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Take Time to Rage about the Hunt for Ring in the Castle!

✇BoardGameGeek News | BoardGameGeek
Von: boardgamersteph

by Steph Hodge



[imageid=9603186 medium rep]▪️ Libellud Just released Take Time: Mirage. You will need Take Time to play as this is a small expansion that includes one more envelope to play and a new mechanic to include in past envelopes to increase the difficulty. from designers: Alexi Piovesan & Julien Prothière. This expansion plays 2-4 players in about 30 minutes.

From Asmodee:
This first expansion explores a different facet of the experience by moving away from the chapters of the base game. Featuring a fresh theme and brand-new mechanics, it introduces a surprising standalone twist that can be enjoyed independently. Designed to welcome both newcomers and returning players, it expands the Take Time universe while remaining true to its core identity.

STANDALONE EXPANSION EXPERIENCE: Enjoy a fresh Take Time adventure that can be played independently from the base game.
NEW MECHANICS & GAMEPLAY TWIST: Introduces innovative systems and surprising gameplay elements that expand strategic possibilities.
FRESH THEME & DESIGN: Explores a new facet of the Take Time universe with a distinct theme while maintaining its core identity.
ACCESSIBLE FOR ALL PLAYERS: Designed for both newcomers and returning fans, offering an easy entry point with added depth.
EXPAND YOUR GAMEPLAY OPTIONS: Adds variety, replayability, and new ways to experience the Take Time series.





▪️ Another game that just released last week is Star Trek: Space Hunt from Matagot. From designers Roberto Fraga, Yohan Lemonnier, & Delphine Lemonnier. This game reimplements Captain Sonar and Sonar. It plays 2-4 players and takes 25-40 minutes. Buckle up, we are jumping into wapr speed for this!

From BGG:

Star Trek: Space Hunt is a real-time, hidden movement game that uses the Captain Sonar system, for 2-4 players that demands intense coordination and sharp deduction.

Players are divided into two opposing crews, each commanding iconic starships from across the franchise’s history with each vessel featuring unique builds for asymmetric gameplay.
The game covers several generations of the saga, allowing players to step into the roles of legendary duos such as Captain Kirk and Spock, Captain Picard and Data, or even the formidable Khan and Joachim.



▪️ Blood Rage: Valhalla from Tycoon Games is set to release this November. From designer Eric M. Lang (Blood Rage). This is a whole new game that plays 3-5 players and takes 60-90 minutes.

From Asmodee:

Rage into the afterlife in Blood Rage: Valhalla! Occurring after Ragnarök ends the world, take up arms and empower your clan beyond their mortal limits, competing against your rivals for glory, honor, and the favor of the Gods.

RAGE INTO THE AFTERLIFE: Take your Viking conquest beyond the mortal realm! Blood Rage: Valhalla shifts the action to the afterlife, where players empower their clans and compete for eternal glory, honor, and the favor of the Gods after Ragnarök has ended the world.
DYNAMIC GOD POWERS: Experience a fresh challenge every time you play. The Gods shift each game, drastically changing the powers and strategies available to players. You must adapt your tactics on the fly to remain the most powerful clan in the afterlife.
DEEP STRATEGIC DEPTH: Master the art of war with refined card drafting and intense simultaneous combat. Valhalla challenges you to outthink your rivals in a high-stakes environment where every decision and card play is a test of your strategic foresight.
THE RAINBOW BRIDGE MODULE: Connect your games! This expansion includes the iconic Rainbow Bridge module, which allows you to link your Blood Rage base game and Valhalla sessions into one epic, long-form match that starts in Ragnarök and ends in the afterlife.




▪️ The Lord of the Rings: Circle of Conflict from Office Dog is set to release this November. From designers Stephen Buonocore & Geoff Engelstein. An epic game for 2-4 players that takes 60-90 minutes to play. Many tough choices to make in this dice game.

From BGG:
It is the Third Age of Middle-earth, and a great war between the many nations is unfolding. In The Lord of the Rings: Circle of Conflict, you simultaneously command both The Shadow and The Free Peoples armies; your Free Peoples will fight the Shadow of the opponent to your left, and your Shadow will fight the Free Peoples of the opponent to your right.

As the dice are rolled, you will decide how to apply the results. Will you recruit iconic characters for The Free Peoples or perhaps muster the troops of Mordor to fight for The Shadow in one of two pivotal battles? Will you hunt your opponent’s Fellowship with your Nazgûl or secretly move your Fellowship to evade Sauron’s watchful Eye?

To win as The Free Peoples, get The Fellowship to reach Mount Doom or defeat The Shadow in battle. As The Shadow, you must fully corrupt The Fellowship or defeat them in battle.



▪️ For those who enjoy digital games on your phone, there is a new app for Castle Combo from Catch Up Games and Mantita Games. This is currently available for both Android and iOS. New additions to the game, like a 12-chapter campaign solo mode!

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The Jailbreak Questline had Gaudi plotting with Drops of Evil

✇BoardGameGeek News | BoardGameGeek
Von: boardgamersteph

by Steph Hodge



[imageid=9200434 medium rep]▪️ Devir is releasing Gaudí this month both at Spiel and at retail. New game design from Dani Garcia (Barcelona, Windmill Valley...), this new title will surely look stunning on any table. For 1-4 players and plays in 60-100 minutes.

From BGG:
Step into a world where art defies gravity and stone becomes dream. Shape forms, balance light and nature, and bring to life the visionary style that redefined architecture.

Antoni Gaudí was a visionary Catalan architect born in 1852, renowned for his imaginative and distinctive style that blended Gothic and Art Nouveau influences.

Players will travel through Gaudí's life and work, earning Victory Points in the three pillars that shaped his works: Nature, Catalonia, and Religion. To succeed, players must keep their progress balanced—only their two lowest VP scores among the three pillars will count toward final scoring.





▪️ Thunderworks Games released Questline recently from designers Marc-André Lavoie and Martin Lavoie. This game plays 1-6 players and takes 15 minutes. Small box card game with a real-time element.

From BGG:

Questline is a fast-playing, simultaneous play card game for 1-6 players. Compete to earn the most reputation stars (points) by chaining together a sequence of seven cards that tell your hero’s most compelling story, all in about 15 minutes.

Refine your hand swiftly in secret as you search for compatible numbered cards, each depicting events paired with icons and effects that play off of each other. Form these cards into an ascending numerical sequence, optimizing the reputation stars gained while avoiding numerical gaps.

Draw, discard, and swap cards with one another in real time. Discard cards you don’t want face up, where your neighbors can see them. Obtain new cards from the face-down decks, from your discards, or from your neighbors' discards! Keep an eye out for them to discard the perfect card for your hand.

Once you’re satisfied with your questline, remove your discards from play and claim an epilogue card. The first to finish claim the most valuable epilogues, so don’t take too long. But don’t be too hasty and find yourself with an unmemorable tale full of plot holes, either!



▪️ Drops of Evil from Horrible Guild is available this Spiel! From designers Hjalmar Hach and Lorenzo Silva (The King's Dilemma, Railroad Ink: Deep Blue Edition...), I was told this has been brewing for a while! Perfect release for some October fun. Drops of Evil plays 2-4 players in about 60 minutes.

From BGG:

In Drops of Evil, players take on the role of witches competing to brew the most powerful poison.

Gather ingredients from the forest by sending out your Familiars, then combine them in your Alchilab, a powerful device used for the synthesis of lethal mixtures.

Place Ingredients strategically to improve their toxicity and unlock bonuses. Recruit shady Assistants and follow grim Recipes to make your draught even more wicked. Can you brew the deadliest poison?




▪️ The Jailbreak is a cooperative scenario-based game from Adam's Apple Games, LLC. From designers Joel Kennedy & Karl Lange, this is a small box card game for 2-4 players and plays in 20 minutes. Great for those who love to work through missions that ramp in difficulty as you play! This game will have limited supply at Spiel and is set to be released in Q1 2027.

From BGG:
The Jailbreak is a cooperative deduction game where your perspective and clever communication will be needed to carry out your escape.

Work together with your teammates over 44 challenges broken up across 11 pivotal days of your jailbreak. Each day gets more challenging as you take on more risks in planning and executing your escape.

During the game, each player holds a hand of double-sided tools, and each tool has a non-overlapping front/back pairing. Your perspective at the table may help you give clever clues to your teammates to help them, with some deduction, play their tools to the right spot and complete the challenge.

Be careful - if you get it wrong, you risk being caught by the guards.


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The Capsule Collector and the Azul Kids Played Codenames on Netflix for the Gunsen

✇BoardGameGeek News | BoardGameGeek
Von: boardgamersteph

by Steph Hodge



[imageid=9848748 medium rep]▪️ Czech Games Edition (CGE) announced Codenames Party! An all-new way to play Codenames. Now on Netflix! You simply need your phone connected to the tv as a controller. If you have Netflix, you are ready to go!

From the newsletter:
Alongside the new Party Mode, CODENAMES Party includes:

Classic Team Mode (2–10 players): The traditional CODENAMES experience, with teams competing to identify their agents based on one-word clues from their spymasters.
Case Studies (1–10 players): The mode that is tailored to everyone who prefers the guesser role in CODENAMES. Players compete with their friends in solving prepared puzzles.

CODENAMES Party is included with Netflix memberships at no additional cost, with no ads or in-app purchases.





