Just in case you thought these lists were getting a bit too relevant, here we are again with something that has absolutely no bearing on the hobby as a whole, no merit besides a purely entertaining one. You should know my schtick by now, I personally find it endlessly hilarious to confront you, dear reader, with the German titles of popular board games on this blog here. So I thought to myself, why not go one step beyond? So I did. I present you with:
Top Five Thursday: (Things you never knew you wanted to know about) Strange German board game titles
We Germans like to pride ourselfs as "das Land der Dichter und Denker", the country of poets and thinkers. And boy, some of those people responsible for translations of any kind want to defend that title to the bone. Remember that (pretty good) Heath Ledger movie, "A Knight's Tale"? In Germany, it was called "Ritter aus Leidenschaft", basically "Knight out of passion" (which might be an alusion to "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman", because that one was called "Dr. Quinn - Ärztin aus Leidenschaft" as well over here). Or "Airplane!". Simple. Elegant. In Germany, we call it "Die unglaubliche Reise in einem verrückten Flugzeug", literally "The incredible journey on a crazy plane". Subtle.
Sometimes it's not that bad but nevertheless a headscratcher (Clive Barker's "Imajica" is called "Imagica" in Germany because I don't know...), sometimes it's balls to the wall insane (the Italian movie "Demoni" was called "Dämonen 2" in Germany, because its own sequel was released beforehand and so the original was marketed as a sequel), but most of the time, it's good for a laugh. So let's take a journey into the world of strange German board game titles (not all of those are translations, some of those are the original titles but YOU've never known them). And since there's such a wealth of those, I've decided to do five categories this time.
#5: Subtitle madness
![]()
We Germans love ourselfs some subtitles... apparently. So when Dr. Knizia designed Beowulf: The Legend, Kosmos decided to make it as grandiose as possible. The result of that was "Beowulf: Der sagenhafte Drachenkämpfer" (literally "Beowulf: The marvelous dragon-fighter"). Cool. But sometimes, just changing a subtitle isn't enough, sometimes adding new ones is the name of the game. Ever wondered what The Battle of Five Armies was actually about? No problem, Heidelberger has you covered with "Die Schlacht der fünf Heere: Der Hobbit" (I think you can guess what it means in English). Or Pegasus stepping into really-bad -pun-territory by adding "Das Deck-Hau Spiel" ("The deck-punching game") to Puzzle Strike (Third Edition). Or when Fire & Axe: A Viking Saga transcended all barriers of crazy translations and renamed the original version "Viking Fury" into "Wikinger: Die vergessenen Eroberer" (rougly translated "Vikings: The forgotten conquerors"). But now and then, it just feels like us Germans need what we lovingly call an "Extrawurst". So back to Knizia and Kosmos again. Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation could have simply been called "Herr der Ringe: Die Konfrontation" (it's called something like that in each and every language), but no, we Germans know it as "Herr der Ringe: Die Entscheidung" ("Lord of the Rings: The decision"). What is that even supposed to mean?
#4: Strange switcheroos
![]()
I really don't want to rail on Dr. Knizia that much, but he's giving me so much material to work with. I mean, all of you know his magnum opus, "Euphrat & Tigris". No, not Tigris & Euphrates... Well, yes, it's the same game, but for some reason, when it was released in English, they switched the names of the two rivers and for each re-issue, that discrepancy was retained (except for the card game version, which even in English took on the German naming convention). But it's not only the switching of words we're good at, it's also the switching of whole perspectives by just adjusting a few words. Dead of Winter: A Crossroads Game for example is called "Winter der Toten: Ein Spiel mit dem Schicksal", which (besides the strange subtitle) doesn't mean Dead of Winter, but Winter of the Dead. The Voyages of Marco Polo became "Auf den Spuren von Marco Polo" (roughly "On Marco Polo's trail"), Hey, That's My Fish! was renamed to "Hey, Danke für den Fisch!" ("Hey, thanks for the fish!") and Escape from the Aliens in Outer Space sits on German shelves under the name "Angriff der Aliens aus dem All" ("Attack of the aliens from outer space"). Kind of puts a new spin on all of those games, doesn't it?
#3: "Ah, I know a better title for this!"
![]()
Your eyes aren't deceiving you, you're beholding the German version of Twilight Struggle, called "Gleichgewicht des Schreckens" ("Equilibrium of terror"), which is kind of fitting and also as a nice ring to it, but yeah, it's completely detached from the original name. We do that sometimes. The reasons are mostly practical. Coal Baron for example was originally called "Glück auf", a German miners-greeting that couldn't be translated faithfully. Or "Heckmeck am Bratwurmeck" (goddamnit, Knizia, get out of my Top Five list!), which is the German title of Pickomino. Sometimes, the people deciding on the names think of themselves as on par to Schiller or Goethe, for example A Castle for All Seasons was originally called "Im Schutze der Burg" ("In the cloak of the castle"). And sometimes, people just call Cube Quest"Rumms" (onomatopoeia for two things hitting each other). I kind of like that last one.
