We’re past the halfway point of the year, so we’re way overdue a best games of the year so far rundown:
Best card game – SCOUT
SO GOOD, SO SO GOOD. Can’t recommend this one enough. It’s a ladder climbing game (posh way of describing a game where you are trying to get rid of all your cards). However, you can’t reorganize your hand once you pick it up. You CAN however re-orientate it up or down as it has a number on the top and bottom. If you Scout (an action you can take), you can take cards from the table and slot them anywhere in your hand to improve the order. So there are lots of ways to manipulate your cards. It really is a brilliant design that plays very differently depending on the number of players too.
Best Light/Medium Strategy Game – Foundations of Rome
First off, this game costs a fortune and is only available if you have/will kickstart(ed) the game. It’s enormous, over-produced (depending on your opinion) but is a wonderfully elegant design. 3 simples actions; buy a plot of land, take money or put down a building. There is lots of indirect interaction as you try to take advantage of each others building to score points while the city slowly grows up on the board. It definitely like a game from 15-20 years ago when rules were simpler, but the decision space is still broad and the games play out very differently depending on the choices made by players. We like this enough it will be in the library…
Best Heavy Strategy Game – Ark Nova
I’m going to have to go with the masses on this one (even though I personally think Carnegie is better). Build a conservation park using almost 200 different cards. It combines lots of mechanisms, which although not new, are rarely used in games, so it feels fresh and innovative. The sheer quantity of cards as well as the variety of starting parks with asymmetric abilities makes every session feel different as the game forces you to try different strategies depending on the cards your dealt. Probably best as a 2 or 3 player game (4 players will make a long game), this one is already pushing the top 10 games ever on boardgamegeek, quite the feat for such a new game.
Best Kids Game – Magic Mountain
This is a kids game! Then why do we keep teaching it to groups of adults? Cos it’s such silly fun. It won the Kids game of the year and deservedly so. It’s got a pachinko vibe to it as you drop marbles down course and hope they hit your students rather than the witches. It is primarily a co-op game, although can be played competitively as well. It’s got all the parts that kids love. Moving parts, excitement, unpredictability, a little bit of thinking (without them realising it) and great components at a very reasonable price. We love it.
Other tremendous games:
Living Forest – winner of the advanced game of the year.
Cuphead: Fast Rolling Dice Game – shocking I know, but it’s really good!
My Father’s Work – big, innovative, app supported worker placement game
Blood on the Clocktower – the best werewolf type game ever (why are so many good games this year horribly expensive).
Switch and Signal – a great co-op train game that actually feels like you are controlling trains
