Favorite games, chronologically

2021 saw kickstarters start to takeover over my played games, not all made my higher ratings though - I'm still allowed to be fussy.
Machina Arcana 3e is in my top two but it is a reprint so the other one, which is decried by many for its massive amount of plastic, is my top game - Bloodborne. This, to me, is quite a mechanically well designed game that also apparently (I haven't played the video games) follows the video game without being a detriment to the board game. Cards for everything (so no dice for the dice-haters to hate), a small hand so tough and quick decisions to be made, nice asymmetry with the Hunters' trick weapons, and the scenarios progressing through dedicated card decks all work well together. Also in the mix were Imperium: Classics and Sleeping Gods.

Yeah, somehow completely blanked that Imperium: Classics/Legends was in the list because it/they definitely would've been one of the contenders.

2022:

Now we're getting to the point where there are a number of games on the list that I'm interested in but which I just haven't gotten around to playing for one reason or another, like Heat: Pedal to the Metal. That leaves this year kind of light for me.

Contenders: War of the Ring: The Card Game which I have only recently played for the first time (see above) but really enjoy the depth of; Rear Window is a great deduction game and appeals to my Hitchcock jones (RIP Prospero Hall); Votes for Women is a really smart 2-player strategy experience, although it suffers from the " I don't want to play THOSE guys! " phenomenon a bit, in that you only really want to play the suffragettes; and right near the top because it's a brilliant examination of the period is John Company, 2nd Edition, but it's a 2nd edition so the winner is:

Wonderland's War. It's a great, weird example of both a bag builder and a DoaM with an enormous amount of depth built in based on which ally set you use and which path you take on your own board.

2001 - WILDERNESS WAR
2002 - THE KILLING GROUND
2003 - ARDENNES 44W
2004 - WAR OF THE RING ( SWORD OF ROME honorable mention )
2005 - GLORY TO ROME
2006 - COMBAT COMMANDER. Over 200 plays of this, my most played game . ( Here I Stand runner up ) .
2007 - COMBAT COMMANDER MEDITERRANEAN. Yeah its an expansion, but it adds minor nations, which are often overlooked in tactical games

2008- BATTLESTAR GALACTICA ( SUCCESSORS honorable mention)
2009 - CHAOS IN THE OLD WORLD
2010 - INNOVATION
2011- SPACE HULK DEATH ANGEL
2012 - PAX PORIFIRIANA ( Virgin Queen runner up )
2013 - A STUDY IN EMERALD
2014 - THE FINNISH TRILOGY.A monster game on WW2 in Finland. Only played once, very impressive
2015 - ENEMY ACTION ARDENNES. The most impressive dedicated solo system I've ever seen.
2016 - PAX RENNAISSANCE
2017 - JOHN COMPANY
2018 - BRASS BIRMINGHAM ( Nemesis a close 2nd, but BB hits the table more often )
2019 - PAX PAMIR
2020 - DUNE IMPERIUM
2021 - IMPERIAL STRUGGLE. I prefer this vastly over Twilight Struggle. IMPERIUM a strong runner up
2022- WAR OF THE RING CARD GAME. This is top 10 territory for me these days, esp 6P.
2023 - DOWNFALL CONQUEST OF THE THIRD REICH with DUNE IMPERIUM UPRISING nipping at its heels.
2024/25 nothing really jumps out

That's a great list, mine would probably be pretty similar to yours.

2023:

Here's where things start getting really thin, as I simply don't keep up anymore with whatever the latest thing is. There are a few games in the list that I did try but which simply didn't land for me (The Last Kingdom, Tiny Epic Vikings) and which I traded away or sold fairly quickly. But there are a couple contenders:

Unmatched Adventures: Tales to Amaze is an excellent variation on the Unmatched system but is, of course, a system release; Land and Freedom: The Spanish Revolution and Civil War is one of the best three-player historical sims that I own and requires a careful co-op/competitive balance; The Barracks Emperors is an excellent trick-taker that's more fun than the game it was based on (Time of Crisis.)

But the winner, easily, is Weimar: The Fight for Democracy, Every game we've played of this has been amazing and it's timely, too, of course. It's well on its way to being an all-time favorite.

2024:

Played some games that are solid but not approaching "favorite" status yet, like Tiny Epic Cthulhu, Tiny Epic Game of Thrones, Seers Catalog, and Mori.

Contenders: Mycelia is a great mix of set collection and area control with some really nice artwork, as well; Arcs is a beast that breaks so many rules of both "trick-taking" and campaign play that it's hard to define but I enjoy all of it; Power Vacuum is an excellent trick taker with a couple odd quirks and a fantastic theme, visually and story-wise

But the winner is Compile. It's the most innovative lane battler I've ever played.

Jackwraith wrote:
But the winner is Compile. It's the most innovative lane battler I've ever played.

Just picked this up Friday. Can't wait to check it out. So much smaller than I thought it would be.

