Economic

Welcome to the world of the Gnomes of Zavandor.

Like most gnomes, you have two great passions: sparkling gems and wondrous machines.
The sought-after gemstones can be found around the mining town of Diamantina. They can be bought and sold at the gem exchange, shady traders are always willing to engage in a little wheeling and dealing, and then you can use the gems to claim valuable mining rights, artifacts and jewellery. Who will become the most successful gem trading mogul?

Zavandor is a fantasy setting which revolves around a capitalist economy based on trading in gems - sapphires, rubies, mystical gems etc. Other games in the family include Mines of Zavandor, and The Scepter of Zavandor.

Gnomes of Zavandor features two central boards. The first is a grid with markers indicating the current price of each of the gem types, and also indicating whether the price is going to go up or down next turn. Gems can be bought (or sold) for cash in the first phase of each turn. Buying gems makes them more valuable in subsequent turns; selling them reduces their value, and this is reflected on the grid. These gems can be used to buy tiles from the second board, a star-shaped arena featuring "mining rights" tiles positioned randomly around it. The position on the board indicates the cost to purchase these mining rights; the cost will be a mixed selection of coloured gems. At the end of each turn, players gain new gems according to the mining rights they have acquired and this affects the central economy, generally reducing the value of the relevant gems when they are purchased for hard cash, in future rounds.

The initial phase of the turn involves buying gems, selling gems, taking gold, trading with the central supply, and purchasing cards and tokens (with gems rather than cash). The items available for purchase include equipment improving your efficiency, jewels providing victory points, and mining rights. The second phase of the turn involves mining for new gems. Each player takes the gems they are allowed according to their mining rights. At the end of each turn, the market values are adjusted according to the actions which have occurred; the price of the available equipment is discounted (this rule is optional); and another area of the star-shaped board becomes accessible with more mining-rights available to purchase in the next round.

The game continues until one player has reached a victory-point target, dependent on the number of players in the game. Victory points are achieved by purchasing mining-rights, equipment, and most significantly (but also most expensively) jewellery.

Railroad Barons belongs to the family of 18xx games, but raised to the meta-level. Individual companies are no longer the focus, but large holding companies which add more and more new railways to their portfolios. At this abstract level there is no need for the game board and route tiles used in traditional 18xx games.

The two players buy and sell stock in holding companies, and the holding companies they control buy railways to generate revenue. Corner the market in the best companies, and exploit the weaker companies, to edge out your opponent and gain any possible relative advantage.

Like other 18xx games, there are no random elements, merely a battle of wits between two ambitious financiers. Assets that are profitable in the early game rapidly become obsolete, so you must always plan ahead for future growth and investment. Growth or Bust!

This game is purely about the money, as there is no map or track tiles!

Cards and tokens are used to represent:

5 Holdings (with a Director's share of 40% plus one share each of 30%, 20%, and 10%)
Railroad companies (with a fixed income) which become obsolete as more modern Railroads come into play.
5 private Investor cards (similar to the 18xx Private companies)

An official expansion to Glenn Drover's Empires: The Age of Discovery, the Builder Expansion contains:

1) A NEW SPECIALIST: THE BUILDER
Abilities:
a) When placed on the colonist dock and sent to the New World it will increase the VP's scored for the region: +4 VP/Builder (of any color) for 1st place; +2 VP/Builder for second place. (The idea is that the colony is much more developed with cities and infrastructure).
b) When placed in the Capital Building track, the player pays $5 less.

The Builder may be acquired via new Capital Buildings or when a player places a colonist on the 5th spot (Builder is Free, other specialists cost 5)

2) 20 NEW CAPITAL BUILDINGS
These include some "buildings" that cost zero, but offer a one-time instant effect such as $7, 2 free specialists, and 2 free trade goods. So even if a player is short on cash, a building action is available.

3) A RULES SHEET with the new Builder Rules, Capital Buildings, and even special rules for a historical start (Each Nation has a special ability and one or two Capital Buildings to start the game). The idea is that the Spanish will feel like the Spanish (Conquistadors, etc.), The English will feel like the English, the Dutch like the Dutch, etc.

4) The MINT and OVERPOPULATION will, indeed be a part of the new expansion.

5) Expands the game to 6 players with a Complete set of purple colonists

In each round a different player is the auctioneer and auctions off, primarily, factories with a unique bidding mechanism. Factories bring points and produce raw materials. Building factories themselves cost money and raw materials. But they are in short supply, so you need to manage your resources well. Linked factories and other improvements bring in extra points at the end of the game.

Revision of Industria.

A re-issue of David V. H. Peters' SNCF (Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français). Originally released by Winsome Games as part of its 2010 Essen Set, SNCF was subsequently licensed by Queen Games and rereleased as Paris Connection in 2011. This is a fast economic game with a train theme, with the objective of having the most valuable stock portfolio at the end of the game. Players can own and trade stocks as well as influence the value of each company.

There are 6 colors of wooden locomotives, each color representing a company. Players are dealt random hands of 5-10 (depending on number of players) locomotives, which are essentially a stock portfolio; the rest of each color are placed in a pool. On your turn, you can either increase the value of a single company by placing 1-5 locomotives from the remaining pool of that company, or you can trade one locomotive in your portfolio for one or two locomotives from the remaining pool in a company.

The game board is a map of France, with cities worth anywhere from 1-4 points, and rural hexes worth 0. Connecting to a city adds to a company's value.

The game ends when Marseille is reached by a company, or when there is only one company with locomotives remaining in the pool. Players' scores are determined by the value of each company at the end multiplied by the number of locomotives the player has for each color.

SNCF expansions may be used with this game.