Author: T3d-1978

Nations

Nations

Nations

From the humble beginnings of civilization through the historical ages of progress, mankind has lived, fought, and built together in nations. Great nations protect and provide for their own, while fighting and competing against both other nations and nature itself. Nations must provide food and stability as the population increases. They must build a productive economy. And all the while, they must amaze the world with their great achievements to build up their heritage as the greatest nations in the history of mankind!

Nations is an intense historical board game for 1–5 players that takes 40 minutes per player to play. Players control the fate of nations from their humble start in prehistoric times until the beginning of World War I. The nations constantly compete against each other and must balance immediate needs, long-term growth, threats, and opportunities.

Gameplay introduction

Players choose a Nation and a difficulty to play at, similar to the Civilization computer games series. After the growth phase, 2 historical events are revealed, which the players will compete for during the round. Then players take a single small action each, in player order, as many times as they wish until all have passed. Actions are:

  • Buy a card
  • Deploy a worker
  • Hire an architect for a wonder
  • Special action provided by a card

Players each have individual boards that represent their Nation. There are many ways that players affect, compete, and indirectly interact with other players. But there is no map, no units to move around, and no direct attacks on other players.

When all have passed, there is production, new player order is determined (every position is competed for), the historical events happen, and if this is the last round of an age, the books are scored. At the start of a new round, most old cards are removed and new ones are put on the display.

Victory points are gained and lost during the game, and also awarded at the end of the game. The player with the most victory points is the winner.

Game Mechanics:

  • Civilization
  • Economic
  • Open Drafting
  • Tableau Building

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • 40 – 200 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.54

Mysthea

Mysthea

Mysthea

Mysthea is a hand building / management and area control eurogame from Tabula Games, where time-tested euro mechanics get a modern twist and are infused with a strongly thematic design to immerse you in the strange world of Icaion.

Fight for the control of unexplored floating island, places filled with anomalies and strange monsters. Gather your powers to make entire islands move. Join forces to fight the dreadful monsters that inhabit them creating an army and strongholds on these new frontiers.

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Area Movement
  • Deck Building
  • Hand Management

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 90 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.77

Millennium Blades

Millennium Blades

Millennium Blades

Millennium Blades is a CCG-Simulator — A game in which you play as a group of friends who play the fictional CCG “Millennium Blades”.

In this game you will build decks, play the meta, acquire valuable collections, crack open random boosters, and compete in tournaments for prizes and fame. The game takes you from Starter Deck to Regionals in about 2-3 hours.

Multiple games can also be chained together to form a Campaign, going from Regionals to Nationals in game 2 and from Nationals to Worlds in game 3, with each game introducing ever more powerful cards and higher stakes, but also resetting the power of the game so that each player has a fair chance to win each ‘season’ of the campaign.

The game draws heavily on Manga/Anime inspiration for its art, and parodies Magic: the Gathering, Yugioh, and many other collectible games.

At its heart, it’s a commodity trading game, except that instead of cubes or stocks, the things you’ll be buying, selling, and speculating on are trading cards that can be used throughout the game in periodic tournaments. By trading wisely, playing the market, working together with friends, building collections, and winning tournaments, you’ll secure points and become the Millennium Blades World Champion.

The game features a system of card pods, where you will play with about 400 of the base game’s 600 cards every game.

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting
  • Set Collection
  • Tableau Building
  • Trading

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 80 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.69

Merv

Merv

Merv

Merv: The Heart of the Silk Road is a tense economic game charting the rise and fall of the greatest city in the world.

In Merv, players are vying to amass power and wealth in the prosperous heart of the Silk Road. Through careful court intrigue, timely donations to the grand mosque, and favorable trade deals, players attempt to redirect as much of that prosperity as possible into their own pockets.

Meanwhile, beyond the city walls Mongol hordes approach. If you help construct the city walls, you give up on precious opportunities to build up your own stature, but leave it unprotected and you will burn with the city. Every decision is weighty and the consequences of each misstep are dire. Will you rise to prominence or fade into oblivion?

Game Mechanics:

  • City Building
  • Economic
  • Rondel
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • ~90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.47

Maracaibo

Maracaibo

Maracaibo

Maracaibo, a strategy game for 1-4 players by Alexander Pfister, is set in the Caribbean during the 17th century. The players try to increase their influence in three nations in four rounds with a play time of 40 minutes per player.

The players sail on a round course through the Caribbean, e.g., you have city tiles where you are able to perform various actions or deliver goods to. One special feature is an implemented quest mode over more and various tiles, which tells the player, who chase after it, a little story.

As a player, you move with your ship around the course, managing it by using cards like in other games from Alexander Pfister.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Campaign
  • Economic
  • Hand Management
  • Narrative Choice
  • Set Collection
  • Stock Holding

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.89

Living Planet

Living Planet

Living Planet

In Living Planet, each player represents one major Galactic Corporation exploiting the distant planet MYC.14.250. Each one of them is eager to industrialize the planet and generate as much profit as possible before the planet self-destructs.

