Political

The throne to the Kingdom of Aurum lies unclaimed. Six great houses vie for control of the land in an ongoing dispute of title, territory, and birthright. Embroiled in conflict, the lords and ladies lock eyes on the crown as they fight to contend with a great plague that has now turned upon the people, ravaging the kingdom for which they war.

In Cutthroat Kingdoms, you take on the role of a leading lord or lady of one of the six eminent Houses in the Kingdom of Aurum — a grim fantasy world fraught with danger, intrigue, and plague. You must use your armies to claim territories, gather wealth, recruit hirelings, and hire mercenaries as you pursue your nefarious plots and jockey for power. Political intrigue and assassinations abound, and powerful strategic alliances are offset by bloody conflicts. Most importantly, will you strive for domination alone, or tie your fortunes to another house through a well-placed political marriage?

Cutthroat Kingdoms is a competitive game that features marriage-alliance team mechanisms in which strategic planning and decisive military moves can swing the course of the Kingdom. Changing territories and events make each game unique. Open negotiation, deal-making, and tabletalk are all encouraged — nay, necessary to win!

Game description from the publisher:

The Battlestar Galactica, humanity's last beacon of hope, falters and crumbles. A tenuous solidarity between human and Cylon wavers under overwhelming desperation and doubt. For those seeking the promise of peace, a single vessel guards the future. The Demetrius, guided by unknown forces, plots a course through the stars – a course for home. Many would oppose this vision of the future. In this desperate time, both human and Cylon are driven to take matters into their own hands. For some, this means risking everything. For others, this means mutiny.

Battlestar Galactica: Daybreak Expansion brings humanity's plight to its gripping climax. With two supplemental game boards, twelve new character sheets, thirty new Crisis cards, twenty-five new Skill cards, and much more, Daybreak invites players to undertake desperate missions, struggle under the constant threat of mutiny (through the addition of a Mutineer card in the Loyalty deck that can affect either human or Cylon), and bargain with Cylon Leaders driven by motives of their own!

Daybreak also includes rules and components for an optional Battlestar Galactica experience titled "The Search for Home", featuring a new endgame and a new game board for the Demetrius, the sewage processing ship that becomes the fleet's best hope of salvation.

Louis XIV, by Rüdiger Dorn, is about power and influence in the French court at the end of the 17th Century.

The players take on the roles of members of the Court, where they carry out their missions and goals at Versailles. By using cards and influence markers, they influence high-ranking Court attendants, such as the King's Mother or one of the countless Royal mistresses. Naturally, the Sun King himself has a special role here too.

An excellent time and a high level of tension are guaranteed. The final outcome is in doubt right up to the end. Each game is different. A change of pace but still a highly promising strategy game in the finest Alea tradition, one that sits at level 5 on the Alea complexity scale.

Patchistory is a strategy board game with cards that symbolize historical heroes and wonders, with the whole game being divided into three eras. During the game, you acquire these cards through auctions and expand your territory by placing cards so that they overlap one another in a 5×5 space in the first era, a 6×6 space in the second era, and a 7×7 space in the third era. When your land—that is, the layout of your cards—is well built, the card functions are activated. You can earn victory points with diplomatic actions, domestic politics, war movement, the actions of production, etc., and at the end of the game, the person with the highest score after the third era wins.

Because you can make combos with lots of features on historical cards and you can score in various ways, Patchistory will give you another new exciting play every time it hits the table.

In Royals, players take on the roles of the great noble houses of the 17th century, fighting for supremacy in Europe at that time. With the help of the right country cards, they occupy influential positions and obtain bonuses for this in the form of victory points. The higher the rank of the title associated with the position, the more country cards required. Already-occupied positions can be contested by playing intrigue cards.

The game proceeds over three periods, with a scoring taking place after each of them. During scoring, the players with the greatest influence in each of the four countries score victory points. After the third period scoring, the game ends with the scoring of the individual titles. The player with the most victory points wins.