Fallout: From The Screen To The Table

Fallout is a post-nuclear adventure board game for one to four players that is based on the hit video game series by Bethesda Softworks.

Each Fallout scenario is inspired by a familiar story from the franchise. Survivors begin the game on the edge of an unexplored landscape, uncertain of what awaits them in this unfamiliar world. Each player must explore the hidden map with just one objective to guide them from the very beginning: fight ferocious enemies, and build the skills of their survivor as they attempt to complete challenging quests and balance feuding factions within the game.

Through the Wasteland

As they adventure through Fallout’s iconic wasteland, survivors will make difficult choices while facing moral dilemmas together. Each decision may have a lasting impact on the group’s reputation or help determine which legendary special skills are unlocked for the survivors to use. As they adventure, players will gather loot and encounter memorable characters while working towards completing specific goals. Each player will have their own secret objectives, hidden from other players in this thrilling post-nuclear adventure!

The survivors awake to find themselves in a vault waiting to be released from their cryogenic stasis. They have no idea how long they have been out or what the world has become, but as they step into the light and adventure begins!

Players must explore the Fallout adventure map which is 100 square inches of terrain, which will challenge even hardened wasteland veterans with hidden loot to find.While exploring the wasteland, players will encounter battle mutated creatures and other survivors. The wasteland is home to a number of groups, each with their own agenda. The Fallout adventure allows players to interact with these groups and influence them, trading one resource for another or starting wars between rival groups! Just an FYI… Starting a war is “always” a fun choice. 

Additionally, players will be able to complete challenging quests by using Fallout adventure scenarios, which provide hours of adventure and gameplay. Yes, hours of fun, if you so chose!

The adventures players set out on can be played in multiple ways, either as a classic dungeon crawler where the miniatures are placed on the map and move around or players can use their miniatures to represent themselves during encounters. There are simplified adventure rules allow players to jump straight into the adventure without having to learn complex game mechanics, which is a benefitial option for those who are unfamiliar with dungeon crawlers-style gameplay.

Key Features of Fallout include:

Fallout is a cooperative adventure for 1-4 players with over 100 minutures. The game also comes with 12 oversized boss miniatures, and provides a thematic PvE combat experience where players fight ghouls, raiders, super mutants, and deathclaws equiped weapons and armor. The adventure map is a hidden map gameplay where players never know what to expect! 

Quest driven gameplay is one of the key components to the Fallout universe. Players will unravel their own unique narrative arcs that are dispersed throughout the adventure book. Each of the multiple scenarios and challenging quests provide great replayability, which is what makes the Fallout board game so imersive.

Your favorite video game can easily become your favorite tabletop game. Buy Fallout today from Fantastic Games. 

Exit: Choose Your Escape Room Adventure

Some party games can be played countless times without losing their shine, while others are meant to be one-of-a-kind experiences that leave you with a night to remember. In the board game Exit: The Game, you’ll find a series of complex clues and entertaining riddles that provide you with an unforgettable gaming experience. While the board games in the Exit series can only be played once, one time is all you need to get the full enjoyment out of it.

The Rules of Exit

There are many different versions of the board game Exit, each of which has its own unique theme and escape room. However, each of these all come with a similar setup and gameplay that make it so that you can easily follow any of the games once you’ve gotten the hang of one of them. The basic setup of the game works similarly to an escape room, in that you must solve a series of riddles and puzzles in order to make your way out.

Unlike a regular escape room, however, Exit is played with an imaginary room. Instead of using actual objects and being guided by a third party, you’ll have to use cards and different components to solve the puzzles and advance through the room. Every time you correctly solve a riddle, you get a little bit closer to freedom. But watch out for the clock, because you only have a limited amount of time to escape!

Players will earn extra points for solving the clues with fewer hints and in a short amount of time. However, the points are mostly for your own satisfaction, as each game in the Exit series can only be played once. This is because the game requires you to markup, fold, and tear the game materials throughout the game. If you’re a fan of Exit, you’ll want to get your hands on as many versions as possible to experience all of the different rooms.

In addition to the board game itself, you’ll want to include some writing instruments such as a pen or a pencil. You’ll also need some writing paper and a pair of scissors if you want to be able to take full advantage of the game components. Some of the clue cards require you to fold or tear them in order to find the solution, which is why the scissors can be helpful.

Different Versions of Exit

One of the first versions of the board game Exit is Exit: The Game – The Abandoned Cabin. This game thrusts you into a cabin that you’ve sheltered in for the night, only to then find yourself locked in with a newly placed combination lock. You’ll have to make sense of a mysterious spinning code dial and a confusing old book if you want to escape from this abandoned cottage.

