The One Hundred

We Won Something A Long Time Ago

2009-08-25T11:05:00.000-07:00

And we're very proud of it. Learn more at Bored Game Geeks...

One Year Farther Down the Space/Time Continuum

2007-04-16T09:22:00.000-07:00

Hi, campers... the traffic for The One Hundred blog has died down a bit.

OK, it's died down a lot.

But I don't want to go completely dormant, so I wanted to give you some quick updates about The One Hundred and the lives of the people who made it happen.

My plan is for us to take a second run at The One Hundred in the fall of 2008 (that's about 18 months from now.) That will make it four years since the voting originally took place for the "original" One Hundred... which ought to be enough time to see some movement in the games.
When I/we do it again, I/we will probably use some of Brian Bankler's excellent suggestions. In fact, if you're not reading Brian's The Tao of Gaming, you should no longer call yourself a gamer. You might as well go out and buy a deluxe edition of Uno.
Stephen Glenn, the guy who came up with all of this, is about to have another one of his games published by Robot Martini - Jetsetters. (This is actually even cooler than it sounds, as many of us thought that the game would be tied up in the wreckage of Plenary Games, who bought the rights to it originally.)
Mark Jackson, the Pat Sajak & Vanna White rolled into one of The One Hundred, is putting the finishing touches on The Apples Project, which is another one of these compilation projects on gaming - this time by category.

I'll post more in the upcoming months... just don't hold your breath until then!

Matt's Important Questions

2006-04-06T12:35:00.000-07:00

Matt Butcher asked a very helpful pair of questions in the comments section of the entry on Settlers... and rather than bury the answer there, I decided to "share it with the class" (Matt's a teacher, btw) and post it for all of you to see.

Matt asked: "How much do these games cost?"

Of course, the answer varies, but the MSRP for many of these board games hovers between $35 - $50. (Card games usually run $10-$20.) That's what you'd expect to pay if you walked into a brick & mortar game store.

There are, thanks to the magical wonderfulness of the Internet, other options available. For those games that are still in print, you can try a number of different online game shops, where the cost of the games are usually 20-30% less than MSRP. (Example: Settlers of Catan is $40 + tax in a store - online, it can go for as low as $23 + shipping. Please note: Settlers is used as a "loss leader" by many stores - which just underscores how good a game it is and how easy it is for them to move it.)

If you'd like to compare prices Froogle-style, you can use Boardgame Seeker (which is a bit slow but still helpful.) Or you can use Froogle, though it's easy to get lots of odd non-game entries there.

Then Matt asked: "Where do you get them?"

I primarily use two online shops, both of whom offer excellent service & prices:

Game Surplus (based in Pennsylvania and run by the coolest family on the planet... they are the folks who sponsor my website, Game Central Station)
Boards & Bits (based in Seattle, they offer great shipping deals on larger orders)

I've also ordered extensively from Funagain Games, who have an excellent selection but tend to be a bit high on the pricing side. If you're looking for an out-of-print game and don't mind paying for someone else to do the legwork to find it, these guys are a good resource.

Finally, if you're willing to do a bit of legwork, you can't do much better than the BoardgameGeek Marketplace. (Just click on the Bazaar tab at the top of the page...)

I do shop at local stores as well... some of my favorites include:

Endgame (Oakland, CA)
Gamescape (San Francisco, CA)
Rainy Day Games (Portland, OR)

Mark's One Hundred: #10-#1

2006-03-30T21:16:00.000-08:00

#10: Lowenherz

designer: Klaus Teuber
date of publication: 1997

#9: Fast Food Franchise

designer: Tom Lehmann
date of publication: 1992

#8: Expedition

designer: Wolfgang Kramer
date of publication: 1996

#7: Um Reifenbreite

designer: Rob Bontenbal
date of publication: 1982

#6: Showmanager/Atlantic Star

designer: Dirk Henn
date of publication: 1997

#5: Puerto Rico

designer: Andreas Seyfarth
date of publication: 2002

#4: El Grande

designer: Wolfgang Kramer & Richard Ulrich
date of publication: 1995

#3: Memoir '44

designer: Richard Borg
date of publication: 2004

#2: The Princes of Florence

designer: Wolfgang Kramer & Richard Ulrich
date of publication: 2000

#1: The Settlers of Catan

designer: Klaus Teuber
date of publication: 1995

Mark's One Hundred: #20-#11

2006-03-30T20:48:00.000-08:00

#20: Entenrallye

designer: Walter Muller
date of publication: 1989

#19: Return of the Heroes

designer: Lutz Stepponat
date of publication: 2003

#18: Bohnanza

designer: Uwe Rosenberg
date of publication: 1997

#17: Monopoly

designer: Elizabeth J. Magie
date of publication: 1903

#16: Mystery Rummy: Jack the Ripper

designer: Mike Fitzgerald
date of publication: 1998

#15: Smarty Party

designer: Aaron Weissblum & Pitt Crandlemire
date of publication: 2003

#14: Ticket To Ride

designer: Alan Moon
date of publication: 2004

#13: Union Pacific

designer: Alan Moon
date of publication: 1999

#12: Carabande

designer: Jean du Poel
date of publication: 1995

#11: Entdecker

designer: Klaus Teuber
date of publication: 1996

Important Safety Tips

2006-03-30T10:01:00.000-08:00

#1: Don't cross the streams. (That would be bad.)

#2: Don't run with scissors.

#3: Don't assume that the most important posts on this blog are the most recent ones... the real "meat" here is The One Hundred, which you can access via the links in the column on the right, esp. the sections labeled THE BASICS and THE BIG PICTURE.

#4: Remain seated please; permanecer sentados por favor.

Mark's One Hundred: #30-#21

2006-03-30T10:00:00.000-08:00

#30: Oodles

designer: unknown (published by Milton Bradley pre-designer credits)
date of publication: 1992

#29: Land Unter

designer: Stefan Dorra
date of publication: 1996

#28: Anno 1503

designer: Klaus Teuber
date of publication: 2003

#27: Arriba

designer: Thomas Vuarchex & Paul Yakovenko
date of publication: 2001

#26: Stimmt So!

designer: Dirk Henn
date of publication: 1992

#25: Time's Up

designer: Peter Sarrett
date of publication: 2000

#24: Schnappchen Jagd

designer: Uwe Rosenberg
date of publication: 1998

#23: Heroscape

designer: Craig Van Ness, Rob Davaiu & Stephen Baker
date of publication: 2004

#22: Big City

designer: Franz-Benno Delonge
date of publication: 1999

#21: Die Schlacht der Dinosaurier

designer: Stephen Baker & Roger Ford
date of publication: 1993

Mark's One Hundred: #40-#31

2006-03-29T17:54:00.001-08:00

#40: Battle Cry (AH)

designer: Richard Borg
date of publication: 2000

#39: Ausgebremst

designer: Wolfgang Riedesser
date of publication: 1993

#38: Carcassonne

designer: Klaus-Jurgen Wrede
date of publication: 2000

#37: Gnadenlos!

designer: Klaus Teuber
date of publication: 2001

#36: Web of Power

designer: Michael Schacht
date of publication: 2000

#35: Industrial Waste

designer: Jurgen Strohm
date of publication: 2001

#34: History of the World

designer: Gary Dicken & Steve Kendall
date of publication: 1993

#33: Lord of the Rings

designer: Reiner Knizia
date of publication: 2000

#32: Titan: The Arena

designer: Reiner Knizia & Don Greenwood
date of publication: 1997

#31: Medieval Merchant

designer: Christwart Conrad
date of publication: 1998

Mark's One Hundred: #50-#41

2006-03-26T09:20:00.000-08:00

#50: Konig der Maulwurfel

designer: Gunter Burkhardt
date of publication: 2002

#49: Goldland

designer: Wolfgang Kramer
date of publication: 2002

#48: Basari

designer: Reinhard Staupe
date of publication: 1998

#47: La Citta

designer: Gerd Fenchel
date of publication: 2000

#46: Sindbad

designer: Jean Vanaise, E. Duchatel & J.P. Postel
date of publication: 1990

#45: Star Wars - The Queen's Gambit

designer: Craig Van Ness, Alan Roach & Rob Daviau
date of publication: 2000

#44: Mississippi Queen

designer: Werner Hodel
date of publication: 1997

#43: Midnight Party

designer: Wolfgang Kramer
date of publication: 1989

#42: Cafe International

designer: Rudi Hoffman
date of publication: 1989

#41:

Africa

designer: Reiner Knizia
date of publication: 2001

Mark's #1: The Settlers of Catan

2006-03-24T11:00:00.000-08:00

It's become way too cool to crack on The Settlers of Catan... which, frankly, is just stupid. You can complain about the vagaries of the 2d6 distribution, or the plethora of expansions, or the fact that many groups haven't learned a new game since they discovered Settlers back in the late 90's. But that doesn't dismiss what a work of genius Klaus Teuber created.

Think about it - good game play requires more than simply a mastery of The Arcane Secrets Of Initial Placement; you also have to be able to trade (or not trade) wisely. Games are decided NOT by the dice (despite many people complaining otherwise)... they are decided by playing ALL aspects of the game well. Of course, there's the flexibility of the hex-based board system which keeps the game fresh as well.

Can you tell I like it... a little bit?!

Mark's #2: The Princes of Florence

2006-03-24T10:22:00.000-08:00

Princes of Florence is the perfect balance between game length (70 minutes) and an unforgiving system. Any longer, and it would be soul-deadening to play out the final rounds when you know you've lost all hope of winning. Any shorter, and there isn't enough time to make meaningful decisions in this game's Spartan structure (7 auctions, 14 actions).

As it is, this game cries out to be played over & over - experimenting with various combinations of building & buying, exploring the game space & enjoying the heck out of it.

Mark's #3: Memoir '44

2006-03-24T10:06:00.000-08:00

I'll keep this short & simple... it takes the brilliant "Command & Colors" game engine first seen in Battle Cry and knocks all the rough edges off the design. Memoir '44 covers (at this point) much of the European theater of WW2 with a wide variety of 'official' scenarios and 2 boxes worth of expansion stuff (with two more promised expansions in 2006!). The game is supported online with panache & flair by Days of Wonder.

What's not to like? It's my favorite "wargame", hands down. Now, I fully realize as I type this that "real" wargamers are wailing & gnashing their teeth when I call Memoir '44 a "wargame." But as I've said before, I'm a reformed wargamer myself - and I've had more fun playing Memoir than I ever did playing Squad Leader.

Mark's #4: El Grande

2006-02-27T00:21:00.000-08:00

I can still remember when & where I bought my copy of El Grande. It was June of 1997; my wife & I were in San Francisco on an extended road trip (7 weeks) around the western U.S. In the heart of San Francisco, on the line between the Castro & Haight/Ashbury, sat a little game store chock full of European (and other) stuff - Gamescape. (It's still there, btw - just visited it back in the late fall.)

This was the first time I'd been in a store where EVERYTHING I had read about on r.g.b. (rec.games.board - the newsgroup that most newbies found their into when hunting information about German games) was on the shelves. I was like a kid in a candy store.

In the end, I couldn't go too crazy - but there was no question: I was taking El Grande home with me. (I heard the siren call of the Castillo...) I've never regretted that purchase.

Over the years, I've played many games of El Grande - and I continue to love how the game varies based on the timing of the various action cards. I enjoy the bluff & double-bluff that goes into trying to plan your based on what your opponents should (or shouldn't do). I like the way resources are limited by turn position... and I think the map is gorgeous.

As with some of my other favorite games, it really works best with only one number of players: 5. (It will work with 4, but you must avoid 2 or 3.) The expansions are interesting, though not necessary.

Mark's #5: Puerto Rico

2006-02-26T10:35:00.000-08:00

Make no mistake - this is an incredible game. It did not surprise me at all when it was placed #1 on The One Hundred. I am in awe of the design & development wizardry required to create this masterpiece of a game. I'm happy to put Puerto Rico in my personal top ten.

So why, with that glowing introduction, did this wonderful game end up at #5?

First & foremost, it's MY list. So there. :-)
I must admit there's a bit of the "art critic/snob" thing going on here. I know that lots of other people rank it as their #1, so I need to go the contrarian route and chose something else. (There's a lot more of this kind of behavior in gaming circles than most of us would like to admit.)
Finally, something substantive... Puerto Rico is a bit "fragile". In other words, in a group of experienced players, a new player (or a player without much sense) will almost certainly throw the game in the direction of the player to their left. This isn't a problem when players are roughly equal in ability, but does make teaching the game a bit more of a challenge.

Mark's #6: Showmanager/Atlantic Star

2006-02-26T10:20:00.000-08:00

You have to cast four shows with the best possible actors - but so does everyone else. Each turn you can hire a new actor or put on a show. (You can also pay to see a new slate of actors - the infamous cry of "Clear!") And that's pretty much all there is to the game.

