Dive into the world of Naishi, an exciting new card game with a unique blend of hand management, open drafting, and strategic set collection.

Naishi is easy to learn, quick to play, and provides a range of scoring options that keep players engaged until the final turn.

In Naishi, players take turns selecting cards from a central board, placing them in their tableau or hand without changing their original positions. This position-based gameplay brings a fresh challenge, as each card type scores uniquely, often based on its placement relative to other cards. With a simple yet deep mechanic, Naishi offers multiple paths to victory, where both careful planning and timely decisions are key.

Each player has two tokens to enhance their strategy by rearranging cards or removing them from the central board. As an exciting twist, players can use a single steal move during the game, swapping a card from their opponent’s tableau into their own- but at a cost. This move comes with a sacrifice: losing one token for the remainder of the game, adding an element of high-risk, high-reward strategy.

Though strategic depth is at the game’s heart, Naishi maintains a lighthearted pace, making it perfect for casual play. The game typically runs until two central card piles are depleted or a player calls the end, ensuring a dynamic and unpredictable final reveal. With its accessible rules and fast-paced turns, Naishi is easy to jump into, even if you are new to card games or unfamiliar with two-player strategy games.

The final reveal of points creates thrilling moments, as players often forget the full extent of their choices until the cards are laid out.

Naishi is now available online on Board Game Arena and it's time for you to learn it through its amazing tutorial, or to play it by clicking the link below:

https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=naishi

And that's it for today!

We'd like to extend our warmest thanks to the teams at Merle Editions, who are offering their first game on the platform, and to the game's authors, Alex Fortineau and Mathieu Bieri. The whole thing has been brilliantly ported to Board Game Arena by BenjL, and we have to salute the work done: you should be able to play it from any connected device.

That's all for this Monday, and we'll see you in 2 days' time for the next release.

Until then, take care and play fair!

When all you can identify in the horizon for many long days is the line that detaches the sea from the sky, the glimpse of a distant shore appearing before you will make you shiver at the understanding that the adventure is about to begin.

You find yourself astonished, landing on the shore that will be the origin of an extensive exploration through the Galapagos, a magic place of inconceivable beauty and endless biodiversity. There, you will gather repertoires and expand your knowledge of the natural sciences. Your eyes will learn how to detect the hidden species in the tropical forest, gazing at the countless colors and textures of nature. After inspiring hours spent studying and coming to enlightening conclusions, you will rest under a sparkling sky, admiring the stunning complexity of the animal realm.

Darwin's Journey is a worker-placement eurogame in which players recall Charles Darwin's memories of his adventure through the Galapagos islands, which contributed to the development of his theory of evolution.

With the game's innovative worker progression system, each worker will have to study the disciplines that are a prerequisite to perform several actions in the game, such as exploration, correspondence, gathering, and dispatching repertoires found on the island to museums in order to contribute to the human knowledge of biology. The game lasts five rounds, and thanks to several short- and long-term objectives, every action you take will grant victory points in different ways.

And of course you can play it alone. But beware: it's not for the faint-hearted. It will take you a lot to master what is happening on the different boards, but the art to master it will pop in front of your eyes once you really understand why this game received so many awards worldwide. Click below to try it now:

https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=darwinsjourney

Let's thank of course Simone Luciani and Nestore Mangone, who designed the game, for their authorization to bring it online, with the help of their publisher ThunderGryph Games, and of course with the magnificent work done by EINSTEIN and J0j0b0 who made the code, scripts and programmed it for you all to enjoy online!

That's kind of a big game we're releasing today and we wish you'll all get as much pleasure as we do playing it.

That's it for this Wednesday Release Time!

Enjoy, and until next week, as always...
Take care and play fair!

Embark on a journey through time to conquer immortality! In this thrilling deckbuilding game, become a time traveler in search of the enigmatic Eternitium, a precious gem that grants eternal life hidden in a distant era. Showcase your ingenuity and clever tactics to outpace your rivals in this captivating temporal race.
Your quest for eternity begins now!

Use the various portals you can create to search for the gem. A mad race begins between the different time travellers. Use technology to help you find the gem more quickly, gather information, or waste the time of other players! No holds barred, only one thing matters: being the first to get your hands on the Eternitium gem!

