Description
Players earn points by occupying a special position on the board.
Discussion
King of the Hill (KotH) brings several positive attributes to a game. First, it is simple for players to understand what they need to do to achieve victory. Gaining points or other benefits by controlling the key location makes the objective clear to first-time players. In King of Tokyo, players earn points by remaining in the center of the board throughout the turn, giving the board state great clarity. Second, it forces players into conflict. Staying in your own corner of the board (“turtling”) will not move you closer to victory. Finally, it gives players a safe space to rebuild and lick their wounds if they are weaker. If a player is in a bad position, they can simply stay out of the line of fire until ready. This can push battle games to a more casual place, as the strong either cannot or are not incentivized to pick on the weak. It also leads naturally to a Catch the Leader mechanism (VIC-18), as everyone will gang up on the player earning points in the center. Because of all these items, pure KotH can make a game feel lighter. Players will try to knock each other out of the center, but conflict does not extend beyond that (Illustration 5.3).
Some games have a reward other than Victory Points associated with holding the center. For example, in Nexus Ops, the player controlling the center Monolith may draw special Energy cards that aid in various ways. This encourages players to head for the center and the bonuses there but also allows for alternate paths to victory.
Sample Games
The Ares Project (Engelstein and Engelstein, 2011) King of Tokyo (Garfield, 2011) Nexus Ops (Cantino and Kimball, 2005) Illustration 5.3 Controlling the center Monolith in Nexus Ops allows players to draw special cards. Photo by Board Game Geek user Mijjy.
描述
玩家通过占据版图上的特殊位置获得积分。
讨论
山丘之王（King of the Hill，KotH）为游戏带来了几个积极属性。首先，玩家很容易理解他们需要做什么才能获胜。通过控制关键位置获得积分或其他利益，使初次玩家的目标变得清晰。在《东京之王》（King of Tokyo）中，玩家通过在整个回合中保持在版图中心来获得积分，这使版图状态非常清晰。其次，它迫使玩家发生冲突。呆在版图的一角（“龟缩”）不会让你更接近胜利。最后，如果玩家较弱，它给他们一个安全可以重建和舔舐伤口的地方。如果玩家处于不利位置，他们可以简单地避开火力线直到准备好。这可以将战斗游戏推向更休闲的地方，因为强者要么不能，要么没有动力去欺负弱者。这也自然导致追赶领先者机制（VIC-18），因为每个人都会联合起来对付中心获得积分的玩家。由于所有这些项目，纯粹的KotH可以让游戏感觉更轻松。玩家将试图把对方从中心击倒，但冲突不会延伸到那之外（插图5.3）。
有些游戏与占据中心相关的奖励不仅仅是胜利点数。例如，在《Nexus Ops》中，控制中心巨石的玩家可以抽取特殊的能量卡，以各种方式提供帮助。这鼓励玩家前往中心并获得那里的奖励，但也允许替代的胜利途径。
游戏范例
The Ares Project (Engelstein and Engelstein, 2011) - 《阿瑞斯计划》 King of Tokyo (Garfield, 2011) - 《东京之王》 Nexus Ops (Cantino and Kimball, 2005) - 《异星来客》 插图5.3 在《异星来客》中控制中心巨石允许玩家抽取特殊卡牌。照片由Board Game Geek用户Mijjy提供。