So let’s take a look at our favorite games from our first trio of talented designers. And what better starting point than the Special K’s of German Game Design: Reiner Knizia, Wolfgang Kramer, and Klaus Teuber?
(By the way, I coined the “Special K’s” label in an article I wrote about a quarter of a century ago and despite its cheekiness, it was adopted by other folks—much to my surprise. It was just my way of describing the incredible dominance of those three men in the German gaming hobby at the time.)
Reiner Knizia
A total of 61 voters participated in the voting for this triplet. Let’s start with Herr Knizia. As one of the most prolific and famous designers in the world, he scarcely needs an introduction. He released his first games in 1990, had his first hit in 1992 with Modern Art, and achieved superstar status soon after that. He continues to be incredibly productive and popular.
Most of the groupings for Reiner were fairly straightforward (for example, even though Battle Line has some elements that Schotten-Totten lacks, they’re still largely the same game). But there was considerable discussion about how to group the games in the Tigris & Euphrates family. Eventually, we agreed that Yellow & Yangtze had enough differences to separate it from T&E, but that Y&Y and Huang were similar enough to group them together.
Here are the 10 best Knizia designs, according to our voters, together with their vote totals:
1. Ra – 27
2. Tigris & Euphrates – 26
3. Medici – 13
4. Amun-Re – 12
5. Lord of the Rings – 11
5. Traumfabrik/Hollywood Blockbuster – 11
7. Lost Cities – 10
8. Through the Desert – 9
9. Modern Art – 8
9. Taj Mahal – 8
As you can see, 7 of Reiner’s games got double digit vote totals, which is a lot. Incidentally, my favorite Knizia game, the one that I feel is his masterpiece, is Stephenson’s Rocket. This is not a widely held belief, so I was pleased that it finished as high as 11th place, with 6 votes.
There were a few surprises in the voting, at least to me. The fact that Ra and Tigris were the Good Doctor’s dominant games isn’t too shocking. However, if you’d asked me prior to the voting, I would have expected T&E to be the first choice, perhaps by a reasonably high margin. But instead, Ra just edged it out. It does seem as if I keep underestimating that game’s popularity.
The most obvious conclusion to be formed from these results is that our voters strongly prefer older Reiner titles. 8 of his top 10 come from his Golden Period of 1995-2000. The other two came out in 1993 (Modern Art) and 2003 (Amun-Re). The most popular Knizia game from the past 23 years is The Quest for El Dorado (2017), which tied for 11th, with 6 votes. No other Knizia design from the last 20 years got more than 3 votes. That could be because, as a group, we’re old enough to have experienced those great games from the last century, or it might be that we don’t think his more recent stuff is as good. But there’s no question which vintage of the Good Doctor’s games we like.
A total of 31 Knizia games got at least one vote, which is a huge number of titles. At the end of the article, I’ll list all of these games and their vote totals (I’ll do that for all three of our designers).
Wolfgang Kramer
Next, let’s take a look at Kramer. Younger readers may not be as familiar with his games, but he is a towering figure in Germany and their first homegrown star designer. His first game was published over 50 years ago and he fully bloomed during the 1980’s. His games have won 5 SdJ awards, still the highest total for any designer. At 84, he’s still reasonably productive, God bless him. Here are his top 10 games:
1. The Princes of Florence – 36
2. El Grande – 29
3. 6 Nimmt! – 19
4. Top Race/Downforce – 13
5. Tikal – 11
6. Big Boss – 7
7. Linko (aka Abluxxen) – 6
7. The Palaces of Carrara – 6
9. Colosseum – 5
9. Wildlife Adventure – 5
Just as with Knizia, two games dominated the voting, and, once again, I was at least a little surprised at their order. Princes and El Grande are unquestioned classics, but I would have expected El Grande to finish on top, as it’s usually considered to be Wolfgang’s masterpiece (despite being over 30 years old, it’s still in or very close to being in the Geek’s top 100 games, which is pretty much unprecedented for a game of that vintage). However, even though Princes, in my opinion, has been criminally underrated over the years, our voters were clearly wise enough to appreciate its greatness. A third Kramer game also got strong support and that’s 6 Nimmt!. Two other designs reached double digits in votes (Top Race and Tikal). 27 of his games got at least one vote.
Kramer has had an extraordinarily long career and that’s reflected to some extent in the games we favor. All of his top 6 titles are from the 90’s, but Top Race is a redesign of 1980’s Niki Lauda’s Formel 1. Linko and Carrara came out during the 2010’s, Colosseum is from the 00’s, and Wildlife Adventure was first published in 1985! There’s also a good mix of Kramer designing by himself (half of the top 10), with Michael Kiesling (Tikal, Linko, and Carrara), and with Richard Ulrich (Princes and El Grande, Kramer’s top two games). We like Wolfgang in many different ways and in many different eras.
