Steam and Steel

For 4-8 players.

As steampunk airship moguls, players compete to connect routes and build networks of dirigible depots in the city of Centropolis.

The board is a map of the circular city, divided into eight wedge-shaped districts. Each player is assigned their own district, where their first depot will be built. A deck of cards contains multiple copies of each of the eight districts, which are played to designate connections in a route, or for building new depots and improving existing ones.

Setup

Each player begins with one rooftop token in their starting district, one dirigible pawn moored at the depot, a hand of six cards, and two tower tokens in their supply. When the common pool of tower tokens runs out, the game ends and points are scored.

Building

Tower tokens are stacked up to add height to a depot, with a colored rooftop token at the top of every tower to indicate ownership. At the start of a player’s turn, they may add tower tokens from their supply to existing depots they own by playing corresponding district cards. (For example, a player with three tower tokens wanting to increase the height of two depots in District 3 and one in District 4 would need to play two District 3 cards and one of District 4.)

Any remaining cards in hand may be used to create routes.

Travelling

After the build phase, a player may choose any one dirigible to move any number of times on their turn. Dirigibles are neutrally owned, and can be moved to any depot in the district card(s) played, as long as they are of the same height or lower as the tower it is departing from. Playing a card that matches the district a dirigible is already in will move it to the tallest depot in that district. If there is a tie for the tallest tower in a district, the player chooses which depot to use.

Additional tower tokens are earned by building routes that use a sufficient number of depots, or to certain target destinations. Whenever a depot is used in a route, the player who owns that tower immediately draws a card from the deck, up to the hand limit of six, discarding any excess.

Districts that are empty at the beginning of the game must have a depot built there before that district can be used in a route.

New Depots

By completing progressively longer routes, players can earn more rooftop tokens to build new depots in other districts. Three copies of any district are played to place a rooftop token there, up to some maximum number of depots per district.

Scoring

The largest amount of points are awarded to the player who has built the tallest tower, with a moderate amount scored for secondary objectives like having the most towers, or establishing depots in more districts than anyone else. Towers are then scored by height, with some fraction of points earned for unused tower pieces.

King of the Hill
A game for 2-4 players

Game components
6X6 square game board
144 white building chips
1 king of the hill token
Victory point tokens of denominations 1, 5 and 10

Per Player
10 blue scoring chips
5 green scoring chips
1 red scoring chip

Game set up
The white building chips are placed in a pool accessible to all players.
Each player receives the scoring chips listed above and the king of the hill token and victory tokens are put aside the board.

Game play
A starting player is picked and play proceeds clockwise.
In each turn, a player plays one chip on the board. They may choose from the common pool of white building chips or choose their own scoring chips. They may place chips on an empty space or on a space which already has one or more chips (A “hill)”. Players may place chips on their own chips or on chips of other players. If a hill is higher than all adjacent (horizontal, vertical and diagonal) hills, there must be at least one adjacent hill within 2 chips of height.
If a player plays a red chip, the hill created must be higher than all adjacent hills.
If a player builds a stack of height 4, they receive the king of the hill token. They keep it until another player builds a higher stack and the token gets passed to each player that builds the highest stack.

Scoring
White (building) chips do not score.
When played, blue chips score 1 slope, which is the difference in height between the hill the chip was played on and an adjacent hill or space. The player scores the largest slope and gets one victory point for each chip difference in height. For example, if a player adds a blue chip to hill that has 2 chips and there is one empty space adjacent, the player would score 3 points.
Green chips score the 2 largest slopes
Red chips score all 8 slopes

End of game
When one player has no scoring chips left, each player plays one more chip.
If a player can not play any piece, the game ends immediately.
The player with the king of the hill token gets 5 victory points.
The player with the most victory points wins!

The end of the line. Your ship has suffered massive damage during entry into the planet’s atmosphere. Your mission, your lives and your remaining purpose is now only to navigate the failing ship through the busy skyline to crash safely away from the civilian habitat below.

Components

• 6 Role Cards - with special abilities and stats
• Ten(10) 6 sided dice
• Deck of 30 Unique Crisis Cards
• Vertical skyline board overlay with a 20x20 grid with peg holes at each intersection
• One ship peg

Setup

Deal out the 6 role cards to all players. Pass out dice to each player according to the dice limit on their role cards. Shuffle the Crisis cards and place them face down on the table, place one card from the Crisis deck for each player face up on the table. Finally set up the vertical board and place the ship peg in the start position.

Objective

Navigate the falling ship to one of two safe zones, each with their own obstacles to make navigation difficult.

Gameplay

ALL players will need to strategize together to determine the best course of actions. On every turn the team will have to face multiple different crisis in order to move the ship. Players must select a crisis for each player to attempt (Multiple players can attempt the same crisis, but all players must attempt a crisis unless a card effect is preventing them. Crisis are roll based and are discarded when completed (remain in play if not), gaining the team the short ability to move the ship in the direction the crisis allows. EXAMPLE: Exhaust break requires a roll of a 6 and a 3 to complete and will allow the team to move the ship UP 1 space and LEFT 1 space. If two or more players are attempting the same crisis, the 6 can be rolled by one player and the 3 can be rolled by another – these players must be attempting the same crisis.

