TDG: Cody's Top 100 Games 2026 (#20-11)

0:04 Hello ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the discriminating gamer. You know, I told my wife she was painting her eyebrows too high. She looked surprised. Ladies and gentlemen, today we're going to go ahead and continue with my penultimate list here. This is my top 100 games of all time. Today we're taking a look at number 20 through number 11.

0:37 All right, ladies and gentlemen, my top 100 games of all time, number 20 through number 11. I hope you've been enjoying this list. Before I continue, I just want to say you'll want to stick around and watch the next installment as I will have a very special guest join me for my numbers 10 through one. So, please be sure to check that one out. All right, let's go ahead and jump right into the list. My number 20. This is a game that uh there was an earlier edition. This is a second edition of the game. Uh this edition came out in um oh golly, I want to say 2019. It was a Kickstarter uh g crowdfunding game. I crowdfunded it when I was down in Texas. Fell in love with it. Really like this game. This is my number 20 is Eclipse Second Dawn for the Galaxy from Liliput.

1:24 This game was my number 19, so it did go down one spot, but it's it's it's a pretty awesome game. It's a great space game. Uh, it's really more of a Euroeconomic game, but it's got enough ammerit in it that it kind of mitigates that if you're like me and prefer that sort of thing. Um, you've got tiles, you're you're in space, you're you're building a kind of a space empire. uh you are uh expending these cubes kind of from this this uh little display you've got onto the board to increase your power and and you know increase the the numbers that you've got for your different uh resources and what have you and that's a lot of fun. But you've also got your own unique spaceships and you can um invest in technology tiles.

2:10 There's all this technology and you can build better and and soup up build better spaceships and soup them up which is really cool. I love games that let you do stuff like that. Uh, so it's great and it's a g great game of of it's 4x and conquest and and all that goodies. I really love this game a lot. A lot of times it's compared to Twilight Imperium. To me, it it still doesn't match the sheer epic scope of Twilight Imperium, but for what it is, I really love Eclipse Second Dawn of the Galaxy. That is why it is my number 20. That was my number 19 from Lilip. All right, my number 19. Now, this is a game that in its basic form was my number 64 and 21. So, it has gone up quite a bit from 64 to 19. Now, the reason why it has is I've discovered a new way to play this game. This is I'm talking about Memoir 44 from Days of Wonder. But I'm not just talking about Memoir 44. If I was just talking about Memoir 44, even the new version, the new edition came out, which is great, probably would not have been this high. But why it is this high is because uh this new Memoir 44 or I should say Memoir 44 uh I have just started playing it. I've played it a few times now with the Overlord uh expansion. Memoir 44 Overlord. Now Memoir 44 is a great commands and colors game. You've got your left, your center, and your right. And you're playing cards that allow you to move forces there.

3:27 This is of course World War II, Normandy, Americans versus Germans. And it's a great light light war game. But what's so cool about the Overlord Edition is if you have two boxes of the game, you can essentially play an eightplayer game. On each side, you've got three kind of field generals that are just responsible for what's right in front of them. And then behind them, you have kind of the overlord commanders who are giving them cards in order to help them uh accomplish the things they need to do. And there's limited communication. There's rules. You can't always talk to everybody. And it's so much fun. fun. I played this game uh twice now. Well, and it I' I've actually played this with my students. I bring in some of my uh Western Civ students for game day and we play a game uh an eight player game of Overlord. It is fantastic. I love love love this game so much. Uh you know, I love the base game, but with Overlord, it's just a whole new epic experience. Really enjoy it. So, that is uh number 19, Memoir 44, Overlord. And Memoir 44 previously was my 64. that is from Days of Wonder. My number 18 is a game that I already discussed a game in this family in the previous uh section of the list. Um but this is from Kaman Zombie Side Dead or Alive. Another one that was not out when I did my 21 uh list, but Zombie Side Dead or Alive um actually it may have been out. I just hadn't played it at that point. But Zombie Side Dead or Alive is Zombie Side in the Old West.

4:58 And this is such a hoot. Um, this is a great game of of course zombie side. You are trying to fulfill objectives. You've got um zombies coming at you. They're spawning on the board and you're killing them. And every time you kill a zombie, your AP goes up, your adrenaline goes up. But as soon as you it gets high enough and you go into a different color, the zombies will spawn more. So even as you're leveling up, the zombies are leveling up. It is tremendous fun. But this is I like this one a lot because it's like one of the one of the more difficult and challenging editions of zombie side that I've got. And so I really appreciate that. I actually recently just painted my zombie side dead or alive and uh it I don't think I paint I played with it since I painted it, but I'm I want to get it back. This is one you you [clears throat] can pull out, you can play with with family and friends and super easy to teach and they really get into it. I don't think I've ever played a game of zombie psych with somebody who didn't really have a lot of fun. Dead or Alive is one of my absolute favorite additions of Zombie Side. We'll see if it's my favorite, but I freaking I freaking love this system. And this, as I say, is one of my absolute favorite ways to play it with Undead or Alive.

