Tag: Deck Bag and Pool Building

Arctic Scavengers: Base Game+HQ+Recon

| OTSG Staff

In the year 2097, the entire Earth was enveloped in a cataclysmic shift in climate, plunging the globe into another ice age. Nearly 90% of the world’s population was eliminated, driving the survivors to band together into loose communities and tribes.

In Arctic Scavengers, you are the leader of a small tribe of survivors. Resources, tools, medicine, and mercenaries are all in scarce supply. You and your tribe are pitted against up to four other tribes in a fight for survival. Build up your tribe, skirmish against other players head-to-head, or even bluff your way to victory. The player with the largest tribe at the end of the game is declared the winner!

As the competing tribes develop and grow, headquarters are established for each tribe thanks to the components in the included HQ expansion. This base camp consists of a Tribal Leader (complete with special abilities) and the potential to construct buildings that can be used strategically during game play. Additionally, the game introduces alternative victory paths, new mercenaries, new tools, and the addition of the “engineering schematics” pile.

As the tribes evolve further and struggle for dominance, information becomes the most valuable currency. In the new world mapped out in the Recon, deception reigns, leading to a need for reconnaissance. This expansion adds new tribe leader roles, new mercenaries, new equipment, and new levels of player interaction (i.e., new ways to make your opponents feel pain).

Arctic Scavengers: Base Game+HQ+Recon comes with a plastic insert to organize all your cards for ease in play setup.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • 45 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.26

Astro Knights: Eternity

| OTSG Staff

You and your group of rag-tag intergalactic scrappers are suddenly faced with the responsibility of defending your home world from those that seek to destroy it. Join forces and work together in this cooperative deck builder to strategically defeat the Boss before they destroy you and all you love. Play through all the scenarios and master the new mechanics introduced in this stand-alone continuation of the Astro Knights series!

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 45 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.86

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

Abandon all Artichokes 🔵

| OTSG Staff

Abandon All Artichokes isn’t your garden-variety card game!

A bumper-crop of prickly produce has overtaken your patch, and there’s only one choice: abandon all artichokes! Prune your deck by harvesting fresh vegetables, each with a special power that lets you swap, discard, or compost cards. You need luck, strategy, and a green thumb to grow a winning hand!

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~20 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.32

Aeon’s End 🟡 TAGS

| OTSG Staff

The survivors of a long-ago invasion have taken refuge in the forgotten underground city of Gravehold. There, the desperate remnants of society have learned that the energy of the very breaches the beings use to attack them can be repurposed through various gems, transforming the malign energies within into beneficial spells and weapons to aid their last line of defense: the breach mages.

Aeon’s End is a cooperative game that explores the deckbuilding genre with a number of innovative mechanisms, including a variable turn order system that simulates the chaos of an attack, and deck management rules that require careful planning with every discarded card. Players will struggle to defend Gravehold from The Nameless and their hordes using unique abilities, powerful spells, and, most importantly of all, their collective wits.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • ~60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.79

Dice Realms

| OTSG Staff

In Dice Realms, players vie to improve and expand their Medieval realms, while contending with Fate. Realms are represented by customizable dice with faces that can be popped out and upgraded for better ones.

Each game is different as during setup, players draw five tiles (from a bag of 35) to determine which extra die faces will be available beyond the five standard lines of faces: lands (victory points), farming (grain), commerce (coins), settlements (defense), and progress (upgrades). Each player begins with two identical dice and can gain more dice during play, in addition to upgrading their starting dice.

Play is mostly simultaneous. To begin, players roll their dice, with one player rolling the Fate die, which affects all players.

If Winter appears on the Fate die, players must pay 1 grain for each die they own or take a -2 point “misery” chip for each grain they lack. Players may then re-roll one die for free and use any re-roll or “set-a-die” tokens (that allow you to choose the die face result) that they have previously invested in for further control.

Players then resolve any attacks showing, starting with the Fate die and then clockwise, with each player’s attack affecting all their rivals. Each shield showing on your dice lets you ignore one attack. Successful attacks can cost players grain, the use of a die for a turn, or even the loss of a die face (which can be later rebuilt).

Players collect any victory points (VPs), grain, and coins shown on their die faces. Coins are used to acquire upgrades, purchase re-roll and set-a-die tokens, repair destroyed die faces, or buy a new die — which also costs 2 grain — expanding their realm. At most 1 coin can be saved in your treasury from round to round.

Upgrades are the heart of the game. Players receive upgrades from upgrade symbols showing or by spending coins. Die faces have 1, 2, or 4 dots on them. To change from a 1 to a 4 in the same color — such as from a yellow face collecting 2 grain to the 4-dot version that collects 4 grain and 2 coins — costs three upgrades, whereas changing from one face to a different color face at the same level costs just one upgrade.

