Author: OTSG Staff

Rocketmen

| OTSG Staff
Rocketmen

Rocketmen

They have set up their empires of trailblazing innovation and groundbreaking technologies on a somewhat unremarkable planet circling around a rather average star. Years of hard work and steadfast dedication to their clear-cut vision of looking further than the day-to-day toils and chores of human civilization have cemented their reputation as the forefathers of the future humanity. Secretly, they have never stopped dreaming about the thrust of all their entrepreneurial actions and deeds – reaching the stars. Now, the time has come for them to embark on a second giant leap for humankind, to make the outer reaches of the solar system our home. Only one of them shall go down in history as the first explorer of space and a person who truly forged their will and power according to the bold words: citius, altius, fortius – faster, higher, stronger.

Immerse yourself in a fast-paced race to the final frontier: space. A deck-building confrontation of swift decision-making and tactical choices, Rocketmen gives you the feel of taking a front seat in a technologically wonderful spectacle of space exploration. It’s up to your predictive abilities and resource management skills to determine what kind of endeavor would be most suitable for paving the way to Earth’s celestial neighbors. It doesn’t matter whether it would be a low Earth orbit satellite or a manned base destined for the Red Planet; plan your mission carefully, equip your shuttles and rockets craftily, yet do not hesitate when your gut instinct tells you when it’s time to launch!

The universe might wait for you eternally. Your opponents won’t!

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Economic
  • Hand Management
  • Hidden Roles
  • Open Drafting
  • Push Your Luck
  • Racing

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.58

Risk: Call of Duty Zombies

| OTSG Staff
Risk: Call of Duty Zombies

Risk: Call of Duty Zombies

The legendary zombie demolition crew is back in a classic game of strategic conquest. This custom RISK edition features factions led by “Tank” Dempsey, Edward Richtofen, Takeo Masaki, and Nikolai Belinski as they vie for control over familiar maps. Use Pack-a-Punch cards to gain an advantage against opponents and fend off wave after wave of zombie threats. Experience one of the first Call of Duty table top games that combine the legendary atmosphere of the license with the strategic competition of RISK.

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Dice Rolling

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 30 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00

Risk

| OTSG Staff
Risk

Risk

Possibly the most popular, mass market war game. The goal is conquest of the world.

Each player’s turn consists of:
– gaining reinforcements through number of territories held, control of every territory on each continent, and turning sets of bonus cards.
– Attacking other players using a simple combat rule of comparing the highest dice rolled for each side. Players may attack as often as desired. If one enemy territory is successfully taken, the player is awarded with a bonus card.
– Moving a group of armies to another adjacent territory.

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Movement
  • Dice Rolling
  • Player Elimination
  • Set Collection
  • Wargame

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • ~120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.08

Resident Evil 3

| OTSG Staff
Resident Evil 3

Resident Evil 3

Based on the original video game, Resident Evil 3: The Board Game is a cooperative survival horror game for 1-4 players that can be experienced either through individual, one-shot scenarios, or as a 19+ hour campaign with an overarching storyline.

Taking control of iconic characters like Jill Valentine and Carlos Oliveira, players will attempt to escape Raccoon City in the midst of a T-virus outbreak.

All the while, the city danger level will be on the rise, the number of undead monsters will increase, and every decision will be crucial.

To survive, players must carefully manage resources, make intelligent and meaningful decisions, and be wary of curveballs thrown by the tension deck—a mechanic carried over from the RE2 board game which will surprise players with unexpected threats to replicate the terrifying suspense of the video game.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Campaign
  • Cooperative

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.20

Rescuing Robin Hood

| OTSG Staff
Rescuing Robin Hood

Rescuing Robin Hood

Rescuing Robin Hood is a collaborative deck-building game that takes 45-60 min and plays 1-5 players. Robin Hood has been captured! As the leaders of the Merry Band you have only 5 days to come to his rescue, using all the Wit, Brawn and Stealth you can muster. Each turn you work together to rescue villagers captured by the Sheriff of Nottingham’s men. As more people are rescued new villagers join your side. Once you have built up your Merry Band you select your dream team, storm the castle, and fight one final battle to rescue Robin Hood!

Game Mechanics:

  • Cooperative
  • Deck Building
  • Open Drafting
  • Push Your Luck

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.29

Renature

| OTSG Staff
Renature

Renature

Renature is a majority game with dominoes for 2-4 players.

Each player gets a board with large pieces of wood in the form of turf, bushes, pines and oaks. These plants are used for the majorities on the large valley board and are available in a neutral color and in the respective player color. In addition, each player gets a stack of dominoes with two out of ten animal motifs on each of them.

