EVOLUTION: Will you dare a win?
Adapt in an ever-changing ecosystem where food is scarce and predators lurk. (Sounds familiar, right?)
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Evolution relies on good management of resources and the multiple characteristics of the species in our possession. A game is divided into several rounds, each of which is divided into 3 stages. First, all players secretly decide on the potential food available in the dedicated space. The strategy starts now, as the food pool is shared by all players... so whoever eats first (in turn order) has a clear advantage. Once this choice has been made, players are invited to select the cards of their choice in order to perfect the species they own, design new ones, increase populations, or even increase the size (and therefore the defence) of a species. A large number of cards are available, each with its own criteria.
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Once this stage is complete, each player's population, defences, and characteristics are laid out in front of him. The available food is revealed, and each player has access to it in turn order, with a few subtleties if the cards played beforehand suggest so.
The round ends as soon as all the animals have been fed, or there is simply no food left... all animals without food perish. Food points acquired are accumulated and added up for each player. They are then taken into account at the end of the game.
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Once all the rounds have been completed, the points are tallied. They take into account the food ingested, whatever the diet, the characteristics of the species and the number of species still alive.
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At the beginning, the difficulties are even less, as the herbivores feed in a totally passive way, and the impact on the rest of the players is minimal. A little gumption is enough to win the game by multiplying your populations while keeping an eye on available food.
The game becomes progressively more difficult with the addition of carnivores... which, in turn, inevitably have an impact on the other players. Carnivores, the offspring of transformed herbivores, require meat, and will therefore aggressively attack neighboring populations. A definite asset, but one to be handled with great care. Indeed, prey must be smaller and unguarded, and the latter have many strategies at their disposal to avoid attack- but in the case of a successful aggression, the attacked player quickly finds himself deprived of a large part of his population!
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Evolution packs a surprising amount of variety for a game with simple rules. The variety comes from the synergies between the trait cards and from the different personalities at the table. Some players thrive on creating Carnivores to wreak havoc on their fellow players. Others prefer to stay protected and mind their own business. Evolution encourages both play styles by giving each of them multiple paths to victory. And it is the mix of play styles at the table that ultimately determines the ecosystem in which the players are adapting. So gather your friends and see who can best adapt to the changing world around them.
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This game won many awards, such as the Golden Geek, and that is a solid reason for you to try it right now if you have not played yet. Like usual, click the link below:
https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=evolution
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Of course, no games without developers, and this one has been beautifully adapted to our platform by stst. A lot of thanks to him, and of course, the whole team of North Star Games and the game designers Dominic Crapuchettes, Dmitry Knorre & Sergey Machin for their authorization to bring this brilliant title on Board Game Arena!
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No doubt you can handle this wonderful game with a few friends or random opponents here and there. But will you climb the Arena ladder to the top?
Let's discover it!
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And that's it for today.
See you around in a few days.
Until next week, take care, and...
Play fair!
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FLOWERS: Powers!
108 cards.
4 colors with values ​​from 1 to 4.
In turn, each player draws a visible or hidden card and places it in their playing area.
When a pile is empty, the game stops and the points are counted.
Each player tries to score points by forming colored areas of at least 5 adjacent cards.
But players also try to respect the way of grouping the cards.
Otherwise they will lose points.
- a "4" must be in a group of exactly four "4s"
- a "3" must be in a group of exactly three "3s"
- a "2" must be in a group of exactly two "2s"
- a "1" must not be in contact with any other "1"
Butterflies present on certain cards earn a point if they are adjacent to a card of their color.
That's it. Simple. But beautiful. And you do not have to handle the scoring on Board Game Arena! ;)
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You can play it right from your browser by clicking the link below, or discover more information about the game (rules, etc). Click:
https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=flowers
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We would like to thank Paul-Henri Argiot and the team from Actarus Publishing for bringing this game to the platform, as well as the efforts from Galeelox to make this adaptation!
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That's it for today, see you on Wednesday for another release!
Until then, take care and play fair. :)
GING... GINGKO... GINKGOPOLIS, it's all about an urbansi... urbanistic distopia!
2212: Ginkgo Biloba, the oldest and strongest tree in the world, has become the symbol of a new method for building cities in symbiosis with nature. Humans have exhausted the resources that the Earth offered them, and humanity must now develop cities that maintain a delicate balance between resource production and consumption. Habitable space is scarce, however, and mankind must now face the challenge of building ever upwards. To develop this new type of city, you will gather a team of experts around you, and try to become the best urban planner for Ginkgopolis.
