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Great Western Trail designer’s next board game also involves caring for cattle

Set sail for Boonlake.

The next upcoming board game from Alexander Pfister, the creator of Great Western Trail, is also set to see players caring for cattle.

Called Boonlake, the civilisation building game for one to four players is set in a future wherein a group of brave humans venture away from the vast cities of modern society to seek their own land. Arriving on the shores of Boonlake - an uncharted place of natural beauty - these pioneers are hoping to create lives for themselves by utilising the raw materials they find across the region.

As leaders of these people, the players will be competing to secure the best living spots, enough food to feed their families and eventually construct their own infrastructure. Players will have many options as to where they decide to put their energy and resources into during their playthrough - do they want to focus on unearthing the landscapes of Boonlake or to rear an impressive collection of cattle?

Boonlake box image

Within each playthrough of Boonlake, players will need to choose which development path they’re going to commit to, as the game will progress differently depending on what the players decide to do. Players can choose to contribute to Boonlake’s expanding infrastructure, or to dedicate themselves to their own individual agendas at the expense of the overarching society. Depending on the actions players take, their opponents may be able to benefit from them and even move their ships further along Boonlake and into new discoveries.

Apart from designing Boonlake and Great Western Trail, Pfister is also responsible for co-designing the tile-laying title Isle of Skye: From Chieftain to King, for creating the historically themed card game Port Royal and co-designing the ingredient collecting card game Broom Service.

Cover image for YouTube video

Boonlake is set to be released by Capstone Games, a studio that’s otherwise best known for publishing the fantasy board game Terra Mystica - that has players commanding rival factions to terraform the land and take control of it - Orléans, a game about recruiting followers in a medieval city, and Pfister’s very own Maracaibo.

The release date for Boonlake is set for sometime this October at a retail release price of $69.95 (£50).

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Boonlake

Tabletop Game

About the Author
Alex Meehan avatar

Alex Meehan

Senior Staff Writer

After writing for Kotaku UK, Waypoint and Official Xbox Magazine, Alex became a member of the Dicebreaker editorial family. Having been producing news, features, previews and opinion pieces for Dicebreaker for the past three years, Alex has had plenty of opportunity to indulge in her love of meaty strategy board games and gothic RPGS. Besides writing, Alex appears in Dicebreaker’s D&D actual play series Storybreakers and haunts the occasional stream on the Dicebreaker YouTube channel.

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