Top 100 Games of All Time (80-71)!

0:01 Hello my friends, the Game Boy Geek here. Today I'm joined by my friend

0:04 Greg Dixon. Thanks for having me again.

0:06 Yeah. Well, we're doing our top 100. Today we are going to take out check out 80 to 71. Yep.

0:12 If you've missed some of those earlier videos, just go back on the channel and check those out. And hey, let's get rolling.

0:18 Let's do it. Before I get to the moment you've been waiting for, I wanted to tell you about the sell trade program at Noble Knight Games. Now, as gamers, we all have games that are cluttering our shelves that we either don't have the right group for or might even not like it. Well, now you can turn those unappreciated games into cash or store credit. Noble Knight Games buys thousands of games and gaming products. It's easy to send them a list of the games that you'd like to sell or trade. Now, they'll send you a quote and even pay for the shipping of the games. Get treated and paid like royalty while you sit back and collect cash or store credit. To get started, click the link in the description of this video or in that upper right corner there, and then click the sell trade button. My number 80 is a game by the amazing Dr. Rhina Kenitzia,

1:17 genius. And this is a game that when you play it, you go, "Ron didn't design this. Stephan Feld designed this."

1:24 Oh, okay.

1:26 You can guess.

1:27 Well, there's a couple I can think of.

1:30 I'm guessing Witch Stone.

1:31 It is Witch Stone.

1:32 Okay.

1:32 This is a fantastic This is so not Rhinoia-esque for most of the game.

1:38 It is a point salad where there's all different ways to get points. Go up these tracks, move on this thing, route building over here. But then the whole cog that makes this game go is the action selection mechanism which essentially is his previous spiel de Jarus either winner or nominee ingenious on steroids where you're putting these little hex pieces that are double domino styles and if you combo them together you get multiple versions of that action. You get to do it multiple times. That's what makes this game sing. It's got kenichia brilliance with like feld style.

2:10 Yeah.

2:10 Like point salad and it is just a gem.

2:13 Yeah, it really is. And it's a fun theme. This is like got to be like one of my favorite like play it in October games because it's all witch themed and you know you've got your cauldron and all that. But yeah, it and it's just so tight and so efficient. You only get like 13 turns or something, but by the end you're able to trigger so much with just one move. You might be able to guess that this is going to come up on a later video.

2:36 Oh, we'll hear more from him about this later. My number 80 is kind of an older one and man it's it's um I guess it's like archaeology themed and it is thieves. Thieves is a really interesting game because ultimately you're going around to these different parts of the map and you're trying to you basically uncover artifacts and things. But the mechanics of it are really interesting. You can choose to go somewhere and not really be well prepared and you're pulling out of a bag and the odds are very bad that you're actually going to pull something out or you can really really prep almost overprep if you want and then go and really increase your odds. But in the time that you're prepping, other people have gone to that area and they've taken a bunch of stuff out of that bag. It's hard to describe unless you've played it. But I love that idea of like researching ahead of time and then going and then basically it's like a little series of push your luck moments. Um we talked about ink and gold on a previous video. This is like a much more fleshed out sort of similar theme. Um similar push your luck but just a completely different play experience. Um haven't played this in a while but man we used to play this a ton.

3:52 You taught this to me like 12 years ago.

3:53 Yeah. And you know what's funny is I liked it a lot and then I played Thieves the card game and I felt like they took the board game and streamlined it down to its like most needed aspects and I liked that one better because it was just more streamlined.

4:07 That one I just haven't played as much and I could see

4:10 Do you still you have that one too?

4:11 No, I don't have that one. I don't and I imagine you don't have it anymore either. probably got rid of at some point, but themes we've hung on to and every once in a while we'll pull it back out again and it's such a cool little experience and it still feels unique and innovative and fresh.

4:23 Made the time track action selection, I think.

4:26 Yes. Yes.

4:26 Everyone goes, "Oh, the thieves mechanism." Like, you know, you you've made it when people are describing other games with the mechanism you like make.

4:33 Yeah. Yeah. So, like I said, it still feels innovative. It still feels fresh. It still feels interesting even though it's an old game now.

4:39 Yeah. I mean, if you were like some night, hey, let's just play Peeps. I'd be like, "Yeah, good. Let's play it."

4:43 Yeah. It's a real clever It's a real clever one. That's my number 80, Thieves.

