Tag: Worker Placement

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

Abomination: The Heir of Frankenstein 🟡

| T3d-1978

It’s been twenty years since Victor Frankenstein died on a ship in the arctic, but his vengeful creature lives on, as does Robert Walton, the sea captain who vowed to kill the fiend before mercy stayed his hand. It’s now 1819, and a sinister darkness descends upon the city of Paris. A mysterious benefactor of gigantic stature has emerged in the scientific community, never showing his face, claiming to possess the late Frankenstein’s research. He sponsors a grand competition, offering an even grander prize: unlocking the mystery of mortality!

Renowned scientists from around the world come to take part: some drawn to solve this eternal riddle, others coerced against their will. But a certain captain comes as well, one deeply suspicious of the secretive patron, hoping to finally fulfill his vow.

Abomination: The Heir of Frankenstein is a competitive game of strategic monster building for 2-4 players, inspired by Mary Shelley’s classic novel of gothic horror. In the game, the creature demands your help to accomplish what his own creator would not: to bring to life an abomination like itself, a companion to end its miserable solitude. Through worker placement and careful management of decomposing resources, you’ll gather materials from the cemeteries and morgues around the city, conduct valuable research at the Academy of Science, hire less-than-reputable associates, and toil away in your lab — all in an effort to assemble a new form of life and infuse it with a “spark of being”. Do well, and the creature may reward you during one of its surprise visits; do poorly, and you may come to regret not putting forth more effort. Narrative elements come into play throughout the game, guided by your decisions, leading to potentially unsavory outcomes.

The game ends when you succeed in bringing your creation to life or when the Captain kills the creature, whichever happens first. Then the player with the most points fulfills Frankenstein’s dark legacy, becoming his heir, for good or ill…

Game Mechanics:

  • Dice Rolling
  • Narrative Choice
  • Set Collection
  • Storytelling
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 90 – 180 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.25

Wise Guys

| T3d-1978
Wise Guys

Wise Guys

Wise Guys is a quick-to-learn, cutthroat, area-control board game in which you play as one of four rival gangs seeking to strike it rich as “Rum Runners” on the rough streets of Chicago at the height of the roaring 20s.

Each turn, players wheel, deal, talk, and fight to control locations where they buy and sell alcohol, help politicians get elected, and get help in return or double-cross rival gangs. Negotiate, threaten, and ally with rival gangs when it serves your needs, but be wary of the inevitable knife in the back…

Over six rounds, players take turns driving to locations in the city represented by the grid of cards at the center of the board. Different locations provide access to materials, cash, or clout that the player’s gang members can “acquire” through trade, earning profit from property within their territory or by exploiting parts of the city under the control of a rival gang. All players must maintain a certain discretion as selling too much in one round will draw unwanted attention or else saturate the city in liquor — and your fellow mafioso won’t be too happy about lost profits.

The gang with the most cash at the end of the game wins.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Area Control
  • Dice Rolling
  • Negotiation
  • Trading
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 4 Players
  • ~90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00

Windward

| T3d-1978
Windward

Windward

You are a captain flying your Ship on the skies of the gaseous planet Celus. Gain the most notoriety by sailing the skies, hunting crestors, fighting opponents. Whichever player has the most notoriety points at the end of the game is the winner. To gain notoriety, you can trade in Crestor teeth and gas at the trading post.

Players take turns to move their ships, take actions, use supply cards, and battle other players.

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Movement
  • Cooperative
  • Dice Rolling
  • Grid Movement
  • Hand Management
  • Pick-Up and Deliver
  • Trading
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • 30 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.29

Waggle Dance

| T3d-1978
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

Union Stockyards

| T3d-1978
Union Stockyards

Union Stockyards

Union Stockyards is a mid-weight economic euro game with unique features:

  • A supply/demand driven market that is central to game play, not a sidebar.
  • Low randomness — market changes due to player decisions.
  • A worker-placement game where your workers may go on strike.
  • Extensively-researched historical theme about one of the great industrial wonders of U.S. Gilded Age.

Opening in 1865, the Union Stockyards became Chicago’s largest industry and one of the city’s top tourist attractions with a half million visitors annually in the early 1900’s. From the Civil War through the 1920’s, more meat was processed here than anywhere in the world. During its height, 40,000 mostly immigrant workers labored in “the busiest square mile on earth”, where over one million livestock passed monthly, supplying 80% of all U.S. meat. There were over 2,300 livestock pens and 130 miles of railroad within the “yards”.

You play one the “Big Five” meat packers, developing technologies to use every part of the animal while battling labor unions and manipulating the market to your advantage. Union Stockyards is played over six years (rounds), each beginning with an historical event affecting game conditions or adding an additional action. You select your actions through worker placement; however, if you don’t pay your workers enough, they may go on “strike”. You earn cash based on your profit margins when you slaughter cattle, hogs, or sheep. Your profit margin is your meat value minus the livestock cost. The livestock cost is the same for all players, but your meat values will differ due to your engine-building decisions of constructing buildings, establishing branch houses in eastern cities, and improving your brand reputation. At the end of each year, livestock costs (cattle, hogs, sheep) will be adjusted up or down depending on the demand that you created. Sometimes you may choose to slaughter certain livestock just to manipulate the market in your favor. Whichever packer accumulates the most wealth wins the game.

