The Quest for El Dorado: My Favorite Game Mechanism

Jamey discusses 2 clever aspects of deckbuilding in The Quest for El Dorado.

[apertotes]

This game is a gem. It managed to make a very clear visual representation of an abstract mechanism like Deck Building. The game, right from the set-up. puts in front of the players a track that they need to traverse with many different possible paths. They can clearly see when they will need water cards or whether they rather take a longer route to avoid difficult terrain. It's all so thematic.

During the game, it will be physically apparent how players that spent less time preparing for the trip advance more during the first turns hoping that their advantage is big enough for them to win. Later, players that invested in better equipment will start reducing the distance hoping that their superior engine will allow them to overtake the other players and win.

It is just so beautiful being able to see different strategies so apparently, even more so than Clank!, which although a great game on its own, is not so pure of a race.

[laartwork]

Deck building always felt like a great mechanism in search of a game. It didn't seem hard to do and loved when I played Clank! and it integrated it so well with the theme. I will check El Dorado out.

[pontiuspilot]

I just got "El Dorado" yesterday due to Toys 'R' Us closing (I'm still sad that's happening) and I was really glad that the price was right. Seems like a great gateway game, that has some mechanics not everybody outside the hobby would know that I can easily pull out. Being that I live at a psychiatric-specialty nursing home at the moment, the instructions don't look too difficult for me to teach for the other residents whom might want to play, which I'm super glad :)

[AviWeinstein]

Quest for El Dorado's a fun one. Probably my second favorite deck builder after Dominion. My pick for interesting deck slimming mechanism is a little spoilery—legacy games, amiright—so I'm gonna comment it. (Jamey's mention playing it elsewhere, if that helps.)

[nerzenjaeger]

This has been on my radar since Essen, but I'm not sure how unique it is compared to other racing games.

[signore]

I was pretty sure you were gonna highlight the fact that you can decide on your turn what is the next thing to buy on the market when a spot just got free. In my opinion the coolest thing and option of this game. What do you think?

[harmweber]

Really like this game (and Clank, too). Do you have any thoughts about the expansion?

[philipselesky]

I've never actually played a deck building game...But! The Star Wars LCG from FFG has a great way of discarding cards.

On your turn you can discard 1 card. However, whenever there was combat, both players would wager cards in an "Edge Battle".
The winner, who would then go first in the fight, was determined by the total number of Force points on each wagered card in their "Edge Stack". This was a great time to dump useless cards from your hand. But because it was done face down and one card at a time, it was also an excellent way of bluffing your opponent.

i.e. You might have absolutely garbage cards, but your opponent sees you playing multiple cards into your edge stack and now they are worried that you might actually go first in the fight they started, so they discard a valuable card into the edge battle to secure the win.

And now that your hand is empty, when you draw up to your hand size you'll hopefully get the cards you need.