Games Like Schotten Totten: 5 Duels, Closest First

What makes Schotten Totten feel like Schotten Totten

The game most similar to Schotten Totten is Battle Line, Reiner Knizia's own expanded version of it; then come Schotten Totten 2, Air, Land & Sea, Hanamikoji and Lost Cities, in that order. The first four are what hobby gamers call lane battlers: two-player duels fought over several separate spots at once. Lost Cities is the outlier, kept for its designer and its cards.

Before ranking anything, it helps to name what you liked. A game of Schotten Totten rests on five ideas:

1. Contested spots. Nine stones lie between the players, and each one is a separate small battle.
2. Formations. You win a stone with the better three-card combination on your side, ranked like a poker hand.
3. Open deduction. Every played card is face up, so you can count what is still out and prove your opponent can no longer win a stone.
4. A small hand. You hold six cards and draw after each play, so every turn is a choice between two or three useful moves.
5. Tactic cards. Special cards that bend the rules, an optional variant in Schotten Totten.

The games below share some of these ideas and drop others. They are ordered by how many they keep.

The five games at a glance

Sources: the Hanamikoji rulebook (rulespal), the Air, Land & Sea rulebook (Arcane Wonders, Revised Edition), and our own rule-by-rule comparisons linked below.

The list, closest first

### 1. Battle Line (Reiner Knizia, 2000) {#battle-line}

What it shares: almost everything. Battle Line is the same design with a different coat of paint: nine flags instead of stones, the same five-rung formation ladder, the same way of winning.

What it changes: a 60-card deck with values 1 to 10, a 7-card hand, and tactics cards that are part of every game rather than a variant. Games run a little longer and swing a little more.

Play it if you want more of exactly the same, with the tactics on by default. We list every difference in Schotten Totten vs Battle Line, and you can try Battle Line with a standard deck before buying it.

### 2. Schotten Totten 2 (Reiner Knizia, 2020) {#schotten-totten-2}

What it shares: the formation ladder, the face-up cards and the counting. If you know the first game, your first turn will feel familiar.

What it changes: the symmetry. One player attacks a castle wall and the other defends it, with a 60-card deck valued 0 to 11 in five colours, retreats, and boiling oil. Only the Attacker declares control of a wall tile; the Defender wins by holding out.

Play it if you liked Schotten Totten but want each side to have its own plan. The Schotten Totten 2 differences are set out on one page.

### 3. Air, Land & Sea (Jon Perry) {#air-land-and-sea}

What it shares: two players, a shared front line, and spots won by putting more strength on your side.

What it changes: the deck is only 18 cards, valued 1 to 6, and you play a series of short battles instead of one long game. Most cards carry powers, any card can be played face down as a bluff, and you may withdraw from a battle: the sooner you do, the fewer points your opponent scores.

Play it if you enjoyed reading your opponent more than counting the deck. The two clocks differ too: each player plays only the six cards in hand during a battle, barely more with the odd Reinforce, while a Schotten Totten game ran to a median of 50 cards in 400 seeded games of this site's AI playing itself (base game, last counted on 15 October 2026). Full comparison: Schotten Totten vs Air, Land and Sea.

### 4. Hanamikoji (Kota Nakayama, 2013) {#hanamikoji}

What it shares: seven separate spots on a shared line, the seven geisha, each won by whoever has placed more of her matching cards. Like a stone, each geisha is its own small contest.

What it changes: there are no formations and only 21 item cards. Each round you use four actions once each; two of them make you lay cards out and let your opponent choose which ones they keep. You win with four geisha or 11 charm points, usually over more than one round.

Play it if what you loved was the agony of giving something up. It is quick to teach, and a round is only four turns per player.

### 5. Lost Cities (Reiner Knizia, 1999) {#lost-cities}

What it shares: the designer, the year, coloured suits of numbered cards, and the steady play-one-draw-one rhythm.

What it changes: there is nothing to fight over. Each player builds rising columns of cards, gaps allowed, in five expeditions; every expedition you open starts at minus 20 points, and you watch the discard piles more than the other player. It is calmer and more of a puzzle against the clock.

Play it if you want a Knizia duel for quieter evenings. The Schotten Totten vs Lost Cities guide compares them rule by rule.

How we ranked them

We counted the five ideas from the first section and ordered the games by how many each keeps, then by how strongly. Battle Line and Schotten Totten 2 both keep all five, and Battle Line ranks first because its duel is still symmetrical; Lost Cities keeps little more than the designer, the coloured number cards and the play-one, draw-one rhythm. This is a list about likeness, not quality: our wider best 2 player card games 2026 list ranks duels on their own merits.

Two games we left out on purpose: Jaipur and 7 Wonders Duel are excellent duels, but neither is fought spot by spot; 7 Wonders Duel's military track is a single tug of war. They belong on that broader list rather than this one.

Every game on this list is for exactly two players. If you are three or four, read how many players Schotten Totten takes and what to play with a bigger group instead.

If you have not finished with the original yet, Schotten Totten is free to play in your browser against an AI or a friend, and the Schotten Totten rules fit on one page.