January 2024

Welcome board game fans!   Happy New Year wishes to all our readers and fellow board game enthusiasts. May 2024 be filled with joy, laughter, and, of course, many memorable moments spent around the tabletop playing your favourite board games. So here’s to a year of rolling dice, strategising moves, and forging new friendships over the love of board games!

This month we take a look back at the most played games of 2023 as well as a look ahead to two forthcoming additions to our rental collection.  We also review the game Expeditions by Jamey Stagmaier as well as the game that introduced us to co-operative trick-taking play The Crew: The quest for planet nine by Thomas Sing.

Our most played board games of 2023

A quick glance the logged plays screen on My Board Game Library webstite reveals that 2023 was certainly a game-packed year!  A few games stand out because of the number of times they have come back to the table after being played for the first time.   So if you’re curious about which games stole the spotlight this year, look no further! We've looked at the most played board games from plays logged on our site as well as the most rented and purchased titles to bring you a shortlist of the ten games we think could may make your favourites list too.

Great Western Trail - A game that combines deck-building, tile-laying, and resource management as players drive cattle to Kansas City.  This one saw about as many plays as Lost Ruins of Arnak which has similar mechanics in a jungle exploration theme.

Wingspan - A visually stunning engine-building game where players collect and breed birds, aiming to create the most impressive aviary.  A surprisingly relaxing and yet still competitive experience.

Scythe - Set in an alternate 1920s Eastern Europe, this game combines resource management, combat, and engine-building mechanics.  (Read more on the sequel to this great strategy game in our review below)

Terraforming Mars - Most played in 2022 and continued to be requested  throughout 2023.  In this game players compete to develop and manage their own corporations and projects on Mars through card drafting and strategic tile laying.

Ticket to Ride - The classic game where players build train routes across a map to complete destination tickets still sees high demand, together with the grand-daddy of modern board games Catan as these both continue to be excellent introductions to the hobby for new players (and are also great to teach at all age and ability levels).

Dorfromantik: The Board Game - perhaps the most surprising entry on our 2023 list considering that there is no winning or losing in this game.  Instead competing or trying to “survive”, the players work together to lay hexagonal tiles to create a beautiful landscape while fulfilling various tasks.  Each game is played to try and score better than the last game and unlock achievements and rewards.

Viking Raiders- Dsicovered at UK Games Expo 2023, this competitive card game has players gathering resources to be the first to grow the size of fleet, clan and pile of loot to the agreed target …. and by “gathering” we do mean raid and plunder!

Scout - Essentially a trick-taking card game where players try to play all their cards by beating the previous cards played in ever increasing sequences and pairs but with the unique constraint of never being allowed to change the position of the cards in their hands. A lot of fun in a very small package!

Here’s a sneak peak at two games coming to our rental collection early in the new year.

Each year we add at least 12 new games to our collection,  below are two titles which are available from this month.  

Expeditions

From January, our board game rental collection will have a new a new gem – Expeditions by Stonemaier Games. (See our full review below for more information)  The sequel to the popular strategy game Scythe in many ways simplifies the play of Scythe while retaining the engine-building strategy and super cool theme and artwork style of the original. Games are shorter (at least at the three player count we tested with) so expect players to be calling for a rematch!  

Just One

Just One was a smash sell out over the 2023 christmas season and we will be brining this quick, easy to learn  party game into the rental fold.  Score as many points as possible by guessing correctly given just one word hints from each of your team mates.  Duplicate clues cancel each other out so your team will be trying to give you the “least obvious but still helpful” clues.  Hilarity inevitably ensues in this fun party game for all ages that is particularly suited to larger gatherings.

Review:

Expeditions

Jamey Stagmaier

1-5 Players

90 minutes

This much-anticipated sequel to the popular Scythe is a competitive, card-driven, engine-building game of exploration for 1 - 5 players.   As with Scythe, you are invitied to immerse yourself in the fantasy alternate-historyworld of 1920’s Europa. This time instead of dominating the map for resource production, players will be climbing into their mech’s to explore a mysterious crash site in Siberia.    In Expeditions every move matters as you play cards to gain power, guile, and unique worker abilities. Explore hidden location tiles and canquich the corruption you find there to uncover new tile abilities and gain acces to new cards hidden among the tiles then use these cards to enhance your mech with item upgrades, meleded meteorites and completed quests.

Whether you're a seasoned gamer or a newcomer, Expeditions offers an immersive and rewarding experience that's hard to resist. The competitive elements keep you on your toes, while the card-driven mechanics ensure replayablility and deliver a unique journey with each play.      Expeditions also simplifies the play of Scythe while retaining the multiple paths to victory, engine-building strategy, the super cool theme and the beautiful artwork of Jakub Rozalski.   It also manages to delvie a totally new and original game experience - at no point do you get the feeling you’re playing a Scythe expansion - it truly is a different and unique game ints own right.

Expeditions isn’t big on player interaction and players will mostly be heads down, focussing on their strategy and hoping the other players don’t get in the way.  However the game ticks many boxes for anyone who enjoys puzzly type games with exploration and race against time elements.    

So, gather your friends, power up your mechs, and set forth on a captivating journey of discovery and ongoing pursuit of glory with Expeditions.

(Expeditions is available to rent from our rental library from January 2024.)