One after another, players will play Technology cards to discard as many Era cards as possible.
Players will be able to acquire more powerful technologies from the market. Be careful, building these will cause you to lose time by adding Era cards. These technologies will help you to have more prolific turns or to put obstacles in the way of your opponents.
The first player to discard all his Era cards and find the gem wins the game.

Curious about this game? Click the link below to find out more informations and start a game in no time:

https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=eternitium

Let's thank the Haumea Games team and Thomas Carlier, the game designer, for this nice addition to Board Game Arena, and let's send some love to Galeelox who made this adaptation to your favorite platform. ;)

That's it for this Monday. More will come, but until then...
Take care and play fair!

Double or Nothing adds a plethora of additional content that seamlessly integrates into 3000 Scoundrels, such as:

• Advanced Technologies

Technologies now grant unique abilities to give you an edge over your rivals both during the game and at the end of it.
Clear mod cards provide even more variability to 3000 Scoundrels, ensuring endless ways to employ a winning strategy!

• Double the Scoundrels

New job and trait cards offer new abilities and double the number of possible scoundrels to 6,000!
Double or Nothing also introduces a brand new type of scoundrel: the Maverick! Mavericks shake up 3000 Scoundrels as they activate during your opponents’ turns, forcing you to keep a keen eye on every move your rivals make.

• Debts

Players can gain a debt for a quick infusion of cash, but must be careful as unpaid debts could cost precious tech points.

• New Locations

Visit the Newspaper for a leg up on leads for valuable tech, or stop by the Loan Office to rid yourself of dangerous debts.

• Extended Leader Boards

Players can now hold two additional scoundrels for bigger posses and even bigger combo opportunities.

• And even more!

Click on the link below to access the game and activate the expansion:

https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=threethousandscoundrels

The Japanese term "bonsai" means "planted in a pot."

A bonsai is a living work of art, a perfect miniature plant, identical in all respects to its full-size simile, but several times smaller.

In Bonsai, players take on the role of expert bonsai masters intent on growing their own bonsai.
Whoever grows the best plant will be appointed to show their Bonsai at the Imperial gardens.

On your turn, choose and perform one of these two actions: meditate or cultivate.
If you meditate, choose one of the face up cards on the board and take it, along with any Bonsai tiles represented below the card you draw.
If you cultivate, you can place tiles which are in your personal supply on your Bonsai. You can place as many tiles as the total symbols depicted on your Seishi tile and any or all of your Growth cards. Each symbol will let you place one tile of the corresponding type.

During the turn in which your bonsai matches or exceeds the requirements of a Goal tile that is still in the middle of the table (i.e.: the Goal tile has not yet been claimed any player), you must immediately choose whether you want to claim that tile or if you want to renounce it in order to try to achieve a harder Goal tile.

When the last card from the deck is revealed, the game end is triggered. Each tile in your bonsai is worth a certain number of points.

In the solo game you can try the Additional Scenarios that change some rules and goals, and eventually try to beat the Emperor Challenge.

Ready to plant your very own trees? Click on the link below to discover more about this game, and start it right from your browser:

https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=bonsai

We would like to thank Philip Davis (pdw3) for the work done by developing this game for our platform: it works great on all devices.
Also let's credit dV Giochi and the game designers Rosaria Battiato, Massimo Borzì and Martino Chiacchiera for their authorization to bring the game online!

And that's it for this Wednesday. Do not forget to bring in your baby trees if they are still outside (and if you are part of the Northern Hemisphere). It is getting quite cold out there!

But we've got you taken care of: a whole list of amazing board games will come soon to Board Game Arena, and we want to make sure your hands will not freeze!

Thanks for your time, see you next week and as always:

Take care and play fair!

You scan the snowy expanse of the Arctic, hoping to catch a glimpse of the inhabitants that live there. The more animals of a type that you see together, the better- yet you also want to diversify your sightings, while moving your totem animal towards the pack ice as far as possible.

