Happy new year! Some usual questions!
I’m definitely in the “play the games I have” phase of my gaming life much more than the “get excited about new games” phase. (I’ve been going that way for a while.) That said, Flip 7 went from “never heard of it” to “own it and enthuse about it”, and I also enthuse about (though I don’t fully understand how best to play) Skull Queen.
Still pending regret or not: Flash Point Legacy of Flame (which I want to plunder for my regular Rlash Point games) and Deckers which may or may not be different enough from Renegades to justify it.
Feeling proto-regret about Map Masters: I’ve only got it to the table once, and it was a lot of setup for a very straightforward game. Need to try it again. But now I don’t feel enthused about it.
Ticket Gagnant looks like a bet-then-race game in the style of e.g. Downforce, but then you play it and it is very silly. Great fun.
Still looking forward to playing Compile Main 2. And I’ve rediscovered Ashes in the way I originally intended to play it: with friends, rather than in serious competition.
- What was your best acquisition last year?
HOOOOOOOOOOT STREEEEEAAAAAAAKKKK
- What was your most regretted acquisition?
perhaps Pampero. I was expecting a Lacerda copy-cat, but it’s just a massive turd
- A notable new game you played for the first time?
Aside from Hot Streak, South African Railroads is potential Top 20 Ever material.
- Any games you hadn’t played in a while but rediscovered, or just got back to, with great pleasure?
Res Arcana - recency bias, but it was good to return to it.
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I don’t remember much on which sessions were the best ones, but I am glad that I get to explore my board game collection more. I’m glad to join the Age of Steam Con and AireCon.
I play more games that I like and less that I don’t.
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For 2026:
I am looking forward to playing my copy of Compile 2. And I am highly anticipating the releases of:
HOT STREEAK
Magical Athlete or Yunnan
About half of these are good times with family and the others are laugh out loud funny at times. Seas of Strife was a huge surprise for me at 4-6 players.
HOT STREEEEAK
Thers are no choices during the race, but being able to seed the deck is so good.
Power Grid, I don’t play this nearly enough due to some AP players at my normal games night (and the tables being narrow)
It’s been good that one of the games nights moved to a night I can attend! So I guess getting back to regular gaming?
What was your best acquisition last year?
What was your most regretted acquisition?
Probably these playing cards made with “holographic foil”, which looked pretty in photographs, but turned out to be rubbish in person.
Top 10 for games that brought you the most delight in the last 12 months
A notable new game you played for the first time?
An engine builder that I enjoy (a lot)!
Any games you hadn’t played in a while but rediscovered, or just got back to, with great pleasure?
Thanks to a group of my colleagues at the office 
(All going well, 2026 might see me finally breaking out Betrayal Legacy with this group!)
The best session you had during the year?
I’ll go with the game of Cosmic Frog I played, partly because it was hilarious and fun, but more importantly because it was the first game I played with the new game group I joined in 2025, which has been an absolute joy!
Despite everything I apparently acquired 29 new games last year? WTF.
Best Acquisition: Sanctuary – just what I need right now. Runner-up: Robo Rally 30 year edition
Worst Acquisition: maybe Pulitzer, I tried to learn the rules for several days but somehow couldn’t make it far enough to start a first turn to see if the gimmick with the pin board is any good. This falls into the category “rules-complexity stopped being something I find acceptable”. I just don’t want to teach these games anymore. Runner Up: 20 Strong. My Kickstarter with the fairy tale decks delivered and I tried it a couple times and … I really need to stop trying to like Chip Theory Games. Their thing is not my thing.
Top 10 Games. Not sure I can make it to 10, let’s try (unordered)
First play: Underwater Cities. I had always meant to try that one and I finally did and enjoyed it a lot.
Rediscovered: Nusfjord + Red Rising both very nice cozy solos.
Best session: probably that big game of Terraforming Mars with 5 on Easter or maybe that big Robo Rally shoot-out with 6 Who knows…
I finally figured out this function on BG Stats to at least summarize my year, and was a bit surprised:
The surprise comes from the fact that I was expecting something more like this:
So that was all 2024. What on earth happened this year?
Splendor Duel was a new discovery. Vale of Eternity started in the spring, then again when I discovered it was on BGA. Those 40 RFTG games were likely all @captbnut (we went about 50/50, I think, touring through every expansion except Orb which doesn’t play on mobile).
I’m going to circle back to my questions, but as a starting point I was surprised at how fresh 2024 felt and how foreign most of 2025 feels in my brain.
(looking again - holy cow I have ZERO recollection of five Beyond the Sun sessions… I remember ONE.)
And I found out that 3x3 views include 5x5 views…
My top games will always be small solo games that take almost no time to set up or play. Plus 1 game I play on BGA back to back with my friend…
I see some good plays I enjoyed lots at the end of the list…
(I have not logged my Terraforming Mars app plays a lot this year)
Alright, here we go:
Key Flow - 80% of Keyflower with 50% of the rules/time. It’s a win.
TFOTR:TLOTR:TTG - Solid at solo, solid at two, and I haven’t even played it at the recommended player counts!
