Category: Beginner Games

Can’t Stop

| T3d-1978

In this Sid Sackson classic, players must press their luck with dice and choose combinations tactically to close out three columns. The board has one column for each possible total of two six-sided dice, but the number of spaces in each column varies: the more probable a total, the more spaces in that column and the more rolls it takes to complete. On their turn, a player rolls four dice and arranges them in duos: 1 4 5 6 can become 1+4 and 5+6 for 5 & 11, 1+5 and 4+6 for 6 & 10, or 1+6 and 4+5 for 7 & 9. The player places or advances progress markers in the open column(s) associated with their chosen totals, then chooses whether to roll again or end their turn and replace the progress markers with markers of their color. A player can only advance three different columns in a turn and cannot advance a column which any player has closed out by reaching the end space; if a roll doesn’t result in any legal plays, the turn ends with that turn’s progress lost.

A predecessor from 1974, The Great Races, exists as a paper-and-pencil game.

Game Mechanics:

  • Dice Rolling
  • Push Your Luck
  • Racing

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.15

Camel Up

| T3d-1978

In Camel Up, up to eight players bet on five racing camels, trying to suss out which will place first and second in a quick race around a pyramid. The earlier you place your bet, the more you can win — should you guess correctly, of course. Camels don’t run neatly, however, sometimes landing on top of another one and being carried toward the finish line. Who’s going to run when? That all depends on how the dice come out of the pyramid dice shaker, which releases one die at a time when players pause from their bets long enough to see who’s actually moving!

Game Mechanics:

  • Betting
  • Variable Set-up

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 8 Players
  • 30 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.50

Caesar’s Empire

| T3d-1978

In Caesar’s Empire, you will be building Roads to connect Rome to new Cities across the board. Each time you build a Road, you score points. Every new City you reach will provide City and Treasure tokens that will be worth points at the end of the game. The game ends when Rome is connected to every City on the board. After adding the value of City and Treasure tokens to the points scored during the game, the player with the most points wins!

Caesar’s Empire uses a simple network-building mechanic. Each time you build a Road, you must connect Rome to a new City by placing one or more of your Road pieces onto the game board. You may build your Road anywhere you like on the board, as long as you start from either Rome, or a City whose token has already been taken. This means you may be continuing a Road started by another player! When you reach a City, you get to take its token, which can be worth points at the end of the game. Each City also provides a Treasure token. Treasures you find are added to your player board and will score you points at the end of the game, especially if you manage to make collections!

Once you’ve taken your City token and your Treasure, you score your route back to Rome. Each section of Road included in your route will score 1 point for the player it belongs to. As your route can include sections of Road placed by other players, you can end up giving points to your opponents!The game continues until all of the Cities on the board have been taken. Once the final City has been taken, players move on to final scoring.

At the end of the game, you’ll score points based on your City tokens. Each City has a value, which is the number on the back. This is the number of points you’ll score for that City. However, if you have more than one City token of the same colour, you will only score points for the one of the highest value. You then score the value of the different collections of Treasure on your player board. Collections can be of the same Treasure or different Treasures, and Gold is scored separately. The player with the most points returns to Rome to be showered with fortune and glory by Caesar himself!

Game Mechanics:

  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.51

Blokus

| T3d-1978

Blokus (officially pronounced “Block us”) is an abstract strategy game with transparent, Tetris-shaped, colored pieces that players are trying to play onto the board. The only caveat to placing a piece is that it may not lie adjacent to your other pieces, but instead must be placed touching at least one corner of your pieces already on the board.

There is a solitaire variation where one player tries to get rid of all the pieces in a single sitting.

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~20 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.74

Best Treehouse Ever: Forest of Fun

| T3d-1978

It’s time to build another treehouse!

In the new stand alone sequel to the Golden Geek Nominated Best Treehouse Ever (Best Card Game, Best Family Game, 2015), Best Treehouse Ever: Forest of Fun, players compete to build their best treehouse, outfitting their treehouse with cool rooms, and creating fun habitats for their favorite furry and feathered friends, while also making sure that their tree doesn’t tip over and that their rooms are more impressive than all of their friends’ rooms at the end of the game.

In addition, our treehouse builders have leveled up their experience by visiting new locations in the forest that provide special abilities to help them in their new build.

