Fungi

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The woods are old-growth, dappled with sunlight. Delicious mushrooms beckon from every grove and hollow. Morels may be the most sought-after in these woods, but there are many tasty and valuable varieties awaiting the savvy collector. Bring a basket if you think it’s your lucky day. Forage at night and you will be all alone when you stumble upon a bonanza. If you’re hungry, put a pan on the fire and bask in the aroma of chanterelles as you sauté them in butter. Feeling mercantile? Sell porcini to local aficionados for information that will help you find what you seek deep in the forest.

Morels, a strategic card game for two players, uses two decks: a Day Deck (84 cards) that includes ten different types of mushrooms as well as baskets, cider, butter, pans, and moons, and a smaller Night Deck (8 cards) of mushrooms to be foraged by moonlight. Each mushroom card has two values: one for selling and one for cooking. Selling two or more like mushrooms grants foraging sticks that expand your options in the forest (that is, the running tableau of eight face-up cards on the table), enabling offensive or defensive plays that change with every game played. Cooking sets of three or more like mushrooms – sizzling in butter or cider if the set is large enough – earns points toward winning the game. With poisonous mushrooms wielding their wrath and a hand-size limit to manage, card selection is a tricky proposition at every turn.

Following each turn, one card from the forest moves into a decay pile that is available for only a short time. The Day Deck then refills the forest from the back, creating the effect of a walk in the woods in which some strategic morsels are collected, some are passed by, and others lay ahead.

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Mystic Vale

Mystic Vale

In Mystic Vale, players take on the role of druidic clans who are trying to cleanse a cursed land. Each turn, they play cards into their fields to gain both powerful advancements and useful vale cards. They must use that power wisely, or decay will end their turn prematurely.

Mystic Vale uses a “Card Crafting System”, which lets players not only build a deck, but build the individual cards in that deck, customizing each card’s abilities to exactly the strategy they wish to follow.

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Celestia

Celestia

You get aboard an aircraft with an adventurers team to perform many trips through the cities of Celestia and recover their wonderful treasures. Your journey will not be safe, but you will attempt to be the most rich adventurer by collecting the most precious treasures!

At the beginning of a journey, all players place their pawns within the aircraft; the players start the game with 6 cards in the hand (or 8 depending on the number of players). At the beginning of each round, one player is chosen to be the captain of the trip and he throws from 2 to 4 dice so as to determine the weather that he should face (fog, lightning bolts, killer birds or pirates). He must then play the appropriate cards to go on the journey and reach the next city (a compass, a lightning arrester, a foghorn or even canons).

Before that the captain plays the appropriate cards, each player has to decide whether or not he will stay within the aircraft:

– to get off is to ensure the victory points by exploring the city;

– to stay is to try a trip upto the next city in order to catch more precious treasures.

But beware: if the captain is unable to discard the appropriate cards, it is the crash down! All remaining passengers get back empty-handed and a whole new journey beginswith all players on board.

During his journeys, each explorer can try to pull out of the game with fabulous objects ( a jetpack, astronomy glasses… ) or by changing the trip ( modifying the travel or abandoning an explorer in the city ).

As soon as a player earns treasures valuable for at least 50 points, the game is over.

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Incan Gold

Incan Gold is a quick, fun and tense game in which you and other adventurers explore an old Incan temple in search of gold and treasure. In each of the five rounds, you secretly choose if you want to continue exploring the temple in search of more treasure or retreat to the safety of your camp with your share of the treasure that has been discovered so far.

Each time that an explorer braves new territory, more treasure or a danger appears. When a second card of the same type of danger is turned over, all exposed treasure is buried, leaving the remaining adventurers with nothing. Do you flee the dangerous temple with your portion of the treasure that has been uncovered so far or do you venture into the exciting temple in search of more hidden valuables?

After five rounds of exploration, whoever has the most treasure is the ultimate explorer and winner!

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Parade

Parade

The characters of Alice in Wonderland are having a Parade!

All players are producers of this parade. Characters from Lewis Carroll’s books such as Alice, The White Rabbit, and The Mad Hatter are steadily invited to join this weird procession.

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Condottiere

Condottiere

“None of the principal states were armed with their own proper forces. Thus the arms of Italy were either in the hands of the lesser princes, or of men who possessed no state; for the minor princes did not adopt the practice of arms from any desire of glory, but for the acquisition of either property or safety. The others (those who possessed no state) being bred to arms from their infancy, were acquainted with no other art, and pursued war for emolument, or to confer honor upon themselves.” –Niccolò Machiavelli, History of Florence Book I, Chapter VII

It is 13th century Italy. Trade flourishes between the city-states and the Levant. Venice, Florence, and Genoa are bursting with wealth. However, each city-state is also plagued with a weak national army, leaving them defenseless against invasion from their envious neighbors. Enter the Condottiere.

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Archaeology: The New Expedition

Archaeology: The New Expedition

You are an archaeologist working the dig sites of the Egyptian desert. Search for the right pieces to complete torn parchments, broken pots, and other priceless artifacts. Explore an ancient pyramid in the hope of uncovering a huge stash of treasure! Trade shrewdly at the local marketplace to increase the value of your collection. Sell your treasures to the museum at just the right time for maximum profit.

But beware, the desert also has its dangers! A devastating sandstorm can throw your expedition into disarray, and cunning thieves lurk around the dig site ready to steal your prize discovery!

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Arboretum

Arboretum

Under the trees, life is a breeze. Different colored trees will fill your arboretum and immerse you in a wonderful sense of freedom. Making the most beautiful arboretum is not an easy task and much planning is necessary in order to create wondrous paths.

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7 Wonders: Duel

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 all six 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.

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Meteor

Meteor

There is a storm of meteors heading directly toward our planet! Estimated time of impact is five minutes. We need to work together to destroy them all or the world will be blown to bits. Are you brave and resourceful enough to save our planet? If even one meteor gets through our defenses and hits the planet, life as we know it will be no more. Good luck citizens. It’s up to you.

Meteor is a real-time, cooperative, resource management card game.

You need to work together building and launching rockets as the time ticks down and the meteors get closer and closer to destroying the planet. Will you blow up all the meteors in time? Only one way to know for sure.

Meteor plays as a real-time card game. Each player has a hand of cards and a build area (build areas are shared in the six player game). A number of meteor cards are placed in the center of the table. Players must co-cooperatively build rockets to launch at the meteors before the time runs out.

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