Board-walk away
I am fairly confident saying that 2025 is the year I left tabletop boardgaming behind. In a year where I added just over 100 boardgames/wargames to my gaming shelves my boardgame collection grew by a mere six titles:
- Star Wars: Bounty Hunters (Zygomatic, 2024) – Gift from the RMN Boys.
- 1944 Race to the Rhine (Phalanx, 2014) – A “racing, war-themed” boardgame.
- To Honor Grandfather (Cheese Weasel Logistics, 2025) – set in the Traveller RPG universe.
- The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship (Z-Man Games, 2025) – Pandemic meets epic fantasy.
- Chernobyl: Avoid the Nuclear Disaster (Print and Game, 2025) – Simple print-n-play.
- One Giant Leap: The 1960s US/USSR Space Race (High Flying Dice Games, 2025) – A resource-limited racing game.
[Even if I add boardgame expansions acquired in 2025 my list only grows by two more titles: To Honor Grandfather: Vilis Subsector and The Mandalorian: Adventures – Clan of Two Expansion.]
Parting with my boardgame family
My acquisition of six boardgames in 2025 continues my downward trend of boardgame acquisitions over the past few years. My boardgame intake in 2024 was 10 core boardgames and in 2023 only 13 titles. My peak new boardgame intake year was 2020 with 21 new titles. That year my number of new boardgames (core games plus expansions) equalled my wargame (core games plus expansions) intake—a far cry from my 2025 game intake which is ~95% wargames.
The primary reason behind the drastic reduction in my boardgaming is, frankly, family. I long enjoyed the benefits of a herd of children who love boardgaming. Though they did not engage in wargaming the way I always have, they did play boardgames with me. For many years we played a Family Game Night nearly every Friday or Saturday evening after dinner except in the summer. The last few years, however, saw two RockyMountainNavy boys leave for military service or college and the third joined a crop of serious bowlers through work that draws him away for league play (his best game last season was 278). The end result is that the “Family” game night is now an occasional, not usual, event. That means this coming winter I will be lucky to get through The Mandalorian Adventures expansion and maybe some games of Star Wars: Battle of Hoth. Around the holidays I am hoping that we can get The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship to the table for at least a three-player, if not a four- or five-player game (RMN Dad is still adjusting to the idea of RMN Jr. sitting at the game table with his serious girlfriend alongside).
2025 RockyMountainNavy Boardgame of the Year
So, in a year of admittedly only a few candidates, which title is my Boardgame of the Year? My winner is clearly The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship (Z-Man Games, 2025). Not only can I play this game solo, but it is easy to teach and thematically appealing which invites family and friends to give it a go. Visually, the game is great on the tabletop (and doesn’t take up too much space) while the game system is familiar yet different enough compared to Pandemic that it easy to teach or learn and deeply immersive to play.
Feature image courtesy RMN
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