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Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition – Top 10

10. Aeon’s End

• Published by Indie Boards & Cards in 2016
• Defend the town of Gravehold against a Nemesis and their minions by slinging spells around

To kick off the Top 10, let’s talk about one that has been in my Top 10 for a while and one that I have basically everything for. I’m guessing I’m missing a few promo cards, but Aeon’s End is one of my favorite deck building games.

This is a deck building game, tower defense, and boss battler all wrapped into one. The name of the game in this one is variety. There are other elements I like too, but variety is huge. Each mage is unique, each nemesis is unique and the market of cards that you create is unique. Everything about the game can be mixed and matched and give endless replayability. I also like that this is a cooperative game.

And, finally, I like this game best as a solo or two player. I know that it can play more, but with the turn system, it works better at lower counts. You draw to see whose turn it is. In the deck there are two nemesis cards, and one per player at four players, or two at two players. So you get these fun moments where it swings from the players getting four turns in a row to the nemesis getting three and now things look dangerous. It makes the game feel more exciting, it just works best at two players though because of that.

Buy Aeon’s End

9. Roll Player Adventures

• Published by Thunderworks Games in 2021
• Explore the lands, beat monsters and complete skill challenges in a world that remembers what you did

Now to a really big game we have Roll Player Adventures. They took the Roll Player system, tweaked it and gave us a story and adventure game. And I think that it works really well as a game, clearly, as it’s my #9. Though, like Aeon’s End, I’ll give a caveat that difficulty changes based on player count, which, isn’t a bad thing, but it something worth noting.

In this game you play through chapters of an adventure. To do that you are fighting monsters, doing skill checks, and reading story. Whenever it’s a right or a skill check you are spending cards and resources, your health, in different stats to try and complete a dice puzzle. You need to get dice of certain colors and certain numbers into specific locations. But, the game is smart and it limits you in how much you can do that, and it is what they try and use to scale, but like I said, I think that it’s easier with more.

The story is also a lot of fun. There are games on my list that have a bigger and darker story. And I like dark stories, dark fantasy can be a lot of fun, but it’s also fun to have stories that are maybe a bit sillier at times. And, I will say, they manage to create a story where it feels like it matters and continues along with the choices that you make.

Buy Roll Player Adventures

8. Dice Throne

• Published by Dice Throne Inc. in 2018
• Fight in a Mortal Combat style tournament by chucking dice and leveling up attacks

My #8 is “Battle Yahtzee”. By that, I mean that it is Dice Throne. This is a game that is played either as a head to head battle or as king of the hill. You get a hero, or character, that you play as. And they have specific abilities that you can activate by rolling dice Yahtzee style. By that I mean you get three roles, you keep some dice each time, and you see what you get at the end.

But Dice Throne is more than just a lucky game. Yes, there is an element of luck with rolling the dice. But the game often comes down to how well you can mitigate that luck. If you manage to get off your ultimate attack, well there isn’t much your opponent can do, of course that does mean that you roll all sixes. That’s very unlikely to just happen. But with cards and your combat points you spend to play them, you are able to manipulate dice, turn them to different sides, or get rerolls to try and land those attacks.

Plus the game offers a ton of variety. The first set is more standard fantasy. But then you get into other characters like a Tactician or an Artificer who do different things. And I own the Marvel set and am waiting on the Marvel X-Men set to come as well. You pick your favorites to get, or if you’re like me, you get them all.

Buy Dice Throne

7. Rogue Angels: Legacy of the Burning Suns

• Published by SunTzuGames in 2025
• Change the galaxy with a unlikely group of heroes in an epic sci-fi adventure

Now for a game that isn’t even out yet. Why do I have it on the list, because I have in my collection a prototype of the game. And I’ve even played it on Malts and Meeples. The game is basically set, through there are elements of the game that will change, but that’s mainly around components not around actual game play.

I love Rogue Angels. You know that by now because it’s on every list of Crowdfunding game that I’m waiting for. And yes, it will be again at the end of this year, most likely. This is another story, adventure, and combat game. And I really enjoy the story in it. I like having some campaign games that aren’t just another fantasy setting, and Rogue Angels gives you a good sci-fi setting. And I love how the combat, or mission element of the game works.

I want to say that this isn’t a game where every scenario is a go and beat someone up. No, this is a game where you might want to dive into combat. Or you might want to sneak through, and it all depends on the scenario. I love that for a game because I don’t always want to beat up the bad guys. And with how the game activates the bad guys, well, getting rid of the wrong bad guys at the wrong time just means you’ll be dealing with the other ones all the time.

Late Pledge Rogue Angels

6. Floriferous

• Published by Pencil First Games in 2021
• Create the best scoring group of flowers in this drafting game

Now we have the smallest game in my Top 10 list. But Floriferous was there last year and it is staying there again this year because I love what the game does. I enjoy a good drafting game, and I think that drafting makes sense in a lot of different games. But how Floriferous does it works for me because it combines drafting with building out your own scoring.

And the drafting itself is clever. You either draft a flower or you draft a scoring card from a column. The scoring cards are always at the bottom of the column, though, which matters for drafting the next column. Because the turn order for that next column is determined by the previous column you drafted from, aka, the higher you are up in the column the sooner you draft again. So yes, you need scoring cards, but that means you draft later next time.

I also want to call out drafting the scoring. I like it when a game does that because it offers a great decision point. When I draft, I might want that scoring card, but if you don’t have enough flowers, it won’t do much for me. And on the flip side, if I draft too many flowers I’m not going to be scoring anything.