Exit: The Game – The Secret Lab assigns the players the roles of subjects in a medical study who show up to the lab only to find it abandoned. Once they get there, they find steam coming out of the test tubes, which knocks them out for several hours. This enigmatic version of the board game forces you to use teamwork, creativity, and your own deductions skills to crack the codes and earn your freedom.

One more version of Exit that offers a unique spin on the game is Exit: The Game – The Pharaoh’s Tomb. This sequel board game takes on an Egyptian theme by getting you lost smack dab in the middle of a stone pyramid. After winding up in a mysterious grave chamber, players will have to use a sand-covered notebook and ancient spinning code dial to escape being sealed away forever.

Can You Find the Exit?

Each game in the Exit series is playable by 1-6 players, which means that you can enjoy solving the clues in a group as well as on your own. It’s suitable for ages 12 and up, as the clues might be a little too advanced for small children. Playing time lasts around 1-2 hours, which is good considering the fact that you can really only play the game once.

Buy one of the Exit board games today and enjoy the fun of codes, puzzles, and teamwork!

 

Bananagrams: Quit Monkeying Around!

Bananagrams is one of those classic word games that almost everyone has an edition of sitting around somewhere in their closet. With the trademark little felt banana bag and those user-friendly letter tiles, you can easily mix and match words to create your own crossword and be the first to shout out “Bananagrams!” If you’re a fan of classic word games like Scrabble or Boggle but are looking for something a little more fast-paced, you’ll love Bananagrams.

Arranging the Tiles

Bananagrams is an incredibly simple and fast-paced game that uses small tiles to form words in the shape of a grid. In this sense, it is incredibly similar to Scrabble, although Bananagrams gets rid of the game board and speeds things up by allowing each player to make their own grid. To make their words, players get to use 144 tiles that all come in a cute little bag shaped like a banana.

Bananagrams begins with all of the tiles being flipped and placed in the center of the table. Each player then takes 12 tiles and begins arranging them into words in the form of a grid, similar to the way a crossword is set up. Once a player uses up all of the letters in their bunch, they shout “peel!” and everyone has to take a new tile from the pool in the center.

If you’re stuck with a bunch of bum letters that you can’t place, then you can dump one of your tiles and draw three more. While this can help you dig your way out of the hole, beware! You may only find yourself deeper in the pit with more tiles you can’t use. Once the pool in the center of the table is almost empty, then the first person to use all of their tiles shouts out “Bananagrams!” and wins the game.

Variant Rules

Bananagrams is incredibly simple, with hands usually taking as little as 5 minutes. However, there are different variant rules within the game itself that you can use depending on where you are and how complex you want the game to be. The Banana Smoothie of the board game gives everyone their own bunch of tiles right at the start of the game, dividing it equally among everyone. This allows you to plan out your whole crossword right at the beginning.

The Banana Cafe version of Bananagrams is meant to be played in public when waiting for service. Players play with 21 tiles and are allowed to dump tiles and draw more if they need to, but they don’t have to “peel” and force anyone else to draw more tiles. You can also play the Banana Solitaire version of Bananagrams to play the game all on your own, competing against your own best time.

Bananagrams Sequels

There are several sequels to the original Bananagrams board game that allow you to play it with new and complex rules. Bananagrams Duel! turns the board game into a two-player word game that uses both letter cubes and Banana cards. Players use any side of their 12 letter cubes to try to create a crossword grid, competing for Banana cards to see who can win the most rounds.

Bananagrams Party adds 14 more “party power” tiles to the original game. These tiles range from The Re-Gifter to The Thief to Switcheroo, with each giving you a special power to use against your opponents. Bananagrams WildTiles adds 6 wild monkey tiles to the game, each of which can be used as whatever letter you like. This is similar to the wild tiles in Scrabble, which can help you make a new word when you can’t seem to find the letter you need. 

Bananagrams: Wordplay Never Tasted So Sweet

Bananagrams is playable by 1-8 players, so you can easily play it with the whole family or just on your own when you’re killing time. It’s suitable for ages 7 and up, as anyone can grasp the simplicity of the rules. Playing time lasts around 15 minutes, although you’ll definitely be playing best of 5 or best of 10.

Buy Bananagrams and add this classic tile game to your collection of word games!

 

New York Zoo: Animal Lovers Will Rejoice

Nothing is more relaxing and magical than a trip to the zoo. Witnessing the gentle grace of the herons or the silliness of the monkeys is something that stays with you for years. But while visiting the zoo may be all fun and games, building a zoo is another story entirely!  New York Zoo pits players against each other to see who can be the first to fill their zoo with a variety of wild animals. Players will have to balance their strategy between building new enclosures and acquiring new animals in order to fill their zoo and win the game.

