Rating of board games for the whole family. The best board games - top from Igroveda New board games

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How to choose a board game?

If you know exactly what you need, then everything is simple - you need to go to the site and type the name in the search bar. But what if you want something new? How to understand which game is really good, and which one is for once?

Option one - read (or watch) the review in the blog and rely on the opinion of the author. A significant disadvantage of this method is that no author can simply physically replay all interesting games. A large number of potentially interesting games will inevitably remain behind the scenes.

The second option is see ratings on large portals dedicated to board games. The method is very informative, because if 10,000 people consider this or that game one of the best, then it is probably worth giving it a chance and looking for more detailed reviews about a particular game.

The world's largest board game portal is Board Game Geek. Portal on English language, but the rating section itself is quite simple, and we will analyze all the necessary values ​​​​below. You can sort the list by each of them by clicking on it.

• Your Rating is your personal rating for this game
• Geek Rating - the main rating of the portal on which the "tops" of games are built. It is on him that you should be guided when choosing a game. It takes the average of all user ratings and statistically processes them based on Bayes' Theorem. This results in an average rating, but eliminates the possibility that a new game with ten ratings will beat 10 famous game with several thousand ratings and an average score of 8.5
• Avg Rating is the average user rating, the average rating of all players
• Num Voters - the number of votes. Also a very important parameter, the higher it is, the more people shared their opinion about the game and the more reliable the rating. Also, this parameter can reflect the popularity of the game.

Numbers in practice

So, we figured out what exactly the numbers in the "rating" column mean. It remains to understand what values ​​\u200b\u200bshould be guided by. It would seem that everything is simple: the higher the number, the better.

However, in practice, things are a little more complicated. For different categories of games, different values ​​will be considered "good".

As a rule, it is worth looking at the evaluation of those games that have several thousand or more votes. Very famous and recognized games can have tens of thousands of votes (for example, Dominion has more than 50,000 votes).

As for the rating, it all depends on the type of game (more on this can be found in the article "The Dictionary of the Boarder"). If it is a big and heavy board game, then "excellent" rating can be considered 8 or more, "good" - 7-8, 6-7 - "not bad". A score of 6 or below is given to either niche games or products with significant flaws.

For a small filler game, the gradation will be somewhat different: more than 7 is "excellent", 6-7 is "good", 5-6 is "not bad". Games with a rating below 5 are also either amateur games or games with large quantity shortcomings.

A game can have a bad rating for several reasons. It can be unsuccessful (in the opinion of the majority) design, theme or balance. Often one of the components of a game with a low score can be done very well, and for some even outweigh the existing shortcomings. Nevertheless, it is better to see and try such games "live" before buying.

Russian-language portal "Tesera"

On the Russian-speaking Internet, the largest encyclopedia of board games is Tesera.
The rating here is made somewhat simpler, because. it does not use complex algorithms like Geek Rating. Accordingly, the rating is based on the average rating of all users without taking into account the number of voters.

Various ratings

• Tesera's score is the average of all ratings. Geek Rating with BGG is also presented here, but the games are sorted by the "Tesers" rating. (at the time of writing, for some reason, it is not displayed, but it is taken into account in the "user rating". We hope that this will be fixed soon)
• The user rating is the average between the Tesera rating and the BGG rating.
• The number of votes - since the Russian community is naturally smaller than the world community, there are also fewer voters here. It is worth focusing on the rating of games with more than a hundred voters.

Other useful information

• Rules in various languages; even if the game itself was not translated into them (on "Teser", respectively, you can find the rules in Russian)
• User Tips
• Detailed assessment of various aspects of the game (depth, gameplay, originality, difficulty, etc.)
• Recommendations for the number of players
• Custom missions and useful additions
• Examples of game layouts and other pictures
• Helpful Hints
• User opinions and comments
• Photos and videos
• Lots of other interesting information

Many interesting information objects such as additional missions, rules and video reviews - we also try to add to our site to make it easier for you to decide on the choice of the game and play exactly what you like!

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Board games have long won love all over the world. It is unlikely that you will be able to find a better way to pass the evening in big company and make good use of your time. Despite the widespread use of computer entertainment, the rating of board games includes dozens of popular positions, among which everyone can choose the most suitable one for themselves. Therefore, this pastime remains relevant today.

