TDG: Cody's Top Thirty Games of 2025 (#20-#11)

0:04 Hello ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the discriminating gamer. You know, every time I visit my favorite website, I always have to click accept cookies. I have never received cookies from this website and I am tired of the lies. Ladies and gentlemen, today we're going to go ahead and take a look at my top 30 games of 2025. Today, we're going to be taking a look at numbers 20 through 11.

0:41 All right, ladies and gentlemen, so my top 30 games of 2025, 20 through 11, let's jump into it. Number 20 is a card game, a war card game. I played not too long ago, fell absolutely in love with it. This is Take Cover. In Take Cover, you're either the Russians or the Germans. You each got two squads. And over the course of the game, you got several actions. You can attach things. You can attach leaders or weapons or cover. And these things are going to give you positive numbers, although the cover will give you negative numbers. And you're trying to get as as many positive numbers as you can. And the negative numbers affect your enemy when they try to attack you. So, what you're doing is you're building these things up and eventually get to a point where you're rolling a die and you're trying to roll underneath your your your total number that you built up. And you can play grenades with it. If you're defending, you play dig in, which which lowers the number.

1:31 So, there's there's there's all different ways you're modifying it here. And there's there's events that come out. There are sniper attacks or artillery attacks. You're rolling die to determine what happens there. You get medic cards and try to heal some of your wounds. It's really really a fun game. As soon as you've eliminated both squads from the other side, you win. Was not expecting to like this game as much as I do. But that is Take Cover. That is my number 20 and that is from Worthington. My number 19 is a game that is is kind of one of these big production games that was pretty still pretty big. And again, it was one that just just I thought I might like it. I didn't think I'd like it as much as I did. But this is Vantage from Stonemaier Games. Vantage is this great kind of storytelling game where [clears throat] you and your friends all land on this planet. You eject from a spaceship. You land on a planet, but you're not in communication.

2:24 You are you're not in the same place rather. And you're you're kind of going on these various adventures. And as you are encountering different things, the people around you are kind of reading the story to you and you are making decisions based on that. You're creating card tableaus that give you special abilities during the game. And it's kind of just really fun. You know, it's one of these great storytelling games. And it's a great science fiction theme. You got some great dice rolling mechanisms in here as well. And on the whole, I was it was delightful. I really enjoyed it. So, that is my number 19. That is Vantage from Stonemaier Games. My number 18 is a game again, it's part of a game family. This is Fighters of Europe. I got it through Ares Games. I know it's published from some other publishers, but I got through Ares Games. And this game is really a lot of fun. It's it's kind of like Fighters on Europe, which was an earlier you know, part of this family.

3:20 But Fighters of Europe is a great game where it's very abstract. It almost feels like a chess match and you're just kind of maneuvering on these hexes for position to fire on your enemies. And of course, you're going to be kind of in in high elevation, low elevation. And you're moving around the board like I say in order to get into a position to fire. And if you've got that firing, you can shoot. If they haven't gone yet, they can go ahead and they can move. But it's really really fun. I enjoyed Fighters of the Pacific. I probably like Fighters of the Pacific a little bit more. But Fighters over Europe is another great game in this series of games. So, that is Fighters over Europe that Fighters of Europe rather. That is number 18 that again, I got it through Ares Games. My number 17 is again from a family of games that I absolutely love. This is the DC Deck-Building Game Superman versus Lex Luthor Rivals. This is a great two-player game. This is I think the fifth iteration of the Rivals system, which is kind of a head-to-head head-on-head two-player DC Deck-Building game. Now, I love all the DC Deck-Builders. I just always have so much fun with these games. And this one is a lot of fun as you're again, one of these Superman, one of these Lex Luthor. You've got three kind of hero cards and the first one to completely destroy the other person's all three of their cards wins the game.

4:34 Love the theme here. I absolutely love the card play in DC DGB. And this one I you know, I've always been a Superman fan since I was a little kid. It's a great game. So, that is my number 17, the DC Deck-Building Game Rivals Superman versus Lex Luthor. This is from Cryptozoic. 16 is a very interesting game. It is not a conventional game or a conventional war game. This is a book war game and this is from Phalanx Games. This is A Bridge Too Far. Essentially, A Bridge Too Far is like a choose your own adventure book. You take on the role of a Polish paratrooper in World War during Operation Market Garden. You begin the game parachuting out of the plane. And as soon as you land, you've got choices to make. You know, if you do this, go to this page. If you do this, go to this page. But it's not just a choose your own adventure because you need dice.

5:29 Because as you're going through, you're going to have challenges and you're going to have combat. You're going to have times where you have to roll the die and and and you're making decisions about combat. But you also have a paper that where you keep track of things. You you keep track of items and when you lose items and gain items. And you also make notes as you go along. And all these things are going to um affect your final score in the game. It's a great solitaire game. I actually played this a while back. I was in Colorado. And I played it with my niece. She and I she's nearly my age. And we ended up one night staying up playing this game. And I I I would read it to her and she'd make all the decisions. And it was so much fun. We had a great time with it. So, that is number 16, A Bridge Too Far. That is from Phalanx. All right, my number 15 is again another deck builder with a great IP and it's really unusual.

6:20 I know they're about to come out with an expansion and a new iteration of the game. Really looking forward to it. But this is Star Trek Captain's Chair from WizKids. In Star Trek Captain's Chair, you can take on a number of different you know, captains and and ships like you know, Kirk's ship or Picard's ship. We won't talk about Discovery here. But you can take over all these ships, but you can also be you know, Klingons or Romulans or what have you. And you're essentially it's two-player game and you're essentially competing over locations. But the way you are using your cards, it's based on the uh Imperial is it Imperial system? I know I played Imperial Horizons. It's based on that system. But I think it works so much better here. It's so much more thematic here. And and and I you know, I liked Imperial Horizons, but I I just I like the system so much better here.