Still, Showmanager is a joyous play experience - fast-moving (notice that's a common element of most of my top games?!), fraught with tension, and rewarding wise play. (Much like Expedition, this game is not nearly as random as some seem to think.)

The easier to find Atlantic Star (pictured here) is pretty much the same game, but I don't like the theme (creating cruises), the way the board works (you have to slide cards in a semi-circle?!), the dumbing-down of the ending rules, or the added cards in the ship deck. In other words, find yourself a copy of Showmanager. :-)

Mark's #7: Um Reifenbreite

2006-02-26T08:10:00.000-08:00

Um Reifenbreite is the "Oh, Mickey" or "99 Luftballoons" of German gaming - the designer (Rob Bontenbal) has never published another design (to my knowlege). That's kind of OK, as he did a bang-up job of the one design he did publish.

A bicycle racing game, it manages to capture the "feel" of team racing (as in the Tour de France) while still be an incredibly enjoyable game to play. We don't use the cheating rules (I feel they imbalance the game) and use a dice chart for falls rather than the action cards (which makes the game a little less random), but you can throw this stuff without damaging the game. It's wonderfully resilient.

I'm still longing for a 3-4 race series of this - the rules are there for yellow jersey, supporting the team leader & all that. Sigh.

(I realize as I finish writing this that I've made the game sound dry & dusty - and it is ANYTHING but. Turns are quick, there's enough luck of the dice to keep things fluid, and yet you still have meaningful control of your team. What a great game...)

Mark's #8: Expedition

2006-02-26T07:55:00.000-08:00

At first glance, it looks like a boring geography game. You've a got a map of the world, with all of these important cultural places marked on it. The cards are stuffed full of "color text", telling you about the history & background of the cultural places. (Of course, if your copy is in German - like mine - they might as well have written: "Aboriginal Drawings/Australia - yadda yadda yadda.)

But what hides under all the educational "cover" is a splendid game. Though best with 3 players, Expedition plays just fine with 2-6 and has ample room for clever plays & twists of fate. The players "move" three expeditions across the globe, helping & hurting each other in their quest to finish their assignments first. I'm very good at this one - which may explain why it ended up in my Top Ten. :-)

Thankfully, Ravensburger FINALLY published an English edition of this last year (entitled National Geographic Expedition). Unfortunately, it's only available in Europe. (There's also a slightly different version of the game called Wildlife Adventure - I've never had the opportunity to play, but it is LONG out of print.)

Mark's #9: Fast Food Franchise

2006-02-23T21:29:00.000-08:00

If you like Monopoly at all, you owe it to yourself to hunt down a copy of this OOP gem by Tom Lehmann. Heck, even if you don't like Monopoly, you need to try this brilliant re-imagining of a classic real estate roll'n'move. Fast Food Franchise works like a charm with 2-5 players, it has a nice story arc, and has ample opportunity for smart play while still preserving the luck of the dice. I'm a huge fan - if you can't tell! :-)

BTW, this is the last game on my personal Top One Hundred that isn't also on the "official" One Hundred list.

Mark's #10: Lowenherz

2006-02-23T20:57:00.000-08:00

Klaus Teuber, the designer of Settlers, created one of the edgiest "German" games I know when he designed my #10 game, Lowenherz. The players are princes in a mythical kingdom, waiting for the king to die. The one who is able to amass the most prestige (victory points) when the King keels over wins the game.

Interestingly, it's almost easier in this game to lose points than it is to gain them. It is very easy to bite off more territory than you can protect.

The only bad thing about Lowenherz? It really only works with 4 players.

Mark's #11: Entdecker

2006-01-23T16:46:00.000-08:00

...and don't get me started about WHICH version of Entdecker. Well, actually, you should, because I think that the first version of Entdecker (published by Goldsieber) is a brilliant family game which plays quickly & cleanly, while the second version, Entdecker: Exploring New Horizons (published by Kosmos & Mayfair) is a bloated mess that is too long by 30-60 minutes & unnecessarily chromes up a perfectly good game.

If you need to "gamer up" the original Entdecker, you can use Manu's variant (listed on the Geek & any number of websites). But even without this variant, the game is a splendid 15 minutes per player exploration game with a great sense of story. And it's simple enough that Braeden can play it with help - a plus in my book!

Mark's #12: Carabande

2006-01-23T16:35:00.000-08:00

Literally every place I set this wooden monstrosity up, it acts like a people magnet. Almost everyone (but not our friend, Anna) loves to flick the wooden discs (race cars) around the track. When we set up Carabande at a Board Game Cafe we hosted for a youth convention, it was played every minute.

And how do I feel about it? Well, you can see I rank it #12... I first fell in love with it at Gulf Games 2, when Frank Branham clobbered the rest of us mere mortals with his own set. (Somewhere, there's a picture of Frank in a Carabande track costume... gotta hunt that down. Of course, I'm dressed as one of the cooking devils from In Teufel's Kuche, so maybe the pictures should stay hidden.)

Unfortunately, the game is OOP and expensive when you do find a copy - esp. the Action set, which adds chicanes & a jump to the game. I'd like to find a 2nd Action set (I have 2 base sets + 1 action set) but I'm not made out of money. (Heck, I'm not even made of barterable goods.)

Mark's #13: Union Pacific

2006-01-08T10:08:00.000-08:00

I can still remember my first playing of Union Pacific - Chip Triplett, Ty Douds & I (along with some other folks who have washed out in my memory) got to play a pre-release copy at Gulf Games 3... and by the end of the game, all of us were anxious to our hands on our own copy of the game. Union Pacific had it all - tension, arc, planning, tactics - we were mesmerzied.

And I still am. Alan Moon (the designer) published "2nd edition" rules that tighten up the game... and my buddy, Dave Arnott, designed a splendid 2-player variant, so the game works like a charm with 2-6 players.

Mark's #14: Ticket to Ride

2005-12-28T00:30:00.000-08:00

What a sneaky, beautiful, simple game... Ticket To Ride deserves all of the awards it has received, as it's the perfect blend of smart gaming and social fun. Imagine a rummy-like game that is "scored" by buying up sections of railroad track... and then add destination cards that players must connect.

Once again, Days of Wonder outdid themselves with gorgeous production and incredible web service (including a very good online version of the game). Alan Moon has reason to be proud... this is a keeper.

Mark's #15: Smarty Party

2005-12-28T00:25:00.000-08:00

I've already said a great deal about Smarty Party on my personal blog (aka pastor guy)... but I'll just say one more thing to Aaron & Pitt, the designers:

"We need a second expansion box, stat!" (Because, due to a number of folks love of the game, we've played through the original box of cards TWICE and the expansion box once... sheesh.)

Mark's #16: Mystery Rummy - Jack the Ripper

2005-12-23T18:55:00.000-08:00

The 1st and (so far) the best of Mike Fitzgerald's Mystery Rummy series of highly thematic card games, Jack the Ripper offers a simple rummy-ish system complicated by an intriguing scoring system and some special action cards.

And that description doesn't do the game justice. It's by turns nail-biting and infuriating, allowing you to make clever plays and press your luck, rummy-style. It's just really very, very, very good.

Mark's #17: Monopoly

2005-12-19T14:22:00.000-08:00

It's moments like this when I realize that I'm not in the "mainstream" of Euro gamers. I like Monopoly - and not just because of fond memories from childhood playing with my grandma. It's a game with lots of ups & downs, some very important economic decisions, and WHEN PLAYED BY THE CORRECT RULES lasts about 2-2.5 hours. (If you're wondering what those rules mistakes are, you can check out Game Central Station's Monopoly page.)

Now, I'm guessing that some of you will feel compelled to blast Monopoly in the comments section - go right ahead. But here's a few ground rules:

You can't complain about it being popular. Under that (suspect) criteria, sex would also be a bad idea.
You can't complain about the fact that people play it wrong. That would be like complaining that cars are stupid because some people run red lights.
You can't complain about the multiple versions for sale. Reference Carcassonne, Ticket To Ride, Settlers of Catan, Warhammer 40K, Magic: the Gathering (of lots of $ for Richard Garfield), and so on...

Mark's #18: Bohnanza

2005-12-16T05:00:00.000-08:00

Yep, "The Bean Game." When you first start playing Bohnanza, it's easy to assume that the game is all about "the art of the deal." Which is important, but... Bohnanza is all about using the art of the deal to facilitate hand management.

Which, granted, makes this game sound like the most boring thing since watching paint dry. Nothing could be further from the truth. It's a brilliant trading game that plays well with 4-7 players and has spawned a number of expansions. (Fans of the game MUST try High Bohn, which adds Cosmic Encounter-like special powers to the game.)

Mark's #19: Return of the Heroes

2005-12-16T02:22:00.000-08:00

If I'd made this list 5 years ago, Talisman would have been on it. But Talisman has been eclipsed by the less skull-happy (boy, the artists at Games Workshop need to get out more) and much better designed Return of the Heroes.

It's a classic "character building" game - you wander about the magical lands, gathering experience & special weapons for your shot at The Nameless One. Kill him and you not only free the land from evil, but you also win the game. Of course, you must prove your worth by completing a quest - a mechanism that also acts as a timer to ramp up the nastiness of the bad guys.

What's nice here is that there's a good bit of decision making involved - and a variety of strategies that can be used to win the game. Balancing experience, gold, equipment and tasks are key to doing well. The 16 piece gameboard is nice as well - no game feels exactly like the game before.

The Return of the Heroes system also wins the award for Best Expansion... Under the Shadow of the Dragon is not simply more stuff (maps, monsters, etc.) - it's actually a 2 player game that works very well on it's own. When you add the two sets together, you end up with a monster game that's as good a fantasy experience as any game I own.

There's a 2nd expansion just published in Germany... "Heroes in the Underworld." (Cue Mark to laugh giddily like a schoolgirl.)

Mark's #20: Entenrallye

2005-12-16T02:17:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Joe Huber, I found an almost perfect game for me - Walter Muller's Entenrallye. (Literally translated, it means "Duck Rally", and refers to having car rallies with Citroens.) The game has LOTS of dice rolling - but it's really not about a race as much as it is about appropriately pushing your luck.

Or, as in the best experience games, having luck push you. That's the price of admission, btw - knowing that the game may hose you royally. I find myself having such a good time racing for checkpoints that I just don't care.

Mark's #21: Die Schlacht der Dinosaurier

2005-12-16T01:44:00.000-08:00

Any game named "Battle of the Dinosaurs" has incredible potential for fun - and none more so than this dicefest in an oversized box. Die Schlacht der Dinosaurier contains scads of nifty dino minis that are used in a battle to the death with 2-4 players commanding their forces.

The dice are more random than usual (if I remember right, the sides are 0, 1, 2, 5, 10, 15) and the volcano with the lava balls is a silly way to randomize game length... but the game works. It's simply a joy to set up & play.

Mark's #22: Big City

2005-12-16T01:35:00.000-08:00

Another bit-o-licious game that actually has really good game play - albeit only with 2-3 players. (You can play with 4 or 5, but it's an insanely random game with that many people.)

Big City is the closest thing we're going to get to a working & enjoyable SimCity game (please ignore the SimCity CCG, which was an incredibly bad idea)... it's a shame it didn't do well enough to warrant an expansion.

Mark's #23: Heroscape

2005-12-16T01:30:00.000-08:00

I figure I have close to $150 invested in Heroscape... and it would be more if someone hadn't been kind enough to give me one of the expansion sets.

What's so cool about Heroscape?

the pre-painted minis
the interlocking terrain
the great line of sight rules
the simple but workable combat system
the mishmash of sci-fi & fantasy genres
the fact that I hoot & holler like an 8 year old while I'm playing it.

Mark's #24: Schnappchen Jagd

2005-12-14T08:38:00.000-08:00

I can't spell it (without looking it up) and I certainly can't pronounce it, depiste Heli's best efforts to fix my mangled German. But I can play it - and I think it's probably the best 3 handed card game out there.

Of course, Schnappchen Jagd is from the master of oddly used cards, Uwe Rosenberg, so I shouldn't be surprised. Here, he stands trick-taking on it's head by changing the trump suit on every TRICK... and scoring based on a nifty bargain/junk mechanic that makes scoring a strategic decision.

Mark's #25: Time's Up

2005-12-14T08:04:00.000-08:00

Peter Sarret took the party game "Celebrities", cleaned up the rules, added a well-thought out deck of famous names, and made one of the best party games on the planet - Time's Up.

Here's the deal:

Round One: You're playing Catchphrase with 40 names.
Round Two: Same 40 names, except now you can only use one word (plus charades & sound effects).
Round Three: Same 40 names one more time, except you can't talk anymore.

Add people with a sense of humor and watch the fireworks go off.

The genius of the packaging is in the way the names are put together (the yellow & blue sides of the cards are NOT random - Peter did a lovely job of setting up potential confusion by the way he grouped the names). My hat is off you to you, dude.

