TDG: Cody's Top 100 Games 2026 (#30-21)

0:04 Hello ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the discriminating gamer. Say, why did the pony ask for water? Because it was a little horse. Ladies and gentlemen, today we're going to go ahead and take a look at my top 100 games of all time. Today we're taking a look at my number 30 through number 21.

0:33 All right, ladies and gentlemen, my top 100 games of all time are number 30 through my number 21. Just going to go ahead and jump right into it. My number 30 is Undaunted Normandy Reinforcements. Now, the Reinforcements is kind of an expansion with it. I love Undaunted Normandy. Um this game is my number 30. It was my number 20 the last time I played it. It has gone down a little bit. I haven't played it as much, but I still do really enjoy it. And I actually included the Reinforcements pack here because to me, that is the best way to play the game. Uh that allows for a four-player game of uh Undaunted Normandy. And I really enjoy it. Now, Undaunted Normandy is a great uh deck-building game of uh kind of it's a it's a tactical war game uh the Germans and the Americans in Normandy in 1944.

1:18 But you actually play through it with a uh deck-building mechanic. And it is so fun and interesting in order to kind of have these cards represent actual, you know, your actual troops. And we they get shot and you lose the card and you actually kind of feel for it. But it's so much fun. It's such an innovative way. And I still think I still am in awe of the fact that they were able to uh you know, this is a David Thompson design uh with his team. And I I'm in awe of the fact that they were able to marry this deck-building mechanic with a kind of a squad-level war game. Very fun game. I really really love the Undaunted series. And Undaunted Normandy Reinforcements is probably my favorite of the bunch. So, that's my number 30, Undaunted Normandy Reinforcements, that's from Osprey Games, was my number 20.

2:04 My number 29 is a game that actually just came out a couple years ago, so it wasn't on my list last time when I did it in uh 2021. Uh but this is a game that I I when they announced it, I thought, "Well, it could be fun." But I was kind of skeptical, and then I played it, and it blew me away. And they've come out with a few expansions and another stand-alone game in the series, and they they just make it more fun. This last expansion, I think, is essential. But this is number 29 from Fantasy Flight Games, the Star Wars Deck Building Game. Now, the Star Wars Deck Building Game, like I said, they announced it, and they were in the middle of doing like Star Wars Unlimited and you know, some of these other games, and I was thinking, "Uh okay, are they really going to take the time to make a really good game here?" And I was pleasantly surprised they did. Star Wars Deck Building Game is a great two-player head-to-head game. If you get the Mandalorian faction, you can play it uh three-player. There's also the Clone Wars. There's ways to play it four-player. I've never played a four-player, though.

2:59 Um and then again, this this this recent um uh Reinforcements pack has these missions that you can go on to get even better cards. And I just I this game is so much fun. My wife and I uh we actually, years ago, right after this came out, we went to Hawaii on a vacation, we took it with us, and we were playing this um you know, a lot in our downtime. And it it's just a fun fun game. Uh it's one of those games that it's it's like it's got no right to be as good as it is, and it really really good. So, that is number 29, the Star Wars Deck Building Game. That is from Fantasy Flight Games. My number 28, this is a game that has fallen. It was my number 12 in 2021. I still love love love this game very much, but I don't play it as much as I used to. Although, I played a couple games recently. In fact, I played one two nights ago. We had a lot of fun with although it was co-op it's co-op game, and we crashed and burned. But this is Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game.

3:54 And now we of course we have the second edition, which is which is even better because it really kind of tweaked and and uh uh improved a lot of the problems with the original core set. It It kind of makes the the schemes a little bit more challenging, makes some of the enemies more challenging. Like I said, the game we played the other night we played against Doc Ock, who was not in the original core game. Um and we didn't even get a we didn't even get a touch on him. We did the Killbot scheme. But it is it's such a fun game. I love the the Legendary Marvel game. I always have. It's it's such an incredibly fun and inventive uh deck building game that almost feels like a board game the way you're moving cards around the board um or the mat. And it uh you know, like any great deck builder, and this is true of the Star Wars one and a lot of these other great deck builders here, it's card combinations. You're making all these great card combinations and that is just the best part of a good deck builder. Uh so that is uh Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game.

