Every two years, I’ve created a list of my favorite games – once the games I rated an 8 or higher, now the games I enjoy enough to have in my collection.  This is the tenth such list I’ve created.  My collection has continued to shrink – the impetus for including everything in my collection starting in 2021 – and as a result this is actually the shortest list I’ve made, with only 166 games included.  Based upon a cutoff date of August 5, 2023, these 166 games represent about 4.4% of the 3785 different games I’ve rated – though they account for 50.7% of my 25184 game plays since I started recording my plays in 1996.  With each entry, I’ve included the number of times I’ve played the game as of the cutoff date; this can be taken as a proxy for my confidence in my rating – and thereby the game’s inclusion on this list.  I’m pleased to note that the fewest times I’ve played any of the games listed here is 13, an all-time high for my Euphrat & Tigris scoring of my collection.

#166 – Lost Cities, by Reiner Knizia

67 plays

Change from 2021: up 14

First appearance: 2021

I have thought about letting Lost Cities go many times – not that it’s a bad game (it’s actually a very good game in my opinion), but the game is a bit dry for me.  However, each time I think about it I realize how valuable it is to have a well-known two player game on hand when folks arrive for gaming shortly before current games finish.  Further, I do still find it enjoyable to play – just less than the other games on this list.

#165 – Flowerpower, by Angelika Fassauer & Peter Haluszka

22 plays

Change from 2021: up 18

First appearance: 2021

This is another game I’ve frequently reconsidered for its place in my collection.  Much as with Lost Cities, a big issue is that I don’t often play two player games, but even after letting lots of games go, two player-only games make up a larger portion of my collection than my plays would justify.  It’s getting closer to the right proportion, though, so maybe these games will continue to survive.

#164 – Take It Easy, by Peter Burley

58 plays

Change from 2021: up 22

First appearance: 2021

For many years, this was _the_ multiplayer solitaire game – the one game which could scale to any number of players, with absolutely no interaction – but a fun game nonetheless.  Then came a seemingly endless string of roll-and-write games – and while it took a while, they nearly completely burned me out on multiplayer solitaire games – and did burn me out on roll-and-writes.  But Take It Easy has survived, and is still very enjoyable for me.

#163 – Codenames, by Vladimír Chvátil

83 plays

Change from 2021: Up 9

First appearance: 2021

I am not a party game person.  Not that I don’t enjoy them – there are a number which I do find fun – but they just aren’t generally games I am going to ask to play.  But a couple of games have broken through that barrier for me, at least for a time.  One is Just One, which I’ve had a lot of fun with, and which I still would be happy to play.  But – I eventually realized that I was never going to be the one to request it, and so I let it go.  Codenames, in contrast, I _do_ want to keep playing – I think the random layout of words combined with the random layout of locations (at least when using the app) give the game more life for me – there’s a new opportunity to be clever each time you play.

#162 – Doppelt und Dreifach, by Der Bruder von Christian Anders (a.k.a. Friedemann Friese)

24 plays

Change from 2021: Up 7

First appearance: 2021

I wonder how well the story of this game is known these days.  Back in 2016, a number of people in Germany received a game in the mail; a number in the US received the same game at the Gathering of Friends.  My copy – complete with a “donated to Joe Huber” label on it – simply appeared in my stack of games.  Out of curiosity I brought it out at a game session a month or two later – and it was played at the table I wasn’t at.  And they disliked it – though admitted it might be better with more players than the three they had.  We later had five at the table where I was sitting, so we pulled it out again – and I quite enjoyed it.  I soon learned that of the claimed 3-6 players required, it really needed 4 – but it’s a fun game with 4 or more.  This should have clued me in on Friedemann being the designer – Foppen also claimed (in the original release) to work with three, but should never be played with that number in my opinion.  But it didn’t, and Friedemann later announced that the game would be widely released (and for more players) as Fuji Flush.

But I still prefer Doppelt und Dreifach.  The smaller deck makes the game well suited for 4-6 players, versus the five or more required for Fuji Flush to shine.  And there is a challenge in getting a large number of people to agree to playing a game – particularly a simpler card game.  So I opt for the original in most cases.  

#161 – En Garde, by Reiner Knizia

41 plays

Change from 2021: up 24

First appearance: 2021

I first met Mark Johnson back in the 1990s, when he was still in Northern California, and En Garde was a game we both enjoyed – and, I believe, _still_ both enjoy enough to keep around and play.  Not often – again, two player games don’t hit the table all that frequently – but for such an abstract design, the game does a wonderful job of giving the feel of a fencing match.

#160 – Topfrosch, by Hilko Drude & Reinhold Wittig

20 plays

Change from 2021: up 15

First appearance: 2021

Much as with party games, I enjoy dexterity games well enough in the moment – but I don’t feel compelled to keep an endless number of them.  Topfrosch is sticking around, though, for the clever components (the frogs are made out of coconuts), the short play time (the game itself takes less time to play than the scoring, which takes less time than putting the game together – so you always play at least twice), and the mess (being made from real coconuts, the pieces do have a tendency to shed – and it’s amusing to have a small bit of cleaning up to do afterwards).  Hilko showed me this game at my first Essen, in 2013, and I knew I wanted a copy; I have copy #5, signed by both Hilko and Reinhold, as I suspect all copies are.

#159 – Maestro, by Rudi Hoffman

28 plays

Change from 2021: up 20

First appearance: 2021

The reason all of these games first appeared in 2021 is that that was the first time I included games I rate a 7.  I actually first played Maestro in 1998, and I’ve enjoyed it ever since.  Like all games, when I bring it out one of the questions I ask is “Do I want to continue playing this?”; unlike many, the answer keeps coming back “Yes.”  I really like the tradeoff of keeping musicians safe in your agency, where they can’t be poached but might count against you if never employed, versus risking someone else scoring with them.  And as usual, Hoffman’s art adds to the experience.

#158 – Diamant, by Alan Moon and Bruno Faidutti

36 plays

Change from 2021: up 19

First appearance: 2021

There is a great utility to games which are both short and which handle a large number of players well.  That’s a significant benefit to both Take It Easy and Diamant for me, and for sticking around in my collection.  But as with Take It Easy, Diamant is a very enjoyable game, and adds in a lot more interaction along with a fun push-your-luck aspect.  It took a few plays to sink in for me, but I did realize I enjoyed it enough to add to my collection in time to get the original edition, with the board.  Not that the board really matters – but it’s still nice to have.

#157 – Honeybears, by Reiner Knizia

24 plays

Change from 2021: up 10

First appearance: 2021

Go red bear!

#156 – Sheep & Garden, by Shun & Aya

14 plays

Change from 2021: Up 36

First appearance: 20212

There is no designer (or design team) whose games I automatically buy.  There are some designers who I generally avoid, such as Leo Colovini and Scott Almes.  Not because their games are bad – there is plenty of evidence that they aren’t – but because they nearly always design games that aren’t a fit for me.  And even then, they’ve both come close – I no longer own MinenRäumer or Lovelace & Babbage, but I would be happy to play either.  But there are also no designers whose games I will blindly pick up – because no designer always comes up with games that are for me.  The closest I’ll come is with someone like Shun & Aya, whose designs are currently on my always-catch-my-attention list.  They don’t always strike home – but all of them I’ve played have at least managed to provide something of interest.  And “something of interest” is a fine description for Sheep & Garden / Frontier with Brownies.  It’s a faster, lighter Carcassonne-like design, with each player having a goal, and each pair of adjacent players having a goal.  I’m not generally big on goals as a game design element, but – it works here, in no small part because it’s hidden information, and it’s the whole focus of the game.  Oh, and there’s no race – it’s just how many times you manage to meet each of the three goals assigned to you.

#155 – El Dorado, by Reiner Knizia

18 plays

Change from 2021: up 11

First appearance: 2021

I – am really tired of the seemingly increasingly common habit of games having subtitles, or leading words, or both.  El Dorado is a fine title for a game.  Yes, it’s been used before, but if you add “Reiner Knizia”, everyone would know exactly which game you were talking about.  Of course, looking it up on BoardGameGeek, I now would really like to play Rudi Hoffman’s El Dorado.  And even better – continuing down the rathole, there was a package including both Hoffman’s El Dorado and his Numeri in a single package.  Which means that Numeri has been packaged – in a single box – with at least four other games (in addition to El Dorado, Level X, Finito, and Big Points).  I’m not sure how that matters in the grand scheme of things, but I find it interesting.

#154 – Klunker, by Uwe Rosenberg

37 plays

Change from 2021: up 9

First appearance: 2021

I’m rather amazed by how Rosenberg’s time as the most innovative card game designer around seems to have vanished from BoardGameGeek’s collective consciousness.  Bohnanza seems to have survived – if not while being considered anything like on a par with Rosenberg’s boardgames – but it seems like the rest of his card games are largely forgotten.  Which is too bad – Klunker isn’t my favorite of the lot, but is still a fresh and novel design – and a fun game.

#153 – Hanabi, by Antoine Bauza

44 plays

Change from 2021: up 25

First appearance: 2021

The key, for me, to making Hanabi fun is to play without any conventions or the like.  I have nothing against conventions for communicating in complex games – but with a game such as Hanabi, I find they take away from the gaming experience.  As one of my friends in Ohio really enjoys this game, we play it a lot when we get together online – I’d like to play it in person again sometime soon.

#152 – Pastiche: Birth of a Masterpiece, by RIkkati

13 plays

Change from 2021: N/A

First appearance: 2023

I always think of this game as simply Pastiche, though when I refer to the game that way it causes a fair bit of confusion, so I’ll sometimes refer to it as “the Japanese Pastiche”.  I received this game in a math trade, and much to my surprise nearly everyone who I played it with seemed to really enjoy it – and a whole lot of folks managed to track down copies.  One real strength of the game is that it accelerates – it feels like the game might take some time to finish, and a short time later the endgame is triggered.

#151 – Snow Tails, by Gordon & Fraser Lamont

16 plays

Change from 2021: up 14

First appearance: 2021

I’m not generally a fan of race games.  I tried Heat recently because the game has been so popular, and while I can understand its appeal it was just OK for me.  Snow Tails stands out, for me, because of the unique method for taking curves combined with the braking mechanism.  Even as other race games have disappeared from my collection, this one has stuck around.

#150 – Sauscharf, by Wolfgang Kramer & Christian Stöhr

15 plays

Change from 2021: N/A

First appearance: 2023

Speaking of clever card games – this design caught my attention in Eric Martin’s Spiel preview list last year, and was one of a handful (OK, a reasonably large handful) of games I needed to get.  And it’s proven a hit – never played on Mild, which just makes the shift from buildup to making sauces too quick and easy to judge.  On other levels, there are some nice tradeoffs between collecting popular high numbers and making due with lower values – but potentially losing out to higher number sets when making sauces.

#149 – The Green Fivura, by Taiki Shinzawa

14 plays

Change from 2021: N/A

First appearance: 2023

This is the only game I first played in 2023 to make this list.  (There will be others, I’m fairly certain; I just don’t own them yet so I can’t list them yet.  And I don’t own them because they haven’t been published yet.)  The Green Fivura is a trick taking card game, with the requisite twist; I don’t _know_ that the twist here will be enough for it to hold up – but I’ve played it 14 times so far, and it’s doing well.  The challenge with trick taking games is always pulling me away from my favorites, but I have hope this one will – at least now and again.

#148 – Akropolis, by Jules Messaud

14 plays

Change from 2021: N/A

First appearance: 2023

A lot of interesting games were released in 2022 – a nice improvement from 2019-2021, a very dry set of years for me – and most of them I managed to identify in advance and track down, but not Akropolis.  I don’t often think in terms of one game firing another for me, but Akropolis does what I wanted Nmbr9 to do in a more intuitive way; I’d still gladly play Nmbr9, but I had no difficulty in letting my copy go.  I’m not sold on the variants, though – my suspicion is that – as usual – the base game is the right game for me.

#147 – Industrial Waste, by Jurgen Strohm

30 plays

Change from 2021: up 21

First appearance: 2021

The appeal of this game for me is easy to identify – it’s a short economic game with interesting and different mechanisms.  That was enough for me to pick up a copy – if not right away – and every time I’m looking at which games to keep, I consider Industrial Waste, and it stays.  I particularly like the frequent imperfections in the choices of cards available – I’m not always a fan of not being able to carry out my plans, but here it works well.

#146 – Die Schlacht der Dinosaurier, by Steve Baker

19 plays

Change from 2021: up 15

First appearance: 2021

When I’m in the mood for a beer & pretzels game, it’s really hard to beat Die Schlacht der Dinosaurier.  The pieces are fantastic, the die rolling is wonderful (particularly the unexpected results – emphasized by the 0-1-2-5-10-15 values on the dice), and the mix of cavemen and dinosaurs makes very clear – this is no representation of any real-life event, but just a good old fashioned slug-fest.

#145 – Perry Rhodan, by Heinrich Glumpler

20 plays

Change from 2021: up 11

First appearance: 2013

I remember this game, inspired by Merchant of Venus, being teased a year before it was finally released.  The description intrigued me – but the game initially disappointed me, because it wasn’t Merchant of Venus.  Over time, I started to appreciate the game for what it offers, and I’ve come to really enjoy it on its own merits as a result.  I’ve even come to appreciate the design more over time – things I thought weren’t balanced quite ideally have, with more play, proven themselves to be well done.

#144 – Black Vienna, by Gilbert Overmair

33 plays

Change from 2021: down 53

First appearance: 2005

I enjoy deduction games – but as with auctions, I prefer deduction as an element in a game that has a broader focus in preference to being the sole focus of the game.  I still very much enjoy Black Vienna, but I’ve largely reduced my selection of deduction-focused games; it’s really the only one that has stuck around for me.

