The Top 100 games of all time (2022)
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Board game oracle also maintains a list of my top 100 for purchasing: This is last years but it will get updated
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Great list, you rock! Why no love for the viscounts though mate?
Not a fan of Dune Imperium? Surprised this wasn’t on your list!
I would love if you had affiliate links so any purchases I make act as an additional thank you financially for sorting these out for me
There's a lotta stuff in your list that I'm deeply interested in; hopefully the game café my group visits every so often has some of them to try out!
The games on this list I've played, with a * on those I own:
97) Azul: Summer Pavilion – I think this is my favourite of the Azul series. I like the crunchier puzzle, and the tiles are prettier colours!
95) Dead of Winter – I've played this twice, and didn't really get on with it. I can't entirely remember why; it's been years since the second play.
91) Root* – I love this game, and the six boxes of it on my shelf probably says more than I could here, haha. The asymmetry between factions means every combination has fresh challenges and quirks to adapt to.
82) Star Realms* – A fantastic, quick deck builder that's ideal for when all but one guest has gone home at the end of a board game night; it's good for coasting the night out and chatting over.
76) Between Two Cities – This game was cool, and I'd like to play it again, but I dunno if I'd wanna own it. The competitive co-op structure is the best part of it.
71) Dune – I've played this once and kinda stumbled into a victory as the Fremen, thanks to everyone else nuking each other in a series of betrayals and abilities. It was a hoot.
70) Potion Explosion – Bejeweled, but with clacky marbles! I like the clacky marbles.
68) Above and Below – Played this too long ago to really remember, but I do know I had fun with it!
67) Lords of Waterdeep* – The first board game I bought post-Catan, and unlike Catan, it remains in my collection. The corruption mechanic in the Skullport expansion is a very fun bit of spice.
58) Century* – I own Spice Road & Eastern Wonders; SR is fun if very simple, good for introducing your parents to board gaming. EW is more involved, and I enjoy the area control sailing game on top of the trading. The combined game is a bit unwieldly, but a fun novelty; Eastern Wonders (or whatever its Golem version is) would be my pick as a standalone game. I've not much interested in the third of the series, cuz I feel I've already got worker placement well-covered with Waterdeep.
56) Tyrants of the Underdark – One of my friends bought this immediately after we played it for a second time at the local game café. The deck builder-area control mix is very entertaining, even if the Drow theme does little for me.
39) Santorini – I've played this twice, and its New York version twice; the original is the better game, as I feel New York's mechanic tweaks don't do much for the play experience; NY has a better aesthetic to me, and that's all I can give it.
22) Azul – My second favourite of the Azul series, and the one I'd play with people new to Azul's tile-shop mechanic.
15) The Castles of Burgundy – I greatly enjoy this game, but it always goes for about 20-30 mins longer than I'd like. Everything in its mechanics hook together well.
1) Spirit Island* – My gaming group has just gotten comfortable enough with the game to start playing against the Adversaries. The sheer amount of difficulty and goal tweaking options available in this game means it'll be in my collection forever. The Branch & Claw spirits are fun; it's the only expac I've found in a shop so far.
While I am disappointed that Spheres of Influence is off of the list, I get it.
I picked it up about a month ago and my group keeps asking me to bring it after our epic 6 player game that ended up being settled by a nuclear strike.
Fantastic video.. impressive how you fit so much content into such a short video
Lots of interesting games here that I haven't heard of yet 😀
Also very satisfying to see some overlap with my own collection.
Does Eclipse still hold up if one prefers the negotiation side of Twilight Imperium? It seems a bit more combat focused (but TI did leave us exhausted… so an alternative would be welcomed).
Thanks for the video, I really enjoyed it!
Shouldn’t this be a 300 minute video?
Without a doubt the most diverse, eclectic top 100 list out there. Weill done.
Great list. Have you tried Cascadia and Oathsworn?
100-10 below (watch the video for the top 10 :P)
villagers
planet unknown
nemo's war
azul summer
hadrian's wall
dead of winter
village
freedom the underground railroad
pan am
root
empyreal spells
pavlovs house
the reckoners
android
scythe
abyss
final girl
agents of smersh
star realms
gallilean moons
last friday
xcom the board game
castles of mad king
spacecorp 2025
between 2 cities
dawn for the galaxy
space cadets
legendary encounters
modern art
dune
potion explosion
lords of hellas
above and below
lords of waterdeep
architects of the west
rurik dawn of
isle of cats
sentinels of the multiverse
empires of the void 2
power grid
arkham horror
suburbia
century golem
pandemic the cure
tyrants of the underdark
dawn of the zeds
gloomhaven
captain is dead
black orchtestra
defenders of the last stand
star trek as
health heart hospital
horified
robinson crusoe
civilization a new dawn
spartacus a game of blood
kolejka
blood bowl team manager
museum
chinatown
gaia project
santorini
rush md
its a wonderful world
le havre
mission deep sea
sidereal confluence
unsettled
crisis
circadians first light
junk art
7 wonders
everdell
mansions of madness
roll for the galaxy
energy empire
paladins of the west
millenium blades
azul
xia legends
twilight struggle
arkham horror the card game
argent the
leaving earth
underwater cities
castles of burgundy
anachrony
bloc by bloc
yokohama
battlestar galactica
Have you heard about the new Heroes of Might & Magic III board game? The cult video game it was based on was super famous in europe some 25yrs ago and defined the childhoods of my whole generation heh – so the news of the board game now is pretty exciting. Not sure if it was a well known title out in NZ, but I'd love for you to review the board game one day. Following your channel for a while know, i do think you might like it 🙂
We can all make top X lists > It's eternally subjective and won't change the top list of the people around us (our secret but impossible goal lol)!
