Tag: Deck Building

Deck Building is a mechanic where players build a deck of resources that is randomly drawn and used for future turns.

Heat: Rocky Roads

| OTSG Staff

The desert heat is relentless but so are you…

Gravel sprays out from under your tires and your car gives a sickening lurch as it begins to spin out. Clutch. Shift. Gas! Your engine roars and your car leaps into the next turn on a perfect line; you’re still in the race but you’ll have to watch for loose gravel on the track.

Heat: Rocky Roads introduces two new racing tracks. In the South Africa Grand Prix you will face treacherous gravel on the track, requiring careful management of your car and nerves of steel. Victory on the Germany track will hinge on how you deal with the fast pace of the newly build chicanes along the long straight away.

Take part in the 1966 Championship season and take advantage of a new innovation, the sliding Skirt, to surprise your opponents and slipstream to victory!

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 7 Players
  • 60 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.38

Dark Pact

| OTSG Staff

To win the deck-building game Dark Pact, you need to complete one of the game’s thirteen Dark Pacts, each of which has a unique winning condition.

To set up, each player has a deck of ten cards, with cards being either actions, treasures, or multipliers. Players take turns clockwise until someone achieves a Dark Pact: “Keeper” Dark Pacts can stay in play, and if you ever meet their condition based on the cards you have in play, you win; “Instant” Dark Pacts are played as an action, and if you meet their condition based on the cards you have in hand, you win. (Alternatively, if the deck runs out, the player with the highest sum of Insight minus Curses wins.)

On a turn, you play one action from your hand, and an action might let you play additional actions; draw cards; gain cards from the supply; exile cards; and so on. Some cards attack opponents, and they can reveal a react card in response. Played cards stay in your play area.

Next, you can buy cards, first playing treasures from your hand to gain coins. (Action cards played earlier might also have coins on them.) You can purchase cards from the ten-card supply, as well as one card from your grimoire, which starts with three specific cards and to which you can add other cards during play.

You can modify an action or a treasure by playing x2 and x3 multipliers at the same time. Multipliers affect all numerals on the action or treasure, whether for coins, curses, draws, actions, etc.

To end your turn, clean up, first carrying out “clean up” effects on played cards, then discarding all played cards (except those that can remain in play, such as some Dark Pacts) and cards from your hand that you don’t want. If necessary, draw to fill your hand to five cards.

Dark Pact includes solitaire rules in which you compete against a bot that tries to win in one of three ways.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • ~50 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.63

Inventors of the South Tigris

| OTSG Staff

Inventors of the South Tigris is set during the height of the Abbasid Caliphate, circa 850 AD. Over the past decades, Baghdad has become home to thousands of mathematicians, astronomers, chemists, and physicians. As inspired innovators, players are eager to develop clever contraptions to impress their peers. Will your ingenious devices adorn the House of Wisdom, or are they destined for dust and decay?

The aim of Inventors of the South Tigris is to be the player with the most Victory Points (VP) at the game’s end. Points are primarily gained by Inventing, Building, Testing, and Publishing Devices. Players can also score points by training their Craftspeople, developing their Workshops, Researching, and Influencing the 3 scientific Guilds.

—description from the publisher

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 90 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 4.46

Imperium: Horizons

| OTSG Staff

Formidable adversaries are arrayed against you. Your people stand ready. History beckons.

In your hands lies the destiny of one of the most storied peoples of history. Under constant threat of attack, you must conquer new lands, oversee dramatic scientific and cultural advances, and lead your people into the era of empire. Expand too rapidly and unrest will bring your civilisation to its knees; build up too slowly, however, and you might find yourself a mere footnote of history. As one of fourteen radically asymmetric civilisations, you will compete to become the most dominant empire the world has ever seen.

Imperium: Horizons is a standalone game that contains the Abbasid, Aksumite, Cultist, Gupta, Inuit, Japanese, Magyar, Martian, Mayan, Polynesian, Sassanid, Taino, Tang, and Wagadou civilisations. Each makes for a unique and challenging opponent in both multiplayer and solo games.

Fully compatible with Imperium: Classics and Imperium: Legends for those wanting to expand their pool of civilisations even further, Imperium: Horizons also incorporates a new trade module that allows players to recreate all the intrigue, wealth generation, and dynamic politics of a thriving economy.

—description from the publisher

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 40 – 160 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.97

Hunger, the

| OTSG Staff

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!

—description from publisher

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.32

Heart of Crown

| OTSG Staff

They were tough times, the days when swords and magic still ruled the world. A long, destructive war had ended, and the entire continent had been unified. Before the empire’s subjects had even come to know peace, however, their great emperor fell victim to disease, having never declared a successor…

We must not return to that war-torn world! Thankfully you are an influential figure in the empire. Quickly lay claim to the throne and ensure the rock-solid unity and peace of the continent. Though the emperor had no son, there are seven candidates for succession, starting with the two lineal princesses. Now, let’s get your favorite princess on the emperor’s throne! Garner support from all over the country, clash with rival candidates and depend on your special skill!

