by Steph Hodge

Hey Friends!

Maybe you missed me, but I was sailing away on the BGG@Sea cruise from Sydney, Australia, all around New Zealand.

I first want to give a shout-out to [user=CaptainQwyx][/user] for hosting such a fabulous event. For those unfamiliar, BGG@Sea has 2 cruises each year. One abroad and one stateside. Check out the details for Jeff's upcoming cruises!

There is a lot to unpack here because traveling to the otherside of the world is a bucket-list sort of adventure. Michael and I decided to join this cruise SUPERRRRRRRRRR last minute because it's a big investment. However, we had both been on the BGG@Sea Alaskan Cruise back in 2018 and had a blast. We decided to make this trip work because it is a trip of a lifetime.

I will be the first to tell you that a 13+ hour-long flight does not excite me. I was not looking forward to all of the travel to make it happen, but New Zealand!! Home of Hobbits! A destination I knew I had to visit at least once.

Now, the cruise did offer an excursion to Hobbiton, but by the time we decided to join the group, it was already sold out. It meant that we had to plan to visit New Zealand before or after the cruise itself to make sure we got to actually go to Hobbiton. Thanks to Jeff, he was able to create a private tour for those who wanted to join before the cruise. There were 23 of us geeks who wanted to visit Hobbiton!! It was an EPIC adventure because we got the ALL IN BUNDLE. A full feast and behind-the-scenes tour included.

Because the cruise was sailing from Sydney, Australia, it meant we had to fly into Auckland, New Zealand, to visit Hobbiton and then make our way to Sydney the following day. It was all well worth it because Auckland wasn't even on the itinerary for our cruise around New Zealand. We got to visit an extra city, but more importantly, we got to visit Hobbiton. A major reason to visit New Zealand anyway!

To be fair, New Zealand is a wonderful place all on its own. You don't need Hobbiton to make it a magical trip, but it is like the icing on the cake.

After a VERY long travel day from BNA to LAX to AUK, we completely lost a day in transit, but arrived bright and early in Auckland. We were immediately greeted by [user=JediLuke] Luke Badger[/user] of Badgers from Mars! If you are not familiar with their game Regicide, I highly recommend it! Michael and I were SO FORTUNATE that he was available to show us the scenes of Auckland. I feel like we got an insider tour of all the best New Zealand offerings. He brought us around to see the sights, but more importantly, to try a variety of foods like the savory pies, delicious gelato, marmite (which is not like Vegemite), and stopped at the food store to grab a bunch of New Zealand treats like Whittaker's Chocolate. 😍

The following day, we were up bright and early to join the tour as we made our way to Hobbiton. It was a few hours by bus. The weather was saying rain and thunderstorms all day. I was super bummed by the forecast, so I just had to hope it would be incorrect. Again, we were incredibly lucky to have the rain hold off until the majority of the tour was completed. Super thankful for that. Going to Hobbiton, I KNEW I needed a Hobbit cloak, so Michael and I found a great deal on Amazon and purchased our cloaks. I expected EVERYONE to have cloaks when we got to Hobbiton, but turns out we were the geekiest of all. Some were jealous for sure! Obviously, the gift shop should be selling cloaks.

When you arrive at Hobbiton, you are at the gift shop and cafe. From there, the studio will take busloads of people during their slotted time. We were a bit special as we paid extra to have a luxury experience with the feast and behind-the-scenes tour. We also got to go inside a hobbit home. We were told that about 2200-2500 people visit daily, and they host an average of 2 weddings a week. I will be honest, I didn't listen to the tour guide all that much. I was too busy being in the moment and taking a million photos. As a photographer, I just wanted to get the right shot, and that often means waiting until everyone leaves the area or running ahead before everyone shows up. I hope you enjoy some of my photography. The entire set is set up to give the perspective of Hobbit vs Humans in size. You can see that perspective from the photo of me in the door and Michael outside.

[imageid=9457317 medium rep]

Once we walked through Hobbiton, we ended at The Green Dragon, where we were given a free drink. We had only a little bit of time before we were escorted to the Watermill for our feast. But, Michael and I still tried to get in a game of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers – Trick-Taking Game. Once we were at the mill, we gazed upon 4 spreads of food for 23 people. It was FAR FAR FAR too much food. I think 2 spreads would have covered us all. Everyone was sad that there were no doggie bags to go! We learned that all the leftovers are fed to the pigs down the road. Those pigs are quite well fed, wow!