In Arctic, you move across the landscape and spot animals, creating a pile of animal cards in front of you. The card on top of your personal pile is your "visible" animal card. Each animal card contains four pieces of information:

• A placement value
• The main animal depicted on the card
• A companion animal
• A draw value

At the start of your turn, place as many cards from your hand into your personal pile as the placement value of your visible animal card. (On your first turn, place one animal from your starting hand of three cards.) For each card you can not place, draw a card facedown from the deck and place it in a personal penalty pile. Next, using your new visible animal card, move the token of the main animal forward one space on the landscape and the companion animal backward one space or vice versa. Finally, draw as many animal cards from the "river" of six animal cards as the draw value of your visible animal card. (If you now have more than seven cards in hand, discard into your penalty pile until you have seven.)

Each time you place an animal on your pile, take the matching animal power card from the center of play or whoever currently has it. You can use the listed power each turn for as long as you hold this card, such as moving an animal token an additional space, drawing from your penalty pile, or refilling the river after each card you draw.

When the deck runs out, you finish the round, place cards one more time, then score points. For each type of animal, you score points based on the largest set of consecutive cards of this type you have in your pile. Additionally, you score a bonus based on the number of sets you have completed. Reveal the animal token you received at the start of the game, and score based on how far it advanced across the landscape. Lose 1 point for each card in your penalty pile. Whoever has the highest score wins.

Get your hands on the included tutorial to learn it now, or click the game page link below to setup your options and start playing:

https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=arctic

And let's celebrate the work done by Jiiru for the development, with the help from the Ludonaute team and Cédric Lefebvre, the game designer, for making this happen on our platform!

That's it for your Monday game release.
See you on Wednesday for another one, and until then...
Take care and play fair!

1999, Spiel Des Jahres ceremony award. Tikal got not only the nomination, but also the very coveted award. And for a good reason!

25 years later, you can still discover it in its latest design and graphic upgrades.

But what is it?
Tikal is a game of exploration within the Central American jungles in search of lost temples and the treasures within. Players send their team of explorers into the jungle, exposing more and more of the terrain. Along the way, you find temples that require further discovery and offer more treasure. Players attempt to score points for occupying temples and holding onto treasure.

Tikal has survived longer than most the members of my gaming group, probably because it combines a bit of "take that" and "euro player interaction" in a delightful way.

There is a lot of strategy involved in how you signal to other players whether or not you will fight to score points at a temple vs bluffing disinterest so that other players will improve the temple and you can swoop in.

This game has held up very well over twenty years, and we hope everybody will enjoy it for the next twenty to come.

Playable from 2 to 4 players in close to an hour in real-time mode, you can learn the rules in a few minutes with the help of the amazing included tutorial by Nekonyancer, or simply by clicking the link below:

https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=tikal

Let's celebrate the amazing work done by Sir Heo to develop this game for our platform, all with the combined help from the publisher Super Meeple as well as the game designers: Michael Kiesling and Wolfgang Kramer.

That's it for this Wednesday Release Time!

Let us know if you enjoyed the latest releases as much as we do.
More surprises will come, but until then...
Take care and play fair!

Congratulations to all participants and winners from the previous season!

But wait, what exactly is "the Arena?"

The Arena is the competitive mode on BGA. If you master a game and want to play it competitively, this is THE mode to use, so you can challenge the best players and get the most experience points.

The Arena is organized in seasons of 3 months each. Achievements are awarded to the best players at the end of each season.

To play in the Arena: select "Play" and then choose "Arena" instead of "Simple game."

Read more about Arena mode

Arena format and Gurus

In the previous seasons, it was you (more exactly the gurus) who chose the game formats for the Arena: player number, options used, ...

We are very happy to see that this way of doing things contributed to making the Arena more popular: thank you to all gurus for their smart suggestions and their votes!

Rules updates

No Arena rules are changing this season. It does not mean we are 100% satisfied with how the Arena is running, but you seem to appreciate the current rules so we want to keep them as they are for now.

Season 19 is NOW Launched.

The new Arena is now open for its new season.

Some Explanation About: Relegations

At the end of each season, after winners have been awarded, you are relegated.

Some custom relegation rules may have been applied to games for some reason (ex: we decided to update the number of leagues), but in general here is what happens:

• For games with 6 or 5 different leagues, all players are decreased by 3 leagues.
• For games with 4 different leagues, all players are decreased by 2 leagues.
• For games with 2 or 3 different leagues, all players are decreased by 1 league.
• For all games and all leagues, your number of Arena points is reset to 1, and your AES ("Arena Elo") is reset to 1500.

