Vendor: Mayfair Games
Type: Board Games
Price:
45.95
Designer | Martin Wallace |
Publisher | Mayfair Games |
Players | 1-4 |
Playtime | 90 mins |
Suggested Age | 6 and up |
The Witches: A Discworld Game is the second of three games by Martin Wallace set in Terry Pratchett's Discworld, the first being Discworld: Ankh-Morpork.
The Witches is set in the magically charged land of Lancre. Players take on the role of trainee witches, such as Tiffany Aching and Petulia Gristle, learning their craft and dealing with all the problems, both petty and serious, that life on Discworld can throw at them. A subtle blend of headology, magic and, of course, the all-important cup of tea will see our heroines tackle everything from a sick pig to a full-blown invasion of elves. Each player tries to be better at everything than the others, while also cooperating to prevent crises from escalating.
Life can be tough for a young witch in Lancre. Fear not, however, as some of Terry Pratchett's most famous characters will be on hand to aid your quest. Along the way you'll meet Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick, as well as a rich supporting cast of familiar faces from the Discworld series. When things get really tough and you feel you are turning "Black Aliss", you can always have a cup of tea with one of your fellow witches.
The Witches can be played competitively, cooperatively, or solo.X
Vendor: Mercury Games
Type: Board Games
Price:
69.95
Designer | Bowen Simmons |
Publisher | Mercury Games |
Players | 2-4 |
Playtime | 180 mins |
Suggested Age | 13 and up |
Honors |
The Guns of Gettysburg is a simulation of the largest battle of the American Civil War. Like Bowen Simmons's previous games, Bonaparte at Marengo and Napoleon's Triumph,The Guns of Gettysburg uses a diceless and cardless system for governing movement and resolving combat. Units in the game are represented by linear blocks rather than the traditional hex and counters, giving the game an appearance that evokes 19th-century battlemaps.
The Guns of Gettysburg has simple rules and fast play but still reflects the historical limitations of the actual conflict. Though it preserves the aesthetics and "fog of war" mechanisms of Bonaparte at Marengo and Napoleon's Triumph, The Guns of Gettysburg is neither a sequel nor a successor to either game but a wholly new system of its own.
Vendor: R&R Games
Type: Board Games
Price:
19.95
Designer | Jonathan Franklin |
Publisher | R&R Games |
Players | 2-6 |
Playtime | |
Suggested Age | 10 and up |
Plunder is a deduction card game in which everyone is a pirate captain with a buried treasure. Players attempt to steal the hidden treasures of the other captains by figuring out the three landmarks that mark where each treasure is hidden. The first player to a treasure takes the largest share, while those who reach it second or third receive less. Keeping your treasure from being stolen is also worth victory points in the end. Find and steal the most treasures first to win in the end!
Vendor: Mercury Games
Type: Board Games
Price:
14.95
Designer | Travis R. Chance |
Publisher | Mercury Games |
Players | 3-4 |
Playtime | 60 mins |
Suggested Age | 13 and up |
In the Martian mining colony of ARES-6, crime pays. Three factions vie for control of this corrupt new world and everything within it. You are a mercenary known as a "freelancer", here to profit off the conflict, to make a name for yourself – but ambition alone isn't enough. A network of seedy contacts will assist you in undertaking the dangerous missions necessary to bolster your rep. Whether it's hiring henchmen to carry out your dirty work or plotting with secret schemes, you'll let nothing stand between you and your squalid goals.
In Infamy, players find that nearly anything can be bought for the right price. Players attempt to win the game by being the first to reach 15 Infamy points or by reaching the highest reputation level in any one of three factions: the Harada Cartel, the Trust Megacorp, or the PKD Militia. The core of this auction and influence game is the "Pay to Play" mechanism in which players must sacrifice bidding power in order to place any bids at all. Spend too much time bidding against an opponent, and your currency will dwindle – but if you refuse to bid, you'll be forced to watch your opponent acquire all those things that only the criminal underworld can deliver.
Here at the end of the world, where everyone and everything has its price, there is but a single ambition that endures: Infamy.