#143 – Brügge, by Stefan Feld

23 plays

Change from 2021: down 37

First appearance: 2013

As I mentioned with Industrial Waste, I tend to prefer games where I can choose a plan, and carry it out – whether the plan is any good, and whether I carry it off well, is really a secondary matter.  But sometimes games where the ability to focus on a direction is foiled by the cards drawn – or, in this case the right color cards showing up – do work for me.  They might not be my very favorite games – but being comfortably in my top 5% is no mean feat.

#142 – Extrablatt, by Karl-Heinz Schmiel

23 plays

Change from 2021: up 6

First appearance: 2005

As the game becomes more and more of an anachronism – given the smaller role newspapers play in life, and even within the smaller industry the drastic changes to how newspapers are put together – the brilliance of Schmiel’s game design stands out all the more.  I had the chance to play this recently with all experienced players, and it really does make a difference.

#141 – Pit, by Edgar Cayce

22+ plays

Change from 2021: down 34

First appearance: 2005

Pit is a rather polarizing game – many real-time games are, in my experience.  But I still find it great fun; it’s the game on this list I’ve been playing for the longest time, learning the game when I was in Cub Scouts.  It’s the first game I can recall playing, and deciding I wanted a copy of.

#140 – Astron (designer unknown)

14 plays

Change from 2021: up 7

First appearance: 2013

I have fond memories from my youth of playing a couple different games with scrolling gameboard; the one I most clearly remember is Concentration, based upon the game show.  But before Concentration, there was a board game that used this concept for something more interesting than providing different puzzles.  Astron is a race game, where you are trying to land at the 11 airports in the game while avoiding the many obstacles.  Cards can move you forward, backwards, sideways, or even diagonally – but a number of cards effectively spin the globe, moving everyone closer to San Francisco and the end of the game.  It’s not a deep game, but it’s fun, and it plays well with as many as six players.

#139 – Familiar’s Trouble, by Fukutarou

21 plays

Change from 2021: down 40

First appearance: 2017

Going down 40 sounds like a big deal, but historically – sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t.  The advantage of ranking the games freshly every time is that one sees significant changes – at least further down the list – but some are inevitably more noise than real change.  Given my limited interest in cooperative games, it’s possible Familiar’s Trouble is wearing out its welcome with me – and equally possible that it will be back in the usual 80-90 range next time around.

#138 – Carpe Diem, by Stefan Feld

22 plays

Change from 2021: down 5

First appearance: 2019

While I understand the complaints about the similarity of the shades of green on the back of the tiles, I must admit to not at all understanding why they switched from the seven pointed star to a boring circle.  I understand that they are functionally equivalent – but one is reasonably interesting, and the other is a circle.  Given that they didn’t really improve the shade differentiation, it’s an easy choice for me to stick with the original.  I do really like how the game adapts to different numbers of players by having choices go away once enough have been chosen rather than requiring some clunky setup.

#137 – Food Chain Magnate, by Jeroen Doumen & Joris Wiesinga

26 plays

Change from 2021: down 55

First appearance: 2017

I have come to realize that I’m not generally fond of steep cliffs in games.  There are exceptions – feel free to skip ahead to #52 if you want to see one – but Food Chain Magnate seems to be falling off a cliff for me – in spite of loving the theme and structure of the game – because of how possible it is to put yourself in the hole.  If the game were longer, I think it would be too much – but being a reasonably brisk moving game, I can tolerate that downside for the fun puzzles the game offers in return.

#136 – Rapa Nui, by Reinhold Wittig & Ingo Althöfer

15 plays

Change from 2021: down 21

First appearance: 2011

But is it a game?  To the best of my knowledge, Reinhold Wittig is the game designer who has been active longest in the field – his first game design was published back in 1959, his most recent in 2021.  And the artistry of his designs is fantastic.  But the question often asked is – how are the games?  Rapa Nui is one that answers that question very effectively – the theme (overuse of resources on Easter Island) is demonstrated very effectively by the abstract design.

#135 – Scratch House, by Kuro

15 plays

Change from 2021: down 19

First appearance: 2017

Generally the most popular games are well honed and polished designs.  And often the complaints I’ve heard – particularly with Kickstarter-funded games – is that they haven’t been sufficiently developed; there are lots of games I feel that way about.  But sometimes an underdeveloped game actually offers an interesting, more raw experience – one where the reaction isn’t a wish for more development, but a realization that the game works as it stands, even if it isn’t smooth.  Scratch House is such a game.  One can imagine how the game could be further developed, but it’s not clear whether that would actually make the game more interesting – part of the appeal of the game is its rough edges.  I’d be hard pressed to define what makes one rough edge charming and another annoying, though.

#134 – Whacky Wit, by Norman Sommer

21 plays

Change from 2021: up 18

First appearance: 2015

This is, without a doubt, the most mechanically interesting board game I’ve ever seen.  Nothing against Mousetrap or Spinball and what they offer on that front – but resetting a Whacky Wit board is a great pleasure.  And the game is great fun as well – my daughter is not often one for playing games with me, other than Exit/Unlock games, but when we played this – she immediately wanted to play it again.

#133 – Santa Fe, by Alan Moon

26+ plays

Change from 2021: up 10

First appearance: 2005

Most of the types of games I enjoy – hand management games, trading games, trick taking games, and so on – I’m well aware of.  But I don’t often think of how much I enjoy network building games.  Santa Fe is an excellent example of this.  I appreciate how the game encourages historic building – but doesn’t enforce it, resulting in track that has never, in my experience, lined up with history as a whole – but often has hints of what really happened.

#132 – Blöde Kuh, by Florian Racky

24 plays

Change from 2021: down 51

First appearance: 2019

I’m a big fan of games which make the most of a simple set of components, which Blöde Kuh manages very well.  The primary objective of the game – particularly in the second and third rounds – is to avoid having the various animals end up with you when the round ends.  The other objective is to empty your hand, or as close to it as possible, to avoid taking a penalty for holding the most cards.  Of course, these two objectives often conflict with each other, for extra fun.  For some reason, it only just dawned on me how much of a similarity to Musical Chairs this game has…

#131 – Q.E., by Gavin Birnbaum

23 plays

Change from 2021: down 55

First appearance: 2019

Q.E. has, at its core, perhaps one of the greatest ideas for a game mechanism ever – what if you had an auction game where each player has unlimited cash?  It solves many of the typical issues with auction games, and leads to interesting inflationary or deflationary play – I’ve seen both.  And it turns blind bidding into a mechanism that makes perfect sense, because the winning bids _aren’t_ revealed – only the auctioneer and the bidder know the total.  

#130 – Pecunia, by Muneyuki Yokouchi

17 plays

Change from 2021: up 9

First appearance: 2015

This is a very odd game.  There are a bunch of different “sheep” (think lambs to the slaughter), each rated on their food (gathering), festiveness, fighting, and faith ability; when the events associated with each of these capabilities is triggered, those abilities matter – and (other than faith) bad things happen, often amplified by the “evil” sheep.  In many ways, it’s a horror movie in game form – nothing explicit, but bad things are going to happen continuously.  Great fun.

#129 – Scoozie, by Rich Maiers

16 plays

Change from 2021: down 36

First appearance: 2007

Whenever the topic of good American football games comes up, Scoozie is always the first to come to mind – in spite of the abstract nature of the game.  (It was published by Kadon Enterprises, known for their abstract puzzles and games, after all.)  While there are necessarily approximations taken, the game really delivers the feel of one play in football, which usually feels a lot more fun than watching football, at least to me.

#128 – Tally Ho!, by Rudi Hoffman

43 plays

Change from 2021: up 2

First appearance: 2005

I might be completely wrong, but this is a game which has always felt much more involved to me than the surface would suggest.  Which is something I really enjoy in a game – rules that aren’t difficult to learn and keep in mind, but with enough opportunity for clever play as to engage the player more with successive plays.  I particularly think there are opportunities for both players to use their pieces (foxes or hunters) to block movement than is generally appreciated.

#127 – Kardinal & König, by Michael Schacht

43 plays

Change from 2021: up 15

First appearance: 2005

As nice as it is to see this game continue to get re-released in updated editions, I really wish Schacht had stuck to the original balance of having just two cards face up.  The other changes I can take or leave – I love the original map of Europe and Vohwinkel artwork, but that’s just a minor preference – but having more than two cards available seems to take all of the steam out of the game for me.

#126 – Morgan’s A’Comin’!, by Paul Rohrbaugh

24 plays

Change from 2021: down 42

First appearance: 2013

I have, over time, mostly shed the wargames from my collection.  Not for lack of enjoyment – but I’ve long had an issue of having too many two player games, and wargames are (or, more, were) part of the problem.  But Morgan’s A’Comin’! is one of the very few wargames I’ve held onto.  I most often play it with a friend of mine from high school, and since he prefers playing the North, I’ve nearly always played Morgan.  Which – is rather fun.  You know from the start that you’re most likely going to lose, and frequently it’s not going to be close.  But just often enough there’s a hint of hope as to encourage continued returns to the game; on even rarer occasion, it’s even possible to win.  I think – as a longtime supporter of the Cleveland baseball team – I have a strong connection with the underdog that serves me well here.

#125 – Auf Achse, by Wolfgang Kramer

23+ plays

Change from 2021: up 25

First appearance: 2005

Auf Achse is not the first German game in my collection – thanks to my father’s trip to London and a stop in Just Games, I received a copy of Die Siedler von Catan earlier – but it was part of my first boardgame trade, back when surface shipping made that a viable option.  I’ve never played it very frequently, but – I still love the game; pickup and deliver games are a favorite of mine.  I _think_ the other games I received in that trade were Quo Vadis and Kuhhandel, fine games but not keepers for me.  Oh, and my wife always calls this game Elf Oxen, which does make me wonder what a game that really has that title would play like.

#124 – Starship Catan, by Klaus Teuber

23 plays

Change from 2021: up 11

First appearance: 2005

While most of the “Catan” games – beyond the original – aren’t for me, this one does something interesting enough to keep me coming back.  Part of this is undoubtedly the fact that it doesn’t feel much like the original – the game stands on its own, and it could easily have been released without the connection.  I particularly appreciate the combination of exploration and economics the game offers.

#123 – Frank’s Zoo, by Doris Matthäus & Frank Nestel

58 plays

Change from 2021: up 36

First appearance: 2005

Because the games that end up near the bottom of these lists often end up disappearing from my collection, I’m tempted – when I’m thinning things out – to just let them go and move on.  But Frank’s Zoo keeps this in check.  Back when I first put together a list of my top N games, Frank’s Zoo was #151 of 167 – and it’s been close to the bottom every year since.  But it’s stuck around, and I still very much enjoy the game.  In a recent play with five players, we entered the last hand (demonstrably) with all five players having a chance.  Now, to be fair, the player in fifth place needed things to go _perfectly_, but still – it was a thrilling ending for a game that started a bit lopsided.

#122 – Free Ride, by Friedemann Friese

13 plays

Change from 2021: N/A

First appearance: 2023

I am very slow to love games.  There are lots of games I like from the start, but it’s been ages since I’ve rated a game as high as an 8 on first play, simply because I recognize that while the novelty is great, most games aren’t going to survive for me.  My first play of Free Ride gave me great hope, though, and it’s followed through well – in spite of the fact that I’m pretty awful at the game.  Offering both pickup and deliver and connection mechanisms, the game is strongly in my wheelhouse.  And for me, needing to learn where cities are in Europe is very much a feature of the game – I know some folks use dice to mark locations, but for me this would detract from the experience.

#121 – Don Q. und der Dreh mit den Windmühlen, by Matthias Schmitt

26 plays

Change from 2021: down 16

First appearance: 2011

In addition to not aligning well with public opinion on games, I don’t tend to align well with public opinion on game artwork.  I find artwork that is praised is often much too busy for my taste.  But I _do_ value the artwork in games, quite a bit.  Doris Matthäus’ artwork is a big plus for me, for instance.  But “art” can be different things; in this case, Wittig’s physical presentation of Schmitt’s design – particularly the recycled bits used to represent Don Quixote – turn what would often be a game too abstract to really strike home with me into a keeper.

#120 – Schützenfest, by Rudi Hoffman

40 plays

Change from 2021: down 35

First appearance: 2005

While games often advertise being for a range of numbers of players, it’s often the case that one number is simply the best option – and with other player counts one should seek an alternative game.  For Schützenfest, that number is three.  With two players, there’s too much flexibility to play, and the game just isn’t that interesting.  With four players, it’s much too easy to be crushed by the deal – only receiving seven cards just doesn’t leave enough options.  But with three players – and I would recommend leaving one 100 shooter out specifically, rather than randomly removing a card each round – and playing some multiple of three rounds, this is a game with some real opportunities for clever play.

#119 – Spyrium, by William Attia

23 plays

Change from 2021: down 17

First appearance: 2013

The more I play Spyrium, the more I realize that the theme does very little for me.  I really enjoy the game, but the mild cyberpunk theme just doesn’t grab me; it’s really the mechanisms that draw me into the game.  It’s also not a game I’m very good at – I tend to prefer to take an approach when I play a game, and Spyrium tends to demand some flexibility.  Which – probably helps me appreciate it more, honestly.

