Every couple of years (or so) I blog through my top 50 or top 100 games over on my personal blog,akapastorguy. In 2022, I shared that list with our faithful readers here at the OG… and I’m back to do it again.
And today’s recap won’t be the end of this report… I’ve asked my friends here at the Opinionated Gamers to weigh in with their ratings of the game on my list. I’ll summarize all that information for you on Sunday:
- Games the OG team likes the most
- Games they like the least
- Games that many of them need to play
But today, it’s all about my list & my preferences.
Method to the Madness
Here’s how I come up with the final list:
- Download myBoardGameGeek collection. (There are 4103 games and 937 expansions that I have played/owned/rated, so it’s a pretty substantial list.)
- Clean the spreadsheet to remove expansions and any game rated below 6. (As of today, that’s 2960 games.)
- Go through and clean off games that obviously won’t end up in my top 100. (Example: much as I love Wits & Wagers or Win, Place & Show, neither of them is going to be in my top 100 games… and that leaves me with about 400 games to work with.)
- Randomize the list of games and begin comparing them in 1v1 playoffs. (The question I ask myself – which game would I choose to play, given the right number of players and the correct amount of time?)
- The losers of the first round are faced off against each other… and the losers of the second round do the same, as does the third round
- Losers of the fourth round are removed from contention.
- This process (which is long and more than a bit tedious) continues until I’m down to approximately 100 games, each of which have won multiple 1v1 playoffs to get here. Now, as a group is dumped, I order them to fit into the top 100.
- Once I’m down to the top 25, I order them myself, leaving the 1v1 process behind.
Tastes Change
Curiosity may have killed the cat… but in my case, it led to some interesting insights. I compared my current 2024 list with my 2022 list, my top 50 list from 2020, and my top 100 lists from 2014, 2012, 2010, and 2005. (No, I’m not sure what happened in 2016 & 2018. Evidently I was playing a lot of games rather than writing about them.)
Over the past nearly two decades, I’ve had 270 games on my top 100/top 50 lists… but only 8 of them appear in each of the six lists:
- Africa
- Catan
- Fast Food Franchise
- Heroscape
- Memoir 44
- Mystery Rummy: Al Capone and the Chicago Underworld
- Star Wars: The Queen’s Gambit
- Ticket to Ride
And 6 more games have appeared on all but the 2005 list… because they weren’t published by ’05!
- Anno 1701: Das Brettspiel
- Im Reich der Wüstensöhne
- Race for the Galaxy
- StreetSoccer
- Thebes
- Zooloretto
There are actually 61 games that appeared on my lists 4 or more times…
Obviously, some of the change is due to new and exciting games that have appeared over the years… but it’s also an issue of my tastes changing. (And the change in who I game with on a regular basis – my boys are getting older and the pandemic definitely changed what games got to the table.)
BGG and Me
Only 11 of the games on my top 100 list are currently in the BGG Top 100 list… and 48 of the games on my list don’t appear in the BGG top 1000 rankings.
Five of the games on my list actually have five digit BGG rankings:
- Gnadenlos! – rank 10,922
- Die Schlacht der Dinosaurier – rank 11,380
- Tante Tarantel – rank 12,230
- Monopoly: Tropical Tycoon DVD Game – rank 17,281
- Entenrallye – rank 17,465
Let me make a gentle suggestion – while the ‘Geek ranking numbers are information, they aren’t road maps to the best games. Check out the “classics” from my top 100 and their current ranking on BGG:
- Ticket to Ride – rank 237
- The Princes of Florence – rank 259
- Lost Cities – rank 326
- Heroscape – rank 487
- Catan – rank 552
- Can’t Stop – 771
And, yes, I understand that the current system tends to reward “the new hotness”… but still.
