What’s Deck Building and List Criteria

Deck building is when in a game you are adding cards to a deck or cards that you then draw and play from. IT is not a game where you build a custom deck to start and no cards are added during the game to that deck of cards. This eliminates games like Arkham Horror The Card Game, Marvel Champions and Star Wars Unlimited from being on the list.

For this list, one of the important elements is that it needs to matter in the game. There are some games where you maybe add a card or two during the game. Those aren’t going to be making the list. I’ll talk in each about how much the deck building matters in the game.

Top 10 Deck Building Games

10. The Quest for El Dorado

The Quest for El Dorado is the only deck building racing game that I have on the list. In fact, I’m not sure that I can think of any. Heat can have a drafting element before the rest to kind of create some deck construction, but that’s it.

This one is all about getting to El Dorado as quickly as you can with your explorer. You play out cards matching terrains to be able to move along. And there are big blocks of different terrains, so you build up your deck one way and then you need to be able to pivot away from that or not get so deep in that because you need to get cards for the next terrain type as well.

One of the cool thing about this game is that as you empty out piles or cards, the next player picks what new stack of cards is going to go into that pile. It creates this interesting element where the players are the ones who set the market.

9. Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle is the one campaign game on the list. Though there are two more that offer campaign modes. But this one is only a campaign game where you play through the books of the Harry Potter series. It’s a fun game as you add new spells to your deck and you balance getting cards to get better spells and getting spells to help deal with the threats that can start to pile up.

There is a negative to this game. While it does offer cool unlocks of new things that are added for each book, there are also the same bad guys. So each time you play there are more and more bad guys. Now your deck should be getting more powerful because of the added cards, but you don’t carry anything over. So while I enjoy this game, it’s not one that stuck in my collection because it’s not too fast.

8. Knights of the Hound Table

Knights of the Hound Table is a game that I need to get played again. After playing it at Gen Con I decided I should pick it up. This game is an interesting little game where you are adding dog knights to your deck and them facing them off against your opponent.

You play out three cards each turn and depending on how the fight goes, that is going to determine who gets to buy first and who is gaining points in the game. Each card is going to give you something special. The ones on either end of the three you play give you attack and defense, respectively. Then the one in the middle is going to give you a special power of some sort (I believe I have that order correct). So it becomes an interesting little game of how you can manipulate your hand of cards to get a winning combination out there.

7. Hero Realms

Hero Realms is another two player head to head game, or it can be solo/cooperative against a boss/enemy deck. But I like this game a lot as a two player head to head game. You are trying to whittle down the other players health.

To do this you are playing out troops and they can either attack your opponent, assuming there is no enemy troop who forces you to attack them first. Plus there are other cards that offer more than just troops. Some of it might be money to buy more cards. Or you might be healing up and keeping ahead of your opponent that way.

The game also has a lot of expansions. I really like to use the characters for the game. Each character is going to provide a slightly different starting set-up and some powers that you can use throughout the game. It is going to give you a bit more of that asymmetrical experience while keeping the goal the same.

6. Ascension

Ascension is the most straightforward of the deck building games on the list. It is about grabbing cards, fighting monsters, and getting points. It’s one of two deck building games that I would consider great spots to get into deck building that I’ve played. The other being Dominion. But I don’t like Dominion that well and I think that it struggles more disparity in player experience.

There are three big things that I like better about Ascension. Firstly there are monsters. So it is not just about buying cards to get the victory point cards, you also want to buy troops to fight the monsters and get victory points from killing them. You also have a changing market. By that I mean that when a monster is defeated or a card is bought a new random one is flipped out. Finally are the constructs which stay in play. They give you a bonus that keeps going from round to round, unless your opponent destroys them.

5. Mistborn

Now we move onto the newest game on the list. Mistborn is a competitive deck building game to see who can be the best Mistborn. Or you can play it cooperatively against the Lord Ruler. You can see that cooperative style of game on the Malts and Meeples YouTube and down below.

Both ways work well for the game. And while it is a deck building game, the game offers some very unique things. The big one is that it pulls in burning metals like they do in the Mistborn books. And as you go through the game you get better at burning metals. That means that you can burn more on your turn which means that you can play more cards.

I also like that you can burn the metal on a card to play another card. It offers just a little bit more strategy. And I mentioned leveling up. The game is great with that because you level up each turn. And sometimes you can play cards to make that move faster. But it means that you feel more powerful and also can push the end game faster as you get further into the game. So it doesn’t stagnate in what you can do.

4. Clank! (All Versions)

This spot on the list includes Clank! The Adventure Deck Building Game, Clank! In! Space! and Clank! Catacombs. I recommend if you are starting out, get Clank! Catacombs. That is the newest one but all of the games generally follow the same system. The system is get into the dungeon/spaceship, grab a big treasure and get out.

Clank! is a deck building game that is competitive again, I have one more competitive one on the list. But what you can do to mess with other players is limited. Instead, your big concerns are making too much noise, clank, and then the monster drawing them out of the bag and damaging you and knocking you out before you can get out.

The deck building is all about pushing further into the dungeon. You want to grab cards that are going to let you move. But you also need cards to deal with the monsters or get coins to buy from other markets and grab points that way. The game gives you a lot of ways to get points while also giving you a very nice push your luck feel as you try and race back out once you’ve gotten your treasure. Because when people grab treasure that is going to push the game closer to the end.

3. Lost Ruins of Arnak

Lost Ruins of Arnak is the game on the list that is way more than just a deck building game. And you don’t always draw a ton of cards in the game. So as you build your deck, you might find that you only see cards one or two times. But the deck building is important in this game, as is the worker placement and resource gathering.

Let’s mainly talk about the cards. The cards are always going to augment what you can do in the game. There are two different types that I like as well. There are goods cards which you can buy, and they go to the bottom of your draw pile. So for a game with only a few turns it means that you see those cards quickly. And then there are relic cards that you get to use immediately, without paying their cost and then discard.

I had someone explain them to me this way. Relics are things you find while you explore the Lost Ruins. So it makes sense you can use them right away. The goods, though, are being shipped over to your expedition. So they take a bit more to get to you.

2. Xenoshyft: Onslaught

Xenoshyft: Onslaught is one of my favorite deck building games and just games overall. The first part I guess I didn’t need to say, really. But I love how cooperative this game is. And the final two deck building games on the list are cooperative.

In Xenoshyft, you are battling waves off bug aliens who want to destroy your base. So it is really a tower defense game. And each player has their own side of the tower that they defend against. But the total health of the tower, that is shared across all the players and all sides of the base.

There are a few things that make me love this game. Firstly, the game feeds you money. For each wave you get through you get more and more money. And that corresponds with unlocking better and better troops. So you are always able to buy troops.

I also love how cooperative this game is. I use my cards like grenades or healing on your turn defending the tower. In fact, we talk through that and work through that all together. But there is more than that. Maybe you didn’t draw enough troops because you have a lot or armor. Well, I can just play a troop your side of the base and now that is your card. Or maybe you have an extra weapon. You can equip that card to one of my troops and now that stays in my deck.

1. Aeon’s End

The final game on the list is cooperative and it has a campaign. I love Aeon’s End, and there is a ton of it to choose from. This game is all about surviving a big boss fight. And the bosses, called nemesis, all are slightly different. And the mages that you play, they are all slightly different as well. So your strategy each game is going to change depending on the mages that you play with and nemesis that you are going up against.

One of the big unique things for Aeon’s End is that you don’t shuffle your deck. That seems like one of the standards for deck building, but it’s a negative to shuffle your deck. When you buy cards they go to your discard. And after you are done buying and playing cards, you take those cards that would go to the discard and put them into the discard in the order that you want. So you can try and split-up cards if you get too many spells by each other, or you can create combos in your funding to really optimize your money.

Finally, I like how the spell and turn systems work. Though, the turn system make it so that I think Aeon’s End is a two player game or solo. The turn order is random and you draw a card to see who goes. With more than two, it can be a long time between turns. But with two, players get to go twice in a shuffle of turn order cards with the nemesis going twice as well. And that works well because you play a spell one turn and shoot if off the next. So you feel like you are doing stuff each round.

Final Thoughts

I managed to get 13 games into a Top 10 list. I like deck building and I think there is a ton of fun going on with it. There are other games that I want to play that have deck building in them, or ones that just missed the list. Shadowrun Crossfire is one that I enjoy but I need to play more of it. And Etherfields has a deck building component to it. So does Dune Imperium, which I own but have yet to play. And I suspect that if I were to think about it, there are a few more as well that could have made the list, or have that element that I need to play.

What is your favorite deck building game?

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Top 10 “It’s Been Too Long” Board Games

10. Xenoshyft

This one might be surprisingly low for some people. You know that I like this game a lot. But it’s low because I have played it a bunch. So while I haven’t played this deck building tower defense game recently, it’s one that I have played.

In this game you are cooperating with others to defend your base against alien bug attacks. You do this by creating a line of troops with armor and weapons to defend your sector of the base. Each player is going to defend their sector of the base, but you can help your teammates by giving them troops if you have too many and they don’t have enough. Or using items like grenades to blow up alien monsters or medpacs to heal them. I love how cooperative this game is, and challenging. Which makes me come back to it again and again.

9. Paper Dungeon

This is another game that I really love. But it’s lower on the list against because I’ve played it a bunch. But this is a dungeon crawler game that is a roll and write. You are exploring a dungeon, fighting monsters, finding bosses and trying to deal with those, all while leveling up your heroes and crafting items and health potions.

