Lords of Waterdeep

Lords of Waterdeep is a board game for two to five players, designed by Peter Lee and Rodney Thompson and published by Wizards of the Coast in 2012. Board Game Matcher describes it as worker placement wrapped in a fantasy skin: players recruit adventurers to complete quests, and the real engine is claiming turn order by playing Intrigue cards that disrupt opponents while securing the best action spaces. Each player also holds a hidden role, so no one can quite predict who is chasing which goal. When a player builds a new location on the board, other players gain access to it on their own turns, which creates a steady low-grade arms race over whether a lucrative building will help an opponent more than its builder. A session takes about 120 minutes over eight rounds, the listed weight is medium, and the suggested age is twelve and up.