Top 50 Board Games of All Time (2024) - #40-31

0:04 hey I'm Ryan this is my brother Daniel and this is rolls in the family and we are back for the second installment in our 2024 edition of our top board games of all time we're going to be counting down number 40 to number 31 today and we are also going to be giving you another opportunity to get an entry into our drawing for a free board game wow you you might not have known that when you clicked this video what aise are going to get to uh potentially you know win a board game you won't find out yet um there is a link in the description to a Google form that you can fill out to get the entry for this video you can go back to our previous video and also get an additional entry uh for that video because each video is going to have a secret word that if you submit that form with that secret word it'll give you another entry in the contest you can also read the other details about the contest in the format itself but to get the entry you are going to need to know the secret word for this video which is brain as in my brain's feeling a little fried coming to record this video after a day of work we don't normally we don't always uh film in the evenings uh but you know sometimes the schedule calls for it and we wake up a little bit yeah this is uh you know what Ryan we push through for the fans we do and uh for the fans so yeah yeah drop uh drop brain down below uh well don't drop it down below drop it

1:34 on the form also if you just do it in the Comon you can it doesn't you won't get an entry yeah so it won't help you with the entry but it will help the algorithm for our videos so true any comments so if you really like us drop brain down below yeah drop brain down below uh we also include links to all the games we talk about below you know maybe you just can't wait long enough to find out if going to win a free one and you just need to go get that game now cuz we were so persuasive those links do help support the channel though and we appreciate that um and let's see do we have any other housekeeping stuff here Dango or should we just uh just jump into this thing not that I know of that's your job okay it's usually you know six to 10 minutes in I realize the thing I forgot in the intro but let's just go uh to Daniel's number 40 let's do it Ryan my number 40 is kind of an interesting one for me to talk about because I just within the last two days played a different version of this game uh that I also enjoyed uh quite a bit uh but this one is very popular in the board game world uh my number 40 is going to go to wingspan so wingspan actually Ryan dropped 18 spots for me that's you know that's you know this we talked last video about board game inflation with new games that's that's going past the uh the normal normal droppage here um I actually didn't get a

3:08 play of uh wingspan in the last year I did get to try worms span that's what I was uh referring it's always so funny to say out loud if nobody if somebody doesn't know anything about it it is not worms in fact the worms rise up against the birds in the new I would play that I would too um but anyways yeah so wingspan coming in at number 40 and uh this is one that I just uh historically have had a ton of Success With It kind of uh fitting that niche of a I would almost say like a Gateway more strategic a little bit more strategic gep game yeah like maybe you've played Ticket to Ride or or stuff like that and you're wanting kind of that next step up uh wingspan's gone over really uh really well in that situation for me I personally um this is kind of actually I feel like a theme maybe in in some some of these ston Meer games of Simplicity in action choices of just like you have four options I know that was the case inside of uh so I I love when your options are very simple but then obviously there's a lot of kind of deep strategy around that it helps the teaching uh which is one of the reasons I think uh wingspan has gone over really well as you just kind of walk through the the various things uh that you do also presentation is just beautiful I mean uh that's one thing I actually think wingspan as there were a lot of things I really liked about worms span but one thing I I

4:39 personally felt like was the just bird theme the bird feeder all of that is is even stronger and one that I think really draws people into the table uh for this game so re in my collection filling that role of of kind of that yeah Gateway uh step up for people um and so even though you know dropping probably just cuz is it my favorite like you know in terms of like the actual strategy my favorite this is your list it is my list but but my list also is influenced by how well does it work like I get enjoyment of how well does it work for various situations uh so that's why it dropped but still a very fine game at number 40 number 40 nice my number 40 um has dropped seven spots it's a pretty like normal of the with newes com but this is probably what I would say is favorite flipping right game roll and flip and right that kind of genre of games leans into kind of the spatial filling in polyomino style games and this is cartographers um and cartographers is a game I've played quite a bit I'm up to I think 28 plays of it yeah um but is one that I find has really really good replay value because every time you play you're going to have four objectives for each of the seasons and I love how you can see all them from the very beginning and you can be working towards any of them even though you know which two are

6:10 going to score you know this season and so there's kind of this like o do I use this you know to root this would be really good to help for you know the doring one but I don't need it yet um and so I really like that I like kind of the there's a little bit of push your luck with just how you fill things out like what kind of spaces you leave for yourself that's like really have to get like the right thing for this to work or even just like you know it's variable how long the season is going to last because each time a card is drawn it has a time value on it once you meet The Season's time then it's up so you don't know like are we going to get a couple more shapes or just one more shape um and so it just comes into together into something that uh really hits what I want out of like a spatial game and then the replayability with the uh different objectives every time it's going to be different that by the end of the especially if you're playing on like one of the maps that uh starts with like the back side of the main map has like a hole in the middle which I actually kind of like cuz I like when these types of games start to feel pretty constraining by the end of it um it just kind of like amps the excitement and how you're going to fit things in for sure um and then really the cherry on top for cartographers is like the the flexibility of player counts like you can play cartographers with two people and you can play it with I've probably played it with close to 12 people and had a great time now it's it's not a party game so you got to have like you know enough people that still want to play kind of a little more they all hated it but but I had a great time um

