Gloomhaven and Time of Crisis with no real contest. Played Gloomhaven a few times with friends but mostly solo and loved it. Time of Crisis was also excellent. Handful of Stars was pretty late in the year and gets an honorable mention. God's Playground was new to me this year too and is a very good three player game. Pax Renaissance still gets the title of game I'd love to play more but can't get others interested in. Alien Artifacts, The Expanse, Exodus: Proxima Centauri, Colonial Twilight, Sol, Assault of the Giants, Inis, and the Godfather all ranged from bad to tolerable.
It was a slow year for me too. But here were my favorite new-to-me games.
Sekigahara - I have only played this once, but it absolutely blew me away.
7 Wonders Duel - I do not like regular 7 Wonders, but I like this one a lot.
Bemused - I know this game has really not worked for some people, but it has been gangbusters for me. My only beef is that I really think it needs six people to be at full strength. Otherwise I really like it.
I don't know if I played anything new this year. I would say Cthulhu Wars even though I played in the last few days of 2016 after receiving it for Christmas, so it probably wasn't included in the best new to me 2016.
Egg Shen wrote: Near and Far - This is probably Ryan Laukat's best design. It's mixture of Route Building, Party Assembling, Paragraph Reading, and Exploration feels like the boardgame equivalent of the mighty platypus. I need to play this one a few more times, but my initial exposure to it has been very positive. The world that Laukat has been carefully curating over the his past few games is interesting and filled with wonder.
That's cool, this one is on my Christmas list. I've played Laukat's Islebound a bunch this year with my son, and we both like it a lot. I really like Laukat's art.
My other new-to-me favorite this year has been Star Wars: Destiny. I totally got sucked into this one.
I like Escape from One Million BC, but it runs a bit long for what it does and the design is so tight that each play is somewhat similar to the last, despite the innovative map. The new Buffy the Vampire Slayer boardgame felt like an abstract Arkham Lite that wasn't much fun. Shadows Over Hammerhal feels like a missed opportunity compared to its Silver Tower predecessor, turning a nice co-op dungeon crawl into a lite rpg. Campy Creatures is a great filler game (and I don't normally like filler games) but a bit pricy for what you get.
The best game I've tried for the first time this year was definitely The End of the World RPG by Fantasy Flight Games. I absolutely love the system and am a fan of one-shot RPGs.
Strictly board games, looking at my list of new games, I think I actually and surprisingly have to give it to Let's Catch the Lion!, a Japanese abstract game for kids. I was REALLY impressed by its balance of accessibility and decision tension.
The Elder Scrolls: Legends online CCG. I never intended to leave Hearthstone behind but it's been three months and I haven't looked back. With the prophecy mechanic that adds actual strategy as when to "go face" and the value of having two lanes instead of Hearthstone's single field I think it's by far the superior game.
The rate that you acquire free stuff is also much higher than in HS. I think I've made a comparable collection in three+ months that took me a year and a half of grinding and spending money in HS. Except that I've only spent $30 here where in HS I spent at least $150. Obviously, you don't have to spend a dime if you don't want to.
Better class combos, 50 card decks, less wild RNG, and you can turn enemies into a sweet roll.
The following user(s) said Thank You: hotseatgames
My most memorable plays were probably Pax Pamir and Zimby Mojo, both of which I played once. I love the theme and setting of Pax Pamir, even though I barely know how to play it. Zimby Mojo is just weird fun. I'm also playtesting the sequel to Bemused, which is really interesting, but I need to get it to the table with a group that will play it more than twice. I would love to get my family to play this.
Speaking of family, I got them to play Citadels, so even though I owned it years ago, it's new to my family and they seem to enjoy it. I'm hoping to learn Fields of Fire this year and VPG's new Chariot Game should show up soon.
Everything that didn't sell locally is going up on Ebay, because local new gamers don't even know what Incursion, Eastfront and Ars Victor are, and I'm no Michael Barnes.
quozl wrote: Frostgrave for me. It's an RPG / miniatures game hybrid that is simple to play and tons of fun.
I'd like to know more about Frostgrave. Is it like Mordheim? What do you need other than the rule book to play? Do you use terrain or paper maps? Proxy miniatures or ? How is the campaign?
quozl wrote: Frostgrave for me. It's an RPG / miniatures game hybrid that is simple to play and tons of fun.
I'd like to know more about Frostgrave. Is it like Mordheim? What do you need other than the rule book to play? Do you use terrain or paper maps? Proxy miniatures or ? How is the campaign?
It's the same sort of game as Mordheim but just flows better in my opinion. The multitude of spells make it a lot of fun. And yeah, it's a game you need to play with miniatures and terrain but it's got a relatively low model count and you can literally use whatever models you like.
Here's a link to a review I wrote for it over on that other board game site:
stormseeker75 wrote: I'll go with one that's way under everyone's radar: Seikatsu. It's a tile laying game for 2-3 players. Pretty good with two. Fabulous with 3. Very simple rules, great mix of tactics, strategy, and messing with your opponents. Plus it's beautiful.
Nice! I'm friends with the designer; I've driven to GenCon with him a couple times. Our boys are about the same age and he invited me up to a Nerf gun event up in Wisconsin a couple months back. He used to be super competitive and into TCG's but he's getting nicer with age. Not sure if he still plays Hearthstone over his breakfast cereal, because I didn't bring it up since I quit it.
My pick probably has to go to Kingdomino. I wasn't expecting much and I found it profoundly easy to teach and play for a reasonable amount of depth for a game of that price point. Components are banging too. Haven't cracked open our Pandemic Legacy II yet though.
Joebot wrote: My other new-to-me favorite this year has been Star Wars: Destiny. I totally got sucked into this one.
What do you like about it? I tried learning from the rulebook and it didn't 'click' at all. Do you think it would be a thing if it didn't have the license?
quozl wrote: Frostgrave for me. It's an RPG / miniatures game hybrid that is simple to play and tons of fun.
I'd like to know more about Frostgrave. Is it like Mordheim? What do you need other than the rule book to play? Do you use terrain or paper maps? Proxy miniatures or ? How is the campaign?
It's the same sort of game as Mordheim but just flows better in my opinion. The multitude of spells make it a lot of fun. And yeah, it's a game you need to play with miniatures and terrain but it's got a relatively low model count and you can literally use whatever models you like.
Here's a link to a review I wrote for it over on that other board game site:
Unfortunately, I don't have any scenery for a game like Frostgrave. So, I'm going to wait till an after-Christmas Sale and then purchase every Christmas village and winter diorama scene for pennies on the dollar. Thereafter, I'll destroy Christmas like a Grinch and take a hammer to it all in order to reproduce the snowy winter wasteland apocalypse that is Frostgrave.
The following user(s) said Thank You: panzerattack
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