Thanks again to all our patrons for keeping the channel going. Doing fair and from the heart reviews and discussions of games is what i'm all about and you can't really do that when you are doing paid content and ads for peoples kickstarter games. If you want to see more independent content and less marketing materials, support independent channels like our one. We won't tell you a pile of rubbish is the best game of all time (Unless i actually think that pile of rubbish is pretty good, see my comments in this video about defenders of the last stand, which is rubbish and fun at the same time)
Text version of the list is below here. 100 Villagers 99 Planet Unknown 98 Nemo's War (Second Edition) 97 Azul: Summer Pavilion 96 Hadrian's Wall 95 Dead of Winter: A Crossroads Game 94 Village 93 Freedom: The Underground Railroad 92 Pan Am 91 Root 90 Empyreal: Spells & Steam 89 Pavlov's House 88 The Reckoners 87 Android 86 Scythe 85 Abyss 84 Final Girl 83 Agents of SMERSH 82 Star Realms 81 Galilean Moons 80 Last Friday 79 XCOM: The Board Game 78 Castles of Mad King Ludwig 77 SpaceCorp: 2025-2300AD 76 Between Two Cities 75 Eclipse: Second Dawn for the Galaxy 74 Space Cadets 73 Legendary Encounters: An Alien Deck Building Game 72 Modern Art 71 Dune 70 Potion Explosion 69 Lords of Hellas 68 Above and Below 67 Lords of Waterdeep 66 Architects of the West Kingdom 65 Rurik: Dawn of Kiev 64 The Isle of Cats 63 Sentinels of the Multiverse 62 Empires of the Void II 61 Power Grid 60 Arkham Horror 59 Suburbia 58 Century: Golem Edition 57 Pandemic: The Cure 56 Tyrants of the Underdark 55 Dawn of the Zeds (Third Edition) 54 Gloomhaven 53 The Captain Is Dead 52 Black Orchestra 51 Defenders of the Last Stand 50 Star Trek: Ascendancy 49 Healthy Heart Hospital 48 Horrified 47 Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island 46 Civilization: A New Dawn 45 Spartacus: A Game of Blood and Treachery 44 Kolejka 43 Blood Bowl: Team Manager – The Card Game 42 Museum 41 Chinatown 40 Gaia Project 39 Santorini 38 Rush M.D. 37 It's a Wonderful World 36 Le Havre 35 The Crew 34 Sidereal Confluence 33 Unsettled 32 Crisis 31 Circadians: First Light 30 Junk Art 29 7 Wonders 28 Everdell 27 Mansions of Madness: Second Edition 26 Roll for the Galaxy 25 The Manhattan Project: Energy Empire 24 Paladins of the West Kingdom 23 Millennium Blades 22 Azul 21 Xia: Legends of a Drift System 20 Twilight Struggle 19 Arkham Horror: The Card Game 18 Argent: The Consortium 17 Leaving Earth 16 Underwater Cities 15 The Castles of Burgundy 14 Anachrony 13 Bloc by Bloc: The Insurrection Game 12 Yokohama 11 Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game 10 Paths of Glory 9 This War of Mine: The Board Game 8 War of the Ring: Second Edition 7 Obsession 6 Brass: Birmingham 5 Nemesis 4 Thunderbirds 3 Star Wars: Rebellion 2 Terraforming Mars 1 Spirit Island
See i find that fascinating. I suspect its because i love games that do something different, and tend to find a game niche and only have a few games that fill it.
Yeah, i guess i have a fair few worker placement games and a few that do much the same thing as others. But i dont have like 20 dungeon crawlers in there because i like dungeon crawlers. If anything is slightly over represented, its probably either co-ops or soloable games
@@3MBG I think you also just have a broader taste, period. Other big board game reviewers have a distinct type of game that they clearly prefer and so their lists are skewed very much in that direction. I generally find your reviews show that you appreciate many different styles! (as do I, so it's great)
Far and away the most eclectic top 100 among game reviewers. You've introduced me to so many games that reside on my wishlist. Thanks for all you do Jarrod!
Not to age you but I think it's because you've been playing games longer than many of the other reviewers. That depth of experience is rare in this hobby. And it's worth noting that nothing makes this list without an abundance of plays that makes the game stand the test of time.
I also suspect, having been in the hobby for ages and in Aotearoa/NZ instead of say, the USA or UK, i was less exposed to group think about games for a long long time.
I'm headed to BGG Con this weekend, what perfect timing for the perfect video! Keep up the good work! I'm taking 3 friends and they're not as passionate about board gaming as myself but your 3 minute reviews have helped quite a bit!
Always the best top 100 board games list! You do such a great job at presenting why each game is great complemented with pictures which allows us to know if we want to dig more about those games or not. The icing on the cake: the video lasts only an hour! Continue your great work!
A fair few. Thankfully these days as i've reviewed a lot more games, i have all that B-roll to put in for this video, so dont have to shoot new stuff. Which is a huge time saver. I will say the raw audio of it, before being edited. Was over 3 and 1/2 hours of different takes and that had to be chopped down to 50 odd minutes. That editing alone was a days work
The absolute best top 100 videos out there. Every other top 10-100 video from other channels I am constantly fast forwarding because there is too much commentary about games I already lost interest in. This one I just have to wait 10-15 seconds and it’s on to the next one lol
Jay, what a fantastic list of games. I've said it before and I'll say it again - I'm in awe of your game knowledge and breadth of taste. Foundation games appearing next to war games, with LCGs, 4Xs, a CG-CCG-sim(!), app assisted, true solitaires, and all manner of engine/efficiency games along the way. Thanks for sharing your passion and for doing what you do here, it's a pleasure to follow along. p.s. I'm still on the hunt for a game of Android, it looks like such a peculiarity and experience.
Great list! Many of my favorites or ones I’d like to try in there. Only a few that have been busts for me. Nice that you could fit it all into one video.
I was very happy to see Castles of Burgundy move up; not because I own it but because I asked for it for Christmas 😂. As ever great list and a great channel. Thank you! Hope you and the family are doing well
Wow, so many interesting games I have never heard of!!! Really looking forward to looking into a lot of those!! 😍 Thank You so much for the effort of creating this video and sharing all of these and the short and concise descriptions and insider-tipps!! Just Awesome!!!! 😃 People like you make this hobby so much more fun!!!
The digital version of Gloomhaven is done extremely well. It's so much work to put it on the table so the digital version is just perfect for that. I absolutely recommend it although it's a bit on the pricey side I'd say. Also love your number one. Spirit Island is also my favourite game and I can't imagine it won't be for the next decade. Can't wait for the new expansion. I also really want to see your homemade Spirit!
I tried it and found it incredibly fiddly. I know it's not fair to judge it in comparison to native turn-based strategic games like X-Com, Phoenix Point and Othercide but unfortunately the reality of it being on PC is that it is competing with games like those for my attention. Compared to games that were designed for PC from the ground-up, the whole gameplay flow is very tedious. Now, I know it's a good rendition of the boardgame but I think it's also a good example of how the game flow of boardgames doesn't always work that well on PC. Playing a game like GH at the table you and your friends just run through stuff and the flow is different. On the PC, on the other hand, there is a lot of extra clicking to move through phases and so forth that you don't really find in the PC native turn-based games that are most similar to GH. Of course, this isn't a problem unique to the PC version of GH, and it is less fiddly than most TTS mods...but...yeah, it was too much of a PITA for me. I just went back to playing proper PC games when in front of the PC.
Fantastic list. For Everdell I highly recommend trying the spirecrest expansion. In my opinion, it's the only one required and elevates the game play and decision space.
Glad to see Nemesis so high. Might play Lockdown for my birthday coming up, and from everything I've heard, it's just a better Nemesis, which is also in my top ten.
Overjoyed to see Healthy Heart get respect. It's one of my favorites that rarely gets mentioned. People say it's "too random" due to the cube drawing, but as someone that's worked in Healthcare for 20 years, I can confidently say unpredictability is 100% thematic. Also the character art is great and makes me think of those old harlequin romance novels I used to see in grocery stores as a kid.
How anyone can say a game where you have that much control over shaping the bag is super random is beyond me. Sounds like folk who never got good at it
Always love seeing your top 100. Your the number 1 reason I successfully hunted down Thunderbirds with all the expansions 😁 and that Galilean Moons is on my wishlist (can’t find that one though…). Great job as usual!