7:41 so yeah one that I am not tiring of at all and really I see is kind of a staple for me in that that genre in my collection uh so yeah that is cartographers yeah I actually did I tell you that I uh snagged that one recently uh I did I forgot actually I saw that uh when I was when Market saw it there so yeah it was one that just yeah I felt like good one to add to the collection very versatile indeed okay Ryan my number 39 I believe is the biggest jump okay and this is substantial this game is moving like missed the list last year this game coming in at 39 moved up 34 spots wow um I played this game uh 10 times uh this year uh 10 times recently in a short span of time short SP of time so I uh yeah and this game kind of when I first tried it I was like I don't know I it it didn't grab me at first but the more and more I played it I realized this is the one of the most accessible games and I really and I'm I'm I'm more and more really really liking it and this is going to Seven Wonders Architects wow yeah it's big that's a big jump I mean and this really stems from our our family vacation we just had

9:13 recently cuz cuz you brought it and and your your son likes playing a lot with my four-year-old actually and when when a kid likes a game you end up playing that one a lot so we had a lot of opportunities uh to play seven letters Architects and I found myself every I just wanted to keep playing it like we would every time you'd say oh we're playing another game of Seven Wonders Architects I'd be like I'm in because it just it's so simple and yet I just find that that decision making of okay do I take the card on the right on the left or do I draw from the middle that's just so satisfying it's a it's a simple but satisfying uh thing the tension of oh do I you know do I go for the cat kind of the and you know try to so I can see what's on the top and whatnot um you know the different wonders uh kind of have some different feels to them I find the the military be is interesting in that game just with kind of the pacing of it of how sometimes it can just feel like it's flying and other times it's you know very slow to triggering a Wars um so yeah it was interesting because I had always thought that seven wonders was I I liked I honestly I think I mean based off previous years I liked it significantly more and it's flipped for me and and that's amazing and and I'm realizing seven1 Architects is one I just need to get in my collection because watching it work with your

10:45 four-year-old son and work with our mom and work with people who enjoy strategy G like there's just very few games that can do that so the accessibility of it enjoy and player count uh is what had it just absolutely shoot up the list for me um to number 39 so yeah and we're talking to game that I mean we were playing these in 15 minutes oh they fly and so that's really like if you're if you're comparing it to games that can play that quickly it's like man I don't know what else gives quite that um it did not make my top 50 I like it um but you know it's I think maybe maybe just maybe it's cuz I've been playing it a lot just say we've gotten some games of s Arch yeah I and and and here's the deal a list every year is just the subjective where you're at in the moment yeah come back next year for when 700s Architects drops 25 on or is my number one or is his number one but when you come off a family reunion of playing it a bunch and having an awesome time it's like yeah okay there you go there you go cool my number 39 um is a very hard one to rank and one that feels like it's a little arbitrary and it could really move honestly I think it could go up but I just haven't been able to play it in its kind of like most real situation yet I guess I don't know what I'm saying uh it's the worst analysis you sorry this

12:15 is Arkham Horror the card gam this is the living card game um and at this point I only have the base res revised set and I've only played basically one campaign solo which is just like aame thing in the Bas set honestly kind of a demo of the real game like I know what I need to do is get one of the campaign boxes and do one of the full things which I'll likely do as a solo campaign though I do you know like the idea of doing this as a two- Player thing if I had the right situation to do it um and so I really enjoyed the bit that I interacted with the system but it does feel very much like I kind of have demoed it but haven't really dug into it so with those things in mind this is kind of where it landed for me for now um yeah that's pretty high but I have always um I have always enjoyed these types of games um there's spoil we going to be another lcg higher on my list um but these types of I you know enjoy some of the deck building and Arkham Horror leans even more into the kind of campaign elements of your deck evolving over the course of it and it's honestly more board game like than some of the other ones in that you know you actually have a token your character out on locations and and there's places to move around so it feels less like just a card game than some of these other ones um and it's a very flexible system like they can do a lot of very creative things with it so

13:46 uh definitely one I'm looking forward to doing more with and I'm not like in a huge hurry to because it is a bit of a Time investment uh to you know do one of those campaigns um and I've got some other options right now but I know I want to um and my experience so far like firmly has it in my collection uh so we'll see next year if I have the opportunity to have more any more uh data to to rank this uh but for now I I really enjoyed my time with it um so it made it to my 39 very nice Ryan yeah that will be interesting stay tuned folks stay tuned stay tuned my number 38 um is a one of uh my favorite partyish type game games but you need the right group but with the right group it goes exceptionally well and this is going to go to decrypto so I got um it looks like a one play of De cryptos last year I was trying to think is that was that one play our annual uh family play maybe we uh so I talk about having the right group um we have that kind of with our uh siblings and and um and spouses uh of every year when we I think around Christmas when we get together uh we get this game of De crypto and when you have the right group man it just works so well because uh you know this game where you're trying to kind of get your own

