Tag: Deck Building

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

The Few and Cursed

| T3d-1978
The Few and Cursed

The Few and Cursed

The Few and Cursed is a deck-building adventure game based on the Comic Series of the same name. It takes place on a post-apocalyptic Earth where most of the water on the planet has been gone for seventy years.

Even though what was left of mankind found a way to adapt using water, the most valuable asset on the planet, as currency, survival turned the world into a wicked wasteland where it’s either kill or be killed. And evil not only endured, it won.

People turned to dark arts, old tales of mischief and curses to survive. Death is everywhere. But for every darkness there is light – and among the few and cursed are those willing to fight to bring balance to the land: the Curse Chasers.

In the game, players take on the role of a “Curse Chaser” looking to make a name for themselves by searching for supernatural artifacts, completing jobs, or bounty hunting. Players traverse the desert of the Pacific Ocean as they improvise and acquire new cards for their deck on their quest for fame or infamy.

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Movement
  • Deck Building

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.59

Extraordinary Adventures: Pirates

| T3d-1978
Extraordinary Adventures: Pirates

Extraordinary Adventures: Pirates

While playing Extraordinary Adventures: Pirates, you become a pirate captain sailing three ships through the Caribbean in search of rich merchants to plunder and friendly ports in which to trade your booty for riches.

In more detail, you have one ship on each of the three “tracks”, i.e., pathways through the Caribbean Sea. On each turn, you play three cards from your hand to move your ships. Your cards have a basic movement number, and often a secondary action. You may use one or the other to move your ships down the track or gain special advantages.

Each of the three tracks winds through the Caribbean islands toward your ultimate goal: the Spanish Treasure Galleon at Trinidad. Along the way, there will be detours that lead to merchant ships that may be plundered, and towns that may be visited to cash in your plunder for treasure. Plundering merchant ships and visiting towns also allows you to recruit more crewmen (cards) for your crew (deck). The better your deck is, the faster that your ships are able to move, so deciding when to take detours for plunder and recruiting and when to sail on toward your ultimate goal is an important decision that every pirate captain must make.

The first pirate captain to reach the Treasure Galleon at the end of any track ends the game. Each pirate ship scores points based on what place they finished on each track, as well as for the treasures earned by selling plunder. The richest captain goes down in history as the Pirate King!

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Racing
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • 45 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.29

Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards: Annihilageddon

| T3d-1978
Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards: Annihilageddon

Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards: Annihilageddon

Revisit the world of Epic Spell Wars. Mercilessly attack your foes and kill them over, and over, ah-and over! Take advantage of your wizard’s special ability tile and familiar card that only you can buy!

It’s an all-out battle to the death for the Annihilageddon trophy in the crazy world of Epic Spell Wars! While fully compatible with other Cerberus Engine releases, Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards: Annihilageddon Deck-Building Game features a whole new world of mayhem…literally.

Mayhem Events, Familiars, Past Champions, Wizards, Spells, Creatures, Treasure, and Wild Magic. It all adds up to an Epic Spell Wars experience unlike anything you’ve seen before. And fans of the series have seen a lot. Yeesh.

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Hand Management
  • Take That

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.11

Don’t Turn Your Back

| T3d-1978
Don’t Turn Your Back

Don’t Turn Your Back

Walk the twisted streets of the Mad City in a boardgame that fuses worker placement with deck building and area control to create a unique experience.

Extract dreams in the City Slumbering and use them to buy favors from Nightmares. Procure special services in the Bizarre Bazaar. Score points through skillful play in Mother When’s deadly High School, and the sinister 13th District. Compete for the Wax King’s favor, and the ultimate prize…escape!

In this game, set in the sinister world of the Don’t Rest Your Head role playing game, your opponents lurk around every corner, waiting to attack. Can you outsmart your friends and win the Nightmares’ game? Whatever you do, Don’t Turn Your Back!

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Deck Building
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 45 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.38

Dominion: Seaside

| T3d-1978
Dominion: Seaside

Dominion: Seaside

All you ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by. And someone who knows how to steer ships using stars. You finally got some of those rivers you’d wanted, and they led to the sea. These are dangerous, pirate-infested waters, and you cautiously send rat-infested ships across them, to establish lucrative trade at far-off merchant-infested ports. First, you will take over some islands, as a foothold. The natives seem friendly enough, crying their peace cries, and giving you spears and poison darts before you are even close enough to accept them properly. When you finally reach those ports you will conquer them, and from there you will look for more rivers.
One day, all the rivers will be yours.