Favorite recent Time's Up story: I ended up starting to strip when our Bible study group was playing in order to get them to "get" Gypsy Rose Lee. I still wonder how some of them can watch me preach each week with that image burned in their brains. :-)

Mark's #26: Stimmt So!

2005-12-14T07:48:00.000-08:00

Ever heard of Alhambra? Yeah, yeah... that's the game that won Spiel des Jahres a couple of years ago, right? Right.

Notice it is NOT on this list. That's because Alhambra is a bad re-design of the much better game, Stimmt So! While there are some good additions to the rules about money (both the way you get starting cash & the way you pick up cash in the game make more sense in Alhambra), the two major game systems work against each other in ways that make the game more random & difficult to control, not less.

In Stimmt So!, you're playing Acquire with a different (aka much faster) way to develop stock value. If someone is winning, you can target them by buying the stock they need. In Alhambra, you also have to consider if the "stock" you buy will fit into your city because of the walls. So, if you need to target a player, you may well have to sacrifice WINNING THE GAME in order to do so, because you can't fall too far behind in creating long walls... and you can't waste too many buys with tiles you can't use. Sheesh.

As well, Alhambra is slow & tedious with 5 or 6 players... while Stimmt So! actually shines at this number. It's a fast, furious, dare I say "fluffy" stock market game that hits my sweet spot.

Yes, Alhambra fans, I realize that the expansions may have made the game better... but why did we have to wait for the expansions to fix what was broken by redesigning the game?!

Mark's #27: Arriba

2005-12-14T07:38:00.000-08:00

In America, "Land of Litigation", no one in their right mind would make a speed game with a HARD plastic stick that can be batted around the room by over-zealous players. Evidently, Germans aren't nearly as worried about "legal entanglements."

Hence, the Arribabaton... thing of beauty & fear. It's the centerpiece of Arriba, a cross between Set (the pattern recognition game, not the ancient Egyptian game) and Spoons. For a game with 80 cards & a stick, there's certainly a lot of injuries. We've had to "time out" the game more than once to bandage players... and I'm not the only person wearing glasses who has stopped the baton with my face. Still, there's nothing quite like snatching the stick cleanly away... or watching 3 people wrestle for control of it. (When we play on the floor, we play that the stick is "in play" no matter what... even if it leaves the circle. Much fun!)

I'm no longer unbeatable at this (there's a dude in our Bible study group who has cat-like reflexes who gives me a run for my money) but it doesn't change how much I enjoy playing it with 4-8 players. (It will, btw, work with 9 or 10 if you're willing to get REAL close to each other in a circle on the floor.)

Arriba has been republished as Jungle Speed... some American company decided to take the risk! :-)

Mark's #28: Anno 1503

2005-12-14T07:01:00.000-08:00

Not everybody has the love for Klaus Teuber: Settlers is dismisssed in some circles (because, of course, it's "cool" to pick on what's popular), Entdecker was "too fluffy" (think that was problem for me?!), and Anno 1503 was "multiplayer solitaire." Sigh.

We'll deal with the other two accusations further down the list, but for right now, let's clear up a major misconception about Anno 1503. It is NOT solitaire... it's a race. Those players who forget that they're in a race to the finish, whether by the obvious exploration method or the less obvious economic method, will lose.

In fact, Anno reminds me of Starship Catan turned into a multi-player game. You have the same cash & commodity manipulations, the same ramping up your individual board to speed up your game, the same nail-biting race to the finish. (Like I said much earlier, Starship Catan didn't make the 100 so there would be room for Settlers Card Game AND Anno 1503.)

Ignore the grousing about this one and give it a try. Once you've got a game under your belt, it's 15 minutes per player for a jam-packed gaming experience.

Mark's #29: Land Unter

2005-12-13T23:33:00.000-08:00

The first time I tried to play Zum Kukuck (the 1st edition of Land Unter), it was 3 am in the morning during my first Gulf Games. This is, I assure you, NOT the best time to learn a new game.

But enough people said nice things about it (hi, Invisible Craig!) to convince me to try it again while I had some brain cells working - and it's slowly but surely risen up my favorites list. I esp. like the "duplicate" element to the game.

Theme is not really a big deal here - the original edition was about cuckoos stealing eggs. The edition I own (Berliner Spielkarten) has drowning pigs and a maniacal weather frog (armed with some kind of wand). Don't sweat the theme... it's a great game.

Mark's #30: Oodles

2005-12-13T23:26:00.000-08:00

A trivia game? In your Top One Hundred? Why, yes... cuz this is not the typical trivia game. It's closer to a rotating game show, rife with puns & semi-cryptic clues. There's no board or dice, so it works great with people sitting around a living room (always a plus with party-type games).

It doesn't hurt that I rock at Oodles. In fact, taking a cue from Frank Branham, I don't play it nearly as much anymore, instead using the equipment to "host" the game for other players.

Mark's #31: Medieval Merchant

2005-12-13T17:08:00.000-08:00

Here in the 30's of my personal Top One Hundred, it's "Pick on Jay Tummelson" time. This time, I _love_ the new name (the German one was Pfeffersäcke, for crying out loud.) Instead, this time I'll comment on the box cover - it looks like the artist took his inspiration from Jay himself!

Medieval Merchant, btw, is not really a game of medieval economics. It's a train game - in fact, it's a bit like Ticket To Ride with some money involved. (OK, maybe not, but cut me some slack.) It works great with 3-6 players and has little downtime.

Mark's #32: Titan: The Arena

2005-12-13T15:24:00.000-08:00

This is the game that launched my website, Game Central Station... I was so cheesed off about the ham-handed rules to such a wonderful little game that I posted my clarifications to the web for posterity.

And make no mistake - this is a very good little game. Titan: the Arena has nothing to do with AH's Titan except the title. Rather than being a monster slugathon, it's a betting game that rewards careful card counting & wise investing. (It also has enough luck of the draw that you should play 2-3 hands in a row and total scores.)

Thankfully, it's just been reprinted with some extra monster suits as Colossal Arena, though I'd continue to play with the original rules (there were some minor changes that I believe make the game less interesting.)

Mark's #33: Lord of the Rings

2005-12-13T15:05:00.000-08:00

When you first open the box, it's the John Howe art (he was one of the concept artists for the Peter Jackson films as well as being one of the foremost Tolkien artists around) that blows you away. Soon, though, it just becomes the very convincing backdrop for a spectacularly good cooperative game that manages to evoke the feel of Middle Earth while still being a relatively straightforward game system.

I enjoy Lord of the Rings with or without the two expansions: Friends & Foes makes the game tougher (boy, howdy!) and Sauron offers 3 different ways to alter the game, including a variant in which one player controls the evil forces.

Mark's #34: History of the World.

2005-12-13T14:24:00.000-08:00

I hated this game the first time I played it. It was the original Avalon Hill version of the game (the one with the chits). We played with 6 newbies... and it took stinkin' forever. (in fact, we didn't even finish the game.)

Then, Avalon Hill changed hands, discovered the benefits of stuffing their games full of plastic minis, and published the newest edition of History of the World. A copy ended up on the prize table at a Gulf Games and I picked it up, intrigued by the positive buzz.

What was once a long & semi-tedious game with niggly decisions that took time without mattering a great deal (garrisoning, fighting for sea zones) is now a lean, mean empire-building machine. The game has sweep & story in great gobs... and it's just plain fun to play.

It's still long - but I never find myself watching the clock. I need to get a game of it going again real soon.

Mark's #35: Industrial Waste

2005-12-13T14:03:00.000-08:00

Another interesting renaming choice by Jay Tummelson... but this time it makes sense, as each player lives and/or dies on how they handle the toxic sludge their widget factory produces.

Industrial Waste has some similarities to the insanely popular Puerto Rico:

players have individual boards that track information & resources for them
players can do very little to DIRECTLY affect other players
players can indirectly affect others by their choices in major ways
each player is essentially building a machine to generate profit/points

But Industrial Waste is a bit lighter (less complex) and a bit more random (the industrial accident card can mess over the most carefully planned company development.)

Man, I enjoy this game way out of proportion with the prevailing view of it as "an OK game." Thankfully, my group here in Fresno has a pretty positive reaction to it as well.

Mark's #36: Web of Power

2005-12-13T13:44:00.000-08:00

Jay Tummelson, head honcho of Rio Grande Games, has done many things right in his tenure as the "guru of reprinting German games." Renaming Kardinal & Konig (Cardinals & Kings) wasn't one of them. The original name actually reflects the theme (ecclesiastical orders manuevering for political power in medieval Europe) and sounds kinda cool. Web of Power sounds like it's the younger brother of Nik Sewell's Web of Gold.

Now that I've got that rant out of the way, let's actually talk about the game. It's just about perfect: a 45 minute area majority game with enough luck of the draw to keep players from locking down a particular strategy and yet plenty of opportunities for subtle & intelligent play. It's been called El Grande lite - which I kind of understand - but I think K&K (sigh, Web of Power) stands on its own two feet.

There are two simple expansions available: "The Duell" which makes a two-player game not only possible but very workable; and "The Vatican" which offers yet another way to influence scoring. Web is sadly OOP, but China (Web of Power with some changes) was released earlier this year.

Mark's #37: Gnadenlos!

2005-12-13T13:43:00.000-08:00

Translated from the German, the title is "Merciless!" - and the game system certainly can be. (They don't include vulture tokens just for the heck of it...)

Gnadenlos is what I like to call a "Frankenstein" game - it's made out of parts of other games that somehow mesh to make a wonderful gaming experience. There's the once-around auction for cowpokes (Ra, Modern Art), the payment in specific cards (High Society), the blind bid for actions (Take 6, Raj, Adel Verpflichtet, etc.)... and then, Klaus Teuber put in the "brain" which isn't quite like anything else I've played. The system for paying off your IOU's is original to the game and can make for some serious nail-biting.

Gnadenlos is a 45 minute game with multiple timers that guarantee a quick play. Over the years, I've introduced this to a number of players with great success. Give it a try!

Mark's #38: Carcassonne

2005-12-09T20:30:00.000-08:00

Another "two games in one" entry for my top 100 games:

With 2 or 3 players, Carcassonne is primarily an exercise in tactics, pushing your luck & card (well, tile) counting. It's tense & fast-moving & rewards smart defensive play. (This is my favorite way to play, btw.)
With 4 to 6 players, Carcassonne becomes more about negotiation & getting your fingers into as many pies as possible. Still a good game, but not as much fun for me.

Either way, you can enjoy this one in 31 different flavors (kind of like Baskin-Robbins) as there are 3 large box expansions, 2 small box expansions, and 4 spin-off games. (I rather like Ark of the Covenant, one of the spin-offs... and not because it's "religious", either. It just works very, very well.)
Given my druthers, though, I prefer playing 2 player with Inns & Cathedrals, Traders & Builders and King & Scout.

Mark's #39: Ausgebremst

2005-12-09T09:31:00.000-08:00

Ave Caesar is the more popular version of this game - but it's expensive & difficult to find. (Not that Ausgebremst is easy, but in comparison...?) Anyway, Ausgebremst takes the simple movement system devised for Ave Caesar and adds a schmidge bit more control and multiple race tracks. It's simply my favorite car racing game.

Now, it's not for the faint of heart. "Nasty" and "mean" are two adjectives that describe the tactics you must use to win the race. But you'll laugh (hard!) while doing it. (Because of the hosage factor, it's best to play three races and use the scoring system included.)

Finally, I've replaced the original cardboard pieces with Micro Machines, which makes for a much better looking set of components.

Mark's #40: Battle Cry

2005-12-09T09:30:00.000-08:00

One of the saddest things about Battle Cry is that it didn't get the stellar treatment that it's little brother, Memoir '44, did. No expansions, no fancy-schmancy website with steady flow of official scenarios... sigh. This incredibly fun Civil War battle game managed to get command & control issues into the game without resorting to all the usual goofiness of your average "wargame." (And I'm not just whistlin' Dixie here: I am a reformed 'chit-pusher' who cut his teeth on Squad Leader & Third Reich.)

Still, it's a great game, even with it's much better-healed little brother around (and closer on the list to #1), so it's not fair to exclude it. I just wished the game fit into a smaller box so I could cart it with me easier!

Mark's #41: Africa

2005-12-07T14:03:00.000-08:00

"Wow, Reiner Knizia has a new big box game coming from Goldsieber... maybe it'll be the next E&T!" And so, with that conversation (or conversations much like it) repeated over & over, you have the origin of the intial poor reaction to Africa. What Dr. K. did instead was create a point optimization game with a push your luck element that plays like a charm.... but isn't the 2nd Coming of Euphrat & Tigris.

Since I'm not a big fan of E&T, that didn't hurt my feelings much. And I've learned (much like Cafe International) that there's a lot more game under the "fluffy" surface of Africa. (Just try playing Joe "Nomad Relocation Program" Huber.) I'm still in shock that it made it onto the "real" One Hundred list.

