The Beast uses a deck of direction cards to move over forests, swamps and caverns, using guile and deceit to hide its track from the hunters. However, whenever a hunter moves over a location where the Beast has previously been, a trail appears. Only when a hunter searches a location or the Beast itself attacks an unsuspecting target is the Beast’s actual position revealed. More so, each hunter has but one chance of searching each round, making it a tense and difficult decision. Hunters seldom have full information whether the trail they’re pursuing contains the Beast’s actual location, or if the trail has already gone cold.

Each action you perform in this game is done by playing a card from your hand (up to a maximum of two cards per turn). This means that if a player wants to search, attack or move, they need to have a card in their hand that lets them do that. Before each round, both hunters and Beast participate in a draft for the most important cards. All action cards can be used by both Beast and hunters alike.

In order to win this game, you either need to cooperate every step of the way if you play as a hunter, or skillfully outmaneuver your opponents if you play as Beast. On their own, hunters are never stronger than the Beast. Only when hunters communicate, strategize and combine their actions can they bring down the Beast before it’s too late.

—description from the designer

Think again!

Lots of buildings, all with different shapes, all fitting together in interesting ways.

One central Hamlet that the players contribute to, with its own self-forming demand and supply economy.

Villagers walking through the Hamlet, delivering food to households and building resources to construction sites.

And one day, the Church will finally be built, and the once-little Hamlet has become a fledgling town.

Who will be the biggest benefactor when that happens?

Including solo mode by Nick Shaw & Dávid Turczi

—description from the designer

Hamlet is a medium weight competitive village builder where players are communally turning their Hamlet into a bustling little town. In this tile placing game, players construct buildings that everyone can use to create materials, refine resources, earn money and make important deliveries to construct the Hamlet’s big landmark – the Church.

The game features irregular shaped tiles that connect together without a grid to form a village that is completely different every time. The tile placement organically creates interconnecting paths that the villagers use to transport resources across the village. This leads players to construct boards where no two games will ever feel the same. Since the buildings are communal, this also creates a fluid economy, where players are always working hard to provide the village with the resources that are most needed.

The game is designed by David Chircop (Petrichor, The Pursuit of Happiness). It plays between 1 to 4 players, with a solo mode currently being developed. It will be published by award winning studio Mighty Boards (Excavation Earth, Posthuman Saga).

The game also includes 16 monster types (including seven new standard monsters and three new bosses) and a new campaign with 25 scenarios that invites the heroes to investigate a case of mysterious disappearances within the city. Is it the work of Vermlings, or is something far more sinister going on?

Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion is aimed at a more casual audience to get people into the gameplay more quickly. All of the hard-to-organize cardboard map tiles have been removed, and instead players will play on the scenario book itself, which features new artwork unique to each scenario. The last barrier to entry — i.e., learning the game — has also been lowered through a simplified rule set and a five-scenario tutorial that will ease new players into the experience.

For the Queen is a card-based story-building game that you and up to five other players can begin playing in minutes. Choose your queen from among fourteen gorgeously varied illustrations—or start from scratch—and use the prompt cards to collaboratively tell a story of love, betrayal, doubt, and devotion.

—description from the publisher

Yokai did not directly attack people, but they were causing supernatural disasters: Yokai caused farmlands to burn, rivers to flood, thunders to roar, and diseases to spread.

One day a chieftain of the nearby village visited you, an Onmyoji, a practitioner of Japanese esoteric cosmology. Through your knowledge of astronomy and occultism, you discover the only way to help save the village. It is simple: the more Yokai you manage to capture, the less the menace caused by these demons. After a few months in the village, you are successful in your efforts; the Yokai menace is completely eradicated in that village!

Then, word reaches you of the havoc being wrecked by the Yokai on your own village. In your absence, the village chieftain has consulted another Onmyoji to help save your village. This is an affront because this is your village and the people under attack are your people. It is your job to save the day! Do not let another Onmyoji save the day and go down in history as the greatest there ever was and the Savior of your village at the time of need.

Compete against your rival Onmyoji and capture as many Yokai as you can!

Just like in the original game Paperback — and the follow-up game Hardback — you will build your own deck of cards throughout the game, and those cards will have letters to help you spell words every turn. But in Paperback Adventures, instead of testing your wordsmithing wit against other players, you will use your words to defeat a series of AI enemies in “roguelike” fashion.

Paperback Adventures is a solo-focused game. It was designed from the ground up as a strategic, highly-replayable solo word game. There are also additional gameplay variants for cooperative play between two players. There are three playable characters that have different strengths and playstyles.

The core box is NOT A COMPLETE GAME! One Character Box required (Ex Machina, Damsel or Plothook)

The game runs over a single session of two or three hours. There is no formal game master, but one player will need to explain and facilitate the rules. In the first 45 minutes, players create their characters, their relationships to Alice, and their ties with each other. The next 90 minutes follow the characters’ text message conversations as they uncover Alice’s fate.

