F:AT Reader's Choice Awards--it's time to vote for YOUR F:AT Game of the Year! Hot

No best expansion category?

That is an EXCELLENT catch. Adding it shortly.

One last note--I will also accept these votes privately, via PM, and won't quote you if you ask me not to.

So yes, if Tanto Cuore was YOUR Game of the Year, well...feel free to tell me that via Trashmail. I completely understand.

deadline for votes?

I am insanely unequipped to vote for any kind of GOTY, since I've played exactly two new games this year, but one of them was an awesome one (and I think it came out last half of December last year?): MERCHANTS & MARAUDERS. Our first play was long and awful, actually, but the next several were awesome (and then people moved away) and exciting. I hope it's not forgotten due to being released in that terrible end-of-December zone.

Also voting for it for Best Adventure Game, of course.

Best Expansion would be INNISTRAD, for Magic: the Gathering. Fantastic gothic horror flavor, I bet a lot of FATties would appreciate the setting, and one of the best sets ever for sealed deck & draft (I'd put it below Time Spiral block and Rise of Eldrazi).

If it's gotta be a board game expansion then I'll go with COSMIC CONFLICT.

My picks:

Best Wargame
Risk Legacy- for the idea of writing on the board and ripping up cards alone :) This is a game-changer.

Best 2-player Game
For me this is a tough category, because we play fewer and fewer two-player games, but one that stood the test throughout the year was YOMI. We love the artwork, the game system and all the second-guessing of moves, plus discovering how the different characters play. Unlike a lot of people we didn't play this all the time for the first three months, so it has stayed fresh.

Best Storytelling/Thematic Game
Dragon Rage. I love it. Dragons attack a city! And, look ma, no flavour text!

Best Card/Deckbuilding Game
I am not a fan of most deck-building games but am looking forward to Quarriors! reloaded (or 2.0 or whatever). I appreciate the presentation of this game, the tin box, all the dice, the cards, my kid loves it - although he's too small to play by the rules.

Best Adventure Game
I'd like to have gone with Star Trek: Fleet Captains here because of all the different elements the game captures from the films and series. For me its THE Star Trek game. But I'm gonna have to go with Mage Knight just because of all the complexity and possibilities it offers. I like the setting too, which is odd, because I usually hate the backstory fluff.

Best Expansion
CE: Cosmic Conflict It's Cosmic... and the black ships just crashed your planet.

Best Beer n' Pretzels Game
Super Dungeon Explore. Gorgeous minis, a game that recalls my favourite arcade game as a teen, Gauntlet.

GAME OF THE YEAR
CAVE EVIL. The Stabbist demands it.

Eclipse, I think, would have been slotted in this catgeory, if I had had a chance to play it. Their fault for getting it out too late :)

It looks like it is becoming a common problem with many companies release games at Christmas time to try to cash in (or aim for a small release at Essen and hit the mainstream 2 months later) there are a few good GOTY contenders that miss both years as they haven't been played by enough people to warrant votes for one year, and in the next year when people are acclaiming it as a masterpiece it is no longer eligible. Last year Earth Reborn and Merchants and Marauders missed the cut and this year it is Mage Knight and Eclipse.

We should consider moving the voting to March or have the eligability criteria run from September to September.

Best Wargame
RISK LEGACY
"Any game that forces you to live with the stupid shit you did last game, let alone being a good game in its own right is the king shit"

Best 2-Player Game
DREADFLEET
"Dice, INCREDIBLE components, and a theme that is as outstanding as any you're ever going to find. Add the fact that it's got bad-ass ships powered by genies and a fucking mechanical kraken. It's like nerd pron"

Best Storytelling/Thematic Game
MERCHANTS AND MARAUDERS
"This is the perfect pirate adventuring game. Start as the captain of a raft, end up the pirate king. Nothing else even compares"

Best Card/Deckbuilding Game
OMEN
"The only thing missing is the naked chicks from Tempt"

Best Adventure Game
LEGEND OF DRIZZT
"Take all that was good from Ravenloft, add in the expanded options from Ashardalon, and add some bad ass heroes and evil creatures. It's all gravy from that point"

Best Expansion
HORNED RAT
"Take one of the best games in the last few years, add a mostly balanced critter that is as devious and evil as the previous ones...and you have a nympomaniac rodent"

Best Beer n' Pretzels Game
FIVE FINGERED SEVERANCE
"Stealing shit, insulting customers, and screwing everyone all the time while trying not to get fired until you WANT to...awesome"

GAME OF THE YEAR
ASCENDING EMPIRES
"There are few games do 4X space-shit games well, and this does so amazingly well. Add in the facts that it can be played in an hour and a half and that it has an awesome dexterity component, it makes this the best game this year, hands down."

Best Card/Deckbuilding Game
Chronicle (if it counts - 2011 release in english, older in Japan)

Best Expansion
BSG: Exodus
It makes BSG better without adding much complexity and is pretty much an auto-include from now on.

Best Beer n' Pretzels Game
Risk Legacy

GAME OF THE YEAR
Risk Legacy
It's just amazing. For an original concept it's executed incredibly well.

Can we get a list of 2011 releases added to the article (at least ones that are likely to be voted for at any rate.)

Best Wargame

Summoner Wars Master Set ? If not then I have no vote and to be fair I didn't play any others.

Best 2-player Game

Omen: A Reign of War (I still haven't played Dreadfleet but it's coming to me in Jan)

Best Storytelling/Thematic Game

Mage Knight

Best Card/Deckbuilding Game

Omen: Reign of War

Best Adventure Game

Mage Knight

Best Expansion

Banners of War

Best Beer n' Pretzels Game

Quarriors

GAME OF THE YEAR

Mage Knight

Best Wargame

Earth Reborn

Best 2-player Game

Alien Frontiers

Best Storytelling/Thematic Game

Merchants and Marauders

Best Card/Deckbuilding Game

Blood Bowl: Team Manager

Best Adventure Game

Merchants and Marauders

Best Expansion

Cosmic Conflict

Best Beer n' Pretzels Game

Quarriors

GAME OF THE YEAR

Merchants and Marauders

Didn't play Ascending Empires--looks like I'd be down for that--or King of Tokyo...those are some I'd put down.

