Board games I enjoy(ed) and why

This is a reference for me and will be updated over time but if you find it useful, great. The criteria here is "I will never hesitate to play any of these". In no particular order


  • Race for the Galaxy
    • Fun, fast, tense and interactive
    • Great combo building
    • Rushing game end is exciting
    • Simple layout lets players focus on other player's tableau
    • caveat - I like it at 3 players because there's more agency from your pick
    • wish - some way to mitigate luck of the draw (the expansion xeno invasion lets you swap your whole hand out for exploration and that kind of helps)
  • Agricola
    • The tension surrounding food in the early/mid game is just fantastic
    • Staring at large piles of resources and watching everyone decline picking them up with a grimace
    • caveat - I prefer playing the base set only
    • wish - maybe a different point system so that specializing is a thing
  • Terraforming Mars
    • Card luck is mitigated pretty well with 4 cards per round
    • Game start is exciting with varying corporations + 10 card selection
    • All actions/mechanics feel like they have a place
    • Good motivation to push game end but not overly rewarded
    • wish - I feel like card draw mechanics should either be more or less accessible
  • Feast For Odin
    • Absolutely adore messing around with the tetris boards
    • Worker interaction can really derail plans for the current round/next round
    • Specialization is good but not overwhelmingly so (except with certain cards)
    • Food system is inventive - stressful but not overly so
    • The luck based stuff (dice rolls) is exciting to watch.
    • wish - Game play is slightly static (it's not necessarily a bad thing though because goals become telegraphed once you learn the game more and then there's more interaction.  Some earlier card draws might introduce more variability.
  • Above and Below
    • The stories/adventuring is great. 
    • Game play is light and short but still very dynamic
    • I've noticed that people get attached to their workers (because of luck having it or not) and that's something I find very refreshing in a pseudo-worker placement game
    • wish - More stories. We don't play this often just so we can forget what we've read


Honorable Mentions
  • Gloomhaven
    • I've played a lot of this and it's fun enough but there's not enough variation in play
  • Roll For the Galaxy
    • I feel like this is the "better" (more balanced) version of race for the galaxy but at the same time it feels extremely linear and each round of play isn't as exciting
  • Thunderstone Advance
    • Really enjoyed having deck cleanup/next hand setup being an action
    • Hard for me to get this one to the table.  I think trying the randomized mode will get people to play with me but deck builders haven't been popular among the people I play with
  • Dominion
    • I played A LOT of this.  But, the game basically became solvable and that detracted from the fun.  Being the first to perform the winning combo is just like rolling dice. Maybe we needed to buy more expansions (only got maybe half) but I'm not sure that would help.
  • Dominant Species
    • I really like the action pre-programming here but the game just takes way too long to play regularly.
    • Reading back the history of the planet after completing a game is very entertaining.
    • Smack-talk during game play is an A+ experience