100 through 91 here.

90 through 81 here.

80 through 71 here.

70 through 61 here.

60 through 51 here.

Top 100 Games 2022 Edition – 50-41

50. No Thanks!

No Thanks is a small box game with a lot of fun to it. I think that it is almost a small box classic at this point in time. In this game you try and get as few points as possible by saying “No thanks” to cards by putting tokens on them. But run out of tokens you can’t pass and you need to take whatever number comes your way. So it’s a balance of how many tokens, which are -1 point each, are worth it to take a higher number to avoid taking a really high number?

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49. Sagrada

Sagrada has been higher on my list before. I think it’s just dropped a little bit because I hadn’t played it in a while, but I’d also just played it a lot at the start. I still really like Sagrada and the dice drafting. It is also one of those games that I was talking about. It is a relaxing game for me to play. I like the puzzle of drafting and dice placement.

I really like the game as a teaching game as well. I can tailor the difficulty to of the game to different groups. There are expansions you can add in to ramp things up. Or you can up the difficulty with the scoring things you can add in or the tools that you can use. It means I use it often as more of a basic game to teach people and get to the table. I want to mix in more of the things soon.

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48. Ready Set Bet

Ready Set Bet is a game that I got to play and learn at Gen Con this year. Ready Set Bet! is a real time horse racing and betting game. And it just has infectious excitement around it as you play it. One person is calling out the the races while everyone else is trying to get their bets. There is a hectic nature to it, but because there is the excitement of how the horses are doing, I feel like compared to a lot of real time games, it is much less tense. And it’s just a game about how well you can do with getting your bets in.

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47. Arboretum

Another one of the really pretty games, Arboretum is not one of the nice games though. It’s a mean game of trying to get your trees in a row. What makes it so challenging is that you need to play out cards of tree types. But to score those trees you need to have the most, value wise, of those trees left.

So, you can hold trees, high value trees, in your hand to keep your opponents from scoring. That can block them from scoring, which is very much part of the game. You also then need to consider keeping enough in your hand of trees so you can score yourself. It is a very interesting and mean balancing act.

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46. Ohanami

Back to a more relaxing game, Ohanami is a game all about collecting different things like stones or plants to give you points. All of the artwork is beautiful in the game. Though, sometimes I don’t look at it that much, at least not until I play out my cards.

Ohanami is a card drafting game. You pick two cards to add to three columns. Those columns always need to be in numerical order. So you are picking cards that you can add while trying to make sure you can always add to them as you’ll draft 30 cards. What makes this one so strong is that you score different colors different rounds. So when you draft cards matters for scoring as well. It’s easy to learn and play but has fun strategy.

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45. Floriferous

Floriferous continues that beautiful game trend. And also the drafting trend that is in this section of games. Floriferous is open drafting where you can see all the cards you’ll be picking from. And all you’ll be picking from for several rounds of drafting.

Floriferous does two things that I think are fun. First you draft your scoring cards. It is like Point Salad in that way where you have a choice. You can draft cards to score with, or cards to help facilitate that scoring. But the bigger thing is that you draft cards from a column. And the higher on the column you take, the sooner you go in the next round. So there is strategy if sometimes taking a less ideal card one time to draft the perfect card the next time.

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44. Res Arcana

Res Arcana is another pretty game, but not in the same way, it is more cool fantasy artwork in the game. But Res Arcana is a very different type of game, it is a tight engine building game where you are racing to 10 points. Why is it so tight, because you have a limited number of cards, 8 that you start with, to build your engine. And while you can add a few, sometimes, you mainly are working with that limited number of cards. So who can get their engine of gathering resources and turning them into points going the fastest?

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43. Paint the Roses

Paint the Roses is another new one on the list that I first played at Gen Con. It is a cooperative deduction game. Players give clues by placing down flower tiles into the Queen of Hearts garden. The clues are to give direction so players can guess a color combination on a card, or color or shape, or color and shape combination. All the while the Queen of Hearts is coming to lop off our heads.

This game is very clever in what it does, and while I have yet to win, I really like the pressure it puts on. Each turn when you play down a tile, everyone has to come up with a guess for someone’s card. If you get it right, the queen advances slowly, if you get it wrong, she advances faster. And the further you get around the track, the faster she goes, no matter what. So can you fill it up, which will make her happy, or lose your head, which will make her happier?

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42. T.I.M.E Stories

T.I.M.E Stories has been on the list since the beginning. It is an escape room style game, but one that has more story. Now, I’ve heard that the overall story doesn’t pay off. But I really like every scenario that we’ve played through. And I think that’s one of things that’s so interesting about the game. Each scenario of TIME Stories can be really different.

In this game your consciousness is transported into the past, future, or some other dimension. And you are trying to keep the timeline in order. I would say this is a bit like that TVA in Loki. The goal is to get the timeline back to where it should be, but that isn’t always easy. The downside is, you don’t make it the first time, you go back through and do it again which can get tiresome.

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41. Twilight Inscription

Rounding out this section, we have another new game to the list. I got to learn and play Twilight Inscription at Gen Con as well. This is the roll and write version, kind of, of Twilight Imperium. It might not quite live up to that, but it is still a long and epic roll and write game.

I can’t really go through everything on it to explain how to play. More, know that there are four different boards. And on your turn, you pick one you want to activate. If you want to be good at war, well, you can activate that board. If you want to gather resources, or explore planets, there are boards for that. Do you need to do a bit of everything, probably, but you can pick what you want to focus on.

Buy on Miniature Market

Upcoming Streams

On Wednesday, I’m going to be unboxing Chronicles of Drunagor, and probably ISS Vanguard. So two big games, and with the unboxing of Chronicles of Drunagor, I am going to be picking out the two characters that I’m going to start my solo campaign with. Join me for that and help me pick out what characters I should start with.

Then next Monday I’ll not be continuing the Top 100 Games (of all time) 2022 Edition. Mainly because it’s Halloween. I foresee not having the time with taking a kid out for that and needing to do the podcast. Even without the podcast, it’ll be a busy evening, and I might want to watch a scary movie or show as well. But I’ll start up again the following week.

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Top 10 Games at Gen Con

10 – Dwellings of Eldervale

Dwellings of Eldervale has been on my shelf for a while. And I even own the fancy version with the monster bases that make noise and all the nice tokens for it. But I never got around to playing it. This is one of those games that I grabbed a spot so I could learn how to play the game versus because I was interested in the game. I knew I was already interested int.

