2019 Top 100 Games of All-Time - #100-91

This year my Top 100 Games of All-Time list changed a lot. As mentioned in my year-end review, I played over 100 new games so it was likely that many of them would enter my Top 100 as it nearly doubled the number of games I have played. The discovery of online line turn-based board games really helped to push this total higher, as did the use of a tracking app. Attending SHUX '18 also introduced me to a lot of games, but in those instances it was more of a one-time play so it is possible that some of these will drop off next year if I don't play them again. I played so many games I was able to rank 150 of them comfortably and will be following this list up with brief comments on those next 50 games that didn't make the Top 100.

A refresh on the background on how I came up with the rankings. First I looked through the Top 3800 Games of All-Time on BoardGameGeek during the last week of 2018 and listed all the games I had played enough of to warrant ranking. Then I used the Board Game Ranking Engine on Pub Meeple to compare all the games in my list. After the engine spat out its ranking, I reviewed it and re-ranked a few games as I saw fit. Anyway, onto #100-91!

#100 - Hawaii (New)

A couple years back I went to Hawaii and really wanted to bring along a board game with a Hawaiian theme and this one seemed to fit the bill perfectly. Unfortunately, it was much too heavy for the group I was with so I didn't end up playing this until this past year on BoardGameArena and Yucata. I really wish there were more games with this theme. I think the theme would be perfect for a light and relaxing gateway game, which this isn't but it is still a really fun game which is why it just made it into my Top 100.

It's not categorized as a worker placement game but I think it definitely feels like one. There is quite a bit going on as you move your worker to different spots on a common island to purchase buildings to add to your own villages. In order to score points, your villages must be large enough to meet these tiki milestones, and there are certain requirements that you are trying to meet at the end of each round to score bonus points. In the end, the theme doesn't come across too strong as it feels a bit like a point salad, but a good one. It ended up higher on my rankings than I thought it would, but I think it deserves a bit more attention than it gets since it seems to have slipped under most radars.

#99 - NMBR 9 (January 2018 - #84 --- ↓15)

In this game, players will be creating a stack of polyomino shaped number tiles. Cards will be drawn and players will place whatever number is shown into their stack. At the start of the game, players will need to put tiles on the bottom level, but eventually this level will be big enough that they can place tiles on top. In the end, each player's score will be the sum of the numbers in each level multiplied by the level being calculated minus one. For example, all numbers on the base floor (Level 0) are multiplied by 0 while all numbers on Level 2 are multiplied by 2.

More of a solo puzzle than a game, it is still quick fun and each game ends with me wanting to play again to see if I can top my previous score. The only minor quibble I have with the game is that players could possibly just see what everyone else is doing and copy them, so luckily a mini-expansion has been released to give each player a unique starting tile to create differentiation from the beginning. Again, this is very light and probably will drop off with time, but still a good experience.

#98 - Stockpile (New)

When I was a kid, I loved playing the game Stock Ticker. Looking back, I see that the game was flawed in many ways but I have always been looking for another game that is similar in theme. Enter Stockpile, which is absolutely everything I was looking for. It has been on my radar for awhile and when the app was released I was finally able to play it. The game was quite a bit more involved than I thought it would be and I think leans a bit heavier than most think. In Stockpile, players will be using limited information that they have to try to make decisions on when to buy stocks, when to sell stocks, and when to hang onto stocks so that they can split or pay dividends. Since each player has different information, the key is to try to watch what other players do on their turn so you can try to figure out based on their actions what will happen to the various stocks. A fun game based around a theme that is not used enough.

#97 - Onitama (New)

Onitama is a fantastic games that feels like a simplified version of chess and features one of my favorite mechanics these days - using cards to tell you what to do! The goal is to either capture your opponent's main pawn or move your main pawn into your opponent's main pawn's starting space. To do this, you use one of two cards that tell you how to move one of your pieces. Once you do this, you exchange the card you just used with the extra card in the middle of the table. This gives the pieces you use a lot of variability in the ways they can move and you can somewhat anticipate the consequence of giving your opponent the movement card that you just used. This is a lot of fun and the production value is stellar as well. I can see why it is in the Top 200 on BoardGameGeek.

#96 - Ghost Blitz (January 2018 - #65 --- ↓31)

Ghost Blitz has dropped but this is in no way a reflection on the quality of the game and it is still in my Top 100! Rather, with heavier euro games being my preference, it is difficult for a light, party game to not get pushed out no matter how fun it is. To step back, this is a lightning quick, "spot-the-difference" style game where there are five objects in the center of the table. A card is revealed and there are one of two possibilities. Option 1: An object on the card exactly matches an object on the table, in terms of shape and color, so players must try to grab this object as quickly as they can to claim the card. Option 2: There is one object on the table that is not shown on the card in terms of either shape or color, so players must try to grab this object. The player with the most cards in the end winds.

The latter option burns the brain, but in a good way. There will often be moments where every player is frozen, unsure of which object to grab and moving in slow motion towards one of the objects. Sometimes players who were seemingly having a bad game will all of a sudden get on a roll and claim card after card. It is chaotic but so much fun and quick. There is a little bit of a hill to climb in terms of explaining the second option, but after a couple rounds everything usually clicks. This is a lot of fun, more than I was expecting before I first played it.

