Expectations Exceeded | A Look Back at My Most Anticipated Board Games From 2022-2023

0:00 hello everybody Welcome to to tabled my name is Shaggy and today I'm just doing a quick little follow-up video to a video I just posted my most anticipated solo games of 2024 if you haven't watched that one yet please go check it out lots of great games that I'm anticipating for this year now I've done a similar list for 2022 and 2023 so I thought it might be fun to look back and find out if the games I anticipated then ended up living up to my expectations so let's go ahead and get started all the way back in the year 20121 when I was anticipating games for 2022 and my number 10 then was Resurgence and unfortunately I've received the game I've opened it up I've punched out everything but it just never got to the table it slipped through the cracks I don't know how you know there's just too many games and it's a shame because I'm really looking forward to playing this one it looks fantastic it's on the totally table Todo list so hopefully we can get it played this year next up was Carnegie and this one I did get played and even filmed a complete solo playthrough I also filmed a video of my first impressions in spoiler alerts this one ended up as my number four favorite game of 2022 now I don't keep really good records of like the number of times that I play a game uh that's going to become

1:30 a problem throughout this whole list but I believe that I've played Carnegie maybe around 10 times give or take and I can just say that my feelings have not changed I still absolutely love this design everything I said in my first impressions video stands I remember expressing a little bit of concern over replayability but I have not found that to be a problem whatsoever but keep in mind it's been a while since I've played it and I tend to not over overplay my games so replayability is rarely a problem for me I think the one thing that's really standing out about Carnegie is just how smart and streamlined the AI system is you know you're playing against Carnegie as as a bot and there's just a lot of really smart decisions where the management of the system is so simple you take a lot of turns in that game so it's really nice that you don't get bogged down in managing the AI on to number eight that was Primal I just received Primal and in fact as I'm recording this Primal is on my table I am working through the rule book I'm hoping to get a playthrough on the channel real soon I'm liking what I'm seeing so far but I don't really have uh any experience to speak to so really excited to see where this Falls in myh 2024 list number seven was earthborn Rangers yeah I was anticipating this one for 2022 didn't come out until 20 23 but smashed onto my

3:02 top 10 solo games of 2023 list at number two incredible game I've also done a full solo playthrough of like the opening scenario and a followup First Impressions where I go into a lot of detail about why I love this game so much it really came out at the tail end of 2023 so I haven't got a ton of plays I'm sort of like Midway through the campaign so I don't have a lot more to add from you know what I've already said one thing I absolutely love about it is just how easy it is to pop it back onto the table play a little bit and then put it right back in the box that really works for me so I don't have to play it for long stretches I can just sort of Play It casually and I think that's really how it works best I think if you try to binge this one it might get a little repetitive or a little monotonous cuz this really is a super casual experience I like it in small chunks and they really made it easy for you to do that and not have to leave it set up so earthborne Rangers still one that I'm really excited about exceeded my expectations for sure now speaking of 2023 number six was distilled another game that was a year late and it rose up to become my seventh favorite game of 2023 and that just shows you how strong of a year last year really was cuz distilled would be top five most years it's a fantastic game beautiful

4:34 beautiful production Flawless and it really appears to be this you know complicated thing but it's actually a really simple game it has this cool pushy luck card mechanism sort of at the heart of it that's very addictive and fun and thematic in fact the theme really comes through and adds a lot of charm to the game and they did a great job with the solo mode making it so your you're not playing against a bot but instead you have these goals that you have to meet and that just makes the solo game super quick really fun I love going through these goals picking which ones I want to try to achieve still love distilled and I've done a full playthrough of it so go check that out and here we go the big one number five Frost Punk this was my game of the year of 2022 it's gone into my top 10 solo games of all time time and the fact that it was only number five on my anticipated list I think goes to show just how much distrust I still had of turning video games into board games and frost Punk wasn't a video game that I had played or was all that interested in but reading about the theme and the fact that it was inspired by two incredible games Robinson cruso and this war of mine that definitely got my attention and got me excited for it and of course nothing has changed Frost Punk is incredible ooh now we go to number four