What are the benefits of board games

The popularity of board games is quite justified, because in order to play them, no additional funds are required. All you need is a basic set of certain items, and you can organize an exciting evening for the whole company.

In addition, the board game set is very mobile - you can take it with you on a visit, on a trip and even on a hike. Such fun will help to diversify the rest and will be enthusiastically accepted by any company.

Also, such entertainment is good because it is ideal for everyone. They can unite participants of both the same age and different ones, and therefore are suitable for spending time with a large company, and for family leisure.

Why do people need such entertainment?

Board games are a very useful activity. After all, they are intended not only to pass the time. They stimulate the imagination and creativity of children and adults, perform a teaching and educational function.

The development of communication skills also plays an important role. Communication and the ability to build team relationships is one of the main skills formed by board games.

The most popular games in the world

Speaking of the best board games of the world, their rating is determined mainly by accessibility for perception (they should be understandable to different age categories), as well as relevance and universality.

Among the entertainments that have gained worldwide popularity, we can distinguish:

• "Monopoly".
• "Munchkin".
• "Erudite".
• Alias;
• "Imaginarium".
• Poker.

TOP entertainment for family and company

The rating of board games for the company and family was made up of fun that will help not only bring the participants closer to each other, but also provide an opportunity to compete in their erudition, gain new knowledge and just have fun and usefully spend time.

Classic board games

Such entertainments include traditional chess, checkers, backgammon, dominoes and card games. They have been known for more than one hundred years and rightfully occupy a leading position, determining the rating of board games. Such entertainment belongs to the category of intellectual, at the same time being exciting and developing. The only drawback of such games is that they are not designed for big company(with the exception of card games, in which more than two people can participate).

"Monopoly"

"Monopoly" - a classic of the genre, for many years leading the rating of board games for the company. Perhaps one of the most famous economic strategies in the world. Its essence is that each participant receives start-up capital, which he needs to increase, while bankrupting his rivals. In Russia, the game has been known since Soviet times and has become popular as an exciting intellectual game for a large company.

"Scrabble"

Scrabble is one of the oldest and most popular board games, and to this day it occupies a leading position. Its essence is that all participants are given seven letters, which are laid out on a field consisting of 225 squares (15 x 15). The winner is the one with the most longest words.

Scrabble is a game of learning. Here you can not use a dictionary or other aids.

"Twister"

"Twister" can hardly be included in the rating of board games, it is rather "outdoor", but it has gained immense popularity. This entertainment does not require a special mental load - it is active and is designed for flexibility and dexterity. The main goal of the participants is to maintain a pose, hold on and not fall from

"Colonialists"

This exciting game refers to What is entertainment? Participants-colonists "land" on where they must build a settlement, develop it and score the most points. The first person to score 10 points wins.

"Activity"

One of the pastime options for a large company, thanks to which you can diversify any party. This fun will also compete with other items that make up the rating of board games for the whole family.

The set includes a playing field, chips and cards with concepts or phrases that need to be explained.

"Train Ticket"

This fun will appeal to conservative lovers of antiquity and the era of romanticism. The main goal is to build stations and move from one European city to another on a trailer (each player has his own). In this case, it is necessary to prevent other players from overcoming the route and reaching the goal.

TOP logic board games

Logic games occupy a special place among other desktop entertainment. They make you break your head over the decision challenging tasks and develop One of the most common are the following entertainment.

"Set"

Arsenal "Set" - cards depicted on them geometric shapes, which should be combined according to similar features. Knowledge of mathematics will be very useful during the game!

"Ignis"

The main goal of the game is to push the opponent's chips from the playing field by logical permutations. The winner is the one who pushes the most chips first.

Benefits of board games for kids

Board games for children are a very useful and functional tool for the development of thinking. They stimulate children's imagination, promote perseverance, teach them to perform actions in accordance with certain rules. Such fun is actively used not only as entertainment, but also in educational institutions - as an effective teaching tool.

In addition, such games develop team feelings, attention and logical thinking in the child.

