Set collection

Unlike many of the other Jax, Ltd. games, Takeaway doesn't seem to have previously existed as public domain.

Luck seems to play a heavy part in this game, advertised as "strategic": This is a set collection game, where you collect cards by making plays of cards between your cards and your opponents. At least, that seems to be how the game works: the instructions are well known to be less than specific.

The game seems to be well regarded by younger players, perhaps because they are not as concerned with playing by the "official" rules.

Verbiage from Jax, Ltd:
Take all you can get...when you play this unique, new family card game! Collect as many cards as you can by making plays between your cards and your opponent's cards. But BEWARE....Your opponents might take them all away! The player with the most cards at the end of the game wins!! It's challenging and fun. When you change comes, take all you can get and play Takeaway!

In Norse legend, Freya, the goddess of fertility and passion, owed at least part of her reputation for irresistable beauty to an enchanting necklace - the Brisingamen.

You are a dwarf craftsman making jewelery of silver and precious gems. Use your team of dwarfs to mine jewels and set these into settings of fine silver which you can sell to earn prestige among your peers. Of course the grander the jewelery, the greater the prestige, but you have a quota to fill so you must work quickly. Various magical potions and abilities are available through the black market to aid you but you will need to use them wisely. Finish the Brisingamen for Frey and her favours will bring even more prestige than the finest jewelry.

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Send your dwarfs racing into the mine to collect jewels with an interesting leap frog action that has them moving fastest when they work together. Once you get some jewels you can complete a piece of the Brisingamen or get a Setting card to create another piece of jewelry. Work on the Brisingamen and Freya rewards you with Free Action tokens that you can use for extra actions or for victory points. Ability cards let your dwarfs move faster, whisk jewels out of the mine, block other player's dwarfs or steal jewels.

In Emira the players are Arabian Sheiks looking to expand their harem with more princesses. They try to make themselves more attractive to convince as many princesses as possible to come to live in their harem. Each round, another princess with different preferences comes into play and chooses the sheik that she is most attracted to.

The game is played in several rounds. The 3 to 5 players have auctions where they bid to perform actions: play event cards, buying spice caravans, palace sections, camels, or improve his appearance and status. After all players have performed an action the princess will chose which sheik she prefers (according to her preferences).

Each player has a goal card that defines his goal for the game, for example acquire 4 princesses with three specific skills or 6 princesses.

1st Place 2004 Hippodice Spieleautorenwettbewerb (as Harem).

The push-your-luck game Cheeky Monkey includes eight sets of animals – three elephants, four seals, and so on up to ten monkeys – with a plastic chip representing each animal. To start the game, you place all the chips in a bag.

On a turn, a player may draw chips until either (1) he chooses to stop or (2) he draws an animal that he has lying in front of him from a previous draw this turn. In this latter case, he returns all chips in front of him from the current turn to the bag, and the next player then takes his turn. In the former case, he stacks the chips in whatever order he wants on top of any chips he's collected in previous turns. (If a player has animals of only a single type, he can tuck them on the bottom of his stack.) Two special rules come into play while the player draws chips:

If a player draws an animal chip that matches the animal on top of an opponent's stack, the player can steal this animal, adding it to the chips currently in front of him. (If he busts for drawing a duplicate animal, this stolen chip is also returned to the bag.)
If a player draws a monkey, he can either keep the monkey (as with any other animal) or he can swap the monkey for the chip on top of an opponent's stack.

When the last chip has been added to a stack, the game ends. Any player who has more chips of an animal type than any other player receives bonus points equal to the total number of that animal in the game. The player with the most points wins.

You have just finished your evil doctorate. Now it's time for you to return to a castle on the outskirts of the town where you grew up, to begin your tyranny in the name of revenge. Every bully that gave you a wedgie in school and every cutie who laughed at your advances will feel the wrath of the monster you are about to create...

Your goal in Good Help is to create the best monster that you can, then unleash it on the public – but don't take too long as the first player to have his monster destroy five buildings in town wins. Alternatively, you can set your monster on those of the other players, and if you have the last monster standing, you win.

To assist you in your goal – and to preserve your reputation in town – you'll hire assistants, then send them out to collect body parts, buy supplies and earn money. Your assistants can confront those of other doctors to try to steal away the gold, supplies or limbs they carry. Each assistant has at least one vice, however, and when moving about town they might be lured away by the prospect of beer, jewelry, dresses or sausage, selling or dropping everything they have to get their fix. Good help is indeed hard to find!