The best games from Reiner Knizia 🇩🇪👨 2026

The Quest for El Dorado is a strategic and adventurous board game that immerses players in the exciting journey of discovering the legendary city of gold, El Dorado. Set in the lush South American jungles, this game combines deck-building and racing elements, challenging players to be both cunning and quick.

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.

High Society is a competitive auction-style card game designed by Reiner Knizia, where players vie to acquire wealth and status while avoiding financial pitfalls. The game focuses on strategic bidding and careful money management.

Schotten Totten is a strategic card game that combines elements of poker with a battle for territory. Players compete to capture boundary stones by creating powerful card formations, with a clever twist on using logic to claim victory.

All the animals are thirsty after an adventurous day in the savanna, so they've all wandered to the watering holes. Each animal wants to drink first, but beware! The elephant frightens the lion, the lion scares the zebra, and the zebra startles the antelope. Anything can happen, as even the antelope can scare the elephant. The player who scares away the most animals wins.

My City is a groundbreaking competitive legacy game where players develop their own city across multiple epochs. This game uniquely blends city-building with the evolving challenges and narratives of a legacy format.

Battle Line is a strategic card game that pits two opponents against each other with the aim of capturing flags by creating powerful formations.

Ra is an engaging board game that combines elements of auction and set-collection within an Ancient Egyptian theme. Players are immersed in a competition of power and fame across 1500 years of Egyptian history, condensed into an intense gaming experience.

Players aim to discard their cards as quickly as possible in this game, but they may struggle to play what they want. Each player starts with six cards, drawn from a deck containing Llama cards and numbered cards from 1 to 6. The round continues until a player empties their hand or everyone passes, with players collecting tokens based on the cards they have in front of them.

Ribbit (formerly known as Schildkrötenrennen or "Turtle Race" in its original version) offers a delightful, strategic race experience suited for families and players of all ages. This game is built around the concept of racing turtles—or frogs, in the reprint—across a field to reach a tasty salad.

Players embark on expeditions along six colored paths, aiming to start with the smallest possible dice rolls. They must decide whether to continue an expedition or begin a new one each round, while artifacts and acceleration fields help them progress quickly. Each player has a scoring sheet with columns for colored paths, artifacts, and dice, and points are earned based on the filled fields, with bonuses for being the first to fill certain boxes. The game concludes when all players are exhausted or all bridges are crossed, and the player with the highest score wins.

Pickomino is a lively, dice-based game by renowned designer Reiner Knizia, suitable for players aged 8 and up. It involves a mix of luck and strategy, centered around chickens trying to acquire fried worms.

L.L.A.M.A. is a light and engaging card game that combines elements of strategy and luck. The game's title, an acronym for "Lege alle Minuspunkte ab" (German for "discard all minus points"), cleverly plays on the word "llama," adding a whimsical touch to the gameplay.

Engage in the captivating world of art commerce with Modern Art. As both buyer and seller, players navigate the vibrant art market, aiming to turn their transactions into lucrative endeavors. Five unique artists have contributed a plethora of paintings, and it's your task to strategically auction them for maximum profit. Each turn, players auction a painting from their hand, gaining wealth if others purchase it or incurring costs if they buy it themselves. The key lies in shrewd decision-making.

The call of gold echoes as the last remaining gold mine, Mount Gold Rush, is stormed from all sides. Players must uncover cards, find nuggets, outsmart rivals, and mine the most gold.

Wildlife Safari, originally introduced as Flinke Pinke and later reissued under various names such as Quandary, Loco!, and Botswana, is a deceptively simple yet strategically rich card game designed by the renowned Reiner Knizia. This game, through its various iterations, has maintained its core gameplay while adopting different themes and presentation styles to appeal to a wide audience.

Heckmeck Deluxe includes both the base game and the expansion. Players engage in a fun-filled experience with new challenges and twists. Enjoy the unique gameplay that comes with this deluxe edition.

Circus Flohcati brings the vibrant world of the flea circus to your table, offering a fast-paced game of strategy and risk-taking. Players aim to collect a variety of acts, each represented by ten types (colors) and point values ranging from 0 to 7, to amass the highest score. Your turn could involve adding a face-up card to your hand or unveiling a new one from the deck, which might just force an action upon you—like pilfering a card from a rival. But beware, revealing a card matching the color of one already face-up means you end up empty-handed. The thrill of the game lies in deciding whether to secure a card in sight or gamble for a potentially better draw.

Players create a unique city over four chapters, each containing three episodes. A die roll indicates which building to draw on the player board, with new challenges arising in each episode. Players can choose to play through the entire campaign or select individual episodes or chapters to replay.

Winner's Circle is a thrilling board game that brings the excitement of horse racing to your table. Players get to place bets on various horses and try to accumulate the most money over the course of three races. It’s a game of chance, strategy, and a bit of intuition, making it a great pick for family game nights or gatherings with friends.

Travel to the year 2075, where cats have taken over the world and are now aiming for space! The best feline specialists compete for cosmic supremacy, undeterred by their lack of opposable thumbs. Players take on the role of fearless captains of a cosmic expedition to conquer the cosmos, navigating through chaos and unleashing their cat-like instincts. Prepare for an extraordinary adventure beyond this world!

On March 18, 1990, in Boston, players take on the role of art thieves who have successfully completed a heist. Now they face the biggest challenge: dividing the loot. Over several rounds, competitors strive to secure a share of four collections while avoiding capture by the FBI by gathering sufficient alibis.

Players engage in a clever dice game filled with unique challenges. Each new challenge card reveals how points can be earned and how dice can be re-rolled. After the first player finishes their turn, others can attempt to surpass their score, but taking too many risks might lead to losing out. The player with the highest score after seven rounds wins.

Ingenious, also known as Einfach Genial, is a strategic tile-placement game that challenges players to think tactically about color scoring. It's a game that balances individual progress with the need to perform well across different areas.

Risiko Express is a fast-paced conquest game where players face off to capture territories represented by disks. Each disk displays the countries and required symbols for conquest, categorized into battle lines. Players roll dice to conquer these lines, aiming to secure points by claiming cards, with additional bonuses for controlling entire continents. When the last card is claimed, players tally their points to determine the winner.

Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation Deluxe Edition is a celebrated two-player board game designed by Reiner Knizia. Set in the rich world of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, this game allows players to immerse themselves in the epic struggle between the forces of Sauron and the Free Peoples. Renowned for its blend of strategy, bluffing, and adventure, this deluxe edition elevates the experience with enhanced components and new gameplay elements.

Indigo is a captivating tile-laying game that combines strategy with a touch of competition, as players maneuver to guide precious gemstones to their goals. This game, reminiscent of classics like Metro, Tsuro, and Linie 1, challenges players to construct pathways on a shared board, where the twist lies in moving gems towards objectives for points, rather than simply building the longest route.