BGG Top Games – 4401 – 4500

We’re halfway through the 4000s in our weekly look at games on the Boardgame Geek top games list, and things are looking up again.

Slightly.

Last week, I had only played two of the games in that century and I was beginning to despair that this series might soon be coming to an end.

But then this week hits!

And I’ve played/own…three games.

It’s a start!

Before we get into that, though, let’s follow our two experiments to see where they’re at this week.

Last week, The Game Makers (recently fulfilled from Kickstarter by Bezier Games) was at #3265.

I’m writing this on Friday night (and this is posting on the next Wednesday), and it’s currently at #3212. A gain of 53 in the space of two days.

Good! But slowing.

When this posts, it’s now at #3078, which isn’t too bad!

Slowing a bit, but that’s still just under around 150 spots in 5 days.

The other one I fully expect to hit the Top 100 at some point, which is good because I will soon own it and play it!

Wingspan Pocket was at #2417 when last week’s post went live.

On Friday night, it was at #2350. A 67-point gain.

Is it slowing down? Maybe?

Of course now it’s at #2023 so hard to say?

Another week of checking and we’ll see what happens.

These experiments are always fun, and if any hot new game intersects with one of these posts, a new experiment might happen.

So stay tuned!

This week’s list can be found here.

As ever, (make your own time travel joke here)

As mentioned above, I have three games owned and three games played in it, so at least I’ll have a little something to talk about.

I’m about at my introduction limit, so let’s begin!

The first game in this century that I’ve played is Pollen (#4463), a game by Reiner Knizia and published by Allplay

So you know it’s going to at least be interesting.

It’s yet another Knizia reimplementation, this time of Samurai: the Card Game (which is currently way down on the list so I guess this version is that much better!).

Funnily enough, I just recently played Hanami, which is a reimplementation of Samurai, so the Japanese themes are coming hard and fast.

This time, instead of Samurai, you have bees, beetles and butterflies.

Much more peaceful.

In this game, you are playing cards to attract one or more of the three pollinators: bees, beetles, or butterflies (I had no idea that beetles were pollinators…what has science education come to?).

When you play a card, the corners will have one of the three, or it could have a star instead.

When a full circle is made, you see which player has the most icons of the pollinator(s) that are on the token.

Whoever has the most gets one “meeple” of that pollinator.

If there’s a tie (like in the picture above), no meeple is awarded.

Then a new token is put out if the card placed creates a semi-circle, which will create a new space to fight over.

This happens until either there are no more meeples of at least one pollinator, all players have played all of their cards, or the last pollinator token is placed.

Then you score the meeples.

If one player has the most of two of the three pollinators, they win!

Otherwise, if you don’t have the most of any of them, you cannot win.

Each player sets aside all meeples of the type they have the majority in and then counts their remaining meeples.

Whoever has the most is the winner!

I remember not really caring for this one much (rated it a 6 on BGG), but after playing Hanami (which is basically the board game of this with a different theme), I think I wouldn’t mind giving it another try.

It’s beautiful, the Beth Sobel artwork is amazing, and I think I actually now “get” the scoring and how to do it.

I’m not going to raise my rating until I get a chance to play it again, but I have a feeling it would rise.

The next game I have played, and I wish I could get it to the table again but I’m not sure how well it will work in our current table setup (both at work lunch and at our Sunday game group) is Xylotar (#4454).

This trick-taking game designed by Christopher Wray and published by Bezier Games.

It really takes up a lot of space, but I really do want to try this again. Maybe I’ll bring it out to a Sunday and see if we can make the space work.

The reason for the space issue is that you are basically dealing out cards into a xylophone (or xylotar, since it’s handheld!) form, stretching across the table.

What’s really cool about it, though, is that you know what colours your cards are, and the range of numbers, but the cards are face down so you don’t know what numbers you are playing into the trick until you choose to do so.

The person to your right put your cards in numerical order, turned them all facedown, and then handed them to you to lay out.

It’s a must-follow trick taker with red being the trump suit (except in a 3-player game, where red has been removed and yellow is trump). If somebody leads a purple, you have to lead a purple.

But which one?

You know the order they’re in, so which one is lowest/highest, but you don’t know the exact number.

