All "Spiel des Jahres🇩🇪 1998" game award winners & nominees in comparison 2024

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Die Macher is a deeply strategic board game centered around seven sequential political races in various regions of Germany. Players take on the roles of leaders of national political parties, tasked with wisely managing their resources to lead their party to victory across these regional elections.