In Agricola, you're a farmer in a wooden shack with your spouse and little else. On a turn, you get to take only two actions, one for you and one for the spouse, from all the possibilities you'll find on a farm: collecting clay, wood, or stone; building fences; and so on. You might think about having kids in order to get more work accomplished, but first you need to expand your house. And what are you going to feed all the little rugrats?

The game supports many levels of complexity, mainly through the use (or non-use) of two of its main types of cards, Minor Improvements and Occupations. In the beginner's version (called the Family Variant in the U.S. release), these cards are not used at all. For advanced play, the U.S. release includes three levels of both types of cards; Basic (E-deck), Interactive (I-deck), and Complex (K-deck), and the rulebook encourages players to experiment with the various decks and mixtures thereof. Aftermarket decks such as the Z-Deck and the L-Deck also exist.

Agricola is a turn-based game. There are 14 game rounds occurring in 6 stages, with a Harvest at the end of each stage (after Rounds 4, 7, 9, 11, 13, and 14).
Each player starts with two playing tokens (farmer and spouse) and thus can take two turns, or actions, per round. There are multiple options, and while the game progresses, you'll have more and more: first thing in a round, a new action card is flipped over.
Problem: Each action can be taken by only one player each round, so it's important to do some things with high preference.
Each player also starts with a hand of 7 Occupation cards (of more than 160 total) and 7 Minor Improvement cards (of more than 140 total) that he/she may use during the game if they fit in his/her strategy. Speaking of which, there are countless strategies, some depending on your card hand. Sometimes it's a good choice to stay on course, and sometimes it is better to react to your opponents' actions.

In Tiger Leader, you're in command of a German Kampfgruppe of tanks, armored cars, trucks, halftracks and supporting infantry. Your Kampfruppe may also be assigned air support and heavy weapons support in order to achieve your goals. Your goals are to take your objectives while trying to keep as many of your men alive as possible during realistic tactical missions.

Tiger Leader features nine historical campaigns that can be played as individual campaigns or linked to form one huge mega-campaign that follows your troops from the Invasion of Poland to the final battles on the Eastern and Western fronts. The scheduled campaigns include:

The Invasion of Poland 1939
The Battle for France 1940
The Battle for North Africa 1941
The Invasion of Russia 1941
The Battle for North Africa 1942
The Fight for Italy 1943
The Fight for Russia 1943
The Days of D-Day 1944
The Final Days in Berlin 1945
A major part of the game is mission planning. You decide which vehicles and infantry units to use and which commanders are best for the mission. Vehicle and infantry commanders are rated for skill level and even personality quirks such as how well they keep their heads while under fire. Deciding which commanders are used for each mission is a major consideration. Your units will become fatigued with every mission. If you push a commander and his men too hard, his skills will degrade. Your commanders and their crew also gain experience with every mission. This makes for some great decision-making. Should you keep fighting with your top commanders and crew and further fatigue them to get the job done, or let the new guys fight in order to prep them for the tough missions ahead?

Missions are quickly resolved using an area movement system to display tactical combat. Speed and realism take top priority in this game. Terrain cards randomly generate each battlefield. Double sided terrain tiles provide everything from cities and farmland to snow covered forests and hills to sand dunes and oases.

During combat, you get to resolve every fight with enemy tanks, infantry, anti-tank guns, and squads of infantry. Each enemy tank, truck, infantry, etc is represented by its own counter on the battlefield. A unique fog of war system adds to the tension of the combat as unless you have a clear line of site to the enemy, you may not know exactly what is coming out of the morning fog towards your tanks until it’s too late.

After combat, you can rest and refit your vehicles and infantry. As new technology becomes available, you can replace older obsolete tanks with newer and deadlier models such as the Tiger, Panther and even the deadly King Tiger! If you’ve played Hornet Leader, Phantom Leader or Thunderbolt/Apache Leader, you’ll make an easy transition into Tiger Leader.

We’ve included the cards for every commander to progress in experience from Newbie, to Green, Average, Skilled, Veteran, and Ace!

