#66: Let's Go To Japan (Mark's Top 100 - 2026)

Expedition

BoardGameGeek

• rank: 427
• rating: 7.6
• published: 2024
• designer: Josh Wood

Print Status

• in print

Why It's On The List

• The combination of beautiful artwork and clever gameplay is really something to behold... particularly for a game that originated from a pandemic-cancelled vacation trip.

Tips & Tricks:

• I try very hard not to commute back & forth between Kyoto & Tokyo. The cost in time (to take trains rather than extra walking as bonuses) or points (-2 for each train ticket you don't acquire) is just not worth it.
• It's OK to occasionally burn a card and take a walk... sometimes, it just doesn't pay to take the known bad and hope you get lucky on the random walk card.
• The game works well with 1-5 players... like all drafting games with a card pass, it runs at the speed of the slowest player.

Extras

• I splurged on the Kickstarter version of the game - and the wooden pieces plus the ceramic bowls for them really have a lovely vibe.
• The solo system for Let's Go To Japan is really smart - whatever you don't draft goes to the "Travel Agent" you're competing against. There are times when that decision can be excruciating!
• I've only played the "Day Trip" expansion a couple of times... but I'm not sure it really adds all that much to the game.
• The Opinionated Gamers review of the game is what convinced me to back it. (Thanks, Dale!)
• There is another game coming in this series... Let's Go To France will be on Kickstarter in May. By all appearances, it is not simply a Gallic re-skin of Let's Go To Japan. 
• This is fifth new-to-the-list game on the 2026 countdown.

#67: Vegas Showdown (Mark's Top 100 - 2026)

Vegas Showdown

BoardGameGeek

• rank: 920
• rating: 7.1
• published: 2005
• designer: Henry Stern

Print Status

• in print

Why It's On The List

• This is the best implementation of the climbing auction mechanic first seen in Evo, then in the (excruciating, IMHO) Amun-Re, and in 20th Century. I also like the need to plan what rooms you'll add to your Vegas resort... and in what order to build them.

Tips & Tricks:

• There are a variety of winning building configurations/mixes - your mission is to choose the one that best dodges what other players are doing... .
• ...and then make it expensive for other players to get their "key" rooms.

Extras

• While the graphics for this one are generally good, I do wish the player boards in the original edition had been mounted.
• I'd suggest adding some tokens in the box to track "extra" victory points. (We use glass beads to track points that are not found on the player boards - that way, you can check & make sure you haven't missed any points during the game.).

Top 100 Songs: #30-#21

So many good songs... and some of my writing on this one reminded me of a couple of songs that didn't make the list ("Beautiful Scandalous Night" and "Look Over Your Shoulder") that probably should or could have. Oh, yeah... happy birthday, Dave W.!

• #30: Breathe Deep (The Lost Dogs - 1992)
• The Lost Dogs is a CCM-alternative supergroup a little like The Traveling Wilburys… and this song is a thunderous ode to the expansive incredible nature of the grace of God.
• Politicians, morticians, philistines, homophobes / Skinheads, dead heads, tax evaders, street kids / Alcoholics, workaholics, wise guys, dimwits / Blue collars, white collars, war mongers, peaceniks / Breathe deep / Breathe deep the breath of God / Breathe deep / Breathe deep the breath of God
• #29: Satisfied Mind (Ben Harper & The Blind Boys of Alabama - 2004)
• Ben Harper teamed up with The Blind Boys of Alabama to create one of the best gospel albums of the 00s… and this is the song that keeps running through my head.
• How many times have you heard someone say / "If I had his money I'd do things my way" / But little they know that it's so hard to find / One rich man in ten with a satisfied mind
• #28: Leave It Like It Is (David Wilcox - 1989)
• The final verse is a bit on the nose… but this song has reminded me over & over to readjust my perspective.
• #27: It's Love (King's X - 1990)
• I came to King's X late… but those first three albums are still golden for me. And this rock anthem is still my favorite song of theirs. (Though "Over My Head" is pretty darn good as well.)
• #26: Sunset Grill (Don Henley - 1984)
• I've always thought that Don Henley's solo music captures a very Los Angeles vibe - and this song (along with "Boys of Summer" and "Garden of Allah") is proof positive of that.
• You see a lot more meanness in the city / It's the kind that eats you up inside / Hard to come away with anything that feels like dignity / Hard to get home with any pride
• #25: Restore My Soul (The Choir - 1990)
• The Choir has had an amazing career - and their genius has touched so many albums that are not their own (including the amazing Clouds Rain Fire worship album). This song is the one that haunts me - both for the lyrical content that sounds like they eavesdropped on my heart and for the amazing musical break/outro at the end of it.
• I call to you / With one lung exploded / From breathing the dust of the earth / With my tongue eroded / From licking the crust of the earth / A tear away from reconciled / A prayer away from whole / Restore my soul
• #24: Double Cure (Vigilantes of Love - 1996)
• My favorite Vigilantes song… flat out. My favorite version is the acoustic take on the V.O.L. album.  (Had a neat online moment a couple of weeks ago when I commented about "Double Cure" and Bill Mallonee himself replied to let me know it was still in his live set.)
• So tired of all my toys / They never last for long / They keep beaming dreams and wishes / To a big dish on my front lawn / I wanna drink out of that fountain / On a hill called double cure / I wanna show you my allegiance, Lord /  Yes, I wanna be a son of Yours
• #23: The Kingdom Is Yours (Common Hymnal - 2017)
• Thanks to the wonderful worship pastor at our church (go, Bethany Bailey!), I was introduced to this song and the amazing collective that is Common Hymnal. I can't sing it without crying.
• Blessed are the ones who fight for justice / Longing for the coming day of peace /  Blessed is the soul that thirsts for righteousness /  Welcoming the last, the lost, the least/ The Kingdom is yours / The Kingdom is yours / Hold on a little more, this is not the end / Hope is in the Lord, keep your eyes on Him
• #22: It Did (Brad Paisley - 2007)
• And now for something completely different - country music! My wife liked a couple of Brad Paisely songs ("Flowers" in particular) and so we listened to some more of his songs… and then stumbled across "It Did" - which isn't exactly our romance/life story but certainly feels like it.
• Tears of joy in my mommas eyes / Her daddy walkin' her down the aisle / He lifted that veil and I saw that smile / And I said / To myself / It doesn't get better than this / No it doesn't get better than this / But it did
• #21: Strong Hand of Love (Bruce Cockburn - 1994)
• Bruce Cockburn is better known for "If I Had a Rocket Launcher" - but this cover of Mark's Heard signature song is my favorite recording from him.
• Young dreamers explode like popped balloons / Some kind of emotional rodeo / Learning too slow and acting too soon / Time marches away like a lost platoon / We gracefully age as we feel the weight / Of loving too late and leaving too soon / We can laugh and we can cry / And never see the strong hand of love hidden in the shadows / We can dance and we can sigh / And never see the strong hand of love hidden in the shadows

