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GM Theory: OSR Games You Should Be Playing

I love role-playing games, if there was such a thing as “my thing”, it would definitely be that. It should not however be a secret that I’m a card carrying member of the OSR (Old School Revival). For those in the know, the OSR is essentially a sort of loosely defined idea that in some shape or another, old school RPG’s were better then I suppose you could say new school RPG’s. Not entirely sure that is a reasonable explanation of the OSR, but I’m not here to explain what it is, I’m here to talk about some of the games that are released in the spirit of the OSR or games that proclaim themselves to be OSR games.

I do want to say that the presumption that I don’t like contemporary games or I’m some sort of Gronard because I like OSR games is far from the truth, though a common sentiment among contemporary RPG fans about the OSR. It’s a kind of strange stereotyping that takes place that if you like old school games, it means you hate new school games. This is nonsense of course, I love all sorts of role-playing games, I just happen to have my beefs with one of them which happens to be the most popular one in the world, modern, contemporary 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons. One of these days I will get to writing an article about why that is, but if you follow my blog I don’t think I hide my general distaste for the 5e ruleset. That does not however mean that I don’t like modern RPG’s, I do, my bookshelf is full of them.

In any case today we are not here to talk about what I don’t like but rather what I do like. In today’s article we are going to look at several OSR games, what makes them great and why you should be playing them! Hope you enjoy the article, release the cracken!

Old School Essentials: Classic Fantasy

Old School Essentials is effectively the 1st edition B/X rules cleaned up with a few extras. Its sort of like taking a famous painting and restoring it, its as simple as that.

I put this here first and I will be brief, mainly because all that Old School Essentials is, is 1st edition B/X rules largely unchanged. This is B/X 1st edition, but organized as a rules reference to perfection. If you run B/X D&D, the Rules Tome for OSE is all you will ever need and its definitely far superior to the original printings. Everything is indexed, categorized and laid out with a single extremely well defined purpose, playability.

Now Necrotic Games also put out The Advanced Genre Rules book and this supplement is amazing, it compiles a lot of classic early edition races and classes, adds some rules for integrating race and class, instead of the traditional just class structure. They work together so you no longer have to make a decision one way or the other, you can pretty much let your players choose, they are balanced to work in the same game. Great addition.

Now as far as how good of a game is B/X 1st edition, well that is an article in its own right but the short and sweet of it is that as far as I’m concerned this is THE BEST version of the D&D and I say that without reservation. To me, B/X and BECMI rules are D&D, accept no substitute!

Dungeon Crawl Classics

Dungeon Crawl Classics has some of the most creative and BAP (Beer and Pretzel) adventures I have ever seen put to paper, Sailors on the Starless Sea is a classic in every sense of the word living up to the Dungeon Crawl Classics name.

Dungeon Crawl Classics is a kind of combination of old school lethality, mixed in with the simplicity of the basic 3rd edition rules strip down to its birthday suit and with a layer of Gonzo style magic systems that give Rollmaster tables a run for its money. The game also uses some wacky dice to give it some unique flavor though this is largely just a gimmicky thing for funzzies.

Dungeon Crawl Classics falls into the beer and pretzel RPG category for me. The game starts out with players making 4 0 level characters each (yes a typical game starts with 15-20 characters). These nobodies get basic NPC like classes from the peasant side of the fantasy universe like candle makers, cooks, farmers etc… and these would be heroes are thrust into an adventure called a funnel where they must effectively try to get to the bottom of the adventures evil plot while being armed with pitchforks and candle sticks.

With little chance of surviving at all, players must use narrative cleverness to get through it and though most characters are likely to die horrifically tragic deaths, those that do survive the funnel become full blown first level heroes getting a choice from all of the classic D&D fantasy classes.

The funnel to me is just an absolutely fantastic concept, it effectively allows players to write their origin stories and though its clearly meant as a kind of silly one shot adventure, the system is actually quite robust once you get into hero level characters and you can turn this into a full blow fantasy adventure game.

Certainly the Gonzo style writing of the official modules, which are absolutely brilliant, does suggest that the game is meant to be taken with a great deal of humor and because the deadliness of the game remains relatively steady throughout, there is a level of old school anxiety and fear built into the game that makes this an undeniable OSR game.

Really unique concept with a great, easy to learn mechanic but one with a bit of robustness and flavor that keeps itself interesting. Great fun addition to the OSR line up of amazing games.

Forbidden Lands

A game designed from the ground up for a sandbox campaign in what can only be described as the first truly unique campaign setting I have seen in a while that breaks the typical D&D fantasy world mold.

This OSR game keeps with the spirit of the classic D&D game, but has a couple of unique twists that really separate it from the field.

It leans more towards the survivor story, where characters exist in a desolate almost post apocalyptic fantasy world where the frontier is a complete unknown. They must explore it in hopes of finding their fortune in the classic D&D tradition, but the game puts a lot of weight on the concept of survival. Food and water are scarce, supplies and weapons are not easy to come by, their are almost not towns to shop at and the result is a game where you not only need to survive the adventure, but you need to survive the elements, starvation, dehydration and the general absence of the necessities of life.

This is also a sandbox hex crawl and as players explore the frontier the DM rolls to determine what they find in the various areas which leads the players to player driven goals which I think is the key feature of the game. There aren’t large narrative stories here, the players are meant to go out into the world and make something of themselves and what that ends up being is largely driven by the opportunities the frontier presents to them.

On a high level this is a sandbox game and it can very much be run as a western marshes style campaign where you can have a large group of friends who call upon your GM services whenever they like to contribute to an ongoing story about this frontier. Much of the game is randomly generated, what happens, what the story of the game is, is going to be as much a surprise to the GM as it is to the players. Yet there is a lot of content here that will inspire GM’s that love to write and you can definitely find yourself unintentionally world building. It’s almost as if its a game designed to not only produce an adventure for your players, but a new campaign setting for you as the GM.

While there are some hiccups in the system that will require a bit of GM intervention, they are minor and easily fixed. In my book this is another great entry into the OSR must play list.

Five Torches Deep

This is old school done with new school rules which proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the OSR isn’t just about old Gronards playing their coveted 1st edition D&D.

Five Torches Deep is a very clever attempt to bring 5th edition D&D fans into the OSR fold and it does it with style, proving that not only is classic D&D not about classic rules, but somewhere buried beneath the nonsense of 5th edition D&D rules is actually a salvageable system.

Five Torches Deep is a game that is clearly inspired by the Dungeon Crawls of old and systems like B/X with those old school sentimentality. The goal of the game, much as it was it the golden age of D&D is to go into dungeons, fight monsters and steal their stuff!

This game however is dangerous as hell and leans heavily on player centricity with a pretty heavy handed dose of narrative flexibility. There is not much to the mechanic, its very much driven by the player-gm conversation style of role-playing, what I like to call… normal role-playing.

It uses a clever durability system and time tracking system to give the game an earthy, realistic tone reminiscent of B/X rules, while simultaneously it is very much a fantasy adventure where players are going to be kicking ass and taking names.

I don’t want to necessarily quantify this one as a beer and pretzel game, but I think its a bit too deadly and a bit to linear in its approach to stretch into the more serious campaign, though the rules are so flexible and modular here that you can easily pull from other sources to make it a bit more robust. In fact I think you can very easily inject B/X classes into this game with minimal effort or expand by creating your own. The classes available act almost as design templates to show you how its done. I think most players however will find the game a bit too limited as written and much like B/X rules that is fun for the first few levels, it needs more after a while much the same way B/X does. Eventually you will want more classes, more options and a bit wider range.

Still its just so well made, straight to the point, easy to get to the table. This is one of those games where you can bring friends over like its board game night, pull it out, make characters and be playing D&D in no time flat and that in my book is a game worth having on the shelf.

Blades In The Dark

Blades in the Dark shows of the versatility of the OSR and how the OSR can act as inspiration for design, rather then an example of it. Rather then being a retro clone of something that already exists, Blades in the Dark breaks new ground in game design.

I fell in love with Blades In The Dark after just three pages of reading and though I’m yet to run it, from the stand point of a GM who needs inspiration, this game, this setting and really just the entire concept is a fucking revelation. This book gives you the feeling you might remember when you got your first D&D book, that first read through, that first day of deciding you are going to play, the excitement of not knowing what’s going to happen. This book has that kind of magic.

This is a game that is narratively focused on a very specific concept. You and your friends take on the roles of effectively criminals in a early-industrial fantasy world, with only one goal. Pull off “Jobs”, aka, commit crimes in the city and try to get away with it. From heists, to burglaries and everything in-between this is the oceans eleven of fantasy RPG’s.

The system itself is superbly designed with every conceivable issue running a game in this style might present perfectly laid out for you with simple and applicable rules that make sense the first time you read them. This book is so well written, the concept so well thought out that I can see how this game practically runs itself.

