Hi everyone. Welcome back to Boards & Barley! I hope you had a great weekend. On Mondays I normally post about the board games and beer I enjoyed over the past week or two. But today I’m going to do something different.

Why am I changing things up? Well, my budget has precluded me from backing KS projects lately. But there are several projects, designers, and publishers that I would have supported had the budget allowed it. So since I can’t back the projects I decided I can at least promote them a little! So I’m listing four current Kickstarter board game projects that I believe in. I recommend you check these out.

We’ll start with a game from a friend and local game designer Seth Van Orden…

Stockpile

Do you have what it takes?

Stockpile, by Seth Van Orden and Nauvoo Games, is a stock market game where players have high control over manipulating the market.

In the game players are trying to maximize the market value of the stocks they own. This is done by choosing which cards you want to place face up and which cards you want to place face down. Once all players have placed they will bid over which pile they want. Eventually all players will receive a pile of cards. The cards are now reconciled by manipulating the market or dealing with a negative event.

The ultimate goal is for players to best manage the market in their favor.

This game has three days left on Kickstarter and is sitting at about 90% funding. Go help them out! $39 gets you a copy.

DragonFlame

Burn, baby, burn!

DragonFlame was my favorite game played at the recent Protospiel-Madison. Designed by Matt Loomis and being published by Minion Games, this game is packed with amazing artwork and fun gameplay.

In DragonFlame you are a dragon and your desire is to burn down the towns! To do so players will have a hand of cards. Then they will take turns placing cards either face up or face down onto one of the castles. Once all cards are played then in turn order each player claims a castle and its cards. This determines the player order for the next round.

Players will score points for burning the villages, which they can do when they receive DragonFlame cards, or for collecting treasures and avoiding knights. After six rounds, the player with the most points wins.

Rob Lundy did the artwork for DragonFlame and it really looks amazing. I’ll be buying this game when it comes out (and my budget allows for it). Go burn some villages!

It has 17 days left and $25 gets you a copy.

Steampunk Rally

That’s no bored European!

New publisher Roxley Games has their first Kickstarter project up and it looks fantastic!

Steampunk Rally is a race game involving great inventors from Edison and Tesla to Marie Curie and George Washington Carver. These are some of the greatest minds of the past and they figured the best way to find out who is the smartest is to have a race through the Alps. So each of them is set to build the best machine to win the race.

Using card drafting and dice placement players will build their machine and then operate in the hopes of winning the race.

The artwork for this game is astonishing and I would back it for that alone! Go grind some gears and check it out!

Steampunk Rally has 10 days to go. $49 US gets you a copy!

New Bedford

A Whale of a Game! (Couldn’t help myself)

New Bedford is the game I most regret that I’m unable to back. I played this for the first time a year ago at BGG.Con with Chris from Dice Hate Me Games. It is a truly great and enjoyable game.

Nat Levan is the designer and you can check out his blog here: Oakleaf Games. He has written extensively about his design process for New Bedford.

In the game you are helped to develop the town of New Bedford. You can utilize resources and send ships to see to capture whales, which provide income. This is a worker placement game that is streamlined and efficient. It is really enjoyable to play. So much so that I made my own copy with the PNP files from the Kickstarter page.

Also, they do a great job dealing with what some people consider a controversial topic. I applaud Dice Hate Me for that.

Go grab your harpoon and hit the open seas!

New Bedford has 27 days left and is 50% funded. Grab a copy for $40.