Games of the Year

This should wait until January, but nevermind. Tabletop Gamer gave their top ten games of the year in their latest issue. I only flicked through it on the newsstand so I don't remember them all (if somebody has the issue at home, please update/correct me), but it looked something like this:

[Edit: Corrected by BeardyTom]
10 - This War of Mine
9 - Twilight Imperium (Fourth Edition)
8 - Yamatai
7 - Tales From The Loop
6 - Gloom of Kilforth
5 - The 7th Continent
4 - Starfinder
3 - Century Spice Road
2 - Gloomhaven
1 - Pandemic Legacy: Season Two

I want to know what your favourite games that released this year are. If you can't remember what games came out when, this might help:

Board Game Geek - Released in 2017 (sorted by Board Game Rank)

It seemed like this year there have been less brand new games appearing on the table, and less people in the meet-up threads looking for players for their latest purchase. I wonder why. Legacy and campaign games might be a big part of it, tying up the more dedicated gamers for many more Tuesdays than usual.

The result is that I've played far less 2017 games this year than I would have played 2014 games in 2014. I've only played Centuary Spice Road of those listed above. I like it, but I'm sure it wouldn't be my choice of all the 2017 games I could have played (Aside: hey, I din't know about this).

My first thought is Magic Maze, which is probably the best real-time co-op game ever. I could certainly play more Cave vs Cave. Sagrada I wasn't fussed by.

What about you?


PS: How the heck have I not seen One Night Ultimate Alien at the club, yet? One Night Werewolf used to be a firm club favourite.

PPS: The game I've enjoyed the most this year overall (regardless of release date) is Tigris and Euphrates.

I've played a few of the 2017 games but like Sam I've only played Century Spice Road from the list in the magazine.  Unfortunately I've only played the other games once so it's hard to form an opinion.

Probably my favourite games I've played are the Unlock ones, loved playing through these. Barenpark was another good one.  I also enjoyed Unfair and NMBR9.

Not 2017 games but new to me was Modern Art and Via Nebula. Really enjoyed playing both these very different games.

Worst for me was Abandon Planet, I can see why other people liked it but it was just a slog for me, sorry!

Loved Abandon Planet the first time with 5 players, but, yeah, that 8-player game didn't quite do it for me. You've got more possible people to esacpe with, which makes the resource gathering and alliegences less vital and less dramatic. Despite that, more people means more noise and more conversations, more time spent showing more people cards etc. It's a slightly social game but all the table crosstalk doesn't add up to as much as in something like Avalon. Maybe that's what made it a slog. I'd give another try with 6 people or less, though.

My worst? Mint Works, perhaps. I think making a 10 minute worker placement game is just a silly idea. All the hooks of the genre are stripped away. Good for an experiement, maybe, but in play it's kind of watery and pathetic. That's just having plaed it once, though (in the cinema lobby after watching John Wick 2, which was such as rubbish film I might have been in a bad mood anyway).

Unreleased:
Gaia Project
Charterstone

You mentioned one great abstract, but another would be lyngk. Another great gipf game after a decade of silence. That's something special.

The escape/unlock stuff has really upped a genre.

Keen to play clank in space.
Very keen to play a couple of Alea 10th anniversary editions (Notre dame)(in the year of the Dragon)

Look outside of some of the hype. There are tons of new euros and grid movement games which might be great, but aren't vert innovative. Herding cows?

I've also only played Century Spice Road from the list (plus one game of This War of Mine), so likewise can't really comment on them...except to say that Spice Road is definitely one of my most-enjoyed games from this year. Also thoroughly enjoyed Unfair, NMBR 9, Sub Terra, Dice Forge and Flick 'em Up: Dead of Winter.

Non-2017 games I've enjoyed this year are River Dragons, Hero Realms, Kingdomino, Mechs vs Minions and Tales of the Arabian Nights, amongst probably quite a few others!

Keen to play a few more of the 2017 releases, in particular Ex Libris.

Least favourite this year? Escape From the Aliens in Outer Space - just not my kind of game I think, the central concept of the hidden movement meant I basically had no idea where anyone was, and being unable to even hazard a guess at that just induced frustration unfortunately.