More than that though the concept is just so amazing, who hasn’t thought of running a D&D game where everyone plays a thief and you indulge in your criminal fantasies. Clearly John Harper has.

There are plenty of variations on the thief class for everyone to find something to play, the setting itself is just the perfectly executed dark fantasy and their are turns and twists ready made for you to throw into your game that there is absolutely no way your players are going to expect.

Without a doubt one of the best RPG’s I have read in the last decade, this is the new gold standard to beat for OSR games.

Stars Without Numbers

Not since TSR’s take on sci-fi, Alternity have I found an RPG that does science-fiction with the respect and a sense of completeness. Stars Without Number is to me the modern take on running science-fiction, while clearly being a throwback to running the game in the classic OSR style.

Stars without numbers proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the OSR is alive and well and its not just about fantasy. Inspired by classic B/X rules and the classic RPG Trinity, Stars Without Numbers is a science-fiction sandbox for players to explore, yet the universe/setting is not some pre-generated science-fiction writing. This is a dynamically created world where even the GM doesn’t know what is going to be in his game until it starts. In a sense, much like Forbidden Stars, the result of playing this game is going to be dynamic world building.

This is a game that will put your improv skills to the test as a GM and though the system itself is simple, running this game I think is really the ultimate challenge for a DM. This game has every conceivable science-fiction trope that has ever existed in what I can only describe as a setting with infinite possibilities. Though its clearly inspired by Trinity, I can help but get an Alternity vibe from it, which notably is one of my all time favorite science-fiction RPG’s.

Really well written, easy to get into, its just the most perfect system for a science-fiction GM looking to create that perfect sci-fi game for his players.

Love this one, a must buy for any serious sci-fi fan.

Conclusion

It goes without saying that the OSR produces a lot of games, to create an article that covers all the good ones would take pages upon pages. I honestly could do this for days, but an article needs to end sometime.

The games I’ve chosen here are games I have either ran, played in or read, but there are many more I’m certain deserve to be on this list.

The important part here however is to present the OSR for what it is, a diverse sea of interesting games that make great alternatives to the tried and true, but sometimes rather stale accepted alternatives like Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder, Starfinder and the like.

These are some great games and I think as an RPG fan it’s everyone’s duty to explore games, to dig deeper and approach the entire hobby with an open mind. I find contemporary gamers who often claim inclusivity and tolerance in an attempt to appear politically modern are secretly some of the most judgmental and ruthlessly closed minded gamers out there refusing to touch anything without a Wizards of the Coast logo and casting a wide net of judgement against anything with the OSR label. Get out there and explore these amazing games, its nothing short of a tragedy to miss out on these experiences.

Best of List

Top 10 Board Games 2020 Edition

It has been almost a full year and a half since I have updated this list and while board gaming as a hobby has been tragically hindered by the ongoing covid crisis pretty much the entire year, I think an update is in order.

This time around there are some pretty heavy handed changes and I have to admit that even I was surprised when I was finished writing this article and making my determination, but on the bright side there is plenty of new stuff to talk about so without further delay, lets get into it.

10. B-17 Flying Fortress Leader

I know that solo games are not everyone’s cup of tea but this game has so much great depth and such an amazing feel factor, not to mention it looks absolutely stunning on the table that it just has to be on my list.


I will be the first to admit that when it comes to my top 10 list, putting this one on here I have almost a sense of embarrassment. It’s sort of like admitting that you like the Star Wars Holiday special, or are a fan of white socks with sandals.

While it’s not my first solo game on the list, this is a rather obscure DVG game that I think most people who look at my list will scratch their head and wonder where the connection is, how in the world you go from any of these game to this one. It’s just something out of left field.

The truth is however that B-17 Flying Fortress Leader is one of those “piece of engineering” games that has this very tight, story driven premise that I personally find completely engrossing. You are a commander of a fleet of American bombers during World War II, making all of the decisions about bombing targets, flight paths, plane configurations, resource management and general command decisions. You setup all of your orders and put everything into place and then the games AI takes over where your plan is executed and you watch helplessly as your decisions are put into action. Its just enthralling and though I can’t say I’m a huge history buff, there is something about this particular piece of history I just can’t help but obsess over. There is just something sexy about world war II American bomber planes.

More than that though this is a game that just looks amazing on your hobby table, it’s an intimate solo game that you can play in one sitting or spread it out over days. It has a really fine-tuned sequence and there is a tremendous amount of strategy and planning that when done well you are rewarded for, yet there are surprising twists that keep you coming back to try again and again.

It’s a hard one to recommend to a general player base but It would be dishonest if I didn’t put it on my personal top ten list given how often I play it. If you have an interest in the subject matter and are looking for a cool solo game however, if my opinion counts, I think this is one of the coolest games I have found in years. (read the full review here ).

9. Twilight Struggle

Twilight Struggle really blew me away the first time I played it despite having a lot of reservations about even trying it. It’s one of those games you always hear about but don’t actually think you will like, well I’m here to tell you, you are wrong. You will like this game, any reasonable gamer will.

Twilight Struggle is an award winning game that has maintained a strong presence in the euro gaming community on board game geek for years, keeping the number one spot for nearly a decade. It has a digital app, yearly competitions and is considered widely as one of the best designs in board gaming by some of the most prestigious designers around.

That is not however why I like it, quite to the contrary, I was fairly uninterested in the game despite all of these accolades and have only recently tried it on a whim with very few expectations. Truth is that the subject matter didn’t interest me and I feel very strongly that theme is key to any game that would ordinarily make this list.

Twilight Struggle’s surprise for me was two fold. First I was shocked to discover how amazing the game actually was and how well deserved its praises really were. This is a deep, thinky and very dynamic game that pulls on a lot of mechanical levers that beg to be explored. More importantly however it actually inspired an interest in the subject matter for me (The Cold War) which is actually a fascinating period in history full of intrigue, actions and counter actions that give A Song of Ice and Fire a run for its money.

Just a fantastic game, one of my favorite discoveries in the last few years and as you have already been told by pretty much everyone, this is a game that belongs on your shelf no matter what type of board gamer you are.

8. War of The Ring

The Asymmetrical 2 player epic is effectively Lord of the Rings in a box, if you love the books and movie, this is an amazing way the battle for Middle-Earth.

This year I have tried to be honest with myself and include “times played” as a consideration for judgement for games on this list. Truth be told, I have not played War of the Ring for nearly 3 years at this point and this is the reason it drops to the number 8 spot. I couldn’t bring myself to remove it from the list entirely because I still consider it to be one of the best 2 player epics out there, but fall it has and unless something changes, fall off the list it will.

I have spoken so much about this game over the years I could put up half a dozen links from this sight alone, it feels strange to repeat any of it. I think the game can be summed up by saying that this is the entire Lord of the Rings story in a box, if you love the middle earth saga you must play this game. This game is Lord of the Rings.

So why haven’t I played it, this I think is a fair question that should be answered. After all its on my top 10 list and I haven’t played it in 3 years, that needs an explanation. The answer however is actually quite simple. When the opportunity to play 2 player games comes up, this is usually time reserved for playing miniature games. Miniature games in my gaming group carry a lot of weight and so there is this default assumption that if there is 2, then we play a miniature game. It’s just really hard for me to get 2 player board games to the table in general no matter how good I think they are.

7. Game of Thrones The Board Game 2nd Edition

This is a game that is played in the minds of the players, the board and pieces are mostly distraction.

Game of Thrones the board game has had a consistent presence on this list for years but this year it takes a significant drop from the number 3 spot. I don’t think this is a reflection on the game itself but popularity and current plays of any game are going to fluctuate and frankly this year Game of Thrones was a bit meh all together in our group and especially for me.

I think its something that happens eventually when you have played a game often enough where you start to see some of the chinks in the armor. Don’t get me wrong, this game would not be on this list if I didn’t love it and was willing to drop what I’m doing to play it, but I certainly can think of several epics I would pick right now over this one to play in a larger 5-6 player group. It is a great game, it has been a great game for over a decade in my group, but I’m at a point with it where I have played it enough times that it may be time to retire it from this list.

For those that have never played this one however, know that its staying power in my gaming group and for me personally exceeds a decade of entertainment, if you can get that much out of any game its what I would call an auto-buy. Like that is a great record to have for a game and GoT the board games earns those stripes undisputed.

6. War Room

War Room is not a game, it’s an experience. It takes the idea of playing war games to the absolute limit, yet somehow makes it very accessible and to some degree practical. You’re going to need a huge table and a lot of time, but that is the price of entry into this theatre of the mind.

I was very hesitant about putting this game on this list because I have to be honest here, I am yet to play a full game with a full group. Its on this list largely because I know my games, I know what I like and I know that a game is “going to be amazing” from reading of rules and play testing it myself. I have done this extensively with War Room and I’m almost 100% certain that after playing it with my local gaming group this one will surge on this list to one of the top spots. For now I leave it at number 7 for the sake of propriety.