Game Mechanics:

  • Economic
  • Grid Coverage
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 45 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.45

Unicorn Fever

| T3d-1978
Unicorn Fever

Unicorn Fever

Unicorn Fever is a betting game in which unwitting unicorns and their mindless desire to run on rainbows are exploited by unscrupulous citizen of the fairy realm, for profit… and glory!

Each player is a wealthy bettor, determined to be recognised as a the most skillful unicorn-race wagerer of the Unicorn Racing Championship and hold the title until the next rainbow appears. During 4 races, players will try to place successful bets to gain Victory Points and Gold.

To reach their goal, they will buy Contracts with unscrupulous citizens of the fairy realm to hire their services and turn the odds of the race in their favor, play Magic cards to straight up fix it, and try to avoid squandering all their hard-earned Gold and be forced to ask the Elf-Mob for Loans. At the end of the Championship, the player with the most Victory Points will be the winner!

Game Mechanics:

  • Bluffing
  • Party Game
  • Racing
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • ~40 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.26

Under Falling Skies

| T3d-1978
Under Falling Skies

Under Falling Skies

Aliens have arrived to conquer Earth. Enemy ships fill the skies. Humanity retreats to underground bunkers located below cities across the globe. Stand against the common threat! Fight the invaders city by city. Build a team from around the globe to save your planet and defeat the aliens!

GAMEPLAY

Under Falling Skies is a solo game with a multi-mission campaign. In each mission, you take charge of defending a besieged city.

Your actions are powered by an innovative dice placement mechanic. When you choose an action, you are also choosing which enemy ships will descend. Bigger numbers give better effects, but they also cause ships to descend faster.

Expand your underground base to gain access to more powerful actions, allowing you to shoot down enemy ships or deploy robots to increase your workforce, but don’t forget to work on your research and watch your energy supply.

The mothership draws closer every round, ratcheting up the tension.

Game Mechanics:

  • Campaign
  • Dice Rolling
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 Players
  • 20 – 40 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.44

Tenpenny Parks

| T3d-1978
Tenpenny Parks

Tenpenny Parks

A game of Tenpenny Parks is played over five rounds, called months. Each month players take turns placing workers on the gameboard to take actions like removing trees, building concessions and attractions, and buying more property in order to make their growing theme parks as attractive to visiting people (VP tokens) as possible. At the end of each month, rewards are given to the player with the fairground that best exemplifies certain raw emotions, and after five months the player with the most VP tokens wins!

Game Mechanics:

  • City Building
  • Set Collection
  • Tile Placement
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 45 – 75 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.14

Stone Age

| T3d-1978
Stone Age

Stone Age

The “Stone Age” times were hard indeed. In their roles as hunters, collectors, farmers, and tool makers, our ancestors worked with their legs and backs straining against wooden plows in the stony earth. Of course, progress did not stop with the wooden plow. People always searched for better tools and more productive plants to make their work more effective.

In Stone Age, the players live in this time, just as our ancestors did. They collect wood, break stone and wash their gold from the river. They trade freely, expand their village and so achieve new levels of civilization. With a balance of luck and planning, the players compete for food in this pre-historic time.

Players use up to ten tribe members each in three phases. In the first phase, players place their men in regions of the board that they think will benefit them, including the hunt, the trading center, or the quarry. In the second phase, the starting player activates each of their staffed areas in whatever sequence they choose, followed in turn by the other players. In the third phase, players must have enough food available to feed their populations, or they face losing resources or points.

Game Mechanics:

  • Dice Rolling
  • Economic
  • Set Collection
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.47

Starship Captains

| T3d-1978
Starship Captains

Starship Captains

Welcome aboard and congrats on the promotion! Your “new” starship is ready to embark on its first big voyage. Just scrape off some of the rust, and she’ll do fine. And that crew? Might look a little green around the edges, but they’re your crew now. Make us proud.

The stars are calling…and adventure awaits!

As newly promoted Starship Captains, players are in command of their first starship and hungry to prove themselves in a galaxy full of space pirates, grumpy old androids, ancient artifacts, and interplanetary adventures.

In this 1-4 player Eurostyle game, which mixes action selection and engine building, you’ll manage a diverse crew of cadets, ensigns, androids, and officers — each with different special roles and capabilities. By earning medals, you can promote and train your crew for even greater effectiveness. Similarly, you can upgrade your ship with powerful engine building technology for maximum synergy.

What will you do with this enhanced crew and ship? Explore an ever-shifting galaxy full of dangerous pirates and interplanetary missions in order to boost your reputation with three distinct galactic factions for bountiful rewards.

Do you have what it takes to deftly command your crew and become the best captain in the cosmos? We’ll see!

Game Mechanics:

  • Open Drafting
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 40 – 100 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.36