“The game you’re playing is more fun than the one that’s sitting on your shelf.” Christ, have I ever heard a more impactful statement about not having too large a collection?! That is some proper Yoda level wisdom! These lists are such a gift, thank you Jon.

"In a particularly upbeat funeral" is a wonderful way of putting a human sacrifice.

timestamps: <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="39">0:39</a> Air, Land, Sea / Spies, Lies, Supplies 📍(2 player) <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="200">3:20</a> Order Overload* 📍(memory co-op) <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="356">5:56</a> Vaalbara 📍(compact libertaria) <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="544">9:04</a> My Favourite Things* 📍(ur chance to rank ur annoying friends) <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="720">12:00</a> Star Wars Deckbuilding Game 📍(self explanatory n i respectfully hate star wars) <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="897">14:57</a> The Number* 📍(seems like a fun gambling exp w fresh mechanism) <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1095">18:15</a> Phantom Ink* 📍(pov: ur amy adams in arrival) [stolen analogy] <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1281">21:21</a> Quickity Pickity 📍(flip it, slip it, set-collect complete it) <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1378">22:58</a> Noggin* 📍(word race challenges, anomia vibes) <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1527">25:27</a> No Mercy! 📍(push ur luck, lets- nvm) (*) games im interested to play ..don't u dare put "who ask" in the replies

I love this list. I have enough of the medium and heavy, crunchy games in my collection. What i need are these small, accessible games! Please make another list like this 😊

I laughed way too hard at the Luke Skywalker Buzz Lightyear joke.

Love the desk setup! It’s so relaxed and makes the entire set feel more at ease for a calm conversation about gaming.

The amount of variability you added to this is insane, im adding every single game to my wishlist as im watching your video. Very much appreciated

Dang, these all look fun! There's something really special about a small, well-designed game where you can see how it's playing different mechanisms against each other to create a big gray area the player's strategy has to fill. All of these seem to do that well. Thanks for sharing, Jon!

Regarding the "Am I winning or am I losing" mechanic of Air Land and Sea, the only other game I can think of that really has such a mechanic is backgammon. If you're playing a series of games, each game is worth points (usually one point, but two if you win without the opponent getting a single stone home). There you have the doubling die, where you can say "I think I'm gonna win this game, it's now worth double points", and your opponent can either accept that, or give up the game immediately, before the doubling takes effect. So when your opponent wants to double the game, you have to decide: Given that your opponent currently thinks they can win this game, would you give up a point now, or play for double value and perhaps pull the game back in your favour?

Happy to hear My Favourite Things is coming to Kickstarter! Looking forward!

“Game you’re playing is always more fun than the one sitting on your shelf” Cries at my friend group who ONLY play Catan 😭

Amazing video as always, thanks a lot for the time you put in them, and of course the great recommendations as well!😄

This is exactly the video I've been looking for. I recommend mentioning 'travel-friendly' in title as that was exactly the term I was looking for when I was looking for portable games that don't take up precious space in my luggage/car

Thanks for this video, Jon! I love how you highlight games that I don't hear about much (or at all) elsewhere. I've added a few more games to my want to play list - Quickity Pickity was already on there, but I added Order Overload: Cafe and Noggin!

Best top 10 list I’ve seen in ages. I now want to play (and buy) every one of these games

Great video! Love the small box attention!

My Favorite Things is right up my alley. Thanks for talking about it. Will definitely back it on kickstarter.

Great list - very interested in Order Overload. I like the long form videos a lot keep it up!

Wow! Great video, as always. Thanks so much for talking about My Favourite Things. This sounds amazing!

One of my late mother's favorite table games was Pit. She really got excited. The name refers to a tiny stepped arena at commodities exchanges where members call out proposed trades. Pit is an unusual type of rummy card game, in which multiple players announce proposals to trade hidden cards with each other, until one player assembles all nine of his cards into a single type of commodity, e.g. corn. He then rings the bell and yells out, "Corner on Corn" or whatever.

Another great video! Makes me want to try all ten games! Well done!

I Love the edit on your video , sectioned, ordered and well-cooked

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="794">13:14</a> "Luke Skywalker, famously the son of Buzz Lightyear" I can't stop laughing 😂

This is awesome. Thanks for the recommendations!