Best 2 Player Game - Battleship Galaxies (Screw the rest of you, I love BS: Galaxies. Its a really fun space shoot-em-up game with lots of tactical choices. True, it definitely needs an expansion, but what is in the box is certainly playable and lots of fun).
Best Storytelling/Thematic Game - Sentinels of the Multiverse (Read my entry for this under GotY).
Best Card/Deck Building Game - Arcana (Revised Edition) (I loved the first edition of this game, and FFG really kicked it up to an 11 with the revised edition. More people need to try this game out. The design is tight, and always exciting. The art is some of the best around. And there are ton of options out of the box to play with)
Best Expansion - BSG: Exodus(Gets the nod slightly ahead of CE:CC because it added something that is now essential to playing the game, the Cylon Fleet Board).
Best Beer N Pretzels Game - King of Toyko (Because making monster sounds during a whole game just makes every game more fun. In what other game could you be the Friend of the Children AND destroy Tokyo and your enemies?)
Game of the Year - Sentinels of the Multiverse (I already said this in the GoTY thread, but this is the clear winner for me. As I always say if you are being attacked by an Enraged T-Rex and a HUGE Spaceship at the same time, the game has to be doing a lot of things right. The game play is unique, and really fun. I wish more F:ATies would try this game out).

Best Wargame:

Sekigahara: Unification of Japan

Best 2-player Game:

A Few Acres of Snow

Best Storytelling/Thematic Game

Mage Knight Board Game

Best Card/Deckbuilding Game

Quarriors

Best Adventure Game

Mansions of Madness

Best Expansion

Twilight Imperium : Shards of the Throne

Best Beer n' Pretzels Game

Quarriors

GAME OF THE YEAR

I love Eclipse, but I am throwing in my favorite of the year. Colonial: Europe's Empires Overseas

Card Game - Blood Bowl: Team Manager

Thematic - Merchants and Marauders

DOAM/Corridor/2 Player/Wargame - Earth Reborn

2011 was not a good year for gaming. Unlike Michael Barnes, my second child brought my gaming to a grinding halt for the most part.

Anyone interested even in the LEAST in Dreadfleet can get it for 80$ at coolstuff. Cockswills are killing me...I paid 115 for it, and it's not even painted yet.

Where is all the writing about some of these games all up in h'yar?

No Mage Knight reviews? No Eclipse reviews? I'd like to see a review of Cave Evil from someone who isn't a dyed-in-the-wool black/death metal fanboi. Hell, I'd like to see a Startrek Captains review from someone who doesn't care much about the fact it has Star Trek in the name.

Sad pete...

card game -
Blood Bowl:TM

Adventure Game -
Merchants and Marauders

Gears of War - best wargame/2player game? thematic game? not sure where it fits, but gears deserves to be mentioned as a FFG with a clean ruleset. not GOTY but good

Best Wargame: Cave Evil. Awesome theme.

Best 2-player Game: Dreadfleet. Great components, great fun.

Best Storytelling Game: Merchants & Marauders. The only pirate game worth playing for the themes.

Best Card/Deckbuilding Game: Blood Bowl Team Manager

Best Adventure Game: Mage Knight -- a modern version of Magic Realm.

Best Expansion: Miskatonic University. A nice capping off of the Arkham Horror line that adds a bunch of nice stuff for all the pre-existing components

Best Beer n' Pretzels Game: Chaostle -- It is like if Aggravation and Talisman made love.

Game of the Year: Mage Knight

Merchants & Marauders will be remembered as one of the greats. It's flat-out brilliant.

Easily GOTY in my book.

Best Wargame
No Retreat: The Russian Front How is it possible that it captures the scope and tension of the Ost front with so few counters?

Best 2-player Game
A Few Acres of Snow Pretty darn good. Best implementation of the deck building mechanic thus far.

Best Storytelling/Thematic Game
Merchants & Marauders Gorgeous game and production with so much wonderful theme.

Best Card/Deckbuilding Game
Summoner Wars Master Set This was a rocking surprise from PHG and takes a great game to elite status.

Best Adventure Game
Star Trek: Fleet Captains The definitive Trek game that just plain works so well at what it is trying to accomplish.

Best Expansion
Claustrophobia: De Profundis An expansion that was badly need and didn't fuck up what made the base game brilliant.

Best Beer n' Pretzels Game
King of Tokyo I have played so much of this throughout the year with many different kinds of groups.

GAME OF THE YEAR
Earth Reborn This qualifies as a late 2010 release, right? Absolutely the finest miniatures combat baord game ever produced. THANK YOU ZEV!! for taking the risk on this awesome, awesome game.

Blah blah...

Earth Reborn.

Easily beats out a fucking pirate or Star Trek game in my book, and hopefully several others.

Best reprint: War of the Ring

Best Wargame
No Retreat
You know what, it might be a reprint, but this is the year that gave it a mainstream release and hell if I'd played it before 2011. Great game.

Best 2-player Game
Sekigahara
Welp, I've already reviewed this. A very special fuck you goes out to Confusion for also being released this year and making this decision painful. I can at least give Yomi the handjob it deserves elsewhere.

Best Storytelling/Thematic Game
Bios Megafauna
I'm going out on a limb and against the grain by voting for this. A game doesn't need to be in the trinity of horror/sci-fi/fantasy to be thematic. Science is a theme too, and nobody does it better than Phil Eklund. His games are more simulation than elegant strategy games, and he does a great job in proving that thematic can be 'highbrow'.

Best Card/Deckbuilding Game
Yomi
Takes all I love about a highschool lunchtime favorite - lunch money - and makes it good, sleek, and modern. Keeps all the fun.

