Games of the year, 2006

This year, I'm doing a few categories as well as an overall "game of the year".

Best Light Game/Filler

Um Krone und Kragen

I really enjoy this one and it is a shame the English edition has run
into printing problems and the like. Once I get my own copy, I expect plays to go up.

2-player Game

Times Square

This is fun, but unfortunately it is more representative of a bit of a
weak year for 2-player games, for me. Honorable mention for two older
2-player games that I enjoyed a lot this year: Deflexion and Darter.

Kids/Family Game

Nacht der Magier

Very cute and plays well (albeit very differently) in the dark and in the light.

Eurogame

Blue Moon City
An outstanding offering from Knizia. Honorable mentions (both very strong): Thurn & Taxis and Augsburg 1520.

Amerigame and Game of the Year

Descent

I am not usually a big fan of long games, but when I like them, they
tend to be the deeply thematic games. This game really manages to hit
that the dungeon crawl sweet spot and remains engaging and interesting
for it's full (4 hour) duration as either Hero or Overlord and over
multiple scenarios.

My BGG tools and toys

I've written a variety of BoardGameGeek tools and toys, some mentioned
here, some mentioned on the BGG forums. I thought it would be useful
to have a single page which lists them. Here it is: Matthew Gray's BGG Tools. It includes the
trade tools, colllection tools, and a "random BGG game" bookmarklet.
There's one more, very neat, addition I'll hopefully be adding soon,
but it may take some time to work out the kinks. Enjoy.

(This is posted under the WebServices category because most, but not
all of the tools use the BGG XML API)