Operation: Game Night
Travis Smith, Jared Erickson, and Clay Gable get together to discuss the latest and greatest in board games in this weekly podcast. What's hot, what's hitting the table, featured discussions about board games and the board gaming culture, and the primary mission objective- to play more board games!
Operation: Game Night
1 Year of OGN: Our Top 10 Game (Part 2)
We reveal our top 5 board games of all time as part of our one-year anniversary celebration. This countdown showcases the games that captivate us through their unique mechanics, replayability, and pure fun factor.
• Root secures a spot for its asymmetrical woodland warfare and the sneaky Vagabond faction
• Western Legends offers a sandbox frontier experience with poker-based combat
• Incan Gold delivers perfect push-your-luck tension in a small package
• Camel Up brings energetic racing excitement enhanced by enthusiastic players
• Marvel Champions and Marvel United offer two different approaches to superhero gaming
• Distilled creates immediate tension through spirit crafting and economic competition
• Feast for Odin combines worker placement with polyomino puzzles
• Dune Imperium blends deck-building, worker placement and thrilling conflict
• Lost Ruins of Arnak earns Jared's top spot after hundreds of plays
• Wonderland's War claims Travis's #1 position by combining bag-building, area control, and press-your-luck elements
Check out our previous episode for games 10-6, and join us for our next episode where we'll share special thanks to everyone who's supported us through our first year.
As always, come interact with us online, let us know if you have any feedback, and leave us a review/comment anywhere you get your favorite podcasts!
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welcome back to the operation game night podcast, where the mission objective is to play more board games. My name is travis smith. Joining me, as always, are my co-hosts clay and jared. How you doing, gentlemen, fabulous?
Speaker 1:I'm just ready, ready to rock man it's. If you haven't heard the last episode, we did 10 to 6, so you're jumping in here for five to one. It's going to be awesome, but 10 to 6, they're great games too. That's love those.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you have not listened to 10 through 6, you can go back and listen to those. Didn't come back to this episode because you're really just not going to understand where we're coming from If you're just jumping in 5 to 1, that's so out of context. But today we're sharing our number 5 through 1 favorite board games Our top 10 list. All in favorite board games. Our top 10 list. Uh, all in celebration of our one year anniversary, so happy anniversary gentlemen. Happy anniversary, happy anniversary you didn't get me anything did you like?
Speaker 3:aren't you supposed to like, get like linen or something? Or the one year anniversary is linen. Is that what it?
Speaker 2:is? I don't know. We have to go. Look, we should have probably researched this ahead of time, but let's just jump in. Uh, we're doing our top 10 list, number five, through one uh, as as same as last time, we are going to share the name of the operation as a little teaser. We're going to talk about the game, why we love it, uh, and why it shines. So, jared, hit me with your number five top ten game.
Speaker 3:Hit me with your best shot. This one, operation Woodland's War. Ooh, little furries out here running around trying to battle each other. Okay, cole Worley in Leader Games came up with an absolute bop. Okay, root, coming in hot on my top five. Um, I mean, it's a classic, asymmetrical, bad ass game that has absolutely been the foundation of operation game night. How could I not put this on my top five Personal favorite? Vagabond, probably. I mean this little guy's crawling around the woodland. I think he's actually the mastermind behind this whole war. Is he the best? Yes, actually, yes, I stand on business.
Speaker 3:I have so much fun when I play this game. The only downside is there's thousands of rules and every player has their own little gimmick that they do. That is hard to keep track of everything, but at the end of the day, you just have to have fun and just trust that your buddies uh doing the best they can with their rules and you end up having so much fun when you play this. Every time I play this game it's so much fun. Um, I remember one time my my brother came to visit me. Uh, he, we whipped out root like he blasted off off Root. That was one of my favorite games ever played Root. He learned it in like 20 minutes and was grinding on some faction. He was the crows. He was the crows. Yeah, you can't go wrong with the murder of Corvid's. Oh, that's right, corvid conspiracy. Oh yeah, the murder of, uh, corvid's? Um, oh, that's right, corvid conspiracy. Yeah, oh yeah. But then they keep up pumping out even just these awesome factions. So, um, did this hear a lot of root?
Speaker 2:today, but did this fall off of your list from last year? Was it like higher on your list last year? Is this new to the list? I?
Speaker 3:don't. I don't know if I put it on the list last year. Um, I don't think you did. I don't think I did. I think I was so hyper focused on all my engine builders that I there were so many in my um honorable mentions or like I was like, oh my gosh, I didn't even put this on there that I I have to wreck real, recognize real. This is one I don't think I've played in a year. I'm really sad. I have the app and we need to. We just need to get a game going. Let's do it.
Speaker 3:I don't even have to wait to go up. Uh to clays, we can just grind one out on the app we should, we should. Oh okay, just saying what up, travis? What's the five?
