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by Ben Tinney

The time has come, as it does every year, to reflect upon the year that was and glean what we can. 2016 was for me my biggest year yet in gaming, both in terms of individual plays and in new games experienced. I made extensive use of the wonderful Board Game Stats app which allowed me to analyse my gaming habits to a greater degree than ever before without which this list would not have been as detailed as it is. If you haven't already I strongly suggest you check out the guild here on the geek; Eerko and Suzan maintain an open line of communication with the community and the app is continually being strengthened because of it.

This time I'll be looking at my "dimes" for 2016; all the games I played 10 times or more.

Roll for the Galaxy x 25

This dice reimplementation of Race for the Galaxy has been a revelation in our household. The card version is one of my favourite games of all time (see below) however, I have a very difficult time getting it played. Roll gives me some of the same flavours of Race but removes several of the barriers to entry: it’s much easier to choose which dice to throw into the cup than to decide which cards from a hand of many to discard for example. Due to the lack of the interconnected mesh of abilities and effects offered by the cards of Race, it doesn’t quite scratch the same engine building itch. However, by sheer virtue of playability, Roll has cemented itself near the centre of our gaming universe. I look forward to settling in to explore all it can produce and trading in my free time to allow many an enjoyable play session to develop. I hope that sentence is as cringe-inducing to read as it was to write.

Codenames x 25

Every year for the last 4 years a Vlaada Chvátil game has dominated my table. The year before last it was the madcap antics of Bunny Bunny Moose Moose; before that, it was the nail-biting tension of Space Alert and before that, the gut-wrenching insanity of Galaxy Trucker. Last year was no exception as Codenames blew us away with its playability, depth and sheer fun. I don’t think I will ever forget our first play of this game: my wife and some friends of ours were attending an Italian feast at one of the local secondary colleges, staffed entirely by the students. After our meals were done I pulled out my newly acquired copy, dealt out some cards and gave a 3-minute rules explanation. We were halfway through our first round when I looked up from my ponderings to notice a crowd of no less than 10 people watching, whispering to each other and shaking their heads as I reached to point at what was in my eyes a sure thing. It’s truly incredible that a game so simple, so intuitive and so universal was designed so recently. We will be playing this game with our grandkids.

Riff Raff x 22

I was convinced to pick this game up almost entirely on the strength of the glowing review it received from Steph of “All the Meeple of the Rainbow” fame. Dexterity games are a genre that I believe should be well represented in every collection: they are easy to understand, they are a great leveller when less experienced gamers want to join in the fun and, due to their spectacle, if played in a public space they always draw a crowd. Riff Raff ticks all these boxes while also offering some surprisingly deep strategic considerations. The hyper-aggressive strategy employed by my brother in his several plays with us has also opened up new vistas of possible screwage. Who knew it was possible to balance a plank on its end on top of a sideways rat on a mast yardarm? For added challenge, I recommend the variant where each player’s pieces are randomised and placed in a line before play which dictates the order they must be played.

7 Wonders: Duel x 20

For how simple it is to learn and how quick it is to play it is unbelievable just how much depth this game has. The game requires a wonderful balancing act between watching your opponent’s progress on military and science while also keeping an eye on their economy, wonders and resources; all the while still attempting to build a competitive empire for yourself. It’s no secret that I’m not a huge fan of the original 7 Wonders (too long and involved for a drafting game in my eyes) and my wife actively dislikes it but in its two player cousin, we have found many hours of enjoyment. We weren’t anywhere near it becoming stale before the Pantheon expansion arrived late in the year, but there will be more on that at a later date.


Sushi Go Party! x 18

The fact that this game only entered our collection in late September and yet still made my top 5 most played games of the year speaks volumes. While 7 Wonders is (relatively) complicated, long and quite samey; Sushi Go Party is dead simple, lightning-fast and packs a huge amount of variability. It’s more than slightly mind blowing that while the original game offered you one way to play, Party brings over 150,000 menu combinations to try. I love how you can customise your deck depending on who is playing too. If you want more direct interaction, throw in Spoon and snatch cards straight out of other players hands or Uramaki and race with the other players to collect 10. If not, keep it simple with Tea and be rewarded for your largest set or Tofu of which you certainly don’t want more than two.
My one complaint is that Gamewright continues their trend of tins over boxes. The packaging for this game is inadequate at best and potentially component damaging at worst. A full box replacement is near the top of my foam core projects for this year.

Tumblin-Dice x 17

Most of these plays are by way of a farewell party for a work colleague which rolled on well into the evening. I pulled out my homemade board and in a matter of minutes, I was joined by happy revellers keen to test their mettle and talk some smack. I don’t think I own a better game for just this kind of situation. It isn’t exclusive of others (like social deduction games can be), it’s essentially bulletproof so I’m not worried about food spillage or lost components, and for someone walking past the basics of the rules can be grasped in 10 seconds flat. The dice in my set were picked up cheaply on eBay and as such are pretty light and sport highly rounded corners. I like to think of it as an “expert set” due to the added challenge of the dice but it may be a good idea to replace them with something a bit weightier and more angular (although it will mean my record high score is sure to be toppled).

