Hand Management

Each morning Odin sends the ravens Hugin and Munin to race over the world of Midgard and report back what they have seen. The first to return wins Odin's favor, but any cunning corvid has a few tricks in store and these are the two most brilliant birds in Middle Earth.

Odin's Ravens is a two-player card game in which two ravens race across separate tracks, the tracks being comprised of domino-style landscape cards that feature different types of land. Each player has his own deck of cards, using them to match cards to the land types in front of his raven and advance the raven toward the end of the flight path. Odin Cards allow a player to take special actions, such as rearranging the track of landscape cards or impeding the other player's raven. During play, each player can create an auxiliary stack, playing cards from the hand now to set up plays in the future.

The round ends when a raven reaches the end of the flight path, and that raven's player scores points equal to the distance separating the two ravens. In addition, whoever has played more cards to the "Magic Way" during the round – a separate playing area in which players may play a particular type of card – wins three points. The game lasts multiple rounds until one of the players reaches a total of twelve or more points and wins!

For a long, long time, goblins and fairies have lived in a magical world right beneath our noses. If you look hard enough, you can find rings of mushrooms, called "fairy rings", which act as doors between their world and ours. Today, a gang of mischievous goblins escaped from the fairy ring, and it is up to the players to send them back before they cause trouble! But an ancient spell of rhymes which transforms goblins into fairies and fairies into goblins makes this a trickier task than you might think...

Goblins Drool, Fairies Rule!, a card game of rhyme and reason for kids of all ages, is for 2 to 4 players, and has special solitaire rules for a single player. The game takes about 15 minutes to setup and play. The components consist of 20 unique cards, each card having one side representing a Goblin, and another side representing a Fairy. Each side of a card has one of four Symbols: a Sun, a Moon, a Mushroom, or a Frog. The names of the Fairies and Goblins are divided into five rhyming groups, each name ending in one of five sounds.

Players begin the game with 4 cards each, goblin-side-up. Four cards are placed fairy-side-up in the middle of the table, called the "Fairy Ring". The goal of the game is to be the first player to get rid of all their Goblins by sending them to the Fairy Ring, or be the first to obtain six Fairies. Players take turns adding one of their cards to the Fairy Ring. When a card is added, any other cards in the Fairy Ring which rhyme with the name on the added card are flipped over: Fairies become Goblins and Goblins become Fairies. Once all rhyming cards have been flipped over, the player then takes any cards from the Fairy Ring which match the symbol on the added card. The first player to end their turn with no more Goblins or with six Fairies wins.

Game description from the publisher:

The Rivals for Catan: Age of Enlightenment contains three expansion sets (125 Cards Total) for The Rivals for Catan (released in Germany as Die Fürsten von Catan). These theme sets – "The Era of Explorers", "The Era of Sages", and "The Era of Prosperity" – offer new variety for the base game and bring new elements into play.

• In The Era of Explorers, players set sail from Catan to explore the world and discover new lands. Your explorer harbor serves as the starting point for your exploration of nine adjacent sea cards. Pirates, islanders, and shipwrecks await across the waters. Embark on missions and try to be the best explorer. Ship tokens chart your position. Victory awaits the most skilled and intrepid sailor!

• In The Era of Sages, the wisdom of many and varied sages – a currency in its own way – gives you the opportunity to influence the strength and frequency of events. Fend off famines, deflect attacks, and promote peace. Connect with nature and balance prudence, power, foresight, and vigilance in your struggle for Catan!

• In The Era of Prosperity, you strive to be a good prince and govern wisely, in order to build schools and a hospital – and even promote the arts. Raise your people's spirits and spur expansion. But beware as discontent dooms prosperity!

The Rivals for Catan: Age of Darkness, a 90-card expansion for The Rivals for Catan, includes three separate theme sets that can be used with the base game:

• The Era of Intrigue – You will witness the confrontation of followers of new and old beliefs and take part to determine Catan's spiritual balance. "Religious Dispute" causes both players to lose cards; Churches and Temples minimize losses; Temple cards strengthen your access to your own draw stacks. Church cards lure opposing heroes and earn gold. With a Church and a Temple, you may build the Great Thing stead and end the conflict.

• The Era of Merchant Princes – Using the "Commercial Harbor" and the "Merchant's Residences", decisive buildings in the struggle for trade advantage, players try to control Catan's commerce. "Maritime Trade Monopolies" and the "Master Merchants" enhance trade ships. "The Shipbuilder" reduces the building costs of ships. Dominate trade using clever card combinations!

• The Era of Barbarians – Use Castles, Border Fortresses, the Strategist, the Caravel, and new heroes to fend off both the barbarian attacks and your rival's efforts to dominate your holdings.

The Rivals for Catan is a reimplementation of Catan Card Game.

The Rivals for Catan was released in German in September of 2010, on the 15th anniversary of the original card game. An English edition was released in the fourth quarter of 2010. The designer of the game, Klaus Teuber, has stated that he completely reworked many of the original card game's mechanics to make it easier for newcomers to play the game.

Each player portrays a prince for Catan, developing their individual provinces and competing to build a more successful province than the other. The basic mode of play is similar to the original Catan Card Game, where players expand their provinces by building settlements connected by roads. Players may also build expansions in their settlements that aid them in various ways, or upgrade their settlements to cities to allow more expansions to be built. They build these additions by using resources that they accumulate each turn, which are determined by the roll of a die. Cards are drawn on each turn to replenish the players' hands. The players may also use action cards that directly affect either their own province or their opponent's province.

The Rivals for Catan features a reduced pool of cards, without the more aggressive style of action cards found in the original Catan Card Game. Therefore, all action cards will be able to be used from the beginning of the game unlike in the original card game.

Ways to Play:
The Introductory Game focuses on the basics of the card game, featuring gameplay that is more appropriate for newcomers. This game is played to 7 victory points and includes 36 Expansion Cards in four stacks. This play style should take beginner players 25 to 30 minutes to play.

Three Theme Games add more rules, expansions, and aggressive cards. These Theme Games may be played individually or combined to play a variant called "The Duel of the Princes." Each Theme Game adds 24 Expansion and Event Cards to the cards from the Introductory Game, which are placed in two stacks separately from the cards from the Introductory Game. When playing a Theme Game, playtime should be around 45 to 60 minutes.

As with the original Catan Card Game, players can also play the Tournament Game, in which each player chooses specific cards to build their deck ahead of time from which they draw from during the game.

Theme:
The theme of The Rivals for Catan is no longer restricted only to the feudal era of the Middle Ages like the original Catan Card Game. The Introductory Game portrays the very early years of the world of Catan, while each Theme Game takes place in progressively later eras. These eras are known as "The Era of Gold," "The Era of Turmoil," and "The Era of Progress."

Belongs to the Catan Series.