– from the publisher

Horseless Carriage is a game about the dawn of the automobile, a time when cars were invented, and no one quite knew yet what this new contraption would look like and what features would be essential. Early cars sometimes used levers or pedals to steer and a wheel to accelerate. Brakes were not always seen as essential, but sometimes an outside spot to take along an onboard mechanic was. This early, super innovative period occurs in the development of many new product categories. Players are cast as aspiring industrialists trying to find out what features the public will value when buying these new, expensive, and utterly unfamiliar horseless carriages.

—description from the publisher

Drivers can compete in a single race or use the “Championship System” to play a whole season in one game night, customizing their car before each race to claim the top spot of the podium. They have to be careful as the weather, road conditions, and events will change every race to spice up their championship. Players can also enjoy a solo mode with the Legends Module or add automated drivers as additional opponents in multiplayer games.

—description from the publisher

Play either as one of the normal sleepyheads dreaming about the taste of delicious cheese in tomorrow’s meal OR
as the thief trying to steal away the cheese for his own belly.
As a thief clever enough, you might have to make a cut to your fellow minions so as to sneak away successfully.

No moderator. No player elimination. No set pattern.

Cheese Thief is different from other similar games in social deduction genre in that it uses die-face combinations in its core mechanism to provide countless replayable scenarios.

One night phase to setup. One die-face to provide genuine information. One vote down to decide who gets the cheese in the end.

—description from the publisher

In Dandelions, players roll a group of dice, then choose one to move to a beautiful garden. Along the way, you can harness the power of the wind with three special actions — float, puff, and gust — to get the most points. The game ends after all the dice are used, and whoever receives the most victory points as combined from two different scoring methods wins.

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.

To set up Phantom Ink, divide players so that the Sun team and the Moon team each have one Spirit and up to three Mediums. The mediums on a team share a hand of seven question cards, and the spirits begin the game by choosing one of the five objects on a card as the secret object. On a turn, the mediums pass two question cards to their spirit, with sample questions like “What color is it most commonly?”, “What fictional character has it or uses it?”, and “If it were a musical instrument, what would it be?”

The spirit discards one question card face up, then returns the question card it’s going to answer to their mediums, then slowly writes the answer one letter at a time for all to see. As soon as the mediums think they know what this clue word is, they yell “Silencio”, and the spirit stops writing. The other team of mediums might see only the letter “Y”, but if you know the question is “What color is it?”, then you know the clue must be “yellow”. To end your turn, draw two new question cards.

On a turn, instead of handing over question cards, you can attempt to guess the answer — and to do so you write like the spirits, one letter at a time. If you write an incorrect letter, the spirits will stop you, marking out your error, with your partial guess giving the other team more information. If you guess the entire word correctly, you win!

Being a farmer in Llamaland isn’t exactly easy with all the hills and mountains around, but even so, growing potatoes, corn, and cocoa on the slopes of the mountains is what you love. Luckily the llamas are a big help, too!

By fitting your fields in giddy heights, you gain the necessary crops in order to obtain the desired llama cards. These cards not only provide victory points, but also allow you to place a llama on your farm. After about 45 minutes, you will have an impressive crop-growing area in front of you, including your sweet and cuddly llamas.

YOUNG SCALLYWAGS WELCOME. Fire In The Hole is the multi-generational game with a comedy punch. Part carrrd game, part dexterity game, it’s simple enough to entertain the young landlubbers (7+), but has the strategic twists to trick even the saltiest of ol’ seadogs!

During the first part of the game, the maze will grow as you explore, until you find the off switch. The rest of the game the rooms are collapsing around you, and you must quickly make your way to the exit before the robot locks down, trapping you forever inside its bowels. You can change the layout of the rooms using the gears you find within, to help you find an exit.
You win by getting everyone, including the people you find trapped within and your trusted android, out of the beast.

The game can be played solo, co-op, or competitively with up to 4 players.

—description from the designer

The organization Re:wild has compiled a list of Lost Species around the world at www.rewild.org/lost-species. They engage in expeditions with numerous partners to find these Lost Species, and encourage others to conduct their own expeditions to rediscover these amazing Lost Species. In this deduction game, you’ll work to locate these lost species and put them back on the map!

A heavy burden rests on your shoulders. Every casualty suffered in battle will weaken your forces for the entire campaign. Every bomb blast and mortar shell leaves the very ground for which you are fighting in further ruin. Every inch lost to the enemy brings you closer to the jaws of defeat. Over the course of up to fifteen branching scenarios, you will decide the fate of Stalingrad and, perhaps, the war itself. Even though the consequences of your actions will persist, the game itself can be fully reset and replayed, allowing you to explore every potential outcome.

Undaunted: Stalingrad is a monumental, platoon-level, standalone game that expands the series’ scope and challenge beyond anything that’s come before. Featuring more than 300 unique illustrations by Roland MacDonald and 150 evocative mission briefings written by acclaimed author Robbie MacNiven, immerse yourself in this campaign at the heart of the war.

