Munchkin

Munchkin

Go down in the dungeon. Kill everything you meet. Backstab your friends and steal their stuff. Grab the treasure and run.

Admit it. You love it.

Munchkin is the mega-hit card game about dungeon adventure . . . with none of that stupid roleplaying stuff. You and your friends compete to kill monsters and grab magic items. And what magic items! Don the Horny Helmet and the Boots of Butt-Kicking. Wield the Staff of Napalm . . . or maybe the Chainsaw of Bloody Dismemberment. Start by slaughtering the Potted Plant and the Drooling Slime, and work your way up to the Plutonium Dragon . . .

And it’s illustrated by John Kovalic!

Fast-playing and silly, Munchkin can reduce any roleplaying group to hysteria. And, while they’re laughing, you can steal their stuff.

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7 Wonders

7 Wonders

A game of 7 Wonders is divided in 3 ages. These ages are plaid similarly, each player is given the oppotunity to play 6 cards to develop his city and build his wonder.

To play a card, you select one from a hand of cards and you lay it in front of you.

Then, you give the remaining cards to the next player and you receive cards from the former player.

At the end of each age, each player compares his military strength with the one of their neighoburing cities, players to his right and his left.

When the third age is over, players score the points given by their cards and the military conflicts. The winner is the player with the most points.

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D-Day Dice

D-Day Dice

In D-Day Dice, players are Allied soldiers trying to organize improvised units for an attack against a machine gun nest. Each player starts the game with a unit of a few soldiers and nothing else. As the game progresses, he will roll dice to collect resources and advance on the beach, sector by sector, as his unit grows stronger and deadlier. He will succeed… or die trying!

D-Day Dice will get you right there on the beach. You will experience the fear of getting killed by enemy fire, the anguish of losing your men, and the thrill of surmounting seemingly impossible odds to accomplish your mission. And since this is a cooperative game, all players are on the same side, fighting like brothers (and sisters) in arms! This game can be played by anyone (you don’t have to be familiar with World War II) and has been enjoyed by families and wargamers alike.

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Libertalia

Libertalia

Captain Swallow has always dreamed of pocketing a large nest egg in order to retire on a remote island – but he never counted on stiff competition from Captains Stanley Rackum, Dirk Chivers and others, greedy and cruel enemies who always manage to attack the same ships as him. If he wants to finally sink back and enjoy peaceful days in the sun, he must become the most cunning pirate!

In Libertalia, you must thwart the plans of competitive pirates over the course of three rounds while using cards that show the same crew members as your piratical comrades-in-arms. Yes, not only do they attack the same ships, but they employ the same type of ravenous scum that you do! Can you take advantage of the powers of your characters at the right time? Will you be outdone by a pirate smarter than you? Jump into the water and prove your tactical skills!

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Mission: Red Planet

red planet

The year is 1888, and Steampunk technology has advanced at a prodigious rate! Probes have been sent to Mars, and soon astronauts will be manning rockets in order to mine the planet for newly discovered resources. The first is a brand new element, Celerium, that could prove to be a combustible energy source the likes man has never seen. The second is Sylvanite, an incredibly dense material unlike anything found on earth. In addition to these resources, glaciers have been discovered on the planet. Whoever controls these icy masses could work to create a livable atmosphere on Mars

In Mission: Red Planet, players work as mining companies compete to send astronauts to Mars in order to colonize and mine for recently discovered materials. Over the course of 10 rounds, players play one of their special agents every round to help fill the rockets heading to Mars with their own astronauts while simultaneously working to prevent their opponents from doing the same. Once landed, these astronauts must gather to control specific regions of the planet, each yielding one of the three resources: Celerium, Sylvanite, or Ice. After rounds 5 and 8, players gain score tokens for every region where they control the majority of the astronauts. At the end of the game, players score one final time, adding any bonuses received from Discovery Cards and Bonus Cards. The player with the most score tokens at the end controls Mars, and all the riches it can bring!

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Discworld: Ankh-Morpork

Discworld: Ankh-Morpork

Martin Wallace and Treefrog Games present Ankh-Morpork, set in the largest city-state in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld. Lord Vetinari has disappeared and different factions are trying to take control of the city. Each player has a secret personality with specific victory conditions, which means that you’re not sure exactly what the other players need to do in order to win.

The action takes place on a map of Ankh-Morpork, with players trying to place minions and buildings through card play. Each of the 132 cards is unique, and “the cards bring the game to life as they include most of the famous characters that have appeared in the various books. The rules are relatively simple: Play a card and do what it says. Most cards have more than one action on them, and you can choose to do some or all of these actions. Some cards also allow you to play a second card, so you can chain actions” (Wallace).

A team of artists have recreated the city and its residents for the cards, game board and box, with Bernard Pearson coordinating that team. Ankh-Morpork has been sublicensed to Mayfair Games for the North American market and Kosmos for the German market.

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Mundus Novus

Mundus Novus

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.

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The Walking Dead: The Board Game

The Walking Dead: The Board Game

The Walking Dead: The Board Game from Z-Man Games transforms the Robert Kirkman comic book series into a board game, giving “fans the opportunity to play Rick, Shane, Andrea, and other favorite The Walking Dead characters as they deal with zombies, collect supplies and pick up the pieces of their lives”, according to a press release announcing the game. Encounter and location cards recreate scenes and events from the comic book series.

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Cold War: CIA vs KGB

Cold War: CIA vs KGB

World War II has left the world in upheaval, and many nations’ futures are filled with uncertainty. The USA and the USSR are the only Superpowers who can lead the world toward a better future.

Cold War: CIA vs. KGB puts you in charge of a spy network during the post-war era. Your purpose: to “persuade” foreign governments to embrace the “proper” ideology, by any means necessary. Manipulate local factions of influence to get your coup d’etat up and running. Double-cross and eliminate your opponent’s leaders. Gain prestige for your side by winning the Space Race, dominating the Olympic Games, or ensuring that one of your countrymen wins the Nobel Peace Prize.

In this decades-long conflict, victory will go to the side with the resources, conviction, and commitment necessary to ensure that their world view shapes the future.

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Quarriors!

Quarriors

In Quarriors, each player plays as a Quarrior competing for Glory in the eyes of Quiana, the Empress of Quaridia. Each player starts with an identical set of 12 dice in their dice bag. At the start of the game, Creature and Spell dice (Quarry) are dealt at random to form “the Wilds” in the center of the table. As play progresses, players roll their dice to attempt to summon Creatures, cast Spells, and harness the magical power of Quiddity (the in-game resource) to capture Quarry from the Wilds to add to their repertoire and into their dice bag. Players draw and roll 6 dice a turn from their bag, making that controlling bag composition is key to victory.Quarriors is a fast-paced game where players must strategically balance their choices each turn. Do I use my Quiddity to summon Creatures in the hopes of scoring Glory or should I spend it all to capture more powerful Quarry from the Wilds? Players must outmaneuver their opponent’s through strategic Spell use, the acquisition of powerful Quarry, and ultimately, by striking down opponent’s Creature in combat. If your Creatures survive until your next turn, you will score Glory points and move closer to victory!

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