Honourable mention:
Nucleum
https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/156254/nucleum-review
A combination of several games’ mechanisms, Concordia, Brass and Barrage, blended together to give a new heavy Euro with an interesting setting and tough decisions. Each turn you are trying to make best use out of your tiles, and ultimately decide whether it’s best to use them on your board to use both abilities and keep the tile or place on the map as railway and possibly forgo some actions and lose the tile. You do need to extend your network however, so you can build in different areas of the map and it’s not as restrictive as it could have been. You want to build up your own network to ultimately power buildings to gain immediate and income bonuses whilst fulfilling contracts for various things you are doing. I really like the end game scoring mechanism for how to score the various objectives with you able to really drive up the multipliers for yourself with careful play. The thing that pushes it down the list is the fact it’s a massive table hog and ultimately you are doing the same thing repeatedly with your network improving with better access to spaces and materials but no really big satisfying payoff in my opinion. Some expansions may help this rise in the future, and I think after one play of the Australia map it’s a better game so it will be interesting to see what the next one does for it.
10. Darwins Journey including Fireland Expansion
https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/146379/darwin-s-journey-r... and https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/147265/darwins-journey-fi...
A Kickstarter that I waited so long for and got so excited about, and I think that may have affected its score overall as it wasn’t quite the game I hoped it ultimately would be. This is a worker placement game where you are building your workers, improving their strength in certain action and giving them the ability to perform some powerful actions that no one else can. The game is very tight, with money hard to come by and picking up and completing objectives constantly is key to success. The game does also give you goals each round as well, so there is lots of guidance but you need to manage your resources well and focus on the end of game scoring for samples which seems too important to ignore and is a major criticism I have with the game, limiting the paths to victory. The expansion improves the game with a new resource to manage, time which can be spent for huge bonuses but gives negative end game points and ongoing penalties if not paid back. This makes the game more interesting and gives more decision points with new islands and boats pushing you in different directions increasing the games depth with very little rules overhead compared to the base game. It was a little fiddly overall though, and a nightmare to teach to new players with other games achieving similar depth for less rules, and it could also be fairly unforgiving for a bad start, I wanted a couple more paths to victory rather than rushing for samples each game to then deliver.
9. Earth
(Review likely in future)
A solid medium weight game with a nature theme that plays in under 90 minutes even at the full player count, though people need to know the game as it is difficult to tell if players are making mistakes. At its heart it’s an I choose you follow but by building your tableau you can increase the actions you take even when another player chooses one of the 4 actions. Your tableau must activate top to bottom, left to right and there are cards that score for positions as well so that adds some nice considerations when you layout cards on the table. I’m glad that you can build diagonally for this reason as otherwise it would be too AP inducing where to put each card. One of my main issues is that sometimes there is too much going on, especially relating to scoring, you have your own objective as well as cards you play that want certain things along with 2 global objectives and 4 animal objectives to race against players for. It’s a bit of an overload even for me who is experienced with games, on top of the points for all the other things you do. It’s a bit of a point salad but you must focus and find cards that score for multiple things where possible, and sometimes you have 20 cards in your hand which can slow you down and make the game feel a bit like a chore. Its core design and how things interact is excellent though and I am happy to play it whenever people suggest it and just make the best with what I draw.
8. Forest Shuffle
https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/153798/forest-shuffle-rev... and https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/162506/forest-shuffle-alp...
Another nature themed card game with stellar artwork, I prefer this one due to it being drawn rather than photographed. I should also note that this game would be a couple of spaces lower if it wasn’t for the recent expansion which helps replayability with more cards removed each game and some strategies increased in strength. This is quite a simple multi-use card game really with you placing trees and trying to put the best scoring cards around them with you focusing on your scoring. This doesn’t mean you can ignore others though and it’s important to hate draft cards away from opponents to stop them scoring them and using them for yourself or as discard for other cards, removing it from the game if timed correctly. The game is easy to teach and understand and it has been my filler of choice for the past 8 months with people always enjoying their plays of it. It is very tactical since there are no scoring objectives set out so you need to respond what is available from drawn cards and cards in the offer which has its good and bad points, but it is short enough that if you can’t get cards that work together then it doesn’t matter.
