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One of a kind (Search result = 1)
Herman Roozen
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When I tried to find a game like Puerto Rico (Categories: Farming, City Building, Economic; Mechanics: Variable Phase Order), I found out that there is only one game with those criteria. Which made me think. There are 76 categories and 43 mechanics in BGG. So there are 3268 possible combinations of 1 category with 1 mechanic. Some combinations will have hundreds of games, some will have none. I am curious which combination of 1 Category with 1 Mechanic has only 1 search result.

I'm sure the admins can cook up a query that gets them all out. Here are the ones (five of them) that I came up with after a brief search. Not systematically (Abstract Strategy x Acting = 8; Abstract Strategy x Action Point Allowance System = 46; etc.), but just 'trial and error'.

Please feel free to add your own "search result = 1".
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1. Board Game: The Archers [Average Rating:2.00 Unranked]
Herman Roozen
Netherlands
Assen
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Category: Farming
Mechanic: Voting

"Family game based on the British radio drama. Players compete to show their knowledge of the fictional village of Ambridge. Players take on the role of one of six characters and travel around the board gathering information from other players or acting out situations from the show."

One of a kind.
 
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2. Board Game: Western Town [Average Rating:0.00 Unranked]
Herman Roozen
Netherlands
Assen
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Category: City Building
Mechanic: Acting

"Western Town is a game based on the West Colonization. It has basics mechanics from Settlers of Catan and Puerto Rico."

But still it is unique.
 
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Steven Heinrich
United States
Arlington
Texas
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After much searching, here is a link to the blog of the designer of the game.

It will probably pop up in French, in which case (if you don't already know) you can paste the url into google search and when it pops up, click on "translate this page" it isn't a perfect translation, but it does give more details on the game!

It also looks as if they are creating a vassal game for it.

http://www.legobelin.net/blog/index.php/2007/10/12/263-olivi...
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  • Edited Wed May 7, 2008 10:13 pm
  • Posted Wed May 7, 2008 10:10 pm
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3. Board Game: Rise of Empires [Average Rating:7.32 Overall Rank:285]
 
Herman Roozen
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Category: Renaissance
Mechanic: Rock-Paper-Scissors

""Rise of Nations" is an empire-building big box game in which players develop their nation from Ancient Age to Modern Age. War, economics, science and diplomacy are to be taken into consideration to successfully win this epic game."

It has a lot more Categories and Mechanics than these two, but the combination of these two makes it special.
 
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4. Board Game: Akkon: Machtkampf der Tempelritter [Average Rating:5.02 Overall Rank:6995]
Herman Roozen
Netherlands
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Category: Religious
Mechanics: Secret Unit Deployment

"The players take on the roll of dignitaries in the Temple Order during the Third Crusade to the holy land. They strive to expand the power of their order in order to increase its gold and renown of the Temple Knights and spread belief in the holy land. This choice group in the Temple Order will determine the most capable member under them to become the new grandmaster."

If you are looking for religion and secrecy: look no further.
 
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David Kahnt
United States
Upper Gwynedd
Pennsylvania
designer
It's fun, it's healthy, it's good exercise. The kids will just love it. And we put a little sand inside to make the experience more pleasant.
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You know, they say there was a man who jumped from the forty-FIFTH floor? But that's another story...
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Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!

-DK
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  • Posted Wed May 7, 2008 1:51 pm
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5. Board Game: Down in Flames - Locked-On [Average Rating:0.00 Unranked]
Herman Roozen
Netherlands
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Category: Vietnam War
Mechanics: Trick-taking

"The "one hit one kill" sudden death nature of modern combat, makes this game very different than earlier versions of Down In Flames!"

And apparently also very different than any other game.
 
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Richard Irving
United States
Salinas
California
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Based on the previous Down in Flames games, I would suspect that it is not a trick taking game.
 
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  • Posted Thu May 8, 2008 4:50 am
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6. Board Game: SexPlay the Game [Average Rating:6.00 Unranked]
Niels B.
Belgium
Brussels
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Yes, although it is not the only game with Mature/Adult and Trick-taking anymore, it still is the only one with Mature/Adult and Secret Unit Deployment.
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Andrew Ohst
United States
Naperville
Illinois
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surprise "Secret Unit Deployment"?!? What the, I mean how do you - um - well, you know, deploy your - um - unit secretly? blush
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  • Posted Wed May 7, 2008 5:01 pm
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Mike Jones
United States
Gainesville
Florida
Yeah it's here! Really it's right here.
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Drew wrote:
surprise "Secret Unit Deployment"?!? What the, I mean how do you - um - well, you know, deploy your - um - unit secretly? blush


