The post NYCC 2025: Yen Press Announces Delicious in Dungeon Board Game appeared first on Graphic Policy.
At New York Comic Con 2025, Yen Press announced the acquisition of Monster Eater: Delicious in Dungeon the Board Game for release in May 2026
In version 6.3 we’ve added some much requested features throughout the app:
You can now set if you want to see the game image in the Plays list.
Tap the green Gear icon at the top of the list and choose “Display game image“.
This can be combined with Avatars, Expansions and Board/variants.
In the “Statistics per:” section on the game page you can now tap a Player or Role. This will show you a list of related plays. If you tapped a:
(Available with the Deep Stats expansion)
It is now possible to select a random Board/Variant when logging a play.
You can read about all options of the Board/Variant randomizer here: Board/variant Randomizer
It is now possible to let the randomizer select additional Roles after one or more Roles are already selected for a Player.
You can read about all options of the Role randomizer here: Role Randomizer.
You can now see the number of players at the top of the Player list when logging a New Play (if more than 4).
You can also see the number of selected players at the top of the Player selector screen.
When you tap on a pie chart, you will see percentages and absolute numbers for each entry in the legend.
The post NYCC 2025: Dynamite launches the Army of Darkness Board Game on BackerKit appeared first on Graphic Policy.
Dynamite Entertainment has been publishing Army of Darkness comic books for two decades, feeding hungry fans with further tales featuring Ash Williams and the entire extended mythos.
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Social media:
Ignacy Trzewiczek / Portal Games: website | FB | Twitter | Youtube
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Intro Music: Happy Rock – Bensound.com
The post Games Workshop Surprises with Warhammer Quest: Darkwater appeared first on Graphic Policy.
While details are slim, Games Workshop has announced a new edition of Warhammer Quest set in the Mortal Realms, "Darkwater."
The Op has released a new party game, Prandasaurus has announced Refuge, and Board Game Geek has released the SPIEL Essen preview.
One of the great cities of Europe celebrates its 750th birthday this year – Amsterdam, capital of the Netherlands, famous for tolerance, trade, and tulips. While the earliest settlements in the region are around a thousand years old, Amsterdam was first mentioned in writing on October 27, 1275, in a privilege by Count Floris of Holland which exempted the city from a bridge toll. Amsterdam quickly developed from these humble beginnings into a local fishery and trade hub, turned itself into a global commercial and cultural center, and is today a modern metropolis. Let’s sail through these developments with board games!
Amsterdam is an amphibious city. Water flows around it (the Ijsselmeer, over which most people used to come into the city), water flows through it (the Amstel river, after which it is named, and the canals dug later), and even the land on which the buildings stand was won from the watery marshes in a feat of human ingenuity. The need to work together in this communal enterprise did not only strengthen the peasants and craftspeople who had won this land themselves (instead of receiving it from a noble), but also their willingness to put up with each other regardless of differences – the first instance of the famous Amsterdam tolerance.
Amsterdam’s rise was also closely connected to the water: On the one hand, Dutch herring fishers found out about how to cure fish on the ship, enabling them to sail further and catch more instead of having to head home after the first big catch. And in the 14th century, the count of Holland decreed that all Dutch beer imports from Hamburg, then northern Europe’s brewery, must go through Amsterdam. The city thus became a trade hub, first for these staples of fish and beer, but the local merchants soon branched out to luxury goods, too, especially as the great voyages of discovery brought Europe in direct touch with south and southeast Asia as well as the newly-discovered Americas.
When the Reformation swept Europe in the 16th century, Amsterdam, unlike many other Dutch cities, did not adopt the new Protestant faith. Yet the city kept its unusual approach to differences of faith and tolerated the local Protestants. Neither Protestantism nor tolerance were acceptable to the ruling Habsburg monarch, Philip II of Spain, who had inherited the suzerainty over the Low Countries from his father, emperor Charles V. Yet while both Philip and Charles were ardent Catholics, they had a very different relationship with the Low Countries. Charles had been born and brought up there, living his happiest years not far from Amsterdam. Philip was a Spaniard in everything, regarding the Dutch with suspicion. And as they started rebelling against him – for the Protestant faith, for municipal independence from the monarch, and for the exemption of taxes funding Habsburg wars in faraway lands – he was resolved to bring them back into the fold by force.