Best Adventure Game
Mage Knight
I just picked this up today, played it twice, and GODDAMM. This is a great game, and I don't hesitate to put it here. Playing it again tomorrow, writing up a review shortly. I normally hate deckbuilding, but this game finally changes it from being a mechanic to being part of something great.

Best Expansion
Space Alert: The New Frontier
This category is really weighted by whatever game I already like, so take it with a grain of salt. Technically released in 2010 during Essen, but fuck that. It was 2011 for the rest of us (unless I'm misremembering - very likely!).

Best Beer n' Pretzels Game
King of Tokyo
Too often, beer and pretzels games are more focused on who you're playing with rather than the game itself. Playing anything with the right group is a blast. But a game that can offer that light, fun atmosphere allowing for great banter and stand on it's own merit as a game - that's just even better, isn't it?

GAME OF THE YEAR
Still undecided. Could be Mage Knight or Sekigahara. Can't decide yet. Need to play more Mage Knight.

[Where is all the writing about some of these games all up in h'yar?

No Mage Knight reviews? No Eclipse reviews? I'd like to see a review of Cave Evil from someone who isn't a dyed-in-the-wool black/death metal fanboi. Hell, I'd like to see a Startrek Captains review from someone who doesn't care much about the fact it has Star Trek in the name.

Sad pete...[/quote]

Oh yeah, it's all hype Pete: Mage Knight, Cave Evil, Star Trek, Eclipse. It's a fanboi "conspiracy".

Best Expansion 2011 - Cosmic Conflict
Best Expansion 2012 - Cosmic Alliance

Earth Reborn came in Second last year in the readers choice awards. And came out 3rd quarter 2010.

Best Wargame - Space Empires 4x if it counts. It is hex and counter with a lot of conflict, so I count it. This is TI3 stripped of the politics and trade with a dynamite fog of war. I'm sure Eclipse will be good too and be shorter, but I love a six-hour game and Space Empires might become my preference over TI3.

Best 2-player Game If we are throwing in Earth Reborn because it didn't get a shot last year, then it is an autowin. If not, then Summoner Wars Master Set. Great new teams with a ton of new strategies.

Best Storytelling/Thematic Game Merchants & Marauders, since it looks like we are counting this as 2011. The only reason this game isn't perfect is because I have not yet been able to board and capture a Man O' War. When that happens, and it will happen, I will truly be the pirate king.

Best Card/Deckbuilding Game Blood Bowl Team Manager. Completely different than what I originally hoped for in the game, in a good way.

Best Adventure Game Merchants & Marauders

Best Expansion Shards of the Throne. I love the flagships and I'm slowly getting to know the new races.

Best Beer n' Pretzels Game Food Fight. Stupid theme, but it has card drafting and card play that are fun. Very solid and since I haven't played King of Tokyo, it gets the nod.

GAME OF THE YEAR Earth Reborn is the hands down winner if it still has eligibility (did it get red-shirted?). If not, then as I said in the forums, I choose Space Empires 4x.

Don't I feel like a lemming.

My picks for these...

Best 2-player Game: Dreadfleet. Easily.

Best Storytelling/Thematic Game: Mansions Of Madness. It's all about theme, and I think it's got a great system. The print-on-demand scenarios are particularly good.

Best Card/Deckbuilding Game: Quarriors. I've been underwhelmed by every deckbuilding game I've played this year, including Quarriors. But I'd still pick it over the others.

Best Adventure Game: Wrath Of Ashardalon. But I don't see much competition in this category (still haven't tried Mage Knight).

Best Expansion: Summoner Wars Master Set. I think it belongs in this category, as it's not a new game in any way. But it did massively expand the available options and is a terrific value.

Best Beer n' Pretzels Game: Chaostle. But only with a group that can appreciate the clunky madness of it.

GAME OF THE YEAR: Ascending Empires. This game combines so many things that I enjoy in such a novel way. I love the manual dexterity aspect, and think they've woven it in seamlessly into a tight space exploration game. Wish the board was a bit better, but that's a minor gripe.

LOL, ain't like that. I just want to read a Cave Evil review from someone who is really unbiased and may not think that kind of music is the dog's bollocks, and all of the reviews I've read about Star Trek start out with "I wanted to be Cap'n Kirk when I was 9, so this game roxxors" Not a conspiracy, just human nature to gravitate toward things you like.

If I did a review of Dune, or if there was a Godzilla's 12 Step Program game, I would SO be a fucking unbiased fanboi.

Regarding MKBG, it's getting love here, clearly, but the reviews I've read mostly say "In comparison to all the other games you mentioned (Runebound/Talisman), it's a puzzle-solving/optimization game, much like Vlaada's other games." And that scares me.

Any chance of there being a best reprint category? Something for games that have been OOP for at least a few years.

Reading these responses makes me realize just how few new games I've played this year.

If you guys want a category for Best Reprint, we can include one. These are YOUR awards after all!

Folks who have already voted can edit their posts to include a vote for Best Reprint, if they wish.

How do we edit on the blog format?

Uh...giggle...I have an Edit button...is it not there for you'uns?

Even if you do an extra post, I promise to count them all. I'm going to spreadsheet everyone's vote by user, so I promise I won't overlook any of them. And if you change your vote I'll only count the most recent.

Chappy: you can only edit a comment that is the LAST comment. Once something's been stacked below it, it's forever immortalized in the halls of F:ATtitude.

(Just coined the term "F:Attitude". Please add to glossary) LOL

No worries!

My vote for best reprint:

Game of Thrones V2.0

Pete: Yeah, everything after Prophesy in Vlaada's catalogue pretty much scared me... until MK. I can understand it.

To be fair, I don't think that MB's Cave Evil review comes off to any degree as a fan boy thing (if that is even at all what you are makinga refernce or partial reference to). A fan boi wouldn't be able to write anything remotely objective about the game and would only gush over everything. That review to a large degree captured what is good about the game.

I was no fan of the death metal look going in.

