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Top 5 Table Top Games of All Time By The Crew

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The Top 5 Table Top Games of All Time By The Crew
In my last article I posted for the first time some opinions of my personal gaming group, a rowdy and varied bunch and despite them doing little but pointing out some favorites to my surprise there was a considerable amount of interest in the article. This article actually broke some blog hit records. I also received several e-mail questions about my groups interest and some questions regarding how we deal with differences of opinion in terms of what board games we play and other curiosity questions. Among them where several requests asking to know what my gaming groups favorite games are. This of course prompted this article. I have for a while thought it would be fun to actually dedicate an article to my gaming group anyway so this is a perfect opportunity. I asked each member of my group to give me their top 5 table top games of all time.

Strange as it may seem when I put the request to them I realized that I have very little clue as to what I would actually see on these lists. I can probably guess a couple of the number ones, players tend to be fairly vocal about their all-time favorite, but I’m uncertain what I’m going to find on these lists for the most part. I have known these guys for several years and we certainly discuss games to a great extent, but I don’t recall this topic ever truly being breeched. I’m often made fun of by my gaming group for making bold claims after playing as they would say “any game” and claiming it to be “the best game of the year” or “best game ever” and that sort of thing. In fact, in a funny way, this is my opportunity to put them to task on their picks and so with my usual arrogant and hopefully at least slightly amusing commentary I’m going to look over their list and “comment”. I suspect however that I’m probably going to like most of their picks, the truth is that they are right, I’m a gamer and I love to love games. When you’re a fan, it’s hard to hate!

Player 1

1. RISK
2. Lords of Waterdeep
3. Talisman
4. Munchkin
5. Runebound

I have played Runebound and Talisman a plenty, in fact there was a time when Talisman was less a game and more a full time hobby for me. I was 11 and Talisman back then qualified as a “serious business” effectively leading me down the path to Dungeons and Dragons for which I’m eternally grateful. I readily understand the appeal of adventure games and Runebound definitely is the modernized version of Talisman. Certainly not my bag today but I can understand how casual gamers would be attracted to it. It’s easy, not terribly confrontational and especially in the case of Runebound can actually be quite challenging. Talisman for me personally makes for a great family game, I play it with my 6 year old daughter and she loves it.

Adventure games like Talisman have come a long way but this classic still has a strong following today. Its been reprinted by FFG and on Steam you can play it online in a digital version.
Adventure games like Talisman have come a long way but this classic still has a strong following today. Its been reprinted by FFG and on Steam you can play it online in a digital version.

As for Munchkin, I will never fault anyone for loving munchkin though it’s more akin to a social activity then an actual game. It’s beer and pretzel fun and I will happily spend an evening with friends playing Munchkin anytime.

Lords of Waterdeep is perhaps the only game on this list I would consider a proper gamers pick (=elitist comment). With the expansion scoundrels of Skullport, Lords of Waterdeep really is a gem in the rough, it made my own top 10 worker placement games list and was among my favorite games of 2012. Pick definitely approved.

RISK. Ok I’m sorry but for fucks sake! Don’t get me wrong I do understand the appeal of simple dice chucker war games, but with nearly 60 years of game development history we have done better a thousand times over. It’s clear that I need to introduce Player 1 to some modern war games that easily replace RISK. Even among the RISK franchise, vanilla RISK doesn’t stack up at all. Lord of the Rings RISK, RISK Legacy and RISK 2210 A.D. all outshine the original by miles. Even among other Milton Bradly classics you can get more mileage out of the likes of Fortress America, Shogun (Ikusa) and Axis and Allies. There are so many far better games then RISK I nearly had a nerd attack when I saw this on the list. Pick most certainly and absolutely not approved!

Lord of the Rings RISK is widely regarded as the best version of RISK ever made.
Lord of the Rings RISK is widely regarded as the best version of RISK ever made.

Player 2

1. Game of Thrones the Board Game
2. Cutthroat Caverns
3. Sheriff of Nottingham
4. Summoner Wars
5. King of Tokyo

Everything about Game of Thrones, whether it’s the books, the show, the card game and most certainly the Board Game is objectively fucking awesome, if you don’t believe so, know that I hate you. This game grows on you too, I recall five years ago it sat somewhere towards the bottom of my top 10 best table top game of all-time list and today it sits in the number 2 spot firmly. It’s a magnificent design that embodies not only clever mechanics but most importantly one of the strongest thematic connections of any game I have ever played. It’s a game that tells a story and not just any story but a Game of Thrones story. It creates memorable experiences every time and is without question one of the most cut-throat and challenging games I have ever played. If you can win at Game of Thrones, you’re a better man than I! Respect.