War Room is Larry Harris’s new world war II epic, the guy that brought us the ultimate classic Axis and Allies. War Room is massive both in size and scope, a game designed with about the most elegant and well thought out mechanics I have seen in years. Its very clear that Larry took his time with this one using all of the experience, feedback and knowledge he has mustard up over the last few decades with Axis and Allies.

It is absolutely astonishingly beautiful on the table, its designed with various player counts in mind and though like Axis and Allies and most “super games” as I like to call them this one is long as fuck and will not be easy to get to the table, likely taking in excess of 12 hours. Hence this is an event in a box and it makes no apologies for that.

This game will make you feel like a military commander running world war II and this is exactly what the game tries to accomplish. The rules are relatively simple but the strategies go deep and its going to cease up your brain as you try to unravel the possibilities. For fans of war games, in particular Axis and Allies, this is a must own. Unfortunately its a very exclusive and hard to get game not to mention without a doubt one of the most expensive I have ever bought so be warned before you get too excited that this one may be as hard to get on your shelf as it is to get to the table.

5. Twilight Imperium 4th edition

Without a doubt one of my favorite games of all time, Twilight Imperium is just part of the family at this point.

Twilight Imperium is a game I have talked about since I started this blog and the blog before that. In fact, I have spent the last 10+ years talking about it and frankly I’m yet to fully tire of it. This is a versatile game that offers science-fiction fans the ultimate epic in gaming today. There is no game on the market that comes even close to creating such a dynamic, one of a kind experiences as Twilight Imperium and though it has fluctuated on this list over the years and editions, this latest version of the game is in my humble opinion the best yet and by a wide margin.

I think of all the things I could say about Twilight Imperium the one that should get your attention is that despite its weight, scope and play time, it is a relatively simple game to learn to play and learn to play well. A couple of games of this and anyone can become an expert and that is what I love about it. The mechanics just work and just like all great board games, much of the games strategy and game play is very much player driven. Which simply means that every group is going to play this game differently and each time you add or exchange a player the dynamics of the game will change.

Love it, always have, always will.

4. Vampire: The Masquerade Heritage

Vampire Heritage is the new kid on the block, fresh and young and though legacy games have a tendency to rise and fall, I think this one may stick around a lot longer than what might be expected. Very strong opening.

Anyone who follows my blog may know that I’m a huge Vampire: The Masquerade RPG fan, in fact I have been running a Vampire Chronicle with my local group going on 3 years now and we absolutely love everything about this setting. When a board game set in the world of darkness was announced it was an easy decision for us, but frankly we were quite reserved in our excitement initially. Vampire as a game and as a setting is a very delicate matter to fans like us and its easy to fuck up, our confidence that someone would come along and make a great board game out of it was lets just say limited.

Boy where we wrong, holy shit balls this game is amazing. Now I have put it on my number 6 spot only because we have just started to play this legacy game, having only finished our first era of the game, but I personally fell instantly in love with this one for three key, indisputable reason.

First is that the game captures the world of vampires with perfection. This is exactly the feeling I was hoping the game would offer. The politics, the betrayals, the maneuvering, the manipulation.. its all there. It gives you that creepy sense of place and time, illustrated beautifully to also enhance the imagery. Really just a perfect execution of the theme in board game form.

The second thing is that the game is extremely simple from a mechanical “how do you play this thing” point of you, while the gameplay, the strategy itself is immensely complicated. I love it when any game does this, where I can sit down with friends and spend 10 minutes explaining “how” the rules work, but we will spend the next six months trying to figure out how to win. Again I can’t say enough how pleased I was to see this approach taken, its really amazing.

Finally its a legacy game and I know a lot of people have reservations about legacy games because they are sort of “one shot” play throughs but there are 21 games in the chronicle and even after 3 games (the first era) the game has fundamentally changed in unique ways that will not repeat if you in the future would replay this one. Those permanent alterations to the game give this amazing sense of personalization and when you really think about it one of the biggest problems with most board games is that you will eventually tire of playing them anyway. The legacy keeps the game fresh play after play which means that each time we get together though we are playing the same game, things will be very different. I love this concept, I think it works particularly well in this game.

For fans of the world of darkness, don’t hesitate, this is a game tailor made for you.

3. Lord of the Rings The Living Card Game

I love this game and true love lasts forever!

Yes, my favorite, top game of all time has dropped down from the list. What can I tell you, it happens to the best of them. I have to say however even though this card game represents the highest investment I have ever made in a game (I have an almost complete collection), I have gotten more joy out of this game then everything else in my collection combined and I know I will play it forever.

Its just an amazing game and you can read the various reviews and comments on this one all over this blog site, I speak of it often. The truth is however that I have played this game so much that its time for me to sort of move on to other things.. for a while. I will certainly be back at some point as this one has a tendency to resurge like crazy. I have periods when I play this one non-stop and periods when I don’t play at all, but it goes back and forth.

What is it, why do I love it, just read the review and you will understand. REVIEW.

2. Through The Age: A New Story of Civilizations

Through The Ages is to Civilization building games what Twilight Imperium is to science-fiction games. Its a game fit for a king.

Through The Ages drops to the number 2 spot on my list, but holds strong as one of my all time favorites. This has always been one of those games that’s tough to recommend much like Twilight Imperium and maybe even War Room simply because of the length of play. Through The Ages however has two things going for it that keeps it on my radar far more frequently then the other “heavy” board game experiences.

For one, it plays really well with a small group, even as a two player game. Far more importantly however is that its supported by a really great app allowing me to play it whenever I have time without the fuss of trying to get a table game going and nothing is lost in this resource management game when doing so. I certainly think the pandemic crisis in the world leaving me locked in my house has helped this game to claim more of my free gaming time then it might have otherwise, but I have played this game quite consistantly for over 3 years now and I still love it every bit as much as I always have.

Recently it got an expansion as well which is the first for the Through The Age franchise as the original version never got that service which has also helped to refresh the game for me.

Love this one, but it’s heavy, thinky and long so be ready for that if you plan to commit.

1. A Song of Ice and Fire: The Miniature Game

Song of Ice and Fire is one of those games that you just know 20 years from now you will look back and consider it a classic, a game that becomes representative of an age of gaming in your life. It’s just that good.

Without question or doubt, Song of Ice and Fire the miniature game is the big blow out in 2020 for me. A game I have played and obsessed over at every opportunity I could get and thanks to the ability to play the game online through the use of Table Top Simulator, I played it a lot this year.

It’s not the first miniature game to find its way to the top spot on my list, you may recall (if you read my blog) that Star Wars: X-Wing held that spot tightly for a couple of years.

Song of Ice and Fire is just one of those gems that fires on all cylinders both as a miniature game and just as a gaming experience for me. It’s deeply tactical, yet simple to learn, it adds the hobby component but makes it as painless for you as possible, it has a really strong community and tremendous support by the publisher.

More than that though its just a fun game to play, it’s one of those “sink your teeth into it” kind of games that you can analyze and experiment with, the more you play the more you discover the little nook and crannies of possibilities. List building, adapting new ways to use the same units, trying to find those great positional and circumstantial moments that tip the scales. I love that it’s so dynamic as well, rather then your standard “lets just kill each other” it’s a mission based game and each mission is as unique as the next, all of them presenting interesting and diverse challenges.

The fact that its based on an amazing franchise with a robust theme, one it incorporates amazingly well certainly adds to the games flavor but certainly at least for me personally the fact that all my friends dove in head first into it means that I have a plethora of opponents always available representing all of the factions in the game.

It’s just a really solid miniature game that dropped into my group at the right time, one that I’m totally head over heels for, it earns its stripes as the top game for this list.

The Drop Offs

I always feel compelled to mention some of the games that drop off the list, in particular given that I still consider them amazing games worth your time.

Shogun by Queen Games falls off the top 10 list for the first time since I started the list and I can’t stress enough how painful that was as I absolutely adore this game. The dice tower of terrible faith, the deeply analytical planning phase and those explosive “I can’t believe that just happened” moments as battles are resolves are just a small taste of why I love this game. It’s wonderful but it gets pushed off the list, it happens to the best of them.

Great Western Trail is another one I consider “the best in genre”. This is probably my favorite pure euro, pure victory point smorgasbord game. It’s just clever as hell and deserves all of the praise it gets from the general gaming community. It was only ever at the tale end of my top 10 list, but certainly deserving to be on the list as is any other game that made it over the years.

New Angeles was one I didn’t really lose too much sleep over, don’t get me wrong I think it’s a great game but I felt it had sort of played itself out for me personally. It’s still a staple of my gaming groups yearly super board gaming weekend for good reason as its a fantastic group game and I’m sure that will remain unchanged, but for me it was time for it to go.

Blood Rage is one I struggle with always because I do believe it to be an absolutely perfectly designed game, but I just don’t play it often enough nor find myself drawn to it frequently enough to justify its presence on my list. That does not change its status as the only game on this blog that ever got a perfect 5 out of 5 star review rating, it deserved it and I stand by it.

