The best games by Richard Ulrich 🇩🇪👨 2026

El Grande Big Box is the definitive edition of the classic area control game El Grande, celebrating its 20th anniversary with a comprehensive collection that includes the base game and all its expansions. In this strategic board game, players assume the roles of Grandes in medieval Spain, competing to exert their dominance over the various regions as the king's power wanes. Through cunning deployment of caballeros (knights represented by meeples), players seek to secure majorities in Spain's diverse territories, leveraging power cards for turn order and action cards for strategic moves.

The Princes of Florence transports players to the Renaissance era, where they take on the roles of heads of influential families in Florence. The goal is to gain prestige by attracting the greatest artists and scholars to their palaces.

At first glance, it appears to be a racing game, but players actually score points by moving their pieces over raised and lowered sections of the track. Each turn, a player rolls the dice and moves one of their pieces forward by that number of spaces. When the leading piece lands on another piece, all pieces on that space are moved accordingly, potentially covering other pieces if they land on an occupied space. Scoring occurs whenever a piece crosses one of four scoring gates, awarding points based on the configuration of stacks. The game ends when three pieces reach the final scoring area, and the player with the most points wins.

Players take on the role of merchants in a medieval trading game set in Europe, where they transport goods between six cities on the board. They buy, load, and send goods to maximize their profits. The game features beautifully illustrated medieval cities, player shields, cardboard coins, decorated wagons, and wooden goods to create an engaging atmosphere. The objective is to earn money by delivering goods and using that money to increase status, with the game ending after a set number of deliveries, crowning the player with the highest status as the winner.

Although considered a sequel, this game shares few aspects with its predecessor. Players explore the lands and waterways of the New World, following Columbus to uncover islands and find wealth in gold and fish. They strategically place tiles to control regions while using caballeros for dominance and castillos for protection, with success determined by the size of their controlled territories.