And the Winner Is...

Thurn and Taxis has won this year's Spiel des Jahres!

I was finally able to play this game for the first time this weekend and I am quite happy with the selection. It's a solid game that's simple enough for families to play and yet offers a fair amount of strategic potential. Something of a cross between Ticket to Ride and China (previously known as Web of Power), Thurn and Taxis offers a nice blend of luck and difficult decisions. It's definitely a worthy choice.

The Speil des Jahres (which means Game of the Year in German) is awarded each year by a federation of games journalists to the game that they feel is most worthy of the title. Typically the winning game is a middle-weight family strategy game with elegant, easy to understand rules, clean design, superb production values, and relatively short (roughly an hour) playing time. Previous winners include such games as Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne, and Settlers of Catan. This is arguably the most prestigious game award in the industry; something akin to winning an Oscar.