In many ways 7 Wonders Duel resembles its parent game 7 Wonders. Over three ages players acquire cards that provide resources or advance their military or scientific development in order to develop a civilization and complete wonders. What's different about 7 Wonders Duel is that as the title suggests the game is solely for two players.Players do not draft cards simultaneously from decks of cards but from a display of face-down and face-up cards arranged at the start of a round. A player can take a card only if it's not covered by any others so timing comes into play as it can with bonus moves that allow the player to take a second card immediately. As in the original game each acquired card can be built discarded for coins or used to construct a wonder. Each player also starts with four wonder cards and the construction of a wonder provides its owner with a special ability. Only seven wonders can be built though so one player will end up short.Players can purchase resources at any time from the bank or they can gain cards during the game that provide them with resources for future building; as they are acquired the cost for those resources increases for the opponent representing the owner's dominance in this area.You can win 7 Wonders Duel in one of three ways: each time you acquire a military card you advance the military marker toward your opponent's capital (also giving you a bonus at certain positions). If you reach the opponent's capital you win the game immediately. Or if you acquire six of seven different scientific symbols you achieve scientific dominance and win immediately. If none of these situations occurs then the player with the most points at the end of the game wins.
Two thousand years ago the Roman Empire ruled the lands around the Mediterranean Sea. With peace at the borders harmony inside the provinces uniform law and a common currency the economy thrived and gave rise to mighty Roman dynasties as they expanded throughout the numerous cities. Guide one of these dynasties and send colonists to the remote realms of the Empire; develop your trade network; and appease the ancient gods for their favor — all to gain the chance to emerge victorious!Concordia is a peaceful strategy game of economic development in Roman times for 2-5 players aged 13 and up. Instead of looking to the luck of dice or cards players must rely on their strategic abilities. Be sure to watch your rivals to determine which goals they are pursuing and where you can outpace them! In the game colonists are sent out from Rome to settle down in cities that produce bricks food tools wine and cloth. Each player starts with an identical set of playing cards and acquires more cards during the game. These cards serve two purposes:Concordia is a strategy game that requires advanced planning and consideration of your opponent's moves. Every game is different not only because of the sequence of new cards on sale but also due to the modular layout of cities. (One side of the game board shows the entire Roman Empire with 30 cities for 3-5 players while the other shows Roman Italy with 25 cities for 2-4 players.) When all cards have been sold or after the first player builds their 15th house the game ends. The player with the most VPs from the gods (Jupiter Saturnus Mercurius Minerva Vesta etc.) wins the game.
On an uninhabited island in uncharted seas explorers have found traces of a great civilization. Now you will lead an expedition to explore the island find lost artifacts and face fearsome guardians all in a quest to learn the island's secrets.Lost Ruins of Arnak combines deck-building and worker placement in a game of exploration resource management and discovery. In addition to traditional deck-builder effects cards can also be used to place workers and new worker actions become available as players explore the island. Some of these actions require resources instead of workers so building a solid resource base will be essential. You are limited to only one action per turn so make your choice carefully... what action will benefit you most now? And what can you afford to do later... assuming someone else doesn't take the action first!?Decks are small and randomness in the game is heavily mitigated by the wealth of tactical decisions offered on the game board. With a variety of worker actions artifacts and equipment cards the set-up for each game will be unique encouraging players to explore new strategies to meet the challenge.Discover the Lost Ruins of Arnak!—description from the publisher
Tzolkin: The Mayan Calendar presents a new game mechanism: dynamic worker placement. Players representing different Mayan tribes place their workers on giant connected gears and as the gears rotate they take the workers to different action spots.During a turn players can either (a) place one or more workers on the lowest visible spot of the gears or (b) pick up one or more workers. When placing workers they must pay corn which is used as a currency in the game. When they pick up a worker they perform certain actions depending on the position of the worker. Actions located later on the gears are more valuable so it's wise to let the time work for you – but players cannot skip their turn; if they have all their workers on the gears they have to pick some up. The game ends after one full revolution of the central Tzolkin gear. There are many paths to victory. Pleasing the gods by placing crystal skulls in deep caves or building many temples are just two of those many paths...
Travel back in time to the greatest city in Mesoamerica. Witness the glory and the twilight of the powerful pre-Columbian civilization. Strategize accrue wealth gain the favour of the gods and become the builder of the magnificent Pyramid of the Sun.In Teotihuacan: City of Gods each player commands a force of worker dice which grow in strength with every move. On your turn you move a worker around a modular board always choosing one of two areas of the location tile you land on: one offering you an action (and a worker upgrade) the other providing you with a powerful bonus (but without an upgrade).While managing their workforce and resources players develop new technologies climb the steps of the three great temples build houses for the inhabitants of the city and raise the legendary and breath-taking Pyramid of the Sun in the center of the city.Each game is played in three eras. As the dawn of the Aztecs comes closer player efforts (and their ability to feed their workforce) are evaluated a total of three times. The player with the most fame is the winner.
Concordia Venus is a standalone reimplementation of Concordia with some added features.Concordia Venus is a peaceful strategy game of economic development in Roman times for 2-6 players aged 13 and up. Instead of looking to the luck of dice or cards players must rely on their strategic abilities. Be sure to watch your rivals to determine which goals they are pursuing and where you can outpace them! In the game colonists are sent out from Rome to settle down in cities that produce bricks food tools wine and cloth. Each player starts with an identical set of playing cards and acquires more cards during the game. These cards serve two purposes:They allow a player to choose actions during the game. They are worth victory points (VPs) at the end of the game.Concordia is a strategy game that requires advance planning and consideration of your opponent's moves. Every game is different not only because of the sequence of new cards on sale but also due to the modular layout of cities on the 4 different maps included with the game. When all cards have been sold from the market or after the first player builds his 15th house the game ends. The player with the most VPs from the gods (Jupiter Saturnus Mercurius Minerva Vesta Venus etc.) wins the game.Note: This entry is for the standalone game Concordia Venus. This is different from Concordia: Venus (Expansion) which requires Concordia to play.
Inis is a game deeply rooted in Celtic history and lore in which players win by being elected King of the Island (Inis). Players can try to achieve one of three different victory conditions:Over the course of the game players also earn deeds typically chanted by bards or engraved by master crafters that reduce by one the magic total of six for any condition. While one victory condition is enough to claim the title of King a game of experienced players usually has a tight balance of power emphasizing the leadership of the capital of the island.At the start of each round players draft a hand of four action cards (with 13 action cards for three players and 17 for four players) during the Assembly. Action cards not played at the end of one season are not held for the next. Players also have access to leader cards for the territories that allow it and where they were elected leader during the assembly. Each Assembly reallocates those cards. Finally they collect epic tales cards that depict the deeds of the ancient Irish gods and heroes like Cuchulainn the Dagda Lugh and many others. These will be kept and used to inspire the clans and achieve extraordinary feats...under the right circumstances. The cards provide a variety of actions: adding clans moving clans building/exploring and special actions.Careful drafting hand management bluffing (especially once players understand the importance of passing their turn) good timing and a precise understanding of the balance of power are the keys to victory. After a discovery game you'll be ready for a full and epic game where an undisputed player will be king by the Assembly for his merit and wisdom.While Inis has dudes that are on a map it's a beginner's mistake to play this as a battle game because eliminating other clans reduces your chances of scoring a Leadership victory condition. Peace among different clans with or without a clear territory leader is the usual outcome of a clan's movement. Battles will occur of course as the Celtic clans can be unruly and a good player will listen to his clan's people (i.e. his hand of cards). That battle aspect is reflected in the clan's miniatures representing warriors. Woodsmen shepherds and traders complete the set of twelve minis for each player; these occupations have no impact on the game but give it flavor.
Set in ancient Rome Trajan is a development game in which players try to increase their influence and power in various areas of Roman life such as political influence trading military dominion and other important parts of Roman culture.The central mechanism of the game uses a system similar to that in Mancala or pit-and-pebbles games. In Trajan a player has six possible actions: building trading taking tiles from the forum using the military influencing the Senate and placing Trajan tiles on his tableau.At the start of the game each player has two differently colored pieces in each of the six sections (bowls) of his tableau. On a turn the player picks up all the pieces in one bowl and distributes them one-by-one in bowls in a clockwise order. Wherever the final piece is placed the player takes the action associated with that bowl; in addition if the colored pieces in that bowl match the colors shown on a Trajan tile next to the bowl (with tiles being placed at the start of the game and through later actions) then the player takes the additional action shown on that tile.What are you trying to do with these actions? Acquire victory points (VPs) in whatever ways are available to you – and since this is a Feld design you try to avoid being punished too. At the Forum you try to anticipate the demands of the public so that you can supply them what they want and not suffer a penalty. In the Senate you acquire influence which translates into votes on VP-related laws ideally snagging a law that fits your long-term plans. With the military you take control of regions in Europe earning more points for those regions far from Rome.All game components are language neutral and the playing time is 30 minutes per player.
When visiting the North of Britannia in 122 AD the Roman Emperor Hadrian Augustus witnessed the aftermath of war between his armies and the savage Picts. In a show of Roman might he ordered a wall to be built that would separate the Pict tribes from the rest of England. Grand in its design the wall stretched 80 Roman miles from coast to coast. Hadrian's Wall stood in service to the Roman Empire for nearly 300 years before its eventual decline. Today Hadrian's Wall is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the remains of the forts towers and turrets can still be explored.In Hadrian's Wall players take on the role of a Roman General placed in charge of the construction of a milecastle and bordering wall. Over six years (rounds) players will construct their fort and wall man the defenses and attract civilians by building services and providing entertainment — all while defending the honor of the Roman Empire from the warring Picts. The player who can accumulate the most renown piety valor and discipline whilst avoiding disdain will prove to the Emperor they are the model Roman citizen and be crowned Legatus Legionis!—description from the publisher
In Kemet players each deploy the troops of an Egyptian tribe and use the mystical powers of the gods of ancient Egypt – along with their powerful armies – to score points in glorious battles or through invasion of rich territories. A game is typically played to 8 or 10 victory points which may be accrued through winning attacks controlling temples controlling fully-developed pyramids sacrificing to the gods and wielding particular magical powers.The conquest for the land of Kemet takes place over two phases: Day and Night. During the day choose an action amongst the nine possible choices provided by your player mat and perform it immediately. Once every player has taken five actions night falls with players gathering Prayer Points from their temples drawing Divine Intervention cards and determining the turn order before the start of the new day.As the game progresses they can use Prayer Points to acquire power tiles. Some of these enroll magical creatures and have them join their troops. In addition to intimidating enemies these creatures provide special powers!Detailed miniature components represent the combat units and the supernatural creatures that are summoned to enhance them. Combat is resolved through cards chosen from a diminishing six-card hand and enhanced by bonuses.
7 Wonders The board game with more awards than any other game on the planet. With over 30 international awards and over a million copies sold throughout the world rediscover 7 Wonders the game which has won more awards than any other game in the world in a whole new version. Lauded by both the public and critics 7 Wonders has claimed its place as an unmissable reference point in modern board gaming. 7 Wonders is based on a simple and elegant mechanic (drafting) which allows up to 7 players to play with no dead time. Players make their choice and apply all of them at the same time. These choices are varied and their impact is real. Finally the game is divided into 3 Ages which little by little increase the importance of these choices and thus the tension in the game. The global mechanics and the care given to the artwork are used to immerse the player in Antiquity and have contributed to the game’s success. A game plays out over 3 rounds called Ages during which you simultaneously play cards one at a time to develop your City.These cards represent the various Buildings you can construct: resource producers civilian commercial military scientific structures and guilds.At the end of each Age you go to war with your nearest neighbours. At the end of all 3 Ages you tally up all of the victory points earned by your City your wonder your military prowess and your treasury. The player with the highest score wins the game.Content: 7 Wonder boards 148 Age cards: 49 Age I cards 49 Age II cards and 50 Age III cards 78 Coins: 54 Coins of value 1 and 24 Coins of value 3 48 Military Conflict tokens: 24 Defeats and 24 Victories (8 per Age) 1 pad of score sheets 3 quick reference sheets describing the effects of the cards 1 List of cards and chaining leaflet 1 rulebook
Clash of Cultures: Monumental Edition brings back the classic game of exploration expansion and development with the Clash of Cultures base game and the Civilizations and Aztecs expansions in one box! Grow your civilization advance your culture and tech and leave your mark by building wonders with this edition of the game including fully-sculpted miniatures of the Seven Wonders.In Clash of Cultures each player leads a civilization from a single settlement to a mighty empire. Players must explore their surroundings build large cities research advances and conquer those who stand in the way. The game features a modular board for players to explore 48 distinct advances seven mighty wonders and loads of miniatures and cards. The winner will create a culture that will be remembered and admired for millennia.
Play as a god of ancient Egypt competing to survive as society begins to forget the old ways so that only you and your followers remain.Build caravans summon monsters and convert followers in your quest to reign supreme in Ankh: Gods of Egypt. Deities monsters and the people of ancient Egypt have been lovingly reimagined and interpreted in beautiful illustrations and detailed miniatures and players will truly feel like gods as they shake the very foundations of Egypt. All gameplay in Ankh including combat is streamlined and non-random. Compete and win solely on your godly wits alone.—description from the publisher
Santorini is a re-imagining of the purely abstract 2004 edition. Since its original inception over 30 years ago Santorini has been continually developed enhanced and refined by designer Gordon Hamilton.Santorini is an accessible strategy game simple enough for an elementary school classroom while aiming to provide gameplay depth and content for hardcore gamers to explore The rules are simple. Each turn consists of 2 steps:1. Move - move one of your builders into a neighboring space. You may move your Builder Pawn on the same level step-up one level or step down any number of levels.2. Build - Then construct a building level adjacent to the builder you moved. When building on top of the third level place a dome instead removing that space from play.Winning the game - If either of your builders reaches the third level you win.Variable player powers - Santorini features variable player powers layered over an otherwise abstract game with 40 thematic god and hero powers that fundamentally change the way the game is played.
The epic Egyptian game Kemet is reborn with a new revised edition!With Kemet: Blood and Sand immerse yourself in a more realistic Ancient Egypt. Here Gods are powerful masters of both the desert and the Nile delta. They challenge each other in violent battles and show no mercy. Get ready to become an Egyptian God open the gates of your city and let your troops sing the song of war to please you and claim your dominance as master of Ancient Egypt.Kemet: Blood and Sand features new art and upgraded gameplay with new approachable rules that go beyond the 1.5 version of Kemet developed with the help of the BGG community. Free from the constraints of existing components designers Jacques Bariot and Guillaume Montiage go even further in fine-tuning the Kemet experience.The game also features a redesigned map with a twist bigger and more detailed figurines and other surprises.—description from the publisher
The city-building board game Foundations of Rome puts you into the role of an architect competing to own land and build magnificent structures! Build domūs and insulae fountains foundries and more to increase your renown - gaining glory for yourself and the empire! With 96 wonderfully detailed miniatures in the base game Foundations of Rome is a testament to the glory of Rome that you can bring to the table.Foundations of Rome is the next and biggest game to date in the Dice Tower Essentials line and is designed by famed designer Emerson Matsuuchi.On a player's turn they select from purchasing a new lot building a new building in the shared city of Rome or collecting income!Players collect Glory Points at the end of each round based on the population and commerce they have brought to the city as well as gaining glory for civic buildings that score not only based on their own buildings but those of their opponents!With a quick setup time and easy to learn to rules you will be on your way to achieving glory within Rome in no time!—description from the publisher
Formidable adversaries are arrayed against you. Your people stand ready. History beckons.In your hands lies the destiny of one of history's great civilizations. Under constant threat of attack you must conquer new lands oversee dramatic scientific and cultural advances and lead your people into the era of empire. Expand too rapidly and unrest will bring your civilization to its knees; build up too slowly however and you might find yourself a mere footnote of history. As one of eight radically asymmetric civilizations you will compete to become the most dominant empire the world has ever seen.Imperium: Classics is a standalone game that contains the Carthaginian Celt Greek Macedonian Persian Roman Scythian and Viking civilizations and an individual solo opponent behaving as each nation. It is also fully compatible with Imperium: Legends for players wanting to expand their pool of civilizations even further.—description from the publisher
Settlers from four major powers of the world have discovered new lands with new resources and opportunities. Romans Barbarians Egyptians and Japanese all at once move there to expand the boundaries of their empires. They build new buildings to strengthen their economy they found mines and fields to gather resources and they build barracks and training grounds to train soldiers. Soon after they discover that this land is far too small for everybody then the war begins...Imperial Settlers is a card game that lets players lead one of the four factions and build empires by placing buildings then sending workers to those buildings to acquire new resources and abilities. The game is played over five rounds during which players take various actions in order to explore new lands build buildings trade resources conquer enemies and thus score victory points.The core mechanism of Imperial Settlers is based on concepts from the author's card game 51st State.
Many centuries ago the Greek Persian and Assyrian empires controlled vast amounts of land and riches. Yet despite their fortifications and imposing armies rumours began spreading of a formidable foe in the lands above the Black Sea. They came on horseback. Fierce warriors both male and female. Skilled with the sword axe and bow. But they weren’t mindless savages. Their artisans were renowned for their ability to craft detailed trinkets of gold. They fashioned leather armour and improvised the recurve bow. They trained eagles for hunting and war. Some even believe they inspired the Greek tales of the Amazons. But they were more than legend or fable. They were the Raiders of Scythia.The aim of Raiders of Scythia is to be the player with the most Victory Points (VP) at the game’s end. VP are gained by raiding Settlements taking Plunder and completing Quests. Players will need to assemble a Crew train Animals and gather Provisions. The game ends when there is only 2 unraided Settlements or 2 Quests remaining on the Main Board.—description from the publisher
Four millennia ago on the eastern bank of the Nile river was laid the foundation of the Temple of Amun-Ra. Over the course of two thousand years the temple complex was gradually expanded and became widely known as The Most Select of Places (Ipet-Isut) boasting the largest religious building in the world. Today the site is known as Karnak located at Luxor in modern-day Egypt.Join ancient Pharaohs in creating and growing one of the most impressive sites the world has seen honoring the Egyptian gods Horus Ra Hathor Bastet Thoth and Osiris. You must carefully manage the balance of your actions preparing for the reckoning by the goddess Maat.The game board in Tekhenu: Obelisk of the Sun is divided into six sections each associated with an Egyptian god: Horus Ra Hathor Bastet Thoth and Osiris. In the center stands an impressive obelisk (Tekhenu) that casts its shadow onto different parts of the board. As a result the area around the obelisk is divided into sunny shaded and dark sections depending on how the obelisk casts its shadow at that particular moment. As the game progresses the sun's rotation alters which sections are sunny shaded or dark.The game takes place over multiple rounds. Each round players draft dice and perform actions associated with the value of the die and the section from which the die was drafted. Dice come in five colors and each die is considered Pure Tainted or Forbidden depending on the color of the die and the position of the obelisk's shadow. While you may never draft Forbidden dice you are free to draft any other die whether Pure or Tainted.As you draft the dice you must consider not only the general availability of dice — if no dice are available in a given section then you cannot readily perform the action associated with that section — but also which value die to draft. You must also consider the purity of the dice to draft as you must balance your Pure and Tainted actions if you want to have a more favorable position in turn order.When you draft a die you can perform an action depending on the section you took the die from. Each of the actions corresponds to a different Egyptian god: Horus Ra Hathor Bastet Thoth and Osiris. Instead of a god action you can choose to produce generating resources based on the color and value of the die but beware of producing in excess of your production capacity as this is Greed and adds Taint to your balance!Two scoring phases occur during the game during which players earn victory points based on the workshops quarries buildings statues and pillars they have built as well as the happiness of their people and production capacity of their resources. However players must also keep a healthy amount of resources around to sustain their population or they suffer negative consequences.
The players slip into the role of rich patricians in ancient Rome. Everyone is trying to build a lucrative city district to score as many prestige points as possible. The novel way to get to the individual buildings of a district combined with a large variety of score cards make for an unusual game with a large number of strategies. From the successful designer Stefan Feld.
Enter the Dark Ages of Greece ruled by mighty Gods wielding advanced technology. Control asymmetric heroes and choose your path to victory either by strategic control or adventure style monster hunting and quests.Build majestic multi-part monuments of Gods on the board and unlock their mighty powers that will help you win and survive the raids of monsters who travel through land and rain havoc.In Lords of Hellas you control an asymmetric hero developed by increasing his 3 basic statistics and gathering artifacts. The main statistics are:Through the game you can choose from various actions and influence the game thanks to the mighty monuments of base Gods: Zeus Athena and Hermes. You need to strategically move your armies and hero as well as manage your actions in order to win.Players can win in various ways: by controlling area temples or slaying monsters that are wandering through the map and interfere in various ways. Once any victory condition is met the game ends (there is no point system).—description from the publisher
At the height of its power the Roman Empire held more than two million square miles of territory containing over a hundred million people. Throughout the centuries of its existence the Empire brought major advancements in engineering architecture science art and literature. By the beginning of the 5th Century decades of political corruption economic crisis and an overburdened military had exacted a severe toll on the stability of the Empire. This paved the way for severe incursions from aggressive barbarian tribes leading to a decline from which Rome would not recover. Now citizens soldiers and allies of Rome must unite to protect the Empire.Combining the cooperative gameplay of Pandemic with innovative new mechanisms Pandemic: Fall of Rome takes players back in history to the time of the world's greatest empire: Rome. A weakened military has left the borders open to invasion from countless tribes such as the Anglo-Saxons Goths Vandals and Huns. As you march through the Roman Empire you must recruit armies fortify cities forge alliances and face off against the invading hordes in battle.Simply defending Rome is not enough; players must find a way to stop the incursions and find peace with their neighboring peoples. Players collect sets of matching-colored cards to forge an alliance with the different tribes. In doing so they gain the ability to use cards matching the tribe to convert other members of that tribe into Roman soldiers furthering their ability to hold the line against other invaders.Take on unique roles with special abilities to improve your team's chances to protect against the invaders. Work together use your skills wisely and stop the fall of Rome!Pandemic: Fall of Rome includes a solitaire mode in which the player takes on the burden of being the Emperor and commands three different roles to try to protect the city from the invading hordes. Players who want a more difficult game can try the Roma Caput Mundi challenge by adding more Revolt cards to the deck; they must also respect the law in Rome that Roman legions are not allowed in the city.—description from the publisher
The most talented architects in ancient Greece stand ready to achieve this goal. Build housing temples markets gardens and barracks so you can grow your city and ensure it triumphs over the others. Raise its prestige with harmonious planning that conforms to specific rules and enhance it by building plazas.Stone is an essential resource so make sure you do not neglect it. You’ll need enough quarries so you can build higher up making your city stretch towards the sky.—description from the publisher
Heroes stand ready! The gods are offering a seat in heaven to whichever hero defeats their rivals. Your courage and wits will be your most precious allies as you use divine dice to gather resources along the road to victory.Your divine dice are exceptional with removable faces! Customize your dice to make them more powerful as the game progresses. Sacrifice gold to the gods to obtain enhanced die faces. Upgrade your dice to produce the resources you need. Overcome ordeals concocted by the gods to grow in glory and earn rewards. Skillfully manage the luck of the dice and take charge of your destiny. Only the greatest will ascend to the heavens!Dice Forge is a development game featuring innovative mechanics based on dice with removable faces. In this dice crafting game players build their own dice. Roll your dice manage your resources complete ordeals before your opponents and explore multiple winning strategies.Now you control the luck of the dice!
In Spartacus: A Game of Blood & Treachery an exciting game of twisted schemes and bloody combats inspired by the hit STARZ Original series each player takes on the role of Dominus head of a rising house in the ancient Roman city of Capua. Each house is competing for Influence to gain the favor of Rome. Through a combination of political schemes and glorious battles on the arena sands your house will rise in fame and stature. As Dominus you have a variety of resources at your disposal. Guards protect you from schemes launched by rivals. Slaves run your household and earn gold. Gladiators compete to bring glory to themselves and influence to their Dominus.Three main phases occur in each game round of Spartacus: A Game of Blood & Treachery.The Intrigue Phase is when players launch their Schemes hoping to raise their fortunes while undermining their rivals. Schemes and Reactions are represented by cards in the Intrigue Deck. Players wield their Influence to put their Schemes into play often asking for (or bribing) another player’s help in hatching the most complex plots.The Market Phase is when players buy sell and trade Assets (Gladiators Slaves Equipment and Guards). Players also bid against each other to acquire new Assets at Auction. Wealth is not the only path to success as players bluff and bargain with each other to acquire the Assets they covet.The Arena Phase is when the bloody games are held. Gladiators from two rival Houses are pitted against each other in a brutal fight for glory. The spectacles of the games are represented by miniature combat on the arena board. Fighters pit their Attack Defense and Speed dice against one another to determine the victor. All players seek to increase their fortunes by betting on the outcome of the gruesome conflict. Fighters who emerge from the arena victorious gain Favor and their Dominus gain Influence.The goal of the game is to become the most influential house in Capua securing your family’s power for years to come. During the game players will bribe poison betray steal blackmail and undermine each other. Gold will change hands again and again to buy support stay someone’s hand or influence their decisions. Will you be the honorable player whose word is their bond or the treacherous schemer whose alliances change with the wind?—description from the publisher
Hera tired of Zeus' infidelity decides to take her revenge and releases the Titans on Mount Olympus. In the ensuing battle the power liberated by the combatants ignites in a combustion that shatters the Earth. In the ensuing deflagration the weakest gods are obliterated rendered down into the small fragments of power that constituted their being. The stronger ones were able to resist total annihilation but even their prodigious power could not save them entirely. As the survivors fell from the broken mountain the shards of their divinity and the remnants of those that did not survive were scattered to the 4 corners of a now broken world.As they awoke each god found themselves to be but a shadow of their former selves. They were still mighty stronger than any mortal that yet walked but they were no longer all powerful no longer immortal. Each one could sense the fragments of power that had now fallen to the Earth and that by collecting these they could regain their former grandeur and if they could but amass enough stand at the front of a new Pantheon reshaped in their image.The world around them suffered as much as they did the power released during the epic battle had ignited a cataclysm that reduced the beautiful land of Greece to a barren wasteland. Athens burns Crete has sunken below the waves of the roiling seas and the immortal mount Olympus is now an ash covered wreck of its former glory. But this Event has not only affected the mortal realms. The underworld trembled from the blow even as a legion of fresh souls ran down the river Styx. Would that have been the extent of the underworld's involvement however...Hades having lost the majority of his power no longer holds sway over the Underworld. The gates of hell are open and even though the River Styx prevents the weakest souls from regaining the mortal world the strongest warriors the mightiest heroes and the most vicious monsters have managed to claw their way back up the Styx and back to the surface.As a new power struggle breaks out Gods summon mortal survivors returned heroes and reborn monsters to their side in their hunt for the shards of their lost power.In Mythic Battles: Pantheon it is these clashes between warbands in the midst of a post-apocalyptic ancient Greece that are the focal point of the game. Choose your God draft your warband and take the fight to your enemies with the might of the most powerful beings from Greek mythology at your back.
From Christian Marcussen the creator of Merchants and Marauders comes Clash of Cultures a civilization game in which each player leads a civilization from a single settlement to a mighty empire. Players must explore their surroundings build large cities research advances and conquer those who stand in the way. The game features a modular board for players to explore 48 distinct advances seven mighty wonders and loads of miniatures and cards. The winner will create a culture that will be remembered and admired for millennia.Advances The game features about 48 distinct advances. The whole tech-tree is very flexible with no dead ends yet still intuitive sensible and realistic. Additionally you have a great overview of what advances other cultures have - no need to ask - just look.Modular Board Players start with a civilization in its infancy. Move settlers to uncharted regions and reveal the terrain and its resources. Several mechanisms have been implemented to assure that an unlucky placement of region-tiles won't be a decider.Playing Time The game covers a time span similar to AH Civilization - that is to pre-gunpowder. This epic game is playable in about an hour per player! This is a pretty good playing time for a game that covers so much ground as this game will.City management Players expand their cities through the game. But not just to the generic larger city. Players instead choose a building type which represents the growth of the city. For instance you can expand a city with a port fort temple and academy - all with different benefits! Additionally cities can be angry neutral and happy. Everything integrated in an intuitive and elegant fashion.Multiple paths to victory Earn points through: - Founding cities and increasing their sizes - Advances - Objectives - Wonders - Events
During the reign of Emperor Yao the people of ancient China were constantly plagued by deadly floods along the Yellow River. Eager to put an end to the devastation Yao selected Gun one of his officials to devise a plan. After nine years of failed attempts using dams and dikes Gun's employment came to a questionable end. After his passing Yu inherited his father's work. Learning from Gun's failures Yu set out to construct a series of canals to direct the surging river into nearby fields and smaller waterways.Legacy of Yu is a solo-only fully-resettable nonlinear campaign game in which you step into the role of the legendary hero of the Xia Dynasty Yu the Great. It will be your job to build the canals ahead of the impending flood while also defending your growing village against neighboring barbarian tribes. With each game stories will be shared and new gameplay elements added. The campaign features a self-balancing system which adapts to how well you are doing. The campaign ends once you either win or lose seven games.—description from the publisher
Imperial Settlers: Empires of the North is a new standalone card game in the established Imperial Settlers universe with players heading to the far north where three different factions live: Scotsmen Inuits and Vikings. Take on the role of leader and make your faction into the best empire in the world!Choosing the faction is only the first step though as each faction can be played using one of the two separate and unique decks. Yes in the base game players will find six pre-constructed decks ready to use straight out of the box. Each one offers a completely different gameplay style!Develop your economy deflect your opponent and fight for dominance in the north. Learn new mechanisms and experience a unique style of Imperial Settlers. Will you be able to create the most successful civilization in Imperial Settlers: Empires of the North?
Take on the role of the great leaders of the past to build your own Ancient City.Players will take turns spending their gold each round to build tiles that will increase their city's economy. A city that produces more food and generates commerce brings more population. Make your city grow!There are 5 types of buildings each of which provides resources that will help your city evolve from a simple settlement to the largest city in the world.To place new buildings in your city you will also need a lot of roads. Don’t forget about monuments which are just as important as the buildings. These will bring you victory points but claiming one will consume the rest of your gold for the round.Choose your timing and placement wisely! If your gold runs out your round is over. Once all players have spent their gold a new round begins and new buildings and roads will become available.After 10 rounds or as soon as a player reaches the maximum population limit the leader of the best city in the ancient world will be the winner of World Wonders!—description from the publisher
In Imhotep the players become builders in Egypt who want to emulate the first and best-known architect there namely Imhotep.Over six rounds they move wooden stones by boat to create five seminal monuments and on a turn a player chooses one of four actions: Procure new stones load stones on a boat bring a boat to a monument or play an action card. While this sounds easy naturally the other players constantly thwart your building plans by carrying out plans of their own. Only those with the best timing — and the stones to back up their plans — will prove to be Egypt's best builder.
