Snoop's Top 100 (sort of...)

Greetings!

Mark Jackson asked me to compile my personal top 100 list of games in light of our recent ONE HUNDRED project. Now, I can't figure out why anyone would be interested in reading such a list. Still, when a pastor asks you to do something, it's always best to oblige.

I'm only giving the top 50 their own individual entries. I'll list 100-51, but truth be told, I just got lazy. These bloggy things take time. You'll also notice I wrote only minimal descriptions for entries 50-26. Laziness again, but really, how many times can you say a game is wonderful, brilliant or incredible?

For the most part, these numbers are pretty accurate. My first list of favorites came out to 118 titles -- pretty close! Once I shaved off 18 titles I clumped the games in groups:

I. THOSE THAT WOULD BE NEAR THE TOP
II. THOSE THAT WOULD BE NEAR THE BOTTOM
III. EVERYTHING ELSE

For each of these cleverly described groups, I did a manual bubble sort. I gave the list a hard look and imagined which game I would knock off if I could keep all but one. Then I did the same with the remaining games, and so on until I ranked all 100 games.

I'd like to thank everyone who took all the photos. The majority were "borrowed" from BoardGameGeek (even the few I took myself).

Okay, here's 100-51

100. Electronic Catch Phrase
99. Get the Goods
98. Verrater
97. Bazaar
96. Apples to Apples
95. Puerto Rico
94. New England
93. Zertz
92. Ghosts
91. Tanbo
90. Traders of Genoa
89. Ave Caesar
88. That's Life / Verflixxt!
87. Lines of Action
86. Power Play
85. Attribut
84. Frank's Zoo
83. Quandary
82. San Juan
81. Royal Turf
80. Clash of the Gladiators
79. Pick Picknick
78. Grand National Derby
77. Dvonn
76. Survive
75. Across the Board
74. Rheinlander
73. Wyatt Earp
72. El Grande
71. Circus Flohcati
70. Cribbage
69. Pit
68. Gin Rummy
67. Heimlich & Co.
66. Nexus Ops
65. Memoir '44
64. Philosopher's Football / Phutball
63. Medici
62. High Society
61. Canasta
60. Wizard
59. Adel Verpflichtet
58. Pizza Box Football
57. Die Macher
56. Mystery Rummy #4 Al Capone
55. Diamant
54. Football Strategy
53. Hol's Der Geier
52. Citadels
51. Formel Fun

50. Punct

Cheater! I am such a cheater!

Truth be told, I just got this game today and I haven't played it. But I have read the rules and it looks like something I'll really enjoy. I have very little doubt that this game will rank much better than 50 in the days and weeks to come. Still, I just wanted to get it on the list so this is probably the easiest compromise I could think of.

49. Kohle Kies & Knete (I'm The Boss)

Wild, chaotic negotiation.

48. Edel Stein & Reich

A successful re-vamping of Basari without the board -- the one I prefer.

47. Breakthrough

A two-player abstract by Dan Troyka and the winner of Abstract Strategy Magazine/About.Com's 8x8 design competition.

46. Samurai

The third in Knizia's "tile-laying-trilogy".

45. Black Vienna

A compelling deduction game. I made my own copy.

44. Lowenherz

Viscious four-player (well, it's best with four) game from Settler's designer, Klaus Teuber.

43. Can't Stop

Press-your-luck dice rolling. Isn't this one of Parker Brothers best-selling boardgames ever?

42. Trax

An incredibly ingenious two-player abstract. Try to form loops or make connections with your color.

41. Robo Rally

Chaotic, and a little long. But loads of fun.

40. Keythedral

Settlers without the dice rolls.

39. Gang of Four

Tichu-lite.

38. Octi

One of the most fun two-player abstracts on this list.

37. Modern Art

One of my first introductions to the brilliance of Knizia.

36. Lost Cities

A big inspiration for Balloon Cup.

35. Marco Polo Expedition

Fun family racing game with a pinch of poker.

34. The Game of Y

This won't be the last connection game you'll see on this list :)

33. Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation

My favorite Lord of the Rings game.

32. Quoridor

The two-player abstract that got me back into two-player abstracts.

31. Daytona 500

The best version of Wolfgang Kramer's racing series.

30. Twixt

A brilliant connection game with a twixt, er, twist.

29. Chinatown

Free-for-all negotiation heaven!

28. Ra

The first of a series of brilliant Alea games.

27. Forum Romanum

The original El Grande...

26. Titan

The monster slug-a-thon!

