EL TRIBUNAL DE JUSTICIA DE LA COMUNI- COMUNI-DAD ANDINA, Quito a los veintidós días del

Also described as area majority, area influence and majority control, area control refers to gaining control of a specific game element through the allo- cation of resources to that element. The entity to be controlled, the resources to be allocated and the method of allocation vary from game to game. As with set collection, area control might more accurately be considered a sub- goal. Designer Shannon Appelcline identifies three types of majority control game based upon the element to be controlled: share- based, area- based and tile- based (2005b). Arguably the latter two of these can be considered varia-

5. The Eurogame Genre 93

Figure 5.6: Player aids showing set collection requirements in Die Siedler von

tions of the same form, as tile- based refers to the fact that the areas to be con- trolled are evolving through game play. In cases where control is established through the allocation of resources over time, the area majority can be con- sidered an evolution of the auction mechanism.

Share- based majority control games describe those in which control of game elements is determined by the allocation of funds to accumulate shares in a given game entity. This model has long been popular in Anglo- American game designs, most obviously in the 18XX series of games, and eurogames too have employed share- based majority in rail- themed games.39_{However, while}

it has occasionally been implemented in eurogames, the mechanic is not strongly associated with the genre.40

Within eurogames, straightforward area- based control games are far more common than the share- based model. Although examples are seen in earlier designs,41_{Wolfgang Kramer and Richard Ulrich’s El Grande is typically iden-}

tified as the first successful game to utilize the area- based majority mechanic. In El Grande, players seek to gain control of areas of the board through the placement of pieces representing caballeros in medieval Spain. The options for placing these pieces are governed by an auction phase that precedes placement, with players able to score during specific rounds through the course of play.

Undoubtedly the most successful game to utilize area- based majority is

94 EU R O G A M E S

Figure 5.7: Area control in El Grande (image by Simon Holding, courtesy Hans im Glück).

Carcassonne. The game is an example of tile- based area majority in that tiles

are progressively added to the playing surface to construct an evolving board. As players place these tiles, they subsequently have the option to play tokens to assert control over specific areas of the game board as it is created. When these areas are completed or the game ends, they are scored in a similar way to El Grande. Other examples of area- based control games include Kardinal

and König (Schacht, 2000), Tikal, and Louis XIV (Dorn, 2005).

Role Selection / Worker Placement

If there is one variety of game mechanic that can lay claim to having been a direct result of the emergence of eurogames, it is that of role selection and worker placement. Appearing first as role selection and in later games as worker placement, this term refers to the mechanic of choosing a particular type of action during a turn. Importantly, this selection is not made simul- taneously42_{but rather in a progressive manner, with player choice affecting}

the options available to subsequent players.

The idea of individual players having distinctive roles within a game can be traced back to the Hnefatafl family of abstract strategy games and is com- monly seen in other forms of hobby game.43_{However, the first effective imple-}

mentation of role selection, where players choose a specific role as a part of

5. The Eurogame Genre 95

Figure 5.8: Worker placement in Caylus (image by Simon Holding, courtesy Ystari Games).

their turn, is generally attributed to Marcel- André Casasola Merkle’s card game Verräter (1998).44 _{In this game, players take turns in selecting a role}

from a stack of five cards, with each card providing a benefit during a particular phase of the turn.45_{Importantly, and unlike other games that had come before,}

since roles are selected in turn, once a given role has been chosen it is unavail- able to other players. Bruno Faidutti’s highly successful Ohne Furcht und Adel (2000b) employs the mechanic in an almost identical fashion.46_{Role selection}

has subsequently been manifest in a variety of ways, most notably in Puerto

Rico47 _{and its card game adaptation San Juan (Seyfarth, 2004). In both of}

these examples the role selected by the player will be performed by all players, with the active player receiving an additional benefit.

Worker placement refers to the mechanic of having a number of tokens that can be allocated to specific places that provide defined actions on the game board. Although it is commonly perceived as an evolution of the role selection mechanic, worker placement first appeared at around the same time in Richard Breese’s Keydom (1998).48_{In Keydom, players allocate a number of}

worker tokens to areas of the board that provide a variety of resources and actions. While any player may place as many tokens as they wish on most of these spaces, hidden values on the underside of the tokens are subsequently used to determine who receives benefits from the space.49_{In later manifesta-}

tions of the mechanic, such as the highly successful Caylus, once a particular location has been claimed, no other player may place there. Combining the two most common eurogame mechanics, choice and placing, worker place- ment has quickly become a staple of the genre in the wake of Caylus’ success, as evidenced by titles such as Stone Age, Die Säulen der Erde (Rieneck and Stadler, 2006) and Agricola (Rosenberg, 2007).