[spielfrieks] 2017 Meeples Choice Awards - Final Results

[[e-mail] [spielfrieks]]

Stop pushing those electrons, everybody—the voting for the 2017 Meeples Choice Awards is over! You known, one of the great things about the MCA’s is that they’ve been around long enough to have established a history. After all, we began the process in 2001 and have voted on years going back to 1995. That means it’s significant when someone accomplishes something for only the second time. It’s also of interest when a formerly dominant award winner barely misses a return to the winner’s circle. To make these ramblings clear, let me cut to the chase and announce that the winners of this year’s Meeples Choice Awards are:

AZUL
HEAVEN & ALE
GAIA PROJECT

Before we delve into history, let’s look at the expectations for this year’s awards. As usual, there were plenty of candidates from last year, with no fewer than 10 games in the Geek’s top 100. The top candidate had to be Gloomhaven, the #1 game on the site. But Spielfriek voters have shown in the past that they march to their own drummer and this year was no exception. Gloomhaven got off to a very slow start during the nomination process and there was real possibility that it might not even make the final cut. However, it did rally late, although it still didn’t make the top 10, making its chances for victory pretty unlikely.

Instead, the two leading vote getters during the first round, by a fairly significant margin, were a couple of Michael Kiesling designs, Heaven & Ale and Azul. The former was something of a surprise, since, even though it is well regarded, it didn’t have the stratospheric ratings of many of last year’s other titles. After those came the two Terra Mystica “spinoffs”, Clans of Caledonia and Gaia Project, along with Reiner Knizia’s El Dorado and Tom Lehmann’s Jump Drive. It figured to be a spirited battle for the three top spots.

And that’s just how it turned out. Azul zoomed to the top of the voting fairly early and by the end of the weekend, it had garnered twice as many votes as any other game, virtually guaranteeing it’s victory. But there was a real scramble for the remaining two positions. At one point, El Dorado and Nusfjord were looking good. But then Gaia Project wedged its way into the top three. Then, Heaven & Ale, which had been hanging back in the voting, despite its excellent showing during the first round, had a late surge on Tuesday and zoomed up to second place. El Dorado still threatened, only one vote behind Gaia. But that last vote never came. Five other games (Altiplano, Clans of Cledonia, Jump Drive, Nusfjord, and The 7th Continent) were only one vote further back. Lisboa rounded out the top ten. Gloomhaven, which is clearly not a favorite of the group, finished in a tie for 11th.

So what’s the history I was talking about earlier? Kiesling becomes only the second designer to have two MCA-winning games in the same calendar year. The only other instance is Knizia, who, remarkably, did it in back-to-back years (1998 and 1999). Kiesling, who has created so many great games with Wolfgang Kramer over the years, but who consequently has lived in his considerable shadow over the last two decades, had a fabulous year last year and this just puts an exclamation point on it.

The other big story is how close Knizia came to winning another award. No one has had more MCA success than Reiner—10 of his games have won and no other designer has more than 4 victories—but his last win was for Blue Moon City, way back in 2006. Since then, none of his games has made a serious bid for an MCA award until this year. El Dorado fell just one vote short. Instead, Gaia Project, which figured to be one of the favorites to finish in the top 3, beat it out.

So congratulations to designers Michael Kiesling, Andreas Schmidt (the co-designer of Heaven & Ale), Jens Drogemuller, and Helge Ostertag. Remarkably, these are the first MCA wins for Kiesling (his best shot among his previous 7 nominations was for Tikal in 1999, but it finished fourth, beaten out by Knizia’s second MCA winner that year, Lost Cities). It’s also Schmidt’s first win, while Drogemuller and Ostertag won previously for Terra Mystica back in 2012. Congratulations as well to the publishers, Plan B Games, eggertspiele, and Feuerland Spiele.

68 people voted in the final round, which is just about as many as voted last year. I’d like to see that number grow a bit, but it’s large enough to yield significant results, so I can live with it. We only had 59 voters during the first round, which is a bit low. I don’t know if more people vote during the last round, because the choices are easier, or if the word doesn’t get out soon enough that the voting has begun. I do post things on the Geek and the Opinionated Gamers websites about both rounds, so I’m not sure how to publicize the beginning of the voting better. Geeklists undoubtedly attract more attention than Forum posts do, so maybe next year, I’ll put together a “Predict the Meeples Choice Award Winners” Geeklist or something, just to get some notice and remind Spielfriek voters that the voting has begun.

I’ve listed the results for the final round at the end of this note. The games are shown in the order of the votes they received during the final election, with the number of votes received during the first round shown in parentheses. If you’ll go to meepleschoice.win and click on the “See Results” button, you’ll be able to see the results of both rounds of voting this year. If you click on a specific election, you can see all the results on one page. If you click on a game title for a particular election, you can see all the public votes for that game, so you can check out how your buddies voted.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the elections. The Meeples Choice Awards are one of the highlights of my gaming year and I look forward to conducting them next year and for many years to come.

Here are the final results of the 2017 MCA’s:

1. Azul – 21 (25)
2. Heaven & Ale – 13 (26)
3. Gaia Project – 12 (16)
4. The Quest for El Dorado – 11 (17)
5. Clans of Caledonia – 10 (19)
5. Jump Drive – 10 (15)
5. Nusfjord – 10 (13)
5. Altiplano – 10 (12)
5. The 7th Continent – 10 (7)
10. Lisboa – 8 (11)
11. Magic Maze – 7 (12)
11. Rajas of the Ganges – 7 (12)
11. Gloomhaven – 7 (11)
11. Photosynthesis – 7 (8)
15. Gentes – 6 (12)
15. Sagrada – 6 (9)
15. Charterstone – 6 (8)
18. Pulsar 2849 – 5 (13)
18. Keyper – 5 (10)
18. Barenpark – 5 (8)
18. Dinosaur Island – 5 (7)
22. Codenames Duet – 4 (13)
22. NMBR 9 – 4 (9)
22. Ethnos – 4 (8)
22. Sidereal Confluence – 4 (7)
26. Riverboat – 3 (8)
27. Santa Maria – 2 (7)

[Jacob Lee [e-mail] [spielfrieks]]

I really pushed for #4 and #5, but I have to admit I'm not very familiar
with The Gaia Project. I have to check it out now!