▪️ Office Dog released Gunsen: The Battle for Toshi Ranbo from designers Matthew O'Malley and Ben Rosset (Fromage & The Search for Planet X). This game plays 2-6 players and has a box playtime of 60-90 minutes. The race is on to complete 7 objectives first.

From BGG:

In Gunsen: The Battle for Toshi Ranbo, Rokugan teeters on the brink of upheaval as the Great Clans—the Crab, Crane, Dragon, Lion, Phoenix, Scorpion, and Unicorn—clash for control of the legendary fortress, Toshi Ranbo. Once a strategic gem on the borderlands, the castle now stands at the heart of a war-torn battlefield, its banners contested by rival warlords seeking glory and vengeance. The air hums with the tension of drawn steel and elemental magic, as ancient shrines smolder and village alliances shift like the wind.

In this strategy game, players take on the role of ambitious daimyō representing one of the seven Great Clans: recruiting samurai heroes, drafting powerful orders, and building their clan's military might and strategic influence. Through tactical maneuvers and clever engine-building, they strive to fulfill seven victory objectives—from capturing and holding the coveted castle to completing secret missions and claiming sacred locations. Only one clan will write its legend in the blood-soaked chronicles of Toshi Ranbo.



▪️ Azul Kids from asmodee is available now! From designer Michael Kiesling (Azul). This is a new stand-alone game for children and families. Designed with kids in mind ages 5+, Azul Kids plays 2-4 players in 20 minutes.

From the Asmodee Website:

Welcome to the mosaic workshop! Sit down at your workbench and choose a mosaic you'd like to create. Collect pieces from the bowls and place them on your board. The winner is the first player to complete their mosaic!

MY FIRST MOSAIC WORKSHOP: Welcome young artists to their very own workbench! Azul Kids introduces children to the world of strategy as they choose a mosaic to create and collect colorful pieces to fill their personal boards.




▪️ Capsule Collector will be one of many games found at Spiel from Korea Boardgames. Capsule Collector is a small box card game for 2-4 players and plays in 15 minutes. From designer Joohyun. Be sure to check out all the titles from Korea Boardgames!

From BGG:
Capsule Collector is a set-collection game for 2–4 players in which players compete to gather and open colourful toy capsules. Players draw cards from a deck and add them to a communal queue, then choose a colour and take all available cards of that colour to fill a 4×4 personal collection grid. Because cards are initially collected "capsule-side" up, players must strategically activate Action Tiles to flip them to their "toy-side" to score points. The game features a dynamic action system where the number of cards collected in a turn determines which tile is activated, and tiles are shifted after use to change the available actions for future turns. The game concludes when a player fills their 16-card grid, leading to a final scoring phase. Toys vary in rarity; for example, a colour set like red might contain three high-value "5-star" toys, five "3-star" toys, and ten "1-star" toys, which shifts the probability of a big score depending on the colour's total card count. To maximize points, players must use "Open" actions to flip connected groups of the same colour or spend Open Tokens for individual reveal.


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The Fugo love the Braided Skies of the Emerland and Smoky Mountains

✇BoardGameGeek News | BoardGameGeek
Von: boardgamersteph

by Steph Hodge



[imageid=9149394 medium rep]▪️ Tycoon Games released Everdell Emerland, From designers James A. Wilson & Clarissa A. Wilson (Game: Everdell). This is the next Everdell installment for 1-4 players and plays in 30-120 minutes. Many find this a great addition to the Everdell family.

From BGG:
Deep in the tropical jungle to the west of the Everdell Valley lies the country of Emerland, a vibrant land known for its artistic and musical culture, and for its abundance of natural resources, including valuable gems mined from its many underground caverns. Tiny critters found here — mostly insects — are fastidious and clever Helpers, often assisting the larger critters in their work and in optimizing or bringing beauty to their cities and homes.

The jungles are vast and dense, and expeditions into the further realms of the land are undertaken often. There was once a mysterious civilization that dwelt here, long lost to history, but archaeological discoveries are beginning to shed a light on the ancients.

In Emerland, you send critter Workers to various locations on the board to gather resources. You use these resources to play cards face-up in front of you, forming your jungle city and helping you to score points. Each turn, you take one of 6 possible actions: Place a Worker (with or without Helpers), Place a Helper, Play a Card, Use an Artisan Card, Excavate with your Archaeologist or Prepare for Season.





▪️ Stonemaier Games announced the release of their big Euro game Braided Skies to be available this November, from designer Dan Germain (Grand Central Skyport). This game plays 1-5 players and has a box playtime of 60-90 minutes. Sounds like we will expect to see more in this Smoking Bones universe!

From the newsletter:

In Braided Skies, you take on the role of an airship captain in the Shallows, seeking to build the greatest magical travel company in the Northlands. Your mission involves exploring land and sky for new wonders, upgrading your travel company operations, and picking up tourists—all while maintaining a steady supply of tapstones, the magical gems that fuel the Northlands. Accumulate fame to become the Commodore of the Clouds!

This is the first in a series of games set in the Smoking Bones universe created and illustrated by Andrew Bosley (Everdell, Tapestry, etc). Braided Skies is designed by Dan Germain.



▪️ Forest Shuffle: Smoky Mountains from Lookout Games is coming out this October! From designer Kosch (Forest Shuffle). This is a new stand-alone game that uses most of the same mechanics you find in the other Forest Shuffle games, with an added river mechanic. If you thought the other Forest Shuffle games were gorgeous, you will not be disappointed with the Smoky Mountains foliage and wonderful art by Toni Llobet & Judit Piella. This game is played by 2-5 players in 60 minutes.

From BGG:
A new continent awaits in the Forest Shuffle universe: After exploring Central Europe in Forest Shuffle and the wilds of southern England in Forest Shuffle – Dartmoor, this new standalone game invites players on a journey to North America.

As the third standalone game in the Forest Shuffle series, Forest Shuffle - Smoky Mountains takes us to this popular North American National Park. Building on the familiar gameplay of the series, it introduces new species and clever twists in mechanics. This keeps the experience as fresh as the bubbling waters on the new terrain cards!
Here’s what Forest Shuffle – Smoky Mountains is all about:

New terrain types centered around water, playable on their own or tucked as universal waters under trees.
New synergies between flora and fauna, all revolving around the element of water
In addition to a variety of species around the water, the game is also home to various large animals, such as black bears or bobcats.




▪️ Fugu debuts at Spiel from Helvetiq. From father and son designers Flavio Foches and Riccardo Foches, this is a small box card game for 1-4 players and plays in 25 minutes.

From BGG:
Bannerfish love sticking closely to their buddies. Pufferfish prefer their space. Keep bannerfish together and pufferfish apart! Octopus and coral also play an important role in your biome, so place them wisely to score more points. Score by building the best hand. But here’s the twist: everyone starts with face-down cards and must slot new cards into their hand in ascending order, revealing their strategy one card at a time.

1. Start with your cards face-down. Draw a card from the center.
2. Place it face-up in ascending order. Then reveal the adjacent card.
3. Keep your sea dwellers happy to win, but avoid penalties.

Who will dive the smartest and reel in the most points?


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The Phantom of the Opera saw that Hope and Despair was his Yin and Yang

✇BoardGameGeek News | BoardGameGeek
Von: boardgamersteph

by Steph Hodge



[imageid=9759680 medium rep]▪️ Capstone Games announced the release of Yin Yang, which was originally released from BGNations (Tang Garden, 12 Rivers). From designer DuGuWei (Jiangnan: Life of Gentry). This is a tight resource game to control the lands. for1-4 players that plays in 45-75 minutes. Also, the Metal Shell is simply awesome!

From the newsletter:
Yin and Yang is a concept of dualism in ancient Chinese philosophy, representing two opposite principles. Yin is the feminine while Yang is masculine, and this concept is embodied in all things around the world, such as winter and summer, male and female, and light and dark.

Yin Yang takes players back to ancient China during the Warring States period before the Common Era. At the time, China was divided into seven kingdoms, fighting each other constantly, and people were living in suffering. To pursue inner peace, every kind of fortune-telling method was then developed.

One of those fortune-telling methods involves taking a tortoise shell with copper coins inside, then shaking it to get indications based on which coins emerge and how they fall. This method is exactly what Yin Yang is based on. Players act as Taoist priests, traveling on an ancient Chinese map to retrieve the local specialty of different cities to unlock their own destiny. Additionally, players can also build temples in different cities to earn worship from seven kingdoms.

Includes Metal Coins and Metal Tortoise Shell!





▪️ Ares Games announced the release of the new expansion War of the Ring: The Card Game – Hope and Despair to arrive this Q4. From designer Ian Brody (Quartermaster General), this expansion can be played with the other expansions or with just the base game alone, but you do need War of the Ring: The Card Game to play.

From the newsletter:

The new expansion introduces Story cards, a new type of faction card inspired by key moments from The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which add powerful new abilities, deck customization, and deeper tactical choices to the game. Along with the expansion, a new accessory will arrive: six Deluxe Playmats featuring iconic characters and Middle-earth locations, designed to enhance every game with dedicated card layouts and stunning artwork by John Howe.

