Top 100 Games: 30-21
Here’s the next 10 of my Top 100. This list is numbers 30-21. If you missed the last 10 you can see them here, Top 100: 40-31.
30: Istanbul
2025 Rank: 29
Designer: Rudiger Dorn
Publisher: Pegasus Spiele
Player Count: 2-5
Kristina and I both enjoy games where the objective is a race. In Istanbul it is a race to see who can get to 5 rubies first. You do this by placing and moving your discs around the board. Each space has a special action you can take, but in order to take those actions you need to leave a disc behind. When you run out of discs you will need to backtrack to pick them up, taking actions again, or reset your stack and start over. It's an efficiency puzzle. The more you can avoid needing to reset the better off you will be. The actions you take are usually to gather money or resources to sell for money and then use that money to collect rubies. The game board is made of tiles so each game can be set up differently. This was one of those games that kind of blew my mind when I first played. How had no one thought of this before and why has no one used it since?
29: Lure
2025 Rank: New to the list
Designer: Satoru Nakamura
Publisher: Allplay
Player Count: 2-5
Lure is a game about catching fish. It uses a clever dice bidding mechanism to determine who gets to try to catch fish first. Each player selects a number of dice hidden behind their sheild. Once everyone has selected, the dice are revealed. The player that selected the lowest number of dice gets to catch fish first. They roll their dice and compare the results against the fish on the table. The fish all have a number value that must be met along with other requirements like using a lure or rolling specific numbers. The bidding matters because if you bid too many dice you may never even get a chance to roll if the other players have already caught everything. I like this dice bidding mechanism so much that I have said if I ever design my own game it will revolve around it.
28: Ra
2025 Rank: 27
Designer: Reiner Knizia
Publisher: 25th Century Games
Player Count: 2-5
Ra is an auction and set collection game with an Ancient Egyptian theme. Players bid on lots of tiles using their bidding tokens. These tokens have set values and every player will know what values the other players hold. This means you always know who can outbid you so you must choose carefully when bidding. The tension builds as the round goes on because the round may end before you have had a chance to bid if you wait too long. The tiles will provide points, prevent negative points, or give you points at the end of the game. The best part is the giant gavel-like Ra piece that players can slam on the table to start their bidding. This has been re-released recently with updated artwork and a fancy deluxe edition.
27: For Sale
2025 Rank: 69
Designer: Stefan Dorra
Publisher: Eagle-Gryphon Games
Player Count: 3-6
Three bidding games in a row! This was one of the first games we had in our collection. It is the kind of game that you can pull out and teach pretty much anyone. Most people understand buying and selling houses. For Sale is a simple auction game with two distinct halves. In the first half, players bid on houses. Each round a number of cards representing different homes with unique values will be available. Players bid on the highest value of the lot and whoever wins the bid gains the card. Each other player takes the lowest available home when they decide to pass. Those cards are then sold in the second half. Instead of bidding on homes you are selling them to collect money cards. The player that plays the highest valued home takes the highest available money card. After this second round the player with the most money wins.
26: Unmatched
2025 Rank: 14
Designer: Rob Daviau, Justin D. Jacobson
Publisher: Restoration Games
Player Count: 2-4 (Best with 2)
Remember when you were a kid and you would ask your friends "Who do you think would win in a fight? Bigfoot or Rosie the Riveter?" Well Unmatched lets you find out. As of me writing this there are 74 different characters you can play as and each one can be matched in a battle against any other. There are characters from throughout history, movies, video games, comics, and more. Each character has its own unique deck along with some special abilities. There are dozens of different maps to play on, some with unique effects. One of my favorite things about Unmatched is how it handles ranged characters and line of sight. They simplified it down to "is your character standing in a space with the same color as the target?" Then you can hit it. No measuring or looking from different angles. Just simple. There is also a cooperative version that allows you to choose any of the 74 characters and play against a common enemy. Maybe one day we will have a tournament to see who is the ultimate Unmatched Champion.