—description from the publisher

‘Rush M.D. is an innovative, real-time, cooperative board game that simulates the challenging and high-pressure nature of medical professions. A worker placement mechanism, using hourglasses as workers allows, but also limits, players to perform a multitude of actions. Each player handles 1 Doctor hourglass running around the hospital, admitting patients, providing immediate medical care, performing different kinds of exams as well as performing surgeries. Additionally, there are 4 more Nurse hourglasses, which can be used by all players. Nurses provide medicines to patients, supply all necessary drugs and equipment that you need to carry out all your exams and medical procedures. Any worker placed on an action space may not be used elsewhere before the sand within the hourglass runs out, making each decision important as time is limited.

More specifically, cards are dual-indexed, with different values on each half of the card, with the 45 cards having all possible combinations of the numbers 1-10. During set-up, whoever is shuffling the cards should randomize both the order of the cards in the deck and their orientation. Once each player has been dealt their entire hand of cards, they pick up that hand without rearranging any of the cards; if they wish, they can rotate their entire hand of cards in order to use the values on the other end of each card, but again they cannot rearrange the order of cards in their hand.

On your turn, you must take 2 of the following 7 Actions: Philosophy, Legislation, Culture, Trade, Military, Politics, or Development. Choose Actions that align with your strategy, but which also work with your dice roll.

You will need to adapt your strategy constantly and strengthen your Actions by moving your markers up on your Economy, Culture, and Military Tracks.

Move up on the Taxes Track to collect highly sought-after Drachmas, the Troop Track to Explore and gather Knowledge tokens, and the Glory Track to capitalize on your Knowledge.

Unlock Achievements and, above all, make sure you have the most points at the end of the 9th Round to be crowned with the laurels of victory!

—description from the publisher

This product contains six new hirelings:
– Flame Bearers and Rat Smugglers
– Vault Keepers and Badger Bodyguards
– Popular Band and Street Band

It also comes in a lovely box to store all your Root hirelings!

Hirelings can be added to games at any player count. With fewer players, the hirelings add new pieces to the map, ramping up the tension and giving you more tactical options. With more players, some hireling cards will flip over to reveal new special abilities to gain, letting you explore unique and powerful strategies.

The Great Underground Duchy: an imperial faction that mixes the flexibility of the Marquise with the escalating Eyrie Dynasties.
The Corvid Conspiracy: a secretive faction that hatches plots directly into the hands of their opponents.
Two new maps: dig tunnels on the mountain map or fight to control the ferry on the lake map.

—description from the publisher

Play as the:
– Lord of the Hundreds – Oppress the Woodland and burn it to the ground if need be. You suffer no dissent.
– Keepers in Iron – Lead your exiled order of devout knights into battle to recover ancient relics. For glory!

Discover unique strategies and make the Woodland wilder by adding hirelings! These small factions can be used at any player count and introduce surprising new power combinations as well as a chess-like tension to lower player count games of Root.

– Forest Patrol & Feline Physicians – Secure your realm and heal deadly injuries with Marquise elites.
– Last Dynasty & Bluebird Nobles – Crush your foes and prove your legitimacy with the last Eyrie regiment.
– Spring Uprising & Rabbit Scouts – Revolt against despots and fight for freedom with Alliance sympathizers.
– The Exile & The Bandit – Stalk the forests and steal what you need with these Vagabond mercenaries.
Official Links

The Cats play a game of engine building and logistics while attempting to police the vast wilderness. By collecting Wood they are able to produce workshops, lumber mills, and barracks. They win by building new buildings and crafts.

The Eyrie musters their hawks to take back the Woods. They must capture as much territory as possible and build roosts before they collapse back into squabbling.

The Alliance hides in the shadows, recruiting forces and hatching conspiracies. They begin slowly and build towards a dramatic late-game presence–but only if they can manage to keep the other players in check.

Meanwhile, the Vagabond plays all sides of the conflict for their own gain, while hiding a mysterious quest. Explore the board, fight other factions, and work towards achieving your hidden goal.

In Root, players drive the narrative, and the differences between each role create an unparalleled level of interaction and replayability. Leder Games invites you and your family to explore the fantastic world of Root!

Spirit Island is a complex and thematic cooperative game about defending your island home from colonizing Invaders. Players are different spirits of the land, each with its own unique elemental powers. Every turn, players simultaneously choose which of their power cards to play, paying energy to do so. Using combinations of power cards that match a spirit’s elemental affinities can grant free bonus effects. Faster powers take effect immediately, before the Invaders spread and ravage, but other magics are slower, requiring forethought and planning to use effectively. In the Spirit phase, spirits gain energy, and choose how / whether to Grow: to reclaim used power cards, to seek for new power, or to spread presence into new areas of the island.

