This has been a big year for board games, especially for me. I feel like this year really solidified board games as something that's incredibly important to me. I've massively expanded my collection, and I think about board games constantly.

We have an official board game session fortnightly, and I find it fun to try and work out what people will like. You enjoy Wingspan? Then try Dog Park for something similar, or Ark Nova for something more complex. Like Everdell? Then try Wingspan for more tableau-building or Champions of Midgard for more worker-placement. To that end, here are my favourites for this year, maybe you'll be inspired?

My favourite games released in 2024

Looking back, I realised that none of the games that I played this year were released this year. The 2024 release I'm most excited to play is Wyrmspan. Initially, I was concerned about the overlap between Wingspan and Wyrmspan. Once I looked into it more I quickly changed my mind. Wyrmspan is set to be an exciting new take on the Wingspan formula, with extra strategy, depth, and DRAGONS! We've played more games of Wingspan than any other game, so I'm keen to try a game that goes deeper and adds just a little bit of spice to a format that we already love. We were gifted a copy for Christmas, so I plan to get it to the table very soon.

My favourite games played in 2024

5. Dominion

I'm normally put off by certain older styles of graphic design, but we had the opportunity to try Dominion at WABA and loved it immediately. Dominion is a deck-building game, ostensibly THE deck-building game. I would consider it a game of low complexity and high depth, meaning it's easier to learn but difficult to master. You can learn the game in a few minutes, but could spend forever learning new strategies, especially with the millions of expansions available (though we've only played the base game so far). I have a lot of respect for this more classic game, and we played a lot of it in 2024.

4. Champions of Midgard

This game introduced me to the worker-placement genre. Put your meeples (your people) on spots to get stuff, then other players can't use the same spot to get the same stuff for a while. Champions of Midgard then throws in some combat as well. By now, I've managed to play several more worker-placement games, but this one is still my favourite.

3. Scythe

I've fallen in love with the Stonemaier Games brand after playing Wingpspan and Apiary, and since becoming an avid watcher of the YouTube channel, I've been excited to play a game by Jamey Stegmaier himself. Scythe is kind of a farming game hiding in the skin of a wargame - it feels strategic and tense, but at its core you're mostly managing workers and resources. Awesome.

Scythe is a brilliant combination of many of the things I love most about gaming, and it also exemplifies many of Stonemaier's "tenets of board games" - for example: despite having combat, the game avoids hostility and "take that" action; the game favours choices over luck; it flows smoothly; and there are multiple paths to victory. I feel like I've barely scratched the surface with this game, and I'm keen to play a lot more of it.

2. Star Wars: Rebellion

I went into 2024 wanting to try heavier, more strategic games, and these last two certainly fulfil that requirement. Make no mistake - Rebellion is a LONG game. Our first 2 games both took 6 hours. But the entire time, I felt excitement and suspense. Rebellion is a game of cat-and-mouse, where the Empire controls large fleets of ships trying to locate the Rebel base, while the Rebel try to stay under the radar while gaining support and undermining the Empire. So it's a 2-player or 2-team game that plays very differently depending which side you're on. Even though it takes a while, the game itself is reasonably easy to learn. I love Rebellion for how smoothly the game plays, how enticing it is, and for the storytelling it evokes.

Honourable Mentions

• Dice Forge: The gymmick of physically and literally re-building your dice manages to stay fun over and over
• Wingspan: Our most played game by far in 2023, we've played it less this year as we've made room for more diversity. Still our go-to game for 2 player.
• Dog Park: A great alternative to Wingspan, with a few interesting new ideas.
• Space Base: A faster, more strategic cousin to Catan which allows you to upgrade space stations that give different benefits for every possible dice roll
• Rumble Nation: A much faster, more fun alternative to Risk
• Railroad Ink Challenge: Shining Yellow Edition: My first experience with roll-and-write games, it's quick, simple, and fun!

1. Ark Nova

Easily my - and Victoria's - favourite game this year. This game has loads going on - worker placement (your associations), tableau building (your animals and sponsors), tile placement (your zoo enclosures). It manages to pack together multiple interconnected systems without being too hard to learn, and it feels like a reasonably realistic representation of what it would be like to manage a real zoo. It also uses the action card mechanism from Civilization: A New Dawn, a mechanism that I raved about despite not falling in love with the game itself. Ark Nova on the other hand is a masterpiece.