Tag: Set Collection

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

Botanicus

| OTSG Staff

How about creating your own botanical garden? As an aristocrat in the late 19th century, you have bought land, hired a gardener and set out to find the best plants there are.

As you know, the visitors are very picky about the plants they want to see, so your job is not only to acquire the plants, but also to sort them according to the visitors’ preferences.

In Botanicus, you compete for the best action-spots in a unique selection mechanism, and then make the most of the options available to you. You have to collect new plants, take care of them, water them and keep an eye on the gardener. Last but not least, you have to collect some money along the way to pay for all this.
In the end, what counts is how many visitors you satisfy and how beautiful your garden is. Will you be able to outdo the gardens of your competitors?

Game Mechanics:

  • Modular Board
  • Set Collection
  • Tile Placement
  • Variable Set-up

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 45 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.40

Darwin’s Journey

| OTSG Staff

When all you can identify in the horizon for many long days is the line that detaches the sea from the sky, the glimpse of a distant shore appearing before you will make you shiver at the understanding that the adventure is about to begin.

You find yourself astonished, landing on the shore that will be the origin of an extensive exploration through the Galapagos, a magic place of inconceivable beauty and endless biodiversity. There, you will gather repertoires and expand your knowledge of the natural sciences. Your eyes will learn how to detect the hidden species in the tropical forest, gazing at the countless colors and textures of nature. After inspiring hours spent studying and getting to enlightening conclusions, you will rest under a sparkling sky, admiring the stunning complexity of the animal realm.

Darwin’s Journey is a worker-placement Eurogame in which players recall Charles Darwin’s memories of his adventure through the Galapagos islands, which contributed to the development of his theory of evolution.

With the game’s innovative worker progression system, each worker will have to study the disciplines that are a prerequisite to perform several actions in the game, such as exploration, correspondence, gathering, and dispatch of repertoires found on the island to museums in order to contribute to the human knowledge of biology. The game lasts five rounds, and thanks to several short- and long-term objectives, every action you take will grant victory points in different ways.

Game Mechanics:

  • Contracts
  • Pick-up and Deliver
  • Set Collection
  • Solo / Solitaire Game
  • Variable Set-up
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.90

Cities

| OTSG Staff

You’ve been tasked by the city council to put together a plan to transform a whole neighborhood in the city. You have the opportunity to build new housing, office buildings, parks, and leisure areas near the waterfront. It is in your hands to make the city a better place.

Cities is a city-building game in which you draft the best projects and arrange them in your own playing area. With action and resource draft mechanisms, it will give you the opportunity to visit the cities of Sydney, Venice, New York, Barcelona, Rio de Janeiro, Lisbon, Mexico City, and Buenos Aires. Can you design the most magnificent neighborhood?

The game is played over eight rounds (or four rounds in a two-player game). Each round, players use their workers to collect 1 scoring card, 1 city tile, 1-2 feature tiles, and 2-4 building pieces. City tiles are made up of park spaces, water spaces, and building spaces. Building pieces are placed on building spaces of the same color to form buildings, which can be 1-4 stories high. Whenever a player fulfills an achievement, they place one of their discs on the achievement board. At the end of the game, players add up the points they have gained from all of their scoring cards and achievements.

Game Mechanics:

  • Contracts
  • Pattern Building
  • Set Collection
  • Tile Placement
  • Variable Set-up
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.92

Broom Service

| OTSG Staff

Score the most victory points by delivering potions via Broom Service throughout the magical realm.

Broom Service is a card-based game that combines luck and skill and balances timely bluffing with clever hand management.

Remake of award-winning Witch’s Brew:

  • New theme! Now with 3 types of roles: witches, druids, and gatherers.
  • Drizzelda, the weather fairy, helps chase away the bad weather.
  • New illustrations and game pieces.
  • Same style of play, and by the same game designer as Witch’s Brew.
  • New version also includes a 2-player version.

The game is played over 7 rounds, with 4 turns per round. Each round, players simultaneously select 4 of their 10 role cards, and then they take turns playing one role at a time. Each role has a brave action and a cowardly action; the brave action is stronger, but riskier, as another player could steal the action from you later; the cowardly action is safer, but not as robust. How well can you bluff your opponents?

Use the gatherer roles to collect ingredients to make potions, the witch roles to zoom around on your broom to different areas, and the witch or druid roles to deliver the potions, collecting victory points as you go. Chase away lightning clouds with the help of the weather fairy, and keep an eye on the event cards that change game play, one event per round.

The winner is the player with the most victory points after all 7 rounds are complete and end-of-game bonus points have been awarded.

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Pick-up and Deliver
  • Set Collection
  • Variable Phase Order

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 30 – 75 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.39

Cryptozoology for Beginners

| OTSG Staff

Hop aboard the bus on a field trip to the legendary Hidden Valley of the Cryptids, where adventure awaits! Will you capture the best photos of mythical creatures to complete the most daring class assignments, or will you be laughed off the trip?

