Top 10 Exploration Games 

I thought sure Sam would give us something like, "I'm EXPLORING how big your health pool is by using damage."

Most enjoyable top 10 in a long time. All the Dice Tower guys are awesome but Zee's humor makes the show!

TI3 was one of the first to pop in my head. I don't think my group has ever played without the Forbidden Suns expansion since it came out. The exploration with those tokens out is actually one of my favourite parts of the game.

Sometimes I even feel a bit irritated by Sam's weirdest choices (many of them stretch sooooooo far from the original category), but I just realized how much I enjoy you guys making fun of each other in these lists in a friendly, teasing manner. It makes these lists very entertaining.

Archipelago was one my wife and I both thought of right away.

I'd like to see you guys do a top ten of "1 vs many" games.

Fully agree on your #1 Sam. The "distant suns" expansion for TI3 is one of the things which makes this game so great. Also, Tom - there is a TI3 variant in Shattered Empire expansion called "Territorial Distant Suns" which mitigates a lot the randomness of these tokens. Perhaps you should try it out. It can also be combined with another interesting variant called "Simulated early turns" which speeds up early expansion and shortens the play time. Regards

For TI3, one thing I sometimes like to do with the Distant Sun counters is make the board so that instead of one big galaxy, it's two smaller galaxies linked by warm holes. One is the "known" galaxy where players start. And the other one is "unexplored" which has the Distant Sun counters. That way, players don't have to deal with the random counters if they don't want to, but it's there if you do.

Other honourable mentions of exploration for me are 'Age of Empire 3' when you turn over the discovery tiles and Betrayal at House on the Hill (exploring a haunted house :) ).

+TomVasel I have a lot of experience with TI3 and distant suns, and I would argue that by the 5th round of the game the different benefits and difficulties arising from those tokens count for very little. Without them you can just go to a planet and take it with single soldiers. Playing with distant suns adds risk and excitement to it as to what you are going to find there. It also adds extra wormhole entrances that allow movement which broaden your options a lot or it may add a supernova at an unexpected place. Simply put, it's FUN! :)

Great job guys. Always enjoy the interactions! Keep up the good work!

Great call on Omega 7! Some of my favorite exploration type games that were not mentioned are: Relic Expedition Betrayal at House on the Hill Shadows of Brimstone and the new game Secrets of the Lost Tomb. Great video, guys!

Great top 10 ! :) I also love : D&D boardgames series, Betrayal at house on the hill, assault on doomrock, claustrophobia, saboteur and Time Stories. ;) And awaiting 7th continent which seems to be all about exploration ! :)

I’d love some kind of bridging kit between Forbidden Island and Forbidden Desert to tell the story of going to the island and “liberating” the relics, and then having to make it out of the Forbidden Desert without losing the relics. Maybe some cool abilities for each one you manage to hold onto or something.

I like Betrayal at House on the Hill. It has that creepy flavour and really pulls you into the story as you explore the mansion. I love it ^^

You guys should do a top 10 games all 3 of us really like. A list of 10 games you all agree on.

No Mage Knight? No D&D Adventure Game System? So much exploration in these...

It's always amazing how much genre definitions are stretched on these videos. But it's part of the fun :)

I lost it at Zee with his invisible popcorn. I guessed quite a few of these. Zee Relic Runners was a great choice, that game needs more love!

Good list! Since I'm pretty new at this board games thing and I haven't played any of these, I'm a little surprised I didn't see Mage Knight in anyone's list. I gotta say I'll take this video in consideration and Level 7 just rised a few positions in my wishlist.

How about a live play of Sam and Robinson Crusoe?

Tom, Zee, you really need to give Sam his play through of Robinson Crusoe... Possibly a live game? I wouldn't mind another one seeing Sam's 1st play of it.

Great episode. Noted a few interesting games that's on my list to check out, like Room 25. I'm surprised that the map exploration games mentioned didn't seem to have a way to skillfully mitigate your risk when choosing which tiles to explore, but instead made you rely on luck of the draw for that tile making your decision to go right or left somewhat arbitrary.

I agree with Sam on TI3 with the Distant Suns domain counters. We use them every time we play since it does give it the exploration feel. Although I would say Eclipse has more of the exploration feel.