Thanks again for running a super fun vote! I can understand why you want
the user count to grow (better than the alternative) and I'm sure someday
it will grow big, but for now I enjoy having a vote that's worth so much.

Jacob

Post by ***@comcast.net [spielfrieks]
Stop pushing those electrons, everybody—the voting for the 2017 Meeples
Choice Awards is over! You known, one of the great things about the MCA’s
is that they’ve been around long enough to have established a history.
After all, we began the process in 2001 and have voted on years going back
to 1995. That means it’s significant when someone accomplishes something
for only the second time. It’s also of interest when a formerly dominant
award winner barely misses a return to the winner’s circle. To make these
ramblings clear, let me cut to the chase and announce that the winners of
AZUL
HEAVEN & ALE
GAIA PROJECT
Before we delve into history, let’s look at the expectations for this
year’s awards. As usual, there were plenty of candidates from last year,
with no fewer than 10 games in the Geek’s top 100. The top candidate had
to be Gloomhaven, the #1 game on the site. But Spielfriek voters have
shown in the past that they march to their own drummer and this year was no
exception. Gloomhaven got off to a very slow start during the nomination
process and there was real possibility that it might not even make the
final cut. However, it did rally late, although it still didn’t make the
top 10, making its chances for victory pretty unlikely.
Instead, the two leading vote getters during the first round, by a fairly
significant margin, were a couple of Michael Kiesling designs, Heaven & Ale
and Azul. The former was something of a surprise, since, even though it is
well regarded, it didn’t have the stratospheric ratings of many of last
year’s other titles. After those came the two Terra Mystica “spinoffs”,
Clans of Caledonia and Gaia Project, along with Reiner Knizia’s El Dorado
and Tom Lehmann’s Jump Drive. It figured to be a spirited battle for the
three top spots.
And that’s just how it turned out. Azul zoomed to the top of the voting
fairly early and by the end of the weekend, it had garnered twice as many
votes as any other game, virtually guaranteeing it’s victory. But there
was a real scramble for the remaining two positions. At one point, El
Dorado and Nusfjord were looking good. But then Gaia Project wedged its
way into the top three. Then, Heaven & Ale, which had been hanging back in
the voting, despite its excellent showing during the first round, had a
late surge on Tuesday and zoomed up to second place. El Dorado still
threatened, only one vote behind Gaia. But that last vote never came.
Five other games (Altiplano, Clans of Cledonia, Jump Drive, Nusfjord, and
The 7th Continent) were only one vote further back. Lisboa rounded out the
top ten. Gloomhaven, which is clearly not a favorite of the group,
finished in a tie for 11th.
So what’s the history I was talking about earlier? Kiesling becomes only
the second designer to have two MCA-winning games in the same calendar
year. The only other instance is Knizia, who, remarkably, did it in
back-to-back years (1998 and 1999). Kiesling, who has created so many
great games with Wolfgang Kramer over the years, but who consequently has
lived in his considerable shadow over the last two decades, had a fabulous
year last year and this just puts an exclamation point on it.
The other big story is how close Knizia came to winning another award. No
one has had more MCA success than Reiner—10 of his games have won and no
other designer has more than 4 victories—but his last win was for Blue Moon
City, way back in 2006. Since then, none of his games has made a serious
bid for an MCA award until this year. El Dorado fell just one vote short..
Instead, Gaia Project, which figured to be one of the favorites to finish
in the top 3, beat it out.
So congratulations to designers Michael Kiesling, Andreas Schmidt (the
co-designer of Heaven & Ale), Jens Drogemuller, and Helge Ostertag.
Remarkably, these are the first MCA wins for Kiesling (his best shot among
his previous 7 nominations was for Tikal in 1999, but it finished fourth,
beaten out by Knizia’s second MCA winner that year, Lost Cities). It’s
also Schmidt’s first win, while Drogemuller and Ostertag won previously for
Terra Mystica back in 2012. Congratulations as well to the publishers,
Plan B Games, eggertspiele, and Feuerland Spiele.
68 people voted in the final round, which is just about as many as voted
last year. I’d like to see that number grow a bit, but it’s large enough
to yield significant results, so I can live with it. We only had 59 voters
during the first round, which is a bit low. I don’t know if more people
vote during the last round, because the choices are easier, or if the word
doesn’t get out soon enough that the voting has begun. I do post things on
the Geek and the Opinionated Gamers websites about both rounds, so I’m not
sure how to publicize the beginning of the voting better. Geeklists
undoubtedly attract more attention than Forum posts do, so maybe next year,
I’ll put together a “Predict the Meeples Choice Award Winners” Geeklist or
something, just to get some notice and remind Spielfriek voters that the
voting has begun.
I’ve listed the results for the final round at the end of this note. The
games are shown in the order of the votes they received during the final
election, with the number of votes received during the first round shown in
parentheses. If you’ll go to meepleschoice.win and click on the “See
Results” button, you’ll be able to see the results of both rounds of voting
this year. If you click on a specific election, you can see all the
results on one page. If you click on a game title for a particular
election, you can see all the public votes for that game, so you can check
out how your buddies voted.
Thanks to everyone who participated in the elections. The Meeples Choice
Awards are one of the highlights of my gaming year and I look forward to
conducting them next year and for many years to come.
1. Azul – 21 (25)
2. Heaven & Ale – 13 (26)
3. Gaia Project – 12 (16)
4. The Quest for El Dorado – 11 (17)
5. Clans of Caledonia – 10 (19)
5. Jump Drive – 10 (15)
5. Nusfjord – 10 (13)
5. Altiplano – 10 (12)
5. The 7th Continent – 10 (7)
10. Lisboa – 8 (11)
11. Magic Maze – 7 (12)
11. Rajas of the Ganges – 7 (12)
11. Gloomhaven – 7 (11)
11. Photosynthesis – 7 (8)
15. Gentes – 6 (12)
15. Sagrada – 6 (9)
15. Charterstone – 6 (8)
18. Pulsar 2849 – 5 (13)
18. Keyper – 5 (10)
18. Barenpark – 5 (8)
18. Dinosaur Island – 5 (7)
22. Codenames Duet – 4 (13)
22. NMBR 9 – 4 (9)
22. Ethnos – 4 (8)
22. Sidereal Confluence – 4 (7)
26. Riverboat – 3 (8)
27. Santa Maria – 2 (7)

[Christopher Dearlove [e-mail] [spielfrieks]]

I should have voted, I might have given El Dorado it's extra vote.