Brand Spankin’ New
The following eleven games appeared in my top 100 for the very first time here in 2024:
- Ark Nova
- Catan: Starfarers (in fairness, the original The Starfarers of Catan did appear once in 2010)
- Dead Reckoning
- Dice Realms
- Great Western Trail: New Zealand
- Heat: Pedal to the Metal
- Mosaic: A Story of Civilization
- Return to Dark Tower
- The Guild of Merchant Explorers
- Thunder Road: Vendetta
- Voidfall
Mark’s Top 100 Games List for 2024
Here it is… the list you’ve been waiting for – which includes the direct links to my blog posts about each of these games.
#1: Memoir ’44
“The best (and best supported!) of the Command & Colors games… it combines a wonderous toy factor (plastic army men & tanks!) along with remarkably evocative recreations of WW2 battles. This is the perfect collision of all the eras of my gaming life: it’s got enough warfare &; tactics for the chit-pusher in me, the gorgeous plastic bits remind me of the day we cracked open Axis & Allies for the first time, and the speedy gameplay fits my current lifestyle. The plethora (“si, Jeffe”) of scenarios is a definite point in favor ofMemoir ’44, as well as one of the cleverest ‘fog of war’ mechanisms ever – the command deck.”
“After you climb the iconography mountain to figure out the game,Race for the Galaxyis an amazing adventure in hand management & reading your opponents’ mind – made even better by clever card design & interaction as well as great sci-fi art.”
“A completely immersive cooperative game that utilizes the “gimmick” of the tower beautifully, integrates the app into the game in ways that make the game more playable, and doubles down on the usual gorgeous production from Restoration Games.”
“My favorite civilization-building game… the free-wheeling tech-tree and relatively simple mechanics make for an excellent play experience with 2, 3 or 4 players.”
#5: Heroscape
“Heroscapeis the ultimate blending of board game & miniatures game… and, in a slick move that allowed them to make lots of cool figures, a great blending of genres, as all the characters are warriors sucked through time & space into the world ofHeroscape. So, you’ve got Matrix guys & Braveheart & dragons & robots & kung fu monks & gorillas with guns. (And while kids can start with this one at 7-8 years old, there’s enough going on that you keep playing it well into your adult years – in my case, age 59 & counting!)”
“Imagine if the designer ofRace for the Galaxydecided to take making a roll’n’move that both gamers & non-gamers could love… that combined some veryMonopoly-ish elements with tactical board play. And then you can wake up & play it, because this is actually Tom Lehmann’s first game design!”
“A civilization-building game that packs in the game mechanics: deckbuilding, resource management, tableau building, asymmetric factions, multiple game timers, keywords to differentiate similar actions… and each individual civilization has a uniquely structured deck.”
#8: Xia: Legends of a Drift System
“This is truly a sandbox game with epic scope – I liken it to FFG’s Outer Rim but without any guardrails. Fantastic production values added to gameplay that encourages creating swashbuckling stories makes this one of the best pandemic purchases I made.”
#9: Dead Reckoning
“Not only is this my favorite pirate game (though I will admit thatPirates on the High Seashas more actual blowing stuff up), it’s also the best usage of the card-crafting mechanic John D. Clair dreamed up.”
#10: Dungeonquest
“I have always described this game as “similar to playingDungeons & Dragonswith a DM who hates your guts” – it’s a short (no more than an hour…and often shorter!), brutal & intensely fun experience game/dungeon crawl.”
“A classic 80s roll’n’shoot received a substantial and extremely-thoughtful re-imagining to turn it into a game worthy of the moniker “a tabletop version of Mad Max’s Fury Road”. Plus, it’s loads of fun.”
#12: Catan
“The game that launched the European “game” invasion… the first true “franchise” game for Kosmos & Mayfair… a game so simple & yet so innovative that it could inspire devoted play with almost any crowd. This infinitely variable game of trading & building is still a personal favorite, even when way too many gamers have left it behind.”
#13: Unmatched: Battle of Legends
“Take the basic card combat idea behindStar Wars: Epic Duels… add in the brilliant LOS board configuration system fromTannhäuser…and infuse the game thematically with a “mix of characters across time & reality” vibe fromHeroscape… and then do a top-notch production job… and you’ve gotUnmatched.”
