Unboxed the Board Game Blog

The bustling market in Nottingham is filled with goods from all over the kingdom. Most of it is entirely legal, however, Prince John is looking to make sure no contraband gets sold. He’s tasked the Sheriff to inspect Merchant’s wares, looking for any illicit goods. The Sheriff’s shrewd, but not above taking a bribe to look the other way. Which Merchant will end up getting the best goods through and make the largest profits in the market stalls?

"Are the stars unfamiliar here?" she asked, and the sky grew suddenly dark, the star's patterns alien and exotic. "This is the Wandering Sea. The gods have brought you here, and you must wake them if you wish to return home." In Sleeping Gods, you and up to 3 friends become Captain Sofi Odessa and her crew, lost in a strange world in 1929 on your steamship, the Manticore. You must work together to survive, exploring exotic islands, meeting new characters, and seeking out the totems of the gods so that you can return home. Sleeping Gods is a campaign game. Each session can last as long as you want. When you are ready to take a break, you mark your progress on a journey log sheet, making it easy to return to the same place in the game the next time you play. You can play solo or with friends throughout your campaign. It's easy to swap players in and out at will. Your goal is to find at least fourteen totems hidden throughout the world. Like reading a book, you'll complete this journey one or two hours at a time, discovering new lands, stories, and challenges along the way. Sleeping Gods is an atlas game. Each page of the atlas represents only a small portion of the world you can explore. When you reach the edge of a page and you want to continue in the same direction, you simply turn to a new page and sail onward. Sleeping Gods is a storybook game. Each new location holds wild adventure, hidden treasures, and vivid characters. Your choices affect the characters and the plot of the game, and may help or hinder your chances of getting home! Welcome to a vast world. Your journey starts now.

The peaks of Snowdonia rise before you, encased in mist, their summits barely visible. The highest is Snowdon (Wyddfa) herself at 1,085 metres. The year is 1894, and the Snowdon Mountain Tramroad and Hotels Company Limited has been formed to build a branch line from Llanberis to the summit. You can scarcely believe it's possible! In Snowdonia players represent work gangs providing labour for the construction of the Snowdon Mountain Railway. Unlike other train games you will have to excavate your way up a mountain side, as well as make and lay the track, construct viaducts and stations. All this in competition with the weather of the Welsh mountains (and the game itself)! You may be assisted by a train (though that's not always best) and you'll be able to collect essential materials from the Stock Yard. You will obtain special work contracts that give you bonuses. Can you contribute more than the other players to the magnificence of the Snowdon Mountain Railway?

Purge the Xenos Threat!The Space Hulk Sin of Damnation has succumbed to vicious Genestealer infestation. Now you must purge the vile alien...Space Hulk: Death Angel The Card Game is cooperative card game for 1-6 players. Set in the grim Warhammer 40,000 universe, Death Angel pits squad of Blood Angel Space Marines against growing alien horde. It will take strategic teamwork to make it out alive.Pick your combat group, fall into formation, and prepare for the Genestealer swarms!

Simple but fun game based on playing from a hand of cards representing robots. Each has special powers and affects the stack (stak) in different ways, making it more tactical than a simple rock-paper-scissors exercise. The game functions by giving each player a stack of cards as well as a hand. Each turn, players take a new card from the shared draw pile and may add a face-up card to the stack, trash a card from the stack or from their hand. When a card is played, it will have "entry effect" that may operate on the stack ordering of the player or opponent. Once all playing/trashing is finished for a turn, the player may attack the card on top of an opponent's stack with the top card of their own. The battle itself is quite simple and just a matter of comparing power, although assuming your bot survives its first battle, it can go on to attack the newly revealed card underneath. The real tactical consideration goes into the pre-attack stack manipulation phase. There is an open turn structure which allows players to carry out actions in any order and any number of times. This means they can react to the often unpredictable results of long entry effect chains, or to cards that their opponents play defensively during your turn. The game is also customisable: you can adjust the complexity or game length by adding more Staks for each player or by changing basic game mechanics.

The actions of a handful of men and women shape the course of the Galactic Civil War in Star Wars™: Rebellion, a board game of epic conflict between the Galactic Empire and Rebel Alliance for two to four players. In Star Wars™: Rebellion, you control the entire Galactic Empire or the fledgling Rebel Alliance. You must command starships, account for troop movements, and rally systems to your cause. Featuring more than 150 plastic miniatures and two game boards that account for thirty-two of the Star Wars™ galaxy’s most notable star systems, Star Wars™: Rebellion aspires to be as large and sweeping as the Star Wars™ universe itself.

Summoner Wars puts you in the role of a powerful summoner. Display your tactical prowess by summoning units to your gates, outmaneuvering your opponent, and cutting down the enemy summoner. Countless unit types, a wide variety of spells and abilities, and the option to build your own decks, all make for a game sure to entertain, play after play.

Pass the sushi! In this fast-playing card game, the goal is to grab the best combination of sushi dishes as they whiz by. Score points for making the most maki rolls or for collecting a full set of sashimi. Dip your favorite nigiri in wasabi to triple its value. But be sure to leave room for dessert or else you’ll eat into your score! Gather the most points and consider yourself the sushi master!

Taking on the role of one of their favorite "Heroes in a Half Shell" or their allies, in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Change Is Constant players battle their way through scenario-driven campaigns focused on retelling the stories of the IDW comics or one of the many one-shot, quick play missions. Heroes have to battle it out against a team of villains played by either a villain player (in the 4vs1 mode) or an AI-controlled villain (in the co-operative mode). Depending on the game mode chosen, missions generally take between 30-120 minutes. Change Is Constant is volume one in IDW's series of "Adventures"-branded miniatures games. Both it and volume two (City Fall) are standalone games, while also being compatible with one another. Change Is Constant follows the first two story arcs of IDW's TMNT comic universe series, while City Fall focuses on the story of one turtle's unexpected recruitment into the Foot Clan. Each standalone box contains five unique heroes and a variety of villains associated with each story, with more than forty miniatures total.

The Agents is a deceptively simple card game; easy to learn, set up and start playing, but underpinned by intricate decision-making gameplay. Players must join their Agents into Factions, assign Missions and take their opponents down, to gather intel and win the most points.

Astronauts wanted! Scientists say there is a mysterious ninth planet located at the edge of our solar system. But despite all of their efforts, so far they have been unable to provide substantial evidence of its existence. Join this exciting space adventure to find out if the theories are just science fiction or if you will discover Planet Nine. In this card game you need to complete 50 different missions as you travel across the solar system. But you will only succeed if you can work together as a team. To master the challenges and achieve your mission, communication will be essential — but in space, things can be more challenging than expected …

Thunder Alley is a stock car racing game for 2-7 players with the feel and flexibility of a card-driven simulation. Players controls not one car, but a team of 3-6 cars. Each race is not only a run for the checkered flag but an effort to maximize the score for every car on your team. Winning is important but if you race one car to the finish line, your team might end up outside of the winner’s circle looking in.