Tag: Closed Drafting

Closed Drafting is a mechanic in which a player receives a private pool of resources to select from. This pool of resources is often then passed to the next player.

Brian Boru: High King of Ireland

| T3d-1978

In Brian Boru: High King of Ireland, you strive to unite Ireland under your domain, securing control through might, cunning, and matrimony. Join forces to fend off Viking invaders, build monasteries to extend your influence, and gather support in towns and villages throughout the land. To become High King of all Ireland, you need to navigate a web of shifting alliances, outmaneuver your enemies, and grab history by the reins.

The success of the historical Brian Boru rested on three pillars: his victories against the Vikings, the favor he managed to garner with the Church, and the alliances he forged through political marriages. This became the foundation of the game, with each pillar becoming a suit in the trick-taking that forms the core of the mechanisms. Win a trick and you gain influence in a town, which, in turn, gains you majorities in the regions; if you lose the trick, however (deliberately or otherwise), you instead take an action corresponding to the suit of the card.

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Majority / Influence
  • Closed Drafting
  • Hand Management
  • Trick-taking
  • Variable Phase Order

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 5 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.54

Between Two Cities

| T3d-1978

It is the early 1800s, a time of immense construction and urbanization. You are a world-renowned master city planner who has been asked to redesign two different cities. Projects of such significance require the expertise of more than one person, so for each assignment you are paired with a partner with whom to discuss and execute your grandiose plans. Will your planning and collaborative skills be enough to design the most impressive city in the world?

Between Two Cities is a partnership-driven tile-drafting game in which each tile represents part of a city: factory, shop, park, landmarks, etc. You work with the player on your left to design the heart of one city, and with the player on your right to design the heart of another city. On each turn you select two tiles from hand, reveal them, then work with your partners separately to place one of those tiles into each of your two cities before passing the remaining hand of tiles around the table.

At the end of the game, each city is scored for its livability. Your final score is the lower of the livability scores of the two cities you helped design. To win, you have to share your attention and your devotion between two cities. The player with the highest final score wins the game.

Game Mechanics:

  • City Building
  • Closed Drafting
  • Negotiation
  • Set Collection
  • Solo / Solitaire Game
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 7 Players
  • ~25 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.82

Bargain Quest

| T3d-1978

Bargain Quest is a game of adventure and capitalism for 2-6 players. Players will take the role of shopkeepers in an adventuring town plagued by monsters. Players must draft items and then secretly choose which items to place in their windows to attract wealthy heroes to their shops.

Once all heroes have been equipped, they venture out to battle against monstrous threats, earning money and prestige for the shop they represent. Throughout the game players will encounter new heroes and monsters while upgrading their shops and hiring employees. Once the third monster is defeated the player who has earned the most gold and prestige is the winner.

Game Mechanics:

  • Auction/Bidding
  • Closed Drafting
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting
  • Take That

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.01

7 Wonders Duel 🟢

| T3d-1978

In many ways 7 Wonders Duel resembles its parent game 7 Wonders as over three ages players acquire cards that provide resources or advance their military or scientific development in order to develop a civilization and complete wonders.

What’s different about 7 Wonders Duel is that, as the title suggests, the game is solely for two players, with the players not drafting cards simultaneously from hands of cards, but from a display of face-down and face-up cards arranged at the start of a round. A player can take a card only if it’s not covered by any others, so timing comes into play as well as bonus moves that allow you to take a second card immediately. As in the original game, each card that you acquire can be built, discarded for coins, or used to construct a wonder.

Each player starts with four wonder cards, and the construction of a wonder provides its owner with a special ability. Only seven wonders can be built, though, so one player will end up short.

Players can purchase resources at any time from the bank, or they can gain cards during the game that provide them with resources for future building; as you acquire resources, the cost for those particular resources increases for your opponent, representing your dominance in this area.

A player can win 7 Wonders Duel in one of three ways: each time you acquire a military card, you advance the military marker toward your opponent’s capital, giving you a bonus at certain positions; if you reach the opponent’s capital, you win the game immediately; similarly, if you acquire any six of seven different scientific symbols, you achieve scientific dominance and win immediately; if none of these situations occurs, then the player with the most points at the end of the game wins.

