Designers: Franceso Testini (15 Days, Golems, Tang Garden, Xi’an), Andrea Sbargia (Eiyo, Rockopolis), Gaetano Cavallero (Rebis), Simona Greca (Space Lunch), Marco Rava (Space Lunch)

Artists:  Sergio Chaves (Dwellings of Eldervale, Golems, Rise of Tribes, Sanssouci), Cinyee Chui (15 Days, Dragon Castle, Harvest Club), Matthew Mizak (Dead Man’s Doubloons, Eiyo, Tang Garden), Paolo Voto (Hats, Rebis), Natalie Dombois (Kiwetin, Space Lunch, Spirits of the Forest)

Publisher:   Thundergryph Games (Overseers, Spirits of the Forest, Tao Long: The Way of the Dragon)

Genre/Mechanisms:  card game, hand management, set collection (15 Days); card game, events, hand management, solo/solitaire game, victory points as a resource (Eiyo); card game, hand management, set collection (Golems); card game, hand management, set collection (Rebis); card game, hand management, set collection (Space Lunch)

Funding Status:  At the time of this posting, The Matchbox Collection is already fully-funded. Pledges currently total more than 9x the initial funding goal, with just 1 days left to go on the campaign!

Player Count:  1-4 (15 Days); 1 (Eiyo); 1-2 (Golems); 1-4 (Rebis); 1-2 (Space Lunch)

Solo Mode:  yes

Complexity:  light

Risk:  medium-low

What It’s About:  “In 15 days, players try to receive the animals pawns for special abilities and complete sets of Season cards.” “In Eiyo, you need to confront hordes of enemies, trying not to be defeated, by gaining honour points determined by the opponents that you are taking down.” “Golems is a card collection game where you can use every card in two different ways. You have to decide whether you want to boost your Golem for victory points or save the resource to summon further Golems.” “To win in Rebis, play your alchemistic ingredients wisely in order to brew the best elixirs and find the right time to brew them to get the most points.” “Space Lunch is a short set-collection game. To win, you need to grab your preferred dishes before it’s too late by choosing Food cards from the table.”

How It Works:   In 15 Days, players start the game with 2 cards in their hands. The game ends immediately if a player completes all 4 Season sets, or when 1 of the 2 Season stacks is empty. On their turn, each player takes 2 of 4 possible actions: Take 2 Season cards, Take 1 Face-up card, Place cards, or Take a Wild card. Face-up cards are taken from the top of any of the 3 Market columns. Each Season set is made up of 6 cards, and players will initially need to decide whether to start placing cards for each Season in ascending or descending order. Every card placed has a card discard cost; the first card placed, and any subsequent cards placed in card order, cost 1 card each. Slotting a card into a Season row between 2 previously placed cards costs 2 cards. Players discard down to 5 cards in-hand at the end of their turns. Players can also discard 2 cards identical to already-placed cards to take a Wild card. And the first player to place out 3 cards of each Season-type will gain a bonus wooden animal; Frog, Squirrel, Rabbit, or Otter; each of which has a specific helpful ability. The Frog gives the player a 1-card discount on all discard costs; The Squirrel allows the player to draw 3 cards instead of 2 whenever they take the “Take 2 Season card” action; The Rabbit allows the player to take 2 Face-up cards instead of 1 whenever they take the “Take 1 Face-up card action;” and the Otter allows the player to increase hand size to 8 cards instead of 5.

Once the end game is triggered, all players score 1 point for every card in their tableau, 2 points for each wooden animal they possess, and -2 points for every empty corner of their player card (a corner is empty if they have not yet begun to place cards for any 1 of the 4 seasons).

