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While the worldwide board-gaming community has plenty of awards ceremonies, arguably the most important is still the "Spiel des Jahres" (Game of the Year) award issued by Germany's game critics. Past winners have included everything from Catan to Qwirkle, and winning one of the coveted trophies ensures solid sales and (very occasionally) fame and fortune.

This week, the Spiel des Jahres jury released its list of finalists (German) for the main "Spiel des Jahres" prize, which is always family friendly, and the newer "Kennerspiel" award for more complex/advanced games. (We won't cover the prize for children's titles, the "Kinderspiel," but the finalists in that category are Leo miss zum Friseur, Mmm!, and the children's version of the worker placement classic Stone Age.) While the winners won't be picked until July, any of these titles would make a great gift for the board game lover in your life, and the list provides a good starting point for exploring the terrific titles from the past year.

If you're interested in digging deeper than the three finalists, the jury also released lists of additional "recommended" games for the Spiel des Jahres and the Kennerspiel.

Let's take a closer look at the finalists.

Spiel des Jahres



Codenames by Vlaada Chvátil: One of our top picks of 2015, Codenames comes from red-hot Czech designer Chvátil and features clever-but-accessible wordplay for parties of almost any size. Cards with words are laid out in a 5x5 grid. Each team has a "spymaster" who provides only a single-word clue and the number of cards to which that clue applies. The trick is to guess the right words—knowing full well that the more words you aim at, the more tenuous the link between the codenames and your clue will invariably become. And guessing wrong can end the game early. Terrific party game with huge buzz, and probably the favorite to win the award.

Imhotep by Phil Walker-Harding. Moving stones around in boats might not sound like a great idea for a board game, but Imhotep uses its rather pedestrian premise to determine who is the best builder in all of ancient Egypt. Unfortunately, life as a Nile-dwelling builder has its share of irritations, including other builders who attempt to block your stone shipments and halt your grand plans to erect the kingdom's most imposing monuments.

Karuba by Rüdiger Dorn. Karuba is the new title from the creator of Istanbul, which remains one of my personal favorites from the last few years. Karuba combines race mechanics with tile-laying in yet another "pillage the jungle treasure" title. This time, players pillage the island temples of Karuba while picking up gold and jewels along the way.

According to the game's promo copy, "The most important thing is to start running in time! Hurry up, and be the first to reach the temples to collect the most valuable treasures. But be careful! Many paths have dead ends—so you need to be patient and attentive in order to discover the best way through the jungle. The expedition team with the most valuable treasures wins the game."

Kennerspiel des Jahres



Moving on to the "enthusiast" category, the games get more involved, though nothing here is going to burn your brain. Unusual this time around is that two of the three Kennerspiel nominees are essentially single-play "story games" rather than traditional, endlessly repeatable entries.

Isle of Skye: From Chieftain to King by Andreas Pelikan. 15 years ago, I spent an entire day biking 60 miles around the Island of Skye. My dominant memories are of salty ocean air, gorgeous views, and sheep. It was all beautiful and serene, and I sat on a rock and drank a whiskey and thought Deep Thoughts about my Scottish heritage.

What I should have been doing was plotting how to take control of the island as its rightful king. Fortunately, I now have Isle of Skye, the well-received tile game about becoming the island's Celtic chieftain... through the optimized pricing of various goods. (I'm sure that's also how real Celtic kings achieved the top spot.) You set the selling price of particular goods on each turn, naturally wanting the most cash for your wool or whatever. Price your items too high, however, and you'll be stuck paying your own prices as you have to buy back the unwanted goods.

Isle of Skye, though lacking the buzz of titles like Pandemic Legacy, has nevertheless been on a slow burn of good reviews. It has currently crept all the way up the Board Game Geek rankings to take the 23rd spot on the "Family" list.

Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 by Matt Leacock and Rob Daviau. A viral outbreak has taken over the globe and only your team of crack biomedical researchers, doctors, and transportation specialists (!) can stop it. Unlike traditional Pandemic, the "Legacy" version offers an evolving 12-month storyline in which your team's performance one month carries consequences forward into next month's round of bad news. (Read our complete review.) The game is chock full of little boxes to crack open, cardboard dossiers to rip, and characters to level up—and every month brings some kind of novel twist. Probably the odds-on favorite here, judging from the constant chatter about the game over the last six months. How popular is it? Shortly after release, Pandemic Legacy had achieved the overall #1 ranking in Board Game Geek's massive database.

(Season 2 comes out later this year.)

T.I.M.E Stories by Manuel Rozoy. Not so much a game as a narrative, RPG-style system, T.I.M.E Stories offers 3-6 hour adventures in locations as diverse as French asylums, medieval castles, and... Rhineland, Wisconsin. (Read our complete review.) Using gorgeous sets of cards as locations, maps, power-ups, and more, each module offers new rules, new enemies, and new puzzles for your time-traveling team of up to four players. Even if you think you don't like role-playing games, this one is distinct enough to be worth a shot.

Game on

So those are the finalists. Which titles look likeliest to win this year, and which were unaccountably overlooked altogether?