When I look to hobby boardgame awards, I look for insight for what is the state-of-the-art in boardgame design. Looking across three major awards programs, the 17th Annual Boardgame Geek Golden Geek (winners), the Spiel de Jahres 2023 nominees, and the 2023 Origins Award nominees, I see very few games that I own. Looking ahead to the 2024 awards doesn’t look like its going to get any better.
Not my games
Looking across the three lists I am first struck by the sheer number of different boardgame titles. There are 26 different games nominated in the BGG Golden Geek List, 11 in the Spiel de Jahres, and 42 in the Origins Awards. Of the three lists, there are very few overlaps. Yet, I own only two titles (three if you count an earlier edition) of the over 70 titles on the three lists. On one hand I can happily see that I am not card-carrying member of the Cult of the New nor do I suffer from chronic Fear of Missing Out. On the other hand, the dearth of personally owned titles means I might not be seeing the “state of the art.”
Of the nearly 30 BGG Golden Geek finalists I own one—Votes for Women (Fort Circle Games). Of the over 40 Origins Awards finalists I own one—Star Wars: Clone Wars (Z-Man Games). My thoughts on Clone Wars are found here at Armchair Dragoons. Of the other titles, only a few actually interest me.
17th BGG Golden Geek Awards. The boardgame Wonderland’s War (Druid City Games), a Runner Up in three categories (Artwork Presentation, Medium Game-of-the-Year, and Thematic Game) sounds a bit interesting for no other reason than the gameplay seems a bit wargame-adjacent. It doesn’t look like I will be buying this game anytime soon, however, with Amazon or Ebay and the like listing the game for north of $250 (even the lowest tier of the late pledge manager is $120—or $190 for the Deluxe with add-ons). Likewise, I am interested in Heat: Pedal to the Metal (Days of Wonder) but I’m again not sure that the $75 price tag is really worth it for a family game.
[When looking to buy games I am cognizant of the fact that I am in a family that usually plays two-player games and only occasionally with three or more players. Believe it or not I also try to purchase games on a budget. Of the 26 games I have acquired so far in 2023, 24% were free or gifts while only 28% cost over $50 a copy. This means a full 72% of my gaming acquisitions cost me less than $50 a copy! The average cost of the 18 games I have on preorder is $49.50…making even $75 seem pricey and $250 (even $120) appear unreasonable (as it really is).]
2023 Spiel de Jahres. I own none of the games nominated. I fully recognize that the SdJ is intended to be an award for German families but I have long used it as a guide for family games and especially children’s games (Kinderspiel de Jahres). This year I struggle to find even remote interest in any of the titles.
2023 Origins Awards. With a list of over 40 boardgames and a focus on the North American market you might think this would be the place for me to have many connections. As I look over the list nothing really strikes me save Wonderland’s War which I already discussed above. At best Boop! (Smirk & Laughter) might find its way to the RockyMountainNavy collection…but maybe as a present for Mrs. RMN’s students.
Grognard me gone
I could stand defiant and say that, as a Grognard wargamer, the hobby gaming industry underserves me. Looking across the three award lists only one even has a “wargame” category. In the three lists I see few titles I comfortably call something close to a wargame:
- Heroclix: Hellfire Gala – WizKids (Origins Collectables finalist)
- Lion Rampant – Osprey Games (Origins Miniatures finalist)
- Omicron Protocol – Dead Alive Games (Origins Miniatures finalist)
- Polyversal Sci-Fi Miniatures System – Collins Epic Wargames (Origins Miniatures finalist)
- Rapture – Gravity Bay (Origins Miniatures finalist)
- Resist! – Salt & Pepper Games (BGG Wargame Runner Up)
- Undaunted: Stalingrad – Osprey Games (BGG Wargame Winner, 2-Player Game Runner Up, Origins Card Game finalist)
- Wonderland’s War (BGG Artwork Presentation, Medium Game-of-the-Year, and Thematic Game; Origins Thematic finalist)
Again, I already discussed Wonderland’s War. I am not interested in the miniatures rules (OK, very mildly interested in Polyversal). No interest at all in Heroclix (pre-painted mini click-bait). Which only leaves two games:
- Resist! This is a solitaire title by a respectable design team. Mildly interesting.
