Top 50 Games Played of All Time – 2024 Edition (#10 – 1)

It’s been a long journey getting to this top 10.

Not so much in weeks, as these posts have appeared for 5 weeks just like the previous Top 25 did (or they should have, but I’d forgotten that I took a much too long break before posting the last one in 2022).

No, I’m talking about in words. Including ten games in each post instead of five really upped the word count!

And the length of time it took to write them increased exponentially as well.

But we’ve reached the finale!

On time?

I guess I’ll know by the time I’m ready to post this.

Yeah, don’t rush me.

(Edit: Since you’re seeing this on Sunday, I did manage to get it done on time!)

Anyway, the top 10 will contain a few surprises, especially considering how many games actually fell out of it from 2022.

There are a bunch of new games, and also one game that I was totally surprised moved to where it did.

First, of course, the usual caveats.

These ratings are sometimes from just one play (though in the Top 10, probably not really) so they are subject to change if I play the game more often.

More importantly, I have only played just over 500 games, so there are many classic games that just aren’t on this list.

So you Nemesis fans can just go hide from your alien tormentors and leave me alone.

I do hope you hide successfully, though. I don’t hate you or anything.

With all of that being said, let’s get to the meat of this post!

(or the brussels sprouts, if you’re a vegetarian)

10) Time of Crisis (2017 – GMT Games)

Designers: Wray Ferrell, Brad Johnson

Artist: Rodger B. MacGowan

Players: 1-4

2022 Rank: 4

I was so happy that I got some plays of this game done in 2023!

A few asynchronous games on Rally the Troops (great web site, you should check it out for asynchronous wargame play) and even one on the table!

Still, it fell a number of spaces, but it might have dropped out of the Top 10 if I hadn’t been able to play it.

Time of Crisis is a game about the infamous tumultuous period in the Roman Empire where emperors could have their time in office measured in a couple of months sometimes.

Players are trying to place one of their family members on the Roman throne, establishing other family members as provincial governors, and essentially trying to collect glory points from all of that.

Along with the fighting. You get glory for fighting not just the barbarians that are invading the Roman provinces, but also your fellow players.

What I really love about this game is that it is a deckbuilder wargame.

You have a starting deck of terrible cards and you are using points earned during your turn to buy better cards, with cool effects!

These cards will give you more points to work with on your turn, and all of your actions take blue/red/yellow points to do, from placing governors, to fighting, to doing populace actions like holding games to placate the mob, or building neat structures that will help you in some way.

Those cards pictured are from the expansion, which adds these new cards (duh) as well as two additional types of emperor you can aspire to be. Want to be a military emperor and roam into battle? That will prevent your Imperial Guard from deposing you and will get you a lot of glory when you battle.

But you could get killed at any time.

No, it’s not.

This is a great game and I still love it to death.

Here’s my review of the game.

9) Clank in Space (2017 – Dire Wolf Digital/Renegade Game Studios)

Designer: Paul Dennen

Artists: Rayph Beisner, Rastislav Le, Raul Ramos, Nate Storm, Franz Vohwinkel

Players: 2-4

2022 Rank: 6

Another small fall, but Clank in Space is still an awesome game that I will play at any time (assuming I have a couple of hours).

Another deckbuilder with something extra, in this game you are a thief boarding a space ship, hacking the computers, and then trying to steal an artifact and escape.

Before Lord Eradikus kills you.

As you play your hand each turn, you may be doing things that accumulate Clank.

Whenever a card with his symbol comes up in the market row, you have to draw a certain number of cubes from the bag, based on how angry he is.

Each player cube drawn is one damage to that player. Accumulate too much of that, and it’s curtains for you!

Meanwhile, you are building up your deck, trying to move around the board, hack the computers, get into his sleeping area to pick up an artifact, and get back to the cargo bay.

If you don’t get back to the cargo by the time you’re down to zero health, you get no points in the game.

Some people don’t like that.

If you escape, you get bonus points!

This is such a great game. The difference for me over the fantasy Clank is twofold.

