Boardgames To Go 256 - Spiel des Jahres Deep Dive 2026 (with Jonathan Takagi)

Mine, this time, is actually an older game.

It's Kraftwagen, which is...

I forgot to even look up when that was.

It's from 2010, 2011, sometime like that, I think.

I'm not quite sure.

Maybe a little later.

Maybe 2013, 14.

But it's a game I don't need to talk about in great detail other than it's a...

What do you call that mechanism? I think of it like in Glenmore and things like that where you pick actions around a circle.

It's not exactly a rondelle.

Is there a name for that? Do you know what I'm talking about, Jonathan?

That's the one where the person in last goes

first.

Right.

And the actions sort of then snake around an action selection circle.

And so then you can... jump ahead or what have you.

Anyway, the point is, it's got that sort of core mechanism, but it's really about the birth of the automobile industry.

And although the game is a little lackluster in looks and maybe a little dry in play, I really love it because I think it does several things well at once, which is, I think the gameplay is interesting and I think the subject matter is super interesting.

And you know, I always love that sort of thing.

In this case, you know, you're doing a part where you're um upgrading your ability to build to construct better vehicles in both in bodies and the engine it's just that abstract just bodies and engine and then there's a marketplace part where you're selling them for victory points and there's also a racetrack part where you are probably confirming your better technologies on the racetrack and scoring points that way.

That's the main things.

And so I think it's cool how it is kind of an industrial economic game that brings in a few different things.

And the reason I'm even bringing it up is because someone might say this is a Mark Johnson style of game, meaning it's got that thematic connection That if you don't feel really strongly about that, you might play the game.

In fact, some of my good friends play the game and think like, yeah, that's fine.

You know, that's okay.