Category: Ω Board Games

Botanicus

| OTSG Staff

How about creating your own botanical garden? As an aristocrat in the late 19th century, you have bought land, hired a gardener and set out to find the best plants there are.

As you know, the visitors are very picky about the plants they want to see, so your job is not only to acquire the plants, but also to sort them according to the visitors’ preferences.

In Botanicus, you compete for the best action-spots in a unique selection mechanism, and then make the most of the options available to you. You have to collect new plants, take care of them, water them and keep an eye on the gardener. Last but not least, you have to collect some money along the way to pay for all this.
In the end, what counts is how many visitors you satisfy and how beautiful your garden is. Will you be able to outdo the gardens of your competitors?

Game Mechanics:

  • Modular Board
  • Set Collection
  • Tile Placement
  • Variable Set-up

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 45 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.40

Coffee Rush

| OTSG Staff

A cup of coffee sure is relaxing — for the customer. For the coffee shop, however, orders tend to pile up during peak hours, and it is no different today at Coffee Rush. Your goal: Complete customer orders to increase your ratings and be recognized as the best barista!

In more detail, each player moves on the ingredient board to collect the ingredients that they need to fulfill orders — and fulfilling orders boosts your rating. Orders that are not fulfilled in time become penalties, which subtract from your rating. If a player has fulfilled three orders, they may activate an upgrade that lets them acquire ingredients more easily.

The game ends once all order cards have run out or after a barista collects their fifth penalty card. The player with the highest rating wins!

Game Mechanics:

  • Contracts
  • Grid Movement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.82

Darwin’s Journey

| OTSG Staff

When all you can identify in the horizon for many long days is the line that detaches the sea from the sky, the glimpse of a distant shore appearing before you will make you shiver at the understanding that the adventure is about to begin.

You find yourself astonished, landing on the shore that will be the origin of an extensive exploration through the Galapagos, a magic place of inconceivable beauty and endless biodiversity. There, you will gather repertoires and expand your knowledge of the natural sciences. Your eyes will learn how to detect the hidden species in the tropical forest, gazing at the countless colors and textures of nature. After inspiring hours spent studying and getting to enlightening conclusions, you will rest under a sparkling sky, admiring the stunning complexity of the animal realm.

Darwin’s Journey is a worker-placement Eurogame in which players recall Charles Darwin’s memories of his adventure through the Galapagos islands, which contributed to the development of his theory of evolution.

With the game’s innovative worker progression system, each worker will have to study the disciplines that are a prerequisite to perform several actions in the game, such as exploration, correspondence, gathering, and dispatch of repertoires found on the island to museums in order to contribute to the human knowledge of biology. The game lasts five rounds, and thanks to several short- and long-term objectives, every action you take will grant victory points in different ways.

Game Mechanics:

  • Contracts
  • Pick-up and Deliver
  • Set Collection
  • Solo / Solitaire Game
  • Variable Set-up
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.90

Danger the Game

| OTSG Staff

The World is a Dangerous Place!

Disappointed fathers, depressed giant squids, dynamite on train tracks, and so much more! It’s up to you to rescue those in need. Use your skills, tools, and imagination to devise foolproof plans and save the day!

The first victim is the person who lives the most dangerously. Each of the other players is called a rescuer. The victim draws and reveals a danger card containing the perilous situation they are caught in. The rescuers then place one skill card and one tool card from their hands which they will utilize to tell a story of how they will save the victim. While a Rescuerer presents their rescue story another can play a plot twist on their cards tripping them up and changing the story for more engaging play. the Victim awards the Danger card to the Rescuer with the best Rescue.

All cards are written for embellishment and lateral thinking. “Able to transform into a rock” well what kind of rock are you?!

Game Mechanics:

  • Card Game
  • Storytelling

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 12 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.20

Daitoshi

| OTSG Staff

We have finally perfected the power of steam, and we can now use it to our advantage! We live in an unprecedented era of progress, and new steam-powered inventions are developed faster than ever. Cities are growing, trade is flourishing, and we are developing our most ambitious machine ever: a giant contraption that will bring even more progress to the city. Yes, some trees are being cut down, and the river doesn’t flow as plentifully as before, but there’s still an abundance of trees and water, and we can use the extra space to expand our city — and it’s not like the old creatures on those forests can do anything about it.

On your turn in Daitoshi, you either produce or move your magnate to a new district in which you will be able to send your workers to work, command the exploit of forest or river hexes to fuel your endless need for steam, and perform an action to expand and show your greatness to the city.

These actions not only help you in your search for acknowledgement, but help all the inhabitants of the big city. You will expand the city and electrify its districts, discover and develop new steam-powered inventions, and trade with faraway cities. You may even help the city build its gargantuan project: the mega-machine. Some forests might be cut down, and some rivers may be dried up, but in your generosity, you will help the displaced workers from those areas by giving them new jobs at your service.

Old legends suggest the forests and rivers are guarded by Yōkai, but progress can’t be stopped because of some old fairy tales. Just in case, though, it could be wise to participate on some reforestation projects and hide your participation in the abuse of the natural resources…

—description from the publisher

Game Mechanics:

  • Follow
  • Modular Board
  • Rondel
  • Variable Set-up
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.94

Cities

| OTSG Staff

You’ve been tasked by the city council to put together a plan to transform a whole neighborhood in the city. You have the opportunity to build new housing, office buildings, parks, and leisure areas near the waterfront. It is in your hands to make the city a better place.

