The Isle of Cats | Nerdologists https://nerdologists.com Where to jump in on board games, anime, books, and movies as a Nerd Thu, 30 Oct 2025 15:18:33 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://nerdologists.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/nerdologists-favicon.png The Isle of Cats | Nerdologists https://nerdologists.com 32 32 Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 Edition – 40 through 31 https://nerdologists.com/2025/10/top-100-games-of-all-time-2025-edition-40-through-31/ https://nerdologists.com/2025/10/top-100-games-of-all-time-2025-edition-40-through-31/#comments Thu, 30 Oct 2025 15:15:07 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=9873 What games make it into the Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 Edition? We're onto games 40 through 31 with three new games to the list.

The post Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 Edition – 40 through 31 first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
It’s time for the next 10. The articles will likely catch-up next week to where the videos are. But you can always checkout the videos for the Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 Edition over on the Malts and Meeples YouTube channel. But the lists keep on going, and on this part of the Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 Edition there are three new to me games. Let’s see which ones those are.

Catch Up on the Top 100 Games

100 through 91
90 through 81
80 through 71
70 through 61
60 through 51
50 through 41

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 Edition – 40 through 31

40. Sushi Go Party!

Sushi Go Party
Image Source: Gamewright

Published By: Gamewright
Designer: Phil Walker-Harding

Buy Sushi Go Party!

Sushi Go and Sushi Go Party! are classic drafting games at this point. And I think with the fun theme and artwork more welcoming than other bigger group drafting games like 7 Wonders. In this game you draft a meal over three hands of cards. You score points for the sets of cards you get, depending on how those cards score. So an example is for each pair of tempura shrimp you score five points. Some might not score you points, though, if you get too many or too few of them. So it’s a fun changing strategy with lots of cards drafting game.

39. Ninjan

Ninjan
Image Source: Helvetiq

Published By: Helvetiq
Designer: 6jizo

Buy Ninjan

This little game I thought wasn’t going to be that interesting, but I really enjoy it. It’s rock paper scissors. But you don’t play against the other players, you play against a central set of cards. And if you beat a card you take that one and those are the points you get. The trick is that some points are negative. So if all the cards are negative in that middle display, you don’t want to beat them and take a card. It makes some some interesting choices and a lot of fun moments of trying not to get points.

38. First Rat

First Rat
Image Source: Pegasus Spiele

Published By: Pegasus Spiele
Designers: Gabriele Ausiello and Virginio Gigli

Buy First Rat

The moon is made a cheese, you’re rats so of course you know that to be true. And you want to get there. You do that by collecting resources to build up rocket parts and get your ratstronauts ready to go to space. This game is all about figuring out how you want to score and then optimizing that as you move your rats up tracks gaining resources and other things. I like how there is a variety of ways you can go about it in the game, and the theme is just great.

37. Let’s Go! To Japan

Let's Go! To Japan
Image Source: AEG

Published By: Alderac Entertainment Group
Designer: Josh Wood

Buy Let’s Go! To Japan

Second new game on the list Let’s Go! To Japan is one that I backed on Kickstarter but played first on BGA. This is another drafting game, I really enjoying drafting. In this game you want to create your best trip to Japan. And each day you have a certain goal you go for. So it might be food one day or cultural events. As you draft cards and plan your days you try and line that up. As well as you try and get the best scoring for each day that you can. There are a lot of fun things with how this drafting work. And it’s just fun to see your trip when you are done.

36. Guild of Merchant Explorers

The Guild of Merchant Explorers
Image Source: AEG

Published By: Alderac Entertainment Group
Designers: Matthew Dunstan and Brett J Gilbert

Buy Guild of Merchant Explorers

The last new game on the list is Guild of Merchant Explorers. This is a game with a roll and write feel but uses cubes for that. You are creating routes across your map and filling in areas to get points and create trading posts. I love how simple this game is, everyone has the same map and you flip a card and you place a cube or cubes on that type of terrain. But then you get special cards that make you different in each era and games start to go in very different ways. Plus the treasures which always feel like they should be better than they are, but I always want them.

35. The Isle of Cats: Explore and Draw

Isle of Cats Explore and Draw
Image Source: City of Games

Published By: The City of Games
Designer: Frank West

Buy Isle of Cats: Explore and Draw

This is one of the highest roll and write games on the list. The Isle of Cats: Explore and Draw is a really fun game where you are rescuing cats from an island before the bad guy gets there. And to do that you pick a column of cards to activate. Some of those columns are just cats and you add them to your ship trying to create groups of cats. Others might have scoring objectives, so it’s this fun balance of determining how you want to score or maybe you need more cats to make your scoring work. All this while having a polyomino puzzle on your board.

34. The Isofarian Guard

Isofarian Guard
Image Source: Sky Kingdom Games

Published By: Sky Kingdom Games
Designers: Eric Bittermann, Sean Craten, David Yanchick

Buy The Isofarian Guard

The Isofarian Guard is one of two bigger story games on the list. And I think you’ll find that a lot of the bigger story games are towards the top half of my list. I love this type of game. And The Isofarian Guard has a lot of fun bag building as you level up characters. Then you explore and enjoy a big story while hopping into combats and using that bag building to battle the bad guys. It’s interesting how there are multiple campaigns with different guard members that all happen during the same time period. That is unique to the game.

33. Forest Shuffle

Forest Shuffle
Image Source: Lookout Games

Published By: Lookout Games
Designer: Kosch

Buy Forest Shuffle

Some games give you a ton of points and Forest Shuffle is for sure one of those. In this game you build out a tableau that is your forest and surround the trees with flora and fauna. Every tree, every animal and every plant give you some benefit in some way. And your goal is to optimize is the best you can. Maybe you go all in on butterflies, or you get a bird card that scores more for other birds. You need to figure out your best scoring.

I need another paragraph to talk about the game because the card play and end game are so good. In the card play you spend cards from your hand to play cards, and that is always a tough decision as to which cards you might not get to play. And the end game is great with three winter cards in the bottom third of the deck. When you hit one or the second one, you know the end game is coming soon and you need to get cards played.

32. The 7th Citadel

7th Citadel
Image Source: Serious Pulp

Published By: Serious Poulp
Designer: Ludovic Roudy and Bruno Sautter

Buy The 7th Citadel

Another story and campaign game, The 7th Citadel creates a really unique world of necrodruids and monsters that you avoid, fight, and challenges to complete. With a map that you build out each time you play, you explore new areas and directions to get through the scenarios of the story.

And how you do your combat or challenges is really enjoyable. Each character has a deck of cards. And you draw from that deck trying to get the right stars to line-up. You can draw a lot of cards, but if you do, you’ll run out of cards sooner. So maybe you draw fewer, or maybe you really need to pass, so you draw a lot but then spend health to get more back. But of course, when you spend health that is putting you closer to death that way.

31. Star Wars: Unlimited

Star Wars Unlimited Twilight of the Replubic
Image Source: Fantasy Flight

Published By: Fantasy Flight Games
Designers: Jim Cartwright, Tyler Parrott, Daniel Schaefer, Jeremy Zwirn

Buy Star Wars: Unlimited

The only TCG on the list is Star Wars: Unlimited. Though I’ve been loving Magic the Gathering again as well. But Star Wars: Unlimited is just an easier game to play. The actions being so simple and a back and forth one action and then one from your opponent is great. I also like the two theaters that you fight over, ground and space. Granted you can also just direct that damage at the base as well to try and take that down because that is how you win. And there are a lot of good synergies for building if you want to be a force user, a Mandalorian, or a Rebel, etc.

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.

