Tag: Deduction

In Deduction games, players rely on their logic and reasoning skills to attempt to find the correct solution to a problem.

Sudoku Board

| T3d-1978
Sudoku Board

Sudoku Board

In this variation of a game based on the Sudoku puzzle, a “host” (referee) sets up the board with the initial Sudoku puzzle (using one of the 162 puzzles supplied, broken into Easy, Medium, and Hard groups, or by using others found on the web site whose URL is provided in the instructions) by laying the numbered tiles on the blank Sudoku layout board. Players (or teams) take turns adding one tile (and only one tile) to the board.

Points are scored for correct placement based on the number of the tile laid (placing a “6” gets the player 6 points). Points are lost for misplayed tiles (placing a “6” incorrectly costs the player 6 points). A misplayed tile is removed from the board.

Bonus points are won or lost for correctly/incorrectly completing a row or column (5 points each) or a 3×3 block (15 points) or the whole puzzle (20 points).

Repeat until each player has had a turn being “host”, and the player with the most cumulative points wins.

Game Mechanics:

  • Deduction
  • Pattern Building
  • Puzzle Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.83

Stratego

| T3d-1978
Stratego

Stratego

The gameboard is your battlefield. You have an army of men at your disposal and six bombs. Your mission–protect your flag and capture your opponent’s flag.

Secretly place your men, bombs, and flag on the gameboard with these objectives in mind. But remember your opponent is doing the same thing, so you must plan a defense as well as an offense.

Once the armies are in place, advance your men. When you’re one space away from an enemy, attack. You and your opponent declare ranks. The lower-ranking man is captured and out of play.

You control your pieces and risk your men in battles where the strength of your enemy is unknown. The suspense builds as your men move deeper into enemy territory. Move with caution and courage. The next piece you attack could be a bomb. And when attacked, it could “blast” your man off the board and out of play.

The first to capture an enemy flag is the winner!

Game Mechanics:

  • Abstract Strategy
  • Bluffing
  • Deduction
  • Grid Movement
  • Memory

Game Specifications:

  • 2 Players
  • ~45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00

Spy Club

| T3d-1978
Spy Club

Spy Club

“We could start a Spy Club,” suggested Beatrice. “You know — search for clues and try to find mysteries to solve!”

In Spy Club, players work together as young detectives to solve neighborhood mysteries. It includes a replayable campaign format, with variable unlocking content, for playing a series of 5 games connected together to tell a larger story. Throughout the campaign, you’ll unlock new modules with additional rules and story elements. With 40 new modules and 174 cards in the campaign deck, you can reset everything and play multiple campaigns — with a different story and gameplay experience emerging each time.

In the standard game, each player has double-sided clue cards in front of them. On your turn, you use actions to flip, draw, and trade clue cards, gain ideas, and confirm clue cards as evidence. Confirm 5 clues of the same type to solve part of the case. As you discover more and more of the solution, a story starts to emerge: your Neighbor stole something from the ice cream shop, but what? And why? To crack the case, you must find the solution to all 5 parts before the suspect escapes or you run out of clues.

You can always play a single, standalone game of Spy Club, but the campaign mode is the recommended way to play:

  • Each game plays in 45 minutes, and each campaign consists of 5 games.
  • Some elements from each game carry forward and affect future games, with new rules and story elements are unlocked each play.
  • The sequence of content isn’t scripted, so each campaign will unfold differently.
  • Everything can be fully reset and replayed.
  • You only unlock a small portion of the total content in one campaign (just 4 of the 40 modules), so you can play multiple campaigns and continue unlocking new content each time!

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Deduction
  • Memory
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.16

Spies & Lies

| T3d-1978
Spies & Lies

Spies & Lies

The head-to-head game of deployment, deduction and deception

Break the deadlock in the final days of war. Victory will hinge on the actions of a handful of men – and we women spies… Go head-to-head as you secretly select soldiers with different abilities to engage the enemy.

Each of you will have the opportunity to sabotage your opponent’s missions – using careful deployment, clever deduction and surprising deception. With every enemy soldier you identify, with every advance you rebuff, you’ll tighten the noose, infiltrating further into the enemy camp and taking the Double Agent a step closer to capturing the enemy flag!

Spies & Lies is played in 3 rounds. Each round consists of 3 phases (Deploy, Intel and Mission) which will determine which player can move the Double Agent into enemy territory on the game board. The first player to land on the enemy’s flag with the Double Agent wins (or the player who is closest to doing so when the third round ends).

Game Mechanics:

  • Bluffing
  • Deduction
  • Take That

Game Specifications:

  • 2 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00

Shamans

| T3d-1978
Shamans

Shamans

Shamans try to restore harmony in a world threatened by Shadows. You’ll need to pick a side.

The game combines with ingenuity: hidden roles, competitive play and an original card playing mechanic.
Each played card allows you to stabilize the spirit world, perform a Ritual, acquire an Artefact; and together they will bring you closer to the final showdown between Shadows and Shamans.
When time comes, the victor will be the one who managed to read through his rivals and stuck to the right side in this never-ending confrontation.

