boardgames
7 Steps BGG
genre: Abstract Strategy platform: Boardgame publisher: KOSMOS
In 7 Steps, everything revolves around the number seven, with seven fields in seven colors, and seven discs available to each player each round that can block any number — and by blocking columns on the fields rise higher step by step up to a maximum height of seven discs. Newly placed discs score points for the placer depending on the level where the disc was placed in the column. Only the one who can place his discs cleverly and use the special tiles well will win this game.

Online Play

Yucata (turn-based)


On the Underground: London / Berlin BGG
genre: Trains / Transportation platform: Boardgame publisher: LudiCreations
The London Underground is the world's first underground passenger railway, having opened in 1863. Its 11 lines move about 5 million passengers a day to 270 stations, along 400 km (250 mi) of track.

The massive network of London Underground stations makes up one of the most complex transportation systems in the world, and On the Underground challenges you to develop it. Build the most successful lines, connect them to landmarks, and attract passenger traffic!



Gameplay OverviewIn On the Underground, the players build the Underground lines in London or the U-Bahn lines in Berlin. Each player controls 2-4 different lines, depending on the number of players.

On each turn, four destination cards are available, corresponding to stations on the map. You can take up to four actions; an action is either building track by placing one of your track tokens on the board or taking a branch token. A player may use two branch tokens to branch out of an existing line (whereas normally lines can be extended only at the endpoints).

After each player's turn, a passenger token is moved along players' lines, avoiding walking as much as possible, to reach one or two destinations determined at the beginning of the turn. The destination cards corresponding to the visited stations are then replaced by new ones, then the next player takes their turn.

Players score points in two ways:


By building track and connecting their lines to various types of stations, by building a circular line (in London), or at the end of the game if they have collected tiles from specific landmark stations (in Berlin).
By having the passenger use their lines when moving.


After all destination cards have been drawn and all players have taken the same number of turns, the game ends.



Differences from the First Edition of On the Underground
For their first turns only, the player first in turn order takes three actions, and the player last in turn order takes five actions. (Previously, everyone other than the start player had a few points added to their score as a balancing mechanism.)
The passenger is no longer removed from the board immediately when the draw deck is empty.
There is a new Berlin map, along with its corresponding cards and tiles.
On the London map, these single connections have been made double connections: Paddington-Shepherd's Bush, Shepherd's Bush-Goldhawk Road, Goldhawk Road-Hammersmith, Waterloo-Borough, London Bridge-Bank, Stratford-West Ham, and West Ham-Canning Town.
On the London map, this double connection has been made a triple connection: Borough-London Bridge
On the London map, the New Cross station has been removed, as has the connection between Aldgate and Canada Water.


Dungeon Petz BGG
other title: Příšerky z Podzemí / Pupile Podziemi
genre: Animals / Fantasy platform: Boardgame publisher: Czech Games Edition / Devir
Become the leader of an imp family that has just started a new business – breeding and selling petz. Sound simple and safe? Well, we forgot to mention that those petz are for Dungeon Lords. This means magical, playful, sometimes angry monsters that constantly desire attention and at the very moment you want them to demonstrate their qualities to buyers they are sick or they poop. Sometimes you are even glad that you got rid of them – but the profit is unbelievable.

Dungeon Petz is a standalone game set in the Dungeon Lords universe. The game consists of several rounds in which players use unusual worker placement mechanisms (players simultaneously prepare different sized groups of imps in order to play sooner than others) to prepare themselves for the uneasy task of raising creature cubs and pleasing their different needs (represented by cards) in order to sell them as grown and scary creatures to Dungeon Lords. In the meantime, they also attend various contests in which they show off their pets, scoring additional points.

Key Harvest BGG
other title: Demetra
genre: Farming / Medieval platform: Boardgame publisher: R&D Games / ABACUSSPIELE
Key Harvest is the fifth game in the key series of games published by R&D Games.

The object of the game is to score the most points. Players score points by placing tiles on their own country board. One point is scored for each field tile in the player's largest group of connected field tiles and two points for each tile in their second largest connected group.

Points are also scored for the worker tiles a player places on their country board. The number of points scored for each worker is equal to the number on the worker tile. Worker tiles do not count as connecting tiles when calculating the largest group of tiles. When played, a worker enables a player to take a special action. Each player has their own team of six workers, known as farmhands. There are also six townsfolk who can be acquired by any player.

There are usually six field tiles available at any time from the registry. On their turn a player may bid for up to two tiles using crop counters. The field tile being bid for and the bid in crop counters are placed in the player's store. On their turn the other players may match the store owner's bid in both the number and type of crop counters. If they choose to do so, then they place the field tile on their country board and pay the crop counters to the store owner. If no other player has matched the store owner's bid, then on their next turn the store owner may place the field tile(s) from their store onto their country board and pay their bid in crop counters to the general stock.

