Hegemony: Lead Your Class to Victory took the spotlight at the 18th Annual Golden Geek Awards for 2023, snagging a total of 3 wins! Hot on its heels was Sky Team with 2 wins. The winners were chosen by the awesome community of BoardGameGeek.
Awards like this give a well-deserved nod to hard work, creativity, and excellence. Winning one (or even be nominated) is a powerful affirmation that someone's efforts and talents are truly appreciated and valued by their peers and industry experts. We want to highlight a couple of games their merits
Hegemony: Lead Your Class to Victory
A unique, asymmetric, card-driven 1-4 player board game experience about politics and the economy. A whole nation in one box!
📷: Tabletopping
The nation is in disarray and a war is waging between the classes. The working class faces a dismantled welfare system, the capitalists are losing their hard-earned profits, the middle class is gradually fading, and the state is sinking into a deep deficit. Amidst all this chaos, the only person who can provide guidance is... you.
Will you take the side of the working class and fight for social reforms? Or will you stand with the corporations and the free market? Will you help the government try to keep it all together, or will you try to enforce your agenda no matter the cost to the country?
Hegemony is an asymmetric politico-economic card-driven board game for 2-4 players that puts you in the role of one of the socio-economic groups in a fictional state: The Working Class, the Middle Class, the Capitalist Class, and the State itself.
The Working Class controls the workers. The Capitalist Class controls the companies. The Middle Class combines elements from both the Working Class and the Capitalist. It has workers who can work in the Capitalists' companies but it can also build smaller companies of its own. Finally, the State is trying to keep everyone happy, providing benefits and subsidies when needed but also trying to maintain a steady income through taxes to avoid going into debt.
While players have their own separate goals, they are all limited by a series of policies that affect most of their actions, like Taxation, Labor Market, and Foreign Trade. Voting on those policies and using their influence to change them is also very important. Through careful planning, strategic actions, and political maneuvering, you will do your best to increase the power of your class and carry out your agenda. Will you be the one to lead your class to victory?
Hegemony is heavily based on actual academic principles such as Social-Democracy, Neoliberalism, Nationalism, and Globalism, and allows players to see their real-world applications through engaging gameplay. There are many ways to achieve hegemony—which one will you take?
📷: Tabletopping
Pilot and co-pilot work together to land planes.
Welcome aboard Sky Team, a thrilling two-player co-op game where you and your partner pilot and co-pilot an airliner, navigating the friendly—and sometimes not-so-friendly—skies. Your mission: work in perfect harmony to land your airplane at various airports around the world.
To touch down safely, you’ll need to stealthily and silently assign your dice to key controls in the cockpit. Balance the axis, manage the speed, deploy the flaps, extend the landing gear, and hail the control tower to clear your path. Don't forget to sip some coffee—it might just sharpen your focus enough to change your dice values!
But beware! If your aircraft tilts too much and stalls, overshoots the runway, or collides with another plane, you’ll lose the game...and your pilot’s license...and maybe even your lives.
From Montreal to Tokyo, each airport presents its own unique set of challenges. Fasten your seatbelts and watch out for turbulence—this could be one bumpy ride!
Strategically grow your ecosystem card engine with unique flora, fauna, and terrains.
Earth is a tableau builder for 1 to 5 players, featuring simple rules and endless strategic possibilities. Just like our ever-evolving planet, this game offers a wealth of opportunities to explore new synergies and connections in every playthrough.
Over millennia, Earth’s flora and fauna have adapted, creating symbiotic ecosystems and habitats teeming with life. Now, it’s your turn to dive into these lush landscapes and craft incredible natural synergies that echo Earth’s rich versatility and abundant resources.
Cultivate a self-sustaining engine of growth, expansion, and supply where even your unused plants turn into compost, fueling future growth. Whether you’re a lone ranger or part of a lively group, Earth will take you on an epic journey through its encyclopedic nature, revealing countless tableau combinations and strategic wonders, just like our vast and fascinating world!
