BGG Top Games – 5401 – 5500

A couple of days late, to leave room for my Bottoscon 2026 post, but it’s time to take another look at a century of games in the Boardgame Geek rankings.

We’ve reached the halfway point of the 5000s and wow, there are still at least a few intriguing ones showing up in the list, and I have actually played some!

Only two, but that’s “some,” right?

Before we get started on that, though, we still have an experiment ongoing, and also a reference to a previous experiment.

I mentioned in my Bottoscon post that I had played Wingspan Pocket, so I happened to check the rankings for that to see where it has risen to.

It’s in the Top 1000, at #954!

That’s awesome, and well-deserved for Elizabeth.

It’s a great game.

The actual ongoing experiment, though, is Forest Shuffle: Smoky Mountains.

Last week, on Wednesday when the post went live, it was at #3227.

I’m writing this on Wednesday morning of this week and it’s currently at #2860!

When this post goes live on Friday morning, it’s at #2815. That’s a huge move, though given it’s been over a week, maybe not that huge?

We’ll give it another week or so and see where it is.

Anyway, on to the actual games in this list, which can be found here.

Of course, if you check this out in the future, the Internet may not exist anymore and you’re shit out of luck.

But you might find the scrap of a game left to play with your new alien overlords!

As I mentioned above, I’ve played two of the games in this list (owning one of them) and I used to own one other one, so it’s a bit sparse.

But there are some other good-sounding ones on here.

Since we’re nearing the introduction word count limit, let’s begin!

Kompromat (#5457) is a 2-player lane-battler, set collection and push your luck game that my friend Sean (from Thing 12 Games) introduced me to at an OrcaCon a few years ago.

I was helping him demo some of his games for other convention-goers, and when we had down time, we played some quick 2-player games.

This one was really good.

It’s a sort of Blackjack game where you are playing cards to try and take one (or more) of the cards that are in the middle of the table.

You play one of your cards face up in front of one that you are going for.

All other cards that you play there are face-down from the top of your deck.

If you happen to go over 21 in front of a card, you bust!

But since the cards are face-down, your opponent doesn’t know that until all cards are revealed.

The cards that you are bidding on will give you some kind of power or just straight points (like the ones below)

The powers can be useful, so I’ll show you a picture posted to BGG by the publisher, Helvetiq.

I love the push your luck aspect of the game, and how your opponent has no idea if you busted or not, so they still have to think about spending resources if they want that card.

Busting gives you a Suspicion token, which is a point at the end of the game, though if you get too many of them, you will automatically lose.

I haven’t seen this one since that fateful OrcaCon, but I’d definitely love to play this one again.

The second game in this century that I’ve played is a sequel to a classic.

Hanamikoji: Geisha’s Road (#5465) is a bit more intricate than its predecessor, Hanamikoji, but it also has a bit more meat to it.

It still has the main dish of the previous game, where you are playing 4 actions in the round, two of which have an “I split, you choose” mechanism for putting “strength” on cards you are trying to gain and attempting to influence geishas to come to you instead of your opponent.

But there’s a bit more to it here.

You are not just playing cards to the individual geishas.

You are also moving them along the paths to the various teahouses, perhaps earning visitor tokens or making the geishas worth even more.

You have the standard Hanamikoji action tokens, though.

You’re still playing item cards for individual geisha’s, with two of the actions having you put down cards and your opponent chooses the card(s) they want to play before you play yours.

Basically that whole part is unchanged.

However, the teahouses is where this one moves further.

Whatever strength of card(s) that you play on a geisha (1 or 2, anyway), you will move that geisha that many spaces along the teahouse path, then gain visitor tokens (or the tie-breaker token if there aren’t any visitors) for that teahouse.

Playing a 3 or 4 strength card will move the geisha but you won’t get visitor tokens, which encourages you to play lower-strength cards (or higher strength, moving the geisha beyond where your opponent might want her to be).

Landing a geisha in her own teahouse will let you put a points token on her, making her worth more and more attractive to try and influence.

The geisha road really adds to the experience, where the original game was really good but kind of samey at times.

I haven’t played this one in quite a while, but maybe I should revisit it, if we ever get a 2-player game going at work.

The other one I owned but never got played is a solo game that has a new (and from what I understand, much better) edition out, at least of its predecessor.

