Given that I acquired only ten (10) boardgames—all core games—in 2024 I am placing them all in competition with one another regardless of actual year of publication.
Contenders (alphabetical order)
- Arcs (Leder Games, 2024)
- I was somewhat worried about this one given the amount of negative comments about. Reality is DO NOT WORRY. The Trick-taking card mechanism is fine; the game is easy to play, teach, and learn. One must also recognize it is a short game (2 hours or less play time) that rewards flexible play over attaching oneself to multi-turn strategies.
- DUNE: War for Arakis (CMON, 2024)
- Frankly overproduced, even in the standard version.
- Great Kingdom (Korea Board Game Co., 2023)
- HEAT: Pedal to the Metal (Days of Wonder, 2022)
- A great racing game but really need more maps to avoid getting stale after many plays.
- King’s Crown (Korea Board Game Co., 2023)
- The Mandalorian: Adventures (Unexpected Games, 2024)
- A kind of play-by-adventure skirmish game.
- Nine Knights (Korea Board Game Co., 2023)
- Red Dust Rebellion (GMT Games, 2024)
- Refined rules (should be for Vol. 12 of a series) but also feels liberating to play without real-world history or politics lurking behind the scenes.
- Space Lion: Divide and Conquer (Solis Game Studio, 2023)
- Light lane battler.
- Wyrmspan (Stonemaier Games, 2024)
- Actually rather popular at the RockyMountainNavy Game Night.
RMN 2024 Boardgame of the Year
Though just a few games this is a very tough list for me to judge. The three Korea Board Game Co. games (all abstracts) are not my normal genre of gaming but they were given to me by my niece visiting from Korea who knows my love of games. The other games all provided many fun game nights.
Going into last week, the RockyMountainNavy Boardgame of the Year for 2024 looked to be The Mandalorian: Adventures. While HEAT and Wyrmspan were regular go-to games for a family-oriented game night, RockyMountainNavy T and myself went through The Mandalorian: Adventures and never had a flat game. The larger (more complex?) games, DUNE and Red Dust Rebellion, are very good games but they also took longer to grok which lessened the overall enjoyment. They are not bad games but they demand more intense play which is not always what we are looking for on a family game night.
Then Arcs arrived.
I have to admit, I went into my learn ‘n play of Arcs with a bit of a negative attitude, likely (and inappropriately) influenced by the clamor on BGG and YouTube about “problems” with the game. In response that meant I stepped through my learn ‘n play in a much more careful, deliberate manner. The result? I like it…critics be damned!
As I wrote before, I think Arcs is a bit of a misunderstood game. That, or the clamor comes mostly from those who have an expectation of what they want the game to be that is not necessarily in alignment with what designer Cole Wehrle delivered. Arcs is a fun family game that is easy to play, teach, and learn. It is not Twilight Imperium or Space 4X. Most importantly, the game works for a RockyMountainNavy Game Night feature.
Arcs: Conflict and Collapse in the Reach (Designer – Cole Wehrle, Artist – Kyle Ferrin, Publisher – Leder Games, 2024)
RockyMountainNavy 2024 Boardgame of the Year
Feature image courtesy RMN
The opinions and views expressed in this blog are those of the author alone and are presented in a personal capacity. They do not necessarily represent the views of U.S. Navy or any other U.S. government Department, Agency, Office, or employer.
RockyMountainNavy.com © 2007-2024 by Ian B is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
Rocky Mountain Navy Gamer 