Vendor: Fantasy Flight Games
Type: Board Games
Price:
71.95
Across the globe, ancient evil is stirring. Now, you and your trusted circle of colleagues must travel around the world, working against all odds to hold back the approaching horror. Foul monsters, brutal encounters, and obscure mysteries will take you to your limit and beyond. All the while, you and your fellow investigators must unravel the otherworldy mysteries scattered around the globe in order to push back the gathering mayhem that threatens to overwhelm humanity. The end draws near! Do you have the courage to prevent global destruction?
Eldritch Horror is a cooperative game of terror and adventure in which one to eight players take the roles of globetrotting investigators working to solve mysteries, gather clues, and protect the world from an Ancient One – that is, an elder being intent on destroying our world. Each Ancient One comes with its own unique decks of Mystery and Research cards, which draw you deeper into the lore surrounding each loathsome creature. Discover the true name of Azathoth or battle Cthulhu on the high seas.
While the tasks on these Mystery cards (along with the locations of otherworldly gates, menacing monsters, and helpful clues) will often inform both your travel plans and the dangers you confront, you can find adventure anywhere in the world...even where you least expect it. It is during the Encounter Phase of each turn that players resolve combat or, alternatively, build their investigators' personal stories by reading an encounter narrative from one of several types of Encounter cards. You might go head to head with a monster in Istanbul or find yourself in a tough spot with the crime syndicate in a major city. Maybe you will embark on an expedition to the Pyramids or research a clue you uncover in the unnamed wilderness. You may even find your way through a gate and explore a dimension beyond time and space.
Should you fail an encounter, the cost is steep. If you are fortunate, you will merely incur physical or mental trauma. However, you might also be compelled to take a Condition card, which represents a specific injury or restriction gained throughout your journey, such as a Leg Injury or Amnesia. You could find yourself getting in over your head to acquire assets and receive a Debt condition – or maybe you'll owe a favor to something far more insidious than a debt collector, and enter into a Dark Pact! Whatever your condition, you would be wise to find a resolution with haste; many conditions have a "reckoning effect" which, if triggered, ensure a much more sinister fate.
All the while, the arrival of the Ancient One approaches. Its malign influence is manifested in Eldritch Horror as you draw Mythos Cards, which govern the appearance of otherworldly gates, fearsome monsters, and other ominous elements. Mythos cards keep your investigators under pressure, introducing new threats, even as the arrival of the Great Old One draws nearer! Since the investigators draw a new Mythos card each round, they're certain to have their hands full battling foul creatures and following up on strange rumors, even as they work to solve their three all-important mysteries.
With twelve unique investigators, two hundred-fifty tokens, and over three hundred cards, Eldritch Horror presents an epic, world-spanning adventure with each and every game.X
Vendor: R&R Games
Type: Board Games
Price:
39.95
Designer |
Michael Kiesling Wolfgang Kramer |
Publisher | R&R Games |
Players | 2-4 |
Playtime | 70 mins |
Suggested Age | 10 and up |
Coal Baron – or Glück Auf in German, after a greeting German miners use when wishing one another luck – has players sending meeple miners underground to dig tunnels and acquire coal, which comes in four levels of quality and which is used to fulfill contracts.
Vendor: Queen Games
Type: Board Games
Price:
46.95
Designer | Jesús Torres Castro |
Publisher | Queen Games |
Players | 2-5 |
Playtime | 60 mins |
Suggested Age | 10 and up |
Templar: The Secret Treasures is an exciting family game in which the players help the Knights Templar to get their treasures to a secret abbey and hide them inside. Each player can use the different members of the abbey to help them hide the treasures – but every character is different and needs to be used wisely. Whoever hides the most treasures wins!
Each player has a hand of ten character cards and a starting supply of treasure: one book, one chalice, and a handful of signet rings that come in three types. A harbor with six storehouses is stocked with additional treasures, and three characters – Abbot Remigius, Vitus, and Prior Severus – are placed in the 13-room abbey.
For the first round of the game, each player secretly chooses a character card, then they all reveal them simultaneously, with players then carrying out the actions on those cards in player order. Some characters represent monks who help you move through the abbey and hide treasure, others allow you to take treasure from the harbor, open a locked door while closing off another passage, or move treasure that another player has already stashed, among other things. When a player moves Abbot Remigius, the Abbot rewards all players who have stashed treasure in the room in which he ends his movement, with all of the treasure then being marked as scored – other than duplicate signet rings, which can score again should the Abbot return. (Vitus, who isn't controlled by a card, follows the Abbot closely to spy upon him, thus keeping the Abbot from returning to the most recent room he entered.) If the Prior Severus is in a room, though, the Abbot can't do his thing as Severus would then discover the treasure and learn of the Knights' actions.