Mark's #42: Cafe International

2005-12-07T13:43:00.000-08:00

Another game that I didn't particularly enjoy the first time I played... it felt like all of my decisions were arbitrary. Subsequent plays revealed a lot more game in Cafe International - and my winning percentage began to climb. The theme is pretty basic (seating international guests) and possibly un-PC (all of the nationalities are caricatures) but still holds the game together.

This Spiel des Jahres winner doesn't get a lot of love - but it's a much better game than people give it credit for. Next time out, try playing it 2 or 3 times in a short period and watch your performance improve!

Mark's #43: Midnight Party

2005-12-07T09:30:00.000-08:00

The chant of "Hugo! Hugo!" can be heard on a regular basis at the Jackson home - whether it's playing Midnight Party with my 4 year old son, Braeden, or with a group of gamer guys, or with my college Bible study. Midnight Party is one of those rare birds, an actual "family game" that really is enjoyable for the entire family. This game of hide & seek at a ghost's birthday party is great fun for 2-8 players (in fact, it really shines with 6-8, which makes it a great small party game). Danke, Herr Kramer!

Mark's #44: Mississippi Queen

2005-12-07T09:24:00.000-08:00

Steamboat racing at it's best - this is a pretty simple game (once everyone figures out how to tell what order everyone moves) that is fun to play & nice to look at. Mississippi Queen is improved by the use of The Black Rose expansion - esp. if playing with 5-6 players. (Note: not everyone agrees with me, which must mean they're wrong. Right?!)

Mark's #45: Star Wars - The Queen's Gambit

2005-12-07T09:11:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, when you buy a big box game, it's full of air... the company just wanted a big hunk of shelf profile and so made the box large enough to offer living space to a gang of Smurfs and their pet ferret. That is definitely NOT true with Avalon Hill's The Queen's Gambit, which also manages to buck another trend, the general suckage of movie tie-in games. The box is filled to the brim with a three-tier "palace" + two other battle boards + a chunk of plastic minis.

In fact, I like the game better than I like Epsiode 1. (Geek note: there are two really great parts to Episdoe 1: [a] the closing 30 minutes of the movie, which is the subject of my #45 game, and [b] the pod race, which really needs to be made into a game. Otherwise, George Lucas, what were you thinking?!)

This is a big, sprawling, table-eating dicefest - and yet you do have some control with your card orders. There's a constant balancing act going on between the various battles, and the game is filled with great "yahoo!" moments, when something good happens for your side.

I call it a "three hour tour", because it takes 30 minutes to set up, two hours to play, and 30 minutes to put back in the box. It's well worth the time.

Mark's #46: Sindbad

2005-12-06T14:36:00.000-08:00

Sindbad is a multi-layered game, though at first glance it appears to be simply a roll'n'move with some investing strategies. So I'd better define why I think this exploration game from Flying Turtle is multi-layered, right?!

It can be played by young children... Braeden is 4 & 1/2 and has a grand time encountering monsters and figuring out what to do next with his diamonds.
It can be played by gamers - who can do a lot more strategizing about what & what not to do.
The numbered adventure cards add some interesting questions to your standard "roll/move/explore" pattern: is now the time to use a card to move? should I save it for later to attack another player or fight off the pirates? is this card more valuable for the gems it will gather or for the safe move I can make right now?
You can play a risky "go for all the marbles" kind of game... or diversify your holdings & build up cash steadily.

However you do it, Sindbad has plenty of evocative art & theme as you journey into the adventure.

Mark's #47: La Citta

2005-12-06T14:35:00.000-08:00

It's a sprawling game of city development - compared sometimes to Settlers (though I'm not quite sure why). It's long and mistakes can be costly. Yet it has a wonderful story arc to the game... and it's intense fun to play. Gerd Fenchel, the designer of La Citta, also designed Kraut & Ruben, which I enjoy as well.

The one problem with the game (the card display can clog up in the late game with useless cards) is fixable with a house rule and/or variant - though not everyone agrees about the best way to do that.

Mark's #48: Basari

2005-12-06T14:31:00.000-08:00

Yeah, yeah.... I know I'm supposed to say that Edel, Stein & Reich is better, because it doesn't have any dice and can play 5 players.

But I won't - cuz I like the original Basari better. Yes, it's nearly themeless. Yes, it has a potential kingmaker problem. Yes, it only really works well with 4 players. Still, I enjoy it every time I play. Every time.

Mark's #49: Goldland

2005-12-06T14:30:00.000-08:00

I was at the Gathering where the buzz began - it doesn't work, it's too long, yadda yadda yadda. As usual, once the rules issues were hammered out and everyone figured out that the game should really be for 2-4 players, rather than 2-5, suddenly there was this nifty puzzle/exploration game sitting their with gorgeous production and multiple paths to victory.

I've found that Goldland intrigues a certain type of gamer - in fact, if they like Sid Sackson's Bazaar, the chances are very good that they'll like Goldland. The underlying mechanism (the puzzle of how to best manipulate your resources) is very similar.

Mark's #50: Konig der Maulwurfel

2005-12-06T14:29:00.000-08:00

Translated into English, it means "King of the Dice Mouths" - and it's yet another wacky backstory for an even wackier racing game. In Konig der Maulwurfel, players draft their dice-mouths from a set of pieces: ramps, dice, # of special cards, heads (which have a numerical range), etc. On his turn, a player lets the die roll down the ramp onto the table. If he rolls a number inside the range listed on his head, he gets to move his dice-mouth next to where the die landed. The game is boardless - you simply set out gates for the dice-mouths to race through.

And you have fun. We've found that the game works better on a "live" table, where the 4-sided die bounces a bit. As well, you should use the advanced rules immediately, as the basic rules are a crock.

Mark's One Hundred: #60-#51

2005-12-05T01:35:00.000-08:00

#60: Victory & Honor
Another partnership card game... this time, I had the privilege of watching this game go through development over 3-4 years. Ty Douds has created a trick-taking card game with enough interesting twists to make it onto my personal Top 100.

#59: Linie 1
Yeah, the ending's a bit random... but I still enjoy the process of building my line while monkeying up other folks' plans. (It doesn't hurt that this is close to being the most expensive game in my collection, due to my buying it pre-Internet.)

#58: Broadway
I bought this originally out of the clearnance bin at a Toys'R'Us - and I've probably squeezed every penny of value out of it in the past 17 years. It's a roll'n'move investment game that uses 10% shares in Broadway shows - investors share in the profits & the losses. The game can be pretty vicious, but my wife & I have had great success introducing it to both gamer & non-gamer friends.

#57: Canasta
My Grandma Jackson is the first person who taught me how to play... but it was my in-law's who took me to school. (And, honestly, keep taking me to school. Shari & I have only beat them once in 15 years.) It's a rummy-like 2 deck game that's actually MUCH easier to learn if you buy Canasta Caliente. (I'm still undecided whether I like the Caliente cards added to the game - but having the point totals & special powers on the cards is wonderful!)

#56: Viva Pamplona
The running of the bulls makes for an enjoyable romp that's in the same gaming family as Viva Topo and Midnight Party. (It's a family I'm fond of... all three appear on this list!) I've often wondered about how you can lose courage points when someone else shoves you (and worse yet, they get them!), but it's still a delightful game.

#55: TransAmerica
I once dissed this game of railroad connections as "cotton candy" - it's fun to eat for a while but then you begin asking yourself what in the world you're doing. Playing a good bit on BSW proved my initial assesment wrong - there are tactics to this game, as evidenced by some players with 75%+ win ratios!

#54: Mystery Rummy 4: Al Capone
A Canasta-based entry to this stellar series of card games was, of course, almost a sure winner with me. (See #57.) Didn't hurt my opinion of the game at all for my first play to be against Mike Fitzgerald. But aside from all that, it's a great game - it's important to collect cards & hide others, but nothing is really safe. (Important safety tip: don't play with 3 players... it works best with 2 players or 4 players playing partnership.)

#53: Lost Cities
I've played this over & over and I'm still intrigued each time. How far can I push my luck? Should I play aggressively or defensively? For such a simple game, it continues to draw me in. (Probably doesn't hurt that the production of the game is gorgeous.) Now, it's not that I win all that much. My wife is a pro.

#52: Drunter & Druber
This is a weird game with a very odd backstory - the key way you can stop other players is by voting to keep an outhouse unmolested. There are elements of bluff & tile-laying... and it won the Spiel des Jahres. Again, I don't get to play this nearly as much as I'd like.

#51: Palermo
A tactical game in two parts, much like Linie 1. During Part One, mobsters claim the various businesses of Palermo for their protection rackets. In Part Two, the mobsters cruise around town, racing to collect their cut. The nice thing: both parts of the game work well - and mesh together nicely.

Mark's One Hundred: #70-#61

2005-12-04T10:39:00.000-08:00

#70: Elfenland
Alan Moon took his classic gamer game Elfenroads and turned it into a great family game, Elfenland. When it won the Spiel des Jahres, it allowed him to go back and re-gamer it with the Elfengold expansion. I like both games (Elfenland & Elfenland + Elfengold) but don't get to play either of them nearly as much as I'd like.

#69: Richelieu
I'm trying to decide if this is on my list because I really like it (which I do) or because I'm so spectacularly good at it (which I am). Either way, it's got an interesting parentage. Michael Schacht designed Web of Power - and then published a card game using the same kind of area control rules. Richelieu is a redesign for two players of that card game. What I like is that there is a very small random element - the trick is to think 2-4 turns ahead as you develop a plan for claiming provinces.

#68: Daytona 500
This is my personal favorite of the Kramer racing games that began with Tempo. (Tempo, btw, is completely abstract and is actually more of a gambling game. The one familiar element is the cards that move multiple players.) I like Detroit/Cleveland Grand Prix, but the payoff chart needs to be fixed. I guess what draws me in most about Daytona is how cleanly the system works while offering interesting choices each turn.

#67: Upwords
It's Scrabble with less board lock (thanks to the ability to build up) and for some reason I can visualize the stacking plays needed to succeed at this game.

#66: Zertz
As I've said in a number of places, I'm not a fan of abstract games, but Zertz sucked me in - what with the pretty bits & the rapidly shrinking playing surface & the wild tactical moves you can make. I'm what you'd call a "2nd level" player - I play intelligently, but I haven't "grokked" the game yet enough to avoid being beaten by those who love abstracts.

#65: Queen's Necklace
While the box says you can play this game of jewelry sales in pre-revolution France with 4 players, you're much better off playing it with 3. The falling values system is unusual and leads to some difficult decisions about what to buy and what to leave behind. There's some chaos, but it's manageable and fun... and that's all I ask from a game.

#64: Rosenkonig
Another very abstract game, this 2 player (or 4 playing partners) game about the War of the Roses not only looks nice, but plays like a charm. Despite the open information, the game doesn't ever seem to bog down in analysis paralysis.

#63: Mystery Rummy 2: Murders in the Rue Morgue
A splendid partnership game that didn't fare so well on the first couple of outings - it took us some time to see how tricky you can be in your card play with this rummy variant. Mike Fitzgerald is a card design genius. (BTW, don't play this unless you're playing partners - it's how the game shines.)

#62: Freight Train
Much like my decision between Starship Catan & Settlers Card Game, here I had to decide between the short & friendly Get the Goods or the long & table-eating Freight Train. Between the two, I find FT occupying more post-game brain space ("what if I'd just...?"), so it gets the nod. But either set-collecting game is a wonderful addition to your game collection!

#61: Affenraffen
It's a floor wax AND a desert topping... as this Michael Schacht game is actually a speed game and a memory game rolled into one. The addition of some action tiles allow for betting & messing with the leader.

Mark's One Hundred: #80-#71

2005-12-03T06:07:00.000-08:00

#80: Royal Turf
The only time this game has gone "belly up" with a group is when I played it 3 player with two other tired gamers... otherwise, this is darn near "bomb-proof." My favorite horse racing game (though I do like Favoriten as well - just not nearly as much.)

#79: Medici
Like I said in The One Hundred blurb on this game, it stuns me that the graphic issues with the German & English editions of this game haven't dampened Medici's power - it's elegant in it's simplicity. BTW, I prefer to play with 5 players, so someone can't calculate their bids to the penny late in each round.

#78: Flowerpower
For a long time, I was undefeated at this simple tile-laying game - no longer. (Thanks to my wife, my Gulf Games roomie & my niece.) Still, my record is pretty huge (90% win ratio) which says that either (a) most of my competition stinks at this game, or (b) there's more to this than just throwing tiles on the board. Interesting game in that it can be played very friendly or with a bit of venom.

#77: Das Letzes Paradies
Another Knizia auction game - and another one of those "short & mean" auction games. Best with 3 players... there's only 16 auctions in the entire game to develop plots of a tropical island. Granted, the game is massively overproduced, but it's still a great "little" game.

