End of Year & Top 100 (2024)

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50 — Agricola

2022 #48
2023 #65

I guess I was wrong last year when I suspected Agricola of falling further. It still loses to its bigger brother, Caverna, but it’s still a great game, and now “cozy” themes are more of a thing, and Agricola was one of the original cozy Euros (ignoring all the many ways you can lose points for not doing well enough, of course… and starving…).

49 — Magic: The Gathering

2022 #14
2023 #34

Magic has been rough the past couple of years. My engagement with it has definitely gone down, but I’m hoping to get back into it a bit more soon (not too much). I think WotC might have finally figured out that people actually like Magic when it’s not overly complicated. Now if they could just stop making 100 sets a year.

48 — Blood Rage

2023 #11

It’s had a bit of a drop. I still play from time to time on the digital version, but we’ve yet to pull the trigger on getting a physical copy. It’s still a really fun game, and maybe someday we’ll get a physical game in.

47 — Scythe

2022 #83
2023 #59

Well, we didn’t get into the Fenris campaign like I was hoping, but that’s okay; it even moved up slightly. It’s still a solid resource-management game with a neat theme and a fun solo mode. Maybe the disappointment of Expeditions made me appreciate Scythe just a bit more.

46 — Chronicles of Frost

2022 #3
2023 #35

It’s dropped a little more, but there are some great new games in the list. Still an awesome adventure game with fun exploration and character customization.

45 — Scarlet Heroes

2023 #83

This one has been my go-to solo RPG. The narrative demands aren’t as high as others like Ironsworn, and the rules being as light as they are also makes the game easy to return to. I still wouldn’t mind a bit more complexity, at least in character customization, but it’s still fun as-is.

44 — Imperial Settlers: Empires of the North

2022 #99
2023 —

Another game returning to the list after being absent. We got this back to the table not too long ago, and I tried one of the more advanced decks. I really enjoy the system and the variety of what the decks can do. I just wish they had released some sort of pack of cards that you could customize with. Each deck always having the same cards is one aspect really holding this back for me. But it was great revisiting it anyway.

43 — Fabled Lands

2023 #45

A steady hold for an older favorite (but I didn’t use to include gamebooks, RPGs, and miniatures games on this list). Sure, it doesn’t have much depth to the gameplay, but this series is much more about the setting, exploration, and your decisions. And it’s such a huge setting, too. I might be looking to buy another book or two next year.

42 — The Castles of Burgundy

2022 #39
2023 #40

This is a pretty remarkable hold (but not the most consistent, surprisingly). It’s a classic with multiple updates (weirdly released close together); just an all-around great Euro. I prefer the acrylic tiles over the minis; the minis are just too tedious to find and then sort and put away when you’re done. And my friend’s copy doesn’t have painted minis, so the tiles are way more colorful. We tried the new wine module, but, for me, it was just okay. Just more of the same, for the most part, but with a very simple spacial puzzle.

41 — Race for the Galaxy

2022 #53
2023 #24

A little bit of a drop, but I’ve played the digital version some to hold me over since it’s been a while since we brought this back out. Still haven’t gotten an expansion, but there’s tons of variety in the base game anyway.

Top 100: 40-31
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

5 thoughts on “End of Year & Top 100 (2024)”

    1. It’s mostly the rules that are listed in the rulebook, but there are a couple of extra variant rules in the Wizard’s Companion (including how to generate a point threshold for winning). It’s very easy to run.

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