Send an Email
Message me on X at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here
Support us on Patreon here

The post Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 Edition – 40 through 31 first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
https://nerdologists.com/2025/10/top-100-games-of-all-time-2025-edition-40-through-31/feed/ 1
Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition 40 through 31 https://nerdologists.com/2024/11/top-100-games-of-all-time-2024-edition-40-through-31/ https://nerdologists.com/2024/11/top-100-games-of-all-time-2024-edition-40-through-31/#comments Fri, 08 Nov 2024 17:24:12 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=9261 What games make it into my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition - 40 through 31. Join with me and find out.

The post Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition 40 through 31 first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
The next round of my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition is up on Malts and Meeples on YouTube. Checkout what games made the list and which ones are new, and which ones you maybe want to play. And you can join me every Wednesday at 9 PM central time for the next 10.

Catch up on previous videos here

100 through 91
90 through 81
80 through 71
70 through 61
60 through 51
50 through 41

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition – 40 through 31

40. Cthulhu: Death May Die

Cthulhu Death May Die
Image Source: CMON
  • Published by CMON in 2019
  • Defeat a scenario and an Elder God before you are driven insane

Cthulhu: Death May Die is one of those great beer and pretzels games. Meaning that it’s pretty straightforward but mainly just a fun time. Who doesn’t like sitting around chucking a handful of dice, hoping you don’t go insane, and probably dying to whatever great old one shows up. The game gives you some story as well, but the biggest story elements are when you get that amazing roll right before you go insane, or when you can’t quite make it.

Buy Cthulhu: Death May Die

39. burncycle

burncycle
Image Source: Chip Theory Games
  • Published by Chip Theory Games in 2022
  • The robots are on the run, can you sneak around and infiltrate the evil human corporations?

I love the theme on burncycle. There are games out there were the robots or something is taking over and the humans have to stop them. Here it’s the robots who are sneaking around and having to infiltrate. And I really enjoy how the system works. I like how you program out your actions and that chain of actions you can take degrades over time. So you need to balance changing it up to just wiping it. But if you wipe it, that pushes it closer to the corporation winning.

Buy burncyle

38. Sonora

Sonora Box
Image Source: Pandasaurus Games
  • Published by Pandasaurus Games in 2020
  • Flick your disk and score in combo-tastic ways

This is a roll and write game where instead of rolling you are flicking disks around. That is a fun little twist on a standard roll and write. And then your sheet where you are filling things in, it’s combo city. You work in one area and you almost always are getting a bonus for another area. And as you get further into the game the more you can stack those bonuses and chain into more bonuses. Yes, this game has luck with the flicking and you might be knocked out of where you want to be, but it’s good chaos and combo fun.

Out Of Stock

37. Comic Hunters

Comic Hunters
Image Source: Spin Master and Arcane Wonders
  • Published by Spin Master ltd, Arcane Wonders, and Bucaneiros Jogos in 2020 and 2024
  • Can you build out the most interesting and influential comic collection

Comic Hunters is a unique game in that it gives you a number of things to do, but it manages to use so many different ways of drafting. That is one of the coolest parts of the game, along with the fact that it’s all Marvel comic covers and characters. But you score for collecting different characters, a lot of a character, first appearances, first issues, epic fights or even more. And it’s a good game to teach as well because you teach how you get comics into your collection and then when each draft comes up you teach it then and only then.

Buy Comic Hunters

36. Sushi Go Party!

Sushi Go Party
Image Source: Gamewright
  • Published by Gamewright in 2016
  • Draft the tastiest collection of sushi and other yummy foods to score points

Another drafting game, but Sushi Go Party just does standard drafting. And I like how it works in this one. The variety in the game isn’t from the drafting but how everything scores. Some things like dumplings want you to get as many as you can, or then there is tofu where you want two, no more. And in Sushi Go Party you can really change up the different combinations of foods so that the drafting experience is different each round.

Buy Sushi Go Party!

35. Trek 12: Himalaya

Trek 12
Image Source: Pandasaurus Games
  • Published by Pandasaurus in 2020
  • Climb mountains as you create sets and runs of numbers in different ways

This game might feel like a pretty standard roll and write game. The idea of creating a set or a run based off of what is rolled, that isn’t that odd. But how you get to your numbers is where the fun puzzle of the game comes in. You might add the numbers together on both dice, you might pick the lower number, etc. But you only pick each of those ways to get the number a limited number of times. So you need to be smart how you manipulate the dice and build out your mountain.

Buy Trek 12.

34. Marvel Zombies: A Zombicide Game

Marvel Zombies
Image Source: CMON
  • Published by CMON in 2023
  • Fight as zombies and take a bite of Marvels biggest heroes.

Based on a comic run, Marvel Zombies has you play as the zombie heroes who have been turned. You try and complete objectives before SHIELD and the other heroes can take you out. Or you can flip the table and play as heroes against zombies, the choice is yours. This is another great beer and pretzels game. You ride that edge of trying to push your hunger up so you can roll more dice, but not get too hungry so that you become a mindless zombie for a little bit just caring about getting brains.

Buy Marvel Zombies.

33. The Isle of Cats: Explore and Draw

Isle of Cats Explore and Draw
Image Source: City of Games
  • Published by City of Games in 2022
  • Can you rescue the most cats and score the most points in this roll and write style game?

This is the better version of Isle of Cats. I enjoy Isle of Cats and I know there is a duel version coming out which might make it better again. But the Explore and draw version is just so much fun. I especially enjoy the method in which you fill out your boat. There are columns of cards, some with more cats and some with more scoring objectives. You decide which column to use, but if you take too many cats, sure you get some points, but you miss on the scoring bonuses. If you just grab scoring, well, not enough cats and you won’t score enough points. It’s an easy roll and write to learn with fun complexity.

Buy The Isle of Cats Explore and Draw

32. Sleeping Gods

Sleeping Gods
Image Source: Red Raven Games
  • Published by Red Raven Games in 2021
  • Explore a mysterious new lands, find totems and try and wake the gods.

This is an amazing sandbox game of exploring a huge world, finding out the mysteries of the world, all while trying to find totems and get back to your own world. I love how this game gives you a whole crew to play with, but each crew member is part of the ship moving around. So there are unique things people can do, but you decide and build out so much of that. And the artwork and story are just great for this game. I want to play the sequel and the small version soon as well.

Sleeping Gods is sold out, but you can get Sleeping Gods: Distant Skies here.

31. The Great Split

The Great Split
Image Source: Horrible Guild
  • Published by Horrible Guild in 2022
  • Divide up riches and try and end the game with the best collection

I Split – You Choose is a mechanism I didn’t know that I’d love so much as I do. And The Great Split is just an I Split – You Choose game. You get a hand of cards that have different things like books, artwork, money, and you need to decide how to split them up. You split them into two and then you pass it to the person on your left. They pick one of the two sides and you get the other. You do the same thing with the cards you just got passed. Then you just collect, try and get contracts, and push up the tracks the best that you can. It’s a simple but very fun.

Buy The Great Split.

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 for another six weeks. After that expect this to be when I play my small games. Only 5 more weeks left of my Top 100 Games, then likely this will switch to smaller solo games and video games.
  • 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.

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. And let me know what games in this list are your favorite or that you want to try.

Send an Email
Message me on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here
Support us on Patreon here

The post Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition 40 through 31 first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
https://nerdologists.com/2024/11/top-100-games-of-all-time-2024-edition-40-through-31/feed/ 3
Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition – 30 through 21 https://nerdologists.com/2023/11/top-100-games-of-all-time-2023-edition-30-through-21/ https://nerdologists.com/2023/11/top-100-games-of-all-time-2023-edition-30-through-21/#comments Thu, 30 Nov 2023 15:05:14 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=8546 Which games make it into my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition. We're on games 30 through 21, so getting close to the top ones.