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In Ginkgopolis, the city tiles come in three colors: yellow, which provides victory points; red, which provides resources; and blue, which provides new city tiles. Some tiles start in play, and they are surrounded by letter markers that show where new tiles can be placed.
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Begin with three Character cards which grant you starting resources and bonuses to power your game actions. On a turn, players choose a Construction or Urbanization card from their hand simultaneously. Players reveal these cards, adding new tiles to the border of the city in the appropriate location or placing tiles on top of existing tiles. Each card in your hand that you do not play is passed on to your left-hand neighbor, so keep in mind how your play might set up theirs!
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When you build over a tile, you add its “power" card to your tableau, which provides you additional abilities during the game, allowing you to scale up your building and point-scoring efforts.
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Build upwards as well as outwards to control the most buildings in a future eco-city!
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Of course you are curious about it! Fortunately, if you have never played it, you can try it right now from your browser and learn it through its wonderful interactive tutorial included. Or click the link below to the setting page to find your next game partners, and table:
https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=ginkgopolis
No games without game designers, and it is all thanks to Xavier Georges and the people from Pearl Games (Hello Seb!) who gave the authorization to bring this game online on our platform. And let's thank a lot locerol who joined the team for his efforts to make it playable from any devices!
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That's it for today ;) It's spring, and you deserved a more complex game all about nature to relax while thinking your next moves...
What will be our next one ?
You have a week to guess.
Until then, take care and play fair!
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LOOOT: Vikings on board! (Play it before the official release.)
In Looot, you need to gather resources and capture buildings to develop your fjord. Fill your longships and complete your construction sites in order to rack up your victory points. Store up the most riches, and you will be crowned Jarl of the Vikings!
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Seeing the sails of your proud longships on the horizon, the inhabitants of this land bravely fled. Seize the many goods and buildings left almost defenseless, and take them back to your fjord to become the next Viking king!
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CHOOSE A SQUARE
Choose a square adjacent to another Viking or drakkar.
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PLACE YOUR VIKING
Place your Viking on the selected square, then take the resource corresponding to your square from the reserve. If you meet the conditions for taking a building, you can also capture it.
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ARRANGE YOUR TREASURES IN YOUR FJORD
Arrange your treasures on your land to complete objectives and score the most points.
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A Viking plundering atmosphere in a game with great replayability thanks to its modular board!
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It's simple, brilliant and all that matters is your strategy! Try it now by clicking the link below:
https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=looot
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The physical version release is estimated for MAY 2024. But the publisher Gigamic was kind enough to release the game on Board Game Arena first for you to discover and enjoy it before it hits the shelves of your favorite shops!
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We would love to also thank Charles Chevallier (Abyss) and Laurent Escoffier, the game designers, for their authorization to bring the game to our platform.
The game adaptation has been done by dahrf and he deserves some love for his overall work done here: you can play this game from any web-enabled devices, thanks to him.
And that's it for today!
We have plenty of viking-based games available on BGA now. Which one will get your favor?
Let us know in the comments!
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Until next week, as always,
Take care and play fair!
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Arena Season 17: A Spring of Blooming Battles!
Congratulations to all participants and winners from the previous season!
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But wait, what exactly is "the Arena?"
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The Arena is the competitive mode on BGA. If you master a game and want to play it competitively, this is THE mode to use, so you can challenge the best players and get the most experience points.
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The Arena is organized in seasons of 3 months each. Achievements are awarded to the best players at the end of each season.
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To play in the Arena: select "Play" and then choose "Arena" instead of "Simple game."
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Arena format and Gurus
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In the previous seasons, it was you (more exactly the gurus) who chose the game formats for the Arena: player number, options used, ...
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We are very happy to see that this way of doing things contributed to making the Arena more popular: thank you to all gurus for their smart suggestions and their votes!
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Rules updates
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No Arena rules are changing this season. It does not mean we are 100% satisfied with how the Arena is running, but you seem to appreciate the current rules so we want to keep them as they are for now.
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Season 17 is NOW Launched.
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The new Arena is now open for its new season.
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Some Explanation About: Relegations
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At the end of each season, after winners have been awarded, you are relegated.
