Top 10 “It’s Been Too Long” Board Games

10. Xenoshyft

This one might be surprisingly low for some people. You know that I like this game a lot. But it’s low because I have played it a bunch. So while I haven’t played this deck building tower defense game recently, it’s one that I have played.

In this game you are cooperating with others to defend your base against alien bug attacks. You do this by creating a line of troops with armor and weapons to defend your sector of the base. Each player is going to defend their sector of the base, but you can help your teammates by giving them troops if you have too many and they don’t have enough. Or using items like grenades to blow up alien monsters or medpacs to heal them. I love how cooperative this game is, and challenging. Which makes me come back to it again and again.

9. Paper Dungeon

This is another game that I really love. But it’s lower on the list against because I’ve played it a bunch. But this is a dungeon crawler game that is a roll and write. You are exploring a dungeon, fighting monsters, finding bosses and trying to deal with those, all while leveling up your heroes and crafting items and health potions.

This is a roll and write game so the theme only comes through so much. But it’s really fun because there is a lot to do in the game. And this is one that I actually played through the whole “campaign” for it on Malts and Meeples YouTube. So you can checkout that video below. But the combinations just work so great that I really love this game, and I have an expansion for it that I need to get played.

8. Ship Shape

This is a funny little game but it’s been too long since I played it. It’s all about being the best pirate and not having too much contraband, but also getting that treasure as well. The main thing that sets this apart from other games, and puts it onto the list, is that you are bidding for what you want, but you can’t see everything you might need to know.

The game has you stacking tiles onto your cargo hold. Each tile is going to cover up certain parts of the hold. Now, all the tiles are stacked on top of each other as you bid, as well. So if you want the top tile you need to bid the highest number. But you can see some down the stack to know what might be on some of the lower tiles and if they might fit your hold better. But it’s unlikely that you can see everything, so do you risk it and bid lower. Of course, it all depends on what the other players bid as well to see if you get what you want or not.

7. Terraforming Mars Ares Expedition

This one falls into that category of I’ve played it a number of times. So do I need to play it again as much as some, probably not. But when it comes to engine building games, Ares Expedition is a great game. And I know that I have new content for cooperative and solo play to add to the game. As well as objectives to add to the game as well, if I want, so there is new stuff.

But I really love how Ares Expedition works. In this game every player is going to choose an action to do that round, and you choose it in secret. Then you reveal and you do the actions a particular order so it is building first and drawing cards, I believe at the end. Everyone plays every action that someone picked. But on the action that you picked, you get a bonus. And it’s possible that multiple people, or everyone, might pick the same action. So one round it might only be one action, which is interesting.

The game is then about building out an engine to gain points. You do this by terraforming Mars as well as getting points from cards as you build out that engine. The game is not super short, though, I’ve heard, shorter than Terraforming Mars. And it’s so much fun to play that I don’t mind it being a longer play.

6. Trailblazers

There are a few games on the list that I’m not sure why I haven’t played them recently Trailblazers is one of them. The big reason right now is that I don’t know where it is in my game collection. I know I own it. I know that I like it. But where is it, I’m not sure.

In this game you complete three different types of routes as you are out hiking, biking, or kayaking. Each of them creates a loop from the trailhead back to the start. You do this by drafting cards and playing them out. You draft over four rounds. And on the first round you only have one of the three trailheads out in play. Then the next round you add another and so on until the final round all of them are out. This helps you focus your building efforts a bit more.

But it’s fun because you gain points for all the sections of a trail. And sometimes a trail can cross itself and that gives you more points, or be crossed by another trail for more points. The game is simple and easy to play. And it’s not one that I find too stressful to play which is nice as well.

5. Calico

I’m not sure why Calico hasn’t been played in about two years. I really like Calico, though, I need to play Cascadia. The theme for Calico, for me, works better than Cascadia. We might have three cats in our house.

But this is a great tile placement game and I love the pattern matching element to the game. I think that the game is so much fun as you try and get matching colors together, matching patterns together, as well as the objectives that you set for yourself. And getting points for matching patterns to get cats, or colors to get buttons is fun.

The objectives are where the real puzzle and tension of the game comes into play. It might be something like AAA BBB and another one might be A BB CCC. You read those, first one as the example, as three of one color or pattern and three of another color or pattern surrounding that scoring objective. But if you can manage to get three of two colors and three of two patterns between those two colors, you score more points. So there are lots of ways to score points but it’s a really good tight puzzle of a game.

4. Chronicles of Drunagor

This is the only big campaign game on the list. I certainly could add more games like Tainted Grail: Fall of Avalon, but I have completed that game. With Chronicles of Drunagor, I played one session and that is it. So I want to play more of the game because I really enjoyed that one play. The issue, I found, is that it wasn’t great for streaming. I want to stream big campaign games maybe for a couple of hours. But because of how Drunagor works, with setting stuff up often mid game, it made it harder. But I think I can play it in shorter bursts, especially if I leave it set-up.

I really like the core mechanism(s) to the game. Firstly there is darkness. Darkness is a negative for the players. So you need to keep ahead of it. I like that it is an element that you use as a timer for the game. It means you can’t sit back too long and heal up or anything like that.

The other thing is the activation cubes. Each character starts out with some cubes of various colors. You use that color to activate that color of action. Then you cover it up. You aren’t able to use that action again until you remove all the cubes. And when you remove all the cubes, you block off one of them “for good” with a black cube. Yes, you can get it back, but that is an action and turn in and of itself.