Carcassone isn't exploring per se, especially since you can choose where the tile goes, but it has that feel. I guess there is a subtle distinction between actual exploring and building the game board as you go.

Phew, so pleased Robinson Crusoe made Tom and Zee's list - as soon as I saw the theme of this top 10, I knew it was my number 1 instantly. Was getting worried nobody had chosen it. Sam, you should stop avoiding it and try it!! ;)

I thought Tikal from the off . Other contenders: betrayal at the house on the hill, Descent 2.0 game night kits, Claustrophobia, eclipse, merchant of Venus and Dungeonquest!

Well, I agree with Sam on Twilight Imperium. When we play we use all the exploration pieces and it definitely feels like an exploration game.

DUNGEON RUN! Very underrated game. I gotta get this back to the table soon.

I realize this title is still very new, but I would absolutely include ChaosMos in this list of exploration games since that's the very core of what that game is, exploring other planets in search of the Ovoid. I played it at GenCon this year and I really liked it!

I quite like Civ The Board Game - So interesting flipping those tiles, and discovering stuff in the villages

I love watching your videos, even though I don't always agree with the games on the lists. It's no fault of yours. I'm a square peg in a round world. I don't seem to like what everyone else does. I don't know if it's because you guys had great selections for your lists on this one or if there are just some great exploration games out there, but I agree completely with every game you guys had on your lists. They are all deserving of being there. Excellent job!

Best part of the show. 35:16

I can't believe you forgot Fleet Captains. Totally an excellent exploration game!!! And it so fits the theme and everything.

I only have 2 true exploration games in my small collection. Star Explorer is one of them, which has Star Trek type crew members and the whole game you are exploring new planets and occasionally fighting pirate ships or encountering traders. It's a game that isn't very popular but I still play it occasionally. Then there's Stellar Conquest where you spend the first half of the game exploring and the second half of the game warring for terran and sub terran planets to try to win the game. This is my favorite exploration game probably because it has a warring aspect to it and I'm a war gamer at heart.

Bakong is an "exploration in the jungle" game, quick and interesting by Antoine Bauza. I like the item selection and the race aspect of it

I know I'm coming to this one a little late, but I have to agree with Sam. I LOVE TI3 as an exploration game. Not only do we ALWAYS play with Distant Suns, but also Space Domain counters. Why not? How w is that any different than Nexus Ops? In fact, I'll go way beyond that....and this may bring scorn upon me from hard core players but.... We even like to play with the outer rim of tiles flipped over to the red side as unexplored sectors of space like you do in some scenarios of Seafarers of Catan! Our group loves the Final Frontier exploration aspect of the game! It can be quite the game changer one way or another. We stand with you, Sam! 🙂

I agree with Tikal, Thebes, Dead Men Tell No Tales and Tobago (thanks for saying it right this time. It IS To-BAY-go) :) My favourite one didn't make the list. I think it flies under the radar because it is only published in German, although it is language independent - Santa Cruz - in the first round you land on the islands and discover what's there flipping over tiles hoping to complete the secret goals in your hand of cards. The tricky thing is that all players who have achieved the goals score the points! In the second round you once again try to complete your goals, and also knowing which ones your opponents are going for...Brilliant game! My biggest surprise was that The Cave wasn't mentioned. Have been looking into getting it, but maybe it's not Top Ten worthy?

Back in the day we played Catan: Seafarers with the explore variant a ton, then we moved on from Catan. Doing the list today Eclipse would have been my number 1 probably - that or Mage Knight, but I play Eclipse more. I know you three aren't big Eclipse fans but it definitely has exploration in it, probably more so than TI3 even with Hidden Suns.

I'd like to see you guys do a top ten 'empire-building' games list. What do I mean by empire building. Empire building games are strategy games where you start small and build big. You build you empire through expansion or conquest. A key apsect of empire buildings is trying to manage and maintain your empire, which becomes more challenging the larger it gets. Empire management can be keeping your people happy, or managing your empire's finances, etc, etc.) Many 4x games (explore, exploit, expand, exterminate) can be great empire building games, but without that empire management element it loses it.

Awesome video! Games that would make my list not mentioned would include Mage Knight, Arkham Horror, and my favorite game, Lord of the Rings The card game.

