Seit 2019 vergibt eine zehnköpfige Jury in den USA die American Tabletop Awards (ATTA) für herausragende Brettspiele. Die Auszeichnungen decken vier Kategorien ab, von leichten Einstiegsspielen bis hin zu komplexen Strategietiteln. Jetzt stehen die Sieger des Jahrgangs 2026 fest.

Die vier Gewinner im Überblick

In der Kategorie „Early Gamers", die sich an jüngere und neue Spieler richtet, setzt sich Magical Athlete von Richard Garfield und Takashi Ishida (CMYK Games) durch. Das chaotische Rennspiel für 2–6 Personen ab 6 Jahren bietet Partien von rund 30 Minuten. Vor jedem Rennen draften die Spieler Athleten mit unterschiedlichen Fähigkeiten, die das Spielgeschehen gehörig durcheinanderbringen können. Auf BoardGameGeek erreicht der Titel eine durchschnittliche Bewertung von 7,9.

Die Kategorie „Casual Games" geht an Hot Streak von Jon Perry, ebenfalls bei CMYK Games erschienen. Hier wetten 2–8 Spieler auf Maskottchen in einem unberechenbaren Rennen, das in etwa 20 Minuten gespielt ist. Über ein Drafting-System platzieren die Spieler Wetten und beeinflussen gleichzeitig verdeckt den Rennverlauf. Damit sichert sich CMYK Games gleich zwei der vier Auszeichnungen.

Den Preis für das beste „Strategy Game" erhält The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship von Matt Leacock (Z-Man Games / Asmodee). In dem kooperativen Spiel für 1–5 Personen steuert jeder Spieler zwei Charaktere, um Frodo auf seinem Weg zu beschützen und den Einen Ring zu vernichten. Mit einer Spielzeit von 60–150 Minuten und einer Komplexitätswertung von 3,1 auf BGG richtet sich der Titel an erfahrene Spieler. Der Pandemic-Erfinder Leacock liefert hier eine thematische Neuinterpretation seiner kooperativen Spielmechaniken.

In der Königskategorie „Complex Games" gewinnt Molly House von Jo Kelly und Cole Wehrle (Wehrlegig Games). Das Spiel versetzt 1–5 Spieler in das London des frühen 18. Jahrhunderts, wo sie als sogenannte Mollies rauschende Feste veranstalten und gleichzeitig den moralistischen Ordnungshütern ausweichen müssen. Mit einer Komplexitätswertung von 3,7 auf BGG und Mechaniken wie Verhandlung, Bluffen und einem Verräterelement zählt Molly House zu den anspruchsvolleren Titeln des Jahrgangs. Die Spielzeit liegt bei 60–120 Minuten.

Nominierungen und Empfehlungen

Neben den Gewinnern vergab die Jury in jeder Kategorie jeweils zwei Nominierungen und zwei Empfehlungen. In der Kategorie „Early Gamers" waren The Sandcastles of Burgundy von Stefan und Susanne Feld (Ravensburger) sowie Splendor Kids von Marc und Catherine André (Space Cowboys / Asmodee) nominiert. Als empfohlen gelten Cascadia Junior von Fertessa Allyse und Randy Flynn (Flatout Games) sowie Duck & Cover von Oussama Khelifati (Captain Games).

Bei den „Casual Games" erhielten The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – Trick-Taking Game von Bryan Bornmueller (Office Dog / Asmodee) und 7 Wonders Dice von Antoine Bauza (Repos Production / Asmodee) eine Nominierung. FlipToons von Jordy Adan und Renato Simões (Thunderworks Games) sowie A Place for All My Books von Alex Cutler und Michael Mihealsick (Smirk and Dagger Games) wurden empfohlen.

In der Kategorie „Strategy Games" nominierten die Jurymitglieder Critter Kitchen von Alex Cutler und Peter C. Hayward (Cardboard Alchemy) sowie Kinfire Council von Kevin Wilson (Incredible Dream). Knitting Circle von Emily Vincent (Flatout Games) und Moon Colony Bloodbath von Donald X. Vaccarino (Rio Grande Games) erhielten eine Empfehlung.

