Top 100 Games of All Time (#'s 20-11!)

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

0:05 Greg Dixon. Thanks again for having me.

0:07 In case you couldn't tell by the title, we're doing our top 100.

0:10 Yes. And we're getting close to the end.

0:12 This is pretty much the second to last video number 201.

0:17 Yep.

0:18 Uh if you missed any of those, you can go back and look. There's just a bunch of huge amazing games.

0:24 Oh my gosh. Yes. It's crazy that we're talking about games that are hot, like low on the list, but are still amazing games.

0:32 Oh, absolutely. Everything on the top 100 to me is nines and tens.

0:36 Yeah. If you want to follow Greg, I'll put that uh his little handle down there on Instagram. You can kind of hang out with him. I'll put mine up there, too, and uh we can chat with you about games. So, here we go. 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.

1:23 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. All right, my number 20 uh is a game that uh uses a mechanism that has recently become popular in in recent years. That mechanism is auto battlers.

1:47 Okay.

1:47 And you know what really made it popular was challengers because it was the the the kenneser spiel darus. Don't get me started on that. Should have been the regular spiel, but that's another that was another topic for another video.

1:56 Subbox party of one.

1:57 Yep. And uh and then last year a game came out called Tag Team that made it that that continued the popularity with it. Uh, this game also uses the auto battler, but I argue that it actually has more agency than both of those games because not only you you build in your own deck of cards and such, but you actually have lots of choices as to where you play those cards, when you play them, and even in-game choices. This is a lifestyle game. This is a game that came out of left field. Uh, and this is baseball card GM. GM standing for general manager. Uh, this game blew my socks off because it literally just brought me back to being a 10-year-old. I can't think of a whole lot of games. Maybe on one hand I can count how many games have like had that big of an impact on me in this, you know, this entire thing.

2:41 Was this like your number one for last year?

2:43 Yeah, 2025 was my number one game of the year. And by the way, it was co-designed by a father and his son who was eight years old.

2:49 Oh wow.

2:49 And he had a big handle in it uh of the stats and this and that. So basically, you can play a game with your baseball cards like the old legit ones. I never had any. I didn't have any like recently. Yeah. I went and bought $30 on 300 30 cards for 300 cards for 30

3:09 and you build and draft your own teams. You put them there. You set your lineups. You got to have one for each position. But then once the game starts, it's kind of auto ballot because you're just chucking dice, right? But it's quick. It's easy. Um but then there's also decisions. Do I steal? Do I bring in a reliever? Cuz like if they're lefty versus lefty, righty versus righty, you get better matchups. It's not a simulation. It's very easy. It almost plays itself once you get it set up. But there are still decisions to be made and like I played my my 86 World Series Red Sox against the 2001 Diamondbacks and it was just went to extra innings. It was it's amazing. It just

3:43 Do you need the actual cards or could you just look up like the stats online?

3:46 You could look up the stats, but you put the cards in the lineup and you're and when it's there turn to bat. You're basically you're checking the stats on the back to see which threshold they are and how they do.

3:55 But if you don't like baseball, this is not a game for you. If you do like baseball, you have to play this because it is absolutely amazing.

4:01 I remember you were when you put it as your number one game for last year, you were like, "Lots of people are going to hate this choice."

4:07 Yes.

4:07 Did you get people giving you grief about it?

4:09 Yeah, we we might have just had half the people turned off.

4:12 Yes. Stick around. There's some good games coming, too. No, I'm just kidding. I have not played this. It doesn't interest me, right?

4:18 I'm not a baseball guy, but uh it's it's such a Dan King pick.

4:22 Yeah. And go watch my review from last year where I break down how it actually works. And I'm guessing before we get to one or maybe as one. Oh, I'll just say sometime in the next 19, there'll be more baseball themed games. At least one more.

4:34 At least one, I'm guessing.

4:35 That's pretty safe bet.

4:36 All right. My number 20 is a little recency bias here perhaps. It's a designer we've brought up before on your list and on on mine before. Uh Stefan Feld. It's from last year. It is the Druids of Adora.

4:49 Holy crap. So, I've only played this a few times, but I am a big Stefan [snorts] Felt fan, although you could be a big fan of his and still have some blind spots because he's prolific. Um, but that said, and and there are some of his games are a bit of a miss for me. But this is one that I can already tell just after a few plays is going to be one that I'm going to want to keep coming back to. It's a very um it's a little hard to describe, but the basic idea is that you have a bunch of dice that you've rolled. They're rolled at the beginning and then you're using them basically to um select actions on the board, but also to do sort of an area control at the end of the game. And what's cool about it is a lot of games, well, it's like, well, if you roll good, you're going to do better. If you roll low, you're going to do worse. But the way they mitigate that is that you have to pay the cost of the pips on the dice.

5:38 And so you either are going to when you play this game be able to kind of go where you want and do what you want but have a very low score at the end with the area control because the higher the pips the stronger the die in that that sort of final scoring. Or you're going to be in a position where you don't have a lot of options on the board because you don't have the provisions to travel and place these large dice everywhere but you'll have a very strong position where you where you are competing at the end and have those great multipliers. Um, just the fact that just the die rolls themselves are going to have such a different experience each time you play, I think is really interesting. Uh, and then on top of that, there's the modular board. There's um um there's just a lot of variety built into it, I feel like.

6:24 And um I don't know what else to say. I mean, I I just can tell after a few plays that I'm I'm I'm very impressed with it so far, and I can tell it's going to continue to be a challenge as you move forward. One of the mechanics that I won't de I won't take too long on though is this idea of these plants that you're gathering along the way and they're always randomized and you're going to always have to pick when you when you when you move down the track that selects them. One you keep which gives you sort of an ability that you can combo throughout and one is face down and with very few exceptions going to stay face down for the rest of the game. So that alone is going to create a very different experience every time you play it. And they're going to combo different things. And so every time you play, it's going to be like, well, this game I don't have to worry so much about the multiplier track or I don't have to worry so much about provisions. But but other things I do have to worry about.

7:11 So I feel like he's just built in these very simple, elegant ways to give you a very different experience each time you play it. Anyway, I've gone on too long perhaps, but that's my number 20, the Druids of Adora. Really excited to play this more. We'll see if it moves up or down, but I think it's gonna have a place on my top 100 for a long time.

7:28 Super high. Wow.

7:29 Yeah, I really like this one. And you've put it on your list a little while back as well.

7:33 Uh, this next one, number 19, is a deduction game. Go figure.

7:37 Uh, originally came out in 2015 as Think Straight and was redone by Mojito Studios as The Lost Code.

