And we’re back! No more ChatGPT experiments, no matter how funny they may be. From now on, when you read a stilted, forced, only-mostly-accurate blurb about a game with an incredibly forced joke thrown in, rest assured, that’s all Damion Magic!
One thing that I’ll say is that this year, I made a real effort to play a lot of new stuff. It hasn’t been easy, as the pandemic limits time to play, as having a couple of munchkins running around that require constant supervision. The dream is that someday they’ll be old enough to play these games with me, but right now, their interests mostly seem to lie in throwing dice at the cat.
On to the list!
Previous entries: 100-91 90-81 80-71 70-61 60-51 50-41
40. Lords of Waterdeep & Scoundrels of Skullport expansion
Released: 2012/2013
Designer: Peter Lee, Rodney Thompson
Players: 2-5 (6 with expansion)
Estimated Time: 60-120 minutes
Lords of Waterdeep by itself is a great game. A relatively simple worker placement game where you play as one of the mysterious figures who rules Waterdeep from the shadows. Yes, it’s a D&D game, and you play one of the mysterious questgivers. You’ll send agents out to recruit adventurers and earn cash, and then you’ll send those adventurers off to complete quests.
Lords of Waterdeep is very simple compared to other eurogames, so much so that I consider it almost an entry-level game for the genre. But it has more depth than it gets credit for as well. As an example, it’s a worker placement game where the placement options expand as the game goes on. Players can build buildings that offer new placement bonuses, and if other players use them, they get bonuses.
But Lords of Waterdeep really unfolds with it’s expansion pack, Scoundrels of Skullport, which contains two modules that players can opt to play with. The better one is the Skullport Module, which adds a shady underworld element to the game, and new placement options which also have huge costs in the form of a new anti-resource called Corruption. Taking the corruption hit can earn you big rewards, but you need to be wary. As a general rule, it’s important that there’s always someone more corrupt than you!
As an added bonus, the expansion scales the game up to 6 players and, unlike many euro games, it scales pretty smoothly to that number. Turns remain quick, the amount of interactivity is good, and the game still flows at a good pace. It’s actually one of my preferred options when too many people show up for game night.
39. Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest
Released: 2022
Designer: Paolo Mori
Players: 1-6
Estimated Time: 45-60 minutes
Libertalia is a pirate-themed game that is played over the course of three rounds. On each round, players are dealt a hand of six identical pirate cards, each of which has a numerical strength value and a superpower. Over six turns, each player will choose a card secretly. Once revealed, the cards are placed in order of numerical strength and then, one by one, their powers are resolved. From all of these shenanigans, players will walk away from the turn with a single piece of loot.
Libertalia: WIngs of Galecrest is a new edition of the classic board game Libertalia, which was produced by Stonemeier Games, one of the industry’s top production houses. In my opinion, the edition is much improved, largely because of some streamlining and rules refinements. That being said, what you’re more likely to notice is that the realistic-yet-kind-of-creepy art has been replaced by, well, furries. Tasteful, family friendly ones.
It’s also a very lightweight game, that happens to be fun, tactical, easy to teach and easy to get to the table. It’s a great filler-weight game that scales to 6 players, and just oozes charm. Well, if you like furries.
38. Ark Nova
Released: 2021
Designer: Mathias Wigge
Players: 1-4
Estimated Time: 90-150
Ark Nova is a relatively heavy eurogame that doesn’t FEEL that heavy, largely because of the subject matter – namely, you’re building a zoo. Doing so requires you to build paddocks, acquire animals, improve your reputation and acquire sponsors, and shovel a lot of elephant dung.
The part of Ark Nova that I appreciate is the action engine. Each player has five action cards, laid out horizontally. When you use a card, you execute it, and move it all the way to the end of the line. The trick is that the strength of the card is based on what position in line its at, which means that cards are more powerful the longer you wait to use them. Even better, each of these cards can be upgraded (i.e. flipped over) to a more powerful version of the same ability. But you can’t upgrade them all, so you’ll need to decide what you want your zoo to be good at.
Ark Nova has a significant tableau-builder feel to it – in terms of the animals you draw, which draws comparisons to Terraforming Mars, and honestly if you like Mars and don’t hate animals, you’ll probably love Ark Nova. Ark Nova’s breakout success has led many commentators to suggest that it has ‘killed’ Terraforming Mars. Do I agree? Well, here’s a sneak peek at the rest of the list: Terraforming Mars ain’t on it.