Build Your Own Zoo

The goal of New York Zoo is to be the first player to completely fill your playing board and complete the construction of your very own zoo. In order to fill your board, you’ll need to build enclosures, collect animals, and manage the breeding of these beautiful creatures as they do what animals do naturally: create offspring!

The board game begins with each player taking their own playing board, which represents the zoo they’re attempting to build. There is also a board that sits in the middle of the table for all of the players to use in order to collect different tiles for their individual zoos. A little Elephant pawn is placed on the board, which each player will take turns moving around the board to collect either an Enclosure tile or an animal. 

If a player collects an Enclosure tile, then they will immediately add that tile to their board wherever they like (as long as it doesn’t cover up another tile on the board). Then, they have to move one to two animals into the Enclosure. These animals can come either from one of their houses or from another Enclosure. If the player has no available animals to move, then they can’t add the tile to their board.

Breeding the Animals

If a player lands on the Animal Acquisition space, then they get to collect up to two animals that are shown randomly. Players must immediately place the animal in an Enclosure or in one of their houses. If there’s no space for the animal, then the player can’t take it. However, if the player doesn’t like the random options of animals shown, then they can select one animal of their choice from the main supply.

There’s a special way of acquiring more animals in New York Zoo called breeding. This occurs for all players whenever the Elephant crosses a breeding line on the board. One specific type of animal will then breed, and all players that have two of that animal in an Enclosure can add an additional animal to their Enclosure.

Filling the Zoo

Once you’ve filled up one of your Enclosures, then you can empty all of the animals out of your Enclosure and select an Attraction tile to add to your board. These are useful for filling in single gaps on your board in between Enclosure tiles. When you empty an Enclosure of animals, you’re allowed to store one of the animals in one of your houses to use later.

New York Zoo ends once one player has successfully filled their board with Enclosure tiles and Attraction tiles. This means that players will need to make sure they’re placing their Enclosure tiles properly in order to reduce the number of Attraction tiles they need to collect. If more than one player fills their board at the same time, then the player with the most animals wins the game. 

Monkey Around with New York Zoo

New York Zoo is a board game playable by 1-5 players, so it’s well suited for families or single-player games. It’s suitable for ages 10 and up, as the mechanics are relatively simple to follow. Playing time lasts around 30-60 minutes, which is good for younger players who may lose interest in games that drag on for hours.

This board game is very easy to learn, as you only have two choices each turn: build an enclosure or collect animals. However, there is plenty of fun to be had in strategizing the best way to build your zoo before the other players. Embrace your inner zookeeper and buy New York Zoo today!

 

Suburbia: Grow Your Town (and Your Reputation)

The suburbs are an idyllic slice of American life. With the charm and the simplicity of the country and the resources and connections of big cities, the suburbs truly are the best of both worlds. But as the city manager of your little suburban town, it’s your job to turn this meager little neighborhood into a sprawling metropolis!

Suburbia is a fun city-building strategy game in which players collect building tiles in an effort to build the most thriving and populated borough. One of the most dynamic features of the game is its inclusion of secret bonus objectives for each player, which change every game and ensure you’ll never play the same game twice. Suburbia is definitely one of those board games that stands up to repeat playing, as you’ll never get bored of its many twists and turns.

Building Income and Reputation

The goal of Suburbia is to plan, build, and develop your small town into a bustling metropolis. Players are given their own playing board that they’ll populate with hex-shaped building tiles. These building tiles represent different residential, commercial, civic, and industrial areas. You can buy generic buildings like factories or suburbs or buy a new building from the market with a special ability that you can take advantage of.

The more buildings you add to your board, the more income you’ll take in. This is the amount of money you receive each turn, which allows you to then buy even more buildings from the market. The longer a building is on the market, the cheaper it will be, so you may want to wait for the price to drop. Just make sure someone else doesn’t steal it out from underneath you first!

You’ll also build your reputation whenever you buy buildings, which earns you a certain number of victory points each turn. These victory points move you along the victory track and develop your community. However, you’ll encounter certain speedbumps on the victory track, which can negatively affect your stats and reduce your reputation and income.

Bonus Objectives

Suburbia has both public and secret bonus objectives that you’re trying to reach in order to earn points. Bonus objectives usually require you to have either the most or the least of a certain kind of building, which forces you to closely watch your opponents in order to see what they’re building. This makes the board game much more competitive and ensures the players are interacting a bit more.