After the initial round, a player must play a character card that doesn't match the top character card on any player's discard pile – which means that you (and others) play both offense and defense with the same character card, restricting the action of others while ideally making good use of the character yourself. When a player lays down The Bells card, he picks up all of his played cards, then restocks the harbor based on the number of his previously played character card.
When the harbor can no longer be filled properly or when a player has placed at least one treasure in each room, the final round is triggered, then players have a final scoring for their rings still in the abbey and for the number of rooms that hold their treasure. Whoever scores the most points wins!X
Vendor: Queen Games
Type: Board Games
Price:
66.95
Designer | David Ausloos |
Publisher | Queen Games |
Players | 1-5 |
Playtime | 120 mins |
Suggested Age | 14 and up |
Dark Darker Darkest is an intense cooperative survival horror game in which a team of urban survivors try to fight the darkness in an unsettling location: the house of Doctor Mortimer, which holds the antidote to a virus turning the world into an army of undead.
Players must gather the optimal tools to open doors, control destructive fires that slowly destroy the locations of the game, and battle the endless hordes of terrifying creatures that will do anything to slaughter this fragile group, while outsneaking lurking creatures and the eye of the ever-present security cameras guarding the secrets of the house.
The game uses innovative mechanisms for group-forming and mixes item management (using a color-code system), exploration, stealth, and icon-driven combat to form an intense tactical experience in a strongly thematic setting riddled with surprises and variation. All the creatures and other challenges are controlled by the A.I. of the game system. The board is modular, creating a unique narrative experience for each session.
Can you fight the darkness?X
Vendor: Indie Boards and Cards
Type: Board Games
Price:
16.95
Designer | Rikki Tahta |
Publisher | Indie Boards and Cards |
Players | 2-6 |
Playtime | 15 mins |
Suggested Age | 10 and up |
French Edition | Complots |
Honors | |
Expansions | Coup: Reformation |
You are head of a family in an Italian city-state, a city run by a weak and corrupt court. You need to manipulate, bluff and bribe your way to power. Your object is to destroy the influence of all the other families, forcing them into exile. Only one family will survive...
In Coup, you want to be the last player with influence in the game, with influence being represented by face-down character cards in your playing area.
Each player starts the game with two coins and two influence – i.e., two face-down character cards; the fifteen card deck consists of three copies of five different characters, each with a unique set of powers:
On your turn, you can take any of the actions listed above, regardless of which characters you actually have in front of you, or you can take one of three other actions:
When you take one of the character actions – whether actively on your turn, or defensively in response to someone else's action – that character's action automatically succeeds unless an opponent challenges you. In this case, if you can't reveal the appropriate character, you lose an influence, turning one of your characters face-up. Face-up characters cannot be used, and if both of your characters are face-up, you're out of the game.
If you do have the character in question, you reveal it, the opponent loses an influence, then you shuffle that character into the deck and draw a new one, perhaps getting the same character again and perhaps not.
The last player to still have influence – that is, a face-down character – wins the game!
A new & optional character called the Inquisitor has been added. The Inquisitor character cards may be used to replace the Ambassador cards.
Vendor: Stronghold Games
Type: Board Games
Price:
45.95
Designer | Scott Nicholson |
Publisher | Stronghold Games |
Players | 2-6 |
Playtime | 20 mins |
Suggested Age | 8 and up |
Honors | 2013 Golden Geek Best Party Board Game Nominee |
Can you keep calm while bids are rising? Experience the exhilaration of real life auctions!
In Going, Going, GONE!, players try to win items by bidding on five simultaneous auctions while the Auctioneer counts down from 10 to 1! Players bid on these five simultaneous auctions by physically dropping their wooden cubes (known as "Bucks") into any or all of the five transparent Auction Cups, each of which represents an auction for one or two Item Cards.
At the end of the countdown, the Auctioneer says "GONE!" and quickly places the Auction Paddle over the five Auction Cups to close the auctions. The player who has the most Bucks in each Auction Cup wins that auction and takes the Item Cards for that auction. Collections of items may be sold throughout the game for more Bucks, or players can keep building their collections to sell them at the end of the game. The player with the most Bucks at the end of the game wins!
