Tag: Action Points

Action Points are a mechanic typically used in turn-based games. Players receive a number of action points and use those points to perform different actions on their turns. This is a common mechanic in games.

Monster Slaughter

| T3d-1978
Monster Slaughter

Monster Slaughter

Flip the script on 80’s horror movies with Monster Slaughter!

This time, it’s your turn to hunt down and slay those insufferable teenagers who took refuge in an abandoned cabin in the woods. As the head of a family of monsters, you’ll have to carefully select in which order you’ll eliminate your victims… and then begin the slaughter!

Monster Slaughter is a tactical game inspired by horror movie classics, where each players takes control of a family of three monsters: father, mother and child, each with their own stats and family power. Their objective is to scour the cabin looking for five guests, find their hiding spot and “take care” of them! Each victim hides in a pile of cards that monsters must search through to find them, gathering items and traps as they do. Once revealed, a guest’s miniature is put on the board and can be attacked!

However, each player has secretly set a killing order for these guests, and killing them in order is worth more points. They can use their item cards to defend the guests against other monsters or scare the victims away to other rooms, so the guests die in a more favorable order!

Monster Slaughter also comes with a scenario book, giving new objectives and special rules to make each moonless night a new experience.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Dice Rolling

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 45 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.15

Minecraft: Builders and Biomes

| T3d-1978
Minecraft: Builders and Biomes

Minecraft: Builders and Biomes

As in the original Minecraft digital game, in Minecraft: Builders & Biomes players explore the Overworld, build structures, and mine resources, earning points for structures and the largest connected biomes of forest, desert, mountain, or snowy tundra spaces on their player boards.

Familiar foes like Endermen, Creepers, and other mobs also appear throughout the game, and they need to be defeated using weapons collected from the board. Defeating mobs earn players points in addition to granting additional awards. Game scoring occurs as the resource cube’s layers are depleted. As soon as the third layer runs out, the adventure comes to an end, and the builder with the most points wins.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Grid Movement
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.93

Memoir ’44

| T3d-1978
Memoir '44

Memoir '44

Memoir ’44 is a historical boardgame where players face-off in stylized battles of some of the most famous historic battles of World War II including Omaha Beach, Pegasus Bridge, Operation Cobra and the Ardennes.

Memoir ’44 includes over 15 different battle scenarios and features a double-sided hex game board for both beach landings and countryside combat. Each scenario mimics the historical terrain, troop placements and objectives of each army. Commanders deploy troops through Command and Tactic cards, applying the unique skills of his units — infantry, paratrooper, tank, artillery, and even resistance fighters — to their greatest strength.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Area Control
  • Campaign
  • Dice Rolling
  • Grid Movement
  • Hand Management
  • Team Based
  • Wargame

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 8 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.27

Mariposas

| T3d-1978
Mariposas

Mariposas

Every spring, millions of monarch butterflies leave Mexico to spread out across eastern North America. Every fall, millions fly back to Mexico. However, no single butterfly ever makes the round trip.

Mariposas is a game of movement and set collection that lets players be part of this amazing journey.

Mariposas is played in three seasons. In general, your butterflies try to head north in spring, spread out in summer, and return south in fall. The end of each season brings a scoring round, and at the end of fall, the player with the most successful family of butterflies — i.e., the most victory points — wins the game.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Grid Movement
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 45 – 75 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.14

Jaws

| T3d-1978
Jaws

Jaws

In JAWS, one player takes on the role of the killer shark off Amity Island, while the other 1-3 players take on the roles of Brody, Hooper and Quint to hunt the shark. Character and event cards define player abilities and create game actions for humans and the shark. Gameplay is divided into two acts — Amity Island and The Orca — played on a double-sided board to replicate the film’s story:

  • In the Amity Island phase, the shark menaces swimmers and avoids capture. Other players attempt to pinpoint the shark’s location and save swimmers from shark attacks.
  • In the Orca phase, played on the reverse side of the game board, Brody, Hooper and Quint are aboard the sinking ship engaging in a climactic battle against the shark, while using additional action and strategy cards to defend the Orca from targeted shark attacks.

