Vendor: Asmodee
Type: Board Games
Price:
41.75
Designer |
Gaëtan Beaujannot Alain Rivollet |
Publisher | Asmodee |
Players | 4-12 |
Playtime | 40 mins |
Suggested Age | 10 and up |
Honors |
|
In Concept, your goal is to guess words through the association of icons. A team of two players – neighbors at the table – choose a word or phrase that the other players need to guess. Acting together, this team places pieces judiciously on the available icons on the game board.
To get others to guess "milk", for example, the team might place the question mark icon (which signifies the main concept) on the liquid icon, then cubes of this color on the icons for "food/drink" and "white". For a more complicated concept, such as "Leonardo DiCaprio", the team can use the main concept and its matching cubes to clue players into the hidden phrase being an actor or director, while then using sub-concept icons and their matching cubes to gives clues to particular movies in which DiCaprio starred, such asTitanic or Inception.
The first player to discover the word or phrase receives 2 victory points, the team receives points as well, and the player who ends up with the most points wins.
Vendor: KOSMOS
Type: Board Games
Price:
32.95
Vendor: Splotter Spellen
Type: Board Games
Price:
123.95
"Lemonade? They want lemonade? What is the world coming to? I want commercials for burgers on all channels, every 15 minutes. We are the Home of the Original Burger, not a hippie health haven. And place a billboard next to that new house on the corner. I want them craving beer every second they sit in their posh new garden." The new management trainee trembles in front of the CEO and tries to politely point out that... "How do you mean, we don't have enough staff? The HR director reports to you. Hire more people! Train them! But whatever you do, don't pay them any real wages. I did not go into business to become poor. And fire that discount manager, she is only costing me money. From now on, we'll sell gourmet burgers. Same crap, double the price. Get my marketing director in here!"
Food Chain Magnate is a heavy strategy game about building a fast food chain. The focus is on building your company using a card-driven (human) resource management system. Players compete on a variable city map through purchasing, marketing and sales, and on a job market for key staff members. The game can be played by 2-5 serious gamers in 2-4 hours.
Vendor: Indie Boards and Cards
Type: Board Games
Price:
13.95
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: Indie Boards and Cards
Type: Board Games
Price:
15.95
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: Matagot
Type: Board Games
Price:
53.95
At the bottom of the ocean, no one will hear you scream!
In Captain Sonar, you and your teammates control a state-of-the-art submarine and are trying to locate an enemy submarine in order to blow it out of the water before they can do the same to you. Every role is important, and the confrontation is merciless. Be organized and communicate because a captain is nothing without his crew: the Chief Mate, the Radio Operator, and the Engineer.
All the members of a team sit on one side of the table, and they each take a particular role on the submarine, with the division of labor for these roles being dependent on the number of players in the game: One player might be the captain, who is responsible for moving the submarine and announcing some details of this movement; another player is manning the sonar in order to listen to the opposing captain's orders and try to decipher where that sub might be in the water; a third player might be working in the munitions room to prepare torpedoes, mines and other devices that will allow for combat.
Captain Sonar can be played in two modes: turn-by-turn or simultaneous. In the latter set-up, all the members of a team take their actions simultaneously while trying to track what the opponents are doing, too. When a captain is ready to launch an attack, the action pauses for a moment to see whether a hit has been recorded — then play resumes with the target having snuck away while the attacker paused or with bits of metal now scattered across the ocean floor.
Multiple maps are included with varying levels of difficulty.
Vendor: Grail Games
Type: Board Games
Price:
69.95
Designers |
Franz-Benno Delonge Phil Walker-Harding |
Publisher | Grail Games |
Players | 2-4 |
Playing Time | 30-45 mins |
Suggested Age | 8 and up |
Includes:
Explore a landscape so stunning that even a Viking would hold their breath in awe...
Fjords is a tile-laying game that takes place in two phases. First, the players explore the fjords around them by laying hexagonal landscape tiles. Second, beginning from the encampments placed during phase one, players will walk the landscape, claiming as much of the plains and cliffs as possible.
The winner of the game will be the player who has claimed the most land. Savvy placements and the ability to plan ahead yet act tactically will be your most important tools.
