BGG Top Games – 3801 – 3900

As we go deeper into the Boardgame Geek game rankings, it’s almost like going deep, deep underwater.

Sometimes there’s something truly beautiful down here, like some full-coloured coral in bloom that is just an amazing sight.

And sometimes you get a few rocks.

Last week was a few (badly-shaped) rocks.

This week?

At least the rocks aren’t misshapen!

And there are a few more of them.

I’m still enjoying the discussions caused by these posts, though even that’s getting a bit thinner (that could be because last week really kind of sucked, or so I’ve been told).

As long as I’ve played or own a game in the century, I’m still going!

I might even keep going if the games themselves sound interesting, even if I don’t own or haven’t played any of them.

This week’s list can be found here, and it’s not a bad one this week, though nothing really stands out.

Keep in mind that if you come to this post in the future, the game you came searching for may not be here anymore.

Especially if you’re looking for that game that just came out and so it’s on the list now, but by the time you’re searching, it’s hit #1.

Here are my numbers for this week: 5 games played and 4 owned or previously-owned (one of the owned I haven’t played).

Lots to talk about so let’s get started!

The first game on the list that I’ve played (and used to own) is a game that’s fun, but not so much fun that I wanted to keep it available to play with others.

Charioteer (#3829) is a chariot-racing game designed by Matt Calkins (the guy who also designed the apparently-awesome Sekigahara (#233), a 2-player game about warfare in feudal Japan…oh, and he’s also CEO of the Appian software company and is a billionaire).

The game does have some interesting cardplay mechanics in that each round, where you will be playing 1-3 cards to move in certain ways around the track.

You play cards where you are matching at least two of the symbol and number combination that you want to use to move.

You can’t combine a red 3 and a red 5, for example.

If you played the above 3 cards, then you could move 11 spaces (the 5 in the red symbols means 5 spaces, and the fact that there are six matching symbols means you move 6 more).

The colours of the symbols also mean things, like the cornering symbols (the curves).

If you use the corner symbols to move, then you can go straight through the corner on the bottom row, though your speed isn’t as high as can happen with the red symbols.

If you go through a corner using any other colour symbols, then you have to alternate spaces, going back and forth (essentially halving your speed).

You can also get attacked and take damage (or use the symbol that does damage), one colour can help repair your chariot, and there are skills.

Each time you use a symbol, your skill marker goes forward by 1 and you get more movement when you use it the next time. Those markers that start in the starting spaces have to move up before they can move out.

I liked the game well enough, and it plays six players pretty well.

But the components were so shoddy and it didn’t get out as much as I would have liked, so when it came time to decide what to cull from my collection, Charioteer didn’t make it.

I’d still play it willingly if it came up, though.

War of the Worlds: the New Wave (#3854) is a 2-player asymmetrical deck-building game where you are either the Martians or the Humans (British, because back in the Victorian era, all aliens wanted to take over Great Britain first).

There’s a big map of Great Britain and the Humans are trying to survive.

Actually, to win, they have to do a bunch of damage to the Alien army, while the Aliens are trying to wipe out the Humans.

Each side in the game has their own decks of cards, both starter cards and cards they can buy.

The Aliens can wipe out pretty much everything that the Humans have, but the Humans can’t destroy anything Alien.

Instead, they just have to do damage to everything. There’s a damage track where you keep that score.

If they end up doing 30 damage to Alien units, they win.

I really like the asymmetry in this game, especially in the cards.

The board looks really cool (if very dark) and the miniatures that came with my Kickstarter version really stand out.

I’m not sure how the tokens or pieces or whatever look like.

I played this enough to write the review of it and I haven’t been able to get it to the table again.

It’s still in my office at work but since we have multiple people playing games with us now, this one doesn’t hit the table at all.

I’m debating trading it or selling it, but it is a good game.

I’d like to play it again one day.

Order Overload: Cafe (#3871), however, is a terrible game for me (though maybe not for others).

It’s a cooperative memory card game where you are working at a cafe and trying to get the orders correct.

