First plays - Qwixx

Really, Spiel des Jahres jury?

This little dice game (little in every sense) got the nom for game of the year in 2013, beaten out by the well-deserving Hanabi.  And after a couple rounds, I'm not entirely sure why Qwixx was picked in in the first place.  Politics, maybe?  (Yes, I'm sure politics even play into this awards ceremony.)

The game comes with 6 dice - 4 different colours and 2 white - and scorepads.  And that's it.  It's simple to play and everyone is involved throughout.  The active player tosses all the dice and calls out the sum of the two white dice after which every player including the active one has the option to mark off any of the 4 coloured rows with the number called.  After that the active player may instead or in addition mark off one of the coloured columns by using the corresponding colour of die added to a white die.  The catch is you can only mark off columns going left to right, reminiscent of Lost Cities/Keltis.  If the active player can't mark off a number at all due to this, they take a -5 penalty which should be kinda exciting but really only happened once over our entire 2 games.

And that's pretty much it.  Dice can be removed, but the game ended so quickly after that it didn't seem to make much of a difference to the play.  Scoring happens and the player who crossed the most off usually wins.  It's telling that I played totally different each game and still scored exactly 74 points both times...   hmmmm......

Okay, it's not terrible, not by a long shot.  It offers decisions throughout and keeps everyone involved during it's short play time.  But in the end  rolling six dice and then crossing off a number just isn't that interesting.  Honestly, Yahtzee provides more excitement than this one.  Or even much, much better, how about the suspense of the classic Can't Stop, which was just re-printed last year?

On the plus side, I was able to download and print off the scorepads from Boardgamegeek so I could try before I buy.  Just had to find the right-coloured dice.  Feel free to do the same and you'll know if this little pastime of a game is your thing.  It sure isn't mine.

Spiel des Jahres winners 2011!

Looks like I was right on with my guesses on SdJ this year.  Qwirkle took the win with 7 Wonders garnering the "gamer's" award.  Nice.

Quick thoughts on some of the Spiel des Jahres 2011 nominees...

Only three this year:

Qwirkle - a new favourite of ours and we taught my partner's mom just this weekend.  Fun, super, super simple, and much subtler than you think.  Read how much I love the game here.

Forbidden Island - Oh my god, I've owned this for months and I have yet to play it (I know, GamerChris, I know!)  I am certain I will love this game but the co-op aspect makes it a no-go in my house.  Blame the partner....

Asara - Haven't played this but now I must.  Kramer/Kiesling is not always successful, but they're always interesting.









I actually kinda hope that Qwirkle takes it.  It's such a simple and elegant game/pastime and it's really quite enjoyable for all the members of a family.  That, and Matt Leacock has already won tons of awards for Pandemic.

As for the special (more strategic) prize, I've only played one but I know it deserves it:  7 Wonders. Read why I think so here.

Finally played Dixit....

...and it really is as good as they say.  What a marvelous, tricky little game.

So thrilling to rediscover my imagination.  I feel like a little kid again.

Spiel des Jahres 2010 - Dixit!!!!

Looks like I'll REALLY have to get this game now....  You called it, Chris!

You tell me: Spiel des Jahres 2010

Nominees for this year's Spiel des Jahres award should be coming out near the end of this month.  Thought I'd see what you all think the nominees for this year could be...

SDJ 2010 nominee?

Okay, maybe it's a bit early to speculate about next year's Spiel des Jahres nominees (this year's happened two months ago) but I sure think we played one last night. After reading a positive review on Gamepack about Eine Frage Der Ahre, I decided to grab a copy. The game is a tile-laying Euro about farming and it feels a bit like Ingenious meets Ticket to Ride meets I don't know (some say it is similar to Taluva, which I have yet to play). It's extraordinarily well-balanced, the rules are simple, and in our first game last night the top two players took very different strategies and we still ended up having to determine the winner on a tie-breaker. Everyone agreed it was great fun and was looking forward to playing this beautifully produced game again.

I would definitely check this one out on BGG as I think it's gonna be really big. Or you can wait until I get a couple more plays in as I will be posting a review of it here very soon....

Dominion wins Spiel des Jahres award!

Not a big surprise.....

Aquaretto

To celebrate the Spiel des Jahres nominations, I decided I should go out and buy a former Spiel des Jahres winner.... Um, that's my excuse.

Having said that, we played Aquaretto last night. It is based on the system from Zooloretto which won game of the year in 2007. And that game based on the great little card game Coloretto but with a board and tiles. And Aquaretto was fun, really fun. Lots of interesting decisions but definitely not enough to give you a headache. And it also still has that pleasant nastiness of Coloretto where you get to force people to take tiles they don't actually want. Great game, looking forward to more plays.

And the nominees are...

The Spiel des Jahres nominees came out today. Up for the award are:


Dominion, by Donald Vaccarino











Fits, by Reiner Knizia









Fauna, Friedemann Friese













Pandemic, by Matt Leacock












Finca, by Ralf zur Linde and Wolfgang Sentker









Dominion and Fits are both in my collection and I'm glad. They are great games. Pandemic is a good, tense little cooperative game that I've played a few times. And FInca is definitely on my list of "to-buys". Who can resist little fruit shaped wooden pieces! Fauna is a trivia game - a clever one, mind you, but not something I imagine owning.

They have also announced nominees for the Kinderspiel des Jahres and honorable mentions in the Spiel des Jahres category. Definitely worth checking out...

Spiel Des Jahres (Game of the Year) awards...

So every year Germany gives out an award for the best board game of the year. They take their games VERY seriously. It's always a family game that wins, usually something with a fair amount of strategy but not an overwhelming amount of rules. For me, a game of the year award usually is a must-buy. They are guaranteed lots of fun and are usually great games to introduce people to the hobby. Classics like Settlers of Catan and Elfenland have all won in previous years. I don't have 'em all but I'm working on it.

The finalists will be announced at the SdJ website on May 25 and I'm definitely curious to see what is nominated. My vote for the winner: Dominion (of course...) Most original game of the past year and by far the best. Easy to teach but endless playability. It'll be a travesty if it doesn't win.

You can check out previous years SdJ winners and nominees here. For the next couple weeks I'll probably do some mini-reviews of winners that I own in the leadup
to the award announcements.