4:47 My number 79 is an economic game, uh, which is designed by the grandfather of game design.

4:57 Oh, wow. Okay,

4:59 so

5:00 this is the first time I'm offended that this something's not higher on the list.

5:03 This is Acquire, which is probably if it's not in his top 10 is I'm going to be absolutely shocked. Uh, I acquire is an economic game where you're you're buying hotel chains. It's kind of like Scrabble where you get these like Scrabble tiles, but you're placing them out into specific locations like 3D and you're like jumping in and buying stock of of things and you're trying to like create big things for things you have stock in and then sell at the right time. There's a lot of amazing decisions to be made in this game. Then you're trying to merge them together and you're trying at the end have you know you're always like trying to get make small money so you can buy the stocks or the ones you think are gonna be bigger but then you want stocks in there. It's just to the the fact that this was made in the 60s still blows my mind. Sid Saxon is on the Mount Rushmore of game design. He's amazing.

5:52 This was his Magnum Opus. I love this game. It it would be higher. The only thing that keeps it for me for being higher there's also that new 60th anniversary edition which is amazing. It's right there. Only thing that doesn't make this higher is that it is about a 90-minute game. It's best with four players and you can know 50 to 60% of the game that you might not be in one of the two biggest companies in the end. So, you probably don't have a chance. So, you have another 45 minutes of playing for third. That's that's the but it that's the one thing that makes this game feel it's from the 60s and that's the one reason why it's not higher on this list. But, I do love this game.

6:27 Yeah. Yeah. It it does play kind of a wide player count, too. I would

6:31 six, right?

6:31 Yeah, it goes up to six. I wouldn't recommend playing it at two. No,

6:34 there's a weird variant that just too random. But between three and six, it works, which is nice to have that wide player count. But yeah. Yeah, at some point you can realize, oh, I'm I'm fighting for second best case scenario in this one. But yeah, we'll talk more about this one on a much much later video.

6:52 And and it could be because there is random draws and you might just end up not getting the draws either. So there's but it's an amazing game. It's it's I mean it's in my top

7:00 100. You can't always win this game, but you can always feel like I did good given the circumstances I was sort of the hand I was dealt. You know, my number 79 is maybe the first of all of the games I've listed so far. My first uh dexterity game. This is a game with catapults. This is Blue Orange game called Kaboom.

7:23 I love Kaboom.

7:24 Kaboom is so fun.

7:25 But it's not it's not out anymore.

7:27 I know. I'm I I think on a previous video I said sorry but this is our list. You're not necessarily going to find these. That said, I do think and do your own research, but I think there's other games who've done similar things. Uh but ultimately, yeah, it's these very simple little like cat like levers basically that are like little catapults. Everyone has like little dice-shaped projectiles and everyone takes turns trying to build these structures on cards that show the structure you're trying to build with all these like crazy shapes. And everyone else with a with a finite amount of ammunition, but still everyone else is shooting their projectiles at these structures. And at the end of however long you have with the sand timer, however many are still standing, those are the points that you gather. Like the cards themselves will be like, "If you build this, you get three points or whatever."

8:16 And then there's the one super structure in the middle.

8:19 Best part of the game.

8:20 I love it. Everyone always tries, someone in the group tries to go for it. If you build this crazy structure that uses like almost all the blocks in the game, you just win. You just win the whole thing. But man, everyone else is gunning for you so hard and it is so precarious because you're trying to build it, but also build it quickly. It's just fun. I mean, so many games we go, "Oh, it's mechanically very interesting, and I like the way it simulates." This is just fun. Kaboom is just a blast. So, if it's not out, I'm sorry. Try to try to find it or find the variations of it because I think other people have made similar games. Maybe they'll bring it out again. This is a game they should be able to reprint forever. This is never not going to be fun. 50 years from now, shooting projectiles at someone trying to build a structure is still going to be fun. So, yeah, that's my number. What we at? 79.

9:07 Uh, kaboom. Great pick. Thank you.

9:10 My number 78 was a Spiel de Jarus nominee back in 2012. It did not win. Kingdom Builder won, which I don't know why that one, but it won. This game should have won. And it's called Las Vegas. This is This is one of the best, most streamlined. You You want a beginner area control? Roll some dice. Take all the dice of one of the numbers you rolled and put them on that number casino. Whoever has the most dice in there wins the money that's in there that everyone can see. And people are fighting over stuff. And the the best part about this game, we we there was a game earlier we talked about uh that has this this mechanism. I got it from this game.

