Category: Renaissance

Introduced by the Moors azulejos (originally white and blue ceramic tiles) were fully embraced by the Portuguese when their king Manuel I on a visit to the Alhambra palace in Southern Spain was mesmerized by the stunning beauty of the Moorish decorative tiles. The king awestruck by the interior beauty of the Alhambra immediately ordered that his own palace in Portugal be decorated with similar wall tiles. As a tile-laying artist you have been challenged to embellish the walls of the Royal Palace of Evora.In the game Azul players take turns drafting colored tiles from suppliers to their player board. Later in the round players score points based on how they've placed their tiles to decorate the palace. Extra points are scored for specific patterns and completing sets; wasted supplies harm the player's score. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins.

Confront your rival guild in a race for victory. Take Gem and Pearl tokens from the common board then purchase cards gather bonuses royal favors and prestige.Discover new twists and strategic opportunities derived from Splendor the original best-selling game. Acquire cards with impressive powers take advantage of special Privileges and fight over scarce access to Pearls.Splendor Duel is a two-player only standalone game based on Splendor that retains some of the main gameplay mechanisms of that design while being a bit more complex dynamic interactive rich tense and mean.The game features a main board shared by both opponents card powers and three victory conditions.

Keyflower is a game for two to six players played over four rounds. Each round represents a season: spring summer autumn and finally winter. Each player starts the game with a home tile and an initial team of eight workers each of which is colored red yellow or blue. Workers of matching colors are used by the players to bid for tiles to add to their villages. Matching workers may alternatively be used to generate resources skills and additional workers not only from the player's own tiles but also from the tiles in the other players' villages and from the new tiles being auctioned.In spring summer and autumn more workers will arrive on board the Keyflower and her sister boats with some of these workers possessing skills in the working of the key resources of iron stone and wood. In each of these seasons village tiles are set out at random for auction. In the winter no new workers arrive and the players select the village tiles for auction from those they received at the beginning of the game. Each winter village tile offers VPs for certain combinations of resources skills and workers. The player whose village and workers generate the most VPs wins the game.Keyflower presents players with many different challenges and each game will be different due to the mix of village tiles that appear in that particular game. Throughout the game players will need to be alert to the opportunities to best utilize their various resources transport and upgrade capability skills and workers.Keyflower a joint design between Richard Breese and Sebastian Bleasdale is the seventh game in the Key series from R&D Games set in the medieval Key land.

Lorenzo de' Medici also known as Lorenzo il Magnifico (Lorenzo the Magnificent) was one of the most powerful and enthusiastic patrons of the Italian Renaissance.In Lorenzo il Magnifico each player takes the role of the head of a noble family in a city during the Italian Renaissance to gain more prestige and fame — that is victory points (VP) — than anyone else. To do so you send your family members to different areas of town where they can obtain many achievements. In one location they get useful resources; in another development cards that represent newly conquered territories sponsored buildings influenced characters or encouraged ventures; and somewhere else they activate the effects of their cards.Family members are not identical. At the beginning of each round you roll three dice to determine their value. You must choose carefully where to send your most valuable family members...You can gain VP in several ways and you must also pay attention to your relations with the Church. The game is divided into three periods each formed by two rounds; at the end of each period players must show their faith and whoever hasn't prayed enough will suffer hard penalties. After six rounds you calculate your final score and the player with the most VP wins.

Through tactics and karma to wealth and fame...In 16th century India the powerful empire of the Great Moguls rises between the Indus and the Ganges rivers. Taking on the role of rajas and ranis – the country's influential nobles – players in Rajas of the Ganges race against each other in support of the empire by developing their estates into wealthy and magnificent provinces. Players must use their dice wisely and carefully plot where to place their workers while never underestimating the benefits of good karma. Success will bring them great riches and fame in their quest to become legendary rulers.

In Endeavor: Age of Sail players strive to earn glory for their empires. Sailing out from Europe and the Mediterranean players will establish shipping routes and occupy cities the world over. As they do so players will leverage their growing industry culture finance and Influence building their engine and extending their reach into the far-flung regions of the world.In this second edition players will experience:—description from the publisher

Splendor is a game of chip-collecting and card development. Players are merchants of the Renaissance trying to buy gem mines means of transportation shops—all in order to acquire the most prestige points. If you're wealthy enough you might even receive a visit from a noble at some point which of course will further increase your prestige.On your turn you may (1) collect chips (gems) or (2) buy and build a card or (3) reserve one card. If you collect chips you take either three different kinds of chips or two chips of the same kind. If you buy a card you pay its price in chips and add it to your playing area. To reserve a card—in order to make sure you get it or why not your opponents don't get it—you place it in front of you face down for later building; this costs you a round but you also get gold in the form of a joker chip which you can use as any gem.All of the cards you buy increase your wealth as they give you a permanent gem bonus for later buys; some of the cards also give you prestige points. In order to win the game you must reach 15 prestige points before your opponents do.

In the 15th and 16th century Portugal is thriving under its leading role during the Age of Discovery. Nestled in the heart of Portugal the city of Coimbra serves as a cultural center of the country. As the head of one of Coimbra's oldest houses you seek to earn prestige by deepening relationships with nearby monasteries or funding expeditions of the era. To reach this goal you must vie for the favors of the city's most influential citizens even if you must offer a bit of coin or some protective detail.Coimbra introduces an innovative new dice mechanism in which the dice players draft each round are used in multiple different ways and have an impact on many aspects of their decision making. While there are many paths to victory, players should always seek to optimize their opportunities with every roll of the dice. Combined with ever-changing synergies of the citizens expeditions and monasteries no two games of Coimbra will ever be the same!

In Tiletum you and fellow players take on the roles of rich merchants traveling throughout Europe from Flanders to Venice during the Golden Age of the Renaissance.You will travel to various cities to acquire trade contracts for wool and iron as well as a collection of their coats of arms. You must collect the required resources to fulfill contracts invest in the construction of monumental cathedrals gain the favor of noble families and participate in important fairs where your main business occurs. You will also use the services of notable people who will be welcomed into your houses. You will thus gain prestige that will make you the most famous merchant of the Renaissance.Tiletum is a dice management game in which dice have a dual function: gaining resources and performing actions. A certain number of dice will be rolled each round. On your turn choose a die to gain the number of corresponding resources equal to the value of the die then perform the associated action. The power of the action is inversely proportional to the value of the die so the fewer resources you gain the more powerful the actions you take and vice versa.

The noble Princess is looking for an ideal partner and confidant to help with her royal duties when she one day assumes the throne. You must prove your worth and gain her trust by enlisting allies friends and family of the Princess to carry a letter of intent to her. Can you earn the Princess' trust and become her confidant?Playing cards one at a time players in Love Letter use the abilities of these key people in the Princess' life to outwit their opponents and successfully deliver their letter and gain her favor. Players must utilize each character's special skill to avoid being caught and successfully deliver their letter to the Princess. Once a set number of favor tokens are acquired that player wins and becomes the Princess' confidant.This 2019 edition of Love Letter features new artwork by Citadels artist Andrew Bosley screen-printed tokens and two new characters (five cards in total) that allow for games with up to six players. When played the Chancellor (value 6) allows you to draw two new cards add those to your hand then place two cards of your choice on the bottom of the deck. The Spy (value 0) wins you a favor token if you were the only player to play or discard a spy during the round.—description from the publisher

All of the eligible young men (and many of the not-so-young) seek to woo the princess of Tempest. Unfortunately she has locked herself in the palace and you must rely on others to take your romantic letters to her. Will yours reach her first?Love Letter is a game of risk deduction and luck for 2–4 players. Your goal is to get your love letter into Princess Annette's hands while deflecting the letters from competing suitors. From a deck with only sixteen cards each player starts with only one card in hand; one card is removed from play. On a turn you draw one card and play one card trying to expose others and knock them from the game. Powerful cards lead to early gains but make you a target. Rely on weaker cards for too long however and your letter may be tossed in the fire!Number 4 in the Setting: Tempest Shared World Game Series

Bruges in the 15th century – culture and commerce flourish and make the Belgian Hanseatic city into one of the wealthiest cities in Europe.In Bruges (a.k.a. Brugge or Brügge depending on the country in which you live) players assume the role of merchants who must maintain their relationships with those in power in the city while competing against one another for influence power and status. Dramatic events cast their shadows over the city with players needing to worry about threats to their prosperity from more than just their opponents...The game includes 165 character cards with each card having one of five colors. On a turn a player chooses one of his cards and performs an action with six different actions being available: Take workers take money mitigate a threat build a canal build a house or hire the character depicted on the card. In principle every card can be used for every action – but the color of the card determines in which areas the actions can be used or the strength of the chosen action e.g. blue cards provide blue workers and red cards help mitigate red threats. All of the action is geared toward the gathering of prestige with the most prestigious merchant winning in the end.

Pax Renaissance 2nd Edition is a game for 1 to 4 players where you play as a banker in Europe at the height of the Renaissance during the late 15th and early 16th-century.A time when European nobility and warlords declined and the arts and technology advanced in the wake of a new economic force: merchants and bankers. These bankers became the wealthiest private individuals ever as they guided Europe into the modern age.As a Renaissance banker you will finance kings or republics sponsor voyages of discovery join secret cabals or unleash jihads and inquisitions. Your choices determine if Europe is elevated into the bright modern era or remains festering in dark feudalism. Four victories determine the future course of Western Society: will it be towards imperialism trade globalization religious totalitarianism or enlightened art and science?New components include punchouts for pirate ships pawns for concessions and serfs placards for player boards and empire squares allowing storage of repressed tokens and queens even if the King is not in a player Tableau.Extra game Map Cards are included allowing the mounted gameboard to be left behind for small game portability. Useful if you have limited space in your game bag.Expanded rules include Dalmatians Cryptography Condottiere apostasy and the solitaire game. Strategy and Frequently-Asked Questions are included.Contains Pax Renaissance Expansion and Pax Renaissance: BGG Promo Pack.

Created by Michael Kiesling Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra challenges players to carefully select glass panes to complete their windows while being careful not to damage or waste supplies in the process. The window panels are double-sided providing players with a dynamic player board that affords nearly infinite variability!Players can expect to discover new unique art and components in Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra including translucent window pane pieces a tower to hold discarded glass panes and double-sided player boards and window pane panels in addition to many other beautiful components!—description from the publisher

Black Rose Wars is a competitive fantasy game of deck-building strategy and combat set in the hectic universe of Nova Aetas in Italy. Each player is one of powerful mages of the Black Rose Order who aspires to become the new Supreme Magister in order to acquire the mighty power of the Black Rose Artifact and the Forgotten Magic. Mages must fight fulfill Black Rose desires and gain strength with their spells until their power reaches the containment threshold of the prison where they are exiled finally freeing themselves. Each mage has at their disposal six schools of magic each one with its own strategy to annihilate their opponents and increase their power.At the start of the battle mages start with a grimoire of six cards; as mages study more spells during play their grimoire will increase. Every spell in Black Rose Wars has two different effects increasing a player's adaptability during a fight.Mages fight each other in a modular arena of hexagons called rooms. They summon powerful creatures cast destructive spells or devise dark deceptions with their enchantments. The game system is divided into different phases. Each turn after choosing new spells from the six schools of magic players plan their strategy in advance placing cards face down. Later they reveal the played cards to kill each other solve missions summon creatures or destroy the prison rooms one against each other and against the Black Rose (the playing system). After being killed mages are reborn immediately allowing them to re-enter the fight without delay — although their death still fed energy to those mages who caused it. The mage with the most power at the end of the battle will be crowned Supreme Magister of the Order by the Black Rose itself.

In Amerigo the players help Amerigo Vespucci on his journey to discover new land. The players explore the islands of South America secure trading routes and build settlements.The actions available to players are determined through the use of a specialized cube tower which has appeared in the Queen titles Im Zeichen des Kreuzes and Wallenstein. At the start of the game this tower is seeded with action cubes which come in seven colors with each color matching a particular type of action. During the game players will drop additional action cubes into the tower – but some of these cubes might get stuck in the floors of the tower while other cubes already in the tower are knocked free. Thus players need to play both tactically – taking advantage of the actions currently available in the best way possible – and strategically – using their knowledge of which actions do what to play well over the course of the game.The game board is composed of nine twelve or sixteen tiles depending on the number of players. Players sail their ships through the landscape created for this game landing on islands to plan and build settlements which then supply resources and allow the player to earn victory points. Players might want to invest in cannons to protect themselves from pirates roaming the waters or acquire progress tokens to gain special advantages.

