{"title":"Plan B Games","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"alma-mater","title":"Alma Mater","description":"\u003cp\u003eComing from Eggertspiele and the same design team behind the brilliant Coimbra Alma Mater has a lot to live up too. Tasking players with the unique role of university headmasters in the 15th century. Alma Mater is a fantastic production. The components are top notch and the insert that holds them is more than fit for purpose. Each play will take a dual layer player board representing their university. To be successful they will need to hire lecturers, recruit students and publish papers. Papers are represented by these fantastic plastic books. Your papers are in your colour but over the course of the game you will need books of other players colours too. Each round papers will be valued with the highest value papers being used to recruit more students. Papers are also used to recruit lectures and if you are the first to do so in a subject then the papers you use will set the prices for the future players. Along with managing your supply of papers, money will also need to be well managed and gaining some extra income can be incredibly helpful. Worker placement is one of the main mechanics going on but there is a lot to take in and this is certainly 'heavier' in complexity than Coimbra. There is a lot of fun in figuring out a good engine that will produce the most efficient results and also sliding your papers into your book case. Your book case is important because you will be able to buy papers from other players and they from you. Alma Mater encourages more interaction than other Euro style games and does it in a good way. It's not so much about being mean to your opponents but rather giving them opportunity to work with you... briefly!Player count: 2-4 Time: 90-150 minutesAge rating: 12+\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Plan B Games","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56046769832314,"sku":"ZBG-PBGESG50150EN","price":36.69,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0916\/9970\/8282\/files\/Alma-Mater.jpg?v=1760967281"},{"product_id":"era-medieval-age-expansion","title":"Era: Medieval Age Expansion","description":"\u003cp\u003eEra: Medieval Age Expansion invites players to return to the world's first \"roll \u0026amp; build\" game with tons of new content. Included in this expansion are roads and rivers to connect domains to the world outside their own. Players will discover new structures and develop new strategies as they build their way to victory!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e With all these new opportunities comes a bit of risk as players will be challenged by a new disaster. Lastly, four scenarios are included in the game to give players an opportunity to become familiar with the new gameplay mechanisms.\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Plan B Games","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56046775107962,"sku":"ZBG-PBGESG50141EN","price":14.39,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0916\/9970\/8282\/files\/Era-Medieval-Age-Expansion.jpg?v=1760967293"},{"product_id":"great-western-trail-new-zealand","title":"Great Western Trail: New Zealand","description":"\u003cp\u003eEmbark on a journey to the pristine landscapes of New Zealand with the Great Western Trail: New Zealand Expansion! This expansion breathes new life into the critically acclaimed board game, Great Western Trail, by adding exciting elements that will elevate your gaming experience to new heights.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn Great Western Trail: New Zealand, you are a runholder — that is, the owner of a sheep station — on the South Island of New Zealand at the end of the 19th century. Recent years have seen your family farm prosper by diversifying your breeds of sheep and by increasing the value of your wool. With the dawn of the new century, new challenges have arisen. You must acquire new and improved breeds of sheep to ensure the prosperity of your family business and the laborers who work for you.\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Plan B Games","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56048367993210,"sku":"ZBG-PBGESG50180EN","price":42.35,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0916\/9970\/8282\/files\/Great-Western-Trail-New-Zealand-Icon.jpg?v=1760977492"},{"product_id":"century-golem-edition-an-endless-world","title":"Century: Golem Edition An Endless World","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe original Century trilogy from Plan B Games featured three games. Setting-wise, 100 years separates each title. Spice Road, Eastern Wonders, and A New World were all designed by Emerson Matsuuchi. Soon after, Plan B reimplemented these into the Golem Edition. They redressed the setting, switching to a fantasy style and the resource cubes into gems. Century: Golem Edition An Endless World is the Golem equivalent of the third and final Century game. All Century games share the same core mechanism. You're trading resources to complete contracts, worth points. You aim to achieve that in An Endless World using a worker placement mechanism. Throughout the game, players place their meeples on spaces that provide trade actions. Like in Spice Road (and likewise, the Golem Edition), at some point you'll take action retrieval. (Where you 'rest' and take your meeples back. In Spice Road, you reclaimed your spent cards back into your hand.) The alternative is to place a worker and 'bump' other workers present in that spot back to your opponents. Placing in sought-after hotspots sees your own workers return sooner than you thought! Claiming contract cards (with required