BGG Top Games – 1901 Through 2000

It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve done one of these BGG centuries posts, though not because I was getting tired of them.

There were just more important things to post about!

I enjoy writing these BGG posts, even when the games are kind of lackluster, mainly because it gives me the opportunity to talk about games that I haven’t said much (if anything) about.

And who can complain about that?

Especially since one of my favourite blogs to read daily (because he posts daily), No Rerolls, just last week said this about my blog (mainly about my Top 10 Games played of all time, but I like to think it carries through in all of my posts):

“each write-up is delivered with the easy charm of someone who simply loves talking about the games that stuck with them”

I love that! (And seriously, go check out his site, especially if you like Magic: the Gathering and RPGs, along with some other boardgame content as well).

Anyway, we are now on to the last of the Top 2000 games, though this series may continue further than that.

Hell, with my Top 50 Games Played of All Time done, what else am I going to write about?

Today, we’re talking about games ranked 1901-2000.

Here’s the list of games, though keep in mind that, depending on when you visit this post, the games will probably have changed!

Certainly the rankings will have.

In this batch, I’ve played 8 of them and own (or previously owned) 4 of them.

That’s down from last time!

Oops, it’s been so long since the last post, that one of the ones from last time has actually fallen into this century.

I won’t be talking about it again.

Let’s begin, so this post won’t be so long and make me a liar!

As is usual, let’s talk about some of the games that I’ve actually played.

There are some interesting ones in there.

(I won’t talk about Omen: Reign of War (#1910), because I talked about it last time!)

Spectacular (#1915) is a game I just mentioned last week because it was a “new to me” game in January.

It’s a fine game, nothing too noteworthy for me.

Another game where you are building an animal sanctuary, in this case trying to emphasize breeding them in captivity.

It’s also a tile and dice drafting game, as you are drafting one of the two as they pass by you.

Or you can take your own instead!

You’re playing tiles, trying to get large habitats of the same type, but the multiplier for your scoring is the birthing tiles (that only hold 1s and 2s) and you also have to place dice on them (the ones you draft) in order to score.

It’s a decent game, but the midgame scoring (when new dice and tiles are added for drafting) doesn’t make a lot of sense and it was just basically ok.

I wouldn’t mind playing it again, just to see if I missed anything.

Schadenfreude (#1912) if my favourite trick-taker right now, so you know I love talking about this one.

This is the trick-taking game where coming in second is best!

Not only does the second-highest card of the led suit win the trick, but you’re trying to score points, but not too many points.

That’s because once somebody goes past 40 points, the game ends, and they lose!

Instead, the player who has the highest score that’s below 40 wins the game.

The mechanics of this game are so good. I wish it was available over here in North America so I didn’t have to pay an arm and a leg for it (or wait in futility for my friend Abi to decide he wants to sell his copy).

I would love to have this game in my collection.

Empire Builder (#1923, and I’m surprised it’s that high!) is a kind of pickup and deliver train game where you are drawing routes on the map, taking your train to a destination to pick up a good and delivering it somewhere else.

You can have more than one good, so maybe you could do a side stop on the way and get more money?

I love that you use wipeable crayon to build your routes.

It’s not really a game for me, but I’m glad I played it (it made a friend of mine happy) and it’s not too bad if he wanted to play it again.

I’d be game.

Sanssouci (#1966) is a game that I don’t have much memory of, as I had my only play in 2018.

I remember kind of liking it?

You are creating a flower garden for the world-famous Sanssouci palace, and you’ve having the nobles at the top of your player board travel.

You are drafting tiles to place in the garden, and trying to create paths for the nobles at the top of each column to traverse.

The trick is that to move a noble, they have to follow a path that ends up in the same column.

You score points based on the row reached when you do that.

There are only 18 turns in this one, so you’d better be efficient!

Like I said, I have no memory of this. All of the above is from Boardgame Geek.

