Dice Rolling

In The Settlers of Catan, players try to be the dominant force on the island of Catan by building settlements, cities, and roads. On each turn dice are rolled to determine what resources the island produces. Players collect these resources (cards) - wood, grain, brick, sheep, or stone - to build up their civilizations to get to 10 victory points and win the game.

Setup includes randomly placing large hexagonal tiles (each showing a resource or the desert) in a honeycomb shape and surrounding them with water tiles, some of which contain ports of exchange. Number disks, which will correspond to die rolls (two 6-sided dice are used), are placed on each resource tile. Each player is given two settlements (think, houses) and roads (sticks) which are, in turn, placed on intersections and borders of the resource tiles. Players collect a hand of resource cards based on which hex tiles their last-placed house is adjacent to. A robber pawn is placed on the desert tile.

A turn consists of possibly playing a development card, rolling the dice, everyone (perhaps) collecting resource cards based on the roll and position of houses (or upgraded cities - think, hotels) unless a 7 is rolled, turning in resource cards (if possible and desired) for improvements, trading cards at a port, and trading resource cards with other players. If a 7 is rolled, the active player moves the robber to a new hex tile and steals resource cards from other players who have built structures adjacent to that tile.

Points are accumulated by building settlements and cities, having the longest road and the largest army (from some of the development cards), and gathering certain development cards that simply award victory points. When a player has gathered 10 points (some of which may be held in secret), he announces his total and claims the win.

The Settlers of Catan has won multiple awards and is one of the most popular games in recent history due to its amazing ability to appeal to experienced gamers as well as those new to the hobby.

Die Siedler von Catan was originally published by Kosmos and has gone through multiple editions. It was licensed by Mayfair and has undergone at least 4 editions as The Settlers of Catan. It has also been re-published in a travel edition by Kosmos and in yet another edition for Japan/Asia, Settlers of Catan: Rockman Edition.

The Settlers of Catan is the original game in the Catan Series.

Anno 1701: Das Kartenspiel is a cardgame by Klaus Teuber. Based on the principles of the Settlers of Catan Cardgame and the Anno 1701 computer game players are pioneers trying to develop their island as best as possible - starting out with only 2 houses. Victory points are won for controlling settlers and citizens.

Released: April 2007

This game is part of the Kosmos_two-player_series

A long time ago at the Japanese Imperial court, the Chinese Emperor offered a giant panda bear as a symbol of peace to the Japanese Emperor. Since then, the Japanese Emperor has entrusted his court members (the players) with the difficult task of caring for the animal by tending to his bamboo garden.

In Takenoko, the players will cultivate land plots, irrigate them, and grow one of the three species of bamboo (Green, Yellow, and Pink) with the help of the Imperial gardener to maintain this bamboo garden. They will have to bear with the immoderate hunger of this sacred animal for the juicy and tender bamboo. The player who manages his land plots best, growing the most bamboo while feeding the delicate appetite of the panda, will win the game.

In Atlantis Rising you are one of the citizens of the stricken island Atlantis. However, hope is not lost, a mystical portal of 10 components can be built and save the island and all its inhabitants, but fail to build it in time and the island will sink forever under the waves, lost to legend.

Atlantis Rising is a fully co-operative game in which the players must race to create a cosmic gate before all of the island tiles have been destroyed. The gate's components are variable and determine the difficulty level of the game - Easy, Normal, Hard, or Cosmic. The players must also contend with the continually escalating threat of their Athenian enemies, who may destroy one or more island tiles each turn if insufficient Atlanteans are allocated to the island's protection.

Each turn players can choose to place their Atlanteans in any of eight different areas - with placements closer to the sea being more rewarding, but subject to a higher risk of flooding (and the subsequent loss of the associated action).

After placement of meeple but before gaining resources 'misfortune' cards are drawn per player indicating which areas of the island sink, any meeple stood there have a long swim back to shore and do nothing for their turn.

Players have limited 'mystical energy' which they can use to predict or prevent certain misfortunes and cards are available from the libraries that offer powerful one time use effects.

From the back of the box:

Will you send your Atlanteans to mine the untapped veins of precious resources at the very tip of the island, hoping to reap great rewards before the oncoming waves smash into the shores? Or will you remain in the relative safety of the island’s center, where resources have grown scarce? Perhaps you will tap into the power of the mystic energy source - the lifeforce of Atlantis and key to its advanced technology. You may even seek refuge in the vast libraries of the Lost City, hoping to find some tome which will lead to salvation for the doomed isle. Beware though - even as the island sinks into the sea, the Athenians continue to assault Atlantis, hoping to plunder its riches before it disappears beneath the waves.

Merchant of Venus uses many elements which come together to form a very interesting game. Players take on the roles of space traders who move their ships through interconnected systems discovering new alien worlds to trade with. As players start to make money delivering commodities in a unique supply-and-demand system, their earnings can be used to purchase better ships and equipment (shields, lasers, engines, etc...) and construct their own spaceports (which speed up trading) and factories (which create better commodities). Variations included in the rulebook allow for interplayer combat. The player who first acquires enough total value ($1000, $2000, $3000, $4000) in cash and port/factory deeds takes the day.

For the 2012 edition of Merchant of Venus from Fantasy Flight Games, the company promises that this revision "remains true to its magnificently campy core while updating the map and game components and expanding game play in surprising ways that will cause even the most hardcore fan to celebrate." That said, the player count has been lowered from six (in the Avalon Hill edition) to four, with the four races in the game being Human, Whynom, Qossuth, and Eeepeeep.