This new edition of Fjords differs from the original release in the following ways:
-description from publisher
Vendor: ABACUSSPIELE
Type: Board Games
Price:
66.95
Designer | Alex Randolph |
Publisher | ABACUSSPIELE |
Players | 1-99 |
Playtime | 30 mins |
Suggested Age | 10 and up |
Vendor: Grand Gamers Guild
Type: Board Games
Price:
37.75
Designer |
Richard Yaner |
Publisher | Grand Gamers Guild |
Players | 1-4 |
Playing Time | 30-60 mins |
Suggested Age | 13 and up |
Honor | 2021 5 Seasons Best International Strategy Nominee |
Vendor: KOSMOS
Type: Board Games
Price:
36.95
Designer | Grzegorz Rejchtman |
Publisher | KOSMOS |
Players | 2-4 |
Playtime | 30mins |
Suggested Age | 8 and up |
Family |
Ubongo Extreme Ubongo: Das Würfelspiel Ubongo 3D |
Honors |
|
Family | Ubongo: Duel |
The board of this game consists of six rows. On each row, twelve gems (of several colors) are arranged. Each player places his pawn in front of one of those rows.
Each player receives a playing card on which a shape consisting of several squares is depicted. Each player also gets 12 tiles consisting of 2, 3, 4, or 5 squares in some shape. By means of a dice roll, each player is assigned three or four tiles that he has to use to fill the shape on his card.
The players try to solve their own "puzzle." The race is timed by a sand glass. The outcome of this race determines the play on the main playing board.
The player who was the first to solve his puzzle in time gets to move his pawn up to three rows, the player who came second may move two rows, and the player in third may move a single row. The players may collect two gems from the front of the row their pawn is on, so the more rows you can move, the more control you have on what color gems you can collect.
After collecting gems, each player receives a new playing card with a new puzzle to solve, and a new round starts. In total, nine rounds are played.
In the end, the player who has collected the most gems in a single color wins the game.
Re-implemented as:
Vendor: Schmidt Spiele
Type: Board Games
Price:
82.65
Designer | Wolfgang Warsch |
Publisher | Schmidt Spiele |
Players | 2-4 |
Playtime | 45 mins |
Suggested Age | 10 and up |
Expansions | Die Quacksalber von Quedlinburg: Die Kräuterhexen |
Honors |
Vendor: Synapses Games
Type: Board Games
Price:
63.95
Designer |
Hisashi Hayashi |
Publisher | Synapses Games |
Players | 2-4 |
Playtime | 90-90 mins |
Suggested Age | 14 and up |
Reimplemented By | Yokohama Duel |
Once Yokohama was just a fishing village, but now at the beginning of the Meiji era it's becoming a harbor open to foreign countries and one of the leading trade cities of Japan. As a result, many Japanese products such as copper and raw silk are collected in Yokohama for export to other countries. At the same time, the city is starting to incorporate foreign technology and culture, with even the streets becoming more modernized. In the shadow of this development was the presence of many Yokohama merchants.
In YOKOHAMA, each player is a merchant in the Meiji period, trying to gain fame from a successful business, and to do so they need to build a store, broaden their sales channels, learn a variety of techniques, and (of course) respond to trade orders from abroad.
Vendor: Capstone Games
Type: Board Games
Price:
48.95
Designer |
Kasper Kjær Christiansen Kåre Storgaard |
Publisher | Capstone Games |
Players | 2 |
Playtime | 30-60 mins |
Suggested Age | 12 and up |
Accessories |
Pagan: Fate of Roanoke - Playmat Pagan: Fate of Roanoke - Wooden Token Kit |
Honor | 2022 Golden Geek Best 2-Player Board Game Nominee |
Pagan: Fate of Roanoke is an expandable deduction card game set in the colonial America of 1587.
The essence of this asymmetrical game is a witch's struggle against a witch hunter. As the witch strives to complete a ritual of renaturation, the hunter tries to discover her true identity among nine villagers. Each turn, the two players use their action pawns on active villagers to draw cards, play cards, and gain influence. Each player has their own variable card deck of fifty cards; with these cards, the witch can brew powerful potions, improve their familiar, and cast enchantments and charms, while the witch hunter enlists allies, claim strategic locations, and ruthlessly investigates the villagers.