And the game did not disappoint. I enjoy the worker placement in it. And I like how each person starts out a little bit differently with their plans. The game has a good amount going on to it. And you need to think about everything that you are doing. But it doesn’t feel overwhelming. I got through a decent chunk of a game, probably 4 rounds, but we still weren’t near the end of it. I want to get it to the table and play it again. And I want to try some of the other factions out there to see how they are.

9 – Twilight Inscription

I signed up for this event late. Learn how to play probably the biggest roll and write game out there. And set in the world and style of something like Twilight Imperium, it should be the biggest. It was a learning event, which I think is worth noting for this game. I suspect it will move higher the more I play it.

Twilight Inscription has you doing a bit of everything. And it has you mainly focused on your own board. It is interesting and I appreciate that there is a little interaction. It comes in the form of combat where you compare against the players next to you. But it also comes in the form of racing to the capitol planet and goals. So a few points of interaction that takes a mainly solitaire game and turns it into something more.

This roll and write won’t be for everyone. It is two hours and it is huge. But if you are looking for a hefty game, I think that Twilight Inscription could work for you.

8 – Village Rails

Village Rails, not really a follow-up to Village Green, but feels a bit like it. I think, after one play, I slightly prefer Village Rails. Village Green does an interesting thing where you need to think about rows and columns. With Village Rails you think about how you complete train routes. That is a bit simpler in what you are doing.

But the game isn’t too simple. You need to balance placing train tracks down to get routes that score well with placing down engines to score points. It gives you enough to think about without locking you in as much as Village Green does. I think that’s the big difference. Village Rails feels less restrictive in what you are doing.

7 – Long Shot: The Dice Game

Another roll and write game, but the last one on the list. And I do think that as I play Long Shot: The Dice Game, it could move higher on the list. Long Shot: The Dice Game is a horse racing and betting game. At the end of the game, you want to have the most money, pretty simple.

But how it works is interesting. You roll two dice and that determines which horse moves forward. But on each horse card, it can activate other horses to move them around the track as well. So while one horse could run away with it, you still are moving horses racing for 2nd and 3rd. And then you have the concessions stand where you can fill in. And there you can manipulate horses, pushing some further back or others further ahead. It works nicely and is simple to get a grasp of.

6 – Lost Ruins of Arnak

Another one, like Dwellings of Eldervale, I own this one. But I hadn’t gotten around to playing it. There is something about learning euro games without playing them that is a bit harder. Probably just means that as I learn I should mess around with the board. Because Lost Ruins of Arnak is not a hard game to learn, and it’s a game with great decisions in it and a lot of fun.

I like how Lost Ruins of Arnak blends a few things. You have your worker placement that’s about exploring, fighting monsters, but really about getting resources to move up a research track. Then you have your deck building. You want to get cards that help with resources and fun moves to let you get more points. Finally, you have that research track which you go up to get even more resources, but generally to help you in your exploration. And the adventure theme works well.

5 – Batman: Everybody Lies

It’s hard to rank Batman: Everybody Lies, especially only off of the prologue. I now have played case one as well, and that was fun as well. So it could move up, but also when I do my Top 100 you’ll never see it. This is basically Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game, with a few differences, and it’ll get lumped with that. But here, it gets it’s own spot.

Like I said, this is basically Detective. You still read cards, look up files and investigate everything that is going on. But with Batman: Everybody Lies, you are also having personal objectives that you need to think about. And information that you might find out as Catwoman that you need to decide if you share or not. I don’t find it that big a twist or one that you need to lean into. It’s a solid twist and the Batman theme works well in the system.

4 – First Rat

First Rat is the type of game that I wouldn’t try normally. See my comments about not learning Euro games easily. First Rat is a euro game where you are trying to build your rocket, score points and get rats to the cheese moon.

The game works better than that sounds, though. And that sounds very cute. So when I say the game works better, I mean it’s very good. Mainly because you have multiple of your rats climbing up this ladder or path. You can move one up further by itself, up to 5 spaces. Or you can move slower and move two rats, ending them on spots that are the same color to basically take both of those actions. There is more going on, but the game is that balance of simple actions but tough decisions when taking those actions.

3 – Oathsworn: Into the Deep Woods

Another one that I own. But I don’t blame myself for not getting this one to the table before. It came on the Tuesday before I left for Gen Con, so I had less than half a day with it around. And it is nice to learn a game from people who know it, granted, we only learned half of the game at Gen Con.

Oathsworn is a big adventure boss battling game. In Oathsworn you first do an investigation and story phase. Then once that is done, you dive into combat. This combat might be harder or easier depending on how you did in the previous part. I got to try out the combat and it is fun. I always talk about it, but being able to pick cards that remember that has been flipped before, or rolling dice, or a combination of both, makes the game feel different. I do wish I’d gotten the minis for the bosses now though.

2 – Ready Set Bet

Then we have Ready Set Bet. I actually suspect as I play more of these games most often, this one might drop. That isn’t to say that the game will get worse. But Ready Set Bet is easy to understand and get into right away when you play it. It is a real time racing game where one person is calling a horse race. They roll dice and move horses forward. Everyone else is betting in real time.

The fun of the game comes with the excitement of seeing how horses are doing. Trying to grab spots early that could pay out well, or maybe waiting longer and getting worse spots. Or when the long shots, the horses that move on a 2 and 3 or 11 and 12 start moving up and all of a sudden they are in the mix. I expect a good caller makes it more exciting but no matter what it should be a fun party game.

1 – Paint the Roses

Paint the Roses takes my top spot. This game is maybe harder to explain without the board than some of the more complex games. Basically it is a deduction game. Each person has their own card. The easy ones are all about color combos. The harder ones could be shapes or really hard ones shapes and colors combined.

On your turn you put down a tile from your four choices. You do so in a way to try and give the best clue possible about the card that you have. For example, if I had two red roses, I could put a red rose tile next to two other red rose tiles. I then put two cubes on it because I’ve made two matches that work for my card. And anyone else can put cubes on it as well if it works for their card. Then you guess, and you have to, about someone’s card and hopefully you can figure out the right answer.

Whatever you do the queen will move as she tries and catch you. And you better hope you get it right because that’ll move your forward at least keeping pace with her. If you get it wrong, she’s going to start catching you, and with an Alice in Wonderland theme, if she catches you, it’s off with your heads.

Final Thoughts

I think that the Top 10 do stand out. Through some of the ones that just missed, Meadow, Fit to Print, and Flamecraft, they could end up pushing into that list if I got to play a full game of them. Probably the closest to being the list that surprised me for missing it was Hero Realms as I got in a full game play. It again could move up, I want to play it more because it is such a simple game but I love deck building. And the fantasy theme works for me.

