As the summer draws to a close, and as the annual deluge of new games at Essen Spiel draws near, the Opinionated Gamers decided to memorialize our current favorite games by each creating our own Top 100 board games of all-time list.  19 brave OG members stared down this daunting task and emerged with their own list of all-time greats.  We did not endeavor to rank these lists, but rather to each come up with 100 games that stand above the rest.

I found this task relatively easy because it mostly meant collecting a list of the games that I had rated a 9 or 10 on BoardGameGeek.  With just over 2,000 games rated, and having long aimed for a bell curve around 6, compiling the top 5% of all my games rated over the past two decades (i.e., 100 games out of around 2,000 rated) was pretty straightforward.  I was struck by how great the games on my list were and how much I enjoy them (and ultimately by how few of them appeared in other people’s lists).  I need to get back to playing many of my top 100 more often, finding a way to balance that with trying exciting new releases.

Based on the 19 different Top 100 lists that various members of the OG each independently created (specifically Adam, Alan, Craig, Fraser, James, Jim, Joe, John, Jonathan, Larry, Lorna, Mark, Matt, Nate, Patrick, RJ, Steph, Talia, and Taylor), we were able to compile an aggregate list of games that appeared on the most number of Top 100 lists. This endeavor was inspired by Mark Jackson’s fascinating Top 100 piece back in June.

Overall, there were an astounding 983 different games that appeared across our Top lists (out of a possible 1,900 if everyone’s list had been completely different).  The most popular games of all-time appeared on 12 of the 19 lists, and only 9 games appeared on over half of the Top lists.  Before we get to those ultimate 9 champions, let’s start with some games that appeared across a significant number of the Top 100 lists…

Favorite Fives

These games appeared on the Top 100 lists of 5 different OG members, so they were all-time favorites of over 25 percent of us:

• 6 Nimmt (1994)
• 7 Wonders Duel (2015)
• Bohnanza (1997)
• Bridge (1925)
• Deep Sea Adventure (2014)
• Dice Realms (2022)
• Flaschenteufel (1995)
• Great Western Trail (2016)
• Hanabi (2010)
• Indonesia (2005)
• Lost Ruins of Arnak (2020)
• Medici (1995)
• Mombasa (2015)
• Nokosu Dice (2016)
• PitchCar (1996)
• QE (2019)
• Reef Encounter (2004)
• Roll for the Galaxy (2014)
• Santiago (2003)
• Thebes (2007)

Talia Rosen: The one that jumped out at me from here was Nokosu Dice because I’d never heard of it before!  I’ve looked it up now, and it looks really interesting, so definitely a game that I’ll be looking for an opportunity to try.  I was happy to see QE make the list because that’s one of the newest games to make my personal Top 100 and it was not faring well in the initial submissions from my fellow OG members, but when all 19 lists were tabulated, QE just made the cut for this illustrious list of beloved games.  I really marvel at the design brilliance of QE and how well it works and how psychological the experience is, varying from group to group, along with the ways that people’s eyes light up when I explain how it works.  I’m also happy to see older games like Roll for the Galaxy, Reef Encounter, and Santiago make the list – such gems!

Nate Beeler: Nokosu Dice is a thorn in my side. Before going to Japan recently, multiple people recommended I seek out a copy or asked us to bring one back for them. Every store we went to had heard of it but was long since sold out. Treasure hunts are supposed to end with finding a treasure!  Otherwise, there are fine games on this list (Medici, Deep Sea Adventure, Thebes), but none that made the cut for me.

Larry Levy: Nokosu Dice is an original take on trick-taking; I quite like it, although it didn’t come close to making my list.  The game I’ve been playing the longest from my list is Bridge, which I’ve loved and studied for over 40 years; to my mind, it’s the greatest card game ever invented.  In this grouping, there’s quite a few other games I love (including Alexander Pfister’s contributions of Mombasa and GWT) and one I studiously avoid (6 Nimmt!).

Brian Leet: My favorite factoid about this list is the use computer science researchers are making of Hanabi in order to study theory of mind. I found the way I liked it best was realtime but online through boardgamearena.com, as that removes any subtle signaling through pauses, expressions, etc.

Alan How: There are so many games to choose from our study that should be on these lists, but because we all have different perspectives it’s very interesting to see our overlaps. For me the missing experience is Nokosu Dice like several other people. Trick takers are one of my favourite styles of games so I’m going to see how I can get to play a game. Perhaps it will go on BGA like so many of these classics? My biggest surprise was that Medici didn’t achieve a higher overlap.

