Top 15 Campaign Games I Still Need to Play

15. Ticket to Ride: Legends of the West

I know that I’m going to like this game. So why is Ticket to Ride Legacy lower on the list? Some of it is because it is a legacy game. The two “legacy” games that I have on the list are the bottom two. But also because while I like Ticket to Ride a lot, it’s not a game that I play all that often. I think that the legacy version will likely breath new life into the game for me. But it’s more of a comfort food pick than a really exciting new bite to try. And for that reason it’s lower on the list.

14. Clank Legacy 1 & 2

The other legacy game is actually two legacy games. So did I cheat, I’ll let you decide. But this one is lower on the list because I know that I love Clank! already. And I really like the Acquisitions Inc guys as well, so that is a great theme for me. But it’s like I said for Ticket to Ride: Legends of the West, this is more comfort food. I already know that I will like both of the games. But it’s higher on the list because I like Clank better than I like Ticket to Ride, and because I think the writing is just going to be a great time that’s a ton of fun.

13. Tales from the Red Dragon Inn

Speaking of fun writing, I expect that Tales from the Red Dragon Inn is going to be another game with fun writing. This one is supposed to be a simpler, or less in depth dungeon crawler game and there are some good playthroughs of it. I’d recommend checking otu the playthrough that was done done on Meet me at the Table. They’re one of my favorite channels, and it shows how fast it is to get the game to the table and get playing.

12. Kinfire Chronicles

Speaking of another campaign game that I’ve heard a lot of good things about, we have Kinfire Chronicles. This is again supposed to be a friendlier and easier to get into campaign game than some. I like the look of the aesthetic of the game. And it’s not a mini heavy experience which might make it easier to get to the table. But it’s probably easier to see what it’s like at the table. I really do like how the cast of characters looks like a ton of fun and familiar fantasy but not the completely normal fantasy.

11. Tidal Blades 2

For this one I’ll add a video from Man vs Meeples. But I know more about this one. Some of the previous ones I just went on theme. This one is a dungeon crawler or adventure style game with scenarios where you are in this beautiful world dealing with monsters who attacked a festival and more in the story.

But the mechanisms got me to pick up this game. I like how you add in cards to a grid and then you activate a row or a column. But once every spot in a row or column is filled and you activate it, it wipes. And you have basic actions on spots without cards, but it’s a rising and falling action as you try and play through the scenario and defeat the monsters.

10. Etherfields

Now we’re onto Etherfields. The only campaign game from Awaken Realms that I haven’t gotten to the table. And this one actually left my collection for a very short time. But as I said, I love campaign games so I got it back. I put this one where because I love the theme of it. I have heard that it is rough around the edges but the theme gets me.

You are exploring dreams and each dream is going to be a little bit different. Some of them might be more dream like, but the fun of dreams, at least in a board game is that they can be nightmares as well. And that means that the game is going to have twisted and crazy and surreal scenarios and that sounds amazing to me. I know one element was a bit of a grind, but I believe that there are rules out there now that help fix that.

9. Kingdom: Death Monster

Then we get to one that maybe should be higher on the list. Kingdom: Death Monster is not the grand daddy of all campaign games, that’s Gloomhaven in a lot of ways. But this one is one of the games that really showed what you could do and create a massive game with a ton of expansions and a ton of minis in it. I only have the core box and there is a ton in there.

In this game it’s a boss battler campaign. You start at no one, really you don’t even have language yet. But as you play, you grow you tribe, figure out new things, like ways to make weapons and armor, develop language and more. All that while sending out your hunters to try and defeat boss monsters who are sometimes going to take out your hunters. And that’s why you need to keep growing your village. But Meet Me At The Table has great videos on this as well.

8. Divinity Original Sin

This is a game that I need to play through both as a video game but also as the board game. I had fun watching Felicia Day an Ryan Day play through it on their streams back in the day. So it is a game that I have played some, in the video game. But the board game sounds great for it as well. The theme definitely helps with that as does the fact that this isn’t a grid movement map but more of an area movement game. And I really like how there’s that campaign element and adventure element to it without purely being a dungeon crawler game.

7. Dragon Eclipse

Alright, I kind of lied about having played all of the Awaken Realms campaign games. This is one that might actually get to the table sooner because I think it might be easier to get to the table. I didn’t think of it though, because it just got in. In this game you are collecting dragons and battling dragons. Does that sound a bit like Pokemon, that makes sense. But it’s a game with a fun theme and compared to some campaign games, it’s a campaign game that you can play true solo which is great for me.

6. Nova Aetas Renaissance

You’ll notice and probably already have noticed a trend of the videos that I share here. A ton of them are from Meet Me At the Table. A lot of these games I had already backed before they played them. But this is one that I tracked down because of the channel. I love the 3D nature of the experience for this game. And how, in one of the scenarios a house that is 3D can be taken apart and flattened. But there is more than that as well.

The story of the game is fun. It feels like it mixes up a few things from historical to make fantastical. And then it uses a fun mechanism for whose turn it is. You spend you action points and move around a time track. Whomever is at the end of the track is going to be who activates next. There are some other rules for it as well. So you can’t just stack up turn after turn after turn before the bad guys go, but it’s a fun element to the game.