El Dorado is, for me, Reiner's best game of the last ten years. That's not a random comment, I did a Geek search for possible competitors and decided it beat them all. You wouldn't have to increase ten years by much for that not to be true, but at ten years it had it for me.

Of course always hPpy to hear which other Knizias of the last ten years you think beat it.

--
Christopher Dearlove

I really pushed for #4 and #5, but I have to admit I'm not very familiar with The Gaia Project. I have to check it out now!
Thanks again for running a super fun vote! I can understand why you want the user count to grow (better than the alternative) and I'm sure someday it will grow big, but for now I enjoy having a vote that's worth so much.
Jacob

Post by ***@comcast.net [spielfrieks]
AZUL
HEAVEN & ALE
GAIA PROJECT
Before we delve into history, let’s look at the expectations for this year’s awards. As usual, there were plenty of candidates from last year, with no fewer than 10 games in the Geek’s top 100. The top candidate had to be Gloomhaven, the #1 game on the site. But Spielfriek voters have shown in the past that they march to their own drummer and this year was no exception. Gloomhaven got off to a very slow start during the nomination process and there was real possibility that it might not even make the final cut. However, it did rally late, although it still didn’t make the top 10, making its chances for victory pretty unlikely.
Instead, the two leading vote getters during the first round, by a fairly significant margin, were a couple of Michael Kiesling designs, Heaven & Ale and Azul. The former was something of a surprise, since, even though it is well regarded, it didn’t have the stratospheric ratings of many of last year’s other titles. After those came the two Terra Mystica “spinoffs”, Clans of Caledonia and Gaia Project, along with Reiner Knizia’s El Dorado and Tom Lehmann’s Jump Drive. It figured to be a spirited battle for the three top spots.
And that’s just how it turned out. Azul zoomed to the top of the voting fairly early and by the end of the weekend, it had garnered twice as many votes as any other game, virtually guaranteeing it’s victory. But there was a real scramble for the remaining two positions. At one point, El Dorado and Nusfjord were looking good. But then Gaia Project wedged its way into the top three. Then, Heaven & Ale, which had been hanging back in the voting, despite its excellent showing during the first round, had a late surge on Tuesday and zoomed up to second place. El Dorado still threatened, only one vote behind Gaia. But that last vote never came. Five other games (Altiplano, Clans of Cledonia, Jump Drive, Nusfjord, and The 7th Continent) were only one vote further back. Lisboa rounded out the top ten. Gloomhaven, which is clearly not a favorite of the group, finished in a tie for 11th.
So what’s the history I was talking about earlier? Kiesling becomes only the second designer to have two MCA-winning games in the same calendar year. The only other instance is Knizia, who, remarkably, did it in back-to-back years (1998 and 1999). Kiesling, who has created so many great games with Wolfgang Kramer over the years, but who consequently has lived in his considerable shadow over the last two decades, had a fabulous year last year and this just puts an exclamation point on it.
The other big story is how close Knizia came to winning another award. No one has had more MCA success than Reiner—10 of his games have won and no other designer has more than 4 victories—but his last win was for Blue Moon City, way back in 2006. Since then, none of his games has made a serious bid for an MCA award until this year. El Dorado fell just one vote short. Instead, Gaia Project, which figured to be one of the favorites to finish in the top 3, beat it out.
So congratulations to designers Michael Kiesling, Andreas Schmidt (the co-designer of Heaven & Ale), Jens Drogemuller, and Helge Ostertag. Remarkably, these are the first MCA wins for Kiesling (his best shot among his previous 7 nominations was for Tikal in 1999, but it finished fourth, beaten out by Knizia’s second MCA winner that year, Lost Cities). It’s also Schmidt’s first win, while Drogemuller and Ostertag won previously for Terra Mystica back in 2012. Congratulations as well to the publishers, Plan B Games, eggertspiele, and Feuerland Spiele.
68 people voted in the final round, which is just about as many as voted last year. I’d like to see that number grow a bit, but it’s large enough to yield significant results, so I can live with it. We only had 59 voters during the first round, which is a bit low. I don’t know if more people vote during the last round, because the choices are easier, or if the word doesn’t get out soon enough that the voting has begun. I do post things on the Geek and the Opinionated Gamers websites about both rounds, so I’m not sure how to publicize the beginning of the voting better. Geeklists undoubtedly attract more attention than Forum posts do, so maybe next year, I’ll put together a “Predict the Meeples Choice Award Winners” Geeklist or something, just to get some notice and remind Spielfriek voters that the voting has begun..
I’ve listed the results for the final round at the end of this note. The games are shown in the order of the votes they received during the final election, with the number of votes received during the first round shown in parentheses. If you’ll go to meepleschoice.win and click on the “See Results” button, you’ll be able to see the results of both rounds of voting this year. If you click on a specific election, you can see all the results on one page. If you click on a game title for a particular election, you can see all the public votes for that game, so you can check out how your buddies voted.
Thanks to everyone who participated in the elections. The Meeples Choice Awards are one of the highlights of my gaming year and I look forward to conducting them next year and for many years to come.
1. Azul – 21 (25)
2. Heaven & Ale – 13 (26)
3. Gaia Project – 12 (16)
4. The Quest for El Dorado – 11 (17)
5. Clans of Caledonia – 10 (19)
5. Jump Drive – 10 (15)
5. Nusfjord – 10 (13)
5. Altiplano – 10 (12)
5. The 7th Continent – 10 (7)
10. Lisboa – 8 (11)
11. Magic Maze – 7 (12)
11. Rajas of the Ganges – 7 (12)
11. Gloomhaven – 7 (11)
11. Photosynthesis – 7 (8)
15. Gentes – 6 (12)
15. Sagrada – 6 (9)
15. Charterstone – 6 (8)
18. Pulsar 2849 – 5 (13)
18. Keyper – 5 (10)
18. Barenpark – 5 (8)
18. Dinosaur Island – 5 (7)
22. Codenames Duet – 4 (13)
22. NMBR 9 – 4 (9)
22. Ethnos – 4 (8)
22. Sidereal Confluence – 4 (7)
26. Riverboat – 3 (8)
27. Santa Maria – 2 (7)

[Clay Blankenship [e-mail] [spielfrieks]]

I will have to check out El Dorado. I hadn't heard much about it.

