The best "Board Game Quest Awards🇺🇸" winners & nominees 2026

SCOUT is an innovative card game that blends elements of hand management and ladder-climbing mechanics. The unique twist in this game is the dual-indexed cards and the restriction on rearranging your hand, creating a challenging and strategic gameplay experience.

Codenames is a captivating and popular party game that involves clever wordplay and deduction. Two teams compete, each led by a spymaster who knows the secret identities of 25 agents, represented by cards bearing single-word codenames like "disease," "Germany," or even "carrot." The objective is for each team to be the first to correctly identify all their agents based on clues given by their spymaster, while avoiding the dangerous assassin.

A dark rumor arises from Mordor, and the time has come for the Fellowship to unite once more. Players can choose to defend the free peoples as the Fellowship of the Ring or pursue Frodo and Sam as Sauron, deploying their hordes at enemy city gates. The fate of Middle-earth rests in your hands as you navigate the three chapters of the game, strengthening your skills and gathering resources to achieve one of the victory conditions.

The Castles of Burgundy: Special Edition revitalizes Stefan Feld's classic strategy game for 1-4 players, where participants embody aristocrats managing their princedoms. This special edition, a collaboration between Ravensburger and Awaken Realms, elevates the game with a full art redesign, premium materials, and enhanced components, offering a luxurious playing experience as players build their settlements, castles, and engage in trade.

Players take on the roles of a pilot and a co-pilot in a cooperative game for two. The objective is to work together to land your airplane at various airports around the world. Successful landing requires silently coordinating dice placement in your cockpit to balance the aircraft, control speed, deploy flaps, and even brew coffee to enhance focus. Each airport presents unique challenges, so stay alert for turbulence—it could be a bumpy ride!

Embark on a noble quest to expand your kingdom in Kingdomino. As a lord, your mission is to explore vast lands filled with wheat fields, serene lakes, and towering mountains. Competing with fellow lords, you must identify the choicest plots to claim as your own.

Sushi Go Party! is an expanded version of the popular card game Sushi Go!, offering more variety and accommodating more players for a larger, more dynamic game experience.

Embark on a collaborative journey of espionage in Codenames Duet, where the familiar elements of Codenames persist – providing one-word clues to unveil your agents among those on the table. This time, however, you and your teammate work together to uncover all your agents, adding a thrilling cooperative dimension to the challenge. The mystery of not knowing your agents from the outset adds an intriguing layer to the mission, raising questions that even Congressional investigators might ponder later!

The Crew: Mission Deep Sea is a cooperative trick-taking card game that embarks players on an underwater expedition to discover the lost continent of Mu. Building on the foundations of its predecessor, The Crew, this game combines the familiar mechanics of trick-taking with unique cooperative elements and a compelling thematic narrative.

Wavelength is a unique and engaging social guessing game that requires players to tap into their ability to communicate and interpret conceptual clues. This game stands out for its emphasis on understanding and interpreting the perspectives of others, making it an ideal choice for groups looking for a fun and thought-provoking experience.

Players build landscapes by placing colored tiles to create habitats for their animals. To score the most points and win, they must cleverly integrate these habitats into their landscapes and attract as many animals as possible.

Azul is a tile-laying game inspired by Portuguese azulejos: as artisans, players draft colored tiles from suppliers and place them in patterns to decorate the walls of the Royal Palace of Evora, scoring points for clever arrangements.

Sea Salt & Paper is a set collection card game that combines strategic decision-making with the excitement of timing your moves just right. Similar to Rummy in gameplay, it involves collecting sets of cards to score points, while also navigating the timing of when to end the round for optimal advantage.

In Junk Art, creativity knows no bounds as players transform a pile of junk into stunning works of art. With more than ten engaging game modes and over sixty vibrant wooden or plastic components, this game invites you to explore your artistic talents like never before.

7 Wonders Duel takes the essence of the classic 7 Wonders and refines it for an intense two-player experience. It retains the thematic elements of building a civilization through acquiring various types of cards, but it introduces unique mechanics suited for a duel.

Become a cunning charlatan or a quack doctor in the whimsical world of The Quacks of Quedlinburg. In this quirky board game, each player concocts their own secret brew, one ingredient at a time. But beware, for a careless addition could spoil the entire mixture!

Point Salad is a dynamic and engaging card drafting game that is suitable for players of all ages. It stands out for its simplicity and the vast array of scoring strategies it offers.

Rhino Hero: Super Battle is a captivating 3D stacking game that sees the return of Rhino Hero, this time joined by fellow super-heroes Giraffe Boy, Big E., and Batguin. Players engage in an exciting challenge of building a wobbly skyscraper while navigating fierce battles among these charismatic characters. The game adds an extra layer of fun with the presence of mischievous spider monkeys that players must contend with during their skyscraper construction and superhero battles.

Heat: Pedal to the Metal is a dynamic and strategic racing board game that simulates the thrill and intricacies of car racing. It offers players a chance to experience the excitement of racing while managing crucial elements like speed, car upgrades, and varying track conditions.

Splendor Duel is an intriguing two-player game that builds upon the foundation of its predecessor, Splendor, enhancing it with new layers of strategy and competitiveness. Designed specifically for two players, this standalone game maintains the core elements of Splendor while introducing novel twists and mechanics, making it more dynamic and interactive.

Players embark on twelve journeys through North America as 19th-century pioneers. Starting on the East Coast, they face challenges while aiming to complete ticket objectives and develop new skills to overcome unexpected events and rivals. As the campaign progresses, players unlock new rules and content, creating a uniquely tailored experience that evolves with their choices, resulting in a game that can be enjoyed for a lifetime.

Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 offers an extraordinary gaming experience as a cooperative campaign game, immersing players in an overarching story-arc that unfolds over 12-24 gripping sessions. The duration depends on your group's performance and the fate of the world. Here's an overview of this thrilling journey:

Unmatched: Cobble & Fog is a captivating expansion to the Unmatched system, featuring a quartet of iconic characters drawn from literary lore, each with their unique playstyle and abilities. This expansion introduces the Invisible Man, Sherlock Holmes with Dr. Watson, Dracula along with the sisters, and the duo of Jekyll & Hyde, all brought to life in a highly asymmetrical miniature fighting game.

The Quest for El Dorado is a strategic and adventurous board game that immerses players in the exciting journey of discovering the legendary city of gold, El Dorado. Set in the lush South American jungles, this game combines deck-building and racing elements, challenging players to be both cunning and quick.

Sushi Go! is a dynamic, fast-paced card game set in a sushi restaurant. Players aim to grab the best sushi combinations as they come around. It's all about strategy, from picking the perfect sushi rolls to collecting sashimi sets. Boost your scores with wasabi-flavored nigiri, and don't forget to load up on pudding by the end!

Thunder Road: Vendetta is Restoration Games' rev-happy remake of Milton Bradley's 1986 cult classic: a dice-driven car-combat game for two to four players, set in a post-apocalyptic landscape of asphalt, junk metal and pitch-black humor. Whoever still has a moving wreck on the road at the end wins.