Stone is an essential resource, so make sure you do not neglect it. You’ll need enough quarries so you can build higher up, making your city stretch towards the sky.

1. Choose a tile from the construction site
2. Arrange it in your city to unlock each district’s full potential
3. Build on higher levels, increase the value of your districts and win the game

—description from the publisher

As Supreme Commander of your country’s military forces, you must carefully deploy your forces across three possible theaters of war: Air, Land, and Sea. The order you play your Battle cards is critical, and so is how you play them. All cards can either be played face-up or face-down. Playing a card face-up triggers its Tactical Ability, but the card must be played in its corresponding theater. Face-down cards are wild and can be played to any theater, but only have a strength of 2 and do not grant Tactical Abilities.

At the start of each battle, you will be dealt a hand of six cards. You will not draw additional cards during the Battle, so you must formulate your strategy based on only these cards. Players take turns playing Battle cards one at a time, until all cards have been played, or one player decides to withdraw.

You do not have to continue a Battle to the very end. Sometimes, it may be best to withdraw in order to deny your opponent complete victory! In Air, Land, & Sea, a strategic withdraw may lose you the battle to ultimately win the war! Victory points are awarded at the end of each Battle based on the results, and the first player to 12 victory points wins the war!

Rush Out! is an asymmetric and hectic game for 3-5 players, with 2-4 heroes trying to escape while the sorcerer casts spells against them. Everybody plays simultaneously, with each “team” rolling and re-rolling dice (three per hero, and five for the sorcerer) in order to complete cards. Each player can place dice on only one card at a time, and each ordeal card on the heroes’ side can be completed by at most two people. As soon as a card has all of its symbols covered, you carry out its effect (in the case of the sorcerer), then draw a new card. The first “team” to draw the final card of their deck wins.

—description from the publisher

In Wormholes, players collect passengers from planets, each of whom have specific destinations they aim to reach. However, this pick-up-and-deliver process can be quite different once you establish wormholes between different points of the galaxy — and like any good business, your service can be used by other players…at the cost of a few points.

—description from the publisher

In Nicodemus , you can return to the universe of Imaginarium in a game in which the two players must block one another repeatedly, with advantages swinging one way, then the other, with the slightest mistake possibly being fatal to your chances. On a turn, you have a choice of two actions:

Play a machine card from your hand to the Bric-a-brac to earn charcoalium, produce a resource, or apply the effect of the machine.
Repair a machine from the Bric-a-brac to score points and place this machine in your workshop.

Each resource indicated in the production zone of machines in your workshop reduces the number of resources needed to repair subsequent machines. Additionally, repairing a machine can help you complete specific projects and win points.

In Art Robbery, you slip into the role of art thieves. You have successfully put the robbery behind you, and you have many drawings, paintings, sculptures, and antiques in your possession, yet the treasure is not infinite and you are now facing your greatest challenge: distributing the loot.

Over several rounds, you confront the other players and try to get a share of the four collections. In the end, the thief who is able to snatch most of the loot wins…maybe. After all, the FBI is not giving up and is looking for you, so during the game, you need to collect enough alibis to avoid being caught.

In Get on Board: New York & London, you have twelve rounds in which to build the best bus line in town. Each round reveals a new card that shows each player the route shape they must complete. Place your bus accordingly on the central board. Take the passengers where they want to go by connecting them and their destination to your bus line, avoid traffic, and gain as many victory points as possible!

—description from the publisher

By using teamwork, you can bring the rolling egg safely to the foot of the mountain! Quickly roll the building material you need, collect hammers and nails, and attach bridges to the sides of the mountain. If you manage to steer the egg safely into the lifeboat, you’ve won together.

You begin this cooperative, family-friendly train game by controlling just a few trains on the tracks. At first, it’s easy to make them travel where you like. As more trains arrive, you have to plan and coordinate your train schedules. Is the signal green? Where is this train going? Oh no, the switch wasn’t set! If your train heads off in the wrong direction, your goods won’t arrive on time! Only by working together to schedule and move your trains efficiently, will you and your team of conductors be able to win the game.

The two different gameboards, Central Europe and North America, each bring fun challenges to overcome. In this cooperative strategy train game work with your teammates to build a network of trains that run at different speeds to transport goods as efficiently as possible. It has simple rules that are easy to learn and allow you to jump right into the action. Switch & Signal features a double-sided game board, city tile variants, and customizable difficulty levels.

You are a dark elf. You have sworn in blood and sacred shadow to destroy your oppressors, the aelfir – high elves from the frozen north who have claimed your homeland as their own.

Spire is a mile-high metropolis and you hide in its crumbling temples, its lawless undercity, its labyrinthine tunnels, the rotting hole in reality that festers at its centre. Your masters while away their days in opulent cruelty and glittering sunlight far above.

Spire is all the world you have ever known, and it must fall.

How far are you willing to go for the revolution, and what sacrifices will you make to see the drow in control of Spire once more?

