Favorite games, chronologically

For a switch, something genuinely positive is coming out of r/boardgames. u/The_Crazed_Person has been running a poll, once per day, asking people to name their favorite games, beginning with 2006 (not entirely sure why that year was chosen, but it's as good a place as any.) I've been participating, despite the children downvoting anything that isn't their preference, since instead of just finding out what different people like, they need to have their egos gratified by being "First!" Anyway, I thought I might bring it over here as it progresses, just to see what the very different (and probably somewhat more cultured) opinions are. He provides a link to the list by year on BGG with each vote. Results so far are:

2006: Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization, Imperial, Mr. Jack
2007: Agricola, Race for the Galaxy, Galaxy Trucker
2008: Dominion, Pandemic, Battlestar Galactica: The Boardgame
2009: Jaipur, Hansa Teutonica, Telestrations.
2010: 7 Wonders, Innovation, Hanabi
2011: The Castles of Burgundy, War of the Ring (Second Edition), Mage Knight Board Game
2012: Love Letter, Coup, Lords of Waterdeep
2013: Sushi Go, Concordia, Viticulture
2014: Splendor, Patchwork, Star Realms
2015: Codenames, Pandemic: Legacy, 7 Wonders Duel
2016: Terraforming Mars, Arkham Horror: The Card Game, A Feast for Odin
2017: Spirit Island, Azul, Gloomhaven (TI4 was in (ahem) fourth place...)
2018: Root, Quacks of Quedlinburg, Brass: Birmingham (Two years in a row picking the winner. Weird. Surprised Brass didn't win.)
2019: Wingspan, The Crew: Quest for Planet Nine, Scout
2020: Dune: Imperium, Lost Ruins of Arnak, Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion
2021: Ark Nova, Cascadia, The Crew: Mission Deep Sea
2022: Heat: Pedal to the Metal, Blood on the Clocktower, Clank!: Catacombs
2023: Sky Team, Dune Imperium: Uprising, Forest Shuffle
2024: Arcs, Slay the Spire Harmonies
2025: Fate of the Fellowship, Old King's Crown, Vantage

My input so far has been:
2006: Neuroshima Hex, LotR: The Confrontation, Here I Stand
2007: Starcraft, 1960: The Making of the President, TZAAR
2008: Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game, Android, Warriors of God (Really wanted to pick FFG's CE here, but it's a reprint)
2009: Chaos in the Old World, Cyclades, Age of Conan
2010: 51st State, Merchants & Marauders, Runewars
2011: Blood Bowl: Team Manager, Rune Age, Sekigahara: The Unification of Japan
2012: Pax Porfiriana, Android: Netrunner, Kemet (wanted Wiz-War but, again, reprint)
2013: Theseus: The Dark Orbit, Battlelore 2nd Edition (made an exception here, since it's really a different game), Concordia
2014: Tiny Epic Kingdoms, Abyss, Fire in the Lake
2015: Cthulhu Wars, Blood Rage, Triumph & Tragedy
2016: Tyrants of the Underdark, Tiny Epic Western, The Others
2017: Spirit Island, 878 Vikings, Battle for Rokugan
2018: Root, Rising Sun, War Chest
2019: Cthulhu: Death May Die, Pax Pamir, 2nd Edition, Watergate
2020: Cat in the Box, Pan Am, Mezo
2021: Ankh, Oath, Tiny Epic Dungeons
2022: Wonderland's War, John Company 2nd Edition, War of the Ring: The Card Game
2023: Weimar: The Fight for Democracy, The Barracks Emperors, Land and Freedom: The Spanish Revolution and Civil War
2024: Compile, Arcs, Power Vacuum
2025: Wroth, Fellowship of the Ring Trick-taking Game

CE and Wiz-War would've been easy winners in their respective years but I was trying to focus on games that had been first released that year. I'm kind of surprised at some of the results, even with the more "casual" audience of the subReddit. I think the overwhelming dominance of "Euros" might be a measure of how fans of games that have dedicated fanbases or are "heavier" are split into more focused fora than something like r/boardgames, which tends to have a broader audience. But it's also clear that games that were huge hits like Pandemic and 7 Wonders were that for a reason.

I'm not in sync with reddit (Shocker) but have a few in the top 3 and I'm sure I'm forgetting some:
2006: Imperial
2007: Cash and Guns
2008: Dominion?
2009: Hansa Teutonica
2010: Cyclades
2011: King of Tokyo
2012: Kemet
2013: Concordia
2014: Black Fleet

Far more in tune than I am, at least, since the only match I have is a third-place Concordia for their second place in 2013. (Sushi Go won by a single vote, BTW.)