In addition to adding building hexes to your board, you can also add lake hexes. These will earn you cash based on how close they are to other pieces on the board. Lastly, you can use investment markers to repurchase buildings you already have in order to reuse their special ability. You’ll have to navigate between buying building hexes, lake hexes, and investment markers if you want to win the game.

Suburbia Expansions

Suburbia comes with several expansions that move you out of the suburbs and into uncharted territory. Suburbia Inc allows you to define your borders in a new way, earning you additional benefits that can help you jettison ahead in the development of your metropolis. The expansion also comes with over a dozen additional buildings that you can buy as well as new Bonuses and Challenges to boost your income and reputation.

Suburbia 5 Stars turns your bustling town into a tourist destination, allowing you to build landmarks, monuments, and tourist traps in your city. These 50 new building tiles can all increase your reputation and income, while having an additional resource to manage can make the game more complex. This expansion to the original board game also allows an additional fifth player to take part in the fun.

Suburbia

Suburbia is playable by 1-4 players, which is perfect for either small families and friend groups or single-player fun. It’s suitable for ages 8 and up, so younger players can learn more about resource management and set collection with this fun board game. Playing time lasts around 90 minutes, so it’s definitely the kind of game you’ll want to make the centerpiece of any game night.

Buy Suburbia today and enjoy the power and fun of city management!

 

Tiny Towns: A Small Den of Paradise

Modern life has become so chaotic. Have you ever wished you could get away to a sleepy little town in the woods, away from the hubbub and the chaos of the city?  In Tiny Towns, your wish becomes reality. This board game makes you the mayor of your own tiny town in the forest. Tiny Towns combines abstract strategy with city building to give you a game that’s both easy to learn and fun to play.

The creatures of the forest have decided to find their own little safe haven hidden away from predators and the woes of civilization. Because the land is so small and resources are few and far between, you’ll need to do the best with what you have to build a town that you can be proud of. Collect resources, construct buildings, and watch as your tiny town becomes its own little civilization.

Creating Buildings Out of Resources

In Tiny Towns, each player is given their own little 4×4 grid that represents their tiny town. Players will collect resource cubes to lay out on the board in order to construct buildings. At the beginning of the game, players get to choose one of two monument cards with which to begin building. Everyone will also be able to share from seven randomly drawn building cards, which are public buildings that any player can build.

The board game is played in turns, with each player beginning their turn by calling out one of five resources for all of the players to collect. If any player has collected the right kind of resources to match a pattern on one of their building cards, then they can choose to construct a building on their grid in the place of one of the resources. However, they must discard all of the used resources from their board.

Earning Victory Points

As the turns roll along and players begin to add new buildings to their grids, tiny towns do indeed begin to form. These buildings are for more than just show, however, as players will earn Victory Points for each building they create. Players will want to try to collect the right kinds of resources in order to construct buildings on their grid without filling it up with needless materials.

Once every player has filled their board with buildings and resources, then the game ends. Players will then tally their scores, adding up their Victory Points and subtracting one Victory Point for every square without a building on it. Whichever player has the most Victory Points wins the game and the title of most prosperous mayor!

Tiny Towns Expansions

Tiny Towns has released a couple of expansion board games that expand the mechanics of the original game and make it even more complex. In Tiny Towns: Fortune, the creatures of the forest who populate your little town have added a new element to the game: money. These shiny bits of metal have the power to radically alter the gameplay, giving you a new way of gaining resources from other players and building your town.

Tiny Towns: Villagers opens the world of Tiny Towns up just a little bit bigger. New and talented creatures have come to your tiny little town in order to earn a place and use their powerful skills. These engineers and merchants can transform buildings, revolutionize the influx of resources, and perform other impressive feats that make the game much more dynamic.

Tiny Towns: One Building at a Time

Tiny Towns is playable by 1-6 players, so it can just as easily fit both small and large groups of friends or family members. You can even enjoy building a tiny town all on your own! This board game is suitable for ages 14 and up, although some kids as young as 10 may be able to pick up the mechanics without difficulty. Playing time lasts around 45 minutes to an hour, so you can easily fit in a game on a weeknight or a Saturday morning.

Tiny Towns is a fun little game that celebrates the simplicity of small-town life without sacrificing any of the fun of big city living. Buy Tiny Towns today and enjoy the simple life!

 

Jenga: How High Can You Go?

Jenga is one of those party games that never gets old. We all remember the heart-pounding tension of trying to wiggle out that little wooden block without causing the whole tower to topple over. Because Jenga is more focused on physical dexterity than strategy, you’ll be sure to enjoy refining your tower stacking skills with this classic board game that never disappoints.

