Best new game so far and by a large margin is Comancheria which just came out from GMT. It is a solo game about the Comanche over 100 years of their history in North America. Beautiful components, nice tutorial to get you into the game and great player aids to help playing. And by far one of the smoothest solo systems I have met, giving you just the right amount of illusion of control and a glimpse on what your enemies will do, but throwing enough stuff into your way to trip you up. Really enjoyed playing ut and looking forward to more plays.
Honorable mention: Euphrat & Tigris isn’t new at all, but I actually played it the first time and man, it is a lot of fun in a box. I really like how the kingdoms shape up, how conflict is handled and how you don’t necessarily have a “home” but are more like a dynasty grabbing areas and trying to control them, with your first areas just happening the ones where you probably have the most influence. Really neat game, totally can see why people like it so much.
But the best part of 2017 is that I have a semi regular play partner for Magic the Gathering again, and since that is one of only two games I rank a full 10, that one kinda runs in its own league 😉