The best games from Andreas Steding 🇩🇪👨 2025

Hansa Teutonica: Big Box is an expansive edition of the acclaimed strategy game "Hansa Teutonica," renowned for its deep strategic gameplay and interactive mechanics. This edition not only includes the base game but also all its expansions, offering an enriched experience of the historical Hanseatic League trading theme.

Hansa Teutonica is a strategic board game that transports players back to the time of the Hanseatic League, a medieval commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds in Northwestern and Central Europe. In this game, players take on the roles of traders competing to expand their trading network, improve their skills, and gain the most victory points.

Firenze is a strategic board game set in the historical context of Florence during the 12th to 14th centuries, a time when the city's elite families sought to showcase their wealth and influence not through warfare or commerce, but by erecting towering, square-based homes as symbols of their status. Players step into the roles of master builders, tasked with constructing these prestigious towers to win favor and prestige points from the city's leading families and the church.

Gùgōng is a board game set in 1570 China during the reign of the Longqing Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. It delves into the era's rich historical context, including the complexities of the Forbidden City and the expansion of the Great Wall. The game is centered around the intriguing practice of exchanging gifts among officials to navigate a bureaucracy rife with corruption, despite severe penalties for such practices.

Players assume the roles of nobles in the 12th century, accompanying Heinrich VI. through territories controlled by the Staufer family across Europe. They aim to improve their standing by placing envoys and nobles in positions of power across six regions represented in the game.

In Krieg der Knöpfe, 2-4 players lead a gang of children trying to build their own hut. They use their own dice along with neutral ones, hoping for assistance from their "big brother" while avoiding being reported at school. The game draws on themes from Louis Pergaud's 1912 novel, La Guerre des Boutons.

Players represent ambitious merchants trying to gain influence in the city council of Nürnberg. To succeed, they must win over craftsmen from various guilds, with the player acquiring the most influential craftsmen emerging victorious. Each round involves simultaneous selections of guilds for actions like trading goods and hiring guests with special abilities, culminating in the selection of a favorite player by the guild master who earns loyalty and prestige.

The name "Five Points" brings to mind images of poverty, rampant crime, decadence, and despair. The Five Points neighborhood of mid-19th century New York was a chaotic area filled with dilapidated tenements, gang extortion, corrupt politicians, and rampant vice. Players lead a powerful political faction, manipulating gangs and influencing politicians to gain control over Manhattan, while utilizing resources to secure influence and ultimately shape the fate of New York.

Italia brings nearly 1500 years of Italian history to life, from 330 BC to 1100 AD. Players represent various nations attempting to settle in and conquer the Italian peninsula. Each version of the game offers a unique historical simulation, ensuring lasting fun and engagement with over 600 cardboard game pieces available.

In ancient times, numerous dangers awaited merchants, unlike the usual tales suggest. Thieves, dissatisfied customers, exorbitant tolls, storms, pirates, and other calamities plagued trade routes. Kogge allows two to four players to navigate this network of trade routes, trading goods and building trading houses while facing the ever-changing challenges of the Baltic Sea.

Players lead trading companies aiming to make profits in Africa. Despite being circumnavigated in the early 19th century, the continent remained largely unexplored, with the source of the Nile being one of its greatest mysteries. Explorers like Burton, Speke, Baker, and Livingstone became immortalized in their quests to discover it.