Using upgrades, crossgrades, and the “free reroll” each turn, players can craft their dice to specialize them and dramatically “tilt” the probability that a desired face is rolled. Of course, players will want different things at different times: upgrades to get going; coins to expand their realms; food if a string of harsh winters are rolled; defense against that pesky Robber on the Fate die; VP chips to race for victory; or whatever die face is the key to winning a particular setup.

If during a round any player needs to use a 10 VP token, a -10 misery token, or a 10 grain token (because all of the smaller value tokens have been used), then the game ends after finishing that round; otherwise, the player with the Fate die passes it clockwise to the next player and a new round begins.

When the game ends, players tally their points earned, both from VP chips and improved die faces, with 2-dot faces being worth 1 VP and 4-dot faces being worth 2 VP. Whoever has the most VPs wins.

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck, Bag, and Pool Building
  • Dice Rolling
  • Re-rolling and Locking
  • Variable Set-up

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 45 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.40

Dice Forge

| OTSG Staff

Heroes, stand ready! The gods are offering a seat in heaven to whichever hero defeats their rivals. Your courage and wits will be your most precious allies as you use divine dice to gather resources along the road to victory.

Your divine dice are exceptional, with removable faces! Customize your dice to make them more powerful as the game progresses. Sacrifice gold to the gods to obtain enhanced die faces. Upgrade your dice to produce the resources you need. Overcome ordeals concocted by the gods to grow in glory and earn rewards. Skillfully manage the luck of the dice and take charge of your destiny. Only the greatest will ascend to the heavens!

Dice Forge is a development game featuring innovative mechanics based on dice with removable faces. In this dice crafting game, players build their own dice. Roll your dice, manage your resources, complete ordeals before your opponents and explore multiple winning strategies.

Now you control the luck of the dice!

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck, Bag, and Pool Building
  • Open Drafting
  • Random Production

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.97

Cubitos

| OTSG Staff

Be fast or be last!

In Cubitos, players take on the role of participants in the annual Cube Cup, a race of strategy and luck to determine the Cubitos Champion. Each player has a runner on the racetrack and a support team, which is represented by all the dice you roll. Each turn, you roll dice and use their results to move along the racetrack, buy new dice, and use abilities — but you must be careful not to push your luck rolling too much or you could bust!

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck, Bag, and Pool Building
  • Dice Rolling
  • Market
  • Push Your Luck
  • Race
  • Re-rolling and Locking
  • Variable Set-up

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.17

Clank! In! Space!

| OTSG Staff

The evil Lord Eradikus has all but conquered the galaxy and is now on a victory lap across the sector in his flagship, Eradikus Prime. He may rule with an iron grip, but his most prized artifacts are about to slip through his cyborg claws. You and your fellow thieves have challenged each other to sneak aboard his ship, hack your way into its command module, and steal from him.

Along the way, you’ll recruit allies and snatch up extra loot. But one false step and — Clank! Careless noise draws the attention of Lord Eradikus. Hacking into his command module and stealing his artifacts increases his rage. You’d better hope your friends are louder than you are if you want to make it to an escape pod and get out alive…

Clank! In! Space! is built on the same game system as Clank!: A Deck-Building Adventure, with players building a personal deck of cards throughout the course of the game, with the cards allowing them to move through the spaceship, attack things, acquire new cards, and — oh yeah — make noise to attract Lord Eradikus and potentially seal their own doom.

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck, Bag, and Pool Building
  • Modular Board
  • Open Drafting
  • Player Elimination
  • Push Your Luck

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 45 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.58

Clank! Catacombs

| OTSG Staff

The catacombs of the skeletal dragon Umbrok Vessna are mysterious and dangerous. Portals transport you all around the dungeon depths. Wayshrines offer vast riches to intrepid explorers. Prisoners are counting on you to free them. Ghosts, once disturbed, may haunt you to death. Despite all that, it’s time to leave the board behind with Clank! Catacombs, a standalone deck-building adventure.

Each trip into the catacombs is unique since you lay tiles to create the dungeon. You can play using only the all-new dungeon deck, or you can include cards from previous Clank! expansions.

Find your fortune (and escape the dragon!) in Clank! Catacombs.

Game Mechanics:

  • Deck, Bag, and Pool Building
  • Map Addition
  • Map Deformation
  • Modular Board
  • Open Drafting
  • Player Elimination
  • Push Your Luck
  • Tile Placement
  • Variable Set-up

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 45 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.50