9:46 If you are tied, you cancel each other out.

9:48 Yeah.

9:49 And so you can it

9:50 you're always potentially in it.

9:52 Yes. It's a fantastic game. Roll dice, place, point fingers, yell at people, make money. It's Vegas, baby.

10:00 Yes. Yes. Very fun. And there is that element of like gunning for people because you're like that last time he got a hundred, you know, we got to make sure he doesn't win as many and and so that's I love games that do that that they're not it's not expressly in the rules but just organically like these little like teamups happen for just a moment where it's like you can't let them win that, you know. Uh my number 78 is another social deduction game. We've talked about a few of these already. This one is by the guys who brought you uh Cards Against Humanity, which I actually may be the only person in the world. I've never played it, but it is Secret Hitler.

10:34 Secret Hitler is a fantastic hit and roll social deduction game where you're trying to sus out the fascists. You're trying to figure out who is secretly on Hitler's steam uh and stop him. It's basically like set in like preWorld War II as he's rising to power and you want to stop him. Um, great production too. Um, and some very simple little tweaks to like the genre that um that just that make it really work well. U I remember playing like Avalon for instance where you'd often go like well they were help they were successful last time put them on the mission again. This one's like, "No, if you were in the last administration, you can't be in the next administration." And so, it forces you to basically trust people that you have no reason to trust. Um, because you have to use people that weren't used before.

11:27 Um, very cool game. Um, nice production. Like I said, I love the little envelopes it comes with where you can see like your secret information. Um, yeah. My number, what are we at? 78 is a secret Hitler. Very good social.

11:41 Yeah. Amazing game designer Emerson Matsuchi.

11:45 Yes.

11:46 Foundations of Rome.

11:47 Yeah. Uh Century Spice Road Reef.

11:50 Spectre Ops.

11:50 Spectre Ops.

11:51 The nicest. If him and Rodney Smith had a nice off like Henderson might win.

11:57 Yeah. Super nice guy.

11:58 Super nice guy. Very soft spoken.

12:00 I was in a at the hotel at Gen Con when you were the year this came out.

12:04 Yeah.

12:04 He was playing this.

12:06 Yeah. And Emerson was standing on his chair with his face red, screaming at the top of his lungs at somebody who was saying who was basically calling him a liar when he wasn't.

12:15 Yeah.

12:15 And you go, if that gets that reaction out of that guy, there's something in this game.

12:20 There really is. And it's very

12:22 Yeah. It's very simple, but like Yeah. You get super invested in it.

12:27 Yeah. Number 77 for me is a deduction game. One of my favorite genres. Uh, this is a game that I call clue on steroids because you're trying to find the suspect, the weapon, the the motive. But there's not just one of everything. There's two of everything, which is why it's clue on steroids. There's two knives, there's two this. And the other thing is if you see a knife, you don't know if it's the same knife that you saw earlier in the round that somebody else had, or is it the second knife because if you see the knife twice in two different cards, you know it can't be the knife. So, it's like takes clue and makes your brain burn. And it's called Mystery Express.

13:02 Oh, okay.

13:03 This was from Days of Wonder back when Days of Wonder was like the only company doing like big grandiose productions.

13:08 This is way back.

13:09 This is a Antoine Baoza like an early design. It was co-designed with with the late great uh Serge Leger uh who unfortunately has passed away in recent years. He was co-designing on Mystery of the Abbey and he did N Develier was his highest ranked game. Okay. He also did Shadows of Camel, Bruno Catala, like

13:28 yeah,

13:29 a giant in the industry and unfortunately he's no longer with us, but he was he was uh he he did this. This game is literally clue on stories. Action selection, you're you're going to your cards are moving around and you're trying to count cards essentially.

13:42 Yes.

13:43 And be like it's just a brain burn. If you like [snorts] Clue and you're like, uh, this is a kids game. I want to play a real game. Like, and by the way, I don't feel that way about Clue. I still think it holds up well. Uh, this game will make your brain bleed trying to figure out was that the knife I saw from that guy last round that now passes to him or is that actually the second knife? Like it's it's amazing.

