BJ shares his twelve favorite games played in 2023 so far!
What a year for board game releases! There was an amazing game released for almost every type of gamer in 2023. For me, while there was no clear cut best game yet — I’ve got six more months to sort these out before we award our annual Fleur de Ludo awards next summer — there were two dozen or more games that are must plays for any cardboard fan.
Although I did play over 125 new games published this year, I did not get to everything. I still have a few more games on my want-to-play list. Luckily for me, there are copies of Rebel Princess, Distilled, Barcelona, Sky Team, That’s Not A Hat, and Kutna Hora floating around Acadiana, so over the next few months, I’ll try to get in some plays to see whether any of these make it on the list.
Enough blather, let’s get to this year’s list of the best board games!
Last Light
First time designer and Dice Tower persona Roy Canada brings the same energy to his game design that he does to his content creation.
Roy promised me in our interview at Southern Board Game Fest that he had created a full, fun, exhilarating 4x experience in about an hour. Somehow he delivered! This was our most played game at BGG CON 2023, and got oohs and ahhs from all but one attendee (who strangely enough, thought it was a prototype). I don’t know why it works, but if I had to guess, it’s that the simultaneous play streamlines the turns yet still allows breathing room for negotiation, plots and just a touch of treachery.
Unmatched Adventures: Tales To Amaze
The co-op version of Unmatched landing this high on the list should come as no shock to readers of the blog. Unmatched is one of my top ten favorite games of all time, and one of my geaux-to games for two players. Tales To Amaze is a home run, the perfect expansion of the team concept in Unmatched but facing a common foe instead. I’ve played nearly a half-dozen times now, only on the Mothman side, because that’s been enough challenge already and there are so many hero deck and minion deck combinations to explore. I suspect that I’ll be playing this one many more times in 2024.
World Wonders
Designer Ze Mendes married an interesting tile laying puzzle with the toy-wow factor of the monuments in the game. The combination of these two dwarfs the individual parts of the game, making World Wonders a must have for any gamer. World Wonders can be taught to just about anyone, the turns are super snappy, and the third reel of this game has so much tension as players race to complete objectives, squeeze every last square inch of their board, and grab the big point rings at the end of the track. Honestly, this has a real chance at being the game of the year for me. I just need to remember to whom I loaned it so I can get it back and play some more!
Rats of Wistar
Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH meets a worker placement game? Sure, why not! Take one of my favorite novels growing up, add in some hilarious artwork and card names, and sprinkle in a very clever action power mechanic and you get Rats of Wistar, another slam dunk from our favorite Italian designers. Picking the best euro game of the year was pretty hard for me, as there were a bunch of good contenders, but so far, Rats of Wistar is the top one I want to play right now.
Apiary
After the disappointment that was Expeditions, a game I enjoyed the first time I played but found less and less interesting the more I tried it, I was a little worried when Apiary showed up after my pre-order. I was dead wrong. Space Bees the board game has been a pleasant surprise in the Gumbo Pot. I know that designer Connie Vogelman did not do this, but it sure feels like she played one of Stonemaier Games’ earlier release and said “let’s plus this thing“. I love the excruciating decisions you have to make with your worker bees, especially the temporal puzzle of when to age them and when to score them. I’m also a big fan at how each player’s faction takes on its own personality during the game due to the upgrades, and how the board seems to shrink as the players become more powerful in the second half of the game.
Thunder Road: Vendetta
I’ve only played Thunder Road once, a memorable session at Southern Board Game Fest with Burky from GameToppers LLC, but I was very impressed. It’s got everything I want in a beer-and-pretzels racing game. It’s fast. It’s funny. It creates stand up moments with the dice rolls. It doesn’t hurt that the game also has the typically amazing Restoration Games production notes, like stunning artwork, toy cars and helicopters, and quick playing turns. I don’t own this game yet, but I’m looking forward to getting my hands on my own copy to play with my family.
