Favorite German Family Games

So, lately I've been thinking about grabbing some of those older German Family Games from about a decade back. These are the German Games that predate Eurogames if you're familiar with loose genre descriptions. Those games that play in about 45-90 minutes and have like four pages of rules.

With Han im Gluck and Rio parting ways and these titles passing or coming up on their Decennial Anniversary I just think some of these are fading into the sunset. Are there any worth hunting down before they super become hard to find? Amun-Re? Samurai? Trias? Attika? Elfenland? La Citta?

I like the old Ravensburger game, the aMAZEing labyrinth. It's not hard to find at all, but some of the newer printings have some unfortunate cartoony art, so I'm happy to have my old one with watercolor illustrations. Here are a couple of photos:

www.boardgamegeek.com/image/1801406/the-amazeing-labyrinth
www.boardgamegeek.com/image/1801411/the-amazeing-labyrinth
www.boardgamegeek.com/image/1801410/the-amazeing-labyrinth
www.boardgamegeek.com/image/1801408/the-amazeing-labyrinth

As you can see, I think it's actually best with two players.

Elfenland brings me to tears because it actively promotes analysis paralysis, especially if you play with the official "secret city" variant. (The one where you try to end the game as close as you can to a particular city.) I can no longer play Elfenland for that reason.

Amun Re isn't family style. It's a medium-weight Euro, not really for families/kids.

Trias is OK. Survive! is the much better game, and it shares similar mechanics. Both involve forcing pieces/dudes into the water by pulling out supporting land tiles. Though Trias has an area majority scoring for separated continents that (obviously) Survive! lacks.

I almost choked when I read Attika, because I thought it said Attila. Attila is terrible. Attika is Ok, and is possibly one of the first Eurogames that I played at my local games club.

So, none of that was really helpful. Sorry.

I love this genre. Favourites include El Grande, Chinatown, China, Small World, Ticket to Ride, Winner's Circle and Bohnanza.

The Diary of a Young Girl - the board game.


it's like Scotland Yard splashed with Clue.

I really love Ra, Adel Verpflichtet, and El Grande.

I've gone on a big of a Knizia tear myself and tracked down a lot of his games from roughly 1997-2003. So Tigris & Euphrates, Taj Mahal, that kind of stuff. Those aren't entirely family games though. (I think Ra and LotR come closest, at least in the multiplayer realm.)

That's Life / Verflixxt is a fun roll-and-move sort of game. Sort of like Parchisi on steroids, if anything. That's a "family Euro" sort of game.

I'll agree with wkover below; at least this is my take: Elfenland is fun for about 90 minutes, but unfortunately lasts about three hours. Amun-Re isn't fun for the whole family - It's a Reiner Knizia headache of a game.

Transamerica is also one that fits your description. It's fast, light on rules, and is about as old as you're looking for.

I forgot about TransAmerica, that's one I should track down!

Whenever Barny talks I can never tell if he is serious or not. So I Googled "The Diary of a Young Girl - The Board Game"...Twice...

Elfenland I played once with two so I was wondering if I was missing anything by playing with just two...Sounds like I am not.

China sounds pretty fun.

So Amun-Re would fall out of the category of "Family" and I'm also looking for the Light-Medium Euro games as well from that period so shoot 'em off. Is Amun-Re any good? I love Egyptian themes and it sounds like a pretty good game.

Any other Medium-Euros to add in there?

Old school family friendly euros? How about Take it Easy or Ricochet Robots?

In the 2p category I liked The Settlers of Catan the Card Game and Lost Cities.

-Will

La Citta - I've played this several times. Its one of those games where if you make a bad move very early you'll spend the next 3 hours in a downward spiral with no chance of winning. Since I'm usually one of those people I hope to never play it again.

Amun Re - For some reason I thought this was being reprinted. Its okay. I'd rather play RA.

I've only played Amun-Re once, and it was a while ago. Besides that I started learning it after midnight. It was actually the game that persuaded me to create that rule.

I recall it being pretty intense, awfully layered and Euro-y. Having said that, it was definitely highly interactive and well-designed in a top-shelf Knizia way. I don't remember whether I liked it or not though. I remember very little about the experience, honestly.

It's also on the gather-unto-me-Reiner list that I've been working on.

A decade-old German family game I still own and pull out is Around The World in 80 Days. It doesn't get mentioned much, but everyone I've played it with has liked it. Its a race game where you don't necessarily want to be the first to finish. Its better to race for least time spent than to place.

Tigris and Euphrates, El Grande, Bohnanza, Vinci, and RA have a permanent spot on my shelf.

Hansa (NOT Hansa Teutonica) is a solid light Euro. It's an Uberplay title, so it must be out of print. But I imagine it's easy to score a copy on ebay, the BGG marketplace, etc.

I taught Hansa to a bunch of folks at a recent con, and they all loved it. I forget that I've been in the hobby longer than many people, which means that I tend to lug around games that some people have never seen.

I'm an Amun Re fan, but I'm strangely attracted to almost all auction games. When I was a strict Euro player, it was in my top 10. Now, not so much. But I'd definitely still play it.

Others worth playing and owning: Medici, Aladdin's Dragons, Cartagena 2, Dawn Under (painful memory game), Dragonland, Jambo, Niagara.

Here's a couple of popular ones from back then, that I didn't like. Alhambra has a terrible rep on this site, and I would rather play almost anything else. But a lot of folks like it. When it came out, you couldn't get away from it.

Bang! is another one, that came about that same time, ten years or so ago. I'd play Alhambra before I'd play Bang!, but again, a lot of folks like it.