Set collection

Santa Maria is a streamlined, medium complexity Eurogame in which each player establishes and develops a colony. The game features elements of dice drafting and strategic engine building. The game is low on luck and has no direct destructive player conflict; all components are language independent.

In the game, you expand your colony by placing polyominoes with buildings on your colony board. Dice (representing migrant workers) are used to activate buildings; each die activates a complete row or column of buildings in your colony. The buildings are activated in order (left to right / top to bottom), then the die is placed on the last activated building to block this space. It is therefore crucial where you put new buildings in your colony, and in which order you use the dice.

As the game progresses, you produce resources, form shipping routes, send out conquistadors, and improve your religious power to recruit monks. When you recruit a monk, you must decide if it becomes a scholar (providing a permanent special ability), a missionary (for an immediate bonus) or a bishop (for possible end game points). The player who has accumulated the most happiness after three rounds wins. The available specialists, end game bonuses and buildings vary from game to game, which makes for near endless replayability.

You have an invitation at 5 p.m. at the Mad Hatter’s garden. The table is ready, the cookies taste like buttery heaven, and the tea is strong and spicy. "More sugar?" asks the Mad Hatter, giving you a bizarre look.

"Yes, plea..."

"Time's up!" he yells, interrupting you. Sugar, cookies, and millions of hats fly everywhere. Tea spills all over the tablecloth as he proceeds with a huge smile on his face. "It's time to play a game."

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In Hats, two to four players compete to acquire the most outstanding hats by exchanging cards in hand with cards on the tea table board. Each card exchange influences how each hat is scored. Naturally, at the end of the game, the player with the highest score will be declared the maddest!

To play, everyone draws nine cards. You take your turn by performing one of the following two actions:

Exchange hats — Play a single card from your hand face up and exchange it with one of the same type (color) from the tea table board or exchange it for a card of any type but of a lower value. Add the card exchanged from the tea table board to your collection by placing it face up in front of you.

Create a black hat — Play a single card face down in front of you to add it to your collection as a black hat. Each black hat in a player's collection at game's end is worth 1 point.

Optional action: At any time during your turn, you may discard a single card of your choice to draw a new one from the draw deck. In a four-player game, players will exchange cards with their teammates.

END GAME SCORING

Hat Collection: Players earn points for the hat cards in their collection based on the position of the matching type on the tea table board. If two or more hat cards on the tea table board are of the same type, find the hat card of that type with the lowest position on the tea table board and keep it face up, while turning all other cards of that type face down.

Favorite Hat: Each player reveals the final card in their hand as their "favorite hat" type. Players gain points equal to the sum of all cards in their collection that match the type of their "favorite hat" minus the value of the final card in their hand.

The Last Cookie: There is only one cookie left at the table. Players compete for the cookie by having the most different types of hat cards in their collection. Black hats count as a type. During the game, pass the cookie to the player who has the most different types of hat cards. The chocolate chip cookie is worth five points at the end of the game.

—description from publisher

The Tang dynasty was considered the first golden age of the classical and now iconic Chinese gardens. Emperor Xuanzong built the magnificent imperial Garden of the Majestic Clear Lake as an homage of life itself and from where he ruled. Players will act as Imperial Garden Designers and they will be called to build the most incredible garden while balancing the elements of Nature.

Tang Garden is a Zen-like game that will take you to the first golden age of China, where players will progressively build a garden by creating the landscape, placing the scenery and projecting their vision through vertical panoramas. During the construction, noblemen will visit the garden to admire the surroundings and the way the natural elements coexist in the most breathtaking scenery humankind has ever laid their eyes upon.

Players will take turns by playing one of the two actions available in the game:

1) Placing tiles and matching the elements to increase their personal nature balance and unlock more character miniatures.

By balancing the nature elements on the player boards, players will attract new characters into the garden. On each player turn, if the elements are balanced, the player will have to choose one miniature from the ones available and finally decide which one of the characters will be placed in the garden, orienting them towards their favorite background, while keeping the other with you to keep exploiting its ability.

2) Draw decoration cards and place one on the board to get prestige by completing collections.

Players will draw a quantity of cards based on the board situation and choose one to keep. Players will then have to place the chosen decoration in one of the available spots in the garden, creating a unique and seamless scenario that will never be the same.

During the game, by placing tiles on special parts of the board, you will be able to place a panorama tile, a new element that adds a never ending perspective for the visitors. Both small and big panoramas will be placed perpendicularly to the board by attaching it to the board insert by creating a seamless look on the four sides of the board. The Panoramas will interact with the characters at the end of the game by giving prestige points based on what your visitor sees and likes.

At the end of the game, the player with the most prestige will be the winner.

—description from the publisher

Outwit your opponents to gather resources from the four elements — air, earth, fire, and water — in order to invigorate your world building power and create the grandest of grand worlds!

World Shapers is a card drafting game in which 1–4 players compete for elemental source materials in order to create and shape new worlds! Over the course of just a few rounds, you must carefully draft the necessary cards, outwit your opponents, and take advantage of powerful synergies. Utilize power crystals to enhance previously collected cards.

Each turn you must choose one card from those available to you and either add it to your collection, exchange it for a different card from the common pool, or discard the card to gain a power crystal.

At the end of the final round, plays score their cards by adding the creation points provided by each card in their collection.

—description from the publisher

Hadara carries you off into the world of cultures and countries of this earth. Over three epochs, you will experience the transformation of your new world from a small settlement to a high culture. You want to populate this world with people who come from different cultures and continents as well as different ages. To bring glory and honor to your world, you should choose the persons and accomplishments skillfully. But you should not ignore agriculture, culture, and military power, otherwise one of your competitors might get bigger and more successful than you. Who will succeed first in creating a new flourishing high culture?

—description from the publisher

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Hadara entführt dich in die Welt der Kulturen und Länder dieser Erde.

Über 3 Epochen hinweg erlebst du die Verwandlung deiner neuen Welt von einer kleinen Siedlung zu einer Hochkultur.
Du willst diese Welt mit Personen besiedeln, die dabei aus verschiedenen Kulturkreisen, Kontinenten aber auch Zeitaltern stammen.
Um deiner Welt zu viel Ruhm und Ehre zu verhelfen, solltest du die Personen und Errungenschaften geschickt aussuchen. Dabei solltest du aber die Landwirtschaft, die Kultur und die militärische Macht nicht außer Acht lassen, sonst kann es passieren, dass einer deiner Mitkonkurrenten größer und erfolgreicher wird. Wem gelingt es zuerst, eine neue blühende Hochkultur zu erschaffen?
—description from the publisher (German)