Trading

The first expansion for Twilight Imperium (Third Edition) features four new races that are unseen in previous editions, more balanced Strategy cards, more belligerent Objective cards, several new surprises for neutral planets, two more sets of plastic units, rules (with more than a dozen new optional variants), and enough additional systems for a fourth ring around Mecatol Rex. Now its 3-8 players. If you played TI3 and had some ideas for potential improvements, they are probably incorporated in Shattered Empire.

Serenissima is the new Ystari edition of the 1996 game (Méditerranée in France). The rules have been updated and the game is more fluid.

In Serenissima players represent a merchant family during the Renaissance. Players attempt to balance the need of trading and open commerce versus the cut-throat economic piracy of the day. Players create a fleet of ships to purchase and move various commodities around the Mediterranean while also keeping well manned ships to attack and defend against other player's fleets.

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Board
The maritime areas are bigger and there are fewer of them. Starting ports are different too: Alexandria is one of them in the new version.Resources and Trade
One of the resources has changed (marble replaces gems) and the ports produce different resources compared to the 1996 version. In the 1996 version, when buying goods from a port owned by another player, you had to bargain. It could be hard. Now, you just pay them 1 ducat, instead of paying the bank.
Wine is now special: one port with wine in its warehouse is worth more VP at the end of the game.

Game Flow (big point)
In the 1996 version, all the players used to bid for turn order. Then, they all played the phases according to this order: they loaded, built and bought, then they all moved their galleys, they fought and finally they took over free ports and made money.
There's no bidding anymore. Now, the galleys you build are numbered, and when it's the turn of one specific galley, its owner can perform their actions (load, move and fight, or build), before the next galley is the active one. If your galleys have successive numbers, you can play several times.
The little flags that used to be awkwardly fixed on the galleys are now useless, and the men have to be in the player's colour (instead of being a nice bunch of nice Sailor Smurfs).
This is a major difference, the game is radically altered.

Counts and Victory Points
There are several counts in the game, and not only one at the end of the game. What's more: another kind of count can bring players money if they have wine in their warehouse. All of that depends on the drawn cards at the end of a galleys' turn. The pace of the game may be altered by those cards, too.
There is no card in the 1996 version.
In this old version, the only way to have your port well valued at the end of the game was to have its warehouses full. It's now different too: a port with one good is better than one with none, but worse than one with two, etc.

Other Changes
There's a building more: basilic. It brings more VP.
Galleys are easier to build but the price is not the same.
Combat rules are very different, the fort has a different power. Dice are different too.
Port limits to recruit sailors are different.
2 and 3 players rules are different.
...and this list is all but exhaustive.

In The Settlers of Catan, players try to be the dominant force on the island of Catan by building settlements, cities, and roads. On each turn dice are rolled to determine what resources the island produces. Players collect these resources (cards) - wood, grain, brick, sheep, or stone - to build up their civilizations to get to 10 victory points and win the game.

Setup includes randomly placing large hexagonal tiles (each showing a resource or the desert) in a honeycomb shape and surrounding them with water tiles, some of which contain ports of exchange. Number disks, which will correspond to die rolls (two 6-sided dice are used), are placed on each resource tile. Each player is given two settlements (think, houses) and roads (sticks) which are, in turn, placed on intersections and borders of the resource tiles. Players collect a hand of resource cards based on which hex tiles their last-placed house is adjacent to. A robber pawn is placed on the desert tile.

A turn consists of possibly playing a development card, rolling the dice, everyone (perhaps) collecting resource cards based on the roll and position of houses (or upgraded cities - think, hotels) unless a 7 is rolled, turning in resource cards (if possible and desired) for improvements, trading cards at a port, and trading resource cards with other players. If a 7 is rolled, the active player moves the robber to a new hex tile and steals resource cards from other players who have built structures adjacent to that tile.

Points are accumulated by building settlements and cities, having the longest road and the largest army (from some of the development cards), and gathering certain development cards that simply award victory points. When a player has gathered 10 points (some of which may be held in secret), he announces his total and claims the win.

The Settlers of Catan has won multiple awards and is one of the most popular games in recent history due to its amazing ability to appeal to experienced gamers as well as those new to the hobby.

Die Siedler von Catan was originally published by Kosmos and has gone through multiple editions. It was licensed by Mayfair and has undergone at least 4 editions as The Settlers of Catan. It has also been re-published in a travel edition by Kosmos and in yet another edition for Japan/Asia, Settlers of Catan: Rockman Edition.

The Settlers of Catan is the original game in the Catan Series.

At the beginning of the 16th century, the city of Rouen is the main French port. The city's wealth depends on fishing and the trading of salted fish. Salt produced in the mines has to be loaded onto ships and used to preserve herring and cod fished in the Atlantic Ocean. Every week ships full of salt barrels leave Rouen for the fishing grounds of the Atlantic Ocean, and once back, the goods are sold in the city markets. The players represent city merchants, and they invest in ships and city buildings to try to get rich. Who will be the richest merchant of Rouen, when Francis I, King of France, comes to visit the City?

In Upon a Salty Ocean, players start the game with one caravel loaded with three salt barrels, a salt mine and 10-16 money. From this, they must build a shipping empire! The game lasts five turns, with each turn being divided into three phases.

In the event phase, players adjust prices on the market based on the current event tile, take into the account the weather and environmental conditions that will affect them the remainder of the round, and reveal the event tile for the subsequent round.

The action phase lasts a variable number of rounds depending on how many actions players want to take and can afford. Eight actions are available and they're divided into four types:

City: (1) buy a saline and (2) buy a building
Navigation: (1) travel to the ocean and fish and (2) travel to Rouen
Harbor: (1) build a ship and (2) move goods
Market: (1) sell to the market and (2) buy from the market

On a player's turn, he can take any one of the either actions or pass; the cost of an action is the number of times this type of action has been performed previously during this round. For example, the first use of a City action costs 0, while the next use (whether to buy a saline or a building) costs 1. A player who passes can take an action later in the same phase. The action phase ends once all players pass. A player can go into debt during a turn, paying one coin in interest when doing so; as long as the player is in the black once the action round ends (by selling to the market), no further payment is due.

In the turn end phase, players produce salt, may use special buildings, pay interest (if needed), reset the cost of the actions to zero, and so on. A player can have no more than 40 coins at the end of a turn unless he owns a banque, and the limit is 80 coins without owning Salle des Coffres. This limit is important as the player with the most coins after five rounds wins. Some buildings provide endgame bonuses to which the coin limit doesn't apply.

Anno 1701: Das Kartenspiel is a cardgame by Klaus Teuber. Based on the principles of the Settlers of Catan Cardgame and the Anno 1701 computer game players are pioneers trying to develop their island as best as possible - starting out with only 2 houses. Victory points are won for controlling settlers and citizens.

Released: April 2007

This game is part of the Kosmos_two-player_series