Lurker > Great_Paul

Mobilezoid posted...

I consider myself a board game fan (mostly by virtue of being related to my brother, who loves them and owns hundreds) but every time someone does a ranking like this I've never heard of any of them!

Still, that could change at any time. Tag

I will admit some of my choices aren't quite as well known as others, but there will be some eventually that most board game people know of.
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

46) Bear Valley (2016)
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/191624/bear-valley

Bear Valley is a Push Your Luck/Exploration game for 2-6 players. The goal is to be the first to traverse from your camp to safety. There is a starting setup of river cards that connects your camp to freedom. On your turn you will pick an exit on the card your character is at and draw a card from the deck, connecting that card to the exit you chose. You can then chose to end your turn and move your character to that card, or keep going. If you ever draw a card that you can't connect, your turn is over and you don't move. Each card has 3-6 exits on it, and if the number of exits on the cards equals the number of cards drawn that turn, you also end your turn immediately (3 exits on the third card drawn, 4 exits on the fourth card drawn, etc). There's also the chance of drawing a bear card which also ends your turn. This game has an optional advanced mode with character abilities and more things that can happen on the cards you draw.

I will fully admit that the only reason I originally looked into this game was because bears. It definitely has some flaws but it's a fun little press your luck game to not take too seriously. It also wasn't too easy to explain through text so if that made no sense you can watch a review or something. Also the artwork on the character cards looks like they're from an early N64 game cutscene.


Hint for #45
This is the first in a trilogy of games.
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

Real hint for #46
Bear Bro represent!
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

PinkSuit333 posted...

willn mononpoly be on the linst?

That part will remain a mystery for now
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

LOLIAmAnAlt posted...

Here is to hoping Scrabble makes an appearance
But I know it won't.

Sorry, no Scrabble on this list.
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

SeabassDebeste posted...

one thing that surprises me about the sheriff of nottingham is how long it can take. it's this super-light bluffing game, yet the time to play it scales quadratically with number of players. 4-player game where you feel like you're in the mix? cool. 5-player game where you're not doing particularly well? ehhhhh.

Yeah I forgot to mention that it can feel too long at times. Which is funny because when I first read the rules I thought "only twice each as the Sheriff? This game sounds way too short!"

SeabassDebeste posted...

it probably shouldn't be played by the same group too many times, though, since the pure coop of it means that you can start carrying clues over between games.

This is most certainly true. Last time I was the ghost there was only one incorrect guess in the whole game. And that was from the only player who hadn't played that game with the rest of us before.
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

Shaduln posted...

Mysterium is a great game. So much fun.

My friend who owns it got the expansion and we haven't tried it yet, so I'm definitely interested to see what the new cards look like.
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

47) Sheriff of Nottingham
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/157969/sheriff-nottingham

Sheriff of Nottingham is a negotiation/bluffing game for 3-5 players. In this game players have a hand of cards consisting of legal and/or illegal goods. Every round one player will be the Sheriff while other players will place up to 5 cards in their bag and hand it to Sheriff. They then declare one type of legal good and say the number of cards in the bag (example: I have 4 bread in here). The Sheriff then has a certain number of minutes to determine who is lying and who is telling the truth. If he believes them, he gives them the bag back and anything in there was allowed through the gate, even if the player lied. If the Sheriff doesn't believe the player, he can chose to open the bag. All items in the bag that were legit are allowed through, but everything else is discarded and that player must pay the Sheriff a fine. But the Sheriff can't go too bag opening crazy, because if the player told the truth then the Sheriff has to pay them the fine. If someone knows the Sheriff is suspicious of their lie, they're allowed to offer the Sheriff any sort of bribe to not open the bag.

If I did this ranking a year or so ago, this game would have placed much higher. I guess I calmed down on it a bit. It also doesn't help that 2 people that I regularly game with strongly dislike this game, one of them actually declares this as his least favourite game ever. I still like this game though and usually wouldn't turn down the chance to play it.

Hint for #46
I did this writeup from my phone and don't have access to my list right now and don't remember what the next one is offhand, so actually no hint right now. And yes this hint was a waste of time to read.
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

48) Mysterium (2015)
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/181304/mysterium

Mysterium is a co-op deduction game for 2-7 players. One player is a ghost and the other players are psychics. There are several cards on the table containing pictures of people, locations, and weapons. Each psychic has a randomly set up solution and the ghost must help the players figure out their own solution. The ghost is forbidden to talk so they must communicate by giving the other players special cards with really unique and random artwork. It's up to the players to determine what the cards mean and what the ghost is hinting at.

Playing as the ghost can be fun but also annoying. Especially when you think you have a really good hint and nobody can tell what the card means. Or when somebody is leaning towards the correct answer and somebody accidentally talks them into guessing something else. I think I prefer playing the psychic instead of the ghost, but both roles are fine.


Hint for #47
This game's title contains the name of a Disney character
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

49) Archaeology: The New Expedition (2016)
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/191300/archaeology-new-expedition
Archaeology is a set collection/press your luck game for 2-5 players about collecting treasures and selling them to the museum. Each player has a hand of cards and draws one card from the main deck on their turn. If it's a treasure, they carry on with their turn. There are several types of treasure cards and the goal is to collect several of the same kind. There are a pile of cards in the middle that you can trade with for similar valued cards from your hand. When you decide you have enough, you play them and score points based on how many you sold. Once you sell a set, you can't add to that set so the game tempts you to wait until you can sell a big set at once. However holding a lot of valuable cards can be dangerous. If someone draws a thief card they can steal a random card from someone else's hand. If someone draws a sandstorm card, every player discards their hand down to half. There are also map cards that can help you obtain more treasures based on which monument you select at the start of the game.

