Tag: Trading

Games with Trading mechanics encourage players to trade resources with each other.

Bohnanza

| T3d-1978
Bohnanza

Bohnanza

In the game, you plant, then harvest bean cards in order to earn coins. Each player starts with a hand of random bean cards, and each card has a number on it corresponding to the number of that type of beans in the deck. Unlike in most other card games, you can’t rearrange the order of cards in hand, so you must use them in the order that you’ve picked them up from the deck — unless you can trade them to other players, which is the heart of the game.

On a turn, you must plant the first one or two cards in your hand into the “fields” in front of you. Each field can hold only one type of bean, so if you must plant a type of bean that’s not in one of your fields, then you must harvest a field to make room for the new arrival. This usually isn’t good! Next, you reveal two cards from the deck, and you can then trade these cards as well as any card in your hand for cards from other players. You can even make future promises for cards received right now! After all the trading is complete — and all trades on a turn must involve the active player — then you end your turn by drawing cards from the deck and placing them at the back of your hand.

When you harvest beans, you receive coins based on the number of bean cards in that field and the “beanometer” for that particular type of bean. Flip over 1-4 cards from that field to transform them into coins, then place the remainder of the cards in the discard pile. When the deck runs out, shuffle the discards, playing through the deck two more times. At the end of the game, everyone can harvest their fields, then whoever has earned the most coins wins.

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Negotiation
  • Set Collection
  • Trading

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 7 Players
  • ~45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.67

Twilight Imperium: Fourth Edition

| T3d-1978
Twilight Imperium: Fourth Edition

Twilight Imperium: Fourth Edition

Twilight Imperium (Fourth Edition) is a game of galactic conquest in which three to six players take on the role of one of seventeen factions vying for galactic domination through military might, political maneuvering, and economic bargaining. Every faction offers a completely different play experience, from the wormhole-hopping Ghosts of Creuss to the Emirates of Hacan, masters of trade and economics. These seventeen races are offered many paths to victory, but only one may sit upon the throne of Mecatol Rex as the new masters of the galaxy.

No two games of Twilight Imperium are ever identical. At the start of each galactic age, the game board is uniquely and strategically constructed using 51 galaxy tiles that feature everything from lush new planets and supernovas to asteroid fields and gravity rifts. Players are dealt a hand of these tiles and take turns creating the galaxy around Mecatol Rex, the capital planet seated in the center of the board. An ion storm may block your race from progressing through the galaxy while a fortuitously placed gravity rift may protect you from your closest foes. The galaxy is yours to both craft and dominate.

A round of Twilight Imperium begins with players selecting one of eight strategy cards that both determine player order and give their owner a unique strategic action for that round. These may do anything from providing additional command tokens to allowing a player to control trade throughout the galaxy. After these roles are selected, players take turns moving their fleets from system to system, claiming new planets for their empire, and engaging in warfare and trade with other factions. At the end of a turn, players gather in a grand council to pass new laws and agendas, shaking up the game in unpredictable ways.

After every player has passed their turn, players move up the victory track by checking to see whether they have completed any objectives throughout the turn and scoring them. Objectives are determined by setting up ten public objective cards at the start of each game, then gradually revealing them with every round. Every player also chooses between two random secret objectives at the start of the game, providing victory points achievable only by the holder of that objective. These objectives can be anything from researching new technologies to taking your neighbor’s home system. At the end of every turn, a player can claim one public objective and one secret objective. As play continues, more of these objectives are revealed and more secret objectives are dealt out, giving players dynamically changing goals throughout the game. Play continues until a player reaches ten victory points.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Drafting
  • Civilization
  • Dice Rolling
  • Economic
  • Grid Movement
  • Negotiation
  • Racing
  • Trading
  • Wargame

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 6 Players
  • 240 – 480 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 4.27

Twilight of the Gods

| T3d-1978
Twilight of the Gods

Twilight of the Gods

In Twilight of the Gods you and your friends will each assume the role of a deity from myth and legend, and battle to the death to see who is the strongest god, using human armies, mystical beasts, and heroes of renown from both past and future.

These deities span multiple pantheons, from numerous civilizations, and each favors a particular method of strategy – Aggression, Negotiation, Mysticism, or Sanctuary – which influences how your battle will play out. Every deity also possesses a special, once per game power that can be used to further the tide of battle in your favor, or come back from what seems like overwhelming defeat, so never count an opponent out until they draw their last card.

Now go forth and let none stand in your way!

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Hand Management
  • Memory
  • Open Drafting
  • Trading

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.71

Sidereal Confluence

| T3d-1978
Sidereal Confluence

Sidereal Confluence

Sidereal Confluence: Trading and Negotiation in the Elysian Quadrant is a singularly unique trading and negotiation game for 4-9 players. Over the course of the game, each race must trade and negotiate with the rest to acquire the resource cubes necessary to fund their economy and allow it to produce goods for the next turn. Scheming, dealing, and mutually beneficial agreements are key to success. While technically a competitive game, Sidereal Confluence has a cooperative feel during the trading phase as no race has the ability to thrive on its own. Trade well, and you’ll develop technologies and colonize planets to form a civilization that is the envy of the galaxy.