#118 – Old Town / Gads Hill 1874, by Stephan Riedel

27 plays

Change from 2021: down 21

First appearance: 2005

One of the things I should note about the count of games I’ve rated – it doesn’t align with BoardGameGeek at all.  Sometimes, I count more rated games than BoardGameGeek would – for example, I count each game in Neue Spiele im Alten Rom as a separate game, and rate each independently.  But often I combine games that BoardGameGeek does not.  One of the most glaring examples is with Ticket to Ride; by my count, I have played one game – Ticket to Ride – and that’s it.  By BoardGameGeek’s count, I’ve played something on the order of 13 different games (including a couple of expansions in that count).  This is the case with Old Town and Gads Hill 1874, the latter of which is, in my mind, simply a further refinement of Old Town.  And, in my opinion, it really is a refinement – having played most of the iterations of Old Town going back to 2000, until Gads Hill came along my favorite was actually a 2001 copy I picked up used, which while a bit raw offered the most interesting game play.  Gads Hill 1874 finally manages to both smooth the raw edges _and_ still offer really interesting choices and gameplay.

#117 – King of Tokyo, by Richard Garfield

46 plays

Change from 2021: up 1

First appearance: 2013

It’s kind of refreshing to see that a beer and pretzels game with player elimination can still make it these days.  My most recent play was interesting, as it’s one of the few times I’ve played in which no one was eliminated – I’ve frequently seen the game won by the last monster standing, of course, but even when the game is won based on fame that’s usually after at least one player has been knocked out.

#116 – Inotaizu, by Kenichi Tanabe

20 plays

Change from 2021: down 27

First appearance: 2011

As I play more, I do wonder if money might be a bit _too_ tight in the game – if it might be more interesting if players collected a little more, so that more options were viable.  I do worry that this would simply eliminate tough choices in card placement, so I’m not sold that a change would be an improvement.  But I do wonder…

#115 – Heaven & Ale, by Michael Kiesling & Andreas Schmidt

17 plays

Change from 2021: up 26

First appearance: 2019

There is a problem in games where you can do everything; it’s the reason that I finally let Minerva go, as while I enjoyed that flexibility, unless playing with only experienced players it led to unbalanced play.  Heaven & Ale does a nice job of balancing the play, simply by forcing players to choose between a slow path that might give them more, or a faster path that will give them better.  This works very effectively, and unlike in Inotaizu – I am certain the tight money situation here works brilliantly.

#114 – Auf Fotosafari in Ombagassa, by Reinhold Wittig

17 plays

Change from 2021: down 26

First appearance: 2005

This is an adorable game, with a great theme – taking pictures of various collections of animals.  We do make a rule modification, borrowed from the Haba retheme of the game, Topfgucker, and allow players to move one animal on the roll of a 4, 5, or 6.  We have also ruled – I can’t recall if this is in the rules or not – that passengers in a vehicle can take pictures while it’s moving, but the driver can only take pictures at the start and end of the drive.  I’m certain the picture cards aren’t balanced – getting four of the same animal together is much, much harder than other combinations – but the game isn’t so long that this gets in the way of the fun.

#113 – Machi Koro, but Masao Suganuma

41 plays

Change from 2021: up 8

First appearance: 2015

I enjoy this quite a bit as a short, push-your-luck game with interesting choices.  Though it was the Harbor expansion to Machi Koro that really pushed me to the anti-expansion side of things; the randomness of which buildings come up interacts very poorly with the randomness of die rolls, in my opinion.

 #112 – Extra!, by Sid Sackson

32 plays

Change from 2021: down 4

First appearance: 2013

I do understand why this game doesn’t get the recognition that Can’t Stop does, but I must admit that I find it a more interesting game in some ways.  I find it interesting that – given that everyone is using exactly the same dice – it never happens that players actually do so.  I do think Extra has one advantage over Choice or Can’t Stop Express, in having the extreme numbers (2/3/11/12) need to be rolled fewer times in order to score.

#111 – R-Eco, by Susumu Kawasaki

20 plays

Change from 2021: up 34

First appearance: 2007

I am definitely a fan of clever card games.  That said, there are a _lot_ of clever card games, and only some really strike home well enough with me to stick around.  This is one – there’s a nice tension between having enough cards to have meaningful choices on your turn and having few enough cards to avoid overflow.  

#110 – Kardinal & König: Das Kartenspiel, by Michael Schacht

28 plays

Change from 2021: up 14

First appearance: 2005

I tend to prefer to purchase games that are fully assembled and ready to play.  So for this game to have survived in my collection for two decades gives you some idea of just how well it works for me.  For while I love the original game – I still think this is a better game; the scoring here just works a bit better, in my opinion.

#109 – Hare & Tortoise, by David Parlett

34 plays

Change from 2021: Up 17

First appearance: 2005

I’m not entirely sure that the definitive best version of Hare & Tortoise has been published, even 40+ years in.  But fortunately, all of the non-definitive versions I’ve played have been sufficiently enjoyable for me to not really worry about that.  I do wonder, though – what’s the most spaces I’ve seen someone move on a turn?  I think I’ve seen 19; not sure if I’ve seen anything higher, even though the included chart goes up to 64, just in case.

#108 – Elfenroads, by Alan Moon

35 plays

Change from 2021: up 24

First appearance: 2005

This is another case where I count two “different” games, Elfenroads and Elfenlands, together.  But Elfenroads is definitely my preference, as I think it’s a more interesting map, and I do appreciate the money versus cards tradeoff and longer duration.

#107 – Durch die Wüste, by Reiner Knizia

59 plays

Change from 2021: down 3

First appearance: 2005

You might have noticed that a _lot_ of games on this list first showed up in 2005.  It’s actually finally dropped to a point of being less than half of the list – barely – but it’s the reason I don’t create these lists more frequently.  My taste in games does change, but not quickly.  Ignoring 2021, when I decided to include all the games in my collection for the first time, the other year when I added the most games was 2015, as a result of a big influx of new games to my taste in 2013-2015.

I’m not sure what new I can say about Durch die Wüste.  It’s a great game, handles 2-5 players adeptly, and holds up fantastically.  Oh, and it’s a game I can play well enough to almost, but not quite, have a chance against the really good players.  I like that in a game.

#106 – Spinball, by Aaron Weissblum

83 plays

Change from 2021: up 16

First appearance: 2005

I no longer play Spinball enough, as a result of which I think I’ve lost the ability to make any of the shots I once could.  I do really appreciate the change Aaron made to the rules to add blockers instead of keeping score – though the blockers definitely help demonstrate just how much capability to play the game I’ve lost.

#105 – Mr. President, by Jack Carmichael

22+ plays

Change from 2021: down 28

First appearance: 2005

In many cases, the games I list with + plays are games I first played in 1995, and the number of plays I failed to record are small.  Or as with Pit, I played the game much earlier, but not that many times.  But Mr. President I’m sure I’m missing more than half of my plays of; a friend and I discovered the game in his parent’s collection over 40 years ago, and played it a bunch.  And when I finally managed to get a copy – back in the days when finding an out-of-print game required more luck than it does these days – I played it a fair bit again.  And I still love it – there’s a lot of room in the game to make up for bad luck.

#104 – The Pillars of the Earth, by Michael Rieneck & Stefan Stadler

23 plays

Change from 2021: down 8

First appearance: 2007

One challenge of liking less popular games is that it is typically more of a challenge to get old games to the table than new games.  Which, in turn, is one of the reasons I try to game with a wide group of gamers – in order to both get the games I want to play played, and not annoy others, I try to align plays with the right audience wherever possible.  Pillars of the Earth is definitely a game which has lost audience over time, but fortunately it’s one a couple of my friends from high school enjoy – so it’s frequently one I’ll try to get in with them.  Though I always tend to be too focused on my economy in the game, and not enough on victory points.

#103 – Clash of the Gladiators, by Reiner Knizia

25 plays

Change from 2021: up 8

First appearance: 2005

One of the nice things about sitting down to play a Reiner Knizia game is knowing that – whether or not the game is for you – the game will be well put together, and the math will be right.  Unfortunately, this sometimes makes his games feel a little too refined.  And I worry that was the case for many with Clash of the Gladiators – the nice design elements to balance out the different fighters and the excellent rule to keep players who are knocked out in the game by playing animals lead to a game that’s too well structured for those who would otherwise appreciate the combat, and too random for those who might appreciate a clean design.

#102 – Guild, by Kenichi Tenabe

15 plays

Change from 2021: up 27

First appearance: 2013

This is an odd game, which always seems to be over sooner than expected.  There’s a fair bit of play style to this – if players focus on growing their pyramid upwards, the game will quickly advance to the final battle.  But it still comes as a surprise; I consistently expect the game to take longer to play than it does.  To be fair, it’s not the easiest game to explain, so rules explanation might be part of that effect.

#101 – Lost Valley, by Roland Goslar & Tobias Goslar

17 plays

Change from 2021: up 53

First appearance: 2005

Speaking of games taking a different amount of time than expected – Lost Valley always runs longer than I expect.  But – as it keeps hitting the table, I keep appreciating it more; while there’s a fair bit of randomness in the changes from one list to the next (because I create the new list independently each time), I think there is a real shift here for me.  Not because the competitive game has improved, but because I appreciate the experience – the exploration, the semi-cooperative development, and so on – more.

#100 – Witness, by Dominique Bodin

58 plays

Change from 2021: down 33

First appearance: 2015

I am not particularly familiar with the idea of finishing a game.  Looking at text adventure games, while I explored many of them, I only ever finished one (Nord and Bert Couldn’t Make Head or Tail of It).  And the only action videogame I ever finished was Arkanoid.  So it’s odd for me to realize that I’m close to finishing Witness – there are only six cases I haven’t done – and I’m not sure what to do afterwards.  The funny thing is – my first play of this was with folks who were done with the game after that.  I wasn’t sure, but I was curious, and I’ve grown to love it.  Though I think when I do finish the last cases, it’s going to be with more of a sense of melancholy than of triumph.

#99 – Entdecker, by Klaus Teuber

36 plays

Change from 2021: up 20

First appearance: 2005

In my experience, it’s hard to get an exploration game right.  If things are too consistent, the game play can become overly similar from game to game, and the sense of exploration is lost.  On the other hand, the more random things are, the more you can run into logical problems and dead-ends.  Entdecker does one of the better jobs of dealing with this – and as near as I can tell the biggest element in this is the large collection of tiles the game comes with.  With 120 tiles to cover 70 spaces, having to throw away a tile as impossible to place isn’t a big problem.  And as a result, the map _always_ looks different – and the sense of exploration comes through.

#98 – Luz, by Taiki Shinzawa

14 plays

Change from 2021: up 95

First appearance: 2021

This is the single largest jump on this list, and occurred because I’d just received the game in 2021, and hadn’t come to any strong conclusion; now I have.  I’ve played a few games where you don’t see your own cards, and so far this one is the clear standout for me.  The reason for this is simple – you have enough data to make reasoned guesses about your hand, and the focus of the gameplay is kept straightforward, allowing the focus to be on the cleverness of the deduction element.

#97 – Domus Domini, by Heinz-Georg Thiemann

14 plays

Change from 2021: up 15

First appearance: 2017

Monks brewing beer is undoubtedly a good theme for a game – and this is my favorite game with that theme.  There’s a tight trade-off between income and victory points – a common dilemma – and the game offers enough pushes towards paying some reasonable attempt to victory points early as to foil the player who tries to solely grow their economy.  The game plays well with a large number of players, but it’s terribly well known.  And I do think it was a mistake to abbreviate food units in the rules as “FU”s.

#96 – WInhard, by Reinhard Pichler & Erwin Pichler

37 plays

Change from 2021: down 17

First appearance: 2005

For 15 years, Winhard was the sole published game designed by the Pichlers.  But in 2016, a memory game they designed was published by Piatnik.  I must admit, it doesn’t sound nearly as interesting as Winhard.  Of course, Winhard is the lowest ranked game on BoardGameGeek that I have on this list (noting that a number haven’t received enough ratings to be ranked), so perhaps if more people knew about these games, it would be Till Eulenspiegel: Schabernack mit Schuhen und Schalk that would be more appreciated.

#95 – Abraca…What?, by Gun-Hee Kim

19 plays

Change from 2021: up 3

First appearance: 2015

Another example of a game where deduction being an element of the game, rather than the focus, helps a game to really shine for me.  While deducing your tiles is one way to end a round, I think I might have seen that done once or twice – the round almost always ends when one player kills another, or when a player kills themselves.  The only complaint I have about this game is that it really requires a round table (or some approximation thereof) in order to play with five players.  The game is otherwise very good at that count – it’s just too hard to see other’s tiles with a standard gaming table.

#94 – Numeri, by Rudi Hoffman

72 plays

Change from 2021: up 15

First appearance: 2011

I first played Numeri in 2002; it first made my top games list nine years later.  Now, part of this was that while I owned the game, I rated it a 7 for years.  But still – after nearly a decade, I came to realize that my enjoyment of the game had increased.  That’s actually one of my motivations for aiming to get new games that I enjoy played at least ten times in short order.  I’m not at all sure it’s foolproof – but when I play games I previously owned, I almost never regret having let them go.  So perhaps it’s just speeding up the calendar time it takes for games to be hits for me.

#93 – Wildlife Adventure, by Wolfgang Kramer & Ursula Kramer

42 plays

Change from 2021: down 23

First appearance: 2005

This is another game I’m bad at – quite horrible, really.  With an average player count of 4, I should have won about 10.5 times.  In practice, I’ve won twice.  And – it’s usually not close.  I don’t know why I’m so poor at the game, but it’s one of the things I love about it – that hope that _if_ I keep playing it enough, I might improve to mediocre.

