Dr. Knizia is perhaps the most prolific board game designer of all time with 700 published games . He is a German game designer who has a PhD in mathematics.

Age of War

Age of War is a push-your-luck dice game set in feudal Japan. Fourteen cards laid out on the table represents Japanese castles, worth different numbers of points, ripe for the taking. Capturing the most points is the aim of the game, with points being awarded per castle, as well as by completed sets of colours. The castles all have different criteria to match on their cards, comprised of different rows of different dice symbols (archers, cavalry, samurai and swords).

Each turn the player rolls seven dice and, upon seeing the result of a roll, must choose which castle to attack. You may reroll and try to fill the other rows of the castle or till you run out of dice. If you have claimed a castle, you put it in front of you. The castle is now owned by you; however, it is not safe until the full-colour set associated with that card has also been collected by you. Before the final colour is collected, any player can try and take that castle from you by rolling one additional samurai along with the criteria to capture the castle. This is where the player vs player action comes in.

Yes, it is a dice game, but it is also a game about warfare in Feudal Japan and this theme does actually come across when playing. If you want to feel like Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai, this is the game for you! The dice rolls are waves of troops you are sending to attack the castle, if you are unsuccessful at gaining ground then you lose troops (dice). If you are successful then you can send another wave. This adds drama to an otherwise regular dice game. The uniqueness of this game is the excitement with player vs player warfare when someone tries to take back the castles. For a game that has only a few components, it is hugely replayable and loads of fun.