Do you know your 4x from a Euro? If you do, then you’re likely an experienced board gamer.
As a challenge, I’ve attempted to categorise board game types and define them concisely. I’ve also tried to tie in sub-genres found within the different types.
These board game types will likely be contested, and the comments below are an excellent place to detail your alternative rationale.
Eurogame
- Primary Goal: Accumulate the most Victory Points through efficient actions.
- Player Interaction: Indirect. Competition for limited resources or actions.
- Role of Luck: Low. Minimized to reward strategic planning.
- Theme Integration: Secondary. Mechanics come first.
- Complexity: Medium. Elegant systems that can be deep.
- Typical Components: Wooden cubes, discs, and custom “meeples.”
Worker Placement (Subgenre of Eurogame)
- Core Idea: Place a worker, take an action. Limited action spots create competition.
- Key Features: Resource management, engine-building, strategic blocking.
- Classic Examples: Agricola, Lords of Waterdeep, Everdell.
Deck-Building (Subgenre, often Euro-style)
- Core Idea: Start with a basic deck, buy better cards to improve it during play.
- Key Features: Acquiring new cards, managing your deck/discard, creating combos.
- Classic Examples: Dominion, Clank!, Star Realms, Dune: Imperium.
American-Style (Ameri-style)
- Primary Goal: Achieve a dramatic victory condition, often by direct confrontation.
- Player Interaction: Direct. Head-to-head conflict is central.
- Role of Luck: High. Dice rolls and random cards create drama.
- Theme Integration: Primary. The experience is built to immerse you in the story.
- Complexity: Variable. Can range from simple to very complex.
- Typical Components: Plastic miniatures, illustrated cards, custom dice.
4X (Subgenre, often American-Style)
- Core Idea: eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate. Empire-building.
- Key Features: Territory control, resource management, technological advancement, direct conflict.
- Classic Examples: Twilight Imperium, Eclipse: Second Dawn, Scythe (hybrid).
Dungeon Crawler (Subgenre, often American-Style / Co-op)
- Core Idea: Heroes explore a location (dungeon), fight monsters, get loot.
- Key Features: Character progression, tactical combat, story-driven scenarios.
- Classic Examples: Gloomhaven, Descent, Mansions of Madness (horror variant).
Wargame
- Primary Goal: Outmaneuver the opponent and achieve strategic military objectives.
- Player Interaction: Direct. Simulates combat and battlefield positioning.
- Role of Luck: Medium to High. Simulates the “fog of war” and battle unpredictability.
- Theme Integration: Primary. Often aims for historical accuracy or realistic simulation.
- Complexity: High to Very High. Known for detailed rulebooks and deep strategy.
- Typical Components: Hex-grid map board, cardboard counters (chits), combat resolution tables (CRTs), dice.
Area Control / Majority (Subgenre, common in Wargames, Euros, American)
- Core Idea: Gain and maintain control of territories on a map for points or benefits.
- Key Features: Placing units, scoring based on regional presence, often involves conflict or competition.
- Classic Examples: El Grande (Euro), Risk (American), Root (Wargame/Hybrid).
Abstract Strategy
- Primary Goal: Outwit your opponent through pure tactical and strategic play.
- Player Interaction: Direct. Every move directly impacts the opponent’s options.
- Role of Luck: None / Very Low. Perfect information; no random elements.
- Theme Integration: None. Theme is non-existent or purely decorative.
- Complexity: Low Rules, High Depth. Simple to learn, immense strategic possibilities.
- Typical Components: High-quality, uniform playing pieces (wood, stone, bakelite, or plastic).
Roll-and-Write / Flip-and-Write (Subgenre, often Abstract or Party)
- Core Idea: One random result (dice/card), all players use it simultaneously on their personal sheet.
- Key Features: Little downtime, combo-building, high replayability.
- Classic Examples: Ganz schön clever, Welcome To…, Cartographers, Yahtzee (classic).
Cooperative (Co-op)
- Primary Goal: All players work together as a team to beat the game’s system or achieve a common objective.
- Player Interaction: Collaborative. Players must communicate, strategize, and coordinate.
- Role of Luck: Medium. Random events or AI actions create challenges to overcome.
- Theme Integration: Primary. A strong theme unites players against a common foe or problem.
- Complexity: Variable. Can range from simple family games to highly complex scenarios.
- Typical Components: Custom player pawns/characters, decks of “threat” or event cards, shared board state trackers.
Party Game
- Primary Goal: Create laughter, social interaction, and shared fun among a larger group.
- Player Interaction: High & Social. Interaction is the core of the game.
- Role of Luck: High. Luck and randomness keep the game light, accessible, and unpredictable.
- Theme Integration: Variable. Can be thematic or abstract, but always serves the social goal.
- Complexity: Very Low. Designed to be taught in minutes and accommodate many players.
- Typical Components: Cards, word boards, drawing pads, sand timers, simple tokens.
Legacy / Campaign
- Primary Goal: Experience an evolving narrative over multiple play sessions, with permanent changes to the game.
- Player Interaction: Variable (can be competitive or co-op, depending on the base game).
- Role of Luck: Medium. Mix of strategy and random story events that drive the narrative.
- Theme Integration: Primary. The evolving story and permanent changes are the main draw.
- Complexity: High. Rules are often added or modified as the campaign progresses.
- Typical Components: Sticker sheets, sealed envelopes/boxes, components to be written on or destroyed.
This interactive and organised chart clicks to show the characteristics that define board games;
- Primary Goal – what the objective of the game is (aside from having fun)
- Player Interaction – how the players behave towards each other
- Role of Luck – is it a big factor in the game or not
- Theme Integration – is there a thing that’s important to the concept of the game
- Complexity – do you need to study the rules in advance?
- Typical Components – what do you get in the box?
The idea of organising board game types like this probably isn’t new, but it came to me while I was getting a tour of The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship.
As wargame-like pieces moved on the board, I was informed that the game is a variant of Pandemic. It is, I knew that, and I wondered what it would take to turn Pandemic into a wargame.
A special thanks to Vortex Verlag for sponsoring Geek Native’s coverage of UK Games Expo. You can meet them at stand 3A-758 and find out about the exciting new Serenissima Obscura crowdfunding campaign.
