Category: Ω Board Games

Fresco: Big Box

| T3d-1978
Fresco: Big Box

Fresco: Big Box

In Fresco, players are master painters, working to restore a fresco in a Renaissance church.

Each round begins with players deciding what time they would like to wake up for the day. The earlier you wake up, the earlier you will be in turn order, and the better options you will be guaranteed to have. Wake up early too often, however, and your apprentices will become unhappy and stop working as efficiently. They would much rather sleep in!

Then, players decide their actions for the turn, deploying their apprentice work force to various tasks. You’ll need to buy paint, mix paint, work on painting the fresco, raise money by painting portraits (which you’ll need to buy the aforementioned paint!), and perhaps even send your apprentices to the opera in order to increase their happiness. Points are scored mostly by painting the fresco, which requires specific combinations of paints, so you’ll need to buy and mix your paints wisely, in addition to beating other players to the paints and frescos you would like to paint.

Fresco: Big Box contains all of the material from the original Fresco game, plus all expansions released through the end of 2012 and the all new 2nd expansion (with modules 8, 9, and 10)! You can play without expansions for a lighter family game, or add in expansions – whether one, two, or all – to vary play and to increase the decision-making and difficulty, resulting in a very flexible game with a high replay value.

Game Mechanics:

  • Set Collection
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.73

Fortune and Glory

| T3d-1978
Fortune and Glory

Fortune and Glory

It is the late 1930s, and the world is in turmoil. Humanity is on the brink of war as imperialist nations in the Far East and Europe work aggressively to expand their domination. The Nazis have taken control of Germany and now spread darkness across the globe in their hunt for powerful occult artifacts that can give them the upper hand in the days to come. But the spirit of adventure and freedom won’t be stamped out so easily.

Heroic adventurers from around the world answer the call, racing against time to hunt down ancient artifacts, explore deadly temples, and fight back the powers of darkness from engulfing the world in flames. It is a race of good versus evil, and only a cunning and agile explorer can claim the ultimate prize of… Fortune and Glory!

Fortune and Glory: The Cliffhanger Game is a fast-paced game of high adventure, vile villains, edge-of-your-seat danger, and cliffhanger pulp movie action. Players take on the role of a treasure hunter, traveling the globe in search of ancient artifacts and fending off danger and villains at every turn in a quest for the ultimate reward of fortune and glory!

Featuring a beautifully rendered adventure map of the world as the game board, eight pulp adventure heroes to choose from (such as Jake Zane the Flying Ace, Li Mei Chen the Night Club Singer and Martial Artist, or Dr. Zhukov Master of Science), an army of ruthless villains and thugs (including the Chicago Mob and the dreaded occult-hunting Nazis), ancient Mayan temples to explore with a zeppelin hovering overhead, a wealth of coins to horde as heroes collect fortune and glory throughout the game, and a unique mechanism of dangers to overcome and the classic cliffhanger moments of suspense that can result. Fortune and Glory is designed to create a pulp serial cinematic feel as the story and game unfold.

So strap on your adventure boots and goggles, fire up the engines on the seaplane, and grab some extra ammo for your revolver…the Nazis already have a head start and in this race for fortune and glory, and there’s no prize for second place!

Features:

  • Designed for strong Competitive and Cooperative play as players race against one another or work together to overcome a Vile Organization bent on world domination through powerful occult artifacts.
  • Photographic artwork for Immersive Pulp Adventure movie action.
  • Thirty-nine highly detailed plastic 28mm miniatures including Heroes, Villains, Enemy Soldiers, Mayan Temples, and a Zeppelin air ship.
  • Comes with an original cd soundtrack to creep its way into the players’ subconscious and raise tension and excitement.
  • No two games are ever the same! Many Heroes, villains to fight, game cards, and dynamically generated artifacts to hunt for offer limitless combinations.
  • Expandable design allows for many expansions and strong web support to create a loyal fan base/community.

