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Best of List

Top 10 Collectable Card Games Of All Time

In the early 80’s there were three games that really defined what would become the tabletop gaming hobby. Dungeons and Dragons, Warhammer 40k, and Magic The Gathering. Magic The Gathering of course is the grandaddy of collectible card games but fast forward over 40 years later and CCG’s have become a sub-hobby all on their own.

I don’t talk about CCG’s very often but in the last decade, CCG’s have gone through something of a renaissance and with each new CCG that has come out, the genre is making leaps and bounds for the better.

In today’s list, I will pick my top 10 collectible card games from the awesome past to the wonderful present. Enjoy the list!

10. Legend Of The Five Rings (1st edition)

Legend of the Five Rings 1st edition by Alderace Entertainment falls into what I like to call the “Hardcore CCGs” category from the 90’s . This was a fairly robust game from a robust gaming era that was very heavy on the theme and backstory and for fans out there, it wasn’t just a card game but much like other early CCG’s like Magic The Gathering, Legend of the Five Rings was a lifestyle game.

I think what separated LotFR from other LCG’s was that it was part of a multifaceted franchise that covered gaming as part of a spectrum. You had Legend of the Five Rings RPG which in the 90’s was competing against heavy hitters like D&D and Vampire The Masquerade. You also had a miniature game line called Clan War which competed against the Gameswork shop heavy hitters like Warhammer Fantasy. Finally, you had a huge library of novels dedicated to the story of this amazing game world, books which when released coincided with card set releases so that when you read a book about a certain part of the history of the game, you then got to play it out in the card game.

Unfortunately despite very modest economic success, Legend of the Five Rings in all its forms was never terribly popular and never reached anything beyond its extremely niche audience.

Fantasy Flight Games picked up the rights to the Legend of the Five Rings and revised the game in a second edition, but this too saw only minimal success and ultimately faded out of existence rather quickly.

This game was made for fans and it catered very heavily to this niche audience. In my humble opinion, this is one of the all-time classics that rightfully deserves to be on this list even if it’s at the tail end. It is an amazingly rich and complex game with tons of great lore to support it and without question, some of the best art ever put on a gaming card. Awesome, albeit retired CCG.

9. Magic The Gathering

I was hesitant to put this one on the list at all because I could file a 500-page novel worth of complaints about it, its design, the company that runs it, and the endless stream of bullshit that makes this a game I have no desire to play at all.

Still, there was a time when I lived and breathed magic and it wasn’t a short time, most of the 90’s by my estimation. Like other games from the 90’s Magic The Gathering was a lifestyle game and equally as all games in the 90’s, it was mostly broken as fuck!

Yet, Magic The Gathering endures and by all accounts it’s still one of the most popular CCG’s on the market today and this has been so since its inception. No CCG ever has nor likely will come even within a light year of the success Magic The Gathering has seen. Magic The Gathering sells more cards in a year than all other CCG’s combined sell in a decade. In a word, there is no such thing as “competition” when it comes to market share, Magic The Gathering rules undisputed.

How? Why? It’s a good question. Mechanically Magic The Gathering has a lot of design flaws that would never be put into a game today. It’s a game where you can build a legal tournament deck in which you can win a match before your opponent ever gets a turn to play. You can build decks that spawn an infinite number of monsters, or do an infinite amount of damage. The amount of stupid shit in this game is endless but I think the reason people like it and perhaps rightfully so is not despite these things but because of them.

There is something uniquely clever to a game that has so much depth and interaction, that if you study it long and hard, you can completely unravel it.

I crap on it, but it is the granddaddy of CCG’s and this list would be incomplete if I did not put it on the list so here it is, but frankly, I can think of a 100 CCG’s I rather play than Magic The Gathering. It does however have its charm, I can’t deny that of all the games on this list, I have played Magic The Gathering the most and so its place in CCG history and this list is secured.

8. Vampire Eternal Struggle

Vampire Eternal Struggle is to me, everything you think you want to have in a great CCG, which results in an overcooked game to a point where the game is nearly unplayable. Its a effectively a game that appears to be designed by Vampire The Masquerade fans that kind of don’t know what they are doing, but fully understand what a Vampire The Masquerade CCG should feel like, if that makes any sense. This was not all that unusual for a card game in the 90’s, making stupidly complex card games was kind of a thing back then, but even so far as complex CCG’s go, Vampire Eternal Struggle stretched the definition.

This was a game that could take upwards of 3-4+ hours to finish a single match, there was a ridiculous amount of rules weight and card interaction and in a lot of ways it mimicked the obscene level of detail that was customary in The Vampire The Masquerade RPG.

As overcooked as it was, however, there was true magic in the way the game executed because it did what White-Wolf RPGs were famous for which was to tell an amazing story. This was a game that even though I haven’t played it for 20 years, I still remember specific matches I had. All-nighters where me and a couple of friends effectively created our own little micro-universe for an evening in the world of darkness.

It was a unique game in a couple of ways. First and foremost it was best played in multiplayer, rather than head-to-head which separated it from most of the CCG’s out there that had modes for multiplayer but weren’t designed for it. The second thing was that you had this amazing world of darkness behind it, a setting so fleshed out and so recognizable to fans that each card had impact and meaning that went well beyond anything you would expect to be able to put into a card. Above all else, however, it was a brutish and harsh – take that – kind of a game, with ruthless mechanics that brought a lot of emotion and player interaction that went well beyond the mechanics of the game, much like the RPG on which it’s based.

This was a fantastic CCG and recently the game was revised and reprinted so it is still very much available today for people to explore. I would caution however that this is a game made for Vampire The Masquerade fans, by Vampire The Masquerade fans. If you don’t know what that is and why it’s awesome, this game is definitly not for you, if you do, you probobly already know about this game and don’t need me to tell you how awesome it is.

7. Arkham Horror LCG

Arkham Horror the card game was released by Fantasy Flight Games in 2016 during a period when FFG was producing CCG’s under the Living Card Game strategy where rather than having random booster packs, you would have pre-constructed expansions. It was also not a competitive card game but rather a cooperative card game in which players would effectively go around a dynamically constructed game board based on a location and solve mysterious while fighting monsters using decks they built.

I own and love this game, I actually think it’s pretty fantastic but generally speaking I also think it has one major flaw which is that it’s a cooperative game where once you complete a “quest”, it’s a bit like a legacy game where a lot of the hype and excitement disappears and the game starts feeling like your watching a scrooby-doo re-runs.

The format just lacks sustainability and while I still love picking this game up every long once in a while and playing a few rounds, it lacks freshness unless you are constantly buying the latest expansions. I did that for a while until I realized that I would effectively play each expansion once and then never go back to it because I knew the story, I knew the mystery, I had figured it all out.

It’s a very fun game mechanically but it almost feels like it would have done a lot better if the “quest” creation was turned over to the community and the game was a digital card game rather than a physical one. If you had an endless stream of new challenges that you could play on a daily or weekly basis, I think the game would have a lot more longevity.

Needless to say, even with this one flaw, I think this is a brilliant game and deserves to be on this list.

6. Warhammer 40k Conquest

I have to admit I only played this game a few times and never actually bought into it and there is good reason for it, but still the few times I played it, it made a big impact on me and I always think of it whenever the subject of CCG’s comes up. Like Arkham Horror this was one of many Fantasy Flights LCG’s (Living Card Games), but it was a 2 player competitive game. I think this is one of the most underrated competitive card games out there today.

The theme and franchise appreciation here is important as the card game and the cards themselves capture the Warhammer 40k universe perfectly but what I think really made this game stand out is that the interaction and speed of play was balanced perfectly. It’s a tight game where players are making impactful decisions with each card play and games are almost always definined by decision rather than deck or card draw, it really is a game of pure strategy and I think that is actually kind of rare in card games. Most CCG’s are defined by deck building as much as strategy but this one is one of those games where what deck you played mattered considerably less than what you do with it at the table.

Above and beyond that however I think the asymetrical factions really shine here, each faction had its own thing going on and FFG made sure every faction of the 40k universe was covered before the game went end of life so its a self contained and very complete feeling card game set. The fact that it went out of print and is no longer supported doesn’t matter and thankfully they printed so much of this game its actually quite easy and cheap to get a hold of a complete collection.

Really fun game, I think this is still well worth getting today even if its out of print. Just a very good, self contained, head to head experience built around an awesome franchise and a great theme. A game made for 40k fans.

The only reason I have personally never bought into is that in my gaming group, at the time, we had a lot of stuff going on gaming wise and it was a rare situation where economically I had to make some tough calls. I regret that, I wished I owned the entire set and plan to some day soon purchase it for my collection.

5. Star Wars Destiny

Heading into the top 5 on my list, it would be criminal to exclude Star Wars Destiny, without question one of the best Star Wars franchise CCG’s ever produced. It suffered from a rather poor business model and went extinct rather quickly, which was a real bummer, but it remains in my collection and I’m to this day always ready to pull it out and play.

This CCG is quite unique in that it uses dice as part of the card play mechanic and it also makes use of a very tight deck which makes deck building a really light element of the game which is great for beginners. That said, I actually think the nuance of this game is difficult to grasp and many veteran card players felt the luck element of this built in dice mechanic made it a less competitive experience. That might or might not have been true, but to me, competitive is not a reason to or not to play a game, I think as long as the game is fun, that is all the juice it needs. Destinty was certainly that.

I think Fantasy Flight Games should have stuck to their LCG model for this game because one of the things that really killed this game is the fact that you often needed 2-3 cards (with coinciding dice) in order to make a certain card playable, this was especially true about heroe’s so what you ended up with is a lot of cards and dice that you really couldn’t put in a deck and remain reasonably balanced for the general power level of the game. This mixed in with the fact that most of the hero/villain cards where uncommon and rares, made collecting the right cards a pain in the ass and more a frustrating than fun experience.

In the end FFG also had a lot of trouble balancing this game and their were quite a few broken and OP cards as well as a lot of junk cards you would never use for any reason. I’m not sure if the issue was with a lack of testing or what but at the end of the day the game did have a few issues.

Nonetheless, I consider this one of the all-time great CCG’s, just a super fun, tight little game that was very approachable albeit probably one of the most expensive to collect, in particular if you were going for competitive play. These days you can still find it in bargain bins and I say it’s still well worth getting a collection going.

4. Android Netrunner

Netrunner is a unique entry on this list for two reasons. First, it’s the only game on the list that is truly asymmetrical, yet managed to be a well-balanced competitive one on one CCG. I can’t think of any card game in the history of card games that does this, it’s a white elephant in this regard. Secondly, this is the only game in the history of card games that I can think of that died at what I would consider to be the height of its success. Quite literally this game got better and better with each expansion and when it was cancelled they had released what I would consider to be the best expansion ever released for the game. How and why it was discontinued is just a complete mystery to me.

The wonderful thing about Android Netrunner was that it was one of those rare cases in which deck building, while important, was not the defining factor for victory. How you used your cards, how you approached each match and your knowledge of the game had far more impact than the strength of your deck. More importantly, it was about the fairest playing field in a CCG ever put out mainly because, like most Fantasy Flight Games of this era, it was a living card game so everyone was building decks from the same set.

I played this game exclusively with the same opponent for several years online using tabletop simulator so I never actually purchased a single card, but I consider those games to be among the card gaming experiences I ever had.

This is an auto-buy in my book, one of the best card games ever made with some of the best card art ever printed.

3. Game of Thrones The Card Game (2nd Edition)

We are now reaching what I consider to be the creme de la creme of card games. Game of Thrones the card game is without a doubt the king of multiplayer games, one that captures its theme with perfection both mechanically and visually.

