9
T
HIS YEAR I PLAYED AS
many new board games
as I could get my hands
on. And I’m not partic-
ularly picky, so if it was
popular, I played it. If it
had a fascinating theme
or novel game mechanic, I played
it. And if other reviewers said they
loved it, I played it. I only avoided
games that required any sort of
phone or app.
I tested just shy of 40 new
games, published from December
’18 to October ’19 (when this issue
went to print). I played most of the
games in Rwanda, where I work in
international development. There
are no personal mailboxes in the
country, so I had the games fer-
ried over in suitcases, one visitor
at a time. Often they were the only
copies in the entire country.
I’ve played several hundred
board games in my life, but these
five are the new ones that I can’t
stop playing. So here are 2019’s
absolute best, either for yourself
or as a gift for the tabletop gamer
in your life.1 / NEMESIS: THE BOARDGAMER’S
BOARD GAME $ 150
Think Ridley Scott’s Alien, but
with even more dread. You and
four friends wake from cryosleep
to discover something horrible
lurking aboard your starship. You’ll
need your teammates to fight, flee,
a nd hide from this a st ra l ter ror, but
a heavy fog of mistrust lies among
you all. Because one of your friends
may be trying to kill you.
I’ve played Nemesis all year, and
I’m convinced it’s a once-in-a-de-
cade game—it’s altogether tense,
riveting, beautifully cinematic,
and terrifically difficult. You take
control of a single character, and
in each turn you’ll be immersed in
dozens of hard choices about who
to trust and what to do, which you4
hope will lead to mere survival. It
rarely does.
If you’ve got cash for Neme-
sis’s price tag, hours to spare, and
enough patience to wade through
a heavy rulebook, don’t allow your-
self to miss this game.2 / WINGSPAN: BEST FOR
REPLAYABILITY $ 55
Breathtakingly illustrated and
exceptionally easy to learn, Wing-
span has you and several friends
competing to coax f locks of birds
into private nature reserves. Each
new feathered friend gives you a
special ability or bonus, and the
heart of Wingspan lies in finding
interesting ways to combine these
birds’ special abilities into long,
clever chains of well-laid actions.// BY WILLIAM HERKEWITZ //Imagine
waking up
from cryosleep
only to have
this Queen
from Nemesis
staring
you down.
No thanks.The 2019
Popular
Mechanics
Board
Game
Awards
12 December 2019 PHOTOGRAPHY BY LAKOTA GAMBILL