The various factions of the Dutch struggle for independence are the player roles in Revolution: The Dutch Revolt, 1568—1648 (Francis Tresham, Phalanx Games) – Catholics, Habsburgs, Nobility, Burghers and Reformers. Amsterdam remained initially Catholic (and thus loyal to Philip), yet other concerns would be more pressing to the city than religion: When the Dutch rebels blockaded the city from the sea, thus causing the collapse of any trade profits and the food supply to the city, Amsterdam’s anti-Habsburg faction was ascendant. The city threw its lot in with the rebels in 1578. Its Catholic minority, however, would be treated as the Protestants had been before. Tolerance went both ways in Amsterdam.
Amsterdam had escaped its ruin from the naval blockade. Further south, Antwerp, the most important Dutch port, was not so fortunate. While the blockade strangled Antwerp’s trade, tens of thousands of Antwerp merchants and artisans left the city to find greener pastures elsewhere – most of them in Amsterdam. Thus, while the Dutch provinces were engulfed in warfare with the Habsburgs (which would only end with Dutch independence in 1648), the convergence of capital and know-how in Amsterdam turned the city into the commercial capital of the world.
Amsterdam in the early 17th century was buzzing with commercial activity. The merchants did not only find new trade routes, they also invented new ways of doing business altogether: The Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (United East India Company), or VOC for short, founded in 1602, was the first chartered company in the world. Anyone could buy a share in the company and thus partake in its profits – or sell the shares to others in what would become the Amsterdam Stock Exchange (also the first of its kind in the world). Amsterdam ships carried goods all over the worlds, Amsterdam shipwrights built them, Amsterdam craftspeople produced many of the finest objects for sale, and Amsterdam painters and writers catered to the pursuits of the minds. In the mid-17th century, a staggering 30% of all the new books in the world were published in Amsterdam, taking advantage of the liberal approach to the exchange of ideas in the metropolis.
This commercial heyday of Amsterdam – often called the city’s Golden Age – is the most common backdrop for board games set in the city. Chartered: The Golden Age (Alexander Kneepkens/Wolfgang Kramer, Jolly Dutch Productions) explores the founding of chartered enterprises and stock markets, its sequel Chartered: Building Amsterdam (Alexander Kneepkens/Arnold van Binsbergen, Jolly Dutch Productions) takes a more spatial approach where the construction of warehouses represents the growing companies – and once two groups of warehouses meet, their companies merge.
Construction boomed in Golden Age Amsterdam – the city had much outgrown its medieval limits. In an ambitious scheme to not only expand, but also re-order the city’s flow of people and goods, Amsterdam took on its characteristic form, the city center surrounded by three belts of interconnected canals (grachten).
Amsterdam’s canals and the narrow houses built along them (for taxes were paid according to the width of the building’s front) have their own board game dedicated to them: Grachtenpand (Zach Hoekstra, Wulfhorn Games).
To my knowledge, no board game portrays the construction of the grachten. That’s a shame, because the scheme that led to their creation is worthy of the most cunning table strategist: Mayor Frans Oetgens knew of the plan to expand Amsterdam and dig the canals before it was public, so he and his associates bought up vast stretches of land at bargain prices and sold them back to the city at astronomical profits.
This act of self-interested entrepreneurship embodies Amsterdam’s preoccupation towards individual gain. It speaks to Amsterdam’s character as an individualist, bourgeois city that its most recognizable sights are not palaces and cathedrals, but these canals and the private houses along them.
Another very Amsterdam trait which has stood the test of time is the love of flowers, especially tulips. Yet never was this passion greater than in the 17th century, when it intermingled with the other great passion of Amsterdammers – commerce. Unlike the controlled trade of goods and shares in Amsterdam’s port and stock exchange, the Amsterdam Tulip Bubble developed unregulatedly in taverns where buyers and sellers met over a glass of wine. The price of tulips skyrocketed in one of the first documented speculation crazes – until the bubble burst, as is the inevitable outcome of Tulip Bubble (Kouyou, Moaideas Game Design): Players want to partake in the profitable trade, yet must try to sell before the end of the mania, for all their tulips in hand will be worth nothing at game end.
