Farewell 2024, and hello 2025.
The last 12 months have been, once again, a fantastic time for gaming. We’ve continued having our visits to fellow Instagram gamers, there were still a nice amount of new games coming in, and our 2024 Challenges were all almost completed (that’s right, we failed one).
As with last years look back, here I’m going to take a look back over 2024 and list highlights from among the Kickstarter arrivals, the new games we’ve played, and the places we’ve gamed.
JANUARY – JANUARY – JANUARY
Kickstarter Arrivals
FRENCH QUARTER – The first Kickstarter to arrive in 2024, I’m ashamed to say that . . . we still haven’t played it yet. We really like THREE SISTERS and MOTOR CITY so I didn’t hesitate to back this follow up from the same team, but it just hasn’t jumped out when we’ve looked for something new to learn. It’s back on the 52×1 Challenge list for 2025, so hopfully we manage it soon.
Best New Game Played
THE ANCIENT WORLD (Second Edition) – This game was gifted to me by Dice Portsmouth when I spent the day there in December 2023 for a sort of Stag Gathering (I’m a simple man). My wife and I got it to the table on the very first day of 2024 and were both quite impressed. I like Ryan Laukat’s art style, and while we’ve not played every Red Raven game, this Worker Placement one works well for us. And it helps that it was the deluxe Kickstarter version so the components are absolutely beautiful.
Highlight Of The Month
How can it be anything other than our wedding. It was board games that got us together in the first place, and it’s something we’ve been enjoying as a joint hobby ever since. Of course there were board games and D&D related things chucked into the day, left, right, and centre, including a dice themed wedding cake, classic board game centre pieces on the tables, and a JENGA style signing book. My Player 2 became Mrs Always Play Blue and I couldn’t be happier.
FEBRUARY – FEBRUARY – FEBRUARY
Kickstarter Arrivals
AGEMONIA – So, for context, GLOOMHAVEN is my number one game of all time. While it’s a single playthrough of an expensive game that we’ll probably never play again, the whole experience from start to finish along side my favourite person in the world was one of my all time great gaming highlights. But it was done, and we needed something else to step in to the void that it left behind. It was then that a YouTube video pointed me to AGEMONIA, a similar game to GLOOMHAVEN with its huge box, hundreds of cards, great looking minitures, and mix of fantastical non-human races. And we’ve been having a great time with it throughout 2024. Like GLOOMHAVEN, it’s one we save for those empty weekends or rainy Bank Holidays when we can expell the contents of the box all over our dining room and get stuck into some fun and challenging back-to-back senarios. I’m looking forward to making more progress in 2025.
Best New Game Played
KUTNA HORA: THE CITY OF SILVER – Sometimes we gamers see a game in the wild and we just know we’re going to love it. So it was with KUTNA HORA. From it’s beautiful black and gold art style to the interesting market mechanism, it spoke to me the second I stumbled across it. And what of the game once we’d played it? Absolutely spectacular. I’ve enjoyed every single play and it remains interesting and engaging. I definitely made the right choice adding this to the collection.
Highlight Of The Month
An odd one this, but bear with me. You see, the wife and I play DUNGEON BALL once a year, always on SuperBowl Sunday. And I’ve never been close to winning. She reads my mind and guesses my plays while her offense bounds down the field and scores regularly. But this year was different. This year I fought back and the game was close. Sure, I still lost. But it was a nailbiter of an ending and has got me excited for our 2025 match in five weeks time.
MARCH – MARCH – MARCH
Kickstarter Arrivals
SHIPWRIGHTS OF THE NORTH SEA (REDUX) – We continue to be fans of Garphill Games, but like a lot of people, the original Shipwrights is probably the least play game from the current Medieval Trilogies. This campaign jumped up and my Garphill Games addiction kicked in. It helped too that you could add the big box for EXPLORERS OF THE NORTH SEA meaning that all my Medieval Trilogy game boxes now all match.
LET’S GO! TO JAPAN – Some games I back because I know my wife will enjoy them. And it never hurts when they look as good as LET’S GO! TO JAPAN. A simple drafting game with gorgeous cards and extremly nice wooden components. This one is for relaxing with.
