Hand Management

Diamonds is a trick-taking card game in which players collect Diamonds — not cards bearing that suit, mind you, but rather actual "Diamond Crystals" (acrylic crystals) included in the game.

What makes the game of Diamonds different from other trick-taking card games is that when you cannot follow suit you get a "Suit Action" based on what suit you do play. Suit Actions are also taken by the winner of each trick, as well as at the end of a full Round of play.

Suit Actions will enable players to take Diamond Crystals from the Supply, moving them to their Showroom (where they may score 1 point) or to their Vault (where they will score 2 points). The Vault is a secure area, but the Showroom is vulnerable to theft by the other players.

The deck in Diamonds consists of sixty cards, numbered 1-15 in the standard suits. In each round, the players start with a hand of ten cards. One player leads a card, and everyone else must play one card, following suit if possible. As you play a card, if you cannot follow suit, you immediately get a Suit Action in the suit you did play. The player who played the highest card in the suit that was led wins the trick, and also gets a Suit Action.
The player who won the trick leads a card to start the next trick. After a full Round of ten tricks, whoever has taken the most cards in each suit once again gets a Suit Action. If a player has taken no tricks, that player gets two Diamonds Suit Actions. Players then start a new round.

Whoever has the most points in Diamond Crystals at the end of the game wins!

In Western Town, each player is a Marshal of an expanding town in the Old West of the U.S. in the early 1860s. Each Marshal wants to develop the most prosperous town, one that President Lincoln himself would be proud to visit.

The three principal criteria that allow you to win the game are population growth, charm/attractiveness, and wealth, as measured by gold. Turns are regulated by the visits of Lincoln, who determines, bit-by-bit, the value of the towns relative to those three criteria. These criteria can and do change every round, and you will need to adapt to these changing criteria to win this game!

Each player has his own board on which he will be building his town. Every building gives him different, and increasing, rights and abilities, and therefore power. The bigger your town gets, the better – but managing too much growth is challenging, so you'll need to make difficult choices at the beginning of each round as to which buildings you'll bring into play.

This "building-adding" mechanism helps players stay in the game and not get lost in the overwhelming number of choices available. Of 22 different buildings, six of them are identified every round as "bonus" buildings, and players are forced to adapt varying strategies and test new combinations of these buildings for their town as the game progresses.

In addition to logic and strategy, Marshals will need to bluff and occasionally resort to questionably bending the law a bit, to succeed in building their Western Town. And as if that weren't enough, there are even occasional Indian attacks to deal with as well!

Gambling your fortunes in the Old West for 3 to 6 players.

In Austin Poker, you will be playing four hands of five-card stud poker simultaneously out of your own deck of cards. Your initial draw is 11 cards. Out of these cards, you will choose your four hole cards and place them face down on your player mat. You will then choose your first show card for each hand and place them face down on the hole cards, leaving you with a hand of three. Each hand's show card is revealed and bid on separately. After all hands have been bid upon, players draw one card for each hand they have not folded. The next show cards are placed with their respective hands, face down. This play continues until all hands have been played to five cards. The winners receive the pots. Then, all players have the opportunity to purchase Bonus cards in the order they finished the poker phase. The bonus cards count toward the victory points required to win the game, as well as having abilities that help you on subsequent turns. At the tend of each turn, the money spent buying Bonus cards is divided equally among all of the players and the next turn begins.

It is the early 20th Century, and the great museums of Europe and America compete for artifacts from around the world in order to fill their museums with the most prestigious exhibitions. In Artifact, players are archaeologists researching sites around the globe to search for artifacts, which are then shipped back to the museums in order to produce exhibitions that increase funding for future digs and earn prestige to win the game. Actions and funds are limited, however, and competition is fierce. Sometimes it is even necessary to deal on the black market in order to generate extra income or to acquire the one artifact that will complete a valuable exhibition.

The player who earns the most prestige points through producing exhibitions and managing his budget best wins the game.

Artifact is a rich gaming experience that provides players with many options to think about. In order to make it easier to learn the game, the rules have been separated into the Base Game, followed by rules for the two expansions that, when added, make up the Complete Game. The game can be played and enjoyed as the base game or by including any one of the expansions, but the complete game is highly recommended for experienced players.

From the SimplyFun website:

Exclusively Created for SimplyFun

Welcome to the unsettled Island of Catan. Using combinations of resources - wood, brick, wheat, wool and ore - players build, barter and trade in this family strategy game. The faster you build roads, settlements and cities, the more points you earn towards victory. Clever trading, lively negotiation, and the luck of the dice add to everyone's fun and enjoyment. Once you start playing you won't want to stop.

Simply Catan is based on the international, award winning classic game Settlers of Catan, which has sold over 12 million copies worldwide. Designed for beginning players, Simply Catan takes less than 5 minutes to set up and 30 minutes to play.

Also includes advanced play rules with variable game board and development cards.

Belongs to the Catan Series.