The Grand Archives
Explore our collection of 85 board games
Score 5
The title Score 5 indicates what you do at game's end: Score five cards, specifically the highest card of each color in your hand. To start, each player has the same five cards — 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 — in one of the five colors. Each round, reveal one card from the deck; cards come in one of the five colors or gray (a joker that can be any color), as well as a value higher than 25. Each player chooses one or more cards from hand to bid on this revealed card. Whoever bids the most wins this card and adds it to their hand, and the cards with which they placed the bid are redistributed among the other players, with players choosing one card from this bid to add to their hand in order from second-highest bid to lowest. (Numbers on the initial cards serve as tie-breakers, when needed.) After a certain number of rounds, players sum the highest card of each color in their hand, and whoever has the highest total wins.
SCOUT
SCOUT is a ladder-climbing game in which cards have two potential values, players may not rearrange their hand of cards, and players may pass their turn to take a card from the current high set of cards into their hand. More specifically, cards are dual-indexed, with different values on each half of the card, with the 45 cards having all possible combinations of the numbers 1-10. During set-up, whoever is shuffling the cards should randomize both the order of the cards in the deck and their orientation. Once each player has been dealt their entire hand of cards, they pick up that hand without rearranging any of the cards; if they wish, they can rotate their entire hand of cards in order to use the values on the other end of each card, but again they cannot rearrange the order of cards in their hand. On a turn, a player takes one of two actions: • Play: A player chooses one or more adjacent cards in their hand that have all the same value or that have values in consecutive order (whether ascending or descending), then they play this set of cards to the table. They can do this only if the table is empty (as on the first turn) or the set they're playing is ranked higher than the set currently on the table; a set is higher if it has more cards or has cards of the same value instead of consecutive cards or has a set of the same quantity and type but with higher values. In this latter case when a player overplays another set, the player captures the cards in this previous set and places them face down in front of themselves. • Scout: A player takes a card from either end of the set currently on the table and places it anywhere they wish in their hand in either orientation. Whoever played this previous set receives a 1 VP token as a reward for playing a set that wasn't beaten. Once per round, a player can scout, then immediately play. When a player has emptied their hand of cards or all but one player have scouted instead of playing, the round ends. Players receive 1 VP for each face-down card, then subtract one point for each card in their hand (except if they were the player scouted repeatedly to end the game). Play as many rounds as the number of players, then whoever has the most points wins.
Sequence
Sequence is a board and card game. The board shows all the cards (except for the Jacks) of two (2) standard 52-card decks, laid in a 10 x 10 pattern. The four corners are free spaces and count for all players equally. The players compete to create rows, columns or diagonals of 5 connected checkers placed on the cards that the player has laid down. Two-eyed Jacks are wild, while one-eyed Jacks allow an opponent's checker to be removed. The game ends when someone has reached a specified number of connections.
Sequence for Kids
Sequence for Kids is a children's version of the popular board/card game Sequence. It has a smaller board, cards that shows various animals instead of a regular deck, and you only need 4 in a row to win.
Sherlock Express
Help Sherlock unmask culprits and cunningly use clues to find the accomplice of Moriarty, his sworn enemy! If no one is guilty, capture Moriarty himself. Everyone is a suspect ... Until proven innocent! Sherlock Express is a real-time game. Each turn players compete to the first to arrest the correct suspect; which is correct is determined by a set of simple rules.
Snack Match
The sun is shining and a gentle breeze is blowing. It’s the perfect weather to have a picnic: divide the food and tablecloths between yourselves. Mix the tablecloths and food items in front of you, trying to group the same kinds together. This is how you’ll make this picnic as appetizing as possible!
Souvenirs from Venice
Try to get the right goods in Souvenirs from Venice. To set up, lay out the tiles face down in a grid on the table. Each player has a small gondola that will sail between the rows of tiles. On a turn, roll the die, move your gondola, then see what you want to purchase. Souvenirs come in six types, with 5-10 copies of each type, and to score points, you need to collect three of the same type. Find the "Pigeon Feed Seller", and you must trade one of your souvenirs with a neighbor. Tiles get easier to collect as more are turned up, but you must return to the airport before everything gets flipped over, or else you've missed your plane and lost the game!
Splendor
Splendor is a game of chip-collecting and card development. Players are merchants of the Renaissance trying to buy gem mines, means of transportation, shops—all in order to acquire the most prestige points. If you're wealthy enough, you might even receive a visit from a noble at some point, which of course will further increase your prestige. On your turn, you may (1) collect chips (gems), or (2) buy and build a card, or (3) reserve one card. If you collect chips, you take either three different kinds of chips or two chips of the same kind. If you buy a card, you pay its price in chips and add it to your playing area. To reserve a card—in order to make sure you get it, or, why not, your opponents don't get it—you place it in front of you face down for later building; this costs you a round, but you also get gold in the form of a joker chip, which you can use as any gem. All of the cards you buy increase your wealth as they give you a permanent gem bonus for later buys; some of the cards also give you prestige points. In order to win the game, you must reach 15 prestige points before your opponents do.
Spot it!
Spot it!, a.k.a. Dobble, is a simple pattern recognition game in which players try to find an image shown on two cards. Each card in original Spot it! features eight different symbols, with the symbols varying in size from one card to the next. Any two cards have exactly one symbol in common. For the basic Spot it! game, reveal one card, then another. Whoever spots the symbol in common on both cards claims the first card, then another card is revealed for players to search, and so on. Whoever has collected the most cards when the 55-card deck runs out wins! Rules for different games – each an observation game with a speed element – are included with Spot it!, with the first player to find a match either gaining or getting rid of a card. Multiple versions of Spot it! have been published, with images in each version ranging from Halloween to hockey to baseball to San Francisco. The game is sold as Spot it! in the USA and Dobble in Europe, with slight differences between the two editions. Note: some versions have fewer cards and fewer symbols per card. (E.g. 30 cards with 6 symbols each.): Spot it! 1,2,3
Survive The Island
Survive The Island is a cutthroat game in which players seek to evacuate their adventurers — especially those of a high value — from a sinking island to maximize their score. An island made up of forty hex-tiles is slowly sinking into the ocean as tiles are removed from the board. Each player controls ten people (valued 1-5) that they try to move towards the safety of the surrounding islands before the main island's volcanoes finally erupt. Players can either swim or use rafts to travel, but must avoid sea serpents, kaiju, and sharks on their way to safety.
Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza
Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza is filled to the brim with hand-slapping mayhem! As in Snap and Dobble, each player places a card from their hand face up into a community pile while saying taco/cat/goat/cheese/pizza in player sequence. When the card matches the mantra — boom! — everyone slaps their hand on the deck, with the last one to slap picking up the cards. Whoever rids themselves of cards first wins! For extra fun, special action cards – the gorilla, narwhal, and groundhog — force players to make certain gestures before racing to slap the deck!
Takenoko
A long time ago at the Japanese Imperial court, the Chinese Emperor offered a giant panda bear as a symbol of peace to the Japanese Emperor. Since then, the Japanese Emperor has entrusted his court members (the players) with the difficult task of caring for the animal by tending to his bamboo garden. In Takenoko, the players will cultivate land plots, irrigate them, and grow one of the three species of bamboo (Green, Yellow, and Pink) with the help of the Imperial gardener to maintain this bamboo garden. They will have to bear with the immoderate hunger of this sacred animal for the juicy and tender bamboo. The player who manages his land plots best, growing the most bamboo while feeding the delicate appetite of the panda, will win the game.