The post Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition – 30 through 21 first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
After a week off for Thanksgiving, it’s time to get back to my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition. Which games will make it into my 30 through 21? I’ll give a bit of a spoiler there are two, maybe three, new games, I forget if one snuck in just under the wire last year. I think that it just missed, so three new games in my 30 through 21 to find out what they are.

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

100 through 91
90 through 81
80 through 71
70 through 61
60 through 51
50 through 41
40 through 31

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition – 30 through 21

30. Icecool

I love my dexterity games, so a number have made it on the list. This is my highest pure dexterity game, though, there is dexterity in another game coming up. But Icecool is just about flicking your penguins around a board trying to get fish. Or you’re a hall monitor penguin who is trying to catch the penguins who are skipping class for a fish snack.

This game has a cute them, but I like how simple the game is as well. It is easy for anyone to play from adults to kids and everyone can do about as well. I might plan my shots more as an adult, but will that work better than the kid who just goes on instinct, who knows. Though, that is a nice element of the game as well, Icecool is not just a brainless flicking game. You can plan shows, figure angles and hope it goes your way. It won’t fairly often, but when you pull of an amazing shot, it feels great.

Buy Icecool

29. Lands of Galzyr

We’re moving into a bigger game and a story driven game. You’re going to see a number of those as we move up higher on the list. Lands of Galzyr, though, is not a campaign game, it is more of a relaxed story game to play. The game is simple, and you don’t play through a connected story. I am actually hoping for some story modules you can mix in, as an expansion, to create more of that connected narrative.

In Lands of Galzyr, you are an animal and you’re going off adventuring. To do that, you grab quests from towns and head out to their locations. With it you are doing daily events, if you don’t do a quest, and rolling dice for checks. The game is simple that way in what dice it gives you, and I really like that about it. I see what I can do and I do it. Plus there are key words that give you bonuses which I like. It lets you feel like you’re doing something special while at the same time not making the game too complicated.

My one downside, besides that connection of story, is that you can play it in a series. I did so on Malts and Meeples. You can see the first video below. But sometimes you stop with a quest in hand that you really want to continue. And that quest can carry over to the next game, but if you decide to stop there and reset, well, it’ll be open ended. But, their timer system does keep the game from just going on and on until you want to stop.

Buy Lands of Galzyr

28. Paper Dungeons

Paper Dungeons is another game that I played on Malts and Meeples. I’ll add the video in below for you to watch as well. But this is a roll and write game with a lot going on. And it is a roll and write game that tries to do more than just be about the numbers on the dice. It is about going into dungeons, fighting monsters, getting treasures, leveling up, crafting items, a ton of different things.

And each time that you play it you can focus in on a different area. You might want to go after the big boss because that’s a good number of points. But that means that you’re probably spending more time leveling up your adventuring party and traveling through the dungeon. You won’t be spending as much time getting gems and crafting items. It is a balance that I really enjoy in the game.

Now, it isn’t a perfect game either. Mainly, there is a campaign to this game, but there really isn’t a campaign to this game. It just gives you a number of scenarios with a little story between them that doesn’t matter or make that much sense. And there is no carryover, so you just play the same game multiple times. The upside is that where the boss monsters go in these different scenarios does change up how you may want to attack things and what items you want to craft.

Buy Paper Dungeons

27. Arkham Horror: The Card Game

And now another narrative game, technically three in a row, though, Paper Dungeons is pretty light in that area. Arkham Horror: The Card Game is going to lean back into that campaign more heavily and offer a lot of different story and variety.

Fantasy Flight has a great game on their hand, which is played out by how long the game has been going. And it works because they are smart about how they use their cards. They create unique investigators with fun mechanics that are only for them. And the different scenarios use cards to create locations, missions and monsters in different ways. It is something that they really did a great job of building out.

The game is a game where you need to explore, gain clues, and fight monsters. Sometimes some of those matter more than others, and that is some of the fun of the game. You need to figure out how your character, who might be a fighter, can support. And how you use your cards matters a lot. If I play a card, that costs resources and that card is for it’s ability. But when I do a check, I can also discard cards with symbols of the type i need on them to make it more likely I succeed on the challenge. I like the tension of when to hold back a card or when you need to play it.

Buy Arkham Horror: The Card Game

26. Ohanami

Now we’re onto a much smaller game. Ohanami is a little card game where you draft cards and add them to columns keeping it in numerical order. That doesn’t seem like much, but it works for a very fun game because of how you need to play cards and how you score them. And I like the game at all player counts, that can’t be said for all the games on this list. But Ohanami is good at all of them, though the game does change.

There are a few things that work for me with Ohanami. Mainly how you draft, you pick cards and you need to add them to the top or bottom of your three columns. You can split them up, but if you don’t plan it right you’re going to create some big gaps in your numbers. So that’s an interesting challenge to the game.

But also the scoring is fun. The colors, there are four score different. Blue scores points all three rounds but fewer, and green scores only in rounds two and three but it scores more points and grey in only round three but is the most points. It’s a fun system. And then pink is going to give you more points the more of them you have, but it builds up so if you have two it’s only three points but three is six and so on.

Sold Out

25. The Isle of Cats: Explore and Draw

This game was kind of on the list last year. I forgot to separate it from The Isle of Cats so it was low on the list, but I prefer The Isle of Cats: Explore and Draw, at least until I can play Isle of Cats more. But the Explore and Draw, roll and write, version of The Isle of Cats is just easier to get to the table and simpler to play. That does mean that you are a bit more limited in strategy, but that negative is outweighed by the positives in my opinion.

In this game you are trying to rescue cats. To do that you need to fill in cats on your boat, and families (groups) of cats are going to give you points. But you can also get points for completing objectives, as long as you’ve gotten that objective checked off on your bonus scoring board. So it’s a balance of do you take cats, because you need them, or do you grab that bonus scoring.

And how you pick what to take is great as well. It is done in a four column by three row grid. And you pick one of those columns to activate. Everyone picks one of them in fact. And the one you activate, you use all three cards. So if you want to get that bonus scoring, you are picking a row with that in there. There are a few bonuses you can use to break those rules, but it’s a limited number and you can’t use them all, so when you use them is an interesting strategy to maybe grab an extra card for a bonus scoring or cat.

Buy Isle of Cats Explore and Draw

24. Metal Gear Solid

Now the one game on the list that is a bit of a cheat. I maybe should have taken it off, but I did play it a few times at CMON Expo is basically the final form. But Metal Gear Solid left a great impression on me, and I want to put it on the list. This is a game based off of the video game, so it’s not just a shoot the bad guys game, which is a lot of what CMON kind of does, but it’s a game of stealth as well because you’re not really equipped for all the bad guys to shoot you back.

The theme works well in this game and I do love a good game with theme. But the mechanisms of the game are some of my favorite. What I do on my turn is simple, I have action points that I spend on movement, attacking, interacting, whatever I need to do. Once I use my four action points my turn is done and there aren’t so many actions or special things that it’s hard to keep track of.

And the other thing that I really like is how they created the enemy AI. It’s again a pretty simple system that you go down and check a few things which tells you how the enemy moves. But there are special rules for if you made noise, so they think someone might be there, or if they can see you. If you made noise one of them will come and check on that noise. The others patrol like normal, if they can see you, they call run to you, so you better hope that you can shake them before they start blasting.