15:16 team to guess you know the code of you have the four words in front of you and the code that of which words you know the the thing gives you but that whole thing of intercepting the other team makes clue giving just fascinating because yeah it's not just you're thinking about okay what do I you know what words do I write down to get them to guess the things but you're seeing what the other team is hearing round over round and so now you're not only thinking about trying to clue give for your own team you're thinking about how to how do you throw the other team off and what's so beautiful about this game and why it's so fun if you have people who are good at it is it just has this incredible build as the game goes on because every round it's like oh my gosh I can't believe another round another round and it gets harder and harder to try to you know how am I going to give you know that that feeling when you think you're you're done and then it somehow gets all the way back to you again you're like oh my gosh I'm going to have to give another clue and you feel like the other team's on your tracks and so you're like how am I G to how am I going to throw them off or it it has just some of the most creative clue giving that that I've really experienced in a game and it's it's such a blast to have that kind of back and forth um it can flop if you don't have the right group or or whatnot but when you get those Peak games of the crypto

16:47 it's so good so it it really is uh so there you go coming in at my uh number 308 if all I get is our if it's our annual play of it you know that'll be good but uh a great game a great a great game uh I'm jumping to my 38 which is a very different type of game than to crypto uh this is a a big epic experience and it's a big epic experience that I haven't been able to experience in the last four years now which makes it very difficult to rank this game that I know that I enjoy but has not made it to the table one of the most difficult games uh to get to you got to plan you're just not determined enough you you have to plan it's not one that scheduling a day of Twilight Imperium specifically the fourth edition um yeah it's hard right like I haven't played it in a long time and I know even the last time I played it was probably my weakest game of it because I kind of like surprisingly won like people didn't block me very well in the last round so we kind of didn't like get as far into the game as we thought we were going to um so was a little bit of a you know cut short but it's got a lot of cool stuff going on um and and there really still is no other game that you know you can schedule a day with six people to just have this shared epic experience and the things the new fourth

18:18 edition has done with streamlining some things and especially with like the um I forget what they call the like politics phase where you're voting on these like laws or whatever and the fact that you have to vote two of them back to back and you don't know what the second one's going to be so it's like how much of my influence do I put towards this first one and some of these can like change rules for the rest of the game um just some really cool things going on for that epic space civilization uh experience I probably said last year in this video man I I'll have to make sure I get Twilight Imperium at the table stop saying it didn't happen this last year i' like to think I'm going to do it this year hopefully I can come back next year saying I got I got in my my play um but yeah it's one that I I do really enjoy it's dropped really mainly because I haven't played it um and so it's hard for me to know exactly where it stands for me today um but yeah it still hold there's there's nothing else lik it in my collection um and I have good memories of the games that I have played yeah there's few things harder when ranking than when you have a game you haven't played in forever and especially a game where maybe you have some really amazing past memories but you haven't played in Forever it's like do I go off the past memory that was amazing or I don't know so uh that makes sense where where it's fallen for you um very nice so we to my 37 37 37 uh man this one has just really kind

19:52 of solidified itself uh as a staple uh in our in our collection one my wife and I uh have played a lot together although may not be playing it together very much anymore for reasons I'll explain and this is going to go to Splendor uh so Splendor was one of the uh a game that I got you know quite a while ago I mean it looks like I've played 23 games of Splendor um and I Splendor is just such a a nice system of uh you know collecting the whole system collecting gems buying cards but then the whole thing that cards uh not only can some cards High especially higher up get you victory points but cards have a basically resource on them that then is discounting future cards so you're kind of building up uh an engine of to buy future cards but what I love so much about Splendor is how tight of a race it is I mean it's a game where I feel like man every action is huge like you you can't waste a turn because the game always ends with like someone hitting 15 and you being like I was just you know just short and and so you're you're kind of looking you know at the start of the game at all the cards that are out there and and the Nobles and you're kind of like okay what's my path you know what what's the path I'm going to try to go for but then

21:24 you also sometimes have to Pivot you know like if if someone is clearly like going for the same thing or maybe they get there a step ahead like sometimes it's figing okay well how do I you know how do I pivot and all of that just within such a tight tight gameplay you know it plays you know pretty quick um has has worked super well so uh obviously don't I'm not going to be playing it as much two player with the addition of Splender duel which talked about in the last video one we enjoy as well uh but man this one's just so great and and yeah just is a system that uh my wife and I specifically have really enjoyed so that is my 37 splend nice yeah that one that one has stayed consistent for you over the years yeah it uh well look at that it moved up 10 spots so look at that way to go splend how about that you know good on you good on Splender Yeah it's it's just it's gotten I've had so many good games of it um and a lot of different uh groups that I've introduced it to and have actually gone on to own it which you know it's yeah it's always nice nice hopefully they used your purchase link down below they went and bought it I sure hope so uh my 37 uh falls into a category of games that we've cooled on a lot and that is Campaign games um you know it's

