For a brief recap of how I came up with my list, refer back to my previous post:
2019 Top 100 Games of All-Time - #100-91
Here we go with #80-71!
#80 - Troyes (New)
Troyes has been a much hyped dice allocation game that came out around the same time I started playing board games and quickly broke into the Top 50 on BoardGameGeek. It is still sitting in the Top 75 as of writing this, demonstrating its staying power after being released almost a decade ago. I finally got around to playing it this last year and even though the mechanics seem solid, the game has not clicked the way I wanted it to. It might be the fact that I am playing it online and because of the complexity it is hard to formulate a strategy and stick to it, but again, similar to Castles of Burgundy, the theme has not shone through for me and I feel that I am just pushing my way through points. It is a very interesting way to use dice and the interaction level is very high, which I appreciate. Hopefully with some physical plays it will be able to climb higher.
#79 - Fog of Love (New)
This is truly a unique game and one-of-a-kind experience. As it says on a box, it is a romantic comedy as a board game and it really captures that feel as you and your partner play as two different characters going through one of the scenarios that comes with the game or its many expansions. The games you play will be memorable and the choices you make important. I really like the way the game presents the decisions that need to be made and sometimes you really need to decide whether you are going to be selfish and make choices that help you or be selfless and help your partner along. It also really encourages reading your partner and the decisions that he or she makes so that you can try to make the right moves in your relationship as well. It crafts an elegant story and is unlike any other game I have played. Although there is a way to "win" the game, this is one of the rare cases where winning is not as important as the story being told.
#78 - Summoner Wars (New)
This game does not have the type of theme that attracts me, but I have heard really good things about it and when I played it, I came away very impressed by the tactical nature and interesting match-ups between the different factions available in the game. The goal of the game is to defeat your opponent's Summoner using your own Summoner and band of warriors. The balance between offense and defense is very delicate and in this game you will really be paying attention to the environment and placement of walls. The only thing that maybe detracts from the game is dice rolls, which adds a bit more luck to the game than I would luck. As well, there will be another game higher up in my rankings that I played this year that pretty much does everything this game does, but in what I think is a better way. Unfortunately, that means Summoner Wars could drop over time due to my preference for the other, similar game.
#77 - Now Boarding (New)
As I write this, I am not sure why it ranks so low as I think it might become my favorite co-operative and real-time game on next year's list. This game is so much fun, with a fantastic theme and great mechanics. I am usually not the biggest fan of co-operative or real-time mechanics, but this one hits it out of the park. Each player controls an airline and as a group have to work together to move passengers to their appropriate destinations. However, because of limitations on routes, movement, and airplane size, passengers will need to make connections and planning is critical to make sure passengers are not waiting at airports too long and getting angry. Each round lasts only 30 seconds, so players will be moving frantically and possibly yelling at each other as they wait to for other players to drop of passengers that they can pick up. Of course, with each passenger that successfully arrives at his or her destination, you are able to upgrade your plane. Once you are experienced with the base game, you can add special passengers that mix-up the bases rules and provides a lot of replayability.
#76 - Qwinto (New)
Many would agree that 2018 was the year off roll-and-write games, and this small box roll-and-write was impressive to say the least. It is a quick, compact game that is full of crunch decisions as you need to decide what dice to roll and where to write down the results of the dice roll. Like most in the genre today, your early decisions will come back to haunt you as they limit where you can place future numbers and might end up causing you to take a penalty. There is a decent amount of interaction as other players may choose to use the roll that you made, but are not forced to. This puts players in the interesting position of balancing whether to push as quickly as possible to fill his or her score sheet or to try to take things in a slow and methodical manner, hoping that they can outlast the other players in the game. Again, it is an impressive game in a small box and feels a bit like a simplified version of Welcome To...
#74 - Everdell (New)
This is a gorgeous looking game with high production values and that gimmicky tree that everyone seems to rag on. Sure, it does not add much to the game but I don't think it ends up making the game cost much more and it does add to the table presence. Anyway, this is a great medium-weight game that mixes worker placement and tableau building. It actually provides quite a unique take on worker placement through this mixture since at the start of the game you can't imagine that your two workers are going to be able to do much during the four seasons the game occupies, but good card play means you can extend the utility of these workers by quite a bit. It definitely left a strong impression one me and is a game I look forward to playing some more. This is one of the Kickstarter games that I am really glad to have backed.