This is a roll and write game so the theme only comes through so much. But it’s really fun because there is a lot to do in the game. And this is one that I actually played through the whole “campaign” for it on Malts and Meeples YouTube. So you can checkout that video below. But the combinations just work so great that I really love this game, and I have an expansion for it that I need to get played.

8. Ship Shape

This is a funny little game but it’s been too long since I played it. It’s all about being the best pirate and not having too much contraband, but also getting that treasure as well. The main thing that sets this apart from other games, and puts it onto the list, is that you are bidding for what you want, but you can’t see everything you might need to know.

The game has you stacking tiles onto your cargo hold. Each tile is going to cover up certain parts of the hold. Now, all the tiles are stacked on top of each other as you bid, as well. So if you want the top tile you need to bid the highest number. But you can see some down the stack to know what might be on some of the lower tiles and if they might fit your hold better. But it’s unlikely that you can see everything, so do you risk it and bid lower. Of course, it all depends on what the other players bid as well to see if you get what you want or not.

7. Terraforming Mars Ares Expedition

This one falls into that category of I’ve played it a number of times. So do I need to play it again as much as some, probably not. But when it comes to engine building games, Ares Expedition is a great game. And I know that I have new content for cooperative and solo play to add to the game. As well as objectives to add to the game as well, if I want, so there is new stuff.

But I really love how Ares Expedition works. In this game every player is going to choose an action to do that round, and you choose it in secret. Then you reveal and you do the actions a particular order so it is building first and drawing cards, I believe at the end. Everyone plays every action that someone picked. But on the action that you picked, you get a bonus. And it’s possible that multiple people, or everyone, might pick the same action. So one round it might only be one action, which is interesting.

The game is then about building out an engine to gain points. You do this by terraforming Mars as well as getting points from cards as you build out that engine. The game is not super short, though, I’ve heard, shorter than Terraforming Mars. And it’s so much fun to play that I don’t mind it being a longer play.

6. Trailblazers

There are a few games on the list that I’m not sure why I haven’t played them recently Trailblazers is one of them. The big reason right now is that I don’t know where it is in my game collection. I know I own it. I know that I like it. But where is it, I’m not sure.

In this game you complete three different types of routes as you are out hiking, biking, or kayaking. Each of them creates a loop from the trailhead back to the start. You do this by drafting cards and playing them out. You draft over four rounds. And on the first round you only have one of the three trailheads out in play. Then the next round you add another and so on until the final round all of them are out. This helps you focus your building efforts a bit more.

But it’s fun because you gain points for all the sections of a trail. And sometimes a trail can cross itself and that gives you more points, or be crossed by another trail for more points. The game is simple and easy to play. And it’s not one that I find too stressful to play which is nice as well.

5. Calico

I’m not sure why Calico hasn’t been played in about two years. I really like Calico, though, I need to play Cascadia. The theme for Calico, for me, works better than Cascadia. We might have three cats in our house.

But this is a great tile placement game and I love the pattern matching element to the game. I think that the game is so much fun as you try and get matching colors together, matching patterns together, as well as the objectives that you set for yourself. And getting points for matching patterns to get cats, or colors to get buttons is fun.

The objectives are where the real puzzle and tension of the game comes into play. It might be something like AAA BBB and another one might be A BB CCC. You read those, first one as the example, as three of one color or pattern and three of another color or pattern surrounding that scoring objective. But if you can manage to get three of two colors and three of two patterns between those two colors, you score more points. So there are lots of ways to score points but it’s a really good tight puzzle of a game.

4. Chronicles of Drunagor

This is the only big campaign game on the list. I certainly could add more games like Tainted Grail: Fall of Avalon, but I have completed that game. With Chronicles of Drunagor, I played one session and that is it. So I want to play more of the game because I really enjoyed that one play. The issue, I found, is that it wasn’t great for streaming. I want to stream big campaign games maybe for a couple of hours. But because of how Drunagor works, with setting stuff up often mid game, it made it harder. But I think I can play it in shorter bursts, especially if I leave it set-up.

I really like the core mechanism(s) to the game. Firstly there is darkness. Darkness is a negative for the players. So you need to keep ahead of it. I like that it is an element that you use as a timer for the game. It means you can’t sit back too long and heal up or anything like that.

The other thing is the activation cubes. Each character starts out with some cubes of various colors. You use that color to activate that color of action. Then you cover it up. You aren’t able to use that action again until you remove all the cubes. And when you remove all the cubes, you block off one of them “for good” with a black cube. Yes, you can get it back, but that is an action and turn in and of itself.

3. Tesseract

Tesseract is a game that I played twice completely at Gen Con in 2023 and once I got to sit in on the last few turns and take over for a person. The theme of the game is fun, though it only comes through so much. In the game a cube has come to Earth, and it is shrinking. If you and your team are unable to crack the code and understand what the Tesseract is before it disappears a singularity will envelop the Earth, or something like that.

The game is all about managing this cube of dice. It’s going to shrink each turn, of Pandemic like in you do your good stuff then something bad happens. And you need to create collections of dice and numbers to research all the different colors/symbols on the dice and their numbers. But to play out those dice to get it closer to the finish, you create sets or runs of dice that you can use. So it’s all about getting the right dice and manipulating the dice well.

2. The Great Split

Who is the best collector of arts and other things? Well, that could be you in The Great Split. This games main mechanism is simply, I split, you choose. And you use that for set collection to score different types of artwork and literature.

But let’s talk about that main mechanism. What does it mean when I say “I split, you choose”. It means that we all have a collection of cards. I split that collection of cards into two groups. You pick one of the groups to take for yourself and I get the other one back. So when I create that split of cards, I want to create a division that you’ll want, but is just okay for you, and one that I want, but isn’t too good for me that you take it so I can’t have it. It’s a great mechanism, and The Great Split makes it the focus of it’s game.

1. Ready, Set, Bet

I love the chaos of this game. It’s amazingly fun doing the real time bidding on a horse race. And it’s also a blast being the person who is calling the race as well. The whole thing is just chaos and good in a great way. However, I do think you need the right group for it and a large enough group. That is what I’ve been missing for it recently and why it hasn’t been played.

So let’s talk about how this game works. All players have bidding chips. And one player is the caller of the race. That player is going to be rolling two dice and moving the horses down the track. While they are doing that in real time, the players are throwing out chips onto different bidding spots. These spots are for winning, showing, and placing. But also for extra bets like the 7 horse finishing ahead of all blue horses or things like that. You get money at the end of each round, and the player with the most money wins.

Final Thoughts

There are so many more board games that I could put on this list. If it’s not obvious, I love board games. And it’s fun to see what new games come out and play them. But sometimes I really want to get back to some classic ones that I’ve enjoyed a lot. It’s something that I need to make space for in my gaming. So while I’m getting very close to 50 new games for the year, I also need to play through some of these games on the list and enjoy them again.

What are some games that you want to get back to the table?

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Top 10 Overlooked Games

The criteria for this list is pretty simple. I went through the games that I have rated on Board Game Geek. I sorted them by how I rated them, and then also looked at how many rating total they had. And with that I then created the list. It is not purely the highest rated for me, or the fewest ratings. Because some games I don’t think are super overlooked, they just won’t work for some people instead. And some games are so new the number of ratings is lower so they don’t count as they are going to go higher in terms of total ratings.

10. The Night Cage

There are so many games that I could put on the list, but I want to go with one that is dark and feels different to kick the list off. In The Night Cage players work together to escape this every changing labyrinth before the time runs out and there are no more tiles. But it’s dark, you can only crawl around and there are monsters.

On a turn players move looking for exit points and keys. Each player needs a key and then all the players need to be at the exit at the same time. As you move you illuminate the spots adjacent to you. This might cause a monster to appear. And monsters will blow out your light, or kill you if you have no light. And if your light goes out, well, then you can’t see the spaces around you so you move blind.

Plus, there is a timer in the game, the timer being the number of tiles. So while you want to stay separated to not potentially cause monster problems, if you stay separated, you are more apt to burn through tiles too fast. It’s a great game with a great theme that I think more people should play. It’s really a press your luck game, but if you play it Halloween with some spooky music on, candles, and dimmed lights, it’s great.

9. First Rat

In 2022 this game flew off the shelves at Gen Con. And content creators consistently had it as a high game on their anticipated list. But now, it’s still sitting under 5,000 ratings on Board Game Geek three years later. And I think that more people should play this game because it’s a ton of fun with the theme and with the game play.

In the game you are rats who want to build a spaceship because they believe the moon is made of cheese. First off, how can you not like that theme. Then the game play is really interesting. You collect goods by moving up a track. These goods you use to build your rocket. And you get points for completing parts of them. But there are other elements on the track such as lighting up your way. When you do that, you get more goods.

The game while keeping turns pretty simple offers a lot of fun choices. And while it looks like there is a bunch going on, it isn’t too bad at all. Maybe it’s because they didn’t have enough copies at Gen Con in 2022 that it kind of fell off when people couldn’t buy it. But more people need to checkout First Rat.

8. Medium

This one surprises me that people haven’t rated it more. Yes, I’ll talk about it more but Board Game Geek often times has more ratings for bigger games and non-party games. But Medium is a pretty simple party game was relatively available for a little bit. It even had an expansion. And it is a game that I think more people should try, because it’s silly and fun.

