7 Wonders: Duel

In many ways 7 Wonders: Duel resembles its parent game 7 Wonders as over three ages players acquire cards that provide resources or advance their military or scientific development in order to develop a civilization and complete wonders.

What’s different about 7 Wonders: Duel is that, as the title suggests, the game is solely for two players, with the players not drafting card simultaneously from hands of cards, but from a display of face-down and face-up cards arranged at the start of a round. A player can take a card only if it’s not covered by any others, so timing comes into play as well as bonus moves that allow you to take a second card immediately. As in the original game, each card that you acquire can be built, discarded for three coins, or used to construct a wonder.

Each player starts with four wonder cards, and the construction of a wonder provides its owner with a special ability. Only seven wonders can be built, though, so one player will end up short.

Players can purchase resources at any time from the bank, or they can gain cards during the game that provide them with resources for future building; as you acquire resources, the cost for those particular resources increases for your opponent, representing your dominance in this area.

A player can win 7 Wonders: Duel in one of three ways. Each time that you acquire a military card, you advance the military marker toward your opponent’s capital, giving you a bonus at certain positions. If you reach the opponent’s capital, you win the game immediately. Similarly, if you acquire any six of seven different scientific symbols, you achieve scientific dominance and win immediately. If neither of these situations occurs, then the player with the most points at the end of the game wins.

 

Imperial Settlers: Atlanteans

Imperial Settlers: Atlanteans, an expansion that requires the base game to play, adds the option for playing Imperial Settlers with up to five players. The expansion includes a new faction board, the Atlanteans faction deck, technology tokens, and expansion cards for the original factions that complement the Atlanteans abilities.

The Atlanteans bring a new resource to the world of Imperial Settlers with technology that can unlock special abilities on faction cards and transform common buildings into powerful allies. The Atlanteans must use their abilities to find unique ways to score because their faction buildings sink at the end of the game and do not score points! While the other factions do not have the knowledge to use the technology of the Atlanteans, some buildings for each faction allow them to use some of that technology to their advantage.

 

Above and Below

Your last village was ransacked by barbarians. You barely had time to pick up the baby and your favorite fishing pole before they started the burning and pillaging. You wandered over a cruel desert, braved frozen peaks, and even paddled a log across a rough sea, kicking at the sharks whenever they got too close, the baby strapped tightly to your back.

Then you found it! The perfect place to make your new home. But as soon as you had the first hut built, you discovered a vast network of caverns underground, brimming with shiny treasures, rare resources, and untold adventure. How could you limit your new village to the surface? You immediately start organizing expeditions and building houses underground as well as on the surface.

With any luck, you’ll build a village even stronger than your last– strong enough, even, to turn away the barbarians the next time they come knocking.

Above and Below is a mashup of town-building and storytelling where you and up to three friends compete to build the best village above and below ground. In the game, you send your villagers to perform jobs like exploring the cave, harvesting resources, and constructing houses. Each villager has unique skills and abilities, and you must decide how to best use them. You have your own personal village board, and you slide the villagers on this board to various areas to indicate that they’ve been given jobs to do. Will you send Hanna along on the expedition to the cave? Or should she instead spend her time teaching important skills to one of the young villagers?

A great cavern lies below the surface, ready for you to explore– this is where the storytelling comes in. When you send a group of villagers to explore the depths, one of your friends reads what happens to you from a book of paragraphs. You’ll be given a choice of how to react, and a lot will depend on which villagers you brought on the expedition, and who you’re willing to sacrifice to succeed. The book of paragraphs is packed with encounters of amazing adventure, randomly chosen each time you visit the cavern.

At the end of the game, the player with the most well-developed village wins!

Rory’s Story Cubes: Batman

“In the shadows of Gotham…” Is the Riddler planning his next crime Who has discovered Batman’s identity? Will the Joker escape from Arkham Asylum? With Rory’s Story Cubes Batman, you decide the story. Roll all 9 story cubes to create infinite tales featuring your favorite Batman villains, gadgets and locations.

 

Among the Stars: New Dawn

And the story continues…
Twenty years after the Alliance was formed, the cost of constructing new space stations is becoming unbearable.
In order to improve the economy, the Alliance has decided to rebuild and recolonize some of the planets and space facilities who were abandoned during the war. By activating them once more, the Alliance is hoping to acquire the much needed funds and resources.

In New Dawn – a thematic sequel to Among the Stars and part of the Among the Stars Universe series – players take the role of Alliance officials.
Their assignment is to explore and revive a galactic sector. By developing various technologies and dispatching ambassadors, each player has the chance to visit abandoned planets, military facilities and space stations and establish bases to maintain control. Competition is fierce, and each mistake in maintaining control can cost dearly…

Both New Dawn and Among the Stars: Revival are compatible with the Among The Stars: Miniatures Pack accessory, which brings even more thematic elements and a great look to your games in the Among the Stars Universe.

