Aeons End

Aeons End is a game that combines everything I enjoy. Replayablity, variety, cooperative play, strategy, a bit of luck into a single complete package. The game is currently still receiving expansions that continue to add more characters, enemies, and cards to choose from. No game has had me jeering when a cool play happens or sulking when the feeling of defeat is on the horizon like Aeons End.

See my review here:
Aeons End – A Wonderful Deckbuilder of Magic and Conflict

Like Aeons End, Spirt Island is also still receiving expansions that continues to add content to the game. Spirit Island allows such a mastery of each spirit that you feel like theres always something you can improve on for your next game. Due to its cooperative nature, it comes with a fantastic difficulty selector that allows you to finetune many different details. The game is great for new players on easier difficulties and still manages to be entertaining for experienced players.

See my review here:
Spirit Island – Defense Against the Invaders

Theme, theme, theme. Lord of the Rings: The Card Game has fantastic theming which I think is its biggest draw. Do you want to create an army of dwarves to storm the Mines of Moria or do you want to play an Eagle deck as you are on the search for a hidden clue? The flavor text, the art, and the overall scenario really bring the player into the world of middle earth. This game isn’t for the faint of heart, as the difficulty is very high, but this allows for reflection on your successes and failures as you can tackle scenarios again and again.

7 Wonders is the “Most Awarded Game in the World” and not without good reason. 7 Wonders is a staple for me when introducing new people into the world of boardgames. It is easy to learn with simple turns and provides enough agency to allow the player to make their own strategy to win. 7 Wonders makes this list, not necessarily for the creativity of its design or how much I enjoy playing it, but for the amount of times its been the perfect game to bring to casual boardgame events with friends or family where they consistently seem to have a good time!

See my review here:
7 Wonders – Of The World

I recently played Imperium (when compared to everything on this list) and fell in love with it. It follows a very “Civilization Development” theme where you start as a barbarian nation and by getting developments your nation grows develops and grows stronger. Each civilization has different ways to play which provides variety and replayability. I was very impress when playing solo, instead you face off against the game itself and due to a simple list of rules the game manages to play very human-like actions as the opposing civilization. Imperium keeps you on the edge of your seat as you never know who is winning until the end of the game when scoring is tallied up based on the goals and development of your nation

Under Falling Skies is the only pure solo boardgame on this list. Pure solo board games are not a very common or popular boardgame category. Under Falling Skies is looking to challenge this by providing an interesting and engaging premise as you are tasked with defending earth against alien spaceships. With a combination of luck and strategic planning you can hold off the horde of incoming ships and defend earth. The game includes a host of different scenarios and even a campaign feature allowing to play and progress through multiple linked scenarios. The biggest boon for under falling skies is the table space it takes up. It is very quick to setup and take down as it takes up no more than an 8×11 sheet of paper’s worth of space.

See my review here:
Under Falling Skies – Earth’s Last Defense

I’m not sure this game actually deserves to be on this list, but it is for sure one of my favorite games of all time. Stratego sees you pitted against another player as you square off and move your pieces in hope to capture your opponents flag. The game is simple in premise with higher number capturing lower number, but has a few interesting strategic elements that allow for a hosts of different strategies. For me this game was one of the first boardgames I remember really getting into and spent time thinking about strategy. Me and my dad used to play it with him always beating me until one day I managed my first win (definitely one of my greatest boardgame achievements). Even to this day I still pull out stratego and try and get my girlfriend to play with me as I don’t think there is ever a dull moment with this game.

Gloomhaven by many is considered to be one of the top boardgames of all time. Gloomhaven draws many inspirations from Dungeon and Dragons with a fantasy setting and a long drawn out campaign featuring a party who each have interesting stories and choices that affect the overall campaign. Gloomhaven allows you to levelup and customize your characters by acquiring unique and specific abilities and loot. Gloomhaven has everything I really enjoy into one game and uses a unique “notebook” feature for its playmat so it doesn’t take up alot of space. The biggest drawback for me and why it isn’t higher on this list is setup time, rule density, and forced “campaign” (which leads to a host of scheduling issues with other players). The game is very dense with rules and has lots of different pieces and cards which can make it feel very cluttered. If you can leave the game setup between sessions I’m sure you’ll find alot more enjoyment with it. I eventually plan to revisit this game at some point when I have a bit more time and space.