Boardgame Geek Top 100 – Played or Play? 70-61

It’s week 4 of my weekly look at the Boardgame Geek Top 100 games to see how many I’ve played and how many I even want to play.

It’s a rather blah week, for a lot of reasons, but also just because there aren’t many games in this week’s entry that I’ve played!

It’s like the Cosmos saw all those comments like “oh, you’ve played a lot of these games!” and said “Let’s have no more than that.”

Still, there is two of my favourite games on this list, so there is that.

It’s also the first week of June, which means Summer is just around the corner!

Let’s have a picture of a nice sunset and beach to lift all of our spirits.

It’s something I think that we could all use.

And on that note, let’s begin!

#70 – Dominion: Intrigue (Rio Grande Games) – 2009

Designer: Donald X. Vaccarino

Artists: A lot!

Would you look at that. Another Dominion! Who would have thunk it?

So, those of you who kept saying in the comments to my other Dominion post that I needed to try it, is this one to try? Would you suggest playing it standalone or combined with the base set?

I said that, if I ever got the opportunity, I would try it again with an expansion or two and see whether my opinion may have changed, so let me know what you think of this one in the comments.

Otherwise, not much left to say about this one that I didn’t say about the base game.

#69 – Crokinole (Open source) – 1876

Designer: (uncredited)

Artists: Allison Litchfield, Orlando Ramirez

I’ve heard a lot of people on various boardgame media sites and podcasts talk about this game, and I really have no idea what it is.

BGG describes it as “shuffleboard in the round,” which doesn’t mean much because I have no clue how to play shuffleboard either (I just know that it’s often played on cruise ships for some reason, or it used to be anyway).

I guess you’re flicking disks on a board trying to get them to land in certain areas, but you have to actually touch an opponent’s piece or else your piece leaves the board?

Sounds like it needs some skill and dexterity, neither of which I have so maybe this one is out for me.

But hey, if I ever see it out in the wild, I will take a look at it and give it a try.

It’s the least I can do.

#68 – Mombasa (Eggertspiele) – 2015

Designer: Alexander Pfister

Artists: Klemens Franz, Andreas Resch

I have a couple of friends who really like Mombasa, so I definitely do want to give this one a try.

Then again, it sounds like an economic game, so my enthusiasm has kind of wavered. But I like Brass (both versions) so that ramps up the enthusiasm again.

All of this up and down is kind of tiring, actually…

Besides, it’s a Pfister game, so of course it’s going to get the benefit of the doubt.

In Mombasa, players are acquiring shares in company in various parts of the African continent (Cairo, Cape Town, St. Louis and Mombasa itself) and spreading out trading posts around the continent to make the most money.

Let’s blurb this thing so that it actually makes sense:

“Mombasa features a unique, rotating-display hand-mechanism that drives game play. Each round players choose action cards from their hand, then reveal them simultaneously and carry out the actions. These cards are then placed in a discard pile, and the previously played cards recovered for the subsequent round.

Each company has a double-sided company track, so games will vary quite a lot based on which tracks are revealed and at which companies they are placed.”

It sounds intriguing, but also sounds tough and like it will break my brain.

Some would say it’s too late for that, it’s already happened.

Either way, I would like to give this one a try at least once, if only so I can say I played another Pfister (that sounds vaguely wrong).

#67 – Lisboa (Eagle-Gryphon Games) – 2017

Designer: Vital Lacerda

Artist: Ian O’Toole

Lisboa is a game that I’ve been dying to play for a while now.

It’s a Lacerda game, so it already has that going for it.

The Heavy Cardboard playthrough of it was amazing.

However, the couple of times it came out, I was always attached to another game by the time the choice was made.

The game is about rebuilding the city of Lisbon, Portugal after a massive earthquake followed by a tsunami and three days of fires.

That’s a lot of rebuilding!

Here’s the blurb from BGG that can describe it better than I can:

“The Marques of Pombal — Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo — was the then Minister of Foreign Affairs and the King put him in charge of the reconstruction of Lisbon. The Marques of Pombal gathered a team of engineers and architects and you, the players, are members of the nobility; members who will use your influence in the reconstruction and business development of the new city. You will work with the architects to build Lisbon anew, with the Marquis to develop commerce and with the King to open all the buildings, but the true reason you do all this is not for greatness or fame or even fortune, but for the most important thing of all in that time: wigs.”

Yes, that’s right. Wigs are the victory points in Lisboa.

That’s so cool!

