Polygon’s picks for the best board games of 2023 so far include Votes for Women, Frosthaven, and more. The year has delivered some excellent games.
Earlier this year we launched this post as a guide to the best new board games of 2023. Now that the two largest board game conventions, Gen Con and Essen Spiel, have concluded, we’re back with even more great picks. It’s been a wonderful year, one full of fantastic, innovative new titles that spark imagination. Whittling down the list to just 10 games wasn’t easy, but what made the cut should keep you entertained well into 2024
This list is not ranked. Instead, titles are offered in alphabetical order. All are currently in stock and available for sale.
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CrowD Games’ City of the Great Machine has been a surprise. One player controls a steampunk mechanized AI whose grip on the floating sky city has tightened. The rest of the group opposes the technocratic authority by inciting dissent and sowing destruction. The goal is to foment three riots before the clock strikes midnight and the machine has squeezed the last sparks of life from the city.
This is a marvelous hidden movement game. Players plot their paths on the map using hidden cards, while the Great Machine attempts to deduce their plans. Location powers and special abilities are triggered during a dramatic reveal each round. There is latitude for creative solutions as you can move sections of the cities around and reconfigure the map layout. Furthermore, it’s a flexible design that includes an alternate rule set for the game itself to control the Great Machine, allowing for solitaire or cooperative play. It’s an underrated design worthy of greater attention. Dark Venture: Battle of the Ancients
Dark Venture: Battle of the Ancients is a zany, heavy-metal skirmish game where players control hordes of alien creatures battling in a post-apocalyptic fantasy hellscape. It’s an indie title that promises more than its small stature, offering competitive, solitaire, and cooperative modes of play. You can command armies and clash head-to-head in dozens of scenarios, or you can take on any faction with a simple AI system running your foes.
This is a thrilling tactical endeavor where you spend limited actions to scurry about the map and pursue faction-specific objectives such as destroying enemies or gathering enough resources to build an overlord. Each of the different warbands is unique, with asymmetric play being a significant component. This is a relatively simple core design with a load of features piled atop. There’s nothing quite like it on the market today.Earth
The tableau-building genre — where players organize tiles, tokens, or, as here, cards on the table — has been revitalized in recent years. Hits like Terraforming Mars and Ark Nova have helped tableau-building games become more mainstream, and now Inside Up Games’ Earth is poised to take things to the next level. It’s a whole world better that its competition.
Players seek to build a self-sustaining engine of flora and fauna. The game has an open-world feel, supporting several different areas of exploration and allowing you to shape the environment however you’d like. The rule set is simple, but the interactions between the various cards and abilities are rich and satisfying. It’s also much less demanding than its peers, clocking in at roughly an hour for experienced players.Freelancers: A Crossroads Game
Plaid Hat’s Freelancers: A Crossroads Game is a silly game.