Going, Going, GONE! is a simple-to-learn, exciting and unique game for players of all skill levels! It is ideal for playing in public spaces. Since the players control the pacing of the game and the variants used, the game adapts to the playing style of the players.
Vendor: Asmodee
Type: Board Games
Price:
103.95
From the humble beginnings of civilization through the historical ages of progress, mankind has lived, fought and built together in nations. Great nations protect and provide for their own, while fighting and competing against both other nations and nature itself. Nations must provide food and stability as the population increases. They must build a productive economy. And all the while, they must amaze the world with their great achievements to build up their heritage as the greatest nations in the history of mankind!
Nations is an intense historical board game for 1-5 players that takes 40 minutes per player to play. Players control the fate of nations from their humble start in prehistoric times until the beginning of World War I. The nations constantly compete against each other and must balance immediate needs, long-term growth, threats, and opportunities.
Gameplay introduction
Players choose a Nation and a difficulty to play at, similar to the Civilization computer games series. After the growth phase, 2 historical events are revealed, which the players will compete for during the round. Then players take a single small action each, in player order, as many times as they wish until all have passed. Actions are:
Players each have individual boards that represent their Nation. There are many ways that players affect, compete, and indirectly interact with other players. But there is no map, no units to move around, and no direct attacks on other players.
When all have passed, there is production, new player order is determined (every position is competed for), the historical events happen, and if this is the last round of an age, the books are scored. At the start of a new round, most old cards are removed and new ones are put on the display.
Victory points are gained and lost during the game, and also awarded at the end of the game. The player with the most victory points is the winner.
Vendor: Dice Hate Me Games
Type: Board Games
Price:
32.95
Designer | Darrell Louder |
Publisher | Dice Hate Me Games |
Players | 2-5 |
Playtime | 90 mins |
Suggested Age | 13 and up |
Expansions |
Compounded: Chemical Chaos Compounded: Geiger Expansion |
Accessories | Compounded - Premium Element Tray |
Compounded is a game about building chemical compounds through careful management of elements, a fair bit of social play and trading, and just a bit of luck. In Compounded, players take on the roles of lab managers, hastily competing to complete the most compounds before they are completed by others – or destroyed in an explosion. Some compounds are flammable and will grow more and more volatile over time; take too long to gather the necessary elements for those compounds and a lot of hard work will soon be scattered across the lab.
Although Compounded does involve a fair share of press-your-luck tension and certainly some strategic planning, the most successful scientists will often be those who strike a good trade with their fellow lab mates. Players are able to freely trade elements, laboratory tools, and even favors – if there is truly honor among chemists!
Vendor: Spielworxx
Type: Board Games
Price:
44.95
Designer | Harald Lieske |
Publisher | Spielworxx |
Players | 2-4 |
Playtime | 60 mins |
Suggested Age | 12 and up |
Agora is a game about drawing and laying cards (acting as tiles) to form a highly abstracted Greek marketplace.
What sets the game apart from other games in the tile-laying genre is that the cards can be placed almost anywhere on the board and in almost any orientation. Cards may touch at corners. The corner of one card may touch the side of another. When placed edge-to-edge, the cards are not even required to align perfectly, only grid line to grid line.
Players advance by purchasing stores formed by the cards and collecting revenue from those stores at the beginning of each subsequent turn.
An additional random factor comes from the giving each player a letter--A, B, C or D--which activates random events if the tile they draw bears their letter.
Victory is achieved by the first player to reach 50 points.
Since revenue comes from the quality of your store, but other players can play tiles to alter that store, the overall result is a cutthroat mind-bender, making it one of the most popular games of Cheapass's Hip Pocket Games seriesX
Vendor: Compass Games
Type: Board Games
Price:
97.95
Designer | Scott W. Leibbrandt |
Publisher | Compass Games |
Players | 2-4 |
Playtime | 90 mins |
Suggested Age | 12 and up |
Colonialism is a game of 19th Century imperialistic struggle. In this game, each player assumes the role of a nondescript colonial power. Players proceed to struggle for influence in the unindustrialized regions of the world, and the subsequent resources such influence entails.
Each turn is divided into action phases and colonization phases. During action phases, players use cards to secretly bid influence in the six regions of the game board. During colonization phases, all cards in play are revealed, the placement of influence is resolved, and conflict occurs.