The map is a real map of downtown Lisbon, but you and the others will be reshaping it to your own ends (or at least the ends of the Marquis and the King) and you’ll be doing your utmost to get as many wigs as you can.

Because you gotta get looking good with your multiple wigs!

This game, from what I’ve heard, deserves its spot here and I can’t wait to finally get it to the table.

I won’t be able to make heads nor tails of it, but I’ll still enjoy it.

#66 – Eldritch Horror (Fantasy Flight Games) – 2013

Designers: Corey Konieczka, Nikki Valens

Artists: Lots!

Finally! A game that I’ve played. This set of 10 is apparently going to be light on played games, but I’ll finally be able to post a picture!

Yes, Eldritch Horror is the cooperative game where you are all racing around the world to try to keep gates closed that will bring horrible monsters into our realm and destroy the earth.

Each turn, players will choose which one of them is the “Lead Investigator” (that can sometimes be very bad but sometimes you need to do things in the proper order) and then each person will do two different actions.

There is a massively powerful Old One trying to come into our world and you’re trying to keep that from happening.

You’re wandering around the world trying to build up your stats, fight off monsters, investigate clues, and solve three mysteries in order to keep Cthulhu (or some other baddie) from entering our universe.

It’s a wonderful game that I played 5 times last year and it’s fun every time you play.

Even if you get your butt kicked.

Which will happen often.

I love this game so much that it made my Top 20 games of all time and may move up when I do that list again at the end of the year (assuming I play enough new games this year).

I’ll always be willing to play this as long as we have enough time. It’s very fiddly, lots of deck shuffling, and will take at least 3 hours to play (unless you lose really badly).

But I’m always up for it.

And here’s where I say “remember last week with the Marvel Champions entry, where I said that I was never going to get into an LCG?”

Well, just a week later, I sprung for the base set. I haven’t received it yet (caught up in Canada Post limbo), but I’m going to dip my toe in to the LCG waters and see how it goes.

Pray for me?

#65 – Rising Sun (CMON Limited) – 2018

Designer: Eric M. Lang

Artists: Edgar Skomorowski, Adrian Smith

For some reason, I’ve never really been interested in playing any of the games in this trio of games (one maybe still to be published?) by Eric Lang. Blood Rage (which I believe is higher on this list) and Rising Sun just have not appealed to me at all.

I think part of the reason is that there are negotiations and diplomacy in this one, where you are trying to make alliances and deals with other players, and that just isn’t really my thing. I’m pretty bad at negotiating and I’m probably always going to “lose” in any negotiation, leaving the board and game state in a place that’s not very good to me.

That’s why, as much as I really fantasize about playing a 12-hour game of Here I Stand, I probably never will because there is a lot of negotiating in it (and the 12-hour time too)

Rising Sun is set in feudal Japan and there is a lot of combat as well. Another reason this will never get played because most of my game group doesn’t really do combat (if they did, maybe I’d get some wargames in!).

Put those two together, and I’ll probably never play Rising Sun.

However, Lang is an acclaimed designer and I’m sure the game is good.

It’s just not for me.

I’m open to somebody roping me into a game at a convention, though (when we can finally go to one again).

Maybe I’ll change my mind!

#64 – Twilight Imperium – 3rd Edition (Fantasy Flight Games) – 2005

Designer: Christian T. Petersen

Artists: Scott Schomburg, Brian Schomburg, Tyler Walpole

This is a massive space game that will take a long time to play, again with some negotiation, and thus I will probably never actually sit down to play Twilight Imperium (Sorry, Sam).

I know it’s a lot of people’s favourite game, but it’s just not offering anything that I really want in a game.

Let’s blurb this sucker because I’m lazy and I don’t really have a lot to say about it:

“Twilight Imperium Third Edition is an epic empire-building game of interstellar conflict, trade, and struggle for power. Players take the roles of ancient galactic civilizations, each seeking to seize the imperial throne via warfare, diplomacy, and technological progression. With geomorphic board tiles, exquisite plastic miniatures, hundreds of cards, and introducing a rich set of strategic dimensions that allows each player to refocus their game-plan, the original designer (Christian T. Petersen) has seamlessly incorporated the better qualities of other recently popular games to improve on the game-play of the original TI, making it at once perfectly well-rounded and pleasantly familiar to experienced gamers.”

Yeah, this one is not for me.

I know a number of you will really like this, so let me know what you think about it in the comments.

