Area-Impulse

Mid-East Peace is one of those great games where luck really doesn't play a part, once initial country selection is made. The game is set during the pressure cooker situation of the early 90's and the tension of the game certainly reflects this. Players out-maneuver and out-bluff one another so as to gain the riches of the region, while making sure they spend enough of the "oil/money" to ensure the safety of their state. The tension is kept up by secret deployment of forces and the continual angst of balancing resource spending with the saving necessary to come off the winner. It is, usually, the richest player, the one who has probably spent least on 'defense' throughout the game that will come off the victor. But, the twist is that the game can end in war or peace, and there are different victory conditions depending on which of the two outcomes it ends in. A very hard balance to maintain.

In Helios, players are high priests in a distant world of the sun god AHAU, and the power of the sun drives everything in the game as players try to build temples, expand cities, and make their civilization flourish.

Development can succeed, though, only if you've secured a supply of the limited raw materials available, and the more that you've built of your temple, the more expensive the remaining parts will be. Glass manastones are the game's currency, and with them you can acquire people, increase the number of points you'll score, and more.

The first expansion for Twilight Imperium (Third Edition) features four new races that are unseen in previous editions, more balanced Strategy cards, more belligerent Objective cards, several new surprises for neutral planets, two more sets of plastic units, rules (with more than a dozen new optional variants), and enough additional systems for a fourth ring around Mecatol Rex. Now its 3-8 players. If you played TI3 and had some ideas for potential improvements, they are probably incorporated in Shattered Empire.