Animals

In Great Western Trail: New Zealand, you are a runholder — that is, the owner of a sheep station — on the South Island of New Zealand at the end of the 19th century. Recent years have seen your family farm prosper by diversifying your breeds of sheep and by increasing the value of your wool.

With the dawn of the new century, new challenges have arisen. You must acquire new and improved breeds of sheep to ensure the prosperity of your family business and the laborers who work for you.

Introducing the best board game for little fans of Everdell, My Lil Everdell. Join Chip, Sweep, and the other kids of Everdell to build the most spectacular make-believe city anyone has ever built. This easy to learn worker-placement and tableau building game will provide family fun while getting the lil’ ones' brains a buzzin’, improving focus and enhancing young learner skills. Climb across the rope bridge, watch out for the dragon’s den, and join us in the fort for the latest addition to the award-winning Everdell line, My Lil Everdell.

—description from the publisher

Lots of busy bees, flying from one flower to the next, in search of nectar to make their delicious honey. In the game Honey, nectar drops are distributed to different flowers; more precisely, the drops are dropped in a tube under each flower. Players have to remember which flower has how much nectar to be able to collect a lot. But even if they are not sure, every time nectar is dropped into a tube they can hear if a drop of nectar falls into an empty tube, or onto few or many other drops, thus giving them an audio clue to lucrative flowers. In a second step they move from flower to flower, collect the drops and try to fill their personal honey jar first, to win the game.

A clever mix of mechanisms and a beautiful 3D set-up, plus audio clues mitigating the memory factor and giving equal chances to kids and their older siblings or parents – all of this makes Honey not only sweet but delicious.

—description from the publisher

It is the year 1347 AD, and a disaster is about to strike. The Black Death is approaching, and during the next few years, large parts of the population of Europe and Northern Africa will be killed by the plague.

In Rattus, the players settle in the various regions of Europe and Northern Africa, while the plague spreads through all these regions. The players gain help from the various professions of the middle ages. Some of these, like peasants and bakers, help the players grow their populations. Some, like the monks and nuns, use wisdom and faith to avoid the plague, while the warfare conducted by the knights and soldiers spreads the plague to new areas. However, the plague does not make any distinction. When the rats arrive, no one can feel safe. Finally, the plague withdraws and the game ends. Only then will it be clear who was able to keep their population alive — and win the game!

Rattus: Big Box includes not only several previous released expansions and promos, but also previous unpublished materials, modules, and bonus cards. More specifically, this renewed edition of the Rattus line contains all materials of the base game and the Pied Piper, Africanus, and Academicus expansions. Additional new content is included, and players can add the new "Guilds & Inns" and "Bonus" modules to create even more variety and challenge.

This edition also contains popular bonus cards like The Judge, The Jester, and Boccaccio, as well as all 27 level upgrade tiles.

—description from the publisher

Welcome to Encyclopedia! The year is 1739, and as aspiring naturalists and adventurers, you’ve been hired by the Comte de Buffon - Darwin's predecessor - to help him create the first encyclopedia of natural history. To do so, you’ll be conducting research, organizing ambitious expeditions and publishing studies of the world’s most fascinating creatures!

Encyclopedia is a dice-based worker placement game. At the beginning of each round, you’ll be drawing and rolling dice, then placing them on your player board. These dice can then be used to perform an action each turn, depending on their color and value. Your action can be preparing your expeditions by going to the Embassy, visiting the Bank to raise funds, or hiring your research team at the University. Once you’re ready to go, you’ll choose the Animal cards you wish to study, then organize expeditions to observe them in their natural habitats. When your research is complete, you’ll then be able to publish your findings in an attempt to become the biggest contributor to Buffon’s Encyclopedia. Every publication you make will earn you Victory points, and at the end of the game, you’ll score points based on collections of Animals and research amassed during play. The naturalist with the most points wins!

Encyclopedia was designed by Olivier Melison and Eric Dubus, the authors of Dominations: Road to Civilization and Museum. This expert worker placement game brings some fascinating new twists to the genre, offering multiple paths to victory. The game also offers a multitude of ways to counter the random element of your dice rolls. As well as being able to spend different tokens to change the value or color of a die, players have more than just their own dice to choose from, as other players dice can also be used! Taking a die from another player’s board does not cost anything, but the targeted player gains a bonus.

The game’s beautiful theme - with gorgeously illustrated animal cards - ties in strongly with its mechanics, making the rules easy to grasp so that you can jump straight in to devising the perfect strategy.

—description from the publisher