My favorite form of hand management is the Race for the Galaxy/Marvel Champions style where you must spend cards from your hand to play cards from your hand. It constantly leads to tough and interesting choices.
The way Spirit Island uses that mechanic to increase the asymmetry of the spirits makes it probably my favourite hand management game. I am yet to play Concordia though so maybe it will be my second after that.
The Red Rising series has been on my list forever, so when you announced I ordered all of them to catch up before the game is released. Love hand management, that art, your games... CAN'T wait!!
A fun space opera! I hope the game captures the flavor of the caste system well (The design diary has me very interested!) stonemaiergames.com/games/red-rising/design-diary/
I really like Not Alone as a hand management game. Figuring out when to pick up your cards and which card you should be playing, combined with the bluffing of where the creature goes makes a great game.
Fantasy Realms is absolutely marvelous. I can’t wait for the Cursed Hoard expansion this year. I’m also excited for Red Rising based on this mechanical similarity. And of course the pedigree. Cant believe Arboretum isn’t on your list. Or Lost Cities. Also 12 days. They all do hand management really well. Arboretum is sooooo tense.
Yes. When I teach new players Arboretum I ALWAYS tell them that the most time consuming and challenging part of their turn will be deciding what to discard. About 10-14 minutes later, they finally believe me.
I agree Dune Imperium does something with deckbuilding that makes it cross into the territory of hand management. You essentially get 2 to 4 card plays and what's left is the real deckbuilding. The cards having different effects whether played or revealed really drives it home. Just chatting about it makes me want ti play it again.
I like the hand management in Nemesis. There's a push your luck aspect to it, where you decide how many cards you want to hold on to for end of round to avoid alien surprise attack. Then there's the aspect of spending cards on actions, deciding what to discard for that action. One of actions is playing a card, in which some cards you discard others with it. Then there's contamination cards that end up in your deck that clog up your hand that you can't get rid of until you pass. Lots of interesting things going on with hand management in Nemesis.
I do love Luxor and Libertalia. Marvel Champions is my favorite now. Deciding which cards to play and which cards to use as resources to play those cards is really cool.
Another suggestion could be Amul. It really delivers the hand management aspect in a similar way to fantasy realms, with a little bit more structure and a wider player count. Great list, thanks for sharing!
One of my favorites is 51st State: Master Set, which is firmly in the multi-use card category of hand management, but does so in a very satisfying way for me. It's one of my favorites to play solo as well
Bohnanza is consistently and instantly popular with everyone we teach it to (mostly casual gamers and family). The hand management, like you said, encourages and necessitates trading (social bargaining) that lets everyone's personality come out for memorable, fun playthroughs. Getting to argue, woo, and barter over silly, cartoonish art cards make it even more enjoyable.
Games I think would be good additions: - Gloomhaven (where cards act as timers in the game, a pretty unique concept, and where you have to decide if you play the top or the bottom of cards played in pairs) - Aquatica (similar to Concordia but without the resource and map aspect, so much more focused on cards. You also slide location cards for combo abilities) - Arboretum (you constantly go through this recycling process of gaining, playing and losing cards, and what you keep in your hands is as important as what you play) - Hats (two cards played, one has the potential to dictate how points are scored at the end, and one has the potential to give you points) - Lost cities (cards to do expeditions) - 6 Nimmt! (do you play low, medium or high cards in order to avoid taking rows of cards?) - Terraforming Mars (where you must buy the cards you want to keep and play, pretty unique concept too) - Valley of the Kings (where you need to decide if you're going to keep the cards you acquire or bury them for points)
Surprised you don't have Race for the Galaxy! I feel it's the go to hand management game almost given it's rank and popularity on BGG. Great list none the less and looking forward to Red Rising 🙂
There's a game I used to play with my son quite a lot a few years ago called Potion Making Practice. I don't know who made it but it's probably on a shelf here somewhere. I enjoyed it, although maybe it's not the best game in the world. It did have a pretty interesting hand management system, though. You had to combine raw ingredients to create different potions and put them in front of you. But you could also use some of the potions you created to combine with other cards to make even more powerful potions (elixirs, etc.). As I recall, each card had two different possible uses as a potion that you build or as a raw resource that you use to build other potions. What I enjoyed was the hierarchical building where you had to plan quite far ahead to decide whether you would use two cards to build a simple potion that you could then combine with another built potion to create the higher level ingredients for a more powerful card that you had in your hand. There's more to it and I'm not doing a great job of explaining it, but I really enjoyed it and I haven't seen other games with that multi-level recursive hand-management mechanic (although there probably are others).
