Top 5 Board Games of 2022

5. Village Rails

Village Rails is a game that stands out to be because it takes a concept I like in Village Green and iterates upon it. In Village Green, by a different designer, it is a tough puzzle to crack. With Village Rails you are still filling out a grid of cards completing rail routes, but it’s not as restricting. You decide how much you want to optimize how you score points on the route.

And I think the whole concept of route building is a lot of fun. This distills it into something that’s much smaller than a big train game, and offers more interesting decisions than a game like Ticket to Ride. All with just a deck of cards. You score points for the routes and the engines that you place on them, and it’s really just a clever and enjoyable system.

4. The Isle of Cats: Explore and Draw

This is one that is more built upon another game than my first one. But Isle of Cats: Explore and Draw is a roll and write version of Isle of Cats. The game plays in a much faster time and offers interesting other choices that the board game version can’t because of how it’s set-up. I think I like it better than the big box version, but it is close and I need to play the bigger box more.

In this you are still trying to rescue cats from the island. But you activate a column of three cards each round. Those cards can be cats to place on your boat, same rules for that as Isle of Cats. Or you can get scoring cards which you track which ones you’ve activated on a sheet. The game plays much faster, that is for sure, and offers still a lot of good choices. Plus you have powers you can use to break the rules and optimize a turn, which is fun as well.

3. Ready Set Bet

I own this one now, I own all of them on the list, but it took me a while to get Ready Set Bet. Ready Set Bet is a horse betting and horse racing game. There is an app that can call the race for you, but otherwise, someone does and everyone else is tossing down bets as the race goes on hoping to make as much money as they can.

There is a real time aspect that is needed for this game. It gives you that tension that I can only assume is like being at the track. You are watching trying to get a bet in at the last second on a sleeper who is making a move towards the end so you can win big. But if you hold onto your bets too long, the odds of betting on the favorites becomes worse. It’s a clever, light, and exciting system.

2. First Rat

First Rat is a game that I think the Dice Tower crew talked about well, it looks like it shouldn’t be that thinky a game. But First Rat, a game where you are collecting pieces to build a rocket ship as a rat to get to the moon that is made of cheese, it works really well.

You get a lot of options of how to move and optimize your strategy. But each player can have their own strategy. I pushed up on the lights track because I wanted, when I moved up the main track, it to be even more powerful. To collect resources faster. Other players pushed up for resources faster but had to be okay with getting fewer. There are a lot of fun things to play around with on the system. And the theme makes what is basically a resource collection game so much more fun.

1. Stars of Akarios

Finally, you got to see me play this one on Malts and Meeples. We have Stars of Akarios. An epic, massive, space exploration and tactics game. I love this game because it does so much. You want tactical space combat, it does that. You want to explore a planet, you can do that. And it has choose your own adventure story in there as well.

I’ve talked about this game a lot. I thought that I’d like it, and I do, indeed, like this game a lot. The story is engaging. It isn’t as polished or deep as some, like Tainted Grail for example, but it is a fun story. It has that early 2000’s SyFy channel vibe to it, or something like Farscape which is just fun to play in. And the tactical space combat is so cool and puzzly to figure out. And then you get little breaks with the story and exploring planets before you launch off and try again.

What Are Your Favorite Games from 2022?

I had 16 different board games on the list. And I did exclude Marvel Dice Throne from my rankings because it is just more Dice Throne. But that would be my number one otherwise. I love Dice Throne. But it has been a really good year for games. I don’t on my list have Oathsworn because I haven’t played it yet. I want to play Lands of Galzyr. Just missing was Batman: Everybody Lies the Detective System game and Long Shot the Dice Game. So it has been a story year for games. What is your favorite?

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The games that, as far as I know, are just going to be published or that I’ll have access to. So it might be a crowdfunding game but one I didn’t back. I kind of expect this to be a harder because there often isn’t a ton of information out there on games. And going through BGG, there are a lot of entries but a lot of them were crowdfunding games.

So You’ve Been Eaten

Fairly sure this came to Kickstarter, but I don’t remember 100%. So You’ve Been Eaten is a game where you are playing as a miner trying to get out of a monster that has eaten you. Or you play as the monster trying to eat the guy. It’s a game that can be played by 0, 1, or 2 players. 0 players means the game plays itself. Well, with someone taking the AI’s actions.

But the concept of the game is just fun. I feel like I like games with really weird themes, and it’s hard to get weirder than being eaten by a monster and trying to get out of it. The title if nothing else just makes me want to try the game.