When deciding how much to bid for a field tile, players will need to consider how important the field tile is to them and whether other players are likely to bid for the tile. It is usually beneficial for a player to place field tiles into their store as that player will either obtain the field tile or receive additional crop counters.

When played, a worker tile must be adjacent to at least the number of field tiles as the number on the worker tile. A worker tile cannot be adjacent to another worker tile. If a player obtains a field tile for a space where they have already placed a worker tile, they must remove the worker tile. However, if the worker tile can be replaced immediately (next to the required number of field tiles), then the player can benefit from the worker's ability again. Getting these extra benefits is one of the keys to doing well in the game.

Players have two actions per turn. There are four possible actions. Each action can only be performed once per turn. As described above, the actions include placing field tiles from the stores onto their country board - action (c), placing field tiles from the registry into their store - action (d), and placing a worker tile onto their country board - action (b). Action (c) cannot be performed after action (d). A player may also harvest crops by turning over some unharvested field tiles on their country board - action (a).

Field tiles taken from the registry are replaced immediately with field tiles from the bag. The bag also contains a number of event tiles. The event tiles, when drawn, affect all of the players, not just the player who drew the event tile. When the tenth event tile is drawn, the game ends after two further rounds have been played.

One point is also awarded to the players who have the most of each of the types of crop counters at the end of the game. No points are awarded for ties. Points are tallied using the scoring track on the town board. The player with the most points is the winner.

Nr. 4 in the QWG Master Print Edition series, as Demetra

Rage BGG
other title: Hell Card Game: O Jogo da Vingança / Oh Hell!
genre: Card Game platform: Boardgame publisher: 999 Games / AMIGO
Based on the widely-known card game Oh Hell!, players use the deck of zero through fifteen in six suits to bid for a particular number of tricks and then subsequently take exactly that many. Each game consists of ten hands, with the hand size shrinking by one each time, until the final one-card hand. Along the way, trump is randomly determined and can be changed during the hand through the use of special cards. There are also special cards that make the trump not count for a trick, others that can be declared any suit and value when played, and others that will give bonuses or penalties for taking the trick on which they're played. A newer version of this game was released by Amigo in 2000.

Underwater Cities BGG
other title: Cidades submersas / Podmořská města
genre: Card Game / City Building platform: Boardgame publisher: Delicious Games / Arrakis Games
In Underwater Cities, which takes about 30-45 minutes per player, players represent the most powerful brains in the world, brains nominated due to the overpopulation of Earth to establish the best and most livable underwater areas possible.

The main principle of the game is card placement. Three colored cards are placed along the edge of the main board into 3 x 5 slots, which are also colored. Ideally players can place cards into slots of the same color. Then they can take both actions and advantages: the action depicted in the slot on the main board and also the advantage of the card. Actions and advantages can allow players to intake raw materials; to build and upgrade city domes, tunnels and production buildings such as farms, desalination devices and laboratories in their personal underwater area; to move their marker on the initiative track (which is important for player order in the next turn); to activate the player's "A-cards"; and to collect cards, both special ones and basic ones that allow for better decision possibilities during gameplay.

All of the nearly 220 cards — whether special or basic — are divided into five types according to the way and time of use. Underwater areas are planned to be double-sided, giving players many opportunities to achieve VPs and finally win.

Hellas BGG
genre: Ancient / City Building platform: Boardgame publisher: White Goblin Games
Hellas, 480 BC. It’s the rise of classic Greek civilization. After the overwhelming victory of Xerxes’ army at Thermopylae, the Greeks return to their country and continue the hard work at the islands. The building and development of large cities is the next step into a new era.

Found settlements on a Greek island and let them grow into large cities. Build statues in honor of the Gods or finish one of the various temples on the island. All this work needs a lot of marble, which can be found in the many quarries. Houses next to a quarry can mine marble, but some quarries produce more marble than others.

Each round in Hellas players choose an action in the display. When choosing to build a house, palace or square on the island, all others can perform that action, too. Deciding to mine marble (to get more money) will also help other players because they'll earn money too through their houses next to mines. Building pillars in temples or raising a statue are the only type of actions you'll perform by yourself, but at the end of the game all players might score points because of your work.

Strategically build your settlements on the island to gain the most profit from quarries. Timing is crucial: most of your chosen actions can also be immediately performed by all other players. Think ahead to outsmart your opponents and score the most points with your cities.

