BGG Top Games – 4601-4700

After a week where I literally had not played any of the games in the Boardgame Geek century I was talking about, this week is going to be huge!

Well, maybe not huge, but we’re back to at least a few.

That will probably be welcome to those of you who read last week’s post.

Of course, one of these games was played over 10 years ago, so there won’t be much memory regarding that one.

Before we get into that, though, let’s check in on our two experiments to see where they are now.

The Game Makers (from Bezier Games) ended up at #2991, breaking into the top 3000.

I’m writing this on Thursday lunch, and it’s up to 2988.

Is it slowing down, or that just because it’s less than 24 hours later? I do know it was moving up faster previously.

And at the time of posting, it’s currently at #2958, which appears to be almost a complete stop!

Will that change when more of them get out into the wild?

Maybe.

The other experiment is Wingspan Pocket.

When last week posted, it was at #1783 and moving up fast.

Less than 24 hours later, on Thursday, it’s at #1768.

I doubt this one is slowing down, but we’ll see!

At the time of this posting, it’s at #1649, which means it’s not rocketing upwards anymore.

Maybe just a slower burn?

We’ll see where it ends up.

This week’s century does give me a bunch to talk about, as I have played five of the games and own three of them.

And I’ve played all the ones I own!

With a slight caveat, which you’ll see when I talk about it.

(That’s not always the case)

Keep in mind that these rankings can change over time, so if you come here to find that game your 15-year-old son just introduced you to (even though he’s not even been born yet as I write this), it may not be here!

With that, let’s begin.

Let’s get the old fogey out of the way first (wait, not me!).

I haven’t played Lost Legends (#4700) since July 2014, so it has been over 12 years.

I don’t even have any pictures that old on my iPhone!

I have no memory of this game whatsoever, so I will have to write about it as if it’s a game I haven’t played yet.

The artwork is pretty cool, though. I can say that.

This is a card-drafting, battling game where each player is a hero fighting monsters for fame and fortune.

Players will reveal which monsters they are fighting and then begin drafting equipment cards, presumably equipment that will help fend off the monster they’re facing.

There is a mechanic where you can pass along your monster to the next player (maybe so they’re not ready for it?) but then you have to face the monster that comes up next.

Points are awarded for trophies such as most monsters faced or sets of monsters actually slain.

Like I said, literally no memory of this one, but it does sound kind of fun.

I rated it 6.5 many moons ago and I can’t remember why at all.

Maybe I would like it now?

We then come to a genre of games that I love but have only played a couple of them: COIN games!

People Power: Insurgency in the Philippines 1981-1986 (#4608, which bumped up to 4600 during the week, so it’s technically out of this century) is a rare (but becoming more numerous) 3-player COIN game.

COIN games are “counter-insurgency” games where usually at least one player is a government faction of some kind while other players are insurgents or rebels of some kind.

This 3-player game has one government faction and two insurgents, with one insurgent being the NPA (National People’s Army) while the other is the Reformers (a non-violent faction that does more protesting than anything else).

It is designed to be relatively light compared to many other COIN games, so it’s a good introductory one.

And I had a blast playing it.

I own it, but we actually played a friend’s copy of it at a convention.

I did really enjoy the Election cards that add a special ability or effect that was in place until then next Propaganda card came out.

It’s fairly easy to understand (for a COIN game, anyway) and I’d definitely love to play it again (maybe with my copy this time!).

Another game I’ve played, but that I was kind of lukewarm to, was Delta (#4620).

We played this at Terminal City Tabletop Convention and while it was fine, it didn’t really enthuse us.

It’s a mishmash of mechanics that don’t really gel the greatest.

It has some set collection, it has some track movement, it has a bit of area control.

The one bit that was kind of interesting was that players will be drafting a card from the side of the board where each action card was played, with the star value of played cards determining the order that you do that (ties go from left to right).

So if you really want a card from there, you have to make sure you play a heavily-starred card to the area, even if its action may not help you as much as another might have.

The artwork is nice and the board is really beautiful (if a bit dark), but it just seemed like nothing was concentrated too much.

I’d play it again, but it’s not something I would request.

