Mark's One Hundred: #10-#1

#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

#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

Mark's One Hundred: #30-#21

#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

#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

#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

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

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

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

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

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?

1. First & foremost, it's MY list. So there. :-)
2. 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.)
3. 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

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

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

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

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

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

...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

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

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

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

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.)