TOP board games for kids

Ribbit ("Turtle Race")

A simple and exciting game that will be interesting for both children and adults. The bottom line is that small colored figures of turtles must get brick by brick from the start to the finish line. At the same time, none of the players knows to whom and which turtle belongs.

"Munchkin. Drag Treasures"

Children's version adult game"Munchkin" with simplified rules, adapted for younger age.

Here, as in the adult version, you can control monsters, there are cubes and other attributes, just like in the "older brother". The main goal of the children's "Munchkin" is to plunder as many treasures as possible and become the richest player.

"Happy Farm"

This fun could rightfully enter the TOP "Best Board Games in the World." Its rating among children's entertainment of this kind is quite high. Fascinating and interesting entertainment, which can be classified as a family. During the game, you need to "farm" - plant seeds, grow plants, feed animals and sell the resulting goods on the market. The winner is the one who manages to raise the most satisfied and well-fed animals.

"Carcassonne"

Another children's version of adult fun, included in the world rating of board games. This is an excellent educational entertainment that is suitable not only for juniors, but also for those who just want to learn how to play adult Carcassonne.

The theme is the Middle Ages. Here you need to build castles, go hunting, fish and participate in knightly battles.

"Alias"

Educational game "Alias" or "Say otherwise" is an exciting intellectual fun, quite suitable for a large company. Its essence is to come up with associations and guess the concepts that the players of other teams are trying to designate.

The game replenishes the vocabulary of the native language, and also contributes to the study of a foreign language.

"Zooloretto"

The purpose of this interesting game- build a zoo. It is suitable for the youngest players over the age of 6 and will not only be interesting for young and adult participants, but also perform a general educational function - it will help to learn new, unknown species of animals. This fun could rightfully enter not only the rating of children's board games, but also take a leading position in the TOP table entertainment for adults.

Logic games for kids

Logic fun in an entertaining way teaches kids to reason from an early age.

"Fauna"

This exciting board game promotes the child and allows you to learn a lot about the life of wild animals. The game will be interesting for children from 6 years old.

"Yotta"

Quite a simple and at the same time exciting game designed for children from 8 years old. The main goal of the participants is to collect the items depicted on the cards according to several criteria. Trains memory and the ability to remember a large amount of information at the same time.

"Katamino"

And this logic game designed for very young participants from the age of 3 years. Being an analogue of the well-known "Tetris", it helps to develop memory, ingenuity and hand motor skills.

"Virus"

Educational game with colored chips for the youngest participants. Bright design will surely appeal to kids, and simple and at the same time exciting rules that contribute to the development of logical thinking and also visual perception will appeal not only to kids, but also to their parents.

With only a few days left until the end of December, it's time to look back and celebrate the best board games of 2016. And so, I present the winners of the award "Game of the Year" according to site version site v 2016 year.

The first nomination is "Best family game". This year we tried a lot of good family level board games. This and Chicago Express, and Saburbia, and Among the stars. But the undisputed leader in this category is the good old Agricola, which this year in an updated form in Russian was released by the publishing house hobby world.

Agricola - good game family level, allowing you to plunge headlong into farming, beautiful both externally and in content. It is noteworthy that you can play it both in a simplified "family" version, and in an "advanced" version with profession cards and minor improvements. In 2009, I called her "Game of the Year" It's been seven years and she's still just as good.

The next nomination is " Best game for two players. There is not even a semblance of competition here. A year ago this award went to 7 Wonders: Duel, which was published in Russian in 2016 thanks to the publishing house "Life style", plus for this game through the efforts of simple boarders led by Mikhail Loiko organized a national tournament. In the same year, there was perhaps only one good game for two - "Patchwork". Beautiful, smart, fast and good, and even published in Russian. Simple and pleasant. Worthy of an award. And let us lay out "Patchwork" not so often, but each game is a complete immersion in the game and very good feelings.

The best game for the company this year could be recognized as "Code Names", only the award has already gone to this game a year ago. But even without "Code names" enough worthy applicants. First of all, this "Visual", a word explanation game with unique transparent cards that allows you to create animated images. More this Time's Up!, another cool explainer for the company, where the same words need to be explained differently over and over again. Time's Up! We have tried several times in a variety of companies and everywhere the result was just excellent. Thanks to her, our company even got several local memes (“traveler Vladimir Pozdner” and “son-tea”).

