Abstract Strategy

Winter

Every winter, the lake freezes over. It won’t last long, so we have to play as soon as possible, trying to dominate the frozen parts of the lake before everything unfreezes and we lose everything. In order to win, choose key spaces wisely before your rival does, and control them. Show that the cold never bothered you.

In Winter, two players compete to be the player with the most chips of their color on the lake at the end of the game. The game is divided into two phases. In the first, the freezing phase, players will create the frozen lake in a contiguous form using their snowflake cards. They’ll also attempt to secure zones in which they’ve managed to group four snowflakes of their color using chips. In the second phase, the unfreezing, they’ll undo the creation by moving and retrieving their cards and chips of their color. At the end of the game, the player with the most chips on the table is declared the winner.

Winter is an abstract game for 2 players ages 8 and up. Games last 10 minutes in which good decisions are everything. This is a reissue of the 2016 edition with all new mechanics.

Winter was the winner of the 2021 Cardboard Edison Award. It’s the first of a series of the 4 Seasons series that will continue later with Autumn, Summer, and Spring.

Beacon Patrol

You are captains of the Coast Guard. Together you check beacon buoys and lighthouses to ensure the safety of the North Sea coast.

You place your tiles next to tiles that are already on layed out, move your ships and explore the sea.

Your goal is to explore as many tiles as possible. A tile is considered explored when it’s connected to other tiles on all four of its sides.

Beacon Patrol is a coop tile laying exploration game in which you navigate the coast of the northsea to secure its beacon buoys, lighthouses and waterways.

—description from the designer

Four Corners

Four Corners is a living puzzle! In this quick, fun, and captivating game, everyone has a different solution, but only the player who best manipulates the board and completes their puzzle will win! Four Corners comes in 2 themed editions: Kaleidoscope and Galaxy.

Players each start a game of Four Corners game with secret goals. Every turn, you’ll add, twist, rotate, and flip tiles to reach your goal. This is achieved on the unique, patented Four Corners game board, which allows tiles to rotate and move without affecting neighboring tiles. You score a goal either by creating sequences of four identical images, or by completing a full image from the corners of four tiles. Watch out, because other players will also be shifting and changing the board to shape it the way they need. The first player to achieve three of their secret goals wins!

Knarr

In Knarr, you are the leader of a band of Vikings that you send to new destinations. Manage the recruitment of your crew, and choose the best territories to explore. Depending on the destinations reached (for trading or influence) and the Vikings who accompany you, you can increase your reputation to gain even more wealth. Each turn, you:

Place a new member in your Viking crew, activate the effects of all of them with the same icon, and get another one from those available under the matching color on the central board, or

Explore new destinations, with the opportunity to trade with those places and get more gains or reputation.

Lacuna

Lacuna is a game for 2 players about collecting flowers on a pond at night. It takes seconds to set up and plays entirely on a cloth mat.

The rules are simple: draw an imaginary line between 2 flowers, place a pawn, and collect both flowers.

—description from the publisher