Game Mechanics:

  • Deduction
  • Hand Management
  • Hidden Roles
  • Team Based
  • Trick Taking

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 5 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.85

Shadows over Camelot

| T3d-1978
Shadows over Camelot

Shadows over Camelot

Shadows over Camelot is a cooperative/semi-cooperative hand-management and deduction-based board game for 3–7 players.

Each player represents a knight of the Round Table and they must collaborate to overcome a number of quests, ranging from defeating the Black Knight to the search for the Holy Grail. Completed quests place white swords on the Round Table; failed quests add black swords and/or siege engines around Camelot. The knights are trying to build a majority of white swords on the Table before Camelot falls.

On each knight’s turn, the knight takes a “heroic action”, such as moving to a new quest, building his hand, or playing cards to advance the forces of good. However, he must also choose one of three evil actions, each of which will bring Camelot closer to defeat.

Moreover, one of the knights may be a traitor, pretending to be a loyal member of the party but secretly hindering his fellow knights in subtle ways, biding his time, waiting to strike at the worst possible moment…

But enough words… don your cloak, climb astride your warhorse, and gallop into the Shadows to join us in Camelot!

Game Mechanics:

  • Bluffing
  • Cooperative
  • Deduction
  • Hand Management
  • Limited Communication
  • Player Elimination
  • Set Collection
  • Team Based

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 7 Players
  • 60 – 80 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.57

The Search for Planet X

| T3d-1978
The Search for Planet X

The Search for Planet X

At the edge of our solar system, a dark planet may lurk. In 2015, astronomers estimated a large distant planet could explain the unique orbits of dwarf planets and other objects. Since then, astronomers have been scanning the sky, hoping to find this planet.

In The Search for Planet X, players take on the role of astronomers who use observations and logical deductions to search for this hypothetical planet. Each game, the companion app randomly selects an arrangement of objects and a location for Planet X following predefined logic rules.

Each round, as the earth travels around the sun, players use the app to perform scans and attend conferences. As they gain information about the location of the objects, they mark that information on their deduction sheets. As players learn the locations of the various objects, they can start publishing theories, which is how players score points.

As more and more objects are found, players narrow down the possible locations for Planet X. Once a player believes they know its location and the objects on either side of it, they use the app to conduct a search. The game ends when a player successfully locates Planet X, and all players have a final chance to score some additional points.

The Search for Planet X captures the thrill of discovery, the puzzle-y nature of astronomical investigation, and the competition inherent in the scientific process. Can you be the first to find Planet X?

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Deduction
  • Paper and Pencil
  • Puzzle

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • ~60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.35

Pie Town

| T3d-1978
Pie Town

Pie Town

Welcome to Pie Town, a community built on apples and butter. Business here is no cake walk, so manage your operation well and keep your secret recipe secret.

Pie Town is a worker-dice placement game with hidden information. You need to manage your constantly changing workforce to harvest, bake, and sell pies while deducing other players’ secret recipes! Now is your chance to become the best pie shop in town!

Game Mechanics:

  • Deduction
  • Dice Rolling
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.33

Picture Perfect

| T3d-1978
Picture Perfect

Picture Perfect

How do you take the perfect picture of a group of people if you only have one try? Each character has different wishes. Some want to be at the front of the picture; some want to stand next to another; and some really don’t want to be next to that one particular person by any means. Do your best to make everyone happy – even if you don’t actually know all the characters’ preferences…

In Picture Perfect, first released as Der Perfekte Moment, you need to arrange fourteen characters to take the perfect photograph. Each of them has three specific desires that you want to fulfill. Unfortunately, these desires are hidden in envelopes.

During the game, the players try to take a look inside these envelopes to figure out how to place the characters correctly. To do so, they trade their information with others — or maybe try to hide it…

Whoever earns the most points at the end of the game has fulfilled the most desires and becomes the master photographer.

Game Mechanics:

  • Auction/Bidding
  • Deduction
  • Memory
  • Negotiation
  • Puzzle
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • 50 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.86

Paint the Roses

| T3d-1978

Paint the Roses

Paint the Roses is a 2-5 player cooperative logic deduction game that automatically adapts to your skill during play.

Set in the puzzling world of Alice in Wonderland, you and your friends are the newly appointed Royal Gardeners. You are working together to finish the palace grounds according to the whims of the Queen of Hearts. Use strategy, logic, and teamwork to finish the garden whilst staying one step ahead of the Queen, otherwise, the last thing you hear will be, “Off With Their Heads!”.

The Queen’s whims are shared via cards, secret instructions each player is given into how the garden should be arranged. Her whims are always changing, so as soon as you solve one, a new one is in your hand.

Every turn, together as a team you must guess at least one of these secret whim cards. You can’t say what your card shows, but by carefully placing a new shrub tile into the garden (taken from those available in the Greenhouse) you are able to reveal clues, tokens that will show any matches between the arrangement in the garden and the secret whims each player holds in their hands.

Although you can’t discuss your own secret whim card, you can openly discuss other players’. Share your theories at the table and then make a guess. Correctly guessing a whim will move you forward on the score track, but the Queen is always following, and her speed automatically adjusts based on your current score. Guess incorrectly and the Queen moves twice as fast, her axe ever closer to your neck.

Game Mechanics:

  • Cooperative
  • Deduction
  • Limited Communication
  • Pattern Recognition
  • Puzzle
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 50 – 70 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.48