In single-player game Eiyo, the player confronts hordes of enemies, gaining honor for each defeated opponent, but losing weapon points each time they’re attacked. Gaining 40 Honor points equals victory, as does defeating all enemies. But if the player runs out of Weapon cards for a third time while enemies still exist, the game is lost. Each turn is divided into a Samurai Phase and an Enemy Phase. During the Samurai Phase, the player can Draw 4 cards from their Weapon Deck and Fight. A player can only have 6 cards in their hand at any time, so anything drawn beyond 6 cards necessitates an immediate discard down to 6. Fighting is done by discarding a Weapon card and then removing the top card from one of the 4 enemy rows that matches one of the indicated icons on the card. They can also discard additional Weapon cards to turn the first Weapon card 90 degrees (one turn for each discarded card) and apply its icon to a different Enemy row. The Player can also discard a Weapon card to Deflect a whole row, placing a Deflect token on the row. Enemy rows with Deflect tokens can not be attacked, but will also not attack back in the Enemy Phase. Defeated enemies score 1-3 Honour Points, depending on the card.

During the Enemy Phase, each Enemy in a row without a Deflect Token attacks, doing 1-2 damage each, depending on the number of their card and their placement in the row. Each damage done discards a card from the Weapon deck. When the Weapon deck is empty, the player shuffles the Weapon discard pile into a new Weapon deck, but remember that this only happens twice. The third time the Weapon deck runs out, the player loses the game. At the end of the Enemy Phase, each empty row of enemies is repopulated with 3 new enemies and all Deflect tokens are discarded from rows.

There are also 6 Boss cards, 4 of which will appear in any given game. A Boss card in a row does not replace a card, so that Enemy row will be 4 cards instead of 3 until the Boss is defeated. Bosses have additional powers that affect the player negatively, like not allowing the player to Deflect that row, causing them to lose Honor points or discard Weapon cards from the Weapon deck at the beginning of each turn, or triggering a 5th row of enemies.

“In Golems, the active player takes a card from the Grid, a 4×3 tableau constructed at the start of the game. Players with less than 2 Gems can also choose to skip their turn and take 2 Gems instead. If there are not enough Gems available in the Supply, the player takes them from their opponent. When taking cards from a row of 3, the player must place gems on the other 2 cards in the row. If only 2 cards remain, they move the gem(s) to the remaining card and take their selected card. If only 1 card remains, they take the gems and the card, then refill the row with 3 new cards.

There are 3 different types of cards in the game: Golem, Rune, and Gem. Each card may be used in 1 of 2 different ways. Golem cards may be placed and used for Resources, or if the player has enough Resources, used to summon a Golem by “discarding” cards with Resources, and placing them underneath the Summoned Golem. Rune cards can also be used as Resources in the same way, or, if the player has at least 3 Gems, by paying 1 Gem to the Supply to use the Rune for end game scoring. Gem cards can either be acquired for their bonus along with the Gems on it, or by discarding the Gems on the card when selecting it, and then placing it face down to create Gem Dust.

Once the rows can no longer be refilled and the second player takes their final turn, players proceed to final scoring– gaining 2 points for each Summoned Golem, 1 point for every card under a Summoned Golem (the Resource cards used to Summon that Golem), 1/3/6/10 points for sets of 1/2/3/4 collected Gem Dust symbols, and additional points from Rune Cards. Ties are broken by the player with the most Summoned Golems, and then by the player with the most cards underneath Summoned Golems.

In Rebis, players take 1-2 cards from the Library deck each turn, and then perform 1 of the following 2 actions: Play 1-2 cards of the same number to their active Shelf, or play 1 card to another player’s Shelf.

Players are attempting to build Active Shelves of up to 13 points. If a played card causes a player’s own Shelf to exceed 13 points, instead they pay 1 Golden Dust Mixture Token, close the old shelf, and play the the card face-down to start a new Active Shelf. If they don’t have a Golden Dust Mixture Token, they can’t take the action.

When playing to another player’s Active Shelf, the card(s) can also be turned upside down and played for their negative values. When a player plays a negative card to another player’s Shelf, they also draw a Library Card. There is no hand limit. When a player plays a positive value to another player’s Shelf and causes their Shelf to exceed the 13-point limit, that player gains a Mixture Token, and the player whose Shelf they closed out gains a Library Card. Players receive Golden Dust Mixture Tokens until they’re no longer available from the supply. These Tokens can be held, and placed at the beginning of a player’s turn on their Active Shelf as scoring modifiers. Once there are no longer Golden Dust Mixture Tokens in the supply, players will instead receive Golden Mixture Tokens. These lesser tokens can not be used to close a player’s own Shelf, and must be placed as scoring modifiers as soon as they are received.