#73 - Oh My Goods! (New)
After hearing Rahdo's review of the expansion, Longsdale in Revolt, and how this campaign-style expansion made a good game amazing, I was very hyped. I had seen this game around but it did not draw me in until I heard this review. After playing it, without having played the base game by itself I can say that it is a really good combination of engine-building and push-your-luck in a card-based format. I don't know if it is amazing, but it was definitely good enough to make my Top 100. I am currently making my way through the second expansion, Escape from Canyon Brook. Both these expansions add direction to the open-nature of the base game, which provides more avenues for competition but also limits the choices available. I really like the engine-building aspect of the game and it definitely was a step-up in terms of the push-your-luck mechanics from Deep Sea Adventure. I have found that I am starting to enjoy push-your-luck games more and this game really opened my eyes to that mechanic.
#72 - The Manhattan Project (January 2018 - #35 --- ↓37)
It has been a long time since I last played this game, and having the app suddenly disappear from Google Play did not help. Unfortunately, the worker placement field is getting more and more crowded and older games like this are getting buried under newer releases or worker placement games that I rank much higher. I can see it continue slipping, especially if other games in the series, such as Energy Empire, play better. Still, it has a unique theme and a bit of player interaction that a lot of worker placement games lack by means of being able to sabotage buildings belonging to other players. It was also the first time I saw the concept of neutral workers being implemented into a game. Hopefully an updated digital version is released soon!
#71 - Railroad Ink (New)
Besides Welcome To... and Ganz Schon Clever, this roll-and-write arrived with a huge amount of hype. And there were two versions of the game - Red and Blue! The difference between the two were the mini-expansions, both of which I have yet to play. However, the base game is very fun and refreshing and the production values are high. Instead of writing numbers like most roll-and-write games, this one has you drawing train tracks and roads. Each round, dice are rolled showing you what configurations you are able to draw on your board. To win, you want to try to have a network with multiple valid exits and as few dead ends as possible. You also want to try building towards the center of your board. Although I did not feel it was as deep as the previous two games I mentioned, it is still a lot of fun and unique. The production values are high too as each game comes with six white boards and dry erase markers, rather than the paper and pencil most roll-and-write games come with. Maybe some plays with the expansions will help it rise a bit more!
2019 Top 100 Games of All-Time - #100-91
Here we go with #80-71!
#80 - Troyes (New)
Troyes has been a much hyped dice allocation game that came out around the same time I started playing board games and quickly broke into the Top 50 on BoardGameGeek. It is still sitting in the Top 75 as of writing this, demonstrating its staying power after being released almost a decade ago. I finally got around to playing it this last year and even though the mechanics seem solid, the game has not clicked the way I wanted it to. It might be the fact that I am playing it online and because of the complexity it is hard to formulate a strategy and stick to it, but again, similar to Castles of Burgundy, the theme has not shone through for me and I feel that I am just pushing my way through points. It is a very interesting way to use dice and the interaction level is very high, which I appreciate. Hopefully with some physical plays it will be able to climb higher.
#79 - Fog of Love (New)
This is truly a unique game and one-of-a-kind experience. As it says on a box, it is a romantic comedy as a board game and it really captures that feel as you and your partner play as two different characters going through one of the scenarios that comes with the game or its many expansions. The games you play will be memorable and the choices you make important. I really like the way the game presents the decisions that need to be made and sometimes you really need to decide whether you are going to be selfish and make choices that help you or be selfless and help your partner along. It also really encourages reading your partner and the decisions that he or she makes so that you can try to make the right moves in your relationship as well. It crafts an elegant story and is unlike any other game I have played. Although there is a way to "win" the game, this is one of the rare cases where winning is not as important as the story being told.
#78 - Summoner Wars (New)
This game does not have the type of theme that attracts me, but I have heard really good things about it and when I played it, I came away very impressed by the tactical nature and interesting match-ups between the different factions available in the game. The goal of the game is to defeat your opponent's Summoner using your own Summoner and band of warriors. The balance between offense and defense is very delicate and in this game you will really be paying attention to the environment and placement of walls. The only thing that maybe detracts from the game is dice rolls, which adds a bit more luck to the game than I would luck. As well, there will be another game higher up in my rankings that I played this year that pretty much does everything this game does, but in what I think is a better way. Unfortunately, that means Summoner Wars could drop over time due to my preference for the other, similar game.
