The Modern Eurogame Revolution

by Yehuda Berlinger
Presentation for the Board Game Studies Colloquium 2009 (Jerusalem)

Board and card games used to be for adults. In the last century or two, board games in the
Western world became simplistic and their audience became children. With some exceptions,
todays popular proprietary board games, such as Monopoly, Sorry, Candy Land, and UNO,
require no more brain power than the average six year old can muster. Popular games for adults,
such as Trivial Pursuit, Pictionary, etc... are the equivalent of parlor games, used only to break the
ice at parties.
We see an endless stream of the same games with pawns, dice, tracks, instructive cards, and trivia
questions. Ask an executive at any large Western-world game publishing house about a game,
and he or she will describe the games theme: it's about cars, it's about Star Wars, it's about
menopause. The mechanisms of the game (which I call mechanics) are not relevant to their
marketing concerns.
On the other side, hobby games with serious devotees, such as war games, miniature games, and
role-playing games have extraordinarily complex rules and long playing times. Classic abstract
games like Chess and Go require deep thinking and a single-minded devotion to play competently.
Most of us cant muster this much time or effort after graduating university. That leaves gambling
and social games, such as Backgammon, Poker, Mah-jongg, and Dominoes, which are primarily
based on luck.
Eurogames, otherwise known as German games, family strategy games, or designer games, are
games for adults and families that bring innovative mechanics back to the forefront of game
design. This focus on introducing - in game after game after game - new and innovative game
play is a modern revolution in board gaming. Eurogames roots can be traced back to certain
board games from the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s, but true Eurogames took their present shape
in the 1980s and 1990s in Germany, quickly followed by the rest of Europe and the entire world.
In Eurogames, the mechanics are the heart of the game; the theme is icing to help market the
game. I will come back to some of the mechanics used in Eurogames later on.
First, a bit more about what makes Eurogames unique.
Eurogames are not overtly, and generally not directly, focused on confrontation. Instead of
capturing other players' pieces, money, or territory, as in many American, war, or abstract
strategy games, in Eurogames the winner is the player to reach a certain point value first, or have
the highest value after a set end-game condition occurs. For example, in Settlers of Catan, the
first player to reach ten points wins. Yet, Eurogames are not purely race games, as they are also
interactive. Players may compete to acquire resources from a limited supply, or interfere with
other player's progress. For example, in Carcassonne, only the player or players with the most
pieces on an area scores for that area.

Settlers of Catan

Carcassonne

I mentioned "Family": Eurogames are aimed at families. Many are more complex than the typical
mainstream family game, such as Candy Land or Parcheesi, but most have elegant rules and
require simple, yet important decisions on each turn, in comparison to war games, classic
abstracts, or complicated card or role-playing games. The average Eurogames complexity is on
par with Monopoly.
There is rarely ever player elimination, so all players are involved through to the end of the game.
Playing time is oriented towards a typical family gathering: between 15 to 90 minutes for most
games, with some heavier games taking 120 minutes, rarely longer. Family games means
multiplayer, although many can also be played with two players, and a significant sub-genre of
Eurogames includes two-player only games for couples. Unlike rigid turn-oriented games, many
Eurogames have constant involvement of all players on every players turns, like party games, so
there is little downtime between turns. For example, in Settlers of Catan, part of each player's turn
involves trading with other players, keeping you involved even when it is not your turn.
Unlike pure abstract games, or simulation war games, Eurogames are lightly-themed: enough
theme to give context and color to the game, but not enough to complicate the rules or detract
from the essential game play. For example, Tigris and Euphrates is about conflicts between
civilizations in ancient Mesopotamia, but the board is a simple grid, the pieces are differently
colored tiles and disks, and each turn involves placing up to two pieces on the board, earning
points in one of four colors, with conflicts arising whenever two disks of the same color end up in
the same contiguous area.

Tigris and Euphrates

Most Eurogame are mostly language-independent, or come with pieces and rules translated into
two or more languages; Eurogames are almost never word or language-based.
I mentioned "Strategy": Eurogames are rarely perfect information games, such as Go or Chess,
but are never highly-luck based games, such as what Eurogamers pejoratively name "roll-andmove" American games such as Monopoly, or odds-based calculation games such as Risk.
Instead, Eurogames may provide random elements at the beginning of the game or each game
turn. You must then optimize strategy and tactics in reaction to these elements. For example, in
Power Grid, power plants appear on the market in random order; players take turns bidding for
the ones they want, and then building a network of power supply stations and fuel dumps based
on the plants theyve acquired.

Power Grid

There are generally multiple paths to victory, so random elements force you to adapt your
strategy rather than provide one player or another with better or worse positions. Unlike "rolland-move" or "pick-a-card-and-do-what-it-says" games, players have a few simple yet important
decisions to make each turn. If there are dice or cards, they provide randomized access to equalvalued resources, rather than better or worse fortunes. In Bohnanza, for example, you receive a
random distribution of bean cards out of which you must create sets by trading with other players,
but higher valued beans are rarer and harder to use to create sets.