It’s really neat!

At some point during the round, you have to bid on how many tricks you think you will take.

After playing a card, you look at two adjacent cards, and one of those is your bid.

The other one goes back into your “hand” (at least you now know what it is!).

At the end of the round, you get one point per trick won, and you also get 5 points if you won your bid.

After three rounds, the game ends!

I really enjoyed this one. It’s only space issues (and James not liking trick-taking games) that has kept me from bringing it out again.

I’m going to change that soon.

The third game I’ve played and own is actually a standalone expansion for Smash Up, published by Alderac and designed by Paul Peterson.

Oops, You Did it Again (#4449) is another expansion with four factions, so you can play the game two player.

I don’t like it two player, so I don’t consider this an actual game.

But your mileage may vary on that.

I do really enjoy the factions that are in this one, especially the Cowboys and the new Duelling mechanic.

Go check out the review linked above to see more about all of them.

One game I own but haven’t played yet.

Plantagenet: Cousins’ War for England, 1459-1485 (#4457) is yet another game in the Levy & Campaign series published by GMT Games. This one was designed by Francisco Gradaille.

(And no, I’m not typing all of that again)

This is a 2-player game about the Wars of the Roses between the Lancasters and the Tudors in the late 15th century.

As with the other Levy & Campaign games, you are mustering lords and their troops to help you in your fight against the evil opposition.

You also have to feed your troops when they move or fight.

But you can only keep them in your army for so long, especially if you’re unable to pay them.

There are some cool editions to the series that aren’t in the previous ones, so let’s blurb it.

“Designer Francisco Gradaille adds overall and local political influence to Volko’s medieval operation system to reflect the ever-changing loyalties of the time while keeping play familiar to fans of the Series. Players will create and maintain a network of allied lords and nobles in order to obtain the provender and coin needed to supply and pay their armies. As ravaging and looting will damage each side’s reputation, each faction will strive to convince cites to join its side. Great battles will seek to kill or capture enemy lords—perhaps even a king. Two kinds of operational moves will be in play: the military and the political.”

This does seem really neat, and I have tried it asynchronously on Rally the Troops (which has a great implementation of it), but I had a lot of trouble understanding it playing it online like that.

I’m not sure I’m equipped to learn it that way, though I should probably try it again.

It does look beautiful on the table!

One of these days. So far, this one (along with Inferno) has survived my cull of games that I’m just not getting played.

I do like the mustering system in these games and did enjoy my one play of Almoravid.

That’s the extent of my knowledge for this century, so let’s look at some of the interesting stuff.

After playing La Granja a couple of times, and watching the Heavy Cardboard playthrough of this one, I’m intrigued by El Burro: a La Granja Game (#4445).

Designed by Michael Keller and Andreas Odendahl, this was published by Spielworxx in 2024.

In the game, you’re trying to build up the best farm (similar to its predecessor, though hopefully winning the game won’t earn you the title of “El Burro”) using dice drafting mechanics and multi-use cards, much like the original.

But this time you also have donkey cards and donkey deliveries that will add to your resources and ability to do things.

The board shows the route your donkey will take to make deliveries, and the player boards are similar to the original, but not the same.

If you want to see the Heavy Cardboard playthrough, it’s linked below.

I don’t know. It may not be the best game, but I’d like to try it.

Neuroshima Convoy (#4466) was designed by Ignacy Trzewiczek and published by Portal Games.

I loved the Neuroshima Hex 2-player app, having two games ongoing with two different friends all the time until the app just kind of crapped out.

This isn’t “Neuroshim Hex: The Card Game“, but it is set in the same universe.

This time, there are only two factions, the evil Moloch (who are racing a convoy to New York City to wreak havoc) and the Outpost (defending New York City and trying to stop it).

Each player has their own deck of 35 cards (for Moloch, robots, robot modules, and special cards, while the Outpost deck has troops, buildings, and special cards.

The Moloch player is trying to sow devastation in the towns the convoy passes on its way to New York.

“The Outpost has to win a few battles, slow down the march of Moloch as much as possible, and prepare to welcome robots in New York City.”

That’s all I get from the blurb, so I don’t really know anything about how those cards are played.

But it looks intriguing!

It looks like a sort of lane battling game.