Sagrada: Legacy

It’s two things that I love, Sagrada, a great dice drafting and dice placement game. And Legacy, meaning that the game progresses and grows as you go through it. I’m not sure what that is going to entail, but I’ve been excited for this one since I learned about it. I don’t know for sure this will come out in 2022, but whenever it does, I’ll be picking it up.

My hope is that you build up a whole cathedral of stained glass windows through the game. I am guessing this won’t have nearly as much story as a lot of legacy games, but it’s a game system that I already like with Sagrada. And it might be a more accessible legacy game, like My City.

Vagrants Song

This one is kind of out right now, so it might be a bit of a cheat, but it’s not out for a wide audience. But the Dice Tower, and that it was multiple times in the Top 10 of the year, I believe, Tom, Zee, and Mike all had it there, it makes me interested. This is a bag chit pulling game, battle game, a lot going on it. It’s cooperative and there is story as well, so like I said, a lot going on.

I don’t know that this is one that I’ll pick up. It feels like it’s unique, the art style is unique. This is kind of like So You’ve Been Eaten in that it just feels different from almost anything else out there. Yes, there are elements that have been done before, but the teme especially is really different feeling.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Chapters

Now, I know I’m cheating on this one. It most definitely is a Kickstarter game. It is even a game that I looked at on Kickstarter. But it wasn’t until I saw a playthrough of the prototype, and it was a partial production copy prototype, that I knew I wanted this game. It’s a big campaign game, I should have known before.

But it has story elements, and heavy story elements to it. I like it when my campaigns tell a great story. And it also has that divide that we’re seeing in games like Oathsworn as well where you have combat and a map, but also just story and choose your own adventure from a book. So I hope that this one gets some level of retail release when it eventually comes out.

Unmatched – Marvel

I haven’t gotten any Unmatched before. This is a game that is a fighting game between two people. I already own a game that I love like that with Super Fantasy Brawl. But now that we’re getting Marvel characters, I might need to pick up some Unmatched.

What I really like about this for Unmatched is that it isn’t the normal characters. I think one of the boxes maybe has Iron Fist, Luke Cage, and Ghost Rider. Yes, they show up in other games, but there isn’t a box where it’s Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor. So they are starting with different characters which I really like.

Flicking Finches

I hope that this game is at GenCon, let’s be fair. I don’t think that I’m going to pick up this dexterity game where you are flicking finches in hopes of getting Darwin to draw them without trying it. I’ve done that before with some dexterity games, but I’ve a good idea of what they are. And now I have my favorites all set aside with Icecool and PitchCar.

So do I need more flicking games. Likely not, but if I could demo this one. And if this one is fun. Then maybe I’d want to get another flicking game that is on a bit of a smaller scale.

Bullet [STAR]

It’s the shape, not the word that’s why I have brackets. But this one is a bit of a cheat. I already pre-ordered this game. It is a real time game that is basically a solo puzzle. You try and use cards and powers to stop bullets, I think. Basically over up discs so that they don’t fall down and get you.

The aesthetic of this is great, it has that anime art style that I know some might not like, but I do. And I ordered the wooden discs to replace the ones that come with the game. So my thing is going to be even more fancy. Plus the game plays in two minutes so that is cool, very fast game to get to the table.

Risk: Shadow Forces

This is one that I need reviews on. When it was announced I immediately became interested. Why, because it’s a legacy game. And I had a really good time with Risk Legacy. But Risk: Shadow Forces seems to be a legacy game on the same level as Risk Legacy. By that I mean very few things to open up.

I thought that Risk Legacy was fun because of the group I played with. But I don’t think it’s an experience that I’d go back to. If Risk: Shadow Forces is the same level, I don’t need to go after it. But it is a legacy game and I’d love to play all of them. I like the shorter campaign style nature of them. And they seem to be more accessible to some people. Still, I need a review.

Lord of the Rings: The Card Game

This is a bit of a cheat. This game is already out, but they are coming out with a revised core box. I think it makes it so you can play with more. But it’s also a chance to jump into the game. Do I need another living card game to buy stuff for, I do not. But just getting the core box, I could see myself doing that. It is a theme that I love and my wife loves even more, so maybe a game that is easier to play.

But those are the board games that I’ve spotted thus far coming in 2022, at least that aren’t on Kickstarter or Gamefound. Obviously, we don’t know everything that is going to come out at this point. There are going to be games that the designs get finished and they just show up out of no where. Or, like this year with Stardew Valley are announced and immediately able to be pre-ordered. Is there any game you are excited for already in 2022?

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