Many heroes go forth to battle, but some never return; leaving behind their prized possessions. You'll be part of the bidding war for the vaults they left behind to gain valuable items -- each providing Gold, Victory Points or new abilities. Outbid your opponents, equip artifacts to gain new abilities and find the gear your up-and-coming heroes are looking for to be victorious in Vault Wars.
Players will take turns as an Auction Master, leading a cut-throat bidding war to selling off Vaults full of items to the other players.
Each Vault provides a unique experience, introducing new ways for the players to bid.
No player quite knows everything that's in a Vault, and there's lots of junk to fool your opponents into bidding on.
Between auctions, players may sell off their items to gain Gold, or save them for Victory Points -- paying storage fees to keep them around.
Collect gems for massive Victory Points, Weapons to gain lots of Gold, or rare Artifacts to gain powerful abilities.
Each player has up-and-coming heroes who are looking specific items, giving out bonus victory points (but try to keep that a secret from your opponents).
The player with the most victory points after all the auctions will be the winner!
Vault Wars is a bidding and bluffing game for 3-5 player that plays in less than an hour.
- compact box and solid physical components
- deep strategy for a non-Gateway game
- bluffing adds tension and excitement
- not a gateway game; learning curve
- can be heavy for casual players
- bidding, bluffing, and loot collection
- Auction-style game where players bid on hidden items from a vault; fantasy-themed objectives.
- tension-filled, competitive
- Storage Wars
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- auction/bidding — Players bid on cards; the leading bidder may be bluffing about what's in the lot.
- Hidden information with bluffing — Visible and hidden information creates bluffing dynamics.
- Objective-based scoring — Pursuing gem, weapon, or armor cards to complete sets and win.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- it's just a really interesting game where everyone is making judgments based on these players faces
- it's a fun silly party game
- it's very easy to learn the rules are super simple
- a party game that works with big groups
- there's a brilliant kind of bluffing element to it
- comes in this amazing box with a magnetic lid
- the loot is thematic you can get a Persian cat out of one of the safes
- this is easily already in my top five Cooperative games
References (from this video)
- clever auction dynamics
- family-friendly entry into heavier games
- thematic cohesion can be loose
- not as deep as other heavy titles
- vaults, survival, competition
- post-apocalyptic vault-clearing and competition
- competitive with a light, humorous tone
- Bohnanza
- Munchkin
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- auction/bidding — players bid to claim valuable vault pieces
- set collection — collect vault pieces to complete sets and score points
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Spirit Island not Spirit Away mind you it's a great movie if we were giving away Badges of approval for movies Spirited Away a batch of approval but Spirit Island also and this is greater than games
- Spirit Island is a fabulous game... it's fantastic
- Terraforming Mars yes it's our favorite ugly game terrifying Mars is amazing
- I would play that anytime you brought it out
- it's so freaking cool
- we're giving away four copies of Sagrada to four different people