It’s that time of year when I travel north to leave the outside world behind for 1 week in order to experience, explore, and enjoy as many different board games as possible.  This year, I had the opportunity to play 54 different games a total of 84 times, and I’ve returned to rank them top to bottom as I’m wont to do.

Last year, I came away from the experience with several new favorites that I had to add to my collection, including Fishing, Triqueta, and Rebirth, which have definitely been great additions.  This year, I’ve purchased 6 new games as a result of the convention.  Read on to find out what games made the cut.

In keeping with The Opinionated Gamers rating system, I’ll sort the games based on the Love It, Like It, Neutral, and Not For Me categories, starting with the 8 games (out of all 54 games) played that I really love, admire, and want to play a bunch more.

LOVE IT

1. Dune: War for Arrakis – My favorite game of the week was easily Dune: War for Arrakis.  I played it 3 times during the week.  I had already bought the game the month before and played it twice, but it was a real treat to get to play it 3 more times in quick succession.  With War of the Ring as my favorite game of all-time and Dune my favorite novel of all-time, I was simultaneously predisposed to love this game, but also very skeptical that it could live up to my hopes.  I’m still not ready to say whether it will stand the test of time over 80+ plays like War of the Ring, but I’m really enjoying exploring the system and all of the ways that it differs dramatically from its spiritual predecessor.  I’m excited to keep vying for control of Arrakis in the year to come.

2. Galaxy Trucker: Do What?! – I’ve been a huge fan of Galaxy Trucker since I first tried it in 2008, and I’ve really enjoyed the Rough Road, Big Expansion, and Another Big Expansion, so I was thrilled to see a prototype for the upcoming “Do What?!” expansion available to try.  You can learn more about it in this CGE video.  The missions are definitely a great addition to one of my favorite board games!

3. Watergate – An old favorite found its way to the table for its 19th play as I taught a friend this game and was summarily beaten as the hard-working, diligent journalists.  The asymmetry, fantastic graphic design, interplay between the cards and board, and tense decision-making make this a truly stellar game in the 30-minute two-player category.

4. Oath – I played this 3 times in a row, reaching 35 total plays, and it continues to be my favorite narrative experience in a box with a world that grows and morphs in such fascinating and engaging ways through an absurd story of many near-wins, foiled attempts, and constant treachery.  

5. Dead Cells – My first purchase of the week.  I’ve really enjoyed the video game Dead Cells, but was not sure how it would translate to a board game.  I was excited to get to try a friend’s copy and to play it 3 times in a row to see how successive plays felt.  I enjoyed the three-player cooperative puzzley thought process, along with the way that progression is handled in the design, so I decided to pick up a copy to play with family and neighbors, and I’ve since played an additional 6 times so far in the last month.

6. Apiary – I had the chance to teach my 2023 game of the year to an old friend, and it was a blast.  While I normally prefer to play this as a two-player game that is a remarkable successor to the brilliance of William Attia’s 2005 Caylus, I enjoyed this four-player game of Apiary while introducing this clever work placement gem to a new fan.

7. Vikings – I owned Michael Keisling’s 2007 design Vikings from 2009 to 2017, and played it 14 times before selling it in a large sale from the collection.  I had not played it since, but I ended up playing it twice during the week, and there’s a classic charm there that I did not previously appreciate, so now I think I might need to track down a copy again.  The simplicity of the design is something that I miss in a lot of contemporary games and is something that keeps me returning to classics from the late 90s or early 2000s, like Stephensons Rocket, Ra, and Kreta.  It might just be that Vikings deserves a place near, if not in, that pantheon.

8. Belratti – Lastly, I loved Belratti, and this was the second game from the week that I purchased.  As a huge fan of Mysterium since first learning it at BGG.CON in 2014, I’m thrilled to have Belratti as a clever cousin in that genre.  When I learned Mysterium, I loved how intuitive and natural the rules felt, and after 4 plays, I’m really enjoying how easy it is to teach Belratti and how fun it is to talk out which images go where (even if we end up being wrong so very often).

* LIKE IT *

9. Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game – The third purchase from the week of gaming was this cooperative campaign trick-taking game.  I played through 7 scenarios four-player during the week, and I’ve since played 17 more times, mostly two-player, which works surprisingly well.

10. Nokosu Dice – I finally had the chance to learn this trick-taking dice game, which was a real joy.  Hopefully it’ll be easy to find a copy someday.

11. Wilmot’s Warehouse – The fourth purchase from the week was Wilmot’s Warehouse, which was so much more fun than I expected.  I played it twice during the week, and I’ve played it 6 more times since.  What a surprising blast to play with family and neighbors!

12. Topolomemory – This brain-bending speed pattern recognition game reminded me of Twin It, but finding the cards with same number of shapes and holes takes a bizarre sort of thinking for sure.

13. Things in Rings – The fifth purchase from the week was this silly Venn diagram game that has been a hit with the family and neighbor kids, as expected.

14. One Round? – This Schmidt Spiele word association party game may be even better than Just One or So Clover, while scratching the same itch.

15. Hot Streak – The sixth and final purchase from the week was another CMYK new release that is reminiscent of betting racing games like Camel Up and Royal Turf, but this might just be the pinnacle of the genre, at least for those with children who want maximum silliness in their gambling race games.

16. It’s Mine! – Apparently Knizia made a speed-based “slapping” version of Ra in 1998, the year before the incredible Ra was released.

17. Caution Signs – This drawing party game is right up there with Pictomania and Doodle Dash as another entrant in the genre that improves on Pictionary in every way.

18. Ito – Word association party games were everywhere throughout the week, and while One Round may have been more entertaining, Ito was a cute one for sure that I ended up playing 6 times throughout the week.

