The Dice Tower Awards have been announced for the best games of 2011 Hot

I tend to think Risk Legacy would have been a stronger contender for GOTY if it hadn't been seen as mass market. It was easily my favorite from last year.

A Few Acres of Snow as a wargame (!!!). Man, that is a hoot.

I don't get that "Best New Game Designer". All he did was remake Pandemic with a new theme, essentially. I mean, I really like the game, but I like it beacuse it's Pandemic +.

In what sense is it not a wargame?

Mansions of Madness for Best Production Value. I guess production value means best figures, not overall production. That game was riddled with production problems.

Actually 39 qualified and 1 complete screw up but there are at least 3 other F:ATties who voted (maybe more.) Ispent every vote on getting RacerKnights of Falconus into the hall of Fame.

Steve"stuffing ballot boxes"Avery

Irrelevant.

A Few Acres of Snow is really a Civ game. It's more about building your economy and expanding into new territory. It's actually pretty close to Settlers of Catan in gameplay. Even "battles" aren't really battles. You play troops to a reserve, total up your cards, if you have more than your opponent you win. Just one more resource to manage.

My buddy and I played A Few Acres of Snow three times and decided we were done with it. It's not a particularly interesting Civ game, and it certainly didn't scratch my wargame itch. We agreed to play Storm Over Stalingrad next time, a true wargame with a similar playtime as A Few Acres of Snow.

I really want to try Sergeant's Miniatures but second mortgages are much harder to get these days.

S.

I keep trying to get Warhammer Quest into the hall of fame, but game snobs keep shouting me down.

Hmm, looks like I'm with quozl on this. I have no interest in playing any of those games.

Just sell all your shit like I'm doing. I mean, if you've not played a game in 6 months to a year, chances are it's never going to see the light of day again. Or, if it's not "best in class" get rid of it.

Me, I just spent 90$ on Seastrike, plus another 190$ on Figurehead Miniatures. I'd rather have one really pimped out, awesome game that I want to play daily than a shitload of shelf toads.

Be careful here. I've really only see this work with the minis gamers. Those guys don't mind sinking hours and money pimping out their chosen game. A game they'll play for years on end. It helps that they've found others who have bought in to the system and willing to go the distance as well. Afterall, you can only really play if you have another committed opponent.

Boardgames are different. One guy buys the game and that individual has a tendency to get all excited about a game, but 6 months on (if even) ready for something else new and shiny. Hard to overcome. Boardgames come fast and furious and/or you don't have any committed opponents. Just friends willing to play whatever you bought.

I hope they enjoy Seastrike.

My buddies that I game with aren't "into the hobby" as much as "into the games I bring over". So, they are only exposed to what I bring over, pretty much.

My main dude is ex-Navy, big into minis games like Mem44 as far as games he likes, and we've tried a lot of naval games.

Best part about the minis is that they're game-independent, so I could easily simply take my Epic Engagements ruleset and modify it for a naval battle. It already has fighters and whatnot, all I'd need to do is drop the sci fi stuff and make some cards. Or, there's a million naval games out there that I could simply apply the models to.

I've never been a "shiny new" kinda guy. I play a game until it disintegrates, then buy another copy. I have had the same 40 games or so for the last 5 years, and I just add a couple of games here and there as I see fit. But I rarely keep a game of a "class" unless it's a game that absolutely rocks my taco, which doesn't happen much. And if it does, generally the previous "best in class" gets sold off.

I have TI2, which I prefer to TI3 and all other 4X games, so I'm not excited about Eclipse as much as I might otherwise be. I'm not into "compromise", so I don't need a game to be cut to an hour and a half from 5 if I want to play that kind of game. But, I also have Ascending Empires, which is sort of a 4X, but it's more a dexterity game too, so I got rid of Catacombs because I like Ascending better.

I know, I'm the exception. I refuse to 'collect'. If there is anything I do collect, it's vintage boardgames, as I have maybe 10 of them, and a Ravensburger kids' game collector, since my kids like MacGregor, Midnight Party, and Enchanted Forest. But wow, did Scotland Yard go over like a shit sandwich...my wife actually cursed loudly because she couldn't find me. :)

Best Family Game: King of Tokyo
Best Game Reprint: Confusion: Espionage and Betrayal in the Cold War
Best Game Expansion: Summoner Wars: Master Set
Most Innovative Game: Risk Legacy
Best Digital Board Game: Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer

Hey, I thought these ones were pretty solid choices. The rest kind of sucked though. Committees suck, the selection process should be run like a dictatorship next year.

Best reprint would've had to be Survive, IMO. Unless that's the wrong year. And as for SW: Master Set, I don't know that it should qualify as an expansion as much as a reboot, but that's a matter of taste.

Oh yeah, Survive! was really good. I too have no idea if that was 2011, but that sounds plausible enough. Either way, Stronghold because they are awesome.

Master Set is definitely an expansion because you can play it with all the old stuff without hitch. It's like BGG being dumb by saying Dominion Intrigue isn't an expansion because it's ~standalone~. Fuck it, it's an expansion. Really, all of the expansions for Summoner Wars are standalone. I could easily pick up the Fallen Kingdoms and Filth decks and call it a complete game.

Doesn't AFAoS get disqualified since the designer had to come in and actually errata the game itself to fix a huge flaw in game play to make it playable again?

Summoner Wars and Ascension definetly deserved those wins though.