Unboxed the Board Game Blog

Created by Jerry Hawthorne, the designer of Stuffed Fables and Mice and Mystics, Aftermath is the latest addition to the Adventure Book Game line. In a world where all humans have mysteriously vanished, take on the role of a heroic rodent working to protect and provide for their colony. Complete a wide variety of exciting actions while completing missions using dynamic card play. Move quickly for the ruins of humankind are full of predators and calamity may arise at any moment!

Supreme Commander! The enemy is upon us and it is up to you strategically deploy our available forces into the Air, Land, and Sea. Engage the opposing force and lead our forces to victory! As Supreme Commander of your country’s military forces, it is your objective to win the war by being victorious in a series of Battles! To win a Battle, you must either control two of the three Theaters of war after both players have played all of their Battle cards, or convince your opponent to withdraw! To control a Theater, the total strength of all Battle cards on your side of the Theater must exceed the total Strength of the Battle cards on the opponent’s side of the Theater.

In Aquaretto, the players are managing the planning and selection of animals for their water themed zoo, in the hope of acquiring the most victory points. The players can expand the size of their water park and victory points can be earned in a number of ways. The most common way is to collect a large number of animals to your park in a variety of species.

Battlelands is a fast and furious game of turf warfare for 3-5 players. Send your fighters to seize key locations, or recruit even fiercer warriors who can help you turn the tide! Use your faction's abilities to play dirty and keep your opponents guessing your next move! Set in the world of the upcoming Adventure Book game Aftermath, Battlelands: Aftermath Edition takes place in a post-apocalyptic land in which humans are extinct. Now the animals of the world try to survive by competing for territory, food, and precious technology.

Up to two thousand pounds in weight and over ten feet tall, the bear is considered the biggest and heaviest terrestrial carnivore in the world. Of course, there is not just "one bear;" on the contrary, there are plenty of subspecies that differ from each other in various aspects. For instance, only the Kodiak bear (ursus arctos middendorffi) weighs about 2,000 lbs. The polar bear (ursus maritimus) weighs "only" 1,100 lbs., but gets much bigger than the Kodiak bear, being as much as 11 ft. tall! Bärenpark takes you into the world of bears, challenging you to build your own bear park. Would you like another polar bear enclosure or rather a koala* house? The park visitors are sure to get hungry on their tour through the park, so build them places to eat! Whatever your choices are, make sure you get the next building permit and use your land wisely! (* No, koalas aren't bears but they're so cute, we couldn't leave them out of this game!) In more detail, each player in Bärenpark builds their own bear park, attempting to make it as beautiful as they can, while also using every square meter possible. The park is created by combining polyomino tiles onto a grid, with players scoring for animal houses, outdoor areas, completed construction, and more. The sooner you build it, the better! Cover icons to get new tiles and park sections. The game ends as soon as one player has finished expanding their park, then players tally their points to see who has won.

You cultivate the forest in front of your cavern and dig deeper into the mountain throughout the game. By furnishing rooms in your caverns you make space to grow your tribe and and create new goods from your resources. Deeper into the mountain you will find fountains as well as ore and gem mines. It's on you to decide how much ore and gems you want to mine, giving you the opportunity to forge weapons and go on adventures; a new way to do things in the game instead of using actions with your workers. Outside your cavern you can clear the forest, cultivate fields, fence pastures and grow crops or breed animals. All this in order to increase your wealth and become the strongest and best tribe leader of them all! The game includes a solo mode, giving you the opportunity to make yourself familiar with the 48 different room tiles which are available to furnish your caverns.

A cooperative version of the game Concept, adapted for play with children aged 4 and up. A game entirely dedicated to the animal kingdom! Get people to guess your favorite animals. But shh, there’s no talking here – words have been replaced with icons!

Use resources to build a village of critters and constructions in this woodland game. From Everfrost to Bellsong, many a peaceful year have passed in Everdell — but the time has come for new territories to be settled and new cities to be established. You will be the leader of a group of critters intent on just such a task. There are buildings to construct, lively characters to meet, events to host— you will have a busy year ahead of you! Will the sun shine brightest on your city before the winter moon rises?

In Evolution: The Origin of Species, players do the work of nature, putting animals into play and evolving them trait by trait to help them survive and thrive. Each player starts with a hand of six cards that feature an animal on the back and one or two traits on the front. Each round consists of four phases. During Development, players take turns playing one card from their hand either as an animal (face-down) or as a trait on one of their existing animals (face-up and tucked under the animal). Traits include Carnivorous, Camouflage, Sharp Vision, Swimming, Poisonous and Communication; if a card has two traits, the player chooses which trait the animal acquires, hiding the other trait under the animal. Once a player passes during this phase, he can no longer play cards.

Exploriana is an exciting game of exploration and discovery set towards the end of the 19th century. The players control the destiny of intrepid explorers setting out on expeditions to far off regions of the world. Fantastic animals, beautiful orchids, glittering treasures, lost explorers, maps and more all await discovery. However, fame and fortune will only come to those brave enough to trek into the untamed wilds. Exploriana is played over several rounds, each split into a number of phases. Each round, players recruit explorers, ranging from photographers and detectives to scholars, medics and more. They then decide which of three far flung regions of the world they wish to send their explorers; South America, Africa or The Far East. Those explorers then lead expeditions into the deep jungles, endless savannah and mist swathed mountains of these strange new lands. Exploration is a dangerous pursuit, perils lurk around every corner waiting to doom an expedition to failure! Explorers rely on their skills and wit to get them through, but if their expedition runs into too much trouble they could become lost, perhaps never to be seen again! The players must decide just how far to push their luck and see if fortune really does favour the bold!

Once upon a time there was a marvelous forest full of gorgeous fruits. These fruits came in vivid colors with the sweetest tastes. And the best part was the fruits could be squeezed and mixed into the most delicious juices. You are animals living in this forest, searching for the most savory fruits. You find them with the help of friendly forest-dwellers. They give you fruits, trade them with you or help you in other ways. It is most advantageous to be the first at these locations. If you are already at a location, you get a fruit from the animals arriving after you. You are greedy and thirsty. Who will be the first to satisfy their appetite for fabled juices?

Familiar Tales is an exciting narrative game where players take on the roles of a wizard’s familiars, entrusted with saving and raising a displaced princess. They must keep her safe from the evil forces that would see her dead, but when it comes to children, it is not enough to merely survive! The familiars know that every choice they make will affect the young one in their care. If they are victorious and the throne is reclaimed, what kind of woman will sit upon it?