When I first starting buying Euro games and coming to BGG.com, I got used to reading remarks about Reiner Knizia and how the good Doctor is known for re-combining a mish-mash of gaming mechanics to come up with his own designs. Opinions of this nature always seemed to me, to be less than complimentary. As if Reiner Knizia is some hack who can't come up with any original ideas of his own for any of the many games he has designed. This has always bothered me a little bit.

I have become a big fan of Reiner Knizia and his game designs. I am of the personal opinion that his game designs are extremely original. I think people tend to pick on Reiner Knizia a little unfairly mainly because he is such a prolific game designer. After designing more than 200 games there are bound to be a few duds, but I could go on for hours about how games like Medici, Ra, and Taj Mahal (just to name a few) are simple, clean, and beautiful game designs. (I'm trying really hard not to use the work "elegant" here, but its really hard.)

There is one game mechanic that Knizia uses in several of his games. To my knowledge, it is a mechanic unique to Knizia games and not borrowed from any other game designers. It is what I call, the "Tug o' War" mechanic. This is when game pieces get pulled back and forth by the players to give either player an advantage. This list is a collection of the Knizia games that utilize this mechanic. (Actually my friend and fellow BGG user, Rayito, was the first person I ever heard refer to this as a Tug of war mechanic.)

Again, I may be wrong, but to my knowledge, I would say that the Tug o' War mechanic is one of Knizia's signature, unique game mechanics. Feel free to add to this list.