Drawing on Tolkien's rich lore and the emotional depth of Middle-earth, the Story cards introduced by Hope and Despair represent the natural and supernatural forces that shape the fate of its peoples, offering new strategic options, greater replayability, and additional content, making every adventure in Middle-earth even more immersive. Unlike other faction cards, Story cards are played only to Reserve and remain there for the rest of the round, providing unique effects that can influence the course of the game. The expansion also includes additional cards for the Northmen, Easterling, and Ruffian factions introduced in the Fire and Swords expansion, for use in scenarios featuring those factions, dedicated Shadow Bot cards for solo and cooperative play, Story tokens, and rules for integrating the new mechanics.



▪️ The Phantom of the Opera from Korea Boardgames and now being released in the US by 25th Century Games at Barnes & Noble. From designer Geonil (Jekyll vs. Hyde, The Yellow House). This is a new 2-player trick-taking game. One player plays as the Phantom and one plays as Christine in just 15 minutes. The Music of the Night will have to be your favorite songs from the musical.

From BGG:
Classic literature meets modern tabletop gaming in The Phantom of the Opera. Inspired by Gaston Leroux's timeless novel, players take on the roles of the Phantom and Christine in a strategic duel where every card played influences the unfolding performance. The Phantom and Christine compete over twenty tense tricks, with every victory or defeat influencing the progress of the Phantom's haunting composition. Its unique blend of thematic storytelling and strategic trick-taking makes it such a standout 2-player game.

Take Center Stage in 3 Easy Steps:

1) Set the stage: Exchange a card with your opponent, choose the Number on the Seal, and prepare for a dramatic duel of wits.

2) Compose the melody: Play tricks to advance the Phantom's musical masterpiece. Win black notes and lose white notes at just the right moment to keep the score moving forward.

3) Win the game: Complete the music sheet before the end of the second round to claim victory as the Phantom or as Christine. Disrupt the performance and prevent the masterpiece from ever being finished.




▪️ Golfie from Unigoat Edition is coming out this month and was announced by Hachette Boardgames USA. From designer Jimmy Dorion, this is a reimplementation of Golfie. This is a quick 25-minute card game for 1-8 players.

From the newsletter:
Golfie has players managing their own golf course to score as few points as possible!

Golfie is a card game that's easy to learn and perfect for the entire family, even if they never hit the green in real life! Each player tries to complete the course in as few strokes as possible. The mechanics are simple, fast, and fun: play your cards simultaneously, reveal or move your actions, and manage your game with a touch of strategy… and a lot of good humor.

Each player must take action on the 9 cards on his or her course in order to avoid scoring points. For a 9-hole, the game is played in 28 actions. Each action is determined by the 28 shuffled action cards. Take a swing and maneuver your cards to have the best golfing terrain!


▪️ While mentioning Hachette Boardgames USA, I wanted to also point you to their huge warehouse sale happening now with tons of games marked way down. Hachette Warehouse Sale

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The Phantom of the Opera saw that Hope and Dispair was his Yin and Yang

✇BoardGameGeek News | BoardGameGeek
Von: boardgamersteph

by Steph Hodge



[imageid=9759680 medium rep]▪️ Capstone Games announced the release of Yin Yang, which was originally released from BGNations (Tang Garden, 12 Rivers). From designer DuGuWei (Jiangnan: Life of Gentry). This is a tight resource game to control the lands. for1-4 players that plays in 45-75 minutes. Also, the Metal Shell is simply awesome!

From the newsletter:
Yin and Yang is a concept of dualism in ancient Chinese philosophy, representing two opposite principles. Yin is the feminine while Yang is masculine, and this concept is embodied in all things around the world, such as winter and summer, male and female, and light and dark.

Yin Yang takes players back to ancient China during the Warring States period before the Common Era. At the time, China was divided into seven kingdoms, fighting each other constantly, and people were living in suffering. To pursue inner peace, every kind of fortune-telling method was then developed.

One of those fortune-telling methods involves taking a tortoise shell with copper coins inside, then shaking it to get indications based on which coins emerge and how they fall. This method is exactly what Yin Yang is based on. Players act as Taoist priests, traveling on an ancient Chinese map to retrieve the local specialty of different cities to unlock their own destiny. Additionally, players can also build temples in different cities to earn worship from seven kingdoms.

Includes Metal Coins and Metal Tortoise Shell!





▪️ Ares Games announced the release of the new expansion War of the Ring: The Card Game – Hope and Despair to arrive this Q4. From designer Ian Brody (Quartermaster General), this expansion can be played with the other expansions or with just the base game alone, but you do need War of the Ring: The Card Game to play.

From the newsletter:

The new expansion introduces Story cards, a new type of faction card inspired by key moments from The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which add powerful new abilities, deck customization, and deeper tactical choices to the game. Along with the expansion, a new accessory will arrive: six Deluxe Playmats featuring iconic characters and Middle-earth locations, designed to enhance every game with dedicated card layouts and stunning artwork by John Howe.

Drawing on Tolkien's rich lore and the emotional depth of Middle-earth, the Story cards introduced by Hope and Despair represent the natural and supernatural forces that shape the fate of its peoples, offering new strategic options, greater replayability, and additional content, making every adventure in Middle-earth even more immersive. Unlike other faction cards, Story cards are played only to Reserve and remain there for the rest of the round, providing unique effects that can influence the course of the game. The expansion also includes additional cards for the Northmen, Easterling, and Ruffian factions introduced in the Fire and Swords expansion, for use in scenarios featuring those factions, dedicated Shadow Bot cards for solo and cooperative play, Story tokens, and rules for integrating the new mechanics.



▪️ The Phantom of the Opera from Korea Boardgames and now being released in the US by 25th Century Games at Barnes & Noble. From designer Geonil (Jekyll vs. Hyde, The Yellow House). This is a new 2-player trick-taking game. One player plays as the Phantom and one plays as Christine in just 15 minutes. The Music of the Night will have to be your favorite songs from the musical.

From BGG:
Classic literature meets modern tabletop gaming in The Phantom of the Opera. Inspired by Gaston Leroux's timeless novel, players take on the roles of the Phantom and Christine in a strategic duel where every card played influences the unfolding performance. The Phantom and Christine compete over twenty tense tricks, with every victory or defeat influencing the progress of the Phantom's haunting composition. Its unique blend of thematic storytelling and strategic trick-taking makes it such a standout 2-player game.

Take Center Stage in 3 Easy Steps:

1) Set the stage: Exchange a card with your opponent, choose the Number on the Seal, and prepare for a dramatic duel of wits.

2) Compose the melody: Play tricks to advance the Phantom's musical masterpiece. Win black notes and lose white notes at just the right moment to keep the score moving forward.

3) Win the game: Complete the music sheet before the end of the second round to claim victory as the Phantom or as Christine. Disrupt the performance and prevent the masterpiece from ever being finished.




▪️ Golfie from Unigoat Edition is coming out this month and was announced by Hachette Boardgames USA. From designer Jimmy Dorion, this is a reimplementation of Golfie. This is a quick 25-minute card game for 1-8 players.

From the newsletter:
Golfie has players managing their own golf course to score as few points as possible!

Golfie is a card game that's easy to learn and perfect for the entire family, even if they never hit the green in real life! Each player tries to complete the course in as few strokes as possible. The mechanics are simple, fast, and fun: play your cards simultaneously, reveal or move your actions, and manage your game with a touch of strategy… and a lot of good humor.

Each player must take action on the 9 cards on his or her course in order to avoid scoring points. For a 9-hole, the game is played in 28 actions. Each action is determined by the 28 shuffled action cards. Take a swing and maneuver your cards to have the best golfing terrain!


▪️ While mentioning Hachette Boardgames USA, I wanted to also point you to their huge warehouse sale happening now with tons of games marked way down. Hachette Warehouse Sale

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Flip the Styx to the Cosmos and Grab a Cocktail

✇BoardGameGeek News | BoardGameGeek
Von: boardgamersteph

by Steph Hodge



[imageid=9277257 medium rep]▪️ WizKids (I) announced the release of Marvel: Remix the Cosmos. From designer Bruce Glassco (Betrayal at House on the Hill). If you love Fantasy Realms you have to check out Marvel: Remix and now the Cosmos Standalone expansion. This perfect filler plays in 20 minutes for 2-6 players.

From the newsletter:
Expand your Marvel Remix experience with new teams, new combinations, and new strategies. Players recruit heroes, allies, and locations from across the Marvel Universe, including The Fantastic Four, Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain Marvel, Silver Surfer, Doctor Strange, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, and more! Equip characters with iconic gear and face off against infamous villains like Venom and Doctor Doom. Marvel: Remix the Cosmos is available now!





▪️ Paverson Games announced the release of the new expansion Distilled: Cocktails to arrive this September. From designers Dave Beck and Richard Woods, this is a new big-box expansion for the hit Distilled. This game is for 1-5 players and plays in 45-150 minutes. If you are like me, you are ready to roll the dice!

From the newsletter:
Distilled: Cocktails will soon be available in retail stores, building on the base game with new ways to play and score. The expansion introduces Double Washbacks, Collectors, a World Renown Map, and, of course, Cocktails! These additions increase the variability between games and give players even more ways to develop their strategy and score points.



▪️ STYX from Don't Panic Games and by designer Pierre Lahmi. A gorgeous new auction game for 2-6 players that plays in 45 minutes.

From BGG:
In STYX, two Emissaries arrive before the council each round. Secretly decide their fate: Tithe them for wealth, Muster them into your army, or Eliminate them to harvest their Soul while denying them to your rivals. Then reveal everyone's choices at once. What seemed like a simple decision erupts into bidding wars—fought with gold to recruit followers and with military Strength to decide who survives.