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++++Incoming Transmission++++

++++ Received: 24/09/2195+++

+++Source: Antares binary system 876/ 978+++

''ID: Industrial Salvage and Mining Vessel Valley Forge

Crew: 12 Human
Androids: 1 Andromech 580-A “Demigod” class
Engines: Hagfish Twin FTL J-3000 Tachyon Shunters
Navigation: SIS-TER 6000 Mainframe
Cargo: 2,000,000 tons of Mineral Ore; 3 tons of Trimonite
Logged Flight Plan: Thedus to Earth

Message begins:

+++

Mayday, Mayday! This is the ISMV Valley Forge – comms systems failing, scanners malfunctioning… one of us is missing. Several of the crew are also claiming to have seen an alien lifeform.
Ore-payload canister M-CXC-3790 ruptured when taken for processing. Doctor Chandra claimed it cracked like an egg before she vanished (possible space psychosis). Request advice, and rescue boat. Comms out.

+++++

Message Appended- Received 24/09/2195

+++++

Oh god! Two of us are dead, and two are still missing. We’ve got to get out of here! The captain has ordered Palmer to prime the auto-destruct. It mustn’t get back! Save our souls.

---

Lifeform is a game of survival horror for two to four players in which one player takes on the role of an almost invincible, utterly hostile alien, while all other players take on the roles of the crew of commercial mining starship, Valley Forge. During each game, the crew, outfitted with glitchy handheld sensors disrupted by a proximate nebula, search their labyrinthine vessel for equipment, weaponry, and supplies to load onboard escape shuttlecraft Remora. Along the way, the alien lifeform will ruthlessly attempt to stop the crew from carrying out this plan.

The crew and alien lifeform both have a unique deck of cards, and each card has symbols on it to indicate possible actions. The alien can move around the starship, attack, cocoon, activate a malfunctioning android, sabotage equipment and the vessel's wiring, scurry into vents, and more; while the starship crew can fire flamethrowers, search, move or run, protect themselves with shock-prods, hide, shut security doors, and other actions.

Lifeform is a standalone, dice-less game that tells of twelve commercial astronauts working on a battered mining starship, far away in space and time, who encounter an awesome galactic horror. Featuring an innovative self-destruct game mechanism, and alternate playable endings, depending on crew success, Lifeform presents a tense, suspenseful adventure with each and every game.

The Mage Knight board game puts you in control of one of four powerful Mage Knights as you explore (and conquer) a corner of the Mage Knight universe under the control of the Atlantean Empire. Build your army, fill your deck with powerful spells and actions, explore caves and dungeons, and eventually conquer powerful cities controlled by this once-great faction! In competitive scenarios, opposing players may be powerful allies, but only one will be able to claim the land as their own. In cooperative scenarios, the players win or lose as a group. Solo rules are also included.

Combining elements of RPGs, deck-building, and traditional board games the Mage Knight board game captures the rich history of the Mage Knight universe in a self-contained gaming experience.

The Expanse, a board game based on the Syfy television series of the same name, focuses on politics, conquest and intrigue similar to the board game Twilight Struggle, although with a shorter playing time. The card-driven game uses key images from the show, along with action points and events that allow players to move and place "Fleets" and "Influence".

In more detail, players represent Earth's UN forces, the military of Mars, the rebels of the O.P.A., and the mysterious corporation Protogen Inc. Each player has special abilities that must be maneuvered to gain advantage. Players increase their control over the solar system using characters and events from the universe of The Expanse.

A 1-6 player cooperative game of terrifying cave escape. Players take the role of amateur cavers attempting to escape an unexplored network of subterranean tunnels, before the lights flicker out or the darker things beneath the Earth catch up to them...

In Sub Terra players spend their turn exploring and revealing the tunnel system around them, attempting to survive the various perils of the cave, from floods and cave ins to gas leaks and scree. Players each have a role which gives them specialist abilities, such as an Engineer with dynamite to blast a new route or a Scout to find a route more easily.