3. Tesseract

Tesseract is a game that I played twice completely at Gen Con in 2023 and once I got to sit in on the last few turns and take over for a person. The theme of the game is fun, though it only comes through so much. In the game a cube has come to Earth, and it is shrinking. If you and your team are unable to crack the code and understand what the Tesseract is before it disappears a singularity will envelop the Earth, or something like that.

The game is all about managing this cube of dice. It’s going to shrink each turn, of Pandemic like in you do your good stuff then something bad happens. And you need to create collections of dice and numbers to research all the different colors/symbols on the dice and their numbers. But to play out those dice to get it closer to the finish, you create sets or runs of dice that you can use. So it’s all about getting the right dice and manipulating the dice well.

2. The Great Split

Who is the best collector of arts and other things? Well, that could be you in The Great Split. This games main mechanism is simply, I split, you choose. And you use that for set collection to score different types of artwork and literature.

But let’s talk about that main mechanism. What does it mean when I say “I split, you choose”. It means that we all have a collection of cards. I split that collection of cards into two groups. You pick one of the groups to take for yourself and I get the other one back. So when I create that split of cards, I want to create a division that you’ll want, but is just okay for you, and one that I want, but isn’t too good for me that you take it so I can’t have it. It’s a great mechanism, and The Great Split makes it the focus of it’s game.

1. Ready, Set, Bet

I love the chaos of this game. It’s amazingly fun doing the real time bidding on a horse race. And it’s also a blast being the person who is calling the race as well. The whole thing is just chaos and good in a great way. However, I do think you need the right group for it and a large enough group. That is what I’ve been missing for it recently and why it hasn’t been played.

So let’s talk about how this game works. All players have bidding chips. And one player is the caller of the race. That player is going to be rolling two dice and moving the horses down the track. While they are doing that in real time, the players are throwing out chips onto different bidding spots. These spots are for winning, showing, and placing. But also for extra bets like the 7 horse finishing ahead of all blue horses or things like that. You get money at the end of each round, and the player with the most money wins.

Final Thoughts

There are so many more board games that I could put on this list. If it’s not obvious, I love board games. And it’s fun to see what new games come out and play them. But sometimes I really want to get back to some classic ones that I’ve enjoyed a lot. It’s something that I need to make space for in my gaming. So while I’m getting very close to 50 new games for the year, I also need to play through some of these games on the list and enjoy them again.

What are some games that you want to get back to the table?

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About This List

So how is this list made? I use the Pub Meeple ranking engine to create the list. This website creates your list by doing side by side comparisons. I explain how it works at the beginning of the video.

But basically if I compare “A” and “B” and I prefer “B” it puts them in the order “B”, “A”. Then if I compare “C” and “D” and prefer “C”, those go in the order “C”, “D”. Then I compare “B” to “C” to see which I prefer, if I prefer “C” then I compare “B” and “D”. So if I prefer “C” and then I prefer “D” it’ll give me a list of “C”, “D”, “B”, and “A”. I never need to compare “A” to anything after “B” because I know since I prefer “C” and “D” to “B” I like it better than “A” because I like “B” mor than “A”.

Also a small tweak this year. In my write-up, I’m going to write less about the games and give more bullet points to help remind you about what I talked about in the video.

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition – 100 through 91

100. Blank Slate

• Published by The Op Games in 2018
• Big Group Party Game

Blank Slate is a fun game where you are. filling in a blank on a card. It might be [blank] and then “Slate” you need to come up with a word. And you want to match with one person. That to me is the fun element of the game. You want to watch for points, but ideally with just one person to get more of them.

Buy Blank Slate.

99. Skytear Horde

• Published by Skytear Games in 2023
• Solo, Cooperative, and Competitive Tower Defense Lane Battler

Skytear Horde offers really good game play in the tower defense style of games. I find that it’s best as a solo game with one player playing as factions fighting against the waves of monsters attacking. But I like the puzzle in what you do to beat the bad guys. The feeling of being limited is an element of the game I enjoy, even though it means that it’s always a tough battle.

Buy Skytear Horde.

98. Marvel United

• Published by CMON Games in 2020
• Beat back the Villain through Card play and Cooperation

This one works well because you get to feel like a team of heroes. A lot of superhero games you might have them in the game, but rarely do you need to plan and work together. Marvel United, while being a very light game, gives you that cooperation and team-up feel you want from a super hero game. Plus it’s easy to swap in new heroes, villains and locations to set the game up and play again.

Buy Marvel United.

97. Tesseract

• Published by Smirk & Laughter/Dagger Games in 2023
• Save Humanity by Cooperating and Manipulating dice with Special Powers

Tesseract is a great puzzle of a game. You need to work together to get one die of each color set on each number before the whole cube crumbles away. And while I find that I’ve won more often than not, it’s always a rush to the finish. I love that about a cooperative game, I don’t want to win all the time, but if I feel like it’s close, that is what I’m looking for. Plus the toy factor on Tesseract is great, and that’s not something that can be overlooked.

Buy Tesseract.

