Worker Placement Perils

The Wonders of Workers

You usually don't see this type of behavior in scientist meeples...

I'm a huge fan of worker placement games. I know that I've noted in the past that the games that I enjoy the most are the ones that have a worker placement mechanic to them. There's an almost overwhelming number of worker-placement games that are available, but I thought that I might take some time today to review some of my favorite uses for the worker placement mechanic and discuss what works and what doesn't.

As I am sure that most of you are aware of what the mechanic entails, I still want to provide a brief description of what a worker-placement mechanic is for those who may be less familiar with board games and the seemingly endless number of various mechanics that could be included in them. To borrow from the definition here on BGG: [Worker Placement is] a stylized form of Action Drafting, players place tokens (typically the classic person-shaped "meeple") to trigger an action from a set of actions available to all players, generally one-at-a-time and in turn order. Some games achieve the same effect in reverse: the turn begins with action spaces filled by markers, which are claimed by players for some cost. Players usually have a token of some kind (typically a person-shaped token, vehicle, or other designated token) that they then place in designated locations to perform an action of some type, usually something like paying a resource for an item, obtaining more resources, or drawing cards. Due to the limited nature of action tokens, players are required to strategically place their "workers" in locations that will be beneficial for them to complete a longer-term plan with the game.

With the worker-placement mechanic, it often is paired with a set of other mechanics that help flesh out the game, such as tableau-building, hand-management, or a market to purchase cards/tiles from. There's so much that can be included alongside the worker-placement mechanic and can often result in wildly varying games with similar mechanics.

Exclusivity and You!

I never thought meeples could be so cute. I was wrong.

Everdell is a recent game that's gained significant popularity here on BGG that uses the worker placement mechanic to a fantastic extent. Each player is initially provided with a single pair of workers that increases as the seasons change, adding an extra worker in spring and summer, and two extra workers in the fall. The game itself only has a certain number of locations that are able to have workers placed on them for resources, and the locations that generate additional resources, or have better benefits are limited to one worker per location. There's also worker requirements to meet some of the end-game goals, and even locations that are contained on player cards that can be placed within the city that players are tasked with building. With only two workers to begin with, players have to play very strategically at the beginning to ensure that they are using the resource well, although there are cards that can be played that allow players to move workers to another location, albeit with a cost associated with the card.

Overall, the exclusivity mechanic tends to sometimes have a bit of a "take that" mentality that can sometimes come up when included in games, but most do it well enough that it's more beneficial for players to pivot their plans with their workers to account for what others choose. Lost Ruins of Arnak for example offers players multiple separate actions that they can take during their turn, worker placement being only one of them. While each of the locations on the board are exclusive to the worker placed there, even if an explorer meeple has been placed in the location that a player was planning on placing a worker, there are still multiple alternative actions, and locations, that the player can choose to make on their turn.

Good worker placement games offer alternative options about where to place your worker if the plan you have goes awry. Most games that incorporate the exclusive worker location mechanic come with an alternative solutions to help players with alternative solutions to the problem of having another player take the planned location. One such example is the way that PARKS handles the location exclusivity concern. Players proceed down a one way set of tiles that acts as a trail that they are walking on for the season. With each location having a benefit, some tiles are highly sought after and can result in players keeping a hiker meeple (the "worker" for the game) on that location to prevent any other players from using that tile and forcing them forward on the trail. However, players do have a campfire token that allows them to occupy the same tile as another player that is a one-time use until their first worker ends the hike for the season, resetting the token. It allows for some push/pull with decisions and challenges the players with making a decision to use their campfire on a specific tile with the risk of needing it later on in the round for a later action.

