{"id":7542,"date":"2026-09-28T16:29:03","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T15:29:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/?p=7542"},"modified":"2026-09-28T16:35:38","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T15:35:38","slug":"railway-boom-beats-fate-of-the-fellowship-take-time-to-win-international-gamers-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/28\/railway-boom-beats-fate-of-the-fellowship-take-time-to-win-international-gamers-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Railway Boom beats Fate of the Fellowship, Take Time to win International Gamers Award"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Bomb Busters<\/a> designer Hisashi Hayashi has followed up last year’s Spiel des Jahres triumph<\/a> with another significant award win, after Railway Boom<\/a> was named the International Gamers Awards’ best multiplayer game for 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Arclight Games title is a reworking of Hayashi’s 2022 Japanese release of the same name, with Barrage<\/a> and Darwin’s Journey<\/a> co-designer Simone Luciani acting as a developer for the new version.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That result means Luciani has been involved in three IGA multiplayer category winners in the last six years, having previously scooped the award for his co-designs Barrage (with Tommaso Battista) in 2020 and Nucleum<\/a> (with D\u00e1vid Turczi) in 2024. He also won with Daniele Tascini co-design The Voyages of Marco Polo<\/a> in 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hayashi was also in the running for the IGA multiplayer award last year with Bomb Busters, but missed out to Tom\u00e1\u0161 Holek’s SETI<\/a>. His design Yokohama<\/a> was also a multiplayer finalist back in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Railway Boom saw off competition from a heavyweight field including Matt Leacock’s The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship<\/a>, huge-selling Asmodee hit Take Time<\/a> and multiple Dice Tower Award winner Luthier<\/a> to take the prize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Railway Boom || Photo Credit: Arclight Games<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Druids of Edora<\/a>, Nippon: Zaibatsu<\/a>, Recall<\/a>, Sanctuary<\/a> and World Order<\/a> were all also in the running for this year’s multiplayer award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While missing out on the multiplayer award, Fate of the Fellowship did secure a win in the best solo game category, beating out Benjamin Amorin’s Ace of Spades<\/a>, Tyler Brown’s design Hercules and the 12 Labors<\/a> and Jamey Stegmaier’s Vantage<\/a> to the prize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That result marked Leacock’s first IGA win in any category, 18 years after Pandemic<\/a> earned him his first nomination in 2008. His other nominations have included Pandemic Legacy<\/a>, which lost out to Mombasa<\/a> in 2016, and Daybreak<\/a>, which was beaten by Nucleum in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hans im Gl\u00fcck’s Duel for Cardia<\/a>, designed by Faouzi Boughida and Mathieu Rivero, took this year’s award for best two-player game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That title beat a six-strong field which also included Trevor Benjamin and David Thompson’s design Moytura<\/a>, Richard Borg and Adrien Martinot’s Star Wars: Battle of Hoth<\/a>, Corentin Lebrat and Gricha German’s Tag Team<\/a>, Israel Cendrero and Sheila Santos’ The White Castle Duel<\/a> and Stegmaier’s Vantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The International Gamers Awards<\/a> were founded in 1999 with the aim of recognising outstanding games, their designers and publishers, with winners selected by an international panel of board game critics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other previous multiplayer winners have included Carnegie<\/a>, Lost Ruins of Arnak<\/a> and Root<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more stories like this direct to your email inbox, click here to sign up for BoardGameWire’s free email newsletter. \n\nAnd if you’ve found our reporting interesting or useful, please consider a paid subscription to help support our journalism!<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Arclight Games title is a reworking of Hayashi’s 2022 Japanese release of the same name, with Barrage and Darwin’s Journey co-designer Simone Luciani acting as a developer for the new version.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7545,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2779,2093,16,6,135,462,2451,2777,1784,372,2774,2294,2778,1151,2775,267,2776,169,2138],"class_list":["post-7542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-2-player","tag-2093","tag-award","tag-board-game","tag-board-games","tag-designer","tag-duel-for-cardia","tag-faouzi-boughida","tag-hisashi-hayashi","tag-iga","tag-international-gamers-award","tag-lord-of-the-rings-fate-of-the-fellowship","tag-mathieu-rivero","tag-matt-leacock","tag-multiplayer","tag-publisher","tag-railway-boom","tag-simone-luciani","tag-solo"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t