Each player chooses one of the nine unique and asymmetrical alien races that have come together to form a trade federation in their quadrant. Each race has its own deck of cards representing all the existing and future technologies it might research. Some races also have other cards related to unique features of their culture. These cards represent portions of the culture’s economy and require spending some number of cubes to use, resulting in an output of more cubes, ships, and possibly victory points. Since each culture’s outputs rarely match their inputs, players need to trade goods with one another to run their converters to create the resources they truly need to run their society most efficiently and have an effective economy. Almost everything is negotiable, including colonies, ships, and all kinds of resources.

Each game round contains an open trading phase in which all players can negotiate and execute deals for cubes, ships, colonies, even the temporary use of technologies! Players with enough resources can also research technologies, upgrade colonies, and spend resources on their race’s special cards during this phase. Once complete, all players simultaneously run their economies, spending resources to gain more resources. The Confluence follows, starting with players sharing newly researched technologies with all other races and following with bidding to acquire new colonies and research teams. Researching a new technology grants many victory points for the prestige of helping galactic society advance. When one race builds a new technology, it is shared with everyone else. Technologies can be upgraded when combined with other technologies.

The ultimate goal is victory points, which are acquired by researching technologies, using your economy to convert resources to goods, and converting your leftover goods into points at the end of the game.

The game is almost all simultaneous play.

Game Mechanics:

  • Auction/Bidding
  • Economic
  • Negotiation
  • Trading

Game Specifications:

  • 4 – 9 Players
  • 120 – 180 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.55

Millennium Blades

| T3d-1978
Millennium Blades

Millennium Blades

Millennium Blades is a CCG-Simulator — A game in which you play as a group of friends who play the fictional CCG “Millennium Blades”.

In this game you will build decks, play the meta, acquire valuable collections, crack open random boosters, and compete in tournaments for prizes and fame. The game takes you from Starter Deck to Regionals in about 2-3 hours.

Multiple games can also be chained together to form a Campaign, going from Regionals to Nationals in game 2 and from Nationals to Worlds in game 3, with each game introducing ever more powerful cards and higher stakes, but also resetting the power of the game so that each player has a fair chance to win each ‘season’ of the campaign.

The game draws heavily on Manga/Anime inspiration for its art, and parodies Magic: the Gathering, Yugioh, and many other collectible games.

At its heart, it’s a commodity trading game, except that instead of cubes or stocks, the things you’ll be buying, selling, and speculating on are trading cards that can be used throughout the game in periodic tournaments. By trading wisely, playing the market, working together with friends, building collections, and winning tournaments, you’ll secure points and become the Millennium Blades World Champion.

The game features a system of card pods, where you will play with about 400 of the base game’s 600 cards every game.

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting
  • Set Collection
  • Tableau Building
  • Trading

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 80 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.69

Heropath: Dragon Roar

| T3d-1978
Heropath: Dragon Roar

Heropath: Dragon Roar

Heropath: Dragon Roar is a fantasy board game in which heroes venture through an unknown land, discovering new places, fighting monsters and gaining power, skills, gold, arms and resources.

This game combines everything you love in a fantasy RPG such as: magic, skills, XP, levels and combat as well as resource management, which takes it to a new, higher level of gaming.

In this board game you will need more than war tactics, you will need to use your turn in the best way possible, in order to reach new places, engage in the proper forms of combat and gain skills and resources.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Area Movement
  • Deck Building
  • Dice Rolling
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting
  • Role Playing
  • Trading

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.75

Fief France

| T3d-1978
Fief France

Fief France

Fief: France 1429 is a game of dynastic ambition in which players assume the roles of nobles in the 15th century kingdom of France. Each player strives to become the most powerful ruling force in the kingdom by gaining control of Fief and Bishopric territories. In turn, they acquire Royal and Ecclesiastical (church) titles which give their families influence to elect the next Pope and King. Players strengthen their positions by negotiating marriage alliances between their families, setting the stage for love, treachery and deception!

Fief is a classic French-language game and is being re-introduced by Academy Games in English with updated rules, new units, a new and larger consolidated map, and more. This edition also includes additional components, which enhances game play.

The game board represents a portion of the Kingdom of France in the Middle Ages. Villages have square outlines that are connected by roads that allow Lord and Troop movement. The villages are grouped into eight colored background areas that represent individual Fiefs, which are domains given to Lords to preside over. Fiefs have different colored backgrounds and Bishoprics have heavy bordered outlines that include several different Fiefs. Each village also belongs to one of five church Bishoprics; each Bishopric is outlined with a heavy border line and is numbered between 1-5 along the edge of the board inside a Bishop’s Mitre.

Each player controls up to four family members, comprised of male and female nobles. These family members will rise in power by gaining Royal and Ecclesiastic Titles.