I am with Zee here, the first thing I thought about when I saw the title was Tikal. Then Robinson Crusoe. Then I thought, wait, Forbidden Desert is exploration too! ^^ Personally I might add Merchants and Marauders, or even Spurs. I know Spurs is not really exploration, but for some reason it feels a little like that to me.

I just started getting into boardgames. the only ones I own are elder signs, legendary marvel and pathfinder adventure card game. I keep expecting Pathfinder to show up in one of your videos buy never does, since your review made it sound good. Is it even in any short lists?

Mage Knight came to mind right away....the second one is interesting...Abyss - it has a mechanic called "exploring", but it really doesn't feel all that much like exploring....so maybe not.

Great vid! How about a top 10 miniatures list?

What about Archipelago? Star Trek Fleet Captains! Come on Tom! Also I have to side with Sam when it comes to TI3's 'Distant Suns' module. You have to take into consideration the game allows for putting lower risk tokens closer to the home systems. You can adjust the level of difficulty of the exploration. Also randomness is inherent in any exploration mechanism.

I thought Tom was gonna pick Star Trek Fleet Captains. He loves it and has an exploration feeling indeed. Anyway, never heard of the good ol' Heroquest? That game had a huuuuge exploration theme, love it!

To be fair, in TI3 expansions they suggest a small variant of the forbidden suns expansions, keeping only the mild tokens in the outer rings. That makes the first exploration phases easier

Well, i don't have many games and nothing exploration themed. So, i would go with the Carcassonne then :D the closest to this theme i have or played. You build the board like in the Lost Valley and finding roads, pastures or.. yaaaay I've found a monastery! :)

Question for Sam. I was wondering with as often as you talk about Twilight Imperium III (about 50% of the lists). How often do you get it to the table, once a week, once a month, once a year? I like the game a lot, but a game I play once every two years could never be my favorite just because I don't play it enough. I'm just interested in how often you play. Thanks to all you guys always enjoy the lists.

How do you guys feel about the Exploration module (module 5) in 504?

Love Starship Catan. It's one of my go-to short, 2-player games. And Tikal is one of the first games that came to my mind as well. Games I'd add, which I'm sure none of the presenters would include even if they've played them, because of differences in taste: Outreach (SPI) The campaign version of Starfire (the original version of which was written by David Weber ... yes, that David Weber) And the ur-exploration game, Source of the Nile.

Bring back WE ARE EXPERIENCING TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES. Also, there's an older Klaus Teuber game that really does not get any love although it's a very fun, family Euro, and the game really does centre around exploration and really does feel like you're finding new islands, taking a risk on how much money to invest in exploration, whether to try a high-risk, high-reward tile, sending scouts into the jungle etc... the game is Entdecker: Exploring New Horizons.

"As time goes by" is a phrase Tom uses in almost every video.

A number of my list have been mentioned, The Cave, Entdecker, Northwest Passage, Nautilus. Tom is wrong about Goldland ;^) Missed is Anno 1503, Anno 1701, and Im Reich der Wuestensohne (all Klaus Teuber), Tikal II, El Cabellero, and Columbus!!! (Wolfgang Kramer). But, for a bit of real exploration, how about Discovery, where you the player have been dropped onto an Island, and although you have a map of the island, you have no idea where on the island you currently are. You are there to find the hidden treasure before your arch-nemesis, or opponent, does. You have 12 hours of daylight. First step, figure out where you are. Begin. Partway through, you have about half the clues you need to the treasure's location, and the suddenly, you realize you are lost. Quickly, recover your bearings and get back on track to finding it first. Your opponent keeps track of your location, and you keep track of theirs, so you are truly moving blind through parts of the game. Great fun. (boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/6118/discovery)

1.) Descent: Road to Legend 2.) Gloomhaven 3.) Betrayal at the House on the Hill 4.) Star Trek: Fleet Captains 5.) Xia: Legends of a Drift System 6.) Room 25 7.) Descent: Journeys into the Dark 1st Edition (‘2nd’ doesn’t have that) 8.) Level 7: Omega Protocol 9). Incan Gold 10.) Francis Drake Good games, sorted by how much exploration is in there. Then some games I found to be no fun: Mage Knight, Dungeon Run, Dungeon Quest, Level 7: Escape (and I did own most of them once in time).

