2019 Meeples Choice Awards - Opening Salvo

Remember when you could get together with a few friends to play board
games?  It really wasn’t *that *long ago.  Remember the practice of
actually shaking hands?  Or living in a home where the freezer isn’t
stuffed to the bursting point, just, you know, in case.  Remember *toilet
paper*???



Yes, these are strange times that we live in, my friends.  So many of us
are in forced isolation and dealing with shortages, as we all fight an
invisible enemy.  Times like these result in stress and anxiety, with a
yearning for things that are safe and comforting.  Things that we’ve done
year after year, for a very long time.  Things that are *fun*.  Things
like, oh, I don’t know, maybe voting for the 2019 Meeples Choice Awards!

Greetings, fellow Spielfrieks!  This is Larry Levy and when I declare, as I
often have in the past, that I’m speaking from the Meeples Choice bunker,
this time it really isn’t much of an exaggeration!  First of all, let me
say that I hope that everyone reading this is healthy, gainfully employed,
and not too severely affected by this terrible virus in our midst.
Obviously, our recreational activities have been impacted by the events of
recent months, but I’m hoping that most of us have had the chance to sample
our favorites from last year, whether in face to face gaming or by using
the wonders of technology.  One of the things I’d like to hear from you all
is if you’ve had the chance to play enough of 2019’s new games to be
confident of your feelings about them.  June is when we always conduct our
voting, but it’s a self-imposed schedule, so if enough of you think we’d be
better off waiting a few months, just speak up and we can delay the process..



Just what is this process of which I speak?  The Meeples Choice is
Spielfriek’s very own Game of the Year award.  It goes all the way back to
2001, when Stephen Glenn woke up one morning and decided it would be fun to
poll his buddies on the user group about their favorites from the previous
year and a few of them put the whole thing together.  We’ve been doing it
ever since, albeit with a few changes.  One thing that separates the MCA
from all the other awards is that we pick our *three *favorite games from
the previous calendar year.  This has let us make some less mainstream, but
always quality selections over the years.  Here are the results from the
last few years, to give you an idea of what I mean:



2018:  The Quacks of Quedlinburg; Teotihaucan; Brass: Birmingham

2017:  Azul; Heaven & Ale; Gaia Project

2016:  Terraforming Mars; Great Western Trail; Yokohama

2015:  Codenames; Food Chain Magnate; The Voyages of Marco Polo

2014:  Roll for the Galaxy; Castles of Mad King Ludwig; Splendor



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



At this point, I can hear you saying, “That’s great, Larry, but can I
participate in this process and still practice responsible social
distancing?”  Absolutely, my masked friend!  Everyone on the Spielfrieks
user group is eligible to vote in this election.  If you know of someone
who isn’t a member who’d like to participate, we can accommodate them from
afar.  Just have them send an email to spielfrieks-owner AT yahoogroups DOT
com and they will be made a voting member without a single drop of hand
sanitizer being spilled.



In order to come up with our three winning games, we employ a three-stage
process.  First, we’ll decide which games will be part of our initial
election.  The goal is to make sure every member can vote for all their
favorites, so this list usually winds up with 200 games or so, as people
suggest games to be included.  Then, we’ll conduct that first election,
with every voter choosing their 10 favorite games.  This will give us our
list of nominated games, which will consist of the 25 games (plus ties)
that received the most votes.  Finally, we’ll vote one more time, with
everyone picking their three favorites from the nominated games.  The three
games that get the most votes from that second election will be declared
the winners of the Meeples Choice Awards!



So with this note, the first stage has officially begun.  The object is to
come up with a list of games to choose our nominees from.  Which games are
eligible?  Just about anything that was first released during 2019.  RPGs
and video games fall outside of our scope, but board games, card games,
dexterity games, co-ops, wargames, party games...pretty much any game that
debuted last year and which is listed on BoardGame Geek can be voted for.
Pure expansions aren’t eligible, but standalone expansions are.  The games
have to be published ones, so Print ‘n’ Play or web-published games are
excluded.