There's a lotta stuff in your list that I'm deeply interested in; hopefully the game café my group visits every so often has some of them to try out! The games on this list I've played, with a * on those I own: 97) Azul: Summer Pavilion - I think this is my favourite of the Azul series. I like the crunchier puzzle, and the tiles are prettier colours! 95) Dead of Winter - I've played this twice, and didn't really get on with it. I can't entirely remember why; it's been years since the second play. 91) Root* - I love this game, and the six boxes of it on my shelf probably says more than I could here, haha. The asymmetry between factions means every combination has fresh challenges and quirks to adapt to. 82) Star Realms* - A fantastic, quick deck builder that's ideal for when all but one guest has gone home at the end of a board game night; it's good for coasting the night out and chatting over. 76) Between Two Cities - This game was cool, and I'd like to play it again, but I dunno if I'd wanna own it. The competitive co-op structure is the best part of it. 71) Dune - I've played this once and kinda stumbled into a victory as the Fremen, thanks to everyone else nuking each other in a series of betrayals and abilities. It was a hoot. 70) Potion Explosion - Bejeweled, but with clacky marbles! I like the clacky marbles. 68) Above and Below - Played this too long ago to really remember, but I do know I had fun with it! 67) Lords of Waterdeep* - The first board game I bought post-Catan, and unlike Catan, it remains in my collection. The corruption mechanic in the Skullport expansion is a very fun bit of spice. 58) Century* - I own Spice Road & Eastern Wonders; SR is fun if very simple, good for introducing your parents to board gaming. EW is more involved, and I enjoy the area control sailing game on top of the trading. The combined game is a bit unwieldly, but a fun novelty; Eastern Wonders (or whatever its Golem version is) would be my pick as a standalone game. I've not much interested in the third of the series, cuz I feel I've already got worker placement well-covered with Waterdeep. 56) Tyrants of the Underdark - One of my friends bought this immediately after we played it for a second time at the local game café. The deck builder-area control mix is very entertaining, even if the Drow theme does little for me. 39) Santorini - I've played this twice, and its New York version twice; the original is the better game, as I feel New York's mechanic tweaks don't do much for the play experience; NY has a better aesthetic to me, and that's all I can give it. 22) Azul - My second favourite of the Azul series, and the one I'd play with people new to Azul's tile-shop mechanic. 15) The Castles of Burgundy - I greatly enjoy this game, but it always goes for about 20-30 mins longer than I'd like. Everything in its mechanics hook together well. 1) Spirit Island* - My gaming group has just gotten comfortable enough with the game to start playing against the Adversaries. The sheer amount of difficulty and goal tweaking options available in this game means it'll be in my collection forever. The Branch & Claw spirits are fun; it's the only expac I've found in a shop so far.
When you got to Anachrony, I looked over at my Shelf of Shame and started thinking, "When can I finally crack this open and start learning how to play it?!?" The theme and mechanics absolutely appeal to me, but I have nearly everything for it and am overwhelmed just looking at it that I haven't tried it yet.
Nice list! I do miss a Lacerda game in it (like Kanban, my most favourite game ever), but seeing your game taste I understand why they are not there. And I liked to see Lords of Waterdeep and Underwater Cities with their spotlights
Great list! I love Terraforming Mars the same way (it's no.1 for me), love Brass, Castles of Burgundy or Underwater Cities too. And I need to play BloodBowl Manager - I have this game for so many years and for some reason never played it. So... this December it needs to be!
I just got Bloc by Bloc: Uprising in the mail and seeing it up high on your list I was like "oh yeah! I found the game through him!" So thank you for getting me hooked on a crowdfunding campaign, J. :P
Thanks for outlining that you can do Nemisis as a legit co-op game. I was reluctant to consider getting it because most reviewers yeah about how the backstabbing is kinda inevitable and you can't do much about it. But if it can be genuinely co-op where people can work together to survive then I'm all in
We might have pretty different tastes in games, but I am happy to see Yokohama and Underwater Cities in the teens, as those are my number 1 and 3 respectively! I do prefer both Ares Expedition and Ark Nova to the vanilla Terraforming Mars, but I didn't play any of these until 2022. I find the original game seems really wide and disconnected, whereas Ares Expedition is really clean and snappy, and Ark Nova seems a lot more interconnected in its various mechanisms. But to each their own! Thanks for the effort put into this video!
Ares Expedition to me, just feels like a knock off of race for the galaxy, so despite being a backer. I lost interest with it very quickly. Ark Nova is fine, i don't think its remotely as good as many folks do, a little overlong for what it does, low interaction, and you can go for long periods without really making a decision. Still, solid enough game based off two better games, TM and Civ: A new dawn.
@@3MBG That makes sense. I see why you wouldn’t like Ark Nova as much, then. For me, low player interaction is actually a selling point, since one of my favourite things in a game is being able to witness and/or contribute to other gamers coming up with innovative strategies during a game; I find if there’s lots of interaction then I get stuck playing defence (playing the players more than the game). Obviously there’s a limit-a race to points isn’t super exciting-but I usually gravitate closer to the “multiplayer solitaire” end of the spectrum than the “I can’t plan anything because another player is going to change everything before my next turn” opposite extreme. That’s just personal taste. I agree with your very astute observation that Ark Nova can have some time between decisions. For the moment I like that, because if a game is on the crunchier side, I appreciate being able to keep the game going for a few turns. But I can see why that would be annoying to some, and that might annoy me more once I play the game many more times and don’t need as much decision time. “Overlong” and “alright” is how I felt about Terraforming Mars, to be honest. The card luck was higher than I expected, and while I’m not usually a sucker for a theme, I found that a lot of what I was doing didn’t involve actual terraforming (although goodness knows I didn’t do very well, haha). I haven’t played Race for the Galaxy but I have played Roll for the Galaxy a few times, and I agree that the action selection system in Ares Expedition is pretty much carbon-copied. But having simultaneous turns cuts down so much of the turn bloat that plagued Terraforming Mars for me, and the engines are much more instant, so it suits me more. Thanks for replying!
My group plays Nemesis exclusively as a co-op game and we have yet to all make it off of the ship alive. We've only played Lockdown a few times but I don't like it quite as much. The light/dark element is fine but I don't care for the contingencies and the elevator and cargo pods don't add much to the experience. Aftermath is a bit of a disappointment but the new characters are pretty cool so I'd only get it if you are a completionist. Also I've heard that the comic book/story models are really good but I've yet to try them.
Great list, lots of games I need to check out. One piece of advice though: please mention the name of the games next time since a lot of people watch these longer videos in the background while doing something else. I put it on while painting minis and had to switch to watching something else since it required me to look and see what game you’re talking about every couple of minutes
I get where you are coming from, but that you had to watch instead of treating it as background noise sounds like a positive to me. It's not a podcast after all and i put a fair bit of work into the visuals. I think spelling out the name wouldnt necessarily help unless its repeated a bunch, because if you are tuning out until something catches your attention, its possible you'd miss the name anyway
@@3MBG Fair enough. Not sure I would call podcasts or audio content “background noise” but I get that the effort you put into the video/visuals will be ignored
What a long-long but outstanding list:)! However, how regretfully I am right now when I realized that I should've added a bunch of games from this list to my "Need 2 Play" list, after 40m in the video :/
My Top-10 Board Games: 11.* Glen More II Kroniki - ta gra jest genialna w swojej prostocie zasad 10. Pax Pamir - gra trafiła na radar dzięki materiałowi Gambita i jest GENIALNA 9. 51. Stan - świetny klimat, świetne mechaniki i świetne znaczniki zasobów 8.Brzdęk! Nie drażnij smoka - pokochałem tą grę od samego początku 7. Brzdęk! Raban w próżni - jeszcze bardziej dopracowana wersja Brzdęka 6. Diuna: Imperium - ta gra świetnie odzwierciedla klimat Arrakis i całej DIUNY 5. Mage Knight - świetny klimat, świetny świat, po prostu Mage Knight !! 4. Etherfields 0 My Board Games this Year 3. Anachrony - bardzo fajnie pomyślany świat i klimatyczna gra 2. Scythe - klimat tej gry jest genialny... Świetnie odzwierciedla klimat konfliktu... 1. Bonfire - jak wzajemnie zazębiają się mechaniki w tej grze, to jest po prostu niesamowite !! Ta gra to dla NUMBER 1 !!
Really enjoyed this rapid fire top 100. Your tastes may be eclectic but then so must mine be! I own 65 of your top 100. Love games like Dawn of the Zeds and Healthy Heart Hospital which rarely feature on other reviewers Top 100’s so I was thrilled to see them here. Good call on Defenders of the Last Stand too. When I finally got my Kickstarter my initial reaction was that it was, indeed, a hot mess but it somehow works. Minis are truly terrible too but I kind of like that all the more because of it. Could DOTLS be the Plan 9 from Outer Space of board games? So bad that’s it actually good. I love it too. Thanks for an excellent Top 100. Mark Alberta, Canada
The tricky thing with affiliates is they are regional. And the audience here is really international. Got folks from all over the place and no single retailer deals with all of them.
A lot of games on this list that i dont know.. Have you played Cthulhu death may die,Tang garden,Heroes of land air and sea,Mechs vs minions,Stone age,Ticket to ride,Paris,Nidavellir,Ishtar,Coloma,Maracaibo,Great western trail,5 tribes,rise of tribes?
This video was amazing. I have been looking for a game to suit my children as they age, they are 5 and 3 now. My 5 year old can play Star Realms, LE: Alien, Horizons of Spirit Island, Clank!, Wingspan, and a few others. I just bought Century: Golem Edition. Can you recommend another appropriate for this group? My wife really likes Clank!, Wingspan, and Pandemic, LE: Alien is my favorite game of all time.
This is a tricky one as i have limited experience with playing games with kids that age. My girl is not quite 2. HABA games do a series of games for kids though
Great list mate 👍 if you like this war of mine I've heard frostpunk scratches the same itch, Crisis looks cool and mansion of madness has always been on my Semi radar but your high praise of it makes me look again. And plus yokohama! Yokohama duel is out but looks expensive!
