BGG Top Games – 2601-2700

I hope you’re enjoying my weekly look at games ranked on Boardgame Geek that aren’t in the Top 1000.

I know I’m enjoying writing them, because I love the discussion they can cause (though sadly not last week, because I left two hooks in there for a response from certain people and they never caught a fish!)

I do know at least a couple of people who enjoy them, including my blogging friend Tavendale, who might just nick the idea from me.

(As an aside, if you like RPGs, board games, miniatures painting, Magic the Gathering, or any combination of those, you should check out No Rerolls. It’s great).

This entry is kind of a middle of the road entry, as I’ve played a few of them, but nothing really stands out to me as a must-recommend.

Checking through the list, there are only two games from 2025 in it, so this may be the final resting space (more or less) for many of these games, or at least they’ll slowly get pushed down the list as more popular games push them backwards.

I could be wrong though, and suddenly a huge influx of fans for Oltre Mare (#2604) may show up from out of the woodwork and bump it up!

Surely after my mention of it here, of course.

Anyway, you can find the list I’m working from here, though as usual, keep in mind that these rankings will change and if you’re a time traveler from the past, most of these games haven’t even been designed yet!

So you’ll be a bit mystified.

I’ve played seven of these games and own (or owned) two of them (thankfully, I don’t own any of these that I haven’t played yet!).

A bit of a downturn from last week, but not too much.

Let’s get this started so it doesn’t become a behemoth.

I only have so many 3000-word posts in me for a week.

Let’s start with a game that dips its toe in the scatological humour pond, and then decides to just do a cannonball into it.

Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards: Duel at Mt. Skullzfyre (#2640 and no, I’m not typing that whole name ever again) is a hilarious game of spellcasting, trying to kill all of your opponents at least twice.

It’s a card game where the spells you create have 1-3 component cards in them.

Each turn, you’re secretly playing a spell with those 1-3 components: Source, Quality, and Delivery.

You can choose a shorter spell, missing one or more of those, if you want.

How fast your spell goes off is based on the number of cards in it, and then the circled number in the last card is the initiative for spells of equal length.

And, by rule, when you cast your spell, you have to announce it like any arrogant wizard would.

Don’t look at me…it’s in the rules.

You have a health tracker, and the spells others cast will be taking your HP down.

If you get knocked down to zero, you will be out of the round and you will gain a Dead Wizard card.

Sometimes they’re good!

And sometimes they don’t help at all.

However, for each round that the game goes on, you will draw a new card, so you could have a bunch if you got knocked out early.

If you’re the final wizard alive (or if you ended up killing yourself along with your final opponent, because going out in a blaze of glory will still get you the win), you get a Last Wizard Standing token.

Get two of these, and you win!

There are also Treasures that you can gain in various ways that will help you, but they get discarded at the end of every round, so they’re not permanent.

The artwork is hilarious and yes, there are a few gross-out jokes (vomiting, the “Ballsy” card above, etc), but this is a game that’s designed for that. It revels in that humour.

It’s not a normal game that they then added “adult” content to, like Codenames Undercover.

If this kind of artwork and humour turns you off, there are many other games out there.

This game knows what it is and makes no apologies for it.

I like that.

It’s a fun game. I got rid of this one but still have the sequel.

I’d play either (or even the third one, which I didn’t buy)

Conquest of Paradise (#2661) is an old-style GMT game of exploration and conquering in the South Pacific.

However, it is not about Western colonization of the indigenous population.

It’s the colonization by other tribes, around 500 A.D, namely the Samoa, Tonga, Hiva, or Raiatea.

I played this back in 2019, so I don’t remember all of the details of how to play the game, but I remember that it was a neat balance of exploring ocean tiles and also trying to control the islands that you’ve come across.

I really love how turn order works in the game.

The last-place player gets to choose who begins each round.

But not only that, they get to choose the order (clockwise or counterclockwise).

That’s ingenious!

If you use the Advanced variant, that player can instead choose an Event card, but those could be good or bad.

Some are good!

After exploring, you can build up what you already have.

I remember liking this game, but we played it wrong and very badly as well.

In a 4-player game, it’s going to be tight because the map isn’t really that big.

There has to be combat. You can’t just do your own thing.

We also played the Arts & Culture cards wrong, which meant the winner of the game had way too many cards.

I’d love to play this one again, just to see if it holds up after playing it correctly.

The Adventurers: The Pyramid of Horus (#2659) is a fun push your luck game of exploring an ancient tomb to gain treasure and trying to get out before the mummies kill you or you’re trapped inside by collapsed stones barring the entrance.

It’s actually a really fun game, with players having to enter the temple, trying to avoid the mummies (who move in a set pattern, but not always the same number of spaces) and try to get treasure, even as the ceiling is collapsing above them.

If they get hit by stones, they do take damage.

But the treasures can be worth it!

But what you find might be deadly instead.

Every turn, stones are falling into a random square, which can include the entrance.

Also, the more treasure you take, the more wounds you have, the slower you move. So you have to weigh all of that together to decide when to get out.

The action dice mechanism is quite good, because “the Dice Keeper” rolls 5 dice. On your turn, you can only take a number of actions equal to the number of dice above your load and wound level.

So if you have a load/wound level of 5, then you only act on any 6s rolled!

I also love the characters, because I love asymmetric powers and this one has that!

