The cool thing about working on a list like this is that you’ll spend a month pushing things up and down the list, be pretty sure that you’ve got a list that you’re proud of, then start writing it and realizing that, actually, you have no memory of how some of these games are played. Then you’ll look closer at the rules and you’ll wonder, “WHY THE HELL DID THIS MAKE MY TOP 100?!” Then you’ll watch a Let’s Play of the game, and suddenly remember, oh, yeah, it’s because of this one killer mechanic.
Fortunately, you’d never be stupid enough to tell everyone about this train of thought, so no one would know that lists like these are bullshit made by fallible humans with groggy memories.
Anyway, onto the list! Previous entries: 100-91 90-81 80-71
70. Eternal Palace
Released: 2022
Designer: Steven Aramini
Players: 3-5
Estimated Time: 60-90 minutes
Eternal Palace is a worker placement game, where you curry favor with the Emperor as you help him rebuild his ancestral palace. Doing so will grant you layers of a painting, which you can then put together on an easel (see image below).
At its core, the game is a dice-based worker placement game (you can only visit the 6 spot by spending a 6 and so on). More powerful spaces require 2 or 3 dice, and there’s a reasonable amount of luck mitigation in the mix. This creates a highly interactive puzzle where you’re both trying to maximize your own gains as well as figure out how to block your opponents.
Still, the real charm of this is the layered painting, which is just fun to compare at the end of the game. Eternal Palace isn’t the only game to have done this – see the much more casual game Canvas for example — but it works well as the vanity and creative anchor for this light Eurogame.
69. Imperial Settlers: Empires of the North
Released: 2019
Designer: Joanna Kijanka, Ignacy Trzewiczek
Players: 1-4
Estimated Time: 45-90 minutes
Once upon a time, there was a game called 51st State, which was a little bleak but was still considered a great tableau building game. Then the same company released Imperial Settlers, which had a much softer, happier visual style but also covered up a somewhat meaner game. And then five years later, the same studio released Empires of the North.
The general formula hasn’t changed a ton – each game is built around single cards that you can use multiple (usually 3) ways. This creates a ton of flexibility in your hand, even when it’s small. But in general, the engine is damn good, and this is the best iteration of it.
Why? Well, maybe it’s because it’s the new shiny. But also it has a lot less cards that require you to look at your opponents’ tableau (the previous games were… problematic for old people with fading eyesight). Tack onto that the addition of quests (‘expeditions’) and the action wheel (which limits a players moves each turn, adding strategic depth as well as reducing turn paralysis) and you have my favorite iteration on this formula.
68. Power Grid
Released: 2004
Designer: Friedemann Friese
Players: 2-6
Estimated Time: 120 minutes
Nearly 20 years old and STILL the best garbage auctioning simulation on the market. In Power Grid, players will purchase power plants of variable strength, acquire rights to electrify a network of cities across the nation, and acquire the raw material (coal, oil, uranium or ‘trash’) to keep the lights on.
In terms of games that have stood the test of time, this is near the top. It’s a little longish, but in general nothing else combines the territorial control aspect of this game with TWO different auction mechanics as adroitly as this one.
67. Furnace
Released: 2020
Designer: Ivan Lashin
Players: 2-4
Estimated Time: 30-60 minutes
Apparently, we’re going to stick to burning coal as a theme here. Furnace is a much smaller, simpler game, though. It’s a fairly straightforward (and fairly literal) engine-building game. You’ll acquire cards that can convert resources into other cards, and are trying to find a loop that will push you to pure profit.
The real beating heart of this quirky little tableau-building gem is a unique auction system. Every turn, players will place four discs on different cards they want to acquire (numbered 1 to 4). Only the person who places the highest disk will claim the card, but everyone else who places a disk will get some sort of compensation – and often the compensation will be better than the card! Furthermore, the compensation pays off as many times as the token placed.
This creates some interesting situations. For example, you might really WANT your ‘3’ to be outbid by another players ‘4’ since you’ll get more compensation that way, but when this happens, that ‘3’ won’t be adding a permanent fixture to your machine. This tension makes for some very interesting choices that keep you constantly questioning the motives of the other players at the table.
66. Mission: Red Planet
Released: 2005
Designer: Bruno Cathala, Bruno Faidutti
Players: 3-5
Estimated Time: 60 minutes
Mission: Red Planet is a charming little territorial control game with way more ‘fuck you’ than you’d expect to come in such a lovely little box. This game is set in an alternative steampunk era where space travel has been achieved, and your goal is to get your soldiers onto Mars and control territory – specifically, you want to have as many territories as possible with the most discs.
The engine that drives the game is the selection of role cards. On each turn, you will select one of your role cards silently and place it face down. The role cards are then fired in numeric order (in a manner similar to Citadels). These role cards let you do things such as load spaceships with soldiers, redirect spaceships with soldiers to new destinations, or more aggressive actions like blowing up spaceships in the launch pad or seducing your opponents soldiers away from them. The whole game is simple and easy to teach, and yet is a satisfying and HIGHLY interactive game that doesn’t create too many bruised feelings.
