Top 100 Board Games of All Time! 60-51 (2025 Edition)

0:00 Howdy y'all. Welcome to Travel the Board. I'm Corey and today we are counting down our top 100 60 through 51. After today, we are going to be halfway through the list and then the second half, the 50 to number one, my co-host Scott is going to join us. So, let's get through this one so we can get Scott here. Let's go. Starting off with number 60, we have a really big game with a lot inside of the box from one of my favorite publishers, Elf Creek Games. Absolutely love everything they've done from Honey Buzz to this game. I think I own every game they've ever published. This is one of my favorites. Merchants of the Dark Road. Absolutely fantastic art to go along with an absolutely fantastic game. I love the like rondelle action selection style of this game where you want to take certain selections, but you have to be able to get to that selection by going around this rondelle strategically choosing when to make your stops both based on what you want to do, but also where you want to be able to reach next turn so that you can get the right turns in the right order that you're trying to do. I really enjoy that. I also love the puzzle of your playerboard where you've got all of these different items where you're trying to deliver them and sell them and they all come in different sizes that need to fit in this polyomino style grid where you're trying to perfectly make them fit while also, you know, trying to like get the correct ones to fulfill orders so that you can score points. I think it works really well and if you have upgraded components

1:31 like I do, then oh my goodness is it beautiful on the table. Everything just works. Great game, great, you know, production, great display. It's something that I will play as often as I possibly can. At number 59, we have what might be one of the cutest games that you will ever see and one of the cutest I've ever played. Flamecraft. Look at the little dragons. There's they're ONE OF THEM'S A BAKER. THEY HAVE JOBS AND YOU'RE TRYING to make them do their jobs to to, you know, fulfill all of your orders and everything on the board. I think that this game absolutely sings. This was the first game, I believe, by Cardboard Alchemy. Uh, it looks like Lucky Duck was also involved. Cardboard Alchemy has came out swinging with Flamecraft.

2:19 They've already followed it up with Critter Kitchen. And before I made my top 100, I uh well actually before I made my top 100, I didn't even know about this game. Uh but Flamecraft Duel has come out since I have like, you know, recorded this and since everything's gotten ready, Flamecraft Duel would have made my top 100. And I'll go ahead and tell you, I think I might like it better than the base game, even though they play absolutely nothing alike. They have nothing to do with each other. But I love Flamecraft Duel. I want to go ahead and fit that in this video just so you guys know. I have played it and it's amazing. I love it. But Flamecraft, it's super cute, super fun. It's quick. It's quicker than you would think, especially once you lay it out on the table and just see how much is going on in the game, how many components there are. I played I think it was a fiveplayer game, which is max count, and we knocked it out quick in like an hour and a half. Cutes game, super cool. I think you'll enjoy it.

3:14 Flamecraft, Cardboard Alchemy, absolutely killing it with this one. My number 58 has dropped 24 spots from last year's list, but it is at this point a classic in my heart. I have been in love with this game for so many years. I picked up all the expansions. I picked up the big storage box. I've upgraded components and playmats and everything cuz I absolutely love this game. Role Player. Role Player is essentially build your own D&D character. Now, the expansions add more to that, but I cannot tell you the number of people that have told me that they have played this game, built their character, and then gone and taken that character into their RPG session and played it. It is so much fun. If you really enjoy the idea of character creation in your RPG se uh, you know, sessions, this is a game you'll like. You are literally taking a a race. So, you know, such as Minotaitar or whatever your elf, you are literally assigning it stats with dice.

4:15 And that is the entirety of the game is taking these dice, assigning it onto your board to give them their stats. And then once you get the expansions, you can send them out to fight monsters at the end. It's super fun. And when I first picked up this game, we were playing a lot of Dn D. And I specifically bought it cuz I thought that my group would really enjoy the theme of the game. and we really did. But then I actually as the hardcore board gamer of the group, the rest of my group is a lot of RPG players who enjoy board games. I'm obviously the hardcore board gamer. Now, this game, there is so much going on in it as far as the actual strategy of placing the dice to make them work in your favor. The uh dice manipulation abilities to allow you to change, you know, the numbers and things while also specializing your character in certain traits. It works really well.