Of the top ones so far I've only played:
Galaxy Trucker (once)
Agricola (once, and please never again)
Pandemic
Battlestar Galactica (once)
Hanabi (once)
Mage Knight
Coup
Lords of Waterdeep

And of THOSE, the only one I'd even consider for best would be Mage Knight.

Winner for 2014 was Splendor, followed by Patchwork and Star Realms.

My contribution for 2015:

A lot more material to work with this year. Raiders of the North Sea was a significant improvement on Shipwrights, which was already a decent game in its own right. Tiny Epic Galaxies is a great "gateway" game to get new people involved and has a nice symmetry in its mechanisms. Triumph & Tragedy is one of the best three-player wargames I've ever played. The Bloody Inn is a great, if weird (thematically and mechanically) card game that is another good entry point for "non-gamerz." Fief: France 1429 is the most Crusader Kings-style board game I've played and is always interesting. Joraku is one of the stranger but more intriguing trick-takers I've played.

Close to the top is Blood Rage, Eric Lang's next step past Chaos in the Old World and something we still regularly play, but the winner is:

Cthulhu Wars. I'm a Lovecraft fan and this one has enough variability in strategy and function to keep you occupied for years. (And I'm one of those fools that owns everything for it...)

hotseatgames wrote: Of the top ones so far I've only played:
Galaxy Trucker (once)
Agricola (once, and please never again)
Pandemic
Battlestar Galactica (once)
Hanabi (once)
Mage Knight
Coup
Lords of Waterdeep

And of THOSE, the only one I'd even consider for best would be Mage Knight.

Have played Galaxy Trucker a couple times. I like it. Agree with you on Agricola. Played twice, never again. Played Pandemic several times and, similarly, never again. Played BSG several times and it just didn't work for our group for some reason. Then played it with another group and it went much better but still not something I'd single out as "favorite." We've been enjoying Unfathomable much more for whatever reason (different group, older, theme?) Never played Hanabi. Played Coup. Meh. Owned and played Lords many times. It's a good game but got tired of it. Like you, Mage Knight is the only one I'd consider at the level of "favorite" and the only one I still own (for that reason.)

I have only played BSG one time, and at that time, had not seen the show. It went on way too long, but if I had seen the show I'm sure I would have liked it more. I definitely saw its potential.

2016:
So many choices in this one makes it easily the hardest year so far for me. Inis is a brilliant game and I've never had a bad experience with it, even if the expansions don't do a whole lot for it (which speaks to the strength of the game.) Flamme Rouge is one of the best racing games I've ever played. 51st State Master Set only enhanced an already great game for me, but it's a reprint. Imhotep is one of my favorite area control games that doesn't have combat. I love New Angeles for its theme, but it definitely takes the right group to make it work. Doom: The Boardgame was a huge improvement on the original but, again, a reprint.

Cry Havoc is a brilliant and really undersung DoaM with an excellent combat system that has only been mimicked elsewhere. Star Trek: Ascendancy is another favorite DoaM if only for its innovative board makeup and I'm not even a diehard Trek fan. Tiny Epic Western is my favorite of the Tiny Epic set because it's such a great mix of mechanisms and boardgame styles that work for almost any player. The Others is my favorite dungeon crawler for both theme and systems.

But the winner, narrowly over those last two, is Tyrants of the Underdark. It's the best deckbuilder ever because there are other things happening on the board and it allows you to easily thin your deck of starting chaff and each half-deck transforms the game, so it's really flexible, based on your group.

Purely from my ratings after playing them saved on BGG (too many games out there to check if I have forgotten to rate specific great games) ,and ignoring any great games I haven't played, this is what my BGG download says:

2006: Risk: Star Wars Original Trilogy, Marvel Heroes
2007: Starcraft, Heroscape
2008: Battlestar Galactica
2009: Middle Earth Quest, Age of Conan
2010: Runewars, Merchants & Marauders, Sid Meier's Civilization, D&D: Castle Ravenloft
2011: War of the Ring 2E, A Game of Thrones 2E, Gears of War, Star Trek: Fleet Captains, Mage Knight, Fortune & Glory
2012: Spartacus, Descent 2E (different enough), Star Wars: X-Wing
2013: Firefly, Eldritch Horror
2014: Legendary Encounters: Alien (over 70 plays so far), Sons of Anarchy, Dead of Winter, Twilight Struggle
2015: Forbidden Stars, Space Cadets: Away Missions, Warhammer Quest: TACG, Secrets of the Lost Tomb
2016: Star Wars: Rebellion, Conan, TMNT: Shadows of the Past, Arkham Horror: TCG, Defenders of the Last Stand
2017: Sword & Sorcery, This War of Mine, Dungeon Degenerates (mentions for general gamers - 7th Continent, Clank in Space)
2018: Nemesis, Lords of Hellas, Deep Madness, Shadowrun: Crossfire, Maximum Apocalypse, Betrayal Legacy, Western Legends.
2019: Tainted Grail, [Cthulhu: Death May Die, Batman: Gotham City Chronicles, Dark Venture, Hellboy
2020: Etherfields, Gloomhaven: JoTL, Pan Am, Rallyman: GT
2021: Bloodborne, Solomon Kane, Machina Arcana 3e, Imperium: Classics, Sleeping Gods
2022: Aeon Trespass: Odyssey, Oathsworn, ISS: Vanguard, Darkest Dungeon,

Yeah ... don't think I'm in the core following of that reddit

Update:
Keeping up with Marc's yearly additions but I reckon I'm going to run out soon as I don't get many new games these days.

Jackwraith wrote: ...

Cry Havoc is a brilliant and really undersung DoaM with an excellent combat system that has only been mimicked elsewhere. Star Trek: Ascendancy is another favorite DoaM if only for its innovative board makeup and I'm not even a diehard Trek fan. Tiny Epic Western is my favorite of the Tiny Epic set because it's such a great mix of mechanisms and boardgame styles that work for almost any player. The Others is my favorite dungeon crawler for both theme and systems.
...

I had and played Cry Havoc a couple of times about eight years ago but a combination of not appreciating the 'new' mechanics that central european games were bringing in at the time and my group not really liking it I moved it on pretty quickly, when I look back now it was pretty innovative. And agree with Star Trek Ascendancy's map building mechanic, extremely cleaver and thematic ... both those games would be in my next tranche of picks for 2016.

I love that one of the 2016 responses on reddit was "What a weak year" WTF?
INIS gets my vote with Tyrants of the underdark a close second.
Also, I want to change my 2007 vote to Wings for the Baron.

Yeah, I can't understand anyone calling that a "weak year." What are these people playing? So many solid-to-great games I didn't name because they weren't personal favorites: Feast for Odin, Terraforming Mars, Clank!, AH: TCG, Star Wars: Rebellion, on and on. I literally can't think of a fan of any particular genre of game who couldn't go into 2016 and find something that didn't hit for them.

2017:
We've reached the point where some releases feel like yesterday and the point where I'm probably going to be even more detached from the winners than normal. There's also no really stark winner here for me.

Contenders: Twilight Imperium IV is a great game, even though I've lost interest in it, but is also a reprint. Ethnos is one of CMON's best games ever and has nothing to do with minis. Lovecraft Letter is my favorite version of Love Letter. Tiny Epic Quest is still a weird adventure story that feels like it uses geometry. Time of Crisis is a great example of mechanisms that are actually suffused with theme. LYNGK is among the lowest of my rankings of the GIPF Project, but still a favorite. Fate of the Elder Gods is a solid worker placement entry. Battle for Rokugan is one of the more unusual DoaMs I've ever played, slightly constrained by its map. 878 Vikings is probably the best 2v2 wargame I've ever played.

But the winner is probably Spirit Island. We still play regularly and the complications of some of the Invaders and how the various spirits function and interact is always an interesting challenge.

I'd go with Quest for El Dorado for 2017. Spirit Island has always sound intriguing but my failure to connect with coops means I've never sought it out.

2018:
There were a lot of good games this year, many of which I thankfully had the chance to try, but only a few that would've risen to the level of "favorite." But those favorites are HUGE for me in the last few years.

Contenders: Yellow & Yangtze, as I'm a long-time T&E fan and this variation did some really good things (but I still favor T&E); Disney: Villainous, despite not being a Disney fan, this game adapts their stories brilliantly; Tiny Epic Zombies, the best zombie game I've ever played; Heroes of Land, Air and Sea, which is the bigger version of 2014 favorite Tiny Epic Kingdoms; War Chest, a fantastic two-player that has one of the best tactile components of any games (shuffling the chips.)

Closest to winning is Rising Sun, which I think is the best of Eric Lang's mythic trilogy but the winner is, without a doubt, Root. It's probably the best DoaM ever made and is still fascinating with every play.