Buy Floriferous

5. Slay the Spire

• Published by Contention Games in 2024
• Climb the spire, fight monsters and can you defeat them all in this cooperative deck building game

Next up is a new one to the list and it’s debuting all the way up at #5. Now it’s not the last new one to the list, there is one higher, though just barely higher. Slay the Spire is a video game that I love to play. In fact I’ve been on a kick of playing it recently. It’s a rogue like deck building game where you climb a tower.

The board game is the exact same thing. But it takes a solo video game experience and makes it multiplayer. In fact, while the solo is fun, I think that it’s even better two player or two handed. And I want to play it with more. Because you figure out a strategy of who wants to attack which enemies. Because each player has their own enemies that will attack them, but you can attack the other person’s enemies. So you might have more defense and handle it as well.

With all of that said, the game does change one thing. How some things activate is changed, so you’re not needing to keep track of “every seven turns” or “every three times you shuffle” but it makes it easy to keep track of. And they scale down everything. I like that because I don’t want to be keeping track of six enemies with 50 health each. So while the math is very much the same, the numbers are just lower.

Buy Slay the Spire

4. The 7th Citadel

• Published by Serious Poulp Games in 2024
• The Citadels are in ruins. How can you rebuild society and deal with the threats?

The other new to the list game and debuting at #4 is The 7th Citadel. I should have put it at #7 just to make it a bit more fitting. But I love this game and you can see me playing it for some sessions on Malts and Meeples YouTube.

This is an adventure game. These Citadels have fallen and now in a dangerous and post apocalyptic feeling world, though uniquely so, you need to survive. You play as leaders of a settlement has has formed out of the 7th Citadel. And now you need to deal with some threat that is coming.

The main mechanism is the same as The 7th Continent. You spend cards to try and complete checks, fight monsters, and deal with challenges. And the cards are going to be your life. Plus you are flipping over cards and exploring areas of the map and dealing with encounters that happen. But the game gives you more direction than the 7th Continent does as the threat gives you missions to go on as you build up your settlement for whatever that coming threat might be.

Late Pledge The 7th Citadel

3. Stars of Akarios

• Published by OOMM/Open Owl Studios in 2022
• Explore space, fight battles, and unravel the story of why you were attacked

This is the one that launched into the Top 10 last year and it’s sticking around. I love this game, clearly, but it’s another one of those big campaign games, and it’s one that’s set in space. But this game feels different than so many others. I don’t know why, but it gives me the feeling of stories like Ender’s Game and Space Dandy all wrapped into one with obvious nods to other sci-fi stories as well.

I really enjoy how they created a game that is split into three different element. The one, space exploration, is a bit weaker. There is some randomness to it, and I feel like I never found anything major on it. But I love the other two element. You get to have a 7th Citadel/7th Continent style exploration on planets. But instead of playing cards for checks you roll dice. And it’s a really fun time, but the biggest part of the game is space combat.

And I wasn’t sure how much I’d love the space combat. But I really enjoy it, it’s this great tactical puzzle as you use special abilities that you can only use so much. And then you spend dice to maneuver and you need to figure out how to even get into range to shoot the enemy and ideally in a flanking position. I love sitting there looking at the dice and trying to figure out how to make it work.

Late Pledge Stars of Akarios

2. Tainted Grail: Fall of Avalon

• Published by Awaken Realms in 2019
• The lands are returning to Wyrdness, you’ve been sent out to help Avalon survive, if you can

Now or one of a few campaign games that I’ve completed, at #2 we have Tainted Grail. And this is the base game and the two expansion campaigns. I love them all. I need to play Kings of Ruin as well, but I’m not sure when I’ll get to that because of, well, my #1 on the list.

But this game, let’s start off with the highest praise, has the best writing of any board game I’ve ever played. The story that it tells is amazing and for that reason we did play in story mode to be able to experience as much of that story as possible. I’ll talk about why in a little bit. This is a grim dark game, but it manages not to dwell on the darkness to the point where it’s overbearing but creates this amazing fantastical and dangerous world to deal with.

And let’s talk about that story mode and why we played that way. One of the criticisms of the game is that it’s too hard. There is too much grind and too much survival. That is what the game was advertised as, so why people thought it was bad, and not just not for me, when they got what they knew they were going to get, I don’t know. But story mode makes it easier, but not too easy. So you do need to engage with that survival aspect of the game, but you can delve into the story more so. If you find the game, get it, and I do recommend playing on story mode.

Buy Tainted Grail

1. Gloomhaven/Frosthaven

• Published by Cephalofair Games in 2022
• Battle monsters, explore lands, and build up the town in this epic campaign

Finally the number one stays the same. The #1 on the list is really Frosthaven, Gloomhaven and Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion. I don’t think it’s fair for them to be separate on the list. While Frosthaven does build on Gloomhaven and add in some elements like the town management, the core loop of the game is the same. I do think the added element of the town management would push it even a little bit higher than Gloomhaven for me though.

But the main part of the game is going into scenarios and trying to complete their objectives. This almost always includes killing some bad guys, and often times the win condition is kill all the enemies. Though in Frosthaven that is less often, though still the most common scenario goal.

The element that is the best about the game is the characters though. I love how every character is unique. And from the cards that you get to play, it feels that way. Sometimes you want to be that tanking character, or a fast damage dealer, or a support or healer character. And the games offer all of those.

