In Neotopia, a competitive fast paced tile placement pattern building game, you are part of a team of Visionaries who are building a futuristic pilot city focused on the fields of Energy, Technology, Community and Sustainable food.

You will be building elements on the three regions of the city in order to complete feature cards that you have in hand. A good combination of tile placement and card management can result in very impactful turns, where several cards are completed and the city expands. Interaction between players is important, because all players are building on the same board and can take advantage of what other players have built on their previous turns.

You will try to build the most harmonious city possible, because that will be vital for your score: in the end of the game you will score normally the regions where you have your two highest scores but you will triple the score of your lowest scoring region. So be aware! Even if it’s tempting to build on regions that are more developed and where you have already scored a lot points, if you don’t start working on the development of the other regions you will not be able to win the game. Balance is the key point on Neotopia, just like the type of future that the players are trying to build.

—description from the designer

Aeon’s End: Legacy of Gravehold is the second legacy game in the Aeon’s End line of games. Legacy of Gravehold has a deeper, more immersive narrative with branching paths. After each game, players will receive experience. They will spend that experience on enhancement stickers, those along with player cards will allow the players to become more powerful. However, the nemeses that players will face grow stronger and stronger with each battle.

Legacy of Gravehold has more than twice as many mages as all previous base sets, and more than twice as many nemeses as well.

—description from the publisher

Fliptown is a flip-and-write game in which you are trying to earn stars by exploring a wild west town. The game uses a standard poker deck to drive an open world-style of game play, along with dry erase boards or print-and-play sheets that serves as each player's map.

Each turn, flip over three cards, assigning one card to represent your suit, one card to represent your value, and one card to represent your poker card. The suit dictates which of four regions you activate, the value dictates which site within that region you get to circle, and the poker card goes toward a five-card poker hand that is resolved at the end of each round. Each of the four regions — Trail, Badlands, Mine, and Town — offers a different puzzle to master, while each site within a region provides a unique reward such as cash, gold, helpful items like guns, horses and tools, or bonus actions to create powerful combinations.

For solo play, you can play to achieve a high score or compete against one of four "cowbot" robot opponents, each with its own motivation.

For multiplayer play, players use "community cards" in the center of play, with players resolving each turn simultaneously. Additionally, bounty cards add competitive goals that players are racing to achieve.

In addition to the standard game, you can play as one of 14 wild west characters. Each character has a unique set of starting resources and a unique special ability.

As the Count of the small territory of the Nine Estates, you must build up the county into a powerful economic and cultural center. However, limited nearby resources force you to make difficult decissions. Can you earn the favor of the King?

Count of the Nine Estates is a 18-card reimplementation of Count of Nine.

Search your land for resources to build basic structures that will provide more resources. Use these structures and resources to build up your estates into a powerful economic force.

—description from the publisher


For Count of the Nine Estates, I did want to focus more on the experience. Looking back on Count of Nine, it seemed the player experience was a bit "on rails": once you pick a major structure to build, you are going to find the stuff you need to build that major structure. For Count of the Nine Estates, the player will have more freedom, and will have to make a couple strategic decisions during a match. So, I guess the "experience" I was going for CotNE is: a more strategic and "free" feeling compact, solo euro game.

—description from the designer


Count of the Nine Estates is a solo city building game played with 18 cards. Nine Estate cards are your targets to build: City Walls, a Cathedral, a Castle, and more. The other 9 cards make up the Structures deck which contains resources plus structures to be built. Play through the Structures deck in multiple rounds to build the structures needed that will enable you to build one or more of the Estates. The goal is to score the most victory points in the game, which is made up of 2 separate eras.

Victory points are awarded several ways:

Victory points marked on the Estate cards and some of the structure cards

+ 1 victory point for each structure built

+1 victory point for each duplicate structure built
-2 victory points for each round played

Micro Bots is a strategic duelling game where you must outmanoeuvre, and outwit, your opponent. Card effects (attacking, moving, etc.) become more powerful based on the number of cards you have previously placed. So the order you play your cards determines your strategy - do you hold back your big attacks for maximum firepower, or deplete your opponent’s defences with a first strike?

Your hard work in Micro Dojo drew the eye of the Shogun, but also gained the attention of two rival clans that now try to claim the town for their own.