4:50 That's from uh Upper Deck. That is uh my 28 was my number 12. My number 27, and this is one that I kind of go back and forth with Legendary Marvel, but this is Legendary Encounters: An Alien Deck Building Game. Now Legendary Encounters: An Alien Deck Building Game, this was my number 11, so this is another one that kind of slipped a little bit. Um again, a lot of great games out there. But this is such a fun and interesting game of um playing through the Alien movies. You can play through the four first four Alien movies. Uh I think and then they they came out with some of the expansions for some of the other films. But it's scary because the cards are coming at you and you don't know what they are and you have to scan them in order to flip them over and see what they are. And I remember the first time we played it and Zach was playing this and he's like, "This is just like in the movie." where he's like, you know, "10 m, 8 m." You know, they're getting closer and closer and you don't know what the threat is.

5:40 Very thematic, very gory. Um don't know that this is a game you'd want little kids to play cuz there's a lot of gore on the cards. but it is fantastic. It is so good. If you like uh the Alien films and you like deck building, you got to play this game. I don't even know if it's still in print, but if you get a copy of it, absolutely do. So, that is Legendary Encounters, an Alien deck building game. This is my number 27 from Upper Deck. Was my number 11. My number 26, again, this is a game that came out just a few years ago, so it wasn't on my list before, but it is based upon um an earlier game that that had been out for a for a long, long time. Uh and they kind of reskinned it with a kind of a Cthulhu theme, and this is Unfathomable from Fantasy Flight Games. Unfathomable is fantastic. Unfathomable is this just beautiful game of hidden traitor mechanics, right?

6:34 Essentially, you and your friends are on a steamship like a 1920 or something like that. You're you're crossing for a passenger ship, you're crossing from Europe to the United States. And of course, on the passage, ship starts to be attacked by these big sea monsters. And it turns out that one or more of the passengers may also be a hybrid that is secretly working for them. So, you're working together to solve all these various crises that pop up, but critically, the the hybrid, if they're there, they are trying to sabotage. So, they're trying to make you fail these crises. And it's such a fun game of accusations, and you're always looking around seeing who is the who you know, who's who's the bad guy? Who's the bad guy? Who's who's the hybrid? Who's the traitor? Great game of tension. Now, this is based on as a Battlestar Galactica, which the board game, which was another game from from Fantasy Flight Games, which may or may not be on this list.

7:24 That was such a great game, and it was such a wonderful thematic game. And of course, the the IP was probably no longer available, I don't know, but Fantasy Flight kind of still wanted to put this game out there. So, of course, they made Unfathomable. And I'm so glad they did. In some ways, it's a more streamlined game. In some ways, I'd say it's a better game than Battlestar Galactica, but um I just I love the hidden trader mechanics. In fact, Battlestar Galactica was the first hidden trader mechanic game I played, so I kind of fell in love with this system, the way they do it here, and the way they do it in Unfathomable is so much fun. I played this game several several times with my friends, and every time we play it, it's a hoot. Absolutely love Unfathomable. That is why it is my number 26. That is from Fantasy Flight Games. Number 25, this is another game that um was new to me. I want to say it came out 2018 or 2019. I think it was in Texas when it came out. I never played it until just a few years ago. I think it was maybe 23 I bought a copy of it, finally broke down and bought a copy of it, and I'm so glad I did. Since then I've uh acquired more and more of it. But this is uh from uh Cthulhu: Death May Die. Cthulhu: Death May Die is a great game of um your investigators, and there's all these various um you know, Lovecraftian horrors that are going on. You're trying to solve puzzles, and you're trying to um you know, investigate various uh problems, and monsters are attacking you, and you're trying to stop a ritual.

