During my fourth year in college, I met two friends who were avid board gamers. Prior to meeting those two, my knowledge in the hobby was limited to popular Hasbro and Milton Bradley titles such as Monopoly, Risk, and Mr. Bucket (does anyone remember the commercial?). After they introduced me to Settlers of Catan, we started meeting up almost every Wednesday night and played whatever was on the table — Pandemic, Dixit, Munchkin. Those game nights reminded me of the fond moments where my childhood friends and I would get together after school and kick each other’s asses in Super Smash Bros. Melee, exchanging random conversations and shit-talk. In a way, board games helped fill that void left behind by those pleasant memories.
Though after graduating college, I went back to playing video games and stopped playing board games. Ironic, I know. It wasn’t until roughly five years ago I revisited the hobby and since then, I made new friends, reconnected with old pals, and vastly expanded my collection. In a way, my renewed interest positively changed my life and helped me climbed out of the grave I was digging myself in.
I was inspired to start this writing project since I always had trouble expressing myself whenever I talk about, well, anything. I figured writing about board games would be a good idea because it’s one of my passionate hobbies and I have played at least 200 of them. To start this project, I used PubMeeple to rank the board games I played before based on how much I enjoyed them, not from an objective point of view. Some of these games were excluded from the rankings because I couldn’t recall my thoughts properly (ex: Root, Dominant Species).
I’m embarrassed to admit this project took roughly six months to finish. I blame procrastination and my desire for each blurb to be written perfectly. I didn’t even share it with anyone after I finished. It’s just sitting in my Google Drive as I’m typing this. What a waste, right? I don’t know why it took me two months after that to decide, “fuck it, let’s find a blogging platform and share it.” But here we are. Instead of copying and pasting the entries, I should use this opportunity to update some of them, expanding my opinions and add some life and character to these informational blobs. I understand this will make the project longer to finish (hopefully, not six months) but hey, why not.
Anyway, I commend you for making it this far. To reiterate, the rankings are based on my enjoyment and subjective opinion, nothing objective here. Thank you for taking the time to read this and feel free to comment or provide your own opinion about any of these entries.
LET’S BEGIN!
#100: Citadels (2000)
This was one of the first board games I owned. I stumbled across Citadels when I looked up board games on Amazon. I bought it on a whim because it was on sale and could play up to 7 players.
Gameplay revolves around two phases. The first phase is secretly choosing a role card that helps you generate gold and erect buildings in your district. The second phase is where everyone waits to be called by the King before taking their actions. Afterwards, the role cards are reshuffled and the game repeats itself until someone has eight buildings in their district.
I love the dynamic between the variable powers of each role and the selection process. Say you are the Assassin, a role great at hindering another player but can only target roles (not players). Based on what role cards you have in the first phase, you believe the leading player has the Architect only to find out they are the Bishop and you end up screwing the person in last place. The Assassin and Thief keep everyone thinking and on their toes when they carefully choose their role.
Sadly, that is 10% of Citadels. The other 90% is waiting for your turn or doing meager actions. With each game taking forever to finish, it’s hard to ignore how much downtime you need to endure before getting to the best part — role selection. I read online it’s recommended to play with the 3 player variant. If the opportunity arises, I’m willing to give that variant a shot.
#99: Dinosaur Island (2017)
The flashy 80’s synth-wave aesthetics and colorful components are what drew my attention towards Dinosaur Island. I love the idea of running my own freakin’ Jurassic Park. However, this fails to fulfill that fantasy, focusing more on managing DNA than the dinosaurs themselves.
The stars of this show are divided into three classes — Herbivores, small Carnivores, and large Carnivores. None of the dinosaurs within the same class have unique characteristics outside of their name, illustration, and DNA recipe. Here, a Velociraptor will behave exactly the same as a Pteranodon. This is solidified with the retail version offering one type of meeple to represent all different kinds of dinosaurs you can bring to the table.
Outside of the dinosaurs, there are attractions you can purchase to attract more visitors. But none of them bring anything interesting to your theme park other than victory points and money. The only things that make your board feel unique are the specialists and lab upgrades. But let’s be real. Having a security guard doing his job properly doesn’t sound exciting as a T-Rex.
Looking at Dinosaur Island’s striking visuals and colorful components, it’s a shame the game itself is bland. The gameplay is okay. However with so many board games out there, that’s not enough to escape the sea of average board games.
