Top 20 - Games from 2021!

[@Tennethums1]

I love your small tangent about playing Ark Nova over and over and how your opinion of the game changed with each play through. I used to buy buy buy buy buy games. I had a wall full of games. Most only ever played once. Some never played at all! The hobby became more about the, “get” rather than the, “have”. But then one day…I stopped. I sold over half the collection and kept only those games we’d played and truly loved. And then…we played those games. Over and over. Like you, we were AMAZED at how a game could go from, “meh” to, “holy shit!” If we just sat and no only learned to play it once, but gave it time (and many play through) to REALLY do a, “deep dive” into the mechanics and strategy. I think a lot of reviews of games (both on KZbin and on BGG) are simply…um….”uninformed”? Games take time. You absolutely cannot learn, play without error and fully get the strategy of a game in one play through. But people will do that one play through, take a deep breath and pretend like they have it all figured out. I’m glad you’ve played many of these more than once. I tell people now who are in the same position I was in, “stop buying. Play what you have. Figure out maybe the best of the best and PLAY THOSE GAMES. MANY TIMES! My transformation from, “gamer” to, “collector” and back again to, “gamer” was a long. Time coming but I have to say, the hobby now is much more fun than it has ever been.

[@alloriginalpirates]

This is definitely the way I've approached the hobby in the 10 years I've been lucky enough to have known about it. I try to keep my collection to about 30, certainly never over 40. If I look at something and can't ever imagine wanting to play it over something else, then I'll sell it. Like you, I love playing the same games over and over. Unplayed games give me anxiety!

[@JonGetsGames]

To a certain extend I was like that too. The last few years have had me culling hard where for the first 6 or so years in this hobby I just bought constantly. I try to keep our collection around 300 games but it's getting harder and harder. At this point I've sold well over twice as many games as we currently own :P

[@Tennethums1]

@@JonGetsGames yeah, with your channel you definitely need to keep up with the, “new shiny”. 😇 I can understand your owning a lot. 👍

[@Tennethums1]

@@alloriginalpirates aye, I was in a Board Game Group on Facebook but let it go as all it was was post after post of, “look what I bought!” And, “look at my collection!”. Very little actual board game playing going on 😳

[@teestarbird4478]

Great sentiments, and I agree. I'm there now as well. I'm at the stop buying/backing, although I have yet to sell off games. I do have every intent to go through my 2 Kallax shelves and cull. Especially since I'm out of room! I used to laugh at the notion of buying a game and not playing it, and now I still have games in shrink! It's almost like something every boardgamer needs to go through and experience for themselves.

[@nanawari5512]

Hi, thank you so much for selecting our game RISE OF THE METRO in your 2021 best!! It was so much honor and encouragement for us, a tiny self-publisher in Japan!! We are so glad to hear you enjoyed! Thank you.

[@JonGetsGames]

Thanks for making such a lovely little game :)

[@gaborweszpremy4783]

By the way, do you have a public TTS mod for Rise of the Metro? We'd love to give it a try.

[@deepdivemusicreactions]

really impressed how your top 10 doesn't have almost any game that other YTs list have. and what's funny is that most hyped games are on your extended list. that says a lot, not only about you, but also about them. keep it up!

[@BojanBrankov]

Fantastic least. You placed Scout and Reign of Witches high onto my radar!

[@brazillb2]

I know you're not big on top 10s and that's definitely not why I come to your channel but I do like the occasional list popping up from you on my feed. You have such a passion for games and describe each of them wonderfully

[@JonGetsGames]

Thanks Bryan, I'm glad you enjoyed this one :)

[@benjamincarter6095]

Great list! Many trains!

[@jankogo]

Interesting list. I think I can follow your train of thought.

[@ClaudeAndTaylor]

Wonderful picks, Jon!!

[@JonGetsGames]

Wonderful photo Taylor!! :) Thanks for teaching me the best game I played last year.

[@dsweet5273]

I'll play Imperial Steam with ya Jon! I love that game!

[@coolcreep]

Same here! I've not played it but I play board games on TTS all the time, would definitely be down to give Imperial Steam a shot!

[@RamonMercadoReyes]

Same here. I’ve played it in the board couple of times and would love to play it again.

