I am missing games that begin with D, E, J, V, Y and Z. Which sadly doesn’t quite work well enough for a make a word from those letter set.
I wonder if a culling challenge could work by eliminating opening letters from your collection?
Also possible topic of the week @Acacia, which opening letter in your collection is the strongest set? For me the contenders are C,I, P and S
Maybe the challenge would be to make the “best” ABC collection with 26 games (games that start with non-letters can be optional sides… like 51st State, 7 Wonders (Duel) and 6 nimmt)
Lots of snap decisions on this list:
6 nimmt!
AuZtralia
Betrayal at House on the Hill
Carcassonne
Diamant
Ethnos
For Sale
Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion
Hansa Teutonica
The Isle of Doctor Necreaux
Judge Dredd: Helter Skelter
The King Is Dead
Lost Ruins of Arnak
Mysterium
Nusfjord
Once Upon a Time
Pictomania
Q.E.
Regicide Legacy
Survive: Escape from Atlantis!
Thebes
Undaunted: Normandy
Village Green
War Chest
Most-to-least-popular letters: C T S M A P B L H F D R E K W G U J V N Q O I
Missing letters: X, Y, Z
It all began with @Whistle_Pig posting her Alphabet challenge on the 2025 Board Game Challenge! thread and there it derailed and so this thread came into being.
So the goal here is to make the best collection (imaginary or from your games) that has a game for every letter of the Alphabet plus some optional numbers if you feel like it.
edit: oh I overlooked the other option: what are your best/worst letters? Most competition for the top spot?
Some painful decisions here:
If I can get away with putting Legacy of Yu under ‘Y’ (dubious, but arguable), and Ark Nova under ‘Z’ because zoo (a bit more of a stretch perhaps!), then I’m only missing Q and X…
My ‘S’ section is probably my strongest and most varied:
Spirit Island, Scholars of the South Tigris, Survive: Escape from Atlantis, Santorini, Smallworld, Sagrada, Sherlock Holmes, Spots, Shephy
1830
Age of Steam
The Bridges of Shangri-La
Cthulhu Wars
Dicke Dämonen
The Estates
Food Chain Magnate
The Great Zimbabwe
HOOOOOOT STREEEAAAAK
Indonesia
Just One
Kaivai
Lifeboats: Plank of Carneades
Monikers
Null und Nichtig
The Old Prince 1871
Pax Renaissance 2e
Quartermaster General 1914
Ride the Rails
Stephenson’s Rocket
Tales of the Arabian Nights
Ur: 1830 BC
Verrater (weakest)
Wabash Cannonball
Xylotar
You’re Bluffing
Zoo Vadis
白と黒でトリテ
I have to choose between Indonesia and Innovation!! Also have to give up Prussian Rails - another hard choice.
Also choose Tales of the Arabian Nights over great games like TTA due to its choose-your-own-adventure experience (flawed but its flaws can be fixed easily).
EDIT: I added games not in my collection lol. bolded the ones I own.
| 6 nimmt! 25 Jahre |
|---|
| Age of Rail: South Africa |
| Botswana |
| Codenames |
| Dobble |
| El Grande |
| For Sale |
| Gang of Dice |
| Hot Streak |
| Irish Gauge |
| KLASK |
| Lords of Vegas |
| MarraCash |
| New Frontiers |
| Power Grid |
| The Quest for El Dorado |
| Ra |
| Schadenfreude |
| Tower Up |
| Viking See-Saw |
| Xylotar |
From my collection. No J, O, U, Y or Z
I start off looking at the games I own and having trouble choosing between Aeon’s End and Automobiles.
Oh, there are some REALLY difficult ones to choose the best for one letter. C and E in particular.
I’ve gone for “must have one each of A-Z” so the quality varies:
Azul (I go with Summer Pavilion as I haven’t played Azul 1)
Beyond the Sun
Cascadia (or Crokinole, obviously. And the best is probably really Cthulhu Wars, but it’s expensive and I haven’t played it)
Dune
El Grande (or Earth or Everdell aargh)
Flip 7
Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion
Hot Streak just beats High Society
Inis
Jaipur seems like a long-term classic
Kanagawa? It’s pretty at least
Lost Cities
Marvel Champions
Nusfjord
Obsession
Pax Pamir 2nd (or PitchCar. What?)
