Spiel des Jahres
The German game of the year.
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Hase und Igel
As the first winner of the Spiel des Jahres award in 1979, Hare and Tortoise or the German Hase und Igel (for Hare and Hedgehog) will always be regarded as a classic game. It is a cunningly designed race to the finish in which your fuel (carrots) must practically run out (all but 10 carrots […]
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Rummikub
Rummikub is similar to several central European card games which are played with two decks of playing cards, including Machiavelli and Vatikan. Ephraim Hertzano invented the tile game Rummikub in the 1940s when card-playing was outlawed under the Communist regime. After World War II, Hertzano immigrated to British Mandate of Palestine (now Israel) and developed […]
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Sagaland
One treasure is hidden under each tree in the forest. As you move from tree to tree, you get to peek at the treasures you find. Can you remember where each one is hidden? When the king asks where one of the treasures is, players race to reach the castle with the right information. The […]
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Scotland Yard
In Scotland Yard, one of the players takes on the role of Mr. X. His job is to move from point to point around the map of London taking taxis, buses or subways. The detectives – that is, the remaining players acting in concert – move around similarly in an effort to move into the […]
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Dampfross
This game was originally designed by a teacher to be used as a learning tool. There are several different editions of this game (originally released in the UK as Railway Rivals), but most feature several different hexagonal maps of real locations, such as Tennessee and Germany. Starting from one of the cities pictured on the […]
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Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: The Thames Murders & Other Cases
Have you ever had the desire to walk the streets of Victorian London with Sherlock Holmes in search of Professor Moriarty? To search the docks for the giant rat of Sumatra? To walk up Baker Street as the fog is rolling in and hear Holmes cry out, “Come, Watson, come! The game is afoot!”? Now […]
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Top Secret Spies
The game board in Heimlich & Co. is an oval movement track, with points allocated to the various spaces. Seven differently colored “spies” are placed on the board. On a player’s turn, they roll a die, then move any combination of characters forward that number of spaces. The newly-moved spies then score points based on […]
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Convoy
Auf Achse translates roughly to “On the Road,” an appropriate title for this 1987 Spiel des Jahres winner which has players delivering loads of commodities to various German and other European cities. Supply cities and demand cities are determined through card play, and players attempt to get delivery contracts by bidding against one another. Movement […]
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Café International
This game revolves around the placement of multi-national customers in a restaurant. The board shows many different tables, each with four chairs around them. The tables are grouped by nation, so the Chinese like to sit with other Chinese. However, some of the chairs are on the border between two nations, so a person from […]
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Grever & baroner
What do bored English noblemen do with their free time? Well, according to this Spiel des Jahres (1990) winner by Klaus Teuber, they like collecting old junk and then showing it off. Players buy or steal various pieces of junk in the form of cards, trying to form the largest and oldest collection. Built on […]
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Wacky Wacky West
A long time ago, in a village far, far away, some disturbed townsfolk decided to destroy their entire town in order to rid themselves of an evil menace (it’s technically a dog-mouse, but I think it’s an idiomatic thing). Anyway, so the villagers rebuilt all the buildings in the town (including their precious outhouses), but […]
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Um Reifenbreite
Translating as “By the Width of a Tire,” this game covers a Tour de France-type of bicycle race. Each player takes control of a four-member racing team, and the goal is to score as many points as possible for the whole team. Movement is primarily handled by dice, however a limited card set partially replaces […]
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Perudo
Liar’s Dice, a.k.a. Bluff, Perudo or Dudo, is a South American dice game in which each player is given five dice and cup to roll and hide them with. Players make successively higher declarations regarding the results of all the dice remaining in the game, e.g. “there are ten sixes”. However, someone can always contest […]
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Manhattan
In Manhattan, players construct a skyline of skyscrapers over several districts, or city blocks, of Manhattan Island. Ultimately, each player seeks to have built the tallest buildings in the most city blocks of the Island. Each turn, players will play a card that illustrates which part of a city block they may place a “floor” […]
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CATAN
In CATAN (formerly The Settlers of Catan), players try to be the dominant force on the island of Catan by building settlements, cities and roads. On each turn dice are rolled to determine which resources the island produces. Players build structures by ‘spending’ resources (sheep, wheat, wood, brick and ore) which are represented by the […]
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El Grande
In this award-winning game, players take on the roles of Grandes in medieval Spain. The king’s power is flagging, and these powerful lords are vying for control of the various regions. To that end, you draft caballeros (knights) into your court and subsequently move them onto the board to help seize control of regions. After […]
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Mississippi Queen
In this light, fun family game, players race their paddleboats down the Mississippi, picking up passengers along the way. But onboard coal supplies are limited, so each ship’s acceleration and maneuvers must be carefully planned. Perhaps most interestingly, the twists and turns of the river are unknown at the start of the game, and are […]
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Elfenland
Elfenland is a redesign of the original White Wind game Elfenroads. The game is set in the mythical world of the elves. A group of fledgling elves (the players) are charged with visiting as many of the twenty Elfencities as they can over the course of 4 rounds. To accomplish the task they will use […]
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Tikal
Tikal is a game of exploration within the Central American jungles in search of lost temples and the treasures within. Players send their team of explorers into the jungle, exposing more and more of the terrain. Along the way, you find temples that require further uncovering and treasures. Players attempt to score points for occupying […]
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Torres
