By: Blaze Aldrich | June 18, 2024
Top 10 Board Games of All Time According to Blaze
I've played several board games in my time being a part of this amazing hobby. As I continue to build my empire of a board game collection, while my wife is questioning my spending habits, I finally have determined my top 10 board games of all time. If you have read my other blogs you'll notice a lot of the same games. I admit, I try to insert some of these remarkable games in any other blog I can because that's how incredible they are. So without further a due, here are the top 10 board games of all time according to me.
10. Skull
If you enjoy bluffing your way to victory then Skull is the game for you. Skull made my top 10 list because of how much I enjoy tricking my friends and family. I love getting into their heads and making them think I'm going to do a certain move, but instead I bluff all of them. In Skull players play a card face down, then sequentially add more cards until someone feels confident enough to claim they can reveal a specific number of cards without encountering a skull. Other players can raise the stakes, asserting they can reveal even more cards safely. The highest bidder must then flip the stated number of cards, beginning with their own. Revealing only roses results in a win, while revealing a skull results in a loss and the removal of one of their cards. Such a very simple game but it's hilariously fun.
9. Star Wars Unlimited
Star Wars Unlimited is a trading card game where players can build their decks before they play each other. I haven't been this excited about a TCG since Pokémon when I was a wee little kid. Each player attempts to destroy their opponent's base while masterfully managing their ground and space units. My favorite part is opening up booster packs to find those rare foil cards that can instantly make a major impact on your deck. Luckily for us, Star Wars Unlimited decided to launch another edition called Shadows of the Galaxy. I hope you pre-ordered your copy because this game is already sold out in many places.
8. Forbidden Stars
Forbidden Stars board game has so many unique mechanics that makes the game so much fun. It's a strategic game for up to four players, each leading a distinct faction: Ultramarines, Eldar, Evil Sunz Orks, or World Eaters Chaos Space Marines. Each faction has unique armies and strategies, but the main objective is to secure key objectives scattered across the Herakon Cluster while defending against opponents. Players build and command powerful armies in intense battles to claim their goals. My favorite part, by far, is moving around planets and battling other opponents' fleets. What makes this game so awesome is the way turn orders work for each phase. Many times you can outwit your opponent by utilizing the turn order mechanism to ruin other players' strategies.
7. Decrypto
Decrypto is another excellent, simple game I love playing with new gamers or just friends and family. In Decrypto, two teams compete to decode their teammates' messages while intercepting the opposing team's codes. Each team has a screen with four numbered pockets, each containing a word only visible to them. In the first round, a player draws a code card with a sequence like 3-1-2 and gives a coded message, such as "fruit-night-drive" for words "apple," "moon," "book," and "car." If their teammates guess the sequence correctly, they succeed; if not, they get a mark of failure. The game is way more fun when you are on a person's team who doesn't know you very well. It's hilarious when your teammate is trying to understand your hints to words and they have no idea what you are trying to hint at.
6. Quacks of Quedlinburg
Quacks of Quedlinburg was one of the first "modern" board games I ever played. Players buy and use different ingredients, each having different abilities, to make better potions and get further along on the cauldron track. There is a push your luck mechanic where you are pulling ingredients out of a bag until a player stops or pulls too many poisonous cherry bombs and the pot explodes. I introduced this game to my family who isn't to much into board games, but when we do play, they always want to play Quacks.
5. Barrage
Barrage board game was just added to my top 10 list recently. If you like very puzzle-y, brainy games, you have to try Barrage. First time I played I absolutely sucked at it haha. Even though I was terrible at the game, I wanted to keep playing to try to master this game. In Barrage players build and manage dams, elevate them for more capacity, and channel water to power turbines. Players compete for prime spots to harness water in an Alpine region. The game features two unique mechanisms: managing actions and resources on a Construction Wheel, which locks them until the wheel completes a turn, requiring careful planning; and navigating water flow as a shared resource, where players must strategically intercept, store, and recycle water through dams and tunnels. Upstream dams, though costlier, can block water from downstream rivals, making strategic placement crucial.
4. Castles of Burgundy Special Edition
Don't get me wrong the Castles of Burgundy standard edition by itself is one of the best games of all time. Now ad 3-D buildings and metal coins to the mix and now you just electrified the gaming experience ten-fold. I usually despise using dice in board games, but in Castles of Burgundy it works brilliantly. Dice aren't too much of a factor because you can accumulate workers to change the dice outcomes. The game progresses through five phases, each consisting of five rounds. At the start of each phase, settlement and goods tiles populate the board. Players roll two dice before each round, with the first player also rolling a goods placement die to determine tile availability. Turns proceed sequentially, with each player taking two actions from options including selecting and placing settlement tiles, delivering goods, or acquiring worker tokens to adjust dice rolls.
3. Nemesis
Do you enjoy back stabbing your friends in board games haha. I don't.... Well if you do, Nemesis is a thrilling semi-cooperative board game where every player is trying to accomplish different secret objectives while defending off aliens. Hence, why players have to work together, because if they don't, Nemesis is so hard to win alone. Aliens are very powerful and hard to kill. On the other hand, a players objective may involve killing other players or blowing up the ship entirely. You have to rely on each other, but not too much because they could always trap you in a room to die. Sounds fun huh? IT IS!
2. Brass Birmingham
Brass Birmingham is an epic economic style board game. For many gamers, this is their # 1 favorite board game of all time. The game play and how canal/railroad networks evolve are seamless. In addition, the game encourages interactions between players by allowing you to use your opponents' resources but at the same time giving bonuses to those opponents if you do. In Brass players must develop, build, and establish their industries and network to exploit low or high market demands. The game spans two halves: the canal era from 1770 to 1830 and the rail era from 1830 to 1870. To win, accumulate the most victory points (VPs) by the end of each half, awarded for canals, rails, and flipped industry tiles.
1. Clank! Legacy
I've played many legacy board games, but they did not compare to how phenomenal and spectacular Clank! Legacy is. Clank! is a deck building game which includes a modular board that your miniatures move on. Even that was cool by itself, but in the legacy edition players are adding different places on the board or modifying the board. In addition to that, players get to add better cards to their deck for their use only or modify cards. At some points, you are trying to accomplish missions and ripping up cards. This has been by far my most memorable gaming experience and it's going to be difficult for another game to top it. Oh wait...that might happen with Clank! Legacy 2 coming out soon.
BGG TOP 10
I like leaving little bonuses on these blogs. If you don't already know Board Game Geek is a website about the hottest board games, most popular board games, blogs, board game community, and much more. Well they have a list of their own where all gamers are involved. So here is their top 10 list as of June 2024.
10. Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion
9. Star Wars Rebellion
8. War of the Ring
7. Terraforming Mars
6. Dune Imperium
5. Twilight Imperium 4th Edition
4. Ark Nova
3. Gloomhaven
2. Pandemic Legacy: Season 1
1. Brass Birmingham
Final Thoughts
What's funny is comparing my top 10 list to BGG's top 10 list. I literally only share 1 game from their list. Admittedly I haven't played all of their 10 games, but I have played most of them. And I am sure, definitely sure, that everyone's top 10 list is going to be different. The only difference between my list and everyone else, is my list is correct. LOL. JK! Let us know what your 10 list looks like. I am curious to see if I have ever played them. Happy Gaming!
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