Star Trek... I bought the game before most any reviews have come out. So I dunno about the fan thing there. I can say I never had a Star Trek thing going as a kid. It was only when it was re-runs and I was at arts college that it was considered cool again(in a campy Sunday morning I have a hang-over from hell, light a cigarette, make a coffee and hang out on the couch after staying over at a friend's and let's see what's on TV oh Star Trek cool kind of way).

ECLIPSE. That's the big ?-mark

Not true Pete, I can still edit my above comment. I believe Uba mentioned when the site update happened that you can edit them for a specific time period. Something around 1 and 1/2 hours or so.

I wasn't trying to imply that Mikey's being a fanboi and gave the game a pass or something, what I'm saying is that I am curious to see reviews that talk about game outside of the scope of someone who would clearly be predisposed to liking them based on the theme.

Not accusing shilling at all, that's Mikey's job, what I am saying is that everyone (myself paramount in the list) has biases and it's nice to see reviews from someone who likes adventure games but doesn't care much if it's Star Trek, Star Wars, or Star Fox. :)

Dare: Thanks for the heads-up. I always thought it was that once someone commented again, your comment was locked in for all to see, for time immemorial...

I'm happy someone said it because I'd have to change my whole vote if Earth Reborn is being counted. M&M could change things too but I left it out as 2010 as well.

Pete, I haven't seen a lot of Dreadfleet info this year either. But I'll tell you my vote for Mage Knight is nothing to do with hype, I just played it solo again last night and I LOVE it. It might compete with ER for GOTY if I was counting ER as a 2011 release. Now I am a Vlaada fanboi so there is that to take into account, it feels like one of his games.

Cave Evil has some reviews/comments over on BGG if your curious. It is long but it is brutal, original and fun. I don't see how anyone here could not like it. Notahandle, Doc Mabuse, Myself, Scissors... all non Barnes people who like it quite a bit and not really huge BM fans, some even unaware of most of the genre.

Best 2-player Game
DreadFleet.
Since I missed out on Man’O’War and have been sorely tempted, but have so far refrained, to collect a couple fleets to play with, I have found peace with this offering. The models are sharp as fuck, the mat is lay you down by the fire sexy and the rules are Neanderthal simple to play. Plus, I’ve plied the old man with World Jr. Hockey Champ tickets to paint them all for me.

Best Storytelling/Thematic Game
Merchants and Marauders
Pirates, 2012’s zombies.

Best Card/Deckbuilding Game
Blood Bowl: Team Manager
As above with Dreadfleet. I didn’t get on the bandwagon 1000 years ago and have been tempted by a few teams, this thankfully sates some of that frustration/cost. Don’t have to bribe pops to paint the teams I may have picked up otherwise.

Best Adventure(Action) Game
Ascending Empires
Not 100% where else to put this. You get to flick shit across your kitchen table while building an empire based on your dexterity Skillz. The designer is obviously from the south or some such shit as he’s designed a game that requires you not losing any of your digits to frost bite….so the non-flicking variant could come in handy, good thing I keep my digits buried in various places as to avoid that Canadian conundrum.

Best Expansion
Twilight Imperium: Shards of the Throne
I LOVE Twilight Imperium. Anything that brings this monster to the table is a shoe in for best expansion.

Best Beer n' Pretzels Game
Quarriors
Lets face it, if you drink as much as we’ve been known to, rolling dice is as complicated as shit get’s. We’ve had one of our dolls fall asleep at the table because of the amount she consumed, but with all of the dice rolling fury, she has managed to tie a few one as well as complete this steaming pile of shit. For that reason alone it’s got my vote.

GAME OF THE YEAR
Ascending Empires
I do so love flicking shit, not to be confused with tossing shit, so this one for me is tops. Am I any good at it, no, but it’s fun as fuck and I look forward to getting my arse kicked the next time it hits the table/floor/fridge/my daughter.

Best Wargame

Achenschillflen: Von Filchersteins's Push Toward Dunklefrottenheim 1937-1945

Best 2-player Game

Hobbit und Bobbit

Best Storytelling/Thematic Game

Mad Libs

Best Card/Deckbuilding Game

Old Maid

Best Adventure Game

Heroes of Buttworld Galaxy

Best Expansion

FFG's 2011 release schedule

Best Beer n' Pretzels Game

LCR

GAME OF THE YEAR

Milch und Gherkin

Best Wargame

Best 2-player Game

Best Storytelling/Thematic Game
Merchants & Marauders

Best Card/Deckbuilding Game

Best Adventure Game
Mansions of Madness

Best Expansion
High Frontier Poster Map

Best Beer n' Pretzels Game
Quarriors

GAME OF THE YEAR
Merchants & Marauders

Best Wargame - Cave Evil

Best Storytelling/Thematic Game: Cave Evil

Best Card/Deckbuilding Game - Blood Bowl: TM

Best Adventure Game - Cave Evil

Best Expansion - Cosmic whatever it was

Best Beer n' Pretzels Game - King O' Tokyo

GAME OF THE YEAR - King of Tokyo

Best Wargame: Space Empires 4X

Best 2-player Game: A Few Acres of Snow

Best Storytelling/Thematic Game: Merchants & Marauders

Best Card/Deckbuilding Game: Yomi

Best Adventure Game: Mage Knight

Best Beer n' Pretzels Game: King of Tokyo

GAME OF THE YEAR: Eclipse

Best 2-player Game
Summoner Wars Master Set

Best Storytelling/Thematic Game
Merchants and Marauders

Best Card/Deckbuilding Game
Blood Bowl: Team Manager

Best Adventure Game
Merchants and Marauders

Best Expansion
Cosmic Conflict

Best Beer n' Pretzels Game
King of Tokyo

Best Reprint
A Game of Thrones 2nd Edition

GAME OF THE YEAR
Merchants and Marauders

That had me rolling!

Clockwirk, what can you tell me about Space Empires 4X? Is it a license of the Malfador Machinations Space Empires games? I've seen ads, but until I hear it here, I'm not trusting shit.