Quacks by default?
Ra (then Railroad Ink)
Santorini
Tales of the Arthurian Knights
Unmatched, probably Cobble and Fog
Viticulture
I’d like to say War of Whispers, but it’s probably War of the Ring 2nd
Xia - Legends of a drift system
According to lots of the internet: YINSH
Z: Haven’t played it but it’s very likely Zoo Vadis
So here’s mine. I’ll prioritized games from my own collection. Turns out I own all the letters.
Please don’t add up the numbers, they include sell pile and collectibles this time (oops more honesty than usual when counting) I used BgStats because it’s surprisingly hard to get a decent sorted games but not expansions list everywhere else. There maybe ±1 errors. Italics mark the “weak” picks due to lack of choice. Bold marks the “I didn’t even look at the other games” picks.
S Unsurprisingly easy pick. Despite tons of games.
V a surprisingly hard pick nothing was quite convincing.
Q surprise: a decent Q game turned up. Yay.
U is a weak letter. No really great picks there.
B has some tough competition for Beyond the Sun.
I also has Imperium:Foo
K is not a strong letter. Kanagawa was a bit of a Verlegenheits-Pick
R is difficult. But Robo Rally definitely beats everything else.
Z my Zombicide nostalgia is real.
T was contentious for a moment but TM reigns supreme over this letter.
W also has Winter Kingdom
C Cascadia is the game I have played most here. I didn’t even look too much at the rest. Strong letter though.
I got so distracted by trying to choose between Concordia and Carcassonne that I forgot I had Cascadia!
Purely from games I own…. (Apologies my formatting is jumping lines - on my phone and laptop)
Aeon’s End
Bohnanza
Cosmic Encounter
Daybreak
El Grande
Fast Sloths
Great Western Trail
Hot Streak
Innovation
Just One (whoops, not put that on BGG)
King’s Dilemma
Loopin’ Louie
Modern Art
No Thanks
Orleans
Paint the Roses
Quartermaster General
Race for the Galaxy
Spirit Island
Terraforming Mars
Uno (I think that’s the only game I own that begins with a U)
Voodoo Prince
Wabash Cannonball
Yokohama
Zoo Vadis
As for best letter; G, P, S and T gave me pause
It’s probably G because GWT x 3, Guards of Atlantis and The Gang
Aboretum
Biblios
Cthulhu: Death May Die - this was tough, having to give up Concordia
Dogs of War
Eternal Decks
For Sale
Ginkgopolis - hard to pick between this and Ghost Stories
Harvest (the 1992 Japanese game)
Inflation!
Just One
The Key: Murder at the Oakdale Club
The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship, had to skip my beloved Lancaster
Medici
Nova Luna
Orleans
Project: ELITE
Quantum
Ra
The Search for Planet X
Trajan
Uchronia
Vantage
Wonderlands War
X Nimmt!
Yellow and Yangtze
ZhanGuo
Why am I not surprised about Kaivai, an old game I’ve literally just heard of? Are you looking at Feya’s Swamp?
Yes. It’s in my list, but it’s not something I’m hot about. Sus that it’ll be “Kaivai but worse”. They modernised the design…
That’s what I’ve read, but having not played Kaivai I’ll have nothing to compare it to!
How close is it (Kaivai) to Terra Mystica? I really didn’t like Terra Mystica
I don’t see any strong similarities. In Kaivai, you fish fish with dice rolls(!!) and those fish can be delivered to your own huts for points or to other people’s for money. There’s auction for turn order and spatial gameplay.
Most games: C (23) / Least Games: U (1) / No games: Q, X, Y, Z
A-Z:
6 Nimmt
Azul
Bärenpark
Bullet
Concordia
Decrypto
Ethnos
Fort
Ghost Blitz
Hey, That’s My Fish!
Inis
Jaipur
Jazz: The Singing Card Game
Kung Fu Zoo
Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest
Monikers
Nova Luna
Oriflamme
Pandemic: Fall of Rome
Race for the Galaxy
Splendor
Traders of Osaka
Unmatched
Village Pillage
Wyrmspan
Toughest choices were probably C, M, and S. F and T were a poor showing (Board Game Geek want it to be just “Fall of Rome” now, but my copy says Pandemic in big letters, so it’s going under P).
Excellent. Will keep an eye on Feya’s Swamp then