7:08 Now, it's not an easy game to jump into. There's a lot of different things going on. But ultimately, the way this game works is just a hoot. I really really enjoyed it. So, that is Star Trek Captain's Chair. That is number 15. That is from WizKids. My number 14 is a game that again is kind of from a family of games. Um but it is not in its traditional habitat so to speak. It's based on Axis and Allies, but this is not a World War game. It is a fantasy game. And this is Battle of the Deep. Essentially, what this game is is you are various underwater kingdoms and you have these kind of fantastical different kinds of aquatic animals that have various abilities. But essentially, it plays out like Axis and Allies. You plan your movements. You make combat movements, non-combat movements. You're rolling dice in the same way.

7:58 It's it's a hoot. It's it's not as complex as an Axis and Allies game. But I remember the the first time we played this game and you know, I had I think it was Ray and Chris and Al. And you got teams. And Ray and I were a team. Chris and Al were a team. And it was so fun and so intense. And we just ate this game up. If you like dice chucking games, you just like the games where where you got the highs and lows of chucking dice, you will love Battle of the Deep. So, that is my number 14, Battle of the Deep. And that is from Renegade Game Studios. My number 13 is also from Renegade Game Studios. And it is also an Axis and Allies game. This is Axis and Allies Stalingrad. So, this is a new the newest iteration of the Axis and Allies system. And this one is really cool because you've actually got two boards. You've got kind of the approach board to Stalingrad. And then you kind of have a blown up board of Stalingrad. And it's cool cuz like when you go from one board to the other, you kind of have to adjust your units. So, like if you go in with one infantry, it becomes two infantry units in that smaller board. And if you got two infantry there and they come out, they become one infantry unit. So, it's just a really cool idea there. So, you're fighting in the approaches and you've got to hold the approaches cuz the Russians can keep trying to attack you. And they're actually building up forces in the north and south to kind of mimic what happened during Operation Uranus.

9:15 And then you got to take objectives in the city or expel the invader from the city. And it's really a new and interesting way to play Axis and Allies. I really enjoyed this one. That is Axis and Allies. That is my number 13, Axis and Allies Stalingrad. That is my number 13. That is from Renegade Game Studios. My number 12 is a game that I was honestly really surprised to see it as high as it is. Because this is a game that when I played it, I kind of found it a little clunky. I didn't think the rules were that well. But there was something really compelling about this game. Now, I mentioned before um that I wasn't doing kind of reprints and what have you. This one technically is a re-implementation of an older game, but it is so different that I think it deserved to be on here in its own merit.

10:07 And this is Cthulhu: Death May Die from CMON. Cthulhu: Death May Die is a game where you are again, like a lot of these Cthulhu games, opening gates or closing gates and and and what have you. It's a deck builder where you're trying to move around a board using the various cards you got. But critically here, some of you are cultists and some of you are, you know, investigators, whatever. And then there are kind of gray areas, and you don't quite know what everybody's trying to do. But it's not a team game. You don't win or lose as a team. It's simply what faction you belong to determines scoring. So, you may see the uh scores go up and down. You may see kind of like the scoring markers go up and down, but and people are kind of in charge of that and doing that, but you don't know why they're doing it. You don't know which faction they belong Over the course of the game, it's going to become a little more clear, but initially, you kind of you kind of don't know where those who's working in your same interests and not. And even then, you are still trying to get the highest score. But it's a great theme. It's an airy theme.

11:09 And uh it's really kind of a fun and interesting game. Again, I don't know that there's any game that does what this game does mechanically that I have in my collection. So, this is Cthulhu: Death May Die and that is from CMON. My number 11 is another game from CMON, and this is a game again from a family of games that I one of my favorite family of games of all time. And this is probably not near the top of that family of games, but even saying that, it is still a great game. And this is Zombicide: White Death. Zombicide: White Death is kind of fantasy Zombicide uh in Asia. Uh you've kind of got walls, the Great Wall there, where the zombies are trying to get over. What I really like about this iteration of Zombicide is you have these NPCs that you can control. So, if you're moving around and there's nothing that you can do, you can actually have NPCs attack the zombies or do other tasks across the board. And that is really cool, giving you some more options in the game. Um I play this with a lot of expansions that I played it to. There's actually a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle expansion to it that was maybe my favorite way to play it, but I really really enjoyed uh Zombicide: White Death. Again, not as much as some of the other versions of Zombicide, but it is still an absolute hoot. So, that is Zombicide: White Death. That is my number 11. That is from CMON.

12:32 All right, ladies and gentlemen, what do you think? Do you like these games? Would they be on your list? Would they be higher? Would they be lower? Would they not be on the list? Please let me know. Leave a comment here on uh Facebook, on YouTube, on BoardGameGeek, on X. We'd love to hear from you. Let me know what games you would put on your list. I'd love to hear back from you uh for those sorts of things. Now, please I would ask you to like this video and subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you already have, please check it and make sure you're still subscribed. We would hate to lose you through some kind of YouTube alchemy. Now, also too, if you really do like what we do on this channel, I would ask you to check out my other channel that is Cody Carlson, PhD, where we talk about military history, books on history, fun things like that. I post some of my lectures on that channel. It would mean the world to me if you would subscribe to that channel as well. And if you do really like what we do here, I would humbly ask you to click on the Super Thanks button and leave a tip.

13:22 Don't give up on your dreams. Keep sleeping.

13:39 [screaming]

14:05 Nope. Nope. This is awesome.