Star Wars Armada falls of the list and I think its largely because I just don’t feel there is room on my top 10 list for two miniature games and A Song of Ice and Fire blew it out of the sky with ease. There will always be a special place in my heart for Armada as I do believe it to be a fantastic game, but its so heavy and weighs you down so much that I just can’t bring myself up to restarting the engines. I don’t have any intentions to get rid of my collection and I do genuinely hope it comes back around in my group some day, but right now I’m battling it over the seven kingdoms of Westeros and loving it.

Best of List, Gaming Articles

Top 10 War Games

While I recognize the concept of a war game can be a great many things and such a list can probably vary dramatically, when I say war game I mean soldiers on a map, fighting over territory in the classic sense. So while games like Through The Ages have abstracted war concepts and something like Cosmic Encounter may technically be seen as a galactic war, to me this sort of game would not really qualify as the focus game is something other then war. For example Through The Ages is an empire building game and while war is an inevitable part of that, at the core of its game-play is the concept of building up your empire. I also excluded miniature games because I feel though certainly these games would qualify as war games, its kind of its own category deserving of its own list. Finally I excluded short (filler) games, again, not that I dislike or don’t play such games, but filler gamers are really their own category and though many can be about war even in the more serious sense, I believe most people who would look up “war games” are looking for something a bit more robust.

Ok lets get into this.

10. IKUSA, formally Shogun, Formally Samurai Swords

While many gamers consider dice chuckers like RISK to be beneath them, to me Ikusa has sufficient “extra’s” to make it a quality strategic game and would simultaneously please RISK players. The fact that it looks amazing on the table is just a cherry on top.

This 1980’s Milton Bradly big box classic has been on my shelf since I was a teenager and with only brief interruption I have always played with pretty much every gaming group I have had. Certainly at this stage in gaming history its a bit of a dated game, but I do believe it has aged a lot better then all of the other Milton Bradly classics and still holds up in particular as an alternative to the traditional dice chuckers like RISK.

Its a nostalgia thing to some degree for sure, though I do believe out of all the old 80’s classics which includes Axis and Allies, Fortress America, Stratego, RISK and Supremacy, this is the only one I still long to play today.

Its a classic take on the dice chucker, but it takes it up a notch or two by having unique armies that can be permanently removed from the game, strategic resource management to give the game a measure of planning beyond just where you attack and unique individual units for interesting ways to affect battle outcomes.

Of course the fact that its medieval japan (one of my favorite time periods and historical cultures) as well as looking absolutely amazing on the table helps it a great deal not to mention the childhood memories I have of the long summer days playing it with my friends. I love this game and this list would be incomplete without it, warts and all.

Recommendations: If you love medieval Japan in using western presumptions about the era (think samurai’s and ninja’s), in particular if your a fan of RISK, this game is for you.

9. Tide of Iron

It looks and feels like a heavy world war II tactical game, without that uncomfortable elitness required from most games in the genre or that silly need for ultra realism.

I love war games and I love tactical miniature games, but when it comes to tactical board games I find I don’t have the same affinity for them. In fact, Tide of Iron is, out of my considerable collection of games, the only tactical board game I actually own. I don’t know why that is exactly, but I suspect it has to do with the fact that so many tactical board games are based on World War II and since I have Tide of Iron and adore it, I find it difficult to seek out other games that cover the same subject on the same scale. I mean there are a metric ton of them out their from Conflict of Heroes to Advanced Squad Leader which all seem interesting, but I always fall back to the question, why do I need another one when I already have one I love?

My love for Tide of Iron comes from a childhood memory of playing war with little green men, which is essentially what Tides of Iron is. Scenario driven, Tide of Iron zooms in on the battlefield to the squad level where players control squads of soldiers, tanks, various artillery in a wide range of situations in a green vs. grey army men World War II battle.

It abstracts many high level concepts like bombing runs, long range artillery and various “tactics” on the battlefield with cards that give the game a sort of zoomed in and zoomed out level of play which makes the battles feel more authentic, while also having a very clever system for managing terrain that is easy to understand and teach, a common complexity in other games of this type that often focus too much on realism in my opinion.

Its an engaging game that I love to pull out and I have even on occasion made it my choice of solo plays. I can’t recall a time I introduced the game to someone who didn’t love it, in fact, its been a birthday present to a couple of friends over the years which says a lot, especially since they were not “gamer” buddies.

Great tactical experience, bit of a pain to setup but tons of scenarios available and can be scaled for different lengths, ranging from everything between a short 1 hour mini battle to a 4 hour major engagement. Great fun, simple mechanics, perfect for inducting new players into war gaming.

Recommendations: If you like World War II tactical games, but find many of them overcooked, Tide of Iron gets it just right here with a perfect balance between realism and ease of play.

8. Empire of the Sun

Empire of the Sun is a very complex game and is not recommended for the uninitiated.

Easily one of the most complex games I have ever played and certainly the most complex one on this list by a wide margin, Empire of the Sun approaches the war in the Pacific in such detail, such focus and such an unusual scale that it is truly a unique gem in the genre, in fact I would say the game is a genre onto itself. I actually don’t recommend this game to all but the most dedicated war game fan, but in terms of scale and subject matter, it is the unquestionable king of high level strategic war games.

Card driven similar to Paths of Glory and as likely to have a-historical outcomes as Paths of Glory, Empire of the sun simultaneously zooms out and plays on the high level strategic map, while zooming in to cover the history of the Pacific War in great detail.

Its a fantastic game, one I have Reviewed, worth a look but be sure you are ready, it can be quite overwhelming.

Recommendation: This is for the ambitious war gamer looking for the ultimate challenge. It takes time and dedication to learn to play it and ten times that to learn to play it well. Its a life style game, make sure you have a dedicated partner.

7. Paths of Glory

Paths of Glory is a classic in the historical war gaming communities and is the foundation game for card driven mechanics.

World War I is probably one of the less known or sought after topics, and though this is a relatively new addition to my collection I’m warming up to it very quickly thanks to its strategic depth. Paths of Glory falls into the card driven point to point high level strategy games which is almost a genre in on to itself but this classic is a classic for good reason as I have discovered.

Really intricate and detailed it does what I love most about historical war games of this type, it infuses the game with rich thematic history, but does not become scripted walking you through the war as it actually happened. In Paths of Glory you are going to change history in some of the most unpredictable and interesting ways and because its a card driven game with literally billions of possible outcomes its physically impossible for you to play enough games to have even a similar outcomes from game to game. Every game of Paths of Glory is going to be wildly different. Some history buffs might find the a-historical outcomes to be distracting but for me personally there is nothing I hate more then playing a war game where I’m just going through the motions to ensure my war turns out exactly as it did in history. I find games like that incredibly boring and they never make my shelf.

Paths of Glory is more than just a war game however because while you are certainly focused on winning the war on the battlefield, you must carefully manage your resources and supply lines and like in real history, wars are rarely won or lost becomes of the outcome of battles, but rather everything that happens before and after. The influx of key historical moments represented on cards can also create some incredibly complex puzzles to solve increasing the challenge on a wide range of scales. What happens if Italy fails to enter the war in a timely fashion, or the Russian Czars never fall or the US never enters the war? All of these things are possible and more in a wide range of combinations and timings, all driving you to play the game again and again.

Absolutely love this game and though the complexity level ranges somewhere between the mid to high range, I find that the rules are very well laid out and it really doesn’t take more than one play to really get it. People say the game takes about 8 hours to play and I would agree that is the case until you play with an opponent that already knows the rules. Then the game goes from an 8 hour game to a 3 hour game fairly easily as the flow of the game is very quick once you get the hang of things.

Recommendations: This is definitely a game for someone looking for a higher level of complexity and meeting to the game, if you like games like Twilight Struggle or Washington’s War, this game uses many of the same concepts. If you are a world war I history buff, this one should not be missed.

6. Washington’s Wars

Washington’s War looks a lot more complicated than it is, I would put this is the light rules category.

A Mark Herman card driven game, however unlike Empire of the Sun, Washington’s War is a relatively light game that is closer to the likes of Twilight Struggle in weight and scope. This is a game about card management, strategic positioning and timing but unlike Twilight Struggle there is no requirement of card memorization which makes it a lot more newbie friendly.

In fact it’s almost questionable whether this is an actual war game, just like Twilight Struggle it is technically a game about war and you have armies and battles, but really this is a strategy game that covers the revolutionary war from a very high level overview.

I put it on this list mainly because I believe very strongly that if you are going to play games like Twilight Struggle, Paths of Glory, or even Empire of the Sun, this is your starting point. Learn this game and the rest will be a lot easier for you to absorb and understand as its incredibly rules light for such a deep strategic experience yet it uses many of the same concepts and mechanics as the various more complex cousins.

