It's an understatement to say that board games have had a good run in 2022; this year is creaking under the weight of new favorites and revamped classics, many of which are in line to rub shoulders with the best board games overall. Because it was too easy to miss many of these amongst the deluge, we've rounded up some personal standouts from the past 12 months. If they aren't on your radar, they really should be.
More specifically, our Tabletop & Merch Editor Benjamin and all-round board games expert Matt Thrower have picked out their ultimate 2022 hits below. These tabletop newcomers brightened our year, so we wanted to give them a shout-out.
We've also got the site's bargain-hunting software tracking down the lowest prices for each entry, so if you wanted to pick up any of the following recommendations for yourself, you should be able to snag a better deal.
Undaunted: Stalingrad is the apex so far for the brilliant Undaunted series, feted for bringing alive the battlefields of the Second World War with both accessibility and accuracy. But instead of using miniatures to represent your soldiers, it’s a deck-building game in which your NCO cards add new troops to your deck, simulating reinforcements and morale boosts. Meanwhile, those troop cards - the bulk of your deck - are played to move and shoot with units on the tile-based board. When they come under fire, you’re forced to discard the matching cards so they’re drawn less often, reflecting casualties and degrading morale. It's a clever yet elegant system.
While the original game was full of tactics and excitement, it had a tendency to bog down into static firefights. The scenario design here is hugely improved, running from sniper alleys through last-ditch defences to mammoth tank battles. What really makes it stand out, however, is the campaign system. It’s a branching, narrative affair that won’t play out the same twice and sees both sides upgrading and downgrading troops as well as changing the actual city map, as buildings are fortified or bombed to rubble.
The best thing about long term play, though, is how the game becomes about choosing your battles. When your staring deck has been reduced to a bundle of raw recruits and walking wounded, how hard do you want to push for the objectives of an individual battle? How much are you willing to risk your single, remaining unit of elite veterans? These are the sorts of questions pondered by real life commanders that very few wargames ever reach, let alone one so fast-playing and accessible.
Matt
The unexpected - and often ridiculous - stories you end up making while playing board games are part of why this hobby has such a stranglehold on my heart. A good example was when Jurassic Park founder John Hammond was forced to single-handedly take on a T-rex with a cattleprod in The Legacy of Isla Nublar. It's brilliantly daft, and just one of the memorable moments kicked out by this ambitious project from the superstars at Prospero Hall.
Sure, it leans on ideas we've seen from Legacy games before with hidden mechanics, permanent character upgrades, and consequences that follow you from session to session. But it throws fun mini-challenges into the mix that spice up core gameplay, and you're actually creating your own unique board/game-state that you can play over and over again once the core campaign is done. Unlike rivals, you're enouraged to keep coming back.
When paired with the studio's usual attention to detail, this is every bit the grand adventure it promises to be. Plus, it lets you create new dinosaurs. What's not to love?
Benjamin
At the start of Flamecraft there are essentially only two rules you have to learn. On your turn, you move your dragon meeple to a shop and either place a dragon and collect the resources available there or you spend those resources to enchant the shop and get some points. In both cases, however, the shop will offer more resources, and a choice of additional effects, to future visitors. Once shops start filling up with dragons, new shops come into play which offer special abilities to visitors on top of the usual choices.
In this way, what starts out as a very simple and accessible game slowly builds into something with a surprising amount of strategic nuance. Early on it’s all about making sure you have dragons in your hand to place, and racing to place the enchantments you want before other players snaffle them up. By the end game, though, you’ll be balancing that with extra points from fancy dragon goals, shop special effects, and card combos.
Sure, the relatively thin mechanics can bring a sense of repetition despite the apparent variety. But it helps that the game is just so appealing to look at. The over-long neoprene board unrolls into a medieval shopping street, which is lined with butchers, bakers, and potion-makers. The art on the shops and the cards representing their dragon helpers is delightful. Yet despite the cute theme, there’s some decent interaction going on too as you try to block shops your opponents are using and decide how to divvy up resource gifts for points. It really is a game with the potential to appeal to almost anyone.
Matt
Although we were a 'board game' family from the start, 2010's Betrayal at House on the Hill 2nd edition was my introduction to the wider world of board games for adults. And sure, it wasn't perfect. Its scenarios weren't always well-balanced, for example. But the overall experience didn't suffer for it, mostly because the horror-tinged gameplay dragged you in by the scruff of your neck.
