Auction/Bidding

Game description from the publisher:

Welcome to Saqqara (Egypt), the date is about 2125 BC, just before the Heracleopolis revolt.

Set in ancient Egypt in a time of chaos and revolts, Saqqara is a game with lots of bluffing, speculation and development for 3-5 players. The players assume the role of monarch in ancient Egypt and attempt to influence the country's government and economy. They send merchants to the market to collect goods to develop their province, recruit workers to build pyramids, and claim fertile land on the banks of the Nile. The player who succeeds in developing his province best by cunningly making use of the privileges of the pyramids and claiming a large area on the banks of the Nile wins the game and becomes Egypt's new leader.

Watch out for beggars, thieves and sneaky bluffing monarchs from other provinces. They want the same as you: power over Egypt.

Liberté covers the French Revolution from 1789 and the meeting of the Estates General to the Directory and Bonaparte’s coup d’état in 1799.
The game is played in four turns. In each turn there will be a variable number of rounds, followed by an election to see which faction becomes the government. There are three factions, the Radicals (red), the Moderates (blue), and the Royalists (white). The most common action is for a player to place faction blocks on the board. He shows he controls these blocks by placing one of his tokens on top of the stack.

The cards are divided into two sets, set 'A' and 'B'. The 'A' deck is used first and tends to favor the moderates and Royalists. Once this deck has been exhausted the 'B' deck comes into play, which tends to favor the radicals.

The election is triggered when all of one type of faction block has been exhausted. The faction blocks will determine which faction forms the next government. Players are attempting to score victory points by having the most influence in the government and opposition. Points can also be picked up in later turns for being the general in charge at a victorious battle, and for winning elections in specific provinces.

Normally the player with the most victory points will win. However, there are two sudden death game end conditions that may alter the outcome. The first is a radical electoral landslide, triggered by the red faction gaining 17 or more votes. The second is successful Royalist counter-revolution, precipitated by Royalist control of seven counter-revolutionary provinces. In both cases, victory is determined by a different set of criteria, in which accrued victory points do not count. The player who is ahead on points must be aware that one mistake could lead to defeat at the hands of the Jacobins or Royalists!

It is likely that you will never have played a game quite like this one and you may find yourself wondering what strategies to employ. Do not despair! Once you have completed your first game you will realize that amongst the apparent chaos of the game of the game there are many opportunities for long-term planning.

Liberté is #6 in the Valley Games Classic Line

The Speicherstadt is an auction card game. Players compete for victory points, which come mainly from contracts (sets of resources) and special cards (like a collected set of 1-4 identical "counting offices", the port rewarding collected ship cards etc.). The game is build on two core concepts:

1. Players bid for cards by building "towers" with their meeples over them. Each meeple in a tower increases the cost of a card - but only for players "below" it. This is the main mechanic of the game - players must consider WHEN to bid (place their meeple) over a certain card and when to use their meeples to make others pay more. This important, because a player can make only three bids during a round.

2. Players are punished by negative points for not collecting firemen cards. Thus, ignoring security may cost a player a victory. By many players, the "punishing" mechanic is considered a trademark of the author - Stefan Feld.

The deck is divided into four seasons - winter, spring, summer and autumn. In later seasons, more powerful cards appear, so players need to think ahead in managing their resources.

---- Promotional blurb from the publisher ----

Hamburg around 1900 - the gate to the world. Within the harbour there stretches a unique complex of storehouses: Speicherstadt. The network of canals and bridges houses a terminal for spices, coffee, tea and carpets from all over the world.

As one of Hamburg´s wholesaler at the heyday of the Speicherstadt you acquire shiploads for the storehouses, not too expensive, of course, as you like to make a profit selling them. Who makes the best deals within a year and supplies his clients with the right goods will be the winner of the game. But beware! Sudden fires cause heavy losses. You might be advised to invest in fire protection early.

Playing Speicherstadt you will be thrilled by the simple and original mechanism of acquiring desired action cards.

In the middle of the 1930s, an expedition of treasure hunters crashes its zeppelin in the middle of an unknown and mysterious island where legends tell that several old and powerful civilizations have left many sumptuous treasures.

Each player is one of these brave explorers who joined the expedition with old maps giving clues on where some of these treasures can be found. However, it is clear that the land is barely known and dangerous, so, all explorers decide to travel together, in one solid group by hiring beasts of burden and exotic items in the native villages while trying to avoid the many dangers of the inhospitable land of Isla Dorada...

Which one of these brave explorers will find the most valuable treasures, avoid the numerous curses and accomplish it's rewarding destiny?

In Isla Dorada, players will have to move an unique pawn portraying the expedition of explorers. Each player will collect cards of different kinds (movements, actions, destinations, curses, destinies, bonus or malus cards) and will have to build the best hands turn after turn (time is limited to a certain number of game turns) to be able to chose the expedition destinations in a succession of bids and negotiations. Doing so, the players will try to put their hands on treasures while avoiding their cursed destinations and trying to block other player's objectives.

The very easy rules can be learned in a few minutes whilst the rich and elegant game play assure an always renewed experience.

This game of tactics, strategy and confrontation is set in a fantasy world after the Great Depression. Each player runs a company of special agents, and their agents become teams in threes. The aim of the game is transporting the crystals and leftover artifacts (guns and transporting means!) from the mine to your own campsite and from the campsite to your home. The transport will succeed only if the team is strong and fast enough, and if you can use the transporting capacity of your men optimally. However, nobody is left alone with their problems. The competition and the robbers ensure interaction and surprises…

The basic game consists of 5 rounds. Players try gaining crystals and artifacts from the central mining project (bidding for the best bunch of crystals), then in the tactically most important phase they choose their 3-card "teams" to take actions in order of their speed. On your turn you can go to the mine to take crystals to your camp; you can attack others' camps for crystals and you can transport your crystals home or to the bank from your camp. You can also collect or use the artifacts found: they can help in increasing your transporting capacity or battle power, but if you don't use them they can mean lots of points in the end of the game. At the end of the game, whoever has the most points (from crystals and artifacts at home and points from the bank) wins.

Krysis website and rules