I C E
I C E gets an award from me for the dumbest spelling in board gaming. Why do I have to space out the letters? Tell me why! Wait, I see now that BGG has edited its entry to “ICE (a/k/a I C E)”. Thank you, BGG webmaster, for making it easier for us to spread the word about this fantastic entry from This Way ! games. Spelling tangent aside, ICE has the coolest board game set up of any game I’ve played this year, especially when you have friends like The Jay Bell or Jeremy who are willing to get the game ready before the group arrives. I’m not sold on the theme, other than the fact that it really does look like we are tearing through a big ice scape, but I am definitely sold on the gameplay.
Fit To Print
Peter McPherson has done it again. Tiny Towns was one of our most played games in 2019, mostly because of the table factor of those gorgeous pieces, the over-the-top puzzle nature of the game, and the quick turns. Fit To Print may take that mantle for 2024, because it took most of everything we loved about Galaxy Trucker and turned it into a smaller puzzle. Maybe it should have been called Tiny Newspapers? Probably not, but I will cop to some biases. I’m scoring this a little higher because I absolutely adore the theme of woodland animals feverishly putting to bed their weekend newspaper editions.
Darwin’s Journey
how fitting is it for a Darwin themed game to bump out half a dozen other great euros in this spot. I could have put The White Castle or 3 Ring Circus or Septima in this slot but every time I looked over my Board Game Stats app for the strategy games I played in 2023, Rats and Darwin were the two games that stood out for me. Darwin’s Journey provided me so many forehead rubbing moments this year, trying to scratch out bigger and better turns. Darwin’s feels polished, like the designer and the developer were very satisfied that the mechanics of the game by turn four or five would melt away as players stared at the board itself, searching the islands for the right bonuses and animals needed for the end game. Great. Now I’ve got the envie to play Darwin’s Journey right now. Time to text Jeremy.
Terrorscape
I’m sure Carlos is rubbing his jaw after it hit the floor. I don’t normally even consider adding one of his Kickstarted horror themed games, mainly because I find them overwrought and overproduced every time, coupling clunky mechanics with themes I just don’t care about. But Terrorscape was different. It’s a one-versus-many game, with the little twist that the one (the monster) is visible to us the entire time but has to search for the hidden players on their board. That in itself is not enough to get me excited, but the fact that the designers really considered the pace of play as a design choice stood out for me. Every turn came down to two or three good choices, and the fact that we couldn’t talk too much in front of the monster eliminated most of the quarterbacking problems that plague most semi-cooperative games.
Amalfi: Renaissance
Out of all of the picks, I struggled the most with the inclusion of Amalfi. It’s got everything I should love about board games. The artwork is stunning, the pieces are cute, the economy of using your ships to as resources coupled with the Tapestry / Everdell style of squeezing every last turn out of every last resource, all of this should have pushed Amalfi closer to the top of the heap this year. And yet, I almost didn’t include it in the top twelve games I’ve played this year. If I am to be brutally honest, I must admit that what is keeping it from rising higher on this list is the frustration I’m feeling at not getting any better at this game. Every game, I watch other players take more turns, get more boats, play more cards, and score way more points than I am. Am I dinging it because I’m a bad gamer? Hmm…I’ve got some soul searching to do.
The Artemis Odyssey
Acadiana board gamers probably had an inkling that this would make it on my list. There is a caveat, though. Clearly, Challengers: Beach Cup would take this spot except for a few reasons. First, Beach Cup is essentially Challengers just with a couple of twists. Second, I don’t own Beach Cup, so I’ve only played it that one time at BGG CON. When I get the game — and I will have it! — and I get some more plays, I’m sure it will go on the list somewhere or maybe I’ll just slot in the best expansions of the year. In lieu of Beach Cup, I decided to go back to the games I played earlier this year to see which ones stood out. The three that came to my mind were Rebuilding Seattle, Ierusalem: Anno Domini, and The Artemis Odyssey. They don’t have much in common, except that they all have more player interaction then your typical “euro” style game. The Artemis Odyssey, however, was the one that I kept playing and introducing to other players. When I need a higher player count, with a group that wants just a touch of take that in the game, I’ll break out The Artemis Odyssey.
Thanks again for reading Board Game Gumbo. Let’s play a game together in 2024!
Until next time, laissez les bon temps rouler!
— BJ from Board Game Gumbo
** Copies of some of the games mentioned were provided by the publishers. **
