Established in 2019, the American Tabletop Awards was designed to celebrate the booming tabletop industry in the United States. With so many people in quarantine in 2020 because of the COVID-19 virus, it was a great time to get cozy with board games, which meant a lot of experimentation with some exciting new releases.
With four categories to award, from Best Casual to Best Complex, games had to meet certain criteria to be eligible for each. The most important of those qualifications was publication in 2020, which means the competition was pretty stiff. The American Tabletop Awards committee is composed of avid tabletop gamers and members of the community, so the winners were carefully chosen by people who know exactly what components make for an amazing board game.
The Early Game category is for quick-play games that usually take between 15 to 45 minutes and focus on players new to tabletop, especially younger players twelve and under. Abandon All Artichokes held its own against Hues and Cues and Dragomino, taking home the award.
A fun deck-building game, Abandon All Artichokes takes place in a world where everyone suddenly hates the titular food. Unfortunately, the deck, and the player's garden, is teeming with them. The object of the game is to get rid of all those artichokes and fill the deck with fresh, delicious vegetables. It takes the deck-building concept that fuels popular games like Magic the Gathering and Pokémon and makes it accessible and easy to understand for younger players, which means they're halfway to becoming formidable opponents in more complicated deck-building experiences.
The Best Casual Games category focuses on easily approachable games that would appeal to players at any level of tabletop experience. The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine beat out MonsDRAWsity and Nova Luna in this category, but all three games come highly recommended.
Players become astronauts on a mission to find a missing planet in The Quest for Planet Nine. With over fifty playable missions, the game continues to advance and grow more difficult with each completed adventure. Designed for 30 to 60 minute games, it's a fun way for 2-5 players to pass the time exploring the vast, uncharted regions of space.
Games in the Best Strategy category tend to be a bit more complex. Additionally, they usually take longer to play. The Search for Planet X and My City definitely meet the requirements, but in the end it was Calico that took home the prize.
A colorful and charming game, Calico is a puzzle game that uses quilt-patch tiles and button tokens to sew glorious quilts that attract adorable cats. The game has become so popular, due to its appeal for younger and more experienced gamers, that it's been sold out for some time. But, the developers promise it will be available again to purchase in the coming months.
Games in this category are designed to appeal to more experienced players, can take up to two hours to play. The award went to Dominations: Road to Civilization. However, its opponents, Dune: Imperium and Gloomhaven are still worth checking out.
In Dominations, the objective is for players to build their individual nations over a period of three ages. Not only do they construct monuments and create cities, but players also learn valuable skills that help them gain points, and the person with the most points at the end of the game wins.
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