If you ran into me during 2022, I probably suggested we play a board game. There's nothing I love more than gathering a group of friends around a table to battle it out — or work together to save the world — as we ease out of the pandemic. I played 72 different games for a total of 105 plays. Here's what I tabled:
Wingspan
Forbidden Island
Summer Camp
Wavelength
Codenames
Coup
T.I.M.E. Stories
Moving Pictures
Hierarchy
Longhorn
Luchador! Mexican Wrestling Dice
T.I.M.E. Stories: The Marcy Case
Kahuna
Smash Up
Star Wars: Empire vs. Rebellion
Concept
Paperback
Targi
Cat Lady: Premium Edition
Pan Am
Terminator: Dark Fate - The Card Game
Machi Koro
Splendor
Space Base
In Front of Elevators
Take 5
Draftosaurus
Oceans
T.I.M.E. Stories: A Prophecy of Dragons
Village Green
Azul
Night of the Living Dead: A Zombicide Game
Dice Miner
Machi Koro 2
Pandemic: Hot Zone - North America
Aldabas: Door of Cartagena
T.I.M.E. Stories: Under the Mask
Pandemic Legacy: Season 0
Bären Park
Calico
Hidden Leaders
Santa Monica
Cat Café
Marvel United: X-Men
Scooby-Doo! The Board Game
Dune: A Game of Conquest and Diplomacy
Patchwork
Zombie Dice
Exploding Kittens
Harrow County: The Game of Gothic Conflict
Nemesis: Lockdown
Yak
Marvel Champions: The Card Game
Marvel Dice Throne
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: West End Adventures
Railroad Ink: Deep Blue Edition
Mr. Jack in New York
Cat Rescue
Cartaventura: Lhasa
T.I.M.E. Stories: Expedition - Endurance
Namma Bengaluru
Long Shot: The Dice Game
Unmatched: Cobble & Fog
Unmatched: Battle of Legends, Volume Two
T.I.M.E. Stories: Lumen Fidei
Dandelions
The Game
Mint Works
The Mind
Sushi Go!
T.I.M.E. Stories: Estrella Drive
Boop
If I had to pick a few favorites from this past year, they'd be...
… this trio of games:
Marvel United: X-Men
I grew up an X-Men fan (I can practically hear the animated theme as I type this) so this was a no-brainer purchase. Thankfully, it's a fast, fun, easy-to-learn cooperative romp that I'm more to happy to bring over to your table. :)
Unmatched
This head-to-head battler features AH-MAZING art —seriously, any card from this set could be hung in a hipster museum — but it also features tremendously tense gameplay. The icing is that you can pit any 2 fighters from the series against each other, so you could have King Arthur fight Big Foot, Achilles, Dracula, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Bruce Lee, Deadpool, or even the T-Rex from Jurassic Park.
T.I.M.E. Stories
I've been playing through the various expansions and so far we've had to solve mysteries in Victorian England, Ancient Egypt, the Spanish Inquisition, the Antarctic, '80s Hollywood, a possible near future suffering from a viral outbreak (YIKES) and an alternate timeline where dragons are real. This game is an absolute delight.
What about you? Did you get to play any board games this past year?