AEG BUNDLE – Carrying on the theme of AEG arrivals, the end of the month saw a big box arriving that contained a whole bunch of games and expansions. A different campaign to the norm, this one saw expansions for four of AEG’s most well known titles. I went in on the lastest SPACE BASE expansion (Genesis) as well as more content for CUBITOS (Fowl Play). I also chucked in the extra for TINY TOWNS (Architects) but ended up selling the base game before the content arrived. The final game in the ‘Expansion Extravaganza’ was WAR CHEST, the only one we didn’t own at the time. I was only mildedly interested in it, but the discount for bundles saw me go all in on WAR CHEST content in the end. Altogether it was a lot of stuff, and it was super exciting to unbox.
Best New Game Played
FROSTPUNK – While I’m sad to say that we’ve not played it since, our first trip to Frostpunk was nothing short of epic. I’ll be honest and say that it wasn’t really on my radar originally. I’d never heard of it and it didn’t appear to be something my wife and I would enjoy. But I somehow ended up winning a copy in a prize draw and for free, I was willing to give it a go. I watched a whole bunch of videos and ended up setting the game up twice (once to see if it was possible on our table). And despite a dark and depressing setting/story to sit alongside our loss . . . we both had a great experience playing such a heavy and deep co-op. It’s at the very top of our list to get back to the table in 2025.
Highlight Of The Month
Starting last year, we began to dip our toes into meeting up with other gamers that weren’t existing friends or family. We first met Craig (@getintogames) and Becky (@mrsgetintogames) at PimpCon last year, an Instagram gamer meetup in Daventry. But this month we had our first visit to their home where we got to game as just the four of us and we had a great time. I got to teach them THE CASTLES OF BURGUNDY, finally experience VITICULTURE at four (it didn’t save it from being sold on) and get around to trying FLAMECRAFT. If you ever get the chance to visit them, or find yourselves at an event they are attending, they are a lot of fun to game with.
APRIL – APRIL – APRIL
Kickstarter Arrivals
PARTISAN – A small box card game designed by the awesome D&D beacon who is Todd (EarthFormerGames), this is a head-to-head battle as each player uses two similar but different decks to complete their win condition. It has an interesting deckbuilding mechanic with three levels of cards to purchase as you progress and have all of your personal market cards available from the start.
BARDWOOD GROVE – The was a period of time a few years back when I was a little down and ended up backing three Kickstarter games that I was only somewhat interested in all within about a week of each other. One was BIRDWATCHER, which was an okay game that we ended up selling on. The second was SENJUTSU which remains one of the worst campaigns I’ve had the privilige to back. And then there was BARDWOOD GROVE. I got worried when one of their previous games backed by my wife ended up with a protracted fulfillment before arriving with mediocre production drapped over an average game. BARDWOOD GROVE is currently my second latest game of the 100+ I’ve backed. There are a few questionable issues with the production (the dials are too loose), but our first play showed a little promise, enough to play a couple more times.
Best New Game Played
GUILD ACADEMIES OF VALERIA – We’ve played a lot of Valeria games since we met, but 2024 was the year that we absolutly fell in love with the series as a whole. With each new entry the production gets better. And having a Folded Space insert created alongside the campaign helped too. This one sees players recruiting students (dice) and then teaching them the knowledge they’ll need so they can gratuate and tackle quests. It feels fresh while still retaining all the icons and Daily Magic Games touches that make it easy to get stuck into.
Highlight Of The Month
Another instagram gamer meetup for the year was one that was actually close to us on the south coast. And more importantly, it was the one to bring PJ (@cajungamer) to our shores. Most of the people we meet up with live at least an hour away and then some. But this was almost on our doorstep as well as granting us access to an awesome Instagramer visiting from across the pond. We also got to hang out with a bunch of Instagramers we’ve not met in person before. The highlight of the day was finally trying OBSESSION which ended up being as good as I’d hoped (even though my butler got ‘poached’ by another player).
