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A Gaming Life
BGG Top Games – 2501 – 2600
It’s time for another century of Boardgame Geek rated games, getting down into the second half of the 2000s and seeing what’s there.
This one isn’t quite going to be the bonanza that last time’s was, but there are definitely some good games in here so I still would hesitate to say we’re in the dregs of the BGG lists.
I know I keep saying it, but I’m so glad I’m doing these posts because I get to talk about games that don’t get talked about too much.
And these posts do seem to spark discussion among my friends about games that I have never heard of.
I don’t really care that these don’t get a lot of views overall.
That discussion is the main reason I do these, and it makes my heart sing.
So please keep it up!
Let’s get into this quickly so maybe the post won’t be quite as long as usual.
This week’s list is here, though keep in mind that the rankings can change as time goes on.
So if you’re a Killer from the Future taking time out from your evil quest to check out what boardgames were popular back in this age, don’t be surprised if it’s different when you go back to your time!
(I may have just teased what my next Final Girl review will be about).
I don’t see any new games in this list, so there aren’t any up and comers that are just here at this moment but will soon be skyrocketing further towards the top.
Instead, these are probably set pretty well and won’t change too much.
For this century, I’ve played seven of them and own (or previously owned) five, so not bad!
Let’s do what Pink says and…
The only song of hers I kind of like.
Read MoreCombat Commander After Action Report – Scenario LoM #6 – One Steppe Beyond
Have you ever been in a situation at a bar where you’re getting punched in the face, and rather than, I don’t know, getting out of there, you just stood there and took it?
Until suddenly you keeled over unconscious from the repeated blows, with your last thought being “I could have left, you know”?
Hopefully not, as that would suck.
But figuratively speaking, that’s how I spent my Saturday morning!
Welcome to another tale from the Combat Commander ladder, that monthly tournament where you get to play one of the greatest games of all time on at least a monthly basis.
Ok, “greatest” may be an exaggeration, but certainly one of the most fun games.
Run by the vigorous Patrick Pence (he of Patrick’s Tactics & Tutorials fame, and I should probably watch the last couple of CC videos that I haven’t had the chance to!), the ladder is never stopping.
Though it is a couple of years away from running out of scenarios for a couple of the months, I think?
Anyway, April’s scenario is from the Leader of Men battle pack, a bunch of tournament scenarios with limited special rules and just straight-up tactical skill.
A Russian recon force and a German recon force meet on the Steppes of Central Russia in 1943.
Chaos ensues.
My opponent this month was David P, a guy who I have played (and lost to) once before, back in January 2024.
Could I turn the tide this month?
The Germans (grey – David) set up within 4 hexes of the left side while the Russians (brown – me) set up within 4 hexes of the right side of the board.
(Don’t forget that you can click on a picture to blow it up)
The only real special rule in this one is that setup is simultaneous, so you don’t know what the other guy is going to do.
You have to play it by ear!
The other two special rules are the removal of two potential objectives chits and the rule that neither side can voluntarily leave the board.
IT’S AN OLD FASHIONED CAGE MATCH!!!!
All objectives are worth 2 VP, which means you want to gain control of what you can as soon as possible.
Let’s see how this sorted out.
Read MoreCardboard Mob & Hot Spirits – Speakeasy Review
When many people think of The Mob, they are thinking of New York mafia types, or New Jersey ones like the Sopranos.
But when it gets moved back in time to Prohibition and the gangster wars of the 20s and 30s, everybody can name Al Capone and the many of the rest of them, though they are all Chicago gangsters.
So what does game designer Vital Lacerda do?
He sets a Prohibition-era gangster game in New York and only briefly references the well-known Chicago gangsters.
Yes, Speakeasy is the New York Mob game where you are buying or producing illicit booze and then selling it to gain a bunch of money.
Meanwhile, you’re also horning in on mobster territory, associating with other mobsters, and possibly attacking (or buying from) booze ships run by the Chicago gangsters.
Speakeasy was published by Eagle-Gryphon Games in 2025 (though many backers didn’t receive it until January 2026). It was designed by Lacerda with incredible artwork by the incomparable Ian O’Toole.
It’s also a monster game.
I mean, literally. The box is so huge that my friend who owns the game has a suitcase dedicated to it.
Here’s a size comparison.
It’s also a bear to teach, but it’s so worth it.
I played this game three times in two weeks (one Sunday and then twice the next week at the 2026 Terminal City Tabletop Convention), helping teach it twice.
It’s a long one!