The requirement to hack data terminals before going in to steal an artifact will make it so there’s no “quick in and out” strategy.

Secondly, I like the faction abilities of some of the cards. The original doesn’t have those, and I think it’s a little poorer for it.

Does Clank: Catacombs add that?

I’m not sure, but I’m intrigued.

One other knock against this game is the length, often going to two hours (sometimes more if your players are slow).

I still love the game. I just have to budget for that.

The expansions are amazing, adding some really cool stuff (the board layout in the picture above is from the Cyber Station 11 expansion).

And you can find my review of the original game here.

8) Earth (2023 – Inside Up Games)

Designer: Maxime Tardif

Artists: M81 Studio, Conor McGoey, Yulia Sozonik, Kenneth Spond

Players: 1-5

2022 Rank: New (Hadn’t Played)

The first brand new game in this Top 10, and you can see how much I really loved this game when I played it.

I’ve played it three times on the table and many times on Boardgame Arena, and I just love the combination possibilities this game gives you.

It’s sometimes even overwhelming a bit.

There is so much to keep track of that it can burn your brain a little bit.

It’s a tableau builder where you are putting nature cards into a 4×4 grid. Each time you play a card, it has to be placed adjacent to another one, but you can only have 4 cards in a row and 4 cards in a column, so you may find yourself restricted.

There are only four actions you can do on your turn, and everybody else gets to do a less-powerful version of that action.

I love simultaneous play like that.

Even more fun, your tableau activates in order from top to bottom, and you also have abilities on your home board. You have to choose whether to activate your tableau or your home board cards first, and you have to do all of them before moving to the other one.

That can make for some interesting decisions, and great combos!

You could set it up so that you are always putting down sprouts on a card before you then spend a sprout or two to do something really cool.

Or you could mess that up and have the “spend a sprout” action first and not have any sprouts yet.

It’s really thinky, and there is a lot to keep in mind if you want to play the game well.

But given all that, it took us just over an hour to play all three games, so it’s relatively quick.

The icon chaining and getting points for icons can give you that Terraforming Mars feel as well.

I really love this game a lot and think I need to play it again soon.

Here’s my full review of the game.

7) Wayfarers of the South Tigris (2022 – Garphill Games/Renegade Game Studios)

Designers: Shem Phillips, S J MacDonald

Artist: Mihajlo Dimitrievski

Players: 1-4

2022 Rank: New (Hadn’t played)

Another new game to the list, and of course it’s a Garphill game.

I think this post is just going to reinforce what I said Friday night about being a fanboy.

But I don’t care, because these games are great!

This is the first in the South Tigris series of games, and the first thing I have to say about it is that you’d better have some table space.

This sucker’s big!

And that’s not even one of my largest player areas, either.

In the game, you’re going to be rolling dice and using those dice to take actions that are on your player tableau.

You are exploring out from Baghdad, charting the oceans, the land around you, and even the stars.

You can also use a worker on your turn in order to do something or gain resources, which will help you do other actions.

The timer in the game is the journal, as once you have done all of the work and can’t do anything else (or don’t want to), you rest and you journal.

Or you may get an effect that lets you journal even while you’re exploring!

Moving along the journal track will give you bonuses, but you have to have the requirements to move forward.

If you’re not careful, you can find yourself trapped and not able to move forward without a lot of work to build up the required icons or resources.

I love the dice and how they work in this game.

You can build up your caravan to manipulate your dice to give them the ability to be multiple symbols, making your actions more efficient.

That green improvement will let you use a 5 as a ship, if you need it for an action, for example.

As with most Garphill games, there’s a wide variety of ways to score and things you can concentrate on in order to get the points you need to win.

There’s some set collection, in the form of icons on the cards (and your caravan).

The space cards will give you more endgame victory points.

It’s just a really nice mixture and I really love how it comes together.

It can be a bit long sometimes, so make sure you budget for it.

But once players are used to the game, it should go by faster.

Here’s my review of the game.