As the witch, your objective is to collect enough secrets to perform a ritual so potent that the entire region will fall under your spell and Mother Nature will reclaim the island. As the hunter, you gather all the allies and support you can muster to bring the witch to justice before her fatal ritual comes to fruition.
The prototype won the Danish design award Otto at the Fastaval for best game of show in 2018.
-description from publisher
Vendor: Grand Gamers Guild
Type: Board Games
Price:
41.95
Designer |
Richard Yaner |
Publisher | Grand Gamers Guild |
Players | 1-4 |
Playing Time | 30-60 mins |
Suggested Age | 13 and up |
Honor | 2021 5 Seasons Best International Strategy Nominee |
Vendor: GMT Games
Type: Board Games
Price:
91.95
Designer | Ed Beach |
Publisher | GMT Games |
Players | 2-6 |
Playtime | 420 mins |
Suggested Age | 12 and up |
|
Virgin Queen: Wars of Religion 1559-1598 is a game of grand strategy for two to six players based on the military, political and religious conflicts within Europe during the reigns of Elizabeth I of England and Philip II of Spain. Each player controls one or more of the major powers that presided over European politics in that day. Spain is the juggernaut, able to draw upon the vast riches of their global empire. But such a dominant power is sure to have many enemies. The Ottoman expansion towards Spain's Mediterranean outposts remains unchecked. Elizabeth's English sea dogs are poised to raid Spain's overseas empire. And the forces of Protestant reform will soon drag Spain into eighty years of rebellion in the Netherlands. Will Spain find aid from its Catholic allies? Perhaps not from France, where the Catholic Valois dynasty is soon to engage another group of Protestant believers in the bloody French Wars of Religion. And even Philip's relatives in Vienna who rule the Holy Roman Empire may dabble in the Protestant faith instead of remaining loyal to their Catholic heritage and Spanish brethren.
The six powers in Virgin Queen are:
Virgin Queen: Wars of Religion 1559-1598 is the sequel to Here I Stand, another card-driven game of grand strategy that covered the previous forty years (from Martin Luther's posting of his 95 Theses in 1517 through the abdication of Charles V in 1556). Players familiar with Here I Stand will find much that is familiar in Virgin Queen as over half of the rule book remains unchanged. New game systems have been put in place to emphasize the changing nature of the conflicts here in the late 16th Century:
There are several different scenarios included allowing your play sessions to be tailored to the number of players and time available:
Vendor: Awaken Realms
Type: Miniature Games
Price:
203.95
Designer |
Michał Oracz |
Publisher | Awaken Realms |
Players | 1-4 |
Playing Time | 90-180 mins |
Suggested Age | 12 and up |
Honor | 2020 Golden Geek Best Thematic Board Game Nominee |
Expansions |
Etherfields: Stretch Goals – Harpy & She-Wolf Campaigns Etherfields: Sphinx Campaign Etherfields: Funeral Witch Campaign Etherfields: 5th Player Expansion Etherfields: Kittenburg Expansion |
Etherfields is a narrative, cooperative game for 1 - 4 (5 with the 5th player expansion). A series of unique Dreams await to be discovered through tense exploration and tactical encounters.
Learn about the Dreamers, their forgotten past, and their desperate mission. Uncover the surreal, sprawling dreamscapes. Just don't be surprised when---just like dreams often do---they become a little disturbing... Prepare to be challenged by escape-room like riddles. Spot a clue in the image. See a hidden link between several pieces of information. Use your instinct as much as your logic.
In the beginning, you'll explore the Dreamworld, trying to find out what this is all about and who you are – and you are there for a specific reason, but, at first, you can't remember too much. You'll have to restore your memories from scattered pieces.
The rules are pretty straightforward at the beginning, but they will grow more and more complex during the campaign. New rules open new possibilities and, sometimes, may turn everything upside down.
Deckbuilding in Etherfields applies to almost every deck in the game, not only the players' ones. If you want to know more, enter the Dreamworld. It may be dark here and there, but it certainly isn't gray. Then, look around and ask yourself: what if we all live in a vast, shared dream?
