Strategy

Game description from the publisher:

Seize your friends' pawns in this delightful game of capture with two unique ways to play! "Brainy" Got'Em! offers the strategic challenge of outsmarting and cornering your opponents with deliberately placed walls, while the tricky yet fun-for-all-ages "Bright" Got'Em! has the same goal of trapping your opponents, plus colorful surprises that will keep you on your toes!

From the Box:
Corner Your Friends!

Trap their pawns in one of two delightful games of escape and capture. In Bright Got 'Em you outsmart and corner your opponents through savvy card play, sly movement, and clever placement of blocking walls. In the still-casual, but even-trickier Brainy Got 'Em! you toss aside card actions in favor of a purely strategic challenge.

Both games share the same goal, the same exciting intrigue, and the same social fun.
Place walls to trap your opponents' pawns before they trap yours!

Surround yourself with friends and family. Get ready to enjoy mroe fun than any four walls could ever contain! It's time you Got 'Em!
Play Summary:
The goal: trap your opponents' pawns before they trap yours. Last pawn free wins!

Bright Got 'Em! (use colored side of the board)
In Bright Got 'Em!, each player starts with 3 cards and pawn. Place your pawn on the same-colored start square (one of the four squares at the corners of the board's center square). The player who's birthday is closest, goes first.

On your turn you will play a card, following each rule in the order they appear. Most cards have 2 instructions. The first tells you where you can place a wall and the second how many square you can move your pawn.

Wall Placement Rules:
Walls can only be placed along one edge of a square, between two squares.
When a player's pawn is trapped by walls in a single square, that player is eliminated from the game. The edge of the board counts as a wall.
There are a few cards that allow you to remove a wall or pass through a wall. However, you have to play these cards before your pawn is trapped!
Once your pawn is trapped in a single square, you're out and your pawn is removed from the board.
When you trap another player's pawn, thus eliminating him from the game, you may remove any 1 wall from the board.

Moving Your Pawn
Most cards allow you to move your pawn up to a specific number of squares.
You can't move through walls, unless you play a card that allows it.
You can't move through a square occupied by another pawn.
You may only move orthogonally, never diagonally.
You can stay where you are.
You don't have to move the exact number of squares listed on the card. You can move fewer squares if you want.
You can move zig zag, first in one direction, then in another, just not diagonally up to the number of squares specified on the card you played.

After placing a wall and moving (or not), discard the card you played and draw another. (You should always have 3 cards in your hand.) Play passes to the player on your left.

The last player to have a pawn on the board wins!

Brainy Got 'Em! (use white side of board)
You don't need any cards for this version. The goal is the same: trap your opponents' pawns while illuding capture yourself.

On your turn, place a wall anywhere on the board, then move your pawn.
The number of squares you can move your pawn is equal to 1 plus the number of walls on your square. You may place a wall on the square your pawn occupies to increase your pawn's movement on the same turn.

All other rules are the same as Bright Got 'Em!

Contents: 1 double-sided game board (Bright Got 'Em! on one side, Brainy Got 'Em! on the other), 84 wall pieces, 55 Got 'Em! cards, 4 pawns, game rules.

Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small is a new take on Uwe Rosenberg's Agricola designed for exactly two players and focused only on the animal husbandry aspect of that game. So long plows and veggies!

In Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small, you become an animal breeder of horses, cows, sheep and pigs and try to make the most of your pastures. Players start with a 3x2 game board that can be expanded during play to give more room for players to grow and animals to run free. Sixteen possible actions are available for players to take, with each player taking three actions total in each of the eight rounds.

The player who amasses the most victory points through enclosing space with fences and acquiring the largest number and variety of animals and victory point-generating buildings will be the winner.

Four Standard Buildings and 4 special buildings are available in the base game. These buildings each provide unique special abilities during play and/or VP at game end. Balancing the tension between building infrastructure (fenced pastures and buildings) and acquiring animals (the single biggest source of end-game scoring) is the key to success!

