Category: Board Games

Beasts of Balance

| T3d-1978
Beasts of Balance

Beasts of Balance

Beasts of Balance is a game of strategy and balance in which you build a tower of animals on your tabletop, then help them evolve in a connected digital world.

A cooperative game for one to five players, the aim is to make the most fabulous world you can by strategically nurturing and evolving your creatures and casting skill-based miracles – before your tower collapses.

Players take turns to stack a set of beautifully made artifacts into a tower. As they’re placed they pop onto the connected device’s screen, where they’ll be seen to evolve and grow as players continue to make tactical choices over how they build.

Game Mechanics:

  • Cooperative
  • Dexterity
  • Party Game

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • 15 – 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.09

Battleship

| T3d-1978
Battleship

Battleship

Battleship was originally a pencil-and-paper public domain game known by different names, but Milton Bradley made it into the well known board game in 1967. The pencil and paper grids were changed to plastic grids with holes that could hold plastic pegs used to record the guesses.

Each player deploys his ships (of lengths varying from 2 to 5 squares) secretly on a square grid. Then each player shoots at the other’s grid by calling a location. The defender responds by “Hit!” or “Miss!”. You try to deduce where the enemy ships are and sink them. First to do so wins.

The Salvo variant listed in the rules allows each player to call out from 1 to 5 shots at a time depending on the amount of ships the player has left (IE: players each start off with 5 ships, so they start off with 5 shots. As ships are sunk, the players get fewer shots). This version of the game is closer to the original pencil-and-paper public domain game. Many versions of the pencil-and-paper game have different amounts of shots based on the ship (IE: Battleship: 5 shots. Destroyer: 3 Shots, Etc.).

Game Mechanics:

  • Deduction
  • Paper and Pencil
  • Wargame

Game Specifications:

  • 2 Players
  • 30 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.22

Balderdash

| T3d-1978
Balderdash

Balderdash

A clever repackaging of the parlor game Dictionary, Balderdash contains several cards with real words nobody has heard of. After one of those words has been read aloud, players try to come up with definitions that at least sound plausible, because points are later awarded for every opposing player who guessed that your definition was the correct one.

Versions of the game as a parlor game go back at least as far as 1970, although Balderdash itself was not published until 1984.

Game Mechanics:

  • Bluffing
  • Paper and Pencil
  • Party Game
  • Word Game

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.41

Azul: Master Chocolatier

| T3d-1978
Azul Master Chocolatier

Azul: Master Chocolatier

In the game Azul, players take turns drafting colored tiles from suppliers to their player board. Later in the round, players score points based on how they’ve placed their tiles to decorate the palace. Extra points are scored for specific patterns and completing sets; wasted supplies harm the player’s score. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins.

Azul: Master Chocolatier includes double-sided factory boards, with these tiles being placed on these boards at the start of each round. One side of the factories is blank, and when using this side the game plays exactly like Azul. The other side of each factory tile has a special effect on it that modifies play in one way or another, putting a twist on the normal game. Additionally, the tiles are modeled to look like chocolates and other treats, despite remaining as inedible as the tiles in the original game.

Game Mechanics:

  • Abstract Strategy
  • Open Drafting
  • Pattern Building
  • Puzzle
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.76

Azul

| T3d-1978
Azul

Azul

Introduced by the Moors, azuleijos (originally white and blue ceramic tiles) were fully embraced by the Portuguese when their king Manuel I, on a visit to the Alhambra palace in Southern Spain, was mesmerized by the stunning beauty of the Moorish decorative tiles. The king, awestruck by the interior beauty of the Alhambra, immediately ordered that his own palace in Portugal be decorated with similar wall tiles. As a tile-laying artist, you have been challenged to embellish the walls of the Royal Palace of Evora.

In the game Azul, players take turns drafting colored tiles from suppliers to their player board. Later in the round, players score points based on how they’ve placed their tiles to decorate the palace. Extra points are scored for specific patterns and completing sets; wasted supplies harm the player’s score. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins.