MAY – MAY – MAY
Kickstarter Arrivals
GLOOMHAVEN: BUTTONS & BUGS – Ironically I first got hooked into Cephalfair’s epic Gloomhaven campaign because of the RPG that was launching. Unfortunately after seeing it in action it no longer excited me. I then considered getting the FROSTHAVEN minis to go with our latest big box campaign sequel. And instead I walked away with just Buttons & Bugs for less than £20. And despite all the solo gaming I’ve been leaning into, I’ve still not tried this miniscule version of the tablehog classic.
THE LAST LIGHTHOUSE – I don’t buy every ButtonShy game, but I do enjoy a fair few of them. This one had a spooky vibe and dreary artwork that drew me in and it all supports a really interesting game. Easily in my ButtonShy top 5.
EZRA & NEHEMIAH – Once upon a time I promised myself I’d stick to just the North Sea Trilogy. Then I amended that promise to just include the Medival Trilogies. And then I broke it with LEGACY OF YU before talking myself into this Garphill Games Greatest Hits title. Am I ashamed? Of course I’m not. It’s a great game.
Best New Game Played
THE LAST LIGHTHOUSE – I think I played this mere days after it arrived and found a really cool solo game that is simple to get stuck into. It’s a brief tower defense game with a smallish footprint.
Highlight Of The Month
Our D&D group took a break from fighting vampires and partaking in orgies to try a different TTRPG run by one of our players. I was interested in trying CALL OF CTHUHLU, and thanks to two of our group being super creative and artistic, we played through a one shot in the most epic way with painted minis and a whole homemade island set piece (including lighthouse and spooky woodland). It was a great experience, and while I prefer the fantasy setting, it’s definitely a system I’d be happy to return to on occasion.
JUNE – JUNE – JUNE
Kickstarter Arrivals
CASTELLANS OF VALERIA – Another month and another Valeria game arrives. See below for my thoughts.
Best New Game Played
CASTELLANS OF VALERIA – No contest. This is another great addition to the series, once again mixing up mechanics while continuing the ‘story’, and making area control work at two with minimal effort. And production wise this is the best that Daily Magic Games have put out to date. First of all there are a large number of different screenprinted wooden pieces in different building styles. Add to that the GameTrayz insert that really aids in setting up and ticks a whole bunch of boxes. And the gameplay is perfection too with players drafting dice for resources and then using them to carry out building actions in the six city districts.
Highlight Of The Month
A Trick Taking games day with @thoughtsofameeple where we played some favourites as well as a couple of new games that we’ve had gathering dust due to required player counts. SKULL KING is every bit the classic that I’d heard it to be, and THRONES OF VALERIA offers an interesting twist where the five suits are in constant flux and any one could be the trump suit by the time all the devious manipulation has ended. However, it was the 4-player game of THE RED CATHEDRAL that was the overall highlight for me as I finally got to see it shine at the best player count. Amazing.
JULY – JULY – JULY
Kickstarter Arrivals
FANTASYFORM – This is another ButtonShy game one that is a Fantasy reskin of sci-fi trading game, SPACESHIPPED. Cards have several uses that get cycled after each round, and you can always see what’s coming. It’s tricky, but another fun solo ButtonShy game.
FORAGE – The final game in the trilogy following ORCHARD and GROVE. It adds a couple of changes but I feel like the first game in the trilogy was all that was needed. I did add the boxset on so now the three games sit together.
NANGA PARBET (Stuff) – I’ll be honest and say that we don’t play this game as much as we should (it’s a really good 2-player only game), but the expansion stuff is minimal and cheap, and I was able to get stuff from a previous campaign too, so the box is much more complete now. Guess we’ll have to get it all to the table in 2025.
Best New Game Played
MERV: HEART OF THE SILK ROAD – This is a game that I was drawn to yet I can’t tell you why. It’s not the normal art style I go for. It is a little over my confort zone in terms of complexity. But for some reason on a previous UKGE visit, I made it my target. And then, as often happens, it sat on my Shelf Of Shame for many, many (many) months. Only for us to discover a great little game with an interesting rondel system in the centre of a very colourful board.
