Designers: Ken Valles, Aron West (Catacombs, Catacombs 3rd Edition, Catacombs & Castles)

Artist: Denys Martynets (10 Minute Heist: The Wizard’s Tower, Divinity Derby, Imperial Settlers: Roll & Write)

Publisher: Elzra Games (Catacombs, Catacombs 3rd Edition, Catacombs & Castles)

Genre/Mechanisms: city building, modular board, pattern building, pattern recognition, tile placement

Funding Status: At the time of this posting, Catacombs Cubes is already fully-funded.  In fact, pledges currently total almost 2.5x the initial funding goal with 3 days left to go on the campaign.

Player Count: 1-4

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: medium-light

Risk: low

What It’s About:  A stand-alone, Tetris-like city-builder and cube placement game set in the Catacombs universe.

How It Works: At the start of each round, the Quarry Foreman (decided at the beginning of the game with a die roll) rolls the Quarry Dice and then sorts them into their matching colored pairs, placing them on the Quarry Offer Board. From there, play proceeds clockwise with players performing 2 actions on their turn. First they Draft a Quarry Offer, picking up a pair of matching Quarry dice and receiving the benefits shown. Then they Build a Village or Residence Structure Tile. Village Tiles are built using the Village Plans, while Residence Tiles are built using Quarry Resources from the player’s Construction Yard and/or Warehouse. When building a Village Tile, players earn bonus resources for each matching connector color on the four sides of the tile.

When players receive Coins throughout the game, they’re placed face down in the Coin Chest on the player’s board. Players can take the following Face Down actions, leaving the Coin face down: Bribe, Exchange, and Buy Quarry Resource. When using a Bribe Action, the Coin is paid to the Quarry Foreman, and then the player swaps any two Quarry Dice between available Quarry Offers. When Exchanging, players can trade any two Coins from their player board for a Coin of their choice or an Obsidian Resource. And when Buying Quarry Resources, players spend 3 Coins for one Resource of their choice from the Quarry Supply. When taking any of the following Face Up actions, players turn the Coin Face Up while taking the action, and then discard the Coin to the Village Supply afterwards: Blue Coin, Red Coin, and Silver Coin. One of the possible Quarry Actions includes a Change Quarry Resource Action which allows the player to swap out one of their Quarry Resources for a Resource of a similar shape but missing one cube-sized portion; in effect, the player has “chiseled” off a portion of the Resource to make it smaller. The Blue Coin action is similar, except that the player also receives one Obsidian Resource, representing the chiseled-off cube. In this case the player has not sacrificed an amount of their Resource, simply split it into two pieces. The Red Coin action allows the player to contribute one Resource from their Construction Yard or Workshop to the Palace. And the Silver Coin action allows the player to spend that Silver Coin to transfer a Resource from their Construction Yard into their Warehouse.

The game ends when the Village Grid has been completed, or when all Quarry Resources from the Quarry Supply have been depleted. When building Village Tiles, players earn Victory Points and/or more resources. During end-game scoring players will also earn points for the following: 5 VPs each for the player with the most remaining Blue Coins, the most remaining Red Coins, and the most remaining Silver Coins; 3 VPs each for the player with the second-most remaining Coins in each color; and 1 VP each for the player with the third-most remaining Coins in each color. The player with the most Victory Points wins.

Comparisons:  Obviously the design and design sensibility of Catacombs Cubes falls in line with the other Catacombs games, although Catacombs Cubes is a standalone game, and a somewhat different type of game. The Catacombs series are dexterity games that involving flicking pieces around the board; Catacombs Cubes uses Tetris-like pieces, but it’s not a dexterity game. Instead, while still a light game, Catacombs Cubes is, at its core, a simple construction game, town-builder, and light resource management Euro. Catacombs Cubes plays like a next-step for fans of The Estates, Quadropolis, or Tiny Towns.

What Should I Pledge?:
$41 Base Game Pledge: includes the base game plus all backer-exclusive stretch goals.
$60 Game + Expansion Pledge: includes everything in the Base Game Pledge, plus the Monuments Expansion.;
$75 Game + Expansion + Playmat Pledge: includes everything in the Game + Expansion Pledge, plus the 26″ x 26″ playmat.

Add-Ons:
None.

KS Exclusives:
The playmat is a KS Exclusive, as are all stretch goals, which currently include 6 bonus tiles.

All-In Total: In the continental U.S. you’re looking at $75 for the Game + Expansion + Playmat Pledge plus $15 in shipping for a total of $90.

Catacombs Cubes completes its Kickstarter on Saturday, October 19th and tentatively ships in December 2019.