With Christmas Day almost upon us and much communal jollity in prospect, there is no need to settle for the traditional clashes over triple-word scores, Cluedo weaponry or the precise rules of the free parking kitty. The renaissance of quality, accessible strategy board games is so strong that it defies accusations that it would be a passing fad. Whether you’re looking for last-minute gifts for the family, or simply an alternative to staring at the television, this year has seen some wonderful new additions to the cardboard realm.
The standout game of the past 12 months is Kingdomino, recently revised after winning the biggest honour in the world of board games – the 2017 Spiel des Jahres award. Suitable for adults and youngsters alike, the pun of the title encapsulates this simple but clever concept. Taking the familiar rules of dominoes as its basis, this exceptional, fast-playing release offers a competitive kingdom-builder, reinventing what is typically a complex, sometimes bewildering genre.
Here the dominoes are oversized cardboard slabs, where numbers have been replaced with different types of land, from fields and woodland to ocean and desert. Just enough extra rules see players striving to build a bountiful, productive empire in a limited space. Hitting the ideal note of being easy to learn but with ample depth, it really is the perfect game for invigorating Christmas gatherings.
Another superb example of taking a traditional concept and reinventing it with new rules is Flick ’Em Up: Dead of Winter. It revisits the coin-flicking mechanic of shove ha’penny, but here the game is played amid cardboard scenery on an open tabletop – rather than a board. Instead of rolling dice to move, players must ping disks with a finger, using dexterity to charge about the self-assembled diorama. The winter theme isn’t as seasonal as it sounds though. The game is actually a homage to another board game – the zombie-themed Dead of Winter. That means that in this version of Flick ’Em Up there’s also plenty of having to ping tiny weapons at undead targets with a finger. Special cards introduce a surprising degree of strategy, and overall it stands out as one of the year’s most unusual, playful releases, proving that tabletop games don’t need to be rigidly constrained in grids, or even have boards.
Those looking for something a little more demanding would do well to check out Gaia Project. With games lasting from one to three hours thanks to a wealth of rules, it’s not entirely family-oriented. But this complex, detailed and component-heavy game of building galactic empires is worth every moment spent learning to play, and offers a truly brilliant taste of the upper end of strategy board gaming.
At the other end of the spectrum, the fantastically fun Rhino Hero: Super Battle is recommended for players aged five and up, but should appeal to adults as well. It involves building a rickety network of buildings by balancing cardboard pieces on each other, and proves that complexity doesn’t have to be a prerequisite of quality board game design. It’s fully deserving of a place on the table come Christmas Day.
