Tag: Solo / Solitaire Game

Floriferous

| OTSG Staff

YOUR GARDEN AWAITS
Spend the afternoon in your Floriferous garden. Relax while enjoying this elegant game of strolling through your garden and collecting flowers. Find joy in the abundance of nature. Find the most joy by collecting flowers and pairing them with abundance, desire, and mastery cards.

Floriferous is played over three days, which are divided into five turns. Each turn, a player moves one step through the garden. After each move, the player picks up a flower or desire card. After three days, players sum their scores for their desires, mastery, and points earned during the game. The player with the most points wins.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 20 – 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.71

Flatiron

| OTSG Staff

The Flatiron Building, originally known as the Fuller Building, is a historic 22-story skyscraper located in Manhattan, New York. It is known for its distinctive triangular shape reminiscent of an old-fashioned clothes iron. Since its construction in 1902, it has become one of the most recognizable icons on the New York City skyline, situated at the intersection of Fifth Avenue with Broadway, East 22nd Street, and East 23rd Street.

In Flatiron, you will be transported to the Big Apple to participate in the construction of this iconic building. Both you and your opponent will need to develop your companies by adding new cards to your personal board, thereby allowing you to perform more and better actions on each of the surrounding streets. The ultimate goal is to earn more points than your opponent, primarily by undertaking construction tasks but also by maintaining an impeccable public image and adhering to the decrees of the New York City Council. When the roof is placed, and everything is ready for the grand opening, the game ends. Victory and recognition will go only to the player who has accumulated the most points.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 2 Players
  • ~45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.62

Fit to Print

| OTSG Staff

Fit to Print is a puzzly tile-laying game about breaking news, designed by Peter McPherson and set in a charming woodland world created by Ian O’Toole!

Thistleville is the world’s most bustling little town — it’s a challenge to keep up with everything going on, from who took home first prize for their baked goods at the community fair to who has been digging in Mrs. Brambleberry’s carrot patch.

As an editor at one of the local newspapers, your job is to tell their stories!

The front page is due in just a few hours and you have no time for perfection. Grab the big stories before the other papers get a chance, and make sure you get the right photos too. A newspaper is a business, so the money has to come from somewhere — don’t forget the ads! After you’ve picked out a combination of stories, photos, and ads, it’s time to lay out the front page. Did you take enough tiles to fill the paper, but not so many that things have to be cut? Over the course of three hectic days, your skills will be tested as you compete to be the most newsworthy editor!

Fit To Print is a tile-laying game for the whole family. Players simultaneously collect newspaper tiles, stacking them on their desks until they think they have what they need to make the perfect front page. Then, they will yell “Layout!” and begin to lay out the page by carefully considering the placement of centerpieces, articles, photographs, and advertisements. When everything is just right, they yell “Print” to be the first off the press and gain their choice of centerpiece for the next round! This hectic spatial puzzle features over 100 unique newspaper tiles, 6 characters with their own special abilities, as well as 3 decks of Breaking News cards — so that each and every time you play you will be solving a new puzzle!

If real-time games aren’t your style, Fit to Print has a number of alternative modes to satisfy every type of puzzle gamer. In Slo-Mode players take turns drafting tiles from a shared market and arranging them on their front pages. In Puzzle Mode, take a specific set of tiles and piece together the highest-scoring arrangements. Whether you enjoy relaxing solo puzzles on your own, or frenetic action for up to 6 players, you will have a blast helping the critters of Thistleville tell their stories!

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 6 Players
  • 15 – 30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.12

Finspan

| OTSG Staff

You are a marine researcher seeking to find and observe an array of aquatic life in the colorful Sunlight Zone, ghostly Twilight Zone, and pitch-black Midnight Zone of the world’s seas and oceans. In Finspan, the fish you discover over four weeks will generate a series of benefits as you dive deeper into the ocean.

Each dive site specializes in a key aspect of expanding your research:

  • Grow your collection of fish.
  • Discover freshly laid eggs.
  • Hatch eggs into young and consolidate young to form schools.

The winner is the player with the most points gained from fish, eggs, young, schools, and achievements.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • 45 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.33

Fabled: The Spirit Lands

| OTSG Staff

The End of Times is coming. The Gods have ruled over the human and spirits worlds for æons, but soon the time will come for them to depart into oblivion. On the verge of the Universe facing its rebirth, the Gods will entrust its reigns to the worthiest among the sage brotherhoods of humans. The greatest contest has begun, one neither world has ever seen before!

In Fabled, your brotherhood explores the fabulous lands of the spirit world. Your sages follow winding paths and visit fabled places along the way. Mighty allies assist them in their journey. Your ultimate goal is to gather books of wisdom, as they contain the magic essence of the Universe. The most prized of all are the books of Sun. The brotherhood to collect the most will receive the reins of the Universe from the Gods.

