Tabletopia News

Ready to make a splash? These acquatic-themed adventures will have you exploring all the depths of undersea board gaming - from the serene beauty of the Great Barrier Reef all the way to the unknowable horrors of deep...


[h2]Sea Change[/h2]



In this light trick-taking game, players attempt to win tricks containing cards with positive points, and avoid cards with negative points. At the end of the round, check which suit is trump. The 0 from that suit, and only that suit, is now worth 5 points. All other 0s are not worth any points.

A re-implimentation of Inside Up Games' highly successful Gorus Maximus, this one has... shall we say, more family friendly art than its predecessor. Now instead of bloody gladiatorial combatants, you'll be playing gorgeous sea creatures from your hand! New art, same innovative trick taking gameplay.


[h2]Virtual Reef Diver[/h2]



Dive into the beautiful Great Barrier Reef as citizen scientists on the frontline of Australia’s fight to save the largest reef on earth. Using your powers of deduction, you will identify a vast array of marine life and utilise advanced technologies to navigate your way through natural disasters and the catastrophic impacts of climate change. Join your fellow divers and lead the fight to protect and save our reef!

The information in this game is based on research being undertaken at the Queensland University of Technology. To contribute to this research, please visit virtualreef.org.au.


[h2]The Great Barrier Reef[/h2] [h3]Currently on Kickstarter![/h3]



The Great Barrier Reef Card Game is a clever card game for anyone who loves the reef, sea life, diving, or just cool games! In the game, you get to curate a portion of the reef so that it best fits the needs of the sea life that lives there. Try to great the conditions most favorable for a thriving ecosystem while discouraging the presence of invasive species.

The main gameplay consists of laying reef tiles that overlap and create the best arrangement of fish based on the current scoring conditions. It's light but with an interesting spacial challenge.


[h2]Oceans[/h2]



Oceans portrays the dynamic ecosystem that exists below the water’s surface through the specific traits of individual species and the interaction of those traits among species to determine which species survive, which thrive, and which go extinct.

This game is an interactive engine builder, where players evolve their species in a continually changing ecosystem. Players must adapt their interconnected ecosystem to survive against the inevitable march of time (Aging), as well as a multitude of predators looking for food.


[h2]Aquatica[/h2]



Aquatica is a deep, but easy to learn family engine builder about underwater kingdoms.

In the game you will become one of the mighty ocean kings, struggling to bring glory to his realm. To win the game, you need to capture and buy locations, recruit new characters, and complete goals; each of these actions gives you victory points at the end of the game. To do so, you need to play cards from your hand (each with a unique set of actions) and combine them. Don't think it's simple! With a good strategy during your turn, you can take up to ten actions in a row.

You will encounter plenty of mysterious ocean creatures and take them to your hand. With their help you will explore the unknown locations and rise found resources from the ocean depths to your kingdom. Mechanically this is represented with the help of three-layered player board and the unique mechanism of card-rising.


[h2]Aquanauts[/h2]



In Aquanauts, players take the role of deep sea researchers scouring the depths of the darkest reaches of the ocean for insights into life beneath the waves.

You'll share a research base at the bottom of the ocean with your rivals, as well as set up your own laboratory systems to extract the right samples.

After coordinating your robotic assistants and your specialist Aquanaut to extract the best from the labs, you'll send your findings to the surface to cash in on the fame of publishing a paper of your findings - but be careful, your rivals are also trying to do the same thing! Plan your research carefully and get to the surface first.

Aquanauts features an accessible engine building and resource management puzzle wrapped in a worker placement system, providing a great introduction to euro style gaming as well as giving an entertaining experience to veteran gamers who want to explore the deep ocean.


[h2]Nemo's War[/h2]



Nemo’s War is based on the novel "20,000 Leagues Under the Seas" by Jules Verne. It’s a single-player game of underwater exploration and combat circa 1870. You are Captain Nemo, commander of the Nautilus. You will search the oceans, fight vessels of all nations, brave the hazards of the seas, find mysterious treasures, behold and chronicle amazing wonders, and travel around the world in your quest for knowledge and vengeance.

This critically acclaimed game is widely considered one of the best solo games, but 2-4 players can join in on the fun coorperatively!


[h2]The Refuge[/h2]



Due to extensive use of nuclear weapons during The Great War, much of Europe’s surface has become uninhabitable. Controlling the deep sea is now the key to global power.

Breakthroughs in underwater technology have followed military necessity: new methods for propelling divers and submersibles, better diving suits, and compact breathing systems.

