Science Fiction

The smartest minds of our generation are gathering together at the Great Science Fair. Everyone's been working hard on their creations, but only one will be crowned champion. Contestants have to think on the fly to build their machines quickly and efficiently. Whose project will be the best?

In Gizmos, you want to build engines — engines within the game to get things done faster. Using the four types of energy marbles, plucked from the 3D marble dispenser, you purchase and construct new additions to your works. As you build, new attachments can trigger chain reactions, letting you do even more on your turn. Whoever builds the greatest machine and collects the most victory points wins!

In the words of its designer, Consentacle is:

a cooperative card game for two players;

that represents consensual sexual encounter between a curious human and a tentacled alien;

where the players have to figure out how to build trust and do sexual things with each other, even if they can’t communicate easily.

User summary:
Partners try to build card combinations via simultaneous plays. "Trust" and "Satisfaction" are the currency and victory points of Consentacle, which are earned and/or lost based on card combinations.

In Space Base, players assume the roles of Commodores of a small fleet of ships. Ships begin docked at their stations and are then deployed to sectors as new ships are commissioned under your command. Use cargo vessels to engage in trade and commerce; mining vessels to build reoccurring base income; and carriers to spread your influence. Establish new colonies for a new Commodore in a sector to gain even more influence. Gain enough influence and you can be promoted to Admiral!

Space Base is a quick-to-learn, quick-to-play dice game using the core "I roll, everyone gets stuff" mechanism seen in other games. It's also a strategic engine builder using a player board (your space base) and tableaus of ship cards you can buy and add to your board. The cards you buy and the order you buy them in have interesting implications on your engine beyond just the ability on the card you buy, making for a different type of engine construction than seen in similar games. Players can take their engine in a number of directions: long odds and explosive gains, low luck and steady income, big end-game combos to launch from last to first, or a mix-and-match approach. Ultimately, Space Base is a game you can just start playing and teach everyone how to play in the first round or two and has a satisfying blend of dice-chucking luck and challenging strategic choices.

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.

Chimera Station brings a new twist to the worker placement genre: customizable workers. Each worker can be modified in-game by splicing claws, tentacles, leafs or additional brains (or any combination of those) on them. These workers are used to gather resources: points, food, credits, and living parts of aforementioned workers! During the game you'll build and expand the space station and open up tons of different strategical and tactical possibilities.

Featuring a grand total of 12 standard action spaces and 40 additional ones (modules), 22 perks, 16 different ways to configure your aliens (via components), and 4 different races, the possibilities are endless!