#2: Was that really necessary?
![]()
I've already talked about Clank!: A Deck-Building Adventure, or rather "Klong!", on this blog. And that example begs the question, was a translation really necessary in that case? I mean, sure, "clank" isn't a German word, but neither is "Klong" (which fits in the same ballpark as "Rumms"). But sometimes there are subtle changes in the names (or translations of names) for the German version. The Red Dragon Inn came out in Germany as "Zum Roten Drachen" (German taverns and inns usually use the preposition "zum" which means something like "to the" or "towards", so "the boar" would be something like "Zum Eber"), so when The Red Dragon Inn 2 was released, did they call it "Zum Roten Drachen 2"? No, they called it "Zum Blauen Drachen" (which would be "The Blue Dragon Inn"). Risk Legacy became "Risiko Evolution", Endeavor bears the name "Magister Navis" (which can't be more nonsensical to German audiences than the original) and I'll never know why the German version of Happy Salmon is called "Lucky Lachs". That's not even propper German there...
And #1: The tiny epic elephant in the room...
![]()
![]()
![]()
Schwerkraft are at it again. I have absolutely nothing against them, they're a great publisher who publish great games (although their fare is a bit pricey if you asked me), but their insistence on germanizing everything they publish is... befuddling, if you asked me. We already talked about Clank!: A Deck-Building Adventure turned into "Klong!". They are also responsible for Above and Below being called "Oben und Unten" in German, which is a kind of accurate translation but it sounds just so... prosaic. But they really... ahem... "outdid" themselves with what they call "Winzige Welten" ("Tiny worlds"). They started out with Tiny Epic Kingdoms, calling it "Winzige Weltreiche" (roughly "Tiny empires") and then tried to establish a brand or so by calling other stuff similarly? Anyway, next up was Tiny Epic Galaxies, turned into "Winziges Weltall" ("Tiny space") and I swear that at one point they were gonna publish Tiny Epic Defenders as "Winzige Weltenretter" ("Tiny saviors of the world"), but I can't find anything about that online. Was that just a dream? Anyway, they finally abstained from the WW-brand by dragging One Deck Dungeon into that line of games as "Winziges Verlies" ("Tiny dungeon"). Real smooth...
So those were... I don't know, twenty or so games that feature a real discrepancy between the German title and the English one. Do you know any more? What about other languages? Are there really stupid Dutch, French, Danish, Italian, Russian or whatever names? And what are your favorites? Feel free to express yourselves in the comments and see you next time on Top Five Thursday.
We Germans like to pride ourselfs as "das Land der Dichter und Denker", the country of poets and thinkers. And boy, some of those people responsible for translations of any kind want to defend that title to the bone. Remember that (pretty good) Heath Ledger movie, "A Knight's Tale"? In Germany, it was called "Ritter aus Leidenschaft", basically "Knight out of passion" (which might be an alusion to "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman", because that one was called "Dr. Quinn - Ärztin aus Leidenschaft" as well over here). Or "Airplane!". Simple. Elegant. In Germany, we call it "Die unglaubliche Reise in einem verrückten Flugzeug", literally "The incredible journey on a crazy plane". Subtle.
Sometimes it's not that bad but nevertheless a headscratcher (Clive Barker's "Imajica" is called "Imagica" in Germany because I don't know...), sometimes it's balls to the wall insane (the Italian movie "Demoni" was called "Dämonen 2" in Germany, because its own sequel was released beforehand and so the original was marketed as a sequel), but most of the time, it's good for a laugh. So let's take a journey into the world of strange German board game titles (not all of those are translations, some of those are the original titles but YOU've never known them). And since there's such a wealth of those, I've decided to do five categories this time.
We Germans love ourselfs some subtitles... apparently. So when Dr. Knizia designed Beowulf: The Legend, Kosmos decided to make it as grandiose as possible. The result of that was "Beowulf: Der sagenhafte Drachenkämpfer" (literally "Beowulf: The marvelous dragon-fighter"). Cool. But sometimes, just changing a subtitle isn't enough, sometimes adding new ones is the name of the game. Ever wondered what The Battle of Five Armies was actually about? No problem, Heidelberger has you covered with "Die Schlacht der fünf Heere: Der Hobbit" (I think you can guess what it means in English). Or Pegasus stepping into really-bad -pun-territory by adding "Das Deck-Hau Spiel" ("The deck-punching game") to Puzzle Strike (Third Edition). Or when Fire & Axe: A Viking Saga transcended all barriers of crazy translations and renamed the original version "Viking Fury" into "Wikinger: Die vergessenen Eroberer" (rougly translated "Vikings: The forgotten conquerors"). But now and then, it just feels like us Germans need what we lovingly call an "Extrawurst". So back to Knizia and Kosmos again. Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation could have simply been called "Herr der Ringe: Die Konfrontation" (it's called something like that in each and every language), but no, we Germans know it as "Herr der Ringe: Die Entscheidung" ("Lord of the Rings: The decision"). What is that even supposed to mean?