96. Starship Captain

• Published by CGE in 2023
• Travel across Planets, Deal with Pirates and Complete Missions better than anyone else

This is a game that I need to get back to the table. It has been too long since I played Starship Captains. I remember it being a fun game that gave you a lot of options but also limited them as you went. And I really enjoyed the system where you get three workers and then go back into a queue. So when they come out, you are able to determine the order somewhat. Forward planning, but it isn’t going to happen too quickly.

Buy Starship Captain.

95. River Valley Glassworks

• Published by Allplay in 2024
• Put glass into the river to Collect more Glass and score them by Color

River Valley Glassworks is new this year, and I really enjoy the game. I especially like the simplicity and strategy in what you do. You need to figure out how to best collect glass to score points. Because the points are scores in both columns and rows. And if you do well, you can score in both, but maybe you focus on one area more than the others. It’s a fast and fun filler experience.

Preorder River Valley Glassworks.

94. Atlantis Rising

• Elf Creek Games in 2019
• Push Your Luck to Gather Resources and then Build a portal to save the people of Atlantis Before it sinks

Atlantis Rising is another one of those really good cooperative games. You need to work together to figure out where to place out your workers. And you want to figure out good ways to keep them alive because each round you flip cards and sink more of Atlantis. Can you race against the clock to build a portal to a new world and get off of Atlantis before it sinks?

Buy Atlantis Rising.

93. Draftosaurus

• Published by Ankama in 2019
• Collect Dinosaurs for your Park and Place them to Score you the Most Points

This is a light filler game of drafting dinosaurs, hence the name Draftosaurus. You all want to collect the best parks, and it’s a great little light filler of a game. I don’t know that I’ve ever played less than two games in a sitting because each game takes maybe 10-15 minutes. And the simplicity of play and fun of scoring is great.

Buy Draftosaurus.

92. The Night Cage

• Published by Smirk and Dagger/Laughter in 2021
• Fumble your way through a Labyrinth, Avoid Monsters, Find Keys, and Escape Together

This is a fun cooperative experience for the spooky season. The game says, what if you’re trapped in an every changing Labyrinth with only a little candle. Can you get out in time? Because the candle only lights up the squares around you. So grab a key, help others find a key, and avoid the wax eaters so you can escape.

Buy The Night Cage.

91. Deception: Murder in Hong Kong

• Published by Grey Fox Games in 2014
• One of you is a Murderer and the Investigators figure out the Clue and Murder Weapon from the Forensic Scientists Reports

Deception: Murder in Hong Kong is the only social deduction game I have on my list. Mainly because it is also a deduction game as the Forensic Scientist is sending up reports. The investigators needs to figure out how those connect to one players murder weapons and clues. And then which murder weapon and clue were used. It’s a great game of talking and accusing and fun.

Buy Deception: Murder in Hong Kong.

Final Thoughts on Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition 100 through 91

A lot of lighter games in this section and a number of cooperative games. Some that even surprised me that they’d fallen this far. I think Deception: Murder in Hong Kong was Top 40 or so last year. But it’s one that I enjoy every time we play it. I probably just need to play it more for it to move back up. Other games have moved down or up as well. And I find that part of the fun of doing a list every year. My tastes in games are always changing, and I like this as a way to track the changes.

Just a reminder, join me next week on Malts and Meeples for the next 10 on the list. The plan is to go live around 9 PM Central time and it’ll be 90 through 81. The best way to know when I go live is subscribe and click that notification bell. That’ll let you know for sure when it’ll be happening.

What is your favorite game from the list and what is one that you want to try?

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Top 5 Board Games of 2023

5. Trailblazers

Let’s start out with Trailblazers. This is a fun route building game as you create the pathways for hiking, biking, and kayaking out in the wild. Each of them needs to start and end at the rental or trailhead locations for their respective one. To get a biking trail you need to start and end at the biking trailhead, for example. And the question is how long can you get your various routes, because you can connect up to four trails to each trailhead.

Mechanically this looks like card drafting. You pick out two cards from your hand and then you add them to the trails that you want. Each of them has different overlapping routes so you can connect them in a few different ways. But, of course, these cards don’t only have a single type of trail on them, they can have multiple types. So can you get them laid out right, though, you can overlap nor to trail types need to match. For a full biking trail, though, it needs to only be biking path on that trail.

4. World Wonders

Next up in World Wonders from Arcane Wonders and actually a Brazilian company. World Wonders is a game about building up an ancient society and getting the conditions met to put a wonder on your board. Well, it’s a tile laying game where you need tiles arranged in certain ways to get cool wooden wonders which give you points.

I like this game a lot for it’s action system. In World Wonders you get money each round. And that money goes for buying roads or buying buildings, mainly. But the big thing you can buy with your money are the wonders. The wonders are one of the main ways that you get points. You do for surrounding tiles you’ve played as well, but it is mainly for the wonders. To get a wonder, though, it costs all of your coins. So however many you have left, that is going to be the cost. It’s a great question of when you are going to make the jump.

And I like the tile placement in the game. It’s fairly restrictive in how you can place them. You either need to play it next to a road or another tile. And wonders don’t count as tiles. So you need to think about how you’re placing everything. And how you can reduce gaps in your placements to try and get things surround. And the tiles also offer advancements, going up tracks. As you push up those tracks that can trigger the end of the game. Which is a nice alternate end.

3. Tesseract

Next up we have Tesseract, a game that I had an amazing time with at Gen Con. The group of people I played it with were a ton of fun. And Tesseract is the type of cooperative game that I really enjoy. It’s a cooperative game where each player has special powers. And that is something I very much like in games. But beyond that, it is a game where you can lose in multiple ways, much like Pandemic.