The dragon has been asleep for many long years. In that time, the cave under which it slumbered has changed greatly…Goblins and strange monsters have filled its gloomy depths and there are whispers that the cave itself has begun thinking, shifting, and growing evermore dangerous.

Still, stories of peril rarely overshadow the rumors of riches. And riches there may be… For where a dragon slumbers, there also lies a fiercely guarded treasure. Fortunately for the slumbering beast, malevolent crystals fill the cave’s rooms with spectral light, hiding the entrance to the immeasurable treasure trove. Many have given their lives to the search and over the years the rumors have faded to legend.

But the most courageous adventurers will not be discouraged by bloodshed. On this day, a knight steps into the darkness, her gloved hand gripping the hilt of her sword. Her years of quests--all of the victories and defeats--have led to this one final adventure. Knowing the kingdom can never truly be at peace with the dragon beneath the cave, she has come to make a final stand. Little does she know that she will awake everything that slumbers in the shadows… and begin the final battle in the darkness.

Enter the world of Vast: The Crystal Caverns!

Vast takes you and your friends into the torch light of a classic cave-crawling adventure, built on the concept of total asymmetry. Gone are days of the merry band of travelers fighting off evil. In Vast, you will become part of a new legend... Any part you wish!

Play as the classic, daring Knight, the chaotic Goblin horde, the colossal, greedy Dragon, or even the Cave itself — powerful, brooding, and intent on crushing the living things that dare to disturb its gloomy depths. Each role has its own powers, pieces, and paths to victory...and there can be only one winner.

As the ultimate asymmetric board game, Vast: The Crystal Caverns provides a limitless adventure, playable again and again as you and your friends explore the four different roles in different combinations. Play one-on-one in a race to the death between the Knight and the Goblins, or add in the Dragon and the Cave for deeper and more epic experiences, different every time.

Many heroes go forth to battle, but some never return; leaving behind their prized possessions. You'll be part of the bidding war for the vaults they left behind to gain valuable items -- each providing Gold, Victory Points or new abilities. Outbid your opponents, equip artifacts to gain new abilities and find the gear your up-and-coming heroes are looking for to be victorious in Vault Wars.

Players will take turns as an Auction Master, leading a cut-throat bidding war to selling off Vaults full of items to the other players.

Each Vault provides a unique experience, introducing new ways for the players to bid.
No player quite knows everything that's in a Vault, and there's lots of junk to fool your opponents into bidding on.
Between auctions, players may sell off their items to gain Gold, or save them for Victory Points -- paying storage fees to keep them around.
Collect gems for massive Victory Points, Weapons to gain lots of Gold, or rare Artifacts to gain powerful abilities.
Each player has up-and-coming heroes who are looking specific items, giving out bonus victory points (but try to keep that a secret from your opponents).

The player with the most victory points after all the auctions will be the winner!

Vault Wars is a bidding and bluffing game for 3-5 player that plays in less than an hour.

Altiplano, a bag-building game along the lines of Orléans set in the South American highlands of the Andes — the Altiplano — is not a simple game, presenting players with new challenges time and again. There are various ways to reach the goal, so the game remains appealing to try out new options and strategies, but success or failure also depends on whether your opponents let you do as you like or thwart the strategy you are pursuing. The competition for the individual types of goods is considerable — as is the fun in snatching a coveted extension card from under another player's nose!

At the start of the game, players have access only to certain resources and goods, due to the different role tiles that each player receives that provide them. At the market, however, a player can acquire additional production sites that give new options. The numerous goods — such as fish, alpaca, cacao, silver, or corn — all have their own characteristics and places where they can be used. Whereas silver makes you rich, fish can be exchanged for other goods, and alpaca give you wool that you can then make into cloth.

Aside from building up an effective production, you must deliver the right goods at the right time, develop the road in good time, and store your goods cleverly enough to fill the most valuable rows with them. Often, a good warehouseperson is more relevant in the end than the best producer.