I'm surprised Arboretum didn't even make your honorable mentions. I always find myself zugzwanged two turns into that game; the hand management is so tight. It was the first game that came to mind when you gave your definition of hand management, it embodies all elements so well.
Can't agree more about Arboretum! Each card in your hand, in your tableau and even on your discard pile matters as it can benefit both you and your opponents - and you are rarely sure which one is true until it comes to scoring. This leads to some fantastic guesswork which can become pretty tense, as the game often forces you to make risky moves, you don't really want to make. Great title, although I must admit, as much as I admire Arboretum, I rarely play it, as all this tension can become pretty exhausting. Definitely not the game you play to unwind at the end of the day, even though it looks like one.
Really enjoyed the video. I like that style of hand management used in Sushi Go and Ohanami of pick one or two and pass the hand. Also, enjoyed seeing some games in your video that I was not familiar with. Thanks ☺️
I've just played my first 2 games of Dune Imperium over the weekend, and loved it as well! Amul is a hidden gem where I really enjoy the hand management. You have a hand of cards, and each round you'll draw an additional card, place a card from your hand in a public offer, each player will draft one of those cards, and then each player will; play a card from their hand. The really satisfying tension comes in deciding which cards to play and which to hold onto. Certain cards stay in your tableau if you play them during the game, and others only stay in your tableau if you still have them in hand at the end of the game. It has a bunch of different ways points are scored among the cards, but the fact that you need to offer up one of your cards and play a card each round makes that tension really satisfying.
Lost cities comes to mind as a game with agonizing decisions as to what to keep in your hand and what to play and where. I suspect RR will be similar except have a lot of other things to consider and make it a bit meatier with better replayability.
War of the ring is a truly exceptional card management game. Deciding which to use for the action (and when) or to use for combat is really difficult. Also, the hand size is not huge, and you're regularly drawing new cards so deciding which to keep makes for a tricky time. Absolutely love it too, probably my favorite game. Lord of the rings in a box
Fantasy Realms is a good one. There's a few games I like which have hand management in them Spirit Island and Hostage Negotiator both spring to mind, and they both involve you having awesome turns interspersed with crummy turns because your hand's empty, with decisions revolving around how you refresh your hand. In Hostage Negotiator this is you spending conversation points to buy back played card, while in Spirit Island it's about when you take the version of the Growth action which gives you the refresh
It seems Arctic Scavengers has mostly the same way to deal with deck building and hand management as Dune Imperium (play cards to get benefits or keep them in your hand for combat at the end of the round) Also you did not mention Mission Red Planet, which is a perfect example of an Hand Management game ;)
@@jameystegmaier Aquatica is a great Hand Management game too. Both in Mission Red Planet and Aquatica every player starts with the same hand of cards. Each turn you play one of them. And there is a card to get all of your used cards back in your hand (the timing is essential)
Fantastic choices there Jamey. So many games you mentioned are among my favorites. Probably the only game I dislike there is Bohnanza, since your ability to succeed is directly correlated to your negotiation skills and if your opponents even want to trade with you. It's usually just the nicest player who wins in my plays. Haven't tried Libertalia yet, it's high on your list but it's currently unavailable in my country, maybe it just needs a reprint. One game that I think should also be mentioned is Terraforming Mars. It doesn't fit all of your criteria, but managing your hand is vital to success. Biggest thing is the decision on which cards to buy into your hand and which to throw away, card draw ain't free. Sometimes you really want to keep everything but you know you can't. There's also a time aspect, production cards are usually better early and point cards are usually better late, you want to play certain cards before it's too late, some cards you need to wait to play, sometimes you need to play a certain card at a certain time to snatch an important board spot/milestone from someone.