In Tesseract, you play as researchers who are studying a tesseract cube that came to Earth. And you need to solve it’s puzzle before it all disappears and, well, destroys the Earth. It’s a bit absurd and mainly mechanical. But it works on the Pandemic like system of do a number of actions and then bad things happen. How do you beat it? You need to place out one through six of four different colors of dice. To do that, you need to play it from a run or a set. It’s very mechanical that way.

But I still really like how it plays out. There is always pressure. And each player has their own special ability. What I am able to do on my turn is unique from what you can do. So you need to work together to get everything taken care of. And there are elements of the game, like trading dice, that do help with that. And I like that as you get closer to the end game and the game winning, but you complete columns of dice, let place all four fours, you get boosts to help you. It’s a really rewarding system.

2. Forest Shuffle

Next up we have Forest Shuffle another nature themed game. Forest Shuffle is one that I really grew to like at Gen Con and was really happy to get my hands onto it. It’s a tableau building card game of building out a forest. That’s the basics of it, you have a hand of cards that you balancing playing cards from and paying for those cards with cards from your hand, with drawing up more cards. I like that system.

Then the scoring itself is a real mixed back of what you can do for scoring. Almost everything you play down gives you points. You have the most trees in your forest, well, there is a card that scores points off of that. One of the birds scores points for the bugs you have, another for the diversity of birds, or a tree for how many of that tree you have. It’s a ton of points everywhere.

And I think it’s really clever how you get those point cards into your tableau. You play them around the tree cards. The trees each start their own separate little part of the forest and on each side you can play something out. But you are generally limited to one card per side. You are able to play out more, but only if the animal or card says you can. And each card you play next to a tree is split in two. You got a left or right or up or down. So if it’s split vertically it can only go on the top of the tree or bottom. And that covers up half the card which is clever.

1. Marvel Zombies

Finally, this is more the type of game that people think of when they think of the board games that I like. And it makes my #1 for that reasons, Marvel Zombies. Now, I don’t have the giant Galactus, but I wish that I did. It just costs so much money. But Marvel Zombies is a Zombicide game of dice chucking fun. In a normal Zombicide game you play as people fighting zombies. You can do that here, but the main draw and core box has you playing a zombies fighting heroes.

This game is a simple game in a lot of ways. It’s just going out and fighting zombies (or heroes/SHIELD agents) with some objective. And the more you take out, the more objectives that you get, the more everyone levels up. To do that you chuck a handful of dice, if you’re rolling a lot, and see if you hit. Or you move around a board and then, of course, you spawn more zombies.

Marvel Zombies is not a thinky game. There is a little bit of strategy to it, but not too much, it’s more about that fun of running into a room as the Hulk, rolling a bunch of dice, and smashing a lot of good guys. Or when a swarm of SHIELD Agents shows up with Thor either running away to try and complete an objective, or maybe taking in a whole team of zombies, everyone playing, and seeing what happens.

What Was Your Favorite from 2023?

Now, I think I could give a number of honorable mentions. But I am not going to do that because like I said, I plan to do the next five board games for 2023. I will say, I think that my big board games that I played in 2023, like the campaign game ones, all came out earlier. Often times, I find, that a big game comes out in a year, I get it and then it takes me a bit to get to it. But that’s why I do a Top 10 Campaign Game list sometimes as well as my Top 100 Games (of all time) each year.

There are a lot of great board games that came out in 2023. Which is your favorite? Is there one that you think I should try out?

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

100 through 91

90 through 81

80 through 71

70 through 61

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition – 60 through 51

60. Five Tribes

Five Tribes is a classic game at this point. One of the Days of Wonder games that put them on the map and is my favorite of them. This has a mancala style mechanic of picking up meeples and dropping one on each tile you move to. Then you gather the ones that match the color of the last one you place out and that determines what you’re doing, which is basically always getting points.

That’s another feature of the game that is great. You are always getting money, or points (same thing) in this game. No matter what action you do, it is likely to help you. To add to that, the money that you get is also what you use to pay for your turn order. So if you see an amazing move, it be worth paying to go first, but will what you pay offset the points that you get? And that’s part of the puzzle of the game.

Buy Five Tribes

59. Mesozooic

I doubt that Mesozooic will make many or possibly any other Top 100 Lists. Why, this is a light and silly little drafting real time game of making your own Jurassic Park. But it is one that I really like. And I like it because it is fast and silly but still a good time with a little bit of strategy as you draft cards.

You get parts to your monorail system or zoo pens for the dinosaurs as you draft. Then you put them in a four by three grid and because you have one empty spot, you draft 11 cards, it’s basically a sliding puzzle. You then get 45 seconds, I believe, to slide everything around and get it in the order that gives you the most points. Where ever you are at when that time runs out is the zoo you have. So it’s possible to get it perfect, but it’s not that much time, so when to call it good enough is a big part of the game.

Buy Mesozooic

58. Res Arcana

Next up is Res Arcana. Res Arcana is a much thinkier game than the last one, but still not extremely complex. In Res Arcana you are taking your hand of cards, I believe it’s 8 cards, and building a points engine out of them. And the game is basically as simple as that. You do actions each round and when you are done with them all or all you want to do, going turn to turn, you take a special power that will help you the next round of turns.

