Surprise Hits of 2024! How great a year for games? - Your Board Game Questions, Answered!

0:00 hello welcome to another watch it play question and answer show the show where I with a bunch of your help Endeavor to answer all of the internet burning board game questions the first question we have this month you better believe is what are everyone's surprise hits of the Year surprise hits of the year so this isn't a game that we knew were going to be good or games that we knew we were going to really enjoy the games that you didn't realize were going to punch you in the face and go bye me this is good those ones those surprise hits the ones that none of us were expecting like I can't call the Dual for Middle Earth surprise hit because I it's it's 90% seven winers duel and I knew I was going to like it because I love seven wiers St but I do have some games that kind of tuck me by surprise the first one is River of gold which it's here was not at just quality board game content that's what you've tuned into River of gold is a euro game which is kind of dice driven You' got a dice you roll and you're trying to sail Up and Down the River of gold to get into these different markets to do actions build buildings trade goods deliver stuff and get cards which are going to boost up your abilities all in Aid of getting points and resources

1:31 the reason this such a big surprise was because office dog games who who are they never never what they who and then I looked at the game and you see the board incredible production 10 out of 10 great price point don't know we talk about price point this is for the production value to price point excellent and it's such a streamlined fun interactive very interactive game it's just it's just wonderful it's got just enough mean and to it but it's it's it's excellent River of gold took me by surprise because it's an excellent board game the next one is a completely different other than the production this is compile compile again has incredible production this is a two-player backand forth card game which is something I quite like but again this took me by surprise because it just came out of nowhere I I I watched a review for it by Eric Martin on board game geek and I was at Essence I was like I'm going to go buy this guame well we tried it first and I thought I'm going to go I'm going to buy this it just took me by such surprise with how it it's a two-player jeweling card game of trying to get majorities in different columns essentially and you've got a bunch of decks and you draft the decks first and each deck kind of Acts in a different way to this same end goal it's a wonderful little back and forth card game they did not bring enough expansion packs to the convention they were sold out it's just amazing back and forth card game which just surprised me so

3:02 much because I like this kind of feels almost like a TCG card game even though it's uh numbers and abilities kind of card it's just wonderful just wonderful and the final game that really surprised me this year was a game called War Story occupied France which again is just there but I'll bring it up War Story occupied France is not what I enjoy in board games it's just not I'm not a big you may not have noticed this but I'm not a big narrative board gamer I kind of don't care I don't normally want to read the story I don't want to read the flavor text I want to play the game and enjoy that however that is not what war story occupy France is about it's literally a Choose Your Own Adventure game and then you have these kind of forced combat experiences that happen within the game as well and you better believe that the choices you have previously made drastically alter what happens in the combat break her legs so we can try to persuade her I mean sorry sorry I mean twist her arm I apologize yes try to persuade or otherwise the story in this game is emotional it's gut-wrenching it's tense and SC scary the decisions you make have you go off in lots of different paths and one of the main resources you have is time you know the Germans are coming over this hill on this day and that's going to happen and

4:34 how much can you prepare before that happens you have different stats on your cards it truly is a game that's very important about this one it's not just to pick your own adventure and see what silly thing happens it really is a game you have resources to spend and every the thing I love into games is decisions every decision you make in this game is life and death that was a surprise what have been your biggest surprises your surprise hits of the Year games that you weren't interested in that you didn't think you'd like games that just you didn't know were coming and that you just went wow what a great hit what a game what something I loved what were your hits what were your big surprises this year and I'll look in the comments and then I'll probably start researching all those games and have more issues to deal with later on for now here is a sponsor message from the first sponsor who in part helped make this episode possible you know what makes me happy well heavenly hash ice cream you know what else makes me happy getting board game expansion content to fit back inside the main game box especially if I can do it in style and F the space is here to help they have an entire line of custom inserts and I'm going to give you an example with this one for lost ruins of arnac this is an officially licensed and updated version they created to contain both the base game and the Expedition leaders expansion if you have the missing Expedition expansion although this won't fit all of its extra board and campaign content its standard cards and components will also fit in here and the cover still closes flush as

6:06 you can see the modular nature of the insert means you can pop the sections out and play straight from them in fact many are designed to be placed directly on the games boards and because of the colorful printing on their sides they blend right in I'm also a big fan of the icons you'll find inside the different sections to remind you where the different pieces go this is a big convenience when you have a game with so many different components the entire product is packaged as three boards that punch out easily to ensure there's no damage to the edges you then assemble the pieces using the clear to follow guide all you need is a bit of PVA glue and you'll have it put together in no time it's not always easy getting help packing up a game after it's over and even if you do get help people find creative ways to do it wrong but with this set people will both want to help and the visual guides means that even your friend Bob won't have trouble figuring out where things need to go and this is just one of their inserts they have over 170 more with new ones being added all the time to pick up this insert or one or several of their others go to folded space.net which is also linked in the description of this video or in the US you can also find them at Miniature Market and at board game Bliss in Canada all right question two oh it's a good one it's isn't December and January too early to say what the best game of the past year was I'm still playing games from 2023 you can have a favorite game of the year anytime you can play a game in January and say this is my favorite game of the year so far do you have a definitive

