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.

Mountains of Madness

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Mountains of Madness

Mountains of Madness

1931: Your scientific expedition discovers a new and intriguing mountain range in the middle of the Antarctic polar circle. Under these challenging conditions, the survival of your team will depend on your ability to communicate with each other and to coordinate your efforts to overcome each obstacle — but what you discover on the way to the highest peak will strongly test your mental health. Will you even be able to understand yourself despite the madness that gradually insinuates itself into your mind?

Game Mechanics:

  • Cooperative
  • Dice Rolling
  • Grid Movement
  • Hand Management
  • Limited Communication
  • Role Playing

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 5 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.02

Mission: Red Planet

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Mission: Red Planet

Mission: Red Planet

The year is 1888, and Steampunk technology has advanced at a prodigious rate! Probes have been sent to Mars, and soon astronauts will be manning rockets in order to mine the planet for newly discovered resources. The first is a brand new element, Celerium, that could prove to be a combustible energy source the likes man has never seen. The second is Sylvanite, an incredibly dense material unlike anything found on earth. In addition to these resources, glaciers have been discovered on the planet. Whoever controls these icy masses could work to create a livable atmosphere on Mars

In Mission: Red Planet, players work as mining companies compete to send astronauts to Mars in order to colonize and mine for recently discovered materials. Over the course of 10 rounds, players play one of their special agents every round to help fill the rockets heading to Mars with their own astronauts while simultaneously working to prevent their opponents from doing the same. Once landed, these astronauts must gather to control specific regions of the planet, each yielding one of the three resources: Celerium, Sylvanite, or Ice. After rounds 5 and 8, players gain score tokens for every region where they control the majority of the astronauts. At the end of the game, players score one final time, adding any bonuses received from Discovery Cards and Bonus Cards. The player with the most score tokens at the end controls Mars, and all the riches it can bring!

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Area Movement
  • Hand Management
  • Take That

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • 45 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.20

Methodologie

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Methodologie

Methodologie

Take on the roles of suspect and sleuth from Agatha Christie’s acclaimed detective novel The Murder on the Links. Use your “little grey cells” to gather evidence, eliminate suspects, and ultimately level an accusation.

The game of Méthodologie is played in two distinct phases:
the INVESTIGATION PHASE and the ACCUSATION PHASE.

In the INVESTIGATION PHASE, the players will reveal cards from their hands, then interrogate each other in order to eliminate leads. This sequence continues until each player has only one character, one location, and one object left in hand.

In the ACCUSATION PHASE, the players will place target tokens to make accusations about the remaining cards in each other’s hands. Any cards not correctly identified by majority accusation will be scored when the game ends.

Game Mechanics:

  • Deduction
  • Hand Management
  • Puzzle

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 6 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00

Memoir ’44

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Memoir '44

Memoir '44

Memoir ’44 is a historical boardgame where players face-off in stylized battles of some of the most famous historic battles of World War II including Omaha Beach, Pegasus Bridge, Operation Cobra and the Ardennes.

Memoir ’44 includes over 15 different battle scenarios and features a double-sided hex game board for both beach landings and countryside combat. Each scenario mimics the historical terrain, troop placements and objectives of each army. Commanders deploy troops through Command and Tactic cards, applying the unique skills of his units — infantry, paratrooper, tank, artillery, and even resistance fighters — to their greatest strength.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Area Control
  • Campaign
  • Dice Rolling
  • Grid Movement
  • Hand Management
  • Team Based
  • Wargame

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 8 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.27

Meadow

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Meadow

Meadow

Meadow is an engaging set collection game with over two hundred unique cards containing hand-painted watercolor illustrations. In the game, players take the role of explorers competing for the title of the most skilled nature observer. To win, they collect cards with the most valuable species, landscapes, and discoveries. Their journey is led by passion, a curiosity of the world, an inquiring mind, and a desire to discover the mysteries of nature. The competition continues at the bonfire where the players race to fulfill the goals of their adventures.