Aeon Trespass: Odyssey is a 1-4 player campaign game about adventures exploration and fierce battles with giant monsters. It’s a co-operative choice-driven boardgame experience played over multiple sessions. Set in an alternate Antiquity where a reality-shattering cataclysm killed the Olympian gods and unleashed the otherworldly Primordials Aeon Trespass: Odyssey places the players in the roles of Argonauts the only people who can fight off the darkness and make things right.Take control of the Argo and its crew train them and send them on adventures into the dangerous and mysterious lands of Ancient Greece (and beyond...). Learn the world's secrets and create new technologies that will give you an edge in combat - and outside of it. Manage your resources and develop your base of operations. Build new Facilities craft new Weapons and equipment. Gather allies and forge political alliances with the world’s factions. And most important of all tame the Titans arm them evolve them and ride them to battle with the fearsome Primordials.You win by defeating the main villains or solving a crisis you lose if your Argonauts die your crew abandons you your ship gets destroyed the villains fulfill their plot or time runs out. There are many ways to lose but only a handful paths to victory.During Battles 1 to 4 players must cooperate to defeat 1 giant Primordial boss-type monster controlled by a sophisticated AI system. Outside of Battles Aeon Trespass: Odyssey uses choice chain and choice matrix mechanics to track your decisions throughout the game. Those decisions matter and will have a drastic impact on all future play sessions campaigns and playthroughs.
Mythic Greece. As an upstart demigod you want to earn the favor of the Olympians and become a figure of legend yourself. Gather heroes and powerful artifacts please the gods and bear their power to write your own epic tale.Let your allies achieve their destiny and enter the Elysium home of the glorious and the brave. Once the stories are written only one demigod will be chosen to stand at the side of Zeus.Elysium is a game of set collecting and combinations in which players recruit cards representing heroes items powers and gods. These cards have many different powers and you can create powerful combination to earn gold (the help of the gods) and victory points (the favor of the gods). Each card belongs to one of the eight Olympians gods (a family) and shows a level (1 to 3).During the five turns of the game players will try to transfer their cards to the Elysium and write their own Legends which are series of cards from the same family or from different families of the same level. The more epic the Legends the more favor from the gods they’ll earn. But as they go to Elysium most cards lose their power and players will therefore have to renounce some of their combinations !A game of balance and opportunity with simple action but constant dilemmas and complex strategies.
The isle of Atlantis your home is sinking. Will you be able to save your people in time?Atlantis Rising is a co-operative worker placement game in which you must work together with up to six other players to deploy citizens across your homeland gathering resources in order to build a cosmic gate that can save your people. Workers placed close to the shoreline are more rewarding but are more likely to be flooded and the actions lost.Every turn each player draws a misfortune card that will flood certain locations along the ever-shrinking Atlantis shoreline or may otherwise work to undermine your efforts to save your people. So you must race to gather the necessary resources to build and power the gate before the island disappears beneath the waves forever.This edition contains all new art and graphic design created to bring even more attention to the thematic setting of the game. The Athenians Attack phase has been replaced with the Wrath of the Gods phase requiring more strategic planning and adding to the sense of urgency. Now instead of placing workers in an Atlantean Navy players must cooperatively decide to flood a set number of tiles at the end of each round. To further aid them in their task Councilor player powers have been expanded and made more impactful and the knowledge deck has similarly been revised and expanded. The variable gate components once built no longer offer one-time bonuses but create new worker placement spots where players can send Atlantean workers to unleash actions to help save their island.
The period of the Warring States (475-221 BCE) describes a time of endless wars between seven rival states: Qin Chu Qi Yan Han Wei and Zhao. These states were finally unified in 221 BCE under the Qin dynasty to lay the origin of today's China with its two main rivers: the Yellow and the Yangtze.Yellow & Yangtze the sister game to the highly acclaimed board game Tigris & Euphrates invites you to replay this eventful period and to lead your dynasty to victory.In Yellow & Yangtze players build civilizations through tile placement. Players are given five different leaders: Governor Soldier Farmer Trader and Artisan. The leaders are used to collect victory points in these same categories. However your score at the end of the game is the number of points in your weakest category. Conflicts arise when civilizations connect on the board. To succeed players' civilizations must survive these conflicts calm peasant revolts and grow secure enough to build prestigious pagodas.
Mosaic: A Story of Civilization is a Civilization-Building game from Glenn Drover designer of among others Age of Empires III: The Age of Discovery Railways of the World Sid Meier's Civilization: The Boardgame and Raccoon Tycoon.Mosaic is an action selection game. On your turn you will perform one of eight actions and acquire pillars of civilization.Acquiring pillars is important in creating the unique mosaic of your civilization. They are used as prerequisites for many new technologies as well as for scoring. Also by pursuing specialization in one or more civilization pillars you may be able to claim a ‘Golden Age’ of that type.As the game goes on and your civilization grows scoring cards are eventually revealed from the four decks. Each time a scoring card is revealed your civilization will score for each region that you dominate with your cities towns wonders and military units. After the third scoring card is revealed there is one final turn and the game ends. You will then score for your cities and towns your wonders projects achievments and golden ages and for all of your cards that score for your unique civilization pillars.-description from publisher (corrected and updated)Please note that the solo rules are only included in the Kickstarter editions not in the retail versions (although they are available as print-and-play in French at the very least).
The ancient Romans called the Mediterranean Sea mare nostrum which is Latin for our sea.Mare Nostrum is an empire-building game in which 3-5 players [or 2-6 with the 'Atlas' expansion] lead their individual ancient empires to dominion of Mare Nostrum. You grow the fame and glory of your empire by expanding your influence into new Provinces then extending your Trade Caravans building Markets and founding new Cities and Temples. You can recruit Heroes and create Wonders to help your cause. But beware of your friends because they may look upon your gains with envy and greed...Mare Nostrum is a re-introduction by Academy Games and Asyncron of the original 2003 release with updated rules counters and map board. This edition includes many new components and multiple new ways to win!In more detail you choose an empire to lead which begins with three Provinces. You can lead with Caesar of Rome and its powerful Legions or with Pericles the prominent Greek statesman and orator with the great Babylonian lawgiver and healer King Hammurabi or with Queen Cleopatra of Egypt whose engineers led in the development of grain storage and irrigation or with Hannibal leader of the Carthaginians whose merchants thrived on trade and commerce. Now you decide how you will grow your empire. You can do this by:
Description from the publisher:For once Zeus Greek god of thunder and sky is in high spirits. Hence he decides to offer a generous gift to a worthy mortal and invite him or her to his realm to Olympus. To determine a sufficient candidate Zeus hosts a competition for his entertainment. Twelve legendary tasks are imposed upon the fearless participants: to erect graceful statues to raise awe-inspiring sanctuaries to offer capacious offerings and to slay the most fearsome monsters. The first participant to master all the posed assignments wins the favor of the father of the gods himself.Indubitably you will not pass up this golden opportunity so you clear your ship and rally your crew to follow on the trails of legendary Odysseus through the dangerous waters of the Aegean. But how could you find the righteous path onward? There is but one who can help you. Visit the mysterious oracle of Delphi and let her answers guide your ways.In Stefan Feld's new game The Oracle of Delphi the player's ships travel across a large variable game board of hexagonal tiles showing islands and the surrounding waters. Each player aims to reach certain islands to perform the twelve tasks given by Zeus: e.g. to collect offerings of different colors and to deliver them to corresponding temples or to slay monsters of a specific type (and color) all of which can be discovered on the islands.In order to execute these color-dependent actions you are given three colored dice each turn the so-called oracle dice. Rolling the dice (at the start of the turn) is equivalent to consulting the oracle whereas the results represent her answers. The answers determine which actions you will be able to take but you will always have three actions per turn. However a slight divergence from your fate is often possible.In addition to the oracle you can request support from the gods and you can acquire favor tokens companions and other special abilities that will help you win the race against other competitors.Differently equipped ships and the variable set-up of the game board will offer new challenging and interesting strategic and tactical decisions with every new game of The Oracle of Delphi that you play.
In his first year as king of Persia Cyrus the Great issued a decree in writing to the Israelite exiles living under his rule:The God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and has appointed me to build a temple for Him in Jerusalem. Any of his people may go up to Jerusalem in Judah to build the temple of the Lord the God of Israel. And in any place where survivors may now be living the people of Persia are to provide them with silver gold goods livestock and offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem. - Ezra 1:2-4 (paraphrased).Decades later in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes reign the king noticed a sadness in his cupbearer Nehemiah. When asked why he looked so ill Nehemiah replied:May the king live forever! Why should I not look sad when the city of my ancestors lies in ruins and its gates have been destroyed by fire? If it pleases you and if I have found favor in your sight let me go to the city in Judah where my ancestors are buried so that I may rebuild it. - Nehemiah 2:3-5 (paraphrased).The aim of Ezra and Nehemiah is to be the player with the most victory points (VP) at game's end. Points are gained primarily by building the temple rebuilding the city walls and gates and by teaching the Torah to the returning exiles. Players may also seek to develop their land travel to settlements outside the city walls or stoke the altar's fire to keep it burning day and night. The prophets Haggai and Zechariah will be doing their part to keep the people focused on what is most important.Over three weeks (rounds) players will use their hand of cards workers and resources to do their part in rebuilding the great city of Jerusalem. After six days of work comes a Sabbath day of rest when food will be needed and the week's work will be reflected upon. The game ends after the third Sabbath has been completed.—description from the designer
In 7 Wonders: Architects 2-7 players race to become a leader of the ancient world by completing an architectural wonder that will last through the ages.Players receive an unconstructed wonder at the beginning of the game and must collect resources to build their society develop military might to navigate conflicts oversee resource management research science improvements and collect civil victory points as they race to leave their mark on world history.
The Neo-Babylonian empire especially under the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562 B.C.) was a period of rebirth for southern Mesopotamia. Irrigation systems improved and expanded increasing agricultural production. Urban life flourished with the creation of new cities monuments and temples and the consequent increase in trade.In Babylonia you try to make your clan prosper under the peace and imperial power of that era. You have to place your nobles priests and craftsmen tokens on the map to make your relations with the cities as profitable as possible. Properly placing these counters next to the court also allows you to gain the special power of some rulers. Finally the good use of your peasants in the fertile areas gives more value to your crops. The player who gets the most points through all these actions wins.—description from the publisher
On an Egyptian holiday players are visiting the highlight of the entire journey: the stone pyramids! But after rising through the narrow labyrinthine corridors they discover that they've lost the rest of the group. After wandering for hours they end up in a mysterious grave chamber — and suddenly the stone door closes behind them. The players are caught. On the floor is a sand-covered notebook and an ancient spinning code dial. Will the players escape in time or be forever buried under stone?In Exit: The Game – The Pharaoh's Tomb players must use their team spirit creativity and powers of deduction to crack codes solve puzzles collect objects and earn their freedom bit by bit.
The Roman Republic is coming to an end but not before a power struggle between Caesar and Pompey. Players will command their legions strategically deploying them to key battlegrounds to try and seize control of the provinces and become ruler of the republic.Players draw tokens from a bag to determine their starting forces and to replenish their losses. Players allocate their resources to each province gaining tactical advantages and vying for control of the republic.Three modules to expand the game are included: poison your opponent deploy powerful Centurions and use underhanded tactics to gain advantages in the Expansions of Rome.
Between 230 and 221 B.C. the ambitious and extremely young king of Qin Ying Zheng unified China adding all the other so-called Warring States (ZhanGuo) to his empire. Through this Ying Zheng became the first emperor in Chinese history taking the title of Qin Shi Huang Di.Plenty of things had to change in order to make the Chinese empire whole and Qin Shi Huang Di didn't waste any time. He divided the empire into prefectures personally appointing central and local functionaries; afterward he decreed that the same writing symbols had to be used throughout the entire nation. Furthermore he unified the laws and the units of measure particularly the currency creating amazing conditions for the economic development and growth of the empire.Internal decisions were not the only things that shaped this new unified nation. From the North the menace of the Hsiungnu barbarians kept shaking the empire and Qin Shi Huang Di knew that the only way to stop that menace was to build one of the most ambitious buildings in human history: The Great Wall of China. Thousands of peasants left their fields to take part in the construction not only of the Great Wall but also of roads channels palaces and majestic buildings.In ZhanGuo you are the emperor's emissaries and you have been assigned the challenging task of contributing to the process of unifying the empire helping to build the wall and all infrastructures needed. During the five rounds of the game you must make the best of the few cards you get each round. You can play each card either on your own player board to increase your personal power in the empire or on the game board to recruit manpower construct buildings wanted by the emperor call reinforcements from Qin and move the armies from kingdom to kingdom.Each player has to choose the best time and best way to play his cards in order to earn the emperor’s favors. Careful though because trying to get too much power or exploiting the workers for personal gain could increase dissatisfaction among the populace and consequently increase the risk of uprisings in the newly added kingdoms. Whoever is able to make the greatest contribution to the emperor's cause while at the same time keeping the citizens placid will be the winner.
In Khôra: Rise of an Empire each player is the head of a blossoming city-state in Ancient Greece.On your turn you must take 2 of the following 7 Actions: Philosophy Legislation Culture Trade Military Politics or Development. Choose Actions that align with your strategy but which also work with your dice roll.You will need to adapt your strategy constantly and strengthen your Actions by moving your markers up on your Economy Culture and Military Tracks.Move up on the Taxes Track to collect highly sought-after Drachmas the Troop Track to Explore and gather Knowledge tokens and the Glory Track to capitalize on your Knowledge.Unlock Achievements and above all make sure you have the most points at the end of the 9th Round to be crowned with the laurels of victory!—description from the publisher
Gentes is an interesting civilization game with an innovative timing mechanism.Gentes is a pleonasm of the Latin plural word for greater groups of human beings (e.g. tribes nations people; singular: gens). In this game players take the role of an ancient people who are attempting to develop by building monuments and colonizing or founding new cities in the Mediterranean sea.The game is played in six rounds each consisting of two phases: action phase and tidying up. There are three eras — rounds 1-2 3-4 5-6 — with new monument cards entering the game at the beginning of rounds 1 3 and 5. Each player has a personal player mat with a time track for action markers and sand timer markers. In the action phase of a round the players take their turns in clockwise order conducting one action per turn. Each action requires an action marker from the main board that is placed on the time track. Depending on the information on the action marker you have to also pay some money or take sand timers that are placed on the time track. When you have no free spaces on your time track you must pass for the remainder of the round. Therefore the number of actions per player in a single round may vary significantly if for example you choose double sand timers instead of two single ones or take action markers that require more money but fewer sand timers. Single sand timers are dropped in the tidying up phase while double sand timers are flipped to become single sand timer markers and stay for another round. The actions are:To play a card you must meet the requirements printed on that card such as having specific persons on your personal board (e.g. two priests and four soldiers). These requirements are why training — i.e. getting specific people — is important but that is not that easy because there are six different types of people — three on the left and three on the right side of your personal player board — and you have only six spaces in total for the two types in the same line. If you have three merchants for example you move your marker for counting merchants three spaces toward the side of the soldiers and thus you have only three spaces left for soldiers. By educating a fourth soldier and moving your soldier marker forward to its fourth space you automatically lose one merchant because that marker is pushed back to its second space.It is crucial to generate additional actions by using the specific functions of monuments in your display and cities you have built. Cities are expensive but they create benefits at the end of each round or provide new options for taking an action without acquiring an action marker gaining only a sand timer marker instead.Try to have a steady income to avoid wasting actions to take money. Pay attention to the display of common cards which is new in every single game because the monument cards are shuffled randomly within the decks of eras I II and III. Collect identical achievement symbols on the cards to benefit from the increasing victory points for a series of symbols. Build cities to enlarge your options!The differences between the Deluxified and regular edition:Includes New Cities Expansion A foil stamped box 6 oversized meeples 24 normal sized meeples 89 metal coins 28 wood action tokens 21 wood lock tokens 60 wood hourglass tokens 4 dual layered player boards 4 custom shaped score tokens folded space custom insert 1 drawstring bag 1 upgraded round token
Hannibal & Hamilcar: Rome vs Carthage is a 20th anniversary edition of Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage an asymmetrical card-driven game for 2 players set in the time of the epic struggle between ancient Rome and Carthage. It presents a conflict between two superpowers of Antiquity from the classical Clausewitzian perspective according to which a power only reverts to military operations when there is no other way to achieve political dominance. The 20th Anniversary Edition includes new scenarios and variants. The original rules and components were updated and certain game mechanics have been streamlined while producing exactly the same game results as before. The original game has been further enriched by the addition of two new expansions: Sun of Macedon and Price of Failure.Hamilcar set during the First Punic War is a stand alone companion game sharing components and using similar mechanics but a different map. It introduces a naval system and naval battles. Both players compete for control of the Mediterranean Sea in a conflict that will be described as a war between an elephant and a whale - the struggle of a land-based empire versus the world’s naval power. Rome's goal was to break through the island chain of Sicily Corsica and Sardinia - Carthage's defensive line to contain Rome on the Italian peninsula.In both games players use Strategy Cards for multiple purposes: moving generals levying new troops reinforcing existing armies gaining political control of the provinces involved in the war and introducing historical events. When two armies meet on the battlefield a second set of cards called Battle Cards are used to determine the winner. Ultimately both players seek victory by dominating both fronts: military and political.
On the hunt for priceless treasures groups of adventurers explore the legendary temple at Luxor. Their ultimate goal is the tomb of the pharaoh but many treasures can be collected as they search. As they explore the challenge unfolds: The player who manages to quickly get their team of adventurers to the tomb while salvaging as many treasures as possible will be the winner.Luxor offers variable game play as the path that leads to the tomb is different for every game — and will even change during play!—description from the publisherIn Luxor players move their adventurers through the temple with the goal of reaching the tomb in the middle of the game board. At the start of the game each player gets dealt 5 cards which he is not allowed to change the order of.In each round players take turns that consist of 3 actions:1. Choose either the left or right most card to play to the discard pile.According to the played card move one adventurer that many tiles forward towards the tomb. An adventurer only moves from tile to tile jumping over empty spaces and not counting them.2. When the adventurer has completed his movement he performs the action of that tile if possible. Depending on the tile this can have various effects:Treasure tile - If enough of a players adventurers player are placed on a tile the player can collect that tile and earn points for it. Additionally he keeps the tile trying to collect treasure sets consisting of the three different treasure kinds vase statue and necklace.Horus tile - The player can either gain a key or a Horus Card. He will need the key to enter the tomb and the special Horus card offers unique and strong ways to move his adventurers once he plays that card.Osiris tile - The tile acts as an catapult instantly moving the adventurer a certain amount of tiles forward.Temple tile - On these tiles players get special bonuses like scarabs that are worth victory points or joker tiles which complete treasure sets. The most unique tile is the tunnel. If an adventurer lands on a tunnel he instantly gets teleported to the next tunnel in play creating a shortcut through the temple.3. After performing the action of the tile players draw one card from the draw pile to refill their hand to five cards. The drawn card is placed in the middle of the hand.At the start of the game players can chose to move one of 2 adventurers. Every time an adventurer crosses over an Anubis statue for the first time he gains a new adventurer which is placed at the start.The game ends once two adventurers reach the tomb. But in order to get in the tomb and collect the valuable sarcophagi players need to have a key which they collect from landing on Horus tiles. One key is needed for each adventurer wanting to enter the tomb.The round is finished and then the game ends with a final scoring.The player who now has the most points is the winner!
Akrotiri places you in the role of an explorer in Classical Greek times combing the then-uncharted Aegean sea for lost Minoan temples that have long ago fallen into ruin. You've not only heard of these temples hidden around the island of Thera but you actually have access to the secret maps that tell you of their hidden locations! Two mountains to the north? A volcano to the west? This *must* be the spot...But running an expedition can be costly. In order to fund your voyages into the unknown and excavate the ancient temples you will have to first ship resources found on surrounding islands back to the resource-poor island of Thera.In Akrotiri — which combines tile placement hand management and pick-up and delivery — players place land tiles in order to make the board match the maps that they have in hand. Players excavate temples; the ones that are harder to find and the ones further away from Thera are worth more towards victory but the secret goal cards keep everyone guessing who the victor is until the end! May the gods forever bless you with favorable winds!
The oasis-like basin Faiyum was artificially built 3,900 years ago by enlarging the Bahr Yussef channel that connected to the Nile to create a regulated flood plain. During the Middle Kingdom of Egypt this swampland was slowly changed into farmland under the aegis of pharaohs such as Amenemhet III and Sesostris II. They ordered their advisors to build a system of canals and dikes to reclaim the land surrounded by desert and inhabited by crocodiles to turn it into a granary for Egypt.Now during the reign of Amenemhet III you are the pharaoh's advisors commanded to harvest goods build roads found settlements and do much more for the good of Faiyum! You are being supplied with the necessary manpower resources and money which means that if another advisor needs to use your roads farms and other buildings they may do so since everything you build is owned by the pharaoh. The only thing you will own is the only thing that matters: the respect of the pharaoh.Faiyum is a strategic game for enthusiasts of planning games. The basic rules are simple: Play your cards one by one on your personal discard stack. After playing some or all of your cards you take them back into your hand in reverse playing order so playing cards in the best order is important. Newly purchased cards go directly into your hand so the timing of getting and playing them is important too. Each of the individual cards has easy-to-understand actions but only by creating the best combined engine will you be a master advisor of Faiyum.This game features a card mechanism reminiscent of deck builders and the market mechanism successfully used in Power Grid. Gain more and more valuable cards and use the structures built on the game board to your advantage — in other words for your reputation. In the end the most cunning advisor who creates the best card combinations will win Faiyum.
From the publisher's web page:During the Crisis of the Third Century the Roman Empire nearly collapsed in the face of calamitous internal and external strife including continuous civil war and barbarian invasions from all directions. Beginning with the assassination of Emperor Alexander Severus a period of 50 years saw nearly as many different men seize imperial power over all or part of the Empire until the reforms of Diocletian in 284 AD ushered in an era of peace.In Time of Crisis 2-4 players take the reins of Roman dynasties gathering and wielding influence among the senate military and people of Rome to ensure that their legacies are remembered by history instead of being lost to the mists of time. Starting from control of one province and a few low-value cards you are challenged to establish your base of power during this fragile period of Roman history. You must build your armies take control of valuable provinces develop your support and defend yourself against barbarian incursions inopportune events and the machinations of your political opponents.Time of Crisis is easy to learn and playable in about 2-3 hours. It incorporates popular game mechanisms such as deckbuilding and hand management but also delivers a true light wargame experience. The historical flavor is strong with many meaningful decisions and opportunities presented to players on the board. This game finally fully closes the loop between deckbuilding card games and board games. Your cards dictate what actions are available to you on the board and in turn your position on the board directly determines how you can add or remove cards from your deck to make yourself stronger for future turns. Will you specialize in manipulating the Senate wielding the power of the Legions or being a man of the People? Or will you master a blend of all three? In a twist unlike most deckbuilding games you have the privilege of selecting the cards that compose your hand each turn! However you still need to eventually work through your entire deck before you can use your cards again so deck management and timing is critical.All of the key elements of the era are present in Time of Crisis: civil wars between competing generals and governors Roman legions defending the frontiers against barbarian tribes Senate favoritism barracks emperors even angry mobs inflation the Praetorian Guard and the ability to carve off your own piece of the Roman Empire. Can your dynasty arise as the new leaders of the Roman Empire before Diocletian emerges and brings peace once again?
When you die you can take it with you!Take on the role of Egyptian nobles at the time of the pharaohs preparing for death and burial in the Valley of the Kings. Players want to fill their tombs with food canopic jars statues amulets and other treasures and to do so they acquire cards that are laid out in the shape of a pyramid; purchase cards at the base of the pyramid and it crumbles to bring cards higher in the pyramid to the base where they can be bought. The pyramid resets each round with new offerings.You score only for cards that you remove from your deck and stash in your tomb so if you keep using valuable cards for their effects and don't entomb them before the game ends you could lose out on big points! Whoever collects the most valuable artifacts in her tomb wins.
From the humble beginnings of civilization through the historical ages of progress mankind has lived fought and built together in nations. Great nations protect and provide for their own while fighting and competing against both other nations and nature itself. Nations must provide food as the population increases build a productive economy and amaze the world with their great achievements to build up their heritage as the greatest nations in the history of mankind!Nations: The Dice Game is a game for 1-4 players that takes 10-15 minutes per player and shares many concepts with the civilization-building game Nations while still offering its own challenges. The game is played over four ages (four rounds). During each round players take turns until all have passed. The available actions are:Buildings and military provide dice. Colonies and wonders provide resources and victory points. Advisors provide rerolls. New tiles provide benefits immediately so you can roll new dice at once.At the end of each round War and Famine drawn at the start of the round is checked for each player giving you victory points if you match or beat the values. Books are accumulated and scored. Player order is checked with high military strength going first in the next round. At the end of the game whoever has the most victory points wins.
Late Summer 54 BC: In a series of brilliant and brutal campaigns Caesar has seized Gaul for Rome. But not all tribes rest subdued. In the north the Belgic leader Ambiorix springs a trap on unwary legions while Caesar is away. In the south an ambitious son of the Arverni seeks to unite a Celtic confederation in revolt against the hated Romans. And what of the influential Aedui? Their republic appears content to shelter under Roman protection – but can they be trusted any further than any other Gauls? Meanwhile along the Rhine Germanic warbands multiply...Falling Sky: The Gallic Revolt Against Caesar formerly Gallic War takes 1 to 4 players into the military actions and complex politics of Roman-occupied but not-yet-conquered Gaul. Caesar and his hard-hitting legions cannot be everywhere and will not triumph without powerful allies among local tribes. But each Gallic confederation has its own agenda and must keep its eyes not only on the Romans but also on Celtic Belgic and Germanic rivals. Players recruit forces rally allies husband resources for war and balance dispersed action with the effectiveness and risk of concentrated battle.Leveraging GMT's popular COIN Series system to integrate historical events with wide-ranging strategic options across the game board Falling Sky provides accessible and deep historical gaming of war politics and diplomacy. A full solitaire system enables solo players to test their skill against an array of game-run factions each unique. From Britannia to the Rhenus and down to Provincia armies are on the move. Who shall finally subdue Gaul?Players: 1-4 (full solitaire system) Map: Area movement Time scale: 1 year per 15-card campaignDesigners: Volko Ruhnke and Andrew Ruhnke Series Developer: Mike Bertucelli(source: GMT website updated here by designer)
Polis: Fight for the Hegemony is a two-player civ-lite board-wargame set in the beginning of the conflict between the two major poleis of the 5th century B.C: Athens and the Delian League against Sparta and the Peloponnesian League. The winner will be the Empire with more population and prestige at the end of the game.With a growing empire feeding your people is the main goal. Wheat was scarce in Greece so both players must secure other goods supply and the route to five markets in order to trade them for wheat. Each territory may give you different amount of wood metal wine olive oil silver and some wheat; these two last ones are hard to get but precious. It’s up to you if you want to get more of only one good or less from several of them. Every turn you get goods from a territory you must have some population there (supporting your Empire) but in the end they also have to be fed.Fighting for the control of the territories and the sieges of the polis will be the job of your hoplites your triremes will struggle to secure the routes to Egypt Persia...so you can trade with them when the price is low and a good use of your Diplomatic may convince a Polis to join your League easily.A Polis may be your ally but they are very proud of their independence so you will have to create some Projects (statues temples artists philosophers games...) in order to gain Prestige which is needed for all your military manoeuvres.
The Han Dynasty founded in 206 BC ruled the central plains and much of modern day China for nearly four hundred years. However by late second century court politics and poor governance has left it in rapid decline. The government was dominated by corrupt eunuchs and officials who levied heavy taxes on the peasants resulting in public discontent. This culminated in the Yellow Turban Rebellion led by Zhang Jiao in 184 AD during the reign of Emperor Ling (168-189 AD).Although the Yellow Turban Rebellion was eventually put down many surviving followers went on to become bandits and continued to create problems for the government. The Han army was unable to control the bandits and Emperor Ling granted direct administrative power over provinces and command of regional military to local lords. Many feudal lords took the opportunity to sever ties with the Han government and ruled independently. The more ambitious lords annexed neighboring territories to expand their power bases. This led to the emergence of the three power blocs of Wei Wu and Shu and ushered in the Three Kingdoms period.Three Kingdoms Redux is a board game that seeks to recreate the tripartite between the states of Wei Wu and Shu. You assume the role of one of the three lords – Cao Cao leading Cao Wei Sun Jian leading Eastern Wu or Liu Bei leading Shu Han. Players start the game from asymmetrical positions reflecting the manpower advantages Wei enjoyed in the early part of the period. The weaker states of Wu and Shu protect themselves by forming an alliance. As a feudal lord you manage the different aspects of running a state whilst guarding your borders against both rebellious border tribes and external enemies. Managing each aspect well earns victory points for your state. But beware for the balance of power shifts constantly during the game. Understand and take advantage of the power shifts and you will fulfill your grand ambition of re-unifying China!In more detail Three Kingdoms Redux is played over a number of rounds up to a maximum of twelve. Players bid for various actions with their general tokens. The highest bidder of each action space obtains the right to carry out the actions.These actions allow players to improve your state’s domestic development gain military strength construct state enhancements increase popularity with your people improve relationships with border tribes and gain promotion for the lord to the next higher rank.The winner is the player with the most victory points (VPs) at the end of the game.
In Augustus you vie with your fellow players to complete objective cards for special powers and ultimately for victory points. Each card has 2-6 symbols which you must populate with legionnaire meeples in order to complete the card. These symbols are drawn one at a time from a bag with all players gaining the benefit equally but interestingly the bag contains more of some symbols than others.So the pivotal skill you'll deploy is in making your choice of which three objectives you'll start the game with (you're dealt six) — balancing potential difficulty of completion against value of the reward — and then which of five available objectives you'll add to your plate each time you complete one of your three. The game ends when someone completes seven objectives.
The competition of the builders continues in Imhotep: The Duel!In this game players take on the roles of Nefertiti and Akhenaten one of Egypt's most famous royal couples. Game pieces must be cleverly placed so that players can unload the most valuable tiles from the six boats. While this is happening each player builds their own four monuments in order to gain as many fame points as possible.