Be ready for length in both teach and play, at least until you get more skilled at it (or play with three players, as all three of my games were at 4).
Let’s get into why this game is so good.
Read MoreDinner Battlefield – Food Fight: Reheated Review
Don’t you hate it when you’re having a peaceful Sunday brunch, and suddenly James’ bacon pulls out a machine gun and starts firing it at your burger, while Abi’s pesto linguini starts shooting rockets at both Vicki’s pizza and your tater tots?
Meanwhile everybody’s diving for cover because it’s suddenly getting hot in here?
Is that just me? Did I have a bit too much vodka last night?
No, that’s me and others playing the updated version of a classic (ok, I use that word loosely) card game.
Food Fight: Reheated is an updated version of the 2011 game of the same name (without the “reheated,” of course, because that would just be dumb).
Designed by Nathaniel Yamaguchi with art by Robb Mommaerts, this reheated version was published in 2025 by Cryptozoic Games.
I played the original as an app on my iPad many moons ago, but it’s been so long that I don’t remember any details.
So I couldn’t tell you what changes were made from the original, other than one thing the BGG page says (it’s streamlined so there are only three rounds) and I’ve heard that the Mascots, which were an expansion to the base game I believe, are now standard.
I could be wrong, though!
I’m sure a friend of mine will be by later to fill in the details.
Anyway, let’s get to the meat of the matter.
(I’m sorry. I’ll try to stop).
Read MoreBGG Top Games – 2401-2500
Since I wanted to get another post done this week and it’s going to take way too long to do anything else I wanted to do, it’s time for the weekly look at the Boardgame Geek rankings, century by century!
Last week was really bad, but this week actually has some really cool stuff, so this one will be much more interesting.
Things aren’t actually too thin at this point, which is interesting since we’re hitting 2500 here.
The dregs gotta start happening soon, right?
I do love these posts because they do spark discussion about some games that aren’t written about very often.
Of course, last week’s didn’t, but last week kinda sucked, right?
This week is much different!
In fact, it even includes one of my Top 50 games, which is a crime against humanity because it shouldn’t be down this low.
(I kid, I kid…it’s actually just a crime against nature).
For this century, I have played 9 games and own (or previously owned) 2.
This week’s list is showing here, but of course keep in mind that things shift and, if you are coming here many months in the future (or the past, maybe you’re a time traveler?), this list could be very different from what I’m mentioning below.
I am going to be leaving some games I’ve played out of this because otherwise it would be a monstrously long post (as opposed to just annoyingly long), but we’ll also cover some games I wouldn’t mind playing.
There are also a couple of first editions where the 2nd edition is now really popular, as well as a few wargames, and some games that reimplement stuff I’ve played but I haven’t actually played those.
So a wide variety!
Let’s get started.
Read MoreMarch 2026 Gaming
After a rather lackluster February gaming month, I knew March was going to be pretty huge.
Not only was it the great Terminal City Tabletop Convention, but it also captured one day of Bottoscon Winter.
It would have been even larger if we hadn’t missed a week of Sunday gaming (though probably only by 2-3 games, depending on what we played).
The month was highlighted by three whole plays in two weeks of the new Vital Lacerda game (more on that in the “New to Me Games” post plus the review that I will eventually get to) plus eleven total new to me games, which means that post may be a bit delayed as I try to write all 5000 words.
I ended the month with 49 plays of 32 games.
I know that’s a lot!
Last March, I had 44 plays of 33 games, so it’s comparable and I think the Sunday convention helped boost me over that.
Here are the games I played in March 2026.
And here they are in two grids (yes, so many games that I had to split it into two):
Many thanks to the wonderful folks who created the BG Stats app, which provided these statistics.
There are so many games there that I should probably just mention the highlights, right?
Let’s get to work.
Read MoreBGG Top Games – 2301-2400
Each week when I do these BGG Top Games posts, I comment about how things are getting a little thin down here in the 2000s.
It’s like you’re scuba diving and suddenly your air tank is reading as near empty and you don’t know how you got there.
However, I usually get a pretty good post out about it!
If I do say so myself. I know many of you may disagree.
However, I have to say that this week’s is truly the bottom of the barrel so far.
It’s not all bad, but it’s mostly uninteresting, and that’s even some of the games I’ve played!
This is not a symptom of how getting down deeper is going to keep getting worse.
I’ve taken a peek at what I’ll be talking about next week, and it’s a huge step up from this one.
I still think these posts are fun, though.
