The best games from Dirk Henn 🇩🇪👨 2026

Alhambra is a strategic board game set in the historical context of the construction of the Alhambra in Granada, Spain, during the Middle Ages. It combines elements of resource management, tile placement, and strategic planning.

The Rose King (originally published as Texas) is a strategic board game that pits two players—or two teams in a four-player partnership variant—against each other in an abstract battle for territory. Set against the historical backdrop of the Wars of the Roses, players assume the roles of the Lancaster and York factions, striving to dominate the board by forming contiguous regions of their markers.

Metro is a strategic tile-placement board game where players build rail lines to score points. It shares similarities with games like "Streetcar," "Tsuro," "Tantrix," and "Spaghetti Junction," but distinguishes itself with unique gameplay elements.

Players assemble four shows in any order: Queenie, Wolf, King Lear, and Ballet. They design actor cards from a constantly changing display, with each card representing actors with different abilities. Once a player has gathered all the required roles for a show, its value is compared to other productions of the same type, awarding points relative to those productions.

Cable Car is a revised edition of a game originally released in 1997, featuring a new theme and artwork. Players place square tiles on the board to create railway lines, aiming to make them as long as possible. A train car scores points when it connects to a station, with points awarded for each tile crossed by the route.

This is a remake of Premiere and Queen Games' Show Manager by db Spiele. The theme has been changed to a cruise, where players travel by sea, while the mechanics remain almost identical.

Players buy and sell stocks in a bid to have the most money by the end of the game. Each player has a card sheet with nine cards: eight for the company's shares and one "holiday card." They draw movement and action tokens to influence stock prices and execute trades simultaneously. Rounds continue until a company marker reaches the end of the movement track, at which point players cash in their stocks to determine the winner.

New York follows the same gameplay as Dirk Henn's award-winning game, but replaces Spanish architecture with Manhattan skyscrapers. Players collect four types of currency to purchase tiles, creating their own mini-metropolis while connecting paved streets into a cohesive road network. The game board has been enlarged, featuring points for both covered and uncovered pieces, along with a scoring track that circles the board's edge.

Players try to position their deck chairs closer to the sea than their opponents' chairs across different beach sections. They must be careful, as chairs that are too close together will be swallowed by the tide. Test your luck in this dice-driven game and claim the best spots on the beach.

Shogun immerses players in the tumultuous Sengoku or "Warring States" Period of Japan, where each player, as a Daimyo, vies for dominance over the provinces of the Japanese islands.

Players build Viking fortresses on the Swedish island of Öland. The goal is to collect valuable blocks to construct a fortress, either by winning battles for resource fields or stealing blocks from other Vikings. Each round introduces new resources, and players secretly plan their movements before revealing their placements to compete for blocks in battle.

Players connect cities with new energy sources across 16 rounds by rolling six colored dice and placing them on a central board. Each player has a board showing power lines of lengths 3-12, corresponding to the dice results. Players can use the dice in either direction but are limited in how many times they can use each die, and skipping a die incurs a penalty. Points are awarded for completed power lines and connected cities, while unfinished lines result in point deductions. The player with the most points wins.

Wallenstein is a board game that immerses players in the historical context of the Thirty Years' War, focusing on Albrecht von Wallenstein, a key mercenary commander. This game combines elements of strategy, resource management, and historical warfare, allowing players to take control of several countries, manage economies, and navigate political and military challenges. The objective is to emerge as the most powerful force in central Europe through tactical expansion, careful resource allocation, and strategic battles.

Players take on the role of caravan leaders, with the number of camels in each caravan determined by the number of players. The goal is to transport goods from the starting point to Timbuktu while managing to protect them from thieves who attack at night. As players receive various clues about the thefts along the journey, they must deduce the situation and relocate camels to ensure that valuable goods are safely delivered to their final destination.

Players take on the role of a Roman merchant in Neptun, delivering goods to cities and temples to earn favor. The game is played over three rounds, each with phases for acquiring contracts, fulfilling them, and scoring points based on the favor earned. Efficient navigation and strategic contract management are key to winning.

Set during the Thirty Years' War, players assume the roles of military leaders battling for dominance while constructing palaces and churches. Victory points are earned by controlling and developing territories, with the fate of battles determined by a unique dice tower that retains some dice. The outcome relies on the number of armies from both the attacker and defender that emerge from the tower.

Players engage in a clever trick-taking game featuring fairies, witches, and dwarfs. Fairies score positive points, witches score negative points, while dwarf cards are neutral. The highest numbered card of the most frequently played type wins the trick. In case of a tie, the last formed group determines the type of the winning card.

Colonia in the Middle Ages was the largest city of the Holy Roman Empire, known for its famous cathedrals and diverse trade. Influential patrician families control the city council and seek to grow their wealth and power, with each aiming to be the most influential. Players assume the roles of these patrician families, acquiring valuable relics by buying, producing, and selling goods, with the winner being the one who collects the most valuable relics by the end of the game.

Players engage in an endless cycle of war between the Light Realm and the Dark Realm in a world of twilight. Armies defeated in one realm are resurrected in the other. The goal is to control and effectively utilize resources (populations, gold, energy) in both realms, with the most successful player emerging as the winner.