The San Diego Historical Games Convention (SDHist) is proud to announce the winner of the third annual Summit Award. The Summit Award aims to recognize a historical board game published in the preceding year that most broadened the hobby through the ease of teaching, ease of play, uniqueness of topic, novelty of approach, and/or effectiveness as a historical game. The 2024 Summit Award winner (for games published in 2023) is Land and Freedom: The Spanish Revolution and Civil War.
Land and Freedom is designed by Alex Knight and published by Blue Panther LLC. It features cover, counter, map, and card art from José Ramón Faura, with additional player/non-player aid and card art from Ryan Heilman and Knight, development from Heilman, and rulebook work from Heilman, Knight, and Dave Shaw.
Land and Freedom is a 60-90 minute semi-cooperative game for one to three players. It begins at the right-wing coup in July 1936 that led to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. Land and Freedom places players as leaders of three factions: the Anarchists, Communists, and Moderates (with non-player options available for all factions.) Each faction will add Glory to a Glory Bag over the course of the game, with the Glory drawn from there crucial to any potential victory.
The three player factions are in an alliance to battle the non-player Fascists, and all lose if the war is lost. But if the Fascist threat is staved off, the faction with the most glory drawn is the sole winner.
The game is played over three rounds, or years, with each year comprising four turns. Each turn sees a Fascist event revealed, adding attacks to some of the four fronts and possibly applying other penalties for the player factions.
From there, players each choose a card to play, which are then resolved simultaneously, followed by a Fascist test of one particular front. The initiative player then adds one of their tokens to the Glory Bag, or two if it’s the end of the year. This sequence repeats until either an immediate loss (defeat on the Madrid Front or any two fronts) or the end of the third year, which ends either in a group loss (at least two fronts at 0 or below) or a single winner (at least three fronts at +1 or above, leading to five final Glory draws and a victor, with initiative breaking ties).
The winner of the 2024 Summit Award was determined by members of the SDHist Board and SDHist Advisory Board. The judges praised Land and Freedom for its unconventional design approach (particularly around the semi-cooperative aspect), its novelty of topic, its approachability to those new to historical gaming, and its playability at a range of player counts. Dan Bullock, chair of the Summit Award committee, said “Alex Knight’s Land and Freedom is a fresh take on the Spanish Civil War that emphasizes factional squabbles over a Republican vs. Nationalist approach with a very accessible system.”
Land and Freedom was one of four Summit Award finalists announced this October following a public call for nominations over a period of months. The other three finalists, selected by members of the SDHist Board and SDHist Advisory Board in October, were (in alphabetical order) The British Way: Counterinsurgency at the End of Empire (designed by Stephen Rangazas, published by GMT Games, recipient of the most public nominations), Halls of Hegra (designed by Petter Schanke Olsen, published by Tompet Games), and We Are Coming, Nineveh (designed by Harrison Brewer, Rex Brynen, Juliette Le Ménahèze, and Brian Train, published by Nuts! Publishing). Match of the Century, designed by Paolo Mori and published by Deep Print Games, and Rising Waters, designed by Scout Blum and published by the Center for Learning Through Games and Simulations, Central Michigan University Press, were also announced as honorable mentions for the 2024 Summit Award.
Each of the four finalist games was taught and demonstrated at the Nov. 8-11 San Diego Historical Games Convention. Following that, members of the SDHist Board and SDHist Advisory Board met for a final selection of the 2024 Summit Award winner, choosing Land and Freedom.
The judges also praised The British Way for its focus on lesser-gamed conflicts, its novel mechanic to tie the different games in the multipack together, and its ease of teaching and play, especially for those new to GMT’s COIN system. They commended Halls of Hegra for its novelty of approach with its bag-building and action selection and its approachability for those used to Euro-style games. And they endorsed We Are Coming, Nineveh for its novelty of topic, effectiveness as a historical game, and interesting approach with pre-game capability selection and three dimensions of victory to consider.
The Summit Award will return in 2025, with games published in 2024 under consideration for that award. A call for public submissions will go out in the spring or summer of 2024. More information can be found on the Summit Award page on the SDHistCon website.
Alongside the Summit Award, SDHist also launched a Bobby Nunes Memorial Award this year to recognize exceptional gaming media published in the previous calendar year. The four finalists for that award were announced in November. The winner will be announced next week.
2022’s inaugural Summit Award (for games published in 2021) went to Red Flag Over Paris. 2023’s Summit Award (for games published in 2022) went to Votes For Women.
About The Summit Award: The Summit Award is an opportunity for the SDHist team to recognize the positive impact of a game that broadens the historical gaming hobby by drawing in more players or by introducing a new and unique subject or perspective. Our ultimate hope is that the Summit Award helps foster a discussion amongst players, designers and publishers about new ways to broaden the hobby through teaching, play, topic, and approach.
Games are judged on five criteria: Ease of Teaching, Ease of Play, Novelty/Uniqueness of Topic, Novelty of Approach, and Effectiveness as a historical game. More details on the award and eligibility guidelines can be found here.
About SDHist: The mission of SDHist is to create a diverse and supportive gaming community dedicated to playing, discussing, designing, and promoting historically-based board games. Through this commitment, SDHist seeks to serve both the existing historical board gaming community as well as grow it through the addition of new voices and perspectives.
This is done through physical conventions (including the SDHistCon Summit in San Diego in November and the SDHistCon East convention at the U.S. Naval War College in Providence, RI in August), online conventions, the Conflicts of Interest magazine and Conflicts of Interest Online articles, the Summit Award, and more. SDHist is run by a volunteer board, and also has an advisory board composed of prominent members of the gaming community.
For more information on the Summit Award, please contact Conflicts of Interest Online editor and SDHist press liaison Andrew Bucholtz. His contact information is here.