37. Brass: Birmingham & Brass: Lancashire
Released: 2018/2005
Designer: Davan Brown, Matt Tolman, Martin Wallace
Players: 2-4
Estimated Time: 60-120
Brass was one of the original railroad games, and it was awesome if not ugly as hell, which was not totally uncommon way back in *checks notes* 2007. Still, history was not kind to the games of this era. I mean, look at this.
In 2018, Brass was reprinted with modern production values, and now it’s a sumptuous feast of boardgaming with just an absolutely gorgeous table presence. And of course, the gameplay itself is classic – an economic game split into two halves, where you build first canals and then railways throughout Europe in order to manage an economic empire selling iron, coal and, most significantly, cotton.
The original map for Brass became Brass: Lancashire, and at the same time, they released another version called Brass: Birmingham, which mostly centers upon a map that is much more cutthroat, especially at max players. Look, I’ll be honest – frankly I don’t remember which one I actually liked better. I will say that if you like train games, you won’t go wrong with either one.
36. Kingsburg (Second Edition)
Released: 2017
Designer: Andrea Chiarvesio, Luca Iennaco
Players: 2-5
Estimated Time: 90-120 minutes
You are a lord, meant to build a small outpost into an economic powerhouse and defend it from omnipresent threats that cross the border. To get the resources you need to build your defenses, you’re going to have to take part in that time-honored tradition – going to court and kissing some nobility ass.
On each turn, players will roll three dice. Then they go in turn order – starting with the lowest role – and each player can place one dice on one noble advisor, who will give them resources or other benefits they can use to build their city. As an example, if you roll a 1, a 3 and a 5, you can hit the 1, 3 and 5 space, but you can also double up dice – you can hit 4 (1/3), 6 (1/5), 8 (3/5) or even 9 (all three). Higher spaces are more lucrative, but at the same time, basically take a ‘turn’.
Most significantly, you can’t go on any space that another player has gone onto before. This turns what seems like a nice, friendly looking game into a knife fight, as players carefully keep tabs on the dice other players and work to deny their opponents their optimal placement locations.
One more thing: while I personally prefer the look of the first edition of Kingsburg, it requires the To Forge A Realm expansion which has a game module that fixes what I consider a fairly critical flaw in the game (how enemy forces are dealt with). This module is included in the second edition (pictured and linked above).
35. Five Tribes
Released: 2014
Designer: Bruno Cathala
Players: 2-4 Players
Estimated Time: 40-80 Minutes
In the town of Naqala, the old sultan has just passed away in an unfortunate accident involving an elephant that no one wants to talk about. You are one of several young sultans jockeying to replace him. Doing so will require some savvy political maneuvering, working to influence fate by maneuvering the five tribes: assassins, elders, builders, merchants and viziers.
The joy of Five Tribes is that it takes classic Mancala gameplay and spreads it across a larger freeform map. On a player’s turn, they will pick up all of the meeples on a single location, and drop them one at a time while moving towards a new location. At the location where you place the final meeple, there must be another meeple of the same color – you then do an action based on that color, where the strength of the action is based on the number of meeples of that color are there. And if the final location is empty, you can then claim it (and its victory points) as your own.
Five Tribes is absolutely a wonderful puzzle that breaks your brain in all sorts of interesting ways. While I adore this game completely, I will stress that there can be a paralyzing amount of choices at times. If your normal gaming crew has players prone to Analysis Paralysis, you might want to be wary of this one.
34. Macao
Released: 2009
Designer: Stefan Feld
Players: 2-4
Estimated Time: 50-100 minutes
You play as a merchant in Macao, where you’re trying to build a sprawling trade empire. To do so, you’ll need to acquire goods, send out boats, build a wall and recruit the optimal businessmen to grant you powers to help you out. To do that you’re going to need… cubes.
How you get these cubes is the magic of the game. On each turn dice are rolled, and you choose two of them. You’ll gain cubes that are the same color as the dice you chose – but not immediately. You’ll take an amount of cubes equal to the cubes you chose, and put them on your pinrose, which is rotated every turn. As an example, selecting an orange die with a ‘1’ on it will grant you one cube immediately. But selecting the green die with a ‘5’ on it will grant you 5 cubes — 5 turns from now!