In Archipelago players are Renaissance European powers competing in the exploration of a Pacific or Caribbean archipelago. They will explore territories harvest resources use those resources in markets both internal (for their use and that of the natives) and foreign (to sell it in Europe) build markets harbors cities and temples and negotiate among themselves (and maybe betray each other) – all this to complete their secret objectives. They will also need to guess the secret objective of the other players to be able to benefit from them.But players also need to be careful of the natives; if they make them too unhappy or if too many of them are unoccupied they could revolt and declare independence. Then everyone will lose!According to the author what he's tried to create is a German economic worker-placement game but without the two things he dislikes in them: the superficial theme and the lack of interaction. Indeed this game includes a very present theme and a lot of negotiation and potential backstabbing.The game includes three sets of objectives enabling players to choose between a short medium and a long game. Solo play is also possible with an expansion.IN FRENCH Archipelago retrace l’ère majestueuse de la découverte des archipels à travers le globe de 1492 (découverte des Antilles par Christophe Colomb) jusqu’à 1797 (colonisation de Tahiti). Chaque joueur incarne un explorateur et son équipe mandatés par une nation européenne pour découvrir coloniser et exploiter les archipels. Ces missions sont censées s’effectuer de manière diplomatique en répondant tant aux besoins de la population locale qu’aux demandes régulières du continent. Il faudra donc respecter l’archipel et ses autochtones sous peine de voir les natifs se révolter pour finir en guerre d’indépendance. Les limites entre expansionnisme et humanisme économie et respect des valeurs locales transmission de connaissances et industrialisation à outrance ne sont pas toujours évidentes à trouver. L’équilibre de l’archipel dépendra donc beaucoup de la volonté que mettra chacun à faire de ces îles des colonies heureuses et productives ou au contraire à exploiter outrageusement les ressources et les natifs pour finir dans le chaos et la révolte. Pour compliquer les choses parmi vous se cache peut-être un indépendantiste ou un pacifiste. L’un comme l’autre tentera de faire pencher la balance respectivement vers la révolte ou vers la paix. Êtes-vous prêt à endosser votre rôle et partir à la découverte d’Archipelago ?

Welcome back to the palace of Sintra! King Manuel I has commissioned the best garden designers of Portugal to construct the most extraordinary garden for his wife Queen Maria of Aragon.In Azul: Queen's Garden players are tasked with arranging a magnificent garden for the King's lovely wife by arranging beautiful plants trees and ornamental features.Using an innovative drafting mechanism the signature of the Azul series players must carefully select colorful tiles to decorate their garden. Only the most incredible garden designers will flourish and win the Queen's blessing.—description from the publisher

Game description from the publisher:Return to a bustling Plymouth Harbor in 1572 as an aspiring Elizabethan captain making preparations for three exciting voyages to the Spanish Main in search of fame and fortune! As captains players will have to plan their missions and provision their ships accordingly.Francis Drake is a race to see who can set sail and reach the Spanish Main first. The riches of the Aztec and Inca Empires await these swashbuckling captains. Many tough decisions must be made before each voyage:Each new voyage has its own challenges to overcome but the captured gold silver and jewels should greatly please the Queen. Get ready for the voyage of a lifetime!

Golem is an engine-building game by Simone Luciani Virginio Gigli and Flaminia Brasini the same team that brought you Grand Austria Hotel and Lorenzo il Magnifico.The game is based on the 16th-century legend of the Golem of Prague an anthropomorphic creature that Rabbi Loew animated from a clay statue to protect his people. In the game players take on the role of rabbis who create and grow these powerful creatures that will be moved around the neighborhoods of Prague under the control of students. Be careful because if a golem becomes too powerful it will destroy everything it encounters on its way. Players can also kill their Golems in order to get bonuses.Players also create powerful artifacts and acquire knowledge by collecting ancient books.The game is divided into four rounds and each round is composed of 7 phases:At the beginning of each round the players will shuffle the colored marbles into the 3D synagogue that will split them into five lines corresponding to the five main actions available in the game:The number of marbles available in the corresponding action line determines how much the player gets from the action. When you choose an action you collect one marble of your choice in the corresponding line and depending on the color of the marble you chose you also move your student forward on one of the districts of Prague.It's important to advance your students on those tracks to be able to keep your golems under control. At the end of the round knowledge can also be used to control a golem that surpassed its students but if one of these creatures is uncontrolled it may become dangerous and destroy the neighborhood after which you will have to destroy and bury it!The marble color also matters because at the end of the round if you get the correct combination of two colors you receive the favor of one of the powerful Prague characters which will differ each round.At the end of the fourth round players score points for active or buried golems artifacts books development on their personal board and collected goal cards.

As a Renaissance banker you will finance kings or republics sponsor voyages of discovery join secret cabals or unleash jihads and inquisitions. Your choices determine whether Europe is elevated into the bright modern era or remains festering in dark feudalism.In Pax Renaissance you have two actions each turn. As in other Pax games you can acquire cards in a market sell them out of the game or play them into your tableau. You can also stimulate the economy by running trade fairs and trading voyages for Oriental goods. A map of Europe with trade routes from Portugal to Crimea is included and discovering new trade routes can radically alter the importance and wealth of empires ten of which are in the game.Four victories determine the future course of Western Society: Will it be towards imperialism trade globalization religious totalitarianism or enlightened art and science?

The theaters of London are abuzz. In one week her majesty the Queen will attend their new shows and will grant her support to one of the troupes. It's the chance of a lifetime for the young authors who are inflaming the populace with ever more audacious and motley plays. But how do you create a masterpiece in such a short time? Whoever has the answer to this thorny question will probably enter the rolls of history!In Shakespeare players are theater managers who must recruit actors craftsmen jewelers and others in order to assemble everything needed for the play's performance at week's end.In more detail the game lasts six days and on each day players recruit one new character — starting with five at the beginning of the game: four identical ones on their individual player board and one that they've drafted — and take 1-5 actions with the characters they have. Characters and their actions are:After players take actions they check the individual ambience level in their theater gaining or losing points or rehearsal time depending on the atmosphere. Dress rehearsal on the fourth and sixth days provide another chance for fully-dressed actors to perform and those who are well-rehearsed earn points or money.On all but the final days players must allow characters who performed to rest with only one of those characters being able to work the next day. Thus the more you put them to work today the less you'll be able to do tomorrow — but those who don't plan to do as much act before other players so that might be a good thing.In the end players must pay their actors with each unpaid actor blemishing your reputation and costing you points. Whoever finishes with the most prestige points wins.

Century: A New World is the third and final installment of the Century series from designer Emerson Matsuuchi.Century: A New World sends players to the Americas at the dawn of the 16th century. Braving the wilderness players are forced to explore new lands trade with local inhabitants journal their findings and hunt/gather to survive! The game integrates the compelling and incredibly fun resource trading mechanisms found in the Century series with a worker placement mechanism with a twist!Century: A New World may be combined with Century: Spice Road or Century: Eastern Wonders or both for all new mixable games.

Dogs of War is an elegant game set in a steampunk-influenced renaissance universe. Noble houses engage each other in a series of fierce battles and it's up to the players and the Dogs of War they control to deploy their private armies in support of whatever house they wish to favor. Clockwork knights and imposing war machines shift the tides of war as they enter the battlefields but the interest of their Dog of War captains actually lie in the rewards offered by each noble house to its supporters. Each Dog of War has a special ability that helps them claim influence win battles or betray the house to which they've sworn allegiance!Dogs of War is not a game of pure military power but rather a game in which deception and betrayal often lead the way to a decisive victory. The goal for the Dogs of War is to earn the most power by the end of the game. Thanks to thoughtful game design and development there are many ways to achieve this like defeating other captains in battle getting rewards from the Houses you help amassing gold and troops and most importantly gaining influence with the most successful Houses.

Empires: Age of Discovery allows you to revisit the age of exploration and discovery. Take on the role of a colonial power seeking fame glory and riches in the New World. As you proceed through three ages you launch expeditions of discovery colonize regions expand your merchant fleet build capital buildings that give your nation distinct advantages develop your economy and (if necessary) declare war.Empires: Age of Discovery is a reimplementation of Age of Empires III but without that name due to the expense of renewing the license from Microsoft. This edition includes the Empires: Builder Expansion along with its capital buildings; its National Advantage tiles have been built into the new player boards.

For more than four centuries scholars have argued over the identity of the mysterious Dark Lady of William Shakespeare's sonnets. According to the sonnets the Dark Lady seduced the poet and held him in an agonised thrall while also conducting an affair with the Fair Youth whom Shakespeare also loved.In Black Sonata you will find yourself in Shakespeare's London circa 1600 in pursuit of the shadowy Lady. A specially ordered deck of cards determines her hidden movements from place to place. You must deduce her location and then intercept her to catch a glimpse and gain a clue to her identity. You will need several clues to deduce her identity but with each clue gained the Lady becomes harder to track. Black Sonata combines hidden movement and logical deduction into a unique solitaire steeped in literary history.Can you finally solve English literature's greatest mystery? Or will the Dark Lady elude you melting from your grasp like a curl of smoke and promises?

In The Palaces of Carrara players want to buy the marble from this famous region of Italy as cheaply as possible – but any reduction in price will benefit opponents as well. Maybe you'll find it profitable to instead invest in the buildings created from this marble? Maybe it'll be more worthwhile to grab the expensive raw material when bigger buildings in town turn out to be not so lucrative?The game includes two levels of play: beginner and advanced. Co-designer Wolfgang Kramer says To understand the game it's important that players play the beginner version to learn the game mechanisms and how they mesh together.

Italy during the 15th century was a country full of intrigue and magnificence. The tumultuous political conditions created the perfect breeding ground for the birth of a new form of government (called Signoria) and the rise of the most ambitious noble families. After having acted in the dark for a long time the time has finally come for them to take control of the cities and shape Italy’s future. Their stories will go down in history.In Signorie you will play the role of a Signore a Lord of one of the most prestigious families of the Renaissance. One at the time players choose one die from a common pool. (Twenty dice in five colors are rolled at the beginning of each round.) You place it on your player board (your city) and perform one of the possible actions. The color of the chosen die determines the action and the number on the die is a discount on the cost of the action.During a round each player can perform up to four actions. At the end of the round if the sum of a player's chosen dice is equal or lower than 13 he can obtain a reward.The dice mechanism is easy and innovative and gives players a simple but challenging choice. Money is always tight so there is a temptation to choose a high valued dice but that needs to be balanced with obtaining the reward.

from GMT website:Virgin Queen: Wars of Religion 1559-1598 is a game of grand strategy for two to six players based on the military political and religious conflicts within Europe during the reigns of Elizabeth I of England and Philip II of Spain. Each player controls one or more of the major powers that presided over European politics in that day. Spain is the juggernaut able to draw upon the vast riches of their global empire. But such a dominant power is sure to have many enemies. The Ottoman expansion towards Spain's Mediterranean outposts remains unchecked. Elizabeth's English sea dogs are poised to raid Spain's overseas empire. And the forces of Protestant reform will soon drag Spain into eighty years of rebellion in the Netherlands. Will Spain find aid from its Catholic allies? Perhaps not from France where the Catholic Valois dynasty is soon to engage another group of Protestant believers in the bloody French Wars of Religion. And even Philip's relatives in Vienna who rule the Holy Roman Empire may dabble in the Protestant faith instead of remaining loyal to their Catholic heritage and Spanish brethren.Virgin Queen: Wars of Religion 1559-1598 is the sequel to Here I Stand another card-driven game of grand strategy that covered the previous forty years (from Martin Luther's posting of his 95 Theses in 1517 through the abdication of Charles V in 1556). Players familiar with Here I Stand will find much that is familiar in Virgin Queen as over half of the rule book remains unchanged. New game systems have been put in place to emphasize the changing nature of the conflicts here in the late 16th Century:

Sedlec Ossuary 16th Century AD.The Black Plague and Hussite Wars have overcrowded the graveyard. Help the Bone Collector a half-blind monk by exhuming graves and arranging the skulls inside the crypt.You are novice monks competing to create the best arrangement of skulls.Dig up graves from the graveyard to reveal cards take cards into your hand to collect skulls and arrange the cards from your hand into a stack. Whoever better honors the deceased’s last wishes will score more points.The Bone Collector will then judge each player’s completed stack and declare one as the most exceptional.—description from the publisherReleased in the June 2020 Board Game of the Month Club $20+ package.Finalist (top 3) of Button Shy's 18 Card Challenge: Design a game about a real life location.

