End of Year & Top 100 (2025)

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40 — Fabled Lands

2023 #45
2024 #43

Is this my most consistent game in the top 100? If not, it’s close. While the mechanics aren’t exactly ground-breaking, the world is super immersive, and it’s such a huge sandbox. I mean, how many adventure games let you buy a ship and start delivering cargo to ports for money? Epic quest? How about going fishing instead? Or mining? Just wander off the edge of the map and into the next book? What a great series.

39 — Blood Rage

2023 #11
2024 #48

Haven’t played the physical game yet, though my friend owns a copy. Given my track record with apps, I feel like this could make a jump up after we finally play the physical version. Haven’t looked into the up-coming sequel game, but I know people were upset about the map, and a lot don’t feel it’s different enough.

38 — Pokémon Trading Card Game

2024 #28

This didn’t get to the table much this year, though we tried some of the more advanced pre-constructed decks. They’re fun, but we prefer what we did before. Unfortunately, the scalping has ruined the game and made it unreasonable to play for us. I’m not paying $60 for a single Build & Battle box. Maybe things will finally calm down in 2026? At least Pokémon Pocket has been fun, even if it’s not as good.

37 — Heat: Pedal to the Metal

2023 #51
2024 #14

We played this some more this year, and while the new tracks weren’t incredible, it’s still a lot of fun. The upgrade module is an always-include for me, and we also generally play with the weather and special tiles. We also tried using the sponsor cards outside the campaign, and it worked pretty well. It adds a bit more randomness to the game, but they’re really fun cards.

36 — Fleet

2023 #29
2024 #56

I got this one back out this year, and I still love it. It’s got a lot of my usual favorites: a tight economy, card play, special abilities, and set collection. Haven’t tried an expansion or solo mode yet, but we had only played a little, anyway. It’s a pretty quick game, so I’ll probably play more next year.

35 — Champions of Midgard

2022 #18
2023 #13
2024 #20

This is a classic hybrid game with Euro mechanics and lots of dice chucking. The expansions really add a lot of fun things to the game, as well as adding a new layer of strategy. I don’t really see it making a resurgence for me. A new game from the same designer has likely replaced it…

34 — Valheim: The Board Game

New in 2025

Such as this one! With over 1,000 hours in the video game, I was very excited for this one. It basically takes the dice from Champions of Midgard and rebuilds the rest of the game. It’s a very streamlined adventure game, with lots of exploring, combat, but also some good strategizing, since you can’t build and craft everything. And time is not on your side; you need to be efficient! I can’t wait to see how they bring in the next few biomes from the video game. And I’d love to see a bit more added to the ocean, like sea serpents and krakens, and maybe storms.

33 — Unmatched Game System

2024 #23

While the co-op mode has not really been great for us (the initiative is a bit a swingy at 3-player), the head-to-head is still great. It’s been fun just grabbing a couple decks and trying them out. We’ve even started doing unusual match-ups. It’s crazy how differently each deck can play. This is one that is always fun. We’ll have to see if the new TMNT co-op has improvements that make it work for us.

32 — Hanamikoji

2022 #9
2023 #7
2024 #38

This hasn’t been on the table as much as before, since there are so many 2-player games to play, but it’s still a favorite for us. Super tense gameplay with possibly the fewest number of actions in a game that isn’t a gimmick? You only get 4 actions in the game, and each one will be agonizing.

31 — Warhammer Fantasy RPG 2nd Edition

2023 #9
2024 #21

Luckily, I have been able to join a play-by-forum campaign, and I’m loving it. I get to be a player this time, and I’m playing Folke, the human bailiff from the ruined town of Wulfenburg. Like most starting characters, he’s not great at anything, but he has an decent Intelligence score, so there’s a few things he can do. We’ve gotten enough xp that I was able to bump up his Ballistic Skill as well, so maybe less missing his shots! I know any campaign could end at any time if life gets in the way, so I’m going to enjoy this while I can.

Top 100: 30–21
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