Building the Tower

Jenga is played with 54 wooden blocks that are each three times as long as they are wide. The blocks are stacked three in a row side by side to form a square, with three blocks then stacked perpendicularly on top of the previous stack. This means that if the bottom row of blocks is facing north and south, then the row above will face east and west (and so on and so forth).

The game begins with one player building the tower by stacking the rows of blocks on top of each other. There are going to be a total of 18 different stories of blocks once the tower is first built, although the number of stories will increase once the game has begun. Jenga usually comes with a loading tray that helps you stack the initial tower, since it would usually be pretty tedious doing it by hand.

One of the trickiest aspects of this party game is that each Jenga block is not created to be identical. Each block has small, random variations that make stacking them more difficult and make the game more challenging.

Deconstructing the Tower

The game is then played in turns as each player takes one block from almost any level of the tower and places it on top of the tower. The only level you’re not allowed to take a block from is either the top incomplete level or the one below it. This means that you’ll have to find certain blocks within the tower that you can safely remove without threatening the integrity of the tower itself.

If you end up knocking over the tower, then you lose the game. You’ll want to move carefully as you remove blocks, as one wrong move can result in a pile of fallen Jenga blocks. Some players find it helpful to tap a block before removing it to make sure that they can get it out without knocking over the tower. However, you must only use one hand at a time to remove blocks from the tower.

After each turn, players are allowed to wait 10 seconds before taking the next turn in order to see whether or not gravity will take its course and knock the tower over. If you remove a block and the tower falls over within 10 seconds, then you lose the game. If the tower falls over in the middle of the other player’s turn after 10 seconds have passed, however, then they lose even if they have yet to touch the tower.

Jenga Sequels

There are a few sequel versions of Jenga that add fun new mechanics to the game and make it a bit more complex. Jenga: Super Mario allows you to play as characters such as Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, or Toad by taking character pegs and slotting them into blocks inside the tower. Players will use a spinner to decide how many layers their character is allowed to climb and how many blocks they have to remove.

There’s also a Monopoly Jenga that combines all of the fun of Jenga with the classic board game Monopoly. This version of Jenga is similar to the block balancing mechanics of the regular party game, but each block represents properties you need to collect and may earn you points or abilities.

Move Gently with Jenga

Jenga is playable by 1-8 players, as it’s just as fun to play by yourself as it is with a small group of friends. It’s suitable for ages 6 and up, so it’s a great party game to play at kid’s parties or with families. Playing time for Jenga lasts around 20 minutes, but you’ll almost certainly want to play multiple rounds.

Buy Jenga today and let the blocks fall where they may!

 

Calico: Calling All Cuddly Cats!

Board games offer us the opportunity to see who can be the most strategic, the most conniving, and the most knowledgeable. But have you ever played a board game that required you to be the coziest? Calico is a tile-laying board game that gives you the goal of sewing the coziest quilt possible in order to attract some super cuddly cats.You’ll sew in patches of various colors and patterns in order to earn the most points and win the hearts of felines everywhere.

Sew It All Together

Each player begins Calico with a playing board that represents a quilt that they have to sew. The patches of the quilt are arranged in hexagonal spaces, which come in six different colors and patterns. Players begin with two random tiles from the bag, while three tiles get laid out in the center of the table for players to choose from.

Three spaces on your quilt will be used to place scoring tiles. You get to draw four out of six scoring tiles, selecting whichever three you’d liked to place on your board at the beginning of the game. These scoring tiles will set your objective for the rest of the board game, giving you unique placement rules and patterns to follow. 

You can earn extra points for the way you place the surrounding six tiles, earning points for things such as having three sets of two matching colors or patterns. If you satisfy both of the conditions on the scoring tile, then congratulations! You’ve just earned extra points. However, there will be some overlap with the six tiles that surround the other scoring tiles, so you’ll be hard-pressed to make too many of those combinations.

Attracting the Cuddliest Cats

In addition to the three tiles that sit in the center of the table as a central market, you also get three little cat tokens. You’ll pick these randomly from the twelve cat tokens of the game, and each will come with its own scoring rules and patterns. In order to attract these cuddly little cats to come take a rest on your quilt, you’ll have to satisfy their conditions.

As you go along in the game, you’ll place one tile and draw one tile each turn, always keeping a hand of two tiles. You must always draw from the three tiles in the center, replacing them from the bag as you go along. There isn’t much competition with the other players until the end of the game, as you’re mostly focused on sewing the best quilt you can rather than disrupting the other players.

Buttons, Patterns and Cats Galore

You earn points throughout the game by satisfying the requirements of your scoring patterns, attracting cat tokens, and earning buttons for your quilt. In order to add a button to your quilt, you must place three of the same color in adjacent spaces, which earns you a matching colored button. If you manage to get a complete set of six buttons, then you earn a special rainbow button for your quilt.

