Winner of “Board Game of the Year” Spiel des Jahres
The results are in and we have this year’s winner of Spiel des Jahres “Board Game of the Year!”
If you’ve been following along at home, you’ll know that last week the winners of 2018’s Spiel des Jahres were announced. Who is it?! Who could it be?! We’re going to find out right now! ….Okay, it’s tough to build dramatic tension when you can probably already see the winner title and box art below but just let me have this, please.
The winner of this year’s Board Game of the Year is……..!!!!!!
(drum roll please?!)
Azul
If you’re at all in tune with the board gaming world, you probably already know Azul, but for those of you who have been living under a rock, here’s the quick recap on Azul.
Azul is a pattern building, pool building game. Players score points based on their ability to match their placed tiles with how they placed their tiles and building specific patterns and completing sets without having too many excess tiles.
Overall, Azul falls into the group of games which are best described as “Easy to learn, hard to master”. The overall core of the game is pretty straightforward, but with the variety of tile distribution and how the ‘drafting’ mechanic works within the game ensures that each game plays out different and there’s no singular strategy which will bring a player to victory every time.
On top of winning 2018 Spiel des Jahres, Azul has a lot of other awards and honors as well.
- 2018 Spiel des Jahres Winner
- 2018 Spiel des Jahres Nominee
- 2018 Origins Awards Best Family Game Winner
- 2018 Origins Awards Best Family Game Nominee
- 2018 Mensa Select Winner
- 2018 As d’Or – Jeu de l’Année Winner
- 2018 As d’Or – Jeu de l’Année Nominee
- 2017 Meeples’ Choice Nominee
- 2017 Golden Geek Most Innovative Board Game Nominee
- 2017 Golden Geek Board Game of the Year Nominee
- 2017 Golden Geek Best Strategy Board Game Nominee
- 2017 Golden Geek Best Family Board Game Winner
- 2017 Golden Geek Best Family Board Game Nominee
- 2017 Golden Geek Best Board Game Artwork & Presentation Nominee
- 2017 Cardboard Republic Architect Laurel Winner
- 2017 Cardboard Republic Architect Laurel Nominee
So it goes without saying that Azul has received some acclaim.
This joke was funnier in my head. Still, RIP Acclaim Entertainment.
If you haven’t checked out or played a game of Azul, hit up your friendly local game store or gaming bar in your area and give it a run. It’s a fantastic game which offers a surprising amount of depth for what seems like a very simple game on the surface. I mean, with all those awards, can it really be that bad?
Thanks for reading!