I love this game, but like many CCG’s I’m a dabbler rather than a committer, but this is more a result of economic self-preservation than anything else. There are many collectible games out there, I buy into and pay obscene prices for many of them, and at the end of the day you have to make some hard choices, one can’t expect to be able to buy into everything.

That said I have friends who went ape shit and we have more than enough cards in the gaming group for us to have an occasional crack at this one and I consider any such opportunity an absolute pleasure.

This is a fantastic CCG that captures the momentum of the Song of Ice and Fire story, ensuring that characters are at the heart of the game, with thematic powers that result in play resolutions that truly tells a Game of Thrones story.

Of all the games I recommend on this list, this one comes without caveats, even if you are not a Game of Thrones fan, this is such a great card game that even without the appreciation of the theme, this is a great design. Good games like this come along only once in a while and they are not to be missed, this is an auto-buy in my opinion for card lovers.

2. Star Wars Unlimited

Star Wars Unlimited dropped like Thor’s hammer into the CCG scene, stealing the show and proving that there is plenty of fresh ideas and new life left to bring to the genre. This is without question my new love. I never thought anything quite as good as Star Wars Destiny would ever come around again and bring Star Wars to the CCG table top, but I was wrong, Star Wars Unlimited is perfection personified.

As of this writing, only the initial core set for the game has been launched with the first expansion only 24 hours away as of this writing, so it’s hard to predict the game’s future. That said, the first release was absolutely perfect blend of deck building, competitive play and precision design. This game is so good and I know I’m not the only one who thinks so because it is absolutely impossible to purchase unless you pre-order and anything that is in stock in seconds after it drops. It’s that good.

I will never proclaim a Magic The Gathering killer, because I don’t think any such thing will ever come along, but Star Wars Unlimited is objectively a superior game to Magic The Gathering in every measurable way, yet has the same addictive deck-building quality and card interaction that made MTG such a landmark game.

I don’t care who you are if you are not playing Star Wars Unlimited, you are missing out on the single best competitive CCG ever made by a massive margin, there is absolutely nothing in the same league with this game. It’s a modern masterpiece.

1. Lord of the Rings The Living Card Game

I will be the first to admit that Lord of the Rings The Living Card Game is a personal taste thing more than a perfectly designed game. This is my number-one choice, not THE number-one game. That honor goes to Star Wars Unlimited. Still, with that said, I love this game above all others for a single, indisputable reason and that is that it captures Middle Earth with such perfection, such epic scale and so much thematic joy through its gameplay and art that I honestly could not bare to ever put any CCG above this one. It’s not just the perfect CCG, its a perfect game.

Like most Fantasy Flight Games, this is a game from the Living Card Era which I think is perfect for a cooperative deck-building game. For me the reason I love this game so much is that it’s every bit as good playing solo as it is playing in a group. Its perfect with experience CCG players and complete newbies who have never played a card game before. Its scalable with quests that take 15 minutes to epic sagas that take weeks to complete. It has deep, strategic deck-building elements or can be used with default theme decks. In a word, every conceivable gaming situation you have, it has you covered.

Love this game, there is nothing in the world of tabletop gaming I can recommend more than Lord of the Rings the Living Card Game. It’s perfect.

    Best of List

    Top 5 Boardgames that were almost great, but had a flaw that ruined them

    I have not been writing enough as of late for this blog, but my life is busy, and writing is a hobby not a job so I often have to take breaks. One type of article that is usually easy and fast for me to write is a top X list, so today that is what we are going to try to achieve.

    This might be a wonky list but I do find that many games out there look amazing, have a cool franchise behind them or just seem like they will be great and end up letting me down. It’s how and why they end up on my shelf and on this list. Today we pick out 5 and talk about them. Here we go!

    5. Crusader Kings by Free League Publishing

    Crusader Kings the PC game is one of my all-time favorite strategy games, I have played it for more hours and years than I care to admit.

    A big part of the joy of Crusader Kings is that you essentially re-write history from the perspective of a single historical person, influencing people and nations around them. You create a legacy over time (a family dynasty) and you try to keep that legacy alive and thriving through your blood relatives, offspring, and noble claims. It’s a lot of fun.

    When Crusader Kings the board game was announced, I didn’t hesitate even for a second, it was on my shelf and the table at the first opportunity.

    From the reading of the rules, the aesthetic, and the very clear attempt at replicating the PC game experience, Crusader Kings the board game had everything going for it and it seemed like it was going to make a nice smooth tabletop transition.

    Unfortunately for all of its mechanics that do replicate the feel of the PC game and capture that experience, the one thing that didn’t transition particularly well and ultimately caused this one to flop is the overindulgence in randomness.

    One of the key mechanics of this game was random draws from a bag to resolve conflicts between players or between player and game, but unfortunately, the impact of this one mechanic simply had too much impact on the game, so much so that it overwhelmed any aspect of a strategy. Good consecutive draws from this bag that was used for resolving various conflicts could and often did result in such a huge impact on the outcome of the game that in the end, that is all the game is. Draw tokens from the bag, do it well, you will win, do it poorly and you will lose.

    It’s really sad because a lot of the mechanics in the game are well thought out, but this random token draw resolution system just breaks it.

    For such an expensive game, I honestly can’t recommend it, but it was quite ok the first couple of plays as it takes time for people to notice the flaw, but once everyone does, it’s a bit like a movie trailer that spoils the plot of the movie. At that point, there is no longer any reason to see the movie, other than just to go through the motions and that is exactly how Crusader Kings feels after a couple of plays.

    4. Archipelago by Ludically

    Archipelago is a game with a questionable theme, colonization, which rubs some people the wrong way. To me, it’s history, and I’m not phased by the fact that the history of mankind is filled with ugliness. I like playing games with a good historical theme and when that is mixed with dynamic world or engine building mechanics, I’m always ready to try it.

    Archipelago promised to be a kind of civilization builder with exploration mechanics built around a dynamically constructed hexagon game board. It had all sorts of clever mechanics, a kind of mixture of Euro mechanics with resource management, and some cool development elements.

    All together the game played quite well and although I will point out that some of the art was unnecessarily extra racist which did not sit well with me, the core flaw of the game was the hidden victory conditions.

    All victory conditions are hidden, you don’t know how to win the game or what to focus on. You find out at the end of the game what the victory conditions are and how you faired. As the victory conditions could be quite varied and there can be odd mixtures of things that matter at the end of the game, who won was completely random.

    It’s about the most nonsensical way of handling victory conditions I have ever seen in any game, it felt a bit like playing chess except that if you get checkmated, there is a 50% chance that you win the game and a 50% chance that you will lose.

    It completely ruins this game and unfortunately, this victory conditions mechanic is buried into the core game so deeply that there is no good way to house rule or alter it without fundamentally changing how the game is played.

    I hope that someday someone with some sensitivity training and some common sense game design experience makes a 2nd edition of Archipelago because I think there is a lot of potential in this one, but as it is, this is a very hard pass.

    3. Exodus Proxima Centauri by NSKN Games

    Proxima Centauri is marketed as “Twilight Imperium Light”, a promise many games make but few deliver. Of all the ones I have tried, only Eclipse The 2nd Dawn for the Galaxy and Proxima Centauri come close.

    Unfortunately, where Eclipse succeeds, Proxima Centauri fails pretty hard in my opinion.

    I will make the assumption that you know what Twilight Imperium is, if not, the basics are this. It’s a space civilization builder that is driven by classic 4x gameplay ala classic Master of Orion in which players are a space-faring civilization fighting for control of the galaxy. It’s a simple enough concept but the one aspect of this genre of gaming is that in principle, it’s driven by politics, negotiations, trade deals, and deception. In a way these games are two games in one, the one taking place on the table and the one taking place in everyone’s head. These are games where an action you take can be seen as aggressive, a pre-emptive strike, or even a prelude to war, and as such players often act in character and respond in ways that aren’t necessarily strategic, but personal within the context of the game’s story that ultimately becomes a sort of made up history between players.

    It’s part of the fun of these games and really at the core of why the fan base loves them.

    Games that claim to be like “Twilight Imperium”, which by all accounts is considered the premiere and undisputed king of this genre of games are making a pretty bold claim and have a lot to live up to.

    The issue with Exodus is that while it has all the troupes of the genre you would expect, in effect that core 4x gameplay, the game gives players no good reason to interact in that all-important diplomatic/negotiation-social interaction space. In essence, you just play the mechanics like you would any Euro game. Sure what people do affects you, but you don’t have enough take-that mechanics or reactions you could take to give the game that diplomatic and political edge or fear of retaliation or consequences to people’s actions created by other players for which Twilight Imperium is famous for.

    Additionally, there are some quirky and very intensive shuffling of tokens that just adds to the administrative end of the game, but adds virtually nothing strategically. It’s one of those games in which there are some great ideas but none of the mechanics are all that refined.

    What is worse is that it’s only marginally shorter than Twilight Imperium, which is important because one of the only reasons anyone ever really looks for alternatives to Twilight Imperium is game length. TI4, for example, takes 6 to 8 hours to play and one of the core reasons why often Eclipse is recommended is that it can be played in half that time with much of that Twilight Imperium core 4x gameplay intact. Exodus can’t even claim that as the game takes a minimum of 5 to 6 hours to complete and commonly exceeds that time.

    In the end, it just doesn’t make the cut as a 4x game. I think it’s an ok game, I’m not suggesting it’s bad but if you are looking to get into the 4x space civilization-building games, Twilight Imperium and Eclipse are superior in every category so I’m not sure why you would pick this one over those two fantastic options.

    2. Kemet by Matagot

    Kemet is, or at least, was kind of a moderately famous game mainly because they had Dice Tower that gave it a lot of free advertisement. I would argue, in its own way it’s a cool, very fair war game built around mythology which I think is a great theme for a war game.

    In Kemet which is a kind of worker placement war game, players essentially build up armies that include mythical monsters and fight each other for control of the map and ultimately victory points. One of the key mechanics is making “advancement” purchases that give you various benefits. Each of these advancements has a color associated with it and a kind of general theme to that color.

    The nice thing is that it’s not a dice chucker so there is a cool card mechanic to resolving battles, so all and all it’s very tactical and strategic. It is great, except for one flaw which once you discover it, the game is completely ruined.

    Spoiler alert, but the white advancement is at least 3 to 1 more powerful than the advancement of other colors. Buy those and you auto-win. If everyone is aware of this, the game is a race to buy up as many white advancements as possible, it is a mathematically impossible strategy to defeat. In fact, if everyone is aware of this flaw in the game, the game is decided by turn order and nothing else.

    This broken mechanic ruins the game once discovered, its a real bummer.

    1. Western Empires (Eastern Empires) by 999 Games

    I’m going to make this short and sweet because I think Western and Easter Empires, also known together as Mega Civilization, also known as Advanced Civilization, also known as Civilization is one of the all-time classic “BIG” strategic civilization building games out there. It’s not just a game, but a staple of gaming history and Western and Eastern Empires are the modern remakes that only make minor adjustments to the original with nicer art and components, maintaining its core, classic formula.

    It’s not just a game, it’s an experience, but it does have one huge fucking flaw (pardon my French but I want to scream it) and that is that the game has player elimination.

    This game was originally designed in the early 80’s and here we are in 2024 and this core, fundamental and game-breaking flaw that will keep this off your table is still built into the game. In fact, Western and Eastern Empires lean into this and have created an official rule on how to “give up and go home” if you’re doing badly in the game.

