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Worker Placement is a favourite mechanism of mine, so I have assembled a merry band of pals to give us a super quick intro to their top worker placement games. Maybe these short and snappy sections will spark some interest in you, let us know your favourites!
Everdell – Hannah Blacknell
For me there is one that I need to highlight first and that is Everdell from Starling Games. This is a beautiful, whimsical woodland game with top tier artwork and a great game to boot. This is a game played over 4 seasons and you get more workers as the game goes on. There is a clever mix of resource management, engine building and chaining of cards in order to build your 15 card city. Each card has a production action, end game scoring or special ability that you can benefit for the rest of the game. Construction cards will also help you play critter cards for free. The balance of cardplay and in such a tight game for resources is a huge puzzle that I adore. There are so many different cards in this game that we love the replayability of the game. A firm favourite, one that makes both our top ten games of all time list.
There are a lot of expansions to Everdell, all included in the Complete Collection; Bellfaire, Pearlbrook, Spirecrest, Newleaf and Mistwood. For me I love Newleaf and actually think that this is my favourite way to play Everdell now. There are also some offshoots that have the same amazing artwork but different gameplays Farshore which is a standalone base game very similar to Everdell but with some additional twists. There is also one for the kids of My Lil’ Everdell.
Stone Age - Hannah Blacknell
This one is not a looker really but a stone cold classic nonetheless (please appreciate the pun). During Stone Age you will be trying to gain resources to get yourselves items, expand your village and generally do things to gain points. You can also gain workers by sending them to the breeding cottage, which is of course how it happens but rarely do you have a worker placement spot for getting jiggy with it.
The interesting part about collecting resources in this game is that you place workers there which will allow you to determine how many dice you get to roll. These dice will determine how much wood, stone or gold you actually get for your workers' efforts. This is a delicious bit of randomness in the game which adds to the excitement and means sometimes you have to pivot a little to make the most of what you managed to gather in that round.
Flamecraft - Hannah
You want cute? Do you like dragons? How about puns? Flamecraft has it all! This is an entry level worker placement game about sending your wee dragons out to work at local bakeries/cafes/apothecaries to collect bread, potions, iron, leaves, jewels and meat and using them to collect fancy dragons or casting spells. You’ll be sending dragons to the locations most suited to their own special skills in order to gain as many resources as possible and gain favour with dragons which essentially equates to game end points.
This is a pretty quick game and is an easy learn and teach. It also comes with a neoprene mat as standard which I LOVE. You can also pimp out your version with the deluxe wooden resources too.
Raiders of the North Sea – Luke Pickles
Garphill Games has a good reputation when it comes to worker placement. The game that really put them on the map, Raiders of the North Sea, is a brilliant Viking based game where you are raiding… in the north sea. On your turn, you’ll place your single worker down, do the action and then pick up a different worker and trigger that action. It’s a really simple twist that is incredibly effective, allowing you to take two turns and never really blocking anyone from any action. There’s some fun little extras you can do, like managing your crew and figuring out what to do with the resources that you capture from the raids, but for the most part, it’s those two meeple interactions. It’s a really fun puzzle to get everything you need and get the raids done, as well as balancing the possibility of losing your crew members to the Valkyries but scoring points for doing so.
Add one of the two expansions in and you’ve got a really tight game, even when you might see the score track differences once everyone has finished placing their worker down.
Architects of the West Kingdom – Luke Pickles
Most worker placement games, you only have a few workers, maybe between 5 and 8. However, Architects gives each player 20 workers to use. It also turns over the usual single worker in a spot rule by having open spaces for the vast majority of actions. Your goal is to build the cathedral and the town out, so you need to gather as many resources as possible, and enlist the help of the townsfolk to build. Because so many of the worker spots are open, the strength of the action increases by the number of your workers you have there. Round one, you might get one wood, but round two, you’ll get two and so on. To stop you from running away with it, there is an action to let players capture their opponents workers, so you have to balance getting the goodies whilst not being too much of a target.
Architects was my favourite game of all time for a good while, and I still really love this game.
Give it a go!
Hallertau – Luke Pickles
Alright, so what if you don’t like meeples? How do you feel about cubes? In Hallertau, everyone plays with blue cubes that feed into a big farming engine. You’ll be sowing crops, harvesting them, converting them into other resources, rearing sheep, and developing the town. Developing the town is important because doing this gets you massive points and more workers as the game goes on. Every worker placement game is better when you have more workers. Hallertau’s worker spaces are open for the most part, but each time a player goes to that spot, the worker cost increases, making it more difficult as the game goes on.
Something that really stands out with Hallertau though is the cards that are used throughout the game. You can gain instant rewards, ongoing income bonuses and end game scoring, they offer a lot of randomness but that for me, is all part of the fun.