No Barrage?
At first glance I read this as 'top 100 games of all time in three minutes' and thought, how fast can this gent possibly talk 😵💫
haha, you did try this war of mine since the last time i ask, very nice
Far and away the most eclectic top 100 among game reviewers. You've introduced me to so many games that reside on my wishlist. Thanks for all you do Jarrod!
Are you aware that they remade elite in 2013? Called Elite dangerous. It's pretty cool.
What are the + and minus indications on the bottom right side for each game?
“We tend not to play without Turmoul, because it adds complexity the game doesn’t need”
Do you play with it or without it?
god i love netrunner so much
How did you rank 1000 games? Pubmeeple? Own method? Thanks for the videos!
Damn, waited the whol time to see Monopoly and it looks like 3 Minute Board Games forgot to put it on the list! The apex of game mechanics and a game in which everyone always leave the table happy.
I love your channel ❤ Thank you for making such great content! Would you please share what game replaced Caverna for you? I've been thinking about getting this game but if there's something that's better that would be good to know now 😊 Thank you!
Love the pacing of this, thank you for the great list!
If you like Century Golem, try to combine the game with either Eastern Mountain (Century 2) or Endless World (Century 3). The combination elevates the game by enhancing the mechanics.
Lovely list! Giving a lot of older games some love. I quite like Chinatown's theme. Entrepreneurs in 1960s New York at least gets us away from the Mediterranean, even if it would be executed with better art nowadays (and hopefully not silly American money that's all the same colour and size! )
Interesting lists! thanks for sharing
Circadians is mis-spelt at the bottom onscreen.
That is the weirdest top 20 I have ever seen
fantastic list. like others have said, cool to see both unique and common games in these lists and loved the way you succinctly explained why they made the list. have you played the rogue one expansion to rebellion?
Jesus, 7.5 thousand views in less than 12 hours. Nice going
Glad to see Nemesis so high. Might play Lockdown for my birthday coming up, and from everything I've heard, it's just a better Nemesis, which is also in my top ten.
Very nice swift and to the point comment game by game. Well done! 👏
Were the Nemesis miniatures in the video the ones you painted yourself? Because they look fantastic! Do you have any links to vids that show how to get them to look like that?
I hate potion explosion because I just can’t compete with most players
How do you hear these rumours?
Great list, lots of games I need to check out. One piece of advice though: please mention the name of the games next time since a lot of people watch these longer videos in the background while doing something else. I put it on while painting minis and had to switch to watching something else since it required me to look and see what game you’re talking about every couple of minutes
Great list mate 👍 if you like this war of mine I've heard frostpunk scratches the same itch, Crisis looks cool and mansion of madness has always been on my Semi radar but your high praise of it makes me look again. And plus yokohama! Yokohama duel is out but looks expensive!
I'm interested to know why Chaos in the Old World dropped off your list. Is there a game (or multiple games) you think do a similar thing better, or you just don't think it's top 100 worthy? What I'm really getting at is that I really like it, but since it's out of print I'd be happy to hear about alternatives.
Also, does anyone want to help me parent trap GW and Fantasy Flight Games?
Thanks for the list. Deffo a couple of games I'll check out. I thought Beyond the Sun might have made your list but clearly not.
Always love seeing your top 100. Your the number 1 reason I successfully hunted down Thunderbirds with all the expansions 😁 and that Galilean Moons is on my wishlist (can’t find that one though…).
Great job as usual!
As always great top 100 I would give 2 thumbs up just for including Kolejka 🙂
Have you played the Hostage Negotiator Career Expansion?
I'm wondering if that might push it back in the Top100.
It's a really great campaign mode.
The actual negotiations stay the same 95%, but there is a lot of stuff going on in between that can somehow influence the negotiations by making you (mostly) better while you get more experience or even a promotion.
I would have sold Hostage Negotiator if there wasnt the career expansion while waiting for a German version of final girl, but it was really worth keeping my hostage negotiator stuff in the shelf for almost 2 years.
I could imagine the career mode being even more motivating than having very different Final Girl "one shots".
Great list, what are your thoughts about these games?
Pax pamir 2nd edition
Inis
Elgrande
Five tribes
Mage knight
Kings dilemma
Food chain magnate
Agricola
Concordia
Kemet
Decrypto
I personally love these games
I'm headed to BGG Con this weekend, what perfect timing for the perfect video! Keep up the good work!
I'm taking 3 friends and they're not as passionate about board gaming as myself but your 3 minute reviews have helped quite a bit!
Wow, so many interesting games I have never heard of!!! Really looking forward to looking into a lot of those!! 😍 Thank You so much for the effort of creating this video and sharing all of these and the short and concise descriptions and insider-tipps!! Just Awesome!!!! 😃 People like you make this hobby so much more fun!!!
Why do you dislike Chinatown's theme? Is there some historically problematic thing about it? I'm unfamiliar.
I'm gonna go out on limb here and say you don't like "war games" per se your top 100 games and no axis and allies, no 878 Vikings or any of the other fantastic Academy games and I can name around 10 others that are not only on other gamers top 100 they are many times in their top 10. Not saying this is a bad thing just a little surprising.
Enjoyed your list though and will try many of the games on it. 👍🏽
Always look forward to the 3MBG annual top 100; thanks Jay