{"id":353,"date":"2016-01-19T16:52:08","date_gmt":"2016-01-19T16:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/traversecityboardgamers.com\/?p=353"},"modified":"2016-01-19T16:55:14","modified_gmt":"2016-01-19T16:55:14","slug":"kyles-top-100-games-50-41","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/traversecityboardgamers.com\/index.php\/2016\/01\/19\/kyles-top-100-games-50-41\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyle’s Top 100 Games – 50-41"},"content":{"rendered":"

50. \u00a0Libertalia<\/strong><\/p>\n

Designer – \u00a0Paolo Mori<\/p>\n

Publisher – \u00a0 Asmodee<\/p>\n

Year Published – \u00a0 2012<\/p>\n

Players – \u00a0 2 – 6<\/p>\n

Play Time – \u00a0 45 minutes<\/p>\n

\"libertalia\"<\/p>\n

In Libertalia is a card game that all players place pirates in there employ on a ship to go plundering. \u00a0All the while players must thwart the plans of the other players over the course of three rounds while using cards that show the same crew members as your opponents. Each pirate under your control will have different abilities that you can take advantage of at the right time.<\/p>\n

This is a highly tactical game that rewards you for proper timing. \u00a0Everyone at the table will essentially have access to the exact same pirates as you do but its the order at which they are played is where the meat and potatoes of this game is. \u00a0Not only is order essential but what you take as plunder as well. \u00a0Some of the loot is cursed which can hurt you at the end of each round.<\/p>\n

Lots of things are going on here and its one that is always fun to see hit the table.<\/p>\n

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49. \u00a0Red7<\/strong><\/p>\n

Designers – \u00a0 Carl Chudyk, Chris Cieslik<\/p>\n

Publisher – \u00a0Asmadi Games<\/p>\n

Year Published – \u00a0 2014<\/p>\n

Players – \u00a0 2 – 4<\/p>\n

Play Time – \u00a0 5 – 10 Mins<\/p>\n

\"red7\"<\/p>\n

How you win Red7 is very simple. \u00a0You must have the highest card in play at the end of your turn. \u00a0If you can’t accomplish this then you are eliminated. \u00a0Last person standing wins the round.<\/p>\n

This is a really great small card game. \u00a0The game is simple enough to teach and allows you to add extra game mechanics to enhance your games. \u00a0I love games that have different variations and this one is no different.<\/p>\n

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48. \u00a0Dice Masters<\/strong><\/p>\n

Designers – \u00a0Mike Elliot, Eric M. Lang<\/p>\n

Publisher – \u00a0 WizKids Games<\/p>\n

Year Published – \u00a0 2014<\/p>\n

Players – \u00a0 2<\/p>\n

Play Time – \u00a0 15 mins<\/p>\n

\"dicemasters\"<\/p>\n

Dice Masters has several different implementations like Marvel, DC, Dungeon & Dragons, and others. \u00a0I personally like the Marvel version myself but they all play pretty similarly. \u00a0In Dice Masters each player will be putting together a superhero or super villain team which are represented by custom dice. \u00a0Each team must be composed of 15 dice, and these dice can only be acquired by that player. \u00a0Each hero also has one or more character reference cards, which show the special abilities for the characters based on the die rolls. \u00a0Players use these dice to collect energy, recruit new heroes, and attack their opponent.<\/p>\n

This game provides a lot customization and a variety of Marvel heroes that really trigger my nostalgia. \u00a0Each hero has abilities and makes for an almost Magic The Gathering type experience when you’re building your team. \u00a0This brings up the down side to this game which is the scale of cards they have available. \u00a0This can really drain your gaming funds if you want to be competitive.<\/p>\n

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47. \u00a0Le Havre<\/strong><\/p>\n

Designer – \u00a0 Uwe Rosenberg<\/p>\n

Publisher – \u00a0 Lookout Games<\/p>\n

Year Published – \u00a0 2008<\/p>\n

Players – \u00a0 1 – 5<\/p>\n

Play Time – \u00a0 100 – 200 mins<\/p>\n

\"Lehavre\"<\/p>\n

Le Havre is a very dense game. \u00a0I’ve come to expect that from the designer Uwe Rosenberg. \u00a0This definitely won’t be the last game you see in the top 50 from him.<\/p>\n