Keyper: Panic bought as R&D games titles go out of print and never come back. It’s Breese’s best liked game after Keyflower, but after a game on Yucata it’s likely not mine. I think it’s a game, like Elfenland, that plays well when the group holds to the right meta, but the game allows you to play in other ways that are waaay less interesting. Physical copy is still in shrink, fortunately, so we might be able to back out of this one clean.
Windmill Valley: Haven’t played yet, but it looks like a perfectly serviceable mid-weight euro. But so is Rajas of the Ganges and Gugong and Whistle Mountain and… I will play this once or twice but it’s likely duplicative.
Monza: With my 5yo. We had a RAUCUS run around the track with multiple changes in the lead, bottlenecks and breakaways… just went exactly the way you always hope it will.
Concept Kids: With my 8yo. She’s got scar tissue in her frontal lobe, along her optic nerve, in her visual cortex… just all sorts of places you want firing for board games. Board games are ideal for someone with CP, a cerebral, sedentary, social hobby. We’ve been working a lot on the basic skills. There was one day in particular when it all just seemed easy for her, she could see everything without fatiguing and put the clues together without the pieces slipping from her attention… it just worked so well and we both felt it. Really fun session for both of us. This was early December, so hoping for more like it in the new year.
Splendor Duel: This game lends itself to great sessions. Had a good one with the spouse with just the right amount of hate drafting and card nabbing with a close finish featuring an unexpected turn of fate.
Kanban EV: Playing a Lacerda at 4, in person… rare treat. And the game is good in any setting.
Notable were Azure, Vale of Eternity, Knarr, Decrypto, Key Flow, Whistle Mountain, and Honey Buzz. I’ll call out Decrypto here as the experience of working through it with 5 other Tekelites had this amazing feeling of an event. All in it together, all waiting for the next clue, all waiting for the reveal. It was amazing how it felt in an online, asynchronous format. After we finished, I felt a little like you do after a big stage production with those post-show blues, like you’ve been a part of something and it’s just gone. That said, I don’t think I could have sustained the time/energy input that we all put into it!
Notable were Carnegie, Carson City, Irish Gauge, Everdell, Grand Austria Hotel, and Feast for Odin. Here I’ll nod to Carnegie. My first run through was so-so - serviceable but I don’t need it. After cutting my teeth on New Frontiers and La Granja, which share some of the decision space, and coming back, this leapt up to top shelf material for me. It’s a dense session but you get out what you put in, and the exhilaration of your engine exploding is the real deal.
In no order:
Please don’t forget to nominate for the Pearple’s Choice Awards!
10 games that brought joy this year
Food Chain Magnate + Ketchup - got to explore a bit of the Ketchup expansion which is great. Exploring the modules was fun and outline my thoughts in the FCM thread
Hot Streak - the dumbest game I’ve played this year
Age of Steam - playing it in a convention where it is the only game being played[1] and the players are good. It was awesome
Rise and Fall - played this repeatedly enough that it is mentioned despite selling it. One of the finest (and beautiful) modern Euros ever.
Compile - I’m too casual for Netrunner/Ashes. This fits the spot.
Kingdom Builder - a bit too OG for my taste, but it’s great fun whenever I play it.
Pax Renaissance - I manage to get a small crowd that WANT to play Pax Ren that they requested me to bring it. Which is a shock. I know the game rules inside out and racked up around 300 plays (inc online), so I’m having fun playing in the backseat and not competitive.
Indonesia - no notes
The Great Zimbabwe - no notes
Stephenson’s Rocket - I’m happy in particular when I had someone requesting me to bring it becuase it’s in my Top 20 games ever. I was happy to oblige.
[1]Cube Rails and Trick Takers are also played as fillers.
What was your best acquisition last year?
I really enjoyed my couple plays of Courtisans. I would like to play it more.
What was your most regretted acquisition?
The Tea Dragon Society card game. Not because there’s particularly anything wrong with it. Mostly because I saw it at a thrift store, showed it to my wife noting it was one we had played with our friends once, and I thought she said, “Get it,” when she had actually said, “Get it if you want.” It’s cute, but I don’t feel any particular need to own it. It’s on my sell pile.
Top 10 for games that brought you the most delight in the last 12 months
Since I have mostly only played the usual games with my wife, and sometimes our friends, they’d likely be, in no particular order:
Lords of Vegas
Star Wars the Deckbuilding Game
Star Wars the Deckbuilding Game: Clone Wars
Lost Cities
Kingdomino
Ethnos
Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-Earth
Star Wars: The Mandalorian Adventures
Legacy of Yu
A Gest of Robin Hood (on BGA only, though I own a physical copy)
A notable new game you played for the first time?
I only did the first scenario, so I need to play more of it, but Metal Gear Solid: The Board Game actually seemed like it’s going to be pretty fun to go through as it doesn’t have a ton of rules overhead. The line of sight rules are easy to grasp, which can sometimes be tricky for these kinds of games.
Any games you hadn’t played in a while but rediscovered, or just got back to, with great pleasure?
Enjoyed a game or two of Quacks of Quedlinburg, Taverns of Tiefenthal, and Patchwork, which haven’t been to the table as often of late.
The best session you had during the year?
Probably a game of Lords of Vegas with my wife where both of us managed to get to 90 points after the Game Over card flipped. I had more money, so won the tie breaker. 