This game is a reimplementation of Archaeology: The Card Game which came out in 2007. I've played the original once and liked it, but I would always rather play this version. The art is better, it adds more cards, and an option for a 5th player. It also doesn't have the monuments so the maps are always the same.


Hint for #48
One player stays silent giving clues to the other players
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

Shaduln posted...

Also because I don't have a better place to mention this, I'll be demoing board games at Emerald City Comicon for FFG/Asmodee. Here is our list:

Captain Sonar
DOOM
Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu
Quadropolis
X-Wing
Unlock! (hopefully, still not confirmed)

Captain Sonar is the only one of these I've played. Though I'm definitely interested to try Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu and Quadropolis.
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

50) Dead Last (2016)
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/184522/dead-last
Dead Last is a negotiation/bluffing game for 6-12 players. This game actually reminds me of the Tribal Council part of Survivor. There is a pile of loot in the middle of the table and everybody wants it. The loot cards are face down and are worth 3, 4, or 5 points. Everybody has a hand of cards containing the other player's colour and each round everybody plays one and the person(s) with the most votes is out of the round. You can team up with other people and make any sort of arrangement with them. The game allows you to show other players your card that you're playing, leave the room to chat, text another player, really anything goes. Once everybody has a card in the middle, they reveal, eliminate the player(s), and continue until one is left. If a player believes they're a target they can play an ambush card instead of a vote, in which they survive if they had the most votes, and eliminate someone who voted for them. However if they play an ambush and they weren't the target, they're out of the round. This goes on until one person remains. If it gets down to 2 players left, they each get a special hand of cards where they can vote to share, steal, or take one and go. If both agree to share, the loot is split. If one shares and one steals, the person who plays steal gets it all. If both steal, everybody gets loot but them. The game ends when one player has 24 or 25 points, based on player count.

It can be a mean game at times, but it's mostly mindless fun. The only problem I've come across is this game depends on the group you're with. The better the people know each other the better the game is. If some players don't know each other, it mostly ends up with players next to each other voting together. Also the game requires a minimum of 6 players which can be an issue at times too.


Hint for #49
A card game about collecting treasure
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

Hint for #50
This game's title is rather fitting for it's placement on this list.
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

SeabassDebeste posted...

already disappointed that captain sonar and specter ops didn't make the cut

I've only played them each once. I decided not to add games like that to the list until I've gotten to play them more.

SeabassDebeste posted...

(edit) - how many players did you play specter ops with?

It was a 4 player game with me as the secret agent.
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

Honorable Mentions:

Captain Sonar (2016)
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/171131/captain-sonar
This is a neat real-time better version of Battleship. It plays best with exactly 8 players in two teams of four. Each takes on a role (Captain, Chief Mate, Radio Operator, and Engineer) and the goal is to locate the enemy ship and blow it up before they do the same to you.


Rococo (2013)
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/144344/rococo
Rococo is a game about making dresses (yes I thought it sounded lame at first too). Players have cards of their employees and they're used to go on tasks to help you create these dresses and also get points in other ways. Your employees all have extra abilities (for the most part) so using them properly is one of the important keys to victory.


Specter Ops (2015)
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/155624/specter-ops
This is an all vs one game that really reminds me of games like Metal Gear Solid. One player plays a secret agent who is secretly walking around a base attempting to complete 3 mission objectives while the other players are doing what they can to find the secret agent. They all have special abilities to help them find you, while the secret agent has some secret gadget cards that they can play to throw off the other players and help them move around.


Ultimate Warriorz (2011)
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/100679/ultimate-warriorz
Each player picks one of the 8 monsters and battles in a small arena. From the one game I've played they seem quite balanced too. Smaller monsters have less health, are harder to hit, and move around quicker. Bigger monsters have more health, are easier to hit, and move around slower. The game does have player elimination, but you want to avoid that early on because you can get penalized if you land a finishing blow on somebody in the first 3 rounds.


Vast: The Crystal Caverns (2016)
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/170416/vast-crystal-caverns
This is a really interesting one. The game takes place inside of a cave and each player picks their role and has their own objective. The Goblins want to kill the Knight. The Knight wants to kill the Dragon. The Dragon wants to wake up and escape. The Thief wants to collect treasure. And the Cave (yes somebody plays as the cave) wants to stop everybody from their objective and eventually collapse the cave killing everybody.

When I played I was the Dragon and it I really liked that role. The game was really close too. The Dragon, Knight, and Thief were all one turn away from winning, and then the Knight got to me and pulled off an annoying attack that took out the rest of my health :(
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

Over the past few years I've gotten more into the board gaming hobby. I've been toying with this idea for a topic for a while but kept wanting to wait until I played more games that I've been wanting to try. I've also been making changes to the list quite often so it's taken me a while to actually get this finished. The list is finalized and locked in so it's time to get this started.

I'll make the disclaimer now that I haven't played every game in existence so many games, including some popular ones won't be in here. There are also 5 instances where two games are similar enough to share a spot, but I'll count the one I like better and talk about the other one as well.

Before I start I'll post some runner-up games. Basically ones that I liked and that have potential to make the list, but I've only played them once or so and would like to play them more before I feel like they're ready to add to the list.
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.