Now maybe the reason it’s less rated is that if you learn the rules you don’t really need the game to play it. The game is very simple in two people go at a time. Each plays out a word and then they come up with a word that connects to two words. If they get it right, they get some points. If not, they try again with the two new words. And if they get that right, it’s fewer points but they get points. And finally you get one more go for the lowest point total, always off of the new words.

I think if more people played it, they would enjoy it as a fun time. And it’s a great icebreaker sort of party game. Because who cares if you get it wrong, it’s always going to lead to conversation around “why did you say that word” or excitement if you get it on the first try.

7. The Reckoners

Why is this game not more rated and more popular? I really like that The Reckoners is a great cooperative game. Plus the theme is fun. Though that is probably some of the reason that it is less popular or rated as well as it being a crowdfunding game mainly.

In this game you play as The Reckoners. A team of humans who are going up against the epics. These are superpowered individuals. But there is a trick, every superpowered individual, when they get their powers, turns bad. So you need to take them down. You complete this in two ways, by damage and by research to find their weakness.

This game is also great because everyone does stuff at the same time. You all roll dice at the same time to set your actions. Then you discuss what you want to do as you roll the dice. And you keep some and reroll, Yahtzee style, to see what other actions you get. Then when you take actions you all do it at the same time as well. It creates a game with almost no downtime, which I know a lot of people like.

6. Paper Dungeons

I don’t want to only put smaller games on the list or roll and write games on the list, but I think that it is pretty common. Why, because a small box game, it’s easier for people to overlook them. Though Paper Dungeons isn’t the smallest box game on the list and it has a pretty epic cover. But it’s probably overlooked because it is a roll and write game.

This game offers a campaign as well, but it’s really a one off game where you are delving into a dungeon and trying to build up your adventuring party through leveling them up, fighting monsters, crafting gear and more. You roll a bunch of dice, and you try and use them the best you can by filling in spots.

But this game is more interactive than some roll and writes. You can all fight the same monsters, but gems are limited to who gets them first. And who does the most damage to a monster, or if you even make it through the dungeon to fight the monster. And that’s a nice added element to it. Plus with Paper Dungeons the complexity is higher than some roll and writes. So that offers more of challenge as you play.

5. Ohanami

Some games are just probably too simple looking to get a ton of ratings. If you play games and rate them on Board Game Geek you probably play a lot of bigger hobby games. Ohanami is one of those small games that I think more people should play because it’s great for playing with people who play fewer games.

The game is pretty simple, you draft cards to add to up to three columns. There is a trick though as you draft the cards, you need to play them to the top or bottom of a column. Now it doesn’t need to be the same column for each card you draft, you draft two at a time, but they need to be higher or lower than the card at the top or bottom of the column.

Along with that, I think the scoring helps make the game more enjoyable for people who play a lot of games. You score different colors of cards different numbers of rounds. You draft over three rounds, but only blue is scored each round. Then green is scored two and grey is scored one. But the points get higher, so it creates a strategic drafting strategy as well as drafting for the numbers.

4. Sonora

This is one that I am very surprised didn’t catch on more. Sonora is a roll and write game, but instead of rolling dice, you are flicking discs. After everyone flicks their discs you use them and the number on the disc from the quadrant where the disc landed.

I kind of understand why some people might not love this game. But it is such a fun time as you play and I love how combotastic the game is. But that is the reason why people might not love the game. It is so combotastic that you might feel overwhelmed as you fill in that part. Or you might not like the randomness of the flicking. But the game, to me, is just a lot of fun. And with how popular roll and write games were, I think this game should have gotten more love.

3. Xenoshyft

This one I’m a champion of, but I think more people should play it. This is a cooperative deck building tower defense game. You play as marines, or something like that, defending a base against bugs. Is this game basically Starship Troopers, yes, and that is great.

The biggest thing I think more people should play this game for three elements that I like a lot. First, it is a very cooperative and collaborative in nature. You help people when they defend their part of the base. And this really leads into the second element of how you do that. You might give them a troop that you bought. They add it to their defensive line. And when it dies, it goes to their deck which is a fun twist. The final one is that you always can buy. This game gives you money and let’s you thin money out of your deck in a way that is great and helpful.

2. For Northwood!

This one is my #2 game that I think more people need to play. Now, I know why the game is on this list. For Northwood is a solo game, and solo games tend to have lower ratings. I skipped over a number of campaign games for that reason to make the list. But Forth Northwood is just so good that I think a lot of people would enjoy it and more people should check it out.

Like I said, For Northwood is a solo trick taking game. You play it over a number of rounds trying to win different numbers of tricks. You go to different forest locations and depending on where it is that sets the number of tricks you need to win, that number exactly, no more or less. Fortunately there are woodland creatures who help you. But that is limited and you need to figure out how to use them best to hit that number.

For Northwood is just such a great puzzle of a game. And each time can be different as you play. If you feel like the base mode of the game is too easy too, it offers you challenges to play. Plus, I think this is a great game for people who want to game but maybe travel a bunch for work as it’s tiny and easy to take with you anywhere.

1. Homebrewers

Homebrewers is easily my #1 game on this list. And it makes me sad that more people haven’t played it and loved this game. Now, I know that I’m also an outlier on rating the game and I’m not sure why. This is a very fun game about brewing beer and seeing who can be the best homebrewer. Now the theme is probably some of why it is less rated, but still, I think it’s a fun theme.

In this game you roll dice for actions and then you can trade dice with your opponents. You do this because you want to brew the best beers so you can score the highest ratings during Summer Fest and Oktoberfest. And you need to do all the steps to brew beer that you’d do in real life, or at least the board game version of them. Plus you add in flavorings to your beers as you brew, and these cards stick around. It allows you to create a brewing engine which is a lot of fun and you can create some crazy beers to drink.

This game, like I said, didn’t do well, and now it’s been six years, so I don’t think it’s going to come back. The upside is because it wasn’t super popular, people don’t sell it for a lot. So if it sounds fun and you can find it, it won’t be too expensive.

Final Thoughts

Now, I know not all games are for all people. But these are some games that I just wish more people would try or could have tried. Because some of them, like Homebrewers, it’s just not going to happen until someone new gets the rights to make the game. Others, I think they have a chance to have more people find them. But I do think that more people would enjoy all of these games.

And I also no the reason that some are passed is just because there are so many. Paper Dungeons and Sonora both came out in the height of roll and write fever. So it is easy to have either been burned out on roll and writes or just skipped them in favor of others that were more popular. But now it might be the chance to try and find them and play them.

What is one game that you’re a champion for that is less than 5,000 ratings on Board Game Geek and has been out for a bit?

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Catch up on previous videos here

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

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition – 20 through 11

20. Heat: Pedal to the Metal

• Published by Days of Wonder in 2022
• Fly around the track and manage your engine so it doesn’t over heat to win the race

This is a great racing game. It is a nice blend of simplicity. You play cards equal to the gear that you are in for your movement. But also some complexity as you need to be smart with how you handle the curves, straightaways, how much you push your engine and when you cool it down. That cooling down part of the game is great as it really makes a difference in how you play and when you push it. Plus there are modules you use, like drafting some cards for your deck, that make the game even more fun, or you can do a series of races which is also great.

Buy Heat: Pedal to the Metal

19. Planet Unknown

• Published by Adam’s Apple Games in 2022
• Terraform your planet and increase your technology better than your opponents can

Planet Unknown is a polyomino game where you are terraforming a planet. You can play it in the basic mode where everyone is doing the same planet and same tech track, or you can do unique planets and tech tracks. I love the unique ones and I think that’s the way to go after the first game. But Planet Unknown has more than just laying out tiles, how you decide which tile is picked for you is amazing. Whomever is the leader that round turns a lazy susan full of tiles and whatever one is pointing to where you pick from, those are your options. So you can stick someone with something or sometimes get the perfect thing.

Buy Planet Unknown

18. Clank! In! Space!

• Published by Dire Wolf in 2017
• Race through a spaceship but don’t try and make too much noise as you grab a treasure and get out

This is a push your luck deckbuilding game, and I enjoy both of those elements to the game. I find that pure push your luck doesn’t always work for me, but add in deckbuilding a mechanism I love, it’s great. You build up your deck to move and grab a treasure, fight monsters, and buy more cards that are worth points. But you also need to be aware of how noisy you are. If you’re too noisy the villain, Lord Eradikus will start drawing out your cubes, if you clank, and dealing damage to you. And you might not make it out before you die.

Buy Clank! In! Space!

17. ISS Vanguard

• Published by Awaken Realms in 2022
• Explore a new solar system while you manage your crew and your ship

ISS Vanguard is a big campaign game and one that I’ve played on Malts and Meeples. Not the whole way through, but far enough to give you an idea of how it plays. The game is interesting because it plays over two parts. Part of the game is exploring planets and discovering why humanity was called out to this location in the stars. The other part is managing your ship. I was worried that managing your ship wouldn’t feel important, but it’s a great element to the game and makes it feel even more thematic.

Buy ISS Vanguard

16. Vampire the Masquerade: CHAPTERS

• Published by Flyos Games in 2023
• Enter a world of vampires and darkness as you play across missions and try and figure out what is happening in Montreal

Chapters is choose your own adventure RPG in a box. I love how it gives you this great story filled with depth and grit. And it also gives you tactical combat and dice chucking. It feels like a great blend of things that I love in board games and in RPG’s. The story is well written and while there are definitely issues with it there is an app that should be helping fix that and an upgrade pack for it. But even without that, the game is fun, and the app is free so the few spots it’s really busted should be fixed. Plus, I want to play a dark vampire game, and this gives me that in spades.