The allure of 17th century Amsterdam, this great laboratory of capitalism, is so great that it has become a widespread board game setting – just behind Vikings, zombies, and trading in the Mediterranean. Even the behemoth board game franchise Ticket to Ride has an instalment set in Amsterdam. Ticket to Ride: Amsterdam (Alan R. Moon, Days of Wonder) deviates from the tried-and-true setting of trains in favor of route-building in Golden Age Amsterdam 200 years before the first rail was laid. I especially appreciate that the game sticks with the original names for places in Amsterdam, so that players who don’t speak Dutch can attempt to pronounce Korenmetershuisje (Little House of the Grain Measuring Officials) and Oost-Indisch Huis (East India House).
Finally, the great master of eurogames has also designed a Golden Age Amsterdam game: Merchants of Amsterdam (Reiner Knizia, Rio Grande Games). And despite Knizia’s reputation of producing mathematically sound, but often themeless games, it might be the one which captures Amsterdam in 17th century best: Not only is the central mechanism that of a Dutch auction (that is, an auction which starts at a very high price which continues falling until someone buys the asset in question at the price asked), but its map depicts the Amsterdam surrounded by four world regions with which the players can trade – Amsterdam, the commercial center of the world.
Amsterdam’s preeminence could not last forever. Despite its naval and commercial advantages, the Dutch Republic was a small country compared to England or France, and eventually fell to these rivals. The rampjaar (catastrophe year) of 1672, in which England challenged the Republic on the seas and France invaded the Netherlands, ended the Dutch Golden Age. Amsterdam was only saved from French occupation when the Dutch pierced the dikes and flooded a large area of their own country to prevent the French onslaught.
As the Dutch Republic shrunk in importance, so did Amsterdam. London, Paris, Vienna, and Berlin eclipsed it as centers of modernity in Europe. Even within the Netherlands, the city fell behind: Its disadvantageous geography meant that Rotterdam, situated directly on the North Sea instead of the Ijsselmeer, became the country’s premier port. Amsterdam, however, remained a center of the arts, and an iconic city of individualism and tolerance.
In the 20th century, these values brought Amsterdammers to adopt a liberal attitude toward prostitution (openly practiced around the Old Church) and drugs (marijuana is not legal, but its consumption in specialized establishments (coffeeshops) is tolerated). That openness has made Amsterdam a dream destination for those wishing to uproot traditional lifestyles (at least for a moment) – from Yoko Ono and John Lennon staging their “Bed-In” for world peace in Amsterdam to the ubiquitous bachelor party trips there. Surprisingly, not a single board game seems to be dedicated to this side of Amsterdam.
When board games are set in modern Amsterdam, they often allude to traditional Dutch themes: Gift of Tulips (Sara Perry, Weird Giraffe Games) has its players once more compete for the finest flower bouquets at the city’s annual tulip festival. Amsterdam’s rich artistic history also often features: In Masters of Crime: Shadows (Lukas Setzke/Martin Student/Verena Wiechens, KOSMOS), the players aim to conduct a painting heist, whereas in EXIT: The Game – The Hunt Through Amsterdam (Inka Brand/Markus Brand, KOSMOS), they want to recover a lost Vincent van Gogh painting. My detective instincts say that these are the same painting! Finally, Amsterdam’s slide to modern metropolis sans its erstwhile very specific features is exemplified by the game set in Amsterdam with the single highest number of ratings on BoardGameGeek: Mechanically, the crime/mystery game Shadows: Amsterdam (Mathieu Aubert, Libellud) could be set in any big city. There’s nothing Amsterdam-specific about private detectives looking for evidence and avoiding the police’s official investigation. Yet the artwork on the tiles sometimes gives a little glimpse – for example, houses along the gracht.
Revolution: The Dutch Revolt, 1568—1648 (Francis Tresham, Phalanx Games)
Chartered: The Golden Age (Alexander Kneepkens/Wolfgang Kramer, Jolly Dutch Productions)
Chartered: Building Amsterdam (Alexander Kneepkens/Arnold van Binsbergen, Jolly Dutch Productions)
Amsterdam (Stefan Feld, Queen Games)
Grachtenpand (Zach Hoekstra, Wulfhorn Games)
Tulip Bubble (Kouyou, Moaideas Game Design)
Ticket to Ride: Amsterdam (Alan R. Moon, Days of Wonder)
Merchants of Amsterdam (Reiner Knizia, Rio Grande Games)
Gift of Tulips (Sara Perry, Weird Giraffe Games)
EXIT: The Game – The Hunt Through Amsterdam (Inka Brand/Markus Brand, KOSMOS)
Masters of Crime: Shadows (Lukas Setzke/Martin Student/Verena Wiechens, KOSMOS)
Shadows: Amsterdam (Mathieu Aubert, Libellud)
A good introduction on Amsterdam’s history is Shorto, Russell: Amsterdam. A History of the World’s Most Liberal City, Doubleday, New York City, NY 2013.
