All European copies of Lisboa, a board game about the destruction of Portugal’s capital, destroyed in factory fire

Lisboa, the latest game from The Gallerist and Vinhos designer Vital Lacerda, was inspired by the near-destruction of Portugal’s capital city in 1755 by a powerful earthquake, tsunami and three days of fires.

This week, reality sadly mirrored art (mirroring reality) as every single copy of the board game planned for release in Europe was destroyed in a factory fire.

Lisboa raised $277,597 on Kickstarter late last year, and was originally slated to make its way to backers this June.

The complex title casts players as the noblepeople of Lisboa working to rebuild the razed city, hiring engineers and architects to construct buildings and acquire wigs, which serve as victory points representing their growing influence.

Writing on its Kickstarter page, Eagle-Gryphon Games confirmed that all EU copies of the game had been lost to the fire, trying to make a little light of the devastating situation by joking “at least there have been no earthquakes and no tsunamis”.

The publisher added that it now plans to ship copies from the US to Europe, but wouldn’t deliver directly to backers to avoid custom charges – although this means there will be an increased delay.

Norwegian, Israeli and South American copies, which were also due to ship out from the European factory, will now come from the US directly.