Catch up on my Top 100 Games (of all Time) 2023 Edition:

100 through 91

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition – 90 through 81

90. Galaxy Trucker

Galaxy Trucker is a fun fast paced game that you can’t take too seriously. It’s about building what you hope is a good space truck and getting across the galaxy, picking up goods, and well, hoping that your ship isn’t blown up by asteroids or pirates. Which, you can do, you can build a great ship. But the ship building is done in real time. So it is easy to mess up your ship and have half of it blown away because of a misplaced asteroid.

Normally I don’t love real time games. But Galaxy Trucker is not against a clock. Instead, you build as fast as you want, and the fastest player determines the speed. And, to add to it, that is only part of the game, the rest is seeing if your ship gets blown up. So the game gives you a breather between the real time elements which I think works well.

Buy Galaxy Trucker

89. Final Girl

Now we’re onto a horror film of a game with Final Girl. Final Girl is a solo only game about what it says it is, the final girl of a horror film. If you’re not familiar with this trope, most horror films end up with a final girl standing at the end of the film after all their friends have been killed. The question is, are they able to kill the bad guy (or deal with them) or will the get killed?

That is what Final Girl is all about. Can you manage your cards, rescue the characters that are not the final girl, and then deal with the bad guy at the end. Van Ryder Games has done a great job of giving you all sorts of films. There is a Hans the killer at a summer camp or you might be at a circus or dealing with a ghost. And they are adding even more with a third crowdfunding campaign going on now.

Buy Final Girl

88. Doodle Dash

Now we’re onto a party game, and I don’t have too many party games on the list. But Doodle Dash is one that I really like because it’s the type of party game I want for drawing. One where it doesn’t matter how good you are because, as the name suggests, sometimes speed matters more.

In Doodle Dash one person is the guesser. They want to guess the image as fast as possible or with as few clues as possible. Everyone else is drawers. And they draw as fast as they can. The first person grabs the first person marker, the second fastest starts rolling a die, and when that die hits stop, everyone else stops. And then in order, fastest, second, and everyone else, the pictures are revealed. More points the earlier on the guesser guesses it, but that is also the worst picture, possibly. So it’s a blast and one good for a lot of laughs.

Pre-order Doodle Dash

87. Calico

Going from something silly, we now have Calico, a game with a calico quilt on the front, not a calico cat, which is an abstract game about making quilts. Your goal is to get the most points by completing goals, matching colors to get buttons, and matching patterns (since cats are color blind or a number are) to get cats on your quilt.

This game looks all peaceful, but it’s a pretty intense game. You need to strategize well to complete the objectives. Because the objectives give you more points if you get both the color and the pattern to meet those objectives. It might be surround a spot with three of one type and three of another. But if you get three of one color and three of another, plus three of one pattern and three of another, that is how you get the most points. A tense game, but a fun one, and it’s pretty.

Buy Calico

86. The Night Cage

Another tense game, The Night Cage is a perfect Halloween game. You, and everyone else, wake up in a labyrinth with just a candle next to you. You know enough that you need to find keys and then all find a portal to get out. But the labyrinth is ever changing and there are monsters and your candle runs lower.

This is a game where as you move around the labyrinth you reveal new tiles, they might have keys, portals, just pathways, or monsters. And As you leave other locations your candle only lights up a space around you, so you lose the tiles before. You need to work together to get everyone a candle. But if you’re too close, the monsters might pop up and blow out someone’s candle, then they are moving blindly around until another player can relight their candle.

All of this is being done while the stack of tiles is getting shorter. There is no way to get tiles back, they represent your candles. And your candles are getting shorter and shorter. So as you watch that happen will you be able to escape The Night Cage?

Pre-order The Night Cage

85. Destinies

Another game that has some spooky elements is Destinies. A game where all the players are working against each other, but not getting in each others ways too much, to complete their destiny. Each of you know what you need to find, so can you figure out on the map where that might be.

Lucky Duck makes Destinies, and they have a great app for it which leads you through the story. And the story has some spooky elements and offers you conversations and challenges to do. And doing the challenges are simple. It’s rolling dice to see how many successes you get. But you can improve your stats as you succeed on checks and get XP to spend. So you can increase your odds. Plus you have extra dice you can roll, but they only come back so often. When do you want to push for that success or do you need to hold them back. An easy but fun story game.

