When Elsa von Frühlingfeld presented her invention to King Frederik Augustus II of Saxony, people thought it was trickery. She used the recently isolated element Uranium to heat up a jar of water and used the resulting steam to power an engine that kept the Uranium active via a process she called “atomization.” Her device, the Nucleum, ushered in a new era of energy and prosperity over the next decades. Saxony went from a minor regional power to the hub of European science and engineering. Now, a generation later, factories are still hungry for more power, demanding bigger and more Nucleums to be built, more Uranium imported from the nearby country of Bohemia, and railways and power lines built across the country to carry the tamed power of the atoms to Saxony’s great cities. Inventors, engineers, and industrialists flock to the Saxon court, vying to be the leader in this new industrial revolution.

Nucleum is a heavy euro board game in which players take role of industrialists trying to succeed during the economic and technological boom of 19th-century Saxony, fueled by the invention and spread of the Nucleum (a nuclear reactor).

Players earn victory points by developing their networks, building and powering urban buildings, securing contracts, and meeting milestones (randomized endgame goals). Each player also gets unique asymmetric technologies, giving them special powers when unlocked. Gameplay is continuous; players take turns one after another with no rounds or phases.

Nucleum: Acrylic Nucleums Promo

This is a promotional item and it requires the base game of Nucleum to play.

Components:

• 4 acrylic Nucleum markers
• 4 Nucleum Bonus tiles

Changes in setup:
Exchange wooden Nucleum markers with acrylic ones.
Randomly assign 4 Nucleum Bonus tiles to cities with Nucleum power plants (covering the bonuses printed on the map).
During setup when you assign one of the Nucleums, flip the corresponding Nucleum Bonus tile.

Changes in game play:
After you place a new Nucleum marker in one of the power plants– immediately gain the bonus and flip the corresponding Nucleum Bonus tile.

Nucleum: Nucleum Half Tiles Promo

Components:

• 4 Contract Space tiles
• 5 Action Fragment tiles
• 1 Offer tile

Changes in setup:
Place the Offer tile above the board. Place 5 Action Fragment tiles on the Offer tile. Deal one Contract Space tile for each player.

Changes in game play:
•Gaining Action Fragment tiles:
During the game while performing the Contract action you can place the newly gained Contract on the Contract Space tile. This will immediately grant you one of the Action Fragment tiles from the offer. You can have only 1 Action Fragment tile at a time. If you already have one and want to gain another, you can exchange the tiles – taking the new one and returning the old one to the offer (this also applies to “take a contract with double reward” action).

•Using Action Fragment tiles:
When placing Action tiles above your player board or on the board, before you perform any of the actions you can decide to cover one of the actions with the Action Fragment tile. Then perform all visible actions and discard the Action Fragment tile that you used back to the offer. If you placed an Action tile on the board and covered an action that was not adjacent to another tile or a city, leave that Action Fragment tile on the map (it is still considered yours and counts to the 1 Action Fragment tile limit) until another tile is placed adjacent to it, then discard it (after use if triggered).

Reviews Over Nucleum