25. Breaking Away

Breaking Away is my favorite racing game. Well, I should say it's my favorite themed racing game. There is no random element in the form of dice or cards. Each player sets up their team of four at the beginning of the game by assigning them movement points. Each cyclist has a set number of movement points (for example, 25) that he must divide up three ways (for example, 10, 8 and 7). Then when it's that cyclist's turn to move, he can choose one of his numbers to move forward. That number is replenished at the end of the turn. Everyone starts with '3' and you add the number of cyclists immediately in front of you in an unbroken chain. That sum is the new number, so it can be very bountiful to be at the back of a large pack.

That's a very quick explanation of movement, but I hope you got the gist. Breaking Away is a brilliantly conceived racing game. My only question is: Why hasn't this ever been picked up by a major publisher? It boggles the noodle.

24. Ticket to Ride

This is a game that serves up delicious tension in an attractive, easy-to-digest package. It's the newest gateway game and it earns its title admirably. It has easily identifiable short and long term goals, which makes it widely accessible to casual and hardcore gamers alike. Alan Moon has been designing quality games for a long time, and this is the title that will ensure we'll be seeing his name for quite some time to come.

23. Dungeons and Dragons

Is it cheating including this game? I literally haven't played Dungeons and Dragons in over 20 years, but it was such a formidable part of my gaming childhood that I figured I had to include it. I started playing it in 8th grade when my friend, Pat, introduced it to me. We used to play in the back room of a local game store. From there I introduced it to my brother and a couple more friends and we used to spend entire weekends playing it. I was usually the DM -- no one else knew how to do it, and I enjoyed the creative process.

Too bad a bunch of psychotic nitwits had to give this game a bad name and scare parents across the country. Thankfully, my parents trusted me and my friends. They were never the type to fall for such hooey anyway.

22. Hex

Look at that cool board! I made it myself. I love connection games, and Hex is the original connection game. One of my best ever gaming experiences was playing an 11 x 11 pbem game of Hex. It was just marvelous and I remember it feeling not unlike a heavyweight fight. During times it felt like I had him on the ropes. Other times it felt like he had me cornered. Winning that game (against an anonymous opponent) was literally one of the highlights of my career as a player of games. It was extremely satisfying.

21. Tichu

This is a fantastic cardgame that I enjoy playing. Unfortunately, I'm not great at it, though I can usually hold my own. I learned it at BrettSpielWelt, where I didn't have to see the faces of my often disgruntled partners. I certainly don't play the game nearly as much as I'd like to, so my skills aren't as developed as some. Still, I love the options the game provides me and I'll happily play it anywhere, anytime.

20. Intrige

I love to point out that this was the first game of the first session of my gaming group, The Tidewater Strategy Group. Intrige may be the most brutal, cut-throat game ever devised and we were a bunch of fellows who, by and large, didn't really know each other that well. I like to joke that it could have been our first and last meetings.

Suffice to say, the game went over very well. Everyone got into the spirit of the game and we're all still friends today. Having said that, this is not a game for everyone. You will stab and be stabbed in this game. You will lie and be lied to. There's just no getting around it. I like to think of it as Diplomacy in 60-90 minutes.

The faint of heart need not apply.

19. Expedition

You want tension? I got your tension right here!

There are not many games that create as much of a sense of inner turmoil as Expedition. If you're ever in a game of Expedition with me, don't be fooled by my pleasant exterior. At any given moment I'm either cheering or crying on the inside. That's the kind of game it is, and you can't let your emotions betray you or you're dead meat.

For the record, I much prefer this to its predecessor, Wildlife Adventure, mostly due to the blocking tokens. They were wisely removed in the new game.

18. Werewolf

I've been in some really good games of Werewolf, and I've been in some really bad ones. The bad ones are usually characterized by having too many players. More than fifteen and you're headed for disaster. Also, you need to have a moderator who can keep things moving. I've been in games where each round was an entire episode of Perry Mason. One problem may be the overall addictive nature of the game. People just want to keep playing -- well into the night and into the morning. The trouble is, those last few sessions usually consist of players who are half-asleep. Games can kinda drag at that point.

My advice: Play a couple games around the midnight hour, then skedaddle. Get some sleep. It's ironic that staying up late feels so cool, but still being awake when the sun comes up feels so lame.

17. Princes of Florence

I'll admit that this game had to grow on me a bit. It's a finely intricate piece of work that I didn't fully appreciate after the first playing. Still, I kept coming back to it. These days I consider it one of the most beautiful designs ever created. The pieces all fit together like two hands clasping each other tightly.

