2018 Best Board Game Nominees
The time has come for us to choose our pick for the Best Board Game of 2018!
I said it last year, but board gaming (and table top gaming in general) has become way more mainstream the past year or two. I was into board gaming before it was cool. #hipster. Still, the growth is easily shown in, if nothing else, the board gaming subreddit which recently hit 1,000,000 subscribers and added an additional 160,000 more at the time of this writing.
So, as we close out 2018, we take a look back at the best board games of the year, as decided by me who, somewhere along the line, was decided should be a decider of these sorts of things. For this year, I tried to find games which I think stood out, not just from sales. The games nominated are ones that really showed a lot of innovation and tried something different. You know, games that brought something new and exciting…… to the table!
And the nominees are…
KeyForge – Fantasy Flight Games
KeyForge is certainly a game which caused a bit of controversy, not only with the potentially problematic naming structure of their decks (look it up), but with the format of the game itself. It’s a card game which disallows modifications to your deck. You could say it with a more positive spin, but that’s the truth of it. For people who love building decks to combos they discover, KeyFore might be a struggle to enjoy. However, I think the real appeal of the game is finding the combos that are already there. Plus, it takes the CCG-like format and keeps it from being purely pay-to-win. KeyForge is a slick, exciting, fun game and for only a few bucks for a deck, it’s very accessible to anyone.
Luxor – Queen Games
Luxor is a game I feel like may have flown under the radar more than it should have. Still, it was nominated for Spiel des Jahres this year, but lost to The Mind, which we’re still deciding if it’s even a game at all. But Luxor is definitely a game and it has a lot of really interesting mechanics we haven’t seen before. Luxor looks so simple on the surface, using cards to move your meeples around the board to collect treasures. But now being able to shuffle your hand and only being allowed to use the leftmost and rightmost cards adds a crazy new level of planning. For a strategy game, planning is always important but Luxor really takes this to a new level.
Decrypto – Le Scorpion Masqué
If Luxor flew under the radar, Decrypto was a stealth bomber. A fitting analogy for this deduction sleuthing game. In this party game, 2 teams take turns using 4 secret code words to have their teammate guess the order of the words by saying things related to the secret code words. However, over the several rounds, your opponents will have the opportunity to guess your secret code words, if they do that brings you one step closer to failure. Decrypto takes the team-based, word-guessing style of game and allows players to jump in when they know it. Not only does that feed that smug sense of satisfaction that everyone loves when they know it and their opponent doesn’t, but in Decrypto, that’s how you win the game.
Root – Leder Games
If you follow our weekly Board Games Top 10, you’ll know Root held onto the top spot of BoardGameGeek’s Hotness list for a loooong time. Rightfully so. Root takes the idea of an asymmetrical game and doubles it, making each of the 4 factions play totally differently. Each has their own play style and goals. While many other asymmetrical games have each player working towards the same goal, that’s not the case in Root. Each faction has a different victory condition which puts a really great spin on the concept. Beyond that, the gameplay is just very solid and the balance is as close as I would expect for any game of this type.
Honorable Mentions
The honorable mentions go to “basically every other great game that came out this year”.
There were a lot of great games this year, no question. Wildlands, Gizmos, Fog of Love, Rising Sun, Teotihuacan, Architects of the West Kingdom, Arkham Horror 3rd edition, Brass, Gloomhaven. These games took a well established format and improved upon it. But it’s still an already well established format. These are all great games, but that doesn’t warrant enough to earn a spot as best game of the year. As fun as those games are, they didn’t bring anything new to the tabletop world.
