It was down to the wire but got my 9x9 done for the year! It was an eclectic mix of games this year and there were some that I wish I’d played more often just didn’t make the time.

Quick thoughts on them all:

  1. The Crew - Really fun, starts out getting you in the groove and feeling smart about your team and your choices and then quickly ramps up. I’d like to be able to play it with the same people a bit more often as too many times there’d be one or more first timer and we’d start from mission one for them to get in the groove.
  2. Dungeon Rush - A super quick and fun reaction/slap game. Great to start or end an evening of board games.
  3. Frosthaven - Huge, complex, ridiculous in it’s scope. Love this game so much and can’t wait until our next session in a few days when we should have our first retirement.
  4. No Thanks - chill and great to play while hanging out at a bar. Some of the funniest on purpose or inadvertent hate drafting you can get.
  5. Sequence - My wife loves this one and I haven’t really been a fan, but we’ve been playing it more 1v1 recently and I think it shines a lot more that way versus as a group game. Still not my favorite but it’s grown on me a lot this year.
  6. Space Base - One of our favorite games, year after year. Still my top roll and collect card game.
  7. Taverns of Tiefenthal - A great follow up to another of our favorite games, Quacks of Quedlenberg, and one that was initially a “yeah, this is pretty fun” but really shines as you add more modules in. The expansion especially took it to the next level I feel.
  8. Ticket to Ride Legacy: Legends of the West - This was a very pleasant surprise for me. TTR has always been a ‘eh it’s fine’ game for me but my wife loves all of them, and I love legacy games, so I jumped on this for her when it released. It’s so much fun, full stop. Takes the TTR mechanics and does some really interesting stuff with them, and every game is adding something fun and new. Big recommend.
  9. Whirling Witchcraft - Another good quick game that has a great engine building while screwing your neighbor mechanic.

Honorable mentions:

  1. Aoens End Legacy of Gravehold - Got seven plays in and it’s hard but so fun. Hoping we can finish this one up in 2024.
  2. Twilight Imperium - by hours my most played game this year, but that’s because the four games of it added up to more than 10 games of Frosthaven. So much planning to get a game of it going but nothing really hits like it for ridiculous scope.