5:06 And if you are a big RPG player, obviously Lords of Water Deep is still the best conversion game from, you know, RPG D&D style games into board gaming. I think this might be number two behind Lords of Water Deep. So, if you have RPG players in your group and you're a board gamer, this might be that game that you want to play with them to try and bring them over into our hobby. Role player is fantastic. Number 57 is an older game at this point that is new to the list for me because it's the first time I played it and is by my favorite designer, Bruno Catala. I love everything that he's ever done. Essentially, I have not yet to play a bad Bruno Catala game. I'm talking about this time Dice Town. Dice Town is so much fun. For those of you that don't know, I am also a poker player. I love poker and I love the fact in this game that you're rolling your dice trying to make poker hands so that you can go to specific places on the board to gather points to to get money.

6:01 And I think it works fantastically. And the fact that you also have um I can't remember what it's called. I think it's called Dr. Badluck. The fact that the person who rolls the worst gets to go to Dr. bad luck and still get something. I think that makes the game feel so much less punishing than it could because it is a lot of randomness cuz it is dice rolls. So, if somebody just rolls really bad, that can really start to feel bad. And I think the mitigation of that in this game with the whole Dr. Badluck thing makes this game very accessible to everybody. And I think the the shaking of the cups and the rolling of the dice and then slamming it down and kind of secretly getting to see what you rolled. I think it's something that makes everybody have a lot of fun around the table and makes it very interactive for the group. I love Dice Town, love Bruno Catala. This was an easy pick for me. My number 56 is a game that's dropped 31 spots for me from last year and it has such a hardcore following. This is another one of those games that is in so many people's top 10 games of all time.

7:00 People adore this game and I really, really love it, but not to the insanity, you know, level that so many of you, I'm sure, do, but it's still a fantastic game. Great Western Trail. Great Western Trail is becoming one of those games that everyone knows about. You may not have played it yet, but if you've been on BG, if you looked at the top 100 list, you have seen this game because it is so beloved. I think my favorite part about this game is that you kind of have three different things you can go for. Uh like three strategies, but you have to kind of pick what you want to go for. You you usually go for one hardcore one about 50/50 and the other one you kind of tend to ignore. And I love playing this game multiple times uh over the course of time because you can be like, "Oh, this time I want to go for the Cowboys and I'm going to, you know, dabble in this other one. Oh, this time I want to go for the conductors and focus on the train and I'll dabble in the other one. I think kind of mixing and matching the different strategies you can go for is my favorite thing about playing this thing multiple times.

8:00 Um, it is a larger game that offers a lot to you. Um, it has a rondelle if you guys haven't figured out from this top 100 yet. I absolutely love rondell's. Um, I like this one because the rondelle changes every time you go around it because each different person is going to be placing out different locations to add to the board of the rondelle that's going to, you know, make it better or worse for you based on what directions you choose. Sometimes you got to go this way cuz it has like forking paths. I think that the rondelle aspect mixed with the different strategies of the three different, you know, type of uh people that you can go for. Collecting the cow cards is also always a lot of fun. If you're able to take that train all the way to the end and ring the bell and get bonus points, that's such a fulfilling aspect. I think Great Western Trail definitely deserves the praise it it gets. I just don't have the level of praise that I'm sure some of you do, but I think it is well deserving of the praise it gets. My number 55 is an absolutely beautiful game that I don't own, but my friend, one of my friends do. I will probably eventually pick it up for my collection when I have the chance. But I absolutely love Winter Haven Woods. It is gorgeous. The box is gorgeous. The art is gorgeous, but so is the game play. It is a drafting game where you're drafting different animals to go into your little uh woodland uh winter woodland board where like you're trying to get like I believe it's uh squirrels. You're trying to get multiple of them to score points as like pairs.

9:26 You're trying to get little critters that score you little points in different ways, but you also have a little bit of take that where you can draft a wolf and the wolf can eat one of the critters of your neighbor. Uh you're also trying to get the big cards like the the big uh scoring cards like the deer. And so the drafting aspect with all the different ways you can score while you're also trying to think constantly about is your uh partner going for a wolf or not so that you can strategize around that. I think everything about it just adds to a lot of thinky drafting gameplay in a absolutely beautiful display which I love drafting. I love gorgeous games. This was just a perfect marriage. Number 54. You already saw Flamecraft on this list. Well, I think Cardboard Alchemy did an even better job with their follow-up game, Critter Kitchen. I think that this worker placement game is one of the most incredible uses of workers I've ever seen. First off, there are so many different locations you can go to, and you get three different size workers. A small, fast one, a medium-sized, and then a slow, large one. And based off of where you send them, you can get extra choices. You get to go first, second, third in the drafting order. Each location has a set number of spots. And trying to go to and get everything you need to fulfill these orders that you're trying to, you know, give your customers or whatever, I think works great. I think all of the extra little bonus cards that you can use to have extra

