Your games of the year (by publication date)

Boardgames
21

“Top 10 Favorite Games” is a pretty flat way to look at someone’s tastes. I mean, it’s still interesting, but if you asked me to make a definitive Top 10 list, I just couldn’t do it. It’s all situational; who am I playing with? How much time do we have? Am I exhausted or energetic? etc…

But by pivoting the axis on the data, you can get a deeper understanding of the nuances; when looking at a per-year best game, it realigns the comparisons along new boundaries.

I just wish there were more objective criteria by which to pivot the data.

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22

Yep! I did nearly start mine with “And now you’ll all see how conventional my tastes are…”

Fascinating that in most of these Year lists, I’m not AT ALL interested in at least 5 of the games that are other people’s favourites.

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23

It’s interesting how many party games/simple games jumped to the top for me, because I was no longer comparing them against each other. So the games I’ve had lots of fun with and could never say no to have come out on top.

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24

1993 - Lifeboats
1994 - 6 Nimmt
1995 - High Society
1996 - Nothing
1997 - Nothing (weirdly great year for evergreen games I’ve never played [Bohnanza, Mississippi Queen, Fresh Fish, Colossal Arena, For Sale, Tigris & Euphrates])
1998 - Kahuna
1999 - Schotten Totten
2000 - Carcassonne
2001 - Medina
2002 - Mexica
2003 - Yinsh (HM: Carcassonne: The Castle)
2004 - No Thanks (HM: Cockroach Poker)
2005 - Manila
2006 - Royal Visit
2007 - Tammany Hall
2008 - Ghost Stories
2009 - Hansa Teutonica (HM: Triumvirate)
2010 - Hanabi (HM: Haggis, Elements)
2011 - Dungeon Fighter
2012 - Avalon
2013 - Skull King (HM: Hanamikoji)
2014 - Five Tribes
2015 - Pandemic Legacy: Season 1
2016 - Arkham Horror: LCG (HM: Scythe, Secret Hitler)
2017 - Spirit Island (HM: Gloomhaven, Azul, Codenames Duet)
2018 - Decrypto (HM: Brass: Birmingham, Underwater Cities, Welcome To…, Blue Lagoon)
2019 - The Crew (HM: Res Arcana)
2020 - The Search for Planet X (HM: Calico, Stellar)
2021 - Botanik (HM: Enchanted Plumes)

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25

Seeing a lot of High Society on the lists, which is exciting. (I bought the gorgeous Osprey version just in time for lockdown and haven’t been able to play it yet).

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26

Ok I’m sure I’m missing some that I’m going to kick myself over but here it goes.

Also I’ve stole a bunch from everyone else’s lists to save me having to look up dates myself:

1991 - Cosmic Encounter

1994 - 6 Nimmt

1995 - Condotierri

1997: Tigris & Euphrates

2000 - Carcassonne

2003 - Game of Thrones

2008 - Dominion

2009 - Jaipur

2010 - Lords of Vegas

2012 - I apparently didn’t like anything from this year?

2011 - Takenoko it’s light but I love that bamboo action

2013 - Concordia

2014 - Five Tribes

2015 - Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 code names could have sneaked in here but I still think this is the best legacy game

2016 - Star Wars: Rebellion - this was another great year, scythe, Arkham horror LCG, Inis

2017 - Nmbr 9 - close with Anachrony

2018 - Quacks of Quedlinburg

2019 - Unmatched - might have been pax pamir 2nd edition but I’ve got more games of unmatched under my belt.

2020 - The Search for Planet X

2021 - Oath is probably winning so far but I’m not calling it yet.

4 Likes
27

1982- Survive! Escape from Atlantis

1994 - RoboRally tough to choose this over 6 Nimmt! But I did

1997 - Tigris and Euphrates

1998 - Liberte

2003 - Attika easy year as this game is great

2004 - Warriors, this and Attika are both games I still play having bought them in their year of release which is why it beat out Antiquity

2005- Indonesia

2006 - Thurn and Taxis I don’t own anything this year but had a lot of fun playing this at a club all those years ago.

2007 - Chicago Express

2008 - The Climbers

2009 - Rush n Crush

2010 - Hanabi, Innovation has only been played once.

2011 - Trick of the Rails my only choice for the year

2012 - keyflower. This is the difficult year. The Great Zimbabwe, Love Letter and Seasons all could have been chosen.

2013 - 1862 Railway Mania in the Eastern Counties, I think edges Hanamikoji

2014 - La Granja easy year even though 18OE is great and so is Murano

2015 - Burano this year is jam packed with great games. Food Chain Magnate, Iki, Montainai all brilliant but easy choice with Burano.

2016 - First Class: All Aboard the Orient Express. This is an excellent 60 minutes.

2017 - The toughest year​:scream: Spirit Island I think :man_shrugging: That does leave out Gloomhaven, Too Many Bones, Clans of Caledonia, Noria, Santa Maria, Lisboa.

2018 - Tokyo Metro. Could have chosen Teotihuacan or Quacks happily for this year.

2019 - Pipeline

2020 - Cosmic Frog. Tough year, I’ve not played many from this year, I blame Covid.

2021 - not played any so tbc.

3 Likes
28

If I am really bored one of these days, I will do a list not out of my owned collection, but out of my played games…

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29

These are some interesting choices… I’ve started with the earliest year where I actually had a choice :slight_smile:

2000
Carcassonne

2001
Unexploded Cow

2002
Age of Steam

2003
PitchCar mini

2004
Tsuro

2005
Gloom

2006
Taluva

2007
Brass: Lancashire

2008

2009
Hansa Teutonica

2010
Troyes

2011
Skull

2012
Tzolk’in

2013
1862: Railway Mania in the Eastern Counties

2014
CamelUp

2015
Food Chain Magnate

2016
Scythe

2017
Gloomhaven

2018
Root

2019
Pax Pamir 2E

2020
Oceans

2021
Railroad Ink Challenge (closely followed by Oath)

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30

What on earth is Unexploded Cow???