Speaker 2:my number five. We've got operation gun smoke frontier. We're talking another sandbox game. Yes, we're talking, uh, designer is herve lem lemalt and artist is Roland McDonald. We're talking Western legends by Colossal Games.
Speaker 2:This fell a little bit on my list but, like I said last episode, I'm picking games that I just if somebody came in and said, hey, I want to play any game, we're up for any game. This is one that I would want to get to the table. It's pretty easy to teach. It's a sandboxy game. You go out into the frontiers and you do what you want. You can go, uh, herd and wrangle cattle, you can mine for gold, you can revel at the cabaret or you can go out and, you know, hold up a bank or go and chase down fugitives.
Speaker 2:The sandbox aspect of this is great. The poker hand-based combat also phenomenal. This game is so unique and it shines, and the expansions only make it better the expansions. There's a cart that goes around that you can hold up. There's a train that will go around the map that you can have a heist on man. It's so unique and so fun and people get into this every single time it hits the table because it's just live your best Wild West life, and I think this game is so sharp.
Speaker 3:And you can actually repent of your sins and become a good guy, right. You can be bad and then go be good boy Once you get arrested and then go back to being bad, right.
Speaker 2:this is the one you gotta do one time first, yeah the judicial system actually works and you, uh, you know you go in, you are reformed and you can come out a good guy. So you know, plenty of people have chains of hearts once they go to jail. It's okay, but uh, this is just a version of that. So, western legends it's my number five clay hit me prior, my number five.
Speaker 1:We got operation tent horde and we're bringing it back with another small box where you're just diving into a temple collecting gems and hoarding them in your little tent in Incan gold. All right, I didn't. I was surprised that this popped up higher than for sale. My history with for sale is definitely longer, but my enjoyment right now of Incan gold it's the one I want to play and I have the most fun with, because I just love that tension of flipping over that next card and hoping that you didn't see that same monster that you've already seen.
Speaker 1:Everybody leaves the dungeon, gets nothing, and just the interesting things that happen is like, as everybody stays in, there's more and more gems left on the trail, which is tempting people to leave. It's just so well designed the way that works. It's like as people it builds up enough that it makes people want to leave, but then, as people leave, it makes you want to stay longer because now you're getting more rewards as you go and I think that's so beautiful and it works well. Every player count and it is such a you know, 15 minute quick game and I love playing. Inking gold and pushing my luck is something that in this house. It's, it's a, it's a mainstay.
Speaker 2:So uh, it's. It's great. Great how they engineered that social pressure into that game. Yeah, just the fact that somebody else is doing something different than you makes you either want to follow the crowd like everybody, get out, or I'm going to break off from the crowd and keep diving deeper. Yeah, it's so smart.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's great. I like the little tense too, because it's something about not knowing if I am so far behind or so far ahead. It makes you maybe even take risks even when you don't need to, or I don't know, or maybe you're making like big risks and you absolutely need to, I don't know. I like the little tents Big fans of tents.
Speaker 1:This is by Alan R r moon and bruno for duty. By the way, I have, I think, the one by eagle griffin game. So yeah, inking gold, great little push your luck card game. Collecting stuff in your tent operation, tent horde, awesome jared number four, operation desert dash.
Speaker 3:You want to hop on one of these humped beauties. While you're running across this sandy desert, egbert Schmiel and Stefan Bogan are bopping out Camel up. I like the second edition. Okay, you got the hard temple pyramid where you're dropping these little beautiful dice out and racing around the track. It's a crowd favorite. It gives you the small box feel in a big box. But great part, great party game. You can play big player counts and teach quick. A lot of fun, keep it light and you can even have the youngins jump on too. I think I always have a lot of fun playing camel up and the crowds love it. The crowds ask for it, the crowds want me. They want me on that wall, they want me to be cameling up. I got a question for everybody. Has anyone ever heard it called Camel Cup?
Speaker 2:What? Just because of the font?
Speaker 3:Even just look at this picture right here for the YouTubers out there who the font on the font. Even just look at this picture. Right here for the youtubers out there who are watching on the video. Some people think that the c is for the, the top and the bottom, camel and cup well, let's say game.
Speaker 1:Geek entry says camel up it's camel up.
Speaker 3:Okay, yeah, I mean the internet has said yeah up, and you know the the the publisher says it's called camel up.
Speaker 1:So I think it's called camel up you can call it what you want, people, but yeah, I mean yeah, scientifically it's camel up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I thinkel Up is only made better by Jared Erickson. I think you make this game. It takes it from a. It's like a six for me if I'm playing without Jared. If I'm playing with Jared, this goes up to a nine because the energy he brings to it when those camels stack and he's hooping and yelling and he's pooping those dice out of the pyramid he just you create such a fun atmosphere for this game that I would hope everybody listening should have a chance to play Camel Up with Jared or find a Jared-like person to play with. And it is a blast.
