Dice Rolling

Hexenkompott

Players are witches trying to make their potion. Each witch is associated to a secret color with match a cauldron. In turn each witch rolls a colored die and must put a face down mushroom in the cauldron indicated by the die using a wooden spoon. Other players try to guess whether she is putting a right color mushroom or a wrong one.
Guessing right stops the witch and reduce the number of available mushrooms of the guesser, accusing a innocent witch increases the available mushrooms of the guesser.
The game ends when a witch is left without mushrooms and she gets one extra point for herself and subtracts one point from a chosen cauldron. For each cauldron a right color mushroom scores one point to the secret owner and a wrong one subtracts one point.

Macao

At the end of the 17th century, Macao – the mysterious port city on the southern coast of China – is a Portuguese trading post in the Far East. The players take on the role of energetic and daring adventurers. Many exciting tasks and challenges await the players, whether they are a captain, governor, craftsman, or scholar. Those who chose the wisest course of action and have the best overall strategy will earn the most prestige at the end.

Macao lasts twelve rounds, and in each round players select one new card from a display specific to that round, two of which were revealed at the start of the game and others that were revealed only at the start of the round. The deck of 96 cards includes all sorts of special abilities, with the more powerful actions costing more resources to put into play.

One player rolls six different-colored dice, then each player selects two of those dice (possibly the same ones chosen by opponents), then places cubes equal to the number and color of the two dice on a personalized "ship's wheel." For example, if a player chooses the blue die that shows a 5, he places five blue cubes on the ship's wheel position five spots away from the current round. (A player can never claim more cubes than the number of remaining rounds).

Players rotate their ship's wheels each round, then use the cubes available to them in that round to perform various actions: activating cards selected in that round or earlier rounds, buying city quarters and collecting the goods located there, moving that player's ship around Europe to deliver those goods, acquiring gold coins, taking special actions with card previously activated, and advancing on a turn order track.

Players score points by delivering goods, paying gold coins, using the powers on their cards, and building in Macao. Whoever has the most points at the end of twelve rounds wins.

Macao is number 13 in the alea big box series, with an estimated difficulty on the alea scale of 6/10.

High Frontier

In the near future, nanofacturing techniques will allow incredible new materials to be built atom by atom. But they can only be built in the zero-gravity and high-vacuum conditions in space. Various private and government enterprises race to establish a buckytube mechanosynthesis factory on a suitable carbonaceous asteroid. To do so, they accumulate tanks of water in orbiting fuel depots, to be used as rocket propellant. Also needed are remote-controlled robonauts to do the grunt work.

The key to success is water in LEO (low Earth orbit). At first, water will be expensively upported out of the deep gravity well of Earth. But for a third the fuel and energy, water can be supplied from Luna, the moons of Mars, or other nearby hydrated objects. Extracting resources at the work site is called In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU). Whoever develops ISRU technology able to glean water from space rather than Earth will gain the strategic high ground to make money through exoglobalization.

Now in its second edition. The second edition expansion (aka High Frontier Colonization) is now available for preorders with an expected publication in the summer of 2013. (this expansion is compatible with the 1st and 2nd editions).

Catan: Gallery Edition

In the Settlers of Catan Gallery Edition, the award-winning game is simplified and reduced in price to allow for quick play and introduction to casual players. The Settlers of Catan are once again traveling through the lands of Catan, racing to develop their settlements.

Players are now able to gain the flavour of the popular board game within 60–90 minutes with simplified rules that allow quick game setup and learning. The Catan board game continues to have the popular modular board and the variety of strategic options available that made the original Settlers of Catan game so popular.

Nomads of Arabia: The Wandering Herds Game

Follow the Pilgrim on the path to Mecca, capturing wild camels, goats, donkeys and horses on the way. The desert shifts -- don't let your herds get lost in the desert! In cities along the way you can sell your animals and find new handlers to help you capture different animals. When you reach Mecca, the Nomad who makes the largest offering to Allah wins the game!

Choose a first player. Players will take turns in clockwise order. On a turn, you will move your Nomad (or not), use Handlers to capture or call wild animals, shift the desert, or sell your animals in the cities. Nomads must keep moving to avoid being lost in the desert, and the Pilgrim travels constantly toward Mecca. When the players reach Mecca, the Nomad who is able to make the most generous offering becomes most blessed in the eyes of Allah and wins the game.

72 Dinar cards 43x66mm