Brain & Fun: Strategy Games
Strategy games are defined by playing by making a long term plan towards a goal. An example of this is chess where a player must make a decision that will help them in the long run and over several calculated steps. Steps taken by opponents need to be factored in as well since this may affect a players next decisions as well as have more than one strategy planned in case the current ones doesn’t play out or are stopped by opponents.
Zoo Vadis
Zoo Vadis is a 30 minute game meant for 3-7 players, ages 10 and up. This game takes place in a zoo where the animals are competing for a position in the star exhibit. The lead star will be elected Zoo Mascot where they can enjoy the fame, attention and prestige of all eyes being on them. Zoo Vadis comes with laurel tokens which are used for bribing, exchanging and collecting; a necessity of the game and your way to win.
The game begins on a game board which shows the layout of the zoo and the empty exhibits on which players will place their animal tokens on. Once placed the animal token move up the board following the paths to make it to the Star Exhibit. It’s not always that simple however as you can only make your way up the path if there’s a Zoo Keeper token on your way or if you have the approval of the majority of the animals that are on the exhibit that you’re trying to leave. This is where negation begins. The laurel token come in handy here as you can pay the other players with them for exiting or if you don’t have any you can promise to vote or allow other players to move on their turns. Be careful here! Some players may lie here to get ahead and not keep up their end of the deal.
Play continues until all the spaces in the Star Exhibit are filled. Then the players who have a token in the Star Exhibit qualify to count their laurel tokens, whoever has the most laurel tokens is the winner.
Tips for winning are being nice to players with promises and going through with them. Deals are constantly made as that’s how you navigate the game so you want to be in a high traffic area where you will be part of them and collect tokens and favors.
Hegemony
Hegemony is an asymmetric political board game for 2-4 players, ages 14 and up, with a playtime of 90-180 minutes.
Hegemony is an asymmetric political board game for 2-4 players that lets you simulate a whole nation. Here the economy is falling and politics are falling apart as politicians are resigning which leads for unrest. The country splits into 4 classes; The Working Class, the Middle Class, the Capitalist Class and the State itself.
Depending in which class you chose will impact your goals. There are bills to propose, voting on policies, building up the workforce, providing benefits and keeping debt free. The classes all depend on each other but have the goal of leading their class to victory. Through strategic planning and moves players will increase the power in their class and carry out their agenda, allowing them to win.
“Hegemony is heavily based on actual academic principles such as Social-Democracy, Neoliberalism, Nationalism and Globalism, and allows players to see their real world applications through engaging gameplay. There are many ways to achieve hegemony- which one will you take?” -publisher
Voidfall
The premise of Voidfall is players are exploring and reclaiming remnants of the shattered Domineum. There they conquer the galaxy by expanding outwards or build up their empires up within. Players only get 13 turns for the entire game. To help the game progress there are focus cards that can be played to make decisions. A player chooses two or three impactful actions on which they will improve upon and set up for success. This game is highly rated due to its near infinite content combinations. There are Focus cards, technology cards, House powers, Civilaztion tracks and the three modes of play.
Players are assigned the role of a leader of a defiant Great House and they play through three cycles. Each cycle has a new game altering event and a new scoring condition comes into play, done by the Focus cards. Since there’s a limited amount of turns, onto each event players improve the techs of the event, advance civilization tracks, manage your sectors’ infrastructure, population, and production, and finally conquer new sectors with up to five different types of space fleets.
There are three game modes in Voidfall. Cooperative where players stand together against the invading Voidborn, competitive in which you fight the Voidborn threat and your opponents for galactic supremacy, and solo mode in which the cooperative mode is used but you play alone against the Voidborn. This leads to there being different winning outcomes. In the cooperative and solo mode the goal is to win by pushing back the Voidborn. In competitive mode players must overcome rivals influence in resorting the Domineum. With the three modes of play the infinite play options get more interesting.
Earth
In Earth players are growing plants, bushes, and fungi. The plants sprout, grow, die, and return back to earth as compost, replicating the real life cycles on earth.