Game Mechanics:

  • Abstract Strategy
  • Open Drafting
  • Pattern Building
  • Tile Placement
  • Puzzle

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.76

Atheneum

| T3d-1978
Atheneum

Atheneum

The magic exam is tomorrow so you and your classmates head to the library! With the knock of a magic wand on a precise stack of books — tada! — you can learn an entire subject in an instant. In exchange for this after-hours intrusion, however, the security guard asks you to clean up and organize the library shelves. So roll up your sleeves and get to work!

In Atheneum: Mystic Library, you must study for the exam while cleaning up the library! During the game, you can score points for objectives by placing books on your shelves in specific configurations. At the end of the game, you score points for full shelf compartments, decorative candles, and shelved books of your favorite subject. Whoever collects the most points wins!

Game Mechanics:

  • Closed Drafting
  • Open Drafting
  • Puzzle
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 30 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.70

Apples to Apples

| T3d-1978
Apples to Apples

Apples to Apples

The party game Apples to Apples consists of two decks of cards: Things and Descriptions. Each round, the active player draws a Description card (which features an adjective like “Hairy” or “Smarmy”) from the deck, then the other players each secretly choose the Thing card in hand that best matches that description and plays it face-down on the table. The active player then reveals these cards and chooses the Thing card that, in his opinion, best matches the Description card, which he awards to whoever played that Thing card. This player becomes the new active player for the next round.

Once a player has won a pre-determined number of Description cards, that player wins.

Game Mechanics:

  • Party Game
  • Hand Management
  • Player Judge

Game Specifications:

  • 4 – 10 Players
  • 30 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.16

Animal Upon Animal

| T3d-1978
Animal Upon Animal

Animal Upon Animal

The animals want to show how good they are at making tall pyramids! They must be skillfully careful: Who will position the penguin on top of the crocodile, the sheep on top of the penguin, the serpent on the sheep? The hedgehog wants to stand on top of the pyramid but the height is making him dizzy.

Tier auf Tier (a.k.a. Animal Upon Animal, Pyramide d’animaux, and Dier op dier) is a simple stacking game, listed for ages 4-99, with 29 cute wooden animals.

Each turn a player rolls the die and either places one or two animals on to the stack of animals, passes one of his or her animals to another player for them to place, or places an animal on the table, extending the base for other players to build upon. Of course, if any pieces fall off whilst you are building, you get up to two of them back. The first player to have used all of their animals wins.

This game, intended for children, is equally popular with adults.

Game Mechanics:

  • Dice Rolling
  • Dexterity

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~15 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.04

Akropolis

| T3d-1978
Akropolis

Akropolis

The most talented architects in ancient Greece stand ready to achieve this goal. Build housing, temples, markets, gardens and barracks, so you can grow your city and ensure it triumphs over the others. Raise its prestige with harmonious planning that conforms to specific rules, and enhance it by building plazas.

Stone is an essential resource, so make sure you do not neglect it. You’ll need enough quarries so you can build higher up, making your city stretch towards the sky.

  1. Choose a tile from the construction site
  2. Arrange it in your city to unlock each district’s full potential
  3. Build on higher levels, increase the value of your districts and win the game

Game Mechanics:

  • Tile Placement
  • City Building
  • Open Drafting
  • Pattern Building

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 20 – 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.69

The Adventure Zone: Bureau of Balance

| T3d-1978
The Adventure Zone: Bureau of Balance

The Adventure Zone: Bureau of Balance

The Adventure Zone is a wildly popular podcast and series of graphic novels from The McElroy Family. TAZ: Bureau of Balance captures the humor and joy of this world and expands it, allowing you to create your own unique adventures with your family and friends.

In TAZ: Bureau of Balance, you and friends are adventurers charged with retrieving dangerous artifacts from nefarious villains. To succeed, you may have to outwit vile gerblins, armwrestle ogres, or endure the withering criticism of sarcastic specters. Can you work together and overcome all challenges before your health runs out?

TAZ: Bureau of Balance is a cooperative storytelling game for 2-5 players. It uses a dynamically generated dungeon created by combining multiple decks of cards; as challenges are overcome, new challenges are revealed. The mechanics are easy to learn and players are encouraged to describe their heroic deeds. No experience is required, and any group of friends can have a hilarious adventure in about an hour!

Game Mechanics:

  • Cooperative
  • Move Through Deck
  • Storytelling

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.67