BGG Top Games – 5101 – 5200

A day’s delay, so I hope nobody’s gone blue holding their breath for this post.

I’ll try to do better next week!

These Boardgame Geek century of boardgame rankings posts are still getting some great reactions for me.

Always love it when somebody in the online media actually tells me that they’re enjoying these!

So we’ll keep going on that front.

We’ve crested the halfway point of the Top 10,000 games and we’re on the down curve, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some good games here.

In fact, there are!

Not awesome (at least of the games I’ve played), but definitely good.

I’ve replaced the previous two experiments of games that I was following to see just how they would go with two new ones from games that hit last week’s list.

First, Forest Shuffle: Smoky Mountains continues its rise, though not quite as fast as the last two experiments were moving, so these may be short-lived.

When last week’s post went live, this game was at #4995.

I’m writing this on Monday and it’s already up to #4669.

Not bad for 5 days!

As this posts Wednesday morning, it’s now at #4567, so it’s moving pretty good.

The other experiment was the new Stonemaier game called Duel of Meloch, but this one may be a one-and-done anyway.

I figured that an exciting game combining Scythe and Expeditions would move really quickly up the charts.

When last week posted, it was at #5034.

As of Monday, it’s only at #5002.

Some movement, but not a lot.

Now it’s #4967, so maybe not something to keep following?

It’s going pretty slowly.

Anyway, we may be getting back to just talking about games in general soon.

This week’s century can be found here.

Of course, as always, if you’re reading this in the far future where there are flying cars and post-human people wandering about, they might have moved!

This week I’ve played three and don’t own any of them, though there is a fourth with the usual Smash Up caveat.

We’ve hit our introduction limit so let’s get st

The first game I’ve played in this century is definitely a lesser version of a much better game.

Star Trek: Missions (#5125) is a variation of the classic Fantasy Realms, with trying to form your hand to be the highest scoring hand of all players.

It’s not that it’s a bad game, per se.

It’s just that all of the other iterations are so much better.

Basically, you are drawing and discarding a card from your hand and trying to make your hand score a bunch of points by linking keywords, card types, and all of that good stuff.

Sometimes you’re looking for Command cards, sometimes Federation, sometimes racial cards like Vulcans.

The keyword synergy just gets a little too complicated in this one, and the artwork is decent but not awesome.

I’m a fan of not using straight screenshots, but the stylized artwork of what are probably screenshots of some kind (though I could be wrong) just look a bit…odd.

I love trying to make synergies out of the various symbols on the cards in these games, but for some reason Star Trek: Missions just seems to go a little too far in that respect.

It’s still not a bad game. I rated it a 6.5, so I’d definitely play it.

But if you asked me “which Fantasy Realms would you prefer to play?”

Definitely the Greek one.

Another game I have played, and it left an “it’s okay” impression on me, was 13 Leaves (#5147).

This is also known as I’m Out, and I played it at Bottoscon last year.

Strangely enough, Boardgame Geek doesn’t say “reimplemented by” or “also known as” or anything like that.

Instead, when you search 13 Leaves, you get this entry.

When you search I’m Out, you get this entry.

It’s insane!

This is a really quick card-shedding game where you can play cards to the table, but only if you follow the sequence and number of cards in the row.

What does that mean?

Cards are on the table, and you either play higher or lower than the numbers on the either end.

However, if you’re playing on an end and there are multiple cards of the same number, you have to play that number of cards or you can’t play.

So above, you can’t play a single 2 card.

You have to play three 2 cards.

If you can’t play, you pass and have to take one card in the sequence into your hand, making it easier for others and also giving you another card, which makes things harder!

You also can’t play for the rest of the round, so turns will pass with players putting cards on the table until everybody has passed and taken a card.

The game (not the hand/round, but the game) ends when somebody has played their last card.

Really quick, colourful cards (at least in this CMYK I’m Out version), and it’s a neat little game.

It’s just not something I’d be clamoring to play.

Finally, there’s a different take on a great little card game, though I haven’t played it in a while so I really can’t decide if it’s better than what it’s simulating.