#14: Dune: Imperium
“Despite not being a particularly big fan of Dune (the books or the movies), the game manages to combine deck-building & worker placement to evoke the feel of the Dune universe in an incredibly playable format.”
#15: Terraforming Mars
“Despite my attempts to avoid Terraforming Mars for a number of years, this game sucked me in. It combines hand management, resource management, engine-building, leeching off other players work, racing to complete goals, and even a bit of take that. And it works.”
#16: Dungeon Alliance
“A think-y, puzzle-y dungeon crawl that’s dripping with theme and story. The designer (Andrew Parks) mixes deck-building with tactical movement on the board to create a rich world for competitive, cooperative, and solo play.”
#17: Lost Ruins of Arnak
“Yes, it’s another combination of worker placement and deck-building… but don’t let that fool you. The gameplay is well-thought-out, the artwork/graphic design is gorgeous, and there are meaningful timing and resource management choices throughout.”
#18: Clank! A Deck-Building Adventure
“SmooshDungeonquestandAscensiontogether and you’d get something close to this fantastic deck-building dungeon crawl… with the very clever “clank” mechanic binding the two together and acting a game timer and source of tension.”
#19: Star Wars: The Queen’s Gambit
“This is possibly the best licensed game out there – certainly the one with the best combination of “toy factor” and “solid gameplay”… and it’s based on the weakest film in the Star Wars franchise. It manages to capture the best parts of a bad film and make a splendid game.”
#20: Undaunted: Normandy/North Africa
“Take the basic deck-building combat design ofWar Chestand ground it in the theme and combat tactics of WW2… for this old AH/SPI wargamer, it’s the best of both worlds. It feels like the best games ofSquad Leaderwithout the long playing time or the rules headaches.”
#21: Zooloretto
“Michael Schacht takes the central game mechanic from his card gameColoretto& develops it into a full-fledged board game with delightful artwork & theme. And then, if that wasn’t enough, he keeps expanding that world (thanks to the SdJ win) in some very intriguing ways.”
#22: Nemo’s War
“A solo “wargame” that is brimming with thematic touches (from the event deck to some of the unusual ship choices)… and an impressive level of variability created simply by changing Nemo’s objective.”
#23: Africa
“A great Knizia exploration game that was sadly under-rated when it first appeared in 2002 because it wasn’t the nextEuphrat & Tigris.”
#24: Flowerpower
“Despite an off-putting box cover, this is a tremendous two-player game of building gardens that can be played “friendly” or “cutthroat”… and enjoyed both ways.”
#25: Everdell
“Based on the recommendations of others gamers (especially fellow Opinionated Gamer Chris Wray), I splurged on the Everdell Complete Collection without ever having played the game. As you can tell by where I placed this on my top 100 list, I don’t regret that decision.”
#26: Ticket to Ride
“Gorgeous production coupled with easy gameplay… a classic theme (trains!) coupled with a classic Rummy set-collection mechanic… just as playable with 2 as it is with 5.”
“The name implies the genius of the design – with a six card hand, you aren’t simulating a whole baseball game… you’re just showing us the highlights. Set in a future timestream where robots are batters and pitchers have cybernetic arms, this wonderful game melds deck-building with hand management in clever and interesting ways.”
#28: Minigolf Designer
“Take the part I like best about Kingdomino (the drafting system), use it to drive a tile placement game with thematic scoring (like Carcassonne but without the arguments about which set of farm rules we’ll be using), and provided the proper components (big cloth bag, easy to read tiles, clever use of cards to add variety) to make a really enjoyable game experience.”
#29: Mystery Rummy: Al Capone & the Chicago Underworld
“This is my favorite of the Mystery Rummy series… mostly because it feels a bit likeCanasta(possibly my favorite standard deck card game) in how difficult it is to hide key cards from your opponent(s).”
#30: Can’t Stop
“In my ever-so-humble opinion, this (and notAcquire) is Sid Sackson’s masterpiece. It’s so simple & yet so engaging.”
#31: New Frontiers
“I wouldn’t go as far to say thatNew Frontiershas fired the classicPuerto Ricofor me… but it covers a lot of the same ground with better graphics and a more compelling theme.”
