Board Games

Chris Young

Chris Young @plunderbunny

297 games  

Board Games imported from BGG

Imhotep [Game] BGG
other title: Imhotep: Arhitectul Egiptului Antic / Imhotep: Budowniczy Egiptu
genre: Ancient / Transportation platform: Boardgame publisher: KOSMOS / Arclight Games
In Imhotep, the players become builders in Egypt who want to emulate the first and best-known architect there, namely Imhotep.

Over six rounds, they move wooden stones by boat to create five seminal monuments, and on a turn, a player chooses one of four actions: Procure new stones, load stones on a boat, bring a boat to a monument, or play an action card. While this sounds easy, naturally the other players constantly thwart your building plans by carrying out plans of their own. Only those with the best timing — and the stones to back up their plans — will prove to be Egypt's best builder.

Impulse [Game] BGG
other title: Impuls
genre: Bluffing / Card Game platform: Boardgame publisher: Asmadi Games / Czacha Games
Impulse is a quick-playing 4X (explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate) game set in space with the game board being composed of cards that have actions on them. Players also have cards in hand, and in addition to featuring one of ten possible actions, these cards have a color (red, yellow, blue or green) and a size (1, 2 or 3, as indicated by the number of icons on the card). Each card also has six edges, and these edges connect adjacent cards in the hex-shaped playing area.

The cards in the playing area start face down, with each player controlling a card(their Home) on a corner of this area. Each player has two transport ships in the center of his Home card and a cruiser on an edge. Cruisers are used to patrol sectors of space and destroy opposing transports, while transports let you activate sectors that you enter.

On a turn, a player adds a card to the Impulse from his hand, then (optionally) performs an action for a tech in his playing area, then (optionally) performs all the actions in the Impulse, then draws two cards and adds them to his hand. The Impulse is a line of cards shared by all players that changes turn by turn as players add cards to it and as cards fall off once it reaches maximum size. Thus, players need to feed the Impulse with actions that benefit them more than opponents, but that's easier said than done.

When you perform actions – whether from moving transports to them or using the Impulse – you can boost them by having minerals of the same color or lots of transports. Each action has a single numeral on it, e.g., "Command [1] ship for one jump" or "Build [1] cruiser at home"; when you boost an action, you increase that numeral.

Players score points by destroying enemy ships (one point per ship), by controlling edge spaces on the central card (one point per edge), and by taking other actions via cards. The first player to score 20 points wins!

Inkognito [Game] BGG
other title: Incognito / Inkognito (1989)
genre: Deduction / Spies/Secret Agents platform: Boardgame publisher: Ares Games / Devir
Game description from the publisher:

The goal of each agent in Inkognito is to complete a mission, together with his partner. At the beginning of the game, however, players don't know which mission they must fulfill!

In the standard four-player game, each player guides one of four secret agents. The four characters are allied in pairs: Lord Fiddlebottom and Colonel Bubble are always partnered against Agent X and Madame Zsa Zsa. Each of the four agents is represented by one of four different figures, with different builds: tall, short, fat, thin. Only one of them represents the actual character controlled by a player. The other three figures represent spies which are friendly to him and that are trying to confuse the opposition.

On a turn, a player shakes the Phantom of Prophecy randomizer to determine his three available actions, e.g., moving on a land route or a sea route. The player moves his figures, trying to reach spaces already occupied by the other players' figures or the Ambassador. When figures are in the same space, the current player gets the right to "ask questions" and inspect some of the cards of that player. By deduction and a logical process of elimination, he can draw conclusions as to the identity and intentions of the other players.

The first goal of every agent is to discover which of the other players is his partner. This partner has the other half of the "code" indicating his secret mission. After discovering (or thinking he has discovered) the real identity of the other players, an agent must trade his secret mission card with his ally. This will reveal the final mission and what must be done to complete it. If either agent on a team completes the mission, both he and his partner win the game.