#98: Tales of the Arabian Nights (2009)
Tales of the Arabian Nights is a “Choose Your Own Adventure” game disguised as a board game and that’s not a bad thing per se.
As one of the legendary heroes from the One Thousand and One Nights, you travel through an Arabian desert and encounter many adventures along the way. Each adventure gives you a scenario and a shopping list of actions to choose from. Depending on your choices, the consequences can lead towards something positive (treasure, allies) or negative (poverty, curses).
There’s not much to do here. On your turn, you react to a scenario. Then, you read from a 300-page adventure book for the next player. Then, sit there and wait patiently for your turn. Though you can “win” in this game, it’s better to sit back and see where your journey takes you. If you want to play a game where winning is earned and your decisions actually have weight to them, then I suggest playing something else.
#97: Scrabble (1948)
I gained a better appreciation for the classic word game after watching Word Wars — a documentary about Scrabble’s competitive scene. It blew my mind realizing Scrabble is actually an area control game with 100,000+ words. A competitive game of Scrabble is best described as a war between two players vying control over the board with vocabulary in place of armies. In order to achieve victory, both need to utilize the available information (letters played on the board, in the bag, in their opponent’s rack) to manage the board state to increase their scoring capabilities while restricting their opponent’s.
Opening the game with a word like “POACHER” would score you at least 78 points (14 point word, double word bonus from star tile, and 50 points from bingo aka using all tiles in your rack). You could score 86 points if you place the word where H occupies a double letter bonus tile. BUT it opens the opportunity for your opponent to capitalize on the triple word bonus if they have a S in their rack and build a new word off your opener which is called hooking.
With many of its clones out in the market, Scrabble still holds up because of its board layout and how the bonus tiles are placed. It is difficult to combine multiple bonus tiles with a single word forcing players to think ahead and control their word placements carefully. Scrabble’s not just about flexing your vocabulary, it’s about fighting for board supremacy with words.
I haven’t touched this game in years but I’m willing to try this again with someone now that I have a new outlook on an age-old classic.
#96: Rising Sun (2018)
Rising Sun appears to be another “Dudes on a Map” game with plastic armies of samurais and badass-looking monsters moving around a gigantic map representing feudal Japan. But that’s not really the case. Though the winner is determined through combat and conquest, the action takes a backseat to diplomacy and methodical preparation — two necessary elements needed to achieve victory. If your group understands what Rising Sun is and isn’t, then all of you will have a good time.
The game takes place over three rounds. Each round begins with a Tea Ceremony where you can form an alliance with another player. Then comes the Political Mandate phase where you choose an action akin to Puerto Rico. Everyone performs the same action but you and your ally receives a bonus from that action. Some other things might happen here. Someone might bribe you to choose a certain action they want or you betray your ally, shattering the alliance and losing all of your honor in exchange for more board presence.
When that’s finally over, the War phase happens next. Each province has opposing players secretly bid for actions using their coins. Some of these actions include kidnapping an enemy unit or become a cult and commit team seppuku for points (umm… what?!). After resolving the actions, whoever has the most force wins the province. The bidding can be tense and creates room for bluffing and cheeky moves. If you keep all of your troops in one province, then you’re going to miss out on the best parts of Rising Sun. Oh, you’ll lose as well but that’s not important.
Sadly, I don’t think Rising Sun is for me. From those two-hour sessions, the high points mostly come from the War phases. However those happen far and few between the long, long, looonnng monotonous process of the Political Mandate phases where you sit there, choose an action, and wait for the signal to start fighting. Those three rounds feel like a season of Game of Thrones. While things are moving slowly, nothing happens until the last fifteen minutes of the season finale and then it’s back to the status quo. Those who love to socialize and play diplomat would get more mileage out of Rising Sun than my group and I ever could.
#95: Settlers of Catan (1995)
Without Klaus Teuber and the Settlers of Catan, board games wouldn’t be a popular hobby as it is now. At the time it arrived, it catered to both casuals and hardcore strategists striking a fine balance between chance and depth with a social aspect sprinkled on top. But most importantly, it introduced many, including myself, to the greener side of board gaming. It showed board games didn’t need to be abstract like Chess or juvenile like Candy Land to be enjoyable.
Has Catan aged well since its cultural impact? The answer is no. The most interesting decisions you make in Catan only occurs at the beginning when everyone is positioning their initial settlements and roads. After that, luck takes the wheel as everyone is chucking dice and you’re hoping your numbers are rolled or else you’re spending a good chunk of the game twiddling your thumbs until you get some useful resources to fall on your lap.