One thing I love about Washington’s War is that the game is relatively quick, yet gives you that full, heavy war game feel. Its a rare treat to find an opponent as the Revolutionary war, much like World War I in Paths of Glory is something not everyone is really going to know, though unlike Paths of Glory, knowing the history of the Revolutionary War is really not going to be much help here, its a lot more abstracted and general in terms of card play.

In any case I adore Washington’s War, while many would claim that Empire of the Sun is Mark Hermans masterpiece (and it very well may be) I think of all his games, this is the most likely to make the table if for no other reason than that it takes all of 10 minutes to explain how to play and even a first timer will pick up the game and put up some serious competition which is really what puts this one over the top for me.

Recommendation: Great entry level war game and introduction to card driven war games. If you have interest in playing games like Twilight Struggle, Paths of Glory and Empire of the Sun (universally accepted classics in the historical war gaming genre), this is where you start.

5. Battle of Rokugan

Its a game that feels like a knife fight in a phone booth from round 1, one of the hidden gems in the Fantasy Flight Games library.

Easily one of the most underrated strategy war games to come out of fantasy flight in the last decade, Battle of Rokugan is a gem that fills that “I want a war game, but I don’t have 4 hours to play one” feel to it. This is my go to game whenever I have people over who see all my board games on the shelf and want to play one because “they love risk”.

I have never introduced this game to anyone who didn’t instantly love it and I have on a number of occassions pulled it out at partys with non-gamers who not only end up playing it and loving it, but wanting to instantly play it a second time.

Its fast and furious yet deeply strategic, somewhat asymmetrical and though very abstract, still fairly thematic war game straight to the point war game. Its just a great mechanism for presenting that full fledged war game feel with a very light touch.

I think what I like about it the most is how close the games always are, its rare that a winner can be determined before the final move of the final round and often the game ends with several people within 2-3 points of each other.

Great, deeply strategic game, yet simple to teach and learn. Perfect for that spur of the moment game night.

Recommendation: While it may not scratch that deep historical war game bug floating around in your system, this is a game that will hit the table with just about anyone with even a passing interesting in war games. Its a perfect replacement for RISK.

4. War of The Ring

There is nothing like the feeling of a epic scale game that captures a story, War of the Ring is the best of its kind.

My favorite game I never play, this dust collector however still deserves notice for two core reasons. First, it is the single most thematic game I have ever played, it is without reservation The Lord of the Rings in a box. Secondly, its a game that tells an alternative version of history, written through gameplay of what I believe to be one of the greatest fantasy stories in existence unless you count Star Wars.

Why don’t I play it. Its hard to say, its not a lack of desire, but more circumstance. Its a two player game that takes a good 4-5 hours to play for starters which is not that easy of a thing to pull of for a guy like me who has a dozen gaming friends who always want in on board game night. Though this isn’t really the only problem. The second kind of difficult thing with War of the Rings is that its a terrible game to teach. It requires intricate knowledge of the cards/events, board and an understanding of some of the strategy which can be quite high level and though the game is not really complex per say, it does have an element of randomness that doesn’t really mesh well with the length of the game. Its something that I find is a problem in a lot of games, randomness and long games are a really bad combo. Still when played by experienced players, War of the Rings luck can and is completely circumvented. Beneath its ulterior is a very deep strategy game.

I love this game, it tells a great story, it makes for a fun evening and with the right opponent it will make for a great game two man game night.

Recommendation: If you have a dedicated gaming partner, this is one worth learning and playing repeatedly as it gets better with time. Its a must have for Lord of the Rings fans.

3. Shogun (Dirk Henn version)

Most of Dirk Henns games are in the “not my thing” category, but Shogun is about as me as you can get.

Shogun has been on my top 10 best games of all time list as long as I have kept one. There is so much to love about this game. It combines deep strategic thinking and planning with the wacky and chaotic gameplay reminiscent of Galaxy Trucker. I will submit that this combination will not be for everyone, but to me, board gaming is about having fun and this game brings it in a way no other game I have ever played does.

Ok so its not a serious war game, that cube tower is just down right silly but I have never played this game at any table where when cubes go into the tower people aren’t shouting, cheering and standing up. Its a game that goes from silent contemplation to people laughing out-loud in a single round of play. Some games I love because they are deep and strategic, others I love because they have interesting and thoughtful mechanics, others still I love because they are silly or funny, but Shogun I love just because it combines all of it into a single game.

Its a game that is very easy to grasp, it will capture that casual “RISK” crowd, it has plenty to offer for more seasoned war gamers, yet its play time is relatively quick so it never overstays its welcome.

I would never dare to make a best of list without Shogun on it, it checks so many boxes it can be justified on just about any list but certainly on one with my favorite war games list. Love, love it.

Recommendations: Really and honestly I believe this game has universal appeal if you have an open mind, but my experience has been that some people love it, some people hate it.

2. Game of Thrones The Board Game

This is a game that is played in the minds of the players, the board and pieces are mostly distraction.

While I have much love for the 2nd edition card game as well, to me the board game is a representation of everything I love about war gaming. It is not only a high level strategic war game with asymmetrical factions in an awesome fantasy setting, but throws into it that classic “diplomacy” style betrayal of move and counter move politics. There are so many ways to screw opponents and get screwed by opponents that every turn of the game is a nail biting assessment of what if scenarios and I have rarely ever played this game with anyone where all the passion and raw human emotion a gaming group can muster doesn’t spill onto the table.

This is a very controversial game that may not work with some groups if for no other reason then its a requirement to lie and betray to win, which can create a lot of hostility at the table and create a huge disadvantage for the more casual gamer. Its a cruel game where the only way to win is to completely screw people over and much like the classic Diplomacy it can rub people the wrong way.

My gaming group loves it and every year we do a big game of Game of Thrones at our big board gaming weekend, its always the main event, but be weary, its a long, painful and very hostile game that will end less mature friendships. Adult Advisory on this one.

Recommendations: I would say if you can handle games like Diplomacy, you are going to love this one, but I always put a friendship advisory on this one, its a rough ride and a fairly complex game to boot.

1. Twilight Imperium

There is no doubt in my mind that this is the ultimate gaming experience available in the board game market period.

Easily one of my favorite science-fiction war games, while Twilight Imperium is a fairly complex game and in depth game, I’ve never had much trouble inducting new players. There is a lot of “common sense” rules in the game and even a casual observer can pick up the core concept of the game with ease. There are a lot of moving parts and a fairly multi plateau of strategy that can stump new players, so experience certainly makes a difference but I find a reasonably seasoned gamer doesn’t require more then a couple of turns for the light to come on and understand how to win.

In either case, while the focus of the game is a grand scale intergalactic war the game also features trading, politics, diplomacy and various types of resource management and careful strategic positioning. There is a lot more to it then simply fighting, yet most games are ultimately resolved through direct conflict and the winner is typically the person who created the best setup for himself going into that war.

Amazing game, but it is one of those 6 to 8 hour games that is always at its best with 6 players which can be a fairly difficult game to put together. Though I only play it roughly once a year or so, It’s always one of my favorite gaming get together’s. Its been on my shelf since 3rd edition, over a decade and now with the new streamlined 4th edition there is even more justification to get into this one.

I put it as number one on this list because to me, there is gaming, there is war gaming and then there is Twilight Imperium. It stands out as a unique experience that I have never seen any other game come even close to. Anything can and will happen in this game, no two games will ever resemble each other and you really can spend countless hours contemplating the endless possibilities in the depths of its strategy. This is without question in my mind THE best war game ever made.

Best of List

THe Back 20 Best Games of All Time: 2020 Edition

The last time I updated my top 10 best games of all time list was way back in July 2018, since then quite a few games have graced my table and ordinarily I would want to update that list. As I reviewed the potential new additions to the list and potential replacements a clear reality set in for me. It still holds up.

First lets review the 2018 list.

10. Great Western Trail
9. New Angeles
8. Shogun (Queen Games Version)
7. Blood Rage
6. Twilight Imperium 4th edition
5. Star Wars Armada
4. War of The Ring
3. Game of Thrones: The Board Game
2. Through The Ages: A New Story of Civilization
1. Lord of the Rings: The Living Card Game

Frankly while I could certainly consider shifting the order around a bit and maybe bring some games to challenge some of the ones on this list, I just don’t see enough shifts taking place to revise the list.

Instead what I will give you today is the back 20 best games of all time, numbers 11 to 20. After all the point of any good best games list is to find something that might peek your interest and be worth getting to the table, so as long as we are writing and talking about games, promoting the hobby, what difference does it make if a game is in the top 10 or top 20.

Without further delay here are your top 11 through 20, best games of all time brought to you by Gamersdungeon.net. Enjoy the list.

20. Ikusa (Originally Shogun or Samurai Swords)

Ikusa is gorgeous on the table making this one of the best productions of the game to date.

It may surprise some that an old Milton Bradley title like Ikusa would still make the cut on a best of list, but to me of all those old classics that strived to dethrone RISK as the final word in dice chucking war games which includes prestigious titles like Axis & Allies and Fortress America, Ikusa is still one of the most balanced and straightforward war games that came out of that 80’s era of big box war games.