As usual with these games that Stonemaier bring into the fold this is a beautiful game. You are out exploring Japan’s East Sea Road between Kyoto and Edo, as you explore the beautiful road you will discover amazing places including hot springs, gorgeous vitas and culinary delights to explore and gain points.
The person who is furthest back near the start will always be the next to go so you open the board as you play. Each place can only be visited once unless you are playing a four or five player game then some of the locations have a round disc on their road then you can go up the road to the next open disc the point furthest from the end, you can only travel in one direction and toward the rods end. As you play you can gain points and coins, so good luck!
This is a very beautiful game that plays very easily, It also is a game that you can play quite fast 45mins plus which means that you can play this with another quick game or play it multiple times. This is a lovely game that is both beautiful and a lot of fun.
I have been asked, what are the differences between the original game and this one re-made by Stonemaier games. While the gameplay is the same, Stonemaier Games have revised the rulebook to provide more clarity. As well as producing reference cards for each players as adding some text on the cards so you don’t have to refer to the rulebook so often. They have also increased the card thickness to their standard 310gsm. Also as with other Stonemaier Games they have brought in an automa solo mode. You can order this from us at: https://www.bgextras.co.uk/other-games/other-board-games/tokaido-board-game
The post Tokaido first appeared on Board Game Extras.On October 4, 2010, I published my first post here on Boards and Bees – my overview of a then-upcoming game I was excited about, 7 Wonders. Now, 15 years and over 1200 posts later, here we are.
Seems about as good a time as any to announce my retirement. Effective immediately, Boards and Bees is done.
This blog was actually my third. The first two were OK, but I eventually found myself needing to hit the reset button and try again. This is the one that finally stuck, and it grew out of my desire to talk about board games when there weren’t many people around to talk about them with. I was still relatively new to the world of board games, having only been really interested in hobby games for about three years (my BGG birthday is August 30, 2007). I found myself fascinated by what was coming out, and found that a good way to really decide if something needed to be on my personal radar was to write about it.
I started out just writing about games I was interested in. That grew into writing reviews, and later into making lists, looking at Kickstarter, and other things. And I had a lot of fun doing it. I got overwhelmed a few times and needed a small reset to get myself going again.
And then came COVID. A lot of things changed in 2020. One big thing for me was that we had our second baby, but even before that happened, I found myself pulling back from the blog. Burnout was starting to affect me, and I started giving myself permission to take breaks. Those breaks have come more and more frequently. Eventually, I stopped taking on reviews. It was just something I wasn’t feeling passionate about anymore. I still love playing games, and playing new ones, but I’ve found myself less excited about trying to wade through the onslaught of new stuff every year, and have mostly been just enjoying playing the stuff I have.
Around mid-August of this year, I realized that I hadn’t posted in over a month. And I also realized that I didn’t really miss it. Which then led to the realization that it was probably time to hang up my spurs and ride off into the sunset on whatever metaphorical form of conveyance might apply here.
Back when I first started, video wasn’t nearly as big as it is now. YouTube itself had only been around for five years, but there were really only a few people doing videos. There was of course the godfather, Scott Nicholson and his groundbreaking series Board Games With Scott, and Tom Vasel had been transitioning out of doing written reviews into his more well-known video format for the Dice Tower (which wasn’t nearly the empire it is now). There were a few others, but now it is not only the most common format, it seems like it is the most preferred. And I understand it – videos are a great way to convey visual information about games, and see the games in action rather than just play them.
With the rise of video came the decline in readership. It used to stress me out – at my height, I was getting 100-200 views a day, and now it’s a good day if I can break 20. And I know there are other blogs out there with higher readership – I just don’t have the time or resources to make this into a destination site. It has always been a one-man operation on a free site I opened. I did eventually stop caring about it – I’m just putting my voice out there into cyberspace, and whoever stumbles upon it is welcome to peruse my content.
