My top 10 board and card games

I just watched dice tower’s top 100 games of all time, and it inspired me to make a top 10 list. I haven’t played enough games to make a meaningful list any longer than that. Do note, this is a list denoting what I want to play now, rather than what I think are the best games of all time (from the pool I’ve played). As such, there are some extremely good games that I just played to death and am just no longer interested in playing, like Carcassonne.

10 – Pandemic

I don’t play this game anymore because I’m the quarterback and it sucks. I either shut up and let others play, or I tell everyone what their best move is. I can’t really enjoy discussing optimal play with others as I feel like I’ve “solved” it. Still, it is an absolutely brilliant game and I’d love to teach it to other people. My favourite variant is radio silence. Can’t quarterback if you can’t talk to other players.

9 – Puzzle Strike

I love the bag building mechanic, but more than that, I love how the gems work. Having more gems in your gem pile makes you stronger, but also susceptible to losing. It works so much better than Dominion in my opinion, I really wish it had wider appeal.

8 – Agricola

Still my favourite worker placement game. I do have an issue with how efficient extra workers are, to the point if you don’t get them, you just lose. The cards change the game so much and makes it fun every time.

7 – Gloomhaven

I cooled off a bit on it since getting it, but I did get a lot of playtime out of it. The combat system is really clever and the worlds is rich. I just wish it was easier to keep track of the branching storylines, and maybe if the story had a bit more meat on it’s bones. I almost feel like the legacy aspect is a detriment here. It would have suited me more of it had a bunch of 10 mission campaigns.

6 – Battlestar Galactica

I love how the game plays out and how it feels to play it, even though I have a lot of problems with the design. I wish giving information had a cost attached to it, like in hanabi, so there wouldn’t need to be this extremely vague rule about being nonspecific about the cards you’re adding to the test. Still, I love it and I want to play it lots.

5 – Coup

I love how simple this game is and how deep it feels. Bluffing games rarely hit the table for me due to my immediate surrounding disliking them, but I’ll play this one any chance I get.

4 – Android: Netrunner

My absolute favourite card game of all time time, but extremely hard for me to find anyone to play with. The game is no longer supported and was too niche to play in Israel anyway. Due to the deck building nature of the game, I didn’t want to play online and get destroyed by net decks. The asymmetric gameplay is mind boggling good, and the theme works so well. I wish I played it more.

3 – Clank! (Legacy)
Acquisitions Incorporated

I’m currently just past mission 8, and I’m already thinking of buying another copy to make different decision and possibly play with a different group. My current group is more co-op leaning, and I’d like to see how to plays with a competitive leaning group. The story is extremely well written, it’s witty and fun. Though in the last game I felt like maybe the core isn’t strong enough, will see if we play it more after the campaign ends.

2 – Arkham Horror: LCG

It has a rich theme and story, but the gameplay itself is so interesting you can play it countless times. Extremely customizable experience, and is one of the few games in which I really enjoy deck building, due to it being coop; meaning I don’t need to have the most powerful deck to play.

1 – Keyforge

I love competitive card games, and I dislike deck building in competitive environments as it devolves into a set of minor modifications over tried and true decks that everyone plays. When I played MTG I enjoyed limited formats more than constructed. KeyForge allows me to play a competitive card game without ever building a deck. Plus the community is awesome.