Top 50 Games of 2023 (20-11)

It’s that time of year again for the most prestigious gaming award from my specific postcode! Welcome to the NoRerolls Top 50 Games of 2023 list; an arbitrary ranking of the games that I love.

This is a list of my personal top 50 games at this point in time. My choices are not limited to games from this calendar year, but instead, represent my current thoughts on the top 50 games to me. Next year, some of the games featured may move up and down as my opinions change and I get the chance to play more games or revisit old favourites.

This series will comprise 5 posts, each covering 10 games as we work down from number 50 to number 1. We’ve reached the midpoint of the series, and you can click to visit part 1, part 2, Part 3, and today we’re on part 4, comprising games 20 through 11.

20: Avatar Legends

Previous Position: New to the List

Year: 2022

Designers: Brendan G. Conway, James Mendez Hodes, Marissa Kelly, Mark Diaz Truman

Publisher: Magpie Games

Plays: Several players over a bunch of time

I’ve written before about Apocalypse World and the plethora of Powered by the Apocalypse games that have followed on from it. Avatar is the first one that I’ve really gotten into, though. I’ve really enjoyed it, too. This was actually also my first dip into the world of Avatar: the Last Airbender. I haven’t seen any of the associated media before. Despite this, I’ve enjoyed the world, and our game. It helps that I’m playing in a really fantastic group.

I like how the system works; both the established bits of the PbtA system, and the assorted addons associated with Avatar. Alliteration, yo! I don’t think combat has been as intuitive as it is in some games, but it really opens more aspects of the game up to roleplaying, and I love the PbtA approach of using character workbooks that act as expanded, self-contained character sheets and rules references.

I’m looking forward to continuing our game, and maybe branching out into more PbtA games in the future!

19: Quadropolis

Previous Position: 28 (+9)

Year: 2016

Designer: François Gandon

Publisher: Days of Wonder

Plays: 2-4 players in ~30 to 60 minutes

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Quadropolis when I picked it up on a whim. I wasn’t expecting a city simulator or anything as complicated as that, but nor did I expect the game to be quite as abstract as it is. It’s a tile-laying game where players are trying to put combinations of districts in specific patterns to maximise points. It’s a bit of a pasted-on theme, but the game is a lot of fun and the artwork is cute.

Like many of the games from Days of Wonder, it’s pretty accessible and I’ve played it with my friend, parents, and groups of kids. It’s always pretty well received, but most people do better on their second playthrough, once they fully understand the scoring system, which is really the only (slightly) complicated bit of the game.

I’ve had a lot of fun with this game in 2023, and I think it really earned its boost in this year’s rankings.

18: Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries

Previous Position: 22 (+4)

Year: 2004

Designer: Alan R. Moon

Publisher: Days of Wonder

Plays: 2-3 players (2-5 in standard Ticket to Ride) in ~30 to 60 minutes

The ultimate example of a solid gateway game, Ticket to Ride continues to make me happy in my heart. We’ve picked up so much of it! The original game, Europe, Rails and Sails, Germany, UK, and Nordic. I also picked up most of the other maps at the bring and buy at Tabletop Scotland 2019. Nordic is my favourite map, so I’ve used that as my example edition for this entry.

I love that I can break this out with any group and it just works. I love that This is a game my wife will play, my gamer friends will play and my parents will play. I love that it’s just so beautifully produced. I will, at some point, pick up more of the maps, but I don’t even really need them. I’d be happy playing the original version over and over and over again. The maps are just gravy.

17: Scythe

Previous Position: 18 (+1)

Year: 2016

Designer: Jamey Stegmaier

Publisher: Stonemaier Games

Plays: 1-5 players for ~90 to 115 minutes

Scythe is a genuinely fantastic game. Opening the box, you see your plastic character and mech miniatures and you might assume that Scythe is a war game. It’s not. It’s really, really not. It’s very much a resource management game. It’s also downright beautiful, both in terms of the design of the pieces and the artwork used. The board, in particular, is a thing of beauty. This also works really well on Tabletop Simulator, if you’re that way inclined.

I’m still playing a fair bit of Scythe and loving it every time. I’m at the point where I want to start mixing in some of the expansions and I hope they’ll add some fun extras to the game. It’s previously fallen down the list a little bit, but it seems to have settled in this year.

16: 1960: The Making of the President

Previous Position: 16 (no change)

Year: 2007

Designers: Christian Leonhard, Jason Matthews

Publisher: GMT Games

Plays: 2 players in ~90 minutes

When I first got the game, after only playing it once or twice, I just saw it as a lighter, simpler Twilight Struggle. I questioned why, with most people, I would choose this over TS. Since then, I’ve played it a lot more and, although I still prefer Twilight Struggle, I see the value of 1960 far more clearly than I did. It has players taking on the roles of the Kennedy and Nixon campaigns in the 1960 US presidential election. It’s actually quite unique and offers a different experience to Twilight Struggle. It is a little lighter, but it’s interesting in a very different way.

