Category: Ω Board Games

Andromeda’s Edge 🟠

| OTSG Staff

Behold, Andromeda’s Edge: A dazzling, uncharted region of space on the edge of the Andromeda Galaxy. Littered with the modular debris of the precursor civilization, patrolled by malicious extragalactic raiders, and bordered by dense nebulae, The Edge is a last resort for the brave and foolhardy who seek a new life beyond the oppressive reach of the Lords of Unity.

In this game, you lead a desperate faction seeking to build a new civilization on Andromeda’s Edge. You begin with only a space station, a few ships, and a handful of resources. By carefully placing your ships, you will gather resources, claim moons, acquire modules to add to your station, populate planets and build developments on them. You will battle opponents and compete with others to ascend the progress tracks: Science, Industry, Commerce, Civilization and Supremacy.

On your turn, you either launch a starship or return your ships to your station. Launching sends one of your starships to a region of Andromeda, either collecting resources from planetary systems or taking actions at Alliance Bases. If the region is occupied by your opponents or fearsome raiders, face off in a dice battle, with Supremacy on the line but where strategic manipulation can turn a loss into a reward. Returning to your station allows you to activate your engine, using the modules you’ve acquired to generate energy, gain resources and carry out actions.

Throughout the game you will build up your unique faction, building developments (Observatories, Factories, Spaceports, Cities and Obelisks) and gaining station modules which move you up the progress tracks. Advancement on the tracks is rewarded both during mid-game events and at the conclusion, and is the key to victory.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 80 – 160 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.71

Altiplano 🟡

| OTSG Staff

Altiplano is a bag-building game along the lines of Orléans, set in the South American highlands of the Andes (the “Altiplano”). The competition for limited resources is considerable, as it was in Orléans, but the greater focus in Altiplano is on building up your own production to be the best that it can be – or at least better than that of the other players!

The object of the game is for players to use their goods to produce more goods that will be worth points in the end. Each player starts with a unique role tile, giving them access to different goods and methods of production. Players have limited access to production at the start, but they can acquire additional production sites during the game that open up new options. The various types of goods — such as fish, alpaca, cacao, silver and corn — all have their own characteristics and places where they can be used. For example, silver can be sold for a high price at the market, fish can be exchanged for other goods at the harbor and alpaca can produce wool at the farm that can then be made into cloth.

Aside from building up an effective production, players must fulfill their orders at the right time, develop the road in good time and store their goods cleverly enough to fill their warehouses in the most valuable way. Often, a good warehouse keeper is more relevant in the end than the best producer.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 60 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.29

Alice is Missing 🔴

| OTSG Staff

The game is played live and without verbal communication. Players inhabit their character for the entirety of the 90-minute play session, and instead of speaking, send text messages back and forth to the other characters in a group chat, as well as individually, as though they aren’t in the same place together.

Haunting beautiful, deeply personal, and highly innovative Alice is Missing puts a strong focus on the emotional engagement between players, immersing them in a tense, dramatic mystery that unfolds organically through the text messages they send to one another. Right at home with games like Life Is Strange, Gone Home, Oxenfree, and Firewatch, it’s designed to feel as much like an event-style experience as it does a role-playing game.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 5 Players
  • 120 – 180 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.50

Aleph Null 🟢

| kithorning

As a successful Magician, you have been able to fund a lifetime of research by delivering to the petty demands of liars, philanderers, gluttons and the least of Humanity.

How refreshing, then, when a client should emerge with a commission of horrifying simplicity that has the potential for acquiring a vast amount of knowledge – perhaps the ultimate knowledge – albeit at the expense of many millions.

“Release the denizens of Hell into the Earth, with Baphomet – The Sabbath Goat – at their Head, for one night only and let them run amok. Let us see the consequences – for aesthetic reasons only, of course.”

However, do not expect this matter to proceed without interference from the Church and/or from Hell itself: the best-laid plans do not always go the way expected.

Inspired by the Black Easter novellas by James Blish, the aim of Aleph Null is to successfully summon the demonic Prince Baphomet who, when he appears, expects there to be no cards in your hand, the main deck and the discard pile; if there are any cards remaining in these ‘zones’, you lose. However, ‘not losing’ in this way doesn’t mean that you have won: any cards still in play also count against you – too many and you shall lose also. The sooner you ‘win’, the better your chance of surviving any due punishment.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 Player
  • 15 – 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.70

Aggravation 🔵

| kithorning

Players move their four pieces around the board from Start to Home. Lucky die rollers can make use of the shortcut spaces to speed movement. However, players can not pass their own pieces and landing on any one else’s piece sends the landed-on piece back to the Base where it must start again. First player to get all four pieces Home wins.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • ~45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.20

Age of Innovation 🔴

| kithorning

Age of Innovation is a standalone game set in the world of Terra Mystica.

