Tier Ranking The Best Board Games of 2023 (Where Are They Now???)

[@miliyn17]

Voidfall easily has the most intuitive iconography I have seen in any game. For it not to fail having over 100 different icons is a feat

Sooooo many!!!

[@RedEyedGhost1]

Of those games listed, for me: Hegemony and Voidfall are both S tier. Darwin's Journey and White Castle are A. I still need to play Barcelona, but it will probably be in the B tier. Forest Shuffle is C tier. Earth is F tier. The rest are "zero interest" tier. 2023 was a very top heavy year for me. 2024 has been significantly better.

2024 has been awesome!

[@MeganDixon-vi8xe]

Oh no, I love Darwin’s Journey - probably my favourite game. It was some pretty cool tension filled moments as a race and optimisation puzzle.

:) new expansion coming in Jan to crowdfunding i think

[@nte2336]

voidfall was soooo good, maybe because i understood the iconography very fast just the setup time was a pain

Both combined make it difficult for me

[@donnakeferlis1649]

15:41 😆 for real tho, how do you say it that fast?! 😂

[@JacobRamirez-li9dt]

IKR, I can't even say TMNT that fast! 😅

I do what i can

[@TabletopTurtle]

Love tier ranking!

Thanks!

[@jhowd78]

My number 1: Darwin Journey: One of the best games for me Nucleum which I played after my top 10 is one of my favs of all time replacing barrage Earth: very solid game Voidfall absoultely amazing game that takes too long Lacuna sits by my desk at work....anytime I'm ready I love that I see couples playing skyteam

:)

[@gregoryg1768]

Could not disagree more with the Voidfall iconography opinion. Ian O'Toole is a genius, and Voidfall is his magnum opus. Such a simple concept to make the icons resemble the physical components, and use icons and symbols to illustrate what you are doing with said components. Too often do I feel that people see a double-sided iconography reference and make a gut reaction to the effect of "this is too many icons to keep having to reference this sheet," rather than taking the time to look and realize that the tools are there to be able to figure out exactly what an icon means without ever seeing it before or having to use the reference. And that is exactly what O'Toole managed to do in Voidfall.

:)

[@dannyanderson4723]

Totally agree on Thunder Road: Vendetta. Crazy story, I learned Hegemony with my 14 year-old son at Dice Tower West, and he immediately fell in love with it and kept asking to play it (he doesn't normally ask to play board games). He and I have played it at 2, 3, and 4 players. We have a blast every time. It's my most played game by hours in 2024. It just goes to show what happens when you have a family member that wants to play games. In addition to Thunder Road, Cthulhu Death May Die, and Project Elite, I'm now playing Hegemony. I didn't see that coming.

Nice!

[@mojo9502]

I stopped at Voidfall. By far one of the best game ever made. Darwin Journey is a gem.

Opinions am I right? lol

[@iansutton7416]

Always instructive to look back at the 'hot' games, once the buzz has died down. Thunder road vendetta has a wonderful ability to appeal to many (but not all) gamers who love to play clever / thinky games, and in doing so persuade them to suspend their attention to detail and instead lean into the craziness, joining the beer & pretzel players in enjoying the chaos.

:)

[@nkesteren]

I got Vendetta, Sky Team and Forest Shuffle, and I agree with the order and ranking. ;)

:)

[@beyOndzZz]

Unmatched is evolving all the time tho. That system has the potential to be S++ evergreen type of thing in the long run. The fun part is, i aint even waiting for Restoration to make what will satisfy me theme and complexity wise, im just making my own unmatched heroes nowadays.

:)

[@dannyverbraeken7729]

Nice attempt Chris 🙂 Because I'm a solo eurogamer (in most plays), for me the S games are Voidfall, Darwin's Journey, Sky Team (can be played solo). This makes live so balanced. Every game has his ordience.

For sure! That makes a ton of sense. that why i like the discussion of these because there is also no "absolute"!

[@stormburns]

3:44 excuse me but white castle is ranked lower than Darwin's Journey

:)

[@qtherage7536]

As 90% of the comments stated. Voidfall and hegemony belong in there own tier so S tier, and everything else should be tiered below

Lol :) I'm nothing if not wrong usually!

[@TAC3O]

I just discovered we have very similar taste.

:)

[@tyrroo]

What about Nekojima?

For me? :)

[@2bitcents429]

Right?!?

Right! lol

[@bassmeo3937]

Still not getting the hype for Thunder Road vendetta whatsoever, just got Joyride which looks more interesting to me. Maybe it's because I have Death Roads for when I want some destruction. Same with Earth, which I actually did play but it really felt flat to me. I feel the game just comes down to "sift through this massive deck of cards for what you actually need". White castle, Hegemony, World Wonders, Sky team, Forest shuffle are in my collection and I'd play any time.

Nice!

[@ViscountCharles]

LOVE these lists - even though they usually get ignored in favour of all the cool kids' "Top Ten of This Year"> Those lists have limited interest for me - most of the games have only been played a couple of times, and so not only are the ratings very subjective, they are very susceptible to the "hot new game!" hype. But looking back to the *previous* year gives us a much better chance of properly evaluating games, based on factors like actual staying power. For me, I'm still playing Forest Shuffle and Sky Team (although Sky Team was "new to me" this year); I'd play Apiary, World Wonders and Expeditions more if I got more gaming in; Voidfall is a BOG investment in time and mental energy, hence it's not getting played (ditto Hegemony) and that's about the lot. The game not mentioned that I still want to play more of is the WOTR card game (having played 5 times or so so far).

Totally subjective....and fun!

[@rachelandryan]

It was hard to tell if you'd actually played Darwin's Journey. It's a great thematic game by a great designer (Simone Luciani). Your critique seemed glib.

yeah i'm kinda glib. but its also not a personal type/mechanism i find overly enjoyable. but thats why this is so subjective in the first place.

[@a-c-m]

Quite a difference to my own taste ! I would put Thunder Road Vendetta and Earth at the bottom (D/C) and Voidfall as well as Darwin‘s Journey at the top (S/A) … I‘s all subjective in the end

Agreed! what makes it fun!

[@Renegade_KT]

You're wrong. Darwin Journey is amazing and I only played it once ;) I think it's smoother than you believe it to be

Probably

[@Biodelic]

2023, there was only Voidfall and Voidfall only. Right? Right? Voidfall forever!

:)

[@gamer6172]

Voidfall the best

:)

[@SpinningSerenity]

Marvel zombies has to be a tad higher for me at least a B +

:)

[@DJCurry25]

is that a ope ope fruit shirt from one piece?

Yes!!!

[@jorisschelfhout2348]

Marvel zombies was my nr 1❤😊

Nice!

[@boombox_up_to_11]

As a lover of history, and especially biological and evolution theory history; I DID NOT like Darwin's Journey. No thanks.

:)

[@stevejones9967]

Why are there links showing up on the stream to go buy the game your talking about at the moment. I didn't come here to shop or be tempted, I came to hear about the games.

I tried it out once or twice to see what would happen