Using strategy and cunning, each player moves his group of companions from volcano to volcano collecting treasure. His/her goal is to collect sets of dragon eggs and gemstones. The player scores for each egg and gemstone collected but also receives extra points for each complete set. The game ends when the last dragon egg is collected.
From the website:
It is the late 12th century. The sun has set on the classical period of Japan. The emperor’s power has waned and a new power is growing on the horizon. Now, through alliances, court manipulation, and hand to hand combat, competing factions will battle in an epic struggle for control of feudal Japan.
Rise of the Shogun is a two player HeroCard game that can be expanded to a three or four player game with additional decks.
Expanded by:
HeroCard Rise of the Shogun Miko Expansion Deck
HeroCard Rise of the Shogun Prince Expansion Deck
In a large town in medieval China, several talented artisans – Masters in their own right – aspire to become recognized as Zong Shi: the Grand Master craftsman. You are one of these master artisans and together with your apprentice, you are competing with the other Masters to attain this elevated status in the town. To succeed, you'll have to impress the townspeople with your skills. How shall you do it? Will you acquire a specialist's mastery over certain material, or will you enlarge your workshop? Will you create a large number of smaller projects or will you build fewer, but greater, masterworks? That is for you to decide.
Zong Shi blends worker placement, resource management, project completion and special action cards. To set up the game, lay out the project cards (eight types, each with a special power) and masterwork projects (only three at a time) on the game board; draw goods randomly for the two markets; lay out the exchange tiles in the pawn shop; and lay out a certain number of Scrolls of Fortune and material tiles. Players take turns drafting Scrolls (which have one-shot abilities) and materials (needed to complete projects), then the first round begins.
In each round, players take one action with their master or apprentice, then take one action with their other figure. The possible actions are:
Begin a project – Master only. Pay the material cost, then place the master on the time track in the space shown on the project.
Go to the market – Hang out and shoot the breeze until the next phase.
Go to the temple – Draw one Scroll (or more if your master is at the temple and donates material).
Go to the pawn shop – Choose an exchange tile in the shop and place the exchange tile on your player board. You may then swap one material shown on that tile for the other material on the tile.
Pay respectful visits – Visit a townsperson, donate materials of the right type equal to the visit tile you place there, then take the special action associated with that person this game.
Pass
Those in the market then take turns choosing materials located there. You can hold no more than five materials. Players then advance their master on the time track to represent work on the project. Refill materials in the market, pass the start marker, then begin a new round.
When a player completes his sixth project, players complete that round and one additional full round. Players tally points for completed projects, incomplete projects (which are penalized), number of townspeople visited, a full board of exchange tiles, completion of six projects and unused scrolls and material. The player with the most points wins.
For 200 years, the Knights Templar were a powerful political and economic force, helping to shape Europe during the Middle Ages. Founded to protect pilgrims on their journeys to the Holy Land, the "poor comrades-in-arms of Christ and the Temple of Solomon" would eventually grow a network of strongholds ("Commanderies") throughout the Christian world, where novice knights were trained, and trade goods could be managed and exchanged. By 1307, the “poor comrades-in-arms” were one of the richest organizations in Europe: one that would attract the covetous eyes of the French king.
In The Mystery of the Templars, players become the masters of this secretive organization. They must assign their knights to the critical task of escorting pilgrims, but also to seek out and discover long-lost artifacts of Christian lore. Using their holdings in the Holy Land, they procure valuable trade goods, which must then be transported to the hungry markets of Europe, using the profits to expand the Order’s holdings. But along the way brigands and pirates threaten the flow of goods and wealth, and must be challenged by valorous knights to safeguard the precious caravans and trade ships. To be successful, the players must balance the needs of trade, development, and battle.
In time, the powerful enemies of the Templars will strike, beginning the Persecution which will eventually cause the destruction of the Order. In those last desperate days, the players must flee from their Commanderies with all the wealth and relics they can carry, seeking refuge in the farthest corners of the world. The player who can best manage the resources of the Order during the days of wealth, and who can rescue the most important relics from the Persecution, will be the victor in The Mystery of the Templars.
In Citadels, players take on new roles each round to represent characters they hire in order to help them acquire gold and erect buildings. The game ends at the close of a round in which a player erects her eighth building. Players then tally their points, and the player with the highest score wins.
Players start with a number of building cards in their hand; buildings come in five colors, with the purple buildings typically having a special ability and the other colored buildings providing a benefit when you play particular characters. At the start of each round, the player who was king the previous round discards one of the eight character cards at random, chooses one, then passes the cards to the next player, etc. until each player has secretly chosen a character. Each character has a special ability, and the usefulness of any character depends upon your situation, and that of your opponents. The characters then carry out their actions in numerical order: the assassin eliminating another character for the round, the thief stealing all gold from another character, the wizard swapping building cards with another player, the warlord optionally destroys a building in play, and so on.
On a turn, a player earns two or more gold (or draws two building cards then discards one), then optionally constructs one building (or up to three if playing the architect this round). Buildings cost gold equal to the number of symbols on them, and each building is worth a certain number of points. In addition to points from buildings, at the end of the game a player scores bonus points for having eight buildings or buildings of all five colors.
The expansion Citadels: The Dark City was initially released as a separate item, but the second edition of the game from Hans im Glück (packaged in a tin box) and the third edition from Fantasy Flight Games included this expansion. With Dark City, Citadels supports a maximum of eight players.