While I think both Axis and Allies and Fortress America are gems in their own right, they are both asymmetrical games which notably the king of dice chuckers (RISK) with which these games aimed to compete with was not. Back in those days this was the common commentary and line of thought. A game in which all players start on exactly equal footing left no discussion or argument about the balance of the game. Everyone started the same and while you could still blame luck for your loss, you could not blame an unbalanced game for it.

That however is not why I love Ikusa and will still happily play it today. This is a game that was way ahead of its time that went far beyond simply moving army men around a board and chucking dice. Its broken down into planning and execution phases, there are distinctly different units, hail mary plays and a feel of ever escalating warfare in which alliances are made and broken in the same breath.

I have a lot of fond memories from my childhood playing all of the milton bradley titles, in fact I have a lot of nostalgic memories of quite a few games from that era but Ikusa is the only one of those games I own today and there is a good reason for it. Even outside of nostalgia, this is still a solid game classic, nostalgia or not. It’s one I can easily recommend to anyone who loves men on a map war games, it certainly blows out of the water the vast majority of such games put out today.

19. 1830 Railroads & Robber Barons

This is a big, long and fairly complex game that really requires a bit of preparation and commitment from the players. Given its nature to be brutal and unforgiving, it can be difficult to get to the table even with the most experience group of gamers.

Another blast from the past, 1830 is the grandaddy of 18XX train games and without question THE best game about economics that has ever been made. Yes it’s slow and yes, if you don’t love trains, stock markets and capitalism this game will definitely not speak to you, but for me this is one of those rare gems that does something truly unique in gaming that has never been done before and never done since. Except of course in the massive library of 18XX games that exists today that tries to recapture and honor the original. While I have played a few others in what has become a genre/series of games, 1830 is still my favorite with 1854 being a close second.

I spent god only knows how many hours playing the PC version of this game back in the mid 90’s, second only to Sid Meier’s Civilization. It’s far too difficult to explain exactly what the driving force is behind 1830, but I always like to describe it as a knife fight in a phone booth. Claustrophobic, unforgiving and mean almost to the heights of games like Diplomacy where you know it’s not a question of IF your competitors will completely screw you, but a question of WHEN.

If you want to know everything that is wrong with capitalism & greed, there is no game that will make the point better then 1830 Railroads & Robber Barons. It’s not for the feint of heart, but without question in my mind an experience no connoisseur of board games should pass on, it’s a remarkably unique experience you will not have with any other board game out there.

18. Albion: The Resistance & Coup

If I had to choose between coup and the resistance, I think I would choose coup, but mainly because I prefer a more intimate experience of a smaller group.

Albion the resistance is in my mind the result of gaming evolution, the final product of a genre that was born in classics like Werewolf. The final word in hidden identity and betrayer games, forming itself into what I believe to be the ultimate party game.

Coup on the other hand is Albions little brother, for smaller more intimate groups, but effectively has all the same benefits and logic which is why I bring these two games together into a single position on this list.

With very few components and very simple rules, both games in combination with a bit of red wine and good company, can turn a boring dinner party into a memorable evening you’ll be talking about for years.

I have pulled both of these titles out at countless parties and events and they have always been so popular that I end up giving away my copies of the games to my guests. Both games break the barrier between gamer and non-gamer and they are easy to teach and always fun to play.

Wonderful party games without limited meanness and though it may be cheating to put them both in the same spot on this list, to me, even though they are definitely distinctly different games, they accomplish the exact same thing and serve the same purpose in my collection. It’s just a question of whether I have 5 guests or more than 5 guests which defines which of these two I pull out.

17. Condottiere

There are some differences between this original version and the newly reprinted version available today, but the classic rules are optional in the new version so there is no reason to seek out this vintage version, get the new one.

Though the game was released back in 1995 and should be considered a “classic” at this point, I actually only recently discovered it as it has flown under my radar for more than a decade.

I recall the first time I played this game and came to the conclusion right then and there that this game would undoubtedly be a contender for my top 10 best game of all time list. It may be in the 17 spot right now, but frankly I adore this game and it’s making the table at home with my family with more and more frequency.

Its a simple trick taking game, but it adds an area control element to the game play as a sort of strategic scoring mechanism but more importantly it gives the tricks in the game meaning, defining for players the importance of any particular trick which really represents a battle.

It’s a fantastically tactical game and while there is certainly a component of luck in the game, in my experience the skill of a player can mitigate luck almost entirely. In fact, I would say Condottiere has far more in common with games like Texas Hold’em where, what you have in your hand is as important as your ability to read the whites of a competitors eyes. This is a game in which you gamble, you bluff, you stall and you wait for that perfect moment to make your play and hope you have read the room correctly.

Super easy to teach and learn, fantastic sequencing of events that really builds memorable stories which is truly amazing for a game that has such an incredibly simple premise. Definitely a rising star on this list, the more I play it, the more I fall in love with it.

16. Star Wars: Destiny

Star Wars Destiny had a good, albeit short run. Get what you can, once this one goes out of print its not likely to ever come back.

While the story of Fantasy Flight Games collectable card and dice game Star Wars: Destiny was without question always going to end in tragedy (and it did), while FFG failed to make the game work as a business, the designers certainly made it an awesome game to play.

Star Wars: Destiny as a game is absolutely amazing, it is my favorite dueling deck building game out there by a pretty large margin and me and my friend (singalur) have always had a great time with it. It’s unfortunate that FFG just chose a very poor business model for the game making it far too expensive and inaccessible to most people. It certainly rivals games in my collection as the most expensive game on my shelf. It was just a tragically piss poor business model that drove its failure and it came to the surprise of no one that it was cancelled, yet I can’t help but feel incredibly sad to see it go out like this. Star Wars Destiny deserved a better fate.

Still I recommend getting it (on sale preferably) if you can because I don’t think we will ever see a game quite like this again. The combination of card and dice play, the perfectly executed theme and always extremely tight games resulted in a perfect formula for a dueling game.

Easily one of the best failed games that I have ever seen, despite its cancellation I fully intend to buy up what I can for this game before it disappears into the annals of history and I recommend you do the same.

15. Empire of the Sun

This epic experience is not easy to get into, but there is a smaller version of the game called “South Pacific” which is available that covers a smaller part of the conflict and is easier to get into. If you are going to take a dive, know that this smaller version is included in the full game.

Empire of the Sun is definitely not the type of game I would expect to show up on my list and admittedly, its unlikely anything like this will ever show up again. Frankly it was a metric ton of work just to learn how to play this game properly, countless hours pouring over a thick and incredibly complex rulebook to learn how to play an insanely in depth world war II simulation game.

Yet I did it and frankly, I’m better for it and I’m glad I did. Empire of the Sun for all its complexity is an ingenious game, a true masterpiece of game design and though certainly, it speaks to a very specific audience, as a gamer I’m always trying to broaden my horizons and I believe that if you are going to be a conesiour of board games you must be ready and willing to truly explore the hobby. This was undoubtedly my greatest departure out of my comfort zone, yet it has without question been one of the most unique experiences I have had this year.

Empire of the Sun is a game about the war in the pacific that not only gives you the feel of truly commanding with incredible detail this freighting moment in history, but you get to try to re-write it, ultimately coming to the realization that how history actually transpired, did so for very good reason. It’s a wonderful experience to not only command the game, but learn and experience a piece of tragic human history with understanding and ultimately humility.

I don’t recommend you buy this game under normal circumstances. This is what I would call an exploration of passion, do it only if you have the patience and desire to explore the board gaming hobby to its deepest level because that is where this game will take you.

14. Lords of Waterdeep

The Scoundrels of Skullport is an absolute must have expansion for Lords of Waterdeep, I wouldn’t dream of playing the game without it.

One of the few games on this list I don’t actually own, though for the past 4 years running it has been a highlight of our big board gaming weekend we do every summer with my gaming group. I caution you here by saying that YOU MUST have the Scoundrels of Skullport expansion and its position on this list assumes this.

Lords of Waterdeep is really a very standard take on the worker placement genre and in fact, I think by comparison what has been done in the genre over the years since, you might even call it uninspired. It does however have two very distinct elements that elevate it for me above most games in this genre.

First, its Dungeons and Dragons in a setting that is near and dear to my heart, The Forgotten Realms. Secondly however and definitely more importantly, it’s a worker placement game with a lot of fuck you mechanics in it, which is unequivocally the main problem I have with almost all other worker placement games out there today. Aka, the lack of interaction.

Lords of Waterdeep is an actual competition unlike most worker placement games where you can attack and hinder your opponents directly, even team up with other players to do so in a confrontational way which is really the key to the whole game.

Beyond that the game has so many different ways to approach it in terms of victory conditions where replayability really is infinite. You also have the asymmetrical lords which define your play style a bit and of course the expansion with its corruption mechanic adds a gambling/push your luck element to the game which results in the game rising far beyond the experience of your typical worker placement game. I would say its my favorite worker placement game, but as you will see in the moment, there actually is one I like just a little bit better than this one.

