boardgames
Century: Spice Road BGG
other title: Caravan / Century: Cesta koření/Cesta korenia
genre: Card Game / Economic platform: Boardgame publisher: Plan B Games / ABACUSSPIELE
Century: Spice Road is the first in a series of games that explores the history of each century with spice-trading as the theme for the first installment. In Century: Spice Road, players are caravan leaders who travel the famed silk road to deliver spices to the far reaches of the continent for fame and glory. Each turn, players perform one of four actions:


Establish a trade route (by taking a market card)
Make a trade or harvest spices (by playing a card from hand)
Fulfill a demand (by meeting a victory point card's requirements and claiming it)
Rest (by taking back into your hand all of the cards you've played)


The last round is triggered once a player has claimed their fifth victory point card, then whoever has the most victory points wins.

Azul: Queen's Garden BGG
other title: Azul: A királyné kertje / Azul: Die Gärten der Königin
genre: Abstract Strategy / Puzzle platform: Boardgame publisher: Next Move Games / Belleville (Бельвіль)
Welcome back to the palace of Sintra! King Manuel I has commissioned the best garden designers of Portugal to construct the most extraordinary garden for his wife, Queen Maria of Aragon.

In Azul: Queen's Garden, players are tasked with arranging a magnificent garden for the King's lovely wife by arranging beautiful plants, trees, and ornamental features.

Using an innovative drafting mechanism, the signature of the Azul series, players must carefully select colorful tiles to decorate their garden. Only the most incredible garden designers will flourish and win the Queen's blessing.

—description from the publisher

Ingenious BGG
other title: Einfach Genial / Ganske enkelt genialt
genre: Abstract Strategy platform: Boardgame publisher: KOSMOS / 999 Games
In Ingenious, a.k.a. Einfach Genial, players take turns placing colored domino-style tiles on a game board, scoring for each line of colored symbols that they enlarge. The trick, however, is that a player's score is equal to their worst-scoring color, not their best, so they need to score for all colors instead of specializing in only one or two.

In more detail, the game includes 120 domino-style tiles, each consisting of two conjoined hexes; each hex has one of six colors in it, with most tiles having different-colored hexes. Each player has a rack with six tiles on it, and on a turn a player places one tile from their rack onto two hexes of the game board. For each hex on this tile, they score one point in that color for each hex of the same color that lies adjacent to it and each hex in a straight line from it. If a player brings the score of a color to 18, they immediately take another turn. At the end of their turn, they refill their rack to six tiles. (Before refilling their rack, if they have no tiles on it that contain hexes in their lowest-scoring color, they can discard all of their tiles, then draw six new tiles from the bag.)

When no more tiles can be placed on the game board or when one player scores 18 in each color, the game ends. Players then compare their lowest scores, and whoever has the highest low score wins.

Ingenious includes rules for solitaire and team play; in the latter case, two teams of two play, with each player not being able to see their partner's tiles and teams keeping a combined score that maxes out at 36 instead of 18.

Azul: Summer Pavilion Mini BGG
other title: Azul: Summer Pavilion / Azul Letnji Paviljon Mini
genre: Abstract Strategy / Puzzle platform: Boardgame publisher: Next Move Games / Belleville (Бельвіль)
At the turn of the 16th Century, King Manuel I commissioned Portugal's greatest artisans to construct grandiose buildings. After completing the Palaces of Evora and Sintra, the king sought to build a summer pavilion to honor the most famous members of the royal family. This construction was intended for the most talented artisans — whose skills meet the splendor that the royal family deserves. Sadly, King Manuel I died before construction ever began.

In Azul: Summer Pavilion, players return to Portugal to accomplish the task that never began. As a master artisan, you must use the finest materials to create the summer pavilion while carefully avoiding wasting supplies. Only the best will rise to the challenge to honor the Portuguese royal family.