Overall, I played a lot of fun games. I think down through my 21 (which includes three games I’d already played), I’d happily play them again. Even my 22 is not bad, but I’d consider owning all the ones above it. The 22, Let’s Dig for Treasure, it one that I’d gladly play if someone plopped it on the table at a bar. But that’s where I see that game.

If you could play one of my Top 10 games, which one would it be?

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Games Played at Gen Con 2022

Lost Ruins of Arnak

There are a few games that I have had on my shelf where I need to play my copy. Lost Ruins of Arnak from CGE was one of those games. And I got to play two games of it at Gen Con, including one full game. Needless to say, and if you saw the video, I liked it. It is a good game with interesting worker placement, light deck building and a great theme. I was worried that it might be more worker placement than I want, and while everything is mechanical, the theme makes it fun.

Ready Set Bet

This is one that is new, not even out yet. Ready Set Bet is a real time horse racing and betting game. One person is the caller who rolls the dice and shouts out horses as they move forward. The other players, in real time, are putting down bets on horses and trying to make the most money. You can rotate who the caller is, but the game goes so fast, and it is a fun role, that when I played it one person called.

This is a great con game. Everyone is around the table getting excited and shouting or getting into it. And you almost need to stand around the table so you can toss in your bids. It’s clever and fun and plays fast. And I could see getting this one and playing it a few times in an evening and having a great time.

Jekyll vs Hyde

This one I played twice as well. Jekyll vs Hyde is a trick taking game but with a twist or two. Firstly, it’s two player with one person being Jekyll and the other Hyde. The person who is Jekyll wants to keep the number of tricks as even as possible. Win too many or lose too many and Hyde advances on the board to the monster side. The Hyde player wants to get that difference up to get across the board. It is a fun idea and feels different, plus who top suit is determined for a trick is interesting as well. Not a two player trick taking game I need, but one I’d gladly play.

First Rat

First Rat has a silly but great theme. The moon is obviously made of cheese and you are rats trying to build a rocket to get to the moon. It is an interesting game where you are pushing your rat meeples up a track. You can push one up fast, unlock more rats or you can go slower and try and combo getting resources to build your rocket.

What you do on your turn is simple. You move one rat up to 5 spaces, or two rats up to 3 spaces as long as they end on the same color. But just that is a great puzzle. Plus how you pick what you do and what you’re going for works really well. It is a game that I wouldn’t have tried if it weren’t for Gen Con.

Draftosaurus

A game I already know I love and I own everything for. This was later one of the days at the con. I wanted to play a game but most of the bigger ones were either shut down as they take too long or already in the swing of things. Draftosaurus was easy to just sit down and play. The game is so light, but still it’s a lot of fun to play.

NFL Five

One that I demoed and came home with because if you demoed you got a demo copy. This is basically a way to sell packs of football cards, and specific ones, for the game. I describe it was rock paper scissors but instead of there being a tie option, you just need to watch. So it’s a guessing game that you can mess around with a little bit. It’s very light and just fine, but it was free and it was open for demoing so why not give it a shot.

Catapult Feud

Another one I own, this was me wanting to set down my bag after I bought Burncycle. Catapult Feud is fun, it’s fun building the castles and launching balls to try and knock it over. The game is barely there, but the toy factor is so high, who even cares.

Fit to Print

This is one that I believe was on my too demo list. Fit to Print is about making your best front page for a newspaper and scoring points based off of that. It was fun, and interesting because of the real time aspect to it. You start out picking out tiles which are articles, pictures, and ads for your paper. Then when you’re ready you try and set-up your layout as fast as possible to score the most points.

The game is simple and fun, and the real time element that didn’t bother me. I think because the feeling wasn’t intense. I had three minutes to do everything. But I never felt like there is too much time pressure on it. Nor is it like Fuse where it is always counting down. It’s fast moving and light fun, but the real time doesn’t add stress.

Spicy

Spicy was a bit of a miss for me. This is a bluffing game where you put down cards of different spices and they need to go up in numerical order, though you can skip numbers, but always ascending. You need to call out when someone lays down a bluff. Playing with masks makes the game trickier. And at three it was just okay. For me, the concept of the game and what it pulled off was less interesting than a bluffing game like Skull.

Galaxy Trucker

Here’s another game with a real time element that I like. I wanted to demo the new version of it, which I did. And I don’t really feel the need to upgrade my copy. Nothing seemed to have changed too much, so might as well keep what I have. I enjoy Galaxy Trucker because again it’s a real time game or a game with real time elements, but one that doesn’t take itself too seriously. And then if you are lucky, you can build up your ship so it won’t blow up, if you are lucky.

Let’s Dig for Treasure

A push your luck game. This one is very simple, you pull cards until either an evil skeleton gets you or pull up two worm cards. But you can bank your points whenever you want. The artwork on the game is fun, and as the person who demoed it said, it’s a restaurant or bar game. One that’s small enough you can take it along and pull out and play easily. Not much thought or strategy to it, but it works well enough.

FYFE

This is a random game that I got to try because the table was open. It reminds me a bit of Village Green and Calico. You are putting down discs to complete different scoring objectives in rows and columns. But you need to think about rows and columns so that you can score as many things as possible. It gets tricky as you start to have limited options to fill in and now which thing do you think it’s more likely to be able to get and score. Not one I needed to add to my collection but not a bad game.

Knights of the Hound Table

This is a small game that I was tempted to pick up. Knights of the Hound Table is a head to head battler. You put down one hound as an attacker, one as your defender, and one for their power. Then you compare, take damage and buy cards to improve your deck of hounds. The artwork is cute on the game, the game play with picking which power to use is interesting. Better for a small box head to head game than I expected.

Village Rails

I mentioned Village Green, Village Rails is from the same company and it shows. You are making rail routes to score points. Keeping track of where the tracks are going is trickier than what is in Village Green. But you don’t have the column and row scoring in Village Rails. So it is slightly easier, I’d say, and just as fun. Plus the artwork on the cards is amazing and the game itself felt pretty relaxing. A small box game I’d want to add to my collection.

Coatl

Not a new game but Coatl is about building out your best Coatl to score points. The game play is fine, it is basically collect pieces then build out your Coatl. I wish that the game would move slightly faster than it does because of how light it is. The toy factor is fun, but that is not enough for me to really recommend this game. It is more going to be one of those fine gaming experience that I’d play again but wouldn’t seek out.

Flamecraft

Flamecraft was only there for demo, I was kind of hoping it’d be there for sale. But Flamecraft is a worker placement game with dragons. You are trying to collect resources to improve shops and end up with the favor in the end. How you play is simple, you either go to a place and collect resources or to fulfill a contract. What makes this game is the artwork. I wish I had backed it for that, and now that I’ve played it, at least a few rounds, I suspect I’ll add it because of how cute it is.

