Trolí palec 2023 Awards Results

We have another year of the Trolí palec (Troll's Thumb) awards behind us. Organized since 2007 by Zatrolené hry, one of the largest communities of board game players in the country. This poll isn't about the decisions of some unknown committee; it's decided by us, the players. And we know best what's good! We've played all these games ourselves and stand behind these picks with a clear conscience.

Best Cooperative Game - Sleeping Gods

In the board game Sleeping Gods, you take on the role of the crew of the steamship Manticore. Through a series of strange events, you find yourselves in an even stranger parallel dimension. It's up to you and your fellow players to collect mysterious totems to find your way home. This heavily story-driven game puts a huge emphasis on cooperation. You'll explore, fight, make decisions, and most importantly, enjoy a brilliantly written story full of surprises. The storybook itself has nearly 200 pages, so you're guaranteed entertainment for many evenings to come.

Best Family Game - Planet Unknown

Planet Unknown is a beautiful example of a game that features easy-to-understand rules while offering plenty of fun and appropriate challenges for both beginners and advanced board gamers. Your task is to colonize planets using a rotating planetary tile dispenser. Combining and placing these tiles correctly will earn you the points needed for the final scoring. Each planet has its own rules and difficulty, and there are plenty of tiles, so the game stays fresh. Plus, thanks to simultaneous play, it moves along at a great pace.

Best Two-Player and Party Game - Mindbug

Mindbug is the big surprise of the year. At its core, it's a dueling game, but it plays very well with more people too. It's a card game similar to Magic: The Gathering (one of the authors, Richard Garfield, even worked on it). However, it has a few clever tricks up its sleeve. You can only play one card or attack with one creature per turn. Players have two Mindbugs at their disposal. When your opponent plays a card, you can use a Mindbug to steal it. It's a very fun twist, and it's thrilling to decide which creature to play when you know your opponent might just take it from you. The cards aren't complicated, there aren't too many keywords, there are plenty of cards, and thanks to several expansions, the game doesn't get old. A really great title!

Best Expansion - Lost Ruins of Arnak: Expedition Leaders

Lost Ruins of Arnak is one of the most popular games we love to play at imago. It's a beautiful adventure euro-game where you explore a mysterious island, collect treasures, and find better equipment. You step into the role of archaeologist-adventurers in the style of Indiana Jones. The Expedition Leaders expansion adds everything you could want! It brings a ton of new cards, tokens, and location tiles that significantly expand the possibilities of the base game. You can also play as 2 new leaders, the Mechanic and the Journalist, to try out new strategies. A bonus is the well-crafted cooperative story campaign, which you can also play in a solo variant.

Game of the Year - Kutná Hora: The City of Silver

The board game Kutná Hora by Czech authors definitely deserves the overall victory. This economic euro-game is set in 13th-century Bohemia. Silver was discovered in the area of modern-day Kutná Hora, creating an opportunity to get rich and raise the local standard of living! Players become heads of various craft guilds, trying to expand a network of silver mines while building the city itself. You can mine, build taverns, construct churches, and influence commodity prices. It's all wrapped in a beautiful aesthetic, and thanks to the focus on historical accuracy, you'll even learn something. Kutná Hora is a real success. We're happy it's another Czech game that will represent us beautifully on the world stage.

author Karel Krajča