We saw some extra Hobbit holes and then moved along to the behind-the-scenes tour. You see the workspaces of actual on-site workers who are mending and making set pieces. You see a ton of concept artwork and the model for the Hobbit home. It is SO COOL!

As you can tell, this was a major highlight of my trip! We haven't even made it to the cruise portion of the adventure! The day after Hobbiton was a travel day where most of us flew to Sydney and explored. Michael and I didn't do much planning for what to see, but we knew we wanted to use the public transit. The trains are super convenient to use as you just tap your credit card to enter and exit. Same thing when using the tranis in New Zealand. They make it so easy!

We were able to easily get around and walk the streets of Sydney. It reminded me of New York City quite a bit. I am glad we went to see the Opera House at dusk. We got some great photos and then didn't have to rush around the next day to see the touristy sights. On the day we set to embark, Royal Caribbean really makes it easy. You can drop your luggage off, and it will be delivered to your room. It made it so we didn't have to wheel around luggage while we waited to board the ship. We could instead just explore more of Sydney. I opted to try the Pancake House for lunch. Delicious. There is a whole area by the ship called The Rocks with little marketplaces and shops. It was super cute. We explored there, but found access to the harbor bridge and walked across it! I highly recommend the walk. It took us to Luna Park, which is an old school amusement park. We missed the Squid Game experience, but they still had remaining features. 😂 Oh, how I would have loved to experience that! From there, we were easily able to take the ferry boat (tap on and off!) back to the port where the ship was waiting. It was excellent.

All in all, I didn't get a lot of time to explore Australia, so maybe we will just have to come back.

YAY! The Cruise!! We board the ship and find our cabin. But, soon after, we sought out the conference area. Bring on the games! It is a great location as you can see out the back of the ship. You can tell by a few photos that we had an excellent view of Sydney Harbor.

There are a lot of cool aspects of BGG@Sea. You have access to a bunch of great games, and you meet a lot of fabulous people. Since we were leaving from Australia, we had a bunch of Australian attendees, which was awesome, since they don't generally come to BGG.CON or other US conventions. Attendees will get to select 2 games for the library. There were about 140 of us, so about 200 games were brought. Since you only get two choices, a lot of the choices were bigger games. Thankfully, there was a pile of games that others brought that we could play as well. It was a good mix of games! Michael and I tried to learn at least one big game a day!

The cruise offers a wide variety of entertainment throughout the trip. The itinerary worked out so that there were 3 days at sea, followed by 5 port days, followed by 3 days at sea back to Sydney. Those days at sea are simply great for playing the big games! I got to playing a bunch of great games. I will highlight more at the end of the blog, but I will point out that on the 3rd day when we were sailing through the sounds of New Zealand, we got to learn and play Great Western Trail: New Zealand. That was super special and a fantastic game to play while sailing through the sounds. It was glorious!

So we had 5 days at port, where we could debark the ship and explore the area. Michael and I didn't splurge on any excursions; we just went at it day by day and place by place. Wherever the winds took us, we went.

Stop 1 was Dunedin. There was a lot to see at this port. As I said, we didn't have a plan, so we just started walking around and looking at the maps. New Zealand loves to put big murals on buildings. I find it fascinating. There is an Octagon center with lots of shops and places to eat.

I saw there were a few really cool lookout areas on the map, and Michael found it was about a 45-minute walk, so we opted to try that. The walk/hike took us through a college and the botanical gardens. Eventually, we made it, but it turned out to be to the BOTTOM of the lookout spot. There was no way I was climbing another huge mountain to overlook the area. Funny enough, where we did end up was on top of a huge hill. We were 5 streets away from Baldwin Street... The world's steepest residential street on earth. We didn't KNOW that until after we got back to port and were visiting a local shop. But, I was totally beat from our hike up to that point. We were just a few streets over and I had to walk down Blacks Road. I had to go EXTRA slow, IT WAS SO STEEP! We ended up walking down the street and taking a bus (such great transit!) back to the center. I rewarded myself with gelato. We ended the day with a visit to the local train station.

