Author: T3d-1978

Camel Up: The Card Game

| T3d-1978

Camel Up The Card Game brings a new way to enjoy the camel race with a racing deck! While keeping the same excitement as the board game, the card game experience gives the players a little bit more insight and control on the race. Don’t forget about the crazy camel!

One of them has been added and adapted exclusively in this new edition to make the unpredictable even more unpredictable!

Game Mechanics:

  •  Betting
  • Hand Management

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • 30 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00

Bridges of Shangri-La, The

| T3d-1978

In Shangri-La, the mysterious and isolated utopia nestled high in the mountains, a strange struggle for dominance has begun. Once peaceful and neighborly, the Masters of the competing mountain-folk train their students and send them out across bridges to control neighboring villages. To take control of a village, the students must come together in uncomfortable alliances, regardless of their tribal origin. Eventually students become Masters themselves, train new students and expand to other villages.

There is one thing each student must keep in mind as they travel from village to village — the mystical powers of Shangri-La mysteriously cause the bridges to collapse, separating villages forever. One crucial question will decide the winner: who will control the most Masters of Shangri-La?

Players take on the roles of leaders of a specific tribe. There is a battle raging over the empty villages of the land and players must quickly fill those villages with their tribal leaders. As players migrate tribal leaders from one village to the next, they must not become too weak or they risk losing leaders to opposing tribes. The ultimate object of the game is to have the most leaders on the board at the end of the game.
It is an abstract game with many options and tense until the end.

2004 Mensa Select

Thematically, players are adding masters and students, and trying to have the students migrate to nearby villages to become masters. Functionally, this is essentially a military game. Players either spend their turn reinforcing a village (adding more tokens there) or invading a neighboring village (expanding influence if you have more total tokens than the victim). The unique twist is that, after each invasion, the connecting bridge is removed. So over the course of the game, attack options become more and more limited, until the game naturally comes to a conclusion

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Majority / Influence,
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 4 Players
  • ~60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.72

Arctic Scavengers: Base Game+HQ+Recon

| T3d-1978

In the year 2097, the entire Earth was enveloped in a cataclysmic shift in climate, plunging the globe into another ice age. Nearly 90% of the world’s population was eliminated, driving the survivors to band together into loose communities and tribes.

In Arctic Scavengers, you are the leader of a small tribe of survivors. Resources, tools, medicine, and mercenaries are all in scarce supply. You and your tribe are pitted against up to four other tribes in a fight for survival. Build up your tribe, skirmish against other players head-to-head, or even bluff your way to victory. The player with the largest tribe at the end of the game is declared the winner!

As the competing tribes develop and grow, headquarters are established for each tribe thanks to the components in the included HQ expansion. This base camp consists of a Tribal Leader (complete with special abilities) and the potential to construct buildings that can be used strategically during game play. Additionally, the game introduces alternative victory paths, new mercenaries, new tools, and the addition of the “engineering schematics” pile.

As the tribes evolve further and struggle for dominance, information becomes the most valuable currency. In the new world mapped out in the Recon, deception reigns, leading to a need for reconnaissance. This expansion adds new tribe leader roles, new mercenaries, new equipment, and new levels of player interaction (i.e., new ways to make your opponents feel pain).

Arctic Scavengers: Base Game+HQ+Recon comes with a plastic insert to organize all your cards for ease in play setup.

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck, Bag, and Pool Building
  • Hand Management
  • Open Drafting

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • 45 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.26

Anachrony 🟠

| T3d-1978

It is the late 26th century. Earth is recovering from a catastrophic explosion that exterminated the majority of the population centuries ago and made most of the surface uninhabitable due to unearthly weather conditions. The surviving humans organized along four radically different ideologies, called Paths, to rebuild the world as they see fit: Harmony, Dominance, Progress, and Salvation. Followers of the four Paths live in a fragile peace, but in almost complete isolation next to each other. Their only meeting point is the last major city on Earth, now just known as the Capital.

