Hand Management

From BGG News (Eric Martin): "In Pantheon, players enact the comings and goings of various peoples in the Mediterranean: Egyptians, Romans, Iberians, Germans, etc. They accumulate as many raw materials as possible to build monuments to the gods, but the ways of the gods are unpredictable.

"On a turn, a player has a number of options. He can choose to travel with his people by using the big wooden footprint piece, then smaller footpints to mark their path and block other players. He can buy materials to worship the gods: dancers, farm produce, impressive temples, or prayers. He can use these offerings to take a god token, which may grant him special abilities as well as victory points. Finally, he may build monuments that are worth victory points at the end of the game. The game lasts six rounds with two scoring periods."

Are you the best Merchant of Venice?
Sailing along the courses of ancient Venetians in Oltre Mare, the unknown lands of Barbaria. Looking for the most precious wares and the richest stocks; exchanging wares with other merchants, loading your ship and selling at the market; but at the same time trying to escape the ever-present pirates.... Oltre Mare - Merchants of Venice is an engaging voyage through the Mediterranean Sea, in the golden Age of Sail.

How to play:
On his or her turn, the player can trade Goods (corn, wine, spices, silk, etc.) for other Goods or for money (which also double as points) with fellow players. He or she then plays cards from his/her hand to perform certain actions that allow you to earn money, to draw cards, or to move your ship on the map (where you can obtain special powers). But there is also a dreadful Pirate action that you have to look out for! The cards played also represent the Goods that are loaded as cargo on your ship. The more cards of the same Good type shipped, the more money (and score) you will gain at the end of the game. The cards played will also influence the next turn, so choose your strategy well.

In order to win, you have to trade wisely, choose the right cards to perform the best actions, and maximize the profit from your ship's cargo!

The original version from Mind the Move is a small blue box. Rio Grande and Amigo released a bigger box version with a larger board in 2005.

In a reversal of roles, all players in Munchkin Zombies start out as zombies, and the "monsters" are the normal people trying to stop the zombie invasion (such as the Action Hero, Soccer Mom, Fireman, etc.). Unlike most Munchkin games, there are no classes or races; instead, you can have a mojo: Atomic Zombie, Plague Zombie, and Voodoo Zombie. As with Munchkin Bites! and Super Munchkin, Munchkin Zombies includes powers – special abilities that you can play as you gain levels.

Guest artist is Alex Fernandez, who drew the Meals on Wheels card.

Part of the Munchkin series.

Munchkin is a satirical card game based on the clichés and oddities of Dungeons and Dragons and other role-playing games. Each player starts at level 1 and the winner is the first player to reach level 10. Players can acquire familiar D&D style character classes during the game which determine to some extent the cards they can play.

There are two types of cards - treasure and encounters. Each turn the current players 'kicks down the door' - drawing an encounter card from the deck. Usually this will involve battling a monster. Monsters have their own levels and players must try and overcome it using the levels, weapons and powers they have acquired during the game or run away. Other players can chose to help the player or hinder by adding extra monsters to the encounter. Defeating a monster will usually result in drawing treasure cards and acquiring levels. Being defeated by a monster results in "bad stuff" which usually involves losing levels and treasure.

Note: The 2012 edition of Munchkin Zombies from Pegasus Spiele includes the first expansion, Munchkin Zombies 2: Armed and Dangerous.

The classic collectible card game Deadlands: Doomtown returns as an Expandable Card Game in Doomtown: Reloaded. Featuring four factions fighting for control of Gomorra, California. Doomtown: Reloaded allows you to build your own deck from a fixed set of cards in the box. Play your dudes to control deeds in the town, and use actions, hexes, and more to thwart your opponents.

Shootouts are resolved via a poker mechanism as every card has a suit and value. Preparing for the hands you want to draw is as much a part of deck building as choosing the actions and dudes you'll want to play. Your deck is built around an Outfit, one of the four main groups attempting to control Gomorra, California, and these outfits are:

The Law Dogs: The Sheriff and his deputies, tasked with enforcing law and order in an extremely chaotic town.

The Sloane Gang: The main cause of a lot of the chaos, the Sloane Gang takes what they want, no matter who it costs.

The Morgan Cattle Company: Progress and investment, Morgan Cattle has moved into the surrounding ranch lands and uses its deep pockets to influence the town.

The Fourth Ring: It's that circus that's been here for months, but I swear it just arrived...

The base set of Doomtown: Reloaded will be followed by Saddlebag expansions, in-store OP events, and the Badge Series of tournaments.

Munchkin Axe Cop is a simple, lightweight multiplayer "take that" style card game. Cards represent character abilities, items, monsters to fight, and cards to make monsters harder to defeat (for monsters other players are fighting) or easier to defeat (for you). Every time you defeat a monster, you go up a level. The first player to level 10 wins.

This is a core set for Steve Jackson's Munchkin game, based on the hit webcomic by Ethan Nicolle (age 29) and his brother Malachai (age 6). It can be combined with other games in the series.

The game doesn't have any new mechanics and should be easy to learn for anyone who's played one of the other Munchkin games. Hirelings are included and are called allies. There are four classes: Cop, Man, Soldier, and Warrior (which is identical to the class of the same name in fantasy Munchkin). This set also has powers; there are seven of them with two cards each, for a total of 14 cards. The mechanics of powers are exactly the same as in the other Munchkin sets that have them.

Several Santa monsters are included, as well as two new monster categories, Alien and Robot, which currently aren't recognized in any of the other Munchkin games.

It's not necessary to know anything about the Axe Cop webcomic in order to enjoy this set.

Part of the Munchkin series.