Alma Mater has players serving as a headmaster of one of the independent universities in the 15th century. Players seek to strengthen their school's reputation and standing. To achieve these goals players need to recruit the best staff and students exchange knowledge with other schools and become experts in the school's four disciplines!—description from the publisher

The great Sapa Inca Pachacuti turned to his offspring and ordered them to worship Inti the Sun God and to expand the Inca Empire as far as the llamas roam. With Chinchaysuyu Antisuyu Qullasuyu and Kuntisuyu — the four regions of the new empire — now ripe for conquest the time has come for Pachacuti's true successor to arise.Gather your people from the villages below and use their unique abilities to strategically place them where they can perform the greatest tasks for you. Climb the steps of the Sun Temple reaping the rewards of your piety. Build structures that both nourish your people and provide you with benefits no other has at their disposal. Muster an army and conquer villages in the four realms of Tawantinsuyu. Prove yourself a worthy successor to Pachacuti and lead the Inca to glory!During Tawantinsuyu: The Inca Empire players place workers onto various locations on the game board performing actions collecting resources (potatoes corn stone and gold) constructing buildings and stairs sculpt statues expanding their military strength and collecting weavings.The game board features a hill located within the old Inca capital of Cusco the sides of which are terraced and divided into five sections. Atop the hill sits the Coricancha The Golden Temple the most important temple of the Inca Empire. Within the Coricancha each player has a High Priest. On the terraced sections below exist a variety of worker placement locations interconnected by paths and individually marked by symbols. On your turn you must either place a worker onto a location outside the Coricancha OR choose two of the following:When placing a worker you must first discard a god card with a matching symbol or pay one gold. Once placed the worker remains on the game board for the rest of the game! Each worker placement location is connected to exactly three action spaces. You must always perform at least one of these actions. However for each adjacent worker (i.e. connected to your worker's location via direct path through one of the action spaces) that matches the type of worker just placed you receive one additional action!While some locations will result in you being able to perform multiple actions other actions and placements may be more desirable especially since each of the five types of workers has a unique ability:All god cards feature one of the different symbols found on the worker placement locations. Before placing a worker you must either discard a god card with a matching symbol or pay valuable gold resources. God cards also depict special abilities that can be activated only if you have previously built a matching statue!Army cards allow you to send one or more units to conquer villages in nearby regions. You must compete against the other players for control of each region as well as for valuable rewards that can be gained as a result of military conquest.The position of your High Priest within the Coricancha has a significant impact on your overall strategy affecting your access to powerful actions and determining any potential resource costs when placing your workers. More specifically when placing a worker you must pay additional resources the farther your worker is from your High Priest from nothing all the way up to eight potatoes or corn!Additionally when moving your High Priest you can activate powerful actions available only within the Coricancha:Throughout the game you score victory points whenever you construct stairs or sculpt statues. Gain bonus victory points whenever another player makes use of the stairs you have constructed. Score victory points from temple advancements and control of the four regions.The game ends when the worker pool has become exhausted symbolizing the full incorporation of nearby regions and villages into the newly risen Inca Empire. You then score bonus victory points from reaching the top of the temple from your woven tapestries and from various buildings and resources you have accumulated.—description from publisher

The beautiful Tuscany region in the 15th century is the home of the Italian Renaissance. As influential princes the players make creative decisions to build their region into a flourishing domain.By supporting towns villages and monasteries or by extracting marble and delivering goods players see their lands grow earning them victory points. Each round players use cards to place useful tiles to expand their regions and gain new opportunities.The winner is the person who has the most victory points after three rounds of play.NOTE: The English edition of the rules for the Castles of Tuscany have some translation and design issues making it slightly harder than typical to learn how to play this introductory Feld game. Some smaller issues have been observed in other languages complicating a simple resolution of questions. A community FAQ is available here to provide some clarity and is highly recommended for first time players.

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.

Here I Stand: Wars of the Reformation 1517-1555 is the first game in over 25 years to cover the political and religious conflicts of early 16th Century Europe. Few realize that the greatest feats of Martin Luther Jean Calvin Ignatius Loyola Henry VIII Charles V Francis I Suleiman the Magnificent Ferdinand Magellan Hernando Cortes and Nicolaus Copernicus all fall within this narrow 40-year period of history. This game covers all the action of the period using a unique card-driven game system that models both the political and religious conflicts of the period on a single point-to-point map.There are six main powers in the game each with a unique path to victory.Here I Stand was due for a reprint in 2017 but with October 31 2017 being the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's posting of his 95 Theses Ed Beach and his team of Here I Stand enthusiasts have put together a series of enhancements to the original game that transform this reprint into a deluxe 500th anniversary treatment.DESIGNER: Ed Beach MAP & CARD ART: Mark Simonitch COUNTER ART: Mark Simonitch and Rodger B. MacGowan—description from the publisher

Ulm is at its historic heyday: There is a constant hustle and bustle in the prosperous free imperial city. At the beginning of the 16th century the city has one of the largest municipal territories within the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. Success and wealth are not only due to Swabian thriftiness but mainly the result of the citizens’ business acumen and skilled craftsmanship. Trade in works of art and commercial goods such as wood wine salt and textiles is flourishing; for the most part these goods are shipped by barge or raft on the Danube river. People are busy building the cathedral - the social heart of the city - that will at one time have the tallest church steeple in the world. Everybody of distinction meets around the cathedral. The influential guilds and patricians dominate city life; and if you want to accomplish something you need to be in the good graces of the right people.In Ulm players try to expand their spheres of influence and to make optimal use of the hustle and bustle on the marketplace around the cathedral. The game has one simple basic rule: Push 1 Action tile into the Cathedral area and carry out the 3 associated actions! This way the Cathedral tower gets taller and taller over the game. The objective of the game is plain and simple: try to accumulate the most victory points through activities in different areas of city life in Ulm and do it before the end of the 10th round when the construction of the Cathedral is concluded.Who will make the best use of his means and resources over time and will go down in the annals of the city’s history as an important citizen?

In the card-driven board game Rialto the goal is to earn the most victory points (VPs) which are awarded for a variety of things. The game board displays the six districts of Venice and players earn VPs for placing council members into these for building bridges and placing gondolas to connect the districts with one another and for building advantageous buildings.The game is played over six rounds with each round consisting of three phases:1. Acquire cards: Each player takes a set of cards. 2. Play cards: Players use cards to perform certain actions. 3. Activate buildings: Players may take advantage of their buildings and use their powers.In phase 1 sets of eight cards are displayed (with six cards face-up and two face-down). Each player takes one set then reduces his hand to seven cards. A card shows one of six specific characters (Architect Merchant etc.) or is a wild card.Phase 2 consists of six sub-phases in a fixed order one for each character. In each sub-phase players choose whether or not to play one or more cards of that specific character. Each card allows them to perfom that character's action for example:Whoever plays the most cards in each such sub-phase receives a bonus of one free action of that type. In case of a tie whoever is farthest along the Doge bar gets the bonus – and of course to advance on the Doge bar players need to play Doge cards.Finally in phase 3 players may take advantage of their buildings. For each piece of gold paid a player may use one of his building's ability.Players collect VPs both during the game – from special buildings and by building bridges between districts – and at the end of it – for majorities of council members in each district. The value of each district evolves during the game: Each district is adjacent to four other ones and at the end of the game they will be connected either via bridges or gondolas. A bridge increases the value of the adjacent districts by 3-6 victory points whereas a gondola increases this value by 1 point. The player with the most council members in a district earns VPs equal to the district's total value the player with the secondmost council members earns half this value and so on. While it's important to establish majorities in the districts it's also crucial to control their values by cleverly placing those bridges and gondolas.

The Arte di Calimala — the guild of cloth finishers and merchants in foreign cloth — was one of the greater guilds of Florence who arrogated to themselves the civic power of the Republic of Florence during the Late Middle Ages. The woolen cloth trade was the engine that drove the city’s economy and the members of the Calimala were the elite of Florence.Throughout its long history the Arte di Calimala supervised the execution of artistic and architectural works. Most Florentine guilds performed such activities but the Calimala distinguished itself from other guilds through the number and prestige of the projects and the sites administered including the construction and decoration of some of the major churches of the city.Players of Calimala are cloth merchants in medieval Florence with a number of trusted employees that they assign to various streets within the city to carry out actions. (Each street connects two places where particular actions can be taken.) While taking these actions players produce and deliver cloth and contribute to the construction and decoration of various buildings across the city. Employees stay on their assigned places for a while carrying out their actions whenever the street is activated and eventually are promoted into the city council triggering a scoring phase.Depending on the number of players each player has a number of action discs. In turn order they can put one on a space between two actions performing both actions and activating all other discs on the same space. When the fourth disc is placed on an action space the lowest one is promoted to the city council which triggers a scoring. After the last action disc is placed or the last scoring phase in the council is triggered the game ends. The positions of the action spaces and sequence of scoring phases vary from game to game making each game very different. Secret scoring objectives and action cards add uncertainty.

The 2012 rerelease of Wallenstein tweaks the 2002 title from designer Dirk Henn and publisher Queen Games while including two new expansions.The setting and game play of the two games are mostly the same. In 1625 the Thirty Years' War is underway and military leaders like Albrecht von Wallenstein and Gottfried Heinrich Graf zu Pappenheim are roaming the country fighting for land and trying to establish the best of everything for themselves. The game lasts two years with players taking actions in the spring summer and fall then possibly suffering from grain shortage and revolts in the winter before scoring points for the year. After two years the player with the most points – with points being scored for land and buildings under one's control – wins.In each of the action seasons ten action cards are shuffled then laid out with five face-up and the rest face-down. The five bonus tiles (which provide extra money grain or armies) are also laid out. Each player then secretly assigns one of his county cards (or a blank card) to each of the ten actions on his individual player board in addition to bidding for player order and choice of bonus tile.After revealing that round's event card and determining player order players carry out actions in the order determined earlier revealing which county is taking the current action then revealing the next face-down action thus giving players some information about when actions will occur but not all. Taxing a county or taking grain from it can increase the chance of a revolt during winter but without money you can't deploy troops or build palaces or churches and without grain you increase the chance of revolt.Combat and revolts are handled via a dice tower in which players drop army units and peasants (colored wooden cubes) into the top of the tower and see which ones emerge in the bottom tray (representing the fighting forces for that combat) and which get stuck in the tower's baffles to possibly emerge in the future.Wallenstein includes two expansions: Emperor's Court in which a player's army tokens that fall from the dice tower at the start of the game become courtiers who compete for favors (special actions) from the emperor; a player can convert armies to courtiers during the game and whoever has the most courtiers in the court's entrance hall each turn gets first shot at the favors available. Landsknechte which can be used with Emperor's Court or on its own consists of a set of four cards for each player stacked in a particular order. If after determining turn order a player controls counties in four different regions he removes the top card from the stack then takes one of the bonuses (such as money or armies in the tray) shown on the newly revealed card. This stack resets after winter ends.Note that the box of this game states is for 2-5 players but the game actually plays only with 3-5 players.

In Masters of Renaissance you are an important citizen of Florence and your goal is to increase your fame and prestige. Take resources from the market and use them to buy new cards. Expand your power both in the city and in the surrounding territories! Every card gives you a production power that transforms the resources so you can store them in our strongbox. Try to use the Leaders' abilities to your advantage and don't forget to show your devotion to the Pope!Masters of Renaissance is a game with simple rules offering deep strategic choices of action selection and engine building.—description from the publisher

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood of Venice is a co-operative miniature board game taking place in the heart of the Italian Renaissance through a story-driven campaign of 26 memories in Venice in 1509. Choose your assassins according to their unique abilities level up during the campaign and unlock new skills for each of them.Fight or stay incognito thanks to the equipment found in chests or manufactured by Leonardo Da Vinci. Evade your pursuers by climbing on roofs and towers then synchronize to reveal new game elements. Bribe your enemies use secret hideouts to escape patrols and flip mechanisms to change the level layout. After each memory fall back to your headquarters to heal your wounds grow your brotherhood's fame and craft special equipment. The game features a save system that allows the number of players to vary between each campaign and the level of play adjusts according to the number of players.The retail edition of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood of Venice features the same scenarios as the original Kickstarter release and therefore the same gameplay experience. What has changed is that all of the miniatures other than the five detailed assassin figurines have been replaced with standees so the game includes 5 miniatures 139 standees 6 secret envelopes 41 tiles and more than 400 cards.Many surprises await in the sealed envelopes. Meet the many famous personalities you've encountered in the Assassin's Creed video games as well as four unique ones created especially for this game.