Is it as good as other lane battlers I’ve played?

I’d be interested in finding out.

Maybe one of you can tell me.

How about a monster game?

Yes, Last Blitzkrieg: Wacht am Rhein, The Battle of the Bulge (#4436) was designed by Dean Essig and published by Multi-Man Publishing.

(And no, I’m not typing all of that again either).

It’s a huge one, with 1680 counters and four maps that are 22″ x 34″ each.

The game has 1-map and 2-map scenarios, as well as the entire 4-map campaign (along with one 4-map scenario).

It looks seriously cool!

And daunting.

It’s the first game in MMP’s “Battalion Combat Series”, simulating World War II (and eventually beyond) action at the battalion level.

Hence all of the counters!

Game turns are one day each, going from December 16 to December 31, which is the beginning of the Allied counterattack.

The victory conditions are kind of cool (at least for the campaign, I’m not sure for the scenarios).

You compare the German maximum number of victory point hexes to the number they have at the end of the game.

I’m assuming there’s a difference ranking, like “if the difference is 2, then the Germans win a decisive victory,” etc.

But I don’t know!

These monster wargames have always intrigued and intimidated me, and this one is the same.

I’d love to see it played sometime, and maybe actually get the gumption to play it.

Speaking of intimidation, are you intimidated by how long and convoluted Arkham Horror can be?

Want to finish it in 60 minutes instead?

Then it looks like you can try Arkham Horror: Final Hour (#4422).

This game was designed by Todd Michlitsch and Carlo A. Rossi, published by Fantasy Flight Games.

I’ve never played Arkham Horror (only Eldritch Horror, which is horror enough at times), but I do understand it can be quite long and a bitch to set up and play (like Eldritch Horror!).

This one obviously didn’t do as well as its predecessor (the 3rd edition of which is at #355, and no I’m not going to keep tracking that one), but the play time is appealing!

Let’s take a brief look at it.

This is also a fully cooperative game where you are trying to fend off monsters while finding the ritual components that you need to reverse the summoning of the big bad and save the world.

The blurb tells nothing about how the game plays, but looking at the rules (wow, research! What a concept), it’s basically an 8 round game (which probably contributes to the shortened play time).

Each player takes 4 turns in the round, and the turns are done by playing an action card and a priority card.

You draw the action card, place it facedown, and choose one of your four priority cards to play faceup.

The action cards have a top and bottom. The top has you moving around possibly, but the bottom has you maybe moving a little but then investigating.

Then actions are revealed and resolved in priority order.

The first two priorities will have the top action done while the last two priorities will have the bottom action done.

It seems quite interesting.

Is it fun?

I don’t know, but I’d definitely like to find out.

The horror of Arkham in only 60 minutes?

I have to try it.

Really quickly, because I am getting close to my word limit (and I don’t want to have my pay docked), how about Cosmic Encounter Duel (#4478)?

This was designed by Frank Brooks, Bill Eberle, Peter Olotka and Greg Olotka, published by Fantasy Flight Games (ooooh, a Fantasy Flight twofer!)

The game it’s based on is a legend, but I have not played that one either.

I guess it was inevitable that a 2-player “version” of this game would eventually come out.

It only takes 30 minutes, which is a plus.

But I have not heard good things about it from Cosmic Encounter fans.

Let’s blurb it quickly:

“Cosmic Encounter Duel is a competitive standalone two-player game in the Cosmic Encounter universe in which you and your closest frenemy race to be the first to control five planets. Each of twenty-seven alien species comes equipped with its own unique abilities that play with the game mechanisms in some way, offering you an edge in the fight, e.g., the Cheater, who can reserve an additional tactic that they can put toward any fight in the game — as long as their opponent doesn’t call out how they’re trying to “cheat”. How your game of Cosmic Encounter Duel plays out will inevitably be affected by which powers each dueling species has and how they play off of one another.”

There’s a lot more to it, obviously, and it’s cool that you have a whole bunch of different races to make the game replayable.

Is that because they’re jaded by their love of the original?

Maybe.

I’d like to try it out, just to see what the fuss is.

What did you think of the games this century?

Anything I missed? Anything I should avoid? Anything I should try?

Let me know in the comments.