My Sister's Top 25 games of all time as of January 2014 Part 3 #5-1

Welcome to my long-awaited top 5 games! Hope you have enjoyed my top 25 games list and make sure to check out and play these games!


#5 Wits and Wagers

I like Wits and Wagers. It is fun to bet on how well you or your other players can answer trivia questions. The greatest part of the game is that all of the answers are numbers! You do not have to know any trivia to win this game. A few or a lot of people can play at one time, which makes it versatile and a fun, not too difficult game to play.


#4 Dixit

Dixit is a great game to play with people you know. It is also a good way to get to know people, too. During each round, a player tells a story about one of the picture cards they have in their hand. The other players put in one of their cards, then all of the players vote on which card is the storyteller's. It is fun and a way to get your creative side working. This is a great game substitution for Apples to Apples, and once you play Dixit, you will likely never want to play Apples again. The artwork on the cards is amazing and there are truly an infinite amount of stories ready to be told.


#3 Shadows Over Camelot

Even though I am not a fan of co-op games, I really like Shadows Over Camelot. It is fun to become a knight of the round table and defeat evil. Watch out for possible traitors, while searching for the grail, excalibur, and trying to defeat the Saxons. Each knight can pick their own powers and be useful on certain quests, but it all depends on the cards. It is fun to play and watch how the group of knights work together. Be sure to set aside 2 hours to play this game, but once everyone is an experienced knight, evil will be quickly defeated and the good knights victorious!


#2 Formula D

This car racing game is awesome! Each player is in the game until the end. The game does take some skill, but if you can roll the dice well, you will succeed. Just be careful to not make too many risky moves, otherwise you will crash and burn. Try and cross the finish line before your competitors, and feel like you are a professional race car driver.


#1 Ticket to Ride

Yes, Ticket to Ride is my favorite game to play! I have played the U.S. map the most, so I like it the best. Europe is fun and so is Nordic Countries. At the beginning of a game of Ticket, I plan out how I want to connect my trains to each city. Someone usually tends to mess it up, however, since there are only so many route options. So, even if I cannot win, it is also fun to try and score lots of points, or even better to put my trains where I know someone needs to go and stop them in their tracks. Ticket can be stressful, but the point of playing board games is to have fun. I could probably play Ticket all night and not be board, unless the same person kept winning. I see myself playing this game for years. I also do not see myself making this game less than my #1 game.

My Top 50 Games (as of Jan. 1 2014) Part 3 30-21

Welcome back to my top 50 games list as of the start of 2014.  Part 3 has a few surprises as far as placement goes.  3 games make their debut in the 20's.

Without further ado, the games!

#30 Can't Stop  Down 15
Can't Stop is a great push your luck dice game.  It fell on my list because I haven't played it in over a year.  I don't own it, so it's not really under my control.  The design is simple and straight forward, but I love the anticipation that each die roll brings.


#29 Kingsburg  Up 6
Kingsburg moves up due to more experience with the expansion.  The game really offers a lot of choice, even with limited dice rolls.  Yes, you can get messed over by terrible dice rolls all game long, but for the most part, you'll be able to do something on each turn.  The more I play Kingsburg, the more I realize the depth in the game, and the different paths to victory.


#28 Fleet  Down 12
Fleet is still a really really good game, but I need to expansion to keep it fresh.  The game has become a bit samey to me.  I don't think there's necessarily one dominant path to victory, but there are several key things that you need to do in order to succeed, and once you get those things together, you're really hard to stop.  I know that the expansion is going to change a lot of things, or at least add a lot of options, which will prevent some of those main paths.  I enjoy Fleet, especially with new players, but in order for the game to stay up here again, I need the expansion to be excellent.


#27 Takenoko New
I received Takenoko from my BGG Secret Santa, meaning I haven't had it long.  The first time I played the game, I really enjoyed it.  Every time I've played it subsequent to that, I've enjoyed it.  That level of enjoyment demands a place on this list.  I'm not sure where Takenoko will settle, but this seemed like a good place to start.  Takenoko is a very approachable game that starts off simple and gets more complex as you go along.  There are 5 options on any given turn, and you get to do 2, so you're not overwhelmed with choice, but you're also not too limited.  I really enjoy how everyone has to interact on the board, but everyone has their own goals.