5. Agemonia

Then we have Agemonia. This is a rare campaign game that I didn’t back right off the bat on crowdfunding. Or I should say a rare one that I looked into a lot and didn’t end up backing. This game seems to have a fun world and setting to play in and that’s some of what drew me in right away for it. But there were other elements that kept me coming back for it as well.

I liked how the maps were in books and that felt different. But also beyond that, as more places are doing that now, the world would change. You draw out a card after interacting with a point and cover it up. That might create a different point of interaction or it might be nothing to do there anymore. And the game play just seems simple enough to be easy to learn and play, but offer some solid choices in combat as well.

4. The Elder Scrolls

Next is another new one to come in. But it’s a fun theme that a lot of people are going to be drawn to. For me it’s less the theme and more that it’s a shorter campaign based off of the Too Many Bones system that I really am excited for.

If you’re not familiar with the system, you level up after missions. Or you can anyways. And as you spend your points to try and level up you get better or unlock new abilities. You can add to base stats, which can be good, or you can add to the specialty dice that you roll. And while this streamlines it a bit from what it was with Too Many Bones, I’m excited for it and the world that the game is set in certainly helps.

3. Middara

Now the top 4 are going to be ones that I really would love to play. Yes, you read that correctly, we’re on #3 and we have four games to go including this one. How is that, I couldn’t pick between my top two. But Middara is very safely into that group. And soon I’m going to be having more Middara come in. I say soon, I expect maybe this time next year.

But Middara is going to be a classic dungeon crawler with a ton of story and a ton of dice chucking. But I really like the theme and look of the game. You go to another world, chosen to go there kind of it’s weird to explain. But you are chucking dice to defeat monsters, level up and become awesome. But the whole aesthetic of the game gives me a really strong anime feel. I’ve heard that sometimes trips up the writing, but overall people really enjoy it. And to me that sounds exciting.

1c. Oathsworn

Next we have Oathsworn. And this, this is the three way tie for first place. Why did I not just remove the last game from the list, because I wanted to mention it too. Oathsworn is another boss battler game. But it is a game that is split into two parts. And that excites me about the game. You get a mystery or exploration phase where you experience a lot of story. And then you go beat up that boss. But if you do well on the story the boss maybe is easier.

And I really like the mechanisms in the game. I kept games that I’d really played off of the list. I did a short demo of this one two years ago at Gen Con and I adored it. There is this great card system where cards have to cool down before you can use them again. And then you decide how many dice you are going to roll, some are required, but the more you roll the more chances you to bust and miss, but the greater a hit could be. Or you could play it safer and draw cards, but eventually that deck of cards will run cold and do you switch to dice then?

1b. Primal: The Awakening

Next tied at the top is Primal: The Awakening. This one is another boss battler game. And this one I should probably get to the table sooner than some. A nice thing about Primal is that it doesn’t need to be a campaign, you can also play it as a one off. And that would definitely make it easier for me to get it to the table.

But this is a game that is all about the boss battle. There is a little story between scenarios and a chance to upgrade, but it’s not going to be nearly as much other stuff as just a pure battle. And the battle is different as well. You play on a tiny board with just four sides of the monster that you can be on. And depending the stance the monster is in, you need to be in specific spots to do damage. Add in card play for this which you can pull of powerful combos, that’s great. Of course, depending on what cards you play, you might trigger a lot of monster reactions.

1a. Arydia

And finally the most recent game to the campaign game collection. This one barely beat out Elder Scrolls for that title, we have Arydia. Arydia is another game that I passed on originally when it was on crowdfunding but then I went back and late pledged it. I just kept on being drawn into one part of the game.

The game is at three different levels. Now I don’t mean that you build stuff up on the table. I mean that you explore the world at three different levels. You explore at a high level where you get general encounters and interactions. Then you can dive down deeper and start to interact with specific characters or explore a location in more detail. Finally, you might then drop into combat which is tactical movement on a map. And that massiveness of the world really drew me to the game.

Final Thoughts

You might think that is enough. But there is going to be another list, probably tomorrow for games that I want to come back to or that are new editions or versions of games that I’ve already played as campaign games. I expect that is only going to make it to ten, but that’s a lot. And this list even didn’t include everything. The campaign in Solomon Kane could have made the list. And I know that I just didn’t see some games on the shelf that would have made sense for the list as well. And there are games that I likely missed too because I don’t think of them as campaign games.

What campaign games do you want to get played? And how do you find time to play them all? Or are you like me where you have more campaign games than you can play?

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Top 5 Anime Board Games

5. Sword Art Online: Fellowship of Swords

This is one where it is based on an anime, and one that I really like, Sword Art Online. Let me just say, if this game wasn’t based on SAO, I wouldn’t own it. It’s a pretty simple Yahtzee like game where you collect dice to use for attacks. There isn’t much you can do to manipulate the dice, so you roll, keep and hope you hit. And then, if you hit, you deal out damage and if you hit well, you “switch” with another character.