There is another character with an important role in the game: the Ambassador. He can be used to get clearer information about the other characters. Everyone wants to meet him because he is well-informed and can be useful to accomplish your purposes, but he can also help your rivals, so do everything you can to keep him far from them.

The 2013 version of Inkognito from Ares Games raises the maximum player count to five by allowing someone to play the Ambassador and move it during his turn. He can still gather clues when the other players question the Ambassador during their turn, and the other players can still gather clues from him. The goal of the Ambassador's player is to know everything about the other characters, guessing their identities and builds. If the Ambassador achieves "perfect knowledge" before a team accomplishes its secret missions, he wins the game.

Ishtar: Gardens of Babylon [Game] BGG
other title: Ishtar: Die Gärten von Babylon / Ishtar: I Giardini di Babilonia
genre: Ancient platform: Boardgame publisher: IELLO / Buró
From the award-winning designer Bruno Cathala, Ishtar is a game in which you play the role of a gardener aiming to transform the dry desert into the Lost Hanging Gardens of Babylon. To accomplish your mission, you will have to plant flowers, which, if you place them well, can help you gather precious gems and activate actions. Whether to buy Trees (which will block the link between two Flower spots, as well as earning you points) or to purchase upgrades (such as getting two more points per Tree card at the end of the game), collecting gems will be a crucial part of the game. Get them before your opponents, recruit apprentices, send them to earn points in the copses of flowers you have created, block others and think carefully of the upgrades to purchase if you want to become the best gardener at the end of the game!

—description from the publisher

Ivor the Engine [Game] BGG
genre: Movies / TV / Radio theme / Trains platform: Boardgame publisher: Esdevium / Surprised Stare Games Ltd
Not very long ago, in the top left-hand corner of Wales, there was a railway. It wasn't a very long railway or a very important railway, but it was called The Merioneth and Llantisilly Rail Traction Company Limited, and it was all there was. And in a shed, in a siding at the end of the railway, lives the Locomotive of the Merioneth and Llantisilly Rail Traction Company Limited, which was a long name for a little engine so his friends just called him Ivor...

In Ivor the Engine, you'll help Ivor to collect lost sheep and complete tasks for his friends. You'll get extra rewards for clearing sheep from each area and bonuses for events from the Ivor stories. The player with the most sheep at the end of the game wins.

Please note: This game features BRAND NEW artwork by Ivor's original artist, Peter Firmin!

Jewels [Game] BGG
genre: Card Game / Economic platform: Boardgame publisher: (Web published) / CosplaYou
The goal is to become the richest merchant by hoarding as many Coins as possible. Each Player earns Coins by selling crafted Gems and Jewels. The game is divided in Turns, every Turn is completed when each Player completes his Round.

At the start of the game the cards are placed in two rows, Characters and Gems, for a total of seven columns. Each column represents a City. Every city has two slots one for a Character one for a Resource.

During his Round a Player can execute three Actions from a list of six:

Travel to another City
Buy Gems or Gold
Craft Jewels or Gems
Interact with a Character: Sell a Jewel or a Gem, hire a Mercenary or fight a Monster
Refill City slots if empty
Earn a Coin


The Player can travel between the columns, which represent Cities. Traveling between Cities costs Coins.

The Player can buy a Gem from his current City and add it to his hand.
Before a Jewel or a Gem can be sold, the Player has to spend a crafting action to lay the cards down. To craft a Jewel the Player needs also the right combination of Gems and Gold. So each Player always has a round to plot against the seller.

Selling a Jewel or a Gem to a Buyer means discarding it and earning its value in Coins. Mercenaries and Monsters can hinder or favor the Players. After a Player interacts with any Character, the card is added to the discard pile.

At the beginning of each turn the Cities are repopulated with new Characters and Gems. At this time many Events can be triggered.
The game ends when a City can’t be refilled at the start of the Turn.

The Player with most Coins wins the game.

K3 [Game] BGG
genre: Abstract Strategy / Travel platform: Boardgame publisher: Helvetiq
K3 is one of the most dangerous mountains in the world, and while many will attempt to climb, only a few will make it, so plan your steps carefully to be the last climber to survive.

