BGG Top Games – 3701 – 3800

Some of these “top BGG Games” posts are a little lean on games that I’ve played, though I really enjoy that because we can then spend more time talking about games that it would be cool to play!

If there are any in that century, anyway.

That’s not always the case.

Last week’s didn’t cause that much discussion amongst friends, so I guess even they hit a lean week.

Or they didn’t read the post.

Which makes me sad.

This week is going to be one of those lean weeks for me, though, as I was worried I would hit that fabled “didn’t play any games” plateau!

I didn’t, though, as there are a few in there.

I’m actually not writing this one a week ahead of time. Only 6 days ahead (that’s not a week!).

So hopefully there isn’t a lot of movement between the time I finish this up and when it goes live.

Speaking of which, this week’s century can be found here, but if you come to this one in the future, there’s likely some new up and coming game here that you’re wondering how it could be this far down.

Here are my numbers for this week: 3 games played and one of them (previously) owned!

Yep, lean indeed.

Let’s use some of this unused introductory space to talk about some games!

The first game I played on this list is one that I do not have fond memories of.

In fact, I really disliked it, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad game.

(See Friday’s upcoming post for my opinions on that).

Welcome to Dino World (#3712) is a “strategic roll and write” (whatever the heck that means) where you are rolling dice, drawing dinosaur holding pens onto your sheet, and placing dinosaurs in them.

Hopefully they don’t break out!

Players will roll dice and, using the instructions on the player mat they’re drawing on, will be drawing attractions visitor centres, dinosaur pens, etc.

But the dinosaurs can break out of their pens, and that’s not a good thing.

In the later rounds, two or even three dice are rolled, and in addition to drawing a building on your map, you need to draw paths between the buildings using the path dice indicators at the bottom of the sheet.

I don’t remember all of the specifics of how you do it, though I do know that each round, you roll two dice and a pen from the type of dinosaur you wrote that number in for will take a point of damage. If a pen takes a number of hits equal to the circled number for that dinosaur, a breakout occurs, and all hell breaks loose.

I realized with this game that spatial and drawing roll and write games are not my forte at all.

Of course, that makes sense since my spatial ability in general is pretty bad.

For roll and write fans, this is probably a great game, but it’s definitely not for me.

A much better game for me is one that I sadly have just sold because I didn’t think I’d ever get it to the table (I played somebody else’s copy before I even owned it, which is why I bought it).

Almoravid (#3731) is the second game in the Levy & Campaign series of wargames published by GMT Games.

The Levy & Campaign series of games aren’t your typical wargames, because they take supply and “temporary” armies into account a lot more than most games.

Most wargames, you just have to be a certain distance from a supply depot, or maybe not have your route to that depot cut off by enemy forces or zones of control.

In this one, you have to actively forage, possibly depleting the land around you, to make sure you can feed your troops as you campaign in (whatever area the game is in).

You are also levying lords and their forces to your campaigns, which means you also have to pay them, and they will go away after a certain time in service.

Almoravid takes this into medieval Spain from 1085-1086, with the Christian lords attempting to reconquer Spain from Muslim forces that are holding it, plus a fundamentalist Muslim army from Africa that’s attempting to roll back the Christians’ gains.

It is a really cool system, where you have to raise and equip armies to ravage or conquer the lands.

But you have to pay attention to the calendar because you can only raise them for so long.

Then they’re gone!

I love the system of activating your lords to do whatever you want them to do, by forming a deck of Command cards that have cards from each lord, but in a random order.

If you want one lord to do more, you can put more of their cards into the deck than any others, but you only have so many. You have to prioritize.

On your turn, you flip the next one and that lord can activate and do something, whether attack, move, forage, etc.

You may not be able to do things in the order you want.

There are a bunch of scenarios and a campaign game, so you can play anywhere from an hour to six hours.

I really enjoyed this one, but space and time prevented me from keeping it.

I did keep another Levy & Campaign game (Inferno), though, and I hope to be able to do stuff like this when I retire in a few years.