And then the card play where you might want to go fast, so you can get in and out dealing damage quickly, or maybe you want to go slow to draw the enemies towards you, there is a lot of great strategy. I love picking cards, too, where I might plan to use the bottom and top halves in one way but then give myself the flexibility to change it. Needless to say, I love my #1 game.

Buy Frosthaven

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 be my 200 through 101 next week. After that I’m going to do some videos looking back on 2024. So expect to see my Top 10 Games of 2024 and probably Top 10 crowdfunding games I backed in 2024 as well.
• 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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Mythwind

It’s early to talk about what I like or I don’t like about the game One season and I’ve only started to build up the engine that I have for the farmer. But I think that the game does a number of things, already, that I find interesting. Also a few things where it feels like a more boring action.

I am not going to spend time going over the farmer here. Mythwind is a game where each character does their own thing with their own rulebook in their own way. I plan on playing through all of them, eventually, and then I want to talk about them. If I talk about them now or the farmer now, I feel like I need to experience his engine of actions more.

But the core game loop is interesting to talk about. Mainly the daily cycle of actions and how you might trigger something via weather or not. For me, that dawn phase is interesting. I like how I might get a benefit during the day based off of how the weather is. I also like how it sprinkles in events throughout the time you play. They might all happen at the beginning or they might happen later.

It’s the town actions during daytime that I find to be less even than the other actions. Evening or dusk is not that exciting, but it’s very fast and it’s where they handle the bookkeeping aspect of the game. What do you need to do to be ready for the next day. But the in town actions are, like I said, a bit more uneven.

In Town Actions

Let me just say, I think that from what I’ve done there are mainly two interesting in town actions. And one of them really isn’t in town. It’s going adventuring. That one to me is by far the most interesting. You get to do a lot of cool things and while it is really read a bit of story and make your informed decision or lack of informed decision, it works. But it helps build up the world of Mythwind either way.

The other one that feels good is when you go and hire. When you hire, now you can do more actions on your board. It took me the whole time, but once I finally got there, once I got to the point where I had an engine built up on the farmers board, it was nice to have those workers. I could really clear out everything and make some money and plant and harvest efficiently because of my workers.

The other actions are needed, though, in the game. Clearing space, it does give a benefit. Getting a buck or being able to get a skill, I think that will be good. They are just less interesting and less often that I’d use them. Even the building that I added to the board. It’s good for manipulating what I have on the board. I expect I’ll use it next time, but it’s not the most exciting action in the game. I expect it might stay that way for a bit, but we’ll have to see, or if, as I build more, more actions will be more exciting.

Upcoming Streams

On Monday I stream at 9 PM Central. That is sometimes a bit hit or miss, but that’s the goal. And I do small solo game plays. The schedule is, right now, going to look like gaming every other Monday. A chance to see people in person came up for Monday and as much as I like streaming, it’s good to socialize as well.

On Wednesdays, well, I said that I plan to play at least a few more games of Rogue Angels. This is going to continue how I play my solo campaign games on the channel. The reason for that is with how many campaign games I can play solo, I want to try more. That is at 8 PM Central time for the campaign games.

And if you want to know when I go live, the best way is to subscribe. When you subscribe, click that notification bell and you’ll get an alert whenever I’m going to go live. Follow the link – here – to subscribe.

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Frosthaven

So we can talk about a lot here with the game. Mainly I want to highlight a few things that are different from Gloomhaven. For example, there is the town building aspect. We got to see some stickers for that. I tried not to show off too many. And oddly enough that is the element that makes me interested in getting the removable sticker pack. That gives you a reset of the game.

For Gloomhaven you don’t need that. You can just remember what scenarios, with some simple note taking, are available to you and where you are with prosperity. But for tracking how the town is build, the removeable stickers make way more sense.

I also want to call out two other things that I glossed over pretty quickly. The stickers for the rule book and the hidden information, whatever it is, I’m assuming more stickers, in the punch boards. I guess the “locked” book and the secret envelopes as well. Frosthaven has really upped the legacy game like elements a lot. There is a lot to unlock in the game which is going to make the experience different.

3D Terrain

And then, like I said, I made it harder to go with as I added in 3D terrain. Why, because it’s cool and because Frosthaven is going to be a game that I play for 200 hours. I already know that, which means it’s going to be a bigger experience to enjoy and I’m okay with giving it some bling.

And I am not at all disappointed with the terrain. Big E 3D did a great job with what they’ve created. I only had one minor quibble with color choice, but most everything was amazing. You can checkout the full collection here. Now, it is not cheap, but the amount and quality are worth it. Plus, I did see it on sale when I bought it, so you can wait for that if you want. But checkout the pictures of it I took during the stream below.

Upcoming Streams

So it’s been an odd week and a half with streaming. Last week it was all about what I am going to start this week. And the answer to that is ISS Vanguard. So on Wednesday I plan on starting that. It might be more focused on set-up and some of the first scenario, but we’ll see how far I get and how much time i have to get everything prepped over the next day and a half. That stream will be at 8 PM Central.

And then on Monday, I want to get back to some solo games. Frosthaven with the 3D terrain is worth showing off. But let’s find a solo game to play and get it to the table. What will the experience be like and is it really meant to be played solo. I think I know which game I want to play, I just need to learn the rules. Monday streams are at 8:30 PM Central time.

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Top 10 Upcoming Crowdfunding Games

10 – Oathsworn: Into the Deep Woods

This one is a bit of a cheat, but also, it’s hard to know everything that’s upcoming. I already own Oathsworn: Into the Deep Woods. This isn’t really adding in any game play for the new campaign. It is just going to be a reprint and probably some upgrades or something because Kickstarter doesn’t allow a straight up reprint.

