Engine Building

Lots of hobby gamers are past Dominion. But many have yet to play it and/or master it and its many expansions, or become bored with it. Same with Power Grid. I mention these two since they've been around a long time, and in particular Dominion is widely considered the most successful progenitor to deck-building games, and engine-building is required.

Determine your audience for this eurostyle concept of yours, and answers to your questions will become more clear.

Generally speaking, I become bored with engine games because blunders or missteps in the early stages of the game can cause you to never have a chance at victory. It's magnified when you play with experienced players, who have likely solved early-game puzzles (or played enough similar games) long ago and can run circles around you with their time-tested engine and/or building practices.

I'm not drawn to engine-building games personally, so my opinion may not necessarily be what you're seeking. I prefer a more casual/tactical experience, and engine-building fans seem to gravitate to heavier game experiences.

Competing strategies are good for engine building games. Basically a person can play a faster game with less engine that stresses the complex engines (gold strategy in Dominion)

Interactions in the game that allow blocking or slowing engines without destroying your own building (Race for the Galaxy and action selection)

Century: Spice Road is a great new engine game because it is small scale engines and not probabilistic as engines are for deck builders. Also you can buy out key cards if you are aware of opponents engine goals. Varied VP opportunities help constrain spikey engines.

Hey Ark1t3kt!

(ohhh, architect! I just got that... :) )

One pitfall that has directly affected me while playing an engine building game is what I will call the runaway. I just played a prototype game where one of the players, to their absolute credit, figured out how to build what was essentially an exponential engine. Once it got going, they simply couldn't lose because no one else could catch up. So, I would be very motivated to have ways to break, or slow down another players engine somehow. Like a catch up mechanic, I suppose. I must confess, it was very disheartening towards the end of that game, which is a bummer because it is a beautifully done project with novel ideas and great art. I hope the designer can find a way to mitigate the runaways. :)

I don't know any off the top of my head, but are there any games out there that have an upper limit or threshold of earning points along a specific track via engine building? A built-in level where the return-on-investment reaches the point of diminishing returns?

To sum up: The more one has, the less they're worth.

Having a situation where one earns fewer points the longer one sticks with a specific strategy is what I'm describing. To extend the example to Dominion, it would be like a certain number of duchies or whatever can be purchased using Gold, while others would be purchased with Alchemy bottles. Or a situation where if a player has up to five duchies, they're worth 3 points each, 6 to 10 duchies means they're worth 2 points each, and then 11 or more duchies would mean they're worth maybe 1 point each.

Yes! Like you have a storehouse that has only so much room in it. When it's full but you have more inventory, you can choose to optimize your current storage contents, and sell off the rest for a loss or at worst abandon it.

If it's a smaller-scale game (like a person instead of a town), the storehouse is a backpack instead.

In this kind of scenario, it's about planning what you produce for maximum utility versus maximum quantity. More does not necessarily mean better.

One other way to deal with a runaway leader is having different win conditions. If an engine begins to generate exponential benefits in one area, other players could hopefully do the same in a different direction. Maybe Scythe is one example of that?

Another option is player interference - a way to slow down opponents so you can catch up. It could extend the game time a little, but the positive is that it adds interaction, and possibly give you things to do between turns (such as a combat mechanic).

Something I'm using in my alchemy-themed game is a "final experiment", which acts as a sort of buffer. Most games just score you points, but in this situation, you need a certain amount of points before you can attempt the final experiment. The trick is, that final experiment is more difficult than the rest, so just because you get enough points to attempt it doesn't mean you have enough ingredients, backup ingredients, and lab equipment to have a good chance of completing it. So you MIGHT risk it and try it with the bare minimum, or you might need a turn or two to build up so you feel confident in finishing strong. That, of course, gives other players a chance to catch up on the points, then make a more desperate attempt on the final experiment while the leader is busy prepping!