To begin play, the starting base will be filled with nine pegs drawn at random from those in the supply. Each player has a supply of tokens that varies based on the player count, and on a turn you place a token following certain rules; if you cannot play, you are eliminated, and the last player still in the game wins.

Keyflower [Game] BGG
other title: キーフラワー / 大五月花號
genre: City Building / Economic platform: Boardgame publisher: R&D Games / Arclight Games
Keyflower is a game for two to six players played over four rounds. Each round represents a season: spring, summer, autumn, and finally winter. Each player starts the game with a "home" tile and an initial team of eight workers, each of which is colored red, yellow, or blue. Workers of matching colors are used by the players to bid for tiles to add to their villages. Matching workers may alternatively be used to generate resources, skills and additional workers, not only from the player's own tiles, but also from the tiles in the other players' villages and from the new tiles being auctioned.

In spring, summer and autumn, more workers will arrive on board the Keyflower and her sister boats, with some of these workers possessing skills in the working of the key resources of iron, stone and wood. In each of these seasons, village tiles are set out at random for auction. In the winter no new workers arrive and the players select the village tiles for auction from those they received at the beginning of the game. Each winter village tile offers VPs for certain combinations of resources, skills and workers. The player whose village and workers generate the most VPs wins the game.

Keyflower presents players with many different challenges and each game will be different due to the mix of village tiles that appear in that particular game. Throughout the game, players will need to be alert to the opportunities to best utilize their various resources, transport and upgrade capability, skills and workers.

Keyflower, a joint design between Richard Breese and Sebastian Bleasdale, is the seventh game in the "Key" series from R&D Games set in the medieval "Key" land.

The King Is Dead [Game] BGG
genre: Medieval / Political platform: Boardgame publisher: Osprey Games / Giochix.it
The King Is Dead is a board game of politics and power struggles set in Britain in the chaotic period following the death of King Arthur. For the good of the country, a leader must unite the Scots, Welsh, and Romano-British — not by conquest but by diplomacy.

Players are members of King Arthur's court. Whether a loyal knight, a scheming lord, or an ambitious noblewoman, you all have one thing in common: power. As prospective leaders, each player uses their power to benefit the factions, gaining influence among their ranks. The player with the greatest influence over the most powerful faction is crowned the new ruler of Britain.

Kingdomino [Game] BGG
other title: K-Domino'Z / Kingdomino XXL
genre: City Building / Medieval platform: Boardgame publisher: Blue Orange (EU) / Blue Orange Games
In Kingdomino, you are a lord seeking new lands in which to expand your kingdom. You must explore all the lands, including wheat fields, lakes, and mountains, in order to spot the best plots, while competing with other lords to acquire them first.

The game uses tiles with two sections, similar to Dominoes. Each turn, each player will select a new domino to connect to their existing kingdom, making sure at least one of its sides connects to a matching terrain type already in play. The order of who picks first depends on which tile was previously chosen, with better tiles forcing players to pick later in the next round. The game ends when each player has completed a 5x5 grid (or failed to do so), and points are counted based on number of connecting tiles and valuable crown symbols.

Kingdomino Duel [Game] BGG
other title: Лоскутное королевство: Дуэль гербов / 多米諾王國.骰子對決版
genre: Dice / Medieval platform: Boardgame publisher: Blue Orange (EU) / Blue Orange Games
Roll the dice, choose the ones you want, and put them together in pairs to create your dominoes. Domino by domino, fill in your map while entrusting the territories of your kingdom to loyal dignitaries. Gather favors from wizards in order to cast powerful spells that will allow you to rule without having to share.

Kingdomino Duel is a standalone game that preserves the essence of the acclaimed original Kingdomino. In this game, instead of adding dominoes to your kingdom, you will choose two dice to combine into a single "domino" that must then be drawn into your kingdom.