I came very close to considering Isle of Cats and Terraforming Mars for those reasons, but I thought they weren't quite eligible based on my definition. :)
You pair Concordia and Flotilla. I've not played Flotilla, but I always pair Concordia with Century Spice Road. The only difference I guess is that in Century, you get nothing on your rest turn other than refreshing your hand. But the starker nature of Century I think really emphasizes how the name of the game is efficiency - can you milk something from each card - or as many as possible - before you do a rest action? I fell in love with both games right away for this. Interestingly, I've heard Concordia's card system referred to as "basically a rondel, but with cards". This is an interesting way to think about it. And indeed, Mac Gerdts' previous game, Navegador, uses an on the board rondel that works kind of this way. But with the cards, you get to order the sequence of actions every time you reset your hand, so I'd say the card system creates more possible paths for the game to take. (Navegador though is another wonderful game.)
Did you speak about Red Rising in any video yet? Looks great and I remember you speaking of it in an IP list, mentioning it as number 1 you would like to get, so this is awesome!
I talked about it quite a bit in my Facebook Live video a few days ago, which is also on TH-cam. But I've mostly discussed it in the design diaries on our website so far: stonemaiergames.com/games/red-rising/design-diary/
Kind of surprised not to see Century on this list, for me, along with Fantasy Realms, it's a quintessential hand management game. I wasn't super interested in Red Rising but if it's inspired by Fantasy Realms, which I really enjoy, I'm going to have to dig deeper.
Concordia is probably the only "true" one I've played besides the limited hand-management mechanism in Pendulum. I really want to try Bohnanza, and of course, I'm super excited for Red Rising! Oops, I forgot Watergate has hand management too. I do love Watergate.
Love the list! Though I have to say I was really surprised to see Bohnanza on the list, while Race for the Galaxy wasn't even an honourable mention. Bohnanza is like my go-to example of a hand-management game that's completely outdated. I just *hate* the trading. :'D
Love Red Rising books, and I am super excited that it inspired you to create a game within the 'IP'! I was wondering if Century Golem (spice road) qualifies for a nod? Our family loves this game!
I feel like Watergate takes a lot of inspiration from Twilight Struggle, so thought I’d mention it. Iterating decisions of when to play certain cards based on how they might trigger for other player. Also the dispersion and restriction of the scoring cards adds difficult choices for each player.
I like your list. My actual favourites, where the hand management is the core element of the game, no particular order. Terraforming Mars Race for the Galaxy 51st State Inis Lewis and Clark Glory to Rome Innovation Blood Rage Evolution: Climate Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation
I was wondering if Dune: Imperium would qualify when I started watching, I'm glad it did. I love that game. Would Marvel Champions qualify? I suppose I might call it a deck management game.
I think Marvel Champions qualifies for much the same reason that Dune: Imperium applies. Do you use a card for it's ability, or for it's resource generation? Do you use all of the cards in your hand, or hold back a card for use in a subsequent phase or turn in a better situation?
Would you consider It's a Wonderful World in this category? Or Maracaibo? Both of which ask you to make important decisions on how you will use the cards you get. Same thing for Isle of cats or Lewis and Clark.
Great video Mr. Stegmaier! A lot of the games that came to mind you talked about here, the ones that came to mind you didn't mention were Everdell, Seasons, Aquatica and the Imperial Settlers Games. If we're counting deck builders, then Dominion and the Clank! Line of games as well were all great hand management games in my opinion.
LIBERTALIA.....such a masterpiece.... Beautiful game, Game which bring this hobby into my life and still my best game ever.... I heard some stories about some reprint by SM games....fckng yeeeea :D....Its very difficult to reprint such a beautiful artwork and I think that if someone want to do this its only SM can do it to be at least close to original.... Can wait to see that! Plus.... I read somewhere that Paolo Mori has some expansions content ready but original publisher are put down that idea... Soooo new publisher what are you waiting for???