There are order cards (based on player count) put out.

Everybody tries to memorize all of the orders, and then they are shuffled and dealt out one to each player.

Somebody calls out one of the orders and if somebody else has it, they put it out.

If nobody has that order, you’re out of the round.

If everybody’s eliminated before all orders are shown, you all lose!

If not, then you go onto the next round where it gets harder.

I hate memory games, because my memory sucks, especially for details like that.

If you like that kind of thing, I guess this one’s not bad?

Duos (#3875) used to be called Team Play, and that’s the version I have.

I hate that cover, too.

Here’s mine:

The game is a partner game that plays 3-6 players, and your team is trying to fulfill card play contracts faster than the other teams.

Each player will have their own goal but also there will be a community one that players are trying to fulfill.

You do that by playing cards that match the goal.

For example, three magenta cards where one is the sum of the other two.

Or the numbers 4,5,6 in either all magenta or all blue (I really prefer the Team Play cards too).

On your turn, you can also give your partner a card, but they can’t say what they need, so you’re kind of deducing from other things they’ve drawn (you can draw from the face-up market).

If they have the 456 goal above and they’ve drawn a blue 5, then maybe give them a blue 6?

You go until a team has fulfilled 8 goals, then play one more round. High score is the winner.

This is a fun little game and fairly easy to explain, or at least it should be.

Some people I’ve taught it to seem to have trouble with some of the concepts, but they eventually get it.

It plays quick and playing 6 players is really nice.

I’ll still keep my Team Play, though.

As for a game that I own but haven’t played yet, it’s of course another wargame.

A COIN game, in fact! (Counter Insurgency)

Red Dust Rebellion (#3856) is the first COIN game that is not simulating a real-life situation down here on Earth.

That’s because it takes place on Mars in the future, though still with four sides.

It’s designed by J. Carmichael, the guy who also does the Youtube channel 3 Minute Board Games.

It looks like a brilliant design, with the government faction (there’s almost always a government faction in a COIN game) being called Mars Government, and there’s also a corporate faction that also wants to keep Mars viable for its shareholders. This one is called CORP.

There are also two insurgent factions, Red Dust Movement and Church of the Reclaimer.

What sounds really interesting are the goals.

Of course the Mars Government wants to create a stable government while still being loyal to Earth and having the Martians like them.

The Corporation just wants to exploit the planet and make it good for business.

Red Dust Movement wants Mars for Martians, forming their own government without any connection to Earth.

The Reclaimers are the cool ones, though.

They want Mars to stay the same as it is, with no human interference whatsoever.

In fact, they want humans to adapt to Mars rather than the other way around.

If I could get a COIN game going, this is one I would really like to try.

I don’t know if I can get a COIN game going, though.

Maybe at Bottoscon?

Now let’s get into the noteworthy games or games I’m interested in but have not played.

On the noteworthy front is Rory’s Story Cubes (#3813), not because I’m necessarily interested in using them (though I do like telling stories).

It’s just that they seem neat.

You roll all nine cubes that have six different images on them (so over 10 million combinations) and then you tell a story incorporating all of those elements.

It sounds like an activity more than a game (or even just a story prompter), but it’s an intriguing premise nonetheless.

Nocturne (#3819) is a game that I’m surprised it’s this low.

It’s a game published by Alderac Entertainment Group and Flatout Games, and I think usually the Flatout games are pretty popular (Cascadia, Calico, etc).

So to see this 2024 game still languishing down here makes me wonder a bit.

Is it reasonably settled or is it still doing a slow rise through the rankings?

In fact, their 2025 game, Knitting Circle, is already up at #3092 (and rising fast this week, as it’s gone up 15 spots since I started writing this), surpassing this one.

Nocturne is described as a “puzzly spatial building and set collection game” on BGG, so maybe it has something to do with that?

Let’s blurb this one:

“In Nocturne, you play as a fox mystic casting magic spells to collect an assortment of enchanted items. You compete against rival mystics, each of you deciding when to cast the most powerful spells to move through the forest most cunningly to secure the best collection. Each turn you decide which items are most valuable to you and when to hold the other mystics back.

