BGG Top Games – 4301 – 4400

Welcome to another look at a century of Boardgame Geek game rankings!

These posts have been really cool for me because of the conversations they’ve started with friends and colleagues, but they’ve usually had at least a few games that I’ve played and can talk about with some semblance of knowledge.

That may not be the case for the next couple of weeks, though.

We’re getting down into the areas where I’m lucky to have played a couple of them, but that is actually a blessing in disguise in some ways.

This gives me an opportunity to talk about games that might be of interest!

Really quickly, because this is the first time that this has happened.

After writing last week’s post (but before it actually posted), I actually played a game that was in that century.

On Sunday, between writing and posting, I played Hanami (currently #4019, so maybe it qualifies for another experiment?), which is a reimplementation of the classic Samurai system, and it’s actually quite good!

I did enjoy it and I wonder if this will ever happen again?

It might!

Also, speaking of last week, we have two experiments still going on that I want to check in on.

The Game Makers (from Bezier Games) is freshly published and we are going to track how high it goes, since it happened to be in a century that I was writing about.

When last week’s post went live, it was #3420. I’m currently writing this on Thursday evening last week, and it’s at #3409.

Seems to be slowing down, but we’ll see what it is when this posts. Which is #3265.

Not gangbusters, but still moving steadily!

The other experiment is Wingspan Pocket, which hit the ground running and is racing up the charts.

When last week posted, it was #2879. As of when I’m writing this on Thursday, it’s currently #2728!

Slowed down a little bit since last week, but now (at the time of this posting) it’s #2417.

Top 100, here we come?

We’ll keep an eye out.

This week’s century of games can be found here.

Keep in mind that these rankings could change and that favourite game that you were looking for isn’t actually there if you come look at this during the apocalypse.

Because you need a good game to keep you occupied when something like that happens.

And it’s not very good for games I’ve played, with only two (owning one of those).

I’ll talk about those and then get onto some more interesting games (maybe).

Or maybe not!

Since I’m already way over my introduction limit, let’s get started!

Town Builder: Coevorden (#4348) is a game with a weird title, but it’s not actually a bad game!

Like many of these card games, it has multi-use cards that you can build or use to build other cards, or you can place it as a foundation for a future card.

It’s also a tableau-building game where the buildings will actually serve as your engine (or endgame points) to hopefully get you lots of points so that your district is judged as the most beautiful (or something like that).

Some buildings will give you endgame points, but some will also give you star actions that can be done during your turn, which will always be good because it gives you an extra action.

You can take a card from the market row as a “foundation” and the resource on it will count as resources toward the building you want to build. As you add resource cards to it, it will eventually get built.

It’s not a bad game. In fact, it was pretty fun.

Nothing that really stands out about it, but also nothing to hold against it.

The second game that I played (and first I’ve owned) is a game that I’ve played six times, so could probably review it!

If I had played it any time in the last century (ok, an exaggeration, but it’s been a while).

Subdivision (#4366) came out, from Bezier Games, a couple of years after Suburbia did.

It’s another tile-laying game where you are building a city-like structure, but in this case, it’s not a city.

It’s a subdivision!

Wow, I just realized that’s where they get the title from…

Anyway, players have a hand of tiles and a “parcel die” is rolled to see in what type of area a tile can be placed.

All players then place a tile like that, though there are ways to mitigate that.

It’s not a bad game, just kind of “blah,” and the sidewalk scoring is really obtuse.

And that’s it!

Nothing else owned and nothing else played, so let’s get into some games that might be of interest.

Before I get onto that, though, there is an Ascension expansion that I have played many times digitally that I feel I should mention.

Gift of the Elements (#4350) is a standalone Ascension expansion (meaning that it will play beautifully with two players but that’s it) that adds some intriguing aspects to the game.

This expansion adds two new elements to the game which make it really interesting: Empower and Infest.

Infest makes it so you can add monsters to your opponent’s deck, meaning they could be drawing some useless cards.

Unless they have a card or construct that likes drawing monsters.

Empower gives you the ability, when acquiring the card, to banish a card that you played this turn, making it even easier to get rid of your starting cards.

It also brings back events, but events that you can bring into your deck if you have enough runes (or strength for one of them).

I like this addition to the game, but I love anything Ascension that’s digital, so I may be biased.

