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Ticket to Ride: Amsterdam

Ticket to Ride: Amsterdam features the familiar gameplay from the Ticket to Ride game series — collect cards, claim routes, draw tickets — but on a map of 17th century Amsterdam that allows you to complete a game in no more than 15 minutes.

You are in the middle of the Gouden Eeuw, the Dutch Golden Age. Amsterdam is the beating heart of global trade and the wealthiest city on Earth. Goods from around the world are piling up on the docks, in ship holds, in warehouses, and on the banks of its countless canals. You mean to profit from this!

Each player starts with a supply of 16 carts, two transportation cards in hand, and one or two trade contract tickets that show locations in the Amsterdam market. On a turn, you either draw two transportation cards from the deck or the display of five face-up cards (or you take one face-up wild card, which counts as all six colors in the game); or you claim a route on the board by discarding cards that match the color of the route being claimed (with any set of cards allowing you to claim a gray route); or you draw two trade contract tickets and keep at least one of them.

Whenever you complete a route that has carts depicted on it, with these primarily being on the perimeter of the city, you claim a merchandise bonus card.

Players take turns until someone has no more than two carts in their supply, then each player takes one final turn, including the player who triggered the end of the game. Players then sum their points, scoring points for the routes that they've claimed during the game, the trade contract tickets that they've completed (by connecting the two locations on a ticket by a continuous line of their carts), and their standing among those who hold merchandise bonus cards. Whoever holds the most cards collects 8 points, with other players collecting fewer points. You lose points for any uncompleted contract tickets, then whoever has the high score wins!

Calico

Calico is a puzzly tile-laying game of quilts and cats.
In Calico, players compete to sew the coziest quilt as they collect and place patches of different colors and patterns. Each quilt has a particular pattern that must be followed, and players are also trying to create color and pattern combinations that are not only aesthetically pleasing, but also able to attract the cuddliest cats!

Turns are simple. Select a single patch tile from your hand and sew it into your quilt, then draw another patch into your hand from the three available. If you are able to create a color group, you may sew a button onto your quilt. If you are able to create a pattern combination that is attractive to any of the cats, it will come over and curl up on your quilt! At the end of the game, you score points for buttons, cats, and how well you were able to complete your unique quilt pattern.

—description from the publisher

Stratego: Star Wars

This is what it sounds like: Stratego set in the Star Wars universe. Each player has 40 pieces; teams are divided into the Dark Side and the Force. Characters used come from Star Wars Episodes I, II, IV, V and VI. Some of the characters have special powers, placing this game between original Stratego and Stratego Legends on the complexity scale.

Skip-Bo Deluxe

Each player is dealt a stockpile of 30 cards. The winner will be whoever manages to empty their stockpile first. Cards are played onto four shared building piles in numerical sequence from 1 to 12. On each turn, a player draws until they have five cards in their hand, and then plays cards from: their hand, a top card of their discard piles, or their stockpile. At the end of their turn, a player must discard onto one of their four personal discard piles. Strategy involves the organizing of cards into the discard piles, care in not setting up the next players for good plays, knowing when to play from which option, and especially the timing of playing a valuable "Skip-bo" wildcard.

Skip-bo is based on Traditional Card Games: Spite and Malice.