    The issue is that the game can and does take about 9-12 hours to play, maybe even longer if you combine both games into a Mega civilization for up to 18 players. It’s a major event game which is fine, an event game is an event game, it takes a long time to play because that’s what events are. That is not a flaw, but if 4 hours into the event you can be put in a position where you are asked to leave… hey thanks for coming, go home! Fuck that….

    To me that is just unacceptable, I would never invite people to my house to play an all-day event game and then halfway through it eliminates them from the event because they sucked too much at it. It’s no problem that there are winners and losers, but to get eliminated from play, I can’t get over it.

    I can understand that in the 80’s board game design theory was in its infancy but what a missed opportunity for 999 games to correct what is undoubtedly the most destructive and game-breaking part of the game. I own Western Empires but I know that I will never put it on the table, not as long as this flaw exists. It’s crazy but it’s quite literally a game mechanic that is extremely toxic and rude to the players, aka, the guests at your house that came over to have fun.

    It is the unquestionable king of stupid shit ever put in a game, I can’t believe no one has corrected it over the last nearly 40 years of its existence.

    Best of List, Board Game Reviews

    Top 10 Gaming Experiences Of 2023

    2024 was a great year for gaming for me, but as I started this list originally set to be the best games fo 2023 I realized that a lot of the games that I played weren’t technically games released in 2023. Hence, this year, the list is more about my top 10 gaming experiences rather than the top 10 games of 2023.

    I did however create a small section at the end of the article talking about some 2023 releases that I thought where worthy of note.

    Ok enough foreplay, let’s get into it!

    10. Eclipse: Second Dawn For The Galaxy

    I picked up the 2nd edition of Eclipse on a whim, not so much because I felt the 1st edition was so great, quite to the contrary, but because there was so much positive word on this follow-up that I had to try it.

    I’m glad I did, 2nd edition Eclipse is a great game, a vast improvement over 1st edition and it hits a sweet spot in the area of science-fiction-based galactic civilization games with an epic feel.

    I think to understand what I mean about sweet spot you have to understand that I love my Twilight Imperium when it comes to this genre, it’s my go-to game for science-fiction civilization-building games. This comes with a BIG but, as it is a six to eight-hour game that is pretty difficult to get to the table with a structure that doesn’t exactly speak to my and many other gaming crews universally. In fact in my group we so very rarely play Twilight Imperium at this point, it’s collecting a lot of dust, to such a degree that were it not among my favorite board games of all time I might consider cutting it from my collection.

    Twilight Imperium 4th edition without any question in my mind is a much better game than Eclipse, but it’s such a massive all-day event that it is difficult to get to the table. Case in point, it was not played in 2023 at all!

    Eclipse 2nd edition on the other hand hits a lot of the same highlights as a game for me but it does it in under 4 hours, or less even if you have a group that knows the rules well.

    More than that it’s a game that gets right to the meat of the action from turn 1, there isn’t a whole lot of posturing and political pre-gaming in the game like there is in Twilight Imperium, which means it’s a lot more of a game than an experience. TI4 is very much an event-focused gaming experience but Eclipse manages to be a board game you really can just pull out and play like any other. This puts it in a unique position in my collection.

    I still don’t think it’s anywhere close to as good a game as Twilight Imperium is, to me TI4 remains the king of science-fiction-based galactic conquests and civilization-building games, but Eclipse is much easier to get to the table and it is a very fun gaming experience.

    For fans of the genre, I think this discussion is well-known and common. Suffice it to say if you’re a fan of Civ-Builders, this is one of the best ones around as it finds that all-important middle ground that allows it to hit the table without a lot of fuss.

    9. Viticulture

    Strangely enough, this game was on my shelf in shrink wrap for the better part of 3 years before I got it to the table. This year I finally managed to pull it out, learn how to play and get it to the table.

    I was very pleasantly surprised by this one. This is a very solid worker placement game with a lot of variation both in strategy (ways to win) and calculation of moves (planning ahead). The game rules were really clear so even when learning to play on the first pass, you are immediately deep-diving into the possibilities, there was no major learning curve. Almost as if all previous experiences with other worker placement games apply and you’re just playing kind of a different take on the same core principles common in all of these types of games.

    That said, it wasn’t boring. There are a lot of really clever combinations, it was a very tight game rather than your typical super point structure where one guy has 200 VP’s at the end of the game and another 350. Everyone in our games was in the running with the winner edging out by 2-3 points typically. The game is available on boardgamearena.com which is a great bonus.

    Very competitive and interesting game, didn’t overstay its welcome, in fact, it felt kind of short which adds to the pressure of scoring points as soon as possible as much as possible as you could as you can see way in advance that the game would end in a few turns.

    Just a good solid, worker placement game well worth getting with plenty of replayability. Great stuff, highly recommended.

    8. Sekigahara: The Unification Of Japan

    This one was on my must-try list for a very long time, several years at least. I had heard so many good things about it and it checks all my boxes as I love anything based on Medieval Japan, I love war games, I love two-player games, I love card-driven games and I have for so long wanted to try a block game. I was very excited when the game was finally reprinted and became available and snagged it up.

    Sekigahara is a part strategy but mostly a tactical game about positioning and outthinking your opponent with a lot of timing-based master planning built into it. It isn’t just about getting your armies in place, but it’s about making sure you have the right cards, at the right time for the right battle.

    It’s one of those games where you need to have a plan for the hand of cards you are dealt and the right strategy for the unit position. It’s not enough to have one or the other, this game is all about timing things perfectly.

    The game moves at a neck-breaking pace, which is awesome for a war game as you can sit down and play two or three matches back to back. I would say each game lasts at the most two hours and if you have two players that know the rules, you can finish a match in under an hour.

    It has a static start, but the dynamics of the game create a lot of variability as so much of the game is focused on the cards in your hand. There is a kind of veteran learning element to the game, if you know the deck and you know the map you are going to have a big advantage over a novice but by the same token, the learning curve is quite short so it doesn’t take long for you to get to a point where you are dissecting the games core properties.

    I would not recommend this game to all gamers universally, I think it’s important that you enjoy competitive war games and have a healthy love for card games, as this game does not apologize for being kind of a straight-to-it card-based war game. It’s that, if that is not your thing, this game does not offer or cater to other aspects of board gaming, if it is, this game is right up your alley.

    Definitely one of my favorite new additions to my collection in 2023.

    7. Vampire: Prince Of The City

    This is a bit of a strange one, as it is a game released back in 2006 and it was a completely random unprompted purchase by a member of my gaming crew which made its debut at our yearly big board gaming weekend.

    My gaming crew loves all things Vampire The Masquerade, originally a role-playing game made by a company back in the 90’s called White Wolf. The world of darkness is the setting in which Vampires live and these days there are quite a few new games that have come out for this universe including Vampire: The Masquerade Heritage which came out in 2020, Vampire: The Masquerade Chapters (2023) and Vampire: The Masquerade – Vendetta (2020) just to name a few. All great, modern games, but Vampire: Prince of the City is an older model.

    Vampire Vendetta, another game in the world of darkness is a much faster and more mechanically driven take on a similar concept. To date, this remains one of my favorite Vampire The Masquerade-based games.

    Vampire: Prince Of The City is a game about controlling a modern-day city from behind the scenes through the manipulation of politics and economics. Vampires don’t play by the rules of course, they indoctrinate their pawns using supernatural methods.

    In the game you represent an elder vampire that uses influence to take control of areas on a map and the only other competitors are other elder vampires (other players). Players collect “assets” that help them to do this more efficiently of course, which can range from collecting people, equipment or unique strategy cards.

    The game is quite long and has quite a bit of diplomacy between players in which they plot against each other, sometimes working together and sometimes betraying each other. The goal of the game is to come out on top, but the game is structured in a way where if two players decide to gang up on you, things are going to become difficult if not impossible. The driving force is of course that when two players work together, often one of them comes out of it better than the other, leading to the inevitable betrayal and restructuring of alliances.

    These politics which remind me a lot of the classic game of Diplomacy, are really what pushes the game forward far more than actual mechanical actions players take which is a style of play that is really right in my gaming crews wheelhouse.

    The point is that this is not a game you win on mechanics, it’s a game you win through political and diplomatic manipulation between the players, in a lot of ways, its a game of psychology.

    This is a very long game and this is probably the only black mark against it and notably one of the key complaints from most reviewers. Its an event-style game but I would say if you are into games that cause heated debates and player-to-player diplomacy, this one brings that sort of playstyle to the table in spades.

    Fantastic game in my humble opinion, with a great theme, but not for the faint of heart. This is a bit of a pig that is going to take some time to get done, but so well worth it in my opinion. Exactly the sort of vampire-focused experience that represents the world of darkness setting on which it’s based.

    6. Spirit Island

    I say this all the time, I’m not a huge fan of cooperative games typically, except when I am and then I love them. A great example is Lord of the Rings LCG, it’s one of my most played and beloved games that I have collected like a total fanatic.

    Spirit Island is warming up to be another exception for me. I have only played a couple of times, but this game is just so well designed, so tight, so difficult, and handles the cooperative element so well.

    My biggest problem with cooperative games is that when I play, I often feel like I don’t need the other players to win and/or I need the players to do very specific things under my instruction in order to win, so when they take unoptimized actions that cause us to lose (even when I know better) it annoys me. This covers most cooperative games and it’s why generally, I do not enjoy them.

    Spirit Island is different because it is far too complex and has far too many moving parts, not to mention unknowns like other player’s cards to a point where micro-managing each other as players is impossible. You just have to rely on each player to handle their own business and leverage their own strategy and ask for help when they need it.

    This means that each player has to create and execute their own approach to the game which is supported by the fact that each spirit in the game is asymmetrical. Everyone must be generally aware of high-level events and be ready to assist others who run into trouble why dealing with the problems on their side of the board.

    This setup is quite fantastic in particular in the scope of the game’s very high level of difficulty and increably diverse dynamics. There is so much going on in this game, so many different strategies thanks in large part to the huge diversity of “spirits” players can select. Each spirit has its play style, its special powers and power cards.

    It’s a really deep and very long game, a gamer’s game essentially, definitely not for the dabbler. There is a big learning curve both to learn how to play and how to play well. There is also a lot of levels of difficulty so you’re never going to find a way to “beat” the game, its replayability is effectively unlimited.

    Fantastic game in my book, definitely deserving of all the awards and praise it has received over the last couple of years since its release. Highly recommended, but only for the truly fanatically hardcore and highly dedicated gamers, this is not something you pull out on family board game night.

    5. Lord Of The Rings LCG

    My all-time favorite solo and cooperative game.

    Like almost every year since I started collecting, Lord of the Rings the LCG has been a central part of my weekly gaming routine. It’s a rare week that I don’t pick up a game or two of LotR LCG, it has been and continues to be one of my favorite games to pull out.

    Now I normally play this cooperative game solo, but this year I managed to get a few multiplayer games going and like me, my gaming crew enjoys this one as well. Of course, the big fun of this game is getting super into it, building your own decks, creating your own solutions to the countless quests that have been released for this game as well as doing the big campaign. Not everyone gets into the game on that level and frankly, as a dabble it’s okay, but this is a game for fanatics who are ready to do serious deck building and that means collecting. Still, it’s a lot of fun to play on any level and pretty easy to do as this game has a pretty low learning curve.

    I have talked about this game so many times on this site, I don’t see any reason to say more, just have a browse, there are plenty of articles about this one. I love it and true love lasts forever!

    4. Caesar: Rome vs. Gaul

    The card-driven influence control genre which at this point has become quite broad is one of my favorite in board gaming. This includes games like Washingtons War, Twilight Struggle and Imperial Struggle just to name a few.

    I have introduced this particular one to several people this year, members of my gaming crew as well as my brother-in-law who is a bit of a board gaming dabbler.