Lost Ruins of Arnak - Sam de Smith
The epic game of exploring ancient civilisations has worker placement at its heart. You play as rival explorers with the same standard deck, which enables you to place your workers, triggering free actions - classic elements such as blocking locations apply, naturally. However, improving your card deck also allows you to explore further into the island, with a chance of finding greater treasures to add into the deck (or progress down the more traditional reward track) and defeating ancient guardians, though you then add the risk of FEAR (negative) cards into the deck! Where Arnak excels is that if you prefer a very traditional worker placement you can (mostly) play it as such, whilst if you’re more into card gaming you can tailor your gameplay that way also.
Dune: Imperium - Sam de Smith
First and foremost, Dune is a game that is bang on theme. If you like the cut and thrust of galactic politics but want something that is not too abstract or too heavy then Dune: Imperium nails this. Again, you have a standard deck and aim to improve it. However, in this your deck is far more integral to your worker placement as you have to match the card colour/symbol to locations: yellow triangle corresponding to Desert, green pentagon to the Landsraad, and so on. You have to balance this with wanting to spend some cards for their effects (and, again, upgrading your deck), which will often be tied to the specific Leader abilities, such as Leto placing workers to the Landsraad at reduced cost. So finding a balance is key! And of course, the one who controls the spice controls the universe!
Bitoku - Sam de Smith
I’ve saved my favourite Worker Placement till last, naturally, but Bitoku is another level of complexity again as it not only includes deckbuilding but also dice manipulation as a mechanic. Bitoku can feel a bit overwhelming with its massive board, stacks of tiles and many, many components. Actually, it’s a very straightforward game: you have to place your low value starting dice (they are your Workers) and then move them across the central river to perform a secondary action (which can affect their dice number). You trigger various progression tracks deciding which route to go down – pilgrimage, temples, buildings – and tend to focus on that, but have to consider whether to block your opponents’ paths or stick to your own. It’s a less confrontational game than many worker placements, though you’re still vying for the upgraded cards (ah-ha!) of the different spirits – there’s the deckbuilding element, again, though it’s integrated into the whole. It’s a beautiful, intricate game but, once you get the hang of it, remarkably intuitive.
Rajas of the Ganges - Craig Smith
Rajas of the Ganges is one of my favourite worker placement games. It has an elegance and simplicity. Place a worker, spend dice, do an action. That’s it. That’s all there is to it.
Ok, there is a lot more to it than that. There are many different spaces that workers can be placed. There’s the quarry to take the build action, which is probably the most used action on the board. Building out from your palace is a great way of earning more money and fame. Placing workers on the banks of the Ganges can also move your boat to gain coins, fame, dice or karma. The market spaces are a great way of gaining money. Finally, and probably the most sought-after spaces on the board, are the chamber spaces. These spaces have unique actions depending on what die number you’ve used. The person who makes their fame and money tracks overlap first is the winner.
Rajas scales really well, and it’s a gorgeous production, something that isn’t always true of worker placement games. If you’re looking to introduce someone to the mechanism, I think Rajas of the Ganges is a great place to start.
Yokohama - Craig Smith
As there are so many new games being churned out, it’s likely a stone-cold classic can pass you by. That’s certainly what happened with me and Yokohama.
A few months ago I was on the hunt for a worker placement game that did something better than “place a worker on x to gain y.” I watched a playthrough of Yokohama and thought the twist on worker placement was interesting. You place cubes, and the cubes allow your president to move. The cubes also dictate the power of your action. This is how many resources you pick up, or how profitable an action is.
Again, it’s a game that scales well. The board is smaller in a lower player game, and extra modules are added in a higher player. It’s also quite interactive, as you can potentially block the routes of your opponents. If you wanted to get this worker placement gem, your time might be soon.
Yokohoma is currently getting a reprint! It’s taking the cardboard pieces and replacing them with wooden components. Judging by the pictures, they’ve done a great job in improving the games look without changing the gameplay. I’d urge you to pick up a copy when it comes out.
Viticulture - Craig Smith
Are you a fan of wine? Do you like games which look as good as they play? Well, I might have a recommendation for you. Viticulture is a worker placement game of making wine and filling orders. It’s also a bit of a slow burner. For the first few rounds, you need to get your engine built, which is so important in that race to twenty points. You plant grapes, harvest them, crush them into wine, and then fill orders.
It’s quite a simple game that gets an extra bit of juice from the visitor cards. These cards seem to polarise opinions. Some argue that games can be won by luck rather than judgement. However, I think they add a much-needed bit of variety to the game. Many of them are also interactive, so you can benefit from other people helping themselves.