Do you think ‘the crew’ qualifies? I feel like it is really important which cards you play in which order and that you’re trying to manage your hand so that you don’t have to play a certain card when you don’t want to.
Because you're not gaining any cards during the game, I wouldn't say The Crew counts for this category even though it definitely has some elements of hand management.
Many great games indeed. However, I miss both Paladins and Viscounts of the West Kingdoms from your list. Both games have interesting hand management choices that will affect future turns. And big thanks Jamey, I usually watch these videos at work monday mornings together with some morning coffee. Great way to start the week!
I think, similar to the worker placement mechanism, hand management is such a vague descriptor and is implemented in so many different ways that I generally avoid categorizing games by this name, except very simple games like Uno. I bet you can easily make a top 10 list of hand-management worker-placement games (that use both mechanics!
I'm still playing Bohnanza after all these years because of how pure a hand management and negotiation game it is. I just wish the game were a touch shorter. I also like Century: Spice Road as a hand management game as well, since it uses that Concordia mechanic of only being able to reuse cards in your hand when you take a "rest" turn. Finally, I love Gloomhaven's hand management for much the same reason. You're always struggling to figure out which cards to play for which situation until you can rest again and even the decision of a long or short rest can have a significant impact on your hand (or health).
My favorite form of hand management is the Race for the Galaxy/Marvel Champions style where you must spend cards from your hand to play cards from your hand. It constantly leads to tough and interesting choices.
The way Spirit Island uses that mechanic to increase the asymmetry of the spirits makes it probably my favourite hand management game. I am yet to play Concordia though so maybe it will be my second after that.
The Red Rising series has been on my list forever, so when you announced I ordered all of them to catch up before the game is released. Love hand management, that art, your games... CAN'T wait!!
A fun space opera! I hope the game captures the flavor of the caste system well (The design diary has me very interested!) stonemaiergames.com/games/red-rising/design-diary/
@@georgehudson300 Awesome! I'm looking forward to it.
I really like Not Alone as a hand management game. Figuring out when to pick up your cards and which card you should be playing, combined with the bluffing of where the creature goes makes a great game.
Fantasy Realms is absolutely marvelous. I can’t wait for the Cursed Hoard expansion this year. I’m also excited for Red Rising based on this mechanical similarity. And of course the pedigree.
Cant believe Arboretum isn’t on your list. Or Lost Cities. Also 12 days. They all do hand management really well. Arboretum is sooooo tense.
I want to get Arboretum! Gonna buy it now lol
Yes. When I teach new players Arboretum I ALWAYS tell them that the most time consuming and challenging part of their turn will be deciding what to discard. About 10-14 minutes later, they finally believe me.
I agree Dune Imperium does something with deckbuilding that makes it cross into the territory of hand management. You essentially get 2 to 4 card plays and what's left is the real deckbuilding. The cards having different effects whether played or revealed really drives it home.
Just chatting about it makes me want ti play it again.
I like the hand management in Nemesis. There's a push your luck aspect to it, where you decide how many cards you want to hold on to for end of round to avoid alien surprise attack. Then there's the aspect of spending cards on actions, deciding what to discard for that action. One of actions is playing a card, in which some cards you discard others with it. Then there's contamination cards that end up in your deck that clog up your hand that you can't get rid of until you pass. Lots of interesting things going on with hand management in Nemesis.
I do love Luxor and Libertalia. Marvel Champions is my favorite now. Deciding which cards to play and which cards to use as resources to play those cards is really cool.
Another suggestion could be Amul. It really delivers the hand management aspect in a similar way to fantasy realms, with a little bit more structure and a wider player count. Great list, thanks for sharing!
One of my favorites is 51st State: Master Set, which is firmly in the multi-use card category of hand management, but does so in a very satisfying way for me. It's one of my favorites to play solo as well
Bohnanza is consistently and instantly popular with everyone we teach it to (mostly casual gamers and family). The hand management, like you said, encourages and necessitates trading (social bargaining) that lets everyone's personality come out for memorable, fun playthroughs. Getting to argue, woo, and barter over silly, cartoonish art cards make it even more enjoyable.
