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5. Through the Desert (1998): Through the Desert is one of those Knizia games that exemplifies his ability to take a single mechanic and expound on it to make for a very deep game. Through the Desert takes its inspiration from games like Go, where players lay pieces down on the board in attempts to section off parts of the board and squeeze out the position of their competitors. It doesn't have much for theme (and yes, the camel pieces really do look like candy), but it's a beautifully streamlined game with enough depth to make it an instant classic.
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4. Ra (1999): Ra is the most famous of Knizia's trilogy of auction games and is the very best. Ra is almost pure auction and the Doctor once again proves here how well he can turn a single mechanism into a full-fledged game full of depth and strategy. The tiles that the players will be auctioning for all have pretty interesting powers and there is just nothing quite as satisfying as grabbing that center figure and yelling "RA!" at the top of your lungs.
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3. Battle Line (2000): This astoundingly simple card game is the best of Knizia's two-player games, allowing for some fierce tactical maneuvering in its 30-minute playtime. The game has players laying down three-card poker-style hands against one another along different spots on the battle line. It's a great game to bring out for people who love poker or have only played traditional playing card games.
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2. Samurai (1998): Knizia isn't known for heavy amounts of theme in his games and Samurai is no different. Samurai is a tile-laying, area control game that has players strategically placing tokens of the three factions and modifier tiles across Japan and the surrounding islands. It's a bit lighter than Knizia's tile-laying masterpiece, Tigris and Euphrates, making it a fantastic entry point into Knizia's larger body of work.
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1. Tigris and Euphrates (1997): It's far from a thematic, civilization-building game, but when it comes to pure abstract strategy it's hard to beat Knizia's masterpiece, Tigris and Euphrates. Though it's a Euro through-and-through, there is a surprising amount of conflict in the game, allowing for players to disrupt the growth of each other's empires and even strategically commandeer them. It's a brilliant game (so much so that Paste gave the recent reprint a rare 10/10 review) that has forever positioned Reiner Knizia in the game design hall of fame, if such a place exists.