    Each time this one comes out, it gets solid reviews across the board from everyone which is more than I can say for all other influence control games that tend to be a bit more niche. Not to say that this is the best of the bunch, in my opinion, it’s not, that honor falls to Imperial Struggle. What I find to be the core reason this one tends to do better is that in Rome vs. Gaul thanks to its dichotomous sides, one being (Rome) far more difficult to play and succeed at and one (Gaul) being much simpler, it works great for introductions.

    The end result is that the first-time experience is fun for both players (experienced and novice) and creates a great competitive game. This tends not to be true about most influence control games that have many specialized strategies. Typically when teaching someone something like Twilight Struggle, as an experienced player you are going to crush your opponent the first 5-10 games before they catch on.

    That however I don’t think is the only thing that separates Rome Vs. Gaul. I think it has a cool historical theme, looks amazing on the table and has very clear winning conditions that are easy to grasp without a heavy chrome layer of exceptions. It’s just a very intuitive design, a great competitive take on the card-driven influence control genre.

    Its main flaw is that once both players become experienced with the game you will find that winning as the Rome player becomes exceedingly difficult, there are just too many almost impossible-to-overcome Gaul strategies so the game tends to be a bit unbalanced when two players of equal skill are playing the game. I find the game needs some house rules to correct this.

    That doesn’t change my opinion about it as I find most of the time when I pull it out I’m dealing with a new or less experienced player and this game is great for that purpose.

    Highly recommend this one if you are a fan of CDG influence control games like Twilight Struggle and Washington’s War in particular.

    3. Great Western Trail

    I play a lot of Great Western Trail, mainly because it’s available on Boardgamearena.com. As of this writing, I have played 110 games with 35 victories. That is a lot of Great Western Trail and most of that I did last year which means I was averaging several games a week.

    I think a big part of the reason I like Great Western Trail is that each time you play you must be adaptive. There is no winning formula, the circumstances of each game are different and what your opponents are doing matters a lot in this game which is not always, in fact, rarely the case in Euro games like this. This is a game where after 110 games, I can still get completely crushed because of circumstances and risky moves that did not pay off. It’s really what I love about the game, it remains a challenge to win no matter how much I play it.

    The interaction between players in Great Western Trail is subtle but profound and I think it does a great job of being simultaneously easy to learn but deep strategically. I think its one of the most unique and intriguing Euro games that has come out this side of the decade.

    It’s without a doubt my current favorite, chill back and play game and I find every time I go to boardgameareana.com for a fix, this is the one I reach for. I own the hardcopy as well and every time I pull it out with my friends or family it lands well.

    Just a really good all-around board game for all occasions. It’s my go-to Euro game.

    2. War Room

    The truth is that my gaming group and I play War Room once per year on my birthday since I got it a few years back. It’s become something of a tradition at this point but this one never disappoints. I can remember the details of every game of War Room I have played and it’s always a great time.

    This is not a particularly deep game, it is, for the most part, a bit more complex version of RISK or Axis and Allies and while I know some people take it quite seriously as a war game, for me, this is just a good time in a box. For my gaming group it’s more of a fun party game where we play war for the day, roll some dice and come up with new inside jokes that will play out for the rest of the year.

    I do love War Room as a game though, I do think it’s a fun strategic puzzle and there are plenty of great/difficult decisions to make and you can in fact get pretty serious with it. Given how long and huge it is, this is not a game you just spring on a group, so I can understand why many group give it this serious treatment. This is an event where you have to arrange food, snacks, and drinks and make a whole thing out of it, because 12 hours is about the average play time. It’s essentially a kind of party war game to me.

    I love it, it’s been my favorite board game of all time since I discovered it and I think that will remain to be true for a long time.

    1. Empire Of The Sun

    Empire of the Sun is a very complex game and is not recommended for the uninitiated.

    There is no question that all my really serious and competitive gaming in 2023 was done with Empire Of The Sun. I have completely abandoned any hope of ever getting this one to the table with my local gaming group, it’s just too big of a commitment for them and it’s too niche so this year I went online to search for opponents.

    I found plenty and ever since I have had several active games going online over vassal of Empire of the Sun and it has become an absolute obsession for me. This highly complex game with a massive learning curve only works when you have two players completely dedicated to not only learning how to play but enforcing those rules with impunity.

    I found exactly such opponents and I have been overthinking this one for the entire year and it’s been an amazing experience.

    While War Room is my favorite game of all time, Empire of the Sun is the best game design I have ever run across. Mark Herman is a genius in my book and I have said it before, but this is the Mona Lisa of his career.

    In Empire of the Sun you execute World War II in the Pacific Theatre as either Japan or the Allies in extreme detail on an operational level. It boasts an intimidating 50 page rulebook with a ridiculous amount of chrome for what I can only describe to be one of the best simulations you will ever experience.

    I do not recommend this to anyone except the most dedicated fan of war games. This is not something you dabble or “learn to play”, this is the equivalent of studying chess as a hobby. You will spend hundreds of hours studying every unit, every detail of the map, and every rule that governs the game and creates endless strategies for you to test. It’s exhilarating if you are into that sort of thing, it’s a complete nightmare of a board game if you are not.

    I love it with a deep passion.

    2023 releases worth a mention

    I’m not the sort of gamer that chases the cult of the new anymore and I find that my gaming selections are more based on what I already love than chasing the dragon. That said there were a few interesting games that came out this year and I think they deserve some mentioning for better or worse.

    Hegemony: Lead Your Class To Victory

    This one is gaining a lot of momentum in the gaming community, slowly climbing the boardgamegeek ladder and for good reason. Without question one of the most interesting designs on an unusual subject. It’s an asymmetrical game where players work together to develop a functioning society represented by each player acting as a part of the government or social order. Based on politics and economics, this is a game about governing, a combination of cooperation and competition. It made my must-buy list in 2023.

    Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game

    I know, we need another deckbuilding game like we need a hole in our head, but ever since Star Wars Destiny tragically ended, finding a replacement for it has been something of a desire I suppose. There are a few games actually in the works, but this one made its debut in 2023 and it certainly looks to be the frontrunner.

    Great art, simple mechanics with a straight to it approach in the competitive dueling space.

    Deck building games of course require the game to have longevity, which is the most difficult element to asses at the start of a games run. Star Wars Destiny for example started out on fire in terms of popularity, but petered out quite quickly and didn’t survive its adolescence. A common problem in the collectable card game space, a fate that may very well be in this games future.

    That said, I’m always hopeful and this one certainly has my attention.

    Best of List, Board Game Reviews, Gaming Articles, On The Table

    Board Gaming Super Weekend 2023!

    For the 7th year running all my buddies and I got together for 4 days of nothing but cold beers, BBQ and most importantly endless hours of board gaming in a remote cabin absent of the hustle and bustle of life. This annual event is always special, but this year it dawned on me that this group has been tight for so long at this point we are like some sort of nerdified fraternity. I can barely think of any other people on earth I could tolerate let alone desire to spend 4 days locked in a cabin with except this motley crew. It was, in a word, a perfect weekend.

    Did we play any games? Yes….yes we did. Here is this year’s list and how it went down in the order it went down!

    Vampire: Prince Of The City (2006)

    If you read this blog with any regularity you might already know that my gaming crew and I love our Vampire: The Masquerade. We have done it all, the RPG, the board games, card games, you name it, we have it. Imagine our surprise during a routine stop at a local game shop on the way to our big board gaming weekend we discover someone made a Vampire game none of us knew even existed!?

    This little gem came out in 2006 during the Vampire: Requiem era when White Wolf tried to re-launch their vampire franchise. It was picked up without hesitation and was instantly selected as the kick-off game for our big gaming weekend to the surprise of no one.

    There was a lot of discussion about this game on the car ride home, but it was almost universally agreed that, despite being the first game to hit the table, it was the best game of the weekend.

    Now I say “game of the weekend” with some hesitation because this is definitely a product of its time and in a class of its own, which is to say that back in 2006 modern board game design in many ways was still in its infancy and were often pet project directed at extremely niche communities. I think if this game was designed today, it would likely have been streamlined, much shorter and perhaps a bit less harsh focusing on a wider potential audience. It didn’t take more than a single play of this game to clearly see some flaws that called for a couple of house rules to make some needed balance adaptations to bring this game into a more modern state.

    Despite a couple of warts however, Vampire: Prince of the City captures the essence of the political struggle boiled into the core premise of the RPG on which this game is based with thematic precision. Perhaps the only thing that really mattered to us as Vampire fans and likely the only real design goal the game had. In a word, this is not a game made for the masses, it’s a game made for Vampire The Masquerade fans exclusively.

    The game is about a slow but methodically planned hostile takeover of a city run by vampires in which players implement strategies, “acquire” allies, equip themselves with weapons and deal with the nightly troubles of vampire life as they spread their influence and take control.

    Mechanically this is a pretty simple game of managing resources and edging very small but critical advantages over each other. Each player represents a would-be prince, a member of one of the five kindred clans, all with nearly impossible-to-overcome strengths and equally impossible to compensate for weaknesses. If you know White Wolfs World of Darkness at all, you know exactly how important this blatant imbalance is to the theme of a Vampire-based game.

    Vampire: Prince of the City really nails this thematic horror show of trying to leverage your strengths and avoid exposing your weakness, but more than that, I think even under the examination of a critical game designer, there are some really great mechanics here that are nice and tight and just feel great.

    Every action, every play of a card or interaction between players grows an ever-increasing sense of tension and hostility that climaxes with outright attacks that may very well, as it did in our game, leave a player or two feeling the cold and harsh reality of final death (player elimination). This is definitely not a game for the faint of heart, you will win only by completely fucking over your competition in what really amounts to a ruthless embargo on emotions, doing brutally whatever it takes to win.

    In short, this is a game for adults and definitely not a replacement for Monopoly, this is the World of Darkness, you’re a monster and you win by acting like one.

    I loved it, as did the rest of the crew, but we are sadistic bastards who get our rocks off on take-that mechanics and this game is chock-full of them. If that is not your thing, avoid this game like the plague, but if you’re a Vampire fan, this is going to be right up your alley and may very well be the Vampire game fans are looking for.

    One notable drawback of the game and note that I say this after only a single play is that it was quite long. We played the “medium” length game and it stretched into the 6-hour mark. I’m sure some of it was due to the game being new, but we are experienced gamers and this was not a complex game so I think it was long because it’s a long game. This definitely falls more into the “event” level of games, casual gamers need not apply. For us, it sucked up pretty much the entirety of the first day of our 4-day event.

    Empires: Age of Discovery

    Bright, big and elaborate, Empires: Age of Discovery is a visual treat.

    Empires: Age of Discovery has found its way to the big board gaming weekend table a few times over the years, mostly my doing, but I have never heard any complaints. It’s a personal favorite, not only for the theme which while controversial I find fascinating (Colonization) and the fact that I’m a big worker placement fan and this is without a doubt in my humble opinion the Mona Lisa of that mechanic.

    To me, this game represents a rather over-indulgence in production value, but I would argue that it’s one of the finest examples of worker placement you will find with a rich theme that is simply enhanced by its visual presence on the table. It’s just a very streamlined and elegant game, that is easy to teach and learn and offers ample strategies all with great depth while being thematic and rich with flavor.

    In Empires you effectively colonize the new world by sending a variety of specialized colonists each with special powers to spread all over the frontier. In the process you manage wealth, construction of special advancements and buildings, construction of a military and various other related activities all in a very abstracted way using worker placement mechanics. When you get right down to it, its a game of getting the most out of the limited resources you have, its about timing and position and it’s about anticipating the actions of the other players.