The concept is fun, but this is where I struggle with games based on anime. The concept of the game is actually interesting, but when it comes to execution, it’s only partly done. The choices are limited and don’t leave me feeling like I made too many decisions. I think I make more decision in Yahtzee than in Sword Art Online: Fellowship of Swords.

4. Krosmaster Arena/Quest

I thought about a couple of battle games on this list. Through, I put both Krosmaster Arena and Quest on here. They both use the same IP which is again anime or animated anyways. The characters feel like they belong in an anime.

In Krosmaster Arena, you beat up other characters, knock them out, and collect gold to be the first one to a number of points. Or you play where you just knock them out. In Quest, well, it is going to add in quests. This game is fun because you build your team and can tailor the game play to what you want to do. Similar in nature to Super Fantasy Brawl, though it came out first, I prefer Super Fantasy Brawl, Krosmaster just gives the anime feel.

3. Middara: Unintentional Malum Act 1

I said there would be one I haven’t played on the list. Here it is. Middara is one I’ve messed around with and watched played. But this is clearly an anime inspired game. The whole setting and lots of story lean into that. In fact if you watch the videos around the game and how it works, it even doubles down on feeling like that.

This is the only one of these games that is a campaign game. So good for me with with. As most of the other campaign games fall into the space or fantasy category. I say that, but also that is the character I want more anime games. Good anime builds rich story. The ones above, they don’t as much.

2. Bullet *Star*

The other one I need to play still is Bullet. You pick if you want Bullet Star or Orange or whatever it might be. In Bullet from Level 99 Games you play as an anime character using your powers to deal with bullets that are coming down and putting them onto a bad guy or your opponents.

From what I remember about this game, it is a fast one. The game itself goes quickly as you use your powers to play out cards and get those bullets where they need to go. But the game itself is pattern manipulation. You play out cards to clear off your board. It’s one that I need to learn so I can play it solo some Monday night on Malts and Meeples.

1. Aeon’s End/Astro Knights

Finally, we have Aeon’s End or Astro Knights. These two games are the same game, generally. Using a system of readying attacks and then attacking in a deck building game. Also no shuffling of that deck you build, you just build, flip the deck and continue when everything hits the discard pile. Theoretically you can set yourself up some with how cards hit the discard. And it does work, sometimes.

But why that theme of anime? I think that Aeon’s End borrows some story elements from anime. When I went through the legacy version, I got some feeling of an anime like Gurren Lagann. And I think that Astro Knights leans more into that anime style artwork. So it’s nice to see a board game, like Middara, take inspiration from anime to build it’s own world.

Final Thoughts

I will continue to harp on this for a long time until there are good games based on anime. I do want to try the Cowboy Bebop Deck building game. But so many anime driven games are focused on basic mechanisms with a few cards that give you the theme while otherwise being a generic game. Anime is rich and full of tons of different stories.

Maybe the trick is that an anime game works if it is themed to feel like anime, not based on an actual one. It is possible that the IP’s are held too tightly to allow for good game creation around them. If that is the case, it’s sad, and I hope that changes.

What’s your favorite game with an anime theme or feel?

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To Be Played Board Games I Own Ranked

1 ISS Vanguard

This is one that I really want to play. It’s Awaken Realms and they make giant and amazing games, I really like all of theirs I’ve tried. And this one is a massive space adventure sandbox game. You can pick where you go as you try and figure out the mystery of why humanity was signaled about this information and what is going on. It sounds amazing. It sounds highly impressive and ambitious so I want to give it go. It might be one I stream, but I kind of want to do this in a group.

2 Lands of Galzyr (Already Played Since Writing The List)

Lands of Galzyr is one that I will be playing soon, I might even have played it by the time this article comes out. January 4^th is going to be the first day on Malts and Meeples. So if you are reading this after that, you can checkout some game play. I’m planning on doing a few sessions of what feels like a nice relaxing board game. And one that has a story that you can play through without being as much of a campaign game. It’s more bits of story that happen over time versus a massive overall story .

3 Middara: Unintentional Malum – Act 1

But speaking of massive overall stories, we have another campaign game in Middara: Unintentional Malum. Just Act 1 is out now, but I have the other two pre-ordered. This like I said is a campaign and it’s set on another planet but is more fantasy. It’s a mix of both fantasy and sci-fi and real world which is interesting and probably best described as an anime setting. The game play looks fun, and it’s so big that I’m not sure it’s a candidate for Malts and Meeples. But I can’t want to get it to the table.

4 Clank!: Catacombs

A new game, just about arriving, or should be in the next week. Clank! Catacombs is just another version of Clank! But this time it has a map you build out as you go. I think that’s a cool twist, so I want to get it into my collection, give it a try and see if I keep all of the versions. But I love Clank and this isn’t the only time you’ll see it on the list.

5 Cthulhu: Death May Die

Another bigger game, this one is a cooperative adventure to defeat a great old one. But it isn’t a campaign game, this is a one off scenario game which is interesting and I want to get it to the table. This one might not be too hard to table because of that. But I need to learn the rules still. Plus I want to do the push for madness so I grow stronger, but not too mad so the character is eliminated.