Stop 2 was Christchurch. So much to see and do here, it was hard to pack it all in. I wanted to check out the botanical gardens. (This was the best botanical garden of the entire trip.) It was a gorgeous day and the day could have been spent right there. Gorgeous summer day! We only spent about an hour there before moving along to visit the Quake City exhibit. This is a small museum that shows you the history of New Zealand's earthquakes. There was a devastating hit at Christchurch in 2011, and you can still see the damage as you walk the streets. Tragic stories, but it is good to have this exhibit for visitors to learn about the area.

From there, we continued walking and explored the city. We found a small festival being set up for the Chinese New Year. There are city trollys everywhere you look. We didn't ride one, but it looked cute! We ended up at a small game bar called Dice & Slice! We grabbed a bite and enjoyed a game of Regicide to honor Luke and New Zealand! Really great spot and great food.

Stop 3 was Wellington! A lot of the BGG@Sea folks took an exclusive BGG excursion to eat food and visit with Wellington designers and publishers. I would have enjoyed that, but I am not a foodie, so it was a bit out of my price range. We didn't have much clue as to what to do, but there was a guy handing out maps who gave us some very helpful insight. Walk the harbor and visit Cuba Street for quirky shops and cafes. Take the cable car up to the botanical gardens and walk down to get back to the port. He told us to make sure to go to the cable car AFTER lunch, which was great advice. We did as we were told, and it was a lovely day! Apparently, we arrived at the cable car at the perfect time since the line was about a 2-hour wait earlier in the day. Crazy!

Stop 4 was Napier. This was amazing timing! Napier was in the middle of their yearly festival. The city is known for the Art Deco-style buildings, and this was a festival celebrating that. Two ships were docked, and the city was PACKED! It was a sight to behold. The streets were lined with old-timey cars, parades, performances, and music. It was pretty amazing, honestly. We almost instantly went to the beach, which was all these stones and not sand. Very weird, but cool. Michael had to go into the water! I had done some minor research on what I might want to do. I found that Te Mata Peak was a great place to visit. We needed to find a tour to get there, though. It was my day because as we walked into the information area, the lady said the tour I wanted to do was leaving in 5 minutes. It was impeccable timing, and it was exactly what I wanted to do.

The tour was great since it was a 30-minute drive to Te Mata Peak, and he took us right to the top! We only had 10 very quick minutes there, but I was on top of the world. Easily another fantastic highlight from my trip. Nothing tops Hobbiton, but Te Mata Peak was a close second. It was amazing.

We got back to town and found gelato, and there was an airshow happening! It was EPIC! loved Napier!!

Stop 5 was Tauranga, but really it was Mount Maunganui. I would say this was the biggest bust of a day. We had very little time on shore so we couldn't plan to go to Rotorua, where we would have wanted to go. We tried to seek Blokarts, but we couldn't find a place to try that. So, I don't have much to report. But it was still a lovely day of walking around.

The rest of the trip on the cruise was all about the gaming and the We Will Rock You show that the cruise put on. I was super excited to see the musical. I'm glad we had such fantastic seats. The show was phenomenal. I am a bit surprised there were only 3 performances the whole cruise. I would have expected more performances of it. We would have seen it more than once if we could have.

Some of the game highlights from the trip. I got to learn Eternal Decks that Jeff so kindly brought along. I think everyone played this game at least once. It was constantly being played when I was looking around the room. It is a cooperative card game and it is basically a game of survival. You have to manage everyone's decks of cards and take care of the threats. I loved it and am excited to play it more.

Of course, I was fortunate to get in a PRECIOUS game of The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship. The whole fellowship made it to Mordor this time! Epic battle until the end.

I requested Fate: Defenders of Grimheim to be part of the library as I heard great reviews. I was not disappointed! Cooperative tower defense games with the ability to upgrade your character as the game plays out. So many things I love in a game. Now to figure out how to get a copy. 🤔

Emberleaf really hit the spot too. Great use of cards and actions. Super cute to boot. Very happy to get the chance to play this game. One I will be looking forward to playing again!

