Nautical

Carcassonne: South Seas keeps the familiar tile-laying gameplay of the original Carcassonne, with players adding a tile to the playing area each round and optionally placing a token on the tile to claim ownership of...something. Instead of the familiar cities, roads and farms, however, players in Carcassonne: South Seas use their meeples to gather bananas, shellfish and fish, then ship those goods to traders in exchange for points.

Carcassonne: South Seas is the first game of a new series titled "Carcassonne Around the World".

Set the sails and weigh the anchor! Several pirate ships cruise the seas, on the lookout for precious hidden treasure. It´s a matter of honor to discover it, load it on board, and to be the first to bring it into the harbor – despite competition from the other pirates, tornadoes and the seal of fate. The pirates are none too friendly: they steal, plunder, and sink ships wherever they can. But too much greed can put their pirate treasure at stake. An absolutely merciless game for the whole family. Board, or be boarded. Contents: 1 game board (17.3 x 17.3 inches/ 44 x 44 cm), 4 ships, 1 dice, 64 treasure pieces, 1 tornado piece, 1 wind wheel, 1 small basket, 1 instructions (from the Selecta homepage)

"A fleet of ships at your fingertips"

This huge box (88 x 44 x 7 cm) was part of MB's Floor Wars Series. Indeed, it is playable only on a floor --unless you have something large to put it on, like Ping-Pong tables.

This game is an introduction to naval miniatures of sorts; each player has four very large miniatures of WWII vintage ships (a battleship with its three escort ships) which manoeuvre about the large board. The players also have a "torpedo launcher" shaped like a submarine which fires discs that glide along the playing surface. The players aim at specific places along the ship waterlines. There, slots allow the discs to slide under the ship and trip a rubber-band mechanism which sends part of the ship's superstructure (or gun turrets) flying, simulating damage.

Note: This game is available by request only and requires having a membership to play.
See game associate for details.

After one hundred years in service, the Panama Canal still is one of the most important and impressive engineering achievements in modern times.

Built in 1914, it held a prominent role in the deployment of military vessels during WWI and in the conflicts that have followed. Nowadays commercial usage is the core business of the Channel; its economic impact is profound and has not only developed the region, but in fact helped define shipping throughout the world.

In the wake of the Canal’s opening hull designs were influenced accordingly; ships fell into three categories, those that could travel through easily and in groups (Feeder class), massive ocean going ships too big to enter the Canal (ULCV or Ultra Large Container Vessels), and the new standard - designed to the maximum limits of the Panama Canal. These ships are called PANAMAX.

In Panamax each player manages a shipping company established in the Colón Free Trade Zone. Companies accept contracts from both US coasts, China and Europe and deliver cargo in order to make money, attract investment and pay dividends. At the same time the players accumulate their own stock investments and try to make as much money as possible in an effort to have the largest personal fortune and win the game.

Panamax features several original mechanisms that blend together; an original dice (action) selection table, pickup-and-deliver along a single bi-directional route, a chain reaction movement system – “pushing” ships to make room throughout the Canal and a level of player interaction that is part self-interest, part mutual advantage and the freedom to choose how you play.

On their turn, players remove a die from the Action table to select Contracts and Load Cargo or Move ships until the pool of dice is emptied ending the Round. Over the course of three rounds these actions are blended during the turn to create a logistics network which each player uses to ship their cargo, minimize transportation fees and increase the net worth of their Company. Each Company has a limited amount of Stock that the players can purchase in exchange for investing – receiving a dividend each round. The questions for the players will be which companies are likely to yield higher dividends?

There's more to explore and several ways to win, but we ask that you join us at the table and celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Panama Canal with a session of Panamax!

News from the depths! The AquaSphere is a research facility stationed deep below the ocean's surface, and your skilled team — consisting of an engineer, a scientist, reprogrammable bots and exploratory submarines — is trying to gather as much data as possible.

The game board in AquaSphere has two main areas: A research station comprised of six sectors in which your scientist conducts experiments and a headquarters where your engineer supervises preparation of the bots. During each of the four game rounds, you take several turns, and on each turn you either:

Use your engineer in the headquarters to program a bot; each round you can choose from three of the seven actions.
Have your scientist bring a bot to a sector to perform an action.

Through actions such as improving your lab, sending out submarines, collecting crystals, and examining octopuses, you expand the abilities of your team or gather knowledge points, which are necessary to win. Additional challenges result from the limited size of your lab, which is your personal stock; you can increase the size of your lab, which makes life easier, but this costs valuable time.

AquaSphere is a challenging game of strategy and tactics with different paths to victory that requires planning in advance as well as skillful use of short-term opportunities.