Twelve factions, each with unique characteristics, populate this world of varying terrains. Here you will compete to erect buildings and merge them into cities. Each game allows you to create new combinations of factions, homelands, and abilities so that each game isn’t the same as another.

You control one of these factions and will terraform the game map’s terrain into your homelands where you can erect your buildings. Proximity to other factions may limit your expansion, but it also gains you significant advantages in the game. This tension adds to the appeal of the Terra Mystica series.

Upgrade your buildings to gain valuable resources such as tools, scholars, money, and power. Build schools to advance in different sciences and collect books, which you can use to make innovations. Build your palace to gain a powerful new ability or build workshops, guilds, and universities to complete your culture.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 40 -200 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 4.26

AFFLICTION: Salem 1692 🟡

| kithorning

The hysteria over witches among the people of Salem swept the region like a disease in 1692. As is the case in any tragic event, there are those whom will use the circumstances to their advantage. Under the veil of the witch-hunt lie other motivations; power, greed, revenge and righteousness.

AFFLICTION: Salem 1692 is a game set in the hysteria of a witch-hunt. Use your influence to whisper in the ear of the magistrate, judge, governor or minister to protect some and have others arrested. Salem was a chance to gain property, exact revenge and prove one’s righteousness.

The characters in the game were actual residents of the Salem region. This is the closest possible simulation of actual events in a game to date.

GAMEPLAY: Players will take turns placing a “messenger” (worker) to select actions. After all workers are placed, actions will be resolved in the order they appear on the main board.

EXONERATE – Take 2 Accusation Tokens off of any Colonist.
FIRST PLAYER TOKEN/PROTECTION – Use a letter from the Governor to prevent one Colonist from being arrested and take the First turn, next turn.
GAIN INFLUENCE/USE COLONIST ABILITY – Generate Influence and use the abilities of Colonists that you have in your Circle.
ARREST – Spend Influence equal to a Colonist’s adjusted Reputation to Arrest.
SPECTRAL EVIDENCE – Use this token to prevent a Colonist from Generating Influence and using their Colonist ability.
ACCUSE – Place accusation tokens to reduce Colonist’s Reputations to make them easier to arrest.
GAIN/REMOVE FEAR – Gain Fear Tokens or remove a fear token from another player (used to weaken Colonists)
BRING COLONIST INTO CIRCLE – Spend Influence equal to a Colonists Base Reputation and bring them into your Circle.

Play will cycle between accusing, arresting and protecting your interests. Fear provides an alternative way to function when necessary.

END GAME: Increase Mather and Mary Spencer Hill are shuffled in with the bottom 6 cards of the Colonist deck. When either of them appears in the play area, the game immediately ends.

VICTORY CONDITIONS: All players will receive victory points for the Reputation value of each Colonist that have arrested or brought into their circle, victory points for the property of those they have had arrested and for the number of influence tokens they have at the end of the game. Each player will also receive points for having specific families arrested or protected, depending on the player tile they are given.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.75

Adventures of Robin Hood, the 🟢

| kithorning

Take on the roles of Robin Hood and his companions as you struggle against Prince John and the sheriff in this innovative cooperative board game. Your adventures will take place on a “living” game board, that “remembers” what you have accomplished in previous missions and unveils new secrets and actions as you further the campaign. Everything is easy to assemble and disassemble, making set up and clean up as quick as can be!

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.82

Adventure Zone: Bureau of Balance, The 🔵

| kithorning

The Adventure Zone: Bureau of Balance, based on the very popular podcast and series of graphic novels of the same name, lets players embark on their own adventure as they attempt to rescue various artifacts of immense power. Battle a myriad of enemies, from scary to sarcastic, as you and your friends work through a dynamic dungeon made from numerous decks of cards – ensuring that each game will be different!

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.71

Adventure Party: the Role-Playing Party Game 🟢

| kithorning

Adventuring Party takes your favorite moments from RPG’s and puts them into a great guessing game! Over the course of 3 Adventure Scenarios, players will take on the role of a brave adventurer and describe in epic detail their plans for that adventure. Of course, however, the dice always have different plans, and after making a secret d20 roll, you will then recount what actually happened. The goal of the game is to have the GM guess what number you rolled as accurately as possible, thereby earning the most Experience Points possible.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 8 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00