I started compiling those lists in 2016, and I think I'll keep doing it—they're a lot of fun.
So here are my picks for the ten best boardgames to come out in 2018.
#10
CRUSADERS: THY WILL BE DONE (designed by Seth Jaffee, published by Tasty Minstrel Games)
Whereas Stefan Feld's Trajan used a mancala style distribution endpoint to select a player action, Crusaders picks the action from the starting point of the mancala sequence, with the value of that action linked directly to the number of pieces found there.
Players can thus raise troops, venture forth into enemy territory, fight Slavs, Prussians and Saracens, build churches and all kinds of other structures, and ultimately gain more influence than any of their competitors.
Upgrading sections of your mancala wheel is great fun, and variable player powers—together with a random distribution of enemies and bonuses across the board—keep this 60-minute game fresh and packed with action.
#9
I have a soft spot for abstract games, and also rather high standards when it comes to them. That's why I was surprised by how much I loved playing War Chest, a game people keep telling me looks a lot like chess—except for that hexgrid board and those poker chips drawn from drawstring bags.
The chips represent unit types: drawing them from your bag allows you to deploy the chip itself as a unit, spend the chip to move a unit already on the board, attack an annoying opponent, buy a new chip (more stuff jingling in the bag!) or even use a special ability.
It's a delightful bag-builder that just needs a little more variety. Can we get an expansion, please?
The chips represent unit types: drawing them from your bag allows you to deploy the chip itself as a unit, spend the chip to move a unit already on the board, attack an annoying opponent, buy a new chip (more stuff jingling in the bag!) or even use a special ability.
It's a delightful bag-builder that just needs a little more variety. Can we get an expansion, please?
#8
My relationship with Pandemic is a veritable roller-coaster. I played the base game like a maniac until I got sick of it, fell in love with the legacy version of the system, took another step back, discovered the variations built on the original engine... and now I think it's got its hooks into me for good.
In Fall of Rome, players cooperate to stop barbarian hordes from encroaching on the Roman Empire. Gears taken from Pandemic are clearly recognizable, but they've been rearranged so well (and are complemented by such clever mechanisms) that you have to keep reminding yourself that the overall system did not originate with this game.
I was already charmed by the Rising Tide take on the Pandemic ruleset, but Fall of Rome really swept me off my feet. And now I'll have to investigate and see if there's another variation out there that might be worth looking into.
In Fall of Rome, players cooperate to stop barbarian hordes from encroaching on the Roman Empire. Gears taken from Pandemic are clearly recognizable, but they've been rearranged so well (and are complemented by such clever mechanisms) that you have to keep reminding yourself that the overall system did not originate with this game.
I was already charmed by the Rising Tide take on the Pandemic ruleset, but Fall of Rome really swept me off my feet. And now I'll have to investigate and see if there's another variation out there that might be worth looking into.
#7
In a way, it's a shameless ripoff of 1989 (which itself was a reworking of the seminal Twilight Struggle). Nevertheless, it's so well executed—and dripping with so much history—that I had no choice but to include it here.
Europe in Turmoil is a tug of war between an Authoritarian player and a Liberal player, who both struggle to maintain some sort of world balance while advancing their own agendas. Will you be in a better shape than your opponent when the Great War flares up? 'Cause that's more often than not how the game ends, folks.
Europe in Turmoil is a tug of war between an Authoritarian player and a Liberal player, who both struggle to maintain some sort of world balance while advancing their own agendas. Will you be in a better shape than your opponent when the Great War flares up? 'Cause that's more often than not how the game ends, folks.
#6
This is really a second edition of Endeavor, published back in 2009. But where I had strong reservations about the original game, the new incarnation won me over in no time.
Every single wrinkle that used to irk me has been ironed out, which makes exploring the world and expanding your empire all the more inviting. The rules remain stunningly simple, with gorgeous components kept in a clever storage system. A lot of depth for a 90-minute game.
Every single wrinkle that used to irk me has been ironed out, which makes exploring the world and expanding your empire all the more inviting. The rules remain stunningly simple, with gorgeous components kept in a clever storage system. A lot of depth for a 90-minute game.
