Category: Ω Board Games

All Aboard!

| T3d-1978

“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:

  • Hand Management
  • Push Your Luck
  • Take That

Game Specifications:

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

Broom Service

| T3d-1978

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

| T3d-1978

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 Mechanics:

  • Secret Unit Deployment
  • Team-Based Game
  • War Game

Game Specifications:

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

Commit to the Bit

| T3d-1978

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

Curious Cargo

| T3d-1978

I stumbled upon a midnight market. It wasn’t selling flowers or farm goods. It was a more curious sort of cargo: energy capacitors, strange crystalline material, and something green and jiggly. Since then, I’ve been dragged into it, deep into the thick of it.

I paid a stranger more than I should have for manufacturing plans I hardly understood. Worse yet, they sold the same stuff to my best friend. Now, I have to get my supply lines up and running to prepare for shipping my cargo — and if my friend starts shipping some of this curious cargo, I’ll have to intercept their trucks and corner the market that way.

By hook or by crook, I’m going to be the king of curious cargo…

Curious Cargo is a two-player game in which you go head-to-head against your opponent by building up the infrastructure of your facility, calling in trucks at the right moment, all while perfectly timing the shipping and receiving of cargo to score the most points. Connect an interweaving web of lines to your shipping and receiving spaces. Play with two-color conveyor tiles, or step it up for an advanced experience and play with all three colors. Ship your custom-shaped cargo tokens to your opponent to interfere with their logistics plans!

The puzzling nature of Ryan Courtney’s Pipeline comes alive in Curious Cargo! With six unique player boards for each player and two game modes, a skillful challenge awaits even the sharpest competitor.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Network and Route Building
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.18

Cryptozoology for Beginners

| T3d-1978

Hop aboard the bus on a field trip to the legendary Hidden Valley of the Cryptids, where adventure awaits! Will you capture the best photos of mythical creatures to complete the most daring class assignments, or will you be laughed off the trip?

Each round, you’ll draft and play Cryptid cards with unnatural powers to warp the game and bring you closer to victory. Collect matching cards to complete assignments and earn points towards your ultimate goal – becoming a full-fledged supernatural photographer!

-description from publisher

Game Mechanics:

  • Closed Drafting
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 20 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.50

Cryptid: Urban Legends

| T3d-1978

There’s something hiding among us: an elusive cryptid is prowling our city streets. The evidence is clear but, without definitive proof, the scientific community will never believe you. There’s nothing else to be done – you must track down this cryptid yourself!

Play as a determined Scientist manipulating heat, movement, and sonic sensors to scan the city, identify your quarry’s true location, and capture them. Or take the role of a Cryptid, snaking your way through the shadows and back alleys of the metropolis that surrounds you, eliminating all evidence of your existence as you go, desperately avoiding capture. Emerging victorious in this high stakes cat-and-mouse chase, played out across a sprawling urban landscape, will require all your ingenuity and foresight.

Cryptid: Urban Legends is a tense asymmetric game of competitive deductive reasoning for two players from the creators of Cryptid.

Game Mechanics:

  • Grid Management
  • Hand Management

Game Specifications:

  • 2 Players
  • 20 – 40 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.45

Critter Kitchen

| kithorning

In Critter Kitchen, you are a proud restaurant owner determined to set yourself apart during Restaurant Week at Bistro Bay! You’ll do this by completing various ingredient-related challenges over the course of the week and hopefully impressing the celebrity critics with a grand meal at the end of the week. However, you can’t be everywhere at once, meaning you’ll have to rely on your chefs to gather as many ingredients (and rumors!) as they can throughout Bistro Bay. Each round players will simultaneously and secretly decide where to send their workers, and deciding who goes where. Some chefs are fast but can only carry one item, whereas others are slower but can carry much more! Wow the critics and establish yourself as the best restauranter in this adorable game.

Game Mechanics:

  • Contracts
  • Programmed Movement
  • Variable Player Powers
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.51