There should be a best DoaM, and it should be Cave Evil or Risk Legacy. .

Best Wargame - Sekigahara

Best 2-player Game - Sekigahara

Best Storytelling/Thematic Game - Game of Scones V2

Best Card/Deckbuilding Game - Lords of Scotland

Best Adventure Game - Panic station (I traded off my copy but its still better than Mansions).

Best Expansion - Cosmic Conflict

Best Beer n' Pretzels Game - Disc World Ankh Morpork

GAME OF THE YEAR - Ascending Empires

Best Reprint:
I just threw some nickles onto a railroad track to make them real big then stamped the open source Realm Coins image on them. Fuck capitalism :420:

I don't know anything about the Malfador Machinations Space Empires games, so I can't help you there. There was a I've Been Diced podcast episode a while back that did an interview with the designer and had a lot of good insight about his inspirations and what he was trying to do with it.

It's basically kind of a throwback to older style war games, especially in the amount of book keeping you have to do. Some people find it off-putting, but I actually kind of enjoy it as long as everyone playing is able to stay on top of their stuff. It's definitely possible to get some fairly major bookkeeping errors that can have significant effects on the game.

The cool thing about it is that it's got a lot of variety and options in the units and technology, but it's also pretty streamlined relative to most chit based war games. It's got all of the "X's", but it doesn't fool around with politics or diplomacy. The goal is to destroy another players home world, and everything else is basically a means to that end. Turtle-ing is not an issue.

Probably the most interesting thing about it is the amount of unknown information there is in regards to your opponents units & tech. Ships are flipped over so you can't see what they are or how many of them there are, and technology advances are recorded on a player sheet (bookkeeping) that is hidden from everyone else. Nothing's clear until you come in contact with the enemy or a ship uses a tech benefit, which makes for a lot of opportunities for bluffing.

I am rarely right about game dates...so I offer these as my votes, but if history is a guide I may be violating a rule about eligibility.

Best Wargame: Not a wargamer.

Best 2-player Game: Summoner Wars Master Set

Best Storytelling/Thematic Game: Merchants and Marauders

Best Card/Deckbuilding Game: Nightfall. Or is that 2010?

Best Adventure Game: Catacombs

Best Expansion: Dice Town expansion

Best Beer n' Pretzels Game: King of Tokyo

GAME OF THE YEAR: (for me it is Thunderstone thanks to Yucata) BUT as I know that is older...

Blood Bowl: Team Manager!

First of all, here's what I've played from this year:

Battleship Galaxies: The Saturn Offensive Game Set
Chaostle
King of Tokyo
Small World Underground
Dungeon Run
Blood Bowl: Team Manager - The Card Game
The Dwarf King
Skull & Roses
Risk Legacy
Conquest of Planet Earth: The Space Alien Game
Rune Age
Quarriors!
Summoner Wars: Master Set

Best Wargame

Has to be Risk: Legacy.

Small World Underground is the only other possible contender and I found it to be lacking compared to vanilla Small World.

Risk: Legacy has created a completely new category of games, and it is awesome. It's probably the closest board game equivalent to that feeling of unlocking an achievement in a video game. We haven't opened everything yet, but it seems to me that it won't displace Risk: 2210 as my favorite Risk iteration. It's just a bit too simplistic. Even so, I'm really enjoying it right now, even though I'm not sure how long that will last.

Best 2-player Game

I’m taking this to mean simply that it works best with 2, not that it is strictly for 2 players. I’m going to go with Summoner Wars: Master Set.

Other possibilities included Battleship Galaxies (ugh, what a letdown), Quarriors (I like it a lot, but it's just barely edged out in every category), Rune Age (really excellent, but it's as much a multi-player as a 2-player game so I'm not sure it fits), Conquest of Planet Earth (good with two, good with three EXCELLENT with four), Blood Bowl: Team Manager (a very middling game, not bad, but didn't blow me away either), Chaostle (two players isn't enough), and Small World Underground (better with more players, and not my favorite as previously discussed).

I love the way Summoner Wars takes a relatively simple set of rules and lets each faction's deck change them. Each faction requires a different strategy and takes practice to really get good at. They are very asymmetrical, yet very balanced. You can tell it is a labor of love both for the designers and playtesters. All gameplay aside, this set in particular is an excellent value, and if you haven't tried this yet, you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy. Like, now.

Best Storytelling/Thematic Game

No contest here: Conquest of Planet Earth: The Space Alien Game.

While most of the games have some degree of narrative, there are only a few that really make you sit down afterwards and tell the story of what happened. Dungeon Run is probably the most story-driven of the bunch, but I find its gameplay to be swingy and I think the rules don't do a great job of encouraging co-operation OR backstabbing as they claim to do. Rune Age and Summoner Wars both have a bit of "let me tell you about this one game I had" to them, but neither really creates a narrative.

Conquest of Planet Earth is a quick, brutal battle for two players. The cards add lots of luck, but also a ton of flavor to the battles. However, it really comes into its own with more players (though this does add some length). The diplomacy and ganging up change this from a beer-and-pretzels dice/card battle into a masterpiece of AT. More on this later.

Best Card/Deckbuilding Game

Rune Age gets the nod here.

Blood Bowl: Team Manager, in addition to only including a small amount of deckbuilding, really seems a bit too luck-driven to make me want to play it a ton. Additionally, its teams don't seem to play particularly differently. All the really interesting abilities are on the star players, which only get added to your deck partway through the game, and probably only used once or twice. Quarriors, on the other hand, is a really fun game, just barely edged out. The small balance problems seem to have been really smoothed out by the expansion, but they weren’t a big deal anway. Don’t listen to the Eurosnoot naysayers: this isn’t a game about building an efficient engine. It’s about rolling dice and sending in your dragon to crack some skulls.

