Nuramuru (2012)

Nuramuru literally means "earth track" in many of the Aboriginal dialects still spoken today. Travelling their land without maps, Indigenous Australians created a series of songs based on the contours of the land. The songs defy language, and are aural representations of the landscape. Knowlegeable Aboriginals could navigate very great distances with accuracy by singing the landscape. Nuramuru allows players to explore the continent of Australia, expand their territories through strategic game play, and become educated about the rich history and culture of Aboriginal people. Nuramuru pits four players against each other in a race to explore the country of Australia. Players must explore territory and collect point cards to be the first to 75 points and win. The game was inspired by Bruce Chatwin's 1987 book 'The Songlines', and draws its game mechanics from Ticket to Ride and Settlers of Catan. Played on a point-to-point network map of Australia, each player moves to an adjoining location, draws a card from the deck, and if he has the required card type(s) for the location, can claim that location by placing one of his tokens on it. Another player can steal possession of that location by moving to it and spending twice as many of the the required card type(s). Players receive points for each location controlled, extra points for individual locations on the ancient Songlines, and a bonus for complete control of a Songline.