Have you heard about the new Heroes of Might & Magic III board game? The cult video game it was based on was super famous in europe some 25yrs ago and defined the childhoods of my whole generation heh - so the news of the board game now is pretty exciting. Not sure if it was a well known title out in NZ, but I'd love for you to review the board game one day. Following your channel for a while know, i do think you might like it :)
I played a lot of Heroes 2,3 and 5. But im not sure the board game will be able to capture what made those games feel great. Euthia: torment of resurrection was an attempt to do a similar feeling game and it was a little overcooked in the end
@@3MBG They're just now launching their kickstarter, it does look like lots of love was put into the game and it looks epic on the table (in the videos at least), but perhaps you're right, i can imagine it could be hard to 'translate' the experience... I just really really want it to be good! ;p
Beyond the sun and Oathsworn reviews came out quite recently, and as this video has a long lead in as the ranking takes ages. Neither game was included in the initial ranking process. So yeah, beyond the sun was just outside the cutoff for being ranked in terms of time.
I have been trying to find a copy of your #4 game for about 2 years after I played it at a board game cafe. We only grabbed it off the shelf because of its name/theme, but it was an instant hit. kia ora.
Thunderbirds? Yeah, it was a 50th anniversary special game and it didn't sell well at all. Then i kinda gave it a lot of attention and suddenly it became a collectable. So sorry about that. Its a good game, and i wish they would reprint it. But you're gonna have to keep an eye open for 2nd hand copeis. That said, if you are in NZ, game centre in Hamilton had multiple copies a few months back
@@3MBG I have just discovered Game Centre a couple of weeks. They only have some expansions, but have snapped up a copy of each. They are a great find.
Appreciate your thoughts as always. Surprised to see 7 Wonders ranked higher than It's a Wonderful World; IAWW has replaced 7 Wonders for me in gameplay style.
I think of the games as quite different, even though they have drafting. Just because 7 wonders has that military thing where you are rivaling your two neighbors. IAWW is a lot more "i do my thing without paying attention to your thing" than 7 wonders
Omnigamers have the most eclectic and interesting top 100 games. There are surprisingly few people like that (like you, hah) in board game media. Though it also makes it so much harder to find where our tastes overlap (as another omnigamer), hah. Usually I can look at a reviewer and know, "Oh that person likes the same sort of euros I like, and this person also appreciates the operational economic games, this person appreciates the same lighter games, etc." With you... you're the only board game person I've seen that appreciates some games I love like Spartacus, Tyrants of the Underdark, Argent and Yokohama... but we have VERY different tastes in different areas. Board game tastes are always so interesting to me what hits for somebody but not someone else.
fantastic list. like others have said, cool to see both unique and common games in these lists and loved the way you succinctly explained why they made the list. have you played the rogue one expansion to rebellion?
Cheers, and absolutely yes to the Rise of the empire expansion. Improves combat, the variant cards are neat. The only downside is that a few of the villains and heros in it are a bit naff. Krenniks chosen for example
Have you played the Hostage Negotiator Career Expansion? I'm wondering if that might push it back in the Top100. It's a really great campaign mode. The actual negotiations stay the same 95%, but there is a lot of stuff going on in between that can somehow influence the negotiations by making you (mostly) better while you get more experience or even a promotion. I would have sold Hostage Negotiator if there wasnt the career expansion while waiting for a German version of final girl, but it was really worth keeping my hostage negotiator stuff in the shelf for almost 2 years. I could imagine the career mode being even more motivating than having very different Final Girl "one shots".
I talked about career in the last years list. While its good, it also turned HN from a quick setup game i could take with me, to something a lot more involved. And it made it less easy to get to the table. So it was a duel edged sword, because part of HNs appeal was its quick setup and portability.
@@3MBG well such games (playtime about 30min) to me dont work as quick set up one shot games anyway. When I play such a game I keep it on the table for multiple plays. THIS is when games with more or less long campaigns have an advantage because they have some kind of epicness that one shots dont. E.g. I would never play a single scenario of Under Falling Skies because a one shot feels like just killing/wasting time. To me, a game somehow needs to create epicness (by length, complexity or story). Not easy to explain, but maybe you get what I mean. For some little satisfaction I prefer e.g. watching a movie or a series.
Thanks for the wonderful list. I was hoping to see Oathsworn since recently you gave that game gold medal. I guess Gloomhaven is hard to beat as the best dungeon crawler game?
These videos have a long lead time to rank and organize. So Oathsworn was not even eligible for the list because, as you not, I only recently reviewed it.
Viscounts just never clicked with me. Its the one west kingdom game i bounced off. I'm also absolute rubbish at it unlike the other 2 where i do very well. I don't think i came any higher than last, or 2nd to last in any game of viscounts i played. Something about it just didn't gel with my brain at all
Hallo there. Greets from México. Got a question. Do you know the name of a board game where players need to sell advertising or something like that? I mean advertising for food chains, I have trouble remembering details, but It had to do with placing Ads around the blocks and streets. I remembered you have already done a review on It but It's no longer to find in your channel. Sorry for muy poor english, thanks in Advance! 🙂
Legendary Encounters Alien is one of my favs! I would love to see Legendary Encounters using IPs like Stranger Things, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Sandman, or Game of Thrones.
Just bought Spirit Island! The first expansion will only come to my country at the end of this year, but I'm already excited :) Also looking forward to get Terraforming Mars at a later date
Lots of interesting games here that I haven't heard of yet :D Also very satisfying to see some overlap with my own collection. Does Eclipse still hold up if one prefers the negotiation side of Twilight Imperium? It seems a bit more combat focused (but TI did leave us exhausted... so an alternative would be welcomed). Thanks for the video, I really enjoyed it!
That's the thing, if i want the negotiation stuff, i'd go with Sidereal confluence or Dune. For more biff and management, eclipse. TI nowadays to me at least just tries to do too much.
Love the list! Agree with others that this is an ominvorous list of the whole panorama of games available. I did crack up about "Cricadians: First Light". I guess your spell check was up a "cric" without a paddle? ;)
Just checking if Spirit island is still number 1, and then I'll watch the whole video later :D Btw they already revealed 6 of the 8 new spirits, which one do you like the most?
I'm honestly at the point with Robinson Crusoe where I feel like I have its number. I win basically every time. The only real exception was Cannibal Island, but that's an impossible scenario. LOL It's a fantastic game though. I've actually had it for years and never played it because it was hard to understand how to play it. But when I watched a playthrough of it and learned how to play and did it myself, I had a blast. Great game.
i've found when I tried to play a few times that the RNG made is hard to win a lot of the time. curious to read this take - I played with a pretty high game IQ group but it seems like we were missing a revelation or two to overcome the system more consistently. I did well in spirit island though so i was inclined to blame the game but mb not...
Hey Jarrod! A semi unrelated question: Oathsworn is advertising their new kickstarter with your Gold Medal Game logo, yet I don't see the award in the video, and now it's also not in the top100. Would you mind clarifying if you actually consider it a gold medal game or not? The reason I ask is that I am considering backing, and have found that I really enjoy every single gold medal game that I have tried so far, so it would be nice to know to help make my decision :)
These top 100 videos have about a 2 month leadup period where i cut off the rankings eligibility. Oathsworn was first played a few weeks after that cut off. Yeah, its a GM game and the quote on their KS page is direct from me as well. A really good time, but I'm still only 5 games in. By this time next year we have hopefully finished it and i can then give it a full rating in the top 100. The GM pops up in the original video but i forgot to literally call it out, due to the script being a bit of a beast. I may even have cut the line for time.
Just checked. I left in the "decadent chocolate cake" line, but cut the GM announcement for time. BUT the O in Oathsworn on screen at the time becomes the gold medal.
@@3MBG thanks for clarifying! If you don't mind me asking another question, I was wondering another thing about the game: Would you say it is more/ less deterministic than Gloomhaven? I.e. do you know exactly what the monsters are going to do on your turn, or are there unknown monster reactions akin to Kingdom Death: Monster?
@@3MBG great! Thanks for taking the time, really appreciate all your work! My girlfriend is allergic to full deterministic co-op games (even gloomhaven!) but loved kdm, so it's great to hear!
Question about #18 Argent: The Consortium... are there any games you feel take what you love about Argent and streamline or simplify the complexity? I have some great friends that love deep games, but the analysis paralysis can often ruine the experience. Seems like Argent could fall into that category.
Cascadia, no. Oathsworn was played after i made the list as these videos take time. My video for oathsworn in on the kickstarter page and I gave it my gold medal, which is also on the KS page.
3MBG, you made 51 minutes feel like 5 or 10, so agreeably did the time fly by. Interesting there is so little representation of certain genres I have always felt drawn to, namely deduction (including hidden movement) and abstracts. You've always been up front about the types of games you most enjoy, and I'm certainly not suggesting any change. In fact my confidence in your sound analysis makes me question myself! It also makes me wonder if it's possible the 'great' deduction game has yet to be made. Cheers, and every blessing!
Cheers, and yeah no party games either, and very few dexterity games. I definitely have preferences, but overall the list is a pretty big grab bag and most folks will find at least something on here they like.
@@Chappykinz Yes, and I wasn't forgetting about that. I intentionally said "so little representation" rather than "no" or "none". Thanks for your response, though.