On your turn, place one of the three dominoes in your hand on two brook spaces of the valley board. Of course, the domino must be adjacent to another domino that shows the same animal. If the placed domino borders a free space of a brown area, you can decide whether a tuft of grass or any other of your plants should be placed on that space. Tufts of turf have a value of 1, bushes of 2, pines of 3 and oaks of 4. After placing the plant, you score points for it and every plant piece that is already in this brown area and has the same or a lower value.

Once a brown area is framed with dominoes, the majority is scored and the player with the highest total plant value in the area gets the points that are printed as a large number on that area’s flower token. Whoever has the second highest value gets the lower number. Two things make this especially tricky: The neutral pieces count as their own color and not among the majority of the player who has used them. Also, if colors are tied, they a treated as though they are not present at all in the area. After the area has been scored, the player who framed the area receives its flower token, which will give them extra points at game end.

In the course of the game, you may run out of plants, but these can be bought back from the game board with clouds. Clouds can also be used to buy another turn and to appoint a new joker animal. This animal then counts as all animals and makes it easier to put on. At the end of a player’s turn, a domino is drawn and it is the next player’s turn.

Once all players have run out of dominoes, the game ends with a final scoring.

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Hand Management
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 45 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.20

Reign of Cthulhu

| OTSG Staff
Reign of Cthulhu

Reign of Cthulhu

Beings of ancient evil, known as Old Ones, are threatening to break out of their cosmic prison and awake into the world. Everything you know and love could be destroyed by chaos and madness. Can you and your fellow investigators manage to find and seal every portal in time? Hurry before you lose yourself to insanity.

In Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu, you’ll experience the classic Pandemic gameplay with an horrific twist that’ll have you face twelve Old Ones, each threatening the world with their unique powers. As players take on the roles of investigators attempting to seal a series of portals before monsters of unspeakable horror pour into our world there is, of course, a high risk of the investigators losing their own minds.

Instead of curing diseases like in the original Pandemic, players seal portals and shut down cults in the classic New England fictional towns of Arkham, Dunwich, Innsmouth, and Kingsport. Can you and your fellow investigators manage to find and seal every portal in time? Hurry before you lose yourself to insanity and the evil that lurks beneath your feet…

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Cooperative
  • Hand Managment
  • Set Collection
  • Trading

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~40 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.16

Regency

| OTSG Staff
Regency

Regency

Take up the mantle of history’s greatest rulers in this fast-paced, interactive, civilization-themed, set-collection game! Compete against Attila the Hun, Cleopatra, William Wallace, and Queen of Sheba, in your quest to assemble a diverse domain, consisting of six different citizen types. But beware! Rival regents will attract citizens away from your domain, whether by allure, by force, or by treachery.

Set against a historical and multi-cultural backdrop, Regency simulates the struggle of power and control that has marked the rise and fall of the world’s greatest empires. Players use cards out of their hand to exert influence over citizens and to perform various actions and reactions. With the addition of each new caste of citizen (including nobles, religious, military, merchants, commoners, and even brigands), new actions become available, resulting in an ever-escalating dynamic and competitive environment, right up to the crowning moment when one regent emerges supreme.

Game Mechanics:

  • Civilization
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting
  • Set Collection
  • Take That

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • 20 – 40 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.33

Red Rising

| OTSG Staff
Red Rising

Red Rising

Enter the futuristic universe of Red Rising, based on the book series by Pierce Brown featuring a dystopian society divided into fourteen castes. You represent a house attempting to rise to power as you piece together an assortment of followers (represented by your hand of cards). Will you break the chains of the Society or embrace the dominance of the Golds?

Red Rising is a hand-management, combo-building game for 1-6 players (45-60 minute playing time). You start with a hand of 5 cards, and on your turn you will deploy 1 of those cards to a location on the board, activating that card’s deploy benefit. You will then gain the top card from another location (face up) or the deck (face down), gaining that location’s benefit and adding the card to your hand as you enhance your end-game point total. If at any point you’re really happy with your hand, you can instead use your turn to reveal a card from the top of the deck and place it on a location to gain that location’s benefit.

Game Mechanics:

  • Dice Rolling
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting
  • Set Collection
  • Take That

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 6 Players
  • 45 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.27

Red Outpost

| OTSG Staff
Red Outpost

Red Outpost

A top secret Soviet space mission set out to colonize a planet in a remote galaxy, far away from home. The settlers built there a small communist heaven which exists to this day. As one of the leaders, your goal is to guide the settlers on this new, yet strangely familiar terrain.

In Red Outpost, players get to control all of the settlers, each time a different one. You must expertly manage the resources and choose the jobs carefully so as not to upset the settlers: Keeping up morale is of utmost importance if you want to become the most prolific leader!

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.40