Knizia-thon, Part One: Marco Polo Expedition v. Blue Moon City

KniziathonAs I’ve played an increasing number of German games, I’ve increasingly grown fond of those by Reiner Knizia. Sure, he’s the big grand poobah of German gaming, and he designs more games than most small countries, but I’ve discovered that I like his games because they’re just more fun for me than a lot of what I play.

To some extent this surprises me, because they’re pretty analytical and pretty mathematical, neither of which matches my definition of fun, but of everything I play they’re the ones I come back to the most.

I came to this realization late last year, so this year I’ve set out to play as much Knizia as a I can. I’d hope to have a pile of Knizian nickles by year’s end, and though that hasn’t come about, I’ve still managed quite a few plays.

To date my 2007 play list looks like this: Ingenious x5, Blue Moon City x4, Quo Vadis? x3, Through the Desert x3, Amun-Re x2, Colossal Arena x2, Dead Man’s Treasure x2, Dragon Parade x2, Escalation! x2, Genesis x2, Great Wall of China x2, Hollywood Blockbuster x2, Marco Polo Expedition x2, Ra x2, Taj Mahal x2, Buy Low Sell High x1, Ivanhoe x1, Kingdoms x1, Knights of Charlemagne x1, Loot x1, Lord of the Rings x1, Palazzo x1, Relationship Tightrope x1, Rheinlander x1, Stephenson’s Rocket x1, T&E Card Game x1, Too Many Cooks x1, Tutankhamen x1, Winner’s Circle x1.

Which I suppose one really can’t complain about, since I’ve been playing at least one Knizia game a week.

All this play of Knizian games has gotten me thinking a bit about his design, and thus I offer up the first of what will eventually be several articles on his games.
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