Author: OTSG Staff

Come Sail Away!

In Come Sail Away!you are in charge of facilitating the boarding process on your luxury liner. Ensure that your passengers are guided as smoothly and quickly as possible to their preferred cabins, and make sure you don’t run out of space! This game is simple to learn but has plenty of strategy that it’ll offer a new challenge every time you play!

Game Mechanics:

  • Closed Drafting
  • Mancala
  • Modular Board

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • ~25 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.12

Colt Express

It is July 11th, 1899, in Folsom, New Mexico. The Union Pacific Express has just departed, full of precious jewels, wallets, and suitcases – right into the trap set by you, one of many bandits ready to rob these citizens blind! A bandits life isn’t easy sailing, though. You’ll have to compete with other bandits to get the biggest score, not even to mention avoiding the Marshall and navigating the 3D train.

Colt Express takes place over 5 rounds, with two phases each round. In phase 1, “Schemin'”, you and your fellow bandits will prepare your actions a play cards to form a deck. Then, in phase 2, “Stealin'”, all the action cards are carried out as you and your fellow bandits wreak havoc on the train. Avoid bullets, and hope that no one else ruins your plans.

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Memory
  • Take That
  • Variable Player Powers

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • ~40 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.83

Colossal Cat in the Box

Cat in the Box is a trick taking game where your suit is every color all at once – until you observe it. Players are dealt a hand of cards with no suit but different numbers, and over the course of the game they will claim various suits to best meet their bid. But be warned! Because of the nebulous nature of the cards, a paradox can form at any time! The player who causes the paradox will lose points, while everyone else will get the opportunity to score based off of their completed tricks and any patterns they made on the research board. 

Colossal Cat in the Box is a supersized version of Cat in the Box!

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Predictive Bid
  • Trick Taking

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 20 – 40 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00

Colonists, the

In The Colonists, a.k.a. Die Kolonisten, each player is a mayor of a village and must develop their environment to gain room for new farmers, craftsmen, and citizens. The main goal of the game is full employment, so players must create new jobs, educate the people, and build new houses to increase their population. But resources are limited, and their storage leads to problems that players must deal with, while also not forgetting to upgrade their buildings. Players select actions by moving their mayor on a central board.

The Colonists is designed in different levels and scenarios, and even includes something akin to a tutorial, with the playing time varying between 30 minutes (for beginners) and 180 minutes (experts).

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Movement
  • Hand Management
  • Modular Board
  • Open Drafting
  • Solo / Solitaire Game
  • Tile Placement
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 360 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 4.06

Codex Naturalis

In Codex Naturalis, you are competing with your opponents to create the best manuscript of living species in primary forests. You’ll do this by placing down cards, overlapping them to assemble an overall manuscript, providing yourself with resources or points! You’ll have to plan carefully to maximize your points, and you’ll have to be willing to make sacrifices to get the best possible outcome.

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Layering
  • Open Drafting
  • Pattern Building

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 20 – 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.76

Cockroach Poker

Cockroach Poker is a game filled with filthy critters that has nothing to do with poker – but everything to do with bluffing. The goal of the game is to force one player to have a set of 4 cards of one type of the 8 total critters – ranging from roaches to rats to bats to stinkbugs – making them the sole loser. This is done by a player passing a card face down to another player, claiming it as one type of card. The receiving player can either 1) flip it over, declaring whether or not they believe the first player or 2) peek at it and pass it to the next player, either saying what it is or bluffing. If you’re right in your accusation, the original player keeps the card. If you’re wrong, you keep the card. Keep the critters out of your play space, and don’t be the only loser!

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • ~20 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.10

Clue Escape: The World’s Fair Board Game

ESCAPE THE FAIR, SOLVE THE MYSTERY: Who murdered a brilliant scientist at the World’s Fair? Escape the Fair and catch a killer in the Clue Escape: The World’s Fair game! It offers the intrigue of classic Clue in an innovative escape room game
DECODE THRILLING PUZZLES: In this 6th Clue Escape game, the infamous cast returns in a fresh murder mystery! Players work together to solve it by cracking puzzles that offer new clues. Find hints in the World’s Fair brochure
EXPLORE THE EXHIBIT HALLS: Solve puzzles to unlock new areas of the Fair and uncover details. The dynamic board builds and changes throughout the game

Game Mechanics:

  • Cooperative Game
  • Modular Board

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 6 Players
  • 90 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00

Clue Escape: Treachery at Tudor Mansion

It’s the classic clue game – in an escape room board game! You and your acquaintances have all been invited to Tudor Mansion for dinner by Boddy Black, who dramatically dies after he threatens to blackmail all of you. Now you must discover who killed him where and with what, and escape the mansion before it’s too late.

Game Mechanics:

  • Cooperative Game
  • Modular Board

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 6 Players
  • ~90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.40

Clever Cubed

Clever Cubed is a fun dice rolling game, where you’ll carefully choose dice to place them in matching colored areas to hopefully create chain-scoring opportunities! But be careful when you go big – your opponents can use your discarded dice if their value is lower than your chosen dice. May the cleverest player win!

Game Mechanics:

  • Dice Rolling
  • Paper and Pencil
  • Re-rolling and Locking
  • Solo / Solitaire Game

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.38

Claim 2

The King is dead! What happened? Nobody really knows, but he was found face down in a wine barrel this morning. It could have been either foul play or his own thirst that did him in. Regardless, the King is dead without any known heirs, so it’s up to the five factions of the realm to decide who will be the new king: Will it be you or your opponent? Do you have what it takes to win over the realm’s factions?

Claim 2 is played in two distinct phases. In phase one, each player gets a hand of cards that they use to recruit followers. In phase two, they use the followers from phase one to compete and win over the five factions of the realms. Each faction has a special power that effects play, and powers can be different in each phase! At the end of the game, the player who has the majority of followers of a faction wins that faction’s vote, and whoever wins the vote of at least three factions wins the game!

Claim 2 is a standalone sequel to Claim, featuring five new factions that can be played on their own or mixed in any combination with the factions in Claim.

Game Mechanics:

  • Take That
  • Trick Taking

Game Specifications:

  • 2 Players
  • ~25 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.60