14:01 Yeah, I haven't played this in a long time, but I remember that feeling of like, oh, my brain hurts.

14:07 Yes.

14:08 All right, 77. I think we're on um economic game. I think it's come up in previous videos perhaps. This is one where you kind of organically create the economy as you play and that is container. specifically the 10th anniversary jumbo edition, baby. I love it. Those big ships, those big containers, great production, but mechanically also just a really interesting economic game. Um, this is one that got on my radar when we went to Gamma one year and they were showing it off and it just I was like, "Oh my gosh, this looks so cool." I'd never played it at the time, even though it's a very old game. And at some point down the road, I finally got my hands on a copy. I haven't played it in a while. uh you kind of want a big group and um it takes a minute to kind of for people to kind of grasp exactly how it all works, but when you play it and people get how it works and you're you're you're rolling through it, it is really fun. And I love that you have so much control over like what you want to produce and where you want to set your prices and it's very open. It's very like almost sandboxy, like almost a sandboxy kind of economic game, but also elegant, streamlined.

15:16 It's not convoluted. Uh it just takes a second for everyone to wrap their heads around exactly how it works, but once you get rolling on it, it's so fun. So yeah, that's my number 77. Uh Container, a game I know you also love.

15:27 You might hear me talk about it later. But hey, you know what? This video is going live right after I launch my season 14 Kickstarter. Oh,

15:33 and the new version of Container coming off Play. There are two Container Bundles. There's only two copies of each available, so they might even be gone by the time.

15:40 I'm glad it's available again.

15:42 Yes, it is

15:42 because it's a very good game. Mechanically, it you don't need the big grandio production. I mean, that adds to it, but it's just mechanically a really interesting economic game. So, I'm glad it's it's

15:52 get the new version. There's a regular and the deluxe, go to my Kickstarter.

15:55 Boom. There you go.

15:56 My number 76 is a tiny little card game where you're just trying to be the last one standing. It is called red seven.

16:03 Ah, great game.

16:04 This game, it's just got colors and numbers. There's one rule that is the rule of it. Like, you have to have the highest number in front of you and in front of anyone else when it's your turn. At the end of your turn, if you're not winning, you're out. And it's like king of the hill. You're just trying to be the last one standing. But the different rules are like highest number or the most between numbers four and below or the most odd or the most consecutive numbers. And you're constantly trying to like think turns ahead. It's a simple game. You're you're just playing a card and sometimes drawing a card and you're just trying to keep your head above water and you feel the tension of like, oh my gosh, if I don't h this is probably going to be my last round. Let's see what happens. Great little quick quick game. Red seven.

16:44 Yeah, you're always on like the razor's edge. You can change the rule or you can make sure you're winning. Otherwise, you're out. Great choice. Okay, what are we talking about? Number 76. This is a stock market game, an economic game, old game that was redone recently, the rich and the good.

17:02 Really interesting game. Um, ultimately in a lot of respects, it's kind of a traditional stock market game where you have some control over the value of the different goods and you want to buy low and sell high. Um, but there's also this one little twist which is you have to be rich, but you also have to be good. You have to at some point donate to charity. And it almost reminds me of like a chisia where at the end it's like if you have donated the least amount, you're just out. Can't wait. You know, I think of like High Society or some of these games where it's just like there's certain ways that there's certain criteria that if you don't meet, you're just gone. And the rich and the good has that. So, you want to donate just enough more than the person who's donating the least so that you're still in the running. Um, but not overdonate because then you're not going to be rich enough to win. So, it's it's very much like being the 1% the game. But yeah, the rich and the good. Just a fantastic stock market game with this fun little twist. Very simple to understand. Uh that's my number 70

18:07 just now. Six.

18:08 I think I'm starting to realize I thought I loved economic games. I think you love them even more.

18:12 I love economic games.

18:13 Like oh my goodness.

18:14 I have had a lot so far. I haven't.

18:16 Yeah. Like but economic is probably my second favorite genre to deduction. But like it might be your favorite like genre

18:22 when it's done right. It is just so satisfying.

18:24 Yeah.

18:25 Yeah. This is a great one.

18:26 There's more coming up too. This is not the last one.

18:29 Number 75 for me is a slight newer game came out about a year or two ago. Uh it's a two-player card game called Compile.