#26 Eight-Minute Empire New
If you read my review of Eight-Minute Empire you'd know that I enjoy the game, even though the title is a bit of a misnomer.  This game is more like 15-20 minute empire.  Still, it's a very well designed game, and it works well in a short amount of time.  The game has two ways to score points, but they're directly related.  On your turn, you purchase a card that has a symbol on it, and then you do the action listed on the card.  At the end of the game you get points for sets of symbols, as well as points for areas controlled on the board.  It's a really tight game with several key decisions, but it's also over quickly, so one bad move doesn't leave you losing for hours.


#25 Forbidden Desert  New
Spoiler alert, Forbidden Island is gone, and Forbidden Desert has taken over.  Forbidden Desert isn't the most challenging co-op game, but is by no means easy.  The player powers are easy to understand, but making the best use of the combination in any given game is a true challenge.  Make no mistake, Forbidden Desert is a lot more difficult than Forbidden Island.  Sun beating down on the players will account for a lot of lost games.


#24 Small World Down 6
Small World is still a very enjoyable game for me.  I enjoy the variety of races and powers.  I also enjoy the player politicking that goes on to try to cut down the leader.  The only reason it dropped a bit was due to newer games taking higher spots.  Small World is a great game for Risk players looking for something a little shorter and something with a lot more variety.

#23 Dixit  Down 11
Moving down due to lack of plays and a lack of desire to play.  Don't get me wrong, Dixit is still an excellent party game, and my go to game for a very creative group. The problem is that I don't have the creative mix of people that I had in college.  Dixit truly takes a group of diverse thinkers to make it work as well as it can.  That's one of the things that makes it a great party game.  It serves as a way to get to know someone, but more importantly, learn how they think, and also discover some of the random connections that people have.

#22 Roll Through the Ages  Down 11

Down due to lack of excitement.  I still think that RTtA is a great game with a lot of choices to make.  It's one of those games that I want to play more to really explore different strategies.  The problem is that I don't have other people who want to go down that path, so it tends to sit on the shelf while other games get played.

#21 Pandemic  Down 8
Pandemic is an enjoyable game for me, but it moved down because the newest expansion essentially requires the new version of the game, and I'm really opposed to that.  Now, I still enjoy what I have, and I will happily play Pandemic with what I have.  The game is fine, but it gets a bit samey after awhile.  My plays of it have drastically decreased over the last couple of years.  It can suffer from one player telling others what to do.  Fortunately, in my group, there are two of us who offer opinions and then leave the final choice up to the player.  That system has worked well for us, though it's not perfect by any means.

Keystone Games

Many people enjoy playing board games, but the main question is how to start a collection of games.  Sure, it's "easy" to go out and buy 20 different games, but that costs a lot of money.  A lot of people are very careful with how they spend their money these days, so I want to take a look at games that give you a lot of bang-for-your-buck, and that give you a good variety of games.

The goal here is to give you some ideas for games that give you different play experiences, work for a good player range, and don't cost all that much money.  Consider this the starter set of games. It can be expanded, games can be interchanged, but these are good ones to start with, and games that will give you a good collection.

Now, not every category is relevant to every person, nor is this list comprehensive, but I feel it's a good place to start.

The Short Family Friendly Game
We need a game or two that is short enough to play while dinner is close to ready, or a game before bed on a weekday.  Some good suggestions: Incan Gold, Can't Stop, No Thanks!, High Society.
For this, I recommend Tiki Topple.  The production quality here is excellent, and the game plays in under 30 minutes, typically closer to 20 minutes, but can be made shorter or longer by changing the point total to win.  For more on Tiki Topple read my spiel on it in the  Top 42 list.

Party Game
Every gamer needs a good game they can pull out with a large group of people and have a good time playing.  It shouldn't be too long, and certainly not complex, but it should be something to get people talking.
Here, I offer a few suggestions.  Apples to Apples is a good one to get people talking.  Werewolf or Mafia is great with a group of people who know each other, also great for a large group.  Tumblin' Dice is a lot of fun, but it's rather expensive, so it loses out on the Bang-for-your-buck aspect.  Wits and Wagers works well for a more intellectual gathering.  All of that being said, if you have to own just one party game, Say Anything gives you the best bang for your buck.  It's ~$20, you can find it in most Targets and Toys 'R Us, as well as various online stores, and it was designed to get people talking about the questions.  It's a great way to get to know other people in a fun and creative way.

