Merry Christmas

The Apples Project will be going on a short break (about a week or so) to celebrate Christmas - but don't worry! We'll be back with new categories to argue about real soon!

Beautiful

The most beautiful card & board games...

• Big City
• Crokinole
• Lord of the Rings (Knizia)
• Settlers of Catan 3D
• Shadows Over Camelot
• Tikal

Just missed the cut:

• Cleopatra & the Society of Architects
• Gemblo
• Star Wars - The Queen's Gambit

Also nominated:

• Ave Caesar
• Big Boss
• Blokus
• El Grande
• Elfenland/Elfenroads
• Java
• Master Thieves
• Mystery of the Abbey
• Nacht der Magier
• Reef Encounter
• Serenissima
• Siesta
• Tsuro
• War of the Ring

For comparison, the top six games from 2002:

• Battle Cry
• Big City
• Lord of the Rings
• Mississippi Queen
• Star Wars - The Queen's Gambit
• Starfarers of Catan

Wargames Eurogamers Love

The best "wargames" that attract the attention & admiration of Eurogamers...

• Battle Cry (Richard Borg)
• Memoir '44
• Twilight Struggle
• Vinci
• Wallenstein

Also nominated:

• Command & Colors: Ancients
• Diplomacy
• Game of Thrones, A
• Hannibal: Rome vs.Carthage
• History of the World (all versions)
• Nexus Ops
• Shogun/Samurai Swords
• Star Wars - The Queen's Gambit
• Struggle of Empires
• We the People
• Wings of War (the series)

This was not a category in 2002, so there is no comparison available.

Worst. Game. Ever.

Well, not really.

But these are pretty bad.

• Fluxx
• Global Survival
• LCR
• Life (The Game of Life)
• Munchkin
• Time Control

This time around, the Apple Pickers simply nominated up to 7 of their most detested games... and those receiving 3 or more votes are listed here. The "winner" had four votes, so you can see that "ugly is in the eye of the beholder" and, probably more important, that there isn't any real consensus on what constitutes the worst game ever.

OTOH, I could never play any of these games again and be a very happy individual.

Exploration

The best exploration games...

• Africa
• Entdecker (both editions)
• Expedition/Wildlife Adventure
• Goldland
• Tikal

Also nominated:

• Anno 1503
• Jenseits von Theben
• Lost Cities
• Lost Valley
• Nautilus
• Starship Catan

For comparison, the top five from 2002:

• Africa
• Entdecker/Entdecker (new)
• Wildlife Adventure/Terra X/Expedition
• Lost Cities
• Tikal