Author: OTSG Staff

Civolution

| OTSG Staff

Hello, student beings! The cosmic faculty of the Technical Academy of Creation is delighted to welcome you to your Civolution, the final exam in Civilization Design!

For this occasion, we prepared a humanoid scenario on an isolated continent. Here, each of you holds the rank of a local deity which is closely linked to its very own civilization and must lead it to success over the other civilizations. Your developmental possibilities are endless and reach from cultural and technical progress to evolutional adaptations. For example, what would you consider more beneficial to your tribes: inventing the wheel or growing wings? Demonstrate your ability to operate your civilization console and show us how well you can adjust to changeable environmental conditions and mild creational chaos.

When the exam ceases after four eras, whoever managed to gather the most success points will not only pass the exam but will become a full member of the Technical Academy of Creation and garner the opportunity to be promoted to the next instance.

Civolution is a medium heavy to heavy euro-style game that utilizes a dice selection mechanism to trigger actions on a tech tree-like structure. As you figure out how to best use your dice and put your unique cards into play, tons of strategies and paths to victory emerge, though each time you play, you will only explore a fraction of the possibilities that the game’s system and many cards provide.

Game Mechanics:

  • Events
  • Modular Board
  • Open Drafting
  • Pattern Building
  • Tech Trees / Tech Tracks
  • Variable Set-up

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 90 – 180 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 4.22

Chomp

| OTSG Staff

The era of the dinosaurs is here! Your goal in Chomp is to form herds of dinos and make sure they are all fed. Herbivores and carnivores both need food sources, but if the carnies are not properly fed, they don’t mind chomping an herbie to fill their bellies!

Gameplay involves dual rows of goal tiles and dino tiles, and each turn players select one tile to add to their personal arrangement. Goal tiles stay off to the side for endgame scoring, and dino tiles are arranged in front of each player. Dino tiles include three sizes each of herbivores and carnivores. Each tile must overlap previous ones, either on top of a quarter tile, half tile, or even a whole tile, ensuring that any covered dinos are completely hidden.

Adjacent dinos of the same species form herds, which will eat together if connected to a single food source — or die together if they are unfed, adjacent to a tar pit, or next to an otherwise unfed carnivore!

At the end of the game, each living and fed dino scores 1-3 points depending on its size, and the player with the highest score wins.

Game Mechanics:

  • Open Drafting
  • Pattern Building
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • ~20 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.56

Anarchy, The 🟠

| OTSG Staff

At the end of 1135, Henry I, King of England, died unexpectedly leaving no male heir to reign in his stead. Henry’s daughter, Empress Matilda, believed she should rule by succession. However, the late king’s favorite nephew, Stephen de Blois (“blue-a”), was quicker to the throne, and with the help of his brother, the Bishop of Winchester, was crowned king.

Those loyal to the empress were enraged by Stephen’s coronation and would not accept him as their new ruler. Over the next eighteen years, England saw a breakdown in law and order as civil war spread throughout the country. This conflict came to be known as “The Anarchy”…

In The Anarchy, players take on the role of English nobles loyal to King Stephen. Over five rounds, players must build their domain, defend their castle from attacks by the approaching Angevin armies, and storm strongholds loyal to Matilda with their own crafted siege weapons. The player who can accumulate the most bravery, loyalty, influence and might — while avoiding discontent — will prove to King Stephen they are his most loyal ally, thereby earning his largest earldom.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 4.00

Big Boss

| OTSG Staff

Big Boss is a game of founding companies, expanding existing companies, taking over smaller companies and share buying. The game is explicitly based on the Sid Sackson classic Acquire and shares many similarities to that game though mergers are not as prevalent or crucial in Big Boss. The main differences between the two games include the three dimensional aspect of Big Boss, and the existence of a strong monetary incentive to expand companies that you do not control.

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Market
  • Stock Holding
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • ~90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.36

Chili Mafia

| OTSG Staff

Chili Mafia is a set-collection party card game for 2-8 players. Compete to assemble the most powerful Chili Pepper Gangs (sets of cards) and become the most respected mafia boss. In Chili Mafia, you will find existing Chili Peppers from around the world that are the main characters of the game. Just to mention a few, such well-known Chilies as the Jalapeño, the Tabasco or the Carolina Reaper clash with each other. To reflect hierarchy, each pepper carries points that are in proportion to the respective Chili Pepper’s strength on the Scoville scale. Moreover, the game includes various action and attack cards (inspired by Mafia jargon) that will not necessarily serve your interest. To win, score the most points at the end of the game.

[CLASSIFIED INFORMATION]

Things are heating up in the world. Chili peppers are splitting into factions, leading to organized crime and unrest. The Chili Mafia reigns supreme.
The Ministry of International Chili Security has hired you—a group of agents—to work undercover and round up the most wanted chili pepper mafiosi from around the globe. Your goal is to bring them to Mexico for a peace summit. As you arrive in the Chihuahuan desert, the spicy criminals jump out of your luggage. It’s obvious they have no interest in peace. Instead, they want a showdown. You and your fellow agents have no choice but to seize control of the Chili Mafia. But to gain their respect, you must fight amongst yourselves to determine who will be the most powerful mafia boss. Once you control the peppers, what will you do next?

Players draw and play cards to form gangs and perform actions. When a player draws the last card from the draw pile, they may complete their turn. Then every player (including the one that drew the last card) may take 1 more turn. After the last round, players calculate their scores.