Retail May 2024

23. Clank! In! Space!

Now a game, like Icecool, that was in my Top 10 at one point and has now dropped a bit. 23 is still really good for Clank! In! Space! because I’ve played a good number of different games. But this is a deck building push your luck game and I really enjoy it. In fact, I enjoy both versions of Clank! that I’ve played, this and regular Clank! and I need to try Clank! Catacombs and Clank! Legacy as well.

Your goal is to get into the vault of the spaceship, grab a treasure and get back out. Of course, if everyone does that, how do you decide who wins. Well, on the cards you add to your deck there can be points. And the treasure or artifact that you’re grabbing, they give you points. The artifacts at the edge of the area, well, they give you a few points, but the ones further in, they are worth a lot more. Is it worth it to push further in?

And then there is the clank mechanic itself. Some of the cards that you play down are noisy. And those create clank which is basically health of yours in cubes. Those cubes go into a bag with Lord Eradikus’s cubes (it’s his ship you’re on) and when you cubes are drawn out it fills up your health meter. So just be careful, well, sometimes you don’t have a choice. And a lot of the time, it’s worth buying cards with clank because they are stronger/better than most.

Buy Clank! In! Space!

22. Marvel Zombies

Now another game that I got to experience first at CMON Expo, I now have all my stuff for it as well. I think it’s 10-12 boxes of Marvel Zombies. This is a Zombicide game, but you don’t have to play as the heroes fighting against the zombies. In fact, the core box has you playing as superheroes who have been turn into zombies fighting against SHIELD agents, heroes, and gobbling up the brains of bystanders like J Jonah Jameson and Okoye.

This is definitely a dudes on a map dice chucking beer and pretzels style of game. But that is what makes it fun. You get to be a zombie superhero who is trying to complete your goals but sometimes you need to eat some brains as well. And each turn your hunger increases. Hunger isn’t the end of the world though, it might mean that you need to eat brains sooner, but it also means that when you’re doing attacks they hit for more because you’re rolling more dice.

Marvel Zombies isn’t going to be a game for everyone, but for me, I like the plug and play nature of the game and how you can pick different zombie heroes to play as or to play as heroes. Or you can pick random heroes to be the bigger bad guys you need to face in the game. Overall just a fun time.

Buy Marvel Zombies

21. Sonora

Finally a game that is half dexterity but I’d say is really a roll and write game. The dexterity element is that you’re flicking discs onto a board. And where they land on that board and the number on your disc determines what part of the roll and write area that you fill in, your own personal board, you’re going to work on, and how much you can do.

Each area plays differently, and there are four. One of them is about racing to fill in large areas first. Another you’re circling cacti as you fill in Tetris shapes. Another has you going down paths and where you end is the points or power that you get. And the last one is about closing off areas for points and again more cacti, the whole thing has a desert theme for no real reason.

That roll and write area is great, in my opinion, because everything chains into each other. As you work in one area you’ll probably get a bonus, or maybe two, for other areas, and you then might get a bonus in those. And I just like how all of that goes together and sometimes it’ll take four minutes just to fill in everything on a turn because you can combo so much. It’s rare, but it is possible, so if you like combos, Sonora is a great roll and write style game.

Buy Sonora

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 20 through 11, almost to the Top 10. 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 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 or For Northwood, 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.

Send an Email
Message me on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here
Support us on Patreon here

The post Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition – 30 through 21 first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
https://nerdologists.com/2023/11/top-100-games-of-all-time-2023-edition-30-through-21/feed/ 1
Top 100 Games 2022 Edition – 90-81 https://nerdologists.com/2022/09/top-100-games-2022-edition-90-81/ https://nerdologists.com/2022/09/top-100-games-2022-edition-90-81/#comments Tue, 27 Sep 2022 16:51:04 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=7415 We're onto the next group of the Top 100 Games (of all time) 2022 Edition. What makes it onto the list in the 90 to 81 range?

The post Top 100 Games 2022 Edition – 90-81 first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
It’s back for some more with the next 10 of my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2022 Edition. This week it was 90 through 81. There are four new games onto the list and a few that have dropped some. To checkout the video over on Malts and Meeples, and let me know which game you want to play the most?

Checkout 100 through 91 first here.

Top 100 Games 2022 Edition 90-81

90 – The Crew: Mission Deep Sea

I really enjoy trick taking games, though not a ton of them make the top of my list. The Crew: Mission Deep Sea makes the list for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it is a cooperative trick taking game. So everyone works together to complete certain objectives. That is fun, but it is also fun because I can play the same scenario over again and I’ll have different objectives. That’s something that made me like it better than The Crew: Quest for Planet Nine which was fixed.

Buy on Cool Stuff Inc

89 – Too Many Bones: Undertow

Too Many Bones Unbreakable
Image Source; Chip Theory Games

Too Many Bones, a bit game from Chip Theory Games, is one that I think will move up higher as I get more characters and get it to the table more. I like it every time I play, but it’s a beast and I need to relearn the rules. But Too Many Bones is generally a tactical fighting game where you level up characters as you go. Eventually you face off against a big boss. What you level up are stats but then also unlock new dice and abilities to use. And then I like that fact that the characters aren’t normal. The Gearlocs aren’t cute, but what they do is different than a lot of standard fantasy games.

Buy on Chip Theory Games

88 – Downforce

Downforce
Image Source: Restoration Games

Downforce is an interesting light and quick betting game. In this game you buy a car, race that car, and then get your points, or money, for who you place a bet on, where they finish, and where you vehicle finishes. There is one thing, there are more, but one in particular, that is so clever though. As the cars race along, that is done by people playing down cards. The cards have a list of car colors and how far they move. If you plan it well you can get a car trapped and slow it down, which offers more strategy than you’d expect from the game.

Buy on Miniature Market

87 – Fruit Picking

Fruit Picking
Image Source: Korea Board Games

Another one that has been on the list before and another lighter game like Downforce that way. But otherwise it is more like Mancala with set collection. You move seeds around, figuring out how to land on spots where you can either get a lot more seeds or you can buy different fruit. All you are trying to do is figure out that puzzle as quickly as possible. And of course, to land in the right spot to get those fruit and collect your sets.

Buy on Amazon

86 – Atlantis Rising

Atlantis Rising
Image Source: Elf Creek Games

Atlantis Rising is new to the list, and a very good cooperative game. As I say in the video, it’s almost an introductory or welcoming cooperative game. In this game you are trying not to keep Atlantis afloat, but as it sinks, get off the island by making technology and end up in another realm. What I like is how the board shrinks as you play, parts sink and you lose some of the better options for going out. Of course, if you want to more likely get what you need, you go out to the end of an peninsula, but there is also a great chance it’ll sink and you get nothing.

Buy on Miniature Market

85 – Flamecraft

Flamecraft
Image Source: Cardboard Alchemy

Flamecraft is one of the prettiest games out there with all the cute dragons. But it’s a fun light game to play as well. It is a very good welcoming game because of the artwork, but because there isn’t too much going on as well. You are either adding dragons to shops to get resources on your turn, and use powers of the dragons or shop. Or you are completing goals and gaining points. It’s such a friendly game that is a lot of fun to play and look at.

Pre-Order on Miniature Market

84 – Arkham Horror: The Card Game

Arkham Horror LCG
Image Source: Fantasy Flight

Arkham Horror: The Card Game has fallen for me a lot. Mainly because I just don’t play it or have someone to play it with consistently. For me, it is a fine solo game, but I like it better multiplayer. In this game you are an investigator looking into some strange mystery, probably dealing with an elder god or some great old one. Of course, that means weird things can happen, and Fantasy Flight Games has done a great job of putting something together that uses the cards to create really unique experiences.

