New Year, Old Year: 2022 Revisited
Day Five! Mind’s Eye!
Now that is a wonky list! I’m trying to understand what I was going for, but the likeliest explanation is that I needed one more category and this year it got shuffled to the final day.
If I squint, I can make out a few boundaries. There’s a thread of testy social relationships running through this one. Watch Out! That’s a Dracula! involves some truly wonderful uncertainty in deducing the identity of the table’s vampire, and Shamans is still one of the finest hybrid trick-takers I’ve ever played thanks to its constantly shifting roles. These are both games that ask players to (1) figure out their fellow players’ intentions and (2) but then say “Oh yeah? What are you gonna do about it? Nobody is willing to work together!” That just so happens to be one of my favorite question-sequences in tabletop games, so it’s no wonder they ranked so highly.
Bites, on the other hand… yeah, I’m not seeing it. Don’t get me wrong, I love Bites. For a game I can play with my five-year-old, it has more depth than first meets the eye. But it’s still a weird inclusion on this list. Was I really running out of games to write about?
Given that I included Sniper Elite: The Board Game, that’s wholly possible. I have a pet theory that fans of stealth games fall into one of two camps. There are those who love Mind MGMT, and there are those who love Sniper Elite. I decidedly fall into the former camp, and that’s that, no further logic required. Still, I think I might have given this one short shrift. I remember liking parts of it, only to grow frustrated with certain details like the harshness of its failure-state. I would give it another shot — heh — but, hey, too late.
Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest sure riled up some folks with its new illustrations, huh? Personally, I prefer them to the boilerplate pirates of the original, but what do I know. I suppose this falls into the same “out-think your opponents” ring as some of these other games, but the connective tissue is as thin as the paper this retrospective isn’t printed on. Good game, though.
Finally, Turncoats. Can I tell you something personal? I am so proud that I got to write about Turncoats. My objective with this silly site of mine is to help connect people with games they never would have discovered otherwise. Matilda Simonsson went on to outdo herself with Pax Penning, but Turncoats is such a pure design, so unburdened by extra details, that I think it still might be her best creation. I know, that’s a heck of a thing to say when she only has two games out there, but still. A truly deserving number one.
There we have it! Pray tell, dear reader: what are your updated thoughts? What stood the test of time for you? What fell by the wayside? Let me know down below. Or don’t. I’m not your mom.
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Posted on May 9, 2025, in Board Game, Retrospective and tagged Best Week!, Board Games, Retrospective. Bookmark the permalink. 4 Comments.
SPACE-BIFF! 
Curiously out of the games in this retrospective I tried my conclusions mostly match yours. I think the only notable divergence is that I’m not a huge fan of Bloc by Bloc, but I’m not especially into co-ops at best of times and I found that the cool moments it does have aren’t worth the tedious upkeep. I also got rid of both Red Flag over Paris and Stonewall uprising, because 2p games are essentially a non-starter, since I mostly only get to play games in a larger group. I agree that Acts is a really good game, but the combination of the theme and significant length/downtime makes it hard to get to the table.
Perhaps it’s telling that I don’t own any of the games listed and have played none of them. (Though I do own the boilerplate pirates version of one of them, which gets played often.) I guess not enough games are giving me that must-own vibe. It’s enough to make one wonder if we have reached peak-Syndrome in board games: “When every game is super, none will be.”
Sadly the different opinions I’ve read on Crescent moon point the same kind of flaws, but I still hope I’ll have the opportunity to play it someday, if only to enjoy the beautiful artefact it seems to be on a table.
John Company IS a masterpiece. Reading and understanding the rules was probably my best “game time” of 2024, and the first plays were marvelous (After announcing that it might take 3 to 6 hours, having a 45min teach followed by a 1 hour game due to our horrendous exactions in India was hilarious). I’m really eager to tackle the solo mode, just to see how the system can be twisted to accomodate one-player.
After a few plays (very enthusiastic), Resist! is waiting for a moment when I can dig into the history of the spanish war to resurface.
Imperium is still on my watchlist, as it seems that a new edition and/or expansion might be on the way after Dead Cells’ success. However, I doubt it could overthrow Quantum as our regular “space-game”.
Ten has been nagging at me from the boardgame shelf of the city library from 2 years now, I need to take time to give it a shot.
I played the digital demo of Lok months ago and had a blast, I didn’t know the full version was released! It tickles my brain in just the right way and I cannot wait to go back to it.
I hope to play more Shamans (and hpefully a bit of Turncoats) during the summer holidays. It ask for a few plays to get all of its subtleties, but it gives back a lot once you’re in its mental game space.
Wow, a nice array of thoughts, Chips! I hear the solo mode for John Company is surprisingly good.