Re: 2018 Meeples Choice Awards - It Begins!

 The only one I didn't see that I might vote for is Futuropia.
-Jimmy
    On Friday, June 7, 2019, 1:05:51 PM EDT, [email protected] [spielfrieks] <[email protected]> wrote:  
 
     


June,croon,

Alan Moon.

Did youswoon for Eon’s Dune?

Junebrings us the summer’s rays,

But alsothoughts of SdJ’s.

While somemake plans for wedding spins,

I planfor fun at Origins.

Thoughgraduations fill our brains,

June justmakes me think of GAMES.

A monthin which we all rejoice.

The month,in fact, for Meeples Choice!

  

Hey,everybody.  In case the preceding bit ofsilliness wasn’t enough of a clue, let me clear up all doubt:  this is Larry Levy speaking and I bring thevery glad tidings that it is once again time for the Spielfrieks user group tocarry out our most enjoyable duty and vote for the Meeples Choice Awards.  For those of you new to this process, whichstretch back almost a quarter of a century, every year we select our three favoritegames from all the titles that appeared during the previous calendar year..  Our picks range from the expected to thequirky, but they’re always quality designs worthy of the honor.  Just check out the winners from the last fewyears:

  

2017:  Azul; Heaven & Ale; Gaia Project

2016:  Terraforming Mars; Great Western Trail;Yokohama

2015:  Codenames; Food Chain Magnate; The Voyages ofMarco Polo

2014:  Roll for the Galaxy; Castles of Mad KingLudwig; Splendor

2013:  Russian Railroads; Bora Bora; Concordia

  

If youwant to check out all of the winners, here's a link to the Meeples Choice pageon the BGG Wiki:  http://www.boardgamegeek.com/wiki/page/Meeples_Choice#.

  

So here’sthe scoop.  Everyone on the Spielfrieksuser group is eligible to vote in this election.  If you know of someone who isn’t a memberwho’d like to participate, that can be easily accommodated.  Just have them send an email tospielfrieks-owner AT yahoogroups DOT com and through some mystical, magicalprocess, they will be made a voting member lickity split.

  

In orderto come up with our three winning games, we employ a three-stage process.  First, we’ll decide which games will be partof our initial election.  The goal is tomake sure every member can vote for all their favorites, so this list usuallywinds up with 200 games or so, as people suggest games to be included.  Then, we’ll conduct that first election, withevery voter choosing their 10 favorite games. This will give us our list of nominated games, which will consist of the25 games (plus ties) that received the most votes.  Finally, we’ll vote one more time, witheveryone picking their three favorites from the nominated games.  The three games that get the most votes fromthat second election will be declared the winners of the Meeples Choice Awards!

  

So firstthings first.  We need a list of games tochoose our nominees from.  Which gamesare eligible?  Pretty much anything thatwas first released during 2018.  RPGs andvideo games fall outside of our scope, but board games, card games, dexteritygames, co-ops, wargames, party games...pretty much any game that debuted lastyear and which is listed on Boardgame Geek can be voted for.  Pure expansions aren’t eligible, butstandalone expansions are.  The gameshave to be published ones, so Print ‘n’ Play or web-published games areexcluded.

  

Becausegaming has truly become an international hobby, we’ve recently expanded oureligibility rules.  If a game firstappeared earlier than 2018 in a form that limited its exposure (for example, aprint and play game, a limited print run, or a non-English language release),but a more accessible version was published last year, it can be votedfor.  The only restriction is that nogames nominated for the second round of voting in an earlier year can be votedon this year.  Past experience has shownthat y’all are a lot better at catching these follow-up designs than I am, soif you can think of any titles that fit into what I’ve described above, pleasemention them, so that we can get them on the ballot.

  

I’mpleased to say that we will once again be using our exclusively designed app,created by the uber-talented Wei-Hwa Huang. Wei-Hwa made the app easy to use and it makes the voting process a lotmore enjoyable than previous versions (don’t ask, many of us still bear thescars).  I’ll discuss how to use theapplication once we’ve settled on the games for our first election, but it’svery intuitive, so even the newbies should have no problems with it.

  

So let’s takethe next week to come up with that initial list of games.  I went to the Geek and came up with a groupof almost 200 leading games from last year. That sounds like a lot, but as I’m sure you’re all aware, a crapton ofgames gets released every year.   I’m sure there are some titles that I’vemissed, so I need your help.  The games arelisted at the end of this note.  Pleasego through them and post any additional titles from 2018 that have a goodchance of making your top 10 from the year. You should also include any designs that debuted before last year, butwhich you think haven’t been truly accessible until 2018.  List your reasons for why you feel that gameshould be included this year and I’ll make the judgement call on each ofthem.  But I’ll try to be accommodating,since the goal is to let everyone vote for their top 10 games of the yearduring the first election.  Either postyour suggestions here or, for folks who don’t have access to the user group,send them to me at huzonfirst AT gmail DOT com. I’d also appreciate it if you could point out any of the games I listedthat you don’t think should be eligible this year, and why.

  

So thatis our current task.  A week from today,I’ll add your suggestions and provide the list of games for our first round ofvoting.  I’ll also give the procedure forusing our voting app.  If you want thecurrent list in a form you can manipulate, check out the spreadsheet I’veuploaded.  For each game, I’ve listed itsGame Rank on the Geek, together with its Average Rating and Number of Ratings(based on what was showing a couple of weeks ago, when I gathered the statsfrom the Geek).  There are two tabs, onesorted by Game Rank, and one in alphabetical order of the games.  If you don’t want to be bothered with that,I’ll list the games in alphabetical order at the end of this note.  In the meantime, I’ll try to spread the word,so that as many people as possible are participating.

