Top 50 Games of 2024 (50-41)

It’s that time of year again for what might just be the most prestigious gaming award that can be given out by mere mortals! Welcome to the NoRerolls Top 50 Games of 2024 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.

This year, this section of the list has a couple of new entries, some returning classics, and then a few games that were previously higher on the list. Let’s kick things off, shall we?

50: Kingdom Builder

Previous Position: Returning to the list

Year: 2011

Designer: Donald X Vaccarino

Publisher: Queen Games

Plays: 2-5 players in ~45 to 210 minutes

I bought this not long after it came out because it’s a game from Donald X. Vaccarino. That had me really pumped for the game, It was going to be great! It was not. It was disappointing. It got put back on the shelf and it stayed there for a good, long while.

Then it came off the shelf and I decided to play a few games of it before deciding whether to keep it or get rid of it. I liked it. I really liked it. The game is, like many of those that have done well in my list this year, simple. I think the problem was, as I suggested above, my own expectations. I also think my tastes have changed. Between these two factors, I’m really loving this game, hence entering the list this high. Needless to say, I decided to keep it.

This was a good few years ago, and it’s been off the list ever since, but I’ve started to appreciate it again. It’s nice.

49: Blood Bowl

Previous Position: 49 (no change)

Year: 1986

Designer: Jervis Johnson

Publisher: Games Workshop

Plays: 2 players in ~180 minutes

Blood Bowl! Great game! One of my earliest board games, and this still holds a special place in my heart. It also holds quite a large place in my collection, as there are just so many boxes of it! I’ve got the first, second, and third edition boxes, plus the most 2016 edition (pictured) and the even more recent edition. I’ve got three painted third-party teams and painted a GW Nurgle team. The third party teams are a Shadowforge Pro Elf team, a Black Scorpion Skaven team, and a Warlord Games Dwarf team.

As with most miniatures games that are not Age of Sigmar, this has not made it to the table too often in the past few years, and not at all in 2024. It’s still great, but I feel that it takes a little long for what it is. Some people criticise it for the amount of randomness involved, but I think this is okay. It’s not usually what I like in games but, with Blood Bowl, you know that this chaos is part of it. You know what you’re getting into. Also, minimising this randomness is why I quite like playing Dwarfs. That said, I’d like to get some more teams painted up…

48: Forbidden Stars

Previous Position: 48 (no change)

Year: 2015

Designers: Samuel Bailey, James Kniffen, Corey Konieczka

Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games

Plays: 2-4 players in ~120 to 180 minutes

Now out of print, Forbidden Stars continues to scratch a specific itch and does so using a familiar, fun theme, even if it has tumbled down my rankings this year. If Warhammer 40,000 is the game of massed battles in the 41st millennium, then Forbidden Stars takes a step back and gives you control of the wider campaign, deploying ships and troops, moving your forces around the galaxy, engaging in coordinated battles in pursuit of objectives and artifacts.

The first few times I played this game, I did not really appreciate the combat aspect. I’ve since gotten a better handle on this and I like it a lot more than I did. I still enjoy the logistics of the game, building bases, amassing units and deploying them as required. This is a heavy game, but it does a lot and a particularly great when played with all four players. It’s just a pity there won’t be any expansions…

This is also a game where I feel that if I got it to the table more often, got some more games in, and really got my head around it, it could shine.

47: Dead of Winter

Previous Position: 41 (-6)

Year: 2014

Designer: Jonathan Gilmour, Isaac Vega

Publisher: Plaid Hat Games

Plays: 2-5 players in ~45 to 210 minutes

Dead of Winter is a great semi-cooperative game where players work together to meet a shared objective whilst also trying to fulfil an individual, secret objective. The Crossroads cards, for which this series of games is named, is an event deck that triggers each turn if and when specific pre-requisites are met. The Crossroad cards take a game that would already be great and add a random element that really works well to up the ante and create truly tense situations. Some of the cards really screw you over, too!

I love working with others and planning out how to meet the shared objective in this game. I do try to meet my personal, secret objective, but I always try to keep a firmer handle on the shared one. Maybe this is why I lose so often… Dead of Winter is tense, fun, and occasionally manic. It can present truly difficult decisions, but also hilarious situations. This is a game that really develops a narrative in a natural, unforced way.

The game tumbled down the rankings last year and fell a little more this year. I’m still just a little burnt out on it; it turns you can have too much of a good thing. The game is fantastic, but you can become a bit jaded to the Crossroad mechanic over time, and there’s a lot to set up and put away. It still sees a lot of play, but it’s rarely my first choice any more.

