Best Board Game Designer Of All Time

Reiner Knizia
793 796

Top Games
Tigris & Euphrates
Ra
Quest for El Dorado (new)

Personal Favorite
Stephensons Rocket
Tower of Babel
Modern Art

Personal Take
Two player games are generally more interactive than multiplayer games in my opinion. But Knizia is great at creating nuanced interaction in multiplayer games that don't devolve into king-making or take-that moves. Instead, the incentives for the interaction are often provided in the form of a scoring method, and results in conflicts, and maybe even cooperation. The driving force is scripted by a diverse scoring system, while the actions themselves are kept as simple and free as possible. Knizia allows players to interact in a very open and freeform setting.

I learned Amun Re last month. It was absolutely fantastic. In some ways, it feels different from his other designs. The scoring system is uncharacteristically simplistic, and interaction is not as open. Strangely, there are three systems for players to do the same things (a musical chair auction, a triangularly priced purchase phase, and a closed auction), each with its own subtle differences. The game directs the players a little bit more, but in the best possible way.

While I like The Quest for El Dorado, I am surprised it made it into Knizia's top three, replacing Samurai. I like Blue Lagoon more, and am very interested in trying Babylonia, which seems related to Samurai and Through the Desert. Quietly but impressively, between Blue Lagoon, Babylonia, and Yellow and Yangtze, we now have a new trilogy of tile laying games from Knizia. (The original trilogy being Through the Desert, Samurai, and Tigris and Euphrates.)