Spire is a fantasy-punk roleplaying game of intrigue, subterfuge and sedition. You and your friends will become a cell of desperate drow freedom fighters and claw back control of the city from your aelfir overlords, no matter what it takes. It uses a simple rules system that helps you to tell stories of brutal rebellion where life is cheap, alliances are temporary, and magic is strange and perilous.

The life of a monastic scribe is not easy. Every day you spend long hours in the monastery copying books, praying, and performing tasks. Through hard work and prayer, earn the abbot’s trust and display your dedication to the pious life.

The object of the game is to score the most piety points. The game consists of 8 days (i.e., rounds). In the first 4 days, players simultaneously roll their own dice (that show various book types, abbot influence and travel points) and may do so up to 3 times. After each roll, the players have 3 options: (1) to keep the dice as shown, (2) to reroll exactly one die or (3) to roll all the dice.

Most of the dice are resource dice showing books monks are copying, but there are also abbot influence dice (abbot influences is accrued in the first half, but spent in the second half of the game), and a travel die (allowing a player’s novice to go out into towns to do good works and find more books).

In the last 4 rounds, players use their abbot influence to bid for a priority of tasks.

This is a rare (if not unique) “roll + write” game that includes auctions and, unlike many roll + write game; it is highly interactive.

After 8 days, the game ends and the players calculate scores. As in the original Biblios, the relative value of books changes during the game, so players are unsure of which books will be most valuable until the end of the game.

—description from the designer

OUTLINE OF GAME PLAY
The object of the game is to score the most Victory Points. You win Victory Points by winning any of the 5 categories: Illuminators, Scribes, Manuscripts, Scrolls, and Supplies. You win a category by having the highest total number of workers (Scribes, Illuminators) or resources (Manuscripts, Scrolls, Supplies) in that category. This is determined by the numbers in the upper left corner on the cards. At the start of the game, each category is worth 3 Victory Points. As the game progresses, the values on the Value Board will change and some categories will become worth more or fewer Victory Points than others. The game is divided into 2 stages: a Donation stage and an Auction stage. During the Donation stage, players acquire free cards according to an established plan. In the Auction stage, players purchase cards in auction rounds. After the two stages, winners of each category are determined and Victory Points awarded. The player with the most Victory Points wins.

GAME CHARACTERISTICS
The game involves a good deal of strategic planning, some bluffing, and a little bit of luck. The rules are easy to understand, but you have to play it a few times to develop a playing strategy. It plays differently from 2-4 players, but each game is equally fun and challenging.

The Battle of Five Armies features a game board representing the Eastern and Southern spurs of the Lonely Mountain and the valley they encircle, and a number of plastic figures representing troops, heroes and monsters.

The Battle of Five Armies is a standalone game based on the rules for War of the Ring, which is from the same designers, but with the rules modified to function on a tactical level as they describe a smaller battle rather than the entire war. Ares Games plans to expand the Battles game system in the future, releasing expansions depicting other battles from the Third Age of Middle-earth narrated in The Lord of the Rings, such as the Siege of Gondor and the assault of Saruman against Rohan.

– Game description from the publisher

The simple scoring system rewards you for a drawing that is easy to guess as well as for guesses made quickly and accurately. But regardless of your score, you are certain to get a laugh out of your fellow players’ drawings.

The Alchemists can be played with just the base game or combined with The Herb Witches expansion.

On your turn, you can either play an engineer card or turn the corrosion wheel of your factory:

• Playing engineers mostly gains you new machines and qualified engineers. Other players can copy your engineer’s action by playing an engineer of the same suit but a higher grade.

• Turning your corrosion wheel puts your machines to work and returns engineers to your hand, but also causes old gears and machines to rust.

To be successful, you must cleverly co-ordinate your engineers and corrosion wheel and smoothly shift from one efficient engine to the next.

The game end is triggered once the special point supply or the award supply run out. Then, whoever was able to score the most points with their machines and awards wins.

In Long Shot: The Dice Game, you and up to seven other players will strategize and push your luck as the action unfolds in a tense race of eight horses. During the game you buy horses, place bets, influence race movement, and utilize special abilities. The roll of the dice determines which horses move and the options available each turn, so be ready to adapt your plans. Once three horses cross the finish line, earnings are totaled. While there are many ways to earn money during a horse race, only the player that makes the most money will be declared the winner. Will you play it safe, or risk it big on a long shot?

Players are forest spirits, trying to secretly guide their chosen bird to success. The cards are numbered 1 to 7 in red, blue, green and white. The players lay a card from their hand to a 5×5 grid after nut tokens (points) are laid out for each row and column.

When the grid is full of cards, the rows and columns are checked. The colour with the highest total in a line takes the nut token for that bird. Colours with tied totals are ignored, so a low value card can win the nut token for that bird.

When the nuts are totaled up for the birds, the players reveal their final hand card. That card is the bird they favoured (so more than one player might be helping the same bird), and for each player, the number on the card is added to the nut total to identify who has the dominant bird.