22:55 hard to get the same group together and you feel like you have this pressure to be getting this specific game to the table versus other ones this is one though that um had the opportunity to play most of a most of a campaign recently still waiting to get that final game in of Lord of the Rings Journeys in middlee it should happen in the next few months here please um and this is one that uh kind of overcame my my predisposed opinion of not really wanting to get a campaign game right now um largely because of the theme I I enjoy the Lord of the Rings theme a lot largely because it's a very streamlined game like there's a lot of these Campaign games that are just a burden to get to the table I had great fun with my Gloom Haven campaign but that game is a burden to get to the table with the you know it's just got a lot going on like um this is a game Lord of the Rings Journeys in Middle Earth that between the Simplicity in the components and the app assisted um component of it really makes it easy to just play um and you know it's honestly a a lighter experience it leans into kind of the story elements and things like that but it's got this really just fun deck mechanism of you know getting card you Scout cards at the beginning of your turn and decide like which ones do you want to prep which means you can actually like use the abilities of the cards which ones do you want to put on top or the bottom of your deck which

24:26 ends up whenever you resolve skill checks you draw cards off your deck to find successes so you know it's like do I put this good prep this really good card or do I seed a success on top of my deck so that I know I'll have that so just some some fun little things and then the way that over the course of the campaign you get to customize that depending on which classes you play um that you get experience in those classes and can get upgraded cards but you're not committed to a class like I was doing stuff in the hunter class but then I can go do things in this other class and kind of do the subclassing thing which just gives so much variety of how you could choose to build yourself out through the campaign between your character and what classes you play that's cool and yeah it's just a lot of fun we've had we've had a good time with it um you know I think after we finish this campaign there's a good chance it's probably going to sit for a bit without getting played a whole lot because I'm not anticipating starting another one up soon though man do I have my eye down the road on like when my kids get older like it just really is the type of game that could be a games are very appealing um you know and the whole campaign is something like 12 to 15 games which isn't of like you know hour to hour and a half games which is pretty manageable um so yeah it's one that uh very good experiences with it uh thus far um and definitely like the idea of you know being in able in the future to when the season is right with different for a group to be like you know this would be a really good group to do a you know Lord of the Rings campaign with um so yeah that one is my

26:01 what number are we at 37 who knows maybe the finale will be so jaw-dropping yeah it'll move up it'll move up that's right uh my number 36 is uh my favorite party game and it's yeah you're you're doing the party game representation so far um my my top one's like just kind of missed my top 50 yeah and I I love a great party game and I love when a party game um creates moments of just laughter and uh yeah just incredible moments and this game has done it time and time again and this is going to go to Times up title recall um this was man Ryan we got this like a long time ago early on in the in the board game Journey I mean we've played it well I've played it it looks like 35 times I didn't get a play of it this last year um but a game where you know you're on a team you know me can do teams kind of however you want typically you know you and a partner um and uh this whole thing of your kind of three rounds first round very much just kind of Shades um or not Shades uh sorry catch phras catchphrase there we go yeah yeah um and then but then this second but then every subsequent round is using the same deck so you're familiar with the titles but you're getting more and more limited in your communication so like second round you can only say one

27:32 word and then uh you know the rest is just charades from there and then the last round uh you can't say anything and so it what's so amazing about that is there's so many hilarious moments because something will happen in the first round and that's maybe a a funny thing or maybe someone messes up or it can be anything really yeah but in future rounds as communication gets harder you're looking for anything to easily you know bring jog people's memory associate the thing and so often times you will point back to funny things that have happened earlier in the game so it takes funny moments and then resurfaces them like throughout the game in funnier and and it's like funnier and funnier each time you know you'll point at a person and you know reenact what what they did or something like that um it it has just we we've played it a lot of times and it it has just created tons of moments of laughter it also is a you know a a game you know competitive game in terms of you know you're trying to win and I think it yeah it rides that balance really well where um you know you are trying to win the game but it also creates moments of of of things being funny and I find there's some party games that it's it can be hard to

29:04 write kind of a lot of them lean more one way or the other yeah yeah but because going for winning like going for the goal naturally kind of creates funny you don't have to try to be funny per se but there's just in the process it creates funny things a lot of great memories with that game uh I just will play anytime a group wants to CU it just is anytime next time at your house I'm going to wake you up in the middle of the night in the middle of the night for okay time's up time's up buy time's up D oh jeez okay I take that back um but that's my number 36 nice uh my next four entries kind of fall into a similar space in my collection of kind of the weight and situation and I honestly had a really hard time ranking these four I like realized they're all pretty close for me um but I had to rank them such are the rules and so number 36 is going to be the Classic ticket to ride a game that we have played uh just what 147 times now um so we've got some experience with Ticket to Ride you know and it's a game that often is talked about as a good entry game into the hobby um and which we would agree with which we would agree with but man is it still a game that I have just never

30:35 gotten tired of and like that system and the the tension between the three actions and just the the different maps and the way it's always a little different depending on your destinations and what other people are doing it's just I don't know I just really enjoy that process and how quick it plays and and uh I've had so many fun games of it um I feel like every time I talk about it I use the phrase comfort food cuz that's really what ticket ride feels like to me now is just like man I could just always fall back on a game of tickets to the ride it has not gotten played I got one play in this past year but not gotten played much in recent years it's not one that a lot of other people I know are like oh let's get TI aide to the table um I that said at your house actually we had the first experience of playing uh tick a tried first journey with my my son and it's like you see the path right that that's like there's a path that at some point here he's going to be ready for Ticket to Ride and it could be a new era of getting Ticket to Ride uh plays in um you know and can put put him in his place and you know show show that I've still got it still got the ticket to ride um but yeah this one is held on it only dropped one this year despite multiple new games passing it so it's actually kind of gone up yeah um always have a good time playing tick ride uh and I don't anticipate I mean at this point we're talking coming up probably