—description from the publisher
Vendor: Cephalofair Games
Type: Board Games
Price:
76.95
Inspired by the critically acclaimed play surface books from Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion, this set of 4 Scenario Play Surface Books eliminates the need for your Frosthaven map tiles & the majority of overlay tokens in favor of quicker and easier setup times. Just open the book to your scenario and start playing! Includes scenario narrative text and special rules for all 138 Frosthaven scenarios!
Ages 14+
1-4 players
30-120 minutes play time
Vendor: Grand Gamers Guild
Type: Board Games
Price:
40.95
Designer |
Richard Yaner |
Publisher | Grand Gamers Guild |
Players | 1-4 |
Playing Time | 30-60 mins |
Suggested Age | 13 and up |
Honor | 2021 5 Seasons Best International Strategy Nominee |
Vendor: SPIEL DAS! Verlag
Type: Board Games
Price:
29.95
Designer | Stefan Dorra |
Publisher | SPIEL DAS! Verlag |
Players | 3-6 |
Playtime | 20 mins |
Suggested Age | 8 and up |
Note: This game is in German. The game itself is language independent. English rules can be found here.
For Sale is a quick, fun game nominally about buying and selling real estate. During the game's two distinct phases, players first bid for several buildings then, after all buildings have been bought, sell the buildings for the greatest profit possible.
The Überplay 2005 Edition has new art, rules and card distribution changes, and it accommodates 3-6 players.
The Gryphon 2009 Edition uses the Überplay art for the faces of the property cards, while replacing most other art. The rules are the same as the Überplay edition, with the exception of the rounding rule.
For Sale is a quick, fun game nominally about buying and selling real estate. During the game's two distinct phases, players first bid for several buildings then, after all buildings have been bought, sell the buildings for the greatest profit possible.
The Überplay 2005 Edition has new art, rules and card distribution changes, and it accommodates 3-6 players.
The Gryphon 2009 Edition uses the Überplay art for the faces of the property cards, while replacing most other art. The rules are the same as the Überplay edition, with the exception of the rounding rule.
Vendor: Z-Man Games
Type: Board Games
Price:
52.95
Designer | Bernd Brunnhofer |
Publisher | Z-Man Games |
Players | 2-4 |
Playtime | 60-90 mins |
Suggested Age | 10 and up |
Honors |
|
Expansions |
Stone Age: Style is the Goal Stone Age: The Expansion Stone Age: The Mammoth Herd |
Accessories |
Top Shelf Gamer - Deluxe Token Bundle compatible with Stone Age (set of 97) Top Shelf Gamer - Deluxe Token Bundle compatible with Stone Age™ V2 (set of 109) Kings Wooden Token Set - Deluxe Stone Age Wooden Token Set Euro Token Expansion - Deluxe Folded Space - Stone Age & Expansions |
Note: This game is in Italian.
The "Stone Age" times were hard indeed. In their roles as hunters, collectors, farmers, and tool makers, our ancestors worked with their legs and backs straining against wooden plows in the stony earth. Of course, progress did not stop with the wooden plow. People always searched for better tools and more productive plants to make their work more effective.
In Stone Age, the players live in this time, just as our ancestors did. They collect wood, break stone and wash their gold from the river. They trade freely, expand their village and so achieve new levels of civilization. With a balance of luck and planning, the players compete for food in this pre-historic time.
Players use up to ten tribe members each in three phases. In the first phase, players place their men in regions of the board that they think will benefit them, including the hunt, the trading center, or the quarry. In the second phase, the starting player activates each of his staffed areas in whatever sequence he chooses, followed in turn by the other players. In the third phase, players must have enough food available to feed their populations, or they face losing resources or points.
Vendor: Repos Production
Type: Board Games
Price:
39.95
Designer | Ludovic Maublanc |
Publisher | Repos Production |
Players | 4-8 |
Playtime | 30 mins |
Suggested Age | 10 and up |
Honors | |
Expansions |
Cash 'n Guns: More Cash 'n More Guns Cash 'n Guns (Second Edition): Team Spirit |
In an abandoned warehouse a gangster band is splitting its loot, but they can't agree on the split! It's time to let the guns talk and soon everyone is aiming at everyone. The richest surviving gangster wins the game!
