Catch Up on the Top 100 Games

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

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 Edition – 50 through 41

50. Welcome To…

Published By: Blue Cocker Games
Designer: Benoit Turpin

Buy Welcome To

This one is a classic roll and write style game. I really like the decision space for Welcome To… of deciding what goals to go after and what combination of cards to write down on your board. The three choices of number and bonus works really well and has been fun in other games in the system, but the classic Welcome To is the best still.

49. The Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-Earth

Published By: Repos Productions
Designers: Antoine Bauze and Bruno Cathala

Buy The Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-Earth

Now, I like this and 7 Wonders Duel very similarly, but only one is staying in my collection and that is going to be the Lord of the Rings one. But both do similar things and are great games. This one, I find, cleans up some things like no end game scoring. And while I find the end game without the win in one of the three game ends if you get them situations isn’t 100% satisfying, going for those other goals is great. And they most of the time do pull of the win with them whether that’s getting the ring to Mordor or getting support from the various groups.

48. Heat: Pedal to the Metal

Published By: Days of Wonder
Designers: Asger Harding Granerud and Daniel Skjold Pederson

Buy Heat: Pedal to the Metal

Not my favorite racing game, but Heat: Pedal to the Metal is up there. I really like how the game works pretty quickly, so it has that racing feel, but you still make a lot of meaningful decisions in it. Heat is all about managing the heat on your engine so that you can push the corners at the right time. But the more heat you get, the more it clogs up your hand and then you need to back off and let the engine cool down. It’s just a clever and enjoyable system that’s easy enough to teach and gives you a great racing feel.

47. Ohanami

Published By: Pandasaurus Games
Designer: Steffan Benndorf

Buy Ohanami

Ohanami and the next game on the list are the two smallest ones. Ohanami is a great game for pulling out and playing a round or two of when you want a simple game to play. But it offers some fun with the twist that it provides on scoring and how you need to set-up the cards into the columns as you draft them. The drafting and adding always needing to be higher or lower than the top or bottom card in a column, at least if you want to play them, is fun as well. It’s not that common for someone to be stuck without something to play, but if you make that happen it’s fun.

46. Mind Up!

Published By: Pandasaurus Games
Designer: Maxime Rambourg

Buy Mind Up!

Mind Up! is another one of those games that just really works for me. There is so much luck in the game as you try and get the cards that you want, it kind of feels like it shouldn’t work. But at the same time, you always have a decision to make that matters and just enough knowledge. The fact that the order of the cards and how you want to fill in to get points changes each round while the cards in your hand don’t as much is a really fun system. Because, yes, I am guessing what is going to work to get the card I wanted, but I might remember a little what you have.

45. Schadenfreude

Published By: Studio Turbine
Designer: ctr

Buy Schadenfreude

I guess Schadenfreude is the third small game on the list. But it’s a pretty different game because it’s a trick taking game and it’s a trick taking game that does some really interesting things. Mainly it’s about not flying too close to the sun and getting burned as you try and get points. You get points and lose points based off of what is played into the trick that doesn’t match your suit. The other piece is you want to get as close as you can to 40 points. If you go over and everyone who goes over, that causes you to lose. But someone has to because that determines the end of the game.

44. The Great Split

Published By: Horrible Guild
Designers: Hjalmar Hach and Lorenzo Silva

Buy The Great Split

I like the mechanisms of “I split, you choose” in games, one of my favorite two player games has that in it. And The Great Split is primarily that in a game. Each round you are splitting up your hand of cards and then your opponent on the left picks one of them. You are doing that at the same time with the cards passed to you. Everyone is trying to optimize the contracts that they are getting the points from the various arts they are getting. But at it’s heart, the game is “I split, you choose” and it just works.

43. ICECOOL

Published By: Brain Games
Designer: Brian Gomez

Buy ICECOOL

Two dexterity games in a row and my two favorite dexterity games. First is ICECOOL, this is a game that was around my Top 10 for a long time because it’s just a simple but fun game. It’s been passed as my favorite by the other because that one has more customization.