    I find it just feels great to have an unnecessarily big map and elaborate components when you have gone out of your way to get together for a big gaming event like this, the fact that this is also a great game is just a cherry on top. It’s a perfect game for such an occasion and even though hauling that fat ass box was a pain in the ass, as it always does, this game fired on all cylinders.

    To me, this is a classic in the board gaming world that takes the simplicity of one of the all-time great, game mechanics, worker placement and improves upon it while never making it any more complex. It’s really just great game design and though some might argue that a game about colonization is edgy, to those I say, shut the fuck up, it’s just a game.

    Robo Rally

    This game falls into what I like to call, “the silly category” of gaming, which I think should probably be its own genre. Like Galaxy Truck, Munchkin, Kitchen Rush or Sheriff of Nottingham, it’s not a game that either takes itself seriously or expects you to have a strategy while playing it. All you should expect from Robo Rally is that it’s stupid-silly fun and if that is what you get out of it, the game has met its design goal.

    In Robo Rally you and your opponents each move a little robot through an obstacle course full of traps, walls and elevator belts, but the catch to the game is that you have to pre-program your robot with a limited set of options 5 turns in advance.

    All manner of chaos ensues because the other players as well as the obstacle course are going do the unexpected and what seems like a simple exercise in planning quickly turns into a hysterical shit show.

    Now I will argue that the game has a very unnecessary and not particularly well thought out “upgrade phase” where players pick and buy their upgrades which slows what would otherwise be a snappy game. My group by our second play eliminated this from the game by creating a quick drafting mechanic instead for the upgrades which just fixed the problem in one fell swoop.

    Still, even with this upgrade phase, the game is a lot of fun, I would definitely consider it for the family as the rules are really simple and the game has a very kid-friendly “cute” aesthetic.

    Smart Phone

    Every time I play Smart Phone, I find my comments about the game are always the same. This is one of the finest examples of great game design I have ever seen, it is, a perfect game.

    I adore this one and it has never let me down. It’s made the big gaming weekend several years in a row, I’m fairly certain since it found its way into our collective collections and I suspect it’s going to continue to make the cut for many years to come.

    This is an economic simulation about players running mobile phone companies trying to produce and sell, phones all over the world. That, I will admit, does not sound like a particularly exciting theme and the hipster on the cover of the game box really does little to inspire interest but let me tell you that this is, without a doubt, one of the best Euro games you will ever play and I say that without reservation.

    Its mechanics are perfectly tuned, it’s puzzly and thinky, honestly, it will melt your brain at times, yet it’s not at all complex or heavy, in fact, I would say this falls into the light category of games. It’s really just a merger of great mechanics, exceptional attention to detail and efficiency while being extremely competitive with fantastic replayability.

    People that don’t play board games often ask me what I recommend for a beginner and while I would be hesitant to say Smart Phone because I do think there are better games for introductions, I actually do think that a non-gamer that plays this one risks becoming a full-blown gaming nerd. This is just one of those games that will suck you into this hobby because it’s such a great representation of why gamers game.

    I would universally recommend this game to pretty much everyone.

    Condottiere

    This is a stone-cold classic trick-taking game that belongs in every gamers collection.. period. I’m not sure what else to say about it.

    The simplicity of the trick-taking mechanic is enhanced by cards having special powers while the area control mechanics give each round a strategic edge. In a sense, it’s not necessary for you to try to win every round, often you are just trying to draw people into a competition so that they waste cards as you prepare for the more important fights later on. There is a lot of push-your-luck, a bit of card counting and predicting your opponent’s intentions and though the strategies can have a sort of subtle complexity the rules of the game are easy for even the most casual non-gamer. Its a game for everyone.

    I have introduced countless people to this game over the years, I have given away 3 copies (I’m currently trying to track down a 4th copy for myself).

    Great for road trips, camping trips, for families, as a pallet cleanser for serious board game nights.

    Great stuff, you don’t own it, you should, I don’t care who you are.

    Highlander The Board Game

    A movie-turned tv series turned cult classic, The Highlander franchise is beloved by fans and a completely bewildering mystery to everyone else. No surprise really that someone would take this franchise and try to turn it into a game, targeting the countless gaming nerds out there and even less surprising is that they would fill the box with miniatures and high-quality components to make it as expensive as possible.

    The question is, is it a good game and the answer, it pains me to say, god no. This game was made by someone who clearly understood the material and what would excite fans of the franchise, well researched making extensive use of screens shot from the movies mixed in with some original art but at the end of the day as a game there is very little to love even if you have affection as my gaming group does for the franchise itself.

    I think the best description I can offer here is that the game is about as random as it can be, boiling down to a dice roll-off with some very rudimentary odds control.

    The cards you could acquire were mostly inconsequential with a few exceptions that would result in huge balance issues, it was unnecessarily slow and long in places, and it had player elimination and at the end of the day winning or losing boiled down to winning a dice roll-off and drawing the right card at the right time (beheading).

    There was a sequence for “The Gathering”, but you would have to play the game for many hours before you are ever likely to reach it, in fact, I would say that the odds of “The Gathering” ever actually happening are extremely low.

    My gaming group of course had fun with it as the movies and tv shows are infinitely quotable and we are all hardcore nerds, but as a game Highlander was less than stellar, hard to recommend even to fans of the franchise.

    Broom Service

    Broom Service has been in my collection for several years and though I have played it casually with my daughter and occasionally with the extended family, my bringing it to the big weekend with my gaming buddies was a bit of a risk. I wasn’t really sure how strong it was in terms of what more experienced gamers would get out of it.

    It’s a very simple game, part card game, part board game with a push-your-luck element and some rather simple strategic positioning. This wasn’t going to be a highly competitive strategy game and though the theme is silly (witches delivering positions in a magical kingdom), it’s not in the “silly genre”. Its a family game pure and simple and that isn’t always a good fit for my gaming group.

    With that said, Broom Service is actually quite clever and very unique, I don’t think I have ever played anything quite like it and though it’s simple, it’s also quite short and snappy so it doesn’t overstay its welcome.

    I didn’t get a particularly good bead on what my gaming group thought about it, the comments were quite generic “it was fun”.. etc.. but for me personally, I like family games and I think this one falls into the same category of games like Takenoko, Ticket To Ride or King of Tokyo. It’s simple enough to pull out with kids, family and non-gamers but clever enough to make it palatable to more experienced gamers.

    I don’t know if I recommend it for seasoned gamers for a veteran table, but so far as family games go I think this is one of the good ones.

    Lords of Xidit

    Lords of Xidit made its first appearance at our big board gaming weekend a few years back and though everyone was in agreement that its a great game that was the last time we actually played it. Now in its defense, we are gamers and we all have way more games then our shelves can store, games have a way of falling through the cracks and eventually emerging with everyone making the statement “oh yeah, this is a great game, I remember!”

    That was more or less my reaction to this one, I recall liking it a great deal the first time I played it and I felt the same about it this time, I believe the rest of the crew agreed.

    In Lords of Xidit you move your character around a board taking one of two types of actions at different city locations. Either you are recruiting one of 5 types of units or you are fighting monsters with the units you collected previously. The objective is to build magic towers, build up your treasury (gold) and gain renown tokens. The player that does all three the best wins the game. Simple right!?

    Well, the catch here is that you must pre-program your actions 5 actions in advance and each action is executed in turn order around the table. The results can be very unpredictable as players might get to a place before you, killing a monster you planned to fight or stealing units you meant to get or building a tower where you planned to build and so on.

    The game is really about trying to predict what the other players will do and timing your pre-programmed actions in a fashion where you maximize your turn without losing anything.

    The scoring in this game is particularly clever because rather than simply scoring points (the highest score wins), the game-end scoring is a process of elimination in the 3 different scoring methods. For example in the first scoring phase, you might score who has the most gold, but it only matters that you are not last as the last player will be eliminated from the game and doesn’t participate in the next phase of scoring. You do this for all the methods of scoring and the last player remaining is the winner. Hence the game is really about doing well enough not to be last in each category. This scoring method creates a very different approach to the usual victory point salad winning condition.

    This is a really well-designed game and severely over produced as the components are wonderfully overcooked and colorful. The game just looks great on the table. It’s about a light to medium level of complexity, there is some rules and fiddliness but its fairly limited.

    As a whole I really liked this game, it’s just the right length, the turns are very fast and there is a pretty smooth streamlined feel to it with a great feeling of competitiveness. Really fun, I don’t know how the rest of the guys rate this one but its definitely on the recommended list, in particular, if you like pre-programing action games.

    Spirit Island

    I know I said that Vampire: Prince of the City got the vote for best game of the weekend, but it would be dishonest if I said it was a blowout. Spirit Island was absolutely fantastic and a big highlight of the weekend, a very close second.

    This is a deeply complex cooperative game that has enormous amounts of dynamics and intricate details that round after round challenge you to solve the puzzle of optimizing your actions. You have to anticipate the next turn as you work on solving the problems of the current turn….. and man, this game is sooo hard.

    I will admit I think for the first half of the game I was completely lost, there is no question that this game has a fairly steep learning curve, not just to grasp the game, but to really get a handle on the strategies and mechanical manipulation involved.

    In Spirit Island, you are gods of sorts, hell-bent on protecting an island from invading mortals who seek to build cities and pollute your paradise. Each player gets a unique “Spirit” with a variety of special powers, benefits, and drawbacks. You must work together to bring fear and retribution on the invaders, but they spread like a plague each round and the game is almost a-sort of impossible to solve puzzle of trying to curve the domino effect of their growth into a domino effect of destruction.

    Each invading civilization, just like the spirits you represent has its unique powers, benefits, and drawbacks and a big part of the game is trying to figure out how to sort of outdo them in the back and forth of play and counter-play.

    It’s you and your friends vs. the game itself and while in my personal experience, there have been very few purely cooperative games I enjoy like Lord of the Rings The LCG, by contrast, most fall flat with me (pretty much everything else). With a couple of exceptions, I just generally don’t like cooperative games.

    I was however immediately sold on Spirit Island as it is this really great, robust, and fulfilling gaming experience that challenges the hell out of you, and because the game has so much dynamic setup between the different spirits, the design of the island and different civilizations it’s hard to fathom how many different possible combinations there are. The replayability here is quite endless.

    This is solid game design, it’s no surprise this game has been sitting in the top 10 on boardgamegeek since its release. It really is that good, well deserving of all the accolades it has received including prestigious awards like Best Coop Game of the year and BBG’s best board game of the year.

    Awesome game, that deserves to be played but be weary, this is a gamer’s game, don’t let the pretty art style fool you.

    Game of Thrones: The Board Game

    This is a game that is played in the minds of the players, the board and pieces are mostly distractions.

    Ok it has to be said that while I absolutely adore this game, the last couple of times I have played it have been a disappointment.

    A couple of years back we played the game for the first time with the Targaryan expansion and that turned out to be an unbalanced mess, resulting in a very anti-climatic ending, that made the winner (that was me) feel like I lost the game.

    This year we played a 5 player vanilla game in hopes of recapturing some of this game’s past glory, which meant we had to fill the sixth seat with garrison units and the result was a quick and sweeping victory by the Baratheon player, which, much as It was the last time we played, very anti-climatic.

    So here is the thing, some games just don’t play well and/or as is the case with Game of Thrones, are simply not balanced for anything short of a full table. In this case six players.

    This is the lesson here. Game of Thrones The Board Game is an amazing 6 player game and pretty mediocre at any other player count.

