Dice Rolling

Drivers from all over Europe have arrived and are lined up on the starting line. Consisting of narrow and winding roads, the track is filled with dangers and promises a tricky race. As one of the fastest and fearless pilots in the race, you will try to pass the finish line before your opponents by being the quickest at spotting and grabbing the die which will allow you to move forward.

Hurry'Cup is a car racing game where 3 to 6 players face off on tracks that are always different from one game to the next; as decided by the players themselves. Reflexes, dexterity, and risk-taking are the key to stepping first on the podium. It is a tile game with pavement-burning ambiance. Made up of 36 modular tiles, the Hurry'Cup race track offers many game possibilities, making it a new game each time. Hurry'Cup is a game with simple rules and Fast and Furious Fun.

Developer Stefan Brück at alea describes Saint Malo as "a light, dice-rolling strategy game in which the players draw their own city buildings, walls, and people on wipe-off boards".

In more detail, in Saint Malo players roll five dice to gain various resources; combinations of dice create enhancements like characters or buildings, which can provide additional victory points, money, or special actions, such as altering the outcome of a die roll. Players draw symbols for their holdings on erasable boards showing a grids of their cities to create individual towns. Players could build storehouses on particular squares, for example, then place a merchant nearby to gain money each turn. Another important character is the soldier; players must acquire these to defend themselves from pirate attacks that can decimate their towns.

Saint Malo rates a 2 out of 10 on Alea's difficulty scale.

In World War Z: The Game, a strategy game based on the movie and book of the same name, players work together to stop the spread of the zombie pandemic across the globe. Two to four players begin the game by choosing an ability-granting Role Card and starting in the United States. Players roll a die to initiate the zombie threat, represented by horde tokens of strengths 1 through 4 placed in zones around the board. Special "grey zones" represent lack of intel by featuring face-down tokens with zombie hordes of unknown strengths. Throughout the game, players travel to different zones and battle the zombie hordes in those locations by rolling dice and adding effects of Combat Cards.

The game features a die-based combat system. Humans always roll a six-sided die, while the hordes are represented by either a six-, eight-, ten-, or twelve-sided die depending on their strength. Humans may modify their role or add additional effects by playing Combat Cards, which consist of reusable Weapons (including Lobos, slang for "Lobotomizers") and one-shot Tactics (like Booby Traps or Redeployment). Every time a human wins a battle, the zombie horde strength decreases by one level, while victories for zombies cause players to discard Combat Cards. At the end of each turn, humans draw a Threat Escalation card to reveal how the zombie threat has grown.

Though players start the game working together against the zombies, when a player loses all his Combat cards, he becomes one of the undead. Player-zombies can manipulate the hordes on the board to attack other humans and to escalate the zombie threat.

The game ends after a predetermined number of rounds based on the number of players (six rounds for four players, seven for three, and eight for two). At the end of the game, if more than ten total zombie hordes of strength 3 or 4 still remain on the map, the humans lose (and any zombie players win). If ten or fewer such hordes remain, the humans collectively win.

Aquileia, the second most important city of the Roman Empire, had been originally founded as an outpost against the Barbarian invaders. From its military origin comes the peculiar quadrilateral structure divided by the main streets. Later, the city developed to become an important political and cultural center and a prosperous trading city, especially for precious goods, thanks to its convenient and efficient river port. Important monuments such as the Gladiator Arena, the horse-racing Stadium, and the famous theater were built, as well as craftsmen's workshops, patrician villas which completed the architectural network of the city.

In Aquileia, players want to become the most powerful figure in the city by trading and building. Each player, representing a wealthy Aquileian patrician, owns a certain number of henchmen (pawns) which he uses for these main activities: sports playing, culture, trading, and building. Each activity can bring expenses, earnings and sometimes victory points (VPs).

Each round begins with a placement phase in which players take turns placing their henchmen on action spaces and their tiebreaker disc on the tiebreaker track. Placing the tiebreaker is mandatory; placing henchmen is not (but you probably want to place them). Once everyone has passed or placed all of their tokens, players resolve the action spaces in numerical order:

The Mercatus allows players to buy weapons, arms and slave cards, collect money through a die roll, claim four blue dice for use with the Arena and Stadium, and trade one currency for another. (This is the only way to make change, and some actions require specific currencies; if you must pay bronze and have only silver and gold, then you cannot take that action!)
At the Arena, players compare fighting strength, with that number determined by the starting strength on the action space claimed, the roll of three dice and the playing of slave and weapon cards. The winner gets three bronze coins and either double his strength in VPs or a slave card. The second and third best players receive lesser rewards.
The Stadium is similar to the Arena, with the horse cards coming into play and the winner receiving gold or silver coins and his choice of two laurel cards; laurel cards deliver 3-10 VPs or are a multiplier for endgame scoring.
The Theatrum brings a bid for a dual-colored laurel card, with players needing to ante and raise in particular currencies.
In the Forum, players build villas and private banks, sometimes scoring points for doing so when they pay the specific costs with the proper coins.
Finally, the Portus gives players a chance to activate their buildings, thereby earning them VPs or money.

After six rounds, the game ends and players score VPs for their hidden point cards and the product of their villas' values times laurel cards of a matching color. (For example, a total of 8 points of blue villas and three blue villa cards equals 24 points.) The player with the most victory points wins.

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.