Tech Trees / Tech Tracks

Endeavor: Deep Sea

Plunge into the modern era, where our planet's vast interconnected ocean scape is one of the last frontiers to discover and explore. Experience a deep new ever-changing adventure in this followup to the smash hit Endeavor: Age of Sail!

In Endeavor: Deep Sea, you head an independent research institute with the goal of developing sustainable projects and preserving the fragile balance of marine life. Throughout the game, you’ll recruit field experts and use their abilities to explore new locations, research dive sites, publish critical ecological papers, and launch conservation efforts.

Expand your expertise, develop your team, and learn as much as possible about the sea. The action your institute takes now, could mean a healthy ocean and a sustainable future for the planet.

Endeavor: Deep Sea is designed by Jarratt Gray and Carl de Visser, the same creative team behind the smash hit Endeavor: Age of Sail. This edition is set in a new era of nautical discovery, but uses streamlined rules which will be familiar to fans of the original game.

—description from the publisher

Kingsburg (Third Edition)

At this time, it's not clear whether Kingsburg (Third Edition) differs substantially from the second edition, so BGG is creating a listing for this item that will perhaps be merged away in time. In any case, the setting is the same:

Kingsburg: 3rd Edition includes the most updated rulebook and the best expansion modules developed since its 1st edition, such as the Soldier tokens, the Governor cards, and the extra buildings. Furthermore, the artwork and design have been restyled while components have been redesigned.

The realm of Kingsburg is under attack! Monstrous invaders are gathering at the borders, aiming to invade and plunder the realm! Your king has chosen you to take charge of a province on the border; you will manage your province and help defend the realm. To accomplish this, you must influence the King's advisors and the Royal Family to obtain gold, wood, stones, and soldiers to expand and defend your lands. But you are not the only governor seeking the aid of the advisers! The other players also seek to collect the best resources for their own territories.

King Tritus is waiting for you. Will you be able to be the most influent and powerful governor of the realm?

The game of Kingsburg takes place over five years, a total of twenty turns. In every year, there are three production seasons for collecting resources, building structures, and training troops. Every fourth turn is the winter, in which all the players must fight an invading army. Each player must face the invaders, so this is not a cooperative game.

The resources to build structures and train troops are collected by influencing the advisers in the King's Council. Players place their influence dice on members of the Council, and each adviser awards different resources or allocate soldiers, victory points, and other advantages to the player who was able to influence that adviser for the current turn. The player with the lowest influence dice sum is the first to choose where to spend their influence; this acts as a way of balancing poor dice rolling. Even with a very unlucky roll, a clever player can still come out from the Council with a good number of resources and/or soldiers.

At the end of five years, the player who best developed their assigned territory and most pleased the King through the Council wins.

Sand

People refer to this vast place only as the desert since no one remembers what was here before. The golden age of human beings has long passed. Now there is only sand, and the only hope is in the humidity.

Travelers cross the desert that stretches from the slopes of the Akaishi Mountains to the cliffs of Seaclaw. Half-ruined ancient cities are home to the last human communities struggling to survive by foraging for what little green remains standing. These desert travelers transport goods on the backs of their caterpillars. Although their only goal is to make as much money as they can, at the same time and in a more or less deliberate way, they are helping to bring life back to the desert by carrying small plants from the artificial greenhouses of the cities to the most remote corners of this ocean of sand.

Designed by Ariel Di Costanzo and Javier Pelizzari and illustrated by Ernest Sala, Sand is a game with a main mechanism of pick-up-and-deliver that can be enjoyed alone or in groups of up to four players in games of about 120 minutes long. Players have to earn as much gold as possible after six rounds (five in a four-player game) to win.

In Sand, players put themselves in the shoes of these intrepid desert travelers who travel the paths of the board and visit the different towns. They collect goods to take them to other places and thus earn gold for the transport service. They cross the dunes on the backs of their faithful caterpillars, which, cared for, will grow and help players complete their tasks more effectively. Along the way they will be joined by helpful companions and be entrusted with missions that, if completed, will bring good benefits at the end of the journey. Help the plants take root again, and perhaps there is still some hope for this desolate place...

—description from the publisher

Path of Civilization

Take the reins of your Civilization and make the choices that will make it the most prosperous. It doesn't matter which path you take, as long as it leads your people to glory. Research new technologies to improve your nation's Science, Military strength, Spirituality, Culture and Industrialization. Grow the greatest Philosophical current of humanity. Use your Philosophers to become one of its forerunners and thus decide its evolution. Send your Builders to create wonders from your territory that will outlive everything, even men. Grow your Population so that the most illustrious Leaders are born from it and change the world forever, even after their death. Develop your Military Legacy so that the name of your civilization is enough to make your opponents tremble. And if that is not enough, send your army to defeat even the most distant External Threat. Use your Sages and the knowledge of your civilization to solve the great Challenges of humanity that will mark its history.

In Path of Civilization, from the very first second of the game you must make choices that will have repercussions until the end of the game. The game is played simultaneously and works with a simple card and resource management system. The diversity of its cards guarantees enormous variability.

—description from the publisher

Scholars of the South Tigris

Scholars of the South Tigris is set during the height of the Abbasid Caliphate, circa 830 AD. The Caliph has called upon the keenest minds to acquire scientific manuscripts from all over the known world. Players will need to increase their influence in the House of Wisdom, and hire skilled linguists to translate the foreign scrolls into Arabic. In this Golden Age of wisdom and knowledge, be mindful not to neglect one in pursuit of the other.

The aim of Scholars of the South Tigris is to be the player with the most victory points (VP) at the game’s end. Points are gained by translating scrolls, increasing knowledge in various areas of science and mathematics, influencing the 3 guilds, and by retiring translators after their years of faithful service. The game end is triggered once all 4 caliph cards have been revealed.

—description from the publisher