Starship Captains

A new game from CGE, I snuck my way into a game the first day. And I got to play the full game which is nice. It is an action selection game where you build up a little bit of an engine, fly around, and try and complete contracts and defeat space pirates. The game moves quite fast, I would say too fast, though that’s probably a good sign that it leaves you wanting to do more and to try again to do even more.

Meadow

Meadow is one that I knew I wanted to see because it’s pretty. But looking at it and watching the GloryHoundd play of it, I thought it likely wasn’t for me. You can watch their video below. But the game itself was fun to sit down and try. I’m still torn on it because it’s a very thinky and pretty game. I am worried that AP would set in too much if I picked it up. I even found myself having to think through what I was doing for a bit. It’s one I’d love to try again though.

Asking for Trobils

Another one that was played on the GloryHoundd Youtube channel. You can see that play below. A worker placement game that is very light but a good amount of fun. You are basically building up traps and things to get Trobils which are worth points. Two players was fine with the game, I feel like it’d do a bit better with more and with a tighter board where you bounce each other more.

Twilight Inscription

One of the big games I wanted to try out at Gen Con. This is a 2 hour roll and write game based in the world of Twilight Imperium. It delivers on what it promises. And I don’t think that the game is too difficult to follow. There is just a lot later in the game when you get a ton of resources to spend and figuring out how to do that in the most efficient way.

The game comes with four boards. So you activate one board each time, whether combat or exploration, or whatever else they might be. And you do need to do a bit of everything, but you can really focus in on how you want to score your points. A fun game that I want to add to my collection.

Dwellings of Eldervale

Another game that I own but I hadn’t played. Sitting down at Gen Con is a great way to learn a game that you don’t know or you want to know more about. Dwellings of Eldervale was a lot of fun to mess around with. The core game play is fun for it and I like that this is a worker placement game but it feels so much bigger than that. You can do a ton of big things and just have fun with it. And there is no trading in the Mediterranean.

Oathsworn: Into the Deep Woods

And yet another game that I own. Oathsworn just came in before I left for Gen Con. I was almost tempted to move it to the top of the queue but Stars of Akarios First. We didn’t do the city and story part of the game. I say city, it could be different map locations where the story is happening. But we got into the combat and that was fun.

What I really like is how you can push your luck. You can draw cards for hits and you can pick how many to draw. You can roll dice and pick how many to roll. The more you roll of the white dice the more damage you can do. But at the same time the closer you are to busting.

Hero Realms

Hero Realms is one that I played day one and bought day two. And I even got crushed when I played it. But I really enjoyed the lighter deck building of the game. And I thought that it worked well for what it is. Plus it’s a two player game and battler game that is easy to learn. And the deck building combos are not hard to understand. I picked up the cooperative expansion as well which will be fun to mess around with.

Batman: Everybody Lies

I actually got this to the table last night again. But I did a prologue for it at Gen Con at an event. I’ve written and talked about it twice before. See my Highlights here for more information. But this is basically the Detective system with Batman theme from Portal Games.

The biggest change to it is adding in hidden personal goals. It means you might advocate for something for your character that you might not otherwise think about. Or that you might suspect is a red herring because it’ll answer a question for your character. It still is not competitive and the main focus is on the main case. But because of that personal goal it makes it different to play via Zoom like I did last night.

Long Shot – The Dice Game

I almost forgot that this was at Gen Con. But I’m glad I didn’t. A horse racing roll and write game, Long Shot is a lot of fun. I even picked up a copy to bring home. In this game you roll dice and move horses forward around the track. At the same time you are putting bets on horses, filling in spots on your board, and trying to be the person who has the most money at the end of the game. The whole track and physical board element of the game makes it feel different and the game isn’t that complex.

Caesar’s Empire

This is another one of those sit down and play a game because I needed something to do. And Caesar’s Empire is a just fine game. You basically are building our routes to get to cities and score points. The two player game needs a slight rules clarification, possibly. But the whole idea is that you can build off of other people’s roads. Is it worth it to get some points if you are giving them more points. All you do is build onto routes each turn. The game is okay, not one that I’d recommend that highly.

Paint the Roses

Paint the Roses is a great deduction game. It is hard to explain, I feel, without the board but with the board it is easy to explain. The general idea is that you’re trying to get the garden perfect and not have the queen of hearts take off your head. But each of you have a hidden (or multiple throughout the game) things that the queen wants. It might be two red roses next to each other or a diamond and heart shaped topiary next to each other.

You place a tile on your turn and then everyone puts down their clue tokens if it matches. So if I have two red roses and I place down a red rose next to two others. I put down two cubes. Basically giving information that I have two matches. And everyone puts down their clues. Then you need to make a guess on someone’s card. If you get it right you move ahead and the queen of hearts moves ahead one. If not, she moves head faster. Really great puzzle that I want to play again now.

Mythic Mischief

Probably one of the hotter games of the con, I got to play Mythic Mischief in a two versus two game. I suspect I’d like it better as a one versus one game. I also suspect I’d like it better in the blitz mode where you only can take so much time to do your turn.

Mythic Mischief is an abstract game with some fun powers and cool characters. But it’s also a game that induces a ton of AP (analysis paralysis) and for me that knocked the game a lot. The game just isn’t heavy enough to make it worth the amount of time and thought. If I want something like that, I want a big game, not this lighter heavily produced game.

Final Thoughts

I did what I wanted to do, I played a ton of games. I believe that is maybe up to 29 plays and 27 games? But either way, it is a lot and I had so much fun with it. I do want to do a Top 10 list of all of those games, see which my top ones were. So expect to see that tomorrow most likely.

What were the top games that you got to see if you went to Gen Con? And in particular, which ones were the top you got to play or demo?

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124-101

100 – 76

75 – 51

Unplayed Board Games 50 – 26

50: Arboretum

This is an abstract game about planting trees. What interests me so much in this one is that you play out cards to build up your arboretum, and you score points for having trees go in ascending order. But in order to score a type of tree, you need it in your h and at the end of the game. So do you risk it that you might not get a tree of the type you need in order to complete a longer route and score more?

49: Call To Adventure: The Stormlight Archive

Call To Adventure comes in a few different flavors. There is the base game which is generic fantasy. That has an expansion for Patrick Rothfeuss Kingkiller Chronicles. And while I do like that series, I knew there was a Stormlight Archives version coming out, so I waited for it. I love the setting of the game, and I think a game where you are building up your characters story is cool.