Co-operative game
I think that a lot of people view boardgames as only competitive endeavors, but there are dozens of games where players are required to work as a team in order to achieve victory.  I own several of these games, and I enjoy the ones I have for the most part, but the best one in terms of Bang-for-your-buck is Forbidden Island.  It's the cheapest co-op game I own, but it's also on the same level of fun as the rest.
Some other co-op games that would be good for a collection, Pandemic, Space Hulk:Death Angel the card game, Defenders of the Realm.

Team game/co-op with a Traitor
Sometimes you don't just want to work together as a team, winning and losing together, so here's a category for you.  For me, three games really stand out for this category: Shadows Over Camelot, Battlestar Galactica, and The Resistance.  This category boils down to what you want out of the traitor mechanic.  The Resistance is the shortest game, and you're trying to figure out who's against you, so they can't hurt your ability to win.  I don't own the Resistance, but it seems like a good time.  Shadows Over Camelot is a great theme implementation. The game boils down to finding the one traitor, if there even is one, and deciding when to win certain quests, and what can be lost.  Battlestar is pure theme, with some decent mechanics.  It's probably the most balanced of the games with traitors, but there's still a lot of luck. My advice would be to get The Resistance.  It has a good player range, and it's the cheapest game of the three here.

Dexterity Game
Here's a category where even the best strategy can be mitigated by how well you can do some physical task.  The best known game in this genre is either Crokinole or Pitch Car, but both of these get fairly expensive.  So let's take a look at some less expensive dexterity games.  Catacombs blends flicking with strategy, but even then it's a bit expensive.  Pitch Car Mini is another good option, still pricy, but feasible. Ultimately this category comes down to 2 games for me - Bisikle/Roadsters and Sorry Sliders/Sorry Sliders 2.  Roadsters has the better quality components, but Sorry Sliders 2 just seems more fun. There's a lot more you can do in terms of hazards and track arrangement with what comes in the box.
Therefore, the pick for dexterity game is Sorry Sliders 1 or 2.

Random Skills Game
This is for those games that involve some kind of skill that isn't normally seen in games, but that people use in life sometimes.  These typically aren't high strategy games, but they have their place on our gaming shelves.  Two games come to mind for me: Dixit and Aargh!Tect.  Dixit is a game about telling a concise story as a clue so that at least one, but not all, players can figure out which card is yours.  You also have to figure out other players' clues when you aren't giving them.  This isn't all that abnormal, but the story-telling aspect isn't seen often.  Aargh!Tect is unlike any other game I've ever seen.  There are two teams competing to arrange pieces to form the building that the manager has. The manager has to give directions to the builders, but the manager has an inflatable club, and can only use caveman language and certain motions. When players get it right they get 1 tap from the club, but when they get it wrong, it's 2 taps.
If cost wasn't an issue, Aargh!Tect would be my choice based on the experience alone.  You grow to fear the club coming down on you, but it's all in good fun.  Dixit is the cheaper option, and probably better for some groups, so it's really up to you.

2 Player Only Game
There are a lot of 2 player games on the market, and many of them are good games.  These aren't my forte  since I rarely play only 2 player games, but I have a few I like, and some others I know enough about to recommend.  I have four 2-player games that I play every so often: Memoir '44, Mr. Jack, 1960:The Making of the President, and Twilight Struggle.  All three games have good parts and drawbacks for me.  If you like political games, either 1960 or Twilight Struggle is a good call depending on if you want to focus on US Politics or Global Events of the Cold War.  Mr. Jack is good if you're looking for a deduction game, but it lacks great replayability in my mind.  Memoir '44 is a good WWII game with pretty good mechanics, and a ton of expansions.  From what I've heard, Lost Cities the card game is a great two-player game.  It's been described as a great couples game.  So even though I haven't played Lost Cities, I'm going to recommend it as the 2 player game to own.

Introduction Game
There are three big games when it comes to intro style games, and I don't think you can go wrong with any of the three.  Those three are of course Carcassonne, Settlers of Catan and Ticket to Ride.  They're all good games, but if I had to pick one that works to teach people about hobby boardgames, I'd have to choose Ticket to Ride.  Your mileage may vary of course,  but the variety of Ticket maps gives players more options.

Advanced - non brain-burning Game
I suppose we can call this category the next step games.  There's a lot of games that could fit in here, but I'll give you a few of my favorites.  Small World and 7 Wonders both fit here.  Yes, I know a lot of people say 7 Wonders could be an intro game, but I really think it's a next level game.  Kingsburg would also be a good fit, though it has a fair amount of dice, it also has strategy.  Any of these games would work well depending on your predilections, but my choice here is Cosmic Encounter.

