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Overworld Now on Kickstarter!

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Category: Age: 14+ 30 - 40 Min 2 - 4 Players 2018
Designers: Publishers:

THEMATIC OVERVIEW

In Overworld the players take the role of explorers trying to control land and sea with their ships and giant birds. Who will be the greatest explorer?

GAME OVERVIEW

Overworld is a tile placing game with elements of area control. The unique fact about this game, is the puzzle lock system that binds the tiles together. You do not have to worry anymore about moving the tiles by mistake or dropping them on the floor. Other than that, the game is quite interesting, so let us see how the game is played.

Every player is given 7 ships and 7 giant birds along with 3 dungeon doors. In order to start the game, you pick a Coast tile randomly which is a smaller tile than the Travel Tiles that players use to expand the map. Travel tiles are 3 square-tiles shaped like a capital letter L.

Every player takes a Travel tile from the bag for their first turn. In every turn, a player draws a Travel tile from the bag. Then that tile must be connected to at least one edge of a tile already in play. Every Travel tile has two sides. A water side up and a land side up. These sides can be connected only to water and land respectively and not vice versa. There are also Travel Tiles with special illustrations that can be swapped for coast tiles. The coast tiles are the only ones that have edges for connecting both water and land.

After placing the L shaped tile, a player must add explorers to that tile one for each empty square. A land side up tile can have birds as explorers and the water side up tile can have ships as explorers. Lastly, a player must resolve Gaps. Gaps are bare areas on the table surrounded by tiles. No Travel tiles must fit to the gap. When a Gap is formed, players can use their dungeon doors if they have the most explorers on the regions surrounding the gap. A region consists of squares of the same type (mountains, forests, whirlpools or reefs). When all travel tiles or coast tiles are connected to the map, the game is over. You score points for the regions controlled by your explorers and you gain points for the distance between your dungeon doors.

The game is currently on kickstarter with plenty of stretch goals to unlock and a very reasonable price. Shipping costs are 5$ to USA, 10$ for the world and for some regions 20$.

Tile placement games are really fun for me and if they are fun for you too, check out Overworld here.

 

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