ICECOOL is all about either being a penguin sneaking out of class to get fish or the hall monitor who is trying to catch them. The flicking works well and the ability to jump the penguin over walls is fun, assuming you don’t jump too far. Plus the box set-up and how it comes together is really fast and fun.

42. PitchCar

Published By: Ferti
Designer: Jean du Poel

Pre-Order PitchCar

PitchCar is the other dexterity game of the two and the one that I like just little bit better. PitchCar is another racing game as well,. This one is about flicking race cars, discs, around a track and being the first to cross the finish. It’s another game that is very simple to play but so fun. And this one gets the nod because of the track and how you make as hard or easy a track as you want. Do you want a loop or an overpass, you can do that, or you can just play with straightaways and some turns if you want the game to be faster.

41. Metal Gear Solid

Published By: CMON Global Lmtd
Designer: Emerson Matsuuchi

Buy Metal Gear Solid

Finally we have Metal Gear Solid a game that took a while to come out, but that is so worth it. Metal Gear Solid is a cooperative game where you want to sneak around as much as go in guns blazing. And that element is a blast for the game because it makes it feel different than a lot of games with minis. I like that the game also has a campaign, which I need to play, and one off scenarios that you can try and complete. And to add to that, while the enemy movement takes a moment to understand, the player turns are streamlined really well.

Join Next Week

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

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

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And for other ideas check out the previous lists.

Two Player Games
Campaign Games
Solo Games
Party Games
Welcoming Games
Medium Weight Games
Thematic Games
Deck Building Games

Trick Taking Games

For Northwood!

We’ll start off with the most unique trick taking game. This is one that already is on a list, but it deserves to show up twice. For Northwood is a solo trick taking game and if that sounds odd and unique it should. How do you make a solo game work for trick taking?

Firstly, you play against the game itself. But it’s not just about getting the most tricks. You need to win at different forest locations all which require a specific number of tricks to be won to succeed there. If you succeed you gather points and allies to use at other locations. Because you play against a random card, you need to use different helpers, you start with a few, to limit or increase the number of tricks you win so you succeed at the location.

The game itself is a great challenge. But then it also comes with some challenges that you can do as well. So once you are done with the regular game and feel comfortable with your strategies in that, let the game challenge you even more.

The Crew: Mission Deep Sea

The next one on the list is The Crew. I put down Mission Deep Sea, but you also can pick the space one. The Crew is a cooperative trick taking game. And you need to complete certain objectives to win each hand. However, you are not able to communicate which is going to be provide a bit of a challenge.

I like how it works because the challenges change for each hand. And for Mission Deep Sea they can change each time you play a certain level or hand. And it might be that I don’t want to win any blue colored cards. You need to win the red six. And another person has another thing they need to do. So how do you play out the hand to keep me from getting any blues. How do we get the red six at the right spot? That is the challenge in this game, and without communication it’s a fun puzzle and really teaches you trick taking strategy around how to win and lose a trick.

Fox in the Forest

Now we get to one of the two two player trick taking games on the list. Fox in the Forest is a head to head game where you want to get points by winning certain numbers of tricks. Win too many it can be bad, win too few, well the points vary across the range. So how can you manipulate the tricks and your opponent to get the number you want.

I enjoy the strategy of not always going for the most tricks. In fact, if you shoot the moon, so to speak, that can be bad. I also like how in the game, you do more than just play cards for their number. Some cards have powers as well. This might let you swap cards with your opponent, or change what the trump suit is. It offers a good puzzle to see how you can control what is going on so you can lock in that number of tricks.

Rebel Princess

Next up is the newest one on the list. It came out in the United States at Gen Con this year. And I really enjoy this game. It’s shot up my list of games that I always want to pull out and play because of h ow enjoyable it is. And because it’s probably the most familiar of the games on this list.

