It's time again for my annual reflection on the board games I played in 2024. This year, I logged 337 board game plays, which is 71 fewer than last year's 408. I played 56 different games this year, which is also less variety than last year. The year featured several campaign games, which tend to be longer anyway, but we also had fewer nights for games. The boys have gotten involved in more activities as they have gotten older. I am not sure what this year will bring, with my oldest son likely to move out to college in the Fall semester. He's the one I have logged the most plays with, clocking in at 2,870 plays since I began logging. I am eager for what the future holds, but I'm not sure we'll ever see the same number of plays as we had a few years ago.
Here are the games I played the most this year:
- Bang! The Dice Game (19)
- ISS Vanguard (19)
- Ark Nova (18)
- Dungeons & Dragons: Temple of Elemental Evil (18)
- My Island (15)
- Res Arcana (14)
- The 7th Citadel (13)
- Crokinole (13)
- Thunderstone Quest (13)
- Oathsworn: Into the Deepwood (12)
- The Castles of Mad King Ludwig (11)
- Colt Express (11)
- Cat in the Box (10)
- Everdell (9)
- Heat: Pedal to the Metal (9)
I usually just report on the "dimes"—the games I played ten or more times during the year. However, I included those last two because they provide an interesting story. Many of those games of Everdell were with my youngest son, who seems to have the same kind of love of systems-based games as my oldest son and I do. He and I end up together on Monday nights when the other boys are at Scouts. Seeing him grow into a more mature player, we started by exploring two-player Everdell. He's not yet ten and still misses some opportunities, but he's a chipper kid at the table, always happy to learn something and never bitter when things don't go his way. We played a bunch of Res Arcana together, which is light enough to do two or three rounds in an evening. Last Fall, we moved into Temple of Elemental Evil, the campaign for which I have played twice now. Seriously, I have played Temple of Elemental Evil 46 times, which is a lot more than anyone should play it. At least the miniatures I painted years ago still look great, and I think maybe I can finally put the game to rest. Just before Christmas, we moved on to a cooperative campaign in Imperial Assault, and I suspect we might move on to other similar games soon.
Heat: Pedal to the Medal was one we just got for Christmas after playing once with my brother at a family get-together. It's proven to be a big hit with my family, easily accommodating six players without getting too slow.
It's a little sad for me to see Bang! The Dice Game in the number one slot because I don't really care for it. However, it travels well, so we brought it with on a family trip, and when it's all you have and the hotel has game-sized tables, it's what you play. Castles of Mad King Ludwig is in there in part because I splurged this year, replacing my original edition with the nice new second printing. There are a few aspects of the visual redesign that I do not care for, but it's worth it for the ease of setup and teardown that are made possible by the excellent packaging.
As I mentioned in the introduction, there were a lot of campaign games this year. My two oldest sons, my wife, and I just wrapped up The 7th Citadel before Christmas after having set it aside months earlier. It is a strong sequel to The 7th Continent, which the four of us also played, and I look forward to trying the other threat (campaign setting) that came with the core box. My two older boys and I played Oathsworn and ISS Vanguard together. Oathsworn was fun but had a few disappointing narrative beats; it's in my closet should we want to go back to it, but I have mixed feelings about how likely that will be. On the other hand, we are looking forward to getting back into ISS Vanguard once we paint the rest of the miniatures from its expansion.
I am shocked to see that we logged only eight plays of games in the Clank series this year. There were many nights where somebody suggested it and I turned us toward something else, feeling a bit Clanked out. It is the series that my family has played the most, by far. Perhaps it is the relative dearth of Clank that has me so excited to get into Clank Legacy 2, for which my boys and I have already painted our figures and are just waiting the chance to get to the table.
During 2024, my games h-index grew from 33 to 35, meaning that there are now 35 games that I have played 35 times or more. I would have to play a lot of games in order for another play of Temple of Elemental Evil to shift that. My player h-index remained at 19, which is not surprising since I have mostly continued to play with my family. Indeed, it's hard to imagine what would need to happen to change that number dramatically.
Although it was a record low for board games this year, it was also a record high for tabletop role-playing games. We played Microscope, Grok?!, and Blades in the Dark, and we played five games of a campaign in Scum and Villainy. These were all a lot of fun, and I hope that we can do some more tabletop RPGs in the new year.
That's the summary of my tabletop games for 2024. Thanks for reading, and please feel free to share some of your favorite gaming memories of the year with me—either in the comments or over a cup of coffee.
