10 Tug-of-War Games

[@hanng1242]

"Level 7: Omega Protocol" has a "Stronghold-type" tug-of-war mechanism. The soldiers build up "adrenaline" as they take actions in their turns, then the player playing the aliens gets all of that accumulated adrenaline to take his actions - the more actions the soldiers do, the stronger they make the aliens. "Starship Samurai" is an example of a game with a "7 Wonders Duel-type" tug-of-war mechanism with multiple players. Although the game is mostly area control, there are 8 "influence" tracks that award points at the end of each round for the player who controls the track (and in proportion to the level of influence). As one player takes actions to increase the influence on any particular track, he moves his token up said track. If an opponent wants to challenge him on this, his actions will cause the current controller's token to move down the track until it reaches the neutral position, at which time another player can start moving up the track. Based on your definition of the "Stronghold-type" mechanism, I think "Gugong" can be considered sort of a tug of war game, since the playing of gift cards make those cards available for the other players to take. If one plays high cards to get a better action (or take a better gift in exchange), one's opponent now has the opportunity to take said powerful card to use in the next round.

[@daveyjones501]

Imagine a multi player tug of war game where between each pair of neighboring players is a track which can be manipulated. So each player has a track on their left and right and they are fighting two battles at the same time. Perhaps each turn they have to make a decision about what action to play on each side, perhaps even simultaneously with some kind of draft.

[@jameystegmaier]

I like that! It scales well.

[@zachmckinney2497]

Watergate was my 2019 game of the year. Also similar to churchill which is another great game.

[@philamylon1479]

When I think of the mechanism you're talking about where what I spend on my turn influences what people can spend on their turns, the granddaddy of them all is Decipher's LOTR CCG from 2000s, which worked at a whole host of player counts.

[@itonyhanna]

Paolo Mori’s (Ethnos) new “Blitzkrieg!” is an amazing tug-of-war 2p game, where you play through WW2 in 20 mins. I love Watergate, and this game is just as satifying to play. Martin Wallace’s “A Few Acres of Snow” has the most awesome tug-of-war feeling. His Mythotopia too. But it really doesn’t have a limit to when it ends, which means that if both players are equally smart/good, the game can go on a bit too long.

[@StevenStJohn-kj9eb]

I recently played Shadows Over Camelot for the second time and when I saw this title I immediately thought of the Excalibur mini-game. Then as you were talking I realized the Holy Grail mini-game in Shadows is another example. Both of these would have been much less interesting if the rule was "first to play 5 cards" or something like that. Makes the game longer, but feels more like a quest. Also gives a traitor more chance to block. Then I realized that the Siege Engine mini-game is a tug of war too in Shadows. Players have some control how often these come out, and if there are 12 on the board, you lose. But you can also battle them with dice and cards to remove them from the board. The game seems to settle into a tug of war with Siege Engines at around 8, then when they creep up to 10 you hope to fight them off to get back to 8. I can even stretch the definition a bit and say that a couple of the other card playing regions in Shadows have a tug of war feel. For example, there's a place where you have to play a pair and a set of 3, and the AI is playing I think 5 cards, and the total value of the cards determines the winner. But because the cards are played one at a time, the sum total comparison is a number that feels like you are tugged from losing to winning back to losing again. Also, because the resolution occurs when one side has played 5 total cards, there is this tension between which side will force the resolution and when. So I'd say Shadows has tug of war baked through and through, and as an older game, might get credit for introducing the mechanism into board games.

[@PaulMazzoni]

Paolo Mori’s Dogs of War is the first one that comes to mind when I hear tug of war because you are literally moving a marker back and forth across sides in 3 different battles simultaneously.

[@bullno1]

Off the top of my head: A handful of stars has tug of war for combat only so it's can be played multiplayer. "Twilight Struggle lite" games: * Dual power revolution 1917: a big track in the middle of the board. * 13 days: Cuban missile crisis: very similar to Twilight Struggle in the sense that if you trigger nuclear war, you lose. Plays a lot quicker. It has the same event card system. * Watergate as you mentioned but the area control is more abstract.

[@bullno1]

In a hand-wavy way, the combat in Sekigahara the unification of Japan is similar to a handful of stars. However, instead of going back and forth, you push 2 tokens forward. The player that manages to push their token further is the winner. This is to track casualties in battle since the further you managed to push your token, the more casualties your opponent will take.

[@ricke1732]

Great list and great mechanism! A team game with this - Word on the Street A cooperative game - Yggdrasil A 2 Player game - Prowlers Passage All three are excellent games!

[@JohnApostolakis]

Two player pure tug of war Battleline (aka Schotten-Totten). Multiplayer what comes to mind is Between Two Cities - collaborating on the two sides can feel push and pull, in the way you persuade each neighbour to collaborate with you.

[@Naledgeizpwr]

Blue moon by Reiner Knizia is probably my favorite two player game that utilizes tug-of-war, and Dogs of War by Paulo Mori for multiplayer.

[@55wownow]

Prowlers Passage by J Alex LaVern, is probably one of the best 2 player, tug of war mechanics over 5 different ever changing city tracks. Perfectly compliments the abstract area control and and passage building going on elsewhere on the board.

[@refreshdaemon]

I think you could say by your criteria that Arkham Horror: Second Edition (not the 3rd edition), is a cooperative tug-of-war on two tracks. The doom track, which you usually lose if it fills up, and the number of sealed gates, which isn't a track, but it does count up like the doom counters. It's not really a tug of war like 7 Wonders: Duel, but, with expansions, both players and the game's decks can manipulate these counters to some degree, although it's mostly still time determining the doom track and players determining the sealed gates counter. I played the tactical skirmish miniatures game Godtear recently and this definitely has the more 7 Wonders: Duel style tug-of-war track, where each round accomplishing certain objectives will give you victory on the tug-of-war, and ending a round winning the tug-of-war gets you the points on the round. I really liked this mechanic and think it might be fun to add an element of wagering to the tug-of-war where each player may wager a certain amount of points to adjust the starting position on the tug of war.

