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A Gaming Life
BGG Top Games – 4101 – 4200
Another week and another look at the Boardgame Geek boardgame rankings!
This time we’re moving further into the 4000s, and this is where you start finding the niche games that are really good, but not that many people know about them or play them.
This mostly applies to wargames and has been applying for a while now, but there’s definitely a great example in this week’s century.
There’s also a fair number of games I’ve played (or own) compared to recent weeks, though that’s not saying much!
Finally, we’re going to run an experiment like we did last week with The Game Makers (which is now already up to #3550, by the way).
Just how high can a new and popular game get between the time I start writing this post and the time it publishes?
Will it defeat The Game Makers?
We shall see.
This week’s list can be found here, but beware!
If you’re coming to this post in the far future, then Boardgame Geek probably doesn’t even exist anymore and you’re wondering what the hell I’m talking about.
Or maybe WordPress won’t exist either by then?
Anyway, things might have changed is all I’m getting at.
My numbers this week are much better than last week, with five games played and four owned.
We’re still going strong!
And of course more interesting games to talk about.
So let’s get started before I go over word quota!
Read MoreTrapped in Hell – Final Girl – Hell to Pay Review
There’s something about reviewing these Final Girl feature films kind of out of order that really highlights some things about the various series/seasons.
I did all of Series 4 (except the one that hasn’t come out yet) prior to doing most of Series 3 (except The Killer From Tomorrow).
What that has told me is that Series 4 got a little more back to basics, adding some new mechanics (like the Volkar’s hidden movement) but not overloading the game with other, more fiddly stuff.
Now that I’m playing Series 3, there are a lot of fiddly things in these various films, at least so far.
Either that, or they add extra new things that you have to deal with, like last film’s Sand Snakes.
Hell to Pay adds that as well, though it’s not quite as complicated as the Savior or the Sand Snakes and it’s probably one of the more basic films of Series 3.
Even so, both the killer and location add some interesting little twists that add to the terror (and the difficulty).
Hell to Pay was designed by Ryan Jorjorian with artwork by Roland MacDonald.
It was published by Van Ryder Games in 2025.
In this film, you are facing off against Razorface (inspired by Pinhead from the Hellraiser movies, I think?) in the Hellscape (same thing, probably).
Both the killer and the setting are interesting, so let’s get started.
Read MoreNew to Me – July 2026
July had no conventions or anything, but yet it somehow managed to almost have as many new to me games as June did.
The fact that all of these were shorter games, unlike last month, made things a bit different though.
I’ve now played 40 new to me games this year, so I am kind of slacking.
In 2025, I played 84 new to me games, so my pace is falling behind.
I need a new convention where new to me games come out!
Or I need to buy some more (don’t tell my wife that).
The Cult of the New to Me was extremely happy this month, though, and has actually been quite satisfied with my behaviour lately.
Two of these three games are from the ancient times!
Well, the 2004 one, the version I have was actually published in 2024, but still.
Even the most recent game was published in 2024.
That’s two whole years!
That game’s almost an adult now, in game years.
That means no leadership coup this month, but who knows what next month will bring?
Cult leaders have to watch their backs.
Without further ado (all of my ado was stolen in The Great Rat Mob War of 2016 anyway), let’s begin!
Read MoreBGG Top Games – 4001-4100
We’re now starting to get into the 4000s in the Boardgame Geek game rankings, and while this century isn’t as bad as last week’s (though hopefully you think my post about it was A+, would highly recommend!), it is close.
However, there are always interesting games to talk about, which is why I think this series is so rich in material, and why I keep doing it.
At least last week had a game I own and have played that is extremely awesome.
This week doesn’t even have that.
In fact, it has a game that I barely remember playing!
But it does have some games that I’d like to talk about, so there is that.
This week’s list can be found here, and let me reiterate (are you getting tired of me yet?) that the games on this list might change, or at least their rankings might.
Some 3rd world despot might come along and declare these rankings invalid, which I guess would mean that all of these posts would cease to exist!
I would not like that.
My numbers this week are better than last week’s, but still kind of in the crapper.
I have played four of the games on the list and own two (one which I haven’t played).
There could still be some interesting games to talk about besides what I’ve played!
It’s getting to the point where that part is more fun to write than the first part.
Anyway, let’s begin!
