A board game design
LEDARI
The Ice Harvest Game ยท 500 BCE to 1950 CE
You lead a team of ice harvesters. Cut ice from frozen lakes, pack it into your icehouse before it melts, fulfill customer orders before summer comes. Three things define every decision: the weather, your crew, and the shape of your icehouse.
๐Ÿ‘ฅ 2โ€“4 Players โฑ 90โ€“130 min per era ๐Ÿ“… 5-Era Campaign ๐ŸŽฏ Medium-Heavy
โ„ Read the guide Core mechanics โ†’
โ„ Three Core Mechanics

Each mechanic comes directly from the physics and history of ice harvesting โ€” not borrowed from other board games.

Mechanic 1
The Temperature Track
A shared thermometer that rises and falls every round. No fixed seasons โ€” only weather.
Crystal
Standard
Thin
0ยฐ
Melt
Fast
  • Each round: 2 Weather Cards shift the marker
  • Below โˆ’12ยฐC โ†’ Crystal ice possible
  • Above 0ยฐC โ†’ no harvest, ice decays
  • Cold Accumulation Track: sustained cold builds ice thickness over days
  • Day 7: Standard unlocks. Day 14: Crystal unlocks.
Harvesters needed โˆ’12ยฐC sustained for 2 weeks for safe horse operations. One warm day could crack the surface.
Mechanic 2
The Icehouse Grid
Your player board is a spatial puzzle. Stack ice from the bottom up. Extract from the top only.
  • Pack ice blocks (1ร—1, 1ร—2, 2ร—2 shapes) from bottom up
  • Deliver only from exposed top cells
  • Edge cells insulate: slower decay
  • Center cells exposed: normal decay
  • Pack Crystal deep โ€” it's protected but inaccessible until you clear the top
Prague's Branicke ledarny (1909) needed 3 elevators to reach deep-stored ice โ€” the LIFO problem was a real engineering challenge.
Mechanic 3
The Crew Pipeline
Five specialists. Five stages. Deploy all five each round. Any gap blocks that stage.
๐Ÿชš
Cutter
โ†’
๐ŸŽฃ
Floater
โ†’
๐Ÿ—
Builder
โ†’
๐Ÿ“‹
Factor
โ†’
๐Ÿšš
Hauler
  • Ice must pass through all 5 stages to reach customers
  • Skipped stage = ice doesn't move through it
  • Factor (supervisor) doubles any one stage's output
  • All players deploy simultaneously, reveal together
  • Workers level up (Junior โ†’ Expert) across the campaign
Czech ledari teams had 10-12 men each with one role. The Factor's judgment was the difference between a profitable season and a lost one.
๐Ÿ“– Design Documents
๐Ÿ“–
Reading Guide
32 short chunks in reading order, one concept per screen. Start here. Sidebar navigation, covers all mechanics from first principles.
Start here
๐Ÿ”ฌ
Core Mechanics
Full detail on all three core systems. Shows what was replaced from the old design and why, with research from Tzolk'in, Barrage, A Feast for Odin, and others.
Core design
๐Ÿ—บ
Board Map & Player Mat
SVG map of the Northern Territory, Player Mat visual, Season Deck balance, solo mode, quick reference card.
Reference
๐Ÿ‘ค
Specialists & Historical Events
Full specialist roster (all 9 ledari roles + historical figures), Demand tile list, insulation ladder, card deck composition by era.
Reference
๐Ÿ“…
Campaign & Components
Between-era phase (6 steps), Chronicle Booklet format, all Historical Event cards with examples, component list (~900 pieces).
Reference
๐ŸŽฎ
Sample Gameplay โ€” Era I
Full 8-round walkthrough. Two players, Ancient Persia. Shows every decision: crew deployment, Yakhchฤl grid, weather cards, orders, Crystal gamble, summer panic.
Play example
๐Ÿ“œ
Original Design (v1)
The first complete design โ€” Brass-inspired, with Season Wheel and card-based actions. Kept for historical flavor reference and iteration history.
Archive
๐Ÿ”„ How it differs from other games

The design went through a full rebuild. Here's what changed and why.

Removed
Dual-use card system โ€” every action costs 1 card, named cards reach outside your network. Brass: Birmingham, word for word.
Replaced with
Customer Order drafting โ€” 3 orders face-up each round, each player secretly takes 1. Orders define your goal; crew deployment is how you act.
Removed
Link-tile network building โ€” place tiles to build routes between cities. Brass's entire geographic layer.
Replaced with
Sluice Gate system โ€” channels are fixed on the board. Your Floater opens gates; ice flows automatically. You manage flow, not infrastructure.
Removed
Season Wheel โ€” 6-position rondel with fixed season states. Predictable, mechanical.
Replaced with
Temperature Track โ€” continuous โˆ’20ยฐC to +20ยฐC driven by two separate Weather Card decks. Rises and falls. No fixed seasons.
Removed
Generic worker placement โ€” any worker can do any action with the right card.
Replaced with
Ledari Crew Pipeline โ€” 5 workers, 5 roles, no substitution (except the Factor). Deployed simultaneously, revealed together.
๐Ÿ“… Five-Era Campaign

Each era is a self-contained game that introduces one new mechanic. Play them in sequence as a campaign, or pick any era as a standalone.

Era 1
The Ice Pits
500 BCE โ€“ 1700 CE
Tutorial. 3-worker crew. Yakhchฤls. No channels yet.
Era 2
The First Trade
1750 โ€“ 1830
Full Weather deck. Floater & sluice gates introduced.
Era 3
The Ice King
1830 โ€“ 1870
Crystal ice. Cold Accumulation. Order suits. Tudor Gamble. โ† Start here for standalone.
Era 4
The Export Wars
1870 โ€“ 1910
Ice Factory. Crew expertise levels. Contamination events.
Era 5
The Last Harvest
1910 โ€“ 1950
Permanent thaw. Customer Defection. Dual victory path.
๐Ÿ“œ From the history
"A man who has drank his drinks cold at the same expense for one week can never be presented with them warm again."
โ€” Frederic Tudor, "Ice King of Boston," 1806. His strategy: give ice away free to bartenders to create permanent demand. In the game: Pioneer a Market action.
"The last block of ice was harvested from the Vltava River in 1956 โ€” brewery horses could walk across to the Zlichov shore. By 1987, Plzensky Prazdroj cut their final block."
โ€” From icehistory.starlume.eu. In the game: Era 5's Customer Defection and the Permanent Thaw Advance.
"Baltazar Ushca harvested glacier ice from Mount Chimborazo by hand until age 79, delivering by donkey to the Riobamba market. He died in 2024, the last of his kind."
โ€” The Last Harvester specialist in Era 5. Named in his honour.