Since the players choose which bird they favour by leaving it as their final hand card, they can delay this choice until they see how the game is panning out.

The game rules come in Japanese and English, the game itself being language free. The game includes rules for 2-4 players or a solitaire/co-op mode for 1-2 players.

—description from the publisher

The game’s campaign is broken into a number of chapters, each taking 30-60 minutes to complete and each starting with you reading a page of the comic book. The story advances even if players fail a mission, but winning may provide a reward in the future. Each chapter builds on the knowledge and story from previous chapters, weaving narrative, code-breaking, and mystery into one thrilling game experience.

Thankfully, a few renegade agents have figured out that Mind MGMT has been compromised and have defected, turning their backs on the syndicate. They now use their own psychic abilities to prevent Mind MGMT from achieving its nefarious goals.

In Mind MGMT: The Psychic Espionage “Game.”, one player controls Mind MGMT and must scour the city for new recruits. They move around on a secret map, trying to visit locations that match one of their three randomly drawn feature cards. They can also use their four Immortals to protect locations from being exposed.

All other players control the rogue agents who must try to stop Mind MGMT before it’s too late! They ask questions to the Recruiter and deduce their whereabouts from the answers they receive. Rogue agents can use dry-erase “mental notes” to track all the information they’re given.

Mind MGMT wins by either collecting twelve recruits or surviving sixteen turns. The rogue agents can win only be capturing Mind MGMT, which they do when they believe they’re on the same block as Mind MGMT.

—description from the publisher

Equinox is a deeply satisfying betting game that gives players agency to influence the outcome of this competition. Each round, players place numbered power cards in front of the creatures, with the lowest-valued creature being eliminated from play. Players also place bets on which creatures they think will make it into the storybook, and you can use the special powers of these creatures to ideally turn things to your advantage.

Fans of Dr. Reiner Knizia might recognize Equinox as a revised edition of the previously released game Colossal Arena, but with two new creatures. Of the fourteen unique creatures, only eight are played in a game, which means more than three thousand different combinations are possible. To celebrate the equinox occurring twice a year, players can select from two distinct box covers, but note that the contents in each box are identical.

The rules are simple. Each turn, players have two options:

• play one of their chips to avoid picking up the current face-up card
• pick up the face-up card (along with any chips that have already been played on that card) and turn over the next card

However, the choices aren’t so easy as players compete to have the lowest score at the end of the game. The deck of cards is numbered from 3 to 35, with each card counting for a number of points equal to its face value. Runs of two or more cards only count as the lowest value in the run – but nine cards are removed from the deck before starting, so be careful looking for connectors. Each chip is worth -1 point, but they can be even more valuable by allowing you to avoid drawing that unwanted card.

The first versions of the game supported up to five players, but a 2011 edition supports up to seven.

This game was originally published in Germany by Amigo as Geschenkt …ist noch zu teuer!, meaning Even given as a gift, it is still too expensive!. Amigo’s international edition, titled No Merci! (a delightful multi-lingual pun), had rules in several languages, including English. The game has subsequently been released in other countries under an assortment of names.

echoes is a co-operative audio mystery game. Using the free app, players listen to mysterious noises and voices that are connected to the playing material. Together they look for hints in the sound bites to bring the story parts in order and solve the case.

In more detail, your task is to assemble the 24 parts of the story in the right order; each part is represented by an object — either a game board or a card — and its associated echo. The entire story is divided into six chapters, with each chapter being represented by a game board. By scanning the objects with the app, you’ll hear the echo connected with each object, and by using conversations and noises in the echo, you try to figure out which three object cards are associated with a chapter and in which order they should be placed. If you’re not correct, the app will inform you which cards are incorrect or in the wrong place; if you are correct, you can listen to the entire chapter all at once — and you should since new, additional hints can then be heard.

The objects themselves also provide you with clues from time to time, so neglect no details.

In Calico, players compete to sew the coziest quilt as they collect and place patches of different colors and patterns. Each quilt has a particular pattern that must be followed, and players are also trying to create color and pattern combinations that are not only aesthetically pleasing, but also able to attract the cuddliest cats!

Turns are simple. Select a single patch tile from your hand and sew it into your quilt, then draw another patch into your hand from the three available. If you are able to create a color group, you may sew a button onto your quilt. If you are able to create a pattern combination that is attractive to any of the cats, it will come over and curl up on your quilt! At the end of the game, you score points for buttons, cats, and how well you were able to complete your unique quilt pattern.

—description from the publisher

Detective: CoA uses the innovative ARC (Adaptive Response Card) System to create the feel of interrogating a suspect. Suspects do not simply give paragraph-book responses; instead The Chisel carefully chooses how they will answer. When Billy O’Shea insists that the victim was a regular at Topsy’s Nightclub, is he telling the truth or is The Chisel subtly leading the detectives toward a dead end that will cost them precious time? Detectives can challenge responses that they think are lies but at great risk: If they’re wrong, The Chisel will acquire leverage over them, making the case that much harder to solve.

