Crowdfunded eurogames from smaller board game publishers had a banner year at the latest Dice Tower Awards, accounting for half of the wins at the high-profile prize ceremony.
The biggest success of the night was Kinson Key Games’ Galactic Cruise, which was crowned game of the year in addition to picking up gongs for best strategy game and best game from a new designer.
That triple win caps a two-year success story for Kinson Key’s first major release, which began with the title raising over $800,000 from more than 8,000 backers via its Kickstarter campaign.
Its Dice Tower Awards victories come three months after Galactic Cruise was named Heavy Game of the Year in BoardGameGeek’s similarly high-profile Golden Geek Awards, in addition to being named a runner-up in the artwork and presentation and thematic game categories.
Fellow indie publisher Paverson Games was also a standout winner in this year’s Dice Tower Awards, with its classical music-inspired title Luthier picking up awards for best theme, best production and best game from a small publisher.
Other crowdfunded titles honoured by the awards were mid-weight euro Critter Kitchen for best artwork thanks to the work of Sandara Tang, and 20 Strong: Tanglewoods Red for best solo game – the latter the only one which raised money through Gamefound rather than Kickstarter.
The string of crowdfunded successes is significant given the notable shifts which have taken place on Kickstarter and Gamefound in recent years, with a rise in larger publishers using the sites, and more campaigns focused around big-budget releases, miniatures heavy projects, deluxified components and major licensed IP.
Winners which did not originate through a crowdfunding campaign were The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – Trick-Taking Game, which won best co-op game, FlipToons, which won best welcoming game, and CMYK’s reprint of Magical Athlete, which took best reprint.
CMYK scored a second success in this year’s awards with Hot Streak, which won best party game, while Stonemaier Games took the most innovative game prize with Vantage and Tag Team won best 2-player game.
Presented annually during Gen Con, the Dice Tower Awards are among the board game hobby’s highest-profile jury-voted honours, given the winning titles gain exposure with the veteran reviews giant’s more than 360,000 YouTube subscribers.
Winners are selected from the previous year’s games by a panel of more than 60 Dice Tower contributors, reviewers and content creators. The awards celebrates its 20th anniversary next year.
The Dice Tower also inducted 7 Wonders Duel, Codenames and Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 into its Hall of Fame this year.
Game of the Year
Galactic Cruise – designed by TK King, Dennis Northcott, and Koltin Thompson (Published by Kinson Key Games)
Best Welcoming Game
FlipToons – Jordy Adan and Renato Simões – (Thunderworks Games)
Best Artwork
Critter Kitchen – Alex Cutler, Peter C Hayard (Cardboard Alchemy)
Most Innovative Game
Vantage – Jamey Stegmaier (Stonemaier Games)
Best Cooperative Game
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – Trick-Taking Game – Bryan Bornmueller (Office Dog / Asmodee)
Best Reprint
Magical Athlete – Richard Garfield and Takashi Ishida (CMYK)
Best Strategy Game
Galactic Cruise – TK King, Dennis Northcott, Koltin Thompson (Kinson Key Games)
Best Board Game Production
Luthier – Dave Beck and Abe Burson (Paverson Games)
Best Game from a Small Publisher
Luthier – Dave Beck and Abe Burson (Paverson Games)
Best 2-Player Game
Tag Team – Gricha German and Corentin Lebrat (Scorpion Masque)
Best Game from a New Designer
Galactic Cruise – TK King, Dennis Northcott, Koltin Thompson (Kinson Key Games)
Best Party Game
Hot Streak – Jon Perry (CMYK)
Best Theme in a Game
Luthier – Dave Beck and Abe Burson (Paverson Games)
Best Solo Game
20 Strong: Tanglewoods Red – Josh J Carlson (Chip Theory Games)
The post Crowdfunded euros from smaller publishers dominate Dice Tower Awards as Galactic Cruise claims game of the year first appeared on .
Not that long ago, my twelve-year-old daughter listed Tag Team as her favorite title of 2025. When I asked her whether that was still the case, she replied, “I like other games more, but I still like Tag Team.” There we have it, I guess.
Except now there’s a second set, Arthur’s Legacy, that can be played standalone with its own six fighters or merge with the original ten to create infinite possibilities. Or 120, which might as well be infinite. How does it stack up? Honestly, I think it might be the stronger of the pair.
Two of the set’s six characters.
For those coming in late, Arthur’s Legacy keeps the Tag Team formula fully intact. Both players pick two fighters and shuffle their decks together. Then you take those fighters’ two starting cards, one apiece, and order them as you like. When battle kicks off, these cards resolve simultaneously: my first card and yours, then our second cards together.
