The voting for the Meeples Choice Awards has ended and the following three games were chosen by the Spielfrieks user group:

THE QUACKS OF QUEDLINBURG

TEOTIHUACAN

BRASS: BIRMINGHAM

Root, which figured to be one of the favorites prior to the voting, fell one vote short. Just one further vote back were Decrypto, New Frontiers, Newton, and The Mind, while Underwater Cities and Space Base rounded out the top 10.

Congratulations to designers Wolfgang Warsch (Quacks), Danielle Tascini (with a tip of the hat to David Turczi, who designed Teotihuacan’s solo game), and the team of Martin Wallace, Gavan Brown, and Matt Tolman, who successfully redesigned Brass: Birmingham from Wallace’s earlier Brass (which also won an MCA, back in 2007). Warsch’s victory merely adds to the luster of his magical 2018. It’s Wallace’s fifth MCA award, and the first he’s had in 8 years. It breaks a tie he had with Alan Moon and Uwe Rosenberg for second most MCA’s; only Knizia (with 10!) has more. Teotihuacan is Tascini’s third MCA nominated game and all of them have won! That ties him with Wolfgang Kramer for fifth place all-time in MCA victories, which is some mighty fine company. It’s the first win for all the other designers. Finally, congratulations as well to the publishers, Schmidt Spiele, NSKN, and Roxley, each of whom earns their first MCA award.

Here are the vote totals for all the nominated games. The first figure is the votes received during the final round, while the second figure (in parentheses) is the vote total during the preliminary round, which determined the nominations.

1. The Quacks of Quedlinburg – 21 (30)

2. Teotihuacan – 13 (20)

3. Brass: Birmingham – 12 (19 )

4. Root – 11 (19)

5. Decrypto – 10 (20)

5. New Frontiers – 10 (14)

5. Newton – 10 (14)

5. The Mind – 10 (14)

9. Underwater Cities – 9 (16)

9. Space Base – 9 (12)

11. Endeavor: Age of Sail – 8 (17)

11. Just One – 8 (16)

11. Blackout: Hong Kong – 8 (10)

14. Gizmos – 7 (16)

14. Welcome To… – 7 (11)

16. 8Lilliput – 6 (8)

17. Coimbra – 5 (17)

17. Key Flow – 5 (10)

17. Architects of the West Kingdom – 5 (9)

20. That’s Pretty Clever – 4 (11)

20. Forum Trajanum – 4 (8)

22. Carpe Diem – 3 (12)

22. Concordia Venus – 3 (9)

22. Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra – 3 (8)

22. Yellow & Yangtze – 3 (8)

26. Drop It – 1 (8)