Buy on Miniature Market

83 – Village Rails

Village Rails
Image Source: Osprey Games

Village Rails replaces Village Green for me on the list. So another new game. It is still laying out things in a 3×3 grid, but now you’re trying to connect routes and score points that way. Plus playing out train engines to get even more scoring opportunities. What I like about it though is that the route building is a bit simpler to grasp than how the greens work. It’s a solid filler style game, I’d say, where it offers good decisions but not that long a game play time.

Not Out Yet

82 – Isle of Cats

Isle of Cats
Image Source: The City of Games

The Isle of Cats from City of Games, is a great big polyomino game where you are rescuing cats. The same for the Explore and Draw which I’d maybe rate higher but hadn’t rated yet by the time I did my list. In both you are filling up a boat with cats, trying to get families – colors of cats- next to each other on the boat. And then there are objective cards as well that you can draft and give you more end of the game scoring. There is a lot to the game but it’s a fun one to play both versions of it.

Buy on Cool Stuff Inc

81 – The Lost Expedition

The Lost Expedition Box
Image Source: Board Game Geek

The Lost Expedition is another one that has been on my list for a long time and has dropped some lately. Mainly because it got played a lot and there is less to see. But I still enjoy The Lost Expedition a lot. Mainly because it’s a cooperative game that is hard or even impossible for one player to really run for everyone. You’re trying to find the lost city of Z and explore along different paths every day. When making that path, each person needs to make the decision themselves and can’t discuss with other players. Eventually you make it, or often times you run out of food and your guides all perish.

Buy on Miniature Market

Upcoming Streams

Next Monday the Top 100 Games 2022 Edition continues. You can find the video below for that one. If you want to join live, it’ll be at 8:30 PM Central on Monday. Only week where it might not happen at that time is October 31st as it’s Halloween.

Then on Wednesday, it is time for more Stars of Akarios. This is assuming my internet is back by then. If not, I’ll tweet it out. But you can find that link here. The following week I will be out of town so no Stars of Akarios. But hopefully you are still having fun, and most likely there is a fair amount to catch up on after seven games.

Send an Email
Message me on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here
Support us on Patreon here

The post Top 100 Games 2022 Edition – 90-81 first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
https://nerdologists.com/2022/09/top-100-games-2022-edition-90-81/feed/ 9
Isle of Cats Explore & Draw – Game Play https://nerdologists.com/2022/09/isle-of-cats-explore-draw-game-play/ https://nerdologists.com/2022/09/isle-of-cats-explore-draw-game-play/#respond Tue, 06 Sep 2022 14:39:31 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=7332 It's time to rescue as many cats as we can in The Isle of Cats Explore & Draw game from City of Games. Join me on YouTube and Malts And Meeples.

The post Isle of Cats Explore & Draw – Game Play first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
Excuse the technology hiccups. But last night, I got another game off of my shelf for the first time. Isle of Cats Explore & Draw. The roll and write version of the Isle of Cats big box game. Where it keeps much of it the same but makes the game faster to play, but does it lose too much in the way of strategy? Join me at the table and find out.

The Game – The Isle of Cats Explore & Draw

Like I said at the top, the Explore & Draw is very similar to the base game. You are still trying to rescue all of the cats and get them aboard your ship and lounging in ways to create groups of colors. Plus there are lesson or objective cards that offer other ways to score points here as well.

In regular Isle of Cats the game is split into two parts. There is the drafting of cards and keeping them so that you can use them to gather cats or play lesson cards. And then there is the gathering of cats phase where you put them onto your ship. The explore and draw keeps all of that but condenses it. You create 4 columns of 3 cards each. And those might be cat cards, the first column is all cat cards, or the 4th column has two lesson cards.

Everyone at the same time is picking a column to use to fill in on your boat. In solo you don’t really get to see what, but I didn’t quite play it right. In terms of the solo game play. If it were multiplayer things would change up pretty quickly between players. But it won’t slow down because of everyone going at once.

Initial Impressions

I like the game, I think that it is a nice fast roll and write game to play. I think I could teach it and play it with people in about 45 minutes for the first time. Then after that it’d go even faster. The game has some decision space but not too much. And certain things that it does, making you connect everything for example, means that you are limited in where you can build.

I want to play it and The Isle of Cats more just to see which one I like better. I do think that they hit different spots in my collection, though. When I want the feel of Isle of Cats but faster, Explore and Draw is going to be the way to go. But regular Isle of Cats offers more variety and more depth of strategy.

Upcoming Streams

Wednesday I am continuing with Game 5 of Stars of Akarios. This, I believe, is going to be the last session in the prologue. What adventure awaits us back in space. We’ve braved a planet, done space exploration and now will we be able to get away, regroup and figure out what is going on?

And then on Monday, not sure what I’m going to be streaming. Possibly Long Shot: The Dice Game. Or if I have time to learn Welcome to Dino World or Dinosaur Island Rawr ‘n Write those could be on the list as well. Or looking I have a few other solo games to learn and play, Set a Watch, Ratcatcher, and Coffee Roaster all stand out to me. What sounds best to you?

Send an Email
Message me on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here
Support us on Patreon here

The post Isle of Cats Explore & Draw – Game Play first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
https://nerdologists.com/2022/09/isle-of-cats-explore-draw-game-play/feed/ 0
What I’ve Backed on Crowdfunding Part 2 https://nerdologists.com/2022/05/what-ive-backed-on-crowdfunding-part-2/ https://nerdologists.com/2022/05/what-ive-backed-on-crowdfunding-part-2/#respond Tue, 17 May 2022 13:13:45 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=7004 What games have I backed on Crowdfunding, I finish off everything from Kickstarter and Gamefound last night.

The post What I’ve Backed on Crowdfunding Part 2 first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
My plan was to go through all my crowdfunding in one evening. But I started last Wednesday at 8 and two hours later, I wasn’t done. In fact, an hour and forty more minutes yesterday is what I needed to get through everything. Helps that there were no storms to go a bit faster. But join me for the finale of going through all my crowdfunding games. Catch part one here.

The $1 Crowdfunding Pledge

Let’s talk about the $1 pledge level. Why do I pledge at that level sometimes, and how often do I get more?

So what is a $1 pledge? It is basically a cheap way to get the updates on a Kickstarter campaign. With Gamefound you can follow along if you subscribe to it. But Kickstarter, is is $1 and often times it gives you access to the pledge manager as well.

The nice thing about a $1 pledge is that you don’t need all the money at once. If both Final Girl and Marvel Zombies run at the same time – they did – then you don’t need to give both of them a couple hundred dollars right at the same time. You back $1 now you can get one now and save up for the other one later.

But how often do I back for $1, once in a while, and I’d say maybe 2 out of the 6-7 that I did that with, I ended up adding in the pledge manager. One, for sure, that I did was The Witcher: Old World. And I believe there was another that I added. I don’t care enough, most of the time, to do $1 and get the updates.

The Drink

A Negroni again. It’s such a good drink, again a warm day and one that is nice to have on a day like that. But a good drink to have stuff around for. It is really one that I like to sip while grilling as well. On a hot summer day it is refreshing and with some ice in there, it doesn’t feel water down when the ice melts.

Upcoming Streams

Tomorrow I’ll be streaming, I think my plan is more Paper Dungeons. So join for some fun to play along. I’m still working my way through that campaign.

