Tag: Network Building

Network Building is a game mechanic in which players develop routes to traverse the game’s world. These routes typically connect locations of interest.

Catan: 3D Edition

| T3d-1978
Catan: 3D Edition

Catan: 3D Edition

In CATAN, players try to be the dominant force on the island of Catan by building settlements, cities, and roads. On each turn, dice are rolled to determine what resources — sheep, wheat, wood, brick and ore — the island produces. Players spend these resources to build settlements, roads, and cities and to purchase development cards that have different effects. Each settlement and city you have is worth points, and you can gain additional points by building the longest road, acquiring the largest army, or collecting certain development cards. The first player to collect 10 points wins.

In CATAN: 3D Edition, the island of Catan rises off the table for an immersive experience like no other. Your settlements grow from fertile grain fields, and your cities nestle into the sides of majestic mountains. The look of the land is based on terrain tiles hand-sculpted by game designer Klaus Teuber. All of the terrain is hand-painted for stunning color, and the intricately designed player pieces are antiqued for a look that’s full of history and character.

Game Mechanics:

  • Dice Rolling
  • Economic
  • Negotiation
  • Network Building
  • Trading

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 4 Players
  • ~45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.31

Catan

| T3d-1978
Catan

Catan

In CATAN (formerly The Settlers of Catan), players try to be the dominant force on the island of Catan by building settlements, cities, and roads. On each turn dice are rolled to determine what resources the island produces. Players build by spending resources (sheep, wheat, wood, brick and ore) that are depicted by these resource cards; each land type, with the exception of the unproductive desert, produces a specific resource: hills produce brick, forests produce wood, mountains produce ore, fields produce wheat, and pastures produce sheep.

Setup includes randomly placing large hexagonal tiles (each showing a resource or the desert) in a honeycomb shape and surrounding them with water tiles, some of which contain ports of exchange. Number disks, which will correspond to die rolls (two 6-sided dice are used), are placed on each resource tile. Each player is given two settlements (think: houses) and roads (sticks) which are, in turn, placed on intersections and borders of the resource tiles. Players collect a hand of resource cards based on which hex tiles their last-placed house is adjacent to. A robber pawn is placed on the desert tile.

A turn consists of possibly playing a development card, rolling the dice, everyone (perhaps) collecting resource cards based on the roll and position of houses (or upgraded cities—think: hotels) unless a 7 is rolled, turning in resource cards (if possible and desired) for improvements, trading cards at a port, and trading resource cards with other players. If a 7 is rolled, the active player moves the robber to a new hex tile and steals resource cards from other players who have built structures adjacent to that tile.

Points are accumulated by building settlements and cities, having the longest road and the largest army (from some of the development cards), and gathering certain development cards that simply award victory points. When a player has gathered 10 points (some of which may be held in secret), he announces his total and claims the win.

Game Mechanics:

  • Dice Rolling
  • Economic
  • Negotiation
  • Network Building
  • Racing
  • Trading

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 6 Players
  • 60 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.31

Babylonia

| T3d-1978
Babylonia

Babylonia

The Neo-Babylonian empire, especially under the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562 B.C.), was a period of rebirth for southern Mesopotamia. Irrigation systems improved and expanded, increasing agricultural production. Urban life flourished with the creation of new cities, monuments and temples, and the consequent increase in trade.

In Babylonia, you try to make your clan prosper under the peace and imperial power of that era. You have to place your nobles, priests, and craftsmen tokens on the map to make your relations with the cities as profitable as possible. Properly placing these counters next to the court also allows you to gain the special power of some rulers. Finally, the good use of your peasants in the fertile areas gives more value to your crops. The player who gets the most points through all these actions wins.

Game Mechanics:

  • Abstract Strategy
  • Area Control
  • Hand Management
  • Network Building
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.39

Tsuro of the Seas

| T3d-1978
Tsuro of the Seas

Tsuro of the Seas

The basic game play of Tsuro of the Seas resembles that of Tom McMurchie’s Tsuro: Players each have a ship that they want to sail — that is, keep on the game board — as long as possible. Whoever stays on the board the longest wins the game.

Each turn players add “wake” tiles to the 7×7 game board; each tile has two “wake connections” on each edge, and as the tiles are placed on the board, they create a connected network of paths. If a wake is placed in front of a ship, that ship then sails to the end of the wake. If the ship goes off the board, that player is out of the game.

What’s new in Tsuro of the Seas are daikaiju tiles, representing sea monsters and other creatures of the deep. Notably, daikaiju can move: each tile has five arrows, four for moving in each of the cardinal directions and another one for rotation. On the active player’s turn, he rolls two six-sided dice; on a sum of 6, 7, or 8, the daikaiju will move, while on any other sum they’ll stay in place. To determine which direction the daikaiju tiles move, the player then makes a second roll, this time with a single die. On 1-5 in the second roll, each daikaiju moves according to its matching arrow. On a 6 in the second roll, a new daikaiju tile is added to the board.

