Medieval

Vampire Empire

In a foreboding castle somewhere in central Europe, a strange fear has descended upon the inhabitants. One morning the body of a young girl was found, as pale as a sheet of paper, dry and totally drained of blood. Vampires are on the prowl! Who is the monster who murders innocent during the night? Before the truth will be discovered, more than one person may face unjust accusations thrown out by the devious servants of darkness. Will the vampires be successfully caught before they endanger the entire society, or will the castle and city fall forever into darkness?

Three characters in the castle are vampires. A human investigator is trying to determine which three of nine characters he encounters are, in fact, monsters hiding in human form so that he can eliminate them. The head vampire, on the other hand, must bluff cleverly, present confusing clues, and trick the humans into attacking innocent citizens. By doing this, the vampire can kill the most important characters in the city or conquer the castle.

Vampire Empire is a two-player card game with a lot of bluffing and player interaction. In this very thematic setting, each player possess a unique deck of cards granting different powers, and each player had different goals to win the game!

Torres

Torres is an abstract game of resource management and tactical pawn movement. Players are attempting to build up castles and position their knights to score the most points each turn. Players have a limited supply of knights and action cards that allow special actions to be taken. Efficient use of pieces and cards, along with a thoughtful awareness of future possibilities, is the heart of this game.

Torres is considered by many to be an informal member of what is referred to as the Mask Trilogy.

Toledo

In Toledo players try to forge magnificent swords and bring them into the fortress of the city, the “Alcazar”.
Each player can send his five helpers on the map and on to the roads of Toledo, in order to acquire steel and jewels from dealers. Thus they get swords manufactured at the most famous armorer in the city. Afterwards those swords are to be delivered to Alcazar.
In addition there are two taverns (at which one “refuels” cards) as well as a place where the works of art of the resident painter, El Greco, are available.
There is a lot to discover in Toledo.

Samurai

Part of the Knizia tile-laying trilogy, this game is set in medieval Japan. Players compete to gain the favor of three factions: samurai, peasants, and priests, represented by helmet, rice paddy, and Buddha tokens scattered about the board, which represents some of 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 more methodically. As each token (helmets, rice paddies, and Buddhas) is surrounded, it is awarded to the player with 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 symbols have been removed 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 3 types. Ties are not uncommon and are broken based on the number of other, "non-majority" symbols each player has collected.

Merchants of the Middle Ages

A Medieval game of trade and commerce, Die Händler is set in Europe, where trade wagons carry wares between six cities on the board. Essentially, players buy goods, load them onto wagons and send them for maximum profit in other cities.

The whole game looks very inviting. The medieval cities depicted on the board, together with the player crests, cardboard coins, money pouches, sticker decorated wagons and wooden commodity pieces, immediately creates the right atmosphere for the players.

There are six cities - Paris, Cologne, Brugge, Gent, Vienna and Genoa - which are interconnected by roads. Three wagons carry goods from one city to another. No-one owns the wagons or controls any of them single-handedly, and in principle a player can put commodities on any transport. There are six different commodities - salt, iron, wine, silk, cloth and food - all of limited supply.

The goal of the game is to make money by delivering goods to the towns, and use the money to buy increases in status. The game ends after a certain number of deliveries have been made and the winner is the player with the highest level of status.