Economic

WILD ANIMALOPOLY has all the fun of a traditional real estate trading game with some wild animal twists. Instead of buying property, players become Caretakers of animals. Instead of rent, players pay Meal Fees. A player collects 4 Elements - the land, water, food and clean air that all animals need to survive and trades them in for a Habitat where an animal can survive on its own. Flip over the Animal Certificates and you'll find several fun facts about each animal. Did you know a polar bear has coal-black skin? Or that a flamingo is pink because it eats shrimp? How about the fact that a giraffe hoof is the size of a large dinner plate? It's all fun and games until you land on HIDE FROM PREDATOR... then it's time to run to HIDING and you're out for 3 turns! So grab your token and advance to EXPLORE. Who knows? You may become the caretaker of a two ton rhino. Or you might get fleas! Whatever Happens... It's howling good fun! IT'S WILD!

Players in New England Rails each represent a particular state during the 19th century – Connecticut and New Hampshire with two players, with Vermont added for three players, and so on – and start with two or three businesses in play under their control. Your goal in NER is to have more assets than other players at game end, as determined by cash in hand, cost of businesses owned, special routes completed and state subsidies acquired.

The game lasts at most 16 rounds. Each round players forecast the upcoming economic condition – depression, normal or prosperity – for a future turn, then take care of any events that occur, such as "Improved Bridge Building Techniques" that allow players to build across estuaries or "Sheep Boom Goes Bust" which represents the decreased demand for wool from New England farmers as the century progressed. Four of the first five events are fixed and represent historical activities, while the other events – including devastating floods, snow, and an improved business climate – are randomized into a face-down deck. Players then each draft a business or action card, with the option to play it immediately (thereby gaining a free action) if they choose to pay the cost.

During the subsequent development phase, players take two actions in turn order, either building twice, playing cards twice, or doing each action once. Players want to build depots that connect their businesses to one of the major markets in the area: New York, Boston or Montreal; to do so, they need to pay the track costs as well as the cost of the depots themselves. Players can build multiple depots in the same action, but the cost is higher since they're doing more work in the same amount of time. Once a business is connected, it earns the owner more income each turn since it's now supplying a larger, richer market. The cards allow players to start new businesses, play special actions, claim a special route (which generates income), claim one of the six state mail contracts, or collect a state subsidy, which provides special benefits like a free depot.

As the game progresses, the players pass through time time periods, with different businesses being available in each. The first period focuses on crafts and farms, for example, while the second introduces more industrial businesses such as shoe and textile production. When passing from one period to another, players must choose to make some of their existing businesses obsolete. Since a player can manage only eight businesses, however, you'll likely want to make room for more profitable ventures anyway.

If all mail routes, state subsidies and special routes are claimed by the end of any round, the game ends at that point; otherwise the game ends after round 16, with the richest player winning New England Rails.

In the 2400s, mankind begins to terraform the planet Mars. Giant corporations, sponsored by the World Government on Earth, initiate huge projects to raise the temperature, the oxygen level, and the ocean coverage until the environment is habitable. In Terraforming Mars, you play one of those corporations and work together in the terraforming process, but compete for getting victory points that are awarded not only for your contribution to the terraforming, but also for advancing human infrastructure throughout the solar system, and doing other commendable things.

The players acquire unique project cards (from over two hundred different ones) by buying them to their hand. The projects (cards) can represent anything from introducing plant life or animals, hurling asteroids at the surface, building cities, to mining the moons of Jupiter and establishing greenhouse gas industries to heat up the atmosphere. The cards can give you immediate bonuses, as well as increasing your production of different resources. Many cards also have requirements and they become playable when the temperature, oxygen, or ocean coverage increases enough. Buying cards is costly, so there is a balance between buying cards (3 megacredits per card) and actually playing them (which can cost anything between 0 to 41 megacredits, depending on the project). Standard Projects are always available to complement your cards.

Your basic income, as well as your basic score, is based on your Terraform Rating (starting at 20), which increases every time you raise one of the three global parameters. However, your income is complemented with your production, and you also get VPs from many other sources.

Each player keeps track of their production and resources on their player boards, and the game uses six types of resources: MegaCredits, Steel, Titanium, Plants, Energy, and Heat. On the game board, you compete for the best places for your city tiles, ocean tiles, and greenery tiles. You also compete for different Milestones and Awards worth many VPs. Each round is called a generation (guess why) and consists of the following phases:

1) Player order shifts clockwise.
2) Research phase: All players buy cards from four privately drawn.
3) Action phase: Players take turns doing 1-2 actions from these options: Playing a card, claiming a Milestone, funding an Award, using a Standard project, converting plant into greenery tiles (and raising oxygen), converting heat into a temperature raise, and using the action of a card in play. The turn continues around the table until all players pass.
4) Production phase: Players get resources according to their terraform rating and production parameters.

When the three global parameters (temperature, oxygen, ocean) have all reached their goal, the terraforming is complete, and the game ends after that generation. Count your Terraform Rating and other VPs to determine the winning corporation!

Another edition of the classic Monopoly game themed with characters and places from the Pokemon animated series. It includes a variant to replace the "doubles roll again" rule with "Pokemon Powers."

Japan during the Meiji period—a closed, isolated, and feudal country—decides to change into a modern westernized state. The Empire sends emissaries to foreign nations, brings technicians and scholars from the west, builds a network of railroads, and achieves an outstandingly fast industrial revolution.

The nation and Emperor count on the support of the Great Four, the big conglomerates that emerge with great power and massive control over the Japanese economy. They are called Zaibatsu, and their influence on the Meiji Emperor and importance on the fate of Japan is incredibly high.

Nippon is an Area Majority Game in which players control Zaibatsu and try to develop their web of power by investing in new industries, improving their technological knowledge, shipping goods to foreign countries or using them to satisfy local needs, and growing their influence and power as they oversee the era of rapid industrialization of Japan.

The foundations of the big Zaibatsu were the traditional silk workshops, but soon the conglomerates diversified their influence and power, building a complex structure of interconnected companies that made them giant players in the world’s new industrial era. Each player takes the reins of one of these big corporations and tries to develop it in order to grow and achieve power.

To win the game, players must carefully choose which types of industry to invest in to get the most influence over the Japanese islands. Every action that is taken helps to forge their own path to new opportunities.

Nippon is a fast-paced economic game with challenging decisions, set during an important time in Japanese history, and when a new great nation is born.