Mark Jackson: I feel like a weird outlier…there is literally only one trick-taking game in my top 100 (it comes later in this article). And Hanabi has zero charm for me. On the other hand, I’m excited to see other folks loving Lost Ruins of Arnak and Thebes. One final note: Skymines is a nice new take on the Mombasa engine.

Fraser McHarg: There’s some very good games on this list.  As with Talia I have never heard of Nokosu Dice and may have to dig into it so long as it is not like 7 Wonder Duel, which totally didn’t work for Melissa & I, or Hannabi which I accept is a good game, but one that I am never going to suggest.  QE I have read about and would like to try. Of the others, 6 Nimmt!, Bohnanza, Deep Sea Adventure, Indonesia, Mombasa, Roll for the Galaxy, and Santiago would be on the top of my list to get back to the table.

Dale Yu: FWIW, I’ve heard that Deep Sea Adventure is getting a huge reprint – so it should be available to the masses soon.  

Jonathan: Bridge, Hanabi, and Nokosu Dice are tops for me here, but they are not at all thematic. I also enjoy Medici, Roll for the Galaxy, and Pitch Car as Carabande feels like you are doing the thing they represent, but I think they might not make it to my desert island gaming collection. Thebes is a game of schadenfreude, as you just hope your friends keep drawing sand.

Six is a Crowd

The list of games that made it onto 6 different Top 100 lists goes to 11:

• Amun-Re (2003)
• Azul (2017)
• No Thanks (2004)
• Goa (2004)
• Hollywood Blockbuster (2000)
• Ricochet Robot (1999)
• Saint Petersburg (2004)
• Terra Mystica (2012)
• The Crew: Mission Deep Sea (2019)
• Tigris & Euphrates (1997)
• Web of Power (2000)

Talia: Happy to see Tigris’ staying power over 25 years after its release.  I’ve enjoyed over 100 plays of Tigris & Euphrates, so it’s one of my most played board games of all time.  It’s such a beautiful game of the ebbing and flowing tides of civilization.  Tigris was an obvious one to include in my Top 100 list, and I’m gratified to see that it made it into many fellow OG lists!

Nate: Saint Petersburg is a wonderful design that I’ll happily play any time, even in its unpatched first edition form. Traumfabrik (here annotated as the spoof version, Hollywood Blockbuster), would likely have made my list of top ten games. It’s an all-star combination of my favorite theme of old Hollywood/filmmaking with my favorite mechanism, auctions/bidding. Though implementation clearly matters, because I do not care for Amun-Re, despite being another Knizia auction game.

Larry:  As opposed to Nate, Amun-Re is one of the highlights to me from this list.  A wonderful, multi-faceted game, it’s one of the last of Knizia’s designs that I give an “I Love It” rating to.  Goa is also a fantastic game, as is Traumfabrik (and definitely the 2000 original, not the far inferior 2007 remake with the awful jokey art and names).  No Thanks is one of my favorite filler games; it only has about 2 rules, but I love seeing the look in new players’ eyes as their money supply starts to dwindle.  Web of Power was perhaps the first of the “super fillers” and holds up very well.  But honestly, I’d enthusiastically play just about all of these games (with Azul and Saint Petersburg being the only ones I’d object to).

Dale Yu: For me, Azul, St P, and Web of Power are all time keepers.  I have three copies of Web of Power – one of them has been miniaturized to fit in a 5×7 photo case for play on the road.

Brian Leet: Several games on this list deserve to be a bit higher (in my estimation). Amun-Re and Tigris & Euphrates in particular.

Alan: Apart from Azul and The Crew, many of these games date back 20 years or more. Possibly a link between the ages of OG players and the number of games produced each year being lower? It’s a blend of mid-weight games that are straightforward to play with relevant choices. And reincarnated on BGA allowing these to reach a broader span of gamers to enjoy them.

Mark: Weirdly, there are only two games on this list that I’d happily play again and are still in my collection – Web of Power & Dream Factory (aka Hollywood Blockbuster) – and neither of them made my top 100 list.  I do regret selling St. Petersburg all those years ago, though.

Fraser: An even more solid list of games.  Pretty much insta-play for Amun-Re, Azul, No Thanks, Goa, Traumfabrik, Saint Petersburg, The Crew, Tigris & Euphrates, and Web of Power.  There’s no “I’ll be washing my hair that night” games there.