I do remember thinking that it was a good game, though, and I rated it 7.5.

So I must have liked it.

I don’t remember liking it, though.

That’s what happens when it’s almost 10 years later!

Whirling Witchcraft (#1985) was one of my few review copies (provided by Alderac in this case), and I do remember enjoying it a lot.

(I guess companies just don’t like my reviews. *sad face*)

Anyway, I definitely did enjoy this one

It’s a game where you are getting ingredients to make potions, to then send ingredients to the opponent next to you in hopes of overwhelming them with too many ingredients.

You have a player board where you hold what you have.

You’re using those ingredients to make the potions as shown in the above picture.

Any ingredients that are produced by those potions go to your neighbour, and they have to have room for them on their ingredient board.

Any that they can’t place, you get VP for!

Essentially you are trying to overwhelm your opponent to get as many points as possible.

When you fill your cauldron with the ingredients produced, you pass that cauldron to the player next to you, and that’s when they have to have room for everything.

The cauldron above would be hard to take in!

This is a fun game. It has a bunch of “take that” but it doesn’t penalize your opponent.

Instead, it helps you toward winning. That’s the best kind of “take that,” because you’re not harming their engine.

It’s also a very fast game, so it’s something that would fill a lunch time very easily.

I’d definitely play it if it’s on offer.

The only game I own but haven’t played yet is Halls of Hegra (#1961), a solo game about the German siege of a Norwegian castle in World War II.

You are the heroic Norwegians trying to hold off the German horde.

It’s a solo game and it really does have some interesting mechanics, including some chit pulls from a bag, which apparently can really harm you if you draw badly in the first round.

I haven’t had a chance to play it yet, though one of these days I will.

It doesn’t fit very well on my table at home, which is the main reason I haven’t.

The game goes in three stages: Mobilization, 1st Attack, and Siege.

In the first, you’re trying to organize your forces, get resources, and dig through the snow for some broken equipment you can fix to help aid you.

In the 1st Attack, the village below the fortress is being attacked. You try to defend even while you are trying to build up your forces further.

Finally, the Siege of the fortress happens. You have to keep your morale up even as you are facing constant bombardment and German attacks.

It sounds like a great game!

I did get it out to go through it and try to learn it, but space was at a premium and I had trouble doing so.

I need to get this out again so I can really play it.

And count it as a “new to me” play!

One day, if I can stop playing Final Girl on my lunch break.

With all of that being said, what games in this century would I like to play, at least once?

I’ve heard good things about Wallenstein (#1917), especially from my friend Clio (I think it was him? I’m sure he’ll chime in below) so I’d like to try it one day.

It’s a game that takes place during the 30 Years War in the 1600s.

It also has a cube tower!

Don’t see many of those.

It also reimplements Shogun, which I have actually played once on Boardgame Arena and did enjoy, though I had no idea what I was doing.

Let’s blurb this for the rest, as I have no idea about it.

“In each of the “action” seasons, ten action cards are shuffled, then laid out, with five face-up and the rest face-down. The five bonus tiles (which provide extra money, grain, or armies) are also laid out. Each player then secretly assigns one of his county cards (or a blank card) to each of the ten actions on his individual player board, in addition to bidding for player order and choice of bonus tile.

After revealing that round’s event card and determining player order, players carry out actions in the order determined earlier, revealing which county is taking the current action, then revealing the next face-down action, thus giving players some information about when actions will occur, but not all. Taxing a county or taking grain from it can increase the chance of a revolt during winter, but without money you can’t deploy troops or build palaces or churches and without grain you increase the chance of revolt.”

Sounds intriguing!

It plays 3-5 players and I wouldn’t mind playing this at all.

Especially because it seems to be a 90-120 minute game anyway, so it won’t outstay its welcome.

Another popular game among some of my friends (those on the Pixelated Cardboard Discord) is Draft & Write Records (#1909).

