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Abstract
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Many hard core gamers consider the more abstract a game is, the purer and more challenging the gameplay. Taking their lead from traditional games like Go, Backgammon or Chess, these games follow in their footsteps.
Bakari
Chess
Dvonn
Navia Drapt Collectible Boardgame
Tigris & Euphrates
Torres
Yinsh
Zertz
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Auction Games
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Move over David Dickinson; these auction games aren't about replicating the experience of being on Bargain Hunt (unless of course you're playing the Bargain Hunt game!) But they are about bidding for the tiles, cards or commodities you need to complete your strategy.
Amun-Re
Doge
Fist of Dragonstones
Medeci
Merchants of Amsterdam
Modern Art
Monkeys on the Moon
Mutiny
Oasis
O Zoo Le Mio
Pizzarro & Co
Princes of Florence
Princes of Renaissance
Ra
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Cooperative Play
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The success of roleplaying just goes to show that you don't have to have a winner to have a good game. In these games, teamwork is essential if you're going to be in with a chance to win. Course, that doesn't rule out the possibility of backstabbing your fellows near the end!
Diplomacy
Junta
Lord of the Rings
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Modular
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There's never the same board twice in a modular game, which allows for hundreds of possible variations. Learning to adapt previous game-winning strategies to a new board configuration is usually the key to success.
Advanced HeroQuest OOP
Battlecry
Domaine
D&D Boardgame
Dwarven Dig
Haunting House
Magdar
Robo Rally OOP
Settlers of Catan
Space Crusade OOP
Space Hulk OOP
Warcraft the Boardgame
When Darkness Comes
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Pipe, Grid & Track Games
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Often considered a subcategory of tile games, the key objective here is to link sections pf pipes, tracks or power grids together to form a network. The simplest example of a pipe game is dominoes (each piece being laid sequentially to form a continuous 'pipe'); the more compex ones combine the mechanic with resource management or cardplay. Most of the listed examples below are actually train games (but don't let that put you off).
1855
1870
Age of Steam
Metro
Power Grid
Ticket to Ride
Transamerica
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Racing Games
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It doesn't matter what you're racing - hares, tortoises or trains. Most racing games use a roll and move system (like Snakes and Ladders), but some replace the randomness of the dice with a hand of cards. But whatever mechanic you use, it's first past the finishing post that separates the winners from the also rans.
All Wound Up
Arena Maximus
Cthulhu 500
Devil Bunny Needs a Ham
Elfenland
Formula De
Hare and Tortoise
Mississippi Queen
Odin's Ravens
Quicksand
Really Nasty Horseracing Game
Robo Rally OOP
Zapp Zerapp
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Randomness
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Most serious gamers try and shy away from games with a strong random element. The more they plot and plan, the harder it is to accept that the dice were against you all the time. Try explaining that to the ten year old who just thrashed his local Spielefreak at Monopoly.
Monopoly
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Resource Management
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At the very simplest level, Monopoly is the archetypal resource management game. The resource is money; by buying and selling property and charging rent to unlucky players who land on it, your stash of cash either goes up or down and out. Course, why have one resource when you can have half a dozen. As a result, Resource Management games offer some of the greatest depth of gameplay around.
Dschunke
Goa
Monopoly
New England
Oasis
Power Grid
Puerto Rico
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Role Allocation
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It's a job, innit. Role allocation games have players executing distinct job related tasks each turn, which may change throughout the game. The key to success is being in the right job at the right time (how like the real world!)
Citadels
Junta
Puerto Rico
San Juan
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Secret Deployment
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Published way back in 1931, Battleships is probably the original secret deployment game, but the genre reached a greater gameplay popularity with titles like Stratego. It's a technique that's great for military simulation, so it often gets co-opted into block based wargames.
Europe Engulfed
Hammer of the Scots
Kings & Things OOP
Lord of the Rings: Confrontation
Senjutsu
Stratego: Legends
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Set Collection
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No, we're not talking Collectible Card Games here; Rummy is one of the oldest card games on the planet, so it's no surprise that its set collection mechanic crops up frequently in modern card games.
10 Days In...
Basari
Bohnanza
Corsari
Fist of Dragonstones
Freight Train
Hex Hex
Mah Jongg
Medici
Mystery Rummy
Peasantry
Penguin Ultimatum, The
Queen's Necklace
Taj Mahal OOP
Rummikub
Wheedle
Yahtzee
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Territory Aquisition
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Most territory aquisition games have military or colonisation themes (and occasionally both). Boards are split into regions, and the key to winning (if not always the actual winning conditions) is controlling those regions. Think Risk.
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Tile Games
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The ultimate in modular board games; with a tile game you are effectively creating the entire board from scratch as you play. Unlike a modular board game, this happens during play.
Age of Steam
Attika
Bridges of Shangri-La
Carcassonne
Dante's Inferno
Entdecker
Hellas
Kingdoms
Kings Gate
Magna Grecia
Palaces of Alhambra
Scrabble
Tikal
Tongiaki
Wooly Bully
Zombies
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Trading Games
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Don't worry if you haven't got the right card, commodity or other vital game component; in a Trading Game, your opponent might have just the thing you need to complete your winning strategy. Of course, what they want in return might just complete theirs. And just as a pipe game doesn't mean you're a plumber, because a game has a strong trading component doesn't mean you're merchants (although it helps).
Serrenissima
Settlers of Catan
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