Economic

In the tile-laying game Castles of Mad King Ludwig, players are tasked with building an amazing, extravagant castle for King Ludwig II of Bavaria...one room at a time. You see, the King loves castles, having built Neuschwanstein (the castle that inspired the Disney theme park castles) and others, but now he's commissioned you to build the biggest, best castle ever — subject, of course, to his ever-changing whims. Each player acts as a building contractor who is adding rooms to the castle he's building while also selling his services to other players.

In the game, each player starts with a simple foyer. One player takes on the role of the Master Builder, and that player sets prices for a set of rooms that can be purchased by the other players, with him getting to pick from the leftovers after the other players have paid him for their rooms. When a room is added to a castle, the player who built it gains castle points based on the size and type of room constructed, as well as bonus points based on the location of the room. When a room is completed, with all entranceways leading to other rooms in the castle, the player receives one of seven special rewards.

After each purchasing round, a new player becomes the Master Builder who sets prices for a new set of rooms. After several rounds, the game ends, then additional points are awarded for achieving bonus goals, having the most popular rooms, and being the most responsive to the King's demands, which change each game. Whoever ends up with the most castle points wins.

Hotel Tycoon, first published as Hotels, is a Monopoly-like game in which hotel tycoons try to buy and build the best hotels in the world and compete for guests. The game caters two to four players, ages eight and up. An average game lasts about 90 minutes.

Players try to buy and build the best hotels in this game, earning the most money or bankrupting their opponents. A successful hotel consists of three components: the land on which it's built, the hotel buildings, and the entrances by which guests arrive in the hotels. All three components need to be bought separately with in-game money. As in Monopoly, money is earned by players who end up on one of the entrances of your hotels, after their dice roll. The more luxurious the hotel, the more money a guest will earn you. Money you can use to build extensions to your existing hotels, buying new entrances or pay other players when you arrive at their hotels.

The game consists out of cardboard, three-dimensional hotel buildings, recreational grounds and entrance stairs that can be placed on the large game board.

User review: Players make money by building a network of railroads to deliver freight and passengers. They may also speculate on the price of precious metals by claiming mines and mills.

To play: Each player chooses a color and takes possession of all the surveyors and prospectors of that color. How much money they begin with, in which city the players start, the number of surveyors and prospectors they begin with depends on the turn order and the number of players in the game.

A game turn is divided into seven phases:
First phase - The turn order cards are shuffled and dealt to the players.
Second phase - Players may place prospectors and surveyors on the game board in turn order.
Third phase - Disputes are resolved between players who placed surveyors in the same box on the game board.
Fourth phase - Players pay for construction and claims made by their prospectors in turn order. Players can collect revenue for passenger cards and deliver and sell freight for up to two claims.
Fifth phase - The dice are rolled to determine price changes for each mine.
Sixth phase - Claims and passenger cards taken by the players are replaced.

At the end of the sixth phase, it is determined whether anyone met the victory condition for the scenario chosen.

Availability : The original Two Wolf version is long-since out of print, but the newer-released Mayfair has a wider distribution. The New Mexico expansion is available for the Two Wolf game, but the Mayfair version has the expansion included with the base game.

Expanded by:

Silverton New Mexico Expansion (Two Wolf version only, Mayfair version includes the expansion)

Your casino empire is expanding, but new players want a piece of your action. There's only one direction to go to stay ahead of your competition — up! Lords of Vegas: UP! allows for up to six players to compete in Lords of Vegas.

What's more, you'll now be able to increase the size of your casinos not just by building out, but also by building up. These new, taller hotels are more prestigious, and as a result earn you more victory points.

Stocks & Bonds will transport you to Wall Street. You shrewdly invest in the game's 10 securities, buying and selling each year (each round) in an attempt to become the wealthiest stockholder in the game. The game has a unique calculator which will tell you if you've had a Happy Monday or a Black Friday.

Stocks & Bonds is for two to eight players, teen through adult. The bookshelf case contains a Stock Board, marker, dice, calculator, record sheets, situation cards, stock certificates and instructions.

Their are several different versions available, though the external boxes look the same.

The original 1964 version in the 3M Bookshelf Series, with the block-style spine, has a single-sided market calculator, and requires that players pay $10 per transaction. In the later version, with the filigree spine, the $10 per transaction is dropped, and the market calculator has a "bear" and a "bull" side. Additionally, the later version has a "margin" variant that allows players to purchase stock on credit, but pay for a percentage of their credit.

reimplemented as Stock Market Guru