With the evaluation of children's board games, I experience certain difficulties, but from what was in the past year, the best game is definitely - "Ice class", represented on the Russian market by the company "Life style". "Ice class"- a game about penguins in which you need to send them on a journey through the original playing field, which consists of several boxes-in-a-box(!). And the design of the penguins allows you to do various tricks with them: click so that they jump over walls or fly not in a straight line, but along a tricky trajectory.

There are several contenders for the title of the best card game this year. This and Hero Realms, variation "Star Empires"(last year's "Game of the Year"), only in the style of fantasy instead of space. This and Port Royal- extremely pleasant pirate game with the "try your luck" mechanic. This and "Hanabi"- a simple, but unique, extremely interesting toy that makes the whole company think hard. And that's why she's the best!

There were also some good fillers in the outgoing year. First of all, this Between Two Cities, which seems to be both fast and pleasant, but somehow did not work in our company. We also played Tides of Time and Deep Sea Adventure, both of them are good and quite original micro-games, but they didn't stay with us for long. There were "Walks in the Dungeon", a nice toy about heroes in dungeons. But most of fast games we liked grizzled, a simple card solitaire about the First world war. We tried it in different conditions, in different companies, and the answer from new players was always the same - "Let's play again."

Last year, the nomination "Best domestic game' didn't get to anyone. But there are plenty of contenders for this. We have Master of Orion, a high-profile world-class release from hobby world, which is a level card game "Settlers". Present "Steel Arena"- not as loud as Master of Orion, but also seen on the world stage playing from GaGa Games about the battles of huge robots. But I still call the best domestic toy "Take off allowed!", a game about getting planes out of an airport into the sky. As it says on the box it is decent game world-class 🙂 Moreover, it was released not by a major publishing house, but by a developer independently.

There was no doubt about the best localization. "Evolution. Natural selection”, a game about the development of animals and their adaptation to a changing game situation. A toy with a difficult fate. First published in Russia, it was seriously revised in the USA and released there, and then returned to their homeland in a modified form. In the new version, the game has got a very good design, improved rules and has become even better than it was.

There were a lot of good additions this year. We have mastered Shadow of the Rift for Eclipse with new types of alien threats and hitherto unseen space races. We tried two color cards for Star Realms in set United. We got acquainted with new mechanics for Race for the Galaxy in addition Xeno Invasion. But the best addition was, of course, a set Alternate Histories for Quartermaster General. This addition has raised interest in the game on new level, and the parties in "General" become even more diverse.

As soon as this add-on appeared in digital, I immediately translated the cards and printed them, and also molded chips from polymer clay, and for some time we played "General" exactly in this form. And when the officially published set arrived a little later, we even left some homemade chips in the game, they turned out to be so convenient. A very good addition to a very good game.

In the nomination "the most innovative game" this year, alas, it is empty. Nothing particularly innovative in terms of board games was tested in 2016. There were plenty of good games, but none of them were fundamentally different from what we had already played. Therefore, the title of "most innovative game" in 2016 does not go to anyone.

In the past year, I got acquainted with three games from which I expected some kind of “wow effect”, but in fact I did not get it. The first game - Impulse from Karl Chudyka. This is a space 4X strategy game built entirely on cards with various effects. The game contains interesting ideas, but to evaluate them, you need to spend a lot of time and effort to fully understand the rules and understand how and what works in the game. Not sure if it's worth it.

Second - Baseball Highlights: 2045, the original baseball deckbuilding game that doesn't really feel like deckbuilding at all and hasn't been able to detect card combinations. In fact, the toy turned out to be entertaining, it is quite simple, even though we are very far from baseball, but somehow it doesn’t feel like playing it at all.

And finally Scythe. Looking like a 4X strategy, it turned out to be a banal European game with a low level of interaction between rivals. Yes, the components in it are chic, yes, everything looks great on the outside, but if you dig deeper, there is nothing special. And, despite the large number of fans, she disappointed me.

Being in Kazan in the spring, I went to the board games store and bought Port Royal. And did not lose! The toy turned out to be fascinating and interesting. We open the cards, attack the ships and recruit a team. There are not very many games played in it during the year, but every time it appears on the table, everyone is satisfied.