    That said, I still think this is a really fantastic game as long as you meet the six-player requirement for it. The game really feels like a strategic struggle where players are trying to make trick moves, build temporary alliances and do just enough to one-up each other into a victory. It’s a game of subtle movement and positioning, of setting up your prey for that perfect, unstoppable execution at the perfect and most dramatic moment, risking it all. You win or you die, this game really brings that spirit to the table.

    When Game of Thrones fires on all pistons, when you have a full table of six experienced players that really know what they are doing, know what to look for, and know how to counter moves, it’s just pure magic.

    When it doesn’t fire on all pistons, when you are short on players or you have a player or two that is really inexperienced, the game can and often does feel like either a king-making situation or just a series of blunders that allowed a player to win far easier than it should because someone wasn’t paying attention.

    Suffice to say it makes Game of Thrones a rather irritating game, because you want that awesome gaming experience but you simply can’t get it every time you play. You are going to have to suffer through the bad games, to find the good ones, which actually makes this one tough to recommend.

    I would say that if you have six players who are ready to dedicate themselves to learning this game well and play often, I really believe this could be one of the best games ever made. For the rest of us who play inconsistently and have to settle for lower player counts, I’m fairly certain, my recommendation would be to not play it. It’s just too heartbreaking to play this wonderful game, in particular, if you know what is possible and then being disappointed because the game didn’t deliver on the promise.

    I struggle to find the words that sufficiently describe what Game of Thrones the board game means to me and my gaming group, it is in a sense, a part of our cultural gaming upbringing, we all see it in a light that I think the game struggles to live up to these days, but its not because the game is bad, its because it’s demanding. It demands a group of six players and it demands dedication and study of the game to get the most out of it. If you can’t meet these demands, it sort of doesn’t really live up to what it’s capable of. I don’t know if that makes sense, but, that is really the jist of where I’m at with this game.

    I want to play it, but it’s only good under perfect conditions, outside of that, frankly, it’s pretty bad. You have no idea how much it pains me to say that.

    Vampire Vendetta

    If it wasn’t for Vampire: Prince Of The City, without reservation, I would tell you that for Vampire The Masquerade fans, this is THE game to play. It has some competition now, but for some fast-paced gothic horror, Vendetta is king.

    This is a very straight-to-the-point kind of game. You are a vampire from one of six clans. Your powers are represented by action cards which you use to take control of one of 4 city locations. You spend blood to power yourself up and play games of chicken against your opponents. For winning you score influence (victory points) and gain allies for your cause. For losing you get nothing.

    It’s a brutal struggle of trying to exaggerate your strengths and avoid exposing your weaknesses. Every Vampire is unique and not only defines how you play, but how you feint, how you manipulate and how you threaten.

    I can’t say enough about Vendetta, for me it was love at first play and this one is very quickly becoming a household favorite thanks mostly to the fact that you get this really robust, fully fleshed-out gaming experience in about an hour. Even if you are not a Vampire fan, mechanically, from a perspective of design, this is an extremely efficient and streamlined game, it’s just good design period.

    I love this one, it’s without question one of the most underrated games I have come across in years. On BBG it’s sitting in the 2,750 spots with only 857 ratings.. it’s outrageous! Are you seriously trying to tell me that Go Nuts For Donuts is better a better game than Vampire Vendetta.!!?.. Get Fucked!

    To me, this is at least a nominee for Game of the Year in 2020 if not a winner. It’s a must-own!

    Hansa Teutonica

    Who would have thought that a Euro game made in 2009 could feel fun, refreshing, unique and engaging in 2023!? Honestly most Euro games I play from this era feel like an old used shoe, familiar but still kinda nasty.

    Hansa Tuetonica debuted in our big board gaming weekend last year and I personally demanded it be played this year, I thought it was that good.

    Mechanically the game is quite simple, as is the case with most Euro’s, its about putting cubes in the right places, at the right time and scoring victory points. Ok, so perhaps its a bit more than that, but this is a game about the strategy of positioning, but its simple, tight as hell, streamlined to perfection and despite the usual “its a game about trading” of Euro-game themes, this one actually kind of nails it.

    I don’t know if Hansa Teutonica counts as a classic, but of all the games I have played from this era, and there have been many, this is one of a very tiny handful that I think is worth the cardboard it’s printed on. Its definitely old school, but its quite clever and very competitive.

    Great game, if you love Euro games and especially if you love old school Euro games and you haven’t played this one yet, I feel quite confident when I say you have missed one of the best ones. It holds up and is a strong candidate for being one of my personal favorite Euro Games.

    Good Stuff!

    Conclusion

    This was an awesome 4 day weekend and to the surprise of no one, these big board gaming weekends are always the highlight of the year so far as gaming goes.

    There were quite a few games that were on my “wish list” that we simply didn’t get to. Eclipse: The Second Dawn For he Galaxy was clearly absent from the list here, I did bring it but we just didn’t have the table space for it this year as we gathered at a different remote cabin than we do most years. It was a bit smaller so it got skipped, which was a real bummer.

    I was also hoping to get Great Western Trail to the table at this year’s event but unlike most years when we would have different player counts for different days as not everyone typically goes for the entire 4 day weekend, this year we had 5 players for all 4 days. So it didn’t make it, it was a real shame, been itching to get this one played.

    We also didn’t play any small games that we normally do and I felt their absence. No Coup or Love Letter this year, no BANG the dice game, no Resistance or One Night Ultimate Werewolf. It’s great that we played so many big robust games, but I love me some mini-games.

    I also didn’t get an opportunity to play any 2 player games. Last year on the first night of the weekend it was me and my buddy alone for most of the first day and we managed to squeeze in Imperial Struggle and Star Trek Fleet Captains. Imperial Struggle is my absolute favorite two-player game and it’s been far too long since it’s hit the table.

    That’s it for this year folks, another Big Board Gaming Weekend behind us, see you next year!

    Best of List, Board Game Reviews, Gaming Articles

    MY TOP 20 BEST GAMES OF ALL TIME 2022 EDITION

    2022 was a very busy year for me and unfortunately, I probably played fewer board games this last year than I have since the late 90s. Still, I played quite a few compared to what I think most people actually play and of course, I made quite a few new discoveries that were worthy of consideration for this list.

    This year’s list sees some shuffling around and a couple of new editions as a couple of games exit, but there were no shocking revelations. With that out of the way, let’s talk about some board games.

    20. Root

    Root is a curious little game that gained a massive following after its 2018 release resulting in quite a collection of expansions and a digital version by 2022 when I discovered it. It didn’t make my list last year, namely because it was a very new game to me at the time, but having played it quite a bit over the last year, mainly using the online app, I can safely say it earned its place on this list.

    Root is effectively a quirky, asymmetrical war game in which players attempt to complete unique victory conditions depending on their chosen faction, which notably differ wildly from faction to faction.

    The tricky element of Root that I think registers with gamers in addition to the very highly asymmetrical play is how it’s a game that you really can’t win alone, even though that is exactly your goal. To win in Root you must help and rely on the help of your opponents to put you in a position to win, yet, not help your opponent so much that they run away with the game and knock you out. In a sense, at times it’s a cooperative competition. A player that tries to strike out on their own and simply win by outplaying everyone is not likely going to be successful in this game, the reliance on your opponents to help you in your pursuit of victory is really a requirement to be in the running. This quandary is in a sense, the central theme of the game.

    This combined with the highly asymmetrical gameplay gives Root it’s very unusual yet, addictive replayability, as well as this extreme balance that is provided by the player’s actions rather than the game system itself. Once you have played a few rounds with the same people, you start to realize who the good players are (people you help-less and oppose more) and who the weak players are (those who you help-more and rely on for their help to give you, your victory).

    The interesting thing that I noted is that the more you play, the more you adapt your strategies depending on the current atmosphere of the group you are playing with, and this conversation about “who the threats at the table are” is constant, debated, and almost like a sort of Texas Hold’Em table where people accuse each other of bluffing. It’s very much a game of chicken.

    I really didn’t love this game right out of the gate because the rules explanation for this game is a real hurdle, it requires that all players understand all factions well and since each faction has an entirely separate set of rules, the entry point is tough. Once you “get it” though, the more you play it, the better it gets. It’s a slow burn well worth the investment.

    19. 1830: Railways and Robber Barons

    This one is slowly slipping from my list, but not because my feelings about it have changed, but because this is one of those games that is sort of like sex. The first time is amazing, after that it’s a lot of fumbling about until you get really good at it, then it gets fun again. Well, it’s hard to coordinate a gaming group in such an effort and the game really suffers greatly when player skill levels are not synched up.

    Simply put, when everyone is playing the game for the first time, everyone is making the same mistakes, it’s a complete cluster fuck and it’s super fun. Then you play the game a second and third time, and suddenly the game clicks for one or two people and they are crushing you mercilessly. After a while, you will have one or two players that are just unbeatable and you either give up or get used to losing.

    R&R is an unforgiving meat grinder that has zero tolerance for foolishness. One bad move and you could spend a 6+ hour game being a victim under someone’s boot, worse yet, one weak player can cause another player to win while everyone else watches helplessly which can create some frustration among more veteran players.

    That said, in a group where everyone gets it, where the game “clicks” for everyone, this game is just pure magic. So competitive and cutthroat, so intricate, so many ways to move and counter move, its capitalism at its finest.

    I adore this game, but I struggle with the idea of trying to properly teach people the intricate, but absolutely necessary understanding of how this game executes. Learning the rules is one thing and that is complexity personified in on itself, but learning to play this game competitively, that takes real dedication and that process is kind of miserable, to be honest.


    18. Star Trek Fleet Captains

    Slipping a bit to the number 18 spot is my beloved Star Trek Fleet Captains. I rarely get to play this one in large part because there are not too many Star Trek fans in my gaming circle, but this year a buddy of mine indulged me and we dusted this beauty off and put it on the table.

    All I can add to the review I did for Star Trek Fleet Captains back in 2015 is that It should have scored higher than a 3.9 and it would have, had it not been for some of the component quality issues I had and continue to have with the game. Let’s just say that things are a bit flimsy.

    Where it really counts with this game and where it really nails it is in the theme and the gameplay. This is the entire Star Trek franchise in a box, it’s a game for fans clearly made by fans. All of the nuances of the shows and movies, crossing the barrier of the various generations of the franchise and connecting everything into a unique bundle of scenarios and variability are all here. What you end up with is a Star Trek game with endless replayability that really reaches into the depths of the franchise, all those things that make it tick.

    I love this game, It has been on my top 10-20 list for many years and I just don’t see it going anywhere any time soon.

    If you love Star Trek.. this is your game.


    17. War Of The Ring

    In a sense, War of the Ring is to Tolkeins Middle-Earth what Star Trek Fleet Captains is to Star Trek. Its Middle-Earth in the box, chock-full of amazing themes and gameplay, it is designed without question exclusively for Lord of the Rings fans.

    To be honest the only reason this game isn’t higher on the list is that it’s just complicated enough that unless you play it with some regularity, you are going to forget the rules. I play this game once every year or so and each time I dust this bad boy off, I pretty much have to learn the rules from scratch which is a colossal pain in the ass.

    It’s always worth it mind you and I would love to see this one hit the table way more often than it does, but it’s a two-player game with some very niche elements, not the least of which is the fact that its a solid 4-6 hour game and frankly, it’s not terribly balanced. I have played this game a lot over the years and never have I seen a free-people victory, doesn’t matter which side I play or how experienced the player I play against.

    I know there is a 2nd edition of this one and my understanding is that they have addressed the balance issues, but frankly, I don’t have a problem with the balance issues and I don’t play it often enough to warrant buying a second copy. If you do get it, make sure you get the 2nd edition though, no reason not to.