Rebel Princess is just Hearts in disguise. But it is a really good disguise. Like hearts you don’t want to take a certain suit, in this case the princes, because you are princesses and you are rebels. So you want to avoid them if you can. And you certainly want to avoid the frog prince, in the animal suit, because that’s a lot of proposals that you’ll have coming your way.

So all of that is normal, but let’s talk about what isn’t normal. Each player has a princess that they can use once per hand that gives them some sort of power. It might change the number of the card they play, or steal leading a trick, or several different things. And at the start of each hand how you pass the cards and some other rule are added to the game. It might be that you will win the trick if you are furthest away from the card led out. Or it might be the lowest card wins the trick and even more oddness as well could happen. All of those things make the game silly fun and good.

Claim

Finally another two player trick taking game. I believe there is a way to play with more, but this one works really well at two. Claim is played over two hands. And instead of counting tricks, you want to get majority in the suits. But each suit has it’s own power and the first hand you play, well it’s not going to help with that majority too much.

The first hand is going to be about building your second hand. You play out cards to win a new card from the deck of cards. And it might be a face up one, or it might be face down. If you win the trick you get the face up card. So sometimes you want to lose that trick because the face up card isn’t that good. But you also are taking the tricks that you win, because sometimes those cards will help later or give you some other ability to use right then.

The second hand plays out more like a traditional trick taking game. But you are trying to still get that majority. And again, there are a lot of powers and abilities of the suits that you need to keep track of. Like some suits just beat others, so you need to be aware of that. Or sometimes if you lose with a suit, you still get to keep that card you played to help get majority.

Final Thoughts

I really enjoy all of these games and there are a lot more that I want to play to get onto the list. So let me know your favorite trick taking games. And are there any from this list that you want to add to your holiday list or maybe you want to give to others this holiday season?

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Mistborn Solo vs Multiplayer

I won’t be doing a full review on Mistborn Deckbuilding Game yet, I need to play it more. Mainly, I want to play a couple more times solo, a time or two cooperatively, and of course some more competitive games as well. But let’s talk a little bit about it and how the cooperative/solo works.

Added Solo Mode

First off, it is more thematic for it to be a cooperative game. I found it odd that it was a competitive game to start. Kind of like Call to Adventure with the Stormlight Archives, though that one makes more sense. But with Mistborn and the characters you play, it always made sense to me that it should be a cooperative game.

The risk, of course, is that it is designed as a competitive game. So I worry about a game that has something tacked onto it. Is it still a good mode? Or is it something to get people who wouldn’t buy it to buy it? I feel like this solo mode is well thought out. As you watch the play through, I am sure you see that I was worried about if I would win or not. It wasn’t until very late in the game that I felt comfortable. And I like that about the game, it feels like an intended way to play it.

Combat

Now, I think that both ways are pretty different. The combat as a multiplayer game is part of the game. And I think in a two player game, the combat is going to be a key element to it. In higher player counts, you might lose the game because of combat, I’m not sure you win the game with combat. But the combat against the Lord Ruler is interesting mainly because he heals so much.

In fact, I feel like the game is almost split into two parts. The first part of the game is a race up the tracks to stop the Lord Ruler from healing. Next you want to deal out damage once the healing is gone. The constant part between that is that you need to heal a ton as well.

I think that it is possible to beat the Lord Ruler with just two of the tracks done. In my play, I believe I could get out damage quickly enough end game to make that work. If he is only healing ten, and not every turn I like my chances. But you definitely need to complete two of those tracks.

Variability

So is the solo mode going to be variable enough. I think there are elements that make me believe it will be. Firstly, the characters that you play are asymmetric. So Vin is different than Marsh who is different than Kel. But I think that difference is minor.

Next is the variable market. That element is going to change up the game each time you play. You might ramp slower to the big cards because of what is available. Or you might find that going up the tracks is harder because of the cards you are able to buy.

I also think those tracks provide variability to the game as well. I picked some with pretty consistent leveling up. The game is going to be different with the other ones. Some give you fewer bonuses. And things like less damage than I had, I think that would make the game a lot harder.

