From a pool of 748 unique games, I am proud to present the top nominees for the 2007 Golden Geek Awards. Congratulations to all the nominees and good luck!

Voting will start on Monday 9/24/2007

Here are the nominees (in alphabetical order):

Gamers' Game
Age of Empires III: The Age of Discovery
Arkadia
Blue Moon City
Caylus Magna Carta
Colosseum
Fury of Dracula
Imperial
Leonardo da Vinci
Mykerinos
Notre Dame
The Pillars of the Earth
Shogun
Thebes
Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization
Yspahan

Wargame
A Victory Lost
Advanced Squad Leader - Starter Kit #3
BattleLore
Combat Commander: Europe
Commands & Colors: Ancients
EastFront II
Here I Stand
Napoleon's Triumph
Pax Romana
Shifting Sands
Shogun
Tide of Iron
Viktory II
War of the Ring
Wings of War - Miniatures

2-Player
Aton
BattleLore
Combat Commander: Europe
Commands & Colors: Ancients
Dreamblade
Duel in the Dark
Hive
Ingenious: Travel Edition
Jambo
Lord of the Rings - The Confrontation: Deluxe Edition
Medici vs Strozzi
Mr. Jack
Ponte del Diavolo
Taluva
Tide of Iron

Family Game
Arkadia
Blue Moon City
Cleopatra and the Society of Architects
Colosseum
Notre Dame
The Pillars of the Earth
Qwirkle
Rum & Pirates
Taluva
Thebes
Thurn and Taxis
Ticket to Ride: Märklin Edition
To Court the King
Yspahan
Zooloretto

Artwork / Presentation
Age of Empires III: The Age of Discovery
BattleLore
Blue Moon City
Cleopatra and the Society of Architects
Colosseum
Duel in the Dark
Fury of Dracula
Marvel Heroes
Notre Dame
The Pillars of the Earth
Shogun
Taluva
Thebes
Tide of Iron
Wings of War - Miniatures

Party Game
Bang!
Ca$h 'n Gun$
Chopstick Dexterity MegaChallenge 3000
Cineplexity
Die Kutschfahrt zur Teufelsburg
GiftTRAP
Hart an der Grenze
HysteriCoach
Kragmortha
Monstermaler
Santy Anno
To Court the King
Ultimate Werewolf: Whitebox Edition
Wits & Wagers
The World Cup Game

Card Game
Bang!
Bull in a China Shop
Caylus Magna Carta
Citadels
Die Kutschfahrt zur Teufelsburg
Escalation!
Great Wall of China
Iliad
Jambo
Mag·Blast Third Edition
Nottingham
Null & Nichtig
Ruse & Bruise
Take Stock
World of Warcraft Trading Card Game

Children's Game
Attacktix Battle Figure Game (Marvel Superheroes)
Battleground: Crossbows & Catapults War Chest Starter Set
Chateau Roquefort
Celtica
Der schwarze Pirat
Giro Galoppo
HeroScape Marvel: The Conflict Begins
If Wishes Were Fishes
Los Mampfos
Qwirkle
Tier auf Tier
Wicked Witches Way
Zeus on the Loose
Zig-Zag
Zooloretto

All very good lists. One of the few I voted for that didn't make it was Last Night on Earth, the Zombie Game. Not enough exposure since it's recent release I guess. Oh well, there's always next year.

May the best games win!

screw THAT! may the 'ones' that I prefer WIN!
"you're ALL worthless and weak! now gimme 20! that is!"
"there's NO 'place' for the cowardly and weak... in the Golden Geek Awards Cap'n!"

Interesting nominations. I just wish I'd played all of them before now. So many games, so little money.

Some old games in here... I should've nominated Chinatown and El Grande.

Sounds almost like you are suffering side effects from the talk like a pirate day Robert

Thats a lot of nominations for each category...

It's the same number as last year. I think 15 nominations gives a very good coverage of each category.

The only one I see that's somewhat old is Bang! - which is kind of suprising - did it get a reprint recently?

There are Jambo and Citadels as well.

Attacktix is an old game too, and separating its different themes is quite artificial, especially for the purposes of the voting process.

And I thought Hive was a bit older... I think my nominations may have been too narrow.

A majority of people did pick from the 2006-2007 titles - which left some slots available for some of the older games to fill in. I'll have to run some stats to see how many people used up all their slots.

No artwork nomination for Kutschfahrt zur Teufelsburg or Celtica? What's wrong with you people?

I didn't use more than about half of the slots available. Having so many available is good if you play lots of different games.
All in all I think the selection of nominees is excellent and quite representative of boardgaming today.

I didn't even think nominating older games was possible. And, uh . . . well, it would see a little odd if Hive (2001) won the 2007 Award.

Now I understand what they mean when they say an honor just be nominated. These are some really good games to lose to.

How Bang, Cash 'n' Guns, and To Court the King are party games is beyond me. They're light games, no doubt, but I just can't see building a party (particularly with non-gamers) around these games would ever pan out well (except for a party of game geeks only, of course).

But you can pretty much rest assured that it will not.


The list included all of my top picks, and minus a few of my tertiary picks i.e. (Canal Mania and Phoenicia), but overall a great selection.

Randy, last year the category was called "Light/Party Games". I don't play party games (the occasions just don't come up), so I treated this as "light games", since that's a useful category which no longer existed. I imagine quite a few other people did the same, since there's very few true party games nominated. Maybe they should change the name back to the original one next year, but in the meantime, we have this kind of a mishmash category. (Then again, there's no hard guidelines for any of these categories, a situation which Aldie seems perfectly content with.)

How is War of the Ring eligible? It's three years old by now...

On the other hand, I easily see how Bang and Cash 'n Guns can be considered party games - they fit well in almost every situation I've brought them out.

And with folks who would firmly not be considered geeks.

Eligibility has been determined more or less by the users. We don't go strictly by the publication year, because sometimes a game doesn't make it into wide distribution until significantly after it was first published. I think of this as the prize for games that had their first (probably English language) major release in 2006-2007.

Having said that, a couple games slipped in that still shouldn't qualify, even with those less stringent requirements. If there are still there to vote for once the final voting starts, I know i wouldn't vote for them.

Well, I think you guys need to make a command decision and drop games that make no sense. War of the Ring is a fine game, but it was released widely years ago. I'm seeing some other old favorites besides that one.

yeah... what was the criteria here? Bang!, Citadels (2000), Jambo (2004), Tier auf Tier (2005), Wits and Wagers (2005), and I'm sure there's more.

It really dilutes these awards if 'just any old game' can get in.

My exact thought. What kind of parties do BGGers have? Don't they ever invite 'mortals'? Although Ca$h 'n Gun$ I can see, maybe.