Hegemony, Nucleum and Evacuation are among five games fighting for Portugal’s game of the year award

Economic class warfare simulator Hegemony: Lead Your Class to Victory is looking to add Portugal’s game of the year award to its resume in the wake of a powerful showing in the Golden Geek Awards last month.

The game is up against Evacuation, Nucleum, Horseless Carriage and Scholars of the South Tigris in this year’s Jogo Do Ano, which is voted on by members of SpielPortugal.

Evacuation, Nucleum and Scholars of the South Tigris were all beaten by Hegemony in the Heavy Game category in this year’s Golden Geeks, voted on by BoardGameGeek users.

The Jogo Do Ano, which has been presented since 2006, tends to skew towards the heavier end of board gaming, with recent winners including Imperial Steam, Barrage and Imperial Struggle.

Economic strategy game Carnegie won the 2023 Jogo Do Award, having also picked up the Golden Geek Heavy Game award that year.

Nucleum co-designer Simone Luciani was triumphant in the Jogo Do Ano alongside Tommaso Battista with Barrage in 2020, and was nominated last year for renaissance merchant strategy game Tiletum.

Hegemony was created by veteran Among the Stars designer Vangelis Bagiartakis and board game design newcomer Varnavas Timotheou to model the tensions between the working class, middle class, capitalists and the state. 

Evacuation was designed by Vladimír Suchý, Nucleum by Luciani and Dávid Turczi, Horseless Carriage by Splotter Spellen’s Jeroen Doumen and Joris Wiersinga, and Scholars of the South Tigris by Garphill Games’ Shem Phillips and SJ Macdonald.

Winners of the award are likely to be announced in September or October of this year.

Previous Jogo do Ano winners:

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