6 Deep Madness

To add to that, another one that’s been in my collection for a bit, and I think this is kind of a campaign and kind of not. You’re exploring an under water base where everyone has gone missing. A distress signal came through but what is going on. Of course there are monsters coming from a rift and now you’re fighting Lovecraftian monsters hoping to complete your mission and get out of there. There are a number of scenarios which is fun as each gives you slightly different things to do.

7 burncycle

Another one off game, kind of like the previous two. burncycle is a Chip Theory game that looks really interesting. You are robots trying to into a corporation, hack the network, complete objectives and do all of that without being seen. The story of the world is great too, robots took over, then humans made a comeback, and now you’re the robots trying to survive which I think is just fun.

8 My Father’s Work

Yet another big game, there are some smaller ones for sure on the list and some coming up, but you know me. My Father’s Work is a worker placement game where you are ty ring to complete your father’s work in some experiment that is suspect at best. Think like making Frankenstein’s monster. It’s played over three generations which is cool because you can take some stuff forward but not everything. And there is a ton of story in the game as well.

9 Clank!: Legacy – Acquisitions Incorporated

The other Clank! Game on the list, this one is the Legacy version. It maybe should be higher, but I don’t know when I’ll get to it. I love Clank! In general so I want to get it to the table. But because it’s a legacy game, I need to find a group and time to play it with. I will get it played eventually.

10 Etherfields

Another big Awaken Realms game. I didn’t go all in on it, but I still have a lot to play. You are in a dream world, diving into different dreams to complete objectives. And from what I’ve heard the dreams are nice and different so the game gives you a good variety of what you are doing. Which I mean, they should be, because some dreams are nightmares and others are fluffy bunnies, so you want a good mix.

The Rest of the List

And I’m stopping writing up on them, but you can see the rest down below. There is a wide variety of games. And some of them are more kids games which I’m going to be most apt to play as my kid gets older. So stuff like Rhino Hero Super Battle, though that might get played with adults. Or Coconuts and Hey That’s My Fish are all examples of ones I’ll get to eventually.

11 Hadrian’s Wall

12 Solomon Kane

13 Cat in the Box: Deluxe Edition

14 Uprising: Curse of the Last Emperor

15 Welcome to the Moon

16 Aquatica

17 Sea of Legends

18 Terraforming Mars

19 Nemesis

20 Bullet

21 Riverside

22 Get on Board: New York & London

23 Betrayal Legacy

24 Tiny Turbo Cars

25 Forgotten Waters

26 Descent: Legends of the Dark

27 Astra

28 Everdell

29 Maximum Apocalypse: Legendary Edition

30 The Ratcatcher: The Solo Adventure Game

31 Hanamikoji: Geisha’s Road

32 Bargain Basement Bathysphere (Played)

33 Ghosts of Christmas

34 Set a Watch: Swords of the Coin

35 Spirit Island

36 Folklore: The Affliction

37 Call To Adventure: Epic Origins

38 Imperium: Legends

39 Massive Darkness 2: Hellscape

40 New York Zoo

41 Chronicles of Crime

42 HEXplore It: The Forests of Adrimon

43 Tidal Blades: Heroes of the Reef

44 GROVE: A 9 card solitaire game (Played)

45 Abyss

46 Western Legends

47 Mechs vs. Minions

48 Heroes of Land  Air & Sea

49 Radlands

50 Horizon Zero Dawn: The Board Game

51 18 Holes: Course Architect (Played)

52 Cascadia

53 Bloodborne: The Board Game

54 Fantastic Factories

55 Escape the Dark Sector

56 Valor & Villainy: Minions of Mordak

57 Dungeon Party: Starter Pack

58 Escape the Dark Castle

59 Zombicide: Undead or Alive

60 QE

61 Furnace

62 Space Base

63 Doodle Dungeon

64 Vengeance: Roll & Fight – Episode 2

65 Three Sisters

66 Formula D

67 Menara

68 Splitter (Played)

69 Welcome to Dino World

70 Marvel: Remix

71 The Bloody Inn

72 Zoo-ography

73 Via Magica (Played)

74 Arcadia Quest

75 Flick of Faith

76 Adventure Land

77 Alien Frontiers

78 Time of Legends: Joan of Arc

79 Mythic Battles: Pantheon

80 Black Rose Wars

81 Catacombs & Castles

82 Kabuto Sumo

83 Shakespeare

84 The Dragon Prince: Battlecharged

85 Champions of Hara

86 Loup Garou

87 Boomerang

88 Wingspan

89 Chronicles of Avel

90 Camel Up (Second Edition)

91 Thornwatch

92 Pioneer Days

93 Cowboy Bebop: Boardgame Boogie

94 Tannhäuser

95 Crash Octopus

96 Mariposas

97 Dragonscales

98 Paper Tales

99 TAGS

100 The Faceless

101 Jamaica

102 Reichbusters: Projekt Vril

103 6 nimmt!