I don't understand the appeal of Azul. It's pretty but I didn't find it
very interesting.

I've only played about 7 of these (sadly). The only one that has really
excited me is Charterstone.

On Sat, Jun 23, 2018 at 3:42 AM, Christopher Dearlove

Post by Christopher Dearlove ***@gmail.com [spielfrieks]
I should have voted, I might have given El Dorado it's extra vote.
El Dorado is, for me, Reiner's best game of the last ten years. That's not
a random comment, I did a Geek search for possible competitors and decided
it beat them all. You wouldn't have to increase ten years by much for that
not to be true, but at ten years it had it for me.
Of course always hPpy to hear which other Knizias of the last ten years you think beat it.
--
Christopher Dearlove
I really pushed for #4 and #5, but I have to admit I'm not very familiar
with The Gaia Project. I have to check it out now!
Thanks again for running a super fun vote! I can understand why you want
the user count to grow (better than the alternative) and I'm sure someday
it will grow big, but for now I enjoy having a vote that's worth so much.
Jacob

Post by ***@comcast.net [spielfrieks]
Stop pushing those electrons, everybody—the voting for the 2017 Meeples
Choice Awards is over! You known, one of the great things about the MCA’s
is that they’ve been around long enough to have established a history.
After all, we began the process in 2001 and have voted on years going back
to 1995. That means it’s significant when someone accomplishes something
for only the second time. It’s also of interest when a formerly dominant
award winner barely misses a return to the winner’s circle. To make these
ramblings clear, let me cut to the chase and announce that the winners of
AZUL
HEAVEN & ALE
GAIA PROJECT
Before we delve into history, let’s look at the expectations for this
year’s awards. As usual, there were plenty of candidates from last year,
with no fewer than 10 games in the Geek’s top 100. The top candidate had
to be Gloomhaven, the #1 game on the site. But Spielfriek voters have
shown in the past that they march to their own drummer and this year was no
exception. Gloomhaven got off to a very slow start during the nomination
process and there was real possibility that it might not even make the
final cut. However, it did rally late, although it still didn’t make the
top 10, making its chances for victory pretty unlikely.
Instead, the two leading vote getters during the first round, by a fairly
significant margin, were a couple of Michael Kiesling designs, Heaven & Ale
and Azul. The former was something of a surprise, since, even though it is
well regarded, it didn’t have the stratospheric ratings of many of last
year’s other titles. After those came the two Terra Mystica “spinoffs”,
Clans of Caledonia and Gaia Project, along with Reiner Knizia’s El Dorado
and Tom Lehmann’s Jump Drive. It figured to be a spirited battle for the
three top spots.
And that’s just how it turned out. Azul zoomed to the top of the voting
fairly early and by the end of the weekend, it had garnered twice as many
votes as any other game, virtually guaranteeing it’s victory. But there
was a real scramble for the remaining two positions. At one point, El
Dorado and Nusfjord were looking good. But then Gaia Project wedged its
way into the top three. Then, Heaven & Ale, which had been hanging back in
the voting, despite its excellent showing during the first round, had a
late surge on Tuesday and zoomed up to second place. El Dorado still
threatened, only one vote behind Gaia. But that last vote never came.
Five other games (Altiplano, Clans of Cledonia, Jump Drive, Nusfjord, and
The 7th Continent) were only one vote further back. Lisboa rounded out the
top ten. Gloomhaven, which is clearly not a favorite of the group,
finished in a tie for 11th.
So what’s the history I was talking about earlier? Kiesling becomes only
the second designer to have two MCA-winning games in the same calendar
year. The only other instance is Knizia, who, remarkably, did it in
back-to-back years (1998 and 1999). Kiesling, who has created so many
great games with Wolfgang Kramer over the years, but who consequently has
lived in his considerable shadow over the last two decades, had a fabulous
year last year and this just puts an exclamation point on it.
The other big story is how close Knizia came to winning another award.
No one has had more MCA success than Reiner—10 of his games have won and no
other designer has more than 4 victories—but his last win was for Blue Moon
City, way back in 2006. Since then, none of his games has made a serious
bid for an MCA award until this year. El Dorado fell just one vote short.
Instead, Gaia Project, which figured to be one of the favorites to finish
in the top 3, beat it out.
So congratulations to designers Michael Kiesling, Andreas Schmidt (the
co-designer of Heaven & Ale), Jens Drogemuller, and Helge Ostertag.
Remarkably, these are the first MCA wins for Kiesling (his best shot among
his previous 7 nominations was for Tikal in 1999, but it finished fourth,
beaten out by Knizia’s second MCA winner that year, Lost Cities).. It’s
also Schmidt’s first win, while Drogemuller and Ostertag won previously for
Terra Mystica back in 2012. Congratulations as well to the publishers,
Plan B Games, eggertspiele, and Feuerland Spiele.
68 people voted in the final round, which is just about as many as voted
last year. I’d like to see that number grow a bit, but it’s large enough
to yield significant results, so I can live with it. We only had 59 voters
during the first round, which is a bit low. I don’t know if more people
vote during the last round, because the choices are easier, or if the word
doesn’t get out soon enough that the voting has begun. I do post things on
the Geek and the Opinionated Gamers websites about both rounds, so I’m not
sure how to publicize the beginning of the voting better. Geeklists
undoubtedly attract more attention than Forum posts do, so maybe next year,
I’ll put together a “Predict the Meeples Choice Award Winners” Geeklist or
something, just to get some notice and remind Spielfriek voters that the
voting has begun.
I’ve listed the results for the final round at the end of this note. The
games are shown in the order of the votes they received during the final
election, with the number of votes received during the first round shown in
parentheses. If you’ll go to meepleschoice.win and click on the “See
Results” button, you’ll be able to see the results of both rounds of voting
this year. If you click on a specific election, you can see all the
results on one page. If you click on a game title for a particular
election, you can see all the public votes for that game, so you can check
out how your buddies voted.
Thanks to everyone who participated in the elections. The Meeples Choice
Awards are one of the highlights of my gaming year and I look forward to
conducting them next year and for many years to come.
1. Azul – 21 (25)
2. Heaven & Ale – 13 (26)
3. Gaia Project – 12 (16)
4. The Quest for El Dorado – 11 (17)
5. Clans of Caledonia – 10 (19)
5. Jump Drive – 10 (15)
5. Nusfjord – 10 (13)
5. Altiplano – 10 (12)
5. The 7th Continent – 10 (7)
10. Lisboa – 8 (11)
11. Magic Maze – 7 (12)
11. Rajas of the Ganges – 7 (12)
11. Gloomhaven – 7 (11)
11. Photosynthesis – 7 (8)
15. Gentes – 6 (12)
15. Sagrada – 6 (9)
15. Charterstone – 6 (8)
18. Pulsar 2849 – 5 (13)
18. Keyper – 5 (10)
18. Barenpark – 5 (8)
18. Dinosaur Island – 5 (7)
22. Codenames Duet – 4 (13)
22. NMBR 9 – 4 (9)
22. Ethnos – 4 (8)
22. Sidereal Confluence – 4 (7)
26. Riverboat – 3 (8)
27. Santa Maria – 2 (7)