Jonathan: Goa and The Crew make it to the top tier. I wish I were better at Ricochet Robots, as I love it, but some people are naturally better at it and others are naturally worse, so it is tough except as an activity.  St. Pete ranks up there, but one more person can make all the difference.

Seven Wonders of Gaming

There were games from as far back as 1963 and as recent as 2018 that appeared across 7 of the OG top games lists:

• Acquire (1963)
• Brass (2007)
• In the Year of the Dragon (2007)
• Just One (2018)
• Lost Cities (1999)
• Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 (2015)
• Settlers of Catan (1995)
• Showmanager (1996)
• Terraforming Mars (2016)
• Through the Ages (2006)
• Tichu (1991)
• Tzolk’in (2012)

Joe Huber: (Warning – old man yelling at cloud alert…) IMHO, there are no games as far back at 1963 on this list, because the Acquire that everyone is listing has faint resemblance to the test marketing print from late December back in 63.  What became an all-time classic is the final product, the 1964 release.  Unless you prefer to be randomly dealt stocks and only be allowed to purchase one share per turn, I suppose.

Nate: I listed a fair number of these games. Tichu is one of the few I consider a nearly perfect game. Terraforming Mars is one of the two meatier titles in constant rotation at our house. But I want to sing the praises of Showmanager (aka Show Manager) here. I find it’s one of the few turn based games that not only handles well but practically begs for the full complement of six players. Turns are simple and quick–take a card or put on a show (play cards). Within that scaffolding the decisions are delightful. There’s luck in the card draw, without question, but the game forces you to pay attention to what others are doing and to manage your money and your hand closely. You can’t succeed in Showmanager without trying, that’s for sure.

Larry:  There are some wonderful games in this list, but one stands head and shoulders above the rest, at least for me–Through the Ages.  Vlaada Chvatil’s amazing civilization game absolutely blew us away when we first played it and my love for it has continued to grow over the years.  In fact, it’s my favorite game of all time and one that, luckily, I’m able to continue to get to the table.  It’s a remarkable creation and the fact that it came from a part of the world (the Czech Republic) that none of us at the time suspected was a hotbed for boardgaming made its appeal even greater.  Thank you, Vlaada, from me and the game’s thousands of fans.

Alan: The three standout games for me are Lost Cities, Just One, and Through the Ages. I play Lost Cities most days of the week, on an app. Just One is used as a closer at one of my clubs every week and it’s great to see players introduced to the game say “is it still available?”.  Through the Ages is always on my must play list and only the volume of new games and time limit its more regular appearance.

Mark: I’m a big fan of Terraforming Mars (the new Automata is very good for solo play, btw) – but I think it’s important to note how much I still love Die Siedler von Catan (now known to the world as Catan – but that’s a little like calling Van Halen “Halen”).  In some circles, it’s the board game equivalent of Nickelback, which is just wrong on so many levels. I’ve actually managed to get a couple of games of Cities & Knights in this year – and won both of them!

Fraser: I have not played Pandemic Legacy and Show Manager and Through the Ages and Tzolkín only once – mainly due to opportunity not choice.  I would like to play Acquire more, but Melissa has claimed in the past it does not have enough tanks. Of the rest Terraforming Mars (with Melissa), Lost Cities, and Tichu would come out on top.

Dale: Tichu is one of my favorite games, but I can only play it in certain settings (i.e., big conventions).  The learning curve seems to be high enough to keep newbies away.  But man, there is nothing better than a competitive Tichu match with four players who all know what they’re doing.  Also, put me in the old geezer group with Joe as still loving Acquire.

Jonathan: Just One is a cannot fail party game. In contrast, Lost Cities embodies agony. Show Manager and Terraforming Mars are great. I prefer trick-taking to climbing/shedding so will play Tichu, but don’t adore it the way some others do.

Great Eight Games

Only a handful of games made it onto 8 different Top 100 lists submitted by OG members:

• Age of Steam (2002)
• Carcassonne (2000)
• Crokinole (1876)
• Dominion (2008)
• Hansa Teutonica (2009)
• Race for the Galaxy (2007)
• Russian Railroads (2013)

Nate: Of the seven titles I listed here, Crokinole is the only one I don’t own. It takes a lot of storage space we just don’t have, sadly. I also listed Hansa Teutonica, which I replayed in the last few weeks. I forgot how mean and fiddly it can be. It’s got a lot going for it, but I wonder if I would include it if we did this exercise again.