[@topofthemuffintoyou5610]

Really enjoyed your video Jon. Many games I haven't heard of which always gets me excited to research them. Love your videos, all the way from Australia :)

[@JonGetsGames]

Thanks for the kind words, I'm glad you enjoyed this :)

[@Islacrusez]

Ares Expedition was an instant hit for me and so far we have 14 plays of it. Very much one of our favourite acquisitions in the past year. I was wondering if you’ve played it two-player? We’ve been playing almost exclusively 2-player; we’ve got one game at 4 and it was the biggest disappointment for us; like you say the tension is almost entirely absent and you can’t really get a feel for which phase cards are coming out... not that it matters, with four players you’ve got a good chance of at least three different cards out there and getting everything you need. With two players, we found that there’s a lot more thought going into which phases your opponent needs, a lot of pressure to get a development phase in almost every turn at the start and crucially to be able to play a development card every time the phase comes up. From your other picks/mentions, Dual Gauge might be the one I’m most itching to try! Tangentially related on the subject of train games which featured fairly heavily on the list, have you had a chance to try out Rolling Freight? Would love to hear your thoughts if you ever do!

[@JonGetsGames]

I've played Ares Expedition at all counts, 2p a couple times. I still quite enjoy it and I backd the recent expansions KS campaign so that does still say alot about our enjoyment of the game :) I hope you get to try Dual Gauge, it's phenomenal when played with it's expansion maps. Unfortunately, I'm not a huge fan of either map that comes in the base game box though. I haven't played Rolling Freight but I really want to. I watched Rahdo's video a while back and it got me super interested but I haven't yet had an opportunity to play it.

[@gaillardlionel]

Thank you for making me discover Scout, I had no idea this game existed, now it's at the very top of my wish list!

[@JonGetsGames]

Good luck grabbing a copy. It seems the Oink version is hard to come by, but the Japanese version is still available on Amazon.jp (which is where I bought my copy last year).

[@maxm5953]

AMAZING Homestar Runner ref, man

[@JonGetsGames]

I was hoping someone else out there would get it :)

[@njshaw2]

Agree on Scout. Super tight game design. Picked up a copy when it appeared in stock at just one UK retailer a couple of weeks ago, and is now out of stock everywhere. And it sold out at UKGE within the first few hours of the show.

[@grog3514]

I like scout but at three players, it's just a race to play a large set. I also have no idea how to sleeve it.

[@JonGetsGames]

It is weaker at lower player counts, but that being said I still have fun with it. Just played 3p a couple of days ago teaching it to a new friend and we had a lovely time. I hate sleeves in general, but I can see it being annoying for those who like them. I bought the plastic version anyway.

[@danielmcmillan7655]

Let’s go Scout! It’s also my favorite game of last year, maybe tied with Cascadia.

[@wicked8576]

what about Bitoku? it seems it's high up on many lists of "best 2021 games"..? haven't played it yet but pre-ordered it @ my FLGS.. :)

[@JonGetsGames]

I never played it. At one point I opened it up in TTS to learn it since I saw so much hype but honestly I got exhausted just looking at the board and I decided against it that night. I never tried again.

[@JonathonV]

Thanks for the video! You’ve mentioned several games that are on my radar but the only one I’ve actually played is Cascadia. It was fine but I have the same critique you have of Ares Expedition: there’s no tension in it, so I found it a bit of a slog. Thanks for all the games you mentioned … a few more I need to check out! Most of my top 50 new games for 2021 weren’t actually published in 2021. I often wait for games to distill through my friends and favourite reviewers before I get into them, so I’m definitely not beholden to being the first! Maybe that’s why I found 2021 to be an average year … because the greatest games of the year haven’t hit the table yet. Here are all the 2021 games I’ve tried: 7 Wonders: Architects is fine but if I’m feeling the theme I’d rather play the original. Brew was thematically confusing and a bit vicious but it was okay. Speaking of thematically confusing, Cubitos was over the place; it was fun but too complex for how much luck there is. Meadow was pleasant, and I think I’d go back to it a few times a year for a nice calming experience (more strategic than Cascadia, I felt). Canvas is a good, creative quick filler! I got to playtest Studies in Sorcery while it was still in pre-publishing in 2020 and it was great fun. Dream Crush was unique for a party game but awkward for someone like me who isn’t into relationships. Subastral is super clever, and Sobel’s art is beautiful, but like all Riddle and Pinchback games, it’s too thinky to be a filler but too quick and compact to be a destination game, so it doesn’t get played often enough. Bivouac showed some signs of having been designed by amateurs, but it was fun and the theme was fantastic, so I decided to be in a forgiving mood while playing it. Welcome To The Moon is a huge upgrade over the original, which I have, but doesn’t make its way to the table enough so I’m content to play my friend’s copy instead of buying it myself. So yeah, average year for me. I’m looking forward to trying some of your recommendations!

[@JonGetsGames]

Interesting how gamers can play such different sets of games. Of the ones you mentioned the only one I've played is Cubitos! I agree with your assessment of that one too.

