The Top 10 Board Games of 2024

January’s already fading and 2025 is putting up a fight with some hot new titles. But right now, it’s time to focus on 2024 and the 10 games that kept me up at night.

10. Tidal Blades 2: Rise of the Unfolders

My full review can be read here.

Why it Matters – Look, we all need another lengthy campaign game as much as we need a hole in the head. Tidal Blades 2 combines a wordy title with lively vibes and a slick central card system. The real treat here is the spiral-bound mapbook, with each scenario boasting its own colorful battleground. Uniquely, this game utilizes multiple such books that are laid out adjacent to each other. This allows for unexpected configurations and delightful orientations. Furthermore, the terrain often changes mid-fight, as the game will surprise by having you flip to new pages to illustrate an evolving situation. It’s such a compelling narrative fixture in the midst of combat that it keeps interest high and maintains a sense of wonder throughout. I’m also impressed with the game’s characterful writing and slow introduction to its various sub-systems. This is a rich game bursting with pride.

Why it’s not Higher – We all need another lengthy campaign game as much as we need a hole in the head. But also, I wish the engine-building action card system had just a little more oomph. It functions well enough, but I find myself occasionally yearning for more dynamism.

9. Spark Riders 3000

I reviewed this one in Tabletop Gaming Magazine.

Why it Matters – Spark Riders is bursting with joy. It has some of the DNA of Space Alert combined with that of Battlestations. It’s really its own thing though, featuring a fully cooperative adventure where players pilot a ship to a specific destination in order to fulfill their objective. Along the way you will be accosted by pirates and foes of various size and shape. You will need to man weapon stations, repair damaged compartments, and possibly steer your ship to evade asteroids. This is much lighter than its peers, just barely punching above family weight.

The absolute best parts of this game are the random events that trigger cut scenes in the companion app. Sometimes a slick alien will hail you on your comms, asking if you’d take a side job of delivering some mysterious cargo to a space station only slightly off your main course. Don’t ask any questions though. Many of the characters repeat in subsequent missions, and you will begin to recognize them and smile. The writing is humorous, and the world is full of personality.

Why it’s not Higher – One unfortunate circumstance of this game is that the application is buggy. Dialogue sometimes repeats and you will occasionally get an error. It also feels like it’s just shy of something really special. It’s the type of thing that would get a lot of mileage out of a roguelike component that unlocked additional content (something Dead Cells excels at).

8. Leviathan Wilds

Check out my full review.

Why it Matters – It’s easy to forget about Leviathan Wilds as it arrived this past summer. I have not forgotten about it. This cooperative and immersive tabletop take on The Shadow of the Colossus is spellbinding. It’s flush with content, is not reliant on campaign play, and really digs into its titular leviathans by offering many twists on its core mechanisms. This is a prime example that you don’t need enormous miniatures or several boxes of expansions to manage a complete and vivid world with immense possibility.

Why it’s not Higher – I don’t have a whole lot to complain about here. Perhaps the largest criticism I can muster is similar to my complaint with Tidal Blades 2, in that the actions here aren’t always terribly exciting. The real magic lies in the leviathans and how they function, less so in the protagonists.

7. Fateforge: Chronicles of Kaan

I wrote about this one at Polygon.

Why it Matters – Gordon Calleja’s action dice system as seen in Vengeance makes a return, this time reconstituted as the driving force of a cooperative fantasy adventure campaign. Rolling a handful of dice used to fulfill recipes that result in high flying action is addictive. It offers a dynamic and energetic feel to combat that is often missing from dungeon crawlers. Additionally, the dramatic action is well supplemented by a wonderful core story with solid writing. The scenarios are short encounters sandwiched between narrative script, and it’s a very tidy experience that is easy to get out and play. There are neat additions such as wandering a city map, boss fights, and interesting character development. I’m excited to see where this one goes as I have not yet finished the campaign, despite it being a relatively modest total playtime in comparison to many of its peers.

Why it’s not Higher – Again, the campaign format hurts it to some degree. If played with a group, you need consistent attendance and wholesale buy-in. There is a mode to support one-off encounters, but that was not yet available when the game first released and I’m skeptical it’s as fulfilling as the main storyline. Also, the setting is neat, but it does have this unfortunate effect of instilling a personal longing for a Vengeance 2.0 which is simply more stylish and striking.

6. Escape From New York

You can find my review of this game here.

Why it Matters – This one is like a time capsule. Not only to John Carpenter’s cult film, but also to the early aughts when Kevin Wilson was banging out prime cuts at Fantasy Flight Games. This is an ode to Ameritrash, a sloppy adventure game where players navigate the criminal infested streets of New York in search of the President and a way out. While players work together, there’s a possibility of betrayal by pursuing hidden personal goals in lieu of the main mission. It’s a tense affair, one full of pressure from a dwindling clock and escalating adversaries. I’ve had a great deal of pleasure experiencing this one, and it’s likely to stick around for many years.

Why it’s not Higher – As mentioned, it’s a bit sloppy. The game is very procedural in a slightly awkward way. It’s difficult to remember exactly when you get free car movement, spend experience, and trigger enemy attacks for instance. The New York phase is when the game-controlled enemies adopt an active pursuit, and that’s also creaky and inelegant with multiple cards drawn and track management.

