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
40 through 31

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 Edition – 30 through 21

30. Space Base

Published By: Alderac Entertainment Group
Designer: John D. Clair

Buy Space Base

This is a game that I should have played a long time ago. But it is one that left my collection and then I played it on BGA. Once I played it on BGA, I knew that I needed it back in my collection. Much like other games like Valeria and Mochi Koro this one is about activating spots based off of dice rolls. And then building up those spots so that you can activate more things. Space Base just ramps up in a much better way than those and offers some interesting choices and an interesting moment of when you change from money to points.

29. Symbiose

Published By: Subverti
Designers: Jeremy Partinico and Christelle Partinico

Not Available Yet

Symbiose is one of the new games on the list, in fact, I’m not sure you can get it in the US yet. But this is one I’ll be getting for sure. It’s a simple game where you try and get a two tall by four wide grid full of cards. And those cards are going to score you points based off of the other cards in the grid. But there is a simple twist that makes this work. You score your grid with the central four cards. But the ones to the left and right score your opponents to the left and right. And that is enough to make this a very fun game.

28. XenoShyft: Onslaught

Published By: CMON Limited
Designers: Keren Philosophales and Michael Shinall

Out of Print

I love cooperative and deck building games. XenoShyft does both of those things really as well as you build up your deck to fight off monsters. On the deck building side I like how you always get money to add to your hand. That means that you are always able to buy something which is good and rewarding. The other part is I can just give you a card, you need more troops, I can give you one. It is now part of your deck, and it’s not to the discard, it is straight to your hand. A very tough and rewarding game.

27. One-Hit Heroes

Published By: Wiggles 3D
Designers: AC Atienza and Connor Reid

Buy One-Hit Heroes

This one is a theme that I like a lot with super heroes, but it is doing something different. You are heroes who are glass cannons, kind of. By that I mean if you take a hit you are out, but the game gives you tons of ways to avoid them. So you need to manage your hand and what the enemy is doing. And each enemy is different and each hero is different, so there is a ton of replayability in the box. Plus you level up, so to speak, as you play and get to add in new cards to your deck.

26. Planet Unknown

Published By: Adam’s Apple Games, LLC
Designers: Ryan Lambert and Adam Rehberg

Buy Planet Unknown

Planet Unknown is one of my favorite planet terraforming games. In this one I love how you are covering up the planet and activating locations to move up on tech, and other tracks. The tracks are such a fun part of the game. And as you play the game more you play not with the starting abilities but with special ones. They make you unique, and of course there is the lazy susan. Being able to spin that and then pick where you want to pick from is great. You can set yourself up well, or you can try and mess over your opponents plans or ideally both.

25. Paper Dungeons

Published By: MeepleBR
Designer: Leandro Pires

Out of Stock

I think that this is the highest roll and write game on the list and one of the most complex that I play. Paper Dungeons is a “Dungeon Scrawler”, as they call it, where you level up heroes and explore the dungeon fighting monsters. But there is more than that, you need to manage your heroes health, make adventuring gear and find treasure. Of course, if you make it to the boss monsters that is another way to get even more points, but hopefully not at the expense of too much health.

24. Kingdom Legacy: Feudal Kingdom

Published By: FryxGames
Designer: Jonathan Fryxelius

Buy Kingdom Legacy – note, there might be an additional tariff related shipping charge in the US.

I was not sure about Kingdom Legacy the first time I watched a video on it, but the more I watched the more I liked it. This is a legacy game of managing your deck of cards by destroying cards, leveling up cards, or even adding new cards. And as you go through, you need to decide which cards are best used for upgrading and points and when to use cards for resources to level up others. It’s a nice balance of multiuse cards, and a challenge to optimize your score.

23. Ready Set Bet

Published By: Alderac Entertainment Group
Designer: John D. Clair

Buy Ready Set Bet

I like betting and I like racing when it comes to games. Ready Set Bet somehow combines the two of them into real time fun and stand-up moments. Personally I like both parts of this game betting and being the person calling the race. As you call the race, it’s just to get into it and keep the race moving and watch everyone else stand-up. As a better it’s all about trying to make the right bets the fastest. If you wait too long the best spots are gone, and if you bet too quickly you’re more apt to make bad bets. It sounds chaotic, which it is, but it’s also so much fun.

22. Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition

Published By: Stronghold Games
Designers: Sydney Engelstein, Jacob Fryxelius, and Nick Little

Buy Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition

Another game about terraforming a planet, Ares Expedition is a big engine building game of, well, doing a better job terraforming Mars. In this game it’s all about the action selection and how that works. I pick an action, everyone gets to do it, but I get a bonus for it. It might be a bonus of drawing more cards or a discount on building something. But then again, if my opponent(s) pick the same action, we all only do that action, and the other possible actions are skipped. So it’s always trying to guess what your opponent(s) will do to optimize your actions.

21. Hanamikoji

Published By: EmperorS4
Designer: Kota Nakayama

Buy Hanamikji

Finally is one of my favorite two player games. Hanamikoji is a game of trying to win the favor of Geisha by giving them gifts. Each one wants a certain gift and there is a limited number of them. You want to win the favor of four or eleven points worth.

But the biggest draw of this two player game is the action system. You only have four actions and you do one per turn and only once per round. They are simple actions like discarding two cards that won’t be used facedown, or putting one facedown that you’ll score. The other two offer a bit more with the “I Split, You Choose” mechanism in play, and makes you think about what cards you show your opponent for that.

Join Next Week

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

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

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How To Play Schotten Totten

Schotten Totten is a lane control game for two players. In this game you want to either win three adjacent locations or five total locations. You win locations by playing better sets of three cards on your side than your opponent can on their side.

So What Wins?

In this game you are playing “poker” type of hands. At least you can think of that for rankings. If you play a straight flush (of three cards), that is the best, then three of a kind, flush, straight, and total value of the cards. So you can see the order is pretty similar to poker. But there is no pair options.

And when you win, for example, I play a straight flush of 9, 8, 7 – in any order, that can’t be beat. Even if my opponent plays the same thing, I did it first. So when I complete that, the token comes to my side. And at that point in time my opponent can no longer play there.

Note: The game calls them color and runs for flush and straight.