They continue to spark discussion about lesser-known games among my friends and readers.
Here’s the list I’m taking this from. Keep in mind that things can change, especially if you’re reading this years in the future (I hope I’m around that long!)
In this century, I own (or have owned) only two of them, and have only played three!
So I’ll talk briefly about those three and then get on to what I might want to play in the future.
Maybe.
(I maybe play in the future. No “maybe” I’ll talk about them. You can’t get rid of me that easily)
This century seems to have a large number of 1st edition games where the second one has come out to high acclaim relatively recently, which is kind of interesting.
That, and the sequel to a game that I own and love, but can’t find this actual one.
With all of that, let’s begin
Read MoreCuddle Bears of Death – Final Girl – Bad Times at Buddyland Review
Many of us have been to those amusement places like Chuck E. Cheese or Showbiz Pizza (that’s what they were called when I was a kid), where you have your video games, you have your dining areas where rambunctious kids are running around, throwing mostly inedible pizza at each other and, sometimes, hitting you instead. Or hogging the Qbert machine in the Arcade while I wanted to play it before the mother in charge of group corralled all of us other kids back to the table to gorge ourselves and hopefully not have stomach issues when we got home.
Ah, nostalgia…
Anyway, I think those places still exist, though I really only know because Ted Lasso references Chuck E. Cheese in an episode, so I figure it must still be somewhat of a thing.
That, and Van Ryder Games made a Final Girl feature film about one.
That’s when you know something is still in the zeitgeist.
(Is it still in to use the word zeitgeist?)
Bad Times at Buddyland is a Series 4 film in the Final Girl franchise that has you in one of these dens of chaos, fighting against not one, but probably multiple animatronic nightmares (I remember the Rockafire Explosion Band from Showbiz!) who are probably not in a band, but instead are trying to kill you.
Designed by Motti Eisenbach with art by Jacqui Davis, this feature film was published in 2025.
Both the killer and the location add some interesting twists, though moreso the killer because it can be brutal.
But on the other hand, I found this set to be one of the easiest of the bunch in my three plays, with two of them being outright (and easy) wins.
Granted, my first play I did the killer’s health slightly wrong, but I think I had enough oomph against him that I still would have won.
Anyway, let’s take a look at what this film has and whether it is worth getting.
Read MoreNoisy Mummies – Clank: The Mummy’s Curse App Expansion Review
One of the best things a game expansion can do is to add some cool new stuff to the game, maybe something different but still fun to explore, and then get out of the way.
Don’t change the mechanics greatly.
Maybe the stuff you added brings out an additional mechanic that doesn’t change the base game but is just like dessert topping on top of your cake.
(though really, wouldn’t you rather have frosting than dessert topping?)
That’s what Dire Wolf Digital did with the second Clank expansion, and the second one to come to their app version of the game.
The Mummy’s Curse is the second expansion for this really great game that was revitalized by putting out the app (in my estimation anyway, as I know many people love the boardgame itself).
The expansion was designed by Andy Clautice with artwork by Rayph Beisner, Derek Herring, Levi Parker, Raul Ramos and Nate Storm.
It was published by Dire Wolf Digital in 2018 and the digital version came out in 2026 (just last week!)
As is usual with my digital boardgame reviews (though not always!), this review will encompass both the game itself and the digital implementation.
So I won’t be reviewing the components or anything like that.
Read MoreBGG Top Games – 2201 – 2300
As we get further and further down the BGG rankings, the pickings are becoming increasingly slim.
But it’s also made me think a little bit, considering some of the games that show up in each century.
I know, thinking is dangerous, especially for me.
I might hurt myself!
But it makes me wonder about quality games that just don’t get the hype that some of the bigger releases do.
The fewer people play a game, the lower-ranked it’s going to be because it doesn’t get a lot of rankings.
This is related to the fact that some games (especially wargames, but not only them) are just niche games.
They don’t have a huge audience, but the audience that plays them really loves them.
And many are quality games.
That’s what makes these posts worthwhile to me, even as we get lower and lower into the ranks.
Last time brought out a brief discussion of The Expanse and it almost got played at Terminal City!
Unlike last time, there aren’t any up and comers that are appearing here as they experience a meteoric rise to the top.
But there are still some good ones here.
Here’s the list I’m taking these from, though keep in mind that things can change depending on when you’re reading this, so some of the games may have moved up or fallen off by that time.
I only own 2 of these and have played 9 of them.
Let’s begin with stuff I’ve played and then go from there.
Read More