The Bandits have done the leg work for you with this list of top games of November 2020.  If you are seeking to change up the game on your table top this weekend, take a browse below and we might be able to help you out in your decision making!

Viscounts of the West Kingdom

This new release is great for multiple players, or in solo mode play, designed for 1-4 players.  It plays in 60-90 minutes and and geared towards the 12 and older community.

Set in a time with the King’s reign beginning to decline, circa 980 AD. Choosing peace over wealth, our once strong King has started offering our enemies gold and land to lay down their axes. As poverty spreads, many people have lost faith in the King's ability to lead and sought independence from the crown. Since discovering favour in his courts, our future is also uncertain. As viscounts, we are decisive and wise. Loyalty is to be upheld, but obtaining loyalty among the people is our priority, incase there is a sudden shift in power.

The goal of Viscounts of the West Kingdom is to earn the most victory points at game's end. Points are earned by constructing buildings, writing manuscripts, working in the castle and obtaining deeds for new land. Players start with some townsfolk, but should quickly look for more suitable talents to advance their endeavors. On a turn they will travel around the kingdom, seeking to bring more influence among society. The game ends when the Kingdom reaches poverty or prosperity - or possibly both!

Buy Viscounts of the West Kingdom online now!

Fantastic Factories

Compete with other players as you attempt to construct the most efficient group of factories in the quickest time. Carefully manage your blueprints, train your workers, and produce as many goods as possible in order to gain industrial dominance!

In Fantastic Factories, you race to produce the most goods or construct the most prestigious buildings. With elements of worker placement, dice rolling, engine building, tableau building, resource management, simultaneous play, and card drafting. Each round is divided into two phases, the market and the work phase.

In the market phase, you pick to gain a new blueprint for free or pay to hire a contractor. Blueprints are needed to build new factories in the work phase. Contractors are used to strengthen your strategy by giving resources or allowing you to roll additional dice. 

In the work phase, players together at the same time roll their dice and use dice as workers to run factories. Factories begin with blueprints and are then build. Once built, each factory can be used once each turn. Worker placement happens in any order and discovering the right sequence enables a chain of actions. You can also build training facilities that lets you manipulate the dice values of your workers. Each work phase is solving a worker placement puzzle to optimize your output of resources and goods.

When a player has manufactured 12 goods or constructed 10 buildings, the game ends with one more round available. The player holding the most points wins.

Fantastic Factories brings a lot of replay options and entertainment as players find new factory engines with each game.  With 1-5 players this game can also be played in a solo format.  It plays in 45-60 minutes and it typically for ages 14 and up.

Buy Fantastic Factories online now!

Bonfire

In Bonfire, the bonfires are origins of light, energy and warmth provided by the guardians of light to brighten cities on the dark planet. The residents in the cities have taken the bonfires for granted and exploited them for personal gain. Let down the guardians of light drew back and allowed the bonfires to go out. The citizens not able to live in the dark were forced to leave.

You are a group of gnomes living near the cities, also needing the light of the bonfires. Desperate you attempt to visit the cities and learn to ignite the bonfires again: You must visit the guardians of light on their holy islands and request tasks to prove your worth. For each task completed, they will re-ignite one bonfire. Whoever can earn the greatest trust and manages to brighten their city the most wins the game.

The engine for Bonfire are three-coloured tiles you puzzle onto your player board. When you place the same colours adjacent to each other, you receive more action tiles of that specific type. This allows you to specialize in specific types of actions and pursue different strategies.

Bonfire is a new game of strategy for players 12+.  It runs as a longer game with a playing time around 70-100 minutes, to make sure your game night can accommodate.  It also allows 1-4 players, making it yet another game on our list with a solo/single player option.

Buy Bonfire online now!

Grand Austria Hotel

While the Grand Austria Hotel is not a new release board game, it has recently become a well liked game among the Bandits, and therefore has been included on our Top November list.

It plays with 2-4 people, lasts 60-120 minutes and is appropriate for ages 12+.  It is also full of strategy, and economic mechanisms.

In the Viennese modern age, fancy cafés are competing for customers. Inspiring artists, key politicians, and tourists are occupying Vienna and needing of a hotel room. This is your chance to turn your little café into a world renowned hotel. Employ staff, grant the wishes of guests, and gain the emperor's favor. Only then will your café be known as the Grand Austria Hotel.

Players rolls the dice, organizing them by the rolled number and placing on the corresponding action spaces. On a turn, a player select one of the six actions and perform it. The amount of available dice in the corresponding action spaces sets how much the player receives from the action. They then take out one of the dice and can carry out additional actions. With the different actions, players can receive necessary drinks and dishes, prepare the rooms, or employ staff.

However a hotel can expand without guests. Selecting which guests to attract and to complete their orders offers some important bonus actions. The staff cards also have advantages, the game ends after seven rounds and no player can achieve everything they want, so the player who finds the best way to create bonus actions wins.

Buy Grand Austria Hotel online now!

7 Wonders Duel

7 Wonders Duel is another older game getting some much needed recognition on your Top games list.  7 Wonders Duel is a game all the Bandits love, it’s a 2 player game incorporating strategy, art and other game aspects from the origin 7 Wonders Game, such as; three ages of play, obtaining cards with resources and increasing military and scientific development to finish wonders. 7 Wonders Duel is also a quick playing game, sitting at around 30 minutes, it is also a good game for kids 10 and older.

As noted this is a 2 player game, therefore players are not drafting cards hands, but from a selection of face-down and face-up cards set up at the beginning of a round. Players can only take a card that is not covered by any others, so timing is key, so are bonus moves that allow you to take a second card immediately. Like the original game, each card received can be built, discarded for coins, or used to build a wonder.

Players win 7 Wonders Duel in three ways: with your military, each time you gain a military card over your opponent. If you obtain any six of seven scientific symbols, you get scientific dominance and win. If none of these situations happens, the player with the most points wins.

Buy 7 Wonders Duel online now!