Tag: Worker Placement

Games with a Worker Placement mechanic require players to coordinate various workers as those workers gather resources.

1347: De Nigrae Pestis Ludum

| OTSG Staff

The year of our Lord 1347: The Black Death has arrived via Eastern trade routes, bringing suffering and misery to the towns and countryside. The sole hope for relief from a slow and painful death lies in the hands of the plague doctors. Dressed in black cloaks, and masks stuffed with vinegar-rags and spice, the surgeons roam the Burgus streets searching for the infected. To these they offer salvation, saving their flesh from death, while gaining prestige with the princely court and — why not? — one or two shiny coins!

Will you prove yourselves as valorous surgeons, up to the tasks you’re called to resolve? Will you expand your influence with good works, draining infected swamps and building plague hospitals? Or will you give in to the facts of life, and death, raking in whatever coins you happen to find?

1347 is a strategic game in which players are plague doctors with the aim of gaining as much fame and prestige as possible to become the most important of the town. Each player has resource cards, money, grave diggers, and five influence tokens at their disposal to invest in order to defeat the plague and enrich themselves. There are three stages that will repeat for three periods (that will vary from 6 to 9 game rounds):

  1. Investments -> Each player, turn by turn, will invest one influence token (from 0-4 influence points) in one of the six areas of the board, each one with different actions allowed. All the investments are hidden. Investments go on until all players remain with no tokens.
  2. Actions -> Starting from Area 1, all invested tokens are revealed. The player who invested the most is the only one who can exploit the actions allowed from that area. The other players who invested can convert their “unused points” in money or grave diggers. So losing is also a strategy. In case of tie, the first player, or the nearest one in clockwise has priority, in any case the first player will change at the end of each round.
  3. Upkeep -> In this stage players collect money from the Agrus (the country), can heal their recruited plagued commoners, or can maintain their healed commoners. Healed commoners give players new influence tokens to invest and an ability to exploit as long as they remain healed.

There are many kind of actions players can do: recruit commoners, transform grave diggers in peasants to collect money, build expansions to enforce their influence to specific areas, etc.

At the end of the game, the players obtain 1 wealth point (victory points) for:

  • Each influence point (the value shown on each influence token held);
  • Every five coins;
  • Each subject card;
  • Each development held;
  • Every three gravediggers held (including the player’s reserve and those assigned to the Agrus).

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • 50 – 180 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.82

Inventors of the South Tigris

| OTSG Staff

Inventors of the South Tigris is set during the height of the Abbasid Caliphate, circa 850 AD. Over the past decades, Baghdad has become home to thousands of mathematicians, astronomers, chemists, and physicians. As inspired innovators, players are eager to develop clever contraptions to impress their peers. Will your ingenious devices adorn the House of Wisdom, or are they destined for dust and decay?

The aim of Inventors of the South Tigris is to be the player with the most Victory Points (VP) at the game’s end. Points are primarily gained by Inventing, Building, Testing, and Publishing Devices. Players can also score points by training their Craftspeople, developing their Workshops, Researching, and Influencing the 3 scientific Guilds.

—description from the publisher

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 90 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 4.46

Impendium

| OTSG Staff

Immediately following the events of Nova Lux, you will take up the mantle of building the universe anew. Civil unrest and fear have caused factions among the star colonies to subvert the federation. As it works to ignite new stars and forge galaxies which can once again perpetuate life, your factions will position for power and prosperity in the new Galactic Order. But creation comes with a cost. As the inhabitants of your universe not only defy but reverse the natural law of Entropy, the Void takes notice.

On your turn you will move around the universe, undertake assignments from the federation to construct new stars or battle harbingers of the void, build star colonies to generate resources, and recruit new factions to enhance your abilities and expand your influence.

Once a player control enough of the newly constructed universe, they win!

Impendium is the stand alone successor to Nova Lux. The faction cards from Nova Lux can be used with Impendium.

-description from designer

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 6 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.50

Hegemony: Lead Your Class to Victory

| OTSG Staff

The Nation is in disarray and a war is waging between the classes. The working class faces a dismantled welfare system, the capitalists are losing their hard-earned profits, the middle class is gradually fading and the state is sinking into a deep deficit. Amidst all this chaos, the only person who can provide guidance is… you. Will you take the side of the working class and fight for social reforms? Or will you stand with the corporations and the free market? Will you help the government try to keep it all together, or will you try to enforce your agenda no matter the cost to the country?

Hegemony is an asymmetric politico-economic card-driven board game for 2-4 players that puts you in the role of one of the socio-economic groups in a fictional state: The Working Class, the Middle Class, the Capitalist Class and the State itself.

The Working class controls the workers. The Capitalist class controls the companies. The Middle class combines elements from both the Working class and the Capitalist. It has workers who can work in the Capitalist’s companies but it can also build companies of its own, yet smaller. Finally the State is trying to keep everyone happy, providing benefits and subsidies when needed but trying also to maintain a steady income through taxes to avoid going into debt.

While players have their own separate goals, they are all limited by a series of policies that affect most of their actions, like Taxation, Labor Market, Foreign Trade etc. Voting on those policies and using their influence to change them is also very important. Through careful planning, strategic actions and political maneuvering, you will do your best to increase the power of your class and carry out your agenda. Will you be the one to lead your class to victory?

