American West

The Lewis and Clark Expedition, which was commissioned in 1803 and ended in 1806, was the first party of men that went through the North American continent, then returned. During these three years, the leaders Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, along with Sergeant Gass and Sergeant Ordway, wrote page after page about their trip, describing the new plants and animals species they discovered and drawing the maps of unknown areas.

In Discoveries, you play one of the Expedition members: Lewis, Clark, Gass or Ordway. Your goal is to compile as much knowledge as possible in your journal, and in this way advance science thanks to your discoveries.

The Tribe/Discoveries cards you gain during the game score discovery points at the end. To get these cards, you have to perform exploration actions, and to do this you use dice. On your turn, you either:

Play the dice in your action area or on the game board; by doing this, you prepare or perform the exploration, change your dice, or get new possible actions.
Get dice back from the game board or from your opponents' action areas.

In Western Town, each player is a Marshal of an expanding town in the Old West of the U.S. in the early 1860s. Each Marshal wants to develop the most prosperous town, one that President Lincoln himself would be proud to visit.

The three principal criteria that allow you to win the game are population growth, charm/attractiveness, and wealth, as measured by gold. Turns are regulated by the visits of Lincoln, who determines, bit-by-bit, the value of the towns relative to those three criteria. These criteria can and do change every round, and you will need to adapt to these changing criteria to win this game!

Each player has his own board on which he will be building his town. Every building gives him different, and increasing, rights and abilities, and therefore power. The bigger your town gets, the better – but managing too much growth is challenging, so you'll need to make difficult choices at the beginning of each round as to which buildings you'll bring into play.

This "building-adding" mechanism helps players stay in the game and not get lost in the overwhelming number of choices available. Of 22 different buildings, six of them are identified every round as "bonus" buildings, and players are forced to adapt varying strategies and test new combinations of these buildings for their town as the game progresses.

In addition to logic and strategy, Marshals will need to bluff and occasionally resort to questionably bending the law a bit, to succeed in building their Western Town. And as if that weren't enough, there are even occasional Indian attacks to deal with as well!

Gambling your fortunes in the Old West for 3 to 6 players.

In Austin Poker, you will be playing four hands of five-card stud poker simultaneously out of your own deck of cards. Your initial draw is 11 cards. Out of these cards, you will choose your four hole cards and place them face down on your player mat. You will then choose your first show card for each hand and place them face down on the hole cards, leaving you with a hand of three. Each hand's show card is revealed and bid on separately. After all hands have been bid upon, players draw one card for each hand they have not folded. The next show cards are placed with their respective hands, face down. This play continues until all hands have been played to five cards. The winners receive the pots. Then, all players have the opportunity to purchase Bonus cards in the order they finished the poker phase. The bonus cards count toward the victory points required to win the game, as well as having abilities that help you on subsequent turns. At the tend of each turn, the money spent buying Bonus cards is divided equally among all of the players and the next turn begins.

Carson City is a strategic game played in four rounds, and in each one of them, the players choose a character from the seven available that gives certain advantages.

After selecting characters, your cowboys are placed on action track locations that allow you to construct buildings, houses, or roads; claim ground; earn money; or score victory points. When more than one player is on the same location, get ready, it is time for a duel! Roll the dice and see if you are the last one standing and lay claim to the goods!

During the game, you can take various actions that earn you victory points for your plots, pistols (the hired help), and buildings. At the end of the game, your buildings, houses, mountains, and money contribute to your victory points, and the person with the most points wins. So go round up your posse of gunslingers and get ready for some Wild West action in Carson City!

THE COWBOYS is our game of the Old West. 2 - 10 Cowboys (players) shoot it out in 10 - 60+ minutes. The game features stand-up Cowboy Counters artistically designed with full color artwork by Gary S. Zaboly. There are 26 Historical and Hollywood style scenarios in the game. Six double-sided geomorphic mapboards create the battlegrounds of the Old West.

The game rules allow you to pick up and play the game in minutes. The optional rules add chrome but still keeps the game very playable. The "Old West" personalities are there; Wyatt, Doc, Jesse, Billy, and many other legends of the Wild West. Some of the variables include town folk,horses, etc.

Bank robberies, cattle rustling, stagecoach holdups, jail breaks, lynch mobs, and many other western actions are depicted. It pits opposing sides against each other, bringing to life the daring and dastardly deeds of heroes and villains when the way of the gun ruled the day. Included are the lawmen, gunfighters, gamblers, and ne'er do wells who knew how to handle themselves during a gunfight. Also the town folk will show up to add a much needed gun to the fight.

Every person has dreamed of being the cowboy standing in the middle of street, alone, staring down your enemy, fingers twitching by the side of your gun belt, looking for the flinch in your adversaries face that will unleash blazing steel from your side...now is your chance...but watch your back!

Game includes hard mounted geomorphic map boards, counters, stand-up cowboy counters, plastic bases, dice, box, rules, scenario book, cards, and other game play materials.