Rio Grande Announces New Deck Builders and Friedemann Friese Titles

September 8, 2021 – In their August newsletter, publisher Rio Grand Games announced 4 new games, a pair of deck/dice builders and two Friedemann Friese titles. These four board games are all set to come out sometime later this year.

The games are Art Decko, coming in October, Dice Realms, coming in December, Faiyum and Free Ride, both coming sometime later this year. These games span an interesting mix of play and should have something for everything. Check out further game information below!

#01 | Art Decko

For some, collecting fine art is a hobby. For a select few, it’s a cutthroat world of buying, selling, and manipulating the market. Can you stay one step ahead of the other collectors and build the most valuable collection?

Art Decko is an artistic new take on deck building. The paintings are beautiful (and expensive) but can become more valuable as the game continues. Showing a painting in a museum increases the value of all works in that genre. All of the players who hold that type of painting benefit, but who benefits most? Players face difficult decisions on every turn. Is beauty truly in the eye of the beholder when there is profit to be made with every potential move?

Check out the Art Decko Publisher Page For More Details

#02 | Dice Realms

Dice Realms, a new, innovative twist on “dice customization,” is the latest game from Tom Lehmann, designer of Race for the Galaxy.

In Dice Realms, each player rules a small realm, represented by two customizable dice. The removable die faces allow for the strategic improvement of farming, mining, defense, upgrades, and more. Each round, the players simultaneously roll their dice to collect grain, victory points, and coins. Then, they must decide how to upgrade their die faces to improve their realms. But the players must be careful; each round, the Fate Die is rolled, and fate can be fickle.

The future of your realm is in your hands: Will it thrive or merely survive?

Check out the Dice Realms Publisher Page For More Details

#03 | Faiyum

During the reign of Amenemhet III, you are the pharaoh’s advisors, commanded to harvest goods, build roads, found settlements, and do much more for the good of Faiyum! You are being supplied with the necessary manpower, resources, and money, which means that if another advisor needs to use “your” roads, farms, and other buildings, they may do so since everything you build is owned by the pharaoh. The only thing you will own is the only thing that matters: the respect of the pharaoh.

Faiyum is a strategic game for enthusiasts of planning games. The basic rules are simple: Play your cards one by one on your personal discard stack. After playing some or all of your cards, you take them back into your hand in “reverse” playing order, so playing cards in the best order is important. Newly purchased cards go directly into your hand, so the timing of getting and playing them is important, too. Each of the individual cards has easy-to-understand actions, but only by creating the best combined “engine” will you be a master advisor of Faiyum.

Check out the Faiyum Publisher Page For More Details

#04 | Free Ride

In Free Ride, you are in charge of building the railway lines that will connect the major cities of Europe. Then, you move your train along the growing rail network to carry passengers to visit the famous structures in these cities. Moving your train along your railway lines and state-owned railway lines is free. If you use railway lines owned by your fellow players, you must pay them, which converts their lines into state-owned railway lines.

To collect passengers, you can choose from an open display of city cards representing different travel routes of passengers. Move your train to one of the cities on display and choose that travel route by picking up this starting city card together with the destination city card. When your train arrives at the destination, you fulfill this travel route and gain victory points for both cards at the end of the game. At first, you can only take care of a single travel route. Later, your train can carry two travel routes at the same time and travels faster along the network of railway lines.