The kingdom is shattered its towns are divided and its people are distrusting. The newly crowned ruler El Cascadero seeks to reunite the land but he can’t do it alone. Thus he appoints four ministers to visit the people and restore civil harmony. While the ministers are obligated to bring prosperity to the entire land each of them also has one dedicated responsibility: Farming Crafting Mining and Markets. El Cascadero also records in his book the successes of his ministers…Cascadero is the next epic tile placement strategy game from acclaimed designer Reiner Knizia. Ministers visit towns by placing their envoys adjacent to them; but towns are distrusting of single envoys so newly placed envoys will only trigger town scoring when they are part of an established group or carry an official seal from El Cascadero himself. Towns with Royal Messengers at them or a history of envoy visits are even more valuable as they willingly collaborate for even greater successes.Players must decide between two competing strategies: build long chains of their envoys to achieve synergies and objectives or establish smaller separate groups of envoys to trigger timely town scoring. Both will award victory points yet your victory points will mean nothing if you don’t also reach the end of your appointed success column.By triggering town scoring you’ll advance along that town’s matching success column gaining bonuses as you pass over them. Bonuses include earning victory points advancing further on any success column claiming an official seal repositioning an envoy or even acquiring an additional turn. Through careful timing and clever plans players can trigger a cascading combo of exciting bonuses that swing momentum in their favor.Cascadero provides a wealth of replayability through emergent player interaction variable board and tile setups and an advanced player mode featuring traveling heralds. Yet the game will always end in one of two ways: when one player reaches fifty victory points or must place a tile but has no tiles left. The players who reached the end of their appointed success column qualify for victory and whoever among them has the most victory points wins.—description from the publisher

Set in the legendary city of Ragusa (now Dubrovnik) Ragusa charges players with the task of building the city in the 15th century constructing its great towers boosting trade with the East and finding their fortunes.Players build houses on the spaces between three hexes gaining access to resources (on rural spaces) and actions (in the city) which means that a house effectively functions as a worker being placed but triggering three spots at a time. Players use resources gained in the countryside to build buildings trade and craft valuable commodities — the value of which varies as ships come and go from the harbor.In the city players gain access to actions with each spot representing the three actions that surround it. This simple worker placement gives way to a deep engine-building mechanism as not only will building around production spaces utilize the houses you've already built in the countryside but building near other player's houses will re-activate them giving other players valuable opportunities outside of their turns.The game ends once players have placed all their houses. The player with the most points from all sources wins.

The Age of Discovery Portugal 15th–16th century: With the Mediterranean under Osman Turk control the Portuguese were severely limited in the Mediterranean and looking for other trade routes. Better ships better compasses and a general centralization of power helped push the Portuguese explorers into the Atlantic and sailors like Prince Henry Bartolomeu Dias and Vasco da Gama took to the seas.In Sail to India (セイルトゥインディア) the players are nobles who support these sailors in their efforts to discover a route to India and to be the foremost and most famous explorer of all. Players must manage their resources to develop sales channels to India and they have only two Action Points with which to do it. A player's money score ship and building are all affected by the same pawn and to do well you'll need to manage the movement of that pawn to make full use of twelve types of actions six kinds of products and three different buildings.

In 1566 Jean Parisot de Valette 49th Grand Master of the Order of Malta laid the foundation for Valletta the future capital of Malta.In Valletta players take inspiration from Jean Parisot de Valette in order to procure raw materials; hire merchants bricklayers and roofers; and build their own version of the magnificent capital with its mighty bastions baroque buildings and a right-angled street network. Cultivate your contacts with the Order of Malta to improve your reputation.Players are supervised in their work by de Valette who patrols his streets as a building inspector. When he reaches the end of his patrol the game ends and a winner is determined.

Renaissance Europe is coming together and people have realized that even the most powerful dynasties can achieve more together so members of those dynasties are marrying trading and sharing with one another — but who will end with the biggest piece of the pie?In Dynasties players must make many compromises whether acting on their own or reacting to the behavior of their fellow players. In addition to these tactical and strategic decisions luck also plays something of a role as not every marriage brings the windfall expected. Perhaps then another marriage will bring more success and influence?—description from the publisher

A world of beautiful colors comes alive in Pastiche as players choose commission cards picturing 34 of the finest European art works of the past six centuries. Players score their commissions by mixing primary colors through clever tile placement and recreating the palette of colors used by the masters who created these works. Explore the paintings palettes and pasts of the artists in this unique and challenging game for the whole family.While placing hexagonal pieces to gain palette (color) cards players become familiar with the different color combinations that produce the many hues of an artist’s palette all listed on the Player Reference Card. Players also learn to recognize many great artists and their works as they complete commissions.An International Edition of Pastiche was released in late 2011.

Il Vecchio is set in the 15th century when Cosimo de Medici – also called Il Vecchio (the Elder) – and his family ruled over Tuscany and its capital Florence. The players represent the heads of Florentine families trying to rise their families to power. To achieve this they send out their family members to locations in Tuscany to perform various tasks specifically to recruit followers (knights assassins abbots) and collect money as both are needed to take control of provinces in neighboring regions; controlled provinces provide power and a bonus action. Another task is to gain the favor of the squirearchy as these favors are indispensable when it comes to getting an official position in Florence e.g. a seat on the town council to enhance actions in Tuscany or a noble rank to gain power at the end of the game.To complete these tasks however a proper middleman must be present at a location and as these middlemen travel a lot they are rarely met. That's why it is so important to have one's family members in the right place at the right time – to save on time and money while achieving one's goals.At the beginning of the game each player has four family members in Tuscany. Players take turns performing exactly one action. Before his action a player may pay money to move one of his own family members to another location. The available actions are to:The game ends when the Power of the Medici has faded as indicated by a diminishing pile of crest tiles. Certain actions require you to remove such a tile and the game ends when they're all gone. Players then sum their power points – earned for gained tiles and majorities in the regions and Florence – for a final scoring and the player with the most power wins.

In Amalfi: Renaissance players take on the role of merchants in the Italian port town of Amalfi during the Renaissance period. The town was a dominant maritime power during the previous century but its importance has diminished. The merchants of Amalfi are eager to recapture their previous success and revive the abandoned port town but they have only four ships.In this game players' ships are used to navigate but also to store their resources. With their resources they will be able to:The game ends after four rounds and the player with the most points wins.This new edition of Amalfi includes new mechanisms (you can now build lighthouses on the map); new characters including new illustrations with si new asymmetrical decks; and rebalanced artworks charts decrees and titles to offer more choices and more replayability all in a new box with a double-layered main board and individual player boards.

Nieuw Amsterdam was founded by the Dutch West Indies Company in order to encourage the lucrative beaver pelt trade with the local Native American hunters along the Hudson River. To establish a trading post there they needed a town and a fort which was built on the tip of Manhattan Island. To encourage European patrons – that is settlers of means or noble birth – to populate the colony they granted them both land and indentured servants. The patrons became the lords of a new feudal system not unlike that seen in Europe.In Nieuw Amsterdam players are those patrons and they bid on action lots in order to build businesses work land for both food and building materials compete in elections ship furs to the Old World and trade with the Lenape Indians – a process that gets more complicated as players claim more land and push the Lenape camps farther up the Hudson River.

Crypt is a small-box set collection game with a unique dice placement mechanic for 1 to 4 players.Place your servant dice on treasure cards choosing any value on each die. Choosing a higher value can ward off your opponents but it also increases the odds that your servant will become exhausted. After everyone has placed their servant dice everyone rolls. If you roll less than your chosen value you lose the die.Sets of treasure can be pawned off to collectors that offer bonus coins and special abilities. The player with the most valuable collection wins!—description from the designer

In 1637 the tulip craze fueled one of the first speculative investment bubbles. Coveted tulip varieties led to skyrocketing prices with tulip bulbs costing more than houses in Amsterdam. Then just as suddenly as it started the bubble burst when investors could no longer afford even the cheapest bulbs leaving economic turmoil.In Tulip Bubble players buy and sell on a fluctuating market trying to earn the most guilders. The game flow includes a preparation phase buying phase and selling phase with these phases recurring until the bubble collapses or someone manages to outwit the markets by purchasing a black tulip for 120 guilders before that collapse occurs.

Spain 16th century. You are a powerful ship owner in search of wealth from the recently discovered Mundus Novus (New World). Your goal: Charter fleets of caravels to collect valuable goods (including the legendary Inca relics) and trade to form the best sets to expand your business empire and make your fortune.The game is played using two decks of cards: a deck of resource cards which contains cards representing ten different resources and a deck of development cards which give special benefits to their owners. The game is played in rounds with each round consisting of four phases:Each round starts with the Event phase in which a random event may occur that affects all players.The next phase is the Supply phase. Each player receives five random resource cards plus one resource card for each caravel (a type of development card) that he owns chosen from a common pool.Then during the Trade phase the players trade some of their cards. One of the players the Trade Master determines how many resource cards (2 3 or 4) each player must offer for trade. The player that offers the resources with the highest value becomes the new Trade Master. He chooses one of the resources offered by one of the other players and adds it to his hand or exchanges it with a card from the market (three face-up cards that are available for such exchanges). Then the player that he has taken a card from gets to take a card and so on until all the cards have been taken.Finally during the Progression phase the players exchange their resources for doubloons and developments. A player may exchange one set of three or more of the same resource for a development. Bigger combinations and rarer resources will allow more choice of which development can be selected from the five that are on offer. In addition players can exchange sets of three or more different goods for doubloons with bigger combinations earning more doubloons.If a player can make a combination of ten different cards (i.e. one of each type of resource) he wins the game. Alternatively if a player has accumulated 75 doubloons he wins the game. If no player has achieved victory by the time the development deck runs out the player who has accumulated the most doubloons wins.

And yet it moves he said.Galileo Galilei is a Euro-style game in which you take on the role of an astronomer who will discover new planets find unknown star systems develop their telescope and make a scientific breakthrough in the difficult ages of obscurantism.Use your telescope to select one of the five actions available with you being able to evolve these actions into better ones. Collect cards of different planets and star systems. Collect lenses of the three main colors to make a discovery. Be wary of inquisitors as they might arrive unwelcomed and ruin your fame in no time. Better find a way to profit from their visit instead...—description from the publisher

Medici: The Card Game is a new design by Reiner Knizia that shares the setting and feel of the classic Medici board game without using that game's auction mechanisms.In 15th century Florence players try to acquire the most valuable goods for their merchant ships by drawing 1-3 cards from a common deck each turn. After drawing the active player must take the final card they drew and may select one or both of the previous two cards drawn (if available). They then load these commodity cards on their boat. Cards that are not taken remain available to future players. Once a player's boat is full (seven cards with two players five cards with 3-6 players) they are out of the round and the day is scored.Players score points for the value of their ships' holds but also for the number of commodities of each type that they have stored in their warehouse. The highest earning merchant over three days wins the game. Some cards do not take up space on ships while others contribute to the value of a hold but cannot be stored in warehouses.This is the first game to be added to the Medici family of games since Strozzi released in 2008.

It's a time of upheaval when the Middle Ages end and modernity is born. For those in the government the situation is ripe for action. Your city must maintain its standing and you as its prince must make this happen.Virtù takes place during the Italian Renaissance with each player embodying one of the powerful Italian cities of the time and trying to make it more powerful than all others through virtù the ability to accomplish great things through a strong state (according to Machiavelli).The foundation of the game is wheelbuilding that is creating a wheel of actions on your personal player board which has a unique arrangement compared to other players and with you having a different set of starting family cards. Depending on how you place the cards you have multiple options available and a starting strategy but you can acquire and place new cards to alter your approach over the course of the game. You interact with others indirectly by taking cards they want or racing to goals or directly by sending agents to the palace or their cities as well as by attacking cities. Artists merchants and diplomats can also work to increase your prestige.Virtù includes a two-player mode that is played differently from the game with 3-5 players.

In The Palaces of Carrara players want to buy the marble from this famous region of Italy as cheaply as possible – but any reduction in price will benefit your opponents as well. Maybe you'll find it profitable to instead invest in the buildings created from this exclusive marble? Maybe it'll be more worthwhile to grab the expensive raw material when bigger buildings in town turn out to be not as lucrative as you'd hoped?This second edition includes a revised set of rules as well as a completely new advanced version that will include many new strategies and ways of scoring. This new advanced mode of play introduces statues which will allow you to score your buildings in a multitude of new ways. So come and revisit this classic game by famous designers Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kiesling.

The Commands & Colors: Samurai Battles wargame rules allow players to portray important engagements of Japanese history. The battles included in the scenario booklet focus on the historical deployment of forces and important terrain features in scale with the game system. The scale of the game is flexible and varies from battle to battle. For some scenarios an infantry unit may represent an entire clan of soldiers while in other scenarios a unit may represent just a few brave warriors.—description from the publisher

Serenissima is the new Ystari edition of the 1996 game (Méditerranée in France). The rules have been updated and the game is more fluid.In Serenissima players represent a merchant family during the Renaissance. Players attempt to balance the need of trading and open commerce versus the cut-throat economic piracy of the day. Players create a fleet of ships to purchase and move various commodities around the Mediterranean while also keeping well manned ships to attack and defend against other player's fleets.Resources and Trade One of the resources has changed (marble replaces gems) and the ports produce different resources compared to the 1996 version. In the 1996 version when buying goods from a port owned by another player you had to bargain. It could be hard. Now you just pay them 1 ducat instead of paying the bank. Wine is now special: one port with wine in its warehouse is worth more VP at the end of the game.Game Flow (big point) In the 1996 version all the players used to bid for turn order. Then they all played the phases according to this order: they loaded built and bought then they all moved their galleys they fought and finally they took over free ports and made money. There's no bidding anymore. Now the galleys you build are numbered and when it's the turn of one specific galley its owner can perform their actions (load move and fight or build) before the next galley is the active one. If your galleys have successive numbers you can play several times. The little flags that used to be awkwardly fixed on the galleys are now useless and the men have to be in the player's colour (instead of being a nice bunch of nice Sailor Smurfs). This is a major difference the game is radically altered.Counts and Victory Points There are several counts in the game and not only one at the end of the game. What's more: another kind of count can bring players money if they have wine in their warehouse. All of that depends on the drawn cards at the end of a galleys' turn. The pace of the game may be altered by those cards too. There is no card in the 1996 version. In this old version the only way to have your port well valued at the end of the game was to have its warehouses full. It's now different too: a port with one good is better than one with none but worse than one with two etc.Other Changes There's a building more: basilic. It brings more VP. Galleys are easier to build but the price is not the same. Combat rules are very different the fort has a different power. Dice are different too. Port limits to recruit sailors are different. 2 and 3 players rules are different. ...and this list is all but exhaustive.

