Unboxed the Board Game Blog

A new, stand-alone game in the universe of the internationally best-selling game, Terraforming Mars! In this time of unprecedented prosperity and advancement for humankind, we are finally ready to expand beyond what once were considered our limits and make a new home among the stars. Ares Expedition is a card game where you take control of an interplanetary corporation with the mission to make Mars habitable (and profitable). Featuring simultaneous action selection and simultaneous resolution, Ares Expedition is a fast-playing strategy game inspired by scientific principles. Will you lead humanity’s new era?

Ragnarök has come, and it’s the end of the world! It’s the Vikings’ last chance to go down in a blaze of glory and secure their place in Valhalla at Odin’s side! Blood Rage is a Viking board game created by acclaimed game designer Eric M. Lang. In this fast-paced yet highly strategic game, players take control of Viking clans, with their own warriors, leader and ship. Invading, pillaging and battling in a quest to gain as much glory as possible before Ragnarök finally consumes the land! Here comes the ultimate Viking saga. The game's striking visuals are a combination of Adrian Smith’s highly evocative artwork, and Mike McVey’s amazingly detailed miniatures for this mythological game.

Cards Against Humanity is a fill-in-the-blank party game that turns your awkward personality and lackluster social skills into hours of fun! Wow.

Queen Gimnax has ordered the reclamation of northern lands. As a cartographer in her service, you are sent to map this territory, claiming it for the Kingdom of Nalos. Gimnax’s edicts announce which lands she prizes most, and you will increase your reputation by meeting her demands. But you are not alone in this wilderness. The Dragul contest your claims with their outposts, and so you must draw your lines carefully to reduce their influence. Reclaim the greatest share of the Queen’s desired land and you will be declared the greatest cartographer in Nalos. In Cartographers, players compete to get the highest reputation at the end of four seasons. Each season, players draw on their map sheet and score against unique conditions at the end of the season. The player with the highest reputation at the end of the year is declared the winner.

Gangsters have just committed the robbery of the century, but now comes the most difficult part: sharing the loot! Ca$h’n Guns 2nd edition is a party game of bluff and gangsters, by Ludovic Maublanc, for 4 to 8 players.

Who—or what—is out there? Eons ago, your ancestors searched the black void of space for intelligent life. Their search proved fruitless. They were alone. Desolate, they used their technology to send the seeds of life to inhabitable planets across the galaxies. Over millions of years, the alien species evolved, but before the ancestors could see the fruits of their labor, they disappeared. To aid their children, your ancestors left behind a legacy of advanced technology and hyperspace gates- gifts to encourage communication and harmony between their children. But without the guide of an elder, you and your distant alien cousins must learn to communicate, negotiate, and coexist. Welcome to the Cosmic Age. The open skies of countless worlds are filled with speeding spaceships, and a panoply of alien species compete to populate the galaxy. Will your people choose to occupy undefended worlds, create peaceful civilizations, or ruthlessly conquer foreign planets? In the quest to colonize the vast cosmos, there are as many paths to victory as there are aliens seeking it. Peace, war, negotiation, betrayal—you never know what will happen in the next encounter!

Players will take on the role of a wandering mercenary with their own special set of skills and their own reasons for traveling to this remote corner of the world. Players must work together out of necessity to clear out menacing dungeons and forgotten ruins. In the process they will enhance their abilities with experience and loot, discover new locations to explore and plunder, and expand an ever-branching story fueled by the decisions they make. This is a persistent game that is intended to be played over many game sessions. After a scenario, players will make decisions on what to do, which will determine how the story continues, kind of like a "Choose Your Own Adventure" book.

Do you cooperate and risk getting outsmarted by a greedy player? Or do you compete and risk losing everything? You are pirates who just looted a ship and must negotiate how to split the treasure. There are seven types of loot with values from 1 to 3. At the end of the game, you only score the treasure types you have the most and least of.

Incan Gold is an award-winning game in which players push their luck as they head into a ruined temple, attempting to find the most jewels. Each turn, a card is turned over that increases the gold found in a temple or shows a hazard. Players can attempt to escape, keeping the loot that they've acquired, or stay in the temple, hoping for increased profits. As players escape, those in the temple will acquire bigger shares of each pile of gold found, but also run the risk of dying if the same hazard card is drawn twice. Up to eight people can play this game, so it works very well at parties and other gatherings, as players decide whether or not to stay or leave the temples. With quality components and a compelling theme, Incan Gold will be the first choice of large groups looking for a fun filled game.

Finally! After a long voyage, the treasure hunters have reached the island of Karuba and can start hunting for the hidden treasures. Who will lead their expedition team as cleverly as possible along the jungle paths, pay attention to the other players and keep their eyes open for gold and crystals along the way? Karuba by HABA is an excitingly different placement game for children and adults. All players simultaneously seek their way through the jungle. Who lays their path tiles the cleverest, finds the best route and still has enough time to walk the paths at the end? A game with a clear addictive factor!

It is the 25th century. You are a member of an intergalactic expedition shipwrecked on a mysterious planet named Artemia. While waiting for the rescue ship, you begin to explore the planet but an alien entity picks up your scent and begins to hunt you. You are NOT ALONE! Will you survive the dangers of Artemia? NOT ALONE is an asymmetrical card game, in which one player (the Creature) plays against the stranded explorers (the Hunted). If you play as one of the Hunted, you will explore Artemia using Place cards. By playing these and Survival cards, you try to avoid, confuse or distract the Creature until help arrives. If you play as the Creature, you will stalk and pursue the shipwrecked survivors. By playing your Hunt cards and using the mysterious powers of Artemia, you try to wear down the Hunted and assimilate them to the planet forever. NOT ALONE is a immersive, thematic card game, where you use guessing, bluffing, hand management, and just a pinch of deck-building to achieve your goal, which is survival for the Hunted... or total assimilation for the Creature!

Return to the stone age in a new cooperative adventure! Paleo is a survival strategy game for 2–4 players, who form a tribe of people working together to explore their surroundings and undertake the ultimate paleolithic quest: completing a cave painting. Each player begins the game with a couple of humans, each of whom have a skill and a number of life points. On your turn, you’ll send them out to explore. While you can guess what you might find there—food, crafting materials, extra help on your mission—you never know what dangers may await you out in the wild. Be careful not to collect too many skull tokens and lose the game before you can cement your legacy!