This game is just a fun puzzle. You can play with the starter decks. I like drafting the cards I get better so that I can try and build up a synergy and get an engine going faster. But either way is fun to play. And Res Arcana is not that long a game which is great as well, so you get your engine going quickly in the game. I like that because it’s like there is a little to no downtime of the engine.

Buy Res Arcana

57. Tesseract

One of the new games, I played this one for the first time at Gen Con and I had an absolute blast with it. It’s a Pandemic like cooperative game in some ways. There is more going on with it, though. The structure of do your turn and then a bad thing happens is very Pandemic like.

The basic “story” of the game is that this Tesseract, a cube of dice has come to Earth. And we’re scientists of different types trying to solve the puzzle of it before it explodes, or implodes I should say, and kills everyone. Our actions are to collect and manipulate dice to get runs and sets and be able to put dice onto tracks matching their color and number. That is how we win, the game wins if the cube is gone, if too many overflows happen (Pandemic outbreaks), and possibly another way, I forget. So it’s a race against time and using your abilities the best you can.

And the dice cube, really is a five by five, I believe, cube. I said four by four yesterday, but think about it, I think it’s five by five. And that dice cube/tower is on a rotating board so that everyone can just turn it to see the other sides. It’s a clever system.

Buy Tesseract

56. Potion Explosion

Another game with a gimmick is Potion Explosion. Potion Explosion reminds me of an app game where you pop a bubble and it causes the column to drop down. If two (or more) like colors hit again, they pop and so on. That’s what Potion Explosion is, and it’s great with that toy factor. It has a nice dispenser for marbles, and then you’re doing what I said, removing one and letting matching colors hit.

But it adds to that by giving you potions that you can craft. Those potions are then special powers that you can use one time. That’s help you get more marble, ingredients for your potion, and let you brew even more potions. It’s a fun game of optimizing which marble you take out of the dispenser with the powers that you have. Great toy factor, again, but also just a great game.

Buy Potion Explosion

55. Forest Shuffle

Another new one to the list, Forest Shuffle is another game that I got to play for the first time at Gen Con. It’s a nature tableau building game, which, that theme or idea is very popular right now. I like how this one works a lot, though because it’s simple. You play from a handful of cards and are using cards in your hand to pay for the cards you want to play. So each card is dual purpose that way.

But they are also mainly dual purpose (besides trees) in that they have two things on them. It’s part of your forests habitat and ecosystem on the cards. So you put those cards around the trees you have in your forest. And you will show one or the other side. But which one you pick means you miss out on the other for scoring.

The end game trigger is fun as well. Three winter cards are shuffled in to the bottom of the deck. When the third one comes out the game is done. So you might find one and have a bit of time, or it might be ending really quickly after that. So you need to determine when you just need to play out cards versus go digging or picking up cards that might just get stuck in your hand and give you no points.

Preorder Forest Shuffle

54. Grove: A 9 card solitaire game

My most played solitaire (solo) game of the year. Grove is a great game that is a ton of fun as you are building up your grove or orange, lemon, and lime trees. You do this by layering cards and matching the fruit that you are overlapping. And you can’t just overlap any trees, you get one overlap that doesn’t match, and that gives you negative points.

This probably sounds a lot like Orchard another game in that series. And what I’ve described is pretty similar. Where Grove is different is that each game you are playing against a challenge. Or you can choose to do that, but I always choose to do it. You get two challenge cards, they give you bonus points. But they also provide a point total between the two cards that you need to win. So it’s not just beat your high score, it gives you a target, for that game, to beat it.

Buy Grove

53. Century: Golem Edition

Century: Golem Edition is one that has stuck on my list for a long time. It’s not one that I play often, but when I get it played, it’s always a good time. Century: Golem Edition is a game of hand management where you are playing out cards to get gems and transform/trade gems into better gems. Then you use those to get Golems, most golem points wins.

But what I like so much about this game are the quick and snappy turns. My turn is basically one of four things. I play a card to manipulate the gems that I have, whether that’s get more or transform them, get a card from the market, pick back up my played cards into my hand, or get a golem. It’s one thing per turn and the game just flies along because of that, plus it has good decisions.

Buy Century: Golem Edition

52. Arboretum

Arboretum is one of those nature themed games where it looks pretty, and it’s pretty mean. But that’s what makes the game one of my favorites. In Arboretum you are building an ascending order of trees. And you score routes of trees that start and end with the same type of tree, always ascending numerically. Plus if you start with a one and end on an eight, both of those give you bonus points.

The tricky, and where the mean comes in, is that you don’t get to score all of your trees. At least not automatically. You need to have the most, card value wise, of that type of tree to be able to score it. So you might have built up a beautifully high scoring line of maples, but if you have a greater value of maples in my hand than you have, they are worth no points to you. And that is mean, but so much fun and adds in a layer of strategy and depth.

Buy Arboretum

51. Cthulhu: Death May Die

Finally, the last new one for this part of the list, Cthulhu: Death May Die. This is one that I got to play for the first time at CMON Expo, and I just fell in love with it. It’s such a fun game of investigating, trying to stop the ritual, or whatever is going on, but knowing eventually you’ll need to fight a great old one. And when you start, you are not in a position where that is going to be possible.

