Hans im Glück (Hans in Luck)

Peter Wichmann | Recommendation list Kinderspiel des Jahres | 2020

Less is more – and who knows that better than the fairytale character Lucky Hans? He starts out with gold and after merrily making a number of trades he ends up happy with nothing. This game is a playful monument to this master of minimalism. Each Hans begins with six gold nugget chips and has

Magic School

Jonathan Favre-Godal | Recommendation list Kinderspiel des Jahres | 2020

What a day! It’s time for the entrance exam for wizard school and the little wizards are performing warm up exercises for their hands and necks. But most importantly: their heads. Because this is no normal magic test, where you have to transform your unpleasant classmate into a toad. Here you’ll need to remember things.

Slide Quest

Jean-François Rochas and Nicolas Bourgoin | Recommendation list Kinderspiel des Jahres | 2020

Here comes the rolling knight rushing into battle. His journey continues through jungles and ice worlds, dark arches and bright forests for 20 levels. “Slide Quest” converts worlds you might recognise from computer games with lots of retro charm, knowing winks and loving illustrations into a modern children’s game. This is a great version of

Zoo Run

Florian Sirieix | Recommendation list Kinderspiel des Jahres | 2020

Out of the zoo and onto the racetrack. Thanks to its variable game board, “Zoo Run” is two races in one. In the co-operative variant, up to four older children work together to help the animals escape before the keeper notices anything. Then in the competition for the recent escapees, the daredevil animals jump into

Speedy Roll (Hedgehog Roll)

Urtis Šulinskas | Kinderspiel des Jahres | 2020

Mushrooms, apples and leaves are spread around the table just like on the forest floor. This is important, as that’s what the little hedgehog needs to get back home quickly before he is caught by the fox. Luckily the hedgehog has rolled up into a cute little fuzzy ball. The forest goodies will stick to

Wir sind die Roboter (Robots)

Reinhard Staupe | Nominated for Kinderspiel des Jahres | 2020

Robots can do lots of things: fly, turn into cars, translate foreign languages, save damsels in distress … But in general you can separate robots into three speed categories: slow, normal and fast. This is the only information the other players have when the robot-player navigates the race track with their eyes and then indicates

Just One

Ludovic Roudy and Bruno Sautter | Spiel des Jahres | 2019

“Box”, “dice”, “play”, “fun”. What could these words possibly be describing? Easy: a board game! In the co-operative game Just One, one player has to guess a word. The clues aren’t provided by the game but by the rest of the players. Without discussing it with their teammates, each player writes down a clue they

L.a.m.a.

Reiner Knizia | Nominated for Spiel des Jahres | 2019

Everyone likes llamas! In the speedy card game Lama, the llama isn’t just the mascot for the game but also provides the German acronym “Lege alle Minuspunkte ab” (something like “Leave All your Minus points Aside”). Behind this slogan lies a simple principle for how to play your cards. You can only play a card

Pioneers

Emanuele Ornella | Recommendation list Kennerspiel des Jahres | 2018

Starting on the east coast, players are trying to settle North America. To do this, they will build a road network, one that other players may use too – for a small fee of course. On your turn you move the shared stagecoach to an unoccupied settlement, then drop off a matching pioneer. The pioneers