I can understand why some people consider this multi-player solitaire, but it's never felt that way to me. If auctions aren't interactive, then what is?

16. Crokinole

I can't think of another game that is as instantly inviting as Crokinole. I've been to several game conventions where stacks and stacks of games line the walls, and yet I keep finding myself drawn to the Crokinole tables. And playing on a quality table is a fine experience, let me tell you. I owned a cheap set for years before I finally took the $250 plunge. I'm here to tell ya it was money more than well spent. Years from now I have no doubt that my kids' kids will enjoy hours of fun playing on Grampa's old Crokinole board.

A timeless classic.

15. Go

It's difficult to justify this being on the list at all, because I've stopped playing it. Last year, in a similar list, I put Go at #1. At that time I was learning the game and was completely enthralled with its almost other-worldly qualities. In fact, I believe that something inside of me will always consider Go the "perfect" game, if such a thing can exist. The problem is that, at least presently, I don't have the patience for it. Go deserves one's complete attention, and I just don't have that to give.

One oft-asked question in the gaming community is: "Which games would you take to a deserted island?"

After giving it some thought, I believe my answer now would be a single Go set.

14. Midnight Party

Hugo!!!

Seinfeld used to joke that nothing, really, is ever fun for the whole family. It's an amusing notion, but entirely false, as anyone who appreciates good family boardgames knows. Midnight Party is, in my mind, the greatest family game ever conceived. It's simple enough for young kids to enjoy, but sophisticated enough for Mom and Dad, too. It's amazing how much game can be implemented using just one die and some pawns.

13. Spades

I used to play Spades alot with a few buddies of mine back when I was twenty-something. Those were pre-marriage, pre-kids, pre real-job days where you could stay up late with your friends whenever you wanted, play cards, and just bull-shit for hours. Good times.

Truth be told, I don't see much of those guys anymore. Some of them are married. Some of them are married with kids. I'm married with kids. You know the drill. I get to play alot of games nowadays, but it's not quite the same as those days before I invited real responsibility into my life.

Spades is a great game, although I suck at it. The real reason it made it this high onto the list is the fond memories I have playing it in cheap apartments, listening to music on cassette tapes, and trash-talking with my goofy friends.

Here's to you guys.

12. 6 Nimmt

6 Nimmt is a design that I have no end of respect for. It is, in my opinion, the king of all cardgames. It's just so extraordinarily original and it taught me what a card game could be, instead of what I thought it had to be. For my money, 6 Nimmt is the Settlers of cardgames. It can make you laugh and groan at the same time, which is a splendid combo.

One of my biggest inspirations. Thank you, Herr Kramer!

11. Yinsh

I don't know how Kris Burm does it. Over the last eight years, he has managed to devise a series of the most inventive, creative two-player abstracts I've ever had the pleasure to play.

When Gipf was first released, I rejoiced. At the time I had been a student of two-player abstracts for quite awhile. That's not to say I was (or ever will be) very good at playing them; I just appreciated the artistic merit of a solid design. Gipf was something special and it touched me on an emotional level.

When the rest of the series appeared, most of them evoked a similar sense of awe, but none of them ever came close to knocking the original off its perch.

That is, until I played Yinsh.

Yinsh is an x-in-a-row game that uses pieces that you might find familiar if you've ever played Othello. The exciting part of Yinsh is how Burm uses rings to (a) introduce pieces to the board, (b) flip pieces on the board, and (c) create a fresh, tense sensation of balance by their removal. See, the more successful you are, the fewer rings you have and, consequently, the less powerful you are. Unlike capture games, where the strong get stronger, Yinsh turns the tables brilliantly.

It took alot of soul-searching to determine which one would be labeled my favorite. In the end, I had to allow the new kid on the block time to earn its place in history and gave the edge to the original. The fact that it was such a close call is testament to my appreciation for Yinsh.

10. Havannah

I bet Havannah would be alot more popular if it had little pastel camels on the board, instead of little black and white discs. Honestly, this game deserves to be just as popular as a game like Through the Desert. In fact, TtD only edges it out in my list because of its modular board and multi-player ability.

Unlike TtD, Havannah is an actual connection game -- the finest in my opinion. Christian Freeling took the legendary game of Hex and, quite remarkably, improved it. The multiple winning conditions add little to the complexity while adding a considerable amount of depth and tension to the proceedings. If Hex is your basic black-and-white connection game, Havannah is the color version.