Heirs to an exceptional knowledge that has survived the ages it is now up to you to preserve the vestige of your civilization.Ancient Knowledge is a strategic card game in which you erect monuments and build artefacts to pass on your knowledge. Time will make your constructions ephemeral,so make the right decision and combine the many cards at your disposal because all knowledge is doomed to disappear…It's up to you to find the best synergy so that you can pass down knowledge before the decline of the emblematic monuments you have constructed monuments we still find nowadays in the four corners of the globe. From Mexican pyramids to the Sphinx of Giza passing through the famous cities of Tiwanaku and Babylon only the cleverest builder will shine through the ages and seize victory. In this game your only enemy is time.Prove to your opponents that you are the worthy representative of your Legacy! Will your monuments withstand the trial of time?—description from the publisher
Construction is underway on a temple dedicated to Sobek. A huge market has emerged nearby supplied by the continuous flow of feluccas and pirogues along the Nile. Your Guild of Merchants is determined to take advantage of this unbelievable opportunity and ready to use any means to grab sumptuous goods out of the way of your opponent. Beware though as it will be crucial not to have accumulated too much corruption when the time of reckonings arrives.How to play In Sobek: 2 Players both opponents collect and sell Goods to earn the most Victory Points. On their turn the player chooses among 3 options: take a tile on the Market sell a set of Goods or play a Character. When the player takes a tile they select one on the Ankh pawn’s line and add it to their hand. They then place the Ankh pawn in the line that is indicated by the tile they just took which determines the choices available to their opponent. When they have enough in hand a player can sell a set of at least 3 tiles of the same type. These tiles will earn them Victory Points at the end of the game depending on both their quantity and the amount of Scarabs that they feature. A player can also use a Character to benefit from its powerful special ability. In Sobek: 2 Players everything is about timing. Planning ahead and analysing which opportunities you offer to you opponent on their next move is key to playing the best moves and winning the game.—description from the publisher
The largest Roman city north of the Alps in the late Roman Empire was Augusta Treverorum. Founded in the times of Caesar Augustus and built up by generations of Roman architects this was the Emperor's residence and a world city during this period. The remains of these most impressive structures can still be visited today. Foremost of these great achievements in the city is the massive Porta Nigra a large Roman city gate located in Trier Germany that dates to the 2nd century.The game Porta Nigra (which translates as black gate) is set in that place and time with the players taking on the roles of Roman architects working on the city gate of Porta Nigra. Each player commands a master builder who moves around a circular track on the game board enabling you to buy or build only where this master builder is located. Moving the master builder to farther locations along the track is expensive so players must plan their movements and builds carefully. The number and type of actions that may be performed on your turn comes from cards in your personal draw deck.Buildings are erected physically at the various locations around the city using 3D building pieces.
Mega Civilization is a strategy board game for 5-18 players that covers the development of civilizations through history from the Stone Age to the Late Iron Age. In this colossal game players lead their historic civilization as they gain victory points by expanding their population building cities trading and developing their knowledge and culture.Notwithstanding its large scope the game's core mechanics are straightforward and easy to learn. A key element in the game is player interaction as they position themselves on the map board and search for valuable commodities during interactive trading sessions.Scope The game was designed to be the biggest board game in the world that can be played in a single day in one room. In its full scope the map board measures over 2 meters (80 inch) in width. Despite its ambitions about size and duration Mega Civilization can be scaled down to as few as 5 players. The game includes a Short Game scenario which reduces playing time through an accelerated start position.Gameplay Each player starts their civilization in the Stone Age with a single population token on the board. As the game progresses the population will expand spread over the board fight some border conflicts and build cities. Cities bring resources and wealth expressed in trade cards. The more cities players manage to build on the board the more trade cards they receive. Trade cards are mainly valuable commodities but sometimes turn out to be disastrous calamities.Trade Trading is the heart of the game a social experience where all players interact with each other to optimize the value of their sets of commodities. In addition to the desired commodities calamities are secretly traded as well adding an additional layer to the trading dynamics. Once the trading phase has ended players that end up with a calamity in their hand will suffer its effects.Develop Civilization Advances When the smoke of trading and resolving calamities has settled players can decide how to spend the wealth gathered through trading. The game includes 51 different advances that can be developed each of which provides benefits in the game to its holder. For example Metal Working provides an advantage when fighting conflicts Architecture facilitates city construction and Enlightenment reduces the impact of (civil) calamities.The 51 Civilization advances are divided into the categories Arts Crafts Science Civics and Religion each of which has specific powers. Each advance acquired by a player provides discounts to other advances that can be purchased later in the game thereby creating a path of strategic decisions. The ultimate advance in the game Wonder of the World is only in reach for players who manage both their trading and purchasing strategy very well.Winning the Game The players who have best developed their position on the board whilst avoiding making enemies and defended their civilization against natural or civic calamities and stand the test of time will eventually gather the most victory points and compete for winning the game. After up to 12 hours of playing that is.Expansions Mega Empires: The Special Buildings (2024) is an expansion set that provides additional flavor to the game through 18 miniatures of ancient buildings historically associated with each of the civilizations in the game. These buildings can be built on the map board and provide additional benefits in play and victory points to their controller.The Mega Empires: Upgrade & 3-4 Players Pack (2024) contains additional and upgraded components that were developed after the release of Mega Civilization. This expansion also contains rules and components for playing Mega Civilization with as few as 3 or 4 players.Accessories The Mega Empires: The West – Deluxe Game Mat (2024) and Mega Empires: The East – Deluxe Game Mat (2024) are neoprene game mats at 125% scale of the original cardboard maps that offer an enlarged playing area and high-quality design for easier and more immersive gameplay.The Mega Empires: Identifier Cards Bonus Pack (2024) is a set with 18 large player identifier cards one for each of the Civilizations included in Mega Empires. These can be used for distributing the civilizations among the players during setup to identify which stack of Civilization Advances belongs to which player or to divide acquired cards from not yet acquired ones during the game.Wrap-up Mega Civilization is a long strategic board game about development trade culture politics and showing resilience when dealing with calamities. The game is a perfect fit for larger groups of strategic board game enthusiasts which due to its scalability can also be played in smaller groups. It is not just a game it is an experience!—description from the designers
Antike II is a challenging strategy game about evolution and competition among ancient civilizations. Ancient nations create cities build temples sail the seas and discover new principles of science and technology. Their legions and galleys open new settlements and defend their people against attacks from their enemies. Two scenarios can be chosen as the game board is two-sided.Every nation tries to win ancient kings scholars generals citizens and navigators for themselves. The nation that acquires a specified number (depending on the number of players) of ancient personalities first wins the game!Lead one of these nations to victory—but watch out for your enemies as they will want to conquer your cities to destroy your temples. The game depends not on the luck of dice or cards but on thoughtful plans and skillful diplomacy.Antike II differs from the 2005 Antike in several ways according to designer Mac Gerdts. To start players now own city tokens which allows them some degree of choice as to which resource a newly founded city shall produce. Military units have become more expensive and the rules for the conquest of cities are considerably easier. The scientific progresses were altered as well. Neutral temples now exist which may be destroyed gaining VPs of a general without harming other players. The game features two new maps in a new graphical design and a new card named BELLONA (the ancient Roman goddess of war) has been introduced to counter the starting player's advantage.Gerdts notes that the main goal of all of these changes was to make the rules for a conquest of cities easier while also opening more possibilities to win the game without the need to attack other players.
From the award-winning designer Bruno Cathala Ishtar is a game in which you play the role of a gardener aiming to transform the dry desert into the Lost Hanging Gardens of Babylon. To accomplish your mission you will have to plant flowers which if you place them well can help you gather precious gems and activate actions. Whether to buy Trees (which will block the link between two Flower spots as well as earning you points) or to purchase upgrades (such as getting two more points per Tree card at the end of the game) collecting gems will be a crucial part of the game. Get them before your opponents recruit apprentices send them to earn points in the copses of flowers you have created block others and think carefully of the upgrades to purchase if you want to become the best gardener at the end of the game!—description from the publisher
Founded around 3050 BCE and located south of the River Nile Delta Men-Nefer (a.k.a. Memphis) became the capital of ancient Egypt and the most populated city on the planet.In Men-Nefer you will relive one of the greatest periods of ancient Egypt carrying out tasks typical to Egyptian culture: acquiring knowledge in the houses of life navigating and trading on the Nile River making offerings to the revered God embalming the corpses of the nobles to send them off to a better life erecting beautiful sphinxes and contributing to the construction of the Great Pyramids. In addition to this you must be careful of how you make your way through this earthly world to be sure that Osiris will grant you passage to Aaru the long-awaited heavenly paradise of the afterlife.Throughout three eras by means of a novel selection of actions that combine worker placement and tile drafting players choose on each turn which area of Egyptian life and culture they wish to develop. Players must attempt to obtain the greatest number of prestige points in each era since only the one who manages to achieve the most prestige will take the victory.—description from the publisher
Play as an ancient civilization as they prosper and collapse through time. Build gigantic monuments raise impenetrable fortifications and amass vast knowledge as the ages pass. The greatest civilizations will leave their mark long after their collapse. From times long forgotten to times recently lost civilizations will rise and fall as the tide of time carries them.Tides of Time is a drafting game for two players. Each game consists of three rounds in which players draft cards from their hands to build their kingdom. Each card is one of five suits and also has a scoring objective. After all cards have been drafted for the round players total their points based on the suits of cards they collected and the scoring objectives on each card then they record their score. Each round the players each select one card to leave in their kingdom as a relic of the past to help them in later rounds. After three rounds the player with the the most prosperous kingdom wins.
In the Age of Civilization you must lead your people to their glorious future. Analyze the characteristics of every era you are facing make the best choice for your kingdom development and become several famous civilizations in our fascinating history. By going through the rise and fall of empires a unique civilization of yours will finally arise!Age of Civilization is a pocket-sized civilization game. Throughout one game each player leads up to three historical civilizations to form a unique combination of abilities. Players build Wonders research technology develop culture conquer for glory or even exploit their people. Only the player who wisely manages his workers and wealth can achieve the greatest civilization.Game-play overviewThe game is played with 6 rounds. In the 1st round each player picks one civilization card in the market and gains a number of worker tokens according to the population value indicated on the civilization card. Players may assign workers to action slots in the public region. There are usually 5-6 actions for each player to choose and these actions change between rounds. By assigning workers players carry out the actions' effects such as earning coins or paying coins for technologies wonders or victory points etc. At the end of a player's turn workers may return to the player or disappear according to the kind of action it was working on.In subsequent rounds players MAY pick another civilization card to replace their previous one. In that case you reset the number of your workers to the population value indicated on the new civilization card and you lose the main ability of your previous civilization but the legacy abilities of all your civilizations last forever. In each game a player can only pick three civilization cards in total so deciding when to raise a new civilization and which civilization combinations to pick is a big strategic decision of players. When the 6th round ends the player with the most victory points is the winner.—description from the designer
Description from the publisher:Take on the role of Egyptian nobles at the time of the pharaohs preparing for their death and burial in the valley of the kings. Using an innovative deck-building mechanism with a crumbling pyramid players fill their tombs with jewelry chambers weapons tomb art and other treasures. The player who collects the most valuable artifacts in their tomb wins the game!Valley of the Kings: Afterlife is a standalone game that can also be combined with Valley of the Kings to allow for play with up to six players.
Emperor Qin Shi Huang has passed away. To protect him in the afterlife a great army in the form of statues of faithful warriors must be assembled to stand guard in the Emperor's tomb. You will be among those tasked with building this magnificent army.In Terracotta Army you represent talented craftsmen and artists laboring to build the wondrous assembly of statues. During the game you collect resources upgrade your workers and seek favor with the Emperor's advisors. Your goal is to play a crucial role in the process of creating the terracotta army and your success is measured in victory points (VPs). During the game you and your fellow players build the army together but after the fifth round of the game is over only one of you — the one with the most points — will stand as the winner.During the game you place warrior miniatures within the mausoleum forming groups. A group's miniatures may belong to multiple players as denoted by the player bases on those miniatures. Multiple separate groups consisting of the same type of miniature may exist within the mausoleum.You will have many opportunities to score points based on domination and presence. To achieve domination you must be the only player with the most of the specific resource or type of statue currently being scored. (If you are the only player you have domination.) To have presence you must have at least one of the specific resource or type of statue currently being scored.At the end of the fifth round the player with the most VPs wins.
You are one of Pharaoh’s children. Like your brothers and sisters you will spend a huge part of your life preparing for your journey towards the Afterlife. Getting the support of loyal nobles and talented artisans building a magnificent burial chamber making offerings to the Gods… here are the main tasks set for you. But the gods are looking at you and you will have to do your best in order to satisfy their demands. Each of your actions will be judged during the weighing of your heart.Pharaon is a game mixing resource management and worker placement into a single mechanism thanks to its Wheel of Actions. It is located at the center of the gameboard surrounded by 5 areas representing the 5 actions featured in the game. Each round the Wheel indicates which resource has to be spent for accessing the matching action. As the wheel rotates from one segment by the end of each of the 5 rounds this access cost to actions fluctuates throughout the game. As a consequence players have to plan their actions anticipating which resources they may need for the next round. But there are a limited amount of available spots on the wheel forcing you to watch your opponents which resources they have and what they may intend.How to play ? A game of Pharaon is played in 5 rounds during which the players take turns one after the other until everyone has passed. On their turn a player performs one of the 5 actions on the board. The actions can provide Prestige Points (PP) determining who wins at the end of the game but they can also help getting new resources for further turns. To be allowed to perform an action the player has to pay its Access cost by spending the resource indicated by the Wheel of Actions for the area in which they want to act. They then pay the Action Cost by spending the corresponding resources. The resource spent on the Wheel to access this area gets deducted from the Action Cost if it can match. So it is useful to anticipate the rotation of the Wheel for taking the actions at their best cost. But there is a limit on how many times an action can be performed and your opponents may need the same as you. Moreover the game will be closely watched by the Gods. You will have to fulfill as many of their demands as possible to get their support and some extra PP.—description from the publisher
You are a child of Zeus poised to conquer all of Greece but first you must prove your worth to the gods as there is another who contests your claim. To determine who shall rule gods have devised a contest and lent their most powerful forces to both sides of the conflict.Omen: Reign of War is a head-to-head strategic card game where you compete to gain the favor of the pantheon of gods and prove that you are the rightful heir of Zeus. Powerful forces of antiquity and legend are at your command as you raze and pillage cities strategically manage your resources and eliminate your rival’s forces. Choose your battle strategy with rules for standard and draft play and expand your war with other fully compatible games from the 'Omen Saga'!Omen: Reign of War - Head to Head demigod battles for supremacy of ancient Greece. - Tactical battle card-game where every unit has its own unique abilities and uses. - Definitive Omen Saga gaming experience and endlessly expandable.
Set in ancient Mesopotamia a cradle of civilization at a time when the location of Ur was a coastal region players work to build the Great City of Ur expand its districts and establish themselves as powerful builders.Tabannusi: Builders of Ur features a stunning board showing the city of Ur divided into 5 regions each tied to a specific color die. There are 3 building districts 1 temple district and 1 port district.Each turn your worker will activate one of these districts. When activating a district you must first take a die from the district. This die matches the color of the district and serves two functions:1) The die itself becomes a resource of its color. 2) The value of the die determines which district your worker will activate on the following turn.Through various actions you will be able to expand your influence in the various districts expanding construction sites and turning them into buildings to score valuable victory points. But you will also exert your influence in the temple district in order to earn the king's favor. In the port district you can obtain ships with important abilities and for scoring victory points.You must spend your actions wisely and always make sure that you keep an eye on the general timing of the game. The moment a district is emptied of dice a scoring will occur.—description from publisher
Play as a divine being who has sired a demigod in the realm of humankind. The identity of your lineage is known only to you. Use positional play to complete quests—and influence fate to ensure the outcome is in your favor. Strike the perfect balance of misdirection and mischief to capture the throne.There are 9 Demigods. At the beginning of the game each player is secretly assigned one Demigod as their offspring. When the game begins however players may control the actions of any Demigod not just their own. Through strategic play special powers and secret voting players must aid their Demigod in gaining Renown. But be careful! Giving away your lineage too soon may cause the other players to work together toward your Demigod’s demise.On their turn players will have 2 actions with which to send Demigods on quests. Each Quest can result in 2 different ways which the gods influence with secret voting cards called Fate Cards. When a Quest is completed the Fate cards are revealed and the winning side of the card is resolved giving some Demigods Renown and taking it from others. A player wins if their Demigod has the most Renown at the end of 3 rounds called ages and that Demigod becomes the heir to the throne.Part social deduction part strategy Veiled Fate pits wit against wit. Every move is a new clue to discovering the true lineage of your opponents. Can you foil carefully laid plans while cementing your own path to victory?-description from designer
Philippe Keyaerts scored gold with Small World a new version of his Vinci that was released by Days of Wonder in 2009 to great acclaim and numerous awards. With Olympos coming from French publisher Ystari Games Keyaerts has another go at the simplified civilization game. The playing time for Olympos is only 60-90 minutes for 2-5 players but says Ystari's Cyril Demaegd Even if it's a short game it's a gamer's game.Players take actions based on their position on a time track along the lines of Peter Prinz' Thebes. (Says Demaegd This is mainly a coincidence because Philippe designed this game years ago.) By spending time players take actions with the choices being expansion or development. Expanding brings new settlers onto the game board which depicts Greece and Atlantis which lets you conquer territories and thereby acquire resources.Development takes place on the game's discovery board with players either buying new scientific discoveries – such as medicine or phalanxes – or building architectural wonders. Each discovery brings you new powers such as an upgrade in military strength due to the phalanx and each wonder earns you points.A player's piety is measured by discoveries and the most pious player might be rewarded during the game by one of the nine gods included. Similarly the less pious players might be punished by those same gods.The replayability of Olympos is huge says Demaegd as the discovery board and gods in play will be different each game not to mention the territories you're able to conquer.
Pergamon is a tactical collecting game with a theme based on excavating archaeological discoveries and managing their exhibition.Set in the year 1878 the first excavations in what is now modern Turkey are uncovering the remains of ancient Pergamon. Soon the precious discoveries will make their way abroad to public exhibitions before a waiting audience eliciting substantial honor and glory.The players attempt to gain federal research grants to cover the costs of their excavations through a bidding mechanism. Whoever is modest and less demanding can travel to the excavating areas before his or her competitors and the rule is first come first dig. Only fragments will remain for the later expeditions. Recovered treasures are placed in valuable exhibitions for which the discoverer receives glory and recognition.The player who accumulates the most glory after 12 rounds wins the game.The combination of soliciting funds and racing for the best locations to excavate makes Pergamon a variable game with rules that are easily accessible. Players are forced to make choices based on the money they can obtain and the sequence in which they choose where to dig.
In an ancient world forgotten by time enormous titans terrorize the land. Five tribes have been fleeing from the titans for centuries but things are about to change. Growing city-states pledge to end the reign of terror determined to take on the titans and make the world a safer place for all. Each city-state competes to attract the tribes eager for the strength of the combined peoples who are now leaving behind old traditions with the hope that the titans can be defeated once and for all.In The Ancient World players compete to grow the largest and most influential city-state by managing citizens treasury and military and by defeating titans. Players take turns sending citizens to take special actions or using military cards to attack titans. One of the actions a citizen can perform is to build Empire cards which give more citizens money and abilities.A city-state's influence in the world is measured by sets of tribe banners that it owns. Each Empire card has one or more tribe banners and tribe banners can also be gained by defeating titans. Players gain victory points (VPs) for sets of tribe banners. After six rounds the player with the most VPs from sets of tribe banners wins.The second edition features:- Numbered limited edition boxes - Designer's signature printed in metallic ink - Revised and new titans - Larger revised player boards - Expanded game play including a new resource: AMBROSIA - Titans now attack YOU! - Updated district and empire cards
From GMT's website:Volume VIII in GMT’s COIN Series transports us into the 4th and 5th Centuries A.D. and to the embattled Isle of Britannia. Pendragon – The Fall of Roman Britain covers a century of history from the first large-scale raids of Irish Pict and Saxon raiders to the establishment of successor kingdoms both Celtic and Germanic. This sumptuous volume adapts the celebrated asymmetrical COIN engine to depict the political military religious and economic struggles of Dark Ages Britain.Pendragon leverages the tremendous flexibility of the COIN system from dual events to dissimilar approaches and victory conditions to capture the complexity of the period and let the players explore alternative narratives. Unlike earlier volumes Pendragon is not about counterinsurgency per se but focuses on the asymmetrical clashes between and among Romano-British authorities and Barbarian powers gnashing over the carcass of the Roman Empire including:Barbarian Raiders plundering the land and trying to surprise unwary towns and hillforts then melting into hills or fens. Expansion or decline of the Saxon Shore naval defense system to counter sea-borne raiders. Authentic Late-Roman military doctrine—mighty but hard-to-replace cavalry tracking down raiding parties before they can return their booty home. Accessible powerful but fickle Foederati: barbarian warbands in Briton employ. Nuanced battle system representing troop qualities and tactics. Fortified strongholds that must be assaulted besieged or rebuilt to gain regional political control. Civil wars coups religious shifts and cultural assimilation. Population movements over the generations due to good administration barbarian ravages or climatic changes. Epochal Events ranging from Roman usurpations on the continent to massive reprisals against barbarian homelands. Evolution of rules and victory conditions throughout the game as the still vivacious Roman Empire may or may not end with Britain fragmented among competing semi-barbarian proto-kingdoms. A deck of 83 cards with gorgeous commissioned original art. Short medium and full-length scenarios Support for solitaire 2-player 3-player and 4-player experiences.Each faction in Pendragon brings specific capabilities and challenges:The Dux represent the original Roman Army in Britannia: with the most powerful units in the game and a network of strong fortresses ringing the island and tied by efficient roads you must strive to preserve the stability and prosperity of the provinces and punish any interloper daring to challenge the peace. If you can build up your prestige and maintain order you may be able to keep the island in the Empire or at least united in a new post-Roman power. You can rely on the civilian militia to assist you but—as your peerless cavalry dwindles—you must resort to the traditional Roman offer to barbarians of land for service in your forces as Foederati. As the decay of institutions conspires with the scheming of feckless civilians and the marauding of restless barbarians you may find that the dream of Empire is dead. If so with your once proud Army little more than another group of warlords you still can strive to carve for yourself the most powerful kingdom alongside your new rivals.The Civitates represent the Romanized aristocracy ruling the ancient Celtic tribes from lavish villas and prosperous Roman towns chafing under the distant authority (and taxes) of Rome mistrusting the uncultured and semi-Barbarian army and yearning to settle century-old accounts with their neighbors. When the Barbarian storm comes down upon your island you may find yourself woefully unprepared to cope—materially or culturally—and presented with a fundamental choice: strive to protect your lands wealth and way of life via the despised Army and untrustworthy Foederati or sacrifice Roman comforts to face down the Barbarian challenge militarily and culturally through a return to Celtic traditions.The Saxons represent various Germanic groups including Angles Jutes Frisians and Franks who harried settled and eventually took over swaths of Britain. As outsiders you face a steep challenge just to come ashore against the might of the Roman army and navy. You will chip away at the Saxon Shore system ravage the provincial economy to weaken the Britons’ capability to wage war and see some of your best warriors serve as Foederati (often against yourself) but recognize that the more Saxons living on the island—whoever their paymaster—the more opportunities for advancing your nation. Eventually you must secure footholds perhaps in the marshy fens of the eastern seaboard that so resemble your homelands in order to wield your considerable military potential and challenge the old masters of these rich lands to create England.The Scotti named for the marauding groups of Irish raiders also represent those Celts native to the island of Britain who differed from the romanized Civitates by remaining true (or reverting back) to the old ways. Often the boundary between the two groups was porous... The biggest such group eventually formed the northern nation of the Picts forebears of modern Scotland. As the Scotti you see the disintegration of Roman Britain as an opportunity not so much to expand as to seize riches and renown to assert yourself at home. Raid ceaselessly surprise and plunder poorly protected communities kidnap for ransom and show your military prowess against your unfortunate neighbors across the Irish Sea and Forth-Clyde isthmus… Then establish bases strategically along the enemy shores and entreat local hill tribes to reject post-Roman authority. But beware that your very advances will help give rise and limit your ability to grapple new powerhouses on the island!Components: See Wiki below. Players: 1-4 (includes full solitaire system) Map: Area Movement Timescale: about 15 years per campaign between Epoch cards Designer: Marc Gouyon-Rety Developer and Series Creator: Volko Ruhnke
Polis is a two-player civ-lite game set in the beginning of the conflict between the two major poleis of the 5th century B.C: Athens and the Delian League against Sparta and the Peloponnesian League. The winner will be the Empire with more population and prestige at the end of the game.Both players must secure their supplies and the routes to five markets to trade with them. Every turn you get goods from a territory where you have population supporting your Empire but you should feed them.You can fight to control the territories and siege other polis or you might use your diplomacy to convince a polis to join your league. But polis are proud of their independence so you will have to create some projects to gain prestige needed for your military manoeuvres.This new edition of Polis has updated revised rules and new art that will enhance your game experience.—description from the publisher
Egizia: Shifting Sands is an updated version of the beloved strategy game Egizia. Players travel down the Nile placing boats as they go to collect resources that will help them construct some of Egypt's most famous monuments. With new monuments to build new cards to collect and a constantly shifting river Egizia: Shifting Sands Edition is a streamlined modern update that both longtime fans and new players can easily pick up and enjoy.In Egizia players must place their pawns following the course of the Nile moving northwards. In this way each placement not only blocks the opponents from choosing the same square (except monuments where multiple players are always allowed) but also forces the player to place their remaining pawns only on the squares below the one they just occupied.When the placement phase is over the workers of the players (which are separate from the pawns) must be fed with the grain produced in the fields. The production of each field is based on the floods of the Nile so some fields may not give grain each turn. If a player doesn't have enough grain for all their workers they must buy it with victory points. After that stones are received from the owned quarries and used to build the monuments (if the right to do so was reserved earlier) along with the workers.In this new edition players each get a chance to build across the Colonnade a new monument. The more columns you build the better powers you unlock to help you on the river. Perhaps once per turn you can place boats on occupied river spaces or upstream or gain an extra point each time you place bricks in monuments. With randomized rewards from game to game the Colonnade is a dynamic new monument to shake up traditional gameplay.Below the Colonnade where the graves once stood lie the mysterious statues — a new monument unlike anything else in Egizia. These tiny build sites are cheaper than any other monument but they hold the potential for high reward if you fulfill their requirements. Players must plan early as they can place only one brick in a statue per round and each level they build has more strenuous requirements for endgame bonuses.Egizia: Shifting Sands keeps all the painstaking risk/reward decisions of the original Egizia and adds new depths of strategy balance and gameplay for a fresh twist on a timeless classic.
The first cities on the Rhine emerged from Roman outposts protecting the border with Germania. As the governor of one of these cities your task is to develop it in the best possible way while also defending it against the Germanic tribes. Empress Agrippina and her son Nero will inspect your actions and honor the most successful governor.In 'Discordia' you develop your city by building farms barracks defenses harbors and markets and by trading with ships. Use your seamen soldiers merchants and farmers profitably fulfill decrees and secure privileges — acting carefully at all times so that your city grows neither too fast nor too slow. Will you have the best-developed city at the end of the fourth year or will you manage to impress the empress before then and win the game early?—description from the publisher
In an ancient world forgotten by time enormous titans terrorize the land. Five tribes have been fleeing from the titans for centuries but things are about to change. Growing city-states pledge to end the reign of terror determined to take on the titans and make the world a safer place for all. Each city-state competes to attract the tribes eager for the strength of the combined peoples who are now leaving behind old traditions with the hope that the titans can be defeated once and for all.In The Ancient World players compete to grow the largest and most influential city-state by managing citizens treasury and military and by defeating titans. Players take turns sending citizens to take special actions or using military cards to attack titans. One of the actions a citizen can perform is to build Empire cards which give more citizens money and abilities.A city-state's influence in the world is measured by sets of tribe banners that it owns. Each Empire card has one or more tribe banners and tribe banners can also be gained by defeating titans. Players gain victory points (VPs) for sets of tribe banners. After six rounds the player with the most VPs from sets of tribe banners wins.
You are a Nomarch in Ancient Egypt. The Pharaoh put you in charge of a Metropolis and its region. The flooding of the Nile is coming to an end and the lands of the Valley are ready to offer their riches. Organize the collection of resources build districts with the most lucrative shops supply them with goods and earn the most Debens for the glory of the Pharaoh. The player who will make the best use of the resources of the Nile Valley will win the game.Fertility is a simple resource management game that raises tough decisions for you to take. Each turn you collect some of the riches of the Valley of the Nile and immediately decide how to use them : supply one of your Shop to earn money or spend them to build new districts offering you new opportunities. Be wise because your choices are irreversible. None of the resources already stocked in your shops can be moved or reused until the end of the game. But any resource unspent by the end of your turn will be definitively lost. Optimize your turns and choices if you want to win.A player’s turn goes through three fast and simple steps. They start by placing one of their Valley tile on the central board in order to collect resources : alabaster bovines papyrus flowers grapes or wheat. They then have the opportunity to spend these resources to build a new District tile on their Metropolis board for opening new opportunities. Lastly they supply their Shops in their Metropolis by stocking the remaining resources. Any resource that a player has left unused at the end of their turn is lost. So the aim is to collect as many resources as possible but even more to be able to optimize how to use them. The game ends after 9 turns and each totally supplied Shop is worth money for their owner. The player with the highest amount of money is the winner.
Antike Duellum – previewed at Spiel 2011 under the name Casus Belli – is a two-player strategy game based on modified rules from Mac Gerdts' Antike. The game includes two scenarios: Punic Wars (Rome vs. Carthago) on one side of the board and Persian Wars (Greeks vs. Persians) on the other. The goal of the game is to be the first to gain nine ancient personages (Kings Scholars Generals Citizens Navigators).Examples of modified rules from Antike:Resource chips (Marble 18 Iron 18 Gold 18 Coins 14) 46 cards.