There are some hexagonal spaces that are built into your Calico board on the surrounding edges of your quilt, which can help you to make matches and attract your furry feline friends. Once everyone’s quilts have been completed, you’ll tally up the points from the scoring tiles, cats, and buttons to determine the winner.

Embrace Your Cuddly Side with Calico

Calico is playable by 1-4 players. It’s just as good as a single player game as it is a game for small groups since your main objective is simply to earn the most points. Calico is suitable for ages 13 and up, so teens and adults alike can enjoy the fun of the cuddly little cat tokens. Playing time for Calico lasts around 30-45 minutes, which makes it a decent board game for weeknights or parties.

Calico is a great pattern building game for people who are more into abstract strategy than crushing the competition. The cat tokens are obviously the selling point of the game, as you’ll do whatever it takes to fill your board with these cute creatures. Buy Calico today and enjoy the coziest board game you’ll ever play!

 

Choose Your Own Adventure With Gloomhaven

Unlike card games that pit players against each other in a winner-takes-all campaign, Gloomhaven forces you to work together in order to survive.  This card game is set in a mysterious and changing world, casting you as the wandering adventurer with a private mission.  Players will work together to clear enemy-filled dungeons and forgotten ruins in an effort to boost their abilities and plunder more loot.

Choose Your Power

In the card game Gloomhaven, players have to work together to clear dungeons of the vicious monsters lurking inside and collect their loot.  Each player begins with a hand of cards that represent their character’s stamina and abilities.  All of the cards have initiative values on them, which determine the order of play.

The dungeon begins with each player revealing their cards at the same time and flipping over the monster cards.  Then, players will go in order of initiative.  Every card has two abilities on it: a top ability and a bottom ability.  When it’s your turn, you must choose two cards to play, using the top ability from one card and the bottom ability from another.

Clear the Dungeon and Meet Your Goal

The goal of each round is to clear the dungeon of monsters so that you can win the loot.  Characters don’t get killed off in Gloomhaven, but instead exhaust and get booted out of the game for that round.  The more players get eliminated each round, the harder it becomes for the other players to complete the scenario and vanquish the monsters.

You won’t play as the same character throughout the entire card game.  Every character in Gloomhaven has his or her own unique goal that they’re trying to achieve.  Once they meet that goal, that character retires.  This then allows you to unlock new characters with interesting new abilities that make the gameplay even more varied.

Gloomhaven also has many events that happen outside of your main dungeon-clearing adventures.  The City Event Deck and Road Event Deck offer interesting scenarios that either reward or punish you based on your decisions.

One of the most unique elements of Gloomhaven is the cute little game components that come with the cards.  This card game includes 17 playable character miniatures that you can play with as well as 34 monster types and 13 Boss monsters.  You’ll also get over 1500 cards in the box, making Gloomhaven a card game with limitless potential.

Gloomhaven Sequels

Gloomhaven has two sequel card games that use many of the same mechanisms but take place in new worlds.  Frosthaven is set in a small outpost far to the north, suffering from harsh weather and invasions of deadly forces.  Players will get even more characters, enemies, and a new 100-scenario campaign to explore.  Players can also explore more scenarios outside of combat, including solving mysteries and surviving the deadly seasons.

Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion is another standalone sequel game that’s actually a prequel.  This game includes four new characters that can be integrated into the original card game.  It also includes 16 new monster types and a new 25-scenario campaign.  Unlike Gloomhaven, which can be incredibly complex, Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion is simplified enough for non-gamers and new players to ease into the experience.

Gloomhaven: Leave Your Legacy

Gloomhaven is playable by 1-4 players.  Whether you’re looking for a game to play solo or with a small group of gamer friends, this is the card game for you.  It’s also suitable for ages 14 and up, so teenagers and adults alike can enjoy hosting Gloomhaven gatherings.  Playing time lasts around 1-2 hours, so it’s definitely the kind of game that requires more of a time commitment.

Gloomhaven stands apart from other card games in that it provides you with endless possibilities to choose your own adventures.  After each scenario, players will have to decide what to do next, sending the story shooting off into an endless number of directions. Each decision will have an impact on where the story takes you, allowing you to play Gloomhaven countless times without playing the same game twice.

Fulfill the divine quest set aside for you and buy Gloomhaven today!

 

Dark Souls: An Eternity of Fun

One of the best things about dungeon crawler board games is the way they provide hours of cooperative, world-exploring fun. If you’re a fan of fantasy board games that involve epic battles and tons of opportunity for scoring loot, you’ll love Dark Souls. This exploration board game will force you to work with the other players to clear out the dungeons of creeping dangers and effectively manage your stamina in an effort to take down the monster at the end of each round.

