Bit late but Happy New Year all!
I bought way too many games last year - so I'm kinda still in the midst of discovering and working out how to play most of them. Some highlights last year from me were (in no particular order)
Azul - this looked incredibly plain (and boring) at first, but our family has a GREAT time with it. My 4 year old and 6 year old play it, its so easy to understand, and sometimes they feel rather clever, and I get to praise them for seeing a move that I didn't. I really recommend this if you have kids, of course there's every chance they might find it boring (there are no unicorns or space rockets here), but its so easy to play, and its still tricky for adults.
Arkham Horror LCG - Admittedly I've only played till the first Dunwich Legacy deluxe box, but I ended up buying the rest of the mythos packs for that campaign. I also decided to get The Circle Undone campaign too. What I really like about this is that it plays pretty well solo.
Undaunted Normandy - Yes this is another game my 4 year old plays (or tries to play) - technically he's not REALLY playing, but I give him some choices and he makes decisions. What I love about this game is that there's no reading involved. The only words are some actions written on the cards, so he understands how to play.
This year, I still have a backlog of all the Vital Lacerda games that I got last year to go through and learn. I'm going to try and learn 1889 and other 18xx games. And of course I'm going to be playing through Arkham Horror LCG and if I have any money left after getting AH, I'll start on Marvel Champions but happy to wait and see what they bring out first. I also got a couple of Star Wars Destiny sets, but happy to just get a booster display or two when they're clearing them out just to build up some cards to play with. I feel like on the board game side of things, its really quiet, but I have a lot to do in terms of LCGs/card games.
No better time than this year to do so. All Aboard Games are putting up pre-orders for later this year- with 18Mex probably being the most newbie friendly. Grand Trunk Games has just done 1861/1867 on KS, which has been combined also in a nice approachable new packaging. They will be doing 1889 later this year which is wildly regarded as the 18XX game for newbies- it's also a really fucking good game and is now within my Top 3 games of all time.
Tet will be along shortly to do his pitch for 1889 as well. :p
Just for everyone else's information - on BGG, there are Print and Play files for 1889. I tried to do it at the end of last year and most of it went fairly well, but it is really difficult to do a great job. Like for example - the small tokens (station markers?) - i haven't found a solution yet, because its difficult to cut out small circles of anything (cardboard, wood etc.) I had a bit of trouble doing a 4 page folded board because one of the cuts was slightly off, so I'll be doing it again. So yeah, its fine for a learning copy, but if you're strapped for time, id say just to get a kickstarter copy.
Scythe update: I've gotten the hang of it. The only thing I haven't done yet in the base game was go to the factory (which the AIs have no interest in apparently.) I've been trying different combinations to get achievements so the latest I've been doing is Nordic/Agriculture in a 4-player game. And every game, Saxony is the one that brings my downfall. Every game they start a battle with me just as everything falls into place for me and sets me far back.
I really have to do a better job prioritizing what to do. I've made enlisting and upgrading top priority and plan to have only 1 Mech for the purpose of defence. I also plan on getting at least 13 pop so that I finish at tier 3. Anything less and I have no chance. I'm not sure if I can pull it all off, but I'm hoping it'll be enough to defeat that Saxony scum.
I've liked Scythe less the more i played it. Like you say combat is a pretty big deal and can set you back significantly. On the computer I've beat the AI by a lot and lost by a lot. And I keep comparing it to Terraforming Mars. I know they are totally different but they are both in the BGG top 10, and I like TM way more now. At first I liked Scythe more. Both are still awesome though.