Brain Drain Game

Here's a category for those times when you want to sit down and play a game for 2+ hours and really get into it.  I know these kind of games aren't for everyone, but sometimes it's nice to have a complicated game to play.  I've personally only played one of these, Agricola, and I enjoyed it. So Agricola is my recommendation.  Personally, I'd rather play a variety of games than one brain-burner, but Agricola is still a good one to have around.  Some other games that fit the category here: Puerto Rico, Brass, Le Havre, Caylus, Twilight Imperium III. None of these games are cheap, but Agricola is reasonably priced and has a lot of replayability in the box.

Card Game

This isn't for your traditional deck of cards game, but rather for a game that is all, or essentially all cards.  This includes the better CCGs, like Magic and Pokemon, Living Card Games such as Call of Cthulhu, Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings, as well as deck-building games like Ascension, A Few Acres of Snow, Thunderstone, and my personal pick Dominion.  The base game is very reasonably priced, and has 3,268,760 differ possible card sets.  I'd say that's good variety.  

Dice Game

The last thing that every collection needs is a dice game.  There are many games that use dice, but this is for a game that makes dice the main or only portion of the game.  There are a lot of good games that are basically just dice, LCR and Liar's Dice come to mind; but the best dice game I've played is Roll Through the Ages. It's fairly inexpensive and has a lot of variety and strategies to it.

Recap

Here's the list of my recommendations

• Tiki Topple
• Say Anything
• Forbidden Island
• The Resistance: Avalon
• Sorry Sliders 1 or 2
• Dixit
• Lost Cities
• Ticket to Ride
• Cosmic Encounter
• Agricoa
• Dominion
• Roll Through the Ages 

If you wanted to start a game collection, or boil a collection down to 12 games, I think this list would give you a good variety of themes, styles, and player range (2-10).

Is this comprehensive? By no means.  I don't even own 3 of the games, though I've played 2 of them.  

I suppose my main point here is, when you're looking for new games, variety is key.  Expansions to what you own are great, and take up less shelf space, so that gives you more of the same type of play experience.

Sorry for the short novel on building a collection, but I feel it's a necessary thing to have.

Top 42 Part 5 (14-8)

Welcome to the top 14.  Now that the Super Bowl is over, it's time for some game talk.
Any of these 7 games could be anywhere on this list for me, but I tried to order them in terms of what would I like to play the most if I had the right group, right play time, etc.

#14 Catacombs

Catacombs is a dungeon crawl as the name suggests, but has a huge twist.  There are no dice, no combat charts, simply flicking.  That's right, you flick your hero at the monsters, or monsters at the heroes if your the game master.  Every hero has a special ability, which is further enhanced by artifacts available for purchase at your friendly neighborhood gift shop.   This game is highly innovative in the way it takes a dungeon crawl and simplifies it with the flicking mechanic.  Sure, it's hard to remember where pieces flew off the board, or to check if that piece really did hit that other piece, but that's what cameras are for, especially if they have slow motion or frame by frame replay. (You think I'm joking, but I'm not.  We've actually gone that far.)  I enjoy playing either side in Catacombs, and while the GM has a lot more to work with, the heroes generally have a fighting chance.  Sometimes it takes too long for what it is, but I enjoy playing and having a flicking good time.

 #13 Pandemic
My thoughts on Pandemic have been fairly well expressed on this blog.  If you haven't read the review on it, go take a look.  I really enjoy the puzzle aspect of Pandemic.  Now puzzle doesn't mean that there's only one right way to win the game, but rather that each piece gives a clue as to what's next.  It's a hard co-op where the board can beat you fairly easily, yet almost every game is winnable.  It's a great challenge, and a great way to see how people think and work together.  You simply have to make good use of the player abilities, else you are doomed to fail.  At this point, I never play without the expansion for the game because the additional powers make it more interesting, the new special event cards add variety, and the different ways to play the game add new challenges.  Pandemic would be ok without the expansion, probably in the 20s for me, but with the expansion it makes #13, with potential to climb.