gemstones) provides end-game points. But that's not all! They also contribute towards engine-building, which benefits your future placements. They become less expensive, and likewise all the more powerful in resource-gathering. Other cards reward you with unique set collection goals for end-game scoring. New areas on the board get opened up as the game evolves, increasing the options and levels of strategy. Weight-wise, the Century\/Golem games come in at around the gateway, gateway-plus category. They're easy to learn... but difficult to master. As a game in its own right, An Endless World provides a pleasant array of variety with every play. But an appealing add-on with the Century games runs tue with the Golem Editions, too. This series can intertwine with one another to create hybrid games. You can combine any two of the Golem games to create a blend of gameplay. Or you can integrate all three for a giant (or should that be golem-sized?) game! Player Count: 2-4 Players Time: 30-45 minutes Age: 8+\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Asmodee","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56049704206714,"sku":"ZBG-PBG40060EN","price":27.29,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0916\/9970\/8282\/files\/Century-Golem-Edition-An-Endless-World.jpg?v=1760983135"},{"product_id":"playmat-century-spice-road","title":"Playmat Century - Spice Road","description":"\u003cp\u003eStunning Playmat, beautifully packaged in a 4 color box, this work of art will greatly enhance your play experience of Century: Spice Road !\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Asmodee","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56049829740922,"sku":"ZBG-PBGWEB40000-002","price":45.09,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0916\/9970\/8282\/files\/Playmat-Century-Spice-Road.jpg?v=1760983694"},{"product_id":"century-golem-edition-eastern-mountains","title":"Century: Golem Edition - Eastern Mountains","description":"\u003cp\u003eAfter the roaring success of Emerson Matsuuchi's Century trilogy, Century: Golem Edition became a huge hit. It was a parallel option to the original Century: Spice Road, with a Manga-style art theme. Century: Eastern Wonders became the second game in the Century series of games. Century: Golem Edition Eastern Mountains is the second, therefore, in this Golem trilogy! Century: Golem Edition Eastern Mountains takes place in Carvania, home to the golems. In this game, you'll look to claim and trade crystals using a pick-up-and-deliver mechanism. The first player to complete four orders ends the game, and most points wins! Instead of spice cubes in Eastern Wonders (ginger, chilli, tea and cloves), here you deal in beautiful shiny crystals. Instead of a modular archipelago of islands, it takes place on a modular mountain range. Like Eastern Wonders, waiting on the four corners are specific crystal orders. If you can traverse your cart to these locations and pay in said crystals, you earn big points. Whenever orders get completed, a new one replaces it from a stack. Each mountain tile offers a different trade deal. Trading occurs like in Spice Road (and like in Century: Golem Edition). Players have a board with space for 10 crystals that they can hold at any one time. On a player's turn, they can move their cart to an adjacent mountain to partake in the trade there. They can haul their cart further this turn, but they have to drop off a crystal per mountain they skip. These dropped crystals can get gobbled up other players who visit that mountain on a later turn. To trade at these mountains, you must build an outpost there. First to reach that mountain builds there for free. Future players to reach that mountain have to pay crystals to build an outpost, so it's even more of a race. Build on four different crystal mountains and unlock your choice of points and bonuses. Century: Golem Edition - Eastern Mountains combines with its predecessor, Century: Golem Edition. This creates a whole separate game in itself, called The Call for Adventure!Player Count: 2-4 PlayersTime: 30-45 minutesAge: 10+\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Plan B Games","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56049850384762,"sku":"ZBG-PBG40020EN","price":19.45,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0916\/9970\/8282\/files\/ZBG-PBG40020EN.jpg?v=1760983782"},{"product_id":"century-a-new-world","title":"Century - A New World","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe final instalment in the Century Trilogy is here, and it was well worth waiting for! Century: A New World sees you not only completing the tableau created by the box art, but also using the familiar mechanic to up or downgrade your resources, in order for you to meet what's required to purchase the much desired victory point cards.\u003cbr\u003e\nThis game is similar in that sense to , but the difference in this game is that worker placement has been added as well.\u003cbr\u003e\nThroughout the game players decide where to place their meeples and when to rest and take them all back, or whether or not to bump other workers back to their opponent owners. New areas on the board are opened up as the game plays, increasing the options and levels of strategy. \u003cbr\u003e\nNot only do the cards purchased provide victory points, but also build small engines that help continued placements to become less costly and even beneficial in resource gathering. And some cards reward the buyer with unique set collection goals for additional end game scoring.\u003cbr\u003e\nThis 2-4 player game has plenty of replay-ability in it, and that's before you even get into the other rules for the mix up games with the rest of the Century Trilogy. These hybrid games are also well worth owning this game and the other two tone able to play all eight in total!