Author: T3d-1978

Azul: Master Chocolatier

| T3d-1978

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:

  • Open Drafting
  • Pattern Building
  • Set Collection
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.79

Azul

| T3d-1978

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:

  • Open Drafting
  • Pattern Building
  • Set Collection
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.77

Atheneum: Mystic Library

| T3d-1978

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

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:

  • Hand Management
  • Player Judge
  • Simultaneous Action Selection

Game Specifications:

  • 4 – 10 Players
  • 20 – 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.15

Animal Upon Animal 🔵

| T3d-1978

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
  • Stacking and Balancing

Game Specifications:

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

Akropolis 🔵

| T3d-1978

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:

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

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

A Game of Cat & Mouth 🔵

| T3d-1978

A Game of Cat & Mouth is a two-player game in which players use a magnetic cat’s paw to shoot balls at one another.

In more detail, to set up, you lay the box open on the table, place the “cat head” dividing screen upright in the center of the board, place the black “nose” ball in the center of the cat’s face, set the three white “teeth” balls in the cat’s mouth, divide the eight yellow balls between the two players, and lock the magnetic cat’s paw into place on each side of the game board.

In a round, you use your cat’s paw to shoot balls through the cat’s mouth at your opponent, or you aim for the nose and teeth to knock them out. As soon as all the balls of one color — the one black ball, the three white balls, or the eight yellow balls — are on one side of the board, the round ends and the other player scores a point. Reset the board and start shooting at one another once again!

Game Mechanics:

  • Dexterity

Game Specifications:

  • 2 Players
  • ~10 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.00

7 Wonders Architects 🔵

| T3d-1978

In 7 Wonders: Architects, 2-7 players race to become a leader of the ancient world by completing an architectural wonder that will last through the ages.

Players receive an unconstructed wonder at the beginning of the game and must collect resources to build their society, develop military might to navigate conflicts, oversee resource management, research science improvements, and collect civil victory points as they race to leave their mark on world history.

Game Mechanics:

  • Open Drafting
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 7 Players
  • ~25 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.40

5-Minute Mystery 🔵

| T3d-1978

5-Minute Mystery is a high-intensity, deductive, mystery game in which players work together to find a culprit hidden in a line-up of suspects.

Just moments before the Museum of Everything was set to unveil its newest exhibit, the priceless MacGuffin, some criminal snuck in and stole it! Now it’s up to you, a team of detectives, to crack the case, find the culprit, and recover the missing MacGuffin.

Start by searching for hidden symbols in each room of the museum and find the matching symbols on the codex. Once you’ve found all of the symbols in the room, you’ll unlock a clue about the culprit.

Match the barcode of the clue tile against the culprit tile to discover valuable information about the crook. Does the miscreant have an umbrella? No? Well, that eliminates the shifty Mr. Braxton, doesn’t it? Quickly sort through the suspect cards in your hand to narrow down who the criminal can be.

You’ll have to make it through as many rooms as it takes to figure out exactly who is responsible for stealing the MacGuffin, but remember, time is not on your side!

Case files change the rules to each time you play, making every game a new challenge.

Do you have what it takes to be the detective to crack the case and solve this five-minute mystery? Only time will tell!

Game Mechanics:

  • Cooperative
  • Deduction

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 6 Players
  • 5 – 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.18