Terramara is the name of the villages founded around 1500 B.C. mid- to late Bronze Age in Northern Italy. People lived travelled and traded between the Alps mountain range and the river Po. The main occupations of the Terramara people were hunting farming and metallurgy casting bronze tools like axe heads in stone molds. The houses in the villages were built on piles meaning each house is built above the ground supported by wooden stakes.In Terramara you play as the chief of a clan living in one of these villages. Your goal is to develop your clan exploring lands farther away to trade with other villages and reach sacred places. You improve your battle strength and discover new technologies to create useful artefacts. The player who develops the best clan by gaining more development points becomes leader of all of Terramara and wins the game!—description from the publisher
In Qin players colonize the Chinese hinterland seize territories and expand their influence by placing tiles and pagodas.A move is simple: You choose one out of three tiles from your hand place it onto the grid of the board then draw a new tile. Each tile shows two landscapes. If you create a territory that consists of at least two spaces of the same landscape you seize it. You can also expand your territories take over territories from other players and connect your territories to villages on the board. All of this enables you to place pagodas. The player who is first to get all his pagodas on the board wins.
In 221 B.C. all the so-called Warring States are brought together. This is the birth of the vast Chinese empire ruled by Qin Shi Huangdi. A skilled and determined strategist but also a shrewd governor he undertakes actions aimed at standardizing all the elements at the basis of Chinese society and culture; he imposes a single script and a single currency then he establishes a new system of laws equal for all. He also builds palaces installs local governors and above all starts the works for the construction of the greatest building in the history of mankind: the Great Wall.A single life cannot suffice for such a vast empire. He sends ships to distant lands in search of the legendary elixir of life and he builds a huge mausoleum containing the scale reconstruction of his empire. In defense of it for eternity he deploys an impressive terracotta army...In Zhanguo: The First Empire you go along with the Emperor's plans to offer your family a place in the terracotta army. To help you in this challenging task six cards will be at your disposal every round. They will give you permanent support during the rest of the game or will obtain the Emperor's approval for your actions.At the end of the game the player who made the greatest contribution to the Emperor's cause by scoring the most points wins!—description from the publisher
Hands in the Sea is a two-player deck building wargame on the First Punic War between Rome and Carthage 264–241 BC.Each player has a starting deck of cards they use to perform various actions up to two per round. Actions range from colonization to naval movement to battle with most activity centered in and around Sicily and Sardinia/Corsica. Players may also purchase additional cards from their own custom decks or from a set of neutral cards that either player may purchase. There are also Strategy cards that each player can purchase (one max) that give the owning player some special advantage.The game is played over the course of several turns up to a maximum of twelve. At the end of each turn players resolve random events collect income and score victory points. There are several paths to victory ranging from simply having the highest score at the end of the game to capturing the opposing player's capital.Inspired by A Few Acres of Snow this game features several new elements including navies naval battles cavalry superiority mercenaries field battles sieges manpower strategy cards random events turn based scoring bribery and tactical bonuses.The name of the game is based on a quote from a Carthaginian commander who claimed at the outbreak of hostilities that the Carthaginian control of the seas was such that the Romans would not even dare wash their hands in the sea.
Yunnan — home of delicious Pu'er tea. For more than 1,000 years the tea dynasties have provided this sought-after good via their horse caravans to faraway Tibet. The Tea-Horse Road — a network of paths and roads leading through the jungles of Yunnan across the steppes of Sichuan and over the peaks of the Himalaya — is the traditional travel route of the tea traders.In Yunnan players control the fate of their tea dynasties. Their main goal is to establish a broad and secure trading network to deliver the tea to the farthest provinces doing it better than their opponents. The main work behind the scenes is done in Pu'er their home location: New traders need to be trained better horses need to be acquired and a good number of border passes need to be requested to be able to reach the farthest provinces.Mere trading is not enough to beat the competition however. Great social influence and a prestigious tea house may come in handy to propitiate the province inspector. Bridges provide shortcuts and trading posts in faraway places secure one's own path along the Tea-Horse Road.Yunnan is well-suited for players who like tactical development games. Due to the interleaving game mechanisms the players are involved at all times. The great variety of available actions allows for different strategies. Only the player who calculates well goes against the proper opponents and reacts to the actions of others swiftly and adequately will win this game which includes no elements of chance.
Sorcerer: A Strategy Card Game is set in what the company describes as a grim gaslamp lit world full of fantastic mythical creatures and sorcery. Designed for two to four players the game pits two ancient beings of great power against one another to determine which of their lineage are strongest. The players use sorcery to conjure minions cast spells and wield enchanted items to reach the game's goal of conquering three battlefields.The game uses a simple resource system of energy that is determined randomly by a dice-roll at the beginning of each round to make sure no round is the same. However the outcome being the same for both players the game balance stays even. This energy is then used in the Action Phase for conjuring minions from your hand on any of three battlefields casting possessions that can improve your minion's traits and abilities; or sorcery cards with various direct effects. Also as an action you can add more energy to your Energy Pool draw more cards move minions to another battlefield etc. The choice is yours it is just about your pure skill to handle the battle preparation!In the Battle Phase players roll amount of custom dice equal to each minion's attack trait with possible outcome of miss hit double hit or critical hit for each die and place damage counters on the respective minions or directly to the Battlefield. A unique system of Omen tokens then allows to adjust this outcome by re-rolling the dice before distributing the damage among opponent's minions and battlefield.The combination of usual mechanics like story driven deck building push your luck or dice-rolling; and a unique system of influencing the outcome of the battle provides a perfect balance between strategy and random elements (even you still have the possibility to influence the outcome). Dividing the round to the Action Phase and Battle Phase then creates a very pleasant and natural flow of the hardcore game play.Sorcerer was first developed in 2012 and in 2014 Peter Scholtz consulted with Czech and Slovak board gaming communities intensively to fine tune the mechanics of the game. In August 2014 the first “Print and Play” demo version of Sorcerer was published responding to all the remarks and feedback Peter Scholtz received allowing him to create both his upgraded native language demo and finally the English language version of Sorcerer. The Sorcerer prototype was available for the wide audience as a free to play testing material over the year 2014. After another year of intense work and listening to the game community Peter Scholtz went to Essen Spiel to meet some of the greatest board game publishers and show them the game. After a meeting with Rob Dougherty CEO of the White Wizard Games game designer (Star Realms Hero Realms and Epic card game) and last but not least MTG Hall of Fame player the dice was finally rolled. In 2016 Peter Scholtz become a White Wizard Games team member and together they prepared the game for its KS campaign launch in November 2017.
In Caesar’s Empire you will be building Roads to connect Rome to new Cities across the board. Each time you build a Road you score points. Every new City you reach will provide City and Treasure tokens that will be worth points at the end of the game. The game ends when Rome is connected to every City on the board. After adding the value of City and Treasure tokens to the points scored during the game the player with the most points wins!Caesar’s Empire uses a simple network-building mechanic. Each time you build a Road you must connect Rome to a new City by placing one or more of your Road pieces onto the game board. You may build your Road anywhere you like on the board as long as you start from either Rome or a City whose token has already been taken. This means you may be continuing a Road started by another player! When you reach a City you get to take its token which can be worth points at the end of the game. Each City also provides a Treasure token. Treasures you find are added to your player board and will score you points at the end of the game especially if you manage to make collections!Once you’ve taken your City token and your Treasure you score your route back to Rome. Each section of Road included in your route will score 1 point for the player it belongs to. As your route can include sections of Road placed by other players you can end up giving points to your opponents!The game continues until all of the Cities on the board have been taken. Once the final City has been taken players move on to final scoring.At the end of the game you’ll score points based on your City tokens. Each City has a value which is the number on the back. This is the number of points you’ll score for that City. However if you have more than one City token of the same colour you will only score points for the one of the highest value. You then score the value of the different collections of Treasure on your player board. Collections can be of the same Treasure or different Treasures and Gold is scored separately. The player with the most points returns to Rome to be showered with fortune and glory by Caesar himself!
You lead a grand civilization at the height of its influence but can you save it from collapse? In Empire's End 2-4 players compete to keep calamity at bay. Empire's End marries the intuitive and elegant mechanism of reverse-bidding with engine-building long-term planning and strategic depth. The result is a game with a quick tempo abundant tension and multiple challenging paths to victory.Players begin with a civilization at the height of its power. Play proceeds through a series of phases varying as you progress through the game. During the Disaster phase players face a common threat such as famine a flood or barbarians. The player who ends the bidding must take the disaster which devastates one of their territories.With each disaster that befalls an empire its people grow in wisdom and resilience. In the style of the modern classic game No Thanks resources bid by all players will end up in the hands of the player who ultimately takes the disaster card. That player also gains a new ability an innovation that reflects their empire's ability to adapt in the face of challenging times.Each turn players move along a progress track that dictates whether they will face a disaster or another type of phase. Players can gain new resources during Production phases rebuild lost territories during Industry phases and challenge one another during Military phases. At the end of the progress track the game is concluded and the winner is the civilization with the greatest number of victory points. Intact territories contribute points but innovations and military successes can provide alternative ways to win.
In Sankoré: The Pride of Mansa Musa a dynamic interactive mid-weight Eurogame 1-4 players manage the prestigious University of Sankoré in 14th-century Timbuktu tasked by the emperor Mansa Musa with spreading knowledge throughout West Africa even as the great university is raised around them. By enrolling and graduating your pupils teaching classes adding to your curriculum and filling the great library with books you will advance knowledge in four main disciplines: theology law mathematics and astronomy. Once construction of the university is complete the value that the empire places on each discipline will dramatically affect how you score the knowledge you have passed on.In a dedicated solo mode you compete against the Distinguished Scholar a passionate and ambitious academic controlled by an elegant automated system. They may not be as nimble as you but they are focused and driven and will strive to produce the best possible students.Can you navigate the corridors of academic competition and bring renown to Mansa Musa's prized university?—description from the publisher
In 324 AD Emperor Constantine selected the ancient city of Byzantium on the shores of the Bosphorus to become the site of his new capital. He named it Nova Roma which means New Rome. To establish his magnificent new capital the Emperor summoned his most trusted patricians and tasked them with a variety of duties. With the Emperor’s tireless support this incredible task was accomplished in just six years.In Nova Roma you are the head of an ancient and noble roman house. You must deploy your family members and retainers to accomplish a variety of goals. Construct buildings dominate sea routes secure resources race in the hippodrome and hire specialists. At the end of the game the family that has done the most to please the Emperor and achieve their own agendas will emerge as the victor.
In 500 BC Ionia rebelled against Persia's rule and Greece supported it. With this foreign interference as an excuse the Persian empire decided to invade Greece. In 492 BC the Persian forces attacked Macedonia from land and sea. The Persians and the Greeks fought fiercely at Marathon Thermopylae and Salamis. Against the overwhelming forces of the Persian empire the Greeks used superior tactics and weapons such as hoplites (heavy infantry) and triremes. The Greeks had also excellent leaders in times of crises and eventually prevailed over the Persians.300: Earth & Water is a wargame for two players. One player controls the Greeks gathered around the Athenians and the other controls the Persians fighting for the hegemony of the eastern Mediterranean. Through all five expeditions each player aims to control more cities than their opponent.The game engine is a card driven system. Players raise armies and buy cards during production. Cards can be used to play an event or move an army or fleet. Events can provide advantages in battles or interfere with the enemy but military action is paramount to win. Moreover each game will change dramatically according the order the events occur.The rules are simple and the playing time is short but both Greece and Persia have a wide range of strategies so victory will challenge both players.
When Alexander the Great died in 323 BC he left no clear heir to the immense empire he had conquered. It was not long after his death that the Macedonian generals began to war among themselves over who would be the regent or successor to Alexander's empire. By 305 BC they had given up on succession and began to carve out their own kingdoms.Successors is a 2-5 player card-driven wargame based on those wars.Successors was first published in 1997 by Avalon Hill. Some years later a second edition rulebook was published that gave more options for the Tyche cards. Then Successors III built on the foundation of the Successors II rules set plus expansion cards appeared in the Boardgamer.The fourth edition of Successors includes more generals more scenarios new Tyche cards plenty of new components and a changed map with Libya and Cyrene being merged.
Game description from the publisher:Hidden for centuries below the shifting Egyptian sands the Pyramid of Horus sat undisturbed until a research expedition on the limestone plateau of Abu Rawash uncovered it. Filled with treasures as rich as the Nile delta it borders the pyramid is a beacon summoning a group of exceptional Adventurers eager to put their hands on the priceless archaeological relics contained within. But with a myriad of hazards lying in wait once you enter the pyramid you might never come out.Descend into an ancient Egyptian pyramid with The Adventurers: The Pyramid of Horus a standalone board game of danger and exploration for 2-6 players. In this fast-paced and tense experience whichever player escapes from the pyramid alive and with the highest Treasure value wins the game. Will you emerge bearing priceless archeological treasures or will you succumb to the mortal dangers waiting inside?As one of eight Adventurers – each with a special unique power – you can explore the pyramid searching for archaeological relics hidden or buried in four chambers or corridors. But perils haunt your pursuit of treasure and falling stones threaten to trap you inside forever if they obstruct the only way out. Adventurers must also be wary of hidden threats that can wound them and living mummies who roam the corridors!Disturbing a cursed pyramid has its hazards but there is no adventure without risk. Can you make it out alive and wealthy or will this ancient Egyptian tomb be your final resting place?
The Zapotec were a pre-Columbian civilization that flourished in the Valley of Oaxaca in Mesoamerica. Archaeological evidence reveal their culture going back at least 2,500 years. Remnants of the ancient city of Monte Albán in the form of buildings ball courts magnificent tombs and finely worked gold jewelry testify of this once great civilization. Monte Albán was one of the first major cities in Mesoamerica and the center of the Zapotec state that dominated much of the territory that today belongs to the Mexican state of Oaxaca.In a game of Zapotec you build temples cornfields and villages in the three valleys surrounding the capital to generate resources needed for building pyramids making sacrifices to the gods and performing rituals.Each round players simultaneously pick a card from their hand to determine their turn order and the resources they collect. Players then perform individual turns and spend resources to build new houses gain access to special abilities make sacrifices to the gods and build pyramids. The played action card determines three important aspects of each player's turn:At the end of the round players draft new cards from the central offer with the final undrafted card becoming the scoring bonus card for the following round.After five rounds players score points for pyramids for their position on the sacrifice track and for their ritual cards. The player with the most victory points wins.—description from publisher
Pericles is a four player 'sandbox' design that covers the period from 460 BC to 400 BC. The players each represent one of two Athenian or Spartan factions. The game has a political and a war phase. During the war phase the players are US versus THEM. During the Political Phase it is ME versus YOU (Athenian faction versus Athenian faction and Spartan king versus Spartan king).The City State (Athens or Sparta) that gains the most Honor wins the war and the faction on the winning side with the most Honor wins the game.There are over twenty scenarios that cover portions of the war with playing times from 30 minutes (mini Theater scenario) 45 minutes (6 years of the war) 90 minutes (a decade of war) and then there are the three long scenarios that cover the 1st Peloponnesian War 2nd Peloponnesian War plus the Campaign game. There are rules for 3 player 2 player and solitaire play.
Era of Tribes is a civilization worker-placement strategy game for 1-4 players from 14 years+ where your goal is to develop expand discover and interact with your fellow players in Europe from the Neolithic period to the High Middle Ages. It combines the best of the two worlds Amithrash and Eurogame; so I call it EumerithrashEurope at start of Neolithic period. The human population is scattered all over the continent living in dark and humid caves. You represent the clan chief of a dynasty and your one goal is to become the ruler of a vast empire. However realizing this goal will be an arduous journey. Your subordinates will have to faithfully strengthen you and your armies will have to be more advanced and stronger than those of your enemies. You will have to conquer areas and develop colonies to receive resources and luxury goods. You will have to skillfully maneuver on a political level and use scientific progresses to its maximum value. If you are successful you will become the supreme ruler of the known world. Objective of the Game: Your objective is to get the most Influence Points (IP) by the end of the game. To reach this goal you have to develop your empire with the help of your leaders. Take turns placing them in the different boxes of your tribal action board where they can help you in different and unique ways: The Expansion chamber allows you to spread your vassals found cities collect luxury goods or resources and decide conflicts. The Trade” chamber allows you to increase your wealth by trade. The Taxes chamber allows you to levy taxes in your cities. The Diplomacy chamber allows you to negotiate with your neighbors raise your influence with them and either change the play order or acquire additional leaders. The Improvement chamber allows you to discover new improvements that enable you to construct more cities improve your strength gain more influence raise the moral of your population enhance the effectiveness of your farmers execute navigation or improve your trade. The Bread & Circuses chamber allows you in combination with luxury goods to increase the morale of your people. Finally a Revolution allows you to ascend into the next higher epoch if you meet the requirements. The additional rooms Faith and Intelligence allow direct actions against your opponents and will be available as an addon soon. You gain influence by taking different actions during play and by Influence Cards which are distributed secretly at start of the game. These cards will be evaluated at the end of the game and will add additional influence if you have fulfilled their conditions. Furthermore there are some aspects which will give you additional Influence Points after finishing the game. Again the player with most IPs will win the game. There are several end of game conditions. Amassing wealth holding many provinces reaching the ancient times developing the most advances conquering an opponents main territories gaining a certain amount of IP and meeting your influence marker with your triumphant march. The game is for up to 4 players with ten different unique tribes you can choose from. It takes about 30 minutes per player in the normal game and 60 minutes in the long game (higher game end conditions).
Lead an ancient China kingdom dreaming of imperial power establish new states build pagodas strive for influence – and battle to unite the country under your glorious dynasty! HUANG is set in the Warring States period (475-221 BC) a time of endless wars between seven rival states: Qin Chu Qi Yan Han Wei and Zhao.HUANG is a 2 to 4 player game set in ancient China during the time of the Warring States. You take control of one of the Warring States battling to unite the country under your dynasty. Each player has five different leaders: Governor Soldier Farmer Trader and Artisan.Clever placement of these leaders and their corresponding tiles on the board is key allowing you to build pagodas to score points trigger or avoid wars and instigate peasant revolts that bring down your enemies. Play is fast and addictive lasting around 90 minutes with a very short teaching time reflecting the elegance of the ruleset.
This solo two player cooperative and two to four player competitive game collects and combines the very best gameplay content from Hoplomachus: The Lost Cities and Hoplomachus: Rise of Rome as well as several of their expansions.Hoplomachus: Remastered includes everything that originally made the franchise a hit with its ease of play multiple combat modes and subtle variations between factions. We're giving the line a huge production update to make it the kind of game we at Chip Theory have wanted it to be from the beginning. Featuring new original art more attractive graphic design streamlined rules and component compatibility with Victorum Hoplomachus will now embody the Chip Theory Games premium experience in every sense of the word.Though both Victorum and Remastered are standalone titles their gladiator and tactics chips are cross-compatible between both games allowing players to mix and match chips for even more gameplay options!—description from the publisher
From BGG News (Eric Martin): In Pantheon players enact the comings and goings of various peoples in the Mediterranean: Egyptians Romans Iberians Germans etc. They accumulate as many raw materials as possible to build monuments to the gods but the ways of the gods are unpredictable.On a turn a player has a number of options. He can choose to travel with his people by using the big wooden footprint piece then smaller footpints to mark their path and block other players. He can buy materials to worship the gods: dancers farm produce impressive temples or prayers. He can use these offerings to take a god token which may grant him special abilities as well as victory points. Finally he may build monuments that are worth victory points at the end of the game. The game lasts six rounds with two scoring periods.
From the Hanging Gardens of Babylon to the Pyramids of Egypt and without forgetting the Greek Parthenon The Builders: Antiquity — a standalone card game based on The Builders: Middle Ages — offers a whole range of challenges to its builders. To face these challenges you must put on your foreman clothes. Between hiring workers managing their organization purchasing slaves or tools and taking out loans you'll have to make the right decisions to fulfill your dream: Becoming the greatest builder the age has ever known.In the game players score points (and gain money) by completing the construction of buildings. Each building has four characteristics — carpentry masonry architecture painting — rated between 0 and 5 and the workers have the same characteristics valued in the same range. To complete a construction the player must add enough workers to cover the four characteristics of the building but placing a worker on a construction site costs money.Each turn players have three free actions; however for an added cost players may also chose to buy additional actions during their turn. Unlike in The Builders: Middle Ages players can acquire slaves and put them to work but if they don't pay to free the slaves by the end of the game they lose points. Other changes from the original game include the ability to send your workers to universities or purchase tools to improve their characteristics.Make use of your workers of your slaves or your freed slaves to build your buildings and amass victory points to ultimately be named the greatest builder of all!—description from the publisher
Commissioned is a 2-6 player cooperative-style board game with a simple deck-building mechanism that plays in 1 hour. Players are the early Christian Apostles and must work together to mature their faith decks grow the church collect the books of the New Testament and overcome persecution. You do not need to know anything about Christianity to play. The game includes five scenarios that cover the first 150 years of church history two difficulty levels and a one-vs-all variation.
Take a ride through humankind's history with History of the World a game of conquest and cunning for three to six players. Expand your empire as you command mighty empires at the height of their power from the dawn of civilization to the twentieth century. Each game offers an epic experience as great minds work toward technological advances ambitious leaders inspire their citizens and unpredictable calamities occur while empires rise and fall.This remastered edition of History of the World contains a beautifully illustrated board revised rules to streamline the experience and everything you need to etch your name in the annals of history.—description from the publisher
Leave no stone unturned! Nine mystical tiles lie before you in a grid of rocky ruins. Rearrange the tiles to match one or more of the patterns in your hand. The catch is that you must sacrifice a card every time you swap or flip a tile. Carve out the most points in Shifting Stones and your victory will be set in stone!—description from the publisher
Ave Roma is a worker placement game with some unique mechanisms. All workers have a value and all are common workers. At the beginning of a new turn you always start with five workers but depending on your previous decisions you will always have different workers. In the first phase you have to send out your workers and in the next one you have to collect them — but in most cases you get back different ones.You have several ways to win the game. You can build buildings support wars convince patrons obtain influence in territories get money and resources and so on. It's a complex game with several mechanisms and components.
Caesar: Rome vs. Gaul is a fast-playing easy-to-learn two-player card-driven game on Caesar’s conquest of Gaul. One player plays Caesar as he attempts to gain wealth and fame in Gallia at the expense of the Gauls. The other player controls all the independent tribes of Gaul as they slowly awake to the peril of Roman conquest.Caesar: Rome vs. Gaul uses many of the core rules and systems used in Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage. Players are dealt 8 cards at the start of each turn and use their cards to move their armies and place control markers. Players familiar with Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage will quickly learn this game.The game covers the height of the Gallic Wars the period between 57 BC and 52 BC when Caesar campaigned back and forth across Gaul putting down one rebellion after another and invading Germania and Britannia. Units are individual Roman Legions or Gallic Tribes. Each turn represents one year.—description from the publisher
When you die you can take it with you!Take on the role of Egyptian nobles at the time of the pharaohs preparing for death and burial in the Valley of the Kings. Players want to fill their tombs with food amulets and other treasures and to do so they acquire cards that are laid out in the shape of a pyramid; purchase cards at the base of the pyramid and it crumbles to bring cards higher in the pyramid to the base where they can be bought. The pyramid resets each round with new offerings.You score only for cards that you remove from your deck and stash in your tomb so if you keep using valuable cards for their effects and don't entomb them before the game ends you could lose out on big points! Whoever collects the most valuable artifacts in her tomb wins.Valley of the Kings: Last Rites the third standalone VotK title introduces the various citizens and roles of people in the ancient Egyptian kingdom.
For hundreds of years the city of Atlantis was a self-sustained booming civilization in the middle of the ocean. According to actual Plato writings Atlanteans had discovered a new powerful element called Orichelum within their city. Orichelum advanced their technology faster than any civilization the world had ever seen. The Atlanteans were able to create and power giant machines called Myths to defend the city from relentless attacks from the outside world trying to take their precious Orichelum.The Age of Atlantis is a highly competitive engine-building civilization-like game. You and your friends are each an asymmetric noble house trying to become the most politically powerful. You’ll grow your house’s population discover new technologies and cultures and defend your city. All while trying to keep Poseidon the God watching over the city from flooding the city. The noble house that has the most political power at the end of the game will be the winner and rule the city.—description from the publisher
For Glory is a game of gladiatorial combat and deck building for 2 players. Players take on the role of gladiator school owners or lanistas in ancient Rome. The game utilizes a two-phase system for deck building and combat. During the Machinations Phase players recruit gladiators secure the support of influential patrons increase their income and train their gladiators in a multitude of tactics. When the crowd’s bloodlust becomes insatiable the game shifts to the Arena Phase during which players control their gladiators in various arenas to battle their opponents’ gladiators for glory. Each gladiator has a unique set of stats and a unique ability. Having the right synergies between gladiators often means the difference between death and glory. During arena battles players also play tactic and reaction cards from their hand to support their gladiators or turn the tides of battle. The first player to gain six glory by winning arena battles is the victor and will be remembered for all time as the greatest lanista of Rome.
Everyone knows of the pyramids on the Nile — eternal monuments of a powerful and beautiful culture that can still take our breath away. The players (leaders of a royal Egyptian family) choose their sites build their pyramids and thank Amun-Re and the other gods for their bounty.In Amun-Re each pharaoh wants to build the most pyramids. To accomplish this they must first acquire a province where they can trade and farm. With their profits they can buy new provinces and building stones to erect pyramids. For all their actions players must make clever use of their power cards and always offer appropriate sacrifices to Amun-Re.Amun-Re: 20th Anniversary Edition features new modules that can be added to the game:
Hoplomachus: Origins takes you back to where the story begins within the small battle arenas of 3 unique civilizations. You will represent one of the warrior houses found in these cities and will be battling for the right to represent your entire civilization in Rome. Quick fights 3 exotic arenas and competitive drafting of unique warriors are what set Origins apart from our other 2 games in the series. Of course it wouldn't be Hoplo if you weren't playing with premium 11.5 gram chips neoprene mats and custom dice!
Pagoda is a two-player only game in which players compete to build multiple layers of up to six pagodas. Each player has five face-up and two face-down colored cards and they use these cards to build colored pillars and levels of the pagoda. Once a pillar has been placed on the ground floor all other pillars placed must be of the same color. When someone places the fourth pillar on a level he places a floor tile of the pillars' color on top with this tile have colored dots to indicate which color of pillar can be placed on top.Players score points each time they place a pillar with a pillar on ground level being worth one point a pillar on the second floor two points and so on. When a player places a floor tile he gains one point as well as two actions associated with that color on his individual action board. The fourth floor tile is placed upside-down to show only one colored dot. Two pillars can be placed on this dot each worth five points and once placed the pagoda is finished. After three pagodas are finished players finish the round then the player with the most points wins.
Ostia is a strategy game for 1-4 players. Players lead a large fleet to explore the ocean trade and develop the port. Make good use of the Mancala system to strengthen your personal board and aim for the highest honor!The player chooses one of the six spaces on his board. Corresponding resources will be produced for the number of ships in that space. After that take all the ships in that space and place them one by one clockwise. Take action corresponding to where the last one ship was placed. By repeating this you can build a new ship on your personal board strengthen your ship to a larger one or build a building in the harbor.—description from the publisher
Take control of Norse divinities and command their forces in the ultimate conflict! While gods and mortals wage war on mighty giants and living dead strange runes of fire materialize in the Nine Worlds. For centuries these remnants of primal forces remained out of reach but now those who dare to wield this awesome power may tip the balance of these world-breaking battles in their favor. The realms are crumbling the end draws near and only the mighty shall be remembered.The Bifrost Bridge has collapsed trapping Odin and his armies in Asgard. The resulting war in Midgard will be a devastating clash with no assumed victor. Will Ases and Vanes save the Nine Worlds from destruction or will chaos shatter these realms and reduce Yggdrasil to ashes?Mythic Battles: Ragnarök is a 2 to 4 player legendary adventure playable as a pure skirmish game or as an epic saga comprised of numerous scenarios and campaigns. Glorious miniatures and stunning game boards set the scene decks and dice decide the combat and the draft mechanic ensures you field a mighty force destined for glory and victory!
By the end of the III century the Roman Empire is doomed. Enemies surround the borders instability spreads over the provinces and whenever a Roman Emperor fights a threat usurpers take his place in Rome. The Emperor Diocletian only sees one revolutionary way out: share the power with Maximian Constantius and Galerius forming the first 'Tetrarchy'. Now their enemies are doomed...TETRARCHIA (rule of four in Latin) is a cooperative game in which 1 to 4 players take the role of the 4 Emperors fighting the revolts within the Empire and the Barbarian armies that try to bring it down. With easy rules the core engine leads to very different games full of interesting choices with up to 81 difficulty levels. The Draco Ideas edition also includes:- The Dux expansion now with 4 independent modules (Dux Vicarius Pirates and Goths). - Plus 6 independent variants including a new competitive one (Barbaria) that holds up to 5 players. - Plus 4 updated historical scenarios (Carausian revolt Danubian Wars Mauretanian War and Great Persian War).The combinations are countless! The flow of each Emperor's turn is very simple: spend up to 6 'Imperivm Points' (to Move Sail Secure Subdue or Attack) and then propagate threats with the roll of two dice. The players win if they secure the borders of the Empire before the majority of provinces revolt or Rome falls.
Your ancient alien civilization is leaving its dying planet in search of a new homeland. The promised land is represented by Gaia which is home to the magnificent human civilization of Atlantis. But beware other Houses (factions) of your civilization also have the same goal and only one will be able to dominate Gaia!Anunnaki: Dawn of the Gods is a 4x eurogame by Simone Luciani and Danilo Sabia set in an ancient dystopian past where mythology and science-fiction come together. Each player represents a different House whose rulers are viewed by terrestrial population as gods. Players build bases recruit troops embody gods explore the territory develop their own technology sign trade contracts defeat local dominions and other players' armies trying to conquer Atlantis which owns huge treasures.Different actions will provide a certain number of immediate Victory Points. Moreover random setup goals will provide you with sizable Victory Point rewards at the end of the game based on specific conditions. In the end the player with the most VPs will be the winner.In addition to having a strong dose of controllability (the luck factor is minimal) the game features an innovative starred action-selection-system that confronts players with interesting choices: players can reincarnate their gods by performing their actions in a precise sequence on pre-established paths of their starred player board or they can give up some deities jumping freely from one action to another of their board to choose from time to time the situationally best actions.Cover Art by Paolo Vicenzi & Jara Zambrano—description from the publisher
Hoplomachus [ha-ploh-ma-kuss] or Hoplo for short is a hex-based tactical board game set inside a gladiatorial arena. One to three players each representing an ancient city/civilization thought to have been lost to the world are now on Rome's doorstep vying for a place in the prestigious arena games.Players have a very clear objective: Eliminate the opponent's champion. Champions start the game in the arena but are inactive and defenseless. They will not fight until the crowd is behind them. Each player takes turns drawing playing and moving gladiators from their hand and assisting them with tactic chips.Based on opponent's moves and play style each person will need to adjust their strategies. Defend your champ take over and hold the crowd favor areas assault opponent's champion cover deployment zones eliminate tacticians to reduce enemy options fight beasts to gain crowd favor the list of tactical possibilities is endless.Hoplomachus combines combat tactics chip (units) management level progression (through crowd favor system) team play player vs board and so much more.