48: 7 Wonders Duel

I got this one a while ago using store credit after a trade. And the game I think is going to be fun and probably better for me than 7 Wonders which I think is just okay. This does a lot of the same things, drafting, fighting, and science, but all in a two player package. And you can win by doing more than just getting points. Though, points are one way to win. Get one of each science card, you automatically win. Push the combat all the way to your side, automatically win. I like that a lot.

47: The Dragon Prince: Battlecharged

And now we’re back to another IP (intellectual property) that I really like. The Dragon Prince is a great show. And this is a two player battling game. You put together games of characters to face off against each other in battle. Looks some like Super Fantasy Brawl with card play determine a lot of what you do.

46: Paper Dungeons: A Dungeon Scrawler Game

It’s one of a couple roll and writes on this part of the list. Paper Dungeons as it says is a Dungeon Scrawler. So it is going to give you a bit of that dungeon crawling feeling all while being in a roll and write package. I hope that between it, Doodle Dungeons, Deadly Doodles (which I know I like) and Drawn to Adventure, I’ll have some fun adventure focused roll and writes.

45: Yggrasil Chronicles

This is a bigger box game, some of that though, is because it comes with a tree. One that you put together, and then it’s a cooperative game where you are trying to protect Yggdrasil, possibly, my knowledge of this one is limited. But the game looks like a lot of fun, and I know that the original is really challenging. Plus a giant 3d tree that rotates is cool.

44: Forgotten Waters

Forgotten Waters is a campaign game that I wish I played already. It’s gotten bumped down the list a little just because I’m playing more in person. But it was a good one that could be played via Zoom. In this game you are pirates on a crew working together through an adventure. There is voice acting for the story, and overall just seem like a fun time. And it uses the Crossroad card system from Dead of Winter that I love.

43: Mythic Battles: Pantheon

Definitely a big game here. I don’t have the whole Kickstarter, just the base game and Pandora’s box and that is a lot. It’s another one of those head to head battling games, like The Dragon Prince or Super Fantasy Brawl. This one is pitting Greek gods against each other. And what really intrigues me about this one is how you can pick up trees, as a god, and use them as a weapon. So the terrain is very much in play.

42: Catacombs & Castles

We go from an epic minis game to a one versus all dungeon battling game where you flick discs. And that is what intrigues me. I like dexterity games, and Catacombs & Castles seems like a lot of fun. It also seems a bit more complex, otherwise might be higher on the list. But I think if I learn the game it’ll be pretty easy and fast to teach.

41: Adventure Land

While I’ve gotten a lot of games based off of Sam Healey’s reviews on the Dice Tower, I have less based on Tom Vasel’s but Adventure Land is one. In this game you are taking out adventurers trying to get treasure. And they move across the board right and down. That means if a treasure shows up to the left or higher on the board, you might not be able to get it. So how to balance that out getting the best treasure, but still hanging back?

40: Space Base

This falls into that category of Foodies, Machi Koro, and My Farm Shop. A game where you roll dice and no matter what you get something. I like those games, and this is supposed to be the most gamer version of that. It gives you a lot to think about and you can build up some powerful combos while you try and get points. And you have more tracks to control and keep track of.

39: Chronicles of Crime

This is a deduction based game that I’m confident I’ll love. Chronicles of Crime, from Lucky Duck Games, uses an app that you can scan cards with to interrogate them and so you can actually look around the crime scene. The concept is cool and while the cases sound a bit less in depth than Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game, it might work better for some people because of that.

38: Fleet: The Dice Game

Roll and write game and actually dropped further down the list than I’d have guessed. Fleet is a game about building up your fishing fleet and scoring as many points as you can. I’ve heard that it’s great for combos, which I love in roll and write games. And it’s also more complex. I think that it is going I’m going to play solo pretty often.

37: Raiders of the North Sea

Possibly the highest true euro game on the list, Raiders of the North Sea has you building up your crew and taking them out to plunder lands. What intrigues me so much about this one is that your turn you put a meeple on, and take a meeple off. You can’t do the same one twice in a row, so it gives some interesting strategy to the game. And as you push out further and plunder, you lock some meeples to those locations, but get stronger ones back.

36: Horizon Zero Dawn

Based off of the Playstation video game, Horizon Zero Down doesn’t take you through the story of the game, but it puts you out on hunts against monsters. I’m excited to see how this game works, I really like the video game, but need to play it more. And I like the idea of just going out on a hunt, and it being a scenario and then done. It’s a bigger minis game, but not a campaign.

35: Reichbusters: Projekt Vril

Now we’re onto a campaign and Reichbusters is one that I picked up because it looked like so much fun when GloryHoundd YouTube Channel played it. And I think it’s going to be amazing. I need to get the errata cards taken care of, but sneaking into bases in WWII and finding all sorts of crazy experiments going on, it’s very Hellboy. And that theme is just fun, plus it’s not just kick down the door and shoot the board game.

34: Bloodborne

Another video game board game with Bloodborne. Another one that it is a bigger game but doesn’t play over a massively long campaign. I believe this one comes together over three different plays. Or it might just be that’s how the chapters, that are in the box, come out. Still, fantasy, fighting monsters and bad guys. Story going on, and from CMON, I suspect I’m going to enjoy this one.

33: Time of Legends: Joan of Arc

And another big box game. Time of Legends: Joan of Arc is almost a miniatures game more in the lines of a Warhammer where you takes two armies up against each other. But it does away with all that measuring. And it comes down to scenarios, there are characters, NPC’s, that you can interact with. And it’s time of legends because it takes the legends from the Joan of Arc time period and historical records, so it can add in dragons and things like that.

32: The 7th Continent

The 7th Continent has been on my shelf for a while. And I need to get it played before The 7th Citadel comes in, because I suspect I’m going to like that one better. In The 7th Continent, you wake up on a continent cursed, and need to explore and find a way to break your curse. I’ve heard that the first one is tough and takes a lot of time to play. Mainly so you learn the continent, but as you do the other ones, you have more of an idea of where to go.

31: Dinosaur Island: Rawr ‘n Write

The final roll and write for this list, and might be the final one overall. Dinosaur Island is a big game about building out a dinosaur park with a lot of euro mechanics. The Rawr ‘n Write is similar in that you’re building out a park. And you are trying to breed dinosaurs, it just does it in a roll and write version. So I’m very excited to give it a go. Supposed to be a heavier roll and write as well.

30: The Crew: Mission Deep Sea

The Crew is a cooperative trick taking game where you have limited communication. And while there is a space version, the Mission Deep Sea is supposed to help improve a few things. Mainly because you have missions, Mission Deep Sea makes them variable. The space one they are set. I like trick taking, and I need to play more of them.