Azul: Summer Pavilion lasts six rounds, and in each round players draft tiles, then place them on their individual player board to score points. Each of the six colors of tiles is wild during one of the rounds.

At the start of each round, draw tiles at random from the bag to refill each of the five, seven, or nine factories with four tiles each. Draw tiles as needed to refill the ten supply spaces on the central scoring board. Players then take turns drafting tiles. You can choose to take all of the tiles of a non-wild color on a factory and place them next to your board; if any wild tiles are on this factory, you must take one of them. Place all remaining tiles in the center of the table. Alternatively, you can take all tiles of a non-wild color from the center of play; you must also take one wild tile, if present.

After all tiles have been claimed, players then take turns placing tiles on their individual boards. Each board depicts seven stars that would be composed of six tiles; each space on a star shows a number from 1-6, and six of the stars are for tiles of a single color while the seventh will be composed of one tile of each color. To place a tile on the blue 5, for example, you must discard five blue or wild tiles from next to your player board (with at least one blue being required), placing one blue tile in the blue 5 space and the rest in the discard tower. You score 1 point for this tile and 1 point for each tile within this star connected to the newly placed tile.

If you completely surround a pillar, statue, or window on your game board with tiles, you get an immediate bonus, taking 1-3 tiles from the central supply spaces and placing them next to your board. At the end of the round, you can carry over at most four tiles to the next round; discard any others, losing 1 point for each such tile.

After six rounds, you score a bonus for each of the seven stars that you've filled completely. Additionally, you score a bonus for having covered all seven spaces of value 1, 2, 3 or 4. You lose 1 point for each remaining tile unused, then whoever has the most points wins.

—description from the publisher

The Quacks of Quedlinburg BGG
other title: Les Charlatans de Belcastel / Ciarlatani di Quedlinburgo
genre: Medieval platform: Boardgame publisher: Schmidt Spiele / 999 Games
In The Quacks of Quedlinburg, players are charlatans — or quack doctors — each making their own secret brew by adding ingredients one at a time. Take care with what you add, though, for a pinch too much of this or that will spoil the whole mixture!

Each player has their own bag of ingredient chips. During each round, they simultaneously draw chips from their bags and add them to their pots. The higher the face value of the drawn chip, the further it is placed in the pot's swirling pattern, increasing how much the potion will be worth. Push your luck as far as you can, but if you add too many cherry bombs, your pot will explode!

At the end of each round, players gain victory points and coins to spend on new ingredients, depending on how well they managed to fill up their pots. But players whose pots have exploded must choose points or coins — not both! The player with the most victory points at the end of nine rounds wins the game.

K3 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.

Rumis BGG
other title: Blokus 3D / 블로커스 3D
genre: Abstract Strategy / Territory Building platform: Boardgame publisher: Alary Games / Divisible By Zero (DBZ) Aust Pty Ltd
In the game Rumis, the players construct an Inca building with their stones. All players receive three-dimensional pieces made of wood or plastic, which they will try to position adjacent to already placed pieces of their own color. All of their own pieces are of different shapes, which is a challenge to the three-dimensional imagination.

Cubic, wedge-shaped, or pyramidal volumes are different building limitations, which are imposed by the various building scenarios. Playing RUMIS, you will find that no game is similar to any previous one. Once your mind has mastered the puzzling shapes of the RUMIS pieces, you will explore the depth of tactical and strategic possibilities offered.

The rebrand by Educational Insights is labelled 1 to 4 players on the box, adding solitaire puzzles such as building a 3x3 cube with one color and building the various shapes using all the colors, following the rules of the multiplayer games while leaving no gaps in the structure.

Expanded by:


Rumis+


Bunny Kingdom BGG
other title: Králíkovství / Królestwo Królików
genre: Animals / Medieval platform: Boardgame publisher: IELLO / Albi
Peace has come at last to the great Bunny Kingdom! Lead your clan of rabbits to glory by gathering resources and building new cities across the land!

