Tabletopia News

Orléans: Invasion, the first large expansion for the award-winning game Orléans, contains six scenarios designed by Reiner Stockhausen and Inka & Markus Brand. It also includes a new set of Place Tiles that can be used with or without any of the scenarios.

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In Orléans, you will recruit followers and put them to work to make use of their abilities. Farmers and Boatmen supply you with money and goods; Knights expand your scope of action and secure your mercantile expeditions; Craftsmen build trading stations and tools to facilitate work; Scholars make progress in science; Traders open up new locations for you to use your followers; and last but not least, it cannot hurt to get active in monasteries since with Monks on your side you are much less likely to fall prey to fate.

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You will always want to take more actions than possible, and there are many paths to victory. The challenge is to combine all elements as best as possible with regard to your strategy.

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The new scenarios are:

Prosperity: An extensive scenario introducing new Events and a Carpenter that all players may use to build Structures for victory points, designed by Inka and Markus Brand.

Invasion: A cooperative scenario in which players have to work together to fend off an invasion while fulfilling personal objectives, designed by Inka and Markus Brand.

The Duel: A two-player scenario in which both players race to be the first to complete a series of objectives, designed by Reiner Stockhausen.



In addition, Invasion contains three single-player challenges by Reiner Stockhausen.

From the creator of Happy Salmon and other hit party games, Nacho Pile is a fast-paced, high-energy game that will have chips flying back and forth as players compete for full plates and stomachs. In the game, players must push their luck to pile their macho plates high, but also cleverly snatch matching chips from other players. Don't get too risky or you will lose them all! Keep an eye out for special chips that really ramp up the heat with spicy effects.

On your turn, you'll reach into the bag and pull out a chip. Continue doing this until you either bust or stop.

- You bust if you pull out a chip that is identical to another chip you pulled out this turn. Place all chips you drew this turn into the bag and end your turn.
- If you choose to stop, place all chips you drew in front of you. Then take any chips in front of other players that have the same number! Any chips that remain in front of you by the beginning of your next turn are placed onto your plate and are safe from being stolen.

The game ends once there is only 1 chip left in the bag. Reveal that last chip. The player with the most of that value chip wins! If it's a special or wild chip, the player with the highest number of chips wins.

Over the weekend, Cascadia took out the top prize and won the 2022 Spiel des Jahres award.



Cascadia is designed by Randy Flynn (and is one of his first published games!), with art by Beth Sobel (Wingspan, Calico), and is published by Flatout Games, AEG, & KOSMOS.

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Cascadia is a puzzly tile-laying and token-drafting game featuring the habitats and wildlife of the Pacific Northwest. In Cascadia, players take turns building their terrain and populating it with wildlife. Players must create a diverse and harmonious ecosystem - each animal species has a different spatial preference and each habitat must be placed to reduce fragmentation and create wildlife corridors.

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In their nomination statement, the Spiel judges noted that "Cascadia is a real feel-good game. You can always achieve something on your turn, even if the choices on offer aren’t exactly what you wanted. The two-part puzzle is especially successful, requiring players to find a good balance between matching landscape tiles and playing the right animal symbols."



Cascadia took out the win ahead of Scout and Top Ten. You can see the full list of nominations - as well as the winners of the Kennerspiele des Jahres ("connoisseur" games) & Kinderspiel des Jahres (children's games) - at the award announcement page.

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Play Cascadia for free on Tabletopia now!

In Cholas, you are a sculptor who must prove to be the best.

After his recent victory in the war against the Pandyas, their arch-rival, the Chola King decides to build a temple tower as a mark of his victory. The King, whose dynasty built thousands of temples in South India, invites sculptors from across his empire to help build the temple tower. Each sculptor is expected to bring stones from their region to build the temple together with other sculptors. The sculptors are expected to use all stones available to build. The King also sets the reward objectives for every stone and sculpture placed on the temple tower.



The sculptor can gain rewards incrementally when placing stones of other sculptors on the temple structure. When placing their own stones, the sculptor does get any reward points. But the sculptor does get points for pattern(s) created on the temple structure using their stone. Hence the objective for the sculptors would be to focus on building the temple structure with as many stones as possible and creating patterns using their stones. It is important for the sculptor to ensure patterns are not created with stones of other sculptors.

The game ends when the temple tower is completely built with stones and sculptures or when a sculptor is unable to perform any of the possible actions. The sculptor with most reward points is declared as the winner or the best.

With a group of pioneers, you have left civilization behind to settle along the shores of Boonlake, a long-forgotten region inhabited by humans long ago. This unexplored area beckons you!

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Become part of a new community and commit yourself to the common good. Explore the landscapes, build houses and settlements, raise cattle, produce raw materials, and develop infrastructure. Do your best to automate these processes. Seize the opportunity to make the best of your new life in Boonlake.

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Boonlake is an expert game in which you are improving your life — and your group's life — in this new territory... but how you accomplish this is entirely up to you! Due to a novel action mechanism, each game progresses differently. Each action needs to be considered carefully since the other players also benefit from the action you choose. Besides this, the action determines how far you may move your ship — the further and faster, the better!