Highlight Of The Month
I think it was my first Instagram anniversary when I decided I wanted to do board game reviews. Of course with limited character count they would never be super indepth, but nethertheless #alwaysplaybluereviews was born in September of 2021. I didn’t know how long I’d carry it on for and I never worried if anyone else other than my wife was reading (she’s my number one fan). However, it was a nice surprise to realise I’d hit 150 reviews come the middle of 2024. In less than three years. I am extremely pleased that I’ve managed to stay consistant, and a big thank you to any and all who have read, enjoyed, and commented on any one of them.
AUGUST – AUGUST – AUGUST
Kickstarter Arrivals
Due to the fact that I’ve backed less over the last year, plus several delays to the bigger games coming our way (STAR REALMS: RISE OF EMPIRE, I’m looking at you), August was a dry month for Crowdfunded arrivals. As in nothing showed up. At all. Nada.
Best New Game Played
GLEN MORE II: CHRONICLES – I think this is the only ‘Best New Game Played’ on this list that I didn’t (and still don’t) own. It was late on the Saturday evening of this years 24 Hour Board Game Marathon. We’d played a couple of games with James and Mark, two aquiantences we’d made a few hours earlier. As my wife headed to bed, by friend Hilary joined us and the guys asked if we’d like them to teach us GLEN MORE II: CHRONICLES. And it was amazing. Despite us coming in on a Chronicle around the mid point it didn’t matter. To Hilary and I these were the only rules we knew. The game has a cool rondel mechanic for choosing tiles and the placement of the tiles around your castle is very thinky. Somehow this 90min play that crossed midnight was the standout and writing this now is making me want to track down my own copy . . . but at £70+ it’s not happening right now.
Highlight Of The Month
While the month included our second 24 Hour Board Game Marathon, and we got in another MollyCon with some of our favourite Instagram gamers, the highlight for August has to be my first ever appearance on a board game Podcast. Tom and Paul from the ‘I’m Having My One’ podcast were kind enough to invite me for a boardgamer interview, and while my nerves were sky high, it was a great experience. Big thanks to the guys for having me on.
SEPTEMBER – SEPTEMBER – SEPTEMBER
Kickstarter Arrivals
ANDROMEDA’S EDGE – Well, this was just a little bit epic. I’d just missed out on DWELINGS OF ELDERVALE when I eventually stumbled upon Kickstarter, but when this sci-fi skinned reimagining arrived I went all in on the Deluxe copy. Expensive? Damn right. Worth it? Every penny. 8 plays in 4 months and it didn’t take long for it to climb to the top of my wife’s top 10 games list.
Best New Game Played
ANDROMEDA’S EDGE – It couldn’t have been anything else. The set up and tear down time is a little much due to the oddly organised insert (the board is right at the bottem) but once you’re playing with the very well designed asymetric space faring races (I think there are 18!), you forget that there was a time when ANDROMEDA’S EDGE was not on your table. One of the best produced games we own with gorgeous ship minis and fantastic gameplay.
Highlight Of The Month
We always take a week off in September, and on the first day we decided to head to Brighton. We enjoyed a nice walk along the seafront on a day predicted to be colder than it turned out. We had a scrumtious lunch. And most importantly we finally got to visit Dice Saloon. I’ve been to a few board game cafes, but this one is crazy. Not only were we surprised to find that you don’t pay before 6pm, but the inside is huge with a lot of tables, a lot of games, and a whole other large areas at the back for TCGS. And let me not forget how much Warhammer terrain they have available. I don’t play Warhammer, but this place would be a gem if I did. The only disappointment came when I thought I spotted a rare copy of ARCS only to find out that they only had the expansion. That was an emotional rollercoaster, I can tell you.
OCTOBER – OCTOBER – OCTOBER
Kickstarter Arrivals
UNCONSCIOUS MIND – Dear god, this is a beautiful game. Somehow my recent batch of Kickstarter arrivals were trying to outdo each other with how good their production. Despite going a little lukewarm on ENDLESS WINTER, I was still excited for Fantasia Games’ follow and when I got to the glorious unboxing, I was not disappointed. Every card, every game piece, is a standout in the hobby. I can’t understate how good looking this game is when it’s all set up. And that’s with Brown being a predominant colour.
