So you may have heard about this little shooting match that happened waaaaaaaay back in the ‘40s? Started out when the Germans decided they needed a little more elbow room and they decided that Austria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and most of Western Europe was perfectly suited to their needs? No? Buddy, you really need to read up on your WWII history.
Tide of Iron is a hex-and-figures boardgame (a combination gaining in popularity) covering actions between the US and German forces on the Western Front in WWII. It is played at the tactical level – squads of soldiers and individual vehicles – and decked out in Fantasy Flight’s trademark gorgeous components and graphics.
Tide of Iron also supports a four-player mode, in which teams play each side; the pieces are color-coordinated in two different shades to support this multiplayer mode.
Who took home the coveted Readers Choice titles for games released in 2014? Charge on and see!
FIRST PLACE WINNERS Unconditional Surrender (Tabletop Strategy / Historical Game) Dead of Winter (Tabletop Sci-Fi / Fantasy Game of the Year) EH – Mountains of Madness (Tabletop Expansion of the Year) Thunder Alley (Tabletop Euro / Casual Game of the Year) Imperial Settlers (Tabletop 4X Game of the Year) The Hunters (2d printing) (Tabletop Reprint / Reissue of the Year) Unconditional Surrender (Tabletop Game of the Year) East Prussia ’14 (Digital Strategy / Historical Game of the Year) Distant Worlds: Universe (Digital Sci-Fi / Fantasy Game of the Year) EUIV – Art of War (Digital Expansion / DLC of the Year) Dragon Age: Inquisition (Digital RPG / Action Game of the Year) East Prussia ’14 (Digital Game of the Year)
Our Readers’ Choice Awards process isn’t hard to figure out – it’s all up to you! All year long we take your nominations in the forum threads we keep open for the whole year, and any game that’s nominated (and that was released within that calendar year) gets included. Our editorial team helps group some of the categories together, but if you nominated it, it’s here somewhere – we only edit out the games that don’t qualify based on their release dates.
This year, we saw some excellent games nominated, and some excellent games not nominated (looking at you, Divinity!), but overall, the readership seems to have conferred the coveted “Readers Choice” titles on some outstanding games
Our bread-and-butter, the Tabletop Strategy / Historical Game, didn’t see a ton of nominations. But to be fair it was a down year overall for tabletop wargame releases. GMT’s Unconditional Surrender handily won with 40% of the vote. For the second year in a row, a COIN system game finished second, as Fire in the Lake had a strong showing. Third and fourth place were both DVG games, with Fleet Commander Nimitz claiming the final spot in this category.
The Tabletop Sci-Fi / Fantasy Game of the Year voting would have been a runaway in any other year, with Dead of Winter taking over half the vote. Xia: Legends of a Drift System finished second, and Run, Fight or Die tied with Mars Attacks for third.