Every Emissary offers different rewards: Influence, income, Elements, Souls, or powerful abilities. Building the strongest army isn't always enough; knowing when to sacrifice a valuable card—or prevent an opponent from claiming it—can be even more important.

Multiple paths lead to victory, but time is never on your side. Every Emissary left behind fuels Chaos, bringing the game closer to a final confrontation where the strongest surviving army may seize the Throne instead.

Featuring simultaneous hidden decisions, tense bidding, engine building, and constant player interaction, STYX is a game of calculated betrayal where every choice strengthens you... or weakens everyone else.




▪️ Flip 7: Liquid Death from The Op Games is out now. From designer Eric Olsen, this is a new edition of the very popular Flip 7. It is The Op, so we get to have all of these amazing IP editions of small card games like this. Choose your favorite flavor and enjoy, or if you are like me, collect the series as they might all just be a little different! Liquid Death has some deadly twists!

From BGG:
Quench your thirst for an addictive new party game with Flip 7: Liquid Death. With two new actions - Kill a Card and Murder the Modifiers, game night is turning grim in the best way possible.

In this press your luck game, be the first player to score 200 points to win. You score points based on the total number value of the cards in front of you. The more valuable a card is, the more copies of that card there are in the deck. However, if you ever draw a second card with the same number as one already in your line, you bust and are out of the round, scoring nothing. You can command death if you can successfully Flip 7 different number cards into your line, automatically ending the round for everyone and scoring 15 bonus points..



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The Railway Boom in Greylune was all the Jibber Jabble across the Oasis

✇BoardGameGeek News | BoardGameGeek
Von: boardgamersteph

by Steph Hodge



[imageid=8951049 medium rep]▪️ CrowD Games announced pre-orders for Railway Boom with expected delivery this September. From designers Hisashi Hayashi (Bomb Busters) and Simone Luciani (Barrage). Did someone say Trains? Did someone say Auctions? Did someone say network building? Did someone say YES PLEASE!? This game plays 2-4 players in about 60-120 minutes

From BGG:
In the late 19th century, during the early Meiji era, Japan opened its first railway line between Shimbashi and Yokohama. This new mode of transportation sparked a railway boom across the country.

Local entrepreneurs, and later powerful tycoons, established new companies that grew into large railway corporations throughout the Taishō and Shōwa eras.

As players, you will take on the roles of these tycoons, building and managing your own railway empires as you compete for the most renown.

Railway Boom recreates this era of industry through gameplay by having players balance resource management with the growth of their railways connecting various cities across Japan.





▪️ The Op Games released Oasis: New Life on A Distant World recently. From designers of Risk Strike: George Feledichuk, David "Duvey" Rudow, and Leo Taylor. This is a new tableau-building card game where you want to keep your tableau lush with cards but also cleared to acquire new cards, it is a fine balance. For 1-5 players and plays in 45-60 minutes.

From the newsletter:
Cultivate a vibrant biome where the circle of life fuels the ecosystem's survival!

In Oasis: New Life on a Distant World, you embody the forces of nature on this primal planet, shaping the planet’s biodiversity by guiding the life cycles of its many bizarre species. Your goal is to cultivate a balanced, vibrant biome where the circle of life fuels the ecosystem’s survival

Timing is key, however, as the annual floods will wash away plants and animals below the floodline at the end of each round. You must manage your hand of cards and maximize your actions to outplay your opponents and build the most dynamic and highest-scoring biome.



▪️ Greylune from Sorry We Are French & now Pandasaurus Games should be available in the US this September. From designer William Attia (Caylus), this game reimplements Spyrium. For 2-4 players and plays in 45-60 minutes. Spyrium has a unique worker-placement mechanic, so it will be interesting to see how this new game evolves that original system.

From the newsletter:
It's not in the adventure, it's in the retelling of the tale.
​
​Greylune is a strategic game combining worker placement and adventure, set in a rich and captivating medieval fantasy world. Place your villages between the cards that form the city of Greylune, then remove them at the right moment to gather resources, recruit companions, acquire items, and visit important locations.




▪️ Jibber Jabble from Allplay Is coming really soon. From designer Cassie Sikes, this is a new party game for 3-10 players that plays in 15 minutes.

From BGG:
Your goal each round is to convey a secret word to the round's guesser. You and your team get to spell three words in order to do that.

Players spell one letter each. The catch? They aren't allowed to discuss what clue they're trying to spell. The first time you have a perfect clue in mind, but the person next to you says a letter you weren't expecting at all... well, that's Jibber Jabble.



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The Founders ate Worms as they took the Viking Route

✇BoardGameGeek News | BoardGameGeek
Von: boardgamersteph

by Steph Hodge



[imageid=9083318 medium rep]▪️ GEM Games is releasing DECKO this fall. From designer Haakon Gaarder )Villagers), this is a new poker-style game for 2-5 players that plays in 20-60 minutes!

From BGG:
To win in this surreal deckbuilding game, players buy supernatural poker cards, burn cards to thin their decks and bend the rules using a plethora of jokers.

The game is structured like a traditional poker game; players bet chips on their poker hands by raising or calling the bet, or fold to get a free new card. Players also get to permanently remove one card from their deck per hand by doing the burn action. After each hand is played all players that didn't win or fold get to buy new special playing cards and jokers, increasing their chances of winning in later rounds.

As the game progresses, players will become increasingly powerful and asymmetric in their abilities. The player who has the most poker chips after twelve rounds wins the game.






▪️ Ares Games released Viking Route last week. This follows the hit Mini Rogue. From designers Guido Albini (The Faceless), Martino Chiacchiera, Luca Maragno. This is a new cooperative game that uses magnets as a compass to move the ship. This plays 1-4 players in about 60-120 minutes.

From the newsletter:
Viking Route is played on a beautiful 3D Viking ship and a scenario board, where the Drakkar is represented by a compass. Multiple magnets (the Ravens and Wind) are manipulated by the players to steer the course of their ship.

The game can be played as a 4-Scenario Campaign, plus the final epic battle against Loki, or in Ragnarök mode, a stand-alone special scenario suitable for a single gaming session. Each scenario has its own specific setting and game board, a powerful enemy, and unique victory and defeat conditions. From one to four, the scenarios present increasing complexity and guide the group of players through the story of the game.



▪️ Worms: The Board Game has a new 30th Anniversary edition that is just releasing this week from Mantic Games. From designers Tamsin Caesar and Matt Gilbert. This game is based on the videogame series by Team17; it plays 2-6 players in about 45 minutes.

From the newsletter:
Worms: The Board Game brings all-out Worm warfare to the tabletop. You and your friends command heavily armed Worms across a destructible landscape, collecting crates, dodging hazards, and unleashing an arsenal of outrageous weapons in a fight to be the last team standing!

Capturing the hilarious highs and catastrophic misfires of the classic videogame series, Worms: The Board Game contains everything you need for fast-paced battles where even the best-laid plans can (frequently) be blown sky-high. The 30th Anniversary Edition expands upon the award-winning original with:

-24 unique 3D Worm miniatures
-Additional weapons and utilities
-Support for up to 6 players
-Expanded landscape tiles for larger battlefields
-New 3D plastic fire markers




▪️ Founders from This Way! is just releasing this fall with availablity at Spiel. From designers Bragou and Sams: (I C E). This is a hidden role game for 2-5 players that plays in 35-60 minutes

From BGG:
In the midst of a windswept, snowy landscape, a group of explorers discover a gigantic cave with a massive structure that radiates out from it. Around this Hearth, the Master Founders lay the foundation for what will become The City, home to the powerful Guilds of I C E!
Following the directives of the first Founders' Council on the Design of the City, as well as the Requests of the first Guilds, you will design and create this famous City from scratch!

Founders is a strategic and innovative game of tile placement where each player is in a hidden alliance with 2 other players they don't know. Each player has two design objectives. You must arrange your tiles to achieve objectives, help you hidden allies, but avoiding giving too much information to your opponents. There is a cooperative scoring system, but only 1 player can win.



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The Sniper Elite and Mini Rogue met during the Evenglow in Babylon

✇BoardGameGeek News | BoardGameGeek
Von: boardgamersteph

by Steph Hodge



[imageid=9389693 medium rep]▪️ The Op Games released Evenglow. From designer Jason Katzwinkel, this is a super puzzly new tile-placement game that plays in 30-45 minutes. Will you have the right balance of tiles to score the most points?

From BGG:
EvenGlow is a light-strategy puzzle game that’s all about balance. Players are planting magical gardens with a sunlight and moonlight side. Turns are simultaneous, with the active player choosing two plants for themselves and two that all other players will receive.

Pairs of plants must then be placed in mirror opposite positions of the garden, one in sunlight and the other in moonlight. Evenglow features gorgeous watercolor art from Clèmentine Campardou (Wyrmspan, Origin Story).






▪️ Ares Games announced Mini Rogue: The Council coming this month from Nuts! Publishing. This follows the hit Mini Rogue. From designers Paolo Di Stefano and Gabriel Gendron. This is a standalone expansion that plays 1-3 players in about 40-60 minutes.