The Shinchoku clan bring progress and prosperity, whilst the Tsuyo clan cultivate power and corruption.

Pledge your loyalty, earn support, and help your chosen clan come to power.

As Hitler's grasp on Germany tightens and his maniacal fervor is unmasked, men from the highest levels of the Reich begin to plot his assassination. As the clock ticks and Hitler's ambitions grow, these daring few must build their strength and prepare for the perfect moment to strike. The Gestapo hound their trail, calling these conspirators "Schwarze Kapelle", the Black Orchestra. Will this band of daring patriots save their country from utter ruin before it is too late?

Black Orchestra begins with each player choosing a historic figure involved in the conspiracy against Hitler. In this dark and dangerous pursuit, motivation is perhaps your greatest weapon. If you can stay True to your convictions in the face of overwhelming threat and inspire your comrades, then you will be able to use your special ability, attempt plots, and even become zealous (necessary for some extremely daring plots).

But every move you make may also increase the suspicion of the authorities. The Gestapo will make routine sweeps, and any players with high suspicion will be arrested and interrogated (possibly resulting in other players being arrested). If you are all arrested or if the Gestapo finds your secret papers, you lose. And the suspicion placed on each conspirator will increase the chances their plots are detected.

On a turn, players may take three actions, such as moving, searching for an item, or drawing a card; or, at the cost of one action per die, roll the dice in an attempt to gain even more actions — at the risk of attracting the suspicion of the gestapo. This dice rolling "Conspire" action allows players to make bold moves when most needed.

After the actions have been taken, an event card is drawn. The game is played over seven stages of World War 2, represented by seven stacks of event cards. These cards walk you through the events of WWII in a roughly (but not strictly) chronological order. New stages open up new areas of the board, cause Hitler and his deputies to interact with the Conspirators, and present various opportunities or threats. During the final stage, many board spaces become off-limits, as the Allies move closer to Germany.

To win, players must collect a plot card and fulfill all necessary requirements listed (such as having Hitler be in a certain space and possessing certain items--detonator & fuse, etc.). The active player may then attempt the plot by rolling the indicated dice, including all additional modifiers and helpful Action cards. The total of number of "Target" symbols needed to kill Hitler is based on Hitler's military support, but a Conspirator's security level decides if any "Eagles" rolled will see them detected, and foil the plot regardless. Players must consider their ability to successfully complete a plot and the relative suspicion levels of the different Conspirators involved.

Players will need to work together and agree on the wisest course of action, as well as have a little luck, to succeed. The phenomenon of one player dominating the game because of its cooperative nature is mitigated by the fact that there are no certainties, and often a player will need to make a bold or reckless move to keep the conspiracy alive. Cool heads often prevail, but play it too cool and you may miss your chance. The co-operative dynamic gets really interesting if a player is ever arrested, and fails to resist interrogation, then they will need to make a big decision all by themselves, without revealing their options to the group. No one player can guarantee success. It is hoped that players will have tense conversations similar to those had by the real conspirators and enjoy a truly unique historical experience.

Monsters are always hungry and never go far from a bag full of provisions, in order to be able to prepare a delicious soup in only instants. But that’s if they can quickly find the ingredients listed on their monstrous cookbook!

Take a stroll along the beach. Feel your toes digging into the sand. Discover a world of beautiful objects just waiting to be found. Whether you're picking up driftwood for your sculptures or sea glass for earrings, let Mother Nature be your muse as you follow the tides.

Tides is a game about collecting items from a beach. The goal is to score as many points as you can by making the most interesting sets of items. The tide is always changing; you never know what you’ll find on the beach!

Take cards from the row during LOW TIDE to collect items from the beach. During HIGH TIDE, flip the double-sided cards; the back side has scoring conditions. Score a set in either LOW or HIGH TIDE, by combining items you collected with a scoring card. Play until someone reaches 50 points. Finish the current low tide/high tide cycle. The player with the highest score wins!

As your vagabond band adventures across the Woodland, you will encounter villains, leaders, innocents, and everything in between with this fully-illustrated, 55-card deck of Woodland denizens, complete with stats, personality traits, game-ready requests for the vagabonds, and new art by Kyle Ferrin!