@@ButOneThingIsNeedful I've been enjoying the Feed the Kraken game lately for deduction. Not sure I understand what an abstract is, just a game with very little theme? What's your top abstract game?
Were the Nemesis miniatures in the video the ones you painted yourself? Because they look fantastic! Do you have any links to vids that show how to get them to look like that?
The ones in the video are just sundropped. I was borrowing a friends set when i made the video. However, i have painted my own set i got later. And you can hear me talk about that a bit in my "my painted games" video
I'm interested to know why Chaos in the Old World dropped off your list. Is there a game (or multiple games) you think do a similar thing better, or you just don't think it's top 100 worthy? What I'm really getting at is that I really like it, but since it's out of print I'd be happy to hear about alternatives. Also, does anyone want to help me parent trap GW and Fantasy Flight Games?
Just from attrition really, it hasnt hit the table in years. It was 110th in the final rankings, so just a slide from lack of play. Whereas Village, which did get played a bit this year did a reverse, going from just outside the top 100 to back in.
Catan ended up 337th. I have never played Carcassonne. Its a game a lot of people join the hobby playing, but it came out 15 years after I got into the hobby, so its never really been on my radar
While I am disappointed that Spheres of Influence is off of the list, I get it. I picked it up about a month ago and my group keeps asking me to bring it after our epic 6 player game that ended up being settled by a nuclear strike.
Lovely list! Giving a lot of older games some love. I quite like Chinatown's theme. Entrepreneurs in 1960s New York at least gets us away from the Mediterranean, even if it would be executed with better art nowadays (and hopefully not silly American money that's all the same colour and size! )
I have a few friends of Chinese descent who aren't very fond of the theme, which is the reason i mentioned that. I reckon a space station would work for a retheme
@@3MBG That's fair. Here in Hong Kong I don't think it's viewed that negatively 😊 I'd be happy for a Mombasa-style space retheme if it gets nicer art and components though!
Yeah, I always try to explain to people that Xia is sort of like the old Elite PC game and I am often saddened to learn that too many people never played Elite. heh
Its pretty heavy, but it is a co-op. I've taught it to about 30 people over the years. If you do want to try it, and are worried, play it solo first a bunch to learn all the rules. Having one person at the table who knows the game inside out really helps. And start people with low complexity spirits, no scenario or adversary, and the pre-scripted card progressions for their first play. Then introduce the other elements on later plays and it should be ok if you can become a good teacher of the game
@@3MBG Thanks for much for taking the time to give such a detailed answer. I really do appreciate the time you put into the content and replying to questions. I have had my eye on this game for quite a while and always opt for something else……collection keeps growing!!
Agreed on Terraforming Mars. It is still a top 10 game for me, and I like it better than Arc Nova. I played Arc Nova a number of times and the first few times I thought, "this is really cool!" But after a few plays, I started thinking, "Yeah, this is fun... but I'd rather play TM." Arc Nova isn't a bad game, but there are a number of things elevates TM in my opinion. One is the shared board space. You HAVE to pay attention to what your opponents are doing in TM or you're just going to lose on the board (by not blocking tree/city combos). The shared draft in TM is also great, and the whole "I can play a 3 hour game and end up with negative points" of Arc Nova wasn't exactly captivating. Like I said, I did like Arc Nova and would generally be happy to play it. And it does a number of really cool things, like the cards changing their power level depending on how often you choose to use them. But in the end, Arc Nova is just a "good" game and TM is a top 10 (IMO).
Lots of unknown games to me, lots of great ones I know or even own but #2 and #1 surprised me a lot (despite you saying it's the least surprising heh). I've played Terraforming Mars only once (with Venus) nad found it quite boring. I've also tried Spirit Island on my phone (not sure if it's exactly the same as the board version) and uninstalled it after two plays as I found it so not interesting that I suspect I've missed something as it's well praised game. Never the less, having different taste is good. No boredom! :) Cheers!
I found it interesting that your list lacked any COIN games (well, Root sorta counts), despite the fact that your upcoming game uses that system. Is it the case that you became sick of COIN from all your playtesting?
Nah, i view it as a conflict of interest. I took COIN off the list in 2020 and made an announcement then that they would be excluded due to it being somewhat awkward to be endorsing a game series i was part of.
Yeah, it wasn't my jam. I've mentioned it in one of the "games i got rid of" videos. But the long and the short of it was its a game that heavily rewards repeat play and mastery of the core ideas, but the core system personally didnt appeal to me enough to want to invest the time needed to get good at it
@@3MBG Rules tightened. Keywords for common effects (search deck and shuffle, for instance) introduced. All new, period-specific art. Limited campaign mode introduced. All decks updated, some substantially -- better parity across hero decks. New HP trackers, effect counters, and HP counters. More and somewhat different decks in the core game. Overall, though, it's very much the same game.
Thanks again to all our patrons for keeping the channel going. Doing fair and from the heart reviews and discussions of games is what i'm all about and you can't really do that when you are doing paid content and ads for peoples kickstarter games. If you want to see more independent content and less marketing materials, support independent channels like our one. We won't tell you a pile of rubbish is the best game of all time (Unless i actually think that pile of rubbish is pretty good, see my comments in this video about defenders of the last stand, which is rubbish and fun at the same time)
Text version of the list is below here.
100 Villagers
99 Planet Unknown
98 Nemo's War (Second Edition)
97 Azul: Summer Pavilion
96 Hadrian's Wall
95 Dead of Winter: A Crossroads Game
94 Village
93 Freedom: The Underground Railroad
92 Pan Am
91 Root
90 Empyreal: Spells & Steam
89 Pavlov's House
88 The Reckoners
87 Android
86 Scythe
85 Abyss
84 Final Girl
83 Agents of SMERSH
82 Star Realms
81 Galilean Moons
80 Last Friday
79 XCOM: The Board Game
78 Castles of Mad King Ludwig
77 SpaceCorp: 2025-2300AD
76 Between Two Cities
75 Eclipse: Second Dawn for the Galaxy
74 Space Cadets
73 Legendary Encounters: An Alien Deck Building Game
72 Modern Art
71 Dune
70 Potion Explosion
69 Lords of Hellas
68 Above and Below
67 Lords of Waterdeep
66 Architects of the West Kingdom
65 Rurik: Dawn of Kiev
64 The Isle of Cats
63 Sentinels of the Multiverse
62 Empires of the Void II
61 Power Grid
60 Arkham Horror
59 Suburbia
58 Century: Golem Edition
57 Pandemic: The Cure
56 Tyrants of the Underdark
55 Dawn of the Zeds (Third Edition)
54 Gloomhaven
53 The Captain Is Dead
52 Black Orchestra
51 Defenders of the Last Stand
50 Star Trek: Ascendancy
49 Healthy Heart Hospital
48 Horrified
47 Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island
46 Civilization: A New Dawn
45 Spartacus: A Game of Blood and Treachery
44 Kolejka
43 Blood Bowl: Team Manager – The Card Game
42 Museum
41 Chinatown
40 Gaia Project
39 Santorini
38 Rush M.D.
37 It's a Wonderful World
36 Le Havre
35 The Crew
34 Sidereal Confluence
33 Unsettled
32 Crisis
31 Circadians: First Light
30 Junk Art
29 7 Wonders
28 Everdell
27 Mansions of Madness: Second Edition
26 Roll for the Galaxy
25 The Manhattan Project: Energy Empire
24 Paladins of the West Kingdom
23 Millennium Blades
22 Azul
21 Xia: Legends of a Drift System
20 Twilight Struggle
19 Arkham Horror: The Card Game
18 Argent: The Consortium
17 Leaving Earth
16 Underwater Cities
15 The Castles of Burgundy
14 Anachrony
13 Bloc by Bloc: The Insurrection Game
12 Yokohama
11 Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game
10 Paths of Glory
9 This War of Mine: The Board Game
8 War of the Ring: Second Edition
7 Obsession
6 Brass: Birmingham
5 Nemesis
4 Thunderbirds
3 Star Wars: Rebellion
2 Terraforming Mars
1 Spirit Island
I recommend the mugs as well! Had many a cup of coffee in mine by now!
Without a doubt the most diverse, eclectic top 100 list out there. Weill done.
See i find that fascinating. I suspect its because i love games that do something different, and tend to find a game niche and only have a few games that fill it.
@@3MBG That Top 100 absolutely mirrors that and it's something I like as well!!
Yeah, i guess i have a fair few worker placement games and a few that do much the same thing as others. But i dont have like 20 dungeon crawlers in there because i like dungeon crawlers. If anything is slightly over represented, its probably either co-ops or soloable games
@@3MBG I think you also just have a broader taste, period. Other big board game reviewers have a distinct type of game that they clearly prefer and so their lists are skewed very much in that direction. I generally find your reviews show that you appreciate many different styles! (as do I, so it's great)
See, i feel like i have really particular tastes, but clearly they result in a weird grab bag of games.
Fantastic video.. impressive how you fit so much content into such a short video
Editing! It probably took more time to shoot/edit and make this video than the 10 hour long ones you see elsewhere.
Far and away the most eclectic top 100 among game reviewers. You've introduced me to so many games that reside on my wishlist. Thanks for all you do Jarrod!
