New Tactical Games With Dice And Cards

Was excited about the book and got it quick. Lots of fun games within. Worth the expense.

I had first heard about this book several years ago, but it was only in German. I don't read that. So I was thrilled when I saw that a new (the first?) English edition had been published. Unlike the German version, this one is also in color.Anyway, the book is awesome. It has quite a few games (some of which Knizia says he has turned into commercial products) and the rules are easy to follow. All you need is a deck or two of cards and/or some dice and the occasional chit or game piece.Looking forward to playing all of these. My kids really like decathlon, a dice game with lots of "events" and varied goals. Kept us occupied for the better part of an evening. Highly recommend this book!

You can see better how this iconic games designer approaches his many projects and why he is so successful.

So many of the games use the same, simplistic mechanic with a thin veneer of a theme slapped on top. Several games are actually the same game -- take 13 cards of a suit, play one at the same time as your opponent, highest wins. Considering he has published 100s of games, it's pretty disappointing. Further, as always seems to be the case with his books, the translation is such that it can take an hour to decipher exactly what he's talking about -- or maybe it's just the inexact way he writes. I read the rules to "Desk-Jogging" a dozen times before I gave up, realizing that I'd have to guess at his intent. So, yeah, not to great. Had similar issues with his ironically named 2010 book "Dice Games Properly Explained". Also, I don't appreciate that over 30 pages (15% of the book) over three chapters are dedicated to teaching us elementary Game Theory, Combinatorics and Probability. That's both condescending and bait & switch. Why would he assume his audience are high-school dropouts?