Dude! Take Your Turn!
A Gaming Life
BGG Top Games – 5001 – 5100
We’re now on the downward slope heading to the 10,000 level of games ranked on Boardgame Geek.
Yet there are still some decent ones down here!
That just goes to show you that a low-ranked game does not necessarily mean it is bad.
Of course, the ones I’ve actually played in this century put the lie to that (except one caveat), so maybe I shouldn’t speak too soon.
Even going this far down the rabbit hole, I’m still enjoying writing these and I hope you’re enjoying reading them.
Let’s check in on our two experiments that have been going through these posts, though I think this may be the last week for them.
The Game Makers ended last week at #2641 and I’m starting this post way late, on Monday!
Right now it’s at #2603, which means it’s still moving up, but in almost a week it’s only gained 38 spots.
At the time of this posting, it’s at #2587 and I think it’s time to stop following it.
It may still keep creeping up, though. Maybe check back in a few weeks?
How about Wingspan Pocket?
Last week it ended at #1331.
This week, on Monday, it’s at #1283, again not a huge jump.
With it being at #1247, I think it’s time to stop this one too.
Still some steady growth, and I will definitely (eventually) make it into the Top 1000, if not higher.
Definitely the last week for both of these.
Which will give me more room to talk about other stuff!
This week’s list is here, though keep in mind that, as usual, if you come to this post in a year or two, the numbers and games will likely be completely different.
It’s like magic!
Or the passing of time, take your pick.
I’ve played two of the games this week and don’t own either, though one additional game is actually a standalone expansion so I guess it counts and would make three (and one I own).
I’m at my introduction quota, so let’s begin!
Read MoreCombat Commander Pacific – After Action Report – Scenario M3 – Rebuked at Rabi
Some games of Combat Commander are kinetic romps where both sides are attacking, taking losses, taking over territory, maybe losing territory.
And some aren’t…
Not that they aren’t fun.
Combat Commander is always fun.
But some of the games just start out slow, have a really kinetic and exciting middle, and then settle down into a “will I be able to get a cool event that will save me?” stalemate (funny, “Stalemate” was last month’s scenario!).
Wait, “stalemate” sounds like neither side is winning.
I’m actually talking about a “hold on for dear life and hope nothing bad happens” versus “hope something really good happens for me.”
Welcome to another tale from the Combat Commander ladder, administered by the magnificent Patrick Pence, he of Patrick’s Tactics & Tutorials fame.
You should check that out if you want some great Civil War game videos!
Once again we are in the Pacific theater of Combat Commander instead of the European theater, meaning we have some rules to remember that haven’t been used in 10 months or so.
Yes, including the fact that fixing your weapon actually activates you so that you can’t actually use it that turn, which I’d forgotten in September!
This month’s opponent was Dwight P, another repeat opponent. This time it was in a Mediterranean scenario back in June 2023, though I haven’t written about it because it was a pickup game rather than a Ladder game, and I had decided not to write about it for some reason (some of my pickup games I do write about).
Anyway, it was nice to meet up with Dwight officially for this scenario.
Sides were chosen at random right before we started, so I had no idea how to prepare!
This month’s scenario takes place during the Japanese invasion of New Guinea, with an Australian counterattack against some Japanese forces defending their initial landing points.
(don’t forget that you can click on a picture to blow it up)
The Japanese (white – me) set up first, up to 10 hexes from the left side of the board.
The Australians (tan – Dwight) then set up 2 hexes from the right side.
The little area of huts on the bottom left where some Japanese forces are situated is worth one point, but Objective 3 (the road hex where there’s one lone Japanese team in the back) is worth 5 points.
One big special rule is that the bridge across the steam doesn’t exist, so those two hexes are stream hexes (bad cover, takes a lot of movement points to enter).
The second special rule is that Level 2 hexes don’t exist. They are considered Level 1.
So there’s basically two low hills with a lot of jungle on both sides with a gully in between with a stream.
I set up a blocking force down on Objective 1 and the majority of my force (including the bunker and 3 foxholes, which are set up after the Australians set up) in the middle, where I thought they would have decent line of sight to most of the gully.
That was wrong.
Dwight then set up a sizeable force in the middle, but an even more sizeable force at the bottom, ready to run through the jungle and sprint past all the heavy guns that wouldn’t be able to see them much.
I should mention the other special rules before we continue.
Winslow, the Australian Hero, sets up in hex O10 with the Thompson SMG. He didn’t take part in any of the actual fighting, but he was instrumental in causing a lot of havoc among the Japanese.
More on that later.