No longer tethered to air hoses, divers are venturing deeper and further into the sea than ever before. Maybe too deep…

In Terror from the Deep's Competitive Dive, 2-6 divers compete by racing to the goal and planning movement to outwit their opponents — all while escaping from the Kraken's wrath! The object of the game is simple: Be the first to an unlocked escape pod, and you'll escape with the cargo and win!

The nominees for the 2019 Boardgamegeek Golden Geek awards have been announced, and voting is now open! If you want to make a more informed decision before casting your vote (or just experience some really fantastic games), here are some award nominees you can play right now!


[h2]WINGSPAN[/h2]
Nominated for Game of the Year, Card Game, Family Game, Innovative, Solo Game, and Strategy Game



This debut design from self-proclaimed “spreadsheet geek” Elizabeth Hargrave has already swept up the 2019 Kennerspiel des Jahres, and is currently sitting pretty as the number 21 overall ranked game on BGG. With its satisfying engine-building akin to Terraforming Mars and Gizmos, it’s undeniably one of the hottest games of 2019

Play as bird enthusiasts — researchers, bird watchers, ornithologists, and collectors — seeking to discover and attract the best birds to your aviary. Each bird extends a chain of powerful combinations in one of your habitats, and the winner is the player with the most points accumulated from birds, bonus cards, end-of-round goals, eggs, cached food, and tucked birds.


[h2]TAPESTRY[/h2]
Nominated for Game of the Year



The other Stonemaier-published game to make the list. Designed by Jamey Stegmaier, this 1-5 player civilization-inspired Eurogame sees you creating the empire with the most storied history - from the dawn of mankind, to their assent into the stars and beyond.

On your turn, you’ll choose one of four advancement tracks (science, technology, exploration, and military) to progress on. Move yourself up one space, gain the benefits, and leverage your asymmetric abilities to your path to victory. You can go hard on one track or play a balanced game to slow your opponents down. The strategy is dynamic every game!


[h2]BARRAGE[/h2]
Nominated for Game of the Year, Innovative



Dice Tower Seal of Approval!

Barrage is a resource management and strategic placement game, in which players will compete to build their majestic dams, raise them to increase their storing capacity of precious water, and deliver all the potential power through pressure tunnels connected to powerhouse energy turbines.

Barrage includes two innovative and challenging mechanics. The Construction wheel has to be managed by players to carefully plan their actions and handle their machineries, since both your action tokens and resources will be stored on the wheel and will come back only after a full wheel round is completed. The more you will construct and perform maintenance on your wheel, the earlier you will get back your resources and actions.


[h2]PALADINS OF THE WEST KINGDOM[/h2]
Nominated for Game of the Year, Artwork & Presentation, Strategy Game



Ready the horses and sharpen the swords. The Paladins are approaching!

The aim of Paladins of the West Kingdom is to be the player with the most victory points (VP) at the game's end. Points are gained by building outposts and fortifications, commissioning monks and confronting outsiders. Each round, players will enlist the help of a specific Paladin and gather workers to carry out tasks. As the game progresses, players will slowly increase their faith, strength and influence. Not only will these affect their final score, but they will also determine the significance of their actions.


[h2]ESCAPE PLAN[/h2]
Nominated for Artwork & Presentation



Design by Vital Lacerda (The Gallerist, Lisboa, On Mars). Artwork by Ian O’Toole (Nemo’s War, Vinhos, Clinic). The perfect recipe for an amazing game.

In Escape Plan, players are the thieves, but they may influence the cops' moves every turn. The robbers move on a modular board trying to reach the best spots to recover their loot and escape from the city with more money than the other thieves. The cops are trying to thwart their escape plan — by force if necessary. The players play cards to aid their escape and slow the other players down. The players take actions that allow them to move and to engage gangs, mules, and snitches.

The game design is influenced by great heist films.


[h2]VILLAGERS[/h2]
Nominated for Card Game

You are the founder of a new village during the middle ages, in the years after a great plague. The loss of so many people has created big problems for the survivors. Many of the people the villagers used to depend on for essential things like food, shelter and clothes are gone. Craftsmen find themselves without suppliers of raw materials, traders have lost their customers and many have lost their farms and workshops as they escaped the plague.

This medium-light city builder has a surprising amount of depth and some adorable artwork!


[h2]CARTOGRAPHERS: A ROLL PLAYER TALE[/h2]
Nominated for Family Game, Solo Game



One of the most streamlined and accessible flip-and-writes out there! The presence of monster cards in the deck also gives it a bit of interaction, evolving the genre beyond a simple multiplayer solitaire.

In Cartographers, players compete to earn the most reputation stars by the time four seasons have passed. Each season, players draw on their map sheets and earn reputation by carrying out the queen's edicts before the season is over. The player with the most reputation stars at the end of winter wins!