Game Mechanics:

  • Set Collection
  • Take That
  • Team-Based Game

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 8 Players
  • 20 – 40 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.83

Cheating Moth

| OTSG Staff

Cheating is forbidden? Not in this naughty game of cards – in fact, you’ll probably have to cheat in order to win.

In Mogel Motte you want to get rid of all the cards in your hand before anyone else. Each player starts the round with a hand of eight cards, with one player (the oldest) receiving the guard bug – which stays on the table throughout the game – and one card being turnd face-up to start a discard pile. The cards are numbered 1-5, with the majority of them having only numbers; some cards have special abilities that come into play when added to the discard pile or in a player’s hand.

On a turn, a player places one card from her hand onto the discard pile; that card must be numbered exactly one higher or lower than the card on top of the discard pile. (The numbers wrap, so a 1 can be played on a 5 and vice versa.) If a player can’t play a card, she draws one from the deck and her turn ends.

There’s another way to rid yourself of cards, though: cheating! Throughout the round, you can make cards disappear by dropping them on the floor, hiding them up your sleeve and so on. You must keep your hand of cards above the table at all times, you can’t vanish more than one card at once, and you can’t rid yourself of your final card this way. The player with the guard bug – and only him! – can call out other players for cheating, and no one can cheat while the accusation is being resolved. If the accusation was false, the Guard must draw a card; otherwise the cheating player takes back the card she tried to lose, is given a card from the Guard’s hand as additional punishment, and becomes the new Guard.

Cheating is a necessity as the “Cheating Moth” cards can’t be played onto the discard pile, but must be disappeared via cheating. (The Guard, however, can play these cards as the Guard is not allowed to cheat.)

The action cards work as follows:

  • Ant: After an ant is played, everyone but the active player must take a card from the draw pile.
  • Cockroach: After a cockroach is played, everyone races to play an identically-numbered card on top of it. Only the fastest player gets to leave her card in place.
  • Mosquito: After a mosquito is played, everyone but the active player must slap the pile of cards. Whoever is slowest receives a card from the hand of all other players.
  • Spider: After playing this, give a non-Cheating Moth card from your hand to another player.

When one player has no cards in hand, the round ends. All other players score 10 points for each Cheating Moth in hand, 5 points for each action card, and 1 point for each number card. After a number of rounds equal to the number of players, the game ends and the player with the lowest score wins.

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Dexterity

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 5 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.15

Challengers! Beach Cup

| OTSG Staff

Challengers! Beach Cup is an interactive deck-management game for 1-8 players that plays in about 45 minutes independent of player count. With the tournament gameplay style, you meet another opponent every round.

In the Deck Phase, you choose new members and add them to your deck, which might consist of a wizard, alien, cat, gangster and kraken. Dozens of distinct characters with more than forty effects create a unique experience every game. Choose from seven different sets and discover new strategies and synergies every game.

In the Match Phase, stay in possession of the flag to win the trophy of that round. Try to get the most fans and trophies over the course of seven rounds to be able to qualify for the final. If you can best your opponent in the final, you win!

Challengers! Beach Cup contains a 16-card “Trainers” expansion that gives each player a unique power. Some give you bonuses when defending, some when you’re on the offensive, and others can extend your bench or even let you rearrange your deck.

Challengers! Beach Cup is a standalone game that can also be mixed with Challengers! to create new set combinations and new experiences.

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 8 Players
  • ~45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.15

CATtitude!

| OTSG Staff

This playful game pits you and your friends against each other to see which cat can cause the most trouble by collecting cards and moving around the board to steal, knock over, and destroy various items throughout the house! But be careful, players will also get a chance to play as the human and try to catch casts in the middle of their devious acts! Use evade cards to frame others for your mischief or sneak away to safety, but whatever you do– Don’t Get Caught!

Game Mechanics:

  • Pick-up and Deliver
  • Set Collection
  • Take That

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 5 Players
  • 25 – 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00

Catstronauts

| OTSG Staff

As the Commander of a team of Catstronauts, you’ll take on fast-paced missions to visit planets across the solar system and rescue poor helpless kittens!

From the designers of Kittin, Catstronauts is a family speed and sequence game where players race to match their numbered catstronauts to each of the planet cards in the correct order.

With 16 ‘meeples’ that can be customized with 16 unique cat face stickers, players can build their purr-fect team of expert Catstronauts.

Catstronauts comes in the same small tin you expect and love from Kittin!

Game Mechanics:

  • Pattern Recognition
  • Pieces as Map
  • Real-Time

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 10 – 15 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.00

Cats are Scientists

| OTSG Staff

All throughout history, cats have theorized the idea of gravity. Now, cats from all over the world are testing the principles of gravity by knocking objects off of tables and recording the outcome. It is up to you to successfully conduct enough experiments to formulate enough evidence to prove the Law of Gravity. The cat who can successfully complete this task first will forever go down in history as the cat who discovered gravity!
The idea of the game is to collect 6 or more science points to be deemed the “Greatest Science Cat of All Time!” In order to conduct an experiment, you must knock a card off of the table using your Scientific Method. You then apply the rule on the card to the game and MUST follow it to the best of your ability. If you fail to follow a rule in play and another player calls you out on it, you must return a card back into the pile. See who can follow the most laws of science by stacking up more and more rules!

Game Mechanics:

  •  Take That

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 7 Players
  • 15 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.00