BGG Top Games – 2701 – 2800

I know I have said this before, but looking at the next couple of centuries in the Boardgame Geek top games rankings, at least the next couple of weeks are going to be very bare bones.

I haven’t played a lot of them and there aren’t a lot of great interest.

For those of you who have been thinking these posts are too long, that might be a godsend!

We’ll see how things go in future centuries, but I can foresee the end of these, which will make me very sad!

And some of you as well, from what I’ve heard.

But we’ll keep going, at least until I have a couple where I haven’t played anything at all.

Then we’ll see!

Checking through the list, there are only a couple from 2025 or 2024, and I’ve never heard of either of them.

So I doubt there are any up and comers on this list.

There’s always a little movement within each century, with sometimes the ones on the edges (01 or 99) sometimes moving into the next century.

That could be me being my usual wrong self, though!

Who knows? Maybe a bunch of people will discover the glory of Risk: The Lord of the Rings Trilogy Edition (#2772) and suddenly it will jump upwards!

Somehow I doubt it, though.

You can find the list I’m working from here, though keep in mind that things can change (even though they probably won’t by a whole lot, other than getting nudged downwards by the latest hotness).

So it’s very possible when archeologists check back on this in 200 years, something might have changed!

I’ve played 5 of them and own (or owned) 4 of them, which isn’t huge, but at least it gives me something to talk about.

Let’s get this started because I’m already at 300 words!

The first game that I used to own, but I traded it away because I couldn’t get it to the table, is Shadowrift: 2nd Edition (#2739).

I played it a couple of times with my wife during the COVID lockdowns, but the general feeling about cooperative games at our usual Sundays meant that I didn’t feel comfortable bringing it out.

I even Kickstarted the Boomtown expansion!

But finally I decided to cut my losses and trade it away for something else good.

For some reason, the first edition and the second edition have been combined on Boardgame Geek, so I actually only played my edition once with my wife.

The second play was the original edition at a convention in 2015, but I literally have no memory of what that entailed.

Shadowrift is a deckbuilding game of sorts.

Players are taking their turns, but the fun thing is that you can do play cards in any order you wish. So you could play a card that then benefits another player, who then plays something that benefits you next, etc.

Hordes of monsters are coming through the rift, and you have to fight them off while trying to seal the rift so no other monsters can get through the rift (including Pete Hegseth).

Each round, players can buy cards to supplement their decks, but some undefeated monsters will move in and attack the village you’re defending as well as the players.

And some will have powers.

Depending on the monster you’re facing (there are multiple monster decks to choose from), you could be adding burns to your deck, like the Rain of Fire card above.

The village will soon have many corpses accumulating in the village deck, and one of the lose conditions is if all of the village market consists of corpses.

It’s a fun concept, and I did enjoy it, but it didn’t click that much with the wife (that may have been because I started getting really down during COVID and while she was willing to play games with me, I had a lot of trouble making it happen mentally) and when the lockdowns were loosened, I didn’t feel comfortable bringing it to game days.

Maybe I should have, but I did trade it away.

I wouldn’t mind trying it again, though!

Iron Curtain (#2743) is a fast little card-driven game about the Cold War (so many of them are!).

I actually reviewed this one back in the day, though I haven’t played it in ages.

It’s a 2-player game with the same tug of war scoreboard that Twilight Struggle has, where points start at 0 and swing either to the Soviet player or the US player.

You’re placing country cards out on the table, next to a card that that’s already out that’s in the same region as the card you’re playing, if possible (the Europe card starts out on the table already).

Real life geography is not a consideration.

If the card has your flag on it, you can choose whether to do the event or do the cube action (each card has some number of cube images on it, like Israel above having three cubes).

If it has your opponent’s flag, then they get to do the event if they want to.

Cube actions can move or place your influence cubes onto cards. “Command” actions let you place cubes on cards where you already have them, or on cards that are adjacent to your cubes.

“Infiltrate” actions let you place your cubes anywhere.

These cubes, of course (don’t they always?), represent your influence on that country, and you are trying to control as many countries (and thus have control in as many regions) as possible.

It’s a very quick, 20-30 minute game, and it’s actually quite enjoyable.