The other big one is that, since the jungle was less dense in this coastal area of New Guinea, if the line of sight just goes through one jungle hex, it has a 4 hindrance rather than being blocked.
We used that one a lot.
Which one of us was I talking about at the top of this episode?
Let’s find out.
Read MoreFriday Night Shots – Games That Grabbed You on First Look
It’s another Friday night, so time for some stream of consciousness writing about a boardgame topic that makes me happy.
What better thing to do on a Friday night?
Tonight, with a little bit of whiskey added to the mix, I’d like to talk about games that just grabbed you when you first saw them.
This isn’t on the first play. Once you’ve played it, you already know whether you like it or not, or at least want to play it again.
No, I’m talking about games where you happen to see it, either in action on a playthrough, or just hearing about it and then doing a little research. You look it up, take a look at how it appears on the table or in the rulebook, and say “I have to try this.”
This isn’t even saying it’s a game that you end up liking (though in the case of what I’m talking about below, that will happen).
You may finally play it and say “you know, I really should probably wear pants to game days.”
Oh, and also “you know, maybe this game isn’t really for me after all. But it looks cool.”
I’ve had this happen a few times in the last couple of years, where I see a game and then just get all excited about it.
Twice in the last couple of weeks!
So I’ll start with those.
Read MoreBGG Top Games – 4901 – 5000
We’ve hit the 5000 mark in our examination of the Boardgame Geek game rankings, one century of games a week, and it feels quite cool, actually.
I’ve really enjoyed doing this series, and it has kept me consistently writing as well, which is another benefit.
It also has a few fans who participate almost every week (some do it on Discords channels that I’m in, rather than posting on the blog), which makes me very happy.
I plan on continuing this until somebody tells me to stop, so there you go!
I know I said last week that I’d probably stop at least one of the two experiments that we’ve been following, but there was some big growth this week, so maybe not!
First, The Game Makers was at #2773 when last week’s post went live.
It’s now Saturday and it’s already jumped up to #2679.
That’s almost 100 spaces and it hasn’t even been a week yet.
Now it’s at #2641, which is a pretty good jump from last week.
Maybe it’s time to keep this experiment running, at least for another week.
Secondly, Wingspan Pocket was at #1453 and really slowing down last week.
However, it’s now Saturday and it’s already up to #1383.
Not as big of a boost as The Game Makers, but it is something!
With it now being at #1331, which is another 100+ jump.
Another week, then?
Both are living on borrowed time, but so far the borrowing is working.
This week’s century of games can be found here.
The usual caveats apply, though.
If you’re coming to this post after there’s a new US president, then it will most likely have changed!
Unless that happens tomorrow…
I have played four of them and own (or previously owned) two of those played games.
Not a lot! But better than last week.
Anyway, I’m over word budget, so let’s begin!
Read MoreNew to Me – September 2026
September looked like it was going to be very dry in the “new to me games” system, with only one going into the last two weeks.
Once again, Abi saves the day!
Getting five new to me games played in the last two weeks made it so I actually had something to write about, which was great.
I was even able to stave off another revolt from the Cult of the New to Me members, because while four of the games were pretty new, two of them were at least a decade old.
That’s old in game terms!
They actually held a celebration for me.
That made me really uncomfortable, though.
They should follow my lead, not worship me like that.
I’m not that kind of cult leader.
Anyway, without further ado (all of my ado was destroyed in some falling tower anyway), let’s get started!
Read MoreFriday Night Shots – Games Where the “Extras” Make the Game Better
We’ve all played those games before.
The games where just sitting there playing the game, using the mechanisms (card drafting, worker placement, whatever) and you just think “this isn’t really that different than (fill in the blank) and it’s kind of boring.”
But then there’s those games where you feel that way, but there’s just something about this particular game that grabs you for some reason.
In looking at it, there’s really nothing special there.
Can we add something to this to actually make it worth playing?
That’s what I’m talking about when I say “extras.” It’s either something that you add to it as players (I’m not talking about an app, which would be totally different) that makes the game enjoyable when it otherwise might not be, or it’s just the theme.
Sometimes the theme itself carries the day, and sometimes you have to use a little more effort.
Of course, the ultimate example of this for me is Rock Hard 1977, where players are fledgling rock stars wanting to make it big in the music business.
Read MoreSeptember 2026 Gaming
My September gaming wasn’t quite as huge as August, but it was still pretty good.
For a while there, I thought my “new to me” games would amount to one, but then Abi showed up for a couple of Sundays and I was then set.