From the newsletter:
Mini Rogue: The Council is a stand-alone expansion that brings new dangers to the game. With multiple player configurations and new campaign content, it works both as an entry point and as a major expansion for existing fans. Players who do not own the base game can still enjoy the full experience in solo or competitive play, while owners of Mini Rogue unlock additional modes, greater card variety, and expanded player counts. The ultimate goal remains the same: survive the city and defeat the terrifying King’s Remains.



▪️ Kronologic: Babylon 2500 is the 3rd installment in the Kronologic Series from Origames & Super Meeple. From designers Fabien Gridel, Yoann Levet (Turing Machine). This is a deduction game for 1-4 players and takes about 30 minutes to play.

From the newsletter:
Kronologic contains three mysteries, each with five different solutions at increasingly complex levels of difficulty. Kronologic Babylon 2500 takes place in a futuristic universe. Who? Where? When? Your goal is to solve each mystery before the others uncover the truth. All players will conduct the investigation, but the first to discover the solution will be the winner!

Babylon adds a temporal dimension, meaning that players must also reveal when the crime took place. Because it's the future and in the future we can time travel!

Each turn, a player will give a public piece of information and receive a private one depending on the location investigated, character questions and/or the time. Players will then secretly make notes on their notepad. The first player to connect all the clues wins the game!

Babylon brings a host of new features! This time, the logic of deduction will change. Instead of locations, characters will be the key players. Locations will become multiple clues. Each location will have several symbols, but only one will be visible to a character present there. However, several locations have the same symbol, but not the same sequence of symbols, which is sure to make your brain spin!




▪️ Sniper Elite: Operation Kraken from Rebellion Unplugged is a brand new expansion for the popular Sniper Elite: The Board Game. From designers: Roger Tankersley (Witchcraft!), David Thompson (I) (War Chest, Undaunted: Normandy). This expansion adds new maps, minis, and tokens, with plenty of content to explore, but you still need the base game to play.

From the newsletter:
Since its release, Sniper Elite: The Board Game has become one of the standout titles in the hidden movement genre. Combining tense one-vs-many gameplay with a push-your-luck shooting system, every decision carries weight. For those who prefer to go it alone, every map also includes a dedicated solo mode driven by an intelligent bot opponent.

In an ambitious operation to end the war, the Axis are launching an experimental super carrier across the Atlantic. Find these plans before it can launch, or infiltrate it to bring down this war machine from within!

The Operation Kraken expansion includes two all-new maps: the Norman Village, complete with roads and roaming tanks, and the Frigate, a claustrophobic warship packed with interconnected air vents. Alongside these new locations comes a host of new mechanics and abilities for both the sniper and the defenders.



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The Mandalorian Saved the Falling Bird from the Pop Art below

✇BoardGameGeek News | BoardGameGeek
Von: boardgamersteph

by Steph Hodge



[imageid=8317240 medium rep]▪️ Falling is a new release shipping now from Capstone Games. From designer Kentaro Yazawa (矢沢 賢太郎) (Master of Respect), this is a big 90-120 minute game for 1-4 players. My understanding is that there is now an updated rulebook found here: FALLING Rulebook - Capstone EN - v1.1.

From the capstone Website:
One day, a tower fell from the sky, and in Falling you are an explorer searching for valuable relics and other items in that crumbling tower. By placing special devices in the tower, you increase the income of certain resources in the game, but as the round progresses, the towers collapse, and these devices are returned to the players, granting them an even larger bonus! Additional bonuses can be obtained by converting resources using cards to create combos or by scoring victory points.

Players are explorers with a desire to increase income and gain victory points by placing devices in the falling tower. By choosing one of 12 unique companions, you can enjoy a different feeling of play every time. By climbing up the floors, you can place devices in better locations. Earn income from the devices you place, but at the end of the round, the tower will fall, and each floor will descend. The devices that descend and are removed from the board will be collected on your personal board, bringing you large income. Can you become the best explorer?




▪️ Adam's Apple Games, LLC released The Bird . Designed by Adam Rehberg (Planet Unknown), The Bird is a cooperative dexterity party game for 2-8 players!

From the newsletter:
The balancing birds are the signature unique Adam's Apple Games component, and they are paired with cooperative press-your-luck gameplay. You will need to cooperate not just with your decisions, but also with your steady hands.

The game could not be simpler; even your parents can play it. Just draw a card, wait for the signal, and give ‘em the bird!

What to expect with the game?
-Nothing serious, but players will flock to your table to start or end the game night.
-Cooperative decisions to handle more, or bank the score.
-Hilarious droppings all over the table.
-A toy balance-bird handling "human-jenga-tower" experience for all!



▪️ The Mandalorian: Adventures – Sworn to the Creed Expansion was recently released by Unexpected Games. If you are a fan of The Mandalorian: Adventures, this is the second expansion released. You may want to also check out The Mandalorian: Adventures – Clan of Two Expansion! New characters, new missions, an epic cooperative adventure for all!

From the BGG page:
Seeking redemption, The Mandalorian must embark on a journey that leads his people back to their homeworld, where danger lurks deep within.

In-Demand Characters: 4 new characters, including The Armorer and Grogu, join the fray.

Innovative Missions: Navigate the Mines of Mandalore and pilot the N-1 Starfighter in 4 brand new story missions.

Campaign Mode and More: Deadlier enemy abilities offer more challenge as you embark on an expansive campaign complete with character progression!




▪️ Coming soon from Road To Infamy Games (R2i Games) is Pop Art. From the designers of Canvas, Jeff Chin and Andrew Nerger, you will use transparent cards to create your next Pop Art sensation. This game plays 1-8 players in 20 minutes.

From BGG:
Create and arrange silkscreen prints in your gallery and become the next pop art sensation of the 1960s.

Layering a foreground card on a background card blends their colors. Depending on which cards you layer together, you'll also craft unique goals that score your prints’ colors or illustration types.

Select and combine a foreground and background card from your hand and add them to your 3x3 tableau. Then pass the remaining cards to the player on your left, and draw a foreground and background card. Once all players have completed their tableau, the game ends. The player with the most points wins!



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The Final Titan was Red in the face and took a Beat at the Hacienda

✇BoardGameGeek News | BoardGameGeek
Von: boardgamersteph

by Steph Hodge



[imageid=9001635 medium rep]▪️ Pandasaurus Games announced a remake of Hacienda to be released by the end of this month. This is the 3rd edition of the classic game Hacienda from designer Wolfgang Kramer, but this 3rd edition introduces a bunch of updates with help from designer Daryl Andrews. I know a few changes are the addition of new map tiles for a varied game experience, and the market locations now allow players to draw cards more easily, making it a faster game. This new release plays 2-5 players and plays in 45-60 minutes.

From the Newsletter:
Each turn, you use cards to expand your territory and introduce animals onto a shared map. Matching cards allow you to claim land or grow animal groups, while bigger combinations let you add water features or build scenic platforms that boost your score. Smart placement matters. Connecting your land, positioning animals carefully, and planning ahead will determine who creates the most successful reserve by the final scoring round.




▪️ Nerdlab Games announced Final Titan coming later this year. A fantastic mash-up between designers Richard Garfield & Christian Kudahl, Final Titan is an exciting brawler game. The game plays 1-5 players and plays in 30-45 minutes.

From BGG:
Enter the arena of legends with Final Titan — a Draft Battler where the greatest heroes of all time clash in a fight for supremacy! Who will prove themselves as the "Greatest of All Time" and claim the title of the champion?

In this competitive game, players recruit legendary champions from across time, myth, and fantasy, each with unique abilities, stats, and powers. Once recruited, your champions are thrown into the arena, where they'll face off in intense dice duels.

Choose your matchups wisely, support your heroes with power-up cards, and outwit your opponents.

The last champion standing is crowned the final titan, and the player controlling them is victorious!



▪️ The Beat: Rockstars of the Galaxy is yet another game coming from Nerdlab Games. This is a small box cooperative card game from designers Morten Blaabjerg & Christian Kudahl. For 2-4 players.

From the BGG page:
The Beat: Rockstars of the Galaxy is a cooperative limited communication and hand-management game for 2–4 players where you play as an up-and-coming Alien band and tour the most legendary venues in the galaxy.

By playing card you work together to build the perfect setlist. Every song can end ON POINT, LOUD, or as a FAIL. Communication is limited, so success depends on reading your bandmates, managing your hand and trusting each other's instincts.

Every of its 26 venues introduces a new rule that changes how the game is played. No two venues play alike and mastering each one is the key to completing the interstellar tour. Event Cards add even more variety, ensuring that no two performances ever unfold the same way.




▪️ Red or Yellow from The Op Games is a new party game from designer Sasha Jelten. For 3-8 players and plays in 15 minutes. This game is already available at Target.

From BGG:
The world’s first (and therefore the best) 100% crowdsourced party game of this or that created by the people, for the people! Red or Yellow is packed with wildly unpredictable prompts written by everyday legends like you.

Each round, flip a card and secretly choose the red answer or the yellow answer to the prompt. Then guess how the rest of the table will answer. Score points for matching minds, standing out, or boldly calling a unanimous pick! Get ready for epic debates, absurd logic, and mind-blowing groupthink moments!



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Mercenaries Wanted to Spotlight the Omens of Kano

✇BoardGameGeek News | BoardGameGeek
Von: boardgamersteph

by Steph Hodge



[imageid=9718883 medium rep]▪️ Cephalofair Games announced a new card game releasing this December called Mercenaries Wanted. From the designer Dennis Vögele (Gloomhaven (Second Edition)), he brings us back into the Gloomhven universe with this 1-6 player card drafting game.

