Category: Beginner Games

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

5-Minute Dungeon 🔵

| T3d-1978

5-­Minute Dungeon is a chaotic, co-­operative, real-­time card game in which players have only five minutes to escape the randomized dungeon. Communication and teamwork are critical to survival because there’s no time to form a carefully considered plan — and no predicting what dangers lie ahead.

In more detail, players assume the role of one of ten heroes, each with special cards and abilities. Once the five-minute timer starts, the race is on to defeat all the monsters inside the dungeon. In order to defeat a monster, players must match symbols from their hand with ones on the monster’s card. At the end of each dungeon is a powerful dungeon boss — and after the first boss is defeated, the campaign continues to the second boss. Each boss, and each randomized dungeon, gets harder until players reach the fifth and final boss.

Game Mechanics:

  • Cooperative
  • Hand Management
  • Move Through Deck

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 5 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.11

18 Holes 🟦

| T3d-1978

A beautiful drive down the fairway is a satisfying feeling. And yet, beyond the trees, you spy an alternative. A short-cut to the green. Do you take the chance? Hit off-course on purpose in this golf-themed board game for 1 to 5 players. With some clever thinking, you’ll be able to turn bad luck into the perfect shot.

In 18 Holes, you’ll design and build the course, you’ll draft for clubs and you’ll compete on course to win. Every hole is an opportunity to outplay your opponents and reach the green first. Play solo or with two to five players either around the table or remote using our companion app.

Every game of 18 Holes plays on a new course. Design it together or go online to the 18 Holes Clubhouse and play a course created by another player. With 49 different double-sided tiles, course-adjustment tiles and eight different game modes (including solo and two player). 18 Holes lets you tailor the playing experience to suit your crowd.

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Racing
  • Open Drafting

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.78

108: The Game That Is Won with the Universe 🟦

| T3d-1978

If you like Sudoku or Mahjong, 108 could be the game for you. In this game you will find a unique board that gradually transforms into a unique mathematical puzzle. The first person to fill their row, column and box with the numbers 1 to 9 is the winner. Just like in Sudoku, numbers must not be repeated.

 Game Mechanics:

  • Abstract Strategy
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.80