6:06 So, uh that is Zombie Side Undead or Alive. That is my number 18. And that is from Come on. My number 17. This is a game that is also jumped considerably. This was in my 21 [cough and clears throat] list. This was my number 63, but I have been playing this game a lot lately. In fact, just in the last couple of days, I played iterations of this game. Um, I'm talking here about the base game, but there are a lot of different sets. It's a family of games and there's expansions. I'm talking about the base game, but really I could almost plug in just about any of the games here, but my number 17, this is DC deck building game from Cryptozoic Entertainment. So, again, it was it's my 17, it was my 63. This is such a great deck building game. Um I I I think the first one came out I want to say in 2012 or thereabouts and I fell in love with it. I absolut This is the game that got me into deck building and really thought deck building is an awesome way to play a game. Um but of course you're you're the DC comics heroes you're fighting against the villains or that is to say you're trying to take out the villains but it is a competitive game. um you are trying to gain the most victory points, you know, more than any other players, and you do that by taking out the big baddies, but most of the cards will give you some victory points. And like I said, there's a lot of different iterations here. There's a lot of different really, really fun versions of this. They're they're, as I'm recording this, they're preparing to do a Green Lantern Kickstarter, uh, which I've done a paid preview for. Uh, I love the DC comic deck building game, and I love the whole family of games. I I I personally have backed a lot of these games because

7:38 every every one comes with new goodies, new cards, new fun things, and I'm always super excited when a new one comes out. But it goes back to that original, which remains my favorite. Uh, and it remains my favorite largely because of the simplicity, largely because it is so easy to teach. This is a game, you know, if it's the end of the school year and like we got like a day where we've covered everything and there's nothing else going on, I may bring my party edition of this and um, you know, I'll have a few students there and we'll play it and it's a hoot. Love, love, love DC deck building game. Uh, this is again my number 17 was 163 and that is from Cryptozoic Entertainment. My number 16, this is a game that's fallen a little bit in 2021. I think it was my number seven. This is one of the great all-time great two-player games, deep strategy games of all time from GMT Games. This is Twilight Struggle.

8:26 Twilight Struggle is fantastic. This is a game of the Cold War. It's a game of uh the United States and the Soviet Union and the and you're trying to get influence in countries all over the globe. And I've said this before about this game because it's so true. I've never played a game in my life that consistently so consistently makes you make the best of bad choices because each of you have a deck of cards and you have to play all of the cards. I mean, you do have a a safety valve, the space race for one of them, but you have to play virtually all your cards every turn. And some of those cards are going to help your enemy. So, when and how you play those is one of the biggest uh and most difficult choices of the game. And this game is filled with difficult choices. But, you get to play out the entirety of the Cold War. It's almost like a history lesson as you play the game every time. I really really have fun with this one quite a bit. Uh it's from Jason Matthews, whom I had the pleasure to meet last year in Washington DC. Super nice guy. Wonderful. wonderful uh conversations we had with him and I absolutely love this game and he's he's put out a lot of games. He's got Anand Gupta of course is one of the co-designers on here as well. But um just a fantastic game that Zach even got me the like souped up um tokens for it which which we played with which is a lot of fun. Anyway, I love love love Twilight Struggle. That is why it is my number 16. Was my number seven. That is from GMD Games. My number 15, um, this

9:58 is a game that I that I actually when it first came out was from Avalon Hill and I actually bought a copy. I think it was probably the most expensive game I'd ever bought to that point. Bought a copy. I played it and I loved it. And then um I think they came out with another version of it like in 2017 or 2018 and then recently Renegade Studios has republished it. And this is just a fantastic game. In fact, it's a series of games, some of which have been on this list, and this is my favorite of that series. I am, of course, talking about my number 15, Axis and Allies Anniversary. I did not have this on the list last time, but this is from Renegade Game Studios, but Axis and Allies anniversary. This to me is the definitive Axis and Allies game. Uh, you can actually play uh not just Germany and Italy is the or Germany and Japan is the access, but Italy is also a playable uh player. Uh, you've also got objectives. So, like if you meet certain objectives, you get additional IPC resources during the game. So, you're not just trying to fight your enemies.