I thought this would become my favourite Garphill game out there…

6) Scholars of the South Tigris (2023 – Garphill Games/Renegade Game Studios)

Designers: Shem Phillips, S J MacDonald

Artist: Mihajlo Dimitrievski

Players: 1-4

2022 Rank: New (Hadn’t played)

…but I was wrong!

Scholars of the South Tigris is the newest Garphill game that fulfilled late last year.

As with Wayfarers, it uses dice in interesting ways, but this one also incorporates colours.

You need to know your colour wheel!

Ok, you don’t, as they do provide a guide for how the colour combinations work, and the way the Research track is set up actually really helps with that too.

The theme of the game is that you are hiring translators to translate scrolls from around the land into Arabic for your people in Baghdad.

You are using your dice and your action cards to do a specific action, from hiring a translator, to moving up the research track, to bringing a scroll from the world outside into a guild, or even then translating a scroll from the guild.

The action card play is really cool, because you have to pay attention to which card you use for each action.

When you Rest, you will be doing the action cards’ Rest actions in order, so you want to make sure you do have them in the right order for maximum efficiency.

I love the dice placement and how it works too. The colours of the dice matter (most of the time) for the action you are doing, and you can use workers to either make a die of the same colour a 6, or to change the colour of the die to that worker’s colour.

When you combine two coloured dice, you can get a secondary colour, which you may need (such as when you translate a scroll).

I just love how it all works together, and again there are multiple ways to win, as long as you concentrate on something.

One player concentrated on the research track, only translating a scroll in order to satisfy his bonus action card. Otherwise he didn’t translate at all!

I also love how the translators work.

You hire them and place your marker on them, but anybody can use them to translate.

You have to pay each translator you use a gold, and if you are using somebody else’s translator, you have to pay the player one silver.

When the translator has enough gold on them (based on what room they are placed in), they retire and whoever hired them gets to place them under their action board, making that action more powerful and give them points at the end of the game.

It’s all so intricate, but it works really well.

It is a long game, taking over two hours for us.

But it’s fun, it’s thinky, and it is just fabulous.

Here’s my review of it.

I thought this would become my favourite Garphill game out there…

5) Viscounts of the West Kingdom (2020 – Garphill Games/Renegade Game Studios)

Designers: Shem Phillips, S J MacDonald

Artist: Mihajlo Dimitrievski

Players: 1-4

2022 Rank: 9

…but it’s not!

For me, Viscounts of the West Kingdom is the best Garphill game out there (yes, that’s a spoiler…there aren’t any other on here).

Maybe it’s because at its heart it’s a deckbuilder, and I love deckbuilding (with other stuff on top of it)?

In the game, you’re moving your viscount around the board depending on the cost of the card that you are playing to your player board.

The three cards that are on your player board are the ones that you will be using on your turn, at least for the symbols on them.

These symbols will help with one of the four actions you can take, depending on where your viscount is on the board.

In the top ring, you can either build or market (hammer or money bag).

In the lower row, you can either transcribe a manuscript or put some of your workers into the castle (cross or fleur-de-lis).

All of those will get you points.

After you do your action, you have the opportunity to hire the townsfolk that’s in the same sector where your viscount is.

That’s how you are building your deck.

Some effects will let you remove a card from your discard pile or hand, which is how you will be culling out your starting cards.

The cards that you play to your board will either have an immediate (on play) effect, an ongoing effect while they are on your board, or an effect when they fall off (since the cards will move one space to the right at the beginning of each turn).

I love how all of these mechanisms work together. Especially with the expansions, you can concentrate on one of the actions and score a lot of points that way, giving you multiple avenues for winning.

You can fill the castle with your people if you want. That may help you win.

Or maybe not!

This is such a great game, and well deserving of being in my Top 10.

My review of it is here, but I’ve also reviewed both expansions.

4) Prodigals Club (2015 – Czech Games Edition)

Designer: Vladimír Suchý

Artist: Tomáš Kučerovský

Players: 2-5

2022 Rank: 14

This one is the huge surprise for when I had completed all of my Pubmeeple comparisons.

