Episode 110 – Best of 2016

Another year has passed and so many good games hit the table this year! To wrap up the year, Anthony and Chris will discuss the best games of the year, along with some recent plays, acquisition disorders just around the corner for 2017, and some of the recent news stories (and fun observations) from the end of the year.

Around the Table

Anthony discusses a recent segment of The Grand Tour that turned Battleship into a game of exploding cars and why it both thrilled and annoyed him, the guys dig into the Fantasy Flight Holiday Sale debacle, and we discuss Table for One and how it’s been performing, as well as a new addition to the website you should absolutely check out.

Acquisition Disorder Corner

We may be talking about the best games of the year (many of which made it to our shelves), but there are even MORE games on the horizon to be excited about. That’s right, this never ends!

Anthony discusses four Kickstarter campaigns from 2015 and 16 that he’s excited to get in his hands in the near future including Gloomhaven, Masmorra, Arcadia Quest Inferno, and Fields of Green – all of them on the boat right now and heading to his shelves in January or February.

Chris then dives into two big November/December releases with the Invaders from Afar expansion for Scythe and Inis. Common thread? Beautiful artwork all around.

At the Table

There are a lot of very good games on our show this week, but there are also a few that didn’t quite make the top 10 or that are too new to consider just yet.

Anthony kicks things off with a discussion of Manhattan Project: Energy Empire – a brilliant worker placement game that is just as good as the original Manhattan Project (if not better) and loaded with fun mechanisms that work together seamlessly.

Chris then dives into Super Motherload, a good entry level game for video gamers, though not necessarily one that will keep long term gamers engaged.

Anthony’s second play is First Class – the newest non-18xx game from Helmut Ohley and a fantastic card-style take on the Russian Railroads formula that Anthony loves so much. Finally, Chris wraps with a must have expansion for Carson City. Check out our list for two definite Buys and a couple of solid Plays.

Feature – Top 10 of 2016

Finally, we discuss our top ten board games of 2016. This has been a banner year for board games, almost all of which were released in the last five months, so we crammed in a lot of late and these are the best of that lot.

To read the full writeup of all ten games, visit our separate article. If you’d prefer to listen to us discuss it in greater depth, here’s the cast:

Make sure to check out BGA on Twitter (@BGApodcast), Facebook, and BoardGameGeek.

  • Anthony lives and plays games in Philadelphia, PA. A lover of complex strategy, two-player war games, and area control, Anthony is always eager to try a new game, even if he's on rule-reading duty.

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