[Doug Orleans [e-mail] [spielfrieks]]

I don't get the popularity of Azul either. It's not terrible, but it's so
dry and not particularly elegant.

I definitely recommend Quest for El Dorado, though.

Post by Clay Blankenship ***@gmail.com [spielfrieks]
I will have to check out El Dorado. I hadn't heard much about it.
I don't understand the appeal of Azul. It's pretty but I didn't find it
very interesting.
I've only played about 7 of these (sadly). The only one that has really
excited me is Charterstone.
On Sat, Jun 23, 2018 at 3:42 AM, Christopher Dearlove

Post by Christopher Dearlove ***@gmail.com [spielfrieks]
I should have voted, I might have given El Dorado it's extra vote.
El Dorado is, for me, Reiner's best game of the last ten years. That's
not a random comment, I did a Geek search for possible competitors and
decided it beat them all. You wouldn't have to increase ten years by much
for that not to be true, but at ten years it had it for me.
Of course always hPpy to hear which other Knizias of the last ten years
you think beat it.
--
Christopher Dearlove
I really pushed for #4 and #5, but I have to admit I'm not very familiar
with The Gaia Project. I have to check it out now!
Thanks again for running a super fun vote! I can understand why you want
the user count to grow (better than the alternative) and I'm sure someday
it will grow big, but for now I enjoy having a vote that's worth so much..
Jacob

Post by ***@comcast.net [spielfrieks]
Stop pushing those electrons, everybody—the voting for the 2017 Meeples
Choice Awards is over! You known, one of the great things about the MCA’s
is that they’ve been around long enough to have established a history.
After all, we began the process in 2001 and have voted on years going back
to 1995. That means it’s significant when someone accomplishes something
for only the second time. It’s also of interest when a formerly dominant
award winner barely misses a return to the winner’s circle. To make these
ramblings clear, let me cut to the chase and announce that the winners of
AZUL
HEAVEN & ALE
GAIA PROJECT
Before we delve into history, let’s look at the expectations for this
year’s awards. As usual, there were plenty of candidates from last year,
with no fewer than 10 games in the Geek’s top 100. The top candidate had
to be Gloomhaven, the #1 game on the site. But Spielfriek voters have
shown in the past that they march to their own drummer and this year was no
exception. Gloomhaven got off to a very slow start during the nomination
process and there was real possibility that it might not even make the
final cut. However, it did rally late, although it still didn’t make the
top 10, making its chances for victory pretty unlikely.
Instead, the two leading vote getters during the first round, by a
fairly significant margin, were a couple of Michael Kiesling designs,
Heaven & Ale and Azul. The former was something of a surprise, since, even
though it is well regarded, it didn’t have the stratospheric ratings of
many of last year’s other titles. After those came the two Terra Mystica
“spinoffs”, Clans of Caledonia and Gaia Project, along with Reiner Knizia’s
El Dorado and Tom Lehmann’s Jump Drive. It figured to be a spirited battle
for the three top spots.
And that’s just how it turned out. Azul zoomed to the top of the voting
fairly early and by the end of the weekend, it had garnered twice as many
votes as any other game, virtually guaranteeing it’s victory. But there
was a real scramble for the remaining two positions. At one point, El
Dorado and Nusfjord were looking good. But then Gaia Project wedged its
way into the top three. Then, Heaven & Ale, which had been hanging back in
the voting, despite its excellent showing during the first round, had a
late surge on Tuesday and zoomed up to second place. El Dorado still
threatened, only one vote behind Gaia. But that last vote never came.
Five other games (Altiplano, Clans of Cledonia, Jump Drive, Nusfjord, and
The 7th Continent) were only one vote further back. Lisboa rounded out the
top ten. Gloomhaven, which is clearly not a favorite of the group,
finished in a tie for 11th.
So what’s the history I was talking about earlier? Kiesling becomes
only the second designer to have two MCA-winning games in the same calendar
year. The only other instance is Knizia, who, remarkably, did it in
back-to-back years (1998 and 1999). Kiesling, who has created so many
great games with Wolfgang Kramer over the years, but who consequently has
lived in his considerable shadow over the last two decades, had a fabulous
year last year and this just puts an exclamation point on it.
The other big story is how close Knizia came to winning another award.
No one has had more MCA success than Reiner—10 of his games have won and no
other designer has more than 4 victories—but his last win was for Blue Moon
City, way back in 2006. Since then, none of his games has made a serious
bid for an MCA award until this year. El Dorado fell just one vote short.
Instead, Gaia Project, which figured to be one of the favorites to finish
in the top 3, beat it out.
So congratulations to designers Michael Kiesling, Andreas Schmidt (the
co-designer of Heaven & Ale), Jens Drogemuller, and Helge Ostertag.
Remarkably, these are the first MCA wins for Kiesling (his best shot among
his previous 7 nominations was for Tikal in 1999, but it finished fourth,
beaten out by Knizia’s second MCA winner that year, Lost Cities). It’s
also Schmidt’s first win, while Drogemuller and Ostertag won previously for
Terra Mystica back in 2012. Congratulations as well to the publishers,
Plan B Games, eggertspiele, and Feuerland Spiele.
68 people voted in the final round, which is just about as many as voted
last year. I’d like to see that number grow a bit, but it’s large enough
to yield significant results, so I can live with it. We only had 59 voters
during the first round, which is a bit low. I don’t know if more people
vote during the last round, because the choices are easier, or if the word
doesn’t get out soon enough that the voting has begun. I do post things on
the Geek and the Opinionated Gamers websites about both rounds, so I’m not
sure how to publicize the beginning of the voting better. Geeklists
undoubtedly attract more attention than Forum posts do, so maybe next year,
I’ll put together a “Predict the Meeples Choice Award Winners” Geeklist or
something, just to get some notice and remind Spielfriek voters that the
voting has begun.
I’ve listed the results for the final round at the end of this note.
The games are shown in the order of the votes they received during the
final election, with the number of votes received during the first round
shown in parentheses. If you’ll go to meepleschoice.win and click on the
“See Results” button, you’ll be able to see the results of both rounds of
voting this year. If you click on a specific election, you can see all the
results on one page. If you click on a game title for a particular
election, you can see all the public votes for that game, so you can check
out how your buddies voted.
Thanks to everyone who participated in the elections. The Meeples
Choice Awards are one of the highlights of my gaming year and I look
forward to conducting them next year and for many years to come.
1. Azul – 21 (25)
2. Heaven & Ale – 13 (26)
3. Gaia Project – 12 (16)
4. The Quest for El Dorado – 11 (17)
5. Clans of Caledonia – 10 (19)
5. Jump Drive – 10 (15)
5. Nusfjord – 10 (13)
5. Altiplano – 10 (12)
5. The 7th Continent – 10 (7)
10. Lisboa – 8 (11)
11. Magic Maze – 7 (12)
11. Rajas of the Ganges – 7 (12)
11. Gloomhaven – 7 (11)
11. Photosynthesis – 7 (8)
15. Gentes – 6 (12)
15. Sagrada – 6 (9)
15. Charterstone – 6 (8)
18. Pulsar 2849 – 5 (13)
18. Keyper – 5 (10)
18. Barenpark – 5 (8)
18. Dinosaur Island – 5 (7)
22. Codenames Duet – 4 (13)
22. NMBR 9 – 4 (9)
22. Ethnos – 4 (8)
22. Sidereal Confluence – 4 (7)
26. Riverboat – 3 (8)
27. Santa Maria – 2 (7)

