Avid players like to use specific terminology. Sometimes it is very difficult to understand what they are talking about. 
 
When your friend is a board gamer, it's: 

"By the way, I know a cool economic game: miple play on arial control with a little bit of random. Let's set it up: you give out the miples, and I'll play the tiles."

Sound familiar? 
 
Let's break down what it all means in plain language: 
 
*A little bit about categorization, mechanics and terms*

Wargame is a military strategy game. The basis of the game is tied to battles👑: 

  • Inis. 
  • Blood Rage. 
  • Undaunted: Normandy. 
  • War of the Ring.

Cooperative - All players become one team, which tries to pass/win the game itself according to its rules.  
Cooperating in a cohesive team - help each other, communicate, sometimes have to decide who to sacrifice to win 👀  
Game vs. Game:  

  • Arkham Horror. 
  • Mysterium 
  • T.I.M.E. Stories. 
  • Pandemic

Eurogame - games with minimal interaction between players (digging in my vegetable garden: growing corn and breeding овец🧑‍🌾). Winning Points (WP) Game. Features a huge number of elements:  

  • Takenoko 
  • The Castles of Burgundy. 
  • Caverna. 
  • Conquering Mars (Terraforming Mars)

Role-playing (RPG) - creating, pumping, playing the role of a character during the game 🧙‍♂️: 

  • Lifeboat. 
  • Munchkin 
  • Dungeons & Dragons/DnD. 
  • Mice and Mystics.

Abstracts is a category of games without a definite plot. Beautiful, colorful art, mostly on miscalculation, logic and strategy✨: 

  • Azul 
  • Sagrada. 
  • Calico. 
  • Go

Area control is a game whose main goal is to control territories📍: 

  • A Game of Thrones 
  • Rurik: Fight for Kyiv 
  • Carcassonne 
  • Cyclades

Party games are fast, dynamic and simple games, usually for large companies. Great for a party 🎉:  

  • Remember Everything! Ukraine®
  • Dixit 
  • Alias. 
  • Jenga.

Solo - a mode in which the game changes the rules and victory conditions (unlike the normal mode). The goal is to win within a certain time frame or defeat a virtual opponent. Occurs as one of the game modes or purposeful mechanics🏆: 

  • Gloomhaven
  • Scythe 
  • Wingspan. 
  • The Isle of Cats.

Deck building is a game mechanic that allows you to create a personal unique deck for later play 🃏: 

  • Arkham Horror. The Card Game 
  • Lost Ruins of Arnak 
  • Dune: Imperium.  
  • Star Realms.

Detective - may contain a mixture of solo or co-op, one vs. all. The goal of the game is to solve the mystery/quest through logical deductions, matching known facts, intuition 🕵: 

  • Mythos Tales.
  • MicroMacro. 
  • Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective.  
  • 13 Clues.

Asymmetrical - each clan/character/faction has its own rules of the game (actions, mechanics) ☯: 

  • Root.  
  • Not Alone.

Dueling - games for two people only (sometimes two teams) 😑👉 👈😑: 

  • War Chest 
  • 7 Wonders: Duel.
  • Patchwork 
  • Jaipur

Meeple placement - mechanics, putting workers on the field/player's plate that produce some kind of action 🧍‍♂️🧍‍♀️: 

  • Raiders of the North Sea
  • Stone Age 
  • Agricola 
  • Everdell

With Traitor/One Against All - player(s) get to play the role of a hidden or revealed villain/hero who has his own victory conditions, everyone else plays against him 😈: 

  • Nemesis. 
  • Spyfall. 
  • BANG!
  • Saboteur 
  • Mafia

And some more terminology that will help you not to get confused during the game: 
 
Draft - A game mechanic where players can choose their own cards to play. 

Meeple is a compound of 2 words (my + people). A game piece in the shape of a person. 

Tile - A tile or a piece of heavy cardboard.  

Hex - a tile with a regular hexagonal shape. 

Random - A random factor that determines the outcome of an event in a game. Usually: throw cubes, draw a random card/tile). 

Replayability - a characteristic due to which each game party contains new game situations and the game remains interesting for the participants. 

Downtime - a period in the game during which a player cannot perform any actions. For example, this happens when players move in sequence, and while the other players are thinking about their moves, the player has nothing to do. 

Setup - The preparation of the game to start a game. 

Dice Tower - A device for throwing dice of all kinds.


That's it! Now you are ready to dive into the magical world of board games without fear. 

Replayable games, absolute success, minimal downtime, let the cubes not get stuck in the dystaurus, and Cthulhu will be defeated! 
 
And we will continue to help you make sense of this limitless world of adventure. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and on the blog pages. 

- Your friend "Klepka"