If humans kill the shark, they win; if the shark attack on the Orca succeeds, the great white shark wins.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Area Movement
  • Hidden Movement
  • Player Elimination
  • Team Based

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.20

The Hunger

| T3d-1978
The Hunger

The Hunger

The Hunger is a race in which each vampiric player must optimize their card deck, hunt humans to gain victory points, fulfill secret missions, and eventually acquire a rose and return to the castle before sunrise. The more you hunt, the slower both you and your deck become, which will make it harder and harder to get back before daybreak. Can you become the most notorious vampire without burning to ashes at sunrise?

During the game, players spend “speed” to move their vampires around the map, hunt humans worth victory points, and add new cards to their deck.

The game ends at dawn, after which the surviving player with the most victory points on their cards wins!

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Deck Building
  • Open Drafting
  • Push Your Luck
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • ~60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.24

Horrified: American Monsters

| T3d-1978
Horrified: American Monsters

Horrified: American Monsters

Horrified: American Monsters is a standalone game that features gameplay similar to 2019’s Horrified, which challenges players to overcome the “Universal Monsters” from classic films.

In this co-operative game, you face off against classic American nightmarish beasts: Bigfoot, Mothman, the Jersey Devil, the Chupacabra, the Banshee of the Badlands, and the Ozark Howler. The more creatures in the game, the harder the challenge, with players needing to use their unique powers to figure out how to defeat each monster.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Cooperative
  • Dice Rolling
  • Pick-Up and Deliver

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • ~60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.19

Horrified

| T3d-1978
Horrified

Horrified

The stakes have been raised. Imagine living in a place so wretched that it’s not plagued by one, two, or even three monsters — but seven of the most horrifying fiends!

In this game, you’ll come face to face with them all as you work together to rid the town of the maniacal or misunderstood creatures…before it’s too late.

Horrified includes high-quality sculpted miniatures (Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, Dracula, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, Creature from the Black Lagoon). Its innovative, easy-to-learn, cooperative gameplay has players working together against the monsters with varying levels of difficulty. Just as each monster is unique, they require different strategies and tactics to be defeated.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Cooperative
  • Dice Rolling
  • Pick-Up and Deliver

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • ~60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.04

Honga

| T3d-1978
Honga

Honga

Excitement in a prehistoric period! The saber-toothed tiger clan is looking for a new leader, but which one of you can best take care of the clan in Honga and prove to be the most worthy leader?

There are multiple ways to prove your worth: gather supplies, comb through the dark forest, pay homage to the old nature gods, attract mammoths, and successfully trade with other clans. But! No matter how busy you are with these tasks, you can never forget Honga! Whenever you ignore the local saber-toothed tiger, he will come and eat your food — and getting rid of him can turn out to be tough.

Honga is an action selection resource management game for 2-5 players, age 8+, set in the prehistoric period. Players take turns playing their action card to the central board, paying careful attention to where they place it, and how it’s rotated. The number of hands pointing to an action space determines how many times you may use that action. Gather resources and use them to complete trade agreements, lure mammoths to the tribe herd, and pay homage to the old nature gods. But! If you don’t make sure that at least one action point is allocated to Honga’s den, he’ll come steal food from you! Players must balance between keeping Honga at bay and using their limited action points effectively.

With multiple paths to victory, light player interaction, and a 45 minute play time, this game will have you coming back again and again to play with Honga, the local saber-tooth tiger that’s really just a big kitty at heart.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Set Collection
  • Tile Placement
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • ~45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.89

The Haunted Mansion

| T3d-1978
The Haunted Mansion

The Haunted Mansion

Disney’s beloved The Haunted Mansion comes to life — err, death — in this hauntingly fun family board game! Explore all the classic rooms of the ghost-infested manor, from the festivities-filled Ballroom to the Attic and out to the Graveyard and beyond in search of spirits. Beware, though, of the Hitchhiking Ghosts, who are notorious for “following you home” as that may spell your doom in the end!

Players gain points by socializing with ghosts around the Haunted Mansion. Players move around the mansion by rotating the Endless Hallway around Madame Leota’s Séance Room, collecting Ghost cards in front of them in sets, each of which are worth different point values. Players want to avoid Haunt cards, as the most “haunted” player will lose points. The player with the most points at the end wins.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Push Your Luck
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.83