Well hopefully it doesn't stay secret for long. Or then you really need to keep it secret.
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  • Posted Wed May 7, 2008 5:15 pm
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Steven Heinrich
United States
Arlington
Texas
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I think they meant to put it as "Premature Unit Deployment"!!!
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  • Posted Wed May 7, 2008 9:54 pm
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7. Board Game: Custer's Last Stand [Average Rating:6.64 Unranked]
Niels B.
Belgium
Brussels
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The only game about the American Indian Wars, in which Singing is part of the game -> Link

From the description:
"There are NO dismounted/horse-holder RULES and NO rule against the Native player singing War-chants or Death-songs for fallen troops." So singing doesn't seem to be really required to play it...
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8. Board Game: Trajectoires [Average Rating:9.00 Unranked]
Niels B.
Belgium
Brussels
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A last one from me. The only game in the Comic book/Strip category with a Line drawing mechanic. -> Link
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9. Board Game: Legends of Araby [Average Rating:7.17 Unranked]
Herman Roozen
Netherlands
Assen
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Category: Arabian
Mechanics: Role Playing

"Legends of Araby bridges the gap between traditional wargaming and role-playing games."LOA" marks the beginning of the new Role-Playing Lite system where players can create personal characters and travel through the world of Talomir interacting with the people that live there."

Found another "one". This game has 6 more categories and 3 more mechanics, but it is the only one with Arabian Role Playing in it.
 
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10. Board Game: Rocks for Sale [Average Rating:6.00 Unranked]
Herman Roozen
Netherlands
Assen
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Category: Space Exploration
Mechanics: Rock-Paper-Scissors

"In Rocks for Sale, two to five (best for three to five) players fly their space ships along a pick-up and delivery circuit from the assayer's space station to the asteroid belt and back. Players tow asteroids back from the belt and sell them to the assayer, with the eventual goal of being the first to pay off their ship. But there are additional costs to running a mining ship, such as fuel, repairs and blasting charges. Mining in space can also be dangerous. Fuel leaks, overheating engines and other miners' blasting charges are only a few of the hazards an asteroid minor may face."

That makes sense: a game called "Rocks for Sale" uses the Rock-Paper-Scissors mechanic.
 
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11. Board Game: JetSet Casino [Average Rating:4.86 Unranked]
Herman Roozen
Netherlands
Assen
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Category: Negotiation
Mechanic: Route/Network Building

"Eager and hungry to "conquer" more casinos than your opponents in a short space of time, you have various means of transport at your disposal: private jets, sports cars, luxury yachts and the like. Each has particular properties that can help you blaze a trail from Monte Carlo across to Gibraltar round to St Petersburg, back to London and on to Helsinki in time for tea. Whoever has been to the most casinos after each player has been the "dealer" once, wins."

This game has four more Categories and four more Mechanics.
 
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Ben Lott
United States
Mason
Michigan
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Interesting idea. Sadly, the category and mechanics are 2 of the most neglected fields on BGG. As I recounted in one of my geeklists, even some of the top ranked games on BGG haven't been assigned a single category or mechanic. Not to mention games like Tichu that have been mis-labelled (Tichu is not a "Trick-Taking" game.) Perhaps there would be more Farming/Voting games if people were keeping these fields up to date and accurate.
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  • Edited Wed May 7, 2008 1:13 pm
  • Posted Wed May 7, 2008 1:13 pm
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Niels B.
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I did a similar list once, which I deleted shortly after. Let's see, if I can find something again.

Edit: yeah, I found some.
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  • Edited Wed May 7, 2008 1:40 pm
  • Posted Wed May 7, 2008 1:28 pm
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Herman Roozen
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Lajos wrote:
Schlupp wrote:
I did a similar list once, which I deleted shortly after. Let's see, if I can find something again.

Me too. At least I did it, and it's gone, but I don't remember deleting it. Some pretty weird games were added by others to my list. I think it was 4 pages long.

I've searched thoroughly through the GeekLists on words like "Category", "Mechanics", "One of a kind", "Single", "Unique", etc, before I started this list. A duplicate GeekList with this subject would be embarrasing.
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  • Posted Wed May 7, 2008 6:45 pm
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Dustin Gervais
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Brooklyn
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Board Game Geek Whacking!
I love it.

For those who think this is interesting, you might want to check out
http://www.googlewhack.com/.

Nice work!
 
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  • Posted Fri May 9, 2008 9:14 am
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