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.49

Dominion: Prosperity

| T3d-1978
Dominion: Prosperity

Dominion: Prosperity

Ah, money. There’s nothing like the sound of coins clinking in your hands. You vastly prefer it to the sound of coins clinking in someone else’s hands, or the sound of coins just sitting there in a pile that no-one can quite reach without getting up. Getting up, that’s all behind you now. Life has been good to you. Just ten years ago, you were tilling your own fields in a simple straw hat. Today, your kingdom stretches from sea to sea, and your straw hat is the largest the world has ever known. You also have the world’s smallest dog, and a life-sized statue of yourself made out of baklava. Sure, money can’t buy happiness, but it can buy envy, anger, and also this kind of blank feeling. You still have problems – troublesome neighbours that must be conquered.
But this time, you’ll conquer them in style.

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.48

Dominion: Plunder

| T3d-1978
Dominion: Plunder

Dominion: Plunder

Across the sea, they have so much stuff. And it’s so much better than your stuff. Finer craftsmanship. Better quality materials. Shinier. They have crowns, tiaras, and diadems — and that’s just the hats. It’s time to get some of that stuff. You want an easy life, and you’re prepared to work hard for it, so you’ve rounded up some old salty dogs, plus a sourpuss and a bitter goldfish. And set sail. The sea is a harsh mistress, but a good cook, at least if you like everything really salty. There are red skies tonight, so they’ll be making a batch of Sailor’s Delight, which you understand to have tuna fish in it. And soon you’ll be attacking merchant ships and taking their treasure. But the real treasure is the happy memories you’ll be making.

Dominion: Plunder is the 15th expansion to Dominion. It has 500 cards, with 40 new Kingdom cards. It has lots of Treasures and Durations, with cards that give you Loot, and Traits that modify piles. Events return.

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Hand Management

Game Specifications:

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

Dominion: Mixed Box – Guilds & Cornucopia

| T3d-1978
Dominion: Mixed Box - Guilds & Cornucopia

Dominion: Mixed Box - Guilds & Cornucopia

Dominion: Guilds & Cornucopia combines the Dominion: Guilds and Dominion: Cornucopia small box expansions — originally the fifth and the eighth expansions — into a single large box expansion.

The cards from Dominion: Cornucopia — 13 new Kingdom cards, plus 5 unique cards — are focused on variety, with cards that reward you for having a variety of cards in your deck, in your hand, and in play, in addition to cards that help you get that variety.

Dominion: Guilds also consists of 13 new Kingdom cards, with some of these cards allowing you to get more out of them by paying extra when you buy them. In addition, this expansion contains coin tokens that you can save to spend later.

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting

Game Specifications:

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

Dominion: Intrigue

| T3d-1978
Dominion: Intrigue

Dominion: Intrigue

In Dominion: Intrigue (as with Dominion), each player starts with an identical, very small deck of cards. In the center of the table is a selection of other cards the players can “buy” as they can afford them. Through their selection of cards to buy, and how they play their hands as they draw them, the players construct their deck on the fly, striving for the most efficient path to the precious victory points by game end.

From the back of the box: “Something’s afoot. The steward smiles at you like he has a secret, or like he thinks you have a secret, or like you think he thinks you have a secret. There are secret plots brewing, you’re sure of it. At the very least, there are yours. A passing servant murmurs, “The eggs are on the plate.” You frantically search your codebook for the translation before realizing he means that breakfast is ready. Excellent. Everything is going according to plan.”

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Hand Management

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.42

Dominion: Hinterlands

| T3d-1978
Dominion: Hinterlands

Dominion: Hinterlands

The world is big and your kingdom small. Small when compared to the world, that is; it’s moderate-sized when compared to other kingdoms. But in a big world like this one – big when compared to smaller worlds anyway, if such things exist; it’s moderate-sized when compared to worlds of roughly the same size, and a little small when compared to worlds just a little larger – well, to make a long story short – short when compared to longer stories anyway – it is time to stretch your borders. You’ve heard of far-off places – exotic countries, where they have pancakes but not waffles, where the people wear the wrong number of shirts, and don’t even have a word for the look two people give each other when they each hope that the other will do something that they both want done but which neither of them wants to do. It is to these lands that you now turn your gaze.

Dominion: Hinterlands is the sixth addition to the game of Dominion. It adds 26 new Kingdom cards to Dominion, including 20 Actions, 3 Treasures, 3 Victory cards, and 3 Reactions. The central theme is cards that do something immediately when you buy them or gain them.

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.55