posts page

Suburbia

| T3d-1978
Suburbia

Suburbia

Plan, build, and develop a small town into a major metropolis. Use hex-shaped building tiles to add residential, commercial, civic, and industrial areas, as well as special points of interest that provide benefits and take advantage of the resources of nearby towns. Your goal is to have your borough thrive and end up with a greater population than any of your opponents.

Suburbia is a tile-laying game in which each player tries to build up an economic engine and infrastructure that will be initially self-sufficient, and eventually become both profitable and encourage population growth. As your town grows, you’ll modify both your income and your reputation. As your income increases, you’ll have more cash on hand to purchase better and more valuable buildings, such as an international airport or a high-rise office building. As your reputation increases, you’ll gain more and more population — and the player with the largest population at the end of the game wins.

During each game, players compete for several unique goals that offer an additional population boost — and the buildings available in each game vary, so you’ll never play the same game twice!

The second edition of Suburbia features updated artwork, larger tiles than in the original game, a dual-sided scoreboard, GameTrayz storage organizers, and more!

Game Mechanics:

  • City Building
  • Economic
  • Open Drafting
  • Set Collection
  • Tableau Building
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.77

Stardew Valley

| T3d-1978
Stardew Valley

Stardew Valley

A cooperative board game of farming and friendship based on the Stardew Valley video game by Eric Barone. Work together with your fellow farmers to save the Valley from the nefarious JojaMart Corporation! To do this, you’ll need to farm, fish, friend and find all kinds of different resources to fulfill your Grandpa’s Goals and restore the Community Center. Collect all kinds of items, raise animals, and explore the Mine. Gain powerful upgrades and skills and as the seasons pass see if you’re able to protect the magic of Stardew Valley!

The goal of the game is to complete Grandpa’s Goals and restore the Community Center, which requires you to gather different types of resources represented by tiles. You have a fixed amount of turns to accomplish this. This is driven by the Season Deck of 20 cards, one of which is drawn each turn to trigger certain events. Cooperatively the players decide each turn where they will focus their individual actions and place their pawn in that part of the Valley. Using their actions, they visit specific locations, trying to gather resources to complete their collective goals. Actions include things like: watering crops, trying to catch fish, rolling dice to explore the mines, and many more. When the Season Deck is exhausted, the game ends.

Game Mechanics:

  • Cooperative
  • Dice Rolling
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 45 – 200 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.76

Starcadia Quest

| T3d-1978
Starcadia Quest

Starcadia Quest

Starcadia Quest is a new standalone campaign game for 2 to 4 players. The dastardly Supreme Commander Thorne is looking to control the galaxy (at least a good portion of it) and each player leads a crew of two heroes flying through space on a quest to defeat him. While they share the same goal, the different crews are not exactly in league with one another. They will compete as much with each other as they do with Thorne and his army.

Game Mechanics:

  • Campaign
  • Dice Rolling
  • Grid Movement

Game Specifications:

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

Star Wars: X-Wing

| T3d-1978
Star Wars: X-Wing

Star Wars: X-Wing

X-Wing Second Edition puts you in command of your own squadron of advanced starfighters locked in thrilling, tactical space combat. Following in the footsteps of the first edition, the second edition refines the intuitive and exciting core formula of maneuvering your ships into position by placing a central focus on the visceral thrill of flying starships in the Star Wars galaxy.

During a battle, you’ll use your squadron’s unique capabilities to give yourself an advantage in the thick of combat. Each X-Wing ship flies differently, with its own set of maneuvers ranging from gentle banks to aggressive Koiogran turns. As in the game’s first edition, you’ll need to use every ship’s maneuvering capabilities to the fullest in order to strategically position your ships. A round begins with players secretly selecting a maneuver on each of their ships’ unique maneuver dials. Once you’ve decided how each of your ships is going to fly, you’ll begin revealing the dials and moving your ships, starting with the lowest skilled pilots.

As you move, you’ll enter a tense duel with your opponent as you both try to line up the perfect shot. Before you can open fire on an opponent’s ship, however, they must be in your firing arc and within range. By carefully selecting your maneuvers, you can get enemy ships in your sights, and once you’ve locked onto your target, you’re free to choose your plan of attack. You might pepper the enemy with blaster fire to whittle away their shields. Or, you could go for massive damage and launch a devastating volley of proton torpedoes. No matter how you approach the battle, you have complete control of your squadron. One player wins when all of their opponent’s ships are destroyed!

Slick flying is certainly important, but it isn’t the only consideration you’ll have to make in the midst of a dogfight. As in the first edition of X-Wing, once your ships have completed a maneuver, you can also perform an action to gain the upper hand. Whether you choose to acquire a target lock on a rival ship or barrel roll out of an enemy’s firing arc, the actions you take affect the course of the battle and determine the fate of your squadron.

