Territory Building

Rippling rivers, rustling forests, wheat fields swaying in the wind and here and there a cute little village - that's Dorfromantik! The video game from the small developer studio Toukana Interactive has been thrilling the gaming community since its Early Access in March 2021 and has already won all kinds of prestigious awards. Now Michael Palm and Lukas Zach are transforming the popular building strategy and puzzle game into a family game for young and old with Dorfromantik: The Board Game.

In Dorfromantik: The Board Game, up to six players work together to lay hexagonal tiles to create a beautiful landscape and try to fulfill the orders of the population, while at the same time laying as long a track and as long a river as possible, but also taking into account the flags that provide points in enclosed areas. The better the players manage to do this, the more points they can score at the end. In the course of the replayable campaign, the points earned can be used to unlock new tiles that are hidden in initially locked boxes. These pose new, additional tasks for the players and make it possible to raise the high score higher and higher.

—description from the publisher

You've just found a mine filled with precious energy crystals! Precisely those you use for your daily magic. The problem here is that you've also stumbled onto a horde of monsters! And to make things even worse, three other cities seem to have discovered the existence of your mine as well. As they rush into danger to mine the precious crystals, you have no choice but to join in the fray...

Age of Towers brings the exciting gameplay of your favorite tower defense games onto the tabletop! Playable either solo or with up to four players, Age of Towers sees you and your opponents competing to defend your cities against the oncoming wave of monsters by constructing defenses, placing traps, and funneling those beasts towards your opponents' cities!

In more detail, each turn has three phases: night, dawn, and day. During night, the event card is applied and monsters progress on your path (with each type having a different movement value). Two more monsters (or your boss) appear on your path. During dawn, the towers can attack one monster of a particular type on one of the four adjacent spaces, or the boss. During day, each player can choose one action from the four available, then they can take one more action, whether the same or different.

Each monster type has a movement value (1-3 spaces) and maybe a special ability; all core box monsters have 2 life points. The boss, who is not a monster, is harder to kill as it has 10 life points; when a player successfully kills it, the game ends. Each time a monster or a boss leaves your path to reach your city, you lose a number of city guards equal to their movement value. You begin at 15, and even if you lose your last one, you don't lose the game; you will just earn fewer victory points than other players.

After the game end, each player adds their victory points from three sources: Number of remaining city guards, amount of damage to your boss, and achievements (which are drawn randomly at the beginning of the game).

The human race has exhausted all the energy available on planet Earth. If they are to advance into an intergalactic civilisation they must harness the power of a solar system. They must build a dyson sphere.

Solar Sphere is a dice placement/manipulation game with elements of engine building, resource management, and set collection. Set hundreds of years in the future in a time when competition will move mankind forward, but when collaboration is also sometimes necessary. In Solar Sphere, each player commands a mothership. Their primary task is to build a dyson sphere. But, with crew to hire and aliens attacking the sphere, there are many other ways to earn prestige and become the saviour of mankind.

In this dice placement game, players can manipulate their dice using drones. However, players have a limited supply of drones, which are also used to upgrade dice placement spots or to support in fights against aliens. Players can always recycle used drones to get them back into their supply. Or, spend them for instant benefits.

Players simultaneously start the turn by rolling their dice. Dice act as spacecraft and are sent, in payer order, to locations to gather resources, build the dyson sphere, build or recycle drones, upgrade worker spots, hire crew, and fight off aliens.

Crew come with their own unique benefits that will help players in a variety of areas. Chain crew abilities together to build a good engine, and retire them for extra benefits. Making space for new crew members.

As the game progresses, more aliens will arrive to defend a sun that they also need. Fight them off alone, or join forces with other players and share the rewards. However, if no one takes on the rebellious aliens, then you all lose points.

Solar Sphere combines a combination of mechanisms with a powerful theme to bring players an immersive experience.

—description from the designer

Every wizard in the neighborhood knows that the best spell components are grown fresh. Unfortunately, only one particular plot of fertile soil in the area is the best for growing magical plants. Everyone agrees to "share" the garden, but you have a plan: Your team of loyal sprites will use the powers of the plants to infiltrate the garden as it grows, so that when everything is in full bloom, the most potent patches will belong to you!

In Power Plants, you are a wizard growing a shared garden of magical plants with your rivals. Each turn, you choose one of the patch tiles from your hand and add it to the growing garden. You can activate the added tile for its dynamic "plant" power or activate all the tiles it touches for their slightly weaker (but still very cool) "grow" powers. As the fields expand, you strategically deploy your sprites to gain control of more and more of the fantastic flora. Will your magical horticulture skills pay off?

Manipulate the garden's growth, gather magical gems, and deploy your team of loyal sprites to repel your competition and be in control of the most valuable fields when the garden is complete!

—description from the publisher

Nut Hunt is a fast-paced squirrel placement game where 1-5 players battle for control of the forest.

But watch out!

The wily fox roams the board scattering squirrels.

Clever players will use the fox to their advantage, positioning their critters to scatter onto favorable territories, or strategically hassling the fox to foil their opponents' plans.

Turns in Nut Hunt are fast paced and intuitive with one mandatory action: Move the Fox (causing squirrel scattering, and nut foraging), followed by your choice of one optional action: Recruit a Squirrel, Hassle the Fox, or Scout an Objective.

When three squirrels get together they form a nest, and the game ends when a player places their fourth nest.

Points are scored based on completed objectives. Whoever has the most points win.