Buy Vampire: the Masquerade – CHAPTERS

15. Metal Gear Solid

• Published by CMON in 2024/2025
• Sneak around the base and battle only when you need to complete missions

Yes, there is a game on my list that isn’t out yet. Spoilers, there might be another one as well coming up in my Top 10. But that is because I’ve gotten to play the final version of the game and I feel like I’ve had enough time with it. I love this game as it’s a tactical minis game where you can fight. But fighting generally is going to be noisy and messy and you’ll be swarmed. When that happens, well, it’s probably game over for you. So instead you need to be smart, sneak around, and try and avoid the guards the best you can or lose them. All while being a pretty simple game to play.

Coming Soon

14. Lost Ruins of Arnak

• Published by Czech Games Edition in 2020
• Explore the lands, find treasure, fight monsters and discover what adventure awaits you

Lost Ruins of Arnak is a deckbuilding game. It is a worker placement game, and it’s a exploring adventure game. For me all of those elements come through. And I love the puzzle of trying to manage your two workers you get place, knowing when and where to place them, buying cards, and risking fighting monsters. Because you need to do it all, and the game isn’t that long in terms of how many rounds it is. But if you’re smart, you can stretch it out for a lot of points and a lot of chaining actions. The Expedition Leaders even adds more fun to the game and more variability as well which I love.

Buy Lost Ruins of Arnak

13. XenoShyft Onslaught

• Published by CMON in 2015
• The base is under attack by bugs, you need to build up your defenses and work together to defeat them

I think I’m the champion of XenoShyft, but I really like the game. It’s another deckbuilding game, but it’s a cooperative one. And I think that cooperative element and how incredibly interactive the cooperation is, that is what makes the game stand out to me. Plus it does a clever thing where you’re never drawing dead with money, so you can always buy cards and bolster up your defenses. Because everyone needs to be able to defend their side of the base so the bugs don’t overrun it.

Out of Print, but you can find it on eBay

12. Marvel Champions

• Published by Fantasy Flight Games in 2019
• Heroes battle villains in this Marvel Superhero game

I love Marvel, we all know that. And Marvel Champions is one of my favorite, if not my favorite Marvel themed game. What I love about this one is that you feel like you are the hero. And not only that, you need to think about being the hero but balancing that with the alter ego. If you stay in hero form the bad guy will beat you up and probably take you out. But if you are in the alter ego side, they don’t know who you are, so they’ll go back to completing their scheme. And that’s not great as well because you can’t blow your cover in alter ego form.

Buy Marvel Champions

11. Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game

• Published by Portal Games in 2018
• Take on the role of detectives and work together, take the notes, and try and solve the cases

Detective for me is my favorite deduction game. I like deduction a lot, but Detective just makes it really immersive. In the box I’m showing it has five cases that all connect into something big and impressive. And you use information that you took notes on from one case and use it in another. I think by the end of all five cases I had between 12 and 15 pages of notes that we’d look back at. And it uses a computer system as well to let you do things like compare DNA, interview witnesses, and more. The game is just this great thematic detective game for me.

Buy Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game

Upcoming Streams

Just a reminder on my streaming schedule. It’s not just all my Top 100 Games (of all time).

• Monday night, time varies, I play different small solo games, though I might be looking to start up a campaign again. And generally the streams do start between 8 and 8:30 PM central time.
• Wednesday at 9 PM central is going to continue my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition. There is one week left, which is going to be two Wednesdays out. After that I’m planning on doing some look back and look ahead videos and smaller solo games or things like Balatro and Slay the Spire.
• 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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Top 5 Games I Want A New Edition Of

5. Sword and Sorcery

When playing through the first box, I liked elements of this game. I thought that the puzzle of what you were doing on the board is interesting. But the more I played, the more repetitive it got. And the more the game was just a move, battle, battle, move. Your actions were almost always set in a predictable way.

Sword and Sorcery is one of those games that could improve in two ways. First, get a more varied scenario. There is always probably going to be an element of beat the bad guys. But make that element more interesting and dynamic in the game system. And make it so I don’t feel like I’m just doing the same thing over and over again.

The other one is the story. While some games feel like they live in a unique world, Sword and Sorcery does not. If the writing were to improve that would help the game a lot. The basis of the game, heroes being reborn to save a new age, that is interesting. But the rest of it just felt generic which is disappointing. It has a cool premise and pays off none of it.

4. Boss Monster

This one is tricky. There is a new campaign that added more to the game so maybe that already exists. But when I watch the videos with that crowdfunding campaign it seems more of the same, for me. Boss Monster is a game that I want to like in theory, but in actual execution is just lacking.

You build up a dungeon that heroes are going to go through and you want to attract them. If you attract them, you want your dungeon to be able to kill them. So it’s building the most efficient dungeon murdering path that you can. The issue is that not that much is going on in the game. Most of what I do isn’t that unique or different. You just put down cards with symbols for heroes and damage.

This one it’s harder to know how I want to improve it. I think that Brotherwise Games is on a better track with Overboss and Dungeon Karts where they are games set in the same setting but completely different. For Boss Monster, though, I want something that feels more creative in what I do. Because, a lot of the time it feels like I’m just locked into one thing.

3. Castle Panic/Xenoshyft

I got no major complaints on this one, really. A second edition would just be fun to have for Castle Panic. The game play is appropriately simple and I like that. But, maybe that is one area that I’d want to see more in it. But Castle Panic is a family game for families with younger kids, so I don’t want to ruin that.

Instead, what I think I want is just a new tower defense game. I want something that uses elements of what Castle Panic does but makes you be even more clever. And thinking about it, it might be that I want a new version of Xenoshyft instead. I love that game so much, and it’s a more complex tower defense game.

But give me somethings that combines the two. Less deck building, but more combos and big card play moments to keep waves of monsters from reaching the base. I think just adding in a little bit to what Castle Panic does would be a fun time. And something that could be supported with more. But the more I think about this, I think of other games that maybe cover it for me as well.

2. Dead of Winter

This one seems like a no brainer. And Plaid Hat has been doing some games with this Crossroads system. Whether or not they have the rights to do another Dead of Winter or that is still with Asmodee, I’m not sure. But I’d love to see a new edition of this game.

Firstly, get rid of the hidden traitor. The traitor can just tank the game too easily at any point. And it makes it tricky to teach the game. It’s no fun when the traitor is the person who knows the game. Or as a player who doesn’t know anything about it, and now you’re trying to be the traitor. Just make the game harder, if you need to, to win a scenario. There are plenty of games that are challenging without a traitor.

Next up streamline the game some and maybe provide some campaign like elements to the game. Or at least make it make sense in a way to chain standalone scenarios. That would be awesome, I think that Dead of Winter actually could be an amazing setting for a legacy game. But to do that, you need story outside of the game generating it’s own. And you need the sessions to be a little bit shorter. For a game with a fragile balance, Dead of Winter takes too long.

But please give me a new version of this game. Or something with a similar feel even if it can’t be zombies. But zombies really do work well, and to have a new game come out with the zombie theme, zombies were hot but they aren’t that hot anymore.

1. Charterstone

I know that this is unlikely to ever give me what I want. But Charterstone is a fun game, just not one that I really loved. Mainly because it’s a legacy game where the legacy elements are just okay. I think with what companies like Open Owl Studios are doing now, Charterstone shouldn’t be a legacy game anymore.

You make Charterstone a campaign game. And the legacy elements of unlocking new things, that can still happen. But now it’s about what you add to your board and is saved between each session. It’s not about a permanent sticker, it can be done with cardboard pieces. And you get a campaign sheet to mark instead of a box. But there isn’t a reason that it couldn’t work that way.

Then clean up a few of the unlocks and surprises which weren’t that surprising or interesting in the twists. They wouldn’t work for a non-legacy version, but they aren’t needed. And add in a bit more story. Honestly, get Open Owl Studios to do the production and Ryan Laukat to add to the story of the game and world and keep the Stonemaier core design, it could be amazing instead of just okay.

Final Thoughts

Each of these games are just on that cusp of being a great game for me. The furthest away from that is Castle Panic which mainly I say because I already like the game a lot. And I don’t want to remove the family nature of what game. So it’s really a new cool tower defense game that I’m looking for there. And that might be a list that I do. Take a mechanism or core idea and talk about what I’d want to see in a game like that.

But what are some games or a game that you’d like to see get a new and improved edition?

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

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

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

20. Hanamikoji

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

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

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

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

Buy Hanamikoji

19. Cartographers

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

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

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

Buy Cartographers

18. Railroad Ink Challenge

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

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

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

Buy Railroad Ink Challenge

17. Xenoshyft

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

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

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

Buy Xenoshyft

16. First Rat

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

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

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

Buy First Rat

15. Ready Set Bet

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

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

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

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

Buy Ready Set Bet

14. Sleeping Gods

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

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

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

Buy Sleeping Gods

13. ISS Vanguard

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

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

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

Buy ISS Vanguard

12. Roll Player Adventures

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

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

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

Buy Roll Player Adventures

11. Aeon’s End

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

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

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

Buy Aeon’s End

Upcoming Streams

Let’s run through the stream structure like I normally do. You might already know the schedule but in case you don’t. Wednesday at 8 PM Central I stream either a campaign game, or with this time of year it’s my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition. And join me next Wednesday for the Top 10. It goes so fast, and now I have so many games that I want to play.

