Every year during Essen, Fairplay Magazine announces the winner of their a la carte award, given to the best card game of the year.  This year, the winner is Castle Combo, designed by Gregory Grard and Mathieu Roussel.  The tableau-building drafting game did well in the annual awards, as it also won a Golden Geek for best light game and earned an SdJ recommendation.  Grard and Roussel also designed the game that finished in ninth place, Zenith.

The runner-up game is Faraway, which had a number of near misses in the awards, including a Kennerspiel nomination.  Despite half a dozen nominations in major awards, its only win came in France’s As d’Or competition.

The rest of the top 5 include The Gang, Fishing, and Flip 7.  Fishing continues a long record of success in the a la carte for its designer, Friedemann Friese.  Even though he’s never won, this gives The Man in Green his seventh finish in the Top 5–only Knizia has more.

Probably the year’s most popular card game is LotR: Duel for Middle Earth, but it could only manage a tenth-place finish.  The most likely reason for the low placement is that the game is a redesign of 7 Wonders Duel, which actually won the a la carte nine years ago.

Here is the complete list of the top 10 finishers, together with their designers.  Congratulations to all!

1. Castle Combo – Gregory Grard, Mathieu Roussel
2. Faraway – Johannes Goupy, Corentin Lebrat
3. The Gang – John Cooper, Kory Heath
4. Fishing – Friedemann Friese
5. Flip 7 – Eric Olsen
6. Agent Avenue – Christian Kudahl, Laura Kudahl
7. Duck & Cover – Oussama Khelifati
8. 3 Chapters – Joe Hout
9. Zenith – Gregory Grard, Mathieu Roussel
10. The Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle Earth – Antoine Bauza, Bruno Cathala