2015 was nothing short of an amazing year for board, card and miniature gaming. This might explain why even as I write I’m 700 crowns into World of Board Games (sorry guys, checks in the mail!) . The year-end review is going to become a regular thing for the blog, every year I’m going to pick what I believe is the best designer, best publisher and best game of the year. I don’t really set much in the way of qualifications, it’s simply a self-serving pick based solely on my often not so humble opinion. . Let’s get the deed done!

Gamers Dungeon Designer Of The Year : Eric M. Lang

Eric Lang has already proven himself to be a house hold name in gaming in years past. His reputation for producing inventive and entertaining games with consistency is uncanny. In 2015 however he has definitely outdone himself with three memorable games, all successful each more creative than the next not to mention being involved in countless expansions to existing games. X-COM, Game of Thrones the card game 2nd edition and Blood Rage alone are sufficient to earn him the title of best of the year. Most designers are lucky to produce 3 creative and original games in their whole career let alone in the same year.

X-COM for me personally falls into one of the categories of games I usually stay clear off (pure cooperative) but the implementation of an app that puts time pressure on player decisions definitely solves one of the biggest complaints I have about these type of games, the dreaded Alpha Gamer effect. There is no time to ask experienced players at the table “what should I do” in X-Com, you have just a few seconds, you have to make your own decisions and hope it helps the team. Great way to break up the monotony of cooperative games in my opinion and really what better way to add great AI to a board game based on a computer game then adding some actual AI. It shows that Lang is inventive and perceptive about a game genre and isn’t afraid to experiment in modern ideas like using Apps for a game. What a fantastic choice for a theme as well, you really should have your gamer license revoked if you don’t know what X-COM is.

Next up is Game of Thrones 2nd edition, which I think, it is only fair to point out upfront he didn’t design and certainly shouldn’t get the credit as such. Most of the work was done for him in 1st edition. Still, despite that pre-cursor, as far as I’m concerned if you are able to take a game that was typically associated with a very niche audience no thanks to silly levels of complexity and fussiness and streamline it to make it accessible to everyone while being able to maintain that edgy, competitive (dare I say cut throat) play style that fits so perfectly with the theme deserves mentioning. I played the 1st edition of this game a few years back several times and barely remember it, I played the 2nd edition once and was immediately captivated. Lang is great at understanding the nuances of mechanics, how small tweaks can have huge impact, a sure sign of a great designer.

Finally is Blood Rage and while it’s definitely a new mistress for me, after only a couple of plays I knew that this is going to be a smash hit and really put Lang over the top for me. Most designer could safely call themselves great designers if they have even one Blood Rage on their resume, but for Lang it’s all in a days work. What a fantastic combination of mechanics, strategic potential with tons of diversity and replay-ability yet done so simply it takes less than 5 minutes to teach the game. Lang has an amazing insight and core understanding of what makes a great game, yet the uncanny ability to avoid over designing. He keeps it simple and sweet and there is no question in my mind that this is his best design yet.

 

Gamers Dungeons Company of The Year: Fantasy Flight Games

On any other year I think this would have been a very easy choice for me, Fantasy Flight Games is a company that knows how to make my money with easily 70% of the games on my shelf being FFG games. They make success look easy. This year however is very special, there were so many companies that really rose up to challenge the beast that is FFG, in fact it really was the year of amazing releases for almost every major publisher out there. None the less FFG had an explosive year, even for their own extraordinarily high standards.

Star Wars: Armada, Forbidden Stars, Games of Thrones 2nd Edition, Fury of Dracula 3rd Edition, X-Com, Reprint of Red Planet and tons of expansions for pretty much everything in amounts that would dwarf ten times over every other company out there. Always with excellent quality components and attention to detail that has in many ways both set the bar for other companies and driven competition. FFG was a machine of creativity in 2015, they made so many games even with my insane spending limits I found myself buckling under economic pressure, forced to make reluctant choices on how to blow my money on FFG products. There is no question in my mind that I will spend most of 2016 trying to catch up with FFG’s 2015 lineup, but FFG never sleeps. Bursting with exciting announcements for 2016 like Star Wars Rebellion.. oh god how I want thee! It seems no matter what I get from them before the credit card bill even shows up there is already half a dozen things I want on the horizon.

A solid runner up for me is Cool Mini or Not, in my opinion they have risen to the challenge of producing quality games in what has become a very competitive market. They really know what gamers love, it’s in their title and they aren’t afraid to make them! Between Blood Rage, Zombiecide, Xenoshyft, Rum & Bones, Arcadia Quest and Kaosball these guys have shown without question that they can produce not only quality products (with insanely awesome mini’s), but fantastic games as well. They are the company to watch in 2016 in my (not so) humble opinion.