Heart of Crown is a deck-building card game. Each player starts with the same deck, strengthens that deck with strategic cards, and finally one player will declare victory by throning the princess he controls. Each player’s deck starts with seven “Rural” territory cards and three “Apprentice Handmaid” succession cards (an unreliable subject). Using the currency (coins) generated by your “Rural” territory cards, you incorporate cards from the market into your deck according to your own strategy.

Each player’s main goal is to give the princess he’s fielded the throne. First, collect stronger territory cards such as “City” and “Metropolis” to increase your coins, and declare fielding a princess using these coins. There are five princesses and one set of twin princesses, totaling six princess cards. Each princess has special support abilities, but with only one of each, you need to be quick to field the right princess and get the support you need!

For your princess to take the throne, you must collect Succession Points, which represent the support of your loyal subjects and influential figures in the empire. Once you control 20 Succession Points, you may declare a coronation. Your opponents get one more turn to interrupt your coronation, but if your points remain at or above 20 by your next turn, the coronation succeeds and your princess takes the throne!

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.50

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle – Defence Against the Dark Arts

| OTSG Staff

Harry Potter™ Hogwarts™ Battle Defence Against the Dark Arts is a competitive deck-building game for two players, inspired by Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle. In this fast-paced game, players take turns playing cards, taking actions and acquiring new cards to build a more powerful deck as their defensive skills improve. Stun your opponent three times to win!

With the noticeable rise in Dark Arts activity, Headmaster Albus Dumbledore has authorized practical Defence Against the Dark Arts lessons to ensure that students are prepared to defend themselves. Under the supervision of Hogwart’s teachers, students will cast Spells and Hexes, use Items, and gain Allies to stun their opponents and protect themselves from evil forces.

THIS IS A STAND-ALONE GAME. While inspired by Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle, none of the content in this game is designed to be incorporated into that game.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.77

Grifters: Nexus

| OTSG Staff

Grifters operate on the fringes of The Dystopian Universe, eager to take advantage of every opportunity to profit from the chaos caused by the resistance. Players take on the role of powerful crime bosses, building their criminal organizations by carefully recruiting new operatives with specialized skills. During the game, the players’ criminal teams will steal ISK from the government, powerful corporations, and each other via cons, blackmail, daring heists, and a multitude of other nefarious deeds. As always, money is power in The Dystopian Universe and the player with the most ISK at the end of the game is the winner.

Grifters: Nexus is a standalone game that is also an expansion for Grifters, which was released by Indie Boards and Cards in 2016. Nexus uses the same core “cool down” mechanisms found in Grifters, and introduces 15 new specialist cards, new mechanisms and a new job card system.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00

Grifters

| OTSG Staff

Grifters is a hand-building game that has all the fun of deck-building games, without the deck. Set in the Dystopian Universe, players take on the role of powerful crime bosses, building their criminal organizations by carefully recruiting new operatives with specialized skills and directing their team’s nefarious deeds. All of your specialists are either in play or in your hand, ready to be used as you command. This unique hand-building mechanism gives you total control of your strategy.

Grifters is all about stealing as much money as you can from the corrupt government, malicious corporations, and your rival players. Each player starts the game with a hand of six Specialist cards, each with unique abilities. Your objective is to use this team of six Specialists to recruit more criminals, complete jobs, steal from the government coffers and swindle your opponents.

Each specialist has a special ability and skill. On your turn you can play a single specialist to perform their ability, or you can play a team of specialists to use their combined skills to complete a job. This means every specialist is a valuable asset to your criminal enterprise, earning immediate benefit through abilities and valuable end-game bonuses by completing jobs against the same target. And because all the cards in your deck are always available, you decide how to maximize your play.

Grifters uses a unique card “cooldown” system to control the use of your cards. On your turn, you play one or more specialist cards into the first “Night” of your hideout. If you already have a specialist card, or a team of specialist cards, in night one those cards advance to night two and push other cards through your hideout.

When a card is pushed out of the third night of your hideout it enters the refresh area. Any cards in your refresh area will return to your hand at the end of your turn.

The game ends when the coffers run out of money, there are no more jobs left to complete, or if there are no more specialists cards left for recruiting. End game bonuses are calculated for completing multiple jobs against the same target. The player with the most money wins.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.79

Great Western Trail: New Zealand

| OTSG Staff

Kia ora, and welcome to Great Western Trail New Zealand!

Towards the end of the 19th century, you established yourself as a runholder (owner of a sheep station) on the South Island of New Zealand. Recent years have seen your family farm prosper by diversifying your breeds of sheep and increasing the value of your wool.

With the dawn of the new century, difficult challenges have arisen. You must acquire improved and valuable breeds of sheep to ensure the prosperity of your family business and the labourers who work for you. Decide whether to focus on your past strengths or to diversify into new ventures. Will the beginning of the 20th century be as rewarding as earlier years, or will the efforts of others surpass your strategy? Good luck, and kia kaha!

In Great Western Trail New Zealand, you move your runholder along a trail that winds and forks from the lower left corner of the game board to Wellington in the upper right. Along your path, you perform actions that provide you with various ways to earn victory points.

Each time your runholder reaches Wellington, you deliver sheep to a local or foreign trading post, which may also be worth victory points. Afterwards, your runholder continues its movement again.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 75 – 150 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 4.01