Top 10 Game Mechanics

Niramas ranks his Top 10 Game Mechanics in Board and Card games! With a few example games for each entry. Let us know Your favourite game mechanics in the comments below!

00:00 Intro
01:45 #10
04:51 #9
08:31 #8
13:22 #7
17:02 #6
22:49 #5
26:34 #4
29:48 #3
32:45 #2
37:03 #1

#bgwNiramas #Top10GameMechanics #Boardgames
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[BoardgameswithNiramas]

Thanks for watching! Please let us know in the comments here, did you enjoy the video?
Do you have any questions? Ideas for future videos or requests? Thanks! /Niramas

[dillenbeck]

My favorite game mechanisms?

*1. Cooperative Play* - My wife's #1 also. I'm bad at games, and she doesn't like playing games where she loses stuff to other players or the game. Cooperative play makes up the bulk of our joint game play (but I do like a good wargame every now and then). Favorites for us are Pandemic (played less as I avoid Asmodee North America titles now), Spirit Island (looking forward to my expansions/upgrades - now to hunt down the promos from the first run because as a late backer I couldn't get them), and recently Gloomhaven.

*2. Asymmetry* - I'm more comprehensive than you. Asymmetrical player powers, starts, victory conditions - I like when everyone is trying to do something different to achieve victory (either together or separately). I think GMT COIN games are a prime example of full asymmetry; different victory conditions, different (but similar) actions, different starting states, and so on. One very unique game is Chimera Station, where you can draft middle pieces for workers in the 4 alien types and add them (giving 14 different combos between 1 and 2 middle pieces) - and it has tile laying and tile bonus like in Terraforming Mars (but these tiles become worker placement spots). A real hidden gem that sadly didn't sell well and won't get expansions.

*3. Tableau Building* - Let me draft my cards then play them out into a tableau. I especially like the Sierra Madre Games' Pax series where the tableaux often form sociopolitical maps that you use pieces on, and Lewis and Clark where you build a tableau and use neighbor tableau(x) to gather resources until you "camp down" and pick those cards up.

*4. Resource Processing* - I don't actually like worker placement per se, but like gathering and then processing resources into other resources. Roads & Boats, Lewis & Clark, Ora et Labora, Oh My Goods!, and so on all have you gather up goods and transform them in some way, and I just love creating this type of engine.

*5. Multiuse Cards* - Give me multiple ways to use cards and I am happy. In 7 Ages a card can be used as a numerical result (for first player determination, combat, or trade), to bring out an empire, to play for its event, or to build something (wonder, government, technology, or religion); and in Lewis & Clark you can use a card for its effect or upside down to "power" another card (and even sell it when buying another card to reduce costs); and in Nevsky you can have a card in your deck to draw as an event or play it out on a lord or your nation (depending on type).

*6. Luck Mitigation* - Multiuse cards sort of fall into this category, but basically I need a way to mitigate my back luck draws. In Nevsky, I levy card powers from the event deck by looking through the whole deck; in Gloomhaven I have the tailoring of my modifier deck and get to choose my cards for play that reduces randomness; with and in classic hex-and-counter wargames there are odds based combat resolution tables that I can manipulate the column or die roll modifier for - so I can choose to take high risks with lots of bad odds combats or take one very good attack against a limited amount of opponents (then use terrain, position, leaders, and so on to increase my odds). This sometimes backfires. In Sekigahara I appreciate the ability to tailor what cards I keep, but my wife sees it as the game taking away cards she wants.



In all your preferences, the ones I don't like are Deck Building (which just is too random for me - again, I don't mind building a deck with Gloomhaven as I have a total hand of cards versus Pathfinder Adventure Card Game or Magic where I draw a subset each turn... the latter two being deck construction and not deck building I guess) - but I get why it is popular - and custom dice. All they do is take away the lookup table and make you pay for expensive custom components. Still, it is nice chrome - but there is no difference on a six sided die of rolling a +1 and +3 range or saying "a 1 means +1 range and a 2 means +2 range"; same odds. Okay, it is a nice shortcut for those who don't want to convert dice, and I like my custom Arkham Horror dice I own (kickstarter ones with Elder Signs on blue, green, and black dice but still have small numbers in a corner since sometimes you need a numerical value); so I get this. I just wish they were optional add-ons so the game costs would be lower. I don't think we quite like the same things and probably would enjoy occasionally gaming together, but we are different enough that we'd both need other groups. Just know I respect your preferences and are glad you have choices like custom dice. Happy gaming!

[jackrutter]

Great video, I think I prefer this kind of video to top 10 games because you get to talk about a lot more games. We can then choose a game mechanic listen to your favourite games for that!
Quick Q, have you tried Paladins of the West Kingdom, solo or otherwise? Would be great to see a video of that! :D

[edmundengland]

Bra jobb. Att göra en sådan här film tror jag man lär sig mer om sig själv och vilka mekanismer som faktiskt finns i olika spel.

[alexo]

Fun video to identify what types of game mechanisms you enjoy. I took a look at my collection in BGG and have 7 games I rated as a 10. The two mechanisms they all have in common is solo/coop and variable player powers. That should help when I’m looking at that next shiny Kickstarter game to determine if it’s the right purchase for me. What was really interesting to me was looking at the games I ranked much lower in my collection. Almost without exception they are themed games (DC, Marvel, Star Wars, etc.). Kind of a shame that my taste in movies doesn’t translate well to the table.

[Lazarithe]

So happy to hear what your favorite game was! It’s my favorite game too, so many cool game mechanics.

[blackjack]

I feel the term worker placement is often misused. For example Lords of Waterdeep or Russian Railroads, where each turn you just select an available action, denying it from the other players. Action drafting would be a much more accurate way to describe those type of games. There should be a travel/spacial element I think for worker placement to be an applicable term. Maybe there are better examples out there, but Istanbul comes to mind. Your workers (merchant and assistants) have to move from space to space based on specific restrictions in order to carry out the actions.

[bradspelsmats]

I like variable players powers in Champions of Midgard and marco polo.

[TC_Capitalist]

BGG has “story” as a mechanic? Bruh, telling a story isn’t a game mechanic xD

Interesting to know that you like deck building that much. It is a fun mechanism for sure.