7:43 Oh, that's right. This game, it has similarities to an older game called Code 777, where you have tiles in front of you that you can't see, but you can see everybody else's, and you're trying to basically guess which tiles are in front of you. You have different colors, different numbers. Uh, but the way this is facilitated is someone rolls dice and they're going to be colors. I might say purple, purple, pink. And so, everyone has to figure out my purple number plus my purple number again plus my pink number equals X. And so, you actually draft these little wheels that have different ranges. Some of them only have a range of one or two numbers or one number. Some of them have a range of like 10 numbers. So if you're drafting, if you're really sure about that, you could draft the smaller one because you're more sure and you get more points. But if you're not sure, you could draft the wider one. And if you get it right, you get less points, but you're learning a little bit more. But it's a little bit of a press your luck because if you don't get it right, you have to basically reveal one of your tiles showing everyone else already knew what it was, but basically it wastes that and you get put a new one that now everybody else also gets to see. So, it's like a double whammy. And sometimes you can screw yourself up where like you already have a number solved, but but the one you have to take is one that you already know and now it got completely reset on you. The last awesome thing about this game, it's it's a super crunchy deduction game, but mechanically it's simple. One of the coolest things, it has a pressure luck mechanism at the end. At the end, everyone secretly writes down what numbers they think are in front of them and which color. If you're really sure, you just write down one number, and if you get it right, you get five points. But if you're like, "Oh, I got it narrowed down to two." You can either choose one of them and maybe get five points, but if you get it wrong, you get minus two points. Or you

9:13 can take the safe bet and go, I'll put both down, but I'm only going to get two points if I get it right. So, it has this pressure luck where if you're in the lead, you're going to be more conservative. And if you're in behind, you're going to go for it all. And you can see some exciting people get overtaken at the end of the game, and it's awesome.

9:26 Very cool. Yes. You love deduction games. And I think I played one version of it, but not the newest version. The the what's

9:33 the original version would basically looked like a prototype. It was awful.

9:36 Yeah. Yeah, but the new version is really pretty.

9:38 It is.

9:39 My number 19 is from a designer we've talked about pretty recently. His name is Stephan Fel.

9:44 Oh, I had a feeling these were going to be back to back. By the way, we have not talked about our choices at all. We do a lot of guessing. Of course, I know which one this is. Go ahead.

9:52 This is from 2011. This is

9:54 Carbidium.

9:55 Castles of Burgundy.

9:56 Oo. Oh, you haven't mentioned that yet.

9:58 I've not mentioned Castles of Burgundy yet. I love Castles of Burgundy.

10:01 Three fells in the top 20. It's amazing.

10:04 What are you talking about? You don't know that for sure. Um,

10:06 at least

10:07 at least. So, the Castles of Burgundy is Wow. I think at one point it was number one on BG.

10:14 Uh, yeah.

10:15 At least in the top two or three. It's number 15 now. So, it's definitely beloved.

10:19 It's hard to put my finger on exactly what's so great about it except for the fact that I feel like it utilizes a lot of Euro mechanics you've seen before. um tile placement, open drafting, um racing to get certain objectives done, um dice as workers, but it just puts them together in this just like you've talked about, you say like smooth as butter or something like that. It's like this smooth package, this most this this really elegant um experience. Uh you play with different boards each time potentially. So that's always going to mix things up for you a little bit. and and a big part of it is racing to finish sections um in the early rounds because you get a ton more points if you do that. And so there's always this from like from the jump there's this tension of what can I get done and how can I be most efficient and um you know being frustrated by your die rolls but then oh you can mitigate them if you want but in order to use those workers you're going to have to burn a die early on. And so there's all of these really crunchy interesting choices um in a game that doesn't overstay its welcome.

11:22 It really doesn't. It's it's it's an hourish, especially if you just play with two players. U so Castles of Burgundy, it's just sort of the quintessential Euro game, especially the old version. Not pretty,

11:34 lots of browns and greens, generic theme, but it just packages together all of these Euro mechanics and it's just in just the most elegant experience. So yeah, that's my number 19, the

11:43 new special edition one is beautiful.

11:45 I know. I was an early adopter on this one. I've had it not since it was brand brand new, but in the last in the first few years that it came out and so I've got the ugliest possible version of it, but they keep redoing it. This feels like, and we've talked about this with other games, a game that they're going to just keep making

11:59 forever

12:00 for decades. You know, we've there's been other ones we've talked about was like they just keep reprinting it. They keep bringing it back. I think this is going to be one of those.

12:07 Yeah, it's an awesome game.

12:08 Yeah. Castles of Burgundy Man number 19. Well, you had two fails in a row, so I can have two deduction games in a row, right?

12:13 I assume there'll be Yes. A few deduction games in the top 20.

12:17 Caveat, this is the last I would call pure logic and deduction game on my list,

12:21 but there's going to be some that are kind of impure.

12:24 Yeah, they have like deductive elements, but that aren't like straight up deduction games.

12:28 This is a game where you're in outer space and you're trying to search for a planet and that planet is called Planet X.

12:34 Oh, okay. Okay. Yes.

12:36 So, Search for Planet X. This game uh from a deduction standpoint is amazing because number one, the one thing you hate about deduction games and many people do is that someone gives one wrong answer and it screws the whole game up for everybody.

12:48 Yeah. They can be very fragile.

12:49 Yes. This game has an app that gives you the answer secretly. So you will never get it wrong. If you screw up, it is your fault. And I love that.

12:56 That's good.

12:57 And because the uses the app, um it plays solo well because it has a bot that actually plays as a second player. It knows what you've guessed. You take down what it guesses because you learn from other people. It's actually like you're playing a second player, which is really good. I don't play a lot of soul games, but it worked really well. And not a lot of deduction games work well with two players, and this does. Uh, but in the end, it's just an amazing logical spreadsheety trying to figure out, hey, these are clustered next to this, which means this is clustered next to this, which means this, and then some of the rules change each round, but it took what Mystery of the Abbey did way back in the '90s, I think 94ish, which was like, hey, go in there and make a make make a make a statement about what you think it is, right? And then like you can get some points for that, right? Yeah. Well, that that mechanic can kind of be played broken in that old game. In this game, they've kind of fixed that because now when you're putting things out there, you can you're basically secretly putting out what you know and a few rounds later, it'll come up and you'll see if you're right. But other people have chances to kind of like also piggy back. They don't know what you placed there, but they can kind of get in and it's just a way to like give information out. So, the information you're getting from your own clues, but you're also gaining them from what you what you find out whether other people know or not. And it's awesome. And lastly, it uses a mechanic of a game you loved, thieves, that you talked about earlier. Yeah. Last person gets to go now. You might have multiple turns in a row. The more powerful action you do, the further you move around the track.