You have two ways to experience the game: competitively or opposing the Spirits — a game-controlled brotherhood created by the Gods. The Spirits may be faced solo, cooperatively with other players, or each player for themselves.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • 40 – 75 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.50

Ezra and Nemahiah

| OTSG Staff

In his first year as king of Persia, Cyrus the Great issued a decree in writing to the Israelite exiles living under his rule:

The God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and has appointed me to build a temple for Him in Jerusalem. Any of his people may go up to Jerusalem in Judah to build the temple of the Lord, the God of Israel. And in any place where survivors may now be living, the people of Persia are to provide them with silver, gold, goods, livestock, and offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem. – Ezra 1:2-4 (paraphrased).

Decades later, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes reign, the king noticed a sadness in his cupbearer, Nehemiah. When asked why he looked so ill, Nehemiah replied:

May the king live forever! Why should I not look sad when the city of my ancestors lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire? If it pleases you, and if I have found favor in your sight, let me go to the city in Judah where my ancestors are buried so that I may rebuild it. – Nehemiah 2:3-5 (paraphrased).

The aim of Ezra and Nehemiah is to be the player with the most victory points (VP) at game’s end. Points are gained primarily by building the temple, rebuilding the city walls and gates, and by teaching the Torah to the returning exiles. Players may also seek to develop their land, travel to settlements outside the city walls, or stoke the altar’s fire to keep it burning day and night. The prophets Haggai and Zechariah will be doing their part to keep the people focused on what is most important.

Over three weeks (rounds), players will use their hand of cards, workers, and resources to do their part in rebuilding the great city of Jerusalem. After six days of work comes a Sabbath day of rest when food will be needed, and the week’s work will be reflected upon. The game ends after the third Sabbath has been completed.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 90 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.83

Expeditions

| OTSG Staff

The sequel to Scythe sends players on a new adventure into Siberia, where a massive meteorite crashed near the Tunguska River, awakening ancient corruption. An expedition led by Dr. Tarkovsky ventures into the taiga to learn about the meteorite and its impact on the land. Itching for adventure, heroes from the war privately fund their own expeditions to Siberia, hoping to find artifacts, overcome challenges, and ultimately achieve glory. Expeditions has completely different mechanisms than Scythe, though the goal was to capture some of the same feelings that Scythe evokes, with a slightly darker, more supernatural theme.

Expeditions is a competitive, card-driven, engine-building game of exploration. Play cards to gain power, guile, and unique worker abilities; move your mech to mysterious locations and gain cards found among the tiles; use workers, items, meteorites, and quests to enhance your mech; and use power and guile to vanquish corruption.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.05

Everdell Duo

| OTSG Staff

In Everdell Duo, you either compete against your single opponent or play co-operatively with another player to earn the most points. You accomplish this by placing workers to gather resources, then use those resources to play cards face up in front of you, creating your own woodland city.

Cards may be played from your hand or from the face-up area on the board called the meadow. However, only cards touching the sun or moon token may be played from the meadow, and players move these tokens each time they perform a turn. Therefore, planning for and timing which cards you play is critical.

Each game you try to achieve various events, the requirements of which differ from game to game, making certain cards and combinations more important to pursue.

The game lasts for four seasons, then players add their scores to determine the winner. If you’re playing co-operatively, check the requirements for the chapter you are playing to see whether you have won.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 2 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.74

Evacuation

| OTSG Staff

“Hurry to the ship! Twelve houses from our town have already burned down!”

In Evacuation, life on our planet is being burned away thanks to increasingly intense sunlight, so everyone is trying to move all the people and factories in their territories from the “old” planet to a new one — and they have only four rounds in which to do so.

You start the game with a full functioning economy, and over the course of play, you must dismantle that economy and move it. Income on the old planet shrinks over time, and production probably won’t be much better until you establish yourself on the new planet and kick things into action. Resources can’t be mixed across the planets, so you need to take special care with your planning.

To do this, you choose actions from the player board, with the expert variant adding cards to your hand that allow you to choose additional actions and combine them. Each action has its own value, and the sum of these actions is important for an “end of the round” bonus. Additionally, players move their markers along the orbital track based on the value of their actions.

If you can raise production of three resources to level 8 and have three stadiums on the new planet, you win. Otherwise, players compare scores after four rounds. Evacuation includes modules to add new play options.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 150 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.98

Endeavor: Deep Sea

| OTSG Staff

Plunge into the modern era, where our planet’s vast interconnected ocean scape is one of the last frontiers to discover and explore. Experience a deep new ever-changing adventure in this followup to the smash hit Endeavor: Age of Sail!

In Endeavor: Deep Sea, you head an independent research institute with the goal of developing sustainable projects and preserving the fragile balance of marine life. Throughout the game, you’ll recruit field experts and use their abilities to explore new locations, research dive sites, publish critical ecological papers, and launch conservation efforts.

Expand your expertise, develop your team, and learn as much as possible about the sea. The action your institute takes now, could mean a healthy ocean and a sustainable future for the planet.

Endeavor: Deep Sea is designed by the same creative team behind Endeavor: Age of Sail and Endeavor. This edition is set in a new era of nautical discovery, but uses streamlined rules which will be familiar to fans of the original game.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.92