--
"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." --Helen Keller

[Stephen Glenn [e-mail] [spielfrieks]]

Post by Doug Orleans ***@gmail.com [spielfrieks]
I don't get the popularity of Azul either. It's not terrible, but it's so
dry and not particularly elegant..

+1

But I think it's just been proven that, at least in this group, we're in
the minority.

[Doug Orleans [e-mail] [spielfrieks]]

Post by Stephen Glenn ***@gmail.com [spielfrieks]
But I think it's just been proven that, at least in this group, we're in
the minority.

Well, 34 of 59 first-round voters left it off their ballots, so I think
we're still in the majority... The Azul-lovers just have the biggest
minority.

--Doug

[Bobby Warren [e-mail] [spielfrieks]]

The rest of the people who did not vote for Azul are just upset that they couldn’t get one of the new, spiffy first player markers And are stuck with the limited-edition cardboard ones. ;-)

Well, 34 of 59 first-round voters left it off their ballots, so I think we're still in the majority... The Azul-lovers just have the biggest minority.

[[e-mail] [spielfrieks]]

While I can think of a few games that Knizia has released over the past decade that I'd rather play than El Dorado (FITS would probably be my top choice), none of them are by a large margin. I quite enjoyed my one play of El Dorado and recognize there's some good things to explore then. So while I have no problem in someone saying that this is Reiner's best game from the past 10 years, for me, it's damning with faint praise. Knizia has not been a significant designer for me since 2006. That year, he released what I consider to be his last great game (Medici vs. Strozzi), as well as Blue Moon City, which is quite good and has gotten a good deal of play over the years. There have been a few titles worth checking out over the last dozen years, but hardly enough to raise him above a bunch of other designers of far less pedigree than him. The good news is, Reiner is showing signs of life since turning 60, with El Dorado being one of the more prominent instances, so the Good Doctor may still have some surprises for us. I certainly hope so--he was so good for so long.

I also agree about being tepid over Azul. Prior to playing it, I thought it would be too abstract for my tastes and that's just how it turned out. Combine that with the likelihood of nasty play and a reasonable shot at required kingmaking and it's not a game I have any desire to play again. I'm much more bullish about Kiesling's other two big games of the year, Heaven & Ale and Riverboat. In fact, H&A and Gaia Project are my two leading choices for my personal Game of the Year. So I'm pretty pleased with how the voting turned out.


Larry

[Christopher Dearlove [e-mail] [spielfrieks]]

Whether damning with faint praise or not is another question. And how El Dorado would rate up against the Knizia heavyweights is difficult. Not top ten, but conceivably top twenty, though I think I might find twenty Knizias I prefer.

But in the ten year competition FITS is a competitor. In fact it and El Dorado are the (only I think) two Knizia games I have put in specific requests for, back in the tailing off days when I could pick them up for free. I'd pick El Dorado over FITS, but that of course is just opinion.

--
Christopher Dearlove

Post by ***@comcast.net [spielfrieks]
While I can think of a few games that Knizia has released over the past decade that I'd rather play than El Dorado (FITS would probably be my top choice), none of them are by a large margin. I quite enjoyed my one play of El Dorado and recognize there's some good things to explore then. So while I have no problem in someone saying that this is Reiner's best game from the past 10 years, for me, it's damning with faint praise. Knizia has not been a significant designer for me since 2006. That year, he released what I consider to be his last great game (Medici vs. Strozzi), as well as Blue Moon City, which is quite good and has gotten a good deal of play over the years. There have been a few titles worth checking out over the last dozen years, but hardly enough to raise him above a bunch of other designers of far less pedigree than him. The good news is, Reiner is showing signs of life since turning 60, with El Dorado being one of the more prominent instances, so the Good Doctor may still have some surprises for us. I certainly hope so--he was so good for so long.
I also agree about being tepid over Azul. Prior to playing it, I thought it would be too abstract for my tastes and that's just how it turned out. Combine that with the likelihood of nasty play and a reasonable shot at required kingmaking and it's not a game I have any desire to play again. I'm much more bullish about Kiesling's other two big games of the year, Heaven & Ale and Riverboat. In fact, H&A and Gaia Project are my two leading choices for my personal Game of the Year. So I'm pretty pleased with how the voting turned out.
Larry

