Welcome to the Board Game Grow Shelf of Greatness. Call it a hall of fame, or a badge of honor if you like, but the principle remains the same. Our Shelf of Greatness is made of games we consider to be excellent titles that most gamers can enjoy.

Sure, a game may get 5 Stars from a reviewer, but opinions can still vary from gamer to gamer. So we figured this would be a great way to give you a list of games that have not only gotten excellent ratings, but the majority of our team of reviewers agree as well.

So how do we choose what gets into the Shelf of Greatness? Good question! A couple of times a year, the BGQ staff (currently 10 writers and editors) will come together to vote on which games we think should be admitted to the Shelf. Our rules are simple:

• The game must have already been reviewed here on BGQ and been given an initial rating of 4.5 or 5 Stars.
• Each staff member get’s one nomination per voting cycle.
• The game must then get at least 5 yes votes to be chosen for the Shelf of Greatness. Basically, at least half our team has to agree it deserves to be in.

Our hope is that we can create a place where gamers can easily stop and see titles that the majority of our team thinks are of premium quality (both in gameplay and components.) Unlike yearly awards, this will be a persistent, every growing list that gamers can check out.

The Shelf of Greatness:

7 Wonders

Date Released: 2010
Publisher: Repos Production
Designer: Antoine Bauza
Artists: Antoine Bauza, Miguel Coimbra
Original Review Score: 5 Stars
Date Added to Shelf of Greatness: Spring 2019
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Carcassonne

Date Released: 2000
Publisher: Z-Man Games
Designer: Klaus-Jürgen Wrede
Artists: Doris Matthäus, Anne Pätzke, Chris Quilliams, Klaus-Jürgen Wrede
Original Review Score: 5 Stars
Date Added to Shelf of Greatness: Spring 2019
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Clans of Caledonia

Date Released: 2017
Publisher: Karma Games
Designer: Juma Al-JouJou
Artist: Klemens Franz
Original Review Score: 5 Stars
Date Added to Shelf of Greatness: Spring 2019
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Great Western Trail

Date Released: 2016
Publisher: Stronghold Games
Designer: Alexander Pfister
Artist: Andreas Resch
Original Review Score: 5 Stars
Date Added to Shelf of Greatness: Spring 2019
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Dominion

Date Released: 2008
Publisher: Rio Grande Games
Designer: Donald X. Vaccarino
Artists: Various
Original Review Score: 4.5 Stars
Date Added to Shelf of Greatness: Fall 2019
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Imperial Settlers

Date Released: 2014
Publisher: Portal Games
Designer: Ignacy Trzewiczek
Artists: Mateusz Bielski, Tomasz Jedruszek, Jarosław Marcinek, Rafał Szyma
Original Review Score: 5 Stars
Date Added to Shelf of Greatness: Fall 2019
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Wingspan

Date Released: 2019
Publisher: Stonemaier Games
Designer: Elizabeth Hargrave
Artists: Ana Maria Martinez Jaramillo, Natalia Rojas, Beth Sobel
Original Review Score: 4.5 Stars
Date Added to Shelf of Greatness: Fall 2019
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Rhino Hero

Date Released: 2011
Publisher: HABA Games
Designer: Scott Frisco, Steven Strumpf
Artists: Thies Schwarz
Original Review Score: 5 Stars
Date Added to Shelf of Greatness: Fall 2020
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Cartographers

Date Released: 2019
Publisher: Thunderworks Games
Designer: Jordy Adan
Artists: Luis Francisco, Lucas Ribeiro
Original Review Score: 4.5 Stars
Date Added to Shelf of Greatness: Fall 2020
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