Why is this one on my radar, because I’ve played the game, I like the game. I even own the game, like I said, but I don’t own all the minis. And I won’t lie, the minis for the bosses are amazing. Do I need them, definitely don’t. But I kind of want them because it’ll look even more epic on the table.

9 – Trick Shot

Trick Shot is another reprint coming, this time on Gamefound. And when it is up there, I’m going to spend some time looking into it because a hockey game sounds interesting. But is it a game that’ll work for me and is it a game that’ll feel like hockey?

Sports are so hard to simulate in a board game. I think that you’re better off, for the most part, not trying to create the experience that feels like the game but instead one that simulates stuff around the game. Ready Set Bet with horse racing is the closest to feeling like the event and that game is even more about betting. So is Trick Shot going to change my opinion, we’ll see.

8 – Escape from New York

Escape from New York I know basically nothing about. Well, I know basically nothing about the game, the movie is one that I really like. Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken is great. So instead of talking about what I know about the game, what do I want this game to be?

And I think that’s the question. The whole idea of Escape from New York is that New York is now a prison or post apocalyptic land, and the President has been kidnapped and brought there. Snake needs to get in and get out in 24 hours. How do you simulate that? Certain number of rounds is easy and there are side characters others can play, but I hope that it gives you gangs to fight along the way and interesting puzzles to solve as to how you optimize your actions. But the game also needs to be very variable with the gangs or issues you come up against.

7 – Destinies: Witchwood Expansion

Destinies is one where I might back it I might not. I didn’t back the first Destinies campaign, I considered it though. And I love what Lucky Duck does with their games. But I also don’t need to back it because it’ll likely come to retail. So I’ll need to see what they are offering on Gamefound.

But I really like Destinies. A competitive story driven game with scenarios in which you’re trying to get your glorious end first. And an app that integrates well with the story that it tells and doesn’t take you out of the game. I think what stands out for me and why I’m interested in more is that the game isn’t hard to play. I feel like it’s a story driven experience I could sit down and play with most people.

6 – Elden Ring

Another game where I really know very little. From Steamforged Games they are putting out Elden Ring. Steamforged has been a bit hit more miss at times, but more hits lately, even if not for everyone. And if I find Bardsung used, I might pick that one up even though it’s been a bit more of a miss for some people.

I don’t know what I hope for this game. Elden Ring the video game is such a big story that yes, you could do that in a board game. But if you do that, how big is this game going to be. I’d prefer, in some ways for a game set in that world, hard and cooperative, and maybe some shorter campaigns, 10-15 sessions, and you can get a few of them versus one massive 50 scenario campaign plus another 50 side quests you can do. I love that in some games, Gloomhaven, but I don’t need it in all.

5 – Slay the Spire

Slay the Spire probably should be higher on the list. Mainly because it’s probably the smallest game on the list so might be easier to back then some. But if you watched my most recent Slay the Spire video, which you can find here, you’ll know that I’m wondering what will be exclusive about the game. I hope it’s not game play, I hope it’s not the 4th character, so people can get the game at retail and get the whole game. But it needs something to interest me.

I really like Slay the Spire, and I want to see how they take a solo video game and turn it into a cooperative game. The cards that they are showing thus far, as the campaign I believe is getting close, all look like the video game. And that’s a good and fun thing, I just hope it’s not too much house keeping. But they’ve spent a very very long time getting this ready from when they first thought, so I have a lot of hope.

4 – 20 Strong

This is one I found out about yesterday. From Chip Theory Games I know not all that much about 20 Strong. It’s still going to have that great Chip Theory production, I’m sure, but it seems like a much smaller package, which sounds great for me and my wallet.

Plus this is a solo experience of an adventure, card driven, dice, and like I said that smaller package. Those are all things that interest me. I don’t want to compare it directly to Spire’s End, but that’s the feeling I get with the game that it’s going to have a bit of that Spire’s End feel to it which is a really good thing. Also, now I want to play Spire’s End again.

3 – Elder Scrolls

Then another Chip Theory Games Game with Elder Scrolls. I’ve played some Elder Scrolls games, and I’ve played some Too Many Bones. Both of these matters because Elder Scrolls is an interesting setting. And I like the Too Many Bones mechanics. I hope that this meshes them both together well.

And, I stole my suggestion for Elden Ring from Elder Scrolls. Elder Scrolls, what I know of it, promises some scenarios built up of every games. You can pick the scenario you want to play, but instead of it being a massive campaign game, it’s not a shorter and faster experience. Kind of like what Sleeping Gods does where it can give you a whole experience of a campaign game in 10-15 hours.

2 – Tainted Grail: Kings of Ruin

This one should be obvious. I love Tainted Grail, one of my top campaign games. And Kings of Ruin just promises maybe some streamlined rules, but mainly another campaign to play through. And that is exciting for me because I love the world of Avalon that they’ve created.

I think that is what will get me to come back to the game in the future. I’ve played two of the campaigns and I’m going through the third. And the story is just so good, it can be very hard at times, but that’s okay when it’s probably the best writing in a board game I’ve come across.

1 – Rogue Angels

Finally, no surprise, I am waiting for Rogue Angels. I want to play this game more, and I know there is a print and play version that you can try on the Rogue Angels discord. If you like to do print and play, I definitely recommend it.

Rogue Angels is just so much fun, the writing is great, you’ll miss some of that in the print and play. The characters feel different and the scenarios are what stand out to me, plus some mechanisms. But going into one scenario need to blow everyone up, other scenarios racing from objective to objective, it all works. And I know that Emil Larson, the designer has scenarios that do even more.