\u003cbr\u003e\nIf you already one the other two... this is a no brainer! Get involved! If you don't then still jump in as many say its the best out of the three! It's not a simple as Century Spice Road, but it's as fun with more strategy thrown in for the ride, and still an easy game to learn and teach.\u003cbr\u003e\nPlayer Count: 2-4Time: 30-45 MinutesAge: 8+\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Asmodee","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56049891934586,"sku":"ZBG-PBG40040EN","price":26.19,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0916\/9970\/8282\/files\/Century-A-New-World.jpg?v=1760983959"},{"product_id":"great-western-trail-rails-to-the-north","title":"Great Western Trail- Rails To The North","description":"\u003cp\u003eRails to the North is an expansion for Alexander Pfister's hit title, Great Western Trail. GWT, as it is affectionately known, is set in the old American West. It's part-deck building, part-hand management, and part-point-to-point movement. Two to four players compete to travel along the trail, herding cattle cards to Kansas. Like Great Western Trail, Rails to the North is also published by Pegasus Spiele and eggertspiele. This superb expansion provides a board overlay, which replaces the railroads. Where do they head? Northwards, of course! In the base game, the track travels left to right, from Kansas to New San Francisco. But here, the track heads left to right from Kansas to New York City. Also, every location beyond Kansas has track heading north, to a whole host of other locations. Some of the benefits for reaching these northern rails are modular. (You place random reward tokens on destinations during set-up.) Some are first-come first served, too. This ratchets up the replay-ability factor even more!These northern tracks are a major game-changer. The excellent 'Trail' part of the board remains the same. You're still aiming to manipulate your hand of cattle to be the most profitable by the time you reach the trail's end. When you reach Kansas, you'll send your cattle off on the train to a location to far-flung locations. Only now you have a choice to make: will you head east, or north? The tracks branch off in different directions, and you can pay to place 'branchlets' down, along the way. Branchlets are further markers that you get to remove from your player board. The more you place, the more bonus abilities you unlock for your next trek along the trail. Think you know Great Western Trail? Think again! The Rails to the North is a wonderful addition - but you will need the base game to play this expansion. Player Count: 2-4 playersTime: 75-150 minutesAge: 12+\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Asmodee","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56049923785082,"sku":"ZBG-PBGESG50091","price":18.89,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0916\/9970\/8282\/files\/Great-Western-Trail-Rails-To-The-North.jpg?v=1760984116"},{"product_id":"blackout-hong-kong","title":"Blackout: Hong Kong","description":"\u003cp\u003eAlexander Pfister has designed some amazing games. From , to  and ! he is a very consistent designer. Blackout: Hong Kong certainly takes cues from his older games, most notably , in terms of mechanics but binds them together in a strong and fun way.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe theme is quite light. Hong Kong has had a mystery blackout and you are one of several people trying to restore order before the world goes mad. Thematically this means using resources wisely to scout and gain control of strategic area of the city.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe player boards work you through the round structure and so have a lot of writing and information on, which can seem intimidating at first, but actually really helps with the game flow. One player will roll the resource dice which will give you access to three different resources. Then you will come to the card play. You start with three columns you can play cards too and you will activate these cards to gain the resource of the matching colour die or activate special abilities.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is all in order to fulfil objectives which in term can give you other benefits like placing your cubes on the map and building a mini engine of powers that will activate at the end of the round. You will be able to improve you deck with purchases and attempt to scout areas for rewards and end game scoring set collection. Lastly you may select one column of cards to draw back into your hand. This is the clever part of the hand management where you will build the columns to achieve goals but also give yourself a lot of good options.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBlackout: Hong Kong seems like a game that has a lot going on, which it does, but it all flows well and ends up a little bit lighter than you may expect for a Pfister big box game. It's a lot of fun too!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePlayer Count: 1-4\u003cbr\u003e\nTime: 75-150 Minutes\u003cbr\u003e\nAge: 14+\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Asmodee","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56049924669818,"sku":"ZBG-PBGESG50130EN","price":27.09,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0916\/9970\/8282\/files\/Blackout-Hong-Kong.jpg?v=1760984120"},{"product_id":"reef","title":"Reef","description":"\u003cp\u003eReef is a game from Next Move Games, a game studio founded to bring out accessible games that all seemingly are named four letter words, albeit socially acceptable ones. The first of these was the phenomenally successful Azul. Can Reef prove even more popular?