My top exploration-themed games: 1) The Cave (

You guys should totally do the top 10 asymmetrical games.

Nice list....not sure what I would choose, maybe Saboteur or betrayal at house on the hill :)

Note to Sam: Aragorn's nickname "Strider" is not spelled with a "y" in the text of the books. Not sure where you're getting that.

I reckon most of tile laying games can be considered as explorer games. You (almost) never know what is coming and where to expand the map. Giving new options as you go. (Carcassonne, Horus etc)

You guys need a set of "Go First" Dice!

I finally played Thebes recently; I think an easy fix to Thebes would be having less sand to start with, and sand being added to the bag as people explore it.

Mage knight is an epic exploration game. I agree with Robinson Crusoe and Escape. I also thought of Eldritch Horor..

Epic roll off!

I have a game coming from Kickstarter called Skulldug! that I feel could really fit this list. I think it also fits the bill for them asking that more explorer games in temples and jungles over zombies. There is hope!

House on Haunted Hill, Archipelago are both entries I cannot believe didn't make this list

No Archipelago or Mage Knight? Scrap the list. :)

I was really surprised that Tom did not have Star Trek Fleet Captains on his list. It is hard to find a better example for exploration games - you explore the tile and have a chance to get a random encounter at the same time. Another 4X game which should have been on one of the lists is Eclipse which provides way more exploration than TI3...

Only one way to solve the TI3 discussion. Give Sam a better army and have them do a live play.

On my short list would definitely be Xia, Robinson Crusoe, Nexus Ops, Lost Valley, Tikal, Relic Expedition, Thebes, and maybe Tobago, Eclipse, and Escape (with treasures). I like it, but I've never thought of Incan Gold as being an exploration game; I guess the theme is, but.....that's straight push your luck.

Hey, I think it's great that Sam will come to the comments section to defend his position. He's engaging his audience. Bully for him.

I'm surprised not to see Pathfinder-The adventure card game. In that game you have an "explore" phase where you flip over cards in different location decks trying to find loot , monsters ,etc ... Pathfinder would've been on my list. As well as Carcassone ... I'm not a huge fan but i like the fact that the map build itself as the game goes by. Lastly i would also add Panic Station as a great exploring game. If you ever seen "john Carpenter's The Thing" you'll feel right at home with this little gem. You basically explore an old lab trying to find the root of a deadly virus , all awhile searching for loot and weapons and trying not to get infected yourself.

I'm with Sam about the Distant Suns. First, TI3 is about the experience and DS adds a lot to the exploration feel. Then, I have a chart of what you might find on a DS tile so that players can prepare : never drop less than two Ground Forces on a first encounter ! Finally, you can scan the Distant Suns. And there are some spies that allow you to do it without spending an action. Overall, the Distant Suns slow down the beginning of the game, giving more options to players with less military force which is fine in my book. And man! Some of the surprises we got were hilarious. PS : there's an "X" among the empty space "Distant Suns" that says "nothing here". Boring. Instead, we consider it as "uncharted space" and draw a random space tile from the leftover tiles in the box. Getting new planets / wormholes / supernovae in the end game is often a blast !

settlers of catan:home rules. pretty mcuh me and my sister made lots of extra hex pieces in 3d, boats. settlers, gold tiles, resources, pirate ships, bridges, etc and you start on a home island and go settle other areas, all the other islands are flipped upside down along with the number that is also upside down. when you get to a face down tile you can look at it and choose to reveal it. When you settle next to a face down resource and number tile you must flip it up permanently so you can show it and get your resource. boats are one wood one cotton move two spaces, can move an extra space if you pay a cotton, and they carry settlers. Settlers are moved by boats and can only settle along the coast. You have to pay one food or two gold to move them inland to settle. Settlers cost one wheat. When you are ready to settle a settlers you have to pay the cost of a settlement minus one wheat. bridges can block the paths for boats as do pirates along with looting some of your gold if you want to pass. you can negotiate with the owner of a bridge if you want to pass. Bridges also can count towards a longest road and cost three stone. gold can be used to pass the pirate ship with your boat, pay to move the pirate ship to any part of the board, two for one resource, and trade with another player. So it turned into more of an exploration and negotiation game instead of a trading game.