Upcoming Games

From what I know of these, we have some that will be out in about a week, and others in March. I expect that even with that, there will be some on my list that are even further out. I know that Rogue Angels, when that comes out is still up in the air.

Plus there are a few coming up that I don’t quite want to talk about yet. One because I am doing playtesting for it, and I don’t want to get into what I know about mechanics until the company has put more out there. But each iteration that I playtest, I’m liking the game more and more. So I hope to do a fair amount of coverage on that one when it comes up.

What game are you looking forward to coming to Crowdfunding?

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The Games

So let’s talk about everything that has come in that I need to find room for on the shelf. Some of it, though, I do have a creative solution for. So the big game that I unboxed was obviously Marvel United X-Men. And that, as well as Marvel United, have a ton of minis in those boxes.

So while the game isn’t huge, it is a lot to store all of the minis. So to store them, I picked up some make-up holders, wall mounted ones, that will fit the minis in quite nicely. I’m hoping that I can hang them and fit almost all of them in there and keep Marvel United and Marvel United X-Men down to one Kallax shelf, but we’ll see if that is possible.

Marvel United X-Men

I’ve got to talk about this first, because, well, it was the biggest thing that I unboxed. And I’m excited to get Marvel United X-Men to the table. Marvel United is a fun game that is great to pull off the shelf and easily get to the table. And for a game that has so much with it, that is great. It means that I can easily play it.

Actually, thinking about it, I might do what I did for Marvel Champions, get some extra boxes, clasp boxes, to store it so that it’s easier to get to everything. Though, I might need to get different dividers than what I have now. But it might be worth it because the actual boxes for Marvel United only work okay for storing stuff.

But if you want a good introductory game and you love Marvel, see if you can find a pledge. I love how I can pull it off the shelf, grab out a villain, a character, and really get to the table so fast. When I play it, it is two or three times in a row, each game goes faster, and you swap out characters each time. Plus, you do need more than the core box to really get the experience of the game.

Ghosts of Christmas

Ghosts of Christmas is a trick-taking game that I got interested in because of BoardGameCo. He put out a video with why he liked the game a lot as not a big fan of trick-taking. Ghosts of Christmas is going to be played as three tricks at one time. One is for the past, one is for the present, and one is for the future. And when you figure out the results the tricks, it goes in that order. But what the trump suit is can change, I forget how it works, but I believe based off of the previous trick. So that offers a unique challenge.

QE

QE is an odd sort of game where bid for businesses. But the weird trick is you can bid however much you want. I bid $200,000,000,000. Well, now you know what you need to bid in order to win any. However, the person who bids the most automatically loses. Even if they own all the businesses, in which case no one wins.

So I bid a massive amount, four times and I own those, you bid $1 than I do next time, now you’re in the lead. Then someone bids just under my total to get the next one. And all of a sudden the bidding continues to grow and goes crazy. I hope that this is a very fun game that has a good party feel for me. And I imagine that there will be a lot of laughing as we play and as bidding goes crazy.

Paperback

Paperback is a word building and deck building game. And I love my deck building games. As you can see, I kind of forget why I picked this one up. But I think it’s a deck building game, and from what I’ve heard not too hard of one, that my wife will like a lot. She and I are both big readers, and Paperback, about writing a paperback while deck building seems like it’ll work well for us. Plus our group of gaming friends likely will enjoy it as well.

Root Expansion

Just a little Root expansion. It swaps out some of the cards in the game. I don’t know how, but I needed something small to get to free shipping. And it is some of why I was talking about lifestyle games, though, let’s face it, I got very distracted. But Root, so me, is a lifestyle game because, well, you need to know the game. It’s not one that I pull off the shelf to teach just anyone, the game is too complex. So the group who knows the game is the one it gets played with.

Hadrian’s Wall

On my list as a roll and write games that I’ve wanted to try. I haven’t picked it up, though, because Hadrian’s Wall is not a cheap game. And that kept me from buying it for a while, but I finally caved. Why, everyone loves it as a solo game. So I’m in for that. Plus, I keep on playing more complex roll and write games and loving them. Paper Dungeons is fairly complex but is pushing to be one of my favorite roll and writes. Fleet: The Dice Game is one I want to try more.

I like light roll and write games for my gaming group. Stuff like Ganz Schon Clever, Welcome To… and others, which might actually be mid-weight roll and writes. But when I want to play solo, I don’t mind if it is a little bit heavier. And Hadrian’s Wall is definitely not a light roll and write game.

Riverside

Another roll and write game. And Riverside is definitely going to be lighter than Hadrian’s Wall. But I’m curious to see how heavy it is. There is an element of a river where the boat goes up and down the river. And you get passengers or items to take to certain stops. So you can push the boat down the river, but at the cost of passing some things up. I don’t know if that makes the game mean at all, but I’m curious. Plus, the game just looks peaceful to play with the aesthetic.

Doodle Dash

Doodle Dash is a party game that seems like a lot of fun. I get a bit of Just One as a drawing game. One person is it trying to guess a word. And players are drawing as fast as possible. The first person to finish drawing grabs a piece. The second person rolls a die until they get a stop, and that ends the drawing for everyone else. The first person wins showing their picture first. But it’s the fastest drawn picture, probably the hardest to tell what it is. But if it is guessed, they and the guesser get more points. Seems like extremely silly fun.