You're not the first to say its the most eclectic top 100. I wonder why that is? Are my tastes all over the show or something, lol
Not to age you but I think it's because you've been playing games longer than many of the other reviewers. That depth of experience is rare in this hobby. And it's worth noting that nothing makes this list without an abundance of plays that makes the game stand the test of time.
I also suspect, having been in the hobby for ages and in Aotearoa/NZ instead of say, the USA or UK, i was less exposed to group think about games for a long long time.
I'm headed to BGG Con this weekend, what perfect timing for the perfect video! Keep up the good work!
I'm taking 3 friends and they're not as passionate about board gaming as myself but your 3 minute reviews have helped quite a bit!
Always the best top 100 board games list! You do such a great job at presenting why each game is great complemented with pictures which allows us to know if we want to dig more about those games or not. The icing on the cake: the video lasts only an hour! Continue your great work!
Thank you for the kind words, I will!
@@3MBG I am curious to know how many hours you put in making that video.
A fair few. Thankfully these days as i've reviewed a lot more games, i have all that B-roll to put in for this video, so dont have to shoot new stuff. Which is a huge time saver.
I will say the raw audio of it, before being edited. Was over 3 and 1/2 hours of different takes and that had to be chopped down to 50 odd minutes. That editing alone was a days work
The absolute best top 100 videos out there. Every other top 10-100 video from other channels I am constantly fast forwarding because there is
too much commentary about games I already lost interest in. This one I just have to wait 10-15 seconds and it’s on to the next one lol
Jay, what a fantastic list of games. I've said it before and I'll say it again - I'm in awe of your game knowledge and breadth of taste. Foundation games appearing next to war games, with LCGs, 4Xs, a CG-CCG-sim(!), app assisted, true solitaires, and all manner of engine/efficiency games along the way. Thanks for sharing your passion and for doing what you do here, it's a pleasure to follow along.
p.s. I'm still on the hunt for a game of Android, it looks like such a peculiarity and experience.
Cheers. I like what i like :) Which apparently is a little more of a grab bag of weirdness than many out there, lol.
This War of Mine is an absolute solo gem with base building, survival, tons of upgrading, resource management, storytelling, and exploration. 5/5
Awesome list, really enjoyed watching through it! Also liked your comments on why you like each game. Thanks, already looking forward to the next one!
Great list! Many of my favorites or ones I’d like to try in there. Only a few that have been busts for me. Nice that you could fit it all into one video.
Thanks for your reviews :)
I was very happy to see Castles of Burgundy move up; not because I own it but because I asked for it for Christmas 😂. As ever great list and a great channel. Thank you! Hope you and the family are doing well
Wow, so many interesting games I have never heard of!!! Really looking forward to looking into a lot of those!! 😍 Thank You so much for the effort of creating this video and sharing all of these and the short and concise descriptions and insider-tipps!! Just Awesome!!!! 😃 People like you make this hobby so much more fun!!!
I love your lists. I keep finding new great games I never would have otherwise due to the noise of the 'new' constantly blaring.
The digital version of Gloomhaven is done extremely well. It's so much work to put it on the table so the digital version is just perfect for that. I absolutely recommend it although it's a bit on the pricey side I'd say.
Also love your number one. Spirit Island is also my favourite game and I can't imagine it won't be for the next decade. Can't wait for the new expansion.
I also really want to see your homemade Spirit!
Got it for free on Epic Games!
@@ilneozelandese Oh wow! I didn't know. Thanks for tip though, now I can bother some friends to "buy" it. 😏
@@RemcoHaarlem It's not free anymore unfortunately
I tried it and found it incredibly fiddly. I know it's not fair to judge it in comparison to native turn-based strategic games like X-Com, Phoenix Point and Othercide but unfortunately the reality of it being on PC is that it is competing with games like those for my attention.
Compared to games that were designed for PC from the ground-up, the whole gameplay flow is very tedious. Now, I know it's a good rendition of the boardgame but I think it's also a good example of how the game flow of boardgames doesn't always work that well on PC.
Playing a game like GH at the table you and your friends just run through stuff and the flow is different. On the PC, on the other hand, there is a lot of extra clicking to move through phases and so forth that you don't really find in the PC native turn-based games that are most similar to GH.
Of course, this isn't a problem unique to the PC version of GH, and it is less fiddly than most TTS mods...but...yeah, it was too much of a PITA for me. I just went back to playing proper PC games when in front of the PC.
I got it free on epic also and then it failed to load when I tried to run it.
Two games on the list again! And they both went up! Thank you!!! :)
Make more games!
@@3MBG on it!
Fantastic list. For Everdell I highly recommend trying the spirecrest expansion. In my opinion, it's the only one required and elevates the game play and decision space.
Glad to see Nemesis so high. Might play Lockdown for my birthday coming up, and from everything I've heard, it's just a better Nemesis, which is also in my top ten.
God I love your top 100 lists, the photos and pace is just perfect. Thanks 3MBGs 😊
Really like How you present your entire list in 1 hour.
Cheers, i like to take the time to make a concise video, rather than the easy way of rambling back and forth
Love the pacing of this, thank you for the great list!
Why take 10 hours, when it can be done in 1 :)
Overjoyed to see Healthy Heart get respect. It's one of my favorites that rarely gets mentioned. People say it's "too random" due to the cube drawing, but as someone that's worked in Healthcare for 20 years, I can confidently say unpredictability is 100% thematic. Also the character art is great and makes me think of those old harlequin romance novels I used to see in grocery stores as a kid.
How anyone can say a game where you have that much control over shaping the bag is super random is beyond me. Sounds like folk who never got good at it
Always love seeing your top 100. Your the number 1 reason I successfully hunted down Thunderbirds with all the expansions 😁 and that Galilean Moons is on my wishlist (can’t find that one though…).
Great job as usual!
Thanks to you I've bought Churchill, bloc by bloc, and last Friday. Haven't gotten to any of them yet though haha. Maybe this year.
Interesting lists! thanks for sharing
There's a lotta stuff in your list that I'm deeply interested in; hopefully the game café my group visits every so often has some of them to try out!
The games on this list I've played, with a * on those I own:
97) Azul: Summer Pavilion - I think this is my favourite of the Azul series. I like the crunchier puzzle, and the tiles are prettier colours!
95) Dead of Winter - I've played this twice, and didn't really get on with it. I can't entirely remember why; it's been years since the second play.
91) Root* - I love this game, and the six boxes of it on my shelf probably says more than I could here, haha. The asymmetry between factions means every combination has fresh challenges and quirks to adapt to.
82) Star Realms* - A fantastic, quick deck builder that's ideal for when all but one guest has gone home at the end of a board game night; it's good for coasting the night out and chatting over.
76) Between Two Cities - This game was cool, and I'd like to play it again, but I dunno if I'd wanna own it. The competitive co-op structure is the best part of it.
71) Dune - I've played this once and kinda stumbled into a victory as the Fremen, thanks to everyone else nuking each other in a series of betrayals and abilities. It was a hoot.
70) Potion Explosion - Bejeweled, but with clacky marbles! I like the clacky marbles.
68) Above and Below - Played this too long ago to really remember, but I do know I had fun with it!
67) Lords of Waterdeep* - The first board game I bought post-Catan, and unlike Catan, it remains in my collection. The corruption mechanic in the Skullport expansion is a very fun bit of spice.
58) Century* - I own Spice Road & Eastern Wonders; SR is fun if very simple, good for introducing your parents to board gaming. EW is more involved, and I enjoy the area control sailing game on top of the trading. The combined game is a bit unwieldly, but a fun novelty; Eastern Wonders (or whatever its Golem version is) would be my pick as a standalone game. I've not much interested in the third of the series, cuz I feel I've already got worker placement well-covered with Waterdeep.
56) Tyrants of the Underdark - One of my friends bought this immediately after we played it for a second time at the local game café. The deck builder-area control mix is very entertaining, even if the Drow theme does little for me.
39) Santorini - I've played this twice, and its New York version twice; the original is the better game, as I feel New York's mechanic tweaks don't do much for the play experience; NY has a better aesthetic to me, and that's all I can give it.
22) Azul - My second favourite of the Azul series, and the one I'd play with people new to Azul's tile-shop mechanic.
15) The Castles of Burgundy - I greatly enjoy this game, but it always goes for about 20-30 mins longer than I'd like. Everything in its mechanics hook together well.
1) Spirit Island* - My gaming group has just gotten comfortable enough with the game to start playing against the Adversaries. The sheer amount of difficulty and goal tweaking options available in this game means it'll be in my collection forever. The Branch & Claw spirits are fun; it's the only expac I've found in a shop so far.
Always look forward to the 3MBG annual top 100; thanks Jay
When you got to Anachrony, I looked over at my Shelf of Shame and started thinking, "When can I finally crack this open and start learning how to play it?!?"
The theme and mechanics absolutely appeal to me, but I have nearly everything for it and am overwhelmed just looking at it that I haven't tried it yet.
It is a bit of a monster for sure. I really recommend learning it with the solo mode before teaching to a group as its got a lot going on
It's actually not half as daunting as it looks once you get into it. It plays quite smoothly.
Nice list! I do miss a Lacerda game in it (like Kanban, my most favourite game ever), but seeing your game taste I understand why they are not there. And I liked to see Lords of Waterdeep and Underwater Cities with their spotlights
I've played a few Lacerda's but they aren't my jam. CO2 was on the list back in 2018 IIRC
@@3MBG That long ago? I think I recall seeing it now that you mention, but didn't realize it was that long ago. I need to play that one again
Every year I find new games on this! One of my top lists.