What happens next is where the game shines. We both take a trio of cards from our larger decks, pick one, and slide it into our battle decks. The order of our previous cards must be preserved, but our new attack (or block or heal or defense or whatever else) can be added before, after, or in the middle of our previous cards. Now we have a battle deck that’s three cards deep. We resolve another clash. Then we add a fourth card. Another battle. Now a fifth card.
We continue adding cards to our battle deck and duking it out until a fighter is KO’d, at which point the game is over. Along the way, our decks grow outward, but only in manageable increments. It’s so simple that one designer friend, in the midst of theory-crafting his own auto-battler, was shocked at its lack of adornment. Which isn’t to say the game is shallow. It’s just that it’s subtle, capable of being played sloppily or carefully, and reliant more on memory and yomi than on flashy stratagems.
My worry, when it came to expansions, was that the design team would clutter what was otherwise such an elegant piece of work. Even in the original set, a few of the fighters were decidedly more complicated than the others. In some cases, this could distract from the actual battle, adding an unnecessary cognitive load over the top of the cards and their all-important ordering.
Here’s the good news: while Arthur’s Legacy is somewhat slimmer than the initial Tag Team, with only six fighters rather than the original ten, this is probably the stronger ingress for newcomers. Instead of bumping up the complexity, Corentin Lebrat, Gricha German, and their added co-designers have kept the powers meaningful and punchy. If anything, the new characters are easier to handle than many of the previous set’s fighters.
Drafting from a selection of three cards.
Naturally, each fighter has its own gimmick. The Dragon sprouts scales that act as makeshift armor, reducing opposing attacks but shedding them in the process. Percival grows more powerful with added cards, performing lots of little n-value attacks that encourage you to focus on his combos, but at the risk of neglecting his partner. Basically he’s self-obsessed, but for good reason. Morgan’s whole thing is dead simple: her gift of foresight lets her see which card her opponent is drafting before she makes her own selection. And the Green Knight offers a miniature game of press-your-luck. He heals fully every round, but many of his abilities lower the ceiling on his actual life pool. This makes him difficult to whittle down, but also prone to killing blows. Prolonged bouts are not his friend.
The last two fighters are a little more complicated, but, again, not by much. My personal favorite is Merlin. He comes with a little sideboard that’s kin to a skill tree. Certain cards let him upgrade his skills, gaining blocks or attacks or heals. These then trigger thanks to other cards, resulting in attack/heal/block combos that are incredibly powerful. Then again, because they only trigger on rare cards, they become fragile and easy to preempt. Arthur’s Legacy continues Tag Team’s tradition of including occasional cards that cancel their foe’s ability outright, meaning a well-timed counter can leave Merlin with his smock down. Or blown up. Whichever way an awkward smock goes.
Lastly, there’s Excalibur. This one is tricky. The gist is that it’s a low-health, high-finesse fighter, almost guaranteed to shatter midway into the match. But rather than ending with a KO, the duel continues with an invulnerable Excalibur. The downside is that Excalibur’s cards now add a “broken” trigger. In nearly every case, these injure Excalibur’s partner. But there are a couple that are even more potent when shattered, like one that damages everyone at the table, or another that lets Excalibur’s partner make an unblockable attack. Perhaps more importantly, this upsets the previous status quo. The order of cards is thrown into disarray, with attacks that previously targeted Excalibur suddenly rendered ineffective. It’s tough to play, but incredibly rewarding at the same time.
Where is Merlin, for I much desire to speak with him?
In nearly every regard, Arthur’s Legacy is an excellent follow-up to one of last year’s strongest two-player titles. It’s a little slimmer than I would have preferred, but it hits the right spot in terms of rules load and complexity. Most importantly, it preserves the system’s elegance. Indeed, it doubles down in that regard. These characters have a clear identity, feel distinct without risking obvious power gaps, and make strong additions to any duo, whether paired with the original or on their own.
A complimentary copy of Tag Team: Arthur’s Legacy was provided by the publisher.
(If what I’m doing at Space-Biff! is valuable to you in some way, please consider dropping by my Patreon campaign or Ko-fi. Right now, supporters can read the next installment in my series Talking About Games, this time tackling the topic of what makes a good list! Naturally, the piece includes a list.)
Tag Team ist ein reines Zwei-Personen-Spiel, das Auto-Battler-Elemente mit gezieltem Deckbau kombiniert. Der Titel greift das bekannte Tag-Team-Prinzip aus dem Wrestling auf, bei dem sich zwei Kämpfer während eines Matches abwechseln und gegenseitig unterstützen. Jeder Spieler stellt ein Team aus
The post Tag Team first appeared on Spiele-Akademie.de.
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