Presenting the nominees of the thirteenth annual Dice Tower Awards for games released in 2019 in categories including artwork, small publisher, new designer, and the game of the year!
Game of the Year
Wingspan is a competitive, medium-weight, card-driven, engine-building board game from Stonemaier Games. It's designed by Elizabeth Hargrave and features over 170 birds illustrated by Beth Sobel, Natalia Rojas, and Ana Maria Martinez.
You are bird enthusiasts—researchers, bird watchers, ornithologists, and collectors—seeking to discover and attract the best birds to your network of wildlife preserves. Each bird extends a chain of powerful combinations in one of your habitats (actions). These habitats focus on several key aspects of growth:
Gain food tokens via custom dice in a birdfeeder dice tower
Lay eggs using egg miniatures in a variety of colors
Draw from hundreds of unique bird cards and play them
The winner is the player with the most points after 4 rounds.
If you enjoy Terraforming Mars and Gizmos, we think this game will take flight at your table.
—description from the publisher
From the 7th printing on, the base game box includes Wingspan: Swift-Start Promo Pack.
You are bird enthusiasts—researchers, bird watchers, ornithologists, and collectors—seeking to discover and attract the best birds to your network of wildlife preserves. Each bird extends a chain of powerful combinations in one of your habitats (actions). These habitats focus on several key aspects of growth:
Gain food tokens via custom dice in a birdfeeder dice tower
Lay eggs using egg miniatures in a variety of colors
Draw from hundreds of unique bird cards and play them
The winner is the player with the most points after 4 rounds.
If you enjoy Terraforming Mars and Gizmos, we think this game will take flight at your table.
—description from the publisher
From the 7th printing on, the base game box includes Wingspan: Swift-Start Promo Pack.
Year Published:
2019
Designers:
Elizabeth Hargrave
Publishers:
Stonemaier Games
Year Published:
2019
Designers:
Evan Derrick
Publishers:
Van Ryder Games
Year Published:
2019
Designers:
Krzysztof Piskorski
Publishers:
Awaken Realms
Year Published:
2019
Designers:
Shem Phillips
Publishers:
Garphill Games
Year Published:
2019
Designers:
Nathan I. Hajek
Publishers:
Fantasy Flight Games
Year Published:
2019
Designers:
Andy Clautice
Publishers:
Dire Wolf
Year Published:
2019
Designers:
Joanna Kijanka
Publishers:
Portal Games
Year Published:
2019
Designers:
Prospero Hall
Publishers:
Ravensburger
Year Published:
2019
Designers:
Matthias Cramer
Publishers:
Frosted Games
Year Published:
2019
Designers:
Alexander Pfister
Publishers:
Game's Up
Best Artwork
PARKS is a celebration of the US National Parks featuring illustrious art from Fifty-Nine Parks.
In PARKS, players will take on the role of two hikers as they trek through different trails across four seasons of the year. While on the trail, these hikers will take actions and collect memories of the places your hikers visit. These memories are represented by various resource tokens like mountains and forests. Collecting these memories in sets will allow players to trade them in to visit a National Park at the end of each hike.
Each trail represents one season of the year, and each season, the trails will change and grow steadily longer. The trails, represented by tiles, get shuffled in between each season and laid out anew for the next round. Resources can be tough to come by especially when someone is at the place you’re trying to reach! Campfires allow you to share a space and time with other hikers. Canteens and Gear can also be used to improve your access to resources through the game. It’ll be tough to manage building up your engine versus spending resources on parks, but we bet you’re up to the challenge. Welcome to PARKS!
—description from the publisher
In PARKS, players will take on the role of two hikers as they trek through different trails across four seasons of the year. While on the trail, these hikers will take actions and collect memories of the places your hikers visit. These memories are represented by various resource tokens like mountains and forests. Collecting these memories in sets will allow players to trade them in to visit a National Park at the end of each hike.
Each trail represents one season of the year, and each season, the trails will change and grow steadily longer. The trails, represented by tiles, get shuffled in between each season and laid out anew for the next round. Resources can be tough to come by especially when someone is at the place you’re trying to reach! Campfires allow you to share a space and time with other hikers. Canteens and Gear can also be used to improve your access to resources through the game. It’ll be tough to manage building up your engine versus spending resources on parks, but we bet you’re up to the challenge. Welcome to PARKS!
—description from the publisher
Year Published:
2019
Designers:
Henry Audubon
Publishers:
Keymaster Games
Year Published:
2010
Designers:
Piotr Haraszczak
Publishers:
Portal Games
Year Published:
2019
Designers:
Galen Ciscell
Publishers:
Elf Creek Games
Year Published:
2019
Designers:
Elizabeth Hargrave
Publishers:
Stonemaier Games
Year Published:
2019
Designers:
Rob Daviau
Publishers:
Mondo Games
Year Published:
2019
Designers:
Henry Audubon
Publishers:
Keymaster Games