14:10 So, it's like all these amazing things in one great package. The search for Planet X will make your brain bleed. And it's amazing.

14:18 I wonder if this is going to be like one of your highest like science fiction themed games.

14:21 Uh, I think it is. Yeah,

14:23 I think it might be. Yeah.

14:24 My number 18 is uh from Repos Productions. It's uh Antoine Bowser and a guy named Bruno Cthula

14:31 and it's called Seven Wonders Duel.

14:34 Okay, this is gonna be his highest Bruno game.

14:37 I think you might be right there. Uh Seven Wonders was a game we played a bunch when it was new and kind of played it out. Bought all the expansions, kept trying, you know, but played it to death, but still recognized sort of the greatness of Seven Wonders. And then Seven Wonders Duel came out and we were like, "Oh, wow. a two. I mean, this was one of those early two-player. Now, now it's a they do it all the time. The Citadel's Duel was just announced recently. Uh there's an expansion for Splender Duel coming out, but back then it was not as common. And so, I was like, "All right, well, let's see what this thing has." And it was like, "Oh my gosh, they took a good game, a beloved game, and they just improved upon it so much."

15:13 Just like with Splender Duel.

15:15 Uh well, we'll see. Uh, but I mean a lot of people agree with you obviously and and I tend to like these dual games as at least as much or not or not more so. I think it's just easier to design a two-player game. There's less sort of factors. You can just make it a succinct package, you know. And one of the things was great about Seven Wonders is it went up to seven players. But Seven Wonders Duel is such an improvement to me. And really since it came out, I don't know if I've ever gone back and played Seven Wonders. Um, but that said, this one and there's now there's the Lord of the Rings version as well, which I I'm kind of clumping these together. I haven't played that one as much. Um, they're very

15:52 You loved it, though.

15:53 I do love it. I think it's arguably maybe better, but I just I'm hesitant to say that until I've played it a little bit more, but they're kind of the same basic entity, although I do think you could own both. And I do think there's going to be people who are going to be so drawn to the Lord of the Rings theme, which I think is captured very well actually in that version of the game um that will will prefer it because of that.

16:14 But either either one you're it's a safe bet. And so much of it is the sort of arguably like agonizing decisions from like turn one because you have that that tableau out where some cards are face up and some are face down and you're taking cards and uncovering things for your opponent. And so much of the game is that timing and deciding with these really excruciating choices, what do I want to make available to my to my opponent. And sometimes you can see it and sometimes you can't. And almost not knowing what you're potentially going to make available is just so is so tense. It's just so satisfying. But anyway, that's my number 18. Uh, Seven Wonders Duel. Played it a ton. Never really gone back to the original since it came out. I just love it.

16:55 Yeah, great game. My number 17 is a two-player tactical card game having to do with football. This is Football Highlights 20152. Okay,

17:07 which is a sequel to Baseball Highlights 2045.

17:09 This game is really cool because even though it's very thematic in what it does, it could have been dungeon delving and hitting a boss and the mechanisms would have still worked because it's so clever. The way this game, the reason why it's so cool is number one, you're both playing kind of simultaneously against each other on your on on on your own fields. And when one player plays a card, the next player's playing a a one of their cards as defense to try to like stop them. But then after that plays over, their card flips to the other side. Like it just rotates 180 degrees and now that's their offensive play. So every time someone plays a card, you're thinking, do I want to stop that, but what's on the other side of that? or do am I okay letting that one go a little bit because I have something else planned that I've been working on

17:55 a better offensive play later on.

17:57 Yeah. So there's always this give and take push and pull. How much do I want to let them get to, you know, things like that. There there's there's things that you're trying to match up on the card as to like where it is on the card to to block it. Sometimes you're trying to match up the type of play it is like run versus pass. So there's all these different variables that again could easily just be like I'm I'm hitting you with a spear versus a range attack and like do I want to use my shield or do I want to use something else? like it it it could have really been used for other stuff, too.

18:22 Yeah, it could have been like a Dungeons and Dragons theme.

18:24 Which is why I say like it is actually very thematic. It feels very footballish because the beginning of both halfs everything's really tight, everyone's stopping everybody and then towards the end everyone just goes crazy and there's lots of scoring just like it in real football. Yeah. Like once it kind of loosens up.

18:36 Uh but it's a excellent multi-use card game, two-player sort of tactical card game. So, it's just fantastic.

18:42 Very cool. Very cool. My number 17 is from 1998,

18:47 which you know in board game years is like an antique. Uh this is by arguably one of the game designers that should probably be on the Mount Rushmore of game designers. That is Richard Garfield. This is a game about birds.

19:02 Pecking order.

19:03 Pecking order. Now

19:04 they've redone it recently. Monstericious, which I think you have a copy of. I haven't played the new version yet. Uh I love the pecking order theme, right? the idea that you're these sort of battling birds. Uh, but it really could be like your football football pick. It really could be kind of themed anything. Um, but what I love about it is it has a lot of first of all very fast playing, very simple, very elegant, but it has a lot of things I really like. It has sort of a memory element. It has sort of a bluffing or double bluffing element. It has a um it has it's a it's like a lane battler, right? So, I mean, I guess that would be you could fit it into that genre, right? games like Piñata, games like Battle Line. Um, but I just love the simplicity of, by the way, you don't even pick your card. You just pull the top one in the deck and then very tactically choose where you're going to fight for it. You can go for the really strong branches.

19:55 You can go for the branches that are weaker but give you special abilities. You can um bluff and make it look like you're going for a strong, you know, this must be a strong card cuz I'm going for a high point branch. And there's just so many simple little elegant choices in this game. And it seems crazy maybe to have it this high. It's completely forgotten. U even the new version I'm sure didn't make a big splash. Even with Richard Garfield's name on it, but the more I play it over the years, I mean, I've had it for so long, the more I'm just like, this just does everything I love in like a little two-player tug-of-war back and forth style game. Um, so yeah, I love it. I love it. My number 17.

20:32 It's crazy how high it is.

20:34 Yeah, I didn't expect it to be this high, but it just I I never don't want to play this. Yeah,

20:39 I'll pull this out with anybody who wants to play pecking order. And I

20:42 The new version looks awesome, too, by the way.

20:43 Yeah, the new version's like little monsters eating candy or whatever.