In Fight for Olympus two players battle for control of Olympus by pitting demi-gods titans and soldiers against one another.In game terms players face off on opposite sides of a game board with each player having six spaces for playing cards: three for military conflict two for control of power discs and one for control of resources. On a turn a player plays as many cards as desired by paying the cost of each card — that is discarding cards of the proper colors that match the cost of the card being played — then placing the card in an empty slot on their side of the game board. Many cards have powers that take effect when played.After playing cards on a turn each card does damage equal to its strength to any opponent's card on the other side of the game board. If no opponent's card is present then with military power the player does damage directly to the opponent swinging a pendulum of strength in their favor. If you reach a total of 7 on the pendulum you win. Your troops can also grant you an additional card at the end of the turn (three instead of two) or tokens that make it cheaper to play cards.Instead of winning via military you can instead win by having all six slots on your side of the board filled with cards at the start of your turn.
The living dug out cities for their dead: necropolises deep within the earth. They filled the caverns with bodies and locked them away from the upper air. Eventually the dead forgot the living — if any remain.But in death a new life began. The breath of evil from the darkness of complete shadow stirred corrupted flesh. In their middens and pits the dead awakened swarming through slime-fluxing tunnels seeking chthonic power warring with demons and denizens of the deep. Animated by the black flame necro-ecologies rose and collapsed in the crypt-universe. Now cloistered undead lich-wizards have discovered the primordial opening to the shadow source the doleful horror-hole where the Eternal Evil Emperor watches and waits....The necromancers have dug their Lairs deep into the ground. They must gather precious resources and body parts to assemble an army of minions while defending their own lairs from the excavations and intrusions of others. In the end the only route is into the demon path...Then depletion of your essence leads to spending another eternity in foul sepulchral darkness awaiting the next Awakening of Death.In Cave Evil each player takes the role of an ancient Necromancer. Located deep within an earth their Necropolises have now merged each seeking the Darkest Pit the location of all evil. The dark wizards must build minions with precious resources from their Lairs to send forth and destroy or dig further tunnels to locate other creatures resources or to ambush another sorcerer.The game is won when only one remaining Necromancer stands. A Necromancer can either be destroyed by combat or an enemy minion may venture into their Lair and crush the wizard's shadow power a Chthonic Crystal. BUT an even greater darkness may befall the players. As they build and destroy creatures the Dark Pit absorbs the shadowflame and may awaken the ultimate cave evil...
246 BCE: The future first emperor of China Ying Zheng orders the construction of the Terracotta Army. It will be part of the Great Mausoleum a monument built to celebrate the Qin dynasty's endless glory and also to protect him in the afterlife. As a delegate of the Emperor you will be asked to fulfill his wish by leading a team of workers and helpers to obtain resources craft and decorate the warrior statues and supply them with fine wood and bronze weapons.Xi'an is played over six turns with two rounds in each turn. This means that each player will play exactly twelve times during the game. During each turn players draw the first four cards from their personal workers deck then play two rounds in the turn. First each player choses two cards and sets aside the remaining two cards face down. The second round will use the remaining two cards. After six turns the player who has gained the most prestige points wins.—description from the publisher
Rating: 7.4 | Players: 2–4
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Designed by Bruno Cathala and Ludovic Maublanc Cleopatra and the Society of Architects is a fun and engaging game that includes a three-dimensional palace that players compete to build. Players strive to become the wealthiest of Cleopatra's architects by constructing the most magnificent and valuable parts of her palace.Players however will be tempted to trade in materials of dubious origins in order to build faster. While these corrupt practices might allow an architect to stay a step ahead of the rest they come with a high price: the cursed corruption amulets honoring Sobek the crocodile-god. When Cleopatra finally reaches her new palace at the end of the game she punishes the most corrupted architects (i.e. the ones with the most amulets) depriving them of riches or giving them as a sacrifice to her crocodile! The wealthiest architect from among those still alive wins.This new edition of Cleopatra and the Society of Architects has a new graphic design by Miguel Coimbra a free-standing 3D palace and rulebook updated by the designers for simplicity and fluidity which incorporates these gameplay changes:—description from the publisher
Rome & Roll is a heavy roll-and-write board game by Dávid Turczi and Nick Shaw in which 1-4 players compete to craft an empire. Draft from a pool of custom dice to collect resources construct the town and organize armies. Political alliances the colonies and even the Gods all have a part to play. Imperii Gloria!• Draft the dice to match your needs: roll draw and win! • Play one of seven unique character classes ranging from merchants to military leaders with a wealth of different strategies to deploy. • Take advantage of four possible scoring avenues: construct buildings trade resources conquer unruly colonies and renovate the Roman road network. • Make political alliances and call on the Gods. • Raise armies and invade settlements as far afield as Egypt and Spain. • Build roads and manage unruly provinces.
Travel back to Greece in 370 BCE on the island of Kos. Hippocrates has just passed away and that leads to a lot of doubt regarding the durability of his medical activities. As one of his successors you lead a team of doctors with the goal of perpetuating the treatment of patients in the temple of Asclepios later known as the first hospital in history. Be the right successor of Hippocrates and increase your reputation so that patients from all around the Mediterranean will come with the hope of receiving the best treatment ever.The game lasts four rounds with each round divided into five phases:1. Kalosorisma — Each player welcomes up to three patients in their hospital. You need to select your patients carefully as all patients need urgent help and some may be easier to treat than others but make sure to help the most in need or you will lose reputation as a doctor. 2. Pliromi — You have to remunerate your doctors or risk their departure. 3. Stratologisi — In this phase players try to hire new doctors and purchase medicine kits. If a player obtains both they receive a bonus. 4. Therapeia — Now is the time to treat patients. Players have to carefully puzzle and link the right patients to the right doctors to maximize their assets. 5. Exis — Players count victory and reputation points and prepare the board for the next round.Hippocrates combines auction bidding tile placement resource management and more to create an exciting mix that will challenge each player to best manage their patients and try to become Hippocrates' worthy successor.
Which Egyptian dynasty will be the most glorious? Pray to the Gods to construct edifices in their honor and ensure your dynasty has a millennia-long posterity.Pyramids is a game for 2 to 5 players that sends you back in time to Ancient Egypt. Your necropolis — a place of eternal sleep luxury and glory — will be made up of pyramids obelisks and tombs. Select the best combination of stones in the quarry optimize their layout and make your necropolis the most famous in all of Egypt!
Roll Through the Ages: The Iron Age a sequel to the highly-awarded Roll Through the Ages: The Bronze Age lets you build an Iron Age civilization in under an hour! Do you build provinces raise armies and conquer barbarians or build ports and ships to gain trade goods? Explore the strategies of Greece Phoenicia and Rome as you erect monuments fend off disasters and strive to feed your people.Roll Through the Ages: The Iron Age gives players different ways to build their empires: the Trade and Naval strategies of the Phoenicians the conquests of Alexander the Great and the engineering prowess and gradual absorption of new provinces by the Roman Republic.Grab those dice — including the Fate die — and prepare to build the greatest empire as you continue to roll through the ages!Roll Through the Ages: The Iron Age games that include the Mediterranean Expansion have their own game entry at Roll Through the Ages: The Iron Age with Mediterranean Expansion.
It's the year AD 122 and the Roman Empire is at the peak of its glory. Caesar Hadrian is no longer waging war against the barbarians but building cities and fortifications to ensure a lengthy domination of the Roman culture and wealth.The southern part of Britain is under Roman domination and Caesar has already begun the construction of Hadrian's Wall to protect the empire from invasions from the North. Together with the wall Caesar has ordered the founding of a new city that will remind the locals of the glory of Rome. He has appointed five of his most trusted men to take resources and workers from Rome and to build the city together – but in the end only one of them will be appointed Praetor and rule the Province in the name of Caesar.In Praetor you will take the role of a Roman engineer and you will work together with the other players to build a magnificent city. You will manage your limited resources wisely and look for new ones you will recruit new Workers while your old experienced ones will retire you will build settlements to keep the population happy and you will praise the Gods to earn their favor. Caesar will reward you if you give away precious resources to build Hadrian’s Wall thus increasing your chances of becoming Praetor.Every turn you will place your Workers on previously built City Tiles to gain resources Morale new Workers or Favor points. You may also assign Workers to build new City Tiles or spend resources to meet Caesar’s demands to gain Favor Points. At the end of each turn you will have to pay your Workers. Otherwise the mood in the city will deteriorate.Most of the actions your Workers will perform will help them gain experience. They will become increasingly skilled in collecting resources. Your most experienced Workers will eventually retire and bring you additional Favor Points but you will still have to show solidarity and pay them until the end of the game.
The ground trembles under a thousand angry hoofbeats. Wheels creak and reins pull as racers drive their horses forward in a panic.You are a charioteer in the Circus Maximus the greatest raceway in the ancient world.Three hundred thousand fans are on their feet as you turn the final corner. This is not the finish they expected. You lead by a length and only one rival remains; each throws the last of their energy into one final sprint. Many thousands are despondent other thousands exultant and joyous. Their shouts become a roar a long scream as you surge for the finish line. Another hundred yards will make you a hero.Charioteer is a new game from Sekigahara: The Unification of Japan author Matt Calkins. Like Matt's previous games Charioteer features simple rules quick play and novel mechanisms.Charioteer is a strategic racing game that plays in one hour. Each player controls a chariot in the Circus Maximus of ancient Rome. There's lots of action and it happens quickly with simultaneous move selection.Movement is determined by melding sets from a hand of cards. Every card does more than one thing and it takes multiple matching cards to make a move. Choosing to use a card in one set means deciding not to use it in another. Timing when to make a critical move is as important as knowing what move to make.Moves come in four colors and each has a special advantage. Play a red move to attack your opponents yellow to recover from disruption black to turn a sharp corner and green to sprint.Each racer begins the game with different abilities and they improve their skills as the race progresses leading to big bonuses in their favorite types of moves. Show the emperor the kind of move he prefers and a racer's skills will increase even faster.Players deploy tokens to give their moves a special bonus. More tokens can be earned by impressing the crowd with large matching card plays. Players may choose to delay using their best sets until they're big enough to qualify for a fan token.Some races will be violent and others calm depending upon whether the players and emperor behave disruptively. Attacks cause damage which reduces movement speed. Players who specialize in recovery moves may overcome damage quickly. Others may need to carefully deploy their shields on turns when violence is expected.It's not always clear who's winning the race. Being in front of the pack may not be as important as developing a critical skill collecting powerful tokens or keeping damage low. Whip icons allow those who have fallen behind to surge back into competition.Charioteer is easy to learn. It can be played by bright kids as well as adults. Despite its accessibility it is a game of skill.—description from the publisher
Mega Empires: The West is a strategy board game for 5-9 players that covers the development of civilizations through history from the Stone Age to the Late Iron Age on a map board that concentrates on the Mediterranean Sea. In this colossal game players lead their historic civilization as they gain victory points by expanding their population building cities trading and developing their knowledge and culture. Notwithstanding its large scope the game's core mechanics are straightforward and easy to learn. A key element in the game is player interaction as they position themselves on the map board and search for valuable commodities during interactive trading sessions.Gameplay Each player starts their civilization in the Stone Age with a single population token on the board. As the game progresses the population will expand spread over the board fight some border conflicts and build cities. Cities bring resources and wealth expressed in trade cards. The more cities players manage to build on the board the more trade cards they receive. Trade cards are mainly valuable commodities but sometimes turn out to be disastrous calamities.Trade Trading is the heart of the game a social experience where all players interact with each other to optimize the value of their sets of commodities. In addition to the desired commodities calamities are secretly traded as well adding an additional layer to the trading dynamics. Once the trading phase has ended players that end up with a calamity in their hand will suffer its effects.Develop Civilization Advances When the smoke of trading and resolving calamities has settled players can decide how to spend the wealth gathered through trading. The game includes 51 different advances that can be developed each of which provides benefits in the game to its holder. For example Metal Working provides an advantage when fighting conflicts Architecture facilitates city construction and Enlightenment reduces the impact of (civil) calamities.The 51 Civilization advances are divided into the categories Arts Crafts Science Civics and Religion each of which has specific powers. Each advance acquired by a player provides discounts to other advances that can be purchased later in the game thereby creating a path of strategic decisions. The ultimate advance in the game Wonder of the World is only in reach for players who manage both their trading and purchasing strategy very well.Winning the Game The players who have best developed their position on the board whilst avoiding making enemies and defended their civilization against natural or civic calamities and stand the test of time will eventually gather the most victory points and compete for winning the game. After up to 12 hours of playing that is.Combining with Mega Empires: The East Mega Empires: The West can be combined with Mega Empires: The East (2021) to scale up the game to as many as 18 players! Where The West concentrates on the Mediterranean Sea which stimulates movement by ship The East covers Northeast Africa the Arabian Peninsula and Southwest Asia and has a stronger focus on movement by land. Both games were designed as equally balanced counterparts albeit with unique characteristics. Since many phases in the game are played simultaneously larger player numbers do not materially increase the total playing time.Expansions Mega Empires: The Special Buildings (2024) is an expansion set that provides additional flavor to the game through 18 miniatures of ancient buildings historically associated with each of the civilizations in the game. These buildings can be built on the map board and provide additional benefits in play and victory points to their controller.The Mega Empires: Upgrade & 3-4 Players Pack (2024) contains rules and components for playing The West with as few as 3 or 4 players. These components are by default included in Mega Empires: The East.Accessories The Mega Empires: The West – Deluxe Game Mat (2024) is a neoprene game mat at 125% scale of the original cardboard map that offers an enlarged playing area and high-quality design for easier and more immersive gameplay.The Mega Empires: Identifier Cards Bonus Pack (2024) is a set with 18 large player identifier cards one for each of the Civilizations included in Mega Empires. These can be used for distributing the civilizations among the players during setup to identify which stack of Civilization Advances belongs to which player or to divide acquired cards from not yet acquired ones during the game.Wrap-up Mega Empires: The West is a long strategic board game about development trade culture politics and showing resilience when dealing with calamities. The game is a perfect fit for larger groups of strategic board game enthusiasts which due to its scalability can also be played in smaller groups. It is not just a game it is an experience!—description from the designers
Game description from the publisher:Via Appia the most famous road of the Roman Empire is under construction. Be a part of this historic event and finish the road that connects Rome and Brindisi. Prove your intuition in the quarry to get the best stones. Whoever builds the most valuable sections and reaches the different cities early will be victorious and the most famous builder in all of Rome.Goal of the Game (from the Rules) Rome needs a connection to Brundisium and the players have been tasked with building the Via Appia in order to allow for fast travel between the two cities. To create the road they’ll need to break off stone tiles in the quarry then travel to Brundisium laying out the tiles and creating the path that all will follow in the years ahead. This travel costs sesterces but will bring crucial victory points and glory from Rome in return.
Ragnarocks is a 2-player area control game designed by Gord! - the designer of Santorini and Santorini: New York. In Norse mythology humans exist in the land of Midgard - a place in the center of the world tree and connected to the nine realms. Among these nine realms live gods and goddesses serpents and spirits and all manner of mythical and mystical creatures.In Ragnarocks you take on the role of a Viking clan using Runestones to mark your clan’s claims of land. In the advanced game your clan worships one of these powerful beings from another realm who lends you their power to help you outwit rivals and claim territories for your clan. At the end of the game the clan who controls the most territory in Midgard wins!A player's turn consists of a move phase and a summoning phase. During the move phase you move one of your active Vikings any number of spaces in a straight line. During the summoning phase you summon a runestone and place it on any space along a path following a straight line from the location of the Viking you moved. Whenever a summoning creates an enclosed area containing only vikings of a single clan that area becomes settles and belongs to the player whose clan occupies it.When all vikings have settled the player who controls the most territory wins.—description from the publisher
In Uchronia you are the patriarch of a great Uchronian noble house competing with the other houses that commit their wealth to building the city enriching it with new constructions and striving to win over the people.In game terms players start with six resource cards in hand then each discard a card to the shared forum; each resource card shows the type of resource (with color-coded five resources in the game) an activity icon (with for example all yellow clay cards showing a pick) and an order (with yellow showing Production). Five building cards are placed face-up in the Great Works area and can be built by the players; any time a building is taken from this area reveal another building card.On a turn you first move any card(s) played the previous turn to the forum then you either Command or Plot. To Command you play one card from your hand with the order you want to carry out or two identical cards which allows you to take any order. The orders are:When you complete a building you gain its special ability for the remainder of the game. You can have only two activities plus one more for each completed building you own. If you have more of a particular ability than anyone else you claim the monopoly card for this activity making each of these activities worth 1 victory point (VP) and allowing you to claim a matching resource whenever anyone completes a building of this color.If you Plot instead of Command you first copy one order showing in another player's area (if you have an activity of the same color) then you either draw until you have five cards or draw one card (if you already have at least five).The game continues until one or more players hits a VP threshold (14-20 depending on the number of players). After completing the round (giving everyone the same number of turns) the player with the most VPs wins.
It is the year 193 AD. The Roman Empire is not as great as it once was. Hordes of enemies are crossing the borders famine spreads throughout the provinces and the political intrigues are tearing the empire apart from within. The previous emperor was killed by his own Praetorian bodyguard and has left a power vacuum that the powerful families in Rome are trying to fill. Are you ready to don the purple yourself and take on the stressful job as emperor? If you fail the other families are ready to take over at a moment's notice. While they wait for your doom they won't hesitate to backstab or undermine you as much as they can. However you all have to work together as the fall of the Roman Empire is closing in.Donning the Purple is an asymmetrical king of the hill game with a bit of worker placement. Each player leads a powerful family in ancient Rome trying to get the most victory points during 4 rounds. If your family member becomes the emperor and manages to hold the position he can earn lots of points. However he will also become the target of the other players as they will try to dethrone him and become the new emperor themselves.
In the three-dimensional construction game Nunatak: Temple of Ice you build a step pyramid together in a mountain of ice — but this game isn't co-operative so watch your step! (A nunatak by the way is a hill or mountain completely surrounded by glacial ice.)For each pillar stone placed you receive cards with different values that will affect your score in the end. For every four pillars built in a square a new level of the monument opens up with the temple of ice growing step by step. Who can place their stones most wisely and rise to the icy challenge?
Experience 30,000 years of civilization in 45 minutes: With Tribes: Dawn of Humanity there is finally a civilization game in which you do not need to wait long for your turn. The players lead their tribes in short fast turns through the early history of humanity to the Bronze Age. They settle unknown lands and extract valuable resources through which they in turn discover new tools and inventions. Who will best prepare their tribe against events such as natural disasters? Who will take the lead and who will follow in the footsteps?Each turn a player selects an action from the action display: grow explore or move. The first action is always free while additional ones cost valuable shells. The used action moves to the end and the next player takes another action. It is important to use your scarce shells cleverly.The players start with a small tribe with the immediately surrounding area explored. They discover new land and send the members of their tribe out to discover valuable resources. These resources are needed for new inventions that bring victory points and improve your actions: become better at exploration grow more tribe members and move further. Who will be the most tactical leader and guide their tribe to victory?This is a completely reworked edition of the game Tribes: Early Civilization released in 2017 with many changes.
Enter Rome at the time of the slave uprisings under Spartacus! The escaped rebels have managed to gain influence and power. Rome is attempting to undermine the stronger armies of the slaves in order to restore pax or peace – but only for personal gain.Will the Empire collapse under the strain or will their promises to insurgents succeed in drawing them to their side?The players play the part of the escaped slaves who try to increase their sphere of influence and undermine the Roman establishment. Using their cards they expand their power in seven different categories. At the end of the game each player tries to be stronger than Rome - and of course stronger than any opponent. Through intrigue however a player can join forces with Rome and thus contribute to its victory over the slave revolt.PAX is a multi-faceted game of card management and influence in which each card requires a tricky tactical decision. With two copies of the game up to eight players can compete for a foothold in the Roman Empire.
Note: There are updated official rules from the publisher that clear up many of the rules questions that arise from rules in the box. It is highly recommended that players use the latest rules for learning/teaching the game. http://www.whatsyourgame.eu/downloads/Asgard_rules.pdfThe end of days is close. Darkness and light will clash.All Gods know what this means for them. Blood ties will no longer be respected brother will fight against brother and no man will spare another. Odin Freyja Týr Loki Hel Thor and Baldr forge their plans and promise great rewards to the ones who will help them prevail. Eventually Fenrir Mímir and Surtr will join the battle.Ask for help at the right time and the gods will grant you their powers. Will you ask Freyja to recruit the fallen warriors of Valhalla or will you use the cunning of Loki and Hel to make an opponent's armies die or switch sides at a critical moment? Will you ask Týr to help win a decisive battle or will you consult Mímir's wisdom in order to gain a tactical advantage?In Asgard you want to support the gods by erecting temples and by convincing brave warriors and mighty giants to side with them. You can influence which god will fight which during the final battle — Ragnarök — the outcome of which will depend on how well you strengthened their armies.Beware only a few of them will come out victorious. Will you side with the right ones? As a mortal your place in the new world depends on it.
It is the late Republican period of Rome and you are the leader of one of the factions in the city competing for power in the Senate. You are increasing your wealth by buying up resources then using your position to sell them to the state for fat profits. With the resulting cash you then buy more Senators controlling yet more votes in the Senate. Rome is constantly in conflict and you know that at some point wars will increase to the point that the Senate will choose to centralize power and appoint a single leader. At that moment the leader of the faction with the most Senators will be made Caesar.Senators is best described as an adversarial bidding game. Players earn money by purchasing resources at auction extorting them from other players then selling them in sets to the bank. Cash is required to support wars defend against aggressive bids and most importantly to buy more Senators. The game lasts a variable number of turns and when the fourth war is revealed it immediately ends. At that point the player with the most Senators wins.On their turn a player first draws an event card from the deck then takes one of three actions: a) launching an auction by putting new cards up for sale b) extorting cards from other players or c) cashing in sets of cards and buying new Senators. The game is simple relatively short and highly interactive. The key decisions are both tactical — how to value the cards at auction and how to bid for the wars deficits and other events given your relative position — and strategic: choosing which Senators to collect and how long to build sets versus when to cash in and buy Senators.Everyone is transacting all the time and the game integrates different bidding systems including an open step bid (like many worker placement games) at the market auctions blind bidding at the wars an innovative high/low blind bid at the budget deficits dutch auctions when new Senators arrive and shotgun offers (similar to Kuhhandel or Medici v Strozzi) when players extort from each other.
Nile DeLuxor is a reprint of the card game Nile that includes a new expansion in the box. The expansion adds several new cards including two new crop types monuments and turn counter cards. The number of players is also expanded to allow for as many as 6.Nile DeLuxor is available as a published version and a print and play edition through Minion games. The published version is a complete game that includes original Nile and the expansion.
The ancient world is changing. The kingdom of Lydia has minted the world’s first gold coin. Bartering and trading will soon be supplanted by coins as the dominant medium of exchange throughout civilization...Lions of Lydia is a bag-management and engine-building game about the dawn of currency. As an influential leader you send merchants out to barter for resources and increase your landholdings. When the nobles arrive they bring their Lydian Lion coins into play—which have unparalleled buying power.To achieve victory you must manage the merchants in your bag and complement their abilities with the cards in your tableau. Traditional merchants produce basic resources which are necessary to build your engine—but if you fail to convert your resources into coins you will not be able to buy the most valuable cards! Thus noble Lydian merchants—and their golden Lion coins—are the key to success. When enough properties are developed the game ends and a winner is declared!Will you draft the best merchants to achieve your goals? Will you be the first to gain the most valuable properties? Will you master the new golden currency: the Lions of Lydia?—description from publisher
Travel back in time to the founding of one of the greatest cities of Mesoamerica and become a part of its history once again. Design the foundations of a great pre-Columbian civilization with its buildings temples and a grand pyramid in the center. Find perfect locations for production buildings and great temples and build the might of the great pyramid overlooking your city. Establish yourself as the very best among competing architects and your project will secure you a spot among the great Founders of Teotihuacan!Founders of Teotihuacan is a strategy game where you compete against your friends to create the best design of the city of Teotihuacan. Over the course of three to four rounds you will place your action disks to the main board forming towers of varying strength strategically use the bonuses they offer and construct temples resource buildings and the pyramid central to your project of Teotihuacan. You will balance generating resources and using them as finding good locations on your city board becomes increasingly more difficult and you will try to outwit your opponents making use of an innovative and interactive action system. Finally once the eclipse comes all designs will be assessed and the player with the most points will win and become the architect to join the ranks of Founders of Teotihuacan!Founders of Teotihuacan is a stand-alone game related to Teotihuacan: City of Gods only by the shared setting of the ancient city of Teotihuacan. Thematically the events in Founders takes place at an earlier time in history while what was to become a magnificent city was yet in its infancy and only few inhabited the area.On your turn you must either perform an Action or pass. To perform an Action place between 1 and 3 of your Action disks on an Action space on the Main board that already contains at least one disk (minimum a Bonus disk and possibly also opponent disk(s)) and carry out a corresponding Action. The Action disk(s) should be placed on top of the disk(s) already on that space forming a stack. Each Action space can hold a maximum of 4 Action disks—including Bonus disks!Your personal player board is divided into four Districts or quadrants. Buildings and Temples can only be placed within the two Districts closest to your Architect. Pyramid tiles can only be placed within the six Pyramid squares closest to your Architect. Your Action Strength is equal to the total number of disks (whether yours an opponent’s disks or Bonus disks) on an Action space.After performing an Action (not when passing) move your Architect clockwise to the next side of your Player board signifying the end of your turn. This changes your Architect's Reach for your next turn. After all players have passed the current round ends.After the game has ended players score additional Victory Points for how well their Districts complement their Pyramid.—description from the publisher
In the Ashes is a revolutionary action RPG adventure played within a book using only a pencil.You've read that right: In the Ashes is not played with miniatures placed on tiles like other board games but everything is played within the book. My intention over the past few years has been to distill the entire experience provided by the great thematic-narrative games into a compact and portable product yet with great depth in mechanics story tactics and atmosphere.In the Ashes can be seen as a solo dungeon crawler with an epic campaign legendary battles and a dramatic story that will provide you with memorable plays anywhere all within the confines of this book.The experience of the great thematic-narrative games in book format.This means that by drawing and marking on the paper:You'll move your character across the board to fight against sinister enemies. You'll play action cards to create spectacular combos. You'll level up your character to specialize in forbidden disciplines. You'll find legendary items to enhance your abilities. You'll make difficult decisions that will affect the story. You'll tempt fate by applying sources of controlled chance to actions and behaviors. You'll battle powerful bosses with unique mechanics and cunning intelligence. You'll discover hidden references in the images that will grant you access to secret advantages. You'll be able to study a grimoire of runes to boost your attacks. And all this you'll do in the book using nothing more than a pencil (or a pen).An epic campaign of more than 12 hours and fully replayable.In the Ashes has been designed from the ground up to be played solo. You'll play through crucial moments in the lives of various characters switching between them as the story requires. However nothing is stopping you from playing in a group reading fighting drawing and making decisions together.If you're looking for an experience inspired by games like Descent Imperial Assault Gloomhaven Kingdom Death Monster Tainted Grail Mansions of Madness Arkham Horror LCG Journeys in Middle-Earth or Sleeping Gods but differently and originally portable and compact this is your game.It takes a second to start playing In the Ashes and another second to pack it away. Whether you have only five minutes or an entire afternoon you can play it on the train at the beach at a bus stop on the sofa or even lying in bed. There's no need to erase anything even when you want to replay the campaign after finishing it.In the Ashes follows an open and play philosophy: you'll learn to play as you progress through the first pages in a tutorial of increasing complexity fully integrated with the story. However detailed rules are available in the final pages for consultation whenever you want.Focus on living the adventure without maintenance or complications.You don't need a table an app to print out a character sheet or even an eraser (there's no need to erase anything). Forget about constantly flipping from page to page to read sections or check statistics as the book has been designed to minimize upkeep so that you can spend your playtime fully immersed in the different scenes applying your strategy to each challenge.You also don't need dice (though you can use them if you like) as the sources of controlled randomness are in the book itself. As you progress through the story and unlock new characters you'll need not just luck but also your memory insight and precision to maximize your attacks.Is an epic solitaire adventure with tactical tabletop combat that offers you a 12-hour narrative campaign that's fully replayable. You can set up and save your current situation instantly and you can play as long as you want — from five minutes to all day. It contains an epic story with character evolution dozens of enemies legendary items and spectacular combos with cards.
Victory or Death: The Peloponnesian War the next game in the Quartermaster General Series is a card driven/hand management/area control eurogame/wargame for 2 to 4 players playing on two teams and takes about 90 minutes to two hours to play. On one side are the Athenians and the Delian League the Demos team; against them the Oligarchs of Sparta and Corinth are teamed.The Peloponnesian War is a great setting for a historical game having two evenly matched factions with very differing capabilities. Athens (and the Delian League including Corcyra) commanded the seas and relied on trade to feed their masses. On land the Spartan phalanx was virtually unbeatable as all adult Spartan male citizens were professional soldiersPlayers of Quartermaster General will find most of the concepts familiar. Since the game has a smaller maximum player count the amount of activity during a turn has been slightly increased.For example after the Play step there is a Planning step when you can place a Prepare card on the table. Prepare cards in Victory or Death work a lot like Response Cards in Quartermaster General but have a much broader scope of application. Many Prepare cards are used during the Strategy step which is at the beginning of a player's turn. Much of the game play is structured around putting together effective combinations of played cards and prepared cards.