By powering up the mysterious Time Rifts that opened in the wake of the cataclysm, each Path is able to reach back to specific moments in their past. Doing so can greatly speed up their progress, but too much meddling may endanger the time-space continuum. But progress is more important than ever before: if the mysterious message arriving through the Time Rift is to be believed, an even more terrible cataclysm is looming on the horizon: an asteroid bearing the mysterious substance called Neutronium is heading towards Earth. Even stranger, the scientists show that the energy signature of the asteroid matches the explosion centuries ago…

Anachrony features a unique two-tiered worker placement system. To travel to the Capital or venture out to the devastated areas for resources, players need not only various specialists (Engineers, Scientists, Administrators, and Geniuses) but also Exosuits to protect and enhance them — and both are in short supply.

The game is played in 4-7 turns, depending on the time when the looming cataclysm occurs — unless, of course, it is averted! The elapsed turns are measured on a dynamic timeline. By powering up the Time Rifts, players can reach back to earlier turns to supply their past “self” with resources. Each Path has a vastly different objective that rewards it with a massive amount of victory points when achieved. The Paths’ settlements will survive the impact, but the Capital will not. Whichever Path manages to collect most points will be the new seat for the Capital, thus the most important force left on the planet…

Game Mechanics:

  • Economic
  • Open Drafting
  • Set Collection
  • Solo / Solitaire Game
  • Variable Player Powers
  • Variable Set-up
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 4.01

Café

| T3d-1978

During the reign of King John V, Portugal was a major European power. From Brazil, the king ordered Sergeant Melo Palheta to travel to French Guiana to formally establish the Utrecht Treaty of 1713 and to secretly bring coffee seeds to Brazil. The Sergeant was successful and by 1800 Brazil was one of the largest coffee producers in the world.

In the early 20th century, coffee from Brazil, São Tomé and Príncipe, Angola and Timor is largely appreciated in Portugal and inspires the appearance of prestige coffee shops in emblematic locations that attract the elite. Through dedication, hard work and skill, the Portuguese 20th century witnesses the birth of one of the biggest coffee industries in the world.

In Café, 1 to 4 players represent coffee companies that from plantation, drying, roasting and distribution try to create and control the best supply chain of coffee.

Game Mechanics:

  • Layering
  • Melding and Splaying
  • Solo / Solitaire Game
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 20 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.05

Cactus Town

| T3d-1978

Cactus Town is an asymmetric action programming game for 2 to 4 players (1-5 with the Lone Ranger Expansion). A highly interactive game of fast paced chase & escape.

Sleepy little Cactus Town is going to see some action: you can put yourself the Sheriff’s badge, join a group of dangerous bandits, seek ransom as a bounty hunter or even use the power of seduction being an avenging Can Can dancer. Each party has its own objectives and its own special actions, making this a perfect gateway game for asymmetric gameplay. With playing time of 10-15 minutes per player, you can swap and play various parties each session.

Players program their actions with 3 out of 4 action cards each turn. Sounds easy enough, right? But careful, actions alternate between players and action cards are programmed in reverse order, meaning the last card programmed comes up first. Mastering this is a real challenge. Can you out-think your opponents, guess their moves and get in your own. Or will you out-think yourself and create some hilarious chaos?

Each player’s characters move through a 5×5 building-card grid, which is set up randomly face down each game. The game includes an advanced version with building effects and several variants, giving you even more replay value.

Are you ready for a duel? Will you plunder for gold? Are you in the mood to dance a Can Can? Going to steal a horse, are you? A lot of things are going to happen in Cactus Town, create your own cinematic Western story!

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Queue
  • Modular Board

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 20 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.93

Butterfly Garden

| T3d-1978

Butterfly Garden, first released as Indigo, is a tile-laying game along the lines of Metro, Tsuro, and Linie 1 in which players build paths bit by bit, with no player owning the individual paths and everyone trying to exploit the paths already present. Unlike those earlier games, however, your goal is to move butterflies from their starting locations on the board to your designated flowerbeds, with the player who scores the most points winning the game.

To set up the game board, place the central fountain tile, then place five pink butterfly figures and one purple butterfly figure to it. Place six fountain tiles on their designated locations on the outer edge of the game board, then place a blue butterfly figure on each fountain tile. Each player places player tokens on flowerbeds between these butterfly tiles on the edge of the game board. Depending on the player count, each player places their player tokens on the designated flowerbeds.