In this medium-weight board game for 1-4 players, you take turns placing path tokens on one of the two boards. Placing a token on the main board allows the player to get cards, but playing them requires meeting certain requirements. Playing a token on the bonfire board activates special actions (which helps to implement a chosen strategy) and gives the opportunity to achieve goals that provide additional points. Throughout the game, players collect cards in their meadow and surroundings area. At the end, the player with the most points on cards and on the bonfire board wins.

Meadow also includes envelopes with additional cards to open at specific moments…

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting
  • Set Collection
  • Tableau Building
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.24

Marvel United: X-Men Gold Team

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Marvel United: X-Men Gold Team

Marvel United: X-Men Gold Team

The X-Men: Gold Team expansion brings another iconic X-Men team, featuring classic Heroes that will each bring their own twist to the game. It also features a Villain that will bring the full power of the Hellfire Club to bear against the X-Men. That is, if the X-Men can stop fighting against each other long enough to take care of this menace, as this expansion also contains all the contents and rules necessary to play the Team vs Team Mode.

Game Mechanics:

  • Cooperative
  • Hand Management
  • Team Based

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 6 Players
  • ~40 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00

Marvel United: X-Men Blue Team

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Marvel United: X-Men Blue Team

Marvel United: X-Men Blue Team

The X-Men: Blue Team expansion would be awesome enough if it only added to the game this beloved team of X-Men, each with their own unique abilities, and fighting against a Villain with a most sinister plan to extract mutant DNA. But it also carries the new Team vs Team mode and all it brings to the table.

Game Mechanics:

  • Cooperative
  • Hand Management
  • Team Based

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 6 Players
  • ~40 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00

Marvel United: X-Men

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Marvel United: X-Men

Marvel United: X-Men

In Marvel United: X-Men, you take the role of iconic Marvel Heroes cooperating to stop the master plan of a powerful Villain controlled by the game. Each Villain unveils their unique master plan, with cards that trigger different effects, and threats that pose challenges across the locations. Heroes must choose carefully the cards to play from their unique decks, that not only offer different actions and superpowers to use, but also combine with the actions of other Heroes to do the impossible. Build your storyline, unite your powers, save the day!

Game Mechanics:

  • Cooperative
  • Hand Managment
  • Team Based

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • ~40 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00

Marvel United

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Marvel United

Marvel United

In Marvel United you take the role of iconic Marvel Heroes cooperating to stop the master plan of a powerful Villain controlled by the game. Each Villain unveils their unique master plan, with cards that trigger different effects, and threats that pose challenges across the locations. Heroes must choose carefully the cards to play from their unique decks, that not only offer different actions and superpowers to use, but also combine with the actions of other Heroes to do the impossible. Build your storyline, unite your powers, save the day!

Game Mechanics:

  • Cooperative
  • Hand Management

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • ~40 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.83

Mahjong

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Mahjong

Mahjong

Mah-Jongg (Chinese 麻將/麻将 Májiàng [game of the] sparrow) is a traditional Chinese game using illustrated tiles, with game play similarities to rummy. It is a popular gambling game, but wagering real stakes is by no means necessary to have fun playing.

The tiles consist of three suits numbering 1-9 (Dots, Numbers or Characters, and Bamboo, the “Ace” of which almost always looks like a bird), three different dragons (Red, Green, and White [white is unusual in that it may look like a silvery dragon, or like a picture frame, or blank – think “White dragon in a snowstorm”), and the four winds (east, south, west, and north). There are four copies of each tile. This totals to 136 tiles. In addition, special Flower, Season, and Joker (American version) tiles may also be used.

Four players take turns drawing from a stock (the wall), or from the other players’ discards, in an attempt to form sets of numeric sequences (e.g., 5-6-7 of the same suit, which can only be drawn from the player at one’s left, by calling “Chow”), triplets and quadruplets (which can be drawn from the discards out-of-turn by calling “Pung”), pairs, and other patterns. “Pung” takes precedence over “Chow”, and “Mah Jongg” takes precedence over all (and is the only situation one may draw “Chow” out-of-turn.) What happens if a single discard would give two (or more!) players “Mah Jongg”? Precedence goes to the player who would play next in normal sequence.

Game Mechanics:

  • Abstract Strategy
  • Hand Management
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 4 Players
  • 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.57