104 Heaven & Ale

105 Periodic: A Game of The Elements

106 Silver & Gold

107 Star Realms

108 Dinosaur Island: Rawr ‘n Write

109 Blueprints

110 Codinca

111 Can’t Stop

112 Rhino Hero: Super Battle

113 Longboard

114 Kingdom Rush: Rift in Time

115 Vault Wars

116 Descent: Journeys in the Dark (Second Edition)

117 Cockroach Poker

118 Danger Park

119 Summer Camp

120 WWE Legends Royal Rumble Card Game

121 Papillon

122 Palm Island

123 Starship Samurai

124 KeyForge: Call of the Archons

125 Escape the Room: Mystery at the Stargazer’s Manor

126 Fireball Island: The Curse of Vul-Kar

127 Journey: Wrath of Demons

128 Coconuts

129 Hey  That’s My Fish!

130 My Hero Academia: Plus Ultra! Board Game

131 Boy Band Builder: The Card Game

132 Dinosaur Tea Party

133 In a Flash Firefighters

134 What Do you Meme?: Family Edition

How Many Will I Get To This Year?

That’s a great question. My hope is to get my unplayed games below 100, that was my goal last year. And this is where I was at the end of 2022. So clearly I didn’t do that. Some of it is that I buy games as well. Some might leave never having been played. But I really do want to play most if not all of them. And some of them lower on the list will get played before ones higher on the list.

Do you have a favorite from this list that you think I should get to? Or which one of your to be played games do you want to get to first?

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Top 10 Games I’d Crowdfund Again

So, you can really tell what sorts of games I tend to back on crowdfunding from this list. Though, it isn’t completely true. The big thing with making this list is that I know a lot of the smaller games I can pick-up at retail. So that definitely influenced my list.

I think if we were to talk about the games that might get played more often, it’d be a different list of my games backed on Kickstarter and Gamefound. But for the ones that I’d look at now and definitely go all in on, or go in heavily on again, definitely going to be those bigger campaign games.

As part of the conversation with the chat, join live and you can be part of it as well, we did end up talking about some of the smaller games that I backed as well. There are some that I’d be remiss if I didn’t want to back them again. And at the very end, even, I went and tracked down a few I know I will be keeping an eye on. So a lot of crowdfunding was covered but mainly about those 10 (cheated with an 11) games.

Upcoming Streams

Wednesday I am going to be playing the next scenario in Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. The video is already up so you can head over and click that notification bell to know when I am going live. The video is here.

As for next Monday, I am not sure what that stream is going to be yet. I think I might be looking to play a game of some sort. Most likely a smaller game so I can chat, but there are a number of games I am going to want to get to the table soon. There is also a chance that I will be doing an unboxing. I believe that I have Etherfields coming in soon as well as Marvel Dice Throne, and then not too long until Oathsworn. So I can unbox a lot.

What are your top games that you would back again on Crowdfunding?

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Campaign Game List

Let’s see all of the games that I put on the list. We have several that are fantasy, really all are, one with more of an anime theme to it. And then we also have a legacy game on the list as well. Some are bigger campaigns, some are going to be more focused on shorter stories. But let’s see what they all are.

Aeon’s End: Legacy of Gravehold

Starting of with Aeon’s End: Legacy of Gravehold. This is the continuation of what has happened before in Aeon’s End. Kind of an arc from Aeon’s End Legacy, two big box standalone games, and now Aeon’s End: Legacy of Gravehold. You can see how the game plays down below, as I played Aeon’s End Legacy already. That said, I’d be really happy to play the new one.

Why do I want to play this one? Firstly, I know that I love the game already. My game play includes Aeon’s End, Aeon’s End: War Eternal, and Aeon’s End Legacy of the five, now six, games of the series. And I really love Aeon’s End Legacy as a jumping in point for the game. It teaches you how to play the game so nicely. The story was there, but the game was a lot of fun. So I want more of that from Aeon’s End: Legacy of Gravehold. On the flip side it is one that I’ve kind of already showcased.

Folklore: The Affliction

Next up we have Folklore: The Affliction. This is going to be an RPG like board game. You get a character with a class, and you take them on adventures. I picked this one up because it seems to do a lot of things I like in RPG’s. And it’ll give me a chance to be a player in the game instead of always the dungeon master.

The darker theme of this game drew me in. Now, it doesn’t seem too dark, but it’s about werewolves, vampires, ghosts, and things like that. Those, I really don’t consider too dark, but more it seems to lean into a grittier and more violent world. I’m playing Roll Player Adventures that has some of that stuff, but has a much lighter tone. So I am curious to see the whole story of all that I have for this game.

HEXplore It: The Forest of Adrimon

HEXplore It is a series that I was only so interested in after watching a play through. I think I saw for the Sands of Shurax, and the game does seem fun. You go around, you find some adventures to go on, and you level up your characters.

This one interested me, though with that more grim forest setting than it did with the desert setting for some reason. And I am curious to see how the characters work for this game. It appears to be an interesting system without the heavy narrative driving direction of the story. It is more about the adventure and story that you find along the way.

Middara: Unintentional Malum Act 1

Now, if we want to talk about a game with a ton of story, most definitely Middara: Unintentional Malum does the trick. This is the game that gives me the anime feel. You are from Earth, but you have a connection or genes that connect with this other world. And brought through a space gate, of sorts, you are transported to this new world where things are very very different than Earth. The themes and artwork might not be for everyone, but I am very curious.