Rune Age was very close to getting game of the year. I had to go back and forth on it quite a bit in my head. I am a big Dominion fan, and Rune Age owes a lot to Dominion, even moreso than some other deckbuilders. But the changes it makes are excellent. The focus shifts from being all about efficiency to being about 50% about efficiency and 50% about worrying about what everyone else is doing and swooping in to stop them. For such a low price and tiny box, the four scenarios and four factions create a ton of replayability and fun. The co-op scenario and monument scenario are much more about optimization than the rest (so I don’t play them as often), but the two combat scenarios are really great. Much like in Summoner Wars, each faction requires a really different style of play to succeed, but this also changes with each scenario played as well. This is what gives it such endless replayability. If you like deckbuilding at all, you’ve got to give this one a go.

Best Adventure Game

Chaostle

Look, the only other possibility here is Dungeon Run, and I simply don’t enjoy it as much, as previously discussed. But really, while Chaostle has no “exploration” elements, I find its upgrade system and leveling a lot more fun than in Dungeon Run. And frankly, Chaostle deserves a nod somewhere in this list anyway.

I need to tell a story here: a few years back, I stayed at a cabin for a weekend with a bunch of guys. We went boating, played football, played games and drank. At one point, we realized the cabin had a few games that were permanent fixtures there, one of which was a Disney-themed version of Sorry. We played it almost as a joke, but about halfway through, I realized I was having more fun than usual, even though I have played Sorry before. I realized why: it’s a lot more fun to watch Buzz Lightyear zap Winnie the Pooh with a laser to send him back home than it is to watch red land on blue. Making Pooh say “Oh Bother!” and bending him over in his cardboard stand so Buzz could ream him out was probably the funniest thing on the whole trip. Well maybe not, but that’s another story. ANYWAY, Chaostle takes this idea to the extreme. This game is a lot like Parcheesi/Trouble/Sorry with the characters beating the snot out of each other. Instead of just landing on someone to send them home, you fight to the death using ridiculous weapons like Random Axe of Violence. Some characters have ranged attacks, all have special abilites, and horrible things happen to them all the time a la DungeonQuest. Expensive and overproduced, and needs a few house rules to control the length, but really, really, fun. Kind of feels like a game that would have come out in the 80’s, but in a good way. Mike Barnes wrote a great review of this one at Gameshark if you want to check it out further.

Best Expansion

Quarriors: Rise of the Demons

It’s the only expansion I’ve played that came out this year, but I still don’t feel bad about including it. I think that it does a lot to counter the complaints of the base set that the Dragon is too powerful or there aren’t enough choices to make. It won’t change your mind about the game if you hated it, but it’s a great addition. They even made the numbers on the dice a bit more legible in this set, which is definitely a good improvement.

Best Beer n' Pretzels Game

King of Tokyo

Other contenders here included Quarriors, Conquest of Planet Earth (when played with two), Skull and Roses (great little psychology/bluffing game in the vein of Liar’s Dice), and The Dwarf King (a dull, random, uninspired, trick-taking game, with admittedly nice illustrations).

I haven’t talked much about this one yet because it really doesn’t fit into many of the other categories, but I’m no less enamored with it. More than any other game on the list, this one leads to “just one more game” syndrome. So many fun abilities, great components, and the joy of beating down your friends. There’s a bit of Roll Through the Ages in here, but it’s much more combative. The special power cards are what really make this game though.

GAME OF THE YEAR

I guess you could see this one coming. Conquest of Planet Earth: The Space Alien Game. Although there were some strong contenders (Rune Age, King of Toyko, Summoner Wars, and Chaostle round out the top 5 respectively. Poor Quarriors just misses it again at #6), nothing has quite caught my excitement the way CoPE has.

With two players, it’s a quick beer-and-pretzels game, but the various alien powers can be somewhat unbalanced. It’s a bit like trying to play Cosmic Encounter with only two people, but not to that extent (‘cause it is still fun with two). But throw in another player or two and you have what I am going to call, without a hint of irony, a masterpiece. This game delivers everything I look for in a game. The theme, the illustrations, the little plastic ships, the tense card play, the variety in alien powers (replayability!), and so much more.

Every single game seems to come down to the wire, with one player making a desperate bid for the final objective they need and other players throwing every card they can at them to stop it from happening. There’s never a “sneaky win”, it’s always hard fought and extremely satisfying. The action point system is done in a way that I have never seen before, and creates tense choices even before your turn begins. The humans are appropriately pathetic, easily crushed by the alien forces, and the weakest have the keyword SOFT, because they are pink and squishy. Just watch out for Earth’s mightiest hero, Captain Fantastic! I could go on, but I won’t. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but if anything I’ve said appeals to you at all, play this one ASAP.

Launius taught me the Space Alien game at Trashfest this year, and I was thoroughly impressed. It was a lot of fun, and not nearly as bland as I thought from reading the rules and whatnot.

Good call there. I can see why you feel that way.

Best Wargame Space Empires
The game is geared towards building varied fleets to throw at your opponents with the task of destroying someone's homeworld. The hidden fleet and tech aspects combined with the offensive (as opposed to defensive) nature of the game make this game a winner. Did I mention the Doomsday Machines?

Best 2-player Sekigahara
Great looking game (everyone pauses to look) with lots of strategy on board as well as with cards. Bluffing, tension, focused attacks all come to play in this winner of a game.

Best Storytelling/Thematic Merchants & Marauders
The stories that this game allows are wonderful (from seeing the capture of a Man-of-War to the "I'd rather sink my ship than see your hand on MY gold."). This game is much better when the players are willing to beat on each other.

Best Card Game Blood Bowl Team Manager
Notice I dropped off the Deckbuilding part (yawn). Great game that captures the flavor of Blood Bowl as well as the Warhammer universe. Nice surprise.

Best Adventure Game Wrath of Ashardalon
C'mon. It ups the ante from Ravenloft and has the classic monsters of D&D that Drizzt lacks. Did I mention that Ashardalon is a Dragon?