MYSTICANA – One last ButtonShy game for the year, this one has a little twist to it. While there is a game here (3 with the base game, plus more with expansions), it’s actually more of a system. The 18 cards of MYSTICANA have several rulesets for them so that they can be used for whatever games come to people imaginiations. It’s a clever idea and I’m thinking about seeing if I can come up with something of my own using the cards.
EXPLORERS OF NAVORIA – Dranda Games make some really good games. We’ve enjoyed their sci-fi jaunts with SOLAR STORM and SOLAR SPHERE. We enjoyed when trains were their thing following back-to-back campaigns for THE ISLE OF TRAINS and PIONEER RAILS. And now it’s cute fantasy games with EXPLORERS OF NAVORIA. The difference here is that the game already exisits and it’s more of a localisation to english language. However it got to us, the pastel colours and Kyle Ferrin homaging artwork grabbed my attention. It’s a light game without the expansion but it’s a fun game that’s easy to teach and different to other things on our shelves.
Best New Game Played
ARCS – When this showed up on Crowdfunding I thought I might go for it, but then the images for the design presented in the campaign put me off. Flash forward and I was gutted I hadn’t taken a risk. They made a lot of artistic changes and it was much closer to something I’d be interested in. Of course the old ‘Shut Up & Sit Down’ effect meant that a very positive review caused the game to be beyond scarce in the wild. Thankfully I was able to track down a copy. We’ve played a couple of 2-player games which I really enjoyed and feel works well (though my wife didn’t enjoy as much) but it was a 4-player game that really cemented it for me. It was the enjoyable experience we all had sat around that table as we fought for control of each round while kicking the crap out of each others fleet. It reminded me of SURVIVE: ESCAPE FROM ATLANTIS in that if everyone is picking on everyone, no one gets mad. A great game that has already given us great board gaming experiences.
Highlight Of The Month
A little later than previous years, but October was when we completed our first BGStats App challenge and ticked off the 52×1. We do this challenge every year as it helps us stay on top of our Shelf Of Shame. Better still, as I set up the one for 2025, I found that we didn’t have 52 unplayed games to add to the list for the first time since I started this challenge. Of course I have Kickstarter arrivals due that will make up the number, but this is the first time we’ve felt truely close to being on top of our collection.
NOVEMBER – NOVEMBER – NOVEMBER
Kickstarter Arrivals
INVENTORS OF THE SOUTH TIGRIS – And that’s the third trilogy complete. The games are getting heavier, but I feel that we’re growing as gamers along with them. Something like this would have scared me five years ago, but I have eight previous games that have trained me for what Garphill do next.
Best New Game Played
AEON’S END – We went down a Legacy game rabbit hole early in our modern gaming after we completed JAWS OF THE LION. Among the legacy games we played was AEON’S END: LEGACY. It was a fun experience, but one that didn’t continued after we completed the story due to how fiddly the set up seemed with the customised cards we’d created. I thought about getting the original base game, but I also felt that my wife hadn’t enjoyed the game as much as I had. That all changed when we were gifted a copy by our FLGS and now we are loving AEON’S END and it’s quickly becoming one of our favourite co-op games.
Highlight Of The Month
2024 saw us experience our second Dice Portsmouth birthday celebration, and this one was epic. Our first one in 2022 was just the two of us and we just played a bunch of 2-player only card games due to limited table space. But this time we went along with four gaming friends and got a nice table. And better still it was a bumper year for gaming gifts from the board game cafe as we each walked away with two big box games each. The highlight of the evening though was finally experiancing HEAT: PEDAL TO THE METAL at 6-player. That was a treat.
