We define these as games that are very easy to get into. We should further define what we consider a gateway board game, so you have an idea if these are the games you are looking for as a new board game player. Keep in mind here that many games can fall into more than one category. This means that even if you are an experienced gamer, that likes a certain type of game, we might have something on here that you may not have tried before. Having a bunch of games that all have similar mechanics and lead to the same types of games would be somewhat pointless, so we tried to find the best ones from all over. In our list we will list and have mini reviews on games for a bunch of different genres of board games. Also, these can be the perfect ones to pull out for those non-gamer friends of yours to get them sucked into this wonderful and vast world of boardgaming. These games are sometimes referred to as gateway board games simply because they are the gateway to more complex board games in the same genre.
If, however, you are a beginner looking to get started into gaming, we have compiled a list of the best board games for beginners that is perfect for people just like you. If you are looking to learn more about the current state of board games, you might be interested in Everything you need to know about board games. I tried some fantastic games this year, and Azul is the best of the lot, the one that keeps returning to our table even as other titles come and go.There are all sorts of different genres, difficulty/strategy levels, and styles of games. If you have to take tiles you can’t place, however, you lose points-potentially a lot-meaning that what you take now is also informed by what you might get stuck with later. You select all tiles of one color from any of the common spaces at the center of the table, or all of the tiles of one color from the center, and when you fill out a blank row on your board, you can transfer one to the 5×5 area and discard the rest. Players try to fill out as much of their 5×5 mosaic boards as they can, but can’t repeat any of the five tile types more than once in any row or any column. It’s a gorgeous game with very high-quality components, with just a few simple rules that introduce a bit of game theory and some press-your-luck elements as well.
The board is different every time, and even the game’s length can vary depending on players’ strategies, but it plays lighter than you’d expect from a game with all of these ideas.ĭesigned by two-time Spiel des Jahres winner Michael Kiesling, who won for Tikal and Torres (co-authored with Michael Kramer) and also produced the wonderful game Vikings, Azul was an instant hit for us and hugely popular at PAX Unplugged in November. Once a train reaches that western edge, however, it’s out of the game. Trains can pick up basic or luxury goods that can be exchanged in combinations for stock certificates in the various railroads, or taken all the way to the west end of the board for large point bonuses. Players move their trains across the board, east to west, adding hex tiles with tracks and stops as they go.
Whistle Stop skims the best pieces from lots of different games in its niche without overloading the game with rules, so turns remain quick and there are many paths to victory points. I joked in my review of Whistle Stop that the world didn’t really need another train game, but you should probably make room on your shelves for this one anyway. I’ve also omitted reissues of classics ( London, Torres, Downforce, and a childhood favorite of mine, Stop Thief) and sequels (like Pandemic Legacy: Season 2) so I can focus just on truly new titles. Raiders of the North Sea was reissued this year by Renegade Games, but the game itself was self-published in 2015. Great Western Trail was the best new game I tried this year, but was officially released in the U.S. between December 1 of 2016 and December 1 of this year, although official release dates can be hard to find and I’d rather err on the side of inclusivity. I’ve tried to limit this to games released in the U.S. There were over 700 new titles released at GenCon in August, and over 1000 new titles at SPIEL in Essen, Germany, in October, although I assume there is a lot of overlap between the two numbers. I tried so many new games this year I haven’t been able to come up with an accurate count-it’s well north of 50, between games I’ve received for review, games I tried at GenCon and/or PAX Unplugged, and games I tried with friends.
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