Tag: Deck Building

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

Heropath: Dragon Roar

Heropath: Dragon Roar

Heropath: Dragon Roar

Heropath: Dragon Roar is a fantasy board game in which heroes venture through an unknown land, discovering new places, fighting monsters and gaining power, skills, gold, arms and resources.

This game combines everything you love in a fantasy RPG such as: magic, skills, XP, levels and combat as well as resource management, which takes it to a new, higher level of gaming.

In this board game you will need more than war tactics, you will need to use your turn in the best way possible, in order to reach new places, engage in the proper forms of combat and gain skills and resources.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Area Movement
  • Deck Building
  • Dice Rolling
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting
  • Role Playing
  • Trading

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.75

Great Western Trail

Great Western Trail

Great Western Trail

America in the 19th century: You are a rancher and repeatedly herd your cattle from Texas to Kansas City, where you send them off by train. This earns you money and victory points. Needless to say, each time you arrive in Kansas City, you want to have your most valuable cattle in tow. However, the “Great Western Trail” not only requires that you keep your herd in good shape, but also that you wisely use the various buildings along the trail. Also, it might be a good idea to hire capable staff: cowboys to improve your herd, craftsmen to build your very own buildings, or engineers for the important railroad line.

If you cleverly manage your herd and navigate the opportunities and pitfalls of Great Western Trail, you surely will gain the most victory points and win the game.

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Economic
  • Hand Management
  • Set Collection
  • Tableau Building

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 75 – 150 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.71

Flotilla

In 1954, with an explosion over a hundred thousand times more powerful than even the wildest estimates, the Castle Bravo nuclear test obliterated the Bikini Atoll, and ruptured the Earth down to its mantle.

As water levels rose in the aftermath, the remnants of humanity fled their homes and took to the sea. World leadership came together to build a massive Flotilla, mankind’s last bastion of civilization.

Now, ten years after the disaster, the Flotilla is home to the very last of us.

Flotilla features two distinct and interwoven modes of gameplay, as you try to outpace your opponents in bringing prosperity to humanity’s new home. You begin the game as a “Sinkside” Fleet Commander, commissioned by world leaders to explore the new face of the ocean, scour the depths for resources, and rescue any survivors you come across. At any point in the game, you may choose to turn “Skyside,” by selling your skiffs, and leaving your seafaring life behind to now grow the Flotilla itself.

The choice of if or when to switch from a “Sinkside” explorer to a “Skyside” settler defines the very core experience of Flotilla. They represent two similar but distinct game experiences, utilizing the same game components, seamlessly intertwined among all players. If you switch, you’ll flip over all of your accumulated game components, watching your crew grow into new roles with new art for the same characters, while finding entirely new uses for your ocean tiles and resources, and beginning to trade with the “Sinkside” players as you go after new objectives. As players turn “Skyside,” different niches are filled, forever changing the game’s economy. Mastering this ebb and flow will be critical if you’re to shape the new face of humanity!

As a “Sinksider,” you will explore the ocean with your skiffs, pulling some of the 92 hexagon-shaped ocean tiles out of a bag, and arranging them to help you effectively collect resources, discover valuable artifacts from the sunken civilization, all while trying to avoid toxic radiation left from the disaster. You’ll dive for supplies, rolling a pool of custom dive dice that vary based on the depth level of your skiffs. You’ll also carefully manage your resources, trading them on the open market for the currency you can use to buy more skiffs and outposts, or stockpiling them for when you turn “Skyside.”

As a “Skysider,” you will use your resources to build an expansive network of watercraft and docks, using the “Skyside” of your ocean tiles. Your divers will also have new jobs as researchers, rolling custom, multicolor Research dice, to discover new technologies that allow the Flotilla to manage a growing population. You’ll also build Sonar stations, making life a little easier for the “Sinksiders” still out exploring the unknown, while earning quite a few points for yourself.

On both sides, you’ll also grow your relationships with the four different governing guilds, each giving you unique bonuses and more powerful crew. The players with the strongest relationships will also earn valuable points at the end of the game!

The components in Flotilla are unique, immersive, and interconnected. Your skiffs will be able to actually carry up to four resource barrels, and come in a unique shape for each player color. Artifact tokens slot into matching spaces in a double-layered hub board and art on the ocean tiles lines up to create a unique layout for your growing Flotilla each time you play.

In Flotilla, you’ll find significant strategic depth and variety, while giving players the freedom to tell their own story. Will you build the Flotilla by being the first to go Skyside, or stay Sinkside for the whole game, becoming the most powerful seafarer of them all?