#92 – Spacebeans, by Uwe Rosenberg

67 plays

Change from 2021: down 27

First appearance: 2005

This is a game that makes me wonder.  You see, I was close to letting the game go – on a clear path to let that happen.  When, by accident, we discovered a way to play that made the game much more fun.  (That way, as I’ve detailed previously, is by playing _really_ fast.  Not-sure-whose-turn-it-is fast.)  Are there other games that would light up for me if I only knew a better way to play them?  Having the right number of players can be crucial – but there are usually clues that you’re playing with the wrong number, and there’s plenty of advice available as to the best player count.  But people don’t often talk about the importance of speed of play on the enjoyability of a game; are there other games I’ve given up on which might have shown if only I’d found the right circumstances to really make them shine?

#91 – Die Quacksalber von Quedlinburg, by Wolfgang Warsch

35 plays

Change from 2021: down 16

First appearance: 2019

This is a game which, when I was first introduced to it, I wasn’t sure about it.  And as it got played a bit more, I still wasn’t certain – so I picked up a copy to try more.  And it finally clicked with me – not a loud click, but my enjoyment did noticeably increase.  Of course, the folks who introduced me to the game had moved past it – but much to my surprise, general appreciation for the game kept growing.  This is _not_ a game I would ever have pictured reaching the top 100 on BoardGameGeek, but I’m glad that it has.

#90 – Löwenherz, by Klaus Teuber

27 plays

Change from 2021: down 46

First appearance: 2005

This is another pretty realistic change in my ordering, as while the game moved up for me for a while, it’s now dropped back to a more realistic position.  I still love the game – but it’s not a game I want to play as frequently as the games I rank higher here.  The direct confrontation is a bit draining, and while it’s no diplomacy, it’s still not a game that particularly strengthens friendships.  But the forced conflict is a fun change – now and again.

#89 – Sindbad, by Jean Vanaise, E. Duchatel & J.P. Postel

21 plays

Change from 2021: up 12

First appearance: 2005

The players are key to a fun game of Sindbad.  Those who want to take games very seriously are not a good fit for the game – this is a game in which you revel in your good luck, bemoan your bad luck, and take wild chances for great payoffs.  It’s a game in which you can die – multiple times, even – and still win the game.  If getting thrown off an elephant, getting mugged, and then making up for it by finding the thieves cave sounds like fun, this might be your game.  If you prefer to see this as losing cards, losing more cards, and randomly being given victory points – you should likely avoid it.

#88 – Länder toppen!, by Matthias Jünemann

26 plays

Change from 2021: up 12

First appearance: 2017

This game has been sufficiently successful – at least three printings (with some nice improvements with each edition – it’s good to get the most recent one) as to lead to two sequels, Inseln toppen! And Tiere toppen!.  They’re both fun – you’re likely not surprised to discover that I count my plays, and even ownership, of those games here – but I’m well convinced that the original is the best.  Tiere toppen! Has a lot of very small text, which takes away from the experience, and player’s lesser familiarity with islands makes Inseln toppen! a bit less fun on the whole.

#87 – Findorff, by Friedemann Friese

17 plays

Change from 2021: N/A

First appearance: 2023

This is the highest debut on this list, beating out Free Ride.  Though I will admit, I do still have some concerns about the long-term replayability of the game.  Though I’ve had that concern since early on, and it hasn’t been an issue at all – there is sufficient variety in ways to build an economy that no two plays have really felt similar.  I really appreciate that Friedemann restricted himself to a limited set of goods, which helps make the game easier to explain.  I suppose I really only have two minor complaints – there is some critical information which isn’t printed on the board, and it’s too easy to forget to place railroad tracks on the board when a building is built.  But these are nits; the process of building up the town works really well for me.

#86 – Entenrallye, by Walter Müller

18 plays

Change from 2021: down 8

First appearance: 2005

Race games are quite popular – but aren’t really my thing.  Fortunately, this isn’t _really_ a race game – you do need to move along in order to join some of the four rallies (and visiting all of them, while not impossible, is very unlikely), but you have to balance that with making your car look good for the events and making your car work properly for the inspections.  Brought together, this makes for a delightful and unpredictable game, that unlike many games where the length is proportional to the number of players is actually more fun with more players.

#85 – Outpost, by James Hlavaty & Tim Moore

75+ plays

Change from 2021: up 43

First appearance: 2005

It’s interesting – a number of games have tried to build on the concept of Outpost, simplifying the math, providing advantages to trailing players, and the like.  But for me, none of these games is close to being as good as the original.  Sure, the math involves (gasp!) addition of two digit numbers.  But the theme out building in space is fun, the tradeoff between improving manufacturing and improving infrastructure is compelling, and while there can be a fallaway trailer problem, the game isn’t (or at least shouldn’t be) so long as to make this an issue.

#84 – Fine Sand, by Friedemann Friese

53 plays

Change from 2021: down 13

First appearance: 2019

I remain amazed at just how much Fine Sand grew on me from prototype to published game.  I’m not a fan of deckbuilding, and while this isn’t quite that kind of game the mechanisms are closely enough related as to be recognizable.  But as much as I enjoy the game, I have one frustration – I would really like, sometime, to play through eleven games in a row, adding all ten sets of additional cards.  And I’ve never made it beyond about four games.  One disadvantage of playing with lots of different groups comes with a game like this where a constant group would make this goal easier to accomplish.

#83 –Der Elefant im Porzellanladen, by Michael Schacht

31 plays

Change from 2021: down 21

First appearance: 2007

One of the interesting aspects of this game is – as I refer to it – the Elephant Avoidance System, the once-per-game opportunity to pass one’s turn.  This is almost always used to avoid taking a poorly timed elephant card, and reasonably so.  But I’ve also used it to avoid buying the wrong vase, hoping for a better selection by the time of my next turn.  And I can even imagine a case in which it’s right to use with only one money, where either buying pottery or having an elephant invade is possible – but to the best of my knowledge, I’ve never seen that done.

#82 –Troia, by Thomas Fackler

18 plays

Change from 2021: down 18

First appearance: 2005

In my most recent play, I decided to try something different – and publish on the first turn.  (Since I had no results, I don’t know exactly what it was that I published.  Maybe the whole article was really just advertisements for shovels and easily retrieved hats.)  But by publishing anything, I got another dig card – and I got to dig after other players cleared off some of the top layer.  In the end, my plan didn’t work – I just couldn’t make up the ground lost by giving up one opportunity to publish – but it came closer than I expected, and it was certainly a fun strategy to try.

#81 – Nusfjord, by Uwe Rosenberg

22 plays

Change from 2021: down 8

First appearance: 2019

While I may prefer Rosenberg’s card games, on occasion he’s made a boardgame that works for me.  And Nusfjord does just that, by simplifying the resources down to just fish, wood, and gold; this reduces a lot of the cruft that keeps other games from working or from working optimally for me.  I also appreciate a worker placement game that doesn’t feel so artificially tight that I don’t have reasonable options on the turns when I go last.

#80 – Nautilus, by Brigitte Ditt & Wolfgang Ditt

19 plays

Change from 2021: up 15

First appearance: 2005

Another exploration game – a good start – but one of the things I really like about it is that I feel like I haven’t explored all of the possibilities the game offers yet.  In particular, I really undervalue Radar – but I’m beginning to think that a radar-focused strategy might actually pay for itself with the ability to uncover treasure chests.  Definitely something I plan to try.  I’m not quite sure why the game has fallen under the radar – but for a big box release from a major game publisher, my 19 plays would be the most on BoardGameGeek, if I recorded my plays there.

#79 – Nauticus, by Wolfgang Kramer & Michael Kiesling

23 plays

Change from 2021: up 7

First appearance: 2017

The one great advantage of Nauticus over Nautilus – and no, I didn’t intentionally put them back-to-back; it actually hasn’t happened before – is that there is an implementation of Nauticus on Yucata.  Prior to the pandemic, that really wouldn’t have mattered to me – I played a handful of games with online friends to try it out, but then didn’t play a single game online from August of 2013 until May of 2020.  I then played a number of asynchronous games online for a while, but after early 2021 this was reduced to just two events – an ongoing series of plays of a single game with friends who aren’t local, and a regular string of games with two friends from high school.  And Nauticus is one of those we play – which has helped me to realize just how much more I enjoy the game with three than with four.

#78 – Puerto Rico, by Andreas Seyfarth

97 plays

Change from 2021: down 31

First appearance: 2005

So – while I think that ten plays is enough to have a good idea of whether a game will stick for me, games do still lose steam for me after time, sometimes.  (Of course, sometimes they gain steam as well.)  And recently, I realized that Puerto Rico had – more than 90 plays in – lost a little steam for me.  Not so much that I expect a precipitous drop in my rankings, but enough to nudge it significantly down.  I don’t think it has helped that I’ve often played recently on the anniversary edition, and the graphics impede the play of the game.

#77 – Jump Drive, by Tom Lehmann

121 plays

Change from 2021: up 26

First appearance: 2017

While I prefer Race for the Galaxy, and expect I always will, I do find that Jump Drive has a place in my collection.  The fact that it’s playable by those with an allergy to icons helps.  The even shorter play time helps – particularly when things go poorly; it’s not hard to decide to just play again.  And the fewer restrictions – you can place multiples of any card that doesn’t explicitly prohibit you from doing so – probably doesn’t hurt either.

#76 – masKmen, by Jun Sasaki & Taiki Shinzawa

33 plays

Change from 2021: up 18

First appearance: 2015

I love the aesthetic of the original Oink games – a small, thin box, with bright components and interesting ideas.  As Oink has become more successful, the boxes have unfortunately become twice as thick, and for me the ideas have become a bit less interesting.  But even before that happened, I found that most of the games didn’t hold up endlessly for me.  The one exception to this has been masKmen, the only game I’m aware of about partial orderings, hidden behind a mask of Mexican wrestlers.  This combination works incredibly well, and the presentation – victory points come in the form of belts, for instance – really sells the theme.

#75 – Carcassonne, by Klaus-Jürgen Wrede

89 plays

Change from 2021: up 35

First appearance: 2005

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#74 – Little Town Builders, by Shun & Aya

28 plays

Change from 2021: down 8

First appearance: 2019

It’s amazing how much variety is possible with square tiles and a few resources.  Here, a placed meeple gets to collect resources from each adjacent source, and activate each adjacent building.  Resources are either food (wheat or fish) or building materials (stone or wood); building a building scores victory points, and allows you to use it for free – and others to use it by paying you for the privilege.  With this simple structure, the game plays out over four rounds – a total, in a four player game, of only twelve turns – but somehow manages to feel properly done when the end does come.  I still have my set with handmade English goals, and a copy of the iello reprint which managed to avoid making unnecessary changes _and_ as a bonus retained the artistic feel of the original.

#73 – Polterfass, by Andreas Schmidt

24 plays

Change from 2021: up 78

First appearance: 2021

I attended Essen for the first time in 2013.  And I managed to collect all of the games that interested me.  But I completely missed Polterfass; while not my favorite of the 2013 releases, it has outlasted most of them.  The theme – a push-your-luck game where on your turn you’re serving beer, trying to either serve just less than the other players ordered (and, not being able to split it, keeping it all) or _much_ more than the other players ordered (keeping the remainder for yourself).  The fact that the game plays quickly even with six players makes it a quick choice when the right circumstances come up.

#72 – Ursuppe, by Doris Matthäus & Frank Nestel

32 plays

Change from 2021: up 15

First appearance: 2005

Typically, I like to try anything in a game.  Maybe not at first, but as I play a game more I like to vary my approach, and try odder and odder things, to see how they work.  But for some reason, I got stuck with Ursuppe playing the same strategy in every game.  And it’s not as if it’s a winning strategy, particularly; just one that called to me.  So I’ve been trying to consciously change my approach, in particular by not buying Streamlining even if I can afford it.  And I’ve been enjoying kicking myself out of my rut.

#71 – Mississippi Queen, by Walter Hodel

37 plays

Change from 2021: down 11

First appearance: 2005

While I might not be a big fan of race games, there are a small number which stick for me.  In the case of Mississippi Queen, the unusual nature of the game – the very simple movement system, the limited opportunities for larger adjustments, and the ability to bump other players – all make for a more interesting movement system for me than those I’ve found in the more typical car or horse racing games.

#70 – Can’t Stop, by Sid Sackson

152 plays

Change from 2021: up 44

First appearance: 2005

The pandemic did change my frequency of play of a few games, in ways that are still happening.  Can’t stop is one of these; almost half of my plays have occurred since March 2020.  And as sometimes happens, playing the game more is making me appreciate it more, particularly as I see more and more things happen that I just hadn’t seen.  Can’t Stop also happens to be one of only two different games I’ve won a tournament for (the other being Lost Cities).  I’m not really a tournament person at heart – but I think that helped tremendously in both cases.  I had no expectation of winning, and didn’t really care about winning, so I just played.  And, somehow – lucky dice and cards, mostly – won.  It certainly wasn’t skill; I think I have a much better feel for Can’t Stop now than I did then.

#69 –Traumfabrik, by Reiner Knizia

18 plays

Change from 2021: up 11

First appearance: 2011

Given my tendency to aim to reach quick decisions on games, can a game grow on me over time if I’m not inclined to pick it up from the start?  It’s one of the questions I ask, as really the only solid counterexample – where I did eventually pick up and learn to love the game – is Traumfabrik.  I first played it in 2002, but didn’t own a copy until 2010 or 2011, and the game has just kept growing on me.  And, even better, I no longer lose horribly every single time I play – just usually.  While I don’t care about winning, I do like to improve at games, so it’s nice when it actually happens.