Now, in the second edition of the game, your actions offer greater strategic depth than ever before. Some actions are red and induce stress when they are used. Other actions may be linked, allowing you to chain two actions together and push the limits of how your ship can handle in a dogfight!

Game Mechanics:

  • Bluffing
  • Dice Rolling
  • Player Elimination
  • Wargame

Game Specifications:

  • 2 Players
  • 30 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.08

Star Wars: Imperial Assault

| T3d-1978
Star Wars: Imperial Assault

Star Wars: Imperial Assault

Star Wars: Imperial Assault is a strategy board game of tactical combat and missions for two to five players, offering two distinct games of battle and adventure in the Star Wars universe!

Imperial Assault puts you in the midst of the Galactic Civil War between the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire after the destruction of the Death Star over Yavin 4. In this game, you and your friends can participate in two separate games. The campaign game pits the limitless troops and resources of the Galactic Empire against a crack team of elite Rebel operatives as they strive to break the Empire’s hold on the galaxy, while the skirmish game invites you and a friend to muster strike teams and battle head-to-head over conflicting objectives.

In the campaign game, Imperial Assault invites you to play through a cinematic tale set in the Star Wars universe. One player commands the seemingly limitless armies of the Galactic Empire, threatening to extinguish the flame of the Rebellion forever. Up to four other players become heroes of the Rebel Alliance, engaging in covert operations to undermine the Empire’s schemes. Over the course of the campaign, both the Imperial player and the Rebel heroes gain new experience and skills, allowing characters to evolve as the story unfolds.

Imperial Assault offers a different game experience in the skirmish game. In skirmish missions, you and a friend compete in head-to-head, tactical combat. You’ll gather your own strike force of Imperials, Rebels, and Mercenaries and build a deck of command cards to gain an unexpected advantage in the heat of battle. Whether you recover lost holocrons or battle to defeat a raiding party, you’ll find danger and tactical choices in every skirmish.

As an additional benefit, the Luke Skywalker Ally Pack and the Darth Vader Villain Pack are included within the Imperial Assault Core Set. These figure packs offer sculpted plastic figures alongside additional campaign and skirmish missions that highlight both Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader within Imperial Assault.

Game Mechanics:

  • Campaign
  • Dice Rolling
  • Grid Movement
  • Role Playing
  • Team Based
  • Wargame

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • 60 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.30

Spectre

| T3d-1978
Spectre

Spectre

In SPECTRE: The Board Game, you take on the role of one of the many iconic villains from the James Bond film franchise, competing with one another to become Number One of the Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion, a.k.a., SPECTRE.

Are you simply in the game to acquire gold bullion, or are your aspirations more philosophical, safe in the knowledge that the world would be better off with you running it? Each villain has their own plot inspired by films such as Dr. No (1962) and Diamonds Are Forever (1971) driving them along the path to becoming SPECTRE’s Number One. No matter how hard you try, though, 007 is always there, waiting to disrupt your plans and reveal your secrets.

SPECTRE: The Board Game features iconic weapons, locations, and characters from the James Bond films. You will be able to assemble devices, spy on your opponents, blackmail your rivals in order to build your own criminal empire, and strategically deploy your agents around the globe to infiltrate key installations. You need to work behind the scenes to develop your nefarious plots and become 007’s biggest threat, so grab your Persian cat and call your favorite henchman as you prepare your newest monologue — it’s time to get down to business and start building that moon base and world-destroying megalaser!

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Auction/Bidding
  • Cooperative
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 20 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.67

Speakeasy Blues

| T3d-1978
Speakeasy Blues

Speakeasy Blues

Speakeasy Blues brings players back to 1920s Prohibition Era New York City when hooch smuggling, mobsters, dirty cops and the rich and famous ruled the nights. In order to make your mark as well as your fortune, you’ll need to create the most prestigious speakeasy of the time before the 18th Ammendment is repealed.

Collect expensive items such as yachts or cars to prove your worth. Invite in well known historical figures of society of the time to class up the joint. Make deals with mobsters while being careful to hide them from view during classy soires lest they detract from your reputation. Do favors for dirty cops to add to your set collection as well as to allow you to bust any mobsters on the attack from competing hooch vending entrepreneurs.

Of course, there is Jazz to liven up the night and add bonuses to your action selections as well as Soires to provide additional cash flow and reputation to your gin joint. So roll the dice, draft a set for worker placement and enjoy a strategic and thematic delve into the high society, law breaking, liquor driven endeavors of the time. May the most hoppin’ and shakin’ speakeasy win!

