Abstract Strategy

This expansion to the The Duke core game, adds a little literary flair, while also changing the winning conditions of the game. It introduces seven characters taken from the Musketeers literary universe.

1. D’Artagnon
2. Aramis
3. Porthos
4. Athos
5. Richlieu
6. Rochefort
7. De Winter

This expansion does make some modifications to the starting tile set, changes the way in which new tiles are deployed while using the expansion, and the tiles that opposing sides start the game with.

When using The Duke: Musketeers Expansion you replace the following tiles in the core game:

D’Artagnon = Light Stained Duke
Aramis = Light Stained Wizard
Porthos = Light Stained Assassin
Athos = Light Stained Duchess
Richlieu = Dark Stained Duke
Rochefort = Dark Stained Wizard
De Winter = Dark Stained Duchess

The rulebook for provides the new set of winning conditions, as given below.

1. To win the musketeer player must capture Richlieu.

2. To win the Richlieu player must capture all musketeers currently on the board.

Levy. Maneuver. Conquer.

The Duke is a dynamic, tile-based strategy game with an old-world, feudal theme, high-quality wooden playing pieces, and an innovative game mechanism in its double-sided tiles. Each side represents a different posture – often considered to be defensive or offensive – and demonstrates exactly what the piece can do within the turn. At the end of a move (or after the use of a special ability), the tile is flipped to its other side, displaying a new offensive or defensive posture.

Each posture conveys different options for maneuver and attack. The full circle is a standard Move, the hollow circle the Jump, the arrow provides for the Slide, the star a special Strike ability and so on. Each turn a player may select any tile to maneuver, attempting to defend his own troops while positioning himself to capture his opponent's tiles. If you end your movement in a square occupied by an opponent's tile, you capture that tile. Capture your opponent's Duke to win!

Players start the game by placing their Duke in one of the two middle squares on their side of the game board. Two Footman are then placed next to the Duke. Each turn a player may choose to either move a single tile or randomly draw a new tile from the bag. With twelve different Troop Tiles, all double-sided, and sixteen total pieces for each player, the variety of game play is limitless.

Beyond the endless variety of the basic game, Terrain Tiles introduce a variety of game play options, altering the game board. These rules also include several alternate objectives, such as the challenging Dark Rider game which pits five Pikeman against a lone Knight.

The king has died with no clear successor! The players—potential heirs all—are scrambling to put together their power bases by dispatching trusted agents and allies to garner support across the breadth of the kingdom. Nobody wants open warfare, but some conflict is sure to break out.

Fealty is a game of positioning and territory control. Each turn, all players add one piece to the game board, with increasing constraints on placement as time goes on. Some pieces have an effect when brought into play. At the end of the game, all pieces place influence in order of speed, claiming territory and blocking slower opposing pieces. The player who has maneuvered his or her pieces to place the most influence onto the board wins.

Game description from the publisher:

In Maharani, the players are architects helping the King to complete the Taj Mahal palace by placing beautiful mosaic tiles. These tiles come into play through a rotating rondel, which enables every player to place the tiles in different parts of the palace. Once the mosaic is complete, the best architect wins the game.

Welcome to Scotland, a country famous for its whisky, the Highlands, its castles, and, of course...its ghosts!

The Phantom Society is a ghost-hunting game in which you play as sly spirits seeking to ruin a manor hotel or, if you prefer, intrepid ectoplasm hunters who are a bit destructive around the edges but who also never falter in pursuit of their prey. For the ghosts, the goal is to inflict at least £45,000 of damage (in tribute to Special 45 – Old Faydhutee Single Malt) on the manor, whether it is inflicted by the ghosts or the hunters. The ghost hunters want to stop the ghosts before they achieve their objective.

The dual-level game board represents a manor floor composed of 36 rooms, with each room being a tile representing a value from £1,000 to £6,000; each of the four ghosts corresponds to a room type and will hide beneath a tile of this type, starting its devastation of the hotel by removing tiles adjacent to the one it's hidden beneath. The ghost hunters must try to determine where the ghosts are hiding based upon the tiles destroyed. While doing this, though, the ghost hunters will also remove tiles – thus destroying them and adding to the total damage – to see whether a ghost is hidden beneath.

The ghost hunters must think carefully and logically over which tiles to remove while the ghosts have to use cunning and psychology in order to cloud their investigation and remain concealed. Will the manor come through this madness intact?