I also own and have played a couple of missions of The Hunted: Twilight of the U-Boats, 1943-45 (#4699)

I do love the story that these solo submarine games designed by Gregory M. Smith give you, but for some reason I haven’t brought it out again.

I think one reason might be that, since this is the “twilight of the U-Boats,” it’s actually really hard! I got sunk very quickly in my first mission.

I’ll bring it out again, I’m sure.

The idea behind the game is that your are a captain of a German U-boat, going out on missions to sink shipping and come back in one piece.

It’s a dice-chucking luckfest, but the stories it tells are really engaging, and you do have agency in that when a ship (or ships) come out, you decide which ones you are going after, whether to pursue and risk getting caught by an escort, how close to get to the ships, etc.

You’re playing the odds a bit, and that’s where the fun is.

You are rolling to see what your mission is, what area your sub is going through to seek out its targets (with some historical limitations, like you can’t base in France once the Allies have invaded and overrun your bases).

It’s a fun game that I really should bring out again. Missions are short, so you could do 2-3 at a time.

Why haven’t I brought this out again?

Let me think about that while I set it up.

The other game I own and played is an additional Smash Up base set, in that it actually does play 2-4 players, though you can end up using it as an expansion for the factions.

Smash Up: Marvel (#4675) removes the parodies from the game and instead is a straight up licensing deal, with Marvel heroes and factions being included in it.

It has your typical Marvel factions in it: The Avengers, The Kree, the Masters of Evil, SHIELD, Hydra, the Sinister Six, Spider-Man, and the Ultimates.

Basically four sets of antagonistic pairs, though you could end up being both!

It has the same basic Smash Up gameplay, but the terminology has changed a little.

You don’t have “minions” anymore (because minions are actually minor bad guys when you think about it). Instead, you have “characters.”

But everything else is pretty much the same.

The set is fun, with some nice synergies amongst the factions.

It also mixes fairly well with the basic game factions, though you do have to keep the terminology in mind.

“Minions” equals “Characters” for card effects, stuff like that.

I enjoyed it a bunch.

Ok, let’s go on to the best part of these posts: games that look cool but Dave doesn’t know anything about them!

Starting with a wargame, let’s do France ’40 (#4692), a GMT wargame that’s actually the first edition of the game.

The second edition has its own entry because there were some definite rules changes, and it’s ranked at #6299 (so not making much traction, unfortunately).

Not only that, there were a bunch of unit upgrades, map upgrades, and even new units added to be more in line with actual history.

But this entry is talking about the first edition, so let’s just say that this is one of the early games in Mark Simonitch’s “19XX” game series.

This one (and its second edition as well) actually has two games in it, Sickle Cut and Dynamo, which may have some unit overlap but use different maps.

I’m not sure if the system was using the “ZOC-Bond” system (that’s Zone of Control, for you non-grognards) yet, but it definitely looks interesting.

Of course, I’d play the 2nd Edition because it is also supposedly better-balanced as well.

But this is another wargame I’d love to try if I had a spare 4-6 hours.

Another game that looks hilarious, I have to mention because I have only heard of it through a Heavy Cardboard playthrough of it.

Even though it could very well fall out of this century by the time this posts, I have to talk about Auf Teufel komm Raus (#4698, which fell down to #4704 after I wrote this).

It looks like a fun push your luck bidding game, where you are secretly bidding on how much value the current player will get out of their draw before busting (or they stop).

In this case, they are drawing coal tiles with values from 10 to 100, but the devil appears on 9 of these 48 pieces.

If they reveal a devil, they lose all of the coal that they gained that round. However, the players who bid at least the amount they earned (or would have earned) also make their bet.

The scoring track sounds interesting because it has spaces for exactly 200, 300, etc, but if you’re not on one of those spaces, you’re between two of them.

Nobody knows exactly how much you have unless you are on one of those spaces.

Somebody wins when they reach at least 1600 in wealth.

This was a lot of fun to watch Edward and company play.

Here’s the playthrough (the rules are in a different video).

I would love to play this.