8:46 And you're trying to stop this ritual as this Cthulhu monster is is coming to Earth, and you got to got to stop it. So that's really fun, but I think where this game really shines is each core box or each major box has a number of uh scenarios, like six scenarios. And so you're playing through the scenarios, but you also [clears throat] have a number of monsters, and each set has its own monsters. And all of the scenarios and all of the monsters, you can just pick and plug different different monsters with different scenarios in there. So the replayability of this game, particularly if you have more and more of the monsters or more of the core boxes, is off the charts. I think I've just scratched the surface with the number of combinations I can play with this game. I really really love Cthulhu: Death May Die. This is really one of my uh favorite horror games, and certainly one of my favorite Cthulhu games of all time. Um and so that is why Cthulhu: Death May Die is my number 25. That is from Cthulhu: Death May Die.

9:37 Now, my number 24, this is a game that has slipped a little bit. It was my number 13 for a long, long time. I haven't played this as as much. In fact, I played this game last night for the first time in maybe two or three years. Uh and then I played it last night and I forgot how much I truly, truly love this game. This is my favorite Cthulhu themed game. Spoiler alert. I absolutely love this game and like I said, I forgot how much I I really enjoy it. My My number 24 is Mansions of Madness second edition from Fantasy Flight Games. Now, Mansions of Madness second edition, it's a lot like Cthulhu Death May Die. It's, you know, your your investigators, you're you're solving puzzles, you're trying to fight monsters. Uh but it is it is um has app integration. So, you do use an app that kind of helps you move around these mansions and solve these problems and fight these monsters and it really does so in a fun and engaging way. Now, I had had the first edition of Mansions of Madness, which I enjoyed. But the problem with that one was it was an all-in-one game and one person was what they called the keeper. And the keeper had to set up the board just perfectly.

10:37 And if you didn't set up the board perfectly, it screwed up the game and that happened when we played games a few times. So, I really hated that. But what's cool about the second edition is the app just takes care of all that that bookkeeping. It takes care of all that stuff, so you don't need to worry about it. And what's cool, too, is as you move into different rooms, you just start in like one room. You're moving into different rooms, it tells you, you know, which other tile you're going to place there. And so, it builds out into a lot of different uh like I said, a lot of different tiles and a lot of different rooms. Great adventures, great stories. It's a great storytelling game. I love, love, love Mansions of Madness. That is why it is my number 24. It was my number 13 and that is from Fantasy Flight Games. My number 23, this is a game that came out just a few years ago, but it is based on an earlier game. Um I can't remember if that game was on the list or not. And these games are actually very similar. In fact, I think this game is almost like a the original game 2.0. It's almost like an improvement on it. But this is from Direwolf, Dune Imperium: Uprising. Uh Dune Imperium: Uprising, of course, is this great Dune themed game in which, of course, you're the different characters in the different houses of, you know, you can be the Baron Harkonnen or Paul Muad'Dib or and I think with the expansion you're going to be the emperor and and all the different characters from the from the Dune uh books and movies. And and the the the theming the the imagery is from the the Denis Villeneuve uh films.

12:00 They are uh so it's set in that universe, but it's so much fun cuz it's a worker placement game, but it's also a deck-building game. And how you play your deck-building cards, how you play the cards from your hand, kind of informs where you can go and what what locations you're you can send your uh agents to. And you're competing for different things, but then critically what you're trying to do is there is a conflict zone, and at the end of every round you're going to move troops from kind of your section into the conflict zone and fight. And whoever fights is going to win various advantages up to and including victory points. So this is a very fun game. It's a very tight game. Like I say, the original Dune Imperium I loved a lot, but Dune Imperium: Uprising just improves the system significantly. So this is uh Dune Imperium: Uprising. That is my number 23, and that is from Direwolf.

12:47 My number 22 is another game that um I want to say I played in '22, came out in '21 or '22 for the first time, but it wasn't on my list the last time I did my top 100. Uh this is a game that um it's also app integrated. And this is my wife's favorite game of all time. In fact, uh her favorite game of all time was Mansions of Madness until she played this one. Uh but this is from Renegade Game Studios, My Father's Work. My Father's Work is just this fantastic game of um you you play these three generations of mad scientist families. And it's it's so unique. The the theme here is so unique and interesting. And as you're playing through these things, you're kind of collecting different uh worker placement. You're on a flip book village that evolves during the game.