Bohnanza

I mentioned "Designer": Eurogames are a modern form of entertainment for adults, like movies
or music. The components and artwork are of nice quality and good stock. They come with the
designer's name on the box. Players follow specific designers and publishers the way that movie
lovers follow specific actors and directors, or oenophiles follow specific vineyards or wineries.
Now let's take a closer look at some example mechanics and themes that might show up in
Eurogames.
Random terrain or resources: Many Eurogames randomize the resources available during each
round or each game. Note that you usually know the available terrain and resources BEFORE you
take an action, and so can use this information to plan your strategies, rather than the dice, cards,
or spinners occurring AFTER or AS you take an action to determine if you have succeeded.
Example: Domaine.

Domaine

Action cards: The optional action card that costs you a precious action to play, allows you to
choose one of several possible actions (thereby forgoing all the others), or costs you one resource
to gain another, is a common device in Eurogames. In well-balanced Eurogames, you do not win

or lose based on your luck with which card you draw; instead, the cards you draw influence the
strategy that you will best be able to employ. Many Eurogames let you select one of several cards
when drawing, or make a selection of cards available to all players via an auction. Example: San
Juan.

Cards in San Juan

Cascading points: Eurogames typically give all players a chance to win throughout the game by
apportioning a small number of points in the early parts of the game and the bulk of the points in
the latter part or end of the game. The early part of the game is often used for development of a
point-earning engine, while early points may or may not make much of a difference in the final
scores. For example, in Puerto Rico, most players will only be able to ship a few barrels at the
beginning of the game, earning only a few victory points, but may be able to ship many barrels on
the last few turns, earning many more victory points, and thus possibly swinging the final score in
the last rounds.

Puerto Rico

Game ending conditions: Eurogames have a built-in limit to the game's length. Eurogames end
after a certain number of points is achieved, a certain number of rounds has occurred, or a certain
number of resources are depleted. This prevents the game from dragging on, and is a necessary
component when victory is not achieved only by means of destroying your opponent. Example:
Tikal.

Tikal

Tile placement: Placing tiles is aesthetically pleasing - watching a map or area grow into a
definite shape - thematic - as brave explorers discover new territory. Choosing where to place a
tile provides you with a limited number of important choices on your turn. Since only one tile can
be placed in a certain spot, the first player to get to a spot may gain a slight advantage.
Meanwhile, your opponents place their own tiles in order to gain similar advantages. In Tikal, for

instance, placing a new tile represents your exploration through the jungle; placing the tile
adjacent to your own workers gives you an advantage in being the first to unearth the treasures
the tile may hold.
Auctions: Auctions involve all players simultaneously, give all players a fighting chance, and
easily create game balance by forcing (equally skilled) players to expend actual value for actual
benefit. There are hundreds of variations on the auction mechanics. For example, in Ra, each
auction includes a number of tiles and an auction disk. You have a limited set of auction disks
with which to bid. When you win an auction, you also win an auction disk that you will use in the
next phase of the game, and you lose your current auction disk, which becomes part of the spoils
for the next auction.

Ra

Trading / negotiation: Trading minimizes downtime, allowing all players to participate on all
turns. Trading also helps to maintain game balance, as players are often willing to give better
trade value to other players who are perceived to be losing - giving them a boost - and less trade
value to other players perceived to be winning - preventing a runaway leader problem sometimes
encountered in other games. Like auctions, there are many ways to implement trading mechanics.
Many Eurogames also allow proscribed types of negotiation, again something that involves all
players on all turns. Example: Settlers.

Resource Cards in Settlers of Catan

Worker placement / role selection: In many Eurogames, the available actions each round are
limited; this is another way of forcing competition for scarce resources. Players take turns
claiming actions, denying others the same choice. In Puerto Rico, for instance, each player in turn
chooses an available role, denying it to all the other players this round. At the end of the round,
the roles are returned and first choice for a role passes to the player on the left.

Role Cards (top) in Puerto Rico

Set collection: Set collection is a race mechanic where players utilize resources to collect items either the same, or specifically diverse - often from a limited supply, and is often used in place of
more direct confrontation. For example, in Tigris and Euphrates, your score is the number of
cubes in your least collected color out of four colors. This forces you to diversify your tactics
during the game.
Area control: You choose where to place your pieces, generally with limiting factors proscribing
where you may place them, and after a certain number of rounds or a depletion of resources, areas
are scored, giving full benefits to the player with the most pieces in each area, and partial or no
benefits to players with less pieces in those areas. This mechanic forces you to choose whether to
concentrate on a few better areas or a greater number of worse areas, and whether to concentrate
on a few absolute wins or a greater number of secondary wins. In El Grande, for example, you
can try to place a greater number of cubes in a few specific locations, or a lesser number of cubes
in a greater variety of locations.

