Santorini

Santorini

Santorini is a non-abstract re-imagining of the 2004 edition. Since its original inception over 30 years ago, Santorini has been endlessly developed, enhanced and refined by mathematician and educator, Dr. Gordon Hamilton.

Santorini is a highly accessible pure strategy game that is simple enough for an elementary school classroom. But with enough gameplay depth and content for even hardcore gamers to explore, Santorini is truly a game for everyone. The rules are deceptively simple. Each turn consists of 2 steps:

1. Move – move one of your builders into a neighboring space. You may move your Builder Pawn on the same level, step-up one level, or step down any number of levels.

2. Build – Then construct a building level adjacent to the builder you moved. When building on top of the third level, place a dome instead, removing that space from play.

Winning the game – If either of your builders reaches the third level, you win.

Variable player powers – What makes Santorini truly special is its seamless integration of variable player powers into a pure-strategy game. Dr Hamilton has designed over 40 thematic god and hero powers, each fundamentally changing the way the game is played.

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Clank!

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Burgle your way to adventure in Clank!, the new deck-building board game.

Sneak into an angry dragon’s mountain lair to steal precious artifacts. Delve deeper to find more valuable loot. Acquire cards for your deck and watch your thievish abilities grow.

Be quick and be quiet. One false-step and — CLANK! Each careless sound draws the attention of the dragon, and each artifact stolen increases its rage. You can only enjoy your plunder if you make it out of the depths alive!

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Tyrants of the Underdark

Tyrants of the Underdark pits 2 to 4 players against each other to take over territory in the tumultuous Underdark, mashing up deck-building mechanics with board control.

Designed by Peter Lee, Rodney Thompson, and Andrew Veen, and produced by Gale Force Nine, Tyrants of the Underdark is a competitive board game in which you play as a drow house recruiting monsters, cultists and demons to aid you in controlling locations such as Menzoberranzan and Blingdenstone. Using power and influence as resources, Tyrants of the Underdark features multiple strategies you can use in crafting your deck of minions. Be the spymaster infiltrating your enemy’s strongholds or the deadly war-leader concentrating on assassinating enemy troops. No matter how you decide to play, whoever controls most of the Underdark at the end of the game wins, unless there’s some hidden strategy in play.

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Kenjin

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A merciless war is raging throughout feudal Japan, fueled by the hunger for power or the desire for peace of its great lords. As one of them, you must defend your territory from the enemy threatening your borders. Now it’s time to command you troops and read through your opponent’s strategy to take over the battlefield and prevail!

Kenjin is a quick and subtle card game of bluffing and tactics. You share two random battlefields with each of the players next to you: one worth 4 points, the other 6.

You get a hand of thirteen cards numbered from 0 to 3. They are your peasants, thugs, lords. On your turn, send two of them to one or two of your battlefields. When all the cards have been played, each battlefield is won by the player with the highest sum of card values there. Some cards are always played face up, others always face down. Some of them also have a special power: Use your peasants (0) to lure your opponent’s troops to a battlefield, or to score more points if they survive. Play a Lord (2) early as it’s strengthened by each new reinforcement thereafter.

Terrains also impact a battle’s outcome: Peasants take arms to protect their rice fields, while military strength is not always enough when you fight over a palace. Once each battlefield has been scored, the player with the most victory points wins.

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Blood Rage

Blood Rage

“Life is Battle; Battle is Glory; Glory is ALL”

In Blood Rage, each player controls their own Viking clan’s warriors, leader, and ship. Ragnarök has come, and it’s the end of the world! It’s the Vikings’ last chance to go down in a blaze of glory and secure their place in Valhalla at Odin’s side! For a Viking there are many pathways to glory. You can invade and pillage the land for its rewards, crush your opponents in epic battles, fulfill quests, increase your clan’s stats, or even die gloriously either in battle or from Ragnarök, the ultimate inescapable doom.

Most player strategies are guided by the cards drafted at the beginning of each of the three game rounds (or Ages). These “Gods’ Gifts” grant you numerous boons for your clan including: increased Viking strength and devious battle strategies, upgrades to your clan, or even the aid of legendary creatures from Norse mythology. They may also include various quests, from dominating specific provinces, to having lots of your Vikings sent to Valhalla. Most of these cards are aligned with one of the Norse gods, hinting at the kind of strategy they support. For example, Thor gives more glory for victory in battle, Heimdall grants you foresight and surprises, Tyr strengthens you in battle, while the trickster Loki actually rewards you for losing battles, or punishes the winner.

Players must choose their strategies carefully during the draft phase, but also be ready to adapt and react to their opponents’ strategies as the action phase unfolds. Battles are decided not only by the strength of the figures involved, but also by cards played in secret. By observing your opponent’s actions and allegiances to specific gods, you may predict what card they are likely to play, and plan accordingly. Winning battles is not always the best course of action, as the right card can get you even more rewards by being crushed. The only losing strategy in Blood Rage is to shy away from battle and a glorious death!

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Mechs vs. Minions

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Mechs vs Minions is available for purchase http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/featured/mechs-vs-minions exclusively from the official site.

Mechs vs. Minions is a cooperative tabletop campaign for 2-4 players. Set in the world of Runeterra, players take on the roles of four intrepid Yordles: Corki, Tristana, Heimerdinger, and Ziggs, who must join forces and pilot their newly-crafted mechs against an army of marauding minions. With modular boards, programmatic command lines, and a story-driven campaign, each mission will be unique, putting your teamwork, programming, and piloting skills to the test.

There are ten missions in total, and each individual mission will take about 60-90 minutes. The box includes five game boards, four command lines (one for each player), four painted mech miniatures, ability and damage decks, a sand timer, a bomb-like-power source miniature, 6 metal trackers, 4 acrylic shards, 4 dice, and 100 minion miniatures. There also appears to be some large object trying to get out of that sealed box…

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Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower

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Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower is a stunning boxed game for 2-4 players, set in the shifting, labyrinthine lair of a sinister Gaunt Summoner! Work with your friends to conquer the secrets of the Silver Tower, or take the glory for yourself – characters carry over the skills and treasures they have earned in previous games. The 13 double-sided board tiles mean no two adventures need be the same; a roll of the dice can send your adventurers off on wild tangents, with literally thousands of different dungeon-crawl combinations.

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Orléans

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During the medieval goings-on around Orléans, you must assemble a following of farmers, merchants, knights, monks, etc. to gain supremacy through trade, construction and science in medieval France.

In the city of Orléans and the area of the Loire, you can take trade trips to other cities to acquire coveted goods and build trading posts. You need followers and their abilities to expand your dominance by putting them to work as traders, builders, and scientists. Knights expand your scope of action and secure your mercantile expeditions. Craftsmen build trading stations and tools to facilitate work. Scholars make progress in science, and last but not least it cannot hurt to get active in monasteries since with monks on your side you are much less likely to fall prey to fate.

In Orléans, you will always want to take more actions than possible, and there are many paths to victory. The challenge is to combine all elements as best as possible with regard to your strategy.

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Dice City

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Dice City is a “dice-crafting” game in which the locations in an ever-growing city act as the changing faces of a die each turn. They can be developed into stronger and grander features to make a more successful and more powerful settlement.

There are several ways to promote a city; through strong armies; by constructing wondrous buildings; or by opening up trade routes. The secret is to manage the city and its natural resources carefully to make the best of your fortunes.

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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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