#76: Chinatown
I really enjoy this game - and yet I can see all the criticisms clearly. Due to some of the odd vagaries of the tile mix, I will ONLY play with 4 players - but with the right 4 people, this is 75 minutes of "scratch my back and I'll scratch yours".

#75: Loopin' Louie
My copy cost $1.97 and was only missing stickers on one of the chicken tokens.... keep your eyes peeled when you're in a thrift store, as this mechanical game is ferociously addictive. (I'm still not sure how this one missed appearing on The One Hundred.)

#74: Maskenball der Kafer
The English title is "The Ladybug's Picnic" - all I can tell you is that it's not only the prettiest cooperative game I own, it's also the toughest. (We win less than 40% of the time.) And it's got the got the cool magnetic ladybugs. Awfully expensive for a kids game - but well worth it.

#73: Ra
I hate-hate-hated this auction/gambling game the first time I played it... but then I gave it a second chance and it's now a beloved member of the Jackson gaming family. I like it best with 3, but 4 or 5 is ok, too.

#72: Mamma Mia
I don't get to play Mamma Mia nearly as much as I would like - first, it's about pizza-making, and I love me my pizza pie! Second, the central discard mechanism - what with the card counting & the press-your-luck elements - is a master stroke from Uwe Rosenberg.

#71: Fresh Fish
I've never won this game. Ever. Doesn't stop me from loving to play it, though. (My problem is that I never see the consequences of my "brilliant" play until it's too late.)

Mark's One Hundred: #90-#81

2005-12-02T07:05:00.000-08:00

#90: Mole in the Hole
Braeden loves to play with the homeboy mole pieces & the multi-layer board; I like that it's a light game with plenty of tactical play. And the homeboy moles.

#89: Star Wars - Epic Duels
This is really a very good movie tie-in, as well as working quite well as a combat game. Best with 4 players who have a little experience with the game.

#88: High Society
You'll find I like my auction games short & mean, and they don't come much shorter and/or meaner than High Society. Yes, it's got a large random element in the order the items come up for auction, but who cares? (This was one of the few Knizia games that didn't make The One Hundred - sheesh.)

#87: Volle Hutte
The theme of building pubs is a lot of fun, as is the process of moving folks around the table. It's not rocket science, but I've had a warm smile on my lips every time I've played.

#86: Viva Topo
The most kid-friendly "chased by a non-player character" game I own - this cat & mouse game is gorgeously produced and has some interesting push-your-luck decisions.

#85: Cosa Nostra
It's a backgammon variant with spaces that have special powers & a big honkin' "drive-by shooting" spinner in the middle of the board... cuz it's a gangster game, capeesh? I love it, though it doesn't work well unless there's 4 people playing.

#84: Canyon
Yet another "Oh Hell" spinoff - this time, it's the board play (a canoe race) that gives the game some needed oomph. But what really makes this a great game is the freebie expansion, "Grand Canyon", which adds Cosmic Encounter-like special powers to each round, allowing players to catch up and/or hose over the other players.

#83: Dschungelrennen
Wolfgang Riedesser is a hero of mine - and this simple roll'n'move is one of the reasons. "Jungle Race" looks like a simple kids game, but the decisions (if the dice are kind) are important.

#82: Liar's Dice/Call My Bluff
I'd probably rank this higher if I hadn't grown a little weary of playing it - it's a brilliant game design.

#81: Settlers Card Game
I debated between this and Starship Catan - both games I love, but Starship is very similar to Anno 1503 (which you'll see farther down the line), so I went with Settlers Card Game. I like the way the game develops, even if it takes a bit too long.

Mark's One Hundred: #100-#91

2005-12-01T13:15:00.000-08:00

Doiing all this work inspired me to do a bit of classifying of my own... and what you're reading now is my own personal Top One Hundred.

Those of you who know my tastes will be surprised primarily by the small number of "kid games" on my list - but I chose to focus on games that I personally enjoy, as opposed to games that I enjoy playing with others. (There is a difference.) I also refrained from putting games released after December 2004 on the list, so it would line up with what was available when The One Hundred voting took place. (Thus missing Niagara and Attacktix.)

Finally, games linked by their ranking number appeared in The One Hundred, while games linked by their name did not.

And now, without any further ado...

#100: Mush
It's not the best game Alan Moon has ever made, but this game of dog sled racing is certainly one that I've enjoyed playing over the years. We've done some tweaking to the avalanche rules.

#99: Kapitan Wackelpudding
I like dexterity games. I like games with an odd sense of humor. This is both.

#98: Air Baron
I'll admit that this game as released has some problems - not the least of which is the "Fuel Hike" chit. Still, it's great fun to play this economic wargame (really!) and is probably my candidate for "Game Most Needing High-Quality Development & Re-Release."

#97: Igloo Pop
Igloo Pop is the best example of taking a great game mechanism (the shaking canisters from Zapp Zerapp) and putting it into a much better game. Zapp Zerapp is really only enjoyable with 4 players and is essentially a Parcheesi variant, while Igloo Pop plays at a frenetic pace (30 minutes or less) and works with 3-6 players.

#96: O Zoo Le Mio
It's an auction game crossed with a tile laying game, scored like Acquire... but it's quick (you'll see that word a lot on this list) and great to look at. Yes, there are problems with the income system and the escalating point values in the later rounds - but in such a short game, part of your job is to plan to deal with both of those issues rather than whine about them when the game is over.

#95: Klunker
Uwe Rosenberg is a genius - he takes the whole idea of "card game" and turns it inside out. It's a trading game with some serious hand management issues... and a whole lot of fun in a little box.

#94: For Sale
I used to rate this much higher, but there's been a sameness to the last few games which has been off-putting. Still, it's really a great filler and deserving of a spot on my list. (I haven't played the new version yet - I'm a bit scared of what the rules changes will do to a game I enjoy "as is".)

#93: Can't Stop
IMHO, Sid Sackson's masterpiece. I actually have two boards so we can play 2 games at a time!

#92: Zoff Im Buffalo
Christwart Conrad created this pleasant little bluffing/placement game... then, a few years later, overinflated it into Vino ("the game of the rolling grape pieces" - yep, spherical game bits... ab-so-lutely brilliant...). The original is much better... and I'm very, very good at it. :-)

#91: Too Many Cooks (Knizia)
It's an odd game - not really trick-taking, not really a climbing game... and the five menu cards mean you can get toasted in the last hand by your card draw. Yet the game is addictive to play - and a great gateway game.

If You Let The Lunatics Run The Institution...

2005-11-30T08:07:00.000-08:00

...you get lists like these:

Snoop's List

That's right - Stephen "Balloon Cup" Glenn, the mastermind behind The One Hundred, put together his own personal top 100 list. Makes for some fun reading - but, dude, cool it with the abstracts! Sheesh.

I'll follow up tomorrow by posting my Top 100 here over 10 or so days - not because I'm really wanting to build suspense, but because it's a lot easier to get everything posted in bite-sized pieces. Needless to say, Poker will not be #1. :-)

The One Hundred Vs The Gaming Awards

2005-11-21T11:55:00.000-08:00

Well, at least, the semi-respected gaming wards. :-)

This information was originally published on the spielfrieks mailing list by Morgan Dontanville, and given a small correction by Larry "My Ex-GG Roomie" Levy.

Deutscher Spiele Preis
The "German Game Prize" is often held up as the 'gold standard' of Eurogaming awards - as it is voted on by gamers for gamers. Of the 16 times this has been awarded, 12 of those games appeared on The One Hundred.

Adel Verpflichtet
Modern Art
6 Nimmt
Settlers of Catan
El Grande
Lowenhurz
Tigris and Euphrates
Tikal
Taj Mahal
Carcassonne
Puerto Rico
St Petersburg

The missing games that were awarded the DSP are:

Master Labyrinth
Der Fliegende Holländer
Amun-Re
Louis XIV (which was not released when The One Hundred was voted on)

Spiel des Jares
The "German Game of the Year" award is credited with turning around the German gaming industry. It's not always as popular with hardcore gamers, due to the family-oriented nature of the picks. Of the 27 times the SdJ has been awarded, 11 of those games appeared on The One Hundred.

Hare & Tortoise
Adel Verpflichtet
Um Reifenbreite
Liar's Dice
Settlers of Catan
El Grande
Elfenland
Tikal
Torres
Carcassonne
Ticket To Ride

None of the SdJ winners from the 80's made the list (including Scotland Yard and Heimlich &Co.). Beginning with 1990, the missing games:

Drunter & Drüber
Manhattan
Mississippi Queen
Villa Paletti
Alhambra
Niagara (which was not released when The One Hundred was voted on)

International Gamers Award
The most recent gaming award is voted on by a jury of international gamers and shows a marked preference for gamer-y games. The multiplayer game award has been given 7 times... 6 of those games appear on The ONe Hundred:

Tikal
Princes of Florence
San Marco
Puerto Rico
St Petersburg
Age of Steam

The one missing game is Ticket To Ride: Europe, which was released after The One Hundred was voted on.

All six of the two-player IGA award games made the list:

Lost Cities
Battle Cry
Dvonn
LOTR: The Confrontation
Memoir '44
War of the Ring

The Ones That Got Away: John Palaygi

2005-11-21T11:48:00.000-08:00

Keythedral
Clean, elegant, simple and fast.

Keywood
This is an awful high placement for such a small distribution game but it's well worth it. It's a hard, viscious game(at least the way our group plays it) that I really enjoy.

Hamster Rolle
My dexterity/party game entry all rolled into one! Always a blast to play and sure to attract anyone that's not seen it before.

Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective
A deduction gameyou can play solo (actually the only way to play this one in my book). Though if you've got a good memory replay value is nil.

Trivial Pursuit
I don't care what anyone else says. I like Trivial Pursuit (especially the early editions, before the "pop culture" questions took over). I never fail to learn something and am always surprised at what I do know.

The Ones That Got Away: W. Eric Martin

2005-11-21T11:40:00.000-08:00

Familienbande

Maybe an odd choice for my favorite game of all time, but I've played 60+ times and still have fun. The theme meshes so well with the gameplay-- kill that bloodline; like mother, like son; and so forth -- that new players really get into the game. Also, my wife really enjoys the game, which is always a plus.

Piratenbilliards

One of the most addictive games ever. I bought an American version of Piratenbilliards from an online toy company, gave two away as gifts, and ordered seven more copies for folks who wanted one of their own after playing mine. Even my parents bought a copy!

Fluxx

A guilty pleasure, and one I can share only with my brother due to general loathing of this game from the game community. We play best 3 out of 5 or 4 out of 7, and because we know the cards so well, we whip through these games in ten minutes or so. Sure, Fluxx is light and chaotic, but it's hardly mindless, as many critics contend.

I'm sure my choices would differ today after another year of gaming experience, but this list was a good picture of that time.

The Ones That Got Away: Michael Weston

2005-11-21T11:39:00.000-08:00

Confusion

No, it won't make the Top 100, but I still think it's the coolest game out there. Especially since a friend made me a home-made set and I don't have to rely on Frank B. or Craig B. to bring a copy.

Way too obscure for any chance, on top of being a niche game itself. Most people aren't willing to tax the logic corner of their brain enough for this beauty. Other than being an avowed deduction game freak, I appreciate that this game isn't actually won just by deducing the answers. Deduction is just a tool to get you to a point where you think you can win the actual soccer-like movement on the board.

Meuterer

A very underrated game just because it's hard to learn from the rules.

Not sure why more people don't like this one. It packs a lot of game into a very little box. Sure the mechanisms are about as non-intuitive as it gets, but beyond that is a very entertaining game of second guessing and smart hand management. Definitely my favorite of the "secretly choose a role" games out there.

Sleuth

The finest example of a pure deduction game.

Having since played Larry Levy's "Deduce or Die", Sleuth is no longer my favorite for those rare times when I can get fellow deduction nuts together. Still a great game that deserves more table time. Still, it was great to see one deduction game make it on the list.

Das Motorsportspiel

Yeah, another dark horse. You know the timer is set for the right limit when you can feel the adrenaline rushing as you have to rush to get your move done in time.

Never had a chance, but still the best racing game out there. Unlike Formula De and all the other race games that have been done, this is the only one to really feel like a race. The consolation prize is that at least Formula De DIDN'T make the list either.

Klunker

There's more here than most people give it credit for. For such a simple set collection game, there's a lot of subtlety.

I'm sure Dave Vander Ark listed this one too, but we may be the only ones. Repeated plays just continue to show that smart play can mitigate the luck of the draw, at least to the same extent as any other card-based game we typically play. Not a Top 10 game by any stretch, but I think it's at least as good as anything in the bottom 25.

The Ones That Got Away: Kevin Whitmore

2005-11-21T11:37:00.000-08:00

Waldschattenspiel

There is something magical about this game. I am sure most strategy game fans will sneer at this selection. For me,Waldschattenspiel bypasses the brain and hits me directly in the heart. Play it at midnight with a bunch of friends in a camphouse in the middle of the New Mexico forest - and I guarantee you will also come to love this game.

