As per title. I personally really enjoy deckbuilding / engine builders and civilisation games, but most of them understandably end just as you’re hitting the sweet spot of getting your engine up and running. Probably why Through the Ages is my favorite game - has all the mechanics I like, but lasts long enough that I feel like I get a chance to run them.
I’ve of my favorite mechanics comes from Unearth, specifically their catch-up/bad luck mitigating mechanic.
In a game where the goal is to have the winning die on a ruin as a cumulative threshold is reached, any dice rolled under 3 nets you a stone, which can be used to build you own ruins.
Roll poorly enough and you won’t fall too far behind. Have the worst rolls every time and there’s a good chance you can win without actually capturing a single ruin card.
Dice Forge’s gimmick is that it’s a dice builder (rather than a deck builder). Fun if you like rolling dice a lot and finding out what you get.
In a similar vein, Dice Throne is basically Yahtzee, but the combos you make are attacks at other players. Do I take this safe, easy combo, or reroll it all to go for my special attack?
Diplomacy’s gimmick is that there is no randomizer other than how much you trust the other players. I feel like that isn’t used enough in games. Even something like Secret Hitler has randomness of the deck.
Root’s gimmick is that every player is a different faction that plays completely differently from everyone else. Makes finding a group to play with in person a challenge (due to the learning curve), but is surprisingly well balanced.
Root’s gimmick is that every player is a different faction that plays completely differently from everyone else. Makes finding a group to play with in person a challenge (due to the learning curve), but is surprisingly well balanced.
Arcs Blighted Reach is exactly this, cranked up to 11.
In card games I always like that little spice that’s added when discards can be picked up by someone else and used. It adds an element of “should I perhaps continue with this less-than-perfect hand, or should I risk helping someone else build the perfect hand?”
Mystic Vale is a neat take on the deckbuilder. Each player starts with the same 20-card deck, but Instead of earning new cards to add to your deck, you modify the cards themselves.
You add these clear plastic cards into the sleeve that add or modify one of three sections on your cards.
Yeah, I like this mechanic, I want to see it tried by other games.
Unfortunately, i think Mystic Veil is too multiplayer solitare for me. And it seems like the winning strategy is always to snatch up all the Growth cards before anyone else so you can eventually draw nearly your whole deck every turn.
I do love me a multilayer player board
I’m a tactile person, so I really like minis and tokens. No flat character cutouts though please, I’ll sometimes 3D print minis to replace those.
Recently picked up Moonrakers, which has little starships and metal coins for counters, and it lights my brain up like a Christmas tree.
Agreed. One of my favorite things about the 2016 DOOM board game is these wonderful minis:
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Check out little plastic trains.
I love this so much and I don’t have any games that can use it.
I guess there’s never been a better time for you to be a boardgamer, given the proliferation of deluxe production games :)
And I agree, it’s so nice to be able to pick up and move around something that’s not just cardboard chips!
I also like deck building but some games feel like everyone plays pretty much for oneself.
I’ve only played one deck building game (Star Realms) and there were times when it felt like two people playing solitaire, only to suddenly burst into hard exchanges. It was kind of interesting.
Yeah, some deckbuilders are way too multiplayer solitaire. I’ll always love dominion but it definitely suffers from this. I found Clank, especially the latest entries, to be a good highly interactive deckbuilder.