Read MoreBidding Rats – Ratzia Review
One of my favourite auction games has to be Reiner Knizia’s classic game, Ra.
I love the pieces, I love the auction mechanism where you are either starting an auction on what’s out there or you are adding to it, but the choice may be taken out of your hands if you draw a Ra tile (or fill up the auction with 7 items).
It’s just a lot of fun.
What I had forgotten, however, was that after Ra came out originally in 1999, Knizia had created a card game version of it in 2004.
Thus was Ratzia born.
Kind of.
Designed by Knizia with artwork by Ivan Iserte, Michael Menzel and Sarah “Freedz” Conlon (at least in this new version), the game was originally published in 2004 but the edition I have was published by 25th Century Games and came out in 2024, with a slight name change from the original Razzia, I believe, along with a different theme and a couple of additions.
Ra has an Egyptian theme, while the original Razzia has a gangster theme.
Ratzia keeps the gangster theme but makes them…rats (with the police being mice, I think, though maybe they’re rats too).
Have you had enough anthropomorphic animal games?
If so, then maybe this isn’t for you.
If you don’t mind that, let’s take a look under the hood.
Read MoreJuly 2026 Gaming
July is always going to be a bit of a slower month for gaming, mainly because I’m on vacation for a large portion of it.
That means no lunchtime games!
Though I was able to get a bunch of Final Girl plays in, which made up for those a little bit.
No conventions, just our Sunday fun days, which have been including some longer games so the number of different games can be pretty low sometimes.
I was happy to get a different solo game played once too, because I enjoy it and to add to the statistics.
Sorry, I’m a stats nerd!
Overall, I played 15 games a total of 24 times, which actually does slightly beat the last month (April) where I didn’t have a convention or some other long day of gaming (17 games 22 times).
Of course, Final Girl once again tops the charts with 7 plays, but I also played a new to me game 3 times (so it will be talked about in that post, after I review it).
Here’s the list of what I played.
And here it is in grid format.
Thanks to the wonderful BG Stats app for these pictures and the statistics!
Don’t forget that you can click on a picture to expand it if you want.
Also, the three new to me games will be talked about next week.
There were a couple of unique to 2026 plays in there, so let’s get started!
Read MoreFriday Night Shots – Expansions Revisited
I know I’ve talked about expansions before on Friday Night Shots (both ones you won’t play again and whether or not you even like them to begin with), but a recent post on Boardgame Geek prompted another thought that I wanted to explore.
Somebody in the Final Girl forums was asking about the various feature film expansions, and Final Girl co-designer A.J. Porfirio weighed in on it, and how the expansions in Final Girl are so much different than expansions for regular games.
“I think an important factor regarding the solo vs multi factor when it comes to expansions is that very frequently with multi-player games the expansions are additive meaning you keep stacking more and more expansions on top of each other and it quickly gets unwieldy. However with FG the playset is confined to the same elements (for the most part) each time, i.e. Killer, Location, FG, and go. This means there is an accessibility element that is key in terms of the level of friction required to play. Just think of that game we all have with 7 expansions and how you want to play with all of them but the thought of relearning everything stops you before you ever really start. With FG sure you might have to relearn the special rules for whatever killer or location you are playing, but the lift is generally manageable for most people.”
This made me sit up and take notice a little bit, though it might be because of all the Canadian Club I had consumed (this is Friday Night Shots, you know).
A couple of minor thoughts from that.
For regular games where expansions are just heaped on top of each other, when is it too much?
And what is the difference between heaped expansions and expansions that are so modular that you never have to play with all of them at the same time?
(I have talked about modular expansions before, but this goes a bit beyond what I said there)
Two very distinct questions, but two things to keep in mind when talking about expansions.
Read MoreBGG Top Games – 3901-4000
We’ve reached the 4000 mark in the BGG top ranked games list, and this century I have to say is one of the worst as far as my familiarity with any of the games goes.
We haven’t hit the “I don’t know any of them” stage yet, so we’re still keeping on!
Don’t all cheer at once now.
Last week’s post began a bit of discussion among my friends, which was very cool, and I was introduced to a few games that I had skipped over because I had no idea what those games were.
It’s funny how there are so many games out there that we all have our different areas of knowledge about them, even if some of the opinions are just “I like that one.”