Fields of Fire 2 (#5420) was a mistake, but not because it was a bad game.

Though it was apparently a real bear to try to understand

However, the main mistake for me was “how the hell am I going to get this played when I don’t have anywhere near enough room on my table for it?

The game is totally a card game, where the terrain you’re putting out is cards, the dice rolls are cards, and you are moving your troops up through the terrain cards, discovering the enemy, and trying to take them out.

It looks really cool and I would have loved to play it, but my eyes were bigger than my brain when I got it.

Fields of Fire 2 hasn’t been updated to a new edition yet, but the first one has now been republished as Fields of Fire: Deluxe Edition, with a massively overhauled rulebook, training stuff, and apparently is much easier to put together (though this is a complicated wargame, so don’t think it’s easy!)

If I ever get space, I would seriously love to try this one (well, probably the new version, but maybe this one will be updated soon)

With that, let’s get on to the good stuff: stuff that might be cool!

There are a number of old wargames in this century, so let’s go for the oldest, and one that I’m sort of familiar with from when I was a kid and actually wargaming (though I never owned or played this one).

Anzio: The Struggle for Italy – 1943 – 1945 (#5473) is originally from 1969!

I remember reading about it in the General magazine back when I was doing wargames. Hell, that might have been the 2nd or 3rd edition by that point (the blurb on the BGG page is from the 4th edition, but I have no idea how many editions there have been).

This is the story of the Allied attempt to take Italy and knock them out of World War II, beginning with the Anzio invasion in 1943 (an invasion that was supposed to take the Germans from behind as they were facing off against the Salerno bridgehead and Allied forces there).

I do love the blurb:

“Few games have been kept up to date as much as ANZIO has. Revised and revised again, a good game has gotten better and better. Played on a 44″ X 14” mapboard of Italy, the game recreates the Allied amphibious Invasions and campaigns to secure the peninsula leading to the heart of Europe. The Allies face not only the German and Italian armies, but some of the most varied terrain in the world.

Unit counters represent American, British, Greek, Canadian, Polish, French, Indian, German, and Italian forces. Order of Battles are available for a variety of mini-games and the campaign game, providing a highly versatile game of almost any duration and complexity.

The twenty-four page rule book is divided into a basic game and several advanced versions. Each advanced version adding more and more rules, complicating while making the game more realistic and adding the·feel of the actual problems, decisions, and actions of the campaign.

Game features include unit step reduction, naval bombardment, tactical airpower, paratroopers, limited intelligence, breakthrough combat, supply, stacking values, special terrain effects, and fortifications A gem for the hardcore gamer. Players can select their own combination of playability and realism. Probably the most underpublisized and under appreciated game around. A silent “Classic””

It has that old Avalon Hill look and feel, with a really dark map and basic counters.

But as a nostalgia piece, and one that may be given new editions even now (there is a picture of a 6th edition dated 2006 in the Images area of BGG), it’s pretty cool.

I remember my time as a kid, playing wargames, and it’s stuff like this that brings it back.

That, and how much I loved reading The General magazine for the After Action Reports and news articles.

For a 3-D tactile experience (and hence something I don’t think I would play, because I feel like I would knock it over in no time flat!), there is Positano (#5404).

In this game, you’re building resorts and other locations on the cliffs above the sea, and all for points!

But you won’t get very many points if your buildings don’t have much of a water view.

You’re bidding on the ability to draft tiles from the bid board, and then construct them into the cliffside village.

It really looks beautiful, but it’s not one I’ve ever heard of and I can just see myself tipping the whole thing over and tiles going everywhere.

In addition to building stuff for points because they can look out over the water, you’re collecting gelato.

What’s not to like?

There are also goal cards that you are trying to fulfill as well.

My hands are a bit shaky at the best of times, so even if it was just while trying to put my own tile out there, it would all go tumbling down.

But otherwise the game seems pretty cool.

Now let’s move on to a trick-taking game that I have never heard of, probably because it’s from 2007.

Cliffhanger (#5415) is about goats.

But it’s also a trick-taker!

You know I love me some trick-takers.

This one is an interesting one as a game goes over eight hands, but there is a central island that will be formed by the losers of the first four tricks.

This will tell everybody how many goats can actually live on the island.

Each card has a number of goats on it.