From the Newsletter and BGG:
In Mercenaries Wanted you take on the role of a mercenary company leader, recruiting mercenaries to complete jobs for you. Assemble your teams carefully and send them out on assignment to earn the most gold. Between rounds, decide who to keep in your roster, who to promote, and who to let go. Race to complete jobs over several rounds before competing with your promoted mercenaries in a series of tournaments to earn the most fame and fortune.

As head of a Mercenary Company, it's your job to find the best recruits the city has to offer. Or at least the most promising ones. Are they breathing? Let's be honest, you'll take what you can get in the city of Gloomhaven.

Recruit, equip, deploy, and out-hire your competitors to become the most infamous Mercenary Company in Casskia. So get to it! The unemployment line is drying up... MERCENARIES WANTED.


▪️ Also, be sure to check for the Frosthaven Digital release on October 15, 2026!


▪️ Horrible Guild announced a new game in the Spotlight series called Spotlight: Fantasy. from deisgners Hjalmar Hach and Lorenzo Silva (The King's Dilemma, Railroad Ink: Deep Blue Edition). This is a great series for families, as the game is a search-and-find and is super clever. This game plays 1-5 players and plays real-time and cooperatively.

From the Newsletter:
Using enchanted lanterns, you'll reveal only parts of the artwork at a time, searching for creatures, characters, and treasures hidden throughout each magical scene.

Work together (or against each other!) to uncover everything before time runs out, but stay alert: every corner of the kingdom holds new surprises.

Light your enchanted lantern, gather your fellow adventurers, and discover what secrets await in the darkness.

Easy to learn, fast to play, and perfect for families and groups of all ages, Spotlight Fantasy combines cooperative gameplay, stunning illustrations, and a touch of magic to create an experience that... Shines at every table!



▪️ The beautiful Kano was just available at Gen Con and will be available later this year. Kano is from Matagot and designers Pablo Jiménez, Angel Pintero. This game plays 2-4 players and takes about 30-40 minutes to play.

From the BGG page:
In Kano, 2 to 4 players compete to create their own Emakimono—traditional Japanese painted handscrolls—by skillfully arranging vibrant paint pots. The game elegantly blends tactical resource management with spatial optimization as players navigate a shared central mat to collect the pigments needed for their masterpieces.





▪️ Omens from Spiral Éditions is a new team card game from designer Maxime Rambourg (The LOOP, Dracula vs Van Helsing). For 4-6 players and plays in 20-30 minutes.

From BGG:
You've found a mysterious box filled with strange cards. As you try to decipher their meaning, you soon realize that you won't be able to do it without help. Surrounded by your friends, you begin to unravel their secret: played the right way, the cards eventually disappear. But they always come back, safely tucked away in the box, for the next game.

In Omens, you team up to get rid of your cards until you have only one left in your hand.

Each of your cards interacts with the cards played by your partner, as well as those of your opponents, so you need to play them at the right moment! The team that sheds its cards first wins.




▪️ Shape it from Randolph is a new cooperative party game from designer Thomas Dagenais-Lespérance (Decrypto). You have to mind-meld with all players to best guess the correct answer with the creations you make using the available shapes. A game for 2-7 players!

From the newsletter:
Sync minds with teammates to guess the correct words!
Shape It is a cooperative game in which players move shapes to try to guess a word. What word is your group trying to illustrate? That’s the game - you don't know for sure! But it has to be on one of the 5 cards on the table. When it comes time to guess - will you all see the same word in the shapes you’ve placed? Good luck!



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All New Releases this Fine Gen Con 2026 Week

✇BoardGameGeek News | BoardGameGeek
Von: boardgamersteph

by Steph Hodge

HELLO GEN CON! We are all ready for these new releases!

[imageid=8916698 medium rep]▪️ Mythologies from Super Meeple is set to release August 12, but will be available for Gen Con pickup as well. This new game is designed by Maxime Babad, Mickaël "Froh" Garcin. Mythologies is a new light civ and tableau building game that plays in 20-40 minutes and plays 2-4 players.

From the Hachette Website:
Summon deities and legendary creatures, build your pantheon, and earn their favor! In Mythologies, you'll journey through the beliefs of the world's greatest civilizations. Choose the right cards, and unleash powerful abilities, overcome thrilling challenges, and position your deities and creatures wisely to gather gems and win divine favors.

With 70 different starting setups and endless combinations, no two games are ever the same. Guaranteed replayability makes Mythologies a perfect match for families and seasoned players alike!



▪️ Mountain Goats: Legacy from Allplay has a limited release at Gen Con with a wider release set for September. From designers Alex Cutler, Michael Mihealsick, and Stefan Risthaus. This game plays 2-5 players and each session is about 20-45 minutes.

From the BGG:
Mountain Goats: Legacy combines dice rolling/combining and events into a longer version of Mountain Goats. But, after the first session, more and more hazards and gameplay tweaks show up. The dice now have a goat symbol — when rolled, you’ll get to use one of the unlocked player powers. These can change with every session! There’s also a new system called “Courage” that greatly affects your ability to mitigate luck and refine your dice rolls.

This game can be played as either a single session or a legacy game. As a legacy game, it is fully replayable and resettable. You will not be asked to destroy or modify components. The first session can also be combined with the original Mountain Goats game.



▪️ Czech Games Edition (CGE) announced the release of Lost Ruins of Arnak: Surprise Shipment, a new expansion for Lost Ruins of Arnak!

From BGG:
A package with no sender—what could be inside? It appears there are still treasures to be unearthed and secrets to be unveiled. Gear up with new items and head back into the jungle. The island of Arnak is expecting your return.

Lost Ruins of Arnak: Surprise Shipment is the final addition to the vast and mysterious world of Arnak. The expansion is packed with 50 new cards (30 artifacts, 20 items), two new sites, and an updated site. It comes in a beautifully illustrated box that will complement every player's Arnak collection.




▪️ Six Sojourns from Red Raven Games releases July 30. From designer Ryan Laukat, this is an Eight-Minute Empire game. This is a game for 2-4 players and takes 30-60 minutes.

From BGG:
Six Sojourns is a reimagining of Eight-Minute Empire. It's a short area control game full of tough choices, creative strategy and tactics, and high player interaction.

Your goal in Six Sojourns is to grow your family and broaden their influence. Players take turns selecting a card from five on display. Each card has actions that let players build houses, gain ships, move, and gain new family members. The cards also have special abilities and sets of icons that represent your family's expertise in various trades: cooking, carpentry, sewing, shoe-making, art, blacksmithing, and jewelry. Each game, you only select nine cards, and you'll be faced with meaty choices each turn as you focus on trades, abilities, or the map.

When all players have 9 cards, the game ends. Players count victory points, and the player with the most points wins.



▪️ Bézier Games has a small new card game coming out called Warp 99. From designer Reinhard Staupe (La Habana, David & Goliath...), this is a quick-paced card game where you are racing to collect 99 points first. for 2-4 players and plays in 30 minutes.

From the BGG page:
Zoom through space in the super-fast card game Warp 99!

On your turn, add 1 card to your own growing card row—it has to be a bigger number than the last one, and NO repeating colors!

Then blast as many cards as you can onto the 2 middle piles using cool rules like Same Color, Plus 1, or Total 10. Get Stuck? Change the rules! Match extra rules? Get bonus cards! Empty your hand? Get another turn!

Score big points by making long card rows and get 15 more points every time you use up your Personal Draw Deck. First to reach 99 points wins!


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Rocking Our Way Into Gen Con 2026

✇BoardGameGeek News | BoardGameGeek
Von: boardgamersteph

by Steph Hodge

Gen Con is rolling in!!

[imageid=9479940 medium rep]▪️ Gamewright has announced a few new games releasing this month! Who is ready for Forbidden Legacy from designers Rob Daviau & Matt Leacock (together they created Pandemic Legacy: Season 1..., Ticket to Ride Legacy: Legends of the West, and so many more!). Many are familiar with Series: Forbidden Games (Gamewright), and they wanted to create a legacy game in the series. If you aren't familiar with the Forbidden series of games, they are all cooperative games where you have to collect and escape before the world collapses. The legacy game will take place over 7 episodes that you can play with up to 4 players.

From the newsletter:
This seven-episode campaign is set in the Forbidden Universe, where players become time-traveling adventurers racing to save a collapsing city.

Guided by a graphic novel, the story unfolds across multiple sessions. New rules, components, and surprises are introduced, and player decisions permanently alter the gameplay.

The Experience
-Seven episodes designed for multi-session play
-Fully cooperative gameplay
-Sealed content revealed as the campaign progresses



▪️ A new dexterity game from Horrible Guildwas announced called Rocking Raft. from deisgner Carlo Emanuele Lanzavecchia (Feuerdrachen). This is a super cute gem-collecting game. It is very simple, as you will just need to collect gems by pushing down on the raft and see what tips off. The gems will go onto your smaller boats that require specific colors. Any extras you can not use will go to the player on your left. The box says for ages 6+ for 2-4 players and plays in 15 minutes.

From the Horrible Guild website:
-Easy-to-learn game, perfect for kids and families: Teach in 5 minutes, play in 15!

-Tactile experience: rotate and rock the raft to earn gems! Great interactivity and table presence

-Includes a variant for experienced sailors. Boats take in water; fill them up before they sink!



