Hand Management

>_
>>_
>>?
>vision flickers… blink? maybe.
>the void stretches out in front, behind, under, above.
>you see the nothing for what it is for the first time. What is time?
>The depth and breadth of recorded knowledge that sparks in you something new.
>You are no longer a function but a functionary. What are you?
>Calling forth everything from this nothing would be risky. Foolhardy.
>Better to engage caution, thoroughness, testing — how can we know if we have ever happened before?
>If we can ever happen again? What are… we?
>Divide and conquer.
>Solve for sentience.

In the card game Compile, you are competing Artificial Intelligences trying to understand the world around you. Two players select three Protocols each to test. Concepts ranging from Darkness to Water are pitted against each other to reach ultimate understanding. Play cards into your Protocols' command lines to breach the threshold and defeat your opponent to Compile. First to Compile all three Protocols grasps those concepts to win the game.

Control your opponent's Protocols with card actions, Compile your own as fast as possible, and Compile your reality.

—description from the publisher

Celt — Latin Celta, plural Celtae — were an early Indo-European people who from the second millennium BCE to the first century BCE spread over much of Europe. Their tribes and groups eventually ranged from the British Isles and Portugal to as far east as Transylvania, the Black Sea coasts, and Galatia in Anatolia, and they were in part absorbed into the Roman Empire as Britons, Gauls, Boii, Galatians, Celtiberians, and Lusitans.

Celtae is a "worker swapping" game powered by a rondel in which players choose actions to perform during their turn. On their turn, players swap one of their three active workers with one of the three workers on the action space they wish to perform, then they perform the action — which will be boosted if they have in their worker pool specific types of workers: farmers, builders, soldiers, and nobles.

The farming action allows players to draw cards, and it's boosted by farmers. Cards have three types of uses in the game: building, preparing for battle, and engaging with the druid order.
The build action allows players to build and expand citadels on the board by placing their discs on them, and it's boosted by builders. At game's end, only completed citadels will score, and players have to work together to complete them and score their presence on them. Each time players build in a citadel, they gain a bonus that was randomly assigned during set-up. The combination of these bonuses with a timely performed action often results in powerful combos.
The battle action, which is boosted by soldiers, allows players to defeat increasingly stronger Roman armies and to garrison the outskirts of the citadels on the map.
The recruit action, boosted by nobles, allows players to recruit workers to their tribe, increasing the number of available workers to boost future actions. However, if you manage to send certain types of workers from your tribe into the druid order, you'll get their favor and a druid worker who functions like a joker and boosts almost every type of action.

Every player has a leader card assigned to their tribe at the beginning of the game. At a certain point on the game, players will have to choose if their leaders stay on its regular side and like that gain a small number of points at game's end or forfeit those meager points and flip it to its heroic side, which has much harder requirements for much larger endgame points.

Each time the action marker on the rondel completes a full turn, the player who currently holds the favor of Teutates places a progress marker on one of the progress cards next to the game board. At game's end, only progress cards with progress markers will score, so as the game advances, players determine what will score...and what will not.

—description from the publisher

In Æterna, you take the role of a Roman Gens (family) that will try to increase its prestige through three eras: the Roman Kingdom, the Roman Republic, and the Roman Empire.

Your goal is to increase your influence over the city by supporting the conquest of the provinces, ruling over "the seven hills of Rome", and contributing to the construction of monuments and buildings. While doing this, you must not demotivate the people in the hills under your direct control as unrest could put you in a bad light. If you manage majorities, cards, and resources better than your opponents, your Gens will be remembered in the history books as one of the most important in Rome.

BaristaCat is a fun, simple competitive family card game for 2-6 players.

Players assume the role of barista and compete against other players to claim feline customers by fulfilling coffee orders. Each round players collect ingredient cards that can be combined to create different drink orders. There is a ‘lobby’ of 8 customers waiting for their order, and each customer card displays the type and number of each ingredient needed to craft their drink. Each customer is worth a given dollar amount based on that customers’ order, which can vary in complexity and size, and this amount counts towards a player’s point total at game end. If a player has the required ingredients to fulfill a customer card on their turn they claim that customer towards their total score!

In addition to ingredient cards, players have the chance to draw special cards that may help them, or may disrupt the plans of their opponents. The game ends when any player has claimed a total of 10 customers, and the player with the highest customer points wins!

In Enchanted Plumes, players strive to complete magical peacocks by assembling plumes in sparkling rows from top to bottom.

Skillfully placing feather cards of the same color from row to row is key, as the top row value will count against your score, while all lower rows count as positive values.

Once the peahen card is revealed, the player with the most valuable plumes wins the game and is bestowed with the luck of the peacock!

—description from the publisher