#68 – Sheep & Thief, by Yuichi Sakashita

23 plays

Change from 2021: up 6

First appearance: 2019

There are many elements of the Japanese game design style I admire.  The focus on keeping the games small is a nice contrast to the endless series of big box editions.  The cute artwork is definitely a draw – along with enticing production choices such as using cotton balls for sheep in this game.  And the small, sometimes handmade focus of the gaming scene in Japan draws in a wide variety of designers, meaning there’s likely a choice to fit any taste.  And Sheep & Thief fits my tastes quite well.  It’s a connection game – you score points by connecting your house to the local towns, by connecting rivers, and by collecting sheep.  And sheep can be collected by placing them on your board, or by stealing them from other players, giving some welcome direct interaction; while players can defend their sheep, that almost necessarily comes at the expense of connectivity or more sheep.  This results in a game which keeps getting better for me.

#67 – Louis XIV, by Rüdiger Dorn

35 plays

Change from 2021: down 4

First appearance: 2005

The most notable thing about Louis XIV for me is that – even though I’ve played it 35 times, a pretty good total – the game still feels vastly underplayed to me.  I think a lot of this is because, for whatever reason, when I’m in the mood to play it it always seems to take a long spell of time before it actually happens.  Though in recent plays, I’ve been happy to see that the coat of arms are more important than I’d long thought, with the winner having more coat of arms and fewer completed missions in multiple cases.

#66 – Viva Pamplona!, by Wolfgang Kramer

33 plays

Change from 2021: up 2

First appearance: 2005

One of my favorite things about Viva Pamplona! – a game which is simply great fun to play – is that you don’t know – and can’t guess – how fast the bull is going to move.  A bull that is going to stop to charge all of the time encourages slow progress; one that’s just going to run to the stadium as fast as possible encourages players to rush to keep up.  And having a game about trying to avoid getting run over by a charging bull be a push your luck game really couldn’t fit better.

#65 – Big Boss, by Wolfgang Kramer

34 plays

Change from 2021: down 11

First appearance: 2005

I love travel editions of games.  I’m not sure just why – but I’ve long been fascinated with them.  And one nice thing about German games is the greater availability of _good_ games in travel editions.  But beyond versions truly designed for travel, I appreciate when a game has a smaller edition.  So I was thrilled when the Funko edition of Big Boss came out this year.  I love the game – but the original edition, while a great presentation, is a pain to travel with.  So the new edition is now the travel edition for me.  I particularly appreciate how the new edition allows you to play with either the revised or original rules.

#64 – Mare Mediteranneum, by Jean du Poel

14 plays

Change from 2021: up 74

First appearance: 2021

In theory, I love civilization games.  In practice, most of them don’t work for me.  So it’s been great to see Mare Mediteranneum transform into one that _does_ work.  Transform, because the game as best we understand the rules – or even Frank Branham’s adaptation of the rules – didn’t.  But slowly but surely we have – and, to be fair, slowly continue to – arrived upon a rule set that makes the game fun for us.  Which wouldn’t have been possible if not for the structure Jean du Poel gave the game – all of his games I’ve played have a strong notion at their core.  Best to think of them as the 1980s/1990s version of Kickstarter first editions, I suppose, but without the benefit of being able to adapt to player questions and discoveries.

#63 – Eggs of Ostrich, by Shimpei Sato

Ohio County plays

Change from 2021: up 6

First appearance: 2015

One other advantage of the Japanese approach to game design is the willingness to design games to be played only by a specific number of players.  There are lots of 2 player games, of course, but fairly few 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 player only games.  Eggs of Ostrich is only for three players – it could be redesigned to handle more, but above and beyond the additional components, making it work for more players would be tricky at best.  And, of course, completely unnecessary, since it’s a great game to play when three players are waiting for another game to finish.

#62 – Foppen, by Friedemann Friese

71 plays

Change from 2021: down 3

First appearance: 2005

Since 2017 was the last time I posted my top N games list to Opinionated Gamers, I’ve been using that write-up as the basis for putting this together.  And by random chance, games designed by Friedemann keep ending up in the same positions, such that I haven’t actually had to write his name once until just now.  This is not a great surprise; I’m a good fit for Friedemann’s design style.  It’s one of the reasons I’ve played more prototypes of Friedemann’s than of any other designer, besides my own.  (There are only 5 designers besides myself I’ve played at least 10 prototypes from – Friedemann, Tom Lehmann, Ted Alspach, Matt Leacock – and a designer who has no published designs, but who does write for Opinionated Gamers.  Determining who that is is left as an exercise for the reader.)  I didn’t play Foppen as a prototype, but I’ve played the published design a lot.  Until it was updated, only with five players – but now any count from 5 to 8 works well.

#61 – Circus Grandioso, by Florian Racky

34 plays

Change from 2021: down 4

First appearance: 2013

In theory, there are two ways the game can end.  Either someone runs out of cards, and the current circus master wins, or a player places the seal, becomes the circus master, and wins.  But while I’ve seen the game get close to that point – I’ve seen the game end at the lion level many times, the crocodile level a few times, and the chimpanzee level at least once – I’ve never seen the seal actually placed.  One game, I knew where the seal was, along with a chimpanzee, but the circus master managed to go out while we were on the crocodile level.

#60 – Unpublished Prototype

36 plays

Change from 2021: up 1

First appearance: 2021

OK, this one needs some explanation.  This is not a collective category, but a specific, unpublished game – one which will likely never be published – which I have a copy of from the designer.  I first played the game in 2004, and quickly grew to love it, even if it’s another game I can count on losing when I sit down to play.  Occasionally there is an unpublished game I like more, but much of the time since 2007 (when Race for the Galaxy moved from unpublished to published) this has been my favorite unpublished game.  And I have a copy, so – it belongs on this list.  As I write this, there are 571 different games I’ve played as prototypes, so – this one really stands out for me.

#59 – Beyond the Sun, by Dennis Chan

40 plays

Change from 2021: up 78

First appearance: 2021

Speaking of games I got to play as prototypes – I first had the chance to try Beyond the Sun back in 2019.  And I could immediately see where the game was a good fit for me, so it was an easy choice to pick up a copy when it became available.  Being on BoardGameArena has helped quite a bit, too; my friends from high school who I play games with online enjoy it, and when we get together for synchronous play, it’s often one of the games we choose.  I’m not sure just why, but I tend to divide online gaming sites into those ideal for asynchronous play (Yucata, Board18), those ideal for synchronous play (BoardGameArea, 18xx.games), and those which detract too much from the experience for me to keep trying (nearly everything else I’ve tried).  I’ve really not had much luck trying the sites above in the opposite configuration, though I’ve tried all of them.

#58 – Wyatt Earp, by Mike Fitzgerald & Richard Borg

58 plays

Change from 2021: up 14

First appearance: 2005

In a recent two-player experience, I encountered something I’d never seen before – I drew all 7 Wyatt Earp cards in one hand.  And while one doesn’t necessarily need a lot of the cards – being sheriff cards they do take some doing to get played – never seeing a single one really doesn’t help, since hideouts are impossible to get rid of.  Of course, it was only one hand, but it was one of the most lopsided hands I’ve seen.  While most of the Mystery Rummy games are enjoyable, this one clearly stands out for me, as the addition of the rewards really adds something to the game.

#57 – The Great Dalmuti, by Richard Garfield

61+ plays

Change from 2021: up 68

First appearance: 2005

This might be the game on this list which is most difficult for me to get played.  There are two challenges – first, there are other games of this nature, such as Tichu, which are (for reasons I can’t understand) much more popular.  But even ignoring that – it really takes at least 6 people for a good game of The Great Dalmuti, and finding that many is a challenge.  But in spite of this, I still love the game.  Or pastime – it’s really not a game in some ways, as there’s no end to the game and no overall winner.  (Part of how I manage to get the game played is by agreeing to limit the time we’ll play it – though I’d be happy to play for a couple of hours sometime.)  Because there is no end, it’s a relaxing game to play, and players can set an appropriate goal for each hand – whether it’s to become The Great Dalmuti, not to drop in the ranks, or simply to avoid becoming the Greater Peon.

#56 – Die Steven Seagal, by Stefan Dorra

70 plays

Change from 2021: up 2

First appearance: 2005

Based upon a post from Brian Bankler, I set a goal to try to increase my H-index to 50 before I turned 50.  This was successful, but it involved playing a fair bit of Die Steven Seagal.  And while most of the games returned to normal play patterns after, for some reason this game kept hitting the table more frequently.  Which has been welcome; while not my favorite trick taking game for any particular count, it is a game that works well across counts (if a bit more interesting with 4 or 5 than with 3), and is always entertaining.

#55 – Fast Food Franchise, by Friedemann Friese\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Tom Lehmann

136+ plays

Change from 2021: down 2

First appearance: 2005

I played a lot of games in high school with my friends (mostly boardgames, but there was M.U.L.E.), but it was a smaller part of my life in college, and even when I found a local group back in 1991; it wasn’t until 1995 when (1) the former organizers of the group moved away, and I took over, and (2) I found another local group that I started attending – and still attend – that I really fell completely into the hobby.  So there aren’t many games I acquired between 1985 and 1995 which are still in my collection.  But that is when I was given Fast Food Franchise as a gift from my parents – one of the most memorable gifts I’ve received, since at the time I’d never heard of the game, it took me a while before I was able to get it to the table, and it’s since become a well-worn favorite of mine.

#54 – Vikings, by Michael Kiesling

44 plays

Change from 2021: up 36

First appearance: 2007

Vikings is a fixed-fun game.  By which I mean – the number of turns – and thus the length of the game – is fixed; with more players, everyone gets fewer turns.  So it’s not surprising that the game is more enjoyable with three than with four.  Which makes the fact that there’s an implementation on Yucata, and most of my ongoing online plays are three player, ideal.  But this does bring up a key point – while I enjoy playing games online with friends, I still want – strongly want – to play them in person as well, at least on occasion.  I’m not sure where the cutoff point is, but after a bunch of online play I really need to play a game in person.  I think that this is indicative of the fact that for me, online play is a step down from in-person play.

#53 – Hawaii, by Greg Daigle

42 plays

Change from 2021: up 64

First appearance: 2013

Hawaii is another game I’m not particularly good at.  But with it available online, I’ve been playing it more – which in turn, seems to have resulted in more in-person play as well; my total plays have nearly doubled since the start of the pandemic.  Which has given me a better idea for what I do wrong, if not really any good ideas on how to improve my play.  I am pleased to see the game have something of a renaissance locally – the game still feels fresh and different from other games to me.  I particularly like the variety of options offered in the game, and the challenges associated with each.

#52 – Zum Kuckuck, by Stefan Dorra

49 plays

Change from 2021: up 3

First appearance: 2005

One of the things I really appreciate about Zum Kuckuck is that everyone gets to play every hand.  I might not be convinced that the cockatoo distribution is just right, but – it doesn’t matter; everyone has to deal with it, once.  I do think the game really needs five players – I’ve never actually played with any other number – but I do enjoy how many hands need to skirt close to the edge without falling off.  Whether or not one will fall off depends a lot upon the order nests come out, of course – but not falling off can make a huge difference, as these hands typically start with lots of cockatoos.

#51 – Wings for the Baron, by Dave Townsend

24 plays

Change from 2021: up 5

First appearance: 2019

I’m not sure exactly how I feel about games offering a “basic” and an “advanced” way to play.  Frequently there is one of those choices that is superior – and it’s not always clear which that will be.  In the case of Wings for the Baron, the basic version seems to result in greater competition, which has kept me from ever trying the advanced game.  I have tried the advanced scoring for Akropolis, but I’m not convinced it adds anything to the game.  On the other hand, I was taught the advanced rules for Vikings, and a (much) later attempt with the basic rules didn’t do anything for me.  And I’ve never played the basic setting for Sauscharf, as the harder variants seem to offer more interesting choices in the play.  I am afraid that if they weren’t included, the wrong one for me would be offered – but it does make it more complex to determine exactly what game you’re going to play.

#50 – Breitseite, by Reinhold Wittig

27 plays

Change from 2021: up 2

First appearance: 2017

Dexterity games might not be my thing, generally – but most of them tend to focus on doing something better or best.  There really aren’t a lot of games where you’re directly attacking your opponent.  Gnip Gnop comes to mind, but not much else.  I think this is one of the reasons Breitseite stands out so much for me – the interaction is so direct, and so child-like, as to lead to great fun – and great sorrow, when you collapse your own ship.  I can’t recall a case where playing this game didn’t raise my spirits.

#49 – Ricochet Robot, by Alex Randolph

72 plays

Change from 2021: down 1

First appearance: 2005

I don’t like expansions.  Which isn’t to say I don’t like _any_ expansion; just that I’m not a fan of them in general.  But I have, on rare occasion, designed expansions.  One of those is a particularly evil expansion for Ricochet Robot, adding Bongo-like puzzle solving to determine the destination in front of standard Ricochet Robot puzzles.  I particularly enjoyed having players simply solve for what they thought the correct destination was, so that a low number _might_ mean a better solution to the traditional Ricochet Robot puzzle or _might_ mean a difference of opinion about what the correct destination was.  On the whole, it’s a fairly mind-melting experience.

#48 – Concordia, by Mac Gerdts

29 plays

Change from 2021: up 2

First appearance: 2015

This is a good example of a game where the online editions never worked for me.  First I tried it on Boiteajeux, and it worked – but not well enough to make me want to play it again.  Then came the iOS app – which if anything, was even harder to play.  There is a challenge, when creating an online boardgame, in presenting the information.  At the table, you can see everything – or if you can’t, easily request to see what you’re missing.  Online, it’s not so easy.  Which tends to make games with more limited information required to be available work better – and that’s not really Concordia, where the cards played by other players are critical, often referenced information.    So the game quickly shifted back to being only-in-person for me.  Fortunately, it’s the highest ranked game on BoardGameGeek which is among my favorites, so it’s one of the easiest to get played.

