When you’re back inside, thanks to canceled flights or fear of sunstroke, you can still travel the world with some cool board games.
Has your summer vacation been ruined by airport chaos? Don’t worry, you can travel the world from your living room! Enjoy some wanderlust with friends and family from the comfort of your couch, completing quests and puzzles in faraway places while avoiding the queues at passport control.
Last month there were plenty of travel themed board games UK Games Expo which is why we’ve selected some great new escape games to try as well as some new expansions for old favorites. Travel games are not only fun but can be educational, often exploring a country’s history and culture, from Japanese tree spirits straight out of Princess Mononoke to expansive Russian royalty.
Gaming on the table is booming and with Gene Con, the world’s largest tabletop gaming expo, in just two weeks in Indianapolis, many more new board games and expansions will be unveiled. There is special excitement for the promised Return to Dark Towersequel to the classic board game Dark Tower from 1981, but also a role-playing game Country of Eemwho sells himself as Lord of the Rings and The Muppets.
Ticket To Ride: San Francisco
Ask anyone to recommend a game about travel and at the top of their list is Ticket To Ride. It’s easy to pick up and play and a staple of any gaming cafe’s library. Set in 1960s San Francisco, this new version begins with each player having a supply of 20 small ziplines to place on the board, and destination cards that indicate locations around the city.
The gameplay involves completing routes around the Bay Area, and you do this by drawing more transport cards from the deck and claiming routes on the board. You may even have to take a ferry! All uncompleted destination tickets lose your points, and then the one with the highest score wins. The streamlined gameplay allows you to finish the game in just 15 minutes. It will be released worldwide in August.
Days of Miracle – £55.99
Next station – London
Haven’t had the pleasure of taking the Elizabeth Line yet? We were impressed with the purple seats and air conditioning, but maybe you think it could be better! In Next Station – London, you take on the role of a project manager charged by the City of London with redesigning the Tube network. You score points by optimizing four metro stops on the network and keeping the tourists happy by making sure that sights are easy to reach with as few stops as possible. The game takes place over four rounds and each round you use colored pencils to outline the construction of your underground line.
At the end of the round, switch pencils with the player to your left and start a new line until the fourth round, by which time you have created an impressive network crossing the Thames. With advanced and solo modes, this game has great replayability and super sharp minimalistic graphics that the London 2012 Olympics would be proud of!
Blue Orange – £13.99 from Amazon
Catherine: The Cities of the Tsarina
Not much has changed since the tsarist empire of 1762, as the tsarina wants to expand her empire, but as a royal counselor, you can win her favor by steering the country in a different direction, such as developing a strategy based on cultivating of art to buy weapons instead. This competitive game looks at whether you can be successful at playing politics using an innovative card mechanism. Played over a simulated three decades, which strategies you prioritize during the game lead to different win conditions at the end.
At the start of the game, you choose project cards that have cities and resources assigned to them, such as books or cannons, and an action that gives you a bonus. Draw and match the color of activation and action cards to complete tasks such as placing a residence on the map and exchanging cards for points or a favor. Every round and every decade is scored at the end, but with only 12 actions available for the game, every decision matters if you want to keep Catherine happy!
Capstone games – $54.95
Bitoku
Looking like something straight out of a Studio Ghibli movie, Bitoku sees players take on the role of Bitoku’s opportunistic forest spirits, on their journey to transcendence and the goal of becoming The Great Spirit – after the current one retires. Achieving this goal will only be possible with the help of the lesser yōkai spirits, the kodamas and the various pilgrims who help you to rise to a higher level. This is a complex and time-consuming game of hand management, where you have plenty of time for contemplation and reflection as you work out a strategy.
Players have three yōkai guardians, who must be placed in the right places at the right times to get the most out of their skills. You have to build structures in the forest, find soul crystals that generate resources and help the mitamas – lost souls in search of redemption – by using the chinkon fireflies.
This game has a lot to offer and a huge number of components. It took us several sessions of intense meditation to master the rules, but with a compelling story and some stunning aesthetics, it’s worth the dedication to enlightenment.
Revenue – £55.00 from Amazon
The Castles of Burgundy
Medieval France had as many power struggles as today’s Conversative leadership race. In Castles Of Burgundy, each player takes on the role of an aristocrat with a small principality, but your sights are set on a bigger castle to equip with gold wallpaper as soon as possible. The gameplay includes building settlements and castles, trading along the river and mining silver. There is no rush to conquer, however, as the progression is thoughtful and the game mechanics run as precisely as a Swiss watch.
Players must fill as much of the board as possible and score points each time you complete an area of one color. The bigger the region, the more points you score. The sooner you complete the game, the more points you score – including victory points for unused money and workers, and for undelivered goods.
Settlement tiles are your currency and expand your principality, while each tile has a function that comes into play when placed. Our top tip is that farms are risky and mines more reliable, but never start a region you can’t finish. While it doesn’t look like Bitoku, Castles Of Burgundy is well paced, accessible and a joy to play.
alea- £42.37 from Amazon
inscrutable
With the airports in crisis, it might be worth considering your next vacation on the high seas. In Unfathomable, you’re sailing on the steamship SS Atlantica, but things go fast for Jack Sparrow when strange nightmares begin to haunt the passengers’ minds; shadows are seen overboard and satanic rituals take place in the ship’s chapel. The Deep Ones, led by Mother Hydra and Father Dagon, are on the move and want to sink the Atlantica.
During gameplay, one or more players take on the role of The Deep Ones’ minions, who secretly try to sabotage the efforts of the passengers (other players) with trunk leaks and food shortages; getting this done in time can mean the difference between a successful trip and a trip to Davey Jones’ locker.
When playing as a passenger, you’ll need to fend off Deep Ones, keep the Atlantica from taking too much damage, and handle the ship’s resources with care if you’re going to have any hope of reaching Boston while trying to figure out who’s trying. to sabotage your journey and sink the ship. So basically it’s a Cthulhu-themed Among Us, but in board game form.
Fantasy Flight Games – £65.08 from Amazon
Pirate Borg
If sea monsters aren’t bad enough, there are pirates on this high seas! If you can’t make it to Disney World this summer, for the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, there are plenty of swashbuckling campaigns in this scurvy death metal role-playing game based on the existing Dark castle game.
Stay on Entombed and break the rum as you read your machete and hope to hit a direct hit to defend against hordes of skeletons and ghost ships. Disney would NOT approve of this horror-style pirate campaign.
Llimithron – $34.99
Luna Capital
The ultimate travel destination for the likes of Bezos and Elon Musk has now been realized in board game form, as the dream of building cities on the surface of the moon becomes a reality. Luna Capital is a tile placement game with cool comic graphics and stackable spaceships. In 12 rounds, players must build the largest settlement on the moon and win the game.
Each round, players choose from one construction card and the project tiles below it. The tiles show what projects are available, all of which are essential to the construction of a luxury moon base. They include oxygen collectors, greenhouses, residential complexes and marketing suites to sell flats with 360° views of the Milky Way. Manage your resources well and you can become mayor of the moon. Can’t wait for Starfield? Luna Capital has you covered.
Revenue – £22.99 from Amazon
E-mail [email protected]leave a comment below, and follow us on twitter.
LAKE : How to Build a Warhammer Army – A Beginner’s Guide to Warhammer 40,000 and Age of Sigmar
LAKE : The 10 best table games to play with four people or more
LAKE : How to get into live card games like Marvel Champions
Follow Metro Gaming on Twitter and email us [email protected]
For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.
