2015 Origins Awards Announced, and My Predictions

The nominees for the 2015 Origins Awards have been announced, and I'm surprised and pleased to see that I've played most of the games in the board and card game categories. Given my penchant for expressing opinions about games I've played, I decided to do a quick review of the nominees, and my make predictions for the winners. 

Some of these games were released prior to 2014, so I'm not sure exactly what the nomination criteria are, but I believe the lists represent a fairly well-considered splice of recent gaming releases, so I've got no beef with the nominations. 

If'd like to see the full set of nominees, click here! For my consideration of the nominees, and my predictions, continue! 

Splendor, by Marc André

Do you like shiny things? Is your gem collection missing that one beautiful stone to pull it all together? In Splendor, you lead a Merchant Guild competing to produce gems and win the attention of Nobles in your town. Show them you’ve got the most beautiful – and valuable – collection of gems in the province, and you’ll win their hearts – and purses!

This recent release from Space Cowboys combines resource-management and set-collection in a Renaissance-themed game for 2-4 players. Splendor provides a pleasant number of tough choices, particularly for a game purposely designed to be easy to learn and with only a few available actions each turn. If the Merchant in you is already counting coins, read on!