Category: Ω Board Games

Hanamikoji: Geisha’s Road

| OTSG Staff

“Yoko… What lies ahead for us?” asked her friend Tomoyo.
Yoko stared out into the sea, calm and serene. “Today we are just maiko. But one day, we will complete our training and become known as geisha.”
“Yes, artists of the highest order. But then what?”
“Okaasan said that one day, perhaps some of us may be lucky to inherit the teahouse… if fortune favors us and our hard work.”

Welcome back to Hanamikoji! In Hanamikoji: Geisha’s Road is a two-player based on “Hanamikoji” with a new Geisha movement and roundel system added to the game design to make the strategy more diversified. It’s competitive strategy game full of implicit intentions, veiled messages, and hidden actions, players represent rival but friendly patrons supporting Yoko, Tomoyo, and others along their journey from apprentice (maiko) to full geisha (artist) and perhaps even the owner (okaasan) of their own establishment.

To do so, players help their favored geisha advance and build prestige through performing their art at different teahouses. Geisha start as apprentices (maiko) but become full geisha and score prestige points after accruing the necessary patronage to return to their original teahouse (ochaya) for the graduation ceremony (erikae). Some geisha may continue their path further and eventually inherit the teahouse (upon a second return) to become the new okaasan, recognized with more prestige points.

At the end of the game, the player who provides the most support to each geisha is recognized. The player who has supported the most prestigious group of geisha wins the game.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 Players
  • 25 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.18

Hanabi

| OTSG Staff

Hanabi—named for the Japanese word for “fireworks”—is a cooperative game in which players try to create the perfect fireworks show by placing the cards on the table in the right order. (In Japanese, hanabi is written as 花火; these are the ideograms flower and fire, respectively.)

The card deck consists of five different colors of cards, numbered 1–5 in each color. For each color, the players try to place a row in the correct order from 1–5. Sounds easy, right? Well, not quite, as in this game you hold your cards so that they’re visible only to other players. To assist other players in playing a card, you must give them hints regarding the numbers or the colors of their cards. Players must act as a team to avoid errors and to finish the fireworks display before they run out of cards.

An extra suit of cards, rainbow colored, is also provided for advanced or variant play.

Hanabi was originally published as part of Hanabi & Ikebana.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 25 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.69

Hamster Roll

| OTSG Staff

Imagine a hamster’s exercise wheel made out of wood that’s divided into numerous segments, with these segments being separated by low fences. That’s the playing surface for Hamster Roll, a dexterity game in which players compete to play all of their pieces first.

Everyone starts with seven wooden pieces. On a turn, place one of your pieces somewhere within the wheel, which might move and rotate as a result! If any pieces fall out of the wheel, you must add them to your supply, so try to keep the rolling of that hamster wheel to a minimum…

 

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 40 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.07

Guillotine

| OTSG Staff

The French Revolution is famous in part for the use of the guillotine to put nobles to death, and this is the macabre subject of this light card game. As executioners pandering to the masses, the players are trying to behead the most popular nobles. Each day the nobles are lined up and players take turns killing the ones at the front of the line until all the nobles are gone. However, players are given cards which will manipulate the line order right before ‘harvesting’ heads, which is what makes the game interesting. After three days of chopping, the highest total carries the day.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.27

Guildhall Fantasy: Box of Holding

| OTSG Staff

Guildhall Fantasy: Box of Holding contains 4 Guildhall Fantasy games all in one spot! Feel free to mix and match the different sets for new experiences each time you play!

Guildhall Fantasy: Fellowship

Do you have a thirst for adventure? Is your middle name danger? Do you just like treasure? Form a party of adventurers to help you be victorious! The more members of each class you have, the greater the bonus they’ll give you – but be careful; your opponents might try to poach your party members!

In Guildhall Fantasy: Fellowship, 2-4 players compete to create the perfect party by recruiting adventurers into their guildhall chapters. Collect sets of cards with unique abilities to control the table, and complete a full chapter to claim victory cards. Will you go for points quickly, or build up your special powers? Which will lead to ultimate victory? Only you and the gamemaster know!

Guildhall Fantasy: Alliance

In Guildhall Fantasy: Alliance, each profession grants you special abilities, and these abilities grow stronger the more of that profession that you collect. When you cash in that profession set for victory points, however, you lose the ability until you can build it up again.

Guildhall Fantasy: Coalition

In Guildhall Fantasy: Coalition, each profession grants you special abilities, and these abilities grow stronger the more of that profession that you collect. When you cash in that profession set for victory points, however, you lose the ability until you can build it up again.

Advanced Guildhall Fantasy: The Gathering

There can be only… Wait! There is another!

Guildhall Fantasy: The Gathering is a standalone game in the Guildhall series, featuring six never before seen professions. Additionally, this set contains two mini expansions: “The Chapter Masters” and “The Master Houses”.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00

Guild of Merchant Explorers, the

| OTSG Staff

In The Guild of Merchant Explorers, each player starts with one city on their personal map board.

