Biggest Surprises of 2015
January and February has sprung itself upon us and another
great year of gaming has passed. It is time to look back on what a great year
2015 was for the gaming community. 2015 was a great year for the Board Game
Ripper, and I saw a massive expansion in my collection. In fact, there are
still games I got this year that haven't seen the table and this is the first
year that my collection has grown faster than I can keep up with. While there
were some large disappointments; overall the year was fantastic and there were
quite a few great games this year. With that in mind, I would like to look back
over the year and give you my biggest surprises for 2015 which also happens to
serve as the best games of the year.
1. Darkness Comes Rattling
Here is a game that gets very little buzz, but it managed to
climb into my top ten causing a shift for the first time in five years. First,
Darkness Comes Rattling is perhaps one of the most beautiful games I have ever
seen with a theme that is just amazing. The game tells the story of several
fantasy tribes of man that must combat the Darkness, who swallowed his brother
the Sun in a fit of jealousy. This is a cooperative game where the players must
combat various mission cards on the board trying to defeat the corruption being
spread by Darkness with players' characters gathering various equipment and
items so that eventually one person can venture inside Darkness-- chasing after
the Sun before it is fully consumed. Basically, you have to manage a board like
most cooperative games (pandemic like) but there is also a racing element as
someone has to get swallowed by Darkness and then race through challenges in
order to catch up to the sun before it reaches the end of the track where it
will be consumed. This is such an interesting game with new mechanics that are
really fresh for a cooperative game, and I fell in love with it instantly. If
you haven't heard of this game I cannot recommend it more highly. This was
truly the best surprise of 2015 and I am so glad I took the chance to randomly
purchase this game.
2. Captains of Industry
I love economic games, and when I saw this title was from
Tasty Mistral (one of my favorite publishers) I knew I had to give it a chance.
This game blew me away when I played it and would have been my number one game
of the year if Darkness Comes Rattling had not snuck in at the end of the year
to take that spot. Another game that managed to climb to my top ten of all
time; Captains of Industry is exactly as it sounds. It is a economic game where
you play as one of the leading capitalists in early American industry trying to
expand your control over various markets and get people to buy your goods in
order to score points at the end of the game. This game has so much going for
it starting with the fact that the market is entirely controlled by the players
with no outside influences. This means that the game will be depended entirely
on the game group and there is no one to blame for a bad market but yourself.
Put in some entertaining mechanics such as random round lengths and
having to spend actions to draw end of game bonus cards and you truly have a
unique gem that I just love. Captains of Industry is a true brain burner and
deserves my number 2 spot for this year.
3. Alchemists
Now I know that Alchemists came out in 2014 but I didn't get
on the bandwagon that year and waited until late this year to try this game at
a convention. While the app base play originally turned me away from this game;
I have to say I was surprised. I can now see why this game gets the fame it
has, and it deserves every bit of it. I was blown away by Alchemists; it is a
really simple game in concept but boy does it have a lot of brain burning built
into each decision. I won't go into too much detail on this one as it was
talked to death last year, but let me say it was a game that greatly exceeded
the low expectations I had built for it.
4. Steam Punk Rally
I was foaming at the mouth for this game since I first heard
about it and bought it the moment it appeared at one of my local gaming stores.
I am so happy that I did, as this has quickly become my favorite racing games
to date-- kicking the former champion Fortuna to second place. I love the dice
allocation built into this game, as you are trying to gather three colors of
dice which each represent a different form of energy in order to power the
various gadgets and parts of your hastily constructed steam punk racing
machine. Steam Punk Rally also has a draft phase (which I love in games), and
it does drafting in a way that I appreciate it. Overall this is a simple racing
game that can deliver some good decisions as you have to build your racings
machine as the race is in progress. Overall it is an awesome engine building
game where you are trying to maximize every card you add to your machine.
5. Homeland The Game
Now I had never seen this show before but I have a high
opinion of the publisher who brought us the Firefly game. Being a fan of hidden
traitor games and receiving a large discount as my local gaming store, I
decided to pick up this hidden gem one random Saturday afternoon. This is now
my second place for traitor games falling just short of Battlestar Galactica. I
love how the three fractions in the game interact with one another as the
political opportunist appears to be both a terrorist and a loyal agent by
trying to complete their goals. This concept really drives the game home for me
as you are never sure in the person is trying to fail missions because they are
really the terrorist or if they are a opportunist who is trying to gain some
political capital which are their sides victory points at end game. I also love
the threat system in the game which combines two cards with a ton of
information to generate the threats and plenty of hidden information to sort
through. Overall this is such an awesome game and it generates some amazing
experiences.
So there you have it; my biggest surprises and best games of
2015 rolled into one list for you. Overall this was a great year for board
gaming, not the best, but a great year. I hope that 2016 continues this trend
of strong industry growth and produces some equally amazing games as well. Keep
checking in as I will next tackle the
most disappointing games of 2015 which includes quite a few popular games.
Thanks
Board Game Ripper
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