Pair A Dice Games Corner

June 2026

First presented in 1979, the Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) has been presented every year to a board game that is released that year. In 2011 they added new catagory called Kennerspiel des Jahres (Connoisseur Game of the Year). This year's nominees was recently announced, so let us check them out.

Of the games nominated for Spield des Jahres, Cozy Stickerville is the only title available in the United States right now. A favorite of several of us in store, Cozy Stickerville is a cooperative Legacy game. Explore the land, uncover mysteries, and follow your residents’ personal stories. Build your Village with over 800 stickers featuring houses, farms, shops, animals, and so much more! As your village grows, so do your options: go fishing, explore the mine, find true love, and more! Create your legacy as your choices unlock new options and can have lasting repercussions in future games. The buildings you choose have unique effects, and each decision creates new possibilities in future years. Explore and Discover as you help residents pursue personal stories, go fishing, explore the mine, and
uncover hidden mysteries.

Boss Fighters QR is nominated for Kennerspiel this year. Boss Fighters QR is a cooperative fantasy campaign game where players battle against ten unique boss monsters that react tactically to their actions. This hybrid game combines elements of a classic card game with a digital app to create an interplay of strategic deck building and dynamic boss battles. The Scan&Play mechanic of Boss Fighters QR allows the game to instantly recognize player cards as they are scanned, which then triggers challenging responses – to the players’ choices, in real time.

Also nominated for Kennerspiel is Moon Colony Bloodbath. Moon Colony Bloodbath is an engine-building, engine-losing tableau game, with a shared deck the players build that makes things happen, many of them bad things that kill people in your moon colony, but some positive, and some that let you build up. More specifically, each turn one card is revealed from the shared deck, which starts with four work cards, two trouble cards, and two twists. For work, each player takes an action of their choice simultaneously: mining for money, farming for food, research for cards, build a new building, or restock boxes on buildings. Twists vary from one game to the next. Trouble adds a new event card to the deck: hunger, paperwork, glitches, accidents, leaks, power failure — whatever can go wrong will go wrong, then whenever the deck is shuffled, you can prepare for all those events once again.

Last, but certainly not least, nominated for Kennerpsiel we have Rebirth. Rebirth is a new tile-laying game from Reiner Knizia. The game revitalizes this classic genre by combining Knizia’s elegant mechanics with Mighty Boards’ evocative world building. The result is a eurogame with smooth gameplay set in a lush and hopeful future. Each turn, players draw a tile from their supply and place it strategically on the board. These tiles represent your clan’s contribution to rebuilding the land. Rebirth rewards strategic foresight and clever tactical play, with tougher decisions emerging over the course of the game.

What game do you think will win Spiel des Jahres or Kennerspiel?