18XX. This has been a year of 18XX games. Things started slowly in the Spring, but then 18 India hit us by a storm. I ended up playing various 18XX titles over 20 times this year; that’s more than a third of my all-time 18XX plays since 2006.
Forest Shuffle. I still played a ton of Forest Shuffle on BGA. I’ve played the game over 200 times this year. If I keep on playing it like this, it will be the first game in my records to hit 500 plays, and that will happen in 2025.
More activity. This was a more active year than 2023. My number of plays was much higher than in 2021–2023. If I exclude Forest Shuffle, I’m still ahead of 2023. About 380 hours of time spent on games is good, and only about 50 hours of that is Forest Shuffle. The final numbers are: 652 sessions, 156 different games, 41 new games.
BG Stats. This year, I started using the BG Stats app. I like it, and I wish I had started using it before. It’s addictive to see the scores and all the data. Tracking game lengths has also been very interesting and worth the effort of timing games.
A new game group. I started a second game group this year. It was supposed to be an open game group for bookstagram people, but it sooned fixed into a closed group of five people. I’ve loved the fresh group dynamic. These are people who like games and play games, but aren’t hardcore gamers. I’m the sommelier for the group: we meet monthly and I always teach them new games, which they can then introduce to their other game groups. I’ve enjoyed these chances to play more casual games and it’s fun to see fresh views on older games.
Game of the Year 2024
SETI: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence is the new game highlight for me in 2024. It’s a game I enjoy a lot and can’t stop thinking about. One of the Tomáš Holek’s three debut titles in Spiel 24, the game made a big splash and despite my initial doubts, I went ahead and bought it.
SETI hits a sweet spot for me: it’s a complex game, yet is easy to teach and flows well. I was worried about the reported four-hour play times, but in our fast group, SETI is a quick game. The individual turns are fast and the game move alongs at good pace, occasionally interrupted by a longer combo turn.
The array of possible strategies seems rich. You have so many options! The early game is hard for new players, it’s so open, but once you start to figure out how the various subsystems in the game function, you’ll start noticing paths you can take to generate resources and allow you achieve so much more.
The game also looks great. The box cover is very beautiful and all the components are both functional and pretty.
Heavy Game of the Year. 18 India. The game that kickstarted the 18xx boom. This unusual variant resides in the 1829 Mainline branch of the family tree, where all tiles are available from the beginning of the game, players hold shares in hand and trains never rust and can be sold back to the bank. 18 India throws in a lot of variety and all sorts of special rules, making it a very interesting game. If I had to cull my 18xx collection to one title, right now it would be 18 India.
Light Game of the Year. The Gang. The co-op poker charmed me. A simple idea, but it works so well. No poker expertise is required. I introduced this to my casual group, and they loved it so much we didn’t play anything else that night. If you’re looking for something easy to crack the ice, The Gang is worth a look.
Good new games (2023–2024)
18 BosWash. This is a magazine variant for 18 India. It has a different board, depicting the Boston-Washington corridor. 18 BosWash streamlines the 18 India rules a lot. It plays fast, but has a lot of space for clever moves. Another big hit from the team.
Fishing. Friedemann Friese’s clever trick-taking game has a lovely ebb and flow: win tricks and you’ll score points, lose tricks and you’ll get access to better cards. It’s a bit long, but the rounds are required for it to work, and I think it’s well worth the effort if you’re looking for a trick-taking game on the sillier end of the spectrum.
Harmonies. Something I’d like to explore more. Seems like a fun game like Cascadia, not a frustrating game like Calico.
Medical Mysteries: NYC Emergency Room. A nice twist on escape room games. Figuring out what’s wrong with the patients is fun. Getting all the details correct is pleasantly difficult.
MLEM: Space Agency. A variation of Heckmeck, but with cats in space. Good value for money. A nice little push-your-luck adventure.
Oranienburger Kanal. I initially skipped this Uwe Rosenberg title: I’ve had bad experiences with Spielworxx games. After reading praise for the game as Rosenberg’s Magnum Opus, I caved and bought a very expensive used copy instead of waiting for the new Sylex edition I knew was coming. I’m glad I did: Oranienburger Kanal is a very good game, and the Sylex edition was a big disappointment. This isn’t Rosenberg’s best game – I still think Fields of Arle is the better two-player game, for example – but ranks very high.
Tea Garden. Another Holek title. I ended up buying this, as my friend was very eager to ditch this after just one play. This is nice. Not as good as SETI, but I like the cleverness.
The White Castle. A very tight game. I didn’t like this a lot at first, but it grew on me, and I’d like to investigate this more.
World Wonders. A rather lovely polyomino tile-laying game. Works well with five players.
Good older games I hadn’t played before
18GB: The Railways of Great Britain. The 18xx fever got me looking at new titles. 18GB seemed promising: it’s by Dave Berry, whose 1825 variants I appreciated, and it combines ideas from 1825 and 1860. The track-laying is delightfully tricky.
First Rat. An impulse purchase, this Kennerspiel-level game turned out to be a good purchase. I’ve played this with many groups, and it has always worked. It’s fun with any number of players and requires a nice amount of strategical thinking while still being easy to teach and play.