19. Wispwood – The next middle-weight game by CGE is a tile-laying puzzle that reminded me vaguely of Tash-Kalar, while being more accessible and family friendly certainly.

20. Yubibo – This absurd Japanese party dexterity game was in fact very absurd.

* NEUTRAL*

21. Concordia Venus – While Imperial is one of my all-time Top Ten games, I’ve always been pretty “meh” on the rest of Gerdts’ games, like Antike, Hamburgum, and Navegador, so it was no surprise that Concordia did not hit home for me.  If only we’d gotten his truly brilliant Imperial to the table instead!
22. Corinth – Yspahan was a brilliant use of dice for its time in 2006, but I’m not sure that I need this 2019 roll-and-write version.
23. Faraway – There’s surely something clever here with the order of card operations, but after two plays, I’m not seeing it or appreciating it.
24. Fliegende Teppiche – It’s Ra: The Card-Throwing Game, and actually a reasonably entertaining activity from Adlung-Spiele.
25. Free Ride USA – Friese’s Fishing was my “game of the con” in 2024, but Free Ride USA did not click for me personally.
26. Get It – This incredibly retro-looking 2023 game is a clear successor to The Mind, albeit with a bit more inanity (particularly when the cards instruct you to grin maniacally at your fellow players or look just past them in a not-creepy-at-all way).
27. Hashi – This route-building game of connecting islands was quite the brain-burner.
28. Judge Domino – It’s like Illusion meets dominoes in this clever little activity by Tsukii Yosuke.
29. Nana – If it’s time for a memory game, then I’d certainly rather be playing Wilmot’s Warehouse personally.
30. Nigoichi – Codenames meets numerical deduction in this game that will surely be beloved by many other people.
31. Pit – I had to help Joe Huber get all of his older games played, so I jumped into this raucous game of yelling numbers at each other.
32. Revolve! – This sequel to Scout by designer Kei Kajino needs some more plays to figure out if it needs a place next to Scout on my shelves.
33. Schadenfreude – This trick-taking game where second place is always best was all the rage with many trick-taking connoisseurs throughout the week, but I’d rather be playing old-standbys like Was Sticht and Njet, or new favorites like Fishing and Tatsu.
34. Schollen Rollen – This Knizia dice-rolling push-your-luck game from 2017 was pretty inoffensively not memorable.
35. Sumida River – Sumida River was a confounding game of trying to ditch your hand of cards in the face of various multifaceted restrictions that left me scratching my head, or maybe it was the late night play.
36. The Hobbit: There and Back Again – It’s hard to judge this roll-and-write campaign game after just one play, largely because the first scenario was bland, perhaps intentionally so in order to on-board new players.

* NOT FOR ME *

37. Altay: Dawn of Civilization – This rich-get-richer game of conquest felt “old school” with its Vinci vibes, merged with contemporary Dominion-style deck building that fell flat for me.
38. Chicken – If only we had been playing Can’t Stop instead of this uninspired nominally push-your-luck game.
39. Flip 7 – If only we had been playing Cheeky Monkey instead of this inferior clone.
40. Guards of Atlantis II – This multiplayer battle arena game could be an amazing lifestyle game for anyone committed to plumbing its depths.
41. Harmonies – I know that some people prefer this to Cascadia, but the abstract Harmonies gameplay just does not click for me at all, and I’d much rather be engaged in the thought-provoking tile selection and tile-laying of Cascadia.
42. Man-Eating House – This trick-taking game was like a terrible B-movie in how hilariously unplayable we found it to be, but perhaps a new version with clear icons would theoretically salvage this byzantine flowchart-based card game.
43. Moon Colony Bloodbath – For me, the humor wore thin quickly, and the game kept going – with the bonus of players knowing they were doomed and having to suffer through a slow death.
44. Push Push Penguin – This giant box held a rudimentary roll-and-move game.
45. Texas Showdown – I completely fail to understand why this chaotic trick-taking game is so beloved.
46. That’s Life – Candyland for grown-ups is still Candyland.
47. Timbuktu – Timbuktu (a.k.a. Camel Down) is like a slow, plodding version of Camel Up that makes you feel sad for much, much longer… at least for me, but I’m glad that Joe and Steph gave me the opportunity to finally learn this 1993 Dirk Henn classic.
48. Wurfelblitz – Last and least was this speed math game (like Set but for arithmetic), which is probably a great game for Elementary School teachers that want to reward (or maybe punish) their students.

Those were the 48 published games (or publicly announced prototypes, like the CGE titles) that I tried – plus I had the opportunity to play 2 early stage prototypes by Connie Vogelmann, 2 unannounced prototypes by Mighty Boards (makers of the wonderful Rebirth), and 2 of my own prototypes – making 54 different games total.  I got in 84 total plays throughout the week due to repeated plays of Dune: War for Arrakis, Oath, Vikings, Dead Cells, Ito, Belratti, It’s Mine, Revolve, Nokosu Dice, Corinth, Wilmot’s Warehouse, Things in Rings, and The Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game.

Ultimately, after a wonderful week, I decided to add 6 games to my collection: Dead Cells (9 plays so far), Belratti (4 plays), Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game (24 plays), Wilmot’s Warehouse (8 plays), Things in Rings (8 plays), and Hot Streak (3 plays).  However, my favorite game of the week (followed closely by the Galaxy Trucker expansion prototype) was definitely Dune: War for Arrakis, which I’ve now played 5 times, and I’m hoping to play many more times in the months and years ahead!  What a phenomenal week with such a phenomenally wide-ranging array of games.

What’s your favorite game from among the 48 ranked above? Are any of these treasured parts of your collection or at the top of your wishlist?