My penchant for playing 2-player games has waned recently, though, so this one is on the trade/sell block (though nobody at a bloody wargame convention would buy it for $5, so maybe I’m destined to own it).

The gameplay itself is kind of abstract, considering how you can have Brazil and Italy next to each other on the table, but it’s a good game in its own right.

I recommend trying it if you have access to it.

Zombie Dice (#2765) is a super-quick dice-chucking game that’s always easy to bring out when you only have a few minutes, but for some reason it never makes it into my bag.

I think it’s become a bit too old school and boring compared to some other fillers out there.

You’re essentially all zombies trying to eat as many brains as possible.

You roll three randomly-drawn dice, see how many brains you get, and keep those aside.

You then draw back up to three dice and reroll, except for shotgun blasts which you have to keep.

Three shotgun blasts and your turn is over, but you can stop at any time and store your brains (hey, the zombies have discovered Tupperware!)

Once somebody has 13 brains, the game’s over!

This is another super quick press your luck game, and it does have some laughs.

I can see how it’s gotten a bit stale, though. If it didn’t take up so little room on my shelf, I may have tried to trade it away as an add-on to something somebody actually wants.

I’d never say no to it if I have a few minutes, but it’s not a go-to game at all.

Dale of Merchants 3 (#2776) was the first Dale of Merchants game that I bought, though I had played one of the first two prior to that.

It impressed me enough to buy the first two and the Collector’s box!

Though I haven’t played it since.

It’s a lunch-time game and I’m not sure how well it went over with my two other players.

It’s a fun little game of woodland creatures doing their own merchanting (yes, I’m coining that word).

You’re trying to play a tableau of 8 different values of cards, ranging from 1-8.

It’s a deckbuilding game where you are adding cards to your deck that have different “suits”, with each suit having a different set of powers/effects (they all are themed together).

It’s one of those deckbuilders where you are eventually getting some potentially strong cards out of your deck in order to score, in this case because you need increasing values of cards to form your stalls.

You will always be playing with a limited number of animalfolk factions in the game (based on player count), meaning that you will always have different options, especially if you combine these with the other expansions.

Buying a card from the market is a matter of paying enough cards with total value equal to what you’re buying (again, with the possible added cost depending on where it is in the market).

If you play a Technique card, then you’ll do the action on the card and also get to do another action.

I do like this game and wish it had gone over better.

I think I will force it next time there’s just three of us and see if we can get it played. We didn’t really understand the strategies the first time we played it and the game dragged longer than it should have.

Anyway, I’d definitely recommend trying this one!

Those are the games I’ve owned and played, so how about games that I’m interested in and other special notes?

The first note for me is Legendary Encounters – The X-Files Deckbuilding Game (#2709), which is another Legendary game though part of the “Encounters” group rather than the basic Legendary games.

These tell a bit more of a cohesive story (like the Aliens one where you can replicate one of the movies)

I’m a huge fan of the Legendary Marvel series of games (though all of the expansions have made it unwieldy to actually bring out), so anything in that system at least piques my interest.

It has the same basic mechanics as Marvel but with cooperative story mode (instead of the semi-cooperative nature of the original).

It also uses stills from the series rather than artwork, which is much better considering the horrible artwork in the Legendary Encounters: Firefly game.

Even if you’re not a fan of stills.

I’d definitely play this one if given the chance. It’s been a while for any Legendary for me.

There is, of course, a legend of another kind, when talking about Mark Herman’s 1993 classic, We the People (#2729), a game about the American Revolution.

It was the first card-driven wargame (apparently) and also got rid of the typical hexgrid map, instead having point point movement.

It’s always kind of fascinated me (well, “always” means “since I heard about it”) and I’m sure it’s a classic for a reason.

Let’s blurb this one so I don’t get something wrong.

“We the People was the first in what has become a very popular trend for wargaming. The typically hex-based maps were simplified into an abstract system of connected spaces, which are used for army movement and to keep track of who controls the provinces politically. The armies themselves are greatly simplified, but the general in charge of the army gains much importance through his ratings for combat effectiveness and overall strategic effectiveness. Typically, dice are used to resolve conflicts between troops, however a deck of battle cards are used instead, which captures the feel of conflict much better and gives approximately the same results seemingly without the bitterness that accompanies skewed die rolls. And lastly, the overall ebb and flow of the game is determined through the play of strategy cards, which ostensibly mark certain historical events during the Revolutionary War, but each card has multiple purposes depending on which side is attempting to use it.”