5. Burning Banners

Don’t skip my lengthy writeup on this game.

Why it Matters – Burning Banners is a fantasy wargame with a historical approach. It feels as though you’re exploring the deep setting that manages to be full of zest despite a relatively generic surface. The reliance on a physical map that highlights important sites and is utilized across multiple scenarios establishes a permanence to the whole thing that reverberates like an epic. The core activation system is solid, but the game really comes alive with the advanced rules. Asymmetry explodes when spells, characters, and monster hunting enter play. This is such a lovely overall package that feels expansive and swollen with vision.

Why it’s not Higher – This game requires a great deal of effort. It’s not more complex than any other big game, but it’s lengthy and has a moderate problem with downtime at the larger player counts. This is a shame as it’s exceptional with a large group, you just need the right people that are willing to put up with its rigors. I also have to ding it slightly for the necessary errata, although it’s better than the typical Compass Games release in this regard.

4. Dune: War for Arrakis

My longer take can be found at Polygon.

Why it Matters – This is a phenomenal project that lifts some of the mechanisms from War of the Ring and uses them to fuel a head-to-head wargame that explores the second half of Herbert’s Dune. It’s a wonderful coincidence that Villeneuve’s second film corresponds to this exact time period, forming an exceptional 2024 media pairing with this game.

The War of the Ring dice system still slays. The focus on characters here is interesting, and more than enough drama is packed into the 150-minute playtime to keep your head on a lubricated swivel. Many of the setting details are handled expertly including worms, spice harvesting, desert storms, and ornithopter mobility. Despite a core action system derived from a previous work, this game feels completely devoted to its source material.

Why it’s not Higher – There’s an internal struggle between the coolness of the available expansions and the painful strain of Kickstarter bloat. The game also was imbalanced towards the Harkonnen side at launch, but that has since been cleaned up. Exclusives also give me acid reflux.

3. Worldspanner Factions

I wrote a thorough review explaining how this won me over, you can find that article here.

Why it Matters – What an interesting game. I’m cheating a little though. I have a self-imposed rule of not including games on this list that are re-releases (such as Dark Venture 2nd Edition). This isn’t quite a re-release, but I still feel a little dirty including it.

Regardless, this is a hell of a game. It’s part MOBA, part skirmish, and part adventure game. I view it holistically as a fantasy sports title with two teams competing in an intense yet sophisticated matchup. This is not a direct fighting game and its bizarre combination of anachronistic details can bely the subtlety of it. The game that emerges, however, is something that I adore. We need more team games, particularly ones that are as exceptional as this.

Why it’s not Higher – It can be long and obtuse. Sometimes it doesn’t deliver what people are expecting. It’s also a little archaic at times with maybe too many characteristics, effects, and rules considerations. It’s also slightly repetitive, and not something I tend to want to play repeatedly in a short period of time. It’s almost thought of as a smaller scale event-style game, albeit one that will take closer to three hours than the entire day.

2. Arcs

I wrote a lot about this one. Here at Player Elimination, you can find Part 1 and Part 2 of my larger review. I also wrote a more succinct piece for Polygon.

Why it Matters – This could have been my number one pick. In fact, it feels wrong that a Wehrle design has come out and has not claimed the top of this list. This is a tough game, but it’s one that is incredibly rewarding as an experience to pick apart, analyze, and think about. It’s a cerebral work, utilizing trick-taking in an oblique way to fuel a large space conquest affair.

And that’s just the core game.

My personal interest lies more in the Blighted Reach campaign. This huge box is ambitious as can be, offering a three-session campaign with evolving player factions and wild rules changes. Intuition results in a nagging feeling that the whole thing is going to break apart, as it often bends under the pressure of its various sub-systems and scope creep. But it all hangs together remarkably well, producing something which is alien and completely enrapturing. This is without a doubt the game that’s occupied my mind the most in 2024, even if it’s not my absolute favorite release.

Why it’s not Higher – Arcs is brutal. It feels bad more often than it feels good. That constant influx of anguish is demanding and not going to always satisfy.

1. Maladum: Dungeons of Enveron

My long-winded articulation on why I am enraptured with this game can be found here.

Why it Matters – Core Space is one of my favorite designs. Maladum is the fantasy take on Core Space, somehow transcending its predecessor and offering a sense of accomplishment that was completely unexpected.

This game takes that endearing core system and adds some new additions which enhance all of its strongest attributes. The dungeon is as alive as ever, featuring wandering beasts, hidden rooms, and dynamic side-quests. The campaign system remains flexible while now leaning into a prescribed branching series of adventures that adds a unifying narrative to the experience. The magic system contains just enough detail and distinction to be a worthwhile addition, and the hundreds of items and treasure are as interesting as ever.

Maladum is not perfect. I don’t love the setting, it still takes far too long to setup, and the iconography is still a large barrier to newcomers. But it’s the closest thing to the perfect dungeon crawler that I’ve ever played. I’d sacrifice a thousand Warhammer Quest clones at the altar in order to give rise to Maladum. This is the imaginative genetic evolution of HeroQuest for a modern time that I desperately craved. It’s the game I most desire when I’m playing something else, and I look forward to the next time I get lost in its catacombs.