Jeff hosts amazing events at various conventions, and Michael joined his Blood on the Clocktower games. Michael had a fantastic time playing those. We both joined Jeff's Poker tournament! 14 people were playing, including Jeff. I made it to 5th position, but Michael took home the big win! It was a great event.

I had an amazing trip. It only makes me excited to cruise more and see the world. I have a special shout-out to [user=chivvo][/user] for giving me this amazing BGG@Sea gift crafted by his wife during the cruise.

Thanks for checking out my journeys to Middle-Earth New Zealand. I hope you enjoy it! I promise more NEWS in the next post!

-Steph the Hobbit-recruit

P.S. Michael and I go into SO MUCH more detail, if you can even imagine. Here is our FULL recap video.

Youtube Video

by Walter Obert

A few years ago, the call for entries to the first FIW Award, the prize promoted by the Italian Wargame Federation for the best unpublished wargame, gave me the opportunity to bring together in a single project four, long-standing passions of mine:

- The first was the chance to rescue and reuse a double-sided counter mechanism that had been sitting unused for over 15 years.
- The second was the will to condense the extremely complex relationships between the Allied powers during the final phase of World War II into a system accessible to players.
- The third, the opportunity to explore the potential impact of the German secret weapons programs, suspended somewhere between historical reality and speculative imagination - halfway between “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe”.
- And finally, I wanted to design a game with strong player interaction that would feel like a wargame, while still being approachable to all level players. At its core, WunderWaffen is built around these four clear design pillars, with a few more rules than I generally allow myself to use.

From the very beginning, I knew that the thematic heart of WunderWaffen would be the idea of “what if?” What if those experimental weapons had influenced the outcome of the war? This kind of counterfactual speculation is one of the core motivations that drives many wargamers, and I wanted to make it an explicit part of the experience.

Interestingly, the game’s core engine already existed. More than 15 years earlier, I had developed a cooperative design inspired by the movie Armageddon, based on double-sided counters showing a positive effect on one side and a negative effect on the other. Each turn, players had to resolve one positive and one negative effect. When I revisited that system, it immediately proved itself the perfect fit for a game centered on the race to Berlin, where players are forced to cooperate - but only up to a point - while simultaneously trying to slow down the German Research Track.

This became the foundation of WunderWaffen. Each player selects three counters from a pool of eighteen, which in the first part of the game are played over six rounds. On the reverse side of every counter there is an action that benefits one of the other players. Each turn, a player must resolve two counters for themselves and must give one counter, flipped, to another player. This single rule generates a surprising amount of strategic depth.

First, it eliminates self-sufficiency. No player can plan in isolation, because every turn includes a deliberate act of interference. Second, it forces players to evaluate not only what action to take, but who should be forced to deal with its consequences. The system immediately becomes political; the players start to negotiate.

The game is played with four Factions: United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and Germany. Although the Allied players compete against one another for Victory Points, they are still collectively opposed to the German player. At the same time, even the German counters include reverse-side actions that benefit the Allies.

The result is an asymmetric, team-based, semi-cooperative system, something I had rarely seen on the market at the time. What makes it particularly interesting is that every player is forced, every turn, to grant an action to someone else, and in the case of the Allies that action may even go to Germany.

One side of the game counters
In practice, each turn offers three possible counter configurations, depending on which counter is flipped to its reverse side. This simple structure generates surprisingly rich dynamics involving planning, negotiation, and the evaluation of side effects.

Opposite side of the game counters
At the end of a turn, players refill their personal supply, keeping their available counters visible to everyone. This transparency allows opponents to anticipate what others can or cannot do, encouraging long-term planning and table awareness: elements that players tend to appreciate more with repeated plays.

The obligation to give actions to other players also introduces a layer of diplomacy and bargaining. Phrases like “I’ll give you this Counter, but don’t use it against me,” or “Advance on the Event Track, but choose this option, or I’ll hand the Counter to someone else” emerge naturally at the table. One of the most common pitfalls of semi-cooperative games is that cooperation often becomes superficial or purely opportunistic. In WunderWaffen, cooperation is structurally enforced, but never comfortable.

