Category: Beginner Games

Clank!: A Deck-Building Adventure

| T3d-1978

Burgle your way to adventure in the deck-building board game Clank! Sneak into an angry dragon’s mountain lair to steal precious artifacts. Delve deeper to find more valuable loot. Acquire cards for your deck and watch your thievish abilities grow.

Be quick and be quiet. One false step and CLANK! Each careless sound draws the attention of the dragon, and each artifact stolen increases its rage. You can enjoy your plunder only if you make it out of the depths alive!

Clank! is a deck-building game. Each player has their own deck, and building yours up is part of playing the game. You start each of your turns with five cards in your hand, and you’ll play them all in any order you choose. Most cards will generate resources, of which there are three different kinds:

  • Skill, which is used to acquire new cards for your deck.
  • Swords, which are used to fight the monsters that infest the dungeon.
  • Boots, which are used to move around the board.

Every time you acquire a new card, you put it face up in your discard pile. Whenever you need to draw a card and find your deck empty, you shuffle your discard pile and turn it face down to form a new deck. With each shuffle, your newest cards become part of a bigger and better deck! Each player starts with the same cards in their deck, but they’ll acquire different cards during their turns. Because cards can do many different things, each player’s deck (and strategy) will become more and more different as the game unfolds.

During the game, you have two goals:

  • Retrieve an Artifact token and escape the dragon by returning to the place you started, outside of the dungeon.
  • Accumulate enough points with your Artifact and other loot to beat out your opponents and earn the title of Greatest Thief in the Realm!

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck, Bag, and Pool Building
  • Open Drafting
  • Player Elimination
  • Push Your Luck
  • Variable Set-up

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.23

Citadels

| T3d-1978

In Citadels, players take on new roles each round to represent characters they hire in order to help them acquire gold and erect buildings. The game ends at the close of a round in which a player erects their seventh building. Players then tally their points, and the player with the highest score wins.

Players start the game with a number of building cards in their hand; buildings come in five colors, with the purple buildings typically having a special ability and the other colored buildings providing a benefit when you play particular characters. At the start of each round, the player who was king the previous round discards one of the eight character cards at random, chooses one, then passes the cards to the next player, etc. until each player has secretly chosen a character. Each character has a special ability, and the usefulness of any character depends upon your situation, and that of your opponents. The characters then carry out their actions in numerical order: the assassin eliminating another character for the round, the thief stealing all gold from another character, the wizard swapping building cards with another player, the warlord optionally destroys a building in play, and so on.

On a turn, a player earns two or more gold (or draws two building cards then discards one), then optionally constructs one building (or up to three if playing the architect this round). Buildings cost gold equal to the number of symbols on them, and each building is worth a certain number of points. In addition to points from buildings, at the end of the game a player scores bonus points for having eight buildings or buildings of all five colors.

The 2016 edition of Citadels includes twenty-seven characters — eight from the original Citadels, ten from the Dark City expansion, and nine new ones — along with thirty unique building districts, and the rulebook includes six preset lists of characters and districts beyond the starter list, each crafted to encourage a different style and intensity of gameplay.

Game Mechanics:

  • Bluffing
  • City Building
  • Deduction
  • Set Collection
  • Take That
  • Variable Player Powers
  • Variable Set-up

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 8 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.07

Chronicles of Avel

| T3d-1978

Chronicles of Avel is a cooperative board game for the whole family. Take the role of brave heroes and heroines with a mission to save your magical land.

Create your character and give them a unique name. Get your equipment, upgrade it and prepare for battle. But remember to wisely choose what you carry as your backpack has limited space. Armed and ready, explore the land in search of adventure and fortune.

Answer the Queen’s call and fight together against the servants of the Black Moon. Defend the castle, banish the Beast, and save Avel!

In Chronicles of Avel players will be exploring the world of Avel, moving on a modular board created from hexagonal tiles (different every time). On their journey they will encounter dangerous monsters to fight and roll dice to determine success. Each victory leads to a prize – new weapon, armor, potions and gold – which will make heroes more powerful and unstoppable. But to earn equipment players will have to search through magical bag and choose using only their sense of touch. Victory awaits for those who will cooperate, prepare themselves and defeat the Beast and all his servants.

Game Mechanics:

  • Cooperative
  • Dice Rolling
  • Modular Board

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.92

Century: Golem Edition – Eastern Mountains

| T3d-1978

Return to Carvania in the follow-up to Century: Golem Edition.

In Century: Golem Edition – Eastern Mountains, players resume their roles as crystal traders and are now out exploring the Carvania mountain ranges and associated valleys seeking to establish a trade network.

Game Mechanics:

  • Modular Board
  • Pick-up and Deliver
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.14

Century: Golem Edition – An Endless World

| T3d-1978

Century: Golem Edition – An Endless World brings crystal traders face to face with primordial golems predating human existence. These golems are incredibly powerful and ever eager to assist. As the world continues to unfold itself to players, you will discover how endless the fun will be!

