Top 10 Board Games of 2022
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Drop a comment below and let us know what your game of the year is (so far!!!)
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:04 Amy’s #10
03:48 Maggie’s #10
06:09 Amy’s #9
08:31 Maggie’s #9
11:14 Amy’s #8
16:06 Maggie’s #8
20:04 Amy’s #7
24:35 Maggie’s #7
27:37 Amy’s #6 is skipped as it’s higher on Maggie’s list
27:47 Maggie’s #6
30:33 Amy’s #5
34:26 Maggie’s #5
36:31 Amy’s #4
39:49 Maggie’s #4
42:45 Amy’s #3
46:04 Maggie’s #3
50:54 Amy & Maggie’s #2
55:43 Amy’s #1
01:00:00 Maggie’s #1 & Amy’s #6
01:04:47 Outro
Thanks for stopping by! We’re Amy & Maggie aka ThinkerThemer. We’re an Australian couple with two very different perspectives of what makes a great board game – Amy (Thinker) is all about the mechanics and enjoys tight, competitive games, and Maggie (Themer) is all about the storytelling and the theme of the game, and the ‘world’ that the designer is trying to create. Subscribe to our channel to hear us talk about these two elements of a game, and how well integrated we feel these are in delivering a cohesive and wonderful game experience.
#board games #tabletop games #thinkerthemer ❤🏳️🌈🇦🇺
Distilled 🤩 I'm still waiting for the german version to arrive at my doorstep. But that won't happen before Christmas 🤷♀️
It's cool how different your lists are – Maggie's list is full of really approachable family games and Amy's list has THREE co-ops?? Happy to see you've come to the dark side! There really are so many good co-ops out there these days.
My favorite game of 2022 has to be Oathsworn with Return to Dark Tower a close second. That said, I haven't played Frosthaven yet, and Gloomhaven is my #2 game of all time. I also discovered a lot of new-to-me games that would surely make my list if they had been published this year: Paleo, Wingspan, The Search for Planet X, Cthulhu Death May Die, Cascadia, and Paint the Roses.
I played Wonderlands War last weekend for the first time and I have lost horribly 😂 but I think I like it 🤣🤣🤣
Absolutely agree with Maggie’s #1! Same here 💕💕 Haven’t tried Woodcraft yet, but I definitely want to.
Excellent list. This is the first Top 10 list that I have watched at the end of the year. I am sure everyone will be dropping there Top 100 and Top 10 and Year in review. I love watching your lists especially since your tastes are sometimes diametrically opposed. As MC Skat Kat and Paula Abdul would say……”We come together because opposites attract”. I think I just “dated” myself by making that reference…but you get the idea.
I am very surprised frosthaven made this list. So glad you love the game! I personally love gloomhaven so much.
Wow congrats to the two
Crossovers. Did you guys play Marrakesh? I thought that would be a big one this year.
Wow! Wonderland's War made both your lists and #1 on Maggie's! Such an honor. Love your content and excited to your channel continue to grow!
What a diverse list! I love it. I have only actually played three of these. Another arrived last week and one is on the way. I have some work (play) to do to catch up with you!
Amy! Frosthaven? Are you trying to tell us something? Are you and Maggie in trouble? I was watching to see if you were blinking S.O.S. 🤣
I'm a new subscriber and I've watched so many of your videos over the last few weeks trying to catch up. I loved watching this video! Such a great mix of games. I'm massively swayed by art/theme so I either love or want to play all the games on Maggie's list 🤓
As always, great in-depth analysis of the games covered. I’m interested to know if you’ve tried Tiletum or Revive yet?
I thought Terracotta Army would be an immediate purchase for me. I love the idea of all of it…except the movement of the supervisor (or whatever he is called). The guy that you can move around the army for scoring. I just feel like that would ruin it for me. If I work super hard one round to set up for a good score, and theny opponent screws it up to the very end of the round…. 🤦.
OMG! I'm so glad that Frosthaven made Amy's list. It's a fantastic game and deserves all the praise. After watching the top ten, I broke down and purchased Kites. It looks like to much fun to miss. Thanks for a wonderful top ten video!
I am SO, SO, SO excited that you tried Frosthaven!!! I am very much mechanics-minded like Amy, and Gloomhaven has been my lifestyle game that I play about 1-2 hours a day. My play style has been very controversial within the GH groups on FB in that I really don't care about them, so I don't use the tiles correctly and ignore most of the lure, but the card play and leveling up are just so incredible. I absolutely cannot wait until you release whatever FH content you plan to release!
Great list! Love to see Woodcraft score so high! I'd recommend checking out Tiletum, Amsterdam, and Caesar! Seize Rome in 20 Minutes if you haven't played them 🙂
We played a game of Wonderland's War last night and it was great fun. I, too, love the art and all the different crazy mechanics thrown into one game. Maybe someday we can sit down to a round or two of WW together! (It was one of my first Kickstarted games, so will always hold a nostalgic place in my heart.)
I have been resisting picking up Decorum for quite some time. Now that we're going away to snowy Vermont over Christmas, I may just have to pick it up and Kites (great fun) will also be packed for the trip. And I'm also very curious about Planet Unknown. Time to do some research…!
Great top 10 list! So many people do these that I can get a little tired of them, but I really enjoyed yours. What I learned from your video: In the world of Thinker-Themer, the statement "we don't play co-op games" is so 2021. 🤣 Thanks for posting!
Great listing!
