Board Game Friday: My Top 50 Games of 2024 (#50 - 41)

Welcome to my Top 50 Board Games of 2024!  

Last year, I compiled my first ever Top 50 Board Game list and had a lot of fun in the process.  It was so much fun, in fact, that I've decided to do it again this year!  Now that I have one year of list-making under my belt, I've tweaked my ranking process a bit to keep things as up-to-date as possible.  Here are the new rules that I followed:

I took all the games that I played from November 2023 through November 2024 plus all of the games on last year's Top 50 list.  I then fed that large list into Pub Meeple's ranking system.  If you haven't heard of Pub Meeple, basically you enter a list of things to rank and then the system gives you a series of "Choose A or B" options.  You'll do this repeatedly until the system determines it has enough information and then spits out a fully ranked list for you.  

Finally, this year I decided to lump all of my Unmatched games into a single "Unmatched: Game System" category and have that count as a single game.  Last year, I split out the various Unmatched boxes, but this year my son and I have battled with characters from different boxes (meaning there's no easy way to attribute each play to a single Unmatched set).  

Lastly, I'm only counting board games that I've played in person for my Top 50 list.  Of course, there are some games on my list that I also play digitally, but if I haven't played them at least once in person then they don't count (so you won't see a game like Great Western Trail on here as I've never played my copy in person).

Given all of the above criteria, I had 134 games to rank for 2024.  As with last year, I plan to split my Top 50 up into five different posts doing ten games per post.  Furthermore, I hope to spread out each post over the next five Board Game Fridays - so look forward to that each week for a while!

And with that, we are ready to go with the start of our countdown!

Note:  Since this is now my second year doing a board game countdown, I thought it'd be fun to add in last year's rankings for each game as well so that you can see what has risen (and fallen) as we go along.

#50:  River Valley Glassworks
2023 ranking:  NA

We begin this year's Top 50 with a brand new game that my son and I played in our local game store's game library.  I don't actually own this one but I have played it a fair bit over on BGA after trying it at the game shop.  I will say that I enjoyed this simple little puzzle game a lot more than my son did (he actually asked me not to buy the game)!  Truth be told, I doubt this game will make next year's Top 50 list unless I really start enjoying it even more and playing it a lot on Board Game Arena.  That all said, it is a solid little puzzle game and worthy of a low spot in my Top 50 list, plus the components are really nice if you play in-person!

#49:  Gods Love Dinosaurs
2023 ranking:  NA 

Gods Love Dinosaurs is a fun game about ecosystems and food chain management.  I've only played this game once but my initial play of it was quite positive (and thus the game's inclusion in my Top 50 list).  Like many games, I think I need to get this one played several more times before I'll know for sure where it deserves to be ranked but my initial play was definitely encouraging.  

#48:  Santa's Workshop (Second Edition)
2023 ranking:  NA 

Santa's Workshop is a worker placement game with a lovely holiday theme.  In the game, you try to build toys, tend to the reindeer, and decorate the North Pole's Christmas tree.  I always enjoy a good recipe fulfillment game and Santa's Workshop has that with the toy-building mechanism.  I ended up getting this game just after Christmas of last year but still managed to get a couple of plays in before the holiday season was over.  I definitely plan to get this one back to the table prior to Christmas this year, it's a great holiday game for the whole family!

#47:  Love Letter
2023 ranking:  NA 

Love Letter is perhaps the first card game that I played where the main gimmick is just how few cards there are in the deck.  In Love Letter, you are ostensibly trying to get your letter to the Princess, though that theme falls apart pretty quickly if you really think about it (unlike Santa's Workshop where the theme adds to the game, in Love Letter the theme is basically immediately forgotten).  That said, the game itself is super fun where the goal is to either have the highest remaining card at the end of the round or knock everyone else out of the round before they get you.  

#46:  Numbsters
2023 ranking:  NA 

Numbsters is a single-player small card game published by Button Shy.  In Numbsters, you are trying to get down to having a single number plus the mouth card in your hand in order to win the game.  To make things more interesting, there's a fun challenge where you try to win by getting each specific number as the final card (so win with a four as your last card or an eleven).  I told myself I would do more solo gaming in 2024 and while I haven't (and probably won't) reach my goal of 100 solo games, I have given Numbsters a few spins at least.

#45:  Wizard
2023 ranking:  NA 

Wizard is a classic trick-taking card game using a standard deck of cards plus eight special cards (4 wizards and 4 jesters).  The game requires bidding on how many tricks you'll take and then playing out the hand trying to take exactly that many tricks.  Usually, you must follow suit if possible but you can play either a Wizard or a Jester at any time (even if you could otherwise follow suit).  The first Wizard played on a hand automatically wins the hand while a Jester played means you can't win the hand (except in the most unfortunate, yet hilarious, case where you lead a Jester and then everyone follows around the table playing a Jester card of their own).

#44:  Looney Tunes Mayhem
2023 ranking:  24  (down 20)

We've finally hit our first game that made last year's list.  Looney Tunes Mayhem is a game with great (prepainted) miniatures where you control various cartoon characters in a player-versus-player brawl (or in teams of two).  I've had success playing this one with my son on my team, he seemed to enjoy the game despite not being familiar with the majority of the characters (are Looney Tunes even on TV anymore)?!  The main reason for the game dropping 20 spots in my ranking is that I haven't gotten it to the table yet in 2024, out of sight, out of mind I guess.

#43:  Tiny Epic Galaxies
2023 ranking:  34 (down 9)

The Tiny Epic series of games are definitely hit-and-miss with me.  Of the various games I've tried, Tiny Epic Galaxies is my second favorite game for sure (you'll find a second Tiny Epic game higher up on my countdown this year).  In Tiny Epic Galaxies, you are rolling dice, colonizing planets, and doing all sorts of things you'd expect in a game about galaxies.  

#42:  Barenpark 
2023 ranking:  20 (down 22)

Barenpark is a tile-laying game with a race element to it.  My son has been playing this one for a couple of years now and he enjoys it a lot which means I also enjoy it (though quite a bit less now than I did around this time last year as evidenced by the game's 22 spot drop in my rankings).  

#41:  Food Chain Island
2023 ranking:  41 (no change)

Food Chain Island is another solo game published by Button Shy, the second such game on my list already!  For me, Food Chain Island provides a more fun puzzle than Numbsters, though both games are enjoyable in their own ways.  In Food Chain Island, you shuffle up the cards and then lay them out in a grid.  Then, one by one, you have the various cards "eat" other nearby cards until, ideally, you are down to a single card at the end.  The game isn't a super brain burner, but it will make you think several moves ahead if you want to win with any sort of consistency.  It also plays in under 10 minutes with virtually no set-up or clean-up time required, both great attributes for me to get a solo game played!

That does it for this section of my Top 50 Board Games of 2024.  As you can see, there are plenty of newcomers to the list and a fair number of games that slid down (and nearly out) of my Top 50.  Next week, I hope to show off games #40 - 31 in my list - each week will get better and better!