As for the best game for experienced players, I had several contenders. This Mare Nostrum 2016 edition, evoking nostalgic feelings, but no more (does not play it). This cry havoc, a touted novelty from the Poles, which, although it offers a number of interesting mechanics, is inferior Nexus Ops in dynamics and balance. This and Star Wars: Rebellion, the grand strategy that did to Star Wars what it did War of the Ring with The Lord of the Rings, the saga was very coolly completely transferred to the desktop format. But the best game for experienced players I call in advance Pax Pamir. A small box containing a huge game. I'm not sure yet that I'll like her, because I don't know her well enough, but what I've already seen causes great respect. Developers Pax Pamir- well done, they managed to fit a big strategy into an extremely small set of components.

Well, with the best game of the year, everything is simple. In 2016, the unthinkable happened. We played 68 times in a board game with games for an hour and a half or two. This is a World War II game called Quartermaster General. We met her at "Igrokon" in the fall of 2015, and since then we have been playing regularly, literally every week. There are people in our company who "General" already tired, but what's surprising is that every time it turns out to gather 6 people at the table.

Tom Vasel, Zee Garcia and Sam Healey prepared their lists of the ten best, in their opinion, games of 2016. The video is attached to this note, but since it is not convenient for everyone to watch such a long video in English, below are lists and brief abstracts of what was said (this is not a translation, but a kind of free retelling within the framework of my understanding and tongue-tied :)).

Sam Healey:

	"Loved it, despite the sudden and strange ending. Great hybrid."
	"I was very impressed, as I usually don't like action programming games. It's a cooperative game, maybe that's why I liked it. There are no conflicts between the programmed actions of different players (something that I usually don't like in games of this genre). Lots of cute minks, the game looks really cool on the table."
	"A D&D game. Took deck building, which I don't really like, and area control, which I really like, and mixed them together. I really liked the result. I did not expect that I would like the game so much, because the components were not at all impressive. "
	"A fairly simple game about developing your tribe. You build your village, each building built in the village gives you additional opportunities that you can use on your turn. The same buildings can give different properties, so at the end of the game the villages of different players will be different. Me I like the simple mechanism of expeditions in this game. No complicated calculations, multiplications, comparisons. It's simple - whoever has the right number wins. Very fun game."
	"Commissioned - on this moment My all-time favorite religious game because it overlays a biblical theme with a modern game engine. Plus fresh new modern design, historical parallels. I would call Commissioned Pandemic in reverse. In Pandemic, players must contain the spread of disease, while in Comissined, on the contrary, they must spread Christianity as widely as possible."
	"I really really enjoyed this version of Carcassonne (and my family too). The race mechanism fits perfectly into the game. The tiles are just amazing. It's a good game and it looks great."
	"Didn't expect much from the game as Portal wasn't known for miniature or area control games up to this point. One of those games that gets higher and higher in my personal rating with every game."
	"When I played this game for the first time, I couldn't figure out if I liked it or not. It's hard to figure out how it all works the first time, and besides, there are already 3 victory conditions in the game. If you complete any of them, you will win. You have to play at least 2-3 games, what to understand what's what in this game, and how to play in order to win. It's not very good, but the game is really wonderful."
	"I agree with Tom, it really is Star Wars in a box. That's exactly what it feels like when you play this game. In my opinion, this is the best Star Wars game on the market right now. Star Wars: Rebellion is my number one this year."

Zee Garcia:

	"It's hard to surprise me with a tile-laying game, but this game really fascinated me. I played it with many completely different people. Very unexpectedly, Kingdomino turned out to be a real hit."
	"I'm not a big fan city ​​building games, but this game really captivated me: bright, beautiful, quite uncomplicated. The game is very mechanistic (abstract), but at the same time interesting. Days of Wonder continues to deliver hits and Quadropolis is definitely a hit for me."
	"I'm not a fan of Martin Wallace's games. Usually they look dull, too dry and mathematical. Via Nebula looks fantastic. It's a Euro with basic pick-up-delivery mechanics, wrapped in an attractive theme, with amazing art and simple rules. It's a family plus and it really should appeal to a lot of people."
	"A spin-off of the regular Pandemic in the Cthulhu setting. I love the new elements that the authors have added to the game: Shogoths move around the field, and players must not let them get to the gate, otherwise the new Ancient enters the game, bringing horror with him. The games are shorter , but there is more randomness, so I still like this version of the game a little less than the original."
	"In a way, this is Antoine Bosa's tile-laying draft game. It's very (too) simple and uncomplicated, but chicly designed, and drafting is always fun and exciting. If you're looking for a simple, beautiful family game for adults to play with kids about half an hour is a great option. "
	"Usually I don't really like these types of games. Big box, lots of miniatures, Descent-like dimensional rules. But The Others basically managed to avoid those nuances that I usually don't like. The game is well balanced. Even the base contains many options for playing, and the expansions are already coming out. The information on the board is organized in a very clear way. The actions that the player can take are very logical and clear. Plus, the game is also quite fast for such a cumbersome game with miniatures."
	"Very unexpected hit for me. The only thing that connects this version with the Manhattan Project game is the theme. A Euro game with fantastic gameplay. It doesn't have the insane amount of options of Feast of Odin, but at the same time there are quite a lot of development paths. I like games in which all players start with equal opportunities, but after a few turns it becomes clear that everyone went their own way, and at the end of the game everyone has a different result. I love this moment in board games."
	"The only game that looks like 51st State to me is Race for the Galaxy. 51st State is card game, but with very varied and deep gameplay and a great theme. This game is an evolved version of the original 51st State game that has gone through several intermediate stages, including the Settlers. Excellent components, post-apocalyptic theme, wonderful design, amazing gameplay. The game has become much easier to learn compared to the original. "
	"There are several reasons why I like Pandemic: Iberia. Firstly, this is Pandemic, secondly, this is Iberia, thirdly, original games so lame this year that I put Pandemic: Iberia in first place. In addition, the original Pandemic was very well reworked in Iberia. Iberia has become much more themed than the original version. Iberia is well framed. Those things that were removed from Iberia, or vice versa, added, benefited the game."

Tom Wassel:

	"Star Wars in a box. Feels like playing A New Hope mixed in with Return of the Jedi. Cool components and just a fantastic game."
	"Partygame for 8 people, real-time naval combat. I really like the concept of the game, I like the idea of ​​a screen between the teams. Very unusual and exciting experience."
	"This game could even have been higher on the list, but some points still did not allow it to rise to a higher place. The game is based on scenarios, and in terms of the fascination of the story told, it is ahead of many other games in this genre (Descent 2, Imperial Assault). "
	"Pure Euro by Uwe Rosenberg. Love the spatial aspect of this game. More than Cottage Garden, because Feast for Odin is deeper and more complex. Walkerplacement: There are 60 (?) locations in the game where you can send your workers. Feast of Odin forces the player to constantly make choices and make an enormous amount of decisions."
	"I had a lot of fun playing this game. I love cooperative games... very. I love beautiful miniatures...very much. I like the campaign in this game: very different scenarios. I like that the game eliminates the effect of the alpha player."
	"In my opinion, the second edition has taken the game to such a fundamentally new level that it deserves to appear in the top of the year 2016. I love the theme of the game, but now the theme feels incredibly strong. This is the most atmospheric game which I happened to play. Be sure to try. "
	"When I first played this game, I said: this is the best game of the year. I was sure that it would take the first place on my list, but later it was supplanted by the three games described below. I absolutely loved this game. It's really a mixture everything that I love in games: beautiful miniatures, different factions in the game, deck building, combat... Combat in Cry Havoc is the best combat in games in general, in my opinion."
	"Opening a list of games that turned out to be better for me than Cry Havoc. When I first learned about Codex, I was sure that I would not like it, but it turned out quite the opposite. It's a mix of deck building, some elements remind Magic the Gathering. Very smooth to play, the game feels well balanced. I really like the card color idea: there are 6 colors, and each color has 3 possible uses, which gives us 18 options. On the one side, simple idea, on the other hand, it gives many ways to develop its strategy. "
	"I'm sure a lot of people in their personal rankings would put this game at number one. I love the engine building in Euro games. Because Mars has a big deck and a lot of unique cards, every game feels different. It's great to have interaction between players, but it's not strong enough to ruin anyone's enjoyment of the game. Cool theme - the game is really about terraforming Mars!"
	"Real time co-op game. I really LOVED this game SO much. I love the fact that the game happens in real time, you have to focus on your hero and you can't always keep up with what others are doing."