Each round, you’ll draft and play Cryptid cards with unnatural powers to warp the game and bring you closer to victory. Collect matching cards to complete assignments and earn points towards your ultimate goal – becoming a full-fledged supernatural photographer!

-description from publisher

Game Mechanics:

  • Closed Drafting
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 20 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.50

Cover Your Kingdom

| OTSG Staff

Cover Your Kingdom is an insanely fun, fast-paced, ruthless game based off of Cover Your Assets. In this game, each player will take on the role of a ruler to their own kingdom which, through some unfortunate accident, has lost all of its legendary creatures and therefore all of its magic. Your job is to recruit clans of these legendary creatures back to your kingdom, either in the Valley or the Mountains, by playing sets of the same creature. However, your rival rulers can lure your clans away from your kingdom by playing a matching creature, triggering a back-and-forth match battle until one person cannot or does not want to play another card. You can protect your existing clans by playing a new one on top of them, rotated 90 degrees from the previous one, as only the top clan in the stack can be recruited. 

Cover Your Kingdom also introduces Free Creatures, which do not join kingdoms but can be played to utilize their special abilities, giving you an edge over the other kingdoms. Whoever ends up with the most magic from the creatures in their kingdom wins the game!

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Set Collection
  • Take That

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 8 Players
  • 25 – 40 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.83

Cover Your Assets

| OTSG Staff

In Cover Your Assets, you have one simple goal: be the first to become a millionaire. You will do this by stacking sets of valuables such as jewels or piggy banks. But be warned, your assets are very vulnerable! On their turn, other players can play a matching asset to steal your stack. You can play another matching asset card to prevent the thievery, sparking a back and forth battle until someone runs out of cards. Alternatively, you could cover your assets by playing a new set which always goes on top of your previous one (or stealing one yourself). Now, people have to steal your new assets before they can get to your true valuables. Be clever, be careful, and be sure to cover your assets!

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Set Collection
  • Take That

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • 20 – 40 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.20

Comic Hunters

| OTSG Staff

You have spent years of your life cultivating the perfect comic book collection – your favorite heroes, villains, and storylines all together at last. Well, except for some very special, very rare comic books. In Comic Hunters, you are seeking to fill in these holes, hunting down Number 1 issues, First Appearance issues, New Visual issues, Special Edition issues, and Memorable Clashes issues across four different locations. You’ll only have three rounds to collect, moving up on various tracks for specific heroes depending on the type of Comic Book you acquired. But don’t forget! You aren’t the only one with your eyes on these priceless books, so you have to plan carefully and make sure you get your hands on what really matters. Happy collecting!

Game Mechanics:

  • Closed Drafting
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

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

Cockroach Poker

| OTSG Staff

Cockroach Poker is a game filled with filthy critters that has nothing to do with poker – but everything to do with bluffing. The goal of the game is to force one player to have a set of 4 cards of one type of the 8 total critters – ranging from roaches to rats to bats to stinkbugs – making them the sole loser. This is done by a player passing a card face down to another player, claiming it as one type of card. The receiving player can either 1) flip it over, declaring whether or not they believe the first player or 2) peek at it and pass it to the next player, either saying what it is or bluffing. If you’re right in your accusation, the original player keeps the card. If you’re wrong, you keep the card. Keep the critters out of your play space, and don’t be the only loser!

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • ~20 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.10

Chili Mafia

| OTSG Staff

Chili Mafia is a set-collection party card game for 2-8 players. Compete to assemble the most powerful Chili Pepper Gangs (sets of cards) and become the most respected mafia boss. In Chili Mafia, you will find existing Chili Peppers from around the world that are the main characters of the game. Just to mention a few, such well-known Chilies as the Jalapeño, the Tabasco or the Carolina Reaper clash with each other. To reflect hierarchy, each pepper carries points that are in proportion to the respective Chili Pepper’s strength on the Scoville scale. Moreover, the game includes various action and attack cards (inspired by Mafia jargon) that will not necessarily serve your interest. To win, score the most points at the end of the game.

[CLASSIFIED INFORMATION]

Things are heating up in the world. Chili peppers are splitting into factions, leading to organized crime and unrest. The Chili Mafia reigns supreme.
The Ministry of International Chili Security has hired you—a group of agents—to work undercover and round up the most wanted chili pepper mafiosi from around the globe. Your goal is to bring them to Mexico for a peace summit. As you arrive in the Chihuahuan desert, the spicy criminals jump out of your luggage. It’s obvious they have no interest in peace. Instead, they want a showdown. You and your fellow agents have no choice but to seize control of the Chili Mafia. But to gain their respect, you must fight amongst yourselves to determine who will be the most powerful mafia boss. Once you control the peppers, what will you do next?

Players draw and play cards to form gangs and perform actions. When a player draws the last card from the draw pile, they may complete their turn. Then every player (including the one that drew the last card) may take 1 more turn. After the last round, players calculate their scores.

Game Mechanics:

  • Set Collection
  • Take That
  • Team-Based Game

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 8 Players
  • 20 – 40 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.83