The first game I want to highlight is a Zenobia award winner (for more information on that, go here) about the Dutch Resistance in World War II.

Dutch Resistance: Orange Shall Overcome (#4318) is a game that should probably be higher, but I can’t say for sure because I haven’t played it.

The trick is that you are resisting the occupation Nazi forces through non-violent means.

Which is pretty cool for a game!

The BGG description isn’t really that helpful, but I’ll add it here just so you know.

“Dutch Resistance: Orange Shall Overcome! is a scenario-based cooperative game about the Dutch Resistance during the Second World War. The main mechanisms are pick-up and deliver and resource management.

The game has five very different highly replayable scenarios. They are not directly connected to each other but focus on different aspects of the resistance work. Each scenario has its own goals, special rules, cards, and other elements.

Each player controls a character that is based on a real resistance fighter. These ten different characters have their own deck of three unique Character cards, based on what this person did during the war.”

I’m not really sure how this game plays?

But the fact that the Zenobia judges deemed it worthy makes me sit up and take notice, at least a little bit.

I think a couple of my friends played it at Bottoscon last year, so maybe they can chime in on it.

I’m intrigued!

Also a quick mention that the classic “regular” card game Canasta (#4322) is in this century.

It’s funny how many of these classic card games there are in these rankings!

Anyway, let’s move on.

There’s also a classic wargame that I remember all of the ads for it when it came out in 1986 but there was no way in hell I was touching it at the time.

The Korean War: June 1950 – May 1951 (#4327) is a huge wargame from Victory Games about the Korean War and all of the stuff that happened in it, for at least that first year.

This is a massive 15 hour campaign game with scenarios that will still take you up to 2-3 hours, all covering the action between the US and South Korean forces against the North Koreans and leading up to the point where the Chinese joined the fight.

This is an operational level wargame, so units are going to be divisions, regiments, and brigades.

I was just getting to the point where I wasn’t really doing wargames anymore, and not quite into my college years where I was playing Squad Leader (and pretty much nothing else), so there was no way this was getting played.

But it is intriguing!

Another game that I wouldn’t mind playing, and was slightly intrigued by at the time it came out in 2022, is Founders of Teotihuacan (#4356).

That’s because, of course, it has source material back to a really wonderful game called Teotihuacan.

While it was also published by Board & Dice, the designer is totally different and this isn’t really related to the former game at all.

You’re still working on a pyramid, but otherwise the two games aren’t really very similar.

Especially in play time!

This is a 45-60 minute game while the original is…not.

Let’s blurb it to see what we can see.

“Founders of Teotihuacan is a strategy game where you compete against your friends to create the best design of the city of Teotihuacan. Over the course of three to four rounds you will place your action disks to the main board, forming towers of varying strength, strategically use the bonuses they offer, and construct temples, resource buildings and the pyramid central to your project of Teotihuacan. You will balance generating resources and using them, as finding good locations on your city board becomes increasingly more difficult, and you will try to outwit your opponents, making use of an innovative and interactive action system. Finally, once the eclipse comes, all designs will be assessed and the player with the most points will win and become the architect to join the ranks of Founders of Teotihuacan!”

It sounds like an interesting game.

I thought about buying it when it first came out, but it didn’t sound that great.

But I’d love to try it.

Another really intriguing wargame that’s in this century is Storm over Stalingrad (#4354).

This uses the area impulse system I loved so much in Storm Over Arnhem, but for some reason I’ve never heard of this (probably because I wasn’t gaming in 2006 when this came out).

I love how when they say it’s a “fast 2-player game simulating the battle of Stalingrad,” that the word “fast” is in quotation marks.

It’s like they know that non-wargamers will never consider 3 hours fast!

I would really love to try out this system again since I know I liked it back in my early wargaming days.

The system (or at least this game) now uses cards to help the action, which is definitely a change from the original system.

Colour me intrigued, though this is probably long out of print and I’ll never see it.

Speaking of colour, Donning the Purple (#4358) received pretty positive comments from my friends over at The Players’ Aid and it always did sound intriguing.

The cover’s a little weird, though.

Like Time of Crisis in a way, this is a “king of the hill” game where players vie to assume the open seat of Roman Emperor in the late 2nd century (though Time of Crisis takes place in the 3rd century).

