Link: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/110327/lords-of-waterdeep
Playing Time: 60-120 minutes
Weight: light-to-midweight
Genre: Worker Placement
Designer: Peter Lee, Rodney Thompson
Players: 2-5
Still very likely the best entrypoint for eurogaming, Lords of Waterdeep is a relatively straightforward worker placement game, where players place workers to gather resources, which are used to fulfill contracts. Only in this case, the player plays as a, well, Lord in the city of Waterdeep, and the resources the player is gathering are adventurers (warriors, thieves, clerics and wizards) which are used to fulfill contracts that are ‘quests’.
One of my favorite things in worker placement games is when the board expands with new placement options, and Lords of Waterdeep has a simple but elegant one, where players can choose to build new locations themselves (and then get a commission every time another player uses their space). It’s viable enough that being a pure builder is a completely viable victory path – provided you choose buildings other people want to use – and also ensures every game unfolds differently.
Also, do not sleep on the Scoundrels of Skullport expansion. Not only does it add a corruption mechanic (new, extremely lucrative worker placement spots are opened up, but they require taking costly corruption tokens to use), but it also expands Lords of Waterdeep to be a six-player game, and a good one. Turns remain quick, and there’s juuuuuuust enough interaction to keep the table honest and interesting.
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