![New Game Round-up: Martin Wallace Visits Via Nebula, Libellud Reveals Hidden Signs for Mysterium & Witches Fly Again in Broom Service: The Card Game](https://cf.geekdo-images.com/ghb1CT55OF8_Azl02D8n0g__thumb/img/lSNtw9F-ciAL8fn4npk2olr5PcM=/fit-in/200x150/filters:strip_icc()/pic2860096.png)
A game of Via Nebula starts with a board showing a hexagonal grid, some production sites with a few available resources on them (wood, stone, wheat, and pigs), building sites in various areas scattered over the whole board, and a lot of mist.
Turn after turn, players have two actions at their disposal from these options: They may clear the mist of a hex to create new paths of transportation, open new production sites, open a building site in a city, carry resources from any production site to their own building sites, and, of course, achieve a construction. Resources and paths through the mist may be used by all the players. This initially induces a kind of cooperation, but eventually other players will take advantage of your actions!
To achieve a construction, you fulfill a contract on one of your cards. You start the game with two contracts, and four more contracts are available for all players to see and use on a first come, first served basis — and that's where the cooperation abruptly stops. Additionally, most contracts have special powers that are triggered on completion.
The game ends when a player finishes a fifth building. Opponents each take two final actions, then players score based on the number of cleared hexes and opened production sites and the point value of their contracts, with a bonus for the player who ended the game.
• Hey, speaking of Spielwarenmesse, here's a short summary of Broom Service: The Card Game, coming from designers Andreas Pelikan and Alexander Pfister and publisher alea, with this title due out in April 2016 in Europe and in June in the U.S. This design is not Witch's Brew, the precursor to the Broom Service board game, but something else entirely:
• Another Spielwarenmesse preview item will be Mysterium: Hidden Signs, from Oleksandr Nevskiy, Oleg Sidorenko, and Libellud. Here's all the info I have for now:
In Mysterium: Hidden Signs, the spiritualists must return to the old mansion and investigate these disturbing visions. Will they understand all the instructions this time and give the ghost its final rest?