The Reiner Knizia Alphabet – The Letter ‘P’

The year 2025 marks the 40th anniversary of Dr Reiner Knizia’s career as a board game designer – his first published game, Complica, was released in a magazine in 1985 (although he’d self-published games before then as well).

Since then, Knizia has designed and published over 800 games and expansions, many of which are critically acclaimed. Put simply, Reiner Knizia is the landscape on which all other modern designers build their houses.

To celebrate Knizia’s career and back catalogue, Meeple Mountain are taking things back to basics to consider the ABC of Reiner Knizia: one game for each of the 26 letters of the alphabet.

This time: The Letter ‘P’.

P – Pickomino (2005)

“A gambling game in the finest chicken tradition.” 

Do we really need to say more?

Oh, ok then. Pickomino (also known as Heckmeck) is the older sibling of 2006’s Risk Express (better known as Age of War, which we covered right at the start of our alphabet). Players act as chickens, rolling dice to collect worms from the centre of the table or from other players. You roll eight dice, choose a value to set aside (e.g. all the 4s that you rolled) and then decide to stop or reroll the remaining dice. This goes on until you choose…

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