do find that annoying, seems like they could just print more standees to add into the base game.

How about for you, is this one a Back or a Brick?

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Let’s see what all got played in the month of March.

Tainted Grail – 4 Plays

The campaign game that I have rolling now and will have even more plays of starting on Friday when I start a second campaign. I love this game and the stories that it tells. Trying to track down a giant guardian monster to fight. Going in a completely different direction than before and finding out things about the grail, and the world I hadn’t seen before. There is so much story and so much lore to unpack that I’m excited to dive in and see more of it. The game is tough, but it is really so worth it.

Super Fantasy Brawls – 3 Plays

I picked this one up and I blame GloryHoundd YouTube channel for it, but I am really glad that I did. This is a skirmish game that is based around card play. Your play with three different powers basically and you play one card of each power per round. So it makes for some interesting combos and pushes you in what you do while still being really simple.

The game also works because it’s not just rush in and smash stuff, there are goals to complete as well which gives you points. And if you ever have a character knocked out, they can come back in, so it isn’t like you can get locked out of certain cards. Really fun game and I’m excited for more heroes with the Round 2 that wrapped up on Kickstarter.

Ganz Schon Clever – 3 Plays

This one will be on the list a lot. I just like the game. Ganz Schon Clever is a nice puzzle game and a good roll and write for people who don’t know roll and writes that well. Always fun to play and works well enough via Zoom.

Railroad Ink: Deep Blue Edition – 3 Plays

Another roll and write game, this one is about route building. I need to play this with expansions because I like the base game a lot, but I think the expansions would add in even more. I will say, it is not easy making a good route. But it is fun trying to make the best one possible. Also played via Zoom and it worked pretty well, I will say. It is nice that so many roll and writes one person can have the dice and it works. You just need to print off the sheets.

Hanamikoji – 3 Plays

I played this one at work most recently. I know I love the game, but it was fun to get it back to the table, because it is such as simple yet thinky game. The four actions that you can do give you so much to think about. When do you play them, what cards has your opponent hidden away and how can you make the play good for you but not help your opponent that much. We knocked out those three games really fast after the new player learned the rules. My favorite two player only game.

Twice As Clever – 2 Plays

More roll and writes and more that I’ve already played a number of times this year. Like Ganz Schon Clever is is just a fun roll and write game. And it is good over Zoom.

Metro X – 2 Plays

This one I need to play on Malts and Meeples, I thought I had but apparently not yet. It is a run route filling in game that is challenging. Unlike Railroad Ink where it has you connecting things, here you are just filling in predefined routes. That sounds simpler, but the rules for how you can fill in the routes makes it very challenging. And the cards you flip, in this roll and write game, never come up quite the right way. Definitely a good one and it comes with dry erase boards.

Codenames: Pictures – 2 Plays

It had been a while since I played any form of Codenames. It generally got pulled out once or twice a year. But it was fun to play again. We did it via Zoom so Kristen and I were the people giving clues. We messed it up some, but it was a blast and works well via Zoom. I still stand by my thought that Pictures is the far superior version to words because you have way more chances to be clever. I remember games of Codenames Pictures for the game, I remember regular Codenames for where I was.

Clever Hoch Drei – 1 Play

What, more roll and writes. Well, we had to play through the trilogy of Ganz Schon Clever, Doppelt So Clever and Clever Hoch Drei. This one is interesting to teach. But I like it probably the second best. It gives you a lot of confusing things to do but once you get them down, they make sense.

Marvel United – 1 Play

I’ll let my videos do the talking:

Marvel United is a great simple cooperative game. And now I have way more with the expansions. I’ll be playing one tonight, as I said above, at 8 PM Central time, so join me then.

Marvel Battleworld – 1 Play

Let’s be fair, I play Marvel Battleworld for the thrill of busting open something to see what little Marvel figure I got. Will I ever play it again after I open up the characters, I mean, I have, but it’s not high on my list to play again. This is a game with massive amounts of toy factor to it and that collectors itch as well. Marvel Battleworld is not a great game, it’s extremely simple and very random. That’s a big knock, but did I mention the collectors itch that it gives you as you break into a blind pack?

So many games played, but still not quite on track. Which of these games seems the most interesting to you to play?

Yearly Stats

Just as we get into the year, let’s see how we are doing stats wise, this will include what I’ve done in April thus far as well.

85 Plays with 16 different people.

The game played the most with 12 total plays is Deadly Doodles followed by Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon with 9 and then tied Ganz Schon Clever and Metro X with 7. In total there have been 24 different games played. And 9 of the games are roll and write games.