Many asynchronous Boardgame Arena games have come and gone and I just haven’t felt up to joining them, mainly because I’m in so many and I’m actually learning a couple of as well.

I didn’t want to learn another one.

I’m also not a big fan of roll and writes (or flip & writes, or whatever).

But this one has enough buzz among friends that one day I would like to try it.

Let’s blurb it to see what it’s about.

“Do you have what it takes to hit the big time? Can you take your band from performing in your parents’ basement to the largest stages around the world?

Draft your lead singer, musicians, production and backstage staff. Arrange them in the most harmonious ways to unlock more fans, money and opportunities. Plan your schedule, prioritize your assets and select your travel routes as you grow.

Chain your rewards into such an amazing show that you will leave your competitors behind. But as every superstar knows…watch out for those scandals.”

That doesn’t really explain much how the game works, so I can’t help you there.

When and if I do play it, I will report back!

And maybe one of my friends will leave a comment about it.

Since I mentioned Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit #1 in an earlier post (and I have that!), I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit #3 (#1933), which introduces armor to the ASL starter kit system.

I really would like to try this system again, and maybe get into the full system, though that is kind of a lifestyle game and it may inhibit me playing a bunch of other games.

It’s a complex World War II tactical combat system, even with the Starter Kits, so I’m not sure how ready I am for it.

But the original Squad Leader gives me such fond memories that I would love to at least try these again.

I had the 2nd Fields of Fire game, but not the first, which is at #1939, so I don’t count this as “previously owned” (since I didn’t have this one!).

This is a solo World War II game which was really cool-sounding.

However, I didn’t have the space for it and it was incredibly hard to learn.

There is a new deluxe edition out that is supposed to streamline the learning process, with practice learning scenarios and everything.

Which would be great!

But I still don’t have the space for it, unfortunately.

Which is too bad, because the system looks amazing.

“Fields of Fire is a solitaire game of commanding a rifle company between World War II and Present Day. The game is different from many tactical games in that it is diceless and card based. There are two decks used to play. The Terrain Deck is based on a specific region and is used to build a map for the various missions your company must perform. The Action deck serves many purposes in controlling combat, command and control, various activity attempts. The units of the company are counters representing headquarters elements, squads, weapons teams, forward observers, individual vehicles or helicopters. A single game is a mission and several missions from a historical campaign are strung together for the player to manage experience and replacements. A mission can be played in about 1 – 4 hours.”

One day, maybe when I have more space, I’ll try the Deluxe edition.

Finally, there’s another COIN game in this century.

Pendragon: The Fall of Roman Britain (#2001 now, but it was #1997 when I wrote this, and I’m not removing it!) looks really intriguing.

It seems to be on the more complicated side of the COIN realm, so maybe it won’t be one I play any time soon?

But I do enjoy the COIN (that’s “counter-insurgency” for those of you who don’t know) games a lot, at least the ones I’ve played.

They’re all intriguing, with the mechanisms of how you see the event card that comes out on this turn (which also gives the turn order in this round) and can choose to do an Operation, a Limited Operation, or maybe even take the event of the card if it’s really good for you.

There’s not a COIN game I wouldn’t try at least once, as long as the circumstances warranted it (like available time).

I’d love to try this one.

Of the other games in this century, the only game that completely turns me off (and it won’t be a surprise) is Factory Funner (#1964).

I didn’t want to play the original. Why would I want to play the sequel?

The gameplay doesn’t sound any different than the original, at least from the description.

The fact that it’s still real-time “choose a factory piece to fit into your factory as fast as possible” means that I won’t go anywhere near it.

Not all games are for all people!

I know some people love this game (or its predecessor, anyway).

There you go!

Another century of Boardgame Geek’s Top Games.

Some decent ones in here, possibly on their way up.

And others just pleasantly placed here, enjoying the companionship of the other games without really trying to move up.

What do you like (or not like) in this century?

Let me know in the comments.