In Micro Dojo, you represent one of two Daimyos who have been tasked by the Shogun to bring prosperity to a small town. Carefully use the town’s retainers to complete the Shogun’s tasks and win favour. The most prosperous Daimyo will be granted the title to the town.

Micro Dojo is a 20 min tactical euro game for two players, intended to fit comfortably in a pocket or purse. In Micro Dojo, players take control of the Ninja, Samurai, Sumo and Geisha meeples to generate resources, develop the town, and score points by achieving the Shogun’s tasks.

Each turn players move one of the four meeples to an adjacent space and take the action there - either gathering resources, taking a building, or activating a scoring objective. The catch? You can't move the last meeple either you or your opponent moved. The games end when the last objective is triggered, or a player reaches 7 points.

Movement is tight, requiring you to second guess your opponents plan. Timing is crucial, triggering objective scoring only when it benefits you. Like a sparring match, every move should be chosen with precision and efficiency, or your opponent will strike.

When you signed on as storyboard editors, you never expected a mess like this. Panels all out of order, some missing entirely, and you're not even allowed to talk on the job? You're pretty sure that's not what "silent film" means. Somehow, you'll need to rework all this into a movie that makes sense. But with the animation budget quickly running out, there's little room for error...

The cameras are rolling on our newest blockbuster: Moving Pictures! This cooperative game for 2 players was designed by Chris Klimowski and is sure to be a big hit.

In Moving Pictures players take turns placing numbered scene cards from their hand into the shared Timeline row in hopes of getting all 6 cards in order. The catch? They can't speak or signal to each other, so they'll have to watch each other's play closely for clues. Each card also has an effect listed which can impact placement, swap cards around, or even allow players a rare opportunity to share information.

Getting it right once is a feat in itself but a full game of Moving Pictures is played over 3 Acts. The Timeline grows with each Act, making each round harder than the one before. Thankfully you also have access to 2 Deleted Scenes: if the round would end with scenes out of order, you can spend a Deleted Scene to hide one card. These Deleted Scenes don’t refresh, meaning that you only get 2 mistakes before the credits roll.

In this trick-taking game based on the short story by Robert Louis Stevenson of the same name, the goal is to gain the most points over a series of hands (usually the goal is set to 200 pts). Cards are numbered 1-37 and are found in three colors, red (comprising largely the highest numbers), blue (mostly in the middle) and yellow (mostly the lowest numbers) with colors being analogous to the suit in a standard deck. There is one neutral card, the 19, that sets the "price of the bottle."

The entire deck is dealt to the three or four players in the game and then, similarly to hearts, cards are exchanged and a card is played to the bottle. As per the usual elements of a trick taking game, players must follow suit if possible with high card taking the trick (regardless of suit). The unique feature about this game however is how trump is determined. Any card of value lower than the current price of the bottle (starting with 19) is considered "trump" and will win the trick. If multiple cards are less than the current bottle price, the card valued closest to the current price (so highest card below the bottle) takes the trick AND THE BOTTLE, the bottle price is adjusted by the player taking the card that represents the current bottle price and replacing it with the card they used to win the trick. Thus the price of the bottle will decrease with each trump card played, and the bottle is increasingly harder to win/purchase. Ownership of the bottle will pass from player to player and the number of possible trump cards will decrease both as a factor of cards being played and cards being skipped as the bottle price descends. One player will be stuck with the bottle at the end of a hand (when players have played all the cards in their hands).

Cards have point values from 1-6 (not directly based on numerical value), at the end of the hand players will score points for the cards of tricks they've won, except the player who holds the bottle who will score NEGATIVE points for all the cards played to the bottle at the beginning, scoring nothing for the cards they won during the hand. Play continues until the point goal is reached.

In the 2003 edition the complete story by R.L. Stevenson http://gaslight.mtroyal.ab.ca/bottlimp.htm is included (in both English & German) and the bottle is a nice wooden piece. Earlier versions had a stand-up cardboard piece that you cut out.

Once your ancestors found or created a source of magic - the exact knowledge of its origin, as far as you know, has long been lost. A small community has developed around the source, which seeks to protect this place and keep it as secret as possible.