—description from the publisher

Kingsburg (Second Edition) [Game] BGG
other title: Kingsburg (Druga Edycja) / Kingsburg (Segunda edición)
genre: City Building / Dice platform: Boardgame publisher: Giochi Uniti / Stratelibri
The realm of Kingsburg is under attack! Monstrous invaders are gathering at the borders, aiming to invade and plunder the realm! Your king has chosen you to take charge of a province on the border; you will manage your province and help defend the realm. To accomplish this, you must influence the King's advisors and the Royal Family to obtain gold, wood, stones, and soldiers to expand and defend your lands. But you are not the only governor seeking the aid of the advisers! The other players also seek to collect the best resources for their own territories.

King Tritus is waiting for you. Will you be able to be the most influent and powerful governor of the realm?

The game of Kingsburg takes place over five years, a total of 20 turns. In every year, there are three production seasons for collecting resources, building structures, and training troops. Every fourth turn is the winter, in which all the players must fight an invading army. Each player must face the invaders, so this is not a cooperative game.

The resources to build structures and train troops are collected by influencing the advisers in the King's Council. Players place their influence dice on members of the Council, and each adviser awards different resources or allocate soldiers, victory points, and other advantages to the player who was able to influence that adviser for the current turn. The player with the lowest influence dice sum is the first to choose where to spend their influence; this acts as a way of balancing poor dice rolling. Even with a very unlucky roll, a clever player can still come out from the Council with a good number of resources and/or soldiers.

At the end of five years, the player who best developed their assigned territory and most pleased the King through the Council wins.

Kingsburg (Second Edition) includes six expansion modules for use with the base game.

The new expansion contained in this edition, Kingsburg: Expansion Module #6 – Alternate Advisor Rewards, was available by itself for those who have the first edition of Kingsburg.

Kodama Duo [Game] BGG
genre: Abstract Strategy / Card Game platform: Boardgame publisher: Action Phase Games / Indie Boards & Cards
Kodama Duo is a two-player standalone version of Kodama: The Tree Spirits and a 6th player expansion. You will grow a tree by placing branch cards in clever arrangements, making a happy home for your Kodama!

Kodama Duo is a card placement game for 2 players that plays in 30 minutes. Players will turn over one Decree card per season to set the unique conditions. During the Growing Phase, players take turns revealing branch cards and splitting them into two piles until each player has added four branch cards to their tree. In the Kodama phase, players will each choose one of their Kodama to score and live in their tree. The game last 3 seasons (12 turns) and whoever cares for their Kodama best will be remembered for generations!

There are a couple of cool twists on the original Kodama rules for Duo.

First, instead of a display of branch cards to choose, each turn one player (the splitter) will reveal three branch cards from the deck. They will then split those cards into two piles. The other player (the chooser) will select one of the branch piles. The other pile will go to the splitter. Then, both players will add one of the branch cards they received to their tree. The player who received two branch cards will discard the extra card.

Second, Duo introduces spirit tokens, which are tokens with the six features from Kodama. After the player that received two branch cards discards one, the other player receives a spirit token from the discarded branch card. They pick one of the features from that card and take the corresponding spirit token. That player then places that token over one of the icons on their tree. This allows interesting scoring interactions as feature chains can be shortened or lengthened to increase the scoring potential for future branch placements.

Additionally, most of the new Kodama cards and Decree cards interact with the spirit tokens and splitter/chooser mechanic. All of these changes provide an interesting twist on the core mechanics you already love about Kodama.

Duo also introduces the ability to play Kodama: the Tree Spirits with six players. With this update, we've included new rules for branch selection. Each player will secretly choose from four branch cards simultaneously in a draft format. Players will also be allowed to place and score their branch cards simultaneously. This will shorten the downtime that could have been added by including more players.

Kodama: The Tree Spirits [Game] BGG
other title: Kodama: Az Erdő Szellemei / Kodama: Die Baumgeister
genre: Abstract Strategy / Card Game platform: Boardgame publisher: Action Phase Games / Capsicum Games
The forest is growing fast! As caretakers for Kodama, the tree spirits, you must keep the forest a healthy and lush home for your little friends. Over three growing seasons, you must cultivate trees with the right mix of flowers, insects, and branch arrangements to make your Kodama as happy as possible. Whoever cares for their Kodama best will be remembered for generations!

