Nucleum wins Portugal’s game of the year award
Alternative history industrialisation eurogame Nucleum has triumphed in this year’s Jogo Do Ano, the Portuguese game of the year award.
The Simone Luciani and Dávid Turczi design fought off competition from Hegemony: Lead Your Class to Victory, which had previously beaten it to BoardGameGeek’s Heavy Game award in this year’s Golden Geeks in May.
Evacuation, Horseless Carriage and Scholars of the South Tigris were also in the running for this year’s Jogo Do Ano, which is voted on by members of SpielPortugal.
A statement from Turczi shared by the Jogo do Ano organisers said, “It’s an honour and a thrill to receive such a recognition! Thank you for selecting Nucleum as the Portuguese Game of the Year 2024!
“We hope the game will bring many more hours of joy to everyone around the table, and Board and Dice and us are planning to keep on going with the wonderful possibilities of this game, finding new ways to set your brains on mildly radioactive fire.”
Nucleum’s awards cabinet also includes the 2023 Meeple’s Choice Award – although the game finished in a four-way winning tie with Earth, Sky Team and The White Castle.
The game, published by Board&Dice, was ‘recommended’ in this year’s American Tabletop Awards in the Complex Games category.
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.
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