Buy Destinies

84. Ascension: Deck Building Game

My favorite pure deck building game is Ascension. I know for most people it’ll be Dominion. But I like a few things better about Ascension. I like that you have a changing market, that means that I need to adapt to how I play. I can’t pick out a perfect strategy from the start.

Plus, I think that the combos in Ascension are better. You play with four different factions and all of them synergize a lot amongst themselves. So can you build up an engine that allows you to play a ton of cards and have epic turns. I think that is what stands out so much to me, when I get an epic turn, I can buy a lot and fight a lot of monsters which is why I like Ascension better.

Buy Ascension Deck Building Game

83. Canvas

Now we’re onto a game about making art. In Canvas you take art cards, that are clear, and layer them to create masterpieces. Really Canvas is a game about getting the right symbols at the bottom to score a lot of points, or get lot of ribbons that score you points. However, it does this with great artwork and fun pieces of art that you create. I almost like to see what cool art I can make more than get the points. But when you make a piece of art almost no matter what it is cool. Canvas is a fast and fun game for everyone.

Buy Canvas

82. Ecosystem

Next up we have Ecosystem the drafting game on the list. In Ecosystem you are building out, well, an ecosystem with animals and terrain types. Each of them scores differently. Wolves like to be in a pack, so the person with the most gets the most points on them. Rabbits teleport other tiles around, just like real life. But bear want honey and trout, trout want to be by the river.

And the game is fast. You draft a card and you add it to a 4 by 5 grid. That is all the area you have, so how can you pick cards that will optimize your scoring. But it’s also so simple that it’s not a stressful game. Once you have an idea of the scoring, and each player has a cheat sheet, the game goes quickly.

Buy Ecosystem

81. Star Wars: Unlimited

Finally, Star Wars: Unlimited, this game isn’t even out yet. But I got to play it twice at Gen Con and I really like this game. The Star Wars theme certainly helps. But for me, when I compare it and Lorcana to Magic the Gathering, this is the one that gave me more of a feel of being full of combos as you build out what you’re doing. The base decks only had some, but as they’ve revealed more cards, I see more possibilities.

However, like Lorcana it is built to be a whole lot faster. You play out a card or attack with a card on your turn. There aren’t really other options. It’s not do everything on a turn, and your opponent can’t really respond at all. So the game is straight forward and keeps moving fast. It’s something that I don’t always love about Magic, it takes a long time on the turn. Star Wars: Unlimited it’s a whole lot faster.

Coming in Q1 2024

Upcoming Streams

So, 8 PM Central next Wednesday the plan is continue with the Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition. It’ll be games 80 through 71. I don’t even remember what is on the list, so I can’t really tease it. Join me and see what makes it on the list, will there be new games? Will there be roll and write games? Is the first campaign game going to be part of that section?

And then the other time I stream during the week is Monday at 9 PM Central. Join me then as I play a solo game. I’m not sure what game I’ll be playing. Maybe more Trailblazers as I seek to break 50 points. Or it might be Number Drop. A roll and write game that I can play solo that I haven’t gotten to yet.

But the best way, if you want to know when I go live or a new video goes up (it’s basically always live), please consider subscribing. You can do that here. And click that notification bell on the channel and you’ll always know when I go live.

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Dice Tower Mega Announcement

Rock Manor Games

Maximum Apocalypse 2nd Edition

This is basically making it fitting the Wasted Wilds to make it easier to play and make it faster to play. There’s going to be more information coming, but just very quickly.

Brass Empire 2nd Edition

This is a steampunk deck building game. I am curious about it just because it’s deck building. But it seems like it’s very in your face compared to what I’d want, which is a shame. But then again, maybe I’d like it as a two player game.

Merchants of Magick Expansion

This is their crunchy roll and write game. It’s going to be coming up on Kickstarter with some new modules of the game. It’s not one that I’ve played, but if Rock Manor has some at Gen Con, I might pick up the base game. I think that it sounds interesting and of course I’d love to check it out prior to the crowdfunding campaign.