SteamRollers BGG
other title: SteamRollers: Maszyny parowe
genre: Dice / Trains platform: Boardgame publisher: Flatlined Games / 2 Pionki
In SteamRollers, players use dice to build the best railway network, upgrade their engine, and beat their opponents to the most lucrative cargo deliveries. Make smart use of the dice to become the world's most famous railroad tycoon!

Each round, a certain number of dice are rolled and people draft one die with which to perform an action. They can draw a railroad track on their personal board, use the die to upgrade their engine, deliver a cube from a common supply board using their personal network (if their engine is strong enough) for victory points, or take a special card which allows the player to break the rules in small (or big) ways.

Once half the cities on the supply board are emptied, the game is over at the end of the round. Players total their delivery points and add extra points for their network, engine and cards. The player with the most points wins.

Not Alone BGG
other title: Nejsme Tu Sami / Nejsme tu sami
genre: Bluffing / Card Game platform: Boardgame publisher: Geek Attitude Games / Arclight Games
It is the 25th century. You are a member of an intergalactic expedition shipwrecked on a mysterious planet named Artemia. While waiting for the rescue ship, you begin to explore the planet but an alien entity picks up your scent and begins to hunt you. You are NOT ALONE! Will you survive the dangers of Artemia?

NOT ALONE is an asymmetrical card game, in which one player (the Creature) plays against the stranded explorers (the Hunted).

If you play as one of the Hunted, you will explore Artemia using Place cards. By playing these and Survival cards, you try to avoid, confuse or distract the Creature until help arrives.

If you play as the Creature, you will stalk and pursue the shipwrecked survivors. By playing your Hunt cards and using the mysterious powers of Artemia, you try to wear down the Hunted and assimilate them to the planet forever.

NOT ALONE is a immersive, thematic card game, where you use guessing, bluffing, hand management, and just a pinch of deck-building to achieve your goal, which is survival for the Hunted... or total assimilation for the Creature!

Way of the Dragon BGG
other title: Camino del dragón / Der Weg des Drachen
genre: Dice / Mythology platform: Boardgame publisher: nestorgames
This is the ultimate race between the five elements. The earth dragons, the water tortoises, the metal tigers, the fire birds and the wood dragons cross the way of the Great Celestial Dragon to gain immortality.

The goal of the game is to get your five pieces as far as possible through the five paths when the game ends. This happens when at least one of the players has reached the end of the five paths.

Blue Skies BGG
genre: Aviation / Flight / Economic platform: Boardgame publisher: Rio Grande Games
The year is 1979, and the U.S. government has just deregulated the airline industry, opening it to competition in terms of fares, routes, and the airline companies themselves. You represent a new airline that's trying to set up business in the U.S., but you have an entire country open to you, so where will you set up shop and how can you profit more than the other newcomers to ensure that you survive?

In Blue Skies, the game board presents players with thirty airports in thirty cities. Each airport has four gates, with you using 2-4 gates depending on the number of players. To set up, draw airport demand cards from the deck to seed airports with passengers. Whenever you place passengers on the board, draw from a bag that initially contains 100 red cubes and 25 green cubes; for each airport, continue drawing until you draw a red cube, then redistribute passengers at the open gates of that airport as evenly as possible.

(Note that at most the first five airports drawn will have an open gate, and even those will start with only one open gate run by a local airline. All of the other passengers are just bunched up at the gate waiting for you to serve them!)

Each player starts with three demand cards in hand, and they take turns choosing two gates with a purchase price of at most 6. Players adjust their income from 0, with their income being set to equal the number of passengers now waiting at their gates, then the game begins.

On a turn, each player in turn buys new gates at airports of their choice, spending at most 6 points and adding any unspent points to their score. You can buy out a local airline, set up gates in new cities, or purchase multiple gates in the same airport to try to dominate that area.

Each player in turn then plays a demand card from their hand, drawing passengers form the bag to place one or more passengers at that location. Then demand cards equal to the number of players are drawn, and more passengers are ahead to those airports. The game board lists the number of cards for each airport, so you somewhat know the odds of where passengers might arrive.

Players adjust their income to account for the opening of new gates, the redistribution of existing passengers, and the arrival of new passengers, then they add their income to their score. If a player now has at least 100 points or has placed their twentieth and final gate, the game ends immediately; otherwise, you add a local airline gate to each airport with passengers but no open gates, pass the first player marker, then start a new round.

At game's end, score the seven regions of the United States based on the player's dominance of those regions. Each airport has a scoring value, e.g., ORD is worth 4, and each gate you have in Chicago is worth 4 for determining dominance in both the Midwest region and the Central region. (ORD is one of four airports in two regions, with the others being JFK, LAX, and DFW.) If you have the most dominance in the Central region, you score 13 points, whereas second place is worth only 6 points. Whoever has the most points wins.