I have experimented with some video content in the past (in particular for Argent: The Consortium and Impulse). They were hard to do, even in the rough format that I was attempting, so I have a lot of respect for the people that can take the time to put together video content and make it look good. I’ve thought about trying some more in my retirement, possibly in a TikTok format, but who knows. I may just rest on my laurels for a while.
OK, let’s wrap this up. It’s been a genuine pleasure to write this blog for the last 15 years. I’m not removing it – it will stay here as long as WordPress leaves it up. I may even drop in every now and then to do a post. I’d still like to do my annual best new-to-me games, and I don’t think I can just quite on an 0-3 year with Kinder-Kenner-Spiel des Jahres predictions, so I may be back for that. But I wouldn’t expect much else.
If you’re interested in contacting me for whatever reason, I’ll leave the contact form open at the top of the page. Otherwise, my username is asutbone on BGG, and you’re welcome to reach out to me there. I welcome all comments, unless you’re a robot. You know who you are.
Hey, thanks so much for being there for me over the last 15 years. And I think I’ll close this out with my traditional closer from the very early years of the blog…
Insert clever tagline here.
On October 4, 2010, I published my first post here on Boards and Bees – my overview of a then-upcoming game I was excited about, 7 Wonders. Now, 15 years and over 1200 posts later, here we are.
Seems about as good a time as any to announce my retirement. Effective immediately, Boards and Bees is done.
This blog was actually my third. The first two were OK, but I eventually found myself needing to hit the reset button and try again. This is the one that finally stuck, and it grew out of my desire to talk about board games when there weren’t many people around to talk about them with. I was still relatively new to the world of board games, having only been really interested in hobby games for about three years (my BGG birthday is August 30, 2007). I found myself fascinated by what was coming out, and found that a good way to really decide if something needed to be on my personal radar was to write about it.
I started out just writing about games I was interested in. That grew into writing reviews, and later into making lists, looking at Kickstarter, and other things. And I had a lot of fun doing it. I got overwhelmed a few times and needed a small reset to get myself going again.
And then came COVID. A lot of things changed in 2020. One big thing for me was that we had our second baby, but even before that happened, I found myself pulling back from the blog. Burnout was starting to affect me, and I started giving myself permission to take breaks. Those breaks have come more and more frequently. Eventually, I stopped taking on reviews. It was just something I wasn’t feeling passionate about anymore. I still love playing games, and playing new ones, but I’ve found myself less excited about trying to wade through the onslaught of new stuff every year, and have mostly been just enjoying playing the stuff I have.
Around mid-August of this year, I realized that I hadn’t posted in over a month. And I also realized that I didn’t really miss it. Which then led to the realization that it was probably time to hang up my spurs and ride off into the sunset on whatever metaphorical form of conveyance might apply here.
Back when I first started, video wasn’t nearly as big as it is now. YouTube itself had only been around for five years, but there were really only a few people doing videos. There was of course the godfather, Scott Nicholson and his groundbreaking series Board Games With Scott, and Tom Vasel had been transitioning out of doing written reviews into his more well-known video format for the Dice Tower (which wasn’t nearly the empire it is now). There were a few others, but now it is not only the most common format, it seems like it is the most preferred. And I understand it – videos are a great way to convey visual information about games, and see the games in action rather than just play them.
With the rise of video came the decline in readership. It used to stress me out – at my height, I was getting 100-200 views a day, and now it’s a good day if I can break 20. And I know there are other blogs out there with higher readership – I just don’t have the time or resources to make this into a destination site. It has always been a one-man operation on a free site I opened. I did eventually stop caring about it – I’m just putting my voice out there into cyberspace, and whoever stumbles upon it is welcome to peruse my content.
I have experimented with some video content in the past (in particular for Argent: The Consortium and Impulse). They were hard to do, even in the rough format that I was attempting, so I have a lot of respect for the people that can take the time to put together video content and make it look good. I’ve thought about trying some more in my retirement, possibly in a TikTok format, but who knows. I may just rest on my laurels for a while.