All in all, a really fun game. Nothing deep about it. Just fun.

Mistwind (#2656, and this jumped ahead of the above two games while I’ve been working on this!) is a game I played at Dragonflight 2024 with some of my Seattle friends, and it was pretty interesting, especially if you like flying whales.

It has an interesting action selection system.

Each player has five disks numbered 1-5, but each round (there are only four!), you choose are placing four of them on action spaces.

Each side of the board has an action area, one space each for numbers 1-5.

Players take turns choosing one of their disks and placing it into a matching action space, but each space can only hold one.

So if you want that second space on a side, you’d better take it before anybody else does.

Doing that might cost you the 4 space on another side, though.

You’re essentially gaining resources and building trade networks for your flying whaleships to pick up and deliver cargo to.

I don’t remember a lot about how it works (hey, it was almost 2 years ago!), but I do remember thinking it was intriguing, but ultimately not one that I really needed to play again.

I would play it, but it’s not something I’m clamoring for.

I do love the miniatures and the map, though!

It’s definitely worth playing once to see if you would like it, though.

Dual Powers: Revolution 1917 (#2675) is an interesting 2-player game about the Russian Revolution.

Taking place over a 6 month period, both sides (the Provisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet) are vying for power after the Tsar has abdicated.

It is a card-driven game with an aspect of area influence control and some interesting concepts.

You are placing tiles in various areas that represent your forces and the strength you have to take control of that area.

Play is done through your three leader cards and five Command cards, though one of the Command cards you will be using to choose your objective region for that round.

The timer of the game is the Calendar, which the days will move with each Command card played, and it’s pretty cool too.

All in all, even though I haven’t played it in years, I did really like it and should probably drag it out again.

It’s a solid, if not awesome, game.

With all of that being said, what noteworthy games are in this century that I haven’t played yet but might like to?

First up, given my newfound love for solo games, I’d really love to give Comanchería (#2608) a try.

It’s always intrigued me as you are replaying the rise and fall of the Comanche Empire.

The first game, Navajo Wars (#2029, so I guess I skipped over it when I wrote that century) also looked interesting.

From what I understand (though as I said, I have never played it, and I also am not an Indigenous person, so I can’t really judge), it’s very respectful of the Comanche.

The game has a playtime of 60-360 minutes, so probably not one I will ever actually get to play (I guess it depends on scenarios), but I want to nonetheless!

Since I don’t really know much about the game, let’s blurb this:

“In Comanchería, the player takes command of the Comanche nation. The player must drive hostile tribes from the southern plains, establish dominance over the region, set up trade networks with both friendly tribes and colonial powers, and finally defend all of this against relentless military and cultural attack.”

I’m assuming the shorter scenarios are just one aspect of the entire empirical period.

It does bring to mind one of the things I find funny about wargames and wargamers.

The description says this:

“While many mechanics will feel similar to Navajo Wars, Comanchería is a very different game. Comanchería promises to deliver all the tough decisions and drama that Navajo Wars players have come to expect, but with a faster playing time and more streamlined victory objectives.”

Only in wargames can a “faster playing time” still be 6 hours.

I have fond memories of Victory in the Pacific (#2633) from when I was a kid, but we never actually played the game so even if I didn’t have a policy of not “counting” plays before I started recording them, I wouldn’t really count this one.

But I still loved the map with the various regions of the Pacific Theater split off and the individual ship pieces along with small infantry groups for island invasions has always made me wish we had actually played the game at the time.

I don’t remember what we did with it, actually. But we certainly didn’t play it.

It always seemed to me to be almost a “beer and pretzels” wargame of Pacific naval combat, but the playtime on the page is 5 hours.

Really? Ok! I stand corrected.

Let’s blurb it so it can all make sense.

“The game divides the Pacific into 13 sea areas. Each turn the players move their ships, land based air and marines from the ports and bases (which are located on the borders of sea areas) to one of the areas.

Ships can either be patrollers (the only ships that will take control of area after battle, but they must commit their move first) or raiders.

After all ships have been moved, the players dice off determine whether a day battle (where air power is decisive) or night battle (when ship board gunnery rules) is fought. After a number of rounds, until one side or the other retreats or loses all of his ships, the player with patrolling ships left takes control of the area and a scores a number of “Points of Control”.

If somebody hauls this out, I wouldn’t mind playing it one of these days.

Finally, I have to mention this one because my friend Zilla just played it!

Pericles: The Peloponnesian Wars (#2637) is a game about those wars between Sparta and Athens back in the day when people who talked about philosophy were given hemlock as a reward.

It’s a four-player game, which is really cool for a wargame. That’s because each side has two factions that are vying for power in their own right.

What is especially intriguing is that there are two phases in the game: Political and War.

In the War phase it’s “Us vs Them,” so you’re helping your teammate.

However, in the Political phase, each player is going against their teammate.

Scoring is that whichever side gets more honour during the War phase wins, and the ultimate winner is the player in the winning faction who has the most individual honour.

Really cool!

I have no idea how this game plays, but rather than blurb it, let me task Zilla with telling you how it plays in the comments.

I know, that’s nasty of me…

Anyway, this post is kind of dragging, so let’s stop there.

Anything in this century intrigue you?

Or that you’ve played and think I should play?

Let me know in the comments.