Then on Monday I stream at 9 PM Central time. It’s generally a solo game. Though I’ll also do pack openings for things But normally it’s a solo game and a one off for the game like a roll and write, or sometimes a game like Under Falling Skies or For Northwood, which was on the list today.

But the best way, if you want to know when I go live or a new video goes up (it’s basically always live), please consider subscribing. You can do that here. And click that notification bell on the channel and you’ll always know when I go live.

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And catch up on any you’ve missed before:

100 through 91 here.

90 through 81 here.

80 through 71 here.

70 through 61 here.

60 through 51 here.

50 through 41 here.

40 through 31 here.

30 through 21 here.

20 through 11 here.

Top 100 Games 2022 Edition – 10-1

10. Roll Player Adventures

We know that I like my big box adventure games, and the more that I play Roll Player Adventures the more that I like the game. It might even be higher now after having played it a couple more times since making the list. But Roll Player Adventures is a choose your own adventure style of adventure game tied in with dice manipulation.

The game takes a world that didn’t exist too much in Roll Player and creates a greater and more interesting story around it. And the story is just fun, some of the backstories are a bit heavier, but the main story is a great and lighter fantasy experience. And beyond the story, I really like the dice manipulation that can go on. It can be a bit easy, sometimes, at 4 players, but that doesn’t make it less puzzly to figure it out, it’s just that we can make it so we rarely miss a challenge.

Buy from Thunderworks Games

9. Mansions of Madness

Mansions of Madness has consistently been in the Top 10, and it’s going to stick around, I’d guess, in my Top 20 at least for a long time. I really like that it’s a story driven game, but one without a campaign to it. Though, I do want a campaign from time to time with the game. But each scenario is something completely different as you try and solve a mystery, stop a ritual, or maybe just get out of a town.

Mansions of Madness also offers such good game play. It is more of a die chucker, but it implements puzzles and monsters, and so much through an app system that doesn’t take over the game, but supports it in the play. It takes something that’d need to be one versus all and turns it into a cooperative experience.

Buy on Miniature Market

8. Xenoshyft Onslaught

Xenoshyft is the next game in the Top 10. This is a deck building game of tower defense as you fight off waves and waves of bugs. I really like it because it does a couple of things that make it feel different for a cooperative game and for a deck building game.

Firstly, it handles the currency really well. Every round you need to have troops and money to buy more, so you get money at the start of each round. You draw your hand and you take a money so that you always can buy something. Plus, you can then trade in money, in future rounds to go from having 3 1’s in the deck to 1 3 in your deck of cards. So you keep the deck lean.

The other thing is how much interaction there is. You don’t have enough troops to defend your side, not a big deal, I can give you an extra I have in hand. Or you can pass a weapon over to me if you have extras. And I can use a stim pack on your guy or you can toss a grenade on my side to take out my bugs. It is very cooperative in what you do, which I really like.

Buy on Amazon

7. Stars of Akarios

Stars of Akarios, you can watch game play of that on Malts and Meeples but it’s one of my top gaming experiences for 2022. I love this game so much which is how it can make it so high. The story is just fun, and the different game modes for the most part work really well.

The game really shines with it’s tactical space combat. It is such a good puzzle as you roll dice and then need to figure out how to use those dice to activate abilities, get in position for attacks and blow the enemy ships out of the sky. That is a puzzle every turn as you activate and then the enemies go so by the time you come around, they might be flanking you and you need to scramble to be able to target them again.

Plus the planetary exploration works well. And it’s a lot of fun with a 7th Continent type of vibe to it as you explore and open up a map and a whole world as you discover new things. It’s a bit more fiddly, but there is a lot of story to discover there. And they do a good job of giving you different things that you can play around with, different story elements or mechanics on the various planets.

Buy from OOMM Games

6. Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game

Detective made the list last year in a big way and some of that was because it was one of the gaming experiences that worked really well during COVID. But also because it is legitimately a really fun game of deduction as you try and figure out which paths to go down to solve cases. I’ve liked all the different versions that I’ve played and I have a lot more of Detective to play.

In the original box, and the Batman box, I like how the cases are tied together as well. Each case might be solving it’s own thing, but there is an overall story that runs together. And I don’t mind at all the addition of technology into the game. The database to update with what you’ve found, and looking up information or finding matching information from previous cases is just a lot of fun and would be hard without the website.

Buy on Miniature Market

5. Aeon’s End

The last deck building game on the list is Aeon’s End. And I really enjoy this one as well because of a few different things starting with the turn order. Now that turn order might make it into a two player game only for me. Because it’d be too long between turns otherwise, but it being a random card draw from a deck of two cards for players one and two and two for the nemesis is great.

I think Aeon’s End also does a great job of giving you unique nemesis to fight against and unique mages to play as. And as the game has gone along further, the legacy version offers an amazing point to jump into the game. Plus just enough legacy goodness, the story is just okay, that you want to see what you unlock next for your character.

Buy on Game Nerdz

4. Marvel Champions: The Card Game

Marvel Champions is a deck construction game, so slightly different than deck building. You are taking a Marvel hero into battle against a villain where you need to try and thwart the scheme and defeat the bad guy. All before the bad guy can either complete their scheme or knock you out.

The game does a good job of giving you that superhero feel to it. And I really appreciate how the cards flip. So you can go from Peter Parker to Spider-Man and back and that’s part of the strategy of the game because if you just stay as Spider-Man, the bad guys will beat you down. If you just stay as Peter Parker you can’t fight or thwart their schemes. So it’s a fun balancing act.

I wish that there were more campaigns or a more in-depth campaign like Arkham Horror LCG, but what they have works well. And, theoretically, it makes it easier to get to the table because you don’t need to worry about getting it back tot he table repeatedly.

Buy on Cool Stuff Inc

3. Tainted Grail

Next is another big campaign game that I’m nearing the mid point of the third Tainted Grail campaign, and I have Ruin of Kings ordered as well for more game play. But this is a survival adventure game where you really aren’t a hero. You are close a hero, but you all have weaknesses and rough pasts. In fact, in the base campaign there are heroes who have gone out to see what is happening and they haven’t come back. So you are the B-team sent out to see what is going on.

But that’s not what makes the game so much fun. I do like the combat and diplomacy checks. But it’s all about the story for this game. I’d read the story of our adventures as a novel because the writing is so good in what is going on. And for that reason we play in story mode, it makes it a bit less grinding, but it also means that we can explore more which means we get more of that story.

You Can Maybe Find on Ebay or Board Game Geek Market

2. Dice Throne

My number two is still Dice Throne. This is a game that doesn’t feel like it should work, it looks like Yahtzee and combat all rolled into one, but it works really well. There is someone much smarter than me who has figured out how to balance abilities and make abilities feel unique for so many characters from classic fantasy to Marvel heroes and anti-heroes to Santa vs Krampus.

I know that most people like this game only as a two player head to head battle. But I think as a game where it’s king of the hill, which incentivizes hitting the player with the most health it works well as well. Overall, this is just a nice filler game while waiting for more people to come to a game night. Or one that I’ll pull out when I do have two players and we can try all sorts of combinations.

Buy on Miniature Market

1. Gloomhaven

Finally, no change with my number one. And I don’t think with Frosthaven coming soon, it’ll get dethroned. Mainly because Frosthaven is more of that same Gloomhaven goodness from what I can tell and I’m so excited to get it to the table.

But Gloomhaven is a massive dungeon crawler that doesn’t have you chucking dice. In fact, there are no dice at all to be chucked it is all done through card play. Card play that determines your attacks, your moves, and how fast you even act in initiative order. It also is a game where with just cards, each character really feels different in what they are doing, maybe that is one of the things that I really appreciate about a game, unique characters.

Looks at Top 10, yeah, seems reasonable to say that I enjoy unique characters.

Buy on Miniature Market

Upcoming Streams

So on Wednesday I am going to be streaming Spire’s End Hildegard, the follow-up, prequel, similar but different game to Spire’s End. In fact, over the next few weeks I’ll probably stream both of them. Just so that I can play them enough and be able to review both and compare and contrast both. So look for Spire’s End and Spider’s End: Hildegard on upcoming Wednesdays.

Monday is no longer going to be the Top 100 games, the list is done. Instead, I want to stream some of the more casual solo games that I have, maybe play some of them I’ve already played before. And just use that time to get in some gaming but also be able to just hang out and chat with people as we get closer to the new year. Then starting in 2023, it’ll be time for a new campaign game.

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Ranking My Sci-Fi Games

16. Star Wars: Destiny

I don’t dislike Star Wars: Destiny, I just find that I have room for one collectible game in my life. And right now that is Magic: The Gathering. Destiny is fun, though, because it is cheaper to play. And I know someone who has a bunch of cards (they bought all of mine) so I can play it if I want that way. But it’s a good head to head game.

15: Firefly: The Game

This is a game that I really need to give another chance. Again, I don’t dislike this game, it’s just that I kind of played it once. Everyone was learning and nothing was going that well for us in it. And it just got longer and longer without making progress. But I see how the game works and I think there are some cool elements there. And I know there are people who really like the game. So I want to try it again and set aside the time and group to really play it.

14: Legendary Encounters: Firefly

Much like Firefly: The Game, Legendary Encounters Firefly is one that I’ve had fun with, but I want to play more. I really like the show, and I think that the Encounters version of Legendary works better than the Marvel version. And it also falls into the category of I know someone who owns the game, so I could pretty easily play it again if I wanted.