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Cooperative
  • Dice Rolling
  • Pick-Up and Deliver
  • Push Your Luck

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 8 Players
  • 90 – 240 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.88

Floating World

| T3d-1978
Floating World

Floating World

Set in feudal Japan, Philosophia: Floating World is a deck-building game which can be played either in turn-taking or fully simultaneous mode. You can build majestic pagodas and Shinto shrines, learn ancient eastern wisdom, explore the world, or fight ancient monsters — or all of the above. This is a sandbox-style game, and how you play is up to you!

In Floating World, you play as one of six unique characters from Edo Japan, each with a unique power and a mysterious secret. The game plays simultaneously over three phases that repeat until one player has gained a victory condition. All phases occur simultaneously, and they are:

  1. The Draw Phase: Draw six cards from your deck, then pass them to another player. They take these cards, discard one of their choice, then separate the remaining five cards into two piles, one containing two cards and one containing three. You do the same for another player, then take your two piles, discarding one of them and playing the other.
  2. The Collect Phase: Collect items and bonuses indicated on the cards in your hand. You may also pay time tokens to perform extra actions in the next phase.
  3. The Action Phase: Simultaneously take actions based on your cards in hand and those that you chose in the collect phase. Disputes caused by the simultaneous nature of these actions are resolved using the influence track, where the player at the top of the track chooses the outcome; choosing in your own interest, however, drops you to the bottom of the track.

Rounds continue in this way until a player gains any of the seven victory conditions available, such as collecting all four ganbaru tokens or discovering another player’s secret location and achieving any two of the ganbaru tokens.

Philosophia: Floating World contains over 200 tarot-sized cards and 12 intricate miniatures and is filled with beautiful Ukiyo-e style Japanese art, all digitally remastered to regain the original vibrance of the era. Welcome to the Floating World!

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building
  • Hand Managment
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 6 Players
  • 45 – 75 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.20

Five Tribes

| T3d-1978
Five Tribes

Five Tribes

Crossing into the Land of 1001 Nights, your caravan arrives at the fabled Sultanate of Naqala. The old sultan just died and control of Naqala is up for grabs! The oracles foretold of strangers who would maneuver the Five Tribes to gain influence over the legendary city-state. Will you fulfill the prophecy? Invoke the old Djinns and move the Tribes into position at the right time, and the Sultanate may become yours!

Designed by Bruno Cathala, Five Tribes builds on a long tradition of German-style games that feature wooden meeples. Here, in a unique twist on the now-standard “worker placement” genre, the game begins with the meeples already in place – and players must cleverly maneuver them over the villages, markets, oases, and sacred places tiles that make up Naqala. How, when, and where you dis-place these Five Tribes of Assassins, Elders, Builders, Merchants, and Viziers determine your victory or failure.

As befitting a Days of Wonder game, the rules are straightforward and easy to learn. But devising a winning strategy will take a more calculated approach than our standard fare. You need to carefully consider what moves can score you well and put your opponents at a disadvantage. You need to weigh many different pathways to victory, including the summoning of powerful Djinns that may help your cause as you attempt to control this legendary Sultanate.

Game Mechanics:

  • Auction/Bidding
  • Set Collection
  • Take That

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 40 – 80 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.85

Firefly: Misbehavin

| T3d-1978
Firefly: Misbehavin

Firefly: Misbehavin

Someone ever tries to kill you, you try to kill ’em right back!

In Firefly: Misbehavin’, players get to control different factions of the Firefly ‘Verse, from the criminal enterprises of Badger or Niska, to the self-righteous Alliance, and even Serenity as Mal attempts to find a crew and keep flyin’.

This deck-building card game gives each player a unique starting deck of cards, as well as access to characters, items, and locations in the Core, Border, and Rim. Compete to control your own corner of the ‘Verse, or play through different episodes with a wide variety of objectives.

