I suppose this is the third and final post in what has turned out to be a poorly conceived and written annual review for 2021.

Before I go on and pick my game of 2021. I should just recap the criteria for qualifying as a candidate to be chosen as a potential game of the year.

There are basically only two criteria to make the “short list”. First the game has to be a new to me game. So basically a game I haven’t played before. Secondly I have to have played it in that calendar year.

The candidates for this years game of the year are…

It’s a pretty strong list. A nice mix of new and old to chose from.

However my game of 2021 is …

This won’t come as a surprise to anyone. Despite Gavin not liking it. But he’s wrong on this. We have to remember the cards in this game and Vampire the Masquerade Rivals (the runner up to my game of the year) hated him (how he upset the card gods I don’t know) and coloured his judgement on those games. Plus he likes Barenpark. It’s all we need to know.

What can I say? This mashup of worker placement and deckbuilding is awesome.

This is what I said about Dune Imperium back in October about what I liked about it.

“The unique player abilities (which I believe the Arnak expansion adds), the combat, twice as many rounds, the influence tracks, the worker placement plus the reveal stage, dual use cards, the take that element. Oh and that the scoring is much closer.”

Naturally I love the theme. I’m a fan of the books. Love Lynch’s movie adaptation (more than the very visually impressive recent Villeneuve cinematic outing). I think using art based on the latest movie works well.

I’m looking forward to the imminent (January?) arrival of the first expansion. It looks very exciting and shakes things up.

Dune Imperium my game of 2021.