Worker Placement

Four wanderers search for the Last Ruin, a city that legends say contains an artifact that will grant the greatest desires of the heart. A lost love, redemption, acceptance, a family rejoined-- these are the fires that fuel the wanderers' journeys, but can they overcome their own greed and inner demons on the way?

In Near and Far, you and up to three friends explore many different maps in a search for the Last Ruin, recruiting adventurers, hunting for treasure, and competing to be the most storied traveler. You must collect food and equipment at town for long journeys to mysterious locales, making sure not to forget enough weapons to fight off bandits, living statues, and rusty robots! Sometimes in your travels you'll run into something unique and one of your friends will read what happens to you from a book of stories, giving you a choice of how to react, creating a new and memorable tale each time you play.

Near and Far is a sequel to Above and Below and includes a book of encounters. This time players read over ten game sessions to reach the end of the story. Each chapter is played on a completely new map with unique art and adventures.

Answer the call of the ruins and begin your journey.

Raiders of the North Sea is set in the central years of the Viking Age. As Viking warriors, players seek to impress the Chieftain by raiding unsuspecting settlements. Players will need to assemble a crew, collect provisions and journey north to plunder gold, iron and livestock. There is glory to be found in battle, even at the hands of the Valkyrie. So gather your warriors, it’s raiding season!

Aim of the Game

The aim of Raiders of the North Sea is to impress the Chieftain by having the most Victory Points (VP) at the game’s end. Victory Points are gained primarily by raiding Settlements, taking Plunder and making Offerings to the Chieftain. How players use their Plunder is also vital to their success. The game ends when either only 1 Fortress raid remains, all Valkyrie are removed, or all Offerings have been made.

Gameplay Overview

Proceeding clockwise from the starting player, each player takes his turn in full. On his turn, a player may choose to Work or Raid. Players continue to take turns until 1 of the 3 end-game conditions has been met. Regardless of choices, each turn follows the same pattern:

1. Place Worker and resolve its action
2. Pick up a different Worker and resolve its action

Working
Having a good Crew and enough provisions are vital to successful raiding. So before making any raids, players will need to do some work to prepare their Crew and collect supplies. This is all done in the Village, at the bottom of the board. There are 8 different buildings, with various actions. Players must first place their one and only Worker in an available building (where there is no Worker present), before picking up a different Worker from a different building (where there is a Worker present).

Raiding
Once players have hired enough Crew and collected Provisions, they may choose to raid on their turn. To raid a Settlement (Harbour, Outpost, Monastery or Fortress), players need to meet 3 requirements. They must have:

1. A large enough Crew.
2. Enough Provisions (and Gold for Monasteries/Fortresses).
3. The required Worker colour.

Raiding offers various ways of scoring (Military Strength, Plunder, Valkyrie, etc.). This is also how Grey and White Workers enter the game.

End of the Game

There are 3 ways the game can end:

1. There is only 1 set of Plunder left in the Fortresses (1 of the 6 Fortress raids remains).
2. The Offering Draw Pile has been emptied.
3. There are no Valkyrie left on the board.

The Far Space Federation is leading an ongoing peacekeeping mission. The crew on the front lines are in constant need of new supplies and equipment, so the Federation has set up a massive supply line network. This network is composed of massive space stations called Foundries. Some Foundries are specialized in mining and processing ore from asteroids. Other Foundries are equipped with robotic manufacturing and repair facilities. Their job is to keep the flow of supplies going efficiently as possible.

The gameplay in Far Space Foundry occurs in two distinct halves: Space Foundry Alpha and Space Foundry Beta.

At Space Foundry Alpha, you mine skyrite (blue crystals) and rubion (red ore) and process the two to make galactium (purple metal). On your turn, you play a card that allows you to either land a shuttle on a docking bay or take off from one. The shuttle will transport raw materials either from the asteroid or to your freighters. Each docking bay has a special ability if activated that turn, like ore processing or galactic traders. At this foundry, you must also build a fleet of freighters to haul your items. To do this, you must visit the cantina to recruit help from various alien captains (with unique abilities). Once everyone has played all of their cards, it's time to head off to a new board...

At Space Foundry Beta, you take all of your acquired materials and transport them down to the station. There the robots will use that material to make various products of varying worth. Besides manufacturing, you may also upgrade your freighters or charge up your existing products for more points. Once the freighters are filled back up again, it's time to transport the items to their final destination for final scoring!

In Troyes, recreate four centuries of history of this famous city of the Champagne region of France. Each player manages their segment of the population (represented by a horde of dice) and their hand of cards, which represent the three primary domains of the city: religious, military, and civil. Players can also offer cash to their opponents' populace in order to get a little moonlighting out of them—anything for more fame!

Make your underlings:

work on the cathedral
combat misfortune
bustle about the city
and other such tasks that are below your family's stature!

Bruxelles 1893 is a worker placement game with elements of bidding and majority control. Each player is an architect of the late 19th century and is trying to achieve, through various actions, an architectural work in the Art Nouveau style. The most successful building yields the most points. Each player can also create works of art to increase his score.

The action board is modular, with not every player having access to each action each turn. Some actions cost money – acquiring high-quality materials, building a level of your personal house, finding a patron, creating a work of art, selling that art for money and prestige – while other actions are free but can potentially cause you to lose one of your workers; these latter actions include acquiring low-quality materials, activating your patrons, visiting the stock exchange, and taking one of the actions with a cost. Once everyone has passed on taking more actions, the round ends and players have an art exhibition during which they can sell works. After this, players receive prestige points or bonus cards based on the symbols they've placed their workers next to on the action board.

After five rounds, the game ends and players score bonus points based on their architect level, their bonus cards, how well they've completed their work, and their money on hand. The player with the most points wins.