If a daikaiju tile hits a wake tile, a ship, or another daikaiju tile, the object hit is removed from the game. Another way to be ousted! The more daikaiju tiles on the game board, the faster players will find themselves trying to breathe water…

Game Mechanics:

  • Abstract Strategy
  • Dice Rolling
  • Hand Management
  • Network Building
  • Player Elimination
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 8 Players
  • 20 – 40 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.43

Tsuro

| T3d-1978
Tsuro

Tsuro

A beautiful and beautifully simple game of laying a tile before your own token to continue its path on each turn. The goal is to keep your token on the board longer than anyone else’s, but as the board fills up this becomes harder because there are fewer empty spaces left… and another player’s tile may also extend your own path in a direction you’d rather not go. Easy to introduce to new players, Tsuro lasts a mere 15 minutes and actually does work for any number from 2 to 8.

Game Mechanics:

  • Abstract Strategy
  • Hand Management
  • Network Building
  • Player Elimination
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 8 Players
  • 15 – 20 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.23

Tokyo Highway

| T3d-1978
Tokyo Highway

Tokyo Highway

In Tokyo Highway, players compete to place all of their cars on the road — but to do that they will first have to build the roadways!

Over the course of the game, players construct columns of varying heights by using the 66 squat cylinders in the box, then connect those columns with sticks that serve as roadways, with the columns not necessarily being the same height when connected. If a stretch of highway is placed well, you can place one or more cars on it to score.

Game Mechanics:

  • Dexterity
  • Network Building

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 50 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.44

Ticket to Ride: Poland

| T3d-1978
Ticket to Ride: Poland

Ticket to Ride: Poland

From the sea to the Tatras, as wide as Poland is long, there are beautiful areas just waiting to be discovered. Do you want to observe the bison in the shadow of the Bialowieza Forest? Or maybe you prefer to take a walk through the charming streets of Wroclaw?

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Network Building
  • Open Drafting
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.56

Ticket to Ride: Ghost Train

| T3d-1978
Ticket to Ride: Ghost Train

Ticket to Ride: Ghost Train

Ticket to Ride: Ghost Train takes the gameplay of the Ticket to Ride series and scales it down for a younger audience.

In general, players collect parade float cards, claim routes on the map, and try to connect locations such as the Mad Scientist’s Lab, the Gingerbread House, and the Lonely Barn that are shown on their tickets. In more detail, the game board shows a map of a city with certain locations being connected by colored paths. Each player starts with four colored parade float cards in hand and two tickets; each ticket shows two locations, and you’re trying to connect those two locations with a contiguous path of your trains in order to complete the ticket.

On a turn, you either draw two parade float cards from the deck or discard parade float cards to claim a route between two locations by placing your ghost trains on it; for this latter option, you must discard cards matching the color and number of spaces on that route (e.g., two yellow cards for a yellow route that’s two spaces long). If you connect the two locations shown on a ticket with a path of your trains, reveal the ticket, place it face up in front of you, then draw a new ticket. (If you can’t connect locations on either ticket because the paths are blocked, you can take your entire turn to discard those tickets and draw two new ones.)

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Network Building
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 15 – 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.00

Ticket to Ride: Germany

| T3d-1978
Ticket to Ride: Germany

Ticket to Ride: Germany

Ticket to Ride: Germany is a standalone game in the Ticket to Ride series. Over the course of the game, players collect cards in order to then claim routes on the game board between two cities. Ideally the players create a network of routes that connect the cities showing on their secret ticket cards. Players score points both for claiming routes and for completing tickets, with incomplete tickets counting against a player’s score.

In addition to scoring points for tickets, whenever a player places a route on the board, they claim a passenger from the two cities that form the endpoints for that route (assuming that the passengers have not already been claimed). At the end of the game, whoever has the most passengers of each of the six colors scores 20 points for that color; whoever has the secondmost passengers in a color scores 10 points. Whoever has the most points at the end of the game wins.

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Network Building
  • Open Drafting
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.76

Nut Hunt

| T3d-1978
Nut Hunt

Nut Hunt

Nut Hunt is a fast-paced squirrel placement game where 1-5 players battle for control of the forest.

But watch out!

The wily fox roams the board scattering squirrels.

Clever players will use the fox to their advantage, positioning their critters to scatter onto favorable territories, or strategically hassling the fox to foil their opponents’ plans.

Turns in Nut Hunt are fast paced and intuitive with one mandatory action: Move the Fox (causing squirrel scattering, and nut foraging), followed by your choice of one optional action: Recruit a Squirrel, Hassle the Fox, or Scout an Objective.

Game Mechanics:

  • Dice Rolling
  • Hand Management
  • Network Building
  • Push Your Luck
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.80