To do so, you’ll have to explore the planet to grow the map. You’ll manage your team to extract resources with factory buildings you’ve built, and trade resources at the stock market to make money. And above anything else, you’ll have to handle cataclysms generated by the planet. But cataclysms don’t happen randomly, players trigger them through their actions, using their card set. Confrontation between players will take place through the planet.

Players will alternately take the leader role for each turn. Each turn follows a specific game turn sequence. Every player will have some actions to accomplish at a turn, in the order the Leader chooses, resolving the sequence : Resources production – Action (Explore, Move, Construct, Trade…) – Cataclysms.

At the end of the game each player will earn victory points based on how much money they have and how many buildings and vehicles they control.

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Economic
  • Grid Movement
  • Hand Management
  • Tile Placement
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.64

Legend of the Five Rings Card Game

Legend of the Five Rings Card Game

Legend of the Five Rings Card Game

Welcome to the realm of Rokugan: a land of samurai and mystics, mad dragons and divine beings — a land where honor is stronger than steel. Here, the clans serve the Emperor and engage in courtly deceptions and power plays, even as they wage war against each other and the evil forces that plague their realm. This is the world of Legend of the Five Rings!

Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game is a Living Card Game set in the world of Rokugan, the original setting for the Legend of the Five Rings collectible card game. To play a Living Card Game, players create individual decks of cards from a base game with a fixed set of cards; they can then add supplemental card packs to this game world, with each pack also having a fixed set of cards, in order to vary their game experience.

While the connection of Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game to Rokugan and the Colonies — as well as its pervasive themes of honor, nobility, magic, intrigue, duty, and warfare — should carry over from the original L5R CCG, Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game is not compatible with that original game and will feature significant changes in the game mechanisms.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Deck Building
  • Hand Management

Game Specifications:

  • 2 Players
  • 45 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 4.01

Le Havre: Complete Edition

Le Havre: Complete Edition

Le Havre: Complete Edition

In Le Havre, a player’s turn consists of two parts: First, distribute newly supplied goods onto the offer spaces; then take an action. As an action, players may choose either to take all goods of one type from an offer space or to use one of the available buildings. Building actions allow players to upgrade goods, sell them or use them to build their own buildings and ships. Buildings are both an investment opportunity and a revenue stream, as players must pay an entry fee to use buildings that they do not own. Ships, on the other hand, are primarily used to provide the food that is needed to feed the workers.

After every seven turns, the round ends: players’ cattle and grain may multiply through a Harvest, and players must feed their workers. After a fixed number of rounds, each player may carry out one final action, and then the game ends. Players add the value of their buildings and ships to their cash reserves. The player who has amassed the largest fortune is the winner.

Game Mechanics:

  • City Building
  • Economic
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • 30 – 150 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.73

In Too Deep

In Too Deep

In Too Deep

In Too Deep is a unique, narrative that thrusts you into the future in a tense, strategic board game for 1-5 players. Draft characters and spend actions to complete objectives and collect sets. What side of the law will you end up on?

In the year 2087, central governments have fallen. What remains are fragmented citystates like New Dawn City, struggling to keep chaos at bay. The sinister Syndicate targets these weakened cities for domination by usurping, organizing, and enhancing the existing criminal elements. In the world of In Too Deep, you are part of a secret agency dedicated to stopping the Syndicate at all costs.

Cybernetic implants give Syndicate operatives a technological advantage, but you have found a way to exploit that power. By infiltrating their cerebral upgrades, you can gain control of these criminals. Going deep undercover into the minds of your targets, you’ll coordinate crimes of escalating seriousness to get your hands on the critical evidence needed to foil the Syndicate’s looming plot.

Each turn, you can hook into a new criminal and manipulate their activities throughout the city, accessing powerful skills and increased stamina as you grow familiar with their minds. Your physical body is in a secret lab far from the actual action, but you are by no means safe. Entering the mind of criminals takes its toll on your morality.

Orchestrate crimes, strive to put the information you gather to the best use, wrestle with dangerously corrupting dilemmas, and try to hold yourself together. It will take everything you’ve got to avoid going In Too Deep.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Cooperative
  • Hand Management
  • Pick-Up and Deliver
  • Push Your Luck
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.43

Imperium: Legends

Imperium: Legends

Imperium: Legends

Formidable adversaries are arrayed against you. Your people stand ready. History beckons.

In your hands lies the destiny of one of history’s great civilizations. Under constant threat of attack, you must conquer new lands, oversee dramatic scientific and cultural advances, and lead your people into the era of empire. Expand too rapidly, and unrest will bring your civilization to its knees; build up too slowly, however, and you might find yourself a mere footnote of history. As one of eight radically asymmetric civilizations, you will compete to become the most dominant empire the world has ever seen.

Game Mechanics:

  • Civilization
  • Deck Building
  • Hand Management
  • Move Through Deck
  • Tableau Building

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.66