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.

Aeon’s End 🟡

| T3d-1978

The survivors of a long-ago invasion have taken refuge in the forgotten underground city of Gravehold. There, the desperate remnants of society have learned that the energy of the very breaches the beings use to attack them can be repurposed through various gems, transforming the malign energies within into beneficial spells and weapons to aid their last line of defense: the breach mages.

Aeon’s End is a cooperative game that explores the deckbuilding genre with a number of innovative mechanisms, including a variable turn order system that simulates the chaos of an attack, and deck management rules that require careful planning with every discarded card. Players will struggle to defend Gravehold from The Nameless and their hordes using unique abilities, powerful spells, and, most importantly of all, their collective wits.

Game Mechanics:

  • Chit-Pull System
  • Cooperative
  • Deck Building
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • ~60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.79

Zoom in Barcelona

| T3d-1978
Zoom in Barcelona

Zoom in Barcelona

Travel around the city of Barcelona and take the best photos to win the game!

In Zoom in Barcelona, players compete in a photo contest to try to take the best photos of the city. Hop on a bike, catch a taxi or a bus to get to the best spots before the other players. During the game you will take photos of its beautiful locations, the iconic structures that create the skyline of Barcelona, and… dragons!

Find the best views of the city, from its seashore to the mountains of Collserola and MontjuĂŻc. Discover its incredible architecture, and the outstanding Modernist sites including those of visionary architect GaudĂ­.

Did you know that you can find more than 400 dragons in the city of Barcelona? Many artists and architects have included dragons in their works, and dragons and other fantastic beasts are at the centre of cercaviles and correfocs (traditional fire parades). Barcelona is a city of dragons!

Are you ready? Grab your camera and win the game!

The goal of this board game for 2-6 players is to score the highest number of points to win the photography contest. When a player takes their 8th landmark photo the game will end, and the photographer with the most points will win.

Points can be scored by:

  • Taking photographs of the landmarks selected by the judges, with bonus points awarded if the photos contain the relevant themes of the game (different themes will be revealed for each game)
  • Taking photographs of the different buildings of the skyline of the city.

This game contains 86 landmark cards with beautiful illustrations of locations of the city of Barcelona.

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Managment
  • Open Drafting
  • Pattern Building
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.82

Zombicide

| T3d-1978
Zombicide

Zombicide

Zombicide is a collaborative game in which players take the role of a survivor – each with unique abilities – and harness both their skills and the power of teamwork against the hordes of unthinking undead! Zombies are predictable, stupid but deadly, controlled by simple rules and a deck of cards. Unfortunately for you, there are a LOT more zombies than you have bullets.

Find weapons, kill zombies. The more zombies you kill, the more skilled you get; the more skilled you get, the more zombies appear. The only way out is zombicide!

Play ten scenarios on different maps made from the included modular map tiles, download new scenarios from the designer’s website, or create your own!

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Campaign
  • Cooperative
  • Dice Rolling
  • Grid Movement
  • Hand Managment
  • Player Elimination

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 6 Players
  • ~60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.54

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

| T3d-1978
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

In World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, players journey to the frozen continent of Northrend to face the armies of the Lich King. This “Pandemic System” game showcases familiar mechanisms and gameplay, now tweaked to embrace the setting of the Wrath of the Lich King. Forts, temples, battlegrounds, and more populate the game board as you and your fellow heroes journey across the cold landscape. Along the way, you’ll set up strongholds, complete quests, and do battle with legions of undead.

In more detail, players team up as legendary heroes from across Azeroth, each with their own unique abilities to help in and out of combat. Heroes such as Thrall, Warchief of the Horde; Varian Wrynn, King of Stormwind; Sylvanas Windrunner, Banshee Queen of the Forsaken; and many more are at your fingertips. As the Scourge grows, more undead will populate the board. Throw dice as you enter into battle against the hordes of ghouls and ferocious abominations, using hero cards to add power to your attacks, block incoming assaults, heal wounds, take mounts to far off spaces, and so much more.

As you fight your way to the Lich King, all manner of dark magic and terrible creatures under his control need to be neutralized. This comes in the form of quests, a brand-new mechanism that can be completed as a team through a combination of dice rolls and the hero cards at your disposal. However, each quest comes with its own dangers and hindrances. Complete these quests to move closer to the final assault on Icecrown Citadel, where the Lich King himself resides.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Cooperative
  • Hand Management
  • Set Collection
  • Trading

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • 45 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.18

Wingspan

| T3d-1978
Wingspan

Wingspan

Wingspan is a competitive, medium-weight, card-driven, engine-building board game from Stonemaier Games. It’s designed by Elizabeth Hargrave and features over 170 birds illustrated by Beth Sobel, Natalia Rojas, and Ana Maria Martinez.

You are bird enthusiasts—researchers, bird watchers, ornithologists, and collectors—seeking to discover and attract the best birds to your network of wildlife preserves. Each bird extends a chain of powerful combinations in one of your habitats (actions). These habitats focus on several key aspects of growth:

  • Gain food tokens via custom dice in a birdfeeder dice tower
  • Lay eggs using egg miniatures in a variety of colors
  • Draw from hundreds of unique bird cards and play them

The winner is the player with the most points after 4 rounds.