13: Cosmic Encounter

Cosmic Encounter is one that I had in my collection, I really enjoyed, and I traded away. Mainly because I don’t think I can get it to the table all that often. Cosmic Encounter is a really silly negotiation game that works when people lean into that negotiation. There is strategy to the game, but you need to lean into that negotiation to make it work. So it just limits who I can play it with, but I’d never turn down a chance to play Cosmic Encounter.

12: Cry Havoc

Cry Havoc was high on my Top 100 a few years ago, and it dropped down and I sold it. Again, a game that I really enjoy and I would play any chance I could. But it’s an asymmetric game so it is a bit harder to teach and play. With that, I prefer Root to it which is in the same family of asymmetric games. But this is a fun area control game with a cool combat mechanic that is simple but different.

11: Star Wars: Imperial Assault

More Star Wars on the list. Imperial Assault also left the collection only because it is a campaign game. Campaign games are harder to get to the table for sure and Imperial Assault is not exception. I want to get it back sometime and play it. I liked the app that you can use with it to play fully cooperatively. And I like that it feels like a Star Wars adventure.

10: Shadowrun Crossfire

I almost didn’t add this to the list, I don’t know where I want to put Cyber-Punk. But Cyber-Punk is Sci-fi. Shadowrun Crossfire is a game of deck building and defeating challenges, getting XP, and leveling up your characters slowly. That’s the big knock on the game that you don’t level up fast enough, but people house rule around that. It is one I need to dive more into the game, I think you can play it solo, even if it is multi-handed solo gaming.

9: Gravwell

Gravwell is an abstract game with a space theme put on top of it. In particular Gravwell has you getting passed through a wormhole that is closing and now you use different elements to try and escape back. But the different element either pull you towards the nearest object, push you from it, or pull them towards you. It’s a fun little puzzle that keeps it close until someone can get the right cards to make it to the end.

8: Star Wars: Rebellion

Star Wars in a box, as people like to call it. Star Wars: Rebellion has the Rebels trying to undermine the Empire and complete missions. The Empire is trying to figure out where the Rebels secret base is. All while building up troops and skirmishing as you go. It’s a massive two player game, but an amazing one. If you have the time it is worth sitting down with an getting that original trilogy Star Wars feel.

7: Under Falling Skies

Under Falling Skies is Space Invaders meets Independence Day. This is a solo game about fighting off waves of alien ships and researching the mother ship in order to beat the game. I have yet to beat the game, but it is a lot of fun. But I always feel like I’m getting close. I also really like that high numbers make some ships descend faster but are more useful to research or blow up ships. It’s a clever system and a pretty big little game.

6: Galaxy Trucker

I normally don’t like real time games but Galaxy Trucker is an exception. In Galaxy Trucker you build out your cargo ship as fast as you can. Then you sit back an watch it get blown up. Well, ideally not blown up, and ideally you pick up cargo along the way. You deal with asteroids, space pirates, and come across planets full of goods along the way. It might be too chaotic for some, but I really like it.

5: Battlestar Galactica

BSG (Battlestar Galactica) is a massive game of survival when you might have hidden traitors among you. The Cylons are aboard the ship and you might not even know you are one. This is a massive three hours deduction, survival, even a bit of social deduction game. You try and figure out who is a Cylon and if you can get them off the ship in time before they mess everything up. But that’s way easier said than done.

4: T.I.M.E Stories

TIME Stories is almost any setting. There is Ancient Egypt, a land of dragons, pirates, zombies taking over a town, an asylum, you name it. But the core conceit of the game is that you are launching out, sending your mind back in time from the future, to deal with these problems, where time is changing. The concept is amazing, and I have liked each adventure I’ve gone on. I wish it had more of a story running throughout, but the different missions all feel unique.

3: Rogue Angels: Legacy of the Burning Suns

Rogue Angels isn’t even out yet, I have only played it on TableTop Simulator (TTS) but it is amazing. You can watch my play through of it here with the designer, Emil Larson. The game just works, it is a dungeon crawl style game in space. But it isn’t a dungeon crawl game where you just go in fight the monsters and leave. You make important decisions. And you upgrade your character as you go. There is so much I like about this game. When I get a physical copy, I suspect it’ll move up higher.

2: Clank! In! Space!

Clank! In! Space! is a deck building adventure game where you are breaking into a spaceship, trying to be as quiet as possible so you don’t Clank about. But to move faster, defeat more bad guys, and generally win the game, you will need to Clank. Plus there is a push your luck element where you want to get as far in as you can to get the best treasure. But the longer you are in the ship, the more clank and damage you can accrue.

1: XenoShyft: Onslaught

XenoShyft is a tower defense deck building game with some amazing cooperative elements to it. Mainly, I can buy a card and then give you that card if you need help. You only have two troops to defend your side of the base in your hand, I can help you get more. I can even drop in a paratrooper in the middle of fighting a wave of bugs. Add in that you always get money, that’s even better. I rarely defeat the waves of bugs, but it’s so much fun to try.

Final Thoughts

I own a fair number more Sci-Fi themed games that I need to try. Middara blends Sci-Fi and Fantasy. Nemesis is basically Aliens the board game. And I just realized that I missed Not Alone on the list, probably top 6-7. But I still think there are more fantasy games out there that look interesting.

Some that I don’t own that I really should try are the different Dune games. I own the one based on the Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game system which I need to carve out a weekend chunk of time to play.

What are your favorite board games with a Sci-Fi theme?

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Cooperative Games Rankings

So just be aware I’m going to talk less about these games because there are a grand total of 52 that I ranked. Expect a sentence or two on each one of them.

52. FUSE

Fast paced game of rolling dice and then using them to try and complete enough cards to diffuse the bomb. I don’t love games that are only real time, and FUSE is only real time. It plays fast, but the game isn’t that interesting the more you play it.

51. Magic Maze

Another real time game, this time taking adventurers through a shopping mall. This one is more interesting because you need to work together more. But it’s going really fast without talking and sometimes it works and other times it doesn’t.

50. Forbidden Island

This one is a great introduction to cooperative gaming and gaming in general. It follows the standard, do something and then something bad happens. My issue is that the game is too easy and generally just an okay game.

49. Arkham Horror: Final Hour

Now, on the flip side of Forbidden Island, this game is hard as you try and guess some ruins to be able to stop ritual from happening. It basically takes Arkham Horror and tries to make it shorter. It succeeds on that, but it also just isn’t interesting. The couple clever things it tries to do are just misses.

48. God of War: The Card Game

And another game that was too easy when I played it. I wonder about playing a whole game if that would make it more challenging, but what I played was fairly boring. I also feel like the decisions weren’t that interesting in the game. Most of the time it was do the obvious thing.

47. Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game

I talked about this yesterday. It’s a fine deck building game. It is just too slow to get to the table and too slow to get to feeling powerful. If they were to come out with a second edition and make the game play ramp up faster, I’d probably like it a lot. But right now, the ramp is just too slow.

46. Forbidden Desert

I like this a fair amount better than Forbidden Island, it offers more to do and a more clever mechanism of figuring out where to get things. It follows that Pandemic formula for things of do good things and then bad things happen. Played it a few times, enjoyed it, and have moved on.

45. The Mind

This one is an interesting one. You try and play cards down in numerical order without talking. The concept is cool, and the game works, but only sometimes. This is one where it really depends on who is in the group. And I had some good times with it but moved on again.

44. Sword Art Online Board Game: Sword of Fellow

I need to try this one again, it’s been a little while. The concept isn’t bad, you are basically playing the boss battles from Sword Art Online the show, and it has the main characters. The downside is that the rules aren’t that great, and it’s pretty simple and lucky. That said, it is tiny, so I don’t mind luck as much.

43. Exit Games

Exit Games are fun, but any escape room game is always hard to rank. I’ve played less Exit Games, and I don’t love that you can’t pass it on. Granted, I did see it kind of work with them at Fantasy Flight Game Center (now GameZenter), but I don’t want to buy something I need to then replace.

42. Flash Point: Fire Rescue

This is basically Pandemic but with fires. You haven’t seen Pandemic yet on the list so you know it’s higher. I think that Flash Point: Fire Rescue might end up being one that I get. And that’s because it might replace base Pandemic for me, but we’ll talk about why later. Very standard cooperative game.

41. Legendary Encounters: A Firefly Deck Building Game

On yesterday’s list, it is one that I like the theme of. Firefly was a great show, and the game is playing through the episodes. The game isn’t that easy and the artwork is just okay. Again, the ramp speed doesn’t seem right for the type of game it is, but it’s better than Marvel Legendary.

40. Stuffed Fables

This is one that I had a good time when I played it, but ended up being one that I never wanted to come back to. The game has a cool story about a kid who has a blanket, I believe, stolen, and you play as animals going under the bed with all the broken toys to get it back for her. But the mechanics were not that well taught and things that changed up on each different storybook page were worse taught.

39. Legacy of Dragonholt

Another one that was in my collection and left. When I heard about an RPG in a box, I thought it was going to be great. And in all fairness, it is a fun game with a lot of story in the box. But the story and writing was just okay. The best I can compare it is that it was written like a YA novel, but not one of the great ones. I think the system was very good, but I wanted writing.

38. Marvel Battleworld

This is dumb little game. I know it shouldn’t be this high on my list, though we’re not even half way yet. It is just a game where you roll a die and advance a track. The fun of the game is buying blind packs and getting little Funko figures. So I have it this high because it’s a fun toy with a little game attached to it.