To account for the fact that, these days, games can debut at any time and,
seemingly, anywhere, we’ve recently expanded our eligibility rules.  If a
game first appeared earlier than 2019 in a form that limited its exposure
(for example, a print 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 voted for.  The only restriction is that any game that made the
25 game nomination list in a previous year can’t be considered this year.
You only get one bite at the MCA apple!  (Hmm, remember *apples*???)  This
isn’t something that I’m very good at catching, so if you know of any games
that you’d like to vote for that meet this description, please post about
them here, so that we can get them on the ballot.



I’m happy to say that we will once again be using our exclusively designed
app, created by the very generous and skilled Wei-Hwa Huang, proud member
of Spielfrieks.  Wei-Hwa made the app easy to use and it makes the voting
process a lot more enjoyable than previous versions (granted, that’s a
pretty low bar, but the app really is very well designed).  I’ll discuss
how to use the application once we’ve settled on the games for our first
election, but it’s very intuitive, so even the newbies should have no
problems with it.



We will devote the next few days with finalizing that initial list of
games.  I went to the Geek and came up with a group of almost 200 leading
games from last year.  That sounds like a lot, but it’s only a fraction of
all the games released during the past 12 months.   I’m sure there are some
titles that I’ve missed, so I need your help.  The games are listed at the
end of this note.  Please go through them and post any additional titles
from 2019 that have a good chance of making your top 10 for the year.  You
should also include any designs that debuted before last year, but which
you think haven’t been truly accessible until 2019.  List your reasons for
why you feel that game should be included this year and I’ll make the
judgement call on each of them.  But I’ll try to be accommodating, since
the goal is to let everyone vote for their top 10 games of the year during
the first election.  Either post your 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
listed that you don’t think should be eligible this year, and why.



By the way, I think we should be okay using the Spielfrieks user group
email address for our correspondence.  I know that Yahoo removed much of
their support, but I think the main thing is they’re just not storing our
messages anymore.  Still, if for any reason you’re getting these notes, but
don’t have a way of responding, just send a note to my personal email and
I’ll address any concerns you have.  It also might be a good idea to
contact me directly if you're looking for a quick response, to avoid any
time lag in getting the messages through the user group server.



So during the next few days, please let us all know which games you want to
add to our initial list.  Sometime on Friday, I’ll add the group's
suggestions and provide the list of games for our first round of voting.
I’ll also give the procedure for using our voting app.  If you want the
current list in a form you can manipulate, check out the spreadsheet I’ve
uploaded.  For each game, I’ve listed its Game 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 stats from the Geek).  There are
two tabs, one sorted by Game Rank, and one in alphabetical order of the
games.  If you don’t want to be bothered with that, I’ve listed 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’d appreciate it if all of you would do the same.



I know this is an unprecedented point in recent history, but hey, maybe it
means you’ll have more time than usual to help us pick three great games in
our annual exercise.  At the very least, I’m hoping this will be a welcome
distraction from the bizarre headlines we face every day.  Thanks in
advance and I look forward to your suggestions of what games to add to our
list.



Here is the current list of 2019 games that I’ve come up with:





1836

6 nimmt! 25 Jahre



Abomination: The Heir of Frankenstein

Adventure Games: The Dungeon

Aeon's End: Legacy

Aeon's End: The New Age

Aerion

Aftershock

Age of Civilization

Alubari: A Nice Cup of Tea

Aquatica

Arena: The Contest

Atlantis Rising (Second Edition)

Azul: Summer Pavilion



Babylonia

Barrage

Batman: Gotham City Chronicles

Bios: Origins (Second Edition)