OK, let’s wrap this up. It’s been a genuine pleasure to write this blog for the last 15 years. I’m not removing it – it will stay here as long as WordPress leaves it up. I may even drop in every now and then to do a post. I’d still like to do my annual best new-to-me games, and I don’t think I can just quite on an 0-3 year with Kinder-Kenner-Spiel des Jahres predictions, so I may be back for that. But I wouldn’t expect much else.
If you’re interested in contacting me for whatever reason, I’ll leave the contact form open at the top of the page. Otherwise, my username is asutbone on BGG, and you’re welcome to reach out to me there. I welcome all comments, unless you’re a robot. You know who you are.
Hey, thanks so much for being there for me over the last 15 years. And I think I’ll close this out with my traditional closer from the very early years of the blog…
Insert clever tagline here.
Peter talks about something none of us like to think about – what will happen to all of our games when we’ve shuffled off this mortal coil?
Recent events have got me thinking – what is going to happen to this room full of games and miniatures after I’m gone? It’s not the cheeriest of subjects, but it’s worth giving a bit of thought to – especially since none of us want to leave a loved one with the huge burden of selling off our esoteric collections. Let’s have a chat about the subject, shall we? I’m interested in your thoughts.
BGI 388 The One About Buc-ee’s
Board Games Insider – Join our Guild on Board Game Geek Guild | Like us on FB
Social media:
Ignacy Trzewiczek / Portal Games: website | FB | Twitter | Youtube
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Intro Music: Happy Rock – Bensound.com
In this episode, I break down the six things I learned from the game that took 10 years to go from idea to published product.
And you can find Football U on Kickstarter HERE
The post 6 Takeaways from the game that took 10 years to make appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.
Peter reviews the Commonwealth Faction Battlegroup for Armoured Clash by Warcradle Studios.
More Armoured Clash! Warcradle keep churning out great models, ensuring that your favourite faction will be fully geared up in no time. This month it’s the turn of the Commonwealth, the wintry Russian troops armed with cryogenic weapons and a gigantic drill-tipped armoured infantry or tank carrier. Check it out. And of course don’t forget to download my Armoured Clash rules & reference before playing your own games – it’s in Tabletop Codex too!
I live in Colorado, which is home to fifty-eight 14ers. What is a 14er, you ask? It’s a mountain that rises over 14,000 above sea level. We have the most 14ers in the United States, and they’re very popular with hikers who want to test their skills. And now there’s a game about them!
14ers is an upcoming 1-4 player game designed by Zach Sullivan to be published by Grazing Bear Games. It’s a card game where players are trying to build their hiker’s skills by conquering 14ers. The game is coming to Kickstarter in October.
The game comes with 60 tarot-sized. 39 of these are climb cards, each showing a different peak and divided into Classes I-IV. These are all shuffled separately, then stacked with Class I on the top, followed by Class II, then III, then IV on the bottom. Three are drawn and placed in a line next to the deck. A random accolade is chosen, which gives a scoring condition for the player who gets the most of a particular thing. Each player gets a hiker card, and you’re ready to play.
On your turn, you’ll first revel a new climb from the deck so there are four to choose from. You’ll then choose one of the cards based on how many boots and axes you have versus the requirements of a card. Some cards have hazard requirements, which are just an extra condition you have to meet beyond boots and axes. You’ll then tuck your chosen card under your hiker, but you tuck it in such a way that only one side is visible.
If you really want a card and can’t afford it, you can always discard a previously taken card to hire a guide. This allows you to ignore one requirement of a card – either all boot and axe requirements, the hazard condition, or the current weather effect (if you’re playing with weather cards). Guides are put in a personal discard pile, because those with cameras get you an extra point at the end of the game.
The game last nine rounds, which means each player will end up taking nine cards. Then you will score – determine the winner of the accolade points, then add all the points you got from plans, capstones, and camera guides. The player with the highest score wins.
There is a variant of the game where a different weather effect takes place each round. These could make climbs harder by increase their cost, block certain sides from adding climbs, or do nothing. The game also has a solo variant with an automated hiker you’re competing against, and more advanced hiker options.
As I mentioned, I do live in Colorado. I’m not a native (but, as the bumper stickers say, I got here as fast as I could). I’ve also never done a 14ers – not in NEARLY good enough shape for that. But I am really glad to see a game about these fabulous mountains, and was really excited to check it out.