#95 - For Sale (January 2018 - #64 --- ↓31)

Interestingly, For Sale dropped the same number of spots as Ghost Blitz did and in doing so maintained its one position lead. A different kind of filler from Ghost Blitz, this quick and entertaining auction game has you trying to flip properties, whether it be a shack, mansion, or space station! The first part of this game is composed of a number of rounds where players will bid on properties. Each property has a value indicating how desirable it is and each round a number of properties equal to the number of players will be revealed. Players will then go around bidding cash to buy one of the revealed properties. Once a player decides to drop out, he or she pays half his or her bid rounded up and takes the lowest value property. The final person left in the round will pay the full bid for the highest value property. This continues until all the property cards run out and everyone has a hand of property cards.

The second part of the game is the auction phase. Each round, a number of bids are revealed from the deck equal to the number of players, anywhere from $0 to $15,000. Players then secretly select one of the properties from their hand to play that round. These are revealed simultaneously, with the highest value property receiving the highest bid, the second highest value receiving the second highest bid, etc. This continues until all properties have been auctioned off and the player with the most money wins. It's full of laugh-out-loud moments and there's nothing more satisfying than being able to sell an outhouse for big money or more disappointing than selling your space station for pennies. Since you know what properties are out there and the distribution of the bid cards, it's all about reading the other players and the meta-game of the auction.

#94 - Mr. Jack Pocket (January 2018 - #59 --- ↓35)

I was amazed that this pocket version of Mr. Jack worked as well as it does, to the point where I enjoy it more than the original but also probably due to the fact that there is a mobile app and I have been able to get many more plays of it. Gone is the map of London, replaced with a 3x3 grid tiles that each show some road and a suspect in the middle. The game takes place over eight rounds with the Investigator trying to eliminate all but one suspect before time is up and Mr. Jack trying to muddy the investigation just enough that time runs out. To do this, the Investigator will try to get the suspect in the line of sight of one of the detectives that surrounds the grid. The two players will be taking action tokens to move detectives around the board, rotate tiles, and switch tiles.

This two-player cat-and-mouse game on a miniature board works surprisingly well and is perfect for travel. Again, similar to Ghost Blitz and For Sale, the drop is not due to a perceived lack of quality but simply heavier and longer games pushing it further down. There is a lot of depth and replayability in either role, especially since the board is modular. It is this strategic depth that edges it out of the arguably more fun games mentioned before.

#93 - Photosynthesis (January 2018 - #53 --- ↓40)

This abstract game of planting and growing competing species of trees in a forest is a visual treat. The mechanics feel very intuitive as you constantly try to chase the position of the sun to avoid getting caught in the shadows of your opponent's trees while trying to plant in more fertile and valuable soil. Although it takes a bit longer than most gateway games to teach the rules, once the game begins it is quite easy to see how it all works.

So why the drop? Simply because I have not had a chance to play it much this year at all. I think it is a fantastic gateway level game though with a theme that is unique and well-developed so I think it should not drop any further, but we will see. This gateway level at this player count is getting crowded with other, more popular games like Azul and Quacks of Quedlinberg coming out and stealing the spotlight. Still, this is a game I would recommend to any level of player, either as a gateway game or a more in-depth filler game for heavier gamers.

#92 - Lords of Vegas (New)

I've always been wanting to try this game set in Las Vegas and earlier this year, I thought I had when I played "Las Vegas." That game won't be on this Top 100 because I did not care for it as much and I was happy to hear that it was not the game that I was wanting to play all this time. Anyway, at SHUX '18 I played an abbreviated version of the game but did get the full feel and it is a lot of fun. Pretty much, players are trying to buy up real estate to build casinos and make more and more money to expand said casinos. The early part of the game feels like it starts off slowly but it really picks up and becomes a quite aggressive game with hostile takeovers. Combined with the highs of rolling big when it counts and getting paid out, this captures the feel of what I would expect from a game with this theme and I can't wait to play it more, along with its expansion that adds new levels to your casinos!

#91 - Dungeon Petz (New)

Although he seems to not be as active in recent years, ever since the mega-hit Codenames, I feel Vlaada Chvatil is an amazing designer who has not been pigeonholed into one genre. For example, Uwe Rosenberg is almost synonymous with worker placement and Reinzer Knizia with mathematical abstracts, but Vlaada Chvatil has made small party games like Codenames, epic civilization games like Through the Ages, and real-time games like Galaxy Trucker and Space Alert. I have not even played Mage Knight, which is supposed to be one of the best RPG-style board games out there and ranks very high on BoardGameGeek. Dungeon Petz is his worker placement game and it is a unique one at that featuring an interesting take on the mechanic and a very fun theme.

Set in the Dungeon Lords universe, which is another game of his that I have not played, each player runs a pet shop. Using their imps to do their bidding, players will be taking actions such as buying pets to raise and sell, buying cages to hold these pets, and buying food and upgrades for the cages. The worker placement mechanic is unique in that at the start of each round, players will put together groups of imps and money that they will later send out to take the actions. The larger the group (a sum of the number of imps and money in that group) the earlier in turn order you will go and the more options you will have from the available action spaces. However, forming larger groups means you are able to take less actions. At the end of most rounds, players will be putting on a show with their pets for points as well as selling pets to potential buyers for points and money. As I write this quick summary, I'm actually surprised that it doesn't rank higher because it is really good, better than its spot on my list might indicate. Perhaps it has room to climb next year?