Great video. Bought Spies, Order Overload and Quickity Pickity this morning!

Thank you for the fun and informative list! I wrote down a few of these, some didn't resonate, but others like The Number really interest me!

really awesome and unique games like always John! great list!

I loved the number: it's simple but so much about it: you can even play it with just paper and pen and it's amazing.

im on the move a lot and often occurrence ry to teach new games to non gamers, so this list was perfect. added vaalbara and noggin to my wishlist, although noggin seems to be unavailable. air land and sea is indeed a fantastic micro and gateway game that still has surprising amount of tactical depth. subscribed!

I just added half of these to my wishlist. Thanks!

We don't just need small games to play at the end of an evening, we need ACTUALOL!! 💥

Thanks for pulling this together

So glad to hear that 'Eye My Favorite Things' is coming to kickstarter. It's true that your recommendation of this game has taunted me for years

Dice Heist. The most accessible filler game even for non-board gamers: brain tired but got time for quickie, playing with both highly strategic and simple fun players, and just a quick and fast push your luck.

Recently learnt about Vaalbara and have been playing it a lot of BGA, great game. I would definitely add some Oink games to this list as well, I always try to take either Scout or Startups with me.

I only just discovered your channel and absolutely love your videos and sense of humour. And thank you for the recommendations good Sir, just picked up Vaalbara!

Thank you John. Adding Quickity Pickity and No Mercy to my wishlist :)

Some great games on there, and I have only heard of the Star Wars one. Definitely looking some of those up. Great video!

Vaalbara looks awesome, great artwork!

Great suggestions… I’ll probably buy half of these games due to your recommendation. Thanks so much. Subbed.

Such a great work to do this video!!!! Damnnn ❤

Just want you to know that your videos bring me so much joy and information! What a combo.

I've been dying to play My favorite things since you teased it the first time! I'm so excited!

Awesome tips 😍 Great video ❤️❤️❤️

Gossip Girl and Rumor Man...solid writing and joke there, Jon! So many good looking small box games on this list! My Favorite Things and Noggin look like two games I may have to pick up for get-togethers! Thanks again!

This is great! I can rarely get a group together that has the time to play the bigger games I like (such as Betrayal At House on the Hill) I more regularly get to play the little games I toss in my book bag when I go to the bar. These would certainly give me more hours of fun per dollar, just because I'd get to play them more!

"Upbeat funeral" 🤣🤣🤣

More of these videos please, want all those games!

This is a very solid lineup

Thank you so much for this!!! We bought Air, Land & Sea: Spies, Lies & Supplies because of this video. We loved it so much!! Thank you for what you do!!

I love small games. Not sure why, but there's something super appealing to me about a game in a super compact package.

I liked most of those, great video

As soon as I saw the card that read "Initials" and the letters L and B, I reflexively shouted "Leo-nard Bern-stein!"

Great recommendations!

Such a great video!

Another fantastic push your luck, card flipping game is Port Royal. I love that the cards double as gold that you use to hire people and gain victory points. It's such a clever way to make it so never actually know which cards are in the deck because they could be in someone's gold pile.

This month played Penguin Airlines. What a gem. There is a few similar app and pc games, but it is such a fun. It is spanish made and not so popular yet in english boardgaming

you got me at 'particularly upbeat funeral' 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Nice video i like your explaination want part 2

One of your best videos! You have great board game opinions,haha

Very unique list of games. I already love ALS: Critters at War but need to try the 'sequel'. I am most intrigued by Vaalbara and the Star Wars Games. Also, you remain the KING of metaphors keep up the great content.

Great list!

I love compact games! There are great to cure boredom on a trip.

the funeral joke. dear god. hahaha

Vaalbara is a game I've been looking out for for a while. Hope it gets released in my country someday soon. I recently bought Codex Naturalis as my latest small game. Box not bigger than my hand, but it packs 100 cards and tons of variability.

I haven’t seen it yet but I’m calling Love Letter.

Cool video, I hadnt heard of a few of these.

That memory games joke was great!

Good video. Well done!

