Dice Rolling

Hong Kong has been struck by a large scale unexpected blackout. As the government struggles to maintain control, you decide to take matters into your own hands and try to bring back some kind of societal order! Daily life as you were used to it has quickly dissolved. Even the most mundane tasks have become incredibly challenging without electric power. Whoever best manages this situation and restores the semblance of order will surely claim a position of power in post-blackout Hong Kong!

In Alexander Pfister's Blackout: Hong Kong, you have to manage ever-changing resources and a network of various specialists to keep Hong Kong from descending into chaos while also staying ahead of your rivals.

—description from the publisher

Based on the first novel of the Die Zwerge tetralogy [Eng. The Dwarves] by author Markus Heitz, the goal of the cooperative game Die Zwerge is to keep evil from flooding Girdlegard. During set-up, players choose one of the dwarves from the novel, each of which is equipped with a unique special ability and different stats for fighting, crafting, and movement.

Before each player's turn, the forces of evil usually break through one of the four big gates – which are guarded by different dwarven tribes – and further the spread of the Perished Land. On his turn a player spends two action points to use two of five actions. He can:

Fight against the advancing enemies (orcs, trolls, and älfar [Ger. albae], i.e. dark elves).
Travel to other locations.
Lobby the dwarven council to give advantages to all players – and without the favor of the dwarven council, everyone suffers disadvantages.
Solve a minor quest for rewards.
Take on the current major quest, revealing the next major quest if successful. Completing these quests is the only way to win the game.

For most of these actions, a player must succeed in a dice-driven challenge. If the players cannot control the flood of evil while simultaneously solving the major quests in time, they will lose.

Collector's edition:
additional:

New box cover
5 hand painted dwarf miniatures
10 cards Albae expansion
60 page artbook
5 art prints of the dwarfs
A3 poster "The smiting of Keenfire"
stein with motive "Krasnolud"
coaster "DIE ZWERGE"
numbered COLLECTOR’S EDITION certificate.

King Arthur is searching for a worthy heir. Together with Merlin, he tries to find the best candidate among the Knights of the Round Table.

In Merlin, players move their knights or Merlin with the help of dice around the action ring to get the most desired actions. While the knights are only moved by the corresponding player, Merlin can be moved by all players, which makes integrating Merlin in one's plan a tricky endeavor.

There are multiple ways to score victory points such as defeating barbarians, building manors in the surrounding area and increasing one's influence in the six counties. Additionally, players can fulfill task cards during their turn to get more victory points. The player who plans his actions most efficiently will ultimately have the most points and thus will be the royal successor of King Arthur.

This game reuses the theme & mechanics of Return of the Heroes, and can be played either as a standalone 2-player game or combined with the original set for a 5-6 player game.

This time, the heroes must find one of three magic weapons that will allow them to defeat an evil dragon. If combined with the base game, a hero can win by defeating either the dragon or the Nameless.

Other games in the series:

Return of the Heroes
Helden in der Unterwelt

In the Ancient World, civilizations are built upon 3 foundations: Commerce, Construction, and Expansion. As a leader of an ancient Mediterranean Power, each player will need to master all 3 roads to power in order to lead their civilization to dominance and victory.

Mare Nostrum is all about the expansion of one's lands, the construction of new cities, and the dispatching of caravans to take advantage of rare commodities that can either be traded or exploited to build constructions and eventually wonders of the world.

But diplomacy and trade are but one path to greatness. The expansion of your navy and armies can take what should be rightfully yours. Hiring great leaders will further expand your boundaries in quick time.

Controlling a combined total of 4 Wonders and/or Leaders or being the first to build the Pyramids will assure victory. But there are many hurdles to overcome to achieve such heights.

Mare Nostrum allows for up to 5 players and offers a basic and advanced game in which players can customize their starting civilization. For a game of such scope, it is quite amazing to think that the game only requires 2 pages of rules.