Torres is an abstract game of resource management and tactical pawn movement. Players are attempting to build up castles and position their knights to score the most points each turn. Players have a limited supply of knights and action cards that allow special actions to be taken. Efficient use of pieces and cards, along with […]
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Villa Paletti
An architectural rush to the skies for 2 – 4 budding architects with a good head for heights from 8 years old. In the land where the Lemons bloom, there once lived a wise old sage, whose friends called him “Paletti” He only had one goal in life, to finish the wonderful castle in the […]
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Alhambra
Granada, 1278. At the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, one of the most exciting and interesting project of the Spanish Middle Ages begins: the construction of the ALHAMBRA. The best master builders in the whole of Europe and Arabia want to demonstrate their skill. Employ the most suitable teams of builders and make sure […]
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Ticket to Ride
With elegantly simple gameplay, Ticket to Ride can be learned in under 15 minutes. Players collect cards of various types of train cars they then use to claim railway routes in North America. The longer the routes, the more points they earn. Additional points come to those who fulfill Destination Tickets – goal cards that […]
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Niagara
Niagara is set in the not particularly safe world of rushing waterfalls. In the late 18th Century, the Shawnee and Iroquois Indians pointed white Desperadoes, Mercenaries and Adventurers in the direction of hidden caches of valuable jewels, in the hopes of turning them against one another and away from their territorial expansion ambitions. Players play […]
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Zooloretto
In Zooloretto, each player uses small, large, wild, and exotic animals and their young to try to attract as many visitors as possible to their zoo – but be careful! The zoo must be carefully planned as before you know it, you might have too many animals and no more room for them. That brings […]
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Dominion
“You are a monarch, like your parents before you, a ruler of a small pleasant kingdom of rivers and evergreens. Unlike your parents, however, you have hopes and dreams! You want a bigger and more pleasant kingdom, with more rivers and a wider variety of trees. You want a Dominion! In all directions lie fiefs, […]
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Dixit
Each turn in Dixit, one player is the storyteller who chooses one of the six cards in his or her hand, then expresses an idea, with sounds or words, that is reflected on that card’s image, and places the card face down on the playing surface. Each other player then selects the card in his […]
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Qwirkle
The abstract game of Qwirkle consists of 108 wooden blocks with six different shapes in six different colors. There is no board, players simply use an available flat surface. Players begin the game with six blocks. The start player places blocks of a single matching attribute (color or shape but not both) on the table. […]
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Kingdom Builder
In Kingdom Builder, the players create their own kingdoms by skillfully building their settlements, aiming to earn the most gold at the end of the game. Nine different kinds of terrain are on the variable game board, including locations and castles. During his turn, a player plays his terrain card and builds three settlements on […]
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Camel Up
In Camel Up, up to eight players bet on five racing camels, trying to suss out which will place first and second in a quick race around a pyramid. The earlier you place your bet, the more you can win — should you guess correctly, of course. Camels don’t run neatly, however, sometimes landing on […]
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Colt Express
On the 11th of July, 1899 at 10 a.m., the Union Pacific Express has left Folsom, New Mexico, with 47 passengers on board. After a few minutes, gunfire and hurrying footsteps on the roof can be heard. Heavily armed bandits have come to rob honest citizens of their wallets and jewels. Will they succeed in […]
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Codenames
Two rival spymasters know the secret identities of 25 agents. Their teammates know the agents only by their codenames — single-word labels like “disease”, “Germany”, and “carrot”. Yes, carrot. It’s a legitimate codename. Each spymaster wants their team to identify their agents first…without uncovering the assassin by mistake. In Codenames, two teams compete to see […]
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Kingdomino
In Kingdomino, you are a lord seeking new lands in which to expand your kingdom. You must explore all the lands, including wheat fields, lakes, and mountains, in order to spot the best plots, while competing with other lords to acquire them first. The game uses tiles with two sections, similar to Dominoes. Each turn, […]
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Azul
Introduced by the Moors, azulejos (originally white and blue ceramic tiles) were fully embraced by the Portuguese when their king Manuel I, on a visit to the Alhambra palace in Southern Spain, was mesmerized by the stunning beauty of the Moorish decorative tiles. The king, awestruck by the interior beauty of the Alhambra, immediately ordered […]
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Just One
Just One is a cooperative party game in which you play together to discover as many mystery words as possible. Find the best clue to help your teammate. Be unique, as all identical clues will be cancelled! A complete game is played over 13 cards. The goal is to get a score as close to […]
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Pictures
Pictures is a quick-playing family game with very simple rules. Form the image on your secret picture card with one set of components, either shoelaces, color cubes, icon cards, sticks and stones or building blocks in such a way that the other players guess what image you have pictured: Pull out a marker from the […]
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MicroMacro: Crime City
Crimes have taken place all over the city, and you want to figure out exactly what’s happened, so you’ll need to look closely at the giant city map (75 x 110 cm / 29.5 x 43 inches) to find all the hidden information and trace the trails of those who had it in for their […]
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Cascadia
Cascadia is a puzzly tile-laying and token-drafting game featuring the habitats and wildlife of the Pacific Northwest. In the game, you take turns building out your own terrain area and populating it with wildlife. You start with three hexagonal habitat tiles (with the five types of habitat in the game), and on a turn you […]
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Challengers!
Challengers! is an interactive deck-management game for 1-8 players that plays in about 45 minutes independent of player count. With the tournament gameplay style, you meet another opponent every round. In the Deck Phase, you choose new members and add them to your deck, which might consist of a wizard, alien, cat, gangster and kraken. […]