The Spiel des Jahres awards have been celebrating the art of well crafted board games since long before i was even born.
So its no surprise that this list of games is going to be very epic, each on of these games has received the Kennerspiel des Jahres or the Spiel des Jahres award in the last 5 years and should be on your hit list as a gamer to play and potentially add to your collection.
Pictures: Winner Spiel des Jahres
When you play this quick fun light family board game, you’ll find yourself using assorted random pictures of items like shoelaces, colour cubes, sticks to re-create images everyone else must guess.
It is a quick-playing family game with very simple rules. Form the image on your secret picture card with one set of components, either shoelaces, colour cubes, icon cards, sticks and stones or building blocks in such a way that the other players guess what image you have pictured:
- Pull out a marker from the bag that determines your secret picture card.
- Then form that image with your components in such a way that it is recognizable.
- And finally guess what image each other player has pictured.
The players get points for correctly guessing other players images and for other players guessing their image. The most points wins!
The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine: Winner Kennerspiel des Jahres
Looking for a Space based co-operative game in the crew you are part of a spaceship crew headed for the ninth planet work together as you try to solve mission issues, from oxygen problems to engine snafus.
In the co-operative trick-taking game The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine, the players set out as astronauts on an uncertain space adventure.
What about the rumors about the unknown planet about? The eventful journey through space extends over 50 exciting missions.
But this game can only be defeated by meeting common individual tasks of each player. In order to meet the varied challenges, communication is essential in the team.
But this is more difficult than expected in space.
Kingdomino: Winner Winner Spiel des Jahres
This fast paced family game is a brilliant addition that your family and friends will love alike.
In Kingdomino, you are a lord seeking new lands in which to expand your kingdom. You must explore all the lands, including wheat fields, lakes, and mountains, in order to spot the best plots, while competing with other lords to acquire them first.
The game uses tiles with two sections, similar to Dominoes. Each turn, each player will select a new domino to connect to their existing kingdom, making sure at least one of its sides connects to a matching terrain type already in play.
The order of who picks first depends on which tile was previously chosen, with better tiles forcing players to pick later in the next round.
The game ends when each player has completed a 5×5 grid (or failed to do so), and points are counted based on number of connecting tiles and valuable crown symbols.
Exit – The Game: Winner Kennerspiel des Jahres
In these Escape Room themed games you’ll be cutting up cards, mangling pages and madly deciphering clues to conquer this challenge in a box.
Players will need to use their team spirit, creativity, and powers of deduction to crack codes, solve puzzles, collect objects, and earn their freedom bit by bit.
There’s now an entire series of these Kosmos-created games with themes for everybody’s appetite.
This is a fantastic game that you can only really play once but at a low price point it is totally worth it for a dinner party or just a fun night with friends or a spouse.
Codenames: Winner Winner Spiel des Jahres
This party game needs no introduction in this game of secret identities cryptic clues and utter confusion, spymasters and assassins.
Two spymasters offer code name clues to help their teams figure out who’s who.
The game is divided into red and blue, each side has a team leader, the team leader’s goal is to lead their team to the final victory.
At the beginning of the game, there will be 25 cards on the table with different words
Each card has a corresponding position, representing different colors.
Only the team leader can see the color of the card.
The team leader should prompt according to the words, let his team members find out the cards of their corresponding colors, and find out all the cards of their own colors to win.
Isle of Skye: Winner Kennerspiel des Jahres
Isle of Skye is one of the most beautiful places in the world, with soft sand beaches, gently sloping hills, and impressive mountains. The landscape of Isle of Skye is breathtaking and fascinates everyone.
In the tile-laying game Isle of Skye: From Chieftain to King, 2–5 players are chieftains of famous clans and want to build their kingdoms to score as many points as possible—but in each game only four of the sixteen scoring tiles will be scored.