#32: Sentinels of the Multiverse
“A cooperative comic book game that uses multiple card decks (heroes, villain, environment) to tell the story of a “battle royale”. It’s enhanced by a well-developed mythos and a plethora of sly references to various “real” (read: DC/Marvel) superheroes.”
#33: NEOM
“The drafting is similar to 7 Wonders and the tile-laying feels like Suburbia. But that misses some of the innovations that make NEOM more than just another chip off the old blocks.”
#34: 7 Wonders
“Card drafting meets civilization building… and it’s playable with 3-7 players in a pretty consistent 45 minutes. No “wonder” itgot all those awards…”
#35: Dungeon Lords
“Flip your standard adventurers v. monsters around and put players in the role of harried dungeon masters trying to fend off sticky-fingered heroes. Add loads of RPG and WoW-related humor… and tie it together with an almost perfect melding of mechanic and theme.”
“A dexterity game that more about physics than perfect dexterity… and more about the fun of building (and accidentally destroying) a huge house of cards than about tricking your opponent into making a bad move. And, yes, it’s a kids game – but it’s been successful with pretty much every person I’ve taught it to.”
#37: Armageddon
“Imagine a three-way collision between the Mad Max films, an auction game and a worker-placement city-building game. Throw in a littleNotre Dame-ish fend off the invaders (marauders instead of rats)… and allow players to use people as currency in the auctions as well as workers to keep your post-apocalyptic settlement running.”
#38: The Quacks of Quedlinburg
“Bag-building and whimsy combined to produce an easy-to-teach press-your-luck game that has been 100% successful with everyone I’ve introduced it to.”
#39: Ark Nova
“While Ark Nova has similarities to Terraforming Mars (i.e. buckets of cards, build your engine, resource management), it is very much its own entrancing creation. The puzzle of how to build my zoo while building conservation initiatives tickles my brain.”
#40: Mosaic: A Story of Civilization
“It’s a solid civilization-building game that plays in a reasonable amount of time (roughly 30-45 minutes per player for multi-player games) and isn’t overburdened by a need to pursue military buildup in order to survive and thrive.”
#41: Midnight Party
“The ultimate “I don’t have to outrun the bear. I just have to outrun you” game… which plays up to 8 players and always provides a splendid time for all involved – even if Hugo the Ghost tags your players.”
#42: Favor of the Pharaoh
“A re-imagined version of the classic dice gameTo Court the King– imagineYahtzeecrossed withMagic: The Gathering. You use dice to obtain card powers in order to manipulate dice to obtain more power (and dice) to finally win the favor of the Pharaoh.”
#43: Era: Medieval Age
“This 3D re-implementation of Matt Leaco*ck’s classic Roll Through The Ages did not impress me on my first play… but subsequent plays changed my mind. It’s not the same game with cuter bits – it is a different (and more confrontational) game with limited amounts of certain buildings and the ability to bleed your opponents if you choose to pursue that route.”
“You have 21 moves – 7 auctions & 14 actions – in order to turn your estate into the perfect place for great artists & scientists to create their masterworks and bring prestige to your name… each action, each bit of coinage, each building, each recruitment is vital. What a perfectly formed & thematically rich (yes, I think it is!) Euro game… it’sthe perfect balance between game length (70 minutes) and an unforgiving system. Any longer, and it would be soul-deadening to play out the final rounds when you know you’ve lost all hope of winning. Any shorter, and there wouldn’t be enough time to make meaningful decisions in this game’s Spartan structure.”
#45: The Dragon & Flagon
“The Family Englestein strikes again with a 3D homage to the classic fighting gameSwashbuckler… and turns it into a free-for-all romp with modern game mechanics. Tip tables, swing on chandeliers, cast spells, pull rugs, and even “Guard! Turn! Parry! Dodge! Spin! Ha! Thrust! Sproing!” with you and up to 7 other of your friends!”
#46: Entenrallye
“A splendid road rally race that’s fraught with luck… and some actual decision-making.”