Bei den „Complex Games" gingen die Nominierungen an Tidal Blades 2: Rise of the Unfolders von Tim und Ben Eisner (Druid City Games) sowie Covenant von Germán P. Millán (Devir). Empfohlen wurden Above and Below: Haunted von Ryan Laukat (Red Raven Games) und Galactic Cruise von TK King, Dennis Northcott und Koltin Thompson (Kinson Key Games).

Auffällig in diesem Jahrgang: CMYK Games dominiert die leichteren Kategorien mit zwei Siegen, während Asmodee-Labels sowohl bei den Casual als auch bei den Strategy Games stark vertreten sind. Alle Details zu den ATTA Awards 2026 findest du auf der offiziellen Website.

Board game publisher Awaken Realms has responded to a wave of anti-AI art review bombing for its upcoming crowdfund, Concordia: Special Edition, by saying no AI-generated imagery will be used in the finished game.

The title is the latest seminal eurogame to be re-released in a spruced-up, premium edition by Awaken Realms – and also the latest to see the publisher come under fire for embracing generative AI software such as Midjourney in developing some of its games.

Awaken Realms is one of highest-profile tabletop publishers to confirm it uses AI image generators, with other notable adopters of the technology including Stronghold Games – which attracted significant ire for its use of AI art in its $2.2m More Terraforming Mars! crowdfunding campaign.

The technology has been widely criticised by artists angry that the models are built upon their work without licensing or recompense, in addition to outcry over its environmental costs and threats to jobs in the creative and other industries.

Almost all of the first few dozen ratings for Concordia: Special Edition posted by BoardGameGeek users gave the title ‘1’ – the lowest possible score – following its unveiling at the end of February, with the vast majority of those citing AI art as their rationale.

That was followed by a spate of users scoring the game the maximum ’10’ in an attempt to counteract the low scores – but the ongoing tussle has left it with an average of just 4.7, the lowest current rating of any Awaken Realms full game, and well below the 8-plus ratings enjoyed by many of the publisher’s prior releases.

BoardGameGeek’s suggested ratings guidelines say a ‘1’ review “Defies description of a game. You won’t catch me dead playing this. Clearly broken.”, while a ’10’ is suggested as “Outstanding. Always want to play and expect this will never change”.

BGG’s current policy is that “users are allowed to rate games however they wish, as long as each person only rates a given game once.”

The original edition of Concordia, released by German publisher PD-Verlag in 2013, has a BGG rating of 8.1 from more than 45,000 users, and is ranked 29th out of the tens of thousands of titles listed on the site’s database.

Awaken Realms is yet to unveil many details about the upcoming special edition, with the Gamefound preview page currently only showing a box cover – which it has since described as a work in progress – and examples of two plastic miniatures set to be included in the game.

The company dedicated most of its first update on the Gamefound page to discussing its use of AI generated imagery, saying that it did not address the situation sooner because “we find this whole conversation extremely draining”.

It said, “We feel that the current situation is really not respectful toward our artists, who are really working hard on each project, and Concordia will be no different. They will be doing their best to pay tribute to this classic and elevate it to new heights.

“So, first things first – in this project, in the final game, there will be no AI art. Human artists will be involved in everything. This has also been clearly stated from the beginning in our contract with PD-Verlag.

“However, we do use some AI tools during prototyping, mock-ups, and various initial phases of concept work (and honestly, it is really hard not to, as eg, Photoshop alone, which is our artists’ main tool, has already tons of built-in AI features).

“This makes it easier to test the game visually, iterate, find the best solutions and compositions, and, from there, start working on the final assets.

“In different projects, we might have different rules and approaches. For example, you can see our other project – Grimcoven. There, we also had an update on the topic, as well as a chance to see the final result of how the game looks as it is produced and delivered to backers ;).”

Update March 27, 2026: Jan Philip Sommerlade, an editor at Concordia publisher and licensor PD-Verlag, wrote on BoardGameGeek: “In the games published by PD-Verlag, neither the graphics nor the text were created using artificial intelligence. We consider this to be problematic from a copyright perspective, at least when the AI models are based on artwork created by artists.

“It was therefore very important to us that artificial intelligence will not be used in the Concordia Special Edition either. In December, we paid Awaken Realms an extensive visit and discussed the details of the Special Edition at length. Awaken Realms has a large team dedicated to developing content, graphics, and illustrations, and we are confident that this collaboration will result in a very high-quality product. We have stipulated in our contract that the final product will not be created using artificial intelligence in any form.