[Mark Johnson [e-mail] [spielfrieks]]

Thanks to Larry for keeping the torch burning for the Meeples Choice Award.
Every year I'm pleased to see it's still chugging along, and remain happy
with the process & its outcomes. I like that you set up a geeklist for
these, too.

https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/242585/2017-meeples-choice-award-winners

I'm really happy with Azul. Just about every year I get excited by some
attractive abstract that catches my eye, but they're often a letdown when
they are thinky games with perfect information and require lookahead. I
realize that's what a lot of abstracts are, and what abstract fans want in
them...but not me. I want the beauty of an abstract, with some luck,
imperfect info, and multiplayer interaction of our more typical wargames.
That gives me the best of both worlds. Azul was exactly that for me--a rare
find.

Ethnos was another big favorite from last year, but I see it's way down
near the bottom of the voting. Too bad. I think my third pick was El
Dorado, which I like more than love.



On Sat, Jun 23, 2018 at 9:34 AM, Christopher Dearlove

Post by Christopher Dearlove ***@gmail.com [spielfrieks]
Whether damning with faint praise or not is another question. And how El
Dorado would rate up against the Knizia heavyweights is difficult. Not top
ten, but conceivably top twenty, though I think I might find twenty Knizias
I prefer.
But in the ten year competition FITS is a competitor. In fact it and El
Dorado are the (only I think) two Knizia games I have put in specific
requests for, back in the tailing off days when I could pick them up for
free. I'd pick El Dorado over FITS, but that of course is just opinion.
--
Christopher Dearlove
While I can think of a few games that Knizia has released over the past
decade that I'd rather play than El Dorado (FITS would probably be my top
choice), none of them are by a large margin. I quite enjoyed my one play
of El Dorado and recognize there's some good things to explore then. So
while I have no problem in someone saying that this is Reiner's best game
from the past 10 years, for me, it's damning with faint praise. Knizia has
not been a significant designer for me since 2006. That year, he released
what I consider to be his last great game (Medici vs. Strozzi), as well as
Blue Moon City, which is quite good and has gotten a good deal of play over
the years. There have been a few titles worth checking out over the last
dozen years, but hardly enough to raise him above a bunch of other
designers of far less pedigree than him. The good news is, Reiner is
showing signs of life since turning 60, with El Dorado being one of the
more prominent instances, so the Good Doctor may still have some surprises
for us. I certainly hope so--he was so good for so long.
I also agree about being tepid over Azul. Prior to playing it, I thought
it would be too abstract for my tastes and that's just how it turned out.
Combine that with the likelihood of nasty play and a reasonable shot at
required kingmaking and it's not a game I have any desire to play again.
I'm much more bullish about Kiesling's other two big games of the year,
Heaven & Ale and Riverboat. In fact, H&A and Gaia Project are my two
leading choices for my personal Game of the Year. So I'm pretty pleased
with how the voting turned out.
Larry

[[e-mail] [spielfrieks]]

So here's a couple of interesting historical notes about this year's winners.

Azul is only the seventh game to get more than 50% of the votes of the second place game. Here are the previous instances:


1998: Through the Desert over Elfenland (36-23)
2000: Princes of Florence over Carcassonne (41-26)
2002: Puerto Rico over Age of Steam (129-49)
2005: Caylus over Louis XIV (92-42)
2010: 7 Wonders over Innovation (54-27)
2013: Russian Railroads over Bora Bora (28-18)
2017: Azul over Heaven & Ale (21-13)


So not true dominance, as we saw with PR, Caylus, and 7 Wonders, each of which at least doubled the vote of the second place game, but still pretty impressive.


The other achievement is that Kiesling becomes the first designer to have games in the top 2 spots. When Knizia also got two MCA's in '98 and '99, his games finished first and third in both years. Interestingly, Alan Moon got the second place game each year. The games:


1998: Through the Desert; Elfenland; Samurai
1999: Ra; Union Pacific; Lost Cities


So it was the Reiner and Alan show for consecutive years! But Kiesling's achievement is truly impressive.


Larry

['ted cheatham' [e-mail] [spielfrieks]]

I am a fan of El Dorado. It plays fine at all player counts. My wife and I have gotten through all the board layouts and have downloaded some extreme maps from the geek.





From: ***@yahoogroups.com [mailto:***@yahoogroups.com]
Sent: Saturday, June 23, 2018 11:17 AM
To: ***@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [spielfrieks] 2017 Meeples Choice Awards - Final Results





I will have to check out El Dorado. I hadn't heard much about it.



I don't understand the appeal of Azul. It's pretty but I didn't find it very interesting.



I've only played about 7 of these (sadly). The only one that has really excited me is Charterstone.



On Sat, Jun 23, 2018 at 3:42 AM, Christopher Dearlove ***@gmail.com [spielfrieks] <***@yahoogroups.com> wrote:



I should have voted, I might have given El Dorado it's extra vote.



El Dorado is, for me, Reiner's best game of the last ten years. That's not a random comment, I did a Geek search for possible competitors and decided it beat them all. You wouldn't have to increase ten years by much for that not to be true, but at ten years it had it for me.



Of course always hPpy to hear which other Knizias of the last ten years you think beat it.

--

Christopher Dearlove

***@gmail.com

***@mnemosyne.demon.co.uk <mailto:***@mnemosyne.demon.co..uk> is dead


On 23 Jun 2018, at 06:48, Jacob Lee ***@gmail.com [spielfrieks] <***@yahoogroups.com> wrote:



I really pushed for #4 and #5, but I have to admit I'm not very familiar with The Gaia Project. I have to check it out now!



Thanks again for running a super fun vote! I can understand why you want the user count to grow (better than the alternative) and I'm sure someday it will grow big, but for now I enjoy having a vote that's worth so much.