Game Mechanics:

  • Set Collection
  • Variable Set-up
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.17

Catan: Starfarers

| T3d-1978

Twenty years ago, the settlers started into the depths of the galaxy to discover unknown planets, the undiscovered universe lying before them. Maybe they’ll find planets with good ore or carbon deposits — or perhaps only barren ice planets. They might encounter alien folks and start lucrative trading, with pirates and wormholes being a constant challenge for them.

Catan: Starfarers is a new version of Starfarers of Catan, originally released in 1999, that contains completely revised graphics and game materials, revised rules, and (most importantly) a variable game board that brings even more variety to the exploration of space.

Game Mechanics:

  • Hexagon Grid
  • Modular Board
  • Trading
  • Variable Set-up

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 4 Players
  • ~120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.58

CATAN

| T3d-1978

In CATAN (formerly The Settlers of Catan), players try to be the dominant force on the island of Catan by building settlements, cities, and roads. On each turn dice are rolled to determine what resources the island produces. Players build by spending resources (sheep, wheat, wood, brick and ore) that are depicted by these resource cards; each land type, with the exception of the unproductive desert, produces a specific resource: hills produce brick, forests produce wood, mountains produce ore, fields produce wheat, and pastures produce sheep.

Setup includes randomly placing large hexagonal tiles (each showing a resource or the desert) in a honeycomb shape and surrounding them with water tiles, some of which contain ports of exchange. Number disks, which will correspond to die rolls (two 6-sided dice are used), are placed on each resource tile. Each player is given two settlements (think: houses) and roads (sticks) which are, in turn, placed on intersections and borders of the resource tiles. Players collect a hand of resource cards based on which hex tiles their last-placed house is adjacent to. A robber pawn is placed on the desert tile.

A turn consists of possibly playing a development card, rolling the dice, everyone (perhaps) collecting resource cards based on the roll and position of houses (or upgraded cities—think: hotels) unless a 7 is rolled, turning in resource cards (if possible and desired) for improvements, trading cards at a port, and trading resource cards with other players. If a 7 is rolled, the active player moves the robber to a new hex tile and steals resource cards from other players who have built structures adjacent to that tile.

Points are accumulated by building settlements and cities, having the longest road and the largest army (from some of the development cards), and gathering certain development cards that simply award victory points. When a player has gathered 10 points (some of which may be held in secret), he announces his total and claims the win.

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Income
  • Modular Board
  • Network and Route Building
  • Trading
  • Variable Set-up

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 6 Players
  • 60 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.29

Catacombs

| T3d-1978

Catacombs is an action/dexterity-based adventure board game. One player controls the Overseer, controlling the monsters of the catacombs; the other player(s) control the four heroes who cooperatively try to defeat the monsters and eventually the Catacomb Lord. Each of the heroes has special abilities that must also be used effectively if they are to prevail.

The main mechanism of Catacombs is for the players to flick wooden discs representing the monsters and the heroes. Contact with an opposing piece inflicts damage, but missiles, spells, and other special abilities can cause other effects. When all of the monsters of a room have been cleared, the heroes can move further into the catacomb. Items and equipment upgrades can be purchased from the Merchant with gold taken from fallen monsters. The Catacomb Lord is the final danger that the heroes must defeat to win the game; conversely, the Overseer wins if all of the heroes are defeated. The game is designed for quick set-up and fast play within 30 to 60 minutes.

Game Mechanics:

  • Flicking
  • Player Elimination
  • Role Playing
  • Team-Based Game
  • Variable Player Powers

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.95

Castle Panic: Big Box

| T3d-1978

Castle Panic is a cooperative, light strategy game for 1 to 6 players ages 10 and up. Players must work together to defend their castle, in the center of the board, from monsters that attack out of the forest at the edges of the board. Players trade cards, hit and slay monsters, and plan strategies together to keep their castle towers intact. The players either win or lose together, but only the player with the most victory points is declared the Master Slayer. Players must balance the survival of the group with their own desire to win.

To celebrate the ten-year anniversary, Fireside Games is releasing the Castle Panic Big Box. This extra-large box will contain the original Castle Panic game as well as all three expansions; The Wizard’s Tower, The Dark Titan, and Engines of War. For the first time ever, fans both new and old will be able to get the core game and all the expansions together in one box.

Castle Panic Big Box will also include seven promotional game cards and five promotional Tower tokens, one of which has never been available before 2019. Players will also find an updated, comprehensive rulebook that covers the rules for the base game and all three expansions. The insert for the box has a space for all the game pieces and provides a handy way to organize everything players need.

Game Mechanics:

  • Campaign
  • Cooperative Game
  • Dice Rolling
  • Hand Management
  • Trading

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 6 Players
  • ~60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.13

Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers

| T3d-1978

Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers is a standalone game in the Carcassonne series set in the stone age.

As in other Carcassonne games, players take turns placing tiles to create the landscape and placing meeples to score points from the map they’re creating. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins.

Instead of cities, roads, and farms, Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers has forests, rivers, lakes, and meadows. Players’ meeples can represent hunters (when placed in the meadows), gatherers (in a forest), or fishermen (on a river segment). They also have huts, which can be placed on rivers or lakes to get fish from the entire river system.

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Map Addition
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • ~35 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.92