#77 - Now Boarding (New)
As I write this, I am not sure why it ranks so low as I think it might become my favorite co-operative and real-time game on next year's list. This game is so much fun, with a fantastic theme and great mechanics. I am usually not the biggest fan of co-operative or real-time mechanics, but this one hits it out of the park. Each player controls an airline and as a group have to work together to move passengers to their appropriate destinations. However, because of limitations on routes, movement, and airplane size, passengers will need to make connections and planning is critical to make sure passengers are not waiting at airports too long and getting angry. Each round lasts only 30 seconds, so players will be moving frantically and possibly yelling at each other as they wait to for other players to drop of passengers that they can pick up. Of course, with each passenger that successfully arrives at his or her destination, you are able to upgrade your plane. Once you are experienced with the base game, you can add special passengers that mix-up the bases rules and provides a lot of replayability.
#76 - Qwinto (New)
Many would agree that 2018 was the year off roll-and-write games, and this small box roll-and-write was impressive to say the least. It is a quick, compact game that is full of crunch decisions as you need to decide what dice to roll and where to write down the results of the dice roll. Like most in the genre today, your early decisions will come back to haunt you as they limit where you can place future numbers and might end up causing you to take a penalty. There is a decent amount of interaction as other players may choose to use the roll that you made, but are not forced to. This puts players in the interesting position of balancing whether to push as quickly as possible to fill his or her score sheet or to try to take things in a slow and methodical manner, hoping that they can outlast the other players in the game. Again, it is an impressive game in a small box and feels a bit like a simplified version of Welcome To...
#75 - Jaipur (January 2018 - #48 --- ↓27)
This is a great two-player card game that surprised me with its depth and quick play. Each player will be trying to collect sets of goods and sell them for money. If you are able to sell larger sets, you are able to get bonuses, but the earlier you sell your goods, the more they are worth. Players will be collecting goods from a common market in the middle of the board, which is where most of the interaction is. Players will either be taking goods from this market or trading goods from their hands or camels they have collected. It is key to keep an eye on the market to determine what your opponent is taking and how to time the trading of goods so that it benefits you the most. It has fallen a bit over this last year as it is a small box game, which is something that easily gets passed over for heavier euros, but it is a lot of fun and the presentation is great as well.
#74 - Everdell (New)
This is a gorgeous looking game with high production values and that gimmicky tree that everyone seems to rag on. Sure, it does not add much to the game but I don't think it ends up making the game cost much more and it does add to the table presence. Anyway, this is a great medium-weight game that mixes worker placement and tableau building. It actually provides quite a unique take on worker placement through this mixture since at the start of the game you can't imagine that your two workers are going to be able to do much during the four seasons the game occupies, but good card play means you can extend the utility of these workers by quite a bit. It definitely left a strong impression one me and is a game I look forward to playing some more. This is one of the Kickstarter games that I am really glad to have backed.
#73 - Oh My Goods! (New)
After hearing Rahdo's review of the expansion, Longsdale in Revolt, and how this campaign-style expansion made a good game amazing, I was very hyped. I had seen this game around but it did not draw me in until I heard this review. After playing it, without having played the base game by itself I can say that it is a really good combination of engine-building and push-your-luck in a card-based format. I don't know if it is amazing, but it was definitely good enough to make my Top 100. I am currently making my way through the second expansion, Escape from Canyon Brook. Both these expansions add direction to the open-nature of the base game, which provides more avenues for competition but also limits the choices available. I really like the engine-building aspect of the game and it definitely was a step-up in terms of the push-your-luck mechanics from Deep Sea Adventure. I have found that I am starting to enjoy push-your-luck games more and this game really opened my eyes to that mechanic.
#72 - The Manhattan Project (January 2018 - #35 --- ↓37)
It has been a long time since I last played this game, and having the app suddenly disappear from Google Play did not help. Unfortunately, the worker placement field is getting more and more crowded and older games like this are getting buried under newer releases or worker placement games that I rank much higher. I can see it continue slipping, especially if other games in the series, such as Energy Empire, play better. Still, it has a unique theme and a bit of player interaction that a lot of worker placement games lack by means of being able to sabotage buildings belonging to other players. It was also the first time I saw the concept of neutral workers being implemented into a game. Hopefully an updated digital version is released soon!
#71 - Railroad Ink (New)
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