So it’s the precursor to Twilight Struggle!

Yeah, Herman’s a legend for a reason and I’m sure this game is very good.

My Shelfie (#2761) is actually a game I’ve played asynchronously on Boardgame Arena a few times.

It’s quite cute, with basically you trying to place groups of things on your shelf so that you get the most points by being the most organized.

Like things go with like!

There’s a “market” of item tiles out on the table, and you must take 1-3 of them and put them on your shelf.

However, the ones you take must be in a line together (horizontally or vertically) and they will then go into one column on your shelf.

You’re doing this to satisfy a personal goal card, either for having certain colours at certain spaces on your shelf or public goal cards that give points for items in an illustrated pattern of of colours.

You also get points for pieces of the same type/colour being next to each other.

Endgame is triggered by somebody filling their shelf, which gives them additional points.

It seems very quick, the artwork is adorable, and I can’t comment on the components since I only played it online, but it does have racks just like Connect 4 that you are placing your pieces in.

So that’s cool!

Then there’s Age of Comics: The Golden Years (#2794), which brings you into the golden age of what looks like Horror comics.

Essentially this is a worker placement game where you’re running your own comic company. You’re trying to have the most points at the end of the game.

Let’s blurb this one because I literally know nothing about it, but I love comics!

“The objective of the game is to accumulate the highest number of fans, make money by publishing comics and create the best portfolio of comic books. In each round the players take turns positioning their editors onto 6 different publishing tasks: hire, develop, ideas, print, sales, and royalties. To print a comic book, a player must pay using monetary resources, must use 2 identical idea tokens and must have a comic book cover, a writer and an artist card, with the comic’s value determined by the values of its creatives (artist + writer).

The game lasts 5 rounds. Throughout the game, a fan chart will track the number of fans accumulated by the comics and will award victory points based on the players’ ranking at the end of every round. The winner is the player who scores the most victory points at the end of five rounds.”

It sounds really intriguing and the presentation is top-notch with extremely accurate vintage comic covers (I don’t think they’re real covers, but definitely of the old style).

I have never heard of this game before now and it’s a 2023 game and it looks interesting.

It’s too bad I’ve never seen it anywhere.

I was going to talk about a COIN game, Gandhi, but it dropped out of this century between me starting this post and now that I’m finishing it.

I will talk about it next time, unless it somehow moves back into this century before I start that post.

That would be my luck.

Finally, there’s Crusader Rex (#2781), a historical block wargame about the Crusades, from 2005.

It’s a block wargame, which is interesting in itself, but it’s also noteworthy that this seems to be a straight-up wargame without any nuanced feelings about the Crusades.

You’re playing the battles, and that’s fine!

It’s a wargame.

You don’t get into philosophies of both sides in a game of Fortress Europa.

Let’s blurb it and get out of here.

Crusader Rex is a block game of the 3rd Crusade. One player plays the Christian Franks, the other, the Muslim Saracens. The objective of the game is to control important Victory Cities such as Jerusalem, Acre, Damascus, and Antioch.

The board depicts the Middle East from Antioch in the north to Egypt in the south, creating an engaging and elegant experience. You find yourself immersed in the theme and historical flavor that Crusader Rex has to offer. The Franks looking to take back the Holy Land, can they hold out until the powerful crusaders arrive, such historical figures as the ruthless Richard the Lionheart, Philip II of France, or even the 67 year old Frederick I red beard of Germania? As Saladin, who was the epitome of a chivalrous warrior, can you repeat history and retain the Holy Land for the Saracens?

Crusader Rex plays a bit like other Columbia block war games but has many variants that give it its own historical flavor, such as siege warfare, knight charges, harrying, muster moves, freedom in set up, and more!”

Other than Commands & Colors, I haven’t played any block wargames, so I’d be up for it!

There you have it.

Yet another century in the Boardgame Geek rankings.

Any of these games that you like? Any you despise?

Let me know in the comments.

(And whew! Under 3000 words)