[@pks-bisqp2677]

I hate you!!! I almost got along with my "wishlist" as it was. I even kinda had a plan to reduce the number of titles I "DEFINITELY need to buy" and I was sort of succeeding in this... and then .. THIS video. Grrrr... All of a sudden I recalled your playthroughs of those games I watched and reminded myself how cool they were and how appealing to me. And now what? At least 3 games landed on my wishlist and I am starting to look for them. The worst part is I didn't even get to places 11-20 yet... btw. of course - excellent job as well Jon, thank you for your videos and effort!

[@JonGetsGames]

Well now I'm curious, what 3 games jumped out to you?

[@pks-bisqp2677]

@@JonGetsGames Ark Nova, Iberian Gauge (I was thinking about getting into cube rails games for some time now and your videos are pushing me heavily on this one :-).). And finally, to my surprise, it's... Scouts. I have never heard about it but the way you spoke about it sounded like "oh boy, I REALLY need to have my copy" to me ;-). Sadly seems that the last one will be hard to find my country but I will figure out something :-D

[@JonGetsGames]

Awesome, well I hope you do get to try those out at some point and I also hope you enjoy them :)

[@forensicsman320]

Yes! GOOOOOOO SCOUT!!!

[@SmoothGummi]

Stunned that Cascadia is so low.

[@2099ross]

Man, we line up alot! My top 2 would be the same as you, just flip flopped. & I love cube rail games as well, just don't get to play them as much as I would like because I play games primarily with my wife and daughter, and my daughter doesn't care for them much and there not very good with 2 usually.

[@Jeff_Pusch]

I haven't played many 2021 games, but two made the list: Cascadia and Mercado de Lisboa. My group gravitates towards mid-weight euros, but for some reason Cascadia is currently our go-to light game. I think it's replaced Arboretum in that regard

[@JonGetsGames]

Interesting take regarding Arboretum. I've been wanting to get that one played again, it's been years.

[@RamonMercadoReyes]

Have you played any other Gauge games, do you have a favorite? I have played Iberian Gauge and like it very much and am thinking about getting another.

[@JonGetsGames]

Irish Gauge has been a big disappointment both times I've played it. That being said, Dual Gauge is one of my absolute favorites, though with the expansion maps as I discussed in the honorable mentions segment.

[@andyneads5159]

Interested that you didn’t enjoy Irish Gauge. I played it once and put it on my wish list for my first cube rails game. What problems have you found with it?

[@DanielDCotta]

I hope Jon does a video of only cube rails and compares the different ones and why he enjoys some more

[@JonGetsGames]

I talk at reasonable length about my feelings here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fWLZcomHnZqVfdk . I did play it again after that and my opinion was remarkably unchanged.

[@Mepper.]

I'm surprised. My only overlap is Cascadia. I expected there would be more based on my generally liking your opinions on games.

[@JonGetsGames]

What were your favorite games from last year that weren't here?

[@CraigCrouse]

Love your picks John: Trans Siberian, Imperial Steam excellent and wildly underrated. So Clover and Scout are great as well. I too need to get Card Rails out more

[@ilqrd.6608]

Hell yessssss

[@Esoni12]

I love your playthroughs, but I couldn't sit down and play most of these games. They don't have that table presence that I love. Boon Lake and Casacdia the only ones that I have and I love them!

[@JonGetsGames]

It's interesting how different people prioritize different elements in games. I totally understand where you are coming from even though I personally don't care much about table presence (as evidenced by this list I suppose).

[@Esoni12]

@@JonGetsGames Everdell is my #1 so that will give you an idea of the type of table presence I like, Wonderland's War and Tidal Blades are some more of my favs.

[@Thesussysuscat]

Scout doesn't seem to be easy to find

[@JonGetsGames]

It's still available on Amazon.jp which is where I bought my copy last August: www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product/B088SYJ9QB/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[@Thesussysuscat]

@@JonGetsGames thnx I deff like the Japanese version art style way more

[@jmandaddyo]

I'm only up to #8 but I do enjoy boon lake. terrific game

[@Shoitaan]

I was gonna say something similar! Woo Boonlake! Finally some love for it! XD Been a lukewarm reception to it from most fronts because it's not the instant classic that is GWT or Maracaibo...

[@stevenbonham7136]

Make lemons out of lemonade :-)

[@JonGetsGames]

Oh no, did I actually say that? HA!

[@Islacrusez]

@@JonGetsGames oh ya, you totes said that 😂

[@diegosantos8687]

Chochooooooo

[@legolasegb]

Your hair.