Sunday, March 13, 2016

Obligatory End of 2015 Post Part VI: Top Interests of 2016: Honorable Mentions

Hey all, we’re back!  Now I’m going to move on to the next part of my “End of 2015” series with the games that I’m looking ahead to in 2016.  Obviously we are already a little ways into the year but most of the really good stuff and the ones that I’m really interested in aren’t until later on this year.  I’m going to take the next three posts to go over these games and I’m really excited about these posts! 

My first one is going to be my honorable mentions and the next two posts will be games 6-10 and games 1-5 respectively.  These aren’t necessarily the games that I think will be the best, but the ones that I’m most interested in.  There are also some games in here that are lower than they would have been but I’ve already Kickstarted them and thus lower the interest level somewhat until they ship out and I actually get my hands on them.  Before getting into my honorable mentions, below are the links to my previous 5 posts in the “End of 2015” series.  Feel free to click on the links and check out what comes before.  They are my final statistics, the “Late-ies” Awards, and my top interests of games I haven’t played from 2015.






Alright everyone, there are my previous links.  Now that we have that out of the way it’s time to move on to the list proper.  These are the 5 honorable mentions (as well as a bunch more at the end that look really cool as well!) that just missed out on my top 10 interests of 2016.  Enjoy the read!


The first game to make it on my honorable mentions list for 2016 games I’m interested in is Scythe, designed by Jamey Stegmaier and published by Stonemaier Games.  This game is touted as a 4x style game with economic, farming, and area building/control that is set in an alternate universe as created by the beautiful artwork of Jakub Rozalski.  This is easily one of the most anticipated games of 2016 and I can understand why.  The art and the idea of the game are very cool.  You take your faction and attempt to spread out on the gorgeous board in order to get more goods, defeat your opponents, and score victory points on your way to winning.  

I like the clever action selection method where you are unable to make the same move two times in a row.  You are forced to take different actions in order to get back to the action that has been blocked on the previous turn.  The miniatures are looking really good so far and I can’t wait to try them!  This is a heavy engine building game which is really something that I love in my games.  I really hope that Stegmaier nails this one and from early buzz it looks like he did and will have a major hit on his hand.


The next game to make it on to my honorable mentions list is Piwne Imperium designed by Filip Głowacz and Ireneusz Huszcza and is published by Board&Dice.  This is a dice rolling, economic, worker placement game where you are running your own brewery.  One of my favorite games from a couple years ago is Brew Crafters and this game seems somewhat similar but different enough that it has turned my head and gotten me interested.   

Filip and Ireneusz created this game back in 2013 and they are going to be Kickstarting it in what appears to be a different edition and with better mechanics and streamlined gameplay.  I am really excited to see what they make of this game and the original looked really interesting and technically came out before there was an influx of craft beer boardgames.  I think if done right this game could be quite a hit for the Board&Dice crew!


The third game that makes its way on my honorable mentions list of games from 2016 that I want to try is Anachrony designed by Dávid Turczi and published by Mindclash Games.  This game comes from the publishing company that just released the worker placement game entitled Trickerion: Legends of Illusion which has already become a beloved game by Euro-style game fans.  I was (and still somewhat am) very interested in Trickerion for its mechanics and very cool early magician theme.   

Anachrony is another worker placement game with variable player powers and a time track mechanic that is found within the box.  This game contains a 2-tiered worker placement system where you will place different types of workers as needed for the mission along with exosuits and the like that you’ll need to complete said missions.  You are also able to manipulate time in order to “reach back” to an earlier self in order to give them certain resources.  This game also looks to have an awesome art style and direction.  I’m really interested to see where this game goes.


The fourth game to find its way onto my honorable mentions is Covert, designed by Kane Klenko and published by Renegade Game Studios.  This game is going to feature tactical dice placement, set collection, worker placement, and hand management as you control a network of spies who are out to gather intel and break codes.  Apparently each player will roll their dice and then take turns allocating them to different actions that they will use during the game.  I love a good dice rolling game where you have a pool of dice and then use them.  This game looks like it has the potential to be a really good game and I’m looking forward to what it brings to the table.


The final game (making it the closest game to just missing the top 10) to make it onto my honorable mentions list is Spirit Island, designed by R. Eric Reuss and published by Greater Than Game under their Fabled Nexus imprint.  This game is a co-operative experience where you take control of a spirit of this island.  These spirits are trying to keep humanity from taking over their island and spreading their blight across the land.  To do this each player will be drafting different powers from their decks to use with their asymmetrically powered characters.  They will then use the quick and long timed powers in order to move the humans, move the natives, and do other cool things in order to keep their island at the status quo.   

I love the theme of this game and how you are taking control of these spirits who just want to keep their island beautiful and free of the blight of humanity.  It is an interesting theme that matches with some really cool co-operative gameplay.  I would be surprised if this game wasn’t on our shelf sometime this year.

So there you have it, the five games that just missed my top 10 list.  While these were the games closest to cracking my top 10 list there were many more that were on my radar.  Below I have 24 other games that I sincerely thought about hitting my list.  Let me know what I missed!


- 7th Continent (Ludovic Roudy)
- 51st State: Master Set (Ignacy Trzewiczek)
- Brasil (Nuno Bizarro Sentierio/Paulo Soledade)
- Broom Service: The Card Game (Alexander Pfister/Andreas Pelikan)
- The Castles of Burgundy: The Card Game (Stefan Feld)
- Caravan (Emerson Matsuuchi)


- Cry Havok (Grant Rodiek/Michał Oracz/Michał Walczak)
- Dice Forge (Régis Bonnessée)
- Dragon Keepers (Vital Lacerda/Catarina Lacerda)
- The Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game (Eric B. Vogel)
- Fantasy Fantasy Baseball (Daryl Andrews/JR Honeycut)
- Fight for Olympus (Matthias Cramer)


- The Great Chariot Race (Matt Leacock)
- Great Western Trail (Alexander Pfister)
- Knit Wit (Matt Leacock)
- Lisboa (Vital Lacerda)
- Millennium Blades (D. Brad Talton, Jr.)
- Oracle of Delphi (Stefan Feld)


- Quests of Valeria (Isaias Vallejo)
- Terraforming Mars (Jacob Fryxelius)
- Valeria: Card Kingdoms (Isaias Vallejo)
- Via Nebula (Martin Wallace)
- Villages of Valeria (Isaias Vallejo/Rick Holzgrafe)
- World of Yo-Ho (Farid Ben Salem/David Calvo/Tristan Genevet/Ryad Godard/Julien Hognon/Etienne Mineur)

And there you have it, my honorable mentions (and 24 others!) for the 2016 games that I’m interested in.  Stay tuned as I will soon have up my next two posts which will be games 6-10 and 1-5 of my top 10 list.  Feel free to comment below and let me know what I missed!  Until next time, game on!

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