46: Dixit

Previous Position: Returning to the list

Year: 2008

Designer: Jean-Louis Roubira

Publisher: Lebellud

Plays: 3-6 players in ~30 minutes

Returning to the list this year, Dixit was one of the first modern board games I picked up when I really started getting into them and it set a tone for me, that these games really are scaffolds for social experiences. Dixit is all about empathy and language, so it really appeals to me and I’ve stuck with it, even years later.

I took this off the shelf and onto the table a few times in recent months, following a long time where it was not getting much attention. It’s a game where the dynamic can be quite different depending on the group, though it suffers somewhat when people overthink it.

It’s made it back onto the list this year because I’ve just really enjoyed playing it with kids. It really shines with young players. I also think I’m appreciated simpler games again, which is nice.

45: Robot Quest Arena

Previous Position: New to the list

Year: 2023

Designer: Robert Dougherty, CJ Moynihan, Paul Waite

Publisher: Wise Wizard Games

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

I had a lot of fun with this game when I first started playing it. It’s a great mix of tactical combat and deckbuilding, which is a great combination. The game is bold, colourful, and fun. I’m also a really big fan of Wise Wizard Games, and this is the fourth of their games that I have really enjoyed.

The game is a bit overproduced, though, and it’s certainly expensive for what it is. The game feels like it’s a bit chunked out and should really be somewhere in the £30 to £40 price bracket, rather than £60. It’s a lot of fun, though, and there are some fun expansions. I really like the variable robot powers, because of course I do.

I was a tad disappointed at playing the game with kids. It wasn’t quite as intuitive for them as I’d hoped. It just didn’t click. I still really enjoy it with adult groups, though.

44: Warhammer Underworlds

Previous Position: 31 (-13)

Year: 2017

Designers: Dave Sanders (lead designer)

Publisher: Games Workshop

Plays: 2 players in ~30 minutes

This is a game that I revisit every so often, but have never really stuck with. I love the minis. There aren’t many warbands for this game that don’t look fantastic. I finally got around to painting a few of them, too!

The game is pretty straightforward, and very tight for a GW game. It’s actually the only Games Workshop game where I consider credible competitive play to be possible, though I know many will disagree with me on that.

I like that the focus has, in more recent years, been taken off of building your deck, putting less pressure on players to buy everything to get all the best cards. That’s a toxic business model that is best left to the likes of Asmodee! Hey, X-Wing, I’m looking at you…

This is based on the previous version of the game and not the new edition which has just been released. I had a lot of fun this year with our club’s league, as well.

43: DC Comics Deck-Building Game

Previous Position: 32 (-11)

Year: 2012

Designer: Matt Hyra, Ben Stoll

Publisher: Cryptozoic Entertainment

Plays: 2-5 players in ~45 minutes

Falling down the ranking this year, we have the DC Deck-Building Game. My biggest criticism of this game remains unchanged, in that you could play much of the game on autopilot. There’s generally no reason not to just play all of your cards every turn. There are no real decisions to be made in the playing of cards like there is in, say, Dominion. It’s too free, too open, too loose.

That said, it’s still a lot of fun. The game looks really pretty and is full of references for comic fans to feast upon. You do get to make decisions on the content of your deck as you buy cards from the middle of the table. It’s a good, accessible, fun deck-builder that doesn’t take too much thought and has a ton of expansions if you want to add more cards to your mix. Despite the flaws, this still sees a lot of play, and probably more play than a lot of my “better” deck-builders which might explain why it ranks pretty well, even if I do find myself a little burnt out on it.

42: Oath

Previous Position: New to the list

Year: 2021

Designer: Cole Wehrle

Publisher: Leder Games

Plays: 1-6 players in ~45 to 150 minutes

I was hoping this would be higher. I don’t regret my purchase of this game, but I’m not as happy with it as I had hoped. I can see this being really fun somewhere down the line, once we get some more familiarity with it, and a bit more automaticity. At the moment, it’s not been as big a hit with my group as I’d have hoped.

I love the idea of this not so much being a legacy game (because it’s not), but being a game about Legacy. Conceptually, I love it. I love lots of bits of the game. It just doesn’t flow as neatly as I’d have liked. I’m keen to keep on plugging away at it and hope that comes in time.

41: In The Hall of the Mountain King

Previous Position: New to the list

Year: 2019

Designer: Jay Cormier, Graeme Jahns

Publisher: Burnt Island Games

Plays: 2-5 players in ~90 minutes

A surprise hit for me, this one. I tried it when someone brought it to club and then immediately went and purchased it. This is a really fantastic, and quite challenging, area control game. I had a lot of fun with it.

I like the fact that you really have to commit to a direction because of the relative scarcity of resources, the limited number of tiles, and the permanence of the cards that you put down. I like the added element of not only building out your tunnels but also claiming and mounting your statues. There’s a fair amount going on here, and you can’t do everything, but you can damn well try to do what you can.