From the designer of the hit game Kigi, Kodama: The Tree Spirits branches out into a fun new way to play! Grow your tree by placing cards in clever arrangements, being careful to leave room for future growth. At the end of each season, one Kodama will award you points for how well your tree suits its needs. With beautiful art and innovative mechanics, Kodama is an inTREEguing game for the whole family.

Kryptos [Game] BGG
genre: Card Game / Deduction platform: Boardgame publisher: Cranio Creations / Ginger Fox Ltd.
Break the code before your opponents do it! Kryptos puts you in the role of a cryptographer whose task is to decipher the secret codes. Think, plan and analyze, but do not waste your time because watchful opponents will surely take advantage of every mistake!

Kryptos is an uncomplicated, fast and dynamic puzzle game designed for 3-6 players whose task is to guess and deduce the value of cards held by the opponents. Each player has the same number of cards numbered from 1 to 48 in four different colors, and all players also know which color of cards their opponents have. During preparation for the game, the players reveal two cards from their hands and take as many colored chips as the number of cards they hold in this color.

The winner is the player who most effectively deduces values and positions of the opponents' cards based on knowledge of colors, revealed and held cards, and a bit of statistics or luck.

Don't L.L.A.M.A. Dice [Game] BGG
other title: Dés L.A.M.A. / L.A.M.A. Dice
genre: Dice platform: Boardgame publisher: AMIGO / 999 Games
With the right roll of the dice in LAMA Dice, you can rid yourself of number cards — but you'll need to quit at the right time before you possibly bomb out and collect a lot of minus points. You can possibly ditch these points later, but you'll need the perfect number roll or triple llama luck.

In more detail, the game lasts a number of rounds, and at the start of each round you lay out the seven "black-backed" cards that show a llama and the numbers 1-6 in a "llama row". You're dealt six cards from the deck — which consists of llama cards and cards numbered 1-6 — and you lay those cards in front of you. On a turn, you roll the three dice or quit the round; if you roll the dice, then:


If one or more of the dice match the cards in front of you, you can discard one card for each matching die.
If you roll three llamas, you can discard one point token that you've collected.
If none of the dice match cards in your row, then you must take one of the llama row cards that does match and add it to your display.
If none of the dice match either cards in your row or cards in the llama row, then you must take all remaining cards in the llama row, ending the round.


If you quit the round, you turn your remaining cards face down and skip any subsequent turns. The round ends when the llama row is empty, when someone discards their final card, or when all players have quit. (When all but one player have quit, the final player can keep taking turns as long as they like, but if none of the dice match cards in their row, then they automatically bust and take all cards in the llama row.) You then look at the cards remaining in front of you and collect points: 10 points if you have one or more llama cards, and points equal to the card value, with each number card counting only once. If you discarded all of your cards, you can discard a previously collected point token. (Tokens are worth either 1 or 10 points, and you can always swap ten 1s for a 10 token.)

You play multiple rounds until one player has collected 40 or more points, at which time the player with the fewest points wins.

LAMA [Game] BGG
other title: L.L.A.M.A. / Don't L.L.A.M.A.
genre: Card Game / Number platform: Boardgame publisher: AMIGO / 999 Games
In LLAMA, you want to dump cards from your hand as quickly as you can, but you might not be able to play what you want, so do you quit and freeze your hand or draw and hope to keep playing?

Each player starts a round with six cards in hand; the deck consists of llama cards and cards numbered 1-6, with eight copies of each. On a turn, the active player can play a card, draw a card, or quit. To play a card, you must play the same number as the top card of the discard pile or one number higher. If a 6 is on the discard pile, you can play a 6 or a llama, and if a llama is on top, you can play another llama or a 1. If you quit, you place your remaining cards face down and take no further actions in the round. If all players have quit but one, that player can continue to play, but cannot draw more cards.