I love the back-and-forth of the game. The idea of taking the candidates and zipping them here and there across the US is a lot of fun. As with Twilight Struggle and Washington’s War, I really like the card-driven nature of the game. I’m a lot better with Nixon than with Kennedy in this game. Tricky Dick’s had my back.

15: Paranoia

Previous Position: 8 (-7)

Year: 1984

Designer: Greg Costikyan, Dan Gelber, Eric Goldberg, Ken Rolston, Paul Murphy

Publisher: West End Games

Plays ~2-7ish players in however long you care to play for

Up until recently, my preferred edition of Paranoia was 2nd. This is still the best edition that comes as a single book. The latest edition from Mongoose is bloody fantastic and I’d say that I’ve fully made the switch and committed to this edition. I was doubtful about it, as it went to using entirely D6s and changed the game quite significantly.

Paranoia, in its current incarnation, is manic fun. The new approach to character creation sets the tone of the game from the very beginning, allowing players to really dick each other over from the get-go. The use of action cards for combat is also good, but took a bit of getting used to. I’m trying to keep up with releases for this edition and, so far, I have the complete set of what’s been released.

I’m also really looking forward to picking up the new edition, once it’s released.

14: Malifaux (3rd Edition)

Previous Position: Returning to list (2nd edition previously slid off the list)

Year: 2019

Designer: Matt Carter, Mason Crawford, Aaron Darland, Kyle Rowan

Publisher: Wyrd Games

Plays: 2 players in ~90 to 120 minutes

Malifaux returned to my life this year, and I am delighted that it has. It was my Game of the Month back in February and I painted two crews for it (Leveticus and Jack Daw) in October. I’ve got plans for another crew/keyword in the coming year, and I think I’m going to really try to fill out the Outcasts roster.

I’ve had an absolute blast with third edition. Oh, sure, I’m a bit tired of my most regular opponent setting me on fire with his Kaeris crew, but otherwise it’s going really nicely. The game works. The game is engaging. The game flows.

Don’t get me wrong; there’s a lot to it. There are so many tokens and markers (I made some scheme markers, scrap/corpse markers and status tokens this year) and conditions and whatnot that just add up and become quite complex, but the core of the game is reasonably straightforward. What I particularly enjoy is the deck of cards that replaces your dice, and the ability to maintain a hand of cards. It’s such a good system for opposed duels.

The miniatures are also gorgeous. I do think that some of the new ones for third edition veer a little more towards the bland, but many of them, and many of the 2nd edition ones in particular, really stand out as special, unique, beautiful minis.

I’m hoping to play more of this in 2024!

13: Isle of Skye

Previous Position: New to list

Year: 2015

Designer: Andreas Pelikan, Alexander Pfister

Publisher: Lookout Games

Plays: 2-5 players in ~30 to 50 minutes

This nearly made the list in 2022, but I didn’t manage to play it until we were already halfway through the list in December, and having only played it once I was not quite sure where it would fit. Pretty high is the answer, it seems!

Playing it more in 2023, it was clear that this was something special. There are elements of Carcassonne here, which is a big plus for me, and a great drafting/bidding system that makes individual tile draws and choices so much more meaningful.

I really like this game, but I do feel I need to get it to the table a bit more to really find a good balance on how to prioritise my choices and price my tiles. It’s a lesson I look forward to learning!

12: Eldritch Horror

Previous Position: 15 (+3)

Year: 2013

Designer: Corey Konieczka, Nikki Valens

Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games

Plays: 1-8 players in ~120 to 240 minutes

Eldritch Horror is an expansive game of cooperative awesomeness. Players work together to defeat an evil threat to the world. This is often, for me and my group, an exercise in utter, doomed futility, but that’s ok. I love how this works. I love that there are a lot of moving parts going on. I love how characters develop as the game goes on.

I particularly like playing this when there’s no time pressure and with a group that will really get into the spirit of the game. Just reading the mechanical implications of the cards does work, and it’s probably the fastest way to play. I prefer properly reading each card as, adding up all of the horrific events that these characters go through, you end up with quite a story developing in each game. Eldritch Horror is fun and it is difficult, and I continue to love it.

11: Star Wars: Rebellion

Previous Position: 7 (-4)

Year: 2016

Designer: Corey Konieczka

Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games

Plays: 2-4 players in ~180 to 240 minutes

Rebellion falls out of the top 10? Shock! This game was twice my number 1 game, and it remains an amazing two-player experience that is essentially “Star Wars in a box”. This slippage should not be taken for a dismissal of the game; it was my Game of the Month for January, after all!

There’s a lot potential combat in the game but, like Scythe, it’s not really a war game. It’s basically a game of hide-and-seek. The Rebels are doing the hiding and the Empire are the seekers. Combat along the way just acts as a speedbump. Both factions are a lot of fun, and this is great as they are also such different experiences. A game as the Empire is totally different from one as the Rebels, and asymmetry is something I’ve always really liked in games.

I’d call the expansion to this game pretty compulsory. Even if you don’t like the Rogue One characters (I quite like them, I suppose), you will want it for the improved combat system.