My play of this game was on Tabletop Simulator rather than with a physical copy, so I can’t speak entirely to component quality. The art was nice, being provided by Hinterland Outdoors, a company that makes all kinds of gear based on the Colorado 14ers. Graphic design seemed pretty good, though it’s really hard to tell on TTS with all the zooming in you have to do. It can be a challenge to design stuff in this type of tableau building through tucking game, but I think things are laid out pretty well. The game comes with some cards that can be used to help track how many boots and axes you have available, and though these are optional, they can be helpful.
Thematically, I think the game makes a lot of sense. I think it’s important to realize that the game is not about climbing 14ers, it’s about upgrading your hiker so you can summit the harder peaks. You’re basically gaining experience with each climb, and that gives you more skills you need to finish off the Class IV beasts. The only thing that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me thematically is the weather variant. I’m not saying weather isn’t a factor in summiting a 14ers, because it absolutely is. I am saying that it’s a little strange that you know exactly what the weather will be for every round (which is apparently over the course of two months). Having lived in this state for nearly nine years at this point, I can say with absolute certainty that only thing predictable about Colorado weather is how unpredictable it is. This variant might be a little better thematically with a weather deck of some kind (possible expansion idea there).
The game has fairly simple mechanics. Basically, on your turn, you draft a climb card, then you tuck it somewhere on your hiker. You have to decide whether you want it to improve your hiker (training or gear), or for points at the end of the game (plans or capstones). It uses a tucking mechanism based on games like Glory to Rome and Innovation, which are two of my favorite games so I’m all for that. All four sides of the card have the potential to do something different, and where you tuck the card determines which side is visible and will activate.
With being able to include four uses of each card, the game has a very minimal aesthetic, which again is a good thematic choice – one thing I know about hikers is that they don’t want to carry any more than they absolutely need. As such, this game doesn’t take up a lot of space either on the table or in your pack. It’s a tableau builder, but not one of the sprawling ones like Race for the Galaxy. Your tableau is your hiker, and all the cards are getting tucked under him/her. Plus, you’re not going to have more than ten cards with your hiker by the end (and possibly fewer). Card count is low, with only 39 climbs included. All in all, it’s a nice small game.
Luck is going to play a role in the game as you don’t know exactly what climbs are going to come out and when. All cards are used in the four player game, but not with fewer, so you don’t know precisely which cards are in play. And because they come out in random order, it’s hard to strategize in advance. At least you know that the Class I cards will come out before the IIs, and so on, so you can work on building however you wish to prepare. Still, luck of the draw can affect things.
The game is quite light. Mechanics are easy to understand, the game plays quickly, and the strategy is fairly light. It makes sense for the kind of game it is. I do wonder about long-term replayability, but it’s a game that presents itself different depending on how the cards come out, so I don’t think that would really be an issue.
IS IT BUZZWORTHY? I enjoy 14ers as a quick and light experience. It’s really nice to have a game about some of the stunning topography in Colorado, and I think the game works very well. If you’re looking for a quick small-footprint tableau builder, I’d say check it out. The game should be going up on Kickstarter in October, so check out the page and follow to know when it goes live.
Thanks again to Zach Sullivan for guiding me through a playthrough, and thanks to you for reading!
I live in Colorado, which is home to fifty-eight 14ers. What is a 14er, you ask? It’s a mountain that rises over 14,000 above sea level. We have the most 14ers in the United States, and they’re very popular with hikers who want to test their skills. And now there’s a game about them!
14ers is an upcoming 1-4 player game designed by Zach Sullivan to be published by Grazing Bear Games. It’s a card game where players are trying to build their hiker’s skills by conquering 14ers. The game is coming to Kickstarter in October.
The game comes with 60 tarot-sized. 39 of these are climb cards, each showing a different peak and divided into Classes I-IV. These are all shuffled separately, then stacked with Class I on the top, followed by Class II, then III, then IV on the bottom. Three are drawn and placed in a line next to the deck. A random accolade is chosen, which gives a scoring condition for the player who gets the most of a particular thing. Each player gets a hiker card, and you’re ready to play.
On your turn, you’ll first revel a new climb from the deck so there are four to choose from. You’ll then choose one of the cards based on how many boots and axes you have versus the requirements of a card. Some cards have hazard requirements, which are just an extra condition you have to meet beyond boots and axes. You’ll then tuck your chosen card under your hiker, but you tuck it in such a way that only one side is visible.