7:37 answer to the question no but you've got one you got answer to the question doesn't make it any less true the thing is right is I understand content creators need to produce content you know what content gets the best views top 10 lists and you know why it's because people watch them if people didn't watch them people would not make them that is just one of those fundamental dichotomies if people didn't watch them people wouldn't make them so a lot of people feel that top 10 list and top 10 which are best of well actually top 10 that are worst of those do the best but top 10 of the year that's going to probably be that content Creator's best video of the year is January or December too early to tell of course it is no one has played all of the games but I would also argue I well I'll argue with anyone for anything you don't need to have played every game to know what your favorite games of the year are look there are let's say 5,000 Games come out in a year it's a lot of games everyone goes well how could you know what the best one of the year is you haven't played all of them yeah and I don't need to play all of them I've ruled out 90% of these games because I probably know I'm not going to be that interesting yes you're going to get these special hidden gems I me just that's why I spoke about that first though those games that's why I ordered the question this way thinking those games sometimes do pop up was I interested in war story to start off with no but I played it and yes it

9:08 surprised me huge massively excitement and it's amazing and I think it's fantastic we don't have to play all the games to know what games your favorite of the year were which is all you're saying right and you also don't have to play all the games to know that I'm probably not going to like that game so I won't play it we do this with everything what are your top 10 meals of the year yeah but you didn't eat this I don't like that yeah but it could have been amazing yeah it could have been I don't like that I don't like cheese so I didn't eat that so that's not going to make it into my top 10 meals of the year but you ruled it out before you knew anything about it or you played it yeah I don't like cheese I don't like it that's fine that's absolutely fine you know top 10 games of the year best games of the year in my opinion those titles are always too short top 10 games of the year in my opinion I I understand right when everyone says but you didn't play this and this is my favorite game of the year and I want validation I feel that way it's like you you but you didn't play this game and that's my favorite game of the year and you maybe that could have made your list and that would prove me right I feel that all the time I do think one thing that is really important to know about opinion based lists or on any topic not just board games it really should say especially for board games right top 10 games top 10 let's say tile placement games at the moment could be the end of everyone for

10:38 me now at the moment these are my top 10 tile placement games it's not quite as catchy a title is it but that's what it is for this every list video for board games is a snapshot in time that's why people's like top 10 games of all time changes from year to year but you said this was your top game of all time and now it's not on the list it's like yeah cuz my tastes have changed and this game came out have you played it it's great it kind of makes that game completely null and void I do like it though when people come out later in the year like in June and July or even at the end of the next year and say hey now I've played all the games I was probably interested in from two years ago at this point these is my top 10 of 2024 now it's almost 2026 those are really useful lists as well I've got my top 10 of the year I I wrote it down I'm not going to make the video but I I did write it down I probably trying to avoid doing something I needed to do I I stand by it and for now it's true but who knows if it'll be true in tomorrow and we finish with what has to be the most popular question in board gang conversation and that's was 2024 a good year for games did you play a lot of games from this year that you enjoyed or not for me 2024 fantastic year for games it's I don't really think I've always said this there are no bad years for games there's too many games that come out too high

12:09 quality for there to be a bad year for games but it's such an opinion-based question that you have to answer for yourself oh was it a good year for games you tell me did you play a bunch of games that you enjoy or didn't you if you didn't then it wasn't if you did then it was that's it that's the whole question it's not really a question that anyone else can answer for you I feel like people ask these questions because they want validation of their friends and of other people to of their opinion right I didn't think it was you tell me did you think it was you didn't oh good we're in agreement I'm right because we're both now right but it's it's so personal of a question was it a good year for games or not I don't know yeah for me I loved it but what I need from a year is not 65 games that I buy that I'm I now own because they're incredible I actually don't need that I need about 10 10 good games that's great for me oh but then I went on to board game geek didn't I and I looked at the numbers the statistics empirical data was 2024 a good year for games or not well let's find out so far at the time of recording this there are no games from 2024 in the top 100 games which I found

13:40 interesting but what I found even more surprising was at the time of recording this there are only 14 games from 2024 that are in the top 1,000 on Bard Game Geek that's intriguing that's what that did take me by surprise now the big reason for this a lot of the time is because most people haven't played all the games in 2024 right what we've been talking about before there's who's got the time to play all the new games and then you know it takes time for the the reviews to come in from Board Game Geek users there's a lot of games that I want to buy and play that are 2024 games I haven't been able to even get my hands on yet CU they're out but they're not out out you know but I thought 14 games only in the top 100 I felt that was low I wish I could find out how it compares to last year how many games in 2023 were in the top 1,000 this time last year for instance but at sinow is that indicator of a good or a bad year who knows and in the forness of Time how many of those games will be in the top 100 how many games in 2024 will be Classics in 10 years in 20 years that we still be playing that's kind of a measure of if was it a good year or not I think how many games from this year will stand the test of time so asking was this year a good year for board games is very difficult I think the better question is was 2014 a good year for board games because we've had the fullness of time

15:11 to play out I think we'll only know the answer of 2024 being a good or a bad year in 2034 that being said 2024 I played some great games so I had a good time that's that's great with me thank you so much everybody for being here if you've got any answers to any of the questions that have been posed this month put them in the comments and we can have a conversation down there and we can see where I was wrong crazy surely not or where I was right and what your opinions are what games do you think it was a good year what games surprised you all those types of things I'd love to see those below but until next time everyone have a fantastic end of your year and I'll see you next month bye everyone