32:06 on 15 years of playing ticket ride I don't really anticipate my opinion on it changing at this point just played a game on a on BGA the other day and it's just it's so good that such good tension you know in in the AC and I like that the better you get at the game you shoot more ambitious so you always keep that t it never gets gets easy yeah MH very nice um my number 35 is a game that uh I'm not sure the uh board game world uh appreciates as much as we do in fact I guarantee you that is not the case uh dropped 10 spots for me but is one that uh is still near and dear uh to both of our hearts and this is going to go to dungeon fighter uh Ryan and I actually both now own uh the collector's edition of dungeon fighter but uh started with just original dungeon fighter and you know we enjoy a good dexterity game um you know we that's that's something and and I will recognize not everyone uh does enjoy dexterity um but this one you know it's a it's kind of this silly dexterity Dungeon Crawler where you are fighting the monsters by throwing dice Cooperative by the way they throwing dice at a Target and the awesome thing about it is the both the monsters and even the weapons that you use can cause

33:38 you to do funny shots and so you're throwing dice between your legs you're below the table just a lot of crazy things but man has this game worked well um shockingly accessible like we've uh you know I think both of us kind of know how to run kind of the whole just dungeon side of it but in terms of someone just stepping in like it's just like hey you know know a couple abilities on your thing and then throw a die I've definitely had games where there's like the people that don't want to understand most of how anything's working but they can still play and have a good time cuz when it's their turn it's like you're picking one of these Dice and this is the shot you're going to do but then I'll see other people in the same group that are like oo that's cool with all the items and you know the people that want to kind of dig into that if we do this uh so we've just we we've played dungeon fighter over and over and it's one that I think just is firmly solidified in our collections because it's so different from anything it is else uh that we have um and so uh the collector's edition I think we both would say is fantastic um if you like dungeon fighter my goodness this is a a worthwhile collector's edition because all of the stuff it adds is just variability that is actually if you're going to play the game if you're going to play the game a lot like it just adds tons of fun crazy stuff that you active actually are using in it so uh the second edition is great

35:10 they made a lot of good revisions kind of with how the dungeon system works and stuff so you know one Ryan we will continually recommend to people may not be the highest rated one on Board Game Geek but uh one that we've enjoyed a lot so that's my number 35 yeah I think there are a lot of people that haven't tried dungeon fighter would really like so we'll just keep talking about it on the channel uh my number 35 is new new to the list um and this is one that I was waiting on to come for a long while um bit of a bit of a Splurge um and that's an understatement was kind of a but was very intrigued by just the the Simplicity of the game play but having kind of some hidden depth but also having kind of a a game that has that exciting wow factor but is really accessible because a lot of times the wow factor correlates more with these really complex games yeah um and I now had the opportunity to play this game let's see six times and this is foundations of Rome and this one is going to be divisive for people of like you know there's going to be a lot of people in the camp of like it is this is ridiculous how expensive this game is because of how all the plastic pieces stuff um and I tend to be a gam playay first gamer though I think we've evolved

36:40 over the years to more and more appreciate a good presentation um but often times if I have the choice between a really deluxified version and a normal version I'm totally fine with the normal version in this case there wasn't a normal version at the time they've since uh made a foundation of metropolis but I have to say like it is a game that that presentation elevates the experience and like I've so seen with people I've played it with just how much everybody enjoys seeing this 3D version of Rome build up before our eyes and it's just um it's very satisfying to be you know moving these chunky pieces of stuff so I I do actually really like that and I think I would especially now that I've played it would have a hard time going to like a non- deluxified version of it that said it is really for me the gameplay that powers this one up my list yeah um and it is simple it's a simple you either take money you buy a deed card or you use deeds you have to build something on the board but the way you're kind of positioning yourself on the board to try to um you know take advantage of how you're adjacent to other people and what they're doing um is just a lot of very interesting decisions that is then elevated hugely I think by these overbuilding rules that you can build over things you've already built as long as you've built bigger cuz now it isn't just what do I build out you know adjacent but what could I switch and change to maybe you know hurt other players and help me and reposition

38:11 myself and I've been very impressed by the depth of creative plays you can make in this game uh to better position yourself um and all of this being a game that plays in you know 60 to 90 minutes depending on player count and how how new people are uh so yeah it's one I've I've really enjoyed so far it feels different uh than a lot of other games I have at this weight um and yeah my desire to kind of get it to the table has only really gone up since I've had the opportunity to play it I'm looking for it I have the roads of Fortune expansion but I haven't played it yet because it's definitely one I think I'd like to play with people who have played you know at least once um but I really like what that looks like it's going to add to the table um so yeah so far I would say has been a hit everything I wanted it to be in the collection but it's new and fresh and shiny so you know we'll we'll give it a year and see uh you know where is it next year does it move up does it move down it wouldn't be you know we we've seen we've definitely had examples of flashes in the pan right games that we were really excited about and then just like fall off for us which is why we really like doing this annually and like right you get to kind of see the proof is in the pudding of what happens over time so we'll see what foundations of wrome yeah is it is it just the beautiful components or can the game play uh keep it going that uh that's the question Ryan that's the question that's the question um my