    This is a fantastic game, it falls into the realm of “experience”, more than a competitive game, it really tells great stories and I have never once regretted playing it, win or lose.

    If you’re a Lord of the Rings, this is your game!


    16. Tide of Irons

    Historical War Gaming has one core issue and that is that most of the time, at least compared to modern game publishing, the components are weak. Like there is a context of historical war games of what qualifies as great components, but when you pull it out of that context and compare it to the heights of modern game publishing, historical war games look like trash (sorry I know I’m a mean guy!).

    Tide of Irons however is a huge exception and while it would be counted as a “low complexity” historical war game to historical war gamers, even though it’s moderate to high complexity to the rest of the mass market world, it is in fact, a genuine and very historically rich, historical war game.

    Tide of Irons is a tactical, scenario-based and squad-based war game. It uses some very traditional mechanics, in untraditional ways, has some very clever and extremely flexible components for near-infinite setups and… most importantly, it’s a total blast to play.

    While highly complex in comparison to your typical modern board game, so far as games board games go, this is one you can pull out, teach someone and play without a lot of fussing about. It has increasingly complex scenarios that use more advanced rules and features as you progress in the game, but the scenario complexity starts very low and ramps up slowly. All and all, for an old dog like me, it’s a fairly straightforward war game with lots of strategic and tactical elements to make it fun and challenging.

    It’s also visually spectacular and I think I love that about Tide of Irons more than anything. This is a game that rocks it on the table, it just looks amazing, giving it that rich thematic presentation that will get you in the mood. Who doesn’t love playing with little green men, it’s not someone I want to know!

    15. Western Empires

    Western Empires debuts on my list in the number 15 spot and I’m going to fess up here and now that despite this game being one of the toughest games to get to the table, so much so that so far I have only played it online, there is no question in my mind that it deserves to be here.

    Based on the classic Advanced Civilization, a stone-cold classic from the Avalon Hill days, Western Empires is best described as “an experience” more than a game. This is an event game that takes you through the history of human civilization and like the foundation of human history, infuses human nature as a core feature of the game. You and your players aren’t just going to be playing the mechanics, this is very much about manipulating each other.

    The core gameplay in Western Empires is player interaction, namely trading, negotiating, and deception and like human history, conflicts that arise are resolved on the battlefield in the cruelest of ways where war is won by the most un-sportsmen-like actors. The game has no equity, there are no balancing mechanics or attempts to ensure fairness, instead, there is just the cruelty of history and the ambitions of the players that drive the game forward.

    This is a tough game where stuff will just happen to you outside of your control. Volcanos erupt and destroy cities, floods kill millions, rebellions crumble empires and all other manner of disasters natural or otherwise. All you can do as a player is navigate through the turbulence and hope that by the end of the game your civilization rises above the others in what I think is one of the most raw games I have ever played.

    Western Empires is a long game, easily exceeding 10 hours and while the mechanics of the game are not complex, the nuance of player interaction is so deep that most players will see this as one of the most challenging games you could ever try to win. If you love huge, epic games for those big all-day events, this is without a shadow of a doubt in my mind, one of the best on the market. Combine Western Empires with Eastern Empires to make Mega Empires, a game that can house up to 18 players!

    There is gaming and then there is Western Empires, that is all I’m going to say about that!


    14. Dune Imperium

    Dune Imperium is a Euro game and in my experience when it comes to how much I like Euro games, depends on when you ask me. They fluctuate and the primary reason is that they always feel hot to me until they are not. Dune Imperium however is a Euro that has really had a lot of staying power, I keep coming back to it over and over again and while it’s dropped on my top 20 list a bit from previous years, it’s still one of my favorite worker placement games.

    The reason is that this is a game that comes with a really great theme, the use of worker placement here is not just about collecting resources and scoring points, but rather, its the fuel for the other far more important and decisive elements of the game, the deck building and combat elements. It’s also an incredibly tight game, I have never played a game of Dune Imperium that wasn’t super close and Dune has great versatility thanks to the great asymmetrical setups. It’s just a really well-designed game, easy to learn, yet very competitive.

    This year we added the expansion, Rise of Ix to the mix which I thought, contrary to some of the reviews I have seen, added a lot of great elements to the game. It actually made the game a bit faster and allows players to specialize their strategy a bit more. The next expansion, Immortality is also out now and though I have not tried it yet, it does put more fuel in the tank for this one because I’m certainly excited to give that one a go as well.

    It is worth mentioning that these expansions are luxuries and not necessities. Dune Imperium really doesn’t need these expansions, they are clearly made for fans who already love the game and just want to add some new playstyles into the mix.

    Fantastic game, still my pick for one of the best games to come out in 2020.


    13. The U.S. Civil War

    I’m working on a detailed review of this new addition to my list, so more details coming soon, but The U.S. Civil War is another foray into the historical hex and counter-war game genre for me and it’s been a really fun ride.

    This is a game, as the title suggests, about the entire Civil War. It’s a deeply meaningful and detailed grand strategy gaming experience in which two players play out one of the most defining conflicts in US history. It’s a moving armies on a map style of game, but the game has a way of presenting each side of the conflict with historically accurate problems to solve like the vulnerability of the coast, supply lines, the difficulty of the terrain, the variable availability of generals, the political atmosphere of the nation and of course the unpredictable results from the battlefield.

    This is one of those games where you must think many moves ahead, and execute plans as you made them while trying to predict the intentions of your opponent. It’s uniquely balanced in that the South (Confederate Army) has little chance of actually winning the war, the North (Union Army) clearly has an advantage in the battlefield, but the North must execute a really successful war or the political situation at home may force a concession, which is how the South can win the game.

    It’s historical, it’s strategic and it’s chaotic. Just a really great game, certainly not for the faint of heart, this is definitely a historical war game made for historical war gamers, specifically for historical war gamers interested in this particular conflict, so its quite niche, but if you’re a fan like me, this is the premier Civil War-war game, it’s a must own!


    12. Peloponnesian War

    Mark Hermans Peloponnesian War is without question one of my favorite solo games for many reasons, from the subject matter itself, clever mechanics, the unique way the game balances the solo experience and its outrageously challenging gameplay.

    I have been trying to win at this game for over a year now and it still kicks my ass and each time it does, I learn, I adapt, I find new strategies to try and it all refreshes the experience. I find the game absolutely addictive, I just can’t put it down. I want to solve it and the crazy thing is that, I’m still just working on the first scenario, there are several others waiting in the wings for me so I don’t think this game is in any danger of slipping from this list anytime soon.

    I will say that this game is so unique, such a white elephant even in the historical war gaming space that I find it impossible to recommend it even though every instinct in my body says that if you are a board game fan, of any kind, this is just one of those games you have to try. It’s just way out there in left field, the sort of game that results in either you seeing the absolute brilliance of it, or leaving you wondering, what the hell it actually is. Read my review for more details on this absolute gem of a game.


    11. Lord of the Rings The Living Card Game

    Lord of the Rings The Living Card Game has enjoyed a very long and very illustrious position on my Best Games list since its initial landing back in 2017, enjoying the number 1 spot in 2018 & 2019. In 2020 it finally slipped from its top position but it has remained and likely will remain on my list for a long time. It slips a few spots now, but only because I played it so goddamn much at this point, that I actually, for the first time since 2017 took a break from it.

    I adore this game for so many reasons, but ultimately I just think it’s one of the best deck-building card games I have ever played and I have played a lot of them over the years. I have a complete collection and no matter how many sets have been released for it, each time I pick up a new one, I find myself back at the table completely engrossed in trying to figure out how to beat the latest challenges. This game is just so much fun, I have talked about it endlessly on this site and of course, you can read the review from 2016. I’m the content owner of the fantastic Lord of the Rings Companion and Lord of the Rings Campaign utility just in case there is any doubt about my fandom.

    If you’re looking for a great deck builder that you can play solo or with friends, this is the one and if you happen to be a Lord of the Rings fan, I mean, this is a must-own game…period. This is my island game, no doubt about it.


    10. Washington’s War

    Washington’s War has one benefit that the other CDG’s (Card Driven Games) on this list don’t have which is that it’s very newbie friendly, meaning you can take a non-gamer or casual gamer, teach them how to play and they will be beating you at it pretty quickly. It’s a very easy game to pick up, while remaining exciting with a deep, meaningful strategy that will keep veteran players interested. It’s actually a really great introduction to a historical war games game and definitely one of the best CDG introductory games on the market.

    Now that is the meta, but what makes Washington’s War really special is that it captures the revolutionary war in an abstract way, while maintaining the nuances of the historical period. It’s thematically rich and it houses mechanics that are very much standard in a lot of CDG’s and historical war games, so it has this very easy-to-recognize familiarity as you play the game, things work, as you kind of imagine they should.


    9. Through The Ages: A New Story of Civilization

    Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization is game about human history from the stone age to the future age, but unlike Western Empires which it shares topics with, Through The Ages is very much a mechanical experience and a Euro one at that.

    Through The Ages is a very long strategy game where you must not only go into it with a plan, but at each stage of the game, really with each decision in the game you are binding yourself with the impact of those choices resinating all the way to the final scoring round. It’s without question, one of the deepest strategy games I have ever played, one of those games that you can analyze endlessly.

    Despite this fact, there is a certain level of randomness in the game, so even though you can walk into it with a strategy in mind, you are also placed on the defensive quite often and will need to scramble and make do with what becomes available to you rather than what you really want. This gives the game incredible replayability because no two games will ever be alike and no amount of theory crafting is ultimately going to matter as you approach this games incredible dynamics. Not that this knowledge will keep you from theory crafting, but ultimately it’s as much a game about planning as it is reacting.

    It’s so robust, so challenging and so well thought out that it’s no wonder that Through The Ages has enjoyed one of the longest stretches in the top 10 on boardgamegeek of any game ever released. Even today, nearly two decades of being on the list it still manages to be in the number 13 spot as of this writing, a testament to its amazing design.

    Through The Ages has a great digital version which makes this game a lot more accessible and I highly recommend that if you’re a fan of this one to get that, it’s a worthwhile investment to get to play this gem more frequently. For me personally, I love to see this one one the table, it is one of the best games ever made.


    8. Eclipse: Second Dawn For The Galaxy

    I’m currently writing an article series about space civilization-building games (HERE is part I) and obviously, Eclipse is one of the contenders. When I was building this list however I knew both Twilight Imperium and Eclipse would make it onto the list, but I ultimately had to decide which one would rank higher and which lower.

    Now before I explain why Eclipse has been one-upped by Twilight Imperium, let me just say that Eclipse: Second Dawn For The Galaxy is an absolutely fantastic game, capturing the genre from a very unique angle that deserves all of the accolades this latest edition of Eclipse has gotten.

    The way the game gets right into the action, the pacing of the game throughout, fantastic combat, amazing technology and resource management, it really just nails it in so many ways. Frankly, in almost all cases I would actually recommend Eclipse over Twilight Imperium to the overwhelming majority of gamers. You could say from a mechanical and modern design perspective, it’s the better game.

    So why does it play second fiddle to Twilight Imperium for me? The answer is simple, player interaction. When it comes to big, epic, event-level games from which both of these games plant their roots, player interaction is a key factor for me. Despite some really amazing mechanics, the level of player interaction in Eclipse is strictly regulated to mechanical execution. You are not going to be negotiating, there is no politics, and there isn’t much in the way of making deals with and then betraying players, at least not if you are paying attention to how the game executes.

