My Top 10 Board Games of 2016?

I keep a game log over on the BoardGameGeek website, and it tells me I got in 235 plays of 80 different games in 2016. Here’s my top 10:

Chris’s Top Ten Games of 2016?

  1. Dominion
  2. Patchwork
  3. Ascension
  4. Sun, Moon and Stars
  5. Love Letter
  6. Lanterns: the Harvest Festival
  7. The Tea Party Game
  8. Tsuro
  9. Zooloretto
  10. Pandemic Legacy: Season 1

This list is a little unusual for me, because it actually has none of my favorites on it. I didn’t play much Go or Battlestar GalacticaPower Grid and Tigris & Euphrates were both misses. And even my favorite new games of the year (Kodama and Mare Nostrum: Empires) have only gotten a couple of full plays each.

Instead, my top 10 makes it clear that most of my time is spent with online and family gaming. Dominion and Ascension benefited a lot from offering quick online fixes. In fact, Ascension should probably be #2, since I have a running series of asynchronous games going with friends and I often forget to log plays when a game ends.

The rest of the list reflects my kids’ interests. They’ve grown as gamers in 2016, and we’ve had a lot of fun playing short but challenging games. We’ve also played far too much of The Tea Party Game, a cute but excruciating outing into pure randomness. The whole family has even played through the first half of Pandemic Legacy together, which is a fun if occasionally harrowing way to practice listening to each other and team work.

Maybe this is why board gaming has been such a bright spot for me in a dark year. Games with friends are fun, and I’ve enjoyed stretching my mind with deeper games when I’ve had the chance. But games with family are a special time, even when they always seem to catch you when you’re holding the princess in Love Letter.