20:47 So, I interviewed Richard Garfield about this. And we ran into this whole deep dive of like what he does for reprints. What does he think about? What does he try to do? What does he try not to do? Fascinating. Go back on my channel, watch the interview. One of the things I asked him, I said, "Richard, why did you when you reprinted this, why did you keep the memory element?" And he's like, "Well, what?" And I could like, cuz you know, if you put your guy there and the other guy's bigger, he doesn't have to show you who he is. He just leaves him there. Then you're gone. And then you got to remember that. And he's like, "Oh." He's like, I said, "I I like to just leave if someone got beat, leave him there. Just kind of take him back from the board so you know he's not like active, but now you know that one face down is is is greater than that number." He goes He goes, "That's how I play it." And that's the way it was originally intended.

21:24 Oh, really?

21:24 Yes.

21:25 Oh, interesting.

21:25 So, you know, I So, it takes the memory out, which is cool. There's still like a one little small sliver that has a memory element, but the majority of it gets removed when you do that.

21:34 See, I tend to like I mean, you remember my number 100 was Strateggo. You know, I tend to like games that have that element because I feel like otherwise you could play it sort of perfectly, but there's just the fact that you have to remember things and um you I just think it adds an element of sort of chaos that just um you have this potential to sort of mess up and and just add one more thing to kind of muddy your brain as you're trying to play strategically. So, works for me, but I can also see just playing it either way, kind of whatever the preference of the opponent is, maybe.

22:06 Yeah. And just so you know, if you're looking for Monstericious and you're North America, you're probably not going to find it. I had to buy it from like Europe because they never came they never brought it over and it sold out the first print run and I'm didn't sound like they were going to they were going to do another one.

22:15 Yeah, we're definitely not picking games for availability unfortunately. But yeah, I never tire of pecking order. I've played it for many many years and uh I just love it. I think it has everything you need in like a little two-player that that style of a little two-player game.

22:29 Great game. Surprised how high it is.

22:31 I'm a little surprised myself, but I love it. My number 16 is a party game that is basically as if you took 20 questions and werewolf and put it together.

22:42 Ah, okay.

22:43 This is Were wewards?

22:44 Yeah, Werewards is great.

22:46 And uh I remember first playing this at Gamma many years ago before it came out and just having a blast. And it's one of those games that I can pull out in any situation and it always works so so so well where one player has picks a word and they're trying to basically say yes or no and giving answers and one person knows the answer and they're trying to guide the team there. Uh but also there's werewolves out there and they're trying to either guide them away or get enough yes answers so that they they they've used up all their questions. So and everything is open at the end of the round. So, like some of them have, hey, I hey, you have you might be the werewolf. You you have like eight tokens. Yeah, but they're all yes questions. I was getting us close to the answer, but they were asking like Vegas yes questions. So, some cool stuff. There's all these wacky roles that do things just like in in one night ultimate werewolf, if you will, or regular werewolf

23:35 where you're like messing with who knows what, who gets to see what, who gets to do what. It's just awesome. Just 20 questions with hidden identities. It's it's a fantastic. The finite amount of tokens for the questions is a big uh plus with this game. Yeah,

23:50 there's other games like it where you can just ask as many as you like, but tracking everything with the tokens is great.

23:57 And and it's the kind of game you only you can't play once. You play it, you go, let's go again. Let's go again. Let's go again.

24:03 Yes. And because it's run on the app, you can play in an unofficial beginner mode, which is what I do. It's not like known anywhere, but you can basically select the characters as if you're playing the game Insider.

24:14 Yeah. and and like like not even have like uh like like uh some of the roles like the royal wolf and stuff like that so you can like just get them used to to the game.

24:21 I'm glad the app still supports it. I think one of the reasons I never picked it up because I was like well I have Insider and I was I'm always weary of games with apps like you talked about Drop Mix the other day.

24:31 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

24:32 But they still support it, right?

24:33 Oh, Bezier supports all their apps like all the time. They're really good about that. But yeah, I I love Werew World just it's it's always gone over well.

24:40 It's like a convention game for me. Anytime I'm at a convention, I feel like at some point it comes out and you usually play it five, six, seven, eight, 12 times in a row.

24:48 Yeah, because it's like three minutes long or five minutes.

24:49 Yes, that helps. My number 17. Is that where 16? My number 16. Stephanora, his masterpiece

24:57 for sale.

24:57 For sale.

24:58 Whoa.

24:59 This is the most streamlined economic game. There it is. We talked about an economic game. Buy low, sell high. Love it. Um, I love that you have such a finite amount of money to start with. I love that you there's so much about it is reading the other players and figuring out the correct timing not only in the first half when you're acquiring the properties but in the second half trying to figure out okay what do people have once again a little memory element that I kind of like what do people have and what have they played already and if these values are out are they going to play their 30 now is it safe for me to use this one and you're always trying to kind of read the players read the room make your money stretch as much as you can and the art is adorable in the version I have the Eagle Griffin one the like old bookshelf kind style one with a little animal on every card. It's always fun. Um I just love it. I think it's I think it's just sort of the picture of elegance and it's elegance in that economic game style that we like. Um so yeah, that's my number 16 for sale. It's a masterpiece.

25:56 Yeah, my my oldest brother is a game kermagin. Like he just doesn't like stuff just to not like it.

26:00 He just crosses his arms like impress me.

26:02 Yeah. And uh I'll talk about one game later that he actually likes, but this is one of the very few games that he loves. Uh,

26:09 you could play with anybody.

26:10 Yeah,

26:10 it's so simple, but yet there's so much there in such a simple, elegant package. I love it.

26:16 Yeah. And if you're joining this late, uh, I talked about this a few videos ago.

26:19 Yes, you did. You did. And

26:20 I do love it, too.

26:21 And I kind of bit my tongue. I don't think I said this is going to come later, but

26:24 Well, I I knew it would.

26:25 Yes. I mean, there's just nothing not to like about it.

26:27 It's amazing.

26:28 Yeah. And I think the car version.

26:30 Yeah. And there have been other versions that add interesting things, but I always kind of return back to that original. The the cool thing about the the car version is there's a good variant for two players that actually works.

26:40 Okay.

26:41 You could always just read the rules for the car version and then just apply it to the other version though.

26:44 I think both of us respond to games that are just elegant.

26:48 No fat on the no fat on them. U they just get down to the point and it's about matching wits with the people you're playing with. It's not about who understood the mechanics better,

26:58 right?

26:58 They strip that away. you get down to like this core this core experience that everyone can gromp right away and then it's about okay who can who can really match wits and who can really like pull ahead and you're not like well he just won because he understood the rules better than I did you know what I mean this is one where everyone gets it and then it's just matching wits and using those resources uh um efficiently

27:21 it's an absolute gem number 15 is an economic game see the theme here

27:27 so many economic games

27:28 we've been joking earlier videos. Every time we say economic game, you take a shot of water and uh

27:32 or or whatever you whatever you like.

