The 16 Best Spiel des Jahres Winners I’ve Actually Played

A couple of weeks ago, Ryan and Drew over at Sword, Board, and Pen put together a list of their Top 18 Spiel des Jahres Winners. It’s an interesting challenge, and great to read their thoughts.

In a show-don’t-tell example of plagiarism I’ve decided to follow suit and lay out the best Spiel des Jahres winners I’ve played.

16. Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective

A choose your adventure murder mystery. This is the kind of game that makes you question what is a game. For me, Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective is more of a puzzle. The winning answer is predefined, but it’s up to you to figure it out using scraps of newspaper and choose your adventure book. It turns out I don’t have the imagination to translate words from the page into a grand adventure. Making this game a chore to play.

15. Hanabi

A cooperative communication game, where the difficulty is determined by the straightness of your face. I’m not a fan of this game, as it puts you in this internal struggle where to do well you want to hint to your teammates. However, the rules strictly forbid it. Someone always breaks, and when they do the game breaks with it. There are better games that do something similar but better.

14. Settlers of Catan

Gateway game royalty, everyone and their dog has either played Settlers of Catan or at least heard of it. However, there are some serious shortcomings with the game. Where it relies on people to trade to get around the luck of the dice. And if you’re playing with people who aren’t open to trading, well you’re up shit’s creek. Space Base does similar resource generation, but with it being the sole focus, and makes it a wonderful game.

13. Colt Express

Real cowboy programming, and not the type where they don’t use an issue tracker. It’s a chaotic pantomime of an old western. This makes for great entertainment but I found there’s not enough information to play it well. However, makes it a good pick for when you don’t want to invest too much effort. Also, the cardboard train is fantastic if not fiddly.

12. ICECOOL

A dexterity game of flicking penguins around a school, avoiding the hall monitor and collecting fish. What’s unique to ICECOOL is the penguin component which is weighted and acts as a sea buoy. Not only do they slide nicely, but the weight opens up a lot of ice-cool trick shots you can perform. Great for when you have steady competition and time to practice.

11. Kingdomino

A family-weight tetromino tile-laying game. That’s a mouthful. You’re going to be picking and laying tiles to make different patterns. Turn order is key, and it changes every round. It’s fast and has some decent decisions making it great for a lunchtime snack. But overall couldn’t hold my attention enough to make the top 10.

10. Village

A worker placement game about leaving a legacy before you die. This is up there with Agricola in terms of complexity, as you have many different paths to take, and decisions to make. It may be a bit morbid for some, as you do have to figure out which of your family is going to die. But otherwise, it’s a solid game and one that I wouldn’t say no to playing again.

9. Camel Up

Camel Up takes you to the racecourse. Except instead of horses, you’ll be betting on camels. Crazy camels. What makes this game exceptional is that you can never predict which camel is going to win. But you’re going to guess anyway. I’ve always had a good time with this one. I will have to update my opinion once I get around to playing the second edition.

8. Codenames

Take Taboo but only let the clue giver say one word. Then throw in team mechanics and additional win/loss objectives and you got Codenames. Easy to learn, easy to lose, lots of laughter. As much fun as it is to watch someone go from ‘coming up with a clue is easy’ to ‘uhhhhh…. give me a second’. It’s more fun when all of the hard thinking results in a killer clue.

Or a team strikes out with the assassin.

A fantastic party game.

7. Ticket to Ride

Route building in its most simplistic form. It’s the only game on this list I haven’t owned. But the times I’ve played it have been pretty fun albeit a bit light. I’ve played Ethnos which has a similar drafting mechanism, and I think I’d rather play that.

6. Dixit

Another brilliant party game. This time instead of words, you’ll be using beautiful surrealist art. One person will select a card, and the rest of the players will have to pick it out of a lineup. This game is wholly dependent on the group, and for me, it’s had about a 70% hit rate, where we had uproarious laughter. The other 30% though has been me quietly wondering what else we could be playing. Read more in my review.

5. Carcassonne

Charming, easy to play, and allows you to play the way you want. If it’s with family, you can have a relaxing time building the roads and cities of Carcassonne. If it’s with my wife, CRUSH HER! Steal all her castles and roads. Don’t let her get a point.

It’s this malleability that’s made Carcassonne a mainstay in many collections around the world. Because no matter how you play it, it’s fantastic, and there’s something about seeing the map unfold before your eyes.

4. 7 Wonders

Slick card drafting with a civilisation-building veneer. It plays quickly, has deep strategic gameplay, and plays up to 7 players. However, when playing it everyone gets trapped behind a wall of cards, with the only real interaction happening at the end of the round. It feels like everyone plays in a bubble, and loses the interactivity that I’ve come to love about board gaming. Still, an amazing game.

3. Agricola

Feed your family or lose! Agricola is all about the hard life of a farmer who can barely put food on the table. If that wasn’t hard enough, you’ll be fighting off your opponents and also trying to get those limited resources. There are so many branching strategies within this game, and all of them are rewarding to pursue. You start with a handful of special cards that are powerful enough to change your strategy and make every game feel unique.

Unfortunately, the upkeep between rounds keeps me from loving this game more. As it is not insignificant. And I often forget whether I’ve put the pigs and the cows out, or just the cows.

2. Azul

Out of all the games so far the final two stand head and shoulders above the field. Azul is an abstract game about tiling up a bathroom. An expensive bathroom mind you, in tiles you and I probably can’t afford. Each round you’re choosing a colour tile from several piles, and the tiles you don’t pick are pushed into the middle.

As the game goes on the pile grows and grows along with everyone’s anxiety. Hoping they won’t have to pick up so many tiles. Any tiles unable to be placed on their board give negative points.

Brilliant drafting game that’s easy to pick up, but deeply satisfying to play. You can read more about Azul in my review.

1. Dominion

The granddaddy of all Spiel des Jahres winners. Easily the smartest game on the list. But weirdly, it’s also one of the least interactive.

It’s a deck-building game but at its heart, it’s a racing game. The first person to collect the province cards is usually the winner. So structuring your deck and watching it come to life is so interesting and engaging. Then the next game you get to tinker with the formulae and try again and get different results. It’s almost scientific in that aspect.

But it’s also an amazing game with over a billion expansions keeping the game fresh, even for the most dedicated players.

That’s a wrap on the 16 best Spiel des Jahres winners I’ve played. How many of the winners have you played? And which one do you think is the best?