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck Building

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.33

Feudalia

| T3d-1978
Feudalia

Feudalia

After an everlasting period of wars, it’s finally time to collect the spoils. The King has named the feudal lords who will bring glory and prosperity to the conquered lands. To that end, the nobles will have to hire workers and master craftsmen to make their feuds grow as well as helping in the construction of a glorious cathedral, a symbol of the King’s proximity to God.

Feudalia is a deck-building and resource management game for 1-4 players, who will take the roles of the feudal lords of the new lands. Each player will rule three feuds, and all the vassals living in them, who will work those lands to improve their territories, all of it while trumping your opponent’s progress with military incursions into their territories. But the King wants his share too, and the tax collector will appear frequently, taking part of the resources stored by the players.

The goal of the game is to be the first player to earn 10 points. Players earn points by building, either developing their own feuds or helping in the different phases of the construction of the cathedral. During a turn, each player plays their vassals from their hand to gather money and resources, to further invest in new workers or new buildings. Resources can be saved, but be careful! the tax collector will show at your door when you least expect him, and he’ll take half your resources from each feud.

Manage your vassals wisely, hire the best master craftsmen, spend your resources in the cathedral before the tax collector arrives, and become the most prosperous feudal lord in Feudalia!

Game Mechanics:

  • City Building
  • Civilization
  • Deck Building
  • Hand Management
  • Negotiation
  • Open Drafting
  • Trading
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • ~90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.11

Far Away

| T3d-1978
Far Away

Far Away

Far Away is a two-player cooperative board game about discovery, survival, and the crushing loneliness of being the only two humans for lightyears.

Join the Federation Alliance, a bureaucracy with an ambitious charter of mapping new worlds and a minimalist budget. Succeed in a variety of missions on randomly generated worlds with unique ecosystems, without luxuries like radios, landing gear, and medical supplies. Trust in your partner is paramount since, without radios, you can’t communicate (in real life) after separating on the game board.

Survive, and you’ll be rewarded with a meager paycheck. Succumb to the planet, and you’ll find help is too Far Away.

The Far Away Program

 

The Federation Alliance started the Far Away program nearly 50 cycles ago to discover and explore new worlds. The missions we undertake are of vital importance to galactic prosperity. However, budget setbacks have forced us to reduce operational expenses. That’s where you, the willing explorer, can help!

Explorer Duties

 

The Federation has several active missions for you to choose. Each offers unique challenges and potential sub-objectives we would love for you to accomplish off-the-clock. Thanks to the randomly generated universe, every mission attempt will be different.

Once you’ve selected a mission and crashed into the planet (landing gear has been deemed “optional”), you must begin surviving. Your goal is to complete the mission and rebuild your ship. You will fail if you die of hunger, loneliness, or multiple grievous injuries. Don’t fail!

Be forewarned: communication will be a challenge. Radios will not be provided, so the only way to communicate with your partner is to be in close physical proximity. Plan ahead! This not only allows you to strategize, but also prevents the psychological meltdown that comes with being alone on an alien world.

Alien Creatures

 

Each planet has a unique ecosystem. Experts have identified upwards of 32 creatures in the known universe, each with their own behavioral patterns.

Explorers will be tasked to Realistically and Objectively Log Events Performed Logically by Animals and Yourself (ROLEPLAY). Creature behavior is dictated by their diet, temperament, and other factors. Explorers are provided a quick guide to educate them on default creature movement, but we encourage explorers to embrace their inner-alien and log the creature actions with creativity and vibrant storytelling.

The Far Away Recruitment Kit

 

Your exploration kit can be delivered straight to your home. Inside the 5.75# box, you’ll find over 800 pieces. We have included an instruction manual so you can assemble your spaceship with minimal government intervention. Please register your DNA online so we can credit your account upon mission completion.

