Tag: Area Control

When playing games with an Area Control aspect, players are typically rewarded for controlling the majority of a particular space.

High Rise

| T3d-1978
High Rise

High Rise

High Rise is a strategic city-building game with a bit of corruption. You can get bonuses on your actions by gaining Corruption, but the game will periodically penalize the most corrupt players, and everyone loses VP for Corruption at the end of the game.

You’ll perform all your actions — like collecting resources, constructing buildings, and repaying favors — on a one-way track. Like other one-way track games, you can go as far as you’d like, but you’ll only get another turn when everyone else passes you. You gain 1 VP per floor for each building you construct. Tenants offer powerful actions that change each game. You can collect a tenant power by landing on its space or constructing a building on its card.

The round ends after everyone makes a lap around the one-way track. Players score bonus points for tallest buildings in each neighborhood and the game. You’ll play 2 rounds in the Standard Game (about 90-120 minutes for 3-4 players) and 3 rounds (about 2.5 hours) in the Full game. After the appropriate number of rounds, players lose points for Corruption, and the player with most VP wins.

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • City Building

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 100 – 150 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.92

Hellenica: Story of Greece

| T3d-1978
Hellenica: Story of Greece

Hellenica: Story of Greece

An explosion of creativity and violence erupted in the Aegean Basin in 800 B.C. that defined ancient Greece. This combination of science, mythology, development, and war was led by powerful city-states like Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Troy, Byzantium, Corcyra, and Thebes. These states vied for control over their rivals and dominated the lesser states around them. In time, some of them became so well known that they are remembered even today.

Hellenica: Story of Greece is a 3.5X civilization game in which you harness the powers of one of seven beginning city-states to dominate the world around you. Your goal is to become the preeminent symbol of Greece for all posterity by completing a combination of secret and public goals. Will you be remembered as a warmonger or a peaceful philosopher? Great priest or apostate? Will you develop a devotion to the gods or focus on the advancement of your people?

Can you guide your civilization during these turbulent times? Will your vision of Hellenic civilization be remembered for all time, or will you merely be a stepping stone for another…?

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Area Movement
  • Bluffing
  • City Building
  • Dice Rolling
  • Tile Placement
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 7 Players
  • 120 – 180 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.26

Hansa Teutonica: Big Box

| T3d-1978
Hansa Teutonica: Big Box

Hansa Teutonica: Big Box

The multi-award-winning strategy game Hansa Teutonica is back in a Big Box edition including the base game and all expansions. In the game, players attempt to increase their standing as merchants in the Hanseatic League by gaining prestige points in various ways. For instance, they can try to establish a network of counting offices in new Hansa cities by occupying an entire trade route between two cities — but before that happens, player markers can also be displaced by other players. Players may also aim to develop their trading skills, improving their abilities throughout the course of play. With only two actions per turn and a variety of contested opportunities, every turn is equally quick and strategically demanding.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Area Control
  • Network Building

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 45 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.11

Ginkgopolis

| T3d-1978
Ginkgopolis

Ginkgopolis

2212: Ginkgo Biloba, the oldest and strongest tree in the world, has become the symbol of a new method for building cities in symbiosis with nature. Humans have exhausted the resources that the Earth offered them, and humanity must now develop cities that maintain a delicate balance between resource production and consumption. Habitable space is scarce, however, and mankind must now face the challenge of building ever upwards. To develop this new type of city, you will gather a team of experts around you, and try to become the best urban planner for Ginkgopolis.

In Ginkgopolis, the city tiles come in three colors: yellow, which provides victory points; red, which provides resources; and blue, which provides new city tiles. Some tiles start in play, and they’re surrounded by letter markers that show where new tiles can be placed.

On a turn, each player chooses a card from his hand simultaneously. Players reveal these cards, adding new tiles to the border of the city in the appropriate location or placing tiles on top of existing tiles. Each card in your hand that you don’t play is passed on to your left-hand neighbor, so keep in mind how your play might set up theirs!

When you add a new tile to the city, you take a “power” card of the same color, and these cards provide you additional abilities during the game, allowing you to scale up your building and point-scoring efforts.

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • City Building
  • Open Drafting
  • Tableau Building
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • ~45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.91

Gates of Mara

| T3d-1978
Gates of Mara

Gates of Mara

Lead your tribe to the Gates of Mara, portals to realms of pure elemental energy. Encounter powerful elemental lords, manipulate intricate economies, and summon colorful magic. Vie for the most influence in each realm so you can establish your tribal claims.

Gates of Mara blends upgradeable worker placement with layered area-control mechanisms, all brought to life by the art of Nastya Lehn. You can lead reptilian dragonkin, the amphibious goblins, the insectoid antids, or the arboreal elves.

Strategically position your tribe members around the realms and gates. Enchant your tribe members to give them new abilities. Compete for short-term objectives, but keep your eyes on your influence. Only the player with the most influence can lay claim to the Gates of Mara!

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 90 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.00

Eschaton

| T3d-1978

In the game of Eschaton, players seek to lead the most favored cult in the final days before Armageddon. As the world crumbles, the Dark One will favor only a single unholy mass to be his Chosen in the vastness of eternity following the cataclysm. All others will be obliterated by his depraved will. Through bloodshed on the field of battle, divination of the unholiest arcana, and initiation of powerful cultists, you will build your cult and earn your rightful place.