With that in mind, I was curious (and a little wary) about what this new 2022 version could add to the formula. I needn't have worried. Betrayal's 3rd edition is head and shoulders above its predecessor thanks to streamlined rules that get rid of old frustrations, not to mention beautiful artwork that makes the previous design look drab by comparison.
Sure, there are still some balance issues lurking amongst the 50 new missions. Yet this doesn't detract from what is a smart, well-considered revamp to a classic. So far as I'm concerned, it's the definitive version of Betrayal at House on the Hill and deserves a place on your shelf.
Want to find out more? Check out my Betrayal at House on the Hill 3rd edition review.
Benjamin
There have been previous attempts to capture the whimsy of Lewis Carroll’s Alice books in a board game, but it’s fittingly peculiar that what’s essentially a conquest game should come the closest. Players circle the table at the Mad Hatter’s tea party, tapping the guests to upgrade your character, recruit weird Wonderland personalities, and adding chips to your draw bag. Then, in the next phase, you fight your opponents in the various regions of Wonderland by pulling chips from your bag, hoping to avoid the dreaded madness chips.
This strange mish-mash of mechanics actually works well to bring home the oddness of the setting, alongside cartoon cut-out pieces of the most famous characters from the books. But the biggest surprise is how strategic the whole thing is, with decisions in each of the two phases calling back to one another. Drawing from your bag during battles can feel very random but is also exciting, and it rewards players who’ve built sensibly, ensuring there’s plenty of method amidst the madness.
You can check out what I thought in my full Wonderland's War review.
Matt
So far as I was concerned, this update to 2018's Disney Villainous had a lot to prove. The original remains one of my favorite board games thanks to its unique character tactics that interact with each other in challenging ways, but I hadn't been quite as enamored with its Marvel-themed follow-up. Could this detour to a galaxy far, far away do any better?
In a word, yes. Actually, Star Wars Villainous might even improve on the formula. The addition of vehicles via the Deep Space slot, along with Ambition as an extra resource, provide welcome depth to proceedings and genuinely enhance the game's flow. It's not quite as beginner-friendly as a result, but it's an update that gives the series renewed vigor so far as fans are concerned.
Stunning artwork and gorgeous character tokens seal the deal on what quickly became one of my favorite games of 2022.
You can check out the full lowdown in my Star Wars Villainous: Power of the Dark Side review.
Benjamin
You’re probably at least passingly familiar with the Sniper Elite video game series and its reputation for stealth gameplay and gratuitous gore. Now you can enjoy one of those two things on your tabletop in this asymmetric hidden-movement game.
One player takes the sniper, chooses his weapons and equipment, and creeps secretly through the base to complete randomly-drawn objectives. The other players each run a squad of German soldiers and an officer, each with a speciality like a medic, who have to block and hunt down the sniper.
What makes the whole thing work are the tight, labyrinthine boards and oppressive time limit which drive the sniper to take risks that might reveal their location. It’s a thrilling game of cat and mouse, enlivened by the various special abilities both sides have, during which the sniper will be found and have to try and melt back into the shadows several times. Meanwhile, sniping is governed by a fun bag-pull mechanic that risks making more noise or missing the longer the range.
And yes, in the cramped corridors of this tabletop version, the long-range shots that were so satisfying in the video game are rare. This is more like a sniper rifle fight in a phone booth... but it works superbly well.
Matt
OK, so technically this game was on Kickstarter last year. But seeing as it only just landed at retail in 2022, I'm going to throw the Wonderland-inspired adventure into the ring along with this year's best.
That's because it's a truly superb co-op experience that takes the gameplay of an old favorite like Hanabi and wraps it up in a fresh challenge. Namely, your aim is to fill the Queen of Heart's garden with different roses while staying one step ahead of her - but you've got to correctly guess the color and pattern each player has in their hand to move forward. Because you can't communicate about what you've got other than by placing rose tiles on the board and putting down a colored cube to signify matches, it's both thoughtful and deeply strategic.
Seeing as there are so many potential combinations (with the whole process becoming harder as you fill the board), you've also got to be very careful about what you put down. And if the Queen catches you before then… well, it's off with your head.
What follows is comfortably one of the best cooperative board games I've played recently. The process-of-elimination mechanics are a satisfying mental workout, and everyone is always involved regardless of whether it's their turn or not.
