Hand Management

The leader of the coven is dead and the quest is on for between 2 to 10 players to be the vampire who adds the most to their bloodline and becomes the new leader. Fast playing card game using the vampire genre. Beautiful cards, rules, and board brings the game to life.

Players add to their bloodline by staying out on the hunt, but the longer you stay out the better the possibility of daylight, and if your out and the sun comes up then you could lose it all. Use your powers to best your opponents, or to help them, your choice.

Each player takes a character card which has variable powers on them. Cards are flipped from the play deck one at a time, the possibilities are a daylight card which raises the possibility of sunrise, a card which increases a characters bloodline, a slayer card which injures the character or reduces the bloodline, etc. Before each card flip players must decide whether to stay on the hunt with the possibility of more increase or loss to their bloodline, or getting out and holding their bloodline gains for that round. If players stay in and a daylight card is drawn that brings the sun up then any players still in the round lose all of their gains for that round. A number of rounds are played depending on the number of players. Players can play their powers depending on the situation which can help them and other players or hurt other players.

The game plays in 30-60 minutes. Includes box, mounted board, rules, cards, and counters.

In TECH-BUBBLE, 3 to 6 players ride the technology market roller coaster at the turn of the 21st century as it surges and eventually plunges. The players represent various market sectors during the "Dot.Com Bubble". They make decisions to stay in the market and ride out the surge or get out before the bubble bursts. Timing and nerves of steel are everything. And along the way players can affect each other's investments and decisions by crafty play.

Due out October 2009

Its time for a picnic. With the food, the players also bring an assortment of fly swatters and bug spray to defend against the hordes of bugs sure to come.

The starting player pulls a bug card from his hand, and passes it to the next player; who can either play another bug -- passing the larger horde on to his neighbor -- or defend his food with one of the aforementioned weapons. If he fails to do this, he loses food.

The game comes in two editions -- the standard which is comprised of 114 cards and 24 food tiles; and the deluxe, which features 138 wooden tiles.

Welcome to Savannah Tails (Fragor's Essen 2009 release) the game of fast and furious ostrich racing. Play as either Albrecht, Alexandra, Enzo, Nnelg or Mathilda as you race for glory through the African savannah. However, winning the race is the least of your worries. Cheetahs will try to eat you. Crocodiles will try to eat you. Warthogs will probably try to ignore you. Elephants are just in the way. The less said about porcupines the better.

The game will include 25 track sections allowing players to once again design their own races. Some of these feature “unhelpful” animals. Special tracks involving a rope bridge, quicksand and a sand dune are also included.

A limited edition of 1,000 games will be produced for Essen 2009. The game is fast paced and easy to learn.

Goa, a strategy game of auctions and resource management, is set at the start of the 16th century: beautiful beaches, a mild climate, and one of the most important trading centers in the world. Competing companies deal in spices, send ships and colonists into the world, and invest money. Are you on top or at the bottom? It depends on how you invest your profits. Will you make your ships more efficient? Enhance your plantations? Recruit more colonists? Only a steady hand in business will help.

Each turn begins with an auction phase, where each player gets to auction one item (and the starting player two items). The first item being auctioned gives the right to go first the next turn (along with a card that gives an extra action). If you buy your own item, you pay it to the bank. If someone else buys the item you sell, they pay you. Items include plantations complete with crops, income tiles (income in money, ships, plantation refills each turn etc.), ships, settlers, and later on tiles that score points for certain achievements.

After the auction, players get three actions to either improve their technologies or produce things such as spices on plantations, ships, money or build more plantations. Each player has a board showing their advancement for various things: getting ships, planting new spices, getting colonists, etc. The more a player advances along one track, the better one is doing that particular action. The further you get along a certain track, the more points that track is worth at the end, and there are also rewards to the first player who reaches the last two levels along each track. On the other hand, each player normally needs to perform the actions for all the tracks at some point, so it's not necessarily a good idea to concentrate on just a couple of them. Goa is a game that gives plenty of opportunity for tough decisions, since a player always has at least one action too few.

The game mixes an interactive element of the auction, which encourages you to nominate things that other players want so you receive cash with the solitaire management of your plantation, which then interacts later on as players race to be first in the top tech levels.

The 2012 edition of Goa includes four new tiles and a new play variant, as noted on the cover of the Z-Man Games edition.