#68: Expedition (Mark's Top 100 - 2026)

Expedition

BoardGameGeek

• rank: 2,986
• rating: 6.7
• published: 1996
• designer: Wolfgang Kramer

Print Status

• recently re-published as Expeditions: Around the World in 2023

Why It's On The List

• I love the expedition mechanic at the heart of the game. There's nothing quite like it... (well, this isn't altogether true - but look in the Extras for more on that.)

Tips & Tricks:

• Travel bucks are a relatively scarce currency that aids you in game play and must be managed VERY carefully.
• Watch the number of arrows left in each expedition - other players can run them out to keep you from certain sections of the board.
• There are a variety of options in how loops work - we like the "place anywhere on the loop" one - but you should give them all a try.
• While the game will work with 2-6 players, it's best with 2-3.

Extras

• The designer (Wolfgang Kramer) actually revised his classic Ravensburger game (Wildlife Adventure) which became Expedition - and then he gave it a big tweak and turned it into a children's game (Schatzsucher). While I haven't played Schatzsucher, I've enjoyed my couple of plays of Wildlife Expedition (and still kick myself for not picking up a copy back when you could find them at zoo gift shops).
• There were some rules changes for National Geographic Expedition edition - I only played once but I didn't like them. Frustratingly, I don't remember what I didn't like!
• Here's what I wrote about Expedition for The One Hundred. 
• This is the second of five games designed by Wolfgang Kramer on this countdown.

#69: Flamme Rouge (Mark's Top 100 - 2026)

Flamme Rouge

BoardGameGeek

• rank: 288
• rating: 7.5
• published: 2016
• designer: Asger Aleksandrov Granerud

Print Status

• in print

Why It's On The List

• It's apt to compare this game to the classic 6 Nimmt card game (what with simultaneous action selection and resolution of cards)... but it's really a well-thought-out way to simulate cycling that plays in 30-45 minutes. 

Tips & Tricks:

• Looking at the track and figuring out to shepherd your "good" cards for later in the race is an important skill.
• Drafting is key in this game - holding the lead for most of the game will end up with you sputtering at the end (just like real cycling!).
• Watch for tight spots or crowded groups - you can get caught where you can't catch the leader due to the crowd rather than your lack of good cards.

Extras

• I reviewed Flamme Rouge for the Opinionated Gamers... and also advanced my theory of the Three Buckets of Sports Games.
• There are two "big" expansions for Flamme Rouge - Peloton (which adds two more teams and more kinds of road to race on) Grand Tour (which adds specialist riders and an excellent system for building tour races). There also Meteo (which adds weather conditions), a smaller expansion. I reviewed all three of them last year.
• The Grand Tour expansion absolutely brought Flamme Rouge back to my top 100 games list - it's really well done.
• I'm a little sad that Um Reifenbreite didn't make it into my top 100 games... it's a wonderful racing game but I've had immense difficulty getting it to the table in recent years.

