Variable Phase Order

In Arkwright players run up to four factories in England during the late 18th Century. Your goal is to have the most valuable block of own shares. Thus, you must increase your share value and buy shares from the bank.

To run the factories, you need workers. When hiring Workers, demand is automatically created. But of course you want to replace your expensive workers (wage 2-5) by machines (1). To have more output from your factories you may employ new Workers or improve your factory to the next technical level.

You fix the price for your goods during an action round. To enhance your chances of selling goods, you improve your factories to higher levels, increase the quality and make some sales promotion. The higher these factors, the better are your chances of success - the higher the price, the lower.

Each player has an own set of "action tokens" like "build and modernize factories", "employ new workers", "improve quality" etc. On your turn you place one of those tokens on one of the free spaces in your line of the "Administration board" and pay the according administration costs, ranging from 2 to 10 (odd numbers). Some actions depend on how much you paid, i.e. you may buy more machines with one single action, when you pay more (= use a higher space, which is then blocked for the rest of the round). During the game your actions become more and more effective by new tokens, i.e. allow you to buy 3 machines in a single turn instead of 2, increase quality 2 levels instead of only 1...).

After each round of actions one kind of factories is active and you have to pay for all your workers and machines there, then sell the manufactured products. The value of your shares increases for sold products and best quality.

Goods may also be traded to the colonies by ship - provided you have a contract with the monopoly of the East Indian Company.

After four turns each of the factories has produced and the round ends. Players remove the action tokens from the administration board and reveal an event token. After 5 rounds the player with the most valuable block of shares wins. Neither being to be the one with the most shares nor being the one with the highest share value guarantees victory.

Arkwright allows you to act in different ways. Run all four factories with most possible output, set the focus on only two factories and improve them more than the others can; use shipping to colony or focus on the home market. In any way you have to react to the opponents and their strategy. Enter markets with deficit in supply or give up business where the other players start to push you out. Buy shares when they are cheap and increase the value, or first make money and buy shares later.

To get familiar with the market mechanics you may start with a 120 minutes version "Spinning Jenny", but for those who like full strategy in economic themed games, the 240 minute "Waterframe"-Rules come with more options to improve your factory and use ships.

Game description from the publisher:

Captain Swallow has always dreamed of pocketing a large nest egg in order to retire on a remote island – but he never counted on stiff competition from Captains Stanley Rackum, Dirk Chivers and others, greedy and cruel enemies who always manage to attack the same ships as him. If he wants to finally sink back and enjoy peaceful days in the sun, he must become the most cunning pirate!

In Libertalia, you must thwart the plans of competitive pirates over the course of three rounds while using cards that show the same crew members as your piratical comrades-in-arms. Yes, not only do they attack the same ships, but they employ the same type of ravenous scum that you do! Can you take advantage of the powers of your characters at the right time? Will you be outdone by a pirate smarter than you? Jump into the water and prove your tactical skills!

Paging all interns! New patients have arrived in the ER, and you want to fight — whether fairly or not – against the other interns to prove that you're the right person for the open doctor position at the hospital.

In Hospital Rush, the player interns compete against one another to be the first with ten prestige points. Each round, players place two pawns on various fair and unfair actions, with unfair actions possibly being punished later by other players. During the game, the players collect medicine, learn new skills, take exams, and treat patients. May the best (or most devious) intern win!

A Heroic Fantasy Wargame wherein Peacemaker the Wizard, tired of eons of conflict over rulership of the island kingdom of Marnon, sets up a quest competition to choose the rightful ruler and end all bloodshed forever.

The map portrays the island of Marnon divided into 36 numbered territories and 8 bordering castle spaces. Orcs are placed in approximately 1/3rd of these spaces, then players place their Men in the remaining spaces. An opposing player places your 3 Magic Items around the map for you to find later. The first player to collect all three of their own treasures is the winner.

Each turn, Orcs around the board repopulate and then frenzy, indiscriminately attacking nearby Men. The Dragon flies around and eats Orcs and Men. Peacemaker the Wizard visits a region and bestows prosperity, and also enforces peace there that turn. After all this, each player may petition the Wizard for a card, receive reinforcements, and then carry out an attack campaign. Players forces include Men and two 'superpower' counters: Hero and Sorcerer.

Garret J. Donner later took his concept of objects moving semi-randomly and sometimes under partial control of the players (The Wizard and The Dragon) and designed the game Dragonhunt around it.

Avalon Hill Complexity rating - 2

In Uchronia, you are the patriarch of a great Uchronian noble house, competing with the other houses that commit their wealth to building the city, enriching it with new constructions, and striving to win over the people.

In game terms, players start with six resource cards in hand, then each discard a card to the shared forum; each resource card shows the type of resource (with color-coded five resources in the game), an activity icon (with, for example, all yellow clay cards showing a pick), and an order (with yellow showing Production). Five building cards are placed face-up in the Great Works area and can be built by the players; any time a building is taken from this area, reveal another building card.

On a turn, you first move any card(s) played the previous turn to the forum, then you either Command or Plot. To Command, you play one card from your hand with the order you want to carry out or two identical cards, which allows you to take any order. The orders are:

Production: Place one card from the forum into your stock. For each Production activity you have, take the action again.
Exploration: Place one card from your hand into your stock. Repeat for each Exploration activity.
Draconians: Show one card from your hand, then move one card of this type from the forum to your stock; in addition, each player who commanded in his previous turn must give you a card of the same type from his hand, if possible. For each Draconians activity you have, you can show one more card, which lets you claim more from the forum and possibly more from opponents.
Trade: Transform one resource in your stock to an activity. Repeat for each Trade activity.
Construction: Start a new building (by discarding a matching color resource from the forum) or transfer a resource from your stock to a building in progress. Repeat for each Construction activity.

When you complete a building, you gain its special ability for the remainder of the game. You can have only two activities, plus one more for each completed building you own. If you have more of a particular ability than anyone else, you claim the monopoly card for this activity, making each of these activities worth 1 victory point (VP) and allowing you to claim a matching resource whenever anyone completes a building of this color.

If you Plot instead of Command, you first copy one order showing in another player's area (if you have an activity of the same color), then you either draw until you have five cards or draw one card (if you already have at least five).

The game continues until one or more players hits a VP threshold (14-20 depending on the number of players). After completing the round (giving everyone the same number of turns), the player with the most VPs wins.