Welcome board game fans! This month we take a look at our favourite racing games, review the excellent co-operative strategy game Spirit Island and add the swashbuckling family favourite Port Royal (with the Just One More Contract expanstion) to our rental collection. We also bring our readers an exclusive chance to add Dobble/Spot it! to their shopping cart for just £5 during the month of June.
Happy board gaming!
Since the dawn of board games the idea of racing towards a finish line and declaring yourself the winner has been an enduring theme. Happily, we’ve progressed a long way since the simplistic roll-and-move mechanisms of Snakes (or Chutes) and Ladders. Today’s racing board games offer a mix of different play styles, balance strategy and luck and deliver engaging play that brings the excitement of the race experience to life. Here are a six of our favourites for your consideration:
HEAT : Pedal to the Metal
Heat: Pedal to the Metal has players vying for position to cross the finish line first while managing their car’s speed carefully so as to not overheat their engines. Players advance by drawing and playing cards from their hands. Risky actions add heat cards to your deck which will slow you down on future turns. The game does a great job of delivering an enjoyable racing experience while maintaining a good balance between skill and luck.
Flamme Rouge
Flamme Rouge captures the thrill and tension of a real cycling race. Players control a team of two cyclists and use a clever card-driven system to determine the movement of their cyclists. The game is easy to learn but offers a decent amount of strategy as players myst decide when to push for speed (risking exhaustion) and plan to exploit slipstream effects in their effort to be in the lead position when the game ends.
Scrap Racer
Scrap Racer is a push-your-luck dice game that will appeal especially to families. The play is wild and fun as players take on the role of daredevil stunt drivers with only one goal: to win the race—no matter how dangerous! Each race is three laps of the track and players have unique abilities to “assist” them on their mad dash to victory. Watch out though, if you roll a double you will have to draw a dreaded Crash card!
Camel Up
In Camel Up, five racing camels speed around a pyramid with players bettting on the outcome of the race. Camel movement is decided by random selection of a dice and players are able to revise their bets and place new bets as the game progresses. Camels landing on the same space as another camel will be “carried” by the camel on the bottom when it moves… even if it runs in the wrong direction!
The Quest for El Dorado
In this deck building race game, players navigate their own path through a dense jungle in pursuit of the legendary golden city of El Dorado. The cards in your hand represent tools, items and helpers and players acquire new cards to help them carve a path through the jungle faster than their opponents. The modular board setup means the routes taken and tactics needed in The Quest for El Dorardo will change each time you play.
Downforce
Downforce is a card-driven bidding, racing, and betting game for 2-6 players. Players bid for one of the six available cars in the race, then they race around the track by playing cards from their hand, taking care not to give their opponents an advantage. As the race progresses players will make secret bets on which car will win with victory going to the player with the most money.
(Scrap Racer and Flamme Rouge are currently available to rent from our library!)
1-4 Players
120 minutes
Spirit Island is a co-operative board game that flips the typical colonial narrative on its head: instead of trying to settle the island, players take on the role of powerful spirits of nature, each with a unique ability, charged with defending the island from colonising invaders. Players must work together, and teamwork and communication are key to coming up with the best strategy to ensure victory.
Spirit Island is not a “light” game and may not appeal to those not willing to sit down to a couple of hours of deep strategy, but for fans of more complex strategy games where its everyone working together against the game, this is sure to become a favourite. The asymmetry in spirit powers and the modular island board give the game a high replayability value as no two games feel the same.
Perhaps the best feature of this game is its thematic depth: from the outset players are immersed in the struggle against the encroaching invaders. Spirit Island is one of those games that really feels like the experience it intends to portray.
Spirit Island will no doubt be daunting for some at first. There’s a lot to learn, and it can feel a bit overwhelming at first. But those prepared to stick with it will be rewarded with a beautifully crafted, strategically rich game experience that excels in thematic immersion and will have you coming back for more.
For fans of complex strategy board games and co-operative play Spirit Island is an awesome, engaging game that’s definitely worth a try!
(Spirit Island is available to rent from our library or purchase from our online shop.)
2-5 Players
40 minutes
This month we added a game to our collection that we’ve enjoyed numerous times over the years but somehow had not managed to get on our Library shelves! A situatioin we felt we had to correct pronto!
In Port Royal, players take turns in trying to build the most vibrant and profitable harbour. Players build their harbour by revealing cards from a deck to recruiting crew members, trading with ships and completing expeditions. However reveal two ships of the same colour and they will blow up your harbour and ruin your good intentions.
Once you decide to stop drawing cards you can trade with a ship (for gold coins) or hire a crew member from your harbour and then invite all other players to do the same (for a small fee of course!). As your crew and stash of coins grows you can take ever bolder and more profitable turns in the hopes of earning the most victory points at the end of the game.
Port Royal makes efficient use of a deck of cards where the cards can be used either as currency (each has a coin printed on the reverse) or the ship, crew or expedition depicted on the card. The game relies heavily on push your luck mechanics as players must choose each turm whether to go for the big score or opt for a slow and steady amassing of points. It is thrilling to pull off a daring (and lucrative) draw and equally satisfying to watch your oponnets go bust after being just a little too greedy!
Bonus: Customers renting Port Royal from My Board Game Library will also get the Just Once More Contract expansion, which introduces additional ship and crew types as well as contracts that can be completed during the course of the game for additional gold and victory point rewards. The expansion also includes a challenging co-operative variant of Port Royal in which players must work together to complete a set number of contracts before time runs out in order to win.
(Port Royal & Just One More Contract bundle is available to rent from our library)
You can bundle small-format games as part of your rental up to a total weight of 2Kg. Just drop us an email with the games you’d like to include and we’ll do the rest. Also look out for our pre-selected “Theme” bundles such as our “kids bundle” and “party game bundle” which you will be able to add to your playlist.
My Board Game Library merchandise will be available from our online shop in the summer! We hope to bring you fun board-game themed T-shirts, coffee mugs, dice trays and stationery to enhance your board game nights!
Our Rental Library makes it easy to try new games before deciding to add them to your collection. It’s also a great way to add variety to your board game group without having to invest the full cost of a game.
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It’s all part of our friendly service!
– Anon.
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