The nominations for the 2010 International Gamers Awards' general strategy categories, have been announced. Games released from July 1, 2009, through June 30, 2010, were eligible for consideration. The IGA is meant to recognize outstanding games, designers and publishers. Nominated games tend to be moderately heavy to heavy in terms of strategy, and they will generally appeal to more serious gamers.
This year's nominees are:
Multi-Player Category:
- Age of Industry (designed by Martin Wallace, published by Treefrog / Mayfair Games)
- Dungeon Lords (Vlaada Chvatil, Czech Games Edition / Z-Man Games / Heidelberger Spieleverlag)
- Egizia (Antonio Tinto, Flaminia Brasini, Stefano Luperto and Virginio Gigli, Hans im Glück / Rio Grande Games)
- Endeavor (Carl de Visser and Jarratt Gray, Lookout Games / Rio Grande Games / White Goblin Games / Hobby Japan / Ystari Games)
- Fresco (Marcel Süsselbeck, Marco Ruskowski and Wolfgang Panning, Queen Games)
- Glen More (Matthis Cramer, Alea / Rio Grande Games)
- Hansa Teutonica (Andreas Steding, Argentum Verlag / Z-Man Games)
- Last Train to Wensleydale (Martin Wallace, Treefrog / Warfrog / Argentum Verlag)
- Macao (Stefan Feld, Alea / Ravensburger / Rio Grande Games / White Goblin Games)
- Power Grid Factory Manager (Friedemann Friese, 2F Spiele / Rio Grande Games)
- Rise of Empires (Martin Wallace, Phalanx / Mayfair Games)
- Shipyard (Vladimir Suchy, Czech Games Edition / Heidelberger Spieleverlag / Rio Grande Games)
- Vasco da Gama (Paolo Mori, What's Your Game? / Rio Grande Games)
- World Without End (Michael Rieneck and Stefan Stadler, Kosmos / Mayfair Games)
Two-Player Category
- Burger Joint (Joe Huber, Abacus / Rio Grande Games)
- Campaign Manager 2008 (Christian Leonhard and Jason Matthews, Z-Man Games)
- Claustrophobia (Croc, Asmodée Editions)
- Jaipur (Sebastien Pauchon, Asmodée Editions)
- Stronghold (Ignacy Trzewiczek, IELLO / Phalanx Games / Portal / Valley Games)
It was a remarkable year for designer Martin Wallace, who has three games nominated in the multi-player category (Age of Industry, Last Train to Wensleydale, and Rise of Empires). Dungeon Lords is an extremely clever take on the adventurers-in-a-dungeon theme, and Fresco is a worthy family strategy game that can also be enjoyed at a deeper strategic level.
In the two-player category, I've only played one of the games and it is excellent: Campaign Manager 2008. Recreating the U.S. presidential race between Barack Obama and John McCain, it manages to squeeze the tension and back-and-forth nature of a political campaign into less than an hour.
A detailed look at the nominated games and information about the IGA committee members are available at the International Gamers Awards website.
Fresco image courtesy of Queen Games. Campaign Manager 2008 image courtesy of Z-Man Games. Follow AboutBoardGames on Twitter. Become a fan on Facebook.
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