Thanks to the scoring tiles, each game is different and leads to different tactics and strategies, but having enough money is useful no matter what else is going on. Managing that money can be tricky, though. Each turn, each player places two area tiles in front of them and sets the selling price for the tiles. Setting a high price is great, but only so long as someone actually pays the price because if no one opts to buy, then the seller must buy the tiles at the price they previously requested.
In the end, the player with the best kingdom—and not the richest player—becomes the sovereign of the island.
Just One: Winner Winner Spiel des Jahres
Just One is a cooperative party game in which you play together to discover as many mystery words as possible. Find the best clue to help your teammate. Be unique, as all identical clues will be cancelled!
A complete game is played over 13 cards. The goal is to get a score as close to 13 as possible. In case of a right answer, the players score 1 point. In case of wrong answer, they lose the current card as well as the top card of the deck. Thus losing 2 points. In case of lack of answer, the players only lose the current card, and therefore only 1 point.
You have the choice – make the difference!
Small Historical Point: Originally, Just One was called We Are The Word and was published by Fun Consortium.
Repos Production bought the rights in early 2018 and adapted the game. The Sombrero-wearing Belgians decided to improve the quality of the components, add 50 new words, and change the name of the game. Following this new edition, the game went from having only a French edition to having a world-wide edition.
Wingspan: Winner Kennerspiel des Jahres
Aimed at bird lovers (birders), this addictive card based game is all about collecting and spotting birds, building habitats and wooing birds to your wildlife preserves to well earn victory points!
Wingspan is a competitive, medium-weight, card-driven, engine-building board game from Stonemaier Games. It’s designed by Elizabeth Hargrave and features over 170 birds illustrated by Natalia Rojas and Ana Maria Martinez.
You are bird enthusiasts—researchers, bird watchers, ornithologists, and collectors—seeking to discover and attract the best birds to your network of wildlife preserves. Each bird extends a chain of powerful combinations in one of your habitats (actions). These habitats focus on several key aspects of growth:
- Gain food tokens via custom dice in a birdfeeder dice tower
- Lay eggs using egg miniatures in a variety of colors
- Draw from hundreds of unique bird cards and play them
The winner is the player with the most points after 4 rounds.
Azul Winner: Winner Spiel des Jahres
In this game that is almost closer to a Portuguese tilers workshop players introduced by the Moors, azulejos (originally white and blue ceramic tiles) were fully embraced by the Portuguese when their king Manuel I, on a visit to the Alhambra palace in Southern Spain, was mesmerized by the stunning beauty of the Moorish decorative tiles.
The king, awestruck by the interior beauty of the Alhambra, immediately ordered that his own palace in Portugal be decorated with similar wall tiles. As a tile-laying artist, you have been challenged to embellish the walls of the Royal Palace of Evora.
In the game Azul, players take turns drafting colored tiles from suppliers to their player board. Later in the round, players score points based on how they’ve placed their tiles to decorate the palace.
Extra points are scored for specific patterns and completing sets; wasted supplies harm the player’s score. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins.
The Quacks of Quedlinburg: Winner Kennerspiel des Jahres
The Quirkinesses of this game pits purveyors of quack tonics and miracle cures against ailments that range from smelly feet to lovers quarrels. Mix up a special potion, then try to figure out how much is too much, before your brew goes boom.
In The Quacks of Quedlinburg, players are charlatans — or quack doctors — each making their own secret brew by adding ingredients one at a time. Take care with what you add, though, for a pinch too much of this or that will spoil the whole mixture!
Each player has their own bag of ingredient chips. During each round, they simultaneously draw chips from their bags and add them to their pots. The higher the face value of the drawn chip, the further it is placed in the pot’s swirling pattern, increasing how much the potion will be worth. Push your luck as far as you can, but if you add too many cherry bombs, your pot will explode!
At the end of each round, players gain victory points and coins to spend on new ingredients, depending on how well they managed to fill up their pots. But players whose pots have exploded must choose points or coins — not both! The player with the most victory points at the end of nine rounds wins the game.