Playing Cards

So I already mentioned how you can get locked out of playing in some spots. It is also important to know that you must always play. So as you play out cards or figure out what cards are left in your hand, you need to think about where you might play in the future. And the more your opponent wins the fewer options you get.

You also need to think about the cards available in the deck. Because there are six colors 1 through 9 in each color. What is the likelihood that you are going to get a card from a middle of a run that you are trying to create? Better if it isn’t a straight flush but not great. So it is possible that you might find your opponent or you win a location simply because they are no longer able to beat what you placed down. For example, if they need a six to beat your run and you play that six, you lock them out.

What Doesn’t Work

There is a level of luck to this game. And that is needed. If it were a zero sum game, by that a mean a game where you know all the information, a player with a better starting hand would win. There is no need to play it out. But depending on your preferences for games, it might feel like too much luck. But that is kind of the point of the game.

What Works

This game is simple to learn and play. It is just laying out the tiles, which don’t matter what order they go in just that they are in a line. And then you shuffle up and deal cards. I think that I could get a new player playing Schotten Totten in less than five minutes.

Hand Management

And there is a nice strategy to knowing when to pivot from a location or when to invest more at a location. That is where the meat of the game is, so to speak. You need to know when you can still dig for a card. And you need to play out cards onto locations you might not win.

Why, because you need to manage your hand of cards. You might get stuck with three ones that don’t go anywhere, and now those are dead cards in your hand if you wait too long. And three dead cards or cards you don’t want to play isn’t that bad. What happens when it is the majority of your hand? Can you figure out which spot to maybe throw a card and lose, or do you keep everything alive.

Tension

The final thing I want to talk about is tension. The tension of that choice when you decide to give up on a location. The tension of when you want to show that you’re strong at a location and when you want to hold back. Or even when it gets down to it, the tension of the draw to see if you can get the one card you need to keep your opponent from winning three adjacent locations. The game always feels tense at some point in time.

Who is Schotten Totten For?

This is a two player only game. So I think this is a good game for couples in an evening when they don’t have a ton of time. I put it in that range of a game like Lost Cities where it’s easy to get to the table and play. But it is not going to be your whole evening. That is probably a sweet spot for two player games most of the time, and where most of the ones I play on BGA land. But that is who that is for, you do need to like that bit of luck and very head to head game play.

My Final Thoughts and Grade on Schotten Totten

I like Schotten Totten a lot. I think the games in the two player realm that I’d compare it to most are Lost Cities and Hanamikoji. It is less thinky than Hanamikoji for sure. So it is more on par with Lost Cities in terms of weight. But I like the fact it is just win locations, not see if you can get points like Lost Cities. I think that is easier to learn and teach than the somewhat complex rules for Lost Cities in terms of points. Mainly the negative points. So I appreciate that ease to the table when teaching a new player.

I personally think I like it better than Lost Cities. But it is not up there with Hanamikoji which is one of my favorite two player only games. I think that one just adds in enough more puzzle that it’s more interesting. That said, I think that Schotten Totten is likely to end up in my collection. Why, because it is a small game and one that is easier to teach and play than Hanamikoji. And I really like it for that.

My Grade: A
Gamer Grade: B+
Casual Grade: A-
Strategy (out of 10): 6
Luck (out of 10): 4

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How To Play Lost Cities

Lost Cities set collection game. You want to collect the best cards of numbers in five different colors and have the most points after doing that a set number of times. It is possible to play it just once, but most of the time I think that three is what people play.

The turn you take is simple. You play a card from you hand to one of two spots. And then you draw a card to your hand from one of a few spots. You keep on doing this until the deck of cards, one of the spots you draw from, is empty. Then you tally up the points.

Scoring and Playing Cards

The main element of the game to know about is the scoring. In Lost Cities you score points for any of the colors here you play cards at. However, there is a penalty for playing cards at a location. The first card you play down sets that locations value to -20. Though, if you play a number card that negative value is going to be less.

There are two types of card for each number. The first is multiplier cards. These double, triple, or more depending on how many you play, the value of the cards. But it also doubles or triples the value of the negative as well. Then there are number cards. These number cards go from two to ten. And as you play out cards, the multiplier cards need to be played first, and then cards in ascending order. For example, if you play out a four or blue, it is no longer possible for you to play a two of blue or a three of blue.

Discarding and Drawing

So I mentioned that there are multiple places to play to and discard to. Let’s use the example of having a blue two after already playing out a blue four. That card has no value for you. So on your turn you might discard that into the blue pile between the sets you and an opponent are collecting. On the other hand, if your opponent were to discard, for example, a green multiplier and you hadn’t started scoring on green yet, you can draw from there. So you either play to the collection on your side, or the middle for that colors discard. And you either draw from one of those color discard piles or the main deck.

What Doesn’t Work

It’s an abstract game where it is possible to just be dealt a hand that is not great to start out with. It might either be so spread out across all the colors you don’t know what to go for, or it might be so high in numbers that your scoring potential is lower as you don’t want to toss those cards. It isn’t that it doesn’t work, it is just that sometimes you might feel like your starting hand is kind of dead, or you might think, with multiple multiplier cards going into a color is smart idea and then never draw that color.

What Works

Now, that negative I just spoke about, that is also a positive for the game. Lost Cities is all about figuring out when to get into a color so that you don’t end up with negative points. And yes, it is very possible to end up with negative points on a round. Lost Cities reminds me of Hanamikoji in that both of them you work off of imperfect knowledge. And you need to make the best decisions that you can.

Game Speed

I like the speed that the game plays at as well. Now, I say that, I play asynchronously on BGA, so some games do take longer than others. But when the players are on at the same time the turns are simple enough, play and draw, that it moves quickly. So the game speed is good, but to tie it to above, it doesn’t just play itself which means sometimes you end up with a turn that takes a bit longer when you aren’t in the middle of a series of plays.

It is also nice that Lost Cities is played over three rounds. Again, this ties into that negative and why it isn’t much of a negative. When you play Lost Cities over three rounds you get a chance to come back. That allows you to play with a bit more risk sometimes and less other times. But there is almost always the chance to recover.

Meanness and Tightness

Finally, as a two player game this is very back and forth. I know, generally, what you want to get. So that might mean that I hold cards in my hand to try and keep you from scoring as well. There isn’t take that, but I might ruin your plans for a round. But that is also true for what you are doing to me as well. So while the game has elements of being mean, it works, as that sort of thing does better at two players.