Draft cards and pick the right ones to position your warrens on the 100 squares of the board, provide resources to your colonies, build new cities to increase your influence, and plan your strategy to score big at the end of the game. Settle in lakesides or fields to collect water and grow carrots, gather mushrooms in the green forest, and climb the highest mountains to discover rare and precious resources... Secretly rally rabbit lords and recruit skillful masters to make your cities and resources even more valuable at the end of the game.

After each turn, your groups of contiguous warrens grant you points depending on the cities and different resources they include. The game ends after 4 rounds, and the player with the most points wins the game.

Nova Luna BGG
other title: Місяць-молодик / Новолуние
genre: Abstract Strategy / Puzzle platform: Boardgame publisher: Edition Spielwiese / Compaya.hu: Gamer Café Kft.
The new moon is a symbol for a new beginning, the perfect time to start something new and to plan your future — and that is what Nova Luna (lat. for new moon) is all about. In each round of this abstract tile-laying game, you have to plan your future anew, developing a new strategy to cope with what the moon wheel has to offer you.

On each turn, you have to decide which new tile from the moon wheel to place in front of you. Every new tile brings a new task you have to fulfill. In order to do so, you need to place tiles of the correct color adjacent to the task you want to complete, but these of course again bring you new tasks. Each time a task is solved, you may place one of your markers on it. So decide wisely and be the first one to place all your markers.

—description from the publisher

Dice Theme Park BGG
genre: Dice platform: Boardgame publisher: Alley Cat Games / Maldito Games
Dice Theme Park is a dice manipulation board game, all about creating and running your own park of fairground attractions.

In Dice Theme Park, you are the park managers, trying to create the most successful theme park in the area, by getting your customers on the most rides possible! The dice in the game represent the customers, with hex tiles representing the rides in your park. Employing a unique “Dice-cascade” mechanic once a customer has enjoyed a ride, their dice value is reduced, but they can still continue to enjoy more rides in the theme park until their value drops to 0 where they exit. This means the more efficiently you can move your dice around to activate the most rewarding rides, the more points and money you receive!

Dice Theme Park also features a card based turn initiative mechanic, decided by your special action role cards (with values 1-6), with players selecting two cards each turn. The lowest total will gain first choice of the customer dice draft and ride tiles that round. At the end of the round those cards will then be passed to the player on your left.

Dice Theme Park is more interactive and slightly more complex than Dice Hospital, so it’s perfect for those looking for a more challenging experience with more ways to score and play, whilst still keeping that same engaging and satisfying feel every time it is played.

—description from the publisher

A to Z BGG
other title: de A à Z / A til Å
genre: Party Game / Trivia platform: Boardgame publisher: F.X. Schmid / Fundex
Each player receives a plastic board with 25 spaces on it labeled A to Z (with X and Y sharing a space). The playing board has spaces marked 15, 30, hand and 2. Each player takes a turn moving the single pawn around the board. Once you land on a space, another player draws a card (each with 6 categories on them), looks up your die roll on that card and reads the corresponding category. If you landed on a 15 or 30 you have that many seconds to think of as many words in that category as you can and for each word you can come up with, you cover the appropriate space on your plastic board with a chip. The aim is to be first to fill all 25.

If you land on a hand, you get 15 seconds and choose another player. For every word you think of you can pull a chip off of their board that starts with the appropriate letter. If you land on the 2 space you can cover 2 spaces on your board for free (handy for Q and X, Y, Z).

The timer is obnoxiously loud by intent (very distracting) and flips over very suddenly, scaring people who aren't used to it, to mark the end of the time limit.

Basically, this is a very simple word enumerating party style game that's quick and easy to learn and frustrating for people with poor vocabularies or stalled minds.

Many years ago, while still known as Nelospelit, Tactic already used the title Ord Mani for an earlier word game; these are different games, although some similarities do exist.

