Fortunes of Scoundrel Bay

• Designers: Eilif Svensson, Asmund Svensson, Vergard Eliassen Stillerud
• Publisher: Chilifox
• Players: 1-4
• Age: 14+
• Time: 90-120 min
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

You have finally reached the archipelago of Scoundrel Bay! Here, amidst treasures and dangers, fortune awaits any crew daring — or foolish — enough to seize it.

In Fortunes of Scoundrel Bay, players are pirate captains who try to collect the most gold by conquering harbors, seeking hideouts, delivering crates, digging up treasures, and gaining reputation by fighting monsters. During the game, each player builds up their crew to unlock stronger actions such as digging for treasure, invading hideouts, and picking up and delivering crates. On your turn, play one card from your hand and choose one of three actions for it:

• Recruit
• Sail and shoot monster
• Invade

You may not pick the same action you took on your previous turn. The deck contains 84 unique, multi‑use cards, and every card works with all three actions. After each of five reefs, you resolve an event and feed your crew. The game ends as soon as a captain crosses the fifth reef. Sailing quickly shortens the game, but racing ahead might leave your engine too weak to claim victory.

Fortunes of Scoundrel Bay is a high interaction game in which players compete to gain area‑majority over lucrative islands, outpace foes in an open draft of crew cards, race to engage monsters before others can, and outwit captains in tense blind bids — all without resorting to negative or take‑that attacks.

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Thebai

• Designer: David Turczi
• Publisher: Board&Dice
• Players: 1-4
• Age: 14+
• Time: 90-150 min
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Dark times loom over the kingdom of Thebes. The blind, old king Oedipus left the throne in disgrace and asked Polynices and Eteocles, his own sons, to rule the city together. But power corrupts and ancient feuds call for new blood to be spilled. Soon, Polynices finds himself leading an army from the rival city of Argos against his own brother. The Theban nobles support Eteocles as he maintains precarious rule over Thebes. The young king calls for defenders to man the seven gates of the city, while the invaders’ seven champions lead the attack on the gates. Meanwhile, the famous citadel of Thebes, the Cadmea, lies in disarray. It is as if the Fates themselves have lined everything up against the current rulers of Thebes!  While the common folks prepare for war, the noble families whisper among themselves that the time for new leadership has come, and the time to rebuild the Cadmea is now!

In Thebai, players assume the role of influential leaders from noble families during the tumultuous late Bronze Age. Throughout the game, players are tasked with rebuilding the Cadmea, the citadel of Thebes, while restoring the city’s exports, praying to the gods of the city, and protecting the lives of the citizens as grand heroes spill each other’s blood outside the gates. The game lasts 10 rounds, each divided into an Action phase and a Fate phase. During the Action phase, players use one Citizen die, and then move their Archon on the Cadmea. During the Fate phase, players may get additional scoring opportunities, depending on their accomplishments and for protecting the city gates. After final scoring the player with the most Victory Points is the winner.

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Level 10

• Designer: Hisashi Hayashi
• Publisher: Grail Games
• Players: 1-5
• Ages: 14+
• Time: 15-30 minutes (box says 16-32)
• Times played: 4, with review copy provided by Matagot/Grail

In the co-operative card game Level 10 — which was first released as Okey Dokey — players work together to try to complete the challenge. In Okey Dokey, you are putting on a music festival with different performers and must play out all fifty cards in order to complete the performance.

In Level 10, you try to help Izzy play through all ten levels in each of five different video game worlds; each world is represented by a row of cards on the table. Players will play cards one by one to this 5×10 grid — 40 level cards and 10 reset cards — to (hopefully) complete the game. Players’ hands are kept secret from one another and only slight suggestions can be made.

If a player cannot play a card on their turn, the players (and Izzy) lose.

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