Industry / Manufacturing

In Black Forest, you start out with a small domain in need of new buildings and livestock. You’ll travel from village to village to enlist the aid of the best specialists. Exploiting the abilities of these specialists lets you collect resources, lay out new landscape tiles (e.g., ponds and fields), and build a variety of buildings, which come in four types. Choose the right buildings, place landscapes, fire up your glass production, and expand your domain.

Uwe Rosenberg’s resource wheels are making once again making their presence, made famous in Glass Road (2013). Two resource wheels on your tableau help you keep track of your resources and production. Black Forest continues the story - as the name suggests — in the Black Forest. Among others, the main difference between the two games is the use of worker placement in BLack Forest instead of simultaneous action selection.

A wide selection of buildings and their different effects offer many different paths to victory.

—description from publisher

Grab a hammer and some steel, it’s time to forge! The Blacksmiths Guild of Ravenshire is in need of a new Forgemaster. You and your fellow smiths are competing to see who can make the most money and become the new Forgemaster.

Forges of Ravenshire is played over 4 seasons or rounds. Each season starts with the gathering phase where players will acquire contracts, recruit guild members, and gather resources. Players roll their dice workers and place one of them on an available location to gather resources. Then retrieve a different dice worker to gather even more resources. However, the various workers are from different guilds and when retrieved will activate the guilds you have invested in. All players will take turns placing one of their workers and retrieving another worker 3 times.

After the gathering phase is the production phase. Take those 3 dice workers you have taken and now place them on different areas of your forge to gather more resources, make charcoal or steel, and forge contracts to make money.

At the end of every season, check to see if any special titles have been earned. Titles bring prestige and hard-earned money.

Finally, roll your 3 dice workers again and prepare the county of Ravenshire for the next season.

—description from the publisher

The Industrial Age is starting to boom. You are in need of more workers for your factories, and you also need more workers to build railroad tracks to expand your railway network. This, in turn, will enable you to deliver the goods from your factories to cities with high demand — but be sure to earmark goods for fulfilling profitable public contracts because when the connection to Trieste is made, your net worth is all that matters.

Imperial Steam is a highly strategic yet accessible economic and logistics game that sees you making difficult decisions as you manage your business's operations while navigating fierce competition to ensure your victory!

—description from the publisher

Salton Sea is a unique place located in California, very close to the border with Mexico. The characteristics of this salty lake make it a unique location to generate geothermal energy, which takes advantage of the heat from the planet. In this area of intense geothermal activity, you will drill the ground and extract brine which, once processed, allows us to obtain the valuable lithium and sell it as part of a modern industry, far from fossil fuels, that will allow you to lead the energy transition towards a completely renewable future.

Designed by David Bernal and illustrated by Amelia Sales, Salton Sea can be enjoyed alone or in groups of up to four players in sessions lasting about 120 minutes. During the game, players must manage their geothermal lithium extraction companies to obtain the greatest number of points. The extraction of this material and its subsequent processing will be the driving force of your companies.

On your turn, place one of your four engineers on one of the available spaces to take an action. There are three different groups of actions: industrial actions (which allow you to obtain an exploration license, drill, extract, process or repair machinery), commercial actions (sell, acquire contract and execute contract), and management actions (research, buy shares, develop the business project or finance itself). It is up to you to manage the engineers at each point of the game to get the most out of your company.

However, there is no single path to success. The game will reward you for exhausted land, executed contracts, short-term objectives, company development, or research advances. Will you master the power of the Salton Sea to create the most efficient geothermal company?

—description from the publisher

I stumbled upon a midnight market. It wasn't selling flowers or farm goods. It was a more curious sort of cargo: energy capacitors, strange crystalline material, and something green and jiggly. Since then, I've been dragged into it, deep into the thick of it.

I paid a stranger more than I should have for manufacturing plans I hardly understood. Worse yet, they sold the same stuff to my best friend. Now, I have to get my supply lines up and running to prepare for shipping my cargo — and if my friend starts shipping some of this curious cargo, I'll have to intercept their trucks and corner the market that way.

By hook or by crook, I'm going to be the king of curious cargo...

Curious Cargo is a two-player game in which you go head-to-head against your opponent by building up the infrastructure of your facility, calling in trucks at the right moment, all while perfectly timing the shipping and receiving of cargo to score the most points. Connect an interweaving web of lines to your shipping and receiving spaces. Play with two-color conveyor tiles, or step it up for an advanced experience and play with all three colors. Ship your custom-shaped cargo tokens to your opponent to interfere with their logistics plans!

The puzzling nature of Ryan Courtney's Pipeline comes alive in Curious Cargo! With six unique player boards for each player and two game modes, a skillful challenge awaits even the sharpest competitor.