Speaker 3:You just have to be really loud and be excited when they stack up and be like oh, lots of Ohs, like be really loud and be excited when they stack up and be like, oh, lots of O's. So anyways, that's number four. Camel up, hit me with your number four, trev number four, operation angels share.
Speaker 2:We're talking distilled. Jared hit it last. This game climbed high for me. Clay, I know that you soured on it after some long plays, uh, but I, you know, I've primarily played this digitally and I think it.
Speaker 2:You know it cleans things up, it makes it so simple to follow. But when a game is put on the table and you say, all right, we're beginning right now. And somebody takes on the table and you say, all right, we're beginning right now, and somebody takes their first turn, and you already feel like you're behind and you're like panicking that you are slipping behind and you're losing your competitive edge. That's how you know a game does a good job of creating that tension and Distilled does exactly that.
Speaker 2:The second, somebody distills their first thing or puts something in a barrel into their storeroom and you're like holy smoke, I just sold vodka in a metal barrel with a glass bottle Round one. I'm losing right now and it just creates that tension that I have to find a way to get ahead. Man, that pressure is so real in distilled for me, man, that pressure is so real and distilled for me, and I have an appreciation of these distilling process and these people that spend their lives dedicated to the distilling craft. So the theme, the pressure, the interplay between players, it really makes this game shine for me.
Speaker 3:Distilled, published by paverson games designers, dave beck, and artist is eric evanson oh yeah, I like the uh, the upgraded ingredients too, to really make your, your drinks really pop oh yeah, we can go signature ingredients love it, do you?
Speaker 1:I just feel like I always do the same thing in this game. I know I whined about the play time last time, but also I always felt like I was just kind of on the same trajectory every game. I was like you know what? I'm going to pick one or two things, I'm just going to get those ingredients. I never would buy fancy ingredients almost ever, you know unless I just had extra money, I would always just spend all my money on whatever ingredients I might need for my thing. I don't know.
Speaker 2:I just always felt like I was making the same decisions over and over again um, asking me for the right strategy on this game is not the way to go because I always lose, but I find what find you sell your first label right Most people, it's vodka metal barrel, glass, bottle, round one. And then it gives you this kind of branching path to take. You can either take the victory points or you can take a signature ingredient, you can take the coins, or you can take a distillery upgrade and it gives you this branching path right off the bat that people can kind of craft their own way through this game and I, you know I, after a couple of plays, at least digitally, it makes it really simple to like try new things and and try out new strategies. But yeah, I'm not the guy to ask on the path to victory because I am quite terrible at this game, I just love it.
Speaker 3:The, the big, like you get a big bonus points by getting the labels, and if you see other players are going after similar labels, you can try and beat them to the point and kind of reduce the number of labels there are. If people are trying to go for the like real expensive, the ones that are lower, like the golden I don't know, like, but you have to unlock those, um, those uh, recipes, recipes. Yeah so if you both unlock a certain recipe, you're like okay, you and I are now in head-to-head competition, yeah so well, I never thought about that I.
Speaker 3:I may not have known it, but I have been like head to head with you.
Speaker 1:Oh dang.
Speaker 3:I've been mad at you and you didn't even know it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's upsetting Dang.
Speaker 3:All right.
Speaker 2:Clay, what's your number four? Yeah, we should.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So my number four is Operation Tractacular, and this was already talked about on Jared's list I think it was your number 10 designed by Jamie Stegmaier, produced by one of our favorites Stonemaier Games. Yes, it's tapestry. All right, interesting, I mean. I think we all have an appreciation for Stonemaier Games, but I think on I'm not. I don't know the rest of your guys's list, but this is the only stonemaier game that made my top 10 and I generally like them all.
Speaker 1:I think they're good games, but tapestry is the one that I have played the most and enjoyed the most and I thoroughly believe it's because of the civilizations and the tapestry cards. Like it just changes what you do so much. Like in general you're just picking a track, moving up it and it can be kind of samey. You know you go up. I'm a military and explorer guy, I'm just going to go up those two tracks and you know that's my, my game. But you get a civilization that once you. I just played the other night with Mary and I had a civilization that at the beginning I had to predict where I would end up, like how many technology cards I would have by the end, how many of this and that and it just completely changed the way I approached the game and I love that. Like a little tweak like that can let you experience the same game but in like a whole new way. And if you know anything about me, it's that I like new, I like new things. So when I can play a game I already love and, you know, have it in a slightly different light, that's what makes tapestry stand out above.