Add new animals, enclosures, and action cards to Ark Nova.
### Ark Nova: Marine Worlds – Dive into a Deep Blue Adventure!
Ahoy, ocean enthusiasts! Ark Nova: Marine Worlds is an expansion that makes waves by introducing new elements like sea animals that need special enclosures built right by the water.
Half the sea creatures are reef dwellers. Adding a reef dweller to your zoo triggers the abilities of all reef dwellers in your marine menagerie. To handle the deck dilution from the added cards, every sea card features a wave icon. When a wave icon appears in the display, discard the first card in the row and replenish the display.
A new fourth university swims onto the association board. Claiming it allows you to choose from six special universities featuring a research icon and one of six animal icons. Reveal cards from the top of the deck and keep the first one with an animal icon matching your chosen university.
For each of the five action cards, four alternate versions with a splash of variety will be available. Draft these new action cards at the start, replacing two of your standard ones, making the game more asymmetrical and exciting.
New bonus tiles, final scoring cards, and alternate wooden markers for the three tracks add even more depth to your gameplay. Plus, adorable animal markers can now represent the conservation projects you support, adding a splash of cuteness to your game.
Dive into Ark Nova: Marine Worlds and explore the wonders beneath the waves!
The Castles of Burgundy: Special Edition
Plan, trade, and build your Burgundian estate to prosperity and prominence.
Step into the shoes of an aristocrat in Castles of Burgundy, the legendary board game designed by Stefan Feld. In this 1-4 player tabletop triumph, you’ll command a small princedom, building settlements with splendid castles, trading treasures, mining silver, and gathering the wisdom of wandering travelers.
Now, this timeless classic is making a majestic return with an extremely polished, high-end special edition thanks to a collaboration between Ravensburger and Awaken Realms.
This special edition boasts a complete redesign of the art and layout to ensure every piece is a visual feast and enhances in-game usability. Expect only the finest materials—sturdy cardboard, premium paper, and a well-crafted box with inserts that stand the test of time. Extra components elevate the experience: double-layered player boards, special bags for hexes, 30% bigger tiles, and even metal coins.
Set in the Burgundy region of High Medieval France, each player takes on the role of an aristocrat overseeing a small princedom. Your goal is to expand your domain by constructing settlements and powerful castles, trading along the river, exploiting silver mines, and leveraging the knowledge of travelers.
Gameplay involves taking settlement tiles from the game board and placing them into your princedom, represented by a Duchy board on your player board. It’s all about strategic placement and resource management to turn your princedom into a prosperous powerhouse.
So, gather your allies, brace your battlements, and embark on a journey to dominate the duchy in Castles of Burgundy!
Here is the full list of winners:
2-Player Game
Winner - Sky Team
Artwork Presentation
Winner - The Castles of Burgundy: Special Edition
Cooperative Game
Winner - Sky Team
Expansion
Winner - Ark Nova: Marine Worlds
Innovative
Winner - Hegemony: Lead Your Class to Victory
Light GOTY
Winner - Thunder Road: Vendetta
Medium GOTY
Winner - Earth
Heavy GOTY
Winner - Hegemony: Lead Your Class to Victory
Party Game
Winner - That's Not a Hat
Solo Game
Winner - Legacy of Yu
Thematic Game
Winner - Hegemony: Lead Your Class to Victory
Wargame
Winner - Undaunted: Battle of Britain
About Gaming Library
Gaming Library aims to be the go-to resource for board games, providing not only titles that can be enjoyed by families, but also to be enjoyed by friends both newcomers and veterans alike. By pulling from different resources from all over the world, we at Gaming Library curate an impressive collection of games for consumers to choose from, suitable for anybody from casual players to hardcore hobbyists. In doing so, we hope to provide the best means to foster activities that strengthen family ties and friendships, while teaching relevant skills and practical critical thinking that can be applied to your everyday life.