But with that comes a fun part of the strategy or something you’ll stumble across. As I play out cards and you collect what I might want, you find that you all of a sudden can get a positive score in that color. So it is possible to pivot in the game like that. But with the deck running out as the timing mechanism you can’t overextend yourself because you might not have enough turns to play everything you need. That challenge and balance works very well.

Who Is Lost Cities For?

Obviously this game is for two people. But I think that this is the sort of game that works well for couples even if both of them maybe don’t love board games. The game is easy enough to learn, there is strategy so it isn’t too light, but it’s simple to play. So it’s a good game for couples and you can play a round in a short time, so it is that evening game as well for when you want to do something and not watch TV.

My Grade and Final Thoughts on Lost Cities

Lost Cities definitely impressed me more than I thought it would. I want to compare it to Hanamikoji because there is that element that I don’t know what is in your hand and you don’t know what is in my hand. It is only based off of what we play that we gather information about the other players hand. And that is true for both of the games, plus the row in the middle, but that is not actually similar in how it is used.

I think that Lost Cities is a game where it is possible to really do poorly at, though. But it is a game that is simple enough to learn. I feel like since I enjoyed the premise at the start it was fine even with my first game going poorly. If I hadn’t, I’m not sure I would have loved it as a concept for a game. Mainly because it is possible to get stomped. So if the puzzle doesn’t draw you in, Lost Cities is unlikely to work. Because the theme is not going to draw you in.

My Grade: B
Gamer Grade: B
Casual Grade: B
Strategy (out of 10): 7
Luck (out of 10): 3

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How To Play Wizards Cup

Wizards Cup is a two player game where players create teams of wizards to defeat their opponents team. Each player is given one wizard to add to their team, either from the five used per round or their reserve one. Then players take identical sets of wizards and create a team of five plus one reserve wizard from them. The players then set the order that they want their team of five to be in.

The Battle

Then the wizards battle for the Wizards Cup. To do this each player is going to flip over their first wizard. The first thing players compare is elements or attributes. There is a nice little chart that shows which is strong to week to which other attribute. If they are of the same type or if there is a void or neutral wizard played, then you look at the number, the magical power, of the wizard to determine the winner. If your wizard wins, it stays to fight your opponents next wizard. Whomever empties their opponents stack first wins the round.

Special Abilities

Now, more is added to the game the wizard powers. These powers include things like the lower powered wizard wins. Or if this wizard is in your discard and the top card there, you gain extra power for your wizard. This element is going to lead into how you create your stack of wizards to battle with.

After the Battle

After the battles are complete, you check and see if someone is the winner. If you win two rounds of wizard battles you are the Wizards Cup winner. You see if someone has won two rounds and if not you battle again. You pick and swap up to one card from your wizards, in your deck and the reserve, to change up your decks composition. And then you create your group of five wizards again. and repeat the battle.

What Doesn’t Work

First thing that doesn’t work about this game is playing it asynchronously on BGA. Now, just a reminder what asynchronously means. It means I take my turn and then you take your turn when you get online. This is a game where there isn’t much in the way of turns. It is fine for picking and setting your wizard line-up. But when you get to the battle, each opponent needs to confirm that they see the battle. That is going to lead to a lot of downtime with nothing happening. You need to know what wizards your opponent has though.

The game is also a game that plays itself. And this is an issue with it whether you are playing asynchronously on BGA, in real time on BGA, or in person. I choose my order of wizards and you simply flip wizards after that. The only choice you potentially have is one wizard allows itself to be swapped with you wizard in reserve. Otherwise you flip and see who wins

What Works

Now those seem like fairly big negatives, especially for BGA. So what is the positive for the game? The first thing that stands out is the simplicity and speed of the game. On the box it says that Wizards Cup is a 15 minute game, and I believe that. It is only two player and there is not that much to know in the game. So it is an easy filler as you wait for people to join a game night.

I like the powers and abilities as well. There are interesting elements that you can do to mess with your opponents deck of wizards. One wizard is simply going to take itself and your opponents wizard out. And you also have another who gives itself one more power against certain types of cards. Or another where it is the lower that wins and another gives cards extra power when it is defeated. There is a lot going on with those powers.

I also like that there are different ways that you win fights. The fact that sometimes the number doesn’t matter is fun. It is tricky to time it up, but when you can and you win with a weaker card, that is a lot of fun to do. I say weaker, I mean lower power number but you play the stronger element between the pair of wizard cards.

Finally, I like that it is first to two. If Wizards Cup were a game where it was just, set your group and play once it would be a bad game. But the game is nice in that you get a chance to adjust to your opponents strategy. And adjust the order of your wizards in your deck. You might run the same wizards but the other makes a difference.

Who Is Wizards Cup For?

So who is Wizards Cup for? I think people who want a light filler game for an evening, this is a fun one. It is only a two player game, so that is going to limit who the game is for. And it is a very light game, so that is also going to limit who the game is for. But if you like the sound of a quick battler game, this one is solid for that. I think it is one that a couple who find limited time to play games could enjoy a lot.

Final Thoughts and Grade on Wizards Cup

This is an interesting game to try and figure out my thoughts around it. I like elements of the game quite well. I also find elements of it to be a bit simple in what you are doing. Now, I think some of that is because I mainly have played it on BGA asynchronously. And as I explain above, it is not great that way. Too much of the game is just watching the game playout.

In person, I think it is better. Because I like reading what a person is going to do. I think it is fun to try and outsmart someone. And even if I lose the first round, I know most of, if not all of, what you have, so I adjust my deck to counter that. At the same time, you know what I have, so you adjust to counter me too. After that first round it is a fun mind game. And I like that I know one card. That information is nice even if you don’t put it in your deck.

My Grade: C
Gamer Grade: D
Casual Grade: B
Strategy (out of 10): 3
Luck (out of 10): 7

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How to Play Jaipur

Jaipur is a set collection and set selling game where you collect goods and then sell them for points. In the game there are four different types of items. Three common items and three rarer items. They work the same, for the most part, with minor differences as to when you can sell them. But the rarer items are worth more to sell than the common items. And there are camels that you can get as well, which aren’t worth points until the end of the round. Then whomever has the most gets some bonus points.

