Days of Wonder's Star Wars: Battle of Hoth has taken the Wargame prize at the 20th Golden Geek Awards, beating a category that usually skews towards grognard-friendly hex-and-counter affairs. Designed by Richard Borg with co-designer Adrien Martinot, the game is built on the Commands and Colors system Borg created for Memoir '44 back in 2004, with the Empire and Rebellion swapped in for Allies and Axis.
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Find events near youIf you've never played a Commands and Colors game, the pitch is simple: a hex board split into left flank, centre and right flank, a hand of order cards that limits which sectors you can activate each turn, and a bag of custom dice that does the killing. Battle of Hoth ships with 74 miniatures, including 3 AT-ATs, 9 snowspeeders, 32 snowtroopers, 24 Echo Base troopers, 4 Imperial probe droids and 2 Rebel artillery pieces. There are also 17 scenarios bundled into two multi-scenario campaigns where results carry forward, and that campaign hook is the actual new bit, the part pulling lapsed Memoir players back in.
A 22-year-old ruleset taking home a Wargame prize in 2026 is a useful reminder of how much room there is for licensed reskins done well. Memoir '44 has long been one of the highest-rated wargames on BoardGameGeek, and the Star Wars dressing is what gets it back on tables that haven't seen Normandy in a decade. It's also a great gateway for groups who fancy a wargame but find the genre intimidating, since the order card system gives even the rules-shy a clear way in.
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Start organising for freeIf your group leans toward thematic two-player nights, this one's a strong drop-in. The full Golden Geek tally also handed Heavy Game GOTY to Galactic Cruise and the Light/Party double to Hot Streak, with Co-op going to The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship.
Sources: BoardGameWire | Wargamer | Days of Wonder