18:37 Ah, in this game there are different protocols and each of these protocols have like their own deck of cards and each of them has sort of like their own little strategy and at the beginning of the game you get to select three of these and you can draft them. You can just randomly give them out. So you have this deck of cards has three different proto cards, three different strategies that you're trying to combo together. Turns are pretty simple. You're just kind of playing the card. But what you're trying to do is get from one of the protocols, you're trying to be the first one that gets to 10. Then you compile. When you compile, you flip the card over. It's compiled. First one to compile all three of their protocols first wins. But there is a ton of card players. Some cards do things when they come out. Some cards do things ongoing. Some cards do other things the other player. There is just it's strategically a very deep game, but mechanically a very simple game. Play a card, try to get to 10, compile, and over. But it is like a tugofwar of tugof-wars and you can do things to to shift cards and move cards and move things around and pull the carpet underneath from the other opponent which I didn't the one time he played unfortunately. Um he was about to compile and I was like oh well I get to switch your line and then I can compile like if it was my own. You're like

19:40 I'm like I'm just learning. What are you doing to me?

19:43 Uh anyways great card game. They just came out with Compile 2 which came out last year. Also very good. So

19:48 can you like mix and match this?

19:50 They're all standalone. Yeah, I've only played it, I think, the one time. I could tell that it had potential, but it was one of those games where

19:55 if someone's played before, they're just going to have such a big advantage. So, I was like, uh, okay, I guess I lost,

20:01 but I'd like to try it again sometime. All right, my number 75 is a worker placement game. Uh, one of the most unique sort of thematic worker placement games, and that is asking for troubles. T R O B I LS. So, it's sort of a riff on the trouble with tribles, which is an old Star Trek episode. And in this basically it's just the idea of like you're coming into this solar system and you're trying to help the people there by taking out all these monsters that just keep popping up everywhere. Ultimately it's a very simple sort of entrylevel streamlined worker placement game. um simple to understand but has um unlike some some other worker placement games the the element of collecting certain goods and then turning them into other goods before you can deliver and the timing and the efficiency puzzle of it. The more you play it, the more you realize that the only way to really play well is to be incredibly efficient and you can choose to you know you you satisfy all the the monsters basically.

21:03 you know, you get the goods or whatever that you need to to trap them, but then you can then you go to the sun and you throw them in the sun. And so that aspect of well, how many do I collect before I go? Um, of course, places can be blocked, but then if you go to places that are blocked, you bump them back. Uh, and it's one of these worker placements where it's like you play your workers and then you take a whole turn to collect. So if you bump people, then you're helping them be more efficient, but like they're in the spot that I need the most. And so, and then there's just all these sort of tongue-in-cheek kind of jokes and references. Like, some of the the locations are named after famous scientists. The box itself has all these like silly science jokes written on it. It's just a very tongue-in-cheek fun um but still sort of sort of surprisingly innovative and interesting worker placement game that you really can kind of play with anybody. It's very entry level. So, that's my number 75. Asking for troubles.

21:58 Very orange.

21:58 Very orange. The solar system is called Orenge in the game.

22:03 All right. My number 74 is my favorite Stefan Feld game, Carpey DM.

22:08 Oh, you're done. This is your highest feld. Okay. All right.

22:12 Uh Carp DM is a tile laying game where you're you're doing some action selection, moving around sort of a rondelle type of thing. And you're getting these tiles of the different types of buildings and you're putting them together on your own board.

22:24 And what you're trying and some of them are giving you different goods and such. And what you're trying to do is score things because at the end of the round, you get to place a little piece and you can score one of those two things

22:32 and you could get positive points or negative points, but those the opportunities to score those will shrink as the game goes on because only one person can go there. So, you've got this like short-term planning, but then the long-term planning and then you're trying not to get squeezed out of things that you've been kind of working on. Then there's other ways of like getting points of like building stuff in rows or columns or putting these things together or putting the things with the chimneys and it's just it's kind of a point seller, but it's it's really about the the action selection building your thing and not getting squeezed out of tense sort of almost area control style uh pieces. So yeah, carpet.

23:06 Yeah, great choice. Might come up later. We shall see. This was not planned. My 74 is also failed. Oh,

23:13 and I think it was brought up uh well, maybe you did bring it up on I you have to remind me if you brought up on a prior video. It is u a multi-use card game. One of his lighter, faster, quicker games.

23:25 Le Isla.