Eschaton is a strategy game driven by a deck-building mechanic. All players begin with the same basic cult (deck) and an equal presence on the realm map. As the game progresses, each player utilizes the evil Influence of their existing Cultist cards to initiate new Cultists into their deck as they seek to earn the most Points of Favor from the Dark One. These Cultists carry different specialties: some are masters at arms, others strong wielders of arcane magics, and others provide even greater Influence to recruit stronger members.

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Deck Building
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • 60 – 180 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.80

Endless Winter: Paleoamericans

| T3d-1978

Designed by Stan Kordonskiy (Dice Hospital, Rurik, Lock Up), developed by Jonny Pac (Coloma, Sierra West, Lions of Lydia), solo mode by Drake Villareal (Solani, Spook Manor), and illustrated by The Mico (Raiders of the North Sea, Paladins of the West Kingdom, Valeria), Endless Winter: Paleoamericans takes place in North America, around 10,000 BCE. Players guide the development of their tribes across several generations—from nomadic hunter-gatherers to prosperous tribal societies. Over the course of the game, tribes migrate and settle new lands, establish cultural traditions, hunt paleolithic megafauna, and build everlasting megalithic structures.

Endless Winter is a euro-style game that combines worker placement and deck building in an innovative way. Each round, players send their tribe members to various action spaces, and pay for the actions by playing cards and spending resources. Tribe cards grant additional labor, while Culture cards provide a variety of unique effects. As an alternative, cards can be saved for an end-of-round Eclipse phase, where they are simultaneously revealed to determine the new player order, and trigger various bonus actions.

The game features a novel blend of interwoven systems and mechanisms, such as multi-use cards, area influence, tile placement, and set collection. Plus, there are many viable paths to victory. After four brisk rounds, scores are tallied, and the tribe with the most points wins!

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Deck Building
  • Hand Management
  • Set Collection
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.22

Endeavor: Age of Sail

| T3d-1978

In Endeavor: Age of Sail, players strive to earn glory for their empires. Sailing out from Europe and the Mediterranean, players will establish shipping routes and occupy cities the world over. As they do so, players will leverage their growing industry, culture, finance, and Influence, building their engine and extending their reach into the far-flung regions of the world.

In this second edition, players will experience:

  • Double-sided board to accommodate different player counts
  • Variable starting set ups with new buildings
  • Exploits to enhance the mechanisms and story of the different regions
  • Updated visuals by the original artist and graphic designer, Josh Cappel

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Open Drafting
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.81

El Grande Big Box

| T3d-1978

In El Grande, players take on the roles of Grandes in medieval Spain. The king’s power is flagging, and these powerful lords are vying for control of the various regions. To that end, you draft caballeros (knights in the form of meeples) into your court and subsequently move them onto the board to help seize control of regions. After every third round, the regions are scored, and after the ninth round, the player with the most points is the winner.

In each of the nine rounds, you select one of your 13 power cards to determine turn order as well as the number of caballeros you get to move from the provinces (general supply) into your court (personal supply).

A turn then consists of selecting one of five action cards which allow variations to the rules and additional scoring opportunities in addition to determining how many caballeros to move from your court to one or more of the regions on the board (or into the castillo—a secretive tower). Normally, you may only place your caballeros into regions adjacent to the one containing the king’s pawn. The one hard and fast rule in El Grande is that nothing may move into or out of the king’s region. One of the five action cards that is always available each round allows you to move the king to a new region. The other four action cards vary from round to round.

The goal is to have a majority of caballeros in as many regions (and the castillo) as possible during a scoring round. Following the scoring of the castillo, you place any meeples you had stashed there into the region you had secretly indicated on your region dial. Each region is then scored individually according to a table printed in that region. Two-point bonuses are awarded for having sole majority in the region containing your Grande (large meeple) and in the region containing the king.

El Grande Big Box, the 20th anniversary edition of El Grande, includes all previously published expansions: Grand Inquisitor & Colonies, Grandissimo, King & Intrigant, King & Intrigant: Players’ Edition and King & Intrigant: Special Cards as well as something currently known only as the “Anniversary Extension”.

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Area Movement
  • Auction/Bidding
  • Hand Management
  • Memory
  • Open Drafting

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • ~90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.80

Ahoy 🟡

| T3d-1978

Ahoy is a lightly asymmetrical game where two to four players take the roles of swashbucklers and soldiers seeking Fame on the high seas.

One player controls the Bluefin Squadron, a company of sharks and their toothy friends, who patrol these waters and keep order with shot and sword. Another player controls the Mollusk Union, an alliance of undersea creatures and their comrades-in-arms, who fight to reclaim their ancestral home. In games with more people, some players control Smugglers, maverick captains who run blockades to smuggle luxuries and essentials, delivering them to those with the most need—or the most coin. Explore the seas. As you play, you’ll make a unique map full of treasure troves, dangerous wreckage, and mighty sea currents, using deluxe double-layer region tiles.

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Pick-Up and Deliver
  • Tile Placement
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 45 – 75 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.86