Alright! It is
that time of year…the time when my wife and I sit down and make our top 10
lists! Honestly, at this point in time I
could easily make a top 20 or 25 list but I’ve run out of time this year so a
top 10 it is! These few posts in this
series are some of the toughest to decide.
There are so many great games and so many that we really like! I do a ton of research so I know that the
games we’re getting are one that we will like.
It is very rare that we have a miss so our collection is full of really
good stuff! This post will focus on my
honorable mentions. These are all games
that I’ve played enough to feel as though I can fairly put them in my top 10
list. The next couple posts will be my actual
top 10 games while the last post in my part will be games that I haven’t played
enough yet but I feel could crack the top 10 with more logged plays. Read on and I hope you enjoy!
#5 – Above & Below (Red Raven Games)
Above & Below is a city-building, story-telling,
action-selection game designed by triple threat Ryan Laukat and published by
his company Red Raven Games. This game
is a fantastic little gem where you are a group of survivors who has made it to
a new land and must band together to rebuild their civilization. They find an underground network of caverns
which they must explore in order to build both above the ground and below the
ground. This 1-4 player game sports some
absolutely incredible artwork as Laukat has done it again. I am always astounded by his art as it really
somewhat gives me the same feeling as a good Studio Ghibli film a la Spirited Away. The action selection is fairly
simple by the story telling really adds in a very cool element to the
gameplay. Finally, the game has an
interesting scoring mechanism where you can decide what goods to put on your
track and where which can give you some really great end scores depending on
your decision. I love this game and
wouldn’t be surprised if further plays pushed in higher on my list!
#4 – Carcassonne (Z-Man Games)
Carcassonne is a classic tile-laying, territory building
game designed by Klaus-Jürgen Wrede and published by Z-Man Games. As I was making my list I realized that this
game is always fun! Every time my wife
and I pull this game out along with the multiple expansions that we have for it
we have a blast. I love the tile
placement in this game and the simple but fun ways to score. I am also a fan of the tile art and really
dig the first editions of the game before they redesigned them and made them
busier. This game will always be one
that remains on our shelf due to the simplicity of play but the fun decisions
that you get to make during the game. It
is one that we can break out with just the two of us and have a great time or
pull it out with others and teach them to play in just a couple of
minutes! I would highly recommend this
game to anyone who is new to modern board games as it is a fantastic
representation of what the hobby can be.
#3 – 7 Wonders (Repos Production/Asmodee)
7 Wonders is a modern classic card-drafting,
civilization-building, set-collection game designed by the fantastic Antoine Bauza and published by Repos Production along with Asmodee. This game continues to stay up near the top
of my list even though we don’t get to play it very often anymore. This game is one of my favorite games that
includes card-drafting. We got this game
at the beginning of our collection and it has been in ever since. I love the simple idea of taking a hand of
cards, playing one to the table and then passing them to the next player all
while hoping you get something good from the person passing you their
cards. This is such a great game and one
of Bauza’s greatest designs which is really saying something considering his
pedigree! Just writing this post makes
me want to break it out and plays a few games of it! I love this game and would highly recommend
it to anyone in the hobby if they dig a solid card-drafting game.
Mysterium is a deduction style, co-operative game
designed by Oleksandr Nevskiy and Oleg Sidorenko and published by Libellud
along with Asmodee. This game hit the
scene hard in 2013 as it was released by Portal Games under the name Tajemnicze Domostwo. The game was grabbed up
quickly and became pretty hard to find until Portal made a second edition of
the game in 2014. Finally, it was
Libellud/Asmodee who picked up the rights to print the game in the United
States and they renamed it Mysterium and made the best edition (in my opinion)
of the game so far. They really pulled
out all the stops as they made some new card art for the “who, what, and where”
cards that are used in the game. They
also made some nice player envelopes, plastic crystal balls, and other
ancillary pieces that really integrate in the theme. The game itself is just an awesome
co-operative game and I’d highly recommend this one to any gaming group who
likes a good, asymmetrical co-operative play.
#1 – Mottainai (Asmadi Games)
Mottainai is a card-drafting, set-collection, multi-use
card game designed by Carl Chudyk and published by Asmadi Games. This game really surprised me when I picked
it up. We got it about a year ago for
Christmas and I have loved playing this one!
Carl Chudyk is the designer of the popular Glory to Rome and this game
is basically the spiritual successor.
Honestly, when I was doing my list I thought this one would absolutely
be on the top 10 but it just missed. I
think if I got to play it even more it may crack the top 10 at that point! The game really has an amazing feel as it is
simply a deck of cards with a player board and that is it. You will draft these cards using powers from
the cards you play to your floor. This
is when the game starts getting interesting.
Each of the cards in the deck has multiple uses and the crux of the game
is really optimizing your usage of the cards in the most efficient manner
during your turn. I love the card play,
I love the decisions, and I love the art.
I would recommend this one for any serious hobby boardgamer who wants a
crunchy card game to really sink their teeth into.
Other honorable mentions of note:
Well, there you have it!
These are my honorable mentions!
So many good games and we still have 10 more to go! After I finish up my list I’m going to do
another post in the series which will be some games that I think could crack my
top 10 at some point with enough plays.
These will all be games I don’t feel as though I’ve played enough to
really put them on the list but I want to continue playing to find out. Please join me for my next post which will
tackle games 6-10 on my top 10 list. As
always, thanks for reading! Until next
time, game on!
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