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My massive backlog of games to talk about didn't lessen in 2022, only got worse. 2022 was a big year for playing games, bigger than 2021, which I thought was big enough! Below is the breakdown of games I played in '22 versus '21. 2022 Number of different games played: 139. Of which were new (To me.): 68. Total number of gaming sessions: 541. 2021 Number of different games played: 78. Of which were new (To me.): 46. Total number of gaming sessions: 333. Why have the numbers gone up so much? Two factors, 2022 saw the end of lockdowns and a full year of playing on Board Game Arena where not only could 5 or 6 games be easily played in an evening, some games could be played multiple times per session. Most played games:
Lucky Numbers, with it's simple, unpredictable, luck based and strategy mechanics replaced Lover Letter as our regular 'finisher' on Sunday nights. Now on to the industry-defining, glittering, 3 Spellcasters & a Dwarf annual game awards.
These are for games I first played in 2022, not neccessarily Game of the year: Cascadia Cascadia is a tile-placement game with fairly simple rules but a wealth of options, strategies and approaches to scoring points. Players have to manage and optimise multiple scoring vectors that use tiles and tokens but rarely do they get to draft both the tiles and tokens they need, forcing them into meaningful, compromising decisions. What more could you want? Disappointment of the year: Terminator: Dark Fate The Card Game This co-operative deck-builder had some interesting ideas but also seemed broken, so much so that we struggled to make any headway into the game. It felt like the game needed more playtesting and balancing. Surprise of the year: Akropolis Another tile-laying game! This time one with actual figurative multiple levels of gameplay! Simple rules, lots of decision and a quick playtime make this game a cracking package. Honourable mention: Parks For a long stretch of 2022 I thought that this worker-placement, resource-management game was going to be the game of the year until Cascadia came along. With limited workers spaces along the hiking trail, players are faced with trying to anticipate their opponents actions while also prioritising their own and gather the resources to buy point scoring cards. Parks also has some of the best components and artwork I've seen in a game for a while.
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Since I've managed to acquire a massive backlog of games to blog about, some of the games mentioned here won't have links or blogs yet. They'll be added as and when possible. At the start of 2021, I wondered whether my gaming would pick up in '21? The answer is a resounding yes! The breakdown is below. Number of different games played: 78. Of which were new (To me.): 46. Total number of gaming sessions: 333. 2020's numbers. Total number of different games played: 29. Of which were new (To me.): 13. Total number of gaming sessions: 49. Why have the numbers have significantly increased? Put simply, it's due to Board Game Arena: Around May 2021, we reconnected with an old friend who had moved abroad and we started playing games on BGA and playing games digitally is really quick! There's no unpacking and packing, or setup and clean up, there's even no need to tally scores, it's all done automatically. As a result, it's easily possible to play 4 or 5 games in a 3-4 hour window and this includes playing a game several times! Hence the six fold increase in game sessions. Which games were played the most?
Love Letter is a fairly quick game to complete and we probably play 2 or 3 games per session on BGA, so I don't doubt we've played it over a 100 times in 2021; not bad for a game that only consists of 16 cards. Over 2021, Love Letter became more of a ritual than a game, the calculating, the guessing and double-bluffing, twists of luck and reversal of fortune, along with the banter and bragging made it our mainstay over BGA. Enough of boring numbers; it's time to now talk about the highly coveted and still world-beating 3 Spellcaster and a Dwarf 2021 game awards!
These are not necessarily new games, but they are games I first encountered in 2021. Game of the year: The Crew: Mission Deep Sea. What a game! It blends analytical, cooperative gameplay and whist-like trick-taking to pack so much longevity and replay value into a 40 card deck, a 96 card task deck and some tokens; it's almost mind boggling. Even after the final level has been completed it remains re-playable. We only started playing The Crew: Mission Deep Sea in late October and by the year's end had played 25 sessions. It was an instant hit. Disappointment of the year: New Frontiers. I find it hard to believe that I'm saying this about a game that shares DNA with the singular Race for the Galaxy, but I found New Frontiers just frustrating to play. It takes the core concepts of Race for the Galaxy and turns them into a board game, also adding 2 currencies (Money & colonists.) to the mix, this serves to add complexity to the game, yet somehow New Frontiers seems quicker to play and makes for a less satisfactory experience? So quick in fact, that often the game ended before I managed to do anything interesting. It's not bad because it's based on a great game, just.... disappointing. Surprise of the year: The Crew: Mission Deep Sea. I'm going have to give it to The Crew: Mission Deep Sea for the reasons above. Honourable mention: Railroad Ink. This roll-and-write, dice-rolling and route-building game is accessible, easy to learn and a pleasure to play. It throws a healthy dose of luck into the game, but because of the way the game plays, this luck affects all players equally, so if a player doesn't score well, they've only got their planning and themselves to blame. 3rd January 2022
Sunday gaming on a Monday has come to an conclusion, we're logged into Board Game Arena for the final game of the session; Love Letter. Read my blog on it here. 3rd January 2022
We're logged on to Board Game Arena and Sunday gaming on a Monday continued with Dice Hospital. Read my thoughts about it here. 3rd January 2022
Sunday gaming on a Monday continued on Board Game Arena with Can't Stop. Read my blog about it here. 3rd January 2022
Sunday gaming, now on a Monday! Thanks to Sunday's session abruptly ending, we're continuing on a Monday. We're logged on to Board Game Arena and beginning with Lucky Numbers. Read my blog on it here. 2nd January 2022
The first gaming session of 2022 came to a unexpected early end with Cloud City while logged into Board Game Arena. Read my blog on it here. 2nd January 2022
It's the first Sunday and first game of 2022. We're logged into Board Game Arena to play The Crew: Mission Deep Sea. Read my blog on it here. 30th December 2021
Midweek, mid Christmas gaming on Board Game Arena continued with the last game of the day - and the year; Love Letter. Read mu blog on it here. 30th December 2021
We're still gaming on this Mid Christmas, midweek Thursday while logged into Board Game Arena. The next game of the day was Can't Stop, read my blog about it here. |
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