Finally is the Lord Rulers deck. Yes, the composition of that deck is not going to change. But when you draw cards, that is going to be an element that changes. I got lucky with the Kadra and House Lords at the end of the game. If I find an obligator or inquisitor that late, no chance that I win the game. So it is balanced on an edge there.

Upcoming Streams

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

• Monday night, time varies, I play different small solo games, though I might be looking to start up a campaign again. And generally the streams do start between 8 and 8:30 PM central time.
• Wednesday at 9 PM central is going to continue my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition. There is one week left, which is going to be two Wednesdays out. After that I’m planning on doing some look back and look ahead videos and smaller solo games or things like Balatro and Slay the Spire.
• Friday at 9 PM central my wife and I are streaming a playthrough of Baldur’s Gate 3. Join us for the adventure of Nina and Kaerok and see what choices we make. We will skip this Friday because of the Holidays.

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

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Why I Don’t Like Codenames

Let’s lay the groundwork. I expect that a lot of people like Codenames a lot. And for me, it is basically always a miss. I know, in fact, that my opinion is less than popular because Codenames sells really well, which means that people are trying it and buying a copy for themselves. Which, even though it isn’t for me, I like because more people are playing games.

But what is it about Codenames that isn’t for me? Firstly, it bills itself, or gets treated like a party style game. It really isn’t a party style game. There is a lot of downtime of people thinking and staring at the board. Either the spymaster who is coming up with their next clue. Or the guessers who are using the clue. And that doesn’t make for a party like experience. It is only even okay as a social experience or a lighter game that way. So first issue, there is too much downtime.

Secondly, you are either clever or wrong. Let me talk about this one a little bit more, but when you give a clue either you give a good clue and people get it. Or people mess it up, or you mess it up, and it goes wrong. In Codenames, which is already tight with your creativity, it is a game that can make you feel bad or make you feel dumb. This ties into the first issue, for a game that is supposed to be lighter, that doesn’t feel good.

The App Is Better

Downtime

The app fixes a lot of these issues in a lot of ways. Firstly, let’s talk about that downtime. The great thing about an app is that the downtime doesn’t matter. How does it not matter, like almost every app you expect that there is going to be time between when you take your turn or action and when you can play again. Apps always teach us that, there is a timer before you get another life or attempt in other games. We know you can’t just sit there and wait with an app.

Plus, downtime is less of an issue when you have five or ten games going. And it is easy to play that many games. Again, why? Because Codenames is a game where context doesn’t really matter. I need to know the word you give as a clue and how many guesses I have. That’s going to be it. If I missed one the previous time or sometime before, I look at the history and see that. I don’t need to hold anything in my head. So when I check, I play a few different games.

Finally around this idea of downtime there are solo challenges as well. Somethings that you play, either giving clues to a group of others or trying to solve those clues yourself. But it’s a one off, get the clue solved and call it good and that’s it. Nice quick hits that you can play. They refresh even more slowly, but it’s a filler activity between game play, or can be the only way you play the game and you know your exact timings.

Cleverness

I think that the app also encourages some more cleverness. Let’s start with the solo challenges. When I play as the spymaster, I get rewarded for giving more answers for the one clue I give. So it encourages me to push for some risky clues and guesses. And that is great because it takes away the pressure of winning all for the sake of winning. Yes, that sounds odd, but I don’t have feedback across the table of people thinking it was a dumb clue.

This then spills over into the regular games as well. I play with real people in those games. But there is no one sitting across the table from me. There is no immediate feedback on if I did a good job or not. And if I make a mistake, it’s easier to gloss over it because I am playing a bunch of other games. And because there wasn’t five minutes of me sitting in front of people only to give a bad clue or only to make a bad guess.

It takes away that human element from the game. Now, normally I find that to be a bad thing. On BGA (Board Game Arena) it is often a bit of a miss. Things take so long and you lose context and reads on people for games that might need them. But here, it’s easier to just brush it off and move onto the next thing.