- Undaunted: Stalingrad. I like the Undaunted series but the buy-in cost for this one (again, hovering around the $100 mark) makes me hesitant to jump in. Waiting for Undaunted: Battle of Britain (Osprey Games) for my next Undaunted fix.
Charlie MIA
One 2022 awards program that has yet to report is the new Charles S. Roberts Awards. The “Charlies” have not announced an awards slate for 2022 yet. The last “breaking news” was from November 2022 when the new Director of the Charlies, Ardwulf, was a guest on the “Mentioned in Dispatches” podcast. According to the charter on the website the nominees should have been announced no later than 30 April. Hmm…
2023 and me
As we near the midpoint of 2023, I look over my game collection and see that I currently own eight boardgames published this year:
- Archie’s War: The Battle for Guadalcanal (Worthington Publishing)
- The Boer War (Canvas Temple Publishing)
- Carrier Battle: Philippine Sea. (Compass Games) BGG lists this as a 2022 release but I contend it didn’t start delivery until 2023.
- Desert Victory: North Africa, 1940-1942 (RBM Studios in C3i Magazine Nr. 36)
- Land and Freedom: The Spanish Revolution and Civil War (Blue Panther Games)
- Littoral Commander: Indo-Pacific (The Dietz Foundation)
- Robotech: Reconstruction (Strange Machine Games)
- Task Force: Carrier Battles in the Pacific (Vuca Simulations)
I currently have 18 games on preorder. Of those 18 games, nine are projected to deliver in 2023:
- 2040: An American Insurgency (Compass Games) – June
- Expeditions (Stonemaier Games) – Q3 2023
- Linebacker II (Cadet Games) – October
- Puffin Rush (Foul Play Games) – September
- Shake That City (AEG) – June
- Sharks! (The Dietz Foundation) – December
- The Soft Underbelly, 1943-1945 (Sergio Schiavi) – November
- Undaunted: Battle of Britain (Osprey Games) – June
- Under the Southern Cross: The South American Republics in the Age of the Fighting Sail – Expansion for Flying Colors (GMT Games) – June
It will be interesting to see which—if any—of these 17 games end up nominated in 2024 for the 2023 award year. Outside of the Charlies, I think I might be lucky to see one wargame on next year’s BGG Golden Geek or Origins Award list. As much as I think other several other games are very deserving how much are you willing to bet it will be Undaunted: Battle of Britain?
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Rocky Mountain Navy Gamer 
“When I look to hobby boardgame awards, I look for insight for what is the state-of-the-art in boardgame design.”
Well, there’s your problem right there, mate…
I never get excited about these game awards things myself; it seems to be mostly “cult of the new” as you say… one good thing about that though, when something comes out to advance the start of the art in game design, a host of similar things will follow it and might also lead to interesting stuff.
But generally not.
The only wargames I’ve acquired that have been published in the last twelvemonth or so (that I didn’t also design or develop) are:
Resist!
Zurmat
The British Way
The Red Burnoose
Flashpoint: South China Sea
Only one of these was a runner up in the three contests you mention, but all of them I picked up because they seemed to offer something different in terms of design.
And they certainly seem to, for the ones I’ve been able to try.
Brian
I actually think we are on the same wavelength. I (naively?) look to the awards as recognition of design achievement; a reward for bringing innovation or freshness or whatever to the hobby. The reality is they are marketing gimmicks. The title of my post, “Less-Rewarding,” is not a statement of lament but one of honor. I seek out and play games that excite me, be it theme or mechanisms. My post is more a personal recognition that the niche I am in is being pushed (sometimes by other gamers, sometimes by market forces) further away from the “mainstream.” I’m comfortable with that but detest those who call for inclusion in the “hobby” as they actively work to exclude me.