Tag: Push Your Luck

In games with a Push Your Luck mechanic, players must decide when to settle on existing resource gains for a turn, or risk those gains for further rewards.

Sea of Clouds

| T3d-1978
Sea of Clouds

Sea of Clouds

​In Sea of Clouds, as captain of a flying pirate ship, recruit a cutthroat crew, collect relics and unearth the best rum by gathering shares of Loot. Then send your pirates aboard enemy ships to plunder their treasure!

In each round of the game, players take turns divvying up shares of Loot to gain Rum, Relics, Objects, and Pirates. In some rounds, when ships are flying close together, they will also clash in a Boarding action, using the effects of any Pirates they picked up to gain Doubloons and plunder Loot.

On your turn, take the first of the three shares of Loot on the table, and look at it secretly. You must decide to either take all the cards in the Share then add the top card from the deck face-down to this Loot space, or to leave the Share and look at the next one. If you choose to do the latter, add the top card from the deck to the Share you declined (or a Doubloon, if there’s already three cards), thus increasing its value for the next player. If no shares interest you, blindly take the top card of the deck.

The card backs give you a hint about what’s in the next Shares: Pirates to board other ships, legendary Relics to collect, Rum to be scored at the end of the game, and Items with permanent, immediate, or secret effects.

Every 4 or 5 rounds (depending on the number of players), Boarding action will occur! Add the strength of your Captain and your Pirates, apply any bonuses or penalties, and face your two neighbors! For each victory, your Pirates will gain Doubloons or steal some Loot! After the fight, all Pirates are discarded.

The game ends after 12 (or 15) rounds. Players then add the value of their Doubloons and their Loot cards to determine who’s the winner.

Game Mechanics:

  • Open Drafting
  • Push Your Luck
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.74

Port Royal: Big Box

| T3d-1978
Port Royal: Big Box

Port Royal: Big Box

The merchant players in Port Royal, which won the Austrian Game Designers Competition under the title Händler der Karibik, are trying to earn as much as they can out of the Caribbean Sea, but if they set their goals too high, they might take home nothing for the day.

The 120-card deck depicts a coin on the back of each card — with players earning and paying coins throughout the game — and different items on the card fronts. On a turn, a player can first draw as many cards as he likes, one at a time from the deck, placing them in the harbor (an area near the deck). Each card shows one of the following:

  • Person, who stays in a face-up row next to deck.
  • Ship, which the player can attack immediately if he has enough swords on his people cards, after which the ship is discarded; otherwise, the ship stays in the harbor.
  • Expedition, which remains above the harbor until a player fulfills it by discarding people who have the items required for the expedition.
  • Tax Increase, which forces everyone with twelve or more coins to discard half their money, after which the card is discarded.

If the player draws a ship with the same name as a ship already in the harbor, he’s spent too much time dilly-dallying and his turn ends (after using the ship to attack, if possible), with all the cards in the harbor being discarded. Otherwise, the player can stop whenever he likes, then use/acquire one card if three or fewer ships are in the harbor, two cards if four ships are present, and three cards if five ships are present. Players rob ships, collecting the number of coins shown on them, then discarding the card, while they hire people, paying the number of coins depicted. After the active player takes his 1-3 cards, each other player may pay the active player one coin in order to take one card in the same way.

When one player has at least twelve influence points — which are on both people and expedition cards — the game is played to the end of the round, giving everyone the same number of turns, then the player with the most influence points wins.

Game Mechanics:

  • Economic
  • Move Through Deck
  • Open Drafting
  • Push Your Luck
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • 20 – 50 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.67

Nut Hunt

| T3d-1978
Nut Hunt

Nut Hunt

Nut Hunt is a fast-paced squirrel placement game where 1-5 players battle for control of the forest.

But watch out!

The wily fox roams the board scattering squirrels.

Clever players will use the fox to their advantage, positioning their critters to scatter onto favorable territories, or strategically hassling the fox to foil their opponents’ plans.

Turns in Nut Hunt are fast paced and intuitive with one mandatory action: Move the Fox (causing squirrel scattering, and nut foraging), followed by your choice of one optional action: Recruit a Squirrel, Hassle the Fox, or Scout an Objective.

Game Mechanics:

  • Dice Rolling
  • Hand Management
  • Network Building
  • Push Your Luck
  • Set Collection

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.80

Meeple Circus

| T3d-1978
Meeple Circus

Meeple Circus

You have only one goal in Meeple Circus: Entertain the audience. The competition is tough, but you can create the most amazing circus by proposing incredible acts! Acrobats, horses, and many accessories are at your disposal. Be sure to undertake a good rehearsal, then with your remarkable dexterity, you can give them the show of their lifetime. Once the circus music starts, all eyes will be upon you!

In short, Meeple Circus is a dexterity game in which you do what all gamers do when setting up a game: Pile up your meeples!

Game Mechanics:

  • Dexterity
  • Open Drafting
  • Pattern Building
  • Push Your Luck

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • ~45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.45

King of Tokyo: Monster Box

| T3d-1978
King of Tokyo: Monster Box

King of Tokyo: Monster Box

The fight for dominating the city of Tokyo has never been so competitive! This explosive Monster Box is filled with fun and adrenaline! Get King of Tokyo and all of its indispensable Power Up! and Halloween expansions for hours and hours of smashes. Use your Monster’s Evolution Cards to get even more special properties, and dress them up for even more fun! The Monster Box also comes with a brand new version of Gigazaur, exclusive cards and a new dice tray, some much needed bonuses to destroy Tokyo in style!
With the Monster Box awesome content, smash like never before!

