Auction/Bidding

Rex: Final Days of an Empire, a reimagined version of Dune set in Fantasy Flight's Twilight Imperium universe, is a board game of negotiation, betrayal, and warfare in which 3-6 players take control of great interstellar civilizations, competing for dominance of the galaxy's crumbling imperial city. Set 3,000 years before the events of Twilight Imperium, Rex tells the story of the last days of the Lazax empire, while presenting players with compelling asymmetrical racial abilities and exciting opportunities for diplomacy, deception, and tactical mastery.

In Rex: Final Days of an Empire, players vie for control of vital locations across a sprawling map of the continent-sized Mecatol City. Only by securing three key locations (or more, when allied with other factions) can a player assert dominance over the heart of a dying empire.

Unfortunately, mustering troops in the face of an ongoing Sol blockade is difficult at best (unless, of course, you are the Federation of Sol or its faithless ally, the Hacan, who supply the blockading fleet). Savvy leaders must gather support from the local populace, uncover hidden weapon caches, and acquire control over key institutions. Mechanically, this means players must lay claim to areas that provide influence, which is then "spent" to (among other things) smuggle military forces through the orbiting Sol blockade. Those forces will be needed to seize the key areas of the city required to win the game. From the moment the first shot is fired, players must aggressively seek the means by which to turn the conflict to their own advantage.

While the great races struggle for supremacy in the power vacuum of a dead emperor, massive Sol warships execute their devastating bombardments of the city below. Moving systematically, the Federation of Sol's fleet of warships wreaks havoc on the planet's surface, targeting great swaths of the game board with their destructive capabilities. Only the Sol's own ground forces have forewarning of the fleet's wrath; all others must seek shelter in the few locations with working defensive shields...or be obliterated in the resulting firestorm.

Although open diplomacy and back-door dealmaking can often mitigate the need for bloodshed, direct combat may prove inevitable. When two or more opposing forces occupy the same area, a battle results. Each player's military strength is based on the sum total of troops he is willing to expend, along with the strength rating of his chosen leader. A faction's leaders can therefore be vitally important in combat...but beware! One or more of your Leaders may secretly be in the employ of an enemy, and if your forces in combat are commanded by such a traitor, defeat is all but assured. So whether on the field of battle or the floor of the Galactic Council, be careful in whom you place your trust.

All this, along with a host of optional rules and additional variants, means that no two games of Rex: Final Days of an Empire will play exactly alike. Contributing further to replayability is the game's asymmetrical faction abilities, each of which offer a unique play experience.

Reimplements:

Dune

Boomtown is a game with auctions, dice, and some fun and nasty action cards to play on your fellow gold diggers.

There's gold in them thar hills!

In Boomtown, you start as a gold digger and try to end as a tycoon.

To do this, you must first buy the best mining concessions, hoping to find gold veins. You can also try to become the Mayor of Whiskey River or San Narciso, in order to get a small cut on concessions sales, or build a saloon where lucky prospectors will spend their nuggets in moonshine whiskey. If business is really bad, you can still rely on bank or stagecoach hold-ups to reestablish you. A well placed stick of dynamite can also solve some minor problems.

You finally have a new opponent for your Power Grid games: a robot that acts as an additional player. Thanks to his different actions and special abilities he is a strong opponent. You will manage the robot's "decisions" and can use him to act against the other opponent(s).

With this expansion, Power Grid is an exciting and fun experience for two (and more) players!

Power Grid: The Robots is designed especially for two players, but you can use a robot with up to five human players, too. You can even use more than one robot in a game.

The robot consists of five tiles, one tile with rules for each phase (except phase 1 »Determine Player Order« and phase 5 »bureaucracy«) plus a special ability, which the robot uses during the game.

With a total of 30 tiles - six different tiles for each phase - your Power Grid games will never be the same again!

Power Grid: The Robots FAQ has many Frequently Asked Questions which have appeared multiple times in the forum!

Players are attempting to be in first or second place majorities in a variety of categories throughout the game. These include commodity markets, trading colonies, and warehouses in Amsterdam.

On a player's turn, that player draws three cards and decides how to resolve them for the turn. A player can either remove the card from the game, keep it for him or herself, or put it up for auction. The cards allow players to advance or place one of their markers in the various categories.

There are also time-marker cards which, when drawn, move the game through various "historical" phases until the last which ends the game. The historical phases follow a period of time in the history of Amsterdam which can range from no effect, to scoring rounds for particular categories, to bonuses, and towards the end of the game to some penalties as wars begin to disrupt business markets.

The unique twist in the game is that the game comes with a spring-driven auction clock to perform the Dutch auctions throughout the game. You start the clock and it ticks down as all of the players hold their hands ready close by. The idea is that as time passes the cost of the card lowers and it is simply an issue of who will pay for it first by slapping down on the clock and thus stopping it at a certain price.

Three or four players try to gain the most influence by building palazzos in Venice. Influence is placed face-down into city sections. When all is placed, they are revealed in a predetermined order. Having the most influence in a section allows a player to build the most houses and also give control over the adviser for that section. The adviser can be placed somewhere else in the city and adds influence in a later vote. Houses can be traded for Palazzos, and the player with a Palazzo in every section wins the game.

Part of the Goldsieber large box series