Having an anime dungeon crawler seems like a no brainer for me. I really like anime, and I really like dungeon crawls. As for streaming this game, I am worried about fitting it all on the camera, or on the table, as there is a lot to it. That said, I still really want to get it to the table to dive into and experience the story.

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game

Now for a game with a very different scope. Pathfinder Adventure Card Game is just that, a card game, but like something like Arkham Horror: The Card Game or Apocrypha (which it is based on), this one uses cards as locations and builds up challenges for the players.

I am really interested to see what is different in the second edition compared to the first. I do have the pirate base game for the first edition as well. So I could play either. I know that it’s a system I find interesting and have had fun with. There is even a solid app that I should maybe download and play with again. But it tells a lighter story than some with good deck construction fun in the game.

Perdition’s Mouth: Abyssal Rift

I wrote about this one not to long ago, and this is another very dark dungeon crawling game. That said, it is an interesting take on it, and has some very nice components. It is also going to be very different than a lot of the games because it is nice a dice chucker. Instead, it builds it’s combat all around a rondel action system.

Each character has action points, and that determines how far they can, if they want, move around that rondel. However, action points are used for other things as well, which means that moving too far isn’t always the best plan. It is a really interesting puzzle with simpler mechanics than a lot of dungeon crawl games. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have depth, because picking the right options and setting up turns is tricky.

Solomon Kane

Finally, but not least, we have Solomon Kane. This is going to be a big story driven adventure game from Mythic Games. In Solomon Kane you play as virtues who are helping Solomon Kane go around through stories trying to keep the darkness at bay and figure out what he needs to do.

There are a lot of good reviews on this one, and I am very curious about it. Part of me wants to hold on a little bit, because I need to reach out to Mythic Games to get the updated rules and cards for the game. I didn’t back this on Kickstarter, I got it on eBay so that means I don’t automatically get it, at least not without contacting them. But this feels like a very different story and way of handling things in a game.

Final Thoughts

Firstly, here is the poll again now that you know more about all of the games.

But let me know your thoughts on what I should play. There are a number that I am interested in, and I think all, while being covered are going to be interesting ones to get to the table. And I’d love to start knocking out some of these campaigns that I can play solo. Especially before the likes of Frosthaven, ISS Vanguard, HEL: The Last Saga, and Isofarian Guard come in to add themselves to the mix as well.

I really probably need to stop getting more campaign games. But I did just add Middara Acts 2 and 3 through the pledge manager re-opening. So even more campaign to play. And I know I skipped mentioning other ones that I have backed as well, or that I will be backing Rogue Angels when it comes back to Kickstarter around the start of August.

Which one do you think I should stream?

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Why Go Through This Crowdfunding?

I think that it is interesting, every now and again to look back at what I’ve backed. And there are a number of games out there. But the interest is often tied to how my gaming tastes have changed. What did I back on Kickstarter when I started in 2014 and what am I backing now.

It provides an interesting opportunity to see that growth. Normally, you get a game and it leaves and there is no way to track it. I could go through Amazon, CoolStuffInc, and Miniature Market Purchases, but a lot of those are more recent. Kickstarter and now Gamefound give you a history of what you’ve backed over that longer period of time.

Plus Jesse from Quackalope went through his backing history, shorter, but larger than mine, with Devon from Devon Talks Tabletop. He had something like 225 games to go through and that’s almost a five hour video. I should have known that mine would take longer than it did. I thought probably two hours would be enough, it is not.

The Drink

Last nights drink was a Negroni. Back to a classic for me. I really like the flavor and it is a good summer drink. With how large I made it, I wish I’d started streaming and sipping on it sooner, but the flavor is always good. It’s also a nice mixed drink to make because it’s a 1 to 1 to 1 ratio with gin, sweet vermouth, and Campari.

Upcoming Streams

So, clearly I have some more to talk about here with Kickstarter and Gamefound. My hope is that it’ll be about an hour and a half to finish up with no thunderstorms. So that is going to be on Monday at 8:30. Then on Wednesday, I plan on playing some more Paper Dungeons. Like I said, I want to get through that campaign. While I am working on an idea for a bigger game in the roll and write campaign space, you can see my Designer Diary here, I want to finish off the one that I already have.

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124-101

100 – 76

75 – 51

50 – 26

Unplayed Board Games – 25- 1

25: Folklore: The Affliction

Folklore is a campaign game that’s been on my shelf for quite a while. It’s one that I know I’ll likely need to play solo to get played so it might show up on the Malts and Meeples YouTube channel coming up here. But it’s basically an RPG type game in a box. Like a HEXplore It, it is going to give more of that die rolling feel you’d expect from a pen and paper RPG. Plus it’s about vampires, werewolves, and ghosts, fun stuff that I like.

24: Fox in the Forest

The smallest game in this section, Fox in the Forest is a two player trick taking game. I recently played the cooperative version of it and had a lot of fun . Fox in the Forest is competitive but one that works really well with two. I believe it balances out some of that by making taking all of the tricks a bad thing, so no shooting the moon. Or it needs to be done in a specific way. I like trick taking, just need to figure out which trick taking games will stick in my collection.