Tabletop Magazine's list went:

10 - This War of Mine
9 - Twilight Imperium (Fourth Edition)
8 - Yamatai
7 - Tales From The Loop
6 - Gloom of Kilforth
5 - The 7th Continent
4 - Starfinder
3 - Century Spice Road
2 - Gloomhaven
1 - Pandemic Legacy: Season Two

It's not, and could never be, any kind of definitive objective statement about what are the best games. What I suppose you can say is that the games on list's like this are games that at least some people  think are really good and so are worth checking out. The ranking is pointless, really, because what possible metric can you use to compare Century Spice Road with Tales From The Loop, but I guess it's a conversation starter.

SamVS wrote:
It seemed like this year there have been less brand new games appearing on the table, and less people in the meet-up threads looking for players for their latest purchase. I wonder why. Legacy and campaign games might be a big part of it, tying up the more dedicated gamers for many more Tuesdays than usual.

The result is that I've played far less 2017 games this year than I would have played 2014 games in 2014. I've only played Centuary Spice Road of those listed above. I like it, but I'm sure it wouldn't be my choice of all the 2017 games I could have played.

I've played some 2017 games and I've even bought some. Generally, though, I think I've seen fewer games released this year that I've been excited about compared to previous years, but I think that's more to do with having been in the hobby a few years now and having already found loads of amazing games that I love. Anything new would have to be really special for me to get really excited about it. I've heard people say that new games are for new gamers and there's some truth in that.

Pandemic Legacy Season Two is great so far. Polly and I are up to June, so there's plenty of surprises yet to come in that, I'm sure.

Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: Jack the Ripper & West End Adventures was great to play, too, although I'm not sure I'd count that as new for 2017 as it is gathering together and editing some previously published cases.

The 2017 game I know I'm going to be playing a lot more of, though, is NMBR 9. This has jumped straight to the top of the pile for quick, fun, family games that I can get non-gamers into as well. It takes 30 seconds to explain the rules and I find it's still really fun to play (although all the heavy sighs and occasional swearing might give a different impression).

RikTheChief wrote:Not 2017 games but new to me was Modern Art and Via Nebula. Really enjoyed playing both these very different games.

I'll play those two anytime, Rik.

BeardyTom wrote:Tabletop Magazine's list went:

10 - This War of Mine
9 - Twilight Imperium (Fourth Edition)
8 - Yamatai
7 - Tales From The Loop
6 - Gloom of Kilforth
5 - The 7th Continent
4 - Starfinder
3 - Century Spice Road
2 - Gloomhaven
1 - Pandemic Legacy: Season Two

10 - Played it, it was ok, but if you're unlucky your entire contribution to the game could be extremely limited. I would play it again, but I'm ok with not playing it.
9 - I like T.I. but I struggle to find enough time to dedicate to it. Hence, I've not played #4 and probably won't.
8 - I liked the look of this, so bought it at the expo. Haven't played it yet. #surprise!
7 - Would love to play this, though probably don't have the time to commit to it!
6 - Don't know much about this one, and what I've seen isn't shouting out to me. I could be wrong - it's happened before...
5 - Another huge time commitment that I simply don't have - looks really good though!
4 - Meh
3 - Another one I own, and I've actually played it! I really like it,
2 - Haven't played my copy yet, but had a "taster" game last week - I'm really looking forward to getting started in the new year.
1 - Our intrepid team have only played one session so far, so can't compare it to season 1 (which was ace).

I think you're right, Sam, that expensive and involved campaign games have perhaps started to take up a bit more time. And I agree with Tom that a new game for me would have to be really special, for practical reasons aside from anything else. My room for games is basically full so I need to operate a Quinns-style one-in-one-out system for anything new I get so the bar has been raised significantly from "does this look like it might be fun?" to "do I think this is going to be better than a game I already own and by sufficient margin that I'll go through the hassle of selling a game?"

I haven't played even nearly enough of the 'top' games to have an opinion on the 'best' of 2017. That said, a few of my favourites that were published this year:

Spirit Island - Really interesting and involved co-op game with a different theme and loads of replayability.
Magic Maze - I love a real-time game and this has just the right amount of frustration, fun and slow build of complexity.
Yamataï - Gorgeous, deep and fun building game that probably reminds me most of Five Tribes (but I prefer Yamataï!).
Ghostel - Not just because I'm in it! I like the surprising depth to this game, and the way that it encourages teaming up and treachery whilst being very simple.