39:42 number 34 speaking of games that are hard to rank because we haven't played them in forever and we have such great past memories but it's like what do you even like what do you even do now this one is just a prime example of that played at 96 times but I'm not sure I've played it in the last like four five maybe even six years um and yet one that I think back on and I so just want to play it again because gosh it's just so so many great memories and so much variability and wild things that can happen this goes to Cosmic Encounter um you know this is one that I I'll even like see it pop up on Facebook Marketplace and I'll be like tempted for a moment because I'm like I love this game but also I how am I going to play this you know or I don't know you fresh group that you think would like it which would be fun if you had the right group um because this game has you know this whole I system of you've got your ships on your planets and the win the game you get five colonies on other people's planets and so it's a game full of just like uh attacking negotiating alliances because you can invite people on the attack and the defense it's just tons of above the table type uh interaction hidden cards

41:14 you don't know what people have so it's very group dependent like oh my gosh this game could be really not good if you didn't have a good group like it's wildly great it it'd honestly be really boring I feel like if you if you had a bad group um but then you add on top of that that there are just all of these aliens that just have gamebreaking powers I mean ones that you get it and you know at the start of the game you get to choose you know between two and it's like oh my gosh I get to do that you know that kind of feeling of I'm and then you mix together you know it's kind of this this mixing pot of in this game we've got these five five aliens how it's the interaction going to be like you know that's that's what's really cool about this game and the and the variability of it is every game you know is unique because it's the combination of the aliens interacting together um you know it has its flaws of sometimes it can fall into a little bit of a oh the first half of the game is just people negotiating to get on to colonies and um sometimes doesn't always deliver the the high that it can uh but man it has the potential to and we've played it a ton and and have many many memories of this one just absolutely knocking it out of the park so yeah who knows how long it'll hold on because I have no idea when I'll play this one again but it's my number know

42:46 who knows some maybe sometime you'll be in town maybe some of our other uh core Cosmic uh folks will be in town and we could make it happen we could but but uh yeah good old good old Cosmic lots of memories my number 34 um another game falling into kind of this uh medium weight shorter um games and one that really leans into just P continuous exciting moments it's just like you get I don't know there's no uh downtime because every turn you're either getting from what you are rolling or the results that other people are rolling this is space base um and it's just I mean we like dice generally speaking I'm a fan um and this game is all about customizing what rewards you're going to get based on the die roll um and it's a very clever thing with how like you can either take the dice together or separate to activate two or one column but the the combined ones tend to be better rewards um but then whatever you're customizing for your turn you're also determining what things are going to trigger on other people's turn and what is ultimately a race you I mean you need to be trying to move towards getting victory points which is either going to come from getting enough money that you're buying those like set Victory Point cards that then block one of your spots or actually

44:17 getting cards that produce victory points and getting those to trigger um and there's a lot of just like clever like very there's a lot of different cards with different abil that kind of just keep it interesting like different cards that you can charge and once you get charges you can do this special effect or modify something so you can maybe go for a strategy that's less likely because you've gotten some ways to mitigate it and make make it more likely uh so this is one that I just really um really enjoy every time I play I actually played some recent games on board game arena um which you know you lose the there's something about rolling physical Dice and like that experience that's lost that said you do gain a little bit and just like man those games fly really quickly and so you can kind of get the space base experience in a in a small package um but yeah one I've had a really good time with I'm excited to check out the Genesis expansion which is them finally doing what I said they should do all along with expansion which is just give me more cards just more cards with more I don't need new systems or anything I just want more you know cards for variability um which sounds like exactly what they did yeah so uh I will probably pick that up at some point um but yeah it I guess it dropped eight spots but I wouldn't read too much into that I feel like it's my opinion has has held pretty pretty much the same on Space base very nice jumping over now to my number 33 uh one that I actually ended up acquiring recently I haven't actually played it since acquiring it played your

45:48 copy and realized uh this is the definitive version of a game that we have uh enjoyed for a long time before that and this is going to go to last Bastion um another one that isn't too hyped in the in the board game world but man Ryan and I uh loved Ghost Stories We had ghost stories and played it for long long long time and just had so many great experiences with the ghost story system um and and then ultimately you know through various things of uh you know got the white moon expansion the ghost stories we're kind of like I don't know if that's actually like you know kind of what it's adding and whatnot um but long story short got into last Bastion and I think just the changes uh are are excellent It's Just Feels So refined the various locations uh feel uh a lot more impactful that you know in ghost STS would sometimes fall into like the same three or four locations for everything where it's all nine feel big and they're even very CU you don't use there's a isn't there an extra one so you there even uh I think it's a good question I want to say you um it's even a little bit of randomization of what nine you have which is kind of fascinating um but man we love Cooperative games and this one takes a lot of what we love about like a big game like an eldrich or something like that of like the rolling dice figuring out who's going to go where and

