Set collection

Queen's Necklace is a game of gem-selling, influence, and intrigue at the Court. Two to four players compete in the role of Royal Jeweler to sell rare jewels to the Queen and her court.

Jeweler's loupe in hand, you must decide how best to spend your hard-earned ducats: on the acquisition of beautiful gems (diamonds, emeralds, and rubies); or to buy the favors of the various court followers. After three years of craftsmanship, the jeweler who sells the most precious gems and builds the largest fortune will receive the coveted title of King's Jeweler and a place at the Court!

Set in Paris, on the eve of the French Revolution

From the slums, where purse-snatchers and courtesans work their respective trades, to the inner salons of the Louvre, where confessors, royal astrologers, musketeers, and court favorites mingle and scheme in hushed conversations. The position of King's Jeweler has suddenly become a lot more dangerous!

In the Beginning

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. It took him six days to complete his work, assisted by a host of heavenly angels doing his divine bidding. On the seventh day God rested and examined the result. Seeing that it was good, he praised the angel who had contributed the most.

Genesis - In the Beginning gives you the chance to become that angel. By gathering the essence of creation - chaos, matter and life - and turning it into seas and mountains, birds and beasts, you hope to win Gods approval - and the game! But the way to victory is wrought with hard decisions. You must gather essence when it's most advantageous, move at the right time and do your days’ work where they count the most. And beware of the dark angel who's trying to outshine you all.

Now - let there be light!

Contents

1 game board
1 God
1 dark angel
6 player angels
42 day work markers
1 starting player marker
72 essence cubes
1 rules booklet

Gameplay

Before the creation, the players’ angels are gathered in the void with God. When God starts the creation with the words "let there be light", the angels start their monumental task. There’s a lot do to and only seven days to get it done in, so every action counts. Throughout the game, God moves over each of the seven days on the game board, stopping morning, midday and evening, allowing the players 21 rounds to act. During their turn, players can choose to collect the essence of creation (chaos, matter and life), to do a day work on the current day using the different kinds of essence they have collected, or to follow in God’s path to another day.

When players move from day to day, they’re positioned along the essence track. The essence track determines both the order of play and the type of essence a player can gather. The first player to move to a certain day gets the first position, the second player the second position, and so on. As different positions yield different kinds of essence, the players must plan their movement to get the right kind and the right amount of essence. If they’re not happy with their position, they can spend essence to swap positions with a neighboring angel, thereby also thwarting other players’ plans.

When God creates a new day with new tasks for the angels, players can move to that day. The first player to do a day work on a certain day is awarded the highest points, the second player the second highest, and so on. As the week progresses, the points earned for doing a day work increase, which affects players’ long-term strategy.

As the seventh day is a day of rest, God looks favorably on angels that retire from their hard work. The first player to retire their angel on the seventh day earns the highest points, the second player the second highest, and so on. When God reaches the evening of the seventh day, the game is over. All points will be tallied and the player with the highest score is declared the winner.

To make things even more challenging, a dark angel is mixed in with the players’ angels, doing his best to snatch as many points as possible. The dark angel follows a pre-determined pattern of actions that the players can predict and delay but never stop. If the players aren’t careful, or if they’re too caught up in their own plans, the dark angel will surely outshine them, making all of them lose the game.

The mechanics of the game are quite simple: the sooner you do a day work on a day, the higher the points you score, making it a good idea to keep close in God’s wake. Unfortunately, simply following God throughout the creation might not give you the exact essence you need to do your day work. Eventually you must stop to collect essence, preferably in the right position, making you lose momentum. In the end it’s always about choices: when and what to collect, when to move and when to do a day work. The winner, God willing, is the player who makes the right choices at the right time, a task easier said than done.

The harvest is in, and the artisans are hard at work preparing for the upcoming festival. Decorate the palace lake with floating lanterns and compete to become the most honored artisan when the festival begins.

In Lanterns: The Harvest Festival, players have a hand of tiles depicting various color arrangements of floating lanterns, as well as an inventory of individual lantern cards of specific colors. When you place a tile, all players (you and your opponents) receive a lantern card corresponding to the color on the side of the tile facing them. Place carefully to earn cards and other bonuses for yourself, while also looking to deny your opponents. Players gain honor by dedicating sets of lantern cards — three pairs, for example, or all seven colors — and the player with the most honor at the end of the game wins.

Redevelopment of Lost Cities, first published with altered rules as Keltis, and then published by Rio Grande as Lost Cities: The Board Game with Knizia's original rules and theme.

Reiner Knizia: "The original version that we developed is exactly what Jay [Tummelson, owner of Rio Grande Games] has now published [LCBG]"

Primary differences between Lost Cities: The Board Game and Keltis:

1. In LCBG you play 3 rounds, scoring at the end of all 3 for the monuments you collect. (Normal scoring occurs each round.) In Keltis, you only play 1 round, and score everything each round. This is not just a rule difference, as the scoring is different for the monuments/stones based on the number collected.

2. In Keltis, you may play your cards in either order, descending, high to low, or ascending, low to high. In LCBG, you must play in ascending order.

Note: the rules for LCBG have the Keltis rules as variants, and have the board elements necessary for #1 above. Keltis does not have the rules nor board elements to play LCBG.

Kosmos (Keltis publisher) changed the card play to ascending and descending order to lower the luck level and add balance to the game.
Kosmos changed the theme to fit in with other Kosmos abstract game series.

There are more differences, which are non-substantive. Lost Cities: The Board Game has a different-looking board, tiles and figures (meeples) to connect with its predecessor. Card-play in descending order is an optional variant in this edition. The numbers have been multiplied by 5 to strengthen the relation to the card game, and instead of a scoring track you collect your points as golden coins.

From the Keltis entry:

Players play cards to move their playing pieces along stone paths. There are cards with 5 different colors/symbols, each corresponding to one path; in addition, each card shows a number (0-10, twice each). In each color, each player can play his cards either ascending or descending. Like Lost Cities, it's better to concentrate on a few paths, since the last spaces grants high points, but ending early gives negative ones.

The player in turn plays one card (out of a hand of 8), or discards one. He moves the corresponding playing piece on the path. Many of the spaces have a token that grants some bonus - either direct points (counted on the scoring track), an extra move on a path, or wish stones that are needed at game end to avoid negative points.

The game ends when a total of 5 playing pieces have reached the 7th space (or more) on their paths. Now, scoring happens:

Pieces which only moved 1-3 steps give negative points (-4, -3, -2).
Pieces with 4+ steps grant points (1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 10).
One piece of each player is higher and scores double.
Fewer than two wish stones grants negative points (-3 / -4)
5+ wish stones yield a bonus of 10 points.
All this is added to the points scored during the game

In 11th century Ireland players try to gather amulets with the help of five druids. Each amulet is divided in 9 parts and the player with the most complete amulets wins the game.

Other Celtic games.