Detective: CoA includes separate, detailed casebooks for both the detectives and The Chisel. Each crime is a carefully constructed puzzle that can unfold in a variety of ways depending on how the detectives choose to pursue their investigations. As the detectives turn the city upside down, uncovering fresh evidence and “hot” leads, hidden suspects may be revealed and new lines of questioning will open up, creating a rich, story-driven experience.

Inspired by classic film noir like The Big Sleep, the works of James Ellroy (L.A. Confidential), and the video game L.A. Noire from Rockstar Games, Detective: City of Angels is a murder-mystery game unlike any other. Will one detective rise above the rest and close the case on L.A.’s latest high profile murder? Or will The Chisel sow enough doubt and confusion to prevent the detectives from solving the crime?

—description from the publisher

In Kabuto Sumo, you are one of the contending beetles that is battling for supremacy in the ring and your place in the pantheon of legendary wrestlers. The gameplay of Kabuto Sumo resembles the coin-pusher arcade games in which you strategically drop quarters and anxiously anticipate coins cascading off the platform. This game features a similar experience, with you trying to strategically slide pieces onto the board and push the other players out of the ring. It’s an exciting combination of dexterity, strategy, and luck.

So what’s new in Burgle Bros 2?

Gear – Each player now has a kit of unique tools that can be used during ANY player’s turn. This leads to coordinated plays and amazing saves, but your gear must be prepped first before you can use it.

New Tiles – You’ll still be exploring different floors and flipping over tiles, but Burgle Bros 2 is full of new tiles and new dangers. Clear the security tapes in the Surveillance room, try your luck at the Table Games, or stop by the eventful Pool and Lounge tiles to see what happens.

Bouncers – Bouncers are like guards from the original Burgle Bros, but with streamlined rules. If they ever run out of cards in their patrol deck, look out! At that point they hunt for the nearest player every turn.

Chips – Because you’re infiltrating the casino in broad daylight, you’re going to have to deal with more than just bouncers. Unrevealed chips are scattered throughout each floor, representing people in the casino. A Mole might give you info you need to crack the safe, and a Crowd might hide you from the bouncer. But look out for a Saleswoman who will talk your ear off, trapping you in that tile!

Finales – Once the safe is open, things get crazy. Finales add a game-changing twist in order to make it out of the casino with your hard-earned loot.

Campaign Mode – Beat each finale in succession and get rewards! The game adapts its difficulty according to whether you win or lose.

— publisher’s description

For years, your journeys have taken you across the fantasy realm of Terrinoth, venturing into dark forests, shadowy cities, ancient crypts, and misty swamps — but your true legend is about to begin.

Forge your own legend together with friends as you adventure across the vibrant fantasy realm of Terrinoth in the co-operative dungeon-crawling board game Descent: Legends of the Dark. Powered by an integrated free companion app, Descent: Legends of the Dark puts you in the role of a budding hero with their own playstyle and abilities. Together with your unlikely companions, you’ll begin an unexpected adventure — an adventure told across the sixteen quests of the “Blood and Flame” campaign. Throughout your campaign, you’ll face undead lurking in the mists, demonic barbarians stalking the wilds, and even more terrifying threats. With 46 pieces of 3D terrain and forty hero and monster miniatures to draw you into the game, your greatest adventure is yet before you! Your objectives will change from quest to quest as you follow the overarching story of the campaign.

Core gameplay mechanisms such as combat, fatigue, skills, items, and more have received completely new interpretations with Legends of the Dark, while a new approach to scenario layout and 3D terrain creates striking multi-level scenarios.

Gameplay is fast and intuitive. You take three actions each turn: one maneuver action and two additional actions of your choice. Maneuvering gives you movement points, as shown in the upper right corner of the character sheet, and since you always have a maneuver action, you can reposition to put yourself in a more advantageous position for attack. Other than maneuvering, you can use an action to attack an enemy, rolling your attack dice and drawing upon your hero’s abilities and weapons to deal maximum damage or inflict harmful conditions on your foes, or you may use the explore action to interact with a piece of 3D terrain or a token by using the app. You can also use your action to perform one of the most crucial actions in Legends of the Dark: the ready action, which lets you flip your hero sheet or one of your cards to its opposite side, unlocking new abilities!

Your hero sheet isn’t the only thing you can ready. Every hero also has an attack card and skill cards! Each hero starts the game with two weapon cards, which are sleeved together back-to-back to create a single attack card. Skill cards can also be readied, switching between two complementary abilities.

The app also brings new changes to gameplay, introducing enemies with adaptable strategies, complex status effects, and triggers fully managed by the app, and the ability to develop your heroes based on the choices you make in scenarios. You’ll also uncover a wealth of activity between scenarios, such as crafting, shopping in the city, upgrading equipment, and more. Because of these various differences, Descent: Legends of the Dark is not compatible with Descent: Journeys in the Dark and its expansions.