#47 – Jambo, by Rüdiger Dorn

171 plays

Change from 2021: down 15

First appearance: 2005

I really have too many two-player-only games.  This isn’t as much of a problem as it once was – I’ve weeded a fair bit over time – but given my strong preference for multiplayer games, I was overranking those games.  None of which makes Jambo any less enjoyable as a game – it’s a fascinating economic game, very different in nature from other such games due to the cards – trying to find ways to collect the exact set of goods needed in order to conduct a sale.

A couple of iterations back, I ran a poll as to what person card was folk’s favorite.  But what about the utilities?  In order, from my least to most favorite…

10) Kettle – trading cards for other cards is nice, but – not much as compared to the other choices

9) Scale – while this does help, altogether too frequently the two cards drawn are of similar value, and you’ve helped your opponent nearly as much as yourself

8) Throne – swapping wares is handy, but – only sometimes

7) Mask of transformation – this does limit your opponent, which is nice, but it only seems to rarely help

6) Well – a nice utility, but the randomness of the card drawn limits the value

5) Drums – the card is nice – but being able to get rid of goods can be tremendously helpful

4) Boat – getting the specific good you want is invaluable; but the cost of a card is high

3) Weapons – having another way to get victory points (gold) is great, though you need to have cards…

2) Leopard Statue – again, collecting specific goods is very helpful, and giving up two gold for it is cheap

1) Supplies – getting a supply/demand card _specifically_ from this makes it extremely powerful

#46 – Geschenkt, by Thorsten Gimmler

198 plays

Change from 2021: down 5

First appearance: 2005

I do worry, sometimes, that I’m overly harsh with fillers.  Well, not overly harsh, perhaps, but – too unwilling to consider a 10 rating for them.  But for me, a 10 rating requires something more from a game than I get from fillers.  I love Geschenkt, play it very regularly (the 198 plays have come in a bit less than 20 years; averaging 10 plays a year is a rarity for me), and will often play it multiple times in a row.  But – that doesn’t really take the place of playing a game I rate a 10 for me.

#45 – Neos, by team SAIEN

83 plays

Change from 2021: down 12

First appearance: 2015

Yes, we’ve reached the filler portion of this list.  Neos is a game which I wish was more readily available – and which I think might do well if it was.  The only components in the game are 80 cards, each with one of four colors and two of six letters, with A being most common and F least.  Collections of three or more of a color or letter in a row score points – but the same number of points regardless of how many, forcing players to add a break in between.    One would think this simple game – playable by 2-4 players in less than 15 minutes, with realistic opportunities to expand the game to five players and still stick to a 104 card deck – would convince someone to produce a new edition.

#44 – King’s Breakfast, by Alan Moon & Aaron Weissblum

76 plays

Change from 2021: down 1

First appearance: 2005

Three in a row!  Tic-tac-toe!  A long time ago, I was working on a game design similar in general nature to King’s Breakfast – called Bookworm, with books replacing food – but I could never get it to work smoothly.  And it’s one of the reasons King’s Breakfast strikes home with me – it does what I wanted to do so much better.  The scoring system is simple, the play of a turn is simple, and the game offers great push-your-luck opportunities.  Even Emerald, the king’s pet dragon, fits in the game permanently – until he’s been fully fed, you can’t count on things on the king’s table counting at the end of the game.

#43 – Battle Cry, by Richard Borg

44 plays

Change from 2021: down 8

First appearance: 2005

Why does this wargame – for those willing to classify it as such – stick around while the rest have disappeared?  First and foremost, there’s subject matter.  Growing up, when we took trips we would always visit amusement parks (to satisfy my brother and me), interesting houses (to satisfy my mom), and US Civil War battle sites (to satisfy my dad).  Second, there’s the game length – a nice, tidy 30 minutes or so.  Third, there’s the rules – I may have to brush up on terrain effects each time I play, but that’s about it, and we’re good to go.  I’m sure there are more wargames I’d enjoy if I tried them – games which hit on some or all of these matters – but I’m not convinced there’s one I’d enjoy more.

#42 – Samarkand, by Sid Sackson

44 plays

Change from 2021: up 4

First appearance: 2005

When playing the expansion for For Sale recently, I realized that there’s a better way to rate expansions.  Rating them in the same way as full games doesn’t make sense, for a couple of reasons.  First, the numbers aren’t really directly compatible; someone like me who dislikes most expansions will tilt the data.  But more importantly, with an expansion the first question you tend to ask is – does it make the game better?  So I rate expansions – well, if I have some reason to come up with a rating for an expansion, which really doesn’t happen all that frequently – based upon my rating of the game _with_ the expansion minus my rating _without_.  In theory, the scale for this is -9 to +9 – the first being an expansion that ruins my favorite game, the latter an expansion that turns a game I actively dislike into an all-time favorite.  In practice, however, there are no expansions I would rate outside of the range of -8 to +2.  Isfahan, the expansion for Samarkand, is the +2 – having the demands for the various goods in the game move around the board really improves the game for me.

#41 – Too Many Cinderellas, by Nobutake Dogen & Nao Shimamura

68 plays

Change from 2021: down 11

First appearance: 2015

While Gads Hill 1874 perfected Old Town for me, it’s Too Many Cinderellas that has done the most with the genre.  These games are sometimes referred to as deduction games, but they aren’t – you’re trying to eliminate possibilities until the one you prefer is the only one remaining.  Too Many Cinderellas greatest advantage is the elimination of the fiddly possibility markers that make setup of Gads Hill rather time consuming – but the shorter length also helps make the game more replayable, and the theme really sells it.

#40 – Mamma Mia, by Uwe Rosenberg

80 plays

Change from 2021: down 4

First appearance: 2005

I’ve been cheated by chance since I don’t know when

So I made up my mind: the round must now end

Ingredients now, will I ever learn?

I don’t know how, but I suddenly lose control

There’s pizza within my soul

Just one look at that cheese covered thing

One more look the salami clings, whoa

Mamma mia, here I go again

Tasty pizza, how can I resist you?

Mamma mia, making dough again?

Mmm mmm, just how much I wanna chew

Yes, I’ve been broken-hearted

Since the driver departed

Why, why did I ever let you go?

Mamma mia, now I really know

As I watch the pizza oven glow

#39 – For Sale, by Stefan Dorra

269 plays

Change from 2021: down 8

First appearance: 2005

Just above, I mentioned the range of effective ratings I use for expansions going down as low as -8.  The expansion for For Sale is the aforementioned -8 for me.  It simply turned a classic into something unplayable.  Fortunately, it’s easily avoided – no one I played with enjoyed it either – and the original game remains wildly fun more than 25 years since I first played it.  But it’s a game I regularly bring along to conventions, to be sure the right version is there.  I learned the original Ravensburger game, and while I’ve tried the subsequent changes – I strongly prefer the original, with the opportunity to match the high bid, the rounding down of the amount paid, and the wider range of checks (3-20 plus two 0s).

#38 – Quacksalbe, by Volker Tietze

33 plays

Change from 2021: down 1

First appearance: 2005

I’m not generally a big fan of the macabre – but here it works really well.  The idea of having quacks prescribing their personally preferred snake oil, and taking credit when it works – while being blamed by their colleagues when it doesn’t – is a clever one.  And using trick-taking mechanisms to carry this off makes the game easily accessible and understood even by new players.  But the clincher for me is the patients.  I’m particularly fond of the hearse driver – who if saved is so grateful as to take a corpse off of your hands – and the coma patient, who might actually be revived by your tomfoolery, at least if there’s enough of it.  Oh, and the phantom.  Such a brilliant addition to the game.

#37 – Planet Steam, by Heinz-Georg Thiemann

30 plays

Change from 2021: up 2

First appearance: 2009

Ah, another fine example of a travel edition; I still own the original LudoArt edition, but if I’m taking the game anywhere it’s the Fantasy Flight edition that’s traveling.  For all that I’ve played the game, I’m still not just sure what the best strategy is at the start.  I always seem to spend too much on the first turn – when it’s very difficult to make much money – and regret it on the second turn.  And often the third.  Sometimes the fourth too.  This is a game I wish were available online, where I could play it often enough to really test the bounds.

#36 – Autoscooter, by Günter Cornett

31 plays

Change from 2021: up 4

First appearance: 2005

Eric Brosius had a fantastic idea for Autoscooter, implemented by Brian Hanechak – sets of cards for each player, with one set providing the numbers chosen for the round, and the other the set of possible movements.  In addition to removing the need for writing utensils, this also speeds up the game by having all numbers revealed at once and turns simply taken.  I wasn’t certain how I would feel about them, but having tried them both ways in recent memory, the cards really are a significant improvement.  And when you can improve upon a game I enjoy this much…  

#35 – Timbuktu, by Dirk Henn

36 plays

Change from 2021: up 3

First appearance: 2005

I _almost_ got in a non-five-player game of Timbuktu since the last write-up.  I’ve never played it with any other number, but I’m becoming more and more curious just how the game would feel when played with, say, four players.  I often feel boxed in with five players, finding my camels often drawn into a few adjacent columns.  Would having more camels make that part of the game feel too loose?  Or would it be a welcome reprieve?  I don’t even know the rules for any number of players other than five – what else would we find out?  My suspicion is that I’ll find it interesting but not as good as with five – but even if that’s the case, it should still be worthwhile for the experience.

#34 – Factory Manager, by Friedemann Friese

49 plays

Change from 2021: up 15

First appearance: 2009

I play games with a group which – when I first joined in 1995 – played 18xx every week.  And so my expectation is that interesting economic games will appear to the group.  And sometimes that’s true – but not always.  It’s hard for me to get this group to play Factory Manager, which I really wish it wasn’t; while I may be nearing 50 plays, I’d still like to explore the game much more than I’ve had the chance to so far.

#33 – Flaschenteufel, by Günter Cornett

71 plays

Change from 2021: down 10

First appearance: 2005

One of the big challenges in Flaschenteufel is finding a way to get rid of the low cards.  Making this more difficult is the possibility that one or more low cards might be put into the collection going to the player stuck with the bottle imp at the end, adding a degree of imperfection to card counting.  One of the most important things I’ve come to realize about Flaschenteufel is the importance of holding yellow cards higher than the current price of the bottle imp.  If you hold (in the original version) 1-22-25-28 and hold the lead, you can perfectly safely lead the 1 – it will not win the trick.  Even with just 1-25-28, your odds are quite good.  But a significant part of the challenge is making sure you win some points in addition to avoiding the bottle imp, and correctly judging how to properly value those two objectives.  I often tend to focus too much on getting rid of bad cards, when I really should be collecting points.

#32 – Dice Realms, by Tom Lehmann

99 plays

Change from 2021: N/A

First appearance: 2019

This is the first game to ever make my list, drop off, and then reappear.  But that comes with a giant asterisk – I changed my own rules for 2021 to only include games in my collection, and I didn’t get my copy until 2022.  My enjoyment of the game did not change; it otherwise would have been included.  For me, Dice Realms does exactly what was needed with a changeable dice game – increase the frequency of changes and the frequency of die rolls.  Without that, games tend to come down to luck for far too large an extent, as those who roll better die faces will inevitably gain on other players. 

#31 – Glass Road, by Uwe Rosenberg

34 plays

Change from 2021: up 3

First appearance: 2015

It’s amazing just how much difference the goods trackers in Glass Road make.  Keeping track of a dozen or so resources – and the conversion of those resources into other resources – is the very definition of fiddly.  In Glass Road, hundreds of components are reduced to one nice set of wheels per player and ten discs, and as a result the focus shifts back onto the other elements of the game.  One of which I really appreciate is the timing aspect – one needs to develop plans that can survive other player’s actions, particularly when an action you’re holding onto for later gets selected too soon.

#30 – Lift Off, by Jeroen Vandersteen

31 plays

Change from 2021: down 2

First appearance: 2019

Just how static is my list?  This is the last game you’ll see on this list which I first included in 2019, 2021, or 2023.  Games do change positions, sometimes significantly, but – new games have to impress me enough to push old ones out.  Which, actually, is just what Lift Off has done.  The theme – trying to launch missions into space – is a fun one, and using the US/USSR cold war as a backdrop to this with wonderful, comic-like artwork. And unlike some other games on the topic, the rules for Lift Off are easily comprehended, and the game completes in a reasonable period of time.

#29 – Indonesia, by Jeroen Doumen & Joris Wiersinga

43 plays

Change from 2021: none

First appearance: 2005

My most recent game of Indonesia was a wonderful reminder of just how little I understand about the game.  I got off to a fine start – I was the only one to deliver goods on the first turn, and was able to create a strong shipping company on the third turn – but for whatever reason, from there things went South.  Not _really_ South – one of the things that attracts me to Indonesia as compared to some of Jeroen and Joris’ other designs is that while things go better or worse, one doesn’t feel completely out of the game.  It was clear-ish that I wasn’t going to win, but still I was making useful progress.  But I’m as lost as ever as to what caused this to happen…

#28 – Showmanager, by Dirk Henn

63 plays

Change from 2021: down 2

First appearance: 2005

Unintentionally, I’ve fallen into a habit with this game.  While my preference would be to make a good show early and put it in New York, it feels like the cards have not favored me, and so a bad Wolf in Troisdorf, followed shortly by a big loan and a (temporary) profit has been the path.  Not for lack of willingness to spend early – I’m as happy to pay 3000 for a 9 card as the next player – but just a lack of a reasonable – or even half-decent – choice.  Which probably means I’m not flushing the board often enough, but – it always feels like a bad choice to do so too early; it’s a path to finishing a show well, not to starting a show.  Fortunately, none of this takes away from the fun of the game.