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn the face of it Reef is a simple game, on your turn you will either play a card from your hand or draw a card from a selection of four available. Each card you play will allow you to add two coral pieces to your reef, shown on the top half, and maybe score your reef, shown on the bottom half. The coral pieces are chunky plastic in four different colours and stack pleasingly on each other. Each tower can be up to four coral high and you are free to mix colours as you wish. You must remember two key rules, however, firstly only the top most colour counts for scoring, and secondly you can never remove any coral from your reef.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhy is this important? Because the second thing you can do when you play a card is to score the pattern on the bottom half. This will dictate how coral should be arranged and at what height to varying degrees of complexity. You can score each pattern multiple times if you plan wisely, but often you may have to not score a card at all, in order to plan for a future turn.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis creates a neat tension between grabbing cards that give you coral to build towards bigger scores, and potentially wasting the scoring potential of those cards, and trying to choose cards that will score every time you play them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOf course, added to this is the fact that everyone else is trying to do the same thing, and may want the same card or cards that you do. Or perhaps they are just aiming for a massive payoff and you are need to stop them!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe cleverness of the scoring makes the game a lot more brain burning than the pretty components seem, meaning this is a great game for new and experienced players alike. It's easier to explain than Azul, yet perhaps with a touch more depth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSimilar to Azul this is a very pretty abstract game, but I'd argue that Reef attempts to embrace its admittedly light theme a touch more than Azul does. They both look great though, and help the promote abstract games as more than dry, boring, head to heads that last hours.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePlayer Count: 2-4\u003cbr\u003e\nTime: 35-45 Minutes\u003cbr\u003e\nAge: 8+\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Asmodee","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56049976672634,"sku":"ZBG-PBGNMG60020","price":27.39,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0916\/9970\/8282\/files\/ZBG-PBGNMG60020_FRONT-1.jpg?v=1760984291"},{"product_id":"heaven-ale","title":"Heaven \u0026 Ale","description":"\u003cp\u003eYou have been assigned to lead an ancient monastery and its brewery. Now it's your time to brew the best beer under God's blue sky!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe fine art of brewing beer demands your best timing. In order to get the best results of your production, you have to provide your cloister's garden with fertile resources and the right number of monks helping with the harvest - but keep your brewmaster in mind as he is ready and eager to refine each and every one of your barrels!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn Heaven \u0026amp; Ale, you have to overcome the harsh competition of your fellow players. There is a fine balance between upgrading your cloister's garden and harvesting the resources you need to fill your barrels. Only those who manage to keep a cool head are able to win the race for the best beer!\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Asmodee","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56049977065850,"sku":"ZBG-PBGESG50010","price":20.09,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0916\/9970\/8282\/files\/Heaven-Ale.jpg?v=1760984292"},{"product_id":"coimbra","title":"Coimbra","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c!-- wp:fl-builder\/layout --\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the 15th and 16th century, Portugal is thriving under its leading role during the Age of Discovery. Nestled in the heart of Portugal, the city of Coimbra serves as a cultural center of the country. As the head of one of Coimbra's oldest houses, you seek to earn prestige by deepening relationships with nearby monasteries or funding expeditions of the era. To reach this goal, you must vie for the favors of the city's most influential citizens, even if you must offer a bit of coin or some protective detail.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eCoimbra\u003c\/em\u003e introduces an innovative new dice mechanism in which the dice players draft each round are used in multiple different ways and have an impact on many aspects of their decision making. While there are many paths to victory, players should always seek to optimize their opportunities with every roll of the dice. Combined with ever-changing synergies of the citizens, expeditions, and monasteries, no two games of \u003cem\u003eCoimbra\u003c\/em\u003e will ever be the same!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!