“A slightly more gamer-y 7 Wonders-ish card drafting game of civilization building… but that description sounds like damning with faint praise. The major difference is that you’re drafting a set of cards that you then use as resources (discarding them) or construction (building them) – the interplay can be fascinating and fast-moving… with the right players.”
#48: Tanz der Hornochsen
“Designer Wolfgang Kramer took his classic6 Nimmtgame & converted it into a delightful hoot of a board game – and one I’d rather play than the original card game.”
#49: Core Worlds
“Andrew Parks created a space empire-building deck-builder – and combined it with a tableau system for deploying units that makes this game both deeply strategic and a challenging puzzle. And then he created three(!) incredible expansions that make the game even better!”
#50: Ascending Empires
“For a game of space conquest (complete with a tech tree), it zips along at a blistering pace. Turns are short, decisions are tricky, scores are close, and there are multiple ways to victory. Plus, you get to flick stuff!”
“Knizia at his dice-y best… it’s an excuse to make gladiator movie jokes & beat on your friends for fun & profit.”
#52: Monopoly: Tropical Tycoon DVD Game
“It takes the classic game (Monopoly) and makes it extremely gamer-friendly by addingCosmic Encounter-ish roles, a variety of choices for building, and a great victory point system that lets you stop the game at any point and declare a legitimate winner.”
#53: Streetsoccer
“It doesn’t so much simulate soccer (likePursue the Pennantattempts to simulate baseball)… instead, it uses a backgammon-ish mechanic to simulate the feel of a soccer game – and does so brilliantly.”
#54: The Guild of Merchant Explorers
“This extremely clever flip’n’write game doesn’t actually contain any writing – but it does have enough look-ahead to make wise decisions and enough luck of the draw to force you to hedge your bets.”
#55: The Magic Labyrinth
“Second. Best. Memory. Game. Ever… but the over-the-top production means it gets requested more often – and therefore ended slightly higher on the list thanHallo Dachs!“
#56: Royal Turf
“Another great example of Knizia using math to make fun instead of dry as dust slogs (I’m looking at you,Auf Heller und Pfennig/Kingdoms.) It’s horse racing with actualgambling & great levels of player involvement.It plays well with 4-6 players and I’ve never had a dull game ofRoyal Turf.”
#57: Bärenpark
“It’s a very-straightforward tile-laying game that can be give a lot of layers (esp. by using the expansion) or kept simple, straightforward, and very family-friendly with the base game.”
#58: 7 Wonders Duel
“There was a 2 player variant in the original 7 Wonders box… but it wasn’t particularly interesting. Enter 7 Wonders Duel, which managed to capture the drafting “feel” of the original game but work perfectly for 2 players.”
#59: Harry’s Grand Slam Baseball
“It captures the feel of a baseball game – and does so in 15 minutes (or less). The Out of the Box production is very nice as well.”
#60: Catan: Starfarers
“As a long-time fan of the originalStarfarers of Catan, I was nervous about the redevelopment of the game. I shouldn’t have worried – it left everything I liked about the game while streamlining play and shortening playing time.”
#61: Fresco
“Frescois a lovely worker-placement game that has three endearing qualities: first, it has an interesting theme; second, pretty much every mechanic in the game can be explained in terms of that theme… and finally, it does not seem to ever bog down with AP (analysis paralysis) like some other worker-placement games.”
#62: Showmanager
“A wonderful card-drafting game that whips along at a breakneck pace and offers a consistently enjoyable gaming experience as the players cast (and miscast) theater productions.”
#63: Vegas Showdown
“This is the best implementation of the climbing auction mechanic first seen inEvo, then in the (excruciating, IMHO)Amun-Re, and in20th Century. I also like the need to plan what rooms you’ll add to your Vegas resort… and in what order to build them.”
#64: Keltis: Der Weg der Steine Mitbringspiel
“The most straightforward of theLost Cities/Keltisfamily – and incredibly portable.”