47:19 just shrinks it down into kind of this uh quicker experience that can really from ramp us into that you know kind of exciting moments uh quickly so gone over really well and um one that I'm hoping um I'm really wanting this next year to to get to the table cuz uh yeah I mean I got it so I should probably play it so and you seem to like it and I seem to like it so I suppose I should play it there you go nice yep just a good solid in that me mediumweight Co-op game that has exciting die rolling uh the final entry in my aformentioned four games in a row that uh were kind of similar so I guess this is the one that came out on top at least this year um is the quacks of quedlinburg this is a game that we have uh been pretty big fans of we've talked pretty highly about quacks and just how well it's gone over I've played it 45 times which is like that's quite a bit that's pretty good um given that I mean we've only had it for what it's probably like six years now or something like that um but man just as far as like taking kind of pure push your luck and combining it with bag building where you can you know buy and customize your strategy with these ingredients it's a great combination and I think it's just executed so well here um you get the simultaneous play of everybody building their potions and you wanting your chips to come out in a good order to trigger

48:50 different things you're going for and how much do you push it cuz you're only going to get either points or or money if you uh bust uh add in that every round there's one of those fortunes which is just kind of like a fun shared thing around the table times they're really good um double rats and then every yeah and then every round you uh or every time you play you're going to mix up the uh ingredient Powers so they can do different things and you can kind of find different combos um it's maybe gone down I guess it dropped let's see here drop four um I think it's kind of slid slowly over the years probably just cuz I've played it a lot so like novelty Factor there was has has worn off but it it has showed staying power and it's one that I'm not tired of playing by any means yeah um and so it just I don't know there's not really anything else that I have that's like it uh I've even had good experiences playing with more than the five player count by teaming up in pairs I've played a big 10 player game that was great great fun cuz each pair is talking about which you know their of what to get and should we stop um so one that really has solidified itself as a staple in kind of this family weight game uh in my collection and uh yeah I anticipate it kind of kind of holding on here like I I said that basically for all four of these games in a row ticket ride foundations r space based quacks are all very close for me

50:20 um but we'll see if that uh that pattern holds in the future we'll see uh my number 32 now is a game that dropped 11 spots and this one's just going to be the tragedy of Daniel watching it drop because no one will play it with him and this is going to go to aon's end uh man I love aon's end it it it takes like what I loved about Dominion you know deck building turns it into a Cooperative experience and also takes a little bit of actually what I love about like a last Bastion or something something of like delivering you know leading to these exciting finishes and it just brings it all together and there's so much variability there's uh I you know just it it's I love this game I just don't get to play it like I I haven't just found you know that person that that I can play this one with yet I think technically you could play it solo but I haven't really explored that I would play it with you dang it's always hard when I come there's usually a lot of games we always want to try the new ones but uh but this is one that I I'm going to keep in my collection because the times I've played it I'm like I love this game this is so much fun so I have I have it and the war Eternal expansion so I've got a lot of content to check out but yeah it'll stay at my number 32 for now and I'll just start laying the groundw work with your kids so that you know I know well I will say that is some of the time sometimes

51:52 games stay in the collection cuz you're thinking future here Ryan yeah roles in the family look looking play the long game here the long game folks yeah stay subscribed to the channel to hear later when we lament that none of our children actually like board games don't speak such things in there's no way there's no way uh you master you're going to lose privileges um my number 32 game I've had for a long time a game that it's it's it's a shame that this game isn't in print anymore and is was the word for the last video yeah that was the word for the last video Dang it now they don't even have to go watch that one um this is one that uh despite being such a big presentation is actually a pretty accessible game is a pretty funny Cooperative game honestly um this is Mech versus minions um and this is one I know Daniel actually managed to find a copy for a reasonable price which is not easy to do not easy to do that was the reason I bought it um and it's one it's like man we so would highly recommend this game like like if it was available um such a great presentation at the time when uh it was being sold it was being sold for so much cheaper than you would have expected because it was made by Riot games who makes League of Legends so that you know this was a little side project that didn't need to be all that profitable because they were very

53:23 profitable off their video games um but such a fun game of drafting these cards that you then use to program your mechs but you keep all the cards from previous rounds you're constantly building up this programming row of what your Mech is going to do and you can kind of like overwrite certain actions but then you're getting more powerful versions of actions as you stack them up um you know there's only 12 different cards in the game so pretty quickly people are kind of familiar with the different cards which really does help that drafting phase when you know you cuz the face is timed um and so it helps that people kind of like start to just know the cards and there's not like oh I need to read it um and then you play a different different scenarios and they're fun the different ways they work you often have this feeling of just like how are we going to do this with how overwhelming all the minions and everything are like there are so many minion Miniatures that you could have on the board but you escalate and scale up as you're you know building up more of these things uh and I just love the funny moments that come out of it of cuz never quite doing exactly what you want to do but like you're making it work and working with other people and oh like actually if you ran into me that would be good because it would push me the one I need to do this thing using damage is and the fact that damage in the game is often drawing random things that slot and malfunction um it is it just really is a blast like I've had such good experiences um you know Cooperative games have that element in general being

