When I started Meeple Mountain 4 years ago I was looking up to other media outlets like The Dice Tower, BoardGameGeek, and GeekDad. In addition to producing compelling content, and having a great community of supporters, each of them had a singular board game award related to their brand. Dice Tower had the Dice Tower award, BoardGameGeek had the Golden Geek. and GeekDad had the Golden Bot.
I wanted the same thing for Meeple Mountain…without realizing just how much time and effort goes into playing the games, reviewing the games, compiling lists of nominees, removing titles from the list that just didn’t make the cut, and more. Now that Meeple Mountain has nearly 30 writers, we’re finally in a place where we can produce a relevant, meaningful, and diverse set of winners in 12 different categories.
So without further ado please join me in congratulating the winners of the inaugural 2018 Diamond Climber board game awards.
Best Reprint
Best Artwork
Best Coop Game
Best Filler Game
Best Kickstarter
Best Family Game
Best Expansion
Best RPG
Best Euro Game
Best Thematic Game
Best Gateway Game
Game of the Year
Best Reprint
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Meeple Mountain Winner
Fireball Island: The Curse of Vul-Kar Fan Favorite WinnerBrass: Lancashire |
Best Reprint NomineesContainer |
Best Artwork
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Meeple Mountain Winner
Root Fan Favorite WinnerRoot |
Best Artwork NomineesBrass: Lancashire/Birmingham |
Best Coop Game
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Meeple Mountain Winner
Fan Favorite Winner |
Best Coop Game NomineesThe Mind |
Best Filler Game
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Meeple Mountain Winner
Fan Favorite WinnerThe Mind |
Best Filler Game NomineesThe Mind |
Best Kickstarter
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Meeple Mountain Winner
Fan Favorite WinnerRoot |
Best Kickstarter Game NomineesBrass: Birmingham |
Best Family Game
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Meeple Mountain Winner
Fan Favorite WinnerReef |
Best Family Game NomineesFireball Island: Curse of Vul-Kar |
Best Expansion
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Meeple Mountain Winner
Root: The Riverfolk Expansion Fan Favorite WinnerScythe: The Rise of Fenris |
Best Expansion NomineesT.I.M.E. Stories: Brotherhood of the Coast |
Best RPG
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Meeple Mountain Winner
Kids on Bikes Fan Favorite WinnerOverlight |
Best RPG NomineesWeave |
Best Euro Game
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Meeple Mountain Winner
Coimbra Fan Favorite WinnerCoimbra |
Best Euro Game NomineesKey Flow |
Best Thematic Game
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Meeple Mountain Winner
Fan Favorite WinnerScythe: Rise of Fenris |
Best Thematic Game NomineesDetective: Modern Crime |
Best Gateway Game
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Meeple Mountain Winner
Fan Favorite WinnerReef |
Best Gateway Game NomineesReef |
Game of the Year
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Meeple Mountain Winner
Root Fan Favorite WinnerRising Sun |
Game of the Year NomineesRoot |
Congratulations again to all the winners. Join us again in 2020 where we’ll cover the best board games that 2019 produced! Thanks to everyone in the Meeple Mountain writing team that contributed input and votes (especially Andrew Plassard), and all of you who took part in our open voting. Finally, a huge thank you to Than Gibson for contributing the illustration which at the very core of our award graphic, the Diamond Climber himself.
We’ll be publishing an article soon which discusses the approach we took to running the awards, voting, and data collection. If you’re interested in the data itself, here are the 2018 staff votes and the 2018 fan votes.
Hello Andy. My name is Mónica and I live in South América. I worked during the past 5 years in the invention of a boardgame that has to do with geo-politics (WWII). Fun for all the family, ages 8 to 100. The boardgame has awaken the interest of schools and without having it produced yet (it´s still a model), I already have a few orders. I please need some advice of how can I enter this Meeple Mountain contest. Thank you very much.
Greetings Mónica, the only way to enter is to publish a great quality game. Our writing team plays lots of games throughout the year, and the Diamond Climber awards are given to a game that we’ve played, that we think is worthy of the name.