Publisher: Stronghold Games, Schmidt Spiele Wingspan offers a refreshing theme and stunning artwork that stands out in the ocean of colonization and fantasy games. You feed your birds by putting custom dice into a dice tower, and colorful (and delicious-looking) egg miniatures can be collected. Different birds will allow for different actions and effects, allowing you to build up an engine and create combos. It’s not often that you see a bird game-sorry, board game-with a scissor-tailed flycatcher on the cover.Įlizabeth Hargrave’s debut, Wingspan, gives each player (in the role of ornithologists) the opportunity to attract a variety of birds to their aviary. The post-Sherlock Victorian steampunk theme sounds like a ton of fun, and with two legendary designers behind the wheel, Victorian Masterminds is sure to be a blast.Īrtist: Natalia Rojas, Ana Maria Martinez Jaramillo, and Beth Sobel But the Secret Service is out to put a stop to the madness, and only the most cunning villain will win. Each player is one such villain attempting to complete missions by traveling around Europe to build contraptions and cause destruction. Villains can finally be villains, without the hindrance of conniving figures like Holmes. Victorian Masterminds explores a London thrown into turmoil after the death of legendary detective Sherlock Holmes.

Antoine Bauza is known for designing 7 Wonders, 7 Wonders Duel, and Hanabi. Eric Lang is best known for Blood Rage and Rising Sun, and currently serves as the Director of Game Design at CMON.

This is a game whose theme is as eye-catching as its designer power-duo. This system works well in Stuffed Fables, and with Comanauts, gamers who may not have been keen on the stuffed animal theme can enjoy a more serious (but no less imaginative) setting. The board is a book with multiple pages, allowing for an ever-changing world for the players to explore. Strobal from returning to consciousness.Ĭomanauts is a spiritual successor to Stuffed Fables, also designed by Jerry Hawthorne, and uses the Adventure Book system. The players will journey through eleven “Comazones,” seeking the inner Demon preventing Dr. Strobal is the only one who can set things right, and the comanauts must carefully navigate his complicated mind to bring him back. He is the inventor of the Mobius Ring, a device that would have provided humanity with unlimited energy but instead has gone wrong and is sending out massive amounts of radiation. Martin Strobal, who has fallen into a coma. In Comanauts, players enter the mind of the brilliant Dr. However, the designer points out that New Frontiers will stand out from both Puerto Rico and Race for the Galaxy as a tableau-building game with a unique feel. The primary similarity to Puerto Rico is the action selection phase, in which the active player chooses an action with all other players may perform in turn. In addition, the goods cubes are chunky plastic crates that look a bit like candy. This is a game with much more of a table presence than Race for the Galaxy or Roll for the Galaxy, as the worlds and developments are cardboard tiles that arrange nicely in your empire mat. New Frontiers puts each player in charge of their own galactic empire by developing technologies and colonizing planets. Tom Lehmann borrows some elements from Puerto Rico, with the blessing of Andreas Seyfarth, to create a game with the elements of two of the most beloved strategy games out there.

The classic Race for the Galaxy is reimagined as a board game (as opposed to a card game) in New Frontiers. Whether you’re looking for a quick party game, a legacy campaign to play with a dedicated group, or a strategy game that plays within an hour, there’s a good chance you’ll find something for you in 2021.Īrtist: Martin Hoffmann and Claus Stephan There’s a mix of games from veteran and first-time designers, and themes seem to be moving away from the more traditional genres of colonization and conquest in 2021, for the most part. With over 3,000 games released since 2018, there’s a good chance 2021 will see just as many new titles, if not more. Root by Cole Wehrle proved that a wildly asymmetrical game can feel like four games in one and still come together for an engaging cutthroat experience. Eric Lang’s Rising Sun followed in the footsteps of Blood Rage with its detailed miniatures and quick, nerve-racking combat. Brass: Birmingham revived a classic with a new map and reworked rules. The board game industry continued to flourish in 2018, continuing the golden age that started about a decade ago.

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