Through two rounds (twilight and moonlight), players compete to collect the strongest sets of magical items like firebird feathers, creature skulls, glowing mushrooms, mysterious eggs, and rare herbs. These items have value when collected in specific sets, but can also be combined to fulfill recipes needed for concoctions, scoring you even more prestige!”

Sounds like an interesting game, though the spatial element may make it a game that’s not for me.

I’d love to try it, though.

Of course, you knew I’d have to put Great War Commander (#3848) in here, because it’s the World War I version of Combat Commander!

Though it wasn’t designed by Chad Jensen and obviously isn’t as popular (or maybe it just hasn’t had huge print runs so people don’t know about it?).

It uses many of the same concepts as Combat Commander, though, including cards that have orders, actions, events, dice rolls and random hexes on them.

Let’s blurb this to see some of the differences.

“GWC offers many new and unique elements to its parent system. The maps are deeper, allowing more playing surface to maneuver two battalion-size forces facing each other. There are several new orders, like Offensive, Runner, and Machine Gun Suppress, all reflecting the intense and blinded combat. There are over 30 actions including Engineering works, Go to Ground, and Rolling Barrage, highlighting earthen ties and powerful artillery. And there are 40 events dealing with experiences unique to the times, such as Tanks and Sturmtruppen. Among the new and many contemporary events are Trommelfeuer, High Command Meddling, Petard Raquette and Machine Gun Nest.

Great War Commander puts emphasis on the rigid top-down field command structure of the period with captains giving orders to lieutenants and NCOs which is new to the system. Besides the Fate Cards, there are Strategy Cards which factor in higher command and give a flavor and depth to the battles beyond that of the tactical level.”

It sounds really neat.

I’m up for it!

Finally, let’s talk about Verdun 1916: Steel Inferno (#3866), a card-driven area-movement wargame about one of the most infamous battles in World War I.

This game basically covers the year-long back and forth battle in this hellish battlefield, including offensives like the Somme and the like.

All driven by cards in a “simple” (that’s the publisher’s word, not mine) format that should be easy to pick up, if you have 4 hours for the campaign (though there are shorter scenarios).

Those are apparently upgraded components.

I have no idea how it plays, and the BGG description is…lacking, so I can’t blurb it really.

But it looks intriguing!

There’s Axis & Alies: D-Day (#3870), which should make Clio happy.

There’s also Martian Dice (#3889), which seems to be a variation (with a few added additions) of Zombie Dice, a fun filler where you’re chucking dice like there’s no tomorrow.

Instead of avoiding shotgun blasts, you’re avoiding tanks which represent the human armed forces assembling to fight your invasion off.

In this one, you can set aside death rays to offset the tanks that you are trying to avoid.

Sounds fun!

Finally, there’s Star Trek: Five-Year Mission (#3843), a cooperative dice-placement game where you are trying to solve a series of blue, yellow and red alerts in order to score points.

Players choose a difficulty level from 1-6 and are trying to solve enough alerts without failing five times or having the ship destroyed (which counts as a failure in my book!)

Let’s blurb this one:

“Each crew member has a different ability and the crew’s abilities differ for each crew.

In these roles, players try to cooperatively solve a series of blue (easy), yellow (medium) and red (difficult) alerts to score points, attempting one of 6 different difficulty levels to win before failing five such alerts, or the Enterprise being destroyed. Players must deal with injuries which lock dice out of play, ship damage that can force players to attempt harder alerts, urgent events that must be completed in 3 minutes, the prime directive, as well as yellow and red alerts that force additional alerts cards to come into play pushing you closer to failing.”

I don’t know. It sounds interesting, but that could be the Star Trek fan in me.

You can be the crew of either the Enterprise or Enterprise D, so you get some variety too.

It may suck, but I’d love to find out!

That actually is a lot of games, and still under 3000 words.

That makes me happy.

Any games in this century that you love? Or hate? Or suggest that I should play?

Let me know in the comments.