Final Thoughts on the Codenames App

I expect that there is more that I can talk about this game. There are likely going to be more features that I can talk about. And there are even some elements, like getting words and unlocking certain modes of the game that I didn’t talk about. A lot of that falls into standard app stuff. And I mean that in a good way.

But in terms of what it feels like to actually play the game, I really like it. I think it is a much more preferable way to play the game. And I hope that I laid out why I thought that well. I realize that your milage might be different because you might like Codenames a whole lot more than I do. But even if you do, I think the app will scratch an itch that gives you a similar feeling to playing it. I don’t think it’ll have people getting rid of their copies, but playing it alongside and if you don’t like the game that well, like I don’t, it might help you enjoy it more.

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Top 5 Trick Taking Games

5. 9 Lives

9 Lives is a bidding trick taking game. There are a few different types of trick taking, and this is going to be in the vein of ones where you bid to see how many tricks you take. But I found there to be some interesting elements to the game. It’s a race to 9 points or whomever has the most points after 4 rounds.

But there is an additional twist to the game. As you play and win tricks you pull a card from that trick. This is good and strategic because you want to win the number of tricks you bid on. You might need a high number to win more. Or you might want to lose a trick instead.

4. Fox in the Forest Duet

Fox in the Forest Duet is a two player cooperative trick taking game. And that in itself is unique. But I appreciate how it does it. You want to move the fox token and collect all the leaves from the forest. To do that you need to vary who wins tricks because cards have paw prints on them, and how many paw prints there are is how far the fox moves. So if it is one away from my edge of the board, I want to win only if I can move one. Otherwise I want to send it back you way. So can you win in three hands or not is the question?

3. Rebel Princess

A new one for me, and you can read my review of it here. This one is a Hearts style trick taking game. So I appreciate the feel of that because I few up playing Hearts on the computer. But it more than that because there are special powers and abilities. Each player gets a Princess that gives them a power which always seems game breaking. And each round there is a new unique power that comes out which vastly changes how you play the game.

2. The Crew: Mission Deep Sea

Next up is The Crew, I’ve only played Mission Deep Sea but I love what it does. This is a cooperative trick taking game. But it’s cooperative with missions. So you want need to not win a trick while another person might need to win two sevens and I need to win a trick with a blue and a green card. And with limited communication we need to make that work. I love that element of the game, trying to get it to work. And if people know trick taking, it is easier, but still, missions can be very hard.

1. For Northwood!

Finally is a solo trick taking game. Yes, you read that right, my #1 is a solo game. And with trick taking you expect that it’s going to need people to interact and play off of each other. But no, For Northwood offers the trick taking experience in a solo game. You need to react to what the deck is flipping out. But don’t worry, you have friendly forest creatures helping you. And it isn’t about just winning as many tricks as you can. You need to win a specific number to get access to more friendly woodland creatures, and to score points.

Final Thoughts

I like trick taking a lot. I think that people will call out some of them like Ghosts of Christmas, Cat in the Box, Fox in the Forest and more that I should play. And yes, I should play them because I own most of them. I want to have a trick taking day just to play trick taking board games and enjoy them. But I haven’t set-up a time for that yet.

Also missing from the list are some classic games. I mentioned Hearts but I also played Euchre growing up as well. Both of them mainly digitally which was fun. Classic trick taking still often holds up. And I’d still sit down and play either of the games.

What are your favorite trick taking games?

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Slay the Spire

Let’s talk a quick bit about the board game. I’ll have a full review coming later as I experience more of the game. But I want to talk about some of the differences now. I think that the game generally makes smart decisions with these differences, so not a negative, just something to note.

The big difference, and one that I talk about at the end of the video is that this isn’t a solo game anymore. It is also cooperative, so you can choose to play as a group. And each player has their own row of bad guys that they face off against. I get hit by my row, but I can help attack your row if you need. There is a cooperative element that way that keeps it from just being a solo game. And as you play and face an elite or boss, that scales.

