Economic

Baltimore & Ohio

With a bright Peep from the whistle, a full Chuff from the pistons and a powerful Clank from the drivers, America's first steam locomotive moves down the steel rails of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in Baltimore in 1830. This strategic railroad game extends from the first of America's railroads through the golden age of steam, where pioneering rail barons knit together the fledgling United States with iron roads, realizing the full power of the nation's mighty heartland. Each player takes the roles of railroad presidents and their wealthy investors, betting that their capital gambles will pay off handsomely. Baltimore and Ohio is not a game of luck or chance, but a competitive struggle of wits, savvy and guile. With the resources at hand, should you focus on further expansion, technological breakthroughs or emerging markets? This modern classic has all the challenges faced by the empire building capitalists that created a superpower.

Eddie Robbins' Baltimore & Ohio is a no luck, no auctions, 3+ hour, grand strategic economic slugfest of a train game, for 3-6 players. It was part of the Winsome Games' 2009 Essen Set, has been licensed to Eagle Games and will be released by Eagle in 2010.

The railroads in the game are:
Baltimore & Ohio
Boston & Maine
Chesapeake & Ohio
Erie
Illinois Central
New York Central
New York, Chicago & Saint Louis (aka Nickel Plate)
New York, New Haven & Hartford
Pennsylvania
Wabash

High Frontier

In the near future, nanofacturing techniques will allow incredible new materials to be built atom by atom. But they can only be built in the zero-gravity and high-vacuum conditions in space. Various private and government enterprises race to establish a buckytube mechanosynthesis factory on a suitable carbonaceous asteroid. To do so, they accumulate tanks of water in orbiting fuel depots, to be used as rocket propellant. Also needed are remote-controlled robonauts to do the grunt work.

The key to success is water in LEO (low Earth orbit). At first, water will be expensively upported out of the deep gravity well of Earth. But for a third the fuel and energy, water can be supplied from Luna, the moons of Mars, or other nearby hydrated objects. Extracting resources at the work site is called In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU). Whoever develops ISRU technology able to glean water from space rather than Earth will gain the strategic high ground to make money through exoglobalization.

Now in its second edition. The second edition expansion (aka High Frontier Colonization) is now available for preorders with an expected publication in the summer of 2013. (this expansion is compatible with the 1st and 2nd editions).

20th Century

In the 20th Century, every country strives to develop and improve, each in its own way. Some become financial leaders. Others become centers of learning. Both science and commerce serve to propel nations toward the future – but toward what kind of future? Growth produces waste, and the greatest advances may come with the greatest cost to the environment. How will these countries mitigate the inevitable ecological catastrophes?

Your goal is to build a land free of garbage and pollution – a land where the environment is as healthy as the economy. Only then can you consider your country to be truly developed.
The game consists of six rounds, during which you oversee the urbanization of your country. Some lands produce income. Some produce scientific research. Others improve the quality of life. Your research allows you to discover new technologies that will shape the way your nation develops. Science can even help you avert ecological catastrophes. At the end of each round, your lands provide you the money and research that you will need to deal with the challenges of the next round.

You accumulate points each round, based on your nation’s quality of life. At the end of rounds two and four, you also score bonus points for certain aspects of your country’s development. At the end of round six, you will score bonus points based on your country’s income, research, and environmental quality. The player with the most points wins, having built the country with the highest standard of living.

(from Czech Games Edition website)

Take Stock

Trying to invest in the future? Read the stock reports, follow the trends, talk to valued advisors. Or chuck the whole thing and play Take Stock !

You are the power players. You can choose to make the prices rise as you purchase stocks in strong companies, or you can choose to crush the dreams of your opponents by freezing their accounts or crashing the market.

Remember, the one with the most at the end wins!

Each player collects stock certificates in five stocks, (Crispyflake Corn Cereal Co., Glittering Gems Ltd., Zeta-Chip Technology Ltd., Arctic Oil Drilling Co., and Movie Madness Distributors), that they hope will have a high price when the market closes. The goal of the game is to accumulate the highest score after four rounds of play.

Contents:

100 Cards
30 Tokens
1 Rulebook

There are 60 "share" cards (numbered 1-12 for each stock) representing a stock value if placed in the market, or representing a certificate of 1, 2 or 3 shares if placed in front of the player. There are 40 "market event" cards which affect the stock market in various ways: 3 stock splits, 1 stock crash and 1 insider trading for each stock; 4 stock audits; 3 stock freezes; 2 no market changes; 1 market upturn; 1 market downturn; 1 stock option gained; 1 stock option lost; 1 market crash; and 1 market closed. There are 30 tokens representing stock options allocated to the players at the beginning of the game.

The stock starter cards (the 1's) are placed in a column in the middle of the table to represent the stock market. The value of each stock is represented by the highest number in each row. During each round, players may choose to increase the value of a particular stock by playing a card from their hand onto the corresponding row on the table.

Players may also choose to place cards from their hand onto the table in front of them, to represent shares acquired for a particular stock.

Market events may also be played to affect the market prices.

At the end of each round, options may be exercised to buy up extra shares, after the market has closed. Each player's score is calculated by multiplying the closing price of each stock with the number of shares held for that stock.

The winner is the player with the highest score at the end of four rounds.

Nomads of Arabia: The Wandering Herds Game

Follow the Pilgrim on the path to Mecca, capturing wild camels, goats, donkeys and horses on the way. The desert shifts -- don't let your herds get lost in the desert! In cities along the way you can sell your animals and find new handlers to help you capture different animals. When you reach Mecca, the Nomad who makes the largest offering to Allah wins the game!

Choose a first player. Players will take turns in clockwise order. On a turn, you will move your Nomad (or not), use Handlers to capture or call wild animals, shift the desert, or sell your animals in the cities. Nomads must keep moving to avoid being lost in the desert, and the Pilgrim travels constantly toward Mecca. When the players reach Mecca, the Nomad who is able to make the most generous offering becomes most blessed in the eyes of Allah and wins the game.

72 Dinar cards 43x66mm