When Catan made its debut, it was amazing. But board games have evolved since then with thousands of new titles being released each year. What Catan does (ex: resource management, trading, building) is done better by many games that came after. Concordia, Lords of Vegas, and 7 Wonders are a few examples. Despite its flaws, I can’t refuse a game as long as no more than four players are involved.
#94: Mystic Vale (2016)
Mystic Vale takes a different approach to building a deck. Unlike your average deck-builder, you don’t add or remove cards from your deck. Instead, you customize each individual card in your deck with advancements, upgrading them with extra mana or elemental properties. It was quite therapeutic sleeving my cards until they became thick with power though I always dreaded the cleanup afterward.
Another thing Mystic Vale does to break away from the norm is its blackjack approach to drawing cards. On your turn, you’re allowed to draw as many cards as you wish but you risk losing your entire turn if you bust with four red decay icons. It adds some excitement when you’re falling behind or wanting to press your luck to purchase a stronger advancement. But on the other hand, it feels terrible when you bust and you’re stuck doing nothing for an entire round and getting nada for it.
While the card-crafting system is a cool idea, I think something is missing with Mystic Vale. It has been years since I played the base game. I don’t remember what it is missing exactly. Whatever it is, I’m sure one of its many expansions has done something to spice up the gameplay.
#93: Coconuts (2013)
Practically beer pong with toys. You use spring contraptions to launch tiny rubber milk duds into colorful plastic cups. It’s good, clean fun for children and adults, sober and intoxicated. And it has monkeys!
Highly recommend playing this with your kids or nephews/nieces. It will prepare them for science classes and college parties in the future.
#92: The Godfather: Corleone’s Empire (2017)
I can’t tell you if Eric Lang pays his respect to the legendary franchise with Corleone’s Empire. But I can confirm this game is good since we know these board games based on existing media tend to suck. I’m looking at you Oregon Trail. Don’t think I forgot about you, Dark Souls.
The worker placement and area control mechanics are decent. But it’s the hand management that forces you to make interesting decisions. With a hand limit of five cards, you’re going to make tough choices on what to keep and discard .Your hand will consist of jobs, resources to complete those jobs, allies, and money. Speaking of money, you need to stash those bills in your metallic suitcase to win which you can only do with a suitcase action.
Near the end of a game, my thought process went something like this: “Do I place my thug in Wall Street to pick up this resource? Or should I focus on maintaining control over Upper East Side for the additional benefits? But wait, I should consider placing my thug at Chelsea to stash all my money before someone else does.”
On an unrelated note, I want to play Sons of Anarchy: Men of Mayhem. I heard it’s a great worker placement game and I have seen (and enjoyed) the show.
#91: Legendary: A Marvel Deck-Building Game (2012)
Everyone should know what Marvel is all about. They’re everywhere including comic books, movies, animated series, toys, Disneyland, video games, and you guess it, board games.
Marvel’s Legendary is where you and your “friends” will recruit iconic (and not-so iconic) superheroes from the Marvel comic book universe to defeat the Mastermind villain while dealing with distractions like henchman and “scheme twists”. When the Mastermind is defeated, whoever earns the most points from defeating villains and saving bystanders wins.
It presents itself as a semi-coop game and fails. Cooperating with others is nothing more than asking who can defeat this villain or who wants that card of Thor sitting in the market. The competitive aspect feels tacked on. Whoever wins is the one who manages to draw enough damage cards at the right time to defeat the mastermind or valuable villain for points. If you’re playing to win, you’re playing the lottery at this point. What a joke!
Legendary doesn’t scale well with more players. When you decide to play with your friends, the game decides to punish you by spamming enemy ambushes and scheme twists to cripple your shitty early game with a shitty starting deck. I remember having games with 5 players where the first two rounds would be bombarded with 5+ HP villains when the most damage our starting deck could do is 4 and that’s if we are lucky enough to draw 4 S.H.I.E.L.D. Troopers in one turn. They are demoralizing experiences to the point we create a house rule where no villain cards will be drawn for the first round in 5-player games.
Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy playing Legendary as a solo game. The card play and deck-building are solid. You can create a deck with cards feeding off each other to pull off satisfying combos. For a better cooperative deck-building experience however, I’d look into Aeon’s End or any of the Legendary: Encounters. If it wasn’t for the Marvel license, then I would’ve skipped over this.