65. On Mars
Released: 2020
Designer: Vital Lacerda
Players: 1-4
Playing Time: 90-150
Okay, I guess we’re sticking with the Mars theme, then.
If you want to know what sort of gamer reads Board Game Geek, you should know this – Vital Lacerda makes some of the most beautiful and complicated games on the market, and the result is a library of work that mercilessly clogs up the BGG top 500: On Mars (#49), Lisboa (#56), The Gallerist (#64), Vinhos (#119), Kanban EV (#217) and Escape Plan (#500). The newly released Weather Machine will likely end up there as well once more gamers get a chance to play and rank it.
All of these games are great games (well, I personally don’t care for Vinhos) but what’s more notable is that these are some of the most complex games on the market. A Lacerda game is a game where every action may trigger 3 or 4 downstream effects, where remembering to follow every step of an action is easy to forget, and where a normal game is scrambling for inches while setting up big combo turns with big payoffs. If you like big, meaty board games with beautiful production values that will challenge the whole table, Lacerda games are tough to beat.
Of Lacerda’s games, my current favorite is BGG’s favorite as well – On Mars. In it, you play a collective of Mars colonists, and you’ll be scouting the planet, harvesting resources, building settlements, and (like many Lacerda games) deciding whether an immediate windfall is worth sacrificing turn order priority. The theme makes the complexity of a Lacerda game easy to swallow. All in all, a beautiful production and a great game.
64. Rush Out!
Released: 2021
Designer: Thomas Dupont
Players: 3-5
Playing Time: 20-30 Minutes
Usually I avoid real-time games like the plague – noisy, boisterous affairs where you’re just taking it on faith that no one is cheating, as everyone is rolling dice and screaming simultaneously. In fact, I’m pretty sure that only one game (the also excellent FUSE) has appeared on my list previously. But this year, Shut Up and Sit Down recommended Rush Out so vociferously that I felt I had to pay attention. And I’m glad I did.
Rush Out is an asymmetric game. One player plays as the sorcerer, and the rest of the table is trying to stop him. Each side is rolling dice. The sorcerer is trying to consume a book of spells (i.e. deck) before the heroes can defeat all their ordeals (also a deck). The trick is that the heroes can pool their dice together to solve their challenges. Clearly the sorcerer can’t do that, but he gets a different benefit – spells he cast can do bad things to the opponent (such as remove all dice from a card, or add new cards to the heroes’ deck to solve. The assymetry is a good twist, and freshens up a genre that is usually pure coop.
Another cool thing about Rush Out is how there are several little modules that you can add to the decks to add more complexity and keep the games fresh. As an example, the ‘dracology’ deck allows the sorcerer to move a dragon onto the player ordeal stacks. Doing so locks down those ordeals so they can’t be dealt with, and deal with it you must: three unanswered dragon attacks will make the heroes lose the game.
63. Francis Drake
Released: 2013
Designer: Peter Hawes
Players: 3-5
Playing Time: 90-120 Minutes
Francis Drake is a game of privateering. The game takes part over two phases. In th first, players will provision their ship, competing for resources that will determine when and where they can set sail. In the second phase, they use those provisions to raid the carribean, raid settlements, form trading alliances and defend themselves from enemy vessels.
The second phase is where the design goodness happens. Each player in turn order places colored disks with numbers from 1 to 4 detailing where they intend to sail – FACE DOWN. Those discs are then revealed, and then locations are resolved. If, for example, you put a ‘4’ on a location and your opponent put a ‘2’ there, they may loot everything good there before you have a chance to visit.
The end result is an experience with a lot of interactivity, bluffing, and carefully gauging your opponent’s resources. Also, the game has cool little treasure chests to store your loot.
62. Ra
Released: 1999
Designer: Reiner Knizia
Players: 2-5
Playing Time: 45-60 Minutes
Ra is an absolute classic – an auction and set collection game. Each player has a number of sun tokens with different numbers on them, and those are what they bid with. If they win, though, they lose the tile they won with and replace it with the last tile someone won with. This simple mechanic makes for a surprisingly deep auction game that has stood the test of time.
It should be noted that Ra is a 20 year old game and that several editions are available, and art quality is somewhat variable between editions. The one pictured above is from the reprint by 25th Century Games that should be available to the public Any Day Now. I can’t wait to get my hands on mine.
61. Smartphone Inc
Released: 199
Designer: Ivan Lashan
Players: 1-5
Playing Time: 60-90 Minutes
Smartphone is a game about territorial control. Each player plays as a different cell phone company, each trying to earn a significant portion of the global telecommunications market. It’s a slick and sumptuous visual presentation, unlike almost anything else on my game shelf.
The core innovation is how resources and actions are granted each turn. Each player has two cards (called ‘Pads’) with icons depicting resources, logistics and other icons. Each player will arrange their ipads so one overlaps the other (1-4 squares must be covered, with hefty side bonuses for overlapping more squared), and additional Improvement cards (the small tile in the picture below) can then be played on top to further improve their output. Trying out how to arrange your pads so you can maximize resource production is a very interesting puzzle that breaks your brain in interesting ways.
Well, that wraps up this installment. Hopefully another installment coming late tonight!
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