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Category Archives: Worker Placement

The Pillars of the Earth

A while back we attended a gaming convention (shocking, I know). There were some door and raffle prizes. We entered and won a Board Game that was in German. We weren’t especially enthused (not being German readers/speakers), and set it on a shelf where it gathered dust for a couple months. While we were cleaning house (and getting rid of some games), Chubby Unicorn suggested we toss it, since we didn’t plan to learn German. I told her that we should play it at least once; that the folks on BoardGameGeek probably had a translation and that I would download it and learn the rules.
So I did. I found out that it is an early Worker Placement game with 6 rounds and based on a book. Each round is divided into 3 parts:

  1. Draft resources and/or craftsmen
  2. Master Build Assignment
  3. Board Actions

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Lords of Waterdeep


During the Kickstarter for Pursuit of Happiness I noticed some folks talking about how it was not a true “worker placement” game. I had heard the term a few times, but never really looked at the genre. The same folks stated that Lords of Waterdeep was the quintessential entry-level worker placement. I took a look at it on BoardGameGeek and it seemed intriguing so I put it on my Amazon Wish List (side note: everyone should have an Amazon Wish List, it makes gift giving so much more convenient), and promptly forgot about it until I received it for Christmas.

What is Worker Placement?
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Pursuit of Happiness

This is a worker placement game we backed on Kickstarter. Once we finally received the game and all the pieces, we were excited to play. Unfortunately this game has not lived up to our expectations. We’ve played it a few times, and it’s just not a game we really enjoy.

I think of it as trying to be a more realistic version of The Game of Life, but I don’t think it quite accomplishes that. Each round represents about a decade of life. You start as a teenager which means you can’t get a real job (only temp jobs), and you can’t get involved with a partner (if only! think of all the drama that could be avoided!). You can get involved in projects and get items/activity cards. Certain projects are one turn only while others are long term. In order to progress in long term projects, you have to spend time on them. Some activities are like that as well. If you spend more time on that activity, you can get more rewards.

After the first round, jobs and partners are available. As long as you have the resources, you can get a job which seems simple. Partners also require different resources depending on the one you pick. And this is where we run into problems.

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