Which also made me think, especially listening to podcasts like Boardgame Hot Takes, that maybe I should play more live “new to me” games on Boardgame Arena so that I could get exposure to them and be able to count them (since I don’t count asynchronous plays).
That’s how many podcasts and reviewers do their reviews, playing online (though usually with their friends and not randoms like I might be doing).
Anyway, my “new to me” cred was established with six games (which I will talk about next week) and I did manage a respectable number of games played in September even with a couple of weeks at work where we didn’t play much of anything.
Stupid vacations/surgeries/meetings/etc
I played more games in September than I played in August, though I didn’t have quite the same number of plays as I did that month.
That’s because hitting the end of the feature film era, I only played Final Girl four times. I will get to the vignettes I have waiting soon, though.
In other words, not a bad month!
I played 22 games in September for a total of 30 plays (as compared to 33 plays of 20 games last month).
Here’s the list of games played.
And here’s that list in grid form.
Many thanks to the wonderful BG Stats app, including the fact that they’ve upped the maximum number of games in a grid, so convention months will no longer require two pics!
There were a few games where it was my first play in a while, so I will highlight those here.
Though for the new to me ones, take a look at my post next week (the Cult would not be happy if I talked about them ahead of time).
Read MoreBGG Top Games – 4801 – 4900
Even closer to 5000 on the Boardgame Geek ranking system, the pickings of played games are getting slim!
Not so slim that it would keep me from doing another in this series of posts, because it’s so goddamned fun to talk about games, both ones I know and ones I don’t!
And it seems to be fairly popular, at least among the folk who matter.
Before we go into that one, though, let’s look at our two experiments.
Last week I said that I would give The Game Makers one more week to wow me because its rocketing up the charts had slowed considerably.
This week, it seems to slowed down even more, so this may be the last week I look at this one.
When last week’s post went out, it was sitting pretty at #2855.
As of writing this last Friday, it’s now at #2824.
Not much movement!
Of course, at the time of this posting, it’s at #2773, so it’s still moving up a little bit! Still less than a hundred, but it’s on its last legs for this experiment.
The other experiment is Wingspan Pocket and it may be the last week for that one too.
Last week it was at #1545 and as of writing this on Friday, it’s at #1515.
Still moving, but really crawling now.
Will it make its way, slowly but surely, into the top 1000?
Well, it’s at #1453 now, so maybe one more week to see if it still continues to slow?
The list that for this century can be found here.
Just don’t think that game you’re looking for is going to be here if you’re coming six months from now.
It’s probably long out of print.
This week continues last week’s drought of games played, with the exact same number!
Yes, I’ve played two of the games in this century and don’t own any of them.
That means more about interesting games instead of this dreck, right?
(I shouldn’t say that. One of the games is actually quite good).
Introduction’s word count almost used up, so let’s get started!
Read MoreFriday Night Shots (Saturday Edition) – Games That Intimidate You
I was going to leave my Friday post to be the Tag Team review that posted yesterday.
Then I was reading something tonight while eating dinner (I can’t even remember what prompted it, so it must have been stewing a bit in my subconscious) that made me want to actually write something tonight.
This may be a bit of stream of consciousness, so hopefully it will make sense!
Do you have any games that just intimidate the hell out of you, so much so that you don’t end up playing them?
Maybe it’s how big and complicated they are, maybe it’s getting them to your game day, or maybe it’s just something about the time/effort involved to actually play it.
I have a few of those, one that I’m kind of embarrassed about but I’ll put it here anyway.
Let’s get that one out of the way first.
Read MoreBack to Video Game Fighting – Tag Team Review
There have been a few “auto-battler” card games out in the last few years, most notably Challengers (which is a huge multiplayer tournament romp if you do it right).
What is an auto-battler?
It’s when you have a deck of cards shuffled, and you play the top card of your deck against the top card of your opponent’s deck.
The most classic one with a basic set of cards is War, of course, but there’s no skill in that one at all.
What happens when you have two unique characters, with their own cards and their own abilities, facing off head to head in the same kind of conflict?
That’s when you get Tag Team, an auto battler where you start with a very small deck and keep adding to it until you’ve eliminated one of your opponent’s characters.
Tag Team was designed by Gricha German and Corentin Lebrat, with artwork by Xavier Gueniffey Durin.
It was published by Scorpion Masqué in 2025, and it already has an expansion out!
The game comes with twelve different fighters, of which you will be using four (two each).
It’s short, punchy (sorry), and ready to make you want to play again after you’ve faced crushing defeat.
It also has a bunch of different ways of crushing you.
Read More