Carcassonne: The City

It has become all too chic to dismiss anything with Carcassonne in the title. I think a great number of people have never given this extremely interesting strategy game a chance. An added bonus is the very cool city you have built once the game is completed.

Entdecker

It never really had a chance, but this game remains a personal favorite of mine. I'll be curious to see what Rev. Jackson has to say about it.

The Ones That Got Away: Brian Leet

2005-11-21T11:36:00.000-08:00

Fast Food Franchise

Always a blast with gamers and non-gamers alike. Has the good habit of usually ending right when the outcome becomes obvious to the players.

This game hasn't been in print for nearly a decade, so I'm not surprised that it didn't make the list. I also am sure that the similarities to Monopoly probably turn off some players. For me, the similarities are enough to entice casual gamers (who don't feel like they need to learn a whole new game), while turning out to be entirely superficial from a game play standpoint. While there is a fair amount of luck here there is also strategy and planning as well as calculated risk. I would love to see a reprint of this title so it could get wider availability (and better components).

American Megafauna

I enjoy 'experience' games (games where the experience of playing is more important than your score) and this is my favorite of the bunch. The only downside here is finding players.

I wouldn't be shocked if I am the only player who nominated this game. I would be very shocked if there was more than one other person who also listed it. In many ways the game is a lot of things I don't care for. It is fiddly, complex, long, filled with obscure or odd rules interactions, and careful strategy is often overturned by pure dumb luck. With all that said, the theme and scientific accuracy (dare I say simulation?) are what win me over with this one. I find it fascinating, always enjoy the experience of the play, and can honestly say I've learned more from the game than any other since I was rather young. Still, it remains a personal affectation, and is a game I would recommend to only certain of my friends.

The Ones That Got Away: Frank Hamrick

2005-11-21T11:35:00.000-08:00

The Bridges of Shangri-La

Yes, it's a bit dry, and a bit abstract. But I love the turn angst and the many, many quandary's each turn presents. You need to place your markers in a dozen places each turn. I also love the little wooden bridges and the awesome looking board at game's end. The only thing that keeps this one out of my top five - I can get very few people to play it with me. Otherwise, I would put this up with the top 3! (I realize I'm in a tiny minority here).

A Game of Thrones

At the time I voted, this one was hot with my group. At the time we felt it was the best "German style" wargame out there (I know it isn't a "German" game). However, it has slid back several notches since I voted for a number of reasons - the starting positions are a bit unbalanced, and it is too complicated to explain quickly or to appeal to my non-gaming friends and family. But for 6 blood-thirsty gamers, who have the time, this one (and its CoK expansion) is very good if you want a lighter war-game.

Boomtown

What was I thinking!! One of the 15 best games I own!? I put it 15th on my list because I had just gotten it and had played about 3 times - so it was still new, fresh, exciting. It's still fun, good. But it certainly isn't in the all-time "great" category. Anyway, here's what I wrote back then...

For pure fun, this one is great. It may make my top 15 because it is new, but we were all surprised at how interesting this one was. Lots of fun to play (the theme helps), great looking cards (terrific matte finish and feel) and wooden "mayors." Mechanics are simple. It is basically a bidding game with a few nice twists. Some aggression creates a bit of turn angst (players vie for control of various towns - Cactus Junction; Cold Mountain; Coyote City; Dry Gulch; and San Narciso). Lighter game that hits the spot for me. Only negative - some of the art of almost nude girls on a few of the cards. Totally unnecessary.

The Ones That Got Away: Mark Jackson

2005-11-21T11:33:00.000-08:00

This post (and a number that follow it) are entries by those who helped vote for The One Hundred, lamenting "the ones that got away" - in other words, those games they voted for that didn't make the cut. Their statements from the period of voting (late 2004) are in italics; more recents thoughts are in regular print.

Entdecker (older version)
Supposedly a part of the original monster prototype that birthed Settlers & Lowenherz, Entdecker has always received less admiration than it's brothers. Which, frankly, is a crying shame, as it's a fast-moving game of exploration with gorgeous production and simple game play. I play using the Manu variants (for slightly more gamer friendliness)... but I've recently found that the published rules work great with my 4 & a half year old son.

And don't get me started about the hack job Teuber did to his own game with the second release of Entdecker... he took a clean, simple yet not simplistic 30-60 minute exploration game and turned it into an unnecessarily messy 75-120 minute game with less exploration (what's with the goal mountains?) and a twinky hut/scout system that actually adds MORE luck to the game. I still can't understand why people think this is the more gamer-y of the two versions, except that it's more complicated!

Fast Food Franchise
Tom Lehmann took the basic mechanisms of Monopoly (roll'n'move, own properties that people land on and pay rent, chance cards that affect the game, and so on) and grafted on others (the "map" of the USA in the middle of the board, advertising, the asymetrical nature of the different companies) to create a minor masterpiece. Loved by gamers & non-gamers alike, Fast Food Franchise is worth tracking down.

How Big A Geek R U?

2005-11-18T08:46:00.000-08:00

In other words, what's your The One Hundred "score"? Check out The Whole Enchilada and then do a itty bitty bit of math.

The One Hundred Score = # of these games you've played + # of these games you own

Fluff Daddy's "score" is:

151 (87 played, 64 owned)

The games I haven't played are:

Age of Steam (probably should try this, but as I've said other places, having trouble washing the bad taste of Volldampf out of my mouth)
Breaking Away (sounds math-y)
Bridge (unwilling to invest the time to learn)
Die Macher (I've played one round... but not a whole game)
Domaine (I'm such a big fan of Lowenherz that I cringe at revising it - and I hated what Teuber did to Entdecker in the second go-around)
Gipf (as much as I like Dvonn & Zertz, I need to try this one)
Go (Pente hurts my head...)
Goa (interested in trying this one, actually)
Mu & Mehr (I've played one of the memory games, but not Mu)
Roads & Boats (it's mostly a time thing - that, and a "nobody nearby owns a copy" thing)
Titan (I still remember looking at it longingly in the store way back when - "monster slugathon? cool!", but I never broke down & bought it... and now, 20+ years later, I haven't played it, either)
War of the Ring (the guy who owned this in my group traded it away before we could try it... as he has done with numerous games!... hi, John!)
Was Sticht? (watched it played at a Gulf Games, and I could smell the brain-buring action from across the room - ouch.)

We're Numero Uno

2005-11-18T08:44:00.000-08:00

Here's a list of the games that received 1st place votes from the participants. (It's important to note that no games made it onto The One Hundred with only a single voter.)

Six Votes

Euphrat & Tigris

Five Votes

Puerto Rico

Four Votes

Tichu

Three Votes

Cosmic Encounter
El Grande
Taj Mahal

Two Votes

1830
Acquire
Bridge
Die Macher
Fresh Fish
Go
Ra
Settlers of Catan

One Vote

Age of Renaissance
Bohnanza
Can't Stop
Crokinole
Diplomacy
Dune
Expedition/Wildlife Adventure
Flaschenteufel
Goa
History of the World
Liar's DiceMedici
Power Grid
Princes of Florence
Saint Petersburg
Times Up
Torres
Union Pacific

The five highest rated games that received NO first place votes were:

Age of Steam
Lord of the Rings
Memoir '44
Mu & Mehr
Ticket to Ride

The following games received first place votes but didn't make The One Hundred:

500
Aladdins Dragons
Confusion
De Bellis Mutitudinis
Duel of Ages
Familienbande
Medina

Through The Years

2005-11-18T08:43:00.000-08:00

And, since I've got a spreadsheet "and I know how to use it" [Mark: "I'm a donkey on the edge!"], here's the The One Hundred broken down by year of publication. [Mark: Yes, I realize that some of these games, particularly the public domain games, don't have a definitive date of publication. In those cases, I did some research, considered my options, then picked a date that sounded good to me. Scientific, eh?] All other dates of publication are from Board Game Geek... note: the dates used are for the FIRST publishing of the game, even if it was less well-known (as in Crude/McMulit or Homas Tour/Um Reifenbreite).

3000 BC

Backgammon

1500 BC

1810

Poker

1860

Bridge

1865

Crokinole

1937

Spades

1948

Scrabble

1959

Diplomacy

1962

Acquire

1974

Hare & Tortoise
Liar's Dice
McMulti

1977

Cosmic Encounter

1979

Dune

1980

Can't Stop
Titan

1981

Civilization

1982

Um Reifenbriete

1984

Wizard

1985

Expedition/Wildlife Adventure

1986

1830
Code 777
Die Macher

1989

Ave Caesar
Taboo

1990

Adel Verpflichtet/Hoity Toity
Daytona 500

1991

Breaking Away
History of the World
Res Publica
Tichu

1992

Modern Art

1994

6 Nimmt!
I'm The Boss/Kohle Kies & Knete
Quandary
RoboRally
Was Sticht?

1995

Carabande
El Grande
Flaschenteufel
Medici
Mu & Mehr
Settlers of Catan

1996

Age of Renaissance
Hannibal: Rome v. Carthage

1997

Bohnanza
Dr Jekyl & Mr Hyde
Euphrat & Tigris
For Sale
Fresh Fish
Lowenherz
Showmanager/Atlantic Star

1998

Basari
Elfenland
Gipf
MR1: Jack the Ripper
Samurai
Schnappchen Jagd
Through the Desert

1999

Battleline/Schotten Totten
Chinatown
Lost Cities
Mamma Mia
Ra
Ricochet Robot
Roads & Boats
Stephensons' Rocket
Tikal
Torres
Union Pacific
Vinci

2000

Battle Cry
Blokus
Carcassonne
Citadels
La Citta
Lord of the Rings
Princes of Florence
Taj Mahal
Time's Up
Traumfabrik
Web of Power

2001

Africa
Capitol
Dvonn
Power Grid/Funkenschlag
Royal Turf
San Marco

2002

Age of Steam
LOTR: The Confrontation
Puerto Rico
Wallenstein

2003

Attika
Domaine
Smarty Party

2004

Goa
Memoir '44
St Petersburg
Ticket To Ride
War of the Ring

I think what's really interesting grouping these games by years is that it allows me to see what was "in the works" at the time. Some highlights from the synapses firing in my brain:

1999 was an amazing year - and I got in on the front end of it, thanks to Gulf Games 3 being timed perfectly so that Jay Tummelson flew in from Nuremberg with the first copies of 5 of the 12 games listed.
2000 had ten games listed - when we talk about a "golden time" in gaming, was it 1999-2000?
Acquire is all the more amazing when you realize it was published in 1962.
What was going on in Germany in 1996? The only two listed games are Avalon Hill wargames. (Was everyone so busy playing Settlers that they took the year off?)

Thank These Guys

2005-11-18T08:42:00.000-08:00

Thought y'all might be interested in some overall information about the designers & The One Hundred:

six of the games have no known designer:

Backgammon
Bridge
Crokinole
Go
Poker
Spades

Reiner Knizia designed seventeen of the games (wow!):

Africa
Battleline/Schotten Totten
Euphrat & Tigris
Lord of the Rings
Lost Cities
LOTR: The Confrontation
Medici
Modern Art
Quandary
Ra
Res Publica
Royal Turf
Samurai
Stephensons' Rocket
Taj Mahal
Through the Desert
Traumfabrik

Wolfgang Kramer designed seven of the games (by himself or with a partner):

6 Nimmt!
Daytona 500 (w/Mike Gray)
El Grande (w/Richard Ulrich)
Expedition/Wildlife Adventure (w/Ursula Kramer)
Princes of Florence (w/Richard Ulrich)
Tikal
Torres (w/Michael Kiesling)

Alan Moon designed five of the games (by himself or with a partner):

Capitol (w/Aaron Weissblum)
Elfenland
San Marco (w/Aaron Weissblum)
Ticket To Ride
Union Pacific

Klaus Teuber designed four of the games:

Adel Verpflichtet/Hoity Toity
Domaine
Lowenherz
Settlers of Catan

Richard Borg designed three of the games:

Battle Cry
Liar's Dice/Call My Bluff
Memoir '44

Uwe Rosenberg designed three of the games:

Bohnanza
Mamma Mia
Schnappchen Jagd

Sid Sackson designed three of the games:

Acquire
Can't Stop
I'm The Boss/Kohle Kies & Knete

Aaron Weissblum designed three of the games (with partners):

Capitol (w/Alan Moon)
San Marco (w/Alan Moon)
Smarty Party (w/Pitt Crandlemire)

Kris Burm designed two of the games:

Dvonn
Gipf

The team of Eberle, Kittredge & Olotka designed two of the games:

Cosmic Encounter
Dune

Friedemann Friese designed two of the games:

Fresh Fish
Power Grid/Funkenschlag

Dirk Henn designed two of the games:

Showmanager/Atlantic Star
Wallenstein

Alex Randolph designed two of the games (by himself or with a partner):

Ricochet Robot
Code 777 (w/ Robert Abbott)

Karl-Heinz Schmiel designed two of the games:

Die Macher
Was Sticht?