In a magically altered 17th century the Italian lands that survived the Witchplague are now called Ausonia and powerful houses rule over them. Every player impersonates the leader of such a family and with the help of supporters and magical gemstones tries to become the next ruler of the city-states.In Ausonia players impersonate powerful House Leaders who aim to increase their influence across the lands. During their journey on becoming the most influential noble they enhance their starter decks by purchasing and playing more and more powerful cards and collecting valuable gems as the fuel of the innovative resource system that also provides an arc to the game. Any player can go from zero to hero by improving their deck and creating crafty combinations that result in an exciting endgame.—description from the publisher

Who will be the most successful perfumer? Parfum takes the players to the wonderful world of fragrances. Using ingredients like vanilla lavender or violets the players distill precious essences in order to create unique perfumes. Only the player catering to their clientele's preferences will be able to sell their perfume. Each customer favors a specific fragrance which must be contained in a flask to induce them to buy it.

The ancient manuscripts talk about a Leviathan a huge creature lying on the silt bed of the lagoon on whose back the city has its foundations. All manuscripts agree on its eternal sleep and they all tell that the beast will wake up one day shaking the city from its muddy roots smashing the vitrified stilts on which the city stands and crashing it into the seething sea where the monster will rise. The ancients say however that there will be signs; it is written that the Venetians will feel the tremors that they would therefore save themselves from the monster who will recover his freedom by plunging into the waves a deserted city.But there were no signs. What ancients did not know is that the Leviathan is not alive. For centuries the city lived and prospered on the back of a corpse. That corpse though is now awakening – and with it the dead arise from the lagoon...In the cooperative game Carnival Zombie players lead a group of characters who are fleeing on terra firma from the terror that has emerged from the lagoon of Venice. This group of characters must make its way through hordes of rotting Infected to leave the city and players need to rush as the Leviathan upon which the foundations of Venice were built is awakening. Thus it's only a matter of time before the city sinks in the dark waters of the lagoon.Each game is divided into several nights and days. During the nights players hide in trenches behind the barricades to resist the attacks of the Infected. During the day players move through the city which is shaken by tremors. The Infected are drawn by the groans of the Leviathan in the abyss to help their master free itself from the rotting stilts that nail it to the silt bed.Players have several ways to get out of town but little time to do it – and their path is hindered by the bosses the most implacable servants of the Leviathan. If the players do make it out they can assess their skills – and set a goal for next time – by counting the points scored during the game.

The first three games in the Series: Men of Iron (GMT): Men of Iron Infidel: The Supremacy of Cavalry in the Crusader Era – 11th-12th Century and Blood & Roses plus the Battle of Agincourt from C3i #22.The game that started it all Men of Iron covers the re-emergence of infantry in the early 14th century along with a more perceptive understanding of the value of combined-arms warfare and the effective use of defensive terrain. The scenarios highlight the key elements that made these battles so fascinating: the defensive power of the longbow especially when used in coordination with dismounted or even mounted men-at-arms. Agincourt covers Henry V’s famous victory during the Hundred Years War.The second volume in the Men of Iron series Infidel: The Supremacy of Cavalry in the Crusader Era – 11th-12th Century focuses on the major battles of the early Crusades era between Christians and the Muslims. This is a period that saw cavalry reign supreme and pitted the European mounted armored men-at-arms - which relied on furious and direct charges with sword and lance - against the Eastern European/Turkish light cavalry tactics - focusing on the efficiency of its mounted archers.Blood & Roses focuses on the battles of the Wars of the Roses in England between 1455 and 1487. This was warfare in which most men were truly of iron heavily and totally armored to such a point that their mobility was suspect. It also featured the introduction of gunpowder – mostly field artillery – in noticeable numbers. And while many English men-at-arms were mounted they did so almost entirely for transport. Most fighting was on foot … and it was quite vicious.There will be a series rulebook with a few rules still applying only to a specific game and the games will have all errata applied to their battle book. The color setups a la Blood & Roses and Arquebus: Men of Iron Volume IV – The Battles for Northern Italy 1495-1544 will show up in all battle books. Men of Iron will see some battle changes a few of which will involve new/changed counters.The series is designed for quick learning and easy play. Game rules are short there are no turns - play is continual with opportunities to steal play from your opponent - and combat resolution is a single dieroll. Playing time is about 1-to-3 hours per battle.The series is also for the gamer who enjoys playing solitaire. The system is designed for both individual and face-to-face play without any loss in insight or fun. It allows a player or players to see what happened in these famous battles and why. There are no purpose-built solitaire rules but many players play that way.The units feature longbows crossbows men-at-arms (mounted dismounted and unhorsed) hobilars genitors nasty Scots with axes slingers pike infantry knights heavy cavalry medium cavalry light cavalry archers archers camp followers handgunners and artillery! And the commanders! The great English King Edward III and his son The Black Prince William Wallace and The Bruce Captal de Buch. Crusaders Stephen of Blois Bohemond of Taranto Raymond of Toulouse Bishop Adhemar of Le Puy the leper King Baldwin IV Raynald of Chatillon and King Richard I. Saracen leaders Kilij Arslan Kerbogha Atabeg of Mosul Fatimid Vizier al-Afdal Shahanshah Soqman the Artukid of Diyar-Bakr and Aleppo and Saladin. King Henry VI Richard Duke of York King Edward IV Richard Neville Earl of Warwick King Richard III and Henry Tudor Earl of Richmond (and founder of the Tudor dynasty).The battles included in the Men of Iron tri-pack are:Components: Five 22x34” maps Seven counter sheets (six and one-half 1/2” + one-half 9/16”) One 36 page series rulebook Three battle books (two 24 page and one 36 page) Six player aid cards (four 11x17” and two 11x25.5”) Two flight point charts (8.5 x 11”) Two ten-sided dice—description from the publisher

The City-State of Tempest is a lively metropolis – some say the largest in the world – yet behind the city's cultured exterior age-old cabals vie for power fighting one another for dominance in a society ripe with political and economic turmoil. Led by shadowy figures who command a small cadre of loyal followers these secret societies work in concert to seize the wealth and power of the fabled City-State of Tempest.In Dominare you are the puppet master of a conspiracy seeking to control Tempest. Agents are the key to Dominare. Use your agents to spread your influence through the city building a network of hidden power to control the most valuable districts and blocks.In the game players first draft agents they want. Then each turn the players reveal one additional layer of their conspiracy. Each agent is a unique person in the City-State of Tempest with unique abilities. The higher an agent in in your conspiracy the more powerful that agent is.Players spread their influence in key city blocks and districts use agent and district abilities to further their plans and manipulate the board to their benefit. Use your agents well and influence and power will be yours. Use them poorly and... well you wouldn't be the first would-be ruler to vanish into the inky waters of the city canals....Number 3 in the Tempest Shared World Game Series

It's that special time of year when the entire kingdom gathers at court for the Munificent Theatrical Festival. Acting troupes from all over the land will come together to perform plays of light-hearted comedy or soul-wrenching tragedy. Will their performance win the favour of the king or will his fickle mood spell a flop?In Histrio you travel the land recruiting actors to join your troupe. Assemble the right team and you might earn enough money to pay for an entire year of shows. It'll take careful planning and a little luck to out-perform your competitors. The play is the thing in Histrio and the world is your stage!At the beginning of each round cards are dealt to eight cities where players can travel to recruit actors. Some of the cards are actors some grant money and several are animal characters with special abilities. Players then secretly select a city where they will travel and all players simultaneously reveal their chosen cities. If a city was chosen by only one player that player gets all cards at the city. If a city was chosen by more than one all cards are discarded each player gets a secret objective card instead and any actor cards are used to influence the king's mood toward either comedies or tragedies. At the end of the season players earn money based on how many comedian or tragedian actors they have compared to the king's mood. The player with the most money at the end of two seasons wins.

The citizens of Verona have grown tired of the constant quarrel between the houses of Capulet and Montague. As ruler of the region Prince Escalus has formed a council to help mediate the conflict and bring lasting peace to Verona.In Council of Verona players take on the role of influential citizens of Verona and act to use their influence to either add characters to the council or cast them into exile. Through thoughtful hand management of their cards and clever placement of influence tokens players gain victory points based upon the agendas of the characters at the end of the game. The player with the most victory points wins!We've all heard the story of Romeo and Juliet – now is your chance to steer the story and determine who will rule Verona once and for all!

The social elite of Tempest live in a world of power intrigue and alliances that can often shake the very foundations of the city's society. In Courtier you move within these circles of social power to further your goals. Work with established courtiers to gain influence and stymie the rise of your rivals as you attempt to earn or cheat your way into their world.In Courtier 2–4 players compete for recognition in the royal court. Your mission is to act as an influence broker manipulating the levers of power and granting favors to important supplicants. You accomplish this by influencing key people to act at your behest.Play influence cards to gain sway over a key courtier or play power cards to manipulate the board in your favor. Control each of the courtiers listed on a given petition and you earn victory points for completing that request. Bonus points can be earned from cards and abilities. The winner is the player with the highest score at the end of the game.Number 1 in the Tempest Shared World Game Series

The Wars of the Roses were fought between the Houses of York and Lancaster for over three decades during the 15th century in England. The houses were both branches of the royal family therefore the Wars were originally known as The Cousins' War. Each player represents one of the houses as they fight battles and gain influence to control England.The Cousins' War is played over a maximum of five rounds with each round representing between five and ten years of the conflict. Each round involves gaining influence across England and preparing for a climactic battle.In each round the players decide where the current battlefield will be playing action cards to deploy troops to the battlefield while also increasing or decreasing their influence in the regions after which they fight. Players resolve the battle by engaging in bluff and counter-bluff using three dice until only one side has troops remaining on the field. Winning the battle helps to consolidate your house's influence on the board.You win The Cousins' War either by dominating all the regions of England or by controlling the most regions at the end of the fifth round.Two promo cards are included in each copy of The Cousins' War: Guilds of London: The Secret Guild of Guildsmen and Snowdonia: Supply Wagon/Cannon

In Tudor you are a Lord in the court of King Henry VIII. Here you will be positioning your Courtiers among the influential Lords who grant you actions that allow you to maneuver your family members to high title offices and gain their respective Rings of prestige and power.Players take turns placing their Courtiers into the three Audience Chambers each with unique actions. Then each player will place their one Lord in a Chamber of their choice. Only Courtiers in an Audience Chamber with any player's Lord present will be able to use that Chamber’s actions. But be careful since there are only a limited number of seats available in each Chamber and competing families can push you out of a Chamber!Then all player Courtiers in Chambers with a Lord take turns performing ONE of the two Actions in their Chambers. The powerful Lords may also take both actions in the Chamber they occupy. Chamber Actions allow you to gain Court Cards and to move your Courtiers in the Throne Room onto spaces with square Court Tokens that represent various faction interests and demands at the court. You collect these Court Tokens which are one way to gain Prestige at court.When you reach the top space of a Court Office in the Royal Court you will gain that title - represented by a Ring. A player's Rings are placed and displayed on their individual Player Hand Screens. Positioning your Rings on different fingers project your interests intent and inclinations to the other players because different positions enhance specific Actions that your Courtiers take in the Audience Chambers!You must always be vigilant because another players can seize your Court Office kicking your Office Holder out in disgrace and then taking one of YOUR Rings!The player with the most prestige at game end wins!In each game of Tudor you will choose to play one of many scenario cards each with their own special rules that can alter the game in dramatic ways. In addition choose two different scoring cards to vary gameplay creating a strategic experience with exceptional replayability.—description from the publisher

A Column of Fire is an adaptation of the third novel in Ken Follett's Kingsbridge series following The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End. (The novel is titled A Column of Fire in English and Das Fundament der Ewigkeit (The Foundation of Eternity) in German.)In the game set in Europe during the time of Elizabeth I Catholics and Protestants compete for power and influence in England France Spain and the Netherlands. In this politically unstable environment resourceful operatives and courageous secret agents plot to secure power for their rulers. The balance of power shifts back and forth amidst foiled assassinations successful rebellions and futile invasions — and not infrequently those who sympathize with the weak are expelled from the country.The real enemies then as now are not the rival religions. The true battle pits those who believe in tolerance and compromise against the tyrants who would impose their ideas on everyone else — no matter what the cost. Who will best exploit the changing power conditions in Europe to win the game?

