Misc: Mensa Select

Twenty years after his expedition around the world, Charles Darwin is writing On the Origin of Species. He wants to gather new information about animal life, particularly about continents he hardly explored. Who other than young naturalists, eager for discovery, could help the renowned scholar finish writing his most famous work?

In In the Footsteps of Darwin, players are junior naturalists who have just arrived aboard the Beagle to help Charles Darwin finish his book On the Origin of Species. During this journey, you will study animals, carry out cartographic surveys, publish your findings, and develop theories. Starting with the naturalist controlling the Darwin token, naturalists take turns in clockwise order, performing these two steps in order:

Study an animal or take inspiration from a character: Choose one of the three tiles facing the Beagle and place it onto your naturalist's notebook. It may be either an animal to study or a character from the Beagle's previous journey who will inspire you. Gain the bonuses depicted or any additional scoring bonuses triggered by the tile's placement.

Voyage of the Beagle: After placing a tile on your notebook, move the Beagle as many spaces forward as the distance between the Beagle and the tile you just selected (1-3 spaces), then draw a new tile to replace the empty space on the journey board.

Your goal is to score more points than your opponents to determine who contributed the most to On the Origin of Species.

—description from publisher

"Gartenbau is a 2-4 player game in which players place and lay tiles in a tableau to meet the growing requirements of drafted flower tiles. A dual track rondel combined with three layers of tile laying are at the core of this beautiful game.

Take on the role of a gardener, seeking to wield your green thumb to grow a well-balanced, mature garden before the growing season ends.

You will sow seeds and grow a variety of plants to fill out your garden. In addition, if you meet the complex growing condition of your Flowers, you'll earn Prestige Points for your horticultural achievements.

The player who earns the most prestige at the end of the game is crowned The Master Gardener.

Gartenbau is set in the late 19th century and all of the artwork used in this game is vintage from that era. This game is dedicated to all of the unknown artists who created wonderful works for various seed and flower catalogs during that period, leaving their mark on a beautiful era for garden art."

Fluxx Remixx is a card game in which the cards themselves determine the current rules of the game. By playing cards, you change numerous aspects of the game: how to draw cards, how to play cards, and even how to win.

At the start of the game, each player holds three cards and on a turn a player draws one card, then plays one card. By playing cards, you can put new rules into play that change numerous aspects of the game: how many cards to draw or play, how many cards you can hold in hand or keep on the table in front of you, and (most importantly) how to win the game.

Fluxx Remixx uses all the Keepers from regular Fluxx, but everything else is re-imagined, with a new set of Goals using different combinations of Keepers, along with new Rules, Actions, and Surprises.

"You are a monarch, like your parents before you, a ruler of a small pleasant kingdom of rivers and evergreens. Unlike your parents, however, you have hopes and dreams! You want a bigger and more pleasant kingdom, with more rivers and a wider variety of trees. You want a Dominion! In all directions lie fiefs, freeholds, and feodums. All are small bits of land, controlled by petty lords and verging on anarchy. You will bring civilization to these people, uniting them under your banner.

But wait! It must be something in the air; several other monarchs have had the exact same idea. You must race to get as much of the unclaimed land as possible, fending them off along the way. To do this you will hire minions, construct buildings, spruce up your castle, and fill the coffers of your treasury. Your parents wouldn't be proud, but your grandparents, on your mother's side, would be delighted."

—description from the back of the box

In Dominion, each player starts with an identical, very small deck of cards. In the center of the table is a selection of other cards the players can "buy" as they can afford them. Through their selection of cards to buy, and how they play their hands as they draw them, the players construct their deck on the fly, striving for the most efficient path to the precious victory points by game end.

Dominion is not a CCG, but the play of the game is similar to the construction and play of a CCG deck. The game comes with 500 cards. You select 10 of the 25 Kingdom card types to include in any given play—leading to immense variety.

—user summary

Part of the Dominion series.

You have 10 DAYS IN AFRICA™ – touring by plane, car, and on foot. Chart your course from start to finish using destination and transportation tiles. With a little luck and clever planning, you just might outwit your fellow travelers. The first traveler to make correct connections for a ten-day journey wins the game.

Tiles are arranged on a player's tray, then a new tile is drawn. It can be used to replace a tile on one of the "days." Then that tile or the drawn tile are discarded face-up to one of three discard piles. Tiles may not be rearranged, only replaced.

You must complete your journey correctly, connecting by
foot - bordering country tiles set side-by-side,
air - countries of the same color with a same-colored airplane between them, or
automobile - a car can drive between two countries and a third country which borders them.

Whoever is the first to connect all 10 days wins the game.

This is the second installment in the 10 Days in series.