Larry:  Two of the games in this list led to fanatical, almost compulsive playing when they first came out (in consecutive years!)–Race for the Galaxy and Dominion.  And neither one is really a favorite of mine, although I enjoy Race a bit more.  I like Carcassonne as a 2-player game, but really try to avoid it with more.  So not a great list of games for me.  The only ones that made my top 100 list are Age of Steam and Russian Railroads, although I am very fond of Crokinole, as it’s a dexterity game where your ability as a strategist is just as important as your manual dexterity.

Alan: My top pick on this set is Race for the Galaxy as it’s the easiest to get to the table. It also introduces the spinoffs that means players can evolve onto the next game relatively easily. I recently played Age of Steam again and it made me realise how badly I play the game and when I replay it I must remember to build/expand/run trains more effectively. 

Mark: Race for the Galaxy is my #2 game on my top 100 – and none of the rest of these got anywhere close to my list. (Again, I’m the weird outlier.)

Fraser: I am in that possibly small camp that prefers Roll over Race for the Galaxy.  Possibly because I came late to Race for the Galaxy and playing it with fanboys who had the deck memorised was not fun.  I like Hansa Teutonica, but I do remember thinking it was the poster child for the expression “dry, cube pushing Euro”.  Russian Railroads is a game that I have noted in the past that I don’t play anywhere near often enough and each time I do play it I wonder why it has been so long.

Dale: Not sure why there isn’t more love for Dominion!  I think everyone should go out and buy a copy today.  :)

Jonathan: I’m not good at it, but will never turn down Race. Hansa Teutonica is a good dry game, but it also brought us the mechanism where you improve as you place things from your board (I’m sure there were earlier ones, but they are not coming to me now). When you play Spirit Island or any other place a thing to get stronger, I think of the HT desk.

Revolution #9

Fascinating and exciting to see games as light and old as For Sale reach these heights:

• Agricola (2007)
• Ark Nova (2021)
• Concordia (2013)
• For Sale (1997)

Nate: Ark Nova is without a doubt my most played game since it came out. It helps that my wife loves it as much as I do. Agricola is another one I never tire of, though it doesn’t get to the table as much as I’d like. All these games are great, in fact.

Larry:  Ark Nova is the only game from the 2020’s to get on 6 or more top ten lists. I love it as a 2-player game (it works great online), but have little interest in playing it with more.  I love the other three games as well, with For Sale being one of the great super-fast fillers.

Dale: You know what makes Agricola great?  Well, the campaign solo game for starters.  :)  JK.  I love this game, and I really need to get it back to the table soon.

Alan: Is this the set that says every gamer should have or play these? Agricola and Ark Nova are more complex I think, but not overly so. Concordia is easy to teach and you quickly find how clever that rondel is to use. For Sale is a dream to play at the end of an evening when your brain hasn’t faded away completely and it’s very quick.

Fraser: I have played Ark Nova once or twice and to be honest would rather play any of the other three repeatedly.  There was nothing wrong with it per se, it just didn’t grab me like others do. I have dabbled with the new release of Agricola and prefer the original.  Concordia is great and For Sale has has withstood the test of time.

Jonathan: I never quite got hooked by Concordia and Agricola generates bundles of stress – fun and not fun at the same time. I enjoy For Sale and it is clever, but I think I like High Society more. Ark Nova rocks and would be on my desert island.

Top Ten

Now we reach the only games to appear on over half of the submitted Top 100 lists, and everything here is almost 10 years old or older:

• Castles of Burgundy (2011)
• Codenames (2015)
• El Grande (1995)
• Power Grid (2004)
• Princes of Florence (2000)
• Ra (1999)
• Ticket To Ride (2004)

Larry:  Only four of these games made my list.  I left out El Grande (which just doesn’t work for me–I’ve had some truly awful games of it); Ra (so much seems to depend on whether the last player in the auction gets lucky or not with the ending tiles that it kills the game for me); and Ticket to Ride (it’s a great achievement and a very important game, but I just like heavier stuff).  The highlight for me in this list is Princes of Florence, which is one of my top 5 games and which seems criminally underrated.  And I have no idea why, since literally everyone I show it to loves it and wonders why it doesn’t get more play.  I also really love Castles of Burgundy (Feld’s masterpiece, IMO) and Codenames, the party-style game that plays great for just about every group and every occasion.

