Top 100 Games (End of 2019)
A new year means it’s time to stop and take a look at board gaming hobby and share my favourite games of all time!
This year 354 games were evaluated (400+ and something before I removed duplicates and games I haven’t played enough to evaluate in the list), vs 218 games that were evaluated last year. Quite the increase!
| Item | 2019 Rank | 2018 Rank | Change |
| Gentes: Deluxified Edition | 100 | New | – |
| Kingdomino | 99 | 100 | 1 |
| Catan: Starfarers | 98 | New | – |
| Franchise | 97 | New | – |
| Flamme Rouge | 96 | 94 | -2 |
| Ginkgopolis | 95 | 128 | 33 |
| Harvest Dice | 94 | 71 | -23 |
| Unlock! Series | 93 | 32 | -61 |
| Wingspan | 92 | New | – |
| PitchCar | 91 | 85 | -6 |
| On Tour | 90 | New | – |
| Root | 89 | New | – |
| Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries | 88 | 82 | -6 |
| High Society | 87 | 57 | -30 |
| Underwater Cities | 86 | New | – |
| Hero Realms | 85 | 40 | -45 |
| The Voyages of Marco Polo | 84 | 150 | 66 |
| Whitehall Mystery | 83 | New | – |
| Onitama | 82 | 78 | -4 |
| Charterstone | 81 | 149 | 68 |
| Sushi Go Party! | 80 | 39 | -41 |
| Raiders of the North Sea | 79 | 9 | -70 |
| Arkwright | 78 | New | – |
| Edge of Darkness | 77 | New | – |
| Power Grid | 76 | 50 | -26 |
| Snowdonia: Deluxe Master Set | 75 | New | – |
| Caverna: The Cave Farmers | 74 | 33 | -41 |
| Carcassonne | 73 | 99 | 26 |
| Roll for the Galaxy | 72 | 27 | -45 |
| Patchwork | 71 | 45 | -26 |
| Second Chance | 70 | New | – |
| Cartographers: A Roll Player Tale | 69 | New | – |
| Carpe Diem | 68 | New | – |
| Le Havre | 67 | 105 | 38 |
| Nova Luna | 66 | New | – |
| Blackout: Hong Kong | 65 | New | – |
| Rising Sun | 64 | 54 | -10 |
| Teotihuacan: City of Gods | 63 | New | – |
| Oh My Goods! | 62 | New | – |
| Dice Masters | 61 | 22 | -39 |
| Istanbul: Big Box | 60 | New | – |
| Altiplano | 59 | 81 | 22 |
| Lost Cities | 58 | 72 | 14 |
| Villagers | 57 | New | – |
| Viticulture Essential Edition | 56 | 49 | -7 |
| Power Grid: The Card Game | 55 | 61 | 6 |
| No Thanks! | 54 | 86 | 32 |
| Orléans | 53 | 73 | 20 |
| Tapestry | 52 | New | – |
| Sidereal Confluence: Trading and Negotiation in the Elysian Quadrant | 51 | 28 | -23 |
| Dominion | 50 | 74 | 24 |
| Century: Spice Road | 49 | 59 | 10 |
| Ticket to Ride | 48 | 70 | 22 |
| Imperial Settlers: Empires of the North | 47 | New | – |
| The Mind | 46 | 88 | 42 |
| Heroes of Land, Air & Sea | 45 | 41 | -4 |
| Detective: City of Angels | 44 | New | – |
| Kashgar: Merchants of the Silk Road | 43 | New | – |
| Scythe | 42 | 30 | -12 |
| For Sale | 41 | 76 | 35 |
| Yokohama | 40 | 63 | 23 |
| Paladins of the West Kingdom | 39 | New | – |
| Concordia | 38 | 21 | -17 |
| Clans of Caledonia | 37 | 18 | -19 |
| Stockpile | 36 | 23 | -13 |
| Coimbra | 35 | 47 | 12 |
| Maracaibo | 34 | New | – |
| Bunny Kingdom | 33 | 38 | 5 |
| KLASK | 32 | 36 | 4 |
| Russian Railroads | 31 | New | – |
| The Castles of Burgundy | 30 | 37 | 7 |
| The Taverns of Tiefenthal | 29 | New | – |
| Istanbul: The Dice Game | 28 | 19 | -9 |
| Container: 10th Anniversary Jumbo Edition! | 27 | 17 | -10 |
| Point Salad | 26 | New | – |
| Jaipur | 25 | 26 | 1 |
| Fantastic Factories | 24 | New | – |
| Architects of the West Kingdom | 23 | New | – |
| Azul | 22 | 75 | 53 |
| The Quest for El Dorado | 21 | 106 | 85 |
| Keyflower | 20 | 7 | -13 |
| Crokinole | 19 | 6 | -13 |
| Blood Rage | 18 | 20 | 2 |
| Rajas of the Ganges | 17 | 8 | -9 |
| Thunderstone Quest | 16 | 4 | -12 |
| Baseball Highlights: 2045 | 15 | 15 | 0 |
| 7 Wonders | 14 | 14 | 0 |
| Sushi Go! | 13 | 77 | 64 |
| A Feast for Odin | 12 | 13 | 1 |
| Clank! Legacy: Acquisitions Incorporated | 11 | New | – |
| KeyForge: Call of the Archons | 10 | 10 | 0 |
| Marvel Champions: The Card Game | 9 | New | – |
| The Quacks of Quedlinburg | 8 | New | – |
| Magic: The Gathering | 7 | 2 | -5 |
| Great Western Trail | 6 | 11 | 5 |
| Clank!: A Deck-Building Adventure | 5 | 5 | 0 |
| Camel Up | 4 | 16 | 12 |
| Brass: Birmingham | 3 | 29 | 26 |
| 7 Wonders Duel | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| Champions of Midgard | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Some random thoughts on various games:
- Older games had the most interesting moves this year. Camel Up, Brass, Sushi Go shot up the list and I would say solidified their positions. This year I learned a bit to see through the shine and I’ve now been in the hobby that I’ve got a bunch of top favourites that I know are my favourites even if I can’t get them to the table.
- A lot of old collectible game favourites fell down this year because I wasn’t able to get them to the table. Dice Masters fell out of the top 25 just because I literally can never get it to the table. It’s a fantastic game that is just hard to get to table firstly because it’s two player but also because its collectible – I don’t know how to break out my decks and play – it’s a big pain in the ass. This impacted Star Wars Destiny as well – these both are games I love but who knows if I’ll ever play again because of their business model (I need to buy one of the non collectible Dice Masters sets and try and get it to table in 2020)
- I was surprised how close a lot of games were to their rank from last year! Doing this list meant doing 1200+ 1 vs 1 comparisons, I’m glad my tastes are getting more consistent.
This list was made with the Pub Meeple Ranking Engine, what are your favourite games?