This is a summary of the board games that saw my most interest, investment, hobby time, playing and enjoyment in 2021. It is not necessarily a direct reflection of my all time favourite games. This was a year when kickstarter deliveries were delayed and i played mostly two player with a friend.
New Games Received : Marvel Champions , Dice Throne Adventures , Shadows of Brimstone , Cursed City , Sleeping Gods , Sword & Sorcery Ancient Chronicles , Aventuria , Descent Legends of the Dark
Games Sold : Gloomhaven , Shadows of Brimstone , Ravage : Dungeons of Plunder , Aventuria
1. Cursed City – arrived in April and became my latest fully painted set over the summer, this has been the year’s hobby project and also led me to download and print new fan content rules, add a foam insert and buy additional nighthaunt enemies to add in. This is now my favourite set in the series, and with news of new content and expansions next year, its future looks bright again.
2. Marvel Champions – another great LCG from Fantasy Flights, an easier to set up and play favourite this year for quick solo gaming. The thematic style of the heroes is amazing fun and the short battles simply lend themselves so well for when you lack the time to set up a big game. Is starting to become a new collectable game for me with late in the year additions of Captain America and Black Widow.
3. Sleeping Gods – a new campaign adventure game which has been fully played through twice this year both with two and three players. It was an absolutely great experience to explore the world, it has nice artwork and an easy to play exploration and combat mechanic. It’s longevity for next year though is questionable as it is does not lend itself too well as a regular repeat game.
4. Too Many Bones – another of my long time favourite games made a return to more regular gaming this year and was so much fun to play and also a final kickstarter brought renewed interest with new Unbreakable content. Mainly being played as two players using two heroes each, which makes the game a little easier to complete.
5. Dice Thrones Adventures– this was quite costly to get early this year as i had not kickstarted it, however it is a lovely easy to play co-operative game that blends a mix of light card deckbuilding with a core dice rolling mechanic. It is great to look at and has become popular on the play list as a two player co-operative campaign.
6. Darkest Night 2nd Edition – a return to the gaming table whenever we were not quite sure what we wanted to play. With so many different heroes to select this game provides different challenges each time and is best played with two players running two characters each. It remains a really good doom count down tracker game.
7. Thunderstone Quest– another deckbuilding game and again a popular play both co-operatively and solo playing towards the end of the year. Each quest scenario carries different build options of how to attempt to beat the final guardian, which are fun to explore.
8. Descent Legends of the Dark – another new release and a relatively high cost investment for a retail game. It has not seen a huge amount of play yet, but all the terrain is built and the starting mission tried out. Due to Cursed City it has not yet made the painting list yet either.
Here is a look at the other years > 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 and 2015