Area Control / Area Influence

In the late Middle Ages, the Canary Islands had faded into obscurity from a European point of view. There was neither gold nor silver, and the islands did not play a role as a trading post because the north-south trade of that time went through the Sahara.

In 1312, the Genoese merchant and seafarer Lancelotto Malocello effectively "rediscovered" the Canary Islands. During the 15th century, the archipelago was conquered by the Spanish. Spanish masters pushed agriculture, cultivating sugar cane, wine and grain, which quickly gave the islands a certain economic value and importance.

In West of Africa, the players cultivate goods, try to sell them profitably, and build settlements. Each player has their own deck of cards. Each turn the players select cards from their decks to conduct successful actions, always keeping the actions of the other players in mind.

City of Gears is a unique steampunk game of exploration, area control, worker placement, and engine building. From your incredible Factory, you must race to claim ownership over the magnificent ruins of an abandoned clockwork metropolis. Each game plays in under an hour, and because only nine of the city tiles (from dozens available) are randomly chosen and placed each game, no two games ever play the same.

Each turn, you roll a number of production dice and activate City Tiles, then you move your automaton workers and perform a variety of actions (such as drawing and placing gears to reactivate areas of the city, sabotaging opponents, and activating unique steam powers) as determined by your resources. Along the way, you will develop your Factory with special powers which set it apart and provide you with powerful bonuses.

As the city is revealed and its abilities are discovered, players must concoct plans to accrue prestige and hinder opponents so that once Opening Day arrives, they will emerge victorious! Do you have what it takes to set the City of Gears in motion?

Daring sailors explore the oceans and make a gigantic discovery: Newfoundland. The newly found land. A huge island off the coast of North America — and right away a competition among nations breaks out. As so often happens, everyone wants the biggest piece of land. In Race to the New Found Land, you must skillfully use your fleet to consistently present achievements to your royal house. Are you quick to set sail and populate the first known lands? Do you first explore new areas? Or do you trade and build your fleet first? Find out in this exciting race to Newfoundland!

Based on iconic seasonal flowers found in Japan, Kuzushi Seasons pits 2, 3 or 4 players against each other in a unique game of positional influence and control. Simple rules lead to beautiful complexities in this abstract area control tile placement card game. It's smart, fun, approachable and addictive.

Card placement and area control is all resolved orthogonally to other cards. So up, down, left and right only. Players try to control more of the board through influence from the base cards they play on each turn. Then they check up, down, left and right of the base they place to see what player (if any) has a majority of base cards around it. If no one has more bases than anyone else around it, that square is uncontrolled, and any flag there is returned to its owner, which they can again either as a base or a flag as required.

This makes for a dynamic board that gets built out into a square as play continues (6x6 for 2 players, 7x7 for 3 players, or 8x8 for 4 players). Once the boundaries are established, play continues until all the board is filled. The winner is the player who has the most cards of their color on the board. If there's a tie, the player with the largest "island" of their color cards touching is the winner.

—description of the publisher

In Endeavor: Age of Sail, players strive to earn glory for their empires. Sailing out from Europe and the Mediterranean, players will establish shipping routes and occupy cities the world over. As they do so, players will leverage their growing industry, culture, finance, and Influence, building their engine and extending their reach into the far-flung regions of the world.

In this second edition, players will experience:

Double-sided board to accommodate different player counts
Variable starting set ups with new buildings
Exploits to enhance the mechanisms and story of the different regions
Updated visuals by the original artist and graphic designer, Josh Cappel

—description from the publisher