Tag: Hand Management

Hand Management is a game mechanic in which players are rewarded for playing cards in a specific order. This mechanic often encourages players to hold cards for later turns.

Yukon Airways

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Yukon Airways

Yukon Airways

In Yukon Airways, you will be at the controls of your very own seaplane with the mission of transporting travelers to the different points of the Yukon. Embark your passengers (dice) using a draft system and use your ticket cards to take them to the different locations on the map. For each passenger, you get money and the possibility of improving your plane if the passenger finds a point of interest that satisfies their tastes at the destination (when the color of the die matches the color of one of the cubes at that destination). At the end of the game, you will earn extra money according to the different locations you have visited. The player who has earned the most money at the end of the week wins.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Drafting
  • Dice Drafting
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting
  • Pick-Up and Deliver

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.83

Yedo

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Yedo

Yedo

Japan, 1605 – Hidetada Tokugawa has succeeded his father as the new Shogun, ruling from the great city of Edo (a.k.a. Yedo), the city known in present times as Tokyo. This marks the beginning of the golden age of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the so-called Edo Period that will last until 1868. Naturally, the most powerful families in Edo immediately try to curry favor with the new Shogun – and this is the opportunity our clan has been looking for, our chance at power and glory. Our clan will prove ourselves to be indispensable to the new Shogun. We will work from the shadows to acquire information about our rival clans. We will kidnap those who might oppose our ascent and assassinate those who prove a threat. We will use cunning to prevent our adversaries from doing the same to us. We will find glory and honor in the eyes of this new Shogun – or failing that we will end his rule by any means necessary.

In the strategy game Yedo, players assume the roles of Clan Elders in the city of Edo during the early years of the Tokugawa Shogunate. The object of the game is to amass Prestige Points, mainly by completing missions. To do so, players must gather the necessary assets and – most importantly – outfox their opponents and prevent them from completing their missions.

There are several ways to reach your goal. Will you try to complete as many missions as possible and hope that your efforts catch the Shogun’s eye? Or will you choose a more subtle way of gaining power by trying to influence the Shogun during a private audience? You can also put your rivals to shame by buying lots of luxury goods from the European merchants. It’s all up to you – but be careful to make the right choices, for in Yedo, eternal glory and painful disgrace are two sides of the same coin…

Game Mechanics:

  • Auction/Bidding
  • Hand Management
  • Set Collection
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 120 – 180 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.34

Western Legends: Blood Money

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Western Legends: Blood Money

Western Legends: Blood Money

To become a legend, it takes grit, cunning, and a little luck. Problem is, you ain’t the only one looking to make a reputation for yourself. So you have to be willing to risk it all, every hard-earned dollar, every drop of blood, to write your name across the face of history.

Blood Money is the second large expansion for Western Legends, introducing a number of modules to tailor every game. The risk module uses a die that improves a number of actions… at the risk of injury. The legendary story module incorporates the story track and high-reward adventures for players to pursue. Players may now purchase deeds to locations and legendary items from the traveling trader. And of course, there is a bevy of new characters and items to explore!

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Area Movement
  • Bluffing
  • Hand Management
  • Pick-Up and Deliver
  • Take That

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.00

Western Legends

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Western Legends

Western Legends

Historic characters from the American Wild West face off and write new legends across the face of history! Gather your gun, your mount, and your grit as you forge your path into the history books.

Western Legends is an open-world sandbox tabletop adventure for 2-6 players set in the American Wild West. Players assume the roles of historical figures of the era, earning their legendary status in a variety of ways: gamble, drive cattle, prospect for gold, rob the bank, fight bandits, pursue stories, become an outlaw, keep the peace. The possibilities are darn near endless.

Each player’s turn starts with drawing poker cards and/or gaining cash. Then they choose three actions. Possible actions include: move on the map (how far depends on whether they have a mount), doing a location-specific action (such as mine for gold if they are at a gold mine, gamble if they’re in a saloon, etc.), fight other players at the same location (either duel them, rob them, or arrest them if they’re wanted), play poker cards that have action abilities, etc. Legendary Points (LPs) are earned based on the outcomes of many of these actions, and the winner is whoever has the most LPs at the end of the game.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Area Movement
  • Bluffing
  • Dice Rolling
  • Hand Management
  • Pick-Up and Deliver
  • Take That

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.81

Warpgate

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Warpgate

Warpgate

Warpgate is a fast-paced game of hand management and area control. As a leader of a unique race of aliens, lead them towards triumph.

Move your fleets of star-ships on a hex-based modular game board, establish colonies and outposts and engage your enemies in battles for the control of prized commodities. Research new technologies and grow your galactic empire.

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Campaign
  • Grid Movement
  • Hand Management

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 6 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.93

War of the Ring the Card Game

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War of the Ring the Card Game

War of the Ring the Card Game

Inspired by the best-selling and award-winning War of the Ring board game, War of the Ring: The Card Game allows players to journey to the world of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and create their own version of the dramatic conflict between the Dark Lord, Sauron, and the Free Peoples of Middle-earth.
In War of the Ring: The Card Game, up to 4 players compete in two teams, the Shadow against the Free Peoples, each player using a specific and different card deck representing the strengths and weaknesses of the different factions involved in the war.
The Free Peoples desperately try to complete their quest to destroy the One Ring, while at the same time defending their homelands from the encroaching hordes of Sauron and from his evil allies.

The Shadow players must strike quickly and decisively, before the Ring-bearers can complete their quest; or try to slowly corrupt Frodo, burdening him with wounds, toil, and the sorrow for the loss of his Companions.