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In any case, personal preferences in games are a very individual matter. The opinion of the above experts can still be considered very subjective (it is). I propose to discuss the games from the lists, and which games this year have become a discovery for you personally or, conversely, a disappointment. I think we should not be limited only to the games released this year. After all, if a game released in 2000 managed to blow your mind in 2016, that says a lot about it too.

Board 2016 was a pleasant surprise - many great hits came out, including the long-awaited board role play Pathfinder. Crowdfunding systems are to be thanked for this and much more. But even more we were pleased with domestic developers ...

Most Stylish Game

Epic Battle Mages: The Battle of Skullflame Mountain

Wizard duels are often the subject of board games, but never before have they been so… sticky. The blood, guts, and life-giving alcomagic techniques in each illustration are all incredibly stylish, although it’s better not to show the game to the especially vulnerable. "Epic fights" do not differ in well-thought-out mechanics, but even here they have their own zest - a spell constructor that allows you to come up with interesting combinations. It’s not every year that a truly massive party game that doesn’t look like boozers appears, so Battle on Skullflame Mountain deserves the title of the most stylish and crazy game.

Event of the year

Exit Pathfinder RPG in Russian

In 2016, the Pathfinder RPG starter kit was released in Russian. A small step for the line, but a huge step for the entire industry of tabletop role playing in Russian. And all because in the rest of the world, Pathfinder is known no less than its eternal competitor Dungeons & Dragons, and in some places even surpassed it in sales!

In 2015, domestic role-players donated more than 1.2 million rubles for the publication of the game - a real record. But at the end of 2016, history repeated itself - Hobby World and Studio 101 raised money to publish the main rule book. A weighty 600-page volume will delight fans of complex systems and fantasy games.

Foreign Board of the Year

Applicants: Mansions of Madness: Second Edition, Terraforming Mars, Scythe

Publisher Fantasy Flight Games has been plowing the franchise for many years " Star Wars”, but instead of relaxing and cheating, sometimes he gives out masterpieces. Star Wars Rebellion is an asymmetric two-player strategy: the formidable war machine of the Empire against the elusive rebels with their secret base. There are high-quality miniatures, and large-scale events, and a well-balanced balance, and exciting battles in space and on planets, but the main thing is that very atmosphere distant galaxy. Do you want everything to be canon? Rescue the princess from captivity and drop the torpedo with a one in a million chance. If you want, rewrite history: shoot from the Death Star across Tatooine and take you to the Dark Side ... for example, Chewbacca. A separate plus: no additional "adventure packs". Rebellion is infinitely replayable in its basic configuration.

Domestic board of the year

Applicants: Master of Orion, "Guilds of Laar"

"Steel Arena" is an excellent tabletop shooter, a representative of a rare genre, and besides, it is beautifully realized. The mechanics are polished to a shine and are perfect for the game: robots pick up new parts right during the fight, overheat, can hide behind shelters and turn on enhanced mode when there is a threat of breakage. Flexible rules allow you to change the level of complexity and the role of the case. You can arrange an all-against-all battle or a two-on-two team fight, which truly reveals the tactical capabilities of the robots. "Steel Arena" would have become the game of the year, if not for another competitor from Russia.

Game of the Year

Master of Orion

Applicants: "About Mice and Secrets", Space Alert, "Steel Arena"

The game of domestic authors turned out to be a worthy follower of the famous series space strategies. From the appearance of the prototype to the release of foreign publications, we followed it and believed in its success. Master of Orion is the little brother of The Settlers and Race for the Galaxy. Not the tomboy that comes from school with deuces, but combed and neatly dressed, the pride of his parents. Unlike "relatives", Master of Orion requires attention to all aspects of the game at once: economy, war, scoring - nothing can be neglected. This is the first serious (non-family) game of the European school, released in Russia and received recognition. Including the "World of Fantasy".