Designers:  Matthias Cramer (Glen More, Glen More II: Chronicles, Kraftwagen, Lancaster, Rococo, Watergate), Rüdiger Dorn (Arkadia, Genoa, Goa, Istanbul, Istanbul: The Dice Game, Jambo, Karuba, Las Vegas, Louis XIV, Luxor), Jonny Pac (Coloma, A Fistful of Meeples, Sierra West), Morten Monrad Pedersen (Between Two Cities, Viticulture Essential Edition), David J. Studley

Artist: Hendrik Noack (Glen More II: Chronicles)

Publisher:  Funtails (Glen More II: Chronicles)

Genre/Mechanisms: city building, commodity speculation, dice rolling, economic, expansion, grid movement, set collection, territory building, tile placement, time track

Funding Status: At the time of this posting, Glen More II: Highland Games is already fully-funded. Pledges currently total more than 5x the initial funding goal with less than 2 days to go on the campaign.

Player Count: 1-4

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: medium-heavy

Risk: medium-high

What It’s About: “This expansion to Glen More II: Chronicles includes three new chronicles and a solo mode. In Glen More II: Chronicles, each player represents the leader of a Scottish clan from the early medieval ages until the 19th century, a leader looking to expand their territory and wealth. The success of your clan depends on your ability to make the right decision at the right time, be it by creating a new pasture for your livestock, growing barley for whisky production, selling your goods on the various markets, or gaining control of special landmarks such as lochs and castles.”

How It Works: “In Glen More II: Chronicles, each player is the clan leader of a Scottish clan from the early medieval ages until the 19th century, looking to expand their territory and wealth. The success of your clan depends on your ability to make the right decision at the right time – by growing barley for whisky production, by selling your goods on the various markets, by befriending clans in the Scottish Highlands, or by gaining control of special landmarks such as lochs and castles. Does your clan leave the biggest impact on Scottish history? If you collected the most Victory Points, then you’ve made it! You win the game and your clan stands above all others.”

Glen More II: Chronicles uses turn order determined by a time track. This means that “the player in the last position on the Rondel moves forward to any chosen Tile.” The player either takes that Tile and “adds it to their clan territory, activating itself and up to 8 neighboring Tiles (often placing resources onto the Tiles);” or “the Person Tile is set aside for scoring, and allows the activation of a special effect on the Clan Board.” Then “1 or more Tiles from the Tile-stack is added to the Rondel, and the player now in the last position takes their turn.”

“After finishing each Tile-stack, a scoring phase takes place. After the 4th regular scoring, an end-game scoring takes place. The basic game can be expanded and the gameplay changed in many ways by adding one or more of the Chronicles included in the box. For your first few games we recommend playing the basic game.”

The new Kickstarter campaign for Highland Games includes 3 additional Chronicles and a Solo Mode.

Comparisons: The game that springs to mind the quickest is Keyflower. In Keyflower, players are also building their own private tile networks, while making choices that can indirectly affect their opponents. Matthias Cramer has also designed Kraftwagen, Rococo, and Watergate. While Watergate was a fairly big hit last year, Rococo operates at a similar level of complexity and can accommodate up to 5 players (Watergate is a 2-player game only). Two other games that also combining a time track with tile placement are Heaven & Ale and Patchwork.

What Should I Pledge?:
$42 Glen More II: Highland Games: the new expansion only, which includes 3 additional Chronicles (modules) and the Solo Mode.
$72 Glen More II: Chronicles: just the base game.
$110 Glen More II: Highland Games Bundle: the base game and the new Highland Games expansion.

Add-Ons:
$19 Metal Coins (40) & Coin Bag
$24 LaserOx Expansion Inlay
$47 LaserOx Base Game Inlay
$71 LaserOx Game Chest (does not include the LaserOx inlays)
$6 Promos #4 & #5
$14 Promos #1-3

KS Exclusives
None specified, but I don’t believe any of the add-ons will be available at retail.

All-In Total: In the continental U.S. you’re looking at $110 for the Glen More II: Highland Games Bundle, $19 for the Metal coins, $20 for both Promo Sets, and $30 in shipping for a total of $179. If you really want to go crazy, purchasing all 3 LaserOx products will bring your total to a whopping $321 and likely increase your shipping costs as well.

Glen More II: Highland Games completes its Kickstarter on Friday, September 4th and tentatively ships in February 2021.