There is a game I would love to talk about, but it’s at #4700, so I think it will probably drop off and I’ll talk about it next week (where it will promptly rise back up into the 4600s and I have to make an exception anyway).

Instead, let’s talk about what could be another experiment (though probably not).

Entropy (#4668) is the latest game published by Board & Dice with some name designers (Tommaso Battista, Simone Luciani, Nestore Mangone) involved.

Will it jump out of this century between Saturday (when I’m writing this) or Wednesday (when this posts)?

It does sound somewhat intriguing, with players taking the final exam for becoming scientists in some very powerful society. I mean, you’re creating solar systems, bringing stars to life, creating life itself!

Sounds like the “school” theme behind Civolution, where you are trying to become the best god in a testing simulation of creating a society.

(not remotely similar gameplay, just the cosmic school setting theme)

Anyway, let’s blurb this puppy because I’ve never seen this one in the wild before.

“Entropy plays out over a variable number of rounds. Each turn, you must move your Scientist between 1 to 3 spaces clockwise around the Main board. You must end your movement on either an inner Action space on the Main board or an outer space of an Action tile, and resolve it. You will build Solar Systems with Stars, Planets, and Asteroids, then fill them with Life, by playing cards. You may also gain various special abilities by adding Biomes and upgrading your Console.

The end game is triggered when any 2 out of 6 Main Objectives are Completed. The player with the most Victory Points at the end of the game is the winner.”

It does sound like a neat game.

And it looks nice, too!

It did move up after I wrote that on Saturday, now at #4428, so maybe this will be on the move as well.

I love wargames that have interesting twists to them, and one that definitely does that is Downfall: Conquest of the Third Reich (#4627).

Chad Jensen (Combat Commander) started designing this game before his untimely death, and John Butterfield was brought in to finish it.

The twist in this game is that one player plays the Eastern Front German forces and the Western Front Allies, while the other player plays the Western Front German forces and the Soviets.

I have no idea how that works, so let’s blurb it!

“Gameplay is driven by Downfall’s innovative initiative track. The faction with the initiative chooses an order, pays its initiative cost by advancing their marker along the track, and performs the order. Then, the faction with the initiative (based on the updated positions of the markers) chooses the next order. There is no set sequence of play; initiative expenditures determine who goes next. The progress of faction markers along the track also trigger strategic events, changes in weather, and advancement of game turns.”

You are essentially both fighting the Germans and trying to become more dominant in the post-war German world.

That is seriously cool, but at 6-12 hours, probably not something I would end up playing.

But man does that sound awesome.

Finally, in the “what the fuck?” category, we have Railways of the World: the Card Game (#4629).

Railways of the World is a train game of route-building, upgraded trains, and all of that stuff.

A card game?

The game uses track cards and city cards to form the map rather than having a board.

Since there is no board, I assume that players are putting cities down on the table at some point to complete their routes?

Maybe other players can then connect to them?

I have no idea.

You’re still building routes, delivering cargo, and trying to upgrade your train.

The good news is that the game does actually have a “family” set of rules to introduce people to the whole Railways of the World concept, as well as rules for those who actually play these games.

I wonder just how many fans of these games would actually want to go down to a card game instead.

It’s at least faster! (30-60 minutes, supposedly)

So maybe it scratches that itch if you don’t have a lot of time?

I don’t know. I’m just mind-boggled.

Finally, really quickly, let’s talk about Pirate Fluxx (#4616).

Yes, it’s a Fluxx card game, so the rules are pretty much the same as all the others.

This follows the same standard play as the original. Follow the rules that are on the board depending on the Rules card, play actions or Keepers or what have you, and if you meet the conditions of the current Goal card, you win!

One new addition to this one is the “Surprise” cards, cards that can be played off-turn to nullify somebody else’s play or steal a Keeper.

I kind of miss the various Fluxx games. I’ve only played a couple, though I used to play the app a lot.

Sure, it’s chaotic and can go on much longer than it really should.

But sometimes chaos is fun.

Anyway, what did you think of this century of the BGG ranked games?

Anything good that I should play? Did you like (or dislike) anything I played or talked about?

Let me know in the comments.