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Some custom relegation rules may have been applied to games for some reason (ex: we decided to update the number of leagues), but in general here is what happens:
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- For games with 6 or 5 different leagues, all players are decreased by 3 leagues.
- For games with 4 different leagues, all players are decreased by 2 leagues.
- For games with 2 or 3 different leagues, all players are decreased by 1 league.
- For all games and all leagues, your number of Arena points is reset to 1, and your AES ("Arena Elo") is reset to 1500.
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It's up to you to find the way to the elite!
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May the odds be ever in your favor!
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You'll find soon below the updated options for each game for this new arena season
WORD TRAVELER: At the next Cheesy spot, take left to the Squishy one, then straight to the Majestic one. You're there!
You know the road to take, but can not remember the name of the places to go? This one is for you, confused tourists.
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In Word Traveler, you and your friends are tourists who are checking out the sights of a new city. Each player has their own secret map of locations that they want to visit, and they will need help from the other players to reach them.
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Taking turns playing the traveler and the locals, you all work together to visit as many of these locations as possible, ideally collecting all of the golden souvenirs that you find.
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You know only a few words of the local language, however, so the locals- that is, the other players- will do their best to interpret your clues to help get you where you want to go...without getting lost in translation.
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It is a very fun game for people who love to scratch their head on how to communicate an idea to others. We had a blast playing it, and a lot of laughs.
So, gather your friends, turn on your mic, and try to find the place your partners wants to go!
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It's all available here, in many languages, and it's also a good way to learn new ones:
https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=wordtraveler
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We should thank the Office Dog publishing team, as well as Thomas Dagenais-Lespérance for their authorization to adapt this amazing communication game to Board Game Arena. And let's not forget the work beautifully done by LeSteffen for adapting, developing and bringing this game live to your desktop!
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That's it for today.
Don't get lost in the next releases: there's a lot of novelties coming your way!
Until Wednesday for our WRT (Wednesday Release Time),
Take care, and... Play fair!
MANDALA: More than a coloring book!
The Mandala: the symbol of an ancient and sacred ritual. Colored sand is laid to create a symbolic map of the world before the pattern is ceremonially destroyed and the sand cast into the river.
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In the two-player game Mandala, you are trying to score more than your opponent by collecting valuable cards- but you will not know which cards are valuable until well into the game! Over the course of the game, players play their colored cards into the two mandalas, building the central shared mountains and laying cards into their own fields. As soon as a mandala has all six colors, the players take turns choosing the colors in the mountain and adding those cards to their "river" and "cup." At the end of the game, the cards in your cup are worth points based on the position of their colors in that player's river. The player whose cup is worth more points wins.
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The linen playmat shows two circular mandalas, with each being divided by a horizontal space (the mountain) to create one "field" for each player. The playmat has seven spaces in front of each player to hold their river of single face-up cards and their cup: the stack of face-down cards which they score at the end of the game.
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To begin, each player receives a hand of six cards. Each player receives two random cards face down in their cup, then two random cards are dealt face up into the central mountain strip of each mandala.
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On your turn, you may play either a single card into one of mountains, or one or more matching cards into one of your fields. All cards played into a mandala must follow the "Rule of Color": Once a color has been played into one of the three areas of a mandala, then later cards of the same color can be played only into that same area. Thus, once your opponent has played red cards into their field, you can no longer play red cards in your field, and neither you nor your opponent can play red cards into the central mountain. If you played a card into a mountain, draw three new cards from the deck at the end of your turn; if you played cards into one of your fields, do not draw new cards.
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A mandala is completed once it contains all six colors of cards. When this happens, the players "destroy" the mandala, taking turns to choose a color present in the mountain and claim all cards of that color. Whoever played more cards in their field chooses first; if tied, the player who did not complete the mandala chooses first. The first time you claim cards of a specific color, lay one of these cards in the lowest-valued empty space in your river, then place the rest into your cup. The spaces in your river are valued 1-6 in order, so cards of the first color you claim will be worth 1 point each, cards of the second color you claim worth 2 points each, and so on.
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Once a mandala has been destroyed and all the colors in the mountain claimed, cards played in the fields are discarded, two new cards are dealt face up into the mountain, and the game continues.
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The end of the game is triggered either when the deck is exhausted or when one player adds a sixth color to their river. Both players then tally the value of all the cards in their cup, based on the position of the colors in their river, and whoever has the higher score wins!
