Yet even under the great canine theme, Agility is a pretty fun euro game that’s both easy to learn and has some pretty solid mechanics. Designed by Brent Povis ( Morels), I was initially attracted to this one because of the theme (dogs!). One of my surprise hits of the year is the two player game Agility. With lots of thematic elements, this one almost feels like a board game/RPG hybrid. Now fully cooperative, players must work together to unravel the mysterious happenings in Arkham Massachusetts. This year, Fantasy Flight Games have ditched their Call of Cthulhu Living Card Game in favor of the Arkham Horror Card Game. Long time readers of this site will know that I’m always attracted to games in the Cthulhu Mythos. So I’m giving it an honorable mention, for now. I haven’t gotten it to the table enough yet to decide if it should have a place in the top 10, but early play have it close for sure. That being said, I’ve played it twice so far and really enjoyed the game. I wasn’t sure whether this should be a 2016 or 2017 release, as it has only recently gotten into the hands of its Kickstarter backers.

Top 10 Board Games of 2016 Honorable Mention: Orcs Must Die And there are a few still that I’ve yet to try out: notable Star Wars: Rebellion, Captain Sonar, Terraforming Mars. That distinction is saved for our annual Board Game Awards this coming spring. That also doesn’t necessarily mean these games are the consensus best games of the year. I want to stress that these are my Top 10 Board Games of 2016. Hundreds, if not thousands of new games are available for players to enjoy on their tabletop.Īs I do every year, I’ve somehow narrowed down the slate of games to my 10 favorite. Thanks to the rise of Kickstarter, we had quite a few new games released this year. With 2016 coming to an end, we can finally close the books on a year of board gaming.

Best new games of 2016