Bright Eye Games

The Plot Thickens

A cooperative story creation game. We actually talked about this yesterday on the Malts and Meeples for sale at Gen Con live stream. I am curious about it with the Science Fiction version to at least see what it’s like. But I don’t love it in theory.

Ponzi Scheme

This one is coming out in 2024. It’s a game about creating a ponzi scheme and seeing if you can stay afloat with the most money when someone goes bankrupt. It sounds okay, a light, silly game, I’m hoping.

Ares Games

Fire and Swords – War of the Ring The Card Games

This is an expansion, and there is a new expansion at Gen Con, but this one is going to be coming out in 2024. This one doesn’t interest me as much, but the one at Gen Con to make it soloable that one interests me. And if it’s an interesting game, I could see it being one that my wife likes as we’re both big Lord of the Rings fans.

Horrible Guild

Quicksand

A real time cooperative game. That isn’t my sort of game, I’m not a fan of real time. But it does sound fairly interesting to try once or twice because you are playing against puzzles. It’s just that I’m not a big fan of real time.

Sunrise Lane

This is a game from Dr. Reiner Knizia one of the most prolific designers. I’m somewhat interested in it, it’s about building out houses and scoring points. I like the idea of building out houses and how you build out houses. It sounds actually really good now that I hear more about the rules, because it looks very pretty on the table. And it has some fun scoring options with it. Sunrise Lane is very high up there for me from what’s been announced thus far.

Pencil First Games

Sunrise at the Studio

This looks like a small game, and it’s kind of in that Floriferous style of game, or at least box size. This one is a pottery themed games. I like this weight of game, and it has set collection, drafting, and shared goals. So this sounds a lot like Floriferous again, but I’m down for that.

Snowfall over Mountains

Pocket sized solo tile laying game. That is a lot of things that I like. I am very used to a lot of snow. But you build it out a map from your cabin to create different scoring options. This one looks very cool. Pencil First Games makes amazing looking games aesthetically and very fun games.

Stoneblade Entertainment

Solforge Fusion App

It’s meant to improve the game play. Your collection gets automatically imported. That said, this is not a game that I was ever interested in. They are demoing it, and showing stuff off at Gen Con. It’s a fine idea, you don’t have to buy stuff again; it’s still a very specific announcement.

CGE

Kutna Hora

The announcement for a game that is already out. It’s talking about how it is using Re-wood. Re-wood is similar to plastic, but it’s sustainable to use over and over again. And it’s going to be at a similar detail level for plastic components. A cool thing, for a game I’m not interested in. The game is going to be at Gen Con to demo.

Grey Fox Games/Ludeon Studios

Rimworld

A board game adaptation of a video game. I’m not familiar with the video game, but I like the aesthetic thus far. It’s going to be coming to Kickstarter. There is not much information on this, unless you are familiar with Rimworld. Could definitely be a cool one, but I’ll be waiting to see it on Kickstarter.

Board & Dice

Nucleum

This one is going to be a big hit for a lot of people. This is about the nuclear power plants and it’s a very heavy euro game. Unless I build up to something like this over time, I don’t think it’s going to be one for me. There’s definitely a lot going on in the game which is why I think that a lot of people will enjoy it. It’s coming out in October at Essen Spiel

Inside Up Games

Clock & Key

This is going to be a Kickstarter coming in 2024. Another puzzle sort of game like Block & Key which is one that I thought looked interesting but I’ve never tracked it down to learn. I’m curious to see if this game is going to be similar or not. It reminds me of the pipe connecting games, which is something that I do enjoy.

Kosmos

Ingenious

It’s a relaunch of this game, also another Reiner Knizia. Don’t know a ton about this one, but I have heard of it. I think it’s supposed to be a family style abstract game. Probably not one that I’ll look into too much

Dragon keepers

A dragon game where you are taking care of dragons. This is done through card play, and they like to talk about the cute dragons, not to Flamecraft level, but definitely cute.

Rebel Studio

Meadow Adventure Book

It’s now coming out in 2024. This is a campaign or scenario style game. It was going to be a 2023 game, but now it’s been pushed back.