Best Expansion TI3: Shards of the Throne
It was tough with the Rat expansion out but this helps my mostest favoritest game. The Mech Inf and Flagships are nice but I really love the historical scenario, a madhouse battle that has no victory points involved!

Best Reprint 1830
Mayfair did this one right. It has the classic economic train game that usually leaves one player in tears as well as multiple variants and scenarios with the components marked clearly for which to use with which game.

GOTY Space Empires
After hemming and hawing I decided this one because it always leaves me yearning for the next game with that "next time I'm gonna try this tactic" thought brewing. Plus the variants and the excellent scalability from 1 to 4 players. Well done. Plus there is already an expansion in the works (although it really doesn't need one) and the designer is really helpful with questions online (plus his Screaming Eagles: Band of Brothers tactical WW2 game just came out and is already causing ripples in that overcrowded pond).

T

Best Wargame
NA

Best 2-player Game
NA

Best Storytelling/Thematic Game
Merchants and Marauders

Best Card/Deckbuilding Game
Quarriors

Best Adventure Game
Merchants and Marauders

Best Expansion
Shards of the Throne

Best Beer n' Pretzels Game
Quarriors

GAME OF THE YEAR
Merchants and Marauders

Best Wargame - I played No Retreat once and liked it well enough, sure.
Best 2-player Game - Perry Rhodan. Great game to play with my wife.
Best Storytelling/Thematic Game - Heroes of Weehawken from Victory Point Games. On the verge of being a forgotten game from them. Stands up there with Nemo's War and Zulus on the Ramparts with telling an interesting story with terrific gameplay, and does so by breaking out of the States of Siege mold they've gotten into lately. As Thomas Jefferson, try to figure out what Aaron Burr and his co-conspirators are up to and arrest and convict him before he does it. But be careful - you have to accuse him of the right thing and get enough evidence or he'll get away.
Best Card/Deckbuilding Game - Summoner Wars: Master Set. If not eligible, For the Crown by VPG. It's a deck building chess game that works much better than it has any right to.
Best Adventure Game - Merchants & Marauders (if not eligible, see GOTY)
Best Expansion - Cosmic
Best Beer n' Pretzels Game - King of Tokyo
GAME OF THE YEAR - Mosquetaries de Roy, if it's eligible (I think it came out end of last year). Played exactly once at WBC, it was such a fun time I can't wait to play it again.

So many other games to try...

Best Wargame - A Few Acres of Snow

Best 2-player Game - Dreadfleet

Best Storytelling/Thematic Game - Quest: A Time of Heroes

Best Card/Deckbuilding Game - Mage Knight (does that count as a deckbuilding game?)

Best Adventure Game - Mage Knight

Best Expansion - Shards of the Throne

Best Beer n' Pretzels Game - Quest: A Time of Heroes

GAME OF THE YEAR - Dreadfleet

Best Wargame - Risk Legacy
Best Storytelling/Thematic Game - King of Tokyo
Best Beer n' Pretzels Game - King of Tokyo
GAME OF THE YEAR - King of Tokyo

Best Wargame: Conquest of Narath (Risk Legacy is a very, very close second.)

Best 2 Player: Battleship Galaxies

Beer & Pretzels: King of Tokyo

Game of the Year: Risk Legacy

Well, out of what I own & have played...

Best 2-player Game: Summoner Wars: Master Set
Best Storytelling/Thematic Game: Mansions of Madness
Best Card/Deckbuilding Game: Nightfall
Best Adventure Game: Merchants and Marauders
Best Expansion: Claustrophobia: De Profundis
Best Beer n' Pretzels Game: Quarriors
GOTzY: Merchants and Marauders

Best 2-player Game

The Awful Green Things From Outer Space. Sure this is an old game, but since it has been out of print for a while I’m including it. This was easily my favorite game to break out with two players. The Tom Wham artwork is spectacular. Each game plays out drastically different and its fun to try out each side. I love this game and I’m glad Steve Jackson Games didn’t skimp on the production values for this one.

Best Storytelling/Thematic Game

Mansions of Madness. I don’t even think another game tried to compete with this in terms of storytelling. That alone would makes it a winner for me. I love playing this and it still hasn’t gotten old. The combat mechanics are so simple yet the flavor text makes the battles really great. The fact that it tries to be a boardgame/RPG hybrid makes it seems clunky at times, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the hell out of this one.

Best Adventure Game

Dungeons & Dragons: The Wrath of Ashardalon. While I prefer the night terrors of Ravenloft in terms of enemies, Ashardalon pretty much improved every other aspect of this system. Better treasure, different rooms etc… Yes sir, I like it.

Best Expansion

Cosmic Encounter. I agree with practically everyone else. More goodness for one of the greatest games ever made.

Best Reprint

The Awful Green Thins From Outer Space. I’m so glad I was finally able to get my hands on this game. It’s thematic, goofy and fun. I love games that don’t take themselves too seriously and this one knows to bring the zany good times.

Best Beer n' Pretzels Game

Conquest of Planet Earth. Flying Frog has done it again. I’ve enjoyed Last Night on Earth, A Touch of Evil and now COPE. As a competitive game it’s all sorts of fun…a really mean “fuck you” kind of game. The fact that it can be played co-op is just gravy.

GAME OF THE YEAR

Mansions of Madness. This game has some faults, but I don’t care. The simple fact that I love playing it is all that matters to me. I love the Arkham Horror/HP Lovecraft theme and its attempt at being a RPG style boardgame. The combat is great, the Keeper has plenty of options and the investigators are under constant duress. The individual stories that each player weaves every time we play keeps me coming back.

Best 2-player Game - Omen: A Reign of War. I'm still playing the hell out of this and loving it. It doesn't get old, and the second edition on kickstarter right now looks to be even more fantastic.
Best Storytelling/Thematic Game - Dungeon Run. This has kicked Dungeonquest to the curb for my family. It does a lot of the same things, but with more control and choice for the players.
Best Card/Deckbuilding Game - Omen: A Reign of War.
Best Expansion - Summoner Wars Master Set. This is the expansion that puts this game in the big leagues. It was excellent before, but now there are no excuses for not owning it.
Best Beer n' Pretzels Game - Risk: Legacy. This game made me like Risk again. Everything about it makes sense once you play it - writing on the board, stickers, hidden packets, the whole deal. It just works and it's damn fun.
GAME OF THE YEAR - Risk: Legacy.

