2022 was a good year for me in terms of playing board games. Below is a quick look of that journey:
| Items | Stats |
|---|---|
| # different games played | 107 |
| # plays | 406 |
| # game sessions | 50 |
| # play time (hours) | 700.17 |
| # ave daily play time (hours) | 1.93 |
It was not a smooth year in other areas. There were moving to a new place, breaking up, travelling, and a surgery to cap off the year, altogether preventing me from playing more. Still I can’t say I am not happy. I got to play many new and different games, and many games a lot of times. I also started to sell off games I didn’t feel like playing, and almost 100 found new home.
Now, let’s look at the most played games. I would say the list is a bit skewed to euro, but also has some other flavors mixing in, including some fillers, area control, and, most notably, one co-op.
| Game | # plays |
|---|---|
| Ark Nova | 39 |
| Dune: Imperium | 29 |
| Gaia Project | 20 |
| Great Western Trail | 19 |
| Kingdom Death Monsters | 15 |
| Root | 13 |
| Terra Mystica | 12 |
| Brass: Birmingham | 11 |
| It’s a wonderful world | 11 |
| Grand Austria Hotel | 10 |
Ark Nova, as my most played filler game this year, of course topped the list. It’s the same way my most played games were also fillers in 2020 and 2021, which were Tiny Town and 5221 respectively. The main difference was that my filler games in 2020 and 2021 were for larger groups of players in between heavier games. In 2022, Ark Nova was the filler game not just for in-between games but also for 2p and 3p while waiting for more people to arrive. And this was simply because I started to play more games that are best at a certain number of players, like Dune: Imperium at 4 and Terra Mystica at 5.
Now, time for a deeper look into the games I played this year.
Case in point: this game where I felt by round 5 that there was no way I could lose and managed to score 6 points in one round to end the game in round 7.
It was kind of fun and I actually learnt a lot about the game that way. It also pushed me to try to push the limits in other games, and I felt I became a better player thanks to that mindset for learning a game. Like the moment Dune: Imperium clicked for me was when I pushed myself to see how many cards I could trash while maintaining a viable win. Or I got better in Gaia Project by planning ahead for a single round (or maybe two) of big scoring.
GWT is best at 4p which should take about 120 – 150 minutes.
Gaia Project is best at 4p which should take about 120 minutes. Terra Mystica is best at 5p which should take about 150 minutes.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough Root players in my gaming group and playing Root with less experienced players is a bit painful. Only a few factions can rush to end the game, and doing so creates an overall less fun experience for everyone. A good Root game lasts just right at about 90 – 120 minutes. A bad game can take up to 150 – 180 minutes, over which a few factions would feel the game less and less winnable, eventually leading to a feeling very similar to elimination and indirectly pushing you toward kingmaking.
Clash of Cultures also deserves a special mention here. I played this area-control game 6 times this year, quite a lot for a game that can last 3 to 4 hours. It is a really good game that suffers a bit from a lack of coming-back mechanics for such a long game. It is also hard to introduce to new players.
I still enjoy both games, but would mostly play them when someone else suggests them. Root is best at 4p which should take about 90 – 120 minutes with experienced players. Clash of Cultures is best at 3p which should take about 180 minutes with experienced players.
- Twilight Inscriptions: most likely will get a lot of solo plays in 2023. The game (without the box) is compact enough to carry around, and there are enough variability and replayability. I quite enjoyed the puzzles it offers and love that at its core the game is really really simple. This is one case that the connection with the more prominent and infamous Twilight Imperium might hurt the game. Twilight Inscriptions is neither heavy (not that TI4 is heavy) or takes a long time to play, and explaining the rule takes but a few minutes. It is also really good at 3p and I would love to explore the interactions between all the different factions (and there are a lot).
- Beyond the Sun: talking about simplifying, Beyond the Sun is a very good take at streamlining a 4x game very very far, resulting in more or less just a tech tree and a little bit of exploration. And it was surprisingly good. For me, in particular, I love tech tree, and every game I play, video or board games, when there is a tech tree, I would focus a bit too much on it even when I should not. So Beyond the Sun appeals to me, and I was glad after a few games that it didn’t disappoint. The last game I played, I decided to learn only a few tech that synergized well with each other for a colonization focus strategy, and it went really well. I also started to realize that there was no rush to be the first one to discover a tech. Overall, 7 games were not enough to get to know this simple yet deep game, and I would love to have more opportunities to learn the game in 2023.
- Iki and Meadow: Both are really good medium-light game with beautiful arts. Both are wonderful options to entice new board gamers.
- Bitoku and Praga Caput Regni: both got just one play so I can’t say much about the game. But overall, for both games, I wished there could be less paths to earn points.
- Imperial Steam and Messina 1347: were the games I looked forward to the most last year, yet somehow I only got each on the table once. Need to fix that.
- Barrage and Pipeline: both seem to be right on my alley, but somehow my enthusiasm for the games lessened over the year. Only 2 plays each in 2022, but excited to play them more next year.
- Trickerion: really liked the first time I played, but started losing interest in later plays. The game feels more complicated than complex, and it feels like the type of being more complicated for the sake of being complicated.
- Golem: played once and didn’t enjoy it, only to find out I played it wrong. Need to play it again with the correct rule in order to see if I would like it.
- Boonlake: Really enjoyed it, yet can’t get it to the table more often. I really like that the game is really really loose, the resources are plentiful, and every turn you can do something meaningful, but feel that the game duration can get a bit too long. However, I haven’t played it enough to determine if it’s an inherent problem of the design or if it’s due to inexperienced players. If Boonlake can get consistently under 90 minutes with experienced players, I would love to play it more.
- Terracotta Army: quite a latecomer in 2022, so I only managed to get it on the table twice, and enjoyed both times. I really like that while many new games focus on giving you so many paths to victory, Terracotta Army decides to say, “F**k that, your only job in this game is to build this mausoleum.” The entire game is just gathering resources and converting them into various statues. The challenge mainly comes not from which paths to take, but how to deal with other players doing the same thing. Its simple-mindedness and its level of interactions feel very old-school euro. The game can be shorter and simpler, but its dedication to one single path to victory in order to push interactions is impressive and refreshing.
- Thunderstone Quest: I sleeved all 3,800+ cards of the game, but only played it twice. However, the game got me to get to know the friend mentioned above who brought Kingdom Death Monster so… overall positive ROI in terms of joys? Still really like the co-op mode and hope to try it more in 2023. Another victim of too much content making it hard to get on the table.
- Res Arcana and Tiny Town: Somehow I barely played these two games this year. Such a weird fall from among most played games in 2020 and 2021 to less than 3 plays in 2022. And that is very little for such short games that are usually getting a few consecutive plays in one session. Still love them. On that note, I only played Concordia once this year. Strange year indeed.
- Finishing Time, Century, and MicroMacro: Crime City: Are the default go-to games to introduce to new boardgamers for me, with Finishing Time the optimal introduction to worker-placement.
- Circadian: First Light, Obsession, and Faiyum: are games I first played in 2021 and got them to the table again this year. They are as good as I remember, and I look forward to more.
- Architects of the West Kingdom, Paladins of the West Kingdom, and Raiders of Scythia: all deserve more plays in 2023.
- The new expansion of Dune: Imperium, Immortality
- GWT: Argentina and GWT: Rails to the North 2nd Edition
- The long-awaited expansion for Gaia Project, and also to test the simplified version of Terra Mystica, Terra Nova
- The recently announced expansion for Beyond the Sun
That’s a wrap. A big thank to everyone who was part of this journey. Happy boardgaming!