37. Ghostbusters: The Board Game

We’re still in the area of games that are just okay, but we’re soon to games that are still in my collection. I loved the minis in the game, and the translucent ones look cool. But the game play was just okay. While there were different scenarios, they weren’t bad, but it wasn’t all that interesting. I just wished there was more.

36. Elder Sign

Another one that left my collection, some of that was just because I had only the base game. I have heard that the expansions help improve the game, and add more to the story of what you are doing. The base game is basically a Yahtzee type game, and I wish that it played a little bit faster for what it is.

35. Legends of Andor

Story driven puzzle game, Legends of Andor is good. The reason that it left my collection is that I never wanted to just sit down and play through all of it. So when I did want to play it, I’d play through the introductory scenario again and I did that a few times. But I like the story and the mechanics are pretty cool.

34. Sword & Sorcery

I played this one a lot, I got through the base game and one expansion. And I do like this game. Once I played that, though, I got rid of it. Even though I had more characters to play with, I wasn’t interested in going back through. The story doesn’t branch enough for that. And I wish that you could retire characters like in Gloomhaven.

33. Castle Panic

I almost culled this game, and I might, the board is a bit dinged so the FLGS didn’t take it. But the game is still playable. We’re not here to talk about that, though. The game is fun, and it’s a very light tower defense game. I like that I can play it with almost anyone, and while you rarely lose, it feels like you might. If I don’t lose a cooperative game fairly often, though, I will move on from it.

32. Choose Your Own Adventure: House of Danger

This is a fun silly little game. I would say that it’s pretty much a solo game. Because you all play as one character and basically just do a choose your own adventure. You can make decisions as a group and pass around who is reading and rolling a die, but that’s how it’s cooperative. It is fun for that, though, because it’s so silly that everyone is laughing together.

31. Mysterium

Mysterium bounces all over for me. I think it was in my Top 100 games this past year and now with this ranking it wouldn’t be. If and when I play it again, it likely will move up. This is about figuring out who the murderer is. And there are rules about how that all works, but really it’s about giving clues as a ghost to everyone so they can figure theirs out. It’s cool concept that can get in it’s way with how it tries to be a game.

30. Unlock Games

The better escape room style board game. Unlock Games you don’t destroy anything, unless in a fit of rage. And I like how it counts down building up pressure versus Exit which is just see how long it takes you. And there are a lot of these with a lot of different themes. I want to play more, but it’s kind of a lot of a game night and works better with 3-4 people not 6.

29. Arkham Horror

This is the 2nd Edition, I haven’t played my 3rd Edition yet, but I need to. This is a grand epic game that takes forever to play. But it is a lot of fun. I felt like when I’ve played it that I get into what is going on in the game. The story is light, but the longer you play, the more story develops just from what you are doing.

28. Dead Men Tell No Tales

I like pirates, so that helps this game. And the supernatural twist on it is good. It again falls into that category of do some things and then bad things happen. What ended up causing this one to leave my collection is that it is that bit more. There are so many things to keep track of and the game isn’t as familiar, I didn’t pull it out over Pandemic.

27. Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle

Another deck builder on the list, and one that I just got rid of as well. Why, because I own a lot of deck building games. This one I like the theme of it, and the mechanics are fun. The game gets a bit longer as you go, and I wish there were more characters in the base box. It’d be one I’d gladly get back when I have a group to play it.

26. Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-Earth

It’s odd how many leave my collection, and this is another. And I actually just realized that I forgot to rank Star Wars: Imperial Assault which also just left. So this counts for both. They are great games, The apps work really well, and you can pick your preferred theme. These are campaign games with a nice sense of adventure, but because they are campaign games, that’s why they left.

25. First Martians: Adventures on the Red Planet

This one is still in my collection, huzzah. And it’s probably surprising because when it came out people didn’t love it. But I really enjoy this game. It is a tough cooperative game where you can play all sorts of one off missions with different focuses. Or you can do a mini campaign. And it has an app, not a great one, to handle a lot of the bad things that happen, which I like.

24. Pathfinder Adventure Card Game

I really should buy a copy of this game. I played a few times at Fantasy Flight Game Center and really liked it. But never picked it up, and then played a bunch on the app. There is story, campaign, deck construction, and a lot of cool card play. I prefer the game that this is based off of, but I’d gladly have both in my collection.

23. The Lord of the Rings

While some might argue this game is fairly abstract, where you are pushing up on tracks as you go through the story of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, I really enjoy this game. It is a very hard cooperative game, but it gives you rewards at just the right time. It’s one I haven’t played in ages, but now that I’m thinking about it, I want to play it again.

22. Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game

My favorite book series in a board game. When talking about this one, I always want to to point out that it is abstracted. And while the theme is there, it is mainly there if you know the books. I love picking out one of the books to play and then characters from that book and trying to beat the game. I like it best, I think at two, though three isn’t bad either.

21. Just One

Party game on the list, Just One is a great game. And I really like that we are getting a number of cooperative party games. Here one person is trying to guess a word, and everyone else gives them a one word clue. But any duplicate words cancel. Simple game, clever idea, don’t need to play for points, and always a blast.

20. Cross Clues

Another party game, I told you there are a few, Cross Clues I like just a little bit better. Though, last time I played it I was so tired that I messed up a few times. Here you are giving a one word clue to get people to guess the intersection of two words. So it might be day and octopus, what word is between those two? Eight might be a good option. Simple and a lot of fun again. You can play real time, 5 minutes, see how well you do, we never do that.

19. Pandemic

Here are all the Pandemic games. And I have to say, I don’t know that I need to play base Pandemic again. Pandemic Legacy games just kind of ruined it for me. Still in my collection, but like I said, I might get Flash Point and replace it. If I want to play Pandemic again, I’ll play legacy, I think.

18. Village Attacks

A bigger tower defense game, I am still waiting for my Kickstarter to come in. It funded in 2019. But I am excited for it when it does. Village Attacks has you playing as the bad guys with the villagers coming with pitch forks and torches. You might be grotesque or horrifying, but the theme is just funny to me, so while it’s a dark game, it doesn’t come across.

17. Arkham Horror: The Card Game

I really need to play more of this game, it’s another one that I just really love. Arkham Horror: The Card Game, is the living card game (LCG) from Fantasy Flight, and it’s so cool how they can do so many different things with the game. Great card play and fun deck construction that I want to do more of. I prefer it two player, I think, but it’s good solo as well.

16. Similo

Final party game on the list, but not final light game. Similo is game where one person is it. That person is giving clues of either a card being like or not like the secret card. Then the rest of the players eliminate cards. Simple concept for a game and a ton of fun, especially to mix decks. How do you tell players that a chicken is or isn’t like a vampire or medusa?

15. Apocrypha Adventure Card Game

This is the game that the Pathfinder Card Game was based on, though the Pathfinder one came out first, it’s confusing. But I like the dark theme of this one, there is warfare going on between supernatural forces, and not everyone can see it, but you can. So how can you stop it in the different scenarios. Good game, great art, and my sort of them. Horrible rule book.

14. Say Bye to the Villains

Definitely the hardest game on the list, at least in terms of winning. The play is simple, spend time to improve your stats, look at what a villain is doing, and hope that you can win when you run out of time. And there isn’t enough time to do everything in the game. I’ve come so close to winning so many times, I’m sure eventually I will.

13. The Reckoners

Pretty high on the list for limited plays, but I love the theme of the game. The Reckoners by Brandon Sanderson is a great series. And I love the game play, it’s tough, even on easy, but it has a lot of good choices. And you feel like you can do a lot on your turn as you roll dice and every face on the die is probably something you need.

12. Marvel United

Marvel United is a pretty easy game, but I love it a lot. In the game you are playing down cards to stop a super villain. As superheroes you all work together. So the last card you played, if I’m next to go, I’ll get to use as well. The villains also feel so different in this game, and while I have everything for it, the grab and go get it to the table is great.

11. Letter Jam

A game that just made me realize I forgot to rank Hanabi, I play a lot of cooperative games, Letter Jam is a game where you are trying to guess your word. But you can’t see the letters that make up your word. Only through clues and words given by other players can you infer what your letters are. There is some good strategy in figuring out what are good clues. Loads of fun and one that I think a lot of people will like.

10. TIME Stories

The highest escape room style game on my list, though this one has more going on than that. I really like TIME Stories for the puzzles that it gives. I haven’t played all of them yet, and I have heard that some are weaker than others. But every one that I’ve played thus far I really enjoy.

9. Roll Player Adventures

I’m really excited, I get to play into a campaign of this in February. Roll Player Adventures is my highlight from GenCon in 2019. Getting to playtest it was great. In the Roll Player universe, this takes characters you might have rolled up, or pre-made ones, and lets you take them on adventures. The adventures are fun, and the combat is interesting. It’s a lot of choose your own adventure and so good at that.

8. Mansions of Madness: 2nd Edition

Another Lovecraftian game, and another cooperative one. All of Fantasy Flights games in their Arkham Files line are cooperative. Mansions of Madness is app assisted and so much fun. Like Arkham Horror The Card Game, the game can be so different depending upon scenario. Some might have you stopping a ritual in a mansion, others exploring a town. One that I want to play more of to see what else they can do with it.

7. Sleeping Gods

You can watch me play this tonight, Jan 26th, on Malts and Meeples. Sleeping Gods is a big adventure game that I’m playing solo right now where you are the Manticore, a ship, and sailing around with crew that go on adventures. The game has an amazing aesthetic and story. Even though the story isn’t linear, it works well. And the world it’s set in is really cool.