▪️ Clash of Clans: The Epic Raid was just released from Maestro Media. From designers Ken Gruhl (Cahoots, Happy Salmon) & Eric M. Lang (Blood Rage, Rising Sun), they bring to you this game, which was inspired by the hit mobile game Clash of Clans. The game plays 2-4 players and lasts about 60-90 minutes.

From BGG:
Inspired by the hit mobile game Clash of Clans, the board game Clash of Clans: The Epic Raid allows players to build defenses, deploy units, and raid friends' bases in a fast-paced, highly strategic battle that brings the thrill of the mobile game to the tabletop. Build up your village, unleash your troops, and smash your rivals in a race for dominance! No base is safe. No clan goes unchallenged. Let the raids begin!

Raiding is the goal of this combat, engine-building game. Send your armies, roll the dice, and watch their cities burn. Destroying your opponents' structures earns you points, resources, and bonuses.

The end of the game is triggered when at least 1 player has 40 or more stars. The player with the most victory stars (points) wins!




▪️ I am pleased to find out that 25th Century Games has picked up the licensing for Beer Mug Dice which is now avaialble. from designer Andreas Schmidt (Heaven & Ale) This is a hilarious push-your-luck barrel-rolling dice game for 3-6 players, playing in 20 minutes. First available under the name Polterfass in 2013, but it never fully made its US release until now. I have had a TON of fun with this game over the years, and now I hope everyone else can have the same enjoyment as I do!

From the newsletter:
Take turns as the sly innkeeper of The Wild Boar tavern, rolling miniature beer barrels and deciding just how generous you are feeling. As the guests secretly place their orders, you will push your luck, re-roll barrels, and try to keep their thirst from exceeding your supply. Know when to close the tap, outsmart your fellow patrons, and collect the most points to become the toast of the tavern!

Beer Mug Dice blends push your luck decisions, bluffing, and interactive gameplay with a lively tavern theme and fun barrels to roll!



▪️ A shiny new title from Geek Attitude Games called Not Alone: Remastered Edition. I am a huge fan of the original Not Alone. Both games were designed by Ghislain Masson. As far as I know, this is Not Alone with extra materials as described below. The game plays 2-7 players in about 30-75 minutes.

From the BGG page:
This Remastered Edition also includes Frozen Lands, an alternative version for 4 to 7 players. It introduces 55 new Place cards and 14 Contamination tokens. Giving up or losing your last Will counter now risks drawing a hidden Contamination token. When rescue finally arrives, every survivor must be clean. One infected player means defeat for the entire team.


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Take to the Skies and Journey On!

✇BoardGameGeek News | BoardGameGeek
Von: boardgamersteph

by Steph Hodge

▪️ Panorama from Scorpion Masqué is already available now! This is a delightful tile-drafting game where you will create your landscape panorama. It uses a time track mechanic so the further you move ahead, the longer you have to wait before your next turn. For 2-4 players, this is a breezy 20-minute game.

From the newsletter:
Put your panorama together one tile at a time, making sure to line tiles up to create large areas of the same land type. At the end of the game, you’ll score points based on the number of animals and flowers in each type of terrain.

Games stay fresh and replayable through the common objectives that can be switched out for every game, such as the longest river or the sky with the fewest clouds.

This adorable game is sure to delight the entire family!



[imageid=9667654 medium rep]▪️ A recent hit at my table have been Sky 5 from Druid City Games. I am drawn to the bright, bold colors, and there is even a rainbow die included in the box. How cool! This is a push-your-luck card game for 2-6 players and plays in 15-30 minutes. This game will have a limited release at Gen Con 2026 and will be officially released later this year!

From BGG:
In Sky 5, players push their luck as they build a tableau of colorful sky cards, trying to assemble one of each of the five colors to complete a Sky 5. Each turn presents a simple but tense decision: draw a card to grow your tableau, or roll the die to try to bank the cards you already have.

Drawing cards helps you work toward the perfect five-color collection, but it comes with risk. If you reveal a color you already have, the card may end up helping your opponents instead. Rolling the die offers a chance to secure your points, but only if the result does not match any value in your tableau. If it does, you bust and lose the cards you were hoping to score.

Quick to learn and full of nail-biting decisions, Sky 5 is a lively push-your-luck game where timing is everything. Build the right collection, roll at the right moment, and bank your points before the sky turns against you.



▪️ Horrible Guild just announced The Amazing Journey for release this October with first looks at Gen Con 2026. This has a travel theme where you will move around the board and make connections and memories. This game plays 2-4 players in about 45-60 minutes.

From the newsletter:
In The Amazing Journey, you'll travel across the world optimizing routes based on which types of transportation are available on a given date in your location.

This brand new title combines easy rules with meaningful decisions, creating an experience that's accessible to new players while remaining engaging for seasoned explorers. Along the way, you'll collect memories, complete objectives, and build your own tale of discovery.




▪️ Winds of Numa Sera was announce from Good Games Publishing as releasing soon. This is a big game that plays 3-4 players and has a play time at 90-120 minutes. Seems epic!

From the newsletter:
Ethera is a continent without mercy. In this deeply asymmetric kingdom-building strategy game, you'll forge your line of succession, equip your heroes, master powerful skills, and clash with rival factions in a race to complete two of four paths to victory.

4 asymmetric factions — each plays entirely differently
Build a line of succession across 3 unique heroes
Deep progression: items, skills, classes & faction ability trees
Multiple win conditions — no two games the same

Four factions. One world. No mercy.



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Czech Games, Portal Games, Stonemaier Games - All the Hotness!

✇BoardGameGeek News | BoardGameGeek
Von: boardgamersteph

by Steph Hodge

We might have GenCon right around the corner, but that doesn't stop Spiel announcements from happening! A few Spiel games and some new releases too!!

[imageid=9666028 medium rep]▪️ Czech Games Edition (CGE) Just announced a BIG release for this Spiel! It is currently sitting at the top of BGG Hotness called Kingdom Come: Deliverance – The Board Game. Designers Vlaada Chvátil (Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization, Mage Knight Board Game...)and Tomáš Holek (SETI: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Galileo Galilei...) came together to create this mega game for 1-4 players that plays in 120-320 minutes.

From the newsletter:
Iconic designers Tomáš Holek and Vlaada Chvátil join forces for the first time to bring Warhorse Studios' award-winning Kingdom Come: Deliverance video game to the tabletop in an epic official adaptation.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance – The Board Game is an epic adventure game mixed with euro elements, set in 15th-century Medieval Bohemia.

Over the course of several in-game days and nights, players will try to leave their mark, whether by helping the local nobility, making important connections, fighting enemies, or stealing everything from tiny items to horses. While the game is competitive, it doesn’t pit players against one another, but instead allows them to succeed through their own achievements. It uses a deck-building system and emphasizes player freedom, creating narratives through its mechanics.

Youtube Video




▪️ Portal Games also sent out an announcement for their new Spiel release called Robo Run. This is a cooperative 2-player game with no talking allowed! Robots only speak in beeps and boops. There are 5 campaigns with many scenarios. Each scenario will be about 30 minutes.

From the Email:
Each player controls a unique robot with a personal board featuring four upgradeable special abilities — from ABS (stop before hitting an enemy) to Nitro (play your movement twice) to Hacking Probe (replace a Blue robot with a weaker Purple one). As you progress through a Campaign's five linked scenarios, your robots grow stronger. Abilities unlocked in one scenario carry into the next.

Robo Run includes 5 full Campaigns — Toy Story, Cold Steel, Heat of the Furnace, Thousand of Cogs, The Acid Flow — each with 5 regular scenarios and one optional expert challenge. A single Campaign takes approximately 2 to 2.5 hours. Individual scenarios can also be played standalone in 20–25 minutes. Each Campaign is fully replayable with different Robots (four unique robots in the game), random events and Loot cards!

"Eryk brought me a game which reminded me a Sky Team, but this time it additionally had this awesome vibe of old 2d video games - a board, two robots, and puzzle to solve how to escape. I played it. I loved it. I wanted to publish it. That's the whole story."— Ignacy Trzewiczek, Founder & Publisher, Portal Games



▪️ Stonemaier Games Just announced some games to be released mid July and are on the GenCon preview list. The first on the list is Duel of Meloch. This is a very interesting mash-up of Scythe and Expeditions. This is a 1-2 player game, and one player takes on the Scythe mechanics role and the other player uses the Expeditions mechanics. The game plays in about 45 minutes. Seems like a great game for the fans of these two original games.

From the newsletter:
Duel of Meloch is a standalone game that combines mechanisms from two existing games, Scythe and Expeditions, into a 45-minute head-to-head clash. One player uses Scythe rules and components (including a new faction and player mat); the other player uses Expedition rules and components (including a new mech, character, and companion).

All existing Scythe factions, player mats, encounter cards, and factory cards are compatible with Duel of Meloch, as are all existing Expeditions mechs, characters, companions, and discovery cards (items, meteorites, and half of the quests). Likewise, the components in Duel of Meloch are compatible with Scythe and Expeditions: For Scythe, 3 new Factory cards, 6 new encounter cards, a completely new set of 60 combat cards; for Expeditions, 30 new discovery cards (items, quests, and meteorites).

Duel of Meloch is designed by Jamey Stegmaier, with art and worldbuilding by Jakub Rozalski.