Penny Press BGG
genre: Industry / Manufacturing platform: Boardgame publisher: Asmadi Games
Set during the tumultuous 'yellow journalism' years at the end of the 19th century, Penny Press has players taking on the role of newspaper magnates such as Pulitzer and Hearst as they strive to become the dominant paper in old New York City.

Players move up on the circulation track throughout the game by publishing newspapers, and they are awarded bonuses at the end of the game for best covering the five news 'beats' or leading news categories of the day: War, Crime & Calamity, New York City, Politics, and the Human Condition.

To publish newspapers, players assign some or all of their five reporters to the popular stories of the day. When they're ready, players 'roll the presses' to claim those stories where their reporters have a majority and assemble them on their 'front page' player mat. The score of each press run is determined by the current values in each of the five news beats. Stories also have 'star' values, and the player with the most stars in each news beat gets that beat's endgame bonus.

The end of the game is triggered when one player publishes his fourth (in a two- or three-player game) or third (in a four- or five-player game) newspaper. The player who moved farthest along the circulation track is the winner of Penny Press.

Dingo's Dreams BGG
genre: Animals / Fantasy platform: Boardgame publisher: Red Raven Games
Dingo and his friends have gotten lost on Walkabout! Visit their dreams to lead them home!

Dingo's Dreams is a delightful and clever family game for 2-4 players. Each player competes to be the first to successfully guide his animal through the dream world.

Each player starts with a grid of 25 tiles, set up at random in a 5x5 dreamscape. Each player also starts with one extra tile, with a picture of their animal on it. The opposite side of all dreamscape tiles also has a picture of the animal. Each turn, a random card is drawn, telling players which tile they should flip. When a player flips a tile, it means their animal is traveling through a part of the dreamscape. Each player's goal is to guide their animal through the dreamscape by positioning him in a specified pattern (which is different each game). After a card is drawn, a player takes their extra animal and slides him into the dreamscape, shifting one row or column of tiles until a new, different tile emerges from the opposite side. The player will use this tile to shift another column or row on the next turn, and so on, until one player's dreamscape tiles match the goal. The player then shouts their animal's name-- "Dingo!", for example, to win the round.

Advanced rules add Hazard Tokens which increase the challenge substantially: to complete the required dream pattern, the player may not have his animal in any of the Hazard spaces marked on the dream card.

To Court the King BGG
other title: Um Krone und Kragen / 王への請願 (Petition to the King)
genre: Dice / Medieval platform: Boardgame publisher: AMIGO / cosaic
In this game, the players are petitioners at the royal court, trying to gain the King's favor. To do so, they must first gain the help of the servants and petty officials at the court, who can then help them gain access to the nobility, who, in turn, can help to reach the king.

The game is played in turns. On their turn, a player will gather their dice, roll them, set aside at least one, and roll the remaining dice again, until all dice have been set aside. After that, they select a character who will help. Each character requires a certain combination of dice (such as two pairs or dice that show at least 30 points). The character will give the player some benefits on later rolls, such as an additional die or the ability to modify the results of a roll.

The game ends when a player gains the support of the Queen (and temporary favor of the King, winning ties in the final roll-off). Now, all players try to gain a dice result of as many equal dice as possible (7x 2s, 8x 6s, etc). The player who gets the longest, highest result gains the favor of the King and wins.

Contents: 12 Dice, 60 character cards, 5 player aids, 1 marker, rules.

Marco Polo II: In the Service of the Khan BGG
other title: Marco Polo II / Marco Polo II: Agli Ordini del Khan
genre: Dice / Economic platform: Boardgame publisher: Hans im Glück / 999 Games
The journeys of Marco Polo continue in Marco Polo II: In the Service of the Khan, an epic follow-up to The Voyages of Marco Polo. After traveling to Beijing, your travels now take you back to the West in the service of the Khan, sending you to the farthest reaches of his empire in search of wealth and fame.

Marco Polo II is a standalone game based on The Voyages of Marco Polo, and you don't need the original game to play this one. This new journey will present unique challenges, with new and different actions, new scoring rules, and a new good: rare and valuable Chinese jade.

Retread old paths with renewed purpose, or find new ones as you explore farther west, continuing to build the immortal legacy of Marco Polo!

—description from the publisher

Lift Off BGG
other title: 리프트 오프
genre: Industry / Manufacturing / Space Exploration platform: Boardgame publisher: Hans im Glück / Korea Boardgames
1950/1960: The race into space is in full swing! We're making great progress on the techniques for supplying astronauts and space-ready machines, for optimizing launch conditions, and of course for designing the much-needed rockets. All this to explore the sheer vastness of space.