10:59 Uh you're fighting the enemies, but you're also chasing these kind of like side quests as you're doing it in order to get additional IPCs. Um, but the map here is beautiful. The the the German and Russian war that occurs here is great because there's a lot of spaces between the Germans and Moscow. So, you got a lot of uh maneuver and back and forth there. I really really enjoyed this game quite a bit. In fact, I know Ray and I played it recently. I've got the um Renegade Game Studios came out with the commander cards, and I want to play this version of Axis and Allies with the Commander cards to kind of see how that would play out. I think that would be tremendous fun. But anyway, uh that is my number 15. That is my Axis and Allies anniversary that is from Renegade Game Studios. My number 14 is another deck building game. In fact, I'll tell you right now, this is my favorite straight deck building game, my favorite card game, uh deck building game. Um, this is a game that too is probably it's one of my favorite uh IPs, thematic IPs, because it kind of goes back to my childhood. This was fairly new, so it wasn't on my list last time, but my number 14 is the G.I. Joe deck building game from Renegade Game Studios. The G.I. Joe deck building game is amazing.

12:09 This is such a fun game, and I was so interested in it. I'm always interested in G.I. Joe games because I love G.I. So, but I'm so excited to see all the very fun and interesting mechanisms that they can pack into these games. And what I love about the GI Joe deck building game is you actually uh every turn have cards that are the specific G.I. Joe's and you send them into battle, but you have to have vehicles because of course Joe's always had vehicles and you have different missions. You're going up against these story missions. You got to complete all these story missions, but then also there and you can do groups. You can work together cooperatively. It's a cooperative game. You can work together to solve them. But then there are some side missions and these are generally just ones you can go after. And um you're you're playing the cards and after you use the cards for the missions, you can still use them to the the recruiting power to recruit. But [clears throat] again, you're building tremendous combinations here. Uh cards are playing off each other in very fun and and and unique and interesting ways.

13:01 I love this game so much. I just I like I say, a lot of it goes back to my childhood, but the game is the thing. And it's also what it's also cool to cool too here is when you're going on those missions. What you're doing is the different Joe's have different skills and the different missions require different skills. Um, and the different skills you have give you dice and so literally it comes down to dice rolls, right? You're playing cards to maximize your dice in order to complete these missions. Great fun. I love the G.I. Joe deck building game. Hope we see more expansions in the years to come because it is so freaking good. You need to buy this game. Really, you need to buy this game. It is that good. But that is my number 14. That is the GI Joe deck building game that is from Renegade Game Studios. My number 13 is part of a family of games that I've mentioned several of them in this list and one in this section of the list as well. Uh from Kaman, this is Marvel Zombies.

13:56 Marvel Zombies of course was not on my 2021 list. It hadn't come out yet. This came out in 23 I believe. But Marvel Zombies is to me my favorite way to play Zombie Side. They've got Deceas coming out. I hope we see that sooner rather than later. Really looking forward to that. But Marvel Zombies is um great because there's different ways you can play it with the different sets. And you can play it as your zombie heroes being attacked by shield agents and you're trying to fulfill your objectives and you get hungry and if you get too hungry, you can't uh do anything but eat people and uh move. Uh whereas um as you are getting hungrier though, you are getting more powerful. You're rolling more dice. So there's a there's a trade-off there. And that tension in that game is a lot of fun. But there's also the other sets you can also play as the uh superheroes fighting hordes of zombies coming after you and and and zombie superheroes fighting you. Uh just a great game. I love this game so much.

14:51 I played a lot of it. I've done some live playthroughs recently. This is one I completely painted. I painted every figure uh for Marvel Zombies that I own. and they're so much fun to more more fun to play with once they're painted. But it's a beautiful game. It's a fun game and I always have a blast with Marvel Zombies. So that is my number 13. That is Marvel Zombies. That is from Come on. My number 12 is a game that I just played for the first time about a year or so ago. And I got to tell you, I was convinced after I played it, it would be in my top 10. I was convinced it was going to be in my top 10. And I'm really quite surprised it's not. But this is a game that uh is a cooperative game that just blew me away. It's also an app. It's got app integration. Um I played this several times since uh we first played it and every time I play it, I got a huge smile on my face. This is uh from Restoration Games, Return to Dark Tower. Return to Dark Tower is this great fantasy cooperative game where you've got this tower, electronic tower in the middle of the table that um at the end of every turn, you put a skull in and sometimes it spits the skulls back out at you.