Benjamin
You might have played or heard of Splendor, ostensibly a great-looking gem-crafting game from 2014 that was really an engine-building abstract stripped back to its bare essentials. Players collected gem tokens to spend on gem cards that then counted as permanent tokens going forward. Splendor Duel has the same basic structure but adds some spatial strategy in picking gems from a board, special rewards on some gem cards, and a variety of victory conditions.
It’s incredible how these small tweaks add so much excitement and strategy to the game. And because it’s two-player, the design even works in direct interaction, from vying with your opponent to be the one to refill the board and grant your enemy a bonus, to directly stealing gems from their supply with a special card effect. Grizzled veterans of the original might not find it fresh enough mechanically, but it feels like a very different, and much more engaging, game.
You can read more in my Splendor Duel review, and see why it's a shoe-in for our list of board games for 2 players.
Matt
Warhammer Underworlds takes everything that's great about Games Workshop and distills it down into a whip-crack fast yet strategic experience that'll leave you wanting more. In video game terms, it's like Overwatch compared to Battlefield; a more condensed warzone with oodles of personality.
As a newcomer to Underworlds, I found Gnarlwood to be the perfect introduction. Thanks to an intriguing world and stunning miniatures with unique mechanics to back them up, it has a distinct flavor unlike anything else the company's offering right now. Your ability to mix and match warbands - not to mention boards and ability cards - keeps it fresh, too. I can't wait to play more, and that's probably the best compliment I can give in a year full of amazing games.
You can check out my full write up in our Warhammer Underworlds: Gnarlwood review.
Benjamin
Games Workshop is best known for its epic miniatures games, with dozens of models marching across the tabletop. But that’s a hobby you have to devote your life to, whereas skirmish game Warcry with it’s ten-odd warrior warbands is something you can slip in and out of while still experiencing the joys of painting, modelling, and filling your house with glue fumes. Happily, it’s also an excellent system in it’s own right.
In addition to the dice-heavy combat we all know and love, Warcry has a smart dice pool system where you collect double, triple and quad results and spend them on epic special abilities for your fighters. It also makes heavy use of scenery to enrich on-board maneuvers and tactics, with models climbing onto platforms and over rope bridges to gain vantage points. Heart of Ghur is the core box in the new second edition of the game which adds reactions you can take during an opponent’s turn, making things even more dynamic.
And because games only take an hour or so, it’s also great for running short campaigns with a full, detailed set of rules for doing just that in the box. The focus on individual models make individual battles rich with narrative detail as well.
Just be aware that if you’re wholly new to the Games Workshop world, the supplied figures and scenery will require a full set of tools and considerable time and care to assemble before you can actually get them out and play.
Matt
While the original 7 Wonders is often seen as one of the top board games for families, it can be an intimidating prospect thanks to all of the strategic possibilities you've got to juggle. The streamlined Architects knocks down those barriers to entry for a much more accessible experience.
Alright, I'll admit that it's not the most complex or tactical entry in the series. It doesn't have as much longevity as a result. But there's something very moreish about its quick-fire rounds, and it's so much easier to get into than its predecessors. Sometimes you want to turn off your brain with something straightforward and satisfying rather than a complex strategic experience, and this version of 7 Wonders fits the bill beautifully.
It's not just elegant in terms of mechanics, either. The design is also a winner. Along with an endearing cartoon style, Architects features sturdy plastic cases for each faction that offers better, more functional storage between sessions (I swear, the worst part of tabletop gaming is organizing all the cards that have become jumbled up in the box). Other publishers, take note - this is how it's done.
Benjamin
Gambling games have to strike an awkward balance between randomness and strategy, while the growing genre of roll and write games need more variety and player interaction. Who would have guessed that the solution to both these problems was to combine the two? The proof is in the excellent Long Shot: The Dice Game, so long as you don’t mind the obvious betting connotations.
A dice roll determines which horses move in the race each round, but in a clever twist, the moving horse also moves a number of other horses one space. At the game start the horses with better odds are more likely to move this way, yet as the game goes on, players can increase the chances of other horses too. In addition to bets, they can also buy horses for special abilities and a hefty bonus if it places among the winners, completing a betting grid for cool bonuses and sponsor jockeys.
The result is a fascinating interplay of combined rewards. Everyone wants to back the winning horses, but if you boost their progress too much, some of your opponents may benefit more than you. Unpicking this to work out which are the best to back for you, or even working to bring a back marker into contention, never gets old, especially with the ever-present threat of the dice torpedoing your best-laid plans.
Matt
