Each year the American Tabletop Awards honors the best board games of the year in the categories of Early Gamers, Casual Games, Strategy Games, and Complex Games. As a judge on the panel Jess joined other industry experts in helping choose titles that included great gameplay, gorgeous art, and awesome overall design. This years winners were announced on April 11 alongside the runner-up titles are for each category.

Early Gamers – boop.

Smirk and Dagger’s Boop took the grand prize this year for early gamers. Designed by Scott Brady and illustrated by Curt Covert, the game combines abstract strategy with adorable cats. In the game you must match up cats and kittens playing on a bed, but newly placed felines will boop others away – sometimes right off of the bed. The simple yet strategic gameplay makes it easy for younger players to learn while still offering up enough challenge to entertain players of all ages.

Runners Up

Kites – Floodgate Games
Mantis – Exploding Kittens

Casual Games – Turing Machine

Based on the computational engine created by Alan Turing in 1936, Turing Machine won this year for the Casual Games category. Designed by Fabien Gridel and Yoann Levet, with art by Sébastien Bizos, the game challenges players to correctly guess a code, by testing sequences against specific rules.  Turing Machine is a perfect game for anyone who love logic puzzles and deduction games.

Runners Up

Next Station: London – Blue Orange Games
Cat in the Box – Bézier Games

Strategy Games – Planet Unknown

Planet Unknown, designed by Ryan Lambert and Adam Rehberg, with art by Yoma, is a competitive strategy game that utilizes drafting and tiles laying to create a game about colonizing a planet. Each turn players will draft tiles from a rotating selection and then place them onto their planet boards to build out their colony and advance their trackers. Players must also watch out for inconvenient meteor strikes that can block their ability to score, but thankfully they have helpful rovers that can be sent to clean up the mess. Planet Unknown will entertain anyone who enjoys engine building and puzzle style games.

Runners Up

Return to Dark Tower – Restoration Games
The Guild of Merchant Explorers – Alderac Entertainment Group

 

Complex Games – Carnegie

Gorgeously illustrated by Ian O’Toole and designed by Xavier Georges, Carnegie is inspired by the life of philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie. In the game, you will recruit employees, expand your business, buy real estate, produce and sell goods, and create routes across America. While complex in strategy, the game simplifies your turn by only offering you four actions to choose from. As a puzzley strategy game, Carnegie is beautifully produced and satisfying to play.

Runners Up

Frosthaven –  Cephalofair Games
My Father’s Work – Renegade Games