“Reiner Knizia turns his adept design talent to deck-building… and makes a racing game that manages to stay tense throughout, offer a variety of interesting (and clever) tactical decisions, and be enjoyable with both gamers and non-gamers.”
#66: Thebes
“One of the best examples of a game design integrating theme & mechanics – drawing tiles from the bag “feels” like archaeology. As well, the use of the “time cost” mechanic makes the game fluid & gives each player a plethora of tactical options.”
#67: Eminent Domain
“Eminent Domainis tighter & quicker than another space-themed deck-builder/tableau-builder hybrid, Core Worlds (read: less sprawling) – and is easier to teach new players. Don’t let that fool you, though – there’s some nifty twists on classic mechanics fromRace for the GalaxyandDominionthat add to an excellent game.”
#68: Voidfall
“Normally, I’d balk at a game with a non-random combat system and heavy intertwined mechanisms – but the theme of defeating the Voidborn is so tightly woven into the design & flow of the game that I find myself lost in the world and the puzzle of trying to expand my civilization’s capabilities whilst fending off the encroachment of mind-altering evil.”
#69: Great Western Trail: New Zealand
“This third iteration of the Great Western Trail engine has the right combination of elements to appeal to me – a bit more money in the game that opens up new strategies, two different ways to use sheep (selling & shearing), and an “expansion” board that makes more sense than Rails to the North (from the original game).”
#70: Viva Pamplona
“It’s a great theme (the running of the bulls) with great art and even better game play… you must have courage to win – and the willingness to shove your opposition to the ground.”
#71: Innovation
“Yes, I’ll be the first to admit there can be some wild swings of luck – some card combos are unbelievable in their massive synergy – but one of the real joys of the game is discovering those, whether you get to do it yourself or watch someone else find the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. And the card-splaying mechanic is just cool.”
#72: Port Royal
“A tableau-building push-your-luck game with some “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch your back” added in to increase the fun… and the current version available in the U.S. has all the expansions along with the base game in a single box.”
#73: Ghost Fightin’ Treasure Hunters
“A cooperative game that’s simple enough to play with elementary age kids… and (with the additional cards added in) difficult enough to challenge gamers.”
#74: Schnäppchen Jagd
“This three-handed trick-taking game resets trump on each and every trick – and yet the unique scoring system (with bargain piles and junk piles) is surprisingly easy to understand. It’s just difficult to play well!”
#75: Ra
“I’m not sure why Ra jumps on & off my top games list… it’s a splendid auction game that scales well from 3-5 players and is filled with tension and constant reevaluation of values.”
#76: Mountain Goats
“An attractive remake of the very abstract dice game Level X… but don’t let the abstractness fool you. It’s highly entertaining with some tricky decisions on when to spread yourself thin and when to focus intensely on a single mountain goat.”
#77: A Brief History of the World
“It’s all about the epic sweep of history – and this particular version of a game system originally published in 1991(!) is the best yet. It’s tighter, smarter, and faster than any previous edition – playing time is about 3 hours for six players to experience this dudes/empires on a map masterpiece.”
“As much as I loveEntdecker(the parent game to theIm Reichseries), I love this gamer-friendly take on desert nomads & the struggle for water & goods even more.”
#79: Dice Realms
“The best of the customizable dice games out there… and it moves along at a furious pace as you develop your little medieval realm.”
#80: The Taverns of Tiefenthal
“A clever puzzle of a game that incorporates deck-building, dice placement, and a nicely thought-out series of mini-expansions in the base game box.”
#81: Wildlands
“While I’m not a fan of Martin Wallace’s “classic” games (Age of Steam, Brass, etc.), I think that this card-based skirmish game is brilliant. It plays quickly, each faction has it’s own flavor, and the plethora of expansions and maps available give the game system great variety. (And the miniatures are excellent.)”
#82: Nexus Ops
“A really well-thought-out “dudes on a map” game that subverts the ever-present turtling problem with a varied set of rewards for attacking other players.”
#83: Battle Beyond Space
“Have a massive multiple armada space battle… in 60 minutes. With almost no luck.”
