With the solo top 200 in full swing, I thought about looking at the games that I have received since last year's voting that didn't make my list of top 20 for this year. Where they stand, what do I think. (I have my top 20 for last year and this year on bgg if you're interested.) Since I have each year some different restrictions, I feel like some fall through the cracks or maybe I don't talk about them enough and I don't know, just wanted to share I guess. Long chatty post warning!
Verdant is a weird one. Not in a bad sense. I love Calico and Verdant shares quite a bit of DNA. It's a spacial puzzle, different scenarios and goals, but that's the "issue". I play Calico more because it suits me more, but there's nothing wrong with Verdant and I like to play that one too. But it's just being boxed out sometimes. Still it offers something that Calico doesn't, a bit more freedom in the building up and actually some theme that's reflected in the gameplay (like how much light the plants need). It's not going anywhere, but I don't see it jumping into the top 20.
Flamecraft just barely missed my top 20. I mentioned many times that I'm not a fan of AIs in games, but there's one exception. When the AI is just "blocking" and preventing certain moves, updating the board state a bit just to keep things moving along. And that's exactly what Flamecraft does, you're beating a target score in the end. It was a surprise to me, a pleasant one. But it is a sprawling game (luckily only in width and not depth, so it's fine by me, I can reach comfortably) and didn't get played as much this year. But it has a big potential making it to top 20 in the future.
Forest of Radgost I actually bought to play with my nephew, cause it's "barely a game", it's more of a storytelling instrument. I did play it solo though to see how it works and it's just a fun story. Also one of like only 3 games I actually have in czech :D I was told by my brother that my nephew likes "monster stories" lately (the mild kid kind), so I think this will be the year this game shines.
In Dreams is right there with the previous as not really being a "game", it's a storytelling instrument. However it's charming in the way the prompts are actually linked together, like it's not just random terms, but you're given some vague context. I had this idea of "journalling" stories and I might actually do it.
Tiwanaku, sometimes called "sudoku on steroids" is what it says. There's deduction, there's forward planning, there's "outracing the AI"... yeah I said AI. It's the kind I'm more tolerant of, your actions fire off what they do. Though in this case it's placing a tile and finding out the "random" direction and colour of the meeple that moves. It's basically about preparing for a "big turn" and thus outpace the "easily programmed" oponent. This makes it a game I have to be in mood for, but when I am, it's great.
Earthborne Rangers is basically my first ever culled game. Which sounds like it's the worst game I ever had, but the truth is I just knew someone who was interested and just sent it to them. The main issue was time (and narrative). It's very much rpg-like... open world rpg. That's how I would define it. It contains CYOA narrative and some quest lines, but most of the game is just you playing whatever you want however you want. It has a lot of good ideas in it. And in a way Spirit Fire seems similar to that. Though not as similar mechanically. I do hope the way deck construction is done in this game carries over to other games.
North Pole and Wode Ridge can be lumped together. They're both from the Hunted series and I received both with the same pledge. Lately I've been moving away from Hunted games. Nothing wrong with them mind you, but you know my relationship with dice. And even though I find these really fun and they're like watching a movie in slow motion, I think I have better options in my small games. I think what finally broke me was actually Wode Ridge. It's a much bigger game than any of the others, it has more moving parts and it's very much as fun as the others. But it's quite a big footprint, it somehow takes me more than 30 minutes every time to play, it's longer setup... in that space I'd rather pull out other games than this one. So I'll be moving these along if I can find someone who wants them. Funnily enough I can send them all in a way that they fit in Wode Ridge box :D Including the 2 playmats.
Overall I don't think I've had more misses in my acquisitions lately, I think I've moved a bit towards "refining" what I have though and I have to get out and cull some finally. Or if I can't, recycle them.
For my personal sanity, I should NOT do the same thing as you did, but I am very glad you went through it, it's super interesting!
I think Verdant is probably the poorest of the tile-laying series by Flatout Games. What I didn't like about this one is the green thumbs mechanic. I felt it distracted from the core gameplay. Trying to gather light tokens on your plants was fun initially, it gave some sense of purpose on a smaller scale than that of the game arc, but ultimately it felt tedious as well. I prefer both Cascadia and Calico (and Boss Monster, which I didn't keep).