I talked about this on the stream, and maybe I’ll talk about it more tomorrow. But I am getting a gaming table with a topper. That will allow for me to leave a bigger campaign game set-up on the lower level and put the top on when I want to play something else. So once that comes, I am going to be getting back to streaming a larger game.

Send an Email.
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.

The post What I’ve Backed on Crowdfunding Part 2 first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
https://nerdologists.com/2022/05/what-ive-backed-on-crowdfunding-part-2/feed/ 0
Ranking My Drafting Games https://nerdologists.com/2022/02/ranking-my-drafting-games/ https://nerdologists.com/2022/02/ranking-my-drafting-games/#respond Wed, 02 Feb 2022 15:18:51 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=6630 I like drafting games though I haven't played as many as other mechanics of games. But drafting offers a lot for a lot of different games.

The post Ranking My Drafting Games first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
This list is a bit shorter than my solo games, which you can see here. But Drafting Games is an area of gaming that I like a lot. I think that it offers great chance for trying different strategies every time. And I’m doing with anything where there is a set and those things from the set are picked up. There are some games where you might pick up one thing from a set, but that is tableau building, engine building, or hand management.

Ranking My Drafting Games

12. 7 Wonders

I know, this one is going to be very high on some people’s lists. And I get it, it’s a very solid drafting game and I like it a lot. But it doesn’t work great at two, and I have played it at that number a few times. I know, I need to play 7 Wonders Duel. For me, this game is a great pure drafting game, the theme doesn’t intrigue me that much, and often I want more going on.

11. Cat Cafe

This is another one that is just good, but it’s not a bad roll and write. In Cat Cafe, you draft dice to determine what you do. It’s a simple part of the game where you use the die you draft and one that is left at the end. It determines what cat feature you add as well as where on the cat trees you put them. It’s a nice little system and a cute game.

10. Magic: The Gathering

This one is tough for me to rank. Mainly because drafting in Magic: The Gathering, is a lot of fun, but I haven’t done it in ages. And I don’t plan to do it for a long time. It’s a good way to play some more relaxed magic, if you are playing with friends. I think that besides Commander, drafting or sealed are my favorite ways to play magic.

9. Truffle Shuffle

Truffle Shuffle is a board game that makes a good two player drafting game. It has the grid or layout for cards that you draft from, and you open up other cards. The game play is simple, take a card, and then you can put down a set of cards, kind of in poker hands. The poker hands give you points, plus there are some special power cards as well. If you want an easy game to play, Truffle Shuffle is a good drafting game.

Isle of Cats
Image Source: The City of Games

8. The Isle of Cats

The Isle Of Cats really focused on drafting in a great way. Yes, it is a game about putting out cats onto a boat to rescue them, but the drafting matters so much. You draft scoring missions, you draft cards that allow you to rescue cats, and other types of cards as well. And what I like is that as you draft cards, you need to pay for them. So you wont keep all of them. But which ones do you keep, because you also have to bribe the cats with fish. It’s a clever system.

7. Draftosaurus

And in Draftosaurus, you are drafting dinosaurs, probably the most unique thing to be drafting. Especially because we see dice, and we cards, but these are dino meeples. You basically are building out a dinosaur park putting dinosaurs in spots that will give you points. In a lot of ways this feels like a roll and write to me, but with dino meeples. The game plays really fast and easy and is a lot of fun.

6. Sushi Go Party!

I thought that Sushi Go Party might be higher when I started ranking, and it’s not that I don’t like the game as much anymore, but it’s more that there are a lot of fun drafting games. Sushi Go Party is adorable, and a lot of fun. The anthropomorphic sushi and other foods are cute. And I like how the drafting works. That you draft over rounds, but you score and reset at the end of each. Except for desert, and those only score at the end of the game.

Ohanami
Image Source: Pandsaurus Games

5. Ohanami

Slightly above Sushi Go Party! is Ohanami, another simple drafting game, but one that I love to pull out. The game is so easy to play. Ohanami has you drafting two cards and putting them into any of three columns. The trick is that the columns and cards added, always need to increase or decrease. It’s a really fun puzzle, not that hard a one, and I like how scoring works, in that scoring grows over time.

4. Roll Player

Now we have another die drafting game, but in Roll Player you are drafting dice in order to build out an RPG character. This is a theme that I really love. I don’t get to play D&D, but I’ve rolled up a lot of characters for fun in my time. I just get to run games. And Roll Player does a good job of simulating that and getting equipment and spells. It’s a cool idea that I want to play more of, and some good drafting.

3. Sagrada

But better die drafting for me is Sagrada. Sagrada is a little bit simpler but not too simple. You draft dice to build out a stained glass window. But you have specific scoring conditions that you are going for. And a hidden scoring condition. The game also scales well with some of the things that come in the 5-6 player expansion. So I like it can play that big a group.

2. Blood Rage

Blood Rage looks like a dudes on a map game. And there is that element to it, you are vying for control of areas to get increased prowess in combat, more action points, or to be able to put more dudes on the map. But the game shines when it comes to drafting. Drafting is how you determine your strategy. And it is how you become more unique as you go. You might focus on getting monsters. Or you might want to improve your troops or to let them die. A lot of great options and good decision making that comes from drafting.

Lords of Hellas
Image Source: Awaken Realms

1. Lords of Hellas

Finally, Lords of Hellas. The drafting in this game isn’t a huge part, but at the same time it is very impactful. You start out with a leader/hero power but otherwise you’re the same. Then as temples are built, you draft new powers. So being the one to build a temple gets you first pick, so there is a rush to get some of them built at times. And those abilities can really shape what you’re going to do, because they might make you better at defense, fighting monsters, or building more temples.

There are a lot of things that are cool in Lords of Hellas. And the drafting isn’t the biggest part. But it is a part that keeps the game feeling fresh. Everything feels powerful, and you kind of want to draft them all. But how can you draft what’s going to be best for you?

Final Thoughts

I really enjoy drafting in most games. Some of them like Ohanami, Sushi Go Party, and 7 Wonders mean that you’re all playing at once. That is one feature that I really like. Other times you go separately but then it creates tension for what is going to be left for you. And there’s probably one, maybe two things that you really want.

The downside to drafting can be that people hate draft. And I don’t think that hate drafting is bad, but if that’s all someone is doing, it can be an issue. Mainly because it can ruin the run of a game. But when drafting is done well, and people are trying to optimize their own score, it is great.

Send an Email.
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.

The post Ranking My Drafting Games first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
https://nerdologists.com/2022/02/ranking-my-drafting-games/feed/ 0
My Top 100 Board Games 2021 Edition – 60 through 51 https://nerdologists.com/2021/10/my-top-100-board-games-2021-edition-60-through-51/ https://nerdologists.com/2021/10/my-top-100-board-games-2021-edition-60-through-51/#comments Thu, 14 Oct 2021 14:27:45 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=6233 What board games round out the bottom of my Top 100 list? I streamed on Malts and Meeples numbers 60-51 last night.

The post My Top 100 Board Games 2021 Edition – 60 through 51 first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
It was another really fun stream as I talked about my next ten in my Top 100 Board Games (of all time) 2021 Edition. We’ve now completed the bottom half of the list. And every time I do one of these 10, I always say it, but I’m going to say it again, all of these are really good board games and a lot of fun to play, there are just fifty that I like better. And thank you everyone who has been hopping on the live streams.

If you are interested in catching these streams live. Every Wednesday at 8 PM Central time from now until the week before Thanksgiving I’ll be streaming. There is only one more scheduled right now but I’ll get the rest up shortly. You can click the notification bell to know when I go live on Malts and Meeples.