Cities is a city-building game in which you draft the best projects and arrange them in your own playing area. With action and resource draft mechanisms, it will give you the opportunity to visit the cities of Sydney, Venice, New York, Barcelona, Rio de Janeiro, Lisbon, Mexico City, and Buenos Aires. Can you design the most magnificent neighborhood?

The game is played over eight rounds (or four rounds in a two-player game). Each round, players use their workers to collect 1 scoring card, 1 city tile, 1-2 feature tiles, and 2-4 building pieces. City tiles are made up of park spaces, water spaces, and building spaces. Building pieces are placed on building spaces of the same color to form buildings, which can be 1-4 stories high. Whenever a player fulfills an achievement, they place one of their discs on the achievement board. At the end of the game, players add up the points they have gained from all of their scoring cards and achievements.

Game Mechanics:

  • Contracts
  • Pattern Building
  • Set Collection
  • Tile Placement
  • Variable Set-up
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.92

All Aboard!

| OTSG Staff

“We sink!” shouts the elephant, “That mouse is too heavy!” “Don’t worry!” whispers the lion, “If I eat the giraffe, we can lose a little weight.”

In All Aboard! you must get your gang of animals to safety in the different boats, but be careful not to exceed their capacity, or else they will sink. Designed by Paco Yánez and illustrated by Monsuros, this fun card game can be played as a couple or in groups of up to 5 players, from 7 years old, in games lasting about 20 minutes.

Before starting, each player receives a set of 12 cards with the 12 different animals in the game (mouse, peacock, fox, octopus, monkey, sloth, elk, zebra, giraffe, lion, bear and elephant). The game is played over 4 rounds and each one consists of two phases: boarding the boats and setting sail. In the boarding phase, players will place one of the animals face up in any of the boats, taking into account that there can be no more than 3 animals in each one. In the second turn, they will place a new animal in any of the available boats, but this time face down; Finally, in the third turn a third animal will board the available boats, again face up.

At the beginning of the setting sail phase, all animal cards that have been played face down are revealed and then a check is made to see if there are two or more animals of the same species. If there are 2, they both fall in love (and the players will receive points for it). If there are 3, they fight and the boat sinks. Next, the animals activate their effects and finally the sum of the weight of the animals on board the boat is checked. If the weight of the animals is equal to or less than the weight that the boat can withstand, the animals manage to set sail and will score at the end of the game. Each player takes their animals and places them in a pile of saved animals in their playing area. If, on the other hand, the boat sinks, the animals are discarded.

Knowing when to play each animal is one of the keys to the game. However, depending on how your rivals play the cards, unforeseen situations can arise on the ships. Each animal has its own power, which can unleash chaos or balance the scales. Will you be able to save as many animals as possible?

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • ~20 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.60

Broom Service

| OTSG Staff

Score the most victory points by delivering potions via Broom Service throughout the magical realm.

Broom Service is a card-based game that combines luck and skill and balances timely bluffing with clever hand management.

Remake of award-winning Witch’s Brew:

  • New theme! Now with 3 types of roles: witches, druids, and gatherers.
  • Drizzelda, the weather fairy, helps chase away the bad weather.
  • New illustrations and game pieces.
  • Same style of play, and by the same game designer as Witch’s Brew.
  • New version also includes a 2-player version.

The game is played over 7 rounds, with 4 turns per round. Each round, players simultaneously select 4 of their 10 role cards, and then they take turns playing one role at a time. Each role has a brave action and a cowardly action; the brave action is stronger, but riskier, as another player could steal the action from you later; the cowardly action is safer, but not as robust. How well can you bluff your opponents?

Use the gatherer roles to collect ingredients to make potions, the witch roles to zoom around on your broom to different areas, and the witch or druid roles to deliver the potions, collecting victory points as you go. Chase away lightning clouds with the help of the weather fairy, and keep an eye on the event cards that change game play, one event per round.

The winner is the player with the most victory points after all 7 rounds are complete and end-of-game bonus points have been awarded.

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Pick-up and Deliver
  • Set Collection
  • Variable Phase Order

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 30 – 75 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.39

Battalion: War of the Ancients

| OTSG Staff

Take charge of the formidable Roman legions and their allies. Command the powerful crossbowmen of the Han dynasty as they traverse unfamiliar deserts. Steer the renowned Greco-Bactrian cavalry, and fight for every oasis. Direct Hannibal’s diverse array of mercenaries, elephants, and the Sacred Band of Carthage.

To lead is to walk the tightrope. Choose a faction, consider its ranks, assemble them into units, and as they fight, carefully balance their orders and sustain your forces in the field. The unique traits of each rank tile will make your units stronger, but combine too many and your units will become unwieldy.

Battalion: War of the Ancients is an accessible two or four-player game. Command a wide range of units from four playable historical factions, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Employ faction-specific tactics cards to outmaneuver your opponents. Compose your unique forces with rigor. Judge the tempo of battle with precision. Seize victory for your people!

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 20 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.88

Commit to the Bit

| OTSG Staff

Commit to the Bit is a fast-paced game designed to engage your creative spark. Random cards set the scene and even more random cards will disrupt it! Stay in character and elicit crowd reactions, in this exciting game of improvisation and imagination. Plays best with 4 or more players.

Game Mechanics:

  •  Improv

Game Specifications:

  • 4+ Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.00