In Le Havre\u00a0player will be filling up dock locations called offer spaces with supplied goods and taking those goods. As an action, players may choose either to take all goods of one type from an offer space or to use one of the available buildings. Buildings allow players to upgrade goods, sell them or use them to build their own buildings and ships. This is the part of the game that I really enjoy because buildings are both an investment opportunity and your income. \u00a0 Not only can you construct and use your own buildings but you can pay a service fee to use buildings that other players own. \u00a0Ships are also an essential role in the game because they provide the food required for your workers in true Uwe Rosenberg fashion. \u00a0\u00a0The player who has the largest fortune at the end of seven rounds is the winner.<\/p>\n

This game is a brain burner to say the least. \u00a0So many options and paths to victory are placed in front of you to consider. \u00a0All of which is hinged on what buildings are placed in play and in which order they come out. \u00a0This makes it difficult for your players to stick with the same strategy every time. \u00a0No one likes stale gameplay and this will be anything but that. \u00a0My only complaints about this one is that it can be long winded even if you play the short game so you will want to play with 3 players at max. \u00a0Also the feeding mechanic ramps up exponentially with every passing round which can put some players out by stress along.<\/p>\n

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46. \u00a0Lanterns : The Harvest Festival<\/strong><\/p>\n

Designer – \u00a0 Christopher Chung<\/p>\n

Publisher – \u00a0 Foxtrot Games<\/p>\n

Year Published – \u00a0 2015<\/p>\n

Players – \u00a0 2 – 4<\/p>\n

Play Time – \u00a0 30 mins<\/p>\n

\"Lanterns-cover\"<\/p>\n

Gorgeous is all I have to say about this one. \u00a0Lanterns is a light tile placement game that has a great positional aspect to it that makes it quite unique.<\/p>\n

In Lanterns, players have a hand of tiles of\u00a0various color arrangements of floating lanterns, as well as lantern cards of specific colors. \u00a0When you place a tile, all\u00a0players receive a lantern card corresponding to the color on the side of the tile facing them. This is dependent on the sitting arrangement of the players which adds to the complexity. \u00a0 You must play carefully to provide the needed lantern cards to yourself while denying your opponents the cards they need. Once players have collected a certain set of lantern cards they can turn them in for bonus cards\u00a0like three pairs or all seven colors. \u00a0The player with the most points at the end of the game wins.<\/p>\n

This game introduced me to a new kind of thought process that I haven’t quite seen in a game before. \u00a0 The idea of your tile placement providing for everyone at the table really had you considering the lay of the cards. \u00a0 That careful consideration is the part of the game that I really keyed into. \u00a0Lanterns is a solid game.<\/p>\n

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45. \u00a0Ghost Stories<\/strong><\/p>\n

Designer – \u00a0 Antoine Bauza<\/p>\n

Publishers – \u00a0 Repos Productions, Asmodee<\/p>\n

Year Published – \u00a0 2008<\/p>\n

Players – \u00a0 1 – 4<\/p>\n

Play Time – \u00a0 60 mins<\/p>\n

\"ghoststories\"<\/p>\n

Ghost Stories\u00a0is a cooperative game in which the players are protecting their village from evil spawn of the lord of hell, Wu-Feng. \u00a0Wu-Feng and his legions of ghosts will stop at nothing to haunt the village and recover the ashes that will allow him to return to life. \u00a0It’s up to you, the Taoist Monks, to defend the village from waves of these ghosts.<\/p>\n

Why do I even need to say more than that?<\/p>\n

The players will have to exorcise the ghosts which will appear during the course of the game. At the beginning of each turn, a player brings a ghost into play and places it on a free spot, and more than one can come in at the same time. The ghosts all have abilities of their own with some affecting the monks and their powers, some causing the active player to roll the curse die for a random effect, and others haunting the villager tiles and blocking that tile’s special action. The bad possibilities go on and on.<\/p>\n

Each player can perform several actions in defense like moving on a tile in order to exorcise adjacent ghosts or get help from a villager living on the tile if it’s not haunted. \u00a0They help by bringing dead back dead monks, placing traps for the ghosts, or recovering haunted tiles.<\/p>\n

Victory can only be attained through defeating the incarnation of Wu-Feng which changes from game to game and can drastically alter gameplay. \u00a0You can also ramp up the difficulty level by adding additional incarnations if your feeling extra masochistic.<\/p>\n