But I don’t think I can invest that much time in it (isn’t it, like, a 6-hour game or something?)

#63 Teotihuacan: City of Gods (Board & Dice) – 2018

Designer: Daniele Tascini

Artist: Odysseas Stamoglou

Another game I’ve played! The only two in this sequence, unfortunately.

Teotihuacan is a sort of dice rondel game, as you will never be rolling these dice (which would have made my “dice that you don’t roll” post if I had played this when I wrote it) but it uses these dice in unique ways.

Your dice are your workers and you are moving them around the board to either take actions or gain resources. When you do, you have to “improve” them by increasing the value by one.

Once they go from 5 to 6, they “ascend” and you get a bonus for that. They also revert to the “1” value and go back to the first space.

You’re trying to contribute to building the main pyramid in the city, or perhaps using wood to build neighbourhoods in the city, or maybe adding decorations to the pyramid as well. Lots of things will give you victory points, but you have to combo things so that you have the right resources at the right time to do things.

There are also three temples that you will be trying to ascend (shades of Tzolkin) and these will give you benefits as well.

Each round (and each ascension) will move the eclipse closer and when the eclipse hits, you have to feed your people and will get points based on how far you are on the Avenue of the Dead and how much you’ve contributed to the pyramid this turn.

It’s a game that breaks my brain, but I find it much easier to understand than Tzolkin (though playing that game online is making me understand it a bit better).

Teotihuacan made my Top 25 games played after only one play and I’ve played it a few more times now (it’s in Beta on Boardgame Arena so I have 3 games going there right now).

It’s place in my Top 25 is definitely assured even after more plays.

#62 – El Grande (Rio Grande Games) – 1995

Designers: Wolfgang Kramer, Richard Ulrich

Artist: Doris Matthäus

Wow, an old game!

El Grande is the apparently the father of area control games.

“In this award-winning game, players take on the roles of Grandes in medieval Spain. The king’s power is flagging, and these powerful lords are vying for control of the various regions. To that end, you draft caballeros (knights in the form of colored cubes) into your court and subsequently move them onto the board to help seize control of regions. After every third round, the regions are scored, and after the ninth round, the player with the most points is the winner.”

This is a multiple-award winning game and I’m sure it’s awesome (though I seem to recall Edward from Heavy Cardboard played this recently and wasn’t impressed with it, though I could be thinking of another game).

Anyway, this is a game that I wouldn’t mind playing but I don’t know if I’ll ever get the opportunity to.

I don’t think anybody in my game group would ever get it and I don’t really see it at conventions at all.

Maybe if a 2020 “25th anniversary edition” is published? But I haven’t heard anything about it so I doubt it’s happening (or maybe I just missed it).

#61 – Too Many Bones (Chip Theory Games) – 2017

Designers: Josh J. Carlson, Adam Carlson

Artists: Josh J. Carlson, Anthony LeTourneau

This game sounds really intriguing. A dice-building RPG. Who could have come up with that one? Oh, I guess the Carlsons did.

“Team up or go it alone in a 1-4 player Coop or Solo play campaign. With over 100+ unique skill dice and 4-7 classes to choose from, every battle is its own mini challenge to figure out. Your adventure will consist of 8-12 battles before you reach your final destination and face off against one of a number of possible kingpins in order to win. Along the way, you will be faced with storyline decisions that will quickly have you weighing risk/reward, odds, and logic – with dice woven into every aspect! Your party will also be faced with other decisions: when to rest, when to explore, or even which fights to pursue! The Encounter cards offer fun plot twists and some comic relief, all while setting the stage for your next battle.”

I’m unclear on whether the 8-12 battles and then the boss/destination is all happening in the 1-2 hour play time that BGG says or whether this is a campaign that you need to play in multiple sessions, but it sounds really interesting.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t sound like something I’ll get to with my current group. Especially if it goes over several sessions.

But if it’s a one-session game, maybe a convention?

Which brings us to the end of another week. This week was pretty lame with only two games played an no electronic editions at all.

However, I hope that leaves it open to the rest of you convincing me I need to try something.

So have at it!

With two played, that brings us to 15 played out of 40.

Not stellar, but we may still be able to hit 40 out of 100 if we try really hard!

How many of you played and which would you like? Sell me on one of the games I dismissed above?

Let me know in the comments.

And tune in next week for the last of the bottom 50!

Posts in this Series:

#100-91
#90-81
#80-71
#70-61
#60-51
#50-41
#40-31
#30-21
#20-11
#10-1