It is how I found Star Realms years ago.
Great list! I love Terraforming Mars the same way (it's no.1 for me), love Brass, Castles of Burgundy or Underwater Cities too. And I need to play BloodBowl Manager - I have this game for so many years and for some reason never played it. So... this December it needs to be!
Great list! I’m dying to get Obsession to the table. Soon!
Very nice swift and to the point comment game by game. Well done! 👏
I am so thrilled that my game (The Captain is Dead) is still on your list!
Its a great wee game, I also like playing it 7 hand solo, lol. The app is a good time too. Can't see it falling off the list any time soon
Greeeaat and imense job. Great and sincere list. My number one still is Robinson Crusoe.
I just got Bloc by Bloc: Uprising in the mail and seeing it up high on your list I was like "oh yeah! I found the game through him!"
So thank you for getting me hooked on a crowdfunding campaign, J. :P
Hope you like it. And it was a pretty affordable and on-time sort of campaign too
Thanks a lot, great list, lots of games i have to try out. I'm surprised there was no wingspan on the list, since you like engine builders and all.
My first 5 plays or so of wingspan, the final turn was "Egg, egg, egg, Next player" repeat. And i found that end game beyond dull.
Love that Thunderbirds remains so high on the list. One of my favorite two co-ops.
It's my fav mid complexity co-op currently. Always a good time
Thanks for outlining that you can do Nemisis as a legit co-op game. I was reluctant to consider getting it because most reviewers yeah about how the backstabbing is kinda inevitable and you can't do much about it. But if it can be genuinely co-op where people can work together to survive then I'm all in
As always great top 100 I would give 2 thumbs up just for including Kolejka :)
Kolejka rules
We might have pretty different tastes in games, but I am happy to see Yokohama and Underwater Cities in the teens, as those are my number 1 and 3 respectively!
I do prefer both Ares Expedition and Ark Nova to the vanilla Terraforming Mars, but I didn't play any of these until 2022. I find the original game seems really wide and disconnected, whereas Ares Expedition is really clean and snappy, and Ark Nova seems a lot more interconnected in its various mechanisms. But to each their own!
Thanks for the effort put into this video!
Ares Expedition to me, just feels like a knock off of race for the galaxy, so despite being a backer. I lost interest with it very quickly. Ark Nova is fine, i don't think its remotely as good as many folks do, a little overlong for what it does, low interaction, and you can go for long periods without really making a decision. Still, solid enough game based off two better games, TM and Civ: A new dawn.
@@3MBG That makes sense. I see why you wouldn’t like Ark Nova as much, then. For me, low player interaction is actually a selling point, since one of my favourite things in a game is being able to witness and/or contribute to other gamers coming up with innovative strategies during a game; I find if there’s lots of interaction then I get stuck playing defence (playing the players more than the game). Obviously there’s a limit-a race to points isn’t super exciting-but I usually gravitate closer to the “multiplayer solitaire” end of the spectrum than the “I can’t plan anything because another player is going to change everything before my next turn” opposite extreme. That’s just personal taste.
I agree with your very astute observation that Ark Nova can have some time between decisions. For the moment I like that, because if a game is on the crunchier side, I appreciate being able to keep the game going for a few turns. But I can see why that would be annoying to some, and that might annoy me more once I play the game many more times and don’t need as much decision time.
“Overlong” and “alright” is how I felt about Terraforming Mars, to be honest. The card luck was higher than I expected, and while I’m not usually a sucker for a theme, I found that a lot of what I was doing didn’t involve actual terraforming (although goodness knows I didn’t do very well, haha).
I haven’t played Race for the Galaxy but I have played Roll for the Galaxy a few times, and I agree that the action selection system in Ares Expedition is pretty much carbon-copied. But having simultaneous turns cuts down so much of the turn bloat that plagued Terraforming Mars for me, and the engines are much more instant, so it suits me more.
Thanks for replying!
My group plays Nemesis exclusively as a co-op game and we have yet to all make it off of the ship alive. We've only played Lockdown a few times but I don't like it quite as much. The light/dark element is fine but I don't care for the contingencies and the elevator and cargo pods don't add much to the experience. Aftermath is a bit of a disappointment but the new characters are pretty cool so I'd only get it if you are a completionist. Also I've heard that the comic book/story models are really good but I've yet to try them.
At first glance I read this as 'top 100 games of all time in three minutes' and thought, how fast can this gent possibly talk 😵💫
Well, i have also done 100 reviews in 3 minutes in another video :)
Great list, lots of games I need to check out. One piece of advice though: please mention the name of the games next time since a lot of people watch these longer videos in the background while doing something else. I put it on while painting minis and had to switch to watching something else since it required me to look and see what game you’re talking about every couple of minutes
I get where you are coming from, but that you had to watch instead of treating it as background noise sounds like a positive to me. It's not a podcast after all and i put a fair bit of work into the visuals. I think spelling out the name wouldnt necessarily help unless its repeated a bunch, because if you are tuning out until something catches your attention, its possible you'd miss the name anyway
@@3MBG Fair enough. Not sure I would call podcasts or audio content “background noise” but I get that the effort you put into the video/visuals will be ignored
What a long-long but outstanding list:)!
However, how regretfully I am right now when I realized that I should've added a bunch of games from this list to my "Need 2 Play" list, after 40m in the video :/
My Top-10 Board Games:
11.* Glen More II Kroniki - ta gra jest genialna w swojej prostocie zasad
10. Pax Pamir - gra trafiła na radar dzięki materiałowi Gambita i jest GENIALNA
9. 51. Stan - świetny klimat, świetne mechaniki i świetne znaczniki zasobów
8.Brzdęk! Nie drażnij smoka - pokochałem tą grę od samego początku
7. Brzdęk! Raban w próżni - jeszcze bardziej dopracowana wersja Brzdęka
6. Diuna: Imperium - ta gra świetnie odzwierciedla klimat Arrakis i całej DIUNY
5. Mage Knight - świetny klimat, świetny świat, po prostu Mage Knight !!
4. Etherfields 0 My Board Games this Year
3. Anachrony - bardzo fajnie pomyślany świat i klimatyczna gra
2. Scythe - klimat tej gry jest genialny... Świetnie odzwierciedla klimat konfliktu...
1. Bonfire - jak wzajemnie zazębiają się mechaniki w tej grze, to jest po prostu niesamowite !! Ta gra to dla NUMBER 1 !!
Had to run that through google translate, but I like your thoughts. Will have to look up bonfire now.
Wow! A top 100 in under an hour; this is how it should be done!
I have no idea how anyone sits through those 10 part, 1 hour per part ones.
Really cool list. I’m thinking on getting my hands on a copy of Argent the Consortium, but I’m not sure I can fit it on my table. .
It totally eats my table and that thing is pretty massive
Really enjoyed this rapid fire top 100. Your tastes may be eclectic but then so must mine be! I own 65 of your top 100. Love games like Dawn of the Zeds and Healthy Heart Hospital which rarely feature on other reviewers Top 100’s so I was thrilled to see them here.
Good call on Defenders of the Last Stand too. When I finally got my Kickstarter my initial reaction was that it was, indeed, a hot mess but it somehow works. Minis are truly terrible too but I kind of like that all the more because of it. Could DOTLS be the Plan 9 from Outer Space of board games? So bad that’s it actually good. I love it too.
Thanks for an excellent Top 100.
Mark
Alberta, Canada
hahaha, the plan 9 of board gaming. That kinda fits as by every possible normal measure it should be rubbish.
I would love if you had affiliate links so any purchases I make act as an additional thank you financially for sorting these out for me
The tricky thing with affiliates is they are regional. And the audience here is really international. Got folks from all over the place and no single retailer deals with all of them.
A lot of games on this list that i dont know..
Have you played Cthulhu death may die,Tang garden,Heroes of land air and sea,Mechs vs minions,Stone age,Ticket to ride,Paris,Nidavellir,Ishtar,Coloma,Maracaibo,Great western trail,5 tribes,rise of tribes?
About half of them. Of those Great Western Trail was the closest to making the list. I reviewed it favorably earlier in the year as well.
This video was amazing. I have been looking for a game to suit my children as they age, they are 5 and 3 now. My 5 year old can play Star Realms, LE: Alien, Horizons of Spirit Island, Clank!, Wingspan, and a few others. I just bought Century: Golem Edition. Can you recommend another appropriate for this group? My wife really likes Clank!, Wingspan, and Pandemic, LE: Alien is my favorite game of all time.
This is a tricky one as i have limited experience with playing games with kids that age. My girl is not quite 2. HABA games do a series of games for kids though
Great list mate 👍 if you like this war of mine I've heard frostpunk scratches the same itch, Crisis looks cool and mansion of madness has always been on my Semi radar but your high praise of it makes me look again. And plus yokohama! Yokohama duel is out but looks expensive!
I've only played the frostpunk PC game, and i found that a real let down.