23: The Quacks of Quedlinburg

Another not huge game, The Quacks of Quedlinburg has been a really popular game over the past few years. It is a bag building game, by that I mean you add things to a bag, in this case cardboard tokens. And then you draw them out, and you are trying to make your potion grow. But if you get too many bad ingredients in there, it explodes and you get fewer rewards. But the further you push down the track of adding ingredients, the more points you get.

22: Res Arcana

Res Arcana is an engine building game. It’s a smaller one though with a limited number of cards and the main goal of the game is to figure out how to turn out points. You do that through artifacts and spells and things that you might get out in front of you. The question of the game is, who can get their engine running the best.

21: Western Legends

Western Legends is back into the big games, not a campaign, but a massive sandbox game. In this game you play in the wild west and you can be a good guy bringing in trouble makers, delivering cattle, things like that. Or you can be a bad guy, rustle cattle, rob the bank, and things like that. And you can switch in the middle of the game. Western Legends lets you do anything in the pursuit of points and create your own wild west story.

20: Mechs vs Minions

Mechs vs Minions is an interesting game because it’s created by Riot Games. They are known best for League of Legends, and now Arcane a Netflix show set in that world. Mechs vs Minions is kind of set in that setting, from what I can tell. But it’s a programming wave where you set your Mechs on a path where they can take out the minions. The game plays in scenarios and it might be kill everything or it might be get this objective and get back out. It’s fully cooperative, and one that has been a grail game for me.

19: Cthulhu: Death May Die

I like Cthulhu, don’t know if he likes me. But Cthulhu: Death May Die is a game, kind of in the vein of Arkham Horror and Mansions of Madness, but this time from CMON. And it’s about investigating, fighting cultists and other horrors, and getting to be just insane enough that you’re powerful enough to kill the elder god at the end. Or maybe you’ll just go mad completely or die. I like the theme, and the difficulty level of the game looks really challenging.

18: Uprising: Curse of the Last Emperor

Speaking of a game that looks challenging, Uprising: Curse of the Last Emperor, is a 4x game in a fantasy world. I already had a game like that on the list, Heroes of Land, Air and Sea, but this has a twist on this. You don’t fight against each other. Instead, you all need to end with better scores than the two bad factions to win the game. This cooperative nature of the game really drew me to it. Because it’s not just everyone do better, but how do I do well enough but also don’t hinder your chances.

17: Black Rose Wars

Black Rose Wars is an intimidating game to get to the table. There are lots of cards in the game, and it’s actually another programming game. Like Mechs vs Minions you’re deciding what you do. But with this one, it’s a free for all. You are summoning monsters to the board, laying traps, slinging spells, and blowing up rooms. The first mage to a certain number of points, I believe, wins the game. But it’s more about the crazy and powerful things that you can do which makes me want to try it.

16: Descent: Legends of the Dark

Another big game, Descent: Legends of the Dark takes up basically a full Kallax cube by itself. And the box says Act 1 on it. This is going to be a story driven dungeon crawler of a game. But it’s from Fantasy Flight, so they used what they knew from their apps for Mansions of Madness, Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth, and more to make even a better app. This really helps with the fog of war or not knowing what’s behind a door as you play. I’ve done a demo, but not enough to count as a play.

15: Betrayal Legacy

Betrayal Legacy is a game that’s been on my too play list for a while. It has two great things about it, first it’s a legacy game, and I love legacy games an their progressing story. Secondly, it’s based off of Betrayal at House on the Hill. A game that I know isn’t balanced, but it is still a game that I love. Not too many games do horror too well, and Betrayal often feels like a horror movie in so many great ways. So I’m excited to see what can be done with a bigger story.

14: Loup Garou

Now we’re looking at a game that is a book. Loup Garou from Van Ryder Games is a game in that you go through and make choices. You play as a character and they have stats. But in a lot of ways, it’s a choose your own adventure. It’s a graphic novel, so you read the text, look at what you can do, and that determines where you flip to. I don’t know why, since I got this at GenCon in 2019, I haven’t just played this. It’s solo only and it’d be easy to get through, probably with dying. I need to play this ASAP.

13: Under Falling Skies

Another solo game, Under Falling Skies was added to my collection more recently. This is almost Space Invaders the game. But it seems really intriguing as a puzzle, plus there is a comic that comes with it and a mini campaign. You place down dice in the game to activate different things. The trick is that the weaker things won’t do as much, but the stronger things, alien spaceships descend faster. It’s finding when you’re perfectly ready to do that one big thing, from what I can tell.

12: Nidavellir

Another smaller box game on the list. Nidavellir is a set collection and auction game. And there is one reason it is so high, and it’s not the Norse Mythology. But it is because of how the auction works. You have five coins. You use three of them to bid and two are at the bottom. If you put a zero as one of your bids, you can trade in the higher of the two left over coins to get the value of the two left over coins. So you can upgrade your money as you go. When do you tank a bid, taking whatever is left, to do that.