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Dice Rolling
  • Open Drafting
  • Player Elimination
  • Push Your Luck
  • Take That

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.40

King of Tokyo: Dark Edition

| T3d-1978
King of Tokyo: Dark Edition

King of Tokyo: Dark Edition

King of Tokyo: Dark Edition is a collector’s edition [limited edition: 100 000 copies in 12 languages] of King of Tokyo, with the fight taking place in an alternative and darker world in which the struggle for control of Tokyo has never been so fierce…and wicked!

This edition includes deluxe components (such as an embossed box and lightning-bolt-shaped energy) and all-new art by Paul Mafayon. The game is based on the classic KoT rules, with the addition of a new mechanism exclusive to this edition to offer a fresh gaming experience.

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Control
  • Dice Rolling
  • Open Drafting
  • Player Elimination
  • Push Your Luck

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.65

Fireball Island: The Curse of Vul-Kar

| T3d-1978
Fireball Island: The Curse of Vul-Kar

Fireball Island: The Curse of Vul-Kar

Welcome to Fireball Island! You may have heard stories. You may have visited when you were younger. Perhaps you even saw a fireball engulf a fellow traveler in a hellscape of horror that makes you afraid to close your eyes at night. Whatever the case, welcome back! Turns out that Vul-Kar didn’t like having his gem stolen way back when, so there has been some volcanic upheaval, an explosion in our snake population, feral tigers, new types of trees bent on ending human life, and swarms of bees everywhere. But don’t worry — we have top people working on it.

Start your day of adventure at the helipad. Be sure to sign the waiver, which legally obligates you to take snapshots across the island. You’ll race down the many paths, avoiding hazards all the while. On the plus side, you get to keep all the treasure you find.

Fireball Island: The Curse of Vul-Kar is a restoration of the classic 1986 game Fireball Island that features a unique 3D island and a host of marble mayhem. This new version boasts an island that is even bigger than the original (and yet fits in a smaller box) and more marbles. It is a family-weight game for 2-4 players that plays in 30-45 minutes. Simple card play replaces the random roll-and-move of the original, and the set collection for the treasures offers some interesting choices for players.

Remember, you don’t have to outrun the fireball — just the other players.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Area Movement
  • Dexterity
  • Push Your Luck
  • Set Collection
  • Take That

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 45 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.50

Escape the Curse of the Temple

| T3d-1978
Escape the Curse of the Temple

Escape the Curse of the Temple

Escape is played in real-time, with all players rolling dice and taking actions simultaneously. You must roll the right symbols to enter a room, and if you’re at an open doorway, you can roll to reveal the next tile in the stack and add it to that doorway. Some rooms contain combinations of red and blue symbols, and if you (possibly working with other players in the same room) roll enough red or blue symbols, you “discover” magic gems, moving them from a separate gem depot onto that tile.

The real-time aspect is enforced by a soundtrack to be played during the game. At certain points, a countdown starts, and if players aren’t back in the safe room when time is up, they lose one of their dice.

Once the exit tile is revealed, players can attempt to escape the temple by moving to that tile, then rolling a number of blue dice equal to the magic gems that haven’t been removed from the gem depot. Thus, the more gems you find, the easier it is to escape the temple. When a player escapes, he gives one die to a player of his choice. If all players escape before the third countdown, everyone wins; if not, everyone loses, no matter how many players did escape.

Game Mechanics:

  • Cooperative
  • Dexterity
  • Dice Rolling
  • Grid Movement
  • Push Your Luck
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • 10 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.48

Endangered Orphans of Condyle Cove

| T3d-1978
Endangered Orphans of Condyle Cove

Endangered Orphans of Condyle Cove

A deplorable tabletop game devoid of joy, hope, or humor, which, regrettably, is also far more awesome than it has any right to be.

In Endangered Orphans of Condyle Cove, players take turns choosing to move around the board, playing options to either help their orphan survive, or make their opponent’s orphan suffer.

When an orphan either runs out of options, or in an act of desperation, reveals the boogeyman, the boogeyman takes the orphan.

When all but one orphan is taken by the boogeyman, the game ends, and the last orphan to survive is the winner.

Game Mechanics:

  • Player Elimination
  • Push Your Luck
  • Take That

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 10 – 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.65

Codenames: Marvel

| T3d-1978

Codenames: Marvel combines the hit social word game Codenames, while featuring characters and locations from the Marvel Universe including, Spider Man, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Avengers and Doctor Strange.

In Codenames, two teams — S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra in this case — compete to see who can guess all of their field agents (identified by either a word or picture) correctly first — but those field agents are hiding in plain sight in a 5×5 grid that includes the agents of the other team, neutral words, and an assassin that will cause you to lose the game immediately if you guess it. One person on each team is a spymaster and only these two know which agents belong to each team. Spymasters take turns giving one-word clues that can help their teammates identify multiple agents on the board. Their teammates try to guess agents of the right color while avoiding those that belong to the opposing team — and everyone wants to avoid the assassin.

Game Mechanics:

  • Deduction
  • Limited Communication
  • Memory
  • Party Game
  • Push Your Luck
  • Team-Based Game

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 8 Players
  • ~15 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.17