Turn Actions

On your turn you take one of three actions. You either take a single card, trade to gain multiple cards, or sell cards. Take is simple, it is just taking a card to add to your hand. Or taking all the camels in the middle market row which don’t go to your hand and thus don’t count to your seven card hand limit. Then a new card is flipped out to fill that row.

Trading is not much more complex. You select the items from the center row and you trade that many items from your camels or cards in hand back into the center row. When you do that, no new cards are added to the center row.

Finally you can sell goods. You can sell as few or as many of a single type of good as you want. There is an exception for rare goods. You need to sell at least two of them. But for either type of good, rare or common, if you sell three or more you gain a bonus tile. And the more you sell, the higher value the bonus tile is. You also take a scoring token of the type of good to add to your scoring for that round per good that you sell. You can sell beyond the number of tokens, you just don’t get a token for that.

End of Round and End of Game

The round ends when one of two conditions is met. Either three of the piles of goods are gone, any combination of rare and common. Or when all the cards in the draw pile are gone. Then players compare to see who has more camels. Whomever is holding a larger herd will gain the camel bonus token that adds five to their score for the round. Player tally up their total score and whomever has the higher for the round wins the round.

The game is played over up to three rounds. Aka the game is best two out of three. If someone wins two rounds in a row, they win the game.

What Doesn’t Work

There is some luck in this game. Though, I want to say that it is pretty limited. The luck is going to come from the cards that are flipped up. You might take a card and then flip into a rare good that you want. But of course, it is a rare good, so your opponent is likely to take it as well. Or it might be a board of only camels. And your opponent will get a free board of new goods if you can’t sell anything.

What Works

The simplicity and speed of the game is great. Even as a turn based game on BGA, it is a fast game. Jaipur with it’s simple actions goes very fast. And I say simple actions, but really it is that combined with limited options that makes the game go fast. As a two player in person game, I suspect I would play this game a few times in a single sitting.

Now, I talk about how simple the game is and how fast it plays. That is not meant to hide the fact that the game offers interesting decisions. And I like that it does that while not being a complex game. I either take a single card or multiple. But as my hand reaches it’s limit, how do I navigate that. It is possible to just trade in a single common good to buy an extra turn to get what you really want. Or you might trade in some of the common goods, giving your opponent a chance for a bigger set, but you get more rare goods. It is just enough strategy for the game.

How the winner of the game is determined is very good as well. There is a bit of luck, so it is possible to just have a really bad round. Now, there is a lot you choose to do to mitigate that, but it is possible. But even if you find yourself having a bad round, there are more, likely. I think this game could have easily gone with, play a round and whomever does best wins. But the best two out of three feels like it offers more to it and balances out that luck.

Who is Jaipur For?

This is a great game for people who like two player games. In particular, I might get this game because it is one that my wife and I could play in an evening. It is simple to learn, set-up, and play. And because it is fast, it is going to be a game that could get played after a kid is in bed. Or maybe you play with someone who works a different type shift, it is an easy game to fit into a busy evening.

Final Thoughts on Jaipur

I like Jaipur. I was not sure how much I was going to like it the first time that I played it. But as I play more, I find that there is more strategy to the game and less luck than you expect at the start. In particular, how you manipulate the center row is really interesting. And I find that there are different strategies that both seem to work for it.

And I really can’t say enough how quickly this game goes. Even with playing a best two out of three rounds, this is a very fast game. I play turn based on everything I do for BGA and this is so fast even in turn based. I imagine it is going to fly by in person. And like I said, I think this is a game that you play two or three times in a single sitting.

So, as I said, I like Jaipur. I think this is a game that I am likely to pick-up. It is a good two player game and like a game like Hanamikoji, it is so fast and easy to teach that it works really well. And I think it is the type of game that my wife would like as well.

My Grade: B+
Gamer Grade: B
Casual Grade: B
Strategy (out of 10): 6
Luck (out of 10): 6

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How To Play The Architects of Amytis

The game is about scoring the most points generally by building out different groupings of buildings. You want buildings of certain colors to be in certain positions so that they complete your scoring card objectives. But you also get points through a couple of different areas as well, which we’ll talk about as we talk about game play.

Getting Tiles

You are pacing tiles onto a 3 by 3 grid. To get a tile you place a worker onto a three by three grid of available tiles. Each tile is part of a stack and you take the top tile on that stack and place it onto your board. You want to place it in a way so it helps build out one of the patterns that you have.

When you place your worker, you do need to consider one thing. Where you place your worker matters. Because, if you get three in a row, you get to place out a scoring marker. Those scoring markers can just be for some points on a track that increases the more markers you have on it. Or you can score points if at the end of the game for each of the spots on your board that has two tiles on it, for example. If you complete a row of three you remove your workers, otherwise you remove your workers at the start of a turn following placing your forth worker.

Placing Tiles

You also need to consider when taking tiles the power of the tile. Each of them is going to give you some in the moment benefit. Often times that’s just going to be scoring some points. But there is one type of building that is going to let you grab another pattern, and you need to get those because you don’t refill in those cards otherwise.

The game continues like this with players taking turns and placing workers until two piles of tiles are empty. At that point, players will tally up the patterns that they scored, plus any other bonus points they chose to go after from getting three workers in a row. And the player with the most points wins.

What Doesn’t Work?

I think that the placing of workers might be a bit disappointing to some people. You want to get three in a row, but it’s a 3 by 3 grid, the other player can block you. So you maybe get two or three of the tokens into play. And sometimes it’s just smarter to spend them on the one track that gives you points for the more you have. The other ones, you want to try and get them, but it’s often difficult to set it up.

I think it also might not work for some people with how tight it is getting new scoring tiles or cards. There are a handful, maybe just 4 tiles, that can get you more cards. So if you don’t get one or two of those, you find yourself very limited in what you can do. So it becomes about creating three in a row. And we just talked about how that is challenging.

What Works?

All The Scoring

Now, I talk about those negatives, but a positive is how you can score in different ways. I think that is a lot of the fun of the game. You want to get three in a row so you can add to your scoring. In fact, you need to do that because while the patterns give a lot of points, you need to supplement them somewhere. And if you can get, for example, the one where you get points for having your tiles two deep and you get all nine tiles, that’s a lot of points. So I enjoy that aspect of the game.