Smile (#5164) came out in 2017 and I think I played it in March of 2018.

So my memory may be faulty! Though I think I’ve played it asynchronously on Boardgame Arena once or twice.

The theme of the game is that your tamed critters have escaped from their pen and you are luring them back into it with lightning bugs.

It has some similarities to the classic No Thanks, but there’s a bit more strategy involved because you know what cards are going to be available to you.

A number of cards are put out on the table and then, from lowest points to highest points, you place firefly tokens on the card to avoid taking it.

If there are already fireflies on it (or even if not, if you really want it), you can take the card instead of placing a firefly, and you get all the fireflies that are on it.

There’s a set collection aspect to this game, as well as a little bit of tactical thinking, because cards with the same colour tag at the top left of the card, they will cancel out and go away.

Good if you have a negative card, bad if both are positive!

In this game, unlike No Thanks, you want points, so you want to get rid of those negative cards.

It’s an interesting and cute little game that I haven’t played in years.

I’d love to try it again and see what I think now that I’ve been blogging for 8 years after having played it last.

Then we come to my caveat, which keeps coming up because there are so many expansions!

Smash Up – World Tour: Culture Shock (#5126) is another standalone expansion for this classic card game, and so it gets its own entry and ranking.

But it only works by itself if you only play two players, otherwise you need another expansion or the base game.

This expansion has a bunch of cool different mechanisms for Smash Up, including a faction (the Polynesians) that spread out quickly and bring out new bases.

Not to mention that it comes with five new factions instead of four!

I enjoyed this one quite a bit.

With that out of the way, let’s get to some games I haven’t played but sound interesting, or at least noteworthy for some reason.

GMT Games does have a bunch of solo games, especially the noted submarine and air war games, but they generally don’t do cooperative games that I’m aware of.

(This is where people point to all of the games I’ve probably missed).

Banish the Snakes (#5119) is a solo or cooperative game for up to six players simulating Ireland in the 5th century.

St. Patrick didn’t actually banish all the snakes from the island, because there haven’t been any for a super-long time before that.

The legend is more about converting the island to Christianity.

The Roman Empire was collapsing and players represent St. Patrick and others who are working to convert the pagans on the island.

Maybe a bit of a problematic theme for some people?

Then again, if you’re ok with wargames because of the historical simulation aspect, you’re probably ok with it.

But just throwing that out there as a note for those who otherwise might find it interesting.

It’s a race against time to convert the island before the Roman Empire completely falls in Britain.

Let’s blurb this one:

The game board shows a map of Ireland in the 5th century, with four Provinces-the same as today- but no counties yet. Wooden tiles represent the People, Druids, Chiefs, and Kings, and of course the High King at Tara. It is your job to break into the interrelated influences between these groups of people and get your new ideas accepted.

Each turn a card is drawn, throwing new challenges at your team. The severity of the event is determined by the previous card, and so no two games can ever play the same. The cards introduce events and ideas of the time, new saints, and historic figures- like Neil of the Nine Hostages.

There is a diagram of Great Britain to keep track of the steady decline of Roman civilization in Great Britain. As different parts of Britain succumb to the barbarians, more and more difficult challenges are added to the deck, until finally Britain is completely overwhelmed, cutting off Ireland from the continent and ending the game.”

I can see how this would be a problem for some people, and maybe why it wasn’t as popular as it could be.

Converting others from one religion to another is a pretty touchy subject nowadays, even if this did happen 1500 years ago.

I’ll just leave it there.

Holy crap, Brass Pittsburgh (#5127) is on this list.

How, when the crowdfunding just recently ended and nobody other than some reviewers and previewers has played it?

(yes, I know, it’s BGG and users there can be pretty stupid about rating things they haven’t played)

Maybe I’ll keep an eye on this one for a week or two, since Duel of Meloch turned into a bit of a dead bounce.

With both other Brass games in the Top 25, you know this is headed to the top.

It’s just whether it will be before or after people have actually played it!

I will have to check out the Heavy Cardboard playthrough of the prototype one of these days.

Now let’s go old school!

