Each year since 1980, GAMES Magazine has published a Buyer's Guide to Games in their year-end holiday issue. The article lists and reviews one hundred games each year, and is therefore known as the "Games 100". The list features the very best games published in the last year.
This is a list of the games selected by Games Magazine for the year 2010, courtesy of Funagain Games:
Game of the Year: Small World
Designed by Philippe Keyaerts as a fantasy follow-up to his award-winning Vinci, Small World is inhabited by a zany cast of characters such as dwarves, wizards, amazons, giants, orcs and even humans; who use their troops to occupy territory and conquer adjacent lands in order to push the other races off the face of the earth. Picking the right combination from the 14 different fantasy races and 20 unique special powers, players rush to expand their empires -- often at the expense of weaker neighbors. Yet they must also know when to push their own over-extended civilization into decline and ride a new one to victory.
Small World's design emphasizes the playful fantasy theme with rich details and components that beg to be played. The game includes: Two double-sided game boards, one for each of four possible player configurations, 14 Fantasy Races with matching banners & tokens, 20 Special Power badges, a variety of Troll Lairs, Mountains, Fortresses, Encampments, Holes-in-the-ground, 2 Heroes and even a Dragon, along with Victory Coins, 6 Player Summary Sheets, a Reinforcement Die, Rules Booklet and a Days of Wonder Online Access Number.
Best Abstract Strategy Game: Blox
Who will build the most valuable towers with a mix of tactics and luck? Who will clear them away and collect the most points? And who will find the right moment to throw their opponent from the board?
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Best Advanced Strategy Game: Le Havre
Le Havre is a game about managing a harbor, building ships and constructing buildings. On each turn, players must decide whether to take good of one type or to carry out a building action.
The number of goods on offer varies from turn to turn. New goods of each kind are added regularly, building up until a player takes them. Wood, clay and iron are building resources. Fish, grain and cattle are used to feed your dock workers. Actions in buildings allow goods to be upgraded -- just turn the tokens over to show the reverse side.
At the end of the game, the player with the largest fortune is the winner. This is the total of the player's cash and the value of his or her ships and buildings.
Le Havre can be played by 1-5 players, either in a shortened version or as a full game, ensuring that it provides the right level of challenge for any game table.
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Best Family Game: Roll Through the Ages: The Bronze Age
Build a thriving civilization -- in under an hour! Collect goods, assign workers to build cities and erect monuments, advance your civilization through cultural and scientific developments, but don't forget to harvest enough food to feed your growing population.
Grab those dice and Roll Through the Ages! in this addictive and strategic new game from Matt Leacock, the designer of the incredibly popular Pandemic. Roll Through the Ages plays in 30-45 minutes. The game is for 1-4 players, ages 8 and up.
Best Family Card Game: Amerigo
It is the Age of Exploration, and fearless navigators set out on grand journeys to seek lands still unexplored. Amerigo Vespucci and others undertake bold travels to discover rare and precious wares from all over the world... hoping that they will please Kings and merchants alike!
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Best Family Strategy Game: Dominion
You are a monarch, like your parents before you, a ruler of a small pleasant kingdom of rivers and evergreens. Unlike your parents, however, you have hopes and dreams! You want a bigger and more pleasant kingdom, with more rivers and a wider variety of trees. You want a Dominion! In all directions lie fiefs, freeholds, and feodums. All are small bits of land, controlled by petty lords and verging on anarchy. You will bring civilization to these people, uniting them under your banner.
But wait! It must be something in the air; several other monarchs have had the exact same idea. You must race to get as much of the unclaimed land as possible, fending them off along the way. To do this you will hire minions, construct buildings, spruce up your castle, and fill the coffers of your treasury. Your parents wouldn't be proud, but your grandparents, would be delighted.
Dominion is not a CCG, but the play of the game is similar to the construction and play of a CCG deck. The game comes complete with roughly 500 cards. You select 10 of the 20+ Kingdom card types to include in any given play -- leading to immense variety.
See Also: Dominion: Intrigue, which adds rules for playing with up to 8 players at two tables or for playing a single game with up to 6 players. This game adds 25 new Kingdom cards and a complete set of Treasure and Victory cards.
Best Party Game: Dixit
The players have hands of oversized cards with various artistic pictures. The active player secretly selects one of his cards and gives a very brief description. The other players secretly select their own cards which match the description. The chosen cards are shuffled and revealed, then players vote on which was chosen by the active player.
Each correct answer gives points to the guesser and the active player. Each incorrect answer gives points to the player who submitted the guessed card. However, if all of the guesses are correct -- or none of them are -- then the active player gets no points and all the other players get points. The game ends when the deck is empty. The greatest total wins the game.
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Best Puzzle: La Ora Stelo
The name means "The Golden Star" in Esperanto, and it's an original multi-polyform set based on combinations of the two golden triangles in groups of one, two and three. The 32 Lucite tiles are in 8 luminous translucent colors. Color arrangements may vary. The 12" tray's floor has 9 rings for forming ascending sizes of pentagons, rhombs, trapezoids, stars and more. Display stand included.
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Best Historical Simulation Game: Fields of Fire
Fields of Fire is a solitaire game of commanding a rifle company between World War II and Present Day. The game is different from many tactical games in that it is diceless and card based. There are two decks used to play. The Terrain Deck is based on a specific region and is used to build a map for the various missions your company must perform. The Action deck serves many purposes in controlling combat, command and control, various activity attempts. The units of the company are counters representing headquarters elements, squads, weapons teams, forward observers, individual vehicles or helicopters. A single playing is a mission and several missions from an historical campaign are strung together for the player to manage experience and replacements. A mission can be played in about 1 – 2 hours.
This game is based on three actual campaigns experienced by units of the 9th US Infantry in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. "Keep Up the Fire" is the motto of the 9th Infantry, known as the "Manchus" for their service in the Boxer Rebellion.
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See Also: Other Award-Winning Board Games, Games 100 Winners for Other Years