I like, also, how the tiles score when you play them. Walls, for example, score for being near the edge of the board. But if you place a wall in the middle, you get points for your other walls still. So there’s this fun element of where to place the tiles as well. Now, sometimes it is a less than ideal placement to finish a pattern, but you’re still getting points. It just might not be quite as ideal as it could be.

Game Speed

The turns in this game are also very fast. A turn is placing a worker and grabbing that tile to place on your board. While you place and score, your opponent can be figuring out what tile to pick. So even on BGA, if you get two people on at the same time, the games just fly by.

Player Interaction

The final thing I want to talk about is how you can mess with the other player. I make this game sound fairly solitaire. And it is generally the best plan to get points yourself. But when I place a worker, if I can block you from getting three, that is great. I don’t want to do something that won’t give me anything, but if I can slow down your bonus scoring it works well. And this only works because the patterns are face up. So I know what you want to go for.

Who Is The Architects of Amytis For?

I think that this game works really well for a lot of players who who want a good two player game. The back and forth of the game is nice and there is a good mix of strategy, a little luck, and not so many decisions that the game bogs down. So it is going to feel familiar and comfortable to a lot of more casual gamers.

My Final Thoughts on The Architects of Amytis

I enjoy this game a whole lot more than I do Harmonies. They have some interesting things going on in them, but for a pattern making game, I think this one is better. I like the little bit extra that it adds without making it too complicated. Harmonies gives you one extra element of placing a token so you can’t reuse stuff, but that just makes it restrictive. This game is more generous and very generous when it comes to points.

And I think that generosity with the points is something else that I appreciate. It’s no0t like I spend a ton of time and I get something done and it’s a few points. When you need a few turns to build up and get points, it’s nice to have the points mean something. Add in that you get points even when you don’t complete a pattern is nice as well.

Finally, the three in a row is very fun as well. I think element of the game is one of my favorite. I want to figure out how to optimize my end game scoring. And I make choices, like going for piles of tiles that are two tall, that will determine how I play the game.

My Grade: B-
Strategy: B
Luck: C-

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How To Play Gold’n’Crash

Gold’n’Crash is a two player game where players are trying to gain victory in one of two ways. Firstly, you win by having stored away the most gold (points) when either player gets through all of their character cards. Or the other way to claim victory is to destroy all of your opponents blimps.

The game is played going back and forth with each player taking two of three actions on their turn. And you can take the same action twice. You take a card, you discard a card, or you draw a card. That is how the game works, but let’s talk about the actions a bit more.

Drawing

Firstly, drawing a card is simple. You draw a card from your deck and add it to your hand. There is no hand limit, so it allows you, late game, if you don’t draw good cards to play or you think you have the most points to push the end of the game.

Playing

Next you can play out cards. There are six different types of cards. Some of them are just point cards that don’t have powers. But five of the types of cards have powers. They might draw more cards from you, from the discard pile or your draw pile, or attempt to blow up your opponents ship. There are rules for playing cards. You need to play in the column with the fewest cards. And in the case of a tie, you decide where to play them.

Discarding

Then you also are able to discard cards from your played cards. Each card, minus the point cards, can be discarded. When you discard you trigger a different ability. It might be to add cards to your scoring pile or remove cards from your opponents, or look at the top of your deck and move cards to the bottom of the deck.

You are playing out these cards to bank point cards. Every card has a point value, but there are some cards that have a bigger point value. And there are some cards, above the blimps in the play area, that give you a lot of points. But you need to meet a specific condition, like three green cards in that column, or five total cards, to gather those points. In the end, most points wins, or if you destroy all the blimps you win right there.

What Doesn’t Work

Firstly, it isn’t super obvious what each card type does immediately. You need to know ten different actions between playing cards and discarding. This is not a major issue in the game. It is one of those things where the more that you play, the more you are going to know how the game works and what the cards do. But there is a learning curve to what everything does.

The next thing is that this isn’t a game that is fast. I talked last week about Zenith and how the turns are simple and the game, while it can be a battle back and forth, it moves quickly. This is not that sort of game. Some of it is because of what I mentioned above, there are a lot of powers and abilities you need to know. But even with that, the bigger element is there are just a lot of cards. So while there is variety, you often feel like you are treading water on turns.

Finally, blowing up the blimps, it sounds like fun. But it’s an abrupt end to the game that sometimes you can do nothing about to stop. For a game that wants to be strategic in what you are doing, sometimes there is not really a choice. So the end of the game through the blimp destruction just feels a bit out of place compared to everything else you do, and it comes down so much to the luck of the draw.

What Works

I think that the game has a good amount of strategy to it. It is a game that wants to be a tense and well thought out back and forth game. And there is certainly an element of it. And as you play it more, more strategy is going to emerge as to how you manipulate the board state to your advantage. Because, everything is going to mess around with that board state, on your side of things or your opponents a little bit.

I also like how actions stack. If you play a second brown card to a column, they allow you to store treasures, you get to activate that ability for each brown card. That means you can stack up some good scoring turns. Or you might be able to mess with your opponents board state a lot in a single move. So you might want to plan out your moves that way to try and optimize it. However, since you can only play in the lowest stack, sometimes that isn’t all that reasonable to do.

Who is Gold’n’Crash For?

I think people who want to play a lot of really intense two player games will enjoy this one. Not that I think this is the most intense two player. You compare it to abstracts like Chess or Onitama, this is going to play with more luck in it. But for someone who wants all the powers and abilities, there are going to be a lot in the game. And for someone who maybe wants a game to play in a night, instead of player a two player game twice or more, this one can work for that as well.

My Final Thoughts on Gold’n’Crash

Now, I think that my opinion on this is going to be colored a little bit by the fact it was played right after Zenith. While Zenith is a smooth fast game with a lot of great decisions, Gold’n’Crash is a bit clunkier and clutchier.

And, by clutchier, I mean that it’s harder to get into and get going. I played quite a number of games of Gold’n’Crash to get a good feeling for the game. It wasn’t until I was at four or five plays that I started to really utilize all the abilities all that well. That is not a major negative to the game, but for a two player game, it is going to cause discrepancies between how good players are.