Mark: Like Larry, I’ve moved on from El Grande.

Nate: Unlike with Amun-Re, Larry is absolutely correct about Princes of Florence. I generally refer to it as my favorite game. 

Jonathan: Codenames is great, but the clue-givers cannot take forever because there is nothing for the rest of the team to do at that time. Codenames Duet gets top marks from me. Power Grid and Princes of Florence are great, but don’t see much table time with me. Ra I need to play more.

Brian: I’ve skipped a few categories because I mostly like the games, but they aren’t my absolute favorites, and my comments would be more on the lines of “how did that particular title get on there” – and I don’t want to be so negative. So, I’ll only comment on this list that it clearly shows how old the average OG contributor to this list is. And I will call out two titles, El Grande, and Princes of Florence, which are both titles which I don’t find hold up so well as the nostalgia crowd would claim. The others on this list I agree are classics, and so these two stand out for me as beautiful, fun, but dated games.

Alan: No, these are the ultra classics every gamer should play. If gamers had a CV of games played to interview for a job, these games would be the prerequisites.

Fraser: Pretty much what Alan said.  Power Grid would be in my top five personal favourites.  With Castles of Burgundy,  El Grande and Ra my preference is with the full complement of players. 

Talia: I recently had a gameday a couple months ago where 5 people showed up, and we ended up playing El Grande followed by Princes of Florence.  I was amazed at how well both games stood up.  I didn’t find them to be dated at all.  I actually found them to outshine all of the newer games that I’ve been playing over the past couple years.  I think the design philosophy of the 90s and early 2000s was right on target, at least for my tastes.  I love when newer games feel like they come from that era (such as Guild of Merchant Explorers or Starship Captains), but ultimately my desert island would be full of games like El Grande, Princes of Florence, Caylus, San Marco, and Stephensons Rocket.

Dominant Dozen

The champions that appeared on the most overall Top 100 lists ended up being a tie between Sid Sackson’s 1980 classic Can’t Stop and Andreas Seyfarth’s 2002 modern classic Puerto Rico.

Larry:  Quite a contrast in these two games:  a filler and a 2 hour meaty design.  But both are great.  Puerto Rico remains one of my all-time favorites that still holds up wonderfully today.  And Can’t Stop is not only far and away my favorite pure dice game, but far and away my favorite push-your-luck title.  Obviously, a bunch of folks here feel the same way I do.

Nate: I didn’t list Can’t Stop, though it is undoubtedly a great game. It’s probably suffering from my overplaying a bit. Puerto Rico also got overplayed for a while, though I don’t think I would ever have taken it off my virtual list of top games. It’s definitely now in the pile of games I’d happily play any time.

Alan: Top of the pile games which is why so many of us added them. I can only echo Larry’s comments. Nate introduces a concept new to me: overplaying. Surely it can’t apply to these two games?

Mark: Can’t Stop is fantastic – full stop. New Frontiers has replaced Puerto Rico for me (a bit more asymmetry due to the variety of planets & developments, a bit less likely to start endless discussions about the historical issues with Puerto Rico’s theme)… but the underlying design of PR is genius.

Fraser: I agree with the above.  Can’t Stop only just missed my list and Puerto Rico is definitely there.

Jonathan: The number of alea games on this list is a testament to Stefan Bruck’s development chops (Ra, Princes, and Puerto Rico all came out within a three-year period with In the Year of the Dragon and Castles of Burgundy coming later). 1/3rd of all alea big box games are on this list.  Incredible.

Talia: That concludes our aggregate Top 63 games of all-time based on how many times they appeared across our collective lists. While there are plenty of games in there that I don’t personally enjoy, that is a solid list that certainly seems to better represent what strategy board gaming has to offer than the latest BoardGameGeek rankings. While there are a lot of older games in our consensus Top 63, they generally hold up remarkably well with mechanisms and gameplay that really did innovate in remarkable ways and that continue to reverberate in the latest releases. I’m confident many of the games coming out at Essen next month will stand on the shoulders of these giants. It is also fascinating to see the handful of newer gamers that made it onto today’s list, such as Dice Realms, Ark Nova, and Lost Ruins of Arnak, as well as the wide range of game weight represented here.

What games did you expect or hope to see on today’s list?

Check back tomorrow for the games we each love that missed the cut.