7. Distilled
https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/163273/distilled-review
A real surprise to me and a game that I have only had chance to play in the past couple of months, but it offers some solid thematic card play with lots of synergies to search for and build into your distillery. It’s a game with easy-to-understand phases and the distillation phase where you take the top and bottom cards off sounded like it would annoy me, but I enjoy working around it. It always possible to distil what you want if you add the right sugars, and you can push your luck to get it done cheaper and faster if you want but it is risky. I really like this element of the game and I have seen people push their luck more and less in my plays of it. The game has some public and personal goals to keep it from being too tactical and add some depth, giving a more strategic feel which you must search for cards to help. The game feels quite different each time thanks to the way the cards are dealt and combinations of objectives that come out. It does also have an excellent solo mode that is objective based which I really enjoy and keep coming back to. The production quality is really standout too, it makes the box larger than I would like but it feels like a high-end product to make up for it.
6. Dune Imperium Uprising
(Review likely in future)
A standalone expansion based more on the second movie/later half of the original book with some changes to various spaces but a similar overall feel. Unlike the original game most of the spaces feel useful and there is reason to go up on all the tracks to unlock various other locations on the board and not just the Fremen one. There are several new elements added as well giving deeper gameplay including spies, which are a limited resource you can place on the map at connected locations letting you visit a space occupied by another player by returning it to your supply or get a card draw if no other player is at that location which is very powerful at all stages of the game. This makes the game less tight in some ways but is more to manage and plan ahead for so turn order isn’t quite as important anymore. The combat has been boosted as well with combat cards having symbols to match when won for additional points, as well as worms being added which have the same strength as dreadnoughts and perish after battle, but not before doubling the reward of the combat you were in which can be huge if you plan appropriately. From what I saw of the cards they also seemed to be more interesting and for me this is a better game than the original in terms of balance and I think it’s the one to get first if you are purchasing it. I would also be keen to try this one with the expansions to see how it feels.
5. Age of Innovation
A game that has been a long time coming, and intrigued me since I enjoy both Terra Mystica and Gaia Project but don’t love either. I think this is a better game for me for several reasons, including the fact that you can build your faction at the start of the game to give excellent replayability and the inventions themselves will vary a lot from game to game and give some clear goals, along with the round objectives giving you guidance on what to construct and crucially when. It keeps the same feel of Terra Mystica which is my preferred of the two other games, but adds some benefits to the 4 tracks you move up to give some income bonuses which was obviously inspired by Gaia Project. Books were a nice addition as well with them being used for the innovations which are big payoffs with proper planning and also can be used for powerful actions in round, similar to power actions adding more resource management to the game. This also adds more things for players to race for each round and increase the decision space of the game overall. For a more traditional resource management Euro player such as myself this is the one game of this series I would ask to play.
4. Shipyard 2nd edition
https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/155617/shipyard-2nd-editi...
A game I waited a long time for a reprint of, and even better, a second addition with component trays to store all the components, along with refinement of the action selection mechanism to feel more like the designer’s recent releases. The game is exceptionally streamlined with end of game contracts to meet, along with scoring during the game. Everything is very connected, and you need to take the right action along with getting as much money as possible so you can take bonus actions when you are locked out by other player’s cube. It is a rondel action selection mechanism at its core with some crucial blocking that you have to work around, and I really like it, as much as Woodcraft and nearly as much as Praga. The puzzle of getting the right bonuses and using them for your ship building is cool too and my only problem with the game is that some of the contracts seem easier to maximise than others and with so few ways to score big points I think this could be the difference in some games, fortunately you get 3 of each type at the start and discard down over time giving you some control and let you respond to the available tiles.
3. Great Western Trail: New Zealand
https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/159971/great-western-trai...