Kings of Israel is a board game taking place in Israel (the Northern Kingdom) during the reign of its kings up until Israel's destruction by Assyria. Players are on a team with each person representing a line of prophets that are trying to remove evil and idols from Israel while building altars to help guide Israel in the upcoming difficult years. If the players are able to build enough altars before the game ends they win. If the game ends by either the team running out of sin cubes or idols or by Assyria destroying Israel the prophets lose.A typical round has four phases:1. King's Godliness Phase: During this phase if a bad king is reigning over Israel the players must draw a Sin & Punishment card which means bad things occur in Israel because of evil or in response to evil. If during the reign of a good king the starting player receives a Blessing card.2. Sin Increases Phase: Location cards are drawn and sin increases at each revealed location. This can possibly cause idols to appear or sin to spread further if sin increases at a location with an idol.3. Prophets Work Phase: In this phase each prophet gets to use four actions to accomplish their goals. They may use their actions to move remove sin or idols draw resource cards build an altar make a sacrifice at an altar or to give resources to another player. A prophets may also play Blessing cards at this time if they have them. In expert mode after all the prophets take their turn the false prophet takes his turn.4. End of Round Phase: The starting player changes to the next player and the timeline token moves down to the next king chronologically. In easy mode any player who had made a sacrifice that turn then draws a single Blessing card.The family version of Kings of Israel is available on the game's website. This version eliminates the King's Godliness phase Abilities and the Blessing cards which makes for an easier quicker and more simplified game.
In Atlantis Rising you are one of the citizens of the stricken island Atlantis. However hope is not lost a mystical portal of 10 components can be built and save the island and all its inhabitants but fail to build it in time and the island will sink forever under the waves lost to legend.Atlantis Rising is a fully co-operative game in which the players must race to create a cosmic gate before all of the island tiles have been destroyed. The gate's components are variable and determine the difficulty level of the game - Easy Normal Hard or Cosmic. The players must also contend with the continually escalating threat of their Athenian enemies who may destroy one or more island tiles each turn if insufficient Atlanteans are allocated to the island's protection.Each turn players can choose to place their Atlanteans in any of eight different areas - with placements closer to the sea being more rewarding but subject to a higher risk of flooding (and the subsequent loss of the associated action).After placement of meeple but before gaining resources 'misfortune' cards are drawn per player indicating which areas of the island sink any meeple stood there have a long swim back to shore and do nothing for their turn.Players have limited 'mystical energy' which they can use to predict or prevent certain misfortunes and cards are available from the libraries that offer powerful one time use effects.From the back of the box:Will you send your Atlanteans to mine the untapped veins of precious resources at the very tip of the island hoping to reap great rewards before the oncoming waves smash into the shores? Or will you remain in the relative safety of the island’s center where resources have grown scarce? Perhaps you will tap into the power of the mystic energy source - the lifeforce of Atlantis and key to its advanced technology. You may even seek refuge in the vast libraries of the Lost City hoping to find some tome which will lead to salvation for the doomed isle. Beware though - even as the island sinks into the sea the Athenians continue to assault Atlantis hoping to plunder its riches before it disappears beneath the waves.
As the proud owner of one of the tea gardens in the the Chinese Yunnan region your mission in Tea Garden is to cultivate and expand your empire by establishing new tea gardens along the serene river valley. Tea leaves are your most prized asset with six grades of tea quality and each region producing a different quality of tea. Transform your fresh vibrant green tea leaves through fermentation elevating them to rich aromatic brown leaves that grow in quality — and value! — as they mature.Harness the power of your deck of cards to orchestrate up to four main actions each game round. The strength of these cards is important for performing the chosen action; the higher the strength the better the effects you will achieve. With your cards you will build new tea gardens acquire new cards trade your tea with eager caravans ferment your tea leaves and harvest more tea. Couple your main actions with the power of secondary actions to navigate the river produce tea cups or practice tea studies at the university.
In The Island of El Dorado each player is the leader of a civilization seeking to explore the island to control the four ancient shrines. You’ll discover resources bodies of water and the shrines themselves in a landscape which is different every single time you play. Build farmhouses and create villagers to gather resources and grow your economy. Occupy strategic locations on the map using forts to defend against the other explorers who seek to control the island before you do. Legend has it the most powerful shrine is hidden inside a cave but be wary as you enter. The cave is the most dangerous part of the island.Civilizations will rise and fall as each player explores gathers and fights to control the four shrines of El Dorado. The first player to control all four shrines wins the game. They will rule over the island forever and become richer than a king.—description from the publisher
What was old is new again. I am excited to have this opportunity to bring back into print and enhanced version of my original Peloponnesian War design that was originally published by Victory Games. This military game of ancient warfare lets YOU chart the destiny of the war. Peloponnesian War uses a still-unique solitaire system that was a pioneer in this genre yet was never copied.Most current solitaire systems on the market today have the player take one side for the entire game. This pits the player against a random 'Bot system even the best of which have some difficulty giving you the same challenge as playing against a human opponent. In Peloponnesian War you get to play both sides pitting yourself against the best that YOU can offer. If the game system is winning the player is forced to continue with the losing side. Success on the other hand will eventually force the player to change sides and recover the losing side's fortunes. The duration of the war and the player's performance determine victory. In this manner the player competes against himself in the classic tradition of the Greek tragedy. - MarkFrom the opening of the Archadameian War in 431BC to the Fall of Athens in 404 The Peloponessian War allows YOU to compete against the man in the mirror as you live through the suicide of Greece. Maneuver your generals hoplites and navies to fight battles and attempt to bring the war to an end on your terms. Take heed however. As you weaken your foe you create a greater game challenge for yourself. For as you improve in strength so does your opponent.In terms of physical components Mark's enhanced version is getting the full GMT treatment: mounted map and strategy boards high-quality thick counters redesigned rules and playbook all with new art throughout. This will be a product that you'll want to own and play for a long time! We hope you enjoy this enhanced GMT version of Mark Herman's classic solitaire game design.—description from the publisher
King Solomon presided over a golden age of peace and prosperity in ancient Israel. During this time Solomon instituted an unprecedented building program. As one of Solomon's chief governors you must procure materials and oversee construction of buildings and roads across the land for the glory of Solomon. You will also help to construct the Temple one of the wonders of the ancient world.Kingdom of Solomon is a worker-placement game with a few new twists and turns. Do you claim a resource space an action space or throw in all your remaining pawns to grab a powerful Bonus Space? Will you spend your resources to extend Solomon's kingdom take some points in the Market or add to the Temple? These and many other choices await you in this highly interactive game.You play Kingdom of Solomon in rounds of four phases. You start the round placing your pawns to get resources take actions or get a bonus. In this placement phase players take turns each placing one pawn at a time. After all pawns have been placed players resolve what they get from placing their pawns. This is called the resolution phase and each player in turn resolves the placement of all their pawns before the next player. Next the players can go to the Market to sell or buy resources. In this market phase like the placement phase players alternate taking turns except that players take turns in reverse order. The last shall be first and the first shall be last. Finally you build in the building phase. Players one at a time can build a building roads and add blocks to the Temple. When you place pawns to take actions you can get an additional resource for a resource space trade one resource for another steal a resource from an opponent get victory points or draw Fortune cards. You can play Fortune cards at any time. Fortune cards provide resources victory points or special actions. Bonuses your pawns can gain for you include one of every resource three Fortune cards or victory points with a rearrangement of turn order so you become the new first player.You use resources to build things. Each thing costs a specific set of resources. The buildings you build give you victory points and additional spots to place pawns for resources or actions. Roads link resource spaces into resource regions so you can get more resources per pawn placed in the resource region. Building Temple blocks give you either victory points or temple tokens that help you gain or keep the High Priest. The High Priest lets you take advantage of another player’s resource region and gives you victory points at the end of the game.The game ends at the end the round when a player places all his building tokens on building sites there is a building token on each of the building sites or the Temple is complete. The player with the most victory points wins.
Fortuna is situated in the Roman Empire during Caesar's reign.The players are ambitious Romans striving for influence in the Roman Empire. While striving for power happiness and wealth they leave their own village and travel towards the City of Rome. The road to Rome is long and there are many ways to reach your life purpose. As a hardworking farmer you can work the land and grow large quantities of grain and wine. A clever farmer irrigates the land to improve the yield of his harvest. Trading your harvested goods for the best price may bring you the means to move up the ladder of the Roman hierarchy. When will you decide to move on and buy yourself an army of Centurions? Or will you choose the sacred way of Religion and serve the ruthless Roman Gods? Along the way you will have the opportunity to find happiness and wealth in marriage. Will you take this chance to become happy or not? If you contribute well to the Roman Empire you will grow in the favor of the Emperor and move further to Rome. Will the citizens of Rome welcome you jubilantly?Coming nearer to Rome and the Emperor's Palace the tension in the game becomes higher. Which of the players has contributed most to the Empire? And which of the players has saved the city in times of crisis? Just when water and food supplies become exhausted or Centurions are needed to protect Rome against a hostile invasion only the most prestigious Romans show their courage and value. The Emperor will reward this Roman with golden Fortuna coins and the deeper the crisis the richer the reward. When a player has reached the centre of Rome only the player who has done most for the Emperor and the People of Rome will become Victorious.Make sure to be in the City of Rome so you are able to take that triumphal march to Victory!How to win the game? The player with the highest number of Victory Points at the end of the game wins. The game ends when one player gets to the Center of Rome (the Palace of the Emperor) then this final round is completed. Scoring in the game is partly based on the number of steps you have made towards Rome = each step is one VP. The other Victory Points are scored by collecting the right combination of privilege cards and resources. The VP scored with the privately held privilege cards stays a secret till the end of the game when the total scoring is revealed.
Jesus asked his disciples: “When the Son of Man returns how many will he find on the earth who have faith?” (Luke 18:8 NLT) That question is the premise behind The Mission.The Mission: Early Christianity from the Crucifixion to the Crusades is a “grand strategy” solitaire game covering 1,200 years of Christian history on a map of the ancient Mediterranean Near East Europe and Africa. While the secular world of empires and politics plays out around you your missionaries spread the Christian faith and convert areas of the map to your new religion. Each turn covers decades and the flow of play will teach players about the expansion and doctrinal battles of early Christianity while you build institutions to educate heal and inspire the societies you touch.Apostles and brilliant theologians will help you evangelize but you will come to rely on the Roman/Byzantine state and Christian kingdoms to establish and defend the faith. Heresies and schisms in the Church will try to thwart your plans. Pressing against you are barbarian hordes some of which you may convert; but the armies of Islam will emerge as the game changes from one of missionary outreach to one of self-preservation as Christian communities hunker down for survival during the long Dark Ages. At the end you will rise up in a blaze of glory as the Christian world finally fights back using Crusaders and the Spanish Reconquista to recover lost provinces!Beginners and experienced gamers will find this an intriguing and very different sort of game. It’s a war of ideas but it’s still a wargame where managing scarce resources (including holy relics!) and making shrewd strategic decisions are the keys to victory. Can you build a strong united and prosperous Christendom?—description from the publisher
Carthage - about 800 years B.C. Founded as a humble trading post by the Phoenicians the city quickly grew into an important trade hub where precious goods from around the ancient world were traded.In Carthago players represent merchants who attempt to increase their wealth and influence while improving their status within the Merchant's Guild. Become the greatest merchant in Carthage by loading valuable wares financing expeditions and exerting influence in clever ways. An extraordinary card-driven game of tactics that demands making the right decisions at the right time!Discover and trade valuable goods to acquire special abilities. Gain influence by trading goods. Use your influence to battle enemies secure more seats in the Merchant’s Guild or unlock special achievements. Multi-use cards provide players various ways to improve their status within the Merchant’s Guild. The game’s components are language-independent.
“If I have any worth it is to live my life for God so as to teach these peoples.” - St. PatrickLegend has it that St. Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland. True there are no snakes anywhere on the island- but there have been none since before the last Ice Age! The legend is actually an allegory about his successes in converting Ireland to Christianity.Banish the Snakes is a cooperative game that simulates Ireland in the 5th century while the Roman Empire was collapsing in the west and Ireland was turning to the Christian religion. Players represent Saints- Patrick and others (up to six of you) who set out to convert the pagans on the island. You must work as a team to convert the people of Ireland before the barbarians completely overwhelm Britain- if you fail the Irish will not be able to save Civilization in the following centuries!The game board shows a map of Ireland in the 5th century with four Provinces-the same as today- but no counties yet. Wooden tiles represent the People Druids Chiefs and Kings and of course the High King at Tara. It is your job to break into the interrelated influences between these groups of people and get your new ideas accepted.Each turn a card is drawn throwing new challenges at your team. The severity of the event is determined by the previous card and so no two games can ever play the same. The cards introduce events and ideas of the time new saints and historic figures- like Neil of the Nine Hostages.There is a diagram of Great Britain to keep track of the steady decline of Roman civilization in Great Britain. As different parts of Britain succumb to the barbarians more and more difficult challenges are added to the deck until finally Britain is completely overwhelmed cutting off Ireland from the continent and ending the game.If you succeed in your endeavor Christianity will thrive in Ireland while paganism overruns Western Europe. The arts writing literature and history will flourish on the Emerald Isle! Soon Irish missionaries will bring these civilizing attributes back to Great Britain and mainland Europe- as Thomas Cahill says in his book the Irish will save Civilization.But if you fail…—description from the publisher
An explosion of creativity and violence erupted in the Aegean Basin in 800 B.C. that defined ancient Greece. This combination of science mythology development and war was led by powerful city-states like Athens Sparta Corinth Troy Byzantium Corcyra and Thebes. These states vied for control over their rivals and dominated the lesser states around them. In time some of them became so well known that they are remembered even today.Hellenica: Story of Greece is a 3.5X civilization game in which you harness the powers of one of seven beginning city-states to dominate the world around you. Your goal is to become the preeminent symbol of Greece for all posterity by completing a combination of secret and public goals. Will you be remembered as a warmonger or a peaceful philosopher? Great priest or apostate? Will you develop a devotion to the gods or focus on the advancement of your people?Can you guide your civilization during these turbulent times? Will your vision of Hellenic civilization be remembered for all time or will you merely be a stepping stone for another…?
Become the new emperor of Rome in this strategic worker placement game set in 44 BC Rome. Each turn you will build structures in different provinces assigned to you through a rotating board. Balance war politics trade and religion while scheming against your rival players.In Age of Rome each player is assigned a hero with their respective player board then are given secret quests and starting resources of Denarii Followers Scheme tokens Legions and Votes. Then they spend nine rounds competing on a rotating board to earn Glory points.Each round consists of four phases: 1) Scheme phase: An Event card is revealed and turn order is determined; players activate Schemes in turn order. 2) Building phase: Players build structures in turn order. 3) Action phase: Players take actions by placing Followers in turn order. 4) Income phase: Players receive Income and the Provinces board is adjusted.Players can earn Glory points in various ways. They may build structures place Followers to vote and win a majority send Legions to conquer regions trade or collect items or even build a Pantheon. Completed secret quests also earn Glory points. After the 9th round the game ends. The final score is determined and the player with the most Glory points is declared the new Emperor of Rome.
Game description from the publisher:In some of the best versions of reality the Egyptians discover America the industrial revolution happens early and eventually robots take over. In others the Renaissance produces a plutocracy which leads to a utopia — or perhaps to anarchy; it's all in the subtle details. As a time-traveler you've seen it all and it all has its place. What's important is who's in control in the long run when time travel is invented. With other time-travelers mucking with things for their own reasons your course is clear: you will tamper with history as much as is needed stepping on however many butterflies it takes to get a perfect world under your own benign rule.In Temporum the board shows the possible paths history can take and the actual path it currently takes. On your turn you can change history travel through time and visit a point in history. You draw cards play some of them for money and abilities and score some of them to advance your power through history. Having more power in a time period gives you abilities but your goal is to have all of your power in the last time period the time from which you come.
Game description from the publisher:Raid the world of myth and legend! Crush every foe you meet. Backstab your friends and steal their stuff. Grab the treasure and run.Munchkin Legends is the new Munchkin card game about legendary adventure...with none of that stupid roleplaying stuff. You'll defeat mythic monsters and grab fabled magic items! Don the Death Mask and Achilles' Heels. Wield Thor's Hammer...or maybe the Magic Bassoon. Start by slaughtering the Heebie-Jeebies and Johnny Zucchiniseed and work your way up to the Kraken...
Hellas 480 BC. It’s the rise of classic Greek civilization. After the overwhelming victory of Xerxes’ army at Thermopylae the Greeks return to their country and continue the hard work at the islands. The building and development of large cities is the next step into a new era.Found settlements on a Greek island and let them grow into large cities. Build statues in honor of the Gods or finish one of the various temples on the island. All this work needs a lot of marble which can be found in the many quarries. Houses next to a quarry can mine marble but some quarries produce more marble than others.Each round in Hellas players choose an action in the display. When choosing to build a house palace or square on the island all others can perform that action too. Deciding to mine marble (to get more money) will also help other players because they'll earn money too through their houses next to mines. Building pillars in temples or raising a statue are the only type of actions you'll perform by yourself but at the end of the game all players might score points because of your work.Strategically build your settlements on the island to gain the most profit from quarries. Timing is crucial: most of your chosen actions can also be immediately performed by all other players. Think ahead to outsmart your opponents and score the most points with your cities.
At the intersection of the most well-traveled trade routes in the old world lies a city within rose-colored cliffs. A place where caravans miles long enter the city through a narrow canyon called “the Siq.” Inside traders from faraway lands find shelter and a place to trade their wares among the stunning buildings carved into towering red rocks. This is Petra and never before or since has there been a city quite like it.In Passing Through Petra you are a powerful citizen growing your settlement and your reputation. As caravans pass through the canyons you’ll welcome traders into your market and facilitate trade with those looking to get their hands on valuable wares. Use these transactions to spread your influence and gain unique benefits to grow your economic engine. Spread your influence the quickest to become the most powerful leader in Petra!—description from the publisher
The Peloponnese — home of the mighty and proud city-states the poleis. In the Peloponnes Card Game you lead one of them through the ages gaining fame and prosperity while weathering disaster. Over eight rounds you develop your civilization by claiming new territory constructing prestigious buildings and increasing your population. Can you balance the pursuit of glory with the needs of your people?The Peloponnes Card Game is based on the Peloponnes board game; a few details were simplified while the strategic projections and the feeling of the game are new!
Celt — Latin Celta plural Celtae — were an early Indo-European people who from the second millennium BCE to the first century BCE spread over much of Europe. Their tribes and groups eventually ranged from the British Isles and Portugal to as far east as Transylvania the Black Sea coasts and Galatia in Anatolia and they were in part absorbed into the Roman Empire as Britons Gauls Boii Galatians Celtiberians and Lusitans.Celtae is a worker swapping game powered by a rondel in which players choose actions to perform during their turn. On their turn players swap one of their three active workers with one of the three workers on the action space they wish to perform then they perform the action — which will be boosted if they have in their worker pool specific types of workers: farmers builders soldiers and nobles.Every player has a leader card assigned to their tribe at the beginning of the game. At a certain point on the game players will have to choose if their leaders stay on its regular side and like that gain a small number of points at game's end or forfeit those meager points and flip it to its heroic side which has much harder requirements for much larger endgame points.Each time the action marker on the rondel completes a full turn the player who currently holds the favor of Teutates places a progress marker on one of the progress cards next to the game board. At game's end only progress cards with progress markers will score so as the game advances players determine what will score...and what will not.—description from the publisher
Amun-Re: The Card Game is a card-based version of Amun-Re and the auction at the heart of that game is still present in this design with the results of those auctions driving the rest of the action.In more detail Amun-Re: The Card Game lasts three rounds with three auctions in each round followed by other actions then a scoring. Each player starts the game with money cards valued 0-8 and at the start of the game everyone chooses money cards that sum to 14 (with the 0 being included) and lays those cards face up on the table. Province cards equal to the number of players are revealed and players take turns bidding on provinces by placing exactly one money card next to one province outbidding an opponent if someone else has already bid there; if you're outbid you take back your money card then bid again on your next turn. Eventually everyone will have bid on separate provinces after which you discard the non-0 bids then lay out new province cards and run through two more rounds of bidding.Province cards show different numbers of pyramids ankhs and fields with a caravan possibly being visible as well. Whoever has the most ankhs visible is Pharaoh going first in each action with ties broken from the Pharaoh going clockwise.After three rounds of auctions players will have some amount of money (possibly only the 0) still in hand. Everyone simultaneously makes an offering of gold and the sum of the offerings determines how much the Nile floods which determines how much money players will earn from fields. If the sum is 10 or less players with caravans receive 10 gold per caravan. Whoever offers the most gold receives three pyramids to place on their province cards with others receiving two and one pyramids.In player order players determine their income level then spend gold to build pyramids on their cards (distributing them as equally as possible) then they take money cards into their hand to account for any income not spent. They then score points for sets of pyramids for having nine or more fields and for having the most ankhs.The second and third rounds of the game play out similarly except that when you claim cards following the auction you place these province cards on top of your previous province cards so that only the imprinted and acquired pyramids are visible. Everything else is buried in the sands. You score again at the end of each of these rounds then the player with the most points wins.
Pharaoh is dead and his funerary barge sails slowly down the Nile toward his tomb where his spirit will stand before the judgement of Osiris.Pharaoh had no offspring so tradition holds that the governors of the land be tasked with building monuments to Pharaoh’s glory so that Osiris will favor his spirit in the afterlife. Accordingly Pharaoh’s successor will be the governor who builds the greatest tribute to the late king.Resources and laborers are limited the gods are capricious and time is short; the memorials must be finished before the barge reaches the temple of Osiris at Men-nefer.Sailing Toward Osiris is a euro-style game with worker placement resources management project completion and no direct conflict. Down-time is kept to a minimum via a single action round-and-round turn structure that emphasizes timing decisions and subtle strategies.The game takes place over four seasons with the movement of Pharaoh's barge tracking the game's progress. Each season after players draw workers from a communal bag play begins with each player taking a series of one-action turns from a list of 10 possible actions:1. Play a worker to harvest resources 2. Play a worker to a city for cards 3. Play a worker to a caravan as leader or follower 4. Hire an extra worker 5. Trade at the market 6. Plan a monument 7. Build a monument 8. Play a city card 9. Play a boon card 10. Withdraw from further actions.Players are working to build sphinxes obelisks and pylons to the glory of the late Pharaoh and to earn extra glory by building the monuments on certain river segments and in certain configurations. However as more monuments are built resource harvesting becomes less productive and viable locations for future monuments become scarce. By the last season players will have to be creative to find enough resources or available land on which to build.The player who has amassed the most glory points by the end of the game will be crowned the new Pharaoh.Sailing Toward Osiris was inspired by the real events surrounding the death of Rameses XI at the end of Egypt's 20th Dynasty and the ascension of Smendes a powerful governor in Lower Egypt.
For the most part Han uses the same gameplay as China also from designer Michael Schacht but the maps on the double-sided game board introduce new rules and variants.In general players use cards to place pieces (houses or emissaries) into the nine regions on the board. To place in a region a player must play a card of that region's color or two cards of the same color as a joker; a player can place at most two pieces in a region on a turn but only one piece if the region was unoccupied at the start of the turn. One side of the game board — titled Grenzstreitigkeiten or Border Disputes and made for 3-5 players — includes house sites that straddle two regions; to claim one of these locations a player must discard two appropriately-colored cards. The number of emissaries in a region is limited to the number of houses of the same color in that same region.When all house spaces in a region are filled (or at the end of the game) players score for that region. Whoever has the most houses in that region scores one point for each house in the region whoever has the secondmost houses scores one point for each house of the player who has the most and so on.At game end players also score for having majorities of emissaries in two adjacent regions scoring as many points as the number of emissaries in both regions. Players also score for having four or more houses in an uninterrupted sequence along one of the roads on the board. On the Grenzstreitigkeiten game board players also score majority points for the houses in the port cities located in multiple regions these port cities effectively forming their own region. Whoever scores the most points wins.Grenzstreitigkeiten has one variant. Each player starts with one fortification in addition to his other pieces. Once per game a player can play two matching cards then place his fortification on a house site then top it with a house. Whenever this house scores — whether for the region majority for being a port city or for being part of a sequence — the house's owner scores double the points he normally would.The other side of the game board — Wege der Diplomatie or Ways of Diplomacy which is made for 2-4 players — also has a variant with each player receiving a marketplace. Once per game a player can play two matching cards then place the marketplace on a house site then top it with an emissary (not a house). This allows a player to compete for emissary points in a region that is otherwise full.
In Chicken Caesar players represent aristocratic ancient Roman chicken families trying to create a legacy for their family name. Each family has several eligible roosters eager to jump into the world of politics getting rich and creating a legacy by any means necessary.Roosters gain renown for their families by occupying various political offices. Low-ranking officers don't yield much fame but they hold both the purse strings and the power of the sword. A few roosters in the lower offices of Aedile and Praetor together with the votes of a few well-paid (and temporary) allies can clear a path to the luxury and recognition that come with the titles of Censor Consul and even Caesar.Being Caesar isn't easy though: fail to bribe and bargain to ensure the welfare of the whole coop and today's Caesar is tomorrow's Coq au Vin. Dead roosters don't earn any more points but they do offer opportunities for their surviving relatives to exaggerate their accomplishments. All that matters in the end is history's judgment and history can be rewritten.Mechanically players gain and maintain areas of influence through negotiation and voting. The game features a Suffragium marker that players pass after voting to either promote a Rooster to a higher office or throw him to the fox. Players can also strategically demand bribes for their votes or even refuse to vote (pass) to gain a later advantage.Murder betrayal votes for cash fragile alliances and bloody vendettas will separate the legendary families from the forgotten ones in the struggle to become – and remain – Chicken Caesar!
The game Resafa takes place during the 3rd century AD in the area of today's Middle East. Resafa now lies in ruins in modern-day Syria but at this time it was a fortified desert outpost that flourished as a stop along important caravan routes.In the game players represent merchants who travel on business trips and buy and sell goods in the various cities in the region. Resafa had no local sources of water so it depended heavily on large cisterns to collect the spring and winter rainwater to make the area habitable. Players build water tanks and canals to distribute that water where it is needed. In the cities they build workshops to help their businesses grow which will allow them to collect resources and camels. They also construct gardens between the businesses generating more resources and also victory points.The game is played over six rounds. In each round a player takes only three actions playing action cards in this tight and exciting game.—description from the publisher
Garum was a fermented fish sauce used as a condiment in the old ages; its manufacture and export was an element of prosperity and perhaps an impetus for the Roman penetration of Lusitanian and Hispanian coastal regions.Garum from today’s Portugal and Spain was highly prized in Rome and has now inpired a versatile strategy boardgame for the whole family ages 8 and up that plays 2 to 4 players. Garum is a tile-laying game which plays in about 30 minutes it is language independent and features endless replayability due to its board system that ensures no two games are alike.In Garum each player represents a master in the preparation of a specific type of fish sauce and receives a set of 16 Cetarian Tiles; each one has 4 spaces filled by 4 colors in different proportions though the color that the player is defending is the predominant one.The goal of the game is to play Cetarian Tiles strategically in order to get a huge number of his own colour symbols in selected rows or columns - the greater the influence the higher the reward! While placing the tiles players may apply to score collect some bonuses and also block their opponent’s intents. Whoever scores most points is the winner.-description from designer
Description from the publisher:In a time long forgotten the cruel Fomori rule over Érin the green island. They praise their king Balor who reigns from his fortifications in the north with an iron fist. Old paths and ruins spread over the island's face which will be called Ireland many generations from now. But new tribes arrive at the island striving for permanent presence. Who will control Érin's fate over the next centuries to come?Each player in The Arrival represents a tribe leader who tries to gain predominance over the mythical island of Érin while pushing back the demon-like Fomori. But the players are facing a dilemma for spreading too quickly means becoming more and more corrupt and strengthening the Fomori in their power...Over 4-6 rounds the players determine their resources by means of a unique game mechanism which will be used later on profitably. During a first phase (Earning Phase) players draw four cards each showing three sections of different resources. Two of these sections are gradually blocked by the player thus leaving one section. The resources shown on this section are the ones the player gets. During this phase they have to decide which section is the best one; while the upper section of the cards offers many resources it also results in unwanted Corruption Points. The middle and the lower sections offer fewer resources but also less Corruption.After that the Action Phase takes place and the players must use their resources wisely while having the choice from different kinds of actions in order to get Fame Points.The game ends when a certain number of rounds have been played or somebody reaches the corruption limit.The winner is either the one with the highest amount of Fame Points or the one with the fewest Corruption Points. This depends on the scene of the board at the end: Do the tribes (players) control more locations on Érin than the Fomori do — or is it the other way around?
Aquileia the second most important city of the Roman Empire had been originally founded as an outpost against the Barbarian invaders. From its military origin comes the peculiar quadrilateral structure divided by the main streets. Later the city developed to become an important political and cultural center and a prosperous trading city especially for precious goods thanks to its convenient and efficient river port. Important monuments such as the Gladiator Arena the horse-racing Stadium and the famous theater were built as well as craftsmen's workshops patrician villas which completed the architectural network of the city.In Aquileia players want to become the most powerful figure in the city by trading and building. Each player representing a wealthy Aquileian patrician owns a certain number of henchmen (pawns) which he uses for these main activities: sports playing culture trading and building. Each activity can bring expenses earnings and sometimes victory points (VPs).Each round begins with a placement phase in which players take turns placing their henchmen on action spaces and their tiebreaker disc on the tiebreaker track. Placing the tiebreaker is mandatory; placing henchmen is not (but you probably want to place them). Once everyone has passed or placed all of their tokens players resolve the action spaces in numerical order:After six rounds the game ends and players score VPs for their hidden point cards and the product of their villas' values times laurel cards of a matching color. (For example a total of 8 points of blue villas and three blue villa cards equals 24 points.) The player with the most victory points wins.
The Barracks Emperors is a strategy card game set against the backdrop of the Roman Crisis of the Third Century during which at least 45 different men made a claim to the throne of the Roman Empire. In this game 1-4 players represent prominent political factions attempting to gain control over the men who would be Emperors of Rome. Players deploy the influence available to them (represented by the cards in their hands) to claim imperial reigns (represented by the historical Emperor cards arrayed on the board.) But they must be very careful because politics is a complex game and sometimes attempting to exert your influence necessitates aiding someone else in their own plots. Play your cards cleverly to capture Emperors and score the most points to win.At its heart The Barracks Emperors is a trick-taking game but not one like you’ve ever seen before. In this innovative design all 13 tricks are available for play simultaneously in an interlocking grid that forces you to balance the value of every card you play against the value that same card may have for another player on a different trick. Plus every card grants you an additional special ability that you might be able to use to spring a surprise on your unwitting opponents.Features: Historical emperors co-emperors pretenders and even Gallic Emperors who broke away from Rome during the Crisis of the Third Century are all represented as individual cards in the game each with interesting facts about the rise and demise of the man depicted.For fans of Time of Crisis: The Roman Empire in Turmoil 235-284 AD and Time of Crisis: The Age of Iron and Rust you will find some of the concepts and flavor from that deck-building wargame adapted in this all new standalone game. You don’t need Time of Crisis to play The Barracks Emperors but you’ll recognize Influence Cards such as Praetorian Guard Foederati and Pretender now used in an entirely new way.An innovative card drafting mechanic adds an extra layer of strategy to how you play your cards while also mitigating the luck that would come with being dealt a full hand of cards at the start of each round.This game is designed for 4 players but also includes options for 2 or 3 players plus an easy-to-play solitaire adaptation for the solo player.