The Drink

Just a Negroni again. I really love that drink, very good for the summer too. I appreciate the bitterness of the drink. And because of that, and the grapefruit nature, I find it very refreshing.

Upcoming Streams

So what’s coming up. Next week I do want to do a Monday and Wednesday. On Wednesday, definitely going to be some gaming. And Monday, we’ll see, maybe Monday will be streaming some smaller games and Wednesday start my next bigger campaign game. See what looks good to get started. I want to play something bigger again, as long as I can figure out a fast way to get it to the table. Sleeping Gods is good that way that even as a big table hog, set-up and breakdown of the game is not that hard.

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Anticipated Crowdfunding for April

Now, I say that it’s less likely that I don’t back anything, but I only have four games on the list for this month. I could have added back in Far Cry Beyond, but I talked about that last month. So what four games made the list for games that I’m interested in?

For Northwood

This is a very small game, so not the normal thing that I look at. But it is also one that I don’t know will see a lot of retail. For Northwood is a solo trick-taking game. I like trick-taking, but I don’t know of many which can be played solo. So just for that, For Northwood sounds different and interesting. Plus, the aesthetic is cute with woodland creatures.

Aldarra

Aldarra is back on Kickstarter, this time in a smaller package with smaller minis and a smaller price point. The game play hasn’t changed, which is great. The smaller size, I think it’ll make the game feel less epic, but I get it. The price was very high for what is a lighter fighting and area control game. There is a lot to like about the game, though, in particular, leveling up buildings, getting objectives, things like that. And it has a nice flow to the game, so even though it’s longer, it feels like it deserves it.

Sleeping Gods Distant Skies

I’d put money on me backing this one, though, I’ll have to see all the details when it comes to Gamefound. I really like Sleeping Gods. You can see my whole play of it over on Malts and Meeples. This is a fun narrative driven game, but also a great sandbox game. Ryan Laukat and crew, do an amazing job of creating a narrative without it being chapters of a story. And I didn’t really have any negatives about the game, but I can see ways in which it can be improved.

The Dark Quarter

Finally, we have The Dark Quarter. This one immediately got on my radar at the start of the year. It is a collaboration between two companies that I like. Van Ryder Games and Lucky Duck Games. Both of them do innovative things. The Dark Quarter looks to take Lucky Duck Games Destinies system and then builds with Van Ryder Games darker storytelling to create an interesting game. I really want to know more about the story. I hear rumors of vampires and cultists and that sounds like something I’m interested in.

Most To Least Interested

Now, let’s be very clear, I am quite interested in all the games. If I anticipate it, I am going to be checking it out. Plus, I am sure that there will be some more coming up that aren’t known about at this point.

4: Aldarra – I really like the game, it is one that I might not back, though, because it is still more expensive for an area control game. I own a few area control games, I don’t need a ton because we don’t get them played often.

3: For Northwood – Solo trick-taking game, I think there is a good chance that I back this one. Mainly because it is so different. I need to see price point on it, though, because if it’s more than $20 before shipping, I’ll have to think about it.

2: The Dark Quarter – Story focused game is always great for me. Plus Lucky Duck puts out such good apps with the story. Plus, I think that the darker and more mature theme sounds intriguing. The combo ticks all the boxes for me.

1: Sleeping Gods Distant Skies – More Sleeping Gods is a good thing. And this is a streamlined smoother experience of the other one, I am very intrigued. It is almost an instant back for me. I regret not backing the first, now, no plans to make that mistake again.

What is your most anticipated game coming to crowdfunding in April? Is there a game I need to checkout that I missed?

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Malts and Meeples Videos

Firstly, I want to start with the quality of my videos. They are solid, but not always where I want them to be, and that is something that I want to improve upon. Plus sometimes technology acts up and I miss it, see Sleeping Gods Part 5, I believe, for how that went wrong and the audio got messed up. That is somewhat on me. But this is going to be where I ask you to subscribe, give videos thumbs up, and consider the Patreon, which you can find here.

The reason I am making a push for this is that I’d like to do a few things, eventually, to improve my streaming quality. And Patreon plus growing the channel so I can do more previews or reviews of Kickstarter games coming up, means that I’ll be able to do that eventually. I’d like to be able to get a gaming table. That would make it easier for me to keep a campaign game set-up and keep getting it to the table for streaming. I would also like to improve the quality of my game camera, get something that is a bit better on the focus.

New Content

Next up, I want talk about the different types of new content I am considering doing. Because I do have some ideas for upcoming series. And I want to ask if people want me to do board game reviews in video format? I do written reviews, and those won’t go away. But should I do video reviews as well?

But while you ponder that question, let’s look at some series I’m considering doing:

Collection or Cull

This would be a series where I go through my collection and talk about if I am going to cull them – sell them – or keep them in my collection. Plus it’ll be a fun way to talk about the games that are in my collection. I know a number of channels do this sort of thing already, I generally like those videos if they aren’t about – “Look how much I’m getting rid of, I’m so awesome for it.”. But I think it’d be a smart thing to do to take stock of what I have, what might not be getting played, and what might be leaving. This would probably be my biweekly Monday chat.

Video Game Streaming

I want to keep these new ideas a bit more simple. Mainly, without a gaming table, it make it trickier and more work to set-up a board game every single time I want to stream. So I want to try some things like video games as well. And with Elden Ring just coming out, I am really tempted to pick it up and stream that. I also have the digital version of Gloomhaven I could stream. Or Slay the Spire and Inscryption. Though, Inscryption right now is less interesting. And Outer Wilds is another one that really seems intriguing to me. Let me know what you’d want to see streamed.