23:26 I really like Leisla. I think it's an underrated Feld.

23:30 I think when people think of Feld, they think of his bigger, crunchier kind of games, but this one is just the multi-use card element of is really interesting. You're basically simultaneously handed a, you know, a a set of cards and you have to slot them into your own little player board and you and they have multiple sides on them. So, you have to kind of decide, well, if I use this side, then I lose out on the opportunity to use the other thing on the card. And so, there's this puzzle that you're all kind of working through simultaneously. Then you reveal and you kind of work your way through the rounds. Um, and ultimately though it is um you're basically trying to move up certain tracks and have uh uh predict which which because the theme is that you're you're going to an island, you know, it's basically preserving, you know, saving these these these animals like dodo birds and things that are they're they're um going extinct. And so you're trying to kind of you're you're you're working to save them, but you're trying to collect the one predict which ones are going to be worth the most and collect the most of those and but at the same time you're also trying to kind of manipulate those tracks as well. And it's one of these games where it's like you're kind of getting going and then all a sudden you're like, "Oh my gosh, we're getting close to the end already."

24:41 And so it doesn't overstay its welcome. It packs a lot of interesting choices and mechanics into a very short play time. And I think it's an underrated felt. I really like it. It's my number 70. What are we four leth?

24:53 Yeah, it's definitely one of my favorite films.

24:56 And we both had films at the same time.

24:57 It's re it's reprinted recently by Queen Games called Vienna.

25:00 That's right. There is a new version of which I haven't played. It'd be interesting to see if it changes it much or if it's

25:05 added like an advanced variant, but the board is very hard to follow all the lines and such. So,

25:09 Oh, that's too bad. The actual board in Leisa is really interesting. It's like this little puzzle that you put together, but and a lot of the game is really assessing the board in your first turn and and and because you want to get sets of animals as well.

25:23 Uh so you're trying to kind of have this big over overarching strategic choice, but then people get in your way and it ends up being a little more tactical than than you want it to be. Uh but yeah, that's that's my number 74, Lea.

25:35 Yeah, my number 73 was a spiel nominee. When it first came out, I played it the first two or three times and I went, "What? How is this thing nominated for the speed the jarus? Oh my goodness. But is one of those games that over time had grown on me. Then a second edition came out and made the game even better. It's a racing betting game called Camel Up.

25:53 Oh, you didn't like it the first time you played it?

25:55 The first handful of times I didn't like it. I was like I I wouldn't say I didn't like it. I was just

26:00 You thought it was overrated maybe?

26:01 Yeah. I was like feel Anyway,

26:04 it gets better with age. It gets better with with with with more and more and more plays. And it's just a game that that always does well because it's like you're these crazy camels on each other. They jump on top of each other.

26:16 You know which dice have not come out of the pyramid. You know, you're rolling the dice. You're moving the camels. Crazy things happen, but you're trying to bet on the ones that you think are going to be in first place at the end of a leg or at the end of the race. It's just a fun, zany game that pretty much anyone can play. It's not too bad. You've got like four choices on your turn, but it's quick, it's fun, it's silly,

26:35 uh, and it's just been a blast. It's been a real hit with with a lot of the, you know, families I play with.

26:40 Camel up is one of those games that I like, but I I feel like I'm so bad at it. I don't know what it is. I can never call the right camel, but yeah, it's a fun one. Uh, my number 73 is um a legacy game. I not too many. I played several of them over the years. There's not going to be a lot of campaigns and legacy kind of games on here, but this one really impressed me and we played through it very quickly with some friends of ours and is uh Ticket to Ride Legends of the West. Um what a cool Some of these legacy games kind of overstay their welcome. You know, you're 15 16 plays in, you're kind of like, all right, enough already. This one I was like, I kind of wanted to keep going. And it's it gives you a lot of choice. Um, as you're building out the map, you kind of choose where to go. You're going to have a you could play the same thing over and over again. Honestly, I think you could play it again and have enough of a different experience to to really enjoy it. Obviously, there's some surprises and some things that that pop up that wouldn't be as fun a second time through, but man, I played this. We blasted through this with in like three or four sessions with some friends in like the ca course of like a month maybe. And I was like, "When are they coming out with another one?" Like, that was great. And I am not a big Ticket to Ride guy. You're not.