-- \/wp:fl-builder\/layout --\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Eggertspiele","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56049987977594,"sku":"ZBG-PBGEG001","price":25.39,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0916\/9970\/8282\/files\/Coimbra-3.jpg?v=1760984348"},{"product_id":"camel-up-2nd-edition","title":"Camel Up 2nd Edition","description":"\u003cp\u003eLadies and gentlemen: start your... camels? Camel Up was one of the most crazy racing games you could buy, full of exciting twists and turns. This is a second edition from eggertspiel of the original 2014 game. It retains all the fabulous fun from the base game, and provides some cool extras, too! What cool extras, you ask? As well as new artwork, there's engraved dice, an improved, sturdy pyramid design as well as extra modules. Camel Up might feature a camel race, but it's not strictly a racing game. It's more of a betting game, where up to eight players aim to make as much money at the races as possible. The race is one lap around the pyramid, with five coloured camels participating. The pyramid itself is like a dice cup, with each camel having a corresponding d6 die (faces numbered 1-3, twice).On a player's turn, they can do one of a few different actions. They can shake the pyramid and release one die, moving that colour camel said spaces forward. If camels share a spot on the racetrack, they sit on top of one another. If a camel's die gets revealed, they move and carry any other camels sitting on top of them, too. Place an oasis or a desert to impact the racetrack. Help or hinder your favourite camel!Why? Because players can bet on which camel they think will lead the race at the end of the 'leg'. (A leg equates to once all camel dice have come out of the shaker.) Or, players can also place bets on which camel they think will win or lose, outright. The stakes pay out better the earlier you gamble. The second edition of Camel Up also provides two rogue camels that race in the opposite direction. They could end up carrying other camels the wrong way around the track! Camel Up is one of the most fun and entertaining family games on the market today. Player Count: 3-8 playersTime: 30-45 minutesAge: 8+\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Pegasus Spiele","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56050079203706,"sku":"ZBG-PBGESG50120EN","price":33.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0916\/9970\/8282\/files\/Camel-Up-2nd-Edition.jpg?v=1760984719"},{"product_id":"century-golem-edition","title":"Century: Golem Edition","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Century trilogy of games from designer Emerson Matsuuchi and Plan B Games are something of an enigma. Starting life as a planned trilogy of games with two different themes, spice trading and um... Golems. After retail pre-orders overwhelmingly favoured the spice theme, the Golems were dropped. But you can't keep a good Golem down and eventually, after much fan pressure and many official denials, the Golems Edition was reborn. It now appears, again after many denials, that it will indeed be a complete trilogy too.\u003cbr\u003e\nIf you have played Spice Road Eastern Mountains this looks to be a non-issue.\u003cbr\u003e\nPlayer Count: 2-5 Time: 30-45 Minutes Age: 8+\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Plan B Games","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56050105975162,"sku":"ZBG-PBG40010EN","price":28.09,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0916\/9970\/8282\/files\/Century-Golem-Edition.jpg?v=1760984822"},{"product_id":"century-eastern-wonders","title":"Century Eastern Wonders","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c!-- wp:fl-builder\/layout --\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCentury: Eastern Wonders is part two of Emerson Matsuuchi’s trilogy of ‘Century’ games. Eastern Wonders is the sequel to Plan B Games’ Spice Road (a deck-building game about trading spices). Eastern Wonders offers some wonderful new flavours in the form of pick-up-and-deliver. The first player to complete four orders ends the game, and most points wins! Once again the aim is to collect spices – ginger, chilli, tea and cloves. The game takes place on a modular archipelago of islands. Waiting on the four corners are specific spice orders. If you can sail to these locations and pay in said spices, you can earn mega points. Whenever orders get completed, a new one replaces it from a stack. Early game, one of the four ports closes, but this rearranges with every later order filled. Each island offers a different trade deal. Trading occurs like in Spice Road: players have a board with space for 10 spices that they can hold at any one time. On a player’s turn, they can sail their ship to an adjacent island to partake in the trade there. They can sail further this turn, but they have to drop off a spice per island they skip. These dropped spices can get snaffled up other players who visit that island on a later turn. To trade at these islands, you must build an outpost there. First to reach that island builds there for free. Future players to reach that island have to pay spices to build an outpost, so it’s even more of a race. If you can build on four different spice islands, you unlock points and bonuses. These could be the ability to sail further for free, or extending your mat (so you can hold more spices). The clever thing about Century: Eastern Wonders is that you can combine this with Spice Road. This creates a separate game all in itself called Sand To Sea! Player Count: 2-4 players Playing Time: 30-45 minutes Age: 8+\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c!