In Fief: France 1429, a player may attempt to gain control of all the villages in a Fief to gain the Royal Title of Baron, Earl or Duke. For each Fief a player controls, he gains 1 VP. These Titled Lords may now take part in the election for the next King. They may even be a candidate to become King, thus bringing 1 VP and more power to the family! Other members of your family may follow the calling of the Church to gain the Ecclesiastical Titles of Bishop and then Cardinal. These titles allow you to Tithe Bishoprics, taking the Church’s (i.e. “your”) fair share of income from other Fief Lords! The highest goal your clerical family member can attain is to be elected Pope, bringing 1 VP and special privileges to your family!

You win the game as soon as you have 3 VPs. This is easier said than done and you may need to form alliances with other players through diplomacy and marriage to obtain your goal. When one of your family members marries a noble of another family, the two of you become allied. You now win the game together with 4 VPs and cannot win alone, unless your marriage is annulled by the Pope or your spouse is “mysteriously” murdered or dies of some other foul means!

In addition to being wary of your fellow players, you may draw event cards that can quickly change your destiny. Bounty Event cards are beneficial to the Player and include “Good Harvest”, “Good Weather” and “Added Taxes” cards. But some cards are Disaster Cards that can randomly effect all players in specific Bishoprics. These include “The Plague”, “Heavy Rain”, “Famine”, and “Peasant Uprisings”!

Income can be increased by players imposing church tithes on their opponent’s villages or taxing their own Fiefs. Players may purchase new Fief titles, improve their village incomes with mills, and fortify their cities.

Players will also need to protect their land and castles. Men at Arms and Knights can be purchased, as well as Siege Engines. If you feel that other players are not running their Fiefs as well as you can, you may try to invade their territories! But you must risk one of your family members to lead the troops into possible battle, where they might be killed or taken prisoner. If two opposing armies are in the same village square, a Battle may be initiated. The players assess the size and strength of their armies, which determine the number of Battle Dice each may roll. Each “f” rolled is a hit. Men at Arms are defeated with one hit, while Knights require three hits to be removed from the battle.

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Dice Rolling
  • Negotiation
  • Team Based
  • Trading
  • Wargame

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 6 Players
  • 60 – 180 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.83

Deal with the Devil

| T3d-1978
Deal with the Devil

Deal with the Devil

Deal with the Devil is a deeply thematic competitive Eurogame set in a fantasy medieval era. Each of the four players takes on a secret role of a mortal, a cultist, or even the Devil. Due to the asymmetrical roles, players experience the same game but with different game goals every play.

During the blind trading phase, players can offer their resources in exchange for money from another player. The Devil will tempt mortals with goods for a piece of their soul, while the cultist’s nature is to sell their soul easily. Only the accompanying app knows who is trading with whom.

But beware! Showing off how well you are doing can attract unwelcome attention and the suspicion of other players. It also may pique the interest of the Inquisition, which is eager to punish those who cannot prove their souls remain intact.

There are many dynamic strategies to experiment with across each playing. Will you sell pieces of your soul early on to boost your city-building prowess at the risk of future punishment from the Inquisition? Or will you carefully manage loan and debt repayment while waiting for others to inadvertently reveal their nefarious nature? Every choice has a consequence, and each role has its own unique strategic approach to explore.

Game Mechanics:

  • City Building
  • Deduction
  • Trading

Game Specifications:

  • 4 Players
  • 120 – 180 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.59

Clash of Cultures: Monumental Edition

| T3d-1978
Clash of Cultures: Monumental Edition

Clash of Cultures: Monumental Edition

In Clash of Cultures, each player leads a civilization from a single settlement to a mighty empire. Players must explore their surroundings, build large cities, research advances and conquer those who stand in the way. The game features a modular board for players to explore, 48 distinct advances, seven mighty wonders, and loads of miniatures and cards. The winner will create a culture that will be remembered and admired for millennia.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • City Building
  • Civilization
  • Dice Rolling
  • Economic
  • Grid Movement
  • Hand Management
  • Trading

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 180 – 240 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.67

Archipelago

| T3d-1978
Archipelago

Archipelago

In Archipelago, players are Renaissance European powers competing in the exploration of a Pacific or Caribbean archipelago. They will explore territories, harvest resources, use those resources in markets both internal (for their use and that of the natives) and foreign (to sell it in Europe), build markets, harbors, cities and temples, and negotiate among themselves (and maybe betray each other) – all this to complete their secret objectives. They will also need to guess the secret objective of the other players to be able to benefit from them.

But players also need to be careful of the natives; if they make them too unhappy or if too many of them are unoccupied, they could revolt and declare independence. Then everyone will lose!

According to the author, what he’s tried to create is a “German” economic worker-placement game, but without the two things he dislikes in them: the superficial theme and the lack of interaction. Indeed this game includes a very present theme and a lot of negotiation and potential backstabbing.

The game includes three sets of objectives, enabling players to choose between a short, medium and a long game. Solo play is also possible with an expansion.

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Auction/Bidding
  • Civilization
  • Cooperative
  • Economic
  • Grid Movement
  • Negotiation
  • Tile Placement
  • Trading
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 30 – 240 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.74