27:55 If you look at a lot of these videos, I go, I like Ethnos because I think it's similar to Ticket to Ride, but better. I like Royals cuz I think it's similar to Ticket to Ride, but better. But this one really knocked my socks off. I was also horrible at it. I did not do well, but I was just I just had a blast the whole time. And it just comes there's so many fun, interesting little reveals as you're going through it and to watch the map get built. Um, man, I loved it. I I think it's best at four, although you played it with smaller player counts, and I've heard it works kind of at all player counts, too, which is also cool. You know, that they they designed it so well. So, I don't know if there's been any buzz about a second one, but I really hope they do make make another one.

28:36 Have to make I don't have any knowledge of this, but they they've got to make one, right?

28:39 You would think so.

28:39 This was my game of the year when it came out, and I just realized I didn't put it on my list for some reason.

28:45 Oh, no. I might not have ranked it on Board Game Geek because I did my list of like all my rank like all my numbers. Once in a while I might forget to rank something.

28:53 Yeah, I'm kind of Yeah, I'm kind of shocked that this is not higher on your list.

28:57 It's a fantastic game.

28:58 We can cut this out and you can just change your list. No one knows. Just pull some pull out your 68 and throw this one in.

29:05 Yeah, I really like this one. Well, I'm glad I brought it up then since you forgot to put on your list because uh like I said, I'm not usually a huge Ticket to Ride guy. I don't hate Ticket to Ride, but I just I I haven't gotten as into it as some people have. Um, but man, this one was great.

29:18 Yep.

29:19 So good.

29:20 Before I get to this next one, I want to let you know you can get over a hundred individual promo cards for just $50 and amazing game bundles from popular games in my season 14 Kickstarter fundraising campaign, which is going live about a week for when this video launches. And lots of these will sell out within the first hour or day for sure. So, if you want to be notified when this goes live, click the little eye up there. I'd really appreciate it.

29:42 My 72 is another code design two-player game from Bruna Cthala.

29:46 What? Bruno Cthala. How did this happen?

29:48 And Mark Andre, of course. Uh, this is Splender Duel.

29:51 Ah, very good. Kind of low, but very good. Like low in the list, I feel.

29:55 Oh, you thought it'd be higher.

29:56 Yeah. I mean, it's Brut Cthala for one thing.

29:58 I mean, it's it's an excellent game. It took, in my opinion, I would never play Splender two-player, the normal game, ever again. Like, there's no reason to play it. Interestingly enough, earlier I talked about a game called Sobec two-player. Yeah.

30:09 It's exactly the mechanism that he used with how you get the pieces of the jewels in this game. He turned it into an abstract game which

30:18 is very similar to the way Sobeek two player works. So he kind of took that idea and like fleshed it out even a little bit more with this

30:23 immediate ways to win. It took a game that was already streamlined and amazing and made it even better. Like they took uh there's immediate victory there three different victory conditions now. Uh, lots of tension, new abilities, different ways to get the gems. It just it took a game that was already awesome and made it different and even better, if that's even possible. It's Splender Duel.

30:42 Yeah. It still feels like Splendor.

30:45 Yeah.

30:45 But he just fleshed it out in such interesting ways.

30:47 And it was co Mark Andre. He needs to get credit, too.

30:50 Oh, yeah. The two they work together on this.

30:52 Yeah. I mean, this is like an allstar team working at the top of their skill level to put out a really fantastic game.

30:59 Yep.

30:59 Might come up later. My number 72 has come up.

31:03 Wait, you're gonna like Cthala more than I do. So, that's gonna be funny.

31:07 Well, I like Cthala. I mean, I I don't know if I have I don't I'd have to look at my list. I don't know how many are on my list, but he's a he's consistent.

31:16 Yeah.

31:16 He reminds me of Kinesis and some of the other designers that we love where he's just like, "Oh, if he's on the box, it's going to be good."

31:21 Yeah.

31:22 Um All right. 72. We've brought this up in a previous video. Another social deduction game. Uh One Night Ultimate Warwolf.