Whenever all native influence is eliminated from a region, that region's resources are collected. The amount of resources collected by each player depends on each players' influence in the region. At the end of the game, the player who collects the most resources wins.
Vendor: Fantasy Flight Games
Type: Board Games
Price:
16.14
Designer |
Richard Garfield Lukas Litzsinger Damon Stone |
Publisher | Fantasy Flight Games |
Players | 2 |
Playtime | 45 mins |
Suggested Age | 13 and up |
Expands | Android: Netrunner |
Note: This is not a standalone product and you'll need the base game Android: Netrunner to play.
"Do you want to play again – double or nothing?"
–Reina Roja
The cyberstruggles of Android: Netrunner have always been a risky affair for all involved, but Mala Tempora, the third Data Pack in the "Spin Cycle", raises the stakes to all-new heights. Will you be able to plug its upgrades into your deck and find success? Or are you the one who will fall behind?
Whatever the outcome, it won't be dull. The runners and corporate executives who direct the struggles of Android: Netrunner lead frantic lives full of fantastic highs and staggering lows, and the pace doesn’t slow a beat in Mala Tempora. Many of its sixty new cards (three copies each of twenty different cards) encourage daring gambles, staking health and fortunes against opportunities to rapidly accelerate wealth and success. Of course, in an age of technological one-upmanship, why play fair? Mala Temporaalso introduces a number of programs and ice that allow runners and corps to "cheat" these wagers by stealing information about their opponents’ cards.
Meanwhile, leave it to the Anarchs to do their own thing; while the other factions bid for greater efficiencies and more devious tricks, a new Anarch runner arrives to play the game by another entirely different set of rules!
Vendor: Queen Games
Type: Board Games
Price:
58.95
Designer | Mike Elliott |
Publisher | Queen Games |
Players | 3-5 |
Playtime | 70 mins |
Suggested Age | 10 and up |
Lost Legends is a fantasy card game by Mike Elliott that combines a streamlined Euro game design and card drafting with an interesting fantasy theme and battle mechanic. Players take on the role of heroes trying to assemble an arsenal of equipment in order to vanquish a series of monsters that they will encounter.
The game begins with all players choosing one of five heroes each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Each player fights their own monster; this is not a cooperative game. The monster each hero will likely face is revealed to them before players draft cards for their equipment. An interesting aspect in this game is you may, if the conditions are right, evade a monster in front of you, and pass it to the hero next to you. But be aware if you do this you have to fight the monster you draw next!
Players then select an equipment card drafted from a hand of cards, and pass the remainder of the hand to your left to prepare for battle with the monster in front of them. The equipment draft continues in this manner until only one card is left in each hand, which is discarded. Players then compare their drafted equipment to their monster to determine the result of the battle! The game consists of 3 levels filled with monsters to slay and new equipment to pick up.
Players need Legend Points to win the game! These come in the form of trophies awarded for most monsters as well as sets of monsters slain. Can you defeat the monsters thrown in your path to glory and become the most Legendary?
Vendor: Queen Games
Type: Board Games
Price:
59.95
Designer | Stefan Feld |
Publisher | Queen Games |
Players | 2-4 |
Playtime | 75 mins |
Suggested Age | 12 and up |
Honors | 2014 Kennerspiel des Jares Recommended |
In Amerigo, the players help Amerigo Vespucci on his journey to discover new land. The players explore the islands of South America, secure trading routes, and build settlements.
The actions available to players are determined through the use of a specialized cube tower, which has appeared in the Queen titles Im Zeichen des Kreuzes and Wallenstein. At the start of the game, this tower is seeded with action cubes, which come in seven colors, with each color matching a particular type of action. During the game players will drop additional action cubes into the tower – but some of these cubes might get stuck in the floors of the tower while other cubes already in the tower are knocked free. Thus, players need to play both tactically – taking advantage of the actions currently available in the best way possible – and strategically – using their knowledge of which actions do what to play well over the course of the game.
The game board is composed of nine, twelve or sixteen tiles, depending on the number of players. Players sail their ships through the landscape created for this game, landing on islands to plan and build settlements, which then supply resources and allow the player to earn victory points. Players might want to invest in cannons to protect themselves from pirates roaming the waters or acquire progress tokens to gain special advantages.