Abstract Strategy

None can defy the will of the gods but the gods themselves. Driven by the ambition of their king, the Greeks have arrived on the shores of Troy. Some seek power, some seek revenge, while still others seek the great moment in battle that will define their place in history.

Agamemnon is a fast-paced strategy board game in which two players take on the roles of ancient Greek gods during the Trojan War. By tactically deploying warriors to where they're needed across the board, each player may influence the final outcome of the battles famously detailed in Homer's Iliad. Some areas will be decided by the strength of the warriors, others by sheer weight of numbers, and some by the inspiration your heroes provide.

To begin the game, Strings of Fate tiles are placed on their matching spaces on the board, and each player receives one set of fifteen playing tiles. These tiles come in three varieties: Warriors, with a numerical value marking their strength, Leaders, with both a letter rank and a strength value, and Weavers who have no strength or rank, but instead manipulate the Strings of Fate. Each player will shuffle their tiles face down in front of them.

The first player flips over one of their tiles, and places it on any available space. If it’s a Weaver, its effect immediately comes into play: the Warp Weaver may swap two adjacent Strings of Fate, whilst the Weft Weaver simply splits all strings it’s connected to. After the first turn, each player flips and plays two tiles on their turns.

Once all the tiles have been placed, each string is resolved: each Strength String is won by the player with the highest combined strength contained within it; each Leadership String is won by the player with the single highest ranked tile within the string; and Force Strings are won by the player with the most tiles, including Weavers, in the string. Players claim all the tiles from Strings of Fate they have won, and the player with the most tiles at the end wins.
 

“Just as water retains no constant shape, in warfare there are no constant conditions.” –Sun Tzu

Weapons clash, water splashes and the booming battle cries of armored bullfrogs ring out across the moonlit swamp. Amphibian armies leap from lily pad to lily pad in their desperate struggle to win control of the pond.

Suddenly, a shout of triumph rises up. Enough warriors have finally entered battle on a lily pad to dominate the fight and assure victory for their side. Overloaded, the lily pad sinks into the swamp.

Frogs scatter from the sinking lily pad to the surrounding ones, coming to aid their allies or sabotage their foes, their weight causing the lily pads to drift away across the cold, glittering water. The winning commander must understand the ripple effects of every move, and avoid acting to win a single battle at the cost of losing the war.

•••

In Bullfrogs, 2-4 players ages 8+ take control of warring factions of frogs and fight over lily pads in a pond over the course of 20-40 minutes.

This latest version of Bin'Fa: The Tao of War has many changes from those familiar with its previous incarnations (Hexagony, Bin'Fa), such as the addition of the General; Vortexes that allow you to traverse the board in one move, appearing where east expected; rule changes governing the gathering of supplies, and the separation of the original hexagon shaped game board into six separate game board sections which offer almost limitless possibilities for new terrain each game.

In Bin-Fa, armies move over a landscape that is different each game. A player controls at least one but can control up to three armies per game. You can use the board sections to create inlets, peninsulas, isthmuses, lakes, and more. Adding vortex and terrain markers allows you even more control over the layout of the game board and how it will be traversed. Your ability to take advantage of the layout of the battlefield is crucial to victory and defeat.

Each army is made up of 12 Army Units, one General, and one Supply Pawn. At the start of your turn, you must decide if you are going for supplies or moving your army. On taking possession of the dice: first see if any of your Army Units are in danger and if so, respond defensively; second, see if any of your opponent's Army Units are vulnerable and, if possible, attack; third, if neither of these choices applies, go for supplies. Sun Tzu says: "Do not move without considering all the possibilities. Move always with a clear purpose."

The rules for movement of your army allow you to simulate many strategies from the ancient battlefield. Even “cavalry charges” are possible—where a unit dashes across the board to attack an enemy position. Your mission is to surround and eliminate enemy Army Units until only your Army is left, leaving you the victor.
Deals and alliances can be made in the open or in secret. But only one commander can emerge victorious: knowing when and with whom to form alliances and when to break them can sometimes determine who wins and who loses.

In Cubu, each player starts with a hand of seven cards, with each card showing a combination of different-colored boxes and a number, or a special action. Each turn you can either play an action card by giving it to another player, who must do what the action says, or play any number of Cubu cards, as long as they continue in the sequence begun. Sequences grow by color or location, and progress either up or down – but must go in the same direction in a single turn. Box number is determined by counting from the inside out. The first player to empty his hand wins the round and scores points for each card left in opponents' hands: 5 points per Cubu card, and 10 points per action card. The first player to reach 100 points wins.

Description from the publisher:

Run fast, score big! Android: Mainframe is a fast-paced strategy game set in the not-too-distant future of the Android universe!

In the game, you and up to three opponents are elite cybercriminals known as runners who are competing for control of a vulnerable bank's various accounts. At the beginning of the game, you mark your arrival by the placement of your first access point. Then, each turn, you get to take a single action: establish another access point, execute a program, or pass. Your goal is to use the programs at your disposal to secure your access points so that they control as many of Titan's vulnerable accounts as possible.

Most of the generic programs write pathways between Titan's various nodes, allowing you to place a blue partition between the nodes on the board. Whenever your partitions seal off a section of the board containing only your access point or access points, they are "secured" and flipped face down. They are no longer vulnerable to your opponents' programs, and you will score the accounts they control at the end of the game.

Android: Mainframe differs from its predecessor Bauhaus in a number of ways, such as each player having a hand of cards and the game including six runners who each have five distinctive programs.