31:28 Yeah. This Bezier Games. This is basically the best version of werewolf. It's werewolf in 10 minutes. And this is sort of the game where you play it and you go, "Let's do it again. Let's do it again. Let's play again. Let's play again." And you can mix in all these different roles. It actually has some deduct real deduction in it. It's not just going off of vibes. Let's just kill him because we got to kill somebody, you know, which can happen in like regular werewolf. So yeah, One Night Ultimate Werewolf. I have played it 100 plus times easily. Plays great at at a wide range of player counts. Um, I don't know. We've talked about it before. It's just a great game. When I Ultimate werewolf, there's all these other variations, too. When I Ultimate Alien and all this stuff, and they're all cool and fun in different ways, but I like like the first one with like the first expansion. You can mix and match the roles. There's just endless variety.

32:13 Yep.

32:13 Number 72. Yep. One night game.

32:16 Yeah. So good. Before I get to the moment you've been waiting for, I wanted to let you know that Game Toppers is giving 15% off premium game mats and accessories, specifically to my US and Canada audience using code game boygeeek 15 off for a limited time only. Hear more about this at the end of my final thoughts. All right, last one for this video. Number 71. This is a two-player card game that is an absolute modern-day classic that the only reason why it's not way higher on this list is just because I've played it a gazillion times and so, you know, loses a little luster after that is Lost Cities.

32:49 Oh, okay.

32:50 One of the best two-player tugof-war style sort of like card games.

32:56 Yeah.

32:57 By Dr. Ranicia. It is just a quintessential absolute slam dunk. It's one of the best two-player card games ever. Uh it's

33:04 100%. It's It's so so good. But again, the reason why it's not higher is just because I I've just played the heck out. It's like,

33:12 you know, it's so it's one of those games where like the best part of this games, you're trying to go on these different expeditions. You're trying to basically play cards of the same color under a color. You're trying to get to at least 20 because [clears throat] that's how much it costs to get you there. So, if you win a column, but you have 20 or less, you actually lose points. So, you're trying to really go heavy on one column. There's ways to sort of gamble and say, "Hey, I'm going to double or triple or even quadruple my points." But you let your opponent know that up front, which allows them to store and hoard all the cards that you're trying to get. But the best part about this game is the hand management and the tension you feel with every card that you discard. Your opponent can now take and you don't want it's like, "Oh, what do I do?" And it's just the tension of that makes this game stand out more than anything.

33:54 Yeah. I really like the uh push your luck element of I'm going to put these multipliers down and I have to put them down first and and you're investing very heavily in whatever that column is and your opponent can see it and they can literally just hoard cards. You do play multiple rounds so if you have one bad round you can hopefully make up for it on a future play or a future round. But yeah, Lost Cities is a masterpiece. 100% agreed. All right, number 71. We've made it to the end of this video. surprised it's not in your top 100 or you love Lost Cities.

34:26 Well, well, there's still more left.

34:28 Oh, okay. I guess it might come.

34:31 I think I mean it's also from the '9s. Yeah. And it still holds up. I still think it stands out as a incredible.

34:38 Has to be in the discussion of one of the great two-player card games. Yeah. Uh even though it's, you know, 27 years old or something. My number 71, last one on the list here. Another economic game. Maybe you're right. Maybe I really like economic games. This one looks like it's for little kids. It's got cute little art. It's like on a farm. It just looks like, you know, you play this with like a six-year-old. The pigs one. Happy pigs.

35:02 I love Happy Pigs. Happy Pigs looks like a kids game. And it's not complex, but it is ultimately you're running a business, you know, and it is an economic game. And it's pretty sandboxy for a for a simple rule set. you're flipping a card that basically tells you what's happening, you know, that season or whatever, and then you're all kind of reacting to it. There's these um uh actions that you tokens that you select. Um but if your opponents pick the same one, you're all pulling from the same uh same quantity of actions. So, if you're in sync with everybody else, you get less of them. like maybe there's 10, you know, feed your pigs actions or whatever, but if we all pick it, we only get a few each. So, you're trying to kind of run your business and run your farm and raise up your pigs and sell them at the right time and all that, but you're also trying not to be completely in sync with everybody else so that you can op, you know, have the optimal amount of actions each time. The whole thing is like so uh it's just a delightful production and like a a thinkier game than it looks like based off of the very cartoony art.

36:10 Yeah.

36:10 Yeah. My number 71, Happy Pigs.

36:12 Well, that concludes this episode. You want to see the ones coming up shortly. They're going to be coming out like every few days now. Make sure you subscribe and hit the notification bell and we'll see you next time.

36:21 Thanks for watching, guys. Hope you enjoyed.

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