And some that were published this year that I've only played a tiny bit (or not at all) that I'm looking forward to discovering properly very soon:

Gloomhaven - Seems good! I'm a sucker for a big box.
Battlestations 2nd edition - Although the tutorial missions were a bit long, I love the potential of this open-ended starship + tactics game.
Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Card Game - I playtested this and it has a really interested double-sided card mechanic. Plus the art!
Twilight Imperium 4th Edition - Streamlined in the same way as putting fins on a lorry, I suspect, but I love our quarterly full-day TI sessions and I'm excited to see how things change in this edition.
Pandemic Legacy Season 2 - Bit of a wildcard from some unknown designers but might be good(!)

paulyg wrote:I think you're right, Sam, that expensive and involved campaign games have perhaps started to take up a bit more time. And I agree with Tom that a new game for me would have to be really special, for practical reasons aside from anything else. My room for games is basically full so I need to operate a Quinns-style one-in-one-out system for anything new I get so the bar has been raised significantly from "does this look like it might be fun?" to "do I think this is going to be better than a game I already own and by sufficient margin that I'll go through the hassle of selling a game?"

I haven't played even nearly enough of the 'top' games to have an opinion on the 'best' of 2017.

This almost exactly sums up my views on gaming in 2017, complete with a one-in-one-out system I started this year. My collection hasn't increased but I've bought some new games.

Of games released in 2017, I've bought Pandemic S.2, Century Spice Road, Codenames: Duet, Abandon Planet and Flamme Rouge

I've also played Near and Far, Magic Maze, The Godfather, Mint Works and Caverna: Cave vs Cave.

A fairly paltry amount. Of those I think Century Spice Road is my favourite but I haven't played anywhere near enough of it; I also really like Flamme Rouge. Near and Far is my most played.

Baseball Highlights 2045 has probably been my most played this year, not new but I've added a lot to it in the last 12 months and got real value out of it. That and Rhino Hero: Super Battle.

10 - This War of Mine
Played this a couple of times - its really a solo game thats padded to add in stuff for other people to do. *very* dark. I like it a lot, but its definitely a once in a blue moon game.
9 - Twilight Imperium (Fourth Edition)
I was massively overwhelmed the one time I played 3rd Edition, but since that had a lot of people and a lot of expansions that's also perhaps not suprising. Definitely interested in giving this a spin.
8 - Yamatai
Found this very similar to Five Tribes - both the good and the bad. I enjoyed it.
7 - Tales From The Loop
Not played
6 - Gloom of Kilforth
Not played
5 - The 7th Continent
Not played
4 - Starfinder
Not played
3 - Century Spice Road
Found this very similar to Splendor, which I really liked. So you'll be shocked to know I really liked this too. Also, like Splendor, I got my ass kicked at it
2 - Gloomhaven
Only played a taster game but I'm officially hungry for more.
1 - Pandemic Legacy: Season Two
Starting this next week, absolutely raring to go!

There have been very few games that I've not enjoyed this year - only real duds for me were Salvation Road, Battlestations (although everyone else seemed to enjoy it) and Nyet. Most everything else I played I enjoyed - including our ongoing campaigns of Seafall and Mechs Vs Minions.

High points for me would be Burgle Bros., Isle of Skye, Santorini and Manhattan Prioject. None of which were new this year, but *were* new to me this year

Top 10 as taken from BGG List of 2017 releases

Sorted by their board game rank

1. Gloomhaven
   
2. The 7th Continent
   
3. Anachrony
   
4. Clans of Caledonia
   
5. Pandemic Legacy: Season 2
   
6. Near and Far
   
7. Lisboa
   
8. Century:Spice Road
   
9. Sagrada
   
10. Codenames Duet
    

Only played Gloomhaven and This War of Mine from the magazines list. Think both are fantastic! Both in my Top 5 of all time

7th Continent, Anachrony and Near and Far are on my to play list. Super cool looking!

Century: Spice Road was disappointing, I was super hyped for its release with the original two versions but then they went ahead and changed it a bunch. Lost interest after that.