List of Nominees for the 2008 Game of the Year Award Game of the Year

by Dominique Erhard
Publisher: Zoch Spiele

That’s a first: real woven carpets as gaming pieces. Players lay out their carpets and hope that Omar, the only visitor of the bazaar, often steps on their own floor surface. Whenever a player gets the “Omar” playing piece to stop on another player's carpet, he has to pay a "space rent" to the owner of the carpet. After that, the player lays one of their own rugs onto the board – two squares in size, and ideally covering their opponent’s carpets. The one whose carpets cover most of the squares and who earned most of the money wins the game in the end. The more carpets on the gaming board, the greater the tension and excitement: Will the player still be able to reach a safe square? Or will they have to pay? Short, easy-to-understand rules and beautiful playing materials make “Suleika” (also known as “Marrakech”) a perfect family game.

by Reiner Knizia
Publisher: Kosmos

Players compete on five stone paths and try to advance their pieces as far as possible. Players start with a negative balance – points are granted shortly before the end. Each player receives eight colour cards. To move their pieces, players have to play their cards in ascending or descending order. They may also discard their card as unused – maybe another player needs it? Those who keep too many useless cards won’t get far. The game is quickly over – mind you bring your own pieces to the bonus point stones. “Keltis” is a perfect mixture of luck and tactics spiced with a pinch of malicious glee.

by Andreas Pelikan
Publisher: alea/Ravensburger

Druids, witches and wizards brew strange potions in mysterious cauldrons. Each of the three to five magic masters select 5 out of 12 cards and place the remainder face down in front of them. When a card is played, players having the same card have to play it, too. Doing so, they decide to assume entitlement to the goods from their previous player – risking that another player has the same card and takes over. Or they decide to settle for a small, expensive proportion of the goods. Only the last to play their card is on the safe side. Choosing their cards, players have to evaluate their opponents’ behaviour and their own provisions. However, during the game things sometimes simply seem to be “Wie verhext!” (Jinxed)

by Michael Tummelhofer
Publisher: Hans im Glück

As chieftains of their clans players try to build as many huts as possible. To gather resources they send their people to the forest, the clay pit or the quarry – never knowing about the future yields as only the dices decide how many construction materials the players get. In addition, Stone Age men also set out to go on hunt or work the soil. For players need to feed their clansmen regularly. Civilization cards add another strategic element to the game. They reward specialisation in certain achievements. All these elements beautifully flow into each other. The bustling Stone Age game especially appeals to tacticians.

by Wolfgang Kramer, Jürgen P.K. Grunau, Hans Raggan
Publisher: Ravensburger

Call that a children’s game with blocks? Far from it! Despite of colour cards, large blocks in four colours and a colourful gaming board, building towers had rarely been as insidious as in “Blox”. Players move their pieces along the board to dismantle small towers brick by brick. Blocks are piled up again to larger towers and placed back onto the board. Both actions are awarded with points. However, players always need respective colour cards, because blocks as well as fields have different colours. While dismantling and building towers, players must also keep in mind that their pieces may be chucked out by their opponents – removed pieces get bonus points. Thanks to well-edited gaming rules “Blox” is easy-to-understand, quick to play and appealing in design.