Woop woop! Sooo excited for this list 🥳🥳🥳
LOL. Soo many surprises: It must be X-mas season. 1. A top 10 and 2. from both of you together! 3. Frosthaven, a dungeon crawl. Amy, how come you even got it – I would never have thought you would back this? 4. I thought Theme-wise Creature Comforts should be higher up on Maggie's list! And 5. no rating – a lost opportunity to get a Millimeter closer to a top 100 of BG's of all time! And this top 10 gives us hope. Great list and happy holidays.
It seems like it was a slow year for me. I only got to play one of these so far (Tenpenny Parks – absolutely a keeper). Thanks for the recommendations and another great year of this channel.
You need to check your audio levels. Your voice is distorting. A soft compression or limiter with help.
Flamecraft's solo mode "campaign" was my favorite tabletop experience this year! So fun!
Really glad you liked Come Together🥰Thank you! Hope you get the time to cover it on your channel, too🙂
Are you excited for Great Western Trail: New Zealand?
Thanks for your thoughts on the best of 2022. I have a lot of things to try now!
Loooooved watching this video! There are so many games on your lists that we haven't played yet. Come visit again so we can play! =) Thanks, you two!
I couldn't help but notice, you never mention the designer , of the games on your list. Any reason why , in particular?
Me and my fiancé Kieron absolutely love your channel, and have been really surprised at some of your picks, especially yours Amy 😂
We were both expecting Septima to be in your top 10 as you both really seemed to like it, even with the Rite track being s little complex.
Great list!! Wonderland's War is also definitely high on my 2022 list! Just wondering, did you end up getting Everdell, the Complete Collection??
Great list!!! AMY….What???? Frosthaven? Loved the variety but so excited now to get some of these that are still unplayed to the table.
About distilled, does the luck aspect make you less inclined to want to play the game, or does it make you want to play it moren
Nice top 10.. Im surprise no Endless Winter seems hype around the game. It would be nice if you would do mention Honorable for 2 or 3 games barely miss your top 10 =)
So many I want to try! Being a bit slow to the new games, I have only played one of them so far (Maggie's #7). One I did play was Tiletum and I was super impressed. Keen to hear your thoughts if you review it.
Creature Comforts and Flamecraft are still highest on my wishlist, but I've been holding out until I can get ahold of those wooden bits and especially those dragon minis! And I just got Lacrimosa in, and I just opened up the rulebook and was surprised for how light it was compared to what I was expecting with that huge board. But I will say: the art is VERY period accurate, so I adore that they committed to the Rococo aesthetic, as a big Mozart nerd. <3
Really fun list! This year was really lacking for me in terms of games played and bought, because of school and life stuff I just really didn’t have much time to play games but I would say the top 2 games for me were Encyclopedia (which I literally got my kickstarter copy of last week, and immediately played and loved) and Flamecraft 🙂
I’m so excited for Distilled.. I backed it on kickstarter a while ago and its supposed to arrive someday soon so I’m glad to hear that Maggie loved it!
Think I might need a copy of Decorum, it sounds lovely. Not the biggest fan of co-op but it sounds nice! And absolutely adding Woodcraft to my list as well..
Thanks for the great video! I've been looking at Woodcraft for a while now and it looks fantastic. Sucks that we cant even get it right now XD
Just wondering if you guys have played Undaunted: Stalingrad?
I would have to say Tiletum is my favorite game of 2022.
Great list. Have you played Unsettled yet? If you are starting to get into co-ops, Unsettled is a great one. A very different game than the typical "putting out fires" that most co-ops seem to do.
Fun lists! There were a couple surprises, more from Amy a couple from Maggie. 🙂 Thanks! 🌈
Love this list! Tenpenny Parks was great and I love those chunky money tokens. I need to open my copy of Terracotta Army, I'm officially ashamed
HI FRIENDS!! AHH so excited to see your list!! I'm definitely adding your number 2 to my list (at the very minimum 🤣) and YOUR NUMBER 1S!!!!! both so epic!! 🔥i'm so honored that I got to play one of your top games aka number 7 with you 🥳
What a fantastic list Maggie and Amy! Really enjoyed watching this one, thank you for putting the time and energy into filming this. So excited to discover some of these titles over the coming months and years 🙂 Take care and hi from Adelaide where we currently are on our travels! Cis
First of all, I love your videos. I am waiting for thyroid surgery and isolating from others to avoid getting sick for it, so I am watching even more. But you are killing me here. You are horrible for my budget. I bought MYSELF a bunch of those "stocking fillers," and now, another game from this video for my spouse because I think she'll like it. However, while she likes to play games, I always worry that I am unconsciously buying the gift for me. 🙂
OMG…skipping your number 6 got me so confused lol…
Thanks for the video! I love seeing the top 10 of a particular year, since I'm constantly catching up on older games, the new ones seem to get neglected. Which means I didn't play many from this year, if I did at all. There's some on here I was already curious about, from earlier videos or generally, but there's definitely about 5 of them that I waaaant to check out.
I'm hoping Frosthaven fixes a lot of issues that I have with both versions of Gloomhaven. So it's a bit reassuring to hear that it has some Euro like mechanics. Cause while those games are very good, I also think they have more problems people are willing to admit and I just want it to be addressed or smoothed out. Amy, I had a feeling you would have enjoyed the amount of interesting deep combat mechanics from it. I'm glad you gave it a shot!
Maggie, so many of your picks make my brain do the happy themer dance, that I want to try a good bulk of your top 10. I want that level of immersion that those gave y'all.
Y'all enjoy this holiday season!
I think the most fascinating thing about the #6/#1 games is that it is quite mechanical and extremely interactive, with no solo mode I don't think, which means I'd expect it to be higher on Amy's list…
Fascinating!
I'm looking forward to Distilled, but I'm wondering if it lacked something to not make Amy's list?
Thank you for your videos. I never buy a game these days without seeing your review of that game.