Territory Building

The Earth is probably doomed, and rumors and speculation run rampant. Newspaper headlines from across the globe stir the populace to desperation:

"MELTING POLAR ICE CAPS" "RISING SEA LEVELS" "POLLUTION!" "OVERPOPULATION!" "NUCLEAR WINTER?" "RAVENOUS BLACK STAR GOATS?" "WILL METEORS STRIKE YOUR CHILDREN?" "DISASTER LOOMS!"

The race to escape Earth has begun! With the world's nations in decline, powerful corporations now stand as humanity's last hope. Take the reins of one such corporation, as CEO, and venture out into space. With your mission in hand; build ships, collect resources, research technologies, survive the dangers of space exploration, and, while ticket sales hold steady, preserve the human race. Remember to stay a step ahead of competing corporations, which can use slick marketing campaigns and 10 cent tchotchkes to buy the loyalty of the people you just saved from certain doom!

Players are rewarded points for sticking to the mission and building colonies, and saving colonists. As you are a CEO you are also rewarded points for filling the Corporate treasury, and building the company's value proposition by retaining rights to the best technologies. Game play is fast, and exciting. Events, and the vast variety of hazards that space has to offer will keep you on your toes, and your underlings busy on the paperwork for decades to come!

The game is played in 5 phases: Research, Fleet, Management, Revenue, and finally First Player Turn Auction. All players will complete each phase, in turn order, before proceeding to the next phase. This helps to keep the game moving, and keeps players engaged. In Research phase players can pay to research, or choose to license another players tech. In the Fleet phase players get one action with each ship they own. The Management phase is when players build new ships, special tech items, and sell technology to the public domain. The Revenue phase is when players collect their hard earned resources, including a small stipend from their home office on Earth. And finally, the turn auction phase is a bidding war for who goes first. Not that important at the start of the game, but monumental for the end.

It is an empire of changing flags. The old crown fell, and many stepped forward to claim it. That was two centuries ago.

Now the barons and the princes swear loyalty to whichever claimant-emperor garrisons the nearest army today. The clergy sell their sermons for the highest bidder, and spies whisper promises to mercenary generals.

You are the one true ruler of the broken Empire of Lyssan, and it's up to you to put the pretenders (the other players) in their place before their endless squabbling tears your nation apart. You (and others) will attempt to take control by using castles, knights, nobles, priests, and spies:

Knights hold territory and fight masterfully.
Nobles hold territory, support priests, and fight poorly.
Castles hold territory, spawn new units, and protect knights and nobles.
Priests manipulate influence and support spies.
Spies assassinate priests and other spies, and have the devastating power to steal other players' court cards.

Lyssan is an intense board game of strategy, cooperation, and betrayal for two to four players. The winner is the player who claims the most trophies, and each trophy can only be claimed by a single player. One trophy card might call for the player to control the most mines, the next to have most spies deployed, and the next to have the most sophisticated court. An upcoming trophy is revealed each turn, requiring strength, cunning, and adaptability to win.

Lyssan combines tightly designed euro-style rules with the interactivity and flavor of an epic wargame. Lyssan has slim rules comparable to many family friendly games. Yet the play is as rich and interactive as the crunchiest, most grognard-friendly wargames. And Lyssan plays fast. A typical game of Lyssan runs a full hour quicker than comparable games.

Lyssan combines:
A map to be conquered (like Risk)...
...with a few different unit types that act a few different ways each (like Chess or Diplomacy) ...
...with cards that let players pull off devastating surprise moves or permanently improve their abilities. To play one card, you discard others. (Like Race for the Galaxy) These cards can be very powerful, but they can also be stolen by spies. The whole landscape of the game can change in the blink of an eye as ownership of a card changes hands. Get one of your spies into a rival's castle, and you can take over his improvements or turn his own followers against him.

All interrupting effects have been stripped out of the game, so each player can complete their turn quickly, without waiting for the others. The game has been designed from the start to allow timed play, like a tournament chess match. This is good for players who want extra-brisk play, or who just have one slowpoke at the table who needs to be reined in.

In the mid-sixteenth century England Queen Elizabeth I rules without an heir. This leaves room for some maneuvering. Powers throughout, including you, believe that a family with great presence, wealth, and nobility might find itself in the right place at the right time.

In Noblemen, you are members of the British aristocracy. You will try to achieve influence and prestige for your family. You will grow your family's estate, earn the queen's favor, bear witness to scandalous behavior, gain influence with the church, bribe royalty, and leverage your political weight during masquerade balls; all in an effort to ensure your family's rightful place in history. After three decades, the player with the most victory points will be declared the winner.

This is a game of several races all going on at the same time. Players race the clock; you will never know exactly how many turns are remaining before the scoring round. Players will race each other – to build cheaper buildings, to be the first to build a folly, to have more prestige and therefore gain a higher noble title, and more. On your turn you can play one scandal card (if you choose) in addition to taking one action from the following possibilities:

Grow Estate – Play lands from behind your screen
Build Structure – Buy and play a building on a meadow
Bribe Royalty – Buy bribe tickets you can redeem later
Collect Taxes – Get money
Acquire Lands – Get more land from the bag of random lands
Donate to the Church – Redeem lands for victory points
Leisure Time – Get one victory point

On most of your turns, you will build your estate by playing land tiles or building structures. There are three commodities to concentrate on: lands, wealth, and prestige. Each commodity will help on your path to victory. It is for you to decide each turn which is the most needed for you to win the game.

The theme of this game is economic and cultural development in the Netherlands in the 17th century.

The game is played on a large game board of the Netherlands, divided into provinces. In addition, there are boxes for the East and the West Indies, and track round the edge of the board with the majority of spaces listing two of the ten provinces (in various combinations) that earn players varying amounts of income based on their influences in those provinces, or income spaces that earn players a flat income.

The aim of the players is to be the first player to earn 33 victory points, which are acquired through earning money to extend influence in the provinces, patronize artists, invest in businesses, establish colonies in the Indies, or obtain civic advancements. These are represented by purchasing cards from one of six decks, with each deck having a special focus. Investment cards provide cash payouts, with bigger payouts for collecting sets of different values (single cards are worth less than three-card sets). Artists provide a potentially large source of victory points, but require multiple turns of patronage (i.e., cash) before they pay out. Colonization cards provide ships, captains, and cannons to outfit expeditions to establish colonies which earn victory points and access to the higher-paying spice investment card deck. Civics cards can provide governorships in the provinces (victory points and income), civic improvements (victory points), a special action that allows the holder to alter the normal rules for advancing a token on the board track. There are cards that work with some of the other decks as well, in the civics deck (e.g., investments, expedition components, etc).

In the 19th century, shortly after the industrial revolution, railways quickly spread over the world. Japan, importing Western culture and eager to become one of the Grand Nations, saw the birth of many private railway companies and entered the Golden Age of railways. Eventually, as a result of the actions of powerful people and capitalists, many of these smaller companies gradually merged into larger ones.

In Trains, the players are such capitalists, managing private railways companies and striving to become bigger and better than the competition. The game takes place during the 19th and 20th century in the 2012 OKAZU Brand edition, whereas the 2013 AEG/Pegasus edition is set in modern times, with bullet trains, freight trains and more. You will start with a small set of cards, but by building a more effective deck throughout the game, you will be able to place stations and lay rails over the maps of Osaka, Tokyo or other locations. The trick is to purchase the cards you want to use, then use them as effectively as possible. Gain enough points from your railways and you will ultimately manage the most powerful railroads in modern Japan!