Tag: Worker Placement

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

Free Radicals

| T3d-1978
Free Radicals

Free Radicals

In Free Radicals, players take control of one of ten fully asymmetrical factions, each with its own path to earn resources, power, and the knowledge stored in the “Free Radicals”, which are giant mysterious objects that appeared around the world, causing a huge evolutionary leap in technology. You might play as the merchants, using action points to travel to different markets, and grow in influence and efficiency; the Couriers, using your drones to pick up and deliver valuable goods; the Entertainers, using card placement and abilities to maximize powerful abilities; or one of seven other entirely unique factions!

Players also interact through the main board, where they can visit each other’s buildings and try to unlock the technology in one of the free radicals. You can even help your opponents’ research in return for influence and other rewards!

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Economic
  • Negotiation
  • Open Drafting
  • Pattern Building
  • Pick-Up and Deliver
  • Tile Placement
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 45 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.50

Forgotten Waters

| T3d-1978
Forgotten Waters

Forgotten Waters

Forgotten Waters is a Crossroads Game set in a world of fantastical pirate adventure. In it, players take on the role of pirates sailing together on a ship, attempting to further their own personal stories as well as a common goal.

The world of Forgotten Waters is silly and magical, with stories designed to encourage players to explore and laugh in delight as they interact with the world around them. It’s a game in which every choice can leave a lasting impact on the story, and players will want turn over every rock just to see what they find.

Forgotten Waters features five scenarios and a massive location book that provides players with tons of choices wherever they go.

Game Mechanics:

  • Campaign
  • Cooperative
  • Dice Rolling
  • Narrative Choice
  • Storytelling
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 7 Players
  • 120 – 240 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.10

Flamecraft

| T3d-1978
Flamecraft

Flamecraft

Artisan dragons, the smaller and magically talented versions of their larger (and destructive) cousins, are sought by shopkeepers so that they may delight customers with their flamecraft. You are a Flamekeeper, skilled in the art of conversing with dragons, placing them in their ideal home and using enchantments to entice them to produce wondrous things. Your reputation will grow as you aid the dragons and shopkeepers, and the Flamekeeper with the most reputation will be known as the Master of Flamecraft.

In Flamecraft, 1-5 players take on the role of Flamekeepers, gathering items, placing dragons and casting enchantments to enhance the shops of the town. Dragons are specialized (bread, meat, iron, crystal, plant and potion) and the Flamekeepers know which shops are the best home for each. Visit a shop to gain items and a favor from one of the dragons there. Gathered items can be used to enchant a shop, gaining reputation and the favors of all the dragons in the shop. If you are fortunate enough to attract fancy dragons then you will have opportunities to secure even more reputation.

Game Mechanics:

  • City Building
  • Hand Management
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • ~60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.17

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

Don’t Turn Your Back

| T3d-1978
Don’t Turn Your Back

Don’t Turn Your Back

Walk the twisted streets of the Mad City in a boardgame that fuses worker placement with deck building and area control to create a unique experience.

Extract dreams in the City Slumbering and use them to buy favors from Nightmares. Procure special services in the Bizarre Bazaar. Score points through skillful play in Mother When’s deadly High School, and the sinister 13th District. Compete for the Wax King’s favor, and the ultimate prize…escape!

In this game, set in the sinister world of the Don’t Rest Your Head role playing game, your opponents lurk around every corner, waiting to attack. Can you outsmart your friends and win the Nightmares’ game? Whatever you do, Don’t Turn Your Back!

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Deck Building
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

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

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

Creature Comforts

| T3d-1978

Life in the forest is a lot of fun, at least while the sun is shining and the leaves are on the trees. Those days don’t last forever though, and long before the weather starts to change, the wise animals start to harvest for the long cold winter ahead. You will spend many months tucked into your burrow and you want to make it as cozy as possible. A nice bowl of soup, a comfortable rocking chair, and some toys and games will go a long way to make those dark winter days pass by quickly.

In Creature Comforts, you spend the Spring, Summer, and Fall gathering different goods from the forest and spending them to collect items that will make your home more inviting while the world outside is covered in a layer of snow. Each round you send family members out to various locations in an attempt to gain supplies. If they fall short of their goal, they’ll learn a lesson and be better prepared next time. The family that has created the most comfortable den wins the game.

Game Mechanics:

  • Dice Rolling
  • Open Drafting
  • Set Collection
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • ~45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.29

The Court of Miracles

| T3d-1978
The Court of Miracles

The Court of Miracles

In The Court of Miracles, lead a guild of beggars, plot, use trickery and opportunism to build your renown and take over the old 16th century Paris.

Your goal is to establish your renown in Paris or to be the most influential when the Penniless King would have reached the end of his path…

At your turn, you may play a plot card, you have to place one of your (3) Rogue tokens, face down (secret ability), on any available spot in a neighborhood, and benefit from the effect of your spot (receive coins, draw plot cards or move the Penniless King forward along his path). You may then perform the action of the neighborhood.

When a neighborhood is fully occupied, settle a standoff revealing each player’s Rogue(s) token to know which player takes control of the neighborhood. Controlling a neighborhood will reward you each time another player performs its action.

You will be allowed to buy a 4th Rogue, cards or move the Penniless King Forward at the Renown Square.

Unless the Penniless King reaches the last space of his path before, the first player to place their 6th Renown token wins. Otherwise, the player with the most Renown tokens placed on the board wins the game.

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Bluffing
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • ~40 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.22

Colors of Paris

| T3d-1978

You are a painter in Colors of Paris, and you’ve decided to participate in “Bateau Lavoir”, a friendly competition between several painters in a workshop in Montmartre, Paris. The newspapers know about this challenge, so perhaps this is a good opportunity to become famous, following the path of Cézanne, Toulouse-Lautrec, Monet, or Renoir…

Colors of Paris is a management game in which you must take care of your paint tubes, mixtures, and time to create works, all the while anticipating others to perform as needed within a rotating set of actions.

Game Mechanics:

  • Open Drafting
  • Set Collection
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 40 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.19

Champions of Midgard

| T3d-1978

Champions of Midgard is a middleweight, Viking-themed, worker placement game with dice rolling in which players are leaders of Viking clans who have traveled to an embattled Viking harbor town to help defend it against the threat of trolls, draugr, and other mythological Norse beasts. By defeating these epic creatures, players gain glory and the favor of the gods. When the game ends, the player who has earned the most glory earns the title of Jarl and is recognized as a champion of Midgard!

Placing workers allows for the collection of resources and warriors, which players may then send on journeys to neighboring villages or across the sea to defeat monsters and gain the glory they need for victory. Resources are used to carve runes, build ships, and feed your followers. Viking warriors (custom dice) do battle with the myriad enemies the town faces.

Game Mechanics:

  • Dice Rolling
  • Set Collection
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.60