Dice

The heron flies over the Himeji sky while the Daimio, from the top of the castle, watches his servants move. Gardeners tend the pond, where the koi carp live, warriors stand guard on the walls, and courtiers crowd the gates, pining for an audience that brings them closer to the innermost circles of the court. When night falls, the lanterns are lit and the workers return to their clan.

In The White Castle, players will control one of these clans in order to score more victory points than the rest. To do so, they must amass influence in the court, manage resources boldly, and place their workers in the right place at the right time. The authors are Sheila Santos and Israel Cendrero, the duo known as Llama Dice who also designed the successful The Red Cathedral with Devir. In this case, we leave the Moscow of Ivan the Terrible behind to explore the most imposing fortress in modern Japan, Himeji Castle, where the banner of the Sakai clan flies under the orders of Daimio Sakai Tadakiyo.

The White Castle is a Euro type game with mechanics of resource management, worker placement and dice placement to carry out actions. During the game, over three rounds, players will send members of their clan to tend the gardens, defend the castle or progress up the social ladder of the nobility. At the end of the match, these will award players victory points in a variety of ways.

The central panel shows Himeji Castle in all its splendor, divided into several zones. The largest is inside the castle, with the Room of the Thousand Carpets, where the courtiers must ascend socially until they reach the circle closest to the Daimio to enjoy his favor. There is also the pond and the gardens, patiently tended by the gardeners where everyone can relax and contemplate its beauty without restriction. Another important area is the wall and the outside of the castle, where the warriors patrol and stand guard. Finally, we find the area of the three bridges, where the three types of dice that can be used to carry out actions are accumulated, and the personal domain of each player, where they will keep track of their resources and where they will have the reserve of workers.

With accessible rules and a very careful setting, The White Castle is a very versatile title that will fit in with different gaming groups. As is tradition with Llama Dice titles, its sleek and simple design belies a great deal of strategic depth within the grasp of players.

—description from the publisher

What The Cup!? is a game of luck and lies where you must do whatever it takes to end up with the highest or lowest value die.

Sabotage your opponents by changing the winning target, or follow card directives to spy, swap, re-roll, or reveal dice.

Bet your chips to raise the stakes and bluff your way to victory. Does your cup hold the winner?

In What The Cup!?, Each player shakes their cup with d12, peeking at the die value. Play starts with drawing a card from the pile - the player can take the action on the card (Spy, Swap, Re-roll, Reveal) or choose to flip the High/Low token.

Play continues around the table until the end-round card appears from the draw pile - the player with either the highest or lowest dice value (based on the token) wins the round!

The die don’t lie... but YOU can try!

–description from publisher

We’ve brought dinosaurs back to life, but who will care for these magnificent and dangerous beasts?

You are paleo-veterinarians, competing to save as many dinos as possible from modern illnesses and injuries. Roll dice, upgrade your hospital, and compete with fellow paleo-veterinarians to treat injured and sick dinosaurs. As long as the dinosaurs don’t wake up during treatment, nothing can go wrong…

In Paleovet, players take turns drafting dinosaur cards from a central river, rolling dice, and spending dice icons for various effects, most notably curing sick and injured dinosaurs. Each dinosaur card lists which icons are needed to cure it, and effect, victory points, its genetic order, and diet.
Dinosaur effects can occur when the dinosaur appears in the center of the table when it is added to your hospital, or while it remains in your hospital. These effects can change gameplay in a variety of ways.

On your turn, you’ll follow a series of steps:

1. Remove a sleep token from each dinosaur in your hospital.
2. If you have fewer than four dinosaur cards in your hospital, select a dinosaur card from the five cards showing in the center of the table. Move it into your hospital.
3. Roll your dice. You begin with three basic dice and can purchase specialty dice later. The dice faces show the three treatments needed to cure dinosaurs, a tranquilizer dart, and a wild icon.
4. You may now spend dice and wild tokens to:
a. Cure dinosaurs by matching the treatment icons on the dice to the treatments listed on the dinosaur card. Each dinosaur requires between 1 and 5 treatments to complete
b. Buy additional dice by spending three matching dice icons
c. Buy a one-use wild token by spending two matching dice icons
d. Buy an upgrade card that provides a permanent beneficial effect by spending two matching icons
e. Spend a tranquilizer dart icon to move an additional dinosaur into your hospital (if you have less than 4 in your hospital already)
5. Any dinosaurs that are not cured and have no sleep tokens on them at the end of your turn wake. When this happens, discard the dinosaur card. If it was a carnivore, you must also discard another dinosaur card in your hospital (if you have any).
6. Any dinosaurs that were cured during your turn are moved into a victory pile. You’ve now scored the points listed on that dinosaur card.

Play continues until one of the card piles in the center of the table is empty. The round is completed, then all players total the points on their cured dinosaurs. The player with the highest score wins.

-description from designer

Lots of busy bees, flying from one flower to the next, in search of nectar to make their delicious honey. In the game Honey, nectar drops are distributed to different flowers; more precisely, the drops are dropped in a tube under each flower. Players have to remember which flower has how much nectar to be able to collect a lot. But even if they are not sure, every time nectar is dropped into a tube they can hear if a drop of nectar falls into an empty tube, or onto few or many other drops, thus giving them an audio clue to lucrative flowers. In a second step they move from flower to flower, collect the drops and try to fill their personal honey jar first, to win the game.

A clever mix of mechanisms and a beautiful 3D set-up, plus audio clues mitigating the memory factor and giving equal chances to kids and their older siblings or parents – all of this makes Honey not only sweet but delicious.

—description from the publisher

Call to Adventure: Stormlight is a 120-card standalone game containing everything you need to play. Based on the works of Brandon Sanderson, this expansion, and others to follow, add new challenges, new destinies, and new paths to follow.

Call to Adventure is a hero-crafting game that combines strategy and storytelling. It's similar to some "tableau-building" games in which you're creating a kingdom or civilization, but in this game you're building a character. Each player begins with cards that define your hero's origin, motivation, and destiny. Over the course of the game, you overcome challenges and gain traits. It's a game with points and a clear winner, but the highlight of every game is telling your hero's story at the end.