Andrew’s Top 10 Board Games of All Time

boardgamequest.com:

I last wrote a list of my Top 10 games of all time back in 2017. My tastes have certainly changed quite a bit over the last 6+ years, so it felt like well past time to revisit it.

Obviously, my preferences tend to learn toward heavier Euro games. I did choose to leave out any legacy games. The Pandemic Legacy series would certainly appear on this list otherwise, but since they reach a point where they can no longer be played it doesn’t quite feel like they belong here.

Sure, this list is going to be 90% long and complicated strategy games. But I like to have fun too … sometimes. And when it comes to party games, Time’s Up: Title Recall is unbeaten. It pays basically an infinite amount of people. Multiple rounds of clue giving that go from say anything you want, to say one word, to full on charades. There are multiple similar games like Monkiers and “regular” Time’s Up, but the pop culture clues in Title Recall are my preferred way to play.

It is easy to dismiss Concordia as just another Euro where you gather resources and spend those on things that get you victory points. While true, the action system really sets the game apart. Everyone starts with the same deck and each card has an action. One of those card abilities is to get even more cards… with different or more actions. And each card you get increases your end-game scoring in a different way. There are a lot of different expansion maps in Concordia with just enough changes to keep things interesting.

Is it cheating to put a whole game system on this list? Probably. Do I care? Nope. If you aren’t familiar, 1830 is the original where players buy stock in and operate train companies. These games are generally long, a short one might run 3-4 hours. But they offer a depth of experience that isn’t found in a lot of other games. It can be cutthroat, but that’s just the world of 19th-century locomotives. If you are looking for a place to start, try 1846 or 18Chesapeake.

You’ll come to see in this list a focus on