Gimme That! The best stupid game of the year. Get five or six players and this is more fun that it has any right to be.
Hamlet: The Village Building Game. My first play was a sour experience because I played so poorly. The second time I played better, and the game was much better.
Lucky Numbers. I like Completto a lot. This is a similar game that plays fast with super simple rules. I think I prefer Completto because the wooden tiles are a better tactile experience, but this one’s nice too.
Schadenfreude. Dan Thurot and Cole Wehrle discussed this in a podcast episode, I was intrigued and built a home-made copy just before Ropecon. It was worth the effort; this is a funny trick-taking game with a name that’s on point.
Sichuan Bloody Rules Mahjong. A new way to play mahjong. This is currently the most popular variant in China, I’ve been told, and why not: it’s fast and simple. I’ve mostly played this on Mahjong Soul, but I’ve tried this once with actual tiles. Unfortunately, opportunities to play casual mahjong are few and far between. I’d love to explore this game more.
Smart10. The best trivia game at the moment. Everybody gets to have a go, there’s some push-your-luck element involved – how confident are you?
The Castles of Burgundy. An old classic I had only tried once online. Now we gave it a go with the actual game, and it turned out to be better than expected. I’d definitely play more.
Trekking Through History. For a quick and simple family game, this one’s pretty good. Nice production values.
Troyes. Another old classic I hadn’t played. My first go left me a good impression. I’d love to play more.
12 Chip Trick. This simple trick-taking game played with poker chips charmed some people in our group, while leaving others completely cold. I’m in the charmed group, I think this is lovely.
Children’s games
For the first time, this list is empty. I didn’t play anything with my kids five times. Times they are indeed a-changing.
Notes on old games
1829 Mainline. I bought this originally to support Francis Tresham years ago, and finally played it properly. It took us a couple of plays in 2024 to get the rules straight. This is a better game than I expected, but 18 India has developed this branch further.
Dune: Imperium and Dune: Imperium – Uprising. I like both a lot, and I still don’t have much of a preference. I’ll happily play both. The 3 vs 3 team game in Uprising is nice. I bought the original with both expansions when my friend decided he only needs to own Uprising.
Go. With almost 40 live plays, this was a very active year. I also played a lot – over 400 games – at OGS. My rating graph went up and down between 10k and 14k. I’m not a single-digit kyu player yet. Maybe one day!
Mystery Rummy: Jack the Ripper. This old classic made a bit of a comeback. I even played some three-player games. It’s over 25 years old now, but still worth playing.
Ricochet Robot. I was helping friend set up his bicycle smart trainer (my own Wahoo Kickr was one of the best purchases I made in 2024), and we played games afterwards. He had Ricochet Robot, so of course I wanted to play this old favourite. It was my first play in 21 years! That was a delight.
The not-so-good, the disappointing and the plain bad
CuBirds. This didn’t make much sense.
Daybreak. I like the main card mechanism, but I found the theme and the difficulty level simply depressive.
1882: Assiniboia. This was a welcome reminder of why I don’t like the 1830 branch of 18xx games a lot.
18Ireland. This cruel 18xx game is interesting in theory, but wasn’t a lot of fun to actually play.
Taj Mahal. This Knizia classic made a comeback. A friend bought it and we’ve played it twice now. I’ve been fighting for the fourth place in both games. It’s a clever design, but I don’t enjoy playing it.
Fives and dimes
- Forest Shuffle (213)
- Go (39)
- The Gang (17)
- Tichu (11)
Schadenfreude (11) - Mahjong (10)
Lucky Numbers (10) - Shogi (9)
Oranienburger Kanal (9)
18 India (9)
First Rat (9) - L.L.A.M.A. (8)
SETI: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (8) - Slovenian Tarock (6)
Dune: Imperium (6)
The White Castle (6)
Xiangqi (6)
Smart10 (6) - Space Base (5)
Harmonies (5)
Year metric
- Battle Line (22/24)
- San Juan (17/21) *
- Tarock (16/18)
- Innovation (15/15)
- Attika (17/22) *
- Oregon (14/14)
- Samarkand: Routes to Riches (14/15) *
- Ta Yü (16/22) *
Age of Steam (16/22) - Carcassonne (16/24) *
- Love Letter (12/13)
- Mahjong (15/23)
- Einfach Genial (14/21)
- Fields of Arle (10/10)
Merkator (10/10)
Games marked with an * didn’t get played this year.
Staying Power
- Mahjong (5.35)
- Forest Shuffle (4.16)
- Tarock (4.07)
- A Feast for Odin (3.61)
- Fields of Arle (2.68)
- Innovation (2.58)
- Great Western Trail (2.48)
- Ora et Labora (2.41)
- Nusfjord (1.99)
- Altiplano (1.85)
This is a metric devised by Eric Brosius, and the scores for the games are calculated this way:
For each game and each year, calculate SQRT(number of plays in a year) * (5/6^(current year – year)). Sum these, divide with the sum of year weights, raise to the second power and multiply by the game length in hours.
H-index
My H-index for this year is 9 (8 last year). My total H-index is 52, up two from last year. I expected it would be stuck at 50 for a long time, but then realized it wasn’t too hard to nudge it up a bit.