#27 – Macao, by Stefan Feld

56 plays

Change from 2021: down 8

First appearance: 2011

Much has been said about Macao’s odd detachment from the theme; in particular, the floating capitals of Europe are often looked down upon.  And I can’t argue that there’s a close connection to the theme – I think I’d feel more like I was in Macao with a re-themed version of Vegas, honestly.  But somehow that doesn’t matter for me.  I like the office cards – perhaps not as much as the people and buildings, but being able to generate coins is definitely important.  And I love the people and building cards, in particular the fact that you will never, in any play of Macao, see all of them.  Everything must be evaluated based upon its own value – you might hope to see a card’s match, but it’s best to assume the Baronessa you are considering is the only one you’ll get to see.  Which makes each game feel very different, and forces a more tactical approach – something I need to be pushed into now and again.

#26 – Africa, by Toto\\\\\ Reiner Knizia

89 plays

Change from 2021: down 2

First appearance: 2005

OK, I must admit, it’s not actually Toto that comes first to mind now – it’s the video of Weezer’s cover of the song, with Weird Al playing the part of the lead singer.  As far as the game goes – Africa is a game that struck home with me from the start.  The exploring is great – but base camps and moving nomads (or, less frequently, animals) makes for such a steadier income of victory points.  Explore when you don’t have anything better to do, or when you need artifacts.  Otherwise, it’s usually better to focus on victory points, and on the path to more victory points.

#25 – A Brief History of the World, by Steve Kendall & Gary Dicken

35+ plays

Change from 2021: up 2

First appearance: 2011

It’s amazing just how much this game has changed over time.  I played the Avalon Hill version many times, and enjoyed it.  But A Brief History of the World streamlined the game enough to improve it, even if it took a few plays before I was sure of that.  And then it was streamlined still more for the Nashville World’s Fair edition – and, in my opinion, went too far.  Most often, my favorite edition of a game is the first; sometimes it’s the most recent.  But offhand, this is the only case I can think of where the poor forgotten middle child wins out.

#24 – Rails of New England, by Walter Hunt and Gregory Pozerski

38 plays

From from 2021: up 21

First appearance: 2011

It’s not difficult to come up with things about Rails of New England that aren’t perfect.  The text on the board is pretty, but not the easiest to read.  The states aren’t particularly well balanced.  This can be balanced by the three A cards each player receives – or just further imbalanced.  The take-that cards really just don’t fit the game, in my opinion.  The events are almost always imbalanced – and the timing of the early events varies by enough to add a lot of variability that will always work against some players.  And poor Rhode Island only shows up with five players.  But for all of this – I really enjoy the game.  We’ve started to randomly select states, so that Rhode Island is more often an option.  But the rest – well, you’re trying to make the most of the situation you’ve been dealt.  Maybe you’ll play a poor position so well that you win; perhaps you’ll misplay a strong start, or take too many or too few loans and back yourself into a corner.  And sometimes, you’ll get the Ice business in Woburn.

#23 – Canal Mania, by Steve Kendall, Phil Kendall & Gary Dicken

38 plays

Change from 2021: up 19

First appearance: 2007

I’ve mentioned, a number of times, that for me this is the best implementation of the ideas from Age of Steam I’ve played.  So why is that?  First, while there is still the incentive to create somewhat inefficient routes, the requirement to build based upon contracts prevents this from being an issue.  It also makes for far more historic networks, which appeals to me.  I’m also a fan of the tight trade-offs within a turn – do you grab a good contract?  Or hire away the right engineer for your cards?  Or just load up on more cards?  The balance between more cards and building is often harder than it would seem at first glance, as well – completing a canal might make more deliveries possible, and collecting too many cards (requiring discards at the end of the turn) can pay off if it allows for more efficient building in the future – or generates the right goods to deliver.  Age of Steam always felt too artificial to me; Canal Mania feels more realistic.  Oh, and of course, narrow boats.

#22 – Grand Austria Hotel, by VIrginio Gigli & Simone Luciani

90 plays

Change from 2021: up 3

First appearance: 2017

Larry Levy is a big fan of the Italian design scene; I’ve never found it to be much to my taste.  The one exception to this is Grand Austria Hotel, which feels more logical to me than other games from that school of design.  But it’s nice to have a game I can play with Larry which will make us both happy.  Given the implementation on Yucata, a game I thought would tail off in plays has instead exploded.  Of my 90 plays, 36 have been online with Larry – along with one in-person with Larry, for variety.  And honestly, getting to experience more of the game has only improved my appreciation for the design.

#21 – The King of Frontier, by Shun

83 plays

Change from 2021: down 1

First appearance: 2015

I enjoy Carcassonne.  I enjoy Puerto Rico.  But The King of Frontier, which borrows from both games, is a better game for me than either of them.  The use of square tiles which must be lined up – here, on an individual player board – is familiar and enjoyable.  Having everyone take an action, but the person who chooses the action gets a better version, is familiar from Puerto Rico, and keeps everyone involved at all times.  But on top of this, The King of Frontier turns production into production of goods to build with and production of food to score victory points with, which makes for some interesting tradeoffs.  Having each player build their own area would seem to remove interaction, but the limited supply of buildings and victory points bring in a fair degree of interaction.  There may not be the opportunity to directly impact other players, but choosing a role that only helps you always feels good.

#20 – La Città, by Gerd Fenchel

48 plays

Change from 2021: down 3

First appearance: 2005

This is a game which seems to have been largely passed by, which is too bad.  Now, to be fair, I almost missed the game myself – I didn’t push to get it played when it first came out, but only got to it when a friend was looking to play it.  But when I did, I thought it a fascinating game, with the tradeoffs between fueling your growth with new civic structures and feeding your growing populace.  Now, sometimes this problem solves itself – growth fuels more growth, and one city comes to dominate the board.  But more often the constraints make for difficult and imperfect choices.

#19 – Mü, by Doris Matthäus & Frank Nestel

322 plays

Change from 2021: up 2

First appearance: 2005

For a number of years, we had a regular weekly Mü game at work; I miss that, but fortunately the game at least seems to be hitting the table somewhat more often again.  One of the challenges with the game is that familiarity makes a big difference, and so for the best play experience you want players with comparable levels of experience.  I’m really thankful for the iOS application for this game – not that the play is brilliant (There is a view of Bridge players occasionally wanting to strangle their partners; I’ve never felt any need to do that, but sometimes do with the Mü app), but that I get to play the game much more frequently.  I should note – my play counts only include in-person plays and a small number of online plays with people I know.  I enjoy playing boardgame apps – but I have never counted them in my plays.

#18 – Sextet, by Ralph Peterson

97 plays

Change from 2021: none

First appearance: 2005

Once upon a time, we had a theoretically monthly Sextet (six player Bridge) game set up at work.  In practice, we only pulled off a game every other month at best, but we had enough players (twelve, at one point) to have a chance.  Unfortunately, like the weekly game of Mü, this is now a distant memory.  And it usually takes some doing to get in a game – I do try, and usually succeed, at a couple of conventions, but that’s about it.  So I was very pleasantly surprised to get in an impromptu 98^th play earlier this month.  You don’t need to be a Bridge player to play Sextet – I’ve played Sextet with multiple people who have never played Bridge, and taught at least a couple of people Bridge by way of Sextet – though I’m certain that my enjoyment of Bridge helps my appreciation of Sextet.

#17 – Acquire, by Sid Sackson

102+ plays

Change from 2021: up 5

First appearance: 2005

Is Acquire the most important game in my life?  I don’t know, but it’s entirely possible.  It’s certainly the first game that I played which caused me to realize that games weren’t just for little children.  (Of course, I was only twelve at the time, so I suspect the moment was less immediately impactful than I remember now.)  And Acquire is one of the few games I kept playing – at least occasionally – as I grew up, and started joining a local game group.  But the next really big impact was when I had the chance to visit The Strong Museum of Play in 2014, and figured out that everyone had the publication date for the game wrong, giving me real interest in learning more about the history of games.  Now I just need to find more time to act on that desire.

#16 – Bohnanza, by Uwe Rosenberg

109 plays

Change from 2021: none

First appearance: 2005

For far too long, I ignored my anti-expansion inclination and tried to have a complete collection of Bohnanza.  Fortunately, I realized how silly this was, and moved on.  Mostly.  I do still have two Bohnanza-family games, which I can’t quite convince myself to let go of.  The first is High Bohn, which I enjoy because the option of cashing in coins for special abilities is intriguing, and messes with the card count.  I’m not convinced I really need it, but I have enjoyed my few plays.  The other is Sissi, which I picked up at Essen near the end of my completionist stage.  It’s not an absolute favorite, but it is a nice twist on the game.  Even now, writing about them, I’m not convinced I really need to keep either of these.

#15 – Russian Railroads, by Helmut Ohley & Leonhard Orgler

74 plays

Change from 2021: down 1

First appearance: 2013

2013 really stands out for me as a year for new releases, in no small part because it marked a change from a few lean years for new games for me; 2013-2015 is probably my second favorite three year stretch for new releases ever.  And a huge part of this is Russian Railroads, which borrowed liberally from 18xx, but managed to not feel much like those games, introducing some of the ideas to a wider audience.  This came out recently enough that I’ve completely avoided the expansions – though the one I did play didn’t do anything for me that the base game didn’t.

#14 – Ticket to Ride, by Alan Moon

53 plays

First appearance: 2005

I am rather fond of the Ticket to Ride city games, which offer a touch of the game in a nice, short filler-length duration.  I particularly enjoy London, though I’ve yet to try San Francisco.  Of course, I still love the original as well.  The ability of the game to be played either cutthroat or very supportively makes it – as with many Spiel des Jahres winners, actually.  Which is a really handy feature for a game to have – so long as gamers adjust appropriately when playing with family.

#13 – Euphrat & Tigris, by Reiner Knizia

61 plays

Change from 2021: down 1

First appearance: 2005

Unfortunately, I wasn’t playing games online back when Euphrat & Tigris was on BoardGameGeek; its somewhat amazing that it both lasted so long, and never became a thing; it’s not that hard to picture BoardGameGeek in the role of BoardGameArena, had things proceeded differently.  I love E&T, but the thing I enjoy least about the game is trying to get a new player to understand the difference between an internal conflict and an external conflict.  In many ways, it’s the one non-Kniiza-like element to the game; one of his strengths as a designer is his ability to develop his games until they’re finely polished.

#12 – Thebes, by Peter Prinz

46 plays

Change from 2021: down 2

First appearance: 2005

I love luck in games.  One of the best experiences in Thebes is when one has a game-long streak of luck.  Doesn’t really matter if it’s good luck or bad luck; either way you have a story to tell.  My first game of Jenseits von Theben, the precursor to Thebes but close enough as to be directly comparable, the other three players had scores in the 40s.  My score was 11.  I could draw naught but dirt, which meant I couldn’t put on exhibitions, and by the time I realized my time would best be spent going to intellectual congress meetings, I was too late.  But I loved the game; the luck involved really fit the theme and made the game work the way I wanted it to.  I’ve since also experienced the opposite once, and a lot of games where the luck ebbed and flowed.  But without luck, games really aren’t interesting for me.

#11 – Frisch Fisch, by Friedemann Friese 

61 plays

Change from 2021: down 2

First appearance: 2005

One of the fun things about posting these lists to BoardGameGeek is the ability to add polls.  (I’m fairly certain there’s a way to do so here as well, but having already written a novella’s worth of text, I’m not going to go trying to figure it out _now_.)  In particular, I had fun with the mock-choose-your-own-adventures of Eloise and Timmy, first in my entry for Frisch Fisch, then Sinbad, then Fast Food Franchise.  Even if I do figure out polls here, I don’t think I’ll return to these – it’s time for fresh silliness – but I feel they should end explicitly.  There’s no poll, but feel free to answer in the comments…

Eloise and Timmy have grown bored with the hustle and bustle of the chocolate industry, and have sat down for a lunch of fish and chips.

“Hey, Eloise, haven’t we been here before?  I’m pretty sure I recognize that game store.”

“Sure, Timmy, but – it would be nice if someone bothered to build a road so we can get to it.”

“Yes, especially since the ground here all seems to be a really odd shade of green.”

Do you:

1. Place an apartment that forces a road to be placed next to the game store?  (Proceed to page 27)
2. Open a competing fish and chip store?  (Proceed to page aleph null)
3. Help Eloise and Timmy find three more players to play Mü?  (Proceed to page checksum)
4. Sing “They’re Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!” at the top of your lungs, hoping to never see Eloise and Timmy again?  (Proceed – carefully – to the B-side)

#10 – Saint Petersburg, by Michael Tummelhofer 

197 plays

Change from 2021: none

First appearance: 2005

I don’t care for the observatory.  Not that I think it’s underpriced; it’s not, in my opinion.  I just dislike it; when I buy an observatory, bad things happen.  I’m not sure just why; it doesn’t matter just how I use it, because things don’t work out regardless.  My favorite cards in Saint Petersburg, in contrast, are the Shepherd, Potemkin’s Village, the Secretary, and the Pope.  And the more I play, the more I realize how undervalued buildings typically are – though my local group has gotten past that.  At least they still undervalue the mail contract…

#9 – Race for the Galaxy, by Tom Lehman 

1458 plays

Change from 2021: up 2

First appearance: 2005

Race for the Galaxy is the only game I’ve ever played 1000 times in a year, and it’s not close – the only other game I’ve played even 100 times in a year is Bridge, which I’ve managed 14 times.  But the most I’ve played Bridge in a year is 186 times.  I’m afraid that while my 1000 plays of Race in a year didn’t put me off the game, it’s limited how much I want to play it to about once a month or so.  Not that this is a bad rate – I have a longer streak of playing Race at least five times every year than for any other game except Bridge – and I do still play the app and occasionally the computer game, so it’s not as if I’m never getting to it.  I just wonder if I had played it less in 2008 if I would be playing it more now.

