New to Games? 21 - Shut Up & Sit Down

Quantum

In Quantum, each player is a fleet commander from one of the four factions of humanity, struggling to conquer a sector of space. Every die is a starship, with the value of the die determining the movement of the ship, but also its combat power – with low numbers more powerful. So a [ 6 ] is a quick but fragile Scout and a [ 1 ] is a slow but mighty Battlestation.

Each type of ship also has a special power that can be used once per turn: Destroyers can warp space to swap places with other dice and Flagships can transport other ships. These powers can be used in combination for devastating effects. You’re not stuck with your starting ships, however: using Quantum technology, you can spend actions to transform (re-roll) your ships. Randomness plays a role in the game, but only when you want: Quantum is very much a strategy game.

You win by constructing Quantum Cubes – massive planetary energy extractors. Each time you build a new one, you can expand your fleet, earn a new permanent ability, or take a one-time special move. The board itself is made out of modular tiles, and you can play on one of the 30 layouts that come with the game or design your own. The ship powers, player abilities, and board designs combine to create a limitless set of possibilities for how to play and strategies for how to win.

With elegant mechanics, an infinity of scenarios, and easy-to-learn rules that lead to deep gameplay, Quantum is a one-of-a-kind game of space combat, strategy and colonization that will satisfy both hard-core and casual players.

The robots of the Robo Rally automobile factory spend their weekdays toiling at the assembly line. They put in hard hours building high-speed supercars they never get to see in action. But on Saturday nights, the factory becomes a world of mad machines and dangerous schemes as these robots engage in their own epic race.It takes speed, wits, and dirty tricks to become a racing legend!

Each player chooses a robot and directs its moves by playing cards. Chaos ensues as all players reveal the cards they’ve chosen. Players face obstacles like industrial lasers, gaping pits, and moving conveyer belts — but those can also be used to their advantage! Each player aims to make it to each of the checkpoints in numerical order. The first player to reach all of the checkpoints wins.

In Panic on Wall Street! you take on the role of a freewheeling capitalist out to outmaneuver your competitors and earn your place as a great industrialist.

Players are divided into managers and investors. Your goal is to earn more money than any other manager (if you are a manager) or more money than any other investor (if you are a investor) by the end of the fifth round.

Each round managers and investors negotiate with each other in a noisy, two-minute free-for-all to set a purchase price for shares in the managers’ companies. Investors then collect income from the shares they purchased but not until a roll of the dice brings (sometimes drastic) changes to the economy, with major consequences for the balance sheet of each player. Managers collect what they are owed from investors, pay fees for each of their companies, and buy new companies at auction.

After five rounds of play (5 months), the manager and the investor who have accumulated the most money are each declared victors, the undisputed masters of commerce.

Timeline: Inventions is a card game played using 109 cards. Each card depicts an invention on both sides, with the year in which that invention was created on only one side. Players take turns placing a card from their hand in a row on the table. After placing the card, the player reveals the date on it. If the card was placed correctly with the date in chronological order with all other cards on the table, the card stays in place; otherwise the card is removed from play and the player takes another card from the deck.

The first player to get rid of all his cards by placing them correctly wins. If multiple players go out in the same round, then everyone else is eliminated from play and each of those players are dealt one more card for another round of play. If only one player has no cards after a bonus round, he wins; otherwise play continues until a single player goes out.

Timeline: Inventions can be combined with any other title in the Timeline series.

In Carcassonne, players build the area surrounding this impressive city, one tile at a time. They then place a follower on fields, cities, roads or monasteries in order to score as many points as possible. These followers will become knights, monks, farmers and thieves, depending on where they are placed. No matter their followers’ function, the player who places their followers most intelligently, and who builds the playing area most deviously, will win the game.

An adventure game in which the players all possess different parts of treasure maps, Tobago has everyone hunting for buried riches. Gradually, more and more information about the locations of the treasures are revealed and their possible locations narrowed down. When a player identifies the location of one of the treasures, they try to reach it as fast as possible to secure whatever might be buried there.

K2 is a board game in which each player controls a team of two mountaineers. Their objective, to reach to the summit of K2 and return before anyone else… and without the mountain killing them. Every player uses an identical deck of cards to move their climbers or to acclimatize them to the cold. It’s a deadly mountain and staying alive is not going to be easy.

This is a true classic, and now brought back by Stronghold Games with completely upgraded components, and now in a 30th Anniversary Edition!

In “Survive”, you try to lead your Explorers from the sinking central island of Atlantis to the safety of one of four islands nearby. Your Explorers can get there quickly by boat (if they find one) or more slowly by swimming. But it will be a perilous journey as they must avoid Sea Serpents, Whales, and Sharks! When the volcano on Atlantis explodes, the game is over. The player with the most Explorer points wins!

As compared to its previous versions from other publishers, all of the components for “Survive” have been upgraded to the highest-quality levels, including slotted wood boats to carry the Explorer tokens, as well as Land Tiles of 3 different thicknesses to give Atlantis a 3-D look.

This card game recreates an old-fashioned spaghetti western shoot-out, with each player randomly receiving a character card to determine their special abilities, and a secret Role card to determine their goal. The Sheriff has to clean out the town, with the aid of their hidden deputy, while the Outlaws must take down the law. The Renegade? Well, they’re all on their own…

In Jungle Speed, you must rely on your keen sense of observation and quick reflexes. It requires a steady hand — which can be hard to maintain during the many fits of maniacal laughter! The wooden Totem sits in the middle of the table, waiting for the player with the fastest reflexes to snatch it up and win the game.

Each player is dealt a hand of cards. In order to win you must be the first player to get rid of all of your cards. Each turn, all of the players reveal one of their cards. If two cards are identical, those players must make a grab for the Totem. The faster player then gives their cards to their unfortunate adversary.

To add to the difficulty, certain cards are almost identical, which can trick a hapless player into grabbing the Totem by mistake — a grave error. Other cards force all players to make a grab at once, change the method of play, or otherwise add to the difficulty.

Quantum

Robo Rally

Panic on Wall Street!

Timeline: Inventions

Carcassonne

Tobago

K2

Survive: Escape From Atlantis!

Bang!

Jungle Speed

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