Games I think would be good additions:
- Gloomhaven (where cards act as timers in the game, a pretty unique concept, and where you have to decide if you play the top or the bottom of cards played in pairs)
- Aquatica (similar to Concordia but without the resource and map aspect, so much more focused on cards. You also slide location cards for combo abilities)
- Arboretum (you constantly go through this recycling process of gaining, playing and losing cards, and what you keep in your hands is as important as what you play)
- Hats (two cards played, one has the potential to dictate how points are scored at the end, and one has the potential to give you points)
- Lost cities (cards to do expeditions)
- 6 Nimmt! (do you play low, medium or high cards in order to avoid taking rows of cards?)
- Terraforming Mars (where you must buy the cards you want to keep and play, pretty unique concept too)
- Valley of the Kings (where you need to decide if you're going to keep the cards you acquire or bury them for points)
Surprised you don't have Race for the Galaxy!
I feel it's the go to hand management game almost given it's rank and popularity on BGG. Great list none the less and looking forward to Red Rising 🙂
So many good Hand Management games - the following comes to mind -
High Society, Lost Cities, King Arthur, Mate.
There's a game I used to play with my son quite a lot a few years ago called Potion Making Practice. I don't know who made it but it's probably on a shelf here somewhere. I enjoyed it, although maybe it's not the best game in the world. It did have a pretty interesting hand management system, though. You had to combine raw ingredients to create different potions and put them in front of you. But you could also use some of the potions you created to combine with other cards to make even more powerful potions (elixirs, etc.). As I recall, each card had two different possible uses as a potion that you build or as a raw resource that you use to build other potions. What I enjoyed was the hierarchical building where you had to plan quite far ahead to decide whether you would use two cards to build a simple potion that you could then combine with another built potion to create the higher level ingredients for a more powerful card that you had in your hand. There's more to it and I'm not doing a great job of explaining it, but I really enjoyed it and I haven't seen other games with that multi-level recursive hand-management mechanic (although there probably are others).
I'm surprised Arboretum didn't even make your honorable mentions. I always find myself zugzwanged two turns into that game; the hand management is so tight. It was the first game that came to mind when you gave your definition of hand management, it embodies all elements so well.
Can't agree more about Arboretum! Each card in your hand, in your tableau and even on your discard pile matters as it can benefit both you and your opponents - and you are rarely sure which one is true until it comes to scoring. This leads to some fantastic guesswork which can become pretty tense, as the game often forces you to make risky moves, you don't really want to make.
Great title, although I must admit, as much as I admire Arboretum, I rarely play it, as all this tension can become pretty exhausting. Definitely not the game you play to unwind at the end of the day, even though it looks like one.
Really enjoyed the video. I like that style of hand management used in Sushi Go and Ohanami of pick one or two and pass the hand. Also, enjoyed seeing some games in your video that I was not familiar with. Thanks ☺️
I've just played my first 2 games of Dune Imperium over the weekend, and loved it as well! Amul is a hidden gem where I really enjoy the hand management. You have a hand of cards, and each round you'll draw an additional card, place a card from your hand in a public offer, each player will draft one of those cards, and then each player will; play a card from their hand. The really satisfying tension comes in deciding which cards to play and which to hold onto. Certain cards stay in your tableau if you play them during the game, and others only stay in your tableau if you still have them in hand at the end of the game. It has a bunch of different ways points are scored among the cards, but the fact that you need to offer up one of your cards and play a card each round makes that tension really satisfying.
That sounds like a lot of fun! I need to try Amul.
Lost cities comes to mind as a game with agonizing decisions as to what to keep in your hand and what to play and where. I suspect RR will be similar except have a lot of other things to consider and make it a bit meatier with better replayability.
