Top 10 Years for Solo Board Gaming | How Good Was 2023?

0:00 hello everybody Welcome to toally tabled my name is Shaggy and today I'm going to rank the top 10 years for solo board gaming which year had the best collection of games for solo players and where does 2023 fit into the list is it closer to the bottom to the top I think the answer might surprise you now this is a follow-up or companion video to a few previous lists on the channel it all started when I made a video about which game I would keep from each year if I could only have one check it out if you haven't but that thought experiment really illuminated for me just how much better some years were than others at least for my tastes in games I then released my top 10 solo board games of 2023 and naturally the question arose how good of a year was it I actually pulled my subscribers and the response was pretty overwhelming out of over 600 votes 63% said the year was above average and 14 % said it was one of the top three best years ever that's a lot of positivity so let's see how the year holds up under further scrutiny I'm going to run through this list pretty quickly again this is just a follow-up video I spent quite a lot of time talking about these games in the last video at the end I'll do some final thoughts so stick around for that but here at number 10 we have 2011 as you'll see in some of these earlier years there just isn't a lot here we have Lord of the Rings the card

1:32 game which I've never played but obviously is really popular we have the simple solo only card game Friday which I really love but the game really carrying this year is Mage night obviously a top 10 solo game but just not enough other games this year to move it up the list for number nine we have the following year 2012 genopis came out this year which has a really clever and fun solo mode mode but this year is all about Robinson Caruso my favorite solo game My Love for Robinson Caruso pushes it slightly higher into the number nine position for number eight we take a little bit of a jump forward in time all the way to 2018 still not that many notable games here we have sprawlopolis the tiny little card laying micro game we have the Fantastic underwater cities and then two games I absolutely adore for Obsession and Nemesis by the way I've done full playthroughs for both of these games and Mage Knight and Robinson cruso I'll put links in the description below so go check those out but moving on to number seven we're actually going to go back to 2016 now this year might be higher on a lot of people's lists it's a little bit lower for me because I'm just not that big of a fan of terraforming Mars and Aon 's end but I know a ton of people

3:02 are I'm also not as big of a fan of sidee as a lot of people but I am huge fan of Arkham Horror the card game and one of my favorite solo games of all time A Feast for Oden so yeah personal preference is pushing this down the list a little bit so keep that in mind cuz this this year is probably more popular for a lot of people for number six I have 2019 now I could honestly see this being people's number one year again we're running into a few games here that I'm like slightly less excited about than others games like wingspan paladins of the West Kingdom marra Kaio and the big one Marvel Champions I really really like those games but some of these are beloved so that alone could be enough to push this into the top for some people for me the big ones are Star Wars outer rim my my favorite pickup and deliver game and great with the expansion and then the big one packs premere second edition a truly incredible game at any player count including solo so my number five Is 2020 part of the reason why 2020 gets the nod is just the sheer number of excellent games we have games like underf Falling Skies Hower toow on Mars Gloom Haven jaws of the lion and then a bunch of games that done videos for including warp's Edge Marvel United Dune

4:35 Imperium and then my favorite of the bunch lost ruins of arac I know this one's going to be quite a bit of a disagreement with most people I think most people have 2019 ahead of this but the combination of lost rooms of arnac Gloom Haven jaws of the lion and dune Imperium really pushes this one up for me number four is 2022 this is was a tough one it could have easily gone higher games like four Northwood revive endless winter Carnegie and then the big three for me heat Ark NOA and frost Punk and that's keeping in mind that I haven't played Frost Haven or oath sworn but yeah a ton of hits in this year Frost punks in my top 10 of all time AR NOA really close just a really incredible year but now we go to number three and that is 2021 could have easily flip-flopped these years it's extremely close but we have a bunch of massive hits including Hadrian's Wall Imperium Classics or Imperium Legends Cascadia the expansion to Concordia Concordia solitaria which added a solo mode fantastic one we also have Marvel United X-Men came out this year Rove my favorite of the button shy micro games

6:06 and then the big three for me the incredible Cooperative game the loop one of my favorite exploration games sleeping gods and the solo only horror Survival game final girl I think just the sheer number of great games that came out in 2021 gives it the slight Edge for me over the following year 2022 and now we get to the runnerup year my number two 2023 oh this came very close to being my number one so so so close and it wouldn't surprise me if one day it gets to that point after I've played a few more of the games from this year 2023 was an insane year for solo gaming we get the castles of burgundy special edition which has a new amazing solo mode in it we get Darwin's Journey we get an absolute gem Iranian Burger canal and then one of the strongest top threes of any year Halls of hegra earthborne Rangers and then the absolutely Monumental void fall I've done playthroughs of all of those games in fact I've done playthroughs for my entire top 10 of 2022 and 2023 so what year could have possibly topped that crop of games well the number one year is

7:36 2017 just an absolutely insane year for solo gaming the likes of which we may never see again although I think we might have almost seen it in 2023 but listen to this lineup from 2017 and this isn't even all of them we have nusfjord lost Expeditions Gaia project Lisboa anacron too many bones Spirit Island maybe you've heard of it and then the two powerhouses for me the heroing survival game this war of mine and the Epic Dungeon Crawl with a yoy twist Gloom Haven I mean good night what a year for solo gaming but as incredible as that lineup is I'm telling you 2023 came remarkably close to being being my number one year considering all the games that I haven't played from 2023 I really think that it might get there and so there we go that's the answer to the question how good of a year was 2023 for solo gaming maybe one of the best ever if not the best then an incredibly close second and in fact if you look at this the last four years are in the top five positions the best eight years of solo game gaming have been the last 8 years what this list is showing me is that solo gaming is just getting better and better and while the Golden

9:08 Age of board games in general has arguably come and gone I think the Golden Age of solo board games is right here and right now and there we go that was my quick little rundown my little companion video to the last one please let me know what you think about the list I know I know you would put 2019 higher but how much higher yeah in 2016 you're going to want to put that one higher than I did but how much higher let me know in the comments below and while you're at it give this video a thumbs up and subscribe to the channel I would very much appreciate it also be sure to go check out all the playthroughs I have of the vast majority of the games that I've mentioned but that's all for me thank you so much for watching and

9:58 goodbye