If you really want a card and can’t afford it, you can always discard a previously taken card to hire a guide. This allows you to ignore one requirement of a card – either all boot and axe requirements, the hazard condition, or the current weather effect (if you’re playing with weather cards). Guides are put in a personal discard pile, because those with cameras get you an extra point at the end of the game.
The game last nine rounds, which means each player will end up taking nine cards. Then you will score – determine the winner of the accolade points, then add all the points you got from plans, capstones, and camera guides. The player with the highest score wins.
There is a variant of the game where a different weather effect takes place each round. These could make climbs harder by increase their cost, block certain sides from adding climbs, or do nothing. The game also has a solo variant with an automated hiker you’re competing against, and more advanced hiker options.
As I mentioned, I do live in Colorado. I’m not a native (but, as the bumper stickers say, I got here as fast as I could). I’ve also never done a 14ers – not in NEARLY good enough shape for that. But I am really glad to see a game about these fabulous mountains, and was really excited to check it out.
My play of this game was on Tabletop Simulator rather than with a physical copy, so I can’t speak entirely to component quality. The art was nice, being provided by Hinterland Outdoors, a company that makes all kinds of gear based on the Colorado 14ers. Graphic design seemed pretty good, though it’s really hard to tell on TTS with all the zooming in you have to do. It can be a challenge to design stuff in this type of tableau building through tucking game, but I think things are laid out pretty well. The game comes with some cards that can be used to help track how many boots and axes you have available, and though these are optional, they can be helpful.
Thematically, I think the game makes a lot of sense. I think it’s important to realize that the game is not about climbing 14ers, it’s about upgrading your hiker so you can summit the harder peaks. You’re basically gaining experience with each climb, and that gives you more skills you need to finish off the Class IV beasts. The only thing that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me thematically is the weather variant. I’m not saying weather isn’t a factor in summiting a 14ers, because it absolutely is. I am saying that it’s a little strange that you know exactly what the weather will be for every round (which is apparently over the course of two months). Having lived in this state for nearly nine years at this point, I can say with absolute certainty that only thing predictable about Colorado weather is how unpredictable it is. This variant might be a little better thematically with a weather deck of some kind (possible expansion idea there).
The game has fairly simple mechanics. Basically, on your turn, you draft a climb card, then you tuck it somewhere on your hiker. You have to decide whether you want it to improve your hiker (training or gear), or for points at the end of the game (plans or capstones). It uses a tucking mechanism based on games like Glory to Rome and Innovation, which are two of my favorite games so I’m all for that. All four sides of the card have the potential to do something different, and where you tuck the card determines which side is visible and will activate.
With being able to include four uses of each card, the game has a very minimal aesthetic, which again is a good thematic choice – one thing I know about hikers is that they don’t want to carry any more than they absolutely need. As such, this game doesn’t take up a lot of space either on the table or in your pack. It’s a tableau builder, but not one of the sprawling ones like Race for the Galaxy. Your tableau is your hiker, and all the cards are getting tucked under him/her. Plus, you’re not going to have more than ten cards with your hiker by the end (and possibly fewer). Card count is low, with only 39 climbs included. All in all, it’s a nice small game.
Luck is going to play a role in the game as you don’t know exactly what climbs are going to come out and when. All cards are used in the four player game, but not with fewer, so you don’t know precisely which cards are in play. And because they come out in random order, it’s hard to strategize in advance. At least you know that the Class I cards will come out before the IIs, and so on, so you can work on building however you wish to prepare. Still, luck of the draw can affect things.
The game is quite light. Mechanics are easy to understand, the game plays quickly, and the strategy is fairly light. It makes sense for the kind of game it is. I do wonder about long-term replayability, but it’s a game that presents itself different depending on how the cards come out, so I don’t think that would really be an issue.
IS IT BUZZWORTHY? I enjoy 14ers as a quick and light experience. It’s really nice to have a game about some of the stunning topography in Colorado, and I think the game works very well. If you’re looking for a quick small-footprint tableau builder, I’d say check it out. The game should be going up on Kickstarter in October, so check out the page and follow to know when it goes live.
Thanks again to Zach Sullivan for guiding me through a playthrough, and thanks to you for reading!
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