25: Path of Civilization
2025 Rank: 9
Designer: Fabien Gridel
Publisher: Captain Games
Player Count: 1-5
This one dropped out of my top 10 only because I have not played it recently. I really love this game, but it has a few problems. It is huge and takes up every inch of even the biggest tables. It has so many different goal cards for the rounds and they have very confusing iconography on them. There is a very well laid out book that explains them all, but when the game is already taking up the entire table where do you put that book? It also has these ridiculous stands for the cards to track the rounds that just fall over at the tiniest movement. Not to mention there is no proper way to set up those cards so that everyone playing can see them all, and it's important to see them all to prepare for them later. This is a lot of negativity for a game that was once in my top 10, but despite all of this I would play it in a heartbeat if anyone asked. Perhaps this is a game that could be helped by my 3D printer. If you don't mind some fiddly bits and love civilization themed games, request this one for game nights. I would love to teach it again.
24: Nidavellir
2025 Rank: 34
Designer: Serge Laget
Publisher: GRRRE Games
Player Count: 2-5
This game should be in our mobile library. It's excellent and just the kind of game that people at our events would enjoy. The problem is the box is destroyed and I have yet to find a way to get a suitable replacement. It is another bidding game. The third one in this set of 10. The bidding is more similar to Ra than some of the other games in this style. It does use a unique mechanism that allows you to upgrade the value of your chips, but only if you bid using your "0" value chip for the round. You are bidding on the turn order to select cards from a group. Highest bidder selects first. The cards score differently depending on their type. You can also get some bonus cards by collecting sets of different types. These can be the difference between winning and losing. Another game that could be rescued by the 3D printer.
23: Dracula vs Van Helsing
2025 Rank: 12
Designer: Maxime Rambourg, Theo Riviere
Publisher: Mandoo Games
Player Count: 2
Two player trick taking games are few and far between. This game takes the concept of trick taking, simplifies it to comparing two cards, and adds some thematic flair. One player plays as Dracula attempting to turn the townspeople into vampires and the other plays as Van Helsing attempting to kill Dracula before he can accomplish his task. The gameplay is pretty simple. On your turn, draw a card, then decide if you want to discard it or switch it with one of the cards in your hand. The card you decide to discard will have an ability that activates. Each number from 1-8 has its own ability that triggers when it is discarded. When a round is over each card is compared against the opposing card in the same position in each player's hand. The higher value wins. In the case of a tie the suits have a hierarchy to determine a winner. If either win condition is met the game ends. If you come to game night looking for a two player game you can be sure Kristina or myself will recommend this one.
22: The Vale of Eternity
2025 Rank: 22
Designer: Eric Hong
Publisher: Mandoo Games
Player Count: 2-4
The Vale of Eternity is a card game where each card has some unique ability. Those abilities could be one time effects or ongoing effects. They will allow you to draw more cards, gain money, or gain points. The game is fairly simple. The little bit of complexity comes from each card being unique with its own ability. It also plays quickly as it is only 10 rounds or until one player scores 60 or more points. The most interesting thing about The Vale of Eternity is the way money works. There are 3 different denominations of money: 1, 3, and 6. You can only ever hold 4 money tokens at a time and you are never given change when you purchase cards. This allows for some interesting decisions about how to spend your money and what tokens you need to keep at a given time. The game has some great artwork which always makes it easier to get played.
21: Magical Athlete
2025 Rank: New to the list
Designer: Richard Garfield, Takashi Ishida
Publisher: CMYK
Player Count: 2-6
Magical Athlete is pure chaos. There is little to no strategy. No analysis paralysis. No downtime. Just dice chucking chaos and I love it. This is a racing game driven by dice. All you do on your turn is roll a die and move that number of spaces. Where the chaos comes from is all the special, wacky character powers that trigger at different times during a turn. They all break the game in various ways and you just never know what's going to happen. There's not much more to say about the game other than you must give it a try. As long as you don't play it with a bunch of duds it's a great time.