Jacob



On 22 June 2018 at 13:25, ***@comcast.net [spielfrieks] <***@yahoogroups.com> wrote:



Stop pushing those electrons, everybody—the voting for the 2017 Meeples Choice Awards is over! You known, one of the great things about the MCA’s is that they’ve been around long enough to have established a history. After all, we began the process in 2001 and have voted on years going back to 1995. That means it’s significant when someone accomplishes something for only the second time. It’s also of interest when a formerly dominant award winner barely misses a return to the winner’s circle. To make these ramblings clear, let me cut to the chase and announce that the winners of this year’s Meeples Choice Awards are:



AZUL

HEAVEN & ALE

GAIA PROJECT



Before we delve into history, let’s look at the expectations for this year’s awards. As usual, there were plenty of candidates from last year, with no fewer than 10 games in the Geek’s top 100. The top candidate had to be Gloomhaven, the #1 game on the site. But Spielfriek voters have shown in the past that they march to their own drummer and this year was no exception. Gloomhaven got off to a very slow start during the nomination process and there was real possibility that it might not even make the final cut. However, it did rally late, although it still didn’t make the top 10, making its chances for victory pretty unlikely.



Instead, the two leading vote getters during the first round, by a fairly significant margin, were a couple of Michael Kiesling designs, Heaven & Ale and Azul. The former was something of a surprise, since, even though it is well regarded, it didn’t have the stratospheric ratings of many of last year’s other titles. After those came the two Terra Mystica “spinoffs”, Clans of Caledonia and Gaia Project, along with Reiner Knizia’s El Dorado and Tom Lehmann’s Jump Drive. It figured to be a spirited battle for the three top spots.



And that’s just how it turned out. Azul zoomed to the top of the voting fairly early and by the end of the weekend, it had garnered twice as many votes as any other game, virtually guaranteeing it’s victory. But there was a real scramble for the remaining two positions. At one point, El Dorado and Nusfjord were looking good. But then Gaia Project wedged its way into the top three. Then, Heaven & Ale, which had been hanging back in the voting, despite its excellent showing during the first round, had a late surge on Tuesday and zoomed up to second place. El Dorado still threatened, only one vote behind Gaia. But that last vote never came. Five other games (Altiplano, Clans of Cledonia, Jump Drive, Nusfjord, and The 7th Continent) were only one vote further back. Lisboa rounded out the top ten. Gloomhaven, which is clearly not a favorite of the group, finished in a tie for 11th.



So what’s the history I was talking about earlier? Kiesling becomes only the second designer to have two MCA-winning games in the same calendar year. The only other instance is Knizia, who, remarkably, did it in back-to-back years (1998 and 1999). Kiesling, who has created so many great games with Wolfgang Kramer over the years, but who consequently has lived in his considerable shadow over the last two decades, had a fabulous year last year and this just puts an exclamation point on it.



The other big story is how close Knizia came to winning another award. No one has had more MCA success than Reiner—10 of his games have won and no other designer has more than 4 victories—but his last win was for Blue Moon City, way back in 2006. Since then, none of his games has made a serious bid for an MCA award until this year. El Dorado fell just one vote short. Instead, Gaia Project, which figured to be one of the favorites to finish in the top 3, beat it out.



So congratulations to designers Michael Kiesling, Andreas Schmidt (the co-designer of Heaven & Ale), Jens Drogemuller, and Helge Ostertag. Remarkably, these are the first MCA wins for Kiesling (his best shot among his previous 7 nominations was for Tikal in 1999, but it finished fourth, beaten out by Knizia’s second MCA winner that year, Lost Cities). It’s also Schmidt’s first win, while Drogemuller and Ostertag won previously for Terra Mystica back in 2012. Congratulations as well to the publishers, Plan B Games, eggertspiele, and Feuerland Spiele.



68 people voted in the final round, which is just about as many as voted last year. I’d like to see that number grow a bit, but it’s large enough to yield significant results, so I can live with it. We only had 59 voters during the first round, which is a bit low. I don’t know if more people vote during the last round, because the choices are easier, or if the word doesn’t get out soon enough that the voting has begun. I do post things on the Geek and the Opinionated Gamers websites about both rounds, so I’m not sure how to publicize the beginning of the voting better. Geeklists undoubtedly attract more attention than Forum posts do, so maybe next year, I’ll put together a “Predict the Meeples Choice Award Winners” Geeklist or something, just to get some notice and remind Spielfriek voters that the voting has begun.



I’ve listed the results for the final round at the end of this note.. The games are shown in the order of the votes they received during the final election, with the number of votes received during the first round shown in parentheses. If you’ll go to meepleschoice.win and click on the “See Results” button, you’ll be able to see the results of both rounds of voting this year. If you click on a specific election, you can see all the results on one page. If you click on a game title for a particular election, you can see all the public votes for that game, so you can check out how your buddies voted.



Thanks to everyone who participated in the elections. The Meeples Choice Awards are one of the highlights of my gaming year and I look forward to conducting them next year and for many years to come.



Here are the final results of the 2017 MCA’s:



1. Azul – 21 (25)

2. Heaven & Ale – 13 (26)

3. Gaia Project – 12 (16)

4. The Quest for El Dorado – 11 (17)

5. Clans of Caledonia – 10 (19)

5. Jump Drive – 10 (15)

5. Nusfjord – 10 (13)

5. Altiplano – 10 (12)

5. The 7th Continent – 10 (7)

10. Lisboa – 8 (11)

11. Magic Maze – 7 (12)

11. Rajas of the Ganges – 7 (12)

11. Gloomhaven – 7 (11)

11. Photosynthesis – 7 (8)

15. Gentes – 6 (12)

15. Sagrada – 6 (9)

15. Charterstone – 6 (8)

18. Pulsar 2849 – 5 (13)

18. Keyper – 5 (10)

18. Barenpark – 5 (8)

18. Dinosaur Island – 5 (7)

22. Codenames Duet – 4 (13)

22. NMBR 9 – 4 (9)

22. Ethnos – 4 (8)

22. Sidereal Confluence – 4 (7)

26. Riverboat – 3 (8)

27. Santa Maria – 2 (7)

[Chris Trimmer [e-mail] [spielfrieks]]

I nominate Viticulture and BattleLore (2nd edition).

[[e-mail] [spielfrieks]]

I'll second Quantum, Navajo Wars and Ravens of Thri Sahashri!