The final game in the trilogy which is the heaviest, but I think the most rewarding once you have all the rules down. This game feels more like a deck builder than a hand management game compared to the others with a real ability to cycle your cards with the option of sheering sheep on the trail as well as delivering them at the end. There are also more deck building cards in the game that replace themselves, so they don’t clog your deck but rather keep giving you bonuses, and you see more cards each travel round the board overall. The deliveries are again more interesting and are akin to the Rails to the North expansion for the original with added paths to fork around during your actions. These again can give you more cards to play with and it’s a nice puzzle overall. The decision on whether to take a sheep for its wool or market value is great as well giving you more agonising decisions even when simply travelling to the market. There seems to be a lot of different ways to go in the game to score points and you can really specialise in what you want and do well I think, though travelling with your ship does seem essential. I have a couple of small gripes keeping it from the top 2 spots with it being a massive table hog that is actually quite hard to layout along with a couple of extra elements, pathfinder track for example, that doesn’t need to be there in my opinion.
2. Planta Nubo
https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/154783/planta-nubo-review
The latest heavy Euro polyomino worker placement game from Uwe Rosenberg, this time with some additional co-designers I had no previous experience with. This isn’t out in English yet so I have been playing and enjoying the German copy but it is all iconography, so it doesn’t matter. The game has a really good production with dual layered player boards which are 100% essential unlike some others I have played, and quirky artwork for its novel setting. The polyomino tile laying is interesting as you need to clear the flowers you take to overlay more tiles for points and income so is a challenging puzzle to manage. The worker placement is also great, with you placing between 2 action tiles but others can block you from doing so by placing their same tool adjacent to an action tile, additionally you are keeping one for an end of round bonus so there is a lot to consider on each turn, which can lead to some AP unfortunately. The best thing about the game is the energy track which you cycle round and power the various cards you collect giving on-going effects or ones you can activate at the end of your worker placement action. The recipe fulfilment part of the game is fairly standard and has been done before but works well enough. Again, the reason it doesn’t get to be my number 1 release of the year is extra rules and fiddly-ness. If the game had lost 20% of its rules, say the copper pipe and composting mechanisms, I think it would be better for it, along with constantly having to track how much movement you are getting on the energy track and which things each step activates is a lot to manage even for yourself let alone checking newer players.
1. Pirates of Maracaibo
https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/156948/pirates-of-maracai...
Two years on the spin for Alexander Pfister with this spin-off of Maracaibo being my number 1 release this year which has only just got to the USA. Unlike the other 2 games previously mentioned above this one doesn’t feel fiddly or that there are too many rules, giving a smooth playing experience and the feel of Maracibo in just over half of its game length. The map is a great design with it being formed of cards and it behaving as large card market for you to target cards that help your strategy. There is plenty of engine building from the cards to your ship, and rolling dice for the raiding actions feels exciting and there is plenty of mitigation there, so it feels sort of like the dice in A Feast for Odin. There are a lot of ways to win with lots of different strategies and the residences can give some nice guidance at the start of the game which is great for replayability along with lots of cards unseen each game. The game is nice and fast as well and the only thing stopping it hitting the table more is quite a lot of rules and icons to teach, and a player aid might have been useful. It has become a go to solo game with such an easy to run automa which is highly competitive. I’m glad it’s getting an expansion to add some more elements and I’m really looking forward to seeing what it adds. A top 20 game for me.
Revised top 10 games released in 2022
10. Roll Camera!: The Filmmaking Board Game incl. Exp (New)
9. First Rat (8)
8. Great Western Trail: Argentina (7)
7. Marrakesh (3)
6. Wayfarers of the South Tigris (new)
5. Perseverance Episodes 1 + 2 (6)
4. Woodcraft (5)
3. Revive incl. Exp (4)
2. Amsterdam (2)
1. Skymines (1)
A couple of new entries from games I hadn’t had chance to play along with cooling a little on Marrakesh. A really good year for games though with several entries into my top 30 and 2 into my top 10.
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