6:05 burn cycle one of my great regrets is just never getting this to the table like with Resurgence it just fell through the cracks it looks incredible beautiful production of course I was so excited when it arrived and I'm I really I I'm racking my brain to try to remember what happened probably a combination of just bad timing and you know maybe something even more exciting came in at the time I really can't remember but this is one that I absolutely plan to get to the table this year so unfortunately dropped the ball there but I didn't drop the ball with the next one number three lands of Galer this ended up being my number seven of 2022 and this is one that's maybe Fallen back for me a little bit because I just haven't really gotten it back to the table don't get me wrong I really love what it's doing but it's also not entirely in my wheelhouse being a very casual but also very story driven game the mechanisms here take a backseat to the experience of just having a story and making decisions and seeing what happens that's super fun and it works really well in a family setting but it is one that I find that I'm not coming back to as often and favoring games with a little bit more strategic depth I think a game like earthborne Rangers Works more for me and my personal tastes

7:38 but I think especially with kids and stuff land of Galer is really great but you can check out my full solo play and uh see it for yourself now my number two was aridia that hasn't been released yet it uh is now says it's a 2024 release so hopefully we'll get it this year and then my number one one was weather machine and that ended up being my number three game of 2022 I love weather machine a fantastic game from vital lerta beautiful production and it still remains one of my favorite of his to play solo I really like how the solo game works I find it a lot easier to manage the AI than in something like kban EV and yet they're there they're making your life difficult you have to account for them in in fun different ways I just think it really comes together and my opinion on weather machine has not changed I haven't gotten to play it a ton but the few times that I have since recording the video I've enjoyed those solo plays immensely I really think it holds up I'm you know I I don't have my definitive uh list of of my favorite leras yet it's it's something I'm working on but when I want to play a heavy Euro solo it's one of the first games I think about again you can check out my full solo play as well as my separate First Impressions video for that one so it looks like for 2022

9:08 did a pretty good job of anticipating managed to get my number one my number three and my number four of the year the one I end up missing there was Ark Nova that came in as number two just behind Frost Punk and then my number five of the year was endless winter so I'm not sure why that one didn't appear on my most anticipated list I can't remember if I knew about it um and it just didn't make my top 10 or if it was something that came out of the blue for me hard to remember that now for my most anticipated solo games of 2023 list I actually ended up doing my top 20 not sure what got into me there but don't worry we can actually ignore 11 through 20 because I haven't played a single one of them half of them haven't arrived yet and the other half uh I have but I haven't managed to play them yet so let's just ignore those you can go and watch the video and see them for yourselves actually we can run through the top 10 pretty quickly too because number 10 is dark quarter which has not come out yet number nine was age of comics and that one has arrived not that long ago haven't managed to get to the table yet but I'm excited to number eight was Pomo which has not released yet number seven was Scholars of the South Tigress now I have that one and I am dying to get it to the table that one is super high on my to-do list now number

10:40 six here we go Halls of hegra did a full playthrough of it did a first impressions video and this one hit my number three of 2023 for the longest time it was my front runner for game of the year it is that good and it's actually pretty pretty incredible that I was anticipating it because you know it's not really a game that would normally catch my attention particularly early but I remember running across it and seeing that some of the mechanisms had been inspired by Robinson Caruso if you say that about your game I'm going to anticipate it it's that simple so really ended up working out still love Halls of hegra it's not going to get played a ton but every once in a while I'm going to want to return to it and play out again and get crushed wonderful Survival game with a war theme and tons of clever little mechanisms that all fit together really well my number five is a legacy of youu also did a full playthrough of that one it ended up as number eight in my uh top 10 of 2023 solo only campaign game and once again I'm halfway through the campaign I'm halfway through a lot of campaigns I struggle to finish Campaign games this is one I definitely want to finish though uh I'm going to finish it I'll probably do a video once I get it done just kind of talking about my final