This system mirrors historical tensions quite effectively. If the Soviet player advances too quickly toward Berlin, the other Allies may stop supporting them, or even begin handing actions to the German player, coordinating their use in advance. Over time, the weakest Allied player tends to receive the most help, and the system self-balances organically.

The game board depicts Central Europe, divided into Territories corresponding to the Allied starting areas: the Soviet Union in the east, the United States in the south, and the United Kingdom in the west, with Berlin at the center.

Allied players must advance by conquering Territories, meeting each Territory’s requirements by placing specific troops. Each Territory provides tiles with Victory Points and bonuses, all visible from the start of the game. The German player can also occupy Territories by building Fortresses (Festungen in German), but their primary focus is advancing along the Research Track, unlocking WunderWaffen Cards. These cards allow Germany to bend the rules, gain additional Victory Points, and restrict the Allies’ actions.

Additional tracks - such as Morale, Politics, Events, and the Conference Area - represent broader strategic pressures. The Event Track, in particular, reflects real historical events specific to each Allied Faction, granting increasingly powerful effects as players progress and often involving others in their resolution.

One of my goals was to offer a holistic view of the final year of the war, using a streamlined system that keeps all players engaged, even when it is not their turn. Early playtests were promising, but two issues remained: regulating the Allies’ advance toward Berlin and creating a satisfying sense of localized conflict. The solution was to divide each Territory into three spaces, which must be fully occupied to determine control.

Counters have increasing strength values: Infantry, Armor, Aviation, Artillery, and Faction Flags, the latter acting as powerful wildcards. Stronger counters can defeat weaker ones, creating the feel of a contained micro-battle. After resolution, all counters are discarded except one belonging to the controlling player, which stays to mark control with a wooden cube on it. After six rounds, all players will have used their 18 counters, triggering the first Scoring Phase. Players then select 12 of their discarded counters to play the final four rounds.

Early in development, players preferred to graze the rich plains of Germany, collecting bonuses from the Territories. So, I increased the Victory Points in Berlin, encouraging the Allies to push toward the city, but now the game was too fast, ending too quickly! It was indispensable to regulate this situation. The final solution was to require control of at least four of the six Territories surrounding Berlin before the city could be conquered. This change not only solved the issue but added a new layer of tension and coordination, as no one wants to be the player who opens the gates of Berlin for someone else. Bingo!

Designing the WunderWaffen cards was one of the most exciting parts of the process. If a game is called “WunderWaffen”, those weapons must feel truly dangerous, forcing the Allies into close cooperation. The base game includes 24 Research cards, divided into three levels, each offering immediate effects, combos, twisted rules or end-game scoring conditions. I deliberately chose to include only weapons that were historically built or at least concrete projects, leaving more speculative ideas for a potential future expansion with a retro, science-fiction flavor.

WunderWaffen was born as an exercise in synthesis: historical theme, speculation, strong interaction, and accessibility. I wanted a game where difficult decisions did not stem from complex rules, but from unavoidable choices. A game in which every turn leaves someone dissatisfied but always involved. And I think I achieved it.

From the very beginning, the Italian publisher Oliphante, led by Gianfranco Fioretta, has been an enthusiastic supporter of the project, while Ares Games was overseeing the development and international distribution.

After extensive refinement and playtesting, the project was completed and ultimately won the first FIW Award, selected among 19 prototypes submitted. Following an initial folio publication in the Para Bellum magazine in 2023, WunderWaffen underwent a long development phase with Riccardo Vadalà, Roberto Di Meglio, and the Ares Games development team. To top it all off, Alan D’Amico designed the striking cover art.

by Justin Bell

Most people in The Hobby are familiar with the term “the shelf of shame”, a funny name for the games on your shelf that you bought weeks, months, maybe even years ago and still haven’t bothered to play. (Maybe you bought the game because the box’s color scheme paired so well with the other titles on the shelf second from the bottom…maybe.)

I don’t want to discount what the shelf of shame represents. The people in my strategy group know that I’m always pushing people to only buy the games that they know they will play…and usually, they laugh at this advice and go hog-wild, buying everything in sight, whether they think they will ever really table those games or not.

To each their own. For many, simply buying a game and having a sweet new toy on their shelves feels good.