 #12 Dixit
When I first heard about Dixit, I was skeptical at best.  I'm not a very creative person when it comes to words, as you may realize from reading my articles, but the artwork intrigued me.  There was so much depth to the pictures, and now so much variety due to ~250 cards.  This is perhaps a better Apples to Apples because it gives players freedom, and it has a better structure for scoring points.  Dixit shot up my list because of the people I played with. It's an experience game, made amazing or meh by the people who play.  At school I had many well read friends who could pull references that I knew nothing about.  Some people may get frustrated by that aspect, but I learned things, and eventually gained a good guessing instinct for the cards.  There's a very subtle line between realization and giving away the answer to other people, because the storyteller is trying to get someone but not everyone to guess their card, but if everyone or no one gets it right, the storyteller gets no points, and everyone else scores.  Dixit is a lot of fun, and if you have a group that likes Apples to Apples or storytelling, this is definitely worth a look.

#11 Forbidden Island
Here's another game that I've talked about a lot, and you'll notice the distinction between Forbidden Island and Pandemic isn't great.  Simply put, I've played Forbidden Island more frequently as of late, and had better success teaching new players the game.  I love the artwork and the near constant tension that everything has to be taken care of, else we could lose at any moment feeling.  Seriously, the best thing I can say about this game is that unless you absolutely hate co-op games, you won't be disappointed with this as compared to the money it costs you.  At worst you'll be able to give it as a gift to someone who will like it.

#10 Incan Gold
This is an intriguing press-your-luck game.  The goal is to get more treasure from the temple in 5 rounds than your opponents.  Now, you might think all you have to do is stay longer than them, but knowing when to stop is the key to this game.  Each round, a card is turned over, revealing either treasure or a trap.  A single trap acts a warning, but a duplicate triggers the trap sending everyone away empty handed.  There are 5 different traps, so it's possible that nothing will spring until the sixth trap.  The revealed treasure is split evenly between remaining players, with leftovers going on the card. The leftovers are given away to players when they run, so knowing when to run is a key aspect.  If you stay too long you may get nothing, but if you run too soon you'll be greatly outscored by your opponents.  I've had many good times with this game.  Everyone seems to understand it, though silly mistakes will be made, it's short enough, ~20 minutes, to play more than once.

#9 Rattus
Not to be confused with Ratatouille, the beloved Pixar film, this game features rats in the black plague timeframe.   Now, if you're skeptical of the theme, don't worry too much, the game doesn't really involve rats, just some rat tokens.  The goal of Rattus is to have the most cubes on the board at the end of the game, but this is easier said than done.  On your turn you can take a power card, each one has a symbol on it which will come into play later.  Then you place cubes in one region equal to the number of rat tokens there.  Then you move the plague piece into an adjacent region, place one or two rat tokens in adjacent regions, and finally you resolve the plague by looking at the total number of cubes in the area, comparing it with the token, then causing player powers, the majority owner or all players to lose a cube.  This goes on until there are either no rat tokens left, or one player gets all 20 of their cubes on the board.  It's a fun back-and-forth amongst powers, with players taking your power sometimes.  You want the powers to do extra things, but the powers also cause you to lose more cubes, so it's a tough balance.  If you can get past the theme, Rattus is an enjoyable strategy game with some luck mixed in.

#8 Shadows Over Camelot
Shadows is one of the earlier co-op games, but it took me awhile to get around to playing it.  I personally love the theme, come on, it's Arthurian Legend.  I think the knights of the round table was the first real fantasy that I enjoyed, plus the Stargate-SG1 use of things helped keep my interest in the mythos.  Each player plays a knight of Camelot, or King Arthur.  Every knight has a special power which helps good defeat evil, but the twist to the game is that one knight may be working against the others.  It took my 45 games to finally act as the traitor, though not all of those were games where a traitor was possible.  There are multiple quests that the knights have to work on together in order to succeed.  Knights can purse the Holy Grail or Excalibur, fight the Black Knight, the Picts or Saxons, the treacherous Lancelot or the fearsome dragon.  There are a lot of things to do, and the key to Shadows is managing what you can and can't do, letting things fail, and trying to win things at the right time.  I've spent many good hours trying to figure out and then defeat the traitors to Camelot, as well as direct the knights.  I've had more fun watching seemingly innocent people (MY SISTER!) play the deepest hidden traitor act, and completely bamboozle the knights.  The one thing I've yet to see is King Arthur turn traitor, but I know it will happen eventually.

Just one more week to get through this list.
I apologize for the lack of other articles, but without a digital camera I'm kinda stuck on reviews.  I've been writing a few, but other life events also slow things down.  I'm trying to keep things going, so a big thank-you to everyone sticking with me and here's to better things ahead!