Category: Competitive Games

Forges of Ravenshire

| OTSG Staff

Grab a hammer and some steel, it’s time to forge! The Blacksmiths Guild of Ravenshire is in need of a new Forgemaster. You and your fellow smiths are competing to see who can make the most money and become the new Forgemaster.

Forges of Ravenshire is played over 4 seasons or rounds. Each season starts with the gathering phase where players will acquire contracts, recruit guild members, and gather resources. Players roll their dice workers and place one of them on an available location to gather resources. Then retrieve a different dice worker to gather even more resources. However, the various workers are from different guilds and when retrieved will activate the guilds you have invested in. All players will take turns placing one of their workers and retrieving another worker 3 times.

After the gathering phase is the production phase. Take those 3 dice workers you have taken and now place them on different areas of your forge to gather more resources, make charcoal or steel, and forge contracts to make money.

At the end of every season, check to see if any special titles have been earned. Titles bring prestige and hard-earned money.

Finally, roll your 3 dice workers again and prepare the county of Ravenshire for the next season.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 50 – 100 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.87

Forestry

| OTSG Staff

In Forestry, players take on the role of forest stewards dedicated to sustainable forest management. The game challenges players to balance the demands of harvesting resources and fulfilling contracts with the need for environmental conservation. Every action taken has a lasting impact on the forest’s health, and players are encouraged to make responsible choices, from planting new trees to adjusting water streams for optimal moisture retention. Drawing from the expertise of real-life foresters, Forestry provides a realistic and educational glimpse into the work of forestry, making it as engaging as it is enlightening.

As a Eurogame focused on strategic action management, Forestry relies on a dual-worker system in which players control a harvester and a manager, each with distinct responsibilities. The harvester moves through the forest, felling trees to meet contract demands, replanting saplings, constructing infrastructure, and adjusting water retention to promote a healthy ecosystem. Meanwhile, the manager oversees resource collection, utilizes sawmill buildings, fulfills contracts, and optimizes wood processing. Players must carefully allocate action points between these workers to make sustainable choices, enhance infrastructure, and ensure the forest thrives while meeting demand.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 70 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.36

Food Chain Magnate

| OTSG Staff

“Lemonade? They want lemonade? What is the world coming to? I want commercials for burgers on all channels, every 15 minutes. We are the Home of the Original Burger, not a hippie health haven. And place a billboard next to that new house on the corner. I want them craving beer every second they sit in their posh new garden.” The new management trainee trembles in front of the CEO and tries to politely point out that… “How do you mean, we don’t have enough staff? The HR director reports to you. Hire more people! Train them! But whatever you do, don’t pay them any real wages. I did not go into business to become poor. And fire that discount manager, she is only costing me money. From now on, we’ll sell gourmet burgers. Same crap, double the price. Get my marketing director in here!”

Food Chain Magnate is a heavy strategy game about building a fast food chain. The focus is on building your company using a card-driven (human) resource management system. Players compete on a variable city map through purchasing, marketing and sales, and on a job market for key staff members. The game can be played by 2-5 serious gamers in 2-4 hours.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2- 5 Players
  • 120 – 240 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 4.19

Etherstone

| OTSG Staff

Nobura is a forgotten planet shrouded in mystery. The story told that a cosmic being sacrificed its divine essence to breathe life into its desolate lands. Etherstones shaped the planet’s biomes and interconnected all living beings with nature. Yet, the lurking threat of the Vacuous, a parasitic force born from the depths of Nobura, poses a challenge to life on the surface, weaving a tale of divine sacrifice. Nobura has always been part of a paradoxical loop of life and death, where the forces of creation and destruction dance in an eternal cosmic struggle.

In Etherstone, players embody faction leaders uniting forces to avert the impending extinction, striving to gain the most victory points through various means, such as summoning cards, overcoming threats, and utilizing their abilities as effectively as possible.

The first stage of the game will be drafting your hand of 7 cards and your leader card. Alternatively, for the first few matches, players can take a pre-made hand of cards with the matching Leader. Leaders have a set number of life points, a strength value, and a persistent asymmetric ability.

During your turn, you can take only one action among the following: Dice Draft, Summon, Attack, Rest, Void Pact.

Players will win by gaining victory points while doing several different actions and the game will end if any of the end-game conditions are met:

  • The active player has no cards left in their hand.
  • There are no cards left in the Threat deck.
  • The victory point pool has no more tokens in it.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 -40 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.37

First in Flight

| OTSG Staff

First in Flight is a push-your-luck, deck-building game about the race to early flight. Players take on the roles of the Wright Brothers, Samuel Langley, and other flight pioneers, racing to build and pilot the “flyers” that preceded modern airplanes.

Each player’s flyer design is represented by a deck of cards that they can steadily improve and refine, and which may include unknown design flaws that threaten their success.

Flying is a blackjack-style challenge to test a design, break new records, and gain experience — hopefully without crashing. Then, players head back to the workshop to refine their flyers and improve their chances on future flights. There are dozens of available technologies, pilot skills, and friends in the field available for players to customize their own play style and strategy.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 45 – 75 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.31

Everdell: Silverfrost

| OTSG Staff

Silverfrost is the next standalone edge of the map series of Everdell. Beyond the snow-capped Spirecrest mountains to the south of Everdell Valley, lies the bold country of Silverfrost. It is your task to build and maintain a city in this challenging landscape. You must clear the piling snow, burn the fires to keep your citizens warm and prosperous, and complete important quests for the Ranger’s Guild.