An interesting twist on the worker exclusivity mechanic can be found in Steam Time. When players place their first airship (worker), they have to then proceed to follow the "flow of time" up the board and are not able to place workers at a lower spot in the "timeline" on the board, requiring players to be smart about where they place their first airship. Each section of the timeline offers 4-5 separate locations that players can choose from, but each one is exclusive for the player in all but one exception to that rule. Players are able to earn through the mechanics in the game, a non-player worker named "Mr. Time" who is able to be placed on any location on the board, no matter if another airship is at that location, or even earlier on the timeline than their previously played airship. Mr. Time takes quite a few resources to get however and often is only obtained at most, twice by a single player in the game, making it a very sought after and strategic resource to use in game.

Kingdomino and it's sequel Queendomino utilizes a lighter version of the worker-placement mechanic where players choose tiles and then have the turn order based on the tile selection the next round. If one player chooses a domino higher on the tile list, they might receive a weaker tile, but will be able to choose earlier on the next round. Conversely, if a player chooses a domino lower on the available tile list, they might be rewarded with a more beneficial tile, but also have to go later in choosing the tile next round. It has been noted by Alexander in the comments below that these two games utilize a drafting mechanic rather than a worker-placement mechanic. My apologies for the misrepresentation of the mechanic utilized in the game. I should have done a bit more research on the games that I was noting here!

There Are Many Uses...

Dino World Worker placements can vary from game to game.

There are also games that give each worker multiple options to be utilized towards placement. One such example is Dinosaur World which provides each player with nine (sometimes 10 if an upgrade is taken) workers that are color coded towards what their specialty is.

Purple ranger workers are used to upgrade the jeep tour for a lower cost and activate other tiles related to jeeps/social media. Green administrative workers can be used to purchase dinosaur paddocks, earn more money, or activate tiles generally geared towards administrative tasks such as dinosaur digs and the like. Yellow meeples are security and can be used to upgrade security for a lower cost or activate security based tiles. Blue scientist meeples help the player earn extra DNA when drafting dice, earn more DNA when splicing, and also to help activate tiles that are geared towards the sciences, such as duplicating DNA or using the "Recycling Center" (hey, those deaths can't be meaningless!). White workers are generalized and can be used in most locations unless specified and represent the most prevalent workers players receive.

What becomes increasingly interesting is that the game allows for players to utilize workers for alternative actions than they are optimized for, allowing for a large diversity of potential actions that the player can take. If you don't have enough security meeples to increase your security, you can always use another worker (blue, green, purple, or white) to activate that action, at an increased cost. Dino paddocks can be purchased with only one administrator worker, but require two workers of any other color, which reduces the potential actions that a player might have later in the round. It's a really clever use of the worker mechanic as while some workers might have an optimized use, players don't always have to use the workers for that use and can use them in alternative locations.

While not necessarily a worker-placement game, Thunder Road: Vendetta utilizes a similar mechanic with it's dice that players roll. Players are assigned four dice per round and are able to place each of the dice rolled in any of four locations: one on each of the cars (or multiple dice on a single car if any car is out of commission) and one on the player control board. After the players roll the dice, they are able to assign each one to the car of their choosing and one to the board, allowing them to pick and choose where each dice is assigned. It's not directly equivalent to a worker with multiple actions since the pips on the dice can vary, but it was close enough that I thought I would include it here.

Two popular games with extremely similar mechanics, Wingspan and Wyrmspan where players utilize their multi-use adventurer meeple to go through the biomes/caves on player boards (cubes in Wingspan). In Wingspan, players are able to use one of their action cubes to choose one of the three biomes that they then activate, earning resources as each bird might be activated on their board. Wyrmspan provides the player with coins that can be utilized to explore the excavated caves and benefit from the dragons that they've placed on their board along with printed bonuses on each cave. Each game has a limited number of these resources, so once a player uses them, their turn is over (and often the round). Again noted by Alexander below, both Wingspan and Wyrmspan don't technically have a worker-placement mechanic present in the game, although there are a few elements present in both games. Finite resources are used in both games (cubes in Wingspan and coins in Wyrmspan) which is more resource management and there are specific locations on the Dragon Guild board that can be occupied by player tokens, but that is more akin to final objective mechanics. Technically both games are not "worker placement" although an argument could be made in the loosest definition of the mechanic.