It only becomes possible as you become more insane. The more insane you are, the most powers you can unlock. There are points on the sanity track where it lets you unlock a new power. So you get to decide which of your three tracks you want to go up on. One is unique to each character, and the others are a combination of generic ones. Like the brawler ability, it might let you hit a whole room with an attack, if you level it up, but it’s always a choice of what to level.

Then, of course, you can still die from insanity. So if you die from what, because you leveled up too fast, you’re out of the game and that messes up things as well. So it’s a ton of fun how it lets you push your luck but not too much with that insanity. And it’s also fun to get more powerful as the game goes on the closer to death you are.

Buy Cthulhu: Death May Die

Upcoming Streams

Let’s run through the stream structure like I normally do. You might already know the schedule but in case you don’t. Wednesday at 8 PM Central I stream either a campaign game, or with this time of year it’s my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition. And join me next Wednesday for games 50 through 41, so hitting the half way point. It goes so fast, and now I have so many games that I want to play.

Then on Monday I stream at 9 PM Central time. It’s generally a solo game. Though I’ll also do pack openings for things, like I should have a Lord of the Rings Collectors box coming for the new cards. But normally it’s a solo game and a one off for the game like a roll and write, or sometimes a game like Under Falling Skies which was on the list today.

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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Plus there is a lot of news. What If now seems to have a release time frame. And we know the titles of the What If Season 2 episodes. Plus Echo, Fantastic Four, and a whole lot more to cover in our Marvel news.

Thanks for Listening to 10 Minute Marvel

I hope that you are enjoying the podcast. If you are, there are a few ways that I always talk about that you can support 10 Minute Marvel. Firstly, please consider sharing it with your friends. Word of mouth really is a great way to help more people find the podcast and personal recommendations are always great. As well as then subscribing or leaving a rating and review. Both of those make the podcast easier to find on the podcast services. You can find the podcast on iTunes, Google Podcast, and Spotify.

We also run a Patreon and that is another way you can help support. The Patreon, found here, goes to help improve the quality of the 10 Minute Marvel Podcast, pay for advertising and more. It also helps improve the Malts and Meeples YouTube Channel and Nerdologists.com website. Thank you for considering supporting us financially.

Comments or Questions: Which 2nd Season Do You Want?

What Disney+ show do you really want another season of? And are there any that you really don’t need a second season of?

And as a bonus, which episode of What If Season 2 are you the most excited for?

You can let us know all of those things down in the comment section below. Or tweet them to me @TheScando or by using #10MinMarvel. And there is now the 10 Minute Marvel Facebook page as well where you can join in the conversation, here.

Thank you again for listening, and we’ll see you next time.

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OSCS Meet Up

This is the one with fewer hiccups. The only hiccup would be that I didn’t get to meet any of the OSCS people. The upside is, I had some fun gaming. I got to play two games and hangout. One being Whale to Look that I had picked up. I found, with that game, that a fun game at four players, it is not as fun at two players. I’ll talk about that game soon as it is one that I picked up.

The other game was Tesseract. This is a game that is hard to explain, in theme. It’s a game where players are trying to keep a Tesseract (dice cube) from crumbling completely. Meanwhile the game is working against you causing dice to be lost and containment breaches to occur. It’s Pandemic like, in some ways with a few actions you play. And then adds in a very unique dice cube on top of that, literally above everything else.

Man vs Meeple Meet Up

Now, as I write about this, understand that I had fun at this meet up. There is a lot of good conversation, not a ton about board games that was had. Conversation went from Wheel of Time and other books, Marvel shows and movies, and more. It is refreshing in some ways to not talk about board games all the time.

Now, I did play a board game during that time as well. Scout which is a really fun card shedding game. I like the simplicity of the mechanisms but also the puzzle that you are playing. It’s a very fun game that way and a little game as well. I think that makes it stronger.

The gaming, though, is not what people had hoped. Mainly because for two years in a row the air conditioning decided not to work. I think this time it was worse because the food took a long while to come. So we ended with around an hour to play games. That said, it is a really fun time every year. The conversation is always a blast.

Gen Con Recap Part 2

Overall, these events are always fun. I like them mainly as a chance to meet people and game outside of the normal hours. Some days I really like them, but I don’t want them every day. Sleep and staying healthy at Gen Con are important for me.

But when they do happen, it’s always a fun time. Good conversation and in this case, two games that I wouldn’t have played otherwise. I even played Tesseract twice. It is a game that I plan on getting when it hits retail. I like it that much because it’s just different yet similar. I think my game group would like it a lot.

What events outside of Gen Con do you do at Gen Con?

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Osprey Games

Undaunted Battle of Britain

Take to the sky. It’s continuing the series of games. Undaunted games are deck building and war games. This is going to add in airplanes with is different. Undaunted is one that I would like to try. I really do enjoy deck building and while the theme isn’t my normal one that I love, I think that it could be a game that I enjoy a lot to play. And there is an expansion to what is already out there that makes it solo.

Arcane Wonders

10 Years of Arcane Wonders

A new logo for Arcane Wonders as they have reached 10 years. They talked about some games that they have already announced.

Foundations of Rome

New Kickstarter August 2nd. I believe this is going to have a new expansion. The announcement that they officially had was just the 10 years of being around and the new logo.

Horrible Guild

The Great Split

The Great Split is where you are drafting cards, collecting riches and trying to get the most prestigious of all of them. You split your cards and your opponent picks one, so you split and choose. Looks like a very light game but also one that is going to be a lot of fun as you try and figure out what to collect and how to get points. Honestly looks like one that I’ll enjoy a lot.

