DICE TOWER AWARDS
2015
Part Two
First
I would like to thank you for continuing to read my thoughts on the Dice Tower
Awards Nominations for 2015, assuming you read part one first. Here I will give
my opinions and choose who I think should win the awards for the remainder of
the categories. Hopefully you find reading this just as much fun as I've had
making this post, and I would encourage you to do the same. On with the awards.
Best Game Reprint
Nominees are:
El Grande Big Box
Fury of Dracula
Mission: Red Planet
Stronghold 2nd
edition
Through the Ages: A
New Story Of Civilization
So this one
will be kind of a cheap pick as I don't buy reprints unless the game was broken
in the first edition. Fury of Dracula is perfect the way it is in the second edition so I have no desire to try the newest version. Mission: Red Planet is an average game that is good for a quick filler and I really don't have the investment in the game to care about a reprint. I have never played Stronghold
or El Grande so those are out. Now, I have heard nothing but good things about
Through the Ages and the research I have done suggest they have fixed the
problems plaguing the first edition (military for example). So I will declare
that the winner is:
Through the Ages: A
New Story Of Civilization
Best Game Theming
Nominees are:
Blood Rage
Time Stories
Pandemic Legacy
Baseball Highlights
2045
Food Chain Magnate
Once again
I don't feel I can include games that I have never played so I will have to
void Baseball Highlights and Food Chain Magnate from the list. These are both
games that I really want to try someday so maybe in the future I could
revisit this category. Time Stories is also not a candidate as its theme is the
same as almost any time travel movie or television show, I mean time agents is
really not that unique. I also feel that like the majority of time travel
games, it failed to capture the feeling of time traveling. Pandemic Legacy is
just an deluxe version of Pandemic so I will also rule that one out. I'm sorry
Pandemic but you already had your time in the spot light the first time you
were released. That leaves us with Blood Rage which is really a good game but
the theming has some problems. I'm a Heathen so I take any Norse themes very
serious and Blood Rage has a 'Viking' theme slapped on it. First you have the
Loki strategy which has nothing to do with the god Loki and makes no sense for
why those cards exist. The other cards list other gods' names, but once again
the cards have nothing to do with the god's usual domains. The board shows the
world tree at the center but guess what, the nine worlds are not connected to
it. The tribes you can be are named after the usual fantasy style animal names
instead of using actual tribal names or even cultures that were part of the
Norse. Overall it is a great game, just obvious that Mr. Lang did very little
research for the game and relied on pop culture perceptions to make it. So the
winner is:
No One (though seeing
as I work in the industry I'd guess I'd give this to Food Chain Magnate in the
future, haha)
Best Party Game
Nominees are:
Codenames
Deception: Murder in
Hong Kong
Mysterium
Two Rooms and A Boom
Mafia de Cuba
Now back on
to some positive categories. I have never played Two Rooms and A Boom so I will
have to knock it out of the running. The other four games I do own and I really
like each of them so this will be a hard pick. I will remove Codenames as it is
the least favorite of mine among the list. Mafia de Cuba will also fall into
the same trap; keep in mind that both are amazing games. Among the two left, I
would have to say that I feel that Deception: Murder in Hong Kong fits the
party category better than Mysterium so I will have to give it the win. The
winner is:
Deception: Murder in
Hong Kong
Best Small
Publisher
Nominees are:
Champions of Midgard
Between Two Cities
Stockpile
Lanterns: The Harvest
Festival
Burgle Bros.
I have
never played Burgle Bros. and quite honestly haven't heard anything about it
good or bad- so after this, I'll be researching it more. Between Two Cities is
an interesting game but not near good enough to win an award for its game play.
Champions of Midgard is the typical worker placement game where you gather
dice; but it's really not that diverse and game play tends to suffer from wild
luck. Lanterns is a forgettable game and doesn’t stand out from other light
tile laying games so I will knock it out as well. Really the only choice is
Stockpile which is quite an amazing game and it the obvious winner. The winner
is:
Stockpile
Best Strategy
Games
Nominees are:
Blood Rage
Pandemic Legacy
Roll for the Galaxy
The Voyages of Marco
Polo
Elysium
This is
perhaps the most embarrassing category as none of these games deserve to be in
it, in my opinion. Strategy usually means that you have to make decisions and provokes deep thought during the game play, so for me strategy implies a level of
difficulty not necessarily dependent on luck like several of these do. None of
these games fit the bill and most border on being light games for my group's
taste. Now, I quite enjoy some of these games, just to put that out there. I'm
sorry but you can clearly tell these
games were picked by the Dice Tower. The winner is:
No One
None is Worthy
Best Two Player
Game
Nominees are:
Star Wars Risk
Baseball Highlights
2045
Raptor
7 Wonders: Duel
Ashes: Rise of the
Phoenixborn
This is a
really easy category as I have played only one of these games. Truth be told, I
really don't like playing with two players so I tend to not focus on two player
only games. So congratulations Star Wars: Risk for being the only game I have played.
(I'll hopefully be giving the others a chance soon.)The winner is:
Star Wars: Risk
Most Innovative
Game
Nominees are:
Time Stories
504
Mysterium
Codenames
XCOM
So here is
another easy category as 504 is the only game that stands out here. None of the
other games have come even close to the ambitious premise of 504. I mean, the
game is able to combine modules to create, as the name says, 504 games and they
work. Some of the games are not all that good but the fact that the game was
able to pull the feat off is amazing and none of the other nominee come close
to achieving anything like it. The winner clearly is:
504
Best Game of the
Year
Nominees are:
Blood Rage
Codenames
Mysterium
Pandemic Legacy
Time Stories
7 Wonders: Duel
Roll for the Galaxy
The Voyages of Marco
Polo
Elysium
The Gallerist
Now this is
a giant list to go through and my initial impressions are disappointment as
there are lot of mediocre games here. I
will discount 7 Wonders: Duel as I have not played it. I will also remove Blood
Rage, Pandemic Legacy and Roll for the Galaxy as the Game of the Year should be
a new game and not a rehash version of an older game. The Voyages of Marco Polo
is forgettable and its only gimmick is that everyone has a broken power. Codenames
and Mysterium are both amazing games but I don't think a party style game
should be in this category as they really are a different kind of animal. That
only leaves Elysium and the Gallerist which are both amazing games. But I feel
that Elysium is just not quite as interesting as the Gallerist. The Gallerist
simply has more depth and more crucial decision points making it in my opinion
the better game. The winner is:
The Gallerist
I would
like to thank everyone who has read this post and I hope you continue to read
my reviews as they come. I had a fun time with this list and seeing the
different entries under each category. Overall, it is an okay list for the
games released during the year and there are some gems among them. Thanks for
reading and I will catch you next time.
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