The award logo... so tiny!
The 2009 nominees for the International Gamers Awards were recently announced. I won’t go into details of the history of the awards, previous years, etc. If you are curious as to which board games have previously won, check out the Board Game Geek wiki for a list of previous winners.
The nominees for this year are as follows.
General Strategy Games – Multi-player category:
- Automobile – Martin Wallace, Warfrog / Treefrog
- Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game – Corey Konieczka, Fantasy Flight Games
- Diamonds Club – Rüdiger Dorn, Ravensburger
- Dominion – Donald X. Vaccarino, Rio Grande Games / Hans im Glück
- Le Havre – Uwe Rosenberg, Lookout Games
- Roll Through the Ages – Matt Leacock, FRED Distribution / Gryphon Games
- Small World – Philippe Keyaerts, Days of Wonder
- Snow Tails – Fraser & Gordon Lamont, Fragor Games / Asmodee Editions
- Space Alert – Vlaada Chvatil, Czech Games Edition
- Steam – Martin Wallace, Mayfair Games / Phalanx Games
General Strategy Games – Two player category:
- 2 de Mayo – Daniel Val, Gen X Games
- Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear! – Uwe Eickert, Academy Games/ElfinWerks/Phalanx Games
- Day & Night – Valentijn Eekels, Mystics.nl
- Die Säulen der Erde: Duell der Baumeister – Stefan Feld, Kosmos
- Kamisado – Peter Burley, Burley Games
Of these titles I have played all of the multi-player games, but only 2 de Mayo in the two player category.
So who will win? I’m going to give two picks for each category: the game I want to win, and the game I think will win.
Multi-player:
Want to win: Steam
I know that Age of Steam has already won Martin Wallace an IGA. It might make sense to pick Automobile of Steam because of that, but when I look at the list, the only game I’m sure I will be playing in a few years is Steam. For me (a guy who rarely plays the same game more than a handful of times), that is all it takes.
Think will win: Dominion
It’s hard to deny that this is the game of the year. Dominion has captured the heart of almost every gamer I know. It has also won the Spiel des Jahres, an Origins award, a Mensa Select award, and a Meeples Choice award. It seems almost guaranteed to clean up at the IGAs as well.
Two-player:
Want to win: 2 de Mayo
As the only game I have played, this seems an obvious choice. But really, this first published game by Dani Val is truly great. I have written about it before, so I won’t repeat it all here. All I will say is that Dani has created an interesting and very replayable war themed Euro that could start a new genre of game. I wish him all the best with this and his future designs.
Think will win: Conflict of Heroes
As the #1 rated wargame on BGG, and with seemingly undying buzz, I think it is very likely that this novel game by Uwe Eickert will grab the award. Its downfall may very well be that not enough of the jurors have played the game. Surely it will clean up in the wargame category, but it could meet success here as well. Not to mention the other awards that CoH has grabbed so far… an Origins Award for Best Historical Wargame, and Charles S. Roberts Awards for Best WWII Era Board Game, Best Graphic Design in a Board Game, and the James F Dunnigan Award for Design Elegance. Wow! The other titles look ok, but do not have the pedigree that this title clearly possesses.
So, there you have it. Who knows? I may be right! We’ll have to see… the winners will be announced in late September.
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