Worker placement games, in which you generically have "dudes" that you put in spaces to get "stuff" in order to work towards certain goals, can often suffer from relatively boring themes. Manhattan Project scores points for uniqueness by having players compete to build atomic bombs. It's also very accessible, not overly dense like some WP games can trend toward. Use engineers, scientists, and laborers, as well as spots on both a common board and your own board, to gather resources and work towards developing Fat Man and the like. You can use spies to co-opt other players' spaces for your own use and bomb their buildings to hinder their progress. Excellent graphic design a bit reminiscent of my beloved Fallout video games and gameplay that starts a bit slow but escalates quickly, just like the real nuclear arms race.
These tie because I wanted to include them both on the list and involve similar mechanics but are for different numbers of players. The Resistance, for 5-10 players, has definitely seen the most play of anything this year. It's a quick, quasi-party social deduction game in which players are secretly divided into two teams - the Resistance and spies. The spies get to know who each other are, but the Resistance members have no clue as to anyone's identity. Over a series of up to five missions, players are chosen to participate on each, and everyone votes on whether a good team has been selected. Then the chosen mission members secretly vote if the mission succeeds or fails (Resistance members must vote success, spies can choose). Almost all of the game is in the "meta game," trying to deduce who's who and using bluffing and misdirection to hide your true identity if you're a spy. It's interesting for the varied reactions it produces among groups - my friends in Kansas tried to game out all the different probabilities and possibilities, while my girlfriend's family basically devolved into yelling at each other - but everyone has a good time. Another version is Resistance: Avalon, which in Arthurian themed and adds Merlin, a good guy who knows who the bad guys are, but if the good guys win the baddies get a chance to assassinate Merlin, and win instead if they are successful - so Merlin has to be very careful and oblique as to how he uses his knowledge. (If King Arthur isn't for you, plain Resistance could easily add this element by labeling one of the Resistance cards a "double agent" or some such.)
Telestrations is the best new party game I've played in years - as high in humor potential as Cards Against Humanity and unlike that, it can be played with anyone. Simply put, it's the classic "telephone" game but with drawing. You have a flipbook and dry erase marker. Pick a word and draw it. Then pass your book to the next person, who has to guess what you drew. Then they pass it to the next person, who must draw their guess. Continue around until you get your own book back, and laugh at how messed up the drawings got. Repeat. I've played this several times and never actually kept score - like the best party games, its fun comes simply from the activity of doing it. Given that this game could technically be played with pen and paper, it also has a very nice presentation that makes it worth the money; the flipbooks are very well constructed and should help to provide your friends and family with plenty of laughs for years to come (though you might need to replenish the marker supply). (And for those adults out there, there's always the possibility of using CAH cards in Telestrations...)
OK, this is a bit of a cheat as I just got my copy and haven't played it yet (hoping to fix that the day after I'm writing this), but I played it a couple years ago and immediately wanted a copy. Unfortunately I couldn't get one as it was out of print at the time and used copies were going for upwards of a Benjamin. This fall Z-Man Games strangely came through with what must have been a stealth, limited reprint, because new copies appeared in online stores at a great price and I just happened to check on it one day, snagging one before they all disappeared again (meaning I could probably sell my copy for a juicy profit if I really wanted to). Chinatown is as close to a pure negotiating game that I've played. Each player receives a set of lots on the game board representing Chinatown, and tiles representing businesses that could go in those lots, like laundromats or restaurants. The goal is to have ownership over businesses that are connected and several tiles large, as that gives you big money bonuses at the end of each round. You construct those tiles through trading "anything and everything" with other players - lots, tiles, money, and whatever else you can think of - choice of restaurant for post-game dinner, maybe? The simple rules enable a very cutthroat, entertaining game, and I can't wait to subject my friends to it.
I reviewed Suburbia in-depth after I first played it in 2013, so be sure to check that out for more detail, and added it to my collection this year after a new print run. For me it still holds up as "SimCity on a board" after several plays. I love all the different tiles - there are enough that you get a slightly different set every game - and trying to balance out your income and population growth as your city expands and becomes less efficient. I do need to focus more on the common goals, however, as trying to brute force my way to victory while largely ignoring them has gotten me skunked two games in a row. But that's all part of the learning process, and I anticipate many more games of Suburbia in my future as a city planner.
Bonus pic: Maria (the purple marker) pointing out that she completely demolished me in a recent game of Suburbia. Happy gaming!
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