All "Spiel des Jahres🇩🇪 1998" game award winners & nominees in comparison 2026

Chicken Cha Cha Cha is a delightful and engaging memory game that combines the whimsy of chickens learning to dance with the challenge of strategic movement and memory. Players become chickens vying to out-memorize and outmaneuver their opponents around a circuitous path, aiming to collect the tail feathers of their rivals by accurately recalling the images hidden on octagonal tiles.

Through the Desert is a strategic board game where players guide caravans through the desert to claim oases and territory. Often compared to the classic game Go, it combines strategic planning with a visually appealing setup featuring colorful plastic camels.

The game adds an interesting twist to the standard trick-taking genre. Players must follow the lead color if possible, but the highest card played wins the trick, regardless of the color. After all tricks are played, players score points based on the number of cards collected in each color, with the highest scorer winning the game.

Players take on the role of gem traders competing on a marketplace. They race, collect, trade, and try to predict each other's moves. Each player starts with 12 gems of four colors and, in each round, rolls dice to move and chooses from three actions to gain points or gems. Actions can lead to direct execution, mutual trading, or cancellation if too many players choose the same action. After three rounds, the player with the highest score wins.

Elfenland is a redesigned version of the original Elfenroads game, set in a mythical elven world. Players, as young elves, embark on a journey across the land to visit as many of the twenty Elfencities as possible. The game is uniquely characterized by its variety of whimsical transportation methods and strategic movement across a network of interconnected cities.

Players control a ship around a small group of islands, aiming to visit four of the five remote islands and return to the harbor. Winning requires not just island visits, as players earn money by rolling dice and assigning movement points to opponents' ships. The game features various mechanisms to balance player positions, creating opportunities to challenge the leader, making for engaging decisions without a single best strategy.

Canyon is a trick-taking game where players try to predict the exact number of tricks they will win. The number of cards in a player's hand fluctuates, and correct predictions allow players to move their markers on a scoring track depicted as a river in a canyon. If too many cards are played without a correct prediction, players risk being sent back several spaces when caught "in the current" near the finish line.

In Caesar & Cleopatra, a two-player card game, participants step into the roles of these iconic historical figures, with Caesar advocating for Rome's invasion of Egypt and Cleopatra fighting for its independence. The core of the game revolves around influencing Roman officials - Aedils, Quaestors, Senators, Pretorians, and Censors - using agent cards numbered 1 to 5. Players must strategically decide whether to play these agents face-down for secrecy or face-up for greater influence. Additionally, action cards like Assassins and Scouts add layers of strategy, allowing players to remove opposing agents or reveal hidden ones. The game progresses by revealing votes from the Roman officials, with the player having the most influence winning their support. The game concludes once all officials have chosen sides, with victory going to the player who has garnered the most support, factoring in bonus points for majorities in specific groups and certain hidden objectives.

Reiner Knizia's Tigris & Euphrates is a highly regarded strategy board game, often considered his masterpiece. It's set in the ancient fertile crescent and involves building civilizations through strategic tile placement.

GIPF is a highly strategic two-player game that elevates the traditional concept of achieving four-in-a-row into a deeper tactical battle. The game stands out for its simplicity in rules but complexity in strategy, providing a rich tactical experience where players not only aim to create rows of four of their own pieces but also strategically capture their opponent's pieces, thereby altering the game state.

Players engage in a dice-driven game focused on German politics, aiming to become Chancellor by the end. The board features a lengthy movement path that allows players to ascend in the political hierarchy. Players roll dice to advance their pawns and can occupy key positions, appoint ministers, and even replace opponents' ministers. If a player cannot utilize their dice roll, they age a year, and once a player turns 65, they must retire. The last player remaining in the game who holds the Chancellorship wins.

Players take on the role of businesspeople traveling the world to earn money by opening hotels and factories in major cities like Sydney, Cairo, and New York. They aim to build hotels in as many cities as possible while competing for the most hotels to score points, and they can also earn money by constructing a limited number of factories.

Die Macher is a political strategy game for 3 to 5 players. You lead a national party through seven regional elections across Germany, and the party with the most victory points wins.