29: Land vs Sea

Land vs Sea is a tile laying game where you are trying to complete areas of land or sea. But I care about completing land areas where as you care about sea. And the tiles are four sided, so having two in your hand gives you a lot of options. I wonder if this might replace Carcassonne when I play it. A tile laying game, but one that seems like it could be simpler.

28: Heroes of Land, Air & Sea

Now we’re back to a big game with Heroes of Land, Air, and Sea. This is a massive 4x game where you’re taking over lands, exploring new locations, fighting your opponents and building up your power. Twilight Imperium 4th Edition is a massive 4x game as well that I’d love to play set in space, but Heroes of Land, Air, & Sea just spoke to me as a 4x game I wanted to own.

27: Champions of Hara

Champions of Hara is a pretty big game, and one that seems like it will be quite unique. It seems unique because all the characters seem unique, and I like that about it. It has a fantasy feel to it, but it isn’t fantasy in the normal way. And I believe that you play the game in two parts. The first part is competitive. Then the second part, really second game, is cooperative where you work together to complete the winner of the first games story.

26: Floriferous

Final one for this part of the list is Floriferous. A set collection flower game, this one looks amazing. The artwork is great, and I like the mechanics, or how they sound. You basically draft cards from the columns. But as you draft, you place your pawn next to the spot. So the higher in the column, the next round, is going to go, then the next. Plus you are drafting scoring cards, great ways to get more points, but you’ll go last in the next round.

Final Thoughts

One more list of this, and then you’ll know about all the games i need to play. I actually had a game night this past weekend and I didn’t play any new to me games. I did have a few pulled out. But with the group, and player count, not all of them would have worked.

This part of the list also had a lot of big games in it. And while some of them might be harder to get to the table, even something that is more campaign like Reichbusters, you can play on off scenarios. So I should be able to get a number of them to the table. And some of the roll and writes, probably all of them, can be played solo.

Which one should I play first from this chunk of the list?

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Pros

• Cooperative and a hard cooperative game
• Fantasy and Post Apocalyptic
• Good in Box storage solution
• Asymmetric factions
• Available to try on TTS

Cons

• Kickstarter Exclusive
• First game Created
• Information Overload

The Page

First, even though I say it’s a con that it’s the first game they’ve created, and that’s always going to be a con, this is a company that seems to know Kickstarter really well. The page is laid out like I expect a Kickstarter page to be laid out and they actually do a decent job of giving you an idea of what the game is about. There’s a ton of information on the page. That is another thing I have in the cons, the amount of information. Let me make this very clear, I like all the information on the page, but there is a ton of it. I’d prefer to see this much information and dig through all of it then less.

The Game

New section, because I feel like I cover this half in the page and half in my back or brick, and it should have it’s own section.

The game really interests me for a few reasons, hence why I dug deeper into the page. I like cooperative games and I’ve been interested in trying 4x games like Twilight Imperium and Heroes of Land, Air, and Sea. But those are big competitive games, so I’m curious about this one being cooperative. Then you put it in a magical and post-apocalyptic setting, and that makes it even more interesting. I love a good world where most everything has gone wrong. There seems to have been a lot of thought put into this game from the asymmetrical player powers, to every player needing to beat the enemies, not just collectively, so I feel like there’s a lot going on in the game, of needing enough for yourself, but needing to leave stuff for others as well. Finally, I like that this game sounds hard, I like to win cooperative games 30% of the time, that’s about right for me, unless they are story games then let me progress, and this seems like it’s a tough one ,and I like that. It also seems like you’ll be able to scale the difficulty level, which I like as well.

Back or Brick

Short and quick is a brick for me. Now, that said, it might become a back because of the TTS. If I can play on TTS (Tabletop Simulator), I will have a better idea of how the game would work for me. This is one that I’m bummed isn’t coming to retail because I feel like I need to see it in action more. I know that I would like it, but is it one that I could get to the table all that often. Definitely one that I want to try and keep my eye on though and could be sold on to pick-up.

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

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So, I’m going to do what I did with Frosthaven when that was announced and talked about on videos, I’m doing a video breakdown. This Fantasy Flight In-Flight report is normally a big deal, kind of a kick-off for Gencon to find out what Fantasy Flight has coming up. This time they had to do it digitally and while that didn’t work properly, we do have the video up on Youtube.

We start off with basically a video package of all the games that Fantasy Flight has and has had and is working on fairly actively.

Then we get an introduction to the video by Chris Gerber, the head of FFG Studio.

We’re getting deep dive live streams starting today for the new games, expansions, etc. now through Sunday.

John Shaffer was up next talking about miniatures games.

• Updated Points for building team for X-Wing
• Working on solo rules for X-Wing
• New ships coming out in September
• New Tie-Fighter and Rise of Skywalker ships in October
• Four new ships from the Clone Wars, including Jango Fetts ship, available in November
• X-Wing product stream today at 3 PM Central

• Two force wielding characters, Anakin Skywalker and Darth Maul for Legion
• Release for the characters in November
• More options for Clone Wars teams as well
• Four new droids for core units
• Republic gets more clones to add to their side
• These have a January 2021 release date
• Legion Live stream Saturday at 4 PM Central – GenCon Twitch Channel

• Announcing Clone Wars coming to Armada!
• Cool little teaser video for what is coming
• Obviously we are getting Galactic Republic and Separatists
• Faction specific pack for Galactic Republic, kind of an introductory box for new players if you want.
• Republic Fighters expansion pack
• Separatists fleet starter as well
• Separatists Fighters as well
• Dials pack basically is the additional stuff you might need for a bigger set
• Upgrade card pack to standardize their upgrade cards
• All to be released in December
• Live Friday at 9 AM Central

That’s it for miniature announcements, that’s a lot of them. And now I’m very tempted by the Armada Clone Wars Starters.