And it is a bit clunkier. You might draw what you need, you might not, but there is less ability to pivot. I definitely played games where I just drew card after card because none of them were worth playing. So it is better for me to build up a massive hand of cards until I get a couple cards that I need for a great turn, than it is for me to just play out cards. That doesn’t feel fun, too many passive turns in the game.

My Grade: C-
Gamer Grade: C+
Casual Grade: C

I think that some people will like this game better. When it comes out, I expect that some people will make it the game they play with their partner in an evening weekly or more often. But generally, I think people will find it kind of middle of the road. It isn’t a bad game, but it isn’t that good a game either.

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Catch up on previous videos here

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) 2024 Edition – 30 through 21

30 – Hanamikoji

• Published by EmperorS4 in 2013
• Give gifts to win the favor of Geisha through tricky card play

This is one of my favorite if not my favorite two player only game. There are others on the list that I like at two a lot, but this probably my favorite pure two player game. In this one you want to win the favor of Geisha and you do that by giving them gifts. But it’s how you give them gifts that is so much fun. The four actions you take per round, and each them offers a good decision. Mainly because you don’t know what your opponent has, you don’t know what’s yet to be drawn, and of course you sometimes have to give the ultimate decision to your opponent.

Buy Hanamikoji

29 – For Northwood!

• Published by Side Room Games in 2021
• Try and win the favor of the woodlands rulers by taking the exact right number of tricks

This is a weird game. For Northwood! is a solo trick taking game. And that sounds like it shouldn’t work, but it really does. Mainly because of the powers and abilities and how all of those work. You play out eight hands and you need to win 0 to 7 tricks each time. But you need to decide how many tricks you’ll win before hand. So it’s using your powers and abilities to mitigate or push for winning those tricks and not getting too high or too low. If you can pull off all eight, that is going to be perfect win.

Currently Not Available But Could be through Gigamic.

28 – Arkham Horror: The Card Game

• Published by Fantasy Flight Games in 2016
• Investigate, fight, and solve the mysteries around Arkham in a Lovecraftian story

This is a fun game in Fantasy Flight Games Arkham Files line, in fact it’s my favorite of them. I really like how they use deck building and just cads to create an immersive narrative and experience for a game. It’s fun to play through the story, use your deck, and try the best you can to not fail the checks that you’re given. And it’s also nice because it is a campaign, you play through multiple scenarios, but it’s not a long campaign, so you can pick and choose which short campaigns that they’ve put out for the game that you want to play through.

Buy Arkham Horror: The Card Game

27 – Star Wars: Unlimited

• Published by Fantasy Flight Games in 2024
• Battle to beat your enemy by destroying their base with your dominance in space and on the ground

This is the only Trading Card Game to make the list. And you know I have some beef with Fantasy Flight and Asmodee around how they are handling sending out destroyed cards and basically saying it’s not their fault. But this isn’t for that.

Because, I love the game. The game is a ton of fun to play and I like the deck building for it too. It’s fun to always have a “commander” basically that helps determine what colors you should build it. And I like how the game play is simpler than that of Magic the Gathering. You never worry about running out of lands because your ability to play cards is just cards. Of course, it gives you a great decision as to which cards you put into play as resources or keep in your hand to play.

Buy Star Wars Unlimited

26 – PitchCar

• Published by Ferti in 1995
• Race around the track and be the first to cross the finish line in this flicking dexterity game

PitchCar is just a fun game. I love how simple it is to teach and play and of course how fun it is to set-up a track and build something crazy, if you want. You want a loop, you can build that. You can add in a jump or you can go up a level and have more track go beneath. Of course you need a buy a bunch of it to do that, but it’s worth it to build more and crazier tracks. At the same time, it’s also fun just to have the basic track as well to play with. And it is a good game for all ages.

Currently Not Available

25 – Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition

• Published by Stronghold Games in 2021
• Build up your card engine to be the most influential corporation in the terraforming of mars

This is fun card engine building game. You build out a tableau of cards that provide you resources, take actions, help you terraform. But there is more to the game than that. You need to pick what action you want to do, as do your opponents. You may pick the same one but whatever action you pick, you get a bonus doing that. But it isn’t just your action you take, you take your opponents action as well. So I love the strategy in what action do I take based off of what action I think my opponents will take. I might not get a discount or a bonus for doing it, but I do for the one I pick.

Buy Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition

24 – Forest Shuffle

• Published by Lookout Games in 2023
• Build up your forest and surround them with the nature that gives you the most points

This is such a pretty game. That is not the spot you’d thought I’d start most likely, but it is. And I like the game a lot for that, but also because it’s a really fun game. In Forest Shuffle you place out trees and then surround those trees with creatures and other plants to build out your forest. Each tree only is able to support a card per side, with a few exceptions. Every card you play is going to give you points in some way. I love it when a game is able to let you score points while still keeping the game simple, which Forest Shuffle does amazingly well.

Buy Forest Shuffle

23 – First Rat

• Published by Pegasus Spiele in 2022
• The moon is made of cheese, so as rats you want to collect items, build space ships, and get to space

The game has a great theme, let’s start there. I enjoy the theme of First Rat and I’m sure that it does help push it higher. But I also like the diversity in what you can do in the game. You might rush to get pieces and shoot one of your rats way up the board. Or you may collect points in other ways, unlock more rats and get them onto the board or push the lights further so when you start to collect resources you get more. And each way is going to give you a good way to win the game. So fun theme, not too complex, but lots of good decisions.

Buy First Rat

22 – Ready Set Bet

• Published by Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG) in 2022
• Bid on a horse race in real time, can you make the right calls and win all the money?

This is a party game, kind of. I say kind of because it isn’t a party game in the traditional sense. Or what you think of a party game when you think of the mass market ones you find at Target or Wal-Mart. But Ready Set Bet is a fun, light betting game that is done in real time. I love this game for it’s stand-up moments. All the bets are down and all of a sudden the #2/3 horse is coming out of nowhere because you rolled it’s number twice and the race changes.

Buy Ready Set Bet

21 – Paper Dungeons

• Published by Alley Cat Games in 2020
• Roll the dice, level up your heroes, and explore the dungeon in this roll and write game

I suspect that this is my highest rated roll and write game on the list. I don’t know of one that I’d have put higher. But I like this one because it gives you a lot to do but not too much. You need to balance leveling up characters, getting health potions, moving around the dungeon, crafting items, and being able to fight the various bosses to score points. That is a lot, but it really comes down to rolling some dice and deciding how to use two of the dice rolled. And then, if you figure out what to do well you combo into a whole lot more.