#70: Showmanager (Mark's Top 100 - 2026)

Showmanager

BoardGameGeek

• rank: 2,444
• rating: 7.0
• published: 1996
• designer: Dirk Henn

Print Status

• out of print

Why It's On The List

• A wonderful card-drafting game that whips along at a breakneck pace and offers a consistently enjoyable gaming experience as the players cast (and miscast) theater productions.

Tips & Tricks:

• You don't have to be a card counter to do well - but it is good to know what "9" cards are remaining in each show.
• You do not have enough money - so you're going to have to accept that one of your four shows is going to be, well, a flop.
• Use your flop show to borrow money - a common tactic is put on a flop, put it in the lowest point value city & then take the maximum amount of money out of the show.

Extras

• While I'm very glad there is a reprint available (though it's OOP as well), I do want to note that the two included variants are not necessary to enjoy the game.
• Thankfully, the truly inferior version of the game (Atlantic Star) is out of print. 
• And, no, I haven't ever played the original version, Premiere.
• Showmanager scales really well for 3-6 players... I'm least fond of 4 but it still works well.
• Here's what I wrote about Showmanager for The One Hundred.
• Finally, I got Showmanager to the table last month at Gulf Games... and it holds up beautifully.

#71: A Brief History of the World (Mark's Top 100 - 2026)

A Brief History of the World

BoardGameGeek

• rank: 3,819
• rating: 6.9
• published: 2009
• designers: Gary Dicken, Steve Kendall, and Phil Kendall

Print Status

• out of print

Why It's On The List

• It's all about the epic sweep of history - and this particular version of a game system originally published in 1991(!) is the best yet. It's tighter, smarter, and faster than any previous edition - playing time is about 3 hours for six players to experience this dudes/empires on a map masterpiece.

Tips & Tricks:

• I first played the Ragnor Brothers' History of the World in the mid-90s. The experience was a disaster - six new players coupled with the overly wargamer-tinged rules of the original Avalon Hill publication of the game meant it took us nearly four hours to complete two of the seven epochs... and then we abandoned the game.
• It was nearly six years later when I received an early prize table pick at a gaming convention and thanks evidently to a whiff of the massive amounts of plastic figures in the box decided to pick up the Hasbro/Avalon Hill edition as my first pick. The game was substantially better than I had remembered - esp. with the revisions that had been made to streamline the design. It became one of those "once a year" games (because of the length... 4-6 hours) though I wanted to play more often.
• Fast forward to late 2009 as the Ragnor Brothers announced that they had - nearly 20 years after the first edition was published - once again made some major revisions to their signature game. The early press was positive enough for me to plunk down some hard-earned cash on it - seeing as how I hadn't played my beloved H/AH copy of HOTW in nearly 3 years.
• I didn't waste a penny... though I miss the 7 different plastic minis (one type for each epoch) and the shiny capitol/city markers, everything else I love about the game system is still there - and less. It's shorter, leaner & tighter (our last six player game took 3 1/2 hours with 2 new players)... and there's actually more room in the game for tactical & strategic decision-making while reducing the number of armies on the board. The refining of the empire deck (giving more thematically specific powers to some of the empires) and the costing of the event deck (many events now come with some kind of VP cost to activate) make for an even better game.
• This is more of an experience game than a strategy game - but given the choice, you want to score when you have lots of pieces on the board (follow a late empire pick with an early empire pick) and deny the same opportunities to your opponents.

Extras

• I've quoted above pretty much the only thing I've written about A Brief History of the World.
• Here's the two (admittedly short) blurbs from The One Hundred: the group blurb & my personal blurb.
• I have not played the most recent published version of History of the World... but I'd certainly like to try.

#72: Nations: The Dice Game (Mark's Top 100 - 2026)

Nations: The Dice Game

BoardGameGeek

• rank: 1,284
• rating: 6.9
• published: 2014
• designer: Rustan Håkansson

Print Status

• in print? (easy to find the base game, expansion is difficult to find)

Why It's On The List

• While the original game Nations is enjoyable, the dice game does a lot of the same things in a much tighter time frame... and with a really clever dice manipulation mechanic.

Tips & Tricks:

• The base game is good - but this is one of those games that really shines once you add the expansion: asymmetric starting positions, unrest dice, more variety of tiles.
• The shift from engine-building (getting more dice and tokens) to point-harvesting is key - and especially pronounced in the fourth & final round of the game.
• You cannot do everything - colonies, wonders, leaders, etc. Let that impulse go.
• Don't forget that you can convert a pair of dice into other resources - it feels wasteful, but sometimes it is your best choice.
• The solo mode works - but there are better solo civilization games.

Extras

• I need to write a full review of Nations: The Dice Game (which is always a refrain as I create these posts - sheesh).