13:34 You go to these different locations to gain different resources that then you use those resources to fulfill experiments. You're trying to work toward a master work. And you're gaining points for them. Um but also if you get too creepy, then the townsfolk will come out and you won't be able to go into the village. So you got to lower your creepiness. Uh there's and then your sanity can be compromised. So there's a lot of really fun and interesting mechanisms going on here and a beautiful production. This just the standard game box looks like a deluxe Kickstarter edition. It is so beautiful. I I love this game so much. I know like I said, my wife, her favorite game of all time. I've told this story a hundred times, but I one of the games we were playing, one of the first games we were playing, um about an hour into the game, and it's a longer game, about an hour into the game, my lab caught fire and it set me back. I'm like, "Oh, crap. That just seemed real random."

14:23 And then about an hour later, um I it it said to take the app and just read it, and I read it, and she had earlier set fire to my lab. And she I just looked up for her. She just started laughing. Great game. I absolutely love My Father's Work. Again, there's there's really no other game quite like it out there. If you can get a copy, I highly recommend it. So that is number 22, My Father's Work. That is from Renegade Game Studios. All right, my number 21. This is a game again based on it it there's a family of games that it's part of. And this is a game that always um when the when the first edition came out, I fell in love with it. I think a friend bought it for me for like my birthday or something, and I just fell in love with it. And they made new iterations of the game, and it seems like every time they do, they they improve it. They make it even better. But this, my number 21 from CMON, which again, this edition was not on my 2020 one list, but this is Zombicide second edition. Zombicide second edition is of course kind of the basic Zombicide game.

15:26 They make a lot of great expansions for it. I just played one the other day. But this is, you know, your survivors after a zombie apocalypse. You have different missions you're trying to fulfill different um uh objectives and you're fighting zombies. And every time the zombies come out and you kill them, you actually gain experience. You gain adrenaline points. But as you gain adrenaline points, you move into different colors and that means more zombies are going to come out. So even as you kill more, you are and and you're uh kind of souped up, you're leveling up, the zombies are also leveling up and the threats are leveling up. But it's just a great great great game. I play I've loved Zombicide for so long and this is a great edition of Zombicide. In fact, I recently just painted all my Zombicide second edition figures. Love this game. So that is Zombicide second edition. That is from CMON and that is my number 21.

16:19 All right, ladies and gentlemen, what do you think of the games on my list? Should they be higher? Should they lower? Should they not be on the list? I'm very eager to hear what you have to say. So please please please let me know in the comments. Uh leave a comment here on on YouTube, on Board Game Geek, on X, on Facebook. Again, we'd love to hear what you I'd love to hear what you have to say about my list. Now again, please do like this video and subscribe to the channel if you haven't done so. And please if you do like what you see here, check out my other channel that is Cody Carlson PhD where we talk about history, military history, books on history. It would mean the world to me if you would subscribe to that channel as well. And also, ladies and gentlemen, if you do like what you see here uh and you are enjoying the list, I would humbly ask you to click on the super thanks button and leave a tip. You know, I sent my hearing aid in for repairs 3 weeks ago.

17:07 I haven't heard anything since.

17:10 Please somebody help me. I'm on my feet again and I DON'T KNOW WHERE I'M GOING AND I DON'T know where I've been. PLEASE SOMEBODY HELP ME.

17:47 YOU KNOW WHY IT'S YOU KNOW I ONLY HAD STRENGTH?

17:49 RIGHT?

17:49 Cuz I just did them and I had no cards.

17:51 did we did we pass the check?

17:53 No, we did not.

17:54 Oh, that's too bad. What does that mean?

17:56 That means you you guys can do whatever you want.

17:57 mean?

17:58 Oh, damn it. It's those two. YOU GOT THEM.

18:01 WAIT, WAIT, WAIT. I CAN POTENTIALLY add four, but that'll only

18:04 No, that's not going to do it because it is just minus three, minus six. All right, okay, basically, look, it is minus five.

18:10 Okay.