In Silverfrost, you send critter workers to various Locations on the board, cards, or the mountain to gather resources and activate unique effects. You use these resources to play cards face up in front of you, forming your own city. Each turn, you take 1 of 3 possible actions — Place a worker, Play a card, or Prepare for the next season.

You may place 1 of your workers on any Basic Location, Red Destination card in your city or opponent’s cities, the Forge, the Hot Springs, or a mountaintop Beacon, so long as it is not blocked by Snow or another worker. You then claim the listed resources or perform the action. If there is Snow at the location, you must first spend a Fire resource to clear the snow pile. If you use your unique Ranger worker, you can visit an occupied location, or gain a Fire resource if visiting a location alone.

To play a card, you must pay the listed cost of resources. If it is a Critter, you may instead play it for free by using 1 of your 2 Chimneys, so long as you have the necessary Fire to light it. Cards may be played either from your hand, or from the area of face-up cards on the board known as the Valley. Nearly all of the cards in Silverfrost feature new and powerful abilities, offering a huge variety of strategic depth and combos to explore.

If all of your workers are deployed, you may prepare for the next season by bringing back all of your workers, gaining a new worker, and performing the action described for the following season, introducing new snowfall to the board and to your city, as well as other challenges. A player is finished when they have played through the last season (Spring) and cannot perform any more actions. After all players have finished, the player with the most points is the winner.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.23

Federation

| OTSG Staff

The universe is organized into many federations which trade, intrigue, develop… One of these federations, still not fully developed yet (5 member planets so far) wants a new delegation to join them, but you are not the only one having your sights set on the federation. The Federation challenges you to prove your worth for 5 years. During these 5 years, you must develop strategies, deploy tactics, take the best opportunities but also form the right alliances at the right time… In the end, only 1 delegation will be chosen: the one with the most prestige!

Federation is an interactive Eurogame with innovative double-sided worker placement mechanic..

Federation is played over 5 rounds. Each round is divided into 2 main steps. The first step is player turns where each player plays an Ambassador’s pawn and send a spaceship on a special mission. Once all players have completed their turn, the Executive Phase starts, where players receive their income, fund Major Projects and pass laws.

At the end of the 5th round, the game ends. The Player with the most prestige points wins the game and joins the Federation. In case of a tie, the victory is shared.

Your individual board is composed of the 5 federated actions, 1 spy action, some senate actions and some special senate actions giving prestige points.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.75

Ezra and Nemahiah

| OTSG Staff

In his first year as king of Persia, Cyrus the Great issued a decree in writing to the Israelite exiles living under his rule:

The God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and has appointed me to build a temple for Him in Jerusalem. Any of his people may go up to Jerusalem in Judah to build the temple of the Lord, the God of Israel. And in any place where survivors may now be living, the people of Persia are to provide them with silver, gold, goods, livestock, and offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem. – Ezra 1:2-4 (paraphrased).

Decades later, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes reign, the king noticed a sadness in his cupbearer, Nehemiah. When asked why he looked so ill, Nehemiah replied:

May the king live forever! Why should I not look sad when the city of my ancestors lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire? If it pleases you, and if I have found favor in your sight, let me go to the city in Judah where my ancestors are buried so that I may rebuild it. – Nehemiah 2:3-5 (paraphrased).

The aim of Ezra and Nehemiah is to be the player with the most victory points (VP) at game’s end. Points are gained primarily by building the temple, rebuilding the city walls and gates, and by teaching the Torah to the returning exiles. Players may also seek to develop their land, travel to settlements outside the city walls, or stoke the altar’s fire to keep it burning day and night. The prophets Haggai and Zechariah will be doing their part to keep the people focused on what is most important.

Over three weeks (rounds), players will use their hand of cards, workers, and resources to do their part in rebuilding the great city of Jerusalem. After six days of work comes a Sabbath day of rest when food will be needed, and the week’s work will be reflected upon. The game ends after the third Sabbath has been completed.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 90 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.83

Expeditions

| OTSG Staff

The sequel to Scythe sends players on a new adventure into Siberia, where a massive meteorite crashed near the Tunguska River, awakening ancient corruption. An expedition led by Dr. Tarkovsky ventures into the taiga to learn about the meteorite and its impact on the land. Itching for adventure, heroes from the war privately fund their own expeditions to Siberia, hoping to find artifacts, overcome challenges, and ultimately achieve glory. Expeditions has completely different mechanisms than Scythe, though the goal was to capture some of the same feelings that Scythe evokes, with a slightly darker, more supernatural theme.

Expeditions is a competitive, card-driven, engine-building game of exploration. Play cards to gain power, guile, and unique worker abilities; move your mech to mysterious locations and gain cards found among the tiles; use workers, items, meteorites, and quests to enhance your mech; and use power and guile to vanquish corruption.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.05

Everdell Farshore

| OTSG Staff

The Forever Sea is calling…

The rugged coast north of Everdell Valley is a land brimming with adventure and mystery. Stalwart sailors search for bountiful islands and valuable treasures. Dutiful monks inhabit abbeys and scriptoriums, meticulously translating and illuminating. Hard-working folk gather resources and build their cities in unison with the ever-changing waves of the mighty ocean.

Welcome to Everdell Farshore, a standalone game set in the country of Farshore. Through each season, you lead a crew of critter workers to build up a prosperous city and to explore the enchanting ocean beyond. You must plan your actions carefully in order to build and to sail, for only by adapting to the winds of change will you succeed.

The wind is high. The sun is breaking the horizon. It is time to set sail for adventure!

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 40 – 80 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.83