Orleans is the bag-building game that convinced me bag-building deserves its own category separate from deck building. Drawing workers from a bag creates a probability puzzle that deck building's shuffle-and-draw cannot replicate. You know your bag composition exactly; you do not know what you will draw this turn. The tension is perfectly calibrated.

The trade mechanic creates genuine player interaction without direct conflict — you want goods that others are also collecting, which creates a market competition that feels different from card drafting. The building track creates a long-term development arc that rewards early efficiency.

For groups that enjoy Dominion and want a worker-placement adjacent experience, Orleans is the recommendation. The bag manipulation — adding and removing workers of specific types — creates a planning depth that pure deck building lacks.