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 5 Players
  • 90 – 150 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.82

Black Rose Wars

Black Rose Wars is a competitive fantasy game of deck-building, strategy, and combat set in the hectic universe of Nova Aetas in Italy. Each player is one of powerful mages of the Black Rose Order who aspires to become the new Supreme Magister in order to acquire the mighty power of the Black Rose Artifact and the Forgotten Magic. Mages must fight, fulfill Black Rose desires, and gain strength with their spells until their power reaches the containment threshold of the prison where they are exiled, finally freeing themselves. Each mage has at their disposal six schools of magic, each one with its own strategy to annihilate their opponents and increase their power.

At the start of the battle, mages start with a grimoire of six cards; as mages study more spells during play, their grimoire will increase. Every spell in Black Rose Wars has two different effects, increasing a player’s adaptability during a fight.

Mages fight each other in a modular arena of hexagons called “rooms”. They summon powerful creatures, cast destructive spells, or devise dark deceptions with their enchantments. The game system is divided into different phases. Each turn, after choosing new spells from the six schools of magic, players plan their strategy in advance, placing cards face down. Later, they reveal the played cards to kill each other, solve missions, summon creatures, or destroy the prison rooms, one against each other and against the Black Rose (the playing system).
After being killed, mages are reborn immediately, allowing them to re-enter the fight without delay — although their death still fed energy to those mages who caused it.
The mage with the most power at the end of the battle will be crowned Supreme Magister of the Order by the Black Rose itself.

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Majority / Influence
  • Bluffing
  • Campaign
  • Deck Building
  • Hand Management
  • Modular Board
  • Variable Player Powers

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.47

Bitoku

In Bitoku, the players take on the roles of Bitoku spirits of the forest in their path towards transcendence, with the goal of elevating themselves and becoming the next great spirit of the forest. To do so, they will have the help of the yōkai, the kodamas and the different pilgrims that accompany them on their path. This is a hand-management, engine-building game with multiple paths to victory.

Players will have yōkai represented by the cards that make up their hand, which must be placed in the right places at the right times in order to obtain the maximum benefit from the abilities they offer. Furthermore, during the game players can earn more yōkai cards for their deck, thereby increasing their playing options and achieving a higher score. Each player also has three yōkai guardians (in the form of dice) that they can send to the large regions of the forest on the main board in order to obtain all kinds of new options that they can play during the game. These options can be structures they build in certain areas of the forest, soul crystals that generate resources when certain actions are carried out, and many others as well. The players also have the chance to help the mitamas, lost souls in search of redemption by using the chinkon fireflies.

There is truly a wide range of actions to carry out, and this is without taking into account the personal domain where the players can lay out another layer of additional strategy while managing the pilgrims. Pilgrims are followers of the player who embark upon journeys of contemplation and reflection who then share the experiences and learning they can along the spirit path with the Bitoku.

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Hand Management
  • Set Collection
  • Solo / Solitaire Game
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • ~120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.76

Arkham Horror: The Card Game

Something evil stirs in Arkham, and only you can stop it. Blurring the traditional lines between role-playing and card game experiences, Arkham Horror: The Card Game is a Living Card Game of Lovecraftian mystery, monsters, and madness!

In the game, you and your friend (or up to three friends with two Core Sets) become characters within the quiet New England town of Arkham. You have your talents, sure, but you also have your flaws. Perhaps you’ve dabbled a little too much in the writings of the Necronomicon, and its words continue to haunt you. Perhaps you feel compelled to cover up any signs of otherworldly evils, hampering your own investigations in order to protect the quiet confidence of the greater population. Perhaps you’ll be scarred by your encounters with a ghoulish cult.

No matter what compels you, no matter what haunts you, you’ll find both your strengths and weaknesses reflected in your custom deck of cards, and these cards will be your resources as you work with your friends to unravel the world’s most terrifying mysteries.

Each of your adventures in Arkham Horror LCG carries you deeper into mystery. You’ll find cultists and foul rituals. You’ll find haunted houses and strange creatures. And you may find signs of the Ancient Ones straining against the barriers to our world…

The basic mode of play in Arkham LCG is not the adventure, but the campaign. You might be scarred by your adventures, your sanity may be strained, and you may alter Arkham’s landscape, burning buildings to the ground. All your choices and actions have consequences that reach far beyond the immediate resolution of the scenario at hand—and your actions may earn you valuable experience with which you can better prepare yourself for the adventures that still lie before you.

