Author: OTSG Staff

Battletech: Beginner Box

| OTSG Staff

In this introduction to the BattleTech game and universe, players each take control of one giant walking war machine (a BattleMech, aka ‘Mech) and battle until one is destroyed or until the scenario objectives being played are completed.

BattleTech is the world’s greatest armored combat game, filled with a myriad of epic stories and gaming experiences to satiate any player: miniatures to RPG play, hobby painting to fiction, and beyond. The BattleTech Beginner Box is the first step on that fantastic journey and includes everything you need to get started: two high-quality miniatures, quick-start rules, a mapsheet, cards to represent your MechWarrior’s unique skills, dice, and more.

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 2 Players
  • ~120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.43

Atlantis Exodus

| OTSG Staff

The legendary Atlantis is shrouded in so many stories and myths, an island realm that was reputed to have completely drowned in only one night.

Atlantis Exodus presents the player kings with the challenge of rescuing as many citizens as possible before the impending downfall and, by doing so, saving the knowledge they have acquired for a different world and time.

Thanks to an innovative rotation mechanism, 1-4 kings have to face constantly changing conditions and keep adjusting their own strategy to the different action possibilities in order to ultimately become the savior of the achievements of their time.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • ~90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.24

Battle of the Boy Bands

| OTSG Staff

In Battle of the Boy Bands, 3 to 5 players take on the roles of producers in the pop music industry and must build boy bands to compete in special events. The player with the most points at the end of six rounds wins.

During each round, players try to win the event in play by building the boy band that will earn the most points according to the special event rules. Equipping perk cards from the “Breaking News” deck to boys can give them extra points. Players can sabotage each others’ boy bands by playing attack cards from the “Breaking News” deck against them, but watch out! Players can also protect their precious boys with defend cards!

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 5 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.50

Baseball Highlights: The Dice Game

| OTSG Staff

Baseball Highlights: The Dice Game takes all the excitement of Baseball Highlights: 2045 and turns it into a thrilling dice game! Score the most runs by drafting the best dice and stringing together powerful combos! Slowly set up the base runners with singles, and then hit a grand slam, or steal bases to sneak your runners home! The rolls of the dice make each round a whole new ball game. Everyone gets to play even when it’s not their turn, so the strategic thinking never ends! Dust off home plate, get out your leather glove, and PLAY BALL!

Baseball Highlights: The Dice Game is played with a set of 9 Play dice, 6 Power dice, 1 Pitcher’s die, a game board, and a game sheet for each player.

Each round the active player will roll the Play dice and any Power dice they have unlocked to place them each of the matching 6 board areas. Then, the active player will select one of these 6 areas and will use the dice from that area to cross off boxes in the matching track on their player game sheet. Once they are done, the inactive players select 1 die from 2 different areas to cross off 2 boxes in the matching tracks on their game sheets.

Marking off boxes in the 6 tracks (and the bonus Clutch Hits track) will place new runners on base and advance your existing runners for singles, doubles, triples, home runs, walks, and stolen bases. Each time you advance a base runner to home, you will score 1 run. The player who scores the most runs by the end of the game wins. But be careful, the result on the Pitcher’s die may remove some of your base runners before they can score!

Baseball Highlights: The Dice Game is for 1 to 4 players ages 8 and up. Average game length is 20 minutes with mostly simultaneous play.

Contents: 1 Game Board, 25 Sheet Baseball Scorepad, 16 Custom Dice, 1 Rulebook, 16 Wooden Markers

-description from publisher

Baseball Highlights: The Dice Game is Game #26 in the Gryphon Bookshelf Series of Games.

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 20 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00

Bamboo

| OTSG Staff

For generations, harvesting bamboo has brought prosperity to your home. Work, perseverance, balance and prayer have made a small town flourish that has grown at the expense of the cane fields. Today, various clans live in harmony with nature.

In Bamboo, players take on the role of clans that grow bamboo and use the fruits of their labor to take care of their family and thus add happiness points. This is an action management and tile optimization game that is both accessible and deep. With a very careful setting, Bamboo is part of the Kemushi saga, to which Bitoku and Silk also belong.

Bamboo games are made up of 4 years or rounds, which in turn are divided into 4 phases or seasons. On their turns, players will burn incense in temples to seek favor from the spirits, and use bamboo shoots to perform actions such as seeking balance, cooking, home improvement, or managing finances.

Following the doctrines of the home balance discipline allows for better optimization of home tiles, making it a fundamental pillar for progressing through the game. To score balance tiles you must use the balance action and follow the pattern indicated on the tile, which always has something to do with the type of home tiles you get during the game. There are four classes of home tiles: decoration, garden, faith, or useful. Depending on how they place them on their board, players will earn happiness points.

In addition to managing the household, players will need to prepare for when tough times come. To get through the winter, it will be necessary to feed the family members with the tea, rice or ramen that has been prepared and stored in the previous season. And all this without forgetting to honor spirits and ancestors in the temples. The player who has made the largest offering of incense in each sacred space will receive the favor of one of the seven spirits of the forest, as a token of thanks. Spirit tiles, in addition to helping players throughout the game, offer bonus points in the final phase based on the number of different spirits in each player’s play area.

With accessible and easy-to-learn rules, Bamboo is a very versatile title that will fit into any shelves. However, behind its apparent simplicity lies great strategic depth, with plenty of options available to players. In addition, Bamboo has an advanced game mode on the back of the personal boards, which will give the games an extra level of demand. Harvest bamboo and find balance in your home to win the game. May the spirits be with you!

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 90 – 110 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.89

Azul Duel

| OTSG Staff

Decorate the magnificent ceilings of the palace. Will the vaults look more beautiful by day or by night? Azul Duel invites you to play with light and pit opposites against each other.

This competitive strategic game for two players retains the purity and elegance of the original Azul while adding an extra tactical dimension in which you determine the pattern in which tiles will be placed, in addition to drafting tiles to complete that pattern.

Game Specifications:

  • 2 Players
  • 30 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.42

Axis & Allies Anniversary Edition

| OTSG Staff

Put yourself into the shoes of the great strategic thinkers and generals of WWII with this special anniversary edition of Axis & Allies! Now you can play with Italy as a third Axis nation, the new cruiser unit, and over 600 pieces.

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • 360 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.11

Autumn Harvest: A Tea Dragon Society Game

| OTSG Staff

Create a bond between yourself and your Tea Dragon that grows as you progress through the seasons, creating memories to share forever.

Each player’s deck represents their own Tea Dragon. From turn to turn, players will choose to draw a card, triggering effects and strengthening their position, or buy a card, improving their deck or scoring points. At the end of the game, the player with the most points wins!

Autumn Harvest: A Tea Dragon Society Game is a standalone game that can be combined with The Tea Dragon Society Card Game and expanding gameplay to five players!

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.44

Astro Knights: Eternity

| OTSG Staff

You and your group of rag-tag intergalactic scrappers are suddenly faced with the responsibility of defending your home world from those that seek to destroy it. Join forces and work together in this cooperative deck builder to strategically defeat the Boss before they destroy you and all you love. Play through all the scenarios and master the new mechanics introduced in this stand-alone continuation of the Astro Knights series!

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 45 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.86