Build great Wonders to glorify a peaceful thriving commercial empire - or sack cities and conquer new lands as you spread your domain across the waters and around the shores of the Inner Sea. Start from humble beginnings in isolated settlements at the dawn of the Bronze Age or leap ahead to scenarios that put you in charge of the mighty civilizations of Troy Egypt Carthage Mycenae Minos Phoenicia Rome Mauretania Celt-Iberia and the Gauls as they contend for supremacy and survival in numerous historical environments.With a very short rule book that lets players get into the game quickly Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea is an exciting fast-playing easy-to-learn easy-to-play but challenging to master and always different abstract game in which player's guide the legendary civilizations that surged and receded around the shores of the Mediterranean: which the Romans aptly called the Mare Internum or Inner Sea.Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea is not just one game but many games. From one to six players will each take the role of one two or even three of these civilizations as they compete across up to four epochs each Epoch taking up to four turns on land and sea each seeking to make their indelible mark on history. The scenarios are of much shorter duration of only a few turns each (depending on which is selected).—description from the publisher
You are summoned by the Roman emperor to hear about his great plans for expansion. He wants you to found the next great Roman city and bring glory to the Roman Empire!Carefully plan your city and efficiently connect neighborhoods to gain valuable resources! Spend coins and employ population to build magnificent monuments! Use legions to conquer distant lands for the Emperor! Produce valuable luxuries to use for scoring points! Gain the Will of the Gods and use it to empower your city! Glory is within your grasp!Build the greatest Roman cities and bring glory to Rome in this tile-placement city builder board game for 1-4 players!In Magna Roma the objective is to make the most points at the end of the game by building your city efficiently! To do so players take turns to place city tiles in their city. A newly placed tile must be connected to at least one of the previously placed tiles. When a player places a tile the connection with the adjacent tiles will result in producing one or more resources for the player. For example connecting two half-circles found on the tiles produces a coin a rectangle and triangle produce population a rectangle and half-circle produce a legion etc. What's more if the connected shapes are of the same color the game rewards the player with double the resources.With these resources players will be able to play the other actions in the game such as: build different monuments in your city gain a Luxury Good gain the Gods' Favor tiles conquer new provinces for the Emperor all serving the same goal - to gain the most points at the end of the game and build the greatest Roman city that ever existed!—description from the publisher
It is the year of Vespasian and Titus - the sixth such ordinary consulship that Titus shared with his Imperial father. The civil war of a decade ago is but a memory and the Flavians have restored peace and order to all corners of the empire save one. The people of Britannia remain fiercely resistant to the will of their Roman masters and the emperor has charged YOU with the seemingly impossible task of bringing them to heel.Agricola Master of Britain is a solitaire game of governance and conquest. To master the delicate political situation you will need the right blend of military force administration bribery and diplomacy. Every action you take matters changing how the native populace feels about you and your rule. But you'll never know exactly who's with you or against you because the game tracks this under the hood or more precisely in the cup.Three chit-pull cups (Friendly Unfriendly and Hostile) represent the allegiances of the units contained within those cups. After each action you take one or more of these units are blindly moved from one cup to another. You'll have a general idea of I'm really cheesing them off or I should have a lot of friendlies available for recruitment but until you pull a chit you won't know who your friends really are or where the next rebellion will spring up. This isn't totally random: certain tribes naturally skew more in one direction or the other and taking actions to stabilize a region after it's been pacified will diminish the chances of revolt there.Building the right armies and taking the right actions at the right time is key to your success. But the Flavians - and particularly the hated Domitian - expect greater and greater results with each campaign season. You'll need to meet and exceed them if you want to duplicate Agricola's achievement.
In the 6th century BCE Nebuchadnezzar II king of Babylon wanted to honor his young wife Amytis of Media with magnificent gardens featuring a multitude of beautifully scented flowers so he called on the most eminent architects in his kingdom to test their ingenuity and realize his vision of creating what would become one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.In Babylon you take on the role of an eminent architect. Dig the quarry for the best materials and use them wisely to build your gardens. At the end of the game the player who unveils the most impressive design before the king will be declared the winner and crowned the greatest architect in the kingdom. Although Babylon is accessible to the whole family it is also very popular with heavy gamers due to a large number of optimization possibilities.The game box representing the quarry from which you will draw your construction materials is placed in the center of the table. On your turn take a Terrace tile of your choice from the quarry and receive depending on its location a variable number of pillars. Use these pillars to place your tile on your personal board and if you can beautify your garden with different decorative elements. Build your terraces to go from floor to floor and decorate them as much as possible. At the end of the game each decorative element will give you victory points depending on the floor where it is located.—description from the publisher
Have you ever dreamed of commanding a powerful army? Have you ever imagined leading troops which included elephants over the Pyrenees and the Alps to try to conquer Rome? Have you enjoyed a good historical novel dated on the old Republic of Rome and you would like to travel to that time?ONUS! Rome Vs Carthage is a war game similar to miniatures games in which both sides fight an ancient battle. The game is mainly based on the II Punic war although battles from III to I B.C centuries can be also simulated. The game concept combines both orders and events cards that makes each game different and each combat becomes unpredictable and thrilling. ONUS! can be played anywhere but to get the best gaming experience we do recommend a game area as large as possible i.e. 3.2 x 2.9 feet (100 x 90 cm).Units are represented by cards which have been scaled around a Centuria (also known as Century) or to a Maniple (also known as Manipulus) representing formations from 80 to 100 men for Infantry units 20 cavalrymen for Cavalry units or 6 Elephants. Units have their own set of traits to represent permanent attributes of the unit like Melee Combat Range Attack Defensive capacity Morale and Life and Movement capacity. This set of traits gets bonuses and penalties depending on the ongoing situation and combat engagements. Units also have their unique set of skills to represent specific abilities they can perform: from defensive formations to extremely effective techniques to attack enemies. Some of these skills need to be activated meaning only one of them can be used in an engagement while others are inherent to the units.Leadership is represented in the game by the figure of the General. A General’s token represent his HQ and its own escort. In addition to the leadership benefit a General grants bonuses to nearby units boosting the morale of the troops and providing additional benefits when they are engaged with the enemy in those bloody encounters. Both Hannibal and Scipio two well-known Generals are included in the game with their unique set of bonuses! Also Heroes Veterans and Elite units take part in Onus!ONUS! Rome Vs Carthage is played in turns composed by six different phases each:1. Activation of Units: in this phase the active player can play any number of Order cards from his hand stating what units are going to be used during the turn. 2. Movement and Charges: in this phase the active player may move all those units activated in the previous phase. Those units finishing their movement in contact with enemy units may Charge against them. 3. Range Attack: those active units able to carry out Ranged Attacks and which haven’t moved or executed a Reduced Movement may shoot enemies within its maximum range. Also special units like Skirmirsher have this skill thus they may want to use this ability. 4. Skirmishers: units having these specific skill can harass enemy units provided they haven't spent all their movement points. 5. Combat: All engagements are resolved in this phase being the active player the one choosing the order of combats. 6. Flee Movement: units fleeing continue their movement if Morale checks fail.
Hoplite the 15th volume in the Great Battles of History series of games allows players to recreate classic battles from the pre-Alexandrian Persian-Hellenistic Age the heyday of the Hoplite (heavy infantry fighting in packed formation). This period is often considered to feature the birth of Western Warfare as opposed to the Persian/Eastern style which relied on archery light cavalry and mobility.Exactly how hoplite warfare was fought – what really happened when “the bell rang” – is highly disputed by ancient military historians even today. Hoplite allows you to test out your theories (well our theories using your dice) with eleven of the great battles of this era from the Battle of Leuctra featuring the huge 60-man deep phalanx of Beotarch Epaminondas to the classic confrontations with the Persian missile-armed troops against the classic Greek hoplite phalanxes.The package includes Simple GBoH versions for each of the battles along with special rules that highlight the hoplite style of warfare.Hoplite is the ultimate board game simulation on the birth of Western Warfare. And it lets you see how we stack up with the latest (June 2013) book on the subject:Game scale: 100 yards per hexPlaying Time: 1 ½ to 8 hours
Mega Empires: The East is a strategy board game for 3-9 players that covers the development of civilizations through history from the Stone Age to the Late Iron Age on a map board that stretches from Northeast Africa to Southwest Asia. In this colossal game players lead their historic civilization as they gain victory points by expanding their population building cities trading and developing their knowledge and culture. Notwithstanding its large scope the game's core mechanics are straightforward and easy to learn. A key element in the game is player interaction as they position themselves on the map board and search for valuable commodities during interactive trading sessions.Gameplay Each player starts their civilization in the Stone Age with a single population token on the board. As the game progresses the population will expand spread over the board fight some border conflicts and build cities. Cities bring resources and wealth expressed in trade cards. The more cities players manage to build on the board the more trade cards they receive. Trade cards are mainly valuable commodities but sometimes turn out to be disastrous calamities.Trade Trading is the heart of the game a social experience where all players interact with each other to optimize the value of their sets of commodities. In addition to the desired commodities calamities are secretly traded as well adding an additional layer to the trading dynamics. Once the trading phase has ended players that end up with a calamity in their hand will suffer its effects.Develop Civilization Advances When the smoke of trading and resolving calamities has settled players can decide how to spend the wealth gathered through trading. The game includes 51 different advances that can be developed each of which provides benefits in the game to its holder. For example Metal Working provides an advantage when fighting conflicts Architecture facilitates city construction and Enlightenment reduces the impact of (civil) calamities.The 51 Civilization advances are divided into the categories Arts Crafts Science Civics and Religion each of which has specific powers. Each advance acquired by a player provides discounts to other advances that can be purchased later in the game thereby creating a path of strategic decisions. The ultimate advance in the game Wonder of the World is only in reach for players who manage both their trading and purchasing strategy very well.Winning the Game The players who have best developed their position on the board whilst avoiding making enemies and defended their civilization against natural or civic calamities and stand the test of time will eventually gather the most victory points and compete for winning the game. After up to 12 hours of playing that is.Combining with Mega Empires: The West' Mega Empires: The East can be combined with Mega Empires: The West (2019) to scale up the game to as many as 18 players! Where The East has a strong focus on movement by land The West concentrates on the Mediterranean Sea which stimulates movement by ship. Both games were designed as equally balanced counterparts albeit with unique characteristics. Since many phases in the game are played simultaneously larger player numbers do not materially increase the total playing time.Expansions Mega Empires: The Special Buildings (2024) is an expansion set that provides additional flavor to the game through 18 miniatures of ancient buildings historically associated with each of the civilizations in the game. These buildings can be built on the map board and provide additional benefits in play and victory points to their controller.Accessories The Mega Empires: The East – Deluxe Game Mat (2024) is a neoprene game mat at 125% scale of the original cardboard map that offers an enlarged playing area and high-quality design for easier and more immersive gameplay.The Mega Empires: Identifier Cards Bonus Pack (2024) is a set with 18 large player identifier cards one for each of the Civilizations included in Mega Empires. These can be used for distributing the civilizations among the players during setup to identify which stack of Civilization Advances belongs to which player or to divide acquired cards from not yet acquired ones during the game.Wrap-up Mega Empires: The East is a long strategic board game about development trade culture politics and showing resilience when dealing with calamities. The game is a perfect fit for larger groups of strategic board game enthusiasts which due to its scalability can also be played in smaller groups. It is not just a game it is an experience!—description from the designers
The year is 45 BC. Julius Caesar brings all the leaders of the provinces of Hispania Ulterior together for a meeting in Corduba where he thanks them for the support received during the recent civil war. The fight between Caesar and Pompey had ended with a clear victor but not all Roman citizens were completely behind Caesar.One year later the cruel governor and Caesar’s right hand man is nearly assassinated as he makes his way to the Basilica. This act turned out to be the precursor to what would happen just two years later. Cneo and Sexto sons of Caesar’s enemies taking advantage of the influence that Pompey’s name still carried and capitalizing off the rich resources of the Roman province took control of all of Hispania including the colonies of Italica and Corduba. These two traitors had somehow pieced together an army of no less than 13 legions made up of veterans loyal to Pompey and the remnants of his defeated armies in Africa along with citizens of Hispania.Caesar promptly travelled to the capital of Hispania with the intention of crushing the rebellion while it was still in its infancy. After losing a battle to Cneo for control of the bridge Caesar was forced to winter in Ategua and as it was necessary to feed his forces he subsequently pillaged the surrounding area. Many were those who joined the rebellion led by Pompey’s sons but in the end there weren’t enough of them. Forced to take refuge in the city after the battle of Munda Caesar besieges Cneo and Sexto. He later takes control of the city after a daring assault on the walls. Sexto manages to escape Caesar’s wrath but his brother Cneo dies along with another 22,000 citizens of Corduba. As punishment for supporting the rebellion and giving refuge to its instigators the city is left a smoldering ruin. But from the ashes a new city will arise…The year is now 27 BC nearly two decades later and Augustus the first emperor sends representatives of the most influential Roman families to Corduba in order to raise it to its former glory. To achieve this it will be necessary to rebuild the city and cater to its inhabitants. All of this of course under the watchful eye of Rome. Players who represent the heirs of different patrician families sent from Rome will compete for the honor of becoming the next Governor but must first win the vote of the people and of Rome.The game is played out over three eras each one representing a decade. During a round players will take actions in turns until all decide to pass. Players use actions to produce or harvest resources construct buildings and monuments train legions and tend to the religious needs of the people. To do this players will have access to a certain number of specialists and workers that will increase as the city’s population rises.It is important to note that Corduba is not a tile-laying game but rather one of building actions that includes familiar worker placement and resource management mechanics.Actions available at the beginning of the game are scarce and mostly limited to harvesting basic resources in order to construct buildings and train troops. However as players construct new buildings the amount of actions available increases since each building constructed provides a new action. Players will certainly appreciate the sheer number of possible strategies and combinations that arise during the course of a game.Another of Corduba’s strengths is how a particular game evolves. A total of nine rounds are played grouped into three decades. At the end of each round the buildings release their workers and therefore become available for the next round. What this means is that all these buildings which have been constructed one by one over previous rounds are now free to all players regardless of who built them. Also since there is an ever-increasing amount of actions available strategic possibilities multiply. In addition to this every action is just as important as the next which leaves you with the constant feeling that another player has anticipated your move and occupied a building you wanted to activate or built what you wanted to build. Even though the rules do not change from one round to the next players will quickly realize that the game does since their strategies and perceptions during the first few rounds will be very different from later ones. There are no Victory Points in Corduba. In order to win you will have to garner the favor of the city’s inhabitants and of Rome itself. Constructing buildings in the different districts will improve your reputation there. Providing the largest armies for the Roman Cohorts or giving the largest offering to the gods will also help you win favor in the Senate as well as of course helping the city meet the demands of Rome. At the end of each decade players will have the opportunity to add to the Senate.But not all that glitters is gold and on occasion the citizens will rebel. Players will have to deal with these uprisings but this does not mean they will have to cooperate. However if this aspect is neglected the entire city could fall resulting in a very undesirable outcome – all players lose! Corduba is a bona fide example of a game with near-infinite strategic possibilities. Each game will play out differently depending on the buildings and monuments constructed the combinations from families and inheritances that players choose the demands of Rome the fluctuation of the resource market the Res gestae (milestones) available etc. Even if you try to play in a similar way as you did the last you will not have the same experience. Truly no one game of Corduba will be the same – you will uncover different strategies and combinations each time you play. Corduba is a game of medium to high difficulty with simple rules that anyone can understand but will profoundly challenge players of even the highest skill levels.—description from the publisher
Pull apart the pyramid! In Pyramix players take turns removing one cube at a time from the pyramid stack. Cubes come in four colors and are worth 1-3 points depending on their symbol. You can remove a cube as long as two or three faces are exposed and it's not touching a cobra cube. (You can remove the cobra cube itself but it's worth zero points. With no other options though you might have to remove it!)As cubes come out others slide down toward the base. When only a single layer of cubes remains in the plastic tray the game ends. Remove all the cobra cubes on the bottom level along with any cubes that share a face with cobras. Whoever has the most ankhs in each color now claims any cubes of this color from the tray. (In a tie no one claims these cubes.) Players then tally their points and whoever has the high score wins.
A solitaire CDG-flavoured strategic-level game set during the Marcomannic Wars 170CE-180CE. Playing from the perspective of Emperor Marcus Aurelius your goal is to defeat and pacify three different tribes while managing off-map wars and rebellions troop shortages limited resources and the effects of plague—all while maintaining your standing with the Senate and people of Rome.The Marcomannic Wars were a series of conflicts fought by the Romans against a loose coalition of German and Sarmatian tribes along the Danube from 166CE to 180CE. After crushing a Roman army and killing as many as 20,000 Roman soldiers near Carnuntum German barbarians ravaged the Danube provinces and besieged Aquileia marking the first time a hostile force had entered Italy in nearly 300 years. Meanwhile Sarmatians invaded Dacia and Costoboci descended deep into the Balkans and Greece as far as Athens. It took Rome more than a decade to restore peace with war and plague extracting a terrible cost of human and material resources.The game covers the war from the disastrous Battle of Carnuntum in 170CE to Marcus Aurelius' death in 180CE. Each turn (lasting one year) is divided into four rounds: early campaign late campaign winter and an attrition/house keeping round.At the start of each round the player draws three barbarian cards and resolves their effects. Barbarian cards activate enemy tribes (restoring their morale or causing them to advance) trigger off-map conflicts or cause special events such as plague mutiny or rebellions.On their turn the Roman player draws a set number of cards (5 during the early campaign 3 during the late campaign and 1 during winter) and plays as many or few as they choose for either actions or events. Actions include: attacking barbarian tribes; building forts; moving legions; and increasing Imperium Points.” Many cards can also be played for historically based events such as the Lightning miracle depicted on the Column of Marcus Aurelius; and the Galen event that mitigates the effects of plague. All cards must be used by the end of the year or discarded except for one card that can be held over into the next year by use of the Meditations deck.Battles are resolved by rolling 1d6 for the Romans and 1d6 for the Barbarians. The Roman role is modified by the number of legions assigned to the front and the combat rating of the leader. Cards can be spend to commit reserves to avoid a defeat or eke out a victory. Other cards including Ambush Tactical Superiority and Route can affect the outcome of battles. Enemy die rolls are modified by the morale of the tribe and the terrain representing the barbarians' knowledge of the lands north of the Danube and Romans' difficulties in maintaining supply lines.Players can lose in a number of ways: if the Marcomanni break through into Italy the game immediately ends. Suddenly death also occurs if the player's Imperium Points (IP) drop into usurpation. If all three tribes have not been defeated and pacified by 180CE the game also ends in a loss.The player wins by driving barbarians back into their home space and defeating them there. Once a tribe is defeated they must be kept pacified by building forts and keeping troops assigned to garrisons or they may break their treaty and rejoin the fight (as happened historically). Final victory occurs if all three tribes have surrendered. The player's score takes into account the number of years that have elapsed their IP level and the number of off-map conflicts they have resolved.
Have you ever dreamed of commanding a powerful army? Have you enjoyed a good historical novel about Ancient Rome and you would have liked to move to this period in the middle of battle? Would you like to be able to change History or revive exciting historical events? If you have answered affirmatively to any of these questions then this is your game.ONUS! Traianus is a historical battles wargame similar to a miniatures game where two sides confront each other in an Ancient battle. This game is focused on the armies of the great superpowers of the apogee of the Roman Empire during the reign of the emperors Trajan and Hadrian between the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. In this game different action cards recreate varied kinds of orders and battle events that allow every match to be unique and to any combat to be epic unpredictable and exciting. ONUS! can be played anywhere but to get the best gaming experience we do recommend a game area as large as possible i.e. 3.2 x 2.9 feet (100 x 90 cm).Units are represented by cards which have been scaled around a Centuria (also known as Century) or to a Maniple (also known as Manipulus) representing formations from 80 to 100 men for Infantry units 20 cavalrymen for Cavalry units or 6 Elephants. Units have their own set of traits to represent permanent attributes of the unit like Melee Combat Range Attack Defensive capacity Morale and Life and Movement capacity. This set of traits gets bonuses and penalties depending on the ongoing situation and combat engagements. Units also have their unique set of skills to represent specific abilities they can perform: from defensive formations to extremely effective techniques to attack enemies. Some of these skills need to be activated; meaning only one of them can be used in an engagement while others are inherent to the units.Leadership is represented in the game by the figure of the General. A General’s token represent his HQ and its own escort. In addition to the leadership benefit a General grants bonuses to nearby units boosting the morale of the troops and providing additional benefits when they are engaged with the enemy in those bloody encounters.—description from the publisher
In the Cyclades archipelago off the shores of a divided Greece players develop their cities and compete for supremacy under the watchful gaze of the gods.In Cyclades: Legendary Edition designers Bruno Cathala and Ludovic Maublanc have reworked the Cyclades base game and its many expansions to make gameplay more dynamic and fluid.The game features a strategic bidding system that defines the actions available to each player on their turn. You must balance your finances to optimize the various actions provided by the different gods with each player gaining the support of only one god each turn. The game features a shorter and more dynamic bidding phase than the original Cyclades thanks to a new exponential bidding scale. Six gods are available instead of the five increasing the variety of actions available:Players now use landscape tiles to assemble the modular game board during set-up allowing for ever-changing maps and game strategies. New creatures and heroes are available in the base game offering new strategic opportunities to build metropolises and gain decisive advantages on the battlefield. Your goal is to be the first to control three metropolises which can be obtained as follows:Cyclades: Legendary Edition features three game configurations:
Yin and yang is a concept of dualism in ancient Chinese philosophy representing two opposite principles. Yin is the feminine while Yang is masculine and this concept is embodied in all things around the world such as winter and summer male and female and light and dark.Yin Yang takes players back to ancient China during the Warring State period before the common era. At the time China was divided into seven kingdoms fighting each other constantly and people were living in suffering. To pursue inner peace every kind of fortune-telling method was then developed.One of those fortune-telling methods involves taking a tortoise shell with copper coins inside then shaking it to have indications based on which coins emerge and how they fall. This method is exactly what Yin Yang is based on. Players act as Taoist priests traveling on an ancient Chinese map to retrieve the local specialty of different cities to unlock their own destiny. Additionally players can also build temples in different cities to earn worship from seven kingdoms.—description from the publisher
Lead Rome to glory--or obscurity--as you develop and operate your rapidly expanding ancient civilization.Pick a leader choose your strategy and decide the fate of an empire! Develop and refine your engine with deckbuilding tableau building and resource management to fulfill your edicts and bring the most possible glory to Rome.The engine-building of Res Arcana meets the card play of Mage Knight in this thinky middle-weight Euro game.—description from the publisher
Rating: 7.1 | Players: 1–5
Game Type:
WargamesCategories:
Genesis is a game covering the turbulent Late Bronze Age in the Middle East where kingdoms rose and fell while establishing many of the systems and ways of life that underwrite Western Civilization. Genesis is not a simulation of events during this era. Much like its ancestor game Pax Romana Genesis is a game that provides the players with the historical dramatis personae and allows them to forge their own empires. It also has a great emphasis on the control of the important trade routes and commercial centers and the building of the spectacular monuments these civilizations left for posterity and wonder. Genesis can be played by from one to five gamers.Each player represents one of the major Mesopotamian Bronze Age empires: Egypt The Hittites The Mitanni Assyria Babylonia. There are several “minor” kingdoms that come into play through the use of the Event Cards: Arzawa (Apasa Milawata Mallarima Mira Hindawa Hapalla) Canaan (Hazor Qatna Meggido and Kadesh) and Elam (Susa).Each is trying to expand its economic reach allowing them to build their empire to greater levels...and this will mean coming into inimical contact with each other. Gods play a major role as do the great caravan centers of the age,bringing in luxury items from as far away as what would be Afghanistan. And then there are the peasants and slaves which who can be most useful (some times) as well as the great techno advantages in chariotry.(from Game Rules introduction)
The ancient armies of Macedonia and Persia are yours to command in Pocket Battles: Macedonians vs. Persians a tile-based war game. You'll fight on three fronts with armies you create for each battle making every battle a new experience.Each Pocket Battles game depicts two armies. The rules for combat are the same in each Pocket Battles game so you can have armies from different series fighting: Elves vs. Romans! WW2 soldiers vs. Napoleonic forces! It's all possible with Pocket Battles.The basic rules of the game are simple; two armies face each other in battle. The armies are split into three columns and two rows. Players must decide at the start of the game how many points they will give to their armies determining how many points it will take to defeat the opponents army. (At least half of the points).On you turn; you have to choose which faction of your army you will send off to battle! Attacks are made by using Order Tokens. If no Order Tokens are present on a unit it costs just 1 token to issue orders to that unit. Issuing orders to the same unit in the same Battle Round would cost you the number of tokens present on the unit plus 1. (So if there is one token on you unit it would cost you two more tokens; if you had three it would cost you four tokens and so on).After a round of battle you may choose to redeploy you units. (Units may move from the back row to the front row from the back of a row to the back of another row or from the front of a row to the front of another row). Redeployment will not cost you any Order tokens.The battle is over when one army defeats the other.Contents: 60 tiles 6 dice 20 wound/order tokens 2 player aids 1 set of rules.Macedonians: 1 agema 2 agriganes 1 alexandros 1 argyraspides 1 chiliarch 5 cretan archers 4 hetairoi 4 hypaspistai 4 peltasts 4 pezhetairoi 2 prodromoi and 1 standard bearer.Persians: 6 archers 1 baivarapatis 1 chariot 1 darius 2 elephants 3 immortals 3 kardaka 3 levies 3 median calary 1 scyted chariot 2 sparabara 1 standard bearer and 3 takabara.
Lost Battles is forty games in one. The game covers battles and campaigns in the Mediterranean and Near East from the Persian defeat at Marathon in 490 BC to Caesar's victory at Pharsalus in 48 BC. It has been exhaustively tested and refined over the past several years and is based on Professor Philip Sabin's decades of research and simulation design on ancient warfare; and it includes an updated copy of his book with extensive historical and design notes on every scenario.The game can be fought on three levels - the grand tactical the grand strategic or a combination of the two. At the grand tactical level 1 or 2 players may refight any of 35 different land battles such as Leuctra Gaugamela Raphia Cannae Cynoscephalae or the Sambre - far more than in any other single boxed game. At the grand strategic level 1 to 4 players may refight the epic duels of the two centuries from 350 to 150 BC starting with the eclipse of Achaemenid Persia by Alexander of Macedon and ending with Hannibal's campaigns and the conquest of Carthage and the Hellenistic states by the resurgent Roman republic. The most ambitious games combine these two levels and see 1 to 4 players using tactical battles to resolve strategic campaigns across part or all of this two century period or else refighting a series of historical battles to decide conflicts such as the three-cornered contest for dominance between Athens Sparta and Thebes from the start of the Peloponnesian War to the death of Epaminondas.The accent throughout is on combining historical accuracy with speed and accessibility. The free-standing strategic game may be completed in just 30 minutes while individual land battles may be re-fought in two hours or less. There is constant player interaction and a series of tortuous dilemmas - how should the scarce command points be allocated across the battlefront which troop types should be put in the lead against particular opponents should units attack all-out at the cost of becoming exhausted themselves and should generals join the fighting to rally their disheartened men at the risk of being killed and so making things far worse? The game includes all the many troop types from hoplites legionaries phalangites and archers to cataphracts scythed chariots and war elephants and it includes simple rules to reflect the huge differences in generalship and troop quality and to allow outclassed armies to win a handicapped 'game victory' even if they are defeated on the field as long as they do better than they did historically. All aspects of the game are avowedly solitaire-friendly and can be run by a single player swapping sides just as easily as by one or more players per side.Tactical battles are fought on a 5 x 4 grid of full-colour 5 inch square hard mounted terrain tiles which dovetail to form any desired battlefield. The individually die-cut counters have rounded corners and are also in full-colour; they depict the various different troop types. The strategic game is fought on a hard mounted map showing the area from Spain to India.
Field of Glory: The Card Game is a quick-playing game for two players inspired by Field of Glory the miniatures rule system designed by Richard Bodley Scott for ancient and medieval tabletop battles.The game is split into two parts. You first decide with which units to fight constructing a deck of 24 unit cards. You then fight a battle across a battlefield made up of five terrain cards; to win the game you must take control of three of these terrain cards. The army cards represent the main troop types of the period such as heavy infantry light cavalry and elephants each having its own strengths and weaknesses. To be able to play units onto the battlefield you must discard other cards to pay the movement costs involved giving you a number of difficult decisions to make.Field of Glory: The Card Game is of medium complexity and should take 20-30 minutes to play.
The year is 1252 and the great Kublai Khan has decided to build his summer palace. He has searched for the best architects who are looking to win fame and prestige — and sometimes you have to harm other architects' prestige to step forward...Xanadú is a highly interactive card game for 2 to 5 players. Cards can be buildings with four squares of available resources that can be used by any player (including the owner of the card). To be able to retrieve and use those resources the players assign workers which are also cards. The players compete to earn the most tong baos the money in the game by selling the constructions to the Khan.Xanadú is a strategy game of building and sabotage for casual and experienced players.•••DE LA CAJA:El año es 1252 y Kublai Khan ha decidido construir su palacio de verano. Para esto ha buscado a los mejores arquitectos pero ellos no se detendrán con nada por ganar fama y prestigio.Los jugadores competirán por ganar la mayor cantidad de tong baos (monedas) vendiendo construcciones (cartas) al KhanCada carta cuenta con recursos disponibles dispuestos en 4 casillas que pueden ser aprovechados por todos los jugadores (incluido el dueño de la carta). Para utilizar estos recursos los jugadores asignan trabajadores. Solo los recursos que se encuentren en casillas destapadas (sin trabajadores) están disponibles.Xanadú es un juego de estrategia de construcción y sabotaje para jugadores casuales y experimentados.