New tiles are placed from a randomised stack of cave features, which determines whether you'll be hit with a dead end or a range of new options.

At the end of each turn, players face the reality of their situation, with a hazard card drawn to determine what danger causes them damage or cuts off their way out of the horror below.

These cards are finite, and when they run out, your torches flicker and the air feels tight, and your chance of survival diminishes quickly.

Rising Sun is a spiritual successor in the same mythic big box series as Blood Rage: same designer, same artist, same studio and same sculptors.

Rising Sun is a game about honor, negotiation, and warfare in a feudal Japan where the ancient gods (kami)have returned to rebuild the empire.

Whereas the distant ancestor of Blood Rage was Risk, Rising Sun claims Diplomacy as its distant ancestor. Tackle negotiations, alliances, and war. Capture hostages and commit seppuku. The game features an honor track, which rises and falls based on your actions.

The board extension slides next to the back side of the standard game board, creating a complete board with 70% bigger hexes (the content is the same). All units and resources in Scythe are kept on the board, so the larger hexes provide more space. The standard game board is 624x818mm, and it grows to 818x939mm with this extension.

A King just wants to have fun!

It's Monday in a King's Life, and laborious kingly duties have made for one irritable monarch. Good thing our fair ruler devotes every other day of the week to kingly delights.

Come Tuesday, it's up on his courtiers, you fair players, to pull his highness out of his fun. Each day left in the week brings different demands - a hunt! A feast! A tourney! A ball! The cunning courtier that can tickle the tyrant's fancy with his or her own grand plan will be in the king's good graces and enjoy a coveted seat on the royal council.

King's Life is a zany game of alliances and wit by Bruno Faidutti (Citadels, Incan Gold) and Gwenael Bouquin for up to EIGHT eager players - clock in at just 30 minutes. Enter this wacky world and get lost in the pomp and splendor befitting of only a king.

In Puerto Rico players assume the roles of colonial governors on the island of Puerto Rico. The aim of the game is to amass victory points by shipping goods to Europe or by constructing buildings.

Each player uses a separate small board with spaces for city buildings, plantations, and resources. Shared between the players are three ships, a trading house, and a supply of resources and doubloons.

The resource cycle of the game is that players grow crops which they exchange for points or doubloons. Doubloons can then be used to buy buildings, which allow players to produce more crops or give them other abilities. Buildings and plantations do not work unless they are manned by colonists.

During each round, players take turns selecting a role card from those on the table (such as "Trader" or "Builder"). When a role is chosen, every player gets to take the action appropriate to that role. The player that selected the role also receives a small privilege for doing so - for example, choosing the "Builder" role allows all players to construct a building, but the player who chose the role may do so at a discount on that turn. Unused roles gain a doubloon bonus at the end of each turn, so the next player who chooses that role gets to keep any doubloon bonus associated with it. This encourages players to make use of all the roles throughout a typical course of a game.

Puerto Rico uses a variable phase order mechanic, where a "governor" token is passed clockwise to the next player at the conclusion of a turn. The player with the token begins the round by choosing a role and taking the first action.

Players earn victory points for owning buildings, for shipping goods, and for manned "large buildings." Each player's accumulated shipping chips are kept face down and come in denominations of one or five. This prevents other players from being able to determine the exact score of another player. Goods and doubloons are placed in clear view of other players and the totals of each can always be requested by a player. As the game enters its later stages, the unknown quantity of shipping tokens and its denominations require players to consider their options before choosing a role that can end the game.

Click, click, click… Hold on to your stomachs, because the ride of your life is about to drop. In Coaster Park, you are tasked with building the biggest, baddest roller coasters. To do this, you must assemble a killer crew to help you outbid and outsmart your fellow builders to gain the choicest track pieces. But don’t forget about physics! If your marble fails to make it to the end, you’ve got a dud on your hands and must re-engineer your path to victory.