Game Mechanics:

  • Dice Rolling
  • Hand Managment
  • Open Drafting
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • 40 – 70 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.45

Windward

| T3d-1978
Windward

Windward

You are a captain flying your Ship on the skies of the gaseous planet Celus. Gain the most notoriety by sailing the skies, hunting crestors, fighting opponents. Whichever player has the most notoriety points at the end of the game is the winner. To gain notoriety, you can trade in Crestor teeth and gas at the trading post.

Players take turns to move their ships, take actions, use supply cards, and battle other players.

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Movement
  • Cooperative
  • Dice Rolling
  • Grid Movement
  • Hand Management
  • Pick-Up and Deliver
  • Trading
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • 30 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.29

Wasabi!

| T3d-1978
Wasabi!

Wasabi!

Wasabi! is a light and fast game where you compete against other players to assemble your quota of unique sushi recipes in a rapidly dwindling space. Players draw a variety of delicious ingredients into their hand from the pantry and play them one at a time onto the board, building off of each other’s previously-placed ingredients in the attempt to complete recipes of varying difficulty.

Completing a recipe earns you your choice of special actions from the kitchen to perform later (Chop!, Stack!, Switch!, Spicy!, and the dreaded Wasabi!) that will help you in your efforts or disrupt your opponents’ carefully arranged creations-in-progress.

Completing a recipe with style will earn you bonus points, but you might not always have the time to set up such stylish maneuvers… balancing speed with technique will be crucial if you plan to win the game!

Victory comes as soon as the board fills up with ingredients. Points for completed recipes plus bonuses are tabulated, and the winner is the player with the most points. An extremely skilled player might score an instant victory by completing their quota of recipes before the board fills up.

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Pattern Building
  • Set Collection
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.90

Warriors of Jogu: Feint

| T3d-1978
Warriors of Jogu: Feint

Warriors of Jogu: Feint

Warriors of Jogu is a two-player card game in which players take turns playing units into one of five locations. The five locations are numbered 2 to 6, and at the end of each round battle happens at only one or two of these locations. Each unit that is in a battle location contributes its strength multiplied by the value of the location, and the sum of the contributions from all of a player’s units is their strategy rating for the round. However, each player only knows one of the two battle locations, while their opponent knows the other battle location!

The player with the higher strategy rating wins the round and one victory point. The other player not only loses the round, but also loses an amount of morale indicated on the units they deployed to the board — so be careful about playing too many units as they will cost you morale if you lose the round!

If a player runs out of morale, the game ends immediately and the other player wins. If at the end of seven rounds, no player has ran out of morale, the player with the most victory points wins. In case of a tie (made possible by some special abilities), the player who won the final victory point (in the final round) wins.

Game Mechanics:

  • Bluffing
  • Hand Management

Game Specifications:

  • 2 Players
  • 20 – 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.17

War Chest

| T3d-1978
War Chest

War Chest

War Chest is an all-new bag-building war game! At the start of the game, raise your banner call (drafting) several various units into your army, which you then use to capture key points on the board. To succeed in War Chest, you must successfully manage not only your armies on the battlefield, but those that are waiting to be deployed.

Each round you draw three unit coins from your bag, then take turns using them to perform actions. Each coin shows a military unit on one side and can be used for one of several actions. The game ends when one player — or one team in the case of a four-player game — has placed all of their control markers. That player or team wins!

Game Mechanics:

  • Abstract Strategy
  • Area Control
  • Deck Building
  • Grid Movement
  • Hand Management
  • Team Based
  • Wargame

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.32

Vinyl

| T3d-1978
Vinyl

Vinyl

One weekend, you find yourself cleaning the family attic. During your cleaning, you stumble upon an old turntable and a small collection of vinyl records. You blow the dust off and bring the find downstairs to the den. After setting it up, you place the needle down on an album you vaguely remember hearing when you were very young. As the album spins under the needle, you sit back and look at the album cover and insert. Warm sounds begin to fill the room as you are instantly transported to another world. You listen to the wonderful notes playing while following along with the lyrics. After the needle reaches the center, you shoot up out of your chair and hop on the computer — you want more! You locate the nearest record store — Record Town. You hop in the car not really know what to expect. After arriving and parking the car, you pull back on the door into a musical paradise. Welcome to Vinyl!

Vinyl is a game where players are aspiring vinyl collectors. They have some knowledge of what they would like to collect, but immediately get immersed in the experience. Players will acquire morsels of information after visiting the “Mag Rack”. That information will lead them to the bins where they select albums to add and expand their collection. Albums can be played at the listening booth to increase the value of a player’s collection and their ability to collect even more albums. Unfortunately, the inventory is limited and other customers may be targeting the same vinyl gems. After the final round is concluded, players will tally their collection’s value and determine who is the Elite Collector of Vinyl!

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • ~60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.50