Economic Board Games

Economic board games are those in which players are attempting to create or simulate participation in an active economy at some level. This can take a variety of forms, but generally includes some form of player-driven supply-and-demand to which each player must adapt. In many economic games, players are incapable of achieving complete monopoly over the market by themselves and must therefore rely on limited cooperation with other players to achieve their goals. Economic games will often see each player making their own “engine”: a self-sustaining mesh of game abilities which allow the player to produce a given good/resource more efficiently than other players can, thus providing a niche space for the player to occupy in that game. Monopoly is the quintessential example of an economic board game, but modern takes like Power Grid provide a vastly different play experience.