My Top 8 Favorite Reiner Knizia Games

In today’s video, I rank my favorite games from prolific designer Reiner Knizia. My honorable mentions are Lost Cities, Lord of the Rings, Blue Lagoon, Tigris & Euphrates, and Circus Flohcati.

My top 8:

8. Battle Line
7. Amun-Re
6. The Quest for El Dorado
5. High Society
4. Medici
3. Royal Visit
2. My City
1. Ra

00:00 - Introduction and Ambassador Picks
00:50 - Honorable Mentions
01:01 - Top 5-8
05:38 - Top 4

[ludwigmises]

Love Royal Visit! I like that there are 2 winning conditions, one involving the king and the other the crown token.

[rachelandryan]

Tigris and Euphrates is easily his best design, it's just so clever how the kingdoms constantly merge and morph in to one another, almost making the game a sort of team effort at times.

It also popularised arguably one of the most unique scoring mechanisms of all time.

[drewtice]

The Quest for El Dorado is so good! I recommend this game to anyone who likes deck building

[esayzgy]

I've played almost 40 games (he's my favorite designer by far!) and if I were to recommend a few based on your favorites, they would be:
1) Lord of The Rings: The Confrontation - Stratego, but good! Asymmetric sides with thematic unit powers, a different victory condition for each side, and the addition of another dimension of bluffing via card-based combat make this a no-brainer.
2) Blue Moon - The euro version of magic. Or maybe a tug of war on steroids.
3) Blue Moon City - A slightly more complex TTR with special abilities, shared incentives, and better resource management. And a fantasy theme!
4) Modern Art - The daddy of the auction trilogy.
5) Taj Mahal - One of the heavier Knizia games, combining an all-pay auction with its associated tension and brinksmanship with route-building and blocking, set collection, and drafting.

[republikadugave]

Tigris and euphrates is for me one of the best games ever produced...no gimmicks like cards, chips, resource conversions ect...just a set of, at first, strange and abstract rules and almost limitless possibility to make total chaos on the board...most people are put off at first play but it must be played multiple times to fully grasp the abstract rules...we had one game where we all stud up and gave a standing ovation on how awsome that game was.. Ok we are all amateur chess players so maybe that is why it clicked in my group..

Other games from Herr Knizia i love are Modern art, Samurai, Einfach Genial, Ra, Babylonia, Lost cities, Blue Lagoon

From his lets say not well known games i would say Black Sheep, Rapido and Family inc are my favs...they are just fun light games

[namelessfire]

Knizia is a master at taking a single mechanism, giving it an interesting twist, and honing it down to a razor point.

I love Tigris and Euphrates, but I actually have to hand it to Yellow and Yangtze as my favorite Knizia. Y&Y is less splashy and bombastic than its older brother. It is less of a slug fest filled with body slams and haymakers, and more of a fencing match. It is about incremental plays and carefully choosing where your resources are best invested (as well as finding where your opponent is most exploitable). It leads to tight board states that fluctuate more often, but with less dramatic changes when they do. These are extremely satisfying to navigate.

Modern Art is a masterpiece. Wonderfully thematic and uproariously funny. Much like the actual modern art world, there is no inherent value to anything you bid on, only the promise of a possible return. It is an exemplary illustration of how economic value is really a matter of perception. The only game that comes close to emulating that concept as well, is QE (which basically feels like a Knizia design in spirit, clearly being inspired by High Society).

I also have to give some love to Through the Desert. Simple and quick with a depth of play that keeps my group coming back. It also scales beautifully.

[garyk]

Couldn't agree more about #1. Ra is one of the best games ever.

[walnutgames]

My favourite is Whale Riders, which Grail Games published last year - a really neat, really tight game where you travel an icy coast picking up goods and fulfilling contracts. Only takes 30mins to play but it's different, you're constantly wondering whether you should stay at a port to pick up goods or move quickly down the coast, and you always want one more action than you've got. And it's always really close! Plus the art from Vincent Dutrait is fabulous.

[luiscarlosqg]

That Amun-Re midgame refresh of the board reminded me of Brass, which I love.

[RuelGaviola]

Great list! I'm a fan of Knizia games and really appreciate that most of his games that I love have very low rules overhead yet plenty of strategic and tactical decision points: Samurai, Blue Lagoon, Schotten Totten (Battle Line), Ingenious, High Society, Ra, My City, and the Quest for El Dorado.

[eburns-nc]

Quest for El Dorado is my #1 game overall. It's incredible.

[darren.mcauliffe]

I wish someone would reprint Razzia! It’s the exact same game as Ra, but with a theme that makes more sense. And it didn’t have the oversized box that Ra has.
There used to be an app, but it was taken down.

[Breyfunk]

I have a game called Lost Cities Auf Schatzsuche, it mixes the mechanics of Lost Cities with a roll and write, makes it a 4 player game, and it’s an amazing game. I enjoy it more than the original Lost Cities.

As for your list, I have never played Ra, but it is the top of my list of games I want to try. I really hope to see a reprint someday!

[kamhinleong]

Modern Art is the first boardgame that made me go "This has to be my favorite game" (I had played over 30 games by then). I like it better than High Society. You might like it too!

[mrp]

Great picks:
1. Battleline. I own two versions, regular GMT and a Medieval version. So good.
2. The Road to El Dorado. Fun family deck builder.
3. Ra. What Jamey said.
4. Modern Art. Recommend.
5. Tigris & Euphrates. It’s a bit dry for my taste, but such an elegant design.

Honorable mentions: Wildlife Safari (Botswana), Lost Cities, Ingenious, Medici, Samurai.
I have not tried Taj Mahal, My City or Blue Moon.

Least favorite I’ve tried: Lord of the Rings. Sorry, I tried. Innovative as it helped propel the idea of a co-op game, but it fell flat for me. Love the IP. War of the Ring is so much more engaging and feels more true to the source material.

[RandallPeek]

Samurai is a beautiful and very abstract area control game with a typically wonky Knizia scoring system.

Modern Art is one of my favorite auction games, having several types of auction throughout the game.

Blue Moon City is a fantastic family weight game.

Winners Circle e is a great little betting game based on horse racing.

[tonycorkpa]

I wonder if it is fair to say that one needs to be a big Math lover (like me) to be such a huge Knizia fan ! - I do like the variety in this designer's work (Civ game Euphrates & Tigris arguably his crown jewel). I too like the uncommon mechanism in the Amun Re auction. A few games not mentioned here that I really enjoy - Taj Mahal, Through the Desert, Rheinlander, Carcassonne the Castle, Modern Art - and card games Money, King Arthur and Ivanhoe. I prefer the more-streamlined Schotten Totten to similar Battle Line (no messy Tactics cards) and the two-player Medici v Strozzi (v deeper than simple Medici).

[KeepersofFun]

Tigris & Euphrates with the mini expansions is my TOP game from Knizia, recently we've been enjoying LAMA too 😊

[fryrish]

Reiner Knizia games to me are somewhere in between playing with an ordinary deck of playing cards, and playing a "playground" type games heavy in theme, art, and minis. His mechanics are usually excellent, but you have to be in the right mood to enjoy. I wish he would team up with someone who could create compelling themes, art, and components to add to his compelling mechanics.

[paulhamrick]

I find it shocking that you rate Battle Line higher than Lost Cities. I started with Battle Line and I love it, but two years later (like two months ago) I finally got a copy of Lost Cities and now I think it may be the better game, it plays more quickly and the scoring is just so fun IMO. But to each their own!