Have you heard about the new Heroes of Might & Magic III board game? The cult video game it was based on was super famous in europe some 25yrs ago and defined the childhoods of my whole generation heh - so the news of the board game now is pretty exciting. Not sure if it was a well known title out in NZ, but I'd love for you to review the board game one day. Following your channel for a while know, i do think you might like it :)
I played a lot of Heroes 2,3 and 5. But im not sure the board game will be able to capture what made those games feel great. Euthia: torment of resurrection was an attempt to do a similar feeling game and it was a little overcooked in the end
@@3MBG They're just now launching their kickstarter, it does look like lots of love was put into the game and it looks epic on the table (in the videos at least), but perhaps you're right, i can imagine it could be hard to 'translate' the experience... I just really really want it to be good! ;p
Thanks for the list. Deffo a couple of games I'll check out. I thought Beyond the Sun might have made your list but clearly not.
Beyond the sun and Oathsworn reviews came out quite recently, and as this video has a long lead in as the ranking takes ages. Neither game was included in the initial ranking process. So yeah, beyond the sun was just outside the cutoff for being ranked in terms of time.
I have been trying to find a copy of your #4 game for about 2 years after I played it at a board game cafe. We only grabbed it off the shelf because of its name/theme, but it was an instant hit. kia ora.
Thunderbirds? Yeah, it was a 50th anniversary special game and it didn't sell well at all. Then i kinda gave it a lot of attention and suddenly it became a collectable. So sorry about that. Its a good game, and i wish they would reprint it. But you're gonna have to keep an eye open for 2nd hand copeis. That said, if you are in NZ, game centre in Hamilton had multiple copies a few months back
@@3MBG I have just discovered Game Centre a couple of weeks. They only have some expansions, but have snapped up a copy of each. They are a great find.
Appreciate your thoughts as always. Surprised to see 7 Wonders ranked higher than It's a Wonderful World; IAWW has replaced 7 Wonders for me in gameplay style.
I think of the games as quite different, even though they have drafting. Just because 7 wonders has that military thing where you are rivaling your two neighbors. IAWW is a lot more "i do my thing without paying attention to your thing" than 7 wonders
Omnigamers have the most eclectic and interesting top 100 games. There are surprisingly few people like that (like you, hah) in board game media.
Though it also makes it so much harder to find where our tastes overlap (as another omnigamer), hah. Usually I can look at a reviewer and know, "Oh that person likes the same sort of euros I like, and this person also appreciates the operational economic games, this person appreciates the same lighter games, etc." With you... you're the only board game person I've seen that appreciates some games I love like Spartacus, Tyrants of the Underdark, Argent and Yokohama... but we have VERY different tastes in different areas.
Board game tastes are always so interesting to me what hits for somebody but not someone else.
I like to think we like games that are good, regardless :)
Great list as always! Minor typo for Above and Below though! it should be #68 not #64.
fantastic list. like others have said, cool to see both unique and common games in these lists and loved the way you succinctly explained why they made the list. have you played the rogue one expansion to rebellion?
Cheers, and absolutely yes to the Rise of the empire expansion. Improves combat, the variant cards are neat. The only downside is that a few of the villains and heros in it are a bit naff. Krenniks chosen for example
Dear all, can someone tell me what’s the meaning of the number on the right-bottom? Thanks in advance.
I've been doing this for 5 years. That's the games movement from the previous list, up, down or new
@@3MBG Oh! I see. Sorry, I saw this video popping out in recommendation, so I am new in your channel. Anyway, it is a great list, thanks!
Its all good. But yeah, that's there for folks who watched previous years and like to track the movements
Have you played the Hostage Negotiator Career Expansion?
I'm wondering if that might push it back in the Top100.
It's a really great campaign mode.
The actual negotiations stay the same 95%, but there is a lot of stuff going on in between that can somehow influence the negotiations by making you (mostly) better while you get more experience or even a promotion.
I would have sold Hostage Negotiator if there wasnt the career expansion while waiting for a German version of final girl, but it was really worth keeping my hostage negotiator stuff in the shelf for almost 2 years.
I could imagine the career mode being even more motivating than having very different Final Girl "one shots".
I talked about career in the last years list. While its good, it also turned HN from a quick setup game i could take with me, to something a lot more involved. And it made it less easy to get to the table. So it was a duel edged sword, because part of HNs appeal was its quick setup and portability.
@@3MBG well such games (playtime about 30min) to me dont work as quick set up one shot games anyway.
When I play such a game I keep it on the table for multiple plays. THIS is when games with more or less long campaigns have an advantage because they have some kind of epicness that one shots dont.
E.g. I would never play a single scenario of Under Falling Skies because a one shot feels like just killing/wasting time.
To me, a game somehow needs to create epicness (by length, complexity or story).
Not easy to explain, but maybe you get what I mean. For some little satisfaction I prefer e.g. watching a movie or a series.
Yeah, i get you. I just cant leave stuff setup as im always playing and testing games for the channel and doing photos of them.
Thanks for the wonderful list. I was hoping to see Oathsworn since recently you gave that game gold medal. I guess Gloomhaven is hard to beat as the best dungeon crawler game?
These videos have a long lead time to rank and organize. So Oathsworn was not even eligible for the list because, as you not, I only recently reviewed it.
Great list, you rock! Why no love for the viscounts though mate?
Viscounts just never clicked with me. Its the one west kingdom game i bounced off. I'm also absolute rubbish at it unlike the other 2 where i do very well. I don't think i came any higher than last, or 2nd to last in any game of viscounts i played. Something about it just didn't gel with my brain at all
Hallo there. Greets from México. Got a question. Do you know the name of a board game where players need to sell advertising or something like that? I mean advertising for food chains, I have trouble remembering details, but It had to do with placing Ads around the blocks and streets. I remembered you have already done a review on It but It's no longer to find in your channel. Sorry for muy poor english, thanks in Advance! 🙂
Food chain magnate?
@@3MBG that's It, thank you so much, I was searching for It for a long long time. Best regards!
Legendary Encounters Alien is one of my favs! I would love to see Legendary Encounters using IPs like Stranger Things, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Sandman, or Game of Thrones.
What are the + and minus indications on the bottom right side for each game?
That indicates how the rating has changed from last year.
Exactly this. I've been doing the list since 2018, so some games move up, some down, some in and some out
@@3MBG it's my favorite part of the video!
Ha, glad someone enjoys it, and it ends up being a fair bit of work doing all those manual edits.
Just bought Spirit Island! The first expansion will only come to my country at the end of this year, but I'm already excited :)
Also looking forward to get Terraforming Mars at a later date
Lots of interesting games here that I haven't heard of yet :D
Also very satisfying to see some overlap with my own collection.
Does Eclipse still hold up if one prefers the negotiation side of Twilight Imperium? It seems a bit more combat focused (but TI did leave us exhausted... so an alternative would be welcomed).
Thanks for the video, I really enjoyed it!
That's the thing, if i want the negotiation stuff, i'd go with Sidereal confluence or Dune. For more biff and management, eclipse. TI nowadays to me at least just tries to do too much.
Love the list! Agree with others that this is an ominvorous list of the whole panorama of games available.
I did crack up about "Cricadians: First Light". I guess your spell check was up a "cric" without a paddle? ;)
No spell check in Premiere, and i have sausage fingers.
@@3MBG I'm just giving ya some fun grief. Your lists are fantastic, sausage fingers be darned! :)
Just checking if Spirit island is still number 1, and then I'll watch the whole video later :D
Btw they already revealed 6 of the 8 new spirits, which one do you like the most?
I'm holding off saying much until i've seen them all. But the one that lets you preload effects and pay them off is by far the most interesting so far
@@3MBG yes he has the most cool design and theme, but I think gameplay-wise I will much more enjoy the angry sun ball :D
@@LameryLame Personally looking forward to the doggo
The Darkness spirit's Endless Dark feels like it would provide some unique opportunities
I'm honestly at the point with Robinson Crusoe where I feel like I have its number. I win basically every time. The only real exception was Cannibal Island, but that's an impossible scenario. LOL It's a fantastic game though. I've actually had it for years and never played it because it was hard to understand how to play it. But when I watched a playthrough of it and learned how to play and did it myself, I had a blast. Great game.
i've found when I tried to play a few times that the RNG made is hard to win a lot of the time. curious to read this take - I played with a pretty high game IQ group but it seems like we were missing a revelation or two to overcome the system more consistently. I did well in spirit island though so i was inclined to blame the game but mb not...
Are you aware that they remade elite in 2013? Called Elite dangerous. It's pretty cool.
I was aware, havent played it though. Played a lot of Elite and frontier in the long long ago though
Hey Jarrod! A semi unrelated question: Oathsworn is advertising their new kickstarter with your Gold Medal Game logo, yet I don't see the award in the video, and now it's also not in the top100. Would you mind clarifying if you actually consider it a gold medal game or not? The reason I ask is that I am considering backing, and have found that I really enjoy every single gold medal game that I have tried so far, so it would be nice to know to help make my decision :)
These top 100 videos have about a 2 month leadup period where i cut off the rankings eligibility. Oathsworn was first played a few weeks after that cut off. Yeah, its a GM game and the quote on their KS page is direct from me as well. A really good time, but I'm still only 5 games in. By this time next year we have hopefully finished it and i can then give it a full rating in the top 100. The GM pops up in the original video but i forgot to literally call it out, due to the script being a bit of a beast. I may even have cut the line for time.