Burrowdale BGG
genre: Animals / Card Game platform: Boardgame publisher: Walnut Games
In Burrowdale you are a family of rabbits battling to store enough food for the coming winter. Build and change routes between the fourteen burrows, trade carrots, radishes and other goods and move your rabbit workers to where the best resources and locations are, to gain the most points to make sure your burrow comes out on top.

On your turn, you can take three actions, from any combination of the following:
- place one of your rabbit workers on an unoccupied burrow;
- place one of the available resources on any burrow;
- make a trade between two burrows that have the same resource;
- change the layout of the warren network by placing a new warren card and removing an existing one;
- place your family emblem token on a warren card to score an extra point in future trades.

Points are scored through trades, depending on how many warren card that trade route passes through - so if the shortest possible route between two burrows means passing through four warren cards, you score 4 points. The winner is the first rabbit to 40 points.

-description from designer

Dragomino BGG
other title: Dragomino: Sárkánytojások nyomában / Το Νησί Των Δράκων
genre: Children's Game / Fantasy platform: Boardgame publisher: Blue Orange (EU) / Blue Orange Games
The big moment has arrived. You have been named "dragon trainer", and you have the chance to meet them on a mysterious island. But you are not the only trainer sent to these lands. Who among you will discover the most baby dragons?

Dragomino features gameplay similar to Kingdomino, but with gameplay suitable for younger players. At the start of a round, you reveal four domino tiles, with each domino featuring two types of landscapes. Starting with whoever has the mommy dragon figure, players draft a tile and add it to their landscape. If the newly placed tile matches the landscape of one or more adjacent tiles, then you draw an egg tile for that type of landscape and place it face up where those tiles meet. Some eggs feature a baby dragon, which is worth 1 point; others feature an empty shell, which allows you to take the mommy dragon, giving you first pick next round.

After seven rounds, the game ends, and the player who holds the mommy dragon scores 1 additional point.

Kingsburg (Second Edition) 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.

One Two Many Rabbits BGG
genre: Animals / Card Game platform: Boardgame publisher: (Self-Published) / Three Archers
The rabbits of Wiggins Farm have gotten out of control. While Farmer Wiggins was away on vacation, the rabbits got into the house where they kept the sports equipment, the art supplies, the cosplay costumes and the box of classic movies. The farmer arrived home to find the place overrun with all kinds of rabbits. He’s calling upon you, the luckiest person he knows, for help to get these rabbits back into their rabbit hole where they belong. It’s a big job. There are a LOT of rabbits to round up. Maybe even one too many---but if you hop to it, you can save the day.

One Two Many Rabbits is a fun, fast-paced, family friendly card and dice game that is easy to learn and takes about 10 to 20 minutes to play. The main rules are for 2-4 players, but also included are rules for a one player game so that people can try their hand at some solo play.

Each player starts off with a LOT of rabbits and will choose to roll one, two or three dice in order to create the numbers that will help them decide which rabbits will willingly go back into the rabbit hole. But, watch out, these rabbits are tricky and will use the turns of the people playing against you to find ways to hop back into your hands. As play continues and the number of rabbits in your hand start to dwindle, the more difficult it will be to roll the numbers that you need to get rid of all of your rabbits.

There are also special cards in the deck to help you along. Wild cards can be used as any number. Plus Minus cards can be used to add or subtract two of your number cards together. Piggyback cards allow you to use the roll of your opponent to get rid of some rabbits. And Place Your Rab-Bets cards allow you to take a wild guess on which number will be rolled next and try to get rid of some rabbits that way.

Patchwork BGG
other title: Patchwork Specials: 10 Year Anniversary Edition / Patchwork: Americana Edition
genre: Abstract Strategy / Economic platform: Boardgame publisher: Lookout Games / 999 Games
In Patchwork, two players compete to build the most aesthetic (and high-scoring) patchwork quilt on a personal 9x9 game board. To start play, lay out all of the patches at random in a circle and place a marker directly clockwise of the 2-1 patch. Each player takes five buttons — the currency/points in the game — and someone is chosen as the start player.

