Strategy

Tournay

Game description from the publisher:

Built by the Romans during the first century in Belgian Gaul, Tournay experienced most of its growth along the Scheldt river. Unfortunately, the river also contributed to its troubles, because in 881, the Normans traversed its watery path, and thereby easily captured the city. That act of aggression stunted Tournay's prosperity. This game invites you to participate in the reconstruction of the city, in order to establish a glorious era that will last for more than seven centuries. Help your district flourish by cleverly coordinating the work of the city's three domains: military, religious, and civil. Certainly the prestige of your buildings will brighten the entire city!

Tournay is a card game from the same designing team as the 2010 release Troyes with artwork once again by Alexandre Roche. In this game, players manage a district of the city and its three classes of citizens. The cards are classified by level (I to III) and color to form nine distinct decks. Players initially have two citizens in each class that they will use each turn to carry out one of five available actions, such as drawing cards, or using the powers of their buildings.

In each player's district, the building cards save them money, make more efficient use of the decks of cards, or recruit new citizens. The character cards optimize the use of buildings if properly positioned. It's up to you to create the most effective card combinations. Finally, constructed prestige buildings will give you valuable prestige points, depending on how your district has developed. But beware: Your opponents will also benefit from every prestige building you build!

Note that an expansion is included in the base game's box, so advanced players can add still more replay value to this dynamic game!

Game Summary
There are 3 sets of cards (yellow, red, white) in 3 groups (I, II, III); also, a set of black event cards. There are always 3 face-up event cards, most of which are bad. Players start with 2 meeples in 3 colors (yellow, red, white), placed on their Plaza card.

On your turn:

First, you may play a card from hand to your display (3x3 grid) by paying the appropriate cost (some combination of coins, meeples, cards, etc). You may play a card on top of another of the same color; if played on top of a different color, discard the older card.
Then take one action:
Draw a card; move 1-3 meeples off the Plaza to draw a level I-III card; you may pay others 2 coins to use their worker(s). If you draw the event card of that deck, place a coin on each event card, then trigger all event cards once per coin.
Activate a building card by moving a meeple from your Plaza to the building card (max 1 Meeple/building); cards do a variety of things like give you coins, recruit an additional meeple, use someone else's card, etc.
Combat an event by paying the cost (usually 1 Meeple, 1 coin, +1/coin on the card; or, 2 meeples) shown; take the card as a reward. Later, when events trigger, you may play this from hand to prevent an event from affecting you.
Reactivate all workers: return all meeples to your Plaza, and remove all markers from building cards.

The game ends at the start of the Start Player's turn if 2+ players have all 9 cards in their display; OR if only 1 player has, but at least n-1 Town Crier cards have been revealed. Everyone then gets to play one final card (paying normal costs). Earn VPs for all cards in display, and for all Event cards you've combated. Most VP wins!

The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine

In the co-operative trick-taking game The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine, the players set out as astronauts on an uncertain space adventure. What about the rumors about the unknown planet about? The eventful journey through space extends over 50 exciting missions. But this game can only be defeated by meeting common individual tasks of each player. In order to meet the varied challenges, communication is essential in the team. But this is more difficult than expected in space.

With each mission, the game becomes more difficult. After each mission, the game can be paused and continued later. During each mission, it is not the amount of tricks, but the right tricks at the right time that count.

The team wins only if every single player is successful in fulfilling their tasks.

The game comes with 50 missions. Three more missions were published in spielbox 2/2020

Hadara

Hadara carries you off into the world of cultures and countries of this earth. Over three epochs, you will experience the transformation of your new world from a small settlement to a high culture. You want to populate this world with people who come from different cultures and continents as well as different ages. To bring glory and honor to your world, you should choose the persons and accomplishments skillfully. But you should not ignore agriculture, culture, and military power, otherwise one of your competitors might get bigger and more successful than you. Who will succeed first in creating a new flourishing high culture?

—description from the publisher

•••

Hadara entführt dich in die Welt der Kulturen und Länder dieser Erde.

Über 3 Epochen hinweg erlebst du die Verwandlung deiner neuen Welt von einer kleinen Siedlung zu einer Hochkultur.
Du willst diese Welt mit Personen besiedeln, die dabei aus verschiedenen Kulturkreisen, Kontinenten aber auch Zeitaltern stammen.
Um deiner Welt zu viel Ruhm und Ehre zu verhelfen, solltest du die Personen und Errungenschaften geschickt aussuchen. Dabei solltest du aber die Landwirtschaft, die Kultur und die militärische Macht nicht außer Acht lassen, sonst kann es passieren, dass einer deiner Mitkonkurrenten größer und erfolgreicher wird. Wem gelingt es zuerst, eine neue blühende Hochkultur zu erschaffen?
—description from the publisher (German)

Mesopotamia

At the center is the Ziggurat, where you must bring 4 sacrifice tokens to win. But to deliver them, you must have sufficient Mana reserved by praying in temples, which players build. You bring your sacrifices from 4 huts that you build, and you can breed at an empty hut to increase your people. To build huts, temples, and Mana, you use rocks and timber that you collect from quarries and forests.

Each turn, you can move 5 places, placing new tiles if you go off the map, seeding stones or timber if they are quarries or forests, and carrying resource to empty plains if you want to build. Building a hut or temple, breeding, or drawing an action card ends your turn, and you bank Mana if you have people on temples. So gradually, you build up your clan and have them do different things. Some stand at temples to pray, some explore and carry resource, others help build or breed. And when you deliver a sacrifice, you kill the messenger too, thus needing to breed more.

Expanded By

Mesopotamia: Expansion

The Arrival

Description from the publisher:

In a time long forgotten, the cruel Fomori rule over Érin, the green island. They praise their king Balor, who reigns from his fortifications in the north with an iron fist. Old paths and ruins spread over the island's face, which will be called Ireland many generations from now. But new tribes arrive at the island striving for permanent presence. Who will control Érin's fate over the next centuries to come?

Each player in The Arrival represents a tribe leader who tries to gain predominance over the mythical island of Érin while pushing back the demon-like Fomori. But the players are facing a dilemma, for spreading too quickly means becoming more and more corrupt and strengthening the Fomori in their power...

Over 4-6 rounds, the players determine their resources by means of a unique game mechanism, which will be used later on profitably. During a first phase (Earning Phase), players draw four cards, each showing three sections of different resources. Two of these sections are gradually blocked by the player, thus leaving one section. The resources shown on this section are the ones the player gets. During this phase, they have to decide which section is the best one; while the upper section of the cards offers many resources, it also results in unwanted Corruption Points. The middle and the lower sections offer fewer resources, but also less Corruption.

After that, the Action Phase takes place and the players must use their resources wisely while having the choice from different kinds of actions in order to get Fame Points.

The game ends when a certain number of rounds have been played or somebody reaches the corruption limit.

The winner is either the one with the highest amount of Fame Points or the one with the fewest Corruption Points. This depends on the scene of the board at the end: Do the tribes (players) control more locations on Érin than the Fomori do — or is it the other way around?