War of the ring is a truly exceptional card management game. Deciding which to use for the action (and when) or to use for combat is really difficult. Also, the hand size is not huge, and you're regularly drawing new cards so deciding which to keep makes for a tricky time. Absolutely love it too, probably my favorite game. Lord of the rings in a box
Fantasy Realms is a good one. There's a few games I like which have hand management in them
Spirit Island and Hostage Negotiator both spring to mind, and they both involve you having awesome turns interspersed with crummy turns because your hand's empty, with decisions revolving around how you refresh your hand.
In Hostage Negotiator this is you spending conversation points to buy back played card, while in Spirit Island it's about when you take the version of the Growth action which gives you the refresh
It seems Arctic Scavengers has mostly the same way to deal with deck building and hand management as Dune Imperium (play cards to get benefits or keep them in your hand for combat at the end of the round)
Also you did not mention Mission Red Planet, which is a perfect example of an Hand Management game ;)
Indeed, I haven't played Mission Red Planet, and ambassadors didn't mention it as a favorite. But I'd like to try it!
@@jameystegmaier Aquatica is a great Hand Management game too.
Both in Mission Red Planet and Aquatica every player starts with the same hand of cards. Each turn you play one of them. And there is a card to get all of your used cards back in your hand (the timing is essential)
Fantastic choices there Jamey. So many games you mentioned are among my favorites. Probably the only game I dislike there is Bohnanza, since your ability to succeed is directly correlated to your negotiation skills and if your opponents even want to trade with you. It's usually just the nicest player who wins in my plays. Haven't tried Libertalia yet, it's high on your list but it's currently unavailable in my country, maybe it just needs a reprint.
One game that I think should also be mentioned is Terraforming Mars. It doesn't fit all of your criteria, but managing your hand is vital to success. Biggest thing is the decision on which cards to buy into your hand and which to throw away, card draw ain't free. Sometimes you really want to keep everything but you know you can't. There's also a time aspect, production cards are usually better early and point cards are usually better late, you want to play certain cards before it's too late, some cards you need to wait to play, sometimes you need to play a certain card at a certain time to snatch an important board spot/milestone from someone.
I came very close to considering Isle of Cats and Terraforming Mars for those reasons, but I thought they weren't quite eligible based on my definition. :)
Little late to this one, but I have to add Lost Cities to the conversation, definitely a favorite of mine.
You pair Concordia and Flotilla. I've not played Flotilla, but I always pair Concordia with Century Spice Road. The only difference I guess is that in Century, you get nothing on your rest turn other than refreshing your hand. But the starker nature of Century I think really emphasizes how the name of the game is efficiency - can you milk something from each card - or as many as possible - before you do a rest action? I fell in love with both games right away for this.
Interestingly, I've heard Concordia's card system referred to as "basically a rondel, but with cards". This is an interesting way to think about it. And indeed, Mac Gerdts' previous game, Navegador, uses an on the board rondel that works kind of this way. But with the cards, you get to order the sequence of actions every time you reset your hand, so I'd say the card system creates more possible paths for the game to take. (Navegador though is another wonderful game.)
Did you speak about Red Rising in any video yet? Looks great and I remember you speaking of it in an IP list, mentioning it as number 1 you would like to get, so this is awesome!
I talked about it quite a bit in my Facebook Live video a few days ago, which is also on TH-cam. But I've mostly discussed it in the design diaries on our website so far: stonemaiergames.com/games/red-rising/design-diary/
When do we get to hear more about Red Rising? Already looking forward to it - I own a lot of SM games, and love them.
There's already a ton of information about it on our website, particularly on the design diary page: stonemaiergames.com/games/red-rising/
@@jameystegmaier great, thanks! I’ll take a look right now!
Kind of surprised not to see Century on this list, for me, along with Fantasy Realms, it's a quintessential hand management game.
I wasn't super interested in Red Rising but if it's inspired by Fantasy Realms, which I really enjoy, I'm going to have to dig deeper.
Concordia is probably the only "true" one I've played besides the limited hand-management mechanism in Pendulum. I really want to try Bohnanza, and of course, I'm super excited for Red Rising! Oops, I forgot Watergate has hand management too. I do love Watergate.
Love the list!