It is the height of the Ming Dynasty. Literati artists hike and sail across the land searching for inspiration to compose the greatest works of the age. Those seeking the greatest fame present their work at the capital city of Nankin. However aristocracy is fickle. Will you follow the latest trends or start them?Jiangnan: Life of Gentry is a worker placement and action tile bag building game for 1 to 4 players. Jiangnan can be played as a single scenario or through multiple campaigns. Players are literati and artisans of the elite gentry class living in Jiangnan the prosperous region to the south of the Qinhuai River and are highly skilled in literature calligraphy brush painting and the musical and performing arts.But you'll need the skills of bureaucracy to drive and guide aristocracy to evolve your work from today's latest trend to an everlasting classic to be sung and studied for thousands of years.
The Great King Tutankhamun has passed and arrangements are being made to fill his Tomb with Artifacts that will travel with him to the afterlife.Prepare to collect your offerings and cleanse your spirit as you take on the role of priests and priestesses traveling down the Nile River to gather Artifacts for the great King’s tomb. Along the way enchanted idols from the mighty Egyptian Gods may assist you in your journey.Your primary goal will be to locate parts of Artifact sets. When these sets are completed they are placed inside King Tut’s tomb to help the preparations for his burial. The priests who collected the most parts of the set will cleanse a portion of their spirit as their reward.If you are the first player to completely cleanse your spirit (indicated by reducing your points to zero) you will so impress the new Pharaoh that he appoints you to be the next High Priest of Egypt. Will you meet the challenge and earn the new Pharaoh’s favor to become the most powerful priest in the land?Tutankhamun features familiar gameplay from the earlier versions while adding new Egyptian god powers and implementing a modified scoring system with new Scarab Rings and a new two-player scoring change.
Take the role of a Roman merchant in Neptun delivering goods to cities and temples. Earn the most favor from the temples and win the game!The game is played over three game rounds each consisting of three phases. Navigate the sea and coast to deliver on contracts you have acquired. But there is a catch. You get to determine the order of your contracts but they must be filled in that order. So as you are acquiring and placing contracts you must take into account where you are traveling.Phase 1 Acquire ContractsWhen you fulfill a contract (in phase 2: Fulfill Contracts) you receive either favor at the temple or gold which can be used to buy favor but also may be used to extend your ship's range. Thus gold can help you bridge that key leg of the journey so that you can deliver that contract in a timely fashion and be well positioned for the next part of your journey.Phase 2 Fulfill ContractsBy laying out your contracts efficiently and navigating the sea and coastline effectively you will earn the most favor (in phase 3: Scoring) from the temples and win the game.Phase 3 Scoring
292 BC the Colossus symbolizes the wealth of the Greek island Rhodes. Egyptian ships arrive in the harbor with gold. Greek farmers produce goods on their lands. To expand and develop they need income so they set sail to the harbor with goods from their lands. It is uncertain what the earnings for the olives grapes grain and goat milk will be this time...Rhodes is a (light) expert game with high interaction several tactical & strategic options and a unique dynamic market system triggered by ships sailing into the harbor which automatically adjusts the prices for the goods offered at the harbor. The players collectively have control in this. Will you sell your goods or will your fresh products end up in your storage to be used in future rounds? Smart merchants profit from opportunities in the market — but this also creates new opportunities for the farmers who receive income when other players buy their goods.Interaction in markets production and player sequence providing interesting dilemmas for the players. Some farmers expand their lands with the earnings. Others develop smart skills to bypass the markets or to get victory points in different ways. It is also possible to create a monopoly or at least a scarcity of goods. Indeed this game has some very interesting market elements but players who follow a one-sided strategy have little chance of being victorious.
SUMMARY Valda is a competitive strategy game where you as a viking warchief manage a village and resources play powerful spells and build temples. So you gather followers fight off enemies and climb the steps to divinity.STORY Realm of the gods: Loki the trickster god framed Thor in a moment of distraction causing the hammer of Thor to fall on Tyr. Tyr the god who was guarding Yggdrasil the tree connecting the worlds. Knocked out for a moment Tyr left Yggdrasil ungaurded. An opportunity for mortal viking to climbs the tree and become god. But only those who are worshipped and worthy can become a true god. Beware: when power is up for grabs competition is an the horizon. And the gods... well they will play their part.HOW TO PLAY (AND WIN) In Valda every player finishes 5 phases during their turn. As a viking chieftan you roll dice to harvest rare resources for your tribe. Then you scavenge and explore the worlds by drafting and playing cards and actions. Building temples in the different God-domains is an important goal to gain divine abilities and get access to more powerful spells. But beware enemies can attack you with the weapons of the Gods. Defend yourself and use your resources and shields wisely. Fight and build with honor to receive the grace of the Gods. Which God? That depends on your playing style. You like the aggressive playstyle then is Surtur your man you like having many options to eventually use the ultimate combo then Freya is the one for you and so on. Having a seat at the table of the most beautiful Asgardian palace beside the likes of Odin and Thor that is your only goal. By playing cards using your abilities and building temples you also gain valuable followers. The viking chieftan who has the most followers when the game ends is worthy enough to climb the world tree Yggdrasil and becomes a God! Oh.. and he also wins the game.—description from the designer
Ah the great pyramids! Full of treasures just waiting for you! It would be so easy without the other explorers waking up the Mummies Werewolves and Franks and sending them after you. But you are quick and clever so it shouldn't be a problem right?Loot N Run is a subtle bluffing game in which you have to know when to take risks. On your turn take one of these three actions:The first player to score 35 points wins!
None can defy the will of the gods but the gods themselves. Driven by the ambition of their king the Greeks have arrived on the shores of Troy. Some seek power some seek revenge while still others seek the great moment in battle that will define their place in history.Agamemnon is a fast-paced strategy board game in which two players take on the roles of ancient Greek gods during the Trojan War. By tactically deploying warriors to where they're needed across the board each player may influence the final outcome of the battles famously detailed in Homer's Iliad. Some areas will be decided by the strength of the warriors others by sheer weight of numbers and some by the inspiration your heroes provide.To begin the game Strings of Fate tiles are placed on their matching spaces on the board and each player receives one set of fifteen playing tiles. These tiles come in three varieties: Warriors with a numerical value marking their strength Leaders with both a letter rank and a strength value and Weavers who have no strength or rank but instead manipulate the Strings of Fate. Each player will shuffle their tiles face down in front of them.The first player flips over one of their tiles and places it on any available space. If it’s a Weaver its effect immediately comes into play: the Warp Weaver may swap two adjacent Strings of Fate whilst the Weft Weaver simply splits all strings it’s connected to. After the first turn each player flips and plays two tiles on their turns.Once all the tiles have been placed each string is resolved: each Strength String is won by the player with the highest combined strength contained within it; each Leadership String is won by the player with the single highest ranked tile within the string; and Force Strings are won by the player with the most tiles including Weavers in the string. Players claim all the tiles from Strings of Fate they have won and the player with the most tiles at the end wins.
Game description from the publisher:Mythic Greece is in chaos: Athena and Hades are at war and have sent their greatest heroes to battle. Take on the role of these generals out of legend leading fantastic armies and lead your troops to victory!Mythic Battles is a game which simulates epic confrontations and battles that will take your breath away. Thanks to its innovative system – the Building Battle Board (BBB) which combines game mechanisms from miniature games board games and card games – Mythic Battles offers you an experience the likes of which you have never seen. Recruit your army play your cards to activate your units roll your dice to resolve combat – reinvent your way of playing!This box contains two complete armies to play with two or four players an initiation campaign as well as all that's required to play as you wish. Other armies and units will periodically be released to flesh out your campaigns.Write your legend in the blood of the fallen!
The Roman temple of Évora was probably built in honor of Emperor Augustus. It was built in the 1st century AD in the main square (forum) of Évora - then called Liberalitas Julia.In this game players will play the role of builders of the Roman Empire and the action takes place in Évora in the 1st century AD. The objective: Build the 14 columns that still exist today on the site.Players move their workers around the rondel to define the action they intend to perform: Build (stones and capitals) improve the columns already built (points multiplier) and request the influence of important characters (cards).The player who obtains the most prestige points based on the stones placed in each column and also on bonuses wins the game.—description from publisherNeste jogo os jogadores desempenharão o papel de construtores do Império Romano e a ação ocorre em Évora no século I d.C. O objectivo: Construir as 14 colunas que ainda existem nos dias de hoje no local. Este jogo tem a sua mecânica principal baseada num rondel e os jogadores movimentam os seus trabalhadores para definirem a ação que pretendem executar: Construir (pedras e capiteis) aperfeiçoar as colunas já construídas (multiplicador de pontos) e solicitar a influência de personagens importantes (cartas). Estas personagens são: O Imperador que valorizará as construções no final do jogo. O governador que inspecionará as construções e durante o jogo compensará o jogador. O centurião que mantêm a ordem no estaleiro e oferecerá maior mobilidade ao jogador. O arquiteto que ajuda no processo de construção tornando-o muito mais eficaz e rentável.Vence o jogador que obtiver mais pontos de prestigio baseado nas pedras colocadas em cada coluna e também nalgumas bonificações.
In Journey: Wrath of Demons a cooperative miniatures board game based on a classic Chinese novel four Pilgrims band together to search ancient China for the Sutras sacred scriptures that will bring salvation to a world overrun with Demons. After fighting different Bull Demon minions the climax of the game is the battle against the Bull Demon King. Game cards and custom dice combine for fast tense action and critical choices enhance the Pilgrims’ skills during the game.Journey is designed for 1 to 4 players each controlling one of the four Pilgrims: Tripitaka Monkey Monk Sha and Cho Hakkai. The game's AI controls the Demons and other creatures. Diverse playing styles are possible with a strong emphasis on cooperation because the players win or lose as a team. Each game will take 30 minutes to 2 hours depending on the quest and the style you play.The core game comes with ~10 quests each with different goals and unique rules. Do you ruthlessly hack and slash killing all demons in the Pilgrims' path? Or take a more virtuous path cleansing the demons' souls saving villagers and collecting good karma. Your decisions affect the Pilgrims' abilities skills and equipment. Killing demons may be quick but can you risk accumulating that bad karma? Side quests may enhance your Pilgrims' skill and karma but with more demons spawning can you afford to spend that time?Solo play is almost identical to multi-player games. Instead of multiple players controlling 1 or 2 pilgrims each 1 player will control all four Pilgrims. There are no other changes to the game.
Every age has its heroes singular men whose prowess and virtue have raised them above mere mortals and who have forged their own fates through their determination courage and strength. Their names have survived the passage of time: King Arthur William the Conqueror Achilles Conan. Whether they were born in popular legend in the fertile minds of writers or in the annals of history they live forever in our collective memory as the most celebrated figures of ages past. However for each surviving legend there exist innumerable others still waiting to be written. Thousands of heroes wait to prove themselves on the battlefields to speak with fire and steel and to carve their mark on the world around them. With the book in your hands you have the unique opportunity to take part in the creation of these legends and to see them master their destinies in turn. Your SAGA begins here.......... SAGA is a skirmish game taking place in the heroic ages whether they are historical mythological or sprung from the minds of writers. It brings to life the battles between exceptional warriors - Warlords who defy their enemies on the battlefieds at the head of their warband. This game puts you at the head of one such warband made of thirty or so figures and lead by your heroic alter-ego. Each warband is chosen from among the available SAGA factions and has a specific Battle Board and SAGA dice which grant them particular abilities in battle and reinforce their identity. This book contains SAGAs simple and innovative basic rules. They are easy to learn and illustrated with numerous examples. They apply to all the universes you might explore. These rules are the fruit of years of development and the contributions of a large community that plays SAGA around the globe. Once you have read this book all that is left for you to do is choose a SAGA Universe from the array available assemble your figures and write your legend!—description from the publisherNote: This book contains no battleboards or Armies you have to buy the first supplement for those...
Guide your tribe in its struggles to survive and prosper! Tribes: Early Civilization is a game for 2-4 players (The game does include rules for solo play as well) experiencing the Paleolithic Neolithic and Bronze ages in 40 minutes. Players start with a small tribe and the very basics of civilization. During the game they invent new technologies explore new land fend off invaders and survive catastrophes. The tribe that first emerges as a true civilization wins!Tribes: Early Civilization is a thematic prequel to Nations designed by one of the Nations designers. It is a fast 3X game with a twist as each player has their own separate area to explore expand and exploit. The other two areas of the game are highly interactive:There are three basic actions tied to your civilization levels: explore move and grow. The actions column is also where historical events come into play and where the fourth civilization level — strength — is used to gain you bonuses and make bad things happen to your opponents.Several interlocking systems ensure high replayability without adding overhead or upkeep. For example: in one game shells can feel very scarce and the next abundant despite the exact same amounts being in play.
In ancient Rome tribunes were highly esteemed individuals elected by the people to represent them politically and militarily. In Tribune players take on the role of a powerful and ambitious patrician family. By applying influence and manipulating controls over the various factions they attempt to pave their way to victory in order to attain the high office of the tribune.In more detail Tribune is a combination of worker placement and set collection. Each round players take turns positioning their followers on the board to collect cards achieve objectives and attempt to take over factions. To gain control of a faction and use its benefits you must play a set of at least two cards from that specific group. You remain in command of that faction until an opponent plays another set of this faction that either contains more cards or has a higher sum of values.As soon as a player meets the required number of objectives on the victory condition card selected at the start of the game (with that card being dependent on the number of players) that player wins the game. Alternatively you can forgo the use of a condition card and play with a point-value option; in this variant the game ends when a player has collected a certain number of faction markers and whoever has the most points at this time — based on the completion of various achievements — wins.This edition of Tribune includes the Tribune: Primus Inter Pares base game and Tribune Expansion while featuring new mechanisms and elements from designer Karl-Heinz Schmiel.
The legendary Atlantis is shrouded in so many stories and myths an island realm that was reputed to have completely drowned in only one night.Atlantis Exodus presents the player kings with the challenge of rescuing as many citizens as possible before the impending downfall and by doing so saving the knowledge they have acquired for a different world and time.Thanks to an innovative rotation mechanism 1-4 kings have to face constantly changing conditions and keep adjusting their own strategy to the different action possibilities in order to ultimately become the savior of the achievements of their time.—description from the publisher
Chu Han is a two-player card game of dynastic intrigue set in ancient China before and during the Chu-Han Contention 206-202 BCE. Two clans the Han and Chu vie to supplant the weak Qin ruler and forge China's first true dynasty. Historically the Chu began in a stronger position but the Han managed to defeat them.Chu Han is a trick-taking climbing and shedding game with special powers consisting of multiple hands. Players begin each hand with a mixture of Chu and Han cards representing strains within clans hostage taking and shifting allegiances. Optional Events and two historical campaigns provide additional variety.The goal is to score 31 points before the other player. Can you outmaneuver your rival to found a new dynasty?
You are a child of Zeus poised to conquer all of Greece but first you must prove your worth to the gods as there is another who contests your claim. To determine who shall rule gods have devised a contest and lent their most powerful forces to both sides of the conflict.Omen: Edge of the Aegean is a stand-alone head-to-head card game in the Omen Saga collection of games and features a streamlined way to play. You will manage your economy and hand of unit cards each turn as you tactically play units to cities or for their unique abilities. Plan your strategy to take advantage of the combined strength of your units to win war-torn city reward tiles utilize their abilities and defeat your opponent. Gain the most victory points at the end of the game to rule over these lands!Key Points - Head to Head demigod battles for supremacy of ancient Greece. - Tactical battle card-game where every unit has its own unique ability. - Streamlined rules and fully compatible with any other game from the Omen Saga collection of games.
King Nebuchadnezzar II has spoken: Build me the most wondrous gardens the world has ever seen! The gardening guilds of Babylon have answered and it is now up to the players as leaders of these guilds to build one of the seven wonders of the ancient world and lead their guild to victory in the cutthroat world of competitive gardening.Gardens of Babylon is a 1-4 player competitive euro-style game in which players strive to earn the most points by planting flower seeds on the most valuable tiles. Taking turns players place tiles to create a maze-like ziggurat of pathways strategically move their gardeners to gain positional advantage and plant seeds to claim tiles earning victory points and triggering cascades down connected waterways to steal those of their opponents in the process!Featuring simple rules and strategic thinking Gardens of Babylon offers infinite replayability with 78 distinct ziggurat tiles that form a unique 2.5-dimension modular board. A novel cascade mechanism allows a well-placed seed to change the course of the game in an instant offering emergent gameplay and keeping players on their toes until the very end.—description from the publisher
City Builder: Ancient World is a tile-laying game for 1-4 players which can be played competitively cooperatively or solo. Players are magistrates sent to a newly conquered province to build cities and help spread Roman influence in the area. By employing clever planning they must grow their cities to meet the demands of incoming settlers as well as build imposing Monuments to please their emperor.Competitive Objective: To win players must build impressive Monuments and fill their city with incoming settlers. Monuments have unique scoring bonus that will only apply to the city they are built in while claiming settlers unlocks the point value they are covering. At the end of the game players will add up their scores and the player with the most victory points is declared the winner. This player is awarded governorship of the province with their city being named its new capital.Cooperative Objective: The emperor wants to increase the efficiency and profit of each of his provinces. As a group of magistrates you must work together to ensure your province doesn’t displease him which would result with you losing your position—and your possibly your head. Follow the emperor’s Edict complete his preferred Monuments and plan carefully to make sure you all stay off the chopping block!—description from the publisher
King Solomon reigned over the kingdom of Israel during its golden age. He commanded tribute from Israel’s neighbors expanded Israel’s borders built roads and fortresses and kept the peace within the land. His merchants filled the kingdom with exotic goods such as spices ivory apes and peacocks. Perhaps most famously Solomon also built the Temple in Jerusalem a golden place of worship lasting hundreds of years.Wisdom of Solomon is a 1-5 player worker placement game taking place during the reign of King Solomon. Players act as Governors for Solomon sending out workers to gather Resources build structures and expand Solomon’s influence in the kingdom. The player who curries the most Favor will be crowned the winner!The Wisdom of Solomon board is divided into two sections. The section on the right side of the board is a map of Solomon’s kingdom where players will build custom houses and roads. As a Governor expands their influence in the land with new roads and houses that Governor’s network will become more powerful and pull Resources from more and more areas. These networks of custom houses will control the flow of Resources in Wisdom of Solomon!On the left side of the board is a miniaturized version of the city of Jerusalem. Within this city is the Market area a region of the city where workers will be sent to buy sell and trade Resources and also to play powerful Fortune cards that have been acquired. Elsewhere in Jerusalem is a Foreman who has the plans for building new structures throughout Israel. A Governor can use their Resources to build these structures and create new houses of influence in the kingdom while granting the Governor new ways to gain Resources and Favor.Finally within the city of Jerusalem a Governor may visit the Levites to help build the Temple of Solomon. Workers send to the Levites can donate Resources to raise this awesome structure and gain great Favor and Fortune! Next to this Temple are the Holy Places the most sacred of objects that groups of workers may visit and receive great things!Wisdom of Solomon ends when a Governor no longer has a Custom House to build or the Temple of Solomon has been completed. When that occurs the round ends and each person reveals their Temple Tokens. Each Governor tallies their final score and the person having the most Favor wins!—description from the publisher
Epigo is a two or four player strategy game that should feel both fresh and familiar. Epigo's simultaneous action selection makes every round of the game exciting even though Epigo features relatively simple rules and mechanics. Epigo is also modular - the boxed game includes rules for 21 variants with more variants available on our website. Variants modify one or more of the core rules providing unique challenges and adding countless hours of replayability.The RulesTo win be the first to capture three of your opponents’ Epigons by pushing them off the edge of the board. Epigons have a rank between 1 and 7 dictating the priority at which they move. At the start of every round both players choose and stack three Orders from their hand. The top Order of a stack marks the first move the middle tile is the second move and the third tile is the last move. Each Order has arrows on one side indicating the direction the corresponding Epigon will try to move. Once both players have locked in their moves the stacks are revealed and unraveled. First compare the top Order on each stack. The higher ranking Epigon moves one space in the direction shown on the arrows. Then the other Epigon (matching the lower priority Order) moves in the same manner. If both players reveal Orders of the same rank they cancel and neither Epigon moves (players often try to make this happen intentionally for various nefarious purposes). After three moves players pick up all of their Orders and start the next round.When moving an Epigon one of three things will happen: it will Slide Push or be Blocked. When an Epigon moves into an empty space it Slides into it. If that space is occupied however the Epigon tries to Push in that direction instead. An Epigon must have a majority of friendly pieces moving in the same direction whenever it tries to Push otherwise the move is Blocked. The full rulebook contains detailed explanations of the movement rules and is available on our website.The boxed game accomodates up to 4 players in teams of 2 and introduces variant play.
The Goths are marching on Rome! In Gaul Vandals and Alans pour across the Rhine. Meanwhile a usurper from distant Britannia has raised his standard. The survival of the Western Empire depends on one man: Flavius Stilicho barbarian general commander-in-chief of the armies of Rome and defacto ruler of the West.STILICHO: LAST OF THE ROMANS is the long-anticipated follow-up to designer Robert DeLeskie's popular and challenging solitaire game WARS OF MARCUS AURELIUS. The brain-boiling card angst and nail-biting combats that made that game so compelling are back along with some new wrinkles that make for a more challenging and nuanced decision space. For example the Surge mechanism that caused so many gamers to invent new curse words is now more nefarious with each enemy card having specific surge effects. Rome's enemies sometimes bump into each other resulting in enemy-on-enemy battles. Regions might go into revolt garrisons might defect to the banner of the pretender Constantine III and the wily courtier Olympius might turn the emperor Honorius against you.No wonder the historical Stilicho only lasted until turn 3! If you want to win you'll have to last much longer than that all while taking on tougher and more resilient enemies than poor Marcus had to face and with less resources at your disposal. Will you prevent the sack of Rome and the fall of the Western Empire?-description from publisher
Ancient Egypt is going to the dogs — or maybe to the cats? Displeased by his children the Pharaoh favors his pets instead. He has decided to alter the lines of succession and will bequeath his entire kingdom either to the feline goddess Bast or to the canine god Anubis but which one?In Heir to the the Pharaoh you and your opponent play as Bast and Anubis each one vying for the Pharaoh's affection — and for his throne! Impress the Pharaoh by digging your mighty paws into the sand. Build majestic Shrines Sun Temples and Obelisks! Use Animal Magic to unleash the power of the gods who will help you win the favor of the Pharaoh!In more detail the game combines intense card play with a spacious and colorfully illustrated game board. It mingles multiple mechanisms including civilization-building (with tile placement and network building) bidding set collection area control and hand management (with players required to exchange all used cards with their opponent at the end of each round). Seven separate player abilities re-combine each round depending on the favor of the gods earned that round by each player. For example earning the favor of the god Ra lets you add a Player Disc to the current Sun for area control around the edges of the board. Ptah allows you to claim the current Monument Card for set collection scoring. Seshat lets you place the current Monument Standee on the board to add to the network of Monuments in play. Geb and Nut let you claim and rotate this Monument Standee and aim it at other Monuments to score points. The Pharaoh lets you secretly contribute cards to the construction of the Pyramid awarding the greater contributor many points at the end of the game.Over a series of eight rounds players work to build a Pyramid and a series of smaller monuments to impress the Pharaoh. By performing actions unique to each god players build monuments and align them to point at other monuments gaining influence over the Pharaoh as they do so. Once the Pyramid is completed the player with the most points is declared the Heir to the Pharaoh and wins the game.
Central Italy in the year 753 B.C.: Many new villages have been founded in the region of Latium. This land is prosperous and a strong city here can easily control the trades between the Etruscan cities of the North and the Greek colonies of the South. The region is also rich in salt ponds and the salt in this period is worth more than gold. There doesn't exist a better place for a new city!The two grandsons of the King of Albalonga – the twins Romolo and Remo descendants of Enea of Troy – don't want to miss an opportunity to dominate the region and acting against each other try to establish two cities close to the Tiber river. Their enterprise is not easy as the King of Antemnae and the King of Crustumerium will also fight to dominate this area! Who will prevail?In Romolo o Remo? players act as Kings of the new cities in the Latium and have to compete with each other in order to gain control of the whole Region. Players must manage their kingdom and their growing settlement. Two aspects are crucial: the citizens as players act with citizens to take many different actions and the territory as players can act only in the territories they are able to control – excluding when they go to war of course! If the population grows they can take more actions but they must feed all of them as well. Money resources trades city buildings and specialized characters increase a player's possibilites and soldiers mercenaries and war declarations can change the game's storyline at any moment. Who will able to build the strongest city? Who will be the founder of a new civilization – or perhaps even an Empire?
Mound Builders from the Charles S. Roberts Award-winning design team of Wes Erni and Ben Madison at Victory Point Games is a solitaire States of SiegeTM game where you represent the two largest pre-Columbian Indian “mound builder” cultures that dominated eastern North America from before the time of Christ until the coming of the European colonists in the 17th century. Your empire represents the earlier Hopewell culture and the later Mississippian culture that derived from it.Until the arrival of the Spanish late in the game you will expand your control across the map of North America extending it over the various chiefdoms encountered and incorporating them into your economic and religious sphere (“empire”). Your domain will grow and shrink but be aware that rather than a military advance and retreat this process represents the rise and decline of culture religious ideology and an economic way of life threatened from outside by competing ideologies and lifestyles as much as by hostile armies.Your goal is to extend Mound Builder culture and amass as many chiefdoms as possible before rival native powers (and the smallpox-ridden Spanish!) rise up to drive you back to your Mississippi River heartland and extinguish your vast capital city at Cahokia Illinois – near modern St. Louis.
NOTE: Pantheon Edition includes all material from the Golden Fleece expansion as well as every promo card and many new cards. A lot of cards are revamped reworked and rebalanced.Santorini is an accessible strategy game simple enough for an elementary school classroom while aiming to provide gameplay depth and content for hardcore gamers to explore The rules are simple. Each turn consists of 2 steps:1. Move - Move one of your builders onto an unoccupied neighboring space that is a similar level up one level or down any number of levels.2. Build - Construct a building level adjacent to the builder you moved. When building on top of the third level place a dome instead removing that space from play.Winning the game - If one of your builders moves from a lower level to the third level you win. Or if your opponent cannot move you win.Variable player powers - Santorini features variable player powers layered over an otherwise abstract game with many thematic god and hero powers that fundamentally change the way the game is played.
The goal of Lutèce is to have the majority of the 4 resources of the game: beer bread swords and wine.The player with the majority of a resource receives 10 points at the end of the round second place receives 4 points and the last place receives no points. Therefore balance between collecting resources should be kept in mind.You buy character and building cards from a central market to complete your resource set collections. Certain character and building cards cost 0 and give you 1 resource. For example: 1 beer. Other cards cost more: 1 2 or 3 coins can give 2 beers or a victory point from the bread category by the end of the round.Other cards produce coins the moment they're bought in connection the cards that you already possess.In Lutèce every player starts with a hand of cards that lets you pick a character and a building in the range of cards available. You collect 5 character and 5 building cards visible to everyone at the time of selection.In order to choose the character or building card that you wish to have place 2 cards facedown that correspond (number or letter) to the desired card in the market.Before revealing your choices you can increase the value of your facedown cards by placing coins on your concealed cards. If 2 players want the same card it is simply discarded and no one gets it!Increasing the value of the card allows you increase your chance of ensuring your bid but will draw the attention of other players. If two players' increased values tie no one gets the card as it is discarded. Therefore you have to watch other players and block them and place a daunting bit on your cards!If you don't have enough money you also have two cards in your hand that bring you 3 coins each by playing them. At the end of the game each set of 3 coins = 1 victory point.At the end of the round when everyone has drafted one or two cards the market is replenished with new character and building cards. The cards that weren't selected during the round have a coin added to them (much like passing over a race in Smallworld) making them more attractive to bid upon as you receive the corresponding coin as well if you pick up that card. This continues leaving a mountain of coins on unselected cards after several rounds!If you didn't win a card on your turn you get two coins to keep you from crying!Note: The publisher compares this game to 7 Wonders.
Ophir is a pick up and deliver set collection game set in an ancient prosperous world for 2-4 players. In Ophir you're an influential person of government trade or religion with a singular focus - the construction of the Temple.The Temple is built layer by layer through collective contributions of Silver and Gold. These precious metals are delivered by your merchant ship for Victory Points at the Temple one of the seven locations you'll be visiting in Ophir.To afford these precious building materials you must navigate the region's seas against your rivals to collect goods to fulfill the demand at the Market for Coins or exchange them for Favor at the Temple.Well-timed trades efficient cargo storage and tactical transportation will be the keys to your success. But you must be swift in your travels because the game ends immediately once the construction of the Temple is complete. Will it be you whose name is spoken alongside the stories of Ophir's wonder?With its approachable map and exclusion of direct conflict Ophir has a familiar and accessible atmosphere that families will enjoy. But with its modular setup exclusive player roles and mercurial market Ophir has tactics replayability and tension for experienced gamers to savor!
The Shaman is old. A future practitioner must be chosen to guide the others into their altered states of consciousness for the purpose of physical and psychic healing. As part of an ancient tradition apprentices gather around a fire to drink a strong mushroom potion. The Shaman's quarters are warm and comfortable. The fire burns in the middle of the hut. Smoke moves through a hole in the roof. The sun will set soon.The Shaman and each apprentice drink from the bowl simmering near the fire. The taste bitter and revolting. The Shaman's assistant does not drink; he stands calmly beside her. The assistant is invisible. Adorned in animal skins and strange ornaments the Shaman begins to guide the ritual. A drum is tapped with elderly fingers creating a primitive disjointed rhythm. The weathered drum is played for some time then stops abruptly. The Shaman looks about the room. She looks up to the ceiling observing the smoke escaping into the sky.The plants now speak to us.In the adventure board game The Mushroom Eaters 2-5 players are apprentices who have consumed a drink of the psilocybin mushroom. Each player enters into a psychedelic state together. The Shaman is guiding and observing the group trying to understand who would be the wisest to replace her. While the group travels together some may wander into faraway realms of their own mind but when the mushroom wears off everyone will return. The wisest apprentice is chosen to guide the village in the future.This is the first game in a series to incorporate an Action Path. Each player uses a hand of cards to help the group advance along this path. If cards are played correctly the path may help the individual or the group entirely; if cards are played poorly the entire group could be affected by the changes in the environment. Players aim to gain Experience by awakening to new understandings centering one's self in the oblivion of the moment gaining intense realities witnessed in the Great Paradox and building wisdom from profound revelations.
