【Board Game Miscellaneous】Which games has Poland awarded the 2020 Board Game Awards?

2020-12-16

With the official release of "Cyberpunk 2077", the Polish game company CDPR has earned another wave of popularity. In fact, 3A-level game companies such as Techland and CI Games are all from Poland. This small Eastern European country is a veritable game power.

Poles not only love video games, they also have a passion for board games. A few days ago, the Polish annual board game award Gra Roku announced the results, which also attracted the attention of board game players from all over the world.

As a Polish local award, the basic condition for its award is to have the Polish version of the game launched this year. However, because Polish is not the standard configuration of all kinds of board game language versions, the final result is that although this award is the annual board game selection in 2020, in fact, many nominated and awarded games were published several years ago. Let's take a look at which board games can be favored by Poles!

Game of the Year-"Brass Birmingham"

This is an unexpected and reasonable name. It is the sequel to the masterpiece "Brass" by Martin Wallace in 2007. It is currently ranked in the top 3 of BGG. It is not an exaggeration to call it the number one German board game.

The game and the original version enjoy the same main mechanism and the extraordinary strategy brought by the excellent mechanism. As a strategic game, its performance is well-known. However, there are not many opportunities for it to win this "best of the year" award, because its English version was launched in 2018, and the lineup of board games that year was so luxurious that such excellent works did not show up too much. The opportunity to win this time in Poland also made up for the regret of the year.

From 1770-1870, the British city of Birmingham was in the stage of the industrial revolution. The game tells the story of entrepreneurs competing with each other during that special period. Like the previous game, players need to develop industry and build their own railway network through various actions, and through them to meet various levels of business needs, and ultimately become a local business giant.

The game is driven by cards. Each round the player performs two actions. The actions are divided into six types: factory building, railway building, development, sale, loan, and investigation. In fact, most of them are old faces in the original version, but some balance adjustments have been made in this version.

The game refers to historical facts and is divided into two eras: canals and railways. The transportation network will change in different periods, so the focus of the layout will also change. The industries that players can build also have features that they don't provide. Some industries can provide quick returns, while some industries require long-term operations.

In the original game, the intensity of different industries is slightly out of balance, but the new version has been adjusted to greatly improve the balance and playability. Loans are the old face in Martin Wallace's game, and they also play an important role in the game. More money means more choices, but too much loans will also overwhelm the player's economy, which also requires players to have a reasonable plan for future actions, and thus the strategy has been strengthened.

Recently, many old games have released new versions, but there are not many games that perfectly inherit the essence of the original and improve on the basis of the previous games, such as "Brass Birmingham". Therefore, its award of the annual game award is also in line with the expectations of many German players.

Best Theme Game of the Year-"NEMESIS"

This is actually a game that was born in 2018. In terms of BGG ranking, the board game in 2018 has the highest ranking except for "Brass: Birmingham". However, due to the endless emergence of excellent works of American games in the past two years, "Nemesis" is not so prominent, and the actual quality is quite impressive.

The background of the game is a tribute to "Alien". Players must fight against hostile creatures in the spaceship and survive. However, "The Nemesis" is actually a semi-cooperative game. Every player wants to survive, but not just to survive. Players will have differences in unexpected places for their respective goals. The scariest place in horror games is often not the preset monsters, but other people who are surviving. This game clearly captures this.

The biggest feature of the game is its high sense of substitution. The details in the game are quite rich, and the excellent settings and AR agency's excellent models together create an excellent science fiction atmosphere. The design of the damage card in the game reproduces the indescribable fear of the unknown giant. However, as an American game, if you want to have an excellent game experience, the player's "play" is also an extremely important factor, so it may not be suitable for everyone, so you need to be cautious before starting.

The best two-player game of the year-"Carcassonne: The Castle"

It sounds unbelievable that this game can win this award, because "Carcassonne" and "Catan", which are also called "two cards", are very "old" new games. "Carcassonne: The Castle" is the two-person version of "Carcassonne". It was launched a bit later, but its first version was born in 2003. And its Polish version has just been launched this year, so there is such an opportunity for "chaotic entry".

"Carcassonne: The Castle" is highly consistent with the original in terms of basic rules, but some minor changes in the details make the game experience completely different. In the original game, the player starts the game from a starting block, so the overall layout has a feeling of divergence. In this game, the concept of a border is added. The player's placement area is surrounded by a city wall and placed from the starting position of the wall. In the later stage, there is a feeling of several islands colliding together, which is quite different from the original experience.

The addition of the frame makes the placement of the plates much more restricted than the original version, so "Carcassonne: The Castle" also relaxes the requirements in this regard. In addition to the road tiles that must be accurately connected, the players can randomly splice the other tiles, and score points when the area is completely surrounded by other types of terrain. The layout of the layout is therefore not very attractive, but the gameplay is still relatively guaranteed.

Of course, the frame is not just a limitation of placement, it will also be used as a scoring track in the game, and reward plates are placed in some positions. When the player accurately falls to this position, the reward plate can be taken. Fun is what the original game doesn't have. As an old game in 2003, it can be seen in the public eye again in this form, which is a big surprise for this award.

Party Game of the Year-"Sushi Go Party!"

"Sushi Go!" is a party game published in 2013, this time the award-winning "Sushi Go Party!" is a reset version that integrates various expansions launched in 2016. The increase in the number of cards has significantly improved the playability and reopening of the game, so it is actually the most common version at the moment.

The core mechanism of the game is draft, and it is quite pure draft. What the player has to do in the round is to choose and deduct a card, and then pass it to the next home. There is no restriction on taking it like "7 WONDERS". The player's score is determined by the cards he takes. Some cards can directly provide 1/2/3 points, and some cards need to hold a certain number to get a high score.

This game is still a frequent visitor to many players today, with simple rules but no loss of strategy. But when it first launched, it didn't get much attention, and it didn't actually win any awards. Interested friends can also find out now, the more excellent mini games are always better.

Best Family Game of the Year-"The Quest for EL DORADO"

This is a game launched in 2017. Players play the role of the captain of the expedition and form a team to go to the Golden City. This is a racing game with DBG as the core driving mechanism. Everyone in the player team actually appears in the form of cards.

The roads in the game have a variety of different terrains. The player's team members provide the ability to move on various terrains. Only by matching the team members' abilities with the planned road can they be the first to reach the end.

It also launched an expansion in 2018, adding new sections, new cards, and a new element-curse, which improved the game's playability to a certain extent. In 2020, there is also an art reset version. If you are interested, you can start directly from this version.

Best Children's Game of the Year-"Zombie Kidz: Evolution"

"Zombie Kids" is an old game from 2013, "Zombie Kids: Evolution" is a legacy version launched in 2018. In the game, what the player has to do is to defend the school under the attack of zombies. If the player completes well, he will get rewards from the inheritance system, new powers and available characters. There are not many combinations of children's games and inheritance mechanisms, so it is also quite worth playing.

In addition to the above six awards, Poland's Gra Roku also has several small awards, but since it does not participate in the competition for the best game of the year, I will not give an additional introduction. The most interesting game of the year "everdell", the best designer of the year Adam Kwapiński, the best original game of the year "Minerals" and so on.

In general, this Polish board game award provides a certain reference value. After all, the various annual game awards each year are a few familiar faces, but if the localized version restrictions are added, many new and old games have the opportunity to play. , The visibility of awards and the reference of players have become very high.