It is a… New Dawn. Will you be part of the solution, or will you be part of the problem?

Rattle, Battle, Grab the Loot

Take to the high seas as the captain of your very own pirate ship. Seek out valuable merchant ships and raid them for their goods! Hire new crew, upgrade your ship, and give your treasure to the Pirate King for fame and glory!

Rattle, Battle, Grab the Loot takes the fun of rolling dice and combines it with a rich scenario deck to make each game play differently. Each round, the players battle it out with merchant vessels and other ships, trying to grab as much loot as possible. One player takes dice from all the players, rattles them in their hand, then tosses them into the game box to resolve the battle. Where your dice land in the box, in addition to the symbols rolled, determines the results of the battle, then players claim their loot. Players may now return to port to upgrade their ship, hire new crew, or give their goods to the Pirate King for his favor.

When upgrading their ship, players use physical pieces to assemble their vessel, making each ship look different. In the box are dozens of punchboard pieces to customize your ship. In addition to common items and crew members, there will be unique item upgrades and crew that can make your ship stand out among the crowd!

At the end of the game, the player who earned the most favor from the Pirate King wins!

Portal: The Uncooperative Cake Acquisition Game

 

With a grinding of gears and some uneasy rumbling, Aperture Laboratories has resumed testing! Your team of test subjects has entered the Lab and is ready to perform all sorts of important, dignified, and dangerous testing procedures…all in the pursuit of cake! It’s a fun and funny fast-paced fight to the finish — and by finish, we mean your team probably died.

The Lab is an ever-changing conveyor belt of death and dismemberment. But SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS must be at the forefront of the mind of every good test subject. In Portal: The Uncooperative Cake Acquisition Game, a game of constantly shifting area control and cardplay by the creators of the Portal and Portal 2 video games, players move and Portal their test subjects to various chambers in the lab. At the end of each player’s turn, one of the chambers on the end of the lab gives way, plunging all test subjects on it into oblivion. But should your test subjects have numbered greater than all others in the falling chamber, they earn you some wonderful parting gifts, which can include cake.

Yet these moist slices of industrial-grade cake must be stored in the lab where they are at risk of falling into said oblivion. Not to mention that your jealous opponents can pick up your cake and move it closer to that precipice. He who has acquired the most cake when a team has lost its last test subject wins. Do you risk gathering cake early for a quick win? Or do you bide your time and wait until you can protect it better? Win the game and prove the cake was no lie.

 

Legends of Andor: The Star Shield

Legends of Andor: The Star Shield, dubbed the first expansion for Legends of Andor, presents the player heroes with new tasks they must now face. After defeating the dragon, the heroes go in search of the star shield – the great power of which could prove to be both a blessing and a curse should it fall into the wrong hands.

To make matters even worse, hungry wolves have been sighted during their journey, but if the players succeed in taming the alpha wolf, the wolf pack will become faithful companions in their fight against a resurgent evil.

 

Legends of Andor: New Heroes

Legends of Andor: New Heroes includes four new heroes for Legends of Andor, and these heroes can be used either with the base game or with The Star Shield expansion. With the new rules in this expansion, you can now play the game with up to six players. The new heroes are:

• Bragor/Rhega, a Tarus from Sturmtal
• Arbon/Talvora, a renegade keeper of the black archives
• Fenn/Fennah, tracker from the Southern Wood
• Kheelan/Kheela, warden of the Riverlands

Also included is the “Brother Shield”, and whoever carries this can exchange strength with one of the other heroes on the board twice. It can also be used as a normal shield.

This expansion includes new creature boards that strengthens the power of creatures when playing with five or six players. The drunken troll wanders aimlessly through the lands and pushes a creature along his path when he meets one, and the Dark Heralds make the boss creature stronger.

Legends of Andor

Legends of Andor is a cooperative adventure board game for two to four players in which a band of heroes must work together to defend a fantasy realm from invading hordes. To secure Andor’s borders, the heroes will embark on dangerous quests over the course of five unique scenarios (as well as a final scenario created by the players themselves). But as the clever game system keeps creatures on the march toward the castle, the players must balance their priorities carefully.

 

At the heart of Legends of Andor is its unique narrative, the linked scenarios of which tell an overarching story as the players successfully complete objectives. For each scenario, or “Legend”, a legend deck conveys the plot of an ever-unfolding tale…one in which the players are the protagonists. A wooden marker moves along the board’s legend track at key points during each scenario, triggering the draw of a new legend card, the introduction of new game-altering effects, and the advancement of the story’s plot. In the end, the players must endeavor to guide the fate of Andor through their heroic actions, bringing a happy ending to their epic fantasy tale.

Will their heroes roam the land completing quests in the name of glory, or devote themselves to the defense of the realm? Uncover epic tales of glory as you live the Legends of Andor!