Instead of deckbuilding, this game has a “bit of worker placement” (according to the blurb).

It also has event cards, barbarians invading and you taking control of provinces, etc.

It looks really beautiful and sounds intriguing!

Let’s for a non-wargame this time and also a brand new 2026 game, so maybe this one will be on the move as well?

Realm of Reckoning (#4364) sounds fascinating in how victory conditions are created.

It’s a 2-5 player game where each player is a faction in the afterlife, formerly ruled by the Queen of All Souls, but now she’s gone, the relics are scattered, and the factions are vying for dominance.

Let’s blurb this so you can see why my eyes perked up (other than being naturally perky, of course):

“Across three ages, players simultaneously draft and play cards to earn resources, deploy acolytes, and gain unique abilities. Some cards trigger reckonings – pivotal moments in which players bid to introduce one of the 19 possible scoring paths for the duration of the game.

Each reckoning shifts the importance of core gameplay mechanics, including resource accumulation, area control, set collection, and reputation advancement. At the end of the game, the nine monuments selected during reckonings award points and the player with the most points is the victor. Will your faction rise to the top and control the fate of a shattered afterlife?”

Differing scoring paths based on player bidding, so each game may not only play differently, but score differently?

This sounds really cool, though I admit I can’t really tell much about gameplay other than that.

The board and pieces look neat, though.

I’m not sure when it came out this year, so it could be on its way up? Or it could have stagnated by now.

As I said above, when I wrote this on Saturday, it was #4398.

Now it’s at #4367, so probably not?

How about a remastered old classic game that people seem to love but also complain about how long it is?

And it’s a roll and move game!

Talisman: the Magical Quest Game 5th Edition (#4303 at the time of writing, though now it’s out of this century at #4284) came out in 2024 and changed a bunch of the things that made the original Talisman sets a chore to get through.

I was actually sent a review code for the digital edition that came out at the same time from Nomad Games.

I really liked it! I loved how being turned into a frog wasn’t quite as punishing (but still not fun) and that there were a few more ways to mitigate dice rolls.

I’ve never played any version of this game on the table, though, and I notice that the publisher did not provide a play time stat for the BGG page. I’d guess it’s at least 2-3 hours still, but I could be wrong.

You’re still rolling the die to get around the map trying to build up your character stats so that you have enough Strength and/or Craft to gain a talisman and obtain the Crown of Command.

The digital edition has been updating the old expansions but I don’t know how the tabletop game has been working the expansions.

Do they need to be reissued too?

Anyway, I don’t know if I’d ever play this on the table, but it might be fun to try one night at a convention.

Just don’t start at 10:00 pm or anything.

Finally, let’s talk about a game that got me when it said it was “kinetic.” I had to check it out.

12 Rivers (#4337) came out in 2025 and is a game where you are collecting pearls as they flow down the river, and then deliver them to interested parties.

It has marbles that run down various paths and then you can collect them!

Let’s blurb this one because it would probably make more sense.

“In each of 5 rounds of play, take turns paying camp cards (resources) to place your 3 tribe tokens into various slots along the rivers, to get the magic pearls you need. Pay more camp card resources to place higher up the rivers to pick pearls earlier. However, with clever placement and use of camp card powers, you can still get valuable pearls efficiently downstream. Use your Tribe tokens to block then collect magic pearls that flow down the 12 rivers. Collect pearls needed by villagers to ensure prosperity for the village at the bottom of the 12 Rivers.

Once all tribe tokens are placed, release the magic pearls to roll down the rivers. Then collect a pearl at each tribe token you placed, and store it on your Alpaca for now. Remaining pearls roll downstream to be blocked and picked at other tribe tokens, or end in the lake.

Along the way you will pick up helpful fairy tokens, and try to match Alpaca goals that reward you with points for collecting sets of particular pearl colours first.

To score the pearls you collect, transfer them to villagers you recruit from the village, and strive to score their bonus goals too. After 5 rounds the player with the most points wins.”

It looks really cool, but I’d have to see how it plays.

It only came out last year, so maybe it’s slowly moving up in popularity?

We’ll have to see.

With that, I’m approaching my word limit, so we’ll stop there.

Any interesting games in this list for you? Or have you played any?

Any to actively avoid?

Let me know in the comments.