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The Nova Suecia Series

The Nova Suecia Series refers to the first six games from Nova Suecia Games. They are designed with the same vision as the later games but share the same theme: the Swedish 17th century. Two of the games, Christina Regina and Vasa Regalis, are also available as card games (both for order and for print & play).

Please leave a comment on the games or contact me directly at nicholas.hjelmberg@gmail.com.

Mare Balticum - the Board Game© is the sixth game in the Nova Suecia series. The players take on the roles of noble lines during the Swedish Empire Era. Together, they will populate the kingdom, build ships for overseas trade, build armies for overseas war and build forts for defending the gains. Instead of fighting each other, they will have to fight the enemies around the Baltic Sea, competing for the same provinces. However, the best for the kingdom is not necessarily the best for your noble line. You have to decide what benefits you most: production or trade, consolidation or expansion, war or peace. But will your objectives coincide with your opponents? Beware, if you fight internally, your external enemies will conquer the entire kingdom and put an end to both the Swedish Empire Era and the game!

Tre Kronor Infernum - the Board Game© is the fifth game in the Nova Suecia series. It is a game about a fight between a castle and a fire. You are in charge of a group of servants and responsible for extinguishing the fire that has broken out in the royal castle of Tre Kronor. Your servants must set up a human chain together with the other players' servants and pass water buckets to each other. You must also save the possessions from the burning inferno but not at the cost of letting a room burn down. How should you prioritize? What if the other players WANT the room to burn down so that they can steal possessions for themselves? What if you want to do it yourself? Beware, if the entire castle burns down, all players lose!

Vasa Regalis - the Board Game© is the fourth game in the Nova Suecia series. The players take on the roles of shipyard leaders in 17th century Stockholm who have been given a royal order - the building and launching of the greatest battle ship ever seen. But to manage the delivery, they must procure goods, craft them into building material and use them to build the ship. At the same time, they must make a profit by secretly deciding how much to use for the ship and how much to keep for themselves. The players' total contribution determines the fate of the ship. If she is successful, the player who put most aside wins but if she is a disaster, only the player who put most into the ship will be spared the King's wrath. Each player must thus closely monitor the other players' strategies to determine whether to spend or to save. The victory conditions will not be disclosed until the game is over - but then it is too late to change the strategy.

Christina Regina - the Board Game© is the third game in the Nova Suecia series. It is a game about politics and intrigues in 17th century Sweden where each player represents a faction with a hidden agenda. The end of their intrigues is the newly appointed queen Christina of Sweden and their means include persuasion, agitation, manipulation and even assassination. They achieve this by carefully steering the queen towards influence of their own faction and away from influence of other factions. At the same time, they must closely monitor the other players' actions to guess their agendas. But beware, if your own agenda is too obvious, you may yourself become the victim of your opponents' intrigues!

Bellum se ipsum alet - the Board Game© is the second game in the Nova Suecia series. The players take on the roles of commanders during the Thirty Years' War and have to fight not only each others on the battle field but also the devastation that follows the war. Bellum se ipsum alet is a tactical game but unlike many others in the genre, the resources are not unlimited. The players must continuously feed their armies by storming and occupying cities but the cities will continuously fight to free themselves and for each new occupant, there will be less to plunder. Add to this a battle system where the players need to balance between wasting soldiers to win the battle and saving them for next battle. Each player must thus find a way to make best use of the scarce and diminishing resources at hand to be able to deliver the final blow at the right place at the right time.

Nova Suecia - the Board Game© is the first game in the Nova Suecia series. It is a game about colonization, trade and survival in the New World. The players must cooperate to build a viable economy in the fragile colony since no player can control all parts on his or her own. The colonists need food, the colony needs money and the resources must be manufactured into tradable goods. The players must also, secretly, allocate common and own resources to the budget to prevent the colony from falling to internal and external threats. Each player must thus find a way to get the upper hand in this cooperative act of balance to emerge as a winner in the end. Beware, if Nova Suecia falls, all players lose!