During the game, players will take turns playing cards representing the characters, armies, items, and events of the War of the Ring. Each card they play will help or hinder the journey of the Fellowship as it progresses on its Path; or be used to defend or conquer the strongholds of Middle-earth, as they fight to control the new Battleground cards activated in each round.

With more than 100 original illustrations from the greatest Tolkienian artists in the world, including an amazing gallery of landscapes from The Shire to Mordor by John and Fataneh Howe, War of the Ring: The Card Game is more than a game – it also a memorable collection for all lovers of the world imagined by J.R.R. Tolkien.

This is your chance to forge the destiny of an age, like you never did before!

Game Mechanics:

  • Campaign
  • Hand Management
  • Team Based

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 90 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.90

Viticulture

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Viticulture

Viticulture

In Viticulture, the players find themselves in the roles of people in rustic, pre-modern Tuscany who have inherited meager vineyards. They have a few plots of land, an old crushpad, a tiny cellar, and three workers. They each have a dream of being the first to call their winery a true success.

The players are in the position of determining how they want to allocate their workers throughout the year. Every season is different on a vineyard, so the workers have different tasks they can take care of in the summer and winter. There’s competition over those tasks, and often the first worker to get to the job has an advantage over subsequent workers.

Fortunately for the players, people love to visit wineries, and it just so happens that many of those visitors are willing to help out around the vineyard when they visit as long as you assign a worker to take care of them. Their visits (in the form of cards) are brief but can be very helpful.

Using those workers and visitors, players can expand their vineyards by building structures, planting vines (vine cards), and filling wine orders (wine order cards). Players work towards the goal of running the most successful winery in Tuscany.

Game Mechanics:

  • Economic
  • Hand Management
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 6 Players
  • 45 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.88

Villainous Marvel: Infinite Power

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Villainous Marvel: Infinite Power

Villainous Marvel: Infinite Power

Dominate the Marvel universe as an iconic comic book villain! Each villain follows a unique path to victory; each uses different abilities to face other villains and mighty heroes from across the universe. Choose Hela, Killmonger, Taskmaster, Thanos, or Ultron and fulfill your dark destiny!

In Marvel Villainous: Infinite Power, players move their villains to different locations within their domain, carry out the actions there, and deal twists of fate to their opponents from a shared fate deck. Three different game modes allow players to scale the difficulty of their game by facing more or fewer events — situations that extract a heavy toll on villains until they are resolved the only way villains know how. Specialty cards add to each villain’s ability, making them even more formidable as more specialty cards are played. With beginner and advance options, this game is an adventure for the whole family!

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Hand Management

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 40 – 80 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.65

Unmatched: For King and Country

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Unmatched: For King and Country

Unmatched: For King and Country

Unmatched is a highly asymmetrical miniature fighting game for two or four players. Each hero is represented by a unique deck designed to evoke their style and legend. Tactical movement and no-luck combat resolution create a unique play experience that rewards expertise, but just when you’ve mastered one set, new heroes arrive to provide all new match-ups.

Unmatched: For King and Country features three characters from the Marvel comics universe: Black Widow, Black Panther, and Winter Soldier.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Hand Management
  • Take That
  • Team Based

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 3 Players
  • 20 – 40 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.00

Unfathomable

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Unfathomable

Unfathomable

The year is 1913. The steamship SS Atlantica is two days out from port on its voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. Its unsuspecting passengers fully anticipated a calm journey to Boston, Massachusetts, with nothing out of the ordinary to look forward to. However, strange nightmares plague the minds of the people aboard the ship every night; rumors circulate of dark shapes following closely behind the ship just beneath the waves; and tensions rise when a body is discovered in the ship’s chapel, signs of a strange ritual littered around the corpse.

Lurking within the depths of the Atlantic Ocean are a swarm of vicious, unspeakable horrors: the Deep Ones, led by Mother Hydra and Father Dagon. For reasons unknown, they have set their sights on the Atlantica, and their minions, taking the form of human-Deep One hybrids, have infiltrated the steamship to help sink it from within. Each game of Unfathomable has one or more players assuming the role of one of these hybrids, and how well they can secretly sabotage the efforts of the other players might mean the difference between a successful voyage and a sunken ship.

If you’re a human, you need to fend off Deep Ones, prevent the Atlantica from taking too much damage, and carefully manage the ship’s four crucial resources if you want any hope of making it to Boston, all while trying to figure out which of your fellow players are friends and which are foes. Everyone shares the same resource pool, but humans will try to preserve them while traitors will strive to subtly deplete them. Being able to tell when someone is purposefully draining the group’s resources is harder than you think, especially when you take crises into account!

At the end of each player’s turn, that player must draw a mythos card. Each of these cards represents a crisis that the whole group must try to resolve together. Some of these crises, such as “Food Rationing”, call for a choice that could potentially put the ship’s passengers or resources at risk, while others, such as “Hull Leak”, call for a skill test in which failure could have disastrous consequences.

During a skill test, each player contributes skill cards from their hand to a face-down pile shared by the group. Once everyone has contributed (or chosen not to), the cards are shuffled, then revealed. If enough of the correct skills were contributed, then the group passes the test! But if the wrong skills were contributed, they can actually hinder the results, leading to failure. Thus, skill tests are dangerous opportunities for traitors to sabotage the humans’ efforts, so you have to stay on your toes at all times.

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Movement
  • Bluffing
  • Deduction
  • Hand Management
  • Hidden Roles
  • Team Based

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 6 Players
  • 120 – 240 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.94