Contrary to what you might think of something so undigital, the board games market is growing steadily and thousands of new titles are published every year around the world. Approaching a new game, however, often seems an insurmountable effort: before you start you have to read the rules, understand them, explain them to others (keeping your attention high and bypassing those who think it's funny to comment on each rule with a joke) or have them explained. Also for this reason, in the end, most of the non-enthusiasts always end up playing the same games: in Italy, RisiKO!, Monopoly and Cluedo alone make the bulk of sales.
For those who already know that during their holidays there will be long evenings in places with little nightlife or a shaky internet connection, we have selected ten new games (released in the last 5 years) that have won awards and have received remarkable reviews.
How we chose them
All the games on the list have won something at the most important awards in the field of board games. One is the German Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year), perhaps the most important prize in the family board games industry. Then there are the Golden Geek Awards, which are awarded annually by BoardGameGeek (BGG), the largest online forum on board games: all users registered on BoardGameGeek (which in 2017 were one and a half million) can give each game a score and then each game is placed in a very long ranking. Finally, we considered an important Italian award: the Game of the Year of Lucca Comics & Games, the largest comic book fair in Europe.
The first 8 of the list are games for families, with games that last less than an hour and are also good for those who generally do not approach new games. The last two are more complex strategy games and more challenging from the point of view of understanding the rules and the duration of the game (and cost). The rules are only hinted at, also because they are usually better understood by playing, but for each game we tried to explain why we liked it.
Azul
Released in 2017, it won the Spiel des Jahres and a Golden Geek Award for best family game. It owes its name to the azulejos, the ornamental tiles traditionally used in Portugal to decorate buildings. Each player has his own board where he can place small coloured tiles. The game, however, has little to do with ceramics, indeed it is very abstract and is based partly on strategy, partly on chance. Each turn players can get, with certain rules, various tiles to complete their cardboard wall: the first player who manages to complete a row wins. Because of the rules to follow to get the tiles and then to place them on the wall you have to be careful of your moves: it is one of those games where you have to make choices hoping that other players do not get in the way.
(Plan B Games)
Vox Emily VanDerWerff's cultural criticism has written that much of Azul's charm lies in the fact that it is a "very tactile" game and that "most of the fun comes from the tiles that are beautiful plastic blocks that give a nice, smooth and heavy feeling in the hand".
Age: 8+
Players: 2-4 people
Duration: 30-45 minutes
Vote on BGG: 7.9
Cost: on the website of the Italian distributor Ghenos Games costs 45 euros, on IBS 43 euros, on Amazon 41 euros, but from the reviews it is not clear if there comes the German edition (which is also found at 35 euros) or Italian. In any case you can download the instructions in English from here and a video tutorial here.
Kingdomino
It was released in 2016 and is a kind of advanced version of the traditional domino. In 2017 it won the Spiel des Jahres and also the Lucca Comics & Games. Wirecutter, the authoritative New York Times object review site, mentions it in the list of indispensable objects for those preparing to spend a holiday at home. The rules are very simple and you can learn in a few minutes, so it is very suitable for playing with children. Each player is a king who must build his realm from a single tile with a castle on top, adding to each hand a double tile according to the rules of Domino. The objective is to obtain a square as "full" as possible and to score as many points as possible. If necessary, here is a video tutorial.
Age: 8+
Players: 2-4 people
Duration: 15-20 minutes
Vote on BGG: 7.4
Cost: on both Amazon and IBS it costs 20 euros, as well as on the online shop of the Italian distributor Oliphante. There is also a women's version, Queendomino, but it costs more on both Amazon and IBS.