27:34 Uh yeah, it's an economic game. Uh it was on his list previous. Okay. This is an economic game uh about buying and selling real estate.

27:44 And this was my game of the year a few years ago when it came out. And that is Magnate the First City.

27:48 Oh wow. This is really high.

27:50 Well, I hadn't talked about it yet. You had to know it was coming.

27:52 I assumed it was. Yes.

27:54 This game is just absolutely fantastic. He talked a lot about it last time, so I won't go too much, but essentially, you're buying these these these apartments and uh commercial and industrial and you're trying to get tenants. You're trying to get them to pay you money. You take that money and then you either hold it or you sell that asset to buy other ones. But there's a flux. There's a every round new plots of land come out. And different buildings affect other buildings and different tenants affect other buildings and everything is very thematic and everything everybody does affects what everybody else is going to do. Yeah,

28:25 you can try to drive go in a little corner and drive up all your stuff or you can just piggy back on what other people are doing. You can put a chemical plant next to somebody's residential, make it go down. Thematically, it's awesome. But the the real twist here is that you got to find the right time to start selling because there's a somewhat random card draw for the the the crash because the crash inevitably will happen after a certain time. You kind of have a feeling when it might happen, but the things the players do will influence whether whether when it's going to happen. And you need to sell everything before the crash because you sell everything for almost nothing once it crashes. to just liquidate your assets.

28:55 One of the best economic games out there, period. Magnate the First City.

28:59 And kind of underrated and under discussed and underappreciated, I think.

29:02 Absolutely. And it's still available, by the way.

29:04 Is it? Oh, yeah. You know what? I've seen it online. It's not cheap.

29:07 No, it's like 80 bucks, I think.

29:08 But you get a lot.

29:09 You get a lot. And it's a big game

29:10 and it plays good although long and good at all player counts.

29:14 Yes.

29:14 It's just if you're going to play with the higher player counts, you know.

29:17 Yeah. It even get And it even plays well at two, which most economic games don't.

29:21 Yeah, this one does work well at two. My number 15 is, I believe, ranked five on BGG.

29:27 Whoa.

29:27 Paul Denon. It is the perfect blend of two beloved mechanics, worker placement and deck building. And it is Dune Imperium.

29:39 Dune Imperium Uprising is also excellent. They're kind of cut from the same cloth. If you like one, you're going to like the other. Add some new elements. So, it's sort of including both of those. I I play Dune Imperium more just cuz it's older. believe it's from 2020. Man, I I could go on and on about it. I won't, but it really is um the perfect sort of very approachable but perfect sort of epic um resource management, worker placement, deck building, um troops on the on the board style map with conflicts. Uh simple idea, first to 10 points wins. it's going to feel very different every time you play it. Uh because you have a, you know, asymmetrical um player characters that are all from the Dune universe. Um such a rich uh IP to pull from and I feel like they've really done an excellent job. Um you can enjoy the game if you haven't seen the movies or read the books. I haven't read the books. I've seen the movies, but I haven't read the books. Um but but either way, you can really enjoy this one. And um man, it there's just when you want a big, you know, it's crunchy and it's fairly long.

30:44 I mean, it's not that crunchy. It's fairly long. It's fairly simple to understand, but um if you want that two or three hour kind of worker placement deck building experience, I mean, this is just one of the very best in my opinion. So, yeah, Dune Imperium. I mean, it's five on BG. People love it. So, yeah, that's my number 15. Dune Imperium. Excellent, excellent game.

31:03 And because I don't like deck building that much and I don't want to really watch the movie, so I was like, it was okay. It was fine for me. It wasn't a bad game. I I enjoyed it, but it's not one of my favorites. It's one of these games where every time I play another one, uh what was the winter themed one that came out recently? The um oh shoot, I should have researched this. Uh we played it together. It had worker placement and deck building as well. Someone's watching this right now screaming at it like it's that game. But like anytime I play a game like a deck builder with a board kind of style game, I'm always comparing it to this one and other games, but I'm always comparing it to this one and it's just hard to beat it.

31:39 Yeah. Okay. My number 14. I have no idea how you're going to react to this one. You could be like, "Yeah, no duh." Or you might be like falling off your chair. This is an economic game.

31:49 Most of the ones you said have not surprised me too much. Like they're games I expect you to talk about.

31:53 So, I'm not going to describe the game because I kind of just want to see his reaction. My number 14 is Food Chain Magnate.

32:00 I I thought this would end up in your top 20 because it hadn't come up yet.

32:04 Yeah,

32:04 I was when we started the list, I didn't expect it to be this high, but I did expect it to be in your top 100.

32:09 Okay. See, I wasn't sure if you if you thought I loved it this much, but

32:13 I didn't. No, this is definitely higher than I expected. I did expect it to be in your top 100. And when it hasn't come up, I kept going, "Holy cow, is it going to be that much? Is it going to be that high? Is it going to be that high? Is it going to be that high?"

32:22 Food J magnets a heavier economic game where you're basically running a business, you're running a restaurant, you're trying to get people to buy stuff from you, whether it's pizza or or coke or lemonade or burgers. But it is a cutthroat, absolutely in-your-face, mean relatively long, complicated game that is just amazing because it's a lifestyle game, especially when you add the expansion. You could play this game with all these different modules. Every game is going to give you a different experience. And other than the the randomized tile setup, there is zero luck in this game. And it is cutthroat and it can be very unforgiving. Um, however, if you play with the right group and the people that are teaching the game actually care about your experience and they help teach you after the game starts, they don't stop at the teach and give you some advice that you can make your your own decisions. That doesn't happen as often. Now, sure, you probably still won't win, but you won't get clobbered 832 to 12. Uh, because that will happen if you play with this with some groups.

33:22 So, I realize that this game is very divisive. Some people hate it. I absolutely am just in awe of how economically everything works and how how realistic it just everything seems and it's again a lifestyle game that I think that's what really sets it this high is I think you could play this game forever and just mix and match the modules and every game is going to feel so different because they all introduce new new things new problems and new ways of solving problems.

33:49 Yeah. And it's just it's a constant puzzle as to like how how do I in this game right now where everybody has this what's the what's the little thing that I can see that no one else can see that I'm going to go do. It's so weird.

34:02 It's a spatial puzzle. It's an economic game. It's like an engine builder. It it packs so much into it. And it is like you said, it does simulate running a business because you're going to fail most of the time. It's punishing. It's unforgiving. Um, and you need to research like an hour or two before you even play it the first time because there's easy missteps you can take early on that'll hose you for the whole time.