2006: Ra
2007: Tide of Iron
2008: Battlestar Galactica
2009: Cyclades
2010: Puzzle Strike
2011: WOTR 2e
2012: Wings of Glory
2013: Firefly
2014: Irish Gauge
2015: Camp Grizzly
2016: Leaving Earth
2017: Hellapagos
2018: Flamme Rouge
2019: QE
2020: The King is Dead 2e
2021: Clash of Cultures Monumental Edition
2022: Heat
2023: Thunder Road Vendetta
2024: SETI
2025: LOTR: Fate of the Fellowship

Some close calls but I limited myself to one per year. I'd probably change my mind on half of those if asked again.

2025:

There are so many that I want to try but haven't gotten to (Hot Streak, Moon Colony Bloodbath, Old King's Crown) or have played but which haven't sold me to the level of "favorite" yet (Molly House, Fate of the Fellowship, Cthulhu: Dark Providence.)

Which means that the contenders are few: Fellowship of the Ring Trick-taking Game is another co-op trick-taker but one which hews remarkably close to the story, to its credit and Magical Athlete remains one of the greatest games of all time, but is a reprint so the winner is:

Wroth. I only discovered this after my friend, Wade, reviewed it over at TWBG but it's a dynamic, fast-paced DoaM that reminds me of all of the better parts of Nexus Ops and none of the downsides.

Jackwraith wrote: 2025:
Wroth. I only discovered this after my friend, Wade, reviewed it over at TWBG but it's a dynamic, fast-paced DoaM that reminds me of all of the better parts of Nexus Ops and none of the downsides.

I don't think I've ever seen someone make this comparison, and now I want it. I love Nexus Ops. As for downsides, I think it can go a bit long, and often ends up hinging on the secret missions which can be a bit arbitrary. I'm curious what you view as the downsides?

I guess that probably should've been downside (singular) as the main problem I've always had with the game (have owned it twice and traded it away both times) is the initial rubium distribution. It's regularly possible that one or more players, depending on player count, can simply get screwed by lack of access to resources. Now, the game normally moves so quickly that you can get through a bad game and play another one, but it doesn't obviate that problem which can easily happen again (and it's also an hour of frustration lost for those players.) If you don't have access to resources, you simply can't build either numbers or often the class of units that your opponents can. I literally can't count the number of times I've been in a 3 player game of Nexus Ops and two people were playing normally and the third might as well have been an observer. It's just an outdated system, IMO, and there are certainly ways to house rule it, but the rest of the game isn't attractive enough for me to have ever made the effort. I know that my perspective is very much in the minority around here (similarly to Dungeonquest) but the game has never worked for me and most of my complaints about it stem from that one fatal flaw.

The key thing about Wroth I've found in my limited experience is that not only does it have more variability than Nexus Ops (variable player powers!) but the whole map is so accessible to every player that even if the initial score markers are heavy on one side or the other, it doesn't matter. Everyone can get to those regions in the same way as the players closest to them. The way the game is set up also creates huge swing turns that are also quite exciting in the late game, either based on the compound effects of various units or the one-time Feats, if not both.

I could see how a game of Nexus Ops could go that way based on the token shuffle. We play it so rarely that it's not really surfaced as a problem.

Great lists, everyone!
I thought about putting together my own, but more or less immediately found that Dungeon Degenerates and Hellapagos are both from 2017, and I am not prepared for that kind of anguish right now.

The poll has come to an end, but the poll operator discussed a bit of methodology at the end. He had been only counting the three most upvoted comments but there was some dissension about that, given that people are prone to either not reading a thread before commenting, consequently fragmenting a vote or simply wanted to say something about why they were voting in one way or another (like I was), so he went back and tallied the 20 most upvoted comments and it changed the results a bit, shifting top 3 positions in some cases (in italics) or adding in games that didn't make the initial simpler tally (in bold):

2006: Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization, Mr. Jack, Pillars of the Earth
2007: Agricola, Race for the Galaxy, Galaxy Trucker
2008: Dominion, Pandemic, Battlestar Galactica: The Boardgame
2009: Hansa Teutonica, Jaipur, Small World
2010: 7 Wonders, Innovation, Hanabi
2011: The Castles of Burgundy, War of the Ring (Second Edition), Mage Knight Board Game
2012: Love Letter, Terra Mystica, Netrunner
2013: Concordia, Sushi Go, Viticulture
2014: Splendor, Patchwork, Star Realms
2015: Codenames, 7 Wonders Duel, Pandemic: Legacy
2016: Terraforming Mars, Arkham Horror: The Card Game, Clank!
2017: Spirit Island, Azul, Twilight Imperium IV
2018: Root, Quacks of Quedlinburg, Everdell
2019: Wingspan, The Crew: Quest for Planet Nine, Marvel Champions
2020: Dune: Imperium, Lost Ruins of Arnak, Eclipse
2021: Cascadia, Ark Nova, The Crew: Mission Deep Sea
2022: Blood on the Clocktower, Heat: Pedal to the Metal, Clank!: Catacombs
2023: Sky Team, Dune Imperium: Uprising, White Castle
2024: Arcs, Slay the Spire, Harmonies
2025: Fate of the Fellowship, Old King's Crown, Vantage

Anyway, an interesting experiment.