So it’s looking good, and I love to see that I am playing board games a lot. Honestly, playing a board game and letting my brain think that way versus thinking about work or a work problem or something like that is one of my favorite ways to de-stress.

Well, I’ll be back next month with all the new plays.

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Pros

• Theme
• Price
• Multiple Game Modes
• Art

Cons

• Multiple Game Modes
• Aesthetics

The Page

This page has both some positives and negatives for me on it. Firstly, I do love how well they lay out the page when it comes to game play. There are three modes, so not only do we get some basic game play, we get each mode of the game talked about. That said, this feels like isn’t as polished as it should be. The animations seem a little bit rough and not as smoothed as they should be.

I also think that the cards and artwork themselves seem a little bit dated in their look. I actually like the artwork quite well, it’s a slightly different fantasy style artwork, but solid looking. The layout of the card and symbols just look a bit like they belong on a collectible card game or a little bit like Clank! The Adventure Deck Building Game, which I think looks a bit dated as well. Again, I think it’s that the graphical design doesn’t look like it’s been smoothed over for the aesthetic layout. I will say, even with the aesthetics maybe needing a bit more polish the symbols are clear as to what they are.

The Game

The game modes are where I want to start, I put them as both a positive and a negative. I like that they managed to get a story mode that can be played solo into the game. A tactical battle game is interesting, but I have Super Fantasy Brawl, I’ll likely be getting some Marvel Unmatched, I had and got rid of Krosmaster Arena, so it’s a genre that I’ve had stuff for and not one that gets played a ton for me, but a story mode that I an play solo, that is more likely to get played. However, they are both a positive and a negative because I want to know how the support is for them, was the story mode/solo mode added as an after thought? I hope not.

But the game play itself seems interesting. I like the action points and how they activate different area of the cards and how clear that makes it for each character. The combat system with dice is less exciting except for the triggered effects on the dice. I like it when even a miss might do something that way the dice in the game don’t feel as punishing.

And of course, the biggest interest for me in the game is the taking of endowments. Think about being given someone else’s strength, or glamour, or agility so that your leaders are extremely powerful with lots of all of them, and then those fighters battling. Those epic points of conflict are going to be what really make this game standout as something different, I think.

Back or Brick

Right now this is a back for me. I like the book series and the premise behind it especially. However, like last week with Epic Seven Arise, I want to look more into it. Thankfully GloryHoundd and DrGloryHogg did a play through of it on the GloryHoundd channel, so I can catch up on that today to make sure it is still a back for me. I really hope that the game play seems interesting and that it feels thematic to the books. Also, it seems to have a lot of game for a very reasonable price.

Is this game a back or a brick for you? What keeps you from backing it or makes it more likely that you will? Have you read the book series?

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Pros

• Epic fantasy game
• Theme
• Artwork
• Campaign
• Solo

Cons

• Artwork
• Price
• First time company

The Page

For a first time company, they really nail the look of the page, and for a game with minis, they don’t dwell too much on the minis. Now, over on their Facebook page they’ve been showing off the minis for weeks but that’s a solid spot to do it. I really like that the Kickstarter page is much more about the aesthetic of the game than the minis in the game.

Now, I will knock them a little bit, they don’t do a great job with the rules. I get some of an idea of what the game is about overall and kind of that it’s going to be a skirmish or dungeon crawl type game, but I don’t know the mechanics for that. Now they do have two How to Play videos which I’ll be checking out coming up here, plus more previews, but I’d love to instead see more on the page itself of how to play instead of the videos.

The Game

Now, I don’t have a ton to say on this, normally I like to focus on game play aspects in this section and I just said that I don’t know or get a ton of that from the page. I like the idea of a skirmish style game with a campaign to it, I like the aesthetic of the world and that is what got me to look at the game.

The one bit that I get from their game play highlight section that seems interesting to me is the dual attacks. If you’ve been reading my design diaries at all for the game idea that I’m working on, you’ll know that I want to kind of do some sort of dual or combo attacking, but in a different way, so this is an interesting mechanic in the game that I’m going to be curious to see how big a part of it, it is.

Back or Brick

So this one is interesting for me, right now I am in on the game, and I’m guessing I’ll stay in on it, so it’s a back. But I do want to checkout at least the five minute how to play video on the page to verify the mechanics. I was almost in on Bardsung until I watched some game play and saw that it wasn’t likely for me. This one, though, has a theme that is so much more interesting to me, but I could see dropping my pledge completely or to $1 if the game play looks only like a basic dice chucker. From what they do highlight, I’m hoping that’s not the case.

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

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