Your videos make me happy 😊

Noggin looks hilarious. Particularly the bit about shouting Red when the word is actually Der!

When you post a new video, it's like Christmas

There is NO Roquefort in Northern France

I may be a Star Wars fan. Thanks again Jon for an excellent video😊

Omg an Actualol video ♥️

I need a sequel to this video!

"Almost as hard as it is to be star wars fan." I felt that.

That starwars joke was brilliant

Another solid video, John

Color me shocked that you had a ten small games list without an Oink Game! Startups and Maskmen are probably my faves.

OK... you had me at "upbeat funeral" :D

I always end my game nights with a party game, or something like that. Chunky Monkey Business is a recent favorite

I will never stop polluting board game video comment sections with recommendations for Bruxelles 1897. One day someone on this big blue marble will pick up Bruxelles 1897 on my recommendation and I'll be thanked for it. Until then, yeah.

The Vaalbara game sounds like an evolution of Kingdomino, where you can go for something high value this turn but you could get stuck on the next. I'll have to check it out

I want to spout off a bunch of small games here, because I always travel to group meet-ups at cafes, restaurants and bars, so I carry a small bag that I fit about 10 or so small games in, but I don't know what you've covered in your other videos. I'm just going to venture one of those. It is one of the tiniest of small games. It's called iota, and it's a cross between scrabble and set. There are 64 unique, small square cards & two wild cards that come in tin with a hinged lid, like an old bandaid box but smaller. There is no set board so this thing could snake all over, so you want a large table, or play on the floor. It's 2-4 players and it takes as long as a scrabble game. Each card has a color, a shape & a number. Each person keeps 4 cards in their hand (after your turn, replenish your hand). You try to make 4 card lots; a lot is a group of 4 cards where each of the characteristics are either all the same or all different, ie all the cards are 1's on different colored circles, or each card could be a different number, color and shape. Most likely, you'll lay down 2 cards on your turn, because any two cards match, it's building up to 3 cards that's hard & achieving the lot of 4 can be very tricky or even impossible. There can never be more than 4 cards in a row. On each turn, you lay down 1-4 cards all along a horizontal or vertical line adjacent to 1 or more cards already on the table OR trade some (or all) of your cards with the draw pile. Keep score each turn like in scrabble. You score points based on each "word" created on your turn, ie if I play one card in an available corner, I've made two 2-letter "words". The score is just the numbers on the cards added up (wild cards are zero points), so a lot of all 4's gives you a higher score than a lot of all 1's. If you create or complete a lot, you double your score for that turn. If you use all cards in your hand on one turn, double score for that turn. Game is over when one player uses the last cards in their hand and the draw pile is empty; this last turn is double points. I absolutely love this game, but my experience is that other people don't get it (probably because they don't understand set) and tend to dislike it. So it's very hard to find people willing to play it with me.

Along the lines of this list- would love to see your thoughts on the buttonshy collection- so many great pocket games!

“Famously the Sun of Buzz Lightyear.” Had me cackling. 😂😂😂

Really, no-one caught the "red shirt" reference in the star wars game, classically hilarious and well done sir!

We love Actualol!

Great list of small accessible games, Loved it ❤. Designer: Royal Realms

Just a PSA that Air, Land and Sea has a variant called Critters At War, which is the same game but with a cartoony animal theme if you want something more colourful.

Love the James acaster reference!

Played Vaalbara on Tuesday and liked it instantly. Ended up buying it less than an hour later.

Upbeat funeral 🤣🤣🤣💀 <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="6">0:06</a>

Hey Actualol, could you make a video covering top games for big groups like 10 people or so!

The one game I was disappointed to not see here is Coup. Absolutely amazing, small box, you can explain it in 5 minutes and play a round in 10. Best small-box game I've played, but several here are looking pretty enticing.

We end some of our game evenings with Papayoo. Really fun tricking taking game, especially with 8 players.

Cobra Paw! Quickest, funnest small game I've ever played

honestly i enjoy the drinks/snacks decreasing/increasing as we go through the video.

Had a 9-hour layover in Dubai once with a group of co-workers. Luckily, I had forgotten to remove the copy of Love Letter from my backpack before the trip.