Buy Paper Dungeons

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.

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Message me on Twitter at @TheScando
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Catch up on my Top 100 Games (of all Time) 2023 Edition:

100 through 91
90 through 81
80 through 71
70 through 61
60 through 51
50 through 41
40 through 31
30 through 21

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition – 20 through 11

20. Hanamikoji

The list, this time, starts off with a two player only game and my favorite truly two player only game. Hanamikoji is an amazing game of trying to win the favor of Geisha by giving them gifts. There are seven Geisha and each of them has a point value and equal number of gifts assigned to them. If you win the favor, give the most gifts, to four of them or eleven points, you win.

But where the game is amazing is how you hand out the gifts. Both players have four actions that they can do. And a round to see who has favor ends when both players have done all their actions. But the actions are what make the game shine.

Two of the actions are close to each other. One is to put a card face down to save it for the end of the round to give as a gift. The other is play two face down that won’t be used. Then the final two actions interact with your opponent. One is to play three cards face up and they pick one to put in front of a Geisha on their side and you get the other two. The final one is to create two groups of two cards and your opponent picks one.

Those choices are tough and I love that about the game. I even use what I play out as sometimes a way to let me opponent help me know what way to do. Or to gather information. Highly recommend this as a quick two player game.

Buy Hanamikoji

19. Cartographers

Next up is my second highest roll and write style game, and you’ll see the highest very soon. But Cartographers is a game about making maps and building it out in a way that scores you the most points. It’s odd, in theme, because you’d think you’d want all the maps to be identical, nope, not really.

But the game does two things that I really like. The first being that it has monsters, and why are monsters great, you might ask? Well, monsters are great because they are a negative to what you are doing. But it isn’t a negative that you control, it’s a negative that someone else plays on y our board. And I like that player interaction that often doesn’t exist in roll and write games. In Cartographers you got it because I want to add a monster that will mess you up.

Then the other thing is how Cartographers does the scoring. Scoring is done via seasons and each season scores two of the four areas. This isn’t that unique to Cartographers, but it is a fun twist to the game. It is also unique to roll and write games, at least the ones that I’ve come across. So in spring I score, let’s call them, A and B. Well, A isn’t going to come back around until winter when I score D and A. So there is a balance about which goals you are going for. And after summertime, B isn’t going to be scored again.

Buy Cartographers

18. Railroad Ink Challenge

And let’s go onto the top roll and write style game for me, Railroad Ink, though in particular, Railroad Ink Challenge. I love this game, and the app definitely helps, though I haven’t played it in a while. Railroad Ink is primarily about connecting railroad and road points around the edge of the board.

Railroad Ink Challenge builds upon that with a few different things. There are now stations where if you build a connection that connects roads and trains, which is a certain side of the dice, there, you get more points. And there are special sides of dice that you can use that often have those stations. Plus you get more points for traveling through the middle. And there are spots that when you cover them give you other bonuses as well. I like those additions to the game.

The one that I really like for the game, though, is the new challenge cards. The challenge cards offer different objectives on rounds three through five, that you can score. Now, you are able to score them later, but if you do that, they are worth fewer points. So it is a push to get those scores, but not too much of one to mess up your connections and longest routes because those are going to give you the most points.

Buy Railroad Ink Challenge

17. Xenoshyft

Now we’re onto the first of several games with deck building that make it towards the top of my list. I really like deck building and Xenoshyft is some of the best cooperative deck building out there. I love it for that, and for the theme which feels a whole lot like Starship Troopers as you’re fighting off wave after wave of bugs.

But let’s talk about what I really like about this deck building. There are a number of things that I cover in the video, but I’ll just hit the highlights. The first being that every turn you get money. So there is no hand where you’re not going to be able to buy a card. You will always be able to add a card, which is great because another thing I like, the cards you buy go to your hand, not into a discard for future rounds.

The other element that I really like is the amount of cooperation in the game. As you play and deal with the waves, you might end up with a hand with too many weapons or not enough troops. Well, someone can give you a troop if they have extra or to balance out the defenses better. You can pass off a weapon to someone else. They change decks they are in now. And there are consumables. I can use a consumable item, it stays in my deck, on the lane that you’re defending from the bugs just as easily as mine. So it’s a puzzle that all players work together on to solves very cooperatively.

Buy Xenoshyft

16. First Rat

Now we’re onto a game, two in row actually, that my first experience was at Gen Con in 2022. First Rat was one of the hottest games that year, and I got to play it, demo it, the very last day there. Since then it is one that has hit the table more times because of the fun theme and because it’s a thinky game, but it’s easy to play. For me, a game that makes me think but isn’t too complex to play is what I really like.

In First Rat you are rats who are trying to build rocket ships to make it to the moon, because the moon is made of cheese, obviously. To do that you need to collect resources, like baking soda, vinegar (propulsion), coffee can (fuselage), or a calculator (navigation) to build parts of the rocket. But there is more than just that going on because you are going up a track that only moves forward.

So you need to balance the speed that you go as well as pushing up other things, like lights. If you light an area that now offers doubles the resources for you. And you don’t just have one rat that goes up, you have multiple. Plus how the rats move is fun. One rat is able to move farther on a turn, but if you move two and land on the same color with both, you need to in fact, you get resources for both. It’s a fun twist and as you unlock more rats that is fun as well to figure out your engine for that game.

Buy First Rat

15. Ready Set Bet

Now the other game from Gen Con 2022 is Ready Set Bet. Ready Set Bet is not a game that immediately grabbed my attention. It’s a real time horse racing and betting game. That sounds like chaos, and in all fairness, there is a bit of chaos going on. But it is so much fun.

The game is pretty simple, one person (or an app) is calling the race. Rolling dice and moving the horses along the track. Everyone else is throwing down bets on horses to win, or get 2nd or 3rd. Plus there are other bets, that you can make. Those are going to be something like, if the 5 and 9 beat the 7 horse. Because rolling two D6, 7 is the most likely number to come up.