But in Lift Off, not only are two superpowers competing for the most glorious milestones of space travel, no, we players are also very involved. In this game, we each play a private space agency that wants to develop in their own areas. We must hire specialists, improve our rockets, and expand our capabilities because soon we have to decide which missions we want to carry out and what we want to bring into space. Only those who plan ahead and properly manage the resources available will win this race to the stars...

•••

1950/1960: Das Rennen ins All ist im vollen Gange! Die Techniken zur Versorgung der Raumfahrer und Maschinen, optimierte Startbedingungen, sowie die Konstruktionen der Flugkörper machen große Fortschritte. Dies alles um die schier unendliche Weite des Alls zu erkunden.

Doch in Lift Off konkurrieren nicht nur 2 Supermächte um die glorreichsten Meilensteine der Raumfahrt, nein auch wir Spieler mischen kräftig mit. Hier spielen wir jeder eine private Raumfahrtagentur die sich in ganz eigenen Bereichen entwickeln will. Dazu heuern wir Spezialisten an, verbessern unsere Raketen und erweitern unsere Fähigkeiten. Denn bald müssen wir uns entscheiden welche Missionen wir durchführen wollen und was wir ins All bringen wollen… Nur wer hier voraus plant und richtig mit den verfügbaren Mitteln wirtschaftet, wird am Ende Sieger des Rennens zu den Sternen…

Call to Glory BGG
genre: Card Game platform: Boardgame publisher: White Goblin Games
Call to Glory, packaged in a mid-sized tin box, is a fast and fun card game in which players try to collect Japanese characters of different values. When a player has two or more cards of the same character in his hand, he can (possibly) lay these cards on the table and score them at the end of the round. If, however, an opponent lays out more cards of the same type, then characters of that type already on the table are discarded. When the game ends, players score for the types of characters they have on the table.

Call to Glory comes with two variants:


"Imperial Tasks" in which players can fulfill specific tasks for extra points.
"The Power of the Ninja" in which the Ninja cards become more powerful.


Unlike Crazy Chicken, Call to Glory is playable with 2 to 4 players. Drive is playable with 4 players, but does not have the two variants.

4 BGG
other title: Connect Four / 4 à la Suite
genre: Abstract Strategy / Children's Game platform: Boardgame publisher: Milton Bradley / (Unknown)
Connect 4 is a well known vertical game played with "checkers" game pieces, although it is more akin to Tic-Tac-Toe or Go Moku.

The board is placed in the stand to hold it vertically and the players drop game pieces into one of the seven slots, each of which holds up to six game pieces, until one player succeeds in getting four in a row, whether horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.

The game is non-proprietary. More elegant, wooden versions can be found under the name The Captain's Mistress.

No Thanks! BGG
other title: ¡No Gracias! / Ei, aitäh!
genre: Card Game platform: Boardgame publisher: AMIGO / 999 Games
No Thanks! is a card game designed to be as simple as it is engaging.

The rules are simple. Each turn, players have two options:

play one of their chips to avoid picking up the current face-up card
pick up the face-up card (along with any chips that have already been played on that card) and turn over the next card


However, the choices aren't so easy as players compete to have the lowest score at the end of the game. The deck of cards is numbered from 3 to 35, with each card counting for a number of points equal to its face value. Runs of two or more cards only count as the lowest value in the run - but nine cards are removed from the deck before starting, so be careful looking for connectors. Each chip is worth -1 point, but they can be even more valuable by allowing you to avoid drawing that unwanted card.

The first versions of the game supported up to five players, but the German 2011 edition supports up to seven (simply by increasing the number of chips).

This game was originally published in Germany in 2004 by Amigo as Geschenkt ...ist noch zu teuer!, meaning Even given as a gift, it is still too expensive!. Amigo's 2006 international edition, titled No Merci! (a delightful multi-lingual pun), had rules in several languages, including English. The game has subsequently been released in other countries under an assortment of names. The German 2024 edition includes additional cards to allow for play with variant rules.

Draftosaurus BGG
other title: Draftozaur / Драфтозаври
genre: Animals / Prehistoric platform: Boardgame publisher: Ankama / Board Game Box
Your goal in Draftosaurus is to have the dino park most likely to attract visitors. To do so, you have to draft dino meeples and place them in pens that have some placement restrictions. Each turn, one of the players roll a die and this adds a constraint to which pens any other player can add their dinosaur.

Draftosaurus is a quick and light drafting game in which you don't have a hand of cards that you pass around (after selecting one), but a bunch of dino meeples in the palm of your hand.