The new world of Ilôs has just been discovered. Endless forsaken islands amazing wealth and many temples overflowing with gold are waiting to be explored. You embody one of the great naval powers. Through your cards you will explore new islands bring more ships along gather wealth and raise its price build fortifications to slow down your opponents and establish trading posts to improve your production. Your goal is to become the richest explorer of Ilôs.Ilôs is a card game of hand management for 2 to 5 players. Simple accessible yet with a great strategic deepness Ilôs is a strategy and resources production game for the whole family.

Nova Aetas: Renaissance is a cooperative tactical boardgame set in a fantastic and dark Italian Renaissance. Set in the Italian Renaissance this game will guide you through a fantastic mythical campaign based upon the historic events of the war between Rome and Venice in the early 1500s. Inspired by classic Japanese tactical RPGs such as 'Final Fantasy Tactics' and 'Tactics Ogre' in Nova Aetas you will battle enemies controlled by a sophisticated Artificial Intelligence. With every challenge you will be presented with meaningful choices that will change the course of game events. Nova Aetas will captivate you with its high detailed miniatures and its high quality components.Nova Aetas: Renaissance is a reimplementation of the original game founded on KS in January 2016. This new improved version is born from the experience gained during these years and will give you an even deeper experience by immersing you and your group in a charming and mysterious Italy full of historical characters such as Leonardo da Vinci Caterina Sforza and many others – both real and imaginary.Four young mercenaries (Vincenzo Valerio Rebecca and Sofia) will find their fate during the war between Rome and Venice. They are ready to make their way in the Italian Renaissance shattered by war and by mysterious myths that emerge from a distant past. Each of the 4 Heroes will have a role on the battlefield and will be able to evolve by acquiring new Classes Skills and Equipment!—description from the publisher

Trieste from designer Matthew Ma is a boxed card game in which three players take on the roles of Thief Merchant or City Watch. Each role has its own unique deck and victory conditions. Turns are played out simultaneously with each player selecting an action without knowing those chosen by opponents.The City Watch player levies taxes on the Merchant and patrols the streets for the Thief looking to fill the city's jail with ne'er-do-wells. Players in the role of the Merchant are out to cut deals and line their coffers in a quest for untold riches. As the Thief that player is attempting to pilfer coins from the Merchant while earning infamy and the respect of the secretive Foxtail Gang.The coastal city of Trieste is a flurry of trade and activity but where there's power there are always those who will compete to grab as much of it as they can. Conflict erupts in the streets shops and back alleys. Only one can truly rule Trieste. Will it be you?

In June 1520 at Balinghem there met the young and glorious Kings of England and of France in a grand and splendid celebration of their mutual friendship and admiration. There were great feasts and opulent amusements conspicuous expressions of deepest and sincerest piety and fierce tournaments. Each King outshone the other in turn so that the world might be astounded at the wealth and power of each kingdom. So many tents and raiments were made of precious cloth of gold that the field is so named.This game was created to commemorate the five hundredth anniversary of the world’s most famous three-week party in which King Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France spent ridiculous amounts of money and resources to peacock at each other. Through smiles made of gritted teeth the game’s two players will express friendship: each action they take will give their opponent a tile that they might use to score. Scoring usually entails removing the tile from the game so each player must take care to maximize their scoring opportunities while either denying them to their rival or forcing their rival to score before they’re ready. Once the game is underway players are generally given only two options and both of those options are usually painful - even and sometimes especially when they score you points.A sort of subversion of the point salad paradigm The Field of the Cloth of Gold harkens back to the feel of the classic German games of the 1990s: simple elegant austere and politely vicious.The second edition of the game dubbed the 503rd anniversary edition includes a new jewel tile type.—description from the publisher

The setting of this cooperative strategy game for two is beautiful 16th century Verona. There two bitterly hostile families stand in the way of Romeo & Juliet's love happiness.The players take on the roles of the two lovers. You won't be able to communicate freely so you'll have to make your partner understand your plans and find out where they want to meet you. The tragic couple is not allowed to speak freely to each other and can only arrange to meet in secret. Otherwise the hatred between the families will deepen. By cleverly playing cards and messages the players try to ensure that love triumphs over hate in the end.The game box unfolds into an atmospherically designed theatre scene. On this stage Romeo & Juliet and their companions move to different locations.There are 9 chapters and just as many difficulty levels. This allows the game to be perfectly adapted and varied.To win love must reach its peak before the end of the third act. If on the other hand hatred reaches its lowest point fate takes its toll on the star-crossed lovers and you will have lost.—description from the French and the German publisher (translated)

The MAGNATES: A Game of Power a.k.a. Boże Igrzysko: MAGNACI presents the history of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from its heyday during the Union of Lublin (XVI century) until the collapse of the state (XVIII century). Players take on the roles of the magnates who seek to develop the power of their families in the favorable time: the peak of the Polish and Lithuanian Union.Each player has a deck of cards that depicts celebrities of his family. Some of them are capable of great deeds and some will spoil any project with which they are entrusted — but with a good player's decisions even those small souls could do a lot for his family.During the game players manage the deck of their characters to achieve in competition with others as much as possible on each of the planes of life of the Republic. The fate of the country results from the sum of the activities of the most powerful aristocratic families. If the players fall into a mutual fight for titles and advantages the Republic will fall under the pressure of neighboring powers.This game for 2-5 players with a game time not exceeding 90 minutes reimplements Martin Wallace's Boże Igrzysko from 2010 using the same principal title in Polish edition under an agreement with the author.From the back of the game box:The MAGNATES: A Game of Power is a strategic board game for 2-5 players which is fast and full of historical atmosphere and rich interactions. It takes you into the world of aristocratic intrigues and struggles for power which tore the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from its heyday during the Union of Lublin until the Targowica Confederation and the fall of the Polish-Lithuanian state.Players take on the roles of magnates who seek to develop their own family's power in a moment favorable to fortune: the prime of the Union of Poland and Lithuania. The most eminent families fight for prestige and landed estates: the Lubomirski the Potocki the Radziwiłł the Sapieha and the Zamoyski.Each player has a deck of cards depicting well-known personages from a given family. Some of these characters are outstanding people capable of great deeds. But there are also less useful people able to spoil any undertaking entrusted them... unless thanks to the player's decisions even those lesser ones will do much for the family.During the game players will manage their deck of characters so that in competition with others they can achieve as much as possible on each of the planes of life of the Commonwealth. Players will clash during the creation of the state's internal policy as well as in response to external threats and opportunities arising from the international situation. And so as it happened in reality the fate of the country will be the result of the sum of actions of the most powerful aristocratic families. If the players lose themselves in a mutual fight for titles and advantage the Commonwealth will collapse under the pressure of the neighboring powers.In MAGNATES players will face many dilemmas. The most prominent members of the family will ensure beneficial rights in the Sejm and prestigious positions in the Senate. Moreover they comply with the Monarch's will easily and thanks to them the family will gain estates and power. But how will a player handle the remaining challenges? Who will undertake an expedition to Livonia? Will the troops protecting the country against enemy invasion in the absence of other candidates be again led by incompetents (like peryna latyna and dytyna”)? Will there be enough determination to hasten to the relief of Vienna? Will the players succeed in saving the Homeland from partitioning?Is your Family ready for a Game of Power?

After the success of Florenza Placentia Games introduces its sequel: Florenza: The Card Game a standalone game in which players are once again the heads of the most important families of Florence during the Renaissance. As in the original game players try to hire the best artists to embellish the monuments of the city but they can also build workshops and houses or join guilds to strengthen their power and have more resources and money to manage.Players gather the needed money and resources from central or district workshops. To build district buildings (cards in hand) or embellish city monuments (cards in play) they need to have these resources and hire one of the available artists. Other cards in hand represent personal district buildings houses workshops and corporations (which points during final scoring or benefits during the game).

In Venetia players compete to become the most prosperous and influential noble family in the history of the Serenissima Republic. From its rise in the ninth century to its decline and fall in the eighteenth players take part in the golden age that built the city that once was the Queen of the Mediterranean.Each player controls a patrician household vying for power against other influential families. To gain clout and fortune (i.e. victory points) families extend their Influence outside the city sending representatives to foreign markets. As their authority spreads the power of Venice increases accordingly and distant towns and ports fall under the sway of the Serenissima. In the meantime players compete inside the city for the coveted title of Doge the head of the government spending resources and Ducati (money) to gain popularity.But the hegemony of Venice over the Mediterranean is threatened by many enemies. The Republic faces the rise of competing powers such as the rival seafaring Republic of Genoa and the Crown of Aragon to the west or the Eastern Roman Empire and then the Turks to the east. Century after century players will take part in the struggle that will see the rise and fall of the Republic of Venice.Venetia is played across three epochs: Rise Apogee and Struggle. A Power track on the board is used to record the passage of time. Venice starts the game in its Rise and the game ends when the Struggle epoch is completed. Players score VPs at the end of every epoch and the player with the highest score at the end of the game wins!

Establish the most powerful and prestigious family dynasty through marriage alliances warfare and intrigue in feudal Europe.Among Nobles is a card game where players establish and expand a family dynasty in feudal Europe. Each player starts with a married couple the ancestral lord and his lady. Throughout the game new family members are added through birth and marriage. Three generational changes occur where the oldest generation perishes due to old age.The players take turns activating one of their characters or couples. An activation lets you pick a series of actions in a horizonal row on the character. Since a wife’s actions are added to her husband’s activating couples can be more efficient than activating single characters.Players advance their influence in the game by waging war earning gold and expanding their family. As the game progresses more powerful nobles come into play. Red nobles are commanders: strong on warfare actions. Blue nobles are devout: strong on piety actions. Yellow nobles are tradesmen: strong on commerce actions. Green nobles are negotiators with special abilities or intrigue actions.Gold is used to buy extra actions pay for wedding feasts muster armies and pay for the education and finer upbringing of male heirs. Armies are used to wage war bringing riches and prestige back from distant provinces. Prestige points are a measure of your influence on society. The player with the most prestige points at the end wins the game.While most daughters get married off to other families the sons continue your family’s bloodline. Games can be won and lost because of the right or wrong marriages.

With Japan torn by war for decades Oda Nobunaga the first unifier succumbs to the blows of his own vassal Akechi Mitsuhide in 1582. This event is an opportunity for Hashiba Hideyoshi who defeats Akechi at the Battle of Yamazaki.Hashiba Hideyoshi must then confront Tokugawa Ieyasu another vassal of Oda at the Battle of Nagakute. Hideyoshi then becomes the second unifier of Japan under the name of Toyotomi Hideyoshi.Bound to the status quo Tokugawa Ieyasu awaits Hideyoshi's death before returning to the pursuit of his ambition. His accession to power is decided in the gigantic battle of Sekigahara. He will force the heir to Hideyoshi to commit suicide at the end of the siege of Osaka. This time the unification of the country is final and Tokugawa's heirs will lead Japan for 250 years.Tenkatoitsu is the sequel of Kawanakajima 1561. Tenkatoitsu means Unity under the Sky. That was the name given to the era during which one Clan was victorious over the others which in turn led to the end of the war (Sengoku Jidai).Tenkatoitsu simulates 3 battles of the end of Sengoku Jidai: Yamazaki (1582) Nagakute (1584) and Sekigahara (1600).The game emphasizes orders assigned to each army's Clans as much as the inertia of the battle. A game turn is divided in activation phases drawn from a recipient containing Clan chits and obligatory chits (for combat movement etc.). The game system is also remarkable for the battle plans that each players may choose before starting the engagement.Sieges played a key role in the battle of Yamazaki and as such have their own specific set of rules.Players scores victory Points by destroying enemy units or controlling key locations.

