The San Diego Historical Games Convention (SDHist) is proud to announce the four finalists for the fourth 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 and/or play, uniqueness of topic, or novel approach. 

The four finalists for the 2025 Summit Award (for games published in 2024) are (in alphabetical order, with links to and information from their Board Game Geek pages):

Operation Bøllebank: A solitaire game covering a UN task force’s attempt to relieve a base in Bosnia during the Serbian War in 1994. Operation Bøllebank is designed by Nicola Saggini with art by Nils Johannson, and is published by SNAFU Design. It plays in 30-60 minutes. This was the most-selected game by the public during the award nomination process this summer.

GHQ: A two-player abstract battle game designed by author Kurt Vonnegut throughout 1956, published in 2024 by Geoff Engelstein (who served as editor and developer) and Mars International. It comes with an accompanying 24-page booklet featuring Vonnegut’s design notes. 

GHQ is a head-to-head clash on a standard 8×8 checkerboard grid, featuring infantry, armor, artillery, and airborne regiments. It plays in 20-40 minutes and features art from William Bricker and Ryan Goldsberry. Judges praised GHQ for its ease of learning, as well as its broad distribution to try and reach Vonnegut fans. In addition, the game functions both at the level of a game and as a historical artifact, given the prominence and life experiences of its designer.

War Story: Occupied France: A 1-6 player cooperative narrative game about Allied agents in German-occupied France in 1944. The game provides three replayable story missions, each taking place in 45-60 minutes. War Story: Occupied France is designed by Dave Neale and David Thompson with art from Kwanchai Moriya, and is published by Osprey Games. Judges praised its presentation, its novel mechanics, and its thoughtful treatment of challenging topics.

Vijayanagara: The Deccan Empires of Medieval India, 1290-1398: Vijayanagara, a game for 1-3 players that runs 60-120 minutes, depicts the rise and fall of medieval kingdoms in India over two dynastic periods. It is the first game in GMT Games’ Irregular Conflicts Series, with gameplay inspired by GMT’s COIN Series, but with a focus on ease of accessibility and shorter playing time. 

Vijayanagara is designed by Cory Graham, Mathieu Johnson, Aman Matthews, and Saverio Spagnolie. It features art from Mathieu Johnson and Kurt Miller, and is published by GMT Games. Judges praised its unique topic and ease of teaching and play.

In addition to the four selected games, SDHist would like to recognize two honorable mentions for the 2025 Summit Award. These are (in alphabetical order) A Gest of Robin Hood and Arabian Struggle.

A Gest of Robin Hood is a two-player game spanning 45-90 minutes. It is the second title in GMT Games’ Irregular Conflicts Series, featuring COIN Series-inspired gameplay set against the historical backdrop of peasant revolt, feudal taxation, and rural banditry in 12th-century England. It is designed by Fred Serval, and features art from Robert Altbauer, Terry Leeds, and Chechu Nieto.

Arabian Struggle is a two- to three-player game that runs 60-90 minutes. It’s a card-driven game covering conflicts in the Arabian Peninsula in the early 20th century between the Hashemites, the Rasheedis, and the Saudis, with outside interference from the Ottoman and British non-player factions. Designed by Nick Porter and Tim Uden with art from Ilya Kudriashov, Arabian Struggle is published by Catastrophe Games.

Following public nominations this summer which selected Operation Bøllebank, the SDHist board and board of advisors met to determine this year’s other nominees and honorable mentions, with public input also considered there. Those boards will meet again to determine the 2025 Summit Award winner, which will be announced at the SDHist Summit convention in San Diego this November alongside the winner of the Bobby Nunes Memorial Award for gaming media. The nominees for the 2025 Bobby Nunes Memorial Award will be announced in the coming weeks.

The inaugural Summit Award winner in 2022 was Red Flag Over Paris. In 2023, the winner was Votes For Women. In 2024, the winner was Land and Freedom.

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, 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, online conventions, the Conflicts of Interest Online web magazine, the Summit Award, and more. SDHist is run by a volunteer board, and also has an advisory board comprised of prominent members of the gaming industry.

 For more info on the Summit Award, please contact SDHist board member Andrew Bucholtz here.