Popular Mechanics in Board Games

How to use this little guide:

Boardgame Mechanics:

Worker Placement

Players can place game pieces or tokens on individual slots on the gameboard and receive (immediately or later) a certain amount of goods or points in exchange. A great example of such game is Lords of Waterdeep.

Dice Rolling

As the name suggests, players roll dice to obtain certain values or symbols needed to trigger actions or to score points. A great simple dice game is Age of War!

Take That

The kind of game mechanics that allow you to attack your opponent directly by stealing goods or points or by lowering their hit points. Examples of Take That games include King of Tokyo and Munchkin.

Set Collection

You must collect cards, tiles or tokens in order to achieve certain combinations that will score according to the game rules. Sushi Go! is a great example.

Card Drafting

Players will select a card from multiple choices in their hand or on the table leaving the rest as options for the other players. One of the very best drafting games ever is Terraforming Mars, which you can get from our store.

Variable Player Powers

Each player has a unique ability that can be used under certain circumstances during the round. An awesome game with variable player powers is Pandemic, a cooperativ game that centers around stopping virsuses from spreading.

Area Control

Pieces are placed in regions marked on the gameboard and the player who holds the majority (usually) will win the points associated with that region when scoring is triggered. One of our favorite area control games is Small World.

Action Programming

Games where players select in advance the movement and actions of their game pieces and then follow them from start to finish, without any opportunity to alter them. One of the most popular action programming game is Colt Express, in which you try to rob a moving train. 

Story Telling

Games driven forward by a story or by “choose your own adventure” type of system. Players decide on a narrative course and follow the story to the conclusion. When it comes to story games, there’s one game we can wholeheartedly call the best: T.I.M.E. Stories.

Push your Luck

Players can end their round at any given time and score points or continue to play in order to obtain more points, but they run the risk of losing everything by triggering a turn ending condition. If you want to try out a great Push your Luck game, we heavily recommend Port Royal.

Tile Placement

In this type of games, players will select and place small tiles in contact with other tiles already on the table in order to form certain terrain types or shapes or combinations that will generate points during or at the end of the game. The most popular of tile placement games is Carcassonne, in which you set up the french reason of Carcassonne.

Co-operative

Players are on the same side and work together to beat the game. There is usually a time or a round limit to achieve this. If you feel like you and your friends are close enough to fight against the game itself, we heavily recommend Eldritch Horror, which is an amazing experience in fighting against lovecraftian horrors.

Trading

Exchanges of goods, points or anything else are the key to success in this kind of games. Players are free or conditioned by rules to offer and receive tokens, coins or all sorts of commodities. And, of course, you’ve all heard of the most popular trading game ever, Catan.

Hand Management

Players start the game with a number of cards in hand and must play them in such a manner that certain game effect or tricks are achieved or triggered. If you want to play something a little more complicated with a good element of hand management, you should try Twilight Struggle, which is a 2 player game about the Cold War.

Pick Up and Deliver

Goods and resources need to be picked up from areas on the board and transported to different areas of the map where they can be exchanged for points or rewards of other kinds. Although not centered around this mechanic, Tiny Epic Zombies does have some great elements of Pick Up and Deliver. It’s also a game with incredible variation, that can be played in a multitude of ways.

Deck Building

Usually, players start with the same combination of cards in their hand and will try to add to it more and better cards to improve the chances of triggering some special actions or scoring points. When it comes to Deck Building games, we recommend the new kid on the block, who has shattered our very minds, Fort.

Route Building

Different points on the map need to be connected by placing gaming pieces in such a way that a continuous route is created. Routes that link points will score in accordance to game rules. When it comes to Route Building, as much as others may try to match it, there is only one that takes the cake: Ticket to Ride.