I don’t maintain a shelf of shame. Also, I don’t really have any shame. I do, however, have three games (from a collection of about 200) that haven’t been played yet, and in all three cases, the shrink has been ripped off, the games are punched, stickered, and ready to go, and I just haven’t been able to force them to a table yet. Give me another month or two, and those will hit a table sooner than later.

I’m a bit weird in that way: as soon as I buy a game, I get anxious; my new toy deserves to see the light of day, so I like to push those games to the table whenever possible. Otherwise, why buy the thing in the first place? I am also an enabler; friends know that I usually start game nights by asking if anyone has anything hot they want to bust out, especially if they just bought something they’re excited about.

Lately, though, I have been obsessed—truly obsessed—with tabling the games from a different part of my game closet. These games are known as The Maybe Pile…and I often wonder if everyone has a pile just like it.

***

My Maybe Pile began to form a couple years ago.

It’s such a tricky beast. That’s because The Maybe Pile includes games that have proven to be a challenge for one simple reason: “tablebility”, my made-up term for any game’s likelihood to regularly make it to my game table, given my personal gaming network.

Games that I did not enjoy typically go to one of three places: the sale pile, which usually amounts to the games I will sell or trade with friends or another player in my immediate network to ensure that I can still revisit the game later; my “review crew”, who get the lion’s share of my review copies; non-profit organizations which get my game donations, such as The Gaming Hoopla. The house is only so big, and I typically keep only the games I love.

Honestly, I am thankful each time I play a game that is either a banger or a dud…that makes the decision on what to do with it next very easy.

The Maybe Pile, however, is a problem, and it’s a problem that grows in scope each year. One game on the top of my Maybe Pile is Raising Robots, an excellent engine-building game designed by Brett Sobol and Seth Van Orden, the same people who created my favorite auction game of them all, Stockpile. Each time I break out Raising Robots, everyone loves it. It’s the rare game that plays up to six players. It’s relatively easy to teach and doesn’t devour the entire table. I gave it a glowing review on Meeple Mountain.

Raising Robots is strong work. So, what makes it a Maybe Pile title?
-->Everyone enjoys playing it, but I can’t always get people to play it a second time.
-->Raising Robots is fantastic as a solo game…but I usually do not play tabletop games by myself.
-->I would happily give my copy away…but no one else in my immediate network has it, and I just KNOW the second I move my copy out of the collection that someone will show up at my house and ask, completely randomly, to play Raising Robots. (Yes, I do give games from the Maybe Pile to friends with the not-so-subtle request that they never sell it, so that I can continue to access the game occasionally while having it live in someone else’s home. Shortly after I do this, time and time again, they sell it anyway; it was their game at that point, after all. This is why I have trust issues!)

***

Other titles in my Maybe Pile have their own set of issues. Often, I think the game is a 9 or a 10 out of 10…but the people I game with disagree. A few of the medium-weight Euros in the Pile are good, but they’re an expansion away from being great, so I hold on, hoping the game has sold enough units to warrant additional content. In one case, there’s an 18xx title in the Maybe Pile that I love but it takes a solid eight hours to play. In a world where I have other great 18xx titles that can wrap up in 3-4 hours on a weeknight, I lean towards getting those to the table first.

Two Maybe Pile games are card games I enjoy, but their base mechanics are replicated in other titles more popular with the folks in my groups. Another game I really enjoyed, Zhanguo: The First Empire, is a blast and features a solid main action mechanic…but the teach is just enough of a lift to force some hesitation every time I want to get it back to the table. Arcadia Quest is such a joy, but getting even a short campaign game rolling is becoming a task with my play groups.

In a good year, I get 30-40 of the games in my personal collection to the table with my game groups, and another 20-30 games are popular enough with my kids that they come out all the time at home. But, that’s it. I’m a game reviewer, so I spend most of the year working through review copies provided by publishers. My first priority is playing those review titles first, and I’m often quite satisfied with that responsibility.