DECEMBER – DECEMBER – DECEMBER
Kickstarter Arrivals
TINY EPIC CTHULHU – I thought it was going to be another dry month for crowdfunding arrivals but got a pleasant surprise a couple of days before the end of the year when one of the two latest Tiny Epic games randomly turned up on my doorstep (literally dropped their by a fleeing Evri delivery driver) with no tracking. No we wait for the arrival of TINY EPIC GAME OF THRONES to complete the collection.
Best New Game Played
BUMFUZZLE – Due to finishing our 52×1 challenge and wanting (nay, needing) to save enough unplayed games for the 2025 challenge, we didn’t get many new games played in December. More so, of the four we tried, we didnt own a single one of them. Nothing really jumped out as a best game of the batch until a Christmas Day play of an unassyuming little game called BUMFUZZLE. It has TACO CAT GOAT CHEESE PIZZA vibes as you’re frantically trying to shead cards while verbal chaos ensues. There were a lot of laughs had with this one
Highlight Of The Month
It has to be Christmas gaming. We stayed with family and they are all gamers. So Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we back to back stuffing our faces with food while playing a whole bunch of games. It’s so nice to be surrounded by family who all enjoy the same hobby.
2024 IN STATS
Since January 2020 I’ve used the BGStats app to record my plays and last year was no different. Here are some of the stats from my 2024.
- Total number of plays – 682 (across 278 different games)
- H-Index – 9
- Total Time played – 447 hours
- Most Played Game – YAHTZEE (15 plays)
- Number of wins – 275
- Month with most plays – August with 91 (across 69 different games)
- Number of new games to me – 114
- Number of different people played with – 70
LOOKING FORWARD INTO 2025
With 2024 now behind us, it’s only right to look forward to what is coming up in 2025.
CHALLENGES
Let’s start with the BGStats app challenges. The wife and I been doing these since we first met and it’s always fun to have little goals. They’ve helped us prioritise games we sometimes neglect, wittled out games we realise we don’t enjoy, and assisted in reducing the Shelf Of Shame.
Old faithful, the 52×1 is back for it’s third year running. This is every game that is still sitting unplayed on our shelves and the aim is to learn an average of one a week. After that we’ve dropped our 20×5 and decided to go big on Daily Magic Games with a specific Valeria Games 10×10. Excluding SIEGE OF VALERIA (that’s a solo game), it’s every other one we have. And we’ve gone from 5 plays a game back up to 10 to spice it up.
And finally, as a little extra one I chucked in at the last minute, we’re doing a 40×1 ‘One And Done’ challenge as I started seeing games we’d played just once and then left to gather dust once more.
EVENTS
With the 24 Hour Board Game Marathon on hold for 2025, we’ve decided it would be nice to dive back into UKGE once more. We know more people in the board gaming community now so it will be great to meet up with folks. The only tough part will be saving up as I’m still a lazy student. It will be a tight Expo, for sure. Perhaps another culling is needed.
TTRPGs
On the Tabletop RPG front we’ve got the continuation (and hinted at ending) of our Call Of The Netherdeep D&D campaign. It’s been a grand adventure, despite the last three months of the year really screwing with our schedule that had been almost uninterupted until then. Will be nice to see how my Paladin goes out (a big ol’ Smiting blaze of glory?). Once that’s done, I’m hoping to hop into the DM chair for a bit where I’m planning to run a Sandbox hex crawl adventure in The Land Of Eem, a system I supported on Backerkit a few years ago.
We’ve also got the continuation of a Numanera Campaign with a different group of friends. This is a little more open ended and things just get weirder and weirder in this strange world we’re exploring.
CROWDFUNDING
Other than that it will be about selling to make more space for incoming Kickstarter and Gamefound games. Below is a list of games on the potential arrival flightpath for 2025.
- FINAL GIRL – SEASON 3
- HERO REALMS DUNGEONS
- PLANET UNKNOWN: SUPER MOON
- SKARA BRAE
- STAR REALMS: RISE OF THE EMPIRE
- THE ELDER SCROLLS: BETRAYAL OF THE SECOND ERA
And there we go. Another look back at a previous year of gaming. The hobby continues to grow for us and I can’t wait to see what’s coming up next.
Until then, enjoy your gaming.
Always Play Blue 