Fantasy

Another specialist pack expansion for BattleLore focusing on the Scottish Wars.

Contents:

42 new figures:
6 Iron Dwarves Cattle Riders
8 Iron Dwarves Clan Chiefs
16 Iron Dwarves Spear Bearers (previously introduced in the BattleLore: Dwarven Battalion Specialist Pack)
12 Mounted Knights

24 Banners (12 for each camp)
2×2 Cavalry
2×2 Clan Chiefs
2×4 Spear Bearers
2×4 Mounted Knights

8-page Rules Booklet, including Medieval Lore rules and 5 new adventures:
Stirling Bridge
Falkirk
Bannockburn
Dupplin Moor
Neville's Cross

7 Specialist cards (Mounted Knights (2), Iron Dwarves Cattle Riders, Clan Chiefs (2 different), Spear Bearers (2))
3 Unit Summary Cards (Mounted Knights, Iron Dwarves Cattle Riders, Clan Chiefs)
2 Weapon Summary Card (Knight’s Lance, Spear)

Expands:

BattleLore

The basic premise is simple: the board, resting on a platform, is full of wooden discs and trees and other bits. There's a ring of light in the middle, covered by a cardboard disc and a blazing fire. Cauldrons circle that disc. The goal is to get one's own cauldron to the ring of light by pushing the bits on the board.

You start pushing from the side of the board and push in one continuous movement until you hear a clack; something has fallen off the board. Your turn ends there. Next player is up, and this continues until someone's cauldron is in the ring of light.

The gimmick: the game is played in pitch black. When played in the dark, the fire, cauldrons, wizards (used to push the pieces) and the ring of light all glow, while the trees and discs turn invisible. The game can also be played in the light of the day, but it loses a lot of its charm.

Ages 6 and up.

Space pirates are battling for honor, glory and wealth! Join them in their exploration of the universe and their quest for victory. Players will explore, challenge each others, and engage in short-term or long-term alliances, but there will be battles and mighty spaceships involved. In Metal Adventures, you'll use cards to explore, enhance your ship and your crew, and live up to bold challenges. There will be negotiations, battle tactics, and the uncertainty and risk that really make a pirate's life.

During the game, each player uses a fancy four-wheeled astrolabe to track their power (which can be improved via equipment), damage (which reduces power), glory (which is how players win), and the "judgement of pirates" (which affects glory).

On a turn, a player either rests (gaining money and repairing their ship) or else travels (paying to do so), battles (either starships, planets or opponents), and optionally takes the "tour of pirates", visiting one of the ten planets in the game and taken the action available there. Each player holds two trophy cards, and when they meet the conditions on one of them, they can reveal it to earn credits, glory or both. They can gain support (single-use cards) and equipment (providing power adjustments and possibly other special abilities), keeping at most four of these improvement cards at a time.

Players can negotiate alliances and trade anything but glory, and while they must keep their word for immediate exchanges and actions, they can break promises or alliances in later turns, although doing so requires them to suffer the "judgement of pirates", thereby affecting their glory count. Collect four such points, and they can no longer ally with other players or give or receive assistance.

When a player has nine or more glory points or the space deck contains two or fewer cards, the game ends and whoever has the most glory wins.

In Vineta, 2 to 6 players take on the roles of angry Norse Gods, seeking to sink the city of Vineta beneath a succession of pounding waves.

However, each player is secretly assigned one of nine city districts to protect. Likewise, each player secretly protects one color of houses.

By use of cards, players send waves against districts, joining together to sink them and moving houses in and out of threatened districts. At the end of each round, the district that has the most waves played against it -- along with any houses in that district -- are removed.

After eight rounds of play, only one district (and any houses it contains) will remain. Players score for houses claimed during the game, and bonuses are given to whoever was secretly protecting the remaining district and its remaining houses -- if any.

Awards

Won the 2004 Concours International de Créateurs de Jeux de Société (as Waka-Waka Island)

Excerpted from publisher's blurb:

"The Age of the Locust is at hand. Foreboding shadows arise form the desert of endless storms. Dark magics stir in the silent streets, and words of ancient prophecy have come true; the Scarab Lords have come forth to wage war in the Heavens and on the Earth."

Set in a gorgeous fantasy Egypt, this clever card game depicts the battle of dominance between two mythical Scarab Lords. To win, power must be gained in the areas of religion, military, and economics. Powerful sorcerers, mythical beasts, epic monuments, and grand armies all play key roles in the Scarab Lords card game.

The non-collectible card game features two beautifully illustrated 30 card decks which players must customize to best fit their strategies.

Sequel: Minotaur Lords