Board Game Posts

The Might Is Right Variant

This variant proposes less randomly determined duels, replacing dice for duel tiles. To play this variant, you have to use the following modifications.

During game set up:

For a two-player game, each receives 6 duel tiles, numbered 0 to 5, and $15.

For a three- to five-player game, take 6 duel tiles (from 0 to 5) per player, and mix them. Each player receives 6 duel tiles at random and keeps them secretly.

Each player announces the total of points on his duel tiles. The sum of the totals must be 45 (if 3 players), 60 (if 4 players) or 75 (if 5 players). As starting cash, each player receives $30 minus the total of his duel tile points. …

If you choose the Place Workers option for your turn, in addition to placing Workers and taking Worker Actions you may also take any number of Bomb Actions. Bomb Actions can be taken at any time during your turn in any order, as long as you have the required resources. There are three types of Bomb Actions:

1. Build
2. Test
3. Load

Important: Bomb Actions are the only way you can score victory points! It will ultimately be a Bomb Action that ends the game and determines the winner. …

Once you are familiar with the basics of GoodCritters, you can add a little spice to the game by including these optional rules:

Payoffs

When playing with this variant, each player gets two Payoff tokens and five Payoff cards at the beginning of the game.

Payoff cards are kept separate from your Stash, and cannot be stolen with a Rob Action card. At the end of the game, each Payoff card is worth $1,000.

Offering Bribes

During the game, players can offer bribes to other players to do just about anything they want them to do: vote yes, vote no, rob a specific player, guard their stash, and so on. They can even try to bribe the Boss into distributing more Loot their way. …

One step closer to playing TMB! Now, let's tackle the Battle Mat. This is where all the action happens when you start taking on those Baddies!

1. Initiative Meter (Ini Meter)

In battle, a single turn from each Baddie and Gearloc makes up 1 full round. The Ini Meter tracks the current round and whose turn it is. It also gives you a visual forecast of who will be attacking next and in what order. Initiative is built downward on the meter from highest (going first) to lowest (going last). …

Reversal

In a game with the Witness, a reversal to the end may take place. If the "Key Evidence" and "Means of Murder" are solved correctly, the Murderer, after dicussing with the Accomplice, picks a player (to have quietly killed before the trial).

If the chosen player is the Witness, the Murderer and Accomplice escape conviction and win the game. If it is any player other than the Witness, they are convicted successfully and the Forensic Scientist and Investigators as well as the Witness win. …

If you wish to customize your games of Through the Desert, you can use any of these variant rules.

River Board

The reverse side of the board shows the Niger river running through the southern Sahara and offers players a new tactical challenge.

Aside from the different arrangement of land features, there are some special rules for the river board:

• During setup, you may place leaders in spaces next to the river. All other leader placement rules are unchanged.

• During the game, placement rules are the same, but the first time that each of your caravans "crosses" the river, take a 5-point token. …

Components

Each army consists of:

• 7 x Blue Pieces
• 45 x Red Pieces
• 13 x Black Pieces
• 1 x Game Board
• 1 x Battle Die
• 2 x Hill Tiles
• 2 x Mud Tiles
• 3 x Building Tiles
• 15 x Maneuver Cards
• 6 x Line of Retreat Cards
• 12 x Weakened Blocks
• 6 x Building Counters
• 3 x Ownership Flags
• 1 x Turn Counter

Setup

The game board is put in the middle of the table in-between both players. The French player must sit on the side of the board with the French flag, the Allied player on the side of the board with the flag of the United Kingdom. …

The School of Architects: Introductory Level

The Vigil (an Easier, more Tactical Game)

At the beginning of the game, place the Menace pawn in front of you. Draw a tile from the "safe" pile and place it next to the pawn. This tile is your "Vigil".

Whenever you draw a Defender tile, you have a third possible action, in addition to

A) Place it or B) Discard it:

A-2) Replace the Vigil: Swap the Defender tile you just drew with the Vigil tile. You must now place or discard this tile as though you just drew it. There is now a new tile next to the Menace; it is your new "Vigil" which you may choose to swap for on a future turn. …

We strongly suggest not playing with the Investors expansion or the "Advanced" side of the board for your first game. It is helpful to realize the worth of Stockpiles in the Demand Phase without having the investor abilities take effect.

Advanced Board Expansion

When playing with the second side of the board, each stock follows a different value track. If a stock goes bankrupt, return the value of that stock back to its original starting position, the darkened circle.

If a stock splits, return the value of that stock to the value in the octagon. Stanford Steel is unique in this version because it pays additional dividends based on dollar signs ($) on its stock value track. …

• Have a plan! Here are some typical strategies that tend to be successful:

• Focus on building a large Neighborhood (of 8+ Residential tiles), with Concrete or Lumber if possible. Just be careful to have enough money for Disasters!

• Try to get the Industrial tiles that produce the Goods required for one or two of the luxuries. Pick up only one or two Residentials and keep them away from the Pollution.

• Double down on generating lots of money throughout the game, and find a way to produce or purchase Steel in the 2nd Generation so that you can construct a Treasury. …