What are the “Historical Board Game Awards”?
The Historical Board Game Awards are annual awards for historical, wargame, and/or conflict simulation board games recognizing excellence in three relevant categories: the ‘Game of the Year’, the ‘Most Innovative Game Design’, and the ‘Anglo-Zanzibar Award’.
How are games nominated for each category?
The nominees are determined by the Historical Board Game Awards voting committee. Electronic ballots are submitted to members of the committee and the committee members submit a ranked ballot of their top 3 games in each category. (A game receiving a first place rank will receive three points, second place two, and third place will receive one point). The highest scoring games in each category are selected as the final nominees. The HBGA organizers will validate that selections of the Voting Committee meet the criteria for the awards (year published, reprint classification, etc.)
How is the winner of each category determined?
The voting committee ballots are combined with the final results of the fan vote, which accounts for 10% of the final vote. Fans can vote from only those games selected as final nominees.
Who are the members of the Historical Board Game Awards voting committee?
The committee is made up of a flexible number of historical board game media and critic individuals who show a proven level of competence, knowledge, and experience on an annual basis. A list of annual committee members will be made available each year. All HBGA voting committee members are volunteers.
What about conflicts of interest, designers, or those individuals who are affiliated with eligible games?
Individuals who are both critics as well as designers or are otherwise affiliated with a game eligible for nomination are not prohibited from serving as a voting committee member. However, such members are required to exclude any games from their ballots that they are affiliated with and may excuse themselves from voting from any category.
Do Board Game Publishers campaign for games or provide free copies?
Many board game critics have access to, may request and are permitted to receive review copies of board games as part of their normal review process. The list of the voting committee members is public knowledge but the Historical Board Game Awards prohibits any compensation, communication, or consideration that could be considered lobbying or campaigning a member of the committee.
Which games are eligible for the Historical Board Game Awards?
Historical, war, or conflict simulation board games released and commercially available (in stores) in the year prior to judging are all eligible for consideration. Expansions are excluded and reprints/new editions that are largely unchanged new editions of games are also not considered.
What are the awards categories?
Game of the Year: The ‘Game of the Year’ awards outstanding performance in all board game fields and recognizes the game that delivers the best historical, war, or conflict board game experience.
Most Innovative Game Design: The ‘Most Innovative Game Design’ is awarded to a game and design team to recognize excellence in creative and innovative game design.
Anglo-Zanzibar Award: The Anglo-Zanzibar war lasted between 38-45 minutes and is considered the shortest recorded war in history. The ‘Anglo-Zanzibar Award’ recognizes the best ‘small’ historical board game, including the following: magazine games, ‘lunchtime’ games, quick playing games, folio games, post card games, and other small format games.
History on the Table 