Door 20

I love worker placement games. In the Arnak-Dune double feature I mentioned I like when there is some input randomness to influence your decisions. But there are lots of other ways too to spice up worker placement. With door 20 of #MechanXmas I want to highlight unique workers! By having workers with different abilities you can really make turns and decisions more interesting, as there are so many combinations to do things in.

And the featured game today is 🎩 Trickerion ! This is another lovely title from Mindclash Games , one of the most thematic euros out there. You play as magicians, using your helpers to get components for your tricks, prepare them backstage and perform in theatres to become the most well-known!

The worker placement is quite nuanced here: first you have to secretly plan which worker will go to which location by allocating location cards to them. You don’t have to specify their order at this point yet. After revealing the cards, you send them one by one in turn order. You can prioritize locations as you see fit, but you do have to stick with the chosen location for a given worker. Different workers have a different action point (AP) value, and all locations have multiple worker placement spots, each with additional action point modifiers. You add up these two AP values, and determine the total AP you can use with that particular worker. This means other players can block the best spots in a location - you have to choose carefully where you go and when. There will be contested locations, so you have to be aware of the trade-offs of your decisions.

At a location you can mix and match the available actions as you see fit, as long as you have enough APs available. Your assistants count as additional workers and also have abilities that help you, so it’s an important decision which one you start with and who you hire later on.

I really like how Trickerion uses unique workers. It creates a nice puzzle and player interaction and makes you revisit your plans on the fly!