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You can learn to play it through our tutorial, or simply by reaching the dedicated game page and start a game:
https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=mandala
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Developed by Sir Heo, we would love to thank him for bringing this game to the platform, as well as the game designers Trevor Benjamin and Brett J. Gilbert. Of course, no games without a publisher, and this title is, again, available thanks to the Lookout Games team!
Send mandalas of appreciation!
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That's it for this week. But be prepared, more amazing titles are coming your way!
And for those who are interested in our workforce, please welcome two new Admins to the BGA Staff to reinforce our team, strengthen, and improve (there's so much to do):
Thoun & Lymon Flowers!
They're now part of our team and we wish them a warm welcome. Send some love :)
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That's it for today. As always...
Take care and play fair!
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Board Game Arena Café: A serious outlet for the battery-depleted ones!
Board Game Arena Goes Analog?!
We are excited to announce our first physical location: your very own friendly local Board Game Arena Café!
The success of our booths at several conventions has shown us the community’s desire to come together to play on BGA. We were overwhelmed by the support shown for this idea recently at the Festival International des Jeux in Cannes by our players.
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Highlights of this revolutionary new experience include:
* An easily accessible location in the heart of Paris, 8th district, close to the Arc de Triomphe. We guarantee an ambiance unlike any other cafe, with flickering candlelight and more than 800 board games. Planning a vacation to Europe? Make sure Paris is on your list!
* The ability to play live on a giant screen against other opponents, discover our next title in advance, have unlimited access to current games in Alpha, or simply enjoy adorable cat videos.
* A comfortable seating environment including the thrones from our convention booth and fluffy pillows with our special BGA logo. Premium members get exclusive access to a comfy and cozy seating space, complete with fluffy BGA pillows, for ultimate relaxation during your board game adventures.
* The chance to meet other BGA players from around the world. You might participate in frequent championship tournaments that celebrate both the digital and delicious! Compete in the "Fastest Croissant Eater" challenge or test your wit in the "Most Creative Excuse for a Disconnected Opponent" competition.
* Achievement badges that cannot be earned elsewhere such as completing physical challenges like balancing a meeple on your nose or reciting BGA's Terms of Service backwards (while blindfolded, of course).
* Earn bonus XP during Happy Hour (5-7pm) and a K factor boost for your ELO on games played at the cafe.
* Through our dedicated and revolutionary webcam system, you can integrate your face and reaction to replay feature so everybody will have a chance to see you. Get a copy on CD-ROM, USB stick, or even floppy disk!
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*For Premium Members Only:(*) :
*Choose your own table and challenge opponents that are also in the café; book in advance for your friends; access our bathrooms which all have 4-ply toilet paper and fresh hand towels; unlock the physical board game room to play with your own unique rules and have some dedicated short joker timer when reordering snacks. Â
()Premium membership can be directly ordered at the counter.
* Discover anticipated features such as new rage quit system to digitally throw all game pieces over the screen (you can suffer from a Karma penalty anyway), enforce color selection so all players can play with the same color together, additional undo feature and 1 extra reroll capability per game (additional reroll can be purchased for 1€ each).
*Unlimited dice rolls until you get the exact score you're thriving for.
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Diner? Lunch? Breakfast? We cover everything!
Our menu will include desserts made on-demand by our moderation team, and will include the famous Ned's Signature Hot Cocoa.
To comply with our sustainable policy, drinks will be locally sourced, up to your choice: opponents tears (may contain salt) or Seine river (may contain remains of Olympic athletes).
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Note that, of course, we reserve the right to refuse access to players with low Karma (in or out).
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We can't wait to welcome you to the world's greatest offline online board game cafe!
Stay tuned for future announcements! We might be bringing a Board Game Arena Cafe to your neighborhood soon.
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TERRAFORMING MARS: Life on March...
Compete with rival CEOs to make Mars habitable and build your corporate empire!
Behold the game that has won more than 30 worldwide awards over the last 8 years: Available now for you to play anywhere on Earth, on Board Game Arena.
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In the 2400s, mankind begins to terraform the planet Mars. Giant corporations, sponsored by the World Government on Earth, initiate huge projects to raise the temperature, the oxygen level, and the ocean coverage until the environment is habitable. In Terraforming Mars, you play one of those corporations and work together in the terraforming process, but compete for getting victory points that are awarded not only for your contribution to the terraforming, but also for advancing human infrastructure throughout the solar system, and doing other commendable things.
