Top 100 Games: 40-31
Here’s the next 10 of my Top 100. This list is numbers 40-31. If you missed the last 10 you can see them here, Top 100: 50-41.
40: Thunder & Lightning
2025 Rank: 74
Designer: Chris Quilliams
Publisher: Z-Man Games
Player Count: 2
Tension, bluffing, strategy, and just a touch of luck. Each player has their own deck of cards. The cards have different names but the decks are functionally identical. Buried somewhere in your deck is either the Ring or the Crown, and if you're forced to discard it, you lose. You can also win by outlasting your opponent. If they can't use all their actions or run out of cards entirely, you take it. During the game, you play cards face-down into 3 columns, and the number of columns determines your available actions. Draw, play, or challenge. This one has been out of print for a while and is hard to find, but we have it in our library if you ever want to give it a try.
39: Scythe
2025 Rank: 51
Designer: Jamey Stegmaier
Publisher: Stonemaier Games
Player Count: 1-5
Scythe looks like an aggressive war game, but it plays much more like an engine builder with area control elements. Each turn you choose an action, different from the one you took last turn, by moving a pawn on your personal board. Over the course of the game, you upgrade that board to make your actions increasingly powerful. Everyone has secret objectives, and the win condition revolves around collecting stars by completing both public and private goals. Each faction also has unique abilities that make certain objectives more natural to pursue. If I played this more often, it would be in my top 10.
38: Radlands
2025 Rank: 13
Designer: Daniel Piechnick
Publisher: Roxley
Player Count: 2
This one has dropped 25 places, mainly because I haven't played it in a long time. Kristina isn't a fan, so it doesn't come out as often as I'd like. Which is a shame, because Radlands is excellent. It's a dueling card game with post-apocalyptic art that is among my favorite in any game. Each player defends 3 bases with unique abilities, playing cards into the columns in front of them. What really sets Radlands apart is the economy. You get just 3 water per turn to play and activate cards, unless you spent water the previous turn to bank extra. That constraint makes every single decision feel weighty. The production quality is outstanding too, as is typical of Roxley.
37: Space Base
2025 Rank: 48
Designer: John D. Clair
Publisher: Alderac Entertainment Group
Player Count: 2-5 (up to 7 with expansions)
Another John D. Clair design on the list. You're building a fleet of spaceships, each assigned to a number that corresponds to what can be rolled on two dice. On your turn, you roll and activate ships to earn money, points, or abilities, then buy new ships. The hook is that even on other players' turns, you activate a separate set of ships using the same dice. That keeps everyone engaged at all times. It's a race to 40 points with multiple viable paths. Your long-term goal is to make the most commonly rolled numbers your most powerful positions. Luck plays a role, but the player who builds the best fleet consistently comes out ahead. Works well at every player count.
36: Agent Avenue
2025 Rank: New to the list
Designer: Christian Kudahl, Laura Kudahl
Publisher: Nerdlab Games
Player Count: 2
A two-player game of tag that is deceptively simple on the surface but full of mind games. On your turn, you choose two cards. One goes face-up and the other goes face-down. Your opponent picks which one they want, and you get the other. Then both players move their pawn around the board based on the card values. Some cards move you forward, others move backwards, and two special cards can win or lose you the game outright if you collect 3 of them. A single game can take anywhere from 2 to 10 minutes, and then you just shuffle up and go again.
35: Spirit Island
2025 Rank: 17
Designer: R. Eric Reuss
Publisher: Greater Than Games, LLC
Player Count: 1-4
Probably the most complex game on my list, but the fact that it's cooperative makes the weight easier to share. Spirit Island presents a sprawling, interconnected puzzle. What keeps any one player from quarterbacking is the sheer asymmetry. Each spirit plays so differently, and the threats are so varied, that no one person has enough information to make all the decisions. You have to understand your spirit's strengths, recognize which threats need managing, and coordinate with your teammates. Beyond that complexity, the actual turn structure is straightforward. Play some cards, move some pieces. The depth comes from the spirits themselves. There's an enormous amount of content for this game. Enough to make it the only game you ever play again and be perfectly happy. I don't usually bring it to our game nights, but it's available in the library for anyone who wants to give it a go.
34: Orleans
2025 Rank: 20
Designer: Reiner Stockhausen
Publisher: dlp games
Player Count: 2-5
Orleans is a bag-building game. Similar to deck-building, but with chips instead of cards. You draw chips from your bag to perform actions, earn resources, and acquire more chips. If you love Quacks, this is a great next step. It takes that same core mechanism and replaces the push-your-luck with strategic planning. The game spreads across three boards. One is a map where you travel to collect resources and construct buildings. Another has tracks where you advance to unlock tokens and special benefits. The third is a shared board where you can place your chips to score points. Each board offers a different avenue to victory, and balancing all three is what makes Orleans so good. Our library copy has upgraded chips that make the whole experience even better.
33: Zenith
2025 Rank: New to the list
Designer: Gregory Grard, Mathieu Roussel
Publisher: PlayPunk
Player Count: 2-4 (only recommend 2)
I played this on Board Game Arena and immediately knew I needed the physical copy. When it released in English last year, it shot up my list. Zenith is a tug-of-war game where cards can be played in one of three ways. You can play them to pull planets toward your side and eventually claim them, play them for their symbol on the tech track, or play them for a one-time effect. What I especially love is the discount system. Playing cards of a certain color builds up a supply of that color, making future cards of that type cheaper. There's a real thrill in building toward playing cards for free. To win, you need 3 matching planets, 4 different planets, or 5 total.
32: Endangered
2025 Rank: 24
Designer: Joe Hopkins
Publisher: Grand Gamers Guild
Player Count: 1-5
The theme is what elevates this one. You play as conservationists trying to persuade the UN to help save endangered species, and the game makes you feel the difficulty of that mission. It's a cooperative dice placement game where each player has a unique ability, and you need to coordinate to win over the ambassadors. The base game lets you work to save either tigers or otters, each with their own set of challenges. Expansions add more species, all with distinct problems to solve. The difficulty is real but never crushing. It just makes you think about how hard conservation actually is. Thematic and mechanical in equal measure, this is a cooperative game that deserves more love.
31: Expeditions
2025 Rank: New to the list
Designer: Jamey Stegmaier
Publisher: Stonemaier Games
Player Count: 1-5
The sequel to Scythe, and in some ways I prefer it, especially at two players. I think of it as "Scythe Duel." It captures a lot of the same feelings but simplifies certain elements and ditches the large map that makes two-player Scythe less engaging. You still get giant mechs moving across the board. You're still exploring and completing objectives to score points, and the action system from Scythe carries over in a streamlined form. I've only played this a handful of times so far, which means it has plenty of room to climb.
