2016: A Year in Reviews

2016. Thank God it’s nearly over! While world events have been ever more depressing as the year wound on, I at least have found sanctuary in board gaming, and it’s been a very good year for board gaming!

Many blogs do a top 10 games of the year post at this time, but honestly I feel like I have barely scratched the surface with 2016’s new releases, I mean, most of them were only released two months ago! Many of the big hitters I still haven’t played (Terraforming Mars, Star Wars Rebellion…), many I’ve only had chance to play once (Great Western Trail, Oracle of Delphi). Instead, I’m going to focus on the games I’ve reviewed this year, as I know I’ve played them thoroughly! I’ve reviewed over 50 games in 2016, which are the games I’ve loved the most?

Some of these are older classics, some are brand new releases, some are little fillers, some are big-ass Euro games. I’m quite proud to have pulled together a pretty balanced list without really trying! If you want to read more about a game, click the game’s name and you’ll be taken to that review. Let’s find out my top 10(ish) games (in chronological order!)

Kingdom Builder

This hex-y legend has the look of a quilt your grandmother made when she’d mixed her medication and brandy, yet despite the incomprehensible first impression the board gives, Kingdom Builder is elegant and oh so satisfying. The push and pull of the different objectives, dealing with the luck of the card draw and proper aggressive blocking, for a Euro game. It might come across as rather abstract but I’m in it entirely for the gameplay! Great game. I should really get some expansions for it…

Codenames

Does Codenames really need any introduction? This astonishing party game has truly taken the gaming world by storm and its numerous accolades are completely well deserved. Without any doubt this is my most played game in 2016 and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was for some of you too! I have now played a couple of rounds of the more recent Codenames Pictures and it seemed just as good! May your codemaster always give 4 word clues and your opponents blunder into your agents!

Viticulture

Another not exactly new game but, hey, the start of 2016 was kind of the start of my reviewer’s journey! Viticulture is an absolute joy to play. It’s one of the most thematic Euro games out there and remains my favourite Stonemaier title (Scythe only just missed out on this list). Ah, to uncork a delicious red and settle down for a new season. I really need to get my hands on some Tuscany…

Jane Austen’s Matchmaker

Oh yes, I’m not kidding. This is the first review copy to make this list and I bet it isn’t one you expected to see! Jane Austen’s Matchmaker is a simple card game that takes this distinctly non-gamer theme and runs with it to create a beautiful satire on 19^th century ideas of marriage and the associated period dramas. Jane Austen would be proud. The theme might be a turn off for you, but if you’re willing to put on silly British accents and play up the theme, the you’ll have an absolute blast! I feel like I need to stress this so, seriously, give this one a chance!

The Castles of Burgundy

Another dip back into my personal collection for what remains my all-time favourite game. Castles of Burgundy takes dice and shows there’s no such thing as luck in a world where managing 17^th Century French estates has never been so compelling. It remains Stephan Feld’s masterpiece, and a fantastic ‘next step’ medium weight Euro game for once you’ve mastered your Viticultures and your Kingdom Builders. One day I’ll fill that estate…

Patchwork

Who new sewing would be so satisfying? Patchwork is a masterful 2 Player game. The nature of 2 player games is one of inherent direct conflict, yet Patchwork manages to liberate you from that mindset and to generally focus on what is best for you. Add to that a wonderful time/button economy (one I’m hoping Britain shifts to soon) and the hugely satisfying spatial puzzle, and you have an amazing game for gamers and non-gamers alike. One that should be in everyone’s collection.

Ominoes

When I was first offered Ominoes for review I read the short rules sheet and put my head in my hands. It’s just dice rolling, I thought, it’s all luck! How wrong can you be? Because what that rule sheet couldn’t tell me was how utterly hilarious the game is to play. It has fast become one of my favourite fillers, offering up a completely unexpected depth and a perfect level of take that. Tremendous fun and deserves far more attention than it has got.

13 Days

Another 2 player title, but this one is everything that Patchwork isn’t! Telling the tale of the Cuban missile crisis, this is a nail-bitingly tense thriller in cardboard form. You are absolutely at war with your opponent and with partially obscured objectives each round, you’ll be trying to get in their heads every step of the way. It’s a reworking of the legendary Twilight Struggle, streamlining that system into a far more accessible package that can be played in less than an hour. A fantastic achievement.

Nippon

By far the heaviest game on this list so far, Nippon has an initially dazzling array of options for you as you attempt to be at the forefront of Japan’s industrial revolution. But after only a few turns the game’s interlocking systems begin to crystallise and you realise this puzzle is all about efficiency. You will feel how you could be doing things better and that will drive you to want to play this again! The difference between your first game and your second will be astonishing, and you’ll know how much better you are as resources smoothly flow across your player board and into sweet, sweet victory points. The next step up from Castles of Burgundy, and one you should absolutely try taking!

Cockroach Poker

Back to lighter, smaller and more chitinous fair now, where being spineless is not only a good thing, it’s thematic. Cockroach Poker may well be the ultimate bluffing game. It’s perfect if you don’t want anything diluting your lies, truths and guessing whether you’re lying or telling the truth. Add in satisfyingly funky art and the fact that you play to not lose, rather than to win, and you have a tremendously good package that will have you chittering with laughter every game.

Flamme Rouge

Every so often a game design comes along that has you falling off your bike in shock at how elegantly it works. Flamme Rouge slipstreams its way past the racing games that came before it and makes its own breakaway. A simple deck management system combined with a cunning slipstream mechanic keeps the race tight and tense into the final straight where you discover who was able to manage their tired riders the best throughout the race to take the chequered flag. Interestingly it comes from one of the designers of 13 Days, making him the one designer to appear more than once on this list! Quite the achievement!

Adrenaline

One of 2016’s most unique titles, Adrenaline takes an FPS arena-combat multiplayer from video games and ports it to the realms of cardboard and plastic by way of some truly unexpected and welcome mechanics. Never has area control and resource management been so fun and so well integrated into a theme! You’ll be blasting each other with silly sci-fi guns, but you’ll also be thinking about how to do it best and the real clever thing is that either approach works.

Lisboa

Because I’m incapable of keeping to a numerical limit on board games, here is entry 13, but as Lisboa teaches us, more is always better. Lisboa is the heaviest game on this list, both in terms of decision space and complexity, as well as just pure physical mass! It’s an incredibly satisfying puzzle, telling the story of Lisbon’s recovery after a devastating natural disaster, and through it’s mechanics wonderfully evokes that theme. It’s certainly not for the faint of heart, but for experienced gamers, this is a treat not to be missed!

 

So there you have it! The best games that I’ve been lucky enough to review this year. With Christmas now only days away, this will be appropriately the final post of 2016 but I shall be back in the new year with a slew of new plans. Goodness, so many exciting things planned for the next year, I just can’t wait! See you in 2017!