[@vonwoolf9963]

Dogs of War is a worker placement with tugs of war mechanics. I like it a lot.

[@jameystegmaier]

I haven't heard of it, but feel free to discuss it here--your wish can come true!

[@nicolasgazet3442]

@@jameystegmaier I was about to mention it as well. In this game you represent an house of Condotiere (mercenaries), offering your services to houses in war. There are 3 wars each round, and you kind of bet which one will be the winner, so the token of that house become more and more rewarding. When you place a "worker", you get the bonus of the spot you take, but also you move the cursor of that war in the favor of the house you're helping. At the end of the round, the house with the most force wins the battle.

[@M0onh4wk]

This game is criminally underrated in my opinion. Once I read the title of this video I basically assumed this would make top 3 at least... I highly recommend giving it a look Jamey. The combination of tense social interactions, variable player powers, limited recourses, worker-placement, a gorgeous artstyle and a scoring system which includes a stock-like mechanics makes it one of my all-time favorite games of all time.

[@rickert566]

My favorite tug of war is Master of Wills. It is extremely swingy and a lot of fun. You try to drag cards representing groups of people toward your side of the board. If you move them far enough they are locked into your side for the rest of the game. Each card is worth points. So if a card is worth 8 points and you take it from your foie's side of the board to yours it is a 16-point swing. The game also has faction decks that you play and they can be customized before the game to suit your preferences and playstyle. A second printing of the game and a new faction is on kickstarter right now. I don't have a game in my collection that is more pure fun and full of 'Wow!' moments that Master of Wills.

[@Andural69]

Multiplayer game with tug a war, Gearworks. You play cards in a grid to take control of the column and the row. Very neat puzzly game

[@TheGameBoyGeeks]

Jamey, have you tried Prowler's Passage, or Blitzkrieg? Both great 2 player tug of war style games.

[@jameystegmaier]

I haven't, but I want to try both! :)

[@ailurusludens1342]

While I enjoy 7 Wonders Duel and I'm lukewarm on Twilight Struggle, I'm not a big fan of zero-sum board games in general. I suggest you also take a look into Matcha, a small game from Grail Games.

[@dangerousbeans2907]

A few classics come to mind for me: Schotten Totten (Battle Line) seems to possibly fit that role and Word on the Street. The latter feeling like the absolute essence of a tug of war game.

[@jameystegmaier]

I've played Battle Line, and in the same way that Hanamikoji has a tug-of-war mechanism, I agree that it should have been on the list.

[@elliottrinke6346]

I’ve really been enjoying Caper from Keymaster Games for 2-player Tug of War.

[@salty-horse]

The idea of the "other" tug of war games is interesting. I would describe them as "one player's action strength dictates the opponent action strength on their turn". Many "time track" games fit that concept. If you decide to take a huge leap forward, you give your opponent more stuff to do before it's your turn again. I would describe Crystal Clans's track as a "seesaw time track" EDIT: I'm not all the way through and I see in the video description that Crystal Clans is already mentioned :P

[@jmricketts]

King's Dilemma is a Legacy multiplayer tug-of-war game.

[@jameystegmaier]

That sounds awesome!

[@jefff.2052]

I think the new Blitzkrieg looks like a tug of war game. I don't do war themes, but it seems to fit from what I saw.

[@StevenStJohn-kj9eb]

Also I could be wrong (having never played it), but doesn't Star Wars Risk have a tug of war, maybe in the Vader vs. Luke mini-game?

[@jameystegmaier]

I considered putting that on the list, but it's been a while since I played it, and I couldn't recall if there were an tug of war mechanisms in it.

[@MohamadSobh]

You should definitely look into Blitzkrieg!

[@TheEricBooth]

If the number one game isn't the actual tug-of-war I'm going to be greatly disappointed.

[@tap9095]

While not much of a game, War and related card games are tug of war at their core. www.pagat.com/war/ Collecting or giving tokens to other players would be a fairly elegant way of implementing this mechanic in multiplayer games.

[@ginsbu]

3 players: Churchill

[@amywright913]

I enjoy Inbetween for a tug-of-war game.

[@SenseiJae]

games you didn't disucss: shotten totten, battleline, smash up, Shanghaien (a personal favorite),. Illuminati had an expansion (3rd I think) that introduced a "political web" that each player could manipulate to favor one of several political ideologies. I think this is interesting because it is both multiplayer and it isn't a linear tug, but a spectrum you are influencing.

[@bushibayushi]

Try Sun Tzu, this is a fantastic 2-p game, I think you would love it ;).

[@iamflow2111]

I never really looked at raptor as a tug of war game. But I can see how it can interpreted that way. I really enjoy how Blitzkrieg(boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/258210/blitzkrieg) does tug of war. Very quick and entertaining game. You should check it out if you haven't yet.

[@ThatGuyFromMaastricht]

Blitzkrieg! game from 2019 2player game

[@raziel2273]

Im sorry but the best war game ever is War of the Ring nothing compares to it..one game to rule them all..

[@michaelrobison7650]

Raziel The tug-of-war between the Fellowship’s movement, the Shadow’s Hunt pool, and the corruption is one of my favorite mechanisms in any game, ever. So tense throughout!

[@raziel2273]

This game is just masterpiece Michael overall and soooo thematic the greed you put into those dices is like the thirst of Sauron's himself for the ring!