Civilization

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.

In many ways 7 Wonders: Duel resembles its parent game 7 Wonders as over three ages players acquire cards that provide resources or advance their military or scientific development in order to develop a civilization and complete wonders.

What's different about 7 Wonders: Duel is that, as the title suggests, the game is solely for two players, with the players not drafting card simultaneously from hands of cards, but from a display of face-down and face-up cards arranged at the start of a round. A player can take a card only if it's not covered by any others, so timing comes into play as well as bonus moves that allow you to take a second card immediately. As in the original game, each card that you acquire can be built, discarded for three coins, or used to construct a wonder.

Each player starts with four wonder cards, and the construction of a wonder provides its owner with a special ability. Only seven wonders can be built, though, so one player will end up short.

Players can purchase resources at any time from the bank, or they can gain cards during the game that provide them with resources for future building; as you acquire resources, the cost for those particular resources increases for your opponent, representing your dominance in this area.

A player can win 7 Wonders: Duel in one of three ways. Each time that you acquire a military card, you advance the military marker toward your opponent's capital, giving you a bonus at certain positions. If you reach the opponent's capital, you win the game immediately. Similarly, if you acquire any six of seven different scientific symbols, you achieve scientific dominance and win immediately. If neither of these situations occurs, then the player with the most points at the end of the game wins.

This light strategy game is divided into two Epochs, ancient and modern. At the start, the board consists of only five areas (the Mediterranean, Africa, Middle East, India and China), after all areas have been evaluated, four more territories become accessible (Russia, Europe, Southeast Asia, America).

Players choose historical "Heroes" such as Julius Cesar, Nebuchadnezzar, Lao-Tse, Shakespeare or Mozart and use their special abilities; the first is to grow the population in one or more of the nine areas of the map (depending on the hero, only certain areas of the map can be used). The second action is to randomly draw cultural advancement tokens and place them on the map. The third action allows the players to attack other players' pieces, and the fourth action is taking money.

With money, "wonders of the world", such as the Hanging Gardens, the Great Wall etc., can be purchased, and migrations of peoples are possible.

Victory points are awarded for building civilization tokens; after three (or four, depending on the territory) placements, the player with the most pieces gets additional points, the player with second most armies half of that, while the third player only gets victory points equal to the lowest token.

Humanity has been at each other's throats since time immemorial. Now in another galaxy humans wage war amongst themselves again but this time with the aid of alien technology found on other planets. Ascending Empires offers a nice mixture of building exploring and development along with combat via a simple dexterity element. Ascending Empires is sure to sate the desire for a space empire building game that plays simply yet deeply.

The last survivors of the Human race have fled to a new galaxy in fear of annihilation at the hands of an unstoppable enemy. Now, having discovered the ruins of four long dead civilizations spread across the stars, the race to develop technology based on the alien relics has begun. Humans will once again ascend to the stars to claim the galaxy.

Players will colonize new worlds by building colonies, cities, and research facilities. They will develop new Technologies, and build up fleets of Starships. Ascending Empires is a fast paced game that utilizes a dexterity based Starship movement and combat system, and allows for many different strategies to be explored.

From the SimplyFun website:

Exclusively Created for SimplyFun

Welcome to the unsettled Island of Catan. Using combinations of resources - wood, brick, wheat, wool and ore - players build, barter and trade in this family strategy game. The faster you build roads, settlements and cities, the more points you earn towards victory. Clever trading, lively negotiation, and the luck of the dice add to everyone's fun and enjoyment. Once you start playing you won't want to stop.

Simply Catan is based on the international, award winning classic game Settlers of Catan, which has sold over 12 million copies worldwide. Designed for beginning players, Simply Catan takes less than 5 minutes to set up and 30 minutes to play.

Also includes advanced play rules with variable game board and development cards.

Belongs to the Catan Series.