Control worker bees to build a beehive, collect nectar, and make honey while also being efficient and strategic to outmanoeuvre your opponents. This 1-4 player Euro-style worker-placement dice game has stunning artwork and broad appeal. There are many paths to a sweet victory - it’s every beehive for themselves!
Termite Towers is the next insect-forward offering in the line after Waggle Dance. Termite Towers brings players into the world of the efficient and dedicated termites, building on the mechanics of Waggle Dance.
Players compete to complete their section of the mound first, gathering the necessary resources from the wood pile, whilst hatching new termites and training up soldiers that can help you secure the best spots.
With the wood you have gathered, you use the polyomino plan cards to construct your tower, the winner is the first player to build the required number of rows (5 for a shorter game, 7 for a longer game).
Much like its predecessor, you can also call on the help of the Queen to help you, or hinder your opponents.
—description from the designer
They came to this planet, and they chose you. They uplifted your people and promised great prosperity. They provided the wisdom and the resources to build your cities sky high. They taught you the ways of culture, science, and warfare. They promised knowledge for any willing to learn. Come, Archon, guide your citizens to victory, under the watchful eyes of the Builders, our benefactors from beyond the skies above.
In Origins: First Builders, you are an archon, guiding a population of freemen, influencing the construction of buildings and monuments, climbing the three mighty zodiac temples, and taking part in an arms race — all in an effort to leave the greatest mark on mankind's ancient history.
You start the game with a city consisting of just two building tiles: the Agora tile and the Palace tile. As the game develops, your city will grow in both size and strength as you add new building tiles, each of which has a special ability that triggers when it is first added to a city and when closing a district. Your placement on the military track indicates the rewards you receive when you attack and your chances of becoming first player.
Origins: First Builders is played over a number of rounds, with a round ending only after each player has passed. If a game end condition has not yet been triggered, the game continues with a new round. On your turn, you perform one of the following actions:
• Visit an encounter site with your workers to gain resources and additional citizen or speaker dice, advance on the zodiac temple tracks (and potentially gain zodiac cards), and advance and attack on the military track.
• Close a district, gaining victory points (VPs) and possibly gold for matching a district card's building pattern, additional bonuses based on the buildings you activate, and additional VPs at the end of the game based on the value of the citizen die you use to close the district.
• Build a tower level to increase your endgame scoring based on the tower heights and the matching color dice you use to close your districts.
• Grow your population.
• Pass.
The game finishes at the end of the round when one or more of the following conditions has been met:
At most three colors of tower disks are still in stock.
No gold remains above any district card.
No citizen die of the proper color can be added to the citizen offer.
A player has moved all three of their zodiac disks to the top space of each temple track.
The temple area is divided into three tracks: the sea temple, the forest temple, and the mountain temple. You score points only for your two least-valued temples, and once all the points have been summed, whoever has the most VPs wins.
"The time of small nations is past, the time of empires begins." — Chamberlain
What if all of world history had unfolded differently?
What if the great empires of our history had never come into being?
What if other forgotten civilizations had passed into posterity in their place?
The defeated could have been the victors, and the colonizers could have been the colonized — after all, empires are won and lost on a roll of the dice!
In First Empires, each player takes control of the fate of an ancient nation through a player board, meeples, and cards. The game lasts a number of rounds depending on the player count, and on a turn you roll dice based on how you've developed your empire board. The six sides of the dice correspond to the five abilities on your board. To expand to new territories or invade opponents, you need to unlock movement ability; to annex a territory, you have to outnumber the current occupant or have a "sword" result on the dice, with the inhabitants then fleeing elsewhere. The dice also allow you develop your player board by using the die face that corresponds to the improvement and controlling an associated territory. You can gain more dice and additional re-rolls, while also unlocking achievement cards.
At game's end, you earn points based on played achievement cards, points unlocked on your personal board, and the sum of cities under your control.
Welcome to the big artists' evening! You will have to wow the public with the best acrobatics on the Ferris wheel. The first player to reach the end of the star-studded round will become the star of the evening.
Can you work together with the acrobats to be the star of the show?
Roll the acrobat dice to know which acrobat to play with.
Move the acrobat clip on the wheel, the wheel will spin and tell you which numbers to use to move your piece … and someone’s else!
Carry out your act and advance, or backtrack on the stage!
Reach the end of the track first to get a standing ovation!
—description from the publisher