Board Game Categories

Board games have been played since 3,500 BC. Games like Senet, The Royal Game of Ur, Backgammon, and Mahjong captivated royalty and common folk alike in their intricacy, strategy, and entertainment. Fast forward to our day and age, board games have exploded in popularity and diversity. From a casual gamer, to a pro player, games have been designed to tickle anyone's fancy.

But here is a question, "With so many different types of games, which would should I buy?" Here is a list of different board game categories or "types" to help. Just remember, games can incorporate a mixture of these categories:

Strategy Games:

Mechanics: Resource Management, Area Control, Tile Placement

Examples: Settlers of Catan, Carcassonne, Ticket to Ride

Deck-Building Games:

Mechanics: Deck Building, Card Drafting

Examples: Dominion, Star Realms, Ascension

Worker Placement Games:

Mechanics: Worker Placement, Action Selection

Examples: Agricola, Stone Age

Cooperative Games:

Mechanics: Cooperative Play, Hidden Information

Examples: Pandemic, Forbidden Island, Ghost Stories

Resource Management Games:

Mechanics: Resource Gathering, Trading

Examples: Puerto Rico, Terraforming Mars, Settlers of Catan

Tile-Laying Games:

Mechanics: Tile Placement, Pattern Building

Examples: Azul, Carcassonne, Kingdomino

Party Games:

Mechanics: Social Interaction, Bluffing

Examples: Codenames, Dixit, Pictionary, Apples to Apples

Card Games:

Mechanics: Hand Management, Set Collection

Examples: Splendor, Sushi Go!, 7 Wonders

Deduction Games:

Mechanics: Deduction, Hidden Roles

Examples: Secret Hitler, Codenames, BANG!, WTK: War of the Three Kingdoms

Adventure Games:

Mechanics: Exploration, Storytelling

Examples: Gloomhaven, Mansions of Madness, Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island

Abstract Strategy Games:

Mechanics: Pure Strategy, No Luck

Examples: Chess, Go, Hive, Stratego

Miniature Wargames:

Mechanics: Tactical Combat, Army Building

Examples: Warhammer 40,000, X-Wing Miniatures Game, Heroscape

Trading Card Games (TCGs):

Mechanics: Collectible Cards, Deck Building

Examples: Magic: The Gathering, Pokémon TCG, Yu-Gi-Oh!

Campaign/Legacy Games:

Mechanics: Evolving Gameplay, Permanent Changes, Scenarios

Examples: Pandemic Legacy, Gloomhaven

Word Games:

Mechanics: Word Formation, Vocabulary

Examples: Scrabble, Bananagrams, Boggle

Trivia Games:

Mechanics: General Knowledge Questions, Quizzes

Examples: Trivial Pursuit, Jeopardy!

Educational Games:

Mechanics: Learning Objectives, Skill Building

Examples: Brainiac, Math Bingo, Timeline

Solo Games:

Mechanics: Designed for Solo Play or Solo Player Option

Examples: Solitaire, Aeon's End, Too Many Bones

Party Deduction Games:

Mechanics: Social Deduction in a Party Setting

Examples: Werewolf (aka Mafia), BANG!, Secret Hitler

Push-Your-Luck Games:

Mechanics: Risk vs. Reward, Randomness

Examples: King of Tokyo, Quacks of Quedlinburg, Dice Throne

What are your favorites?!

Comments

RTS Game Theory/Guide Part 2: Resource Management

RTS Game Theory/Guide: Resource Management This is a deeper look at how to manage resources, but because this game theory/guide is for all RTS games, it won’t be a deep dive into any one game specifically. I recommend doing some research on your own for specifics. As previously mentioned, resources are the supply for the demand(military). Having a great economy will field a great army. Let's break this down into separate categories: Resource Types: Most RTS games feature multiple types of resources, such as minerals, energy, food, gold, or wood. Understanding the different types and their uses is crucial. Buildings, units, and research all have specific costs of one or multiple of these resources. Depending on what you want to build, you need to allocate your workers to collect that resource. For example, if you need to train an army consisting of high cost gold units, you will need to collect more gold than the other resources. This may include assigning newly trained wor...

RTS Game Theory/Guide Part 1

RTS Game Theory: Multitasking Real Time Strategy games get their appeal from, well, the real time tactics. The thrill and suspense of split-decision making and constant action as you face off against the AI or other players make real time strategy games different from the other strategy games in the genre; it adds a whole other level of complexity in of itself. In this RTS Game Theory section, we are going to look at Multitasking . You may have tried an RTS for the first time and as you were learning the ropes for what building is what, you get attacked with a large force from an enemy. You go to move your army and…wait…you have one soldier just standing idly to face the threat. You were so focused on the economy, you forgot about your military. We have all been there. This frustration of everything going on at once can easily lead to frustration and quitting RTS games all together. Let’s break it down to an organized, manageable problem. The most common way to manage multitaskin...

Playing Lorcana For FREE?

Disney's competitor to Magic: The Gathering has been out for a little while now, with the second set just coming out. For Disney fans, this a dream come true. For others, it has great nostalgic value as their childhood heroes come to life. The problem is, it's getting increasingly expensive very quickly. Lorcana starter decks ranged from $18-25. Now they are $30+. This is a very quick price increase and for many in this economic state, this is too much to get into a new or perhaps another card game. Thankfully, there are those heroes out there who are making sites to play Lorcana for free and I will show you how to do this. There are two sites we need to go to. Both require a sign up, just as a heads up. The first one is called DreamBorn.ink ( https://dreamborn.ink/builder ). This is where you can look at all the cards and create decks with similar stats to MTG websites (cost curve, card colors, etc). You can create your own decks here and also look at decks other peop...

Forged2Game

Search This Blog