The German branch of high IQ society Mensa has changed up its long-running board game award to focus entirely on complex, expert-level titles, scrapping its prizes for shorter family games and two-player designs.

Mensa in Deutschland has awarded the MinD Spielepreis since 2009, and has operated a ‘shorter games’ category for more than a decade and lighter two-player games prize since 2019.

But this year’s award will return to just a single category, pitting six expert-level games against each other in order to fill what the organisers see as a gap in the industry.

Jochen Tierbach, who has been organising the MinD Game Award for 16 years, said, “There are already various awards and prizes for family and connoisseur games.

“But for expert games, the really tough ones, there is no such thing in Germany yet. And we feel that the industry wants it.”

A long list of more than 20 titles has been whittled down to six challengers for this year: Galactic Cruise, Luthier, Shackleton Base, Speakeasy, Thebai and Thesauros, all of which have been released in Germany since Spiel Essen last October.

The organisers will now take the next ten months to persuade as many Mensans as possible to play the titles and rate them out of 10 for ‘challenge factor’ and ‘replayability’. The winner is set to be announced on November 10.

Last year’s MinD award for complex games saw Tomáš Holek’s space exploration eurogame SETI add to its array of prizes, while Simone Luciani and Dávid Turczi’s Nucleum triumphed in 2024.

The last holder of the MinD shorter game award is 2025 Spiel des Jahres winner Bomb Busters, while 2024 SdJ champion Sky Team was the final winner of the best two-player game prize.

Other board game awards focusing specifically on heavier titles include France’s Diamant d’Or, which was launched more than a decade ago to champion complex eurogames the organisers felt were being overlooked by more mainstream board game awards.

The US branch of Mensa also runs an annual board game award, Mensa Select, which is voted on by members following a now traditional four-day gaming marathon.

MinD Spielepreis finalists 2026

Galactic Cruise, by TK King, Dennis Northcott and Koltin Thompson (published in Germany by PD Verlag)
MinD committee notes: “In Galactic Cruise, players build a luxurious cruise company for space travel and organise ships, staff and wealthy customers.

“The game impresses with its strong thematic interconnection, a hidden deployment mechanism to determine the order of actions, and challenging resource planning.”

Luthier, by Dave Back and Abe Burson (Funtails)
“Luthier puts players in the role of instrument makers who, thanks to generous patrons, equip famous musicians throughout the Baroque, Classical and Romantic periods and compete for the chair of various instrument groups in the orchestra.

Shackleton Base, by Fabio Lopiano and Nestore Mangone (Giant Roc)
“In Shackleton Base, players build a permanent base at the south pole of the moon, using executives who bring a slight asymmetry to the game.

“Three of seven selectable corporations with special abilities and several interlocking scoring options provide strategic depth and high variety.”

Speakeasy, by Vital Lacerda (Skellig Games)
“Speakeasy is set during Prohibition in Manhattan, where players open illegal bars, nightclubs and casinos in different districts and supply them with stolen or moonshine alcohol.

“The appeal of the game lies in the indirect interaction through territory control, competition for lucrative locations and the constant risk of attracting too much attention.”

Thebai, by Dávid Turczi (Pegasus Spiele)
“Thebai is a tightly interwoven optimisation game in which population or hoplite cubes are placed on your own estate or on the shared game board to rebuild the Kadmeia of Thebai.

“Resources must be gathered for assignments while trying to promote population to the council or promote hoplites to army commanders in order to successfully repel attacks on the city.”

Thesauros, by Cedric Millet (Elznir Games)
“In Thesauros, players first search for and then recover sunken treasures in order to ultimately sell them to a museum at a profit.

“Budget planning several rounds in advance requires strategic foresight and a carefully balanced mix of long-term exploration plans, short-term financing requirements, and disruptive manoeuvres against or by the competition.”

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