When the last Golden Mixture Token or the last Library Card has been taken, the game ends at the end of that player’s turn. Players then count all of the negative values on their shelves and the cards remaining in their hands. The player with the highest number is awarded the Red Mixture Token, and immediately places it as a modifier on any of their shelves, including their closed shelves (but all tokens must always be placed in the left-most empty modifier space of a given card). Then players score the book values of their shelves (represented by icons) by the multipliers filled out on those shelves with tokens. The player with the highest score wins, with ties broken by the player with the most Mixture Tokens.

In Space Lunch, players create a 3×3 grid of Food Cards, with a single column of 3 Beverage cards on the left side. A Pick Token is placed under the left-most Food column.

Each turn is divided into a Beverage Phase and a Food Phase. During the Beverage Phase, if a player has 5 Beverage Cards, they must discard them all. If they discard 3 of one kind, they make perform its ability. If a player has less than 5 Beverage Cards (and isn’t forced to discard), but does have 3 Beverage Cards of one kind, they may choose to discard them for that Beverage’s ability. They may also use their one-time Coupon Token to manipulate the grid in their favor. Beverage abilities are as follows: 3 Hot Drinks allows the player to discard one Food Card from anywhere in the grid and refill it immediately with the top card from the draw pile; 3 Jelly Bubbles allows the player to swap any 2 Food Cards from the columns not containing the Pick Token; and 3 Chill Jars allows the player to choose any one Food Card from a column not containing the Pick Token and take it into their hand, then skip the Food Phase. The Coupon Token allows the player to take the action of any Beverage type, and then flip it over so it can not be used again for the remainder of the game.

During the Food Phase, the active player chooses one of the Food Cards in the column with the Pick Token, places it in front of them, and takes the corresponding Beverage Card in the same row as the chosen Food Card.

The game ends immediately when a player has collected 3 sets of Food Cards of the same type, or when the grid only contains 6 Food Cards. In the case of the former, that player instantly wins. In the case of the latter, players score a point for every pair of identical Food Cards in their possession, and the player with the most points wins. Ties are broken by the player that did not use their Coupon Token, and then by the player with the most Beverage Cards in-hand.

Comparisons:  One of my favorite recent card smaller games is Tussie Mussie, by Elizabeth Hargrave, the designer of Wingspan. But that game also has the caveat of being an 18-card micro-game. Roam, by Ryan Laukat, is a fantastic card game that also involves placing gems and acquiring cards, but it has more game and more gameplay additions available than these smaller games. All of the games in The Matchbox Collection fall in between the scope of those two games. 7 Wonders Duel, The Fox in the Forest, Jaipur, and Lost Cities are all classics of the genre.

What Should I Pledge?:
$40 The Matchbox Collection: includes all 5 games and all unlocked stretch goals.
$68 The Matchbox Collection: Limited Edition: includes all 5 games and all unlocked stretch goals, plus four neoprene playmats, a Traveler’s Suitcase for the entire collection, and all unlocked limited edition goals.

Add-Ons:
$12 Achievement Booster Pack: a bundle including 5 envelopes, 1 for each game. After achieving the list of achievements on each envelope for each game, open the envelope to reveal special promos that change the way each game can be played.
$12 Premium Sleeves: a pack of 400 premium sleeves that will sleeve all of the cards from all 5 games, including stretch goals and limited edition goals, as well as the promos from the Achievement Booster pack. The sleeved cards WILL fit into the individual Matchbox game boxes.

KS Exclusives
There is currently no plan to release these games at retail, but Thundergryph is also not guaranteeing that they won’t see an eventual retail release.

All-In Total: In the continental U.S., you’re looking at $68 for The Matchbox Collection: Limited Edition pledge, $12 for the Achievement Booster Pack, $12 for the Premium Sleeves, and $18 in shipping for a total of $110.

The Matchbox Collection completes its Kickstarter on Friday, March 13th and tentatively ships in October 2020.