Avel: the Card Game

This is going to be pushed back as well. The timeline is still be determined.

Klink

It’s a number game, supposed to be a quick game. It’s a small box game, not a ton of a details on it. General impression was that this is going to be a family weight filler style game. And this is going to be a card game, or at least an action selection or playing game. Coming in early 2024.

MLEM: Space Agency

Cats… in… space….

That seems like a dangerous combination. It’s going to be a fun game with hopes of creating some laughs. This is going to be a dice game, so I’m thinking it’ll be a pushing your luck kind of game. Another Reiner Knizia game, like I said, he’s very prolific.

Cardboard Alchemy

Bistro Bay

An animal cooking game, but not cooking animals, if that makes sense. This looks like the same artwork style as Flamecraft, so a ton of fun to see it. You are trying to do the best and impress the the food critic. I am going to be looking at this one coming to Kickstarter in 2024.

Pandasaurus

Unrest

An asymmetrical two player card game. The rebellion vs the empire. Now this is not a Star Wars game. The aesthetic of the game is pretty solid, but I’m not sold on it. I feel like it’s a bit like Hanamikoji in some ways with having limited actions, it’s intriguing that way. It could be good. November retail release, and not expensive.

Unexpected Games

3000 Scoundrels Expansion

It’s not a game that I’ve played, but from what I heard of the original game was that it was fine. I this is definitely one that I’d want to checkout. And it sounds like the expansion is going to improve some things or will help with some of the complaints that people had. Definitely makes it sound more intriguing to me. As I do like the Wild West theme. And it’ll now have a solo mode as well, which again interests me.

Arcane Wonders

Foundations of Metropolis

This is going to be a retail version of Foundations of Rome. I’m guessing that this is going to be a smaller version because Foundations of Rome is huge. No miniatures in it, but that might get me to play the game and buy the game. Still looks really good, and it’ll be coming to retail in 2024, I think they said early. This one I’m very excited for, again because it makes it more accessible for more gamers.

Final Thoughts

Goodness, this is a ton of write really fast. I try and pause the video as little as possible because it’d take so much longer if I did pause all the time. I did have to do that a few times. Which ones are most interesting to me, I’m going to say my Top 5 are Foundations of Metropolis, Bistro Bay, and Sunrise Lane, Sunrise at the Studio, and Snowfall over the Mountain.

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Ascension X: War of Shadows – Game Play

So let’s talk a little bit about this version of the game versus others. I won’t bore you with the details of how the main mechanisms of the game work. I talk through deck building some at the start of the stream and why I like Ascension. But let’s talk about what War of Shadows brings to the game.

And honestly, it’s not that much, so this will be pretty quick. It brings two things to the game. The first being that it adds in dark and light. This is the biggest change to the game. With the dark and light, depending on which you have more of, you can activate abilities on your cards. Light cards might have a special power if there are more light cards or vice-a-versa. And this is true for the game state when you play that card.

It is an interesting decision that way. I might purchase a dark card so that I can hopefully add a light card to the row and get the added benefits of the light cards I haven’t played yet. It’s not a guaranteed strategy, I might flip another dark card. But it is something to think about as you plan out your turn.

The other new thing is that some cards cost damage. Normally damage is just for monsters. But some cards cost credits or money and then the damage. This creates some interesting situations. It wasn’t a major concern in solo play, but I can see how it’d be interesting in multiplayer. Do I kill a monster but that might lock me out of getting some of the better cards. It adds in another benefit versus cost to weigh.

Upcoming Streams

So let’s start out with the easy one, on Wednesday, tomorrow, I am going to be playing more ISS Vanguard. You can prep for that by clicking the notification bell here. It’s going to be another ship phase, so let’s see how that goes with what I’ve picked up from my discoveries the time before and what phases of the ship that I want to activate this time.

Then on Monday, my plan is to unbox The Isofarian Guard. If you want a preview you can read up on it here. But it is supposed to get delivered today and it’s a big game to unbox. I’m excited to see everything in this solo board game. One that I plan on streaming on Malts and Meeples sometime coming up here, likely after ISS Vanguard. So join me for that to see what the game looks like.

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