There are four actions to take- add cards to hand, add sprouts, add growth, and add cards to compost pile. Each of the actions has a color assigned to it which triggers the other players cards of the same color. Every time any player goes and chooses a color to activate all the other players do the same. Any of the four actions can be taken on a color turn. The combined actions will cause some sort of plant to grow so no move is wasted. As players become ore advanced they will see ways to grow more exciting plants and plan ahead for them.
“Earth is a tableau builder for 1 to 5 players with simple rules and countless strategic possibilities. With its encyclopedic nature and a near-infinite number of tableau combinations, every single game will allow you to discover new synergies and connections, just as our vast and fascinating world allows us to do!” -publisher
This game isn’t competitive and allows players to grow their own ecosystems while others do the same. It’s a good game to gather with friends and play as you’re having conversations.
3 Ring Circus
In 3 Ring Circus you are a ringmaster in the 19th century U.S. and bring your circus into town. There you hire performers who will improve the show and earn fame points to become the top act. Whoever has the most fame points wins.
The game starts with empty circuses on the gameboard which each player will fill up with their circus tent. In order to have a circus players must make contracts with performers and artists, which is done through artists cards. The artists cards have more or less benefits depending on the order acts are performed in, so its important to plan out the shows and acts in order. Once acts and a circus is established you choose to host in a city or town. In a town you are given a few entry cards as payment for performing. In a city you can be given more entry cards along with fame points. Finally in a large city many fame points are given but the audience is picky with what acts and artists they want to see. The game relies on finding your performing cast and upgrading it thorough out to draw in the most audience attendance to your shows.
Depending on if you perform in a town or a city the rewards will vary. In a town its easy to set up a circus and start with a small cast of performers A small city is more demanding of what they want to see but they allow you to come across better performers to hire. In a big city as mentioned before the audience will only see a specific act while bringing most fame points. Quickly building your way up isn’t the best way to win however, it ‘s still important to come up with a plan for optimizing the game for yourself.
Great Western Trail: New Zealand
Great Western Trail: New Zealand is a 1-4 player game, ages 12 and up, and takes 70-150 minutes to play/ In this game you own a sheep sheering station which you want to make prosper by building it up, hiring workers and having many varieties of sheep and their wool to sell.
The game board contains a map which you will make your way down. Along the route there are action spaces which you will take to earn points to win the game. Some of these action spaces have tiles meant for buildings to be put up. The buildings on the board allow for you to hire workers to build them up and eventually build shipping ports in which you can sell sheep and wool from. Different types of wool and sheep have different values. Shearing the sheep and selling wool helps you make money in the game. Wool also comes in a variety of colors
If you own many buildings you can charge your opponents tax for crossing, they are located on important parts of the map so players will need to make their way through. The taxes can be used to get more powerful actions. An example of the action cards is sheep shearing, where money is to be made by selling the wool. Having more sheep allows you to hire more workers to sheer the sheep. By building up a large sheep sheering business you bring in money for yourself and the workers which is the goal of the game.
Darwin's Journey
Darwin's Journey is a 1-4 player game, ages 14 and up, and takes 30-120 minutes to play.
What’s unique about is Darwin's Journey that it’s made of up Darwin’s memories instead of being played in present time.
The game starts with a player choosing which island they want to start exploring. There are action spaces – 4 of them, including academics, navigation, exploration, and correspondence. On each of the action spaces a worker is placed . Each of the action types has a colored seal to which the workers need to match to be assigned to it. Once that’s in place the game begins, benefits are gained from actions and each player gets rewards. Workers need to improve their skills for stronger actions to advance in the game. There are many combinations of colored seals and actions which players will learn and unlock as they continue through more rounds or games.Action spaces allow players to explore the island, sail ships to drop off explores to other islands. The action spaces are key to winning the game so by coming up with the new stronger combinations players can find powerful actions to help them succeed.
How the game is setup each time doesn’t affect the later outcomes, making replaying the game a new experience each time. There is also an AI version of the game for solo play.
Try a Strategy Game Today!
Strategy games are a lot of fun once you figure out the mechanics and open up the possible creations, moves, and combinations for the opportunity to win. Try one of our recommendations and let us know down in the comments below what was your favorite play!