Speaker 1:You know, the 700,000 other games I've played. It's not that many, but it's number four for a reason. I love Tapestry and the production's amazing. The painted minis, oh my God. It looks great when you're playing it on the table. Can't say enough about it. It's wildly imbalanced. People complain about it. I don't care. That's not why I play games. I play games to have fun.
Speaker 2:Well put. All right, Jared, we're getting to the final stretch. What is your number three?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, top three is pretty locked in tight here. Operation Ravenous Raiders here You're trying to feed these hungry, hungry Vikings. Fireland Schmiedl, uwe Rosenberg, hits us with a classic face for Odin Special shout out to Obsidian, my boy on game on Board Game arena that I've been playing this for constantly. He's like some guy up in canada that I have continuously played a uh, a game of um feast for odin and I love this game. A little puzzle, uh, worker placement game. But there's also these little bonus cards you can get to unlock special abilities.
Speaker 3:I, I love rolling a die to try, and you know, kill some fish in the uh, in the in the expansion. I. I really like the game. I do feel like there is a certain path to victory that I keep going on and I keep tapping on, but I just love it. I can't stop. I won't stop feeding my Vikings. I won't stop upgrading my items and filling out my puzzle. I like building my engine because you can wrap around those little items on your tableau and keep getting your bonuses every round. It just sets my brain on fire every time since the first time I ever played it and I will never stop playing Feast for Odin.
Speaker 2:Jared, have you ever played any of Uwe Rosenberg's other designs?
Speaker 1:Definitely Agricola Caverna. Those are the two that are similar type farming games.
Speaker 3:Yes, Just the pure Euro.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:I definitely have and I do absolutely love those ones as well and I consider putting those ones on the top 10, but I don't have as many, you know. Plays with you guys. I have played a Caverna with you. Play right. Yeah, and the great and like, but maybe like only once or twice.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I feel like I need to get more reps in there. Yeah, but Feast for Odin. There's just like so much extra stuff. There's islands you can explore and fill out. Agricola and Caverna are pretty like I don't know a little more simplified, a little more tight.
Speaker 2:You like polyomino puzzles, though Like that's your jam, you. You like polyomino puzzles, though Like that's your jam. You like the polyominoes. You like to put them in their little grid and make sure that they all line up.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but you have this like worker placement board, that's like there's damn near 40 options. So you have a ton of paths to get what you want. So you have a ton of paths to get what you want. And there's all these different resources that you can upgrade three different times to do different things with. Like to put them on your tableau in different areas, like if you have a shed, you can put any of them on there. But on your main board you can only put the most upgraded resources, so they have to be the top two. So, but you can start. You can start off with just the lower two but then upgrade them up. So like you can really get, you can win in any fashion, but like you can do it any like. Yeah, you can do it any like. Yeah, you can go any way you want. But this is a very nice Euro. That makes me very pleased Every time I pop open a feast road. But if you don't keep all this the plate spinning, you're going to get schwacked by not feeding those, those Vikings.
Speaker 2:Well, I've gotten schwacked every time I've played this game with you, so I can't, I can't talk. My number three man, this, uh, was one that I really wrung my hands about this year, but it is operation hero strike we're talking.
Speaker 2:Marvel champions fantasy flight games publication. Uh, designer is michael boggs. This game I kind of got a little tired of for a while and it the quality dipped. Uh, they were entered. I felt like they were introducing stuff that didn't really add to the game much. The quality of the heroes kind of dipped. The campaigns were not quite as fun. And then just recently, with their x-men inclusion and now they're uh, agents of shield, they're back on the rise. Uh, the x-men added new aspects that you can add to your characters.
Speaker 2:The players all, or the uh, the characters all interact really smartly. You can play this solo, multi-handed, without too much fluff and or uh, tinkering with the system. Um, I wish I had more players to play this with in person, but it's just as fun to pull out and just as quick to like play on a little desk right in front of you versus laying it on this huge table. But I think that this card game is really smart. Um, not everyone's favorite. I know a lot of people lean towards like their cthulhu living card game. Uh, fantasy fight does cthulhu. They also do a lord of the rings living card game, which I've heard is phenomenal um, that they're just continually putting stuff out for.
Speaker 2:But marvel champions is the one that I fell in love with and you gotta dance with the one that brought you. So, uh, marvel champions is the one that I fell in love with and you got to dance with the one that brought you. So Marvel champions is my number three. You know, I I debated about this one for a long time, but I just if it weren't for the recent releases for this game, I think this would have dropped much, much farther. But they've just done such a good job lately with these last couple of releases that brought this game right back up. So marvel champions is my number three.
Speaker 3:Such a smart card game, card game, dang I remember the first time we played this one and, uh, it was a steep-ish learning curve. But then that that night that we played I was like we should play this again, but it was like midnight I was like, oh damn, I got kids and stuff, yeah. But once you've played it, once you're like you instantly know this deck builder. Well, it's not deck builder, but deck construction deck.
