In honor of our 2 year anniversary, Sarah, Scott, and I are all looking back and seeing if and how our top 10 games of all time lists have changed since we started this adventure – and change they did!

I’ll admit – I’m going to be gushing a lot, since we are looking at my 10 favorite games of all time here. I can’t not gush about them! In today’s post, I’ll share some thoughts on my number 10 down to my number 6, and tomorrow, I’ll talk about my number 5 to number 1. Hope you enjoy!

10. Ex Libris. Oh man, there’s so much that I can say about Ex Libris – this worker placement game from Renegade Game Studios is unique, fun, and gorgeous. Who doesn’t want to be a librarian in a magical library, curating books and being the best librarian ever? Even if you’re not into worker placement style games, you at least need to check out the production qualities of it. The game is really well done, the meeples are fun, the art is whimsical, and the book names are hysterical – every single book on each shelf is unique. This is a game that definitely has some depth to it, and I can’t wait to get it to the table more.

9. 7 Wonders Duel – Formerly my #2 game of all time, 7 Wonders Duel is still sitting securely in my #9 spot. I’m a big fan of the original 7 Wonders, and that introduced me to the idea of card drafting games – but, the two player experience made me shy away a little bit. I’m not a fan of the dummy player (with some exceptions), so we never really tried it. Then, Sarah got me 7 Wonders Duel and I fell in love with it. As the only exclusively 2 player game in my top 10, I think it perfectly exemplifies the best in 2 player only games – the constant tug of war, the outwitting each other, and the simplicity of it all makes 7 Wonders Duel a fantastic 2 player game for any collection.

8. Lords of Waterdeep – I’d call this a classic – so much so that we have the expansion and we have the app (with the expansions DLC).  We absolutely adore this game. Early on in the blog’s lifespan, I said that I thought that Midgard was better than Waterdeep, I’ve definitely changed my mind some (not much, though – Midgard comes in at number 13). The app probably helped with that – I get it played a lot more often, and I really enjoy some of the crazy things that you can do with combos. There have been games where I’ve gotten to play Intrigue card after Intrigue card because I worked out a way to chain them (much to Sarah’s chagrin, haha). That’s the sort of stuff I really enjoy being able to do, which is why it has bumped Midgard out of my top 10.

7. Space Base – Space Base is the only 2018 game in my lineup (#6 was originally published in 2017, just got its NA distribution in 2018, so I call it a 2017 title), and it deserves to be there. This game takes the concept of “I roll, everyone gets something” and makes it into an attractive resource management and engine building game. The art is fun and fantastic – and they have a unique name and picture for all of the different ships that are in there. The ability to make combos and watch your engine get going makes the game intense and you want to come back for more so you can try a new engine. We’ll have a review for it in the next couple of weeks, because I can’t wait to share how great of a game it is with you.

6. Mystery of the Temples – We previewed this great game in 2018 when Deep Water Games did the North American reprint/distribution for Emperor S4. I loved it then, and obviously, I love it now. The elegant rondels, the smart decisions and the fact that it scales well for all of its player counts have continually brought this game to the forefront of my mind. It’s quick, fun, and beautiful, and definitely deserves a spot in my top 10.

Have you gotten to play any of these? Are any of them in your top 10 favorite games? See you later this week for my 5 to 1!

Game On!
Marti