Nova Suecia: The Last Letter Home

Nova Suecia - the Board Game© is a board game about colonization, trade and survival in the New World. The players take on the role as governors of the Swedish colony Nova Suecia in the 17th century Delaware. They 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, secretely, 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. If they fail and the colony of Nova Suecia falls, all players lose!

Game mechanisms include

1. Player balance: The players grow by one district per turn and are thus always equally strong.
2. Game balance: The game has a delicate balance between wealth, food and production. If one area grows on behalf of the others, the game will fall and so will the players.
3. Bidding: All card drawings are followed by biddings where judgement rather than luck determines the outcome.
4. Production & Trade: The players build and develop the game together.
5. Taxation: The players must secretly choose how much to pay for common expenses, thus introducing free-rider and prisoners' dilemma challenges
6. Interdependence: The players must both cooperate and compete to survice.