Like many abstract games, you can easily increase (or decrease) the depth by changing the size of the board. I have the eight-sided Ravensburger board pictured above, but the brainiac-types get more mileage out of larger boards.

I haven't quite made it to that point. Eight sides has me fully engrossed for now.

9. Through the Desert

Through the Desert's appeal to me was immediate. It's essentially a no-luck, multi-player abstract with an extremely imaginative theme. I love connection-based games, and while TtD is not exactly a member of the connection family, it is a close, personal friend. The main ways to score are through sealing off territory, and majority building. Playing well requires a knack for efficiency and knowing how to pick your battles.

Another bonus is that it's short! A typical game can take more time to set up than to actually play. Of course, the exact opposite can be true if you have slower, more analytical players. At any rate, this is first class Knizia!

8. Backgammon

I've said it before and I'll say it again -- Backgammon is the best roll-and-move game there is. And it's also the oldest game on this list. For those who think it's a random dice fest, I have a story for you...

(Note: The story may prove my shortcoming as a Backgammon player more than it proves my point. But I still think it's worth pondering.)

This story is about a piece of Backgammon software called Jellyfish. You can find Jellyfish here:

http://www.jellyfish-backgammon.com/

Jellyfish kicked my Backgammon-playing-ass on a regular basis. I could pull off a win about 10% of the time, but for the most part it trashed me. To the inexperienced eye, it appeared that Jellyfish cheated more than a desperate housewife. It always seemed to roll exactly what it needed, meanwhile my pieces were constantly getting stuck, trapped, whatever.

I tried to temper my rage by manually entering Jellyfish's rolls. Ha ha! Well, that didn't exactly work. It still came through with "miracle" rolls, while the only times I would roll double sixes was when I couldn't use them. Aarrgghh!

Finally, I came up with a foolproof plan to thwart the evil Jellyfish. I decided to let the cheating computer roll the dice for both of us. I played a typical game (got crushed as usual) but I recorded all of the dice rolls on a sheet of paper. Then I played another game, this time entering my previous dice rolls on his turn, and entering his "lucky" dice rolls on my turn.

I'll bet you can guess what happened. That's right, I got whipped.

Again, this may prove nothing more than that I suck at Backgammon.

7. Settlers of Catan

Gee willakers, what can I really say about Settlers? Like so many other gamers would admit, this is the game that was ultimately my gateway into the multi-player, family game hobby. Before Settlers, I was pretty much devoted to my two-player abstracts and thought they were the only games worth playing. Two online friends, Ben Baldanza and Stephen Tavener, were the first to really clue me in on the German Gaming Scene. They first turned me on to Settlers and from then on I was hooked.

6. Balderdash

Party games are typically not my scene. I enjoy a good chortle as much as (and maybe even more than) the next guy. Unfortunately, most party games, in my experience, are half-baked attempts to cash in on the success of proven hits like Trivial Pursuit, Taboo, or (egads!) Cranium. Throw a timer, some cards, some playing pieces and a superfluous board into a huge box and slap a $35 price tag on it -- voila! Instant Party Game!

Pass.

Balderdash is proof that not all party games have to follow this mind-numbing formula. Now, before I go to much further I should point out that Balderdash is really no more than a boxed version of The Dictionary Game. So, while the publishers don't get high marks for originality, I'll give them a nod for bringing such a wonderful parlor game into the mainstream. I had certainly never heard of The Dictionary Game, and it's unlikely I ever would have considered playing a game with such a title (Wheeeee! What's next? Thesaurusopoly?)

Suffice to say, Balderdash is the game to reach for when you're ready for absolute fun and hysterics. And isn't that was a party is really all about?

5. Acquire

I'm embarrassed to admit that I never played Acquire until 1997, a mere thirty-five years after its initial publication. In fact, the version pictured above (the one most universally reviled) is the one I learned on. My favorite is the latest Hasbro version (corporations instead of hotels don't bother me a bit), but I still have a soft spot in my heart for the big blue box version.

I can only imagine what my gaming background would have been like if I had discovered this game as a youth, in my teens, or even in my twenties. It's such a ground-breaking design! It would have been like discovering Settlers as a kid. If I'd known about Acquire as a teenager it would have turned me into a life-long hardcore gamer and I never would have experienced the gaming drought between 1983-93 (between D&D and Magic: The Gathering). In those ten years I had left gaming behind as a relic of my childhood, never realizing that such a hobby could be satisfying for an adult. Acquire would have changed all that.