This week’s list can be found here, but that old caveat still applies: if you’re reading this in the future, Thanos may have removed one of the games I was talking about from all existence (because he’s a bastard that way).
My numbers for this week are really thin. I’ve only played two of them and own three (those two and one more).
Thankfully one of the two I’ve played is an amazing game if you have the table space for it.
Also thankfully, there are some actually interesting-sounding games in this list, so I’ll have stuff to talk about.
So let’s begin!
Read MoreAgency Aliens – SETI: Space Agencies Expansion Review
One of the huge hits from 2025, especially for me (hitting #12 on my Top 50 games of All Time list) was SETI.
This game about scouring the solar system for various signs of alien life, all while trying to complete missions and land on planets, as well as interacting with the two (out of five in the game) alien species (or their remnants) that actually do exist and are all over the system, is just such a cool game.
(Wow, that was a long sentence, sorry).
However, the first of the five rounds was just kind of boring, with everybody wanting to make sure to get at least one income card played and maybe get a small start on what they might want to do throughout the rest of the game.
What can an expansion do to help that?
How about quick start cards that give you that boost as well as removing one of the rounds so that the game doesn’t get too long.
(Though it’s still long).
SETI: Space Agencies does more than that, though.
It also gives players a space agency to play that gives them asymmetric powers and increases the variability a little bit.
Add some new project cards to the mix and three new aliens, and you got yourself a stew!
Designed by Tomáš Holek with artwork by Ondřej Hrdina, Jiří Kůs, Jiří Mikovec, Jakub Politzer and Petr Štich, this expansion was published by Czech Games Edition in late 2025.
I’m not going to get into all of the ins and outs of how the game plays, since that was covered in the original review (linked above).
Is the expansion worth getting?
Let’s take a look.
Read MoreCombat Commander Europe – #21 Saint Agatha
Sometimes history repeats itself from game to game, though not always to the same effect.
Sometimes you surpass that historical result instead of being pummeled by it again!
What am I talking about?
Combat Commander, of course.
Let me explain, after welcoming you to another adventure from the Combat Commander ladder, that monthly tournament of chaotic warfare administered by the resolute Patrick Pence, he of Patrick’s Tactics & Tutorials fame.
And he is famous!
I heard he is going to be getting his own late-night show soon…
Anyway, a few months ago on the ladder, I had a disastrous game where I rarely saw a Recover card to rally my broken troops, and three #@%!% times, the Recover card I did see happened to be randomly discarded due to events.
The other night, my July game had something similar happen, though maybe the effect wasn’t as devastating this time?
You be the judge.
July’s scenario is from the Mediterranean expansion and has an Italian blocking force in northern Sicily facing off against aggressive American attackers who are trying to mop up the German forces that have already retreated from the area.
Leaving their Italian “friends” behind.
My opponent for this month’s game was a relative newcomer to the ladder, Jake S.
Here’s the setup for our game.
(Don’t forget you can click on a picture to blow it up).
The Italians (Teal – Me) set up first 8 hexes deep from the top edge.
One of the special rules is that they can keep up to 4 units (and their weapons) back, placing them on the 2 space of the Time Track (meaning they would come onto the board after the first Time trigger).
When they do, they can be placed in any setup hex with at least one cover (which I think I forgot the cover part for one of them when I brought them out!).
I decided to keep three squads and one of my two leaders back.
The Americans have a lot of machine guns, so I set up the rest of my guys so that only a few were exposed on the hills above the farm, and definitely not my big leader (he was covering the left side of the board).
The Italian mortar was set up to be able to hopefully do something before succumbing to firepower.
Another special rule is that the three 7-firepower mines (all mines are 7-firepower in this scenario) can be set up after the Americans do.
The Americans (Green – Jake) set up last 2 hexes deep from the bottom of the board.
Jake chose to set up mostly on the right side to try and power his way through the Italian screen squads I had placed over there.
I placed my mines to make getting through the woods and moving through cover and onto the heights difficult.
The other special rule is that all Hidden Wire cards for the Italians are actually Hidden Mines, and that one of the Hidden Mines cards starts in the Italian hand already.
Which is good, because I only saw one other one throughout the rest of the game!
Another big thing to take notice of is that all Exit points were doubled, so getting units off the board could be very lucrative.
With that done, we started.
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