It's up to you to find the way to the elite!

May the odds be ever in your favor!

You'll find soon below the updated options for each game for this new arena season

You are the head of a fiefdom and its future is in your hands. Will you develop agriculture with fields and mills? Will you become a pious church-builder or prefer to feast in your sumptuous palaces? Develop your lands in your image and become the most influential lord in the kingdom.

Build your kingdom, shape your destiny...

In Middle Ages, your goal is to use your Noble pawns to claim valuable tiles and place them in your city. Each tile comes with rewards, and the more of the same type you collect, the greater the payoffs! But beware: some tiles require careful synergy with others to unlock their full potential. With every move, you will be strategizing, expanding, and adapting to the evolving board as you race to build the ultimate kingdom.

Every four rounds a game-changing event will shake up the board, keeping you on your toes! As you approach the 16th round and the game’s climactic finale, there is more at risk than just grabbing tiles. You will lose 10 points for each type of tile missing from your city! In the end, only the player with the sharpest strategy and most points will reign supreme.

With its simple but engaging decision-making, Middle Ages moves fast, making it perfect for your digital game nights. The only questions you will face are: which tile should I take, and where should I place my Noble pawn? The placement of your Noble pawns determines turn order, adding another layer of strategy as you compete to be the first to grab the best tiles.

The game offers plenty of player interaction- whether it is blocking others from taking a crucial tile or using special tiles like the Ramparts (which prevent other players from choosing a certain tile) or the Mill and Barracks (which force opponents to give up coins or tiles). It is not just about building your city- staying a step ahead of your opponents is key!

With 15 different events and only four appearing per game, no two sessions will ever feel the same. The tiles themselves offer diverse rewards and synergies that make each playthrough fresh and exciting. While this title does not offer a solitaire mode, the blend of quick pacing and tactical choices ensures that every game is a thrilling challenge for any group.

Middle Ages strikes a wonderful balance between a light, filler-style game and strategic depth. The quick rounds, lively gameplay, and constant rewards keep the energy high and the decisions flowing: it delivers a satisfying, interactive experience that is ideal for a fun and fast-paced game night!

Are you ready to outsmart your rivals and build the greatest medieval city? Check the included tutorial first, now and let the battle for the crown begin by clicking the link below when you feel like you're ready:

https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=middleages

All the thanks go to Moof for having developed a wonderful adaptation of this novelty on our platform. And of course, nothing would have been possible without the support of the publisher Studio H, and the game designer Marc André (of Splendor fame).

That's it for today, and more will come soon, as usual, on Wednesday.
Stay tuned, don't forget to add us on your social network favorite apps (on X, Facebook or Instagram),

Until Wednesday, as always, take care and play fair!

How about creating your own botanical garden?

As an aristocrat in the late 19th century, you have bought land, hired a gardener and set out to find the best plants there are. As you know, the visitors are very picky about the plants they want to see, so your job is not only to acquire the plants, but also to sort them according to the visitors' preferences.

Gardens are not made by singing 'Oh, how beautiful,' and sitting in the shade. - Rudyard Kipling

In Botanicus, you compete for the best action-spots in a unique selection mechanism, and then make the most of the options available to you. You have to collect new plants, take care of them, water them and keep an eye on the gardener. Last but not least, you have to collect some money along the way to pay for all this. In the end, what counts is how many visitors you satisfy and how beautiful your garden is.

Will you be able to outdo the gardens of your competitors in 3 rounds? Find out first how to play by going through the amazing tutorial included, and get to the game page to start your own garden:

https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=botanicus

It's an amazing Wednesday Release for a 2024 novelty by Hans Im Glück, and we would love to thank them for the authorization to bring it to our platform with the support of the game designers, Samuele Tabellini and Vieri Masseini.
Just as there are no gardens without a gardener, there are no games without a developer, and this one is up to Archduke, who coded everything for your pleasure. Let send him some love (we do too)!

That's it for your WRT. Tomorrow the Essen fair is starting. Which games are you into?

Let us know your feelings on Botanicus!

Take care, play fair, and see you next week (or through the alleys of the fair)!