Route/Network Building

With a bright Peep from the whistle, a full Chuff from the pistons and a powerful Clank from the drivers, America's first steam locomotive moves down the steel rails of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in Baltimore in 1830. This strategic railroad game extends from the first of America's railroads through the golden age of steam, where pioneering rail barons knit together the fledgling United States with iron roads, realizing the full power of the nation's mighty heartland. Each player takes the roles of railroad presidents and their wealthy investors, betting that their capital gambles will pay off handsomely. Baltimore and Ohio is not a game of luck or chance, but a competitive struggle of wits, savvy and guile. With the resources at hand, should you focus on further expansion, technological breakthroughs or emerging markets? This modern classic has all the challenges faced by the empire building capitalists that created a superpower.

Eddie Robbins' Baltimore & Ohio is a no luck, no auctions, 3+ hour, grand strategic economic slugfest of a train game, for 3-6 players. It was part of the Winsome Games' 2009 Essen Set, has been licensed to Eagle Games and will be released by Eagle in 2010.

The railroads in the game are:
Baltimore & Ohio
Boston & Maine
Chesapeake & Ohio
Erie
Illinois Central
New York Central
New York, Chicago & Saint Louis (aka Nickel Plate)
New York, New Haven & Hartford
Pennsylvania
Wabash

The players act as traders trying to get victory points for building a network of offices, controlling cities, collecting bonus markers or for other traders using the cities they control. After controlling a line between two cities with your pawns you can decide to build an office (and maybe also establish control and/or get a bonus marker) or to get a skill improvement from some of the cities.

Players have to improve their traders' "skills" for the following effects: getting more VP from offices in their network, getting more available action points, increasing the number of available pawns, and getting the right to place pawns and get more special pawns.

This game appeared originally as Wettstreit der Händler at the Hippodice competition.

In the Settlers of Catan Gallery Edition, the award-winning game is simplified and reduced in price to allow for quick play and introduction to casual players. The Settlers of Catan are once again traveling through the lands of Catan, racing to develop their settlements.

Players are now able to gain the flavour of the popular board game within 60–90 minutes with simplified rules that allow quick game setup and learning. The Catan board game continues to have the popular modular board and the variety of strategic options available that made the original Settlers of Catan game so popular.

A re-issue of David V. H. Peters' SNCF (Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français). Originally released by Winsome Games as part of its 2010 Essen Set, SNCF was subsequently licensed by Queen Games and rereleased as Paris Connection in 2011. This is a fast economic game with a train theme, with the objective of having the most valuable stock portfolio at the end of the game. Players can own and trade stocks as well as influence the value of each company.

There are 6 colors of wooden locomotives, each color representing a company. Players are dealt random hands of 5-10 (depending on number of players) locomotives, which are essentially a stock portfolio; the rest of each color are placed in a pool. On your turn, you can either increase the value of a single company by placing 1-5 locomotives from the remaining pool of that company, or you can trade one locomotive in your portfolio for one or two locomotives from the remaining pool in a company.

The game board is a map of France, with cities worth anywhere from 1-4 points, and rural hexes worth 0. Connecting to a city adds to a company's value.

The game ends when Marseille is reached by a company, or when there is only one company with locomotives remaining in the pool. Players' scores are determined by the value of each company at the end multiplied by the number of locomotives the player has for each color.

SNCF expansions may be used with this game.

China is an abstracted game of political influence in China. Players use cards to place pieces (Houses or Emissaries) into the nine regions on the board. When all house spaces in a region are filled (or at the end of the game), players score for majorities of houses in that region. At game end, players then score for having majorities of emissaries in two adjacent regions. Players also score for having four or more houses in an uninterrupted sequence along one of the roads on the board.

This fascinating game of domination combines multiple tactical possibilities with simple-to-learn rules and a short playing time!

Even today in China, the unmistakable evidence of a fascinating story is everywhere. Hundreds of years ago, the country teetered on the brink of a change in power. Regional rulers fought continuously with each other with only one goal in mind: to become the new Emperor. They erected imposing houses and sent their emissaries to the regional courts.

China is based on the award-winning game Web of Power by master game designer Michael Schacht. China differs from Web of Power in that there is no "half-time" scoring of regions as there is in the earlier game; there are four face-up cards to draw from instead of just two; and all adjacent regions have Emissary scoring opportunities, whereas in Web of Power, some adjacent regions did not.
A special variant with fortifications is included.

Aside from these differences, the two games are essentially the same.

Online Play

http://www.boardgames-online.net (turn-based)

implemented bonus maps: Web of Power, Hellenia, Skandinavia, America, AD 850, Life on Mars, Big in Japan

Re-implements:

Web of Power

Expanded by:

China - Das Duell (Two-player variant)
China Erweiterung
China: Grenzstreitigkeiten
China Einflusskarten
China: The Embassies