I’ve mentioned it in other places, but we have a new child in our home. Which means sleep is a bit of a luxury, and a lot of these lists were written in the wee hours of the morning. Please forgive the brevity or grammatical errors you may find!
80 – Splendor
My favourite thing about Splendor:
The feeling of progression makes a game of Splendor feel splendid, ahem satisfying. I know there’s a strategy where you only buy 3rd row cards, but playing that way isn’t fun to me. I like getting a plethora of cheap gems to get to the point where I rarely ever have to visit the gem market anymore!
79 – Santorini
Previous Rank: 40 | Full Review
My favourite thing about Santorini:
The 3d building/toy factor is a large part of my enjoyment of Santorini. But my favourite aspect of the game is the variety of player powers available. Each one will drastically change how you approach your opponent, and gives lovely texture to this awesome game.
78 – Foundations of Rome
One of my favourite 2022 games!
My favourite thing about Foundations of Rome:
I can’t deny that the production of Foundations of Rome has nothing to do with my enjoyment. I love how gorgeous it is, how peoples Jaws hit the floor when I hand them their player tray. Beyond that, it’s a lovely light game. Buy deeds, build buildings, score points. Simple, gorgeous game.
77 – Viticulture Essential Edition
Previous rank: 35 | Full Review
My favourite thing about Viticulture: Essential Edition:
Like many board gamers, I just innately enjoy a good worker placement game, and Viticulture is a great worker placement game. I love building a farm, harvesting grapes, and the mechanic of aging the grapes and wine makes me smile. Realistically, I know you don’t age grapes on a crush pad, but as a game mechanic, it’s satisfying to know you can harvest bad grapes and eventually they’ll become a quality wine.
76 – Hive
My favourite thing about Hive:
Similar to Santorini, the part of Hive I enjoy the most is the variety of powers to play with. The twist is that both players have access to all the different unit types. What separates winners and closers in Hive is the order in which and how they choose to spawn their units into the play area.
75 – Go
My favourite thing about Go:
Coming in as the complete opposite of Hive, Go is the grand-daddy of abstract strategy games. A 19 x 19 grid of lines and a bowl of black and white stones. I love the relative simplicity of Go, while also harbouring an incredibly high skill ceiling.
I played Go a lot more as a teenager, and while I would love to play more, finding casual games locally is more than a challenge.
74 – Cribbage
My favourite thing about Cribbage:
I love the nostalgia that I have associated with Cribbage. Memories of lazy summer days, visiting Grandma at the cabin on Cape Breton Island, and getting absolutely skunked at cribbage made me into the gamer that I am today.
73 – Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion
My favourite thing about Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion
My favourite part of Gloomhaven is how varied the action cards are. Every character has wildly different abilities, and because Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion only has 4 characters, their abilities are designed to sync up nicely. This makes it the perfect scaffold to get into the beast that is the Gloomhaven system.
72 – 6 Nimmt!
One of the best new to me games of 2022
My favourite thing about 6 Nimmt!:
This little card game houses a lot of tension. All players simultaneously select a card, then all at once the choices are revealed. The surprise, shock, and horror as the cards slide into their appropriate rows is just a delight to experience.
71 – Mechs vs. Minions
One of my favourite new to me games in 2023
My favourite thing about Mechs Vs. Minions:
Another game with a lavish production that gets me excited to play it. But the box full of minis isn’t what I love most about Mechs vs. Minions, no. It’s the push your luck of constantly adding to your action programming row. The more you add to it, the more you can do. But the more you have to do, the more likely it is you’ll end up impotently spinning out in the corner.
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