On a turn, a player either purchases one of the three patches standing clockwise of the spool or passes. To purchase a patch, you pay the cost in buttons shown on the patch, move the spool to that patch's location in the circle, add the patch to your game board, then advance your time token on the time track a number of spaces equal to the time shown on the patch. You're free to place the patch anywhere on your board that doesn't overlap other patches, but you probably want to fit things together as tightly as possible. If your time token is behind or on top of the other player's time token, then you take another turn; otherwise the opponent now goes. Instead of purchasing a patch, you can choose to pass; to do this, you move your time token to the space immediately in front of the opponent's time token, then take one button from the bank for each space you moved.

In addition to a button cost and time cost, each patch also features 0-3 buttons, and when you move your time token past a button on the time track, you earn "button income": sum the number of buttons depicted on your personal game board, then take this many buttons from the bank.

What's more, the time track depicts five 1x1 patches on it, and during set-up you place five actual 1x1 patches on these spaces. Whoever first passes a patch on the time track claims this patch and immediately places it on his game board.

Additionally, the first player to completely fill in a 7x7 square on his game board earns a bonus tile worth 7 extra points at the end of the game. (Of course, this doesn't happen in every game.)

When a player takes an action that moves his time token to the central square of the time track, he takes one final button income from the bank. Once both players are in the center, the game ends and scoring takes place. Each player scores one point per button in his possession, then loses two points for each empty square on his game board. Scores can be negative. The player with the most points wins.

Dinosaur Island: Rawr 'n Write BGG
other title: Ostrov dinosaurů: Hoď & kroť
genre: Animals / Dice platform: Boardgame publisher: Pandasaurus Games / Catch Up Games
Dinosaur Island: Rawr 'n Write is a roll-and-write version of the critically-acclaimed game Dinosaur Island.

Dinosaur Island: Rawr ‘n Write is a unique game in which players draft dice and then use those drafted dice as workers in a worker placement phase. Then, a fun polyomino puzzle ensues as you try and fit all your attractions and Dinosaurs into your park while buildings roads and routes to the exits for bonus points. At the end of the game, have more victory points than your opponents to win!

Scattergories BGG
other title: Estalo / Kategorum
genre: Party Game / Real-time platform: Boardgame publisher: (Unknown) / Game Office
"The Game of Scattergories," published in 1988 by Milton Bradley, is a great game for any group to play. In the game each player fills out a category list 'with answers that begin with the same letter.' If no other player matches your answers, you score points. The game is played in rounds. After 3 rounds a winner is declared, and a new game can be begun.

Scattergories is a commercial version of an old parlour game known as Categories or Guggenheim.

Similar to:

Facts in Five


Wordsy BGG
other title: 7 Słów
genre: Real-time / Word Game platform: Boardgame publisher: Formal Ferret Games / FoxGames
Wordsy is a streamlined re-implementation of Prolix, a word game from 2010.

Each round, players study the 8 letters (always consonants) on the board in real time. The first player to write down a word flips a 30-second timer. That player is now the fastest player, and every other player now has 30 seconds to write down their word.

Once time has run out, the fastest player scores their word by counting the point value of each of the matching letters on the board. Players are not limited to the letters on the board; they can add any letters they'd like. Letters score based on which of the 4 columns of the board they're in, and how rare they are.

After the fastest player scores, the first player clockwise scores their word, and compares it to the fastest player. If that player scored more than the fastest player, they score a small bonus.

Every other player scores their word and checks for a bonus. Once they've all done this, the fastest player scores a bonus if their score is equal to or higher than half the other player's scores.

After 7 rounds, players add the scores their best 5 words, plus their bonuses. The player with the most points wins!

Don't L.L.A.M.A. Dice 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.