While GoT was easily predicted Cutthroat Caverns is a real surprise. I’m quite fond of it myself but I rarely think of filler games as Best of material. It kind of falls into the same category as Munchkin for me, where with a beer in my hand I will happily play it anytime.

Sheriff of Nottingham is one game I can definitely get behind as a top game pick. My exposure to Sheriff of Nottingham is minimal but It falls into the same category as Galaxy Trucker where it’s a game you play that is just plain and simple fun. There is no explaining why you like it, it’s not like you can objectively say this or that mechanic is innovative or somehow overwhelmingly genius. You simply play for the joy of it.

To date I have not been able to find a negative review for this game, it seems unanimously liked.
To date I have not been able to find a negative review for this game, it seems unanimously liked.

Summoner Wars has been catapulting in popularity since release to the point of saturation and it’s no surprise as it is without question a very challenging and deep game, understanding why someone likes it is easy. It’s one of the most played Iphone and Android app games in both shops and was the top seller in 2015. It was nominated for the golden geek awards for Best 2 player game, best card game and most innovative game of the year in 2010. Golden Geek awards are effectively one of the largest player choice awards for board games today, to be nominated really is a great honor for a game. Its status as a smash hit is unmistakable and objectively this is a fantastically designed game. That said I have no real love for it and I submit that in the case of Summoner Wars as is sometimes the case with my personal favorites, I’m the odd man out. I don’t dislike it but it just doesn’t scratch an itch I have, but a respectful pick none the less.

King of Tokyo. What can be said, gamers love rolling dice, gamers love big monsters and gamers love games about fighting each other. King of Tokyo is a fuck you simulator but does it with a comedic almost family friendly way. It scratches an itch every gamer assumedly has, its simplicity and quick pace can potentially cater to pretty much everyone. It’s universally liked, I don’t think I have ever read or heard a negative thing said about it ever and it does not surprise me to see it pop up on someone’s list. A little simplistic for me personally but I’m a self-admitted arrogant elitist so there you go!

It looks like a kids game and I think that's its appeal.
It looks like a kids game but has some umpf to catch gamers interest.  I really think that’s its appeal.  Besides it has big monsters, its pretty much an auto-win!

Player 3

1. Star Wars Armada
2. Game of Thrones: The Card Game 2nd Edition
3. Lords of Waterdeep: Scoundrels of Skullport
4. Warhammer 40k: Forbidden Stars
5. Galaxy Trucker

Star Wars Armada should be on every serious gamers list in my opinion. It’s a true challenge even for the most experienced gamers, driven by an awesome theme and in my not so humble opinion quite possibly one of the most brilliant designs to come out of Fantasy Flight Games yet. It easily makes my own top 5 list and I’m not at all surprised to see it pop up as a number one pick for a member of my gaming group.

Game of Thrones the card game is a new beast in our group and there is a lot of buzz around it right now, deservingly so. I have played a lot of FFG card games and quite frankly I haven’t been terribly impressed. Game of Thrones the card game is quite possibly the first FFG card game that instantly caught my interest creating the imminent urge to add it to my collection. It’s tough to know how I will feel about it six months from now, but right now, I can’t stop thinking about it.

Lords of Waterdeep, our first cross-over and I’m really not surprised to see it pop up again. This is a game with real legs, it’s had ample opportunity to fall out of favor but it really just sticks with you. As I write this, I realize we haven’t played it in a while and I really, really want to play it right now!

Its got a great theme and the appearances of a Ameri-Trash game but make no mistake this is a light weight Euro game notably the only one on anyones list.
Its got a great theme and the appearances of a Ameri-Trash game but make no mistake this is a light weight Euro game .

Warhammer 40k: Forbidden Stars is another one that makes my own top 10 list and I’m not surprised to see it here. I think in 2015 it stands out along with Star Wars Armada as one of the most memorable games of the year. I even considered it for Gamersdungeon game of the year, it would have easily had it if it were not for that awsomesauce of a game, Star Wars Armada. It has that Twilight Imperium spirit where each time you play you discover more depth, new strategies and ultimately new potential. I foresee us having a long and lasting love affair with this one.

