Shannon Appelcline: Knizia-Thon Summary

Last year I engaged in my own personal Knizia-thon. I’d realized toward the end of 2006 that I was getting quite a bit of enjoyment out of playing Reiner Knizia’s games, so I decided to go out of my way to play at least some Knizia every week. I was successful more often than not.

Due to my year-long obsession, I was thinking about Knizia’s games quite a bit, particularly toward the end of the year, and this led me to write two articles, Marco Polo Expedition v. Blue Moon City and Obscurity & Palazzo. However, with the Gone Gaming blog moving over to BGN at the start of the year, I managed to lose track of the fact that I never got around to writing a summary of my experiences.

So that’s what I’m going to do this week, with my main focus being some mini-reviews of the 25 Reiner Knizia games I played (and 25 more that I didn’t).

The Big Game Listing

Last year I logged 64 plays of Knizia games, which included 25 distinctive games. Here’s what I played, in (approximate) order of my own personal ranking from top to bottom, with some additional comments on what I think of them today.

The Great Games

Blue Moon City (x3). I’d rate this as Knizia’s best game of any recent vintage, and that’s at least partially because it’s so unique. I suppose it’s really a card management game--or maybe even a resource management game. However, it rises above that by the unique and plentiful powers that the cards can supply you with, resulting in a very tactical game. There’s also some neat player interaction, as you try and figure out what everyone else is doing and take advantage of it. My biggest complaint is that this game only goes up to 4 players, and after that I don’t like the fact that there’s no way to determine player rankings after the winner. But, those are both niggles.

Rheinlander (x1). Knizia doesn’t tend to do majority-control and he doesn’t tend to do games with a heavy emphasis on geography, so this game’s uniqueness is part of what makes it one of my favorites (right alongside the aforementioned Blue Moon City and the soon-to-be-mentioned Through the Desert, which share some of the same characteristics, and also are among my favorites). I really love the planning of attempting to take over duchies. The downsides in the current edition all have to do with the components. The box is too big, which results in it showing up at gaming less, and duchies on the board tend to become a muddled mess.

Taj Mahal (x2). This game involves complex interrelations between multiple elements. Here you’re balancing palace placement, special card maintenance, good acquisition, and card acquisition, and to make it all the more difficult it’s an all-pay auction, an element that we see in a few Knizia games. The result is a strong contender for Knizia’s best auction game.

Lost Cities (x14). My most played Knizia game is surely one of his best. The beauty of this game of pseudo-set-collection is the tension that’s implicit with every play. You’re very rarely in a position where you know you can play a card safely, because a better (lower) card that could help the sequence might always be already the corner. Similarly, it’s always hard to discard cards, for fear that your opponent might want what you’re throwing out. Thus, there’s a hard decision every single turn.

Through the Desert (x3). This is another game that’s appealing, because it’s so explicitly about board position. Much like Knizia’s other best games, it’s heavily laden with tension, as there are numerous moves that you want to make every turn, and you constantly have to guess what can be safely saved for a future turn and what can’t. I think the setup determines the ultimate fate of the game a bit too much and setup is a bit too long besides, but that’s my only complaint about this great release.

Ingenious (x5). There isn’t a lot of depth to this color-matching game, but it’s still an awful lot of fun to play. I think that’s because it’s largely tactical. Not only can you make brilliant moves (as is always the case in a good tactical game), but the game actually identifies what a brilliant move is. If you hit an 18, you’ve made the best move possible, and Ingenious makes sure you know that you’re deserving of accolades by giving you an extra turn. There is also some strategy, as you try and figure out how to get the colors that you’re down on, and that helps keep things moving even between tactical brilliance.

Medici (x2). This is Knizia’s oldest-school auction game that I like the best. It’s pretty simple, with only two card qualities that you’re balancing against each other: weight and color. However that’s complicated by the fact that the pieces are sold in lots, a Knizia favorite that we also see in Hollywood Blockbuster and Ra. Although it’s simpler than any of the other auction games that I give top rating to (which are all from Knizia’s second wave of auction games), it does a lot with its simplicity.

The Good Games

Samurai (x1). A fine game of interrelated majority control. The theming is paper thin, but the components are among the best for all of Knizia’s games, which makes up for it. I think it doesn’t get a lot of play because it’s older and because IMO it works best with 3; with 4 it gets a bit chaotic and uncontrolled.

Amun-Re (x2). I’m pretty sure that this is the first of a few games that I list as “good” that many people would consider great. On the surface, it’s got a lot going for it, including a good balance of different things you could be bidding for (including pyramid count, board special powers, and relation to various power bonus cards). However I feel like the game runs long for what it does, with everything from Taj Mahal to Ra offering much the same depth of choice without quite the length. Granted, there’s some additional resource management, but the choices often seem rote, with maximum count of power cards and at least 1 pyramid often being de rigeur. Nonetheless, it is a good game if you’re willing to expend the extra time.

Hollywood Blockbuster (x2).  I enjoy the formulaic set collection implicit to this game because it really varies how much you bump heads with other players. Sometimes there’s a lot of contention and sometimes there’s none. You can try and figure out where you’ll run into conflict and plan for that as part of your strategy. The high- and low-scoring films also give you yet another thing to work toward, showing off how well multiple goals can benefit an auction game.