13. Empires: Age of Discovery

The definitive deluxe version is well worth getting, it is the pride and joy of my gaming collection, I sometimes pull it off the shelf just to look at all the pretty pieces.

The king of worker placement games in my book, Empires: Age of Discovery really is a masterpiece. It scales up every element of what makes a great game design, by taking existing, tried and true mechanics (namely worker placement) and twisting them just enough to elevate them beyond the traditions to near perfection in terms of balance and clever option expanding player choices.

Empires combines area control, economics, worker placement with unique workers, resource management and more into a single unified system that runs smooth as silk and keeps every player engaged at all times. Going beyond that with the deluxe edition of the game, it brings beauty to the table with an almost astonishing visual appeal that far exceeds the overwhelming majority of board games out there.

For fans of the worker placement genre, this is the ultimate experience. This is a game that always threatens my top 10 list and for good reason, in terms of just sheer design and gameplay, this game is unmatched in the genre.

12. Star Trek Fleet Captains

The expansions add a lot to the game, but the experience is not lessened if you can’t get your hands on them. The game and two expansions are going to cost you a pretty penny, but just look at it, its sooo preeeeettty!

I always say that when it comes to a good board game, theme is absolutely critical, but when it comes to trying to replicate something as specific and beloved by its fans as Star Trek, theme is everything.

I think the best way to describe Star Trek Fleet Captains is that it’s all of Star Trek, from original series, to Voyager and everything in between in a box. It is the perfect Star Trek game and that is saying quite a bit given that there have been countless Star Trek games that came before and after Fleet Captains. It’s pinnacle of Star Trek games and to me, without a doubt, one of the best adventure games in any genre ever made.

It melds gameplay and theme with perfect harmony, capturing all of those little micro moments of Star Trek goodness you crave and only a true fan would fully appreciate. I have honestly stopped even trying other Star Trek games at this point because frankly, I just don’t believe it is possible to make a better Star Trek game and there is no point in trying to fix what ain’t broke.

If you love Star Trek, this is the only game you need on your shelf.

11. Game of Thrones: The Card Game 2nd Edition

As a living card game, the model is perfect for collectors as you only need to buy one of everything to complete your collection. Like Lord of the Rings, that is greatly appreciated by this fan!

Game of Thrones conjures up a lot of imagery as this is a setting with a vast, intricate story weaved in many different ways in the books and tv show. Yet at the heart of the story behind Game of Thrones are the politics and the unique and interesting characters that drive them.

While Game of Thrones the board game captures the sort of global conflict on a high level, to me Game of Thrones the card game is the embodiment of what Song of Ice and Fire is really about. The card game brings to life the characters and the politics in a unique game mechanic tailor made for multiplayer competitive deck building game.

Sure you can play Game of Thrones the Card game as a duel, but really this game shines in a 3 or 4 player game and I don’t really care to play it any other way. It would not make this list as a duel game.

Card games tend to capture themes in very indirect ways, typically more by the art then anything else, but Game of Thrones The Card game really nails the thematic feel of the story in its gameplay. You really come to care about the cards that represent your characters and the story the different events and actions brought to life by the cards tell.

Amazing game, always a contender for my top 10 list and definitely deserving of the number 11 spot on this list.

Best of List

Top 10 Board Games July 2018 Edition

Its time once again to update my top 10 list of best board games ever, its been quite a while since the last one and this year I’m determined to be bold.

One aspect of a top 10 list like this is that its the one thing I do on this blog that I don’t really put through any filters, another words, its just my gut that I rely on.  However looking at my list from last year I realized two things.

First, some of the games on that list while I love them I don’t play much anymore, which is not a reflection on what I think about it, but rather a reflection on my gaming groups preferences and the impact of that classic discussion ”what are we going to play”.  I think games on this list should not only be popular with me, but popular with the various gaming friends I have.  After all, if I love a game no one wants to play, does it belong on the list?  Its a tough question, which I have tackled when making this list.

Secondly, I think some games may be here more out of nostalgia then anything.  Nostalgia goggles are a thing, it can be hard to push games off a ”my favorites list” because of how much fun I had with them 5 years ago, but if I have no interest in playing them anymore do they really still belong on the list?  This is another tough question which I have tackled when making this years list.

First lets look at the list from last time I updated it.

1. Through The Ages: A New Story of Civilization
2. Star Wars: Armada
3. Lord of the Rings: The Living Card Game
4. War of The Rings
5. Blood Rage
6. Game of Thrones: The Living Card Game 2nd Edition
7. Game of Thrones: The Board Game
8. Star Wars: X-Wing
9. Empires: Age of Discovery
10. Shogun (Queens Games Version)

Last years list to me still represents some of the best board games around without question.  It’s clear to me that when I made the list last time, I was really doing it without any filters, for example X-Wing and War of The Rings are both on here, yet I have not played either of these games in about 2 years at this point and probobly several years since I played it with any regularity.  There are also some games on here I was really hot and heavy on at the time, for example Empires: Age of Discovery I was playing quite a bit at the time, amazing game but I really had to review whether or not it belonged on this years list.

This year I’m going to do this in reverse order starting with number 10… and here we go.

10) Great Western Trail

Dubbed a heavy Euro game, while there is a lot going on and the strategy goes deep, its surprisingly easy to get into.

Putting Great Western Trail on my top 10 list is a bit of a quandary for me.  Considering how much shit I have given to games like Russian Railroads, Terra Mystica, Voyage of Marco Polo and other heavy Euro victory point smorgasbord games, putting one on my top 10 list that is very much in line mechanically with those types of games is contradictory if nothing else.

In my defense however, I’m not a gaming snob, I will play anything and not be ashamed of liking anything when I do, so if I like a Euro victory point smorgasbord game, even if its not typical of me, so bloody be it!

Great Western Trail to me is among the best Euro Games I have played from a mechanical perspective.  Like most Euro games that shamelessly either just copy/paste existing mechanics and add another theme or re-use slightly altered versions of already existing mechanics, Great Western Trail does considerably less of that while  squeezing in a considerable amount of unique flavor of it’s own.  I think the theme, though light in application fits the game perfectly and the game is really very re-playable with a lot of cool dynamic elements that will have you re-thinking your strategies from game to game.  I also really love the fact that its an entirely different game at 2 players, 3 players and 4 players, yet each player count is as fantastic as the next.  Its really almost like Great Western Trail is 3 different gaming experiences depending on player count.

As far as I’m concerned this one earns its stripes for this list, its a pretty a-typical game compared to what I usually go for, but if a game is great, its great, I don’t care what genre or style it is.

9) New Angeles

Simply the best of the cooperative-betrayer genre of games.

There are 3 games that have dropped off the list this year opening the door to new arrivals, Great Western Trail was one, New Angeles is the other.  In the last year, board gaming hasn’t really been at the top of our gaming groups agenda.  I have spent a great deal of time playing living card games, namely Lord of the Rings, while simultaneously my gaming group has been very focused on RPG’s and to a smaller degree miniature games. Still there were some gems I discovered this year and New Angeles was without question the big surprise this year.

This game was a hit with my group like no game has in years, we were like moths to a flame to this take on the cooperative betrayer genre, the only real shock to me is how little attention it gets.  There are many competitors in this genre, Dead of Winter and Shadows Over Camelot just to name a couple, but to me this blows them all out of the water.  Hands down the best in its class, New Angeles is the rising star in my list and I fully expect that it may rise further in the future.

8) Shogun (Queens Games Version)

Most of Dirk Henns games are in the “not my thing” category, but Shogun is about as me as you can get.

This is a game that has consistently hung on in my top 10 list since I started it and while all the games on this list earn their stripes, this is without question my most consistantly loved and played game.  It gets pulled out a couple of times each and every year like clockwork, it always fires on all cylinders and I can’t imagine making this list without Shogun on it.

It’s also the one game on this list where people are often like ”Shogun?  Really?”, as if they are understanding why I might like it, but calling it best of all time is a bit much.  To me understanding why this game is on the list is all about your attitude towards gaming.  What is it that you are looking for.  Some might say strategy, clever mechanics, theme and I would agree, but to me above all else is the fun factor.  How much do I enjoy playing the game, how much fun do I have and Shogun to me represents everything I love about board gaming.  It has strategic, thinky, contemplative moments, burst out and cheer moments and laugh out loud moments all built into a single game using one of my absolute favorite themes, Medieval Japan.  I can’t think of a game that is more complete as a gaming experience than Shogun.  It’s a staple of my collection and a staple of this list, earning it’s ranking with pride.

7) Blood Rage

The only 5 out of 5 stars game I have reviewed for this blog, a review I stand by, its an amazing game.