34:23 There was a new Kickstarter that recently got fulfilled by Lucky Duck Games and it's amazingly gorgeous. It's the version I have. Yeah.

34:28 And uh they had like a very small quantity left on their website after the Kickstarter fulfilled and it might be there might be still a few left.

34:36 The new version is

34:37 but they're never printing it again like this. So if if it's something interest you, it's not it's not cheap. It's very expensive game. Yeah,

34:44 but at least the new version is way nicer than the old version. I I played it 8 10 12 years ago

34:50 and it was not pretty. Now it's nice. It's a nicel looking game. It looks good on the table.

34:54 I think by saying it's not pretty is about the nicest thing you've ever said cuz it looks worse than most of the prototypes. I I get in here for

35:00 your version was ugly. But um and like I said, punishing and I went in completely cold. Don't go in cold. Watch two or three different videos. Watch some of Dan's content. Watch other people's videos on it. learn kind of how you're supposed to start the game because it's a long game and you're going to have a bad experience if you don't have at least a little basic idea of where you should start and what you should do when you play.

35:21 I knew it would be on your list. This is very high and it's a newer one for you. Like you just learned it in the last few months.

35:27 Yeah.

35:28 But you keep coming back to it.

35:29 I know. And I keep thinking about it when it's not on the table. And that's how you know.

35:32 Dad's like, "Let's play food chain magnet again." I'm like, "Okay, there's other games." But okay. Uh, speaking of very long games, uh, my number, uh, 14, is that where we're at? Number 14 is, uh, from Fantasy Flight Games. Uh, it's from 2008. Uh, another IP, two IPs, right in a row. This is a Battlestar Galactica. This is the ultimate hidden ro social deduction game. In my not very humble opinion, it's just fact. U, I love this game. Uh, once again, you don't need to be a huge fan of the show, I think, to enjoy it, but but knowing the show or seeing the show does help. U, it's based off of the newer show. There was an older one as well. Um, and it is just incredibly thematic. And I think we talked about this and we've talked about a lot of social deduction games. I think we talked about this with Mayday Mayday where because Mayday may is a little longer than something like deception or some of these other ones were words, you get a little bit more invested in it, you know, because it takes 45 minutes or an hour. Well, now it takes two and a half hours or three or three and a half hours. And man, do you get invested in this game and one of the cool things about it too is you're not necessarily a Sylon, the trader, uh, or a good person the whole time. at about the halfway point, you can have uh there's this infusion of new cards where your identity can change partway through. And so the game is just for the first half could just be a uh challenging cooperative experience where you think there's a possible trader, but

37:03 there could not be. But because the game itself is hard enough and because the game itself sort of fights you, there's suspicion from turn one even though everyone could be good. And so you're just it just the game itself is playing mind games with you and then your opponents are playing mind games with you and then at some point you might get a card that goes by the way now you need to play mind games with everybody and it is just incredibly immersive. They did a new version called unfathomable.

37:29 That was the only one I've played.

37:30 Yeah. And that one has a like a Cthulhu like Lovecraftian kind of theme. Um similar good. Um, I just have a special affinity and fondness for the original because that's the one I've played more and I loved the show. The show is great and it really does sort of simulate the feeling of the show very well.

37:50 It's going to sound weird to say this, but I also think it's relatively mechanically relatively streamlined

37:56 because you're pretty much just going to a location and doing what the location says. A challenge come, you know, a card comes up at the end, everyone works together to kind of beat it, rinse and repeat. But there's very simple, subtle ways to sabotage. Um, Dark Moon and Hale Hydra and other games have sort of copied it in shorter, faster packages. But I think something about the length of this game also, like I said, it just gets you so immersed in the theme.

38:20 Yeah. I never played this because a I didn't never watch the show and b I played Unfathomable and I was like, eh.

38:25 And it was another thing is uh

38:28 you saw you came BSG Express which was basically Dark Moon.

38:31 Became Dark Moon. Yeah.

38:32 Yeah. I like Dark Moon.

38:34 Yeah. and and and I think that's Hail Hydra or Dark Moon. Some of these other ones are are very good as well. Um but you just can't beat the epicness of Blast Galactic, but you got it's one of these games you play once or twice a year maybe. But you got to sit down and be ready to commit your evening to it. Um but I love it. It it just I have so many fun memories of playing at conventions with with with friends that I've met there. So many fond memories of playing with my wife and Mele lady who I used to do podcast with. She loves this game and she runs it perfectly. Um, and uh, it's great. It's number number 14. Battlestar Galactica, the best social deduction game.

39:10 Uh, I'm gonna have two later that I like better.

39:13 Well, you're wrong. Now I am debunking you. My number 13 is an experience game. You have to experience this game in the right just like most games but more so in this game in the right frame of mind in the right space with the right people because you are going to be hooting and hollering at the top of your lungs yelling at horses to win cuz this is ready set bet. This

39:41 is a great game.

39:41 Now before I comment on this I'm just going to pause for a minute and show you a 40 second clip of us playing it with John Declair the designer at Gen Con before it even came out. And if I'm not gonna say anymore, watch this clip.

39:53 Roll that beautiful bean footage.

39:55 There's a snake eyes moving along. There's another nine in the second.

40:00 10 advancing 10.

40:02 THERE'S ANOTHER NINE.

40:04 THERE'S AN EIGHT back into the lead. 10 trying to gain 10 with a bonus.

40:12 THERE'S ANOTHER EIGHT.

40:15 THERE'S A SEVEN. 11 12 bonus. Get a two. Three. Way at the back. THERE'S AN EIGHT. 11. [snorts] 12. Needs a bonus. NOT GOING TO GET IT. FOUR. FIVE. Needs something here. 10.

40:35 OKAY. SO, if you watched that and you didn't laugh, smile, or say, "That looks like fun." You might check if you're breathing because this game is so fun. And I love running the game. I've actually named all the horses.

40:47 Yeah. You know,

40:48 you get really into it. It's really fun.

40:50 Yeah. Like I named all the horses. We play the little

40:52 horse. Yeah. We love it. I got the high roller edition, which is amazing. This this game's awesome because it's just an experience like no other. And you can play it very stripped down with beginners. Like you don't have to play with the side bets and the VIP cards and just like, hey, just bet on which one you want to do, right? Um but you can also add all the other stuff in and it's like a almost like it's a gamer's game. like there's a lot to think about, a lot to bet on, and it's just an absolute blast watching those horses. There's also an app that's really good. Um, a lot of times I'll use the app and I'll call the game because the app will run the actual it'll basically rolls the dice and moves the horses for you and you can I can now I can just I can call the race and I can bet like a normal person. Yeah,

41:34 cuz there is a way like if you're if you're if you're running the race, you do this like weird way of betting before everyone else that you can maybe get some points, but it's it's it's it's okay. It's not great.