Now board and card game announcements –

• Talking about Mass Mutations which was just released and talking about the features in that
• Keyforge Dark Tidings is announced, a new Keyforge Set
• 250 brand new cards in it
• Introducing a new house, The Unfathomable, sounds
• Replacing House Dis
• High and Low Tide Mechanic to add a new mechanic
• Will be a push pull to keep the High tide on your side
• Evil Twin Decks, dark reflections of an existing deck
• Altered evil twin versions of the normal cards from the existing deck
• Dark Tidings is coming February 2021

• Arkham Horror Time
• The Arkham line is going to Innsmouth
• Underdark Waves and Innsmouth Conspiracy for Arkham Horror and Arkham Horror LCG already announced
• Announcing Arkham Horror LCG mythos packs announced
• Bless and Curse tokens in Arkham LCG
• Vehicles added
• Begins in November
• War of the Outer Gods scenario pack
• December release date
• Aconyte Books releasing more stories, mentioned in this section

• Journeys in Middle Earth time
• Talking about Shadowed Paths Expansion that’s already been released
• Two new products
• Haunting of Dale digital campaign is going to be available in the app
• Dwellers in Darkness figure pack
• Both are set for release in October
• Hinting that in 2021 Middle Earth is Going to War

• Legend of the Five Rings
• Temptations Cycle Announced
• Resolves around each clan having something that they’ll go after no matter the cost
• Adding in a Dire keyword
• Starting in November for the release cycle
• Two new Role Playing Products
• Fields of Victory and Blood of the Lioness
• Rules for mass battle for military themed campaigns in Fields of Victory
• Blood of the Lioness is an adventure book
• March 2021 for the RPG release
• These will be the last two released by FFG
• More on that on Noon Central on Friday stream

• Marvel Champions, what I have been waiting for
• Reminders that Hulk is releasing in August, plus Rise of Red Skull in September, and October Kang
• New Heroes, following Kang release
• Ant-Man, Wasp, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch
• Ant-Man and Wasp – Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch synergize
• Next campaign expansion, Galaxy Most Wanted
• 5 new scenarios and Rocket Raccoon and Groot
• The Collector and Ronan the Accuser n Galaxies Most Wanted

• Expansion for Twilight Imperium 4th Edition
• Prophecy of Kings
• This is new mechanics and things
• 7 New Factions
• Forty new system and hyperlane tiles
• Player count can expand up to 8 players
• 3 new leaders for every faction
• And new mech units adding fire power to planetary battles
• And many new extra cards
• November release date
• More information Unboxing Friday at 3 PM Central

• New Marvel game announced
• Dice game to complete missions, showdown against villains, etc
• Mutants in the game as the characters you’ll be playing
• Marvel X-Men: Mutant Insurrection is the name of the game
• Cooperative game for 1-6 players
• It has Gambit in it, that’s all you really need to know, or at least I do
• Rogue, Storm, Cyclops, Wolverine and More
• 8 different plots, each featuring an iconic X-Men threat
• Release in Q1 for 2021
• Demo Sunday at 9 AM Central live stream

• The End?
• Massive massive massive massive Descent Box! Descent 3rd Edition Teased!

So, clearly there is a lot that’s been announced, including two new games, though the one was just teased with Descent at the very end, in a fun way. But I’m excited mainly for more Marvel Champions and Marvel X-Men: Mutant Insurrection as well, because I want to play Gambit.

What announcement has you the most excited? I’m really tempted now by some of the new Armada stuff announced, and all of this makes me want to get Arkham Horror LCG and regular Arkham Horror back to the table to catch-up to where they are now. And if you don’t have time to watch the video, at least look at the last few seconds to see how massive that Descent box is!

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Normal Games

It is what it sounds like, these are your normal games. The Tickets to Ride, Pandemic, Catan, Carcassone, Monopoly, and any game that you can sit down, you play it once and you get the full game experience. These games are meant to be played in a 30 minute to 6 hours, if you’re playing Twilight Imperium or other big 4x games. But even with those games, you get the full experience of the games without having to do anything else. These are the type of games you’re probably going to get to the table most often, though, you’ll probably play a specific game less than in some of the other categories. Even as someone who likes some of the other types of games just as well, most of my collection is made up of one off games that I use for board game nights and just pulling out and playing a game.

Story Games

This one is the next step in, in my opinion. The others are larger in terms of what type of game they are as I’m going to define story games as any game that tells a story. Now, that can encompass other games, Gloomhaven has story elements, but is primarily a campaign style game, but definitely fits in this category as well. But games like Near and Far, Above and Below, Arabian Nights, all of those games have story and you can play them as a one off game. The story doesn’t have to be the only thing in the game, but it’s going to be a heavy focus for the game. These games can take 200 hours, like Gloomhaven but Near and Far can be played in a couple of hours or less. This is starting to get into those bigger games. Whereas what I call normal games can have story, again Above and Below and Arabian Nights are played in a single sitting, they are more focused on the story and telling the players a story than something like Pandemic where the game has theme and story as it plays, but it doesn’t provide story beyond how the game mechanically plays out.

Campaign Games

Next step up, and probably the second longest, or longest, of the games. These campaign games are going to be steeped in story. This is where a game like Gloomhaven or Sword and Sorcery falls. It’s going to be chaining scenarios together, telling you story as you go, and each time you play, you are possibly progressing the story and finding out more as to what is happening in the world and game that you’re playing. Some of them have simpler stories like the two I’ve mentioned, and some more more emerging stories like Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon, where you have some ideas of what you need to do at the start, but the ending of the game is less clear. This is going to push two things, first, you are going to see more character development and leveling up, so it leans into an RPG like feel. The other thing is that this is going to be more of a time commitment. Gloomhaven has been 200 or so hours for me, and Sword and Sorcery is probably nearing 24 hours or so of game play. There are going to be shorter campaign style games, Near and Far technically has a campaign of 6-7 games, I believe, never played it, but that’s 12-20 hours, let’s say for the whole campaign, but a lot of them are going to fall into that longer format because they want the RPG like feel for the game.

Legacy Games

This one is a sister to the Campaign Game. It is going to be a campaign game, but it adds in a destructive element. You are going to be adding stickers to cards, destroying cards, changing the map, and unlocking new things. Now, you might be able to go back and do it again, Charterstone, and play through the legacy experience again, but that requires an additional purchase. Legacy games are meant for you to play through the campaign once, generally, and then some of them allow you to continue to play the game without the legacy elements. Charterstone, Betrayal Legacy, and Clank! Legacy are all games that you can come back to and play again. Pandemic Legacy Season 1 and 2, however, once you’re done with them, you’re done with that game unless you put in a lot of extra effort to make it replayable. While campaign games raise the stakes because you are going further and further into a story so you don’t want to hit a point where you’ve lost and have to restart (and most do a good job of keeping you from having to do that), Legacy raises those stakes even higher. You’re probably always going to progress at some point in time in a legacy game, even if you didn’t win, but you don’t feel like you can go back and try again because of the legacy nature of the game, so even with less story the stakes can be higher. Charterstone is the only example, I have, of a legacy game where the stakes don’t feel that high.

