End Times 2023: Game of the Year Awards
Everybody loves awards. Letâs hand out some at Solitaire Times as well!
First a few words about games I left out.
I received some crowdfunding games this year, but Iâm not sure if they should count as 2022 or 2023. Like both Hoplomachus boxes, Solar Sphere, One Deck Galaxy⊠Or I bought a previously crowdfunded game in retail this year, like The Witcher: Old World and ISS Vanguard. Itâs a bit tricky to date them, as some backers will have played them in 2022, while others are waiting for a âsecond wave shipmentâ, and retail fell in between. Way too confusing. No awards for them.
Then there were a lot of games I didnât buy this year, that could easily have won. Dune: Imperium - Uprising comes to mind. The original Dune: Imperium is in my Top-3 for solo. But I was a bit frustrated to have to buy another base game, even if it looked improved over my version. But of course most games werenât bought for the simple reason that I couldât afford to buy EVERYTHING. And I may have made some bad choices causing other games to miss their award. I apologise.
One such mistake was Earth. An honest mistake, the game appealed to me â it has nice illustrations, I love tableau builders. But itâs too much to keep track of 500 scoring options, and I canât say I like playing against the AI. Itâs alright, but not great. Another mistake in the same vein, is Evenfall. Nice art, tableau, the works. But this was worse. The game sucks! And the AI is completely rubbish, you might as well roll a die for its actions and set a score to aim for. My biggest buying regret of the year. That is, if I had not received Astro Knights at the beginning of 2023. I forced myself to play this Aeonâs End-without-all-the-fun joke of a game at least ten times to see all content and try to get used to it, and then got rid of it utterly disappointed. I hope to never, ever, ever see it again.
Expansions
I got back into Marvel Champions in 2023, after Iâd stopped buying for a while. I was too curious for what they'd done with the X-Men. So one of the boxes I got was NeXt Evolution. Alas, I havenât played that one yet, so maybe a new one will get an award NeXt Year?
The expansions for Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition were a bit of a mixed bag. I did not enjoy the coop one (Crisis), but loved the one that brings more content and comes with upgraded phase selection cards (Discovery). Then again, that last one also brings milestones and awards, that I canât use in solo and donât care about multiplayer. đ€·ââïž
I am happy with Rook City Renegades, but I donât think Iâll buy more expansions for Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition now. Something is missing these days when I play it. â On the other hand, I love some of the characters, so I might get back into it some day in the future.
I am playing through Roll Player Adventures with my daughter at the moment. Itâs a good narrative game, and weâre having fun. I am not sure this is something Iâd enjoy solo though. I get easily frustrated with navigating paragraph books and making uninformed decisions when alone. So I think the new Gulpaxâs Secret will have to wait for future multiplayer sessions.
Stand-alone, Get Wasted Award
Unsurprisingly, Maximum Apocalypse: Wasted Wilds gets an award. The original game is a favourite of both Athena and me. This new box can also be played stand-alone and as such serves as a good introduction for new players. It has a few new mechanisms, but I would have bought it just for more content.
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Expansion of the Year đ
The best expansion of 2023 may be small, but it is utterly fantastic. Jump Drive: Terminal Velocity does not only have Epyoâs solo campaigns that were previously available on Board Game Geek, but also starting worlds, goals and some really fun new cards for the deck. It may not just be the expansion of the year, but the best expansion I own, period. Terminal Velocity turned Jump Drive into one of my favourite solo games.
Games
Some games I rated very high, but you wonât find them below. Here are my excuses.
Pirates of Maracaibo is really good fun, but âunfortunatelyâ easy to explain to others. So I ended up playing this more multiplayer than solo. The solo bot is good and I absolutely enjoy the game, but it does need some time to set up and for games that are not so heavy and do not take so long, Iâve got alternatives for solo. Still, good one.
Another game that suffers from the exact same problems, and not coincidentally is by the same designer, is Great Western Trail: New Zealand. I prefer it over Argentina, and like the extra board better that of Rails to the North, but still. I can play it multiplayer, it takes long to set up, and even though the solo bot is good, it will lose out to other soloable games when I sit down to play on my own.
I absolutely loved the new edition of Shipyard, so if we had a âSecond Edition Awardâ, it would certainly win this year. But we donât.
So far Legendary Encounters: The Matrix ranks third in the series, after Alien and X-Files. Not GotY material, you'd think, but to be honest I havenât played it enough.
Banish the Snakes was the best new coop game Iâve played this year. The event deck system is cool and the game also has great table presence. Alas, I havenât played it solo. đ€Šââïž Sorry!
Other games I havenât played at all are Cyberion, Freaky Frogs from Outaspace, Micro Cosmos and Roll for the Great Old Ones. The end of this year just came too soon⊠Next year I might as well hand out awards for 2014 or so.
Anyway. The Awards. Finally.
Save the Planet Award
With Earthborne Rangers both production of the game and story are environmentally sound. But Hana hates it so it doesnât win. đ Iâll give you my thoughts in a series of posts next year.
Punch & Pack Award
It was so exhausting to punch and pack Voidfall, that I consider this activity a game in itself. đ„”Mindclash Games produces the greatest big boxes on earth. I am happy to own another one.
Hardship Award
One of the most peculiar games I played was Endurance. Itâs a narrative game in the good way: you donât have to read paragraphs in a book while you play, but the event cards, your decisions and bad luck make the world and the (admittedly) sad adventure come to life.
SF Award
I love reading Science Fiction, and space is my favourite setting for board games. A close runner-up for Game of the Year is Evacuation. And not just because of the theme (moving your population by spaceship from one planet to another), but because it is actually great. The economy system, where production slowly moves from one planet to the other, is brilliant. Evacuation is just very new to me. It may still end up as GotY 2023 in 2024 đ
Should, but Shoot Award
This should have been the game of the year. But alas, Oranienburger Kanal shoots itself in the foot by having a learning curve thatâs just too high. I don't mean that learning to play is hard, not at all, the actions are simple enough, and what you want to accomplish gets clear pretty soon every session as well. But. It has like 5000 unique buildings and they all have icons on them that I just canât seem to be able to memorise. This may well be one of the best games by Uwe Rosenberg â I loved my plays â but I donât know if it will get to the table again any time soon. And I know it's my loss. đ
Strictly Solitaire Award
Halls of Hegra is a wargame for non-wargamers. I like to play States of Siege games and for example Pavlovâs House, and to me this has the same kind of feel. It could have been this yearâs #1, if not for the game that I spent a lot of time thinking about this year and that's up next. On the other hand, I may end up playing this one more often as itâs way easier to set up and get going.
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Game of the Year đ
Okay, an unlikely choice this year, I know. I struggle with the AIâs in this game. Both with the simple and the advanced one. They are work. Still, worth all the trouble and I donât see how a solo variant could have been done any other way. Hegemony: Lead Your Class to Victory is a fantastic game with a unique theme. It takes hours to play and Iâm engaged all the time. How they managed to take complicated subjects like politics and economics and turn them into fun is a miracle. Well done. Surprise hit of the year.