I really don't want to rail on Dr. Knizia that much, but he's giving me so much material to work with. I mean, all of you know his magnum opus, "Euphrat & Tigris". No, not Tigris & Euphrates... Well, yes, it's the same game, but for some reason, when it was released in English, they switched the names of the two rivers and for each re-issue, that discrepancy was retained (except for the card game version, which even in English took on the German naming convention). But it's not only the switching of words we're good at, it's also the switching of whole perspectives by just adjusting a few words. Dead of Winter: A Crossroads Game for example is called "Winter der Toten: Ein Spiel mit dem Schicksal", which (besides the strange subtitle) doesn't mean Dead of Winter, but Winter of the Dead. The Voyages of Marco Polo became "Auf den Spuren von Marco Polo" (roughly "On Marco Polo's trail"), Hey, That's My Fish! was renamed to "Hey, Danke für den Fisch!" ("Hey, thanks for the fish!") and Escape from the Aliens in Outer Space sits on German shelves under the name "Angriff der Aliens aus dem All" ("Attack of the aliens from outer space"). Kind of puts a new spin on all of those games, doesn't it?
Your eyes aren't deceiving you, you're beholding the German version of Twilight Struggle, called "Gleichgewicht des Schreckens" ("Equilibrium of terror"), which is kind of fitting and also as a nice ring to it, but yeah, it's completely detached from the original name. We do that sometimes. The reasons are mostly practical. Coal Baron for example was originally called "Glück auf", a German miners-greeting that couldn't be translated faithfully. Or "Heckmeck am Bratwurmeck" (goddamnit, Knizia, get out of my Top Five list!), which is the German title of Pickomino. Sometimes, the people deciding on the names think of themselves as on par to Schiller or Goethe, for example A Castle for All Seasons was originally called "Im Schutze der Burg" ("In the cloak of the castle"). And sometimes, people just call Cube Quest"Rumms" (onomatopoeia for two things hitting each other). I kind of like that last one.
I've already talked about Clank!: A Deck-Building Adventure, or rather "Klong!", on this blog. And that example begs the question, was a translation really necessary in that case? I mean, sure, "clank" isn't a German word, but neither is "Klong" (which fits in the same ballpark as "Rumms"). But sometimes there are subtle changes in the names (or translations of names) for the German version. The Red Dragon Inn came out in Germany as "Zum Roten Drachen" (German taverns and inns usually use the preposition "zum" which means something like "to the" or "towards", so "the boar" would be something like "Zum Eber"), so when The Red Dragon Inn 2 was released, did they call it "Zum Roten Drachen 2"? No, they called it "Zum Blauen Drachen" (which would be "The Blue Dragon Inn"). Risk Legacy became "Risiko Evolution", Endeavor bears the name "Magister Navis" (which can't be more nonsensical to German audiences than the original) and I'll never know why the German version of Happy Salmon is called "Lucky Lachs". That's not even propper German there...
Schwerkraft are at it again. I have absolutely nothing against them, they're a great publisher who publish great games (although their fare is a bit pricey if you asked me), but their insistence on germanizing everything they publish is... befuddling, if you asked me. We already talked about Clank!: A Deck-Building Adventure turned into "Klong!". They are also responsible for Above and Below being called "Oben und Unten" in German, which is a kind of accurate translation but it sounds just so... prosaic. But they really... ahem... "outdid" themselves with what they call "Winzige Welten" ("Tiny worlds"). They started out with Tiny Epic Kingdoms, calling it "Winzige Weltreiche" (roughly "Tiny empires") and then tried to establish a brand or so by calling other stuff similarly? Anyway, next up was Tiny Epic Galaxies, turned into "Winziges Weltall" ("Tiny space") and I swear that at one point they were gonna publish Tiny Epic Defenders as "Winzige Weltenretter" ("Tiny saviors of the world"), but I can't find anything about that online. Was that just a dream? Anyway, they finally abstained from the WW-brand by dragging One Deck Dungeon into that line of games as "Winziges Verlies" ("Tiny dungeon"). Real smooth...
So those were... I don't know, twenty or so games that feature a real discrepancy between the German title and the English one. Do you know any more? What about other languages? Are there really stupid Dutch, French, Danish, Italian, Russian or whatever names? And what are your favorites? Feel free to express yourselves in the comments and see you next time on Top Five Thursday.