RPG

This one I’m saving for last, because it moves away from a board game experience and into a role playing game. RPG is that step where you want that massive campaign, that massive legacy feeling and story experience. But you can also do a one-shot which would just be a 3-4 hour single sit down experience. So you can tailor and RPG to whatever you want, but, I personally prefer an RPG when it takes those bigger campaign, legacy and story elements and turns it into that epic experience which is guided by the GM and created by the GM and players. This can be the biggest time commitment of them all, because a campaign could, theoretically, take forever if you wanted to continue playing with the same characters in the same world and didn’t care about leveling up. But for me that’s part of the fun of the game is coming up with ways and reasons for your character to progress and grow through the game, and leveling up is part of that progression.

That’s an overview of what I’d consider to be the five types of games. As someone who likes all of them, I think that there should be a space for most of them on people’s shelves. If you haven’t jumped into RPG’s, consider it if you really enjoy campaign style games, because it’s a freeing experience in terms of being able to craft and create your own story with even less confines. If you love RPG’s, consider adding a campaign game, something like Aeon’s End Legacy or Clank Legacy would have that RPG bit of a feel to it as you level up characters (especially Clank Legacy which is based on Acquisitions Inc. a D&D game), but that would give you something new to try. And if you’ve only played that I termed normal games, try a story game, a stepping stone into a potentially more epic gaming experience and see how you like something that a little bit of that RPG flavor lightly added to it.

I don’t think that there’s a right type of game to play, or that you need to have all of them in your collection, but it’s certainly something you can consider for expanding your collection. I have something like 4-5 legacy games, 5-6 campaign games (which is a lot), 150 normal games, and probably a handful of story games that I’m forgetting about right now, and a ton of stuff for D&D. But that’s just what my collection is. Maybe you have a consistent group for D&D or any RPG so you just focus your collection on that, or maybe you just have changing groups over for playing board games, so you have more normal games, and that’s a great collection as well.

I’ll leave you with a question, do you have a preferred game style? For me, I love Legacy Games and Campaign games, though I play Normal Games more because we play more on a board game night, but I’ve played so much of some games. What do you play most of as well?

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I’ve laid out one of the reasons why people play games solo, but I want to talk a bit about why I play games solo. First, board games don’t need to be a social activity, in fact some games you are playing by yourself just at a table with a bunch of other people at it. These games don’t have much interaction already, so the social aspect is just the table talking. However, there are some games that simply don’t give you time to talk to people more than just a little bit because you are going fast and trying to concentrate that you couldn’t carry on a conversation if you wanted.

Also, sometimes it’s hard to find time/people to play those board games with. There are games like Arkham Horror and Twilight Imperium that are all day events. You can’t get games like these to the table all that often, and then there are games like Dead of Winter which might be faster, but aren’t fast by any means. Dead of Winter still seems to take most of an evening whenever you play it, so while that’s easier to get to a table at two hours as compared to six, it’s still a good commitment for a lot of people. And even if you have the time to play a game like Arkham Horror, you might not have other people who have time to play it.

So when you need your board game fix, and you need that stimulation or reset for your brain after a busy day, solo gaming is a strong option. Most of the games that can be played solo don’t have a simple rule set that just allows you to only play with a single player and none of the rules change making the game either too hard or too easy, instead they have their own variant rules that keep the game balanced and challenging, or have been made specifically for a single player.

So what are some options for single player games, are there any good or interesting titles out there?

Onirim

This is a game that was specifically made for a single player though I believe there is a way to play with two players if you want. It’s a fairly simple game. You play as someone who is trapped in a nightmare and are trying to collect all the doors to be able to escape the dream. The game is a card game and you are trying to match sets of different colors as you play cards from your hand to find these dream doors. However, there are nightmares lurking in the deck trying to stop you from escaping. This game has a pretty small footprint and doesn’t have anything more than a deck of cards and a little nightmare token that isn’t needed to play the game. So it’s an easy one to take along somewhere if you are waiting at somewhere that has a small table.

Arkham Horror LCG

Not to be confused with Arkham Horror the giant board game, which you might be able to play solo, Arkham Horror the LCG is still Lovecraftian themed, but instead of a big board, you are playing cards and building up your investigator to try and complete the various scenario you are playing through. These scenarios are why it is called an LCG or Living Card Game. The game can be played without buying any additional cards or story packs, but once you’ve played through it, you might want to play a different story. So you can buy a pack of cards that has a new story for you to investigate. The game has a strong puzzle feel to it as you try and balance resources, race against the clock to complete the story, and what you do in a previous part of the story, they are generally three chapters, can influence future chapters. This game doesn’t have to be played solo, and can be played by four people if two sets are combined, but works really well as a solo game.

Legacy of Dragonholt

Another Fantasy Flight game, this one is a RPG like game. You design your character, giving them abilities that you’ll use as you go through a scenario. As you read through the scenario, you make decisions and use your abilities to open up options. Like Arkham Horror LCG, your decisions can effect future games. This is what gives the game a legacy feel. I’ve only played through a single scenario with this game as I think that Kristen would like it quite well, and it’s a game that can be played with a greater number of players. So should I consider this a solo game? I think that it is, not just because it has the option, but because the game has replayability so that playing it as a group certainly wouldn’t prohibit you from playing it again. Just going through the first scenario, there were plenty of story chunks that I didn’t read and plenty of story bits that I won’t know.

Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game

It’s a handful of a name, but a really fun game. The Dresden Files Cooperative Card game takes you through the Dresden Files. There is a scenario for each book and a ton of different characters from those books to play as. It also gives you an option to create your own missions for even more replayability. What makes this interesting is that as a single player game, you can play with up to four, you play with three characters and have less cards to beat the game with than most other player counts. Yes, you have more knowledge than with a lower player count, but it is still challenging. The game has some very nice resource management, and the fact that the story board is set-up randomly each time means that playing the game twice won’t unfold the same. It’s a well developed game where it’s almost always close at the end and you’re just hoping for the last thing to go your way.

There are a lot more that can be solo played games as well if you’re interested at jumping in. A lot of the Legendary Games, Buffy, Aliens, Firefly, and Big Trouble in Little China can be played solo, and these more story based ones flow better than the more generic Marvel one that I had a review of saying that I didn’t like it all that well. Robinson Crusoe is another game that is about resource management that takes you through different challenging scenarios. You’ll find that a lot of cooperative games have a solo option because you’re always working with a little bit of open information and working together as a team. Even a massive game like Gloomahven can be played as a solo game with a variant to help you make it more challenging. I also have sitting yet to be played Apocrypha and 7th Continent for solo gaming.

If you’re looking for a way to unwind after a long day or just looking for more board gaming in your life, consider solo board gaming as an option. What games have you played as a solo game?

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