15:54 Sometimes it moves around and does funky things and opens up these glyphs which then mean um things are going to be more difficult for you in your section of the board. But it is a it's a great, like I say, it's a great cooperative game and you're working together to try to overcome these these these quests. You're, you know, you're fighting monsters, but you're going into these different locations to fulfill quests. Those skulls are coming out. If they get three skulls on a building, you know, that's bad news for you. More than three skulls. Um, but it's just it's just great. You're finding treasures. And anyway, I love this game. I've had tremendous amount of fun with this game. My family has really enjoyed it. My friends have enjoyed it. I know for my birthday in March, I was down in Salt Lake. I took it down. I played it with Zach and his wife. They really enjoyed it. It is just a magnificent, magnificent game. So that is uh Return to Dark Tower based on a 1980s game that was significantly updated here. But this is Return to Dark Tower, my number 12.

16:46 And that is from Restoration Games. All right, ladies and gentlemen, my number 11. Um, okay. How do I go about this? I'll tell you this right now. my number 11. This game, it moved and I sweated and debated and changed my mind and went back and changed it again and did that a few times. I put more mental energy and anguish into the placement of this game on the list than any other game I placed on the list. And I did that because years ago, this game and its earlier iteration were they were my number one games of all time. And then it kind of went down to my number two game of all time. And I was really expecting that this would continue to be my number two game of all time.

17:40 But I found that in my top 10 list, I just like the other games better. When I went through meticulously and said, "Well, do I like it better than this?" "Well, no. I like this one better." And so I could not believe this game is no longer in my top 10. I had a hard time. Now, if you're a fan of the channel, you've seen my previous list, you probably know what I'm talking about. It's a great It's a game I love. It is a fantastic game, but it just left my top 10. This is Twilight Imperium Fourth Edition. Twilight Imperium Fourth Edition, like I say, was my favorite game for a long time. I loved it. I loved this game. I still do. I still love this game. This is the ultimate space 4X game. Although there's some debate about to what extent it truly is a Forex game. Um, but it is a great game of building space empires, of combat, of politics, of trade, of science, and tech. Um, combat. It is so much fun.

18:35 This game, this is an immersive game. This is, you know, count on six to eight hours minimum for a game like this. Uh, so this is a Saturday game, right? Uh, but I played this game a few times, uh, up here in in Idaho. Uh, I actually have got the new Folded Space insert for the latest expansion. I haven't put it together yet. It's something I need to get done. But it's such a good game. I love Twilight Imperium because of that oporatic experience, this this epic experience that it gives. I just it it is beautiful. Um, I do feel and maybe some of one of the reasons why it's gone down is I do feel like while I like the expansions generally, sometimes the game, the last few times I played the game, it has felt like a bit much. And I know Ry is not a huge fan of this game and he said he wants to play the game with just the base game, no expansion. So, so I'm thinking the next time we play the game, that's probably what we'll do because this really is a lifestyle game. And if you want to get into the weeds of this game, boy, you can get into the weeds with this game.

19:33 Um, this is not a game I can play that often, though. Honestly, I usually only play this game about once a year. Um, I had I think it was 2017 or 2016, I played the game four times in a year. That was third edition, and I was pretty proud of myself. But it's very difficult to get it to the table um that often. But I love I do love this game, but it has fallen. I have found that my top 10 list, every game there, I just enjoyed playing a little bit more. surprised the hell out of me. So that is my number 11. That is Twilight Imperium fourth edition was my number two in 2021. And that is from Fantasy Flight Games. All right, ladies and gentlemen, that is my penultimate list. What do you think? Do you like these games? Do you not like these games? Should they be higher, lower? Let me know. What do you think?

20:23 I'm always excited to hear what you have to say. Please leave us a comment on YouTube, on Board Game Geek, on Facebook, on X. Again, we really like to hear from you. Now, also too, if uh uh you do like what you see here, check out my other channel, Cody Carlson, PhD. We talk about history, military history, fun things like that. Um it would mean the world to me if you would subscribe to that as well. And I should point out too, we of course we do need you to like and subscribe to this video. And once again, let me tell you, if you are enjoying this list, please make sure to watch uh the next and final concluding portion of the list with my very special guest. I think you'll get a very very big kick out of that. Um, and then please, if you like what you see here, uh, click on the super thanks button and leave a tip. What begins with a W and ends with a T.

21:09 It really does. I swear somebody on my feet again. And I DON'T KNOW WHERE I'M GOING. AND I DON'T KNOW WHERE I've been. Please help me on this ground. IT'S A LONG TIME AND I'LL BE DYING. Once a year I wind up in the I love to fight, but I don't ever win. It's my life.

21:50 two.

21:57 Here we go.