Designed by Richard Launius and Brandon Perdue, X-Men: Mutant Insurrection invites you to travel across the globe on death-defying missions to recruit new mutants, capture criminals, protect innocent lives, and battle against some of the most iconic X-Men villains. You’ll build a team of mutants, with characters like Rogue, Wolverine, and Storm joining forces with Shadowcat, Magik, and Forge. Eight distinct scenarios await, each with their own challenges, and each leading to a no-holds-barred showdown against villains like Magneto, Dark Phoenix, or the Hellfire Club. The Blackbird is ready to launch—join your team and fight for the future!

Take part in one of the most famous science-fiction stories of all time. Dune: A Game of Conquest and Diplomacy builds on 40 years of development, refinement, and evolution from the original classic game. It has the same beloved DNA, flavor, tension, and themes, but with new game-board design, more spice, new streamlined rules, and a new market deck from which you can purchase game advantages. Also, the brand new two-player mode really opens up new gaming opportunities, all making the game more accessible for even the most casual gamer.

In Dune, you will take control of one of the four great factions—House Atreides, House Harkonnen, the Fremen, and the Imperium—all vying to control the most valuable resource in the universe: melange, the mysterious spice only found at great cost the planet Dune. Ship your forces to Dune, harvest spice, seize control of strongholds, and destroy your enemies. Who will control Dune? You decide!

Setting: Jamaica, 1675.
After a long career in piracy, Captain Henry Morgan skillfully gets appointed to be Governor of Jamaica, with the explicit order to cleanse the Caribbean of pirates and buccaneers! Instead, he invites all of his former "colleagues" to join him in his retirement, to enjoy the fruits of their looting with impunity. Each year, in remembrance of the "good old days," Morgan organizes the Great Challenge, a race around the island, and at its end, the Captain with the most gold is declared Grand Winner.

Goal: The game ends on the turn when at least one player's ship reaches the finish line, completing one circuit around the island of Jamaica. At that point, players are awarded different amounts of gold in accordance with how far away from the finish line they were when the race concluded. This gold is added to any gold a player gathered along the way by detouring from the race to search for valuable treasure, by stealing gold or treasure from other players, or just by loading gold as directed by the cards the player played during the race. The player with the most total gold acquired through all these means is then declared the winner.

2-6 players

8+ years

30-60 minutes

Tell your own fantastic tales of brave heroes and daring adventure!

Once Upon a Time is the award-winning storytelling card game that encourages creativity and collaborative play. One player is the Storyteller, and begins telling a story using the fairytale elements on their Story cards, guiding the plot toward their Ending Card. The other players use their own cards to interrupt and become the new Storyteller. The winner is the first player to use all their Story Cards and play their Ending Card. The object of the game, though, isn't just to win, but to have fun telling a story together! 

2-6 players

20-40 minutes

In Air, Land, & Sea, two players battle for control over each “theater” of war by playing Battle cards and strategically utilizing their special abilities to gain the advantage. Whoever controls the most theaters, claims victory points, and the player who scores 12 victory points first wins the war!

However, 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!

7 Wonders Duel: Agora features a new board called the Senate, comprising six separate chambers that provide players with benefits once they take possession of the area. Players can obtain a Senate chamber by taking senator cards. Should any player successfully take control of the majority of Senate chambers then they automatically win the game.

 

In the land of Terra Mystica dwell 14 different peoples in seven landscapes, and each group is bound to its own home environment, so to develop and grow, they must terraform neighboring landscapes into their home environments in competition with the other groups.

Terra Mystica is a full information game without any luck that rewards strategic planning. Each player governs one of the 14 groups. With subtlety and craft, the player must attempt to rule as great an area as possible and to develop that group's skills. There are also four religious cults in which you can progress. To do all that, each group has special skills and abilities.