11: Sea of Legends

I think from here on out is all big games, or mainly. It isn’t all campaign games, though. Sea of Legends isn’t a campaign game, but it is an epic story game of pirates. What drew me to this game, besides wondering about the story the game promises, is three things. Those three things set up your story, but at the start of the game, you pick a Captain, a Nemesis and a Lover. And that all determines your story. So you end up with a lot of variability. Plus it’s pirates and adventure on the seas, so it’s a theme that I love and look for in board games.

10: Middara: Unintentional Malum Act 1

This one could be higher on the list. Middara does a lot of things that interest me. It is a campaign game. It does fog of war well. There is massive amounts of story. The theming is crazy space, fantasy, anime, all things that I’m down for. And let’s face it, I could just say it’s anime because a lot of anime is space fantasy and crazy. But this one looks really cool to get to the table and massive to get to the table. I need to find a group to play this one with.

9: Deep Madness

Deep Madness is a game that I can blame on Rolling Solo. This is a game that is not easy to track down, mainly because it was just on Kickstarter. And I own almost everything for it, but I haven’t played it. The madness should give you some idea as to the sort of game, but what I like is that this is set on a deep sea base. And monsters are coming in and have wiped out everyone. The corporation who built the base is now sending the team down to figure out what is going on. It’s a theme and horror that I love so much, I just need to play it.

8: Lost Ruins of Arnak

Now we’re back from campaign style games. Though, Deep Madness can be played as a scenario, but they are kind of linked. Lost Ruins of Arnak is a deck building worker placement game. I like deck building, and worker placement isn’t my normal thing, but not bad. Lost Ruins of Arnak just has a cool Indiana Jones vibe to it that drew me in. And I think the deck building and theme will make it work well for myself and my group.

7: The Ratcatcher: The Solo Adventure Game

So when I said that there might be one smaller game left, this is it. It’s an interesting game in that it’s a solo only game, three of them on the list, but it’s a big box. It honestly feels like a bigger box than the game should have. In this you are trying to catch rats and get cheese. If the rats get too much cheese, now a big bad rat comes out onto the board, and things are going to get scary. It’s again a solo game, so one that I should get played.

6: Solomon Kane

Back to massive games, Solomon Kane is one that’s been on lists of games that I want to play for a while. But some of that was also that I wanted to buy it. It came and went on Kickstarter while I wasn’t too active there. And it’s been delivering last year and now wave two this year, and I managed to get wave one stuff for it.

In Solomon Kane you don’t play as Solomon Kane, you play as virtues guiding him. And I think that concept is interesting. You can play it solo with one super virtue, or each player gets a virtue in a multiplayer game. And then you take him through stories. Really interesting with how it works with not controlling the main character.

5: Roll Player Adventures

Kind of a cheat for the list, I really like Roll Player Adventures, but I’ve only kind of played it. Roll Player Adventures, I got to play a demo of it at GenCon in 2019 while they were still doing playtesting of the game. But the game is a blast, and the story, I like, because it isn’t too heavy. It’s a big story game set in the Roll Player world, but also a dice manipulation game when you drop into combat.

I know I’m going to be diving into this one soon. So I’m excited to get it to the table. I ordered the character backstory pack for it with the special quests that you can get from it for each character. I think that is going to make the whole thing even more immersive, which is great.

4: Nemesis

Another horror game, Nemesis is, from what I’ve heard, the closest you can get to Alien the board game. There is an alien infestation on your ship, and you need to complete your objective and then take out all the aliens or launch yourself out in an escape pod. But you don’t want the aliens to get to Earth, that’s for sure. But you want to end up there, so can you get the engines to launch you there.

3: Dwellings of Eldervale

Another non-campaign game, in fact a number aren’t in the top, but they are big games. Dwellings of Eldervale is that. This one really interested me because it has giant monsters, but also you are doing worker placement. But I really like how the worker placement works. You unlock new workers but also your workers become your dwellings. And when you pull back workers they do things as well, so it’s not a waste of a turn to pull back workers.

2: Terraforming Mars

Super high on the list and a big game in how long it takes and how big it plays, Terraforming Mars is so high because I really like Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition. I know that the games are different, there is more take that or randomness, and area control and you have a much bigger board that you’re using in Terraforming Mars. But I really want to play it and see how I like the engine building that goes on in that game.

1: Destinies

Finally, we have Destinies. Destinies is a game from Lucky Duck Games where you are playing through a story, but unlike a lot of story games, this is competitive. And each of you is trying to complete a destiny of yours. And it is a race to see who can complete theirs first. What interests me are some of the mechanics a roll over a certain number to get successes is cool. Plus you can manipulate that. But also that you need to pay attention to the story on other people’s turns because they might find something to help you.

To me, that’s a good game in that it’ll keep you engaged with what everyone is doing. Even if I’m not taking my turn, I need to know what you are doing as well. I might not be actively interacting with anything, but I still need to pay attention. And if a game can do that, I really want to play it.

Final Thoughts

That’s the whole list, all 124 of them. I could have had one less if I counted my playtesting of Roll Player Adventures. But also, that is a game that’s extremely high on my list for wanting to get played. Definitely a lot more big games up here. Though, I think outside of the campaign games, most of them can get played. And I could see, if things fall right, even getting one or two of those to the table this year. Like I said, I think Roll Player Adventures will be getting played soon.

Which one would you play first?

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