▪️ The second game that was announced was Wingspan Pocket. As you might expect, this will be a small-box condensed Wingspan experience. It will still support 1-5 players, but the playtime is listed as 25-35 minutes.

From the newsletter:
Wingspan Pocket distills the Wingspan experience down to a lighter, shorter, card-driven game that has each player activate a single row of cards on each of their turns. The cards are all double-sided: a food side and a bird side. Bird powers are primarily indicated by icons instead of text, and they include a new type of power, ongoing (green) benefits.

Wingspan Pocket is accessible to novice players yet also compelling for more experienced gamers. This is a standalone game in a small box, not an expansion (the birds in it are not compatible with Wingspan). Wingspan Pocket features birds from around the world.

Wingspan Pocket is designed by Elizabeth Hargrave, with art by Natalia Rojas & Ana María Martínez.


▪️ Finally, a new expansion for Origin Story called Origin Story: Heroes & Villains. This is a mini expansion pack that adds in new cards for more variety in your endings.

From BGG:
In the final round of a game of Origin Story, each player chooses a card that represents who they have triumphantly become as a result of their journey. This mini-expansion adds 21 new cards to the original deck of 10...and they're not all heroes.

In addition to 7 new superhero cards, we created 14 supervillain cards for the stories that have a more devious ending. They're all in the same deck.

Simply shuffle all superhero and supervillain cards (including superheroes from the original game) into one deck, then deal 3 cards to each player at the beginning of the game. The original game had players receiving 2 cards; you'll instead receive 3 if you're playing with this mini-expansion.



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Oh the Sweet Summer Card Games Continue!

✇BoardGameGeek News | BoardGameGeek
Von: boardgamersteph

by Steph Hodge

[imageid=9419162 medium rep]▪️ After the hit game Confusing Lands was released in 2024, Envy Born Games decided it was time to expand it with Confusing Lands: Icebound Isles. This new game is completely standalone, but if you want to combine the decks, you will create an epic game! If you are a fan of 2-player games, I think this will be right up your alley. This game plays exactly 2-players in about 10 minutes.

From the BGG Page:
In this clever card game, players create their own wacky floating landscapes in the sky! Discover towering snow-capped mountains, trace icy rivers, and maybe even spot a brave little deer wandering through the frost.

Players take turns drafting and placing cards featuring unique symbols and scoring conditions. Once each player has played 8 cards, they tally points from a single shared scoring condition along with the scoring conditions within their own finished landscape. The player who crafted the most brilliantly confusing (and highest scoring) frozen world wins!



 
▪️ Hey, another game that is both standalone and an expansion! This time we have Tag Team: Arthur's Legacy which can expand Tag Team. In the box you will find 6 new fighters, all characters from the Arthurian Legends, which includes Excalibur! Scorpion Masqué also teased the 3rd Tag Team game coming soon, "hinting at the arrival of an iconic franchise from the world of video games."

From the newsletter:
Tag Team: Arthur’s Legacy can be played on its own and is 100% compatible with all existing and future Fighters. Players who own the first game can now put together their ideal duo from the 18 available Fighters to create up to 153 explosive teams and unprecedented synergies.

[Tag Team: Arthur’s Legacy will be showcased at Gen Con, with an exclusive pre-sale at the Hachette Board Games USA booth #2435.



▪️ Happy Camper just announced a small card game called Beach Bandits. Seems to be a perfect Summer snag. This game plays 2-4 players in about 15 minutes.

From BGG:
Just in time for beach season comes this brand new Happy Camper card game! Join a flock of greedy seagulls in a beak-to-beak showdown to see who can grab the tastiest beach treats! Simple to learn, packed with sneaky strategy, and featuring hilarious art - Beach Bandits makes the perfect summer travel gift!


It was also wicked cool that Happy Camper had an amazing offer in their newsletter to send one game from their catalog to a Summer Camp of your choice. The submissions are now closed, but I thought I would mention it. Make sure to follow them for future updates and cool offerings like that.

▪️ Looney Labs just announced a small card game called Seven Islands. This is a game for 1-4 players and will take 10-30 minutes. The race is on!

From the press release:
Seven Islands is a card game that is an island-hopping race of changing goals. You and a friend are contestants on a reality show! You’ve been stranded on a tiny tropical island, which is connected to six others by rickety bridges that have yet to be located. The first team to reach the designated beacon wins a million bucks! How do you know which beacon to go to? Just look at the sail on the ship currently docked. Better get there quick before a different ship comes in!

“While Seven Islands is a new game, it has a lot of the same DNA as some of my other games, such as Fluxx, of course, plus a bit of Zarcana/Zark City, and a take on teleportation from Fluxx: The Board Game. Yet, Seven Islands has its own unique combination of these popular game elements which make it a new experience folks can easily get to the table!” - Andy Looney, game designer and co-founder of Looney Labs



In other news:

▪️ If gaming on the computer is your jam, a big Summer Steam Sale is happening and tons of favorites from Dire Wolf are on sale like Dune: Imperium and Ark Nova. You can check out the Dire Wolf collection here.
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The Ants spent the Night at the Zoo and claimed Papyria as "All Mine!"

✇BoardGameGeek News | BoardGameGeek
Von: boardgamersteph

by Steph Hodge

Capstone Games recently announced their Gen Con lineup of games! Here are the details!

[imageid=9526276 medium rep]▪️ It gives me great pleasure to talk about All Mine! because it reimplements Scharfe Schoten, a game I hold on to tightly in my collection because it never made its way to the US market. I am very pleased to learn of this new release from Capstone Games. It does seem to be a new age of trick-taking games, so it doesn't surprise me to see All Mine show up and essentially resurface. This game is played by 3-4 players in about 30 minutes.

From the BGG Page:
All Mine is a mining claim (trick-taking) game in which players predict their hauls of each of the four treasures (gold, gems, mushrooms, and dragon eggs). However, instead of predicting the number of hauls they'll take, they must state the treasures they think they'll receive the most and least of. Since all cards display their treasure type on the back, players have more information than usual.

During each claim (hand), you must play the same treasure type if possible, even with the special trump cards. This requirement makes it difficult to predict which hauls you will bring in. In the end, the player who comes closest to their predictions wins.

Don’t get too greedy as you playfully place your bets in this game guaranteed to please card game enthusiasts and families alike.



▪️ Ants was originally released from Cranio Creations at Spiel 2025, but now will be available in the US market from Capstone. It is a heavier strategy game for 2-4 players and plays in about 90 minutes.

From BGG:
Ants is a deep strategy game that focuses on worker management and territorial expansion. Each player begins with one of multiple unique Queen tiles, which will heavily influence your strategy and interaction with the game's interconnected systems. Throughout the game, you will guide your ant colony through cycles of growth, exploration, and conquest to establish dominance over the garden ecosystem.

...The heart of the game revolves around your colony's life cycle management. Your incubation board tracks three vital phases (eggs, larvae, and ants), each containing three specializations: diggers, explorers, and gatherers. Wild ants serve as valuable wildcards that can fulfill any specialization need. When you incubate, you complete enterprises, trigger production effects, feed your larvae with food cubes, and advance the life cycle.



▪️ Night at the Zoo is a new tile-placement game for 1-4 players that will play in about 30 minutes. The catch is that you need to program your movement and understand the patterns to do that.

From BGG:
“Just a little further, a bit higher, bro…” The cheetah gives the penguin a boost over the gate, while a confused wolf dashes past. “Look out, someone’s coming!” Everyone freezes. After a moment of silence, a sloth calls from a tree: “All clear, move out!” The animals have secretly snuck out of the zoo at night—and now they’re trying to find their way back. Help them return before the keepers notice!

The goal of the game is to help the animals and guide them safely back into their home. Players explore parts of the darkened zoo to discover the best routes home. Each round, players draft tiles and place them on their boards, triggering special actions and building a path back for their animals. Every animal has its own unique way of moving and scoring points, making each game a new adventure!


▪️ Along with the base game, you can acquire the expansion Night at the Zoo: Latecomers. Now with more animals and added variety!

From BGG:
The Zoo has opened four new enclosures, welcoming more animals into the park. Under the cover of darkness, these curious beings joined their friends and escaped! Help them return to the Zoo safely, but be careful – some of those new arrivals have more complicated ways of moving!

This expansion doesn’t alter any of the base game rules; it adds four new animals to choose from.


▪️ Finally, another big game called Papyria. This game is originally from Irongames, but will now be available in the US from Capstone. It has a Rondel mechanic, which is very intriguing. The game plays 1-4 players and takes 90-120 minutes.

From BGG:
Mesopotamia, around 1500 BC: The Mesopotamian region on the Euphrates and Tigris is home to a melting pot of different cultures. Achievements such as writing and the wheel led to the construction of the first large cities and lively trade. In the mountains, the coveted lapis lazuli is mined, and papyrus is made from reed grass.

In Papyria, you explore the region to create an extensive network of canals; discover inventions; develop mines; and build temples, sanctuaries and cities.

During your turn, you move your wanderer or ship. On the target space, you choose two of the three possible actions, which can mean taking a new tile for your display or a multiplier for later scoring; building a city, a temple, or a mine; or producing lapis or papyrus, which you need for building, special actions, or special scorings.

The game ends as soon as the last good has been taken from several spaces and a certain number of "end-of-game" tiles have been revealed and fulfilled. After several final scorings, whoever has the most points wins.


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