Top 10 New To Me Board Games in 2024
The last few years have been bonkers for getting new games to the table. While playing 131 new-to-me games this year is pretty incredible, especially when you think that is over two new games a week, it is a little way off 2023 and 2022. By many people’s standards, playing this many new-to-me games is bonkers! It has also made editing the list down to my ten favourites pretty darn tough. It wouldn’t be much of a feature if I didn’t though, so here they are in no particular order, other than alphabetical…
Agent Avenue
Despite only arriving in mid-October, Agent Avenue has rocketed into being one of my most played games of 2024. Now that is partly because this card game is quick and leaves you with that feeling of wanting to play again and again… and again! “Best of three” will regularly be announced after the first game.
The premise is easy, catch your opponent on the score tracker. The gameplay is equally simple, play two cards: one face up and one face down. Your opponent will choose one and you will be left with the remainder. What isn’t easy, is reading the bluffs and subterfuge of your opponent into making the right decision. Oh my, for a simple little card game this game packs a punch.
© boardgamereview.co.uk
Barcelona
Barcelona is a magnificent game. It is one of the heavier games on the list, as there are several routes to victory. Exploring those avenues to point-winning glory has been fantastic. There is a lot of iconography to learn and things you can do, but once learnt, the gameplay is surprisingly straight-forward and gels and melds together nicely.
In its simplest form you are building the extension to the great Spanish City using Ildefons Cerdà’s urban plan. Notes throughout the rulebook help cement the theme, while the artwork is absolutely gorgeous. I just obtained the Expansion and superfluous, but lovely, upgrade kit which I hope to utilize more in the coming year.
© boardgamereview.co.uk
Castle Combo
This little card game has been a real hit this year. Building a 3 x 3 grid and aligning your point scoring opportunities correctly has been perfect for tired evenings or a warm up with board gaming friends. The gameplay is straightforward and it is also a nice easy teach. There are lots of different scoring strategies that can claim a victory and it is exploring these while only playing nine cards that makes it so interesting. That’s why it is among my most played games of the year.
© boardgamereview.co.uk
Courtisans
I was in board game saturation mood prior to the UK Games Expo, and so many of the games I was excited for in my show preview, I didn’t follow up on. Courtisans was one of those that I loved the sound of, but in my ‘I’ve got too many board games’ funk, I didn’t pick it up.
Fast forward to what feels like an eternity and I know I was wrong, like an absolute dunderhead! Without owning a copy I’ve played eight times, and I have enjoyed every single one of them, despite only snagging a victory once. It offers simple but engaging gameplay and I hope that my own copy gets delivered and played often too! I’m struggling without it!
© boardgamereview.co.uk
Feed the Kraken
This shot onto my son’s top ten when he played it without me at a gaming meet up last year. He raved about it again when he played it at the 2023 UK Games Expo. He was super excited and the game was hard to find. So imagine my excitement when I tracked down a copy at Essen last year. I saved it for a surprise present, and got to play it myself this year.
I don’t always see eye-to-eye with Harrison’s board gaming taste although generally it is similar. Ravine is a prime example of a game he loved and I… didn’t! However, I really like Feed the Kraken too. For a start it sits a very large player count without any considerable down time. It also is a social deduction game where you don’t have to be stellar at lying and deception. That bit is rather clever and so it has made this list, it would’ve made Harrison and George’s lists too, if they hadn’t both played it in 2023!
© boardgamereview.co.uk
Nokosu Dice
I was lucky enough to buy one of the hardest to find trick taking games on the market. Released in 2016 it is the oldest new-to-me game featured here. The Board Game Geek in front of me at Essen was literally sweating they might not get a copy of the game as we waited an hour in a queue to get it. It was their ‘holy grail’, I was queuing for my Dutch bestie and ended up getting a copy for myself, without knowing much about it at all. I don’t even like trick-taking games as much as some others!
Nokosu Dice is different, I really liked it! It differs as it uses drafted dice as part of your hand, but the one remaining die that players don’t draft will become the trump number and colour. That’s enough to make my brain melt! It’s a trick-taker that very nearly makes me feel not clever enough to play it, but teeters on the enjoyable side of that head-scratching.
© boardgamereview.co.uk
Prey Another Day
I am often amazed how much game you can get from such few components and Prey Another Day is a perfect example of this. With just a hand of five cards and simple gameplay, there is so much fun to be had with this game of subterfuge. In simplest terms, you work through the animals from Bear down to Mouse, with any player at the table being able to hunt lesser prey and remove them from the round. If you play the same card as someone else, you are too busy bickering and your prey gets away. Survive the round and you get point tokens. It really is that simple, and yet there feels like so much game for a quick filler. The family all love it too!
© boardgamereview.co.uk
Rebirth
This Kickstarter delivery arrived late in the year, but was an instant hit after just one play. Subsequent plays have cemented Rebirth as a contender for the game of the year for me. Now I appreciate it has ticked a lot of boxes that I like, but this has all the makings of a Knizia classic.
Being easily accessible, but having plenty of strategic depth has almost become the designer’s signature and it is absolutely paramount in Rebirth. On your turn you play a tile, and then draw a new tile, scoring points, or setting up point scoring whiles jostling for area control. It’s the chocolate rice crispy cake of the board game world, so simple, yet so delicious!
© boardgamereview.co.uk
Revive
I got to play Revive for the first time this year on a board gaming trip to the Netherlands.
Comfy chairs and a big table are required for Revive as it will take a while to finish a game and it hogs the game playing area. But during that time you will be exploring tiles, climbing tracks while building and activating a hand of cards.
There will be a high risk of chronic procrastination too as there is so much to deliberate and think about with the various strategies to explore. As a result the time flies by. Oh man, just thinking about it makes me want to get it to the table again immediately!
© boardgamereview.co.uk
Smartphone Inc
Smartphone Inc published in 2017 is one of the older titles on this new-to-me list. It’s a game I had seen around and thought looked as dry as the theme suggested. However, I got the opportunity to give this a whirl when our friends popped round with it. While the looks still didn’t grab me, the gameplay certainly did. The game basically simulates the mobile phone market around the world.
On your turn you will manipulate a smartphone home screen to give you opportunities to manipulate the market, prices of your phones and even invest in technology. Even typing this, I can imagine you the reader thinking that this does not sound fun… I get it, I was just like you! Having played it though I immediately ordered my own copy and have thoroughly enjoyed the player interactions the game manifests ever since!
© boardgamereview.co.uk
What the Family Thought
Congratulations, you’ve got to the end and discovered my ten favourite new-to-me gamesof 2024. Thanks for reading it!
However, there is a little postscript. While I like to think it is all about me, my family are also heavily involved with their input and playing the games. So, I asked the rest of the family what their top three new to them games were in 2024, here is what they said…
Max (10): Bang Out of Order, Orbito, and Captain Flip.
George (13): The Grimm Forest, Festival, and Prey Another Day.
Harrison (16): Wild Tiled West, Rebirth, and Dungeons, Dice & Danger.
Shelley (??): Revive, Cities, and Dungeons, Dice & Danger.
Now you’ve read it all – bravo!