41:43 So like I like to run it with the app. So, I like I basically call the race. So, it's still fun, but then I can still actually play. Yeah.

41:50 I don't do well because I'm also trying to call the race, but it still makes me feel like I'm playing. Anyway, ready, set, bet.

41:54 Uh I can only do it like once an evening because my voice is shot after the four races.

41:59 Yes. Like I said, it's horse by the end. Fun.

42:02 Ready, set, bet.

42:03 My number 13 has come up before because I I put this sort of successor to it as a as a as a pick on earlier on my list. Um, this is a game from 2022. It's the same set of designers as Recall, and it is Revive.

42:20 Um, Revive, I haven't played Recall and Revive enough to know which one I really like more. I think Recall has the opportunity perhaps to dethrone Revive, but Revive I've played a ton over the years. I haven't played with the expansion a lot yet, but I have, and it adds some interesting things as well. But even just the base game is so great. Um, and it it it captures the theme very well. You really do feel like you're sort of digging your way out of this sort of post-apocalyptic wter wasteland. Um, and it's this hex map that you're exploring. You're building buildings. Um, you're uh upgrading your cards. You have your own little player board that you're customizing. Man, that part of it is so cool. I really love that part of it. There's all these little uh opportunities as you move up certain tracks to customize your playerboard.

43:07 And the the sequel recall has that as well and done differently, but it has the same the same kind of idea. But I just I find it I find it incredibly immersive. It it flies by. It's one of these games that, you know, it probably takes 90 minutes, maybe even two hours sometimes, but in the last little bit as it's starting to wind down, you go, "Oh my gosh, I haven't had enough time." you know, it just the ending sneaks up on you and you you just feel um like there's so much to do in so little time and you're just it's so exciting. It's so fun. Um and I love the idea of the little objective cards that's going to give you very different it's such a simple way to give you a very different play experience every time. And then you're just basically collecting these multipliers to sort of decide where you really want to focus on those cards as well. Just the fact that those are different every time gives you a different experience. Um, so yeah, Revive, my number 13. Um, I just love it. I think it's a kind of a a modern masterpiece and uh I'm really excited to to try Recall when it comes out because as we've talked about in a previous video, it shares a lot of the same DNA DNA. It feels like u potentially an evolution of Revive that the designers decide to put out. Um, and man, I'm going to be lining up for anything this group, this team puts out. So yeah, that's my number 13, Revive.

44:24 Yeah, it was on my list earlier. Great game. Before I get to this next one, I want to let you know that you can get over a hundred individual promo cards for just $50. And there's amazing game bundles of popular games on my season 14 Kickstarter fundraising campaign that's live right now when this video launches. It's how I raise money to be able to spend as much time as I do creating content for you. Lots of things sell out quickly. If you'd like to check it out, click the eye up there in the corner and I'd really appreciate it. Uh my number 12 is a two-player deductive game. It's not a deduction game. It is a word game that added a deductive element that I absolutely love. This is code names duet.

45:00 Ah, I haven't played this one as much. I need to.

45:03 It is the best version.

45:04 Is it? Okay.

45:04 And even though it's called duet, you don't have to just play it with two players, which I think is

45:08 it could be like two teams still, right?

45:10 Two teams. And it works really well because [snorts] one player in each team is given the clue, but everyone else is the guessers when you know when the other players other teams go in. It's uh Code Names itself is obviously a huge blockbuster hit, right? It's been around for a while. It's amazing. It's Code Names is amazing. The reason why I like this one even better is because a you can still play with with a lot of people u not just two. But the way that they did the deductive aspect because now there's not just one assassin, there's three. M

45:41 and you know through like a little key card like one of the assassins that that you can see is actually the assassin that's on the other player side too that that they're trying to make sure that you don't pick

45:52 but one of them is also a good choice for you and one of them is one of like the the neutral choices

45:59 and so as you're listening to these clues you know and you're like oh man that's my assass that's like where I want to point to is the assassin on my side is it the assassin is it the right one like but then as as maybe you like don't go there and then later on you're hearing these other clues and you're formulating this like meta of the whole game. Are they really trying to get me the one that's good? Like it's almost like they're a traitor but they're not. It's it's hard to explain but it is just like this this game is so much deeper than regular code names because of the deductive aspect of it.

46:28 I need to play this one again. I remember liking it but I haven't played it in years.

46:31 And if you play it a lot there's like a little map and you can play like each each little city gives you like a slightly different way to play with different difficulty and this and that. Uh it's it's absolutely fantastic. It is the most one of the most clever word games ever because you're just trying to get with one word clue trying to get them to guess as many words as possible because in this you have a certain amount of rounds you got to get it all done with or you're dead. Uh but and because of that you have some Hail Marys at the end. You can just bonus guess as much as you want and sometimes you have some Hail Mary wins and that's fun too.

46:59 Very cool. Yeah, I a Code Names game almost made it onto my list. I do think uh when I first played Code Names I thought how is this not been a thing forever? It just felt like this should have always existed

47:11 but now the app's out and that's

47:12 it feels timeless. Yeah.

47:14 Well, yeah. And it's a franchise that's going to just keep growing. I think um

47:18 my number 12 is um Luciani and Tacini working together. Now, most people think of Zulkan or they think of Marco Polo or one of these games, but this is a sort of a game that never got the acclaim that some of the other ones did did, but it did for us. Cranial Creations did it, and then Sean did their version of it, and it is Council of Four.