#5
CARPE DIEM (designed by Stefan Feld, published by Ravensburger/alea)
Stefan Feld is a favorite designer of mine, so it's always with great excitement that I tear into a new game of his. And despite its rather bland appearance, Carpe Diem did not disappoint. A very straight-forward ruleset drives what is at its core a simple tile-laying game. Ah, but then comes the scoring phase, where Feld reveals his own special brand of genius and creates a puzzle that turns an almost pastoral activity into a tense, cutthroat competition.
#4
I had fallen under the charm of A Study in Emerald, a strange combination of themes and mechanisms, based on the equally warped short story by Neil Gaiman. So while the theme for AuZtralia scared off some unsuspecting customers, I was attracted like moth to a flame: a train game set in an alternate 1930s, with Cthulhu and his friends lying in wait. Build and exploit your network, but get ready to defend it: when the Old Ones decide to rise up, who's to tell where and when the destruction will end?
#3
Jerry White is fast becoming an auto-buy for me, and Skies Above the Reich only served to cement his reputation as the master of open-the-box-and-start-playing solo wargames.
This time around, you're invited to climb aboard a Bf109 and do whatever is necessary to prevent a formation of B-17s from reaching the Fatherland—a task much easier described than executed.The game weaves a web of bold maneuvers, daring attacks, engrossing narratives, and a whole lot of cursing when it comes to those pesky tail gunners.
You can read my full review here.
This time around, you're invited to climb aboard a Bf109 and do whatever is necessary to prevent a formation of B-17s from reaching the Fatherland—a task much easier described than executed.The game weaves a web of bold maneuvers, daring attacks, engrossing narratives, and a whole lot of cursing when it comes to those pesky tail gunners.
You can read my full review here.
#2
BRASS: BIRMINGHAM (designed by Martin Wallace, Gavin Brown & Matt Tolman, published by Roxley)
First published in 2007, Brass became one of those classic train games against which everything else is sized up. Eleven years later, Roxley put out not one, but TWO games called Brass—Lancashire and Birmingham. While the former is an astounding reskin of the original game, with noble components and charm to spare, the latter is an intriguing variation with a different map, slightly modified rules and a new currency: beer. The package makes for an experience that might just be a notch above the original design.
#1
I was already a huge fan of Lorenzo Il Magnifico and Grand Austria Hotel, so it was with bated breath that I waited for the designers' next game to drop. Newton appeared quite late in 2018, but it was absolutely worth the wait. Clever, original and tough, the game puts you right in the middle of the scientific revolution, in 17th century Europe. You will travel, research, invent, enlist the help of luminaries—the game literally has players stocking their shelves full of books in order to score bonus points at the end of every turn.
After one play, I was fairly convinced Newton would be my game of the year; further forays confirmed that first impression in short order.
After one play, I was fairly convinced Newton would be my game of the year; further forays confirmed that first impression in short order.
DISAPPOINTMENTS
My three biggest disappointments of 2018 all happened to be wargames.
In the end, whenever I played GWC, I only felt like playing Combat Commander instead. A sure sign you'd better get back to your classics.
You'll rarely hear me say this, but Martin Wallace really dropped the ball on this one. I was all over Lincoln: an American Civil War game thought up by my favorite designer? Sign me up! But in the end, despite clever innovations, Lincoln never made it past the finish line. Hindered right out of the gate by an utter and complete mess of a rulebook, the chess match that unfolds on the board quickly becomes more frustrating than challenging. And whether or not you believe the game feels scripted (and I certainly do), it's simply not fun—and that's what games should be, first and foremost.
I really enjoyed the deck management aspect of Lincoln, and I hope Wallace incorporates it in another of his designs at some point. But you won't catch me playing Lincoln again.
STRAGGLERS
Let's conclude with three games that would have made my 2017 list had I given them a shot back then.
After a myriad variations on the Commands & Colors system, you'd think it would start to go stale. Such is not the case with Tricorne, the American Revolution incarnation of the engine Richard Borg first tried on for size with Battle Cry and then made world famous through Memoir '44. Enough rules tweaks and specialized units make Tricorne worth playing, and I'll have a hard time resisting the urge to purchase the first expansion. More blocks!
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