See the previous parts of the list below:

100 Through 91

90 Through 81

80 through 71

70 through 61

Top 100 Board Games – 60 through 51

60. Tiny Towns

Image Source: AEG

This game is a puzzle of optimizing what you have going on, on your board, so that you can build as many buildings as possible and score points. But it’s a fun puzzle because you are putting out resources based off of what everyone is picking out to use, not just what you want. And where you place every cube matters in order to optimize how you build. The game plays really fast and you’re always engaged.

Buy on Miniature Market

59. Arkham Horror: The Card Game

Arkham Horror LCG
Image Source: Fantasy Flight

This game floats up and down on the list every year. I think I’ve come to realize that while I really like the game and the stories it tells, I like it better as a two player game versus a solo game. There is something about working with someone else and making decisions as a group that just works better in this game for me. This is a deck construction game that takes you through stories and mysteries in Arkham and the surrounding areas in a really fun way.

Buy On Miniature Market

58. Zona: The Secret of Chernobyl

Zona The Secret of Chernobyl
Image Source: Board Game Geek

As we all know, Chernobyl was caused by magical artifacts that have changed and twisted the land. At least that’s more of the story in Zona: The Secret of Chernobyl. This is a competitive game where all of you are racing to find clues to get into the core of Chernobyl and find the treasure or artifact that really caused the calamity. I like that this game has a lot of adventure to it and also has you racing against the game itself. It feels similar but it’s own brand of fun.

Buy On Miniature Market

57. Village Attacks

Image Source: Grimlord Games

A tower defense game at it’s core, Village Attacks is a game where you’re the bad guys, the monsters from the stuff of legends really. And there are things going bump at your door and it’s the villagers who are trying to get in with their pitchforks and torches. I really like how simple this game kind of is to play, there’s enough going on as you level up your characters, but the base of the game is pretty easy to play. And it’s kind of fun being the bad guys, though, it is very straight forward tower defense.

Not Available

56. Fruit Picking

We go from a game with a dark theme to a game with a very light theme of Fruit Picking. This is basically a mancala style game where you are picking up things from one spot and dropping them off in locations as you go. It’s all about setting up turns that will get you enough seeds and end you in the right spot to buy the fruit you need. It’s really a set collection game as you try and get one of the winning groups of cards. Easy to play and a lot of fun.

Buy on the BGG Store

55. The Isle of Cats

Isle of Cats
Image Source: The City of Games

Another game that has a really cute theme, The Isle of Cats is a bit more complicated than you might think. It’s primarily a polyominal game where you are rescuing cats to your boat. But there is a drafting phase that is really well done that determines a lot of your plan. Especially since you don’t get to just keep your cards, you need to pay for them with fish, which is also the currency that you need for getting cats. So it gives a very nice tension in the game. I’ve only played it two players and I think it might be even better with more.

Buy on Miniature Market

54. Apocrypha Adventure Card Game

Apocrpyha Box One
Image Source: Board Game Geek

Apocrypha wasn’t on the list last year, at least from what I can tell, but this is a game that should be. It is what the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game is based off of, even though that one came out first. Apocrypha has a very rough rule book, but it’s still so much fun. It’s a world of spiritual warfare with monsters around every corner. I give a good example for the type of game it is in the video. There is a card called basket of razor blades that is is a picture of a basket of apples. That’s the type of game it is.

Buy on Amazon

53. Ascension Deckbuilding Game

Image Source: Board Game Geek

Ascension is my go to introductory deck building game. I know that a lot of people will like Dominion, but for me, Ascension is better. The big thing I really like is that it has a variable market. That means that you can’t plan out a strategy from the start of the game and stick to it. The card you need might be bought by someone else, or not show up at all. The game can take a bit with more players but it’s still a fun game that you can relax and play.

Buy On CoolStuffInc

52. Galaxy Trucker

Image Source: CGE

The last two games on the list are a bit less strategic. Galaxy Trucker is a chaotic good time as you are building up your spaceship in real time. Then you send it off flying to deal with asteroids, pirates, and get cargo to make the most money as you truck across the galaxy. Those things, however, are probably going to be blowing up parts of your ship as you go, so can you survive. The game plays over a few rounds and is a lot of fun.

Buy On Miniature Market

51. PitchCar

Pitch Car
Image Source: Ferti

And PitchCar is another chaotic light game. This one is all about flicking a disc, that is your car, around a big track that you can set-up however you want. I’ve made fast tracks where it is just some curves and nothing special. Other tracks go onto a second level and other tracks have a loop. It’s crazy, it’s chaotic and it’s so much fun. This is a good game for everyone, which is what I really love about it. And I really want to make a PitchCar league, get together once a month and play for the cup.

Buy On Eagle-Gryphon Games

The Next Ten

We’re hitting the top 50 next week. Streams are always at 8 PM on Wednesday evenings, central time. You can find the link to the next video here. You can also subscribe and click that notification bell to know when I am going live. Even when I’m not doing my Top 100, I’m playing solo games every Wednesday and I have been doing every other Monday but those have been on the backburner with this Top 100.

Also, let me know what you thought of the audio quality for this past stream. Did it sync up well, how was the background noise levels? I was using a new microphone so I want to know how that sounded to other people. I think that I have it dialed in pretty well but I want to keep improving the quality of what I do.

What’s your favorite in this group of 10, and which would you want to try that you haven’t?

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.

The post My Top 100 Board Games 2021 Edition – 60 through 51 first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
https://nerdologists.com/2021/10/my-top-100-board-games-2021-edition-60-through-51/feed/ 1
Beyond the Box Cover: Isle of Cats https://nerdologists.com/2021/06/beyond-the-box-cover-isle-of-cats/ https://nerdologists.com/2021/06/beyond-the-box-cover-isle-of-cats/#respond Thu, 10 Jun 2021 14:28:25 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=5746 How many cats can you rescue in Isle of Cats a drafting, polyomino, set collection and more game from The City of Games.

The post Beyond the Box Cover: Isle of Cats first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
Let’s dig into a game that I’ve only gotten to place once, so I don’t want to do a full review yet. But I do have some initial thoughts on the game. What worked well, what maybe didn’t work quite as well, and what I want to play around with in future games. Just to give a bit of an idea, Isle of Cats is a drafting game with polyomino placement and set collection. And I’m talking about it now because there is an expansion for it on Kickstarter.

What Didn’t I Like

So, I have one thing that I want to see how it works more consistently. When I played it was only at two players. I feel like two player play was just fine. Mainly because of the card drafting piece. When you draft, you pick two cards, pass your hand, pick two cards, pass your hand, pick two cards. That means you end up drafting 4 cards. You can manipulate a little bit what the other person gets but you don’t have much variety.

Playing two player I’d almost want to create a dummy hand of six cards or so. That would just make the drafting at two players feel more dynamic. Mainly I felt like I didn’t see enough cards. You are always going to end up being “stuck” with the last two cards. But if someone had a great hand or two great cards, you just don’t see quite enough. I think that with more players, this will be less of a problem.

Isle of Cats
Image Source: The City of Games

What I Liked

Drafting

Now, while I did complain about the card selection in the drafting, I do like the drafting quite well. And some of that is because of how it works. You draft eight total cards, but you don’t have to keep all eight of them. In fact, you likely won’t. So even if you are not getting ideal cards one round, you don’t have to keep them all and clutter up your hand. Mainly because you pay for those cards with fish, but you also need fish to entice cats into baskets to get them on your boat.

This creates a really nice tension. Do I potentially get less cats one turn because I want to keep more cards? Or do I have a lot of baskets available so I want to keep a lot of fish around to get a lot of cats in a round. It’s a meaningful choice that can really affect scoring in a lot of ways.

