Set collection

In Blossoms (original title Kwiatki), players compete to create the most beautiful flower bouquet. The longer the flowers, the higher they score!

To set up, give each player two random face-down cards and three action tokens. Place the flower pots in the center of the playing area with space above them for the growing flowers. Place four different flower cards, one in each pot. Take one card from the draw pile and place it aside face-down.

Players alternate taking turns, trying to make the most valuable combination of flowers possible. On their turn, a player can conduct any number of actions, which are:

Growth — Draw one card from the deck and place it in any pot that has the same flower type.
Cut — Cut down one pot of flowers to score points; this ends your round.
Special — Use your action tokens to perform one extra action depending on which pot you choose.

A player's turn ends when they decide to cut flowers, pass, or when they have BAD LUCK. The game ends when the last card from the deck is drawn. Points are then scored by the size and diversity of sets you have planted. Whoever has the higher score wins!

Gaïa is a 2-5 player game in which you create a world, instill life in it, build cities, try to satisfy their needs, and use godly powers to shape the world to your benefit.

In game terms, Gaïa involves tile placement, area control and influence with a twist of power cards. Each player has five wooden figures, and if you're the first to place all five of your figures on the board, you win!

Gaïa includes two levels of rules, with the basic rules allowing for play with those as young as eight thanks to the game's simple mechanisms and non-attacking nature. The advanced rules give you the opportunity to use godly powers — lightning, volcanoes, rain, sun, earthquakes, etc. — to shape the world after it has been created. You can even steal an opponent's cities, making it a more aggressive game with a higher level of strategy.

At the intersection of the most well-traveled trade routes in the old world lies a city within rose-colored cliffs. A place where caravans miles long enter the city, through a narrow canyon called “the Siq.” Inside, traders from faraway lands find shelter and a place to trade their wares among the stunning buildings carved into towering red rocks. This is Petra, and never before or since has there been a city quite like it.

In Passing Through Petra, you are a powerful citizen growing your settlement and your reputation. As caravans pass through the canyons, you’ll welcome traders into your market and facilitate trade with those looking to get their hands on valuable wares. Use these transactions to spread your influence and gain unique benefits to grow your economic engine. Spread your influence the quickest to become the most powerful leader in Petra!

—description from the publisher

Riverboat posits each player as the owner of a 19th century farm on the bank of the Mississippi River. You need to organize your workers to ensure that the fields are ordered according to their type and harvested when ready so that the goods can be shipped to New Orleans.

In more detail, the game lasts four rounds, and at the start of each round players draft phase cards until they're all distributed. The phases then take place in numerical order, with the player who chose a phase being the first one to act. In the first phase, players place their workers in the fields, with each player having the same distribution of colored field tiles, but a different random placement for each player. In phase two, players organize their crops, trying to group like types together, with some fields requiring two or three workers. In phase three, players harvest crops and load riverboats, with a dock needing to be filled with all the goods of a single type before it can be loaded. In phase four, the boats are launched and players can take special actions, with additional victory points possibly coming in phase five.

Each player gets a cup with five poker dice and eight dollars. Each turn, a player will put together a poker hand and depending on the roll, take control of various key places in Dice Town that will allow him to perform the corresponding action of the location.

In a turn, all players shake their cup and take out all but one die, which is kept apart from the others. They repeat the process with the remaining dice until all five dice are on the table. Players may want to keep more than one die; they pay one dollar for each additional die.

Now the locations are checked...

Nines: In the gold mine, the player with the most 9's may take one nugget from the mine for each nine he has thrown.

Tens: In the bank, the player with the most 10's may rob the bank and take all bills there - each two bills represent one victory point at game end.

Jacks: The player who has the most J's goes to the general store and draws as many cards as he had thrown J's, keeping one. These cards may give from one to eight points, or entitle a player to perform the saloon or general store action twice in a row, place a die with a result of a player's choice under the cup without rolling, or steal 4 dollars from another player. There are many more cards of this kind that spice up the game.

Queens: The player with the most Q's in his roll wins the favor of the girls, and takes advantage of their charm to steal from an opponent. He may take as many cards from his opponent as he has thrown Q's, keeping one and giving back the others.

Kings: The player with the most K's becomes the new sheriff; he decides who wins in any ties, but the sheriff can be influenced with nuggets, cards, or money.

Aces/Poker hand: In the town hall, the player with the best poker hand gets a property claim worth from one to five victory points. Having aces in the best poker hand permits taking additional cards.

Finally, if a player did not win anything during a turn, he might visit Doc Badluck where he can choose any one of the following:
- equip oneself with barbed wire - the player has two property claims that cannot be stolen;
- draw the first card from the general store pile;
- all other players must give the player two dollars;
- an ace will bring a nugget from every other player.

The game ends when there are no more gold nuggets in the mine or when all property claims have been issued. Players count their points: 1 for each nugget, 1 for every two dollars, 5 for whomever is currently sheriff, and each general store and property card for its value.