If the Spiel des Jahres is the cuddly family award, the Kennerspiel des Jahres is the one for gamers who want their evening to bite back. The jury named its 2026 shortlist on 19 May, and it is an unusually varied one: Boss Fighters QR, Moon Colony Bloodbath and Rebirth.
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Start organising for freeBoss Fighters QR is the boldest pick. Published by Pegasus Spiele and designed by Michael Palm and Lukas Zach, it is a cooperative fantasy campaign for two to four players who take on ten boss monsters across a 40 to 60 minute battle. The twist is the technology. Every card carries a QR code, and a companion app scans your plays so each boss reacts to what you actually did. Reviewers have praised the slick combat while debating whether it leans too hard on the screen.
Moon Colony Bloodbath is the one with pedigree. It comes from Donald X. Vaccarino, the designer who created Dominion, the 2009 Spiel des Jahres winner that kicked off the entire deck-building genre. His new card game for one to five players, published by Rio Grande Games, is a pitch-black comedy in which everyone builds a shared deck of events and then watches their lunar colonists get picked off. Whoever has the most survivors at the end wins.
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Find events near youRebirth has a strong home-turf angle. It is a tile-laying eurogame from the famously prolific Reiner Knizia, and its double-sided board is a map of Scotland on one side and Ireland on the other. Players place tiles to grow farms, settlements and ports in a hopeful, rebuilt future, with a light ruleset hiding sharp tactical decisions. The UK edition comes from Mighty Boards.
The winner is announced in Berlin on 12 July. If this meatier shortlist has your group itching for a heavier session, find a board game community near you.
Sources: Spiel des Jahres | brettspielbox | The Opinionated Gamers | Rio Grande Games