El Grande

Modular boards that shrink one space at a time; planning routes across a map; actions and
auctions whose values change over time or based on circumstance; secret and simultaneous
movement selection; hidden roles; variable powers; variable phase or turn order; mission cards;
personalized play decks that change each game; The list of mechanics goes on and on from
game to game.
Whats important to realize is that, although area control might be an integral part of more than
one Eurogame, no two Eurogames are alike, with only a change of theme. Instead, each game
includes a unique variant of a mechanic or combines several mechanics in unique ways.
Themes: Eurogames are often set in historical time periods. A Eurogamer might say: If I see one
more game about trading wares in Medieval Europe, I'll go crazy. Typical Eurogames themes
include pre-historic (Primordial Soup, Stone Age), ancient (Amun-Re, Tigris and Euphrates),
medieval (Carcassonne, Caylus), renaissance (Princes of Florence, Notre Dame), civilization
(Entdecker, Through the Ages), exploration (Lost Valley, Tikal), industry (Power Grid, Industria),
agriculture (Agricola, Bohnanza), city building (Puerto Rico, Alhambra), political (Die Macher,
1960), trains (Age of Steam, Ticket to Ride), space (Race for the Galaxy, Mission: Red Planet),
fantasy (Battlelore, Lord of the Rings), and so on.

Primordial Soup

Stone Age

Amun-Re

Caylus

Entdecker

Industria

1960

Race for the Galaxy

Princes of Florence

Notre Dame

Through the Ages

Lost Valley

Alhambra

Die Macher

Age of Steam

Mission Red Planet

Ticket to Ride

Lord of the Rings

Eurogames are still a blip on the world board gaming market, although Settlers of Catan was in
the top ten selling games on Amazon.com this past holiday season, and several other Eurogames
were in the top 100. Nevertheless, they are already influencing games outside of their genre. Role
playing games, collectible card games, American games, and war games are incorporating the
mechanics and ideas of Eurogames to produce hybrid games, such as Richard Borg's card-driven
war game series. Previous generations of board games based on video games were of little to no
interest to players or video gamers alike. Fantasy Flight Games produces hybrid Euro/war games,
including board game versions of World of Warcraft and Doom, that are highly praised.

Memoir44 (R. Borg)

BattleLore (R. Borg)

Doom The Board Game

WoW The Board Game

Hasbro and Mattel at least have Eurogame-aware executives who are slowly introducing
Eurogame-style (and video game) mechanics into their branded lines of products the latest
version of Risk, for example, includes a less abstract theme, missions, action cards, and a limited
game time and more interesting mechanics into some of their newer game lines. They are also
beginning to purchase smaller companies that manufacture Eurogames, in order to buy into
Eurogames growing market.

Risk

Eurogames are making their way onto major video gaming platforms, such as online games, PC
games, Xbox Live, the iPhone, and mobile phones, where they tend to be well-received. This
exposes them to tens of millions of players who otherwise tend to look at board and card games
(other than collectible card games) as old fashioned. Over the last several years, thousands of
mainstream press articles have covered the resurgence of board games in general - and
Eurogames and Eurogamers in particular, including positive write-ups this month in Wired
Magazine and The New York Times.

The primary source of information for Eurogames is the biggest English-language board game
web site, Board Game Geek. Other countries have BGG equivalents, such as Germanys Spielbox.
BGG provides user-contributed information on over 40,000 games, user forums, reviews, session
reports, variants, rule FAQs, game rankings, collection tracking, a marketplace, and much more.
In 2008, BGG attracted 8.5 million unique visitors, 23 million visits, and 221 million page views.
BGG has 225,000 registered users who posted 1 million articles in 2008, uploaded 100,000
images and 10,000 files (rules, variants, player aids, and so on). 80 of their top 100 ranked games
are Eurogames or hybrid Euro/war games. Only 53% of these visitors were from the US;
Eurogaming is an international phenomenon.

boardgamegeek.com

One thing BGG doesn't cover well is news. Board Game News exclusively covers Eurogame
news, while my own Purple Pawn covers news about Eurogames and other tabletop games. There
are around a hundred and fifty active board game blogs, including my blog, Facebook groups, and
a few mailing lists such as Spielfrieks. Hundred of Eurogames can be played online for free, at
sites such as BrettspielWelt, SpielByWeb, and others. Eurogames are available at local hobby
gaming stores, and online at Amazon.com, FunAgain Games (which also provides extensive
information and user comments about the games), and dozens of specialty online stores.
Industry awards exist to publicize the best games each year, including the most influential
German award, the Spiel Des Jahres. One respected English-speaking award is the International
Gamer Awards.

Major hobby game conventions, such as GenCon and Origins, include tracks for Eurogames,
while hundreds of smaller conventions are dedicated to Eurogames. Finally, thousands of game
groups exist in nearly every major city around the globe, meeting weekly or bi-weekly to play
Eurogames, supporting and pushing the Eurogame hobby. My own group, the Jerusalem Strategy
Gaming Club, has been meeting on a weekly basis for over ten years. My group, like many others,
has spawned other regular groups, and has turned on hundreds of new families to the modern
Eurogame revolution.