Game Mechanics:

  • City Building
  • Civilization
  • Closed Drafting
  • Economic
  • Hand Management
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 2 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.22

7 Wonders 🟢

| T3d-1978

You are the leader of one of the 7 great cities of the Ancient World. Gather resources, develop commercial routes, and affirm your military supremacy. Build your city and erect an architectural wonder which will transcend future times.

7 Wonders lasts three ages. In each age, players receive seven cards from a particular deck, choose one of those cards, then pass the remainder to an adjacent player. Players reveal their cards simultaneously, paying resources if needed or collecting resources or interacting with other players in various ways. (Players have individual boards with special powers on which to organize their cards, and the boards are double-sided). Each player then chooses another card from the deck they were passed, and the process repeats until players have six cards in play from that age. After three ages, the game ends.

In essence, 7 Wonders is a card development game. Some cards have immediate effects, while others provide bonuses or upgrades later in the game. Some cards provide discounts on future purchases. Some provide military strength to overpower your neighbors and others give nothing but victory points. Each card is played immediately after being drafted, so you’ll know which cards your neighbor is receiving and how her choices might affect what you’ve already built up. Cards are passed left-right-left over the three ages, so you need to keep an eye on the neighbors in both directions.

Game Mechanics:

  • City Building
  • Civilization
  • Closed Drafting
  • Economic
  • Hand Management
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 7 Players
  • 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.32

Sushi Go Party!

| T3d-1978
Sushi Go Party!

Sushi Go Party!

Sushi Go Party! expands Sushi Go! with a party platter of mega maki, super sashimi, and endless edamame. You still earn points by picking winning sushi combos, but now you can customize each game by choosing à la carte from a menu of more than twenty delectable dishes. What’s more, up to eight players can join in on the sushi-feast. Let the good times roll!

Game Mechanics:

  • Closed Drafting
  • Hand Management
  • Party Game
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • ~20 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.30

Planted

| T3d-1978
Planted

Planted

In this game of nature & nurture, make your house beautiful by caring for your very own collection of houseplants! In this easy-to-learn board game, collect your favorite plants and they try to feed them every round with the right combination of light, water, and plant food.

Planted features 42 varieties of popular and exotic houseplants, each with their own requirements to grow. Discover various planting tools and decorations to help you raise beautiful, thriving plants, and score bonus points. The player, or plant parent, that ends up scoring the most points from growing their plants is declared the game’s biggest green thumb – and winner!

Some features:

  • Easy to learn mechanics for all ages strategy
  • Collect resource tokens to care for your nursery (water drop, sun chip, plant food, etc.)
  • Features 42 popular and various plant varieties for all levels of plant parents including the fiddle leaf fig, philodendron, ZZ plant, monstera, croton, and more!
  • Created by famed game designer Phil Walker-Harding

Game Mechanics:

  • Closed Drafting
  • Hand Management
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 20 – 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.61

Full Throttle!

| T3d-1978
Full Throttle!

Full Throttle!

The wild moped riders are ready to race with their souped-up mopeds! Knowing that neither your courage nor your health insurance lets you take part in such a dangerous race, you and your friends instead choose the safe way to enjoy these races and start betting on the mopeds.

While the six mopeds race three times around the racetrack, trying to avoid getting stuck behind other mopeds or at the choke points, you assess the situation round by round and bet on your favorite mopeds. Who will finally win, place, or show?

In Full Throttle!, no one controls the mopeds, with them racing around the track in a “self-controlled” manner. Each round, reveal racing cards and move the mopeds around the track. Then draft the racing cards to be used as your hidden bets. The undrafted cards are reused for future movement of the mopeds. Choose your bets carefully because the cards you choose will make those mopeds go slower.

Game Mechanics:

  • Bluffing
  • Closed Drafting
  • Racing

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • 20 – 40 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.20

Atheneum: Mystic Library

| T3d-1978

The magic exam is tomorrow so you and your classmates head to the library! With the knock of a magic wand on a precise stack of books — tada! — you can learn an entire subject in an instant. In exchange for this after-hours intrusion, however, the security guard asks you to clean up and organize the library shelves. So roll up your sleeves and get to work!

In Atheneum: Mystic Library, you must study for the exam while cleaning up the library! During the game, you can score points for objectives by placing books on your shelves in specific configurations. At the end of the game, you score points for full shelf compartments, decorative candles, and shelved books of your favorite subject. Whoever collects the most points wins!

Game Mechanics:

  • Closed Drafting
  • Open Drafting
  • Puzzle
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 30 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.70