Speaker 2:Uh, yeah, it's like pre-constructed decks, but I will say it's so fun. Yeah, I will say that, uh, the first iteration or, like you know, the first publication of this, the rule book was really messy and people were just constantly going back to it. You still have to reference a lot of stuff and I get it that that's not for everyone, but they do. They have revised rule books that are much cleaner. They publish them. They're constantly working on them with their new releases and they will just publish those online, and so if you can synthesize that information and apply it to the stuff that is already on the cards, it makes it a little cleaner. It makes it easier to navigate.
Speaker 2:The keywords are all bolded so you know exactly where you're looking. They have like a glossary of terms, but for the most part you're dealing with like the same five terms. It's like toughened or confused or dazed. They have these keywords that you continually go back to and when you build your deck, if you just kind of look through and find, okay, this person is a mutant and an x-man, and that's how I know that those two terms interact with others, so if I have other mutants and x-men, those keywords mean something. If I'm playing cards that affect all x-men or all mutants. So you know they do their best to streamline it. On the cards and in the rule book it says like if something doesn't make sense, just do the most logical thing and you, you go on, and even if you're not playing it correctly, then who cares? It's, it's fun anyways.
Speaker 3:So yeah, marvel champions still, who doesn't like being a superhero with your best friends? Where you're like, you're pretending to be superheroes together.
Speaker 2:It's fun, it's a lot of fun and they make the cards feel thematic and cool. Oh yeah, quicksilver readies up multiple times per round so you can just keep striking the enemy. You got big beefy characters that are good in protection, that will take hits for other players. Big bulky Space Marines.
Speaker 1:Yes, bulkies, bulkies. Well, jared, jared. I love superheroes too, and for my number three, I have Operation Chibi Heroics, and we're talking about the better Marvel game that's Marvel United did you guys plan that? We did not no way.
Speaker 1:Marvel United. It takes all the fun of being a superhero and makes it so a baby could play Basically all the fun text you get on your Marvel Champions card where you have to get your readers out and spend 10 minutes understanding each card that you have in your hand in marvel united. It might have an arrow, it might have a star or it might have a fist, and you can use that card to move, save a civilian or punch a thug, and you're working together with your fellow players and the card I play, the next player, also gets to take the actions on that card. So you're kind of planning ahead, working with each other to make sure you can take down the baddie in the middle, that's, you know, trying to destroy the town in some form or fashion, and they're all different and I love it. It is a little more upkeep than I normally like and I normally don't like co-ops, but I've played this game with my kids so much and we love it and I probably also give it a bump because it is one of the games I've spent the most money on. So you know, no sunk cost fallacy here, money on. So, uh, you know, no sunk cost fallacy here I am.
Speaker 1:I am, uh, invested in marvel united.
Speaker 1:I just think it's a super clean co-op game that gives you a lot of options to replay and, you know, find new fun within the system and the new multiverse um campaign added some sweet stuff like item cards and you know all types of campaign decks.
Speaker 1:I'll never play with 90 of it and I have so much now that it's almost getting like horrible to get out. I'm like, okay, kids pick your character and they spend like a half hour looking through all the minis and deciding who they want, and then I have to sift through the box to find the the cards for that mini and then we do the same process for the villain. Once you pick those out, you know it's pretty easy to set up and get rolling, playing your cards and trying to outwit the bad guy. So I like marvel united. I think it's a great family game. The base game is really like super simple, like if you get the one showing here on YouTube, the first one, like that's a game you can play with you know, your six, seven, eight year olds and have a really good time, and it's still a fun time for the adults too, I think.
Speaker 2:Anyway, and the base game regularly goes on sale and includes the spider spider-man expansion and you can get both of those for like 30 bucks on amazon. Yeah, not that you should buy things from amazon don't give jeff bezos any more money but, like it's, it's regularly very inexpensive and you can find it for cheap and it's readily available and it's great for the family. I love this one.
Speaker 1:Simon and Eric Lang. Sorry, I'm not doing good with my shout outs today. All right, good shout out Uh Jared.
Speaker 3:Final countdown Number two number dose operations, sand storm trooper, uh designer Paul Denon dire wolf easily one Denon Direwolf Easley, one of the best deck builders, battlers and worker placers that I enjoy doing Imperium. I'll bust this one out anytime I can with some people that enjoy some depth to their board game experiences. You know I play spots with them. If they're like I need more, I'll try and just go straight to Dune Imperium. You know I will say it does. You know it does cause a little bit of battling because the war that you have to do at the end of each phase people get a little tense. That's okay, I like the tension, but this will get your blood boiling, it will set your brain on fire.