1 Like
31

Europe. Summer 1997. You and your most creative friends have discovered two problems with a common solution: mad cows in England and unexploded bombs in France. You’ve decided to bring these two powder kegs together just to see what happens – and you wouldn’t say “no” to a little money on the side, so round up your herd, march them through France, and set them loose behind the Cordon Rouge. If you’re lucky, you’ll come home rich before Greenpeace gets hold of you.

Either way, there’s something magical about blowing up cows.

It’s a very silly game.

8 Likes
32

Cannot sleep, so guess what I did:

400 Ludo (Parchis in Spanish, sorry) still a great family game.

1475 Chess (haven’t played in years, and I don’t own a set any more)

1745 Mus Best card game, ever. You don’t know what you are missing, the pearl of Spanish cards games.

1948 Scrabble. I used to be addicted to the phone app around 10 years ago…

1966 Twister (winner by default, although it can be a laugh)

1970 Buckaroo! (still makes me laugh when it scares my little one)

1973 Hare & Tortoise: the maths still make my brain hurt

1980 Grass. Not keen, but winner by default.

1986 Escape from Atlantis is way too simple, beating 1830: Railways & Robber Barons which is way too much.

1988 Inkognito . With Escape from Atlantis, likely my first “proper” board games, you know, in a box that farts when opening it.

1989 Hero Quest. My first board game love. Campaigned it twice with my brother…

1990 Hero Quest Advanced Quest My first board game passion (technically, I still own these last four, in my parents house in Spain, though)

1992 Articulate! (by default)

1993 Stick’em A bit too nasty for my liking, winner by default

1994 True or False: default winner. Very Meh!

1995 High Society my favourite Knizia so far, but I have hardly played any

1997 Bohnanza played only once, but would love to replay it.

2001 Munchkin: winner by default. And with the group I played it, it was a lot of fun.

2002 Puerto Rico : it irks me, but it is the best game on my list from that year. And the only one at that.

2003 Hey That’s My Fish the version I played was pocket sized, I did not think it was this old.

2004 Betrayal at House on the Hill probably my favourite horror game? Narrowly beats Cockroach Poker

2005 Ticket to Ride: Europe , still beating Risk Star Wars

2006 Thurns und Taxis : TtR to the next level. Would love to own a copy actually.

2007 Brass: Lancashire

2008 Pandemic

2009 Shipyard: a solid good game.

2010 Age of Industry Brassy, brassy

2011 Village gotta play this more!

2012 Lords of Waterdeep played hours and hours of this on Steam, only one play on board, though)

2013 Firefly stays(I think still beats Concordia in my book)

2014 Splendor

2015 Arboretum (very tight win over Raiders of the North Sea , and I am yet to play Blood Rage )

2016 Citadels Another one I have not played enough. Beats A Feast for Odin only due to length

2017 Spirit Island (sorry Gloomhaven , the spirits still beat you)

2018 Everdell my favourite worker placement game. Big box preordered.

2019 Cthulhu: Death May Die Love this game. So exaggeratedly silly and fun at the same time. Plus you punch them in the face by going mad. At last a Cthulhu game were going mad is good!?

2020 Oceans ( Tiny Epic Dinosaurs was close)

2021 Hadrian’s Wall No idea this was that modern. Great roll and write.

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33

I am seeing a lot of “Spirit Island sorry Gloomhaven” comments or is this just my bias?

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34

Yep. 2017 was a hell of a year it seems

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35

By my estimation, 2016 and 2017 were the best years for game releases. If you made me choose between the two, well… Nope, can’t do it. But I’d definitely take those two years over any other combination of two years.

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36

2018 is pretty good as well, but I know what you mean.

I wonder if 4-5 years is what is needed for games to really show their true colours and the cream to rise to the top?

The 90s just seem like Knizia was the only designer, but at least one game a year of his was superb.

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37

For me 2015 and 2017 were the years with lots of good games to choose from. 2016 was slim pickings in my collection by comparison.

Maybe with @Captbnut saying about 2018 that portion might be the golden era of board games. Sure there’s better games possibly from not those years (for me Indonesia jumps out) but maybe they sat between the small hobby and over saturation years ideally for the mechanism layers to be exciting and new before we all burnt out a bit and asmodee and Kickstarter started to take their toll? I’m not wedded to causes here but maybe chucking out some guesses for discussion. Also maybe the Pandemic times has skewed it as playing has been more difficult to really get things played to appreciate 2019 releases onwards and the uplift will be back in swinging when we can easily play games again?

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38

My 2020 and 2021 choices (and runners up) were definitely influenced by the pandemic. My 2020 and 2021 rankings all reflect one or more of the following aspects:

Dexterity
Light-weight or “family” weight
Soloable and, more importantly, it shines as a solo experience.

I mean, yeah, I have things that don’t fit those marks, but they are all either Kickstarters or expansions/continuations of pre-pandemic titles.

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39

I was surprised how few of the games on the list I actually played on the year of their release.

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40

I’m wondering if I’ve played ANY game on the year of its release…

While a tiny bit of exaggeration there, it seems I get most of my games a year or so after they release, with a few exceptions. And even then, just because I own them does not mean they hit the table around the same time. I still have some games I purchased/received years ago that have not been played.

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