Though I have to say I was really surprised to see Bohnanza on the list, while Race for the Galaxy wasn't even an honourable mention.
Bohnanza is like my go-to example of a hand-management game that's completely outdated. I just *hate* the trading. :'D
Different tastes for different people! :)
Love Red Rising books, and I am super excited that it inspired you to create a game within the 'IP'! I was wondering if Century Golem (spice road) qualifies for a nod? Our family loves this game!
I think Century counts for this category, yes.
I feel like Watergate takes a lot of inspiration from Twilight Struggle, so thought I’d mention it. Iterating decisions of when to play certain cards based on how they might trigger for other player. Also the dispersion and restriction of the scoring cards adds difficult choices for each player.
I like your list.
My actual favourites, where the hand management is the core element of the game, no particular order.
Terraforming Mars
Race for the Galaxy
51st State
Inis
Lewis and Clark
Glory to Rome
Innovation
Blood Rage
Evolution: Climate
Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation
Curious to know if you have tried Aquatica or plan to do so? As it is a hand management game that have gotten a lot of attention.
I'd like to! I haven't played it yet.
I was wondering if Dune: Imperium would qualify when I started watching, I'm glad it did. I love that game.
Would Marvel Champions qualify? I suppose I might call it a deck management game.
I think that would count, yes!
I think Marvel Champions qualifies for much the same reason that Dune: Imperium applies. Do you use a card for it's ability, or for it's resource generation? Do you use all of the cards in your hand, or hold back a card for use in a subsequent phase or turn in a better situation?
Would you consider It's a Wonderful World in this category? Or Maracaibo? Both of which ask you to make important decisions on how you will use the cards you get. Same thing for Isle of cats or Lewis and Clark.
Definitely Maracaibo, but I wouldn't put drafting games in this category.
Great video Mr. Stegmaier! A lot of the games that came to mind you talked about here, the ones that came to mind you didn't mention were Everdell, Seasons, Aquatica and the Imperial Settlers Games. If we're counting deck builders, then Dominion and the Clank! Line of games as well were all great hand management games in my opinion.
LIBERTALIA.....such a masterpiece.... Beautiful game, Game which bring this hobby into my life and still my best game ever.... I heard some stories about some reprint by SM games....fckng yeeeea :D....Its very difficult to reprint such a beautiful artwork and I think that if someone want to do this its only SM can do it to be at least close to original.... Can wait to see that!
Plus.... I read somewhere that Paolo Mori has some expansions content ready but original publisher are put down that idea... Soooo new publisher what are you waiting for???
Do you think ‘the crew’ qualifies? I feel like it is really important which cards you play in which order and that you’re trying to manage your hand so that you don’t have to play a certain card when you don’t want to.
Because you're not gaining any cards during the game, I wouldn't say The Crew counts for this category even though it definitely has some elements of hand management.
Many great games indeed. However, I miss both Paladins and Viscounts of the West Kingdoms from your list. Both games have interesting hand management choices that will affect future turns.
And big thanks Jamey, I usually watch these videos at work monday mornings together with some morning coffee. Great way to start the week!
Thanks Mikael! :)
I think, similar to the worker placement mechanism, hand management is such a vague descriptor and is implemented in so many different ways that I generally avoid categorizing games by this name, except very simple games like Uno.
I bet you can easily make a top 10 list of hand-management worker-placement games (that use both mechanics!
Red rising, the power ranger game
That box cover is absolutely beautiful man. -15 Year Designer
I'm still playing Bohnanza after all these years because of how pure a hand management and negotiation game it is. I just wish the game were a touch shorter. I also like Century: Spice Road as a hand management game as well, since it uses that Concordia mechanic of only being able to reuse cards in your hand when you take a "rest" turn. Finally, I love Gloomhaven's hand management for much the same reason. You're always struggling to figure out which cards to play for which situation until you can rest again and even the decision of a long or short rest can have a significant impact on your hand (or health).
Luxor sounds a bit like programing hand management
Twilight struggle would have been on my list.
Wow, no inis? Interesting