“However, this does not apply to the use of AI for brainstorming and concept development, nor to the internal use of AI for creating prototypes. In the course of ongoing discussions, we have realized that this distinction may not be as clear-cut as we initially thought. Nevertheless, the fact remains: All graphics and text in the final product are created by real people.”

Other Campaigns

Grimcoven raised more than $5.1m across its 2024 Gamefound campaign and late pledges, and has so far avoided the heavy review bombing that has taken place for Concordia SE. Awaken Realms put out a similar pre-campaign update about its AI use for that title, calling it at the time “a ‘hot topic’ generating a lot of emotions”.

The publisher had come under fire online earlier that year for using AI in creating promotional images for its Puerto Rico 1897: Special Edition crowdfunding campaign – images it subsequently pulled from the crowdfunding page after being contacted by the game’s licensor, Ravensburger.

Despite online pushback against Awaken Realms for its decision to embrace AI generated imagery, its use of the technology has had little apparent negative impact on the success of its crowdfunding campaigns to date.

The publisher’s six most recent campaigns which it says made use of AI image making tools have raised almost €39m between them across their crowdfunds and late pledges, with Lands of Evershade the standout at more than $12.5m.

But some of those have also begun to feel the impact of anti-AI sentiment on their BGG ratings. Agricola: Special Edition is currently rated at 6.2, with more than a third of its 309 ratings scored as ‘1’, while the yet-to-launch Agricola: Dead Harvest campaign is rated 5.9, with almost 90% of its 104 ratings so far either ‘1’s or ’10’s.

The six most recent campaigns using AI imagery – which also include BELOW: The Asylum, This War of Mine: Second Edition and Grimcoven – all included a statement acknowledging that usage in the FAQ section of their respective Gamefound campaigns.

The stipulation to transparently disclose the use of AI in Gamefound campaigns was implemented by the crowdfunding site in March last year, and codified in an update to its terms of service at the end of last month.

Awaken Realms’ AI art statement in its Agricola: Special Edition campaign FAQ states, “We are using different technologies, including AI tools, to various degrees – from built-in Photoshop capabilities (intelligent brushes, advanced texturing, and some AI tools), Internal Stable Diffusion models, MJ[Midjourney] models, pixel correction, scaling solutions and so on. Everything we use is screened and accepted by our legal team as fully legal to use.

“Those are different tools that we use NOT to decrease cost and DEFINITELY NOT to replace artists but to bring better quality to our customers and enhance creativity by allowing faster prototyping and iteration.

“We are constantly growing our art team (in the last 12 months, we have hired six new artists), as well as yearly increasing wages and sharing profits by yearly bonuses. We really care about our team and are extremely proud of their work.

“We deeply believe that in any creative endeavor, human involvement is absolutely essential, and instead of just ‘talking the talk’, we have actually walked the walk and increased our artist count and wages every year.

“This is our statement on the topic and we are fully dedicated to supporting and growing our art team, as well as bringing the best quality to our backers. We believe that this approach is better than making big PR statements and then firing people with a week’s notice, as, unfortunately, can be observed all around the industry.”

It is not immediately clear which board game publishers Awaken Realms is referring to with the final part of that statement.

The Agricola Special Edition statement is very different to the AI art section of the FAQ for Awaken Realms’ most recent crowdfund, Labyrinth Chronicles – which, like Puerto Rico Special Edition, is published by Gamefound investor Ravensburger.

That statement said, “We also noticed a few questions regarding the creative process behind Labyrinth Chronicles and whether any AI-generated artwork was used in the game.

“We would like to clearly state that no AI-generated art was used in the final product. Every illustration, graphic element, and 3D model was created by our talented team of artists who worked on this project.”

That statement then goes on to list 24 artists, graphic designers, illustrators and 3d modellers who it said worked on the title.

Awaken Realms has taken great pains recently to highlight the extent of its art and design team – which it said in the Concordia: Special Edition Gamefound update now comprises 32 people across art, 2D layout, 3D sculpture and desktop publishing, out of a board games division of more than 100 people.

Gamefound was launched in 2015 as a Kickstarter pledge manager by Awaken Realms co-founder Marcin Świerkot, who is CEO of both businesses. The company transitioned into a full crowdfunding site in 2022, with Świerkot setting his sights on beating Kickstarter at its own game in the tabletop sector.

