Tag: Set Collection

Games with Set Collection mechanics require players to collect resources in sets to achieve various rewards.

World’s Fair 1893

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World’s Fair 1893

World’s Fair 1893

The World’s Fair of 1893 in Chicago was a spectacular international exhibition that showcased many great achievements in science, technology, culture, and entertainment. Acting as organizers of the fair, players work diligently to increase their influence throughout the fair and obtain the grand exhibits that will be put on display. The organizer who has earned the best reputation when the fair begins will emerge the victor.

On each turn of World’s Fair 1893, the active player sends a supporter to one of the five areas and gathers all of the cards in it. New cards are then added to some of the areas, and the next player takes a turn.

The five areas represent sections of exhibits, like Fine Arts and Electricity. Cards may represent exhibit proposals in one of those five areas, influential people who provide bonus supporters, or tickets for attractions and concessions along the Midway.

The game consists of three scoring rounds, each triggered when players collectively gather a certain number of Midway tickets. Players gain reputation points for leading in number of supporters in an area and for gathering the most tickets in each round. The leaders in an area also receive approval for exhibit proposals they have gathered that match the area. Players gain reputation points at the end of the game based on the breadth and diversity of their approved exhibits.

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Open Drafting
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 35 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

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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

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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

WildStyle

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WildStyle

WildStyle

Welcome to Wildstyle, where the city is your canvas and the streets belong to the people. Rock to the beat of your favorite pirate radio station while you and your crew tag the city. Make sure your rivals know where their turf ends and where yours begins. Watch out for the man though, because not everyone in the city appreciates your artistic endeavors and they might call the fuzz on you!

The goal of the game is to tag locations across the city’s districts with your crew’s color. You’ll do this by collecting sets of cards with matching location icons. Each time you collect a set of 3 cards that all have the same icon, you get to place a tag on a hex with that icon anywhere on the map.

The game is played over 3 rounds and there are no turns! Once a round has started everyone takes their actions at the same time in any order they choose. There are 5 main actions:
– Draw a card: Draw the top card from any draw pile into your hand.
– Add to a set: Play a card from your hand or from the top of the share pile onto a set pile on your crew mat.
– Share a card: Play a card from your hand onto a share pile that is empty or has the matching color or icon on top.
– Complete a set: Clear a set of 3 cards from your crew mat and place a tag on a matching map hex.
– Rush a set: Take a cop car token to clear an incomplete set and place a tag on a matching map hex.

The end of the round is triggered either when all draw piles are empty or once only 1 player has tags remaining on their map. Each player gets 6 crew tags from the supply and another round commences. The game ends after 3 rounds and you’ll score for objectives and for each map hex where you have a tag AND lose points for cop cars and solo tags. The crew with the most points wins!

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

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

Wasabi!

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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

Waggle Dance

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Waggle Dance

Waggle Dance

Build a beehive, collect nectar, and make honey while also being efficient, being strategic, and outmaneuvering your opponents!

In Waggle Dance, a Euro-style worker-placement dice game for 2-4, players control worker bees to build their hive, produce more bees, collect nectar, return it to the hive and make honey! (What is a “waggle dance” you ask? It’s a series of patterned movements performed by a scouting bee to tell other bees in the colony the direction and distance of a food source or hive site.)

Players need to organize their bees to make as much honey as possible to see the hive through the coming winter. The winner is the first player to successfully create 7 or more honey tokens in their hive. It’s up to you how to achieve this: Do you focus on nectar collection, increasing your bee population, expanding your hive, seeking favor with the queen, or splitting your resources to accomplish all of these? Whatever you choose, the natural world is a competitive environment and you can be sure the other players will be looking to maximize their advantage.

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Dice Rolling
  • Set Collection
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.31

Vinyl

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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

Vaalbara

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Vaalbara

Vaalbara

Each player plays as a clan leader and has to secretly and wisely play a card from their hand, representing a member of their tribe, to try to take over some territories. Strategy and timing will be crucial for scoring! The player that scores the most points after 9 rounds wins the game.

Subcontinent of Vaalbara, Neolithic era. Your tribe sets out to explore uncharted lands in order to establish sedentary villages. Use the various talents of your tribe to optimize your development, expand your territory and enforce your hegemony!

All players have the same deck of 12 cards representing the members of their tribe. Each turn, players choose secretly one card. In the order of initiative of the revealed Characters, players will be able to activate their powers and take over one of the available Territories. Each type of Territory has its own way of scoring points (collection, pair, diversity, risk…). Deciding between playing the best powers and high initiatives at the most opportune moment will be difficult. After 9 rounds, the player with the most points wins the game and unites the tribes of the continent under their banner!

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • ~20 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.88

Tsuro: Phoenix Rising

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Tsuro: Phoenix Rising

Tsuro: Phoenix Rising

Long ago, a vengeful god stole the stars from the night sky. To illuminate the night, hopeful people sent glowing paper lanterns floating toward the heavens. Out of nowhere, clever magical phoenixes appeared, soaring through the sky. As they flew from lantern to lantern, their enchanted touch changed the lanterns into new stars! The phoenix who can create a constellation of seven new stars will be the champion of a world looking for light!

Tsuro: Phoenix Rising is a new entry in the classic Tsuro series. The game shares a bond with the foundations of the venerable original: play tiles, move pawns, and stay in play, but it introduces a revolutionary board that allows for the double-sided tiles to flip and rotate throughout the game, creating diverging paths and opening up new strategies.

Featuring gorgeous phoenix miniatures, beautiful lantern tokens, and unique gameplay elements such as life tokens that allow your phoenix to be reborn from the ashes once per game, Tsuro: Phoenix Rising is a new chapter in the legacy of Tsuro!

Game Mechanics:

  • Abstract Strategy
  • Hand Management
  • Network Building
  • Set Collection
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 8 Players
  • 20 – 50 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.50

Trollfest

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Trollfest

Trollfest

For the first time, your band which so far had mostly played in shady goblin and vampire venues has been invited to take part in the great TrollFest, where you will be the opening act for such big names like the Rolling Gnomes and Snow White and the Dwarves.

In TrollFest, each player manages a rock band in a fantasy universe, recruits the most talented and charismatic musicians, holds concerts in the main city, hires dragons for transport and light shows, and ends up trying to give the best act at the festival.

After an initial card draft of band members and action cards, players take turns moving around the map, performing shows and improving their band composition to score points. Once one player has completed their tour (by performing in a certain number of cities), the game ends and players score additional points based on their final band configuration.

TrollFest is a light, fun and thematic 3 to 6 player boardgame for friends and family.

Game Mechanics:

  • Closed Drafting
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 6 Players
  • ~45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00