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.

Ethnos: 1st Edition

| T3d-1978

In Ethnos, players call upon the support of giants, merfolk, halflings, minotaurs, and other fantasy tribes to help them gain control of the land. After three ages of play, whoever has collected the most glory wins!

In more detail, the land of Ethnos contains twelve tribes of fantasy creatures, and in each game you choose six of them (five in a 2/3-player game), then create a deck with only the creatures in those tribes. The cards come in six colors, which match the six regions of Ethnos. Place three glory tokens in each region at random, arranging them from low to high.

Each player starts the game with one card in hand, then 4-12 cards (double the number of players) are placed face up on the table. On a turn, a player either recruits an ally or plays a band of allies. In the former case, you take a face-up card (without replacing it from the deck) or the top card of the deck and add it to your hand. In the latter case, you choose a set of cards in your hand that match either in tribe or in color, play them in front of you on the table, then discard all other cards in hand. You then place one token in the region that matches the color of the top card just played, and you use the power of the tribe member on the top card just played.

At the end of the first age, whoever has the most tokens in a region scores the glory shown on the first token. After the second age, the players with the most and second most tokens score glory equal to the values shown on the first and second tokens respectively. Players score similarly after the third age, then whoever has the most glory wins. (Games with two and three players last only two ages.)

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting
  • Push Your Luck
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • 45 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.04

Equinox

| T3d-1978

In Equinox, mysterious creatures gather in the forest in an effort to write themselves into the legendary storybook and for tales to be shared for countless generations. However, there is room for only four more stories — not every story will be recorded, so the creatures have to be cunning and clever to outwit their opponents and make the cut.

Equinox is a deeply satisfying betting game that gives players agency to influence the outcome of this competition. Each round, players place numbered power cards in front of the creatures, with the lowest-valued creature being eliminated from play. Players also place bets on which creatures they think will make it into the storybook, and you can use the special powers of these creatures to ideally turn things to your advantage.

Fans of Dr. Reiner Knizia might recognize Equinox as a revised edition of the previously released game Colossal Arena, but with two new creatures. Of the fourteen unique creatures, only eight are played in a game, which means more than three thousand different combinations are possible. To celebrate the equinox occurring twice a year, players can select from two distinct box covers, but note that the contents in each box are identical.

Game Mechanics:

  • Bluffing
  • Hand Management

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 40 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00

Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards: Annihilageddon Deck-Building Game

| T3d-1978

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

Dominion: Seaside

| T3d-1978

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

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

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: Guilds & Cornucopia

| T3d-1978

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

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

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

Dominion: Alchemy

| T3d-1978

There are strange things going on in your basement laboratories. They keep calling up for more barrels of quicksilver, or bits of your hair. Well it’s all in the name of progress. They’re looking for a way to turn lead into gold, or at least into something better than lead. That lead had just been too good of a bargain to pass up; you didn’t think, where will I put all this lead, what am I going to do with this lead anyway. Well, that will all be sorted out. They’re also looking for a universal solvent. If they manage that one, you will take whatever they use to hold it in and build a castle out of it. A castle that can’t be dissolved! Now that’s progress.

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.46