When winning tricks, you will be collecting the goats, and if you’ve collected too many at the end of the game, then you won’t win.

Thus the winner of the game is who has the most goats without going over the maximum.

The blurb does not say what happens if everybody does.

Maybe you’re all losers!

It sounds neat, the artwork is very cute, and I’d definitely play this one.

Let’s go back to the wargames with an interesting series of modern day wargames from GMT Games.

Next War: Poland (#5430) is the 4th game in the “Next War” series of games and it imagines a war in the very near future between NATO and Russia with Poland (and Ukraine and the Baltics) caught in the middle, as usual.

Let’s blurb this one:

“Ukraine is in turmoil: embroiled in a civil war which has lasted for years and the situation seems further from resolution with each year that passes. Clandestine support from both Russia and the West fuels the war and keeps any hope of peace at bay. In the meantime, the civil war in Syria and the fight against Islamic extremism gathers steam. NATO and Russia stare each other down in a “coopetittion” in the region, and tensions rise meteorically as not so “friendly” fire incidents occur. The West tightens sanctions against Russia and ratchets up its rhetoric; Russia, meanwhile, attempting to regain a place in global power politics, responds with sanctions of its own against Turkey and starts low-level cyber warfare and “little green men” incidents in the Baltics. Tempers flare across the world, Turkey shoots down another Russian plane while Russian SAM batteries shoot down a Turkish F-16 in retaliation. Russia declares enough is enough, decides on war with NATO, and invades the Baltics and Poland. Belarus, knowing where it’s bread is buttered, joins in. Some NATO nations rush to the rescue while others debate the issue. Once again, Europe trembles to the rumble of tank treads and marching boots…”

Being published in 2018, this game sounds remarkably even more plausible today.

The game has scenarios, of course, so the game can take anywhere from 2 to 20 hours, but it’s pretty comprehensive.

So much so that the page says that this is not an “introductory” war game, though experienced wargamers should be able to handle the basic game.

I’m not sure my brain could handle it, but it would be interesting to see!

The whole series has intrigued me a bit, but yeah, it probably will never get played.

Finally, let’s go really like with Star Wars: Bounty Hunters (#5438).

Very light, and a 20 minute play time!

It’s a bit of set collection, a bit of drafting, and a lot of Star Wars.

Here’s the blurb on BGG:

Star Wars: Bounty Hunters is a light strategy game, in which players compete to be the best bounty hunter in the galaxy. Players have three goals which will help them earn points: capturing targets, completing contracts, and purchasing droids and crates at the Jawa market.

There is no down-time in this drafting game: everyone plays at the same time. Players start with 4 cards in hand. Each turn, players pick a card from one of the available piles (targets, hunters, contracts, and Jawa market). Then, they can choose to either play or sell a card. Finally, they pass their remaining hand to their left-hand neighbor.

Target cards have defense values, while hunter and droid cards have attack values. To capture a target, players must equal or exceed the target’s defense values by placing hunter and droid cards in front of their targets. Once a target is defeated, it is placed horizontally.

Players may also fill contracts by choosing contract cards. These grant bonus points for capturing specific targets and purchasing crates.

The first player to capture 4 targets earns bonuses, and this triggers the final 2 turns. Using the scorepad, players count the points they earned from capturing targets, filling contracts, and purchasing crates, and they deduce points they spent to hire hunters. The player with the most points is declared the best bounty hunter in the galaxy!

Taking time to purchase droids and crates at the Jawa market seems a bit superfluous for scoring goals, but maybe it integrates well with everything else?

The draft sounds interesting, though. I like drafting games.

Looking at the picture, maybe buying droids enhances your abilities in other areas?

That could be cool.

Anyway, the short play time, the Star Wars theme, and maybe the card drafting, all sound interesting enough that I would love to try this at some point.

Sadly, I don’t think anybody in my game group would want to play this.

Even as a 2024 game, unless it hit harder than it seems it did since I’ve never heard of it (not that this is a factor in it actually not being popular!), it’s probably out of print.

It is sold out on Boardgame Bliss, which again, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s out of print, but who knows?

Anyway, if anybody wants to play it with me, I’m game!

We’re near 3000 words now, so let’s end this one.

Anything in this century you’ve played and would recommend? Or recommend that we steer clear of?

Or maybe just sounds interesting?

Let me know in the comments.