A little bit about each game:

1. Elden Ring – This is an open world game kind of in the style of a Dark Souls, but way more open world than that. It’s new, looks really cool, but also does still have a few bugs. But if you want to see my hack and slash and die, this could be awesome. Plus the graphics are amazing.
2. Gloomhaven Digital – Gloomhaven the board game but digital. I think it would be fun to go through, I believe you need to control four characters which is a downside. Plus it’s more board game coverage, which isn’t a bad thing.
3. Slay the Spire – This is board game adjacent because there is a board game version coming eventually, maybe, hopefully, to crowdfunding. But it is a rogue-like deck building game. The nice thing is that a run isn’t that long.
4. Outer Wilds – A space game where a sun explodes and the world resets every 22 minutes, I believe. This is going to be a game of exploring mysteries of why it’s happening and maybe figure out how to break out of the loop, I really don’t know.
5. Other – let me know if there is one that you think would be interesting to watch? Maybe something more story and choice driven?

Digital Board Games

So, technically Gloomhaven Digital could fall into this category. But more likely I’d use this to preview upcoming games or more for games that are a one off. So stuff like my Rogue Angels play through on TTS. The idea would be that I want to cover more upcoming games so you know if they are right for you.

Recorded Game Plays

So, unlike most of this other content, this would be recorded. The upside to that is that it means I don’t need to set it up at a specific time. The downside is that they might be more sporadic. But if you liked the Aldarra game play, and that was a massive game, then maybe do some more recorded game plays. I could also do them when I just feel like playing a one off solo game and leave campaigns more for the Wednesday live stream.

Top Tens

Board game top ten lists are always fun. I would consider doing these just by myself as I have before. But I’d also like to start bringing in a few friends on them as well. Or reach out to some content creators to see if they’d want to collaborate. There are a lot of creators that do top tens, but I’m okay adding to that because I like doing them as well. You can see in my Top 100 videos how excited I get making them and talking about games.

Final Thoughts

Firstly, I want to thank everyone for watching. I really appreciate the people who join it live and check it out later. And I do want feedback on what works well, what maybe doesn’t and I could improve upon, things like that. Let me know what you want to see more of or less of. You can use the information in the bottom to let me know on Facebook, Twitter, or email.

And I really want to grow Malts and Meeples this year. But for those who prefer the written content, I will not be getting away from that. Nerdologists.com is going to still be a focus on what I do and something that I want to grow as well. But part of that is growing the brand as a whole and that means if Malts and Meeples does better, hopefully more people will find Nerdologists.com as well.

And help me pick my next board game to stream as well.

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Before we get to the list, let’s start by talking a little bit about how the list is made. You can see some of the process that I go through in this article earlier this week. But as to the games on the list, these are all games I’ve rated on Board Game Geek.

To go along with that, the games that are in my Top 100, I’ll have links to where you can buy them. I tend to do most of my board game shopping online through Miniature Market and Coolstuff Inc. I’m going to try and use their links over something like Amazon, but I do want you to be able to find these games if they look cool. Let’s get to the list.

Board Games 100-91

100. Skull

This is a great little bluffing game. Normally bluffing games aren’t my thing. I am not the best at bluffing in them, but this one works for me. It is small and it’s simple. When it comes down to it, I think the simplicity of what you are doing in the game is really what works for me. And I like the twist on it that when you bid to flip you have to flip your own stuff first. That means sometimes when you bluff you don’t have a skull in your like you’ll end up flipping our own and beat yourself.

Buy on Miniature Market

99. Takenoko

This game is just a really cute one. Takenoko has you trying to complete objectives to get the most points. The game is just maybe over a gateway game level but really good. The cute factor really sells this game for a lot of people. I like that you have three different ways that you can score points in the game. The fact you can go for panda, gardener or tile points is nice, allows for different players to have different strategies.

Buy on Miniature Market

98. Shadowrun Crossfire: Prime Runner Edition

This is one that I really need to play again. It’s a fun game where you are building out a deck of cards while trying to defeat different threats. You each also start out a different way, so like the RPG it’s based on, Shadowrun, you are building up special skills that only you have. A challenging game for sure, but I like it when my cooperative games challenge me.

Buy on Amazon

97. Photosynthesis

This is a game about trees. It looks like it should be a nice and friendly game, it is not. Photosynthesis is an abstract game where you are planting your trees, figuring out how to maximize your sun points, and blocking your opponent from getting their own sun points. It’s a good puzzle of a game though because the sun rotates around the board. That means you can set yourself up for some really good turns, but on the flip side you might end up with some turns with no points, if you aren’t careful. Fun game, but very mean.

Buy on Coolstuff Inc

96. Mysterium

Another game I haven’t played in a while, Mysterium. This one really is because of the pandemic because I think it works better at a higher count, and I don’t own the game. But in this game one person is a ghost trying to give everyone else clues so that they try and figure a murder, weapon, and location. We don’t play it quite right but we play it in a way that I think is more fun, and it keeps the base of the game the same.

Buy on Amazon

95. First Martians: Adventures on the Red Planet

This one I think would be lower on the list for a lot of people because of a bad taste from the app for the start. But the game itself is a good time and you can get it cheap now. The app is definitely better than it was, but you’re trying to survive on Mars. You station might be breaking down, the :44supply ship might have crashed, or something like that and now you are trying to survive the scenario. It’s a challenging game but it feels good when you win. Think of this as The Martian the board game.