Another thing is the scale of the game. So it is no longer, the cultist has 20 hit points or 40 hit points, or however many hit points. Everything, minus elite and bosses is pretty low. That is because all the attacks you do deal smaller amounts of damage. They scale everything so it isn’t hard to learn and play. And so that you don’t need a calculator to figure out your damage.

Finally, some artifacts are different. And when they activate is different. It is when you roll a number that they activate. Again, it simplifies the artifacts that maybe do 40 damage every 7 rounds or double your next attack every 10 attacks. Things that would be a lot to keep track of are now simpler. Now it means they are less likely to happen as you saw in my game play, at least at times.

Upcoming Streams

On Monday I play small solo game plays. The schedule is, right now, going to look like gaming every other Monday. A chance to see people in person came up for Monday and as much as I like streaming, it’s good to socialize as well. And I might do more deck construction with Star Wars Unlimited on Mondays as well or pack openings.

On Wednesdays, I play solo campaign games. I plan on playing a campaign game coming up. Right now I’m torn between two games. Well, more than that if you watched through the end of the video. And that is more of The 7th Citadel. I plan to keep playing through The Drums of Desolation for a while so join me for that.

And if you want to know when I go live, the best way is to subscribe. When you subscribe, click that notification bell and you’ll get an alert whenever I’m going to go live. Follow the link – here – to subscribe.

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Mind Space

The reason I enjoy coming back to a game after a bit is to refresh how much I like it or see how well it holds up. That is the case with Mind Space where I’ve played two games prior to this, both streamed previously. You can find that playthrough here.

Let’s tackle what has held up well and what I still think I’m tripping myself up on. I like the scoring in this game a lot. I think it’s smart in how it gives you various scoring options based on the different colors. Some, I think are better than others, but I might be wrong on that, I’m sure it is well balanced. Well, I say that, I think that with some smart play all of the scoring becomes an option.

The next thing I want to try with the game is multiplayer. What works well with this game as solo game is that you need set of dry erase markers. And this game comes in a small box. So if I play multiplayer, the markers will be shared. Now, Allplay did give an additional set of dry erase markers, but they don’t fit in the box.

But I do think there is some interesting options in multiplayer. Mainly the timing of competing for goals. That is one are, as I said on the stream, I think unless it’s easy you can kind of ignore them. Not to the point where you don’t complete them, but because you don’t know what is going to flip first. You can’t plan properly for them. With multiplayer, I can see if you’re closer than I am to a goal. And if you are, I might pass on that one.

Upcoming Streams

On Monday I stream at 9 PM Central. That is sometimes a bit hit or miss, but that’s the goal. And I do small solo game plays. The schedule is, right now, going to look like gaming every other Monday. A chance to see people in person came up for Monday and as much as I like streaming, it’s good to socialize as well.

On Wednesdays, well, I said that I plan to play at least a few more games of Rogue Angels. This is going to continue how I play my solo campaign games on the channel. The reason for that is with how many campaign games I can play solo, I want to try more. That is at 8 PM Central time for the campaign games.

And if you want to know when I go live, the best way is to subscribe. When you subscribe, click that notification bell and you’ll get an alert whenever I’m going to go live. Follow the link – here – to subscribe.

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Catch up here:

Rogue Angels Mission 1, Mission 2, Mission 3, Mission 4

Rogue Angels – New Cards and Companions

This whole mission was about getting new cards to play with and then a new companion. The companion is in Part 6 versus the getting the cards in Part 5. But either way, it’s two new elements of Rogue Angels for us to talk about.

These are not legacy elements of the game. They are campaign elements but not legacy. Nothing about them is destructive in terms of a Pandemic Legacy or Risk Legacy. You just pick a group of cards that you get, and you don’t end up with the other. The same for the companion. Though, I suspect with the companion, you get them either direction that they go. They are a simple addition to a mission.

The tech cards versus the weapon cards can help shape your group. Now some of them, one, can be used as a very effective weapon. But it works with a character at a cost. You spend one of your tokens. Now Tarira is heavily focused on damage so it’s going to be a great option for her. But it’s still a strong card for it’s basic ability. So I’m excited to see it in a mission and see what it can do.