Hegemony is heavily based on actual academic principles such as Social-Democracy, Neoliberalism, Nationalism and Globalism, and allows players to see their real world applications through engaging gameplay. There are many ways to achieve hegemony- which one will you take?

—description from the publisher

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 90 – 180 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 4.26

Guild Academies of Valeria

| OTSG Staff

You and your fellow Headmasters are trying to build out your academies, recruit the best students, hire talented guildmasters, and influence important council ministers. Only select graduates can be tasked to fulfill quests ordered by the King, while the so-so graduates are sent to the capital city to make their own way.

GAOV uses action selection, dice drafting and dice manipulation (Students), tile drafting, resource management and engine building (Academies), contract fulfillment (Quests), and a unique system where players choose which game aspects they want to score (Council Ministers) to bring a new aspect of the Valeria Universe to life.

—description from the publisher

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 90 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.94

Great Wall, the

| OTSG Staff

The Great Wall is a new asymmetric worker/soldier placement game with engine building themes and a twist in form of a constantly attacking AI (Mongolian Horde) that requires players to sometimes cooperate in order to defeat it. This is a new major board game from Awaken Realms.

Players will control ancient clans in China trying to defend against invading Mongolian hordes and build a Great Wall. While every player will want to win (by earning VP = Honor) they also need to sometimes cooperate to defend against the hordes. Each clan will be asymmetric through its chosen Leader (resource production/starting resources/starting workers and units) and this asymmetry will increase as the game progresses (players will hire Advisors with unique skills, often creating unique engines).

In The Great Wall, the players take the role of Generals defending the Wall against the Mongol Horde. The game is played over a series of turns called Years, each divided into 4 parts called Seasons.

During Spring, new barbaric hordes invade the fields in front of the Great Wall and prepare to launch their assault. Summer is the time when generals prepare for the assault and mobilize their forces. During Fall, players take their turns, playing Command cards, resolving their effects and Activating Locations to gain various benefits. In Winter, the last layer of Defense is activated, then, the hordes try to assault the Walls.

During the course of the game, players will create their own unique engines based on their clan strength as well as interact with other players during all phases of the game, trying to get the most Honor points, which can be gained in a lot of different ways.

At the end of the game, the player with the most Honor wins.

—description from the publisher

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 120 – 180 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.91

Gnome Hollow

| OTSG Staff

Since the beginning of time, gnomes have been the humble caretakers of nature. In secret, they emerge from their underground homes to maintain meticulous rings of mushrooms known to the human folk as “fairy rings”. But the work must be done quickly because as soon as a mushroom path is finished, the mushrooms are ready for picking. Who will be the cleverest gnome and harvest the most mushrooms by the end of the season?

Gnome Hollow is a spatial, tile-placement, worker-placement game in which you grow a tabletop garden of mushrooms and flowers. Every piece is a hand-painted watercolor that captures the whimsical feel of gnomes and nature. Turns are deceptively simple: Players place tiles into the garden, and move a gnome to take a single action on their turn. Come to Gnome Hollow and experience a peaceful garden, the thrill of competing to harvest buckets of mushrooms, and the reward of gathering in all your shiny treasures!

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 45 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.38

Druids of Edora, The

| OTSG Staff

The Druids of Edora is a game of strategic dice placement. Walk through ancient forests in the footsteps of fairy folk, past monolithic menhirs, and under strands of mistletoe. As druids you will place dice to take actions to gather provisions, gain knowledge, brew potions, and gain bonuses. Build stone structures, collect herbs, and leave your mark in the sacred wood.

Each turn is a few simple steps that with the right strategy will earn you prestige points and bring you closer to victory.

Dive into this fantastic new strategy game from the team behind The Castles of Burgundy.

Prove yourself worthy of the ancient ones and bring glory to your forest.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.04

Gallerist, The

| OTSG Staff

This age of art and capitalism has created a need for a new occupation – The Gallerist.

Combining the elements of an Art dealer, museum curator, and Artists’ manager, you are about to take on that job! You will promote and nurture Artists; buy, display, and sell their Art; and build and exert your international reputation. As a result, you will achieve the respect needed to draw visitors to your Gallery from all over the world.

There’s a lot of work to be done, but don’t worry, you can hire assistants to help you achieve your goals. Build your fortune by running the most lucrative Gallery and secure your reputation as a world-class Gallerist!

Maximize your money and thus win the game by:

  • having visitors in your gallery;
  • exhibiting and selling works of art;
  • investing in artists’ promotion to increase art value;
  • achieving trends and reputation as well as curator and dealer goals.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 150 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 4.21

Galaxy Hunters

| OTSG Staff

In Galaxy Hunters, 2 to 4 players take on the role of mercenaries hired by the Megacorps to hunt and harvest the rampant mutations. Featuring an inventive pilot and mech combination system, pairing different pilots with different mechs unlocks new powers and special abilities. Using money earned for harvesting DNA from the creatures, players upgrade their mechs with new weapons and items. Galaxy Hunters seamlessly blends the excitement of crafting a unique character with the deep strategy of Eurogame-style worker placement.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.21