Tag: Set Collection

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

Ex Libris

| T3d-1978
Ex Libris

Ex Libris

In Ex Libris, you are a collector of rare and valuable books in a thriving gnomish village. Recently, the Mayor and Village Council have announced an opening for a Grand Librarian: a prestigious (and lucrative) position they intend to award to the most qualified villager! Unfortunately, several of your book collector colleagues (more like acquaintances, really) are also candidates.

To outshine your competition, you need to expand your personal library by sending your trusty assistants out into the village to find the most impressive tomes. Sources for the finest books are scarce, so you need to beat your opponents to them when they pop up.

You have only a week before the Mayor’s Official Inspector comes to judge your library, so be sure your assistants have all your books shelved! The Inspector is a tough cookie and will use her Official Checklist to grade your library on several criteria including shelf stability, alphabetical order, and variety — and don’t think she’ll turn a blind eye to books the Council has banned! You need shrewd planning and cunning tactics (and perhaps a little magic) to surpass your opponents and become Grand Librarian!

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting
  • Set Collection
  • Tile Placement
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • ~45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.55

Ethnos

| T3d-1978
Ethnos

Ethnos

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

Ecos: First Continent

| T3d-1978
Ecos: First Continent

Ecos: First Continent

What if the formation of Earth had gone differently?

In Ecos: First Continent, players are forces of nature molding the planet, but with competing visions of its grandeur. You have the chance to create a part of the world, similar but different to the one we know. Which landscapes, habitats, and species thrive will be up to you.

Gameplay in Ecos is simultaneous. Each round, one player reveals element tokens from the element bag, giving all players the opportunity to complete a card from their tableau and shape the continent to their own purpose. Elements that cannot be used can be converted into energy cubes or additional cards in hand or they can be added to your tableau to give you greater options as the game evolves.

Mountain ranges, jungle, rivers, seas, islands and savanna, each with their own fauna, all lie within the scope of the players’ options.

Game Mechanics:

  • Bingo
  • Set Collection
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • 45 – 75 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.60

Dungeon Decorators

| T3d-1978
Dungeon Decorators

Dungeon Decorators

From time beyond memory, a great evil overlord has plagued the land, his ruthless cruelty matched only by his ruthlessly poor decorating taste. That evil overlord has died, and numerous pretenders are vying to take over his throne. And everyone knows that the first step on the journey to becoming a legendary evil boss is to set up a nefarious lair.

That’s where you come in. You are a dungeon decorator who specializes in setting up cozy underground spaces with just the right “lair-y” feel for your clients. You will compete against your opponents to build the best dungeon with all the right accoutrements, so that your villainous clients can move in, feel at home, and get right down to evilling.

Dungeon Decorators is a competitive “light euro” tile-drafting strategy game for 2 to 4 players. Select tiles that give you the right combination of chilling chambers, harrowing hallways and dire decorations, then play goal cards to score points. The player who scores the most points achieves victory by impressing the client and setting them on their path to becoming the next legendary evil!

Game Mechanics:

  • Open Drafting
  • Set Collection
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 40 – 80 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00

Ducks In Tow

| T3d-1978
Ducks In Tow

Ducks In Tow

Welcome to the Duck Sanctuary! Come enjoy the company of the ducks while visiting the different locations around the park.

In Ducks in Tow, you are walking around the park feeding the ducks their favorite food. When you feed them, they start following you and you must lead them to their favorite location in the park.

When you successfully lead them to their favorite location, you take a photo with them and they waddle off to find their friends. Maybe you’ll see them again later as you continue your walk around the park.

You will be completing Location Cards that will gain you points at the end of the game. Once you have completed a few Location Cards, you might be able to claim a Formation Card, which will give you additional points at the end of the game.

