Over-thinking by the Yellow Meeple:- The Golden Geek Awards 2019

Every year, I write a commentary sharing my thoughts on the winners of the Golden Geek awards. I almost didn't write it this year.

TLDR: Wingspan won!

I personally decided to sell Wingspan. It was fine, but didn't thrill me. The European expansion made me mad. On the other hand, I can't deny it's popularity, and it seems to really work for a lot of people. I also love how its theme helps broaden the audience and media coverage for tabletop gaming. It's a game that has been fantastic for our hobby and I'm very happy for the designer and publisher and everyone who loves the game.

However, it's a little odd how can a game win for Best Strategy Game AND Best Family Game? Personally it seems like a better fit among the family game nominees.  And Most Innovative? Perhaps it's innovative that a game break down barriers like Wingspan, or perhaps people generally just pick their favourite game on the nominees list and don't think about how well it fits the actual category. Wingspan also won for Best Expansion, Best Solo Game, Board Game of the Year, Best Artwork and Presentation and Best Card Game. 7 awards in total!

Now that that's out of the way, let's see if we can find some other games in the list of winners and runners up. We played a lot of new releases last year, but we had a big blind spot, surprisingly, in our two-player gaming, so let's find out what else we need to play.

Over-thinking by the Yellow Meeple: The Dice Tower Awards 2018

The Dice Tower was definitely one of the first board game media outlets I was aware of when entering the hobby. When we started The Game Shelf around 12 months later, the Dice Tower Awards were the first awards I covered. It's now the 5th year I've covered the awards. Of course, no-one can ever play all of the new games each year, but we try extremely hard, logging on average around 80 games played each month and generally being a little cult of the new in the games we choose to play.

Unlike last year, where Gloomhaven took home a huge number of awards, this year's winners are more spread and represent a wide range of games. One or two match my own picks for best games of 2018, which a few seem to have been influenced by 'The Dice Tower effect'.

For those interested in the context for my opinions on the winners, the nominated games we have had the change to play are: Gizmos, Reef, Space Base, My Little Scythe, Grimm Forest, Cerebria, The Mind, Endeavor: Age of Sail, High Society, The Estates, Brass Birmingham, Coimbra, Terraforming Mars: Prelude, Roll Player: Monsters and Minions, Duelosaur Island, Decrypto, Drop It, Architects of the West Kingdom.

Overthinking by the Yellow Meeple:- UK Games Expo Awards 2019

The UK Games Expo awards happen each year at UKGE in Birmingham. They're quite a small affair, but still great recognition for designers and publishers who are at the show. The 2019 awards recognise game products on demo and on sale at UK Games Expo 2019 and which have been released in the UK in the preceding 12 months, or are released at UK Games Expo 2019. Reprints are also sometimes eligible and between geography and this rule, most of the awards below can be explained as 2019 awards...

I'll start with the list of winners, followed by some commentary on my favourites! For context, the full shortlist can be found here.

Over-thinking by the Yellow Meeple: The Golden Geek Awards 2018

In spite of the fact that we do our yearly retrospective on 1st January each year, it's also nice to have an extra few months to play some more 2018 titles and solidify some opinions. This week the Golden Geeks were announced for 2018 and we have played almost all of the games that won and many that were nominated. More-so that last year there is a spread of winners, so let's take a look at the best games of 2018, as voted by the members of BoardGameGeek.

40 Years of the Spiel des Jahres - Our Top 10 Winning Board Games

It's been 40 years since the Spiel des Jahres award was first made in 1979 to Hare and Tortoise. 40 great games have received this honour, and we know friends who began a board game collection only based on games that had won this coveted award. Winning the award guarantees a huge boost in sales, but for gamers, the games can often be a bit too simple and more towards the family end of gaming.

As gamers we enjoy both the heavy and lighter end of the spectrum, we've chosen to make a top ten list based on the 40 Spiel Winners, as well the eight games that have won the Kennerspiel (Connoisseurs' game of the year) and the 30 games that have won the Kinderspiel (Children's game of the year). We used Wikipedia as our source of information.

Over-thinking by the Yellow Meeple: The Dice Tower Awards 2017

This is the fourth year that I’ve covered the Dice Tower Awards - I can't believe we've been covering board games for so long!!