Speaker 3:I do just super love the cards, the deck building on this one. Um, I love playing this one at three. Played it at four was awesome too. Also, shout out to my um, to all my, my boys that have played this one with me, because they probably hate me because I take forever to decide which cards I'm going to get, because I look at all my little choices and which Fremen bonds I'm getting. But anyways, I love this game. Maybe I'll have to bust this one out for you guys because it'll warm me up for my number one A little foreshadowing. Yeah, they're almost the same game. This is number two.
Speaker 2:This is another one where, right off the bat, you feel like you're behind Because the second, somebody gets the Mentat up top or they are climbing that track for the Bene? Gesserit relationship or the alliance. Like you feel like you're behind from the get-go. And yeah, like you said, like the very first time I played this, my brain was on fire and I had to get it played again, because it there's so many paths to victory and it's it's so hard to like see through and have that that path be like illuminated for you.
Speaker 3:I love this one, yep played this one, uh, on my christmas board game adventure with dallin tovoin. Shout out down, um. I played this one at two and it was still just so good um dueling with him and it was. I don't know if we we used the uh like the uh like compute, like I don't know, not computer, but like the blocker, yeah, automata, automata, um, but he, we had a blast playing this one, and anytime you get to draw extra cards, I always love doing that too.
Speaker 2:You know, excellent love it travis what you got. Number two operation vagabond shadow. It's root. We've talked about this game so many times. Asymmetric warfare uh, every faction is unique and different. I named this one operation vagabond shadow because the vagabond will sneakily run away with wins right under your nose. That's what they're best at Just when you think that they are not going to do anything and have minimal impact on the game. This one single little character will slip into a clearing. It'll grab a bunch of loot out of the ruins. It'll befriend somebody. So my public announcement, my public service announcement to all root players do the table a favor and go smack the vagabond, smack them upside the head. Don't let them steal your wins.
Speaker 2:Operation vagabond shadow uh, root, designed by cole worley and leader games uh, man, I I cannot say enough good things. The reason this one stayed so high for me is because I am able to get it to the table right. I'm playing it digitally, but even the digital implementations go really fast. I played one game in one sitting in half an hour, like it goes really fast. And I think the digital adaptation while it's not quite as fun as getting a group of people around a table the fact that you can like introduce challenges and different win conditions in the digital version just makes this game like really live on you.
Speaker 2:You're playing, as I don't know, the corvid conspiracy and they're like you have to win with a minimum of three extortion tokens out there on the board and keeping those plates spinning and like those different win conditions and different things to focus on really bring new life to this. It's like it's like playing chess with, like altered rules, you know um. So I I think this game got a lot of longevity out of the digital version. I wish they were a little faster with adapting new factions into the digital version, but this one continues to live on in my heart because of that digital version. I just wish I could get the physical version to the table more often. So root is my number two, clayton oh.
Speaker 3:Oh, oh, operation. What now?
Speaker 1:operation. Exploding kittens is my number two. We're talking about a 2024 release from dr reiner canizia and put out by rebel studios, and you are cats hoping not to explode as you venture your way into space the real exploding kittens. We have blim space agency this game. I don't know how many people have this game as their. You know top three games of all time. This was my favorite game of last year in 2024. Something about it, just it. It's like the goldilocks game for my gaming taste. It's's right in the timeframe.
Speaker 1:I like a game to last 30 to 45 minutes. It's designed by my favorite designer. It has push your luck, which I love, and it has shared incentives, where everybody at the table is boarding up on a rocket together and there's one captain that's in charge of your fate, but you can jump off and leave the rest of the kittens behind to go collect points on a rocket together and there's one captain that's in charge of your fate, but you can jump off and leave the rest of the kittens behind to go collect points on a moon and the. The way you move up by rolling the die is kind of hard to understand at first. Like what die you lose and have to keep as you, as you're the commander, but after you played a couple times, it's pretty simple and I have always had a good time playing this game, and there's expansions that come with it. It's super affordable. Um melem space agency, I think, is a great freaking party.
Speaker 1:Starter by dr reiner canizia. I don't know if, travis, have you ever played this, jared? I don't think you've played it.
Speaker 2:I have not, but I'm really surprised that this moved so high up on your list. You sent us a little preview and I could not believe that this was not only in your top 10 over some that were honorable mentions, but all the way up at number two. That's unbelievable.
Speaker 3:I was unfortunately not able to play this one. Uh at the we. It was on a table next to me when we were in colorado springs. Uh at the, the giant, you know game night that we had at your, your house, but no, yeah, well, maybe we'll bust this out at World Series of Board Gaming.
Speaker 1:I want to show you guys the fun of Mlem Space Agency, because that's what it is.
Speaker 3:I just saw Mary kicking people's trash. I mean, I think we've said Mary so many times, her name so many times.
Speaker 1:Mary, she looms large.