12:12 thoughts on it after I'm done with the campaign so I can't do that here I've really enjoyed it so far again it's not a game that I would want to binge um it's a game that I want to have a little bit of space between each play that probably says more about me than the game but I like to take my time with these sorts of things uh it keeps it fresh for me and so I'm really enjoying Legacy of view another beautiful production too oh and here we go number four was a pleasant surprise it was tamashi Chronicle of Ascend once again a full solo playthrough of this one check it out this was a real surprise now again I'm I'm surprised that I was anticipating it this much at number four uh it was a little under the radar and I think it's still kind of under the radar this is a fantastic game jumped all the way to number six on my top 10 of 2023 that's extremely high U 2023 was one of the greatest years for solo gaming of all time I I recently did a video about that as well I love this game and I've really just scratched the surface there's a there's a bunch of scenarios you can kind of play them out in a campaign um but you can do them sort of in any order you want so you can also just play them as kind of one-offs and that's mostly what I've been doing but that slide puzzle mechanism I love that I just love it it's so much fun yeah I'm still loving it and I don't hear almost

13:43 any talk about it it really seems to have slipped through the cracks for some reason but I highly recommend it and I see it getting quite a bit of play this year for me so yeah tamashi check it out oo and here we go the big one number three void fall game of the year I can't call it a surprise hit because I was anticipating it this much but definitely a surprise just how much I love this game void fall is getting talked about all over the place recently did a solo playthrough I have my first impressions video up check those out I talk about this in depth definitely don't need to say anything more about it and you know not enough time has gone by to have anything change yeah void fall is going to get played a ton this year it's cool to see that both of my games of the year for you know the last two years are games that I you know I was anticipating not necessarily at number one but you know they made the list pretty high so I think that speaks to after a dozen plus years in the hobby I now have a really good idea of what kinds of games are going to appeal to me there's not a ton of surprises but you know you just never know you never know now we're going to round out the list here uh with a bit of a whimper because number two was unconscious mind still hasn't come out yet ah still anticipating this game a ton can't wait to check it out and then number one was

15:15 sleeping Gods distant Skies which technically arrived at my doorstep in 2023 but uh haven't had a chance to get it to the table yet of all the games that we've mentioned so far this one one is the highest on my to-do list really excited for that love sleeping Gods no reason to believe that I won't love this one as well as far as games that I missed you know my number four of 2023 was Iranian Burger Canal that came completely out of nowhere no idea how much I was going to love that game that was a genuine surprise you know obviously I love Rosenberg games so it's not a surprise in that sense but just how much I love that one that is a sneaky good game I think it's going to end up being a bit of a cult classic in the end I did a full playthrough of that one as well so go check that out and then number five was Darwin's journey and that's nowhere to be seen on my anticipated list and again I can't remember why I have to imagine that I didn't know about it because it seems like it would be a game that I would definitely be highly anticipating if I knew about it so I can't remember you know what was up with Darwin's Journey if it was announced after I did the video that's certainly possible but there we go I guess a just a quick final thought it seems as if I do a pretty poor job of figuring out which games are

16:46 actually going to get released in the year that they say they are hopefully I've done a better job of that with this most current list but it also looks like I have a pretty good track record of anticipating games that I will end up enjoying but you know it takes time to develop that skill it means you need to play a lot of different types of games having a bad experience with a game can be good because it can teach you what you like and what you don't and then you'll have a better chance of not just being wowed by the beautiful art or the minis or all the hype around a game but actually be able to look at the mechanisms and the designers and the Publishers and know who is making the stuff that you really enjoy and then you'll be able to anticipate those games but there we go I've been babbling for way longer than I meant to that was a fun exercise I really had a good time doing that hope you enjoyed going along on the ride with me and I hope you'll stick around for 2024 where we'll be playing a bunch of the games that I've anticipated hopefully hopefully they will come out but until next time thank you so much for watching and goodbye