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.55

Xenoshyft Onslaught

Xenoshyft Onslaught

Xenoshyft Onslaught

In XenoShyft: Onslaught, a strategic base defense deck-builder, players take on the role of the NorTec Military, charged with defending their base against the onslaught of the alien “Hive”.

XenoShyft: Onslaught combines classic deck-building and resource management with fast-paced combat and unique “base defense” elements. As the game progresses, each player builds up their deck of Troop, Equipment, and Item cards, which they will in turn use to defend the base against incoming enemies in deadly combat.

It is up to the players to work together in order to outlast the horrors awaiting them by coordinating strategy, utilizing the strengths of their unique divisions (Med Bay, Weapons Research, Science Lab, and Armory), and organizing defense tactics to ensure no player is caught off-guard by surprise attacks.

Game Mechanics:

  • Cooperative
  • Deck Building
  • Open Drafting

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.65

Wonderlands War

Wonderlands War

Wonderlands War

The Looking Glass has shattered, madness is being drained from the inhabitants, and war has come to Wonderland. Alice, Mad Hatter, Red Queen, Jabberwock, and Cheshire Cat must gather all that they can while playing nice at the Hatter’s Tea Party before going to battle!

In Wonderland’s War, 2-5 players take the role as a faction leader who has been invited to the Hatter’s tea party. Drink tea and eat cake as you move around the table drafting cards to gather your forces, build your towers, upgrade your leader, and recruit Wonderlandians to your cause — but one must be careful as shards of the Looking Glass are spread throughout Wonderland. Once all the plates are empty, the Tea Party is over and war begins. Use the forces you gathered to battle your enemies in familiar locations, but make sure not to draw your Madness chips or your supporters will abandon your cause and you will be out of the fight. Can you muster enough strength to win the battle, or will you just try to complete Quests instead by meeting the right conditions such as gaining region bonuses and set collection throughout the game?

After all the battles have been fought, a truce is called and everyone meets back at the tea party to plot their moves for the next fight. After three rounds, the faction with the most points will be crowned as the new leader of Wonderland!

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Deck Building
  • Dice Rolling
  • Open Drafting
  • Push Your Luck

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 45 – 125 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.84

Vampire The Masquerade: Rivals

Vampire The Masquerade: Rivals

Vampire The Masquerade: Rivals

Vampire: The Masquerade Rivals Expandable Card Game puts you in control of a coterie of vampires who vie for control of the city of San Francisco. Through dominating mortals, using their political influence, and clashing with their rivals in the streets in the dark of the night, you’ll gather your allies and face off against one or more other players as you seek to push your agenda.

In Vampire: The Masquerade Rivals Expandable Card Game, each player plays with a Deck of Cards featuring a Clan from Vampire: The Masquerade Lore.

At the beginning of each player’s turn, a new challenge or objective will be revealed in the streets. Each player gets two actions on their turn such as draw or play cards, recruit vampires, claim a title, or attack! The other clans will oppose you for dominance in the streets or directly in haven.

Defeat your rival, or gain 13 Agenda Points to win the game and claim dominance over San Francisco.

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 70 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.30

Twisted Fables

Twisted Fables

Twisted Fables

Twisted Fables is a fast-paced fairy tale fighting game inspired by old-school 2D arcade fighters. In Twisted Fables players take on the roles of beloved heroines from some of history’s most famous stories, myths, and legends. Plucked from their traditional settings, these characters have been thrown into a world of cybernetic assassins, magical manipulations, and malevolent darkness. These are not the classic characters you remember, but rather superpowered fables drawn from their own lands to battle across sweeping, bizarre alternate dimensions and realities. What mysterious force has drawn them together? What is the purpose of their war? Only the Weaver of Tales knows for certain.

Driven by deck building, Twisted Fables is a game for two players in 1v1 Mode or four players in 2v2 Mode (available with the separately released 2v2 Upgrade Pack.) In the game, each warrior will strengthen their abilities, learn potent new skills, unlock devastating special powers, and use unique asymmetric strategies to defeat their opponents. Even the same character may display completely different fighting styles depending on her player’s decisions. The different specializations a character can choose from not only provide fantastically flexible tactical choices, but also offer one more layer of depth and surprise to this frenetic, frantic fighter. Twisted Fables brings a highly interactive experience to deck builders that you’ll want to come back to again and again.

The book is opened. The fables have arisen. Let’s begin.

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Hand Management
  • Team Based

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.94