Spiel des Jahres , MENSA Select, Golden Geeks, Dice Tower Awards, Golden Elephants. Shake a tree and surely another board game award will drop out of it. What do we make of them and how to we make use of them?

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Awards Mentioned:

Spiel des Jahres is an award for analogue tabletop games in German-speaking countries, which was first’ awarded in 1979. German-language games released in the current and previous year can be considered for the award. Two additional equivalent prizes are also awarded: the “Kinderspiel des Jahres” (since 2001) and the “Kennerspiel des Jahres” (since 2011). There is no prize money associated with the title of “Spiel des Jahres”. The prize winners may use the award in their publicity, which incurs licensing fees. This revenue is used to meet various expenses: “Spiel des Jahres” is a registered association (e.V.) with its company headquarters in Kerpen.

The BoardGameGeek Golden Geek Award is announced every year around March. The winners of the Golden Geek are selected by the nomination and voting of the user community of BoardGameGeek.com website.

“Jogo de Ano” is the prize that SpielPortugal created in order to distinguish one game that stands out greatly from the games released throughout the year.

Each year, members of Mensa meet over one weekend to play and rate the year’s newest board games. The top five games earn Mensa Select distinction and may display the Mensa Select seal on their packaging.

The Golden Elephant Award is the annual award handed out to the most outstanding board game of the year, from the heavy-gamer perspective, as voted upon by Heavy Cardboard.

The Academy Awards, also known as the Oscars, are a set of 24 awards for artistic and technical merit in the American film industry, given annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), to recognize excellence in cinematic achievements as assessed by the Academy’s voting membership.

Games Mentioned:

Gloomhaven is a game of Euro-inspired tactical combat in a persistent world of shifting motives. Players will take on the role of a wandering adventurer with their own special set of skills and their own reasons for traveling to this dark corner of the world. Players must work together out of necessity to clear out menacing dungeons and forgotten ruins. In the process, they will enhance their abilities with experience and loot, discover new locations to explore and plunder, and expand an ever-branching story fueled by the decisions they make.

Scythe is an engine-building game set in an alternate-history 1920s period. It is a time of farming and war, broken hearts and rusted gears, innovation and valor. In Scythe, each player represents a character from one of five factions of Eastern Europe who are attempting to earn their fortune and claim their faction’s stake in the land around the mysterious Factory. Players conquer territory, enlist new recruits, reap resources, gain villagers, build structures, and activate monstrous mechs.

Love Letter: Batman is a game of risk, deduction, and luck for 2–4 players based on the original Love Letter game by Seiji Kanai. The deck consists mostly of criminals, with Joker being the most valuable card at #8, Harley Quinn at #7, and so on, with Robin showing up at #4 and Batman as #1, which is the guard in the original Love Letter. Your goal is either to hold — that is, have captured — the highest valued card at the end of the round or to be the final player active in the round.

Splendor [our review] is a game of chip-collecting and card development. Players are merchants of the Renaissance trying to buy gem mines, means of transportation, shops—all in order to acquire the most prestige points. If you’re wealthy enough, you might even receive a visit from a noble at some point, which of course will further increase your prestige.

Impulse is a quick-playing 4X (explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate) game set in space with the game board being composed of cards that have actions on them. Players also have cards in hand, and in addition to featuring one of ten possible actions, these cards have a color (red, yellow, blue or green) and a size (1, 2 or 3, as indicated by the number of icons on the card). Each card also has six edges, and these edges connect adjacent cards in the hex-shaped playing area.

In the game Azul, players take turns drafting colored tiles from suppliers to their player board. Later in the round, players score points based on how they’ve placed their tiles to decorate the palace. Extra points are scored for specific patterns and completing sets; wasted supplies harm the player’s score. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins.

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Intro Music Provided by Mitch Music

Title: Funny Bone

Link: https://youtu.be/GoPfCriKrcY

Outro Music by Sirius Beat

Elevate Link: http://youtu.be/8tLGk6pi4W4