[h2]GLEN MORE II: CHRONICLES[/h2]
Nominated for Strategy Game



Glen More II: Chronicles is a sequel to Glen More, expanding the gameplay substantially compared to the original game.

In Glen More II: Chronicles, each player represents the leader of a Scottish clan from the early medieval ages until the 19th century, a leader looking to expand their territory and wealth. The success of your clan depends on your ability to make the right decision at the right time, be it by creating a new pasture for your livestock, growing barley for whisky production, selling your goods on the various markets, or gaining control of special landmarks such as lochs and castles.

The landscape was full of machines and scrap metal connected to the facility in one way or another. Always present on the horizon were the colossal cooling towers of the Bona Reactor, with their green obstruction lights.

If you put your ear to the ground, you could hear the heartbeat of the Loop – the purring of the Gravitron, the central piece of engineering magic that was the focus of the Loop’s experiments.


This is Tales From The Loop - a cooperative board game for 1-5 players. Take the roles of local kids and investigate whatever phenomena that threaten the islands (or perhaps just the local video store), and hopefully stop them.

Each day starts at school, but as soon as the bell rings you can use whatever time you have before dinner and homework to go exploring! Player actions are integrated, meaning there’s no downtime as you wait for others taking their turn. It also makes cooperating with your fellow players dynamic as you can react to things that happen in a turn and don’t have to plan it all out from the start.

Based on the award-winning artwork by Simon Stålenhag, this game is now live on Kickstarter, but you can play the first scenario right now on Tabletopia!



Art by Simon Stålenhag

Your goal is simple. Create a civilization rich with culture able to stand the test of time. To succeed, you will need to not only focus your energy on your own civilization, but those of your rivals as well. With a shared pool of resources to fight over, and a unique bidding mechanic that will have you guessing at your opponents intentions, Moaideas Game Design brings a tactically minded medium weight game for 2-5 civilizations will keep you on your toes from start to finish.

You start with a civilization that has an initial focus, such as Military or Trade. While many games reward a strong strategy from the start with a hyperfocus on your end goal, The Flow of Time instead rewards quick thinking and the ability to adapt to changing circumstances on the fly. You might start the game as a bloodthirsty clan, only to inevitably become a peaceful trade empire by the end.

A central tableau stores cards across the ages for players to bid on to improve their civilization or potentially lay waste to others. Players have five actions on their turn, which minimizes analysis paralysis for those groups that have players like that. You can activate cards you’ve previously purchased, harvest resources to let you pay for cards, or use the final three actions to interact with the cards available on the tableau, purchasing or investing in them to improve your civilization.

Designer Jesse Li (Guns & Steel, Ponzi Scheme) has created a game that combines many of the familiar elements of other civilization builders (7 Wonders, Through the Ages, Tapestry) and brought his own spin to it. It has clear, concise rules which are easy to teach people new to the genre, and lacks complex interactions that muddy down other civilization builders and prevent them from being as accessible.

That doesn’t mean The Flow of History is without its tricks. It brings a fresh, unique take to bidding mechanics by allowing you to invest in cards on the table, only to purchase them in a later round. This signals your intention to buy a card, but opens it up for players to snipe it from you. Having a card sniped from you gets you has you getting your investment back, as well as half the resource tokens from the supply... allowing crafty players to potentially bluff their way into resources if they can guess their opponents moves, force a player to overspend resources, or deny a player a crucial card.

The Flow of History offers both players seasoned to the Civilization Builder genre, and those new to it a game of interesting, thought provoking possibilities. Clocking in at less than 90 minutes for a full 5 players, it doesn’t overstay its welcome. Those that like their games with a nice amount of player interaction will find themselves right at home here in a game that is quick to teach, but hard to master.

A century from now all that remains of Earth is the detritus that humanity left behind. The races of a neighboring solar system have a penchant for artifacts left behind by extinct races. In Excavation Earth, you lead one of these races of alien explorers on their quest to excavate rare human artifacts and curate the ultimate art collection to sell off.

Excavation Earth is divided into three rounds, each of which starts with players drafting a hand of multi-use cards that will be used to perform actions. Players then take quick turns playing actions that allow them to move their explorers around the world map, excavate for artifacts, and deploy traders to bazaars and influencers to affect prices and wheel and deal on the black market.

The artifacts you dig up can be either sold to the bazaars housed on one of the aliens' ships that landed on Earth or added to a collection that will be sold off as a coherent art collection to museums back home. Excavation Earth ends after three rounds and the player who makes the most money during the game wins.

The game is also available on Kickstarter!