Game Mechanics:

  • Dice Rolling
  • Set Collection
  • Take That
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.86

Space Station Phoenix

| T3d-1978
Space Station Phoenix

Space Station Phoenix

Space Station Phoenix is a worker-placement and resource management game set in one of Earth’s possible futures. The players are representatives of the Galactic Council, sent to Earth to build space stations to observe and perhaps interact with humanity.

Players begin the game with nine ships and a station hub. These ships act as action spaces that players use to gather resources, explore the nearby planets, and build their stations. Turns are fast and straightforward; either take ship action or take income.

Many games start players off with a small resource engine which they build up to a bigger one. In Space Station Phoenix, players start with the best production engine they will ever have and proceed to break it down part by part. As the game progresses, their actions get more efficient, but the number of ways to take those actions starts to diminish.

Space Station Phoenix also features deep re-playability with millions of possible starting positions and station parts combinations.

Game Mechanics:

  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.82

Space Gate Odyssey

| T3d-1978
Space Gate Odyssey

Space Gate Odyssey

The future of humanity awaits you in Space Gate Odyssey. A system of viable exoplanets has been recently discovered and the Confederations are flocking into space to colonize it. In this 2 to 4-player development and flow-management board game, you play the leader of one of these Confederations and play your influence in the Odyssey command station to send as many of your settlers as you can on these exoplanets.

After decades of research and technological development, humanity is preparing to leave the Earth to colonize this discovered system. To get there, only one possible means of transport exists: space gates. For reasons related to physics and other quantum aspects, these gates can be built only in space. The Confederations have therefore embarked on the construction of their own station in orbit, equipped with space gates.

At the beginning of the colonizing era, these portals make it possible to go on one of the first three discovered planets. As soon as an entire contingent of settlers has joined the gate of a space station, it is teleported to the corresponding exoplanet. The landing conditions vary according to the planets and the choice of colonized spots quickly becomes strategic.

As soon as one of the three exoplanets is fully colonized, each Confederation gains influence according to its placement, then access to one of the two later discovered exoplanets becomes possible. At the end of the colonization of the five exoplanets, the stations are teleported to the Hawking planet and the influence of each Confederation is assessed. The leader of the most influential Confederation will be promoted to the rank of Governor of this new system.

One of the biggest challenges in Space Gate Odyssey is your ability to quickly develop and intelligently arrange your space station. The better you optimize the flow of your settlers to your station, then to the exoplanets, the more of them you can send to the favorable spots and thus gain influence.

The choice of the modules, their arrangement, and the distance between the airlocks and the gates are therefore essential elements — especially since, at the end of the game, the domains of the modules you used to build your station will bring you additional influence points if they are in line with the position of the domains on the Hawking planet Predominance.

Finally, you must be careful not to leave too many open corridors on the space void as this represents a real danger for your settlers and could therefore damage your reputation.

Your most amazing quest starts with Space Gate Odyssey. Will you be able to take over your opponents in order to take control of the new system, or will you stay at the dock?

Game Mechanics:

  • Network Building
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.79

Sorcerer

| T3d-1978
Sorcerer

Sorcerer

Sorcerer: A Strategy Card Game is set in what the company describes as a grim, gaslamp lit world full of fantastic, mythical creatures and sorcery. Designed for two to four players, the game pits two ancient beings of great power against one another to determine which of their lineage are strongest. The players use sorcery to conjure minions, cast spells, and wield enchanted items to reach the game’s goal of conquering three battlefields.

The game uses a simple resource system of “energy” that is determined randomly by a dice-roll at the beginning of each round, to make sure no round is the same. However, the outcome being the same for both players, the game balance stays even. This energy is then used in the Action Phase for conjuring minions from your hand on any of three battlefields, casting possessions that can improve your minion’s traits and abilities; or sorcery cards with various direct effects. Also as an action you can add more energy to your Energy Pool, draw more cards, move minions to another battlefield etc. The choice is yours, it is just about your pure skill to handle the battle preparation!

In the Battle Phase players roll amount of custom dice equal to each minion’s attack trait with possible outcome of miss, hit, double hit or critical hit for each die, and place damage counters on the respective minions or directly to the Battlefield. A unique system of Omen tokens then allows to adjust this outcome by re-rolling the dice, before distributing the damage among opponent’s minions and battlefield.

The combination of usual mechanics like story driven deck building, push your luck or dice-rolling; and a unique system of influencing the outcome of the battle, provides a perfect balance between strategy and random elements (even you still have the possibility to influence the outcome). Dividing the round to the Action Phase and Battle Phase then creates a very pleasant and natural flow of the hardcore game play.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Deck Building
  • Dice Rolling
  • Open Drafting
  • Push Your Luck

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.90