Just checked. I left in the "decadent chocolate cake" line, but cut the GM announcement for time. BUT the O in Oathsworn on screen at the time becomes the gold medal.
@@3MBG thanks for clarifying! If you don't mind me asking another question, I was wondering another thing about the game: Would you say it is more/ less deterministic than Gloomhaven? I.e. do you know exactly what the monsters are going to do on your turn, or are there unknown monster reactions akin to Kingdom Death: Monster?
Closer to KDM. Each monster has 3 tiers of actions, represented by 5 cards.
@@3MBG great! Thanks for taking the time, really appreciate all your work! My girlfriend is allergic to full deterministic co-op games (even gloomhaven!) but loved kdm, so it's great to hear!
Question about #18 Argent: The Consortium... are there any games you feel take what you love about Argent and streamline or simplify the complexity?
I have some great friends that love deep games, but the analysis paralysis can often ruine the experience. Seems like Argent could fall into that category.
Hmmm, not really. Argent is a beast of a game, but its a bit of a unique beast.
Great list. Have you tried Cascadia and Oathsworn?
Cascadia, no. Oathsworn was played after i made the list as these videos take time. My video for oathsworn in on the kickstarter page and I gave it my gold medal, which is also on the KS page.
@@3MBG you should def try Cascadia. It's great filler game!
3MBG, you made 51 minutes feel like 5 or 10, so agreeably did the time fly by. Interesting there is so little representation of certain genres I have always felt drawn to, namely deduction (including hidden movement) and abstracts. You've always been up front about the types of games you most enjoy, and I'm certainly not suggesting any change. In fact my confidence in your sound analysis makes me question myself! It also makes me wonder if it's possible the 'great' deduction game has yet to be made. Cheers, and every blessing!
Cheers, and yeah no party games either, and very few dexterity games. I definitely have preferences, but overall the list is a pretty big grab bag and most folks will find at least something on here they like.
@@3MBG Oh, and how!
@@ButOneThingIsNeedful isnt Battlestar Galactica a deduction game?
@@Chappykinz Yes, and I wasn't forgetting about that. I intentionally said "so little representation" rather than "no" or "none". Thanks for your response, though.
@@ButOneThingIsNeedful I've been enjoying the Feed the Kraken game lately for deduction. Not sure I understand what an abstract is, just a game with very little theme? What's your top abstract game?
Were the Nemesis miniatures in the video the ones you painted yourself? Because they look fantastic! Do you have any links to vids that show how to get them to look like that?
The ones in the video are just sundropped. I was borrowing a friends set when i made the video. However, i have painted my own set i got later. And you can hear me talk about that a bit in my "my painted games" video
@@3MBG thanks for that, I'll go check it out 👍
I'm interested to know why Chaos in the Old World dropped off your list. Is there a game (or multiple games) you think do a similar thing better, or you just don't think it's top 100 worthy? What I'm really getting at is that I really like it, but since it's out of print I'd be happy to hear about alternatives.
Also, does anyone want to help me parent trap GW and Fantasy Flight Games?
Just from attrition really, it hasnt hit the table in years. It was 110th in the final rankings, so just a slide from lack of play. Whereas Village, which did get played a bit this year did a reverse, going from just outside the top 100 to back in.
@@3MBG Did Netrunner fall off for the same reason?
Yeah, i simply haven't played a game of netrunner in something like 6 years now.
Curious, where do you rank Catan and Carcassone?
-- newcomer to boardgames here so obviously i've only tried the mainstream ones
Catan ended up 337th. I have never played Carcassonne. Its a game a lot of people join the hobby playing, but it came out 15 years after I got into the hobby, so its never really been on my radar
Circadians is mis-spelt at the bottom onscreen.
300 manual entries, so i'm bound to make some errors
While I am disappointed that Spheres of Influence is off of the list, I get it.
I picked it up about a month ago and my group keeps asking me to bring it after our epic 6 player game that ended up being settled by a nuclear strike.
It's mostly off because i havent played it in 4 years now. The longer a game is unplayed, the more it slides down my rankings
Lovely list! Giving a lot of older games some love. I quite like Chinatown's theme. Entrepreneurs in 1960s New York at least gets us away from the Mediterranean, even if it would be executed with better art nowadays (and hopefully not silly American money that's all the same colour and size! )
I have a few friends of Chinese descent who aren't very fond of the theme, which is the reason i mentioned that.
I reckon a space station would work for a retheme
@@3MBG That's fair. Here in Hong Kong I don't think it's viewed that negatively 😊 I'd be happy for a Mombasa-style space retheme if it gets nicer art and components though!
Nice list. Glad to see so many WP games. COB is probably my number 1. So ugly,but wow,do much fun. Cheers
What do the numbers on the bottom right mean? (-15, +1, etc.)
I redo the video each year. This is 2022's version. It represents the movement of a game since the 2021 version
Yeah, I always try to explain to people that Xia is sort of like the old Elite PC game and I am often saddened to learn that too many people never played Elite. heh
thanks a bunch
Jesus, 7.5 thousand views in less than 12 hours. Nice going
There's a reason this is a yearly event vid, lol
We have very similar tastes with a few violent exceptions at the top end
Hahaha, violent because of my love of 2 player grand strategy games?
No because I thought this war of mine was a flop and obsession felt unfinished
I also think maybe we did something wrong on Arkham horror ccg because we just lost miserably over and over and over again.
Damn, never heard anyone call obsession unfinished. I get people not liking TWOM, and AH LCG? On easy it should be pretty easy
@@3MBG something must have gone wrong … our experience seems unlike anyone else’s. We just kept drawing bad results from the bag crushing our spirits.
Is Spirit Island a really heavy game? I have read various reviews and really want to give this a go with new players, but not if it’s crazy heavy.
Its pretty heavy, but it is a co-op. I've taught it to about 30 people over the years. If you do want to try it, and are worried, play it solo first a bunch to learn all the rules. Having one person at the table who knows the game inside out really helps. And start people with low complexity spirits, no scenario or adversary, and the pre-scripted card progressions for their first play. Then introduce the other elements on later plays and it should be ok if you can become a good teacher of the game
@@3MBG Thanks for much for taking the time to give such a detailed answer. I really do appreciate the time you put into the content and replying to questions. I have had my eye on this game for quite a while and always opt for something else……collection keeps growing!!
Agreed on Terraforming Mars. It is still a top 10 game for me, and I like it better than Arc Nova. I played Arc Nova a number of times and the first few times I thought, "this is really cool!" But after a few plays, I started thinking, "Yeah, this is fun... but I'd rather play TM." Arc Nova isn't a bad game, but there are a number of things elevates TM in my opinion. One is the shared board space. You HAVE to pay attention to what your opponents are doing in TM or you're just going to lose on the board (by not blocking tree/city combos). The shared draft in TM is also great, and the whole "I can play a 3 hour game and end up with negative points" of Arc Nova wasn't exactly captivating.
Like I said, I did like Arc Nova and would generally be happy to play it. And it does a number of really cool things, like the cards changing their power level depending on how often you choose to use them. But in the end, Arc Nova is just a "good" game and TM is a top 10 (IMO).
I think Ark Novas has some real legs as a solo game. But multi player, the more players you add the worse it gets
Lots of unknown games to me, lots of great ones I know or even own but #2 and #1 surprised me a lot (despite you saying it's the least surprising heh). I've played Terraforming Mars only once (with Venus) nad found it quite boring. I've also tried Spirit Island on my phone (not sure if it's exactly the same as the board version) and uninstalled it after two plays as I found it so not interesting that I suspect I've missed something as it's well praised game. Never the less, having different taste is good. No boredom! :) Cheers!
How did you rank 1000 games? Pubmeeple? Own method? Thanks for the videos!
pubmeeple, took forever too
I found it interesting that your list lacked any COIN games (well, Root sorta counts), despite the fact that your upcoming game uses that system. Is it the case that you became sick of COIN from all your playtesting?
Nah, i view it as a conflict of interest. I took COIN off the list in 2020 and made an announcement then that they would be excluded due to it being somewhat awkward to be endorsing a game series i was part of.
@@3MBG that's fair. Looking forward to you release in the series!
Hearing you say the game is a bit fugly on 56 took me off guard and it
made me laugh as I was thinking the same thing.
Lol
Have you tried cloudspire? Curious to know your thoughts.
Yeah, it wasn't my jam. I've mentioned it in one of the "games i got rid of" videos. But the long and the short of it was its a game that heavily rewards repeat play and mastery of the core ideas, but the core system personally didnt appeal to me enough to want to invest the time needed to get good at it
Is Crisis great for 2 people?
I would say no, probably not
@@3MBG thank you
I'd love to see your review of the new edition of Sentinels of the Multiverse (Definitive Edition)
Why, does it change much? I reviewed the core game a awhile back
@@3MBG Rules tightened. Keywords for common effects (search deck and shuffle, for instance) introduced. All new, period-specific art. Limited campaign mode introduced. All decks updated, some substantially -- better parity across hero decks. New HP trackers, effect counters, and HP counters. More and somewhat different decks in the core game. Overall, though, it's very much the same game.
“We tend not to play without Turmoul, because it adds complexity the game doesn’t need”
Do you play with it or without it?
Slip of the tongue, should have said "“We tend not to play with Turmoil"