Togethaaaah!

I love wooden meeples, and these dragon meeples from Flamecraft are amazing!

Flamecraft offers a fun twist on the worker placement mechanic, allowing players to occupy the same shop together. However, there is a caveat to visiting a location that another player's dragon might be at: players have to gift each other player at the location a good from their personal supply. This might result in players having to give up a necessary resource to visit a location that they want to, but it alternatively offers more flexibility with play in allowing players to visit any shop on the board.

Apiary has several locations on the board that allow multiple workers to be placed, which often benefits the player who added a worker a second time. Workers in Apiary are assigned a certain power level and some locations use the worker power level in an additive design to allow for more benefits to be accessed. If one player has laid a level 3 worker, another could add a level 2 worker, which then results in a net 5 total points for the player to use for the action associated with the location. The game also uses a clever "bumping" mechanic that allows players to bump other players off a location, which in turn allows the bumped worker to either increase in power (which hastens the end of the game), or return to the player mat to be recalled without gaining a level. Players have to take time to think about the advantages and disadvantages of bumping another player's worker or increasing the strength of their own worker in this clever twist of worker placement. Additionally, because no location is considered "exclusive", all players can put workers at locations at any time, really allowing for a significant level of strategic depth.

The final game that I would like to add here is Critter Kitchen. While I discussed the game at length on my previous Wednesday posting, I do want to mention that it too allows players to place multiple workers on specific locations. However, that often comes with a caveat that players might not get what they were hoping for. As each location choice is done by placing cards face down in front of the player to designate where each worker is going, players might choose a location that another player has chosen too with one of their worker. Each worker has a different speed and carry capacity that it offers, resulting in players often having to adjust their strategy on the fly during the ingredient choice part of the round.

Small workers move first, but because they're small, they can only carry one item. Medium workers can carry two items, but have to take items after the small worker and get to take items before the large worker. Large workers, while they are allowed to take three items, have to move after the other two workers, sometimes resulting in players getting only one or two items from the location. If there's a tie, a priority mat shows which player moves first in choosing an item, making for a clever resolution to the issue. If no items are left, the player is able to take a single wild token for their board (a soup token). Whomever is first on the priority mat gets to take items first, but then moves to the back of the priority mat, resulting in them going last the next time a tie with workers occurs. It's a very smart system and not only allows for players to gain resources if none are left at the location, but also have to judge and react to what each player around them does as well.

Final Thoughts

The variability of worker placement is part of the reason that I love it so much. Often times, there are several strategies that can be employed should a worker be placed in a location that was integral to a certain strategy. I love games that are deep in their strategic nature and worker-placement often falls directly into that category. While not all are going to be extremely deep, there often is enough of a strategic component that I'm able to adjust on the fly as needed.

Give me your thoughts: What are your thoughts on worker-placement mechanics? Do you love them? Hate them? Have a preference on exclusivity of worker placement or sharing locations? What games have you played that have integrated the worker-placement mechanic well? What games have not done so well with their integration of the mechanic?

I want to say thank you so much for checking out this blog and reading it. I appreciate your support and if you like what I wrote, please feel free to hit that green thumb. I love your comments and will respond to each and every one of them when able, so please feel free to leave a note or two. It means so much to me that you're willing to read my ramblings and comment on them. BGG is such a special place and I want to do my part in continuing to make this community an amazing and welcoming place.

As always, thank you for your contribution here and remember that it matters, no matter how small. Keep on playing those board games everyone!

*EDIT 9:41 AM - Thanks for the comment Alexander! I attempt to be as accurate as possible with my blog, especially for recommendations for people looking into games, so I appreciate the clarification and help that you provided. I've edited the blog for further clarity and will make sure to do a bit more research into games before I write about them again in the future!

*Originally posted on BoardGameGeek on 11/3/2024*