Clearing the Rooms

Dark Souls give each player their own little cardboard playing board, which they’ll use to collect tokens, play cards, and fight bosses. At the beginning of this board game, you will choose one mini-boss and one regular boss to fight. But before you can face off against the Big Bad, you’ll have to set up three or four rooms and clear them of their monsters.

Each room contains a certain number of monsters that you’ll have to fight in order to earn Souls. These Souls can help improve your character stats or earn you new equipment by drawing one equipment card. Be careful not to let any of the players die, however, or else the whole encounter fails. Players are given a limited number of tries (known as Sparks) in order to clear a room.

While the room-clearing aspect of the board game is not quite as fast-paced and exciting as its boss fights, it does give you plenty of time to develop your characters and come up with a strategy to defeat the evil bosses. Dark Souls is similar to the way video games force you to clear the dungeon of evil minions and score loot in order to prepare you for the ultimate fight towards the end.

Fighting the Bosses

Dark Souls has several boss fights that serve as major turning points in the action of the board game. The mechanics of these boss fights force players to create a unique deck of cards at the beginning of the boss fight in order to use against the boss. This combines a bit of luck and strategy in the hopes that you’ll draw the right card at the right time to defeat the Dragon Slayer Ornstein or the evil Executioner Smough.

Whether you beat the boss or not, you’ll be sure to have loads of fun collecting cards and rolling the dice to earn valuable Souls. One of the best aspects of Dark Souls is that it’s incredibly replayable due to the innovative behavior mechanism of the game. No two boss fights are alike, so you’ll never find yourself playing the same game twice.

Another thing to keep in mind about Dark Souls is the amount of downtime during the game. If you’re not the alpha player of the game, you’ll find yourself waiting and watching while the other players make their moves. However, not to fret! Once you get used to the rules, players can pick up the pace and move the game along quite nicely. Players will also engage in frequent tactical discussions, offering each other advice about what move to make next.

Dark Souls Expansions

Dark Souls comes with quite a few expansions in addition to the base game. Darkroot is an expansion that eliminates the repetitiveness of the board game by adding new and varied items. It also adds ultra bad mega bosses that make the boss fights even more intense.

The Character Expansion goes one step further by adding variety, player choice, and new combinations and classes that make it a worthy expansion for fans of the game. Dark Souls also has a couple of smaller expansions that add mini and mega bosses to the game, such as the Four Kings expansion and the Stray/Asylum Demon expansion.

Explore Away with Dark Souls

Dark Souls is playable by 1-4 players, so single players can enjoy the board game just as much as small groups can. Playing time lasts around 90 minutes to two hours, although it can potentially go on longer depending on how often you win or lose each round. It’s suitable for ages 14 and up, so teenagers will especially enjoy the fantasy world.

Buy Dark Souls today and enjoy the infinite possibilities for fun!

 

Wingspan: The Ultimate Engine Builder for Bird Lovers

Every once in a while you come across a board game that’s so beautifully illustrated you can’t help but pause and revel in it. Wingspan is a board game that not only appeals to bird lovers everywhere but can actually bring in new enthusiasts with its artwork and accurate portrayal of bird habitats. You’ll be sure to enjoy the complexity of the gameplay as you learn more about these beautiful birds and what a bird habitat actually looks like.

Getting To Know the Bird Cards

One of the things that makes Wingspan really special is its beautifully illustrated collection of bird cards. Each bird card includes an intricate piece of artwork illustrating the bird as well as both the common name of the bird and its scientific name. The card will also include certain information about the bird in terms of how it functions in the game, including which habitat it can be played in and the bird’s wingspan.

The cards will also have important information such as the food cost to play the bird, how many points it’s worth, what type of nest it uses, and how many eggs it can store. These are all elements that will influence how you grow your bird habitat and bring other beautiful birds into your haven. Lastly, each bird card contains a color strip that indicates what special power the bird has when it’s activated.

Playing Birds

Wingspan gives each player their own game board to use to represent their special bird habitat. The game board is split up into three habitats: forests, grasslands, and wetlands. You can play up to five birds in each area by placing an action cube above the column where you want to play a bird. You can’t just play birds willy nilly, however, as you’ll have to spend a certain number of eggs and food in order to play each bird.

Certain birds have special effects that make them either more or less difficult to play. For example, you may have a Peregrin that specifically requires fruit in order to be played. Or, you may have a bird with a wild-food symbol that will accept any type of food.