This really is one of my favorite board game mechanics of all time. It does a masterful job of forcing you to weigh the value of huge rewards in the future against that of much smaller immediate rewards.
Remember earlier in the list where I mentioned that Stefan Feld, one of my favorite designers, has a penchant for creating glorious games with terrible production quality issues? Yeah, well about that… Macao has production issues a plenty – a dim, dingy board. Color choices guarunteed to enrage most anyone except in the best possible lighting. DIfficult cards to read. And yet, it’s STILL sitting up here this high on this list.
Next year, Macao won’t be on my list because it is being reprinted and heavily modified as Amsterdam, which looks like it will solve most of these issues. My copy should be arriving any day now, but it’s only polite for me to point out that if you missed out on it, Queen Games just put up a Kickstarter so you can still snag it. Grab your copy before it’s too late!
33. Jekyll vs Hyde
Released: 2-21
Designer: Geonil
Players: 2
Estimated Time: 30
Jekyll vs. Hyde is a two-person trick-taking game. Do I have your attention yet?
Each player takes the role of one of two halves of one man’s split personality, with each player trying to dominate the other permanently. How this translates into a trick-taking game is quite ingenious. The game is played across three hands, and in each, Hyde earns points based on the difference between the number of tricks taken by the players – even if Jekyll won more! In this manner, Jekyll is trying to pursue moderation, whereas Hyde is rewarded for either extreme. This simple twist makes the entire game work 2-player, and turns all of your normal trick-taking strategy on its head.
There are several other gameplay tweaks that keeps the game fresh. This includes having only three suits, and having a constantly shifting priority order for which suit trumps which that you can manipulate. It also includes giving each suit a superpower that can be activated by playing a potion instead of a suited card. Overall, what you’re left with is a devilishly interesting two-player game that fits a lot of quirks in a little tiny box.
32. Foundations of Rome
Released: 2022
Designer: Emerson Matsuuchi
Players: 2-4
Estimated Time: 60-90
Foundations of Rome is a joint city-building game. City lots will be put up for auction, and players can bid to acquire them. Players can build buildings on the lots they acquire, although they need to acquire joint lots in order to build their buildings. Most buildings are unique to players, but there are certain Wonders that players can compete to build first (assuming you have the Monuments expansion).
If this sounds at all like the classic game Acquire, that’s not too far off, although Foundations of Rome is far faster and easier to set up. But it’s WAY prettier and at the end of the game, you have a shockingly impressive facsimile of a Roman city.
It’s a four-player game where each player has a full tray of buildings to construct, and a fifth tray is included to hold the wonders. The end result is one of the physically largest games on my shelf. Now then, shelf space is a finite resource, and as I age I find myself increasingly asking if games (especially large ones) justify the space they take up. In this case, the answer is a resounding yes. Yes, the game is relatively simple and somewhat fast, but those aren’t always bad things, especially when combined with being beautiful and satisfying to play.
31. 7 Wonders Duel
Released: 2015
Designer: Antoine Bauza, Bruno Cathala
Players: 2
Estimated Time: 30 minutes
This is a two-player card drafting game, where both players are trying to develop a fledgling civilization through three ages, along the ways making advancements in culture, military, science and commerce that earn them points or move them closer to winning in a number of ways.
The key innovation here is the drafting pyramid. Straight up drafting (take a card and pass the rest to your neighbor, and repeat) works great at large player counts, but is kind of dumb in two player games. In order to convert the classic 7 Wonders into a good two player game, something would need to fundamentally change – and change it they did. Instead of classic drafting, players draft from a pyramid. It’s incredibly simple – you can only draft a card on the bottom that’s fully exposed, but any card you draft is likely to open up new opportunities for your opponent. And given that the pyramid is half face-up and half face-down, sometimes you know what you’re giving your opponent, and sometimes you’re just praying for the best. Or worst. Whatever.
An offshoot of the highly popular 7 Wonders, this game takes many of the same concepts and simplifies them, making a tight, deep and satisfying two-player experience that’s among the best in gaming. It files off a lot of the rough edges of the original product and simplifies them, all in good ways. To a degree that 7 Wonders Duel seems likely to hang out on top 100 lists for years to come, but the original game is starting to fade from consciousness.
And that’s it for this installment! Looks like we’re trending to wrap this thing up either Sunday or Monday night, depending on the need to actually do things like pay attention to my children’s needs during the holiday season. Stay tuned!
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