I also like that with the cards it limits how many you can have. I might never get beyond two tech cards per player added. So it might be a moot point. But as the game goes on, you’ll unlock additional cards. And those cards are going to make you make choices. 7 starting cards plus two more cards is all that you can have. If you play with four players you’ll have more opportunities to bring more cards, but at two, I’m already maxing out both characters hands.

Upcoming Streams

On Monday I stream at 9 PM Central. That is sometimes a bit hit or miss, but that’s the goal. And I do small solo game plays. The schedule is, right now, going to look like gaming every other Monday. A chance to see people in person came up for Monday and as much as I like streaming, it’s good to socialize as well.

On Wednesdays, well, I said that I plan to play at least 10 games of Rogue Angels. This is going to continue how I play my solo campaign games on the channel. My goal, play four different campaigns 10 times each. It’s tricky, but I think that I can do it. That is at 8 PM Central time for the campaign games.

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How To Play For Northwood!

Like I said, For Northwood! is a trick-taking game but a solo one. Let’s start a bit with setup for the game, though before we go into play too much. In For Northwood you are trying to win the favor of some animal royalty at 8 different locations. These locations are from 0 to 7. Plus you have some friendly creatures already to help you.

Each round consists of visiting one of these locations, fiefs, and trying to win a certain number of tricks. You guessed it, from 0 to 7 depending on which one you are at. The royalty flips a card and then you need to follow suit, if you can, and you are looking to get the exact number of tricks won by playing the highest number. Or if you are out of that suit, with a trump card.

However, the royalty is just flipping cards. That means that you get random cards to play against in your trick-taking. So that is where your four friendly creatures come in. They all have a power that you can use once per fief to manipulate your hand or the cards being flipped. So it is also the question of how you use them to get the number you need.

What Doesn’t Work

I have one main thing that doesn’t really even bother me, but it might bother some. This game has luck to it. Even with using the helpers, and you can try and get specific helpers in play in some situations, it is tricky. You don’t plan it right and now you know that you’re done for in a hand. There’s no reason not to stop playing that hand then, but it’s so limited that it could be frustrating.

What Works

Let’s talk, though about what works. Because I think there are a lot of good things going for it. Firstly, I really like the creature royalty. It’s a mainly random setup, you have one helper from each suit and two fiefs with each suit. But beyond that how they come up is random. You might have the most useful card to help get 0 tricks on the 0 trick fief. So it’s always a puzzle as to how you make it work. And that is also always going to be a rotating puzzle.

The speed of the game works as well. It’s really fast to play. Longer than some solo games, I will say, but still a very fast time, about 15 minutes, box says 20. But when you know what you’re doing, it’s probably under 20 minutes with setup which is great.

The solo experience also works. It’s trick-taking which is generally not solo. But this works for that. You need to plan out which fief you go to based off of how you can win tricks in your hand. Then it’s more of what I’d call a card shedding game. But it is done in a trick-taking fashion which is great. And it’s like some other solo games, solo hidden movement, where I wasn’t sure how it would work, but it works very well.

Finally, the game is simple. The most complex things are on the royalty cards. I’ve played a number of trick-taking games where they try and add in too much. That bogs down how easy the game is to teach and how fast the game goes. This game knows what it is, sticks to it, and it’s great that way .

Who Is It For?

Who this if for, is fairly simple. It is a game for people who like solo games. Will people who like trick-taking games like this one? Possibly, but I do think that it’s a game that is more built for solo gamers in terms of who is a fan of a style of game. The trick-taking is a smart card shedding style, but it lacks some of the nuances that trick-taking games often show off.

Final Grade on For Northwood

I like this game a lot. And I need to dive into the story book or challenge aspect of the game. That basically gives you specific setups to see if you or how it takes you to beat the game. That is going to add even more variability to the game which will be nice as I see this as a solo game I am going to play a lot.

