Hand Management

In Sky Tango, you trace the cycles of the moon and the sun by creating series of cards that illustrate the passing of time. Eclipses can appear and ruin your paths, but don't let them discourage you for the sun and moon will always reappear. Will your solar and lunar cycles lead you to victory?

In game terms, the deck of cards consists of numbered sun and moon cards (some of which feature animals) as well as eclipse cards. Players place the cards in stacks in ascending order, either in front of themselves or in front of others. When a stack is five cards high, it can be removed and scored for points. Stacks can be interrupted by eclipse cards, which in turn can be covered by the appropriate sun or moon cards. Playing a card with an animal allows a player to play again, which is sometimes advantageous, but sometimes not. The player who removes the most cards from play wins!

(Note: This listing covers only the expansion-only versions of Saboteur 2; for the Saboteur 2 listing that includes both the base game and the expansion, go to Saboteur (compilation editions).)

In Saboteur, each player takes on the role of a gold-digging dwarf or a saboteur who wants to hinder exploration of the gold mines — but each player knows only his own role, so the digging may or may not go as planned!

Each turn, a player either lays down a tunnel card to dig from the start card toward one of the goal cards (or potentially away, if a saboteur) or plays an action card to help or hinder someone. If the diggers manage to find the gold hidden under one of the goal cards, then the diggers share the loot found there; if the gold can't be reached before the deck runs out, the saboteurs profit instead. After three rounds, the player with the most gold wins.

The Saboteur 2 expansion adds new role cards (the boss, profiteers, geologists) to the base game, new action cards (steal gold, change your role), and new tunnel cards featuring doors, ladders and bridges. What's more, the gold seekers can now be divided into teams — blue vs. green — and only those on the team that finds the gold score anything — assuming that anyone finds the gold at all, of course...

Part of the Knizia tile-laying trilogy, Samurai is set in medieval Japan. Players compete to gain the favor of three factions: samurai, peasants, and priests, which are represented by helmet, rice paddy, and Buddha tokens scattered about the board, which features the islands of Japan. The competition is waged through the use of hexagonal tiles, each of which help curry favor of one of the three factions — or all three at once! Players can make lightning-quick strikes with horseback ronin and ships or approach their conquests more methodically. As each token (helmets, rice paddies, and Buddhas) is surrounded, it is awarded to the player who has gained the most favor with the corresponding group.

Gameplay continues until all the symbols of one type have been removed from the board or four tokens have been removed from play due to a tie for influence.

At the end of the game, players compare captured symbols of each type, competing for majorities in each of the three types. Ties are not uncommon and are broken based on the number of other, "non-majority" symbols each player has collected.

Players must form words on an 8x8 (or in the newer editions 10x10) grid. The words may be formed horizontally or vertically on the grid, as in Scrabble, but as the title suggests the letters may also be stacked, so that words can be changed by having letters substituted by stacking (up to a limit of 5 high). Scoring is also different to Scrabble; there are no letter values; instead, when a new word is formed, the number of tiles used in that word is counted and used as the score. A word that is flat (no stacked tiles) scores double, but the words that score the most are those that have lots of stacking.

Some editions come with number tiles to solve (included) Sudoku puzzles.

Also known as Scrabble Upwords.

Upwords Deluxe has an 11 x 11 rotating grid, 121 tiles and 28 challenge tiles, and electronic timer.

A murder has been committed in the Victorian steampunk city of St. Sebastian. You have made the short list of police suspects and the only way to retain your freedom is to prove that one of the others on the list is in fact the murderous culprit.

Players take turns making Accusations against the other players by placing Method, Motive, or Opportunity cards in front of them or providing Alibis against the Accusations made against them by other players. You must remember what has been played and craft your Accusations well to pin the murder on another player.

Ruse uses cards with specialized suits and amazing steampunk artwork to tell the story of murder and mayhem under the gaslights of St. Sebastian.

As a bonus, the deck may also be used to play all of your favorite traditional card games.