Francis Tresham designed two of the games:

1830
Civilization

Richard Ulrich designed two of the games (with a partner):

El Grande (w/Wolfgang Kramer)
Princes of Florence (w/Wolfgang Kramer)

And the rest of the games on The One Hundred - their designers only appeared once. Still, it's a nice crowd to be in when it includes such notables as Robert Abbott, Stefan Dorra, Rudiger Dorn, Jean du Poel, Bruno Faidutti, Mike Fitzgerald, Doris & Frank, Richard Garfield, Mike Gray, Philippe Keyaerts, Dave Parlett, Wolfgang Riedesser, Peter Sarrett, Michael Schacht, Andreas Seyfarth, Reinhard Staupe, Martin Wallce & Klaus-Jurgen Wrede.

Recap: #10-#1

2005-11-18T08:40:00.000-08:00

#10: Tichu

designer: Urs Hostettler
date of publication: 1991

#9: Ra

designer: Reiner Knizia
date of publication: 1999

#8: Ticket To Ride

designer: Alan R Moon
date of publication: 2004

#7: Age of Steam

designer: Martin Wallace
date of publication: 2002

#6: Power Grid/Funkenschlag

designer: Friedemann Friese
date of publication: 2001

#5: Princes of Florence

designer: Wolfgang Kramer & Richard Ulrich
date of publication: 2000

#4: Settlers of Catan

designer: Klaus Teuber
date of publication: 1995

#3: El Grande

designer: Wolfgang Kramer & Richard Ulrich
date of publication: 1995

#2: Euphrat & Tigris

designer: Reiner Knizia
date of publication: 1997

#1: Puerto Rico

designer: Andreas Seyfarth
date of publication: 2002

Recap: #20-#11

2005-11-18T08:39:00.000-08:00

#20: Mu & Mehr

designer: Doris Matthaus & Frank Nestel
date of publication: 1995

#19: Medici

designer: Reiner Knizia
date of publication: 1995

#18: Crokinole

designer: ?
date of publication: c. 1865

#17: Time's Up

designer: Peter Sarrett
date of publication: 2000

#16: Union Pacific

designer: Alan R Moon
date of publication: 1999

#15: St Petersburg

designer: Bernd Brunnhofer, Jay Tummelson, Michael Bruinsma
date of publication: 2004

#14: Cosmic Encounter

designer: Bill Eberle, Jack Kittredge, Peter Olotka
date of publication: 1977

#13: Bohnanza

designer: Uwe Rosenberg
date of publication: 1997

#12: Lord of the Rings

designer: Reiner Knizia
date of publication: 2000

#11: Acquire

designer: Sid Sackson
date of publication: 1962

Recap: #30-#21

2005-11-18T08:38:00.000-08:00

#30: Modern Art

designer: Reiner Knizia
date of publication: 1992

#29: Battleline/Schotten Totten

designer: Reiner Knizia
date of publication: 1999

#28: Showmanager/Atlantic Star

designer: Dirk Henn
date of publication: 1997

#27: Liar's Dice/Call My Bluff

designer: Richard Borg
date of publication: 1974

#26: Civilization

designer: Francis Tresham
date of publication: 1981

#25: Lost Cities

designer: Reiner Knizia
date of publication: 1999

#24: La Citta

designer: Gerd Fenchel
date of publication: 2000

#23: Taj Mahal

designer: Reiner Knizia
date of publication: 2000

#22: Die Macher

designer: Karl-Heinz Schmiel
date of publication: 1986

#21: Memoir '44

designer: Richard Borg
date of publication: 2004

Recap: #40-#31

2005-11-18T08:37:00.000-08:00

#40: Kohle Kies & Knete/I'm The Boss

designer: Sid Sackson
date of publication: 1994

#39: Tikal

designer: Wolfgang Kramer
date of publication: 1999

#38: Through the Desert

designer: Reiner Knizia
date of publication: 1998

#37: Roads & Boats

designer: Jeroen Doumen & Joris Wiersinga
date of publication: 1999

#36: Fresh Fish

designer: Friedemann Friese
date of publication: 1997

#35: Web of Power

designer: Michael Schacht
date of publication: 2000

#34: Expedition/Wildlife Adventure

designer: Wolfgang Kramer & Ursula Kramer
date of publication: 1985

#33: Torres

designer: Wolfgang Kramer & Michael Kiesling
date of publication: 1999

#32: RoboRally

designer: Richard Garfield
date of publication: 1994

#31: Carcassonne

designer: Klaus-Jurgen Wrede
date of publication: 2000

Recap: #50-#41

2005-11-18T08:35:00.000-08:00

#50: Goa

designer: Rudiger Dorn
date of publication: 2004

#49: Poker

designer: ?
date of publication: c. 1810

#48: Adel Verpflichtet/Hoity Toity

designer: Klaus Teuber
date of publication: 1990

#47: Titan

designer: Jason B McAllister & David A Trampier
date of publication: 1980

#46: Attika

designer: Marcel-Andre Casasola Merkle
date of publication: 2003

#45: 1830

designer: Frances Tresham
date of publication: 1986

#44: Lowenherz

designer: Klaus Teuber
date of publication: 1997

#43: Traumfabrik

designer: Reiner Knizia
date of publication: 2000

#42: Bridge

designer: ?
date of publication: c. 1860

#41: For Sale

designer: Stefan Dorra
date of publication: 1997

Recap: #60-#51

2005-11-18T08:34:00.000-08:00

#60: Blokus

designer: Bernard Tavitian
date of publication: 2000

#59: Hannibal: Rome v. Carthage

designer: Mark Simonitch
date of publication: 1996

#58: Wizard

designer: Ken Fisher
date of publication: 1984

#57: Schnappchen Jagd

designer: Uwe Rosenberg
date of publication: 1998

#56: Diplomacy

designer: Alan B Calhamer
date of publication: 1959

#55: Wallenstein

designer: Dirk Henn
date of publication: 2002

#54: Can't Stop

designer: Sid Sackson
date of publication: 1980

#53: Daytona 500

designer: Wolfgang Kramer & Michael Gray
date of publication: 1990

#52: Ricochet Robot

designer: Alex Randolph
date of publication: 1999

#51: Go

designer: ?
date of publication: c. 1500 BC (yes, I'm aware there isn't one date... I took the average)

Recap: #70-#61

2005-11-18T08:32:00.000-08:00

#70: Scrabble

designer: Alfred Mosher Butts
date of publication: 1948

#69: Flaschenteufel

designer: Gunter Cornett
date of publication: 1995

#68: Ave Caesar

designer: Wolfgang Riedesser
date of publication: 1989

#67: Citadels

designer: Bruno Faidutti
date of publication: 2000

#66: Elfenland

designer: Alan R Moon
date of publication: 1998

#65: History of the World

designer: Gary Dicken & Steve Kendall
date of publication: 1991

#64: Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation

designer: Reiner Knizia
date of publication: 2002

#63: San Marco

designer: Alan R Moon & Aaron Weissblum
date of publication: 2001

#62: Smarty Party

designer: Aaron Weissblum & Pitt Crandlemire
date of publication: 2003

#61: Stephensons' Rocket

designer: Reiner Knizia
date of publication: 1999

Recap: #80-#71

2005-11-18T08:17:00.000-08:00

#80: 6 Nimmt!

designer: Wolfgang Kramer
date of publication: 1994

#79: Mystery Rummy 1: Jack the Ripper

designer: Mike Fitzgerald
date of publication: 1998

#78: Was Sticht?

designer: Karl-Heinz Schmiel
date of publication: 1994

#77: War of the Ring

designer: Marco Maggi, Francesco Nepitello, Roberto Di Meglio
date of publication: 2004

#76/#75: Hare & Tortoise

designer: David Parlett
date of publication: 1974

#76/#75: Quandary

designer: Reiner Knizia
date of publication: 1994

#74: Taboo

designer: Brian Hersch
date of publication: 1989

#73: Dr. Jekyl & Mr. Hyde/Twilight

designer: Wolfgang Werner
date of publication: 1997

#72: Basari

designer: Reinhard Staupe
date of publication: 1998

#71: Breaking Away

designer: John Harrington
date of publication: 1991

Recap: #90-#81

2005-11-18T08:16:00.000-08:00

#90: Dune

designer: Bill Eberle, Jack Kittredge, Peter Olotka
date of publication: 1979

#89: Code 777

designer: Alex Randolph & Robert Abbott
date of publication: 1986

#88: Gipf

designer: Kris Burm
date of publication: 1998

#87: Vinci

designer: Philippe Keyaerts
date of publication: 1999

#86: Res Publica

designer: Reiner Knizia
date of publication: 1991

#85: Battle Cry

designer: Richard Borg
date of publication: 2000

#84: Um Reifenbreite

designer: Rob Bontenbal
date of publication: 1982

#83: Age of Renaissance

designer: Don Greenwood & Jared Scarborough
date of publication: 1996

#82: Backgammon

designer: ?
date of publication: c. 3000 BC

#81: Spades

designer: ?
date of publication: c. 1937

Recap: #100-#91

2005-11-18T08:15:00.000-08:00

#100: Samurai

designer: Reiner Knizia
date of publication: 1998

#99: Dvonn

designer: Kris Burm
date of publication: 2001

#98: Africa

designer: Reiner Knizia
date of publication: 2001

#97: McMulti

designer: James J. St. Laurent
date of publication: 1974

#96: Mamma Mia

designer: Uwe Rosenberg
date of publication: 1999

#95: Capitol

designer: Alan R. Moon & Aaron Weissblum
date of publication: 2001

#94: Carabande

designer: Jean du Poel
date of publication: 1995

#93: Domaine

designer: Klaus Teuber
date of publication: 2003

#92: Royal Turf

designer: Reiner Knizia
date of publication: 2001

#91: Chinatown

designer: Karsten Hartwig
date of publication: 1999

The Whole Enchilada

2005-11-18T00:48:00.000-08:00

Here they all are - from #1 - #100!

Puerto Rico
Euphrat & Tigris
El Grande
Settlers of Catan
Princes of Florence
Power Grid/Funkenschlag
Age of Steam
Ticket To Ride
Ra
Tichu
Acquire
Lord of the Rings
Bohnanza
Cosmic Encounter
St Petersburg
Union Pacific
Time's Up
Crokinole
Medici
Mu & Mehr
Memoir '44
Die Macher
Taj Mahal
La Citta
Lost Cities
Civilization
Liar's Dice/Call My Bluff
Showmanager/Atlantic Star
Battleline/Schotten Totten
Modern Art
Carcassonne
RoboRally
Torres
Expedition/Wildlife Adventure
Web of Power
Fresh Fish
Roads & Boats
Through the Desert
Tikal
I'm The Boss/Kohle Kies & Knete
For Sale
Bridge
Traumfabrik
Lowenherz
1830
Attika
Titan
Adel Verpflichtet/Hoity Toity
Poker
Goa
Go
Ricochet Robot
Daytona 500
Can't Stop
Wallenstein
Diplomacy
Schnappchen Jagd
Wizard
Hannibal: Rome v. Carthage
Blokus
Stephensons' Rocket
Smarty Party
San Marco
LOTR: The Confrontation
History of the World
Elfenland
Citadels
Ave Caesar
Flaschenteufel
Scrabble
Breaking Away
Basari
Dr Jekyl & Mr Hyde
Taboo
Quandary
Hare & Tortoise
War of the Ring
Was Sticht?
MR1: Jack the Ripper
6 Nimmt!
Spades
Backgammon
Age of Renaissance
Um Reifenbreite
Battle Cry
Res Publica
Vinci
Gipf
Code 777
Dune
Chinatown
Royal Turf
Domaine
Carabande
Capitol
Mamma Mia
McMulti
Africa
Dvonn
Samurai

For more detail (designer, date of publication) and direct links to each entry, check out the Recaps listed on the right hand side.

#1: Puerto Rico

2005-11-18T00:46:00.000-08:00

Here's the Big Number Uno... amazingly, by a designer with only one game on the list: Andreas Seyfarth. Puerto Rico is an intricate design that plays cleanly & quickly. With only one random element (the distribution of the plantations), you have huge control over your own fate (unless another player does something crazy.)

Pat Korner: "A triumph of 'German-style' design combined with North American-style asymmetry and role selection. Highly engaging, hugely entertaining - its only flaw is that the learning curve is unforgiving. Play a four- player game with three pros and one novice and watch the player to the left of the novice win. Every time."

Larry Levy: "Wonderful gameplay, great replay value, and a masterful design. Lots to think about, both tactically and strategically, but the limited choices means that this can be played very quickly. The innovations are great, but the best part is trying to get inside the heads of your opponents and predict what they're liable to do. The five-player game is my favorite, but this plays wonderfully with 2 to 5 players (even though it's only listed for 3 to 5!) Lots of analysis can and has been applied to this, but it works just as well with a few folks playing by the seat of their pants. This is the first game that I really found myself thinking about away from the gaming table. An easy choice as my all-time favorite and I fully expect to be playing and enjoying this 20 years from now."