The round ends when one player empties their hand or all players have quit. In either case, players collect tokens based on the cards in their hand. Each different number card in hand gets you white tokens (each worth 1 point) equal to the value of the card while one or more llamas gets you a black token (worth 10 points). (You can exchange ten white tokens for one black token at any time.) If you played all your cards, you can return one token (white or black) that you previously collected to the supply. You then shuffle all the cards and begin a new round, in which the first player to play will be the one who emptied their hand or was the last one to quit in the previous round.

The game ends at the end of the round where at least one player has forty or more total points. Whoever has the fewest points wins!

The original title of this game is a German acronym and stands for Lege alle Minuspunkte ab, that is, "discard all minus points", with "Lama" also being the German spelling of "llama".

The Polish game Lato z Komarami features gameplay nearly identical to LLAMA except that the game has one less "llama" card, and the penalty for llama cards in hand is 10 points per card, instead of being 10 points for one or more llama cards.

Leaf [Game] BGG
other title: Herbstlaub / Leaf: Berceau d'Automne
genre: Animals / Environmental platform: Boardgame publisher: Weird City Games / Broadway Toys LTD
In the game Leaf, players embody the wind by guiding leaves to the forest floor and connecting them to the ones that have already fallen. Each leaf you touch will grant you actions to create a thriving forest. Attract woodland animals, grow mushrooms, lead helpful squirrels up the great tree, and gain additional leaf cards and sun tokens by strategically placing leaves. The player who contributes most to the health of the forest wins!

—description from the designer

Libertalia [Game] BGG
genre: Card Game / Pirates platform: Boardgame publisher: Marabunta / Asmodee
Captain Swallow has always dreamed of pocketing a large nest egg in order to retire on a remote island – but he never counted on stiff competition from Captains Stanley Rackum, Dirk Chivers and others, greedy and cruel enemies who always manage to attack the same ships as him. If he wants to finally sink back and enjoy peaceful days in the sun, he must become the most cunning pirate!

In Libertalia, you must thwart the plans of competitive pirates over the course of three rounds while using cards that show the same crew members as your piratical comrades-in-arms. Yes, not only do they attack the same ships, but they employ the same type of ravenous scum that you do! Can you take advantage of the powers of your characters at the right time? Will you be outdone by a pirate smarter than you? Jump into the water and prove your tactical skills!

Ligretto [Game] BGG
other title: Star Wars Rebels Ligretto / Wijokapre
genre: Card Game / Real-time platform: Boardgame publisher: 999 Games / ASS Altenburger Spielkarten
In Ligretto, each player has their own deck of forty cards, with cards 1-10 in four colors and a unique symbol on the back to identify which cards are theirs. At the start of each round, each player lays out 3-5 cards (depending on the number of players) face up in front of them to create their row; places a face-up stack of ten cards, seeing only the top card, next to their row to create their Ligretto stack; and holds the remaining cards in hand face down.

Playing at the same time, each player tries to empty their Ligretto stack. If a player has a 1 card on top of any face-up stack, they play it to the center of the table. If they have a 2 card of the same color as any 1 in the center of the table, they can place the 2 card on the 1. All cards in the central piles must be played in ascending order and must be the same color.

If a player can't play anything, they can reveal cards from the stack in their hand, counting them out in groups of three, then laying them face up while revealing only the top card. They can play this top card onto a central pile as long as the rules for doing so are met.

As soon as a player empties their Ligretto stack, the round ends. Each player scores 1 point for each of their cards among the central piles, then loses 2 points for each card remaining in their Ligretto stack. In some versions of the game, the player with the highest score wins; in other versions, players then sort all the cards and play another round, with the first player to reach 99 points winning.

A rules variant for Ligretto allows a player to play cards from their Ligretto stack or the cards in hand onto the cards in their row, but only if the numbers are in descending order and the colors of adjacent cards are not identical.

Created date: Aug. 6, 2024