Open Drafting

In this award-winning game, players take on the roles of Grandes in medieval Spain. The king's power is flagging, and these powerful lords are vying for control of the various regions. To that end, you draft caballeros (knights) into your court and subsequently move them onto the board to help seize control of regions. After every third round, the regions are scored, and after the ninth round, the player with the most points is the winner.

In each of the nine rounds, you select one of your 13 power cards to determine turn order as well as the number of caballeros you get to move from the provinces (general supply) into your court (personal supply).

A turn then consists of selecting one of five action cards which allow variations to the rules and additional scoring opportunities in addition to determining how many caballeros to move from your court to one or more of the regions on the board (or into the castillo - a secretive tower). Normally, you may only place your caballeros into regions adjacent to the one containing the king. The one hard and fast rule in El Grande is that nothing may move into or out of the king's region. One of the five action cards that is always available each round allows you to move the king to a new region. The other four action cards vary from round to round.

The goal is to have a caballero majority in as many regions (and the castillo) as possible during a scoring round. Following the scoring of the castillo, you place any cubes you had there into the region you secretly indicated on your region dial. Each region is then scored individually according to a table printed in that region. Two-point bonuses are awarded for having sole majority in the region containing your Grande and in the region containing the king.

There's been a spectacular prison break, and three well-known criminals from previous The Key cases are on the run again! How could that happen?

The Key: Escape from Strongwall Prison is the trickiest case of The Key series because more than just instinct is required here. You have to combine all types of hints and clues to determine escape types, laundry carts, hiding places, and gang affiliations. The right numerical code or key puts the three dangerous gang bosses back behind bars. Attention: It is not necessarily the fastest who wins here, but the most efficient investigator genius!

—description from the publisher

A severe series of burglaries shakes the Royal Star Casino. How did the three perpetrators get the sensitive data?

The Royal Star Casino has been shocked by a series of burglaries that have shaken the gambling world. Somehow three perpetrators accessed the sensitive data, but how? Players will start their investigations by combining all the clues about vault numbers, perpetrators, time of the crimes, and the codes entered. In the game cards for this case, the torn edges of currency straps must be examined, elevator movements must be put in the right order, and code tiles must be correctly put together. Witness statements about the activities on the evening of the crime add extra suspense until the correct number code appears that will put the burglars behind bars.

In The Key: Royal Star Casino Burglary, the players take up the investigative work and combine all the clues to safe numbers, perpetrators, times of the crime, and the codes entered. Only the correct number code will bring the burglar back under lock and key.

—description from the publisher

In Dune: Imperium Uprising, you want to continue to balance military might with political intrigue, wielding new tools in pursuit of victory. Spies will shore up your plans, vital contracts will expand your resources, or you can learn the ways of the Fremen and ride mighty sandworms into battle!

Dune: Imperium Uprising is a standalone spinoff to Dune: Imperium that expands on that game's blend of deck-building and worker placement, while introducing a new six-player mode that pits two teams against one other in the biggest struggle yet.

The Dune: Imperium expansions Rise of Ix and Immortality work with Uprising, as do almost all of the cards from the base game, and elements of Uprising can be used with Dune: Imperium.

The choices are yours. The Imperium awaits!

Our planet has run out of resources, and we are forced to move. We have discovered a series of planets and sent our rovers to test their environment with the hope of colonization. Our rovers have confirmed 1-6 viable colonization options.

Planet Unknown is a competitive game for 1-6 players in which players attempt to develop the best planet. Each round, each player places one polyomino-shaped, dual-resource tile on their planet. Each resource represents the infrastructure needed to support life on the planet. Every tile placement is important to cover your planet efficiently and also to build up your planet's engine. After placing the tile, players do two actions associated with the two infrastructure types on the tile. Some tile placements trigger "meteors" that make all planets harder to develop and prevent them from scoring points in the meteor's row and column.

Planet Unknown innovates on the popular polyomino trend by allowing simultaneous, yet strategic turn-based play via the Lazy S.U.S.A.N. space station in the center of the table.

—description from the publisher