I wrote a bit about my gaming in 2022 in the article on games from 2022 I haven’t played. There wasn’t a whole lot of it. I probably couldn’t make a list of proper video games. However I got into digital board gaming about a month ago. I got neck deep and by now I have over 100 games there under my belt. I’ve tried 30 different digital implementations of games (I haven’t got far enough in some of them to really asses my thoughts). A lot of these are super solid games, classics and this list with one exception consists of games I would like to have on my shelf in their physical form. Or their close relative.
My new passion for digital board gaming connects to another news. I bought several board games. All of them second hand and I haven’t played any of them yet. But it’s gonna be an interesting base for changes, which my appear in the next edition of my board game wishlist and overall content of posts on this blog.
This year I have quite a list of honorable mentions. These could easily make it top 7 or top 10, but some of them don’t feel like they should be on the list and that the overall number of games is too small for me to have a longer list. Let’s start with Tropico 5. I played quite a bit of it in January and had fairly good time and I would like to return to it, but there’s also a lot I don’t like about it. The central gimmick feels sometimes restrictive, sometimes I started losing after several hours and couldn’t get myself out of the hole in time. I would like it to be slightly more organic and easier to make nice areas around your island.
Next on, Soma Union. I def would feature this game if I’ve managed to play more of it. I’ve started playing it some two days ago and I’m not very far. Might be on the list next year.
I also want to mention three little web games I played earlier this week. Descent is a cool atmospheric horror puzzle. Karawan is a tight survival snake inspired strategy with cool visuals. Kinsplant is a weird atmospheric multiplayer game about finding and hiding and object. I love the visuals and the atmosphere. I didn’t manage to find the object, but I killed some zombies.
I also want to mention some board games, which are great but not quite top tier for me for various reasons.
El Grande is a great game and I would live to play it with real people at a real table. I played a turn based digital version. It took weeks and one third in I knew I had already lost. Not the best time, but the game’s good and I would like to play more.
Chicago Express is a fast-paced cube rails games. I’ve only played it once but it was really fun and easy to understand. Right now, I’m in a second game with more players and I still like it.
Pier 18 is a stylish 18 cards game. It’s very light and fast and the way you score is super fun. It’s just too light to have the same staying power or depth as other games further on the list.
I feel like that’s more than enough for honorable mentions. Now, the list. An aside. It’s always more difficult to find pictures for board games, especially older ones. I used some pictures from Bgg. The pictures for Obsession and Tinner’s Trail are official. Carnegie uses a 3D render provided by the publisher. Assyria uses a picture from the bgg user Colin Jennings and Kingdom Builder a picture from the user Svetlana.
5. Kingdom Builder
Before playing it I heard about Kingdom Builder that it is too abstracted and that it’s too random without sufficient depth. It might be true if you play it casually. But this very simple set of rules presents a great competitive game. Learning to use randomness and mitigate it is a big part of enjoyment. Various scoring cards and special tiles change the way the game plays and the way it scores. Merchants turn it into a game of connections (almost a cube rails game), Lords make it an area majority game. The game shines at three players. The board doesn’t feel crowded, but blocking and grabbing these special tiles is more important than with two. Also it’s less likely that you get stuck with bad cards, because it’s more likely that someone blocks off the rest of the territory or something. I like this one as a digital game but I wouldn’t mind trying a physical version with expansions or its sequel, Winter Kingdom.
4. Carnegie
Carnegie is the new hotness, the highest ranking game on BGG from 2022. There is a good reason for that. The game offers a great mix of mechanisms, fun engine building and worker manipulation and action selection and it is layered and brainy and satisfying. There’s a lot of depth to it and I know I still have a long way to make every move of mine good and satisfying, to utilize all of the rooms in your headquarters well. But learning the fine intricacies of this game is part of the fun and pulling out an occasional big move feels just good. The game looks classy too and I wouldn’t mind having a copy of this Ian O’Toole illustrated masterpiece at home.
3. Tinner’s Trail
This is a game I enjoyed the most. Its mechanisms feel thematic and you interact with other players a lot. Basically, it’s an action point game with auctions and resource extractions. Every decision feels important in more ways. It also left me curious about another Martin Wallace design - Brass. I like that production more and I feel like a little more crunchier version of this might be even more fun. Here, the board is too busy for me to like it as a physical item. Still, it’s a lot of fun with many difficult decisions.
2. Assyria
I find this to be the exactly kind of the game I would like to have in my collection to pull out once or twice a year. The game is highly interactive (most of my fav board games have that in common, I find myself disliking multiplayer solitaire and cooperative games) and actually fairly light. The combination of mechanisms make it feel, at least to me, very thematic. The way you need to feed your huts and the way they get at the end of round flushed away by floods puts me in sandals of that ancient nomadic chief. The way you score points is mildly point salad-y but in a good way. There are not many choices or decisions but every decision feels interesting and important. Even the way you can sacrifice some of your huts in order to be first one to play is interesting. This game is a hidden gem and I expect it to get a new version and well-deserved recognition.
1. Obsession
Yes, I might be slightly overhyped here, because I crushed my opponents in the single game of this I have played so far, but I like this a whole bunch starting with the production. I just want to have this on my table. Cards, tiles and wooden meeples, all of it looks exquisite and helps the overall theme. The game feels extremely thematic as you are hosting various parties and other events in various rooms of your estate and use your servants to host them. The last part are guests. You’re trying to get the best hand of guest possible, but I wouldn’t call it a deck building game. The game presents you with many options and none of them feels boring, even passing and replenishing your hand is good and rewarded with some money. I can’t wait to play more, but I also want to chat more during the game and really got into the role of Victorian aristocracy. It’s just pure joy.
And that’s it for this year. Next year, hopefully video games are back and board games aren’t just their digital implementations. Look at it, real things look so nice and tactile.
