Theme: Nature

Trailblazers

Trailblazers are the gutsy folks who pave and brave the trails of the great outdoors.  Whether by hiking boots, cycling wheels, or river paddle, these tenacious travelers seek to feed their insatiable appetite for adventure.  With a scenic wilderness ever ahead and a freshly charted path upon the heels, one mustn’t forget to eventually find their way back to camp.  For there are always new environments to explore, further expeditions to undertake, and more trails to blaze.

In Trailblazers, players compete to earn the most points by building biking, hiking, and kayaking loops from their campsites of the matching trail type. Each round, players are dealt eight trail cards where they’ll draft two cards, arrange those cards in their personal area, and pass their hand to the next player three times. Cards must either be placed adjacent to or overlapping other cards. While players can push their luck by aiming to construct long and elaborate trails, only closed loops that start and end at a matching campsite will score points. Players also compete to fulfill “First To” and “End Game” goal cards. After four rounds, the game ends and the player with the most points from closed loops and goal cards wins.

The standard edition of Trailblazers features a second deck of trail & player cards so you can play with up to 8 players. The box also contains two expansions (the Animals expansion and Adventurers expansion) that add another challenging layer of strategy and objectives to the experience. Finally, there are three unique solo modes that utilize the goal cards, Animals expansion, or Adventurers expansion.

Birds of a Feather: Western North America

Grab your binoculars and your birding journal because it's time to hit the trails and see some birds. Choose a habitat each round to visit along the western coast of North America, and see what rare birds you can find. Don't forget to keep an eye on what your fellow birders are tracking down — they might just lead you to the bird that finishes your watch list and earns you extra points! Who will outsmart their opponents, spot the most birds, and be the best birder?

In Birds of a Feather: Western North America, you and the other players explore different habitats to spot birds. In the first round, each player chooses and reveals a card from hand, then marks off on their score sheet or the app the bird they played as well as all other birds played in the same habitat. The deck contains cards from five habitats, with some birds being more common than others. In the second round, you each play a card again, then you mark all birds in your current habitat as well as all cards played the previous round in that habitat. Apparently word spread about all the great finds! Remove all cards from the first round, then keep playing additional rounds in the same manner.

When each player has only one card left in hand, the game ends. For each ace bird you've seen in a habitat, you score 2 points; for each other non-common bird you've seen, score 1 point; and if you've seen all seven types of birds in a habitat, score 3 bonus points for a total of 10 points in that habitat. Whoever has the most total points wins.

Birds of a Feather: Western North America differs from Birds of Feather thanks to new graphic design and improved rules for two- and three-player games to make them more strategic.

Sequoia

In Sequoia you are trying to grow the tallest trees in 11 different forests. After your 10 turns, if you have the tallest tree, then you get the victory points from that forest. Second place gets a small consolation prize.

Each turn, you get to grow two of your trees. Which trees you choose will determine if you win or lose. Do you keep fighting in a forest with competition, or start growing your tree somewhere else? You'll have to wrestle with the dice to grow the tree you want.

Sequoia is a game of choosing your battles.

—description from the publisher

The dice will always give you choices, but they will be hard choices.

Ties in each forest are decided by extra tie-breaker rounds that can lead to epic finishes.

Renature

Renature is a majority game with dominoes for 2-4 players.

Each player gets a board with large pieces of wood in the form of turf, bushes, pines and oaks. These plants are used for the majorities on the large valley board and are available in a neutral color and in the respective player color. In addition, each player gets a stack of dominoes with two out of ten animal motifs on each of them.

On your turn, place one of the three dominoes in your hand on two brook spaces of the valley board. Of course, the domino must be adjacent to another domino that shows the same animal. If the placed domino borders a free space of a brown area, you can decide whether a tuft of grass or any other of your plants should be placed on that space. Tufts of turf have a value of 1, bushes of 2, pines of 3 and oaks of 4. After placing the plant, you score points for it and every plant piece that is already in this brown area and has the same or a lower value.

Once a brown area is framed with dominoes, the majority is scored and the player with the highest total plant value in the area gets the points that are printed as a large number on that area's flower token. Whoever has the second highest value gets the lower number. Two things make this especially tricky: The neutral pieces count as their own color and not among the majority of the player who has used them. Also, if colors are tied, they a treated as though they are not present at all in the area. After the area has been scored, the player who framed the area receives its flower token, which will give them extra points at game end.

In the course of the game, you may run out of plants, but these can be bought back from the game board with clouds. Clouds can also be used to buy another turn and to appoint a new joker animal. This animal then counts as all animals and makes it easier to put on. At the end of a player's turn, a domino is drawn and it is the next player's turn.

Once all players have run out of dominoes, the game ends with a final scoring.

Wingspan Asia

In this third expansion to Wingspan, we welcome new species to our habitats by exploring the vibrant, intriguing, and magnificent birds of Asia. These birds were chosen from the over 2,800 species that live in Asia.

Wingspan Asia is several different things: A stand-alone game for 1 player or 2 players (Duet mode that can be used with any bird/bonus cards), a card expansion to the original Wingspan (any bird/bonus cards across any Wingspan game or expansion can be combined), and a 6-7 player expansion via the new Flock mode (for which the player components from the core game are necessary).

—description from the publisher