The Wars of the Roses were fought between the Houses of York and Lancaster for over three decades during the 15th century in England. The houses were both branches of the royal family therefore the Wars were originally known as The Cousins' War. Each player represents one of the houses as they fight battles and gain influence to control England.The Cousins' War is played over a maximum of five rounds with each round representing between five and ten years of the conflict. Each round involves gaining influence across England and preparing for a climactic battle.In each round the players decide where the current battlefield will be playing action cards to deploy troops to the battlefield while also increasing or decreasing their influence in the regions after which they fight. Players resolve the battle by engaging in bluff and counter-bluff using three dice until only one side has troops remaining on the field. Winning the battle helps to consolidate your house's influence on the board.You win The Cousins' War either by dominating all the regions of England or by controlling the most regions at the end of the fifth round.2nd Edition is a new version of The Cousins' War with larger components. There are English (Surprised Stare Games Flying Lemur Game Studio) German (Frosted Games) and Spanish (2Tomatoes) versions separately published. 2nd Edition contains an optional variant Times of Change. This variant adds in the cards originally published as the Events expansion to the 1st edition. There is 1 extra card Jura Belli in the Times of Change variant over and above the Events expansion.—description from the publisher

A kingdom building card game where 1-4 players compete to take their kingdom from the dark ages to the enlightenment. Outwit and out-plan up to 3 other players as you race to lead your people to prosperity and make a few enemies along the way.Era of Kingdoms is a kingdom-building game full of strategy and player interaction. Each turn provides players a wide array of options and tools to improve your Kingdom. You can focus on improving the lands upgrading from simple meadows to a thriving economic engine. Or perhaps you'd rather use your strength to achieve victory taking the other kingdoms' riches. With limited space to build and only three positions for key advisers strategic decisions must be made to guarantee victory. Includes: Era of Kingdoms Base Game | Trade Route Mini-Expansion | Commerce Mini-Expansion | Ruler Traits Mini-Expansion | All Kickstarter Stretch Goals.—description from the designer

At the beginning of the 16th century the city of Rouen is the main French port. The city's wealth depends on fishing and the trading of salted fish. Salt produced in the mines has to be loaded onto ships and used to preserve herring and cod fished in the Atlantic Ocean. Every week ships full of salt barrels leave Rouen for the fishing grounds of the Atlantic Ocean and once back the goods are sold in the city markets. The players represent city merchants and they invest in ships and city buildings to try to get rich. Who will be the richest merchant of Rouen when Francis I King of France comes to visit the City?In Upon a Salty Ocean players start the game with one caravel loaded with three salt barrels a salt mine and 10-16 money. From this they must build a shipping empire! The game lasts five turns with each turn being divided into three phases.In the event phase players adjust prices on the market based on the current event tile take into the account the weather and environmental conditions that will affect them the remainder of the round and reveal the event tile for the subsequent round.The action phase lasts a variable number of rounds depending on how many actions players want to take and can afford. Eight actions are available and they're divided into four types:On a player's turn he can take any one of the either actions or pass; the cost of an action is the number of times this type of action has been performed previously during this round. For example the first use of a City action costs 0 while the next use (whether to buy a saline or a building) costs 1. A player who passes can take an action later in the same phase. The action phase ends once all players pass. A player can go into debt during a turn paying one coin in interest when doing so; as long as the player is in the black once the action round ends (by selling to the market) no further payment is due.In the turn end phase players produce salt may use special buildings pay interest (if needed) reset the cost of the actions to zero and so on. A player can have no more than 40 coins at the end of a turn unless he owns a banque and the limit is 80 coins without owning Salle des Coffres. This limit is important as the player with the most coins after five rounds wins. Some buildings provide endgame bonuses to which the coin limit doesn't apply.

Welcome to Rocca Civetta a charming town in the Italian hinterland which hosts one of the most bizarre universities that the human mind has ever conceived. In fact this university hosts the chair of Dungeonology which deals with the study of the environments and organization of different cultures especially the most atypical and strange... almost Mythical! Recently the faculty lost its professor and the Dean is looking for a skilled replacement. You are the ideal candidates for this job.Set in the renaissance world of Nova Aetas Dungeonology will lead you to the discovery of different Civilizations in order to learn their histories and customs. But be careful: the locals will not always be happy with your intrusion.The aim of the game is to explore a Dungeon as a Scholar gathering as much information as possible about the people who live there. Information yields Points and the Scholar collecting the highest number of Points will present the best Thesis on the studied race.—description from the publisher

In Touria Princess Tara has decided to marry – but not just anyone of course. She expects a lot from her husband-to-be: Heroic deeds and precious gifts are a must.A group of bold adventurers set out to pit themselves against dragons dig up gems from the haunted mines of the country – and make a good deal from time to time since the father of the bride demands an appropriate price for his daughter's hand. Touria's dancing towers show the heroes the way so the brave men and women go from one adventure to the next. Brave women? Of course – or have we forgotten to mention that Tara's handsome brother Prince Talan is also of marriageable age?

Welcome to the market of beautiful things! As well-to-do citizens in Mercado gamers wander around the stalls always on the lookout for special items to enhance their reputation. Noble shawls elegant jewelry or golden trophies — with such a selection the decision is difficult. But those who do not carry matching coins can also be unlucky because the other players have the same goal and might grab the valuable items from under your nose.In more detail different market stalls each with one product are laid out as panels in the center of the table. Each player has a personal bag containing different coins. On a turn you draw three coins from it blind and place them at the market tables of your choice. If a player has paid all the necessary coins of a product they receive the board and thereby increase their reputation. Some tablets bring extra privileges or seals others bring counterfeit money that might wander into a bag. Who can buy the most valuable goods?

Description from the publisher:Age of Thieves is a fantasy board game of strategy and adventure set in Hadria a port metropolis located on the northern fringes of a mighty Empire. Each player becomes a master thief about to commit the most daring burglary of his career. During the game players may use unique abilities of their thieves as well as various action cards which represent maneuvers alchemical potions or complicated devices inspired by visionary ideas of Renaissance inventors. The players choose cards to play and then use available Action Points to plan the order of their activities. This makes the game very dynamic with each resolved action dramatically influencing the turn. The players’ order changes dynamically depending on the number of Action Points placed on each chosen card.The goal of the game is to break into the vault inside the Emperor's palace and steal the Emperors' Jewel the symbol of power very precious to the ruling dynasty. However this is hardly the end because thieves must escape from the city with their loot. This is no easy task - the streets are patrolled by vigilant city guards and veteran captains well versed in all criminal tricks. Additionally time is running fast for the thieves - event cards introduced each turn control the flow of the game escalating its pace and difficulty of challenges for the players to overcome.The thief who will manage to escape through one of four city gates taking with him the Emperors’ Jewel or other valuable loot will be the winner of the game. Anyone who will stay inside Hadria after resolving the last event card will be caught and mercilessly thrown inside the city dungeon their names erased from the annals of the omnipotent Guild.

From the publisher:Northern Italy - and especially Milan - at the end of the 15th century was the brutal focal point for power and control between France and the Imperialist empires of Venice and Spain. And the battles fought for this prize are a record of the changing face of how war was fought.At the start of the 'war' the main forces were mounted men-at-arms and a tightly packed and closed formation of pike especially as represented by the Swiss. But as battle churned into battle that slowly changed. Firepower in the form of the arquebus (an early musket) became increasingly prevalent and dominant forcing the closed pike formations to open up as the Spanish did (with sword and buckler) and the reliance on heavily mounted cavalry to decrease.Arquebus shows all of this in true die-rolling glory featuring 8 major battles: Fornovo Cerignola Agnadello Ravenna Marignano Bicocca Pavia and Ceresole. These are all really great game-players with all but two of them half-mappers playable in 3 hours or less. The other two are the 'tiny' page-sized (8 x 11) Cerignola and the big one-mapper the major final battle of Pavia. Pavia was a crushing defeat wherein France lost over 50% of its army and almost all of its nobility of command including her king Francis I who was captured. But for gamers Pavia is wonderful gameplay with units all over the greatly detailed map much maneuver and many tough decisions to make.Arquebus uses the popular Men of Iron mechanics with much concentration on detail of weaponry from the differences between closed formation and open to the decline of the Swiss (pas d'argent? pas de Suisse) and the rise of the German Landsknecht the major force in warfare of the era and ironically the best-dressed men in Europe. Yes Landsknecht uniforms literally set the fashion trend at the time for the entire western world.

Set in the titular city in the 16th century Venice lets players take the role of wealthy influential merchants as they ride their gondolas up and down the city's canals train their assistants complete contracts and leverage their influence to gain political power. But business is anything but usual. As they broker contracts and flirt with crime merchants must avoid arousing the suspicion of the Venetian Inquisition lest they find themselves arrested and their businesses shut down.In the game players move their two gondolas around the board. When they move a gondola they may activate the assistants they have placed previously on any building they pass but they may train (and improve the capabilities of) only the one on which they end their movement. Assistants allow you to gain resources trade make money and take an array of other actions depending on the buildings to which they are assigned. When resources are made they are placed in the gondola and these will be used to fulfill lucrative contracts.Space is limited on the city's canals however and each time you pass another merchant's boat gossip will spread raising your suspicion level with the Inquisition. Lower your suspicion with visits and donations to the church or academic institutions — or throw caution to the wind and engage in unsavory activities for money or information. During the game being such a well-known merchant can be a boon to your political career but at game end the most suspicious player will be made an example of by the Inquisition — blocking your victory even if you have the most points.Includes solo mode by David Turczi and Xavi Bordes—description from the publisher

From Finnish designer Touko Tahkokallio comes Principato a tactical game for 2-4 players.Powerful principalities are forming in Northern Italy. When is the best moment to expand? When will harvesting be profitable? How much force will be necessary to defend the city walls? Only the player who can correctly judge the timing of such decisions will be successful in the end.At the beginning of the game each player receives a small unprotected principality. Over three epochs the various principalities can be developed. A steady production of money and food is needed to expand the principality and to maintain an army of mercenaries. During the game there are several cultural and military valuations that give the players victory points.The unusual part of this game are the action cards which are available to all players. From the changing pool of possible actions players have to secure the most suitable cards and use them at the appropriate time – reaching for the new means while parting with the old. This simple mechanism turns Principato into a varied tactical game full of tough decisions.

Description from the publisher:Dive into the world of master builders and construct monumental buildings of historic significance.In each game of World Monuments you and your fellow players choose one of four buildings and start constructing it from the ground up: The Capitol in Washington the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris the basilica San Pietro in Rome or the Taj Mahal mausoleum in Agra. Only the most talented master builder among the players gains many points and has a chance of winning the game after the building is completed.

From empty crossroads to the first signs of a settlement The Walled City is coming to life! Your job is to expand this new city settling citizens loyal to you alone as both you and your worthy opponents vie to be declared the first mayor.Learning to play The Walled City: Londonderry & Borderlands is easy but the strategies are endless! In the first round you will play cards to build roads that divide the city into neighborhoods then populate them with loyal peasants and nobles who share your view of this new city. In the second round you will build the walls themselves and choose which nobles will move into the towers to stand guard over the city as Watchmen. Beware unfinished roads will combine neighborhoods and gaps in the walls will cause Nobles to flee the city. Scoring is based on area majority: more neighborhoods loyal to you means more votes towards securing your seat on the city council. If you become Mayor what will your walled city look like?There's more to The Walled City than you might have noticed! Inside this box you'll find two complete games each with its own flavor. Londonderry introduces players to the famous original Guilds of London each with its own unique power. Just turn the game board over and you'll visit the Borderlands a completely new map featuring new game mechanics and an extended selection of Guilds. You can even mix Guild cards between maps! This unique quality leads to uncountable combinations to play with making The Walled City a place you'll want to visit game after game.

La Stanza is a fast-paced board game in which players take the role of patrons of the arts sponsoring the most brilliant creators of the time and commissioning the best works of art all while creating more wealth and increasing their social status and prestige.On their turn players move their Patron through the different rooms to recruit the characters that better serve their interest along the way. Characters increase the strength of the different actions players may perform in the room they end. Commission the best artists rediscover the light of the arts invest in new discoveries and trading routes promote the culture build universities gain the trust of Kings and create the new wonders of the Renaissance.La Stanza is played in continuous rounds that result in dynamic turns and a challenging game play. Enlighten the new world and become the most prestigious patron of the Renaissance!

Relive the Greatest Siege in History!A vendetta spanning decades reaches its terrible and bloody crescendo!Suleiman the Magnificent's 30,000 strong armada descends on the 500 beleaguered Knights of St John and the defending people of Malta with the express purpose of wiping them from existence and changing the course of European history forever...1565 St. Elmo's Pay is an asymmetric competitive tactical card game and successor to the award-nominated 1066 Tears to Many Mothers with which it is fully compatible. Each player as either Ottoman Turks or Knights of St John musters troops and resources to overcome the various obstacles in their path before the two armies clash in an epic siege over three fronts on the tiny island of Malta: Birgu Senglea and the doomed fortress of Saint Elmo.Every beautiful card in the game is inspired by a real person or event from the time. With a focus on quick tactical play and a thematic re-imagining of the events of the time the game is non-collectable and there is no deck building required. Each player simply grabs their deck and shuffles then play begins.Note on title: When after a relentless show of strength the small fortress of St. Elmo's finally fell to the Turks they butchered the bodies of the Knights and floated the corpses across the bay to the remaining two forts to deter them from resisting further lest they suffer the same fate. Instead the Maltese forces chose to fight with 'the spirit of St. Elmo's'. When they eventually turned the tides against the Turks and chased them away the people of Malta chanted 'St. Elmo's Pay' - an expression they still use today to mean 'no mercy.'—description from the publisher

Do not be deceived by the fact that this is a roll-and-write game: Florenza Dice Game is a fully-fledged resource management game. Not a quick little game but a deep tricky title however pocket-sized inexpensive and with zero set-up time! The game in short:3: Manage everything you gained from the dice to realize artworks in your district's palace or church or choose to construct buildings which can grant you useful effects during the game!