6. Marvel Champions

I like Marvel a lot, and for me Marvel Champions is the best Marvel game. The different heroes feel like that hero, and you can take them up against any bad guy. While Marvel United you play as one hero they are a bit more generic. And Marvel Champions gives you that alter ego side, so you push and pull to keep the villain at bay. And there are so many heroes and villains already and there can be so many more.

5. Aeon’s End

Another one I talked about yesterday. Aeon’s End is a cooperative deck building game where you try and stop a nemesis. A great solo and two player game. There are so many set-ups and so many cards for it. Now this does include Legacy as well, which is a great introduction to the game. And I like that the randomness in the game isn’t shuffling your deck, it is turn order and what the monster does.

4. Xenoshyft: Onslaught

Another deck building game, this one is Starship Troopers and tower defense. I like how collaborative the game is. I build my deck, but if I have an extra troop and you need one, I can give it to you to defend your part of the base and it goes into your deck. It allows everyone to really balance out what is going on and have a chance, which is good, because it’s a tough game.

3. Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game

I feel like this one I talk about and always describe it in a way that doesn’t sound that fun. But in this game, I feel like I am a detective. It’s a bit like a detective TV show, but fun is how I put it. You get into the case and the theme and if you allow yourself to be immersed in figuring out the story going on it is a great time.

2. Tainted Grail

Another one from yesterday, Tainted Grail is an amazing story adventure game. You take these characters and build them up through a grim dark storyline. And the writing on the game is just so well done. In terms of thematic games, I feel like this one might top my list, though, not my favorite cooperative game.

1. Gloomhaven

For my favorite cooperative game, no shock, it’s Gloomhaven. I love this game. I love the leveling in this game and the card play in this game. And I love that you retire characters and get new ones. I think that the mechanics are amazing and the story is interesting. But overall it leads to a great cooperative experience.

Final Thoughts

I’m guessing since I missed Hanabi and Imperial Assault that I likely missed others. And I also found it interesting how many I’ve gotten rid of. I think a lot of that has to do with me having so many I’ve played. It means that they are fighting for playing time. So only the top ones stick around. Especially when you get down to campaign games, for those it’s even a tighter field because of Kickstarter games coming in and time.

What is your favorite cooperative game?

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Deck Building vs Deck Construction

So let’s talk about this really quickly because one game that isn’t on this list is Gloomhaven. Though, you do add cards to your deck throughout the whole of the Gloomhaven campaign. And there is another one on the list, no spoilers, where you do the same thing. But it’s done in a different way.

Deck Building allows you to add cards to your deck when you can purchase them. And while you might be able to do things to manipulate how many cards you have in your deck, those rules aren’t as in place. In some of them you might need a lot of cards in your deck.

Deck Construction, on the other hand, allows you to focus your deck. You decide what you want to put into your deck and keep in your deck. Often times there are rules as to how you can even construct your deck. Gloomhaven only allows you to have a set number of cards. Or Magic: The Gathering, in standard, you can have a 60 card deck, no more, no less.

The Rankings

14. Dominion

I know that Dominion would top a lot of people’s lists. But for me, Dominion is not that interesting a game. The mechanics are perfectly fine, but it’s just deck building for the sake of deck building. It is just the mechanic for the sake of the mechanic. And it doesn’t look good on the table. Plus, Dominion misses on one big thing for me. A person who can look at all the cards and figure out the best strategy before the game starts will win. I like a bit more randomness in my deck building so it’s more on the fly decisions versus from the very start.

13. DC Comics Deck-Building Game

This one I haven’t played in so long. I remember it being perfectly fine but nothing really stood out to me. Add in the fact that DC Comics don’t interest me that much, mainly because there are too many comics overall to keep up on, and it is low for me. I would play this one again, but it is mainly a forgettable experience.

12. God or War: The Card Game

Another one that falls into this category, God of War was just a dud when I played it at GenCon. The game play seemed too easy and the decision making space was so limited. I get that it was a demo scenario, and maybe the game is more challenging, but I like a cooperative game challenging. This I felt like I’d win 75% or more of the time, and that doesn’t interest me. Plus, how you got the cards was just okay. You divided them amongst the group, and did it cooperative, but the choices were limited. It barely, if at all, qualifies as a deck building game.

11. Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game

Now to a theme that I love, but one that is really low on the list. Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game should work for me, but it misses on three things. Firstly, the game set-up is way too long. Some of that is too much stuff for the game. The other part is just it’s too complex with it’s set-up. Then the game takes too long. You take forever to start being able to hit the boss. Finally, the theme is missing for me. I want it to feel like a super hero team-up. But when you have cards of five heroes, and I have cards of those five heroes as well, it doesn’t feel like that.

10. Legendary Encounters: A Firefly Deck Building Game

Another Legendary game from Upper Deck, and this one I like a bit better. Mainly because the balance feels better. The scenarios, different episodes, are fun to play through. And while it does have the same thing as Marvel version where we are all playing all the characters, it just works smoother. I think having less stuff makes it play faster and be faster to get to the table.

9. Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle

This is one that I’m bummed I never got to play through the whole game. I could have kept Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle in my collection. And it might come back to my collection later. But it wasn’t getting played, and in terms of campaign games, I felt like it wasn’t going to be one that I came back to any time soon. The game is fun in that you unlock things as you go along. So not a legacy game, but a resettable campaign which is cool. And it took you through the books.

8. Cry Havoc

Another one that left my collection, and this one it is because I have Root. Cry Havoc and Root do different things, but I’d prefer to teach and play Root if I’m going to play an asymmetric game. Combat is really cool where you put your troops on a track to determine how it goes and then manipulate it with cards. And the deck building is interesting as you use them in combat, for powers, or to do basic actions. So card uses were really cool in the game.

7. Clank!: A Deck-Building Game

Now we start to get into the heavy hitters and games still in my collection. Clank! A Deck-Building Game is a wonderful time. It is a nice light deck builder, but one that isn’t only deck building. You build up your deck as you adventure down into a dungeon. All the time you are trying to do it as quietly as you can so the dragon doesn’t find you. But some of the better cards make you go clank. It’s a great push your luck game with a nice theme.

6. Ascension: Deckbuilding Game

Ascension goes back to being a pure deck building game. But I like this one so much better than Dominion. Firstly, there isn’t a fixed market. That means that I need to think about and adjust my strategy on the fly. And there is fighting monsters. Yes, everything can give you points. But in Dominion, everyone works towards the same points, here, someone can focus on getting cards for points or for combat, or do both.

5. Aeon’s End: Legacy

This is almost cheating, because it maybe should be combined with an entry coming up. But I do think that Aeon’s End Legacy and Aeon’s End are two different games. At least until the legacy experience is done. I really enjoyed my time with Aeon’s End: Legacy, and I do think it’s a great game. If you want to learn Aeon’s End, I would recommend you play this before you dive into the base game. But once you are done and you play against other nemesis, the game will seem easy.

4. Clank! In! Space!: A Deck-Building Game

Another Clank! game on the list. I prefer Clank! In! Space!, because it is even goofier than regular Clank!. And I do think that I like the space theme better. Plus, the game play is better for me. It adds in two changes. Firstly, how the game ends, there is no longer a timer, it is just until the players all get out, or Lord Eradikus takes them down. In Clank! it is a set number of rounds. And I like that you need to unlock the treasure room. It means there is more than just rush in grab treasure and rush out.

3. Aeon’s End

Later this year when I do my Top 100 Games (of All Time) 2022 Edition, I might combine this with Legacy. But I do think that the base game, or any of the expansions are better. Aeon’s End is a great cooperative deck building game. I like that you don’t shuffle, if you are good, it adds to the challenge. I also like how different the breach mages are and how different the nemesis are. It gives the game a lot of good challenges. Plus there is so much content to dig into.

2. Xenoshyft: Onslaught

I’m trying to remember, I’m not sure I’ve ever beat Xenoshyft: Onslaught. I think maybe one time. But I have come close a lot of times. This is another cooperative game, and you defend a base from waves after waves of bugs. Yes, this might sound like Starship Troopers the board game. I would say it is, but maybe slightly more serious. I love the challenge, and I like how each different area you can play has different powers and abilities.

What pushes this game ahead of Aeon’s End for me is how you can help others. I might draw a hand where I hold three weapons. But I only need two. I can give you that card to equip to one of your guys. Your line of defense getting weak, I can drop a paratrooper in. I’m getting some tough monsters, you can throw a grenade. It is highly cooperative and I love it for that.

1. Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon

Finally, this is the one I was talking about when I was talking about deck building versus deck construction. And in all fairness, I don’t play this for deck building. I play Tainted Grail for the story. But you do deck building, spending XP to get random card draw and then picking between them to add to your deck. And while you can remove cards from your deck whenever, there aren’t a lot of limits on how many you can have, just how few you can have. It’s a small part of the game, but making a great combat deck can be a challenge.

Final Thoughts

There are a lot of deck building games that I still want to play. In particular, I want to play Clank! Legacy because I love the theme for that one. And I know there are more deck building games out there to try. It is a mechanic that I really love, like roll and writes, so I don’t think I will ever complain about finding new favorites to work into the rotation. I’ll probably do deck construction games here soon, because I do like them as well, though I own and have played fewer.

What are your favorite deck building games? If you’ve played Tainted Grail, would you consider it one? Let me know in the comments below.

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