Medieval

In 12th century Japan, the Minamoto and Taira clans vie for power while retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa plays his rivals against one another. One of the three factions will triumph to impose the coming social order. In the shadow of these elite powers, a few ninja scheme to exploit the chaos. Daring raids, skill mastery, and subtle intrigue are essential to establishing one’s honor. When the new era dawns, one ninja will flourish as the Ninjato, the Invisible Sword of the ruling family.

Ninjato is the newest board game from CrossCut Games, makers of Galactic Emperor, and published by Z-Man Games, IELLO, and White Goblin Games.

In Artus, the round table of legend is a turntable in the center of the game board with a space marked with a crown for the king, numbers on the edge from +10 to -15 counter-clockwise from the king, and a few spaces worth 0.

Each player has six cards in hand – two knight cards, two royalty cards, and two scoring cards – and plays two cards each turn. By doing this, players are able to place figures of their color or neutral figures around the table, score certain areas or figures under certain circumstances, and place rings on neutral figures or to move them. The neutral figure bearing three rings is the current king, and the table is always oriented to place this figure in the crown location. A new king can come into power though, which will find everyone sitting in a new location.

The player with the most points after eleven rounds wins the game. Artus has two sets of rules: basic rules for families and casual gamers and "professional rules" for more experienced gamers.

This text refers to the Queen 2007 reprint. The older edition had players write down their viking orders and was two rounds longer.

In Eketorp, players build Viking strongholds upon the Swedish island of Öland.

The goal of the game is to collect the most valuable blocks to build your own fortress, either by winning battles on the resource spaces or by stealing blocks from other vikings.

Each turn, new resources appear and the players secretly plan their viking movements. After all the placements are revealed, vikings battle each other for blocks (with the losers sent off to the field hospital to recover). The game ends after a set number of rounds, or when one of the players has succeeded in finishing their fortress.

From the designer of Glen More comes a new title published by Queen Games: Lancaster.

In 1413, the new king of England, Henry V of Lancaster, has ambitious plans: The unification of England and the conquest of the French crown! Each player takes the role of an ambitious aristocratic family. Who will be the best supporter of this young king, and the most powerful Lord of his time?

In Lancaster the players want to proceed from simply being a Lord to the most powerful ally of the king. They may achieve this by developing their own knighthood as well as by clever deployment of individual knights in the counties of England, at their own castle, and to conflicts with France. In parliament, they try to push laws from which they will benefit themselves most. The player with the most power points at the end of the game is the winner.

Every turn, players send their knights to the different locations:
• Counties, where they compete with knights from other players for rewards and the favor of the nobles.
• The castle, to receive income or new knights.
• Into conflict with France, where all players combine their power and try to gain power points.

In the counties the strength of the knights is important as you can remove the knight of another player by placing a knight of your own with higher strength in the same location.

From Box back:
The game is set in Teneriffa during the colonization in 16th century. In these uncertain times, you are a Spanish nobleman, trying to increase your power by directing your attendants thoughtfully. You are busy exporting Malvasian wine and building extravagant mansions while making strategic use of your merchant as well as your farmer.
But be careful! Just as you try to sabotage your rivals, they might be sending bandits your way to thwart your plans. He who is most successful at bluffing and scheming will gain the most influence and win the game!
Contents: 1 game board, 1 farm hand, 4 merchant tokens, 6 town cards, 24 character cards, 52 mansions, 1 set of game rules.