German publisher KENDi releases 2-3 small card or dice games every six months, building on the strengths of founder Franz Jurthe, who was previously the managing director at Nürnberger-Spielkarten-Verlag (NSV); designer Steffen Benndorf, who created two of NSV's biggest hits: Qwixx and The Game; and designer/developer Reinhard Staupe, who developed those two titles, as well as The Mind.
While at the 2026 Spielwarenmesse toy and game fair, I ran into Jurthe at the KENDi booth, and when I asked whether he could give overviews of the new releases, he was like, I have an appointment, but let me give you the games, then you can figure them out. Unorthodox, but efficient!
Keine Ahnung?! — or perhaps Keine? Ahnung! as the punctuation is ambiguous — is the fourth game from the father/son design team of Steffen and Florian Benndorf. As with KENDi's 2025 game Blanco from Staupe, this design for 2-4 players might remind you of the public domain game Golf in that you have face-down cards in a grid that you're trying to void — but as with Blanco, you're concerned only about getting rid of your cards as quickly as possible.
The deck consists of cards numbered 1-6 in six colors, along with a few "consolation prizes", and each player starts with a face-down grid of six unknown cards. On a turn, you first reveal the top card from the deck, adding it to an existing discard pile if either the color or number match and otherwise starting a new discard pile. Next, you reveal one of your face-down cards, and if it matches a discard pile in color or number, you discard that card, then reveal another; if a revealed card doesn't match, you put it back, and your turn ends.
Some cards have effects on them, and those effects resolve immediately when a card is placed on a discard pile, whether from the initial flip or a player's grid. Those effects:
- Force you to reveal an extra card from the deck, with this card being resolved as at the start of your turn, or
- Remove all of the discard piles from play other than the one you just played on, or
- Give face-down cards from the deck to opponents (if necessary) so that they have three face-down cards.
Whenever you reveal a consolation prize, which is worth 0-2 stars, you score it and continue your turn. More importantly, whenever you clear all six of your cards, you draw the top card of the trophy deck and score it, with these cards being worth 3-5 points, then you set up a new array of six face-down cards and the next player goes.
Note that you're not forced to clear cards one by one. If you think that nothing in your grid can be played, you can say so, then reveal cards from your grid one by one. If one could be played, you stop, turn all of the cards face down, then refill your grid to six cards — and if none could be played, you stop, turn all of the revealed cards face down, refill your grid to six cards..and score a trophy.
When the trophies run out, whoever has scored the most points wins.
Sneaky is a press-your-luck dice game of catching burglars from Jannik Walter for 2-4 players. Bandits come in one of six colors, with 1-3 pips of that color on them, and with those six colors being present on the seven dice included in the game. Start with three different-colored bandits of value 1, 2, and 3 on the table, with each player getting two handcuff cards.
On a turn, roll all the dice, then place at least one die on a bandit of matching color, placing more matching dice on as many bandits as you wish. (A bandit cannot have more dice on it than the depicted number of pips.) You can roll the remaining dice again, again placing at least one die on a bandit, and you can do this as long as you place at least one die after each roll. If you ever can't place a die, your turn ends, and the next player starts by rolling all seven dice.
If one or more bandits have as many dice on them as pips, you can choose to end your turn, then collect these bandits, placing 1-value bandits face down and the other bandits in a single face-up pile (except that with two players you keep separate face-up piles for the 2-value and 3-value bandits). Refill the display to three bandits. Once opponents have face-up bandits, you can choose to place dice on these cards, stealing them away if you place the right number of dice and stop in time.
If you claim at least one bandit from the central display, you gain a new handcuff card at turn's end; if not, you lose a handcuff card, even if you stole a bandit from an opponent.
When the bandit deck empties, each player takes one final turn, then you tally the value of bandits acquired. Whoever has the most handcuffs scores 5 bonus points, while anyone no handcuffs loses 2, then whoever has the most points wins.
