The Reiner Knizia Alphabet – The Letter ‘J’

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, 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 ‘J’.

J – Jäger und Sammler (2010)

Jäger und Sammler (translated into English as ‘Hunters and Gatherers’) answers the unasked question: What if Hey, That’s My Fish! but more?

In fairness, Jäger und Sammler builds upon Günter Cornett’s 2003 hit Hey, That’s My Fish! and Knizia’s own earlier works, including 2001’s Africa. Indeed, when discussing Knizia’s tile-laying oeuvre Knizia super-fan Laszlo Molnar said that Jäger und Sammler also “feels like a cleverly disguised Through the Desert-like game”.

Whilst not complicated, Jäger und Sammler is a rare instance of Knizia taking an existing idea and increasing the complexity. Players move their four…

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