Combinations! Good stuff, those. When board games ask us to put things together, a special alchemy occurs. Sometimes we’re even treated to surprising consequences. That’s why today I want to celebrate the year’s board games that ask us to assemble peculiar engines, categories, and words.

#6. Things in Rings

Designed by Peter C. Hayward. Published by Allplay.

Things in Rings is all about categories. It’s Venn Diagram: The Board Game, with a touch of Dr. Seuss and all the infuriation that comes from not knowing what somebody is talking about. One by one, cards are added to these overlapping rings, each of which is connected to a different category. The trouble arises when these categories don’t quite line up. Where one will be simple enough — “one-syllable words!” — another might be entirely disconnected, even subjective. Like, say, “Things passengers can carry on an airplane.” Good luck with that one. Funny and frustrating in equal measure, Things in Rings is one of the best party games of the year.

Review: Red Fish, Blue Fish, Fish What’s Ticklish

#5. Fromage

Designed by Matthew O’Malley and Ben Rosset. Published by Road to Infamy Games.

Probably the most hobbyist-friendly title on this list, Fromage is a Eurogame about cheesemaking. Yum. But what makes it special is the way everything comes down to timing. Gathering extra resources takes longer than picking up a single bushel of berries from the market, as does the process of aging fine cheese. The more powerful the action, the longer it takes the rotating board to return your workers. The result is a finely tuned game about carefully assessing every single placement. Also, cheese. I heckin’ love cheese.

Review: Finally, a Game for Turophiles

#4. Out of Sorts

Designed by Connor Wake. Published by Always Awake Games.

When an alien abducts and instructs you to reconstruct the Dewey Decimal System for their xeno library, you’d better hope you were one of those weirdo loners who spent every day of summer break at the library. That wasn’t me! Ha ha! Not me at all! Ahem. As the year’s second-best memory game, Out of Sorts offers a wonderful, if challenging, cooperative experience. Sorting nonsense images into concrete categories sounds like work for stuffy curators, but in Connor Wake’s hands it becomes an exercise in hilarity. Pick me for abduction, aliens. Please.

Review: The Gooey Decimal System

#3. Typeset

Designed by Jasper Beatrix. Published by DVC Games.

Ah, words. Nature’s combinations. Apart from all of nature’s other combinations, like slime molds and bog butter. Typeset takes individual letters and turns them into components in the risky endeavor of crafting words. Specifically, the risk of pressing yourself too far. That’s because letters are only offered in sets of five. To craft longer and higher-scoring words, the temptation to accept another set is overwhelming. Do so too often, however, and your words might become garbled and score negative points. As a press-your-luck game, Typeset is just about perfect.

Review: A Triphthong of Word Games

#2. Tether

Designed by Mark McGee. Published by How To Steam Broccoli.

Oh gosh, it’s all about perspective, isn’t it? When a hundred astronauts have gone adrift in space, binding them together is a matter of seeing through the numbers. Tether is one of the most confounding games of the year thanks to its headache-inducing gameplay, with one player tallying numbers horizontally and the other working vertically, and from opposing sides of the table to boot. But that same headache makes for a fantastic spatial puzzle, one where every card risks connecting more of your rival’s astronauts.

Review: Hearts Adrift

#1. City of Six Moons

Designed by Amabel Holland. Published by Hollandspiele.

I want to offer a disclaimer. This is my personal list of favorites, not a holiday gift guide. City of Six Moons is not a title I would recommend picking up for that one nephew who really likes Exploding Kittens. That is, unless your nephew adores the idea of translating alien languages. Written in an alien script, the rules took me weeks to decipher, and thanks to Amabel Holland’s insistence that she will never answer any questions — plus the prank of publishing slightly different rulesets — there’s no telling whether I got them right. But as experiences go, City of Six Moons is singular, questioning the boundaries between play and not-play. It stands knee-deep in the weeds. But it also invites players to join the designer in the act of creation. There’s nothing else like it.

Review: Three Phases of Six Moons

And those are my six favorite combo-making games of the year! What were yours, dear readers?

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