—description from the publisher

In The Adventures of Robin Hood, players take on the role of Robin Hood and his companions, with the action taking place on a living game board with no set paths. The board changes over the course of each adventure, and the movement of the characters is handled via an innovative mechanism that uses different length wooden character pieces. Various actions and secrets are integrated into the game levels and are revealed only in the course of the story. The game board “remembers” what players have already explored or found, and thanks to the special materials, the entire game can be set up and dismantled quickly.

Instead of using cards as in the author’s Legends of Andor, the game tells the story of Robin Hood in a high-quality hardcover book, and depending on the decisions the players make, the story changes…

Players draw tokens from a bag to determine their starting forces and to replenish their losses. Players allocate their resources to each province, gaining tactical advantages and vying for control of the republic.

Three modules to expand the game are included, poison your opponent, deploy powerful Centurions and use underhanded tactics to gain advantages in the Expansions of Rome.

Players draw army tokens from a bag to determine their starting forces and to replenish their losses. Rather than ‘fighting’ battles with dice or cards, players allocate their military resources to each theatre’s campaigns, winning victory points, further resources, special weapons, and strategic advantages as they play. Refight World War Two several times in one evening!

Includes Solo mode by Dávid Turczi.

As a public domain dice game, there are a number of variants or similar games called Liar’s Dice. This includes one that is often played with Poker Dice, and differs from the marketed versions in that players only declare on their own hand’s value (as opposed to all dice being in play), using poker-hand values.

In the game, each player starts with a single card on the table, a card that shows some combination of the four possible resources in the middle of the card, in the corners of the card, or both. Players also have two resource cards and one gold card in hand, while two of each type of card are visible on the table.

On a turn, you place a card from your hand overlapping the corners of one or more cards you already have in play. Your starting card has four overlappable corners, while resource and gold cards have only three.

• Resource cards have no cost to be played, and they often depict resource symbols in their corners.
• Gold cards deliver points when played, but they often have a resource requirement, e.g., three fungi or two plant/one animal/one insect, and you must have those resources visible in your manuscript at the time you play the gold card. You score points from this card immediately, with some cards having a fixed value and others a variable one depending on how many of a certain symbol are showing or how many corners you covered this turn.

If you wish, you can play a card from your hand face down; such a card has four corners and one resource, but provides no points. After you play, draw a face-up card or the top card of either deck to refill your hand.

When a player reaches 20 points, you complete the round, and each player takes one additional turn. Players then score points based on how well they matched two public objective cards and one secret objective card, after which the player with the most points wins.

In more detail, at the beginning of each hand, each player simultaneously selects and reveals one card from their hand, with the color of this card representing their “pain” color. At the end of the hand, each card of this color that they’ve collected (including their initial choice from their hand) is worth negative points equal to the card’s face value. Each card of another color that this player has collected is worth 1 point.

To play out the hand, the active player leads a card, then each other player in clockwise order plays one card. If all cards are of the same color, then whoever played the highest card collects these cards, then leads the next trick; if all cards are not of the same color, then whoever played the highest card of a color not initially led collects these cards, then leads the next trick. (One exception: A zero card can never win a trick.) In effect, each color played in a particular trick that doesn’t match the color of the card led is considered a trump card, and the highest trump wins. In the event of a tie, the earlier played card breaks the tie.

Play as many hands as the number of players in the game, summing each player’s points over those hands to determine a winner.

Some versions of Sticheln allow for play with up to six players, while the third and fourth German editions of the game include enough cards to allow for play with up to eight players. (These versions also allow players to play the game Hattrick by the same designer, with rules for this game included as a variant.)

Fantasy Realms takes seconds to learn: Draw a card, discard a card — though you can draw from the deck or the discard area!

Make the best hand you can by making the best combos. The game ends when ten cards are in the discard area. Aim for the highest score to win!

To make scoring easier, the WizKids Games Companion offers a scoring helper for Fantasy Realms! After your game is complete, input your cards into the app & instantly see who won! Also a handy lookup of all cards! Available on iOS and Google Play.

In the tactical card game, hidden cards are played in turn. By tactically uncovering and activating their effects, players can outdo or get them out of the way, because all players have the same goal in mind — to collect the most influence points for their family and thus win the game.

In Oriflamme: Ablaze (second installment of the award winning game Oriflamme), the incendiary war threatens to bring the kingdom to the ground. But nothing will stop your house to conquer the throne by putting forward every inch of your famous lust for power and vengeance.

Oriflamme: Ablaze offers 11 new action cards that can be mixed with Oriflamme or be used as a standalone.

In the tactical card game, hidden cards are played in turn. By tactically uncovering and activating their effects, players can outdo or get them out of the way, because all players have the same goal in mind — to collect the most influence points for their family and thus win the game.