Best Engine Builder Game

Are you one of those ardent fans of board games? For your future game night, are you browsing for some of the top engine builder games?

Do not fret, as we have come with a selection of the top engine builder games that you will adore.

So without further ado, here is the list of the top 10 engine builder games.

What is an Engine Builder Game?

An engine builder game is one where you can gather resources and other items that will make it easier for you to gain other items and complete objectives.

The board game Splendor is an excellent illustration of this. You are gathering gems in Splendor with the intention of being the first player to reach 15 points. You have three options throughout your turn: gather gems, purchase a card with the necessary gems, or save a card for later.

On the top of each card is a representation of one of the gems. When you acquire one of these cards, you keep it in front of you and can use the gems it displays to buy further cards at any time in the future.

Which is The Best Engine Builder Game?

#1. Splendor

Splendor is a superb illustration of an abstract gateway engine builder game, while not being our favourite. Players in this game purchase cards with gems. You can buy more cards by using the free gems that these cards grant you. These cards then provide you with additional free gems, allowing you to purchase stronger cards that provide you with even more gems and points.

At some point, you might also finish a deck of cards and be eligible to receive bonus noble points. This is a prime example of beginning from nothing and developing a machine to acquire something.

#2. Gizmos

Gizmos is a fantastic game that we enjoy using to demonstrate the engine construction mechanic, as that is all it is in reality. In a very Rube Goldberg-like fashion, players are attempting to cobble together a scientific fair project that they hope will eventually turn into a fantastic engine to help them get points.

You aim to create a chain reaction with each component you add to your expanding device. You aim to create combinations, like “We get to pick additional energy and we utilise that to pick red energy because we took yellow energy from the energy dispenser. Then, because we choose red, another card allows us to build a red card for free. Additionally, when we create a red card, we get to tuck away another card and earn points for doing so.

Since the game’s subject is directly related to the mechanics of engine building, in our opinion, Gizmos is the ideal game to introduce people to them.

#3. Steam Works

If you’ve tried Gizmos and enjoyed it, Steam Works is a fantastic next step. It nearly seems like an improved Gizmos. In order to generate resources and gain game points, you literally construct an engine out of several component tiles in this engine-building game.

In each round of Steam Works, players construct machines in their own tableau using power plants and components they purchase from the central market. Players may use each machine as a fresh worker deployment area during subsequent turns. Your machines continue to expand and perform an increasing number of tasks. It embodies all that is mechanically and physically associated with engine building.

#4. Terraforming Mars

Terraforming Mars is the game that we have played the most over the past few years. It has long been one of the most well-liked games in the area and is frequently played at open gaming occasions.

The key to playing successfully is to identify the synergies between the various project cards and construct a strong engine out of them. While you can play Terraforming Mars without establishing an engine and simply buying whatever cards you have on hand, this is not the best strategy. The variety and quantity of these possible engines are where Terraforming Mars really excels.

#5. Race for The Galaxy

Although Terraforming Mars may have received the most play in recent years, Race for the Galaxy has received the most play overall. Similar to Terraforming Mars, building an engine is not necessary to succeed in Race for the Galaxy, although developing any kind of engine is pretty much necessary. This engine might be to gather good luxury worlds and set up an engine to create, market, and/or consume those products, or it could be to steadily develop military strength allowing you to conquer greater and bigger planets.

One of the best features of Race for the Galaxy is the variety of engines you can try to develop, despite having far fewer possibilities than Terraforming Mars.

#6. Fleet

Building a fishing fleet is the focus of the engine-building game Fleet. By the time the game is over, you will have a large fleet of ships and a variety of contracts. You begin the game with only one straightforward boat and a contract to catch one particular species of fish.

Fleet offers some excellent opportunities for decision-making over which contracts to accept, whether to specialise or diversify and which ships to sail. You must choose whether to use your cards for ships, fish, or as money to pay for new ships and contracts because the game is built around multi-use cards. When we first played Fleet, we were completely taken away and immediately purchased it.

#7. Saint Petersburg

As you try to create your own replica of the Russian metropolis of Saint Petersburg, the tempo of this game builds gradually from beginning to end. Starting with one or two employees who bring in some income, you utilise that cash to purchase buildings, hire nobility, establish trade networks, and hire more employees.

The fact that you typically have to switch your engine mid-game from making cash so you can afford more goods to generating points so you can snag the win is one of the aspects of this game that we like the best.

#8. Keyflower

While worker placement, drafting, auctions, and tile laying are among the integrated and interconnected mechanics in Keyflower, developing an engine that enables you to upgrade the tiles you draught and an engine to deliver the necessary resources to those upgraded tiles is one of the game’s key objectives.

One problem with the game is that it isn’t immediately clear why you need to create these engines when you first start playing. It is very simple to become sidetracked by the pursuit of amassing the most tiles or meeples, failing to recognise where the true game-ending points will come from.

#9. Pulsar 2849

Pulsar 2849 has a variety of distinct engine-building features. The most noticeable is the seizing, constructing, and spinning up of gyrodines around pulsars that produce points every round. Making various scoring systems using the randomised technology tree and the player boards is another aspect. Utilizing tools to expand the mobility of your scout ship and utilising the HQ board to open up scoring possibilities at gates are two examples of this. The complete array system can also be utilised as a technological cube engine, a way to gain bonus dice and hence more actions, or it can be used to create points.

#10. Russian Railroads

This abstract game, where you start out with little and finish up with a lot, is arguably our favourite pure engine-building game. In this game, you’re lucky if you earn eight-win points on your first turn, but by the final round, we’d seen players score almost 200 points in a single turn.

In Russian Railroads, improving your equipment is key. To boost your scoring output each round, you upgrade your factories, track kinds, engines, and train lines. Our game, out of all those on this list, has the most fulfilling sense of making something, in our opinion. The only issue we have is that this is one of those games where you develop an engine, and everyone wants one more turn.

Conclusion

Engine builder game is a type of game that is enjoyed by all age groups. Everyone’s aesthetic and confidence is greatly boosted when they witness something they designed and produced produce an unlimited supply of resources.

Try out the engine builder games above, and let us know if you like any.

Also Read: Best 90s Board Games