Awaken Realms, meanwhile, began life as a miniature painting studio in 2014, before expanding into board game publishing a couple of years later.

The company garnered early success with a Kickstarter for This War of Mine: The Board Game in 2016, before the £3m Nemesis Kickstarter campaign in 2018 formed a springboard for the company to begin creating ever more intricate and expansive miniatures-focused tabletop projects.

Awaken Realms raised more than $12.1m for its Nemesis Retaliation Gamefound campaign at the end of 2024, making it one of the biggest board game crowdfunding campaign of all time alongside Frosthaven ($12.9m) and Kingdom Death Monster 1.5 ($12.39m).

The post Awaken Realms vows “no AI art” for Concordia: Special Edition after BGG review bombing first appeared on .

Manchmal liege ich nachts wach und stelle mir Fragen. Zum Beispiel diese hier: Hat der Gewinn des (Kenner-)Spiels des Jahres Einfluss auf die Bewertungen bei Boardgamegeek.com?Im weiteren Nachdenken konnte ich mehrere Hypothesen herausarbeiten.Zunächst ist davon auszugehen, dass die Nominierung beziehungsweise der Gewinn mit einer Erhöhung der Bewertungsanzahl einhergeht. Da der Preis als exogener…

Quelle

Eine Meldung wie ein Donnerschlag. W. Eric Martin verlässt BoardGameGeek.

Fünfzehn Jahre, rund sechstausend Posts, unzählige Morgenroutinen von Brettspielfans weltweit – beendet mit einem ruhigen „Goodbye“.

Wer regelmäßig auf BGG unterwegs war, kennt ihn: Eric war nicht irgendein ein News-Schreiber, er war DIE Konstante. Während Publisher kamen und gingen, Hypes aufflammten und Kickstarter explodierten, lieferte er zuverlässig Kontext. Nicht laut, nicht clickbaitig – sondern sachlich, neugierig, manchmal trocken, oft präzise und immer mit einem Augenzwinkern.

Und jetzt? Neustart. Mit Board Game Beat.

Keine große Plattform mehr im Rücken, kein zentraler News-Hub. Stattdessen: eine eigene Seite, eine eigene Stimme, eigene Themen. Monatsdossiers. Essays. Previews. Audio. Video. Und das dann auch noch ohne Social Media – so zumindest sein aktueller Post.

Das ist mehr als ein persönlicher Karriereschritt – es ist ein aktuelles Symptom unserer Szene.

Vom Sammelpunkt zur Splitterlandschaft

Früher war vieles einfach: Man ging auf BoardGameGeek, las die News, diskutierte im Forum. Ein Ort, viele Stimmen.

Heute zerfällt Brettspiel-Content in Podcasts, Newsletter, Substacks, Discords, YouTube-Kanäle und eben auch unabhängige Journalistenseiten. Jeder baut sein eigenes kleines Lagerfeuer. Reichweite wird fragmentiert, Aufmerksamkeit verteilt, die Community zerfasert.

Eric geht diesen Weg bewusst. Nicht aus Trotz, sondern aus Überzeugung: weg vom Plattform-Kompromiss, hin zum kuratierten Journalismus.

Das ist mutig – und riskant. Denn unabhängiger Content bedeutet auch: Abhängigkeit von einer Community, die bereit ist, Zeit (und auch Geld) zu investieren. Keine Algorithmen, die einen tragen. Kein riesiger Traffic-Staubsauger. Nur er und seine Inhalte.

Was bleibt…

BoardGameGeek verliert eine prägende Stimme. Die Szene gewinnt eine neue Plattform.

Vielleicht ist das die Zukunft unseres Hobbys: weniger zentrale Leuchttürme, mehr spezialisierte Inseln. Weniger „alle hier“, mehr „finde deine Leute“. Für Leser anstrengender. Für Inhalte vielleicht ehrlicher. Wo ist eigentlich RSS geblieben? Vielleicht wird es Zeit den RSS Reader wieder anzuwerfen.

W. Eric Martin hört nicht auf, über Spiele zu schreiben. Er schreibt nur anders weiter.

Und wir? Wir müssen lernen, wieder gezielter zu lesen.

HIER geht es zu Board Game Beat.

HIER findet ihr den Artikel auf Boardgamegeek.com