Race for the Galaxy x 15

If I could find someone to reliably play against this would probably be sitting closer to 50 plays, I love it that much. I still consider myself a firm amateur after over 20 plays which shows just how much game there is to squeeze from this deck of cards. For me, it really does feel like playing Puerto Rico, from which it is derived, but with 100 different buildings, all of which can push you on a different trajectory. I made some inroads in getting my wife to play it in 2016 (indeed the whole underhanded reason for getting Roll for the Galaxy was to bridge the gap for her) and I’m hoping we can get it regularly back to the table this year. I may even pick up Jump Drive, the new “gateway” experience if it means we actually get to play it. I need my fix somehow.

Wits and Wagers x 12

This game deserves the accolades it receives for being a trivia game for the every man. I brought the game with us on our family holiday along the Great Ocean Road and it engaged my sister, her partner, my parents, my wife and our friends equally. We were even brainstorming ideas for an Australian themed question set between rounds. In order to be competitive, the gambling and money management aspect of the game needs to be given almost equal attention as the answering of the questions, but to be honest, we were all having so much fun it didn't really matter who won. If I could improve anything in my copy it would be to replace the cardboard betting chips with real poker chips but wow would that make the box a weighty beast.

Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 x 11

This has been another game which has lived up to the hype for us. People talk about games having high stakes moments where you stand to roll the dice, and indeed that is something I have experienced in the past with my many years of Warhammer. Never have I played a co-operative game where I feel the need to stand up and pace in anticipation of a card flip. The stakes are so high; you are making decisions moment by moment that will be burned into your board forever; that you writhe in glorious agony over every potential failure, over every risky call. It's mostly just been my wife and me with a single character each on our playthrough (we had a friend come and join us for a few games in April and May, a period which will forever be known as "The Dark Times") which has meant a uniquely personal experience. We're only about to start September and yet, from the sweat and anguish we've poured into this game, we feel like we've fought a war on the front lines together. This is an astonishingly good game.

King of Tokyo x 11

The old workhorse got a good going over last year as a reliable gap filler after meals or a gateway for newly made friends. I picked up the Halloween expansion on a sale (after railing against the price of it in the past) and now I'm torn over the new edition. I LOVE the Space Penguin (for obvious reasons) however they've obliterated my beloved Cyber Bunny from the game. And replace him with... a cat? A CAT!? Maybe now that SP is core some of the old art promotional copies will become cheaper and I can finally add him to my set without suffering the feline indignity.

Viticulture x 11

I obtained both the second edition base game and full Tuscany expansion from my FLGS (which is pretty amazing considering I live in outback South Australia around 400 kilometres from the nearest city) on the strength of the buzz it had received on the geek. I was looking for a solid worker placement game which was a bit more approachable than Agricola to add to my collection. I'm not sure that what I found fulfils that criteria, but I don't particularly care anymore. The placement angst, the internal maths, the unique cards to focus your strategy, the theme that informs mechanisms. All the hallmarks of Agricola are present in Viticulture too, but in two big ways, this outshines the Uwe juggernaut for me.
One: Grande workers. I can't tell you how freeing it is to be able to reliably grab that one action that you desperately need each and every turn. It completely does away with that agonised growl of disappointment that is uttered pretty much every turn in other worker placement games when player X takes action A that your whole plan was hinging upon.
Two: Race to the finish. By changing the game from a "score everything at the end" type affair to a "claw points from the dirt if you have to, just get to the end first" race, Viticulture gains an incredible momentum which propels you through all your decision making. There is no slow burn strategy: you have to be a contender or the other players will leave you in the dust.
I'm so happy with this purchase and we've only just scratched the surface of all the Tuscany box has to offer.

Loopin’ Louie x 10


Scoff all you want, but this game is actually the one I'm most proud made the list. All 10 of these plays were played with my 3-year-old son who has just started his headlong dive (certainly not pushed) into the world of board gaming. We have enjoyed several other games together this year as well but he absolutely loves "Louie Louie" and has even managed to beat me on more than one occasion. If I let him he would probably play it every day, but I don't want any burnout. I have to pace him if he's going to learn Twilight Struggle in the new year...:ninja:

Biblios x 10

This game and For Sale were purchased during a trip to Melbourne in order to plug a filler shaped hole I had perceived in my collection. And while this is definitely the more complex of the two I'm astonished at the fun packed into this deck of cards and a few dice. The two halves of the game feel very different and almost disconnected and yet they inform each other. The push-your-luck decisions you make in the first half will directly form the economy of the auctions which take place in the second half. You could very well hand one of your opponents the card they need to win in the first half only to pay through the nose to snatch victory back later in the game. The theme is unfortunate and may put people off but it's such a wonderful shifting puzzle that it's worth sticking with.

Thanks for reading! Feel free to drop a comment below, I love to read your thoughts (and it's so much easier when they're written down). I'll see you next time for some more analysis of last year: maybe my "fives", maybe my new games and maybe something else entirely.

Also, if you get a chance and feel inclined, please have a look at my Instagram account which is packed full of all my gaming happy snaps. The photography used in this post is all from there.

Cheers, and happy gaming!

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