Route/Network Building

Epic Railroad Building in North America

Discover a modern North American classic. Celebrate one of our most vital and enduring passions: railroads. Use your initial investment to build track. Then pick up commodities where they are grown, mined, or manufactured and deliver them to a lucrative place of demand. Complete a delivery and make the money you need to buy larger, faster trains, and expand your railroad empire. Win the game by building the most effective railroad empire!

The original and flagship of Mayfair's crayon-rails line allows players, using washable crayons, to draw their train routes over a map of North America. Players start with an initial sum of money which they use to build short lengths of track during their first couple of turns. For the rest of the game, players operate their trains over the track network drawn on the board to pick up and deliver loads to various cities, and then have the opportunity to add to their track network or improve their train. The game uses demand cards which list three demands, each of a commodity to be delivered to a specified city for a given payoff. Each player has three demand cards to provide opportunities for income.

Each turn consists of an operations phase and a building phase. During the operations phase, trains are moved to cities where commodities are picked up at no cost and moved to one of the cities on that player's demand cards. When the commodity is delivered, the player receives the payoff and trades that demand card for a new one. Event cards are mixed in the deck with the demand cards. When an event card is drawn the instructions are followed. During the building phase a player may pay to build more track or upgrade his train.

A player wins by being the first to connect his track network to six of the seven major cities on the board and acquire $250,000,000 in cash on hand.

The old dragon Drakon has captured a brave band of adventurers who have sneaked into her lair to steal her gold. But rather than eat them immediately, Drakon has decided to make it a game: Greed shall set one of the adventurers free. She sends the frightened adventurers into her magical, mad vaulted chambers, and the first one to collect ten gold from Drakon’s maze gets to go free. The rest get to be lunch.

Each turn, players must choose one of two options: (1) place a tile from their hand onto the board, expanding the dungeon; or (2) move their Hero to an adjacent tile. Many of the dungeon tiles have an icon that allows players entering that space to take a special action (for example, taking a piece of gold from the dragon's hoard, stealing gold from another player, or destroying a tile that is already in play).

This is the third edition of Drakon, and includes the following updates:

plastic miniatures are used for the heroes and the Drakon
new tiles are larger (measuring 2.5 by 2.5 inches) and have all new artwork
tiles include a combination of rooms from Drakon (second edition) and Drakon Expansion 1
new rules, variants, and player aids are provided
each gold piece now has a value between 1 and 3

In the basic game, the first player to earn 10 gold wins the game. Some variants provide different winning conditions.

Game last between 20 and 60 minutes.

In the late Middle Ages, trade flourished in Europe. Economic groups like the Hanseatic League, the Welser and Fugger families, and merchants from Northern Italy established trading posts and factories in all of the important cities throughout Europe. These businesses provided the population with goods of all kinds, such as fur from the north, cloth from Flanders, wine from the south, and spices from India. The most important commodity of all was salt. In the Middle Ages salt was highly prized it was used to preserve food.

In Catan Histories: Merchants of Europe, you are a powerful merchant! Start your trading posts in three cities. Recruit new merchants and send them to distant cities to establish trading posts and expand your interests. The more trading posts you have, the more commodities are at your disposal which you can sell profitably in foreign
cities. To ensure that your commodities arrive safely at their destination, you must open up trade routes and equip caravans. You win the game if you are the first to deliver all of your commodities to foreign cities.

Catan Histories: Merchants of Europe is a twist on the 2010 release Settlers of America: Trails to Rails from designer Klaus Teuber and publisher Mayfair Games. Game play is similar in both games: Players start with three locations on the game board, collect resources depending on a die roll, spend resources to move and build, and branch out to new locations with a long-term goal of delivering goods to opponents' cities. The first player to deliver all of his goods wins the game.

Instead of being played on a fixed game board showing a Catan-ified map of the United States, Die Siedler von Catan: Aufbruch der Händler is set on a Catan-ified map of Europe – which isn't a surprise given that Kosmos is a European publisher. Instead of moving from east to west to mimic the settling of the U.S. by Europeans, players start in the middle of Europe, namely Germany.

10,000 years in the future, humanity has claimed the stars. But all is not well. The Emperor is weak, and without strong guidance, the Empire is crumbling. Powerful guilds within the empire are squabbling, positioning themselves for their own gain. If the Empire is to survive, it needs a strong leader - that means you! You must build a power base throughout the Empire by connecting with important guilds: the military, traders, priests, engineers, expansionists, and politicians and then claim the throne. Time is running out, though; others also struggle for the throne. You must form a network of support with powerful guilds and slander your opponents. Each connection gains the support of some guilds, and at the end of the game the player with the most support grasps the Galactic Throne. Take advantage of events that occur for further gain. Be careful, though, because each slander you receive reduces your support.

The name "Carpe Astra" was chosen after Jackson Pope asked the users of BGG to [threadid=303123 brainstorm a name for the game.

Settlers of Catan Travel Edition is, as the name says, a Travel Edition of The Settlers of Catan.
The rules of the game are the same, but there are some changes between the two editions:

No Expansions: In the Travel Edition it is not possible to add any expansions to the regular game, so it is a 3 or 4 players game only.
Pre-determined Desert location: The hex containing the Desert is always in the middle of the board.
Pre-determined numbers: The numbers for production are in fixed locations on the board. That is a natural follow up to the previous item.
Pre-determined port location: Although the type of port at a given location may vary, the port sites themselves are in fixed locations. So the numbers for production, where a port exists, are always the same, and there is never a port near the Desert.
Snap in bits: The roads, villages and cities are all snapped into the board during game play, so it is difficult to mess with the board. The Robber, however, sits freely on the board, and, as you need somewhere to throw the dice, you may prefer a table upon which to play the Travel Edition (although the box top or box insert could be used as a dice tray).

Belongs to the Catan Series.