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Movement
  • Pattern Building
  • Pick-Up and Deliver
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.17

Dreadful Circus

| T3d-1978
Dreadful Circus

Dreadful Circus

No longer do you anxiously await the arrival of the wicked — for they have just arrived! In the dead of night, the gloom rolls in. Melodies whisper in slow rhythms as children wake from their slumber. Leaping from their beds, they rush to their parents and startle them awake. The mix of fear and excitement fills the room. The lure of exotic sweets wafts in on the warm summer wind. The lives of this dull, small town are revitalized with the anticipation of this dreadful circus.

Dreadful Circus is a set-collection card game in which players try to create the most successful circus! The game comes with an unique twist: Over the course of the game, players buy cards that have special final scoring rules. As the game progresses and more cards are gained, each player develops their very own final scoring rules. No game is the same, and no player at the table scores the same way.

Game Mechanics:

  • Auction/Bidding
  • Bluffing
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 4 – 8 Players
  • 30 – 40 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.33

Dog Park

| T3d-1978
Dog Park

Dog Park

Welcome to Dog Park, a mid-weight, competitive set-collection and point-to-point movement game in which players take on the role of dog walkers who recruit, walk, and care for their dogs over four rounds. Each round is split into four phases:

  1. Recruitment Phase: Players compete in two rounds of offers to add dogs to their kennels. Offers are made with players’ reputation (victory points), so must be placed wisely.
  2. Selection Phase: Players decide which dogs to place on their lead to walk this round.
  3. Walking Phase: Players journey through the dog park with their fellow walkers, collecting resources, earning reputation, and interacting with other walkers.
  4. Home Time Phase: Players earn reputation for their walked dogs, and lose reputation for any unwalked dogs in their kennel.

Players must choose their routes and dogs carefully to earn the best reputation and prove they are the most accomplished walker of them all. At the end of the game, the player with the most reputation wins.

Game Mechanics:

  • Auction/Bidding
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 40 – 80 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.16

Discoveries: The Journals of Lewis and Clark

| T3d-1978
Discoveries: The Journals of Lewis and Clark

Discoveries: The Journals of Lewis and Clark

The Lewis and Clark Expedition, which was commissioned in 1803 and ended in 1806, was the first party of men that went through the North American continent, then returned. During these three years, the leaders Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, along with Sergeant Gass and Sergeant Ordway, wrote page after page about their trip, describing the new plants and animals species they discovered and drawing the maps of unknown areas.

In Discoveries, you play one of the Expedition members: Lewis, Clark, Gass or Ordway. Your goal is to compile as much knowledge as possible in your journal, and in this way advance science thanks to your discoveries.

The Tribe/Discoveries cards you gain during the game score discovery points at the end. To get these cards, you have to perform exploration actions, and to do this you use dice. On your turn, you either:

  • Play the dice in your action area or on the game board; by doing this, you prepare or perform the exploration, change your dice, or get new possible actions.
  • Get dice back from the game board or from your opponents’ action areas.

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Dice Rolling
  • Set Collection
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.36

Dinner in Paris

| T3d-1978
Dinner in Paris

Dinner in Paris

The restaurant industry in Paris is buzzing after the inauguration of a new pedestrian square in a very popular district for Parisians and tourists from all around the globe. It is a golden opportunity for you, restaurant owners, to open one of the addresses that will contribute to the culinary diversity and the reputation of the French capital. However, there isn’t space for everyone and your opponents could throw a wrench in your gears!

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Economic
  • Hand Management
  • Racing
  • Set Collection
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 40 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.23

Cvlizations

| T3d-1978

In CVlizations, you take the role of a leader of a tribe, and you are charged with the task of “writing” its CV (Curriculum Vitae – résumé). To do so, you choose which orders to give and which inventions, tools, buildings and ideologies to develop. The happiness of your people depends on you.

Gameplay is built around action selection. Each turn, every player chooses two order cards, and the strength of the action depends on how many other players have chosen that action. Players manage their resources to develop ideas, and in the end the one who collected the most happiness points wins.

Game Mechanics:

  • Civilization
  • Hand Management
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 45 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.88