Galaxy Trucker. I have to admit I was a bit taken back with this choice and it’s not because I disagree, quite to the contrary I truly love this game but objectively it’s essentially a game of silliness and luck. You build your ship and run it through a gauntlet of hazards over which you have zero control to see if the hastily put together scrapheap of a ship you constructed can survive. Why do gamers like this game? I believe it’s for the same reason we like to see youtube videos of monkeys throwing poop. Sometimes silly fun is all the reason you need to play a game and Galaxy Trucker has this sort of quaint appeal that taps into our inner child who really just wants to see a monkey throw poop. Galaxy Trucker just does that with impeccable precision and a science-fiction quirkiness most nerds can get behind. I don’t want to play it all the time, but I consider it a precious part of my gaming collection and I can say with all honestly that I will cull a lot of far more serious games from my collection long before I consider getting rid of this one. Great hipster pick, I love it!

There are a lot of expansions for Galaxy Trucker that attempt to make this more of a gamer, but frankly the original version is so fantastic its just best not to fuck with it. Why fix it if it ain't broke.
There are a lot of expansions for Galaxy Trucker that attempt to make this more of a gamer game, but frankly the original version is so fantastic its just best not to fuck with it. Why fix it if it ain’t broke.

Player 4

1. Star Wars Armada
2. Game of Thrones: The Board Game
3. Munchkin
4. Epic Spell Wars Of The Battle Wizards
5. Cutthroat Caverns

What a smorgasbord of fuck you games that will put a smile on your face.

Star Wars Armada I would have picked for Player 4, there was no question this one was going to get plenty of cross-over but there are members of our gaming group that like me love a great challenge.

Game of Thrones barely needs mentioning at this point, I’m not surprised at all at its reappearance.

Munchkin I would not have expected to find on this particular players list, but  it’s certainly cool to see a gamer put something as deep as Star Wars Armada and something as simplistic as Munchkin on the same list. Then again, I have said it many times, gamers are a weird breed. We like what we like, whether it’s a deep and obscure 9 book fantasy novel series or a Youtube video of a dog pooping on a baby, what entertains us probably seems quite random to the outsider. Munchkin has been around a long time and I don’t think I have ever met a gaming nerd who didn’t get a kick out of it, it’s a parody of our nerdy childhoods.

Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards I totally understand and really I was wondering more where player 4 was going to put this on his list rather than if. Epic Spell Wars is not just about playing the game but how you play the game, how you visualize and experience the silliness. If you get a bunch of funny people together in a room with the giggles to play this, this game is like comedic fuel on a hilarity fire.

The simple act of combing three silly sounding spells together has a surprisingly large amount of laughter built into it. Especially if you have ever played D&D and other fantasy roleplaying games. Don't be fooled though there is actually some game here as well, Epic Spell Wars is far more than just a silly romp.
The simple act of combing three silly cards to form a spell  has a surprisingly large amount of laughter built into it. Especially if you have ever played D&D and other fantasy roleplaying games. Don’t be fooled though there is actually some game here as well, Epic Spell Wars is far more than just a silly romp.

Cutthroat Caverns I’m actually really surprised at, in our group we’ve had some fun with it but I didn’t realize it was liked this much. I suppose I shouldn’t be, my gaming group loves “fuck you” style confrontation in games and looking at these lists most of these games are really quite mean.  I thought we might see one or two mellow Euro games on these lists, we have played plenty but I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised about how much the gamers in my group like to fuck with each other.

Player 5

1. Advanced Squad Leader
2. Star Wars: X-Wing
3. Star Wars: Imperial Assault
4. Terra Mystica
5. Ticket To Ride

Advanced Squad Leader is at quick glance very firmly in the extremely complicated spectrum of games.  Simulation games are an extremely niche type of gaming, historical war gamers in particular are their own breed entirely.  It being on the list has certainly peeked my curiosity.

Its not a pretty game and its definitly as complicated as it looks. Simulation games typically come with hundreds of pages of rules and tables, this one is no different but it is widely regarded as one of the best war game simulations ever made.
Its not a pretty game and its definitly as complicated as it looks. Simulation games typically come with hundreds of pages of rules and tables, this one is no different but it is widely regarded as one of the best war game simulations ever made.

Star Wars: X-Wing is the number one game on my own list and frankly I was surprised it made so few lists in this group given how often we play it but I’m not surprised to see it on this particular players list.  He is certainly the most competitive X-Wing player among us.   I love X-Wing so yeah, rock on!

Star Wars: Imperial Assault is a cooperative game that I have only played a couple of times.  I generally don’t pay much attention to cooperative games but Imperial Assault has a skirmish mode which certainly is worthy of pushing some miniatures around.  There is no doubt about its popularity among gamers in general though, shortly after its launch it slammed into the top games on boardgamegeek and its been sitting pretty at number 11 beating out every game chosen by all other players in this top 5 list except the next one.