Players control one of the great scientists during the 17th century Scientific Revolution in Europe. Use your limited time and energy to make discoveries test hypotheses publish papers correspond with other famous scientists hire assistants into your laboratory and network with other people who can help your progress. Discoveries follow historical tech trees in the key sciences of the age: Astronomy Mathematics Physics Biology and Chemistry. The scientist who accumulates the most prestige will be appointed the first President of the Royal Society.

In a Templar stronghold hidden in the Germanic moors lies the power of the Black Rose. Its catacombs house the mortal remains of the powerful and feared Ulrich yet he is now no longer dormant. Many have tried to seize the secrets of his power but so far all have failed. Now it is the turn of Bartholomäus who aspires to become Master of Lex a new school devoted to the occult born in the heart of the Black Forest and spreading rapidly throughout the Holy Roman Empire. Duel - Lex will take you into a magical world of forbidden spells and deadly evocations where every ten years different mages compete to decide who will be the next Grand Magister.Duel - Lex introduces a new way to play fast and exciting two-player mage fights! Two mages clash in the cramped underground rooms of a Templar stronghold choosing and planning spells and actions from a common deck and managing their own evocations and resources.Duel - Lex can also be used to expand Black Rose Wars and Black Rose Wars: Rebirth!—description from the publisher

Bring Out Yer Dead is a morbid game of grave family plots.As the head of your family you must get the dying members of your family into the best plots in the city's newest cemetery. Each day the Grave Keeper brings the cart around the city and you must vie to get your family members in the cart before other families do. But be careful! The Grave Keeper is a lazy guy and any coffins he can't fit in the cart are tossed aside in the river; he'll never bother to bury them at all!Get your recently departed family members buried in the best plots in the cemetery to gain influence in the city. You may even have to resort to some early morning grave swapping — or you could just rob the graves of all the jewelry you can dig up...it isn't like they're going to need it anyway! Influence is everything! The player with the most influence at the end of the game wins.

Tanto Monta: The Rise of Ferdinand & Isabella 1470-1516 is a prequel to Here I Stand Ed Beach's famed game published by GMT Games. It's a Strategic level Card-Driven board-wargame for 4 players (Muslim French Portuguese and Spanish) covering the reign of the Catholic Monarchs and the voyages of the Age of Discovery.This is a CDG where each player has to reach 45VP to win in the course of 7 maximum turns. Players play cards for their event or to perform actions from a list of available options for each power and at a specific cost for each action. VPs are earned either by military objectives discoveries of new zones trade royal weddings or certain events. In each turn the 4 players alternate playing cards and so on until the end of the turn. The combats are resolved by means of dice rolls with possible support of combat cards and taking into account the type of participating unit.—description from the designerPrecuela de Here I Stand el afamado juego de Ed Beach publicado por GMT GAMES. Es un juego para 4 jugadores (musulmán francés portugués y español) que abarca el periodo del reinado de los Reyes Católicos y la era de los viajes de descubrimientos.Se trata de un CDG en el que cada jugador tiene que conseguir 45 PV para ganar en un máximo de siete turnos. Los jugadores juegan cartas como evento o como puntos para realizar acciones del listado de las disponibles para cada potencia con un coste específico para cada acción. Los PV se obtienen mediante objetivos militares descubrimientos de nuevas zonas comercio bodas reales o determinados eventos. En cada turno los cuatro jugadores se van alternando jugando cartas hasta terminar el mismo. Los combates se resuelven mediante tiradas de dados con posibles apoyos de cartas de combate y según el tipo de unidad participante.—description from the designer (Spanish)

HISTORY Anno Domini 1482. For the past few centuries the Iberian Peninsula has been a complex battlefield of crossed interests kings' ambitions and noblemen's intrigues. The Muslim power once uncontested under Cordoba's Caliphate banners lies languidly in the last Moor stronghold in Al-Andalus the marvellous city of Granada. The last rulers of the Alhambra (“The Red One”) have been buying peace from the powerful Christian kingdoms for decades. Weakened by internal family divisions they now face their darkest nightmare: a nuptial union between Castille and Aragón in the figures of Isabel I of Castille and Ferdinand II of Aragon the Catholic Monarchs. Through cunning diplomacy and negotiations large armies are congregating to push to the sea the last Muslim presence in Western Europe. The Pope promulgates the last Crusade and military orders join the mixed army of Castille and Aragon along with mercenaries all over Europe. The Nasrid Kingdom tries to gather its men and garrisons sending messengers to North Africa for military support and reinforcing the numerous castles and watchtowers all over its lands. But deception and treason will play their part (Ferdinand II will be the main inspiration for Machiavelli's ”The Prince”). Boabdil is conspiring to reach the throne in the city of the pomegranates whereas his uncle el Zagal is well known for his hit-and-run ambushes and guerrilla warfare. Will Catholic Monarchs be able to consolidate their dream of a united Iberian realm to continue towards world-wide domination? Will the Nasrid Kingdom accept the challenge and fight in a stubborn resistance until it breaks its enemies' will to continue the fight?GAME FEATURES Granada: The Last Stand of the Moors is a game for two players in which they will decide the outcome of this decisive historical episode in less than 4 hours. Units are represented by blocks depicting their strength but also their origin: Castilians Aragoneses Leoneses and mercenaries for the Catholic player and different clans like Banu Sarray Zegríes Banu Bannigas and proper Nasrids for the Muslim player. The map is point-to-point covering the ancient Nasrid Kingdom in southeast Iberia (present-day Spain). Granada the capital is the jewel of the realm: the game ends if it falls into the Catholic player's hands. Each season players receive a predetermined number of cards which they can use to move their armies and fleets or rally new units. When a battle occurs each regiment is summoned by the play of one card of its nationality so as Tamerlan said: ”It is better to be present with 100 soldiers than absent with 1.000.” In other words be sure you have the right cards to send your troops into battle. As an almost Renaissance war different weapons will also be present. Cavalry charges and crossbows will be extremely dangerous if well combined whereas artillery will have a significant value when maintaining or defending sieges. Your fleets will fight for sea control enabling the transport of North African reinforcements Catholic naval movements or blocking sieged ports. Balanced and historically accurate the game is easy to learn but difficult to master. The Catholic player will have to decide which invasion route to choose and whether he will create a massive army leaving the Muslim player time to reinforce his strongholds or go for a quick campaign where losses will be difficult to replace. The Nasrid player on the other hand will enjoy a central position but he will need to be cautious about the internal problems that can arise— the Boabdil revolt is almost an inevitable danger to face and crush.As the Catholic player will you gain fame and glory accomplishing the Reconquista and enlarging your kingdoms in one unified powerful state? And as the Muslim player will you resist and save Granada or will you become the last King of the Nasrid dynasty?—description from the designerTime scale: 1 year per 2-player turn Map scale: Point to point Unit scale: One block = 500-1500 soldiersComponents: • 22” x 34” Mounted map   • 137 Rectangular blocks in various colors  • 11 rectangular tiles • 2 Sheets of stickers (for blocks)  • 2 Draw bags  • 20 square castles (10 white 10 black) • 20 round watchtowers (10 white 10 black) • 26 small cubes (13 white 13 black) • 7 Wooden markers (various sizes and colors) • 3  Decks of cards (74 Christians 67 Muslims 17 Naval) • 1 Victory Points track • 2 Player Aids and 2 Battle Reference Cards (identical) • 1 Rules booklet

Medici: The Dice Game is a new design by Reiner Knizia that shares the setting and feel of his classic Medici board game but using dice!Fast to learn and simple to play Medici: The Dice Game is a dice-selecting roll-and-write game. Over the course of three rounds 2-4 players will fill their ships with the goods presented at the wharf. They will earn money for having the most valued loads as well as for collecting majorities of the different goods.—description from the publisher

Description from the publisher:In Liguria players take the role of merchants who sail the Ligurian Sea to discover beautiful and exotic colors. By trading conquering and engaging in diplomatic relationships they can earn valuable prestige points. Fulfilling contracts with the bishop can prove very lucrative...Make sure to collect all special colors in the various harbors and bring them back home to make your cathedral stand out the most.Liguria is a prequel to the award-winning game Fresco. As a standalone game it tells the story of how the colors came to the markets of the Ligurian cities to paint the beautiful frescos.

Set in the titular city Florence tasks players with elevating the status of their family and navigating the city on the night of a grand Carnevale to set up meetings with the ruling Medici figureheads: Cosimo Giovanni and Contessina.Florence is a Euro-style area control game in which the regions you want to hold change each round as the Medici move around the city attending various functions. Over nine rounds each player dispatches family members to attend parties give gifts brag about their achievements engage in spurious gossip and muscle their way through crowds to get some valuable face-time with the Medici. The chief resource in Florence is time: As the Carnevale moves into full swing and the streets fill with revelers they will become harder to navigate and you will need to be cautious of which actions you ask your various scions to complete.But by ensuring that your family is at the front of each queue and the most talked about (by meeting conditions of various brag cards) you gain valuable points to elevate your family's status. Each Medici is impressed only by a specific approach and as the night goes on they become harder to impress — which scores you more points for increasingly harder objectives should you do so.Florence includes a solo mode by Dávid Turczi.—description from the publisher

A city as large and crowded as Tempest depends on the daily arrival of supplies and foodstuffs and the wealthiest echelons of society demand the latest goods and luxuries almost as frequently. Domination of this bustling trade is the ultimate goal of every merchant house in the city.In Mercante you control one of these merchant houses. Deploy your trusted agents to purchase goods from arriving ships and sell them into the most profitable markets. You must also do more – from enticing senators to outright skulduggery – to claim your rightful place at the pinnacle of Tempest's merchant class. Do you have the business acumen and ruthlessness required to claw your way to the top?Designed for 3–5 players Mercante is a game of economic warfare. At the beginning of the game each player controls one warehouse and two agents. On each turn goods are purchased at auction and stored in the warehouse to be sold at the various markets when the time is right.Players compete to accumulate crowns to finance their operations and senatorial favors (victory points) to win the game. The player who accumulates the most money and favors will control all trade and profit in the City-State of Tempest!Number 2 in the Tempest Shared World Game Series

For two hundred years war waged back and forth across the border between England and Scotland. By 1482 the unfortunate town of Berwick-upon-Tweed once the richest port town in Scotland had changed hands thirteen times. By the time Henry VIII ascended the throne of England in 1509 the fifty-mile-wide stretch of rolling hills and stunning vistas that straddle the border had seen decades of hardship and atrocity.Yet still the hardy families living on these frontier lands persevered. Unable to count on crops surviving until the harvest they subsisted primarily on the livestock they could shepherd in the fields near their homesteads. When supplies ran low raiding to steal what they needed from their neighbors was often the answer. Raids were often carefully planned operations with several border families uniting to steal livestock from a common foe in the dead of night. Cattle and sheep were the likely targets often with hundreds of these creatures being stolen in a single raid. The reiver’s goal was to herd their quarry to safety before the retaliatory “hot trod” pursuit could catch up and force an engagement.To combat this constant hostility England and Scotland established the system of March Law. Each nation divided its border lands into an East Middle and West March with each of these six territories administered by a Warden responsible for keeping the peace. The Wardens were drawn from the most powerful families on the Borders clans of great renown that could put upwards of a thousand men in the saddle in times of need. The March Law would have succeeded too but for the fact that these same great families were usually the ones best equipped and most inclined to raid their neighbors.In Border Reivers each player rules over one of the Marches as leader of one of the six major riding families of the border: Grey Fenwick Dacre Maxwell Kerr or Hume. Your goal is to increase the wealth and fame of your clan throughout the reigns of Henry and Elizabeth to end the century as the most famous Border Reiver of all time. Players gain VPs from successful combats amassing large herds of livestock and by elevating their Notoriety above the other players in the regions of the map.—description from the publisher

In Brides and Bribes a strategy game played over six rounds each player takes the role of a powerful family of Genoa. Carefully employing your family members each of whom has a unique ability is the key to your success.Each round you plan send your family members to the Genoese boroughs to hire new employees get new workers and convince the local lord that your family is worth a marriage with his beautiful daughter. If you want to succeed you have to send the right person in the right place.Hire the most skilled people intermarry with the most powerful families poison your enemies and increase your commercial empire!