That SHOULD mean that every title on the Maybe Pile should move out of my personal collection. But just staring at the games in the Pile gives me pause. Those are games I love…can I really walk away?

by Julia Thiemann

It all started, as so many great ideas do, while walking our dog in the park during the summer of 2018. We were chatting about game mechanics (because, obviously, that’s what normal people talk about on dog walks) and stumbled upon a concept: a set collection system where tiles could serve multiple purposes. Instead of needing specific pieces for a set, players could use a mix-and-match approach. And what theme fits better than paleontology? After all, scientists have been creatively(!) assembling dinosaur bones for centuries. Case in point: Elasmosaurus, which had 71 cervical vertebrae - more than any other known animal - confused paleontologist Edward Cope so much that he placed the skull on the dinosaur’s tail. Whoops.

Back to the game: We began designing fossils composed of 1, 2, 4, or 6 tiles, spread across three excavation site variants. We also categorized fossils into three types: terrestrial, aquatic, and botanical. Interestingly, despite all the iterations and big changes, these core elements remained unchanged throughout development.

The next step was deciding where players would exhibit their fossils. The obvious answer? A museum. This led us to a grid-based display system where rows and columns were linked to fossil types. At first, matching a fossil to the correct row or column provided a placement bonus, but we
later switched this to an income system - because: who doesn’t love a good engine-building mechanic?

Looking back, it’s fascinating how the initial prototype felt both very different and surprisingly similar to the final version. The main actions were already there but instead of a shared action board, players had individual action slots on their boards. Excavations originally involved hiring paleontologists, which sounded fun until it became clear they were causing chaos. It was never clear where they were digging, and players had little incentive to hire more than one or two. So, we did what game designers must sometimes do with their darlings: we mercilessly cut them. In a chat with designer Mandela Fernandez-Graydon, we had a eureka moment: linking worker placement directly to excavation. Now, where you place your workers determines where you dig next. Bonus: Other players' workers unintentionally help you, increasing the number of tiles you can draw. Cooperation through competition!

Fast forward to September 2021. We were confident we had nailed the mechanics and were ready to focus on production. However, one playtest changed everything. A comment that stuck with us was: "Where are the visitors?" Museums need visitors, yet our design focused solely on management and exhibition. Thus, our editor Rico pushed us to introduce visitors, which in turn created interesting new mechanics. Players now gain visitors whenever they complete a fossil, because, in real life, unveiling a new fossil would surely attract a crowd!

This change also allowed for more refined balancing: instead of directly awarding victory points, players now receive visitors, which later convert into points at a 2:1 ratio. It also led to our personal favourite: a visitor queue. Instead of a dull counter, players physically extend a queue track, making it clear just how popular their museum is. After these major changes in 2021, both we and our editor quickly realized that everything had fallen into place. It finally felt like the complete game, allowing us to shift focus to final touches and production management.

We specifically requested a female illustrator and fell in love with April Borchelt’s art style. We were thrilled when she accepted the job. Her fossil illustrations are stunning, and she provided several cover drafts before settling on the final version - a dynamic, eye-catching piece that immediately draws players into the game.

Rico had an early idea to include standees for completed large fossils. Not only do they look fantastic on the table, but they also serve as clear visual indicators of scoring potential. Alongside April, Dennis Lohausen worked on the icons and standee designs, while Gaston handled everything else: boards, rulebook, characters, and more.

Simultaneously, we collaborated with the Natural History Museum of Berlin for scientific accuracy. Despite extensive research, we made numerous mistakes when placing species in the correct time periods or scaling fossil sizes accurately. Dr. Luthardt, Dr. Schwarz, and Dr. Neumann were instrumental in refining these details and contributed fascinating fun facts found in the final rulebook. Dr. Luthardt, in particular, provided invaluable insights into paleo-botany - a field we found unexpectedly captivating. Check out the story behind Wollemia in the game!

Final fun fact: Our dog Jordie is in the game! Look out for the tiny brown puppy with one ear up, one ear down. He’s been with us when we first had the idea and through all the highs and lows, so naturally, he earned his spot.

Looking back, we couldn’t be happier with the journey and where it led us. Fossilium turned into a beautifully crafted, accessible strategy game with high replayability and rich thematic depth. Our fabulous editors Chantal and Rico made sure that even the smallest detail – balancing, icons, rulebook, material, etc. – is addressed with meticulous care. The artwork, components, and table presence are stunning. And, of course, there are dinosaurs. What more could a board game designer wish for? (Okay, maybe a pet dinosaur. But until then, this will do.)