This game will more than likely chew you up and spit you out. \u00a0You have to come into this with your tactical mind tuned in. \u00a0I have played this a few times and had a fairly innocuous experience the first time. \u00a0The second time wasn’t as friendly and the third was one of anguish. \u00a0That’s what solidified my love for this game was my first experience paired with the following two. \u00a0The need to work as a team is not only helpful but a necessity. \u00a0The slightest error will throw your team in a whirlpool that provides little opportunity for escape. \u00a0Perfect for a gaming group that needs a cooperative testing.<\/p>\n

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44. \u00a0Ascension<\/strong><\/p>\n

Designers – \u00a0 John Fiorillo, Justin Gary<\/p>\n

Publisher – \u00a0 Stone Blade Entertainment<\/p>\n

Year Published – \u00a0 2010<\/p>\n

Players – \u00a0 1 – 4<\/p>\n

Play Time – \u00a0 30 mins<\/p>\n

\"ascension\"<\/p>\n

Ascension is a deck-building game in which players must acquire the most Honor Points by purchasing cards and defeating monsters. \u00a0To purchase cards players will spend Runes from their deck. \u00a0Players will start the game with a small deck of cards consisting of runes to get started. \u00a0Players may also be able to defeat monsters using the attack power of some of the cards which will earn them Honor Points. \u00a0As the cards are purchased they are then replaced in the play area so players need to adjust strategy\u00a0accordingly.<\/p>\n

This is one of the several games that came from the deck-building mechanic that Dominion pioneered. \u00a0This one has a little different take on it. \u00a0Instead of buying just cards to put into your deck they added monsters to defeat that get you victory points. \u00a0It makes for an interesting balance act between attack cards and money cards. \u00a0A complaint that I often hear from players is that the cards that come available can be a bit unfair due to the randomization. \u00a0I don’t think there is much to do about that other than a board wipe mechanic but I digress. \u00a0The theme of the game can be a bit dry but that doesn’t detract too much from the overall experience. \u00a0The mechanics matched with the deck building make for some interesting choices to be made. \u00a0Every monster battled and every card purchased produces victory points which makes every choice positive but never equal.<\/p>\n

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43. \u00a0Machi Koro<\/strong><\/p>\n

Designer – \u00a0 Masao Suganuma<\/p>\n

Publishers – \u00a0 IDW Games, Pandasaurus Games<\/p>\n

Year Published – \u00a0 2012<\/p>\n

Players – \u00a0 2 – 4<\/p>\n

Play Time – \u00a0 30 mins?<\/p>\n

\"machikoro\"<\/p>\n

You’ve just been elected Mayor of a city and you are in charge of building up the city. \u00a0The start of your city is very meager with only a wheat field, a bakery and a single die. \u00a0With this you are to build new buildings to produce income and steal from your neighbors.<\/p>\n

In Machi Koro each player needs\u00a0to develop the city in order to construct\u00a0all of the landmarks faster than the other players. \u00a0On their\u00a0turn, each player rolls one or two dice depending on what landmarks they have completed. \u00a0If the sum of the dice rolled matches the number of a building that a player owns, they get the benefit of that building. \u00a0Depending on the cards\/building purchased even others players can\u00a0benefit from your die. \u00a0Once you collect your money from your die roll you can build a landmark or a new building which can help in future turns. \u00a0The first player to construct all of his landmarks wins.<\/p>\n

As the game is on its own I think the game is a bit too mechanical. \u00a0All the available building in the game all available for purchase at the beginning of the game. \u00a0With all the buildings out on the table it makes for a system that has one best course of action. \u00a0The rules changed for the expansions which adds more variation of play by adding new buildings and not putting everything in the box on the table. \u00a0I would strongly recommend playing with the new rules of adding 10 buildings at random and with at least one expansion. \u00a0This will greatly effect the general strategy and force players to adapt to the new sets available. \u00a0 That being said i think this game is very fun even without these recommendations. \u00a0Customizing your city to your liking and purchasing the new buildings you like can be very satisfying. \u00a0The dice rolling can be a bit frustrating if the results don’t go your way but this is omitigated a bit with the blue building that trigger on other players turns as well as yours. \u00a0Overall this is a very fun and light game with some great player interaction.<\/p>\n

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42. \u00a0Cacao<\/strong><\/p>\n

Designer – \u00a0 Phil Walker-Harding<\/p>\n

Publisher – \u00a0 Z-man Games<\/p>\n

Year Published – \u00a0 2015<\/p>\n

Players – \u00a0 2 – 4<\/p>\n

Play Time – \u00a0 45 mins<\/p>\n

\"cacao\"<\/p>\n

Cacao is a tile-placement game that\u00a0is all about the cacao. \u00a0Your chief of your tribe and you must use your tribesman to cultivate cacao and trade it to attain gold.<\/p>\n

