Strategy Games

Second expansion for Thurn and Taxis - actually, 2 expansions in one.

"All roads lead to Rome"

1st expansion, "Audience": The players (clerics) try to arrive at the right time to be received in audience by the pope.

2nd expansion, "Offices of Honor": The postal staff still helps you - but now you can draw additional city cards, get victory points or even set a new house.

Expands:

Thurn and Taxis

Contents:

1 game board with various roads to Rome
5 carriages in the colors of the countries (beige – Baiern; orange – Böhmen/Salzburg; etc.)
26 office tiles
20 audience tiles with 5 different clerymen in the four player colors
4 summary tiles
12 victory point chips

From http://riograndegames.com/games.html?id=189

The postal carriages continue to roll. Now that players have learned to master the postal routes in the south, they naturally turn their eyes toward the north, looking for more routes to establish to add to their ever-growing postal networks. The new routes run between Holland and Sachsen - between Preußen and the free cities. The players build new postal stations in order to provide fast service for important letters to the many new customers in the north.
Hard-working postal carriers add horses to their carriages to enable them to travel farther and more safely, which will help the separated Preußen provinces to achieve power and glory.

With this expansion, we offer new ways for players to enjoy Thurn and Taxis. The new board opens up new areas for postal routes. To support the new board, we include new bonus tiles and new city cards (with horses on their backs to support the new rules). We hope players will enjoy these changes and the strategic opportunities they offer.

Expands:

Thurn and Taxis

Contents:

1 game board
4 carriage cards
69 city cards (3 each of 23 cities) the backs of the city cards have 1, 2, or 3 horses. The number is also shown on both sides of the cards as horseshoes.
39 Bonus tiles (5 x 8 distance, 4 x 7 distance, 3 x 6 distance, 2 x 5 distance, 4 x all provinces, 4 x free cities, 4 x Preussen, 3 x Mecklenburg/Hannover, 3 x Holland/Belgien, 3 x Thüringen/Sachsen, 3x Hessen/Baiern, 1 x game end)
1 rider figure
1 game rules

Québec puts you at the head of a rich family who wants to leave its name in history by building Québec city. The game spans four centuries during which you erect the most prestigious buildings and places of the city. Construction is not enough: you also have to ensure your presence in the great spheres of power. It is up to you and your opponents to build Québec City in your colors!

A game takes place over four centuries. Each player plays on average 5 to 7 turns per century. On each turn, players choose one of these actions :

Start a new building with his architect
Complete part of a building
Send a worker to a zone of influence
Take a leader card

By contributing to the numerous buildings, players acquire influence with the authorities of the time : religion, politics, commerce and culture. Players also help build the famous Citadelle.

At the end of each century, there is a scoring round where players get victory points for the workers they managed to send in the 5 zones of influence. Québec introduces a unique and addictive majority rule. The player with the majority in a zone cascades half of his workers by moving them to the next zone. Workers moved in this way allow a player to score even more points. If a player still has the majority in the next zone, his workers cascade again – a potentially devastating ripple effect. This mechanism illustrates the interrelationship between the great zones of influence. Players must not only fight to get majorities, they must also erect the most prestigious buildings.

The game ends after the fourth century. Players then receive points for the buildings they completed. The player with the most points is declared the winner.

From the humble beginnings of civilization through the historical ages of progress, mankind has lived, fought and built together in nations. Great nations protect and provide for their own, while fighting and competing against both other nations and nature itself. Nations must provide food and stability as the population increases. They must build a productive economy. And all the while, they must amaze the world with their great achievements to build up their heritage as the greatest nations in the history of mankind!

Nations is an intense historical board game for 1-5 players that takes 40 minutes per player to play. Players control the fate of nations from their humble start in prehistoric times until the beginning of World War I. The nations constantly compete against each other and must balance immediate needs, long-term growth, threats, and opportunities.

Gameplay introduction

Players choose a Nation and a difficulty to play at, similar to the Civilization computer games series. After the growth phase 2 historical events are revealed, which the players will compete for during the round. Then players take a single small action each, in player order, as many times as they wish until all have passed. Actions are:

Buy a card
Deploy a worker
Hire an architect for a wonder
Special action provided by a card

Players each have individual boards that represent their Nation. There are many ways that players affect, compete and indirectly interact with other players. But there is no map, no units to move around, no direct attacks on other players.

When all have passed there is production, new player order is determined (every position is competed for), the historical events happen and if this is the last round of an age the books are scored. At the start of a new round most old cards are removed and new ones are put on the display.

Victory points are gained and lost during the game, and also awarded at the end of the game. The player with the most victory points is the winner.

See 'More information' below for link to rules etc.

8 track cards (from a total of 48 cards) are used to build a track.
Each player gets 5 tempo cards.
All players play tempo cards simultaneously and try to get in front of the field.
6 cars are NON-player cars - these are called "Alte Hasen" (old pros) and are controlled by a rule mechanism - the same rules are used when playing this race alone - there are always seven cars in the race (one old pro for example when 6 players are playing)
The chips are earned for good maneuvering and may be used in bluffing when attacking other cars.