Auction / Bidding

In Assyria, players represent tribes living in Mesopotamia, trying to develop on the desert and a limted fertile area located between two rivers that divide the board. In their quest for power (points), players build Ziggurats (permanent outposts), wells, make sacrifices to gods and try to get along with nobles of Assur - the capital of Assyria. The game is a light-weight eurogame, built around the short-term rapid point gains vs long-term investments dilemma. General flow of play is as follows:

Phase 1: Players get resources for expansion and decide on play order

In this phase, players pick cards with resources that enable expansion on the board. In general he/she who gets most food, plays last. First player expands with least food.

Phase 2: Players expand on the board to earn points or money.

Players begin to form strings and/or clusters of huts and pay for placing them with their food cards. Depending on where huts are placed, they either score points or earn camels (money).

Phase 3: Players spend money/camels on various investments.

A player either goes for one-time bonuses from the nobles of Assur, or makes long-term investments by offerings to gods and building Ziggurats.

The game lasts for three eras, made up of 2-3 of such cycles. After each era comes the flood: the board is partially cleaned up, but players also capitalize on their investments from phase 3. Each round, players also score points for huts (those built on fertile land between the two rivers bring more points) and ziggurat tiles.

In comparison to other games from Ystari's series - Assyria is lighter than Caylus, Olympos, Ys or Sylla (in terms of complexity, available choices - represented by numerous tiles, cards, icons, cards etc. that need to be remembered and can be combined during play), but heavier than Yspahan, Mykerinos or Metropolis.

Another edition of the classic Monopoly game themed with characters and places from the Pokemon animated series. It includes a variant to replace the "doubles roll again" rule with "Pokemon Powers."

Ra is an auction and set-collection game with an Ancient Egyptian theme. Each turn players are able to purchase lots of tiles with their bidding tiles (suns). Once a player has used up his or her suns, the other players continue until they do likewise, which may set up a situation with a single uncontested player bidding on tiles before the end of the round occurs. Tension builds because the round may end before all players have had a chance to win their three lots for the epoch. The various tiles either give immediate points, prevent negative points for not having certain types at the end of the round (epoch), or give points after the final round. The game lasts for three "epochs" (rounds). The game offers a short learning curve, and experienced players find it both fast-moving and a quick play.

From the Box:
The game spans 1500 years of Egyptian history in less than an hour!
The players seek to expand their power and fame and there are many ways to accomplish this: Influencing Pharaohs, Building monuments, Farming on the Nile, Paying homage to the Gods, Advancing the technology and culture of the people. Ra is an auction and set collecting game where players may choose to take risks for great rewards or... And all this is for the glory of the Sun God Ra!

Extra! Extra! is all about completing the front and back pages of a newspaper, with a mixture of stories of different sizes. The larger the story, the better. Players score bonus points for stories in their speciality, extra material, interviews, and headlines.

In the game, players collect news in six newsworthy subjects: home, world, business, politics, sport, and leisure. To do this, they place their reporters on the news they want to publish, but they can be outbid by other newspaper owners with bigger wallets. Copy and photo cuttings can be obtained from "the morgue"; more reporters can be hired; and news sold to raise capital.

Whoever completes his front and back pages first receives a bonus — but will that player have enough Circulation Points to win?

In a galaxy far far away, there is a planetary system composed of a great big sun and nine minor planets, four of which have been developed as mercantile planets more or less under the control of politicians and guilds. On each of these planets are a merchant guild, a guild of smugglers, a bazaar and the galactic government, and players can take special actions on each of these planets.

In RYŪ, a game of negotiation, bluffing and cube-drafting, players each represent one of the other five planets in this star system, with each planet having a different type of humanoid – such as sharks, amazons and meka goblins – and its own unique influences. These planets are open to prospecting, and with the proper financing players will be able to dig the resources they need to build their own RYŪ, a mother ship composed of "Rare Metal", "Memory Stone", and "Amber Magic". Players will need to cooperate with one another to raise the necessary resources, but they must also work for themselves in order to maintain an advantage over other players. Once assembled, the RYŪ comes to life as a living spaceship, and its owner wins the game.

Probable update from game box on publisher website:

Several centuries ago, a celestial Leviathan cried on Titan, our planet. Its tears flooded our cities and our land. The people of the Dragons did their utmost to save as many of us as they could: Goblins, Shibuke, Reptilians, Sharks, and Amazons. The survivors of this deluge were brought to Dala, the highest mountain range of our celestial body, with its 9 majestic summits. Nine summits that soon became nine islands.