47:42 Uh, Council of Four is one I believe you taught to me and then gifted to me at some point many years ago. And like I mentioned with the game on a previous list, this is one of those games that just ever since I've owned it for 10 years now or whatever, it's been I think more than 10 years now, uh it's come to the table every year. It comes to the table at least once, often many times, it has this very simple pushpull where you're man, it's comboastic, right? You are the theme is as dry as it could possibly be. Let me start there. the it's about building permits is what it's about. You're building emporiums and you have to be, you know, get in good with this council of four that's going to let you or not let you build in a given area. But once you build when you build adjacent to it, you get the benefit of the new spot and then the one you're touching as well. And then when you build your third emporium, you get the benefit of the second one and the first one. And you build your fourth empir emporium, you get your benefit of the third and the second, the first. and it just combos out from there to where when you're building your eighth, 9th, 10th emporium, you're getting you're raking in so many bonuses and it is so satisfying. However, the other side of it, the other way to score is to do certain colored buildings that are really spaced out on the map. And if you do those, there's these bonuses that you're basically racing to finish before anybody else. And man, do they give you t they just throw points at you if you do that. And so every time I play, even though I played it dozens and dozens of times, there's always this pushpull of, well, do I build this incredible set of combos or do I go for these big points

49:14 at the beginning and then kind of build my combos together at the end, and it feels like so perfectly balanced, at least the the old version that I have. I've only played the Sean version one time, but the old version um also has these these double-sided boards that you mix and match, so the routes are slightly different, and it just never gets old. I think it's uh this sort of hidden gem from these two designers that are beloved in the industry, but this game I just don't think ever made the splash that some of their bigger, heavier games made. But we were talking about how we like elegance and I think there's just no bloat on this game.

49:47 Yeah.

49:48 Uh so yeah, I love it. My number 12, Council of Four.

49:51 Great choice. 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. My number 11, we're at the last one for this video already.

50:10 Wow, time flies.

50:12 Uh, this one is a social deduction game that you talked about long ago and actually referenced in this video.

50:18 Yeah. Uh, it is a small little game that came out in Germany. Didn't have a very big release, and it's called Mayday. Mayday.

50:24 Whoa. This is your number 11.

50:26 Just missed the top 10.

50:28 Wow.

50:29 This is one of my favorite social deduction games because, as he mentioned, it's a longer one. It's about 45 minutes to an hour. And the tension of this game ratchets up like like no other game. Because in this game, everything that you do is tracked. So if you lie early in the game, eventually someone's going to find out. But when do they find out? And who is the person that finds out? Is it the person on your team or is it not? And so you can get caught. You got to find the right time or two to lie because everything is going to be shown at some point. And it basically it's it's a it's a horrible theme of of you know there's there's terrorists on a plane. They're trying to you know they're trying to get out of a cockpit and you're trying to basically keep them out. And if even one bad guy gets in, the game's over. So, it's like super tense and it just has created some of the most memorable moments. We play it like once a year.

51:17 It's one of those things.

51:18 Yeah. It doesn't come out a lot, but when it does, it's always a huge experience.

51:21 Awesome. You know, I remember playing, one of the first years we played it, we were at Gen Con and we played with Mandy Hutchson, one of the popular content creators, and her and I were the two bad guys. And as a beginner, she did like one of the coolest sly moves, which is like she was sitting next to me and she got to look at one of my things and and and uh I she basically lied in like the opposite way you normally should as a bad guy.

51:44 So she's like, "Oh, this is

51:47 like this is actually good even though it's bad, you know." So everyone thought that we were on different teams the entire time cuz she basically like threw me under the bus.

51:54 Well, she probably said it was bad even though it was good. That's right. Yeah, I see what you're saying.

51:58 So yes, it was good. I put good but she said bad and we're on the same team and she threw me under the bus so that later on

52:04 but that built probably a ton of trust in her

52:06 in her and then once people realized that I was bad she's like well she wouldn't have done that to him and she ended up getting the copy we won and I was like I can't believe this is your first time playing this game cuz that's

52:15 she is sharp

52:15 that's a pro at this game and like stuff like that happens and it the game's awesome. Yeah, it's incredibly memorable and I think because you can't mess up at all. Yeah, like you said, if you let anyone bat in the cockpit, you lost and so you're always just on pins and needles the whole game.

52:30 I've been trying to get this thing reprinted. Uh it's but the original publisher doesn't seem to have a want or desire to reprint it, unfortunately.

52:38 That's unfortunate because And I I I feel like you could rethe it a million different ways. There's just

52:43 I always wanted to be like inside job where you're like inside the the vault of a bank.

52:46 Yeah. There's just so many uh the mechanics of it are very good and I do feel like you could skin it with anything. It can be vampire themed. You name it.

52:55 Yeah.

52:55 My number 11 is from Reer Canitia, the great doctor. We've talked about it many times.

53:01 Oh, I bet you I know which one this is.

53:02 I bet you do.

53:03 I bet you I bet you it's it's what I'm wearing.

53:06 What you're wearing the color?

53:08 There's some blue in it. That's what you're saying. It's from Blue Orange and it's called Blue Lagoon.

53:12 Uh Blue Lagoon is sort of in that family of games that he likes to do. games like Samurai, games like Through the Desert

53:19 11. That's crazy.

53:21 I mean, it's perfection.

53:23 It is.

53:23 It has like a route building thing. It has area majorities in the different islands. Uh, it has like a set collection element. And mechanically, it's place one piece on the board next to one of your other pieces. I mean, that's all you need to know to play the game. The whole game is just how does it score? So, when I'm teaching it to people, it's just like, okay, here's what you're going to do. your your explorers coming up on these islands. You're discovering them for the first time. You got to start in the water because you're you're you know boating your way up to these these islands and then you just build off of those boats from there and you place one piece on your turn and it's like that's it. That's it. Now here's what you're trying to do. And then you go through the scoring. But what's cool too about it is in the second half you score the first half and then the second half wherever you've built these little huts and the components are adorable.

54:11 That's where you start from cuz the first half is discovering the islands. The second half is you're now settled. You live here and you're kind of going out and exploring from there as well and kind of learning the islands. Um, and so it has I and I love those games with that first half, second half we talked about for sale earlier. It has that element. Um, Battlestar Galactica even has that, but this one has it. But it just packs all of these mechanics, all of these, I should say, all these ways to score with very simple mechanics and a very fast play time. It looks beautiful on the table. And I think it's incredibly underrated. I think it's one of his very best games. Uh yeah, my number 11, Blue Lagoon. I was surprised it ended up this high, too. But it's just I love it. It's And I played it again recently. It been a little while since I played it. I played it again recently, and I was just reminded of just how incredible it is.

55:00 It is awesome. So yeah, I've been I've been yelling for rooftops underrated.

55:04 Very underrated. And I wish it was more acclaimed and more available um because I think it's just one of his very best and he's such a good designer. He can make this masterpiece and it could fly under the radar because he just he just floods the market with great games all the time.

55:20 So yeah, that's my number 11. I've been singing from the rooftops its praises since it came out. Uh Blue Lagoon.

55:26 Yeah, that was the last one for this episode. If you want to see some of our earlier ones, you can go watch those now. If you want to watch our top 10, which is going to be coming out in the future, make sure you subscribe and be notified and you'll see when that one comes up.

55:36 Thanks for watching everybody.

55:37 See you later.

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