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The players acquire unique project cards (from over two hundred different ones) by buying them to their hand. The cards can give you immediate bonuses, as well as increasing your production of different resources. Many cards also have requirements and they become playable when the temperature, oxygen, or ocean coverage increases enough. Buying cards is costly, so there is a balance between buying cards and actually playing them. Standard Projects are always available to complement your cards. Your basic income, as well as your basic score, is based on your Terraform Rating. However, your income is complemented with your production, and you also get VPs from many other sources.
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Each player keeps track of their production and resources on their player boards, and the game uses six types of resources: MegaCredits, Steel, Titanium, Plants, Energy, and Heat. On the game board, you compete for the best places for your city tiles, ocean tiles, and greenery tiles. You also compete for different Milestones and Awards worth many VPs. Each round is called a generation and consists of the following phases:
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- 1: Player order shifts clockwise.
- 2: Research phase: All players buy cards from four privately drawn.
- 3: Action phase: Players take turns doing 1-2 actions from these options: Playing a card, claiming a Milestone, funding an Award, using a Standard project, converting plant into greenery tiles (and raising oxygen), converting heat into a temperature raise, and using the action of a card in play. The turn continues around the table (sometimes several laps) until all players have passed.
- 4: Production phase: Players get resources according to their terraform rating and production parameters.
When the three global parameters (temperature, oxygen, ocean) have all reached their goal, the terraforming is complete, and the game ends after that generation. Count your Terraform Rating and other VPs to determine the winning corporation!
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You can play it from your phone, tablet, computer, or any web-enabled browser by clicking this link below:
https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=terraformingmars
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Don't forget to read the rules first, or watch a game in progress.
You will also have some choices to display the game up to your desires, and then play it comfortably from your device.
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And you can even play it on your own to get the hang of it!
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It's a very huge release, and we would love to thank the publisher, FryxGames, as well as the game designer Jacob Fryxelius, without whom this would not have been possible.
And finally, we should definitely thank and send kudos to Victoria_La and darhf for their huge contributions by developing the game for our platform.
We told you, that's a big week on #BGA!
And there's more to come...
Anyway, that's it for today. See you next week and until then,
Take care and play fair!
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ISLE OF TRAINS: A game named Desire...
Welcome to the Isle of Trains, where you are the conductor, and constructor of one of the island’s locomotives. You’ll build trains and load a range of goods to complete contracts across the island, as well as deliver passengers to their destinations.
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Isle of Trains: All Aboard is a card-based engine building game where cards have multiple uses: You can use cards as locomotives, freight cars, passenger cars, or buildings to improve the effectiveness and abilities of your train. Cards can also be spent to pay for the construction of your new train cars and buildings, or you can use your cards as cargo and load them onto available freight cars.
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Building passenger cars and certain locomotives allows you to draw passengers from a bag who need rides to various destinations. Load them into any available passenger car. When passengers are delivered to their destinations, they will give you an instant powerful bonus!
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Loading cargo and passengers into opponents’ trains is important on the Isle of Trains as it will also gain you extra bonuses that turn! However, this action will help the other train conductors get a little closer to completing their goals by giving them the cargo or passengers, which they can then use for deliveries and big end-game points!
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The game ends when a certain number of contracts have been completed, or a certain number of passengers are delivered. You win by scoring the most points, which you earn by building up your train, completing contracts, and delivering passengers.
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Isle of Trains: All Aboard is all about balancing the need to upgrade your train, with loading cargo or passengers into opponent’s train for big bonuses, and delivering cargo and passengers to their destinations before anyone else. Build your engine effectively enough to be remembered as the greatest train conductor on the Isle of Trains!
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And that's all you need to know to dive in it, right from its dedicated game page:
https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=isleoftrainsallaboard
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Let's thanks Dranda Games as well as Seth Jaffee & Dan Keltner for their authorization to bring this game online on Board Game Arena, and of course all kudos to stefano for developing it to our platform. The game plays beautifully, and that one deserves at least your heartfelt curiosity.
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And that's it for today. And that's a bit one for a Monday.
It's gonna be a very good week!
Don't forget to get a bit of sunlight, and see you in two days for our Wednesday Release Time.
Until then, take care and play fair!
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