Science Fiction

Rex: Final Days of an Empire, a reimagined version of Dune set in Fantasy Flight's Twilight Imperium universe, is a board game of negotiation, betrayal, and warfare in which 3-6 players take control of great interstellar civilizations, competing for dominance of the galaxy's crumbling imperial city. Set 3,000 years before the events of Twilight Imperium, Rex tells the story of the last days of the Lazax empire, while presenting players with compelling asymmetrical racial abilities and exciting opportunities for diplomacy, deception, and tactical mastery.

In Rex: Final Days of an Empire, players vie for control of vital locations across a sprawling map of the continent-sized Mecatol City. Only by securing three key locations (or more, when allied with other factions) can a player assert dominance over the heart of a dying empire.

Unfortunately, mustering troops in the face of an ongoing Sol blockade is difficult at best (unless, of course, you are the Federation of Sol or its faithless ally, the Hacan, who supply the blockading fleet). Savvy leaders must gather support from the local populace, uncover hidden weapon caches, and acquire control over key institutions. Mechanically, this means players must lay claim to areas that provide influence, which is then "spent" to (among other things) smuggle military forces through the orbiting Sol blockade. Those forces will be needed to seize the key areas of the city required to win the game. From the moment the first shot is fired, players must aggressively seek the means by which to turn the conflict to their own advantage.

While the great races struggle for supremacy in the power vacuum of a dead emperor, massive Sol warships execute their devastating bombardments of the city below. Moving systematically, the Federation of Sol's fleet of warships wreaks havoc on the planet's surface, targeting great swaths of the game board with their destructive capabilities. Only the Sol's own ground forces have forewarning of the fleet's wrath; all others must seek shelter in the few locations with working defensive shields...or be obliterated in the resulting firestorm.

Although open diplomacy and back-door dealmaking can often mitigate the need for bloodshed, direct combat may prove inevitable. When two or more opposing forces occupy the same area, a battle results. Each player's military strength is based on the sum total of troops he is willing to expend, along with the strength rating of his chosen leader. A faction's leaders can therefore be vitally important in combat...but beware! One or more of your Leaders may secretly be in the employ of an enemy, and if your forces in combat are commanded by such a traitor, defeat is all but assured. So whether on the field of battle or the floor of the Galactic Council, be careful in whom you place your trust.

All this, along with a host of optional rules and additional variants, means that no two games of Rex: Final Days of an Empire will play exactly alike. Contributing further to replayability is the game's asymmetrical faction abilities, each of which offer a unique play experience.

Reimplements:

Dune

Board is set up in view of a television/VCR and players watch a videotape of simulated action and narration filmed on the set of the Star Trek series. Players assume the roles of the few remaining on-board crew members of the U.S.S. Enterprise, which is docked for repairs.

The players (watching the tape) see a renegade Klingon (named KAVOK) hijack the ship with only themselves aboard with him. He periodically appears on the television screen (which is a simulation of different communication view screens aboard the ship) and talks to the players during the game.

KAVOK's intention is to use the Federation ship to to attack the Klingon Empire and instigate a Federation/Klingon war. He also plans to gloriously die in battle along with the remaining crew. KAVOK will create setbacks and obstacles for the players as they attempt to gain access to the bridge and regain control of the ship. The journey to the Klingon Empire takes 60 minutes of real time game-playing (displayed on screen). They play against the clock, and if nobody wins, they all lose.

Play consists of rolling the die, moving around the board (which represents the Enterprise), drawing cards and interacting with the video of KAVOK until they reach the bridge and win, or the time expires and they lose.

NOTE: This game cannot be checked out due to being a "Rare/Protected" game. Playing this at Spielbound will require renting out a backroom and bringing a VHS player & monitor to play.

In Star Trek [Deck Building Game]: The Next Generation, players take on the role of Captain of a salvaged Starship. They will search for new allies such as Picard, Data, and other famous Characters. They will Explore space to complete Missions, Encounter Events, and meet Starships that could be friend or foe.

The game features three separate scenarios of play:

Explorations [Free For All]: Explore Space to complete Missions, Encounter Events, and Engage Starships.
Borg Invasion [Cooperative]: The Borg have come to Assimilate you and everything you know. Band together with your fellow Captains to defend your world and fend off the Borg.
Klingon Civil War [Teams]: A rift in power has been created in the Klingon Empire. Form an alliance, gather support, and defeat your enemies to obtain control of the Empire.

The goal of each game varies. While some simply require a point threshold, another game's goal might be to simply survive.

Integrates with:

Star Trek Deck Building Game: The Next Generation - The Next Phase
Star Trek Deck Building Game: The Original Series

The search for energy crystals continues without respite throughout the universe! The Merchant guild is ready to pay outrageous amounts of money, and all the Seekers roam about to find them. Breaking news! The surface of the "forgotten planet" on the edge of the galaxy is full of them. In a few days, a new gold race will begin, with men replaced by robots that search, explore and fight to control the precious mineral!

The Forgotten Planet is a tile-laying management game in which tiles represent safe areas on a planetary surface on which robots walk and take other actions. These tiles also accumulate energy from the sun, then conduct it to robots, giving them (and the player) more actions if they absorb enough energy – so building and maintaining ownership of these tiles is fundamental in the game strategy. Players and robots use this energy to build new bases, discover mines, build walls to keep out other robots, push those same walls out of the way, produce more robots and much more.

If your robot falls out of contact with tiles you control, however, then it loses power and falls inactive for the round. Control of tiles is determined by the distance from a particular tile to each player's closest base; whoever is closest to the tile (with walls serving as barriers that players must "walk" around while counting distance) controls it, and the more tiles you control, the more energy you have available to you.

Thus, players need to maintain an energy connection for their robots while trying to extend their area of control on the planet's surface with their bases. They also need to control mines, of course, as that's how a player produces new resources, which are subsequently converted into new bases, sold for victory points (VPs) or converted into new robots.

The game ends when the playing area is filled with tiles or no land tiles remain in the supply. (Players can "consume metal" as one of their actions to speed along the endgame and crimp someone else's efforts to keep building.) Players then score points for the land and mines they control, with bonuses going to the player(s) with the most robots in play, the most common mines and the most bases. The player with the high score wins.

This multiplayer time-travel card game has players assign inventions to different time periods and then score points for appropriate combos and matching the correct eras for those inventions. The first pair of decks are Stone Age and Future Tech, and contain over 120 unique pieces of original art.

First part of the Timestreams series.