Game description from the publisher:
In Maharani, the players are architects helping the King to complete the Taj Mahal palace by placing beautiful mosaic tiles. These tiles come into play through a rotating rondel, which enables every player to place the tiles in different parts of the palace. Once the mosaic is complete, the best architect wins the game.
Stake your fortunes in the mysterious island world of Bora Bora. Journey across islands, building huts where the resilient men and women of your tribes can settle, discovering fishing grounds and collecting shells. Send priests to the temples, and gather offerings to curry favor with the gods.
In Bora Bora, players use dice to perform a variety of actions using careful insight and tactical planning. The heart of the game is its action resolution system in which 5-7 actions are available each round, the exact number depending on the number of players. Each player rolls three dice at the start of the round, then they take turns placing one die at a time on one action. Place a high number on an action, and you'll generally get a better version of that action: more places to build, more choices of people to take, better positioning on the temple track, and so on. Place a low number and you'll get a worse action – but you'll possibly block other players from taking the action at all as in order to take an action you must place a die on it with a lower number than any die already on the action.
Three task tiles on a player's individual game board provide some direction as to what he might want to do, while god tiles allow for special actions and rule-breaking, as gods are wont to do. The player who best watches how the game develops and uses the most effective strategy will prevail.
Translated from the publisher's website:
Deep below the world of wasteful humans lies another yet uncharted world, oblivious of the ado of surface dwellers. Only the most courageous creatures from the world above will descend to the mysteries of the underground and board one of the legendary sewer frigates to challenge destiny and to amass immeasurable treasures.
In Sewer Pirats, deep underground in a maze of domed caverns, narrow tunnels, and piped passages, a motley cast of rodents, insects, and other vermin sail the treacherous waters of human refuse aboard bizarre vessels in search of discarded booty. In order to claim the best haul from the abandoned flotsam, players must make careful use of the unique abilities of their crews' rats, cockroaches, weasels, and other critters. Don't settle for less than left-over fast food and dumped toys. Go for your goal to become a true legend among the sewer pirates.
Players compete in deception and tactics to fill the best positions aboard the three pirate frigates. A pirate's rank determines his share of the expected loot – but even the best crew ain't worth nothing without their talismans. Each of the three frigates has its special fetish, and no pirate would dare to board her without the matching talisman for fear of terrific calamities.
Sewer Pirats includes three levels of difficulty as well as thirty detailed pirate figures, twenty Color-Click™ bases, and a rich assortment of game boards, tokens, and cards. Starter rules get you into the game quickly, and a Crew Member Auction variant increases the strategic depth and lighthearted action.
Hanabi—named for the Japanese word for "fireworks" and consisting of the ideograms "Flower" and "Fire"—is a cooperative game in which players try to create the perfect fireworks show by placing the cards on the table in the right order.
The card deck consists of five different colors of cards, numbered 1–5 in each color. For each color, the players try to place a row in the correct order from 1–5. Sounds easy, right? Well, not quite, as in this game you hold your cards so that they're visible only to other players. To assist other players in playing a card, you must give them hints regarding the numbers or the colors of their cards. Players must act as a team to avoid errors and to finish the fireworks display before they run out of cards.
Hanabi is also available as Hanabi & Ikebana.
Designed by Bruno Cathala and Ludovic Maublanc, Cleopatra and the Society of Architects is a fun and engaging family game that includes a true, three-dimensional palace that players compete to build. Players strive to become the wealthiest of Cleopatra’s architects by constructing the most magnificent and valuable parts of her palace.
Players, however, will be tempted to deal with shady characters and trade in materials of dubious origins in order to help them build faster. While these corrupt practices might allow an architect to stay a step ahead of the rest, they come with a high price – cursed Corruption Amulets honoring Sobek, the Crocodile-god. When Cleopatra finally strolls into her new palace, at the end of the game, the most corrupt architect (the one with the most amulets) will be seized and offered as a sacrifice to her sacred crocodile! Only then will the wealthiest architect, from among those still alive, be selected and declared the winner of the game.
“The component design in Cleopatra is the most innovative we’ve undertaken to date,” said Days of Wonder CEO, Eric Hautemont. “While it’s still a board game, the dozens of 3D pieces – Column walls, Doorframes, Obelisks, Sphinxes, and Palace Throne – all create the sense that you’re constructing a royal palace.”
“The game play really forces players into continually weighing the risks and rewards between taking enough corruption to enhance your position in the game, but not so much that you are forced out of the game at the end,” said the game’s co-designer, Bruno Cathala. “It’s a classic ‘push your luck’ dilemma that continually raises the tension level higher and higher until the game reaches its climax.”
Description from the publisher.