What is a Euro Board Game?

You may have played several games that involve the element of chance, but do you know that there is a separate genre of games that deals with strategy and tactics? We will discuss all about Euro board games in this post.

Eurogames are a separate class of games that focus more on the mechanics and strategy involved in the game, rather than focusing on rolling a dice or on a blindly drawn card, which is more common with American-style board games. Also known as Euro style games, German games, and German style games, they have been around since the 1960s and first became popular in Germany, particularly when the modern Euro board game, Acquire, was released.

Euro board games became hugely popular in Germany in the 1970s and 1980s, and several game designers were working on some exciting games that would change the entire dynamics of the Eurogames genre. One of the most popular Eurogames is Catan, which was released as Settlers of Catan back in 1995. This led to the creation of several top-notch Euro board games that are still played all over the world. You can learn more about which Euro board games are hugely popular.

What are Euro Board Games?

As mentioned above, Euro board games are a genre that involve tabletop games without direct interaction between players. Plus, they are known to be more abstract and deal with strategy as compared to American-style board games, which have more to do with luck and player elimination. Therefore, they involve a lot more planning and strategy.

Although they are known as Euro board games, these games have transcended all borders have become massively popular all over the world. Some of the most popular Eurogames have sold millions of copies outside of Europe as well.

What Characteristics Do Euro Board Games Have?

Euro board games are actually focused on gathering and acquiring resources, or building empires rather than attacking or eliminating other players. This separates these games from other games, which are typically classified as American-style board games. Although they are quite abstract, they aren’t as abstract as chess and similar games.

Rather, Euro board games are based on a certain location and also foster individual development and achievements. Moreover, it has been observed that the higher the complexity of the board games, the higher their sales have been. Let’s have a look at the characteristics that Euro board games have.

Social Play

Euro board games have a social playing element to them, as compared to other games that are played by games as a hobby. Unlike Monopoly, Risk, or similar games, Euro board games have a mechanism that ends the game after a predetermined time period. Along with this, these games also have a certain amount of game resources that run out eventually, as well as a fixed number of turns and a final winning score.

No Elimination

Another interesting characteristic of Euro board games is that they don’t have any player elimination, and every player stays in the game till the very end. This also ties in to the social playing aspect of these games, and they are designed to keep every player involved till one player wins them all. This is made possible with a determined winning score or a time period.

If the time period is reached, the player with the highest score wins the game. Moreover, Euro board games have multiple methods and paths of victory, so each player can use a different strategy to try to reach the finish line.

Game Mechanics

Euro board games make use of innovative and unique game mechanics, and they often combine dice rolling with drawing cards, move, capture, etc. Moreover, the board involved in the game is usually irregular, unlike regular boards that you see in Scrabble, Chess, or other games. Apart from this, each of the games have unique and random elements, which don’t really dominate or lead the game.

Low Randomness

Last but not least, Euro board games do away with random elements and luck. Usually, one of the random actions in the game will be the distribution of resources or terrains when the game is being set up. In these board games, the randomness is replaced by the unpredictability of the players’ actions.

Themes

Often, you can find certain themes in Euro board games, which include a medieval landscape, island, empires, and several others. Apart from this, you can also find other games that follow a unique theme. If you are looking to find games with exquisite themes, check out games like Catan, Carcassonne, Power Grid, Imperial, Bruxelles 1893, etc.