Set collection

This entry covers the 2002 release of Sid Meier´s Civilization: The Boardgame by Eagle Games. This game is unrelated to the similarly named 2010 FFG game Sid Meier's Civilization: The Board Game.

A boardgame version of the award-winning PC strategy game. Create a civilization to stand the test of time! The game begins in 4000 BC where the players found a pair of villages of a fledgling people.

Each player’s civilization :

Explores the world around them, discovering resources and the native people that defend them.
Expands by sending settlers out to create new cities.
Researches new technologies to gain advantages over the other players.
Builds unique “Wonders of the World”.
Increases the size of their cities (4 sizes from village to metropolis) to increase production.
Builds military units to defend what’s theirs, and to conquer what’s not.

Features:

2 sets of rules (standard, and advanced) allow anyone to play the game.
784 plastic pieces featuring 22 different, professionally sculpted playing pieces that represent cities, settlers, armies, navies, artillery, and air units from 4 different eras.
Over 100 full color Technology and Wonder cards.
A giant 46” x 36” gameboard featuring the artwork of Paul Niemeyer.

This game has been reimplemented in 2007 as Civilization CHR ("open source" project)

In Africana, players travel through Africa, taking part in expeditions and trying to be the first to reach various destinations. With the money they earn, they can buy adventure cards that earn them precious antiques. Africana features the "Book of Adventures" game system from Schacht's Valdora in which players can acquire cards that are laid out like books, with players "turning the pages" to find the adventure cards they most want.

The game board in Africana shows the continent divided in half at the equator, with the cities in the north half colored brown and the cities in the south white. Adventure cards with a brown border can be acquired only in the south and must be delivered to the north, while white-bordered adventure cards take the opposite route. Five expedition cards – each showing the starting and ending location and a reward for completing the expedition – are laid face-up on the game board.

Each player has one researcher token that will travel around the board, and on a turn a player takes one of three possible actions:

Draw two travel cards. (A player can have no more than five travel cards in hand at turn's end.)
Buy one or more adventure cards, for five coins each. A player can flip one page in the book for free, with each additional flip costing one coin. (A player can have no more than three adventure cards to be fulfilled at turn's end.)
Move the researcher by paying travel cards that match the color of the space being traveled to. Each player has a joker in hand, which will be retained at the end of each turn. If a player moves onto the start space of an expedition, he can mark that expedition card with a marker; if he reaches the destination for an expedition he's on, he receives the reward depicted and claims the card, while anyone else on the expedition receives nothing. A new expedition card is then revealed.

When a player reaches the destination shown on an adventure card, that player scores that card by placing it under his player mat. Some cards show helpers, which are represented by helper cards in a player's hand. These cards allow travel on the color shown on the card and return to the player's hand after use, but a player who employs many helps will lose points at the end of the game.

Once the expedition cards run out, the game ends and players score for the expeditions they completed, sets of identical and different adventure cards, money in hand, and a few other things. The player with the most points wins!

The object of this Reiner Knizia card game is to collect as many of one type of currency as possible. Players bid cards from their hands to exchange for 'lots' of cards, with the order being determined by whoever put out the highest valued cards. The cards themselves are renditions of currencies from around the world.

A card game of stealth and sneakiness! Players act as spymasters, collecting sets of cards in order to complete missions. Only the greatest player will be declared The Ace Of Spies! By taking two cards at the start of each turn, you'll build up a selection of Agents, Tools, Intelligence and Locations that will allow you to hopefully finish more missions than everyone else. More missions mean more points - as long as they're complete! If they're left incomplete by the end of the game, they score negative points and pretty much ensure you're not going to win...

Four separate decks are needed to play the game. The Mission Deck cards state what combinations are needed in order to complete a mission. The more specific the requirements the more points the completed mission is worth - some can be very difficult to finish but will prove very lucrative, but there's always the risk they'll count against you.

The other decks represent three different cities - London, Paris and Berlin - and contain the Agents, Tools, Intelligence and Locations you'll need. Intervention cards can be used as instants and will allow you to turn the game in your favour (as long as you play them at the correct time. Should that all important card you require be lost in the discard piles, you may be able to retrieve it, but that'll come at a high cost.

Between two and five spymasters can attempt to become the Ace of Spies! May the most devious and sneaky win!

In Tokaido, each player is a traveler crossing the "East sea road", one of the most magnificent roads of Japan. While traveling, you will meet people, taste fine meals, collect beautiful items, discover great panoramas, and visit temples and wild places but at the end of the day, when everyone has arrived at the end of the road you'll have to be the most initiated traveler – which means that you'll have to be the one who discovered the most interesting and varied things.

The potential action spaces in Tokaido are laid out on a linear track, with players advancing down this track to take actions. The player who is currently last on the track takes a turn by advancing forward on the track to their desired action and taking that action. So, players must choose whether to advance slowly in order to get more turns, or to travel more rapidly to beat other players to their desired action spaces.

The action spaces allow a variety of actions which will score in different, but roughly equal, ways. Some action spaces allow players to collect money, while others offer players a way to spend that money to acquire points. Other action spaces allow players to engage in various set collections which score points for assembling those sets. Some action spaces simply award players points for stopping on them, or give the player a randomly determined action from all of the other types.

All of the actions in Tokaido are very simple, and combined with a unique graphic design, Tokaido offers players a peaceful zen mood in its play.