On a turn, a player places a path tile on any space on the game board, with the only restriction being that a player cannot create a route directly from one flowerbed to another. Players always have two path tiles on hand. Each path tile has three route segments on it, connecting one pair of edges. If a player places a path tile next to a butterfly, that butterfly flies as far as possible along the path so that all players can see where to place path tiles to next move that butterfly (thus, players avoid the mental gymnastics required in Metro and Linie 1 in which nothing moves until a route is complete). When connecting to the central fountain tile, the pink butterflies move off first, with the purple butterfly moving only with the sixth connection.

If a player places a path tile so that one butterfly would fly into another, both butterflies fly away and are removed from the game!

When a butterfly is moved to a flowerbed owned by only one player, that player keeps the butterfly. If two players own the flowerbed, then both players collect a butterfly of that color, taking the extra butterfly needed from the reserve. Once all the butterflies have been claimed, the game ends, with players earning 3 points for a purple butterfly, 2 for a pink butterfly, and 1 for a blue butterfly. The player with the most points wins.

Game Mechanics:

  • Hexagon Grid
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.48

Burning Banners: Rage of the Witch Queen

| T3d-1978

In the five centuries since the Wound was closed, the kingdoms of Kalar have struggled to rebuild their shattered societies. A resurgent Empire spread across the great sea, bringing civilization to the untamed eastern continent of Kheros. But Lilith, one of the immortal sorcerers responsible for the Worldwound, arrived first, preparing the way for the return of her dark mistress. For nearly six hundred years she has plotted and schemed. In 588 (2023 Gregorian), the wait is over.

Burning Banners: Rage of the Witch Queen is a fantasy wargame for two to six players. Fast playing and intuitive, a whopping 29 scenarios range from short campaigns with 2 Kingdoms and one map, to the entire 12-year war, in which 6 kingdoms battle over four maps. The rules include a quick-playing Basic Game as well as an Advanced Game which introduces Magic, Heroes, and Monsters guarding powerful treasures.

March 1” Armies and Heroes through huge, lovingly detailed hexes. Explore a vast, detailed fantasy world encompassing four mounted game maps with six unique kingdoms and dozens of troop types. Designed and illustrated by acclaimed fantasy artist, Christopher Moeller!

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Campaign
  • Team-Based Game
  • Variable Player Powers
  • Variable Set-up
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • ~60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.22

Bruxelles 1893

| T3d-1978

Bruxelles 1893 is a worker placement game with elements of bidding and majority control. Each player is an architect of the late 19th century and is trying to achieve, through various actions, an architectural work in the Art Nouveau style. The most successful building yields the most points. Each player can also create works of art to increase his score.

The action board is modular, with not every player having access to each action each turn. Some actions cost money – acquiring high-quality materials, building a level of your personal house, finding a patron, creating a work of art, selling that art for money and prestige – while other actions are free but can potentially cause you to lose one of your workers; these latter actions include acquiring low-quality materials, activating your patrons, visiting the stock exchange, and taking one of the actions with a cost. Once everyone has passed on taking more actions, the round ends and players have an art exhibition during which they can sell works. After this, players receive prestige points or bonus cards based on the symbols they’ve placed their workers next to on the action board.

After five rounds, the game ends and players score bonus points based on their architect level, their bonus cards, how well they’ve completed their work, and their money on hand. The player with the most points wins.

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Majority / Influence
  • Auction / Bidding
  • Modular Board
  • Open Drafting
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 50 – 125 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.59

Botanik

| T3d-1978

In the hushed intimacy of her laboratory, the eminent researcher Beatrix Bury has just discovered a technology allowing to mechanically generate all kinds of edibles. Subtropical plants, stellar potatoes, Orion mandarins, this new technology opens a way to save the people of Forharms, prisoners of a world made of rust and toxic vapors. It’s in the urgency of a threatened world that the scientist puts two of her best teams in charge of developing her plan… that can seem quite demanding at times. Each team is engrossed in its mission and Beatrix’s laboratory becomes the battlefield of fierce competition to produce the best performing machine. You are promoted to the head of one of these two teams, and must prove yourself worthy of the head researchers’ trust. Rise up to the challenge!

Develop the most effective network of mecha-botanics, the combination of plants and science! Botanik offers fluid mechanics (one action per turn), in addition to an ingenious exchange system, associated with tiles of different groups/colours.

Game Mechanics:

  • Open Drafting
  • Pattern Building
  • Set Collection
  • Take That
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.76