Board games, and especially competitive board games, often create a tense and competitive environment. Perhaps that is best exemplified in board games that use auctions and bidding.
Just trying to gauge what your opponents might offer and trying to outbid them to get the advantages you need is a pretty tense moment. However, it’s just as exciting and fun to try to come up with alternate plans when the deal goes wrong. Several games use these types of mechanics in very creative ways and it is highly recommended to try them out.
10 electrical network
In Power Grid, your purpose is to supply power to the most cities among your opponents. To do so, you will be marking routes between cities and bidding against your opponents who are trying to buy power plants.
Another part of the game involves obtaining materials, such as coal and uranium, to power your plants. The game is all about acquisitions and staying ahead of your competitors, and has a wonderfully built-in, deep bidding mechanic.
9 On sale
For Sale is a simple and fast game that you can easily learn. Its premise is that you are buying and selling real estate. He first makes an offer on the buildings, and once all the buildings are owned, he sells them to try to maximize profits.
There is an element of bluffing and trying to get your opponents to pay more for less and despite the simplicity of the rules it can lead to some exciting auctions. It is an easy to learn family game that can be easily played in 30 minute sessions.
8 High society
High Society is a game in which you try to increase your status, avoid misfortune and try to achieve the desired luxurious lifestyle as a member of high society. To do that, throughout the rounds, you’ll bid to collect status cards and avoid misfortune cards.
The auction is critical to the flow and strategy of the game, as you will be kicked out before even counting your points if you are the poorest player when the game ends. That means you have to choose what to invest in. The game is very simple to understand and has great art, making it an ideal candidate for an introductory game to the hobby for potential newcomers.
7 carnation
Key Flower is a great game that incorporates bidding mechanics into laid-back European-style gameplay. In Keyflower, you’ll be bidding with your workers to collect tiles to add to your village over four seasons, with each season adding more workers and tiles to the mix.
You will try to build the town that gives you the most victory points. While not a pure auction game like other entries on this list, Keyflower beautifully blends the auction theme into the game and ends up being a very fun and competitive game.
6 Ra
Ra takes place thousands of years ago in ancient Egypt, overseen by the god Ra, and is played over three rounds called Epochs. Throughout these eras, you will enrich the culture of ancient Egypt with art, religion and much more. You will be building monuments and trying to gain the favor of the gods.
The game has amazing art and very nice mechanics throughout. If you’re even remotely interested in a highly themed game, or a particularly well-designed auction game, Ra is a safe bet to try out with your group.
5 Dream Factory
Have you ever wanted to feel what it’s like to be in charge of a movie studio? In Dream Factory, you’ll be auctioning off your rivals for special effects, directors, star actors, soundtracks, and more to produce the best movie you can.
The game mechanics are also interesting. For example, the game has a closed economy, which means that the money there is, at the beginning, is all there will be, and the money spent is distributed to the other players after each auction.
There is a real balance and competitive nature to this game and the fun of parody names for both people and movies is quite amusing, if not completely amusing. It’s always a good time to see Leonardo Dicappucino star in Punk Fiction.
4 Nidavellir
In Nidavellir, you are in charge of building a glorious army of dwarves to defeat the legendary Fafnir. To do so, you will gather hunters, scouts, blacksmiths, miners, and more. The game is unique with its bidding mechanics. Each player starts with the same resources, but you can choose to transform one of your coins into larger ones instead of using it to buy dwarves for that turn: do you have a smaller army and better resources, or do you keep the basic coins for everyone? ? have and spend on more forces?
There is a lot of depth to the game with different scoring methods for different types of troops, powerful heroes, and of course the mayhem of blind auctions.
3 the farms
In The Estates, you will play as real estate investment companies trying to get the most points, while manipulating the development of the area. To do so, you’ll build tiles and roofs, use building permits, and even collect your illegal profits.
The game is simple, but has a lot of depth once you experience the mechanics. It’s also good to play in short bursts as the games are about an hour long and it’s incredibly easy to pick up.
two cyclades
Cyclades is a board game that seamlessly blends auction mechanics with a more traditional area control wargame. In this game set in Ancient Greece, you must bid for the favor of the gods and access their special actions each turn. These are extremely impactful and will dictate how the game plays out.
The order of these divine powers also changes each round, and other players’ capital is kept hidden, so there’s uncertainty to keep things interesting. Cyclades is a great combination of war games, exciting auctions, and strategy.
1 Modern Art
Modern art may be one of the purest forms of auction/offer games, because it is purely a game about auctions. In Modern Art, you will try to manipulate the value of paintings and try to get the most valuable ones at the cheapest price.
With several different auction styles and varying values for each artist throughout the rounds, the game always keeps you interested.
However, where modern art really shines is the beautiful pieces of art that you can enjoy while playing the game. The rule book even comes with an attached art book, so you can learn about the artists and peruse their work. This is truly a celebration of art and board game auctions at the same time.
