A Eurogame, also called a German-style board game, German game, or Euro-style game, is a class of tabletop games that generally has complex rules, indirect player interaction, and multiple ways to score points. Eurogames are sometimes contrasted with American-style board games, which generally involve more luck, conflict, and drama. They are usually less abstract than chess or Go, but more abstract than wargames. Likewise, they generally require more thought and planning than party games such as Pictionary or Trivial Pursuit.
In tabletop games and video games, game mechanics specify how a game works for the players. Game mechanics include the rules or ludemes that govern and guide player actions, as well as the game's response to them. A rule is an instruction on how to play, while a ludeme is an element of play, such as the L-shaped move of the knight in chess. The interplay of various mechanics determines the game's complexity and how the players interact with the game. All games use game mechanics; however, different theories disagree about their degree of importance to a game. The process and study of game design includes efforts to develop game mechanics that engage players.
Ra is a board game for two to five players designed by Reiner Knizia and themed around Ra, the sun-god of Heliopolis in ancient Egyptian culture. It is one of three auction games designed by Knizia, the others being Medici and Modern Art.
Kingdom Builder is a strategy board game designed by Donald X. Vaccarino, published in 2011 by Queen Games with illustrations by Oliver Schlemmer in German, British and international versions.
Lords of Waterdeep is a German-style board game designed by Peter Lee and Rodney Thompson and published by Wizards of the Coast in 2012. The game is set in Waterdeep, a fictional city in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. Players take the roles of the masked rulers of Waterdeep, deploying agents and hiring adventurers to complete quests and increase their influence over the city.
Mansions of Madness is a tabletop strategy game designed by Corey Konieczka and published by Fantasy Flight Games in 2011. Players explore a locale filled with Lovecraftian horrors and solve a mystery.
Splendor is a multiplayer card-based board game, designed by Marc André and illustrated by Pascal Quidault. It was published in 2014 by Space Cowboys (Asmodee). Players are gem merchants of the Renaissance, developing gem mines, transportation, and shops to accumulate prestige points. Splendor received positive reviews and received numerous awards, including winner of Golden Geek Best Family Board Game. It was nominated for the Spiel des Jahres Game of the Year in 2014. The game also received a mobile application and an expansion released in 2017.
SeaFall is a board game designed by Rob Daviau and published in 2016 by Plaid Hat Games. SeaFall is a game of colonial era exploration which uses a legacy format, meaning the board and components change during each game, creating a different game each time and a story with a beginning, middle, and end. The game is played by 3–5 players, each of whom takes on the role of a province taking to the seas after a long dark age. Players explore the game board with their ships, revealing islands and other surprises. The game contains 430 entries in a Captain's Booke, a journal which is read in sections when players trigger in-game events called milestones. The story contains about 15 games' worth of content, with each game taking about two hours to play.
Azul is an abstract strategy board game designed by Michael Kiesling and released by Plan B Games in 2017. Based on Portuguese tiles called azulejos, in Azul players collect sets of similarly colored tiles which they place on their player board. When a row is filled, one of the tiles is moved into a square pattern on the right side of the player board, where it garners points depending on where it is placed in relation to other tiles on the board.
Terraforming Mars is a board game for 1 to 5 players designed by Jacob Fryxelius and published by FryxGames in 2016, and thereafter by 12 others, including Stronghold Games. In Terraforming Mars, players take the role of corporations working together to terraform the planet Mars by raising the temperature, adding oxygen to the atmosphere, covering the planet's surface with water and creating plant and animal life. The game incorporates elements of resource management, engine building, and strategic planning. Players compete to earn the most victory points, which are measured by their contribution to terraforming and to human infrastructure. These goals are achieved by collecting income and resources which allow them to play various projects, represented by cards that increase their income or resources, build infrastructure, or directly contribute to terraforming the planet. The game was received positively by fans and critics, and received numerous awards.
Gloomhaven is a cooperative board game for one to four players designed by Isaac Childres and published by Cephalofair Games in 2017. It is a campaign-based dungeon crawl game including a narrative campaign, 95 unique playable scenarios, and 17 playable classes. Since its introduction the game has been acclaimed by reviewers, and has been described as one of the best board games ever made.
Karuba is a tile-laying race game for 2–4 players, designed by Rudiger Dorn and published by HABA in 2015. Each player has 4 explorers, which move through the jungle on the player's private board in order to discover treasure and reach hidden temples. The game was nominated for the 2016 Spiel Des Jahres award.
Roll for the Galaxy is a dice game of building space empires for 2 to 5 players. Designed by Wei-Hwa Huang and Tom Lehmann, it was published by Rio Grande Games in 2014. Player dice represent their empire's populace, whom the players use to develop new technologies, settle worlds, and trade. It is a dice version of an older board game Race for the Galaxy.
Patchwork is a two-player board game created by Uwe Rosenberg. It was released in 2014.
Sagrada is a dice-drafting board game designed by Adrian Adamescu and Daryl Andrews and published in 2017 by Floodgate Games. Each player constructs a stained-glass window using dice on a personal 4×5 game board board with restrictions on the types of dice that can be played on each space. Players gain points by completing public and secret objectives for dice placements, and the one with the most after ten rounds is the winner.
Broom Service is a role selection board game designed by Andreas Pelikan and Alexander Pfister, and published by Ravensburger. It won the 2015 Kennerspiel, the Spiel des Jahres connoisseurs game of the year award.
Suburbia is a city-building tile-laying board game designed by Ted Alspach and published in 2012 by Bézier Games.
Great Western Trail is a board game designed by Alexander Pfister for two to four players, which was published in 2017 by Eggertspiele. It is a complex and strategic 'Eurogame', loosely themed on the American frontier and the original Great Western Cattle Trail, in which players engage in the transportation of cattle. A second edition was published in 2021, for one to four players.
Isle of Skye: From Chieftain to King is a tile-laying board game designed by Alexander Pfister and Andreas Pelikan that was published in 2015. It uses the Isle of Skye as its setting, with players representing clan chieftains each vying to build a kingdom.
Roll Player is a euro-style board game designed by Keith Matejka and published in 2016 by Thunderworks Games. In the game, players compete to design the best fantasy adventurer, through dice rolling and card drafting mechanics.