Gain Food, Lay Eggs, Draw Birds

In addition to playing a bird, you have three other actions you can choose to take each turn: gain food, lay eggs, or draw birds. These last three actions are all taken by playing a cube in the leftmost empty space in the row. The more birds you play, the more you can earn by taking these actions.

You’ll have to balance playing birds against performing one of these three actions if you want to collect the most birds and activate certain bird powers. Each player has a certain number of action cubes to play per round until the end of the fourth round. Once you’ve successfully completed all four rounds, it’s time to tally up the points and see what kind of habitat you’ve built for your avian friends!

Wingspan Expansions

Wingspan has released two expansions that add more cards and complexities to the original board game. The Wingspan European expansion adds 81 new bird cards as well as new end of round goals and bonus cards. The Wingspan Oceania expansion includes even more unique bird cards as well as beautiful new player mats. Just as there are countless types of bird species in the world, so there are endless options for the beautifully illustrated birds of Wingspan.

Grow Your Habitat with Wingspan

Wingspan is playable by 1-5 players, which makes it a great board game to play on your own and learn more about the joy of bird habitats. It’s suitable for ages 10 and up, so if you’re looking for a bird game to get kids excited about animals, look no further. Wingspan has a playing time of around 40-70 minutes, which is a decent chunk of time to get to know its world.

Wingspan is one of the more interactive board games that leaves you pondering the beauty of the natural world. However, it definitely doesn’t skimp when it comes to the fun and complexity of playing the game. Buy Wingspan today and enjoy the fascinating life of birds!

 

Jaipur: May The Best Merchant Win

Unlike traditional card games like War or Rummy, Jaipur tells a decadent and captivating story. Each player is one of the most powerful traders in the city of Jaipur, which is the capital of Rajasthan. However, the two traders are determined to become the best merchant in the city in order to earn an invitation to the court of the Maharaja. In order to beat the other player and earn your invitation, you’ll have to buy, trade, and sell enough goods to earn two Seals of Excellence. But don’t forget about the camels in the other player’s herd, or else they might bite you when you’re not looking!

Take or Sell?

Jaipur is set up with an incredibly simple turn-based structure. Players get one of two moves to make each turn: to take cards or to sell goods. If you choose to take cards, you have several different options. Taking one card allows you to draw for free, while taking multiple cards requires you to replenish the market with cards from your own hand. You can also take all of the face up Camel Cards from the marketplace during your turn, adding these precious beings to your Herd. You can only have up to 7 cards in your hand at a time.

If you choose to sell goods, then you’ll discard anywhere from 1-5 cards of the same type (these can be Diamonds, Gold, Silver, etc). This will earn you the same number of Goods Tokens as the number of cards you sold. However, there is a catch. The value of the Goods Tokens goes down throughout the course of the game, so there is a huge incentive to sell as much as you can as early as you can. You also get greater rewards for selling multiple cards at once, so it’s up to you to figure out the best time to sell.

Goods vs.Camels

Jaipur is played in three rounds, each round of which ends once 3 of the 6 sets of Goods Tokens have been depleted. At the end of each round, the player with the highest number of points wins a Seal of Excellence Token. The first player to win two tokens is declared the winner. To win a round, you’ll need to sell a decent number of goods. Selling 3-5 cards of the same type will earn you Bonus Tiles, while certain goods cannot be sold in quantities of less than 2.

That being said, there is another way to earn points besides selling goods. Whoever has the biggest herd of camels is awarded the 5-point Camel Bonus Token, which might be just the thing you need to push you over the edge. Who knew just how valuable these spitting creatures could be?

However, in order to take a Camel Card, you have to replace it with cards from the draw pile. This can result in new cards being added to the marketplace at just the wrong time, allowing your opponent to nab the card they need in order to best you. You’ll also need to keep an eye on the number of Camel Cards you and your opponent each draw. This is because there are only 11 in the deck, but you cannot view the number of cards your opponent has in their herd.

Trade Your Way To the Top with Jaipur

Jaipur is a two-person card game, which is perfect for one-on-one rounds between friends or family. It’s suitable for ages 12 and up, so siblings can definitely get some good enjoyment out of playing a few rounds at home or on the go. Playing time lasts around 30 minutes, although you can easily play Jaipur through a couple of times without getting bored of it.

Jaipur excels at being a fast-paced card game that expertly blends strategy and luck. Gamers and non-gamers alike can enjoy its simple gameplay and high risk, while children will be able to learn about things like set collection and how to keep an eye on your opponent. The rounds go pretty quickly, which is great to keep the pace going throughout the game.

Buy this card game today and enjoy the spoils of your wares!

 

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