Buy on Coolstuff Inc

94. Pandemic Legacy: Season 2

I like my legacy games, and Pandemic Legacy Season 2 is a very good one. The Pandemic games really do a great job of giving you tons of new stuff to unlock during the game. And the story in this one is good. I will say you do need to play the first season of Pandemic Legacy first. Also that while the mechanics are similar to Pandemic they feel different and the game feels unique as you play it and explore the world.

Buy on Miniature Market

93. The Lord of the Rings

Another very challenging cooperative game. The Lord of the Rings is a good book themed Lord of the Rings game that is pretty abstracted. But the artwork is great, the challenge level is great, and you feel the pressure of trying to get the one ring delivered. There was a new edition that came out not too long ago, but I prefer the older version without the extra plastic in it. And I like that you play only as the Hobbits because that’s fun as well.

Buy on Miniature Market

92. Wits & Wagers

The first party game to hit the list. This is my preferred trivia game to play because you don’t need to be great at trivia. Every answer is number based and that means that you are just trying to bet on the right number without going over. So if it’s something about a movie and you know the most about movies, maybe bet on your own, but if you know nothing about sports, bet the other person who knows sports answer. Being close is just as good as being right and knowing who might know best.

Buy on Amazon

91. Criss Cross

This one has dropped a long ways. A lot of that is that I’ve played a lot of roll and write games since I did the list last. There are games that I’ve played which has pushed this one down. That said, Criss Cross is still a really good game. It’s pretty lucky as to what comes up on the dice, but how you put in that combination of two really matters, since everyone is using the same dice. It’s a good quick game and one I wouldn’t say no to playing, but I might not pull off my self as much anymore.

Not on Amazon, Miniature Market, or Coolstuff Inc

There we have the first 10 games on the list. I really like all of these. I think on my list as a whole that 7 or 7.5 is about the lowest that can make my list in terms of rankings and most will be 8’s or higher. Let me know which of these games you like best or which one you want to try.

The Next Ten

And if you want to catch it live, you can do so over on YouTube. Checkout the Malts and Meeples like at the top of the article. I have the next four videos scheduled. So you can subscribe and click that notification bell to know when I’m going live. But if you’re catching this later, 8 PM Central Time every Wednesday from now until the week before Thanksgiving, November 17th to see what games make the list.

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September 2nd

Wheel of Time

So, Wheel of TIme has been a TV series I’ve been waiting for, for a long time. Why, because while I like the books there is a ton in that series. And there is bloat in the series, which epic fantasy, that happens. Robert Jordan literally had a character he sent off on a quest never to be heard from again. This, I hope will tell a tighter version of that story. And I really like the look of the trailer. The magic makes sense to me from what is going on, so this should be really interesting. And November 19th, not that long, this is going to be something I set aside time to watch.

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The Changes

So, you’ve probably already noticed more and different content on Malts and Meeples, but let’s talk about what Malts and Meeples was. When I started Malts and Meeples, I was looking to create a channel with solo game play so that you could see how games were played and know if they were for you. That was done with a focus on campaign style games.

Now, however, the focus is changing a little bit, so let’s break down the type of content I’ve been doing and what is being added.

• Solo Game Play
• Unboxings
• Top 10 Lists
• Board Game Topic Discussions
• 3 Reasons Buy/Not Buy

Let’s talk a bit about each of those:

Solo Game Play

So, we aren’t’ getting away from the thing this channel started for. However, this is just going to be some of what we do. And I think that I am going to focus on doing some campaign coverage, but intersperse that with smaller games. Games like the Roll and Writes that I’ve streamed are nice to add in for people to play along with, but also to give me a break for big set-ups for games. Plus, I think for a lot of people who want to casually play solo games, those small ones are a great spot to start.

Unboxings

This is something that I was doing a lot of for a little while. I am going to come back to them soon, maybe even next week, as I have an order come in. This is just a chance to chat about some games and show off games that are being added to the collection.

Top 10 Lists

Top 10 Lists are some of my most viewed videos, why, because Top 10 Lists work really well for digestible content. Plus it’s something that I can interact with the audience more. I used to do them a lot over here on Nerdologists. My plan is to continue to cross post them but to release them on Malts and Meeples live first and then post about them after the fact. And do a list with detailed reasons as well as then the video.

Board Game Topic/Discussions

These are videos that I’ve also started doing. But I want to do these more consistently on my Monday stream. I think that this and the Top 10 Lists will take turns trading off on the every other Monday schedule. The Topic streams I hope you can join live for because I want them to become more of a conversation than just me talking to the camera.

3 Reasons Buy/Not Buy

So all of those things I already do. The 3 Reasons Buy/Not Buy is a new video that I want to do, and I’m moving away from live for it. You can see my first attempt at it below. But the idea is that I want to give you reasons to buy, or not to buy a board game. Short videos, probably in that 10-15 minute range per video where I give three reasons to buy a board game an three reasons not to.

Now, the first one here is a bit rough. The focus is off throughout most if not all of the video. I already improved that with a new camera, I just didn’t use it this first video because of audio issues. So, expect them to look better in the long run. I also want to put out some pieces and show off the game more in future videos.

3 Reasons Buy/Not Buy Gloomhaven

So here we have it the new series. This is the video that caused me to create a new welcome video. I want to start creating more of this content to help you know if a game is right for you or not. For some people, a game play video is more helpful.

After this video, do you want to buy or not Gloomhaven? Do you think it’s one that you can get to your table or not?

And more on the rest of the videos, what do you want to see? Is there a Top 10 or a Topic that you want discussed?

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