Dropping from the number 5 spot, Blood Rage remains firmly the only game at Gamersdungeon.net to ever receive a perfect review score, its a design masterpiece in my humble opinion.    So why is it not number 1 on my top 10 best board games of all time.  Well, because this is my list, it’s not about what is best, its about what is my best, my favorite.  My relationship with Blood Rage is one of respect, appreciation for design, art, theme and it’s general near perfection, but that doesn’t make it the first game I want to play every time board games get pulled out.  It’s an amazing game, it has its place in this list because its earned it, but I can think of at least 6 games I rather play over this one.

Still it’s worth pointing out that in my humble opinion, if your a game designer and you want to learn how to do it right, you will never find a better example.  Eric Langs Blood Rage is nothing short of a masterpiece in board game design, it’s our Mona Lisa.

6) Twilight Imperium: 4th Edition

The ultimate 4x science-fiction epic, it is the king of the genre by a margin so wide, I wouldn’t insult it by naming any names.

Twilight Imperium returns to my top 10 list after it’s 3rd edition finally dropped off after not only being on my list since I started it, but for several years being in the top spot.  3rd editions departure stemmed from the fact that, after nearly a decade of playing the game, spending hundreds of hours on it, it finally sort of played itself out.  When it fell off the list it was not seeing any table time years at a time and its general weight, size and complexity no longer had me reaching for it in anticipation.

The resurgence here is largely do in part to evolution of Twilight Imperium in 4th edition, the streamlining that went into the new edition, the amazing art and perfections of the original mechanics all prompted me be to buy and play this one again.  Of all the games on this list, I think at this moment I want to play this one more often than I get the opportunity to, it even prompted me to attempt to create an entire separate gaming group around it.  Because it still suffers from the weight, size and complexity as did 3rd edition, it makes it difficult to get to the table.  Still I think its earned this spot on the list, Twilight Imperium is to me the ultimate 4x board gaming experience, nothing else comes even close and while its a very niche game, because of it’s depth of play and sheer epic gaming experience I have brought it back from obscurity into my top 10 list of best games.

I caution anyone considering buying it to really research it and make sure you have the player group for it, their is no worse feeling than having this amazing game collecting dust on your shelf, but given the opportunity, its an absolutely fantastic game, a vastly improved edition over the last one.  I can’t wait to play it again.

5) Star Wars: Armada

The fact that I don’t have to paint is just icing on the cake, Armada is without a doubt in my mind the best miniatures game on the market today.

Star Wars Armada has had a rather fluctuating history in my personal gaming preferences and on this top 10 list.  This is less a reflection of its quality and the simple fact that miniature gaming, while I love it, tends to be hot and cold over time.  One thing that separates Armada from all other miniature games that I have tried is that it comes back around, both for me personally and in my gaming group.  We go back to this one time and time again and while the time in-between cold time is always longer than the hot time when I’m actively playing it, it remains in my consciousness at all times.

Armada is a tough, complex and deep miniatures game, it has a way of exhausting me but I relish the periods of time when I’m heavily into it trying to build that perfect list or play that perfect match.  It’s also the game that has given me the greatest rewards for my commitment as I constantly improve at it and have managed to get several wins in what was once game I only ever lost.

For me personally, if you are going to spend the money on a miniature hobby, it should be a game that is deeply fulfilling and satisfying, Armada is that game for me.  It’s what I would call the perfect miniature game for a guy like me who isn’t exactly chomping at the bits to paint and assemble mini’s.  I want to play miniature games, but I’m not a hobbyist. I also want the game to have true depth and Armada does all that for me using the magical Star Wars franchise.

4. War of the Rings

The Asymmetrical 2 player epic is effectively Lord of the Rings in a box, if you love the books and movie, this is an amazing way the battle for Middle-Earth.

It’s a bit heartbreaking to watch this one collect dust on my shelf, especially since my opinion of this games quality is unchanged, it remains the single best two player gaming experience I have ever found.  A heavy, complex and involved 2 player game however is just not a filter that makes an appearance in my gaming schedule.  My gaming circles are growing not shrinking in size and as opportunities to game pop up its becoming rarer and rarer that there is just two players ready to spend 4 hours involved in a heavy game like War of the Rings.  The result is that I haven’t played this beast in well over three years at this point which makes it hard to justify keeping it this. high in this list.  Strictly speaking I questioned whether or not it should be removed from the list entirely but the truth is that, even though I haven’t played it in a long time, it changes absolutely nothing about the fact that I want to.

War of the Rings is not only an epic masterpiece for two players, it’s also without question one of the most unique gaming experience you can have.  Thematically rich, strategically deep, beautiful to look at and mechanic perfection.  Its nothing short of a tragedy that I don’t get to play this game more often.

3) Game of Thrones The Board Game

This rich fantasy setting comes to life, brutality, deceit, treachery and all.

Rising on the list, Game of Thrones is a game with raw, unfiltered, human emotion and infused energy.  This is a game that brings out the beast, it will have you feeling angry, frustrated, vengeful, wrathful and murderous and while some might associate that as negative energy, to me for a board game to draw that out of you is a beautiful thing.  You need to play this game in the safe space of friends who can quickly forgive you raising your voice and being spiteful but it’s a gaming experience unmatched by any other game I have ever played.

Like War of the Rings this is a deep, complex and heavy game, but because its a 6 player game the growing size of my gaming groups means it see’s more opportunities to hit the table.  Not as much as I would like of course, but still, it certainly earned the right to rise on the list.  Oh and one more thing, its crazy thematic to the point you actually feel like you are a character in the show and everyone at the table will eventually morph into the plight of this middle age world becoming the darker version of themselves.  Just awsome!

2) Through The Ages: A New Story of Civilization

Through The Ages is to Civilization building games what Twilight Imperium is to science-fiction games. Its a game fit for a king.

I’m a sucker for civilization building games and Through The Ages, while to me technically not the most approachable (see Nations for something more reasonable), has that hard, heavy purist spirit, a game really made for fans.  It’s a slow methodical thinker, but thanks to its strong online support this last year coming to Steam and Ipads, I have played this civilization epic hundreds of times at this point and it just keeps getting better.  I wish I had more oppertunities to play it at the real table, but still, its such an amazing game and the digital implementation is so good, I can’t be anything but grateful.

Its slip to the number 2 spot was a hard call, I was really struggling deciding between this and my number one pick, but to me, every game in this top 10 list is, strictly speaking in the “amazing” category, so I had to go with my gut here.

Lord of the Rings: The Living Card Game

If I was to be stranded on an island and could only bring one game to play for the rest of my life, Lord of the Rings LCG would be that game.

Perhaps the biggest turn around of any game I have ever owned has to be Fantasy Flights, Lord of the Rings the living card game.  First time I played it I thought to myself, meh, its ok.  Today as I write this not only is it the most played game in my collection, it’s also the game I have sunk more money into than any other.

I absolutely love this game from top to bottom, it’s a rare week I don’t pull out any one of the dozens of expansions or quests in my collection.  This single game takes no less than two shelves for all the stuff I own for it and I’m constantly trying to scratch nickles together to get more stuff.

Easily one of the best collectible card games I have ever been involved in despite its less traditional cooperative genre footprints.  Between the amazing deck building options, seemingly impossible challenges and its fantastic art work this is without question in my mind the most rewarding game you can play on the market today.

Drop Outs

Inevitably everytime I make this list some games drop off the list and I feel obligated to explain why.

Star Wars: X-Wing is probably the most notable, once a holder of the number one spot, it has been slowly slipping down the list and finally falls of this year.  To me, at this point X-Wing has become too bloated and full of holes thanks mostly to some terrible expansions that brought in components and mechanics that derailed it from its original vision and the reason I loved this game so much.  I still enjoy playing it with certain house rules in place to fix some of the issues, but thankfully FFG agrees with my assessment and has announced that this year we will see X-Wing 2.0.  2.0 promises to return the game to its dog fighting roots and hopefully the new version will bring this one back to the table and perhaps even back to this top 10 list.  I loved my X-Wing when it was younger, but in its current state, I can’t bring myself to dust of the miniatures anymore.

Game of Thrones 2nd Edition (LCG) is another that falls off the list, this is largely due to two facts.  One is that it really wasn’t fully embraced by our gaming group so table time is rare.  This coupled with the fact that I never really took the plunge fully just means I don’t spend much time thinking about it or anticipating to play it.  I still think its a fantastic game, but a person can only collect so many collectible games and this year I found that both Arkham Horror LCG and Star Wars Destiny made it into my collection not to mention Star Wars: Legion and my always expanding Lord of the Rings LCG.  So GoT LCG has taken a back seat, but this is not a reflection on the games quality, I consider it a really great, thematic card game well worth your money.

Finally Empires: Age of Discovery.  I think if this was a top 11 list, it would firmly hold the number 11 spot.  This is an amazing game and it was a really struggle to pick between this and Great Western Trail.  On any given day I might swap this one back in, I gave it to Great Western trail almost on a coin toss between the two to be honest.