Speaker 3:Yeah, again, she's just the puppet master up here.
Speaker 1:I mean, it's just like it's hard to not the the, the like tantalizing thing of getting to deep space is like hard enough to do that. It doesn't happen that often and when it does happen, it's a stand up and cheer moment, um, and I love that.
Speaker 3:It's a lot of fun moment, um, and I love that. It's a lot of fun. It's like camel, camel up meets uh, what's that? The the one with the warrior, not the warriors. But you go deep in the cave and thinking cold oh yeah gold all that mixed it. Yeah, it's just great. And you layer cats on top.
Speaker 2:It's a little bit of Can't Stop A little bit. Yeah, yeah, love it. Awesome Jared, your number one game of all time.
Speaker 3:I think if people are surprised by this they haven't been listening to Operation Game Night long enough. But Operation Hidden Temple, czech Game Edition. But Operation Hidden Temple Check Game Edition puts out absolute banger by Elwynn and Min, the combo that just keeps giving me so much love and joy. Lost Ruins of Arnak Absolutely love it. Dallin, my true love has been playing this with me for three years now. I have a couple. You go onto my board game arena.
Speaker 3:Right now I am spinning a couple extra games going to prep me for my World Series of Board Gaming. Because at the four-player count it's unique. I like it at three. I love Arnak at three. Once you hit it at four it's a whole nother animal I I've been and that's what I'm going to be playing at the world series of board gaming.
Speaker 3:Uh, so, because now you have so many other turns that are happening before it comes back to you to go explore this beautiful lost area, to go find your guardians, to go collect your resources, to go up your research track. I mean it's just a very tight deck builder and worker placer that it just it hits me so well that I love it. I love all the little um assistance that you can get and like the timing these, some of these guys that I play with, are just they're expert timers. They, they wait for the exact moment to buy the right card. They wait for you to make a move so that they can go grab whatever that pops up and it's all luck. But they, they wait specifically for the luck to you know, go in their favor. But I mean, I've been easily played this one 500 times on game arena, but love it. Sure, I've talked about it way too much on this podcast, so I yield back my time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I, I want to give a give a shout out. If you, jared loves this game. Like you said, we do have an episode in our back catalog. I had the privilege of sitting down with Jared and diving into some strategies and lost rooms of our neck and honestly, I it really just that just talking to you and like your passion about this game has made me like it more than I used to Like. I'm like you know, I, I see the beauty of it. No, I'm starting to through your eyes. I can, I can see the beauty of otherwise what was just like it was a good game for me, like I thought it's a nice game design but it was never that exciting for me. But after that conversation with you, I was like you know what this is.
Speaker 3:This is top tier, right here why did it latch on to my brain? You don't, I don't understand why certain games will like engulf someone. Like certain, like these games. Do you know?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Like it's. It's crazy, our neck nowhere on your guys' list, but for me it's like it's just in my DNA. Now it's crazy. It's everything, travis, all right. What's the top one?
Speaker 2:Like I said, I was going to pick games. That if somebody were to walk into my house and say let's play a board game, we're up for anything. What game would you choose? And so for my number one, I have operation jabberwock jamboree been lingering over my shoulder this whole episode. We are talking Wonderland's War, druid City Games, published A designer by Tim Eisner, ben Eisner and Ian Moss.
Speaker 2:This game is kind of a little combination of all these other games that we've talked about. Jared, you talked about Quacks last episode, about uh. Jared, you talked about quacks last episode. Quacks. You have like renewed uh playing variation every time you play it because you can flip the ingredients and make them do different things. Wonderland's war is the same thing. When you're grabbing the wonderlandians, they can do different things inside your bag. Uh, the two phases are super clean. The player aid flow chart keeps everything nice and clean. You're going around the tea table, the tea party table to uh put out your troops, to get shards of madness, to do all these different things. And then you go to the war phase, which is area control, man, the player, unique player abilities for all the different faction leaders, the bag building Literally everything about this game just shines and the art is phenomenal.
Speaker 2:It's striking on the table. This game just gets me so fired up. I love it. I cannot wait for their two-player version, the Wonderlands Duel coming to Kickstarter in next month. I think I'm really excited about that. If it's a smaller box and a two-player version of this that keeps everything, the spirit, the same, I'm going to be all on board. Because Wonderlands War, while it is great, the learning curve is a little bit steep. It is a little bit intimidating to pull out of the box and put onto the table. The setup time is a little, uh, prohibitive sometimes. But, man, when you are in a game of this and, uh, people are really getting into it and the rules are clicking, it's just, it's so smart I I think this is like a combination of, like, all my favorite mechanisms in a board game. It's a little bit of pressure luck, it's a little bit of back building, it's a little bit of area control. Everything comes together in this game. That uh really makes it shine for me. Wonderland's war number one game of all time.