#84: Anno 1701: Das Brettspiel
“While I didn’t like Klaus Teuber’s attempt to makeAnno 1503deeper via an expansion – I thought it was bloated & made the game much too long –I think his 2nd attempt at a similar game was very, very successful. And that’sAnno 1701, which feels like a cross betweenCatan&Anno 1503.”
#85: Quantum
“A fast-moving game of space conquest with built-in variety and room for great tactical play. And I love the cover art.”
#86: Suburbia
“A city-building game that does three things really, really well: 1) it plays cleanly, 2) it uses the Age of Steam braking system in a way that doesn’t make me want to throw myself out a window, and 3) every player ends up with a city/neighborhood with it’s own personality.”
#87: Expedition
“I love the expedition mechanic at the heart of the game. There’s nothing quite like it… (well, this isn’t altogether true – but look in the Extras for more on that.)”
“Riffing on the same basic system as Flamme Rouge (also a great game), the designers created an even more interesting and fluid early ’60s racing game, complete with customizing your cars, multiple tracks, weather conditions, and even a coherent way to play a season of races.”
“While the original game Nations is enjoyable, the dice game does a lot of the same things in a much tighter time frame… and with a really clever dice manipulation mechanic.”
#90: Jump Drive
“The lightest of theRace for the Galaxy familygames is not just a sci-fi retread of Tom Lehmann’s The City… it’s an interesting blend of the two systems to make for a very quick and highly enjoyable tableau building card game.”
#91: Zauberschwert & Drachenei
“The name means “Magic Sword & Dragon Egg” – and it’s a fantasy-themed game of auctions, negotiation and engine-building that has won my two sons over.”
#92: Lost Cities
“I’ve played this over & over and I’m still intrigued each time. How far can I push my luck? Should I play aggressively or defensively? For such a simple game, it continues to draw me in. (Probably doesn’t hurt that the production of the game is gorgeous.) Now, it’s not that I win all that much. My wife is a pro… and my oldest son gets better every game we play.”
#93: CloudAge
“A solidly Alexander Pfister game – but less complicated and long than Great Western Trail and substantially more thematic than Oh My Goods and/or Expedition to Newdale. Added bonus: post-apocalyptic themesanscreepy post-apocalyptic art design.”
#94: Die Schlacht der Dinosaurier
“Any game that involves guys riding dinosaurs into combat around a volcano is totally worth my time. The fact that it’s stupidly fun just makes it even better.”
#95: Rum & Pirates
“A dice game with opportunities to manage your risks… and a really neat movement mechanic that makes for some great board play… and a nicely done theme.”
#96: Gnadenlos!
“Klaus “I’m makin’ a mint off the isle of Catan” Teuber managed to make a Wild West themed Euro game that uses a press your luck element to create some really great suspense.”
#97: Res Arcana
“You’d think that a game with an eight card individual player deck would feel claustrophobic – instead, it’s the entry point to a brilliant Tom Lehmann design that challenges each player to build a victory point engine while defending themselves against the direct and indirect challenges of the other players.”
#98: Vom Kap bis Kairo
“A small box card game about railroad building across Africa (the title translates as “From the Cape to Cairo”) that packs a wallop – the sealed bid auctions are only half of the game, as you struggle with when to invest precious cash into building rails instead of giving your opponent a gift.”
#99: Cape May
“Yes, the adorable miniature Victorian homes are the first thing that caught my eye – but they are in service to a well-designed & built game system of city-building that moves at a nice clip and doesn’t overstay its welcome.”
#100: Tante Tarantel
“”Auntie Tarantula” (that’s how the game translates into English) is an odd blend of think-y movement decisions (the movement of your bugs is fixed at one space per turn) and wild swings of random craziness (Auntie T., on the other hand, moves at the whim of a die roll).”
Full Disclosure:I received review copies of some Unmatched boxes, some Heroscape expansions, and some Memoir ’44 expansions. I was a playtester for Suburbia, Battle Beyond Space, Eminent Domain, Unmatched, the upcoming Thunder Road: Vendetta expansion, and Heroscape.