Ca$h 'n Guns helps you relive the best scenes of your favorite gangster movies. The goal is to have the more money than anyone else after eight rounds while still being alive.
Each round, one player is the Boss, and he controls the pace of play. First, loot cards are revealed on the table to show what's up for grabs. Next, players load their guns by secretly selecting either a "Bang!" or a "Click! Click!" card from their hand. The Boss counts to three, and on "Three" each player points his foam gun at someone else; due to his status, the Boss can tell one player who's pointing a gun at him that he needs to point it in another direction. After a pause to observe threats and measure the seriousness in an opponent's eyes, the Boss counts to three again and anyone who doesn't want to risk getting shot can chicken out and remove themselves from the round.
Everyone who's pointing a gun at someone still in the round now reveals their card, and anyone who's the target of a "Bang!" takes a wound marker and gets none of the available loot. Starting with the Boss, everyone still in the round takes one loot card at a time from the table — money, diamonds, paintings, the position of Boss, medical care (to remove a wound), or a new bullet (to add a "Bang!" card to your hand) — until everything has been claimed.
After eight rounds, the game ends. Whoever has the most diamonds receives a big bonus, and paintings score based on the number of them that you've collected. Whoever has the most valuable stash wins!
Vendor: Mattel
Type: Board Games
Price:
29.95
Designer | Bernard Tavitian |
Publisher | Mattel |
Players | 2-4 |
Playtime | 20 mins |
Suggested Age | 5 and up |
Honors |
Blokus (officially pronounced "Block us") is an abstract strategy game with transparent, Tetris-shaped, colored pieces that players are trying to play onto the board. The only caveat to placing a piece is that it may not lie adjacent to your other pieces, but instead must be placed touching at least one corner of your pieces already on the board.
There is a solitaire variation where one player tries to get rid of all the pieces in a single sitting.
Components:
Blokus Game Board (400 squares)
84 game pieces (four 21-piece sets of red, green, blue, and yellow)
Each color inlcudes:
Goal of the Game:
Each player has to fit as many of his/her 21 pieces on the board as possible.
How to Play:
1. Each player chooses a color and places that set of 21 pieces in front of his/her side of the board. The order of play is as follows: blue, yellow, red, and then green.
2. The first player (blue) places any of his/her pieces in a corner square. Play proceeds clockwise around the board (yellow, red, and green), each player putting their first piece down in one of the corner squares.
3. Play continues as each player lays down one piece during a turn.
Each new piece must touch at least one other piece of the same color, but only at the corners.
No flat edges of same color pieces can touch.
There are no restrictions on how pieces of different colors can touch one another.
4. Whenever a player is unable to place one of his/her remaining pieces on the board, that player must pass his/her turn.
End of Game:
The game ends when all players are blocked from laying down any more of their pieces. This also includes any players who may have placed all of their pieces on the board. Scores are tallied, and the player with the highest score is the winner.
Scoring:
Each player counts the number of unit squares in his/her remaining pieces (1 unit square = -1 point).
A player earns +15 points if all his/her pieces have been placed on the board plus 5 additional bonus points if the last piece placed on the board was the smallest piece (one square).
There are unauthorized versions of the game published under various names, including The Strategy Game, Tetris, Blokád (unofficial Hungarian version with cardboard pieces) and The Family Chess Game.
Vendor: Rio Grande Games
Type: Board Games
Price:
47.95
Vendor: Treasure Falls Games
Type: Board Games
Price:
52.95
Designer |
Dustin McMillian |
Publisher | Treasure Falls Games |
Players | 2-4 |
Playtime | 20-45 mins |
Suggested Age | 5 and up |
Expansion |
The Quest Kids: Big Bads of Tolk's Cave The Quest Kids: Giant Adventure |
Vendor: Asmodee
Type: Board Games
Price:
49.95
Designer |
Klemens Kalicki |
Publisher | Asmodee |
Players | 1-4 |
Playing Time | 60-90 mins |
Suggested Age | 10 and up |
Honors |
|
Expansions |
Meadow: Downstream Meadow Downstream: Cards & Sleeves Pack |