Caylus, Twilight Struggle Win 2006 IGAs

Caylus and Twilight Struggle have been awarded the 2006 International Gamers Awards for multi-player strategy game and two-player strategy game, respectively. Caylus was designed by William Attia and published by Rio Grande Games; Twilight Struggle was designed by Jason Matthews and Ananda Gupta and published by GMT Games. Twilight Struggle also won the 2006 IGA for historical simulation games. This is the first time that a game has won two IGAs.

Both Caylus (my pick as the #2 game of 2005; currently the #3 game of all-time at BoardGameGeek.com; here's a photo of the board during gameplay) and Twlight Struggle (currently the #13 game of all-time at BoardGameGeek.com; here's a photo of the board during gameplay) are excellent games and deserving of the award.

Following are descriptions of the two games provided by the IGA committee:

Caylus

King Philip the Fair has decided that a new castle must be built in the humble village of Caylus. Players use their workers to help construct this castle. Around the castle the village is growing fast. By building the castle and developing the village, players earn prestige points. When the castle is finished, the player who has earned the most prestige points wins the game. Caylus is filled with multiple decisions and possibilities. Multiple paths to victory make this a very interesting and challenging game.

Twilight Struggle

Using a card-driven mechanic that recreates the most critical events of the US-Soviet Cold War, two players representing each empire attempts to exert influence throughout the world in a bid to make their philosophy dominant. Each player must watch closely as the battle for ideology is raged, the Space Race is launched and advanced, and the DefCon track (Defense Condition) monitors the globe's stability. A beautifully-balanced game with multiple strategic levels, Twilight Struggle gets better with each play as further depth is revealed.

The International Gamers Awards were founded in 1999 for the express purpose of recognizing outstanding games, their designers, and the companies which publish them. Here's a list of all the games nominated for the 2006 IGAs.