50:34 Gotta love Zee pretending to eat popcorn while Tom and Sam bicker over TI3. 🍿

It would be cool if at the end of any of these TOP 10 videos, you made a consensual TOP 10 among all 3 of you by a voting system, no matter the order, just picking 10 out of those 30.

Loving Zee's popcorn at 50:35

"Breaking Wind" - Kickstarter 2016

Betrayal at House on the Hill, Hero Quest (Discontinued, buy used if you're rich)/Advanced Hero Quest, Arkham Horror/Eldritch Horror, Mansions of Madness, any Legacy game.

Surprised no mention of Betrayal at House on the Hill, Isla Dorada, Mage Knight, Fury of Dracula, or Lagoon, . Sam and Zee need to give Xia another chance too.

Good lists guys. Surprised Star Trek Fleet Captains didn't make the top ten of Tom or Sam.

1. Descent Forgotten Souls 2. Space Cadet Away Mission (b/c it will be that awesome) 3. Mage Knight 4. Legendary Encounters Alien 5. Robinson Crusoe 6. Xia 7. Betrayal at House on Haunted Hill 8. Level 7 Omega Protocol 9. Pathfinder Adventure Card Game 10. Dead of Winter

Going through the portals in Arkham Horror always felt like exploration. I will second Tom in that I would never play with Forbidden Suns ever again. There is enough randomness with dice rolling and secret objectives that one guy can't really run away with it by having a larger fleet. In fact, I would argue that Forbidden Suns only enables one player to be either gimped early on and unable to recover, or for one guy to get really lucky and spiral out of control. But there is still something about TI3 that does have an exploration vibe, I just can't quite put my finger on it. Maybe it's the setup?

You guys didn't mention Exploration tokens in Robinson Crusoe, that make the exploration even more exciting :). Anyway, very interesting top10 for me. Tom, did you consider D&D coops (Wrath of Ahshardalon etc.) instead of Dungeon Run?

I haven't seen anyone mention the Catan: Seafarers in the comments. I think it's worth a spot on the list.

Zee killed me with popcorn eating at ~ 50:20 ahhahahahahaahhaaha

You can probe in Forbidden Suns before landing troops there. It's a slower, safer way of expanding but it's much faster than losing all of your ground forces on a couple of radioactive planets.

Sam's totally right on TI3. I don't think it would be my No. 1, but it's definitely got a heavy exploration aspect to it, even without Forbidden Suns (which I like).

I play twilight imperium a lot. I can never play without distant suns again. The good counters don't give tthhaatt much of an advantage. The bad ones give a huge disadvantage. This makes you be careful when you explore. I mean they have the expansion with the mechanized units. That's even less of a risk. Are you guys playing with territorial distant suns or just vanilla distant suns? You need to play with territorial distant suns (second expansions rule book) in order to have strategy.

best top 10 ever.

Tom is wrong about the Forbidden Suns module of TI3 and Sam is right. It's great thematically, and just as you can look before you leap with Xia you can do that here as well.

Battue. Holy crap I have that one LOL Gem Rush looks promising, just needs more development love and a larger print production. And a half dozen expansions :P If made today Star Trek Frontiers a/o Captains would appear....hopefully great exploration games will keep appearing .

Before watching, mine in alphabetical order: Arkham Horror Betrayal at House on the Hill Dungeon! HeroQuest or Warhammer Quest Any of the D&D board games Mansions of Madness Mice & Mystics Runebound 2nd Shadows of Malice Tikal

Tom you made a mistake on the graphics on Zee's number 5 (gem rush) you wrote no.6 below.

Some other good exploration games: Archipelago - Runewars - Tales of the Arabian Nights - Mage Knight - A Study in Emerald - Eldritch Horror / Arkham Horror - Dead of Winter - Fortune and Glory

Archipelago has some exploration. Was it considered? Magic Realm has a lot of exploration. Is it something you have played?

Brimstone #1, Machina Arcana, Fortune & Glory, Doom.

Goldland, Nautilus (though it would be cool if you could fight other submarines and/or sharks and squids), Drakon (not necessarily great game, but heavy on exploration)

I'm surprised that Tom picked Dungeon Roll over the D&D Adventure board games. When you mix 3-4 of the D&D sets together you have so much variety in tiles to explore and monsters to fight that it makes a great exploration game.