    Despite being part of the “event” genre of games, Eclipse is actually a quite short game and this is a game about scoring points and there simply isn’t enough nuance or time in the game to fumble around with politics and negotiation. You do what you need to do to score points, you start doing it from round one and by the time player interaction would make any difference, the game is over and you are counting VP’s to see who won.

    This is very much a Euro version of a civilization-building game, it’s about managing resources, executing mechanics, calculating odds, predicting actions and so on. All good stuff mind you and it makes for an excellent game, but it just lacks that human interaction factor upon which games like Twilight Imperium are based and for me personally this feels like a missing element in the game.

    Eclipse makes up for this in countless ways and it didn’t make it on this list because I felt sorry for it, Eclipse earns its stripes, it’s an amazing game, it’s just no Twilight Imperium.


    7. Twilight Imperium

    Twilight Imperium has been on my best-of list as long as I have kept one which at this point is nearly a decade. Now in its 4th edition, this space opera remains the premium grand strategy civilization building in space game on the market and while there have been plenty of challengers, I’m yet to find one to dethrone it, though arguably Eclipse: Second Dawn For The Galaxy came pretty bloody close and might just one day surpass it.

    I think the crux of it is that Twilight Imperium has a strategic depth that no other game in this genre can touch. It’s a game of subtle moves, of grand plans and of player-driven politics and interaction. TI4 draws on the personalities of the players and infuses it with gameplay in a way that very few games do and to me this is a mark of a true masterpiece.

    The game mechanics in 4th edition have been perfected to such a degree that I actually rejected the expansion for the game (The Prophecy of Kings) because I felt that it was messing with that perfection. Some swear by the expansion, but for me, Vanilla 4th edition Twilight Imperium is the mecca, the final and best version of the game, not to be messed with.

    This is a 6-10 hour monster, clearly an event game and so it doesn’t see a lot of table time and in a way, this is the one thing Eclipse has over Twilight Imperium and why I believe someday I might get to a point where I admit defeat and allow Eclipse to rise past Twilight Imperium, but it isn’t going to be on the 2023 list, better luck next year Eclipse!


    6. Empires: Age of Discovery

    Empires: Age of Discovery is to me, from a design perspective, the single best worker placement game ever made. It combines a great theme, very clever use of the worker placement mechanics that go beyond simply plop and score and boasts an incredibly tight competitive atmosphere. This is just really good gaming and really good game design.

    It’s very easy to teach and learn, looks absolutely amazing on the table, it’s paced perfectly keeping everyone engaged and doesn’t overstay its welcome, really hitting that sweet spot in terms of playtime.

    I did a review of this one way back in 2005 and to be honest while I agree with the score for the most part, one thing haunts me about this review and that is my complaints about the deluxe edition cost vs. component quality. I was being quite harsh and have since really changed my tune about the value of this game. This deluxe version of the game I think is well worth the 100 dollars I spent on it, but I suppose 100 dollars was a lot more money in 2015 than it is today.

    To me, if you’re a fan of worker placement games, this is a no-brainer, they don’t get any better than this.


    5. Caesar: Rome vs. Gaul

    A new edition to the list, the impressive Caesar: Rome vs. Gaul makes its debut in my top 5 and I can’t help but feel this game might deserve to be higher on the list.

    This game initially hit me kind of so-so. I didn’t love it right out of the gate and I saw some flaws with it compared to some of the other CDG’s I was playing at the time, but like a fine wine, this thing aged for the better with time. Looking back at my initial review of Caesar: Rome vs. Gaul where I scored it a 3.85 I feel like I probably should have played it more before doing the review. I think it deserved a bit better, not that I disagree with anything I wrote about the game back then as compared to today, but I should have scored it higher.

    I think the main difference after dozens of plays for me has been that this game is so much more diverse and dynamic than I first thought. Certainly, the number of different strategies and the way some of the more chrome-rich mechanics affect the game and how they can be used as part of a larger long-term strategy are things that at that point when I wrote the review had not clicked for me the way they have today. Having played it quite a bit over the last year, boy let me tell you, this game is a veritable forest of awesome and dynamic gameplay. It has so much more depth than I initially gave it credit for.

    While I still stand by the fact that Imperial Struggle is my favorite CDG, this is a taste thing more than a design thing. I consider Caesar: Rome vs. Gaul one of the most well-designed CDG’s on market today. It hits the historical and thematic elements with precision even within its abstraction, it’s challenging with player skill playing an important role in deciding outcomes while bringing that chaos factor that makes card and dice games so much fun.

    It is burdened with a bit of a learning curve but unlike games like Twilight Struggle, which has a tough climb for players to learn to play it well, Caesar: Rome vs. Gaul’s learning curve is in learning the rules of the game. Once you get past that hump which I would argue is moderate, learning to play it well comes naturally and relatively easily. There is a fundamental core to the game that makes it easy to spot potential, viable strategies. I find that is a preferable setup as finding someone to play the game that is ready to get past the mechanical learning curve of Caesar: Rome vs. Gaul is a lot easier than finding someone who is ready to put in the 30+ games it takes to become competent in something like Twilight Struggle.

    Amazing game, that keeps getting better the more I play it, one of the biggest surprises for me of the last couple of years.


    4. Paths of Glory

    Paths of Glory is to me, THE, premiere historical war game, it is to historical war games what Pandemic or Settlers of Catan is to the general board gaming community. It’s just one of those games that, until you have played it, you can’t really claim you know historical war gaming, it is a fundamental must-own and play.

    That said, it actually is quite a niche, but that shouldn’t be surprising to historical war gamers, quite literally every game in the historical war game genre is a niche thing in most respects. World War I is a very specialized topic, with unique nuances and context that create very unusual strategic and tactical challenges. That could actually be said about almost all historical war games as well, but I think Paths of Glory’s execution is done with such precision and the game mechanics are so fine-tuned, I can easily put this game into the category of a masterpiece.

    In this game you are not just contending with the historical complexities of the period both on and off the battlefield, but it’s done in a “what if” setup which to me is the absolute best way to ensure historical war games don’t lose their luster over multiple plays. What if Italy shows up late to the war, what if the Americans join the war earlier rather than later.. so and so forth. The game allows for the adaptations of history but in believable ways, meaning the things that are a-historically possible, really could have actually happened that way.

    That however is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the true greatness of this game. The attrition warfare, the subtle manipulation of resources, the intricate point-to-point map and the absolutely engrossing way unit positions play into the strategy of the game all combine to make this one of the greatest historical war games in existence.

    Absolutely adore this game and it’s a great mid-way point for the education of a fellow would-be historical war gamer, it has some complexity but this is a game that with a bit of dedication can be learned and learned to play well by most people.


    3. Empire Of The Sun

    If you read my blog even in passing, it is no secret that I’m a huge Mark Herman fan, the designer of Empire of the Sun and that I consider Empire of the Sun his Mona Lisa, a true masterpiece.

    My biased love for the history of the war in the Pacific surely plays a role here, but really Empire of the Sun is a combination of everything I love about historical war gaming all rolled up into mechanical perfection.

    Empire of the Sun is a grand strategy war game in the pacific on an operational level, it’s a card-driven game, played on a large hex map that really focuses on large-scale military movements and reactions. The game is very intricate, without question one of the most challenging games I have ever learned to play, but the strategic depth, variability and dynamics of the game are so well the time investment this game demands.

    Empire of the Sun has a really great solo bot as well which means that you can take your time learning the rules, really getting the nuances down before you consider challenging opponents and thanks to a very robust community supporting this game you will find no issues finding an opponent online.

    That said the personal, one on one, the experience of playing this one on the table is absolutely unmatched. This is a timeless classic that earns its accolades, everything you have heard about it is true. It’s deep, and complex with a steep learning curve and it’s an absolute joy to suffer through it to get to the heart of this beast. When the lights come on and you get to that point where you know how to play, it’s as good as board gaming can ever be.


    2. Imperial Struggle

    I place Imperial Struggle in the number two spot of this list without reservation, I didn’t even blink really. This is one of my favorite games to play and it really isn’t for any particular mechanic or thematic reason, this is just one of those games that you play and love and.. well it doesn’t really matter why.

    That said I feel like I owe some explanation and so I will be brief and to the point. Imperial Struggle is a culmination of everything that makes CDG Influence games like Twilight Struggle, Caesar. Rome vs. Gaul and Washington’s War great done with exceptional style and mechanical brilliance that simply results in this one being the best of the bunch. It is one of the most competitive and challenging games in this genre I have ever played. It has charisma, it’s absolutely gorgeous on the table and despite reluctance to try it coming from almost everyone I have ever taught it to, I am yet to meet someone who played it and didn’t instantly love it.

    In my review in 2021 of Imperial Struggle I did point out that I didn’t think Imperial Struggle would cross over to the mainstream and it really hasn’t. It tragically sleeps on boardgamegeek.com in the 542 spot which makes this without question one of the most underrated games on the geek to date. It’s absolutely criminal that this game does not get more love given the fact that it’s the offspring of Twilight Struggle, in my not-so-humble opinion, a far inferior game.

    In my eyes, your board game collection is incomplete with Imperial Struggle in it.

    1. War Room

    To no so surprise at all, War Room is my number 1 game on the best-of list for the second year in a row and frankly I can’t imagine a future in which this won’t always be true.

    Check out my preview and my review of this epic grand strategy world war II game. I don’t know how else I could possibly praise this one short of saying, it is everything I love about this hobby in an oversized and very elaborate box.

    I love this game and true love lasts forever!

    Exits & Honorable Mentions

    A few games exit the list and there are a couple that were up for consideration that I would at the very least call honorable mentions.

    Shogun (Dirk Henn version) has been on my last lingering in the backfield for many years and frankly for good reason. I love this game, that crazy dice tower is just so much fun, in particular in the context of a think strategy war game. It was a tough fight between Root and Shogun, to be frank, I chose Root mostly just to have something new on the list, I don’t know that I believe that Root is a better game than Shogun. Its actually quite brilliant.

    B-17 Flying Fortress Leader also exits the list, though I was a bit more sure about this one than some of the others. I love this game, but it’s so niche, it’s purely solo and honestly, though I play it every year like clockwork, I think this is just one of those ME games. I love the Leader and Field Commander series of games, they are a sort of almost alternative pastime for me. Field Commander Napoleon leaves the list for the same reason.

    Ikusa makes an exit and probably should have quite a long time ago. This one lives on nostalgia for me and though I haven’t played it in a couple of years and really do appreciate it, it’s hard to justify a game for a best-of list you don’t really play.

    Three major contenders for the list I discovered during last years annual big board gaming weekend, in no particular order, Hansa Teutonica by Pegasus Spiele 2020, Smartphone Inc by Cosmodrome Games (2018) and The King Is Dead by Osprey Games (2020).

    Hansa Teutonica is just such a really clever Euro game that really struck a chord with me and I honestly think the only reason it didn’t make my list is that I have only played it twice and I don’t own it, so little opportunity to get it to the table. I think it will make an appearance at this years big board gaming weekend and if it leaves a similar impression the next time I play it, it might not only make it to the list, but into my collection as well.

    Smartphone I have played several times and honestly, even as I write this I struggle to justify not putting it on my list somewhere. It really is one of the smartest (no pun intended) game designs I have seen in years. Super fun, really competitive and just brilliant from a game design perspective.

    The King is Dead I think has so much potential, it just needs more table time to make the list. This is a game that I put in the vein of Condottiere, which is also a very difficult to pass on consideration for the list. It has that, my brain hurts, an element to it that is both addictive and inspiring. Really enjoyed this one and I think one of these days I’m going to make a top 10 games that make you think list for which both The King is Dead and Condottiere I think would do really well on.

    I hope you enjoyed the list, see you next year!