Tabletopia News

In the wake of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, a complex web of interlocking treaties led to powers both great and small taking sides in the Great War. Belgium, however, declared its neutrality. German war plans against France called for an invasion through Belgium, and they demanded free passage. When the Belgians refused, the Germans invaded...

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Brave Little Belgium recreates this dramatic early campaign of the First World War in a lightning-quick introductory wargame with plenty of challenges for both sides. As the German Player, you must smash through the enemy’s defences as quickly as possible, relentlessly advancing. But push your men too hard, and they might commit atrocities that will rally world opinion against you. As the Entente Player, you must stage a desperate defence against overwhelming odds. When and where to fall back, and where to take a stand, are decisions of vital importance.



Combat is fast and streamlined, while a clever take on chit-pull activations creates moments of tension and uncertainty. The result is an engaging wargame for new recruits and grognards alike from first-time designers and longtime friends Ryan Heilman and Dave Shaw.

"The Hacker and the insider Admin have planned to finally meet face to face at the monthly office meeting, in order to finalise their plans to blackmail the company.

Amongst a group of regular users, the Hacker and the Admin will attempt to identify each other by using their hidden code word. However, the company has been made aware of the potential of an inside job and users will be alert and observant for any suspicious behaviour. If their plans are exposed, there will be drastic consequences."

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Covert Cues is a family card game for 3-12 players about deduction (secret roles) and secret communication (or doublespeak), revolving around the premise of 2 hidden individuals attempting to discover who each other are by referencing their secret code word without being caught by the public.

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Each player says a one-word hint or phrase about the public word for the round. The Hacker and the Admin will attempt to come up with a hint that not only references the public word, but also the hidden code word that they have in common as an attempt to discover who each other are.

For example, if the public word is “Teacher” and the code word is “Musician”, one hint the Hacker/Admin could provide is “Notes”.

In another example, if the public word is “Librarian” and the code word is “Tutor”, the hints for the round could be:


Be obvious enough for your teammate to find you, but don't let the regular Users catch on and vote either of you out! If the Admin or Hacker feels ready to guess who their teammate is, they can declare who they are and take a shot at victory!

Europe, end of 20th century. Our economy runs entirely on fossil gas and coal-fired power plants. Climate change is a fact. Which region will have sustainable (non-fossil) electricity production first and win the game?

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In each game round of GigaWatt, the electricity demand (in GW) in your region increases due to the fate of the Dice. It's up to you to build power stations to produce the required GW demand. This provides you with income, with which you can eventually close the old fossil power stations and replace them with sustainable power stations that do not emit CO2. You can trade GW surpluses and GW shortages with the other players or External Markets to balance supply and demand.



So are you going to increase sustainability quickly (with the risk of GW shortages), or are you more careful (at the risk of being late)? The region that is the first to produce more GW than the GW demand and has closed all its fossil power plants, wins. But beware, wind and solar energy sometimes only generate half of their GW power peak.

Battle of Legends: Rome vs Macedon: Print & Play Edition, which is a reimplementation of Battle of Legends: Print & Play Edition (2019 Wargame Print & Play Contest Winner), is a two-player board game that focuses on four battles fought between Roman Republic and Macedonian Kingdom in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, namely Elis (208 BC), Aous (198 BC), Cynoscephalae (197 BC), and Pydna (168 BC). It is developed to simulate those battles on a tactical level with a hex grid board, terrain tiles, unit counters, faction cards, and d6 dice.

The game board is divided into hex spaces for unit placement and terrain tiles are placed onto them to create the battlefield of a chosen scenario. The Hill, River, and Forest are the terrain types that affect unit movement and combat in different ways. For instance, in battle Cynoscephalae (197 BC), which is mainly a hill battle, one hit is ignored if a unit on ground is attacking against a target unit on hill, in order to reflect the difficulty of uphill combat.



A unit is represented by a number of counters (equal to unit strength) on a hex space. The Roman army consists of Principe, Triarii, Velites, Elephants, and Equites units; whereas the Macedon army contains Pezhetairoi, Hypaspists, Peltasts, Hetairoi, and Cretans units, each having its own movement-attack-defense powers, special skills and abilities. Great effort has been made to bring out the differences in fighting formations of two armies, “Legion” vs “Phalanx”, while preserving a simple and streamlined game mechanism.



Faction cards lie at the heart of the game. They are kept secret and played to order units (green), activate their offensive (red)-defensive (blue) abilities, or start an event. Each faction has its own unique set and the content is changing from one scenario to another. Order cards allow you to position your units strategically across the battlefield to best coordinate your attacks, while ability & event cards empower you to apply some combat tactics such as charging, flanking, envelopment, phalanx, testudo, and withdraw. There is also a scenario card in each deck which takes the place of a key event happened in that battle. For example, the surprising pass of Romans through a secret path in Aous Battle (198 BC) is simulated by an order card which upgrades their movement up to 5 hexes.



To win the game, you must bring your opponent down to zero morale, or stand higher on morale at the end of the last round. Morale status may be changed with losses of units, or strategic places on board.

Hike! is a light and fast card-drafting racing game with huskies for 2-6 players. Players take on the role of mushers (dog drivers) who assemble their husky sleds and race through the snowy wilderness.

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The players carefully select the huskies for their abilities to move over treacherous terrain and place them in the sled according to their character. Do you have the equipment to get through the treacherous terrain, and have you taken enough time to train and care for your huskies? Make sure that you are well prepared, once you start racing, every musher is on their own. And then the race is on!



The players rely on their huskies’ abilities and the preparations they've taken, a combination of luck and skill that would get them the first across the finish line.