Stalingrad Pocket: 2nd Edition – the Wehrmacht’s Greatest Disaster (#5137) came out 1996 (updating the original edition from 1992) and appears to be a great solo game though it’s also a 2-player game (though the description on BGG does say “1 or more” players, so maybe 100 can play and each player will control one unit!)

The game will take anywhere from 3-15 hours (there are two scenarios and a full campaign) and is about either the Russians closing the pincers around the trapped Germans in beleaguered Stalingrad, or the Germans trying to keep that from happening, or at least trying to relieve the forces inside the pocket.

It looks really interesting, especially the map.

I have a feeling this would never fit on my table at home, so I wouldn’t be playing it unless somebody else had it and we played a 2-player game.

One can dream!

As a fan of the original game (though I haven’t played it in ages, and I own it!), I have to mention X-Men: Mutant Insurrection (#5178).

This is a marvel version of the classic Elder Sign (I really do need to bring that out again at some point) where you are rolling dice to defeat enemies and solve an eldritch mystery.

This Marvel version is slightly different but uses the same mechanics.

In essence, you are traveling around the world, solving cards or defeating enemies, on the road to facing off against the final villain.

You’ll solve the card locations or defeat the villains at a location by rolling dice and trying to match the icons on the card.

I don’t know the details of how the variations work in this one, but it does look really cool and the system it’s based on works really well.

I’d love to give this one a try.

The Red Dragon Inn 7: The Tavern Crew (#5187) is a standalone expansion for the classic Red Dragon Inn game series, which I have never played and never even seen (though I’ve heard plenty about it).

In the rest of the games of the series, you are the adventurers coming to the inn after a time of hard adventuring.

This time, you’re the tavern crew!

Let’s blurb this one since I’m not that familiar with the series:

“The Red Dragon Inn 7 is a new, 2-4 player standalone expansion to The Red Dragon Inn series of games. In this game, you and up to three of your friends will play as the staff of our beloved tavern, enjoying the night after all the adventuring patrons have passed out in their rooms (or stables). Of course this won’t be a quiet night of relaxation! Gamble, brawl and drink the night away as you prove you have what it takes to keep up with the heroes you handle night after night. The Red Dragon Inn 7 can be combined with all of our previous releases, letting you mix up the characters (and the mayhem) for games with four or more players!”

I’ve always been intrigued by this series, just because who can say no to a night of drunken carousing after fighting off some orcs?

Not this guy, that’s for sure.

Would this be a good starting point, though? Or maybe more at the beginning?

Either way, I am in.

Oh, 2009 games…never change.

Cardcassone (#5163) is, of course, a card game based on the classic tile-laying game.

They had to just add one letter so that when your eyes slide over the page, you’re sitting there wondering how the hell Carcassone can be all the way down in the 5000s!

In this game, you’re playing your cards to different rows, whether they be Field, City, Abbey, and are trying to make them worth more points to you than they are to your opponents.

But you don’t claim the points until you put a meeple down to collect the cards.

If you wait too long, somebody might scoop up the cards ahead of you and you’re pointless!

Let’s blurb this one too:

In each turn you either play your only meeple to the end of a row of cards to claim them, or play a card to a row matching the colour on the card. The first card played each round must be face down and does not have to follow suit. When all cards and meeples have been played for the round points are awarded for cards claimed.

The different types of cards score in different ways:
People cards – add up their printed values and multiply with the number of people cards. Then remove cards from game.
Animal cards – compare the number of animals to the reference card for points. Keep cards in front of you. Animals of the same type claimed in previous rounds are also counted.
Building cards – are placed facedown under the chest token until the end of the game. Points are awarded for sets of colours.
Colour-mismatched cards can be discarded for 10 points each or add to a collection of animals/buildings.
Dragon/fairy cards – score 10 points each and are removed from game.

Could be interesting, but the name is just…ancient!

What’s wrong with Carcassone: the Card Game like it would be nowadays?

These old people with their old ways, I swear…

There you have it.

A little delayed, but a new century of Boardgame Geek rated games.

Anything on here you’ve played or want to play?

What should I look out for?

Let me know in the comments.