Gamethyme's Game of the Year 2017/18

Let's get this ball rolling again, shall we?  And what better place to start than with my annual Game of the Year award.

A quick reminder: I give this to the best new-to-me game played in between GenCons (even if I'm not going to be at GenCon).  And this year's crop?

Amazing.

Azul. Century: Spice Road. Sagrada. Photosynthesis.

In a normal year, any of these four would be standouts. In a normal year, there wouldn't be four games that are so close.

Narrowing these down to one game has been crazy-difficult.

And, by the way, all four of them were recommended to me by the staff at the FLGS. Thanks, Paula and Brian!

Here's a bit on each of the four short-listed games:

Azul is this year's Spiel des Jahres winner. It's a big deal and a well-deserved award. Players are trying to complete mosaics by drafting tiles onto their tableau. It's simple enough that I can play with my nephews, but complicated enough that I really like it.  Scoring is a bit fiddly in a few points, but - that aside - it's a solid game that I very much enjoy playing.

Sagrada is almost a brain-burning version of Azul. Dice are drafted based on their color and number and - again - placed in a player's tableau. Every player has a "hidden" objective (that isn't that secret after a few rounds) and there are a handful of public objectives that everyone is vying for. Players also have access to tools that might break the rules for a turn for them.

Photosynthesis is a luck-free game that comes 100% down to skill in play. Players are trying to help their trees grow and thrive while blocking access to the sun for their opponents' trees. It's cutthroat, and very tightly constructed.

Century: Spice Road is an engine-builder. I usually refer to it as a slow-motion deckbuilder. Each turn, you can buy a card (into your hand), buy a victory point card, use a card from your hand, or you can pick your used cards back up. There are no extra actions available - you get one action per turn. Period. And then you're done.

All four of these were solid games that saw a lot of play this year. All four of them are games I keep coming back to with different ideas both for how to advance my play and how to hinder my opponents.

There were other good games I played, too. This year really provided a bumper crop of really good games. Rising Sun, for example, was a ton of fun when I played it. But I only got to play once, and it's really hard to judge a game fairly after only one play (with that said: I want to get it to the table again).

Only one of game, however, can win this year.

For me, that game was Century: Spice Road.

Not everyone agrees with me - the folks at Shut Up And Sit Down, for example, didn't like it that much - and they are absolutely entitled to their opinion.  But I really like Dominion, and this game scratches a similar itch without the drawbacks that you can get with Dominion.

No. Really.

It's quicker to set up (and clean up). There's no "near-infinite actions" combo that will allow someone to take a ten-minute turn that gets them no closer to victory. There are no weird card interaction issues that occasionally pop up. There's also not a ton of opportunities for Analysis Paralysis (AP) - I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but it seems to be less frequent with this one than with many games.

While the art isn't amazing, it's also long ways from terrible. I've played (and liked) games with worse art. While good art is nice, it's not a deciding factor for me. I'd rather play a good game with bad art than a mediocre game with fantastic art.  The overall graphic design of the cards is clear - the art is there so it's not a mostly blank card, and it fills the space without interfering with necessary game information. And there are Dominion cards with worse art, so there's that.

Most of the time, you actually have to make a decision. There are occasional turns when the best possible play is obvious, but they're few and far between. But rarely is it an excruciating decision, either.

It's a solid game that has seen regular replay around my table. And I expect that Century: Eastern Wonders will see similar play (especially with its ability to combine with Century: Spice Road to form Voltron a third game).

So, because I find myself regularly looking forward to playing this one and being excited about getting it to the table, Century: Spice Road is my Game of the Year.

Thanks to Plan B Games for publishing this one, and thanks to the crew at Fantasium for introducing it to me.