Pencil First Games

Floriferous Pocket Edition

Continues the trend of taking their games and making smaller editions of games. They take everything and basically make it smaller. So it’s going to be the same game but in a smaller package. I don’t know that it needs a smaller edition, the game is already small and I own it and I really enjoy it. But I’ll look at it as maybe a small stocking stuffer for people I know.

Forbidden Games

Mosaic Wars and Disasters

Adds in more cards to the base game. This is a civilization themed game. I am curious about the game as I’ve heard very good things. But It’s also a big game and that means that it is going to be a longer game. Mosaic was a try before I buy and Wars and Disasters seems intriguing but it doesn’t change the fact it’s a try before I buy. Coming to Kickstarter in September. This is a chance to get the game if you missed out on it though. And who knows, maybe I’ll back it if I can demo it at Gen Con.

Unexpected Games

3000 Scoundrels

Old west game that definitely looks to have some weird west vibes to it. And it is going to have cards and sleeves that change up characters. It seems to have a lot of interesting things to it. There are in fact 3000 unique scoundrels. It is going to be an engine building game with some push your luck as well to it. I really love the aesthetic of the game that’s for sure. More information is going to come out tomorrow for more details and is coming out Fall of 2022 or demo it at Gen Con.

Pegasus Spiele

Caldera Park

This is a tile placement game where you are trying to place large herds of animals. The active player is picking what you do and you play them on your own map. It sounds interesting, you try and place things out so that you can not block yourself out for what other people pick, because you are trying to get large herds. I like this a lot reminds me of Tiny Towns.

Spaceship Unity

A space themed game, I don’t know a ton about it at this point in time. It has some great artwork and a fun video introducing it. It is going to be a campaign game over 5 episodes. You need to interact with your own house, I am less convinced on that. They want it to be kind of that Star Trek or Orville theme but to me that sounds too odd.

Dan and Cora Hughes

Cora Quest: Keep on Questing

It’s a family dungeon crawling game. This is more for the game, more quests. It’s coming to Kickstarter in October. It’s going to be adding in more to the game, leveling up characters, more items things like that. Just basically more for the game, so if you like it, you know, and you know if you want more. And there is a box design contests or things for kids from all over the world to get artwork on the box.

Portal Games

Basilica

A 2nd of the game. I don’t know much about it, but it looks quite euro. A two player tile laying game. Ignacy described it as Carcassonne with combat and area control. I like tile laying, I don’t mind area control, especially as two players. So I am curious about it but it is a try before I buy easily. It’s going to be an Essen Spiel release.

Granna

Space Craft

You are building a space craft. You get different resources to let you buy different ship pieces. One interesting piece of the look is that the pieces click together. Plus you are trying to build your space craft to get orders completed. There is some interesting movement to gather your resources and how they are limited. This is one that I’m curious about just because it is building a space craft, and while it’s 2D it looks like a lot of fun. It’s going to be premiering at Essen Spiel.

Matagot

Peter Pan

It’s panic in Neverland as the lost children has been kidnapped. It looks like a game with players trying to figure out where the lost children were taken while avoiding Captain Hook. I think it looks like a lot of fun, it’s a dry erase board which allows you to figure out information. And there is a campaign mode which is interesting. It reminds me of Treasure Island but this one being cooperative is way more interesting to me.

Smirk and Dagger

Tesseract

An other dimensional tesseract is collapsing down. Can you figure out how to control it or will it blow up and destroy our earth. The goal of the game is to get cubes off of the Tesseract and get them into a matrix. If you can contain a cubes into matrix. It’s all about collecting different sets of cubes to fill up that matrix. Looks like a fun puzzle of a game and is going to be cooperative as well. Coming to Kickstarter in October. And it has a lot of cool dice in it.

Gale Force Nine

Enola Holmes: Finder of Lost Souls

It’s an all versus one game of reasoning and deception. I like the idea of a one versus all game where it is set-up with figuring out what the one has set-up. It’s made as a family weight game which to me is interesting but probably not for me. I find that one versus all are hard to get to the table. And it sounds like there is a bit of Mastermind element to it as well. For me, I’d play this but I don’t think I’d ever pick it up not because it looks bad, but it doesn’t look like it’s for me.

Plaid Hat Games

Hickory Dickory

You are trying to collect different things to get points. Now, that sounds boring or standard. But there is a clock with a moving hand around the board. Which I think is pretty interesting. And it isn’t just collecting sets, it’s collecting rows and columns. And the artwork is amazing for this game. I actually think I want to pick this one up because the game just looks so pretty on the table. And Q4 in 2022 for the release date.

Grey Fox Games

Prophets of Doom

You’re the leader of a doomsday cult but you are really bad at figuring out what is happening. You’re trying to get followers and build up your compound. It’s a fun theme and fairly unique. Honestly, don’t know what I think about this, the artwork is nice. The theme, like I said is fun, but also I don’t know too much about how it’s played. And it’s a Q1 game in 2023.

Reavers of Midgard Expansion

I haven’t played Champions or Reavers of Midgard. I think that they look pretty but also they don’t seem like my type of game. But if you like Reavers of Midgard, then this is going to be interesting to you. It’s a game that I wouldn’t mind playing. And it’s coming to Kickstarter or crowdfunding towards the end of 2022.

