Tech Trees / Tech Tracks

Beyond the Sun is a space civilization game in which players collectively decide the technological progress of humankind at the dawn of the Spacefaring Era, while competing against each other to be the leading faction in economic development, science, and galactic influence.

The game is played over a variable number of rounds until a number of game-end achievements are collectively claimed by the players. The winner is the faction with the most victory points, which are obtained by researching technologies, improving their economy, controlling and colonizing systems, and completing various achievements and events throughout the game.

On a turn, a player moves their action pawn to an empty action space, then takes that action. They then conduct their production phase, either producing ore, growing their population, or trading one of those resources for another. Finally, they can claim up to one achievement, if possible.

As players take actions, they research new technologies that come in four levels. Each technology is one of four types (scientific, economic, military, commercial), and higher-level technologies must match one of the types of tech that lead into it. Thus, players create their own technology tree in each game, using these actions to increase their military strength, to jump to different habitable exoplanetary systems, to colonize those systems, to boost their resource production, to develop android tech that allows growth without population, and more.

Revive civilization, 5000 years after everything was destroyed. Lead your tribe and explore the frozen earth. Harness its resources. Recruit surface survivors to your cause. Build factories with powerful machines. And populate ancient sites to relearn your tribe's forgotten technologies.
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Revive is a game for 1-4 players with asymmetric player powers, highly variable setup, and no fighting or direct conflict. Playing through the 5-part campaign unlocks additional contents, and once all contents have been unlocked, the game can be replayed indefinitely.
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At the beginning of the game, each player gets a set of citizen cards, a tribe board, as well as a huge dual-layer player board. The tribe board shows your unique tribe ability and the ancient technologies that you may relearn during the game. The dual-layer player board is where you place your custom machines and upgrade your card slots.

A main goal of the game is to reach and populate the large ancient sites. These ancient locations are randomized, and as they are important sources of victory points, they will shape your strategy differently each game.

On your turn you take two actions:

Play a card (its effect is determined by which card slot you use)
Explore (reveal an area tile and recruit a new citizen card)
Populate (populate an ancient location to learn a new technology)
Build factory (the adjacent terrains determine which machine tracks you advance)

In addition you may use power to activate any number of your machines, modifying your actions.

Instead of taking two actions you may Hibernate. This will circulate your cards, moving your played cards to your resting area, and releasing the cards in your resting area back to you. In addition you regain your used power, so that you may activate your machines again.

The multi-use cards play an important role: Each card shows a resource ability (on the top) and a special ability (on the lower part). Playing a card in one of your top slots activates the resource action; In a lower slot you activate the special ability. You may install slot modules in the card slots, and these are activated whenever you play a card matching its color. It is possible to find combinations that lets you chain cards, triggering several slot modules and abilities in one action.

Building factories harness the power of the surrounding terrains, advancing your marker on one of three machine tracks. This may unlock machines that can be activated, using energy.

Reaching certain milestones lets you take an artifact from the main board. Each artifact boosts one of the three scoring categories on your personal scoring card.

The game ends when all artifacts have been taken, and the player with the most points wins.

Carnegie was inspired by the life of Andrew Carnegie who was born in Scotland in 1835. Andrew Carnegie and his parents emigrated to the United States in 1848. Although he started his career as a telegraphist, his role as one of the major players in the rise of the United States’ steel industry made him one of the richest men in the world and an icon of the American dream.

Andrew Carnegie was also a benefactor and philanthropist; upon his death in 1919, more than $350 million of his wealth was bequeathed to various foundations, with another $30 million going to various charities. His endowments created nearly 2,500 free public libraries that bear his name: the Carnegie Libraries.

During the game you will recruit and manage employees, expand your business, invest in real estate, produce and sell goods, and create transport chains across the United States; you may even work with important personalities of the era. Perhaps you will even become an illustrious benefactor who contributes to the greatness of his country through deeds and generosity!

The game takes place over 20 rounds; players will each have one turn per round. On each turn, the active player will choose one of four actions, which the other players may follow.

The goal of the game is to build the most prestigious company, as symbolized by victory points.
 
—description from publisher

Cellulose: A Plant Cell Biology Game is a worker placement game that puts 1-5 players inside a plant cell, where they will compete over limited resources in order to undergo photosynthesis, produce carbohydrates, and build the cell wall. With everyone vying for the same actions, players must time their use of proteins, hormones, and cell component cards in order to diversify their strategies and outplay the competition.

Cellulose is the standalone sequel to Cytosis (2017). It has some of the same DNA, but Cellulose expands familiar game systems, allowing players greater control over available resources, strategic paths, and even game length.

—description from the publisher

"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.