This morning I watched the live stream of the Dice Tower Awards 2017 which take place at Dice Tower Con during 2018. It was certainly the year of Gloomhaven - it took five out of the 14 awards, but it also made me notice that perhaps I wasn't playing all the hotness in 2017. For some context, from the unsuccessful nominees, we’ve played Azul, Century: Spice Road, Sagrada, Charterstone, Wasteland Express Delivery Service, Champions of Midgard:Valhalla, Terraforming Mars: Venus Next, Fog of Love, Caverna: Cave vs. Cave, Codenames Duet, The Fox in The Forest, Colosseum, Meeple Circus, Rhino Hero Super Battle, Word Slam, Barenpark, Pandemic Legacy Season 2, Anachrony, Dinosaur Island and Ex Libris, which are, without exception all games that we enjoy and at least 85% of them are on our shelves, so perhaps we have good or popular tastes after all!

So firstly, let’s look at the winning board games we’ve managed to play;

Over-thinking by the Yellow Meeple: The Golden Geek Awards 2017

As we play more and more board games each year and follow the new hotness a lot more closely, it becomes a lot easier to comment on different board games awards. This weekend the Golden Geeks were announced for 2017 and we have played almost all of the games tht won and many that were nominated. It's perhaps not the most exciting year to provide a commentary on, as you will see, but here are my thoughts.

Over-thinking by the Yellow Meeple: The Dice Tower Awards 2016

This is the third year that I’ve covered the Dice Tower Awards and, more than ever, we’ve played a lot of the nominees and winners. I’m still a fan of the Dice Tower for their podcast reviews and Top Ten lists so at times my views probably do reflect those of the Dice Tower and its contributors, who vote on the awards.

So this morning I watched the live stream of the Dice Tower Awards 2016 which take place at Dice Tower Con during 2017. There were 15 awards and a number of duplicate winners, so there were only actually 9 winning games – coincidentally the same number as in 2016. Of the 9 winners, I’ve played eight of them, which is very high for me – I’m definitely starting to follow the hotness more closely! Having also played a lot of the nominees, I would say that I agree with approximately 50% of the choices of winner. From the unsuccessful nominees, we’ve played Inis, Kanagawa, Conan, Cottage Garden, TIME Stories: Prophecy of Dragons, TIME Stories Under the Mask, Codenames Pictures, Junk Art, Secret Hitler, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle, Pandemic: Reign of Cthulu, Mystic Vale, Clank!, A Feast for Odin, Great Western Trail, Karuba, Sushi Go Party!.

So firstly, let’s luck at the winning board games we’ve managed to play;

Over-thinking by the Yellow Meeple: The Golden Geek Awards 2016

Last year I wrote a blog to cover the 2015 Golden Geek Awards and was able to comment on a number of the games that did well, however this year it seems I’m yet to play a lot of 2016 releases. Nevertheless, the 2016 Golden Geek Awards definitely give me a list of games to aspire towards playing during 2017, plus a few good games to reflect upon too.

Overthinking by the Yellow Meeple:- The Dice Tower Awards 2016

Compared to this time last year, we’re a lot more experienced with board games. The 2015 Dice Tower awards were really a list of games we should try over the course of last year, whereas this year I feel I can actually pass judgement, having played a lot of the winners.

So this morning I watched the live stream of the Dice Tower Awards taking place at Dice Tower Con. There were 14 awards and a number of duplicate winners, so there were only actually 9 winning games – of those I’ve played and enjoyed five, so just over half and for the most part I agree with the panel’s choices, having also played a fair few of the nominees. From the unsuccessful nominees, we’ve played Lanterns, The Grizzled, Murder Deception in Hong Kong, Two Rooms and a Boom, Flick ‘Em Up, Raptor, New York 1901, Tides of Time, Mysterium, XCOM, Five Tribes Artisans of Naqala, Elysium, Roll for the Galaxy, The Voyages of Marco Polo. I find this list pretty amazing given last year we’d played just 5 of the winners and nominees!!

Over-thinking by the Yellow Meeple: The Golden Geek Awards 2015

The last time I wrote a blog about board game awards was the Dice Tower awards back in June 2015. As we were quite new to gaming at the time I had only played one winner – Star Realms. Now, reading through the Golden Geek Awards after over 12 months in the board gaming hobby I can actually feel quite accomplished.

Over-thinking by the Yellow Meeple: The Dice Tower Awards 2015

As a new gamer who only really entered the hobby late in 2014, board game awards are less a chance to be annoyed that my favourite game didn’t win, but more a chance to find out what I really should have played from the previous year(s) and thus add some great titles to my collection or at least add them to the ‘to play’ list and hope I see them at a game group soon.

So this morning I watched the live stream of the Dice Tower Awards taking place at Dice Tower Con. I was a little disappointed to realise how few games I have played, but also pleased with myself that the hours I spend watching game reviews gave me enough insight to be able to predict many of the winners (though not quite as many as Eric Summerer).