All "À la carte🇩🇪 1999" game award winners & nominees in comparison 2026

Lost Cities is a two-player card game focused on building profitable archaeological expeditions. Part of the Kosmos two-player series, it features a deck with cards ranked 2–10 in various colors, including a new sixth color added in 2019. The game also employs "handshake" cards as multipliers for scoring.

Tichu is an intriguing partnership card game that combines elements of Zheng Fen with traditional card play. It stands out as a strategic and competitive game, requiring players to be both tactically astute and keenly aware of their partner's actions. Typically played by four players in partnerships, the game is a race to get rid of all cards in hand, while aiming to score points.

Mamma Mia! is a delightful card game from designer Uwe Rosenberg, blending strategy and memory skills in a fun pizza-making theme. Players compete to complete pizza orders by strategically playing ingredient cards into a common pool and timing their pizza baking to utilize the available ingredients in the kitchen.

Players rely on strategies to manage numbered cards from 1 to 98, featuring green cards for positive points and red cards for negative points. In this game, players create sets of cards, but the fifth card played takes the entire set. Players take turns, playing one to three cards from their hand during their turn.

In Money!, players compete to amass the most significant collection of a single currency type. Developed by renowned designer Reiner Knizia, this card game revolves around strategic bidding and card exchange mechanics. Players bid cards from their hands to acquire 'lots' of cards, with the highest bidder determining the order of selection. The cards feature various currencies from around the world, adding an educational element to the gameplay experience.

Kahuna is a strategic two-player game set in the South Seas, where players take on the roles of Kahuna – powerful sorcerers of the Pacific. The game revolves around competing for dominance over an archipelago of twelve small islands.

Players engage in a trick-taking game filled with twists and turns. The game uses a set of cards in four colors, adjusted based on the number of players so each starts with 14 cards. Players must play cards strategically, as the suit played for the trick impacts the gameplay, and points are scored based on the cards collected at the end of each round. The game concludes after a set number of tricks or if a player is forced to play a card from the restricted color. The player with the highest total score after all rounds wins.

Uwe Rosenberg has a knack for creating innovative card game systems, which is evident in this game. Players collect sets of different types of jewelry by buying cards from one another and playing cards from their hands to complete sets of four. The points awarded for a complete set are negatively affected if there are already several sets of similar cards in play.

Players engage in a conflict between two factions, the Rose and the Eagle, using power cards to sway the allegiance of districts. They choose roles such as Diplomat, Traitor, and Builder, each granting special abilities for the round. The Traitor's ability to shift loyalties at the start of the conflict can be particularly devastating, with points awarded for winning districts, taking on specific roles, and building counting houses.