So how does the 7 not win the vast majority of the time? Well, because there are special rules for how horses move. All horses will move one if their number is rolled. But the less likely the number is to be rolled, the further the horse moves, if the same number is rolled twice in a row. So that can help one of those edge horses rocket up into the lead just because their number was rolled a couple of times.

I love Ready Set Bet because of that catch-up mechanism of balancing mechanism. The game is just a blast to play. And almost always a race or two throughout the game ends up with a late lead change and stand-up moments as players really want a horse to finish and with a couple of rolls they might be able to, as long as another number doesn’t come up.

Buy Ready Set Bet

14. Sleeping Gods

Now we go to a run of three bigger story driven games. The first being Sleeping Gods, and soon I’ll have Sleeping Gods: Distant Skies to add to the list as well. But this is an open world adventure and exploration game from Red Raven Games. In Sleeping Gods you can go anywhere, but you’re trying to find totems so you can get back to the real world instead of this one you blew into during a storm.

You play as the crew of the Manticore, or really as the Manticore itself. You travel around and then taking the crew to shore or other locations you interact with story. And Ryan Laukat and everyone involved did an amazing job with the story. You get to experience a chunk of it, but not too much so it’s replayable. And the story is not in any order, but the story all works because it’s exploring the world and there are a few spots where it pauses with big events no matter what.

I also like the game system. I didn’t talk about it too much in last nights video, but it is great. It’s simple in what you’re doing, spending icons, basically, a boost roles. Or some characters have icons built into them that you can use. And the combat mechanism is a bit odd, but I really enjoyed it as you try and figure out how to cover up damage spots on a monster.

Buy Sleeping Gods

13. ISS Vanguard

Now another one of the story games and another one that I played on Malts and Meeples. ISS Vanguard is an epic experience of a game. I don’t know, yet, if I can call it an adventure, but the experience of the game is amazing. Humanity has decoded coordinates hidden in human DNA for someone in the stars. So a crew has been put together to go out there, what will they find?

That’s the premise for the game and everything. Now the crew of the ISS Vanguard find themselves at those coordinates, and what they find is not what they expected. So you get to explore planets and find out what is really going on. And then you spend time maintaining and improving the ship, finding and researching new technologies and breakthroughs. Plus memorializing crew who have died and healing the injured.

I love that about this game. It offers two parts, planet and ship, and both are equally as important. When they announced the ship part, I thought it might be too much just maintenance. But there is story, there is progression and there are real decisions to be made. So I love both parts, in some ways, I almost prefer the ship part because it’s so interesting and smooth to play.

Buy ISS Vanguard

12. Roll Player Adventures

Now another campaign game, though this one shorter than ISS Vanguard. Roll Player Adventures is 11 chapters, I believe. And there is a side quest that you can do. But set in the world of Roll Player, a character creation game, and Lock-up from Thunderworks Games, this is the big adventure that you can take those characters you created or pre-generated ones on an adventure.

This game has a lot of story to it and choose your own adventure elements. But each map you play, each scenario you play, is going to continue that story. The main mechanism in the game is completing challenges or defeating monsters by dice placement and manipulation. And that is a fun element of the game. I think it’s a bit easier with more players though, so just note that.

I also like how you have three tracks in the game. That shows how much or little favor you have with a group. That is one way where the game is going to be vary variable. And I like it for the game because some elements of the map and how you interact are going to stay the same. But as your favor changes that’ll open up or close off some options to you.

Buy Roll Player Adventures

11. Aeon’s End

Finally we end with another deck building game, this one is also cooperative, and it is Aeon’s End. Aeon’s End is a game of defending the town of Gravehold from a nemesis that is coming through. Can the breach mages stand against it or will the nemesis and it’s minions overwhelm?

This is all of Aeon’s End stuff. I have played it on Malts and Meeples as well. So I’ll drop in the video below. But I love this game for it’s cooperative play and for it’s unique turn order. However, I think the turn order probably means it should be a two handed solo game, or a two player game. You put six cards, two for each character and two for the nemesis into pile at two players. Then that is shuffled and you draw your turn order randomly. Once all six are drawn, you shuffle it up again. I love that.

I also love how much the game offers for you to do with your money. You might want to buy more spells and more powerful spells to hit the nemesis or their minions. Or you might have a special power that you want to power up. But you also need to think about spending the money (gems) to open up more breaches. Because you are only able to prepare and cast spells for the numbers of breaches that you have. It’s a good system where you want to do everything but probably can’t quite, realistically.

Buy Aeon’s End

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 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.

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The Isofarian Guard Unboxing

Like I said for a massive game, this is a bigger box than Frosthaven and more weight, there are way less minis. Only five minis in the game, but it gets it’s bulk in a number of different areas. The biggest being that it has a load of chips. Now, we didn’t look at all of them in great detail, but that’s basically the main mechanism for the game.

You build up your bag of chips and what you draw is how you are activating in combat. So it’s leveling up your character which I believe gives you new powers and/or new chips. Those might be specific to those powers, so you might just be manipulating the ratio of offensive to defensive chips in your bag depending on how the character is being built around surviving.

Of course, this game isn’t just about that bag combat. There are other elements in the game as well. Mainly exploring the map, finding the story you need, and interacting with different characters. So it promises a nicely developed RPG like system for a board game while using non-dice mechanics. I feel like while this matches up with Chip Theory Games with the chips, it is pulling from what Gloomhaven did to say that you don’t need to do a dungeon crawler with dice to chuck. A good story driven game can offer different luck.

Upcoming Streams

So, tomorrow, Wednesday, I’ll be streaming my sixth game of ISS Vanguard. You can find that stream over here. Click that notification bell to know when I go live, but if not, it’s at 8 PM Central time. But join me as I continue to dive into the game basically making my first major planetary exploration without the game telling me what to do. Let’s see what horrible things await us on the planet.

Then Monday at 8:30 PM Central time, I plan on doing a game play. It might be back to Planet Unknown, or there are some other games to be played solo that have come in. I picked up Wreckland Run from the Renegade solo line that I want to play.

And my apologies for Saturday. I meant to do the pack opening and chat, but my kid gave me a cold. So I was wiped out that day and evening and took it easy. You can hear plenty of the coughing in this video. Hopefully I’ll have time to stream that oon.

And if you want to know when I go live, checkout the channel page and subscribe. You can get notifications as to whenever I go live which is probably the simplest way to know. That link is here.

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