Game Mechanics:

  • Campaign
  • Cooperative
  • Limited Communication
  • Role Playing

Game Specifications:

  • 2 Players
  • 90 – 150 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.91

Familiar Tales

| T3d-1978
Familiar Tales

Familiar Tales

Familiar Tales is a co-operative, deck-building, fantasy adventure for 1-4 players. It’s an exciting narrative game in which players take on the roles of a wizard’s familiars, entrusted with saving and raising a displaced princess. They must keep her safe from the evil forces that would see her dead, but when it comes to children, it is not enough to merely survive! The familiars know that every choice they make will affect the young one in their care. If they are victorious and the throne is reclaimed, what kind of woman will sit upon it?

Players will explore a massive world through the pages of a fantastical story book filled with branching paths and memorable characters. Fight off enemies, and explore the many nooks and crannies of an enchanted world. Experience a professionally narrated, fully scored, decade-spanning fantasy epic. Easily downloadable for both Mac and Windows, this browser-based app is required to play Familiar Tales. Think of it as an automated game master and storyteller! The app also features a digital, searchable rulebook.

An innovative card play system allows players to level up their familiars by building and customizing their skill decks. Players will use their skill cards to perform all manner of exciting actions throughout their campaign.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Campaign
  • Cooperative
  • Deck Building
  • Narrative Choice

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 45 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.75

Fallout

| T3d-1978
Fallout

Fallout

Fallout is a post-nuclear adventure board game for one to four players. Based on the hit video game series by Bethesda Softworks, each Fallout scenario is inspired by a familiar story from the franchise. Survivors begin the game on the edge of an unexplored landscape, uncertain of what awaits them in this unfamiliar world. With just one objective to guide them from the very beginning, each player must explore the hidden map, fight ferocious enemies, and build the skills of their survivor as they attempt to complete challenging quests and balance feuding factions within the game.

As they advance their survivors’ stories, players come across new quests and individual targets, leading them to gain influence. Who comes out ahead depends on how keenly and aggressively each player ventures through the game; however, if a single faction is pushed to power too quickly, the wasteland will be taken for their own, and the survivors conquered along with it.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Area Movement
  • Dice Rolling
  • Hand Management
  • Narrative Choice
  • Role Playing
  • Storytelling

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 120 – 180 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.99

Expedition to Newdale

| T3d-1978
Expedition to Newdale

Expedition to Newdale

At the beginning of the game you have your personal board, a coal mine as your start building and 5 hand cards. Depending on which chapter you are playing, the appropriate game board sits in the middle of the table. Each round is divided into 5 phases which are played in order (or partially parallel, once you become more familiar with the game). 

 

In phase 1, a new event is revealed which usually alters the course of play in this round slightly (e. g., by introducing new buildings). Additionally the event card shows a fixed amount of workers which are available this round. An information which is much appreciated, as you have to place your action markers in phase 2. The latter are numbered 1 — 4 which is important for phase 4 and means that you need to plan ahead. But first phase 3: in this phase, more workers are drawn from a bag and get added to the others. This means that productions which would have been impossible before (because workers were missing) are now easily done. Pushing your luck might be beneficial! Phase 4 is the opposite to phase 2. Instead of placing your workers, you resolve their chosen action in order of their numbers. We hope you had a backup plan in place if your desired workers were not drawn in phase 3, because this can trigger an unpleasant chain of events! 

Not enough workers could mean that a production does not happen, which then means that you might not have enough money to build the building with your second action marker. Oh, and your third marker was planned to directly produce in the newly built building? Well, where there is no building, there’s no place to produce in, right? Clearly: planning ahead, a little luck and good alternatives are the way to success. In Phase 5, all players can either use a free building action or draw new hand cards. 

The last phase is used to resolve all buildings which do not need workers, e. g., an automatic coal production or a building which offers the conversion of a certain good to victory points. Afterwards the next round starts, of which you play a total of seven. A final scoring at the end of round seven will then show if you win or lose.

Game Mechanics:

  • Campaign
  • Economic
  • Hand Management
  • Push Your Luck
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • ~90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.00