Black Angel

Black Rose Wars

Blitzkrieg!: World War Two in 20 Minutes

Bosk

Bruxelles 1897



Call to Adventure

Caravan

Carnival of Monsters

Cartographers

Catan: Starfarers

Caylus 1303

Century: A New World

Chakra

Chartae

Chartered: The Golden Age

Chocolate Factory

Circadians: First Light

Cities: Skylines – The Board Game

City of the Big Shoulders

Clank! Legacy

Claustrophobia 1643

Clinic: Deluxe Edition

Cloudspire

Coloma

Commands & Colors: Medieval

Conspiracy: Abyss Universe

Cooper Island

Copenhagen

Corinth

Court of the Dead: Mourners Call

Crystal Palace

Cthulhu: Death May Die



Deep Blue

Detective: City of Angels

DinoGenics

Disney Villainous: Evil Comes Prepared

Disney Villainous: Wicked to the Core

Dizzle

Dominations: Road to Civilization

Draftosaurus

Dreamscape

Dune



Ecos: First Continent

Edge of Darkness

Egizia: Shifting Sands

Era of Tribes

Era: Medieval Age

Escape Plan

Exit: The Game – The Haunted Roller Coaster

Expedition to Newdale



Fantastic Factories

Fast Sloths

Football Highlights 2052

Foothills

Funkoverse Strategy Game



Gandhi

Glen More II: Chronicles



Hadara

Harry Potter: Defence Against the Dark Arts

HATE

Hats

Hellboy: The Board Game

Horrified



Imperial Settlers: Empires of the North

Imperial Settlers: Roll & Write

In the Hall of the Mountain King

Ishtar: Gardens of Babylon

It's a Wonderful World



Jaws



KeyForge: Age of Ascension

KeyForge: Worlds Collide

Kingdomino Duel



L.L.A.M.A.

Las Vegas Royale

Last Bastion

Letter Jam

Lockup: A Roll Player Tale

Love Letter



Machi Koro Legacy

Mandala

Maracaibo

Marco Polo II: In the Service of the Khan

Marvel Champions: The Card Game

Masters of Renaissance (Lorenzo Card Game)

Men at Work

Middara: Unintentional Malum

Minecraft: Builders & Biomes

Museum

Mysthea



Nagaraja

Nanty Narking

Nētā-Tanka: Deluxe Edition

Nine Tiles Panic

Noch mal so gut!

Noctiluca

Nova Luna



Obscurio

Ohanami

On the Underground: London/Berlin

On Tour

One Night Ultimate Super Villians

Orleans Stories



Paladins of the West Kingdom

Pandemic: Rapid Response

PARKS

Patchwork Doodle

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: Core Set

Pax Pamir (Second Edition)

Pax Transhumanity

Pennsylvania Railroad

Pharaon

Pictures

Pipeline

Point Salad



Q.E.

Queenz: To bee or not to bee

Quodd Heroes



Ragusa

Reavers of Midgard

Res Arcana

Revolution of 1828

Roam

Robin of Locksley

Rune Stones

Rurik: Dawn of Kiev



Sanctum

Second Chance

Set a Watch

ShipShape

SHŌBU

Sierra West

Silver

Silver & Gold

Silver Bullet

Skulk Hollow

Skull Tales: Full Sail!

Sorcerer

Star Wars: Outer Rim

Sushi Roll



Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon

Tajuto

Tapestry

Terramara

Terror Below

The Ancient World (Second Edition)

The Artemis Project

The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine

The Isle of Cats

The King's Dilemma

The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-earth

The Magnificent

The Quest for El Dorado: The Golden Temples

The Taverns of Tiefenthal

Ticket to Ride: London

Time of Legends: Joan of Arc

Tiny Epic Mechs

Tiny Epic Tactics

Tiny Towns

Trails of Tucana

Trismegistus

Tussie Mussie

Twice As Clever



UBOOT: The Board Game

Undaunted: Normandy

Under Falling Skies

Unlock! Timeless Adventures

Unmatched

Unmatched: Robin Hood vs. Bigfoot



Vast: The Mysterious Manor

Victorian Masterminds

Villagers

Volfyirion



Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Warcry Starter Set

Watergate

Wavelength

Wingspan

Wreck Raiders



Yinzi

Yukon Airways



Zombicide: Invader