The best games from Reiner Knizia 🇩🇪👨 2025

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Age of War is a fast-paced dice game centered on conquest and strategy, set in feudal Japan. The game is designed for quick play and involves capturing castles, managing resources, and strategic planning.

Samurai is a strategic board game set in medieval Japan. It immerses players in a contest of influence and power among three key factions of the era: samurai, peasants, and priests.

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.

Mille Fiori is a strategy board game designed by Reiner Knizia where players step into the roles of ambitious glass manufacturers and traders during the Renaissance, striving to maximize their influence and wealth through the artful production and distribution of glass. The game combines elements of card drafting, token placement, and strategic planning across various sectors of a dynamic game board.