2024 in Board Games
Last year I correctly predicted something!
I’m expecting 2024s stats to look very different from 2023s.
There’s a new look to the Board Game Stats app’s yearly roundup… and also this year I played more games! I’m very happy with that. As well as the evening group I joined last year I found two new gaming groups who play on weekends. One is a monthly all-day session full of heavier longer games; the other is an afternoon that often stretches into evening with a real mix of gamers and games. Both have been great fun and I’m glad I found them. As a result I’ve played more different games with more different people. I’m up to 151 different games played during the year (from 99 last year). My actual play count hasn’t gone up so much, from 221 last year to 254 this year, but I’ve definitely played more longer and more involved games this year.
Only one of the games in my top 9 is carried over from last year reflecting the change in gaming groups.
1. Arkham Horror: The Card Game
My most played game of the year has only got eleven plays but I’m really pleased with that. I played the campaign of The Path to Carcosa through with my partner, though we still haven’t actually finished it. Then I taught the game to a couple of people at one of my gaming groups and I’m hoping that means I’ll get to play it more in 2025. I’d love to get some of the new content for the game that’s been released since I last played it regularly.
2. Kingdomino
Despite this year having definitely had a focus on longer games this short filler game is my second most played. A ten minute blast of strategy that usually results in me suddenly realising that I’m not able to fill my 5x5 grid in correctly, but it’s always fun.
3. Everdell
The only game that’s stayed in the top tier of plays from last year! I added the Mistwood expansion this year but I’ve barely used it as I always seem to be teaching the game to new players. Eventually I’ll have taught everyone and I’ll get to use the big construction cards. Though I have permanently swapped the farms from the base game out for the ones in the expansion as they are much better with the variety of resources they give you.
=4. Red Rising
I first played this in January, just before I decided making a monthly post about the new games I’d played would help my memory! After several more plays I’m not actually sure I really like it all that much. You are trying to manage a hand of cards that you need to play to do various actions but also need to collect to score points at the end. There are very few cards that increase your hand size which helps you manage that dilemma more easily and as a result it feels like whoever stumbles on them tends to win, but I don’t have any data to back that up.
=4. Forest Shuffle
Another new-to-me game from March this year that’s turned up several times since. Definitely one I’m always happy to play though the scoring at the end gets tedious. I like playing it on Board Game Arena where the computer does all the hard work of the final arithmetic whilst you just have fun. (I don’t count BGA plays in my stats.)
=4. Faraway
I played this for the first time at Airecon in March, really liked it and didn’t manage to buy a copy of it. I still haven’t managed to buy myself a copy but enough other people have that I’ve had the chance to play it a few times more. I still like it!
=4. Nmbr 9
This is in here mostly thanks to playing in the mega-games at Airecon where they gather many gamers together to play huge games against each other. This is basically a solo puzzle so you’re pitting your wits against the rest of the room’s interpretation of the same order of the pieces. Miranda won a box of chocolates by winning the game at ACNW too. I love this as a small filler game but I’d get more plays of this if the box wasn’t stupidly large for the pieces. I mostly can’t be bothered to take my copy anywhere any more.
There are actually five games I played 4 times in 2024 to round out the list, they didn’t all get pictures but I’ll mention them all here.
=8. Undaunted Normandy
Played with my partner a few times in July, we haven’t had it out since then but I’d still quite like to play some more of it.
=8. Istanbul
I’m happy to have got this one back on the table this year. I played it numerous times in 2018/2019 and then it’s languished on my shelf. I finally got to play with both the expansions added in at the end of the year as well, and the game worked well and I didn’t think it made it too complicated with them added.
=8. Cascadia
First played in February and is very much the sort of game I’m always happy to play. Easy to teach people, easy to play, hard to be good at. It is deservedly becoming a classic game.
= 8.Harmonies
This has a lot in common with Cascadia, and I hope it’ll also turn into an evergreen game. I first played it in May and it’s another simple but fairly deep game. The game pieces are so nice to hold in your hand, I like that they made the wooden pieces wonky circles so they don’t roll away too easily.
=8. Skull
I’m not a fan of bluffing games, except I’ll always play this one. Short and sweet.
Looking Forward
I think I’m about saturated with board games now! I’d be very happy to keep going at this amount of time and plays. I should say I don’t record game time using BGStats so the 227 hours in the graphic at the top of the page is an estimate based on average play times for the games. I’d guess that I’ve played quite a lot longer than the 227 hours it says as games always seem to take longer than they say for us, even if we exclude the teaching time.