Speaker 1:Science seal delivered it's a good one. It's a really good one. I I don't know if I had that on my list, but because I I didn't think it was going to make the top 10, just because, like I said at the top of the 10 through 6 episode, my list has definitely gone light this year, as you've seen up meeple ranking, because I was just like you know what. I doubt it's gonna, you know, make top 10, but it it's a game I would always be down to play with the right people because it is a freaking good time that that bag battle pulling the chits out simultaneously and moving up the battle track like I love that and not only that, but like there's a little bit of pressure luck where you're pulling the chits out of the bag, where you are gaining these madness chips that could benefit you If you bust.
Speaker 2:Like timing when you bust to clear your madness chips off and start fresh for future battlegrounds is like such a unique take on that. Press your luck. Bag building like drawing chips out of a bag. That is really smart. They like mechanize that failure of the press your luck building like drawing chips out of a bag. That is really smart. They like mechanize that failure of the press. Your luck and I really, I really enjoy that. Yup Clayton, bring us home with your number one game.
Speaker 1:My number one game of all time is operation battle Euro, and this has not slipped off my list, even in the midst of a lighter year of gaming.
Speaker 2:It's Dune Imperium, oh baby.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I freaking love Dune Imperium, and solely it is. I mean the rest of it it's fine. Like you know, there's deck building, worker placement games. There's, you know, there's deck building, worker placement games. There's deck building games, there's worker placement games.
Speaker 1:But it's that, that battle at the end of the round, that just really gets me fired up, like when you flip over at the start of a round and you can see the rewards they're up for grabs and you're trying to determine if this is the round I want to go in and try and and try and win.
Speaker 1:Or am I gonna, you know, putz around this round, kind of keep my troops back in the garrison and try and, you know, like, gain some alliance with the factions while everybody else fights over this, and then next round, hopefully, know, maybe it's one of those coveted two point victory battle cards and now I'm going all in, I've recharged, I'm ready to go, and now I'm fighting for those spaces that let me put troops into the conflict. Like that is the game for me. Cards that just make it so engaging and so tense that you always think you're like one move away from, you know, pulling off this awesome thing, and then somebody goes to the spot that would allow you to put the troops out into the battle, and you're like, oh my god, how am I gonna do this now, like, yeah, it's just a perfect it's a perfect game in my opinion, it's a perfect game in my opinion.
Speaker 1:I love this game. Oh yeah, travis, this didn't show up on your list. I was surprised by that.
Speaker 2:I, I like playing this one in person. The app is great too. No problems with the app or the digital implementations. This one burns a hole in my brain since the very first time I played it. I do love this one. I love it a lot, uh, but when I was like sitting there thinking about games, I was surprised at how late this came to mind. Uh, and I haven't played it in probably two years now. It's been a long time and I think because I had a lot of other recency bias and I was straying a little more simplified game mechanic. And if I'm going for deck builder, the Star Wars, clone Wars is hitting the table far more often than this as a deck builder. So I don't know, I still have so much love for this game. It would definitely be in my honorable mentions mentions. I wish I got this played more. It's just, uh, it's been a tough year, tough, tough couple years for board gaming.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, dune imperium is uh should be on everyone's shelf, for sure they gotta put a a warning label on dune imperium for people with heart conditions, because your heart will race when you play this game and you have to have serious poker skills to keep your shit together. When you get an intrigue card like you were saying Clay, that you're like, oh my gosh, I'm going to win, oh my gosh, I'm gonna win. And you have to be like, yeah, if they put their worker right there, like that spot right there, I'm effed. But if I get to put it right there, I can win. And then you're just like, oh my gosh, oh my gosh oh my gosh.
Speaker 3:But then you have no idea that they other people at the table having that exact same experience, because they have a different path to victory.
Speaker 2:Everyone is eyeing that one spot right, Like it's so crazy.
Speaker 1:It's it really, I think, brings out the theme. Like you know, everybody's got these plans and plots and you know machinations.
Speaker 3:The intrigue cards are just the the like I.
Speaker 2:I under uh invested in intrigue I'm all in on intrigue now, like yeah but it's so random too, yeah I'm a benny jesse, I thought it was a fremen.
Speaker 3:I'm a benny jesse, so all right well, we did it.
Speaker 2:Uh, for the sake of time, why don't we save our thanks and our shout outs and all of our appreciation posts for maybe next episode we can record one more, like just a shout out to everybody that's helped us along the way? We want to make sure that they get the love that they deserve. But this has been an awesome countdown Numbers five through one, we did it. Our top ten board games of all time we did it One year. Games of all time uh, we did it. One year, we made it one year. Congratulations. Hey, uh, for operation game night. I have been travis, he has been clay, he has been jared and we're out. Thank you.