  

I alwayslook forward to doing this and I hope the rest of you do as well.  Let’s pick a trio of great games!  Thanks in advance and I look forward to yoursuggestions over the next few days.

  

Here’sthe current list of 2018 designs under consideration.  Which games should be added?

  

  

1066,Tears to Many Mothers

1834

18Lilliput 

5-MinuteMarvel 

A Song ofIce & Fire: Tabletop Miniatures Game 

Architectsof the West Kingdom 

ArkhamHorror (Third Edition) 

AuZtralia 

Azul:Stained Glass of Sintra 

Belratti 

BetrayalLegacy 

BetweenTwo Castles of Mad King Ludwig 

BigTrouble in Little China: The Game

Blackout:Hong Kong 

BlitzBowl 

BlueLagoon 

Brass:Birmingham 

Brikks

Camel Up(Second Edition) 

Captainsof the Gulf 

CarpeDiem 

CarsonCity: The Card Game 

Castell 

Cataclysm:A Second World War 

Century:Eastern Wonders 

Cerebria:The Inside World 

Ceylon 

ChooseYour Own Adventure: House of Danger 

Chroniclesof Crime 

CO₂:Second Chance 

Coimbra 

ConcordiaVenus 

Container:10th Anniversary Jumbo Edition! 

Crown ofEmara 

Crusaders:Thy Will Be Done 

Crypt 

Cryptid 

CupcakeEmpire

Darklight:Memento Mori 

Decrypto 

DeepMadness 

Detective:A Modern Crime Board Game 

DiceHospital 

DiceSettlers 

DiceThrone: Season One 

DiceThrone: Season Two – Battle Chest 

DropIt 

DuelosaurIsland 

Empiresof the Void II 

Endeavor:Age of Sail 

EscapeTales: The Awakening 

Everdell 

Exit: TheGame – The Mysterious Museum 

Exit: TheGame – The Sinister Mansion

Fertility 

Fine Sand

FireballIsland: The Curse of Vul-Kar

Fleet:The Dice Game 

ForbiddenSky 

ForumTrajanum 

Foundersof Gloomhaven 

Franchise

Fuji 

GingerbreadHouse 

Gizmos 

GKR:Heavy Hitters 

Great WarCommander 

Gùgōng 

Gunkimono 

Hannibal& Hamilcar 

Hardback 

Haven 

Heroes ofLand, Air & Sea 

Heroes ofTerrinoth 

Historyof the World 

Hokkaido 

Illusion 

Imaginarium 

Imhotep:The Duel

JustOne 

KeyFlow 

KeyForge:Call of the Archons 

KrassKariert 

LegendaryEncounters: The X-Files Deck Building Game 

Let'sMake a Bus Route 

Lift Off

Lincoln 

London& Northwestern

Lords ofHellas 

LostCities: Rivals 

Lowlands 

Luxor 

MaximumApocalypse 

Menara 

MonolithArena 

MonsterLands 

MonsterSlaughter 

Nemesis 

NEOM 

NewFrontiers 

Newton 

Obsession 

Orbis 

PalmIsland 

Pandemic:Fall of Rome 

Pandoria

PatchworkExpress

Pavlov'sHouse 

PaxEmancipation

Petrichor 

Piepmatz 

Pikoko

Planet 

Prehistory 

QuartermasterGeneral: The Cold War

RaccoonTycoon 

Race tothe New Found Land

RailroadInk: Blazing Red Edition 

RailroadInk: Deep Blue Edition 

RailroadRivals

Railwaysof Nippon 

Reef 

Renegade 

Reykholt 

Rise ofTribes 

Rise toNobility 

RisingSun 

RobinHood and the Merry Men 

Roll tothe Top! 

Root 

Scarabya 

ScorpiusFreighter

Shadowsof Brimstone: Forbidden Fortress 

Shadows:Amsterdam 

Shards ofInfinity 

SherlockHolmes Consulting Detective: Carlton House & Queen's Park 

Sherlock:Last Call

SkiesAbove the Reich 

SmartphoneInc. 

Solenia 

SouthernPacific

SpaceBase 

SpaceCorp 

Spiritsof the Forest 

Spiritsof the Wild 

Sprawlopolis 

SpringMeadow 

StarRealms: Frontiers 

StarWars: Legion 

StarWars: X-Wing (Second Edition) 

StreetMasters 

StuffedFables 

Tales ofthe Northlands: The Sagas of Noggin the Nog

Teotihuacan:City of Gods 

ThanosRising: Avengers Infinity War

That'sPretty Clever 

The Cityof Kings 

The Edge:Dawnfall 

TheEstates 

The GrimmForest 

TheKing's Guild 

TheManhattan Project 2: Minutes to Midnight 

TheMind 

TheQuacks of Quedlinburg 

TheReckoners 

The Riseof Queensdale 

TheRiver 

The Worldof SMOG: Rise of Moloch

ThunderstoneQuest 

Ticket toRide: New York 

Tiny EpicDefenders (Second Edition)

Tiny EpicZombies 

TokyoMetro

Too ManyBones: Undertow 

Trade onthe Tigris

Trapwords 

TreasureIsland 

Tsukuyumi:Full Moon Down 

Tudor

UnderwaterCities 

Unlock! ANoside Story 

Unlock!The Adventurers of Oz 

Unlock!Tombstone Express 

Valparaiso

Villainous 

Vindication 

WarChest 

Warhammer40,000: Kill Team 

WarhammerQuest: Blackstone Fortress

WarhammerUnderworlds: Nightvault

Way ofthe Panda 

Welcome To... 

WerewordsDeluxe Edition 

WesternLegends 

Who GoesThere? 

Wildlands 

Yellow& Yangtze 



Zombicide:Green Horde