ItвЂ™s a gorgeous game with very high-quality components, with just a few simple rules that introduce a bit of game theory and some press-your-luck elements as well. The board is different every time, and even the gameвЂ™s length can vary depending on playersвЂ™ strategies, but it plays lighter than youвЂ™d expect from a game with all of these ideas.Дesigned by two-time Spiel des Jahres winner Michael Kiesling, who won for Tikal and Torres (co-authored with Michael Kramer) and also produced the wonderful game Vikings, Azul was an instant hit for us and hugely popular at PAX Unplugged in November.

Once a train reaches that western edge, however, itвЂ™s out of the game. Trains can pick up basic or luxury goods that can be exchanged in combinations for stock certificates in the various railroads, or taken all the way to the west end of the board for large point bonuses.

Players move their trains across the board, east to west, adding hex tiles with tracks and stops as they go. Whistle Stop skims the best pieces from lots of different games in its niche without overloading the game with rules, so turns remain quick and there are many paths to victory points. I joked in my review of Whistle Stop that the world didnвЂ™t really need another train game, but you should probably make room on your shelves for this one anyway. IвЂ™ve also omitted reissues of classics ( London, Torres, Downforce, and a childhood favorite of mine, Stop Thief) and sequels (like Pandemic Legacy: Season 2) so I can focus just on truly new titles. Raiders of the North Sea was reissued this year by Renegade Games, but the game itself was self-published in 2015. Great Western Trail was the best new game I tried this year, but was officially released in the U.S. between December 1 of 2016 and December 1 of this year, although official release dates can be hard to find and IвЂ™d rather err on the side of inclusivity. IвЂ™ve tried to limit this to games released in the U.S. There were over 700 new titles released at GenCon in August, and over 1000 new titles at SPIEL in Essen, Germany, in October, although I assume there is a lot of overlap between the two numbers. I tried so many new games this year I havenвЂ™t been able to come up with an accurate count-itвЂ™s well north of 50, between games IвЂ™ve received for review, games I tried at GenCon and/or PAX Unplugged, and games I tried with friends.

Pax east 2017 game list