Best Storytelling/Thematic Game: I really love Ankh Morpork; great thematic game.

Best Expansion: TI3: Shards of the Throne, mostly because it was so unexpected and awesome to see this thing come out

Best Beer n' Pretzels Game: King of Tokyo
GAME OF THE YEAR: King of Tokyo. Very fun, very accessible

You've got til next Monday night at Midnight eastern time to get those votes in, folks!

I am still accepting votes via PM. Next year, I will probably only accept votes via PM, to help keep the results a surprise until the actual winner's column is published.

Best Wargame
No vote. Like many others I played few if any war games released this year and nothing that made me go "Oh Wow!"

Best 2-player Game

Summoner Wars: Master Set if it counts as a "new game".

Best Storytelling/Thematic Game
Best Card/Deckbuilding Game
Best Adventure Game

Mage Knight would get my vote for all three. Although best "deck builder" is sort of inappropriate. The game has deck building in it but it is not a deck builder. A subtle but significant difference.

Very few games make such an impression that I spend all the next day thinking of them. When that happens, I know the game was great.

Some people may not like the game but I doubt anybody can deny that it is a great design.

Best Expansion

Summoner Wars: Master Set if it is not a new game in of itself.

Best Beer n' Pretzels Game
GAME OF THE YEAR

Same game for both of these.

Ascending Empires! A fast moving fabulous game of building a stellar empire. All the usual tedious rules for movement and combat have been distilled down to the flicking of discs across the board.

Deep enough to allow for good strategy to win out over random dumb luck most of the time. Light enough to be accessible to less hard core gamers. Fun enough that even though challenging, your head won't hurt afterward. Fast enough that you'll want to play again after your done.

Absolutely the most fun I've had playing a game all year.

I don't feel like going through the list of games I played this year, especially because all those games got burned up last week. But I can remember this one:

GAME OF THE YEAR - Risk: Legacy. I haven't had this much fun playing games in a decade or more.

Best Wargame: Band of Brothers
Best 2-player Game: Sekigahara
Best Card/Deckbuilding Game: A Few Acres of Snow
Best Reprint: No Retreat!
GAME OF THE YEAR: Band of Brothers

I nominate Vasco Da Gama for all categories. For 2011 and all future years.

Reading this, I realized that I made good progress on my goal of letting new games slide by for at least a year before buying them. I miss being "hip", but I'm glad I'm getting more old favorites to the table. And again, I'm just amazed/envious at how much time most of you seem to have for gaming.

Anyway, only two votes from me:

Best Expansion: Innovation: Echoes of the Past managed to fix all (!) my niggling concerns with the base game.

GOTY: Merchants & Marauders. Barely played it, but I can see that it's great, and I'm excited to play it more this year.

Really looking forward to trying a few of these games, esp. Mage Knight, Eclipse (which a friend was lucky to obtain), and War of the Ring 2nd Ed. (OK, not really new).

Best Wargame--Ascending Empires (since I see Risk Legacy and Summoner Wars on here I figure this is a possibility)

Best 2 player Game--YOMI--hands down, easy to learn, tough to master, fun to play

Best Storytelling/Thematic--Merchants and Marauders. ARRRRRrrrr! Thats why!

Best Card/Deckbuilding--Lord of the Rings: LCG. I'm just a Tolkien junkie!

Best Adventure Game--Merchants and Marauders. This was the year of the great pirate game! Finally...we have...THE ONE!

Best Expansion--Summoner Wars:Master Set This is quickly turning into a game I love to play anytime anywhere as well.

Best Beer n' Pretzels Game--King of Tokyo. I've taken this to a dozen different places, even a wedding, and it went over like gangbusters!

Game of the Year It is...THE YEAR OF THE PIRATE! GOOOooo Merchants and Marauders!

Best Wargame
A Few Acres of Snow

Best 2-player Game
A Few Acres of Snow

Best Storytelling/Thematic Game
Merchants and Marauders

Best Card/Deckbuilding Game
Quarriors

Best Adventure Game
Star Trek: Fleet Captains

Best Expansion
Summoner Wars: Master Set

Best Beer n' Pretzels Game
Conquest of Nerath

GAME OF THE YEAR
A Few Acres of Snow

Nods to Sentinels of the Multiverse, Panic Station, and Combat Commander: Resistance.

Games that I haven't played or haven't played enough to consider: Sekigahara, Dungeon Run, Rune Age, Core Worlds, No Retreat, Conquest of Planet Earth, Battleship Galaxies, Mansions of Madness, Fortune and Glory, Space Empires 4X, Mage Knight, or Eclipse.

Sadly, I look at most of my 2011 game collection and most have been played only once or twice. But, it aint like this is scientific, so I may include a couple of those.

Best Wargame
Conquest of Nerath - Don't play many wargames, but managed to get this on the table twice. Thoroughly enjoyed it both times.

Best Adventure Game
Gears of War - Not sure if it fits here, but I haven't played Merchants and Marauders yet so I'll shoehorn it in here.

Best Expansion
Claustrophobia De Profundis - Changes little in the rules but adds a ton of content and choices.

Best Beer n' Pretzels Game
King of Tokyo

GAME OF THE YEAR
King of Tokyo

I've introduced KoT to probably 12 people and every single one of them enjoyed it. Even the dice-hating Euros love it. KoT gets played at least once every game night.

Finally got a chance to play a few from this year so some votes go to:
Best Storytelling/Thematic Game
Mage Knight
Best Adventure Game
Mage Knight
Best Expansion
Cosmic Conflict
GAME OF THE YEAR
Mage Knight