10:57 workers that have special abilities while you also have like your own head chef and they're all themed after real life uh you know famous chefs like Gordon Ramsay and things like that I think just adds to the cuteness of the game. Uh also we can play at max player count and because it's simultaneous play it does not bog the game down. you can play almost in the same amount of time at max player count as you could at like three. And I love that it only adds a little bit of extra time because of simultaneous play, which I think more games should include. So, please, if you're listening and you're designer, think about simultaneous play in your game if possible, cuz it just makes the games that much better. I love Critter Kitchen. I love the theme. I love the cuteness. Cardboard Alchemy, keep doing a great job. At 53, we have one of those like followup games to Roleplayer from uh Thunderworks Games where it's like not really a follow-up, but it's kind of in that same universe, same art style type thing. And this is one that really surprised me. I was not expecting to love it as much as I did, and I'm so glad that I did. Stone Spine Architects.

12:01 So, like in Role Player, which was on this list, uh you guys heard that you get to build your D and D character. Well, in this one, you kind of get to build a dungeon. You're drafting and collecting tiles to put into your array and trying to build a pathway through a dungeon that allows you to score the most points. And then in that dungeon, you're placing out different monsters and loot and things like that. And strategically, where you place them will score you different points. There's public objectives. And for me, I really enjoy the idea of building your character like in roleplayer. But if you tell me I get to build a dungeon, that just makes me so much happier because you're trying to build all these pathways and it's very puzzly and I really enjoy puzzly style games. So, Stonespine Architects just worked for me. Number 52 is down 22 spots for me from last year. I love this game. It is very rare that I enjoy a rolling ride, a flipping ride, but this is one of, if not my absolute favorites, the followup to the welcome to series. Welcome to New Las Vegas. A lot of times you'll hear me say things on this channel like this is the gamer version. Now, I don't really believe that there are gamer versions of games because I think all games are for gamers, and I think that people who think that kind of need to get out of that mentality and just have more fun playing games. But if you want to view it as the a little bit more is going on in this game, a little bit more strategic, a little bit more decision making, some more mechanics, it's the

13:32 reason I really enjoy Welcome to New Las Vegas because I really get to get into the puzzle of of building out your city. You've got so many different things to think about from the course of your limo to the golf courses and trying to collect those. You've got like the Broadway runway style stuff going on. I think that this one gives you just enough more meat on the bone that you can really get in and enjoy yourself. I still love Welcome to 2. It's one of my favorite series of all time and Welcome to New Las Vegas was just that perfect little bit extra that I needed to just enjoy it. I love this game. And finishing off this list and the first 50 games in this top 100, number 51, Cheating Moth. Oh my goodness, I could talk about this game for so long. This is one of the most fun, funniest experiences I have ever had in gaming.

14:24 This has turned into the game that if I just want to sit around with a group of people and have fun, just nothing but pure fun. We are going to laugh, we're going to have a great time and like I just want the atmosphere to be electric. That's cheating moth. You literally get a hand of cards and you are trying to get rid of them in any way possible. But imagine, so imagine Uno, except you can get rid of your cards by throwing them across the room, by sitting on them by literally you could win the game by eating a card. It's insanity. Now, obviously, there are rules. You can only get rid of one card per round. There's like a a security person each round so that if they catch you, that's a negative. So, you're trying to secretly get rid of these cards so that no one else knows about it. And if someone notices it, the security person, that's a huge negative to you. And I think everything about this game is just so much fun. It's one of the greatest experiences I've ever had in gaming. And I couldn't put it higher on the list because it is just so simplistic and I love so many of the more strategic games that are to come. But this has turned into my number one fun game. If you've not tried it, it's super cheap, super easy to pick up. I cannot recommend it enough. Cheating Moth. And that'll do it. That is the first 50 games in this top 100. Starting next video, doing our top 50. Scott will be joining me to break it down with me as well. I'm so excited to see his top 50. I hope you

15:54 are as well. Thank you for sticking with the series this long. There's plenty of great games to come. Please comment down below which of these 10 games was your favorite or which of these 10 games are you most excited to get to the table yourself? What sounded the most interesting to you? Thank you guys for watching. Be sure to hit the like button down below. Subscribe. We have so much more fun content coming for you, but I'll see you in the next one. I'm excited. Let's go. Bye-bye.