Prodigals Club has been in my Top 25 each time I’ve done it. It started out at #8 (I didn’t realize that when I was doing this) and then fell to #14 in 2022.

Now it’s jumped all the way to #4.

Why?

Because I’ve played it a few times since then.

It is such a phenomenal game!

You are the scion of a wealthy family, and as a bet with your buddies, you are trying to tank your political reputation, money, and social reputation, bringing it down to the lowest levels possible.

There are three modules in the game (matching what I just said), but you can play with just two if you want a shorter, simpler, game.

Since 2022, I’ve played games with all three modules and I have to say the game shines when you do.

Everything is just so intricately joined together.

Each module has its own cards that effect its pieces, but there are also some joint cards that affect every module that’s in play.

You’re trying to bring down your political votes, your social standing, and trying to spend all of your money.

Like some Knizia games (but actually the reverse of those), your highest score is going to be your score.

And you want to have the lowest score to win!

The game goes over 5 rounds, though it can end sooner if anybody has a negative value in all of their modules.

The card play is just so good in this one. You can play the brown cards to your tableau to use every round, but the white cards are one-time actions that you play during the round.

It all works together so well, and I think this is a forgotten Suchý that needs more love.

People talk about Last Will, but this one is even better (though I do like Last Will).

I haven’t reviewed this game yet, but I probably should!

3) Combat Commander: Europe (2006 – GMT Games)

Designer: Chad Jensen

Artists: Lee Brimmicombe-Wood, Chad Jensen, Rodger B. MacGowan, Leland Myrick, Mark Simonitch

Players: 2

2022 Rank: 3

This, of course, should not be a surprise for anybody who follows this blog.

Considering my monthly ladder posts, which means I get to play it at least once a month (except the two months where I’m playing Combat Commander: Pacific), it makes sense that this game still remains so high in the Top 10.

What do I like about it?

Definitely the tactical wargame play that’s combined with the “dice” rolls on the cards. There is a usual distribution of dice rolls on the cards, but since you will be using the cards for other things, some of those dice rolls won’t happen during a round.

The game simulates the confusion of battle by making sure you have to the have the cards to execute actions.

And random events can happen, or possible a random sniper, and all of these can totally change the outcome of a game.

Yes, it can be very random. Yes, if you don’t get the cards you need, you can be really screwed.

And yes, some of the scenarios can be really unbalanced (this month’s ladder game, which I will do the AAR soon, has a setup that can change everything).

It’s not a “realistic” simulation of World War II combat, but it’s damned fun to play.

I would play this any time I have the opportunity to.

And one day (when the combined base game and Mediterranean expansion comes out from GMT), I will actually get to play it on the table rather than on VASSAL.

2) 1960: The Making of a President (2007 – GMT Games)

Designers: Christian Leonhard, Jason Matthews

Artists: Josh Cappel, Donal Hegarty, Rodger B. MacGowan

Players: 1-2 (solo with CDG Solo System)

2022 Rank: 1

And the top game has stumbled!!!!

In both of my Top 25 lists, this game has been #1 on the list.

This time, it’s mostly fallen because I just haven’t been able to get it to the table.

Long two-player games (and I mean 2 hours, not that this is exceptionally long) just don’t hit the table much with me.

But this is still such an amazing game.

Based on the classic Twilight Struggle card-driven game mechanisms where you play a card for either it’s points or its event, but if the event is your opponent’s, you can only play it for the points, this game about the Kennedy-Nixon election of 1960 just oozes theme to me.

The thing I like about this game over Twilight Struggle (which I have played on the app many times but since I haven’t played it on the table yet, I don’t “count” it for having played it) is that your event doesn’t automatically happen if your opponent plays it.

You have to have a Momentum token to spend in order to have the event happen.

This makes the game have an element of bluffing along with everything else.

No longer are you stuck if you have a hand full of your opponent’s events.

