OVERVIEW
Just beyond the towering vines lies an ancient pathway into the unknown. Push back the thorn-riddled stocks to discover a clandestine garden, blooming with mysterious vigour. Vivid colours mark the way to intricate tiles zigging and zagging through the green. Within the flowers lies the key to greater meaning. An explanation for all things unknown...
In Umbra Via, players compete to control and complete the most cunning paths. Reach into your bag to select wooden flowers, then place them on your secret board in the order of the paths you want most. But when players reveal their choices, things get delightfully tricky. Experience the magic of Umbra Via and find out why this award-winning design belongs on any table.
In more detail, at the start of each round four tiles are revealed from the deck, with each tile showing part of a path, e.g., a straight line, a curve, or a T. Players secretly draw three cubes from their bag and place them on spaces on their personal board corresponding to these tiles. They all reveal their choices, move their cubes to the chosen tiles, then secretly place three more cubes, then move those cubes to the tiles. Whichever tile ends up with the fewest cubes on it is placed in the 4x4 grid first, maintaining the same orientation, by the player who bid the most cubes on that tile. (Some cubes in your bag are worth two cubes during the bidding phase, but are then removed from the tile and returned to your bag prior to placement.) Then the next tile is placed on the grid, and so on.
When you place a tile, if all the "open" ends of that path are cut off — whether by the edge of the board or other tiles — you count how many cubes each player has on the path. The player with the most placed cubes retrieves "double-bidding" cubes from the reserve equal to the number of tiles in the path, adding these cubes and all other cubes to their bag. The player with the second most cubes on the path retrieves half this many "double-bidding" cubes, and so on. After removing and returning all the cubes on this path, remove the tiles from the grid, placing them in a discard pile.
As soon as a player has retrieved all of their "double-bidding" cubes from the reserve, they win!
2-4 PLAYERS | 30-45 MINS | AGES 8+
REVIEWS
Shipping
All online orders are picked from our separate warehouse. We always ensure that your games are well packed before leaving. Wherever possible we'll re-use a cardboard box that we received games in from one of our suppliers. We figure it's better that way for our planet. But we do also use new boxes and wraps. If you have a strong preference either way please let us know in your Order Comments.
UK Orders
We aim for orders placed before 1:30pm Monday to Friday to be dispatched on the same working day. If this is not possible, your order will be dispatched on the next working day. Orders placed outside our Monday to Friday office hours will be dispatched on the next working day.
Delivery is free on all orders of £65 or more. Orders with a value of less than £65 will incur a delivery charge as follows:
£4.50 - Royal Mail Tracked 48 (2-3 business days delivery time)
£6.00 - Royal Mail Tracked 24 (1-2 business days delivery time)
£5.00 - DHL (mainland UK only)
International Delivery
If you are from further afield please contact us to discuss.
Collect in Store
At check-out you will to have the option to collect your order from our cafés in either Oxford or Bath and avoid the shipping charge. We will notify you by email as soon as your order is ready to collect. Allow up to 3 days for Oxford collection orders and 7 days for Bath collection orders. Orders will be held for a maximum of 21 days before being returned to our warehouse.
Additional Information
All delivery costs are presented at the 'My Basket' screen once the shipping destination is chosen, before any money is taken.
Please note working day delivery does not include Sunday, Bank Holidays, Public Holidays and substitute days (see the GOV UK website for clarification).
If you request that the package is left in a safe place, this will only be done at the discretion of the delivery driver.
Shipping times are not guaranteed. From time to time unforeseen problems that are outside of our control can lead to postal delays. We do not accept responsibility for this these and will not refund shipping fees in these circumstance. If it is imperative that your order must reach reach you the next working day please contact us so that we can quote for a guaranteed next day postal service.