#8 – Schnäppchen Jagd, by Uwe Rosenberg 

162 plays

Change from 2021: up 5

First appearance: 2005

The problem with trick taking games, for me, is that over time, nearly all of them are YATTCG (yet another trick taking card game).  Which is fine – many of them collect ten or more fun plays before this happens – but it’s occurred so many times that I always worry about it.  Of course, Schnäppchen Jagd is well past that point, and in to the lifetime favorite category.  I haven’t played with four in ages – it is better with three, though I do still enjoy it with four, and my most memorable game might have been one which ended in a four-way tie at -1.  Three players and twenty minutes defaults to Schnäppchen Jagd in my brain.

#7 – 1846, by Tom Lehmann 

429 plays

Change from 2021: none

First appearance: 2005

The thing that amazes me most about 1846 is that, 400+ plays in, I’m still seeing new things.  Now, it helps that I play with as inventive a player as Jeroen, but still – much as I enjoy the game, I wouldn’t necessarily have expected it to still be delivering fresh experiences after this much play.  This is a game that definitely benefited from the pandemic; not only did it provide an enjoyable asynchronous online experience, but it allowed regular play with folks who I would normally have limited opportunity to play the game with.  But unlike some games, I’ve never had difficulty getting in enough in-person play to balance out the near-weekly online games.  The scary thing is that while I have played more since 2020 – it’s actually not _that_ much more.  One recent play I really enjoyed, I focused my play around Toledo – not a usual strategy, but in this case it worked.

#6 – Res Publica, by Reiner Knizia 

95 plays

Change from 2021: up 2

First appearance: 2005

While lots of people enjoy Knizia’s designs, I suspect I’m one of the few to rate Res Publica as my favorite of the lot.  But I like limited communication games, and I like trading games, and I enjoy half hour length games.  And, of course, I enjoy Knizia’s design style – there’s a reason ten of his games make this list.  But really what makes the game for me is how it all comes together.  Now, to be fair, you really need to play Res Publica with a table of folks who are paying attention – that’s the only way the limited communication really works.  But given that, I’ve never had a bad experience with the game.

#5 – Merchant of Venus, by Richard Hamblen

111 plays

Change from 2021: down 2

First appearance: 2005

2020 broke my streak of playing Merchant of Venus at least five times every year; otherwise, from 2006 to present I’ve managed at least that number of plays – but somehow never more than ten.  Once we noticed that 2357 is a prime number – made up of only prime numbers – that became our go-to goal for the game, though we do play to other prime numbers made up from 2, 3, 5, and 7 sometimes – and, for variety, sometimes even to a non-prime number.  I can’t recall the last time I played to a total as mundane as $2000 or $3000, though.

#4 – 2038, by Tom Lehmann & James Hlavaty 

83+ plays

Change from 2021: up 1

First appearance: 2005

I enjoy 18xx, on the whole – but over time, I’ve reduced the ones in my collection to 1846 and 2038.  And 2038 ranks as my favorite, in large part because of the randomness of the game.  I first learned 1830, and while some things change from game to game, it felt like the track was identical, or nearly so, and the majority of the actions taken were predictable.  I still got more than ten plays from the game before I was done with it, but – there wasn’t the variety I was looking for to go on.  Besides 1830, I’ve played 1861, 18EU, 18Neb, and Poseidon at least 10 times before letting them go, and nearly 30 other titles in the genre in total.  But – for me, 2038 stands out above them all.  The longer length keeps me from playing it as frequently as 1846, but I still get more from the game when I do play it.

#3 – Advanced Civilization, by Francis Tresham

31+ plays

Change from 2021: Up 1

First appearance: 2005

While 31 plays in 28 years isn’t exactly a huge number – for a game such as Advanced Civilization, I’m happy with it.  By number of times played, it’s tied for 2^7-1th for me, but by hours spent playing it, it’s actually my sixth most played game.  One of the things I love most about the game is how easy it is to teach.  Whenever I set up a game, new players are most welcome – unlike many shorter games, where players need to understand most everything before playing, in Advanced Civilization you only need to understand a few basic things to get the game started, and can learn the rest as the game progresses.  Being able to easily integrate new players is always welcome, but it’s critical for a long game such as Advanced Civ.

#2 – Bridge, by Harold Vanderbilt

2857+ plays

Change from 2021: none

First appearance: 2005

There is no game where my number of plays has benefited more from the pandemic than Bridge.  From 2016-2019, I averaged 42 plays a year.  From 2020 through 2023 – even with 2023 only being a partial year at this point – I’ve averaged 153.  Because playing Bridge online, synchronously with audio, really does give one the full Bridge experience, and allows you to play with folks who have moved away.  And, even better, I don’t have to write down the interesting deals – BridgeBaseOnline will save deals for you, if you ask.

#1 – Die Siedler von Catan, by Klaus Teuber

117+ plays

Change from 2021: none

First appearance: 2005

Die Siedler von Catan has been my favorite game since 1995, when I first tried it, and ended up playing it something on the order of 50 times in four months.  I love the randomness of the dice, I love the collection and trading of resources, I love the fact that the whole focus of the game is building – but there’s still plenty that can be done to keep the leader in check.  The 3:1 and 2:1 ports are brilliant – for years I undervalued them, but nowadays I will build entire plans around them.  The robber can be a nuisance when it shows up too frequently, but hey, luck, so be it – I prefer to take that chance to the card deck or any other proposed solution.  (Though I do love the design for dice that never roll a 7 – if you haven’t read https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/dice/, you really should.)

I thought it might be interesting to show just when all of these games were first published; it gives a good idea of how the flow of new games I enjoy has ebbed and flowed over time.  Years of initial release for all 166 games:

Unreleased – 1

1904 – 1

1925 – 1

1955 – 1

1964 – 2

1967 – 1

1973 – 3

1975 – 1

1980 – 2

1983 – 1

1985 – 2

1987 – 3

1988 – 1

1989 – 3

1990 – 1

1991 – 4

1992 – 4

1993 – 2

1994 – 1

1995 – 6

1996 – 2

1997 – 9

1998 – 5

1999 – 7

2000 – 7

2001 – 8

2002 – 3

2003 – 3

2004 – 6

2005 – 5

2006 – 3

2007 – 4

2008 – 2

2009 – 6

2010 – 1

2011 – 4

2012 – 3

2013 – 10

2014 – 9

2015 – 5

2016 – 3

2017 – 6

2018 – 5

2020 – 2

2021 – 1

2022 – 5

Mitchell T: Thanks so much, Joe for compiling this extraordinary list. The capsule descriptions are a fine blend of subjectivity and context. Reading through the list provides us with a wonderfully opinionated (and quirky) history of the last several decades of board game play. All of us, no doubt, can find a hidden gem here, or even better, return to a game in our collection that has been overlooked. I appreciate your knowledgeable assessments. The best thing about your list is how it encourages me to revisit my own collection with a fresh view. 

Larry:  While it’s fun to see the quirky games on Joe’s list that I agree with–like him, I’m very fond of Factory Manager, but can never get it played–it really makes more sense to list the games on his list that I love as well.  Joe’s tastes and mine are fairly different (to be honest, I’m not sure I know anyone whose tastes are really like Joe’s!), but there’s still a good bit of commonality between us.  So here are the games, by groups of 10, that also get an “I love it” rating from me:

1-10:  Bridge, Schnappchen Jagd

11-20:  Euphrat & Tigris, Russian Railroads, Bohnanza

21-30:  Grand Austria Hotel, Canal Mania, Macao

31-40:  Flaschenteufel, Planet Steam, For Sale

41-50:  Geschenkt, Jambo, Concordia, Ricochet Robot

51-60:  Hawaii, Beyond the Sun

61-70:  Louis XIV, Traumfabrik, Can’t Stop

71-80:  Puerto Rico

81-90:  Lowenherz

91-100:  None

101-110:  Hare & Tortoise

111-120:  Heaven & Ale, Spyrium

121-130:  Kardinal & Konig

131-140:  None

141-150:  The Green Fivura

151-160:  Snow Tails

161-166:  Codenames

That turns out to be 29 games, which is less than 20% of the ones Joe lists.  However, I love 20 of Joe’s top 70 games, which is a considerably higher percentage.  So we shouldn’t have too much trouble figuring out games to play the next time we get together!

Craig M: This list has possibly been my favorite list since its initial publication and I always find myself eagerly awaiting the most recent update. Everything that Mitchell said above goes double for me. There is a freshness to go along with uniqueness in this list that we do not always see in other similar lists. I’ve toyed with the idea of making my own similar list, but it never seems to happen. Given that, here are the games from Joe’s list that would certainly be on my list if I ever created it – a little short of a third of Joe’s list.

Acquire

Africa

Bohnanza

Beyond the Sun

Big Boss

Can’t Stop

Codenames

Concordia

Der Elefant im Porzellanladen

Die Sieben Seagal

Diamant

Durch der Wuste

Entdecker

Euphrat & Tigris

Flaschenteufel

For Sale

Foppen

Geschenkt

Jump Drive

Hare & Tortoise

Heaven & Ale

Industrial Waste

Kardinal & König

Kardinal & König: Das Kartenspiel

King of Tokyo

King’s Breakfast

Lowenherz

Maskmen

Macao

Mu

Nusfjord

Pastiche: Birth of Masterpiece

Puerto Rico

Russian Railroads

QE

Quest for El Dorado

Res Publica

Santa Fe

Schnäppchen Jagd

Settlers of Catan

Showmanager

Snow Tails

Spacebeans

Ticket to Ride

Traumfabrik

Wildlife Adventure

Winhard

Zum Kuckuck

Matt C: I love the age of many of these games. I hope the list will encourage newer gamers to seek them out. All that said, there are few (if any) on this list that I dislike, but many I’ve never gotten to the table (especially some of the older ones.) I may be an older/experienced gamer, getting into deeper games around 2000s, I was still pretty low-budget at the time and could only play the games I got my hands on.

Games I also enjoyed:

1)  Catan – It’s a great game but newbies need coaching so they don’t shoot themselves in the foot right away. If I were less of a cult of the new it would probably get more play.

9) Race for the Galaxy – Enjoyed it but gamers either haven’t played it at all or have played it so much they’re dominant because they know every card. A big leap to teach new players keeps it from ever getting to the table.  (I like it’s sibling, Roll for the Galaxy

10) Saint Petersburg – love this game, also works great to introduce new people to engine-building games..

14) Ticket to Ride -A great game but I’m a bit tired playing the vanilla game.  I’d love to try more of the expansions I own (and don’t own) but that hasn’t happened yet

16) Bohnanza – still own a copy after all these years, just in the past year or so I’ve been thinking heavily that I need to get it to the table…

32) Dice Realms – I don’t love it as much as Joe I think but it’s high on my list of “I want to play more”

39) For Sale – for a long time, it was THE game I used to show non-gamers there are other things out there than roll-and-move. A reverse-auction for those people is mind-blowing.

43) Battlecry – Love this system, still have the game I think, but just can’t find the right (2 player) crowd to get this to the table.

47) Jambo – Good, not great.

49) Ricochet Robot – good, but great because my wife LOVES it and she’s not a gamer.

57) The Great Dalmuti – fun, but most fun when I play with my Dilbert deck, but haven’t play that much since the early 2000s.

67) Louis XIV – lots of interesting things in this game, I like it but let it go to save shelf space…

70) Can’t Stop – a great title, play it all the time, especially as I made a travel version too.

72) Ursuppe – This is such an obscure game (for my circles) but I’d love to get it to the table more. The theme is just priceless and I like engine-building like games.

75) Carcassonne – good, but not great for me

77) Jump Drive – this is simple enough for me to get people to play. Love it since it’s as close to Race for the Galaxy that I’m going to usually get.

78) Puerto Rico – Love it. Would play more if I played more games, needs experienced players to avoid kingmaking so that also limits it.

104) Pillars of the Earth – I liked it, but not enough to buy a copy

109) Hare & Tortoise – I’ve played it, think I own it – for the future when my daughter gets older – but it’s still probably on the “I like it” level

113) Machi Koro – My son loves this and I think its fun. I like what they did to Machi Koro 2, so prefer that if I can. Original game Needs the Harbor expansion.

117) King of Tokyo – play it all the time, great for new/casual gamers who like conflict. I like that it doesn’t outstay its welcome

124) Starship Catan – played once and found it fun, but felt it had even more randomness that Catan…

131) Q.E. – Brilliant game. Messes with players’ heads. I love it for that reason alone. So different from what a non-gamer might expect to see in a market game.

141) Pit – great memories as a kid, my entire 6 person family would play together and have a blast.

153) Hanabi – love it. I like co-ops. This is one of my go-to games so will usually rank among my most-played for a year

158) Diamant – I have Incan Gold and is another one of those games I pull out when there’s casual players entirely new to boardgaming. 

163) Codenames – I really enjoy this and need to get it to the table more often

166) Lost Cities – I enjoyed it at the time, but there’s so many other 2p games I like more now…

So, there are LOTS of games I haven’t played (29/166 played?) While that makes me think I’m missing out, I am aware that I’m usually not a fan of Abstracts and many of those early German games were on the abstract side.  (I like El Grande, Caylus, and Puerto Rico which I consider to be a bit less dry than many others of the time.