Ra (x3). This is a game that I adored the first few times I played it, but that I’ve gotten more bored with through additional plays (14 total to date). It’s got two prime things going for it. First, it’s a very unique auction that’s well structured and has interesting nuances, like the fact that you’re also losing and gaining a bidding marker. Second, it’s got gorgeous artwork and fun theming. I’m not sure that the theming is that integral to the game itself, but nonetheless it really adds to the game. The downside is that I feel there are a limited number of strategies. Depending on whether you have low suns or high suns, you’ll bid in very specific ways, reducing the decision space to a certainty. Still, I don’t usually turn this down.

Quo Vadis? (x3). This is one of the first Knizia games I played, and it’s still one that gets pulled out regularly. It’s an amazingly simple game. You vote based on how many pieces each player has in a location, and the game’s all in the negotiations that result from it. I’m always very impressed by the pure minimalism of this game: that it manages to be so fun with so little in the way of rules (or board).

Marco Polo Expedition (x2). I’ve written before that I think this is a vastly under appreciated game, and I stand by that assessment. It’s a very clever card management game where you have to balance your card usage with what other people are doing. As I wrote last year, it’s got a lot of similarities to Blue Moon City, and though I think the latter is a better game, I think MPE should get more love.

Colossal Arena (x2). Now we come to the game that was genuinely my first Knizia, though under its older name of Titan: The Arena. This game got played constantly when it was my only Eurogame. Now I’ve fallen a bit out of love with it because I’ve had several games with serious Europlayers that dragged to a screeching halt because they overanalyzed it. Played with the right group, this one is still a lot of fun.

Stephenson’s Rocket (x1). This might be a terrific game, but in my two plays it’s befuddled me too much to get any real enjoyment out of it. I was starting to figure out what I was playing by my second game, but there’s sufficient indirection in this game to make it hard to love.

The Average Games

Palazzo (x2). I think Palazzo is a pretty decent game, but for some reason it tends to leave me cold. Perhaps that’s because the components are a bit underwhelming and perhaps that’s because the game has a high level of opacity. Whatever the answer, I rarely suggest the game, but I also don’t tend to turn it down.

Great Wall of China (x3). This pseudo-Samurai game in card form is really a fine game. It’s got a good all-pay auction system, which Knizia also used to good effect in Taj Mahal and Dead Man’s Treasure (and Samurai, for that matter), but I haven’t really found it exciting past the first couple of games when it was still fresh and new. Still, I wouldn’t turn down a game.

Genesis (x2). Combining a super light die rolling game with a slightly longer than filler length makes Genesis a bit of a hard sell. It’s a colorful and fun game when I play it, but often I feel like I could have spent the time on something meatier.

Relationship Tightrope (x1). I think this is quite a fine cardplay game, full of interesting decisions. Unfortunately, Uberplay ruined it with their theming, and thus I can never get other players to join in a game, and what should be a fun game sits largely unplayed.

Dead Man’s Treasure (x3). This super-light blind bidding game might have been missed by most of you. You place cards on islands, they’re slowly revealed, and then at the end of the game the cards determine who wins the treasure on each island. The fact that it’s a filler than plays in just 10 minutes or so is terrific.

Buy Low Sell High (x1). A well-designed game of stock manipulation that I particular like because of how the mechanics are laid out to increase or decrease stock prices as purchases and sells occur. However, it’s also overly mechanistic, with some a heavy basis in economics that the game rarely comes alive for me in play.

Blazing Aces (x1). I’ve played just one of the card games in this book of card games thus far, and it was fair. It could be that there are some real winners that I haven’t gotten to, but it’s hard to get excited about a book of card games, rather than professional produced card games.

The So-So Games

Tutankhamen (x1). I enjoy this game every time up until the last five minutes of play, at which point someone is inevitably forced to make a kingmaker move, spoiling the rest of the game. This game lies pretty near to “broken” for me.

Dragon Parade (x2). The parade randomly moves one direction or another, then someone randomly wins. Too little control to keep me interested, even for its very short length.

Escalation! (x2). Entirely random. Its only plus is that it plays so fast that you don’t feel a thing.

What Didn’t Get Played From My Collection

It’s almost as interesting to see what I own in my collection of Knizia games, but didn’t play. Since I was making an effort to play Knizia over the year, these didn’t get played either due to my own lack of interest or because I couldn’t talk others into it. These are listed in alphabetical order. It includes a total of 25 games in my collection, 5 of which I’ve gotten rid of since last year.

Beowulf: The Legend. For some reason, it’s hard to convince other players to play this one. A shame, as I think it’s one of Knizia’s better auction game, though I’ll agree that the set auction track keeps one from playing it too often.

Blue Moon. I think this is a great two-player game, but my wife isn’t a fan, at least partially because it’s too complex, so it doesn’t get played much.

Carcassonne: The Castle. According to my records, all of the Carcassonne games got a total of one game play in 2007, which is a shame given that I have a whole shelf for them. This is actually one of my favorites of the series.