Shuffle the deck of terrain cards, then reveal most of these cards one by one. Based on the terrain revealed, each player places on their board cubes that are connected to their starting city or other cubes. You want to complete areas on your board, cross the seas to new land, and establish new cities on the board. You can explore capsized ships for treasure — which gives you special placement capabilities — and create linked connections between locations to score bonus points. Common objectives can be completed by all players, with those who complete it first scoring more points.

At the end of a round, all cubes are removed from each board, leaving only the cities behind, so if you don’t establish new cities, you’ll be stuck in the same places.

The Guild of Merchant Explorers contains multiple copies of four different maps, and the game is designed so that you can play remotely with one or more copies.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.05

Guild Academies of Valeria

| OTSG Staff

You and your fellow Headmasters are trying to build out your academies, recruit the best students, hire talented guildmasters, and influence important council ministers. Only select graduates can be tasked to fulfill quests ordered by the King, while the so-so graduates are sent to the capital city to make their own way.

GAOV uses action selection, dice drafting and dice manipulation (Students), tile drafting, resource management and engine building (Academies), contract fulfillment (Quests), and a unique system where players choose which game aspects they want to score (Council Ministers) to bring a new aspect of the Valeria Universe to life.

—description from the publisher

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 90 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.94

GUBS: A Game of Wit and Luck

| OTSG Staff

GUBS: A Game of Wit and Luck invites you to partake in the secret struggle of the Gubs. Each player competes to build the largest, strongest colony by the time the three dreaded Letter Cards emerge from the deck and end the game. Their world is a place filled with danger; from giant Omen Beetles who consume the delicate Gub Cities to Flash Floods to deadly Wasps, your gubs hardly stand a chance on their own… but arm them with Spears, let ride the valiant Toad Riders, build Mushroom Barricades and lead your colony through the forest underbrush and to victory.

Wit and Luck. You’ll need them both. The gubs are counting on you.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • 20 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.36

Grizzled, the

| OTSG Staff

The Grizzled is a cooperative game about survival in the trenches during the first World War where players win or lose together.

Each round, the current team leader will choose how many cards every player draws. Then, going around the table, players must either play a card in their hand or back out of the mission. Each card represents either threats to the team (such as mortar shells and weather conditions) or negative personality traits (such as frightened or obsessive). At the end of the round, more cards are added to the draw deck. The game ends only if the players can deplete the draw deck as well as their hands without letting time run out.

If one threat shows up too many times, the team fails the mission. The team must play their threats correctly in order to gain any progress. However, most of the information in a players hand remains secret throughout the game.

Planning, teamwork, and a little luck are the tools you’ll need to win this cooperative game for two to five players.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.97

Grimm Forest, the

| OTSG Staff

Welcome to The Grimm Forest, where family members of the legendary Three Little Pigs are having an epic house building competition. But this is no ordinary competition as all the most famous Fairy Tale characters will be looking on and occasionally lending a hand.

Who will benefit most from the cunning of Robin Hood, the beauty of Snow White, the bountiful gifts of the Golden Goose or the dark witchcraft of the Evil Queen?

Using only their wits, a handful of sharp steel tools, and a few stacks of resources gathered at great risk from fields, brickyards, and even the dark and deadly Grimm Forest itself, each player must compete to be the first to build 3 Houses and gain the title of Royal Builder.

Players are encouraged to use any of the devious tricks they have read about in the many books of Fables found throughout the land. Some will have their plans wrecked by that villain of old, the Big Bad Wolf, while others will gain bricks, straw, and wood by the cart load.

Who will brave the dangers, avoid foul monsters, and bring home the victory? There is only one way to find out… get ready to venture into …The Grimm Forest!

Grimm Forest is a 2-4 player strategic game of Hidden Movement, Resource Gathering, and House Building. It is a medium weight game that plays in approximately 45-60 minutes.

During the game, players will play cards secretly to move to various Location boards where they attempt to gather resources. Using their deduction skills and a hand full of Fable cards, players attempt to guess each other’s plans and make the most of their actions while disrupting the other player’s plans.

After resources are collected during the Gather Phase, players will enter a Building Phase where they can use those resources to build Wood, Straw, or Brick Houses. Whenever a player builds a Wall Section on one of their houses, a helpful Friend from the nearby forest comes to lend a hand. Players may choose to accept the help of that Friend, but occasionally it makes more sense to send that Friend to a different player, sometimes discarding their current Friend in the process.

With 16 unique Fable cards and 12 powerful Friend cards, gathering resources in the Grimm Forest can be a difficult and challenging endeavor.

Work hard, deduce correctly, avoid the treachery of the other builders and the sharp teeth of the lurking monsters, and you just might have a chance!

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 45 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.93