Welcome to another attempt at click bait and our second ever Whitespider1066.com awards ceremony.
I know the first one was held earlier last year. But I wanted to include the December games in the running for any of the awards.
Unlike other award ceremonies here at Whitespider1066.com we have tried to keep them to a minimum and have only 4 categories. Technically there is a 5th but that had it’s own post, and may very well generate a lot of hate this year (ok since writing that, it generated none whats so ever).
Also I’d like to remind folks these awards are made up of games that not only came out last year,but where new to me.So they can include games that came out before 2017.
Like last year the awards are starting off with looking at games that really captured their theme.
The contenders for Most Thematic Game of 2017 are:
- Sagrada
- Kanagawa
- The 7th Continent
- Adrenaline
- Star Wars: Rebellion
- Xia: Legends of a Drift System
- Twilight Imperium: Fourth Edition
My Most Thematic Game of 2017 is…
This is a hard one to decide, Xia with its open world sandbox Elite the boardgame, really capturing the sci-fi genre, captaining your own ship, choosing your own way through the universe. I’d almost say it could be rebranded as a Firefly boardgame. However the award is going to Star Wars: Rebellion. It really is the original trilogy in a box. Capturing the epicness of the movies, and the struggles of the Empire and Rebellion. Plus I love Star Wars!
Next up are the games that just look stunning, from the art, to the graphical design, to the components used. These games really do prove you should judge a book by its cover.
The contenders for Best Looking Game of 2017 are:
My Best Looking Game of 2017 is…
I nearly went with Kanagawa with this one, because I love the oriental art style of the game. However I think this award can only go to Santorini. The game just looks so visually stunning when playing with the 3D buildings. The cartoon like art is attractive, bright and appealing. I love it.
For this next award of Best Kickstarter Project to qualify the game had to be delivered in 2017.
I would like to add I have been a little disappointed with one two of the kickstarters last year, mainly due to the fulfilment of the pledges. Somehow I have managed to be one of the last to have his pledge sent out on quite a few last year. If I wasn’t so paranoid I’d suspect a conspiracy of some sort.
The contenders for Best Kickstarter Project 2017 are:
- Gloomhaven (Second Printing)
- Tiny Epic Quest
- Sagrada
- The 7th Continent
- Mint Works
- Xia: Embers of a forsaken star
My Best Kickstarter Project 2017 is…
I think this one will surprise a lot of folks out there. I’m going with Mint Works for this. A great, quick, pocket sized worker placement game that ran fairly smoothly.
Now for the main event…
Like last years inaugural game of the year award I will be picking my game of the year from the winners of this years game of the month awards. Which means that technically my game of the year is a game that may be new to me but not specifically out in 2017.
Here is the complete list of my game of the month winners:
- January – Batman: The Animated Series Dice Game
- February – Santorini
- March – Mint Works
- April – Onitama and Sheriff of Nottingham
- May – Star Wars: Rebellion
- June – Orleans
- July – Xia: Legends of a Drift System
- August – The 7th Continent
- September – No qualifying entry
- October – Red7
- November – No qualifying entry
- December – Twilight Imperium: Fourth Edition
As you can see this is a pretty strong list. However there were two months where I didn’t think any of the new games I played warranted the much coveted title of game of the month.
But a decision has to be made. And I think I know which game it’s going to be.
So my game of 2017 is…
Twilight Imperium: 4th Edition
It was close, very close. Xia, Rebellion and 7th Continent were a hairs width from claiming it themselves.
But what swung it for this space opera, was the politics side of the game. The making alliances, breaking them etc. It’s an important part of the game, that just lifts it above the others in the running. And is such fun.
This game truly defines the word epic. It is such fun to play. A worthy game to take the game of the year award.
So there you have my click bait awards. I hope they were of some interest.