Klaus Teuber
Finally, let’s check out the late Klaus Teuber. He will always be remembered for Catan, probably the most important board game ever designed, but he was already a superstar in Germany at the time of its release, with three SdJ awards to his name (Catan, of course, was the fourth). Eight of his games got more than 4 votes; here they are:
1. Catan – 43
2. Adel Verplichtet – 17
3. Lowenherz – 15
4. Entdecker – 12
5. Domaine – 9
5. Drunter & Druber – 9
7. Rivals for Catan/Catan Card Game – 8
7. The Starfarers of Catan – 8
Anno 1503 and Settlers of the Stone Age rounded out the top 10.
It was certainly no shock that there was a runaway winner for our favorite Teuber game, as Catan was chosen by over 70% of our voters. What I did find surprising was the number 2 game—Adel Verplichtet. This was the first German megahit 35 years ago and the game that really made hobbyists aware that something extraordinary was happening in Deutschland, but I think most of the hobby has forgetton about it. Clearly, our seasoned voters have not!
I was pleased to see that Lowenherz, that most atypical Teuber game (and easily my favorite of his designs), finished third, with Entdecker right behind it. Those of you who have followed Klaus’ career may remember that Catan, Entdecker, and Lowenherz were originally part of the same monster game, but that the developers at Kosmos wisely split them into three separate titles, all of which won awards.
Only 14 of Teuber’s games received votes. Moreover, the total number of votes for his games was much lower than for the other two Special K’s (Knizia received 179 total votes, Kramer 171, but Teuber only 139). I suspect that for some of our voters, the works of Klaus Teuber began and ended with The Settlers of Catan.
So that’s the summary of our first group of designers. Here are all the games that got at least one vote for each of them. And don’t forget to check out tomorrow’s article, when we pick our favorite games of Stefan Feld, Uwe Rosenberg, and Sid Sackson!
Reiner Knizia
1. Ra – 27
2. Tigris & Euphrates – 26
3. Medici – 13
4. Amun-Re – 12
5. Lord of the Rings – 11
5. Traumfabrik/Hollywood Blockbuster – 11
7. Lost Cities – 10
8. Through the Desert – 9
9. Modern Art – 8
9. Taj Mahal – 8
11. Stephenson’s Rocket – 6
11. The Quest for El Dorado – 6
13. Ingenious – 5
14. Battle Line/Schotten-Totten – 4
15. Mille Fiori – 3
15. Rebirth – 3
17. Babylonia – 2
17. My City – 2
19. Africa – 1
19. Beowulf: The Legend/EGO – 1
19. Blue Moon – 1
19. Blue Moon City – 1
19. High Society – 1
19. LotR: The Confrontation – 1
19. Medici vs. Strozzi – 1
19. Quo Vadis? – 1
19. Res Publica – 1
19. Samurai/Hanami – 1
19. Too Many Cooks – 1
19. Winner’s Circle – 1
19. Yellow & Yangtze/Huang – 1
31 games; 179 total votes
Wolfgang Kramer
1. The Princes of Florence – 36
2. El Grande – 29
3. 6 Nimmt! – 19
4. Top Race/Downforce – 13
5. Tikal – 11
6. Big Boss – 7
7. Linko – 6
7. The Palaces of Carrara – 6
9. Colosseum – 5
9. Wildlife Adventure – 5
11. Viva Pamplona – 4
11. Hacienda – 4
11. Maharaja – 4
14. That’s Life! – 3
14. Coal Baron – 3
16. Heimlich & Co. – 2
16. Java – 2
16. Mexica – 2
16. Torres – 2
20. Nauticus – 1
20. Cavum – 1
20. Goldland – 1
20. Gulo Gulo – 1
20. Pueblo – 1
20. Renature – 1
20. Wandering Towers – 1
20. Wildlife – 1
27 games; 171 total votes
Klaus Teuber
1. Catan – 43
2. Adel Verplichtet – 17
3. Lowenherz – 15
4. Entdecker – 12
5. Domaine – 9
5. Drunter & Druber – 9
7. Rivals for Catan/Catan Card Game – 8
7. The Starfarers of Catan – 8
9. Anno 1503 – 4
9. The Settlers of the Stone Age – 4
11. Barbarossa – 3
11. Starship Catan – 3
13. Elasund – 2
13. Gnadenlos! – 2
14 games; 139 total votes
