Lords of Waterdeep is regarded by many as a gateway worker placement game. Meaning that it’s a good game to teach people how to play worker placement games. Set in the Dungeons and Dragons universe, you will place your wooden figures (called meeples) onto specific spots on the board, gaining actions or resources and blocking that space from all the other players.

To help you focus in a little at the start of the game you are given a ‘Lord’ card which gives you an end game scoring potential, which can guide your path through the game or you can ignore it! During the game you will be attempting to complete quests, to do so you will need to hire different classes of adventurers, clerics, warriors and alike all represented by cubes. Typically you will try and gain adventurers/cubes as efficiently as possible to get through as many quests as you can. Quests usually reward you with points and a reward and come in a number of types - but in reality this doesn’t change their function.

As the game develops you will be able to purchase buildings which act as extra spots on the board with the bonus that when other players use it you get a reward too. This means that each time you play the board is a little bit different, and therefore your planning requires some adjusting.

You will vie for important places on the board like taking control of the first player marker (to guarantee you get those spots), to getting the best choices of the next available quests, all the while keeping an eye on your ‘Lord’ bonus.

There is a simple elegance to the mechanics in Lords of Waterdeep, on a turn you place out a meeple and gain the benefit. Of course this doesn’t communicate the options you have in that one simple act, options that are made even more interesting when you add in The Scoundrels of Skullport Expansion.

Player Count: 2-5
Time: 60-120 Minutes
Age: 12+