Dice Rolling

Axis & Allies

Axis & Allies (2004) aka Axis & Allies Revised Edition is the first Avalon Hill version of the classic light weight war game Axis & Allies. The game simulates the entire scope of World War II.

The game is nominally designed for five players, representing the Allies: United States of America, United Kingdom and Russia vs. the Axis: Germany and Japan. However, it is most often played as a two-player game.

Axis & Allies features a simple dice-based combat system; a small number of types of naval, air and land units; territory control; and technology research to improve unit capabilities.

Major new features of Axis & Allies (2004) include new units (e.g. destroyers, artillery), revised unit capabilities (e.g. armor defend at 3, fighters cost 10 IPCs), directed technology research, and totally new victory conditions (key territories must be controlled to win the game).

Infiltration

It is the future, and beneath the flickering glow of the sprawling New Angeles skyline, immense corporations seek every advantage in the burgeoning field of synthetic humanoid technology. On the brink of a revolutionary innovation, CyberSolutions Inc. is poised to become the next global powerhouse, threatening the profits of well-established conglomerates Haas-Bioroid and Jinteki – but unfortunately for CyberSolutions, security at their New Angeles branch has just been compromised.

Set in the dystopian future of Android, Infiltration is a tense card game of futuristic larceny in which two to six players take the roles of thieves, competing to steal valuable secrets from a highly secured corporate facility.

The most vital information lies deep within the complex, but each step inward takes you farther from escape. Worse yet, corporate mercenaries are closing in! How long will you push your luck as you avoid security patrols, surpass rival thieves, and try to download the most data before the building is locked down?

Game description above from the publisher

The layout of the complex is different every game, choosing 6 of the possible 18 first floor cards, 6 of the 18 second floor cards, and 1 of the 3 secret room cards. These rooms are revealed to the players over the course of the game, usually by one of the players entering the room. The rooms contain traps, NPCs, valuable data and items, and even secret exits.

Each turn, players secretly choose actions they will take, then in turn reveal and resolve their actions. Advancing into the complex or retreating towards the exit, downloading valuable data, interfacing with the current room, or using an item are the actions available to players. After the players have had their turn, any active NPCs have a turn, then the proximity dial is increased. Once the dial reaches 99, or all players have left the complex, the game ends. The players who have escaped the complex add up the value of the data they have extracted; the highest value wins!

D-Day Dice

Normandy, June 6th, 1944 – as you land on the well-defended beaches, a German machine gun nest is killing your comrades like flies. You must do something!

In D-Day Dice, players are Allied soldiers trying to organize improvised units for an attack against the machine gun nest. Each player starts the game with a unit of a few soldiers and nothing else. As the game progresses, he will collect resources and advance on the beach, sector by sector, as his unit grows stronger and deadlier. He will succeed...or die trying.

D-Day Dice is a multiplayer co-op game, where all players play their turn simultaneously and must help each other in order to stay alive. It also includes solitaire optional rules. Although built around dice rolling, this game is about resource management (soldiers, specialists, items and courage) and knowing when to move your unit. Resources are kept from turn to turn, so the players can plan ahead.

Note: This listing is for the commercial version of D-Day Dice. To download and play the game now, go to D-Day Dice: Free Trial Version.

Sid Meier's Civilization: The Boardgame

This entry covers the 2002 release of Sid Meier´s Civilization: The Boardgame by Eagle Games. This game is unrelated to the similarly named 2010 FFG game Sid Meier's Civilization: The Board Game.

A boardgame version of the award-winning PC strategy game. Create a civilization to stand the test of time! The game begins in 4000 BC where the players found a pair of villages of a fledgling people.

Each player’s civilization :

Explores the world around them, discovering resources and the native people that defend them.
Expands by sending settlers out to create new cities.
Researches new technologies to gain advantages over the other players.
Builds unique “Wonders of the World”.
Increases the size of their cities (4 sizes from village to metropolis) to increase production.
Builds military units to defend what’s theirs, and to conquer what’s not.

Features:

2 sets of rules (standard, and advanced) allow anyone to play the game.
784 plastic pieces featuring 22 different, professionally sculpted playing pieces that represent cities, settlers, armies, navies, artillery, and air units from 4 different eras.
Over 100 full color Technology and Wonder cards.
A giant 46” x 36” gameboard featuring the artwork of Paul Niemeyer.

This game has been reimplemented in 2007 as Civilization CHR ("open source" project)

New Science

Players control one of the great scientists during the 17th century Scientific Revolution in Europe. Use your limited time and energy to make discoveries, test hypotheses, publish papers, correspond with other famous scientists, hire assistants into your laboratory and network with other people who can help your progress. Discoveries follow historical tech trees in the key sciences of the age: Astronomy, Mathematics, Physics, Biology and Chemistry. The scientist who accumulates the most prestige will be appointed the first President of the Royal Society.