54:53 able to really just bring together a group for this shared experience um but this one does it in just such a fun way of combining funny entertaining with also like strategy like how are we going to work together to do this um one that I still however many years later have still not played all 10 scenarios that are in it yeah because the scenarios are very replayable and I've replayed a bunch of them and like I don't mind waiting and if I have a group that's played it quite a bit like oh we actually could open a new uh scenario so excellent excellent game always sad to Rave about a game that you as the viewer probably would have a hard time acquiring but if you do find yourself in a situation second Market you could get uh it at a reasonable price we uh very much enjoy Max versus minions we do we do K we're bringing it home here number 31 new game we actually get a new game in my 40 31 here go um and this is one that uh really kind of it's gotten some Surge and popularity I know in the board game Space recently and I for us or for me this was one that uh really just pequ my interest around uh delivering a a me you know kind of on this mechanic that I love of polyomino games and this is going to go to world wonders um yeah this one I've got got to play it four times uh in the last year and at all different player counts two player all the way up to five player we just got in recently and I think must be

56:25 really well informed then on evaluating this game yes I'm I'm ready to give a very well-informed opinion on it um no this one I really love what it's doing here because it one delivers the crunchy polyomino experience that I was I was wanting and and that it needed that I want I you know you were talking a little bit earlier what you look about the you know the middle of in cartographers yeah it's we love when it's like okay how am I going to fit everything together and and so it's definitely got that experience it's got this exciting I mean obviously the Wonders are just visually awesome and and the whole just how it looks is really great I love that they went with the wood aesthetic I feel like plastic gets like all the attention these days I love some good wood components no for sure I I think they look really nice and they're things that feel so awesome when you get it you know and when you can fit it into your into your um into your grid and then and then you got to figure out how you going to surround things around it and whatnot so just a really crunchy polyomino experience you know the whole you have seven coins and and figuring out what actions to take and taking a wonder is using the rest of your coins so you have the tension of do you know do ideally I could wait till the end and spend one coin to get uh one of the Wonders but someone might take it and so there's just a lot of kind of wrestling between that and getting the the you know other kind of building out there um

57:58 so much in here that I've I've really really enjoyed I'm I'm excited to check out the expansion that they have I think that's looks really great and it's just going to add more wonders maybe even add some more interesting ways of scoring them which I think is maybe one thing it could really improve on uh so one that uh yeah we've enjoyed a lot and for a new game coming in at number 31 not too shabby he nice yeah that's that's a big uh big showing in its first year I know go world wonders uh I will will bring us home here with my number 31 which is again has dropped 10 spots which actually is that's a that's a drop it's a double digit drop it probably was a little bit it was probably a little higher than it it should have been because it was newer um so it's probably settling now as these games to do but we're still talking 31 and ahead of a lot of games I've talked about already that I enjoy a lot um this is going to be Rez Arana um d and I have a a long history of experience with race for the Galaxy which is by designer Tom Layman who also makes res Arana um and I think a lot of it shows kind of the DNA of you know he likes making these car tight card games with Combos and engine building um but res Arana kind of that's hard to say res Arana kind of leans more into the like concept of resources so there's actually like resource tokens as you get these Essence things um that you use for pay

59:30 paying things and so a l of the engine is producing these things um and then using them to play other cards but man is this game just boiled down to its Essence yeah that's a thing in the game oh R you're on your game right now yeah man two firing at all cylinders right now what time is it uh so the the fact that you only get eight cards like any other game like this is usually like a big of cards that you're going to be getting all kinds of cards from or this but this says no we're going to give you eight cards and it's best if you draft these at the beginning and that's it that's what you're going to use for the whole game and it becomes this little mini puzzle of how do I best use these to race you know to the point total um and you're probably not going to be playing all of them because some you can discard a card to get essence and so a big part of the game is like okay these are my cards what's the most important thing for me to play could I maybe discard this to power me to get this card out sooner your deck will cycle you'll see it again um but playing well in this game is so much about knowing when to discard cards for resources so that you can go faster on things instead of holding them and hoping you'll be able to to play them in the future yeah um and then I just love you know it's got the variety of which places of Power are out and then you you always are drafting those magic items in any given round which is kind of like what's the one power that'll kind of fill in what I need this round um and I've just really enjoyed it it's just a fun little

1:01:02 distilled engine Building puzzle um and just every game getting to draft those eight cards and know the eight cards you're going to have um I have both of the first expansions for it that are both hard to pronounce so I'm not going to try the fiery one and the Pearl one um and I like all of what was added in those um and you know more card Variety in a game where you only getting eight cards having a little bit more card variety is hugely increasing kind of the permutations of what you could could have in any game uh so one that I I really do enjoy a lot and that is res Arana hey thanks for watching as we mentioned we've got links to all of these fine games that we talked about today down in the description below if you want to check them out for yourself uh purchasing them supports the channel and we greatly appreciate it uh we also have a link to the next video uh in our series here 30 through 21 uh so we will see you in the next one