-- \/wp:fl-builder\/layout --\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Plan B Games","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56050111086970,"sku":"ZBG-PBG40030EN","price":26.19,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0916\/9970\/8282\/files\/Century-Eastern-Wonders.jpg?v=1760984843"},{"product_id":"azul","title":"Azul","description":"\u003cp\u003eDesigner Michael Kiesling and Plan B Games have created board game gold in Azul. This is a tile-drafting, pattern-building game, with set collection bonuses up for grabs. Here you're decorating a palace with Moorish azulejo tiles. The Portuguese king has commissioned you with a 5x5 pattern. Azul is a challenge to see who can impress the king with their tiled walls!Traditional azulejos are white and blue, but in Azul they come in five colours\/patterns. And we're not talking cardboard punchboards or wooden tokens for components. The 100 'Starburst'-sized azulejo tiles are resin material. They make a wonderful clacking noise when jangled in the cloth bag! To start a round, four tiles get drawn from the bag and placed onto each 'factory'. Players take turns drafting tiles from any factory of their choice. Whenever they pick tiles from a factory, they have to take all tiles of a matching type present there. Those they don't draft join a new, separate factory. As the round wears on, this separate factory grows in size, but the drafting of tiles rule applies here, too. Players draft tiles until all factories sit empty.You're aiming to collect enough of one tile type to fill in thresholds on your player mat. At the end of each round, if you've filled up a threshold, you can stick said tile onto the wall! It's like Sudoku; once you've filled one tile-type onto the wall, it can't repeat on the same row or column. At first, you'll collect tiles in a laid-back fashion. But the pinch closes in during later rounds. Your options start to become ever-more specific. Other players can take note of your predicaments. Elements of push-your-luck enter the fray. Especially considering there's the chance you might get left with excess tiles you can't place! These class as 'smashed' tiles... And that means minus-points!Azul is a quick game to teach, and addictive to play. This fits the category of easy to learn, but tricky to master. It's easy to see why Azul has become an overwhelming modern classic! Such is Azul's wild success, it's spawned two sequels already - Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra, and Azul: Summer Pavilion. Both scratch the same itch, with tile drafting being the core mechanism.\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Plan B Games","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56050118885754,"sku":"ZBG-PBG40020","price":32.65,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0916\/9970\/8282\/files\/ZBG-PBG40020_FRONT-2-1024x1024-1.jpg?v=1760984890"},{"product_id":"century-spice-road","title":"Century Spice Road","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn Century: Spice Road, the first of the Century: trilogy by Emerson Matsuuchi, up to five players race to complete five demand cards, by cashing in a combination of spices. There are always five different public desired demands worth varying amounts, with the first two coming with bonus coins. Everyone starts with some low-value turmeric, and a starting deck of two basic cards that allows them to trade their spices away. There is an element of deck-building and therefore engine-building, too. Your turn is simple; you either play a card from your hand - allowing you to trade x for y, or perhaps upgrade spices (turmeric \u0026gt; saffron \u0026gt; cardamom \u0026gt; cinnamon); buy another card (which has a specific trade on it), but this might cost you spices to acquire it; complete a demand by cashing in the desired combo of spices, or pick up your spent cards to replenish your hand. Century: Spice Road is a race, but like a number of modern board games with a 'game end trigger', the person that ends the game is no guaranteed to win. The person who has accrued the most points via their completed demands wins, so the real question is: do you rush to end the game and complete more orders? Or risk completing fewer, more valuable ones? There's also a limit of ten spices that any player can hold in their caravan at any time, so you can't stockpile - you need to think efficiently. The spices themselves are simple coloured cubes, but they come in adorable little spice bowls, which is a pleasant inclusion apposed to having the cubes sprawl across your table. It also comes with metallic coins - unusual for a game of this price bracket in the Kickstarter 'deluxe' components era. The cards are bigger than a regular playing deck, and the artwork on them (and the caravan player mats) is as bright and warm as the spices you are collecting. Comparisons with Splendor are inevitable, but Emerson Matsuuchi and Plan B Games seem to have an ace up their sleeve to lure people towards their product over the likes of Splendor (and maybe Gizmos). Century: Spice Road is the first instalment of a trilogy of 'Century' games, each one set in a different historical era. Century: Eastern Wonders was released in 2018 (this is a set collection pick-up-and-deliver style game), and Century: A New World is due some time in 2019 (at time of writing). These titles could be enjoyed separately, or - and here's the fun bit - they can be integrated, to make a completely different board game. You can fuse the deck-building element of Spice Road with the delivery system of Eastern Wonders to make the individual gaming experience, 'Sand To Sea'. Century: Spice Road is a gateway gamer's dream. The rules take up two sides of A4, and they are super-simple to teach, and it looks lovely sitting on your table. Player Count: 3-5 Time: 30-45 Minutes Age: 8+\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Plan B Games","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56050149294458,"sku":"ZBG-PBG40000EN","price":27.2,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0916\/9970\/8282\/files\/Century-Spice-Road.jpg?v=1760985036"}],"url":"https:\/\/zatu.com\/collections\/plan-b-games.oembed","provider":"Zatu Games","version":"1.0","type":"link"}