Scoring

And scoring itself, I feel like, is a lot of fun. Because this is kind of a point salad type of game. By point salad, I mean that basically anything you do gives you points. If you put down a global scoring card, probably you’re doing that because it gives you points. Private scoring, more points. Cats of a color next to each other, more points. Rare treasures, more points. Covering up rooms, more points. You can see, there are ton of different point options in there. So while the cards or cats might not line up perfectly with your strategy, you doing everything for points.

What I Want To Try

Firstly, I want to play this game with more people. I am curious to find out if the drafting might just be a little all over the place or if more people helps make the drafting feel more even. I keep on talking about this, it doesn’t ruin the game for me by any stretch of the imagination. There are enough other things to do that work well, but it is something that I wan to mess around with more.

I also feel like there are strategies that I want to try as well. I went fairly heavily into collecting cats. That scored me a fair number of points, but private objectives weren’t one thing that I did much. Again, I didn’t have that many come up for me to draft. How might that change strategy, or could I push even more for cats?

First Thoughts

This is a fun game, I oddly enough get some simple Blood Rage vibes from it. Not that it’s area control, but just that it’s a drafting game that has so much going on with it besides drafting. I think that it’ll end up in that rotation for when I want to play a heavier drafting game but don’t want to go all the way to Blood Rage, or maybe I don’t have the right group for Blood Rage. Isle of Cats is obviously a much cuter theme and going to be more enjoyable for more people.

But I am still backing more stuff on Kickstarter, getting more ships, and even a cool looking Isle of Cats roll and write. And if the game sounds interesting, maybe consider backing it as well. Normally I wouldn’t talk too much about a big box, but checkout that big box in the Kickstarter. It isn’t needed, but the set-up of the game can be a bit slow. The insert in the big box is supposed to help make getting it to the table faster, and I feel like that’ll be nice.

Do you like Isle of Cats?

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.

The post Beyond the Box Cover: Isle of Cats first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
https://nerdologists.com/2021/06/beyond-the-box-cover-isle-of-cats/feed/ 0
365 Days of Board Gaming – May Recap https://nerdologists.com/2021/06/365-days-of-board-gaming-may-recap/ https://nerdologists.com/2021/06/365-days-of-board-gaming-may-recap/#respond Fri, 04 Jun 2021 14:28:07 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=5735 There was a lot of board gaming in the month of May. Was I able to make up ground on my 365 plays in 365 days, and what was most played?

The post 365 Days of Board Gaming – May Recap first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
Alright, we’re back with our May recap and May was a really good month for gaming for a lot of reasons. The main one was that it was the return of in person gaming again. I’ve throughout the pandemic had one person I’ve gamed with in person fairly often. Basically my small bubble of board gaming. But now I can game with more as basically all my bubble is fully vaccinated at this point.

But beyond that, I got 34 plays in during the month of May, so I was able to cut down on that deficit a little bit for gaming. On my challenge, I am now 9 games behind pace with plans for gaming tomorrow evening and hopefully cutting into that some more. And that’s with a few days already this month without me playing games, though a few days with me playing games. Let’s get to the games.

Dice Throne – 5 Plays

Dice Throne, one I talk about all the time, but one that I know will never leave my collection. Really love all the characters and all the variety in it.

Tainted Grail – 4 Plays

Massive exploration story game. Getting close to the mid point of the game. Still loving it so much and there is so much story that we definitely haven’t gone to. We’ve branched down certain story paths, and I’m excited for that because that means I can play it again if I want.

PitchCar – 4 Plays

I have so much stuff for PitchCar now. And I am so excited to play this for game night in July. It is a silly fun time and one that I think will be even better with a bigger group. And now I have a loop to add to it which will be awesome.

Floor Plan – 3 Plays

A roll and write I’ve been wanting to try for a while. This one has you building a house, or a floor plan, and scoring points based off of certain criteria. It is pretty straight forward, but play is a lot of fun. Not that you could live in any of the places when they are done, but it’s still a good roll and write game.

A Gentle Rain – 3 Plays

Tiny solo game. I just played this on Malts and Meeples on Wednesday. You can find that posted over here. Simple game but it’s very chill and relaxing. It’s a good one to just kind of clear your mind with.

Tokyo Highway – 2 Plays

Another dexterity game, this one I always call a work of art. You are balancing things, but with the colors it just works so well. You can see one of the pictures I’ve taken here, it only kind of does it justice.

Image Source: Self

Potion Explosion – 2 Plays

I always say this game is like an app game. It really is true, you remove something, get colors to hit, remove those colors and get that whole cascade that makes some app games so fun. The game is simple and the gimmick is great for it.

Ascension – 2 Plays

A lot of people like Dominion, but Ascension is my preferred pure deckbuilder. It has you adding in cards, fighting monsters, but what I like about it is the variable market. The game just feels like it has more robust choices than Dominion, and better art.

Welcome To.. – 2 Plays

Image Source: Board Game Geek

Another roll and write, Welcome To… is one of my favorites in the genre. The game play is a ton of fun, and the choices are definitely deeper than a lot of roll and writes. It also works so well in large groups.

Point Salad – 2 Plays

Point Salad is a wonderful light filler game. I like how variable it can be as the cards come out and you pick how you are going to be scoring. Works well at low player counts and is solid at higher player counts. I think with two or three people it’s a great one to pull off the shelf.

Arkham Horror LCG – 1 Play

Another one that I played on Malts and Meeples.

Super fun game and one that I need to get back to playing more often. The game play is interesting and I actually just talked about a change that I really like for it in the news today. I like the deck construction aspect of it as well.

The Isle of Cats – 1 Play

The last of the four first time played games on the list to go along with A Gentle Rain, PitchCar and Floor Plan. The Isle of Cats is the most complex of all of them. This is a polyomino playing game which has your rescuing cats from an island. But you only have a limited amount of time and fish to lure the cats with. Game play is fun, I want to try it with more than two, but even at two was cool. Has a lot of cards and things I haven’t seen that I want to play around with. And currently an expansion is on Kickstarter for it.

Silver Amulet – 1 Play

One that I haven’t played this year, but really fun game. It basically is a hidden information game where you are trying to score the fewest points possible. It’s like a game that I grew up playing with a deck of cards, but adds in a whole lot more and a whole lot of fun. The expansions (all stand alone) are great as well.

Just One – 1 Play

Just One Game Box
Image Source: Board Game Geek

A favorite party game of mine. This one works well because of it’s simplicity and the fact it’s cooperative. You are trying to get the person who is it to guess one word by giving them one word clues. But you write down the clues in secret and any duplicate clues cancel and aren’t show. Really fun and works with a large number of players.

Sushi Go Party – 1 Play

Probably my favorite drafting game. I like how simple and fun Sushi Go Party! is. The game works well with non-gamers and gamers alike because of how cute it looks. Definitely the one I reach for to teach people have to draft.

Which of these games do you want to play?

Yearly Stats

So let’s check out the stats and see where I am at. I have 146 different plays of games this year. So that’s a lot, especially considering how hard it has been to do in person gaming. I have five games that I’ve played 10 or more times, and Tainted Grail is almost to 20. 10 games that I’ve played five or more times. And out of those 146 plays, I’ve played 38 different games.

As far as being on track, right now I need 219 plays in 210 days left. So I am slowly making up ground, and I hope that trend continues so that I’m nearly caught up by the end of the month.

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.

The post 365 Days of Board Gaming – May Recap first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
https://nerdologists.com/2021/06/365-days-of-board-gaming-may-recap/feed/ 0