Taking turns, the players execute their actions on the resources they have at their disposal. Different buildings allow players to develop different resources. Dwellings allow for more workers. Trading houses allow players to make money. Strongholds unlock a group's special ability, and temples allow you to develop religion and your terraforming and seafaring skills. Buildings can be upgraded: Dwellings can be developed into trading houses; trading houses can be developed into strongholds or temples; one temple can be upgraded to become a sanctuary. Each group must also develop its terraforming skill and its skill with boats to use the rivers. The groups in question, along with their home landscape, are:

• Desert (Fakirs, Nomads)
• Plains (Halflings, Cultists)
• Swamp (Alchemists, Darklings)
• Lake (Mermaids, Swarmlings)
• Forest (Witches, Auren)
• Mountain (Dwarves, Engineers)
• Wasteland (Giants, Chaos Magicians)

Proximity to other groups is a double-edged sword in Terra Mystica. Being close to other groups gives you extra power, but it also means that expanding is more difficult...

Following along the same lines as its predecessor (Agricola), Caverna: The Cave Farmers is a worker-placement game at heart, with a focus on farming. In the game, you are the bearded leader of a small dwarf family that lives in a little cave in the mountains. You begin the game with a farmer and his spouse, and each member of the farming family represents an action that the player can take each turn. Together, you cultivate the forest in front of your cave and dig deeper into the mountain. You furnish the caves as dwellings for your offspring as well as working spaces for small enterprises.

It's up to you how much ore you want to mine. You will need it to forge weapons that allow you to go on expeditions to gain bonus items and actions. While digging through the mountain, you may come across water sources and find ore and ruby mines that help you increase your wealth. Right in front of your cave, you can increase your wealth even further with agriculture: You can cut down the forest to sow fields and fence in pastures to hold your animals. You can also expand your family while running your ever-growing farm. In the end, the player with the most efficiently developed home board wins.You can also play the solo variant of this game to familiarize yourself with the 48 different furnishing tiles for your cave. Caverna: The Cave Farmers, which has a playing time of roughly 30 minutes per player, is a complete redesign of Agricola that substitutes the card decks from the former game with a set of buildings while adding the ability to purchase weapons and send your farmers on quests to gain further resources. Designer Uwe Rosenberg says that the game includes parts of Agricola, but also has new ideas, especially the cave part of your game board, where you can build mines and search for rubies. The game also includes two new animals: dogs and donkeys.

Designer Eric Lang, known for his "dudes on a map" games, describes The Godfather: Corleone's Empire — a standalone big box board game with high-quality miniatures — as "thugs on a map".

In short, the game is a streamlined, confrontational worker placement game filled with murder and intrigue. You play as competing mafia families who are vying for economic control of the organized crime networks of New York City, deploying your thugs, your don, your wife, and your heir on the board to shake down businesses and engage in area-control turf wars.

Money, rackets, contracts, and special advantages (such as the union boss) are represented by cards in your hand, and your hand size is limited, with you choosing which extra cards to pay tribute to the don at the end of each of the five rounds. At the end of the game, though, cash is all that matters, and whoever has the most money wins.

The game also features drive-by shootings in which enemy tokens are removed from the board and placed face-down in the river.

Empires have risen and fallen in the aftermath of the Great War, and Europa stands on the precipice of a new era. The economy is robust, morale is high, and defenses are strong. There are reports from the countryside of strange soldiers with glowing eyes, but they seem distant and harmless.

Scythe: The Rise of Fenris, the conclusion to the Scythe expansion trilogy, enables two different options for any player count (1-5 if you have Scythe; 1-7 players if you have Invaders from Afar):

• Campaign (8 games): The story of Scythe continues and concludes with an 8-episode campaign. While the campaign includes surprises, unlocks, and persistent elements, it is fully resettable and replayable.
• Modular (11 modules): Instead of—or after—the campaign, the new modules in The Rise of Fenris can be used in various combinations to cater to player preferences. These modules are compatible with all Scythe expansions, and they include a fully cooperative module that isn’t part of the competitive campaign.

While the exact nature of the episodes and modules will remain a mystery (most of these components are in 5 secret tuckboxes and on 6 punchboards), the components in this expansion include a detailed episodic guidebook, 13 plastic miniatures, 62 wooden tokens, 2 custom dice, 25 tiles,  100+ cardboard tokens, a campaign log, and 1 achievement sheet.