Navoo Games

Raising Robots

It’s interesting strategy game with robots for 1 to 7 players. I find that interesting because that’s a big number of players but they have engine building, simultaneous action selection and variable player powers. I really love the artwork from Howard McWilliam. The game looks like it’s going to be pretty heavy which is not a bad thing, but it might be heavier than the art makes it look. Looks like a try before I buy because there is a lot going on. And while you do stuff simultaneously, it looks like you pick actions and then set stuff up then everyone activates. It’s one you can checkout at Gen Con.

Rebel Studio

Meadow Downstream

An expansion for Meadow. It is releasing at Spiel Essen this year. There is a river board and water tiles that you use. It’s going to add more to Meadow and if you like Meadow then you are probably going to want more of this

Meadow Adventure Book

Another expansion but this one is going to be adding in scenarios. It will be legacy like experience in 2023. So think adding rules as you go and playing the specific scenarios. They said legacy like, though, so I am assuming somewhat replayable. Meadow is a game that I should try and checkout at Gen Con because I love the artwork and look but don’t want to take the plunge to buy it yet.

Chronicles of Avel: New Adventures

It’s adding in three more scenarios and three modules. This is going to be an expansion, if that’s not obvious, for Chronicles of Avel. This is a game that I keep on seeing at stores. I believe it’s an adventure game for a younger audience, or at least that is the feeling that I’ve gotten. I don’t know if this is making it more complex, but the game always interests me. Another one I’d love to checkout at Gen Con. And the components really do look amazing for this game.

Avel the Card Game

This is going to be a deck building game set in the Avel setting. There is no shuffling of the cards. This is going to be a bit of a step up, and is going to be a cooperative card game that they call as a next step game. That definitely makes me think that Chronicles of Avel might be too light for me, at least until the kid is a bit older, but this one could be intriguing for playing with more casual gamers.

Rock Manor Games

Set a Watch: Forsaken Isles

This is going to be a standalone expansion, which they have done before, for their Set A Watch game line. You face off against monsters, new ones, with new adventurers. But it still maintains mix and match ability with the other Set a Watch stuff you already have. This is one, Set a Watch, that is on my shelf that I need to get played. I am not sure that I need to grab more of it, but we’ll see once I get my copy of Set a Watch played, which I should soon.

City of Games

Race to the Raft

From the designer and company that brought you Isle of Cats, this is about the cats left behind. A cooperative game where you play as the cats to try and get the ones left behind off the island on the last remaining raft. It definitely is interesting to me. I like Isle of Cats and I want to try City of Kings. I like the idea of cooperative with those same cats and cat artwork. Definitely one I’ll be keeping an eye on.

WizKids

Ascending Empires Zenith Edition

A new version of Ascending Empires. I don’t know anything about this game, it’s a Sci-Fi themed 4x game with about a 60-90 minute play time. Whenever I hear 4x, I am intrigued, but I also know I have troubles getting the ones I own to the table. It’s a new edition so it’ll be interesting to checkout for me as there is a dexterity element to the game with how you move your ships. I do like games with dexterity but again, it is still 4x. For sure it is one that I’d want to try. And like a lot of games now, it is going to add modules to allow you to change it up. I often wonder how likely I am to play with a module, I need to try them in Isle of Cats.

CMON

Stranger Things Upside Down

If you could have seen me when I saw what the announcement was. It is by Rob Daviau from Pandemic Legacy which I love. And Cthulhu Death May Die which I need to see. I literally got goose bumps and I had to pause the video because I am so excited. There was an Asmodee Stranger Things social deduction game announced. This, however, is not that.

It is coming to retail in 2023. Not a ton of details yet for it, but I don’t need to know more about it. It is Rob Daviau, it is a cooperative game. And you are trying to save Hawkins from the Upside Down. I don’t need to know more, I will get this game. I don’t know that I have ever had a reaction to a board game announcement like I did now. Maybe for Frosthaven but that would be about it. Shut up and take my money!

Dire Wolf

Dune Imperium – Immortality

I really need to play Dune Imperium. I assume that anyone who knows the game is going to be exciting. This expansion is going to be more for the deck building element. Plus there is also going to be research track as well, which is interesting. It is definitely making the game more complex, and I think it could be exciting. Dune Imperium is one that I should track down and play, but it never shows up used that I’ve seen. Expected to be available around the end of 2022.

CGE

Deal with the Devil

It’s an engine building Euro game. it is going to have secret roles, though, which is going to be changing up the standard thing. The game looks interesting on the table with buildings that are player screens to hide who you are and what you want to do. Not my type of game, but it is going to have a table presence for sure. And there is going to be an app that hands out the roles as well, which is intriguing. I would try it just because it seems to add in a little bit more than just a standard Euro game but then again, there is social deduction. It is a Gen Con first look coming out around Essen Spiel.

Final Thoughts

There are a ton of games in this announcement. There are some that aren’t all that interesting to me, but then again, there are others that I am clearly excited for. I will be finding out everything I can about the Stranger Things game. Like I said, it is going to be on that I immediately seek out and it’s a theme that I want a great game with it. Rob Daviau is a designer that I want to doing it. But besides that, I got to say, I think that Race to the Raft and The Great Split interest me the most next.

What is the game that stood out to you that you want to try out or need to get?

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