Building takes place over three weeks/rounds, and in each round, players use card drafting and spatial reasoning to add five new rooms to their treehouse. Players must pay attention to the other treehouses being built since they take turns determining which types of rooms score for everyone at the end of each round.

At the end of the third week, the winner is the player with the best treehouse ever!

Game Mechanics:

  • Open Drafting
  • Pattern Building
  • Variable Player Powers

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 20 – 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.50

Azul: Master Chocolatier

| T3d-1978

In the game Azul, players take turns drafting colored tiles from suppliers to their player board. Later in the round, players score points based on how they’ve placed their tiles to decorate the palace. Extra points are scored for specific patterns and completing sets; wasted supplies harm the player’s score. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins.

Azul: Master Chocolatier includes double-sided factory boards, with these tiles being placed on these boards at the start of each round. One side of the factories is blank, and when using this side the game plays exactly like Azul. The other side of each factory tile has a special effect on it that modifies play in one way or another, putting a twist on the normal game. Additionally, the tiles are modeled to look like chocolates and other treats, despite remaining as inedible as the tiles in the original game.

Game Mechanics:

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

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.79

Atheneum: Mystic Library

| T3d-1978

The magic exam is tomorrow so you and your classmates head to the library! With the knock of a magic wand on a precise stack of books — tada! — you can learn an entire subject in an instant. In exchange for this after-hours intrusion, however, the security guard asks you to clean up and organize the library shelves. So roll up your sleeves and get to work!

In Atheneum: Mystic Library, you must study for the exam while cleaning up the library! During the game, you can score points for objectives by placing books on your shelves in specific configurations. At the end of the game, you score points for full shelf compartments, decorative candles, and shelved books of your favorite subject. Whoever collects the most points wins!

Game Mechanics:

  • Closed Drafting
  • Open Drafting
  • Puzzle
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 30 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.70

Akropolis 🔵

| T3d-1978

The most talented architects in ancient Greece stand ready to achieve this goal. Build housing, temples, markets, gardens and barracks, so you can grow your city and ensure it triumphs over the others. Raise its prestige with harmonious planning that conforms to specific rules, and enhance it by building plazas.

Stone is an essential resource, so make sure you do not neglect it. You’ll need enough quarries so you can build higher up, making your city stretch towards the sky.

  1. Choose a tile from the construction site
  2. Arrange it in your city to unlock each district’s full potential
  3. Build on higher levels, increase the value of your districts and win the game

Game Mechanics:

  • City Building
  • Open Drafting
  • Pattern Building
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 20 – 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.69

7 Wonders Architects 🔵

| T3d-1978

In 7 Wonders: Architects, 2-7 players race to become a leader of the ancient world by completing an architectural wonder that will last through the ages.

Players receive an unconstructed wonder at the beginning of the game and must collect resources to build their society, develop military might to navigate conflicts, oversee resource management, research science improvements, and collect civil victory points as they race to leave their mark on world history.

Game Mechanics:

  • Open Drafting
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 7 Players
  • ~25 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.40

5-Minute Mystery 🔵

| T3d-1978

5-Minute Mystery is a high-intensity, deductive, mystery game in which players work together to find a culprit hidden in a line-up of suspects.

Just moments before the Museum of Everything was set to unveil its newest exhibit, the priceless MacGuffin, some criminal snuck in and stole it! Now it’s up to you, a team of detectives, to crack the case, find the culprit, and recover the missing MacGuffin.

Start by searching for hidden symbols in each room of the museum and find the matching symbols on the codex. Once you’ve found all of the symbols in the room, you’ll unlock a clue about the culprit.

Match the barcode of the clue tile against the culprit tile to discover valuable information about the crook. Does the miscreant have an umbrella? No? Well, that eliminates the shifty Mr. Braxton, doesn’t it? Quickly sort through the suspect cards in your hand to narrow down who the criminal can be.

You’ll have to make it through as many rooms as it takes to figure out exactly who is responsible for stealing the MacGuffin, but remember, time is not on your side!

Case files change the rules to each time you play, making every game a new challenge.

Do you have what it takes to be the detective to crack the case and solve this five-minute mystery? Only time will tell!

Game Mechanics:

  • Cooperative
  • Deduction

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 6 Players
  • 5 – 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.18