Gamers Dungeon Game of The Year: Star Wars Armada

This was not an easy decision at all, it was very competitive year and there was so much greatness to play but in the end there is a reason Christian Peterson is one of my favorite designers among others at FFG. Star Wars Armada is a complex, incredibly deep and dynamic game that makes for an unmatched, epic gaming experience. Definitely not something I would recommend to anything but the most hardened veteran gamer. Still that is what I am and Armada really caters to my inner nerd despite the fact that I generally get my ass kicked at it. The fact that it’s a Star Wars themed game is really just icing on a nearly perfect cake and while I find it such an exhaustive game that it requires me to take breaks from it periodically just to recover there is no question in my mind that like Twilight Imperium, Game of Thrones and X-Wing this is a game I will still happily play a decade from now. A masterpiece and well deserved win.

Runner ups include Forbidden Stars, quite possibly the most infuriating and wonderful science-fiction competitive board game to come out of FFG since Twilight Imperium. Not too far behind Blood Rage, the new kid on the block I predict is going to crawl its way into a top 10 spot on BoardGameGeek in 2016! It will certainly break into my personal top 10 list.

Gaming Group Feedback
Now I have a gaming group, like all proper nerds we spend as much time talking and thinking about games as we do playing them and I thought it would be fun to let them throw in their picks with my obnoxious layer of commentary (you’re welcome). I’m not going to name names to protect their precious identities!

Player 1

Best Game: Star Wars Armada
Best Designer: Eric Lang
Best Company: Fantasy Flight

I swear I made my list before I asked my group, but clearly Player 1 and I march to the beat of the same drummer. What can I say, I agree with him completely because clearly he is right.

Player 2

Best Game: Star Wars Armada
Best Designer: Jay Little
Best Company: Fantasy Flight

I have to say that if Eric Lang didn’t exist, Jay Little would certainly be a contender pick. Jay plays a heavy role over at FFG in the design of X-Wing products which alone deserves immense praise and is an incredible display of talent. It’s such an easy thing to fuck up a miniature games, if you don’t believe me just take a look at … pretty much every other miniature game ever made and tell me I’m wrong. Still I think to achieve the title of best designer of the year the bar is set quite high. Certainly designing expansions and keeping the growing complexity of a miniatures game balanced is no small feat, but starting from a blank page and inventing something awesome is really where the crown should go.

Player 3

Best Game: Star Wars Armada
Best Designer: Eric Lang
Best Company: Plaid Hat Games

Plaid Hat Games certainly deserves praise, the artistic and cleverly written Dead of Winter earned no less than 11,000+ votes on boardgamegeek in less than a year. Their Summoner Wars series continues to grow expansion after expansion, rising in depth and popularity and let’s not forget Specter Ops, Ashes, Tail Feathers and the clever Mice and Mystics. Suffice to say it would be hard for me to pick them myself since I’m neither drawn to, own or play their games. They tend to make games that are just a bit outside of my personal preference, though I have tried a few and certainly wouldn’t complain about them. I give them props for creative out of the box thinking, even Dead of Winter, a game about Zombies in a market flooded with Zombie games stood out from the crowd. From a stand point of reviews they always get excellent marks so I can understand why Player 3 in particular would pick them given his personal preferences.

Player 4

Best Game: Game of Thrones The Board Game
Best Designer: Sergio Halaban & Andre Zatz
Best Company: Fantasy Flight Games

Very interesting designer choices, way to be a hipster! Often designers like Sergio Halaban and Andre Zatz are overlooked in the same way an amazing guitar player might be overlooked in an obscure band. The creators of Sheriff of Nottingham, a sizeable sleeper hit that is often spoken off fondly among reviewers has been steadily rising on the geek as word spreads. This award winning game among others was nominated for the prestigious Origins Best Board Game of the Year award and very deservingly so. These guys have great potential and we will certainly be watching them carefully in the future.

Now for the Game of Thrones pick, this is obviously an older game released back in 1st edition form in 2003 so perhaps it doesn’t really meet the 2015 qualification. It does say something significant about the game when a gamer in my group Is still infatuated enough with a game over 10 years after its release to pick it as his 2015 favorite. Game of Thrones may just be the game of the decade and I’m quite certain if I asked my group to make a top 5 games of all-time list, most if not all would have Game of Thrones on that list. Great pick.