I want those ten years back!

4. Gipf

Gipf is, of course, the centerpiece of Kris Burm's Gipf Project. Of the six games in the series, four made my top 100 list (I have not played Punct, but I feel confident that it will earn a spot on a future rendition of this list). Gipf, for me, remains the crowning achievement of the series, and the highmark of an exceptional career.

At first glance, the game is not remarkable. You have two sets of black and white checkers and a rather plain-looking hexagonal playing area. However, the inventive movement, borrowed from Levi and Levet's Abalone, combined with the recycle-management system of the checkers delivers a game that is the product, not the sum, of its parts.

Many two-player abstracts made my top 100 list. This tops them all.

3. Montage

Word games never have done a whole lot for me. You'll notice Scrabble isn't anywhere on this list. Of course, Montage is not you average word game. I really enjoy games that encourage creativity, wit, and imagination. I haven't found any that fit that bill so well as Montage. Anthony Rubbo and Dave Arnott introduced me to this game in 2004 and it thoroughly delighted me. The gist of the game is that you have to think of a word that fits on the board, and then devise a crossword puzzle clue for your partner to be able to figure out that word. However, your opponents can also chime in and steal, so you can't make the clue too easy. Each chip on the board is one of five colors, and each color can represent up to 6 different letters. For example, yellow represents an A, B, C, D, or Z. The restrictions on clue-giving and the opportunities for clever wordplay are what make Montage a winner for me. It's long out of print -- the board pictured is one that I made myself by caniballizing several Scrabble sets.

2. Euphrat & Tigris

I remember first reading about Euphrat & Tigris on Peter Sarrett's excellent 'The Game Report' back in 1997. You can read the review here:

http://www.gamereport.com/tgr17/tigris.html

There's a magical quality to this game that's difficult to describe. Some people claim that it's too abstract, but I've never felt so. In my heart (if not in my head) I can feel civilizations rising and falling. Some have complained that the lowest-is-your-score device is nothing more than simple, disguised set-collecting, but to me that's insult by omission. The game leading up to the scoring is nothing more than a breathtaking, monumental achievement. Every time I play this game something happens that introduces me to a whole new aspect of this incredible design.

To quote Mr. Sarrett: "Years from now, if I'm brainwashed into a life-simplification cult and start jettisoning games from my collection, I'm confident that Euphrat & Tigris will be one of the last to go. "

1. Poker

How could it possibly be anything other than Poker? Specifically No-Limit Texas Hold'em. I admit it, I'm a bandwagon hopper. Three years ago a game of Poker would not have interested me in the slightest. I was never very much of a gambler, and Poker was just another traditional card game played with money. Traditional card games were never my cup o' joe, but I've done a turnaround over the last couple of years, warming up to games like Gin Rummy, Cribbage, and others.

My fascination with Poker started, as you may have guessed, when The Travel Channel debuted the World Poker Tour. I had watched clips from World Series of Poker events before (it was a game, after all) but with only a modicum of interest and even less understanding. It wasn't until the WPT began showing each player's hole cards that the nature of the game really opened up to me. That little camera offered a world of insight on how to play, what to play and when to play. Naturally, the pros still have secrets that a camera could never reveal, but that little innovation turned me into a red hot Poker fanatic. Two years later I still have a passion for the game that is largely unrivaled by the other 500 games in my closet. Games like Chess, Bridge and Go (yes, always with Go) eventually fell by the wayside for me because I couldn't dedicate myself to necessary the study of them. My typical excuse: How could I justify spending so much time devoted to one game when I had so many others at my disposal? Poker has betrayed the rationale of that excuse. I've devoured several books on the topic (no limit, low limit, psychology, tournaments, tells, etc...) and I'm always on the hunt for more.

As for the gambling aspect? I play in a somewhat-regular home game with friends and family members. We play for nickels and dimes -- a raise of fifty cents is a big deal and usually gets the table buzzing. Once I played at a $2/$4 table in Atlantic City and won about $80 with a full house (Queens full of Kings, thank you very much!) Beyond that, I get much of my enjoyment playing in free, freeze-out tournaments. Even if you play for no money, the game is still exciting. Since there's only one man standing at the end, it's no less a game than any other. Many Poker fans may argue that it's just ain't Poker unless you're playing for money. If that's how they feel, fine. But to me that's like saying you can't enjoy watching a sporting event unless you've got money riding on the outcome. In other words, I feel those who require money are more interested in the gamble than the game. It's a prejudice they're entitled to, but I see things differently.