Finally, we hit another game that was just “ok,” though I didn’t actively dislike it like I did Welcome to Dino World.

Cable Car (#3762) is a game that I played twice, two weeks in a row, way back in 2015.

That’s so far back that photography hadn’t been invented yet!

I mean it’s so far back that I wasn’t taking pictures of my games at the time, so I don’t have any.

This is a game where you have a bunch of cable cars on the sides of the board, and you are trying to place tiles with circuitous routes so that each of your cars have a route to the central power station or to another station on the side.

As soon as your car is connected to a station, you get points for each tile your route goes over and that car can no longer be scored.

I’d actually kind of like to try this again.

I remember playing it but have no memory of the game play.

I just rated it a 6.5 and moved on.

It’s probably better than that, though.

That’s it for games I’ve played, with two minor exceptions.

Ascension X: War of Shadows (#3784) is an expansion for the much-lauded Ascension deckbuilding game, and I have it on iOS but have never played it on the table.

I love the Light/Dark mechanic that this expansion adds to the game, where cards are either Light or Dark and depending on the balance of cards of each type in the centre row, either Light or Dark are in ascendance (or neither if the balance is even).

Some cards give you more abilities if it is one or the other, which is neat.

It’s included in the rotation of a number of my asynchronous games, though I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve played this specific expansion.

It is cool, though!

It’s the same as above for Ascension: Dawn of Champions (#3771), which I also have played many times on the app.

This one has you be the champion of one of the four factions, gaining influence when you take cards (or defeat monsters) of that faction, eventually claiming your champion’s card to also use.

I also like it, if you have gained enough influence in your faction, that taking cards of your faction may get you one (or more) free cards if the card that replaces the one you take is also of your faction.

Again, heavy in my rotation so I don’t know how many times I’ve incorporated this one in my plays.

With that out of the way, how about games I’d like to play, or other noteworthy games?

Top of this list (just because it’s near the top of the century) is Margraves of Valeria (#3703 and hopefully not moving up before this actually posts, but it actually did move up to #3700).

I love the Valeria games that I’ve played, so I’m always open to another one.

It bills itself as a hand-building, worker placement game, and that sounds intriguing!

Ok, probably not to Tartan.

You’re a margrave in Valeria (wow, that fits) who is tasked with helping defend the kingdom, building magical ward towers in cities, sending knights out on quests or to activate spaces on the board, and trying to gain influence in the four guilds.

It also is interesting that the “workers” that you are placing aren’t yours. They’re the knights that are on the board and can be used by all players, meaning you could be setting up your opponents for a big turn if you’re not careful.

The card play sounds interesting, with card drafting and multi-use cards that can help you gain influence or do one of your board actions.

It all sounds really intriguing and I’m sorry I didn’t take advantage of the sales that have been had previously, because now it’s only available direct from Daily Magic, and between the US/Canadian exchange rate and shipping to Canada, it’s not really feasible for me.

Maybe I’ll get it in a trade or I’ll stumble upon somebody who has it, because I’d love to play it and review it.

Or maybe a review copy?

Just spitballin’ here…

Another noteworthy game is 1861: The Railways of the Russian Empire (#3723), an 18xx train game that doesn’t sound interesting to me, but I’d love to hear fans of the series tell their stories about it.

Or if they’ve even played it?

I’ve literally never heard of this one, and I do know some aficionados of train games!

It’s a 2006 game, so maybe my friends who play it haven’t seen it either.

Anybody care to comment?

Panzer (#3736) (and no, I’m not typing out that whole subtitle) is that venerable tactical World War II combat game published by GMT Games in 2012 and it’s still getting expansions and reprints, with the 4th Printing currently on the P500 list.

I’ve never played this one, but since I love tactical WWII games, I think it would be right up my alley.

It does sound complex, but let’s blurb this one:

“Panzer is a complete game system designed for small unit actions from platoon to battalion-sized formations in World War 2. The primary focus is Armored Warfare simulation, but Leg (Infantry) and Towed units are also part of the game. Each 7/8” double-sided counter represents a single vehicle, towed gun or aircraft. The 5/8″ double-sided leg unit counters represent squads, half-squads and sections, including their attached weapons.