Now, you can play the cards to try to entice your opponent to spend a Momentum token. Then, if they do, you can play the event that would devastate you. Watch your opponent groan when they realize that they don’t have a Momentum token to spend to have the event happen.

I love this.

Then you’re travelling around the country, trying to get “control” of the states to get their electoral votes in the election by adding influence.

There’s also the debate in Round 7, where the cards you have set aside for the debate will help you control issues that the election cares about.

All of it comes together in a tug of war regarding influence and card play, and it is just so satisfying.

Coming in at around 2 hours, there’s not much more fun you can have.

Especially at two players.

Even not having played it, this will always remain really high on my list.

1) Ark Nova (2021 – Capstone Games)

Designer: Mathias Wigge

Artists: Steffen Bieker, Loïc Billiau, Dennis Lohausen, Christof Tisch

Players: 1-4

2022 Rank: New (Hadn’t Played)

With the fall of 1960: The Making of a President, we have a new entry in the number one spot…and it’s a brand new game!

Only brand new because I literally played it in January 2022, after I had done my Pubmeeple comparisons for the 2022 list.

It didn’t qualify for that list, but it was always going to be high in this one.

I didn’t realize it would be #1, but there we are!

This game is just so awesome.

You are building a zoo, playing animals into it, playing sponsors that will help you, and forming partnerships with zoos across the world.

This has widely been considered a Terraforming Mars killer, and though some people disagree with that, I do see the similarities.

There are a lot of icon combinations being done, you are filling out a board (this time your own player board instead of main board for everybody) and you are getting points for the animals you play.

You are also getting points for conservation, whether through the animals, or more likely supporting conservation projects.

This game is just so cool. It has a huge deck of cards, so you will always be seeing new ones, or at least new combinations.

Just adding the Marine Worlds expansion will give you even more choice, as well as card churn (one of the negatives about the base game is that the market row of cards doesn’t really churn enough, only doing so when somebody takes a card or when a Break happens).

You are doing a lot of combos with your cards, which is always a blast.

And it just feels like you are bringing animals into your zoo and supporting animal projects around the world.

The action card mechanism is really great. The action card row means that you have to do the action with the strength of the position where it’s at. So if you want the strongest action, it has to be at the 5th spot (like the Build card here).

One of the things about this game that I haven’t really been able to fully appreciate is that it’s a game of knowing when you need to do something even if the spot the card is at isn’t the greatest. It’s a timing thing.

Maybe you need to build something so you can bring another animal into your zoo, even though your Build card is at the 3 spot.

What can you do about that?

It also has the Rajas of the Ganges scoring where you have two score tracks that are moving in opposite directions, and the game ends when they cross.

I haven’t played that game, but I love that mechanism here.

Originally, when you did your final scoring (based on where your conservation track is versus your appeal track), you could get negative points.

People didn’t like that (have I mentioned that some people don’t like not getting points at the end of a game?), so the new scoring rule is that you basically add 100 points to whatever score you get.

I’m fine with that.

I don’t need that positive affirmation.

But I’m ok with it.

This is just such a wonderful game.

It’s a bit long, so I do have to choose my spots to play it.

But I’m always willing to if I have time, unless there are other circumstances (like hey, this new game that I want to play! Or “this game that I’ve been wanting to get to the table for a while!”).

This game comes out on game day enough that there are always opportunities to play it.

Here’s my review, and my review of the Marine Worlds expansion.

It’s amazing, but we’re finally done with my Top 50!

Looking back at it, I sometimes feel like it’s not “valid” because my number of games played is so small compared to other reviewers.

Are there too many Garphill games on here? GMT?

I’m not sure.

The top 10 is kind of heavy with their games, though I’m happy Capstone Games has the #1.

But this is how I feel, and I did do these through Pubmeeple so it’s not like I put my hand on the scale to weigh it down in favour of one game over another.

I’m sure there will be a lot of changes in 2026 when I do this again (assuming I keep playing more new to me games) but looking back on these posts, there are some really cool games on here.

What do you think of these?

What’s in your own Top 10?

Let me know in the comments.

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