{"id":3602,"date":"2025-01-13T15:31:36","date_gmt":"2025-01-13T15:31:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/?p=3602"},"modified":"2025-01-14T09:00:41","modified_gmt":"2025-01-14T09:00:41","slug":"seti-wins-expert-level-eurogame-award-diamant-dor-civolution-scores-second-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/13\/seti-wins-expert-level-eurogame-award-diamant-dor-civolution-scores-second-place\/","title":{"rendered":"SETI wins expert-level eurogame award Diamant d\u2019Or, Civolution scores second place"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Space exploration eurogame <a href=\"https:\/\/boardgamegeek.com\/boardgame\/418059\/seti-search-for-extraterrestrial-intelligence\">S<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/boardgamegeek.com\/boardgame\/418059\/seti-search-for-extraterrestrial-intelligence\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">E<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/boardgamegeek.com\/boardgame\/418059\/seti-search-for-extraterrestrial-intelligence\">TI<\/a> has picked up its first major award by scooping this year&#8217;s Diamant d\u2019Or, a prize launched a decade ago to celebrate complex eurogames being overlooked by more mainstream board game awards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stefen Feld design&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/boardgamegeek.com\/boardgame\/400602\/civolution\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Civolution<\/a> finished in second place in the 2025 contest, with Vital Lacerda\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/boardgamegeek.com\/boardgame\/347305\/inventions-evolution-of-ideas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Inventions: Evolution of Ideas<\/a> finishing in third spot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The French award focuses on new, expert-level eurogame releases from the previous 12 months which have a high replayability, especially those \u201cwhose format does not always allow them to apply for one of the many other current awards\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A jury of more than 20 board game enthusiasts whittle down a list of about 50 games each year to eight finalists, with the hope of highlighting a group of interesting, complex eurogame designs which may not be well represented in other hobby award competitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>SETI&#8217;s win also marks the first board game award for designer Tom\u00e1\u0161 Holek, who has surged into the limelight this year after his first three published titles &#8211; SETI, Galileo Galilei and Tea Garden &#8211; all picked up praise from industry folk and gamers alike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/SETI-3-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3606\" srcset=\"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/SETI-3-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/SETI-3-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/SETI-3-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/SETI-3-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/SETI-3.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">SETI from Czech Games Edition<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Civolution designer Feld previously won the Diamant d&#8217;Or two years ago with his citybuilding design&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/boardgamegeek.com\/boardgame\/29223\/marrakech\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Marrakesh<\/a>, while Lacerda previously came second in 2018 with&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/boardgamegeek.com\/boardgame\/161533\/lisboa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Lisboa<\/a>, and third in the inaugural Diamant d\u2019Or in 2015\/16 with&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/boardgamegeek.com\/boardgame\/125153\/the-gallerist\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Gallerist<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last year\u2019s top prize was won by Simone Luciani and&nbsp;Nestore Mangone\u2019s worker placement game&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/boardgamegeek.com\/boardgame\/322289\/darwins-journey\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Darwin\u2019s Journey<\/a>, with&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/boardgamegeek.com\/boardgame\/396790\/nucleum\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Nucleum<\/a>&nbsp;finishing in second place and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/boardgamegeek.com\/boardgame\/337627\/voidfall\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Voidfall<\/a>&nbsp;in third.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other games making up the eight finalists this year included Sigmund Freud-themed eurogame&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/boardgamegeek.com\/boardgame\/329500\/unconscious-mind\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Unconscious Mind<\/a>, &nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/boardgamegeek.com\/boardgame\/386368\/ezra-and-nehemiah\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Ezra and Nehemiah<\/a>&nbsp;from&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/garphill.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Garphill Games<\/a>, Germ\u00e1n Mill\u00e1n design&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/boardgamegeek.com\/boardgame\/404431\/men-nefer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Men-Nefer<\/a>, Stan Kordonskiy\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/boardgamegeek.com\/boardgame\/423401\/minos-dawn-of-the-bronze-age\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Minos: Dawn of the Bronze Age<\/a>&nbsp;and David Bernal\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/boardgamegeek.com\/boardgame\/402663\/salton-sea\">Salton Sea<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last year the Diamant d\u2019Or jury also announced the winner of its first super Diamant d\u2019Or\u00a0award, which pitted all of the prize\u2019s previous champions against one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Underwater Cities triumphed in that award, with Ark Nova finishing second and Gaia Project third.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>This year&#8217;s Diamant d&#8217;Or winners in full<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>1st place: SETI (Czech Games Edition)<br>2nd: Civolution (Deep Print Games)<br>3rd: Inventions (Eagle-Gryphon Games)<br>4th: Ezra and Nehemiah (Garphill Games)<br>5th: Men-Nefer (Ludonova)<br>6th: Minos: Dawn of the Bronze Age (Board&amp;Dice)<br>7th: Unconscious Mind (Fantasia Games)<br>8th: Salton Sea (Devir)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Previous winners of the Diamant d\u2019Or<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>2024 \u2013 Darwin\u2019s Journey<br>2023 \u2013 Marrakesh<br>2022 \u2013 Ark Nova<br>2021 \u2013 Beyond the Sun<br>2020 \u2013 Crystal Palace<br>2019 \u2013 Underwater Cities<br>2018 \u2013 Gaia Project<br>2017 \u2013 Great Western Trail<br>2015\/16 \u2013 Mombasa<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-black-color has-text-color has-background wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/buttondown.com\/boardgamewire\" style=\"background-color:#f6bf00\">For more stories like this direct to your email inbox, click here to sign up for BoardGameWire&#8217;s free email newsletter. \n\nAnd if you&#8217;ve found our reporting interesting or useful, please consider a paid subscription to help support our journalism!<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Space exploration eurogame SETI has picked up its first major award by scooping this year&#8217;s Diamant d\u2019Or, a prize launched a decade ago to celebrate complex eurogames being overlooked by more mainstream board game awards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3605,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[949,16,6,135,321,546,317,1400,672,1435,1401,547,236,109],"class_list":["post-3602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-949","tag-award","tag-board-game","tag-board-games","tag-cge","tag-civolution","tag-czech-games-edition","tag-diamant-dor","tag-french","tag-inventions","tag-seti","tag-stefan-feld","tag-vital-lacerda","tag-winner"],"blocksy_meta":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3602"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3610,"href":"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3602\/revisions\/3610"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}