In the game, players will be playing their individual hand of worker tiles and placing them in a jungle in play consisting of only two tiles from the start. \u00a0As players add more worker tiles to the play area the larger the jungle will grow by adding new jungle tiles. \u00a0These jungle tiles consist of cacao fields, markets, mines, wells, temples, and sun tiles which all carry a specific action that coincides \u00a0with its activation. \u00a0Players will place their worker tiles next to these jungle tiles and if workers are on the side adjacent to the jungle action then they can activate that tiles ability. \u00a0 Depending on the amount of workers on that side of the tile they may be able to activate this ability several times. \u00a0Play continues until the players run out of worker tiles to place and the coins accumulated are tallied. \u00a0The player with the highest amount of coins is the winner.<\/p>\n

I like to think of Cacao as Carcassonne 2.0. \u00a0It borrows the tile laying aspect of Carcassonne and blends in\u00a0worker placement and light resource management. \u00a0 \u00a0ti seems all very refreshing and new which was a welcome addition from my\u00a0slightly worn out copy of Carcassonne. \u00a0Orientation, placement, and pre-planning all play crucial roles in playing this effectively which all add to the replay value. \u00a0Also with the multitude of ways to obtain gold and the evolving state of the jungle make each placement of your worker tiles a neat exercise in strategy. \u00a0This is a great game for anyone who is burned out of the simpler tile placement games but doesn’t want to dive into a complicated one.<\/p>\n

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41. \u00a0Betrayal at House on the Hill<\/strong><\/p>\n

Designers – \u00a0 \u00a0Rob Daviau, Bruce Glassco, Bill McQuillian, Mike Selinker, Teeuwynn Woodruff<\/p>\n

Publishers – \u00a0 Avalon Hill, Wizards of the Coast<\/p>\n

Year Published – \u00a0 2004<\/p>\n

Players – \u00a0 3 – 6<\/p>\n

Play Time – \u00a0 \u00a060 mins<\/p>\n

\"betrayal\"<\/p>\n

Would you like a B-movie horror flick in a box? \u00a0If so then this is the game you were looking for with as much cheese as you can handle.<\/p>\n

Betrayal at House on the Hill has an almost dungeon crawl feel to it as you explore a mansion that you build upon as you venture farther in. \u00a0\u00a0Along the way you will encounter all kinds of weird rooms with very ominous omens of your impending doom but because this is a horror movie experience you push on. \u00a0Play continues until the omens received reach a breaking point and then the haunt occurs sending the game into a completely different direction. \u00a0A traitor is determined and is immediately given a new set of rules that they must follow to achieve victory. \u00a0At the same time the other players are given a new set of rules that they must follow as well. \u00a0The game comes with lots of haunts that can occur to increase replayability and a different flavor to each game.<\/p>\n

The funny thing about Betrayal is that I would describe it as more of an experience that a game. \u00a0The theme and the narrative of this game carries the mechanics which can be slightly broken at times. \u00a0The gameplay in each of the haunts is different so it can become very clunky and difficult to understand in some of the haunts. \u00a0Regardless of the games mechanical faults, I do have quite a bit of fun playing this. \u00a0The multiple end game scenarios or haunts make for an interesting and unique experience. \u00a0The production of the figurines and the tiles are all of good quality and add to the overall feel it’s trying to create. \u00a0I feel like some spooky background music should have come in the box as well for some added atmosphere (NEW EDITION IDEAS). \u00a0I would pick this one up if you love a game with popcorn and laughter.<\/p>\n

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50. \u00a0Libertalia Designer – \u00a0Paolo Mori Publisher – \u00a0 Asmodee Year Published – \u00a0 2012 Players – \u00a0 2 – 6 Play Time – \u00a0 45 minutes In… Continue reading <\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[44,42],"class_list":["post-353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lists","tag-kyle","tag-top-100","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/traversecityboardgamers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/traversecityboardgamers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/traversecityboardgamers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traversecityboardgamers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traversecityboardgamers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/traversecityboardgamers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":395,"href":"https:\/\/traversecityboardgamers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353\/revisions\/395"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traversecityboardgamers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/traversecityboardgamers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traversecityboardgamers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traversecityboardgamers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}