Board Games | New Releases

You lead a grand civilization at the height of its influence, but can you save it from collapse? In Empire's End, 2-4 players compete to keep calamity at bay. Empire's End marries the intuitive and elegant mechanism of reverse-bidding with engine-building, long-term planning, and strategic depth. The result is a game with a quick tempo, abundant tension, and multiple challenging paths to victory. Players begin with a civilization at the height of its power. Play proceeds through a series of phases, varying as you progress through the game. During the Disaster phase, players face a common threat such as famine, a flood, or barbarians. The player who ends the bidding must take the disaster, which devastates one of their territories. With each disaster that befalls an empire, its people grow in wisdom and resilience. In the style of the modern classic game No Thanks, resources bid by all players will end up in the hands of the player who ultimately takes the disaster card. That player also gains a new ability, an innovation that reflects their empire's ability to adapt in the face of challenging times. Each turn, players move along a progress track that dictates whether they will face a disaster or another type of phase. Players can gain new resources during Production phases, rebuild lost territories during Industry phases, and challenge one another during Military phases. At the end of the progress track, the game is concluded and the winner is the civilization with the greatest number of victory points. Intact territories contribute points, but innovations and military successes can provide alternative ways to win.

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The Mayor has enlisted some of humanity's greatest visionaries to help build Skyrise: a magnificent city in the sky, dedicated to art, science, and beauty. But only one artisan can be remembered as the greatest! Prove your genius by using a brilliant spatial auction system to win sites to build in, earning favor across Islands and factions, scoring secret and public objectives, courting mysterious Patrons, and building your own unique Wonder. Skyrise tells an interactive story of a growing cityscape, hard decisions, scarce resources, and ever-rising stakes that will keep you enthralled until the final scores are revealed. Skyrise is a brand new game inspired by Sebastien Pauchon's 2008 Spiel Des Jahres recommended Metropolys.

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The object is to accrue the most points during three rounds, which you do by spending your points to bid on sets of cards. Each turn the current player turns up one to three cards for all the players to bid on, with the highest bid taking all cards. The cards denote a commodity type and quantity/value. The round ends when each player's ships are full, or the commodity card deck is exhausted. After each round, points are awarded to each player having the most of a given commodity, and to the one with the most valuable total "cargo load".

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    Soar high upon your wings, like an eagle, as you seek to escape the clutches of king Minos. But beware, fly too high and the sun will melt the wax that holds your wings together... fly too low and the moisture from the sea will make the feathers too heavy to keep you aloft. Flight of Icarus is a fast-paced strategy game for 2-4 players in which you live out the classic Icarus myth. Build your wings, then brave the elements as you attempt to fly from Crete to the Greek mainland. During the first phase of the game you will collect wax and feathers using an action point system, managing these resources as you craft your wings. You may also play innovations to aid you during your flight. Then, you will take to the air, struggling against both the weather and your fellow fliers during the tactical phase of the game. Bid for the oracle's favor, that allows you to play weather cards and act first, as you jockey for position in the air. An engaging mixture of strategic resource management and take-that mechanics, Flight of Icarus is fully language independent during play. Even should you fail in your flight, there is no player elimination, so you can still attempt to stop your competition from reaching the other shore.

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Welcome to the high-paced world of turtle dating! Your goal is to run the most successful turtle dating company, helping to romance turtles and sweep them right out of their shells. But you’re not the only one vying for their attention; you might find yourself at odds with a rival company as you attempt to woo these reptiles. You better make sure you have just the right gifts to make the best impression. If that doesn’t work, you could always donate the gifts and write off the expenses. After all, it’s not just about the love; it’s also about the money. Shell Company - Don’t Write Me Off is the first in a series of games Born at PAX®. What does “Born at PAX” mean? We at Lynnvander Studios teamed up with the PAX team to run a panel called Design a Board Game Live. Shell Company - Don’t Write Me Off was conceived by the crowd at PAX East 2022. They came up with the combination of turtle dating sim and tax evasion, and we refined their ideas into the board game you’re holding now! Shell Company is an auction-style bidding game with a touch of bluffing where players will need to manage their finances in order to acquire gifts. These gifts can either be used to romance potential clients, or they can be donated and used as a tax write-off. Both of these things are important because players are scored based on their weaker area.

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Bid, haggle, and trade your way to the top in this raucous trading game of set collection and player negotiation for 2 to 6 players. Acquire spices, textiles, livestock and other exotic goods by bidding on caravans from foreign markets across the ancient world. Manipulate the market – and each other – using your shrewd bargaining skills to trade with your fellow merchants and collect resource sets to maximize profits. Hafid's Grand Bazaar is played in a series of rounds based on the number of players. Each round consists of four phases during which players will take turns bidding on caravans, influence, and customers; collecting goods from caravans; trading and negotiating with each other to collect sets of goods; and selling their goods for maximum profit. Goods are divided into five categories, with five different items in each category. Players can see which categories of goods their opponents are holding by the symbols on the backs of the cards, but do not know the specific item the cards represent in those categories. This isn't your typical trading game and player interaction can get raucous and intense as players get creative with their haggling! The player with the highest value of talent coins at the end of the game wins. The marketplace is dynamic and ever-changing. You will need to stay sharp and engaged to amass the most wealth and become the greatest merchant in Hafid’s Grand Bazaar!

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