I also see why it won’t be for some. If you love trick-taking games but haven’t done solo, it might be a good spot to jump in. But if you have tried solo games and don’t love them, then I don’t know that this will change anything for you. Which I get, solo gaming isn’t for everyone.

Overall, this game offers something and it does it well. And for me, that is what I was looking for. So for me, one that I highly recommend if you like solo games. And one that I kind of recommend if you really like trick-taking games and kind of like solo games.

My Grade: A
Gamer Grade: B+
Casual Grade: B

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Top 5 Games New to Me in 2022

Now, I will say that this is the best of my knowledge. And I already adjusted it once because sometimes, I have games where I got them in 2021, or before, and I just played them this year. And I can see when I modified games last on BGG, but I of course can’t sort when I rated them which is what I’d really want.

5. Lost Ruins of Arnak

This one I know I owned for a while but I played it at GenCon for the first time, and it was great. I’ve played it a few more times since then, and I want to get it back to the table as I’m talking about it now. It’s a game of putting out workers, getting resources, and then going on adventures, which just give you more resources. But it’s a fun resource generation puzzle to optimize your points.

I think it would have missed the list if not for the expedition leaders. The game is a lot of fun without that expansion. But with that expansion, it is just that much better. You all start off with your own powers and abilities which changes up how you attack the game. And it’s fun to start out different like that and then go even further as you build out your deck.

4. Trek 12

Trek 12 was a roll and write that I hoped would be fun. I heard about it and thought, mountain climbing is interesting. Then I played it the first time, and I didn’t love it at all. In fact, that first play is on camera, and you can see why I don’t love it. I’m played the game twice, once for myself and once for an AI that isn’t that interesting to play. So it’s just busy work for me to play for them.

But then I played it multiplayer. I knew that the solo experience wasn’t the best, so how would it be with more people, and it was a lot of fun. What I do in the game doesn’t change at all, but what I don’t do, that extra work, goes away. And I can focus in on what I want to do in the game, not something else. It makes it way more fun.

3. Black Sonata

Black Sonata is a solo only hidden movement game. That sounds like it shouldn’t work, but it really does. You set-up a deck of cards that determines how the mysterious lady in black moves. And you are going around, tracking symbols as to where she is going, trying to catch up to her and gain clues. As you gain clues, then you can start to piece together who she might be.

It’s a bit of set-up for a solo game, but the game play is really interesting. And there is an expansion that I own but I haven’t played yet. I need to get that one to the table again and try it with the expansion to see how that works.

2. Final Girl

Another solo only game, we have Final Girl. This is a theme that I just love. It’s a horror movie and you are the final girl, the one who will survive to the end, but will you actually make it alive out the movie? Van Ryder Games got that into a small box with lots of different types of horror movies that you can add on.

It is a tough game to beat and mechanically driven. But with that said, it is still a good story game. You create the movie as you go, some story elements happen, but what do you find? Do you get a good weapon, or do you find a flashlight? That all comes down to what you look for and where you look. Who all do you rescue, and can you defeat the killer, ghost, whatever it is, in the end.

1. Destinies

And at #1 we have Destinies. Th is is a game that I knew I was going to like. It’s a story driven competitive game, which is different. But Destinies has you looking for your characters destiny in an old world where monsters exist. Can you get your destiny before another player gets theirs?

The game uses and app and the app is great. It allows the story to come up and get handled nicely without flipping through books, and allows you to try a lot of options without spoiling anything. And the game play is pretty simple but clever. It is a push your luck dice system where you can decide how many dice to roll to see what level of success you get. I really like how it works.

Final Thoughts

2022 was a great year for me for gaming. I’ve played 97 new to me games this year and about the same in games I’ve already played before. A lot of those were at GenCon, but I’ve gotten a number into my collection as well. And there are more coming in. I could almost, maybe, do a true Top 100 of just new to me games. And some of them I want to get back to the table, and others, not so much.

Plus, I look at my shelf and I see what games could have been played, which ones I still need to get tabled that likely would have made the list. Or they could have made the list potentially. What new to you games were your favorite in 2022?

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