Unfortunately, some magical beings — half corporeal, half ethereal — have now tracked down this source. These beings of dubious character, which you call "Djinn", have appeared in various places of the city to dispute your access to the source. You are young members of the Magic Guild, and to prove your abilities, you are tasked with capturing the Djinn so that they can do no harm. You can control them permanently only if you catch them in special Djinn bottles. To seal these bottles, you also need corks made from the bark of a tree near the magic source.

Whichever of you succeeds best in protecting your small town will be accepted into the inner circle of the Magic Guild and will soon be allowed to learn even more secrets...

In Djinn, you take turns moving across a map that shows thirteen locations. These locations are linked to actions where you can get the resources you need and catch the Djinn that are in six locations. In those locations you can do things like receive bottles and corks, collect magical power, buy magical items, hire mages to accompany you, discover secret passages, and more.

In each round, you can reach only one of two or three of the locations, so you must plan carefully to have all the resources you need in time to catch the Djinn. The game ends when all six "Boss Djinn" have been captured and removed from the map, then you score points for all captured Djinn.

-description from developer

Tucana Builders is a sequel to the award winning Trails of Tucana.

Place tiles on spaces that match the revealed terrain card to connect animals to corresponding huts.

All connections that score in round 1 will score again in round 2. So, do you go for high scores in round 1, or will you try to create smart intersections for long-term benefits?

Tucana Builders is an easy-to-teach game for those who enjoy challenging tile-laying puzzles.

—description from the publisher

Celt — Latin Celta, plural Celtae — were an early Indo-European people who from the second millennium BCE to the first century BCE spread over much of Europe. Their tribes and groups eventually ranged from the British Isles and Portugal to as far east as Transylvania, the Black Sea coasts, and Galatia in Anatolia, and they were in part absorbed into the Roman Empire as Britons, Gauls, Boii, Galatians, Celtiberians, and Lusitans.

Celtae is a "worker swapping" game powered by a rondel in which players choose actions to perform during their turn. On their turn, players swap one of their three active workers with one of the three workers on the action space they wish to perform, then they perform the action — which will be boosted if they have in their worker pool specific types of workers: farmers, builders, soldiers, and nobles.


The farming action allows players to draw cards, and it's boosted by farmers. Cards have three types of uses in the game: building, preparing for battle, and engaging with the druid order.
The build action allows players to build and expand citadels on the board by placing their discs on them, and it's boosted by builders. At game's end, only completed citadels will score, and players have to work together to complete them and score their presence on them. Each time players build in a citadel, they gain a bonus that was randomly assigned during set-up. The combination of these bonuses with a timely performed action often results in powerful combos.
The battle action, which is boosted by soldiers, allows players to defeat increasingly stronger Roman armies and to garrison the outskirts of the citadels on the map.
The recruit action, boosted by nobles, allows players to recruit workers to their tribe, increasing the number of available workers to boost future actions. However, if you manage to send certain types of workers from your tribe into the druid order, you'll get their favor and a druid worker who functions like a joker and boosts almost every type of action.


Every player has a leader card assigned to their tribe at the beginning of the game. At a certain point on the game, players will have to choose if their leaders stay on its regular side and like that gain a small number of points at game's end or forfeit those meager points and flip it to its heroic side, which has much harder requirements for much larger endgame points.

Each time the action marker on the rondel completes a full turn, the player who currently holds the favor of Teutates places a progress marker on one of the progress cards next to the game board. At game's end, only progress cards with progress markers will score, so as the game advances, players determine what will score...and what will not.

—description from the publisher

Thousands of years ago, near the end of the ice age,
humans once again dwelt on fertile land. But a new challenge awaits!
The ice is still melting, and that fertile land will soon be flooded. All living creatures must escape to the mountains.
Your engravings and cave paintings will stand the test of
time, and the skills you have honed will be passed on to your descendants. It's up to you to leave your "footprints on the ground" for the generations to come.

Maneuver your clan through difficult terrain, improve your skills to advance more efficiently, gather needed resources, make cave paintings and engravings at important sites, and use your leader to inspire your clan beyond their limits, while trying to reach the cairns on the horizon before time runs out...

Footprints is a competitive game with asymmetric player powers (each player has their own clan deck) and variable setup through a modular game board. Your abilities in route planning, skill improvement (engine building), and hand management will increase your chances of winning the game.

The game can be played solo.

—description from the designer