It’s a modular rules system with Basic, Advanced and Optional rules, which the players can mix and match according to taste – you can keep it simple or make it as complex as desired. All Unit data is included on the full-color Data Cards. The streamlined chit-based command system moves the action along at a brisk pace.”

The fact that you can do Basic or Advanced rule sets makes it easy to get into, I would think.

It definitely has got my interest in trying it out.

Of course, we also get that classic wargame statement about time, where something that is “quick-playing” is a game that takes 2-5 hours.

Two hours is not quick!

Well, maybe it is for wargames. There is that.

Bottle Imp (#3773) is a game that I’ve heard so much about when the subject of trick-takers comes up.

Though it’s usually been the original game, The Bottle Imp (#1908) which was published in 1995.

I think I’ve been hearing all of the talk about it much prior to the remake’s 2024 publishing date.

This new version adds team modes and 5-6 players (instead of just 2-4).

Apparently you gain points by taking tricks, and you want to get the cursed bottle to help you score, but if you end the round with it, then you will lose everything.

It sounds really intriguing.

I love trick-taking with a twist, and this sounds like one of the originals in that genre.

Then we have a classic that I grew up with, though I never got into it as much as others have (so much so that they’re still playing variations of it at conventions to this day!)

Car Wars (#3794) is the original game of vehicle combat, from all the way back in 1981.

Think The Road Warrior but with dice and where you could be in an arena instead of on the road. You’re driving down the highways of a post-apocalyptic world, facing down other drivers, but all of you have tons of weaponry and armour fitted onto your car.

They could be highway or arena battles, where your driver can hone their skills for future competitions…or they can crash and burn, sent to the hereafter.

I don’t know if we ever did a campaign with drivers that went from game to game, but I do remember outfitting our cars, choosing the suspension, body, armour, and how many machine guns or heavy rockets we wanted on it.

Always remember to not put an anti-tank gun on the side, or you will just flip over when you fire it.

You can even outfit your car with special stuff like spikes or oil slicks or whatever.

I had a lot of fun with this back in the day and I see large competitions with 3-D arenas and cars and many conventions I go to.

It brings back so many memories.

Finally, fresh off of my previous post about solo games existing, a really fascinating game called Field Commander: Alexander (#3724) rears its head.

This is a solo game where you are playing the life of Alexander the Great, the Macedonian king and general who conquered huge areas of ancient Asia, Europe, and North Africa.

Let’s blurb this one so you can see how neat this sounds.

“When playing the game, you are placed in Alexander’s footsteps when he comes of age in 338 BC, just before the battle of Chaeronea. From that point on, you get to decide where to travel, when to battle, when to negotiate, and when to seek out divine prophesies to guide your actions.

You are supplied with soldiers and advisers to help you navigate the dangers of the battlefield and the negotiating table. These include Infantry, Archers, Phalanxes, Cavalry, Advisers, Scholars, Courtesans, and Spies. You will craftily combine these resources with your own plans to achieve victory, and glorification. And if you do well, you will be remembered as one of the greatest leaders ever to walk the earth.

The life of Alexander is divided into several campaigns, each spanning several years. During each campaign, you are given goals, but how you achieve those goals is up to you. Do you enter into battle? Or negotiate? How strong are you? How strong are they? What can you gain? These are all decisions you get to make, and must make well, if you are to live up to the immortal standards set before you.”

These roughly 90-minute campaigns can be strung together into a life, in which case how one campaign ends will affect how the next one begins.

It also doesn’t look like it takes up a ton of table space.

Which is a bonus! Especially for me.

This game came out in 2009 from DVG Games, so I’m sure it’s long out of print.

But it’s definitely caught my attention.

Time to end for this week.

Anything in this century that you’ve played, or that interests you?

Anything to avoid because it totally sucks?

Let me know in the comments.