Digging. 2008 was the year in which I decided that I did not need to continue owning every Reiner Knizia game that I’d ever bought, perhaps in part because I saw how many hadn’t gotten played the previous year. Not only was this a Reiner Knizia game that I got rid of this year, but it’s also one that I never played. A combination of unimpressive rules, bad reviews, and typically bad Avalanche Press components caused it to go out of my collection after sitting unloved for a few years. I probably should have tried to play it once ...

Double or Nothing. This was the game that proved to me that push-your-luck games should be played with dice, not cards. Cards just don’t give enough visceral excitement.

Easy Come, Easy Go! Another of the games that I’ve traded away since last year. I thought it was a fine game when I played it, but since I’ve fallen more in love with Pickomino. It’s amazing how much playing a new game can change your views of an old one.

Fish Eat Fish. A fine little blind-bidding game that suffers the same problem as many of the games in this section. It’s too light and in too small a box, whereas I usually grab a Knizia game when I want something more notable to play.

Galaxy: The Dark Ages. The game that is Colossal Arena taken one step too far. I frequently think “I should give that another shot”, but as with Tutankhamen, the game I used to think that of, every game I’ve ever played has been unsatisfactory (here, due to its excessive complexity, as opposed to Tut’s pharaohmaking problems).

Gold Digger. Another game that I’ve traded away since last year. I never thought it was better than average; I’d prefer to play TItan: The Arena.

High Society! I’ve never felt like this game had enough depth to support my bringing it out for gaming.

King of the Beasts. A real yawner that is another Knizia game I traded away this year.

King’s Gate. Ugly components. In a nutshell, that’s why I neglect this one.

Kingdoms. This is a fine little game, but something about its components makes me feel like it’s very simplistic, even if it’s not. I have a suspicion that the new Beowulf movie branded version of this would get played more.

Knights of Charlemagne. Quite a good game that also suffers from small-box syndrome.

Loot. Another super-light auction game that doesn’t show up much due to its weight.

Modern Art. It’s a shame that this game doesn’t get played, because it’s a fine release, if a bit open-ended at times. I’ve at times lauded it for packing so much game into such a small box, but I also suspect that’s why it doesn’t get played. It wouldn’t get overlooked so much in a somewhat bigger box.

My Word! I actually sort of like this word game, but I don’t usually play word games any more and there’s others that other players are apt to like more, so it was another Knizia game that went out of my collection this year.

Poison. This is one of Knizia’s super-light games that I actually like. But, the box is too small for me to pay much attention to it and too big for me to want to use up space in my gamebag for it, so it’s really the worst of both worlds.

Razzia! I bought this when Ra was out of print, and now I’d much rather play the original, due to reasons of both gameplay and theming. This is another Knizia that got traded away this year.

Res Publica. I find it very hard to believe that this didn’t get played in 2007, as it’s often a goto end-of-the-evening game. I almost suspect that I forgot to record some plays, though I’m pretty obsessive about doing so. In any case, this continues to be a great trading game.

Scarab Lords. A 2-player game that my wife doesn’t like, plus the copy I traded for has the faint stench of cigarette smoke, resulting in a game that will probably never get played.

Spy. So-so components, so-so gameplay. Another Knizia that got traded away this year.

Tigris & Euphrates. Ah, how the mighty have fallen. I never see this played any more and rarely bring it. For me, it’s just a little too abstract. I feel like I’m playing Chess as much as a German game. Even the card game (which was definitely a big step down from the original) came and went quite quickly.

Tower of Babel. I think Knizia’s auction games peaked withe the production of games like Amun-Re, Hollywood Blockbuster, Ra, and Taj Mahal. His newer games like Tower of Babel return to more simplistic roots, and thus get less play. I’ve since played this game in 2008, but it rarely makes it to my bag for game nights.

Winner’s Circle. This is a great game, but it’s also very light. I enjoy it a lot but if I’m going to bring a game of this size, I usually want something meatier, and thus Winner’s Circle gets left behind.

Around the Corner

So there’s my blatherings about 50 Reiner Knizia games. If you agree or disagree with my assessments, I’d love to hear it; ditto, let me know which games weren’t on my list that I should really make a point of playing.

Just as 2007 was my year of Knizia, I’m concentrating on another game designer in 2008: Martin Wallace. However, where I tried to play the highest quantity of Knizia games that I could in 2007, irrespective of what they were, in 2008 I’m instead trying to play as many different Wallace games as I can--primarily because many of his games are too long to stand up to a large number of playings. You can find a lot of my thoughts thus far in my journal. I hope to write a couple of articles about Martin’s games toward the end of the year, further detailing the experience.

In the two weeks since my last posting I’ve been hopped up on antibiotics, and they seem to have made a big difference in the lack of energy that I’d been experiencing in the 5 or so weeks’ previous (though I’m still waiting for my head to feel entirely right). As a result not only is this column appearing with better regularity, but you can also find my reviews once more over at RPGnet. In the last two weeks I’ve written about two high-quality and high-profile releases: Catan: Traders & Barbarians and Senji.

I’ll see you back here in two weeks.

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