Agra

Some games are impressive from across the table; others make an ordinary weeknight disappear for a while. Agra is firmly the latter. On only my second play, with everyone else learning it for the first time, it became the sole 2017 release to receive a straight 10 from me. Michael Keller had already made charming work in La Granja and Solarius Mission, but this feels like the point at which the whole thing properly clicks.

At its heart, Agra builds a demanding chain of resources, goods, and orders. You acquire what you need, turn it into something more useful, then try to deliver it when the effort will count most. It is a euro that asks you to consider more than the next move; you need to see the little route leading towards it as well.

Turns are made of weighty choices: which action serves the plan now, and which useful option can safely wait. The interaction lives in the shared space and the contest for its opportunities rather than in cheap attacks. Nobody knocks over your shop; they simply get to the thing you needed first. That is where the pleasing, quiet tension starts.

It is not light, and it will not flatter a rushed table, but its density never felt like labour to me. Agra has dethroned The Gallerist as my favourite heavy euro, and it is quietly, completely excellent.