Forbidden Island drops you and up to three other players onto a seemingly paradise isle in the search for treasures that supposedly can controls the elements. But beware! The island does not want such relics to fall into your hands – it’s constantly sinking in attempt to thwart you. In this co-operative game, you and your team must work together to grab all four treasures before sprinting to Fool’s Landing, where you’ll fly off into the sunset. The Forbidden Island itself is made up of 24 square location cards, which you’ll shuffle and arrange into a diamond, of sorts (meaning you’re getting a modular board set-up every time, which is great for replay-ability). There’s a Flood Deck of cards and a set number are revealed each turn, determining which part of the island has now become (partially or totally) flooded. There are also Treasure Cards belonging to each of the four sacred objects, and players have to acquire four of a kind (in a kind of hand-management, set-collection fashion) in order to claim the matching treasure. Players will each get a pawn that starts on the island, and on their turn it becomes an action point allowance system, where they can take up to three actions of the following options: move to an adjacent tile, flip partially flooded tiles back to their ‘land’ side, give a Treasure Card to a fellow player, or capture a treasure at a specific location, itself. At the end of their turn, the active player will gain two Treasure Cards and then wince as they reveal cards from the Flood Deck to see what’s flooded… If a Waters Rise! card is revealed from the Flood Deck, a corresponding Water Level marker rises (which means more cards per turn will have to be revealed), and the current discard pile of Flood Cards is shuffled and then placed on top of the remaining Flood Deck. This is all sounding a bit Pandemic, isn’t it? And you’d be right to think so – Forbidden Island is also designed by Matt Leacock, and he’s mirrored many of the fantastic mechanics from his other hugely popular co-operative game and translated them into a simpler format. The characters have asymmetrical player powers – just like in Pandemic – and there are various ways in which you can lose the game: if one team member is on a totally flooded tile and cannot swim to safety, if the Treasure tiles sink before you’ve claimed them, if Fool’s Landing totally sinks, or if the Water Level reaches the top. Forbidden Island is a brilliant co-operative experience if you and your gaming pals are looking for a team challenge that’s on the ‘gateway’ side of things. There are various levels of difficulty on offer in the set-up, as well as similar titles Forbidden Desert and Forbidden Sky, before you can move onto the likes of Pandemic in its many guises, or the campaign option that is Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 (all by Matt Leacock). Player Count: 2-4 Time: 30 Minutes Age: 10+
In Dinos Not Assembled, you and your fellow players are paleontologists compete for a contract by a museum curator, looking to put together a new dinosaur exhibit.
Each player is assigned an exhibit display area on the game board and starts with 2 dinosaur cards in hand. Each dinosaur card has 3 bones that are required to build the dinosaur.
Bones are displayed as face-up tiles at a common dig site. A player can acquire bone tiles by either digging out 2 of the available bones at the dig site or by stealing a bone tile from another player.
Bone tiles are stored on each player's board, but players only have room to store up to 4 bones at once.
Once bones are taken from the dig site, tiles are pulled from a bag to replace them.
Players may also draw new dinosaur cards, from the facedown deck of dinosaurs.
Players may only take 1 action on their turn. Draw and/or discard a dinosaur card, take 2 bones tiles from the dig site, steal a bone from a player, or build a dinosaur.
When a player has the 3 bones necessary to build the dinosaur, they take a dinosaur meeple and place it at their exhibit on the game board. The first player to place 3 dinosaur meeples in their exhibit wins the contract and the game.
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Colt Express is a card-driven, action/movement programming board game that looks like a famous scene straight out of a classic Wild West movie. Here players are rival, caricatured bandits on board a locomotive, attempting to become the richest outlaw during a good old-fashioned train robbery. There’s no board in Colt Express – instead, the action takes place within physical 3-D train carriages that sit on the table. They look delightful and get players excited straight away (we estimate 10 seconds before you hear the first ‘Yee-haw!’). But these are not just a gimmick from Ludonaute – instead, they quite literally set the scene. A variety of loot, in the form of $250-$500 purses and $500 gems, is placed within the carriages, and the honourable Marshal Samuel Ford, the one honest man on board, starts in the locomotive car. He’s guarding a briefcase worth an eye-watering $1,000. The bandits – with asymmetrical player powers – start in the caboose, and they have five rounds to scheme and steal as much of this loot as possible. Each player has a deck of ten cards, with actions that range from: • Floor Change (onto the roof or down into a carriage). • Moving (along one carriage or across multiple carriages if you’re on the roof). • Shooting (a rival bandit and giving them a useless bullet card, which clogs up their deck for the next round). • Punching (a rival bandit into an adjacent carriage and causing them to drop a piece of loot). • Robbery (picking up a piece of loot in your current carriage); • Moving the Marshal (who can also shoot bandits if they’re in the same carriage). Players deal themselves six cards. One at a time they can play an action card into the common deck; sometimes they’ll have to play them face-up for all to see and memorise, sometimes face-down. Once a set number of cards have been played – these differ, round to round – they are then activated in chronological order, which is when the madness begins… Bullets, fistfights and the dropping of loot occur all over the place, and not always the way players intended them! Colt Express won the Spiel des Jahres award (the Family Game of the Year) in 2015, and it’s certainly a family-friendly game that players shouldn’t take too seriously. Since you can only see a percentage of the programmed actions, you need to calculate the odds of your perfect move being achievable. However, more often than not, the laughter comes when your plans go out the window and you have to suddenly adapt. If you’re a fan of other program-movement titles such as River Dragons, Robo Rally and Lords of Xidit, then Colt Express is the rootin’-tootin’ ride for you. Player Count: 2-6 Time: 40 Minutes Age: 10+
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In Coup 2-6 players will be telling as many lies as they can get away with in order to take the reigns of power in a collapsing futuristic government. Released in 2012 by Indie Boards and Cards, this is a must have addition to any gamer who likes bluffing games. Each player is given two face-down roles, which only they know. On your turn your face-down cards will allow you to perform various actions. For example, if you have the Duke you can take three coins from the central supply instead of one. With the roles face-down, when a player takes three coins from the supply, how do you know they really have the Duke? If you suspect a player to be taking an action for a role they don’t have then you can call their bluff. If you call them out successfully then they will lose a life, however, if you have challenged incorrectly then you lose a life. Any time a player gathers seven money they can perform a Coup. This is an action that cannot be stopped and will remove one players life. Timing when to perform a Coup is key to winning the game. Most social deduction/hidden role/bluffing games improve when you play a lot with the same player group. Coup is no different, being able to spot players' tells or preferred actions is very rewarding. Players then using these tells to their own advantage is even better. If one player is known for using an Assassin early on whenever they have one, then in future games they will be able to pretend to have an Assassin without anyone challenging them. There is player elimination in this game, but each game is over so quickly that you will not be watching others play for more than a few minutes. You are interested in the information that is yet to be revealed so you’re engaged with what’s happening after your elimination. If you enjoy games like Cockroach Poker and Skull, then Coup will be a great addition to your collection. Learning the different roles and actions can appear daunting. Once you’ve played one 15-minute game with the player aid in front of you you’ll be stealing coins from your friends as if you actually have the cards you’re claiming to have. Player Count: 2-6 Time: 15 Minutes Age: 13+
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