Once all players have rolled for an attempt at a crisis and the ship has been moved by the team, the ship falls directly down 1 space per each crisis still on the table. EXAMPLE: A team of six only completed three tcrisis, the ship falls 3 spaces – one for each of the 3 crisis still on the table. The rapid descent of the ship causes more issues with navigation, as the ship falls add cards from the Crisis deck to the table equal to the amount spaces the ship falls. If no crisis cards are on the table at the end of the turn, the ship is stable and the team can move the ship in any direction up to the amount of players(minimum of three), each move will reveal a new crisis for the next turn.

How To Lose

If the ship falls into any Buildings in the skyline, or any of the Aerial obstacles, the ship explodes ending millions of innocent lives in the city below.

The Golden Flower

A mountain-climbing game for 2-6 players.

Components

19 mountain pieces (1x height 5, 3x height 4, 4x height 3, 5x height 2, 6x height 1)

Discovery tokens in 3 different colours (matching height 2, 3 and 4)

A set of 3 workers and player board (with camp store and expedition bag) in 6 colours.

A supply of potion tokens

Stackable platform pieces

Ladder pieces

Introduction

At the top of the mountain is the Golden Flower! The further up the mountain you go, the more exotic plants you find that have magical properties which you can brew up at base camp for the next expedition. You can also build ladders and platforms to help the expedition climb further.

Setup

The mountain is made of a 19 mountain pieces of 5 heights in a hexagon. The height 5 piece goes in the centre with the Golden Flower atop it. The placement of other mountain pieces is semi-random. Place a discovery tile face-down on each piece of height 2 to 4 with matching colour.

Each player places their player board by the base of the mountain with 3 workers.

Gameplay

In each round there are two phases. The Camp phase and the Expedition phase.

Camp phase

Each player can do one of the following with each of their workers:

• Brew potions

• Build towers

• Build ladders

• Send expeditions

Brew potions

One worker can convert one discovery token to one potion of the same type. This can give speed, endurance or carrying capacity bonuses.

Build towers

Two workers are needed to make one tower. Towers can be placed on the mountain to allow extra height to be reached.

Build ladders

One worker is needed to make a ladder. Ladders are like towers, but they are single-use.

Send expeditions

Send 1-3 workers on an expedition. Place them on a height 1 mountain space by your camp. They may carry one potion each. It takes two to carry a tower and one to carry a ladder. Put all the towers, ladders and potions in the expedition bag along with 3 food. They may only use what they take with them. A player can have one active expedition at a time.

Expedition phase

They pay one of their food to activate or return to base camp immediately. They have two activation options:

• Move to an adjacent hex that is no more than one level higher. They may discard a ladder to climb one extra level. For each tower in their hex they may also climb one extra level. If there is a discovery token in their new space place it in their expedition bag.

• Assemble a tower in their current space. Towers may be stacked in a hex! Once placed, other players can use your towers!

When an expedition returns to base camp move all ladders, towers and plants from the expedition bag to camp stock.

Game end

The first player to reach the Golden Flower wins.

An abstract game that will really force you to think 3D.

Threaded wooden dowels are placed as posts into a base in five rows and five columns. The posts have lines drawn on them to identify vertical spaces, so that it creates a 5x5x5 play area. Each post has a wooden octagon on it that will move up and down as it is turned (like a nut on a bolt). Each player has coloured pieces which can be placed over the post to sit on the octagon (kinda like a washer). These pieces are used to identify who controls the post.

At the start of the game all players place one post/octagon in the centre position of the base on the side facing them with a coloured washer piece on it. The rest of the posts are set to the side. When posts are added the octagon should be in the middle vertical position.

The octagons have an action noted on each edge. Each turn, you choose one octagon you control and rotate it 0-7 positions in the direction of your choice and then perform the action noted on the edge pointing towards you. The actions are: place a new post/octagon, rotate another octagon (and perform another action), place a washer on an unclaimed post, and steal (I'll explain this one shortly). Each octagon has two of each action in varying arrangements.

Now to explain stealing, as this is the key to the game. In addition to the action on each edge there is also a set of arrows with numbers. These point to another space in the play area. For example, it might say out 2, up 1. That would mean the post 2 positions away in the direction it's pointing and 1 vertical position up. If there is an octagon in that position on a steal action, you take control of it (regardless of whether it is open or controlled by another player). This effect applies simultaneously in all directions from all the posts you control. The octagons will have varying combinations of arrows pointing different distances in different directions. You must watch closely where the arrows are pointing as you make your moves. The object is to control a majority of posts relative to the number of players (13 with 2 players, 9 with 3 players, 7 with 4 players). The first player to do so wins.