David Fair: "The concept of enhancing your opponents position while enhancing your own, and possibly giving them more than you give yourself, is what makes this game great."

#2: Euphrat & Tigris

2005-11-18T00:45:00.000-08:00

I (Mark) have to be honest - this is a game I don't particularly like... but I have incredible respect for the design. And realize that I'm in the minority - Euphrat & Tigris is considered by many to be Knizia's masterpiece. But don't mind me... listen to what these fans have to say.

Stephen Glenn: "I have a feeling this will wind up #2 on this list, which is just wrong, wrong, wrong. Euphrat & Tigris never fails to amaze me. Each and every time I play it I learn something new, either regarding the design or some new, potential strategy. A sublime gaming experience."

Pat Korner: "The game that scales the best from 2 to 4 players that I've seen. A 2 player game is every bit as tense and good as a 3 player game, and a 4 player game is also great. Reiner Knizia's in top form here, with lots of mechanics in play that all positively reinforce each other instead of becoming fiddly and confusing."

Frank Hamrick: "This was my first German game, and has been at the top of my ratings from my first play in 1998. An absolute classic. Tile laying with angst that provides a wargame like feel. (This one has all of the criteria/biases I enjoy most in a game.)"

Joe Huber: "The rise and fall of civilizations in a mere 30 minutes." [Stephen: That's HuberSpeed (tm), of course.]

Larry Levy: "I used to rate this one higher, but I grew a little disenchanted with the effect that the tile draw can have on the game's outcome. Still, this is a brilliant design, with an almost unparalleled scope for strategy. Only a genius like Knizia could come up with an idea as simple, but as effective, as the celebrated "best of the worst" scoring system. Like Puerto Rico, this can be analyzed extensively or enjoyed by restricting one's thinking to the game at hand. I'm not sure I can think of any German game whose appearance was anticipated so much and which was delayed so long (well, not from a professional publisher - 7 Ages clearly wins the "longest wait" prize). E&T didn't appear until over a year after it was supposed to hit the presses, while Knizia and Hans im Gluck honed the design. The relief when the game finally appeared that it was well worth the wait may have had much to do with the instant acceptance of what is after all a very difficult game. I think other games have also benefited from this kind of anticipation (including Puerto Rico, Age of Steam, and Citadels), but none of them had anything like the kind of wait E&T had."

Joshua Miller: "Although there is a good dose of luck, the scope for richly-textured strategic and tactical play is astounding. The feel of the game matches its theme almost perfectly."

#3: El Grande

2005-11-17T07:39:00.000-08:00

There is not a better game for five players. Seriously. It's also the best area majority game out there... can you tell I (Mark) voted for El Grande? The team of Wolfgang Kramer & Richard Ulrich place a second game in the top five with beautiful components and compelling game play.

Pat Korner: "The ultimate in area-control games. Another heady blend of tactics and strategy - maximizing performance on any given game round is good, but planning to maximize performance over the course of the entire game is better. I also enjoy the politics get added to the mix with the Veto card, choosing to let someone else score in return for tacit cooperation later...Kramer's masterpiece."

Greg Daigle: "This is one of the first two German games I ever purchased (along with Settlers). The look of the board, the wooden bits, the tower - all of this was new to me. After playing my first time, I was hooked."

#4: Settlers of Catan

2005-11-17T07:29:00.000-08:00

It's become "cool" in some circles to crack on Settlers... which I (Mark) think is a horrific diservice to this tremendous game system. This is still one of the best of the '"gateway" games... offering incredible variety with the plethora of expansions available.

Scott Tullace: "Simply a classic. Not perfect, but always fun (unless you are the guy that loses with just 3 victory points)."

Frank Hamrick: "This is the classic that started it all for German gaming in America and it was my second German gaming purchase. I've played it tons of times and still enjoy it, though the lustre of discovery has faded. Still, along with its offspring (Seafarers, Canaan, Stone Age, etc.), it hasoffered me many hours of pure gaming pleasure - and still does - despite the important role (roll) of dice!"

Joe Huber: "Preferably played with no expansions. Remains tremendously enjoyable nearly a decade after its initial release."

Peter Sarrett: "I can't remember the last time I played this, but MAN did we play it to death when it first appeared. The basic 4-player game is still the best."

Dave Arnott: "Not played as often these days, but still great fun when it is. Hasn't lost that "wow" feeling for me, still marveling at how all the pieces of this gem fit together so brilliantly."

#5: Princes of Florence

2005-11-16T08:00:00.000-08:00

Hard to believe you can pack so much game into 14 actions & 7 auctions - but that's all you get in this incredible game design from Wolfgang Kramer & Richard Ulrich. Even with just 21 moves, Princes of Florence sucks you in and gives you an amazing gaming experience.

Larry Levy: "Very tight mechanics and the poster child for the 'So much to do, so few actions' style of gaming. This is an extremely elegant design and one that is consistently enjoyable. It also has a unique feel; I can't really think of another game quite like it. The game works well with both four and five players. My only quarrel with the design is the set pattern of the bidding, with the active player forced to bid 200, followed by raises of exactly 100. Allowing bids and raises of any amount seems to increase the skill level and I'll always play that way if the other players are agreeable."

Susan Rozmiarek: "Gaming Nirvana."

Greg Daigle: "As a theme, the idea of being a patron of the arts during the Renaissance really appeals to me. In addition, this was the first game I ever played where I had my own "board." I really like the puzzle-like quality of building my own estate."

Stephen Glenn: "A lovely design."

#6: Power Grid/Funkenschlag

2005-11-16T07:55:00.000-08:00

2F was known for odd games about cannabalism & fish when Funkenschlag was released - and then, boy howdy, did we have a game on our hands! Reminiscent of McMulti with it's interlocking resource & plant building systems, Funkenschlag rolls along at a stunning clip for a game that is not particularly short. Don't let the allusion to McMulti fool you, however - this is a much more "serious" game that nevertheless is packed full of fun. (The newer version, Power Grid, runs at an even quicker pace.)

Frank Hamrick: "I've probably had more pure gaming enjoyment playing this one than any recent release. It is currently flying high due to a 4-player game at the 2004 EuroQuest. It was one of my most satisfying gaming experiences in recent time. An outstanding game that has it all - auctions,buying & selling, expansion, resource management, strategy & tactics."

Jeremy Avery: "I find Power Grid to be a great exercise in number-crunching, fierce competition, and optimal management."

Larry Levy: "Tremendous financial game whose many parts work seamlessly together. Games are always extremely close, so you need to be careful or a single misstep could cost you the win. Balancing the different aspects of the game and timing your break for the finish line correctly are wonderful challenges. I slightly prefer Funk to Power Grid, but they are both great games."

David Fair: "The game is tense throughout, with every decision meaningful. It is a game of inches, filled with angst. I love every moment of every game."

Andrea Meyer: "Friedemann's masterpiece when it comes to complex games. The mechanisms fit each other so neatly and the re-issueing did some good, too."

#7: Age of Steam

2005-11-15T07:33:00.000-08:00

Another game that I (Mark) am not really qualified to comment on - but my interest is growing as I read the glowing comments it has received. (For the record, I loved it's granddaddy... the ugly but very enjoyable Lancashire Rails. OTOH, I detested Volldampf.) It combines a number of different mechanisms (auction, delivery, track-laying) along with a punishing economic system to create what many are already calling a classic game. Anyway, you guys don't care about my opinion... so read what some real fans have to say about #7, Age of Steam.

William Eldard: "In my opinion, the best of the railroad games, combining concpets from the crayon rails, the 18xx series, and Wallace's earlier rail games, into a tight, tense contest that demands skillful resource management. The components are top notch, too."

Larry Levy: "18xx fans will disagree, but for me, this is THE train game.It's a deep, rich game that requires your utmost concentration. The different Actions add great variety and really add to the importance of the auctions. I haven't had the chance to play any of the expansions, but I'm enjoying the original map just fine, thank you. Age of Steam is part of the family of Wallace-designed rail games that includes Lancashire Railways, New England Railways, Volldampf, and the newly released Australian Railways. The Actions and the actual building of routes (as opposed to buying pre-set ones) are unique to AoS."

picture from Board Game Geek

#8: Ticket to Ride

2005-11-15T07:32:00.000-08:00

Alan Moon won the Spiel des Jahres with this family friendly game of train-building. It's well deserved - this is a "gateway" game that has drawn in every non-gamer I've introduced it to. Ticket To Ride was so popular that Alan was able to get the more gamer-oriented Ticket to Ride: Europe published as well.

Pat Korner: "The new champion of 'gateway' games, stealing the crown away from the now-long-in-the-tooth Settlers of Catan. Excellent mix of luck and planning, with enough decision-making and interaction thrown into the mix to keep things from becoming a redundant 'draw a card until you can play cards'."

Andrea Meyer: "Gorgeous design integrating elements of traditional card games with the train theme. Easily explained, fun playinig with any number of players indicated. I wish I had designed this."

Greg Daigle: "I've played this mostly as a two-player game. TtR gets a lot of mileage out of so few mechanisms. It's about as elegant as they come."

#9: Ra

2005-11-14T06:41:00.000-08:00

Knizia hits the list again with yet another auction game - this time, it's the Egyptian themed romp called Ra. Again, valuation is huge - and the variety of scoring choices combined with the limited choice of bids make for some delightfully agonizing decisions.

Pat Korner: "My favourite auction game. Various paths to victory, various scoring styles - vintage Knizia. The theme, it is true, is less than evident in the gameplay, but it's still a great game that can play in 45 minutes yet see you get up from the table thinking you had to work for the win."

Brian Leet: "Excellent auction game that is only slightly hurt by the almost totally abstract quality of the game play."
Mark Edwards: "I just love the tension of competing against your opponents AND the clock."

Joshua Miller: "I love the way the game packs a lot of wallop into a series of extremely restricted choices. My top choice for three players."

Peter Sarrett: "I'm terrible at it-- as much as my intellect tells me that my sun tiles are mere tools of acquisition, I can never seem to let those high suns go for less than a full block that never comes. The pinnacle of auction games in my book, just edging out Modern Art for the latter's distributional issues and newbie fragility."

#10: Tichu

2005-11-14T06:40:00.000-08:00

This is not a card game - it's an addiction. Now if people could just agree on how to pronounce "Tichu" - is it "tea-koo" or "teach-oo"? Whatever - people who like this game LOVE this game.

Aaron Fuegi: "The best card game I have ever played and I love card games. Bridge is the only other potential competitor I think and I just haven't played enough to get really into it although I've enjoyed it when I have played."

Dave Arnott: "I can still remember being totally confused my first game...and completely entranced when it was done. Wanted to play again right away. And then again after that. And, much to my delight, I still feel this way."

Joshua Miller: "My favorite "serious" card game, miles ahead of the competition. The decision space in Tichu is so much more complex (and more interesting!) than in any other card game I've played. I'll play this anywhere, any time."

Peter Sarrett: "There may be better card games. There may even be better card games for four players. But none of them can beat the feeling of wiping the smug grin off an opponent's face by playing a bigger bomb."

picture from Board Game Geek

Blame These Guys

2005-11-14T06:30:00.000-08:00

If you find yourself in complete horror at the choices made - or if you think these picks are an act of genius, this is the group to blame...

Doug Adams
Greg Aleknevicus
Shannon Appelcline
Erik Arneson
Dave Arnott
Jeremy Avery
Ben Baldanza
Matthew Baldwin
Craig Berg
Frank Branham
Pat Brennan
Chris Brua
Stven Carlberg
Ted Cheatham
Julian Clarke
Chris Comeaux
Stuart Dagger
James Davis
Sheila Davis
Jonathan Degann
Frank DiLorenzo
Bill Eldard
Mark Engelberg
Mark Edwards
David Fair
Aaron Fuegi
Stephen Glenn
James Hamilton
Frank Hamrick
Mike Herms
Ronald Hoekstra
Marty Hoff
Matt Horn
Alan How
Idris Hsi
Wei-Hwa Huang
Joe Huber
Mark Jackson
Pat Korner
Henning Kropke
Steve Kurzban
Chris LaRue
Brian Leet
Larry Levy
Chris Lohroff
Eric Martin
Craig Massey
Andrea Meyer
Joshua Miller
Ray Mulford
John Palagyi
Susan Rozmiarek
Joe Rushanan
Peter Sarrett
Nick Sauer
Greg Schloesser
Anye Sellers
Derk Solko
Rick Thornquist
Scott Tullis
Dave Vander Ark
Tom Vasel
Richard Vickery
Michael Weston
Lorna Wong

Geek'd

2005-11-13T21:50:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Jonathan Nichol, there's are Geeklists of The One Hundred.

Thanks, Jonathan!