Terra Mystica is a heavy Euro and its overwhelming popularity is one of the many mysterious of the universe I simply can’t explain.  Its effectively a victory point simulator lacking any semblance of theme, which is not too unusual for Euros, but still, its beyond me.  This one was on my top 5 most overrated games and while I’m always happy to give games another go despite my clear superiority and elitism, this is one I find a bit agonizing to play.

Yes it does look like Settlers of Catan and yes I hate it because of that too!
Yes it does look like Settlers of Catan but don’t make the mistake of thinking this is an easy game.  This is a very heavy Euro which if you ask me crumbles under that weight.

Last on the list is Ticket To Ride and this is one I can definitely get behind.  Its a very simple game with a pretty basic premise, really a fantastic game to use as a way to lure new potential gamers into the hobby.  Its one of the few games I consider missing from my collection.

Player 6

MC Siege Of The Citadel
Game of Thrones The Board Game
Star Wars Armada/Star Wars X-Wing (Epic)
Star Wars Imperial Assault
Sheriff Of Nottingham

I actually had to look up Siege of the Citadel, at this the moment I saw the list I had never heard of it.  This was a big surprise for me, I wasn’t even aware this player owned the game.  This is an old school game which gets an automatic bow from me, but from the looks of it, it has uncanny similarity to the dungeon crawl board games that have grown into massive popularity these days.  Officially on my must be played list.

Like many old school games this one too is getting a new edition.
Like many old school games this one too is getting a new edition.  Despite having never laid eyes on it, it has an uncanny familiarity.  Hard to believe I missed something that looks this cool.

The rest are all cross-overs already mentioned and while I was very curious about this particular players list, none of those choices really surprise me.  All solid choices for any top game list, I would gladly play any of those anytime, anywhere!

Player ME

Ok it’s my turn, though I think for readers of my blog this probably come to much of a surprise.

1. Star Wars X-Wing
2. Game of Thrones: The Board Game
3. Star Wars Armada
4. War of the Rings
5. Twilight Imperium

As you can see nothing has changed since October when I last updated my top 10 best table top games.

X-Wing remains my favorite though perhaps through saturation and overplaying it I find myself considerably less excited about it at the moment. X-Wing however has some serious legs, a new expansion rolls out and suddenly I’m making lists in my sleep.

X-Wing just gets better and better which for me is really what puts this over the top into the number one spot. I never thought I would see the day that miniatures games make it back on my best of list.
X-Wing just gets better and better which for me is really what puts this over the top into the number one spot. I never thought I would see the day that miniatures games make it back on my best of list.

Game of Thrones: The Board Game, again, what can I say here it’s the premiere thematic epic that I could never betray. The fact that over a decade after release this game is actually climbing the list speaks to the respect and love I have for this game.

Star Wars Armada. I precursor this by saying that when I find a game that is deep, complex and challenging that I actually can’t figure out and I regularly get my ass handed to me in, it just makes me love it that much more. I love games that I have no answer to, games that have challenged me beyond my ability to rise to it. It just makes me want to play it more. Armada in my mind is no question the best game of 2015 but I think in 2025 I will look back and see it as the game of the decade.

War of the Rings like Game of Thrones has this incredible connection to the theme and because it’s a two player game it has this intimate, mano a’ mano challenge. I have never won a game of War of the Rings and like Armada, it just makes me love it that much more. It’s a work of art to look at, it’s got a definitive storyteller element and everything you love about the books and movies is in here. It’s really the Disneyland of board games, there is magic in this box.

As much a visual story experiance as a game, War of the Rings deserves every word of praise it has ever recieved.
As much a visual story experience as a game, War of the Rings deserves every word of praise it has ever received.

Finally we have my old love Twilight Imperium, toppled in recent years from the number one spot after holding it for well over a decade on my personal best of list. She is still a beauty and I would never kick her out for eating cookies in bed but she doesn’t have that spit shine on her anymore either. I think TI3 remains the ultimate and best X4 boardgame by a margin so wide there are no contender’s insight. Its complex, its deep and if there ever was a game for the elitist gamer, this is most certainly that game.

TI3 will always be a classic for me, its a game I have played more times than most of my collection combined. I know it as intimately as any game I have ever played.
TI3 will always be a classic for me, its a game I have played more times than most of my collection combined. I know it as intimately as any game I have ever played.

And that’s that.  I would like to thank my gaming group for participating and making this article possible.  Its definitely been one of the more fun ones I have done in recent months.  If nothing else its clear to me that while we all have our personal favorites for the most part there are very few games on this list I would not agree to play.   Sure they might not be my favorites but truth is that gaming is all about variety, playing the same game over and over will very quickly cause that game to cease being your favorite.

Game on people!