Carnegie, Weather Machine among five games battling it out for Portugal’s game of the year award

Golden Geek heavy game of the year winner Carnegie is looking to add to its titles after being nominated alongside four other games for Spiel Portugal’s game of the year awards.

The economic strategy game, which is based around the life of industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, is up against Tiletum, Weather Machine, Lacrimosa and Federation for the prize.

Carnegie is easily the highest ranked of the five on BoardGameGeek at #124, but all five games have ratings on the site between 7.8 and 8.1.

Weather Machine designer Vital Lacerda won the Jogo do Ano in 2018 with Lisboa, while Tiletum co-designer Simone Luciani was truimphant alongside Tommaso Battista with Barrage in 2020.

Last year’s winner was train-based economic strategy game Imperial Steam from Alexander Huemer, beating big name competitor Ark Nova to the gong.

Three games with Imperial in the title have won the award in its 16-year existence, with Mac Gerdts’ Imperial taking the top prize in the inaugural 2007 competition and Imperial Struggle winning in 2021.

Jogo de Ano committee chief Carlos Ferreira told BoardGameWire the winner is expected to be announced at the end of September.

Previous Jogo do Ano winners:

2022 – Imperial Steam – Alexander Huemer
2021 – Imperial Struggle – Ananda Gupta and Jason Matthews
2020 – Barrage – Tommaso Battista and Simone Luciani
2019 – Root – Cole Wehrle
2018 – Lisboa – Vital Lacerda
2017 – Great Western Trail – Alexander Pfister
2016 – Mombasa – Alexander Pfister
2015 – La Granja – Michael Keller (II), Andreas “ode.” Odendahl
2014 – Nations – Rustan Håkansson, Nina Håkansson, Einar Rosén and Robert Rosén
2013 – Keyflower – Richard Breese and Sebastian Bleasdale
2012 – Ora et Labora – Uwe Rosenberg
2011 – Troyes – Sébastien Dujardin, Xavier Georges and Alain Orban
2010 – Maria – Richard Sivél
2009 – Agricola – Uwe Rosenberg
2008 – Brass – Martin Wallace
2007 – Imperial – Mac Gerdts