Best of the Best (2020 Edition)
This week, the 1 Player Guild Gaming Awards for 2020 were announced. As were the Golden Geek Awards on Board Game Geek. Wingspan won in only one category. I think the votes were rigged. I demand a recount.
Best Game
Under Falling Skies was chosen Best Solo Game in this year's BGG Golden Geek Awards. It was also awarded Best Solitaire Game of 2020 by the 1 Player Guild. We wrote about this game when it was still a Print and Play: Unidentified Flying Mother***. I liked it a lot, and it was certainly in my personal top-3 games of 2020.
Runners up were Altar Quest (1PG), Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion (both 1PG and BGG) and Lost Ruins of Arnak (BGG).
Best Expansion
The 1PG picked Spirit Island: Jagged Earth as best expansion, not surprisingly as Spirit Island is the guild's all-time favourite game. The broader audience of Board Game Geek chose Wingspan: Oceania. Again, no surprise here as Wingspan has been the most played game by BGG-members for two years now, and was chosen "best in everything and the kitchen sink" in 2019.
Runners up were these same two winners, in the other award ceremony, plus Obsession: Upstairs, Downstairs (1PG) and some Root expansions (both 1PG and BGG).
Hall of Fame (1 Player Guild)
Furthermore, some very special achievements. This year Matt Leacock (Pandemic, Forbidden Island) got a well-deserved place in the Game Designers Hall of Fame. And Onirim was added to the Hall of Fame for Games.
You can expect session reports on some of the winners later this Summer.
Solitaire Times 2020 Awards
All very interesting đĽą, but of course what you are really waiting for, are this website's yearly awards.
đĽ đĽ đĽ
Solitaire Times 2020 Best Game Award
The winner is... Hallertau! You may think, duh, that JW is a Uwe-fanboy if there ever was one. And you wouldn't be wrong. But this one was actually nominated by Athena. It's that good. Or she hasn't played too many 2020 games.
You can read her initial thoughts here: Growing on me.
Honourable mentions go to Altar Quest and Under Falling Skies.
Solitaire Times 2020 Best Print and Play Award
The winner is... Bomber Boys. I submitted it for the 1 Player Guild awards, and it managed to win there as well. Here's Athena's report, back from when it didn't even have a BGG-page yet. The current version has cool new artwork.
An honourable mention goes to The Brambles: A Solo Card Game. Our report: A deck of curiosities.
Solitaire Times 2020 Best Kickstarted Game Award
The winner is... Astroforce: The Dice Game. It could have been Freedom Five: A Sentinel Comics Board Game, but it felt weird to nominate a game that isn't released yet. The KS campaign was good fun though. Let's see where it ends up in 2021.
Athena would like to add that she received beautiful tiles for Terraforming Mars, and fantastic playmats for Apex Theropod. Unfortunately the dinosaur game itself is still stuck somewhere on its way to Greece.
Solitaire Times 2020 Best Game We Didn't Play Award
Athena's top number one, without competition, is Spirit Island: Jagged Earth. It gets our award this year.
My picks - and official Solitaire Times runner ups - are In Magnificent Style and Lost Ruins of Arnak.
Solitaire Times 2020 Snob Award - "It's Popular So It Must Suck"
We wouldn't touch this with a leaping pole. Wearing gloves. In a hazmat suit. Because, you know, we are so above it. This year's winner is... Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion. Congratulations, Isaac Childres. Well done.
Your favourite game of 2020
If you add a comment to this post with your favourite games of 2020, I will include them as bona fide suggestions for future generations of gamers.
And here they are in alphabetical order:
đ Dune Imperium (Gloomknight)
đ ECK (Cadet Stimpy)
đ Heroes of Tenefyr: The Second Curse (Zerbique)
đ Ruins: Death Binder (Cadet Stimpy)
đ Tasty Humans (Zerbique)
đ Ukyo (Zerbique)
đ Warp's Edge (Cadet Stimpy)
Also recommended:
â Dungeon Flee
â Gate
â Proving Grounds (French edition)
â X-ODUS (unplayed favourite)