2018 Best Board Game Winner

The time has come for us to reveal our pick for the Best Board Game of 2018!

You all heard my rigamarole last week, so if you’re curious why something did or did not get nominated, check there. Also, if your favorite game of this year didn’t get nominated, make sure it was actually released this year before taking it out on me. Or just ask me why in the comments. The interactions help with my Google analytics.

And the nominees are…

KeyForge – Fantasy Flight Games

Luxor – Queen Games

Root – Leder Games

Decrypto – Le Scorpion Masqué

And the winner is…

This probably isn’t a big surprise to anyone.

Honestly, I feel bad taking the easy route and going with the obvious choice. But Root is just so good! The gameplay is fantastic, the art is superb, the balance is marvelous, the depth of strategy is ¹

I seriously considered giving it to KeyForge. The gameplay is also all of those things I said, but I’m torn because it is more of a card game than a board game, and while we here at BoLS tend to encompass the one within the other, they are different enough. I think it’s fair to call it a board game in this context. Regardless, I love KeyForge because I love games that try something new and try to shake up the established gameplay mechanics. And while KeyForge did that to the CCG format……… ROOT IS JUST SO GOOD! PLAY IT NOW!

This is just one opinion. What would you give game of the year?

Author: Matt Sall

Matt has loved games of all kinds his whole life: board, video, war, roleplaying. He's worked as a writer for BoLS since 2017. He's worked as freelance editor for board game rulebooks and has designed many of his own games as well.