I mean, you can find info on these games at boardgamegeek.com , so no real need for me to go in depth on any of them.
However, generally speaking, and I'll use Power Grid as examples, most of the new games have similarities.
First off, no dice. Or, at least no nice used to determine movement. In fact, "movement" in these games as most would tend to believe exists in board games, doesn't actually exist. Instead of reacting to the board via random movement squares, you interact with the board on your turn via different rules. In Power Grid, the goal is to power more cities than your opponent. When it's your turn to interact with the board, you can pay to extend your city coverage if you can and desire to.
Another similarity is multiple steps in a round. Many games have few rounds. Terra Mystica has 5. Power Grid has more, but length of play is only widened if a player does a stalling strategy (useful in some places, a knock on the game, I suppose). But at the end of a round, board elements are "reset" and the next round begins. In Power Grid, you determine player order (an extremely strategic element set by actions in previous rounds), then begin the power plant auction phase. When that's complete, the resource buying phase begins, and after that, the city building phase begins, finally culminating in the clean up round, where players power their cities, earn money, replenish supplies, reset the auction board, and start the next turn via player order. This happens until a city threshold is reached, and the game ends with a determined winner. Everyone plays until the game ends.
Terra Mystica turn order is determined, first player makes a move based on resources, and play moves around until all players pass, board is "reset," resources gained, and play begins again. Agricola has similar actions.
Most of the actions on the board affect the other players, so when a turn starts in a game of 5, and you're third to act, you can often have a course of action that you planned eliminated by the first two players, forcing you into different actions that will likely affect the next two players' actions. Some games you can actively bargain actions by the other player. Sometimes not.
Starting positions in these games are generally chosen, and not forced, thus not starting from the same location adds to the complexity of the decision making.
Note: there is an online version of Power Grid. Downloadable here:
https://www.brettspielwelt.de/Spiele/Funkenschlag/?nation=en
I've never played Power Grid online, and don't intend to, since I don't want to get to point with experience with the game to where I'm winning all the time over my friends due to experience and not through cunning gameplay.
Have played "Catan" on Aso Brain (nope, it's Xplorers if memory serves
), but lost the account due to inactivity right before they stopped taking registrations, a BRILLIANT move on the web site's part, to eliminate any fresh players.
